Another helicopter crew from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island also responded to search for additional climbers.

They have since been rescued.

Mount Hood is no stranger to strategy involving climbers as four people perished there previous year.

The peak is notorious for loose rocks in warm weather, and the sun has been out this week.

Meanwhile, a second group of four climbers got stranded on the exact same trail and were surrounded by falling ice and rock.

A woman who couldn't walk or move when they found her had to be lowered down with a rope and sled - 600-feet at a time.

Lee said he and the three remaining climbers regrouped and waited for roughly two hours for rescuers to arrive, adding that one woman in the party was shivering and appeared to be suffering from shock.

"That's what we have up today", Clackamas County Sheriff's spokesman Brian Jensen said.

"This is the kind of weather conditions and the time of year where you often get falling ice, falling rocks and problems", Gubele said. Other climbers are providing aid as rescuers try to reach the scene.

Ex-All Star pitcher Esteban Loaiza arrested on drug charges

Earlier today, former Yankees right-hander Esteban Loaiza was arrested in San Diego with almost 50 pounds of cocaine and heroin. The packages contained a white powder and are still being tested, but are believed to be cocaine said San Diego Sheriff's Lt.

It takes only 90 minutes to drive from Portland to Timberline Lodge, where climbers can park in a lot that's only 5,000 feet (1,525 meters) below the summit.

Wyatt Peck, 26, said he started to go up the mountain Tuesday, but turned around.

Two groups of climbers spent much of the day stranded high on the slopes due to dangerously unstable conditions, but slowly made their way down the mountain, Jensen said.

Crews say warmer weather the past few days contributed to the snow and ice melt which led to falling debris and risky conditions.

The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday that other climbers might be stranded. At one point, they said they could be looking for anywhere between seven and 15 people. "I think they just got to the summit and were so exhausted they didn't know what to do to get back down - and that's the hardest part, to get back down".

Other climbers are on the mountain, but it's unknown if they are stuck.

Oregon's tallest peak rises above the streets of downtown Portland, its gorgeous snow-capped slopes luring 10,000 climbers a year. Authorities say a climber who fell up to 1,000 feet and was airlifted off Mount Hood has died.

"The mountain's always going to be there - your life's not worth it." he said. Teams on Mount Hood were attempting to reach stranded climbers on the Hogsback.Angie Jackson covers crime and breaking news for The Post and Courier. She previously covered the same beat for the Grand Rapids Press and MLive.com in Michigan. When shes not reporting, Angie enjoys teaching yoga and exploring the outdoors.Syndicated and guest columns represent the personal views of the writers, not necessarily those of the editorial staff. The editorial department operates entirely independently of the news department and is not involved in newsroom operations.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.Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Showers early, then cloudy in the afternoon. High around 85F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies. Low 72F. Winds light and variable.A rendering shows the proposal from the Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum in Columbia for a display of the Confederate Flag that flew over the Statehouse grounds. Lawmakers in July 2015 mandated the flag be displayed at the museum after removing it from the Statehouse.Jamie Lovegrove is a political reporter covering the South Carolina Statehouse, congressional delegation and campaigns. He previously covered Texas politics in Washington for The Dallas Morning News and in Austin for the Texas Tribune.Political Reporter

Caitlin Byrd is a political reporter at The Post and Courier and author of the Palmetto Politics newsletter. Before moving to Charleston in 2016, her byline appeared in the Asheville Citizen-Times. To date, Byrd has won 17 awards for her work.PQ "With the recent holidays and due to frequent travel of residents between Guam and the Philippines, it is possible that the disease may be brought here."  Statement from the Department of Public Health and Social Services

More information For more information, call the Department of Public Health and Social Services' Immunization Program at 735-7143.

The Department of Public Health and Social Services is urging travelers to the Philippines to get vaccinated for measles.

The Philippine Department of Health's Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit reported that between Jan. 1, 2017, and Jan. 19 of this year, there had been 317 suspected cases of measles, according to a press release from DPHSS. Fourteen of those cases were recorded as suspected measles-related deaths.

There was a spike in reported cases during November and December 2017, according to DPHSS. This year, 49 suspected cases of measles were reported from Jan. 1 to 19.

"Measles is a highly contagious viral disease," the DPHSS release stated. "It is primarily spread by person-to-person contact via large respiratory droplets."

Symptoms are characterized by a generalized rash lasting three days or longer, with a fever and cough. Other symptoms include runny nose and red eyes.

The department recommends that travelers to the Philippines get vaccinated two weeks before departure.

"With the recent holidays and due to frequent travel of residents between Guam and the Philippines, it is possible that the disease may be brought here," according to Public Health. "DPHSS also encourages parents to review their children's shot record to ensure they have received the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine."

CDC recommendations

The current recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are that:

 children should receive two doses of the MMR vaccine, with the first dose given at 1 year or older and the second dose given between ages 4 and 6; and

 all individuals born during or after 1957 should have documentation of at least one dose of the MMR vaccine given on or after their first birthday.

DPHSS: 'Be on alert'

"All health care providers on Guam are urged to be on alert for possible cases of measles and to promptly report suspect cases to the Immunization Program, Bureau of Communicable Disease Control, at 735-7143/7148 or 735-7135," DPHSS stated. "Furthermore, all health care providers are urged to review and update the immunization status of all patients they see."

For more information, call the DPHSS Immunization Program at 735-7143.PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-14 23:31:05

CEMEX and BirdLife: A Decade of Biodiversity Conservation

CEMEX, S.A.B. de C.V.

Media Relations

Jorge Perez, +52(81) 8888-4334

mr@cemex.com

or

Investor Relations

Eduardo Rendon, +52(81) 8888-4256

ir@cemex.com

or

Analyst Relations

Lucy Rodriguez, +1-212-317-6007

ir@cemex.com

CEMEX, S.A.B. de C.V. (CEMEX) (NYSE: CX) announced today the renewal of its partnership with BirdLife International (BirdLife), the worlds largest nature conservation partnership. Following 10 years of conservation action across several continents, CEMEX and BirdLifes three-year renewal of their global partnership expects to achieve their goal of implementing Biodiversity Action Plans across the totality of CEMEXs active quarries in high biodiversity value areas by 2020, continuing their efforts to achieve environmentally sustainable development.

Throughout the past 10 years, this global alliance has built from the foundation of an in-depth scoping study to the launch of CEMEX-BirdLife Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) Standarda framework for identifying, protecting, and enhancing biodiversitynow being implemented in 69% of CEMEXs active quarries in high biodiversity value areas as of 2017. The results of the alliances national collaborations in Colombia, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, France, Mexico, Spain, the UK, and other CEMEX operations have been widely recognized by organizations such as the European Aggregates Association, the World Business Council for Sustainable Developments Cement Sustainability Initiative, the European Union Natura 2000 awards, the Mineral Products Association, and the Wildlife Habitat Council.

CEMEX and BirdLifes joint efforts have significantly improved the biodiversity of CEMEXs quarries, such as its Cerrito Blanco Quarry in northwestern Mexico. As a result of this BAP implementation, Mexicos national bird, the Golden Eagle, is benefiting from a focused conservation effort, including enhancing habitat quality. Other highlights include the restoration of 1,000 hectares of priority habitat in the UK, the sector-leading conservation of highly threatened reptiles through the Las Salinas BAP in the Dominican Republic, and the preservation of two Alliance for Zero Extinction species (AZE) as a result of the La Nacuma BAP in Colombia.

For 10 years, BirdLife International has been instrumental in helping us to protect the biodiversity that surrounds our operations and in creating environmental conditions similar to or better than those that were present at the beginning of our quarries life cycles, said Jesus Gonzalez, CEMEX Executive Vice President of Sustainability and Operations Development. With many success stories behind us, we believe that, by partnering with organizations such as BirdLife, we are truly delivering on our commitment to build a better future for generations to enjoy.

Patricia Zurita, CEO of BirdLife International, said, Our global partnership with CEMEX demonstrates the strong positive impact we can have for nature when conservation NGOs and businesses work together. We are delighted to be able to continue our joint efforts with CEMEX to conserve high priority species and enhance biodiversity management in Key Biodiversity Areassites of global importance for nature. We look forward to at least three more years of successful collaboration.

Recognized as a world leader in bird and nature conservation, BirdLife International is a global partnership of grassroots conservation organizations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources. As the worlds largest Nature Conservation partnership, BirdLife International has more than 10 million members and supporters. For more information on BirdLife International, please visit: www.birdlife.org

CEMEX is a global building materials company that provides high-quality products and reliable services to customers and communities in more than 50 countries. CEMEX has a rich history of improving the well-being of those it serves through innovative building solutions, efficiency advancements, and efforts to promote a sustainable future. For more information, please visit: www.cemex.com

Follow us on: facebook.com/cemex, twitter.com/cemex, instagram.com/cemex/, youtube.com/cemex

CEMEX assumes no obligation to update or correct the information contained in this press release. CEMEX is not responsible for the content of any third-party website or webpage referenced to or accessible through this press release.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201802140062

@CEMEX renewed its partnership with @BirdLife_News, after 10 years of conservation action across several continentsWreckage from the plane was found in Ramensky area, about 40 kilometres from the airport.

With the difference widening, it said, the crew apparently switched off the autopilot and returned to manually flying the plane, which hit the ground six minutes after takeoff.

Investigators quickly ruled out a terror attack, but will not speculate on possible reasons for the crash.

Radio contact with the Saratov Airlines plane was lost several minutes after the take-off, the Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) said.

A psychic who died when a Russian passenger plane crashed near Moscow shortly after taking off last weekend apparently predicted his own death but misinterpreted the signs he saw in his crystal ball.

More than 700 people are involved in the search operation, struggling through deep snow.

Here's How Bollywood Is Celebrating Valentine's Day

The song, picturised on Aamir Khan , was a huge hit back then, courtesy the soulful melody and heart-touching lyrics. In a video posted on social media , Aamir Khan spoke about his Pehla Nasha aka his first experience of love.

The flight recorders captured different data in two airspeed sensors on the plane.

The country's health minister said recovery of all of the victims' remains could take up to a week. The official list of passengers and crew has been published (in Russian) by the ministry.

Yesterday was declared as a day of mourning in Russia's in Orenburg Oblast, where Orsk is located, following the crash. Saratov Airlines commissioned it past year. The other pilot had 812 hours of experience, largely in that model. The aircraft only had one crash back in March 2011, which was a result of an in-flight break-up during a test flight. The Antonov An-148 was en route to Orsk in the Ural mountains. About 40 were built, majority in Russian Federation that manufactured the plane under license. Ukraine's president has used the plane for some of his trips.

Pilot error was blamed for that crash. A cockpit recorder and parts of the fuselage were retrieved from the crash site, Russia's Emergencies Ministry reported.

A source from Russia's emergency services told Interfax that the 71 people on board "had no chance" of survival.PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-15 22:32:02

VICTOR, N.Y., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE:STZ) (NYSE:STZ.B), a leading beverage alcohol company, announced today that Bill Newlands, president and chief operating officer, and David Klein, chief financial officer, will present at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) conference on Wednesday, February 21, 2018, at the Boca Raton Resort & Club in Florida. The presentation is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. EST and is expected to cover the company's strategic business activities, financial and operational performance, and outlook for the future.

A live audio webcast of the presentation can be accessed on the company's website at www.cbrands.com by following the instructions in the "Investors" section. Following the presentation, the webcast will be available on the company's website for replay through the close of business on Wednesday, March 28, 2018. Financial and statistical information discussed in the presentation and a reconciliation of any reported (GAAP) financial measures with comparable or non-GAAP financial measures will also be available on the company's website in the "Investors" section under "Financial History."

About Constellation Brands

Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ) (NYSE:STZ.B), a Fortune 500 company, is a leading international producer and marketer of beer, wine and spirits with operations in the U.S., Mexico, New Zealand, Italy and Canada. Constellation is the No. 3 beer company in the U.S. with high-end, iconic imported brands such as Corona Extra, Corona Light, Modelo Especial, Modelo Negra and Pacifico. The company's beer portfolio also includes Ballast Point, one of the most awarded craft brewers in the U.S. In addition, Constellation is the world leader in premium wine, selling great brands that people love, including Robert Mondavi, Clos du Bois, Kim Crawford, Meiomi, Mark West, Franciscan Estate, Ruffino and The Prisoner. The company's premium spirits brands include SVEDKA Vodka, Casa Noble Tequila and High West Whiskey.

Based in Victor, N.Y., the company believes that industry leadership involves a commitment to brand building, our trade partners, the environment, our investors and to consumers around the world who choose our products when celebrating big moments or enjoying quiet ones. Founded in 1945, Constellation has grown to become a significant player in the beverage alcohol industry with more than 100 brands in its portfolio; about 40 wineries, breweries and distilleries; and approximately 10,000 talented employees. We express our company vision: to elevate life with every glass raised. To learn more, follow us on Twitter @cbrands and visit www.cbrands.com.

Media Contacts:

Mike McGrew: 773-251-4934

Amy Martin: 585-678-7141

Investor Relations Contacts:

Patty Yahn-Urlaub: 585-678-7483

Bob Czudak: 585-678-7170

An attachment accompanying this release is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/f721e759-816e-4d8b-882f-681c1973b1cc

This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: Constellation Brands, Inc via Globenewswire

New Computers and Semiconductors market report from Markets and Markets: "PC-Based Automation Market - Global Forecast to 2023"

PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-15 14:16:00

PC-Based Automation Market by Offering (Hardware and Software), Component (IPCs, HMIs, PLCs, SCADA), Sales Channel (Direct Sales and Indirect Sales), Industry (Process and Discrete), and Geography - Global Forecast to 2023"PC-based automation market expected to exhibit significant growth between 2018 and 2023"The PC-based automation market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.9% between 2018 and 2023 to reach USD 38.01 billion by 2023 from USD 29.92 billion in 2018. This market growth can be attributed to the evolution of IIoT and increasing demand for smart automation solutions, growing emphasis on regulatory compliances, and increasing need for efficient monitoring in manufacturing plants. However, high investments for the implementation of PC-based automation systems are restraining the growth of the PC-based automation market.Full Report Details at"PLC to hold a major share of the PC-based automation market during the forecast period"PLC is one of the most critical components in PC-based automation systems. It is widely used in almost all industrial applications to control the automation of industrial processes. Furthermore, PLCs are evolving continuously to include advanced features such as greater programming flexibility and ease, scalability, high memory, compactness, and high speed. These advanced features make PLCs the best option for a variety of industrial automation applications. This is driving the growth of the market for PLCs."Process industries to hold a larger share of the PC-based automation market during the forecast period"The adoption rate of PC-based automation solutions in process industries is high owing to the rising cost pressure on manufacturers to optimize their production processes. Moreover, the increasing demand for real-time visibility and complex operations in industries such as oil & gas, energy & power, mining & metals, and food & beverages is expected to boost the demand for PC-based automation solutions in process industries."PC-based automation market in APAC expected to grow at a high rate during the forecast period"The PC-based automation market in APAC is likely to grow at a high rate between 2018 and 2023. In APAC, countries such as India, China, and Japan play an important role in the overall growth of the PC-based automation market. In India, increasing infrastructural investments and government initiatives such as "Make in India" are supporting market growth. The Government of India is encouraging foreign companies to invest in the country to build their manufacturing facilities. Further, in China, the high adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies and government initiatives such as "Made in China 2025" are likely to accelerate the growth of the market for advanced manufacturing technologies, including PC-based automation, in the country.The breakdown of the profiles of primary participants for the report has been given below.* By Company Type: Tier 1 = 50%, Tier 2 = 30%, and Tier 3 = 20%* By Designation: C-Level Executives = 70%, Directors = 20%, and Others = 10%* By Region: North America = 40%, Europe = 35%, APAC = 15%, and RoW = 10%The key players in the PC-based automation market include ABB (Switzerland), Advantech (Japan), Beckhoff Automation (Germany), Emerson Electric (US), General Electric (US), Honeywell (US), IDEC (japan), Kontron S&T (Germany), Mitsubishi Electric (Japan), OMRON (Japan), Robert Bosch (Germany), Rockwell Automation (US), Schneider Electric (France), Siemens (Germany), and Yokogawa Electric (Japan).Research Coverage:The research report analyzes the PC-based automation market on the basis of the following segments: offering, component, sales channel, industry, and geography. The market has been segmented on the basis of offering into hardware and software. Based on component, the market has been segmented into industrial PCs, HMIs, PLCs, and SCADA. The market has been segmented on the basis of sales channel into direct sales and indirect sales channels. Industries covered in this report include process and discrete. Process industries comprise oil & gas, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, mining & metals, food & beverages, energy & power, and others; discrete industries comprises automotive, semiconductor & electronics, aerospace & defense, medical devices, machine manufacturing, and others. The report also covers the market in 4 major regions-North America, Europe, APAC, and RoW.Key Benefits of Buying the Report:The report includes illustrative segmentation, analysis, and forecast based on offerings, components, sales channels, industries, and regions to provide an overall view of the market.A detailed value chain analysis has been provided to provide in-depth insight into the market.About Fast Market ResearchFast Market Research is a leading distributor of market research and business information. Representing the world's top research publishers and analysts, we provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available. Our unbiased, expert staff is always available to help you find the right research to fit your requirements and your budget.For more information about these or related research reports, please visit our website at https://fastmr.com or call us at 1.800.844.8156 (1.413.485.7001 Int'l)Fast Market Research recommends "Coffee in Spain (2017) - Market Sizes" from Global Markets Direct, now available

PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-15 14:25:37

Coffee in Spain by Mintel Market Sizes provides you with annual year-end market size data, most recently updated in 2017. This report covers all instant and fresh coffee. It excludes RTD liquid products. Market size is based on retail (off trade) and non-retail (on trade) sales. Market size for Coffee in Spain is given in EUR and tonne with a minimum of five years' historical data. Market Forecast is provided for five years. Included with this snapshot is socio-economic data for Spain. Population, Consumer Price Index (CPI), Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Exchange Rates.Report Table of Contents:* Definitions* Retail market size* Highlights - strongest and weakest performers* Figure 1: Volume - Absolute size (2010 - 2021)* Figure 2: Volume - Volume Consumption per capita (population) (2010 - 2021)* Figure 3: Volume - Growth (2010 - 2021)* Table 1: Volume (2010 - 2021)* Figure 4: Value in Local Currency - Value (2010 - 2021)* Figure 5: Value in Local Currency - Unit prices (2010 - 2021)* Figure 6: Value in Local Currency - Value growth (2010 - 2021)* Table 2: Value in Local Currency (2010 - 2021)* Figure 7: Value in USD - Value (2010 - 2021)* Figure 8: Value in USD - Spend per capita (population) (2010 - 2021)* Figure 9: Value in USD - Spend as a proportion of GDP (2010 - 2021)* Figure 10: Value in USD - Unit prices (2010 - 2021)* Figure 11: Value in USD - Value growth (2010 - 2021)* Table 3: Value in USD (2010 - 2021)Full Report Details at* Total market size* Highlights* Figure 12: Volume - Absolute size (2010 - 2021)* Figure 13: Volume - Volume Consumption per capita (population) (2010 - 2021)* Figure 14: Volume - Growth (2010 - 2021)* Table 4: Volume (2010 - 2021)* Market Segmentations* Figure 15: Spain - Coffee: Market segmentation by volume ((000) tonnes) (2010 - 2021)* Table 5: Spain - Coffee: Market segmentation by volume ((000) tonnes) (2010 - 2021)* Figure 16: Spain - Coffee: Retail market segmentation by volume ((000) tonnes) (2014 - 2016)* Table 6: Spain - Coffee: Retail market segmentation by volume ((000) tonnes) (2014 - 2016)* Figure 17: Spain - Coffee: Retail market segmentation by value (m EUR) (2014 - 2016)* Table 7: Spain - Coffee: Retail market segmentation by value (m EUR) (2014 - 2016)* Figure 18: Spain - Instant: Retail market segmentation by volume ((000) tonnes) (2014 - 2016)* Table 8: Spain - Instant: Retail market segmentation by volume ((000) tonnes) (2014 - 2016)* Figure 19: Spain - Instant: Retail market segmentation by value (m EUR) (2014 - 2016)* Table 9: Spain - Instant: Retail market segmentation by value (m EUR) (2014 - 2016)* Market Shares* Figure 20: Spain - Coffee: Company retail market share by volume (%) - 2015* Figure 21: Spain - Coffee: Company retail market share by volume (%) - 2016* Table 10: Spain - Coffee: Company retail market share by volume (%) (2015 - 2016)* Figure 22: Spain - Coffee: Company retail market share by value (%) - 2015* Figure 23: Spain - Coffee: Company retail market share by value (%) - 2016* Table 11: Spain - Coffee: Company retail market share by value (%) (2015 - 2016)* Company & Brand details* Table 12: Spain - Coffee: Company Website Links* Compound annual growth rates* Table 13: Retail market compound annual growth rates (2012 - 2021)* Table 14: Total market compound annual growth rates (2012 - 2021)* Socio-economic data* Figure 24: Population (millions) (2003 - 2021)* Table 15: Population (millions) (2003 - 2021)* Figure 25: Consumer price index (CPI) (2002 - 2021)* Table 16: Consumer price index (CPI) (2002 - 2021)* Figure 26: Gross domestic product (bn USD) (2003 - 2021)* Table 17: Gross domestic product (bn USD) (2003 - 2021)* Figure 27: Exchange rates (2003 - 2021)* Table 18: Exchange rates (2003 - 2021)* Sources of Data* Table 19: Spain - Coffee* Methodology* About MintelAbout Fast Market ResearchFast Market Research is a leading distributor of market research and business information. Representing the world's top research publishers and analysts, we provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available. Our unbiased, expert staff is always available to help you find the right research to fit your requirements and your budget.For more information about these or related research reports, please visit our website at https://fastmr.com or call us at 1.800.844.8156 (1.413.485.7001 Int'l)Additional new features defend against advanced malware and hacking attacks on Mac and PC

Chet Wisniewski, principal research scientist at Sophos

PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-15 07:48:39

Sophos (LSE: SOPH), a global leader in network and endpoint cybersecurity, today announced Sophos Home Premium with ransomware protection. Sophos Home Premium features advanced anti-ransomware capabilities that can quickly detect previously unknown ransomware going beyond just traditional antivirus features it delivers proactive, real-time protection for consumers from the latest malicious software and hacking attempts, and includes privacy protection features. Sophos Home Premium is designed for ease of use, protecting both PCs and Macs, and enables the management of up to ten other computers from one central dashboard."In 2017 we witnessed a global black market emerge that has enabled even unsophisticated criminals to hold our data for ransom and sell our private details for identity theft and more," said Chet Wisniewski, principal research scientist at Sophos. Its become critical for home users to protect their digital lives and assets. Consumers demand the same quality of protection the world's most discerning organizations require. The research we do in SophosLabs gives us the unique ability to provide them state-of-the-art protection against ransomware, malicious websites, and online threats." Sophos is a global leader in cybersecurity, securing some of the most-recognizable businesses around the world. With Sophos Home Premium, the company is bringing the powerful, business-class security and ransomware protection that IT professionals trust at work to consumers at home.Key features in Sophos Home Premium include: Advanced Ransomware ProtectionStops the latest ransomware from encrypting your files and drives Real-Time Behavioral Protection*Protects against new and developing malware, potentially unwanted apps (PUAs), and program exploits to prevent infection from the latest threats Malicious Site Web ProtectionLeverages the vast SophosLabs blacklist database to protect against connection to known compromised or dangerous sites Real-Time AntivirusProtects against known viruses, malware, Trojans, worms, bots, potentially unwanted apps (PUAs), ransomware, and more Privacy ProtectionMonitors access to your webcam, and blocks any attempts to record your keystrokes. Parental Web FilteringAllows you to control the content your children can view online Remote ManagementSecures multiple devices in any location from a simple web interface Advanced Web Protection*Blocks phishing sites and bad or compromised websites for safe browsing and shopping Online Banking Protection*Protects your banking and credit card information from being intercepted by third-parties and keylogger software Advanced Malware Removal*Removes previous malware infections(* at time of launch this feature is available on the PC platform only)More than 280,000 IT organizations worldwide rely on Sophos to protect themselves against cyber threats, and we passionately believe that home users should enjoy the same level of protection, said Matt Fairbanks, chief marketing officer at Sophos. Sophos Home is based on the proven business-class technology that protects some of the worlds biggest brands, and we have now made that accessible to home environments. Too many consumer products in our industry confuse and annoy their customers. We believe that Sophos Home simply delivers the most innovative, effective, and un-annoying home computer protection. Sophos Home Premium has an MSRP of $50 for use on up to 10 computers  Mac and PC  for 12 months. Support is included via online community, email, and chat for the duration of the subscription.Sophos Home Premium is available to order today, and a free 30-day trial can be accessed through the Sophos Home website. Please visit https://home.sophos.com/ for more details.ADVERTISEMENT

The African Business Roundtable (ABR) has inaugurated Samuel Dossou-Aworet as the new president of the group.

Mr. Dossou-Aworet took over from ABamanga Tukur at the Presidential Handover Ceremony and dinner at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel on Wednesday in Abuja.

The former president was applauded for his dedication and contribution to ABR and the private sector development in Africa.

The occasion was well attended by representatives from Africa Development Bank (AfDB), the Nigerian presidency, ambassadors of Cote dIvoire, Congo, Senegal, Germany, Burkina Faso, Benin Republic, Angola and South Africa.

Mr. Dossou-Aworet is also the President of Petrolin Group, the Pan Africa Oil and Gas Exploration Company.

As the former ABR vice president, he was unanimously elected as president and chairman of the board in September 2017.

The new president, whom Mr. Tukur described as a passionate crusader for good governance, an advocate for regional integration and a very successful business personality had a very successful career in the public and private sector.

The roundtable also made far reaching resolutions that would expand the frontiers of private African businesses in anticipation of an increasing stable political climate.

Ebrima Faal, Senior Director, Nigeria for AfDB, representing the President of the Bank, Akinwunmi Adesina, in his keynote address highlighted the historical ties between the Bank and ABR, which it helped to set up in 1990.

He further noted that ABR was Africas foremost and continent-wide association of businesses and business leaders, and truly a successful Pan-African institution.

He stated that the bank would work closely with the public and private sector to unlock new sources of growth for Africa.

Mr. Faal stressed the need to reduce inequality between countries working together to unlock the enormous potential of African economies and deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals for Africa.

The ABR held a minute silence in the memory of late Babacar Ndiaye, a former President of the AfDB and founder of the ABR, who passed on last year.ADVERTISEMENT

Argentina has offered a reward of 98 million pesos (4.8 million dollars) for information leading to the recovery of a submarine that went missing three months ago with 44 crew on board.

Those with information on the ARA San Juan can contact the Defense Ministry by email, the ministry said on Wednesday.

The goal is to encourage shipping companies to participate in the search for the submarine, which disappeared in the South Atlantic on Nov. 15.

A massive international search was launched, but hopes of finding the crew alive were given up two weeks later and the search was scaled down.

The crew reported a fire in the submarines batteries three hours before it lost contact and an explosion along its route was also detected.

Family members of the crew had called on the government to offer a reward, saying the search was progressing slowly and that the navy did not have sufficient technological means to locate the ARA San Juan. (dpa/NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

U.S. President Donald Trump in his tweets on Thursday called the suspected gunman in the massacre of 17 people at a high school in southern Florida mentally disturbed.

The 19-year-old, identified as Nikolas Cruz, was due in court on Thursday.

He was arrested after Wednesdays shooting spree in Parkland, Florida, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where the former student had previously been expelled for what school officials said were disciplinary reasons.

So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behaviour, Mr. Trump tweeted.

Neighbours and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!

The White House said Mr. Trump would speak publicly about the tragic shooting at 11 am (1600 GMT).

Authorities said 15 people were hospitalised with injuries suffered in the attack, which occurred late in the school day.

Police said the gunman opened fire with an AR-15 rifle after setting off a fire alarm in the school, 75 kilometres north of Miami.

(dpa/NAN)The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that most violent conflicts and killings of Nigerians in South Africa were more of criminal activities than xenophobic attack

The ministrys spokesperson, Tope Elias-Fatile, stated this while briefing journalists on Wednesday in Abuja on a wide range of issues and activities of the ministry.

Mr. Elias-Fatile said the ministry was in constant touch with the Nigerian mission in South Africa to get reports of criminal-related issues involving Nigerians living in that country.

From the report I can authoritatively tell you that the killings of Nigerians in South Africa were more of criminal issue, he said.

Nigerians living in South Africa had suffered series of attacks by mobs in that country, causing loss of lives and destruction of properties.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that no fewer than 116 Nigerians have been sent to their early graves in the country through extra-judicial means in the last two years.

More recently in January, two Nigerians were killed in Rustenburg and Durban in an attack on some Nigerians in South Africa.

On January 20, Nigerian community in South Africa said that a mob destroyed four shops and several houses belonging to their members at Krugersdorp, near Joha.

In the same vein on January 21 two Nigerians including 27-year-old Ebuka Okori, were killed in that country.

Another two Nigerians were viciously killed within 48 hours, barely a month after President Jacob Zuma was honoured by the Imo Government in 2017.

On October 11, 2017, Jelili Omoyele, a 35-year-old cellular phone technician, was allegedly shot dead in Johannesburg while Olamilekan Badmus, a 25-year-old from Ogun, was also killed at Vaal Vreneging, near Johannesburg.

Mr. Fatile maintained that most of the extra judicial killings were more of crime related issues against Nigerians than xenophobic attacks.

He, however, said that the ministry was working with relevant authorities in South Africa to ensure that there is an end to this heinous crime

There is a plan for a meeting to address the issues holistically. As I am talking to you the Ministry is in touch with South African authority because that is one of the volatile area.

Consistently we are in touch with the ambassador and the consular in South Africa and that is why I said that the pockets of killing are not actually xenophobia they are more of crime related issues, he said

On the situation of Nigerian returnees from Libya, Mr. Fatile said the ministry was working with the National Emergency Management Agency, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, and other relevant government agencies to ensure their welfare.

He said the minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, had also directed a senior official of the ministry to liaise with state governments to evacuate returnees abandoned at the reception camp in Port Harcourt.

(NAN)

ADVERTISEMENTNearly four months after he received a detailed report on how Abdulrasheed Maina was readmitted into the civil service, President Muhammadu Buhari has failed to take a definitive position on the controversial matter.

The presidents critics said he is dithering on the report with the hope that Nigerians would soon forget.

But his supporters pointed to his history as a sluggish but thorough leader who would only take decisions after he gets all the facts, to avoid miscarriage of justice on matters of national interest.

Mr. Maina, a career civil servant and a former head of pension reform task force, was surreptitiously recalled by the Buhari administration in September 2017, four years after he was dismissed from service on allegations of gross misconduct and theft of public funds.

The Goodluck Jonathan administration, which fired Mr. Maina, hinged its decision on allegations of corruption against him and his decision to abscond from office rather than clear his name.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission subsequently moved to arrest and prosecute Mr. Maina, who was fired as an assistant director, but he fled at the time.

Since then, Mr. Maina was sparsely seen or heard from until October 20, 2017 when PREMIUM TIMES blew the lid that he had made a questionable return to the civil service.

After taking three days to observe the widespread condemnation that greeted the reinstatement, Mr. Buhari gave the Head of Service, Winnifred Oyo-Ita, a few hours to put a report together, with a detailed explanation of how the fugitive was reinstated.

In the October 23 statement, the president also ordered Mr. Mainas immediate sack from service, although the legal bases for this were challenged by some constitutional lawyers.

Ms. Oyo-Itas report was submitted to the president around 3:00 p.m. the same day.

In her account of how Mr. Maina was recalled, first published by The Punch on October 31, Ms. Oyo-Ita denied allegations by Attorney-General Abubakar Malami and Interior Minister Abdulrahman Dambazau that she knew of the reinstatement.

She also reminded Mr. Buhari that she put him on notice a few weeks earlier that some of his senior officials were scheming to reinstate Mr. Maina to service.

I sought an audience with His Excellency, Mr. President on Wednesday, October 11, 2017, after the FEC meeting where I briefed His Excellency verbally on the wide-ranging implications of the reinstatement of Mr. A. A. Maina, especially the damaging impact on the anti-corruption stance of this administration, Mrs. Oyo-Ita said in the memo to Mr. Buharis Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari.

The president had ordered that Ms. Oyo-Ita submit the memo to Mr. Kyaris office.

Since then, the president has neither confirmed nor denied his involvement in the reinstatement as asserted by Ms. Oyo-Ita. He also has not publicly taken any action on the matter.

Presidential spokespersons Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu did not respond to PREMIUM TIMES requests for comments about the presidents silence throughout Wednesday.

But rather than pacify frayed nerves, Mr. Buharis silence could actually bolster the claims by critics that he wanted to take the matter completely out of the headlines as he considers a reelection bid.

The president has not openly outlined his political future for Nigerians, but his recent comments have spoken more to his interest in keeping his office than retiring as being increasingly demanded by some political players, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

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In her response, the Head of Service stated that the president was warned that the reinstatement wont be good on the anti-corruption image of his government, said political analyst Eluma Asogwa. But he either rejected the advice or decided to do nothing about it.

Undoubtedly, this scandal has become the legendary sword of Damocles on the presidents head, Mr. Asogwa told PREMIUM TIMES Wednesday night, adding that the reinstatement could doom the presidents reelection if he contests.

Mr. Asogwa, an Abuja-based legal practitioner, said the presidents indictment by the Head of Service was another reason he has been silent over the matter.

The president was indicted in the report, Mr. Asogwa said. That blew away his credibility or moral authority on Mainas crooked reinstatement.

You dont expect him to shoot himself in the foot by probing further on a wrongdoing he participated in, he added.

Mr. Asogwa said while Mr. Maina has not been pronounced guilty of any wrongdoing by the court, his refusal to submit himself to the authority for probe remains highly problematic.

That singular act alone is enough to tell that it would be morally reprehensible to return such a character back into the civil service, he said.

But Nigerians should not be too quick to castigate the president for not acting on the report over the past four months, said a political analyst, Ayo Akanji.

The president is very meticulous with his actions when it comes to issues like this. He takes his time to act, Mr. Akanji, an APC strategist and media consultant for the administration, told PREMIUM TIMES by telephone Wednesday night.

Mr. Akanji said Nigerians should immediately remember that the executive secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme was hastily removed from office, only for the president to reinstate him upon his return.

Mr. Buhari reinstated Usman Yusuf last week, more than six months after the Minister of Health Isaac Adewole suspended him on allegations of fraud.

Mr. Buhari, who was away on extended medical vacation in London when Acting President Yemi Osinbajo approved the suspension of Mr. Yusuf, took the decision despite being aware of a probe report that found Mr. Yusuf culpable of mismanaging public funds.

The NHIS chief strongly denied the allegations, accusing the minister of witchhunting him for introducing modern ideas aimed at reforming the state-run health insurance provider and regulator.

The former SGF was very close to the president and, when he was found wanting, he was sacked and he was arrested by the EFCC before he later secured bail, Mr. Akanji said of Babachir Lawal, the controversial Secretary to the Government of the Federation who was accused of stealing funds earmarked for internally displaced persons in the Boko Haram-ravaged northeast. I think hes going to act accurately on this Maina issue.

Besides, Mr. Akanji said Mr. Maina had been cooperating with the Buhari administration in its efforts to recover some missing pension funds.

He has also helped the administration to have access to a lot of stolen funds. You dont rush to move against someone like that because of public outcry, he said. Nigerians must understand that we have a president who cant be railroaded but will take his time to take a decision that will benefit all Nigerians.

The scandal wont be a threat to the president if hes running for reelection, Mr. Akanji said.ADVERTISEMENT

The police on Thursday clashed with activists and supporters of the Nigerian Peace Corps at the organisations headquarters in Abuja.

The police arrived in five Toyota Hilux vans after activists and Peace Corps members attempted to implement court orders that the facility be reopened.

The development came two days after the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions asked the police to obey court rulings and vacate the headquarters which was first sealed in February 2017.

The lawmakers ultimatum ends Thursday.

A group, known as the Coalition of Civil Society Organisations for Justice and Equity, had on January 25, petitioned the House, accusing the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, of flagrantly disobeying subsisting court orders in favour of the Peace Corps.,

In November 2017, the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the police to unseal the headquarters of the paramilitary group.

Another federal judge, John Tsoho, on January 15, 2018, ordered the police to vacate the office.

Abuja police spokesperson, Anjuguri Manzah, told PREMIUM TIMES Thursday morning that he doesnt have any information about the police faceoff with the Peace Corps.

The police have accused the Peace Corps of being an illegal organisation, and its leader, Dickson Akoh, of allegedly defrauding the youth with a promise to get them jobs.

The Peace Corps bill has been passed by the National Assembly since last year and is currently on President Muhammadu Buharis table awaiting ascent, the presidency said.

Details soonBillionaire Nirav Modi, who is now being investigated by the CBI for the mega bank fraud, is a luxury diamond jewellery designer who figured in Forbes India's Richest People List 2016 with a net worth of $1.74 billion.

The high-profile designer is the founder and creative director of the Nirav Modi chain of diamond jewellery retail outlets. Nirav Modi grew up at Antwerp in Belgium, the diamond capital of the world, and started his own brand by the name of Nirav Modi. He is known for his high-value jewellery that have fetched prices above from Rs 10 crore at auctions conducted by leading houses like Christie's and Sotheby's.

A diamond necklace designed by Modi fetched Rs 13 crore at a Christie's auction in Hong Kong in 2015. The 10.2 carat diamond necklace was previously sold in another sale by the auction house in the year 2011."The Orchid Ainra Necklace appreciated a phenomenal 71 per cent in value since its previous sale by the same auction house in 2011. Earlier in 2010, Modi's Golconda necklace sold for Rs 16.29 crore at a Christie's auction.

According to reports, the Punjab National Bank has lodged a complaint with the CBI against Nirav Modi and a jewellery company over fraudulent transactions worth Rs 11,300 crore. The investigating agency is reported to have received the fresh complaints about the transactions detected by the public sector bank late on Tuesday night.

Nirav Modi is already being investigated by the CBI on a complaint from the PNB filed last week over a Rs 283 crore cheating case. In an earlier case, the bank had alleged that a fraudulent issuance of Letters of Undertakings took place on January 16, 2018 for and on behalf of the firms related to Nirav Modi, which approached the bank and presented a set of import documents to the branch with a request to allow buyers credit for making payment to overseas suppliers.

In recent Rs 11,300 crore fraud case, reports suggest that the "letter of undertaking" was issued fraudulently by PNB to Modi and associates and was encashed overseas by them from different banks, both in the private as well as public sector. Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank are reported to have offered credit based on letters of undertaking (LOUs) issued by PNB.ADVERTISEMENT

The Nigeria Nigeria Army has promised a N3 million cash reward for credible information on the hideout of Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, whom it declared a fugitive.

Army spokesman, Sani Usman, a Brigadier General, made this known in a statement issued on Thursday.

This would be the third bounty placed on the Boko Haram leader since 2012.

In November 2012, the federal government offered a N290 million cash reward for any information that would lead to arrest of Mr. Sbekau.

In June, 2013, the United States of America officially declared Boko Haram a terrorist organisation and placed a $7 million ransom on Mr. Shekau.

About four years after, it appears the worth of the Boko Haram leader has gone down following the degrading of his once formidable terror group.

The army has repeatedly claimed to have killed Mr. Shekau, who appears later in videos to dismiss the claim.

Mr. Shekau has appeared in at least two new videos this year taunting the militarys effort to completely defeat his group.

Mr. Usmans statement on the promised ransom reads:

The Nigerian Army will give out Three Million Naira (N3,000,000.00k) cash reward for any credible information that leads to the arrest of Abubakar Shekau, the fugitive factional Boko Haram terrorists group leader.

Anybody with such credible information can either contact the Military Command and Control Centre, Operation LAFIYA DOLE, any military location, security agencies or call the Nigerian Army Information and Call Centre 193.

The Theatre Commander Operation Lafiya Dole, Nicholas Rogers, a Major General, had at a press conference on Wednesday declared that the Boko Haram leader had been chased out of his hideout and has since been on the run.The United Kingdom branch of Christ Embassy, owned by popular Nigerian televangelist, Chris Oyakhilome, is broke and has been declared insolvent by the Charity Commission, the agency that regulates charity organisations in the country.

The ministry also admitted in its belated 2015 financial Statement (the churchs last annual return, which it published in 2017) that its subsidiary, Christ Embassy Limited, valued with a net asset of more than N1 billion (2 million) entered into liquidation from November 1, 2016.

On its website, the Charity Commission flagged Christ Embassy as charity insolvent. According to the commission, a charity is considered as being insolvent when it is unable to pay its debts.

In practice there are two separate tests for insolvency and failure of either might be an indication of insolvency: The charity cannot pay its debts as they fall due for payment; The value of its liabilities exceeds its assets.

Charities will be flagged as insolvent on our register when we are made aware of an insolvency situation and we are provided with verification from a qualified, independent insolvency practitioner. the commission explained.

The churchs present financial problem is another episode in a series of crisis that has plagued the church since 2013.

In 2014, Mr. Oyakhilome lost a fierce power tussle over the church in the UK with his ex-wife, Anita. Though she, now known as Anita Ebhodaghe Schafer, was the head of the UK branch of the church, Mr. Oyakilome presided over the charitys board of trustee since inception until he was forced to resign in 2014.

After he was kicked out of the churchs board of trustee, the former flamboyant couple went their separate ways in a bitter divorce five months later.

In 2013, the UK government set up an inquiry into possible financial misplacement of the churchs fund between 2008 and 2012. Government-appointed auditors later raised eyebrows over suspicious payments worth N2.14 billion (4.28 million) made to companies and organisation closely related to the church in 2013.

Dwindling income, increasing expenditure

Though the Charity Commission did not immediately respond to PREMIUM TIMES request for further details about the circumstances leading to the church being declared insolvent, a peep into its financial history shows that the church started bleeding about 16 months before Mr Oyakhilome was removed as a trustee of the church.

In 2012 Christ Embassy, UK was in perhaps its best position financially. Its membership was growing in multiples and donations including tithes and offerings were ballooning. New chapters were opened all across the UK. In England, new chapters were opened in Bridgend, Peterborough, Swindon, Stockton and a third chapter in Manchester. Similarly, in Scotland, new chapters were opened in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow.

Though in the year, its expenditure was N4.49 billion (8.88 million), the church had an income of N8.43 billion (16.72 million), which left it with a surplus of N3.96 billion (7.84 million) excluding a gift of over N1 billion (2 million) in net asset donated to it by its subsidiary, Christ Embassy Limited.

The ministry is therefore in a comfortable position to meet all financial commitments and projections for the coming year, the church boasted.

The first whiff of problem appeared after the church turned in its financial statement in 2013. The churchs income was N7.1 billion (14.1 million) which was a drop of N1.3 billion (2.6 million) from the income of the previous year.

However, its expenditure rose drastically to N8 billion (15.9 million), which is an increase of N3.5 billion (7 million). Thus, from a surplus of N3.96 billion (7.89million) the previous year, the church slumped into a deficit of N961.6 million (1.9 million).

Despite the drastic slump in income, the church was still optimistic about its future: The Ministry remains in a comfortable position to meet all its financial commitments and projections for the coming year, it stated.

In 2014, the churchs income continued on its downward trajectory while its expenditure stayed high. Its income dropped to N6.7 billion (13.2 million). But due to cuts in its expenditure, the church managed to make a surplus of N506 million (1 million).

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In 2015, Christ Embassy took its biggest hit. Income for the year was N2.3 billion (4.7 million) from the N6.7 billion (13.2 million) the previous year, while expenditure rose to over N5 billion (approximately 10 million). Thus, its deficit for the year amounted to just over N1.7 billion (3.2 million).

The fees paid to Rod Weston of the international audit and accounting firm, Mazars LLP, who was appointed by the Charity Commission to take over the management of the church, may cause the increase in the churchs expenditure in 2014 and 2015.

The ministrys annual return for both years indicated that a total of N7.6 billion (15.1million) was paid to the interim manager. The church still has an outstanding fee of N1.1 billion (2215,914) to pay the interim manager in 2015.

When reached for comments, an official of the church, who refused to identify himself, was furious that this newspaper wanted to do a story about the church.

Why do you need the information? What story? Who gave you the story to work on? Why are you calling?, he asked.

When told that ethically journalists are required to talk to the subjects of their stories to write balanced reports, he said there was no need to ask the church any question.

If you are a journalist and you got your story from anywhere why do you need to balance it, you go ahead. There is no need to clarify, he said.

Incestuous transactions

Worried by the ministrys sudden increase in expenditure, on 11 August 2014, the Charity Commission side-lined the churchs board of trustees and appointed an interim manager, Rod Weston of the international audit and accounting firm, Mazars, to take over the management of the church.

Before setting aside the churchs board of trustees, the commission had discovered controversial payments worth N1.8 billion (3.6 million) to foreign entities between 2008 and 2012.

The Charity Commission explained at the time that the statutory inquiry would investigate Christ Embassy over a number of serious concerns relating to the use of charitable funds, in particular large connected party payments and the potential misapplication of grant funding.

The commission said the church might have been imprudent in managing its finances.

Subsequently, the UK tax authority, HM Revenue and Customs, held back N1.36 billion (2.7 million) due to the church in donation between 2008 and 2012 until the conclusion is resolved.

But details of the 2013 financial statement, which was approved on January 22, 2016 show that the churchs suspicious spending did not stop in 2012.

Jacob Cavenagh and Skeet, the independent auditors, discovered that part of the churchs 15.9 million expenditure in 2013 was made to companies and organisations with close relation to the church.

The auditors particularly raised eyebrows over the N1.35 billion (2,679,980) paid to Loveworld Limited for transmission of the churchs broadcast. Interestingly, a trustee of the church, Obioma Chiemeka, is the director and sole shareholder of Loveworld Limited. Mr Chiemeke, a pastor, however resigned as a trustee on October 15, 2015.

Also, purchases worth N22.7 million (44,925) were made from Ventaja Ltd for decorating and the construction of a stage. The auditors discovered that a pastor of the church, Tony Obi, was the sole shareholder of the Ventaja and his wife Georgine Obi, an employee of Christ Embassy, was a director of the company. Mr Obi, however, resigned as a trustee of the church on November 6, 2015.

The auditors said they were also not convinced about the reason for a grant of N506.9 million (1,000,973) given to Healing School, Canada. A trustee of the UK branch of the Church. Ray Okocha, a reverend, is also a trustee of Healing School Canada.

Healing School is the branch of the church in charge of faith healing and miracles sessions. It regularly hosts events in Johannesburg, South Africa; and Toronto, Canada.

The auditors said they could not obtain complete and accurate information on the transactions because the church could not provide explanations and information they requested during the audit.

The audit evidence available to us are limited because we were unable to obtain sufficient evidence to enable us to conclude whether material amount of expenditure made by the charity were charitable expenditure, the auditors stated.

The audit evidence available to us are also limited because we were unable to obtain complete and accurate information on related parties. As a result of this we were unable to determine whether further disclosure of related parties and related party transaction should be made in financial statement.

The audit evidence were also limited because a number of explanations and information requested during our audit could not be provided, it said.

(EDITORS NOTE: PREMIUM TIMES received the email below from the Charity Commission after the story had been published).

Im afraid that as our statutory inquiry is ongoing we are unable to comment further at this time.

It is the Commissions policy, after it has concluded an inquiry, to publish a report detailing what issues the inquiry looked at, what actions were undertaken as part of the inquiry and what the outcomes were. I can make sure you added to the inquiry report distribution list if thats helpful once it is available.ADVERTISEMENT

The 222 Battalion of Nigerian Army says its troops tracked and killed Austin Agulegbu, a top member of a notorious cultist gang that allegedly masterminded the New Year Day killings in Omoku, Rivers State.

The army said this in a statement issued on Thursday issued by Aminu Iliyasu, Deputy Director, Army Public Relations.

Mr. Iliyasu, a colonel, said the suspect was killed in Delta state in conjunction with operatives of the Department of State Service, Rivers State Command during the early hours of Wednesday.

The statement said the suspect was the Chief Security Officer to late Don Waney and the sixth in command of the criminal gang.

After a painstaking effort by the security agencies, Austin was traced to his hideout at a location along New Sapele Road, Obiaruku in Ukwani Local Government Area (LGA) in Delta State in the early hours of February 14, 2018.

He was among the killer squad that killed 23 worshippers returning from the cross-over vigil on January 1, 2018 at Omoku, Rivers State, Mr. Iliyasu said.

The army said the suspected cultist and his members were planning a reprisal attack on security agencies, worship centres and schools in Rivers state.

Reliable information also has it that he and other gang members still at large were already making plans to attack security agencies locations, churches and schools within Rivers State as a reprisal to the clamp down on their remnants now at large.

Agulegbu was however shot in an encounter with the security operatives and died before reaching the hospital. His body has been brought to Port Harcourt and handed over to the Rivers State Police Command, army said.

Johnson Igwediba, popularly known as Don Wanny and his notorious criminal cult group were the perpetrators of the heinous killings of 23 innocent residents of Omoku in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, of Rivers State, on January 1, 2018.ADVERTISEMENT

The arraignment of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, Danladi Umar, over allegations of bribery will hold in March, not February 15, the prosecution has said.

The prosecution counsel, Festus Keyamo, told PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday in a telephone interview that reports about Mr. Umars arraignment on February 15 were false.

Its not today. He is going to be arraigned on March, 15. Its March 15, Mr. Keyamo said.

Mr. Umar is however scheduled to continue overseeing the trial of a former customs officer, Rasheed Taiwo, who accused him of bribery.

The trial which began over six years ago, is closely linked to the ongoing case against Mr. Umar who was charged based on the allegation brought by Mr. Taiwo.

An official of the Court of Appeal who did not want to be named, because he was not authorised to speak, informed PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday that an appeal challenging the decision of Mr. Umar to still preside over Mr. Taiwos case, will soon be decided upon.

Yes, the Court of Appeal heard arguments of parties in the matter during the month of December. The case was brought by some lawyers who want Umar to step down because of the allegations against him. The Appeal Court will soon call the parties for a ruling on that case, the source told PREMIUM TIMES.

The current charge against Mr. Umar were first filed by the EFCC on allegations of the CCT chairmans involvement in the collection of a N10 million bribe from Mr. Taiwo, in 2012.

The bribe was allegedly given when Mr. Taiwo was first arraigned for allegations of false asset declaration at the CCT.

Following the charge, Mr. Umar was suspended by the government, but was later cleared and reinstated.

On February 2, however the EFCC filed fresh charges against the CCT chairman, bordering on the same alleged offence.

The allegations are contained in a two-count charge filed at a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory.The police on Thursday stormed the homes of two leaders of the University of Lagos chapter of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and arrested them.

Joseph Adefolalu and Adekola Adetomiwa were arrested between 1.30 a.m. and 2 a.m. on Thursday allegedly at the instance of the universitys vice-chancellor, Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.

The institutions non-academic staff had been at loggerheads with the university management over the sharing of funds disbursed by the federal government for the payment of entitlements last year.

This week, the university was forced to postpone, indefinitely, its convocation earlier scheduled to hold between February 19 and 22.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that over 12 security operatives, arrived in three vehicles with special plate numbers, invaded Mr. Adefolalus Ikorodu residence at 1.30 a.m. and held the members of his family hostage until he was forced to open the door.

They came around midnight and surrounded the entire house, a family member, who did not want to be named, said.

Initially, he did not want to open the door to them. We were all inside and some of the landlords in the environment came out. The security men who came with guns and clutching their walkie-talkies identified themselves to the landlords that they were from the State Criminal Investigation Department, Ikeja Division and acting on orders from above.

Eventually when the threat became unbearable, and for the security of the members of his family, he surrendered to them. The invaders then dropped address with the family, whisked him away and took him to their Ikeja Office where he also met another Union leader, Mr Adekola Adetomiwa, who has also been arrested and detained.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that Mr. Adetomiwa was arrested at his home in Onike, Yaba, at 2 a.m.

Kehinde Ajibade, the Chairman of the universitys Non-Academic Staff Union, confirmed the arrests to PREMIUM TIMES.

We dont know the reason for the arrests, we are on our way now to the State CID to find out but any arrests at this time can never be exempted from the struggle, Mr. Ajibade said.

Last month, Mr. Adefolalu had alleged in a Facebook post that there were threats to his life and the leaders of the other unions in the school over issues bordering on their welfare.

According to him, instead of the university authorities to honour the agreement reached with the UNILAG unions congress during a recent meeting, the Vice-Chancellor had resorted to blackmail and threats, while handing the union leaders telephone numbers to security operatives.

On 9th January, 2018, at about 14:29, I received a call from 0803xxxxxxx inviting me for security meeting at Alpha Base, Sabo, Yaba, Lagos. I politely asked him that on what ground? The question the caller was unable to answer. The voice replied to call me back. Later in the day, another call was made that I should report to the Commissioner of Police Office at Ikeja, for another security meeting, Mr. Adefolalu had written.

This morning, when my phone was on, I saw another text message dated 9th January, 2018 at 21:01 stated therein that You are invited to a security meeting with the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State. Time: 10am Venue: Conference Hall, Police Headquarters, Oba Akinjobi Way, Ikeja, Lagos. No further details.

I couldnt bother to return the text, because I believe if the Commissioner of Police would invite me for security meeting, he shouldnt be through a text message. I begin to sense a foul play.

The university did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Phone calls to Taiwo Oloyede, the universitys Principal Assistant Registrar, Information, did not go through.

A message to their official Facebook page was not answered.

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Chike Oti, the Lagos police spokesperson, said he was at a function and cannot immediately respond to questions.ADVERTISEMENT

Members of the House of Representatives on Thursday accused the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), of diverting public funds.

The lawmakers alleged this while deliberating on a motion titled Urgent public importance to investigate the violation of public trust at the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), sponsored by Benjamin Wayo (APC, Benue state).

The members expressed disappointment at the agencys management style. They said the agency awards personal contracts with funds meant for the provision of relief materials for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and other victims of disasters across the country.

Mr. Wayo, while explaining the core mandate of the agency, noted that in spite of this, several cases of disasters across the country have not been given necessary attention.

For example, the hunger issue in IDP camps in the North-east; the farmers/herdsmen conflicts; fire disaster victims, and many other such cases across the country that have been neglected.

The agency has received more than N10 billion from the 20 per cent National Ecological Fund in the last one year, N5 billion for hunger intervention in the Northeast, about N2 billion for flood intervention across the country.

These funds were illegally siphoned by officials of the agency through dubious awards of contracts without delivering relief items to the victims.

The Director General of the agency contracts to companies he has personal interests in, and has violated his approval limits by awarding contracts to a single firm without due process.

Example, one company called Olam Nigeria Limited got a contract of N2.4 billion, which is against the agencys approval limit as stated in Section 16 subsection 1 of the NEMA Act. It should be made clear that the section pegs the approval limit at just N30 million, he said.

The lawmaker disclosed that the agency is the only federal agency that has an air ambulance but has turned it into a commercial one without remitting the financial proceeds to government coffers. He said the agency could not account for its assets.

He also reminded the House that the agencys staff went on strike last year over the Director General s incapacity to manage the affairs of the agency.

He added that the staff are currently threatening to embark on another strike if there is no intervention to resolve lingering labour related issues in the agency.

Danladi Tope (APC, Kwara state), also expressed disappointment at the agencys misuse of public funds. He called for thorough investigation as he explained that billions are being raised for them and they syphon the money.

Also calling for investigation, Obinna Chidoka (PDP, Anambra state), urged the House to look into the activities of the agency as well as its management.

Investigate how their budgets are used and make sure they account for every dime they spend, he urged colleagues.

The House thereafter, resolved to mandate its committee on emergency and disaster preparedness to investigate and report back within six weeks.

PREMIUM TIMES could not immediately get the reaction of the agency to the allegations presented by the lawmaker.ADVERTISEMENT

The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria has inducted 249 foreign trained medical and dental graduates.

A total of 686 medical and 10 dental candidates registered for the MDCN assessment examination, out of which 243 medical and six dental surgeons passed.

This represents 35 percent success for the medical and 60 percent success for the dental, making the overall success rate 35.7 percent.

About 437 foreign trained medical students who sat for the examination at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, UITH, failed when the result was released last year.

The 437 students have since challenged the result at the Nigerian Senate and the law court, alleging that the process was manipulated against them.

The MDCN assessment examination is a routine professional examination conducted to assess candidates trained outside Nigeria, who obtained medical or dental qualifications recognized by the individual medical regulatory body of such countries.

Speaking at the induction ceremony in Abuja on Thursday, the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, expressed concern over the number of students that failed the assessment examination.

He blamed the high rate of failure on the institutions attended by some of the students.

Represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health Osarenoma Uwaifo, the minister urged parents who are planning to send their children and wards abroad for training to ensure that they are trained in accredited institutions.

In his welcome address, the Registrar of MDCN, Tajudeen Sanusi, who acknowledged the furor that trailed the last examination, said that candidates who were not successful still have the opportunity to repeat the examination.

The outcome of the last examination had made the journey from the period of remedial course till the present time very turbulent, as Council was and it is still faced with the challenges of having to explain and defend the poor performance of some of the candidates that were unsuccessful at the examination, he said.

In his remark, the president of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) Mike Ogirima, warned that the welfare of doctors must not be handled with levity.

I want to sound this to the government of Nigeria and subsequent governments that they should not toy with the welfare of medical doctors. In the country, we have about 50,000 medical and dental practitioners, he said

He said this was essential to halt brain drain in the medical industry in Nigeria.

Government has been trying its best but the best is yet to come and I pray that this government will find solution to stop that brain drain of our very highly skilled professionals. Doctors, medical officers, consultants of various specialties are denied working for the country because of lack of vacancies.

We implore government to increase the capacity of all our health institutions so that we can consume our products and take care adequately of the health needs of our country men and women, Mr. Ogirima said.

The guest lecturer at the ceremony, Antonio Ferreira, who spoke on medical ethics and the practice of medicine in Nigeria, challenged the new inductees to maintain the standards of the profession and also stick by the ethics.ADVERTISEMENT

President Muhammadu Buhari has set up another committee that will visit all communities affected by farmers/herders clashes across the country.

The visit according to Governor Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi State is to enable the government to look at ways to ameliorate the suffering of the people in those areas and to resettle them.

Mr. Abubakar, who addressed State House correspondents at the end of the 95th meeting of the National Economic Council, NEC, which held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, said the committee will be headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

He said the Osinbajo committee put in place by Mr. Buhari is in addition to another one earlier set up by the NEC headed by the vice president which in turn had also set up another working committee on the same issue, headed by the Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi.

If you recall, the National Economic Council had set up a working group under Mr. Vice President to look into these problems of herdsmen/farmers clashes.

The working group on its own also set up a subcommittee headed by the governor of Ebonyi State, who as we speak is working going round all the areas where these crisis are prevalent, consulting with the key stakeholders, he said.

He also said Mr. Osinbajo told NEC on Thursday that  Mr. President has approved for the setting up of a committee to be headed by the vice president again that will go into these areas, where these clashes have taken place with a view to looking at ways to ameliorate the suffering of the people of those areas and to resettle them, he said.

He said Mr. Osinbajo had earlier presented an interim report of the working committee to the NEC, which has as members all the 36 state governors and some ministers.

He said the interim report made some recommendations to the government on how to stop the clashes.

They have recommended to Mr. President that in all areas where these clashes are prevalent, the military should be moved in to buttress whatever the Nigerian Police and other security agencies are doing in forestalling the problems.

The committee has recommended strongly that the military should move into all forests or areas where the clashes are prevalent with the view to flashing out all bandits hiding in those areas.

The committee has also recommended the setting up and training of Afro-Rangers. You know there has been talks of setting up ranches, colonies, a livestock production centre etc. The issue is actually a problem of nomenclature, the most important thing is that some measures should be taken in attempting to settle down the herdsmen so that they will stop moving with their herds from one section of the country to the other in the process creating all the problems we are experiencing, he said.

Mr. Abubakar also said governors have been asked to work with the federal government and decide which of the measures being proposed best suit them.

 So, whichever one a state government that is keying into the programme chooses, either a grazing reserve or ranch, or a livestock production center, there is a need for rangers to be trained. Rangers that will police either ranches or the grazing reserves, he said.

He also said the working group had made it clear that under the provision of the Land Use Act, it is the governors that superintend over land in their states.

Therefore, the federal government of Nigeria is in no position and in fact the federal government will not impose on any state any type of solution, be it ranching, grazing reserves or whatever. The responsibility is that of the governor because they are the ones who by law are superintending over land matters, he said.ADVERTISEMENT

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has asked the President, Muhammadu Buhari to heed the advice of the leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, that Nigerias ex-presidents should quit politics and join the retirees club.

The party in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, on its official Twitter handle on Wednesday said the former Lagos State governor Bola Tinubu has weighed Buhari and found him not fit to remain in office beyond 2019.

The APC leader, reacting to statements by two former leaders, Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida, who recently advised President Buhari not to seek re-election in 2019, said they should join what he called the retirees club and collect pensions.

Mr. Tinubu said this on Tuesday while addressing State House correspondents after he and a former interim chairman of the party, Bisi Akande, met with the president at the Presidential Villa, in Abuja.

The PDPs statement reads in part:

Every discerning Nigerian has discovered the fact that Tinubu is subtly passing a critical message to President Buhari and his supporters that he should not contest the 2019 election and that Nigerians have already moved on even without them.

Even Tinubu knows that President Buhari, for obvious reasons, is the most qualified of all our elder statesmen to join the retirees club and save the nation the agony of more years of misrule characterised by untold economic hardship, heavy bloodletting and general indignation.

The supporters of President Buhari should therefore accept the reality by reading the handwriting on the wall and heed wise counsel from well-meaning Nigerians.

In any case, the APC is already on a death throe, having led the worst government in the history of our nation and will end up as the first party in government at the centre that will be rejected by Nigerians at a second attempt.The Shuiabu Inuwa Wada led Kaduna state factional All Progressives Party, APC, has issued a query to Governor Nasir El-rufai and slammed an 18-month suspension on his political adviser, Uba Sani.

Others it sanctioned are the state commissioner for finance, Suleiman Abdu Kwari, and Yahaya Bab Pate, the acting state secretary of the party for activities it described as inimical to the interest of the chapter.

The factional chairman, at a press conference in Kaduna on Thursday, said the suspension of the trio of Mr. Sani, Mr. Pate and Mr. Kwari is with effect from 12th February, 2018.

The Governor earned the query due to his anti-people, anti party activities and inhuman policies. El-Rufai is expected to respond to the query within 48 hours, he said.

Mr. Wada also announced the relocation of the state secretariate to 11, Sambo road, Ungwan Rimi GRA from its current location on Ali Akilu road near Lugard Hall round-about.

According to him, Mr. Pate was suspended for always taking unilateral decisions and conclusions and issuing directives to the local government, ward and individual members of the party in the name of the decisions of the state executive council of the party or state working committee.

He said, in the real sense he (Pate) was carrying out the biddings of Uba Sani, aide to governor El-Rufai.

His actions were adjudged to have compromised the party constitution thereby disrupting peaceful, lawful and efficient organisation of the party in the state.

While Suleiman Abdu Kwari, El-Rufais Finance Commissioner was suspended for 18 months for undue interference on issues within the scope of state, local government and ward organs of the party which tend to disrupt the peaceful, lawful and efficient organisation of the party with reference to his Sabon Gari Local Government and Bomo ward of the same Sabon Gari LGA.

He was also adjudged to be disobedient and negligent in carrying out lawful directives of the party, the official said.

The Wada faction of the APC is recognised by the partys national body in Abuja.

The factional chairman added that Mr. Sani was never a member of party until recently that the state embarked on continuous membership drive that he picked his membership card, early this year.

The activities of Uba Sani has inflicted incurable damage to the party. For this reason, he has been suspended for 18 months, he said.

Calls and text messages placed to Samuel Aruwan, media assistant to the governor were not responded to.

Equally, calls and text messages sent to the trio of Mr. Sani, Mr. Kwari, and Mr. Pate seeking reactions were not responded to.

The chairpersons of the APC, in the six local governments that make up Kaduna Central Senatorial district had recently endorsed Mr. Sani to run as senator for the zone.

The district is currently represented in the Senate by Shehu Sani, an activist and member of the APC. Mr. Sani has had a running battle with the governor.

The six local governments whose APC leaders endorsed the endorsement are Chikun, Birnin Gwari, Kajuru, Kaduna North, Kaduna South and Giwa.

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The APC chairman of Kaduna North Local Government Area, Musa Sheriff, said that their decision was based on the positive contributions by Mr. Sani to the affected local governments including securing jobs for the youth.Billionaire Nirav Modi, who is now being investigated by the CBI for the mega bank fraud, is a luxury diamond jewellery designer who figured in Forbes India's Richest People List 2016 with a net worth of $1.74 billion. State-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) has detected some "fraudulent and unauthorised" transactions worth about Rs 11,300 crore at one of its branches in Mumbai. The value of the fraudulent transactions works out to more than 8 times PNB's annual net profit of Rs 1,324 crore during 2016-17. The bank said in a regulatory filing with the BSE that the transactions were "for the benefit of a few select account holders with their apparent connivance" and that "based on these transactions other banks appear to have advanced money to these customers abroad."

9.48pm: Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha says over Rs 9000 crore exposure on Mehul Choksi's companies of Public Sector Banks could enhance the loss figure.

The INR 9000 cr approximate exposure on Mehul Choksi's firms of the various PSU banks might further enhance the loss figure of many of the 30 banks involved with #NiravModi . This is a full-blown corruption scandal. #ModiRobsIndia - Sanjay Jha (@JhaSanjay) February 15, 2018

9.33pm: The Enforcement Directorate seeks revocation of the passports of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choski, reports ABPLIVE.

Also read: PNB's Rs 11,400-crore fraud: 10 unanswered questions

9.09pm: Former RBI governor SS Mundra tells CNBC-TV 18 that there's need to do a national-level check.

8.40pm: Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi says no agency was alerted even after the 'letter' mentioning 'fraud' was received by the PMO.

A letter sent to PMO in 2016 giving details of the #ModiFraud#ModiScam, acknowledged by PMO office too but no agencies alerted.

In the meanwhile he was with PM Modi in Davos too.

All on high alert after Nirav Modi and family escape. Convenient. - Priyanka Chaturvedi (@priyankac19) February 15, 2018

Today BJP govt is caught red handed on Nirav Modi. So BJP leaders's irritation on different TV channels can be understood. Few of them are so swollen face. I am reminded of last years of UPA govt when Congress spokespersons were to defend indefensible. - ashutosh (@ashutosh83B) February 15, 2018

AAP leader Ashutosh says the BJP frustration reminds him of the days when Congress spokespersons will have to defend indefensible.

8.30pm: Actor Priyanka Chopra's spokesperson says she is seeking advice from her legal counsel to terminate her contract with the jeweller.

8.04pm: Nirav Modi was a part of the CEO delegation meeting with PM Modi in Davo WEF 2018 event on January 23, reports CNBC-TV18.

7.50pm: Finance Ministry sources say the ED and CBI officials have seized gold, diamonds, precious stones worth Rs 5,100 crore.

7.22pm: Congress leader Sanjay Jha says the Modi government can't absolve its responsibility from the Rs 11,400 crore fraud related to Nirav Modi, and the suspected fraud related to Mehul Choksi, which may also be in many thousand crores.

7.15pm: The government has already seized properties worth over Rs 5,000 crore in the case, says BJP spokesperson Amit Malviya.

7.12pm: Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha says if the fraud is of such a mammoth scale, it is likely that people at the higher level were not involved.

6.20pm: BJP national spokesperson Nitin Kohli says majority of the loans that were given to Nirav Modi were given during between 2011 and 2014. He adds that the Congress government was in power at that time not the BJP, reports Firstpost.

6.02pm: According to agency reports, the CBI has seized over 95 documents, including bills and other important documents, related to Nirav Modi's company.

5.55pm: BJP spokesperson GVL narasimha Rao says total income of Gitanjali Jewels had doubled during the Congress regime.

Congress party's #PNBScam

Total income of Gitanjali jewels (a company involved in the PNB scam and owned by Mehul Choksi) doubled between 2011 and 2013. Was it the Congress government's fraudulent help that helped Geetanjali double it's income? Investigation to probe this angle. - GVL Narasimha Rao (@GVLNRAO) February 15, 2018

5.46pm: AAP leader Sanjay Singh has alleged the BJP has tried to shelter Nirav Modi. "Nirav Modi was able to commit such a big fraud because he is somehow associated with the Ambani family, and which is why they have permission to commit any fraud."

        ,        , IPL        ,  "             " - Sanjay Singh AAP (@SanjayAzadSln) February 15, 2018

5.32pm: Assets worth Rs 1,300 crore have been seized. Revocation of Passport has been initiated. Lookout notice has been issued, says the minister.

5.31pm: Nirav Modi was not part of the Prime Minister's delegation. He was part of the photo op arranged by CII, says Ravi Shankar Prasad.



5.30pm: "Today, India's voice is heard across the globe, and we'll not allow the taxpayers' money to be lost. The person can be probed in foreign country as well. We have shown this in case of Vijay Mallya," says the minister.

5.28pm: Jinke apne ghar aise sheeshe ke hon jo tukde tukde hochuke hai, woh dusron ke ghar par pathar na feke, says the Union minister.

5.23pm: The Congress party should stop playing Davos photo politics. We also have photos of Mehul Choksi with Congress laders, though we don't want to stoop to that level, says the minister.

Congress photo ki rajneeti bandh kare. Many good and cosy photographs of many of the Congress leaders with Mehul Choksi is available with us, but we don't want to stoop to that level: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in Delhi #NiravModipic.twitter.com/XFczfMw9KE - ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

5.20pm: Congress leader Randeep Surjewala has tweeted Nirav'Modi Scam' has hit India the hardest.

'Loot & Escape" has become the hallmark of Modi Government.#From1MODI2another Post-escape of 'Lalit Modi' i.e. 'Chhota Modi' and 'Vijay Mallya', another '#ModiScam' has hit India's banking sector the hardest. Our Statement:- pic.twitter.com/idvUxjoOhe - Randeep S Surjewala (@rssurjewala) February 15, 2018

5.19pm: They are asking us about Vijay Mallya, though it was the Congress government that supported him, says the minister.

5.16pm: The Opposition has used derogatory language in connecting Nirav Modi with PM Modi, by calling Nirav as 'Chhota Modi'. Our party takes a strong offence of such derogatory statements, says the Union Minister.

5.15pm: No matter who's involved in the fraud, we'll bring him or her to book.

5.14pm: We will carry out a thorough probe, and no one will be spared, says Ravi Shankar Prasad.



5.13pm: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad says both the CBI and ED have taken speedy action and Nirav Modi's three stores have been sealed in Surat, four in Mumbai, and two more have been sealed in Delhi.

5.08pm: Among the 40 properties raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the alleged fraud involving Nirav Modi, nine properties belonged to Nirav himself.

5.06pm: Gitangali Gem, Ginni, and Nakshatra Jewellers are also under the CBI scanner, say sources.

4.50pm: Bengaluru-based businessman SV Hari Prasad had first written a letter to the PMO, highlighting the fraud. Prasad told India Today: "I was the franchisee of Gitanjali India Lifestyle Ltd. There we got to know these companies are taking huge loans without having substantiated assets. I shared the information with the CBI, ED, Sebi, Registrar of Companies (RoC) but no action was taken."

4.47pm: AAP has alleged that those who flee from country are first seen "hanging around the BJp office".

4.20pm: Senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan says PM Modi claims all frauds were committed during the Congress Party time.

On 24/1/18 Modiji is seen at Davos with Nirav Modi. PNB waits for 5 days to complain to CBI about Modi's 280 Cr fraud in 2017. CBI registers FIR on 31/1/18, by which time Nirav Modi had fled like Mallya. Now we learn that fraud is >11K Cr! But PM says all bank fraud in Cong time! https://t.co/PQbKmP1YEu - Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) February 15, 2018

4.00pm: CPM leader Sitaram Yechuri says the Modi government needs to clarify how Nirav Modi fled the country.

If this person had fled India before the FIR on Jan 31, then he is here, photographed at Davos with PM, a week before the FIR, after having escaped from India? Modi govt must clarify. #NiravModi#PublicMoneyLootpic.twitter.com/gQQnKQNjDo - Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) February 15, 2018

3.49pm: Nirav Modi's brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, also left the country on January 1, while wife Ami, a US citizen, and business partner Mehul Choksi, the Indian promoter of Gitanjali jewellery chain, departed on January 6.

3.48pm: Congress leader Sanjay Jha told India Today that the alleged fraud involving jeweller Nirav Modi is a serious scam of epic proportions. Talking about Nirav Modi in a group picture with OM Modi, which was taken in Davos during WEF 2018, Jha asked how there was no background check done on those posing with the PM?

3.47pm: CPI leader D Raja says the BJP government is responsible for the biggest banking scam. Raja asks the government to form JPC to inquire the case.

3.38pm: The ED has sealed 40 properties of Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Group chairman Mehul Choksi in Mumbai in fear of leaking sensitive documents. On Wednesday, Gitanjali Group sent a release saying Gitanjali Gems has not had any 'unauthorised' dealings with PNB or its officials.

3.33pm: Delhi chief minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal alleges the 'BJP govt' might be involved helping Nirav Modi.

Is it possible to believe that he or vijay mallya left the country without active connivance of BJP govt? https://t.co/6iMFf9VAkF - Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 15, 2018

3.32pm: Nirav Modi, who has already left India, has sought 6-month time to repay the loan to PNB.

3.27pm: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has demanded a thorough inquiry into the fraud.

Look what happened at Punjab National Bank ? A scam of more than Rs 11,000 crore. People's savings are not safe. There must be a thorough, time bound enquiry - Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) February 15, 2018

3.26pm: The CBI has issued lookout notices against Nirav Modi, his wife, brother, and Mehul Choksi, reports India Today.

3.14pm: Nirav Modi's wife, who's an American citizen, left India on January 6. Nirav Modi might be in Switzerland. The CBI has already issued look out circulars against all accused on January 31. Now the Enforcement Directorate may also issue lookout circulars.

#NiravModi's wife, an American citizen, left India on 6 Jan 2018, Mehul Choksi left the country on 4 Jan 2018., #NiravModi's brother Nishal Modi, a Belgian citizen, left India on 1 Jan 2018. CBI had issued look out circulars against all accused on 31 Jan 2018: Official Sources - ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

3.13pm: The BJP says whatever is coming out is the result of the previous UPA govt.

Whatever is coming out is the result of the previous UPA govt, action will be certainly taken on it: Nirmala Sitharaman,Union Defence Minister on #PNBFraudCase in Shillong, earlier today pic.twitter.com/n7qYVaMY3K - ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

3.06pm: Surjewala asks should PM Modi have permitted such a person (Nirav Modi) to be a part of a business delegation in Davos?"

3.04pm: When PM Modi is asked a question, he starts talking about the past 70 years of the country, says Congress.

3.03pm: Famous actor Priyanka Chopra, who's the global brand ambassador of Nirav Modi's diamond jewellery brand, has reportedly sued the company for defrauding her.

3.00pm: The congress says the government needs to answer who's responsible for the biggest bank loot.

How can #NiravModi and Mehul Choksi dupe the entire banking system through forged Letters of Understanding under the nose of Modi govt? Who is responsible for biggest bank loot scam unleashed by chhota Modi?: Randeep Surjewala, Congress pic.twitter.com/ECW6auBk63 - ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

The MoS Finance SP Shukla says the BJP was not in power in 2011 when the fraud happened.

We were not in govt in 2011, if Congress is making allegations, were they sleeping from 2011-14? They should've probed it. This govt is taking cognizance of matters & probing them. Congress' was a govt of scams & they established these scamsters: MoS Finance SP Shukla #PNBScampic.twitter.com/HfubZ01WaT - ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

The Congress says the BJP once again is trying to hide the scam, and is protecting the accused. "The BJP's is also trying to divert the issue. It's the way BJP works. It had happened during Bank of Baroda case, and it's happening once again," says Surjewala.

2.40pm: The biggest bank look scam of independent India, says Surjewala.



2.39pm: This government has mismanaged the risk management system of the banking system, says Congress leader Randeep Surjewala.



Our bank credit exposure to these two groups in question will be around Rs 1,700 crore, says Mehta.

3.27pm: Congress president Rahul Gandhi says the government has looked the other way when Nirav Modi fled the country like Mallya.

Guide to Looting India

by Nirav MODI



1. Hug PM Modi

2. Be seen with him in DAVOS Use that clout to: A. Steal 12,000Cr

B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the Govt looks the other way. #From1MODI2another - Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 15, 2018

2.37pm: Congress says the common man's money was used for bank recapitalisation, which used it to fund 'fraudsters'.

So the taxpayers' money being used for bank recapitalization was being funded to fraudsters like #NiravModi . Awesome work, Finance Ministry. #PNBScam - Sanjay Jha (@JhaSanjay) February 15, 2018

2.35pm: Nirav Modi last week gave us informal email saying he plans to repay the entire amount. We have told him to come up with repayment plan, says Mehta.

2.34pm: We have already imitated the process for recovery. We hope good amount will be recovered. We are confident to protect the interest of all the lenders.

2.32pm: We conduct forensic probe in such cases of fraudulent transactions, says Mehta.

2.28pm: Mehta says the fraud was internally detected when the customer came for renewal on January 25.

2.27pm: We detected the fraud on January 3. We got to know that 2 of our employees did some unauthorised transactions. The bank initiated criminal action against our staff members, says Mehta.

2.23pm: Two of our employees had taken some unauthorized transactions, and the probe is on. We'll update you as the probe moves forward, says Mehta.

2.21pm: PNB is perusing clean banking. We want to convey this to our investors that we'll not tolerate any lapse, says Mehta.

2.20pm: We will not tolerate any lapse on our part. We have taken suitable action against out staff, and all those involved have been made part of the criminal complaint.

2.16pm: The PNB is trying its best to take appropriate actions against the culprits, says the PNB management.

2.14pm: Our bank was the first one to detect the fraud, says Sunil Mehta, PNB Managing Director.

2.12pm: The bank has the capacity and capability to come out of this situation, says the PNB Managing Director.



The governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai, has responded to a query issued to him, Friday, by a faction of the All Progressive Congress in the state, describing it as a sham and laughable.

The Shuaibu Inuwa Wada-led Kaduna state factional APC, had issued a query to the governor and slammed an 18-month suspension on his political adviser, Uba Sani.

Others it sanctioned were the state commissioner for finance, Suleiman Kwari, and Yahaya Pate, the acting state secretary of the party, for activities it described as inimical to the interest of the chapter.

The factional chairman, at a press conference in Kaduna on Thursday, said the suspension of the trio of Mr. Sani, Mr. Pate and Mr. Kwari is with effect from 12th February, 2018.

However, the governor said he will not be swayed by drowning antics, adding that no one will heed the attention-seeking gambits of desperate politicians who have steadily been demystified.

The faction tagged, APC Aspirant Forum on Thursday urged the governor to respond to the query within 48 hours.

The Kaduna APC is currently divided into three factions, after the senator representing Kaduna North, Suleiman Hunkuyi, announced at a function last week that he was no more, in the same camp with the governor.

There is the APC Akida, chaired by Tom Mataimaki Mai-Yashi to which a senator, Shehu Sani, belongs to, the APC Restoration headed by Tijjani Ramalan and now the APC Aspirant Forum, headed by Mr. Hunkuyi.

El-Rufais Response

Mr. El-Rufai responded immediately calling the move a sham.

In a statement signed by his spokesperson, Samuel Aruwan, Mr. El-Rufai called the action rascally and described the Senator representing Kaduna North, Suleiman Hunkuyi as the man behind it.

He also listed some of his achievements in office.

The APC Government of Kaduna State has boldly lived up to its manifesto commitments and principles to the people. In this work, it continues to enjoy the firm support of the APC State Executive which is united, and committed to the hard work of bringing sustainable change.

The government appreciates the support it has received from the party in executing policies that stand up for the right of ordinary people to equal opportunity. That support was vividly demonstrated as the government took drastic action to ensure that only qualified teachers teach the children of the poor.

Governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai is proud of his record in achieving unprecedented levels of capital spending in the state, direct job creation, doubling school enrollment and doubling internally-generated revenue. The governor has no doubt that the people of Kaduna State have seen who was committed to building schools, roads and hospitals, and bringing investors and will make the right choice in their own interest. The political traders are also aware that the people know who is standing up for them.

The governor through the statement flayed his traducers particularly Mr. Hunkuyi.

The government had been made aware of the boastful and pompous claims of Senator Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi, that he will change the leadership of Kaduna State in 2019 by installing himself as Governor. The desperate Senator is seeking a lifeline, in the vain belief that ratcheting up rascally actions will bring him attention and relief from the mooted national reconciliation efforts.

Senator Hunkuyi has further illegally created a faction, headquartered in his house, as a bargaining chip. This Senator has failed to understand that you cannot create party executives at your whim. It is the partys prerogative to consider appropriate responses to this breach of discipline. But as a government, we view these actions as the needless drama of political traders.

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Hunkuyi has on three previous elections failed to get himself elected as governor. Yet he flaunts false claims that it was him that got Malam Nasir El-Rufai elected in 2015.

The governor viewed his election into office as governor as a divine mandate, calling on Mr. Hunkuyi to shelve his ambition, to become governor at all cost.

In 2015, it was God Almighty and the good people of Kaduna State that made Malam El-Rufai Governor and Hunkuyi a Senator. It appears that Hunkuyi has forgotten how his previous attempts to be Governor in 2003, 2007 and 2011 failed miserably. With the Almightys gracious help, his association with the El-Rufai brand helped get him elected as senator in 2015.

It is clear that he cant be cured of his obsession to be governor of Kaduna State at all cost, whether through betrayal of trust, treachery, or deceit. But should know by now that Kaduna State is not for sale. Ordinary people, including in Hunkuyis Kudan local government area, now know that governance can work for them. The era of political traders is over.

Recognised Kaduna APC reacts too

Meanwhile, the acting state publicity secretary of the party, Tanko Wusono, in a statement, said the APC in Kaduna state did not recognize the Suleiman Hunkuyi faction.

Mr Wusono said the party will not hesitate to punish those behind the formation of the faction(s).

The attention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Kaduna State chapter has been drawn to the purported opening of a factional office by the Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi led group of disgruntled elements within the party.

Accordingly, the party has conducted an interim review of this dastardly act hence the use of this medium to warn members of the general public to be wary of the activities of these imposters whose activities and plans are to destroy the goodwill of the party in the state so as to jeopardise the existing peaceful atmosphere in the state.

We wish to assure our esteemed party members, supporters and admirers that there is no cause for alarm as necessary disciplinary actions will be taken against the culprits in due course just as security agencies across the state have been notified of this treacherous development, the statement said.

The statement however did not comment on what the party was doing to mend the cracks within its folds.ADVERTISEMENT

Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court, sitting in Maitama, Abuja, has adjourned to June 18, 2018 for the arraignment of a former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke and eight others over their alleged involvement in the sale of Oil Prospecting License, OPL 245.

The others are Dan Etete, a former Minister of Petroleum Resources; Aliyu Abubakar; Ralph Wetzels; Casula Roberto; Pujatti Stefen; Burrafati Sebestiano and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited.

The defendants are to be prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for their allegedly complicity to defraud the federal government to the tune of N1.1billion in a suspicious oil block deal.

Specifically, Mr. Adoke was said to have played a major role in the fraudulent deal that saw to the transfer of ownership of OPL 245 to two multinational oil companies  Shell Nigeria Exploration Production Company and Nigeria Agip Exploration Limited.

It would be recall that on April 3, 2017, the EFCC, through its counsel, Johnson Ojogbane, approached the court, requesting to be guided on whether or not to issue an arrest warrant against Adoke as the former AGF and some of the defendants are residing outside the shores of Nigeria, making the service of writ of summons on them difficult.

But, Justice Tsoho opined that once a person has been arraigned before a court and is attempting to escape, then it becomes necessary to issue a warrant of arrest. But in this case, Adoke has not been arraigned; the matter is still being investigated.

The matter was later adjourned to June 13, but again, the arraignment could not hold due to the absence of Mr. Adoke in court. It was then adjourned to October 26, 2017.

Subsequently, when the matter came up on October 26, 2017, Mr. Ojogbane informed the court that the process of getting the defendants to appear in court to face arraignment has been very cumbersome. He further assured that the process would be concluded very soon.

The matter was then adjourned to today.

At the resumed sitting, Mr. Ojogbane, told the court that the federal government is still working hard to ensure the presence of the defendants in court, for their arraignment.

Our journey so far has been tortuous and very cumbersome. The government continues to work to ensure their presence before this honourable court, Mr. Ojogbane said.

He continued: my lord, in the circumstances, we are asking my lord to graciously grant us a long adjournment to enable us continue the process of extradition which is ongoing. Peradventure we have the defendants before the long date; we will make an appropriate application to breach the time.

The court granted Mr. Ojogbanes prayer and adjourned.ADVERTISEMENT

The Police Command in Gombe have arrested one, Abbas Abdullahi, 32, in possession of fake N1,000 currency notes totaling N1 million.

The Police Commissioner in the state, Shina Olukolu, disclosed this while briefing journalists in Gombe on Thursday.

The man was arrested with about N1 million fake currency notes and I advise members of the public, market men and women to be careful in the way they deal with customers.

Before you embark on any transaction, you should cross check the currency and ensure it is genuine, Mr. Olukolu said.

He also called on residents of the state to cooperate with the security agencies to ensure protection of lives and property.

The suspect, Abbas Abdullahi, said he was a spiritualist and that he hailed from Taraba.

Mr. Abdullahi said he obtained the fake currency notes from a friend in Abuja with the intention of using his spiritual powers to change them to genuine ones, but that he could not succeed as luck ran out on him.

He said that he was arrested while trying to buy a cell phone in Gombe.

(NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba on Thursday said that the open grazing prohibition and ranches establishment law was the only way out of the conflicts between herdsmen and farmers in rural communities.

Mr. Ishaku said this when he received the American Ambassador to Nigeria, William Stuart, who paid him a courtesy call in Jalingo.

The governor, who explained that the population of the country in the 1950s and 1960s was no longer the same, said that Nigeria must adopt ranching to end frequent clashes and other challenges associated with open grazing.

Cattle breeders cannot continue to move through the bush with a lot of risks associated with such movements.

They need a better life and that is what we are trying to do by enacting open grazing prohibition law.

It is unfortunate that some people, who dont have knowledge of what we are trying to do, are constantly attacking us and giving wrong colouration to the law, he said.

Mr. Ishaku solicited the support of the American government in finding ways toward permanent peace in Taraba and Nigeria, and commended the U.S. governments deep concern for the welfare of its citizens.

In America, if one person is killed, America will go to war. That is what we are lacking in Nigeria.

As a governor, I dont control any security apparatus which makes it difficult for me to take concrete decisions on security. Whatever decision I take, critics see it from either ethnic, religious or political angle. This is bad, he said.

He pledged to solidify the relationship between Taraba State and the American government, and called on investors to take advantage of the abundant natural resources endowed in the state to invest in it.

Earlier, Mr. Stuart had said that he was in the state to learn more about its people, and urged Nigerians to always remember that they could never be Nigerians without Nigeria.

He advised Nigerians to always protect and promote national interest and strive toward unity.

The strength of Nigeria lies in its diversity; Nigerians must harness these diversities for the good of the country.

Any time I have interactions with Nigerians, I always ask them what they love about Nigeria.

I am happy working in Nigeria than any other country, because Nigerians are hardworking and resilient people, he said. (NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

Not less than 40 inmates facing criminal charges are languishing at the Minna Medium Security Prison, in Niger State, because their files are missing from the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) for the past six years.

This assertion was made during the annual visit to prisons by the State Chief Judge, Maria Sanda Zukogi, to review cases and grant required pardons to deserving inmates, both aimed at decongesting the prisons.

Some of the inmates whose case files cannot be traced are awaiting trial on capital offenses such as robbery, murder, rape and other offences.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that this has incapacitated the office of Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), in the State Ministry of Justice, to appropriately advise whether or not to prosecute the inmates.

The chief judge said there was nothing she could do to have the inmates released from prison due to this anomaly. She however said she was holding the office of the SCIID responsible for the missing case files.

She pleaded with the inmates to continue to exercise patience and also directed the legal unit of the SCIID headed by Jude Akaeze to, within two weeks, produce the case files so that the office of the Attorney General can determine the level of their (inmates) implication in the charges against them.

Mrs. Zukogi, however, pardoned 21 other convicted inmates who are either too old or have health challenges or have shown remorse. She also pardoned some whose sentences are about to end.

She warned them to be of good behaviour and to imbibe positive values so as to become useful members of the society.ADVERTISEMENT

A Kano magistrate court on Thursday adjourned the case of a 58-year-old President Muhammadu Buharis known supporter, Abdulmajid Danbilki-Commander, to May 30, for hearing.

Mr. Danbilki-Commander, who resides at Koki Quarters, Kano, was arraigned on a three-count charge of intentional insult, defamation of character and inciting public disturbance.

The judge, Kabiru Abubakar, after entertaining the matter adjourned the case until May 30, for hearing.

Earlier, the prosecuting counsel, Sunday Ekwe, told the court that two special assistants to President Buhari on media: Shaaban Sharada, Bashir Ibrahim and their friend, Hafiz Ibrahim reported the matter at the Kano state police command headquarters on January 21.

He told the court that on January 14, the defendant reportedly appeared on a radio programme at Aminci Radio Station in Kano, where he intentionally insulted the three complainants by defaming their character and reputation, and called them liars.

He alleged that the defendant also pretended that he was acting on behalf of the president and was working to, cause a misunderstanding within the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC.

Meanwhile, the prosecutor said that police investigation is still ongoing into the matter. He added that the offences contravened sections 392, 399 and 114 of the Penal Code.

The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to all the charges.ADVERTISEMENT

The Kano State Government says the proposed grazing reserve in Falgore game reserve has the capacity to cater for over five million cattle.

Yusuf Gawuna, the state Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano on Thursday.

Mr. Gawuna said that the reserve would accommodate the herdsmen and their cattle, thereby discouraging them from moving to other states in search of pasture.

According to Wikipedia, Falgore game reserve lies on northern guinea savanna ecological belt, adding that the ecosystem is bisected by River Kano.

Falgore game reserve started as Kogin Kano forest reserve which was developed since the British colonial period in 1940s.

The forest reserve was only upgraded into a game reserve in the 1960s.

The commissioner said, Falgore Game Reserve can take care of millions of herdsmen and their cattle.

The location has been designed to accommodate markets, recreational centres, ultra-modern abattoir, tourism centre and factories that would make herdsmen transact their businesses without any hindrance.

The commissioner disclosed that the state government had engaged the services of a consultants and that a document had been submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari on the need to convert the forest to a grazing reserve.

He said from the assessment of the consultant the modern grazing reserve would gulp about $30 million to develop.

The place is too big, we are in talks with private organisations that are coming in to invest and see how we can develop the forest.

We are also in talks with professional partners from South Africa for Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement. They will also assess the forest and submit their report to the governor, Mr. Gawuna said.

He said that the modern grazing reserve would generate revenue to the state and create job opportunities for the people of the area.

According to him, a committee on farmers -herdsmen clashes, under his chairmanship, sits every month with traditional rulers, security agents, heads of agriculture departments and other relevant stakeholders to ensure peaceful co-existence.

The commissioner urged farmers and herdsmen in the state to always resolve their grievances amicably through dialogue.

(NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

The police in Zamfara said 18 persons had died in a fresh attack by gunmen in Birane village in Zurmi Local Government Area of the state.

The Public Relations Officer of the Zamfara police, Muhammad Shehu, disclosed this in a statement issued to journalists in Gusau on Thursday.

Mr. Shehu said on February 13, hunters from Birani Village of Zurmi Local Government Area intercepted and accosted a herder in the bush with some suspected stolen cattle and sheep.

The herder abandoned the animals and escaped into the bush, but unknown to the hunters, the cattle rustler went to Isah Local Government Area of Sokoto State and mobilised bandits to attack the hunters.

On February 14, the bandits ambushed the hunters in the bush and there was a clash that led to fatality on both sides.

Police/Military and other sister agencies reacted by combing the bush and its environs to salvage the situation and discovered 18 dead bodies.

It is believed that the bandits took away their own members that were killed. Meanwhile, bush combing is in progress so as to further profile the area.

Mobile policemen/special forces and other security personnel from other sister security agencies have already been deployed to the area to restore peace and stability, he said.

The spokesman also said that the commands Intelligence Unit had already embarked on investigation to arrest the perpetrators of the attack.

The attack comes a day after a senator from the state, Kabir Marafa, lamented the repeated mass killings by armed bandits in the state.

Mr. Marafa, while calling for a Senate investigation, said hundreds of people have been killed and scores of women and girls raped by armed persons in the state.ADVERTISEMENT

The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel, has denied a report in a local newspaper in the state that he was no longer interested in a second term in office.

The newspaper, Global Concord, in its latest mid-week edition, reported that Mr. Emmanuel has been offered the position of vice president by a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential aspirant, Sule Lamido. Mr. Lamido, a former governor of Jigawa State, met with the governor and other PDP leaders in Uyo on Monday when he visited the state for consultation on his 2019 presidential ambition.

The story in its entirety is false, the governor said through a statement issued on Thursday by his spokesperson, Ekerete Udoh.

The PDP Presidential hopeful, Alhaji Sule Lamido during his courtesy call on Governor Udom Emmanuel on Monday, February 12, 2018, never offered a Vice Presidential slot to Governor Udom Emmanuel neither was such an issue ever discussed or solicited, the statement said, adding that the governor never endorsed Mr. Lamidos ambition.

Mr. Udoh said the governor referred to Mr. Lamido as presidential hopeful throughout the meeting and also told him that God would determine who will be Nigerias next president.

Mr. Udoh, who described the report as disingenuous and utterly malicious, said the governors second term ambition has the backing of the people.

Global Concord has, however, said that it stands by its story.

You know politicians will always deny information that they wont expect would get to the public as at the time they dont want it to get to the public, the Chairman of Global Concords editorial board, Unyime Ekwere, told PREMIUM TIMES, Thursday.

We have it on good authority that a lot of people in the PDP, not only Lamido, have offered him (Governor Emmanuel) the vice president slot because of his financial war chest, so that he will sponsor the presidential campaign of the PDP.

A source at the Government House, Uyo, told us that (the Senate Minority Leader) Akpabio was earlier tipped for the position but because of several cases against him at the EFCC, the party is afraid that the APC-led federal government would seriously work against Akpabio. So, they are now going for Udom Emmanuel.

We dont manufacture stories, we write what we hear, Mr. Ekwere said.

Meanwhile, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state, Umana Umana, has denied a newspaper report of an alleged rift between him and the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Nsima Ekere.

Mr. Ekere is also an APC member from the state. He is said to be in the race for the 2019 governorship election in the state, although he hasnt declared his ambition.

Mr. Umana, who is the Managing Director of the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority, OGFZA, said through his personal aide, Inyang Unya, that the report was pure fabrication by the same people who have been publishing one fictitious story after another about leaders of the APC in the state.

Mr. Umana said, the relationship between Umana and Ekere is that of harmony and robust collaboration by two leaders who are working together to shore up the fortunes of the All Progressives Congress to ensure that the party wins all elective positions in the forthcoming general elections in the state.The Akwa Ibom State government says it has spent a total of N300 million as medical bills for victims of the Reigners Bible Church building collapse that occurred December 2016.

The state Health Commissioner, Dominic Ukpong, disclosed this on Thursday in Uyo, the state capital, while presenting cheques to the proprietors of the various hospitals that assisted in the treatment of the victims.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the church building collapsed during the bishopric consecration service of the founder of the church, Apostle Akan Weeks, with Gov. Udom Emmanuel in attendance.

Mr. Ukpong said that a total of 168 victims were evacuated from the scene of the unfortunate incident out of which 30 worshipers had been confirmed death at the last count.

On December 10, 2016, a tragedy befell this state, a clergyman was about to be ordained as a bishop, unfortunately the roof of the church caved in.

The state governor, who was in attendance, escaped unhurt while 18 persons were crushed to death on the spot.

Many injured people were moved to hospitals, majority of the injured were moved by kindhearted Nigerians; we had mobilised only four ambulances, we want to say thank you all Nigerians.

I want to give credit to all Nigerians, I express my gratitude to you all on behalf the state governor, for standing with us at that moment of grief, Mr. Ukpong said.

Mr. Ukpong said that a total of 14 hospitals were involved in the treatment and care of the victims, most of which were private hospitals.

The commissioner said that the state governor was impressed with the different hospitals that heeded his plea to treat the victims without any payment.

Mr. Ukpong said that the church collapse incident happened at the time the state was financially hard up.

Thank you for being patient with the state government, standing with the state government at that critical time.

The oath of medical practice requires that we make sacrifice, I thank you for the extra sacrifice you made at the time this state faced one of its greatest challenges, Mr. Ukpong said.

Responding on behalf of the hospitals that received the cheques, the Medical Director of Uwakmfon Clinic, Uyo, Emmanuel Effiong, thanked the state government for paying the bills.

Mr. Effiong said that the proprietors of the private hospitals were willing to cooperate with the government and save lives in the state.

We thank the Health Commissioner for keeping faith with the private hospitals by the bills incurred during the church collapse incident, he said.

In his remark, the proprietor of Resurrection Clinic, Uyo, Memfin Ekpo, a professor of Pathology, noted that the number of medical specialists in the state was too small.

Ekpo, who is the former provost, College of Health Science, University of Uyo, thanked the state government for paying the medical bills for the victims of the church collapse.

ADVERTISEMENT

(NAN)Afghan Taliban offered peace negotiations to America

ISLAMABAD: In an open letter, Afghan Taliban on Wednesday offered peace negotiations to the American people and the Congressmen, asking them to press their leaders to end invasion, as President Trumps new strategy was failing to browbeat the insurgents. On January 30, Trump had ruled out talks with the Taliban and declared to finish them after a string of Taliban-claimed attacks killed nearly 125 people and injured about 300 others in Kabul.



The offer comes amid increased US airstrikes against the Taliban in southern and northern Afghanistan as Trumps administration is now mainly focusing on the use of force against the insurgents.



On Feb 6, the US Central Command said American forces had launched a series of precision strikes and a US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress dropped 24 precision guided munitions on Taliban fighting positions in northern Badakhshan province.



The US had earlier carried out strikes in southern Helmand, where the Taliban still control many areas.



The Taliban letter, however, insists that the US strikes have no impact and that civilians were killed in the attacks. Only in past September  in accordance with Trumps new strategy  American forces used all their new powers and carried out 751 air strikes. You should ask your generals that despite using such force, have you retaken even a single inch of land from the Taliban or have they become even more powerful, the letter said.



The letter from the Taliban leadership was released in English, Pashto, Dari, Arabic and Urdu languages.



Afghan government has not offered comments on the letter, however, they have earlier insisted that Taliban are source of what they call an imposed war.



Your president and his military and political officials following his war policies still speak the language of war in Afghanistan. They intentionally release fake statistics for the sake of their vested interests and misguide you and the world by throwing dust in your eyes. The reality is that in contemporary world, the use of force and arms has been replaced by peaceful dialogue and wars cannot be won with lies, the letter reads.



If you want peaceful dialogue with the Afghans specifically and with the world generally, then make your president and the war-mongering congressmen and Pentagon officials understand this reality and compel them to adopt a rational policy towards Afghanistan. This will be the most constructive step for the stability of your people, the Afghans as well as the whole world. The letter also drew attention of the US casualties in the Afghan war. In this lopsided war and as confirmed by your own military authorities, 3,546 American and foreign soldiers have been killed, more than 20,000 American troops injured and tens of thousands more are suffering mentally.



The Taliban reminded the American people that their leaders had imposed a corrupt regime on Afghanistan. They are number one internationally in administrative and financial corruption and number one internationally in usurping of land and embezzling international aid.



Invitation: Meanwhile, the Taliban have invited Republican senator Rand Paul to visit their political office in Qatar for talks, days after the Taliban office said they had held a series of talks with Pakistan, China, Qatar and several other countries to discuss prospects of political settlement. We invite the responsible US senator @RandPaul in his official capacity to visit our political office in Doha for mutual talks, a Taliban Twitter account said.



Well prove to Mr @Rand Paul, the immediate US withdrawal from AFG will bring peace to or country & will enhance international security, according to the Twitter account being handled by what it says authorized correspondent by Information Committee of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.



Taliban call themselves as Islamic Emirate, the name they would use in their 1996-2001 rule.



The Taliban extended the invitation after the senator opposed the war in Afghanistan and told Fox News that the US spends some 50 billion dollars on Afghanistan every year, and that the money is wasted.ADVERTISEMENT

The Ebonyi State government has ordered the arrest of a social media writer, Charles Ogbu, for allegedly spreading false information over the crisis between the farmers and herdsmen in Nigeria.

It gave the order in a statement signed by the Principal Secretary to Governor David Umahi, Clement Nweke.

The statement accused Mr Ogbu, who is a member of the All Progressives Congress, of falsely accusing the governor of endorsing cattle colony in the state during a security meeting.

Mr. Nweke said at no time during the meeting did Mr. Umahi endorse or order the setting up of cattle colony in the state.

It will be noted that in the first week of February, 2018, State Government called meeting of traditional rulers and herdsmen having received reports of destruction of farmlands by herdsmen in Ebonyi State.

In the said meeting, government directed that there shall be no more movement of herdsmen with their cattle from one community to another community, village to another, or any cattle seen in any farmland across the state as such infringes on the rights of the farmers and destroys their only means of livelihood of which agriculture forms the main stay in the state.

It will be noted that Ebonyi State is gifted with abundant blessings from God in the areas of agriculture and solid minerals and anything that interferes with these will spell doom for the state especially as the nation moves towards true federalism and self-state determination, Mr. Nweke said.

Let it be known that what the state government did was not different from the monthly meeting of stakeholders especially farmers and herdsmen together with security agencies and in the said last meeting, no mention was made of any ranching, colony, grazing route or grazing reserve as wickedly and maliciously being speculated by Charles Ogbu and his cronies.

Mr. Nweke said Ebonyi State cannot accommodate such wide wishes of ranching, grazing reserve, colony or whatever name as over 30 percent of its farmland had been taken over by solid minerals exploration which is being controlled by the federal government.

We have managed our affairs with the herdsmen in the state relatively peacefully and circulation of such wicked and malicious speculation in the name of politics is a sign of danger not only for Ebonyi State but the entire country.

The state government alleged that Mr. Ogbu was acting the script of distraction on behalf of his party, the All Progressive Congress.

We therefore request the immediate arrest of Charles Ogbu and his backers to face the law of the state for spreading hate speeches and malicious misinformation through the social media.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Ebonyi State had reacted to this misinformation before now but the same Charles Ogbu has continued to spread this wicked information through social media, hence the need to correct the impression

We have absolute confidence that the Vice President-NEC Committee and other committees of good spirited Nigerians will find a lasting and permanent solutions to this unfortunate clashes and bring the satanic agents of this country in the likes of Charles Ogbu to shame.ADVERTISEMENT

A 58-year-old man, Obinna Iziejen, has pleaded guilty to three counts of defilement before a sexual offences court headed by Justice Sybil Nwaka of the Ikeja Division of the Lagos State High Court.

Mr. Iziejen and two others, Raimi Jimoh and Kazeem Arowolo, were arraigned on February 12 for raping a 12-year-old primary school pupil in Ibeju Lekki, Lagos.

Mr. Iziejens co-defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the defendants guilty plea would be the first conviction recorded by the sexual offences court since it was inaugurated two weeks ago.

Jide Boye, the prosecutor, said Mr. Iziejens guilty plea has relieved the state the burden to prove his offence beyond reasonable doubt.

The facts are that on the 16th of June 2017, a 12-year-old primary school pupil at a town called Orimeju in Ibeju Lekki, it was observed by the school authorities that the child was in the habit of returning late from lunch break during school hours and upon inquiry, the child admitted that the second defendant, Arowolo Kazeem Olorunwa, had been having sexual intercourse with her during break time.

The headteacher inquired further and the child also mentioned the third defendant, Obinna Iziejen, and the first defendant, Raimi Jimoh, as people who have defiled her severally during break period.

In proof of this fact, the prosecution listed five witnesses, a medical report and we were ready to proceed to trial after arraignment but the third defendant, aged 58, pleaded guilty to the offence on the 12th of February 2018.

Mr. Boye said Section 137 of the states Criminal Law stipulates that anyone who has sexual intercourse with a child commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for life upon conviction.

In line with the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015, the prosecution prays the court to convict the defendant accordingly, he added.

The judge, in her ruling, convicted the third defendant following his guilty plea and in the absence of any contrary position.

The defence counsel, Aidoloje Bobby, prayed the judge to temper justice with mercy adding that the fact that the Nigerian prison is not conducive for people of his age should be considered.

In his response, Mr. Boye said the conviction would be the first since the establishment of the Sexual Offences Court and that a strict sentence would help send a message to other sexual predators.

Offences of this nature are now rampant and situations where our children especially the girl child can no longer move freely even in school will no longer be tolerated by the state, he said.

The state wants a safe environment for children and this judgement will send a signal to offenders that the state would henceforth deal decisively with anyone guilty of any sexual offence.

For parents, this would be a reassurance that the state is with them in the fight against sexual offenders and that our children should not entertain any fear whatsoever in coming out to report and disclose sexual assault against them.

For the survivors, it is justice assured because the state has put the necessary facility in place to ensure that they are adequately protected. We, therefore, urge them to speak out as this is the only way to arrest this ugly situation.

The case was adjourned till February 21 for the sentencing of the convict and trial of the other defendants.ADVERTISEMENT

The Oyo State Government says 12, 000 metric tonnes of UREA/NPK fertiliser will be provided at subsidised rate to farmers in the state ahead of the next planting season.

The Commissioner for Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development, Oyewole Oyewunmi, said this in a statement issued in Ibadan on Thursday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the commissioner restated governments commitment toward ensuring food security, enhanced farm products as well as boosting of the states economy.

He said it was imperative to prepare ahead of the next planting season, saying such effort would boost farming operations and increase yield in the state.

Mr. Oyewunmi stated that government was expecting supply of 8,000 metric tonnes of NPK fertiliser under the Federal Government Special Fertiliser Intervention Programme.

The commissioner also said that government was in the process of procuring 4,000 metric tonnes of UREA fertiliser to be sold to farmers at a subsidised rate.

He explained that the fertiliser would be available in all the eight warehouses and the farm service centres where agricultural inputs are sold in the state.

The commissioner also said that government would concentrate on the procurement of fertiliser and not agrochemicals as farmers could easily access the crop protection products in their locality.

Mr. Oyewunmi enjoined members of the public, especially youths, to actively embrace farming in order to guarantee food security as well as become gainfully engaged in order to eradicate poverty.

(NAN)Govt started taking over moveable-immovable assets of JuD

LAHORE: Acting swiftly on a notification issued by the federal government, Punjab has started taking over all the moveable and immovable assets of the Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) and the Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) operating in the province.



The JuDs famous Muridke Markaz along with its various schools, seminaries and health facilities was also taken over on Wednesday. There were similar reports from everywhere else in the province, as well as in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).



The action is being taken in pursuance of an ordinance issued by President Mamnoon Hussain last week, amending the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997, and allowing the state to proscribe UNSC-listed organisations, some of which had been exempt from prosecution.



The move comes in the backdrop of a plenary meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental money-laundering watchdog, which will consider a US-sponsored motion to place Pakistan on a list of countries failing to prevent terrorism financing.



Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah says a recent notification issued by the interior ministry reveals that JuD and FIF could no longer operate in the country, and that all their moveable and immoveable assets should be seized.



A Statutory Notification (SRO) issued by the interior ministry on Feb 10 directs that requisite action with regard to freezing and taking over of assets (moveable, immoveable and human resource) associated with JuD and FIF shall be taken in pursuance of ordinance No-II of 2018.



Mr Sanaullah told reporters that after receiving the relevant directions, they started taking over all JuD and FIF facilities, which include schools, dispensaries, offices and seminaries.



The minister says that officials from various government departments had been appointed as administrators of JuDs offices, and to oversee the working of welfare-oriented facilities like dispensaries and schools. He did not elaborate on whether the mosques operating under the control of JuD would also be taken over.



However, a senior government official said that Auqaf Department officials would monitor the mosques, and their khateebs and imams would not be changed, at least for the time being.



Replying to a question, he said that cash donation boxes from the mosques and other places were being confiscated while FIFs ambulances were being handed over to the Rescue-1122 services.



A report from Islamabad says that three dispensaries of FIF had been taken over and the ambulances parked there had been handed over to the Red Crescent.



Meanwhile, JuD spokesperson Yahya Mujahid expressed serious concerns over the governments move. He announced that they would take the matter to court.



In a statement issued on Wednesday, he alleged, the government is taking possession of our educational institutes, ambulances, dispensaries and other assets to please India and America.



The move, he said, had severely hurt their relief and welfare activities in Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab and Kashmir.



He regretted that their party chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and other leaders had been detained without any reason last year and now their relief projects were being shut down across the country to the disadvantage of thousands of poor, orphans, widows and the needy.



Meanwhile, the United States sought more information from Pakistan about the steps it had taken to blacklist certain groups.



The United States welcomes the steps taken to blacklist Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FiF) and Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) in line with UN Security Council sanctions, a State Department spokesperson told Dawn when asked if Washington would consider withdrawing its move to place Pakistan on the intergovernmental FATF watch-list.



FATF is scheduled to meet in Paris from Feb 18 to 23 and this plenary session may consider the US move, which is backed by Britain, France and Germany, to put Pakistan on its watch list.SEATTLE, NEW YORK, SAN FRANCISCO and LONDON, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --Another strong year of exit activity was seen across the venture capital (VC) industry in 2017 with $67 billion exited across 1,265 deals, according to the 2017 PitchBook VC Liquidity Report. Although this is the third consecutive year exit counts have declined, the maturing venture environment across North America and Europe coupled with generous valuations, allowed for the proliferation of larger exits. In 2017, exits over $100 million comprised just over a third of total exit counts, while these transactions made up 88.7% of total exit value. While larger deals have always had an outsized effect on VC exit value, the relationship continues to be more pronounced.

For unicorn-valued companies, 2017 was a rebound year when it comes to liquidity events  reaching a decade-high of 24 exits. Private equity (PE) sponsors continue to be a prominent source of liquidity for VCs, as buyouts made up 18.5% of all exits. On the other hand, acquisitions declined for the third consecutive year, sliding to 72.5% of completed transactions. In a year that started off wary around the IPO market, it turned into a strength for the VC community, with $13.5 billion raised across 114 companies  representing a 203% and 30% increase in value and quantity, respectively. More interestingly, 2017 brought a host of alternative VC exit options to the forefront including Social Capital and Hedosophia's formation of a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and Spotify's direct listing.

"While 2017 began with uncertainty and skepticism surrounding the IPO market, specifically for unicorns, the year ended favorably for the VC community," said Cameron Stanfill and Joelle Sostheim, analysts at PitchBook. "Looking forward, 2018's IPO prospects appear strong with a substantial pipeline of mature late-stage companies, including 53 newly-minted unicorns  though volatility in the public market could pose a challenge."

VC Exit Environment Accommodates Outsized Exits

In 2017, the number of exits that eclipsed $1 billion was in-line with the last four years, but an open IPO window for highly-valued companies brought the number of unicorn companies exiting to a decade-high of 24. This figure surpasses the tally in 2014, which held the record for unicorn exits, aggregate exit count and value. More importantly, this trend marks a positive signal for the capacity of the exit environment to facilitate outsized exits. The ability for the broader exit market to accommodate these exits is critical as the inventory of VC-backed aging unicorns swells  18 current companies achieved their one-billion-dollar valuation at least four years ago. Moreover, this phenomenon encourages the large, mature VC-backed businesses to delay exits beyond the normal VC lifecycle. Yet, investors need liquidity  enabling alternative exit options to combat this "private-for-longer" strategy. SoftBank's nine-billion-dollar investment into Uber serves as an extremely large-scale example, but nonetheless, provided liquidity to some of their earliest investors from the start of the decade.

Costly Acquisition-Targets Pave the Way for Increased PE Involvement

Acquisitions declined for the third consecutive year in 2017, as deal count slid 15.4% and volume decreased 21% from the previous year. While there were 3,538 acquisitions of VC-backed companies completed between 2014 and 2016, 2017's decline may be a product of corporations focusing on integrating new companies into their operations. On the other hand, as valuations of venture-backed companies continues to rise  these transactions are becoming costlier, encouraging buyers to wait for more favorable prices before ramping up activity. Financial sponsors picked up acquirer's slack, as buyouts shot up to 18.5% of all exits in 2017, and volume doubled to $8.1 billion. Again, the "private-for longer" trend comes into play here as these mature, venture-backed companies present appropriately mature and profitable opportunities to fill PE investors' pipelines. Buyouts may also be favorable to founders, as they can circumvent the arduous alternative of operating as a public company in favor of staying private.

Large Tech Offerings Lead 2017 IPO Value

2017 enjoyed a healthy uptick in IPOs. The market saw over $13.5 billion raised across 114 companies. Public offerings of venture-backed companies increased 203% in volume, and 30% in quantity from the previous year. Demand for large tech offerings emerged in 2017, with six outsized tech IPOs raising more than $500 million  representing more than 48.2% of total IPO deal value. The median time to IPO following a company's most recent financing increased to approximately 1.4 years, and the median years from founding to exit remained at a high point of 9.5 years. Additionally, the median pre-IPO valuation reached $167.6 million, a 39% increase from 2016. These outsized liquidity events affect investors differently, however. Although these large exits provide early investors strong returns, backers closer to the exit may not receive substantial gains, as growth and value appreciation slows for larger, more mature companies. Snap, for instance, saw a massive appreciation in its valuation from its Series A round to Series F round after four years of rapid growth. However, its IPO valuation depreciated from the valuation received during its Series F round amidst reports of decelerated user growth, and similar product offerings from competitors.

Additional coverage in this report includes:

Overview

VC Exits by Type; Acquisitions, Buyouts, and IPOs

VC Acquisitions by Sector

Spotlight: Alternative Exit Opportunities

Download the full report here.

About PitchBook

PitchBook is a financial data and software company that provides transparency into the capital markets to help professionals discover and execute opportunities with confidence and efficiency. PitchBook collects and analyzes detailed data on the entire venture capital, private equity and M&A landscapeincluding public and private companies, investors, funds, investments, exits and people. The company's data and analysis are available through the PitchBook Platform, industry news and in-depth reports. Founded in 2007, PitchBook has offices in Seattle, San Francisco, New York and London and serves more than 14,000 professionals around the world. In 2016, Morningstar acquired PitchBook, which now operates as an independent subsidiary.

Press Contacts

Bailey Fox

PR Manager

[email protected]

+1 206.823.3022

SOURCE PitchBook

Related Links

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HONG KONG, Feb. 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- My Champagne, a prominent matchmaking, and dating firm that operates in the Chinese cities of Hong Kong and Macau facilitate private dates for singles. Based on its recent survey, around 70.2 percent of young ladies have been successful in finding the right partners through this platform.

This matchmaker employs a one of a kind technique and application to learn about the credentials, background, and lifestyle of the person before making any arrangements.

Operations Manager, Ms. Eunice Sim

My Champagne conducted a poll last January among 400 single individuals in these two bustling urban hubs last January. The matchmaker found out that almost 58 percent of these singles get queries from parents and next of kin regarding finding the right partners during the Chinese New Year.

My Champagne operations manager Ms. Eunice Sim explained, "As a rule, earnings grow 20% after Chinese New Year." She also said that the appropriate age for settling down is between 28 and 35 years old in these cities.

Successful marriages courtesy of My Champagne were notarized by a renowned legal expert Mr. Samuel Li from May of 2012 to September of 2016 in Hong Kong. The approach of My Champagne is very simple but successful. The matchmaking firm opened a third branch in Shanghai last year.

About My Champagne

My Champagne is known as the primary and elite dating boutique in the Asian region. It sets up personalized and exclusive dates for executives and professionals like lawyers, bankers, accountants, doctors, and business executives. For more information and queries, interested singles can browse its website at http://www.mychampagne.asia

Media Contact

Name: Ms. Eunice Sim

Telephone: +852 3957 0062

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE My Champagne

Related Links

http://www.mychampagne.asia

DALLAS, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- As it approaches its fifth anniversary, Dallas-based litigation boutique Bailey Brauer PLLC continues to build a talented bench of lawyers with the addition of two attorneys.

Firm co-founder Alex Brauer notes that the recent hiring of associate Adam Bell, along with the addition last year of veteran business litigator Gary Powell, is indicative of the deliberate growth path of the firm.

"From the beginning, Bailey Brauer has been dedicated to providing aggressive, creative legal solutions to clients who expect sophisticated representation, and that is not something we will compromise just for the sake of growth," he says. "We feel confident that Adam and Gary fit that focus in a way that will add tremendous value for our clients."

Mr. Powell, who joined Bailey Brauer as of counsel from Locke Lord LLP, represents clients at the federal, state and appellate levels on matters involving contracts, business torts, real estate, fiduciary duty claims, lease disputes, agency contracts, tortious interference, insurance coverage disputes, and deceptive trade practices. His expertise includes franchise, distribution, telecommunications, and uniform commercial code litigation. For more information, visit http://baileybrauer.com/gary-powell/.

Mr. Bell represents companies and individuals in complex commercial litigation and government investigations, and also assists clients in regulatory and transactional reviews. He joins Bailey Brauer from Amarillo-based Brown & Fortunato, P.C. To learn more, visit http://baileybrauer.com/bell-adam/.

"We are excited to welcome lawyers of this caliber," said firm co-founder Clayton Bailey. "Both Gary and Adam are exceptional litigators who are also fine trial and appellate attorneys."

Founded in 2013, Bailey Brauer has quickly grown to be among the most respected firms in the country, earning multiple individual and firm honors from BTI Consulting Group, Benchmark Litigation the National Law Journal, The Best Lawyers in America, Texas Super Lawyers and D Magazine.

About Bailey Brauer PLLC

Bailey Brauer PLLC is nationally recognized for its trial and appellate work and provides battle-tested, sophisticated courtroom experience in high-stakes litigation matters. Led by veteran trial and appellate lawyers Clayton Bailey and Alex Brauer, the firm focuses on complex commercial litigation, agribusiness, appeals, and class actions. Learn more about the firm at: http://baileybrauer.com/.

Media Contact:

Rhonda Reddick

800-559-4534

[email protected]

SOURCE Bailey Brauer PLLC

Related Links

http://baileybrauer.com

WEST CHESTER, Pa., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AccessLex Institute has released a timely research brief titled, After Graduate and Professional School: How Students Fare in the Labor Market. The brief explores employment and earnings outcomes among advanced degree recipients and examines these outcomes across degree, occupational and demographic categories. On average, advanced degrees are valuable in the labor market, but students pursuing a graduate or professional degree face considerable uncertainty. The information provided here is critical for prospective students and others seeking to assess the value of graduate-level degree programs.

This is the fifth and final report in a series of research briefs in collaboration with the Urban Institute examining access, enrollment, financing, completion and outcomes of graduate and professional education. The reports, including Who Goes to Graduate School and Who Succeeds, How Much Students Pay, How Students Pay and How Much Students Borrow were authored by Sandy Baum, Ph.D., senior fellow in the Education Policy Program at the Urban Institute; and Patricia Steele, Ph.D., founder and principal consultant at Higher Ed Insight.

As noted in the first brief in the series, about a quarter of students who enroll in graduate and professional degree programs leave school without earning a degree. And among those who complete their studies, outcomes vary considerably based on type of degree, field of study and occupation, as well as race, ethnicity and gender. This final brief in the series examines what advanced degrees have meant for the professional lives of those who have attained them.

"Concerns about student debt most often focus on undergraduate students, but graduate and professional degree students have the highest borrowing rates and highest average debt. Therefore, discussions of labor market outcomes are very important," said Aaron N. Taylor, Executive Director of the AccessLex Center for Legal Education Excellence. "And at a time when various reforms to the federal student loan program are being proposed, including some that would impact access to graduate and professional school, better insight about the value and payoff of these degrees is critical."

All five briefs in the series, including the most recent After Graduate and Professional School: How Students Fare in the Labor Market, can be viewed at AccessLex.org.

About AccessLex Institute: AccessLex Institute fosters broad-based access to quality legal education for talented, purpose-driven students and works to maximize the value and affordability of a law degree through research, policy advocacy and student-focused initiatives. AccessLex Institute is a nonprofit organization with offices in West Chester, PA, and Washington, DC, and with accredited financial counselors throughout the US. Learn more at AccessLex.org.

Contact: Amy Dardinger, 1-847-415-9321

SOURCE AccessLex Institute

Related Links

http://AccessLex.org

ROCKVILLE, Md., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Between 2006 and 2016 African-Americans were responsible for a significant portion of the growth in several key categories of financial services, according to market research firm Packaged Facts in the report African-Americans: Demographic and Consumer Spending Trends, 10th Edition. Black consumers accounted for 76% of the growth in the number of consumers with checking accounts and 25% of the growth in the number of those with credit cards and in the number of households with automotive insurance. It's no wonder financial service marketers such as JPMorgan Chase, Allstate Insurance Company, Prudential Financial, Inc., Wells Fargo Company and State Farm Insurance all focus heavily on building ties with the black community.

During the same ten-year time span, the number of African-Americans with checking accounts increased 30%, while growth in the number of other consumers with checking accounts was essentially flat. Growth in the number of those using various financial services was also higher for African-Americans in the case of savings accounts, credit cards, and debit cards.

Mobile Banking Appeals to Black Consumers

Despite the growth, African-Americans remain less likely than other American consumers to have checking or savings accounts. However, black consumers who do own bank accounts have a greater affinity for mobile banking. They are much more likely than others with bank accounts to have used a smartphone app for banking/finance purposes.

Higher-Income Black Consumers Present Major Opportunity for Financial Firms

Interestingly, marketers of financial services can expect a positive response to their messages from higher-income African-American consumers. African-Americans with a household income of $75,000 or more are far more likely than their counterparts in other consumer segments to find advertising for financial services to be interesting. They also are far more likely to read the financial pages of their newspaper.

Speaking of higher-income black consumers, data in the report indicates that higher-income black households are still less likely than other higher-income households to hold any form of financial investment, such as bonds, mutual funds, 401Ks or IRAs. However, over the past decade the percentage of higher-income African-American households holding any form of financial investment has trended upward, a good sign. In fact, close to half of higher-income African-American households have investments. A similar trend can be seen in the case of 401Ks. Although the percentage is down somewhat from its peak in 2010, and as of 2016 some 42% of African-Americans had a 401K. This represented a five-point increase from 2006.

Despite the Positives, African-Americans Still Underserved by Financial Services Industry

Although recent trends bode well for financial services firms targeting black consumers, African-Americans remain less likely than other American consumers to have a bank account or credit card. One reason is that many black consumers are wary of banks. They are more likely than other consumers to agree "I am uncomfortable trusting my money to a bank" (27% vs. 20%), according to survey results.

Another reason for the relatively low level of use of banking services by African-Americans is the decrease in the number of black-owned banks. Many black consumers long have enjoyed a close relationship with black-owned banks, which historically provided access to credit and other banking services denied by white-owned financial institutions. However, the number of community-owned banks in general, and black-owned banks in particular, is dwindling as a result of more stringent regulations implemented in the aftermath of the recession.

Ultimately, it will be up to the financial services industry to find ways to better connect with African-Americans and correct the long-standing realization by financial advisors that blacksespecially affluent blacksare a "missed opportunity" for their industry.

About the Report

African-Americans: Demographic and Consumer Spending Trends, 10th Edition analyzes recent consumer spending and demographic trends for the African-American population in the United States. View additional information about the report, including purchase options, the abstract, table of contents, and related reports at Packaged Facts' website: https://www.packagedfacts.com/African-Americans-Demographic-10293172/

About Packaged Facts

Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com, publishes market intelligence on a wide range of consumer market topics, including consumer demographics and shopper insights, consumer financial products and services, consumer goods and retailing, consumer packaged goods, and pet products and services. Packaged Facts also offers a full range of custom research services. Reports can be purchased at our company website and are also available through MarketResearch.com.

For more essential insights from Packaged Facts be sure to follow us on Twitter and Google+. For infographics, tables, charts and other visuals, follow Packaged Facts on Pinterest.

Please link any media references to our reports or data to www.packagedfacts.com.

Press Contact:

Daniel Granderson

240.747.3000

[email protected]

SOURCE Packaged FactsIn his new role, Sproul will oversee Alaska Airlines' systems operations control and coordinate with Horizon Air and other regional partners to deliver excellent operational results. A 30-year veteran of Alaska Airlines, Sproul previously served as managing director of systems operational control, responsible for the airline's safety and on-time performance. Prior to that, he was managing director of station operations, managing performance oversight and vendor contracts, ground service equipment, financial reporting, and staff and schedule planning.

Sproul joined Alaska Airlines in 1988 as a ramp service agent and held a variety of positions in customer service, ground operations and corporate real estate. He holds a bachelor's of business administration from Western Washington University.

"Todd brings a wealth of experience and internal knowledge of our airline to this new role," said Ben Minicucci, president and chief operating officer of Alaska Airlines. "Not only has he owned safety and managed the day-to-day continuous operational excellence of the airline, but he's also helped us deliver on the integration and will lead our upcoming move of Virgin America's operations control center to Seattle."

Jones comes to Alaska most recently from Delta Air Lines, where he served as vice president of corporate real estate and airport development. During his tenure, he played a key role in developing Delta's long-term airport infrastructure strategy, negotiated transactions in strategic hub markets and completed large-scale projects including a $1.4 billion JFK terminal development. Prior to that he served as director of corporate strategy & business development, where he worked extensively on the Northwest Airlines merger. Jones joined Delta in 2003.

"Shane is responsible for shaping and executing the strategic vision for our airport real estate, including developing our long-term airport infrastructure growth strategy and leading the team responsible for design and construction," said Andrew Harrison, the airline's executive vice president and chief commercial officer. "His expertise and leadership skills for overseeing large projects will be welcome as we continue to invest in our guest experience."

Jones holds a bachelor's of business administration from the University of Georgia and an MBA from Goizueta Business School at Emory University.

Alaska Airlines, together with Virgin America and its regional partners, flies 44 million guests a year to more than 115 destinations with an average of 1,200 daily flights across the United States and to Mexico, Canada and Costa Rica. With Alaska and Alaska Global Partners , guests can earn and redeem miles on flights to more than 900 destinations worldwide. Alaska Airlines ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Traditional Carriers in North America" in the J.D. Power North America Satisfaction Study for 10 consecutive years from 2008 to 2017. Learn more about Alaska's award-winning service at newsroom.alaskaair.com and blog.alaskaair.com. Alaska Airlines, Virgin America and Horizon Air are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK).

SOURCE Alaska Airlines

Related Links

http://www.alaskaair.com

RICHARDSON, Texas, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Anritsu announces it has worked with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, to successfully demonstrate peak download speeds of 2 Gbps. The demonstration uses a mobile test device, powered by the QualcommSnapdragonX24 LTE modem and a network simulator using 5x carrier aggregation (5CC) with 4x4 MIMO, and 256-QAM modulation on all 5 carriers. Using the mobile test device and the Anritsu MT8821C LTE Simulator, Anritsu is able to successfully demonstrate stable physical layer download speeds of 2 Gbps. The solution will be demonstrated in Anritsu's booth (Hall 6, Stand F40) at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

"Anritsu is pleased to once again work with Qualcomm Technologies in support of our latest advancements  breaking the multi-gigabit barrier for wireless communications," said Paul Innis, Vice President and General Manager of Anritsu Company. "This achievement builds on our previous announcement with Qualcomm Technologies of LTE Category 16 in February 2016. We look forward to continuing to provide test solutions that enable the development of consumer mobile devices that use this new data rate breakthrough."

Utilizing newly introduced capability enables a multi-box configuration of MT8821C to simulate 3 contiguous LTE baseband cells on a single RF carrier. With 3 MT8821C simulators in a "master/slave" combination, Anritsu can offer more aggregated carriers with higher-order MIMO than other solutions on the market. Cells can be placed in any licensed or unlicensed band using the RF capability to cover 350 MHz to 6 GHz.

The MT8821C is a scalable LTE network simulator product for RF parametric testing and verification of 2G/3G/4G smartphones, tablets, M2M modules and IoT devices. It supports the latest 3GPP technologies, including VoLTE, Gigabit LTE, and Cellular IoT applications.

About Anritsu

Anritsu Company is the United States subsidiary of Anritsu Corporation, a global provider of innovative communications test and measurement solutions for 120 years. Anritsu's "2020 VISION" philosophy engages customers as true partners to help develop wireless, optical, microwave/RF, and digital solutions for R&D, manufacturing, installation, and maintenance applications, as well as multidimensional service assurance solutions for network monitoring and optimization. Anritsu also provides precision microwave/RF components, optical devices, and high-speed electrical devices for communication products and systems. The company develops advanced solutions for 5G, M2M, IoT, as well as other emerging and legacy wireline and wireless communication markets. With offices throughout the world, Anritsu has approximately 4,000 employees in over 90 countries.

To learn more visit www.anritsu.com and follow Anritsu on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

Qualcomm and Snapdragon are trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries.

Qualcomm Snapdragon is a product of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.

SOURCE Anritsu

Related Links

http://www.anritsu.com

Do you know that in Ghana some parents give birth just for the purpose of selling the babies for as low as GH25?



According to the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Ms Otiko Afisah Djaba, Baby factory, the practice of deliberately giving birth to a large number of children just to sell them, was gradually emerging in the country,



Preliminary investigation by the ministry, she said, had shown that some parents, especially those in the rural areas, engaged in the practice and, sometimes, sold the babies for as low as GH25.



We held a programme at Senya Breku last year and we found out that some parents have a kind of baby factory where they deliberately give birth to a lot of children, so that they can sell them for as little as GH25.



This is unacceptable; poverty is no excuse to sell a child off. That child is for Ghana, she said.



Ms Djaba made the revelation at a sensitisation workshop on adoption and human trafficking for justices of the High Court selected from the southern sector of the country in Accra yesterday.



A similar workshop is expected to be organised in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region for High Court judges in the northern sector later.



The event, which was attended by the Chief Justice, Ms Justice Sophia Akuffo, was organised by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, in collaboration with the Judicial Training Institute (JTI), the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).



It was designed to sensitise the participants to the various conventions and laws governing adoption and the laws and mechanisms used to combat human trafficking and illegal adoption.



Baby factory



It is yet to be established if Ms Djabas comments put Ghana in the same league as other countries where baby factories are connected to human trafficking and other related organised crimes.



Elsewhere, baby factories are run by mafia groups and crime syndicates that sell the children for illegal adoption, child labour and child prostitution.



Sometimes the crime syndicates harvest the organs of the children and sell the organs on the international organ black market or sell the children for rituals.



On May 10, 2013, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) published a news item about the rescue of 17 teenagers and 11 babies from a baby factory in the Imo State in the south-eastern part of Nigeria.



The rescued girls, according to the article, were all impregnated by a 23-year-old man who was a member of a baby factory syndicate.



The Daily Mail, on December 22, 2006, published an article that gave an insight into a mafia-operated baby factory.



According to the article, most of the factories were run on a demand-and-supply basis.



Immediately an order for a baby is made, a beautiful girl is selected, either through kidnapping or enticement, to produce the baby. She is impregnated by a member of the mafia racketeer and then housed and catered for until her delivery.



The delivery is not done in a hospital but rather a make-shift maternity room run by a hired trained midwife.



After the mother gives birth, the baby is sold at a very high price to a customer. The customer could be a desperate rich couple in search of a baby, prostitution cartels, among other customers.



Measures



Ms Djaba advised parents to desist from selling their children, describing the act as modern-day slavery.



We want to help parents understand that they dont have to sell their children. If you have problems taking care of your children, the Social Welfare Department is there to help. In areas of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme, we could support you with cash, she said.



In order to protect the interests of children, the minister said, the government had put in place stringent laws to prevent people from illegal adoption of children.



She mentioned the amendment of the provisions on foster care and adoption in the Childrens Act, 1998 (Act 560) in 2016 as one of such measures.



The amendments, she said, included limiting the granting of adoption orders only to the High Court, the revocation of fraudulently procured adoption orders and the prohibition of the unilateral placement of children in foster care and adoption.



According to Ms Djaba, the government would soon place new regulations before Parliament to ensure the registration of foster parents and the licensing of foster care and adoption agencies.



Another measure, she said, was the establishment of a central adoption authority to co-ordinate adoptions in Ghana and administer inter-country adoption, in line with the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation of inter-country adoption



Adoption is not the right of a person who desires to have a child placed with him/her. It is a legal and permanent way of providing a new family for a child who finds himself in a situation that is found to make it impossible for him to live with his own family, she said.



In her remarks, Ms Justice Akuffo said human trafficking, illegal adoption, baby factory and adoption under false colours were connected and, as such, they must all be classified as slavery.



Human trafficking and illegal adoptions are connected to international organised crimes. They are never isolated. The people who operate illegal adoption are part of the chain that leads to human trafficking, she said.



The Chief Justice, therefore, appealed to judges to be extra vigilant and sensitive when approving adoption requests.



Let us be careful when we are approving the adoption of the children of this land. They are too precious, she said.

Source: Daily Graphic









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STOCKHOLM, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Apolitical, supported by grant funding from the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children (End Violence) officially launched its "Violence Prevention global policy topic." The Violence Prevention policy topic sits next to, and intersects with, other global policy topics such as Women's Empowerment, Innovative Public Partnerships, Data for Impact and Inclusive Economies.

Apolitical

Apolitical's unique platform, used by public servants in over 120 countries, connects public servants to the innovators behind the projects  breaking down institutional silos and facilitating engagement and collaboration.

The launch of the policy topic coincides with the "Agenda 2030 for Children End Violence Solutions Summit," sponsored by End Violence, WeProtect Global Alliance and the Government of Sweden. With more than 65 countries represented, the Summit brings together governments, the United Nations, civil society, the private sector, academics and children themselves to design and share solutions for preventing and responding to violence against boys and girls. Solutions are aimed at achieving Sustainable Development Goal 16.2 and related targets.

"The collaboration with Apolitical will prove an invaluable resource in our efforts to shape a world where every child grows up free from violence," said Susan Bissell, founding director of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children. "The expertise and network-building capabilities of the Apolitical platform will serve as a critical tool for End Violence's pathfinding countries to connect, learn and share their successes in a high-tech and high-touch way."

"We hear from public servants and policymakers around the world about the need to connect with others who are working on ending violence against children as part of their commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals," said Apolitical co-founder and Executive Chairman Lisa Witter. "Apolitical puts the best solutions and the connections they need at the fingertips of public servants, wherever they are in the world."

The Violence Prevention topic already features case studies, analyses and opinion pieces from almost 20 countries and connections to more than 80 innovative public servants and experts who have made them happen. Issues covered range from self-defense to fighting sexual harassment, tackling violent crime and corporal punishment. Content is written by Apolitical journalists and overseen by an outside editorial board of violence prevention experts. The sponsor has no editorial control.

Apolitical's Violence Prevention Editorial Board consists of:

Alex Butchart , coordinator, Violence Prevention, World Health Organization

coordinator, Violence Prevention, World Health Organization Alessandra Guedes , regional advisor, Pan American Health Organization

regional advisor, Pan American Health Organization Theresa Kilbane , senior advisor, Child Protection, UNICEF

senior advisor, Child Protection, UNICEF Shanaaz Matthews , director, Children's Institute, University Cape Town

director, Children's Institute, University Cape Town Ramya Subramanian , executive director, Know Violence

executive director, Know Violence Joachim Theis , regional child protection advisor, UNICEF, West and Central Africa

regional child protection advisor, UNICEF, West and Chi-Chi Undie , senior associate, Population Council

senior associate, Population Council Ravi Verma , regional director, Asia , International Center for Research on Women

Sign-up for the Violence Prevention topic can be found here: https://apolitical.co/signup/violenceprevention/.

About Apolitical

Apolitical is the first global peer-to-peer platform for government, created to help public servants find the ideas, experts and partners they need to solve the hardest challenges facing our societies. With public service members from over 120 countries, Apolitical's partners include the World Bank, the World Economic Forum and Chatham House. Apolitical is backed by European Union innovation funding and mission-driven investors around the world. It was named one of the world's 100 most disruptive companies in 2017 by Disrupt100.

For inquiries:

Kimberly McArthur

Partnerships Manager

[email protected]

Accompanying images

Please find images of Apolitical's platform on Newswire.com.

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Violence Prevention Topic

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SOURCE Apolitical

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LONDON and MARSAXLOKK, Malta, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Ariadne Capital Group Limited (ACGL), founded and led by Julie Meyer, has completed its first year of operations and announces healthy results:

5,247,915 of Net Assets

2,818,932 of Profit Before Tax

ACGL was created in August 2016, initially to take advantage of the opportunity to create a post-Brexit EU base in Malta. The country is an emerging financial services centre, enjoys a low cost arbitrage, native English speaking professionals, an EU base, and zero percent capital gains. Meyer invested more than 1 million into her Malta operations, hosting the Follow The Entrepreneur Investor Summit 2017 in Malta with 51,000 visitors via the livestream and 500 investors vising Malta for the Pre-Summit and Summit.

Secondarily, ACGL was set up to bring 'Platforms into Venture Capital' in Europe. Over the past 18 years, Meyer's investment firm completed 875 m of investments and transactions, backing some of Europe's explosive growth firms and accelerating their exits and impact. Through EntrepreneurCountry, an incubated venture until spun out in 2013, Meyer brings a systematic approach to 'David & Goliath dancing'. The Fund Stack drives the ECO2 Investment Platform, enabling various Portfolio Managers to 'plug in and play' - focusing on investing rather than back office, fundraising, or market development.

Meyer pioneered the 'Entrepreneurs Backing Entrepreneurs' model for the financing of entrepreneurship in 2000 with her founding shareholders, some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, who backed her and have helped her build the investment firm.

Ariadne Capital Limited (ACL), which Meyer put into Administration in the UK, in late December 2017, was a standalone corporate finance firm, not part of ACGL.

"I am fortunate to have outstanding support from two Managing Directors, a senior team of 8, a full team of 20 and terrifically supportive clients and investors who align with our mission and vision to put the entrepreneur at the heart of society," said Julie Meyer, CEO of Ariadne Capital Group Limited.

http://www.ariadnecapital.com

http://www.entrepreneurcountry.com

http://www.follow-the-entrepreneur.com

SOURCE Ariadne Capital Group Limited (ACGL)SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Start-ups seem like they're still on the rise as more and more individuals take the leap to become entrepreneurs. And despite the dominance of Silicon Valley, more and more cities are proving to be excellent breeding grounds for the country's new businesses. How many of these new business creations will last is uncertain, but the boldness to strike out on one's own as a business owner is laudable.

But innovation doesn't have to just be for founders or new companies. This is the outlook of Brandon Frere, an entrepreneur who believes that start-up mentality can carry a company throughout its infancy into maturity. On his blog at BrandonFrere.com, Frere expands on this idea and how anyone working today can apply it to their life.

"Seek out companies where you can contribute with your own creativity," said Frere. "Where you can build practices and systems that shape the company."

But while employees may do their best to innovate within their current company, sometimes the limits of being an employee may prove too constricting. The best place for someone to grow and express creativity "may even be a company you start yourself," Frere said.

Frere, who intends to continue to grow his own businesses, doesn't plan to give up on the start-up mentality anytime soon. He hopes he can inspire others, whether they are current business owners or would-be entrepreneurs, and start great conversations about what it means to own and grow a business. His blog will be updated regularly with lessons he's learned throughout the years and his opinions on the major issues of the day.

About

Brandon Frere is an entrepreneur and businessman who lives in Sonoma County, California. He created his website, www.BrandonFrere.com, as a means to communicate many of the lessons and information he has learned in business and personal endeavors, specifically in the federal student loan landscape.

During his own student loan repayment, Mr. Frere found out how difficult it can be to work with federally contracted student loan servicers. His efforts were eventually successful: he paid off his loans and gained an insider's look into the repayment process. His knowledge of the confusing landscape of student loan repayment became a vital theme in his future endeavors, and he now uses those experiences to help guide others through the process of applying for available federal repayment and forgiveness programs.

To find out more about Brandon Frere, visit his website. To reach out, fill out the contact form on the Contact page.

BrandonFrere.com

Related Links

Brandon Frere's website

SOURCE Brandon Frere

Related Links

http://brandonfrere.com

GREEN BAY and MILWAUKEE, Wis., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Associated Banc-Corp (NYSE: ASB) ("Associated") announced today that Associated Benefits and Risk Consulting (ABRC) has entered into an agreement to acquire Diversified Insurance Solutions ("Diversified"), one of Wisconsin's leading insurance brokers. The transaction is expected to close next month. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

ABRC is a multi-line insurance and Midwest-based consulting firm with 400 employees. It is the 47th largest broker of U.S. business, providing employee benefits, retirement plans, compliance, business insurance, risk management, and individual insurance solutions. Diversified Insurance Solutions, which was founded in 1982, adds a range of complementary services.

"This well-known and established insurance firm adds strength to our Associated Benefits and Risk Consulting team," said Philip B. Flynn, president and CEO, Associated. "It also improves our ability to achieve greater scale in the Metro Milwaukee market and to further expand our Wisconsin employee benefits and property and casualty market position and capabilities."

"I believe our organizations possess a shared commitment to the customer experience," said Chris Lie, CEO, Diversified. "By joining forces with Associated, our team can provide additional services to our existing customers while continue support communities in southeastern Wisconsin."

Management teams from the two companies have known each other for several years, providing a unique and compelling opportunity to join two premier firms with complementary strengths into an even more vibrant organization going forward. Based on 2017 financials, the company believes this combination of Diversified will move ABRC among the United States' top 45 insurance brokerage firms.

"The addition of the Diversified Insurance Solutions is a great fit for our strategy, culture and customers," said Dean Hildebrandt, CEO, ABRC. "Both of our firms are focused on putting clients first. This will be our number one priority as we go forward together."

"I am confident our companies' combined expertise will benefit the Diversified team and their clients," said William M. Bohn, executive vice president and head of Associated Private Client & Institutional Services, which includes ABRC. "By extending access to Associated's comprehensive banking and financial services, we can help business owners and executives manage their daily business, take care of employees and achieve their financial goals."

As part of the proposed transaction, key Diversified Insurance Solutions executives will continue leadership roles for some time. Along with current ABRC senior leadership, the team will be responsible for the thoughtful integration and expansion of the business going forward.

Associated will release 2018 first quarter financial results on Thursday, April 19, 2018, after market close. The company will host a conference call for investors and analysts at 4:00 p.m. Central Time (CT) on that day to discuss results along with this transaction.

ABOUT ASSOCIATED BANC-CORP

Associated Banc-Corp (NYSE: ASB) has total assets of $33 billion and is one of the top 50 publicly traded U.S. bank holding companies. Headquartered in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Associated is a leading Midwest banking franchise, offering a full range of financial products and services from over 200 banking locations serving more than 100 communities throughout Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota, and commercial financial services in Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Texas. Associated Bank, N.A. is an Equal Housing Lender, Equal Opportunity Lender and Member FDIC. More information about Associated Banc-Corp is available at www.associatedbank.com.

Media Contact: Jennifer Kaminski, 920-491-7576, [email protected]

Investor Contact: Jessica Vanden Heuvel, 920-491-7059, [email protected]

SOURCE Associated Banc-Corp

Related Links

https://www.associatedbank.com

The Avidbots Neo is a purpose-built floor scrubbing robot that integrates state of the art navigation technology with hardware that is designed for ease of use, longevity, serviceability, safety and high productivity.

"We have customers that simply can't find enough staff to clean their facilities, or they are losing cleaners due to retirement," says Tomokazu Kanazawa, Director, New Business Development for Macnica Inc. "The Avidbots Neo will allow us to offer a service that reduces the need for human resources while delivering superior cleaning, which can be tracked through detailed reports."

Neo enables both in-house cleaning teams and building service contractors to offer an innovative technology-driven approach to cleaning that cuts costs, enhances service, and differentiates them from competition. Neo is supported by an easy-to-use web portal that provides real-time and historical reporting, providing greater visibility into operations for cleaning teams. Macnica will provide installation, support and maintenance services for Neo to customers in a variety of target industries including airports, shopping malls, logistics industries, factories, and offices.

"Japan is one of the most tech-forward nations on the planet and is also suffering from a significant labor shortage. We are extremely excited to partner with Macnica as it allows us to further actualize our vision of bringing robots to everyday life and expanding human potential," says Faizan Sheikh, CEO of Avidbots.

The Avidbots Neo is currently deployed on 4 continents, servicing some of the world's leading shopping malls, airports, education facilities, healthcare centers, manufacturing sites, and other commercial spaces.

About Macnica Inc.

Since its establishment in 1972, Macnica Inc. has specialized in the supply of wide a variety of high-value-added electronic parts and network equipment, particularly semiconductors, to the electronics, information and communications industries. The company is justly known as a leader in the high-technology fields in which they operate. In recent years, Macnica has expanded its lineup to provide in-depth technical support to customers in addition to the supply of electronic components and information systems. Its customers include world's leading electrical and electronic products manufacturers. The company has its headquarters in Yokohama, and its subsidiaries are located 77 cities in 22 countries including Japan, USA, Canada, Brazil, England, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Israel, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, China, Singapore, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Viet Nam, Myanmar, Philippines, Indonesia. For more information, visit http://www.macnica.co.jp/en

About Avidbots

Avidbots Corp. vision is to bring robots to everyday life to expand human potential. Its first product is the NEO self-driving floor scrubber, which is widely deployed and trusted by the world's leading facilities and building service contractors. As a 100% vertically integrated company headquartered in Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada, Avidbots offers comprehensive service and support to customers in Canada, the U.S.A., France, Norway, UAE, Singapore, Japan and Australia. For more information, visit www.avidbots.com.

SOURCE AvidbotsPICO RIVERA, Calif., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BakeMark, the recognized market leader in the baking industry as a manufacturer and distributor of bakery ingredients, products and supplies, announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire the Multifoods brand and two manufacturing facilities from CSM Bakery Solutions. The acquisition includes the Multifoods brand, product portfolio as well as CSM's two manufacturing facilities located in Elyria, OH and Spartanburg, SC. These acquisitions come within six months of BakeMark's most recent acquisition.

"Increased customer demand coupled with our strategy to grow our ingredients business created the need for these acquisitions," said BakeMark's President and CEO Jim Parker. "Adding the Multifoods brand and these manufacturing facilities will certainly help us better support our customers and industry partners and help us meet our goal of driving success for them and all our stakeholders well into the future. It's an exciting time."

BakeMark's Director of Marketing, David Lopez, also expressed the value of the recently acquired assets. "The Multifoods brand brings a rich history of product quality and customer loyalty, and is a perfect fit into our exclusive portfolio of the industry's finest brands," he said. "With an expanded solutions offering, we look forward to meeting more of our customers' needs across the US and Canada, and partnering more with our customers on their successes."

Additional specifics of the transaction include:

The Multifoods line of bakery mixes and bases will join BakeMark's already broad portfolio of exclusive brands, which also includes Westco  , BakeSense  , Best Brands  , BakeQwik  , Trigal Dorado  , C'est Vivant  and Sprinkelina  .

, BakeSense , Best Brands , BakeQwik , Trigal Dorado , C'est Vivant and Sprinkelina . The Elyria, OH and Spartanburg, SC plants will be integrated into BakeMark's manufacturing footprint, which already includes manufacturing facilities in Pico Rivera, CA (US), Richmond, BC ( Canada ) and Calgary, AB ( Canada ).

About BakeMark

Based in Pico Rivera, CA, BakeMark is the recognized market leader in the baking industry, as a manufacturer and distributor of bakery ingredients, products and supplies. BakeMark serves North America and customers internationally across all industry channels with its comprehensive product portfolio, including bakery mixes, fillings, icings, glazes, commodities, frozen products and bakery supplies. BakeMark is the exclusive distributor of some of the industry's top brands, including Westco, BakeSense, Best Brands, Multifoods, BakeQwik, Trigal Dorado, C'est Vivant and Sprinkelina, operating through 5 manufacturing plants and 25 distribution centers located across North America. Please visit www.yourbakemark.com for more information.

Media contact :

David Lopez

BakeMark

Director of Marketing

(562)222-6380

[email protected]

SOURCE BakeMark

Related Links

http://www.yourbakemark.com

CAMPBELL, Calif., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Barracuda Networks, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-enabled security and data protection solutions, today announced the availability of Barracuda Security Insight. The new advisory platform offers detailed real-time threat intelligence and security risk information to help consumers and IT professionals remain aware of current global threat levels.

By analyzing data collected from Barracuda endpoints all over the globe, Barracuda Security Insight helps determine the current cybersecurity threat level based on email, network, and web traffic flows. It provides summaries and detailed views of current threat campaigns that Barracuda tracks in real-time.

Some of the recent threat trends revealed by Barracuda Security Insight include:

PDF files represent the highest volume of weaponized file types to be transmitted through observed attack surfaces due to their ability to be simply constructed and easily transmitted. PDFs scanned in the last three months showed nearly 41 million were part of an attack. PDFs often contain links to bad sites and active scripts.

The most sophisticated attacks with the highest efficacy are carried over embedded scripts such as JavaScript (JS) and VisualBasic (VB). Recent findings revealed that over 75 percent of these scripts are malicious. Scripts can be embedded in html, or other rich document formats such as rtf and Office. A sample of 70 million Office documents scanned in the last three months found more than 4.7 million to be malicious or suspicious.

Compressed files are an increasingly popular way for criminals to transmit disguised attacks and hide non-malware infections such as PowerShell (PS) scripts. An example of this took place in September of 2017 when Barracuda detected and blocked a massive ransomware campaign with over 27 million emails reaching customers in less than 24 hours.

These threat trends gathered by Barracuda Security Insight are expected to continue with extensive use of weaponized file types to carry out massive attacks. In addition, the Equifax breach and other cybersecurity events have resulted in the significant loss of personally identifiable information (PII) for millions of consumers. Barracuda expects to see an increased use of this information for both mass phishing and targeted spear phishing attacks.

"Organizations often become aware of vicious cyberattacks after the damage has already been done," said Fleming Shi, SVP of Technology at Barracuda. "By offering a free global advisory platform like Barracuda Security Insight, we can help heighten security awareness by proactively identifying the most current threats that should be on everyone's radar. Those who use the platform can ultimately gain a better understanding of the threat landscape in real-time  an awareness that can lead to an overall improved security posture."

How Barracuda Security Insight Works

Barracuda analyzes large volumes of global threat intelligence from several sources and presents this through Barracuda Security Insight in the form of easy to read threat trends, detailed information on attack campaigns and an aggregated threat score.

Barracuda Security Insight includes real-time activity seen from the following traffic:

Email: Includes email-borne attacks containing malicious links and attachments, malware, ransomware, and botnets.

Includes email-borne attacks containing malicious links and attachments, malware, ransomware, and botnets. Network Perimeter: Includes zero-hour vulnerability exploits, brute force attacks, DDoS, spyware, and spam.

Includes zero-hour vulnerability exploits, brute force attacks, DDoS, spyware, and spam. Web Access: Includes web browsing attacks involving ransomware, malware, and vulnerability exploits in the wild.

Includes web browsing attacks involving ransomware, malware, and vulnerability exploits in the wild. Endpoints: Includes malware, persistent spyware, botnets, ad and click fraud, IoT malware, and compromised dead apps.

Barracuda Security Insight is currently offered at no cost. It is available via the Barracuda website and also provides an open API integration into applications from common web portals and dashboards, and digital assistants such as Alexa. To access Barracuda Security Insight today, please visit https://csi.barracuda.com.

About Barracuda Networks, Inc.

Barracuda simplifies IT with cloud-enabled solutions that empower customers to protect their networks, applications and data, regardless of where they reside. These powerful, easy-to-use and affordable solutions are trusted by more than 150,000 organizations worldwide and are delivered in appliance, virtual appliance, and cloud and hybrid deployment configurations. Barracuda's customer-centric business model focuses on delivering high-value, subscription-based IT solutions that provide end-to-end network and data protection. For additional information, please visit barracuda.com.

Barracuda Networks, Barracuda, and the Barracuda Networks logo are registered trademarks of Barracuda Networks, Inc. in the US and other countries.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the potential benefits, performance, and functionality of Barracuda Security Insight. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control and that could cause the Company's results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could materially affect the Company's business and financial results include, but are not limited to customer response to the Company's products, as well as those factors set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update the forward-looking information to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date of this press release.

Contact

Jesse Kimbrel

Barracuda Networks, Inc.

408-342-5683

[email protected]

SOURCE Barracuda Networks, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.barracuda.com

House de Ligne has a long history of supporting Jewish communities. During World War II, Prince Eugene I and Princess Philippine de Ligne used their family castle to hide Jewish children from the Nazis.

"We are honored to be hosting the Prince and Princess at our event," Kirk said. "House de Ligne has been an ally of Jews going back to the 18th Century when Charles-Joseph de Ligne advocated for Zionism."

The First Annual Kosher Food Bank Benefit: Heroes of the Holocaust will raise awareness and funds for the 100 Holocaust survivors and 380 Jewish families in South Florida who suffer from food insecurity and are dependent on the JCS-Kosher Food Bank. House de Ligne are participating this weekend to show their support and solidarity for the Jewish Community and to help make KFB clients' days safer and brighter.

"We have many survivors and families who depend upon the JCS-Kosher Food Bank," Kirk said. "I designed this event to raise much-needed awareness and funds for a fundamental service within our community. As the grandchild of Holocaust Survivors whose father was born in a German DP Camp, I converted my birthday party into this benefit. It is an absolute privilege and a birthday wish come true that the Royal Family will be our guests of honor."

Prior to the event, Kirk will be holding a press conference with H.H. Prince Edouardo de Ligne at the Trump International Beach Resort on Fri., Feb. 16 at 4 p.m.

Visit Kirk's Eventbrite page to buy tickets to the event or email [email protected].

SOURCE Danielle Kirk, LLCBOSTON, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BotChain, a blockchain platform to accelerate and connect the ecosystem of artificially intelligent bots and software by providing universal registration, identity validation, and bot audit and compliance capabilities, today announced its new partnership program, with several leading platforms and SaaS applications already on board. Combined, BotChain's early partners represent more than 50,000 developers and upwards of 150,000 enterprise and consumer facing bots that interact with nearly 400 million end-users globally, sending billions of messages each month.

The initial set of partners include Gupshup, a platform for developers, and B2B enterprise bots Polly, CareerLark, Botkit, Disco (formerly Growbot), Zoom.ai and Botkeeper. BotChain's parent company, Talla, will also utilize the BotChain platform for its core product, an intelligent assistant for company knowledge management. The partnerships are a strong indicator of the demand for specific utilities and standards in this quickly growing sector.

"The rapidly growing and widespread demand for bots that we've seen at Gupshup clearly proves the need for a new level of standardization within the industry, and BotChain offers a powerful solution," said Gupshup CEO, Beerud Sheth. "Everyone who interacts with a bot in any capacity benefits from this new layer of enablement and increased accountability, and we are excited to be a part of that." The Gupshup platform is deployed at top companies like Facebook, Twitter, and HDFC Bank.

The ecosystem that BotChain services spans beyond just bot, AI and robotic process automation markets, with benefits to existing software companies, messaging platforms and enterprise consulting firms. With the estimated revenue of AI products expected to reach more than $47 billion by 2020, a universally accepted means of bot or AI registration, identity validation, audit and transaction is critical. BotChain will use blockchain's endemic features of immutability and verifiability needed to support this tremendous growth. "Beyond enabling human trust of AI products, our vision for BotChain is to deliver a foundation for an entire world of bot coordination, communication and transaction, with BotCoin as the currency of the AI agent ecosystem. We are thrilled to partner with fellow leaders in our space, as we build out this vision together," said Rob May, CEO of Talla, the company behind BotChain.

Those following the blockchain and cryptocurrency news will be well aware of how many illegitimate projects have surfaced, whether in the actual viability of use case of the product, or the ability of the team to execute on the vision they're selling. BotChain has chosen to announce early partners in order to demonstrate the quality and maturity of the project and network compared to many other blockchain projects.

"BotChain will be managed and molded by an invested and proven group of like-minded partners," stated Anthony Habayeb, head of BotChain partnerships. "Aligned thinking is key for fueling adoption and acceleration. We are excited by these early partners and to continue forming alliances across the ecosystem of artificially intelligent bots and software."

BotChain has allocated 20 percent of BotCoin tokens for partnership investments and ecosystem building.

For additional information, updates on the development of the BotChain platform or to join the BotChain partnership program, visit https://botchain.talla.com/

About BotChain

BotChain is a platform to enable the future of intelligent assistance by offering standardized bot registry, identity validation and an immutable event ledger for A.I. products. The platform was created by Talla Inc., whose expertise lies in A.I.-powered knowledge and information management for enterprises, along with several leading bot companies. Based in Boston, Ma., Talla is led by an executive team with decades of experience building large scale business applications. To date, Talla has raised more than $12 million in equity capital.

Media Contact

InkHouse for Talla

Jill Rosenthal, (781) 966-4167

[email protected]

SOURCE BotChain

Related Links

https://botchain.talla.com

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Entrepreneurship is intimately linked to business in our society. More specifically, it's associated with start-up business owners. While entrepreneurship is often a necessary trait of a start-up business owner, not all entrepreneurs have successful businesses. Brandon Frere, entrepreneur and businessman, shares his thoughts about entrepreneurship and its value outside business owner functions.

Frere sees high value in entrepreneurship. On his website, BrandonFrere.com, he describes his childhood as one in which he sought out avenues to make money for himself and his family. While he continues to develop those habits, he considers entrepreneurship a mindset rather than a trait inherent in business owners. Furthermore, it becomes more valuable when combined with other traits, like innovation.

"I'm constantly thinking of new innovations that can help my business or my life," said Frere. "I believe in an entrepreneurial mindset, and encourage everyone to develop their own."

Frere believes that successful businesses are ones that can run themselves. Hiring the right people is important, but so is developing processes that seamlessly grow with the business. Frere explains, "That leaves you to be able to take an 'outsider's' view and build the business even more by fine-tuning the systems, processes and procedures that make it run. The best way to do that is through innovation."

According to Frere, innovation is a key quality in growing a business. He suggests exercising both entrepreneurship and innovation. One way to do that is to seek new perspectives. By looking at even the smallest processes with "new eyes," anyone can look for strengths and weaknesses with an eye toward improvement. "It's hard to do that, but the more you try, the greater success you'll have," says Frere. "Innovation is a muscle you have to strengthen, and that takes regular exercise. The drive to innovate and keep building on success embodies what it means to be an entrepreneur."

About

Brandon Frere is an entrepreneur and businessman who lives in Sonoma County, California. He created his website, www.BrandonFrere.com, as a means to communicate many of the lessons and information he has learned in business and personal endeavors, specifically in the federal student loan landscape.

During his own student loan repayment, Mr. Frere found out how difficult it can be to work with federally contracted student loan servicers. His efforts were eventually successful: he paid off his loans and gained an insider's look into the repayment process. His knowledge of the confusing landscape of student loan repayment became a vital theme in his future endeavors, and he now uses those experiences to help guide others through the process of applying for available federal repayment and forgiveness programs.

To find out more about Brandon Frere, visit his website. To reach out, fill out the contact form on the Contact page.

BrandonFrere.com

CONTACT:

Brandon Frere

www.BrandonFrere.com

Related Links

Brandon Frere's website

SOURCE Brandon Frere

Related Links

http://www.BrandonFrere.com

BROOKLYN, N.Y., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Brooklyn Law School Board of Trustees has appointed to the Board Lawrence A. Sucharow, an internationally recognized securities lawyer and a leader of the class action bar.



Sucharow, a 1975 graduate of the Law School, is Co-Chairman of Labaton Sucharow LLP, one of the top plaintiffs' securities and antitrust class action firms in the world. The firm was recently named for the fifth time as a Class Action Group of the Year by Law360, which also selected Sucharow as one the 10 Most Admired Securities Attorneys in the United States and as a Titan of the Plaintiffs Bar.

"We are thrilled to welcome Larry to the Board of Brooklyn Law School," said Stuart Subotnick '68, Chairman of the Board of Trustees. "He is one of the world's true leaders in his field, yet he continually chooses to focus his vast experience and knowledge to support the Brooklyn Law School community. His perspective as a lawyer, entrepreneur, and mentor will be invaluable to our team, and I look forward to working with him."

A dedicated and active member of the Brooklyn Law School community, Sucharow was honored with the Alumni of the Year award in 2012. He and his firm have been generous supporters of the Law School and have assisted numerous students through the creation of scholarships. In 2013, Sucharow also established an internship program in conjunction with Brooklyn Law School's comprehensive Clinical Education Program, giving students "real world" experience providing pro bono assistance to defrauded individual investors.

"I am delighted to join the Board of my alma mater, as I am grateful for my time at Brooklyn Law School, which equipped me to confidently enter the legal field," said Sucharow. "I have remained involved with the BLS community for many years, but as a Trustee of the Law School I look forward to playing an even greater role in its continued success and investment in its students."

Over the course of his career, Sucharow has prosecuted hundreds of cases and his firm has recovered billions in groundbreaking securities, antitrust, business transaction, and product liability class actions. A landmark case tried in 2002In re Real Estate Associates Limited Partnership Litigationwas the very first securities action successfully tried to a jury verdict following the enactment of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act.

Sucharow is also among a small group of plaintiffs' securities lawyers in the United States recognized by major legal analysts and media, including Chambers & Partners USA, The Legal 500, Benchmark Litigation, and Lawdragon, for his successes in securities litigation. Chambers described him as an "immensely respected plaintiff advocate" and a "renowned figure in the securities plaintiff world...[who] has handled some of the most high-profile litigation in this field."

Active in legal and professional organizations, Sucharow has served in many notable capacities, including: a two-year term as President of the National Association of Shareholder and Consumer Attorneys; Trustee of the Federal Bar Council Foundation and member of the Federal Bar Council's Committee on Second Circuit Courts; member of the Federal Courts Committee of the New York County Lawyers' Association and the Securities Law Committee of the New Jersey State Bar Association; and the Advocacy Committee of the World Federation of Investors Corporation, among others. He is also Vice Chair of the International Financial Litigation Network, a network of law firms from 15 countries seeking international solutions to cross-border financial problems.

"Larry Sucharow is a trailblazer of our profession. His blend of knowledge, experience and judgment, along with his unwavering dedication to the Brooklyn Law School community will enable him to have an immediate and positive impact as a Trustee," said Nick Allard, President and Dean of Brooklyn Law School. "He is a generously supportive alumnus, a mentor to students and lawyers, one of the elite plaintiffs' securities and antitrust class action attorneys in the country, and a founder and effective forward-thinking leader of a highly successful and respected law firm. As a Trustee, Larry's enviable qualities will be put to good use immediately in the service of our school at a critical inflection point in its long history. He will play an important role in the work to advance Brooklyn Law School to the forefront of legal education nationally and globally."

About Brooklyn Law School

Founded in 1901, Brooklyn Law School offers a vibrant intellectual community emphasizing teaching excellence, leading-edge scholarship, and an innovative academic program designed to prepare students for public service, business, and private practice, nationwide and across the globe. It is an independent institution, unaffiliated with any university or college, and the only law school in Brooklyn. The Law School offers students the J.D. 2-3-4 Program, with degree options that include an accelerated 2-year J.D. program, traditional 3-year program, and extended part-time 4-year program. Visit Brooklyn Law School at www.brooklaw.edu.

SOURCE Brooklyn Law School

Related Links

http://www.brooklaw.edu

These custom, advanced NLP solutions enable businesses to boost brand affinity and customer engagement, CapTech says. Additionally, CapTech's client interactions indicate that businesses are increasingly considering custom NLP solutions for the workplace, seeking ways to reduce time needed for analysis and decision making, and providing employees the ease and enjoyment of interacting with highly capable virtual assistants.

"It's not about NLP itself," said Vinnie Schoenfelder, CapTech's Chief Technology Officer. "It's about the intersection of NLP with data science, machine learning, and customer engagement heuristics working together to meet the user on their terms, in their environment, on their device, with the information they need at the exact time they need it."

The interface provided by NLP also enables virtual assistants to move away from simply responding to commands or questions to carrying on a conversation with an understanding of intent, emotion and context. CapTech has applied for a patent covering its proprietary process for connecting data science with NLP to create such enterprise solutions for predictive analytics.

"The potential for NLP to improve customer experience and business processes is vast, but organizations must go beyond basic, scripted interactions to create seamless and enjoyable experiences," said Schoenfelder. "The barrier is usefulness, not security or cost. Customers and employees will not adopt a new channel if there are usability frustrations or if it does not demonstrate immediate value."

CapTech recently released new consumer research, available on their website, that examines the profile of smart speaker users as well as adoption habits. Understanding users allows companies to determine whether NLP fits within their brand engagement strategy. The study found that just over half of smart speaker users are millennials or younger, 32% are Gen X, and only 12% are Boomers. In addition to age, the main variables that drive smart speaker usage are income and gender. More than half earn over $75,000 a year and 60% are men. The most popular uses of smart speakers are playing music (82%), inquiries/information gathering (42%) and shopping (39%).

"As natural language processing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning develop, and businesses embrace the technology to meet consumer needs, the sophistication of functionality will continue to evolve," said Jason Snook, PhD, Managing Director of CapTech's Customer Experience practice. "As adoption increases, brands will want to be the first in their category to provide excellent customer experiences with voice technology or risk disruption by competitors."

To help businesses imagine new possibilities, CapTech has created an informative and entertaining "NLP for the Future" comic series illustrating smart assistant solutions, or proof of concept skills. The comics illustrate voice technology solutions across industry, including enterprise predictive analytics, retail, hospitality, energy and utilities, and financial services. The comic series is available on CapTech's website in both still and animated forms.

Schoenfelder suggests three key considerations for businesses that are thinking about designing NLP applications that will deliver a satisfying experience for customers or employees:

User Experience (UX) - The first thing to consider when building an NLP application is the user experience, or the interaction model. The screen is getting smaller, from website to phone, and phone to watch, and finally to voice, where there is no screen. This has created a perception that the need for CX/UX design is also shrinking. On the contrary, as you lose visual cues and begin to use newer technologies that people have little experience with, you need more thoughtful interaction design.

Services - Most businesses have already developed many services for their web and mobile applications. Some assume that this means they already have what they need to leverage the voice channel. That may be true, but a good deal of service mapping is required at the middle tier. Businesses must be able to tie together the intent of the customer's voice with the appropriate services at the back end, so that each request is satisfied appropriately.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning sentiment and intent detection - You need to understand what your customers want and how they feel in order to establish a trusted conversation. That's key to keeping customers from becoming frustrated and abandoning the opportunity to interact with your brand. A related issue involves intent. You'll need to establish a way to determine whether voice-enabled devices truly understand and deliver what consumers are asking for.

For additional information on the future of voice technology in businesses uses, visit CapTech's website at www.captechconsulting.com.

About CapTech: CapTech (www.captechconsulting.com) is a national IT management consulting firm that bridges the gap between business and technology. We partner with some of the world's most successful companies to design, develop, and manage technical and digital solutions that delight customers, drive insights, and meet strategic objectives. Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, CapTech has locations in Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte, Chicago, Columbus (Ohio), Denver, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington DC.

Contacts:

SOURCE CapTech

Related Links

http://www.captechconsulting.com

TORONTO, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - The Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI), led by Baycrest Health Sciences, announced today the third round of funding available through its Industry Innovation Partnership Program (I2P2).

The I2P2 program provides an opportunity for companies around the world to accelerate their seniors' care innovations by testing them in a real-world environment. In total, up to $ 3 million CAD in funding will be available for solution testing and validation.

"Our Government is proud to support advancements in innovation for aging and brain health in older adults as we work towards a national dementia strategy," said the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Health. "Innovative projects and partnerships will help us achieve our goal to improve the quality of life of those living with dementia, both in Canada and abroad."

CABHI maintains a strong commitment to the cognitive and mental well-being of older adults, and the health and social care needs of persons with dementia, and those who care for them, by supporting innovations that are aimed at finding solutions to the following care priorities:

Aging in place: solutions that enable older adults with dementia to maximize their choices, independence and quality of life to enable aging in the most appropriate setting

solutions that enable older adults with dementia to maximize their choices, independence and quality of life to enable aging in the most appropriate setting Caregiver support: solutions that support caregivers (formal and informal) in providing care to older adults with dementia

solutions that support caregivers (formal and informal) in providing care to older adults with dementia Care coordination and navigation: solutions that help older adults, caregivers and healthcare providers coordinate care and transitions for older adults with dementia

solutions that help older adults, caregivers and healthcare providers coordinate care and transitions for older adults with dementia Cognitive health: solutions that focus on health promotion, prevention, early diagnostics, and slow the progression of cognitive impairment for aging adults

Applicants must have a mature product or service that they would like to test with older adults at an eligible North American trial partner site. CABHI will provide 50 per cent of the project costs to a maximum of $500,000 CAD to the trial partner site to work with the company, and to test and validate the company's product or service. Successful applicants will be required to co-invest 50 per cent of the project costs through cash and in-kind support.

"Through the Industry Innovation Partnership Program, we are increasingly excited about some of the early benefits to innovators in the seniors' care sector," says Dr. William Reichman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Baycrest Health Sciences. "Through this initiative, CABHI is helping to build networks of collaborators to increase capacity in the seniors' care sector for testing innovations."

All projects must be completed within a 12 to 15-month period. Eligible applicants must submit their online application by 5 p.m. on March 12, 2018. Full details and selection criteria are available on the CABHI website.

Funding for this program is provided by the Government of Canada through the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science, and the Baycrest Foundation.

View this media release in French.

The Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI) is a solution accelerator for the aging and brain health sector, providing funding and support to innovators for the development, testing, and dissemination of new ideas and technologies that address unmet brain health and seniors' care needs. Established in 2015, it is the result of the largest investment in brain health and aging in Canadian history. CABHI is a unique collaboration of health care, science, industry, not-for-profit and government partners whose aim is to help improve quality of life for the world's aging population, allowing older adults to age safely in the setting of their choice while maintaining their cognitive, emotional, and physical well-being. For more information on CABHI, please visit: www.cabhi.com.

Baycrest Health Sciences is a global leader in geriatric residential living, healthcare, research, innovation and education, with a special focus on brain health and aging. Fully affiliated with the University of Toronto, Baycrest provides excellent care for older adults combined with an extensive clinical training program for the next generation of healthcare professionals and one of the world's top research institutes in cognitive neuroscience, the Rotman Research Institute. Baycrest is home to the federally and provincially-funded Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation, a solution accelerator focused on driving innovation in the aging and brain health sector, and is the developer of Cogniciti  a free, online brain health assessment for Canadians 40+ who are concerned about their memory. Through its dedicated centres, Baycrest Health Sciences offers unmatched global knowledge exchange and commercialization capacity. Founded in 1918 as the Jewish Home for Aged, Baycrest continues to embrace the long-standing tradition of all great Jewish healthcare institutions to improve the well-being of people in their local communities and around the globe. For more information please visit: www.baycrest.org.

SOURCE Centre for Aging + Brain Health InnovationSYOSSET, N.Y., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CEO Connection is accepting nominations for the 2018 Most Influential Women of the Mid-Market List. This list recognizes top female executives who are influencing change, innovation, and standards for excellence. They are influencers, innovators, and pioneers driven to succeed and challenging others to do the same. The deadline to submit a nomination is Wednesday, February 28, 2018. More information, including the nomination form, is available at www.midmarketconvention.com/influential-women/.

This list is designed to bring awareness to an underrepresented group within the mid-market and highlight the top 25 Most Influential Women today. Updated annually, the Most Influential Women of the Mid-Market list ranks honorees based on four metrics: annual revenue, number of employees, community involvement, and first impression on social media.

Nominations are accepted from the community at large. Self-nominations are also welcome. Qualified nominees are presented to a selection committee composed of business leaders, academia, and the media, who will review nominees based on their influence within their industry and beyond.

Comprised of nearly 20,000 publicly and privately held companies with annual revenues between $100 million and $3 billion, the mid-market represents an integral segment of the U.S. economy, employing more than 30 million people and generating approximately $10 trillion of the $30 trillion of annual gross receipts.

Members of the 2018 Most Influential Women of the Mid-Market will be announced this spring and recognized at the annual CEO Connection Mid-Market Convention held in conjunction with the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania Sept. 23-25. For more information and to register for the convention, visit www.midmarketconvention.com/registration.

ABOUT CEO CONNECTION:

CEO Connection is the only membership organization in the world focused on mid-market CEOs and their companies. These companies are too small to compete head-on with the Fortune 500 and too large to be as nimble as start-ups. They compete where innovation meets scale and need an ecosystem of collaborators to give them leverage. Members of CEOC become part of an engaged peer group that provides elite support, combines its purchasing power, and collectively expresses the mid-market perspective. We connect mid-market CEOs with the people, information, resources, and opportunities they need to scale.

Our members are C-level executives with responsibility for all or significant portions of their respective companies. They represent a wide variety of businesses across a broad geographic spectrum.

Inspired by C-level Wharton executives, CEO Connection began in 2005 and has evolved into a dynamic community with wide-ranging benefits uniquely designed to help mid-market CEOs and champion the mid-market perspective.

For more information, visit www.ceoconnection.com. Stay connected on Twitter: @CEOConnection and LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/ceo-connection

MEDIA CONTACT: Katie Woods, [email protected], 800-244-4719

SOURCE CEO ConnectionNORTHFIELD, Ohio, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Charlie Williams, stallion manager at Southwind Farms, has been named the recipient of the 2017 "Caretaker of the Year Award," sponsored by Hard Rock Rocksino Northfield Park in conjunction with the U.S. Harness Writers Association (USHWA).

Williams will be honored at USHWA's annual Dan Patch Awards banquet, Sunday, Feb. 25, in Orlando, Fla. He will receive a cash prize of $500, a trophy, transportation, hotel, and event accommodations.

"This (award) is something I'll never forget," says Williams. "From picking cotton as a young kid to go on and take care of world champions, it's been a dream come true. I started working at the bottom and worked my way to the top."

All North America care takers are eligible for the "Caretaker of the Year Award," based on nomination letters detailing the skills and special qualities of each nominee.

As one of William's nominees says, "Please consider allowing this exceptional caretaker a moment to shine in an industry that sometimes forgets those of us who aren't in winner's circles but nevertheless are in a barn day in and day out, without vacation, wind, rain, and snow. You will not find a more true definition of an exceptional caretaker in our industry than Charlie Williams."

Williams is self-described "old school" when it comes to taking care of his horses. But the stallions are more than horses to Williams, they are friends.

"I talk with all the horses like I'm talking to a human," says Williams. "I'm 68 years old; and I can't wait to get up in the morning and come to work. When I walk in the barn, they know me and sound off. They're happy to see me; and, I'm happy to see them."

Williams has cared for some of the sport's top stallions, including Muscle Hill  2017's leading money-winning trotting sire. "Muscle Hill is like my best friend," says Williams. "I know how he thinks. He knows how I think."

A Georgia native, Williams has worked at Southwind Farms in New Jersey for nearly three decades, spending the early part of his career with thoroughbreds, as an exercise rider and caretaker, before a knee injury forced him to give up riding.

For more information about the Dan Patch Awards banquet, visit www.ushwa.org.

For More Information:

Vivian Davis - Hard Rock Rocksino

(330) 908-7771

SOURCE Hard Rock Rocksino Northfield Park

Related Links

http://www.hrrocksinonorthfieldpark.com

"We are extremely proud to once again receive this prestigious award, which values the dedication and commitment of the Chemetall team in line with Airbus targets and expectations in 2017," says Hendrik Becker, Chemetall's Global Aerospace Manager. "Winning the award for the fourth consecutive year is a great honor for our long-lasting and successful business relationship with Airbus." In 2017, Chemetall strengthened its supply chain. "We implemented several projects to further improve the performance of our European aerospace supply chain and strongly supports the ramp-up of the Airbus A320 and A350 programs," says Ronald Hendriks, Quality Manager and SQIP Coordinator.

Airbus reviews the performance of its suppliers

The aim of the Airbus Supply Chain & Quality Improvement Program, known as SQIP, is to advance the major strategic Airbus suppliers towards the goal of industrial excellence with regard to product quality and delivery reliability. In view of increasing production rates, this goal is of particular importance. Every year, the performance of each participating supplier is reviewed and either confirmed or  in case of non-conformity with the requested quality standards  downgraded or even rejected.

"We are delighted about this supplier award from Airbus. It acknowledges the continuous efforts of the Chemetall team and our commitment to deliver high quality service and products. Operating as a brand of BASF's Coatings division, we look forward to supporting the Airbus growth strategy even more now and in the future," says Dr. Martin Jung, Senior Vice President Surface Treatment. "The combination of expertise and innovation power will accelerate innovation and drive even more success for our customer, Airbus."

Chemetall has a long-term partnership with Airbus

Over the past 25 years, Chemetall and Airbus have established a long-lasting and successful business relationship. From production sites in Langelsheim/Germany and Soissons/France, Chemetall supplies several Airbus sites with aircraft sealants, corrosion protection products, cleaners and pre-treatment technologies. In September 2017, Chemetall received the Airbus Best Performer Award for top level industrial performance and significant contributions in partnering with Airbus. Starting in spring 2018, Chemetall will expand its production site in Langelsheim, Germany, to fulfill the increasing global demands for aircrafts.

About BASF's Coatings division

The Coatings division of BASF is a global expert in the development, production and marketing of innovative and sustainable automotive OEM and refinish coatings, as well as decorative paints. We create advanced performance solutions and drive performance, design and new applications to meet our partners' needs all over the world. BASF shares skills, knowledge and resources of interdisciplinary and global teams for the benefit of customers by operating a collaborative network of sites in Europe, North America, South America and Asia Pacific. In 2016, the Coatings division achieved global sales of about 3.2 billion.

In 2016, BASF acquired Chemetall, a leading global supplier of applied surface treatments for metal, plastic and glass substrates in a wide range of industries and end markets. With this expansion in portfolio, BASF becomes a more complete solution provider for coatings.

Solutions beyond your imagination  Coatings by BASF. For more information about the Coatings division of BASF and its products, visit www.basf-coatings.com.

About BASF

At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. The approximately 114,000 employees in the BASF Group work on contributing to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio is organized into five segments: Chemicals, Performance Products, Functional Materials & Solutions, Agricultural Solutions and Oil & Gas. BASF generated sales of about 58 billion in 2016. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt (BAS), London (BFA) and Zurich (BAS). Further information at www.basf.com.

SOURCE Chemetall

Related Links

http://chemetall.com

An incredible formation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), driverless cars and unmanned surface vessels (USV) was staged at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, one of Zhuhai's landmarks. An aerobatic flight team and the UAV formation embodying the scientific and technological strength of Guangdong and braveness, formed varied and amazing shapes, dazzling 7 million global viewers of the program at the beginning of the Gala.

The Bridge, which has just been completed and is the longest sea-crossing bridge in the world, connects Zhuhai to Hong Kong and Macao. Thus, Zhuhai has become an important juncture in the development strategy within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. This night, the Bridge became the most spectacular background and stage for the show of technological innovative equipment on land, sea and air.



"The parallel session in Zhuhai was shoot at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, which demonstrates the openness and innovative spirit of the city," said one of the producers of the Gala.



"Zhuhai is striving to build itself into an innovation high ground within the Bay Area, with increasingly modernized and internationalized platforms for innovation," said Yao Yisheng, Mayor of Zhuhai. "The main bodies for innovation in Zhuhai are thriving with more than 1,400 new high technology enterprises featuring high-precision, advanced and specialized industries."



The unmanned surface vehicles shown on the Gala are manufactured in Zhuhai by Yunzhou Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (also known as Oceanalpha). Zhuhai has been focusing on advanced equipment manufacturing industries such as shipbuilding and ocean engineering, aerospace and rail transit.



Statistics from Zhuhai's Publicity Department show that the total value added in Zhuhai's high-tech industries reached 30.687 billion yuan in 2017, 27.8 percent of the value added in industries above the designated scale. The city will become a national manufacturing base for general aviation, and lead the world in producing the ocean engineering equipment by 2025.



Thanks to China's technological innovation, particularly in the fields of major equipment manufacturing and engineering construction, the world has a deeper understanding of China. It has also seen an influx of Zhuhai's innovations, including the Zhuhai-1 remote sensing micro-nano satellite constellation, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and China's homegrown AG600 (codenamed Kunlong), the world's largest amphibious aircraft.



While counting down for the new year, a lively "Lion Dance in Spring" program from Zhuhai's parallel session was again on live broadcast. The drums and gongs at the Chimelong International Ocean Resort sounded jolly, and bursts of vibrant fireworks lit the skies above the Bridge when the Chinese New Year bell rang, extending new year greetings to Chinese people all over the world. Zhuhai becomes China's innovation "show floor" through the parallel session of the Gala and sends out its invitation to the whole world.



Image Attachments Links:

http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=306834

SOURCE The Publicity Department of the CPC Zhuhai CommitteeGREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the most important African-American activists and intellectuals in U.S. history, was born 150 years ago on Feb. 23, 1868 in a small Western Massachusetts town amid the rolling hills of the Berkshire Mountains.

One of the few African-American families in the region, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was educated and worshiped in Great Barrington. As a teenager, he wrote newspaper articles about small-town life, and later, neighbors and the congregation of his childhood church raised funds to send him to college. He owned town property, paid town taxes, and buried his family in the local cemetery. He also wrote fondly about Great Barrington in his autobiographies and correspondence.

Du Bois earned a bachelor's degree from Fisk University and in 1895, became the first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard University. He co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). A proponent of Pan-Africanism, Du Bois was a prolific writer and best known for his collection of essays, "The Souls of Black Folk." He was also a vocal supporter of women's rights and a pioneering urban sociologist.

Despite his connection to Great Barrington and a life of significant achievements, over the years the region has been divided on how to honor Du Bois' local legacy. Now, 150 years after his birth, the town of Great Barrington, along with a group of passionate individuals and organizations, have joined together to celebrate their native son with a festival focused on his core values: civil rights, racial equality, economic justice and progressive education.

Based on a shared vision of restoring his legacy, the Du Bois 150th Anniversary Festival Committee (co-chaired by Randy Weinstein, historian and founder of The Du Bois Center at Great Barrington, and Gwendolyn Hampton VanSant, executive director of Multicultural BRIDGE) has organized events and lectures that celebrate Du Bois, educate the public about his works, and create legacy projects in partnership with Berkshire County organizations, institutions and community members.

"Du Bois was a fount of useable wisdom regarding hot-button issues like racial equality and justice, health care, employment and universal brotherhood. He was a speaker of uncomfortable truths and a public school laureate of progressive education. This is the Du Bois who cared about our town, the Du Bois our town cares to honor," said Weinstein.

"I first discovered Du Bois' work at 15 while applying to college at Bard College at Simon's Rock in Great Barrington," said Hampton VanSant, a Simon's Rock alumna who interned with Weinstein while she was a student. "Reading 'The Souls of Black Folk' and learning about the concepts of 'the veil' and 'double consciousness'this was the first time I felt I had words for the split experience I was living as a black scholar in my first college English course."

An advocate for the liberal arts, Du Bois has long been a significant voice in the Simon's Rock curriculum and community. Early on, a selection from his autobiography "Dusk of Dawn" was included in the Writing and Thinking Anthology for first-year students and "The Souls of Black Folk" remains a seminal course requirement. The college hosts an annual lecture featuring prominent Du Bois scholars and awards Du Bois Scholarships to underrepresented students.

"After many years of struggle in Great Barrington about how to honor Du Bois, I am honored to carry this torch over the finish line with many others past and present, restoring a legacy rightfully earned," said Hampton VanSant.

As Pulitzer-Prize winning Du Bois biographer David Levering Lewis said in his speech "W.E.B. Du Bois's Long Road Back to Great Barrington" at the inauguration of the W.E.B. Du Bois Educational Series in 2016, "... I dare to believe that the time has finally arrived for Du Bois to be welcomed in his hometown, warts and all, as its most prized historic exemplar."

SOURCE Bard College at Simon's Rock

Related Links

http://www.simons-rock.edu

OAKLAND, Calif., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, As You Sow and Corporate Knights released the fourth update of the Carbon Clean 200 (Clean200), a list of the 200 largest publicly traded companies in the world making significant revenue from clean energy. In its first full year and a half of live performance, Clean200 companies generated a total return of 32.1%. That's almost double the 15.7% for its fossil fuel benchmark the S&P 1200 Global Energy Index.

The companies that contributed the most to the Clean200's outperformance are involved in the provision of products, materials, and services related to energy efficiency.

The top 10 companies making the list are Siemens Ag, Toyota Motor Corp, Schneider Electric Se, Abb Ltd, Panasonic Corp, Vestas Wind Systems, Bombardier Inc, Innogy Se, Sse Plc, Emerson Electric Co.

The top 10 countries with companies on the list include Greater China (68), United States (35) Japan (21), Germany (9), South Korea (7), India (7), Sweden (5), Canada (5) with Denmark, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain tied with four companies each.

"Market forces continue to show that the new energy economy is not only a growth sector, but continues to outperform fossil fuel based energy. We are living through the 'Great Transition' as capital flows drive the path to averting climate catastrophe." said Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow and report co-author.

"It is interesting that the Clean200 managed to almost double the performance of fossil fuel energy stocks over the past year and half, given the general upswing in oil prices over that period," said Toby Heaps, CEO of Corporate Knights and report co-author. "the outperformance is being driven by companies in the business of energy efficiency."

As You Sow is a nonprofit organization that promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy and coalition building. www.asyousow.org.



Corporate Knights is a research and media B Corp that seeks to provide information that empowers people to harness markets for a better world. www.corporateknights.com

** As You Sow and Corporate Knights are not investment advisors nor do we provide financial planning, legal, or tax advice. Nothing in the Carbon Clean 200 Report shall constitute or be construed as an offering of financial instruments or as investment advice or investment recommendations. **

CONTACT: Cyrus Nemati, (510) 735-8157, [email protected];

Tara Wilkie, (416) 203-4674, [email protected]

SOURCE As You Sow

Related Links

http://www.asyousow.org

With a CONCIERGE KEY Health membership, each patient member receives a uniquely assigned, personalized team of ten or more elite doctor specialists, with whom they can schedule in-person, on-demand consult appointments with the touch of an app. The CONCIERGE KEY Health app is simple-to-use, and specifically designed with a hassle-free, expedited, and differentiated patient experience  allowing them to book with elite doctors, even when traveling cross-country. The company plans to add more major metropolitan locations nationwide throughout 2018.

"We are excited to bring our service to these select U.S. markets for the benefit of our members who have dealt with an increasingly impersonal, bureaucratic and lonely healthcare experience on which families spend tens of thousands every year," said Robert E. Grant, founder and chief executive officer. "All three markets were chosen due to their demographic profile and bias toward concierge services in other fields. We plan to expand to an additional nine metropolitan areas throughout the balance of 2018."

Grant further commented, "We are particularly pleased to launch the 'Team Doctors' module of the mobile app simultaneous with the commercial launch, several months ahead of schedule. With the 'Team Doctors' module within the 'My Doctors' icon on the home page, members get ten or more retained specialists (one for each specialty, including internal medicine and dentistry). With CONCIERGE KEY Health, members can rest assured that they will not have to face a search engine decision on doctor selection or feel alone ever again in their healthcare journey."

Concierge Key enables members to expedite their visitation with an elite doctor across the healthcare spectrum, each board-certified within their specialty and peer-vetted as members of the highly exclusive, World Physicians Organization, the only global cross-specialty physician faculty membership organization.

Membership applicants wishing to join CONCIERGE KEY Health can choose either an Individual Annual Membership ($3,000), or a Family Annual Membership ($5,000) which includes an extension of all CONCIERGE KEY benefits to all direct family members under 26 years of age. Due to higher than expected initial demand, membership positions will be limited.

To watch the CONCIERGE KEY Health Introductory Video, click here: https://www.conciergekeyhealth.com/consumer-video/

To sign up and become a member, download the app in the Apple App Store, then select "SIGN UP": https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/conciergekey/id1290658620?mt=8

For more information, please visit www.conciergekeyhealth.com

ABOUT CONCIERGE KEY HEALTH: CONCIERGE KEY Health is the world's first mobile app for on-demand access to elite doctors, including specialists and care facilities. Offering a first-class upgrade to the U.S. healthcare experience that over time has become increasingly inconvenient, impersonal, unpleasant and bureaucratic for all, Newport Beach-based CONCIERGE KEY Health eliminates excessive appointment and in-office wait times through an exceptional subscription-based membership. CONCIERGE KEY Health enables patients to expedite the process of connecting to and consulting with amongst the most elite top-tier physicians across the healthcare spectrum who are each board-certified faculty members of medical societies, with many belonging to the esteemed, peer-reviewed physician faculty leadership organization, World Physicians Organization (WPO). With a CONCIERGE KEY Health membership, each patient member receives a uniquely assigned, personalized team of ten or more elite doctor specialists, in their local geographies, with whom they can schedule in-person, on-demand consult appointments with the touch of an app. Reducing not only wait times but also reliance on referrals from third-party insurers, CONCIERGE KEY Health enables and inspires physicians to excel in every wayand by doing so reclaim a great American industry that has been lost to bureaucracy and inefficiency. For more information, follow Concierge Key Health on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and visit www.conciergekeyhealth.com.

MEDIA CONTACT: Leslie Licano, Beyond Fifteen Communications, Inc.

[email protected] | 949-733-8679 x 101

SOURCE CONCIERGE KEY Health

Related Links

http://www.conciergekeyhealth.com

"Tens of thousands of government contractors hold sensitive data or perform services on behalf of federal agencies. The U.S. government must be focused on evaluating, monitoring and improving the cyber hygiene of these contractors," said Jacob Olcott, VP of Strategic Partnerships at BitSight. "Recent contractor regulations, like the new DOD requirements, are a start, but are too focused on check-the-box compliance. Cyber is a dynamic risk. By leveraging objective data and continuously monitoring the supply chain, the federal government will better comprehend the danger within its own ecosystem and begin to meaningfully mitigate this risk."

BitSight researchers sampled over 1,200 U.S. federal government contractors across industries including aerospace and aviation, business services, healthcare and wellness, engineering, technology, and manufacturing, who provide critical products and services directly to the federal government and are central to national security, the national and global economy, and the environment. These organizations were compared to the performance of over 120 U.S. federal agencies.

Key Findings

The mean BitSight Security Rating for federal agencies was 15 or more points higher than the mean of any contractor sector researched, indicating a security performance gap between the U.S. federal government and its contractor base.

Over 8% of healthcare and wellness contractors have disclosed a data breach since January 2016 ; Aerospace/Defense firms had the next highest breach disclosure rate at 5.6%.

While the U.S. federal government has made a concerted effort to fight botnets in recent months, botnet infections are prevalent amongst the government contractor base, particularly for healthcare and manufacturing contractors.

Nearly 50% of contractors have a BitSight grade below C for the Protective Technology subcategory of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, a sign that many are not following best practices for network encryption and email security.

Nearly one in five users at Technology and Aerospace/Defense contractors have an outdated internet browser, making these employees and their organizations highly susceptible to new variants of malware.

Using evidence of security incidents from networks around the world, the BitSight Security Ratings Platform applies sophisticated algorithms to produce daily security ratings for organizations, ranging from 250 to 900, where higher ratings equate to lower risk. Previous studies from BitSight, independently verified by third parties, show that companies with a Security Rating of 500 or lower are nearly five times as likely to experience a publicly disclosed breach than companies with a Security Rating higher than 700. Studies also show that organizations with a higher frequency of botnet infections, actual system compromises, experience a higher likelihood of breach.

To download a full copy of the BitSight Insights report, including recommendations based on the findings, visit http://bitsig.ht/2FP6j2L.

About BitSight

BitSight is transforming how companies manage information security risk with trusted, time-tested and actionable security ratings. Founded in 2011, the company built its Security Ratings Platform to continuously analyze vast amounts of external data on security issues and behaviors in order to help organizations manage third party risk, underwrite cyber insurance policies, benchmark performance, conduct M&A due diligence and assess aggregate risk. Organizations worldwide, including seven of the top 10 cyber insurers, 20% of Fortune 500 companies, and 3 of the top 5 investment banks use BitSight's proven Security Ratings technology on a daily basis to make integral risk and business decisions. With over 1,000 customers and the largest ecosystem of users and information, BitSight is the most widely used Security Ratings Service. For more information, please visit www.bitsighttech.com, read our blog or follow @BitSight on Twitter.

SOURCE BitSight Technologies

Related Links

http://www.bitsighttech.com

LONDON, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Following impressive fertilizer demand in 2017-with record imports of all nutrients-agricultural fundamentals in Brazil look likely to correct downwards in 2018. For the first time in a decade, Safrinha corn area is expected to fall. This will be the main factor in dragging fertilizer consumption lower in 2018.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/536199/CRU_Logo.jpg )



Overview of crop area dynamics in Brazil

Over the past two decades, Brazil has emerged as an agricultural powerhouse due its ample availability of arable land and suitable climatic conditions. Brazil is the world's largest producer of sugar and the second largest producer of soybeans. The growth in agricultural production has led to a sharp rise in fertilizer demand.

A majority of the expansion in agricultural area has occurred within the Cerrado, a vast tropical savannah region in centre-west Brazil covering the states of Goias, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul. Crop expansion has been driven by the conversion of pasture lands to soybeans and corn. The Cerrado has oxisoils/ferraols soil types, which are low in fertility and sulphur deficient, resulting in crop production limitations. This has underpinned the growth in fertilizer application rates and demand.

The cropping system in Brazil has evolved to include more soybeans, with area of this crop rising sharply. While most of this expansion has come from the conversion of inefficient pasture land, it has also come at a cost to full season corn area.

Farmers have moved to a double cropping system, with many choosing to plant soybeans in October/November and then plant corn immediately following harvest in February/March, known as Safrinha (second season) corn. Safrinha corn area has been rising in line with soybeans and now accounts for 70% of total corn production in Brazil.

Why is Safrinha corn area going to fall in 2018?

Total crop area is forecast to expand at a slower growth rate in 2018 compared to the record increases witnessed in 2016/17, owing to lower crop prices. Corn prices have been a particular concern for farmers.

Planting of full-season corn, Brazil's first corn crop, which was complete by the end of November 2017 is estimated to have fallen by 10% y/y, with farmers favouring soybean planting. This first corn crop is more sensitive to crop price ratios and currently accounts for 30% of total corn area.

Read the full story: http://bit.ly/Drop-in-Safrinha-corn

Read more about CRU: http://bit.ly/About_CRU

About CRU

CRU offers unrivalled business intelligence on the global metals, mining and fertilizer industries through market analysis, price assessments, consultancy and events.

Since our foundation by Robert Perlman in 1969, we have consistently invested in primary research and robust methodologies, and developed expert teams in key locations worldwide, including in hard-to-reach markets such as China.

CRU employs over 260 experts and has more than 10 offices around the world, in Europe, the Americas, China, Asia and Australia - our office in Beijing opened in 2004.

When facing critical business decisions, you can rely on our first-hand knowledge to give you a complete view of a commodity market. And you can engage with our experts directly, for the full picture and a personalised response.

CRU - big enough to deliver a high quality service, small enough to care about all of our customers.

SOURCE CRUSYDNEY and GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Etherbots and WAX today announced that the company's Crypto Collectibles will be available on OPSkins, the world's leading marketplace for online video game assets and are tradeable with WAX Tokens, Bitcoin, US dollars, Euros and dozens of other currencies.

Etherbots is a blockchain-based online game that allows users to collect, build and duel virtual robots with other players across the globe. Their pre-sale recently sold out three days early, with players buying over $1,000,000 USD worth of parts, the most successful game pre-sale to date. Etherbots are comprised of four different parts, each of which are unique and scarce, so every robot is customized to the user, with over four million unique combinations. Users can buy parts and sell unused ones back into the marketplace. The full game is launching on Etherbots Wednesday, February 21st at 10pm Pacific Time and items are expected to be added to OPSkins towards the end of March.

"Having complete ownership of digital assetsbeing able to trade, transfer and use them with no external controlis a revolutionary idea," said James Ferguson, Co-Founder of Etherbots. "We wanted to create a game inspired by this innovative concept; one with deeply strategic gameplay, a rewarding economy and assets with real in-game utility. We are excited to be at the forefront of the digital ownership movement, and by the incredible feedback we've had so far, so are a lot of our fans."

"The concept of virtual collectible items on the blockchain adds a fresh value proposition to the crypto world," said Malcolm CasSelle, CIO of OPSkins and President of WAX. "We see OPSkins and WAX as key players in developing our new Crypto Collectibles marketplace, and we're excited to integrate Etherbots into that ecosystem."

With the integration of Etherbots onto the OPSkins platform, and WAX Tokens into the Etherbots marketplace, WAX Tokens gain additional utility and more players are incentivized to join the ecosystem.

OPSkins will become the go-to marketplace to trade these Crypto Collectibles, also known as ERC-721 tokens. Etherbots makes the second ERC-721 token to be added to OPSkins and tradable with WAX Tokens  the first was CryptoKitties in December 2017, and there are more to come. OPSkins boasts over two million weekly transactions on its platform, has millions of active customers and adds 200,000 new users each month. WAX allows anyone to create a virtual goods marketplace, onboarding millions of gamers to the growing cryptocurrency space.

About Etherbots

Etherbots is a decentralized application hosted on the Ethereum network. Inspired by "Robot Wars", you can collect parts, forge over four-million unique robots, and use them to battle or trade with other players. Level up and unlock perks which benefit your robots in combat. Battle and discover rare parts by winning duels in the arena. Winand you might receive a legendary gold flamethrower to roast your enemies. Lose and you'll be lucky to find a frying pan. Etherbots recently sold out their presale three days early, with over $1,000,000 worth of parts bought. The full game launches Wednesday, February 21st at 10pm Pacific Time. For more information, check out https://etherbots.io/, or join their discord.

About WAX

WAX is a functional utility token that supports a decentralized platform, enabling anyone to operate a fully functioning virtual marketplace with zero investment in security, infrastructure or payment processing. Developed by the founders of OPSkins, the world's leading marketplace for online video game assets, WAX is designed to serve the 400+ million online players who already collect and trade video game assets and crypto collectibles. With the inclusion of the WAX simple exchange widget, gamers will have access to a worldwide market with blockchain trust and transaction verification. For more information, please visit https://wax.io and http://www.opskins.com

Worldwide Asset eXchange, WAX and Crypto Collectibles are trademarks and the sole property of Worldwide Asset eXchange. All other registered or unregistered trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners.

Media Contact:

Jackie Eicholz

WAX

831.401.3175

[email protected]

SOURCE WAX

Related Links

https://wax.io

" As recent high-profile security breaches have demonstrated, cybersecurity is a business risk issue and not just an IT problem ," said Hunter Muller, HMG Strategy's President & CEO. "As such, successful CISOs recognize the importance of collaborating closely with the CEO and the board on cyber-risk strategies that can protect the enterprise, its customers, and shareholders."

The San Francisco CISO Executive Leadership Summit will kick-off with an executive panel discussion featuring Todd Barnum, CISO, GoPro Inc., Vijay Bolina, CISO, Blackhawk Network, Steve Booth, VP & Chief Security Officer, FireEye, Neelima Mane, Sr. Director, CIO Office Strategy, LogMeIn, and Matthew Rosenquist, Cybersecurity Strategist, Intel Corporation. These leading security officers will discuss their roles in leading transformative cybersecurity strategies within their organizations along with best practices for working closely with fellow executives to protect the enterprise.

Other compelling sessions will include an executive keynote by SecurityScorecard Co-Founder and COO Sam Kassoumeh; an executive panel that will examine how emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence/machine learning and behavioral analytics offer information security teams faster and more effective ways to detect malicious behavior; a panel of leading search executives who will share recommendations for CISOs to elevate their personal brands and accelerate their career ascent; a set of executive roundtable working groups that will enable attendees to brainstorm with their peers on top challenges and opportunities, including must-have communication strategies for the board of directors, gamification and employee security awareness, and evaluating the human side of security; followed by an executive panel that will focus on how to foster innovation while leveraging security as a competitive advantage.

Distinguished speakers at the summit will include:

Asheem Chandna, Partner, Greylock Partners

Lance Harris , CISO, Esurance

, CISO, Esurance Chris Jacquet , VP, Chief Information Security Officer, Hitachi Data Systems

, VP, Chief Information Security Officer, Hitachi Data Systems Muddu Sudhakar , Entrepreneur & Executive

Presenting Partners for the San Francisco Summit include SecurityScorecard. Platinum Partners include Datalink, an Insight Company. Gold Partners include CyberArk, Cybereason and Duo. Supporting Partners include Zerto. The Digital Cybersecurity Partner of the Year includes SecurityScorecard. Strategic Partners include Egon Zehnder, Heidrick & Struggles, Korn Ferry, Russell Reynolds Associates, and Spencer Stuart. Alliance Partners include Amplify Partners, Glynn Capital, Greylock Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Sequoia.

To visit the San Francisco summit website and register for the event, click here.

About HMG Strategy

HMG Strategy is the world's largest independent and most trusted provider of executive networking events and thought leadership to support the 360-degree needs of technology leaders. Our regional CIO and CISO Executive Leadership Series, newsletters, authored books, and online Resource Center deliver proprietary research on leadership, innovation, transformation, and career ascent.

The HMG Strategy global network consists of over 300,000 senior IT executives, industry experts and world-class thought leaders. HMG Strategy's exclusive CIO and CISO Executive Leadership Alliance (CELA) program provides top-tier technology executives with unparalleled peer-to-peer off-the-record straight talk to strengthen their decision-making capabilities and accelerate their career ascent. The CELA program is complemented by the CELA Executive Decision Support services (EDS) which connects enterprise technology executives with their contemporaries who are able to offer their expertise, practical experience, and insights in disciplines ranging from effective C-suite communication strategies to crafting successful 1-3-5-year technology roadmaps.

Additionally, our partnerships with the world's leading search firms provide vital insights into the evolving roles of the CIO and CISO.

The HMG Strategy CIO Executive Leadership Series offers a completely unique experience for IT executives to gain the latest insights and best practices for driving increased business value through the use of IT, and build invaluable relationships with peers and industry experts. The HMG Strategy CISO Executive Leadership Series is designed to provide information security leaders with the insights and best practices they need to tackle the most pressing cyber security challenges facing the enterprise today and going forward.

For more information on joining the strongest executive leadership network and exploring our independent, forward-thinking thought leadership platform, please visit www.hmgstrategy.com.

SOURCE HMG Strategy

Related Links

http://www.hmgstrategy.com

MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Students and families wanting to learn more about planning and paying for college can attend one of 58 College Nights planned throughout Virginia between now and April 26. The events are hosted by Educational Credit Management Corporation (ECMC), which provides college access and financial literacy education to empower students to make informed choices about their futures.

During the next three months, ECMC will give away more than $85,000 in scholarships at the events. The company has hosted College Nights in Virginia for the past 12 years.

"College is often the first critical milestone in a person's financial life," said Paula Craw, vice president of outreach and student success at ECMC. "Bringing these college planning workshops to students and families will help them better understand their options, enabling them to make informed decisions."

College Nights are interactive events designed to help students and their families choose the right college, navigate the financial aid process and find scholarships while avoiding scholarship scams.

Attendees will receive a copy of ECMC's Opportunities booklet, a free college planning workbook that features worksheets, checklists, and helpful tips along with Virginia-specific information for high school students and their families. The books are also available free for download in English and Spanish.

In addition, attendees at each event will have the opportunity to win one of three $500 scholarships.

"Our focus is on reaching the highest need students and familiesCollege Nights are traditionally held at high schools where eligibility for free and reduced lunch is 50 percent or greater," Craw said. "In addition, we sponsor the events at a few community colleges in rural, high-need areas where it makes sense for the events to be centrally located."

A full list of the Virginia College Nights is available here.

In Virginia, ECMC's College Nights are part of a collaboration with the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) on the "1, 2, 3 Go! Virginia's Three Steps to College" initiative. The program is a series of events including:

"1" College Nights to help students and families understand the process of applying and paying for college.

"2" Virginia College Application Week to encourage students to submit at least one college application.

Application Week to encourage students to submit at least one college application. "3" Super FAFSA Project Virginia to get hands-on help to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

"Go!" which is Decision Day in Virginia , to recognize and celebrate all seniors and their plans for postsecondary education.

About ECMC

Educational Credit Management Corporation (ECMC) is a nonprofit corporation with a mission to help students succeed. ECMC works to lower student loan default rates; sponsors college access and success initiatives, and financial education programs; and provides resources to support student loan borrowers to successfully repay their loans. To learn more about ECMC's initiatives, visit www.ecmc.org/students.

SOURCE ECMCSANTIAGO, Chile, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ENEL CHILE S.A. (NYSE: ENIC) today announced the launch of the preemptive rights offering in connection with the capital increase approved by the company's shareholders on December 20, 2017, as part of a proposed corporate reorganization of Enel Chile (the "Reorganization"). The Reorganization includes (i) a tender offer by Enel Chile for all of the outstanding shares of common stock of Enel Generacion Chile S.A. ("Enel Generacion"), including in the form of American Depositary Shares ("ADSs"), that are not owned by Enel Chile and its affiliates (the "Tender Offer"), (ii) a capital increase by Enel Chile in connection with the Tender Offer and (iii) a merger of Enel Green Power Latin America S.A. ("EGPL") with and into Enel Chile. Pursuant to the capital increase related to the Tender Offer, the company is authorized to issue 10,000,000,000 new shares, which are subject to the preemptive rights offering and are to be offered for cash at a price of Ch$82 per share.

Each share of Enel Chile common stock held of record on February 9, 2018 will entitle its holder to receive one transferable right to subscribe for 0.20370 shares of common stock. Five rights are required to subscribe for one new share at a subscription price of Ch$82 per new share. Enel Chile will accept subscriptions for whole shares only and will not issue fractional shares or cash in lieu of fractional shares. The 30-day exercise period for the rights begins on February 15, 2018 and will end on March 16, 2018.

Holders of Enel Chile ADSs will not be distributed rights to subscribe for new shares of common stock or new ADSs or have any right to instruct Citibank, N.A., as depositary, to subscribe on their behalf. The rights with respect to shares of Enel Chile common stock represented by ADSs will be issued to the depositary. Holders of ADSs who want to exercise or sell the rights corresponding to the shares of common stock underlying such ADSs, must surrender their ADSs to the depositary prior to 4:00 p.m. (New York City time) on March 7, 2018 and instruct the depositary to deliver both the underlying shares of common stock and the rights to a securities brokerage account in Chile specified by the holder.

The rights offering will not be effective if any of the following events occur: (i) Enel Chile has not published a notice of the results of the Tender Offer on or before December 31, 2018 or (ii) Enel Chile has published a notice of the results of the Tender Offer indicating that the Tender Offer expired or was not successful.

The shares of Enel Chile common stock to be offered in the rights offering have been registered in Chile with the Financial Market Commission (formerly known as the Superintendencia de Valores y Seguros), or the CMF. A registration statement on Form F-3 relating to these securities offered in the United States in the rights offering and a prospectus supplement to the prospectus contained in such registration statement have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC").

No Offer or Solicitations

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security and does not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any jurisdiction in which such offering would be unlawful, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such state or jurisdiction.

No offering of securities in the United States with respect to the Tender Offer shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

Important Information For Investors and Security Holders

The Tender Offer described herein has not yet commenced. If the Tender Offer is commenced, tender offer materials will be made available and filed with the SEC in accordance with applicable U.S. federal securities laws and SEC rules. In connection with the proposed Tender Offer, Enel Chile has filed with the SEC a registration statement on Form F-4 (Registration No. 333-221156) containing a preliminary prospectus of Enel Chile regarding the proposed Tender Offer. The information contained in the preliminary prospectus is not complete and may be changed. Each of Enel Chile and Enel Generacion may file with the SEC other documents in connection with the proposed Tender Offer.

This communication is not a substitute for the definitive prospectus that Enel Chile will file with the SEC, which will contain important information, including detailed risk factors. The definitive prospectus (when available) and related tender offer materials (when available) will be sent to shareholders and holders of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) of Enel Generacion. INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS OF ENEL GENERACION ARE URGED TO READ THE DEFINITIVE PROSPECTUS AND OTHER TENDER OFFER MATERIALS THAT ARE FILED OR MAY BE FILED WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN OR WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION, INCLUDING THE FULL DETAILS OF THE TENDER OFFER.

Investors and security holders will be able to obtain free copies of the tender offer materials and other documents filed with the SEC by Enel Chile and Enel Generacion on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Copies of the tender offer materials and the other documents filed with the SEC by Enel Chile will also be available free of charge on the Enel Chile Investor Relations website at www.enelchile.cl or by contacting Enel Chile S.A. at Santa Rosa 76, Piso 15, Santiago, Chile, Attention: Investor Relations or by phone at +56 2 2353 4400 or by E-mail at [email protected]. Copies of the tender offer materials and the other documents filed with the SEC by Enel Generacion will be available free of charge on the Enel Generacion Investor Relations website at www.enelgeneracion.cl or by contacting Enel Generacion S.A. at Santa Rosa 76, Piso 15, Santiago, Chile, Attention: Investor Relations or by phone at +56 2 2630 9000 or by E-mail at [email protected].

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains statements that could constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of Enel Chile and its management with respect to, among other things: (1) the Reorganization, including the Tender Offer, the capital increase and the related rights offering, and the merger with EGPL; (2) any statements preceded by, followed by or that include the words "believes," "expects," "predicts," "anticipates," "intends," "estimates," "should," "may" or similar expressions; and (3) any statement that is not a historical fact. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. These factors include, but are not limited to, the following: (1) Enel Chile may fail to realize the business growth opportunities, revenue benefits, cost savings and other benefits anticipated from the proposed Reorganization described herein;

(2) Enel Chile may incur unanticipated costs associated with the proposed Reorganization;

(3) potential integration of Enel Chile and EGPL may be difficult and expensive; (4) Enel Chile, following the consummation of the proposed Reorganization, may not be able to retain key employees or efficiently manage the larger and broader organization, which could negatively affect its operations and financial condition; (5) the proposed Reorganization may be delayed or may not be consummated, negatively affecting the market price of Enel Chile's stock; and (6) the other risk factors discussed in Enel Chile's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2016, under the heading "Item 3.D. Risk Factors." There can be no assurance that the proposed Reorganization, including the capital increase and the related preemptive rights offering or any other transaction described in this press release, will in fact be consummated in the manner described or at all. These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof. Enel Chile undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Contact Information

For further information, please contact:

Investor Relations Department

e-mail: [email protected]

Phone: +56 22353 4682

Address: Santa Rosa 76, Santiago, Chile

SOURCE Enel Chile

Related Links

http://www.enelchile.cl

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly half (46%) of entry-level employees don't know if their company has a cybersecurity policy, according to new research from Clutch, a B2B research firm. The study also suggests that more communication and training on cybersecurity policies is needed for employees.

More than half of the employees surveyed (52%) say their company currently has a cybersecurity policy.

Graph showing the amount of companies that have a cybersecurity policy. Graph showing the main threat to a company's security, according to full-time employees

Yet, the survey also indicates that employees at all levels of an organization are probably unaware of the IT security threats their companies potentially face.

Nearly two-thirds of employees (63%) surveyed said they don't know if the quantity of IT security threats their companies face will increase or decrease over the next year. Additionally, among entry level employees, 87% said they don't know if the number of threats will shift in the next year.

IT security experts are quick to point out that employees' lack of awareness puts companies at risk for IT security breaches.

"Attacks will be more frequent, more voracious and more sophisticated in breaking through any protection you can put in place," said Steve Scott-Douglas, CIO of Ciklum, a global software engineering and solutions company.

The survey also found that employees are less likely to recognize IT services as the primary area of security vulnerability at their company. Instead, they cited theft of company property as the primary threat to company security, ahead of unauthorized information and email phishing scams.

To increase awareness of IT security issues among employees, experts recommend that all companies maintain a 'top-down' cybersecurity policy.

Employee awareness of IT security issues should be driven by a company's executive leadership. When company leaders emphasize and communicate IT security throughout their organization, their employees are more aware and prepared for threats.

"The sheer act of taking the time to put a policy in place is the first step in going from the unconscious incompetence debate around [security] to then build up your competence and become aware of the threats and take those threats very seriously," said Scott-Douglas.

Cybersecurity Policies Can Empower Employees

Employees of companies with a cybersecurity policy are more likely to:

Feel prepared for a cybersecurity threat

Accurately survey the number of IT security threats their company will face

Understand IT services as the primary security vulnerability for their company

One way companies can drive awareness is through security training during new employee onboarding. Companies tend to offer IT security onboarding programs to higher-level employees only, which may account for the greater awareness and feeling of preparedness this group has regarding IT security threats.

Providing IT security onboarding for all employees can narrow the IT security knowledge gap between entry-level and higher-level employees and help ensure organizations as a whole are more aware and prepared for security issues.

To read the full report and source the survey data, visit: https://clutch.co/it-services/resources/employee-awareness-it-security-threats.

About Clutch

A B2B research, ratings, and reviews firm in the heart of Washington, DC, Clutch connects small and medium businesses with the best-fit agencies, software, or consultants they need to tackle business challenges together and with confidence. Clutch's methodology compares business service providers and software in a specific market based on verified client reviews, services offered, work quality, and market presence.

Contact

Grayson Kemper

[email protected]

(202) 470-0491

SOURCE ClutchCHICAGO, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Equity Office, the U.S. office portfolio company wholly-owned by Blackstone's real estate funds, announced today that Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT), the world's leading research and advisory company, will be moving its Midwest operations to River North Point at 350 North Orleans Street.

With a total of 74,450 square feet of office space, Gartner will occupy two floors of the building with its 650 employees. The company plans to move from its current location at 200 West Jackson to River North Point in Summer 2018.

This move is a result of Gartner's 2017 acquisition of CEB, the industry leader in best practice and talent management insights, as it works toward consolidating and uniting the two companies' Midwest operations.

"Our redevelopment and transformation of River North Point is creating a modern employment hub with an unbeatable combination of amenities, location and floorplates - where employees want to be," said David Moore, Senior Vice President  Portfolio Director, Equity Office. "We are excited to welcome an innovative and industry leading company like Gartner to our building, as a direct result of the vision we are executing, and we look forward to providing a space and place that helps their company and employees thrive."

Gartner will have access to the building's more than 25,000 square feet of tenant-only amenity space that includes a 10,000+ square-foot high-end fitness center with club-like programming, a newly landscaped rooftop deck and a brand new 10,000 square-foot tenant lounge and conference facility. In addition, the building is implementing a state-of-the-art secure access system as part of the overall redevelopment plan.

Mike Kazmierczak, Ron Lakin and Ellen Zalatoris of CBRE represented Equity Office in the transaction. Matt Carolan and Christine Bower of Jones Lang LaSalle represented Gartner.

Blackstone acquired the iconic River North Point building in 2015. Originally built in the mid-1970s, River North Point was the center of Chicago's apparel industry and host to the world's largest collection of apparel showroom space. The award-winning property has since been repositioned for a variety of office and creative use tenants and is currently being redeveloped. Located on bank of the Chicago River, River North Point provides views of the river to the south and west, and views of the Chicago skyline. The building's premier location offers access to CTA train and bus lines, commuter rail stations and the Kennedy Expressway (I-90/94). A glass-enclosed skywalk connects the property to the Merchandise Mart, providing direct access to the CTA station, underground parking, restaurants and retail amenities located within the Merchandise Mart.

About Equity Office

The Equity Office portfolio, encompassing approximately 47 million square feet of Class A office space throughout the U.S., is rich with signature properties in the nation's leading gateway markets. The company focuses heavily on meeting the current trends and changing strategic needs of companies and our chosen markets. With an average tenure of over 25 years in the real estate industry, our regional leaders also head teams with deep experience across the board from investment and asset management, to property management, development and construction. As an affiliate of Blackstone, a pre-eminent global asset manager providing significant financial strength and long-term stability, we are extremely well capitalized. Please visit www.equityoffice.com for more information.

About Gartner

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT), is the world's leading research and advisory company and a member of the S&P 500. We equip business leaders with indispensable insights, advice and tools to achieve their mission-critical priorities and build the successful organizations of tomorrow. Our unmatched combination of expert-led, practitioner-sourced and data-driven research steers clients toward the right decisions on the issues that matter most. We're trusted as an objective resource and critical partner by more than 12,000 organizations in more than 100 countriesacross all major functions, in every industry and enterprise size. To learn more about how we help decision makers fuel the future of business, visit gartner.com.

SOURCE Equity Office

Related Links

http://www.equityoffice.com

IMMACULATA, Pa., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Immaculata University will transition its campus store from Barnes & Noble to Follett Higher Education on Feb. 15, 2018, bringing affordable course material options and fresh product assortments to the campus community.

With this new collaboration between Follett and Immaculata University, students and faculty will benefit from Follett's expansive inventory of affordable course material choices. Cost-saving print options include used books as well as Follett's text rental program that saves students up to 80 percent compared to purchasing new titles. New store services include Follett's popular price match program, which helps ensure students get their materials at the lowest cost possible, and their year-round buyback program, which allows students to sell back their used books. Follett will also offer affordable open educational resources content and courseware by Lumen Learning. Additionally, students will have access to a diverse selection of digital learning technologies that help promote anywhere/anytime access to the materials they need when they need them.

"One of Follett's main objectives is to provide low-cost course material options while driving student success," said Clay Wahl, president of Follett Higher Education. "We're thrilled to team up with Immaculata University to serve their community of students, alumni, parents, faculty and staff. Customers can expect the Immaculata Campus Store to deliver great products and convenient services that enhance life on campus."

Beyond course materials, Follett will refresh the store's general merchandise offerings to be a one-stop shop for both classroom and campus life essentials. Customers can expect a custom product assortment that reflects local interests as well as national trends in supplies, technology, clothing, gifts and more. Exciting brands carried include Champion, NIKE and League Collegiate Outfitters. The full breadth of the store's products and services can be explored both in-store and online through immaculatashop.com.

About Immaculata University | www.immaculata.edu

Immaculata University, a Catholic academic community, founded and sponsored by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, is committed to scholarship, formation of the whole person for leadership and service, and empowerment of all to seek truth, promote justice, and engage in dialogue between faith and culture.

About the Immaculata Campus Store | www.immaculatashop.com

The Immaculata Campus Store is solely devoted to serving students, faculty, staff, alumni and fans  offering products and services both in-store and online at eFollett.com. The store is located at 1145 King Road, Immaculata, PA 19345.

About Follett Corporation | www.follett.com

Follett is a $3.4 billion privately held company headquartered in Westchester, Illinois. As a leading provider of education technology, services and physical and digital content, Follett works with 70,000 schools and operates more than 1,250 local campus stores and 1,600 virtual stores. With the 2016 acquisition of Baker & Taylor, LLC, Follett's reach also extends into the public library and global retail markets. For more information, visit www.follett.com. For more information on our partnership with Lumen Learning, visit www.follett.com/lumen.

SOURCE Follett Corporation

Related Links

http://www.follett.com

WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The KNOW Identity Conference, the premier global event for the identity industry, will return to Washington, D.C. this winter. One World Identity (OWI) is announcing that Scott Galloway, Founder of L2, author and entrepreneur, will help kick off day one as the leading keynote speaker of the highly anticipated event. KNOW 2018 runs Monday, March 26th to Wednesday, March 28th at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Conference Center.

On that Monday morning, Galloway will present "The Break Up of Big Tech." He'll detail the power and influence big tech have on consumers lives and why it's time for intervention. Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions.

"For the past decade, the loudest arguments waged regarding the Four (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google) were about which CEO was more Jesus-like or should run for president," said Scott Galloway, Founder of L2. "However, the worm has turned against big tech and we're starting to realize that it's time someone ought to put on the brakes."

Galloway is a professor at the NYU Stern School of Business where he teaches brand strategy and digital marketing and was named "One of the World's 50 Best Business School Professors" by Poets & Quants in 2012. He is the founder of Red Envelope, Prophet Brand Strategy, and L2 Inc., acquired by Gartner in March 2017. His book, "The Four", (Portfolio Penguin, 2017), debuted on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists in the hardcover non-fiction and hardcover business categories. Galloway was elected to the World Economic Forum's Global Leaders of Tomorrow and has served on the boards of directors of Eddie Bauer, The New York Times Company, Urban Outfitters, and UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.

The KNOW Identity Conference will provide a unique forum for identity experts from across all industries to be at the nexus of ideas and policies that will fundamentally change identity around the world. Attendees can expect to delve into critical topics such as biometrics, cybersecurity, identity access management, trust and safety, fraud prevention and identity verification.

"Scott Galloway is well versed in the importance of customer experience and brand trust in the digital age, which are crucial topics we will tackle at Know Identity 2018," says Travis Jarae, CEO of OWI. "Identity is currently being solved through impressive technologies, however often at the expense of trust. We are bringing together top thought leaders to explore how future innovation in identity can help companies across multiple verticals benefit from ubiquitous product and service offerings without sacrificing the trust and safety of consumers.

KNOW Identity 2018 pairs a unique and diversified program with the world's leading identity experts, bringing together product managers, business leaders, and investors. With 1,000+ attendees, 390+ organizations, and 30+ countries represented, the conference is designed to spark innovation by facilitating conversations between people from different backgrounds and organizations of all size. Sponsors include Trulioo, IBM, CLEAR, LexisNexis, NuData Security, RSA, and ThreatMetrix, among many others.

The conference will also feature the KNOW Identity Startup Pitch Competition, bringing together the world's leading early-stage startups in cybersecurity, trust and safety, and IoT for a live on-stage battle. The winning start-up will receive a cash prize of $10,000.

KNOW Identity will host a hackathon in which teams will be given 24 hours to develop solutions that solve a critical identity and personal data challenge competing for the grand prize of $25,000. Developers, hackers, and creatives, are welcomed to build innovative apps, insights and personalized experiences on the digi.me consent access private sharing platform, available on iOS (Swift) and Android (Java). JavaScript developers will be able to create native apps using Onymos and a hybrid platform, Fabric.

The KNOW Identity Awards, which recognize the most compelling startups, individuals and identity innovations of the year, are now open for nominations. Nominations will be accepted now through March 9th, and the awards will be presented on Tuesday, March 27th in Washington, D.C. during KNOW 2018.

To register or for more information visit: www.knowidentityconference.com/

About the KNOW Identity Conference

The premier global event for the identity industry, the KNOW Identity Conference is the nexus for identity innovation, offering a uniquely differentiated, powerful, and immersive event that convenes the world's most influential organizations and smartest minds across industries to shape the future of identity. With 1,000+ attendees, 300+ organizations, 100+ speakers, and 30+ countries represented, the conference is designed to spark innovation by facilitating conversations between people from different backgrounds and organizations of all size. The KNOW Identity Conference will be held March 26-28, 2018 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.

About OWI

OWI is an independent identity research and strategy company focused on cybersecurity, digital commerce, and risk management. We help businesses, investors, and governments stay ahead of market trends so they can build sustainable, forward-looking identity-enabled products and strategies. We accomplish this by building community and facilitating dialogue through our events, the KNOW Identity Conference, as well as servicing the community with our educational content, news, media, independent research, and consulting.

Visit OWI at www.oneworldidentity.com for the latest in identity news, events, opinion and research.

Contact: Gabriella Velez

Email: [email protected]

Phone. 212.334.9753, ext. 137

SOURCE One World Identity

Related Links

https://www.oneworldidentity.com

VANCOUVER , British Columbia, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Future Farm Technologies Inc. (the "Company" or "Future Farm") (CSE: FFT) (OTCQB: FFRMF) is pleased to announce that its subsidiary, Future Farm Maine, LLC, has received three licenses from the State of Maine for the cultivation of industrial hemp in 2018. Future Farm Maine received one license for each of its Amity and Hersey farms, as well as one for the Belfast processing facility.

Mr. Bill Gildea, CEO of Future Farm, comments, "We are thrilled to have received these three licenses to operate our industrial hemp business in Maine and are excited to build our high value, vertically integrated industrial hemp farm and CBD oil production facility in 2018."

As recently announced, the Company signed a lease agreement for an initial 12,960 sq. ft. of space in a 60,000 sq. ft. building, with an option to expand or buy the building. Future Farm Maine will use the Belfast building to germinate 250,000 hemp seeds over the next few months, which then will be planted to meet the summer growing season at the Amity and Hersey farms. With over 100 organic certified acres ready to plant and an additional 1,000 acres available for expansion, Future Farm Maine is poised to be the largest hemp farm in the North East.

Future Farm Maine plans to use feminized seeds of the highest quality, CBD strains in the industry that test in compliance of hemp laws of having .03% THC or less while averaging 15% CBD. The hemp seeds will also be germinated under the Company's LED grow lights, which will save on electricity costs and further leverage its in-house technology. Once harvested, the hemp will be dried and further refined using Future Farm's high output oil processing equipment creating both CBD oil and high value isolate for making edibles, creams and lotions.

Future Farm is also pleased to announce that it has engaged Mr. Zachary Lapan to oversee the Company's Maine cultivation and processing operations. Mr. Lapan has worked closely with Derek Ross providing operational oversight for ten years. Mr. Lapan has deep community and agricultural ties to Maine, and is excited to provide operational expertise in Future Farm Maine's portfolio of projects.

"Growing hemp in northern Maine requires local, agricultural and climate expertise," comments Derek Ross, President of Cannatech and Future Farm's joint venture partner in Maine. "Mr. Lapan is a successful, seasoned hemp farmer and I'm excited that he has joined the team."

Comments Mr. Lapan, "It is time to get to work! This is going to be fun and I'm excited to be on the forefront of the hemp industry here in Maine. We have an aggressive schedule to develop our propagation facility and we will hire the best and most talented local resources to get the job done."

The market for CBD is poised for expansion due in part to the FDA's acceptance of a New Drug Application submitted by GW Pharmaceuticals plc for Epidiolex, a drug containing CBD. Three Goldman Sachs analysts projected 2025 worldwide sales of US$2.2 billion for Epidiolex, with more than half (56 percent) of the sales coming from off-label use. Sales of CBD in the United States across the hemp-derived, marijuana-derived and pharmaceutical industries is projected to reach $1.1 billion by 2020, according to Hemp Business Journal.

The Company also confirms that the Board of Directors has approved the cancellation of 3,875,000 incentive stock options currently exercisable at $1.24CDN.

On behalf of the Board,

Future FarmTechnologies Inc.

William Gildea, CEO & Chairman

About Future Farm

Future Farm Technologies Inc. is a Canadian company with projects throughout North America including California, Florida and Maryland. The Company's business model includes developing and acquiring technologies that will position it as a leader in the evolution of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) for the global production of various types of plants, with a focus on cannabis. Future Farm provides scalable, indoor CEA systems that utilize minimal land, water and energy regardless of climate, location or time of year and are customized to grow an abundance of crops close to consumers, therefore minimizing food miles and its impact to the environment. The Company holds an exclusive, worldwide license to use a patented vertical farming technology that, when compared to traditional plant production methods, generates yields up to 10 times greater per square foot of land. The contained system provides many other benefits including 90% less water, fertilizer and land used, less travel costs, seed to sale security, scalability, consistency due to year-round production, cost control, product safety and purity by eliminating environmental variability. The Company also utilizes a leading cannabis oil extraction technology, which enables the Company to process 20lbs/hour of cannabis plant to yield approximately 908 grams/hour of oil.

The Company is also in the business of designing and distributing LED lighting solutions utilizing the COB and MCOB technology. The Company is focused on delivering cost efficient lighting to North America via advanced e-commerce sites the Company owns and operates. LEDCanada.com, which caters to B2B customers, is a supplier of the newest and highest demand LED solutions. The Company also owns and operates COBGrowlights.com, which caters to both large and small agriculture green houses and controlled cultivation centers.

The Company recently acquired the exclusive right to use a patented, augmented reality (AR) technology in the cannabis industry. As described in more detail above, the Company has decided to spin this asset off to its shareholders.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not in any way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

This news release may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under the applicable laws.



For further information, contact:

William Gildea,

Director,

617-834-9467



SOURCE Future Farm Technologies Inc.DUBLIN, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Global Baby & Adult Diapers Market Outlook to 2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The report offers a complete guide to the size and share of the market at an international level

Overall diaper market is expected to cross USD 80 billion till 2022.

This report has included Baby diapers as well Adult diapers. Region wise its has segmented into 'North America', 'Latin America', 'Europe', 'Asia-Pacific' and 'Middle East and Africa'. All region are deeply studied with by type and by countries as well. Baby diapers are further divided into five types viz. 'Disposable Diapers', 'Cloth Diapers', 'Training Pants', 'Swim Pants' and 'Biodegradable and other diapers'.



Adult diapers will increase their share by more than 2% in next five years in comparison to baby diapers. Asia-Pacific diaper market value will be close to the value of Latin America, Europe and Middle East-Africa together at the end of forecast period. Disposable baby diapers are widely used in all the regions captures first position with more than 57%market share during all the years.



Biodegradable diapers are popular among matured market of North America and Europe only as they are latest innovation in diaper industry. Country-wise, USA and China form more than 30% of the total diaper market. China is the country which is going to increase its contribution in future also in both baby diaper and Adult diapers.



In North America, Biodegradable diapers have grown with highest CAGR in last six years than any other regions. Training nappy is second preferred choice of Latin Americans make it contribute more than 15%. Europe is the only region where Adult diapers will contribute more than 25% at the end of 2023. In APAC, Cloth diapers are popular in addition to disposable diapers contributing around 14%. Swim diapers are least used in Middle East-Africa as compared to other region.



On evaluating the competitive landscape of the market, it is found that the key players are Procter & Gamble Company, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Kao Corporation, SCA and Unicharm Corporation.



Considered for the Report:

Geography: North America , Latin America , Europe , APAC, Middle East - Africa

, , , APAC, - Base Year: 2017

Estimated Year: 2018

Forecast Year: 2023

Key Topics Covered:



1. Executive Summary



2. Methodology



3. Abbreviations



4. Global Diaper Market Outlook



5. Global Baby Diaper Market Outlook



6. North America Baby Diaper Market Outlook



7. Europe Baby Diaper Market Outlook



8. Latin America Baby Diaper Market Outlook



9. Asia-Pacific Baby Diaper Market Outlook



10. Middle East & Africa Baby Diaper Market



11. Global Adult Diaper Market Outlook



12. Global Diaper Market Dynamics



13. Market Trends & Developments



14. Competitive Landscape



Domtar Corporation

Hain Celestial Group, Inc.

Hengan International Group Company Limited

Kao Corporation

Kimberly & Clark Corporation

Ontex Group

P&G

Principle Business Enterprises, Inc

SCA Hygiene

Unicharm Corporation

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/pth6fk/global_baby_and?w=5



Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

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BOSTON, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Forgiving principal on 806 mortgages in recent months brought Goldman Sachs halfway toward fulfilling its $1.8-billion consumer-relief obligation under its two April 11, 2016, mortgage-related settlement agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice and three states, Eric D. Green announced today in his sixth report as independent Monitor of the consumer-relief portions of the agreements.

Since Professor Green's previous report on November 15, 2017, Goldman Sachs forgave a total of $73,508,818 in principal on those 806 first-lien mortgages, for an average principal forgiveness of $91,202 per borrower.

After applying credit calculations and multipliers specified in the settlement agreements, Goldman Sachs claimed reportable credit of $97,241,433 toward its obligation of $1.8 billion in consumer-relief credit. The Monitor's report contains a detailed explanation of how the credit is calculated. It also describes protocols that Professor Green and his legal and financial advisers developed with Goldman Sachs to help determine when credit is properly approved or denied for loan modifications in which principal forgiveness is earned in stages as the homeowner makes loan payments on time.

The relief in the most recent period was spread across 41 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, with 35 percent of the credit located in the settling states of New York, Illinois, and California, and 12 percent of the credit located in Hardest Hit Areas, or census tracts identified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as containing large concentrations of distressed properties and foreclosure activities.

The total amount of credit claimed and conditionally validated to date under both settlement agreements comes to $918,142,212. "Approximately 22 months after the settlement agreements were signed, Goldman Sachs appears to be a bit more than halfway toward completing its consumer-relief obligations," Professor Green said.

The two agreements settled potential and filed legal claims against Goldman Sachs regarding the marketing, structuring, arrangement, underwriting, issuance and sale of mortgage-based securities. Besides the Department of Justice, California, Illinois and New York, Goldman Sachs reached settlements with the National Credit Union Administration Board and the Federal Home Loan Banks of Chicago and Des Moines. Under the settlements, Goldman Sachs agreed to provide a total of $5.06 billion, including consumer relief valued at $1.8 billion to be distributed by the end of January 2021.

Professor Green, a professional mediator and retired Boston University law professor now a lecturer in law at Harvard University, was named by the settling parties as independent Monitor with responsibility for determining whether Goldman Sachs fulfills its consumer-relief obligations. He has assembled a team of finance, accounting and legal professionals to assist in the task.

The report is available at the Monitor's website at: http://goldmansachs.mortgagesettlementmonitor.com. The website provides further details about the settlement, plus contact information for Goldman Sachs, the Department of Justice, the Attorneys General of California, Illinois and New York, and agencies that provide legal or tax advice to consumers.

The Monitor's mailing address is: Monitor of the Goldman Sachs Mortgage Settlement, P.O. Box 10310, Dublin, OH 43017-5910, and the e-mail address is [email protected].

SOURCE Monitor: Eric D. GreenCHATSWORTH, Calif., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hallmark Lighting, a leading provider of customized, high-end lighting solutions, primarily to the hospitality industry, today launched a significantly enhanced website to better engage with design and purchase firms seeking state-of-the-art lighting craftsmanship and product innovation. The website is accessible at www.hallmarklighting.com.

Increasingly, Hallmark Lighting clients, who include 98 percent of four- and five-star hotels and 95 percent of the top 100 designers and procurement firms, go online for ideas and to source lighting solutions. "We wanted to provide our clients with a website commensurate with our reputation for unmatched quality and white-glove service, one that helps them more easily identify the right solution for their lighting needs while also showcasing the full spectrum of our products," said Heather Ashley, Director of Marketing and Product Development for Hallmark Lighting.

The features at the Hallmark Lighting website include:

Easier access to product lines: Hallmark Lighting's complete line of products are more easily found through a separate products page with quick links to new products, portables, hardwired lighting, public area lighting and metal furnishings as well as digital catalogs. Clients have easy access to such products as a classic midcentury Sputnik light with a modern crystal twist and dimmable lights with different finishes for public areas.

Examples of Hallmark Lighting's completed projects, for designer inspiration, including lighting provided for four- and five-star hotels around the country.

Direct access to the new Lumin Collection, which offers stock products that provide an affordable, yet sophisticated, look for clients in the two- and three-star hospitality industry and elsewhere as a dramatic alternative to the bespoke products that Hallmark Lighting has long been known for offering.

The redesign of Hallmark Lighting's website comes at a time when the company is seeing rapidly growing demand for its products. Increasingly, design professionals are turning to Hallmark Lighting for its creative lighting solutions, superior quality, economical pricing and the craftsmanship provided by more than 30 trained artisans in the U.S., including specialists in powder coating, gold leafing, sculpting, finishing and the use of infused cast resins, ceramics and custom molds.

Hallmark Lighting and its sister company, Luminance, have been investing in their product development and operations, including their digital presence, since their acquisition in 2016 by Resilience Capital Partners, a private equity firm in Cleveland that manages in excess of $625 million. Resilience Capital has invested in these companies, which has resulted in the hiring of new executives, the launch of new products and the expansion of marketing and distribution.

Resilience Capital Partners, a Cleveland-based private equity firm, acquired Hallmark Lighting and Luminance in 2016.

About Hallmark Lighting

Based in Chatsworth, California, Hallmark Lighting provides the absolute best in custom lighting and architectural appointments, customized, high-end lighting solutions, primarily to the hospitality industry. Having been on the forefront of custom lighting for more than 40 years, Hallmark combines experience to offer an unsurpassed commitment to product quality, customer service and ultimate client satisfaction. We understand the demands that design and purchasing firms face in meeting, and exceeding, their clients' expectations and welcome the opportunity to enhance our innovative design, diversified product offering and creative solutions. For more information, visit us online at www.hallmarklighting.com.

About Luminance

Commerce, California-headquartered Luminance is a designer and distributor of lighting solutions, fixtures, hardware and electrical components, ceiling fans, plumbing parts, light bulbs and LED bulbs. Founded in 1951 and formerly known as American De Rosa Lamparts, Luminance offers not only a unique collection of residential and commercial lighting solutions in flawless finishes but also unparalleled quality and world-class service. In addition to its Commerce headquarters, the company has facilities in Texas, New York and Illinois as well as China. Luminance provides a large line of stock products to residential and commercial clients while its sister company, Hallmark Lighting, supplies customized, high-end lighting solutions, primarily to the hospitality industry. For more information, visit us online at www.luminance.us.com.

About Resilience Capital Partners

Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Resilience Capital Partners invests in niche-oriented manufacturing, value-added distribution and business service companies with sustainable market positions and a clear path to cash flow improvement. Resilience Capital Partners targets platform businesses with $25 million to $250 million in revenues across a broad range of industries where it can improve a company's operations, competitive positioning and profitability. Resilience manages in excess of $625 million for its global investor base that includes pension funds, insurance companies, foundations and endowments, fund of funds and family offices. For more information, please visit www.resiliencecapital.com.

Contact:

Caryn Brownell

The Hubbell Group, Inc.

781-878-8882

[email protected]

SOURCE Hallmark Lighting

Related Links

http://www.hallmarklighting.com

KYIV, Ukraine, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Horizon Capital, a leading private equity firm in the region, announced today that Purcari Wineries PLC (Purcari) has completed its Initial Public Offering and commenced trading on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE: WINE). The offering was well received, with retail investors oversubscribing more than four times over, despite heavy turbulence on global markets as the Dow recorded its two largest point-drops on record. As a result of this successful public launch, Horizon Capital, on behalf of its fund EEGF II, has sold a 40.9% stake in Purcari, realizing a 3.2 times gross cash-on-cash return on the sale of these shares. Horizon Capital remains an active shareholder with a 22.7% stake held, aiming to further capitalize on the fast growth of the Company, as Purcari seeks to become the undisputed champion of the high-growth CEE wine market.

From left to right: Purcari Founder and CEO Victor Bostan, Lenna Koszarny, Founding Partner and CEO of Horizon Capital, and Vasile Tofan, Partner, Horizon Capital

The Company operates over 1,000 hectares of vineyards and four production platforms, in Romania and Moldova, scoring as the most awarded CEE winery at Decanter London in 2015-2016. Purcari owns two of the top-5 premium brands in Romania, for a combined 26% segment share, according to Nielsen. Purcari heritage goes back to 1827, winning the first gold medal at the Paris World Exhibition in 1878, with a tradition of supplying to the royal courts in Europe. The Company leverages a sustainable low-cost base and abundant, high quality grapes supply, to build a highly profitable business. EBITDA margin for 9M 2017 stood at 33%, while the Net Income margin rose to 23%, expanding 29% and 55%, respectively, versus the same period in 2016. Driven by robust consumer spending across CEE, Purcari has grown revenues at a CAGR of 34% between 2014-2016, with the growth rate in Romania standing at 55%, Poland at 49%, Moldova at 44%, and the Czech Republic and Slovakia at 15%. The high level of growth sustained in 9M 2017, during which Purcari grew sales 35% year-on-year, accelerating to 69% growth in Romania.

Lenna Koszarny, Founding Partner and CEO of Horizon Capital, said: "Purcari Wineries has made history today with the first public listing by a Moldova-based company. This is a fitting legacy for an iconic brand, one that has delighted wine lovers since 1827. Congratulations to Founder and CEO Victor Bostan for his leadership, determination and tenacity, and the entire Purcari team for pursuing their bold dream of building a regional champion while remaining true to their passion for producing wine of the highest quality. Congratulations to Vasile Tofan, Horizon Capital Partner for his creativity, contribution and commitment over many years, working tirelessly alongside Victor Bostan and the Purcari team to pivot westward into new markets, quadruple EBITDA over the past three years and catapult the Company to new heights. Visionary entrepreneurs like Victor Bostan are the foundation for every successful business and we are thrilled to support this fantastic result with our capital and expertise. We remain active shareholders and dedicated fans of Freedom Blend, Negru de Purcari and their many excellent products".

Purcari is run by Founder and CEO Victor Bostan, an oenologist by training with over 35 years of experience in the wine business, said: "Today we begin a new chapter for Purcari. The biggest thanks go to our loyal consumers, whom we will continue to delight. I am grateful to our team, who work tirelessly to deliver our bold vision. I could have not wished for better partners, including Horizon Capital who supported us through good and bad and contributed immensely to our success as a hands-on investor, as well as IFC for their financial backing. It is truly a great time to be in the wine business: global supply is unable to meet rising consumption, leading to shortages and higher margins for producers. We look forward to capitalizing on these favorable conditions, leveraging our low-cost position and strong brands. I am truly delighted that all who enjoy our wines and love our brand will now be able to own shares in Purcari Wineries and participate, together with us, in our success."

Vasile Tofan, Horizon Capital Partner, commented: "I am incredibly proud to witness the first Moldovan IPO today in Bucharest. This is the story of a dedicated Founder who had the audacity to dream big and, despite challenges, built a true regional champion. This is what Horizon Capital is about  finding and backing visionary entrepreneurs, offering more than capital alone, working shoulder-to-shoulder to build a successful business. Having lost sales in Russia and the CIS, Purcari demonstrated incredible grit and creativity, overdelivering beyond expectations in CEE markets. This day is a celebration, though our work does not stop. We remain a large shareholder, focused on contributing to Purcari's growth and further boosting our returns."

About HORIZON CAPITAL

Horizon Capital is the leading private equity firm in Ukraine backed by over 40 institutional investors, managing four funds with assets under management of over $700 million and a tenure of 25 years in the region. Horizon Capital is an active value-added investor, backing visionary entrepreneurs who lead transformational businesses in Ukraine and the region. Our investment strategy is focused primarily on export-driven companies and select domestic champions in fast-growing sectors of the economy, including IT, light manufacturing, food and agriculture, e-commerce and pharma. Our deal partners have 75+ years of investment experience in the region, formerly at blue-chip institutions including McKinsey/Merrill Lynch/Deutsche Bank and with MBAs from leading institutions. We are known for our integrity, commitment to transparency, governance, value creation and successful exits. More info at www.horizoncapital.com.ua.

SOURCE Horizon Capital

Related Links

http://www.horizoncapital.com.ua

As current Dickey's Barbecue Pit owners, the Momins know what it takes to make Dickey's delicious, slow-smoked barbecue and look forward to opening their new location next to their local Chevron. When the Momins opened their first Dickey's location in early 2017, they were new to the restaurant industry. With the support of their community, they were extremely successful and look forward to bringing that success to their new location.

"We are proud to have franchisees such as the Momins as a part of our ever-growing Dickey's family," says Laura Rea Dickey, CEO of Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc. "Owning a non-traditional Dickey's location, such as one next to a Chevron, casts such a wide net of potential guests, I look forward to seeing the Momin family's success."

Born and raised in Houston, the Momins look forward to bringing more Dickey's barbecue to the folks in their community that they consider family. "At Dickey's, we pride ourselves on only serving the best Texas style barbecue and we are thrilled to continue doing just that in our new location for years to come," says Kiran Momin.

The address of the new location is 10103 South Sam Houston Parkway, Houston, TX, 77075. The phone number is 832-781-8081.

Find the location nearest you here.

About Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc.

Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc., the nation's largest barbecue chain was founded in 1941 by Travis Dickey. Today, all meats are still slow smoked on-site in each restaurant. The Dallas-based family-run barbecue franchise offers several slow-smoked meats and home style sides with 'No B.S. (Bad Stuff)' included. The fast-casual concept has expanded to more than 550 locations in 44 states. In 2016, Dickey's won first place on Fast Casual's "Top 100 Movers and Shakers" list and in 2017 again won a top 10 on the list. Dickey's Barbecue Pit has also been recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine, Franchise Times, and Nation's Restaurant News. For more information, visit www.dickeys.com.

Media Contacts:

Callie Head

[email protected]

Ashley Richardson

[email protected]

SOURCE Dickey's Barbecue

Related Links

http://www.dickeys.com

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Partnership for Freedom today announced the three winners of its Pathways to Freedom challenge. Atlanta, Chicago, and Minneapolis were selected to participate in a first-of-its-kind anti-trafficking challenge to develop citywide approaches to better prevent human trafficking and support survivors. Funding from the challenge will support a senior fellow's salary in city government for two years and technical assistance to better address labor trafficking.

The Partnership for Freedom, created by Humanity United, is a public-private partnership dedicated to spurring innovation in the fight to end human trafficking. Pathways to Freedom, the Partnership's third challenge, is led by Humanity United and the NoVo Foundation.

"Cities have a critical role to play in the fight against human trafficking and we are confident that the work of Atlanta, Chicago, and Minneapolis will inspire and encourage local solutions in other communities across the country," said Catherine Chen, director of investments for Humanity United. "We are excited to support our winning cities and together develop new ways to prevent and address both labor and sex trafficking and support survivors."

Historically, most anti-trafficking work has focused on strengthening the criminal justice response. While law enforcement agencies play a critical role in the investigation of cases and prosecution of traffickers, this approach leaves gaps in the prevention of trafficking and the many services survivors need. This problem is even more urgent now, as increased threats of deportation and heightened anti-immigrant rhetoric may cause immigrant communities to become more vulnerable to trafficking and less likely to seek help from law enforcement, report their trafficker, or access services.

"Human trafficking is an issue that impacts our most vulnerable populations, like runaway and homeless youth, immigrants, and LGBT communities," Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said. "In Chicago we are committed to tackling the root causes of human trafficking to better understand and address the social services needs of survivors."

Despite growing awareness of human trafficking, gaps remain in preventing both labor and sex trafficking and supporting survivors to recover. Too often, public health, human services, labor enforcement, legal services, housing, immigration, and other systems fail to identify individuals at risk of trafficking and may not have services that adequately assist victims and survivors currently in their programs. As a result, trafficking survivors often cycle in and out of city systems without receiving the assistance they need.

"Every year, thousands of children, women and men fall prey to the insidious practice of human trafficking. Whether these victims are entrapped in or transported to Atlanta, we know that our city faces a human trafficking challenge disproportionate to its size," said Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. "I am pleased to announce that I will appoint a Senior Fellow within my Administration to further the City's efforts to combat and eliminate this horrific practice. The Pathways to Freedom grant will also enable Atlanta to better address labor trafficking, which has traditionally been under-reported, and its survivors under-served. I am confident that together, we can be the strength for the powerless and the hope of the victims."

"This investment underscores our commitment to developing innovative strategies to better address labor trafficking  a crime that we know is underreported and wreaks havoc on our most vulnerable communities," said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

Each anti-trafficking fellow will report to the mayor or executive level staff and will work across multiple city agencies and with a range of community stakeholders to develop comprehensive approaches to both prevent trafficking and address unmet survivor needs. This could include new policies for the city, new practices for social service providers, additional funding and resources, and new relationships between the cities and communities impacted by trafficking, including survivors, anti-trafficking advocates, community organizations, employers, and service providers.

"Our hope is that all three of the challenge winners will demonstrate that the most effective and innovative work to end human trafficking is deeply grounded in the experience of survivors themselves, especially the most vulnerable, including survivors of color, Indigenous survivors, immigrant survivors, LGBTQ youth, people with disabilities, and those struggling with addiction," said Pamela Shifman, executive director of the NoVo Foundation. "By more effectively meeting the needs of survivors, these cities will shine as a model of what's possible for other communities across the country."

Fellows' work will be featured on the Pathways to Freedom digital platform at PathwaysToFreedom.org and shared with leaders in other cities. The Partnership for Freedom will also support grassroots and survivor-led efforts in each winning city.

In a testament to the growing political will in U.S. cities to lead the fight against trafficking in their communities, thirteen mayors from major cities across the nation submitted letters of support and competed for this critical opportunity. They included Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Louisville, Minneapolis, New York, Oakland, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, and Washington, DC. The competition was open to U.S. cities in the 100 Resilient Cities network. 100 Resilient CitiesPioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation (100RC) helps cities around the world become more resilient to the physical, social, and economic challenges that are a growing part of the 21st century.

Pathways to Freedom is the third and final innovation challenge issued by the Partnership for Freedom to spur innovative solutions to end modern slavery in the U.S. and around the world. The first challenge, "Reimagine: Opportunity" focused on spurring innovation in victim services. The second challenge, "Rethink Supply Chains" identified developers, designers, advocates, and innovators to submit concepts for technological solutions that identify and address labor trafficking in global supply chains for goods and services.

Learn more at https://pathwaystofreedom.org or follow #PathwaystoFreedom on Facebook and Twitter.

About Humanity United

Humanity United is a foundation dedicated to bringing new approaches to global problems that have long been considered intractable. We build, lead, and support efforts to change the systems that contribute to problems like human trafficking, mass atrocities, and violent conflict. HU is part of The Omidyar Group, a diverse collection of organizations, each guided by its own approach, but united by a common desire to catalyze social impact.

Website: www.humanityunited.org

Facebook: /humanityunited/

Twitter: @humanityunited

About NoVo Foundation

NoVo Foundation is dedicated to building a more just and balanced world. Founded in 2006 by Jennifer and Peter Buffett, NoVo has become one of the largest private foundations in the world to support initiatives focused explicitly on girls and women, including a dedicated focus on ending violence against girls and women and supporting adolescent girls. NoVo also works to advance social and emotional learning, support Indigenous communities and promote local living economies.

Website: www.novofoundation.org

Facebook: /NoVoFoundation/

Twitter: @NoVoFoundation

SOURCE Humanity United

Related Links

http://pathwaystofreedom.org

CLEVELAND, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyland has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the OneContent business from Allscripts, a leading provider of healthcare information technology solutions. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter, once customary closing conditions are satisfied. Upon transaction close, the OneContent client base and associates will transition to Hyland.

Recently acquired by Allscripts from McKesson, more than 300 customers rely on OneContent for their healthcare content management needs. Hyland plans to continue to support OneContent customers' current solutions while enhancing the platform with new features and functionality, refining the integration with Allscripts' Paragon EHR system and leveraging the complementary capabilities of the Hyland Healthcare suite. Hyland plans to partner closely with Allscripts in these efforts.

"The addition of OneContent customers and employees is extremely complementary to the core focus of the Hyland Healthcare business," said Bill Priemer, president and CEO at Hyland. "Based on Hyland's experience helping more than 2,000 healthcare organizations manage patient content over the past 16 years, we are well prepared to serve the needs of OneContent customers and eager to help them reach their goals."

Hyland Healthcare combines information management and enterprise medical imaging with business process and case management capabilities, delivering a suite of unparalleled content and image management solutions to address the clinical, financial and operational needs of healthcare organizations around the world. The Hyland Healthcare suite of products  comprised of Acuo by Hyland, PACSgear, NilRead, Brainware by Hyland, OnBase by Hyland, Perceptive Content and ShareBase by Hyland  are leveraged to complete patient records, eliminate reimbursement delays and enhance business processes. For more information, please visit Hyland.com/Healthcare.

About Hyland

Hyland is a leader in providing software solutions for managing content, processes and cases for organizations across the globe. For over 25 years, Hyland has enabled more than 19,000 organizations to digitalize their workplaces and fundamentally transform their operations. Named one of Fortune's Best Companies to Work For since 2014, Hyland is widely known as both a great company to work for and a great company to do business with. For more information, please visit Hyland.com.

Media contact:

Alexa Marinos

+1 216-389-8508

[email protected]

SOURCE Hyland

Related Links

http://www.hyland.com

With the expanded Wine Flies Free program, wine aficionados can now check their wine from an additional 18 cities, for a total of 29 on the West Coast. Alaska Airlines will be working closely with regional winegrowers' associations, individual wineries and destination marketing organizations to promote the offering throughout wine regions along the West Coast.

"Wine and food are huge passion points for travelers when choosing their next travel destination," said Natalie Bowman, Alaska Airlines' managing director of marketing and advertising. "Our Wine Flies Free program makes it easier for our guests to experience some of the country's best wine regions and take their favorite wines home. We look forward to toasting our guests in-flight on National Drink Wine Day, and continuing to work with our partners to welcome visitors to these premier wine destinations that we serve."

On the blog: How to check a case of wine for free on Alaska Airlines

The Wine Flies Free program debuted in 2007 to make it easier for travelers to bring home their favorite bottles of wine from Santa Rosa/Sonoma County. Oftentimes, wineries are unable to ship cases of wine directly or consumers are faced with costly shipping fees to transport wine. Alaska Airlines' Wine Flies Free solves these challenges by offering each Mileage Plan member the ability to check an entire case, up to 12 bottles of wine, for free.

"The Santa Cruz Mountains American Viticultural Area is the backyard wine region of Silicon Valley," said Megan Metz, executive director of Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association. "By expanding their Wine Flies Free program, Alaska Airlines is enabling people to easily travel to our booming wine region and take home a piece of the Santa Cruz Mountains at no cost."

Travelers looking to take advantage of the Wine Flies Free program can sign up for a Mileage Plan membership for free. To prepare wines to fly, each bottle must be packed and sealed for transport in a protective shipping container. Alaska Airlines customer services agents will be available to work with each guest to ensure that their case of wine is properly labeled.

Participating Wine Flies Free Cities:

California Idaho Oregon Washington Burbank* Boise Eugene Bellingham* Fresno* Lewiston Medford Pullman* Los Angeles*

Portland Seattle* Monterey*

Redmond Spokane* Oakland*



Wenatchee* Ontario*



Pasco Orange County*



Walla Walla Palm Springs*



Yakima Sacramento*





San Diego*





San Francisco*





San Jose*





San Luis Obispo





Santa Barbara*





Santa Rosa







* Indicates new cities being added to the program.

Alaska Airlines, together with Virgin America and its regional partners, flies 44 million guests a year to more than 115 destinations with an average of 1,200 daily flights across the United States and to Mexico, Canada and Costa Rica. With Alaska and Alaska Global Partners , guests can earn and redeem miles on flights to more than 900 destinations worldwide. Alaska Airlines ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Traditional Carriers in North America" in the J.D. Power North America Satisfaction Study for 10 consecutive years from 2008 to 2017. Learn more about Alaska's award-winning service at newsroom.alaskaair.com and blog.alaskaair.com. Alaska Airlines, Virgin America and Horizon Air are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK).

SOURCE Alaska Airlines

Related Links

http://www.alaskaair.com

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of Alliant Energy's Iowa utility, Interstate Power and Light Company (IPL), has declared dividends for its preferred stock shareowners of record on February 28, 2018. The dividends, which are payable on March 15, 2018, are as follows:

$0.31875 per share on the 5.1% Series D Cumulative Preferred Stock

Alliant Energy Corporation (NYSE: LNT), headquartered in Madison, Wis., provides regulated electric and natural gas service to 960,000 electric and 410,000 natural gas customers across Iowa and Wisconsin. Alliant Energy's mission is to deliver the energy solutions and exceptional service customers and communities count on  safely, efficiently and responsibly. Interstate Power and Light Company and Wisconsin Power and Light Company are Alliant Energy's two public utility subsidiaries. Alliant Energy Corporation is a component of the S&P 500. For more information, visit alliantenergy.com.

SOURCE Alliant Energy Corporation

Related Links

http://www.alliantenergy.com

PANERA's sharp, modern features combine with comfortable ergonomics to create a faucet handle designed to move forward - not backward - offering the ability to control space constraints with enduring style. PANERA's innovative stainless steel finish is crafted to withstand the appearance of scratches and fingerprints ensuring a long-lasting, clean and lustrous aesthetic.

"One of our most forward thinking and innovative faucets to date, the BLANCO PANERA answers the need for a faucet that is not only timeless but is also resilient in the kitchen," states Tim Maicher, Director of Marketing for BLANCO. "PANERA is unique in that the interior and exterior are made fully of Stainless Steel, engineered so the PANERA easily resists scratches and fingerprints making it as durable as it is beautiful."

The exceptionally enduring BLANCO PANERA faucet features a pull-out dual spray and a unique European-Style design. With a cylindrical spout featuring an ergonomic top water release button, the PANERA is the ideal faucet for a hard working kitchen.

To download full press release and images, click here.

BLANCO PANERA Details:

European style

Stainless Steel body and spray

Scratch resistant finish

Pull-out dual spray

Ceramic disk cartridge

Limited lifetime warranty

MSRP: $795

About BLANCO

For three generations, BLANCO has quietly and passionately elevated the standards for luxury sinks, faucets and decorative accessories. Proud of its European heritage and award-winning German engineering, BLANCO is steadfastly committed to their tradition of high quality, innovative design and unsurpassed service since 1925. Dedicated to quality without compromise, every sink is closely inspected many times before it receives the BLANCO name.

A remarkable history of firsts emphasizes BLANCO's zeal for innovation including the first stainless steel sink to achieve a 10mm radius  STEELART  the first to market colored hard composite sinks in North America  BLANCO's pioneering MicroEdge technology with its virtual flushmount edge  and the first apron front sink in composite granite.

BLANCO has a long tradition of environmental stewardship and their production facilities operate to strict DIN EN ISO 14001 environmental performance standards.

BLANCO is the brand of choice in the luxury sink and faucet category for its unparalleled quality and an inspirational breadth of design possibilities. From the precision craftsmanship and artistic creativity of its STEELART brand to the stunning durability of its ground breaking SILGRANIT collection, BLANCO has proven that the sink is far more than a mere functional element in the kitchen.

Since 1994, BLANCO has been a member of the Caux Round Table (CRT), an international network of principled business leaders and companies working to promote a moral capitalism.

For more information, visit www.blancoamerica.com.

For photography, interviews or questions, please call Lori Dolnick at 609-490-0999 x22 or [email protected].

SOURCE BLANCO

Related Links

http://www.blancoamerica.com

Keane's third studio album, October 2008's Perfect Symmetry , was produced by Keane with contributions from Jon Brion (Fiona Apple, of Montreal) and Stuart Price (Madonna, The Killers, Pet Shop Boys), and it immediately yielded the band's third consecutive No.1 showing on the British album charts. Perfect Symmetry 's first single, "Spiralling"  a modern-day motivational synthfest that meets at the intersection of Human League Avenue and Simple Minds Street  has been described by songwriter/vocalist/keyboardist Tom Chaplin as having been inspired by American wrestling legend Ric Flair, whose infamous "woo!" battle-cry was incorporated into the song's chorus. Initially available only digitally, "Spiralling" garnered over 500,000 downloads in its first week of release, which was the largest-ever seven-day song-download tally at the time for the Universal label family.

The album's second single, "The Lovers Are Losing," laments the inevitable fading of a relationship cycle, as the title track yearns for better days ahead with a massive wall of blended vocals during its hopeful chorus. Meanwhile, the quite poignant kernel of advice "Better Than This" contains a shimmering synth nod to David Bowie circa "Ashes to Ashes."

In addition to Perfect Symmetry, Keane's second studio album, June 2006's chart-topping Under The Iron Sea, is also marking its 180-gram black vinyl debut. Produced by Keane and Andy Green (who also co-produced the band's internationally triumphant May 2004 debut, Hopes And Fears), the album has since been certified as having sold over three million copies worldwide.

Under The Iron Sea features the driving #3 single "Is It Any Wonder?," which showcases an iconic guitar riff that actually emanated from multi-instrumentalist Tim Rice-Oxley's distorted Yamaha CP70 piano. "Wonder?" is also the band's commentary on the then-strained British-American relations in the wake of the Iraq War. Album opener "Atlantic" highlights the interplay between Rice-Oxley's moody keyboards and the deft stickwork by drummer Richard Hughes, while "Crystal Ball" charts the path of a wished-for brighter future, and "Nothing In My Way" serves as a knowing warning about the perils of living in denial.

Though the band is currently on hiatus, is it any wonder Keane's perfect symmetry blend of piano-driven melodies and instantly catchy singalong hooks are best represented by these two 180g vinyl releases? In fact, it's something everyone should know.

keanemusic.com

facebook.com/keane

twitter.com/keaneofficial

instagram.com/keaneofficial

Keane PERFECT SYMMETRY [180-gram vinyl]

A

1. Spiralling

2. The Lovers Are Losing

3. Better Than This

4. You Haven't Told Me Anything

5. Perfect Symmetry

6. You Don't See Me

B

1. Again & Again

2. Playing Along

3. Pretend That You're Alone

4. Black Burning Heart

5. Love Is The End

Keane UNDER THE IRON SEA [180-gram vinyl]

A

1. Atlantic

2. Is It Any Wonder?

3. Nothing In My Way

4. Leaving So Soon?

5. A Bad Dream

6. Hamburg Song

B

1. Put It Behind You

2. The Iron Sea

3. Crystal Ball

4. Try Again

5. Broken Toy

6. The Frog Prince

SOURCE UMeJERSEY CITY, N.J., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A new survey, conducted by Jackson Hewitt, finds that millennials and EITC taxpayers tend to have more worries around taxes and tax reform than any other group. While there were different concerns across all segments, EITC taxpayers and millennials were most concerned about the impact tax reform could have on the amount of their refund.

Key findings:

60% of millennials and 71% of those planning to claim EITC are concerned about missing a credit or deduction and not getting the maximum refund if they don't see a tax professional. Conversely, respondents 55 years and older have very limited or no worry about missing deductions and optimizing their refunds.

65% of EITC filers are concerned that changing credits and deductions under the tax reform will impact their taxes. 57% of millennials surveyed have the same concern.

Nearly 35% of millennials believe tax reform changes will increase the amount they pay in taxes.

30.4% of respondents believe they will pay more in taxes due to tax reform vs. just 21.6% who believe they will pay less and 23.6% who think they will pay the same. Interestingly, 24.4% of respondents were unsure of the impact of the changes, showing the need for more education.

47% of millennials felt their refund arrived later than they expected last year, and 63% of these respondents were very concerned about the perceived delay.

34% of respondents who file with online software are concerned they won't get the most from their return because they didn't visit a tax pro.

"The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is the most extensive change to tax law that we have seen in over 30 years, so it isn't surprising that many of our clients are concerned about the impact this will have on their taxes," said Mark Steber, Chief Tax Officer of Jackson Hewitt. "With so many changes, taxpayers with any questions or concerns should consider getting help from a trusted tax professional even if they do not historically use one and have done their own taxes in years past or planned to this year. This is a good year to make sure your taxes are the best they can be, and a little help could pay for itself as big changes come into full play in 2018."

For help understanding how tax reform will impact your taxes, visit a Jackson Hewitt near you.

About Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc.

Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. is an innovator in the tax industry, with a mission to provide its hard-working clients access to simple, low-cost solutions to manage their taxes and tax refunds. Jackson Hewitt is devoted to helping clients get ahead with Maximum Refund and 100% Accuracy Guarantees. With close to 6,000 franchised and company-owned locations, including 3,000 in Walmart stores, and online and mobile tax solutions, Jackson Hewitt makes it convenient for clients to file their taxes. For more information about products, services, and offers, or to locate a Jackson Hewitt office, visit www.JacksonHewitt.com or call 1 (800) 234-1040.

Methodology:

The Jackson Hewitt survey was conducted online by ResearchNow from December 19-28, 2017, among 2,062 American adults aged 18 and older. Respondents to the survey were selected from among those who volunteered to participate in online surveys. One thousand fifty-nine complete surveys were collected using the sample framework based on U.S. Census data for age, ethnicity, gender, region, and income and one thousand three complete surveys were collected using framework based on the millennial generation defined as males and females aged 20 to 36.

SOURCE Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc.

Related Links

https://www.jacksonhewitt.com

Since their launch in 2015, Plug and Play Fintech has grown to over 30 partners and accelerated 208 startups to date. This platform gives JB Financial Group the opportunity to collaborate with top financial technology startups, pilot their technology and deliver additional value to their current clients.

In the past year, Plug and Play Fintech has expanded to New York, Paris, and Tokyo with plans for further expansion in 2018. Corporations and startups interested in joining, apply today: pnptc.com/application

About Plug and Play

Plug and Play is a global innovation platform. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we have built accelerator programs, corporate innovation services, and an in-house VC to make technological advancement progress faster than ever before. Since inception in 2006, our programs have expanded worldwide to include a presence in 28 locations globally giving startups the necessary resources to succeed in Silicon Valley and beyond. With over 6,000 startups and 220 official corporate partners, we have created the ultimate startup ecosystem in many industries. We provide active investments with 200 leading Silicon Valley VCs, and host more than 700 networking events per year. Companies in our community have raised over $7 billion in funding, with successful portfolio exits including Danger, Dropbox, Lending Club, PayPal, SoundHound, and Zoosk. For more information, visit www.pnptc.com

Media Contact

Allison Romero

[email protected]

(408) 524-1457

SOURCE Plug and Play

Related Links

http://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com

CHICAGO, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the Law Offices of Jeffery M. Leving, Ltd., on behalf of Justin Freeman, will appear in Will County Courthouse at 9:00 a.m. in Courtroom 301 on a Motion to Terminate Child Support on the grounds that Justin Freeman's daughter, Cherish, is deceased, allegedly at the hands of her mother. Garvey v. Freeman, Case No. 2017 F 616. "It's unfortunate that a child support Order does not terminate by operation of law in such a circumstance," said attorney Jeffery M. Leving.

Last week, attorneys Jeffery M. Leving and Kevin O'Connor filed suit against Lydia Home Association, Inc. and Safe Families for Children Alliance, Inc., both commonly known in the community as Safe Families for Children, on behalf of Freeman, who tragically lost his nine-month-old baby daughter, Cherish, as a result of the reported negligence of Safe Families.

The Safe Families program was reportedly negligent in releasing Cherish Freeman back to the care of her mother, Shanquilla Garvey-Howard, directly against the warnings of her father, Justin Freeman, and without his consent. After the baby was released to the mother by Safe Families over the strong objections of the father, Cherish was allegedly brutally beaten by her mother, causing her to suffer multiple skull fractures, internal lacerations and bleeding, coma, and, ultimately her death on December 24, 2017.

This grieving father must now go to Court simply to have his child support payments for Cherish hopefully stopped. "This shows just how badly our judicial system is broken," said one of Freeman's attorneys, Andrew A. Muchoney, of the Leving Legal Team. Currently there is no law that automatically terminates a child support obligation when the child is deceased in such a situation. Instead, Freeman, after suffering the most unimaginable loss that any parent will ever suffer  the death of his child -- must ask the Court to terminate the Order requiring him to make payments to the incarcerated mother for his deceased baby. Freeman should never face jail time if he cannot pay future child support for his deceased baby. Leving stated: "We do not want him to fear losing his liberty, on top of losing his daughter."

For Immediate Release

February 15, 2018

Contact: Jennifer Whiteside

[email protected]

312.296-3666

SOURCE Law Offices of Jeffery M. Leving, Ltd."I am pleased that we have such an accomplished executive as Sean Campbell to succeed Johnnie Stoker as CEO to lead K2 Energy into our next chapter of growth," said Stewart Graham, chairman of the board for K2 Energy. "I look forward to working closely with Sean to achieve our overall strategic goals as he pilots the company through its next phase of innovation."

"I'm excited to lead K2 Energy at this pivotal point in the company's history," said Campbell. "As I've gotten to know K2 through the last 6 months as Vice President of Sales and Marketing, I've found that it already has three key ingredients for success  great customers, great product and great people. With the current lineup of K2's industry leading cell and battery chemistries, we can scale it to the broader market and quickly grow our already great customer base, making for an incredible future for K2 Energy and its Partners."

"Sean brings a great strategic mind and keen insight into the evolving energy storage industry, and a proven track record of building value across multiple brands and businesses," states Robert Horito, Chief Financial Officer.

Sean Campbell joined K2 Energy 6 months ago following a successful career inside Zodiac Aerospace, Zodiac Data Systems, where he served as CEO, as well as in other executive management positions. During his tenure with Zodiac Data Systems, Campbell was responsible for strategically positioning ZDS as a technology company focused on Aerospace and Defense Markets for the Telemetry Tracking and Control Industry. He also brings experience from several marketing and sales management roles during his career.

"This is an exciting time for K2 Energy, particularly with the increased global demand for cost-effective and reliable energy storage solutions as many industries transition to new technologies to meet customer needs," Campbell said, "I look forward to leveraging my experience as I work alongside the talented and experienced team at K2 Energy to expand the company's existing business, positioning K2 Energy for future global growth."

K2 Energy was founded in the growing technology hub of Henderson, Nevada in 2006, and is a leading developer and producer of Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries, which are used in many advanced medical, industrial, and military applications as well as powering a variety of electric vehicles. The Company produces both energy-optimized and power-optimized products, which have a multitude of consumer, product, safety, and environmental benefits compared to traditional lead acid batteries.

K2 Energy not only provides cutting edge technology in the Lithium ion energy storage market, but has a world class team of scientists and engineers with extensive knowledge and experience in all aspects of energy storage design, systems integration, manufacturing, support testing and quality control. K2 offers inception to implementation (turnkey) solutions for our customers. Our knowledge base encompasses from the cell to the pack and system level while being able to optimize battery solutions to achieve customer goals.

Contact:

Sean Campbell

President and CEO

770-403-7802

SOURCE K2 Energy Solutions, Inc.HOUSTON, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- KBR, Inc. (NYSE: KBR) announced today it has been awarded a multiple year Master Engineering Services Agreement by Covestro LLC, a world-leading manufacturer of high-tech polymer materials for key industries. KBR will support ongoing project activities at Covestro's site in Baytown, TX and across Covestro's other North American facilities.

Under the terms of the contract, KBR will provide project management and engineering services to support multiple sites in North America. KBR will perform services across all engineering disciplines, project controls, project management and other support services to Covestro facilities and their capital programs.

KBR has extensive history with long term strategic relationships across various client markets. A leader in the engineering and construction industry, KBR's depth of knowledge and experience translates into providing optimized solutions to meet a customer's specific needs.

"We are excited about the opportunity to work with Covestro," said Farhan Mujib, KBR President, Engineering and Construction Americas. "KBR looks forward to delivering innovative and effective professional services across the entire life cycle."

Revenue associated with this project will be booked into backlog of unfilled orders for KBR's E&C Business Segment as work orders are awarded.

About KBR, Inc.

KBR is a global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program life cycle within the Government Services and Hydrocarbons sectors. KBR employs over 34,000 people worldwide (including our joint ventures), with customers in more than 80 countries, and operations in 40 countries, across three synergistic global businesses:

Government Services, serving government customers globally, including capabilities that cover the full life-cycle of defense, space, aviation and other government programs and missions from research and development, through systems engineering, test and evaluation, program management, to operations, maintenance, and field logistics

Technology & Consulting, including proprietary technology focused on the monetization of hydrocarbons (especially natural gas and natural gas liquids) in ethylene and petrochemicals; ammonia, nitric acid and fertilizers; oil refining; gasification; oil and gas consulting; integrity management; naval architecture and proprietary hulls; and downstream consulting

Engineering & Construction, including onshore oil and gas; LNG (liquefaction and regasification)/GTL; oil refining; petrochemicals; chemicals; fertilizers; differentiated EPC; maintenance services (Brown & Root Industrial Services); offshore oil and gas (shallow-water, deep-water, subsea); floating solutions (FPU, FPSO, FLNG & FSRU) and program management

KBR is proud to work with its customers across the globe to provide technology, value-added services, integrated EPC delivery and long term operations and maintenance services to ensure consistent delivery with predictable results. At KBR, We Deliver.

Visit www.kbr.com

Forward Looking Statement

The statements in this press release that are not historical statements, including statements regarding future financial performance, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's control that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the outcome of and the publicity surrounding audits and investigations by domestic and foreign government agencies and legislative bodies; potential adverse proceedings by such agencies and potential adverse results and consequences from such proceedings; the scope and enforceability of the company's indemnities from its former parent; changes in capital spending by the company's customers; the company's ability to obtain contracts from existing and new customers and perform under those contracts; structural changes in the industries in which the company operates; escalating costs associated with and the performance of fixed-fee projects and the company's ability to control its cost under its contracts; claims negotiations and contract disputes with the company's customers; changes in the demand for or price of oil and/or natural gas; protection of intellectual property rights; compliance with environmental laws; changes in government regulations and regulatory requirements; compliance with laws related to income taxes; unsettled political conditions, war and the effects of terrorism; foreign operations and foreign exchange rates and controls; the development and installation of financial systems; increased competition for employees; the ability to successfully complete and integrate acquisitions; and operations of joint ventures, including joint ventures that are not controlled by the company.

KBR's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, any subsequent Form 10-Qs and 8-Ks, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss some of the important risk factors that KBR has identified that may affect the business, results of operations and financial condition. Except as required by law, KBR undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.

SOURCE KBR, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.kbr.com

CINCINNATI, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Kroger (NYSE: KR) announced today it has opened its Culinary Innovation Center in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio.

"Kroger's new Culinary Innovation Center is an exciting state-of-the-art test kitchen and education center," said Daniel Hammer, Kroger's vice president of culinary development and new business. "As we focus on redefining the customer experience and developing talent through food inspiration and uplift, as outlined in Restock Kroger, this R&D lab will allow us to accelerate product development for Our Brands, produce new recipes for Prep + Pared Meal Kits, explore new restaurant concepts, host food tastings and focus groups, and increase our associates' culinary knowledge."

Kroger commenced construction on the 12,000-square-feet, LEED-designed Center in March 2017. The commercial kitchen features multiple cooking stations, spaces and capabilities, including technology that allows video streaming of educational sessions to Kroger associates across the country.

"The Center gives our culinary team a fun, modern space to innovate and experiment with food trends, flavors, and ingredients to create new experiences for our customers," added Mr. Hammer.

Kroger introduced its first restaurant concept Kitchen 1883 in November 2017 and launched its Prep+Pared Meal Kits earlier in the same year, which are available for purchase in stores and through ClickList. Kroger has plans to rapidly grow the footprint of Prep+Pared Meal Kits in 2018.

"Kroger has operated grocery stores since 1883; we know food. People will always eat, but the way they eat will always change. Our new Center is one more tool we have to keep our pulse on customer trends and expand our foodie culture," said Mr. Hammer.

About Kroger

At The Kroger Co., we are dedicated to our purpose: to Feed the Human Spirit. We are 453,000 associates who serve nearly nine million customers every day in 2,793 retail food stores under a variety of local banner names in 35 states and the District of Columbia. Our Family of Companies operates an expanding ClickList offering  a personalized order online service  in addition to 2,258 pharmacies, 783 convenience stores, 307 fine jewelry stores, 222 retail health clinics, 1,472 supermarket fuel centers and 38 food production plants in the United States. Our Company has been recognized as one of America's most generous companies for our support of more than 100 Feeding America food bank partners, breast cancer research and awareness, the military and their families, and more than 145,000 community organizations including schools. As a leader in supplier diversity, we are a proud member of the Billion Dollar Roundtable.

SOURCE The Kroger Co.

Related Links

http://www.kroger.com

LEESBURG, Va., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Landmark Legal Foundation filed a complaint today asking the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to investigate California's voter registration system. Landmark's complaint exposes a state voter registration system that may be adding thousands of ineligible non-citizen immigrants to the state's voter registration rolls. The Foundation submitted its complaint to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and the Office of Infrastructure Protection of the Department of Homeland Security.

Landmark alleges that the state of California is failing to follow key provisions of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), requiring states to make "reasonable efforts," to remove the names of state residents who are ineligible to vote from voter registration rolls. Since January 2015, when two state laws went into effect, Sacramento has issued driver's licenses to over 900,000 non-citizen immigrants. A second law automatically adds any state resident who has virtually any transaction with a state agency to the voter registration rolls, unless they affirmatively decline to be registered.

In its complaint, which was the result of a year-long investigation by Foundation attorneys, Landmark documents numerous examples of state officials acknowledging that they make no effort to differentiate in the processing of voter registration applications between American citizens who may lawfully vote in federal, state or local elections, and illegal immigrants who are ineligible to participate in primary or general elections.

"Guidance and training distributed by the state prevents employees in state agencies from even enquiring about the immigration status of anyone who interacts with that agency," explained Landmark President Pete Hutchison. "And the California Secretary of State's office freely admitted that it has no procedures in place to protect the accuracy of the registration rolls." Michael O'Neill, Assistant General Counsel for the Foundation, noted that the state claims that local voting registrars and precinct-level election officials are expected to police the system and guard against ineligible voters participating in elections. "The problem with that," O'Neill said, "is that the state does not share with the registrars and local officials any information about non-citizens who have been issued state driver's licenses."

The Foundation's complaint asks Attorney General Sessions, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and the Homeland Security Department's Office of Infrastructure Protection (the agency that assumed the duties of the recently disbanded Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity), to use the evidence Landmark gathered to launch a formal investigation into California's compliance with the NVRA. "If they find what we found," Hutchison said, "we're asking that they go into court and ask a federal judge to force California to obey federal law and protect the integrity of their elections."

Founded in 1976, Landmark Legal Foundation is one of the nation's oldest and most successful IRS-designated nonprofit, public interest conservative legal foundations. Landmark has offices in Kansas City, MO, and Leesburg, VA.

The full text of Landmark's complaint is available at http://www.landmarklegal.org

SOURCE Landmark Legal Foundation

Related Links

http://www.landmarklegal.org

Sale tightens company focus on rapid growth of its French-heritage concepts

DALLAS, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Le Duff America, the Dallas-based affiliate of Groupe Le Duff, the world leader in the French bakery-cafe segment, continues executing its asset-light, French concept-focused growth strategy with the pending sale of two of its Canadian brands, Timothy's World Coffee and mmmuffins, to a wholly-owned subsidiary of MTY Food Group Inc.

Timothy's has seven corporate and 30 franchised locations in Canada and two licensed locations in the U.S., and mmmuffins has four Canadian franchised locations. Le Duff America acquired both brands as part of its purchase of Bruegger's Bagels in 2011. It has since sold Bruegger's Bagels to Caribou Coffee to spur growth of its French-heritage brands, including la Madeleine French Bakery & Cafe, Brioche Doree and Mimi's.

"The sale of Timothy's and mmmuffins is another important step in sharpening our focus as a French company and preparing for the upcoming U.S. launch of our legacy Brioche Doree brand," said Le Duff America CEO Olivier Poirot. "As with our recent sale of Bruegger's Bagels, we have found an excellent organization to steward the future of Timothy's and mmmuffins brands while continuing to strengthen our position for rapid growth with our French-heritage brands."

The sale will be completed by early April. Le Duff America will continue Canadian operations from its Montreal office, which supports its Montreal Au Pain Dore brand and Brioche Doree cafes in Montreal and Toronto as well as airport locations in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Brioche Doree, founded in 1976 by Louis Le Duff in Brest, France, offers uniquely Parisian-style and urban French cuisine, with fresh-baked breads and pastries and housemade sandwiches, soups and more. With more than 500 international locations, it is the world's leading French-style fast food brand and serves more than 300,000 guests daily. Its U.S. launch will be led by Julie Hauser-Blanner, who joined Le Duff America in mid-2017 as the first U.S.-based Brioche Doree president.

"This transaction further clears a path for one of the most exciting undertakings in Le Duff America's history  the full launch of Brioche Doree in the U.S.," said Hauser-Blanner. "My top priority is to make this iconic global brand relatable to the U.S. consumer while maintaining the highest standards of guest experience and exceptional food quality that have made it the world leader in French-style fast food."

In addition to the Brioche Doree expansion, Le Duff America has also accelerated its growth with the successful refranchising of its la Madeleine brand and is continuing to open new markets for the French bakery and cafe concept.

About Le Duff America Inc.

Le Duff America Inc. is owned by Rennes, France-based Groupe Le Duff, which was founded by Louis Le Duff in 1976 and serves more than 1 million customers daily at its nearly 2,000 bakery-cafes worldwide. It operates multiple restaurant concepts in the U.S., including Brioche Doree, la Madeleine French Bakery & Cafe and Mimi's, which focus on fresh ingredients, hand-prepared foods and authentic flavors.

MEDIA CONTACT

Kristen Kauffman

817-329-3257

[email protected]

SOURCE Le Duff America Inc.

Related Links

http://en.groupeleduff.com

GAINESVILLE, Ga., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mansfield Energy Corp, North America's leading energy supply and logistics provider, announced today its participation in the Fuel Quality Council (FQC) to address the growing questions around why diesel fuel injectors, filters and other engine parts in modern diesel engines are breaking down with seemingly greater frequency. The FQC was formed by The Fuels Institute to support cross-industry collaboration to address the issues surrounding diesel engines. "As a founding member of the Fuel Quality Council, Mansfield is committed to supporting the goals of this organization," explains Andy Austin, SVP Specialty Products for Mansfield Energy." The Fuel Quality Council brings together key industry leaders with a common goal to share knowledge, evaluate data, and seek greater understanding of the existing challenges and possible solutions available in the heavy-duty market." The Fuel Quality Council is currently collecting engine maintenance data and analyzing fuel samples to better understand the scope and nature of the issue.

One contributing factor to diminished fuel quality is the condition of fuel storage tanks found in companies' backyards. Changes to U.S. fuel standards over the past fifteen years have resulted in greater fuel storage contamination. Water found in fuel storage tanks can become a breeding ground for bacteria and microbial growth which impacts fuel quality. This leads to risk of storage tank corrosion, injector plugging, reduced fuel economy and increased filter failures. Austin continues, "The Fuel Quality Council is committed to understanding the demands of today's modern heavy duty engines and the fuel management activities required to keep them running properly."

About Mansfield Energy Corp

Mansfield Energy provides innovative solutions to the most demanding energy procurement, supply and logistics challenges for organizations across North America. Mansfield Energy offers a broad range of solutions including fuels, natural gas and energy price and data management services. Delivering over 3 billion gallons of fuel and complementary products annually to 4,000 customers across the U.S. and Canada, Mansfield Energy is the largest delivered fuel supplier in the nation. For more information, call 800-695-6626 or visit mansfield.energy.com.

About The Fuels Institute

The Fuels Institute, founded by NACS in 2013, is a non-profit research-oriented think tank that evaluates market issues related to vehicles and the fuels that power them, incorporating the perspective of diverse stakeholders to publish peer-reviewed, fact-based research projects. The Fuels Institute is a non-biased organization that does not advocate. For more information, visit www.fuelsinstitute.org/fqc.

MEDIA INQUIRIES:

Gayle B. Mitrano

[email protected]

SOURCE Mansfield Energy Corp

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BERKELEY LAKE, Ga., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Medical Doctor Associates (MDA), a leading provider of physician and advanced practice locum tenens, temporary and temp-to-perm staffing services, announced today they have won Inavero's Best of Staffing Client, Talent and Diamond Awards. Fewer than two percent of all staffing agencies in the U.S. and Canada have earned the 2018 Best of Staffing Award for service excellence. In fact, winners of this prestigious award have proven to be industry leaders in service quality based entirely on ratings by their clients and the healthcare providers they've helped to place on assignments.

Tim Fischer, President of Medical Doctor Associates explains "The entire staff at MDA make it their mission to provide our healthcare facilities, physicians and advanced practice professionals with the highest level of attentiveness. We understand that service is the cornerstone of our success. Our placement on the Best of Staffing lists for both client (3 consecutive years) and talent (8 consecutive years) is a testament to our dedication to those we serve. We are also very proud have been awarded the Diamond award for talent for the past four (4) years."

"With a tight labor market and growing economy, finding the right recruiting partners is critical to success," said Inavero's CEO Eric Gregg. "Best of Staffing winners provide consistently remarkable service to their clients and job candidates, and I couldn't be more proud to feature them on BestofStaffing.com."

About Medical Doctor Associates (MDA), LLC

As one of only four locum tenens staffing companies with an NCQA-certified credentials verification organization, MDA has earned the trust of medical professionals and facilities alike with our dedicated team providing a variety of staffing solutions. Today, MDA is a Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. company, which has expanded MDA's capabilities to include nurse staffing, allied health, permanent placement, and other healthcare focused management services through partnerships with the Cross Country family of brands. Over the past thirty years, our firm has evolved, diversified and most importantly, developed a specialized recruiting staff that focuses on each specialty, forging a unique place in the market with a solid reputation for providing quality service. To learn more, visit www.mdainc.com.

About Inavero

The Inavero team administers more staffing agency client and talent satisfaction surveys than any other firm in the world, reporting on more than 1.2 million satisfaction surveys from staffing agency clients and job seekers each year. Committed to delivering ongoing value to the industry, Inavero is proud to serve as the American Staffing Association's exclusive service quality partner.

About Best of Staffing

Inavero's Best of Staffing Award is the only award in the U.S. and Canada that recognizes staffing agencies that have proven superior service quality based entirely on ratings provided by their clients and job candidates. Award winners are showcased by city and area of expertise on BestofStaffing.com  an online resource for hiring professionals and job seekers to find the best staffing agencies to call when they are in need.

Media Contact:

Geoff Staub

Vice President, Corporate Marketing & Communications

Cross Country Healthcare, Inc.

561.617.2455

[email protected]

Tiffanie Lee

Brand Strategy Partner

Cross Country Healthcare

314.236.4542

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DARMSTADT, Germany and NEW YORK, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) today announced results from the Phase III JAVELIN Lung 200 trial comparing avelumab* to docetaxel in patients with unresectable, recurrent or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease progressed after treatment with a platinum-containing doublet therapy. While the trial did not meet its prespecified endpoint of improving overall survival (OS) in patients with programmed death ligand-1-positive (PD-L1+) (1% or higher) tumors (HR: 0.90 [96% CI: 0.72-1.12], p-value 0.1627, one-sided), the proportion of patients in the chemotherapy arm crossing over to immune checkpoint inhibitors outside the study was higher than previously reported in post-platinum immunotherapy clinical trials, and this may have confounded this trial outcome (percentage of patients receiving subsequent checkpoint inhibitor therapy: docetaxel arm 26.4%; avelumab arm 5.7%).

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/611455/Merck_KGaA_Pfizer_Logo.jpg )

However, improvements in OS versus the control arm were observed in the moderate-to-high PD-L1+ expression (50% or greater, which represented approximately 40% of the study population) and high PD-L1+ expression population (PD-L1+ expression 80% or greater, which represented approximately 30% of the study population) (HR: 0.67 [95% CI: 0.51-0.89], p-value 0.0052, two-sided; and HR 0.59 [95% CI: 0.42-0.83], p-value 0.0022, two-sided, respectively**). The safety profile for avelumab in this trial was consistent with that observed in the overall JAVELIN clinical development program; no new safety signals were identified.

"Avelumab performed in line with expectations in the trial from both an efficacy and safety perspective," said primary investigator Fabrice Barlesi, M.D., Ph.D., Head of Multidisciplinary Oncology and Therapeutic Innovations Department at Aix-Marseille University and the Assistance Publique Hopitaux de Marseille, France. "With immune checkpoint inhibitors approved for patients with previously treated, advanced non-small cell lung cancer, higher percentages of immunotherapy-naive patients are receiving subsequent checkpoint inhibitors in their progressive treatments. This was observed in the JAVELIN Lung 200 control arm and may have confounded the primary outcome of the study."

"Avelumab's overall clinical activity in this study supports its profile with expected efficacy across several endpoints and subgroups," said Luciano Rossetti, M.D., Executive Vice President, Global Head of Research & Development at the Biopharma business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which operates as EMD Serono in the US and Canada. "However, the chemotherapy group displayed improved overall survival compared with previous PDx trials, most likely due to the impact of crossover to other checkpoint inhibitors."

"We are committed to understanding the data in the context of the subpopulations and the impact of access to other immune checkpoint inhibitors," said Chris Boshoff, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Head of Immuno-Oncology, Early Development and Translational Oncology, Pfizer Global Product Development. "We will continue to progress the broad avelumab program, exploring various indications."

Detailed results from the JAVELIN Lung 200 trial will be submitted for presentation at an upcoming medical congress, and the companies aim to share the data with regulatory agencies.

In 2017, avelumab first received accelerated approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (mMCC) and for previously treated patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC), followed by the European Commission (EC) approval for mMCC later that year.

The clinical development program for avelumab, known as JAVELIN, involves at least 30 clinical programs and over 7,000 patients evaluated across more than 15 different tumor types. In addition to NSCLC, these cancers include breast, gastric/gastro-esophageal junction, head and neck, Hodgkin's lymphoma, melanoma, mesothelioma, Merkel cell carcinoma, ovarian, renal cell carcinoma and urothelial carcinoma.

In December 2017, the FDA granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation for avelumab as a combination therapy for treatment-naive patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

*Avelumab is under clinical investigation for treatment of NSCLC and has not been demonstrated to be safe and effective for this indication. There is no guarantee that avelumab will be approved for NSCLC by any health authority worldwide.

**When the primary endpoint is not met, statistical significance cannot be formally claimed with the predefined statistical significance level (i.e., 0.05 two-sided). In this circumstance, the Type I error is not strictly controlled and the p-value should be interpreted cautiously.

About JAVELIN Lung 200

JAVELIN Lung 200 is a Phase III, randomized, open-label, multicenter trial investigating avelumab versus docetaxel in patients with locally advanced unresectable, metastatic or recurrent NSCLC whose disease has progressed after a platinum-containing doublet chemotherapy. The trial included 792 patients from approximately 260 sites in North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Australia and Europe. The primary objective was to demonstrate superior OS compared with docetaxel in patients with PD-L1+ unresectable, recurrent or metastatic NSCLC whose disease progressed after treatment with a platinum-containing doublet therapy.

About JAVELIN Lung Program

In addition to JAVELIN Lung 200, avelumab's lung cancer clinical development program includes several other ongoing clinical trials investigating avelumab alone and in combination. JAVELIN Lung 100 is a Phase III randomized open-label, multicenter trial to assess the safety and efficacy of avelumab, compared with platinum-based doublet chemotherapy, in patients with metastatic NSCLC who have not previously received any systemic treatment for their NSCLC. JAVELIN Lung 101 is a Phase Ib/II multicenter, international, dose-finding trial designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of avelumab in combination with either Pfizer's crizotinib or lorlatinib in patients with advanced or metastatic NSCLC. JAVELIN Medley is a Phase Ib/II randomized open-label, multicenter dose-finding trial of avelumab in combination with other immune modulators in patients with selected locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors, including NSCLC.

About Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Globally, lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in men and the second most common in women,1 responsible for more deaths than colon, breast and prostate cancer combined.2 NSCLC is the most common type of lung cancer, accounting for 80 to 85% of all lung cancers.3 The five-year survival rate for people diagnosed with lung cancer that has spread (metastasized) to other areas of the body is 1%.4

About Avelumab

Avelumab is a human anti-programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) antibody. Avelumab has been shown in preclinical models to engage both the adaptive and innate immune functions. By blocking the interaction of PD-L1 with PD-1 receptors, avelumab has been shown to release the suppression of the T cell-mediated antitumor immune response in preclinical models.5-7 Avelumab has also been shown to induce NK cell-mediated direct tumor cell lysis via antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) in vitro.7-9 In November 2014, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and Pfizer announced a strategic alliance to co-develop and co-commercialize avelumab.

 Approved Indications in the US

The FDA granted accelerated approval for avelumab (BAVENCIO) for the treatment of (i) adults and pediatric patients 12 years and older with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (mMCC) and (ii) patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) who have disease progression during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy, or have disease progression within 12 months of neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatment with platinum-containing chemotherapy. These indications are approved under accelerated approval based on tumor response rate and duration of response. Continued approval for these indications may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in confirmatory trials.

Important Safety Information from the US FDA Approved Label

BAVENCIO can cause immune-mediated pneumonitis, including fatal cases. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of pneumonitis, and evaluate suspected cases with radiographic imaging. Administer corticosteroids for Grade 2 or greater pneumonitis. Withhold BAVENCIO for moderate (Grade 2) and permanently discontinue for severe (Grade 3), life-threatening (Grade 4), or recurrent moderate (Grade 2) pneumonitis. Pneumonitis occurred in 1.2% (21/1738) of patients, including one (0.1%) patient with Grade 5, one (0.1%) with Grade 4, and five (0.3%) with Grade 3.

BAVENCIO can cause immune-mediated hepatitis, including fatal cases. Monitor patients for abnormal liver tests prior to and periodically during treatment. Administer corticosteroids for Grade 2 or greater hepatitis. Withhold BAVENCIO for moderate (Grade 2) immune-mediated hepatitis until resolution and permanently discontinue for severe (Grade 3) or life-threatening (Grade 4) immune-mediated hepatitis. Immune-mediated hepatitis was reported in 0.9% (16/1738) of patients, including two (0.1%) patients with Grade 5, and 11 (0.6%) with Grade 3.

BAVENCIO can cause immune-mediated colitis. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of colitis. Administer corticosteroids for Grade 2 or greater colitis. Withhold BAVENCIO until resolution for moderate or severe (Grade 2 or 3) colitis, and permanently discontinue for life-threatening (Grade 4) or recurrent (Grade 3) colitis upon reinitiation of BAVENCIO. Immune-mediated colitis occurred in 1.5% (26/1738) of patients, including seven (0.4%) with Grade 3.

BAVENCIO can cause immune-mediated endocrinopathies, including adrenal insufficiency, thyroid disorders, and type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of adrenal insufficiency during and after treatment, and administer corticosteroids as appropriate. Withhold BAVENCIO for severe (Grade 3) or life-threatening (Grade 4) adrenal insufficiency. Adrenal insufficiency was reported in 0.5% (8/1738) of patients, including one (0.1%) with Grade 3.

Thyroid disorders can occur at any time during treatment. Monitor patients for changes in thyroid function at the start of treatment, periodically during treatment, and as indicated based on clinical evaluation. Manage hypothyroidism with hormone replacement therapy and hyperthyroidism with medical management. Withhold BAVENCIO for severe (Grade 3) or life-threatening (Grade 4) thyroid disorders. Thyroid disorders, including hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, and thyroiditis, were reported in 6% (98/1738) of patients, including three (0.2%) with Grade 3.

Type 1 diabetes mellitus including diabetic ketoacidosis: Monitor patients for hyperglycemia or other signs and symptoms of diabetes. Withhold BAVENCIO and administer antihyperglycemics or insulin in patients with severe or life-threatening (Grade  3) hyperglycemia, and resume treatment when metabolic control is achieved. Type 1 diabetes mellitus without an alternative etiology occurred in 0.1% (2/1738) of patients, including two cases of Grade 3 hyperglycemia.

BAVENCIO can cause immune-mediated nephritis and renal dysfunction. Monitor patients for elevated serum creatinine prior to and periodically during treatment. Administer corticosteroids for Grade 2 or greater nephritis. Withhold BAVENCIO for moderate (Grade 2) or severe (Grade 3) nephritis until resolution to Grade 1 or lower. Permanently discontinue BAVENCIO for life-threatening (Grade 4) nephritis. Immune-mediated nephritis occurred in 0.1% (1/1738) of patients.

BAVENCIO can result in other severe and fatal immune-mediated adverse reactions involving any organ system during treatment or after treatment discontinuation. For suspected immune-mediated adverse reactions, evaluate to confirm or rule out an immune-mediated adverse reaction and to exclude other causes. Depending on the severity of the adverse reaction, withhold or permanently discontinue BAVENCIO, administer high-dose corticosteroids, and initiate hormone replacement therapy, if appropriate. Resume BAVENCIO when the immune-mediated adverse reaction remains at Grade 1 or lower following a corticosteroid taper. Permanently discontinue BAVENCIO for any severe (Grade 3) immune-mediated adverse reaction that recurs and for any life-threatening (Grade 4) immune-mediated adverse reaction. The following clinically significant immune-mediated adverse reactions occurred in less than 1% of 1,738 patients treated with BAVENCIO: myocarditis with fatal cases, myositis, psoriasis, arthritis, exfoliative dermatitis, erythema multiforme, pemphigoid, hypopituitarism, uveitis, Guillain-Barre syndrome, and systemic inflammatory response.

BAVENCIO can cause severe (Grade 3) or life-threatening (Grade 4) infusion-related reactions. Patients should be premedicated with an antihistamine and acetaminophen prior to the first 4 infusions and for subsequent doses based upon clinical judgment and presence/severity of prior infusion reactions. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of infusion-related reactions, including pyrexia, chills, flushing, hypotension, dyspnea, wheezing, back pain, abdominal pain, and urticaria. Interrupt or slow the rate of infusion for mild (Grade 1) or moderate (Grade 2) infusion-related reactions. Permanently discontinue BAVENCIO for severe (Grade 3) or life-threatening (Grade 4) infusion-related reactions. Infusion-related reactions occurred in 25% (439/1738) of patients, including three (0.2%) patients with Grade 4 and nine (0.5%) with Grade 3.

BAVENCIO can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman. Advise patients of the potential risk to a fetus including the risk of fetal death. Advise females of childbearing potential to use effective contraception during treatment with BAVENCIO and for at least 1 month after the last dose of BAVENCIO. It is not known whether BAVENCIO is excreted in human milk. Advise a lactating woman not to breastfeed during treatment and for at least 1 month after the last dose of BAVENCIO due to the potential for serious adverse reactions in breastfed infants.

The most common adverse reactions (all grades,  20%) in patients with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) were fatigue (50%), musculoskeletal pain (32%), diarrhea (23%), nausea (22%), infusion-related reaction (22%), rash (22%), decreased appetite (20%), and peripheral edema (20%).

Selected treatment-emergent laboratory abnormalities (all grades,  20%) in patients with metastatic MCC were lymphopenia (49%), anemia (35%), increased aspartate aminotransferase (34%), thrombocytopenia (27%), and increased alanine aminotransferase (20%).

The most common adverse reactions (all grades,  20%) in patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (UC) were fatigue (41%), infusion-related reaction (30%), musculoskeletal pain (25%), nausea (24%), decreased appetite/hypophagia (21%), and urinary tract infection (21%).

Selected laboratory abnormalities (Grades 3-4,  3%) in patients with locally advanced or metastatic UC were hyponatremia (16%), increased gamma-glutamyltransferase (12%), lymphopenia (11%), hyperglycemia (9%), increased alkaline phosphatase (7%), anemia (6%), increased lipase (6%), hyperkalemia (3%), and increased aspartate aminotransferase (3%).

Please see full US Prescribing Information and Medication Guide available at www.BAVENCIO.com

Alliance between Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and Pfizer Inc., New York, US

Immuno-oncology is a top priority for Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and Pfizer. The global strategic alliance between Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and Pfizer enables the companies to benefit from each other's strengths and capabilities and further explore the therapeutic potential of avelumab, an anti-PD-L1 antibody initially discovered and developed by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. The immuno-oncology alliance is jointly developing and commercializing avelumab and advancing Pfizer's PD-1 antibody. The alliance is focused on developing high-priority international clinical programs to investigate avelumab, as a monotherapy, as well as combination regimens, and is striving to find new ways to treat cancer.

All Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, Press Releases are distributed by e-mail at the same time they become available on the Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, Website. Please go to www.emdgroup.com/subscribe to register online, change your selection or discontinue this service.

About Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, is a leading science and technology company in healthcare, life science and performance materials. Around 50,000 employees work to further develop technologies that improve and enhance life - from biopharmaceutical therapies to treat cancer or multiple sclerosis, cutting-edge systems for scientific research and production, to liquid crystals for smartphones and LCD televisions. In 2016, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, generated sales of  15.0 billion in 66 countries.

Founded in 1668, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, is the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company. The founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed corporate group. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, holds the global rights to the "Merck" name and brand except in the United States and Canada, where the company operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD Performance Materials.

About EMD Serono, Inc.

EMD Serono is the biopharmaceutical business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany - a leading science and technology company - in the US and Canada focused exclusively on specialty care. For more than 40 years, the business has integrated cutting-edge science, innovative products and industry-leading patient support and access programs. EMD Serono has deep expertise in neurology, fertility and endocrinology, as well as a robust pipeline of potential therapies in oncology, immuno-oncology and immunology as R&D focus areas. Today, the business has 1,200 employees around the country with commercial, clinical and research operations based in the company's home state of Massachusetts.

www.emdserono.com

About Pfizer: Working together for a healthier world

At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to bring therapies to people that extend and significantly improve their lives. We strive to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery, development and manufacture of health care products. Our global portfolio includes medicines and vaccines as well as many of the world's best-known consumer health care products. Every day, Pfizer colleagues work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time. Consistent with our responsibility as one of the world's premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, we collaborate with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. For more than 150 years, we have worked to make a difference for all who rely on us. We routinely post information that may be important to investors on our website at www.pfizer.com. In addition, to learn more, please visit us on www.pfizer.com and follow us on Twitter at @Pfizer and @Pfizer_News, LinkedIn, YouTube and like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/Pfizer

Pfizer Disclosure Notice

The information contained in this release is as of February 15, 2018. Pfizer assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this release as the result of new information or future events or developments.

This release contains forward-looking information about avelumab, the alliance between Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and Pfizer involving anti-PD-L1 and anti-PD-1 therapies, and clinical development plans, including their potential benefits, that involves substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Risks and uncertainties include, among other things, uncertainties regarding the commercial success of avelumab; the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including the ability to meet anticipated clinical study commencement and completion dates and regulatory submission dates, as well as the possibility of unfavorable study results, including unfavorable new clinical data and additional analyses of existing clinical data; risks associated with interim data; the risk that clinical trial data are subject to differing interpretations, and, even when we view data as sufficient to support the safety and/or effectiveness of a product candidate, regulatory authorities may not share our views and may require additional data or may deny approval altogether; whether regulatory authorities will be satisfied with the design of and results from our clinical studies; whether and when any drug applications may be filed in any jurisdictions for potential indications for avelumab, combination therapies or other product candidates; whether and when regulatory authorities in any jurisdictions where applications are pending or may be submitted for avelumab, combination therapies or other product candidates may approve any such applications, which will depend on the assessment by such regulatory authorities of the benefit-risk profile suggested by the totality of the efficacy and safety information submitted; decisions by regulatory authorities regarding labeling and other matters that could affect the availability or commercial potential of avelumab, combination therapies or other product candidates; and competitive developments.

A further description of risks and uncertainties can be found in Pfizer's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016, and in its subsequent reports on Form 10-Q, including in the sections thereof captioned "Risk Factors" and "Forward-Looking Information and Factors That May Affect Future Results", as well as in its subsequent reports on Form 8-K, all of which are filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and available at www.sec.gov and www.pfizer.com.

References

American Cancer Society (2015) Global facts & figures third edition. Available from: http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@research/documents/document/acspc-044738.pdf. Accessed February 2018 . American Cancer Society (2017) Key statistics for lung cancer. Available from: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/non-small-cell-lung-cancer/about/key-statistics.html Accessed February 2018 . American Cancer Society (2016) What is non-small cell lung cancer? Available from: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/non-small-cell-lung-cancer/about/what-is-non-small-cell-lung-cancer.html Accessed February 2018 . Cancer.net. Lung cancer - non-small cell: statistics. Available from: http://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/lung-cancer-non-small-cell/statistics. Accessed February 2018 . Dolan DE, Gupta S. PD-1 pathway inhibitors: changing the landscape of cancer immunotherapy. Cancer Control 2014;21(3):231-7. Dahan R, Sega E, Engelhardt J, et al. FcRs modulate the anti-tumor activity of antibodies targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis. Cancer Cell 2015;28(3):285-95. Boyerinas B, Jochems C, Fantini M, et al. Antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity activity of a novel anti-PD-L1 antibody avelumab (MSB0010718C) on human tumor cells. Cancer Immunol Res 2015;3(10):1148-57. Kohrt HE, Houot R, Marabelle A, et al. Combination strategies to enhance antitumor ADCC. Immunotherapy 2012;4(5):511-27. Hamilton G, Rath B. Avelumab: combining immune checkpoint inhibition and antibody-dependent cytotoxicity. Expert Opin Biol Ther 2017;17(4):515-23.

Your Contacts

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

Media Friederike Segeberg

+49-6151-72-6328

Investor Relations

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Sally Beatty

+1-212-733-6566

Investor Relations

Ryan Crowe

+1-212-733-8160



SOURCE Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany"The MIA FTZ creates an attractive business opportunity for companies to begin or expand their operations directly on-site at the passenger and cargo gateway of the Americas," said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez. "Congratulations to the MIA team for achieving this significant milestone, which has strong potential for new business revenue and job creation in our community."

The new magnet site - an expansion of Miami-Dade County's existing FTZ 281 - will allow companies to receive and process materials and merchandise with reduced or eliminated Customs duties upon entry into the country at MIA.

"I commend the Aviation Department and PortMiami, for bringing this important designation to MIA and to Miami-Dade County," said Miami-Dade County Commissioner Rebeca Sosa, Chairperson of the County's Economic Development and Tourism Committee. "Because of their efforts with our federal partners, MIA can be an even larger economic engine for our community."

Companies handling high-traffic commodities at MIA - pharmaceuticals, electronics, textiles, footwear, auto parts, aircraft parts, avionics, machinery equipment, consumer goods and perishables - are expected to be FTZ applicants. To be an FTZ operator, companies must first complete an application with PortMiami  the grantee of FTZ 281  and then receive approval from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The expedited application process takes approximately 30 days.

"Our FTZ magnet site approval dovetails perfectly with our growth strategy as one of the world's leading pharma hubs, as well as our efforts to become the e-commerce hub of the Americas," said Miami-Dade Aviation Department Chief of Staff Joseph Napoli. "We look forward to opening new doors at MIA within the trade and logistics industries."

FTZ 281 encompasses land from S.W. 8th Street to the Broward County line, and from Miami Beach in the east to the Urban Development line in the west. Companies within an FTZ are able to defer paying duties only when product exits the site, reduce duties on combined finished products instead of on each individual product, and eliminate duties on products being imported to the site and then exported.

In 2016, MIA's air trade was valued at $57.3 billion - representing 92 percent of the value of Florida's total air trade and 40 percent of the State's total (air and sea) trade with the world.

"Six years after being approved by the U.S. Department of Commerce, FTZ 281 has more than 65 approved sites," said PortMiami Director and CEO Juan M. Kuryla. "Adding MIA as a magnet site is a huge accomplishment. It makes Miami a more competitive global gateway for growing international trade and commerce in Miami-Dade County. We welcome MIA to FTZ281."

The FTZ magnet site follows other business development initiatives launched recently by MDAD, including: MIA's first e-commerce workshop with more than 30 local air cargo industry stakeholders in January, with the goal of establishing Miami-Dade County as one of the world's leading e-commerce hubs; Florida's first-ever ocean-to-air perishables trans-shipment program last February, which allows perishable freight from local seaports to be trucked to MIA and depart by air without Customs duties; and MIA's pharma hub designation by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which certifies that pharma products are transported in accordance with global best practices. Four MIA pharma hub partners became IATA-certified in 2017, and MIA's pharma trade has grown in value from $1.8 billion 2010 to $4.4 billion in 2016. MIA was named "Best Freighter Hub" in the world by Freighter World magazine in 2017.

Miami International Airport offers more flights to Latin America and the Caribbean than any other U.S. airport, is America's third-busiest airport for international passengers, boasts a lineup of more than 100 air carriers and is the top U.S. airport for international freight. MIA, along with its general aviation airports, is also the leading economic engine for Miami-Dade County and the state of Florida, generating business revenue of $33.7 billion annually and welcoming 70 percent of all international visitors to Florida. MIA's vision is to grow from a recognized hemispheric hub to a global airport of choice that offers customers a world-class experience and an expanded route network with direct passenger and cargo access to all world regions. MIA is committed to sustainable practices. Learn more at www.MIAefficiency.com.

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LANSING, Mich., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Family Research Council's Randy Wilson joined Pastor Jeremy Schossau along with pastors and state legislators at a State Capitol news conference urging State Reps. Adam Zemke (D-Ann Arbor) and Darrin Camilleri (D-Brownstown Twp.) to withdraw their demands for an investigation into Pastor Schossau's church for offering a workshop that provides biblical answers on identity and sexuality.

Randy Wilson, Family Research Council's National Field Director for Watchman on the Wall, made the following comments:

"We're seeing that the church is increasingly under attack." Wilson continued, "I want to thank Pastor Jeremy Schossau for his leadership Metro City Church is a place that is governed by the precepts and principles of God's word and is compelled by the love of God."

Pastor Jeremy Schossau of Metro City Church, added:

"People have always gone to their spiritual leaders for advice." Schossau continued, "Pastors have always done this and we will continue to do this. And, we don't need the government to tell us what we can and cannot say. And, we do not need the government to tell us what kind of advice we need to give, or a license to give that advice," concluded Schossau.

Pastor Stephanie Wilkins of Immanuel Outreach Cathedral, added:

"Our Constitution guarantees that freedom, that we have the right to worship as we choose. This is not to oppress. This is not to offend, but some will be offended. This is a right that is guaranteed to anyone that practices their faith. And, it's not something that was pushed on anyone. This was something where the person came to the pastor. This is something that is a tradition in our country and has been for years, where when you have a need spiritually, you go to the person that can help you spiritually."

Click here to watch the full news conference.

SOURCE Family Research Council

Related Links

http://www.frc.org

Monkey Shoulder has received numerous accolades including designation as Drinks International 's Top Trending Scotch Whisky Brand of 2017, its fourth consecutive win in the category, and receiving the World Spirits Competition 2016 Double Gold honor. Since its launch, Monkey Shoulder has sought to challenge perceptions about Scotch whisky and redefine expectations for cocktails, with a focus on being a resource and inspiration for the bartending community. Monkey Shoulder has developed fantastic, cheeky tools such as the iSpoon and Konga Shaker that impart a sense of fun and spectacle, while celebrating the craftsmanship required in building a quality cocktail. The Monkey Mixer is the next step, and a large one at that, in this mission.

"Many consider whisky sacred and precious. Many take their cocktails very seriously. We respect that, but believe people should play with their whisky, and enjoy the experience," shared Seb Derbomez, US Monkey Shoulder Ambassador. "Monkey Shoulder is an award-winning whisky that is made for mixing, and we are dedicated to sharing the joy and wonder of what a whisky cocktail experience can be with people across the country. The Monkey Mixer is a great vehicle to share this message in a big and unmistakable way."

Fun facts about The Monkey Mixer:

The capacity for the "Mixer" is the equivalent of 123,000 bottles of Monkey Shoulder

The Mixer is over 27 feet long, 13 feet tall and 8 feet wide

The mixer is powered by a 5000 watt Cummins Onan diesel commercial generator

The sound system packs over 2000 watts of power and includes:

2 x 500 watt JL audio amplifiers



1 x 1000 watt JL audio amplifier



4 x 7.77" JL audio midrange speakers



2 x 13" JL audio subwoofers



1 x 18" Dayton audio subwoofer





The delicious, refreshing and balanced "Mixed Up Monkey" cocktail recipe contains:

1  parts Monkey Shoulder



 part mint simple syrup



 part fresh lemon juice



3 parts soda



Fresh mint sprig garnish

The fun begins at Arizona Cocktail Week when Monkey Shoulder and The Monkey Mixer break ground on a new era of whisky cocktails.

"For this first event, we've chosen to offer the Mixed Up Monkey cocktail, a mixture of Monkey Shoulder, mint syrup, soda, and lemon juice chosen for its universality and its playfully fun use of the whisky," remarked Derbomez. "With this cocktail you can see just how mixable Monkey Shoulder really is  a truly cheeky addition to any cocktail!"

Following its Arizona debut, The Monkey Mixer will travel to select cocktail festivals and other surprise locations in the USA throughout 2018.

"I can't wait to share Monkey Shoulder, The Monkey Mixer, and this experience with mixologists and cocktail enthusiasts as we travel to some of the country's top spirits events this year," added Derbomez. "Of course, we take safety and responsibility very seriously, so driving time and cocktail time will always be separate  as they always should be. We encourage all to imbibe responsibly always, and never drink and drive."

Stay up to date on all things Monkey Shoulder on Facebook @MonkeyShoulderUS, on Twitter @MonkeyShoulder3, or on Instagram @MonkeyShoulderUS

About Monkey Shoulder

With an eye-catching bottle, intriguing name and a mischievous attitude, Monkey Shoulder has created a stir as the Scotch that leaps out from the whisky crowd. Monkey Shoulder is a marriage of selected 100 percent malt whisky from Speyside, Scotland. It is crafted in small batches to achieve a smoother, richer taste. The 86 proof (43% ABV) whisky is made from 100 percent malted barley  not a drop of grain is used  and aged exclusively in first-fill Bourbon barrels for exceptional smoothness. On its own, Monkey Shoulder is smooth and rich, while its versatility allows for a wide range of great tasting cocktails. Visit www.MonkeyShoulder.com.

About William Grant & Sons

William Grant & Sons Holdings Ltd is an independent family-owned distiller headquartered in the United Kingdom and founded by William Grant in 1887. Today, the global premium spirits company is run by the fifth generation of his family and distils some of the world's leading brands of Scotch whisky, including the world's most awarded single malt Glenfiddich, The Balvenie range of handcrafted single malts and the world's third largest blended Scotch, Grant's, as well as other iconic spirits brands such as Hendrick's Gin, Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum, Tullamore D.E.W. Irish Whiskey, Monkey Shoulder Blended Malt Scotch Whisky and Drambuie Scotch Liqueur.

William Grant & Sons has been honored as "Distiller of the Year" by the prestigious International Wine & Spirit Competition and International Spirits Challenge 11 times over the past 16 years.

Founded in 1964, William Grant & Sons USA is a wholly-owned subsidiary of William Grant & Sons, Ltd. and features one of the fastest growing spirits portfolios in the USA with brands including Glenfiddich, The Balvenie, Hendrick's Gin, Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum, Tullamore D.E.W. Irish Whiskey, Drambuie, Milagro Tequila, Grant's, Hudson Whiskey, Gibson's Finest, Monkey Shoulder, Clan MacGregor, Reyka Vodka, Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur, Montelobos Mezcal, Ancho Reyes, Flor de Cana Rum, Art In The Age, The Knot and Raynal French Brandy. For more information on the company and its brands, please visit www.grantusa.com.

SOURCE Monkey Shoulder

Related Links

http://www.MonkeyShoulder.com

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Federated Investors, Inc. today announced that monthly fund composition and performance data for Federated Premier Municipal Income Fund (NYSE: FMN) as of Jan. 31, 2018, is now available in the Products section of FederatedInvestors.com. To order hard copies of this data or to be placed on a mailing list, call 800-245-0242 x5587538, email [email protected] or write to Federated Investors, 1001 Liberty Avenue, Floor 23, Pittsburgh, PA 15222.

Federated Investors, Inc. (NYSE: FII) is one of the largest investment managers in the United States, managing $397.6 billion in assets as of Dec. 31, 2017. With 108 funds and a variety of separately managed account options, Federated provides comprehensive investment management to more than 8,500 institutions and intermediaries including corporations, government entities, insurance companies, foundations and endowments, banks and broker/dealers. For more information, visit FederatedInvestors.com.

###

SOURCE Federated Investors, Inc.

Related Links

http://FederatedInvestors.com

LUTHERVILLE, Md., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators (NADDI)  a nonprofit organization that facilitates cooperation between law enforcement, healthcare professionals, state regulatory agencies and pharmaceutical manufacturers in the prevention and investigation of diversion of medicines for illegal purposes  applauded recent results from the National Precursor Log Exchange (NPLEx) through the end of 2017. From January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2017, NPLEx successfully blocked the illegal sale of 1,788,808 boxes of medicine containing pseudoephedrine (PSE), which can be diverted by criminals to make meth.

The NPLEx system, a proven tool in the fight against PSE diversion across the country, helps retailers enforce existing laws blocking the unlawful purchase of medicine containing PSE at the pharmacy counter and provides law enforcement officers with valuable information such as "watch lists" that notify them via email of attempts to purchase PSE. Additionally, some states have gone further by using NPLEx to enforce a ban on the sale of PSE products to individuals previously convicted of a meth crime.

Following Wisconsin's 2017 adoption, NPLEx is now utilized by 34 states  over two-thirds of the nation  in the fight against meth, and the program's sustained success looks to continue as additional states look toward NPLEx as a commonsense solution. As a result of more states adopting NPLEx, more criminals are increasingly deterred from attempts to purchase PSE illegally, more consumers are being educated on purchase limits in their states.

Success of NPLEx:

1,788,808 boxes  4,688,929 grams  of PSE were blocked in 2017

boxes  grams  of PSE were blocked in 2017 45,000 retailers nationwide reported PSE sales to NPLEx in 2017

retailers nationwide reported PSE sales to NPLEx in 2017 9,500 law enforcement officers utilized NPLEx to identify, arrest and prosecute criminals in 2017

law enforcement officers utilized NPLEx to identify, arrest and prosecute criminals in 2017 67% decrease in domestic methamphetamine laboratory seizures in the United States from 2012 (9,134) to 2016 (2,989)

decrease in domestic methamphetamine laboratory seizures in from 2012 (9,134) to 2016 (2,989) 34 states have adopted the NPLEx system as of December 2017

"Year over year, domestic meth production continues to decrease, and the effectiveness of our real-time tracking system keeps pseudoephedrine out of the hands of the remaining criminals," said NADDI Executive Director Charlie Cichon. "Working together with law enforcement and pharmacists, NPLEx remains a valuable tool to fight domestic meth production, while protecting the rights of law-abiding consumers."

About NADDI and Public Safety

NADDI is the leading drug diversion training organization in the US, with the largest networking platform of professionals involved in the field of pharmaceutical drug diversion. The NADDI networking platform provides the opportunity to bring diverse viewpoints, education, supports and resources to individuals facing the challenges in the fight against the misuse and abuse of pharmaceutical drugs. You can learn about NADDI here: www.NADDI.org

SOURCE National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators

Related Links

http://www.naddi.org

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/470292/Namirial_Group_Logo.jpg )

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/641032/Namirial_Deutschland_GmbH.jpg )

Namirial has recruited an initial team of seasoned sales, business development and marketing executives. It is headed by Johannes Leser, who has joined as Managing Director together with Antonio Taurisano, who is also General Manager for Digital Transaction Management of Namirial Group. Also in the team are Irina Kulakova as Senior Solution Consultant, Ralph Maute as Principal Solution Consultant and Joerg Lenz as Director Marketing and Public Relations. This initial team has a combined experience of more than 60 years in digital transaction management solutions. Their new office will be located in the Stuttgart region.

Claudio Gabellini and Enrico Giacomelli, founders and owners of Namirial Group, comment: "Since 2014 the eIDAS Regulation has tremendously propelled our European business. Our customer base in Germany and several neighbouring countries is growing at fast pace. Our new subsidiary is a natural response to increasing demand in our solutions and part of our long term sustainable growth strategy. Our latest expansion follows a very successful 2017, highlighted by the successful launch of our digital end-to-end customer onboarding solution including live video identification for remote users."

Antonio Taurisano explains: "We are excited to have a strong and experienced team engaging with our customers, partners and prospects and guide them in their digital transformation journey. The eIDAS regulation provides a bunch of new options to design processes which are both cost-effective and user-friendly throughout all channels. Efficient customer onboarding and contracting processes are top priorities in many organizations. eIDAS compliant qualified certificates are a must have in many B2C use cases and we can cover all requirements for trustworthy and compliant digital transaction management."

Johannes Leser adds: "Paper is still clogging way to much business processes. We are very excited to support Namirial customers and partners with our skills and experience in processes, technologies and industries to get paper out of their workflows in a trustworthy manner and provide compelling signature experience. Namirial is providing the platform to keep these processes flexible, in particular the critical and security related identification and authentication of their users."

About Namirial

Namirial is a global leader in trusted security for Digital Transaction Management with solutions for user electronic identification, multi-factor authentication, digital certificates, electronic signature, electronic invoicing, and digital archiving. The company has been certified for many products and services including being an eIDAS Qualified Trust Service Provider. Namirial employs more than 350 people and is processing several millions of transactions every day. Besides various several offices in Italy the Namirial group runs subsidiaries in Austria, Brasil, Germany and Romania and is represented in the United States.

In late 2015 Namirial acquired Austrian company Xyzmo, best known for her handwritten biometric signature software "Significant" which is now installed on more than 375.000 workplaces. Today Namirial has a complete e-signature portfolio catering for remote signing scenarios and offering a highly flexible solution suite for seamless, fully white-labeled integration.

For more information, visit http://www.namirial.com/it/ or follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook.

SOURCE NamirialTYSONS, Va., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Red roses, beer samples and coffee were just the beginning of the treats for the standing-room-only crowd of the inaugural 1 Million Cups Fairfax County entrepreneur meeting this Valentine's Day.

1 Million Cups Fairfax County Attendees Networking Before The Meeting

1 Million Cups, a national initiative founded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, is based on the notion that entrepreneurs can support each other through business challenges by engaging and educating each other. Nationwide there are 103 weekly meetings where entrepreneurs share their challenges and get feedback from peers. All meetings are volunteer led.

Eric Zarkovich of Good River Beer was the first presenter for 1 Million Cups Fairfax County. After sharing samples of his beer he focused in on his current challenge. "Our brewery started in Denver, Colorado and is very successful," explained Eric. "Now we are trying to figure out how best to break in to the Northern Virginia market."

Founded by four avid outdoorsman, Good River Beer donates two percent of all sales to river conservation efforts. Suggestions from today's attendees included use of local radio ads and offers of introductions to local Potomac River conservation groups, marinas and river-based restaurants to build brand recognition.

"The offers of mutual introductions to local river communities was exactly what I needed," explained Eric after the meeting. "The radio and TV ideas were great too, and something I would have considered out of reach were it not for the feedback from other business owners who have done it."

For 1 Million Cups Fairfax County founding organizers Rod Loges, president and CEO of One Degree Capital, and Donnell Johns, president and CEO of Avision Worldwide Consulting Firm, the first meeting was a huge success.

Having started and successfully sold two tech companies prior to founding One Degree Capital, Rod immediately saw the value the 1 Million Cups model could bring to entrepreneurs. "As entrepreneurs it can be difficult to find others who relate to our challenges," explained Rod. "Often our families and friends try to be supportive, but in the end an entrepreneur can often feel like they are on an island. The 1 Million Cups Fairfax County community support can change that."

"As a leadership and management consultant, I know first-hand the positive impact that mentors can have on a business' success story," explained Donnell. "Engaging in positive dialogue like at 1 Million Cups Fairfax County is a great way for entrepreneurs to shape their business into what they always dreamed it could be."

The weekly meetings are currently hosted in the co-working space of Make Offices Tysons. Meetings are public and open to all entrepreneurs and innovators in the Fairfax area. "When Rod approached us about meeting space we immediately saw the value to our business community," explains Rachel Breslof Forte, Community Manager of Make Offices Tysons. "Make Offices is thrilled to open up our co-working space to support our local entrepreneurs in this manner."

For more information including directions, upcoming presenters, or to apply to present, visit www.1MCFairfaxCounty.com.

About Kauffman Foundation

Established in 2012 by the Kauffman Foundation, 1 Million Cups is a national effort to connect and engage entrepreneurs in support of each other on a local level. To learn more about the Kauffman Foundation visit www.kauffman.org.

About One Degree Capital

A founding organizer of 1 Million Cups Fairfax, One Degree Capital is a privately held fund headquartered in Tysons, Virginia. Established in 2010, One Degree has helped over 5,000 businesses secure millions in capital to grow their businesses. For more information contact One Degree Capital at 1.703.579.6868.

Media Contact:

Michelle Kuzma

1.703.579.6868

[email protected]

SOURCE One Degree CapitalSAN RAMON, Calif., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sitting at a desk may seem safer than other kinds of jobs. And while office workers may not face falling trees or unstable ladders, the long-term health dangers of too much sitting are real. Bad posture, lack of movement and the repetitive motion of typing can all contribute to negative health outcomes. While regular movement throughout the day is necessary, other therapeutic practices may be helpful. Financial Education Benefits Center (FEBC) is offering health and wellness benefits to eligible members that include discounts on alternative medicine, practices and therapies like yoga, Pilates, chiropractic and massage.

Financial Education Benefits Center

"We assume a lot of FEBC members are working in an office and sitting at a desk all day, which may be affecting their health," said Jennifer Martinez, manager at FEBC. "They may be looking for something to help. Our alternative medicine benefit discounts can be used by individuals who are already familiar with alternative medicine, or who may be curious and need an excuse to try it."

Eligible FEBC members who want to improve their flexibility, strength or spinal alignment might find help in a variety of therapeutic practices. Whether a movement practice like yoga or tai chi, or a therapy like chiropractic or massage, there are participating providers nationwide. While office workers, in particular, might enjoy the benefit, any eligible member is welcome to use it. To use the benefit, members can search for a participating provider online and receive a discount at the time of payment for services.

No one solution is a cure-all, though. Experts warn that even exercise or movement before or after work alone are not enough to mitigate the effects of large chunks of time with no movement at all. Good posture and frequent movement are recommended throughout the work day to counteract muscle breakdown and lessen the risk of injury. If possible, experts also recommend walking, instead of sitting, during work breaks.

That being said, alternative medicine and therapeutic movement can change people's lives.

"We hope our members who have access to this benefit use it as part of a healthy lifestyle in general," said Martinez. "Our new health and wellness benefits are here to make healthy living easier."

About Financial Education Benefits Center

Financial Education Benefits Center is located in San Ramon, California. The membership company has already helped thousands save money and obtain the necessary education required to live a financially healthy life.

Financial Education Benefits Center has partnered with several name brand third-party companies to expand the financial and educational products and services available to its members and to provide a variety of wellness services as well.

Contact

To learn more about Financial Education Benefits Center, please contact:

Financial Education Benefits Center

2010 Crow Canyon Place Ste. 100

San Ramon, CA 94583

1-800-953-1388

[email protected]

Related Links

FEBC homepage

SOURCE Financial Education Benefits Center

Related Links

http://febcp.com

ALEXANDRIA, La., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Appointments are now available at the new Aspen Dental-branded practice at 3709 Masonic Drive scheduled to open on Thursday, Feb. 22. Office hours will be Monday through Wednesday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Friday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., as well as select Saturdays. Walk-in and emergency patients are welcome.

Located near the Alexandria Mall, the new dental office is led by Dr. John Faller, who received his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from Louisiana State University. Dr. Faller and his team will provide dental services ranging from dentures and denture repairs, to preventive care, general dentistry and restoration.

The new office, located in Rapides Parish, is one of 10 Aspen Dental practices in Louisiana, a state where 58 of the 64 parishes, including Rapides, are designated as dental health professional shortage areas by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

According to a study conducted by Syracuse University's Whitman School of Management, each new Aspen Dental practice supports local community growth by contributing more than $1.3 million in positive economic impact through job creation and capital investment.

The new Aspen Dental office offers patient-friendly programs and services to make it easier for patients to get the dental care they need, including:

Personalized treatment and friendly service. Each patient receives a comprehensive diagnosis and treatment plan designed by the dentist with long-term oral and overall health in mind.

Affordable dental care. The practice works with insurance providers and handles the paperwork to save patients time and hassle, and offers free new-patient exams and X-rays to those who do not have insurance. The practice also offers detailed treatment cost estimates to give patients peace of mind as well as a variety of financing options.

On-site denture lab and Denture Money Back Guarantee. The practice's on-site denture lab facilitates quick turnaround of denture repairs, relines or adjustments. Several styles of full and partial dentures are offered to ensure proper fit and comfort of each patient's custom-crafted dentures. And if patients are dissatisfied with their dentures  the practice will refund the cost of the dentures when patients return them within 90 days. The practice also repairs all dentures, not just those purchased at Aspen Dental.

To make an appointment, patients can go to www.aspendental.com and click on Schedule a New Patient Appointment; or call (318) 269-6422 or 800-ASPEN DENTAL (800-277-3633).

About Aspen Dental Offices

Aspen Dental-branded practices are committed to breaking down the barriers to better dental care, better smiles and better lives by making dentistry easier for patients. With more than 660 offices in 36 states, Aspen Dental practices provide a wide range of general dentistry and denture-related services and offer patient-friendly programs and services that help thousands of people every day get the dental care they need, including convenient locations, onsite labs, extended hours, and acceptance of most dental insurance. Together, Aspen Dental practices cared for more than 1.7 million patients in 2017. To learn more about how Aspen Dental practices make it simply easier for patients to get the care they need, visit AspenDental.com.

About Aspen Dental Management Inc.

With an innovative model that takes non-clinical business and administrative services out of the dental office so that dentists are free to focus on patient care, the team at ADMI is driven by one overarching purpose: To care for the people who care for the patients. ADMI makes it easier for dentists to have the careers they've always dreamed of, delivering care to their patients with the support of a team of experienced business professionals who are committed to making their practices a success. Support provided by ADMI includes services and recommendations related to finding the right locations, leasing, acquiring equipment, accounting and marketing.

SOURCE Aspen Dental

Related Links

http://www.aspendental.com

SOUTH NAPLES, Fla., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Appointments are now available at the new Aspen Dental-branded practice at 13050 Tamiami Trail East scheduled to open on Thursday, Feb. 22. Office hours will be Monday through Wednesday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Friday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. as well as select Saturdays. Walk-in and emergency patients are welcome.

Located in Tamiami Crossing, the new dental office is led by Dr. Ivelisse Ortiz, who received her Doctor of Dental Medicine degree from Nova Southeastern University. Dr. Ortiz and her team will provide dental services ranging from dentures and denture repairs, to preventive care, general dentistry and restoration.

The new office, located in Collier County, is one of 73 Aspen Dental practices in Florida, a state where 65 of the 67 counties, including Collier, are designated as dental health professional shortage areas by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

According to a study conducted by Syracuse University's Whitman School of Management, each new Aspen Dental practice supports local community growth by contributing more than $1.3 million in positive economic impact through job creation and capital investment.

The new Aspen Dental office offers patient-friendly programs and services to make it easier for patients to get the dental care they need, including:

Personalized treatment and friendly service. Each patient receives a comprehensive diagnosis and treatment plan designed by the dentist with long-term oral and overall health in mind.



Each patient receives a comprehensive diagnosis and treatment plan designed by the dentist with long-term oral and overall health in mind. Affordable dental care. The practice works with insurance providers and handles the paperwork to save patients time and hassle, and offers free new-patient exams and X-rays to those who do not have insurance. The practice also offers detailed treatment cost estimates to give patients peace of mind as well as a variety of financing options.



The practice works with insurance providers and handles the paperwork to save patients time and hassle, and offers free new-patient exams and X-rays to those who do not have insurance. The practice also offers detailed treatment cost estimates to give patients peace of mind as well as a variety of financing options. On-site denture lab and Denture Money Back Guarantee. The practice's on-site denture lab facilitates quick turnaround of denture repairs, relines or adjustments. Several styles of full and partial dentures are offered to ensure proper fit and comfort of each patient's custom-crafted dentures. And if patients are dissatisfied with their dentures  the practice will refund the cost of the dentures when patients return them within 90 days. The practice also repairs all dentures, not just those purchased at Aspen Dental.

To make an appointment, patients can go to www.aspendental.com and click on Schedule a New Patient Appointment; or call (239) 970-4019 or 800-ASPEN DENTAL (800-277-3633).

About Aspen Dental Offices

Aspen Dental-branded practices are committed to breaking down the barriers to better dental care, better smiles and better lives by making dentistry easier for patients. With more than 660 offices in 36 states, Aspen Dental practices provide a wide range of general dentistry and denture-related services and offer patient-friendly programs and services that help thousands of people every day get the dental care they need, including convenient locations, onsite labs, extended hours, and acceptance of most dental insurance. Together, Aspen Dental practices cared for more than 1.7 million patients in 2017. To learn more about how Aspen Dental practices make it simply easier for patients to get the care they need, visit AspenDental.com.

About Aspen Dental Management Inc.

With an innovative model that takes non-clinical business and administrative services out of the dental office so that dentists are free to focus on patient care, the team at ADMI is driven by one overarching purpose: To care for the people who care for the patients. ADMI makes it easier for dentists to have the careers they've always dreamed of, delivering care to their patients with the support of a team of experienced business professionals who are committed to making their practices a success. Support provided by ADMI includes services and recommendations related to finding the right locations, leasing, acquiring equipment, accounting and marketing.

SOURCE Aspen Dental

Related Links

http://www.aspendental.com

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- New Vista Solutions (NVS), a Texas-based mortgage settlement solutions firm, announced Monday that they are pleased to add Omnia Real Estate Services as a strategic partner. Omnia, a nationwide provider of commercial and residential real estate services, specializes in asset management and accurate property valuations.

Omnia Real Estate

"New Vista Solutions is experiencing tremendous growth by providing single-source, end-to-end mortgage settlement solutions to the financial industry," said Jesse Rivera, CEO of New Vista Solutions. "Omnia is a leader in the commercial valuation industry and we are proud to partner with them to provide our current and future clients with additional products and services."

New Vista Solutions' product and services suite meets the needs of today's mortgage banking and settlement communities. The NVS system allows lenders the ability to order and manage a full suite of origination fulfillment services from one easy-to-use website. NVS is a full-service vendor management company providing multiple product offerings, vendor due diligence, and a centralized customer service experience.

"New Vista Solutions is proud to service both our direct and reseller clients with a comprehensive suite of compliant, technology-driven solutions that help mitigate risk, reduce losses, and expedite the settlement process," said Rivera. "Our clients depend on us to provide innovative solutions for their daily challenges. This strategic marketing alliance, along with Omnia's powerful suite of commercial and residential real estate-related products and services will only strengthen our position."

About New Vista Solutions

New Vista Solutions (NVS) was founded in 2007 and is a leading provider of settlement services for the residential and commercial real estate markets, offering clients the efficiency of a single resource for multiple settlement service solutions. NVS enhances the efficiency of the settlement processes reducing time to close, increasing client profitability. A user friendly online system, supported by a dedicated staff of professionals, provides a complete spectrum of products including, flood certifications, appraisals, alternative valuation products, mortgage loan reports, credit reports, alternative title products, tax services, compliance solutions as well as verification of employment and income. Visit newvistasolutions.com for more information.

About Omnia Real Estate Services

Omnia, a trusted leader in real estate asset management and valuation, focuses on providing world class, industrystandard service, in all 50 states, helping its customers solve their most demanding real estaterelated, business and technology challenges. FDIC-approved and servicing clients from Top 10 banks to regional/local financial institutions to individual investors, Omnia maintains two west coast campuses in Newport Beach and Orange, California. Visit omnia247.com for more information.

Media Contact:

Marcus Lee

[email protected]

714-978-4398

SOURCE New Vista Solutions

Related Links

https://newvistasolutions.com

IMAGES: http://bit.ly/2BtJLG1

CREDIT: Scott Frances for SPYSCAPE

Distinct Elements:

Contemporary Museum: SPYSCAPE explores amazing Spy Stories and characters  from code-breakers and spy pilots, to the spycatcher who brought down the FBI's most damaging traitor, and the teenager who hacked the CIA's website  all brought to life with world-class artifacts and multimedia storytelling.

Immersive Experience: SPYSCAPE features interactive experiential Spy Challenges, in which visitors can test their own spy skills, including lie detection in interrogation booths, observation in a 360-degree live surveillance mission, and agility in special ops laser tunnels.

Journey of Personal Discovery: Throughout the SPYSCAPE galleries (Encryption, Deception, Surveillance, Hacking, Cyber-Warfare, Special Ops, and Intelligence), visitors will encounter Question Stations testing their spy attributes such as risk-tolerance, brainpower, and personality. As visitors proceed through the galleries, their interactions in the Spy Challenges and Question Stations contribute to their overall Spy Profile.

The Experience:

Upon entry, visitors will receive a unique Identity Band, which uses RFID technology to personalize their experience. They then enter the Briefing, a high-tech theater which rises up through the building as it introduces the world of secret intelligence via an immersive film developed with the studio that creates VFX for films such as Avengers, Ex-Machina and Blade Runner 2049.

Their Spy Profiles are then analyzed in Debrief, where they discover which of the 10 archetypal Spy Roles they are best suited to. This authentic profiling system was developed with a former Head of Training at British Intelligence and top industrial psychologists. The Spy Roles are: Agent Handler, Cryptologist, Hacker, Intelligence Analyst, Intelligence Operative, Special Ops Officer, Spycatcher, Spymaster, Surveillance Officer, Technical Ops Officer.

Key Experiential Elements:

Encryption Challenge - Visitors will use ciphers to send and receive coded messages to and from agents behind enemy lines. These messages, and how quickly and accurately they're sent, will determine the success of missions, which then play out as short animated stories based on real-life events.

Deception Challenge - Visitors will learn to lie, and learn the art and science of spotting lies, in an interrogation room. A pulse monitor and facial and audio recognition software track heartbeat, facial expressions, and vocal cues as they try their hand at lying.

Surveillance Challenge - Surrounded by a 360-degree projection of live and pre-recorded CCTV imagery, wear special headsets fitted with microphones and voice-recognition software as a surveillance officer takes them through authentic surveillance missions to test their powers of observation.

Special Ops Challenge - Visitors will make split-second decisions, reach for illuminated targets, and negotiate a path through laser beams to reach the end of the tunnels while scoring against the clock. This challenge tests agility, strategy and reaction times in this thrilling twist on a laser maze.

The Details:

The Book Shop has more than 1,000 spy related titles spanning contemporary and historical nonfiction and fiction, including a selection of rare and first edition spy books that have been curated with the help of intelligence officers, historians, hackers, spymasters and world-class writers. The Gift Shop features a carefully curated selection of fun gadgets, smart tech, spy games, and products to protect personal communications and transactions. The Cafe & Bar offers food and beverages in a dramatic setting. Multiple Event Spaces offer one-of-a-kind surroundings for intimate dinners in immersive audio-visual spaces, high-tech board meetings, or celebrations for more than 600 visitors with full gallery access.

SPYSCAPE was designed as a world class multi-sensory environment. The architecture was created by Adjaye Associates, whose other designs include the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Nobel Peace Center and the Moscow School of Management. The audio design was done by composer and sound designer Nick Ryan, whose recent projects include works for Dolby, Tate, Rolls-Royce, and the Imperial War Museum. Lighting design was helmed by Lighting Workshop, whose other projects range from Adidas and Belstaff to Kith and W Hotels.

The museum has been brought to life by a diverse team of curators, designers, educators, programmers, and storytellers, with expert advice from former members of renowned hacking collectives, award winning investigative journalists, and former Station Chiefs and Directors of international intelligence agencies.

SPYSCAPE is developed and funded by private investment group Archimedia, whose other investments include Aman Resorts, Moncler, and Virgin Mobile, along with spy-themed TV and film projects such as The Night Manager and A Most Wanted Man.

Admission to SPYSCAPE is $39 for adults and $32 for children, for a date and time specific ticket. Included with this ticket are: (i) admission to the briefing and main galleries; (ii) access to all experiences (including the RFID Identity Band, the immersive Spy Challenges and the interactive Question Stations); and (iii) a full Spy Profile which explains each visitors Spy Role and is emailed upon completion of their visit. There is also VIP Admission (no waiting, no specific date or time) at $59 for adults; $52 for children.

SPYSCAPE is open seven days a week from 10am - 8pm (last entry at 7pm). For tickets and more information, visit spyscape.com or call +1 (212) 549-1941. Follow @spyscape on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

About SPYSCAPE

Opening on February 16, 2018, in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, SPYSCAPE is a contemporary, interactive museum and experience which aims to help you see yourself, and the world around you more clearly, through the lens of spying. SPYSCAPE illuminates secret intelligence, from espionage to hacking, and investigative journalism. It offers a balanced perspective on the big issues - privacy, security, surveillance, etc., and inspires and empowers visitors to seek the truth, form their own opinions, and QUESTION EVERYTHING.

SPYSCAPE is truly experiential. Visitors can discover their inner spy using an authentic profiling system (developed with a former Head of Training at British Intelligence), and learn how their spy skills can help them every day. Visitors can also engage in real spy challenges, including lie-detection in interrogation booths, surveillance in a 360 degree environment and strategy and agility in special ops laser tunnels.

The museum also features a notable Spy Shop, a Book Shop, a Cafe and multiple Event Spaces. SPYSCAPE is located at 928 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10019. For more information, visit spyscape.com and follow @spyscape on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

PRESS CONTACT

The Door

Kayla Inanc, Associate Vice President

+1 646.340.1727 // [email protected]

The Door

Amanda Caskey, Senior Director

+1 646.340.1723 // [email protected]

[email protected]

SOURCE SPYSCAPELONDON, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Noble Corporation plc (NYSE: NE) today announced that its report of drilling rig status and contract information has been updated as of February 15, 2018. The report, titled "Fleet Status Report," can be found on the Company's Website www.noblecorp.com, under the "Investor Relations" section of the Website.

About Noble Corporation plc

Noble is a leading offshore drilling contractor for the oil and gas industry. The Company owns and operates one of the most modern, versatile and technically advanced fleets in the offshore drilling industry. Noble performs, through its subsidiaries, contract drilling services with a fleet of 28 offshore drilling units, consisting of 14 drillships and semisubmersibles and 14 jackups, focused largely on ultra-deepwater and high-specification jackup drilling opportunities in both established and emerging regions worldwide. Noble is a public limited company registered in England and Wales with company number 08354954 and registered office at Devonshire House, 1 Mayfair Place, London, W1J 8AJ England. Additional information on Noble is available at www.noblecorp.com.

SOURCE Noble Corporation

Related Links

http://www.noblecorp.com

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The North Dakota Department of Health, the government agency responsible for implementing the state's voter-approved medical marijuana program, has awarded the contract to BioTrackTHC to develop and implement the state's medical marijuana seed-to-sale traceability system. The system will allow designated regulatory officials to enforce compliance across the state's marijuana seed-to-sale supply chain, providing transparency and accountability over the licensed medical marijuana compassion centers.

"As we begin implementing North Dakota's medical marijuana program, the state needed a medical marijuana tracking system to assist in implementing a well-regulated program," said Jason Wahl Director of the Division of Medical Marijuana within the North Dakota Department of Health. "We are excited to begin working with BioTrackTHC who has a successful record in implementing traceability systems in other states."

Usable marijuana will be available to qualifying patients who have a debilitating medical condition as defined by state law and are registered through the Division of Medical Marijuana. State law allows for the registration of up to 10 compassion centers: two (2) grower/manufacturing facilities and eight (8) dispensaries in the state.

"We are grateful to have the opportunity to partner with the Department of Health and are excited to collaborate with them to ensure the program gets off the ground transparently, with sound design, and on time," said Patrick Vo, President and CEO of BioTrackTHC. "We look forward to playing a key role in bringing safe access to medical marijuana for all North Dakotans through a proven and secure track and trace system."

BioTrackTHC now holds eight (8) state-level government tracking contracts as well as one (1) with the city of Arcata, CA., making them a leading provider of government traceability systems in marijuana. Having never missed a government traceability system deployment deadline and having demonstrated experience in implementing and maintaining both government and private-sector marijuana seed-to-sale systems in medical and recreational markets, the company looks forward to applying its expertise to maximize the success of another emerging market. BioTrackTHC's goal is to help the industry to thrive by demonstrating that marijuana programs can operate with transparency and accountability, providing peace of mind to stakeholders and ensuring safety for the patients and the community.

About BioTrackTHC

Bio-Tech Medical Software, Inc., through its BioTrackTHC division, develops and provides effective, cutting-edge technology solutions for the emerging medical and recreational cannabis industry. Visit www.biotrack.com/ for more information, email [email protected] or call 1-800-797-4711 to order software. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for important updates and relevant industry news. BioTrackTHC currently holds 9 government contracts and operates in over 2000 locations across 28 states, D.C., and 5 countries. Bio-Tech Medical Software, Inc. is a privately-held company based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

CONTACT:

Jeff Gonring

BioTrackTHC

(303) 324-1022

[email protected]

https://www.biotrack.com

SOURCE BioTrackTHC

Related Links

https://www.biotrack.com

CHICAGO, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ostrow Reisin Berk & Abrams, Ltd. (ORBA), one of Chicago's largest public accounting firms, is pleased to celebrate the firm's 40th anniversary with the launch of its new brand identity.

"2018 isn't just another year for the firmit's a celebration of four decades of amazing work and a chance for us to plan ahead for a bright future," said Managing Director Mark Thomson. "Over the past year, we uncovered what makes our firm so special by speaking with colleagues and clients, as well as looking across the industry. What we learned is that ORBA is differentiated by our people, the collaborative work we do and the company we keep both inside and outside these walls."

The rebrand includes the unveiling of the firm's new logo, as well as brand-new marketing assets and collateral. In addition, the occasion marks the launch of the firm's revamped website, orba.com, which provides a wealth of information on the firm's full-service accounting, tax and business consulting services, and the introduction of the "Forward Thinking" taba page devoted to the firm's resources, which includes industry group blogs and newsletters, client alerts, and seminars and events.

"Today is the beginning of one unified brand highlighting ORBA's culture, values and advantages," said Marketing Director Joy Long. "The benefit of our new website, messaging, logo and other marketing assets is the creation of a unified and consistent message to prospective and current clients, as well as external stakeholders."

The firm partnered with Greenfield/Belser and Finn Partners to launch the brand identity campaign.

To experience the firm's new brand identity, visit http://www.orba.com.

Ostrow Reisin Berk & Abrams, Ltd. (ORBA) is a full-service accounting, tax and business consulting firm located in downtown Chicago serving privately-held companies, individuals and not-for-profit organizations. ORBA's Certified Public Accountants have experience with accounting and assurance, business advisory services, financial and estate planning, fraud investigation, tax, litigation, and mergers and acquisitions. With some of the highest levels of direct client involvement in the industry, ORBA is where clients go to build long-standing, meaningful and successful relationships with resourceful, proactive business and tax advisors. For more information, visit www.orba.com or connect with us on LinkedIn.

Contact:

Joy Long

312.670.7444

[email protected]

SOURCE Ostrow Reisin Berk & Abrams, Ltd. (ORBA)

Related Links

http://www.orba.com

BELLEVUE, Wash., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Paul Gauguin Cruises (www.pgcruises.com), operator of the highest-rated and longest continually sailing luxury cruise ship in the South Pacific, the m/s Paul Gauguin, is pleased to announce the line-up of Wildlife Discovery Series lecturers aboard 2018 voyages, as part of its partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

WCS has been saving wildlife and wild places worldwide for over 120 years and aims to protect the world's largest wild places in 16 priority regions, home to more than 50 percent of the world's biodiversity, while ensuring a positive impact on millions of people. The Wildlife Discovery Series is an exciting program where guests of The Gauguin have the opportunity to learn about marine wildlife and habitats from some of the world's most fascinating scientists and conservationists. For this series, lecturers will be sharing their research and expertise during presentations aboard select sailings.

Yashika Nand, Marine Scientist, WCS Fiji

February 24, 2018, Cook Islands & Society Islands

After working for the Department of Fisheries in Fiji as the lead coral researcher, Nand joined the WCS team in 2010 as a Marine Scientist. In that role, she manages all data from WCS's biological monitoring program and helps integrate it into conservation planning in Fiji. Nand's expertise includes coral health and disease assessments, including both coral and disease identification, experimental design, data analysis and statistical modeling, basic mapping, and the aquarium trade. She is currently pursuing a Master's degree in coral reef ecology, focusing on coral disease, at the University of the South Pacific. Aboard The Gauguin, Nand will lecture on the conservation challenges and opportunities in the South Pacific and explore threats to coral reefs.

Ravaka Natacha Ranaivoson, Marine Conservation Director, WCS Madagascar Program

March 31, 2018, Tahiti & the Society Islands

Ranaivoson is in charge of WCS Madagascar's strategic development, planning, budgeting, implementation, and monitoring. Her roles cover strategic program development, fundraising, the development of sustainable financing, and the identification and development of relevant partnerships for the program's implementation and development. She supervises and gives support to the Madagascar scientific and field marine staff, oversees the program's activities on the ground, and contributes to the communication and branding for the program. A trained economist, Ranaivoson has 16 years of experience in conservation finance, natural resources management, and community development in Africa, specifically Madagascar. She is among the African Conservation Champions selected by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) for the World Parks Congress. On The Gauguin, Ranaivoson will discuss the conservation of Madagascar's marine biodiversity.

Ken Kassem, Marine Director, WCS Indonesia Program

May 5, 2018, Tahiti & the Society Islands

Kassem currently serves as the Marine Director for WCS's Indonesia Program. His area of focus is the Coral Triangle, and he is passionate about making fisheries sustainable through community engagement. From 1997 to 2012, Kassem worked on tropical marine conservation projects around the world for the World Wildlife Fund, WCS, and the World Resources Institute, with extended stops in Washington DC, Fiji, and Malaysia. Prior to moving to Bogor, Indonesia to join WCS in 2016, he took a career break to focus on his PhD in fisheries management and policy at Kyoto University, Japan. Aboard The Gauguin, Kassem will share his expertise on marine conservation in the heart of the Coral Triangle: Indonesia.

Jason Patlis, Executive Director, WCS Marine Conservation

June 16, 2018, Tahiti & the Society Islands

Working internationally and domestically in public and private sectors, Patlis has 30 years of experience in nonprofit management, environmental law, public policy, and finance. He currently oversees WCS's global marine conservation portfolio across 25 countries. Prior to joining WCS, Patlis served for nearly seven years as the President and CEO of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation (NMSF), the nonprofit partner to the United States' marine sanctuary system. Patlis also served as Vice President and Managing Director for US Government Relations at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). He has specialized in natural resource governance, advancing laws and policies to manage natural resources and endangered species sustainably for the benefit of local communities and in the face of changing political systems. In the US, Patlis has worked on both sides of the Capitol, serving as Deputy Staff Director for the House Science Committee and as Majority Counsel on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. He also served for five years in NOAA's Office of General Counsel handling issues relating to the Endangered Species Act. Overseas, Patlis worked as a legal expert in Indonesia to help shape new laws relating to forestry and coastal resource management as the country moved from dictatorship to democracy. His efforts helped pave the way for the establishment of Indonesia's first national law on coastal management, enacted in 2007. He was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in 2000, and he is widely published in law and policy journals. Patlis received his JD from Cornell University School of Law and his BA from Haverford College. He will share his deep and wide-ranging expertise in all aspects of natural resource management during his presentations aboard The Gauguin.

Natalia A. Rossi, PhD, Cuba Country Manager, WCS Mesoamerica & Western Caribbean Program

October 6, 2018, Society Islands & Tahiti Iti

Rossi has worked with local governmental and non-governmental organizations to promote biodiversity conservation in Cuba, in the context of fast-evolving legislation. She became involved with coastal and crocodile conservation in Cuba in 2009, when she joined the late John ThorbjarnarsonWCS's world-renowned herpetologistin the development of projects and initiatives on the island. Since then, she has carried out conservation projects in Cuba in collaboration with WCS, Columbia University, the American Museum of Natural History, and several local stakeholders, leading numerous expeditions. Among the sites explored were the Zapata and Birama swamps in the southern Cuban archipelago and the Alejandro de Humboldt National Park. She has also facilitated expert workshops and other types of academic exchanges between the US and Cuba. Rossi obtained her B.S. in Ecology at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and went on to work for five years on a binational sea turtle research and conservation project in Baja California Sur, Mexico. In 2007, she obtained a Fulbright Fellowship to pursue a Master's degree in Conservation Biology at Columbia University. From there, she went on to work as Program Officer of WCS's Latin America and Caribbean Program, where she helped to advance conservation activities in the region. Rossi recently finished her doctoral studies at Columbia University, with research focused on the integration of ecological and evolutionary approaches for the conservation of endangered crocodilians in Cuba and the wider Caribbean. Cuba's wildlife and wild places are currently at a critical crossroads, and today Rossi leads the development of the WCS Cuba program to help strengthen Cuba's protected areas management, conserve the country's outstanding coral reefs, and promote sustainable fisheries. During lectures aboard The Gauguin, Rossi will discuss the biology and conservation of sea turtles.

Merry Camhi, Director, New York Seascape Program, WCS New York Aquarium and Global Marine Programs

December 15, 2018, Tahiti & the Society Islands

Camhi has been the Director of WCS's New York Seascape Program, based at the New York Aquarium on Coney Island, since it was launched in July 2010 as the first WCS seascape in North America. This initiative seeks to raise public awareness and take action to conserve threatened marine wildlife in the busy waters of the New York Bight, using conservation, citizen science and education, and advocacy to improve management policies. Current New York Seascape projects include acoustic and satellite tagging of sharks to better understand their movements and habitat needs in the mid-Atlantic, tagging and restoration of American eels and alewife in New York's tidal rivers, and diverse initiatives to build an active New York ocean constituency. Camhi has worked in marine conservation since receiving her PhD in Ecology from Rutgers University, where she studied sea turtles in Costa Rica and Georgia. She worked for ten years as senior scientist and then assistant director of Audubon's Living Oceans Program, and as a consultant on a variety of marine and freshwater projects, including as Content Coordinator for the American Museum of Natural History's exhibition Water: H20 = Life. Much of Camhi's work is focused on domestic and international conservation and management of large ocean fishes, and particularly sharks. She co-authored the IUCN report The Conservation Status of Pelagic Sharks and Rays (2009) and co-edited the book Sharks of the Open Ocean (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008). Camhi will present a series of lectures on WCS's marine conservation programs and efforts in the New York seascape aboard The Gauguin.

Paul Gauguin Cruises is proud to partner with WCS to offer this program on these select sailings in 2018. For additional information on WCS and the Wildlife Discovery Series, please visit www.pgcruises.com/WCS.

For more information about Paul Gauguin Cruises, please contact a Travel Professional, call 800-848-6172, or visit www.pgcruises.com.

About WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society)

MISSION: WCS saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature. To achieve our mission, WCS, based at the Bronx Zoo, harnesses the power of its Global Conservation Program in nearly 60 nations and in all the world's oceans and its five wildlife parks in New York City, visited by 4 million people annually. WCS combines its expertise in the field, zoos, and aquarium to achieve its conservation mission. Visit: newsroom.wcs.org. Follow: @WCSNewsroom. For more information: 347-840-1242.

About Paul Gauguin Cruises

Owned by Pacific Beachcomber S.C., French Polynesia's leading luxury hotel and cruise operator, Paul Gauguin Cruises operates the 5+-star cruise ship, the 332-guest m/s Paul Gauguin, providing a deluxe cruise experience tailored to the unparalleled wonders of Tahiti, French Polynesia, and the South Pacific. Paul Gauguin Cruises has been recognized by notable publications in travel and lifestyle and was voted "#1 Midsize-Ship Ocean Cruise Line" by readers in the Travel + Leisure World's Best Awards 2017. The line was also recognized as one of the "Top Small Cruise Lines" in the Conde Nast Traveler 2017 Readers' Choice Awards and is honored on the publication's 2018 "Gold List." Paul Gauguin Cruises was also selected as "Best Small-Ship Cruise Line" in Global Traveler's Leisure Lifestyle Awards in 2016 and 2017, and received top honors as the "#1 Cruise Line for Honeymooners" in BRIDES Magazine's 2017 Honeymoon Awards.

Media Contact:

Vanessa Bloy

Paul Gauguin Cruises

Director of Public Relations

(425) 440-6255

[email protected]

From Travel + Leisure Magazine, August 2017  Time Inc. Affluent Media Group. Used under license. Travel + Leisure and Time Inc. Affluent Media Group are not affiliated with, and do not endorse products or services of, Paul Gauguin Cruises.

SOURCE Paul Gauguin Cruises

Related Links

http://www.pgcruises.com

TEL AVIV, Israel, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Perflow Medical, an Israeli-based medical device company that develops innovative tools for neurovascular interventions, today announced that the company has closed $12 million in financing. The syndicate included existing investors, two new international investors, and an unnamed strategic investor. Following a recent launch in Europe, Perflow stated that over 50 mechanical thrombectomy procedures for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke have been successful completed with the Stream Dynamic Neuro-Thrombectomy Net.

The new investment will support the commercialization of their first product, the Stream Net device, in Europe and select other countries and submission of the U.S. FDA 510(k) dossier. It will also support product development of two new products based on their patent-protected CEREBRAL NET Technology platform for aneurysm neck bridging and flow diversion procedures.

Interventional Neurologist Marc Ribo, MD, PhD, at Hospital Vall d'Hebron in Barcelona, Spain and Interventional Neuroradiologist Anastasios Mpotsaris, MD, PhD, at Uniklinikum Aachen, Germany were the first physicians to use the novel device. "The Stream Net offers a new level of control that expands a physician's options to respond in real-time. My early experience with the system has been positive and I see it as a valuable addition to the market," commented Dr. Ribo. Sharing his experience Prof. Dr. med. Mpotsaris added, "The Stream's unique braided net design and device control help with clot retention during revascularization."

A next-generation thrombectomy device, the Stream Net is designed to address unmet clinical needs in the treatment of acute ischemic stroke, a leading cause of long-term disability that accounts for 5.5 million deaths annually worldwide. It offers the physician full device control of the braided net diameter, length, and radial force to create dynamic wall apposition and better clot retention during revascularization in tortious anatomy.

"This financing is a significant step and reflects the strong commitment our investors have to Perflow and the value of our proprietary CEREBRAL NET technology to empower physicians to improve outcomes," stated Danny Farin, CEO of Perflow Medical. "The clinical experience of the Stream Net device in Europe has been very encouraging and these funds will accelerate our ability to bring this life-saving technology to the market and continue to iterate novel neurovascular solutions using CEREBRAL NET technology."

About Perflow Medical

Perflow Medical, a privately owned Israeli-based medical device company, develops and manufactures innovative solutions to address complex neurovascular disorders. Perflow's patent-protected CEREBRAL NET Technology platform, a dynamic braided net that enables adjustable neurovascular treatments, emphasizes physician expertise by combining real-time physician control, advanced device manipulation, full dynamic wall apposition, and excellent radiopacity to improve patient outcomes. Their first product, the Stream Dynamic Neuro-Thrombectomy Net, is approved in Europe for the endovascular treatment of acute ischemic stroke. Learn more at www.perflow.com.

SOURCE Perflow MedicalAUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Independent credit rating agency DBRS has bestowed a private rating on a large, single-asset-backed C-PACE transaction funded by Austin-based Petros PACE Finance. This is the first single-asset transaction in the country to receive a rating from any agency involving Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) loans.

While DBRS has issued residential PACE ratings since 2015, this was the first commercial PACE rating by DBRS.

"This is a major milestone for our company and another example of Petros leading the institutionalization of this nascent but maturing industry. We are gratified to receive such a high rating from this respected agency after a very thorough review," said Petros Co-Founder and CFO Jim Stanislaus.

"We really appreciate the hard work and professionalism of the DBRS team during this process," said Petros Co-Founder and CEO Mansoor Ghori.

Petros is the leading financier of long-term capital for energy efficiency, renewable energy, water conservation, and seismic upgrades to commercial, multifamily and industrial properties in the U.S. Petros has funded transactions in eight different states, the widest footprint in the C-PACE industry, and was also the first private, national lender to fund in four of those states. The company also co-financed the largest deal in C-PACE history, saw substantial growth in 2017 and expects more in 2018 and beyond.

Currently available in 33 states and Washington, D.C., PACE financing makes comprehensive clean energy projects possible on a broader scale for the first time by:

Providing up to 100 percent financing to commercial property owners in order to fund energy efficient projects that deliver deep energy cost savings through the life of the loan.

Rendering a private loan into a property tax obligation and enabling lenders to grant longer fix-rate terms of up to 30 years or the useful life of the upgrades.

Displacing more expensive mezzanine debt or owner equity, reducing the weighted average cost of capital for development projects.

Allowing commercial property owners to increase the value of their existing buildings by reducing total energy costs and increasing net operating income.

For more information visit http://www.petros-pace.com.

About Petros PACE Finance

Austin-based Petros PACE Finance, LLC is solely dedicated to providing long-term PACE financing to U.S. commercial property owners seeking to increase their property values and reduce their carbon footprint. The principals of Petros PACE Finance  Mansoor Ghori, Jim Stanislaus and Tommy Deavenport  have executive level, deep expertise in all four critical aspects for commercial PACE: commercial lending, structured finance, debt fund management, and long-term, direct relationships with some of the nation's largest institutional investors.

Media Contact: Kate Miller Morton

(512) 922-6277

SOURCE Petros PACE Finance, LLC

Related Links

http://www.petros-pace.com

NEW YORK, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

SMBs in South Africa , Ireland and New Zealand are ranked among top sellers

Brazilian and South African teams close sales fastest, taking on average 28 days, followed by Chile on 29 days

Higher performing companies commonly achieve around 37% conversion rate

Manufacturing sales enjoys the highest conversions, whilst real estate agents work the hardest

Higher sellers make a third (34%) more activities from a mobile device

Pipedrive (http://www.pipedrive.com), the leading sales CRM platform and tool of choice for salespeople in scaling companies, today published its annual 'Global Sales Review 2017' report(1) analyzing tens of thousands of sales teams worldwide. The anonymized metadata provides a snapshot of sales performances across 34 different countries, and spans a range of sectors. Insights from Pipedrive's user base of 70,000 companies help the platform to design valuable new functionalities.

Key findings

Pipedrive customers are primarily smaller businesses selling high value products and services in a sales process that requires customization and multiple touchpoints or interactions over a period of time.

Data from Pipedrive shows variations in sales team performances, with clear differences across regions and industry sectors. Higher performing teams - those that beat their industry and regional averages - saw a typical conversion rate of around 37%.

A strong focus on the right actions is a key driver of success. Organizations with low conversion rates conduct 30% more activities, approximately two more per deal, than higher performing ones. Focusing on the right sales actions means that more deals are completed.

Overall, high performing companies are quicker to sales results - their salespeople have stronger impact on customer decisions, and do less actions but the right actions to close sales.

Old World vs New World differences

South Africa is top of the conversion rate league table. Its salespeople convert a staggering 21.5% of all leads. Having incurred several recessions in the past decade, it suggests a real need to improve productivity and safeguard livelihoods. Countries following closely include Ireland (21%), New Zealand (21%), Australia (19%).

Western European countries are not the best at converting deals into sales. For example, France (13%), Denmark (14%) and the Netherlands (15%) score lower whilst UK and Portuguese businesses both fair marginally better at 16%. Swiss teams lead Europe by far on 19%. The USA, which arguably invented selling as we know it, comes in the middle of the pack (16%). It could be argued that lower conversion rates in these regions can be attributed to more established economic conditions and tighter competition.

Across all users, the average time for closing a deal is 40 days. For such 'sales velocity', Brazilian and South African teams close sales fastest, taking on average 28 days, followed by Chile on 29 days. European sales people generally take far longer to close deals. The slowest are Belgian teams taking 56 days, whilst the Dutch are in the slowest five, taking on average 50 days to close a deal. Portuguese users rank in the middle for time efficiency, landing deals around 37 days. Both UK (46 days) and USA (44 days) rank towards the bottom of the lists.

The ability to predict when deals will complete is clearly valuable from the perspective of managing income flow. Spanish teams lead the way here, on average being able to predict deals down to the correct day. The trend is towards over-optimism, with the next most accurate teams being Austrians with +4 days margin of error, and Swiss on +5 days. Colombian teams are the most inaccurate with predictions, on average closing deals +25 days off target.

Manufacturing is a standout sector

The manufacturing sector records a 31% conversion rate, meaning that on average every fourth deal is closed. This is the highest of all the industries and nearly double the average. Trading and construction are runners-up followed by creative industries.

This can perhaps be explained by the fact that much manufacturing sales activity is inbound, and/or enters a sales pipeline already heavily qualified. Runners-up are trading (retail and wholesale), construction and creative agencies.

Teams working in finance are most likely to prefer phone calls as their modus operandi - around four to win a deal. In software and app development, emails are more favoured, requiring three to close a deal. The most lunch meetings are scheduled for those working in health and real estate. The sectors most likely to hold face-to-face meetings are real estate and manufacturing, clearly linked to their on-site sales process.

Mobile increasingly important

The highest ranking sales teams perform far more sales activities via mobile devices than lower performers - above average performers added one third (33%) more activities via a mobile device. For example, mobile users can capture key information from meetings, while it's fresh in their minds. Salespeople need full and reliable access to their sales pipeline from everywhere, and the best salespeople are taking full advantage.

CEO & Co-founder of Pipedrive, Timo Rein comments, "We collate our Global Sales Review to help salespeople learn which techniques and best practices, tools and technologies can deliver for their region or business sector. As sales is increasingly global in nature, success can also depend upon knowing how to address multiple markets with subtlety".

Pipedrive Gold package

Pipedrive's suite of award-winning packages are equipped to greatly optimise the work of sales teams. Launched in recent weeks, and priced at $29/month, the Pipedrive Gold package offers strategic functionality to make sales activities more agile, targeted and connected.

Key features include:

- Scheduler - lets you share your availability so clients can book a time that works for you both

- Products - a customisable catalogue of a company's including costs, notes, and more

- Sales Inbox - Send and receive email fully synchronised with other email clients in use, with customisable templates and signatures, and integral tracking and analytics

- Smart Contact Data - retrieves valuable data about sales leads from online sources at the click of a button

Rein adds, "As much as data can pinpoint trends, we also apply it to our own work, in order to continuously learn, benchmark and improve our platform - such as with our new Gold package features".

Every aspect of Pipedrive Gold is designed to support teams in driving their sales through their pipeline efficiently. Businesses can enjoy a two week, completely no risk free trial at http://www.Pipedrive.com.

More findings from the research can be viewed online at Pipedrive's Global Sales Performance Review page.

(1) An analysis of 59,980 small and medium sized companies using the Pipedrive platform in 34 countries during December 2017.

About Pipedrive

Pipedrive is the tool of choice for salespeople in scaling companies - the sales CRM pipeline platform that makes selling simple. Pipedrive keeps things moving, stops tasks falling through the cracks and removes the tedium of admin. Pipedrive ensures that sales activities remain targeted, ambitious and realistic. Today, over 70,000 customers in 170 countries, and across 100+ industries leverage Pipedrives' award-winning software to manage their sales process.

Founded by seasoned sales professionals, Pipedrive launched in 2010. It is one of the fastest growing cloud-driven SaaS companies worldwide, having raised $30m in funding from investors including Atomico, Bessemer Venture Partners, Rembrandt Venture Partners and Paua Ventures.

SOURCE PipedriveBALTIMORE, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Profiles, careerprofiles.com, a leading staffing agency in the creative and marketing industries announced today that they have won Inavero's Best of Staffing Client Award for providing superior service to their clients. Inavero's Best of Staffing Client winners have proven to be industry leaders in service quality based entirely on ratings provided by their clients. On average, clients of winning agencies are 2.3 times more likely to be completely satisfied with the services provided compared to those working with non-winning agencies.

Focused on helping US companies find the right people for their job openings nationwide, Profiles received satisfaction scores of 9 or 10 out of 10 from 75% of their clients, significantly higher than the industry's average of 32%. Less than 2% of all staffing agencies in the U.S. and Canada have earned the Best of Staffing Award for service excellence.

"I have to attribute all of our success to the Profiles team. Our staff improves their craft daily in order to deliver exceptional experiences to the Talent we represent and the Corporations we serve. Across all departments, each employee sets their personal bar higher and higher to be subject matter experts in Digital Technologies and the delivery of human capital to corporate America. I'm so proud of our team and it feels great to help so many people," Profiles President and CEO Joe Gambino said.

"With a tight labor market and growing economy, finding the right recruiting partners is critical to success," said Inavero's CEO Eric Gregg. "Best of Staffing winners prove they can provide consistently remarkable service to their clients and job candidates, and I couldn't be more proud to feature them on BestofStaffing.com."

About Profiles

Celebrating 20 years, Profiles is the leader in Marketing and Creative Technology recruitment. Profiles places the highest caliber candidates in Fortune 500 companies and successful organizations across the country. Experienced recruiters focus on candidates drawn from the top 20% of job seekers nationwide. Profiles professionals are available for contract, contract-to-hire, and direct hire positions. Headquartered in Baltimore, MD, Profiles has regional offices in Philadelphia, Richmond, and Washington D.C. | careerprofiles.com.

About Best of Staffing

Inavero's Best of Staffing Award is the only award in the U.S. and Canada that recognizes staffing agencies that have proven superior service quality based entirely on ratings provided by their clients and candidates. Award winners are showcased by city and area of expertise on BestofStaffing.com.

Contact

Polly Brady, Marketing Director

p. (410)244-6400

[email protected]

SOURCE Profiles

Related Links

http://www.careerprofiles.com

MENLO PARK, Calif., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Global consulting firm Protiviti has been recognized for the fourth consecutive year on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list. The list is based on a survey of more than 310,000 employees rating their workplace culture on 50-plus elements of their respective companies. These include trust, mutual respect, fairness, camaraderie, pride in their work, executive team effectiveness, people-focused programs and innovation. The survey was administered by Great Place to Work.

"Our continuing presence on the Fortune 100 Best list is a source of great pride for us, and we greatly appreciate our employees for making this recognition possible," said Joseph Tarantino, Protiviti president and CEO. "We believe that empowering the workplace for all of our people helps Protiviti and our clients confidently face the future."

Protiviti received special mention by Fortune this year for having "approachable" bosses who champion "flexible" schedules, and for "recognition workshops" that train staffers to thank each other meaningfully.

"We consider ourselves an inclusive, 'people first' company," said Scott Redfearn, executive vice president, global human resources, Protiviti. "We're dedicated to helping our people excel at every stage of their careers."

Protiviti employees are offered a wide array of personal and professional development opportunities, including a two-day, interactive on-boarding experience; the chance to travel and take international positions; and a generous sabbatical program that provides 12 weeks off with partial salary and healthcare benefits so that they can pursue their goals and dreams.

Protiviti's call-to-action for potential employees looking to join the company is to 'learn every day, be your best self and make an impact.' Protiviti emphasizes the importance of diverse thought, backgrounds and experiences in shaping its teams and how they work on behalf of clients across the globe.

"Our unique culture energizes our people to collaborate, innovate and reach their potential," added Redfearn.

Previous Recognition by Fortune and Great Place to Work

The 100 Best Companies is one of a series of rankings by Great Place to Work and Fortune based on employee feedback from Great Place to Work-Certified organizations. In addition to being named for the fourth time to the Fortune 100 Best Companies list, Protiviti has also been ranked three times as one of the Fortune Best Workplaces for Millennials and twice as one of the Fortune Best Workplaces for Consulting and Professional Services.

The full list of the 2018 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For is available here.

"The 2018 100 Best are true leaders," said Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work. "In the face of competition, change, and financial constraints, they consistently prioritize building the trust, pride, and camaraderie that fuels business performance."

About Protiviti

Protiviti (www.protiviti.com) is a global consulting firm that delivers deep expertise, objective insights, a tailored approach and unparalleled collaboration to help leaders confidently face the future. Through its network of more than 70 offices in over 20 countries, Protiviti and its independently owned Member Firms provide clients with consulting solutions in finance, technology, operations, data, analytics, governance, risk and internal audit.

Protiviti has served more than 60 percent of Fortune 1000 and 35 percent of Fortune Global 500 companies. The firm also works with smaller, growing companies, including those looking to go public, as well as with government agencies. Protiviti is a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Half (NYSE: RHI). Founded in 1948, Robert Half is a member of the S&P 500 index.

Protiviti is not licensed or registered as a public accounting firm and does not issue opinions on financial statements or offer attestation services.

All referenced trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Editor's note: Photos available upon request.

SOURCE Protiviti

Related Links

http://www.protiviti.com

DETROIT, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Detroit-based Quicken Loans, the nation's largest mortgage lender, was today named one of America's top-15 best places to work in FORTUNE Magazine's annual ranking of the "100 Best Companies to Work For." This marks the 15th straight year the company has been ranked in the top-30 on the prestigious list.

Quicken Loans' perennial standing as one of the best workplaces in America illustrates the impact 17,000+ driven, mindful and passionate team members can have when empowered to push the bounds of possibility.

"Our team members are encouraged and expected to challenge the status quo every day. In fact, it's that very attitude that led us to reinvent the entire lending landscape from scratch through Rocket Mortgage," said Jay Farner, Quicken Loans CEO. "Eliminating bureaucracy and empowering our team members in a collaborative atmosphere makes us stronger, faster and more inventive as a company. We are laser focused on giving our team members the resources and freedom they need to innovate, which includes opportunities to grow personally and professionally."

Quicken Loans team members know their opinions are valued and their curiosity is encouraged, which directly correlates to success. In fact, the company recently rose above 30,000 lenders across the country to become the nation's largest residential mortgage lender - surpassing businesses founded more than 100 years ago.

Motivated by reinventing the way Americans think about their finances, the company's team members are constantly brainstorming and building disruptive technologies to simplify the mortgage experience. A perfect example is the continual evolution of Rocket Mortgage, the world's first fully online, on-demand mortgage experience, completely customized to fit clients' unique financial situations, and created entirely in-house.

Available on any computer, tablet or mobile device, Rocket Mortgage gives clients the power to get approved for a mortgage in as few as 8 minutes, right from the palm of their hand. That speed and ease of use continues throughout the entire experience. With the help of single sign-on technology and the ability to schedule closings online, clients have gone from creating an account in Rocket Mortgage to signing their closing documents in just 8 days on a refinance and 16 days on a purchase.

Quicken Loans knows that an award-winning workplace leads to award-winning client service. The company has been named "Highest in Customer Satisfaction for Primary Mortgage Origination" in the United States by J.D. Power for 8 consecutive years. The company was also ranked #1 by J.D. Power for mortgage servicing for the past four consecutive years  each year the company was eligible.

According to FORTUNE's survey, Quicken Loans team members rated the company's work atmosphere at 98 percent. Additionally, 97 percent of team members say they are proud to work at the company.

Empowerment through creative and strategic freedom isn't the only pillar of Quicken Loans' culture  championing its home cities is also a cornerstone of the company's foundation.

"As a for-more-than-profit company, we invest our successes into the communities where we live, work and play," said Farner. "We've found that team members are more passionate, innovative and dedicated when the company has a greater purpose  and that is directly reflected in the hard work of our 17,000 incredible team members. The sense of pride our people have for the work we do in our home cities of Detroit, Cleveland, Phoenix and Charlotte is nothing short of inspiring and it drives us to find new ways to lift up our neighborhoods each and every day."

An impressive 96 percent of team members say they feel good about the ways the company contributes to the community, according to the survey.

Since 2010, Quicken Loans team members have enthusiastically dedicated 375,000 volunteer hours to community organizations across the country. In the same timeframe, the company has directly contributed nearly $130 million to numerous charities and community groups in Detroit.

With an emphasis on experiential learning opportunities, Quicken Loans has created several initiatives specifically designed to strengthen STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) skills among students in Detroit Public Schools. One such initiative is QSTEM, where team members teach students how to build an entire tablet that they take home at the end of the program, encouraging them to continue sharpening their coding skills outside of the classroom.

FORTUNE Magazine partners with the Great Place to Work Institute to develop a comprehensive team member survey to identify the 100 Best Companies to Work For. Companies are measured and ranked through the analysis of the results of a Trust Index survey and Culture Audit questionnaire. Through the survey, employees anonymously assess their workplace, including the honesty and quality of communication by managers, degree of support for employees' personal and professional lives and the authenticity of relationships with colleagues. The questionnaire includes detailed questions about benefits, programs and practices.

** For Quicken Loans photos and B-Roll, please visit the multimedia section of our press room.

About Quicken Loans

Detroit-based Quicken Loans Inc. is the nation's largest home mortgage lender. The company closed more than $400 billion of mortgage volume across all 50 states from 2013 through 2017. Quicken Loans moved its headquarters to downtown Detroit in 2010, and now more than 17,000 team members from Quicken Loans and its Family of Companies work in the city's urban core. The company generates loan production from web centers located in Detroit, Cleveland and Scottsdale, Arizona. The company also operates a centralized loan processing facility in Detroit, as well as its San Diego-based One Reverse Mortgage unit. Quicken Loans ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction for Primary Mortgage Origination" in the United States by J.D. Power for the past eight consecutive years, 2010  2017, and highest in customer satisfaction among all mortgage servicers the past four years, 2014  2017.

Quicken Loans was ranked among the top-15 on FORTUNE magazine's annual "100 Best Companies to Work For" list in 2018, and has been among the top 30 companies for the past 15 consecutive years. The company has been recognized as one of Computerworld magazine's "100 Best Places to Work in IT" the past 13 years, ranking No. 1 for eight of the past 12 years, including 2017. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rock Holdings, Inc., the parent company of several FinTech and related businesses. Quicken Loans is also the flagship business of Dan Gilbert's Family of Companies comprising nearly 100 affiliated businesses spanning multiple industries. For more information and company news visit QuickenLoans.com/press-room.

SOURCE Quicken LoansPapadellis, whose career in the food and beverage industry spans more than 35 years and includes some of the top brands in the business- Cadbury Schweppes, Frito Lay, and Welch's, will remain on the board and continue as CEO until July.

"On behalf of our growers and board I'd like to thank Randy for everything he has done and continues to do to build the strong global business we have today," said Peter Dhillon, chairman of the Ocean Spray board of directors. "His leadership over the past 18 years has been critical to our success and growth."

Ocean Spray's board of directors will continue working on its CEO succession plan over the coming months and anticipates an orderly transition before Papadellis leaves the Co-operative this summer.

Added Dhillon, "While this is the first public announcement in our CEO succession plan, it is just the latest step in a multiyear process. When Bobby joined Ocean Spray last fall, it quickly became clear that we had found a leader for our next generation of talent and the board looks forward to working with him during this transition."

"Ocean Spray has always been and continues to be the world's greatest marketing co-operative,'" said Papadellis. "It has been an honor to work with my colleagues on behalf of our Grower-Owners for the past 18 years. As I move on to the next phase of my career, I know the business will continue to thrive under Bobby's leadership."

"I look forward to working with Randy and the entire Ocean Spray team in the coming months as we strive to build on the Co-operative's strong foundation," added Chacko. "Ocean Spray can truly be called the original farm to table company and it's going to be exciting to bring this story to new consumers."

Prior to joining Ocean Spray, Chacko served as regional president of Mars Drinks where he had complete responsibility for the North American business. Before joining Mars Inc., Chacko had 20 years of diverse corporate leadership and entrepreneurship experiences, encompassing strategy, innovation, marketing, and commercialization with iconic brands in category leading companies like The Coca-Cola Company, AB Inbev, and GE Capital. Chacko brings in-market general management experiences and regional perspectives on developed and emerging markets across Asia, Latin America, North America and Europe.

About Ocean Spray

Ocean Spray is a vibrant agricultural co-operative owned by more than 700 cranberry growers in the United States, Canada and Chile who have helped preserve the family farming way of life for generations. Formed in 1930, Ocean Spray is now the world's leading producer of cranberry juices, juice drinks and dried cranberries and is the best-selling brand in the North American bottled juice category. The cooperative's cranberries are currently featured in more than a thousand great-tasting, good-for-you products in over 100 countries worldwide. With more than 2,000 employees and nearly 20 cranberry receiving and processing facilities, Ocean Spray is committed to managing our business in a way that respects our communities, employees and the environment. For more information visit: www.oceanspray.com or www.oceanspray.coop.

SOURCE Ocean Spray

Related Links

http://www.oceanspray.com

ATLANTA, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- LightStream, the online lending division of SunTrust Bank (NYSE: STI), has extended its home improvement financing terms from a maximum of 84 months to 144 months. The longer terms are available to excellent-credit customers seeking $25,000 - $100,000 for home renovations. As always with LightStream, customers can repay loans early with no penalty, and there are no application or closing fees.

"Customers can now opt to repay their loan over a longer duration, allowing more options in their home project's financial planning," said Ellen Koebler, SunTrust head of consumer solutions. "This makes it easier to manage a budget with a lower monthly payment if needed."

With the new tax laws, the decision on whether to fund home improvements with a home equity loan, home equity line of credit or a fixed-rate, unsecured loan merits additional consideration. "SunTrust provides choices for homeowners looking to renovate," said Koebler. "Our home equity lines of credit allow people to tap into accrued home values. LightStream's unsecured home improvement financing is an alternative for those who don't have sufficient home equity, or don't want to leverage it for their renovation, or who may value having funds more immediately. These are all solutions SunTrust offers to help people gain financial confidence and empower them to undertake their home improvement projects."

"Many fintech lenders have only recently started offering home improvement loans," said Todd Nelson, LightStream business development officer. "LightStream has been fine tuning our product and process for nearly five years.

"The combination of our higher loan amounts, competitive fixed rates and the ability to fund same day can't be matched. And now with 12-year terms, we've answered many clients' desire to finance loans over a longer timeline. Funds from LightStream can be used for any expense related to a home improvement  designers, contractors, products, finishes, furnishings, anything. Plus, with our Rate Beat Program and Loan Experience Guarantee, people can feel assured they're getting a great rate and exceptional customer service."

For additional information on LightStream home improvement financing, visit LightStream.com/home-improvement-loan.

About LightStream, a division of SunTrust Bank LightStream is a national online lending division of SunTrust Bank, providing loans for practically any purpose. LightStream's proprietary technology provides consumers with a virtually paperless loan application, underwriting, funding and servicing experience. Financing is available in all fifty states; people need not have a SunTrust account in order to apply. Click here for important disclosures, including a payment example and information on same day funding, LightStream's Rate Beat Program and $100 Loan Experience Guarantee.

About SunTrust Banks, Inc.

SunTrust Banks, Inc. is a purpose-driven company dedicated to Lighting the Way to Financial Well-Being for the people, businesses, and communities it serves. Headquartered in Atlanta, the Company has two business segments: Consumer and Wholesale. Its flagship subsidiary, SunTrust Bank, operates an extensive branch and ATM network throughout the high-growth Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states, along with 24-hour digital access. Certain business lines serve consumer, commercial, corporate, and institutional clients nationally. As of December 31, 2017, SunTrust had total assets of $206 billion and total deposits of $161 billion. The Company provides deposit, credit, trust, investment, mortgage, asset management, securities brokerage, and capital market services. SunTrust leads onUp, a national movement inspiring Americans to build financial confidence. Join the movement at onUp.com.

SunTrust Bank is an Equal Housing Lender.  2018 SunTrust Banks, Inc. All rights reserved. SunTrust and LightStream are federally registered service marks of SunTrust Banks, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Lending services provided by SunTrust Bank, member FDIC.

SOURCE SunTrust Banks, Inc.BURGESS HILL, England, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Ringdale, the inventor and provider of FollowMe, the leading Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solution for printer fleets, will be attending IDC's Annual UK Security Conference, 14th - 15th March, London, United Kingdom.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/476805/FollowMe_Ringdale_Logo.jpg )



In anticipation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) deadline (25th May 2018), attendance for the event is set to top previous years, with over 350 of Europe's top security professionals having already registered. Ringdale will be meeting with delegates to highlight the importance of including document processes within the organization's IT security and compliance strategy for the GDPR. Key topics will include:

Assessment of print security t hreats - Uncovering high risk areas in order to build a strategy around document security that is consistent to the organization's IT strategy

- Uncovering high risk areas in order to build a strategy around document security that is consistent to the organization's IT strategy GDPR c ompliance - Critical considerations in advance of the GDPR deadline and developing a future proof strategy beyond the initial roll out phase

- Critical considerations in advance of the GDPR deadline and developing a future proof strategy beyond the initial roll out phase FollowMe Data Loss Prevention (DLP) - Monitoring, tracking and archiving high risk information to protect Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and intellectual property

- Monitoring, tracking and archiving high risk information to protect Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and intellectual property Enterprise-grade m obile print security - Securing workflow for office staff, remote workers and guest users with one solution to enable printing from all PC, laptops, mobile phones and tablet devices

- Securing workflow for office staff, remote workers and guest users with one solution to enable printing from all PC, laptops, mobile phones and tablet devices Federate document security across all office locations and printer brands - Applying consistent security measures across entire printing environment, including branch or regional office locations

"This year's IDC's Security Conference is set to see unprecedented attendance from IT professionals with an appetite to discover how the latest innovations in document management and security can enable compliance and eliminate costly exposures to security breaches." says Eric Crump, Director of Strategic Alliances, Ringdale.

IDC's Annual UK Security Conference is held on the 14th - 15th March at The Kia Oval, London. For more information or to register, visit IDC Security Conference web site.

About Ringdale

Ringdale's FollowMe is the leading Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and compliance solution for printer fleets, trusted by Financial Services, Healthcare and Public Sector organizations worldwide. With offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore and Japan, Ringdale has a strong global partner network and relationships with the world's leading printing manufacturers including Brother, Canon, Hewlett Packard, Lexmark, Konica Minolta, Kyocera Mita, Oce, OKI, Ricoh, Samsung, Sharp, Toshiba and Xerox.

To learn more about FollowMe by Ringdale, please visit www.followme.ringdale.com.

For details on FollowMe or Ringdale, contact Charlotte Baker, Ringdale, Tel: +44-(0)-1444-871 349 or Email: [email protected].

SOURCE FollowMe by RingdaleCINCINNATI, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The board of directors of The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE: SSP) has declared a cash dividend for the first quarter of 2018.

Scripps shareholders of record as of March 1, 2018, will receive 5 cents per share, payable on March 26, 2018. The dividend will be paid out of the company's surplus.

This will mark the first time the company has paid a quarterly dividend since 2008.

"The decision by our board to initiate a quarterly dividend is a sign of confidence in the state of our business and faith in our strategy for the future," said Adam Symson, Scripps president and chief executive officer. "We're focused on strengthening our local media operations, anchored by our television stations, while we support the long-term value creation we see in the high-growth businesses we have in Katz, Midroll and Newsy."



While the company intends to pay regular quarterly cash dividends for the foreseeable future, all subsequent dividends will be reviewed quarterly and declared by the board at its discretion. The declaration and payment of future dividends will be dependent upon, among other things, the company's financial position, results of operations, cash flow and other factors.

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements related to the company's businesses that are based on management's current expectations. Forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties, including changes in advertising demand and other economic conditions that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this document and should be evaluated with the understanding of their inherent uncertainty. A detailed discussion of principal risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results and events to differ materially from such forward-looking statements is included in the company's Form 10-K on file with the SEC in the section titled "Risk Factors." The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date the statement is made.

About Scripps

The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE: SSP) serves audiences and businesses through a growing portfolio of local and national media brands. With 33 television stations, Scripps is one of the nation's largest independent TV station owners. Scripps runs an expanding collection of national journalism and content businesses, including Newsy, the next-generation national news network; podcast industry leader Midroll Media; and fast-growing national broadcast networks Bounce, Grit, Escape and Laff. Scripps produces original programming including "Pickler & Ben," runs an award-winning investigative reporting newsroom in Washington, D.C., and is the longtime steward of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Founded in 1878, Scripps has held for decades to the motto, "Give light and the people will find their own way."

SOURCE The E.W. Scripps Company

Related Links

http://www.scripps.com

TORONTO, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Self Care Catalysts today announced the appointment of George D. Lundberg, M.D. of Los Gatos, California as its Chief Medical Officer and Chair of Medical and Scientific Advisors.

Dr. Lundberg joins us after 8 years as the Editor in Chief and Chief Medical Officer of San Francisco-based CollabRx, a Rennova Health Company that created and deployed decision support tools to aid in diagnosis and treatment in advanced molecular oncology.

Dr. Lundberg has more than 35 years combined experience as Editor-in-Chief of JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association), the 10 American Medical Association specialty journals, American Medical News, Medscape, The Medscape Journal, e-Medicine from Web MD, MedPage Today from Everyday Health, and the cancer blog "Curious Dr. George". A pioneer of the medical internet, the Industry Standard dubbed Dr. Lundberg "Online Healthcare's Medicine Man" in 2000. Prior to joining CollabRx in 2010, Dr. Lundberg served as the President of the American Society for Clinical Pathology, Professor of Pathology and Associate Director of Laboratories at the Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center for 10 years, and for 5 years was the Professor and Chair of Pathology at the University of California, Davis. He served in the US Army during the Vietnam War, leaving as a lieutenant colonel after 11 years. Prior to his military service, Dr. Lundberg completed a clinical internship in Hawaii and a pathology residency in San Antonio. Dr. Lundberg holds earned and honorary degrees from North Park College, Baylor University, the University of Alabama, the State University of New York, Syracuse, Thomas Jefferson University and the Medical College of Ohio. Dr. Lundberg has worked in tropical medicine in Central America and Forensic Medicine in New York, Sweden, and England. His major professional interests are toxicology, violence, clinical trials, cancer, communication, physician behavior, patient safety, and health system reform.

Dr. Lundberg is also presently President and Chair of the Board of Directors of The Lundberg Institute, a Consulting Professor at Stanford University, Executive Adviser of Cureus, Editor in Chief of Cancer Commons, and Editor at Large for Medscape from WebMD.

"To have as prominent a physician and thought leader in medicine as Dr. Lundberg overseeing our internal medical processes and the products we provide to users and customers is truly an honor", said Grace Castillo-Soyao, CEO and Founder of Self Care Catalysts, Inc. "George is internationally known as a physician-scientist leader and editor of the highest integrity and we are grateful to have him on our team."

About Self Care Catalysts, Inc.

Self Care Catalysts is a patient solutions, intelligence, and analytics company deriving value from patient-centered real world evidence designed to inform care management, treatment decisions, product life cycle management and behavior change interventions. More information may be obtained at https://www.selfcarecatalysts.com/.

SOURCE Self Care Catalysts IncWASHINGTON, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following statement was issued by Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) regarding the legislative proposal being offered by Senators Schumer, Rounds, Collins, and King:

"What started out in the U.S. Senate as an effort to halt illegal immigration and address the unique situation of a few hundred thousand illegal aliens who entered the country as minors has now devolved into a plan to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens and actually increase illegal immigration into the United States.

"An amendment sponsored by Senators Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Angus King (I-Maine) would restrict immigration enforcement exclusively to violent criminals and terrorists. For all others, it essentially declares an immigration enforcement holiday at the border and the interior of the country through June 30, 2018. And even after June 30, it will be virtually impossible to remove anyone in this country illegally unless they commit some violent crime.

"From a starting point of 690,000 DACA beneficiaries who might be considered for amnesty, the Schumer-Rounds-Collins-King amendment would make some 5 million illegal aliens eligible for amnesty, including 'kids' up to the age of the 43.

"In return, the American people get a big, fat nothing. The amendment promises $25 billion, spread out over ten years, for construction of a border fence which some future president may decide to cancel. From a 'four-pillar' on immigration, Schumer-Rounds-Collins-King moves us to a one-pillar plan  a massive amnesty for 5 million illegal aliens and a de facto amnesty for anyone who can get here before June 30.

"This amendment is emblematic of the Senate's contempt for the American people and their interests. Not only doesn't this amendment prevent future illegal immigration, it is calculatingly designed to fuel more. The only positive thing to say about this amendment is that it has already received a veto threat from the White House.

"What we are facing is an amendment that will profoundly affect the future of this nation, cooked up behind closed doors, and rushed to the floor of the Senate so that members of the Senate can get an early start on yet another week of vacation. The American people deserve so much better than that."

Contact: Joe Gomez, [email protected]; 202-742-1843

ABOUT FAIR

Founded in 1979, FAIR is the country's largest immigration reform group. With more than 1.3 million members and supporters nationwide, FAIR fights for immigration policies that serve national interests, not special interests. FAIR believes that immigration reform must enhance national security, improve the economy, protect jobs, preserve our environment, and establish a rule of law that is recognized and enforced.

SOURCE FAIR

Related Links

http://www.fairus.org

NORMAN, Okla., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Price College of Business Energy Institute at the University of Oklahoma will host its Sixth Annual Energy Symposium, on March 15, 2018, at the SandRidge Energy Auditorium in Oklahoma City.

The focus of the Energy Symposium will be the future of the energy industry, including the future of hydrocarbons, natural gas, wind and solar power, electric transportation and more.

David Lawler, CEO BP America, Inc.  U.S. Lower 48 Onshore, will deliver the keynote address at the symposium. Panelists will include Paul Dabbar, Under Secretary for Science, U.S. Department of Energy, and C. Michael Ming, Vice President  Executive Liaison for Marketing Technology at BHGE (Baker Hughes, a GE company), as well as other senior executives from the industry.

Last year, the Energy Symposium welcomed more than 220 industry professionals from all over the U.S. In 2018, the Energy Institute expects that number to increase with speakers featured from both globally recognized energy companies and top government agencies.

"We believe it is increasingly important to gather the brightest minds in the industry. Together, we will discuss what the future of energy looks like in what can be an uncertain environment," said Dr. Dipankar Ghosh, Executive Director of the Energy Institute. "We are thrilled to host David Lawler as the keynote speaker, and are eager to hear the insightful outcomes from each of the panels."

To register for the event or for a full list of panelists, please visit the Price College of Business Energy Institute website: price.ou.edu/energysymposium.

About the Price College of Business Energy Institute:

The Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma has become Oklahoma's leading graduate business program. Since 1958, education and research in energy management has been central to the college's purpose and this year, it is proud to celebrate 60 years of energy education.

In 2011, the Price College of Business added to its leading position in energy by forming the Energy Institute: a platform for thought leadership and intellectual exchange.

Tightly coupled with its energy education initiatives, the Energy Institute's research informs policy and business strategy, while its outreach programs foster meaningful dialogue amongst energy professionals worldwide.

Media Contacts:

Price College of Business - Taylor Riggs  [email protected]

Fifth Ring for the Price College of Business Energy Institute  Red Brodie:

281-404-4331

[email protected]

SOURCE Price College of Business Energy Institute

Related Links

http://www.ou.edu/price

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- When San Francisco comes to mind, so do connotations of entrepreneurship and innovative thinking. So when BBVA decided to set up a course on entrepreneurship for some of the bank's best Global Wealth clients, Northern California was its top choice.

BBVA Asset Management and Global Wealth is hosting a session called the Silicon Valley Immersion experience, utilizing its LIFE non-financial global strategy for clients. The course is a one week event designed for selected Global Wealth clients interested in venturing into entrepreneurship, starting on Feb. 18 and lasting until Feb. 23.

"The session provides a one-of-a-kind, hands-on course for clients in this market," said BBVA Compass Global Wealth Segment Executive Giampaolo Consigliere. "It includes networking with top entrepreneurial minds, teaches best practices in the startup world and provides a thorough look into how to cultivate innovation. Our Global Wealth team goes beyond money  this is how we differentiate ourselves and generate trust with our clients in order for them to pursue their passion points."

The course, held with conjunction with the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and hosted on its San Francisco campus, is exclusively designed for the bank's client profile, meaning this course cannot be found anywhere else. American Express Global Business Travel is also a supporter of the program.

There are three main components to the weeklong sessions:

Training sessions

The sessions are conducted by Wharton School professors, and include topics such as the intersection of data and innovation, building value drivers, disruption, industry dynamics, and exploring the startup ecosystem. All sessions will follow three umbrella themes  innovation for growth, entrepreneurial financing and leading the change.

Interaction with companies

Clients taking the course will also have hands-on, face-to-face interactions with local startups and companies in the area. The program will be interspersed with visits from top entrepreneurial minds, including business owners, large digital companies and recently-created ventures. A tour of the Tesla factory is also on the docket.

Networking

One of the key drivers of the immersion experience includes networking, both during the course and after. Participants will get the rare opportunity to meet and socialize with some of the sharpest minds in Silicon Valley during the course and after Q&A panel sessions. Out-of-class networking includes evening activities with a leisure component (private dinner parties and cultural visits among them) to rest and recover for continued high-end learning the next day.

About BBVA Group

BBVA (NYSE: BBVA) is a customer-centric global financial services group founded in 1857. The Group has a strong leadership position in the Spanish market, is the largest financial institution in Mexico, it has leading franchises in South America and the Sunbelt Region of the United States; and it is also the leading shareholder in Garanti, Turkey's biggest bank for market capitalization. Its diversified business is focused on high-growth markets and it relies on technology as a key sustainable competitive advantage. Corporate responsibility is at the core of its business model. BBVA fosters financial education and inclusion, and supports scientific research and culture. It operates with the highest integrity, a long-term vision and applies the best practices. More information about BBVA Group can be found at bbva.com.

About BBVA Compass

BBVA Compass is a Sunbelt-based financial institution that operates 649 branches, including 336 in Texas, 89 in Alabama, 63 in Arizona, 61 in California, 45 in Florida, 37 in Colorado and 18 in New Mexico. BBVA Compass ranks among the top 25 largest U.S. commercial banks based on deposit market share and ranks among the largest banks in Alabama (2nd), Texas (4th) and Arizona (6th). BBVA Compass has been recognized as one of the leading small business lenders by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and ranked 6th nationally in the total number of SBA loans originated in fiscal year 2017. Additional information about BBVA Compass can be at www.bbvacompass.com. For more BBVA Compass news, follow @BBVACompassNews on Twitter or visit newsroom.bbvacompass.com.

SOURCE BBVA Compass

Related Links

https://www.bbvacompass.com

MIAMI, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SPI Cruise Group, a consortium of cruise industry experts retained by South Padre Island, Texas, to evaluate the popular vacation destination's suitability to become a cruise port of call, has issued its initial findings. Based on a site inspection in December 2017, the group has completed a matrix analysis to evaluate SPI's fitness on maritime viability, uniqueness and branding, consumer demand and revenue possibilities.

Maritime Viability

With 34 miles of beautiful white sand and clear emerald water, South Padre Island is one of the world's most exquisite barrier islands and the only island in Texas.

An initial desktop study of available meteorological and oceanographic data indicated safe harbor conditions protected from predominant wind and waves due to the location on the eastern shore of the bayside of the world's largest barrier island. Three potential berthing locations were identified, each requiring a different level of dredging.

Assessment of potential landside cruise guest reception facilities led to the conclusion that they should be limited and temporary, with minimal environmental impact. Considering the plans for the redevelopment of Isla Blanca Park, cruise guest services structures can be limited in scope (and cost). The group ascertained that the greater park area on the south end of the island is one of the best natural cruise ship arrival zones in the Caribbean, as almost no other berth in the region is immediately adjacent to a natural white sand beach.

The preferred berthing site would lend itself to several pier configurations with relatively small environmental footprints and the least amount of dredging required. A Phase 1 stationary pier could be expanded later with a floating structure or additional gangway elements connecting to shore.

Uniqueness and Branding

The group has identified three predominant brand destination themes that would serve South Padre Island well in attracting cruise industry attention:

Tropical Adventures  National Geographic listed South Padre Island among the world's top 13 beaches for kiteboarding, and Canadian Traveller says it's a great place to learn to surf or paddleboard. With 34 miles of enticing beach, SPI offers a wealth of watersports and pastimes that are well-suited to today's more active cruise guests. Whether it's deep-sea fishing or a dolphin-watching tour, there is an array of tropical adventures  from horseback riding on the beach to scuba diving, jet skiing, and deep-sea fishing  all available within 4 to 5 miles of the ship.

among the world's top 13 beaches for kiteboarding, and Canadian Traveller says it's a great place to learn to surf or paddleboard. With 34 miles of enticing beach, SPI offers a wealth of watersports and pastimes that are well-suited to today's more active cruise guests. Whether it's deep-sea fishing or a dolphin-watching tour, there is an array of tropical adventures  from horseback riding on the beach to scuba diving, jet skiing, and deep-sea fishing  all available within 4 to 5 miles of the ship. Eco-Tourism  As the world's largest barrier island, SPI is a world-class destination in terms of biodiversity. With existing attractions such as the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center, Sea Turtle Inc. or dolphin-watching tours, there are plenty of sustainable and eco-friendly facilities and activities to entice cruise passengers. And for those interested in "voluntourism," there are even organized dune-planting outings. Given the emphasis on sustainability and eco-awareness among travelers, this theme would provide a dynamic mix of attractions and messaging.

Historical Destination  Padre Island has a long and rich history dating from the early 16th century and has been owned by Spain , Mexico , the Republic of Texas and, most recently, the United States . Heritage tours could be created starting with the Native American story through the colonial era, including shipwreck maps and trips to the 1830s-era lighthouse at Port Isabel .

Consumer Demand

South Padre Island receives 4.5 million visitors per year, so there already is significant consumer demand for the product as a vacation destination.

While consumers in Texas and the lower Midwest have long known about the charm of South Padre Island, consumer interest in the destination is actually national in scope. The group considered SPI's "Distribution of Interest" map of the U.S. and found that requests for information about SPI through online and magazine advertising have come in from across the entire country, with significant concentrations in the Northeast, the Great Lakes region, California and even Florida.

Overlaying that map with a map of cruise guest feeder markets showed significant overlap, indicating that interest in SPI as a vacation destination could relatively easily be developed into interest in the island as a cruise port of call.

Revenue Possibilities

A major attractant for cruise lines is the availability of shore excursion opportunities in proximity to a port of call. In this respect, SPI has a diversified and mature tourism infrastructure with a variety of potential shore tours well within distances that could be accommodated on a daylong ship call.

SPI Cruise Group identified several one-of-a-kind attractions:

A white sand beach within walking distance of the ship.

Three exciting and different day tours to world-class, unusual and attractive venues: King Ranch , the Gladys Porter Zoo and Nuevo Progreso, Mexico .

, the Gladys Porter Zoo and . A Schlitterbahn waterpark within walking distance of the ship.

Two nationally recognized ecological attractions, the SPI Birding & Nature Center and Sea Turtle Inc.

After studying their findings, SPI Cruise Group concluded that South Padre Island has all the attributes necessary to support cruise tourism as a port of call.

"There hasn't been a new U.S. cruise port of call since Key West hosted its first cruise ship in 1969, and there's a reason for that," said Jay Lewis, managing director of MarketScope Global and project leader for the SPI Cruise group. "It takes a very specific combination of attributes for a place to qualify as a cruise port of call. Like Key West, South Padre Island has history, culture, an inviting climate and both waterside and landside attractions in a compact package as well as a safe, navigable harbor and a berthing location just steps from the beach. I can't think of another American destination that offers a similar combination."

About South Padre Island

With 34 miles of white sand and clear emerald water, South Padre Island is Texas' only tropical island paradise. Calm weather and water and more than 300 days of sunshine make South Padre Island a year-round destination offering a variety of nature tourism attractions, watersports and activities for the entire family. www.sopadre.com

About SPI Cruise Group

The SPI Cruise Group consultancy is composed of experts in marketing, port and destination development, cruise, maritime and hotel operations and communications from MarketScope Global, IDEA, Cruise and Port Advisors, and NewmanPR. The group was formed to develop a strategic vision and action plan to turn South Padre Island into the western Caribbean's newest cruise ship port of call.

MEDIA CONTACT

Buck Banks

NewmanPR

305-461-3300

[email protected]

Related Images

south-padre-island-texas.jpg

South Padre Island, Texas

With 34 miles of beautiful white sand and clear emerald water, South Padre Island is one of the world's most exquisite barrier islands  and the only island in Texas.

south-padre-island-logo.png

South Padre Island Logo

SOURCE SPI Cruise GroupBEAVERTON, Ore., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Punxsutawney Phil must have been wearing sunglasses because Spring has arrived early at all 94 Shari's locations throughout Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho, Nebraska and Wyoming with the release of three new berry pancake, French toast or waffle toppings! Berries, berries and more berries are featured in the brand-new blueberry, raspberry and triple berry fruit toppings now available at Shari's in either a combo for $9.99 or just pancakes with topping for $6.99.

Guests can enjoy one of three berry toppings, blueberry, raspberry or triple berry as a combo with two slices of thick-cut Applewood-smoked bacon, two sausage links or one Zenner's Double-Smoked sausage link, two farm fresh Northwest eggs and golden Idaho hash browns for $9.99. The three new berry pancake toppings, along with whipped cream and powdered sugar can also be enjoyed on their own for just $6.99. Both are available at all Shari's locations now for a limited time.

Shari's is the largest full-service restaurant chain based in the Pacific Northwest providing regionally sourced, fresh, made-to-order meals that bring family and friends together. Founded in 1978 and operated by Shari's Management Corporation of Beaverton, Oregon, most Shari's location are open 24-hours a day with a full menu of breakfast, lunch and dinner entrees and a large selection of award-winning specialty pies. With over 4,000 employees, the chain currently has 94 locations throughout Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho, Nebraska and Wyoming.

Contact: Kirk Green

Public Relations

949-292-1331

[email protected]

SOURCE Sharis

Related Links

http://www.sharis.com

DES MOINES, Iowa, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The world's largest privately owned self storage company, StorageMart, is opening two new locations in the Des Moines area  Waukee and Grimes. Both facilities feature drive-up units, excellent lighting and gated entry.

StorageMart, based out of Columbia, Missouri, has just acquired two new locations in the greater Des Moines area. One is located in Grimes, Iowa, on the corner of SW 37th Street and Brookside drive. The location features climate-controlled units and pin-pad gate entry. The other location is in Waukee, Iowa, just off Laurel Street. This location is one level and has drive up accessible units.

Combined, these new locations bring an additional 450 storage units and over 50,000 square feet of rentable space to Waukee and Grimes, Iowa storage market. StorageMart has locations in Waukee, and is adding a second location in Grimes.

"We're bringing even more easy, clean service to Waukee and Grimes in the greater Des Moines area," said Cris Burnam, StorageMart President. "We're committed to providing everyone with clean and well-lit units and excellent customer service and look forward to providing storage solutions to the residents of Waukee and Grimes, Iowa."

Other great features at the new locations include one-level buildings, drive up accessibility, and climate-controlled units for items that are sensitive to temperature changes.

About StorageMart

StorageMart started with a single store in Columbia, MO and has grown to be the largest privately-owned, family operated storage company in the world. StorageMart is led by the Burnam family, which has been in the storage industry for three generations. Dedicated to providing easy, clean and friendly service to each and every customer, StorageMart is also committed to giving back to the many communities it calls home through their Store it Forward program. In 2017, the company donated more than $159,000 to charities, in addition to donating over $370,000 in free rent to charities throughout the US and Canada. Find out more at www.storage-mart.com.

Contact: Sarah Little, [email protected]

SOURCE StorageMart

Related Links

http://www.storage-mart.com

KALAMAZOO, Michigan, USA, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has expanded the indication for Stryker's Trevo Retriever as a front-line treatment for patients experiencing acute ischemic stroke up to 24 hours from symptom onset  increasing the treatment window by 18 hours. The expanded indication of Stryker's clot-removal device is in line with the recently updated treatment guidelines from the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association, and has the potential to reduce disability and improve quality of life for tens of thousands of additional stroke patients each year.

"The 24-hour indication opens the treatment window to patients whose stroke would previously have progressed until all the brain tissue surrounding the affected arteries was dead, leaving them with a life of significant disabilities," said Dr. Raul Nogueira of Grady Memorial Hospital and Emory University. "These patients now have a much better chance for an independent life without disability."

Stryker's Trevo Retriever is the first and only thrombectomy device to receive FDA clearance to significantly reduce disability in patients up to 24 hours from symptom onset. Until now, mechanical thrombectomy devices like the Trevo Retriever were only cleared for use up to six hours from symptom onset  leaving a significant population of stroke patients ineligible to receive treatment. However, recent randomized clinical data from the Stryker-sponsored DAWN Trial shows that patients presenting in the six- to 24-hour window who meet specific imaging criteria and are treated with the Trevo Retriever are almost four times as likely to be functionally independent at 90 days post-stroke, compared to those treated with medical management alone.1

"This expanded indication for Trevo marks a significant milestone in the treatment of stroke patients who suffer from this catastrophic disease," said Mark H. Paul, president of Stryker's Neurovascular division. "We believed this future was possible, which is why we invested in the DAWN Trial. Through our efforts to help patients suffering from ischemic stroke, we are living our mission to make healthcare better."

"FDA clearance of the Trevo Retriever has effectively quadrupled the treatment window from zero-six hours to zero-24 hours from time last seen well. Nonetheless, every minute still matters because in each individual patient, the earlier the blood flow is restored to the brain, the lower the resultant burden of permanent brain damage. Therefore, it is still imperative that all caregivers in the stroke pathway  from EMS to emergency room physicians to stroke neurologists to interventionalists  continue to deliver the fastest and most workflow-efficient treatment of stroke," said Dr. Tudor Jovin, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

The Trevo Retriever was used exclusively in the DAWN Trial and was included in the DEFUSE 3 study  producing the largest cohort of data for a single device across the two late window stroke trials that led to the recent updates to the AHA/ASA guidelines. Based on the depth of clinical evidence, stent retrievers like the Trevo Retriever are recommended as the standard of care for stroke patients experiencing a large artery blockage by the American Heart Associations' Stroke Guidelines.2

About the Trevo Retriever

The Trevo Retriever is a tiny stent-shaped medical device that is attached to a thin wire. In a minimally invasive procedure that utilizes X-ray, the physician navigates the retriever from the femoral artery, which is located in the upper leg, to the blocked blood artery in the brain. The retriever is designed to ensnare the blood clot and remove it from the body. Originally cleared by the FDA in 2012, the Trevo Retriever has been used in thousands of patients worldwide.

An animation of Stryker's Trevo Retriever is available here: https://youtu.be/PxcERzyI67I

About Ischemic Stroke

An ischemic stroke occurs when an artery in the brain becomes blocked by a blood clot or other substance such as plaque, a fatty material. Blood vessels carry blood, oxygen and nutrients throughout the body and to the brain. When the brain is deprived of blood and oxygen, it fails to work properly. Depending on the severity of the stroke and the area of the brain affected, loss of brain function or death may occur. Ischemic stroke affects nearly 795,000 Americans annually and is the number five cause of death.3

About Stryker

Stryker is one of the world's leading medical technology companies and, together with its customers, is driven to make healthcare better. The company offers innovative products and services in Orthopaedics, Medical and Surgical, and Neurotechnology and Spine that help improve patient and hospital outcomes. More information is available at www.stryker.com.

Media contact

Heather Morrison

Inprela

612 677 2023

[email protected]

1. Nogueira R.G. et. al. Thrombectomy 6 to 24 Hours after Stroke with a Mismatch between Deficit and Infarc.

November 11, 2017, at NEJM.org 2. Powers, W.J. et. al. 2018 Guidelines for the Early Management of Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Guideline

for Healthcare Professionals from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. January 30, 2018,

at stroke.ahajournals.org 3. Mozaffarian D. et. al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics - 2016 Update: A Report from the American Heart

Association. February 8, 2018, at circ.ahajournals.org

SOURCE Stryker

Related Links

http://www.stryker.com

PUNJAB, Pakistan, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- STYLY visited 15 universities in Punjab, Pakistan to promote awareness and knowledge of VR and help an emerging but struggling VR market get on its feet. Workshops on AR/VR technology, along with STYLY's VR content creation and distribution service (https://suite.styly.cc), were held at each university.

Over 2,000 eager students from 15 different Pakistan universities attended STYLY's workshops on VR. STYLY is helping to build Pakistan's VR industry and community by providing workshops to universities in Punjab. More such workshops are currently being planned by STYLY for other regions of Pakistan.

A total of 2,165 students and faculty attended the workshops where they were able to learn about VR and opportunities related to it, create their own VR content using STYLY, and then, largely for the first time, put on a VR headset and experience virtual reality firsthand.

"Pakistan's students are bursting with talent, motivation, and potential," says STYLY's Chief Alliance Officer, Nausharwan Mir, "but unfortunately, most universities do not yet have any VR courses, labs, or resources. That's why we came here - to provide the guidance, tools, and gateway for students in Pakistan to unlock their potential and participate in the VR industry, thereby improving their lives, nation, and the overall industry, by using STYLY technology."

Pakistan has one of the largest populations in the world, ranked 5th overall with 211 million people. A staggering 60% of the population are youth (under age 30) and the nation's IT industry has been growing in recent years. So, not surprisingly, various governments and organizations are investing billions of dollars into Pakistan's economy. For instance, with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), China is investing $62 billion to build infrastructure and mass transit in Pakistan, which has been creating a massive boom across all industries.

The VR industry, however, is still in its beginning phase and STYLY is helping provide the foundation. To continue to help build Pakistan's VR industry and student community, STYLY already has further visits planned for the near future. It is also collaborating with universities to establish VR labs, courses, and workshops.

WHERE & WHEN | STYLY WORKSHOPS

The workshops took place in Punjab, Pakistan from January 17th to 26th.

Full list of universities visited: University of Central Punjab, University of Education, Punjab University of Information Technology (New and Old Campuses), Information Technology University, Virtual University, Hajvery University, Government College University, Superior University, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, University of Management and Technology, University of Engineering and Technology, University of South Asia, National University of Emerging Sciences, and Lahore University of Management Sciences.

ABOUT STYLY

STYLY is a cloud and browser-based VR editing and distribution service developed by Psychic VR Lab Co., Ltd. It allows its users to explore, expand, and share their imaginations and creativity by building VR content, with no coding or downloads required. STYLY is a haven where creatives, particularly those in fashion, music, and art, can feel free and confident to unleash the deepest depths of their imaginations.

STYLY official site: http://suite.styly.cc

Psychic VR Lab official site: psychic-vr-lab.com

Contact

To learn more or for any inquiries, please visit https://suite.styly.cc or contact:

Nausharwan Mir, Chief Alliance Officer

1-34-2 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

03-3527-9965

[email protected]

SOURCE Psychic VR Lab

Related Links

http://psychic-vr-lab.com

VANCOUVER, Feb. 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Sunniva Inc. ("Sunniva" or "the Company") (CSE:SNN) (OTCQX:SNNVF), a North American provider of medical cannabis products and services, is pleased to announce that effective February 15, 2018, common shares of the Company ("Shares") have been approved for and will commence trading on the OTCQX Market, operated by OTC Markets Group. The Shares will trade under the ticker symbol "SNNVF".

The OTCQX Market provides investors who cannot access trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange with an alternative access to Sunniva's Shares though regulated US broker-dealers.

"Sunniva's expansion into the US securities markets is a milestone that brings the Company substantially added access to investors. We are confident that trading on OTCQX can enhance liquidity for our shareholders and extend investor awareness of the Company throughout the US and beyond," said Dr. Anthony Holler, CEO, Sunniva.

About Sunniva Inc.

Sunniva, through its subsidiaries, is a vertically integrated medical cannabis company operating in the two largest markets  California and Canada. Sunniva is committed to becoming one of the lowest cost producers delivering safe, high-quality products and services at scale free of pesticides and/or other contaminants. Sunniva management and board of directors have a proven track record for creating significant shareholder value both in the healthcare and biotech space.

Sunniva operates through its wholly owned subsidiaries:

CP Logistics, LLC ("CPL")  Through CPL, Sunniva has commenced construction of the Sunniva California Campus, state-of-the-art, purpose-built greenhouse facilities in Cathedral City, California. The Sunniva California Campus is planned in two phases and has been designed to comply with current good manufacturing practices ("cGMP"). Phase 1 is designed to be 325,000-square feet producing in excess of 60,000 kg of premium cannabis a year. The total campus is expected to produce over 100,000 kg of premium medical cannabis a year after Phases 1 and 2 are complete. At this facility, it is estimated 30% of all product will be used for higher margin extracted products and will be produced free from the pesticides commonly used within today's industry.

Sunniva Medical Inc. ("SMI") - SMI is designing the Sunniva Canada Campus, 700,000 square feet of purpose-built cGMP greenhouse facilities to be located in Oliver, British Columbia. The total Campus is expected to produce over 100,000 kg of premium medical cannabis a year and over 25,000 kg of trim used for extraction. The facility will produce pesticide free products and will convert trim to extracted products such as cannabis oil. The oil will be used for drug delivery formats such as capsules, dissolvable strips, vaporization cartridges, tinctures and creams. Sunniva anticipates to break ground in early 2018.

Natural Health Services Ltd. ("NHS") - NHS owns and operates a network of 8 medical clinics in Canada specializing in medical cannabis under Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations. NHS connects patients with safe and effective medical cannabis products through Licensed Producers ("LPs"). NHS has in-house physicians and nurse practitioners specializing in the endocannabinoid system providing expert consultation, education, and recommendations for patients. NHS' proprietary technology infrastructure assists physicians, patients and LPs to comply with the rules of Health Canada. NHS has more than 129,000 active medical documents outstanding and 93,000 active patients.

Full-Scale Distributors, LLC ("FSD") - FSD, through its brand, Vapor Connoisseur, is a provider of custom, private-label vaporizers and accessories. FSD currently serves the needs of over 80 brands in the North American marketplace. Vapor Connoisseur is recognized for its high quality and innovative vaporization devices. Products are tailored to client needs, ensuring both safety and reliability and FSD will continue to provide these services in coordination with the large supply from both Sunniva Campuses.

For more information please visit: www.sunniva.com

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation, statements regarding future estimates, plans, programs, forecasts, projections, objectives, assumptions, expectations or beliefs of future performance, statements regarding Sunniva's plan to cultivate, produce and distribute a broad range of solutions focused on patients' needs and Sunniva's plans, timing and estimates of production for its facilities, are "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, events or developments to be materially different from any future results, events or developments expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the risk factors included in Sunniva's final prospectus dated November 16, 2017 (the "Prospectus"), including without limitation, dependence on obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals, including acquiring and renewing state, local or other licenses and any inability to obtain all necessary governmental approvals licenses and permits to complete construction of its proposed facilities in a timely manner; engaging in activities which currently are illegal under US federal law and the uncertainty of existing protection from U.S. federal or other prosecution; regulatory or political change such as changes in applicable laws and regulations, including U.S. state-law legalization, particularly in California, due to inconsistent public opinion, perception of the medical-use and adult use marijuana industry, bureaucratic delays or inefficiencies or any other reasons; any other factors or developments which may hinder market growth; Sunniva's limited operating history and lack of historical profits; reliance on management; and the effect of capital market conditions and other factors on capital availability; competition, including from more established or better financed competitors; and the need to secure and maintain corporate alliances and partnerships, including with customers and suppliers. Readers are encouraged to the review the section titled "Risk Factors" in the Prospectus and other disclosure documents on www.sedar.com. These factors should be considered carefully and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Although Sunniva has attempted to identify important risk factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other risk factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements. Sunniva assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, even if new information becomes available as a result of future events, new information or for any other reason except as required by law.

SOURCE Sunniva Inc.BEAVERTON, Ore., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tektronix, a leading worldwide provider of measurement solutions, today announced that the 5 Series MSO mixed signal oscilloscope has won the 2018 Golden Mousetrap Awards in the Electronics & Test: Test & Measurement category, representing the sixth major industry award win for the innovative new oscilloscope.

Golden Mousetrap Awards 2018 Winner

"The industry's response to the 5 Series MSO has been incredible and is a clear testament to the innovation coming from Tektronix today," said Chris Witt, vice president and general manager, Time Domain Business Unit at Tektronix. "What truly makes the 5 Series MSO special, and why it is sweeping industry awards, is that it delivers more than innovation for the sake of innovation  it changes the way designers use oscilloscopes to be faster, easier and more intuitive. They gain real insights in less time and in turn can bring products to market faster."

The result of the largest single development effort in Tektronix history, the 5 Series MSO redefines the mid-range oscilloscope and delivers a host of innovations, including the industry's first FlexChannel technology that allows 4, 6, or 8 analog channels and up to 64 digital channels, integrated protocol analysis and signal generator, a new 12-bit signal acquisition system, a massive high-definition capacitive touch display, and a highly intuitive Direct Access user interface. These innovations give designers unprecedented flexibility and unmatched visibility into complex embedded systems.

Presented by Design News, the Golden Mousetrap Awards recognize companies and individuals that are not only reaching the pinnacle of achievement in their respective fields but are also pushing the envelope on what is possible within the industry as a whole. The award winners were chosen by an expert panel of judges based on design and engineering innovation, functional innovation, benefits to user, market differentiation, and competitive landscape.

Previous major awards won by the 5 Series MSO include Electronic Products 2017 Product of the Year, UBM's 2017 ACE Awards, EDN 2017 Hot 100 award, Electronics Weekly's Elektra 2017 Test Product of the Year and Mesures Palmares Technologique 2017.

Wondering what else Tektronix is up to? Check out the Tektronix Bandwidth Banter blog and stay up to date on the latest news from Tektronix on Twitter and Facebook.

About Tektronix

Headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, Tektronix delivers innovative, precise and easy-to-operate test, measurement and monitoring solutions that solve problems, unlock insights and drive discovery. Tektronix has been at the forefront of the digital age for over 70 years. Join us on the journey of innovation at TEK.COM.

Tektronix is a registered trademark of Tektronix, Inc. All other trade names referenced are the service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

SOURCE Tektronix, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.tektronix.com

LONDON, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tentsile, an innovative tree-tent brand and environmental steward, and Progression Brands Group, an equity investment and operating group, are excited to announce they have entered into a partnership. Through the agreement, Tentsile will leverage the industry experience and resources available through the Progression team, pairing it with their expertise and category defining tree tent innovations.

"Progression has the right mix of resources, cross-category experience, and an authentic passion for helping entrepreneurs and their brands," said Alex Shirley-Smith, Tentsile Founder and CEO. "As a creative, an architect and inventor, I am thrilled to have the guidance of Progression. As industry insiders they can surround our team with their support and expertise and bring Tentsile to the next level."

Tentsile launched in the UK in 2013 with its Flagship "Stingray" Tree-Tent, and has been re-defining the tent category ever since. The Brand is leading the charge evolving camping and backyard adventures. Combining the comfort and versatility of a hammock with the security and multi-person-occupancy of a tent, the range of suspended shelters are unimpeded by ground conditions and takes outdoor experiences to the next level.

"Alex has built a dynamic and passionate company, while creating a new product category at the same time," said Ian Widmer, President and CEO of Progression Brands Group. "We are very excited to support Tentsile as they continue to build the brand, reverse the effects of global de-forestation, and expand the tree-tent category."

Progression takes a unique approach to equity investment directing emerging brands through today's intricate retail landscape and building business plans that stage brands, like Tentsile, for future growth and success.

Continued Shirley-Smith, "As an emerging brand in a new world of retail, we are greatly appreciative of our partnership with Progression. The outdoor industry is evolving quickly in the world of e-commerce and we want to ensure that we are staged to continue to expand, to protect and aid the forests, and innovate with products that excite our loyal consumer base."

About Tentsile

Born out of passion, Tentsile makes the most versatile tents in the world and are committed to an ethical and ecological business model that educates its customers about the magic and majesty of being in forests and nature, while saving the world's trees and engaging in tree planting projects at the same time. For every Tentsile sold, 18 trees are planted.

www.tentsile.com

About Progression Brands Group

Progression Brands Group is an equity investment and operating group committed to partnering with emerging brands who focus in the active lifestyle industry. Headquartered in Minnesota, with members based across the United States and Europe, the group blends their access to capital with deep industry expertise to create a platform for brands to compete in today's complex retail market.

www.progressionbrands.com

SOURCE Tentsile

Related Links

http://www.tentsile.com

GREENVILLE, S.C., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Innovate Fund, a South Carolina based Community Development Entity (CDE) managed by taxadvantagegroup and Greenville Local Development Corporation, is excited to announce it was awarded a $55 million allocation of New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs) by the Community Development Financial Institution Fund (CDFI Fund) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The funds will help finance economic and community development projects in Low-Income Communities across South Carolina.

With tremendous support from U.S. Senators Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham, The Innovate Fund was the only CDE focused solely on South Carolina to receive an allocation in this year's round of funding. The CDFI Fund released $3.5 billion in NMTC awards nationwide on February 13, 2018. The purpose of the federally funded NMTC program is to stimulate new investment in Disadvantaged Businesses and Low-Income Communities with high levels of poverty and unemployment.

"The Innovate Fund will invest the $55 million in operating businesses or real estate developments that support job creation and economic mobility, as well as community facilities that create improved health and wellness services in low-income communities throughout South Carolina," said David Barnett, The Innovate Fund Board Chair and SC Western Market President for Carolina Alliance Bank.

"The Innovate Fund is grateful for the leadership shown by Senators Scott and Graham to preserve the New Markets Tax Credits program with the passing of the recent tax legislation. With this award, we will be able to fund projects that can truly transform communities in some of the most distressed areas in South Carolina," said Doris Shellhorse, The Innovate Fund Program Manager.

Organizations interested in applying for funds should contact The Innovate Fund Program Manager, Doris Shellhorse at [email protected] or (864) 271-2737.

About The Innovate Fund

Established in 2004, The Innovate Fund and affiliates were created to provide federal New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) financing for Disadvantaged Businesses and Communities located in South Carolina's Low-Income Communities. Today, The Innovate Fund has deployed nearly $160 million of NMTC investments to transactions that support 3,370 jobs, provide community goods and services to over 66,000 Low-Income Community residents and Low-Income Persons, and created or rehabilitated over 1.6 million square feet of real estate in South Carolina. The community demographics of The Innovate Fund's current investment portfolio consist of poverty rates as high as 66%, median family income as low as 14.24% of the statewide median family income, and unemployment levels as high as 23.7%. For complete information, please visit our website at www.theinnovatefund.com.

SOURCE The Innovate Fund

Related Links

http://www.theinnovatefund.com

CHICAGO, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest research from Technomic suggests a continued slowdown for the Top 500 chain restaurants, with cumulative 2017 sales growth at 3.2%, down from 3.8% in the prior year. Net unit growth also saw a decline at 1.1%, compared to 1.8% in 2016. The source of this information, Technomic's 2018 Top 500 Chain Restaurant Advance Report, is the industry's leading chain performance tracker, providing a one-year sales forecast by menu category, an expanded outlook and opportunities section, as well as key themes to help navigate the current industry landscape.

The advance report is available for purchase prior to the full report's publication at the end of March at https://www.technomic.com/available-studies/industry-reports/top-500.

"Chains today are facing increasingly challenging business conditions, with most publicly held chains seeing mixed same-store sales results in 2017," said Joe Pawlak, Technomic managing principal. "Among these challenges lie the rise of retail foodservice and other meal options. Additionally, consumers are becoming accustomed to a stronger deal environment, forcing operators to lessen their margins to stay competitive."

Key report findings include:

2017 sales growth was heavily driven by limited-service chains, up by 4.1%

Fast casual is once again the leading subsegment, with 8.9% sales growth in 2017

Full service sales growth slowed from 1.4% growth in 2016 to 0.5% in 2017

One of the fastest growing chains, Walk-On's Bistreaux & Bar, is also new to the rankings

Other new entrants into the Top 500 chain rankings include Jinya Ramen Bar, bartaco and Naf Naf, who all grew their sales by over 20%. Out of the twenty fastest-growing chains, half of them are fast-causal concepts, proving that this subsegment is still the bright spot in the industry. Exceptional sales growth was also seen from the fine-dining subsegment which experienced a 3.8% increase, with growth led by Texas de Brazil Churrascaria, Ocean Prime, STK and Fogo de Chao.

Note: The results reported here are preliminary and subject to revision.

To purchase or learn more about this and other industry reports from Technomic, please visit Technomic.com or contact one of the individuals listed below.

Contacts:

Press inquiries: Joe Pawlak, (312) 506-3940, [email protected]

Purchasing details: Patrick Noone, (312) 506-3852, [email protected]

About Technomic

Technomic Inc., a Winsight company, delivers a 360-degree view of the food industry. It impacts growth and profitability for clients by providing consumer-grounded vision and channel-relevant strategic insights. Its services range from major research studies and management consulting solutions to online databases and simple fact-finding assignments. Its clients include food manufacturers and distributors, restaurants and retailers, other foodservice organizations, and various institutions aligned with the food industry. Visit Technomic at www.technomic.com.

About Winsight LLC

Winsight LLC is a recognized leader in business-to-business media and information services for the convenience-retailing, foodservice and grocery industries. Winsight has an extensive media portfolio, including five publications: CSP, Restaurant Business, FoodService Director, Convenience Store Products and Winsight Grocery Business. Winsight also offers a suite of digital products, including websites, e-newsletters, webinars, video products, mobile and tablet apps, and custom marketing solutions. In addition to more than 12 major EduNetworking conferences and advisory meetings, Winsight also produces seven exclusive, large-scale executive-level conferences: Restaurant Leadership Conference, Global Restaurant Leadership Conference, Outlook Leadership Conference, Convenience Retailing University, FSTEC, MenuDirections and Restaurant Directions. In 2015, Winsight acquired Technomic Inc., a provider of primary and secondary market information and advisory services for the food industry. For more information on Winsight and its brands, go to www.winsightmedia.com.

SOURCE Technomic

Related Links

http://www.technomic.com

Founders Keith and Janet Sung's vision for a cookie that represented true Hawaiian hospitality has broadly grown from wholesale accounts to 17 retail stores in Hawai'i, Guam, and Las Vegas. "We are truly grateful for the popularity of our products," said Keith. "Our gratitude is for our customers, and also for our loyal team members whose devotion to quality and superior customer service is equal to our own."

As part of the commemoration, a new flavor being introduced to the lineup of inspired-by-Hawai'i flavors is White Triple Chocolate Macadamia! Triple chocolate macadamia nut shortbread cookies are hand-dipped in white chocolate by expert team members. Then, just like other full-sized Honolulu Cookie Company cookies, they are wrapped individually to ensure straight-from-the-bakery freshness.

The Guava flavor cookie, available only last spring and summer, proved so popular that the flavor is joining the core lineup that Honolulu Cookie Company offers year-round.

Collectible tins are part of Honolulu Cookie Company's legacy and devotees include local residents and global visitors. The 20th Anniversary Collection offers a large tin containing 15 cookies in eight flavors including two newly introduced White Triple Chocolate Macadamia cookies and two Guava cookies. The special anniversary window box is a party of 18 cookies in 16 flavors, and the small 20th Anniversary Box bears six cookies in six flavors.

Commemorative items also include a limited-edition pineapple-shaped luggage tag and a 20-ounce, stainless steel tumbler in signature Honolulu Cookie Company colors. Please find high-res images here: http://bit.ly/HnlCookie20th

About Honolulu Cookie Company

Since 1998, Honolulu Cookie Company's premium shortbread cookies have been baked fresh daily in Hawai'i using the freshest, finest ingredients. Available for shipping, each cookie is individually wrapped. Honolulu Cookie Company has 13 locations in Hawai'i; two in Las Vegas, and two on Guam. Honolulu Cookie Company cookies are also available at select retailers: DFS; Aulani a Disney Resort & Spa; Disney's Polynesian Village Resort; Bloomingdale's; Neiman Marcus and Tommy Bahama. Visit www.honolulucookie.com; Facebook at: www.facebook.com/honolulucookie, or call toll free at (866) 333-5800.

Media Contact: Erika Engle, 1-808-946-4525, [email protected]

SOURCE Honolulu Cookie Company

Related Links

http://www.honolulucookie.com

CLEVELAND, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- US demand for semiconductor machinery is forecast to reach $7.4 billion in 2021, according to Semiconductor Machinery: United States, a report recently released by Freedonia Focus Reports. Growth in demand for wafer processing equipment will account for the majority of value increases. Ongoing expansion in global production of mobile electronics will support demand for smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient logic integrated circuits, as well as the increasingly advanced wafer processing machinery required for production. Specifically, rising adoption of lithography equipment that utilizes extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology will spur gains.

More information about the report is available at https://www.freedoniafocusreports.com/Semiconductor-Machinery-United-States-FF75028/

Semiconductor assembly machinery demand is forecast to grow the fastest among the product segments. Intensifying production of increasingly compact electronic systems for use in mobile devices will drive demand for more sophisticated semiconductor assembly equipment. For example, semiconductor device manufacturers such as integrated device manufacturers, outsourced semiconductor assembly and test providers, and foundries will require systems capable of mounting ever-smaller semiconductors.

These and other key insights are featured in Semiconductor Machinery: United States. This report forecasts to 2021 US semiconductor machinery demand and shipments in nominal US dollars at the manufacturer level. Total demand is segmented by product in terms of:

wafer processing

testing

assembly

To illustrate historical trends, total demand, total shipments, the various segments, and trade are provided in annual series from 2006 to 2016.

More information about the report is available at https://www.freedoniafocusreports.com/Semiconductor-Machinery-United-States-FF75028/

About Freedonia Focus Reports

Each month, The Freedonia Group  a division of MarketResearch.com  publishes over 20 new or updated Freedonia Focus Reports, providing fresh, unbiased analysis on a wide variety of markets and industries. Published in 20-30 pages, Focus Report coverage ranges from raw materials to finished manufactured goods and related services such as freight and construction. Additional Industrials reports can be purchased at Freedonia Focus Reports or MarketResearch.com.

Analysis is intended to guide the busy reader through pertinent topics in rapid succession, including:

total historical market size and industry output

segmentation by products and markets

identification of market drivers, constraints, and key indicators

segment-by-segment outlook in five-year forecasts

a survey of the supply base

suggested resources for further study

Press Contact:

Corinne Gangloff

+1 440.684.9600

[email protected]

SOURCE The Freedonia Group

Related Links

https://www.freedoniafocusreports.com/

CARY, N.C., Feb. 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- USfalcon, Inc. (USfalcon) is pleased to announce its merger with RGS Associates, Inc. (RGS).

USfalcon is a leading provider of national defense and security-related management and engineering support services, primarily in the areas of Air Force Space, Cyber and Engineering Services, and Army Aviation. RGS is a leading provider of management consulting, human capital management, and information technology services to the Departments of Defense, Navy, Justice, Homeland Security, and numerous other civilian agencies.

The joining of the highly capable resources, experience, knowledge, and management acumen of these two leading-edge companies will provide a depth and breadth of capability across the DoD, the military services, and civilian agencies that is available only in significantly larger corporations.

USfalcon Chief Executive Officer, Zannie Smith, Major General, US Army, Retired, stated "Our USfalcon team examined the valuable client relationships, technical expertise, quality staff members, and the synergy that would be created by our combined forces, and determined that this merger was in our best interest to pursue. After meeting with the RGS team, it was our shared values and commitment that impressed me the most, and made this merger an imperative in my mind."

About USfalcon

USfalcon is a Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned Business headquartered in Cary, North Carolina. With offices in Dayton, Ohio; Reston, Virginia; Huntsville, Alabama; and Colorado Springs, Colorado, USfalcon's personnel provide on-site Aerospace, Mission Systems Engineering, Information Technology, and Education and Training services supporting warfighters at numerous Government facilities across the United States and abroad. USfalcon is ISO 9001:2015 and AS9110C certified.

USfalcon is committed to its core values of Integrity, Commitment, Stewardship and Service, and found those same values in RGS. www.usfalcon.com

About RGS

RGS provides the Department of Defense, Justice, Homeland Security, and other Civilian Agencies with intelligent solutions to meet some of the government's greatest challenges. RGS applies deep expertise in all project phases from strategic planning through execution and delivers tangible business results in Program Management, Human Capital, and Information Technology. Known for integrity and superior service delivery, RGS has a culture that instills fresh thinking, responsiveness, and dedication to its clients' missions. www.rgsinc.com

Related Links

USfalcon, Inc.

RGS Associates, Inc.

SOURCE USfalcon, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.usfalcon.com

ALISO VIEJO, Calif., February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

UST Global, a leading digital technology services company headquartered in California has been awarded the exclusive Top Employers United States of America 2018 Certification. On 8 February 2017, the Top Employers Institute announced the results of its annual research into a large number of employers and their employee conditions around the world.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/540539/UST_Global_Logo.jpg )



UST Global earned the certification as a Top Employer, amongst 51 companies certified worldwide in 2018. The Top Employers Institute assessed UST Global's employee offerings around Talent Strategy, Leadership Development, Workforce Planning, Career & Succession Management, On-Boarding, Compensation & Benefits, Learning & Development, Culture, and Performance Management.

The Top Employers Institute is an independent organization which uncovers the employee offerings of significant employers around the world, measuring them against the international standard. Since 1991, they have certified 1,386 companies in 114 countries impacting 5.3 Million employees.

David Plink, CEO, Top Employers Institute, said, "Our comprehensive independent research revealed that UST Global USA provides exceptional employee conditions, nurtures and develops talent throughout all levels of the organization and has demonstrated its leadership status in the HR environment, always striving to optimize its employment practices and to develop its employees."

Manu Gopinath, Chief People Officer, UST Global, added, "This certification is a validation of the successful people practices we have built over the years. It reinforces our commitment to optimize, develop and work with employees to become an even better employer. We are excited to be recognized and certified as one among the four companies in the US region for the IT industry."

About UST Global

UST Global is a leading digital technology company that provides advanced computing and digital services to large private and public enterprises around the world. Driven by a larger purpose of Transforming Lives and the philosophy of 'fewer clients, more attention', we bring in the entrepreneurial spirit that seeks the fastest path to value in today's digital economy. Our innovative technology services and pioneering social programs make us unique. UST Global is headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California and operates in 25 countries. Our clients include Fortune 500 companies in banking and financial services, healthcare, insurance, retail, high technology, manufacturing, shipping, and telecom. UST Global believes in building long-lasting, strategic business relationships through agile and client-centric global engagement models that combines local experts & resources with cost, scale, and quality advantages of global operations.

For more information, please visit: http://www.ust-global.com .

Media Contact:

Divya Singh

[email protected]

+91-8552944004



SOURCE UST Global"The newly launched factor funds further broaden our active equity lineup and represent a differentiated approach  disciplined, rules-based, targeted exposure to factors  along with Vanguard's low costs," said Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley. "The funds are aimed primarily at financial advisors and institutional investors, who we believe understand the risks of potential underperformance and can effectively incorporate factor funds into their portfolios."

The newly launched U.S. factor funds serve as an extension of Vanguard's low-cost active fund lineup. With $1.2 trillion in global active assets, Vanguard's deep roots in active management date back to the founding of Vanguard Wellington Fund in 1929the nation's oldest balanced mutual fund. A focus on low costs, rigorous fund oversight, and access to a diverse group of talented managers has contributed to a history of competitive performance. Vanguard's actively managed funds outperformed their peer group averages over the past 5- and 10-year periods91% and 93%, respectively.1

The new funds will be managed by Vanguard Quantitative Equity Group (QEG). Established by Vanguard founder John C. Bogle and then-Chief Investment Officer Gus Sauter, QEG is Vanguard's third largest active equity manager, overseeing more than $39 billion. QEG serves as manager to 44 mandates globally, including all Vanguard factor funds offered to investors abroad and the firm's first active U.S. factor mutual fund, Vanguard Global Minimum Volatility Fund. QEG oversees a variety of strategies, including traditional alpha, factors, liquid alternatives, and managed payout.

Promoting factor education

To complement the launch of the funds, Vanguard Financial Advisor Services (FAS) introduced an Education Centera comprehensive website featuring product information, research, and education on factor funds and factor investing. The center features Vanguard's latest research on factor investing, including Equity factor-based investing: A practitioner's guide, How to use factor-based investing in client portfolios, and Drawing systematic value from the equity liquidity premium.

"The launch of our factor products and education center underscores our commitment to financial advisors," said Tom Rampulla, Managing Director-FAS. "Advisors have gravitated to our low-cost ETFs and index funds, and now they will have a suite of low-cost active factor funds to help them build portfolios for their clients."

FAS provides products, support, research, tools, and content to registered investment advisors, broker dealers, banks, and other intermediaries. FAS has grown to be Vanguard's largest business with $1.7 trillion in assets. More than half of Vanguard's $369 billion in cash flow in 2017 was attributed to Vanguard's advisor clients.

About Vanguard

Vanguard is one of the world's largest investment management companies. As of December 31, 2017, Vanguard managed $4.9 trillion in global assets. The firm, headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, offers more than 385 funds to its more than 20 million investors worldwide. For more information, visit vanguard.com.

All figures as of December 31, 2017, unless otherwise noted.

1 Source: Vanguard and Lipper, as of December 31, 2017.

*For the five-year period ended December 31, 2017, 106 of 116 Vanguard actively managed funds outperformed their peer group averages. For the ten-year period ended December 31, 2017, 103 of 111 Vanguard actively managed funds outperformed their peer group averages; results will vary for other time periods. Only funds with a minimum five-, or ten-year history, respectively, were included in the comparison. (Source: Lipper, a Thomson Reuters Company) Note that the competitive performance data shown represent past performance, which is not a guarantee of future results, and that all investments are subject to risks. For the most recent performance, visit our website at www.vanguard.com/performance.

For more information about Vanguard funds and ETFs, visit vanguard.com or call 800-662-7447 to obtain a prospectus or, if available, a summary prospectus. Investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses, and other important information about a fund are contained in the prospectus; read and consider it carefully before investing.

Vanguard ETF Shares are not redeemable with the issuing Fund other than in very large aggregations worth millions of dollars. Instead, investors must buy and sell Vanguard ETF Shares in the secondary market and hold those shares in a brokerage account. In doing so, the investor may incur brokerage commissions and may pay more than net asset value when buying and receive less than net asset value when selling.

U.S. Patent Nos. 6,879,964; 7,337,138; 7,720,749; 7,925,573; 8,090,646; and 8,417,623.

Vanguard Marketing Corporation, Distributor of the Vanguard Funds.

All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest. Funds that concentrate on a relatively narrow market sector face the risk of higher share-price volatility.

SOURCE Vanguard

Related Links

http://www.vanguard.com

VERO BEACH, Fla., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The 9th Annual Indian River Nautical Flea Market and Fishing Show is set to sail into Vero Beach for two days of marine adventure on April 14-15, 2018 from 9 am to 5 pm at the Indian River Fairgrounds.

22 foot coastal boats that bridge the gap between a bay boat and a offshore center console.

One of the highlights to this year's event is the Fishing Show featuring seminars and interactive attractions. Fishing displays and commercial marine vendors will fill the 17,600 sq ft air conditioned expo center and open air pavilion. They will be on hand to demonstrate and answer any of your fishing related and boating lifestyle questions. Many of the exhibitors will have the latest rods, reels and lures on hand for sale. A wide variety of salt and freshwater fishing tackle will be on display for anglers looking for great buys. New, used, antique, custom fishing and boating items will be available to all. 95% of boats in the water in the United States are less than 26 ft long, boats that can be pulled by vehicles to local waterways and there are many choices for buyers. Local boat dealers with fishing boats will be on hand to assist the visitors with information about the right boat for them.

For two days, April 14-15, the 139-acre fairgrounds will be transformed into the Treasure Coast largest "Marine Flea Market and Fishing Show". For boat owners, fisherman, divers and anyone with an interest in all things nautical, the 9th Annual Indian River Nautical Flea Market and Fishing Show is a bargain hunter's dream-come true. Private individuals and marine related businesses will be selling new and used marine equipment, marine antiques, new and used boats, fishing tackle, diving gear, marine artwork and other boating and fishing related items at unbelievably low prices.

Speaking on the location, event promoter Larry Burdgick said, "The Indian River Fairgrounds is the perfect venue since its right in the heart of the Treasure Coast and they offer the space we need."

The Indian River Fairgrounds in Vero Beach is located at 7955 58th Ave Vero Beach, Florida. The Nautical Flea Market is easily accessible from I-95 and the Florida Turnpike and as always there are acres of free parking.

Visit the Indian River Nautical Flea Market and Fishing Show website for more information, vendor information, special hotel rates and specific driving directions: www.FLNauticalFleaMarket.com.

Related Links

Indian River Marine Flea Market and Fishing Show

SOURCE Indian River Nautical Flea Market and Fishing ShowAccording to the new market research report "Vertical Lift Module (VLM) Market by Delivery Type (Single-Level, Dual-Level), Storage Type (Non-Refrigerated, Refrigerated), Industry (Automotive, Metals & Machinery, Food & Beverages, Chemicals, Healthcare), and Region - Global Forecast to 2023" , published by MarketsandMarkets , the market is expected to grow from USD 1,074.6 Million in 2018 to reach USD 1,679.6 Million by 2023, at a CAGR of 9.3% between 2018 and 2023. Key factors such as growing need to optimize warehouse floor space, benefits of deploying VLMs compared to standard shelving systems, rising warehouse rentals, and increasing focus on worker safety and security are driving the growth of VLM market.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )



Browse 40 tables and 43 figures spread through 134 pages and in-depth TOC on "Vertical Lift Module (VLM) Market - Global Forecast to 2023"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/vertical-lift-module-market-102230401.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report



Single-level delivery to hold largest share of VLM market between 2018 and 2023

Single-level delivery type VLMs are ideal when the machine is in moderate use or when the picking time is quick. The automotive industry held the largest size of the single-level delivery VLM market. Factors such as increasing automobile sales and rising demand for automotive spare parts are driving the demand for the single-level delivery VLMs in the automotive industry.

Non-refrigerated VLMs to hold largest share of VLM market between 2018 and 2023

Industries such as automotive, aviation, and metals and heavy machinery require huge storage space for large and heavy items. These industries also demand automated systems for efficient handling and storage of material. The non-refrigerated VLMs are highly preferred in these industries as they do not require a temperature-controlled environment to store and retrieve their raw materials. The non-refrigerated VLMs help increase the productivity, reduce error rates, handle materials efficiently, increase picking rate, and save warehouse floor space.

Download PDF Brochure : https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=102230401

Europe held largest share of VLM market in 2017

Countries such as Germany, the UK, France, Spain, and Sweden contribute significantly to the growth of the VLM market in Europe. Factors such as an established automotive, and metals and heavy machinery industries; lack of warehousing space; and high labor costs are driving the demand for VLMs in Germany. Further, Spain has emerged as an attractive destination for logistics and warehousing operations due to the shortage of space for warehousing facilities in major developed countries, including the UK, Germany, and France. Sweden also poses tremendous growth potential for the VLM market. The country has a developed infrastructure for efficient business operations. Sweden houses centralized distribution centers of various leading North European companies. Adidas, Canon, Honda, Nike, Nestle, and Dell, among others, are some of the companies having their distribution centers in Sweden.

Inquiry Before Buy @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=102230401

The major players in the VLM market are Kardex (Switzerland), Haenel (Germany), System Spa (Italy), Ferretto (Italy), and ICAM S.r.l. (Italy).

Browse Related Reports

Automated Material Handling Equipment Market by Product (Robots, ASRS, Automated Conveyors and Sortation Systems, Automated Cranes, AGV), System Type (Unit Load, Bulk Load), Software & Services, Function, Industry, and Region - Global Forecast to 2023

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/automated-material-handling-manufacturing-market-92483121.html

Warehouse Management System Market by Component (Software, Services), Implementation (On-Premise, On-Cloud), Tier Type (Advanced, Intermediate, Basic), Industry (Automotive, Food & Beverages, Healthcare, E-Commerce), and Region - Global Forecast to 2023

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/warehouse-management-system-market-41614951.html

Subscribe Reports from Semiconductor Domain @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Knowledgestore.asp

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 5000 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions.

Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.



Contact:

Mr. Salgarkar

MarketsandMarkets INC.

630 Dundee Road

Suite 430

Northbrook, IL 60062

USA: +1-888-600-6441

Email: [email protected]



Visit Our [email protected] http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/electronics-and-semiconductors

Connect with us on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets

SOURCE MarketsandMarketsLIVERMORE, Calif., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Vigilant Solutions, an image analytics company serving the public safety market, announced today that a law enforcement agency used Vigilant's facial recognition and license plate recognition (LPR) technology to develop a lead in a kidnapping case that helped to locate the missing person and get her to safety. Due to the ongoing investigation, the agency name and certain details of the case have been omitted at the agency's request.

The case was opened when a woman contacted a sheriff's department located in California to report her mother had gone to meet a man she had met online and never came home.

"When the complainant called her mother's phone to check on her, a man answered and made some suspicious remarks, and would not allow her mother to speak to her on the phone," said a spokesperson for the agency. "The complainant could hear her mother crying in the background during the phone call."

The complainant had located the website where her mother had met the unknown male and provided it to the responding officers, but there was no identifying information for the male on the site. However, there were several good-quality photos.

"An investigating officer downloaded one of the photos and ran it through Vigilant's facial recognition system, FaceSearch," the spokesperson said. "Within seconds, he had multiple returns on the probe image and was able to identify the unknown male as a possible match."

The agency proceeded to conduct a full background check and investigation and found the male had a lengthy criminal history and was on probation. The background check also led investigators to the suspect's license plate numbers, which they entered into Vigilant's LPR solution, PlateSearch and found a recent detection in an adjacent jurisdiction. The license plate detection information allowed officers to locate the vehicle and the woman, who had been drugged and was not able to care for herself. The agency was able to quickly get her to safety.

"This is a textbook example of how a comprehensive investigative suite of tools can help an agency solve crimes. It demonstrates how law enforcement agencies can use images and analytics to power investigations, generate leads, make arrests, and help keep citizens safe," said Roger Rodriguez, Director of Business Development for Vigilant Solutions and retired NYPD Detective. "We commend the agency for its swift and successful response."

About Vigilant Solutions:

Vigilant Solutions' technology helps law enforcement solve crimes faster to keep officers and communities safe. A leader in image analytics for the public safety market, Vigilant provides license plate recognition (LPR), facial recognition and ballistic analysis to deliver intelligence to agencies across the globe. Built for agencies of all sizes, Vigilant's technology increases investigative efficiency, generates more leads, connects cases, and reduces crimes with advanced analytics, billions of nationwide commercial LPR detections, and hosted facial recognition and ballistic galleries. Bring criminals to justice with Vigilant Solutions. Visit www.VigilantSolutions.com

Contact:

Matt Pera

Tech Image

312.673.6053

[email protected]

SOURCE Vigilant Solutions

Related Links

http://www.vigilantsolutions.com

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Viz.ai, Inc., an applied artificial intelligence healthcare company announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted a De Novo request for the first-ever Computer-Aided Triage and Notification Platform to identify Large Vessel Occlusion (LVO) strokes in CTA imaging. This regulatory clearance compliments Viz.ai's recent European CE Mark for the product in January 2018.

"The Viz.ai LVO Stroke Platform is the first example of applied artificial intelligence software that seeks to augment the diagnostic and treatment pathway of critically unwell stroke patients," said Dr. Chris Mansi, neurosurgeon and Chief Executive Officer. "We are thrilled to bring artificial intelligence to healthcare in a way that works alongside physicians and helps get the right patient, to the right doctor at the right time."

Stroke is a serious and time-sensitive medical condition that requires emergency care and can cause lasting brain damage, long-term disability and death. A stroke occurs if the flow of oxygen-rich blood to a portion of the brain is blocked. When this happens 2 million brain cells die every minute. "This software device could benefit patients by notifying a specialist earlier thereby decreasing the time to treatment. Faster treatment may lessen the extent or progression of a stroke," said Robert Ochs, Ph.D., acting deputy director for radiological health, Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health in the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

The Viz.ai LVO Stroke Platform was developed using deep learning, a revolutionary technique where algorithms learn how to identify patterns in data from millions of prior examples. The Viz.ai system connects to a hospital CT scanner and alerts the stroke specialist that a suspected LVO stroke has been identified, sending the radiological images directly to their smart phone.

In a 300-patient performance study, the Viz.ai LVO Stroke Platform obtained an AUC of 0.91, identifying LVOs and alerting the relevant specialist with 90% sensitivity and specificity and a median scan to notification time of under 6 minutes. In over 95% of cases, the automatic notifications demonstrated faster notification of the specialist, saving between 6 and 206 minutes, with an average time saving of 52 minutes.

"Timely LVO stroke identification and transfer to a specialist hospital that can perform mechanical thrombectomy is the top priority for LVO stroke patients," said Dr. Raul Nogueira, Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Radiology at Emory University and the Immediate-Past President, Society of Vascular & Interventional Neurology. "This software is designed to help identify appropriate patients earlier and more often, and enable faster transfer and treatment, which, ultimately may result in improved patient outcomes."

About Stroke

Stroke is a leading cause of permanent disability, death and healthcare costs globally. In the U.S., someone has a stroke every 40 seconds and someone dies from a stroke every 4 minutes. Each year, nearly 800,000 people in the U.S. have a stroke costing the U.S. health system more than $34 billion each year, including health care services, medications and lost productivity.

About Viz.ai, Inc.

Viz.ai, Inc. is an applied artificial intelligence healthcare company that works alongside physicians to improve acute medical care. The Viz.ai LVO Stroke Platform leverages advanced deep learning to communicate time-sensitive information about patients straight to a specialist who can intervene and treat.

Viz.ai, Inc., based in San Francisco and Tel Aviv, is financially backed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt's venture capital firm, Innovation Endeavors and by Danhua Capital (DHVC). Viz.ai is the first company to receive FDA clearance for an Artificial intelligence based Computer-Aided Triage and Notification System.

For more information, visit http://www.Viz.ai, follow us on Twitter or find us on LinkedIn.

Media Contact

Christy Maginn

[email protected]

(646) 280-5210

SOURCE Viz.ai, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.Viz.ai

HARRISBURG, Pa., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Education and outreach staff from the Department of Banking and Securities will be meeting with senior citizens, professionals, students, and members of the public across Pennsylvania during the month of March to promote financial capability as part of Governor Tom Wolf's Consumer Financial Protection Initiative.

For Students

The presentation "Avoiding Scams and ID Theft"  which helps consumers protect themselves from financial scams as well as informs victims of scams on how to get help  will be offered to students at Penn-Trafford High School in Harrison City (Westmoreland County) on March 23.

For General Audiences



The STaRT (Start Today and Retire Tomorrow) program  which focuses on retirement planning, setting goals, and how to achieve those goals  will be offered at the following locations:

Albright Memorial Library, Community Room of Children's Library at 500-520 Vine Street in Scranton ( Lackawanna County ) on March 3 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM .

( ) on from . PA CareerLink Schuylkill County at 203 East Arch Street in Pottsville ( Schuylkill County ) on March 15 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM .

( ) on from . PA CareerLink Lancaster County at 1016 North Charlotte Street in Lancaster ( Lancaster County ) on March 28 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM .

( ) on from . PA CareerLink Bucks County at 1260 Veterans Highway in Bristol ( Bucks County ) on March 28 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM .

"Avoiding Scams and ID Theft" will also be offered at New Castle Public Library at 207 E. North Street in New Castle (Lawrence County) on March 28 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM, and to members of the Lancaster Chapter (March 15) and Venango, Mercer, Clarion Chapter (March 16) of the Pennsylvania Association of Retired State Employees (PARSE).

For Professionals



The STaRT Program will be offered to members of the following professional groups and conference attendees. These events are NOT open to the public:

PA CareerLink Luzerne County members of the Job Club and staff in Wilkes-Barre ( Luzerne County ) on March 8

( ) on Northeast PA Society of Human Resources Management (NEPA SHRM) in Wilkes-Barre ( Luzerne County ) on March 9

( ) on PA CareerLink Luzerne County staff in Hazleton ( Luzerne County ) on March 9

The webinar "Skimming Devices  Helping to Protect Business and Consumers"  a program to discuss illegal card skimmers will be presented to members of the PA Food Merchants Association on March 6.

Department staff will present "Elder Investment Fraud and Financial Exploitation Prevention Program"  an innovative, research-based program that trains medical doctors, lawyers, social workers, senior services providers, and other partners to recognize and report financial abuse targeting their clients, especially those suffering from mild cognitive impairment  to attendees at the PA Housing Finance Agency's Housing Services Forums in Harrisburg (Dauphin County) on March 15 and Lewisburg (Union County) on March 23.

The presentation "Senior$afe"  which helps financial professionals identify the "red flags" of suspicious behavior of their clients and/or those close to their clients  will be offered to staff members of the PA Credit Union Association in Harrisburg (Dauphin County) on March 21.

Department staff will offer the presentations "Banking Basics"  an overview of how banks and credit unions work, including differences among types of accounts, what to do if you have past banking issues, and questions you should ask before opening an account  and "Creating a Spending Plan" which outlines the differences between wants and needs; setting "SMART" goals; creating a spending plan; and putting the plan into action  to program participants at the PA CareerLink Montgomery County in Norristown (Montgomery County) on March 21.

The department's Financial Services for Consumers and Business staff works with state and local government agencies, service providers, community and trade organizations, the General Assembly, the military community, schools, and other partners to help Pennsylvanians across the commonwealth become well-informed about the financial marketplace. There are a variety of free, non-commercial programs [PDF] and presentations [PDF] available, or a program can be tailored to a specific group's needs.

The department's Calendar of Events can be found online: http://bit.ly/1KIscBZ. Consumers and community groups can call 1-800-PA-BANKS or email [email protected] for more information. To learn more about the Consumer Financial Protection Initiative, search #GovWolfCFPI on Twitter.

MEDIA CONTACT: Ed Novak, 717-783-4721

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities

Related Links

http://www.dobs.pa.gov/

Yameen has rolled back many of Nasheed's democratic gains, with all of his potential political opponents either jailed or in exile. Maldives would then become a plaything in the hands of the West and China, with India left to watch the proceedings from the sidelines, helplessly. Raising the presence of China, New Delhi's pressure is solicited by the Maldivian opposition to put pressure on Yameen to end the state of emergency and facilitate inclusive presidential elections.

Political chaos has shaken the government since the Supreme Court ordered that a group of imprisoned Opposition leaders be freed.

Without naming China, Nasheed, who is now in Colombo, had accused "a large, emerging power" of "land grab" in the island and buying up its sovereignty. At the same time, as Kerala and Lakshadweep are in close proximity to the Maldivian islands, there are always India's concerns about the possible use of Maldives' territory against it. "That will be a big threat to the entire Indian Ocean", he said.

But while Yameen has welcomed Chinese deals, Nasheed has accused Beijing of "buying up the Maldives", accusing Yameen of opening up the country to Chinese investments with little or no oversight or transparency.

China is already the Maldives' primary source of tourists, whose spending largely drives the economy, and Beijing is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in an airport expansion, housing development and other projects.

Cramer rethinking decision to skip North Dakota Senate race

Nearly three-quarters of the more than $1 million he has raised has come from himself, Federal Election Commission filings show. But Cramer, who passed on a high-profile Senate bid last month, has yet to officially announce his plans.

Kim Kardashian disminuye 24 centimetros de su cintura

Tras el robo que sufrio en Paris, la estadounidense habia preferido dejar de mostrar sus joyas en las redes sociales. Kim Kardashian ha regresado a una de sus especialidades: un selfie frente al espejo mientra posa escasa de ropa.

Uber's loss jumped 61 pc to $four.5 billion in 2017

Uber's loss was mainly based on accepted accounting standards, which includes write-downs and significant legal expenses. The figure leaves out legal costs and stock-based compensation, as well as taxes, interest and other expenses.

China now considers the Maldives part of its "One Belt One Road" project along ancient trade routes through the Indian Ocean and Central Asia.

China on Tuesday sharpened its attack on former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed over his allegations of land grabbing by Beijing in his country, saying the charges are "ridiculous fabrications". The initiative envisages building ports, railways and roads to expand trade - and China's influence - in a swath across Asia, Africa and Europe. Though India hosted President Yameen three times till 2016 and he also lauded the Modi Government's "Neighbourhood First" policy, Male has not taken any concrete step to improvise with New Delhi. Nauert called on the Yameen and the army to comply with the rule of law and restore the constitutional right of the Maldivians. But "India is not an occupying force", Nasheed said.

But on February 9, India's Ministry of External Affairs issued a carefully worded statement aimed at China.

China has said these allegations are groundless with no regard to facts. It also said he and the two arrested justices were "attempting to overthrow the government". "India should not underestimate China's opposition to unilateral military intervention", the op-ed continues.

"The worldwide community should play a constructive role in promoting the Maldives' stability and development on the basis of respecting the Maldives' wishes", Wang said.SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Womanizer released 'Starlet,' the newest addition in the company's line of Pleasure Air intimacy products. To purchase, please visit here.

The Starlet continues the company's new trend of creating small, pocket-sized products you can use on the go.

Pleasure Air Technology, which uses air pressure waves to create orgasms, often in less than 60 seconds, now comes in a petite model. The Starlet is a replica of the original model without all the bells and whistles, including fewer intensity levels than the original, and one-button functionality which is perfect for newbie sex toy users. With fewer functions, users can spend more time experiencing the product rather than investing time trying to figure out how it works.

Product Features

Splash-proof

4 different intensity levels

Whisper mode

Battery life 30 minutes

Size: 85 x 50 x 40 mm

Colors: Fuchsia, purple and snow

"The Starlet is one of our most creative models," said Womanizer VP Ryan Poirier. "Because it's discreet and lightweight, it's perfect for everyday use and carry. It has less features, but it still delivers orgasms with the same intensity as the full-size products."

About Womanizer by epi24

The Womanizer by epi24 is the first clitoral stimulator designed to help women achieve sexual pleasure 100% of the time.* The Womanizer's unique Pleasure Air Technology offers an effortless experience to help women safely maintain their sexual wellness. Created by a German couple, Pleasure Air Technology produces incredibly fast, often multiple orgasms by leveraging a suction technique that does not desensitize the clitoris. The Womanizer line is available for purchase on www.womanizer.com.

*Based on a sampling size of 200 women, 50% orgasm in 60 seconds or less, 80% orgasm between 2-3 minutes, and three-fourths experienced multiple orgasms.

CONTACT: Chey Bell, [email protected]

SOURCE Womanizer

Related Links

http://www.womanizer.com

EXPERT OBSERVATION

The continued appreciation of the yuan could put pressure on the Chinese Government to ease the capital outflow restrictions which have impacted investment in Australian commercial property.

The issue for China is that the yuan is up massively over the last 12 months and that has been driven by the new capital control regulations which have been very effective in turning around the outflow of capital.

However that appreciation could see Chinese goods becoming less competitive and that is not what the Chinese will want to see.

If that is the case then it seems clear that some tinkering with those new capital outflow regulations, and among them those pertaining to real estate transactions, will occur and that will help to both stabilise the yuan at a level that is acceptable to China, and of course benefit Australian commercial property.

According to a report from London based Pictet Wealth Management, Chinas total capital outflow was estimated at US$166 billion in 2017, down 78% from US$761 billion in 2015 and 67% from US$500 billion in 2016 as a result of the new regulations.

Chinas initial tightening of capital outflow rules in 2016 followed a fall of nearly 7% in the value of the yuan against the USD which had been the largest depreciation since 1994.

The foreign exchange turnaround, he said, had seen the yuan appreciate 10.4% against the USD over the 12 months to December.

But more importantly if we look at the movement over the last two months from December when 1 USD bought 6.62 yuan and then last week when 1 USD bought 6.29 yuan we see an appreciation of 5.2% in just six weeks.

That is a huge appreciation of the yuan on top of the significant rise over the last 12 months, and, if it continues, then it must be troubling for at least some sectors of the Chinese manufacturing industry which of course is a hugely significant contributor to capital inflow.

The sheer weight of Chinese capital seeking offshore property investment remains very significant with Australia still the number two destination in the world behind the US for Chinese investors.

We need to keep in mind that while investment outflows from China have been curbed, Chinese investors are adjusting to the new rules and fine tuning their investment strategies.

To date in the new year we have seen little change in interest from Chinese investors, if anything, what may have restricted sales volumes, has been as much about the lack of quality stock in increasingly tightly held markets.

That has been particularly the case in the retail sector, while falling vacancy and incentive levels have been very encouraging for office market landlords.

A further factor driving continued Chinese investor interest in Australian property were regulations aimed at curbing Chinese domestic real estate activity in restricting developers ability to raise finance for their projects.

On the one hand we have the regulations restricting developers from seeking off-shore opportunities and on the other hand also being restricted in their activities at home.

It is a difficult time for property developers on the domestic front, who, under the centralised banking system, already face limited options for funding new projects.

It is not inconceivable then that the further restrictions on their ability to raise finance through debt and equity, may have them looking offshore where finance for their projects may prove easier to come by.

Mark Wizel is a Melbourne-based CBRE national director.If you are new to iQ you can schedule a demo and learn more about this opportunity.

PSFK iQ - Where Innovators Turn for Research. Our professional-grade research platform is designed specifically for Retail and CX leaders who want to know whats next. Whether youre staying current on trends or need a real-time research partner to help you get ahead, count on PSFK iQ to deliver the info you need to make your next move.With its official grand opening on February 3, owner Jaime Harkers dream has become a reality: the small town of Water Valley, Miss. has its first (and only) queer/feminist bookstore, Violet Valley Bookstore.

The stores mission statement makes Harkers intent clear:

"Violet Valley Bookstore makes feminist, queer, and multicultural books available to the Water Valley community, the state of Mississippi, and the South. The bookstore provides a series of readings and other programs to support diverse voices in Mississippi. It features new and used books so that everyone, no matter their income bracket, can afford to have books."

For Harker, who, is also professor of English and director of the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, owning a bookstore was a natural progression. Everyone who loves books dreams of opening a bookstore, and in this town there are a lot of women who own businesses," Harker says. "Its affordable in this town, its a place with a lot of property, and you can start a business without breaking the bankI can even fill up the store with books without breaking the bank.

Harker has no doubt there is a place for an LGBT oriented bookstore in Mississippi. The fact that Ive gotten so many people wanting to come visit tells me there is. And of course, it is a novelty: a lot of the kids have never seen an LGBT or feminist bookstore. Were getting people who drive down from Memphis who want to see it, people from Oxfordtheyre all interested" she says.

I think also, theres a resurgence of feminism, and people have a need for a space where you can discover books not only where you can find what youre looking for, but a space where you can discover new books that you didnt know existed.

And of course, politics in Mississippi emphasize the importance of bookstores such as hers:

As reported by Anna Grace Usery in Mississippi Today, The bookstore opened in the midst of a tumultuous debate over the Mississippi Legislatures passage of the Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act, more often referred to as House Bill 1523, which prevents government intervention when churches and business owners with sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions refuse service to same-sex couples.

Harker believes that the passage of HB 1523 made opening her store essential. She told Usery that it made a lot of LGBTQ folks in the state feel like it is open season on them. They never know when or how they may be excluded or denied service, and that state of being under siege is damaging, especially for LBGTQ youth, who are often living in places where they have never met an out person and her only negative attacks on queer people from the pulpits, fellow students, and teachers.

Given the political climate, how has the store been received?

Theres been a lot of excitement, although there was an initial backlash  there were misconceptions about what the bookstore was, that wed be corrupting children, etc. My favorite rumor was that there was a gang of lesbians from the next town who were going to come in and take over!

But now they are getting used to the idea that its just a bookstore. And the crowd at the opening made others think that maybe they were missing out on something.

Harker's goal is that the store becomes self-sustaining, so I can pay a bookseller to run it. Right now were opening only Friday and Saturday which makes it manageable, but it would be great if we became part of the community. There was no bookstore in town  were it. Its the tourists in Oxford who are going to keep us afloat, but I think there are enough people in town interested as well.

Ive always wanted to live in a town that has a queer/feminist bookstore, so I opened one, she says. I think it will be fun.With the Rev. Billy Graham, possibly the worlds most famous contemporary Christian evangelist, set to turn 100 on November 7, publishers are releasing a boomlet of books on his life, his message, and his impact on American culture.

First to the shelves will be the updated edition of biographer William Martins 1991 magisterial portrait of Graham, A Prophet with Honor, coming in March from Zondervan. It features the story of Grahams life and ministry through his 2005 retirement from global crusades up to President Trump's inauguration where his son gave a prayer. Martin has added 100 pages of text and Zondervan has added photos from Graham's later years.

Its a thorough and serious look at his life but not hagiographic. Its sympathetic but frank, said David Morris, v-p and publisher at Zondervan. Its not just for history majors or for academics. Anyone who cares about American spiritual or religious history has to reckon with Billy Graham, understand and appreciate him.

Martin also reckons with the person who may be reshaping Billy Grahams legacy -- his deeply conservative son Franklin Graham. Franklin, often seen in photos with his friend President Donald Trump, has taken more controversial positions on religious and social issues than Billy Graham did in his last decades in the public eye. Morris said Martin reports on how Franklin has spoken and lets his words stand in the light a bit so readers can make up their own mind how Billys legacy may be continuing.

Another renown scholar of Grahams life, historian Grant Wacker, author of a comprehensive look at Graham, Americas Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation in 2014, is wrapping up a new narrative biography of the evangelist. One Soul at a Time: A Short Life of Billy Graham will be released in late 2018 by Eerdmans.

Wackers 2014 book was brilliant but it was organized by themes, not chronologically, said David Bratt, Eerdmans executive editor. With the narrative format, Wacker "brings the eye of a lauded scholar and marvelous storyteller to the task of telling the story in a condensed way but one you can trust to tell you what you need to know. It stretches from Billy's childhood on a farm to his life traveling the globe preaching the gospel and advising presidents.

Also in the works but likely to be released in 2019, will be a narrative look at Billy Graham's beloved wife, Ruth Bell Graham, by scholar Anne Blue Wills, associate professor of religion at Davidson College. Ruth was very important to a whole generation of evangelical women who took their cues from her on how to be a strong woman in a traditional role," said Bratt. He described her as more conservative than her husband and a great influence on Franklin. The working title is An Odd Kind of Cross to Bear: The Life of Ruth Bell Graham.

A new book by Edit Blumhofer, also due in 2019 from Eerdmans, looks at one of the most significant aspects of Graham's global preaching events: His insistence that gospel music was infused into every gathering. Blumhofer will look at the influence of his crusade partners George Beverly Shea and Cliff Barrows, Bratt said. The title and release date are not set yet.

All four authors were among the 15 academics who contributed essays on Graham's message and influence to a collection released in 2017 by Oxford University Press, American Pilgrim.

Two other books, also timed to Billy Grahams centennial year, speak from personal experience with him, not from a scholarly remove.

In time for Grahams birthday, his grandson, Rev. William Graham, is publishing his first book, Redeemed, November 6. Its a devotional from Thomas Nelson that weaves stories from Will and Billys lives with quotes, photos, and inspirational messages, according to the publisher.

By October, Paraclete Press will release Billy Graham: The Man and His Message for Today by Lon Allison, who worked for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for years before moving to the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College and now to pastor AT Wheaton Bible Church in Illinois.

Paraclete publisher Jon Sweeney said he recruited Allison to do the book because he wanted "a strong evangelical book by someone who was sympathetic to Graham and who would be able to offer something new. This book doesnt break new ground in biography but it is a retelling from an insider's perspective."

Just as Graham never passed up a chance to call people to salvation, Sweeney said, "Allison, an evangelist himself, ends each chapter with a gospel invitation. In this way, its a very Billy Graham-ish kind of book. Those who are new to Billy and those who knew him will see a book very much in his mold."AMC Networks International has added the French and Italian markets to its Iberian business unit in a bid to increase its presence across Southern Europe.





The new office will be headed by Eduardo Zulueta, former president of the business unit for Spain and Portugal, who has been named president of AMC Networks International Southern Europe. The executive will also continue as president of AMC Networks International Latin America The newly-created unit for Southern Europe, which is headquartered in Madrid, will manage production, programming, marketing and distribution for SundanceTV France.It will also explore new business opportunities in the French market and work toward distributing channels and content in Italy.Manuel Balsera, SVP of AMC Networks International Southern Europe, will lead the areas of affiliates, ad sales, marketing and digital, while Pilar de las Casas will oversee the programming and acquisitions strategy as VP of cinema and documentary channels.Advertising investment continues to grow in Spain, driven by digital media and TV, but are far below the market highs of 2007.





In 2017, for the fourth year in a row, Spanish advertisers increased their expenditure, according to the data from Arce Medias i2p report. Last year ended with a total 4.49 billion spent on ad campaigns across every platform, 2% more than in 2016.The figure shows consistent growth since the market reached its lowest point in 2013, with 3.7 billion spent. However, the figures are far from the 7.36 billion invested in 2007, the year before the financial crisis.In addition, the gap between traditional and digital media is still huge. Only TV has managed to continue to garner significant investment.Advertisers are spending more and more on digital media, but the total is almost a fifth of that spent on traditional platforms. While digital drew 841 million in advertising during 2017, traditional media invoiced 3.65 billion.Of those 3.65 billion, nearly 60% was spent on free-to-air (FTA) and pay-TV, as linear TV continues being the greatest ad-related revenue generator of the Spanish media market.Forecasts for 2018 show moderate growth, nearing 2.1%, if the current financial conditions dont change, said the report. Total ad investment for 2018 will near 4.6 billion.Long-time Dutch prime minister Ruud Lubbers reportedly died on Wednesday according to the Dutch government.

Mr Lubbers had the longest tenure of any prime minister in the country's history, and guided the Netherlands through economic turmoil to prosperity while helping shape the foundations of the European Union.

"With Ruud Lubbers, the Netherlands loses a statesman with global allure", reacted current Dutch Prime-Minister Mark Rutte.

He later served as the UN's high commissioner for refugees from 2001 to 2005.

He praised Lubbers for his commitment to Europe.

Olivier Giroud eyes Chelsea chance after bruising full debut

But right now is a new chapter of my career and I'm focused 100 per cent on reaching our targets. He said: "I was very excited to make my debit at Stamford Bridge."I'm very happy for the team".

Misogyny in BJP, says Cong video

Arun Jaitley was also seen during the video, saying a rape in Delhi can cost millions of dollars in terms of lower tourism. The Indian National Congress posted a video on their official twitter handle with the name #MisogynisticModi.

Cabal y Farah a cuartos de final del ATP de Buenos Aires

Los colombianos se impusieron al brasileno Marcelo Demoliner y al espanol Guillermo Garcia-Lopez por 7-6 (7) y 7-6 (9), en dos horas y un minuto de juego.

Lubbers' political career began when he was appointed as the economy minister in 1971.

As prime minister, he was known for his pragmatic "no nonsense" politics, forming governments with the right-wing liberals as well as the social democrats.

But his critics were unimpressed by his openness to compromise and often accused him of mincing his words.

He took to the global stage in 2001 when he was appointed the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, but in 2005 he was forced to resign over sexual harassment allegations.Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been ordered to block access to two pirate websites following demands from major US films studios.





The Barcelona number 6 market court has told Telefonica, Vodafone and Orange, among other ISPs, to block the websites HDFull and Repelis for breaking the copyright laws, according to the federation of film distributors, Fedicine At the time this article was written, it was still possible to access both websites.The decision follows complaints from Columbia (Sony Pictures), Disney, 20 Century Fox, Universal and Warner against both websites for distributing pirate content The sentence is the first of its kind in Spain, forcing ISPs to block access to specific websites, though similar decision had been made in Europe with other popular pirate platforms such as The Pirate Bay.Its an important step forward, which is essential to address the piracy issue in Spain. Such actions are necessary to keep the sustainability of the creative community in Spain and Europe, said Stan McCoy, president of Motion Picture Association , which represents all the majors in Europe.Thanks to the latest law reform, we have gained a new legal instrument to defend the film catalogue which were distributing, added Estela Artacho, president, Fedicine.America Movil has reported consistent pay-TV growth across Latin America, however Brazils poor performance has dampened overall results.





With mobile representing the largest share of service revenues, America Movil has reported incomes of over $14 billion during Q4 2017 , up 1.4% year-on-year. Pay-TV represents nearly 10% of service revenues, with the highest income growth registered in South America and Mexico.In terms of subscribers, pay-TV accesses decreased by 2.6% during the quarter, despite most LATAM operations showing growth during the period. The loss of over 800,000 pay-TV households in Brazil during 2017 negated the positive performance in other territories.Fixed revenue generating units (RGU) were up by 8.3% in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, mostly thanks to the 15.1% pay-TV growth in the latter. The telco has stated that the pay-TV licence recently granted in Argentina will foster the performance of the fixed business in the country.Fixed RGUs were also on the up in Chile, where the pay-TV business is clearly growing, but America Movil had been showing difficulties in capitalising on such growth.In Colombia, where Claro dominates the market, pay-TV revenues increased by 13.4% during Q4 2017, while fixed also grew in Ecuador and Peru.Across Central America, the Mexican telco has reported 5.8 million fixed accesses, between broadband and pay-TV, which resulted into 7.8% revenue increase in the TV business.TV producer, director and writer Ryan Murphy and his Ryan Murphy Productions company have entered into a multi-year deal to produce new series and films exclusively at Netflix, starting 1 July.





The pact is reportedly worth $300 million, making it one of the largest TV production deals in history.Ryan Murphys series have influenced the global cultural zeitgeist, reinvented genres and changed the course of television history. His unfaltering dedication to excellence and to give voice to the underrepresented, to showcase a unique perspective or just to shock the hell out of us, permeates his genre-shattering work, said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer at Netflix . From Nip/Tuck - our first licensed series - to American Crime Story: The People v. OJ Simpson and American Horror Story, weve seen how his brand of storytelling captivates consumers and critics across the globe. His celebrated body of work and his contributions to our industry speak for themselves, and we look forward to supporting Ryan in bringing his broad and diverse stories to the world.Ryan Murphys new original series, Ratched and The Politician, will premiere globally on Netflix. Murphy also oversees production on linear TV for American Crime Story, American Horror Story, Feud, 9-1-1 and the upcoming Pose, all for Fox properties "The history of this moment is not lost on me," said Murphy. "I am a gay kid from Indiana who moved to Hollywood in 1989 with $55 dollars in savings in my pocket, so the fact that my dreams have crystallised and come true in such a major way is emotional and overwhelming to me. I am awash in genuine appreciation for Ted Sarandos, Reed Hastings and Cindy Holland at Netflix for believing in me and the future of my company which will continue to champion women, minorities and LGBTQ heroes and heroines, and I am honoured and grateful to continue my partnership with my friends and peers at Fox on our existing shows."Last month, David Sanger and William Broad's article in the New York Times, How U.S. Intelligence Agencies Underestimated North Korea, ranked the failure to predict the recent breakout pace of North Korea's nuclear program as among America's most significant intelligence failures.

As two career military intelligence officers we appreciate Sanger and Broad's tough critique on US intelligence agenciesespecially considering one of us is a former student of Sanger's. However, the tone and tenor that Sanger and Broad use is exaggerated and counterproductive to informing the public on the roles and capabilities of intelligence. More fundamentally, calling US intelligence on North Korea an intelligence failure is simply wrong.WASHINGTON  Experts have warned for some time that wars in space are not just Hollywood fiction. And the scenario appears increasingly more likely, according to the latest analysis by the U.S. intelligence community.

We assess that, if a future conflict were to occur involving Russia or China, either country would justify attacks against U.S. and allied satellites as necessary to offset any perceived U.S. military advantage derived from military, civil or commercial space systems, warns the 2018 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community, released this week by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.Theres no greater sin in politics than the flip-flop, and Mick Mulvaney has committed a doozy: a very public reversal of a heretofore firm position. Or has he?

As a lawmaker in Congress, Rep. Mulvaney was well known as a steadfast critic of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I dont like the fact that CFPB exists, Ill be perfectly honest with you, he said at the time. He even called the agency a sad, sick joke and co-sponsored legislation to eliminate it.

Yet today he is the acting director of the CFPB (as well as director of the Office of Management and Budget) and making full use of his new authority. He recently told his new employees that he had no intention of shutting down the bureau.

Is this another politician growing in office,  perhaps becoming part of the swamp?

The CFPB was created in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007 by President Obama and a Democratic Congress to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, and abusive financial practices. The bureau is designed to operate outside of the public eye and is subject to virtually none of the traditional checks. It has an independent source of revenue, is largely insulated from both legislative and executive oversight, and has broad latitude and discretion to determine and enforce its own rulings based on vague legislative language.

At the time, Congressman Mulvaney took strong issue with this vast addition to the administrative state. He consistently disparaged the CFPB in remarks and debate as well as through legislation every chance he got. He saw CFPB as a wonderful example of how a bureaucracy will function if it has no accountability to anyone.

Then last fall Mulvaney was appointed acting director of CFPB by President Trump, after the departure of former director Richard Cordray. (Cordray simultaneously tapped deputy director Leandra English for the role, sparking an ongoing legal controversy.)

But while Rep. Mulvaney changed jobs, he has not changed his opinion  and thats what matters. I still have the same fundamental principled misgivings about the way this bureau is structured, Director Mulvaney said recently. I think it is wrong to have a completely unaccountable federal bureaucracy.

How is it not inconsistent for Mulvaney to head up that unaccountable bureaucracy?

Mulvaney thinks the same yet acts differently because he went from being a representative in the legislative branch, which makes laws, to a director in the executive branch, which executes those laws. Put in terms of the separation of powers, he no longer holds legislative power but now has an obligation to faithfully execute the law. This difference is made possible  indeed, it is required  because his oath of office has not changed: to uphold the Constitution and well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.

Ideological zealots use powers to advance agendas; they are boundlessly aggressive in doing so and thus sometimes act in spite of the law. By contrast, the rule of law depends on a different approach, as the new sheriff at CFPB explains:

I intend to exercise our statutory authority to enforce the laws of this nation. I intend to execute the statutory mandate of the bureau to protect consumers. But we will no longer go beyond that mandate. If Congress wants us to do more than it set forth in the Dodd-Frank Act, it can change the law.

Precisely.

Last March, President Trump issued executive order 13781, which called for an overall government reorganization to:

improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of the executive branch by directing the Director of the Office of Management and Budget [OMB] to propose a plan to reorganize governmental functions and eliminate unnecessary agencies, components of agencies, and agency programs.

As OMB Director, Mick Mulvaney is at the forefront of this effort. At CFPB  perhaps the most unconstitutional agency in our vast regulatory state  Mulvaney gives us a model for deconstruction. Until Congress changes the underlying laws (hint, hint), the administrations job is to follow the law as narrowly as possible  and go no further.

In the administration budget request just released to Congress, well see what Mulvaneys government reorganization plan means for those underlying laws. We already have a clue: Obamas CFPB Director Richard Cordray requested $217.1 million for the CFPB for his final quarter; Mulvaney just sent his first quarter request to the Federal Reserve for $00.00.

In an essay entitled Consistency in Politics, Winston Churchill approvingly quotes a scathing Ralph Waldo Emerson: A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. Churchill goes on to explain that the only way a man can remain consistent amid changing circumstances is to change with them while preserving the same dominating purpose.

The dominating purpose of Mick Mulvaney  as it should be for any legislator, executive, or judge sworn under the Constitution  is to carry out the duties of his office under the constitutional rule of law with fidelity. No less, and no more.

Matthew Spalding is Associate Vice President and Dean of Educational Programs for Hillsdale College in Washington, DC, where he is the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Chair in Constitutional Studies.The recommendation of Israeli police that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted for graftlooks to me like an acute case of a malady that is itself a threat to the Jewish state. I call it the American disease. This is the itch to criminalize policy differences, an infection America came down with in the 1980s and has been suffering from, on and off, ever since.The good news flows like a river lately for America and for the Trump administrations policies. The achievements include over 4 million worker bonuses directly tied to the tax cuts, along with the highest wage growth since the Great Recession. Yet, turn on almost any newscast over the last few days and the narrative of improved prosperity has been drowned out by a torrent of highly negative reports surrounding the abuse of women, the White House staff, and the response of President Trump.

Some of this adversarial media treatment is self-serving; Attacking Trump improves ratings. The medias continual insistence on assigning the most nefarious intent to even innocuous remarks from the presidents mouth can drive hours of cable television programming. Trust me, responding to all this is my job. As a strong proponent of the president who would rather be talking about growing productivity and reforming immigration policy, I find myself dealing with messaging problems largely created by the White House.

Specifically, his Saturday tweet was tone-deaf and gave unnecessary ammunition to those looking to indict the presidents motives at every turn. Trump wrote that lives are being destroyed by a mere allegation. He has a point, of course, and I think the president stands particularly vigilant in this regard, considering the flurry of obscene attacks leveled against him (think: Clinton-funded Russian dossier). Nonetheless, sending such a tweet was sure to be viewed as defensive of now-ousted White House secretary Rob Porter, and the allegations against the former aide are hardly a mere allegation. Instead, to most reasonable people the evidence suggests that Porter acted monstrously toward two wives and a girlfriend, validated by contemporaneous police reports and a photograph of his first wife with a black eye.

A polished Rhodes scholar and political veteran, Porter was highly valued inside the White House and widely respected in the larger political world. His prior boss, Sen. Orrin Hatch, initially assailed the press reports as a vile attack on such a decent man. Hatch later walked back that statement, conceding, I do not know the details of Robs personal life. I admire Senator Hatch as a conservative leader, but we have to do better in these situations. We risk permanently alienating women voters if we dont. More importantly, treating such allegations seriously is simply the right thing to do.

Rob Porter is not the first person who acted very differently in his professional life than the way he did in private  and he wont be the last. Once the president learned of this history, Porter was gone. The president took the next step on Wednesday, correctly assailing "domestic violence of any kind." I urge him to expound on this point and voice that Porter's ex-wives are credible and promise a zero tolerance policy toward any perpetrators.

Its also worth noting that these issues are not partisan -- theres no D or R attached to abusing women. Any man who uses his power, whether physical prowess or career position, to manipulate or harm women deserves consequences, regardless of ideology. That includes Rob Porter, Roger Ailes, Harvey Weinstein, and Bill Clinton.

We cannot allow this episode  and the White House reaction to it -- to broaden into a bigger imbroglio that jeopardizes the historic advances already achieved by President Trump and the promise of more to come as he rebuilds the economic and national security of America.Current perceptions of Russia as a power factor in the Indo-AsiaPacific (IndAsPac) geopolitical system are very much influenced by established postCold War assumptions that Moscow is no longer able to influence the regional geostrategic landscape because of its reduced military power and limited economic engagement with the region, and thus should be disregarded as a player worth considering and factoring into any strategic calculus.

But there has been a slow but steady rebuilding of Russian power over the past decade. It has been most noticeable in Eastern Europe, but there have also been developments in the IndAsPac region that strategists contemplating the future evolution of that vast region need to understand. The recent US national security strategy showed that Russia is pushing its way back into Western strategic thinking when it observed:

Russia seeks to restore its great power status and establish spheres of influence near its borders  The combination of Russian ambition and growing military capabilities creates an unstable frontier in Eurasia, where the risk of conflict due to Russian miscalculation is growing.

My new ASPI paper BEARing back: Russias military power in the Indo-Asia-Pacific under Vladimir Putin examines the current status of Russian military power in Australias extended region.

In the 2000s, the Russian military began gradually rebuilding its fallen combat potential. Under Putins leadership, the once cash-strapped national military machine received a massive financial boost and, more importantly, full political support, which remains unchanged to date. Qualitative upgrades of Russian modern military power, while visible, remain neglected by the Western strategic and defence community.

Russias current regional security and defence policy is driven by a pragmatic approach of conflict avoidance and non-interference in third parties geopolitical issues, unless theyre of direct importance to Moscows strategic interests. In Russias regional defence planning, the emphasis is on strengthening the 200300-kilometre defence perimeter along the Pacific coastline. Any large-scale military threats that cant be neutralised by the conventional component are likely to escalate the conflict pattern into a nuclear phase, which may include the employment of both tactical and strategic nuclear assets in combat.

Amid the current geostrategic realities of Northeast Asia, Russia finds itself in a very complex and potentially fragile neighbourhood in which three major nuclear powers (the United States, Russia and China) and one undeclared minor nuclear power (North Korea) are present. Russias territorial disputes with the US over the Bering Strait area and with Japan over the Kurils/Northern Territories are just part of the regions complexity, which is also characterised by territorial disputes between China, Japan and South Korea. Finally, the high-intensity confrontation on the Korean peninsula, with which Russias Maritime Province shares a land border, provides Moscow with additional grounds for strategic concern.

When assessing the possibility of the country becoming engaged in a large-scale military conflict in the future, Russian strategic and defence thinkers dont rule out the possibility of a serious military conflict in the Far East and Western Pacific. Several scenarios dominate ongoing debates, but prominent among them are a war between Russia and China over the Russian Far East, and a war between China and a US-led regional coalition for supremacy in the Pacific, with Russia indirectly involved in the confrontation. Neither scenario is expected to unfold in the next 10 years, but these prognoses are partially triggering an ongoing capability upgrade east of the Urals.

Despite heightened geopolitical tensions with Washington and NATO, Russias strategic thinking and planning factors in a lower level of politicalmilitary confrontation with the US and its Pacific allies compared to the Cold War. Another factor thats widely acknowledged is Russias significantly improved strategic relations with China and the subsequent easing of the operational need to maintain substantial military groupings along the SinoRussian border.

Over the past 10 years, Russia has steadily increased its defence cooperation throughout Asia and the Indo-Pacific. Under Sergei Shoigu, Russias Ministry of Defence has intensified its international cooperation with foreign counterparts, thus making defence diplomacy one of its core priorities. Russia is engaged in a number of regional security structures, such as the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting-Plus, the Shangri-La Dialogue and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, but is also very active in developing key bilateral ties. Moscow sees opportunities for military-technological and maritime security cooperation; peacekeeping; search and rescue and disaster relief; combating various forms of organised crime, such as piracy, narcotraffic and smuggling; and counterterrorism.

Russias declared emphasis on cooperation indicates that confidence building is high on Moscows regional security agenda. The development of close and trusted relations with regional militaries is being pursued through consultations, exchanges, military technology transfers and joint capability development, and regular joint exercises.

Russia is no longer the feeble (though still formidably armed) power that emerged in the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It has rebuilt much of its military power andperhaps most importantlyis confident enough to use it for geopolitical leverage. While the growing strategic competition between China and the US gets all of the headline attention, the power balance in the IndAsPac region is far from binary.Alex Batty, who disappeared in Spain.

Ms Batty, 37, who does not now have parental guardianship, and Alex's grandfather David Batty, 58, are both wanted by police in connection with his alleged abduction.

Police are continuing the search for 12-year-old Alex, who failed to return home from a holiday to Spain with his mother and his grandfather last year.

Alex's guardian, grandmother Susan Caruana, 62, says her daughter and ex-husband previously lived on a commune in Morocco with Alex in 2014 as part of an "alternative lifestyle" which she believes lies behind the youngster's disappearance.

"The reason I believe they have done this is that basically my lifestyle, my belief systems, are not what they agree with".

"They didn't want him to go to school, they don't believe in mainstream school".

Although Greater Manchester Police officers do not believe Alex is at risk of harm, they are concerned about his welfare and want to bring him home to his guardian.

The trio stayed in the Benahavis area near Marbella and were due to return to the United Kingdom on 8 October.

Ford Scrambles to Add Production Volume For 2018 Expedition and Lincoln Navigator

Sam Kirtley and Derek Clark of Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant work with a collaborative robot to prepare glass for installation. The Kentucky truck plant was opened in 1969 and presently it has a work force of more than 8400 with 8100 hourly employees.

Apple, LG, Valve invest Dollars 10 mln in OLD microdisplay specialist eMagin

So far, eMagin has only said that the investment capital will be used for "corking capital and general corporate purposes". As of today, to the Company's knowledge, none of these consumer electronics companies have taken part in the offering.

QUIEN LO DIJO? | "Neymar y Mbappe tienen privilegios en el vestuario"

Su lugar en el equipo parisino es de absoluto privilegio , al punto que ya ni sus companeros se esmeran en disimularlo. No estoy celoso de ninguno de los dos", declaro Adrien Rabiot en una entrevista publicada por el diario L'Equipe .

"They were due back in the afternoon and my husband was going to go and pick them up", said Caruana.

Caruana, who had looked after Alex for three years, had allowed him to go on a holiday with his mother and grandfather because she had been unable to take him overseas herself because of ill health.

"I am appealing to anyone who recognises this young boy or Melanie, or has been in contact with them, to please get in touch with us".

Inquiries have revealed they may have tried to sail on the same date from Malaga to Melilla on the Moroccan border.

Detective Sergeant Pete Morley, from GMP's Oldham borough, said: "It's Alex's 12th birthday today and instead of being at home with his grandmother and friends, we don't know where he is". Obviously it hurt me a bit but then my other concerns kicked in. Alex Batty is described as white, about 5ft, slim, with blond hair and a northern accent. I'm beginning to think I may never see him again.

"We have followed extensive enquiries and we know Melanie has visited Morocco a number of times before and we believe she could have travelled with Alex to there".

"They all spoke on it and Melanie said the reasons why they had done what they had done".

"Our mission is to find Alex and bring him home but sadly we have had no further sightings of him since 8 October 2017 at the Port of Malaga".The Georgia Museum of Art is taking its visitors back to the Paris Opera scene during the late 1800s and early 1900s with its new exhibit opShelley Cannady, 56, professor in environment in and design, from Tulelake, California, observes the posters framed in the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, Georgia, on Friday, February, 9, 2018. The Opera in Print exhibit was the newest exhibit added to the museum. (Photo/Marlee A. Middlebrooks, mam94237@uga.edu)Athens, GA (30605)

Today

Considerable cloudiness. Occasional rain showers this afternoon. High near 85F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Cloudy with showers. Low 68F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.HARTFORD  A new report claims the social and medical cost of legalizing marijuana far surpasses the revenue the state would gain.

Smart Approaches to Marijuana on Thursday released a comprehensive report on the projected costs of legalization in Connecticut. The report found that the cost would top $216 million  far more than the projected $113 million in revenue from taxing weed.

"Everyone likes to talk about the assumed revenue that marijuana legalization would bring to a state, but no one likes to discuss the costs affiliated with such policy measures," said Kevin Sabet, a former Obama Administration drug policy adviser and now head of the anti-legalization group.

"This report will hopefully give lawmakers in Connecticut reason to pause and consider the implications of such policies," Sabet said.

Deepak Cyril D' Souza, a Yale professor, said cannabis brings a high social cost.

"By legalizing cannabis in Connecticut we will undoubtedly see an increase in adolescent cannabis use with many negative consequences years later," DSouza said. "Is this what we want for our children and future adults?"

The report said much of those costs come from expenses due to auto accidents, workforce production declines, school suspensions, accidents due to intoxication and addiction to the drug.

"Marijuana legalization will lead to a new version of a Big Tobacco industry dedicated to profits that will increase addiction and undermine our youth and the vulnerable," Sabet said.

A push is under way to pass a bill legalizing weed in Connecticut, in part to gain the revenue retail sales offer. Proponents point out that weed sales to minors would not be legal and, given the drugs popularity and widespread availability, its time to legalize a substance that has become a mainstream.

They also point out that Massachusetts recently legalized recreational weed and sales are due to begin soon, which means Connecticut would be missing out on revenue that will travel across the border.HARTFORD  In this age of cyber theft and Russian hackers breaking down digital firewalls from the other side of the globe, Secretary of the State Denise Merrill wants to make it harder to steal Connecticut voter identities.

Merrill this year will ask the General Assembly to scrub voter birth dates from registration records, while giving people the option of requesting that their information be kept from public scrutiny.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday in her Capitol office, Merrill said that some hackers can glean enough information to threaten peoples identities, while others can sell voter lists - available for $300 - to marketers.

She said that the proposals, which she expects will be raised for public hearings in the legislative Government Administration & Elections Committee, are the result of requests for more safety from voters.

But the state leader of a national voter watchdog organization, is skeptical about the proposal, since the vast majority of personal data is already available elsewhere.

Its really about the privacy, or openness of the voter file, said Merrill, who last summer declined to release state voter records to the controversial now-defunct Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. She said that as many as 2,500 voters emailed her to voice concerns on the potential release of their registration information.

I think my concern is that when people register to vote, they should only be concerned with their voting, and which candidates they are going to choose and how they are going to vote, and they shouldnt have to worry that their personal information is being compromised, and thats what they are worried about, Merrill said.

Currently, names, addresses, dates of birth and phone numbers are public information, while driver-license numbers, Social Security information and email addresses are exempt from disclosure. Under her proposal, the birth year would be listed for public consumption.

Now people are aware that the voter file is another one of those databases open to the public, Merrill said. I dont think we should be purveyors of data. She also wants to limit the purposes for which the voter list can be used, prohibiting its use for commercial purposes.

Thats another impetus for all this is the cybersecurity issues that are now front and center, she said. Just yesterday we had the testimony in Congress about the cybersecurity of elections and the Russian hacking and the Russian interference with elections. That was actually another reason I felt very strongly that centralizing the voter file of the entire United States in Washington, was a very bad idea.

But Cheri Quickmire, executive director of Common Cause in Connecticut, the election advocacy organization, said Merrills proposals are troubling.

I understand she is very concerned with voter privacy, Quickmire said of the secretary of the state. But there is the recognition that the information she is concerned about is readily accessible through the Internet. It does concern me that information that has been public heretofore might be withheld. I dont think a new law would prevent might prevent bad actors from getting access to the voter-registration data.

In recent decades the General Assembly has tightened its grip on public disclosure, exemption motor vehicle data from disclosure and shielding personal information about state judges, law enforcement officials and even prison guards.

kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCTThree years ago, Meredith Phillips mother, Georgia Svolos, fell and broke her kneecap, setting off a downward spiral that landed her in nursing homes on and off for a year. In one facility, she fell and broke her knee again, necessitating more surgery. All of the facilities were noisy and chaotic, and one smelled of feces.

So, when Phillips learned recently about moves by the Trump administration to ease regulations and fines on nursing homes, she was alarmed.

Im horrified and frightened, says Phillips, who lives in Westbrook.

Her mother, now 78 years old, is living independently againbut her future is uncertain.

These vulnerable people are at the mercy of the nursing homes, Phillips says. The homes need strong oversight. They dont have enough, and this is going to make it even worse.

After Donald Trump was elected president, the American Health Care Association, representing the nursing home industry, sent letters to him and Thomas Price, who was then his Health & Human Services secretary, calling for modifications of Obama-era regulations. Since then, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees the nursing home industry, has published a series of new guidelines that address issues raised in the letters.

Leaders in the Connecticuts nursing home industry say the changes are justified and will improve outcomes for nursing home residents.

The previous rules were overreaching, burdensome and punitive. They diverted scarce nursing home staffing resources away from hands-on care, says Matthew Barrett, CEO of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities, which represents more than 150 of the 224 skilled nursing facilities in the state and is affiliated with the American Health Care Association.

Barrett describes the recent CMS revisions as a modest response to issues raised but not addressed to the industrys satisfaction in the 2016 rule revisions.

He hopes more changes will come.

Advocates for seniors and nursing home residents are skeptical of the Trump administrations motivations.

CMS is dismantling the enforcement system and making it more difficult and less likely for any enforcement against facilities with serious deficiencies, says Toby Edelman, a senior attorney at the Center for Medicare Advocacy. Theyre not seeing their responsibility as helping to assure the health and welfare of residents. Theyre working to please their customers, the nursing homes.

Meanwhile, Connecticut has its own nursing home laws and regulations, and assesses fines against facilities that violate them. Under legislation passed last year, the upper limit for fines for each violation quadrupled to $20,000.

Fortunately, we do not rely solely on federal regulations for our oversight of nursing homes, and our state laws and regulations protecting nursing home residents remain in place and will continue to be enforced, says Maura Downes, director of communications for the state Department of Public Health.

Connecticut issued 73 citations against nursing homes last year, down from 96 the previous year, according to the DPH. The fines typically ranged from a few hundred dollars to $3,000.

The federal government processed fines for 128 Connecticut nursing homes over the past three years, according to the CMS website. The remedies included more than $160,000 in fines to Apple Rehab Rocky Hill, more than $75,000 to Advanced Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in New Haven, and nearly $50,000 for Orchard Grove Specialty Care Center in Uncasville.

A spokesman for Advanced Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation said the facility came under new ownership in 2016, and they are committed to improved performance by investing in facilities and staffing. The other nursing facilities did not respond to inquiries.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services revisions to nursing home regulations have trickled out over a number of monthsbarely attracting notice among the general public.

They include:

 Ending an Obama-administration prohibition on pre-dispute agreements to binding arbitration. You cant sue nursing homes if you sign the agreements.

 Advising monitors to consider the extent to which noncompliance is a one-time mistake or accident, rather than evidence of a systemic problem.

 Freezing changes in ratings for facilities for one year while the five-star system is revised.

 Imposing an 18-month moratorium on certain violation remedies.

 Discouraging daily fines, which can quickly mount up.

CMS insists that most of the changes are aimed at improving care and safety for residents, partly because they are expected to improve compliance with the law. The moratorium on certain remedies, for instance, is designed to enable facilities to train their staffs in intricacies of the 2016 regulatory changes, according to an agency spokesman. He believes the changes wont reduce fines when strict penalties are warranted. CMS has not sent guidelines to states that discourage regulators from levying fines. In fact, our memo specifically calls for per-day civil money penalties when abuse is identified, said the spokesman, who said his name could not be used.

The guidance concerning arbitration, which resulted from a court decision in the industrys favor, requires nursing homes to make it clear to people they wont be able to sue the facility if they sign the agreements, the spokesman said.

Lisa Freeman, head of the Connecticut Center for Patient Safety, says the rule changes make it even more important for the families of elderly people to do extensive research before they choose a nursing home. The federal governments Nursing Home Compare website enables people to look up compliance records of every facility in the country that accepts Medicare or Medicaid payments. Even though the star ratings will be frozen, detailed reports of deficiencies found during inspections will still be available.

Freeman advises people to talk to family members of patients, and always tour the place before you commit. If you see a lot of patients sitting in wheelchairs in the hallways, thats a signal that there may be problems, she says.

The $130 billion-a-year nursing home industry is under intense economic pressure these days. Many facilities have seen their patient populations decline as more people choose assisted living facilities or receive care in their homes, and hundreds of homes nationwide have closed . Meanwhile, Medicaid funding, which pays the bills for about 70 percent of nursing home patients, hasnt kept up with cost increases.

In spite of the decline in nursing home populations, the aging of the Baby Boomer generation means there will be rising demand for all sorts of elder care in coming years.

Many people will seek care in nursing facilities eventually. And they wont just be poor people. The average cost of a stay in an assisted living in Connecticut is $5,000 per month, according to The Elder American Care Research Organization. And most assisted living facilities dont accept Medicaid. So many middle-class people quickly spend down their savings and, soon, theyre relying on nursing homes and Medicaid.

Pat Endel, who cares for her 96-year-old mother, Louise Endel, in their North Haven home, points out that her mother was a civic leader in the New Haven area for much of her life, and now has no financial resources. If Pat can no longer care for her mother, she will have to go into a nursing home and depend on federal assistance. That worries Pat Endel. If regulatory changes lower standards of care, there will be no real safety net for people on Medicaid, she says.

Steve Hamm is a Connecticut Health I-Team Writer. This story was reported under a partnership with the Conn. Health I-Team (c-hit.org).President Donald Trump proposed a $4.4 trillion federal budget on Monday for fiscal 2019, a plan Congress is expected to all but ignore that would slash entitlements and other domestic programs in favor of higher spending on the military and immigration enforcement.

Trump again asked lawmakers for drastic reductions in environmental, research and diplomatic programs he's long derided as wasteful: a 27 percent cut to the State Department; 34 percent to the Environmental Protection Agency; cost-cutting overhauls to Medicare and other social safety-net programs. That money would be partially diverted toward building a wall on the Mexican border and boosting defense spending.

The Pentagon would see an $80 billion increase in its budget, up 13 percent. Entitlement programs would see a $1.7 trillion cut over a decade, including $237 billion from Medicare.

The budget shows the 2019 deficit nearly doubling from projections last year, to $984 billion. The red ink would total $7.1 trillion over the next decade, the national debt would rise to nearly $30 trillion, and the budget would not balance. That assumes Congress adopts all Trump's proposals, including spending cuts, and the economy doesn't suffer a downturn for at least a decade.

Any president's budget proposal is customarily dismissed by Congress -- which controls the government's purse strings, under the Constitution -- as a dead-on-arrival wish list. That's especially true with this year's document. Just last week, Congress passed its own bipartisan two-year budget agreement that increased caps for both domestic and defense spending.

The White House scrambled over the weekend to re-write its proposal to account for the deal, only increasing the likelihood that legislators dismiss Trump's plan. The agreement boosts spending caps by $300 billion and provides $90 billion in emergency disaster aid.

Here's a look at some of the highlights in the president's plan:

The congressional agreement on spending caps sets the stage for major increases in both defense and domestic accounts. OMB Director Mick Mulvaney, in a letter accompanying the budget, urged Congress to restrain domestic spending despite the agreement, citing the deficit.

Trump's budget takes "money that the Democrats want to put to these social programs and move it to things like infrastructure, move it to things like opioid relief, move it to things that are in line with the president's priorities so that if it does get spent, at least it gets spent to the right places," Mulvaney said Sunday on Fox News.

The tax law that Trump signed in December is by itself projected to add more than $1 trillion to the deficit over the next decade. Domestic spending under the new caps Congress agreed to last week would add $680 billion in deficits over 10 years on top of red ink already in the budget, Mulvaney wrote. He proposed spending $57 billion less than the new cap.

Congress is all but certain to ignore that advice. Lawmakers are already working on a spending bill to meet the new caps and plan to present it to Trump by March 23, the next deadline to fund the government for fiscal 2018.

Fiscal conservatives will be dismayed that Trump's proposal fails to balance the budget over the next ten years, hitherto Republican orthodoxy. Proposals to gut domestic programs are meanwhile anathema to Democrats.

The president's infrastructure plan would reallocate $200 billion in federal funds over the next decade as seed money to spur states, local governments, and the private sector to finance public works projects. The administration estimates it would create as much as $1.5 trillion in investments. Ahead of the budget release on Monday, Trump met with state and local officials at the White House to tout the plan.

"We have some very exciting things to be talking about, things you've been waiting for for a long time, for many, many years, and now let's see how badly you want it," Trump said at the event. "We're really way behind schedule, we're way behind other countries. We always led the way for many, many years. Then a number of decades ago it slowed down, and over the last eight years and 15 years, to be honest, it's come to a halt."

The budget would dramatically increase U.S. immigration enforcement, a hallmark issue for the president. He wants $782 million to hire 2,750 new border and immigration officers and $2.7 billion to detain people who are in the country illegally. Trump also wants $18 billion over the next two fiscal years to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico -- a key point of contention in the ongoing legislative battle over people known as "Dreamers" who were brought to the country illegally as children.

Trump also envisions increasing spending on deportation proceedings, with the U.S. currently facing a backlog of some 650,000 cases. The proposal calls for $40 million to support 75 new immigration judges, and another $40 million for 338 new prosecutors at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Trump would spend $253 million to complete a biometric entry-exit system that the administration says would better help identify terrorists and criminals.

The White House envisions a massive $80 billion boost to defense spending, by far the largest increase for any federal department. The proposal includes the purchase of new ships for the U.S. Navy and calls for adding 24 Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet jets in fiscal 2019 and 110 new jets over the next decade. It would fund 20 new missile defense interceptors and silos, a new "homeland defense radar" in Hawaii and, for the first time, a "salvo" test to fire two interceptors at once at an incoming target.

Trump's overall national security budget -- which includes Energy Department nuclear weapons programs and defense-related activities at the FBI and smaller agencies -- would total $716 billion.

The budget once again guts U.S. diplomatic and foreign aid spending, cutting more than 29 percent -- about $17 billion -- from 2017 levels for the State Department and other international programs.

The administration says that by cutting foreign assistance, the U.S. would promote "self-reliance" among developing countries, ultimately ending their need for aid. The administration also said it would review contributions to multilateral organizations like the United Nations to evaluate if the spending "advances American interests."

Some programs do survive the proposed cuts. The administration requests $4.6 billion for the protection of American diplomats and staff overseas and $8.2 billion to upgrade the State Department's information technology. The budget also includes continued aid to Israel under the terms of a 10-year agreement reached last year.

And the construction of a new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem "will be among the Department's highest priority for capital security investments in FY 2018 and FY 2019," according to the budget.

Trump requested $13 billion in new funding to combat the opioid epidemic, which he has frequently cited as among his top domestic priorities. The president's proposal includes $50 million for an anti-opioid media campaign, $50 million for overdose-reversal drugs to be distributed to emergency workers, and $100 million for prevention activities, including a state-based program to monitor painkiller prescriptions. Trump also envisions a $100 million public-private partnership between the National institutes of Health and the pharmaceutical industry to develop treatments for addiction, overdose reversal, and non-addictive painkillers.

The proposal also includes $85.5 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs -- nearly a 15 percent increase, one of the largest in the budget. That includes a 9.6 percent increase for veterans' health services and $11.9 billion to expand health care options for former service members outside the VA system.

The budget proposes to "transition away from Obamacare" by changing the way Medicaid, the health program for the poor, is financed. The Affordable Care Act gave states the option to expand the program, in which spending is now relatively open-ended, to cover more people earning poverty-level wages. Trump would change Medicaid financing dramatically, giving states a choice between a per-person cap on federal payments under the program or a block grant. Either option would provide a fixed amount of money each year but with fewer federal rules on its use.

Trump also proposes to cut federal payments to home-health agencies and nursing homes by $80 billion over a decade and to reduce payments to hospitals by nearly $200 billion, including reductions for hospital-owned doctor's offices.

Funding for U.S. passenger rail would be cut in half under the budget proposal. The Trump budget proposes $738 million to fund Amtrak, which requires subsidies for routes that lose money -- a 51 percent cut.

The budget proposes that states step in to help fund money-losing Amtrak service. While revenues are up on the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington, most passenger rail service elsewhere in the country loses money.

The comparisons in this article are based on the enacted spending levels for fiscal 2017, the last year that figures for full funding of the government are available. The government has been operating on stopgap funding since Oct. 1, the beginning of fiscal 2018. While the White House provided an addendum to account for the spending deal Trump signed on Friday, numbers for some agencies and programs may be subject to change.

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Bloomberg's Steven T. Dennis, Zachary Tracer, Anna Edney, Alan Levin and Tony Capaccio congtributed.WARREN  The future of the Warren School is under consideration.

Region 6 School Superintendent Christopher Leone said this week that a process for looking at the potential closure of the school was being developed. He wrote a letter to the community Feb. 13, following the previous evenings budget workshop.

In the letter, he answered a question from a board member about potential savings and possible impact of closing Warren School and that further planning was underway.

In an interview with The Register Citizen, he stressed that there is extended deliberation ahead, considering the viewpoints of stakeholders, and that the school may not be closed.

This is going to be a community conversation; a community-developed plan. That plan will be presented to the Board of Education with multiple options, said Leone. The Board of Education will review those options, and from there, it could go many different ways.

Leone said the rationale for considering the idea was the number of students at the Warren School  60 pupils attend classes at the K-6 institution at this time. He cited declining enrollment, financial constraints, the needs of the building and rising per-pupil costs as factors at play in his letter to the community.

The decision is not being considered in isolation or in haste, Leone said. If the Board of Education ultimately decides to close the school, it would be shuttered before the 2019-20 school year, Leone said.

This is 18 months in advance, which will require a lot of planning, a community conversation, a board decision, a referendum, said Leone. At any time, this may not happen, or this may go forward. Theres a process to follow.

In his letter to the community, Leone said he planned to hold meetings at all of the community schools in April and May to hear from their constituencies. He is currently expecting to submit a plan for the boards consideration in June.

While school consolidation is not an easy topic, and has many parts to the equation, I welcome the conversation, the dialog, the ideas, and the journey we will take forward for all of our students, said Leone in the letter.

The latest Region 6 budget was approved on the second attempt over the objection of Morris residents. An initial proposal from the Region 6 Board of Education, totaling $19.44 million, was rejected on May 2 by a vote of 350-426. The vote was driven largely by Morris voters, who submitted total 419 votes, 324 of which were to reject the proposal.

Following that vote, the Board of Education reduced the 2017-18 proposal by $197,170, according to documentation on the district website. This limited the budget to $19.24 million  a 1.74 percent increase.

That $19.24 million budget was approved 796-352, according to Goshen First Selectman Bob Valentine and Morris First Selectman Tom Weik.

Goshen and Warren residents supported the budget by margins of 400-52 and 240-19 respectively, while Morris residents sought to reject the financial plan for a second time, with 281 voting no, and 152 voting yes.

Valentine, Weik and Warren First Selectman Craig Nelson appealed to the Board of Education to scale back its initial proposal in February 2017. At the time, the board requested a $19.74 million budget.

Leone was hired as the Region 6 superintendent in March 2017, sharing responsibilites with former Superintendent Ed Drapp until July.

Each of the three communities have seen a reduction in state Education Cost Sharing funding in recent years.

Under budget adjustments proposed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy earlier this month, Goshen would receive no ECS funding in the 2019 fiscal year. The town is to receive $71,403 this year, down from $82,025 in fiscal year 2017.

Morris would receive $83,690  down from $84,502 in the current year, and $102,178 in the 2017 fiscal year. Between the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years, the community lost more than $500,000 in ECS funding.

Warren would also have its ECS funding share zeroed-out in the 2019 fiscal year under the Governors plan. In the current year, its set to take in $28,673, down from $33,205 in the year prior.

The budget we are proposing today is about the future  specifically Connecticuts long-term fiscal stability, Malloy said in a press release at the time. This plan continues to pay down the states long-term obligations, further reduces our reliance on one-time revenues, and identifies clearer and more achievable savings targets in the underlying budget. When it comes to our budget, there are few easy answers left for state leaders  what matters most is that we achieve balance with realistic and responsible changes.

Reach Ben Lambert at william.lambert@hearstmediact.com.TORRINGTON  A city man was arrested after police say he caused a disturbance and threatened to beat up staff at Charlotte Hungerford Hospital.

Sebastian Bloom, 32, of 260 East Main St., was arrested Feb. 7 and charged with second-degree breach of peace and interfering with an officer/resisting arrest, police said.

According to a probable cause report, a city police officer was dispatched to Charlotte Hungerford that evening for a disturbance in the emergency room parking lot. Charlotte Hungerford staff told the officer that Bloom had caused the disturbance at the hospital, according to the report.

Charlotte Hungerford staff told police Bloom had initially agreed to leave the facility, but once outside, he said several (times he) was going to beat us up I am not scared of you, according to the probable cause report.

The officer asked Bloom to sit in his patrol car, according to the report. After being told he was not under arrest, and some further coaxing, he sat in the back of the vehicle.

Blooms legs remained out of the car and his feet on the ground. Bloom exclaimed no and began to exit the car, pushing at me with his hands. I ordered him to stay in the car and he said there is only one of you and you cant make me, said the officer in the report. Bloom continued pushing and began to exit the car. I sprayed him (in) the face with OC (pepper) spray and Bloom became compliant and was secured in the rear of my cruiser.

Bloom was arrested for interfering with an officer, according to the report. He was released on a $5,000 police-set non-surety bail and scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Torrington on Feb. 20.

Reach Ben Lambert at william.lambert@hearstmediact.com.Describing his visit to Oman as the "beginning of a new era in India's relationship with the West Asian country", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the visit will impart a substantial momentum to relations between India and Oman in all spheres, including trade and investment relations.

Besides its strategic value, the Kingdom of Oman has also established a special economic zone in the Port of Duqm, where Indian companies are making investments worth $1.8 billion.

Modi also offered prayers at the 125-year-old Shiva Temple, one of the oldest in the region. It was subsequently renovated in 1999.

Talking to reporters here, AICC senior spokesperson Anand Sharma said government facilities were used when a huge function was organised in Oman's capital Muscat during the Prime Minister's visit to the country. "We believe in the importance of a possible Indian role.to reach a final agreement based on global consensus and resolutions", he had suggested before Mr. Modi's visit, but the Prime Minister chose to steer clear of this as the complexities of the region were evident in the very manner of his landing at the Palestinian Authority's presidential headquarters in Ramallah.

Blow for Manchester United & Chelsea in Arturo Vidal chase

Both clubs announced that opportunities for youth teams to play fixtures against one another were also part of the partnership. He told Sport1: "I'm not thinking about a transfer.

Banco de Venezuela informa que sus servicios estan "temporalmente suspendidos"

El hecho, por tratarse de la infraestructura tecnologica principal, ramifico la falla hasta todo el territorio nacional a traves del sistema tecnologico integrado que utiliza la entidad.

Iran President Hassan Rouhani seeks Indian investment amid US pressure

He will be a part of the Friday prayer congregation at the historic Mecca Masjid and will also deliver a speech there. Hyderabad , in particular, has cultural, religious and economic ties with Iran that go back five centuries.

As he departed from Muscat after a two day visit to Oman, the PM said, "this Oman visit is one I will cherish for a long time to come".

The two sides also emphasised the need to "isolate the sponsors and supporters of terrorism" and agreed that the global community should take urgent action against all entities which support terrorism and use it as an instrument of policy. Though Modi said India hopes for Palestine to soon emerge a sovereign and independent country in a peaceful environment through dialogue, he departed from the past practice by dropping any mention of a "united" and "viable" Palestine in his remarks.

The two sides renewed their commitment to work closely to strengthen maritime security in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean region. India is likely to step up its military presence in Oman. But bureaucratic inertia In New Delhi continues to hamper India's outreach. "Four countries in 4-days strengthening our footprint in Gulf and West Asia!" This will be crucial as traditional powers such as the US and Russian Federation are jostling militarily, even as America's stakes in the region decline by the day. Oman is a strategic partner of India in the Gulf and an important interlocutor at the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Arab League and Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA).

The Prime Minister has praised the functioning of his government, but he has insulted the country by criticizing the former governments.SEOUL, South Korea - Any day of the week, the North Korean propaganda machine can be relied upon to spew out anti-American vitriol using some formulation of "imperialist" and "aggressor" and "hostile."

The Kim family has kept a tight grip on North Korea for some seven decades by perpetuating the idea that the Americans are out to get them. From the earliest age, North Korean children are taught "cunning American wolves" - illustrated by fair-haired, pale-skinned men with huge noses - want to kill them.

Kindergartens and child-care centers are decorated with animals holding grenades and machine guns. Cartoons show plucky squirrel soldiers (North Koreans) triumphing over the cunning wolves (Americans).

"North Koreans live in a war mentality, and this anti-American propaganda is war-time propaganda," said Tatiana Gabroussenko, an expert in North Korean propaganda who teaches at Korea University in Seoul.

The thing is: there is some element of truth to the North Korean version of events. It's only a kernel, and it is grossly exaggerated, but North Koreans remember very well what most Americans have forgotten (or never knew): that the Korean War was a brutal one.

---

"Korea is called the forgotten war, and part of what has been forgotten is the utter ruin and devastation that we rained down on the North Korean people," said John Delury, a professor in the international relations department at Yonsei University in Seoul. "But this has been ingrained into the North Korean psyche."

First: a little history.

The Korean Peninsula, previously occupied by Japan, was divided at the end of World War II. Dean Rusk - an Army colonel at the time, who went on to become secretary of state - got a map and basically drew a line across at the 38th parallel. To the Americans' surprise, the Soviet Union agreed to the line, and the communist-backed North and the American-backed South were established in 1948 as a "temporary measure."

On June 25, 1950, Kim Il Sung, installed by the Soviets to lead North Korea, decided to try to reunify the peninsula by force, invading the south. (Although in the North Korean version of events, the South and their imperialist patrons started it.)

The push south was surprisingly successful until Gen. Douglas MacArthur landed his troops on the mudflats at Incheon, sending the northern troops back. Then the Chinese got involved, managing to push them back to roughly where they started, on the 38th parallel.

All this happened within the first six months or so. For the next two-and-a-half years, neither side was able to make any headway. The war was drawn to a close in 1953, after exacting a bloody toll.

"The number of Korean dead, injured or missing by war's end approached three million, 10 percent of the overall population," Charles K. Armstrong, a professor of Korean history at Columbia University, wrote in an essay. "The majority of those killed were in the North, which had half of the population of the South."

But the war ended with an armistice, not with a peace treaty. That means that, to this day, North and South Korea remain in a technical state of war.

---

American military leaders at the time called the Korean War a "limited war" because they did not let it expand outside the Korean Peninsula. But on the peninsula, it was total devastation, particularly for the North.

The United States dropped 635,000 tons of bombs in Korea, not counting the 32,557 tons of napalm, Bruce Cumings, a University of Chicago professor who's written several books on North Korea, wrote in "The Korean War: A History." This compared with 503,000 tons in the entire Pacific theater in World War II.

"If we keep on tearing the place apart, we can make it a most unpopular affair for the North Koreans," Defense Secretary Robert Lovett said after the napalm and aerial bombing campaigns of 1950 and 1951, according to Cumings. "We ought to go right ahead," Lovett said.

Rusk said the United States bombed "everything that moved in North Korea, every brick standing on top of another." After running low on urban targets, U.S. bombers destroyed hydroelectric and irrigation dams in the later stages of the war, flooding farmland and destroying crops, former Post correspondent Blaine Harden wrote in 2015.

"The physical destruction and loss of life on both sides was almost beyond comprehension, but the North suffered the greater damage, due to American saturation bombing and the scorched-earth policy of the retreating UN forces," Armstrong of Columbia wrote.

The Kim regime keeps its people afraid by constantly blaming the United States for its situation, especially sanctions for its economic plight. But this also helps it unify the populace against a supposed external threat.

"Anti-Americanism is an ideological tool of the government," said Peter Ward, a North Korea researcher affiliated with the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. "They need an enemy and a villain to blame for the division of the country, a scapegoat for the situation they are in."

When the United States loses, it's more likely to become the bogeyman, Ward said. "Look at Vietnam. Americans used much more napalm on the Vietnamese, but they're on good terms today."

As tensions between North Korea and the United States have escalated in recent months, the North has turned up the volume on its propaganda machine, in addition to launching a series of missiles.

In response, President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to use force to punish North Korea (although he's also said he'd be "honored" to meet Kim Jong Un.)

"When a new and untested American president starts dangling out the prospect of a surprise missile attack as the solution to the North Korean problem, it plays directly into their worst narrative that the regime tells its people," Delury said.

And the worst narrative is bad.

From the very real events of the Korean War, North Korea's propagandists have created a version of history that is designed to keep the shock and horror alive more than six decades later.

North Korea's discourse on the Korean War - called the "Victorious Fatherland Liberation War" in North Korea - was constructed according to Soviet propaganda used against Nazi Germany during World War II.

"North Korea's propaganda writers were educated in the Soviet Union," said Gabroussenko, who grew up in the Soviet Union.

Russia perceived itself as being attacked by Germany in what it called "The Great Patriotic War," she said. "So, according to the North Korean version of the Korean War, they were also fighting a great patriotic war against American intruders."

Take the Sinchon Museum of American War Atrocities south of Pyongyang, one of many museums in North Korea designed to keep the regime's narrative alive. It recalls what North Korea says was a massacre carried out by U.S. troops.

There was fighting and death in Sinchon during the Korean War, but North Korea is widely held to have vastly exaggerated them with its claim that some 35,000 "martyrs" were killed by U.S. soldiers during a massacre there.

This is one of what Ward calls the "fake atrocities" that North Korea has created to bolster anti-American nationalism.

Kim Jong Un has visited it several times since he became leader at the end of 2011. During a visit after a major expansion of the museum in July 2015, turning it into "a center for anti-U.S. class education," Kim celebrated "the victory day when the Korean people defeated the U.S. imperialists."

"No matter how crafty the U.S. imperialists become in their moves to cover up their crimes, they can never erase the traces of massacre of Koreans left in this land," Kim said, according to a state media report.

He also ordered his cadres to "intensify the anti-imperialist and anti-U.S. education." The Korean Central News Agency reported in March, that "more than 18,000 service personnel, working people and youths and students visited the museum" in the first 10 days of the month, "their hearts burning with the resolution to punish the U.S. imperialists and the South Korean warmongers."The Trump administration is an aberration, an outrage, a threat to the nations very soul. But most of all its a great big fraud.

Voters who thought President Donald Trump would at least try to fulfill his populist, America-first campaign promises were cynically and cruelly deceived. Trump placates these supporters with rhetoric and encourages them to seek refuge in cultural chauvinism. What he doesnt do for them is deliver.

The most recent evidence of Trumps dishonesty comes in the budget and infrastructure plans the administration released Monday. Both are half smoke-and-mirrors, half traditional Republican economic policy. Forgive the redundancy.

Remember how the president promised a $1 trillion program to rebuild the nations roads, bridges, airports and railroads? Well, he claims to be doing even more  $1.5 trillion in infrastructure spending over the next decade. But the promise comes with little or no new federal money, which means it barely qualifies as an idle wish.

Trump says he wants to spend just $200 billion over 10 years on infrastructure, with cities and states providing the rest. But mayors and governors dont have $1.3 trillion lying around. And since the $200 billion is supposed to come from savings elsewhere in the budget, Trump effectively plans to give with one hand and take away with the other.

Anyone who expected projects on the scale of Hoover Dam or the interstate highway system should realize that Trump will never come through, because he has no idea how. If he were really the pharaonic builder he brags of being, dont you think hed have an actual plan rather than a vague, underfunded set of hopes? Many voters perhaps did not realize that the Trump Organizations business model had little to do with actual construction and everything to do with branding.

Trump campaigned as the purported champion of a working class that was being robbed blind by dastardly elites. He has governed, however, as robber-in-chief.

The tax bill that Republicans passed and Trump signed into law delivers the lions share of its benefits to corporations and the rich. The president hopes that middle-class taxpayers will be so transfixed by seeing a little more in their paychecks that they fail to notice how other costs, such as health care, are rising because of his policies.

The GOP no longer even pretends to stand for fiscal responsibility. Republicans are apparently wild-eyed Keynesians now, cutting taxes and boosting spending in an attempt to stimulate the economy. Trump anticipates ballooning the national debt by $7 trillion over the next decade. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a supposed champion of small government and balanced budgets, goes along like a little mouse.

Trump drew loud cheers at his campaign rallies when he complained about the high cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying all that money would be better spent at home. But the deal he signed last week will increase defense spending by $195 billion over the next two years.

So is there more money for everybody? No, not for programs that provide important support to Trumps base. The president pledged to maintain or strengthen the social safety net, but  sit down, you wont believe this  he lied.

His budget cuts $554 billion in Medicare spending over 10 years, which is of concern to anyone over 65. It cuts up to $250 billion in Medicaid spending, which has implications for anybody who has a loved one in a nursing home. Trump wants to cut $214 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps, a vital source of help for the working poor.

Trump tells little lies all the time. But this is the Big Lie that must be constantly exposed between now and the November election: Trump is worsening the societys bias in favor of the wealthy  and laughing at the chumps who put him in office.

eugenerobinson@washpost.comWelcome Guest! You Are Here:A map showing the location of the Maldives islands in the Indian ocean.

China has expanded its presence in the Indian Ocean, causing India to respond with a military build-up and far-reaching diplomatic contacts with potential allies.

During and after the time that Indian troops ended a more than two-month-long Himalayan standoff with Chinese soldiers in the remote kingdom of Bhutans Doklam Plateau last August, nationalistic feelings have been running high in India.

In what some Indians refer to as Post-Doklam Development, India has been ramping up infrastructure projects along its long and poorly demarcated border with China.

New Delhi has also speeded up the acquisition of new weapons and their deployment, according to Debasis Dash, a researcher specializing in strategic affairs who is currently studying at the University of Malaya.

According to the Times of India, the Indian government plans to recruit 15 new battalions of troops to bolster border defenses along its borders with China and Pakistan. This would come to about 15,000 men.

Three nuclear powersChina, India, and Indias long-time nemesis, Pakistanare engaged in this strategic power game.

On the diplomatic front, India has been deepening ties with Southeast Asian nations, many of which have been looking to India to counterbalance Chinas growing power and influence.

In order to protect sea lanes, India has bolstered its ties with Australia and Japan while looking to them for assistance. As the Financial Times noted recently, the idea of an Indo-Pacific region with India playing a more active strategic role has been endorsed by Australia, Japan, and U.S. President Donald Trump.

But India now faces a crisis in the Maldives islands, located near the southwestern tip of the Indian subcontinent, that should test how forcefully India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, is prepared to respond to growing Chinese influence.

The former president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, has appealed to India to intervene in the Maldives to deal with the ongoing political crisis there.

Its no secret that Prime Minister Modi was distressed at the ouster of Nasheed in a coup in 2012. After being jailed, Nasheed was allowed to go into exile for medical treatment and now lives in Sri Lanka.

Modi and the Maldives.

Indias sensitivity to Chinese moves in its backyard became apparent early last month when the parliament of the Maldives, the smallest and least populous nation in South Asia, endorsed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China.

The New Delhi-based Indian Express said that the Maldives parliament rushed through the FTA despite much internal criticism of it.

It was the Maldives first such agreement with any country.

On Feb. 5, facing popular unrest, Maldives President Abdulla Yameen declared a state of emergency. Yameen then sent troops into the streets of Male, the nations capital, to maintain control.

Yameen had directed the arrest of two Supreme Court justices shortly after the high court issued a ruling calling for the release of jailed opposition politicians in the Maldives.

The Maldives, an island chain with a population of roughly 400,000 people, is best known for its luxury resorts and coral reefs. But because of its location just southwest of the southern tip of India near vital international shipping lanes, India considers it strategically important.

International pressure

According to The New York Times, Nasheed had become an international celebrity because of his work to combat climate change. He also happened to be the countrys first and only democratically elected leader. So his words carry weight both in the region and beyond.

On Feb. 2, Nasheed had said that he planned to run again for office. But President Yameen, now ruling under what amounts to martial law, was already making plans to run for reelection later this year. With all of his opponents jailed or in exile, he would be running unopposed.

Nasheed urged India to send an envoy to the Maldives backed by the military, according to a report from New Delhi by Amy Kazin of The Financial Times over the past weekend (Feb. 10-11).

But its not at all clear at this point whether Prime Minister Modi would consider intervening in the Maldives.

U.S. President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Modi on Feb. 8 to discuss various topics, including the situation in the Maldives. The two expressed concern about the political crisis in the Maldives and the importance of respect for democratic institutions and the rule of law, according to a statement issued by the White House.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein, meanwhile, described the moves made by Maldives President Yameen as an all-out assault on democracy.

China, on the other hand, has come out strongly in defense of the Maldives leader.

Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi told an envoy from the Maldives on Feb. 8 that China believes the Maldives government and people have the wisdom and ability to appropriately handle the issue facing them and return the country to normal order in accordance with the law.

China has invested heavily in the Maldives. As The Economist magazine explains in its current issue (Feb. 10-16), China has backed several Chinese projects in the Maldives with loans.

The projects include a hospital, a U.S. $800 million expansion of the airport, and a China Maldives Friendship Bridge between the capital and the airport.

According to The Economist, There is no public tendering, and no budgets have been published.

Diplomats and NGOs suspect costs have been wildly inflated, the magazines Banyan columnist says. Any default, and China can extract concessions, such as a base on the Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile, everyone assumes that Chinese cash is lining politicians pockets in the Maldives.

Former President Nasheed has alleged that nearly a quarter of the Maldives budget goes to interest payments. Others on the island itself estimate that three-fifths of the debts that the country is amassing are owed to China. Nasheed calls it a debt trap that gives China huge leverage over the Maldives.

Worsened relations

Indian relations with the Maldives have deteriorated since 2012, when the Maldives expropriated its international airport from an Indian company which had a contract to upgrade and operate the airport.

China in recent years has forged closer ties with Indias neighbors, including Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The Financial Times reported that in 2015, the Maldives amended its constitution, allowing foreigners to buy land, thus paving the way for Chinese companies to buy islands, which India says have potential military use.

The newspaper also said that two Chinese military ships docked at a Maldivian port last August. Other reports say that it was three ships.

India has long considered the Maldives to be part of its sphere of influence, given its proximity to India as well as the historical ties between the two countries.

In 1988, India intervened in the Maldives with a military force to prevent an attempted coup backed by an armed Sri Lankan separatist group known as the Tamil Tigers.

Now Indian foreign policy hawks and some foreign policy analysts see Chinas growing presence in the Maldives as a test of Indias claim to be a rising power capable of maintaining regional security.

In one much-quoted comment, a Rumel Dahiya, a retired Indian Army brigadier general, said that if India cannot even safeguard its primary interests so close to its mainland, then it can hardly be trusted to become a net security provider for the wider region.

Dahiyas comment was published by the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi.

According to Stratfor, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank and consultancy, if India intervenes in the Maldives, it could tilt the regional political scales in favor of China, which has already benefited from anti-Indian sentiment in Nepal.

Sending Indian troops into the Maldives, Stratfor says, would undoubtedly reinforce New Delhis image as a domineering hegemon unafraid to use force against its smaller neighbors.

For decades, the Maldives was considered a model Islamic nation, says Stratfor. Its Muslim majority practiced a tolerant form of Islam. But in recent years its Muslims have leaned toward Salafist and Wahabi forms of Islam. Some of this has come from students who studied these ultra-conservative ideologies in Pakistan and in Saudi Arabia, a supporter of the current government in the Maldives.

The Pakistani factor

Even as it copes with China, India continues to consider neighboring Pakistan to be a major security threat. India has fought five wars with Pakistan since 1947. Skirmishes between the two sides in divided Kashmir have become routine over the decades.

So its obvious that India would be concerned about reports that China is planning to build a naval base close to the Pakistani port of Gwadar.

Gwadar is located on the Arabian Sea only 690 nautical miles west of Mumbai.

Both China and Pakistan deny reports of a plan to build a Chinese naval base at Gwadar. But The Economist notes that construction at the port is planned as part of a $57 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is intended to connect landlocked western China to the Arabian Sea.

The United States, meanwhile, announced on Jan. 4 that it would suspend most U.S. security assistance to Pakistan, pending a stronger effort by Pakistan to expel the Taliban and enemies of Afghanistans government from the Pakistani side of the two countries border.

Such a development would have been unthinkable during the Cold War years when Pakistan was considered a staunch military ally of the United States.

The suspension of security aid would cost Pakistan an estimated U.S. $2 billion in aid already budgeted.

But China, describing Pakistan as its irreplaceable all-weather friend, seems more than ready to make up for any shortfall in security funding for the South Asian country.

Analysts explain that for Pakistan, Gwadar has the potential to act as a counter to any Indian attempt to blockade the port of Karachi, the most populous city in Pakistan. Karachis port handles more than 60 percent of the countrys cargo.

Joel Wuthnow, a research fellow at the U.S. National Defense University, says that Indian strategists worry that Chinese investments in the Indian Ocean region, such as port development projects in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, will precipitate a greater Chinese naval presence in Indias backyard.

Dr. Wuthnow spoke at a hearing on Chinas Belt and Road Initiative held by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on Jan. 25.

The bottom line: Deep mutual mistrust appears to be the only constant factor in Indian-Pakistani relations. But mutual nuclear deterrence seems to be working.



Dan Southerland is RFA's founding executive editor.CNRP lawmakers Mu Sochua (L), Sam Rainsy (2nd from L), and Tioulong Saumura (3rd from L) leave the Extraordinary General Assembly in Phnom Penh, Aug. 27, 2014.

A Cambodian court is taking legal action against five top former opposition party lawmakers and officials for continuing to conduct political activities outside the country even though their party has been dissolved by the government.

The Ministry of Interior filed a lawsuit with the court on Thursday against Sam Rainsy, former president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) and an elected member of parliament, lawmaker Tioulong Saumura, CNRP deputy presidents Eng Chhai Eang and Mu Sochua, and Kem Monovithya, senior public relations officer and daughter of jailed former CNRP leader Kem Sokha.

Ly Sophanna, deputy prosecutor of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, told local media that judicial officials are proceeding with the case.

He said the five CNRP officials have been involved in activities outside of Cambodia as part of the new Cambodia National Rescue Movement (CNRM) founded by Sam Rainsy, who has lived in exile since 2015 to avoid convictions widely seen as politically motivated.

The movement, which is undertaking an action plan with the objective of ensuring that the general elections scheduled for July are free and fair, keeps alive the defunct CNRP without fear of government reprisal.

The Supreme Court issued a ruling in November, dissolving the CNRP for its part in plotting a coup against the government.

The decision banned 118 CNRP lawmakers and senior officials from politics for five years, eliminating Prime Minister Hun Sens main competition ahead of general elections scheduled for this July. More than 5,000 remaining elected CNRP commune chiefs and district counselors were also removed from their positions.

During a visit to southwestern Cambodias Takeo province on Thursday, Interior Minister Sar Kheng said the CNRM would be short-lived because it has no local support and was created for the sole purpose of toppling the government of Hun Sen, who has been in power since 1985.

Cambodian lawyer Pheng Heng told RFAs Khmer Service that the government has no authority to disband the CNRM.

The Constitution of Cambodia guarantees freedom of expression to all Cambodians, he said. All CNRP officials, therefore, enjoy this right. On top of that, their activities outside of Cambodia do not fall within the jurisdiction of Cambodian laws. The genuine advocacy work of the CNRM for justice is legitimate and allowed by the constitution. They cannot be considered outlaws or rebels.

Free and fair?

Meanwhile, civil society groups are concerned that the national elections will not be free and fair because of the political persecution of the opposition party, NGOs, and independent media.

Sam Kuntheamy, executive director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (NICFEC), told RFA on Thursday that his organization will not decide until April whether to participate in national election monitoring.

The two issues bearing on the decision are the minimum standard of free and fair elections and international sanctions on electoral assistance to the NICFEC, he said.

We  need to look into the required legal standards of free and fair elections first before we decide to take part, he said.

The organization, which used to be funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development through the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the European Union, faces a budget squeeze because of big international donors sanctions on Cambodia, he said.

In September 2017, Cambodias government expelled NDI for allegedly operating without a valid memorandum of understanding and failing to comply with the countrys tax laws.

Sam Kuntheamy said he is now waiting to hear from Japan about possible funding for his organization because the Asian country has expressed a commitment to providing technical assistance to Cambodias electoral body.

Despite Japan's pledge to continue the technical assistance, the government has consistently raised concerns about the upcoming Cambodian vote.

It is vital to conduct the general election this July in a way that appropriately reflects the will of the people, said Kazuyuki Nakane, Japans foreign affairs minister, during a meeting with his Cambodian counterpart in Phnom Penh on Jan. 29.

Nakane urged the government to engage in talks with domestic political figures and create an environment where the rights of all politicians and civic groups are respected and their activities are secured.

The Cambodian side assured the Japanese official that the government would adhere to the multiparty liberal democratic system and implement the national election this July as scheduled in a free, fair and stable manner.

Yoeung Sotheara, former legal adviser for election watchdog Comfrel, said he has no faith in the Cambodian government's words.

He told RFA on Thursday that though there are several political parties in Cambodia, they are too small to compete with the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP).

On top of that, the absence of the CNRP calls into question the legitimacy of the upcoming national election, he said.

Having many political parties does not mean that Cambodia has adopted a multiparty principle, Yoeung Sotheara said. Several political parties exist only as facade. Those parties are nothing but a window dressing. They do not add value to the promotion of democracy value unless they are as strong as the dissolved CNRP.

Commune counselor fears for safety

Meanwhile in the northwestern city of Battambang, Long Nim, an elected CNRP commune counselor for Bavel district, said on Thursday that he fears for his personal safety after receiving a summons from the deputy chief of the police station in Khnach Rormeas commune.

The police want to question him on Friday about participating in humanitarian assistance work on Feb. 11 when he helped some senior citizens in the communes Roung Ampil village, said Long Nim.

Police officer Ao Thol has informed him that the activity is illegal, he added.

Heng Sayhong, the Battambang coordinator of the domestic rights group Adhoc, said that humanitarian activities are not illegal and that the summons is another attempt by authorities to restrict peoples rights and freedom.

Since the Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP, some lawmakers and other officials have fled Cambodia out of fear for their safety, while several members of commune councils have taken refuge in Thailand and other countries. Others who have remained in the country have been subjected to harassment and bullying by authorities.

Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Nareth Muong. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.Chinese attorneys sign an open letter calling on the Chinese Communist Party to immediately release all detained human rights lawyers, February 2018.

Dozens of Chinese lawyers have signed an open letter calling on the ruling Chinese Communist Party to respect their professional rights and release all detained human rights lawyers immediately.

China's embattled legal profession has been targeted with more than 300 detentions, summons, travel bans, and restrictions imposed on rights lawyers and law firm staff since July 2015.

Rights lawyers who accept politically sensitive cases, or who are publicly outspoken on behalf of vulnerable groups, have also been prevented from practicing law because their business licenses are being revoked during a newly instituted annual review process.

Lawyers who try to defend clients held on suspicion of crimes ostensibly linked to state security concerns are also denied permission to meet with their clients, or replaced by government-appointed lawyers amid threats and pressure on the people who hired them.

We have learned a deep lesson from the July 2015 crackdown and call on those in power to reflect on value of lawyers to the rule of law, and as a good opportunity to revise social management methods, the letter, signed by several dozen lawyers, said.

And yet, it continues to detain lawyers, to strike them off and strip them of their licenses, the letter said. Incidents that violate the professional rights of lawyers, and their right to carry out a profession, continue to occur, and the problem seems to be getting worse and worse recently.

The letter cited recent detentions and revoking of business licenses meted out to human rights lawyers Yu Wensheng, Li Yuhan, Sui Muqing, Zhu Shengwu, and Wang Liqian, among others.

It strongly urged officials in departments of justice across the country to return to civilization and rationality, as well as calling for the immediate release of all detained attorneys.

It also called for the reinstatement of all revoked lawyers' business licenses and for all sides to work together to progress to a more mature legal system that operates under the rule of law.

Letter signatory Wu Kuiming said the letter has garnered some 60 signatures to date.

We have had petitions signed by ordinary citizens, but this letter is signed only by lawyers, Wu told RFA. It was mostly aimed at supporting Yu Wensheng and Sui Muqing, and other lawyers who have been targeted for persecution recently, and especially the handling of our business licenses.

And also because the environment for human rights lawyers is deteriorating all the time now, he said.

Cultural Revolution redux

Guangxi-based lawyer and fellow signatory Chen Jiahong said he lost his license to practice on Jan. 25 after representing the family of Guangxi village activist Luo Jibiao, who died in police custody.

I think we have already regressed to the days of the Cultural Revolution [1966-1976], Chen told RFA. This is the period of harshest and most widespread persecution of lawyers in Chinese history.

We poured years of our sweat, blood and tears to earn our business licenses, so we could be of service by protecting the rights and interests of our clients, he said.

We want to work on the basis of the facts, and according to the principles of the law, but [the government] cares nothing for the facts and less for the law, Chen said. [It] casually infringes upon the legitimate rights and interests of any individual.

As lawyers with a sense of justice, we need to stand up and speak out about this, he said.

Reported by Yang Fan for RFAs Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.China was home to 33 million more men than women in 2014, renewing a long-running controversy over selective abortion, abandoned baby girls, and the country's family planning restrictions, according to government figures released this week.



China's population stood at 1.36 billion at the end of last year, according to official statistics released this week, of whom 700 million are men and 667 million are women.



"The gender ratio at birth is still dangerously high, with 115.88 boys born to every 100 girls in 2014," the official Xinhua news agency reported. The figures compare with a global average of 103 to 107 boys to every 100 girls.



China's gender ratio peaked far above the global average of 107 in 2004 at 121.18, and fell to 115.8 in 2014, the National Health and Family Planning Commission said in a statement on its website on Wednesday.



But it warned that the ratio is still higher than in any other country.



"The gender imbalance in [China] is the most serious in the world, and has lasted for the longest period of time and affected the largest number of people," the Commission said.



It said the government plans to crack down further on blood-testing to determine the sex of a fetus, as families continue to send blood samples overseas for testing to circumvent a domestic ban on the practice.



It reiterated warnings to agencies who make money sending the samples overseas, reminding medical staff that carrying, mailing or transporting blood samples abroad is illegal.



One-child policy



Experts said the gender imbalance in China's population can be traced back to the start of the "one-child policy" during the 1970s.



Gender studies scholar Lu Pin, who edits the online newspaper Women's Voice, said the policy had combined with a preference in Chinese traditional culture for male heirs, whose duty it is to care for their parents in old age.



"The one-child policies actually allow for the gender bias in favor of boys, and, as such, can be said to bear some responsibility for reinforcing it," Lu said.



"In rural areas, the one-child policy was always in effect a 'one-and-a-half child policy,' because couples would be allowed a second child if the first was a girl," she said.



"If the first-born was a boy, then they wouldn't be allowed to have another."



She said the government had colluded with traditional ideas that boys are more valuable than girls.



"We should really reflect on this aspect of our family-planning policies," Lu added.



Cheng Yuan, acting director of the non-governmental Pingji Center in Guangzhou, said the stringent population controls of the past four decades had also ensured that there aren't so many younger people to take care of the country's elderly.



"The one-child policy has caused other problems, too. Namely that of an aging population," Cheng said.



"The burden on [younger] relatives will be much heavier, while the aging problem is more apparent at a time when China's social security and welfare system is far from ideal," she said.



Easing of restrictions



In the first significant easing of the one-child policy in nearly 30 years, Beijing announced at the end of 2013 that couples will be allowed to have two children if one of the parents is an only child.



Previously, most parents were restricted to having one child, although the political and financial elite were able to afford the financial penalties, and often have larger families.



Urban couples were permitted a second child if both parents do not have siblings, while rural couples were allowed to have two children if their first-born was a girl.



But overseas women's rights campaigners say the changes aren't likely to reduce the number of forced abortions and abandoned girl babies, or ease human trafficking in the country, as a growing number of rural men have trouble finding wives.



According to Reggie Littlejohn, founder and president of California-based Women's Rights Without Frontiers, allowing couples to have two children if either parent is an only child under a so-called reform of the one-child policy won't end voluntary, sex-selective abortion of baby girls.



Littlejohn has called on Beijing to reduce the numbers of aborted or abandoned girls by providing economic incentives to families giving birth to girls and special compensation to retirement-age couples who have no sons to support them.



And many couples continue to face large fines, seizure of their property and loss of their jobs, as well as forced abortions and sterilizations, and even violent forced evictions by local officials, if they break the rules.



China last year launched pilot drop zones for unwanted infants in 25 major cities last year in a bid to prevent unwanted babies from being left to die on the streets, but many schemes were forced to close after being overwhelmed, mostly by infants with severe disabilities.



Reported by Lin Ping for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.Welcome Guest! You Are Here:

Home Regional News EastAs the rest of the country prepared to welcome in the Chinese Year of the Dog on Friday, foreign diplomats have been paying visits to Chinese rights activists and the families of jailed human rights lawyers.



Diplomats from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and other countries have been visiting activists and dissidents families in and around the capital, including veteran rights activist Hu Jia, the wife of detained rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, and anti-eviction activist Ni Yulan.



A group of diplomats visited Yus wife Xu Yan and the couples young son in the Beijing suburb of Shijingshan on Tuesday, Xu told RFA.



Some human rights representatives came to the office I rent with Yu Wensheng, to visit me and the child, Xu said. Four human rights officials came, one from the U.S., one from Germany, one from the Netherlands, and another from the Swedish embassy in Beijing.



They came to express their concern over Yu Wensheng, and for me and the child, for which I thanked them very much, she said.



Yu was placed under criminal detention on Jan. 20, on suspicion of obstructing public servants in the course of their duties," but has since been transferred from Beijing to Xuzhou city in the eastern province of Jiangsu on a more serious charge of incitement to subvert state power.



His family traveled to Xuzhou in the hope of paying him a visit, but were denied permission by the local police department.



Xu said her husband has also been denied access to a lawyer.



They have refused to allow his defense attorney to meet with him all along, from Jan. 19, when he was detained, until now, she said. I really hope that Yu Wensheng will be able to come home soon, and that he will take good care of his health now that he is in a situation where he is deprived of his freedom.



Warned away from media



Xus defense lawyer Huang Hanzhong said he had been called in for a chat by Chinas state security committee in Beijing.



They basically said they dont want lawyers giving interviews to the media, Huang said, declining to comment on Yus case.



A group of diplomats also visited housing rights activist Ni Yulan and veteran activist Hu Jia in Beijings Tongzhou district on Wednesday, Ni said.



This morning, just now actually, a German diplomat and an Australian diplomat came to visit me, she said. They brought a New Year card and gave their best wishes for the New Year.



I was very moved, Ni said. I havent had time to send any wishes to foreign diplomats this year, and I think that this year quite a lot more people have been detained.



We are continuing to offer them our unwavering support, so we have been very pressed for time, she said.



Evicted from home



Ni, 54, has been repeatedly evicted along with husband Dong Jiqin from a series of rented apartments after police put pressure on their landlords to terminate their leases.



Ni, a recipient of the 2016 International Women of Courage award made by the U.S. State Department, said she and Dong were recently left sleeping rough after being forced out of their last apartment during enforced "renovation work."



Ni's passport application was revoked when she applied to travel to the U.S. to receive her 2016 International Women of Courage award.



The foreign ministry had declined to issue her with travel documents in spite of requests from the U.S. State Department, saying that she had been in contact with rights lawyers detained in the July 2015 crackdown.



Hu JIa said he had also received a visit, which he said was part of an annual round of visits made by foreign diplomats to dissidents, activists, and their families ahead of the Chinese New Year.



He said some diplomats had also visited artists and writers in Beijings Songzhuang Artists Village, where poets and artists who engage in social and political activism have come under continual pressure from local officials to leave.



Last month, officials handed an eviction order to a Beijing artist released on bail after documenting a street protest by migrant workers against mass forced evictions, RFA has learned.



Hua Yong, who had been criminally detained on suspicion of disturbing public order and traffic was detained as he filmed a protest that blocked a major highway in Beijing's Xinjian village on Dec. 7.



He had reported for several weeks on the authorities' violent, forced eviction campaign to rid the city of tens of thousands of migrant workers classed as low-end population in the wake of a fatal fire in Daxing district last year.



Reported by Qiao Long for RFAs Mandarin Service, and by Wong Lok-to for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.A group of foreign ambassadors and United Nations officials arrive in Sittwe, capital of western Myanmar's Rakhine state, to tour processing centers for returning Rohingya refugees, Feb. 15, 2018.

Ambassadors from more than 10 countries and United National officials visited troubled Maungdaw township in Myanmars Rakhine state on Thursday to tour the Myanmar governments repatriation processing facilities for returning Rohingya refugees.

The group included ambassadors from Egypt, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Israel, Italy, and Sir Lanka; diplomats from Brazil, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, and New Zealand; and officials from UNICEF, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, U.N. Human Settlements Programme, U.N. Development Programme, and the U.N. Office for Project Services.

Accompanied by Rakhine state chief-minister Nyi Pu and Win Myat Aye, Myanmars minister of social welfare, relief, and resettlement, the group visited two repatriation centers at Taung Pyo Letwe and Nga Khu Ya, the Hla Pho Khaung transit camp, and facilities in the Kanyin Chaung border economic zone.

Nyi Pu urged the members of the group to work with the Myanmar government to help resolve Rakhine states problems so that the region can realize peace and stability.

I would like to urge you to observe with fairness the on-the-ground situation and to work with us to achieve the best results from what we are working on in Rakhine in the future, he told the group at the airport in Rakhines capital Sittwe. I also would like to urge you to share your experiences from this trip with other countries, so that they will know the true situation in Rakhine.

Myanmar has not yet begun processing some of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who have fled to Bangladesh from three townships in northern Rakhine since August 2017 when the countrys military conducted a brutal military crackdown in response to deadly attacks on police outposts by a Muslim militant group.

Though Myanmar signed an agreement with neighboring Bangladesh to begin repatriating refugees who wanted to voluntarily return to Rakhine in late January, the program has been beset by delays, with each side blaming problems on the other.

Both national and state government officials have been arranging tours of the repatriation facilities for foreign diplomats and U.N. officials in a bid to demonstrate their willingness and preparedness to take back the Rohingya, who are considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and systematically discriminated against in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

On Feb. 6, Thaung Tun, Myanmars national security advisor and minister of the recently created Office of the Union Government, led a delegation of diplomats from China, India, and Singapore along with officials from the Bangladeshi embassy in Myanmar on a tour of the two refugee reception centers and transit camp.

UN Security Council briefing

The latest diplomatic tour of the repatriation centers comes two days after the U.N. Security Council held a briefing session on the situation in northern Rakhine, during which some nations called for guarantees for the safe and voluntary return of the Rohingya and unhindered humanitarian access to the region.

Hau Do Suan, Myanmars ambassador and permanent representative to the U.N., said the government has been working on alleviating Rakhines current humanitarian problems, restoring peace and stability, preparing for the repatriation of displaced persons, and implementing the recommendations of an advisory commission on Rakhine state.

We have made necessary preparations, and are now ready to receive the first group of returnees, he said. We will continue to work in close consultation and cooperation with Bangladesh for the voluntary, safe, and dignified repatriation of displaced persons in accordance with the bilateral agreement.

Rights groups and the U.N. have warned against a hasty return of the Rohingya refugees, saying that they will continue to face repression and discrimination and be denied access to basic services.

Myanmar authorities have bashed both rights groups and foreign media organizations that have issued detailed reports documenting atrocities committed by soldiers during the crackdown against the Rohingya, including killings, torture, rape, property theft, and arson.

The Myanmar government, which has banned independent news outlets from visiting northern Rakhine state, has attacked foreign media reports on the Rohingya crisis as one-sided.

The Rakhine state government said last week that it would sue the American news agency the Associated Press for publishing a report in January, confirming the existence of at least five previously unreported mass graves containing the remains of slaughtered Rohingya in a village in Buthidaung township.

Both the national and state governments have called the report false and claimed that the graves held the bodies of 19 Muslim militants who had been killed and buried in the area.

Reported by Min Thein Aung for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.The number of civilian casualties in the war in Afghanistan declined last year but the number of deaths from air strikes was on the rise, the United Nations says.

The number of civilians killed and wounded decreased by 9 percent in 2017, compared to the previous year, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN Human Rights Office said in an annual report released on February 15.

"The chilling statistics in this report provide credible data about the war's impact, but the figures alone cannot capture the appalling human suffering inflicted on ordinary people," said UNAMA head Tadamichi Yamamoto.

The 2017 Annual Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Afghanistan documented 10,453 civilian casualties, including 3,438 deaths and 7,015 wounded, in 2017.

That compares to a total 11,434 casualties in 2016, when there were 3,510 deaths and 7,924 wounded.

Yamamoto expressed deep concerns at the high number of casualties caused by suicide bombings and other attacks using improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

I am particularly appalled by the continued indiscriminate and unlawful use of IEDs such as suicide bombs and pressure-plate devices in civilian populated areas, he said. This is shameful.

The reports said the second leading cause of civilian casualties was ground engagements between antigovernment and pro-government forces, although there was a decline of 19 percent from the record levels seen in 2016.

It attributed about two-thirds of civilian casualties to antigovernment elements such as the Taliban and the Islamic State extremist group, while pro-government forces caused one-fifth of all casualties.

The report also found that the number of air strikes conducted by Afghan air forces and the international coalition increased significantly -- and with it the number of strike-related deaths.

UNAMA documented 631 civilian casualties -- 295 deaths and 336 injured -- from aerial operations, a 7 percent increase from 2016 and the highest number from air strikes in a single year since 2009.

Aerial operations accounted for 6 percent of all civilian casualties in Afghanistan last year, the report said.

With reporting by APWASHINGTON -- The United States has blamed Russia for the massive NotPetya ransomware attack last year, warning Moscow of "international consequences" for its actions.

The short but harshly worded U.S. statement on February 15 comes hours after Britain also blamed Russia for the June 2017 cyberattack that disrupted companies across Europe and said that the West would not tolerate such "malicious" activities.

"In June 2017, the Russian military launched the most destructive and costly cyberattack in history," the White House said.

"The attack, dubbed 'NotPetya,' quickly spread worldwide, causing billions of dollars in damage across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. It was part of the Kremlin's ongoing effort to destabilize Ukraine," it said.

"This was also a reckless and indiscriminate cyberattack that will be met with international consequences."

In its statement, Britain's Foreign Office said that "the Russian government, specifically the Russian military," was responsible for the attack.

"The decision to publicly attribute this incident underlines the fact that the U.K. and its allies will not tolerate malicious cyberactivity," a statement said.

British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said Russia was "ripping up the rule book" and that London had the duty to respond.

Williamson accused Russia of "undermining democracy, wrecking livelihoods by targeting critical infrastructure, and weaponizing information."

He warned that the West is facing "a new era of warfare, witnessing a destructive and deadly mix of conventional military might and malicious cyberattacks."

Russian President Vladimir Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, rejected Britains allegations as groundless, asserting that they were part of what he called a "Russophobic" campaign being conducted in some Western countries.

Russia has denied responsibility for the NotPetya attack in the past and has pointed out that Russian companies were among those affected.

The NotPetya cyberattack started in Ukraine, where it crippled government and business computers before spreading across Europe and elsewhere. It is estimated to have cost companies more than $1.2 billion.

A number of European companies were badly affected, including Britain-based consumer goods maker Reckitt Benckiser, which said its manufacturing output and shipping capacity were disrupted for up to two months and contributed to a fall in revenues.

Russian state oil company Rosneft and U.S. pharmaceutical giant Merck were among the businesses also hit by the attack.

"The attack masqueraded as a criminal enterprise, but its purpose was principally to disrupt," the British Foreign Office said.

"Primary targets were Ukrainian financial, energy, and government sectors, the statement added. Its indiscriminate design caused it to spread further, affecting other European and Russian businesses."

In November, Prime Minister Theresa May accused Putin of attempting to "sow discord" in the West by meddling in elections, spreading misinformation, and engaging in cyberwarfare.

In a report released in January 2017, U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia -- on President Vladimir Putin's orders -- engaged in a hacking-and-propaganda effort aimed at influencing the U.S. presidential election in 2016.

The U.S. Justice Department and three different congressional committees are investigating the alleged Russian meddling and whether there was collusion between Russians and current and past associates of President Donald Trump.

Russia denied it meddled, and Trump says there was no collusion.

Allegations of malicious Russian cyberactivity have added to tension between Russia and the West, whose relations have been badly strained by disputes over issues including Moscow's military intervention in Ukraine and Syria.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and the BBCThe alleged leader of an armed gang and a member of Russian security forces have been killed in a counterterrorist operation in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region of Daghestan, Russia's National Antiterrorism Committee (NAK) said on February 15.

In a statement, NAK said the operation in Daghestans central Untsukul district started on February 15 and it is still under way. No further details were immediately available.

Russia's North Caucasus is beset by violence linked to an Islamist insurgency rooted in two post-Soviet separatist wars in Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya. Organized crime, political disputes, business, and clan rivalry are also factors in the high level of violence.

Some militants in the North Caucasus have sworn allegiance to the extremist group Islamic State (IS).

Based on reporting by TASS and InterfaxWhat would happen if Vladimir Putin simply decided he didn't feel like campaigning?

Would it even make a difference?

Would anybody even notice?

It's a valid question and one that Russian opposition journalist Oleg Kashin playfully asked in a column earlier this week after the Kremlin announced that Putin was suffering from a cold and had canceled his upcoming public appearances.

Kashin called the news "senseless," noting that: "When Putin is healthy, his 'working meetings' are shown on television. And when Putin is ill, his 'working meetings' are shown on television. There is no difference at all."

Noting that "Putin's media file is huge," Kashin added that if he didn't feel like campaigning, then "it's time to turn to the archives."

He has a point. Of course, Putin doesn't need to campaign.

Consider the following: According to a recent study by the Kremlin-connected VTsIOM polling agency, Putin appeared in the Russian media no less than 59,130 times from February 8-13.

In case anybody is doing the math, that is more than 10,000 times a day, more than all of the other candidates combined.

Now, this all hits on a truth -- not just about this event the Kremlin insists on calling an election, but about the Putin regime in general -- that is both obvious and also fundamental to understanding its nature.

It is based on an illusion and on a collective hallucination.

But the man at the center of the illusion and the hallucination appears to be getting bored with even going through the motions of maintaining it.

As the Dutch journalist and publicist Diederik Kramers noted on Twitter: "In Soviet times, when the leader had a cold, people thought he was dead. Now they think he is just dead tired of his election."

Keep telling me what you think on The Power Vertical's Twitter feed and on our Facebook page.Four Ukrainian marines have been found shot dead in their living quarters in eastern Ukraine and two fellow servicemen have been detained on suspicion of killing them, authorities said.

Prosecutor-General's Office spokeswoman Larysa Sarhan wrote on Facebook on February 15 that an investigation has been opened into the premeditated murder of the four men.

According to Sarhan, a preliminary investigation indicated the killings were the result of bullying in the military unit.

She did not specify when exactly the two suspects were apprehended but said that they had confessed.

The headquarters for Ukraine's operations in the east, where Kyiv's forces are fighting Russia-backed separatists who hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, said that the bodies of the marines were found in their temporary living quarters.

Neither Sarhan nor the headquarters said when the bodies were found.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 10,300 combatants and civilians since April 2014, when it broke out after Russia fomented unrest in the area following the ouster of Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.Iranian President Hassan Rohani has embarked on a three-day visit to India, during which he is expected to seek Indian investment for the development of the port of Chabahar and other infrastructure projects.

Rohani arrived on February 15 in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, accompanied by a large delegation of ministers and businessmen.

He was due to address a Muslim congregation in Hyderabad on February 16 before heading to New Delhi the following day for talks with President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The two sides were expected to sign a series of agreements in the trade and economic sectors, including one allowing India to run operations in the first phase of the Chabahar project.

The plan is for India to equip and operate two berths in the port with an investment of $85.21 million on a 10-year lease, the Reuters news agency reported.

Access Via Chabahar

During a meeting with cabinet officials in Tehran before heading to India, Rohani said on February 15 that "transit [from] Chabahar and India's access to both Afghanistan and Central Asia through Chabahar is one of the most important issues when it comes to relations between Iran and India."

In December, Iran officially opened an extension of Chabahar, which Tehran hopes will become a key transit hub for landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asia.

The extension required an investment of $1 billion, including $235 million from India.

Further stages of development are due to expand the Chabahar port over the next 14 years, but the project has been slow to materialize.

New Delhi has said it could spend up to $500 million for the development of the port along with roads and railway lines in order to get access to the Afghan and Central Asian markets while bypassing rival Pakistan.

Pakistan has banned India from transporting goods through its territory to Afghanistan.

Analysts say Chabahar, which is Iran's only oceanic port, could also challenge Pakistan's Gwadar port, some 80 kilometers from Chabahar, which is being developed with Chinese investment.

With reporting by Reuters and IRNAJournalist Ali Feruz, who for months faced the prospect of deportation from Russia to Uzbekistan, has arrived in Germany after Moscow court rulings allowed him to leave for a third country.

The flight to Frankfurt on February 15 ended a tense six-month ordeal for Feruz, who had been held in a Russian immigration detention center since August 2017 and feared he could be tortured or worse if sent to Uzbekistan.

Feruz, a pen name for Hudoberdi Nurmatov, was born in Soviet Russia in 1986 but moved to Uzbekistan and took Uzbek citizenship at the age of 17.

He fled Uzbekistan in 2008, saying he had been detained and tortured by the security services in the Central Asian country.

Moscow's Basmanny district court in October upheld a decision by immigration authorities to deny Feruz political asylum, saying he had failed to prove he faced danger if returned to Uzbekistan.

In November, the court ruled that Feruz had been working illegally in Russia as a correspondent for Novaya Gazeta and ordered him deported.

His plight sparked an international outcry, with human rights groups among others urging Russia not to deport him.

The Basmanny court suspended the order after an August ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that Feruz should not be deported until it could examine the case.

Russian court decisions in February paved the way for him to leave Russia for a country other than Uzbekistan.

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev has conducted reforms since he came to power following the death of longtime autocratic leader Islam Karimov in 2016, but serious concerns about human rights persist.

An Amnesty International report published months before Karimov's death said that "torture is rife" in Uzbekistan.

In October, Human Rights Watch said that Uzbek authorities had taken "some positive steps" during Mirziyoevs first year in office and called for "sustainable" improvements.

In November, Mirziyoev signed a decree prohibiting the courts from using evidence obtained through torture.

With reporting by Current Time TVKazakhstans National Anticorruption Bureau has subpoenaed the former mayor of the city of Almaty, Viktor Khrapunov, and his wife Leila via print media.

The two are accused of fraud, racketeering, and embezzlement. Prosecutors say Khrapunov along with his wife, stole $300 million while being mayor of Kazakhstan's largest city from 1997 to 2004.

The bureau said on February 15 that because the couple has been living in self-imposed exile in Switzerland for years, they were informed about being subpoenaed for questioning via Kazakh and Swiss newspapers.

After leaving the Almaty mayoral post, Khrapunov was appointed governor of the East Kazakhstan region. He was sacked from that post in 2007 and served for a short time as emergency situations minister.

Khrapunov and his family moved to Switzerland in 2007 in the wake of a scandal surrounding land parcels allegedly distributed illegally by him during his tenure as mayor of Almaty.

Khrapunov has rejected all charges against him and his wife, saying they are politically motivated.Moldova's Purcari Wineries company has listed its shares on Romania's stock exchange, amid efforts by the country's investors to switch to European markets following a Russian embargo.

Victor Bostan, the company's CEO, said on February 15 that Purcari had raised $50 million after selling 49 percent of its shares ahead of the February 16 launch on the Bucharest stock exchange (BVB) -- less than the expected $71 million.

The company has four wineries in southeast Moldova and Romania. It makes red, white, and rose wines as well as sparkling wines that are sold in 25 countries, including Romania, the United States, Canada, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and in Asian countries.

Moldovan officials said Russian embargoes in 2006 and 2014 cost Purcari Wineries an estimated $15 million. Before that, more than 80 percent of Purcari wine was exported to Russia.

On both occasions, Russia instituted the embargoes claiming that the Moldovan wines were impure, but critics said the moves were politically motivated as Moldova sought closer ties with the European Union and neighboring EU member Romania, with whom it shares a common language and history.

The Purcari vineyard began producing wine in 1827. Today a majority stake is held by Bostan along with Horizon Capital and International Finance Corporation.

With reporting by AP

Moscow says any new sanctions imposed by the United States would have little effect on its people or economy after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he would impose new punitive measures on wealthy Russians "in the near future."

"If they publish some new lists or announce some decisions, it will not cause any big changes," Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told Rossia 24 television on February 15.

"I do not see a considerable threat to our economy, let alone the [Russian] people," he added.

Mnuchin told the Senate Finance Committee during a hearing on February 14 that he would soon issue new sanctions against wealthy Russians in retaliation for Moscow's meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

"We are actively working on those sanctions," Mnuchin said. "You should expect them in the near future."

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a news briefing on February 15 that she would be "very surprised if there werent sanctions in the future" on some Russians, without giving a time frame.

The U.S. Congress overwhelmingly voted for new sanctions on Russia last summer in legislation that was reluctantly signed into law by President Donald Trump, who campaigned on establishing warmer ties with Moscow.

To carry out the law, the Treasury Department last month released a list of 114 senior Russian political figures and 96 "oligarchs" who it said have gained wealth or power through their association with President Vladimir Putin.

The department also sent a classified annex to the list to Congress, but announced no new sanctions at the time.

The Treasury Department was criticized by U.S. legislators and others for not immediately imposing sanctions on at least some of the listed individuals and for putting together a list that the department admitted was drawn mainly from public sources such as Forbes magazine's ranking of Russian billionaires.

Mnuchin on January 30 said that new sanctions were being prepared and that the department would issue them "in the next several months, maybe a month."

Russia also countered U.S. allegations of meddling by saying on February 15 that it has concrete evidence of "the destructive interference of some Western countries in our internal affairs in the context of [next months] presidential election campaign," and warned of retaliation.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow had warned European countries that "such activity should stop."

"If this does not stop, we will have to take tough countermeasures," she said, without providing specifics, either on the alleged interference or retaliatory measures.

With reporting by Reuters and TASS

MUNICH -- The dangers of nuclear proliferation and talk of a dire global security situation dominated the opening of a high-profile security conference featuring world leaders and other top officials.

The battered relations between Russia and the West, as well as the ongoing war in eastern Ukraine, are also at the forefront of the annual Munich Security Conference that kicked off on February 16 and has drawn world leaders and top officials.

Addressing a conference hall in Munich packed with dignitaries, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of the risks emanating from North Koreas nuclear activities, which have ratcheted up tensions between Pyongyang and Washington.

"For the first time since the end of the Cold War, we are now facing a nuclear threat, a threat of a nuclear conflict," Guterres told the gathering in the southern Bavarian city.

"I'm naturally referring to the development in relation to nuclear weapons and long-range missiles by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea -- the development made in total contradiction with the will of international community and in clear violation of several resolutions of the [UN] Security Council," Guterres added.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, meanwhile, noted in his address to the conference that Munich was closer to North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, than the U.S. capital, Washington.

He added that the international community must apply "maximum pressure" on North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong Un, to give up any nuclear ambitions.

Kim has refused to give up development of nuclear missiles in spite of increasingly severe sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council.

Stoltenberg also called on Russia to address NATO concerns about what the United States has determined is Moscows violation of a landmark Cold War arms treaty.

Conference Chairman Wolfgang Ischinger opened the event by warning that the world has moved too close to a major interstate conflict and faces a dire reality.

We have too many unresolved crises, instabilities, and conflicts, Ischinger said.

Organizers said the agenda of the three-day conference places an emphasis on the European Union's role in the world as well as the bloc's relations with Moscow and Washington, whose leaders are not slated to attend.



Russian President Vladimir Putin, who used his lone appearance at the conference, in 2007, to excoriate the United States for what he portrayed as its dangerous and destabilizing role in the world, is dispatching Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Munich.



U.S. President Donald Trumps secretary of defense, Jim Mattis, and national security adviser H.R. McMaster are among those to represent Washington at the conference.



Ukraine Looms Large



The war between Russia-backed separatists and Kyiv's forces in eastern Ukraine also looms large in Munich.



Both the U.S. special envoy for the conflict in Ukraine, Kurt Volker, and his Russian counterpart, Vladislav Surkov, last month offered guardedly optimistic assessments of their recent talks on a possible UN peacekeeping mission to end the fighting, which has killed more than 10,300 since April 2014.

Volker, who is set to attend the Munich conference, recently noted more "openness" from the Russian side on the issue but said he conveyed to Surkov "a very strong sense of disappointment and frustration in Washington that Russia has done absolutely nothing to end the conflict, or to withdraw its forces."

Former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who currently serves as an adviser to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, is set to present Volker and other officials in Munich with a report he commissioned urging a UN force of some 20,000 peacekeepers in eastern Ukraine.

Poroshenko, who delivered a fiery speech at the conference on February 16 denouncing what he called Russias world hybrid war, spoke by telephone with Putin earlier this week.



Poroshenko told reporters in Kyiv on February 15 that the two leaders also discussed the prospects for UN peacekeepers in eastern Ukraine, as well as the Minsk accords -- September 2014 and February 2015 cease-fire pacts that have failed to hold.

Peace talks in the so-called Normandy Format -- consisting of Germany, France, Russia, and Ukraine -- had been planned on the sidelines of the conference for February 16. But they were called off over what the German Foreign Ministry described as scheduling conflicts.

It was not immediately clear if the meeting would be rescheduled during the Munich conference.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and Lavrov held talks on the sidelines of the conference on February 16, though Klimkin said the two diplomats were unable to reach an agreement on a possible UN peacekeeping force in eastern Ukraine

Trumps administration has largely stayed the course of his predecessors hard line on Russias 2014 seizure of Ukraines Crimean Peninsula and backing of the separatists in eastern Ukraine, which both triggered U.S. and EU sanctions targeting Moscow.



But while Moscow continues to chafe over Western sanctions and the Trump administration insists it is taking a tough approach to Moscow, there have been signals that the two sides are trying to ratchet down tensions.



Trump in December publicly touted bilateral cooperation with Moscow that both the White House and the Kremlin said had prevented planned terrorist attacks in St. Petersburg. And three directors of Russias main intelligence and espionage agencies -- one of whom was hit with a U.S. travel ban over the Crimea annexation -- traveled to Washington last month for meetings with top officials there.



Trump also surprised and angered many in Washington by declining to announce new sanctions targeting Moscow in conjunction with congressionally mandated measures aimed at pressuring the Kremlin over Russias military involvement in Ukraine and Syria, its alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and other matters.



Russian officials, meanwhile, have responded cautiously to the confirmed deaths of multiple Russian mercenaries killed in Syria last week in a clash with U.S.-backed forces, largely avoiding the anti-American rhetoric that frequently permeates officialdom in Moscow.

Tensions heightened on the eve of the Munich conference however, as Washington joined Britain in blaming Russia for the massive NotPetya ransomware attack last year -- an accusation the Kremlin rejected.

The White House pledged international consequences in response to the hack.

Michael OHanlon, a senior foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, noted in the call with reporters this week that the Munich conference follows the Trump administrations recent unveiling of its national defense and security strategies portraying China and Russia as revisionist powers and outlining an increased focus on great power competition.



Hearing more about what it means to make Russia and China our main national security emphases will, I think, be a question a lot of people will want to explore with Secretary Mattis and General McMaster, and anybody else from the U.S. delegation in Munich, OHanlon said.



McMaster is scheduled to speak immediately following Lavrovs speech on February 17.

Other world leaders and top officials scheduled to address the conference include British Prime Minister Theresa May, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.



Other global challenges set to be discussed at the Munich conference include defense cooperation in the EU and NATO, as well as the impact of technology on democracy.

With reporting by Reuters, TASS, Interfax, AP, and VOABRUSSELS -- NATO defense ministers have wrapped up two days of talks in Brussels during which they approved plans to create two command centers in response to what the military alliance called a changing security environment.

Speaking at the end of the meeting on February 15, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the allies also planned to scale up the alliances presence in Iraq.

On the first day of their talks, the ministers approved the establishment of two new command centers aimed at supporting rapid troop movements across Europe and protecting sea channels between the continent and North America.

The new command center for logistics, reinforcement, and military mobility will allow NATO to respond to crises with the right forces, in the right place, at the right time, Stoltenberg said on February 14.

The NATO ministers also agreed to set up a new cyberoperations center to help counter military hacker attacks, among other things.

"The security environment in Europe has changed, and so NATO is responding," he also said.

Since the Cold War, the alliance has shrunk from 22,000 staff working in 33 command centers to fewer than 7,000 staff in seven centers, the secretary-general said.

The ministers are expected to decide on the required timelines, locations, and increased staff levels at their next meeting in June.

The moves come as relations between Moscow and NATO have been severely strained over issues including Russia's seizure of Ukraine's Crimea region in March 2014 and its support for separatists who control parts of eastern Ukraine. The war between Kyiv's forces and the Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 10,300 people since April 2014.

Allegations of malicious Russian cyberactivity and a series of potentially dangerous close encounters between Russian and NATO warplanes and navy ships in recent months has added to the tension.

Stoltenberg said on February 15 he was looking forward to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the February 16-18 Munich Security Conference in Germany, saying dialogue is particularly important when tensions are high.

On Iraq, the secretary-general announced that the defense ministers agreed to start planning for a NATO training mission that he said would make our current training efforts more sustainable.

We will also plan to help the Iraqi forces become increasingly professional" by "establishing specialized military academies and schools, he added.

"We are planning to scale up NATOs presence. But we are not planning for a combat mission," Stoltenberg said. "We can make a big impact with our trainers and advisers -- in full coordination with the Iraqi government, the global coalition, and other actors, such as the UN and the EU."

Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told a press conference in Brussels that NATO allies will go to a constant mission in Iraq to build the capabilities that [the Iraqis] believe they need to sustain this effort and protect their people from the uprising of another type of terrorist organization.

NATO ministers also met with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in the Belgian capital to discuss their concerns over duplication after members of the bloc agreed in December to develop new military equipment and improve cooperation and decision-making.

"There is a clear understanding to include in written EU documents that the common defense is a NATO mission and a NATO mission alone," Mattis said.

With reporting by Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels, dpa, and AFPPakistan has banned two charities linked to Islamist leader Hafiz Saeed, a spokesperson for the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz-PMLN) told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal on February 14.

The bans on Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) come amid calls from the United States and India to take action against Saeed, who they say was behind an attack on Mumbai in 2008 that killed 166 people.

Pakistan's action comes days before a meeting of the Financial Action Task Force, a global money-laundering watchdog, that will consider a U.S.-sponsored motion to place Pakistan on a list of countries failing to prevent terrorism financing.

Saeed has been designated as a "terrorist" by the United Nations. He is the founder of the Lashkar-e Taiba (Army of the Pure, or LeT), but he denies any links to militant groups.

Siddiqul Farooq, the ruling party spokesman, told Radio Mashaal in a telephone interview that the government has targeted the bank accounts of the charities banned under the measure.



The [government] has taken control of the various institutes -- like educational ones -- established by these groups," he said. "The government froze their accounts. The government has banned their welfare work.



Our government has succeeded in proving that we are determined to ban those people [and groups] who are sanctioned by the UN. That is why we have taken control of their groups and I thank God that, unlike before, the people do not support them, he said.

With reporting by ReutersThe Russian Foreign Ministry says that five Russians who were not military personnel may have been killed in a clash with U.S.-led forces in Syria last week and claims that reports putting the Russian death toll in the dozens or hundreds were "disinformation."

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's remarks on February 15 marked the first time a Russian official has directly acknowledged that Russian citizens may have been killed in an incident that occurred in the Deir al-Zor province on February 7.

"According to preliminary information, we could be talking about the deaths of five people -- presumably Russian citizens -- as a result of an armed confrontation whose causes are being examined," Zakharova told a regular news briefing.

"Reports about the deaths of dozens or hundreds of citizens are classic disinformation," she said. "There were not 400, not 200, not 1,000, and not 10."

Associates of Russian mercenaries fighting alongside Syrian government forces have said there were large-scale casualties among the contractors in the clash.

The U.S. Defense Department has said air strikes launched after as many as 500 pro-government forces attacked a base housing opposition forces and U.S. military advisers killed about 100 of the attackers.

In recent days, news reports, open-source researchers, and relatives and colleagues of Russian mercenary soldiers have said that multiple Russians -- possibly dozens or more -- may have died in the exchange on February 7.

The Reuters news agency, citing three sources familiar with the matter, said about 300 men working for a "Kremlin-linked private military firm" were either killed or injured in Syria last week.

It cited a Russian military doctor as putting the death toll at 100 men, while a source who knows several of the fighters claimed at least 80 had been killed.

The military doctor works at a Moscow military hospital and was directly involved in the treatment of wounded men evacuated from Syria, the report said. The physician said there were more than 50 patients currently being treated, with 30 seriously injured.

The sources did not specifically tie the casualties to the U.S.-led counterattack, but the timing generally coincided with the February 7 incident.

When asked about the Reuters report, a Kremlin spokesman said he had nothing to add to previous statements.

More than 40 Russian military personnel have died in Syria since Moscow launched a campaign of air strikes in September 2015 in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The support has helped Assad avoid collapse amid a devastating civil war, which started in 2011 with a crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.

'Deconfliction Line'

It has also ratcheted up tensions with the United States, which has backed rebel groups -- including the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Syrian Arab and Kurdish fighters -- fighting to topple Assad.

An SDF base near the Euphrates River "deconfliction line" set to avoid clashes between the two sides in Deir al-Zor Province was the site of the February 7 incident.

The Pentagon said coalition advisers had been with SDF forces when the base was assaulted and said its actions against the attackers were in "self-defense."



Russian President Vladimir Putin in December ordered a partial withdrawal of most of the 48,000 Russian military personnel from Syria, but also signed a law ratifying an agreement enabling Russia to expand operations at its naval facility in Tartus.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has acknowledged that some Russian citizens could also be in Syria but that Moscow does not have any information about them.

Western officials have said some Russian private contractors in Syria could be involved in attempting to secure oil assets on behalf of the Assad regime, particularly in energy-rich Deir al-Zor Province.

With reporting by Reuters and MeduzaYelena Matveyeva says her husband Stanislav was killed in Syria, where he was fighting alongside pro-government troops as a private mercenary. She wants Russian government recognition of her husband's service so that she and her children can feel proud of him.Serbia's government has given no official reaction to a warning by Germany that Belgrade must recognize Kosovo's independence as a condition of joining the European Union.

"If Serbia wants to move toward the European Union, the building of the rule of law is a primary condition, but naturally also the acceptance of Kosovo's independence," Gabriel said at a joint news conference with Kosovo's Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj in Pristina late on February 14. "That is a central condition to take the path toward Europe."

Gabriel said he had given the same message to Serbian officials in Belgrade earlier on February 14.

In his address marking Serbia's national day, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on February 15 did not comment on Gabriel's statement.

Kosovo, a former province of Serbia, declared independence 10 years ago. The country has been making preparations to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of its declaration on February 17.

Belgrade, however, has never recognized Kosovo's move despite its recognition by 115 other countries, including 23 of 28 EU members.

Germany was one of the first countries to recognize Kosovo's independence, along with the United States, France, and the United Kingdom.

Gabriel said his country would help to secure Kosovo's recognition by the five EU member states that have not yet done so -- Spain, Romania, Cyprus, Greece, and Slovakia.

"Such a recognition makes sense because Kosovo will never again be a part of Serbia," he said. "Membership of the European Union is a win-win situation for all."

In a message to mark Serbia's national day, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States "remains a steadfast friend and partner of Serbia."

Serbia hopes to join the EU by 2025, a date also targeted by Brussels as it looks to bring Western Balkan nations into its fold.

Serbian officials have hoped that recognition of Kosovo would not be a binding condition for EU membership. Some Serbian officials have suggested partitioning Kosovo instead.

Kosovo's bid to join the United Nations has been blocked by Serbian allies Russia and China. Around 120,000 Serbs who live in Kosovo still consider Belgrade their capital, and they are financially supported by Serbia.

During his visit to Kosovo, Gabriel also urged Pristina to continue efforts to resolve a border dispute with Montenegro so it can join the EU's visa-free Schengen travel zone.

"I am happy that it is willing to resolve the demarcation issue with Montenegro," he said.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

The repressive ruler of a country with one of the postcommunist world's worst records on democratic freedom, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, has established a gold "democracy" award whose recipients will receive cash and a medal emblazoned with his image.

The "Emomali Rahmon -- Leader of the Nation" prize should honor "special contributions to the development of democracy," according to a presidential decree signed on February 2.

Tajiks and foreigners are said to be eligible.

Rahmon's decree says the medal and accompanying cash award of 125,000 somonis (currently about $14,000) will be delivered every three years, but it does not stipulate when the first winner will be announced.

None of Tajikistan's presidential or parliamentary elections since Rahmon took power in 1992 has ever been judged competitive and fair by Western observers.

For instance, a 2015 report on national elections by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) cited "restricted political space," a failure "to provide a level playing field for candidates," crippling restrictions on speech, the press, and assembly, and partiality in administering the election process.

Personality Cult

Rahmon has fostered his own cult of personality in a region rife with them among presidents seemingly ensconced for life with virtually unchecked powers.

The Nations In Transit report by Freedom House, a Washington-based independent watchdog, has consistently rated Rahmon's government as a "consolidated authoritarian regime" since 2008.

Its elections "serve to reinforce the rule of dictators who enjoy unlimited authority for prolonged periods of time" with highly centralized power, it says, and the government is "neither democratic nor accountable to the public."

Freedom House's latest report gave both national democratic governance and judicial independence in Tajikistan the worst possible scores.

The report's author, Edward Lemon, said Rahmon's government continued to consolidate "many authoritarian developments" and the country "resembles a one-party state."

In 2015, Tajik lawmakers passed -- and Rahmon signed -- a law granting the president and his family lifetime immunity from prosecution and bestowing on Rahmon the title "founder of peace and national unity of Tajikistan [and] the leader of the nation."

Tajik courts have routinely handed down long prison sentences against leading opposition figures, along with human rights lawyers who have defended them, on extremism charges.

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Members of right-wing factions clashed with police outside a court in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, after Odesa Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov was released without bail pending a corruption investigation. The right-wing activists had apparently gathered to confront Trukhanov's supporters. At least 30 people were detained and one police officer suffered a gunshot wound.U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says he will, "in the near future," issue new sanctions against wealthy Russians in retaliation for Moscow's meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

"We are actively working on those sanctions," Mnuchin told the Senate Finance Committee during a hearing on February 14. "You should expect them in the near future."

Congress overwhelmingly voted for new sanctions on Russian last summer in legislation that was reluctantly signed into law by President Donald Trump, who campaigned on establishing warmer ties with Moscow.

To carry out the law, the Treasury last month released a list of 114 senior Russian political figures and 96 "oligarchs" who it said have gained wealth or power through association with President Vladimir Putin.

Treasury also sent a classified annex to the list to Congress but announced no new sanctions at the time.

Treasury was criticized by U.S. legislators and others for not immediately imposing sanctions on at least some of the listed individuals and for putting together a list that the department admitted was drawn mainly from public sources such as Forbes magazine's ranking of Russian billionaires.

Mnuchin on January 30 said that new sanctions were being prepared and that the department would issue them "in the next several months, maybe a month."

Based on reporting by Reuters and TASS

Carnival Playa del Carmen draws more than 100,000

Playa del Carmen, Q.R.  More than 100,000 people took in Carnival 2018 in Playa del Carmen as the week long event came to a close.

This years theme, Passion for Playa del Carmen, drew record crowds as the annual festival continues to grow in both events and spectators. The four main parades took place along the citys famous Fifth Avenue where dancers, musicians and parade floats made their way through the crowded streets.

Around town, dozens of community events were planned, drawing record numbers in areas such as Gonzalo Guerrero and 28 de Julio, Bosque Real, Galaxia del Carmen I y II, Mision del Carmen, Santa Fe, Toscana and Villamar I and II.

Carnival celebrations included almost 1,000 dancers and musicians, among them a group from Older Adults and Persons with Disabilities.

The group was joined by Chinelos Fenix Drum & Bugle Corps and young musicians from Cuautla, Morelos who came to Playa del Carmen to participate in Carnival. Musicians and dancers of the Samba Maya Cultural Center also put on a spectacular performance at Parque Fundadores.

Passion for Playa del Carmen hosted numerous musical groups including Los Tucanes de Tijuana, Ha Ash and Nelzon Kanzela, among many others.

Carnival Cancun, Carnival Playa del Carmen and Cozumel Carnival takes place each year during the month of February and is set to begin the week before Fat Tuesday or Mardi-Gras.Labor officials say Cancun, Riviera Maya living in bubble of informal jobs

Cancun, Q.R.  Although the state has shown an increase in employment, jobs in cities such as Cancun and Playa del Carmen only offer seasonal employment without benefits. Labor officials say the region is living in a bubble.

Although Quintana Roo is seen as a champion of employment, labor officials say it still offers precarious employment because 47 percent of workers have informal jobs. Nearly half of all workers in the state are employed seasonally and without proper benefits, says the official from ILO.

Soledad Aragon Martinez, national official from Formalization of Employment of the International Labor Organization (ILO) for Mexico and Cuba, said that formalization should be worked on, which is the means to transit and have access to decent work, which consists of a remunerative salary, having social security and not being discriminated against.

He says that, Generation of employment is needed, however in Mexico the problem is that they are being created, but they are not of quality.

That is, the objective would be to generate jobs with the concept of decent work, meaning employees have access to all labor rights and to social security to move from informality to formality.

Aragon Martinez pointed out that although Quintana Roo has made some progress in the generation of decent employment, it still has a great lag because 47 percent of employed people in the country have informal employment.

Quintana Roo is below the national average, which is 57 percent. We could say that this situation is better, although it still remains as precarious employment because Quintana Roo has 47 percent of workers with an informal job. The informality rate is very high.

The representative of the ILO addressed the issue of tourism and pointed out that it only generates temporary employment.

Having a temporary job does not have to be translated as informal employment. Mechanisms would have to be created through social dialogue to negotiate with employers, unions and the government to generate formal employment, even with the conditions that temporary tourism provides.

And I know that in Quintana Roo many workers are unemployed for three months. September, October and November people are unemployed , he added.

He explained that people often sell to the tianguis, saying that it happens at a national level and that it is a double occupation to supplement income because low wages are also a problem for Mexico. The workers look for other alternatives.

In particular, Cancun, Riviera Maya and Tulum live in a bubble because the government says we are champions in generating employment. Yes, but the type of employment being created is not the right one or the ideal one.

The ideal is to have a decent job with the whole concept that already marks Article 2 of the Federal Labor Law that includes remunerative salary, social security and non-discrimination. That would be the aspiration, not only to generate employment, but employment of quality. We have to work in that direction.New US diplomatic headquarters in Mexico to be largest on planet

Mexico City, Mexico  The United States has begun the construction of its new diplomatic headquarters in Mexico with the placement of the first stone by the ambassador, Roberta Jacobson.

The new US Embassy will be safe, modern and environmentally sustainable Roberta Jacobson explained at the ceremony in Mexico City, which was attended by the Mexican Secretary of the Interior, Alfonso Navarrete and the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs for North America, Carlos Manuel Sada.

The new US diplomatic headquarters will be built on 34,000 square meters of land in the Mexican capital with a budget of $943 million USD by the American consortium Caddell Construction.

Diplomatic authorities of the United States indicated that around 2,500 people from the United States, Mexico and other countries will work on its construction, although 1,200 of them are expected to be Mexicans.

The embassy will be in operation by 2022 and will replace the current one, which for the past 50 years, has been located in the central Paseo de la Reforma.

The United States has had an embassy in Mexico since 1898 as a testimony of the strong relationship between both nations, said Jacobson, emphasizing that the current one endured the 1985 and 2017 earthquakes that hit the Mexican capital.

The ambassador said that the new building will have a large patio as a tribute to distinctive spaces of Mexican architecture, such as the National Museum of Anthropology, and will also celebrate the vibrant cultural heritage of both nations.

In turn, Navarrete stressed the importance of the fact that this new diplomatic headquarters will be the largest on the planet that the United States of America has.

The Mexican minister considered that more than a building, an embassy is a huge bridge of friendship, a meeting point and space for the understanding and cooperation of sovereign nations.

Mexico and the United States are two nations with strong ties and enormous challenges with common objectives. We are nations that complement each other in many aspects and our destinies are inexorably intertwined by our neighborhood said Alfonso Navarrete.

He recalled that these nations are joined by more than 3,000 kilometers of border and also a community of millions of people with roots on both sides of the border, as well as a dynamic commercial relationship of interdependence and shared benefits.

Taking the opportunity, Sada highlighted that the Mexican and American communities that live on both sides of the border are a reflection of the depth of the ties between both nations.

Our communities reflect the depth of our ties, said Sada, noting that more than one million Americans reside in Mexico and 11 million Mexicans in the United States, not counting the 23 million Mexican-Americans.The Securities and Exchange Commission has obtained a final judgment against a Massachusetts-based portfolio manager at a major asset management firm charged with diverting at least $1.95 million to his personal brokerage account from a fund over which he had trading authority.

In its complaint, filed on April 24, 2017, the SEC alleged that Kevin J. Amell carried out a fraudulent matched-trades scheme in which he prearranged the purchase or sale of call options between his own account and the brokerage accounts of the fund at prices that were disadvantageous to the fund and advantageous to him.

The final judgment, entered on February 2, 2018 by the Honorable Judge Rya W. Zobel of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, permanently enjoins Amell from future violations of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and Sections 17(a)(1), 17(a)(2) and 17(j) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 and Rule 17j-1 thereunder, and orders him liable for disgorgement of $1,954,457, the payment of which is deemed satisfied by the forfeiture ordered in a parallel criminal case. Amell, who pled guilty in that case, is serving an 18-month sentence of imprisonment.

The SEC's investigation was conducted by Simona Suh, Melanie MacLean, and John Marino of the SEC's Market Abuse Unit and by Elzbieta Wraga of the New York Regional Office. The case was supervised by Joseph G. Sansone, Chief of the Market Abuse Unit. The SEC's litigation was led by Ms. Suh, Ms. MacLean, and Martin F. Healey of the Boston Regional Office. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Boston Field Office, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.This item is available in full to subscribers.

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Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.A Stanford law professor leading the effort to recall a judge in a controversial sexual assault case said Wednesday that someone sent her an envelope containing white powder and a threatening note.

The incident prompted Stanford Law School to shut down two rooms and send out a campus alert at 1:19 p.m. Investigators later determined the substance was an inert powder that poses no health concern, university officials said.

Michele Dauber, who has organized the effort to recall Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky, confirmed that the envelope came through the mail and was addressed to her. The gold envelope looked like it held an invitation, Dauber said, but when she opened it she saw white powder and the following note:

Since you are going to disrobe Persky Im going to treat you like Emily Doe. Lets see what kind of sentencing I get for being a rich white male.

Now Playing: The divisive rhetoric surrounding whether to recall a sitting Santa Clara County judge because of a sentence he handed down has taken a turn for the worse. Wednesday, the chair of the Committee to Recall Persky, who's also a Stanford law professor, Video: KTVU

Emily Doe refers to an unnamed woman who was sexually assaulted in 2015 by former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner. A jury found Turner guilty of taking advantage of the unconscious woman outside of a campus fraternity party. Persky sentenced Turner to six months in jail, a ruling that has been criticized by Dauber, prosecutors and advocates for sexual-assault victims. Prosecutors had argued for six years in prison, but Turner was released after three months.

The case received national attention after Perskys ruling and the publication of a letter the sexual assault survivor read in court.

Dauber has since led a campaign seeking Perskys removal from the bench, and she succeeded in getting a recall measure placed on the June ballot in Santa Clara County.

The professor, whose recall effort has received criticism from colleagues in the legal community  including the district attorneys office, despite its opposition to Perskys ruling  said she receives threats and angry letters all the time, but not with white powder.

Whats important is that the recall campaign is continuing, Dauber said. The recall campaign will not be intimidated by this kind of inappropriate behavior.

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Stanfords Neukom Building, which houses the law school, was not evacuated, university spokesman Ernest Miranda said. All other law school operations are continuing as normal, he added.

In the meantime, school officials have asked people to avoid the building as an added precaution.

Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJournoThe abrupt closure in November of TechShop workshops across the country disrupted the lives of small business owners and do-it-yourself hobbyists who relied on the chains machinery, from 3-D printers to welding tools.

On Monday, Kansas entrepreneur Dan Rasure plans to reopen the downtown San Francisco workshop as the first step toward rebuilding the chain.

Rasure is CEO of a new company, called TechShop 2.0, thats leased the workshop on Howard Street from the buildings landlord, 5M Project LLC, owned by The Chronicles parent company, Hearst Corp.

Rasure, 35, said he plans to run the company with an eye toward remaining profitable. Part of his business plan includes investing in early stage startups that might use the space and then making a profit if the businesses do well.

Maker spaces are important; we recognize that, Rasure said Wednesday as he helped clean up the shop. This is not about shop profitability  this is about helping people accomplishing their goals and their dreams.

First opened in 2006 in Menlo Park, TechShop had about 9,000 members nationwide, including about 1,000 for the San Francisco shop. But it closed its 10 U.S. locations with little prior notice on Nov. 15 and said it might file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.

Dan Woods, who served as TechShops CEO, could not be reached for comment.

Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

Rasure and one of TechShops creditors had reached an agreement in December to purchase the companys assets, but that deal fell through. TechShop 2.0 is entirely separate from TechShop.

Rasure said hes had an affinity for the do-it-yourself maker community since he was a young boy, when he would fall asleep in his fathers woodworking shop. As marketing and product development director for metal fabrication machine maker Piranha, he also saw TechShop as a way to introduce his companys products to startup entrepreneurs who could not yet afford the tools.

TechShop 2.0 plans to offer those who bought lifetime memberships a rate of $500 in total for the first three years, rising to $750 per year after that. Monthly memberships are also available, for $150 for individuals. Rasure said most, but not all, of the tools will be available when the shop reopens, although the long-range plans are to bring in some newer tools.

The company is also close to a deal to open a new, second location in north San Jose, Rasure said.

Nick Pinkston, CEO of Plethora, a San Francisco company that uses 3-D printing and other high-tech manufacturing, built its first prototypes at TechShop. Pinkston said the closing was a big loss to the community, but he was glad to learn about TechShop 2.0.

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It was a magical place with great people and already abuzz with activity and interesting stuff, Pinkston said in an email. They helped a ton of people in the early stages. It was an incubator in all but name.

Ebitenyefa Baralaye of San Francisco, who was an artist-in-residence at TechShop, said he was stunned when the shop closed the day before the opening reception for an exhibit of his sculptures. He had to quickly move his sculptures out.

If the suddenness of its reopening matches the suddenness of its closure, then I dont mind that at all, he said.

Benny Evangelista is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: bevangelista@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChronicleBennyA 29-year-old female entrepreneur has accused Lucio Lanza, a 73-year-old Silicon Valley venture capitalist, of sexually assaulting her on a July 28 red-eye flight from San Francisco to Minneapolis en route to her home in Chicago.

Rachel Danae Vachata, who was on the Forbes 30 under 30 in Healthcare list for 2018, alleged that Lanza groped her repeatedly, grabbing her arm, crotch, and breast, attempting to kiss her, and inserting his hand between her legs, according to a lawsuit submitted electronically for filing Wednesday in Superior Court in Santa Clara.

A call and email to Lanzas firm in Palo Alto, Lanza TechVenture, were not returned. Nanette Collins, a spokeswoman for Lanza, said, Lucio has no idea what he is being accused of. As far as he remembers, he was on a plane talking with this woman about her startup.

Vachatas attorney, David Lowe of San Francisco, said the flight was on Delta Air Lines.

Vachata is co-founder of two companies, Mallium and Dynamic Surgical, according to her LinkedIn profile. When the flight took off, she was seated next to Lanza, who allegedly asked questions about her and her business. Before takeoff, Lanza was told he was in the wrong seat and moved to a different seat, and an off-duty pilot took the seat he vacated, the suit says.

After takeoff, Lanza returned to her row and, appearing intoxicated, said he was close friends with Steve Jobs and talked at length about his work at Intel and his investments, the suit said. The off-duty pilot said Lanza should return to his seat, which he did, but Lanza later came back and resumed talking to Vachata about his connections, careers, companies, and properties, the suit said. The pilot asked him to return to his seat again and he did, but when Lanza returned again, the pilot asked if he wanted to switch seats and they did, the suit said.

At that point, Lanza tried to kiss her, put his hand in her crotch, grabbed her breast and went on about his power in the industry in which Ms. Vachata works and how he has the capability to make or break her career, the suit says. He also allegedly offered to invest in her company. The suit said at no point did she consent to any form of contact.

When the off-duty pilot later returned to his original seat, she immediately told him what had happened. When she arrived at the gate of her next flight to Chicago, she told the gate attendant she had been sexually assaulted on the previous flight. The attendant notified her supervisor, who said the incident had been noted by the airline.

As she was boarding her next flight, to Chicago, Vachata called her co-founder and related the story, the suit said. While on the flight, she began to hyperventilate from the intense stress of the situation. She bent forward in her seat and lost consciousness. She came to as several flight attendants were leaning her seat back and trying to give her oxygen, the suit said. When the flight landed, she was escorted off the plane and taken to emergency medical services.

Lowe said his client and at least one other person with knowledge of the incident have been contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Chicago. An FBI spokesman said by email, We do not comment on any investigation that we may or may not be investigating until charges have been filed or someone has been arrested.

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A spokesman for Delta could not immediately confirm the incident.

Lowe said Vachata filed suit because she wanted to use the legal system to hold him accountable. In previous interviews, Vachata said she had been sexually molested when she was 2 and after years of abuse, became a homeless, runaway youth before finally getting a college degree.

Lanza is the latest Silicon Valley venture capitalist accused of sexual misconduct. VCs Justin Caldbeck of Binary Capital, Steve Jurvetson of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Dave McClure of 500 Startups and Shervin Pishevar of Sherpa Capital have left their firms following allegations of misconduct.

Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: kpender@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kathpenderThe defendantaccused of breaking into a car and throwing a Chihuahua to its death from a San Francisco parking garage pleaded not guilty to all charges Wednesday in a brief court appearance.

Wakeen Best, 35, was charged with felony counts of auto burglary, animal cruelty and vandalism. Best was also charged with misdemeanor counts of possession of burglary tools, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of a dirk or dagger, and violation of a stay-away order.

Best is currently being held without bail on a separate felony parole case. On Tuesday, Sheriffs Department officials said Best is a man who occasionally identifies as female. But in court on Wednesday, the judge addressed her as Miss Best and attorneys used female pronouns when referring to her.

Best was charged in connection with an incident that led to the death of a 4-year-old Chihuahua, named Dunky, found dead outside the Stockton Street Tunnel near Sutter Street around 2 p.m. Saturday, police said. The owners car was found with smashed glass next to a trail of blood leading to the railing of the Sutter-Stockton Garages seventh floor.

Any time you have allegations such as this, its very disturbing, especially against a helpless little animal, said Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the San Francisco district attorneys office.

Best has prior convictions for felony auto burglary and other crimes, and last served time for a car break-in committed in the same garage in 2016 and spent 64 days in jail. Best was released on Jan. 12, just a month before the car break-in that resulted in Dunkys death.

Saturdays incident is the latest in a string of attention-grabbing car break-ins in San Francisco. Valuables that range from tablets and laptops to more exotic items such as an Olympians skates and an ash-filled urn have been taken from vehicles.

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On Feb. 1, a man caught breaking into a car intentionally ran over a plainclothes police officer during the bust in Alamo Square, police said.

More than 30,000 auto burglaries were reported in San Francisco during 2017, the worst year on record.

Annie Ma is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ama@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @anniema15Alana Herron panicked when she received an email from her daughter saying that something bad is happening at James Lick Middle School in San Francisco.

At least 10 students had ingested what was later determined to be marijuana in edible form, and one of the children was rushed to a hospital in critical condition.

While the students intoxication on Tuesday afternoon wasnt life-threatening, and though all were recovering Wednesday, the incident was very scary, Herron said. It seemed to traumatize a lot of the kids.

After the initial fears subsided, the San Francisco mom and other parents were left with a stark realization: With the Jan. 1 legalization of recreational marijuana sales to adults upping the accessibility of baked cannabis confections and candy, it could easily happen again.

This is not a problem tied to James Lick, said parent Mike Johnson, whose oldest daughter attends the Noe Valley middle school. To my mind, what happened is like a portent of whats going to happen more and more in schools in California and other states that are making marijuana more accessible.

Many school officials across California share the same worry, and say theyve responded by ramping up education efforts to combat the intentional or accidental ingestion of cannabis. One particular fear is that some potent products resemble typical school snacks  marijuana-infused cookies, chocolate bars, cinnamon mints, even chewy gummies.

Arent there vitamins like that? Herron asked. It does seem to be more out of control and maybe more confusing for kids.

San Francisco district officials didnt identify the kind of edible the students ate, only saying that a package marked medical cannabis was confiscated.

Its unclear how much they ate or where the product came from. People who ingest edible marijuana products may not feel the effects for an hour or more. State law allows for more of the psychoactive chemical THC to be included in medicinal cannabis products than recreational items.

To address the new consumer market for marijuana, San Francisco Unified has been prioritizing drug education and, specifically, the risks of cannabis, said school board President Hydra Mendoza.

This terrible incident is a reminder that we need to not only educate our students appropriately  and SFUSD will make this a priority  but also those who make these products accessible to our youth under 21, Mendoza said.

A week before the James Lick incident, the state Department of Education announced the creation of an online portal with resources and information about Proposition 64, which California voters passed in 2016 to legalize, regulate and tax recreational marijuana.

This is an excellent time to remind parents, students, educators, administrators and the public about the detrimental effects of marijuana, especially to the developing brains of children, said state schools Superintendent Tom Torlakson. In this new environment, we need to be even more vigilant in making certain school-aged children understand the importance of making healthy decisions.

Across the country, youth marijuana use has been on the decline in recent years, with just over 7 percent of teenagers reporting that they had used the drug in the previous month, according to federal surveys from 2015 and 2016. In California, about 5 percent of seventh-graders reported using marijuana in the previous 30 days, a 2015 state study found.

In San Francisco, school officials say the city has seen a drop in the prevalence of marijuana use among middle schoolers, with 3.9 percent of students reporting they had ever used cannabis in surveys last year, down from 7.7 percent a decade earlier. Last year, one-quarter of high school students in the city reported having ever used marijuana.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

Across the state, schoolchildren have been getting substance-abuse-prevention education for years, starting in kindergarten with age-appropriate curriculum, said Erica Lingrell, program administrator for San Francisco Unifieds School Health Programs.

That includes information about marijuana. But in recent years, the culture has shifted from educating students about an illicit drug to negotiating a product advertised on billboards and the sides of buses.

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In San Francisco schools, students who help educate their peers about substance abuse have been asking a lot more about marijuana this year, Lingrell said. They want more information, more tools to address questions and concerns.

Theyre asking questions because the community in San Francisco is talking about it, she said.

Dan Orenstein, a post-doctoral fellow at UCSF who has researched the effectiveness of cannabis regulation, said both children and adults will be safer if marijuana products are clearly labeled and if manufacturers and retailers are restricted from using catchy brand marketing.

Theres a great variety of products here that are new to a lot of people, Orenstein said. Especially because these products are new to the commercial market, its really important to have clear labeling.

A marijuana-laced cookie, for example, could have 20 mg of THC or 100 mg, he said.

People perceive (edibles) as less risky or less harmful or even harmless, he said. We should be very clear about how these are packaged and labeled for what youre buying. This is a drug.

The incident at James Lick exemplifies the concerns public officials have had with the mainstreaming of marijuana and specifically edible products, said San Francisco Supervisor Jeff Sheehy.

They look like candy to kids, he added. People who are consuming cannabis for adult use should be very, very careful about making sure this doesnt end up in the hands of young people.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @jilltuckerIve been learning how to launder money: Gently run a new sponge over the bills, rinse off the dish soap, lay them out to dry, iron them with a circular motion, and sandwich them into a thick stack of books for a final press before sliding them into hong bao, traditional red envelopes for cash gifts.

I was getting the $2 bills ready for the Lunar New Year, which begins Friday. Id stopped by the bank to pick up the bills, but the teller didnt have any crisp ones. Why $2? Even numbers are luckier than odd ones, and $2 bills have a certain novelty because of their seeming rarity.

U.S. paper currency is 75 percent cotton and 25 percent linen, which means bills can withstand the wash and fold. Studying the $2 bills, I noticed a thin white line running vertically down the center, as if the bills had been folded in half repeatedly over the years, to be stuffed into red envelopes. In my amateur sleuthing, I compared the $2 bill to other denominations  $10s and $20 bills that did not bear the same mark; my hunch is that $2 bills are getting heavy use during Lunar New Year.

Lunar New Year is celebrated in Vietnam as Tet and as Seollal among Koreans. In recent weeks, I spoke with other immigrants or children of immigrants who shared their traditions with me. A friend from Singapore says her extended family goes out to eat yusheng, or the prosperity toss: strips of raw fish mixed with shredded radishes, carrots, ginger, onion and crushed peanuts; Vietnamese American friends tell me theyre frying up cha gio and slicing into banh chung, a glutinous rice cake thick with mung bean and pork, buying mums and plum blossoms, and making an offering to Guanyin, the goddess of compassion; and a Korean American tells me his family has dduk guk, chewy rice cake in a savory beef broth.

Other popular dishes include noodles for longevity; oranges and kumquats, because their round shape and color are like gold coins; a whole fish to symbolize the beginning and end of the year; special rice cakes to gain higher and higher status; and gift bags of sweets and fruit for visitors for the next two weeks, until the Lantern Festival on March 2, which marks the end of the holiday period.

Other families tell me theyll be lighting firecrackers, or attending the parade in San Franciscos Chinatown on Feb. 24 or the Tet Festival this weekend in San Jose. Writer Sharline Chiang plans to attend traditional lion dances with her daughter, as well as take her shopping in Chinatown for banners and a new qipao dress, make dumplings and give half-hour presentations at the elementary school.

I go out of my way to make it a big deal, Chiang said, explaining that she experienced much racism and self-loathing while growing up. It took me my entire adulthood to work toward where I am today, which is being very proud and grateful to be Chinese.

After her daughter was born, Chiang committed to raising her in ways that would make her excited and proud to be Chinese, too. Indeed, her multiracial daughter has been learning about traditions Chiang never did.

So I am learning through her!

For those of you who want a hint of what the year will bring, theres a fortune-telling tradition that author Yang Huang explained to me. During the new year festivities, if a baby sees you and smiles, it means you are a good person, will have good health, and will become prosperous.

Its time to buy the lotto! she joked.

Conversely, if the baby starts to cry, youre a bad person, may have poor health or get into an accident, said Huang, who wrote the charming My Old Faithful, a forthcoming collection of short stories.

To capitalize on this belief, parents dress their children in red and gold, cajole them to say the cheerful greetings, and bow deeply to wheedle red packet money out of the elders.

You may have also heard that its the Year of the Dog. There are 12 zodiac animals in all, rotating in a cycle, returning to your sign when you are 12 years old, 24, 36, and so on. When your year comes around, its said to be a time of turbulence, requiring caution. President Trump is turning 72 this year, and whether or not he believes in this superstition, he would surely benefit by heeding this warning. We all would.

Happy New Year!

Vanessa Huas column appears Fridays in Datebook. Email: datebook@sfchronicle.comMentorship, in which two people share skills and wisdom, was celebrated with a Feb. 8 gathering benefiting Butler Koshland Fellowships, which since 2003 have paired seasoned civic leaders with people who are likely to become civic leaders. The groups official aim is to identify and mentor the next generation of public service leaders. Each pair of participants works closely, their unique personal exchange generating new ideas and energy in service of the common good.

The notion of pairing was illustrated at this years Whos Your Mentor? gathering by writer/feminist activist Gloria Steinem and writer/lecture agent/activist Amy Richards, who had met, said Richards, when I was an undergrad in college, and she was offering me $10 an hour, while Christies auction house was offering $20 a week.

Richards arrived at Steinems apartment when Steinem was in the frenzy of finishing a book. The older woman handed the younger some pages, asked her to read them and tell her what she thought. Richards was honest, admitting that some of it didnt resonate with her. The single most important thing in a mentorship arrangement, they agreed, is trust. You would get respect for your opinions, said Richards.

Mentorship sounds like a one-way street, said Steinem. Its very much a two-way street. Before Richards arrival, Steinem said, shed been scrambling to finish the last chapters of her book while copyediting the first chapters. Richards sprang into action, quickly covering a table with Post-Its indicating what had to be done in what time frame. Im not so sure we were the appropriate couple, said Steinem, because Amy may be the smartest person Ive ever met.

Their relationship, however, was in a way symbolic of mentorship in general, which can be one of the biggest forces that keep us from being age-segregated. said Steinem, 83. Such segregation is just as bad as being segregated by any other category. I feel so strongly that I just had to wait for some of my friends to be born.

As to non-mentorship issues, there was lasting wisdom from Steinem: If youre not a masochist, and you are a woman, youre a feminist. And she could see the value in a Donald Trump presidency: In a way, he was sent to make us woke. He has demystified running for office. If we survive, this will have been a crucial learning moment, and not just for part of the country but for all of the country.

The San Francisco Girls Chorus makes its first Carnegie Hall appearance on Friday, Feb. 16, in Philip Glass Music With Changing Parts, a piece they will perform with the Philip Glass Ensemble.

Helen Raiser and granddaughter Rose, art lovers and fans of President Barack Obama, went to Washington and were first in line at the National Portrait Gallery on Monday, Feb. 12, for the unveiling of the portraits of the Obamas. They showed up at 7:15 a.m., were checked in at 8:30 a.m.; the program started at 10 a.m. And what happened in between? Selfies. The artists were amenable, as were celebrities in attendance, including Steven Spielberg, Kate Capshaw and Tom Hanks.

At a recent City Lights Books panel discussion celebrating Heyday Books publication of Ransoming Pagan Babies, an anthology of Warren Hinckles writings, panelist Ron Turner was chatting with panelist Eugene Schoenfeld. The latter explained to the former that hed been delayed getting to the event because he was stuck behind a giant bus carrying tech workers home from Silicon Valley. Turner suggested that instead of Elon Musk putting his Tesla into orbit, he should have put one of those buses in orbit. Maybe all of them.

And before the Lyle Lovett/Robert Earl Keen show at the Fox Theater in Redwood City, Ted Weinstein overheard one man telling another, Soon there will be self-driving cars taking themselves to the automatic car wash. The listener replied, While we sit at home staring at our cell phones.

In celebration of Chinese New Year, Saks Fifth Avenue is showing dresses owned by and designed by Cecilia Chiang, founder of the now-gone Mandarin Restaurant but still reigning empress of the haute Chinese food scene. Chiang, who is now 98, wore these dresses for everyday work at the restaurant. Theyre on the main floor (near the jewelry), and there will be some informal modeling in the afternoon on Friday, Feb. 16, and Saturday, Feb. 17.

Leah Garchik is open for business in San Francisco, (415) 777-8426. Email: lgarchik@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @leahgarchik

Public Eavesdropping

Girl! Boy! I mean whatever youre acting like right now, it dont even matter!

Woman overheard at Leavenworth near OFarrell by Beverlyn JacksonLast year, when Anchor Brewing announced its sale to Japanese beer giant Sapporo, the fate of Anchor Distilling  the companys quieter side, known for spirits like Junipero gin and Old Potrero whiskey  went conspicuously unexplained.

Anchor Distilling, both a producer and an importer of high-end spirits, was not acquired by Sapporo in the beer deal, but its building was. So, too, was its name: Sapporo got the Anchor trademark. Soon, Anchor Distilling learned, it would have to vacate the only building it has ever known, on Mariposa Street in Potrero Hill, and change its name.

Now, five months after news of the sale, Anchor Distilling has announced its new moniker, rechristening itself as Hotaling & Co., a nod to a notorious 19th century whiskey warehouse in San Francisco.

We wanted to choose a name that talked to our past but also had a deep connection to our home in San Francisco, said Dennis Carr, the companys president and CEO.

This wont be the first time Hotalings name appears on an Anchor bottle. The distillery produces a small amount of Old Potrero Hotalings Whiskey, a pot-distilled single-malt rye. It was first released in 2006 to commemorate the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake, which Hotalings whiskey warehouse famously, and improbably, survived.

Were changing our name in part because of the sale, and because we have to, Carr said. But he noted the shift also signals an important moment of independence from the icon of Anchor Brewing  as a business, as a brand and as a San Francisco power player.

Weve always been in the shadow of the brewery, he said. Now, maybe we can do for spirits in San Francisco what Fritz (Maytag, Anchors former owner) did for beer in San Francisco.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

Its a good time to be a distiller. Carr confirmed that Anchor Distillings profits outpace Anchor Brewings. He wouldnt elaborate, but more broadly, U.S. spirits sales have been growing faster than those of beer for the past five years. In particular, dollar sales of premium spirits, which are hugely important for Anchor Distilling, grew by 5 percent in 2017 and now make up more than half of total spirits sales.

So what, exactly, was this old whiskey warehouse? A.P. Hotaling & Co. was founded in 1865, predating the original configuration of Anchor Brewing by three decades. Its founder, Anson Parsons Hotaling, came to California from upstate New York for the Gold Rush. He soon gave up panning and found work in a liquor store at Sansome and Jackson streets. Eventually he bought out the stores owner, expanded the store into a wholesale business and moved it to a larger space on Jackson Street.

For a time, Hotalings warehouse was the largest liquor business in the city, with Cutters A1 Whiskey ($7 a bottle, as of 1902) its flagship product. An advertisement in The Chronicle from the early 20th century refers to A.P. Hotaling & Co. as distillers agents and distributors of gins and Kentucky whiskeys. Its a description that would nearly fit Anchor Distilling today.

Thanks to the 1906 catastrophe, A.P. Hotaling lived on in public lore longer than it might have. The warehouse was virtually the only survivor of the post-earthquake fires in its neighborhood  an especially impressive feat for a building full of flammable goods. The humor in this was not lost on local poet Charles Field, whose verse would be reprinted in these pages many times over the decades to come:

If, as they say, God spanked the town

For being over-frisky,

Why did He burn His churches down

And spare Hotalings whiskey?

Ironically, the Hotaling building burned in 1953. It was rebuilt and is now used for offices.

But the rising-from-the-ashes quality of the Hotaling story appeals to Carr. This is a rebirth, he said.

Whats more, the sorts of whiskeys that Fritz Maytag aspired to when he founded Anchor Distilling in 1993 were not unlike those that Hotaling would have produced a century earlier.

Maytag had a fondness for reviving beverages that had fallen out of style: Witness his success with quaint, low-tech steam beer. His first foray into spirits, accordingly, was with rye whiskey, not exactly a booming category in the early 90s. That pot-distilled product, Old Potrero, was a throwback to the American whiskeys that would have been produced in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Three years later, Maytag added another spirit to the Anchor Distilling lineup: Junipero gin. It, too, was an anomaly for its time, in an era when premium gin would have sounded like an oxymoron. But Maytag saw that consumers were beginning to gravitate toward higher-end vodka and made a bet that gin would follow that trend.

It did, and Anchor Distilling took off. The distillery has since added hopped vodka, Old Tom gin and genever-style gin to its lineup. Still, it never reached the fame of Anchor Steam Beer, and its production always remained minuscule, with just four stills tucked into the back of the brewery.

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Maytag sold both brewery and distillery in 2010 to Tony Foglio and Keith Greggor, former Skyy Vodka executives. Under Foglio, Greggor and another partner, Berry Bros. & Rudd, Anchor Distilling became an importer of spirits as well as a producer. (As of this month, Greggor is no longer a partner.) Its sales have since grown by 500 percent, according to the company. Many of Anchors imports  Luxardo maraschino liqueur; Tempus Fugit Gran Classico amaro; Nikka Japanese whiskey  are now staples of bars around the Bay Area and the country. (Its No. 1 item, surprisingly, isnt liquor at all, but Luxardos jarred cocktail cherries, which brought in $9 million last year.)

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

The new Hotaling & Co. logo reflects the companys dual identity. Two pillars represent distiller and importer, and the space between represents new opportunities to grow, Carr said.

That growth will mainly take the form of a new distillery and visitor center in San Francisco. Carr said the company hasnt chosen a location yet but is looking for an iconic San Francisco building closer to downtown, around 30,000 square feet. Classes, dinners, private events, lectures, a vintage cocktail book library are part of the plans for what Carr hopes will become the major hub for spirits education in the Bay Area.

The new home will allow the companys spirits production to grow, from its 20,000-case volume to perhaps as much as 50,000.

Its an ambitious plan for downtown San Francisco, with its notoriously high rents, but Carr said he never considered moving to, say, the East Bay. The company has built its identity on its San Francisco roots, he emphasized. Plus, San Francisco foot traffic doesnt hurt.

The transition from the Anchor Distilling-branded bottles to new Hotaling & Co. bottles will take place this year. A new whiskey product is already in the works. The existing spirits themselves will remain the same; Bruce Joseph, an employee of Anchor since 1980, is still the head distiller.

If the new Hotaling & Co. can pull it off, this pivot could represent not only a salvaging of the company after the Sapporo sale, but also a coming of age for a business that has always played second fiddle.

Sapporo forced a definitive moment, Carr said. In no way are we trying to turn our back on our history, but there comes a time when you have to leave the house and make something of yourself.

Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicles wine, beer and spirits writer. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley Instagram: @esthermobWASHINGTON  Hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as minors moved a step closer to potential deportation Thursday, as the Senate rejected three measures that would have granted them legal status.

None of the measures  one backed by President Trump that would sharply restrict legal immigration, and two bipartisan bills that the White House promised to veto  gained the 60-vote supermajority needed to pass the Senate and move on to the House.

The Senate has no action scheduled for Friday. With its Presidents Day recess set for next week, senators are unlikely to return until Feb. 26  one week before the expiration of an Obama administration program that has shielded nearly 700,000 young undocumented immigrants from potential deportation.

It looks like demagogues on the left and the right win again on immigration, said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who voted for all three measures.

Although Graham and senators in both parties said they would continue to work on the issue, many Republicans are turning their efforts to the House, where they are trying to round up votes for a bill that is more conservative than even the Trump-backed plan.

Hours before the Senate began voting, the White House all but doomed one of the bipartisan plans with a strongly worded veto threat.

It came moments after GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine led the group of 17 senators who supported the measure, including nine Republicans, touting what they described as a compromise that would provide legal status to the undocumented immigrants who came into the country as minors and are protected under the Obama administration program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Trump has ordered the program to be terminated on March 5.

The Collins measure would have limited legal immigration to the U.S. by barring young migrants from sponsoring their parents for visas. It would also have included $25 billion for the wall on the Mexican border that Trump made a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, and other security measures.

The measure fell short of the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster, mustering only a 54-45 vote. Eight Republicans broke with the White House and voted yes.

Californias Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, both strong supporters of providing the young immigrants legal status, split their votes  with Feinstein a yes and Harris a no.

As a senator from the state with the largest documented and undocumented immigrant population, I could not in good conscience support the legislation, Harris said. She called the wall a waste of taxpayer money and said she feared the billions of dollars for enforcement could be used to implement this administrations anti-immigrant agenda  one that targets California and its residents.

Feinstein called the measure flawed, but said that Democrats worked hard and made significant compromises to move a bill that addressed Republican concerns. Nevertheless, she said, Republicans voted it down.

Feinstein and Harris both voted to advance another bipartisan measure, sponsored by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Chris Coons, D-Del., that would have provided legal status for the young immigrants and money for a smart border wall that relies more on technology than physical barriers. It fell eight votes short of the 60 needed to end debate.

The Trump-backed bill fell well short even of a majority, failing 39-60 and losing 11 Republicans and gaining just one Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia. The plan would have provided a path to citizenship for people eligible for the DACA program. In exchange, it would have permitted future immigrants to sponsor only their spouses and minor children for admission, end the diversity visa lottery that allows entry to 50,000 people a year from countries with low levels of migration to the United States, and provide $25 billion for border security.

The Senate also voted down an amendment by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to withhold federal funds from sanctuary cities such as San Francisco that limit local law-enforcement cooperation with federal immigration agents.

Any hope for passage of Collins bipartisan bill evaporated with the veto threat from the White House, which said it would produce a flood of new illegal immigration in the coming months. It pointed to a provision that would limit immigration enforcement against anyone in the country without authorization before June 30, 2018, unless they were convicted felons or had committed at least three misdemeanors.

The administration said the June 30 date would have the effect of providing amnesty for all the estimated 11 million people now in the country without authorization. It said the bill would create an incentive for people to enter the country before June 30, or overstay their visas, on the belief that unless they commit a felony or multiple misdemeanors, they wouldnt be deported.

Collins said the provision was misunderstood, and was intended to act as a deterrent for people to attempt to enter the country illegally in the future.

Republican sponsors of the Trump-backed measure argued that it was the only one that stood a chance of becoming law by passing the House and securing the presidents signature. The 11 Republicans who voted no included pro-immigration senators who thought it too harsh, and conservatives who said it granted amnesty to undocumented immigrants.

With Senate action stalled, DACA supporters are looking to the courts. Two federal judges have ordered Trump to keep it in place, and the U.S. Supreme Court may decide Friday whether to accept the administrations appeal.

Immigration hard-liners are looking to the House and a measure sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. It would provide temporary, renewable legal status for 614,900 DACA participants, and eliminate extended-family visas not only for future but also current immigrants, including the backlog of 4 million family visa applications.

The bill would require employers to use an Internet-based system called E-verify to determine if workers are in the U.S. legally, criminalize illegal presence in the country and block federal funds to sanctuary cities.Legislation introduced Thursday would declare a three-year moratorium on the unnecessary arrests of youth in California foster-care shelters and residential facilities  an effort to halt a pipeline that has funneled hundreds of abused and neglected children into juvenile halls from Stockton to San Diego, often for minor misdeeds.

The Ending Criminalization of Foster Youth bill follows a Chronicle investigation that documented the long-hidden problem of relying on law enforcement for behavior management in the nations largest child-welfare system. Under the proposed law, state-licensed facilities that call law enforcement for non-emergencies  such as scuffles among kids and minor property damage  could lose their licenses to operate.

Group homes and shelters too often call law enforcement for behavioral problems that are minor, said Assemblyman Mike Gipson, D-Carson (Los Angeles County), who introduced the legislation. How does that help the child move forward who is already dealing with significant barriers growing up and being a foster child? We have to help these kids, and this creates some accountability.

AB2605 acknowledges that children in foster care have experienced trauma, both in the separation from their families and the circumstances that led to removal from their homes. The bill, sponsored by the San Francisco-based Youth Law Center, seeks to minimize additional trauma caused by law enforcement handling predictable emotional outbursts as crimes.

Brandy Olalia, a 21-year-old foster-youth advocate working at a Ventura County residential program, reacted to news of the bill with one word: Justice.

At age 15, Olalia was arrested at a Fresno group home and jailed after being denied a call to her social worker and throwing food and water to express her anger.

Maybe by this bill getting passed, its getting a little justice for myself, because I never really got that, and it definitely feels great, she said. I hope that no kid ever has to go through what I went through.

Current law provides no guidance or limitations on foster-care facilities relying on law enforcement to manage behavioral issues, according to Gipsons office. The proposed legislation specifies that staff at residential facilities contact law enforcement only when there is an emergency situation that poses a real and immediate physical threat to a child or other person. The bill also requires state-licensed facilities to update their policies and procedures accordingly.

Employees can still make reports to law enforcement that are required by law, including instances of child abuse or where a child is missing or has run away.

If signed into law, the requirements would remain in effect until Jan. 1, 2022, when its provisions would come up for reevaluation.

In introducing this bill, Assemblyman Gipson has courageously taken a major step to disrupt the pipeline from foster care to incarceration, said Jennifer Rodriguez, executive director of the Youth Law Center.

Rodriguez said that in the years her center has worked to protect foster youth from wrongful arrests, the young people are too often blamed for their behavior, rather than facility staff who turn to law enforcement as a first response rather than a last resort.

A moratorium recognizes that there is catastrophic harm in tolerating use of police to enforce rules and manage the behavior of children, she added, and ensures that we fulfill our responsibility to parent rather than punish.

The Chronicles investigation, published in May 2017, revealed that hundreds of children in Californias county-run foster-care shelters had been arrested in 2015 and 2016 following incidents as minor as clinging to a staff members leg and poking a caregiver with a candy cane. In most cases, the charges were quickly dismissed after brief spells behind bars.

Childrens shelters are often the first stop in foster care for children removed from their homes following allegations of abuse or neglect, and also serve youth who are between placements in foster or group homes. As part of a statewide shift away from group care, most counties have moved away from the mostly outmoded shelter model. Three of the 10 shelters operating in California last year have closed.

The report inspired a state attorney generals office review. And county leaders at the facility with the most arrests  the Mary Graham Childrens Shelter in San Joaquin County  pledged new training and policies to address conditions that led to arrests for minor misbehavior.

Although there were fewer arrests at Mary Graham in 2017 than in the past, updated arrest records and incident reports show that children were still locked up at the nearby detention center 33 times, with most of those bookings occurring in the last four months of the year.

Since September, records show, sheriffs deputies made nearly two dozen arrests of children as young as 11 years old. In line with past practice, juvenile justice authorities tossed out most of the cases because they did not warrant incarceration or criminal charges, including the case of a 12-year-old boy who was arrested after climbing onto the shelter roof and tossing tiles onto the ground.

The child spent the day in custody before probation officials sent him back to Mary Graham with no pending charges.

When asked about the continued arrests at Mary Graham, Michael Miller, director of the San Joaquin County Human Services Agency, which oversees the shelter, stressed that juvenile hall bookings from the shelter had dropped significantly and said many in recent months had occurred after children committed serious property crimes off campus.

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.

Unsatisfied with local efforts, Gipson, whose assembly district encompasses portions of South Los Angeles, determined that legislation was needed to protect foster youth from unnecessary arrests in all state-licensed foster-care facilities. His office is carrying four other bills that seek to address a variety of ongoing needs for the more than 60,000 children in foster care in California  from updating the 17-year-old Foster Youth Bill of Rights to ensuring that youth in institutions have access to the Internet.

Olalia, whose story was featured in The Chronicles investigation, said she is pleased to have helped inspire the legislation about foster-care arrests. I thought by sharing my story, it would bring awareness, she said. But I didnt think it would be this big.

Karen de Sa, Cynthia Dizikes and Joaquin Palomino are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kdesa@sfchronicle.com, cdizikes@sfchronicle.com, jpalomino@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @karendesa1, @cdizikes, @JoaquinPalomino

Proposed law

What: AB 2605 would create a three-year moratorium on non-mandated law enforcement calls by foster-care facilities for behavioral management of youth in non-emergency situations. Each facility would be required to change its emergency intervention plan to provide specific guidance on when and when not to call law enforcement and must specify behavior-management interventions.

Why: Many foster-youth care facilities continue to rely on law enforcement as the primary behavior management response to minor incidents causing no injuries. Youth in the foster-care system are being criminalized, further traumatized and funneled into the justice system by foster-care facilities licensed and compensated to manage the behavior that law enforcement is being inappropriately relied upon to handle.

Fostering Failure

Read The Chronicles in-depth, multimedia investigation of how Californias foster-care shelters have criminalized hundreds of children: www.sfchronicle.com/fostering-failure

Contact us

Have an investigative news tip for The Chronicle? Email iteam@sfchronicle.com, or, to contact us confidentially: https://projects.sfchronicle.com/newstips/Sorry for inconvenience!

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2. Click on "Clear recent history."Amid the horror and grief and disgust of the shooting Wednesday that left 17 dead in Parkland, Fla., its worth pausing to reflect on the school massacres that seemed unthinkable at the time.

On Aug. 1, 1966, Charles Whitman climbed a 27-story tower at the University of Texas and shot and killed 14 people, wounding 31 others. On Jan. 17, 1989, Patrick Purdy fired 106 rounds from a semiautomatic rifle at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, killing five children and wounding 32. On April 20, 1999, 15 were killed in a massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. On Dec. 14, 2012, 20 young children and six adult staff members were slaughtered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Surely, Sandy Hook would be the turning point. How could members of Congress possibly think their reflexively issued thoughts and prayers would be a sufficient response to the madness made possible by military-style weapons in civilian society? How could Americans possibly accept the rationale in the aftermath of yet another mass shooting that the weaponry was not the issue and to suggest otherwise was to politicize a tragedy.

Congress has failed to pass a single significant piece of gun-control legislation since Sandy Hook. The worst mass shootings in modern U.S. history have occurred since then: Las Vegas (58 dead on Oct. 1, 2017) and Orlando (49 dead on June 12, 2016).

And then on Wednesday came another rampage. A 19-year-old former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School armed with an AR-15-style rifle  the weapon of choice in many recent mass shootings  pulled a fire alarm, sending students pouring out of classrooms, and the slaughter ensued. It was at least the eighth U.S. school shooting causing fatalities or injuries in the first seven weeks of the year.

Thoughts and prayers are not enough.

The 1989 Cleveland Elementary School shooting led California to impose the nations first ban on assault weapons. In 1994, after more gun devastation, Congress passed a national assault weapons ban, but it expired in 2004, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has been unable so far to reinstate it.

It is an American outrage that steps as sensible as closing loopholes on background checks or preventing suspected terrorists from purchasing guns are stymied in Congress. And so, once again, a nation endures the heartache and the furor inflicted by a deranged individual with weaponry that do not belong on our streets.

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.Steven Summers is a 61-year-old college graduate, has a part-time job with the Oakland Parks and Recreation Department, and survives in part on the $121 in food stamp benefits he gets every month. Just like 1 in 20 other Alameda County residents does.

He may get a few more dollars in his pocket because of the tax bill that President Trump signed last year. But what Trump giveth, Trump can take away: Summers stands to lose a lot more if the White Houses plan to gut funding for the food-aid program for the poorest Americans goes through.

The way that whats officially known as the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program  SNAP  works now is that 42 million Americans like Summers buy whatever meat, fruit, vegetables and other foodstuffs they want at 260,000 grocery stores nationwide by using a debit card that stores their benefits. Recipients cant use food stamps to buy pet food, and they cant use them to buy alcohol or cigarettes.

This week, the Trump administration proposed cutting the program by $260 billion over 10 years, or 30 percent. Half the savings would come by changing the way Summers and other recipients receive their food benefit.

Under the plan, half of Summers $121 a month would come in the form of a box of nonperishable food like peanut butter, beans, pasta, cereal and canned products. The administration says the boxes would be filled with food home grown by American farmers and producers.

But dont mistake this for farm-to-table fine dining. Under the plan, there would be no fresh fruit, vegetables or meat. This proposal is about enabling the government to save money by buying in bulk.

Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, compared this to a Blue Apron-type program. For you nonfoodies unfamiliar with Blue Apron, its a meal kit delivered with all of the ingredients tenderly wrapped and premeasured down to the last tablespoon of dukkah seasoning.

Michael Macor/The Chronicle

One of the meals on next weeks Blue Apron menu: Beef Medallions and Scallion Salsa Verde with Potatoes and Broccoli. It will include four beef medallions, a half-pound of fresh broccoli, two scallions, one lemon, one red onion, one clove of garlic, one-quarter teaspoon of red pepper flakes and one tablespoon of what the Blue Aproners describe as Weeknight Hero Spice Blend (Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Smoked Paprika, & Whole Dried Parsley).

Price per serving of a Blue Apron meal: $10. Price per serving of a SNAP meal: $1.40.

Ive never heard this idea from anywhere, and Ive been doing this for 25 years, said Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. This is saying to 34 million (SNAP beneficiaries potentially affected by the proposal), Give us back half of your benefits. Well buy the food for you, and you wont have any say in it.

Mulvaney says that this program is a way to cut fraud. Its defenders point out that the fraud rate in SNAP is low  less than 1 percent of benefits go to households that are ineligible.

The proposal leaves the administration vulnerable to accusations of political hypocrisy  after all, conservative mantra is that individuals, not government, should make decisions for themselves  but a larger stumbling block might be the cries of stores that now take SNAP benefits.

Michael Macor/The Chronicle

To put the value of this program in raw economic terms, $192 million in SNAP benefits last year went to 112,000 Alameda County residents like Summers, according to the Alameda County Community Food Bank. Big retailers like Walmart and Safeway arent going to be happy if the Trump Blue Apron Box becomes a reality and cuts into their grocery traffic. As those benefits circulate in Alameda County, they create $344 million in economic activity, according to the food bank.

Summers also worries about how people like him would physically deal with a big box of food that consists in large part of cans.

People like Summers have to go through a lot now to get their food. To make his benefits stretch, Summers makes weekly trips to a food pantry near the Oakland-Emeryville border on produce day.

It takes him 20 minutes to ride there on his bike. He waits up to an hour or so in line, then stuffs 20 pounds or so of carrots, onions and apples in his backpack and in bags draped from his handlebars. Then he rides home.

That ride would be a lot tougher under the administrations proposal. And it wouldnt be any easier for disabled people or senior citizens who get around on the bus.

Were talking about a box for a month that contains canned food. How big and heavy is something like that going to be? Summers said. Who is even going to be able to move that?

Summers personal story isnt unusual. In the East Bay, nearly half of recipients have jobs, like he does. Summers was unemployed for a time during the great recession, like countless others, and counted on food stamps to help him crawl out of being homeless for a year.

Im just tired of being poor, Summers said. Im tired of the stress of it. Of just knowing that at any moment the bottom could drop out because of politics. Those kind of things that I have no control over.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoliWASHINGTON  Democrats and Republicans maneuvered to blame each other for any failure to resolve the fate of hundreds of thousands of young immigrants as the Senate inched toward votes on various immigration proposals that all appeared to lack enough support to pass.

President Trump issued a statement Wednesday saying he would oppose any plan that fell short of a bill sponsored by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and six other Republicans that includes his four pillars. One of those is a path to citizenship for 1.8 million undocumented immigrants brought here as children. The others all appeal to immigration hard-liners: visa restrictions for relatives of future immigrants, cancellation of a visa lottery for countries that send few immigrants to the U.S., and $25 billion for a wall on the Mexican border and other enforcement measures.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, appeared to be nearing agreement on a bill that would meet Trumps border funding demands, and, to the dismay of immigrant groups, restrict the ability of young undocumented migrants to sponsor their parents for citizenship.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said any bill must be approved by the end of the week. Votes were expected to start Thursday, but Senate leaders were still negotiating which bills would be considered. Democrats have resisted voting on politically charged amendments such as one by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., that would withhold federal funds from sanctuary cities, such as San Francisco, that limit local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration agents.

The Grassley bill would provide legal status to more than twice the estimated 690,000 undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors and are protected from deportation under an Obama administration program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

Trump canceled the program last fall, giving Congress until March 5 to create a replacement. Two federal judges have ordered the program to continue for now. If Congress fails to act, it is likely that the Supreme Court would ultimately decide whether the program survives.

I wouldnt bet my car, but I would bet lunch that they might not end up with anything by the end of the week, said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which seeks reductions in immigration.

A White House official, speaking at a background briefing on condition of anonymity, said the administration had already made dramatic concessions. The official said any bill that moves to the left of Grassleys legislation would be rejected by the House and the president wouldnt be able to sign it.

J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

The official said that refusing to take up the White House offer of citizenship for young immigrants known as Dreamers creates a moment of great peril for the Democratic Party.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that only in a Kafkaesque world would Democrats be blamed for Congress failure to protect the young immigrants. We are in this pickle  in this worsening pickle, in this bad situation  because President Trump chose to end the DACA program, he said.

Democrats and their allies said theyve made big concessions by agreeing to tougher border security, including money for a wall.

If nothing passes, its because Trump is insisting on all these poison pills, said Tyler Moran, managing director of DC Immigration Hub, a pro-immigrant activist group. The fate of the Dreamers is on their hands.

David Reimers, a professor emeritus at New York University and an expert on U.S. immigration policy, said voting patterns since the 1990s show that the GOP is increasingly anti-immigration and the Democratic Party is increasingly liberal on immigration. That means we have a blockage that makes it very hard for legislation to get through.

Democrats are opposed to any changes in legal immigration, especially the ability of new immigrants to sponsor their extended families. Current law allows immigrants to sponsor not only their spouses and minor children, but their parents, adult siblings and adult children. Called family unification by supporters and chain migration by opponents, these provisions were created by a landmark 1965 law that transformed the ethnic composition of the United States and accounts for most of the 1.2 million legal immigrants who enter the country each year.

Unless youre a Native American, or your ancestors were kidnapped and brought over on slave ships, everyone has an immigrant background in this country, said Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. Most immigrants came with, or pulled over, their family members, in particular their immediately family members. It is just part of the history of this country, and we should not deny its most recent immigrants that opportunity as well.

Most Democrats support a bill by Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and John McCain, R-Ariz., that would shield young immigrants and provide for a smart border wall that relies more on sensors and other technology than physical barriers. A companion House bill by Reps. Will Hurd, R-Texas, and Pete Aguilar, D-Redlands (San Bernardino County), has 27 GOP House co-sponsors, including San Joaquin Valley Republicans Jeff Denham and David Valadao, both of whom have large Latino populations in their districts.

The potential Collins compromise had support from several centrists in both parties but remained a work in progress. It faced strong opposition from many Republicans and the White House, as well as from pro-immigration groups who oppose any restrictions on the ability of DACA-eligible immigrants to sponsor their parents.

To cut the kids off from their parents is cruel, but a central demand of Republicans throughout the negotiations of these various bills, said Marshall Fitz, director of immigration at the Emerson Collective, a social justice advocacy group. It would require a lot of soul searching among Dreamers whether they would even be able to support that.

Colorado Sens. Cory Gardner, a Republican, and Michael Bennet, a Democrat, also have a proposal to provide a path to citizenship for young immigrants, meet Trumps $25 billion funding demand for border security, and make no changes to family visas. The White House shot down a plan by Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., to extend the DACA program for three years.

Under pressure from conservatives, House Republican leaders began assessing whether they had enough votes for a bill by House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., that is far more conservative than the Grassley plan backed by the White House.

The Goodlatte bill would provide temporary, renewable legal status for just 614,900 DACA participants, and eliminate extended-family visas not only for future but also current immigrants, including the backlog of 4 million family visa applications. The bill would require employers to use an Internet-based system called E-verify to determine if workers are in the country legally, criminalize illegal presence in the country and block federal funds to sanctuary cities.

Carolyn Lochhead is The San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent. Email: clochhead@sfchronicle.comIn his Between Meals column, Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer writes about the restaurants he visits each week as he searches for the next Top 100 Restaurants. His main dining reviews, written after three or more visits, appear in the Sunday Food + Home section.

One of the most frequently asked questions I have to answer is where to dine in Napa. What surprises me is how, when I mention Miminashi, no one has heard of it. Even after two years in business the restaurant seems to be an undiscovered gem, even among locals.

Miminashi has become one of my favorite restaurants in the Napa Valley. I like it because it does not go the expected route, and instead offers something that expands the dining scene.

The owner is Curtis Di Fede, who until 2014 was chef and partner at the southern Italian-influenced Oenotri. During the hiatus after he left that restaurant, he ended up in Japan and fell in love with the food there. When he returned home, he realized the valley could use an izakaya. Turns out, hes as competent cooking Japanese food as he was Italian.

Michael Bauer/The Chronicle

Di Fede often handles the robata grill and turns out great skewers ($8 for two) using just about every part of the chicken: the skin, knee cartilage, heart, oyster and inner breast.

He also does a superb job with chawanmushi ($12), the savory Japanese custard with asparagus and sugar snap peas.

The menu is condensed somewhat from when Miminashi first opened, but it only seems to have strengthened the experience. The yellowfin tuna sashimi ($15) is some of the best Ive had, as is the hamachi collar ($18).

Im getting tired of the Brussels sprout appetizers that appear on just about every menu, regardless of the cuisine. Not at Miminashi, where Di Fede shaves the sprouts ($13) and tosses them with marinated tofu, sugar snap peas, sesame and a wasabi vinaigrette. He scatters crispy noodles on top, which adds a much appreciated crunchy texture. Another winner is the kombu-grilled albacore belly ($18). The long fillet is accompanied by a grilled orange half, which diners squeeze over the fish, and a side dish of grated daikon.

The soft cream (whether milk, chocolate, peanut butter or graham cracker flavor) is a great way to end. I particularly like it swirled on top of the mochi Blondie cake ($10).

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

While food is always the most important element of any dining experience, there are at least three other factors that make me appreciate the restaurant. One is the beautifully designed interior, with 20-foot ceilings covered in poplar wood, designed to look like interconnecting pagodas.

Another is the restaurants smooth service. The third strength: Miminashis interesting sake and wine list and its cocktails. Diners can leaf through the Cocktail Rolodex, a file of 125 drink recipes (all $12) created by bar manager Andrew Salazar, and choose the cocktail they like, whether its a Brainstorm, a Fourth Regiment, an Old Fashioned or a Ramos Fizz.

What Im trying to say is that Miminashi is a restaurant that does everything right.

821 Coombs St. (between 2nd and 3rd streets), Napa; (707) 254-9464 or www.miminashi.com. Lunch weekdays; dinner nightly. Full bar. Reservations and credit cards accepted.Prabal, in woke color: Prabal Gurungs runways have become do-not-miss events. His February 2017 show, with its game-changing finale with a parade of body-diverse models in feminist-slogan T-shirts, was one of the seminal political moments of a very political season. In the fall, Gurung lured feminist icon Gloria Steinem to her first-ever fashion week show, giving him distinction as one of the most woke front rows of the fashion weeks. On Feb. 12, #MeToo founder Tarana Burke was front and center, and Gurung closed his show with a parade of models walking without music en masse to the photographers pit carrying white roses, a sign of solidarity with #MeToo that was also used at the Grammys. The attention to activism, however, shouldnt minimize how consistently good Gurungs fashion is. The Himalayan designer has looked to regional Asian cultures effectively in the past and turned to the matriarchal Mosuo tribe of China as part of this seasons story. The knits, with their tribal motifs and oversize silhouette, were dressed up with tribal sequined skirts and woolly hem details; other Prabal signatures like the open-cut ruffled frocks also appeared. The rainbow of hues gave the collection an optimistic overall impression (especially in the mixed florals) that felt fresh and in keeping with his empowerment ethos. Power, especially feminine power, doesnt always have to be dressed in black and white.

At Oscar, a balancing act: As the lights went down at the Oscar de la Renta show in the grand domed lobby of the Cunard Building near Wall Street, with plastic that was left on the runway, we momentarily wondered if we were about to see an even more avant-garde ODLR than at the previous seasons modern art-inspired show. The runway plastic was a production-team mistake, but designers Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia continued to push the house forward with a collection rich in modern romance. The motion of a fluffy red tulle coat passing the stark winter trees lining the runway was enough to make any longtime de la doyennes heart flutter. The Dries Van Noten-reminiscent fauna printed day wear is as good an answer as any to how to dress the shrinking ladies-who-lunch market. There were also the classic Oscar ball gowns, this time printed in soft painted florals or embroidered with the same. But the designers are also looking to the next generations of customers with separates, knits and more progressive cocktail and evening choices. A fluttering circle-organza-disc dress, for example, feels perfect for a young starlet on a red carpet. Its not easy taking over an established house (as Wes Gordon will learn at the helm of Carolina Herrera), but Garcia and Kim seem to have struck a balance, saving the truly more boundary-pushing pieces for their Monse brand.An argument involving five men in the Mission District of San Francisco led to two of them being hospitalized with stab wounds, one of whom was in life-threatening condition, police said Tuesday.

The bloodshed occurred about 6:20 p.m. in front of San Francisco General Hospital on the 1000 block of Potrero Street. Initially, two men who were roughly 19 or 20 years old approached two other men, ages 25 and 34, and a verbal altercation broke out, said Officer Giselle Linanne, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Police Department.A state appeals court upheld a San Francisco ordinance Wednesday that protects teachers, other school staff and child care center employees from evictions during the school year, reversing a judges ruling that struck down the law.

The measure, approved unanimously by the Board of Supervisors, took effect in April 2016. It prohibited most no-fault evictions against school employees during the academic year, requiring landlords to wait until summer. It also barred such evictions of families with children under 18, who were already protected by an ordinance passed in 2010.

Supporters of the law said most teachers and other school employees could no longer afford to live in the city. A Chronicle analysis in 2016 found that a teacher with an income of $65,240 a year, the school district average, would have to pay nearly two-thirds of his or her income for a one-bedroom apartment in the city at the median rent of $3,500 a month.

The ordinance was in effect less than five months before it was overturned by Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay, who said less-restrictive state laws on evictions and property rights prevented cities from passing their own limitations. The First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco disagreed Wednesday and said the city had acted within its authority.

Cities can limit the substantive grounds for eviction, the court said, quoting an earlier ruling. It said San Francisco had legally valid reasons for limiting teachers and students evictions during the school year.

The purpose of the ordinance is to protect children from the disruptive impact of moving during the school year or losing a relationship with a school employee who moves during the school year, Justice Mark Simons said in the 3-0 ruling.

Because it gives certain groups of tenants protection from eviction during a specific period, he said, the ordinance is a permissible limitation upon the landlords property rights, rather than an invalid limitation on the overall right to evict under state law.

The ordinance was challenged by two real estate groups, the San Francisco Apartment Association and the Small Property Owners of San Francisco Institute. Their lawyer, Andrew Zacks, said they would appeal to the state Supreme Court. The ordinance will remain blocked while the appeal is pending.

For property owners in San Francisco, what this ruling means, if upheld, is that if a property owner needs to access a piece of property to make repairs  lets say a boiler breaks in November  they wont have any way to get access until the summer months, Zacks said. Its a problem that the citys created. We hope the Supreme Court will consider the importance of the issue.

City officials are pleased the court upheld San Franciscos work to protect teachers and students from losing their homes through no fault of their own during the school year, said John Cote, spokesman for City Attorney Dennis Herrera. Uprooting and displacing children or their teachers mid-year does nothing to benefit San Francisco, while, according to published studies, it can do plenty of harm to the students learning process.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @BobEgelkoThe Vallejo police officer who shot and killed 21-year-old Angel Ramos in his home in January 2017 will not face criminal charges for his actions.

Timely news, now that Vallejo police have yet another officer-involved shooting to contend with.

Why is it that the judicial system seems to work differently for police officers than it does for private citizens? What kind of message does that send to the community?

Ive written several columns about the Ramos case, and many things about it continue to haunt me. The police account of what happened doesnt match up to what the family says happened inside the Ramos home the night of the shooting. Police say they were dispatched to the Ramos home after complaints of a fight. No one disputes there was a struggle between Ramos and a 62 tall, 250-lb 16-year-old. But police say Ramos had a knife. The family says Ramos was unarmed during the fight, which ended with an officer firing four shots at Ramos.

Sharon Henry, Solano Countys chief deputy district attorney, shared the news about the Ramos decision in an email to me Tuesday.

I finished review of all the reports and materials submitted to my office and based upon that review, our decision is that the officer who shot Angel Ramos did so lawfully to protect the life of another person and accordingly, we are not filing criminal charges against the officer, she wrote.

Henry didnt respond to my request for an interview.

I learned of Henrys decision before Ramos family did. For the past week, Ive sent Henry daily emails requesting information on the conclusion of her offices investigation.

So, after getting the news, I reached out to Melissa Nold, the attorney for the Ramos family, for a comment. Then, Alicia Saddler, Ramos sister, called me.

She was sobbing, which made it hard for me to hear what she was saying.

I read Saddler the email from Henry as Saddler drove to her mothers job to be with her.

Like I dont get it. What evidence is she looking at, Saddler said to me. I just dont understand it. It doesnt make any sense at all.

Ramos has been dead for a year, and his family still hasnt seen the autopsy report. A lawsuit the family filed names Zach Jacobsen as the Vallejo police officer who shot Ramos.

Just like that, another officer in a questionable shooting is cleared and a family is left with unanswered questions.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Email: otaylor@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @otisrtaylorjrRecommendations of recent books from the staffs of a rotating list of Bay Area independent bookstores. This weeks list is from Book Passage Ferry Building, San Francisco Bay Trail #42, San Francisco. (415) 835-1020. www.bookpassage.com

How to Say I Love You, by Hannah Eliot; illustrated by Shirley Ng-Benitez: A sweet board book teaches I Love You in 11 languages.

This Is How It Always Is, by Laurie Frankel: Perfect for book clubs, Frankels often funny and always loving novel follows how a family supports its child, Claude, who announces that when he grows up he wants to be a girl.

The Great Alone, by Kristin Hannah: The Alaskan wilderness draws Leni Allbrights PTSD-wracked Vietnam vet father, and when the 13-year-old and her parents get to their land outside of Homer, the pristine grandeur offers hope. But reality and winter take their toll, and Leni is soon relying on her wits for survival.

Our Lady of the Prairie, by Thisbe Nissen: Long-married Iowa college prof Phillippa can relax, as her volatile daughter is settled down and planning her wedding to her loving, lapsed Amish fiance. But like the tornado that leaves the wedding day in disarray, Phillippas headlong plunge into a passionate affair sends waves through their lives.

NONFICTION

The Bright Hour : A Memoir of Living and Dying, by Nina Riggs: Crushingly sad and exquisitely inspiring, Riggs memoir details her last year of life: saying goodbye to her husband and young sons, enduring treatments for cancer, and offering her thoughts on what makes a meaningful life. Now in paperback.

What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia, by Elizabeth Catte: Catte presents a pithy, well-documented account of the Appalachia she knows, and how it differs from peoples misconceptions.

The Monk of Mokha, by Dave Eggers: When he learned that Yemen had centuries ago been the worlds premier coffee bean grower, the Tenderloin-raised Mokhtar Alkhanshali determined to bring his familys country back to prominence. He succeeded  through daring, bravado and his wits.On Tuesday afternoon, the New York Times announced that it had hired Quinn Norton, a journalist and an essayist known for her work at Wired magazine, as the editorial boards lead opinion writer on technology.

On Tuesday evening, Norton tweeted that she would no longer be joining the Times.

Between the two statements, a social media storm had erupted, with Norton at the center of it, because of her use of slurs on Twitter and her friendship with Andrew Auernheimer, who gained infamy as an Internet troll going by the name weev. Auernheimer now works for the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website.

The Twitter campaign against Norton focused on a tweet from October in which she said that weev is a terrible person, & an old friend of mine. It also turned up years-old tweets by Norton in which she used slurs against gay people and another in which she retweeted a racial slur.

James Bennet, the editorial page editor of the Times, said in a statement Tuesday night: Despite our review of Quinn Nortons work and our conversations with her previous employers, this was new information to us. Based on it, weve decided to go our separate ways.

Norton, who did not immediately reply to a request for comment, tweeted: Im sorry I cant do the work I wanted to do with them. I wish there had been a way, but ultimately, they need to feel safe with how the net will react to their opinion writers.

In a blog post published soon after the announcement that she would join the Times, Norton said those who had interviewed her for the position made it clear that they werent going to get put off by a little weird.

She added, As for how weird, well, thats for them to discover.

The discovery process did not take long.

Jim Windolf is a New York Times writer.Last year, Airbnb started a lobbying campaign as President Trump was calling for limits on American travel to Cuba.

The vacation-rental booking site, which considers Cuba one of its fastest-growing markets, fought hard to ensure the Trump administrations updated rules allowed American travelers to stay in Cubans homes.As older people continue to inch Facebooks user count up, teenagers are increasingly leaving the social media powerhouse in favor of a service they feel they have greater control over: Snapchat.

If you have teens in your house or a grandma on Facebook, this may come as no surprise. Younger users like outlets that emphasize visuals, and they like sharing posts away from adults prying eyes. But the migration is happening even faster than expected.

The number of Facebook users ages 12 to 17 is expected to decrease by 5.6 percent in 2018, according to a forecast from New York market research company eMarketer. That means that for the first time, less than half of U.S. Internet users in that age group are expected to use Facebook at least once a month in 2018.

Its not just the teens leaving. Overall, Facebook is expected to lose 2 million users who are 24 or younger this year, according to eMarketer. Snapchat, on the other hand, is expected to add 1.9 million users in that age group.

Instagram, which Facebook owns, is still bigger in the U.S. than Snapchat. But it is expected to add just 1.6 million users in the 24 and younger group this year.

Facebook declined to comment, and Snapchat did not respond.

Posts and messages on Snapchat disappear after a short time, and that makes it fun for the younger age group, said Debra Aho Williamson, a principal analyst at eMarketer.

On Snapchat, she said, its less likely that youre going to go Oh gosh, a year ago I sent that or posted that? Ew. Whereas on Facebook, people of older generations, that doesnt necessarily matter to them. They like that posterity.

Facebook is adding monthly users, albeit slowly. It is expected to hit 169.5 million users in the U.S. this year, up less than 1 percent from 2017, according to the eMarketer forecast. People ages 55 and up make up 22.5 percent of those users, second only to the 25-34 age group.

Thats why its uncool to that group who is 14 years old and they want to share what theyre doing with their friends but they dont want grandma to see, said Molly Lynch, founder of Chicagos Lynch Communications Group.

Younger users feel like they have control on Snapchat, said Lynch, who also teaches a social media and brand personalities class at DePaul Universitys College of Communication. Instagram shares the cool factor, allowing users to create beautiful feeds. Young people know how to harness engagement with their followers there, she said, ballooning their likes and boosting their confidence along the way.

Businesses choosing to advertise on any social media platform will really have to define their target audience and figure out where theyre going to be, Lynch said.

Right now, Facebook wont go away, she said. It just wont be as cool to certain age groups.

Ally Marotti is a Chicago Tribune writer.Passengers on Uniteds Flight 1175 from San Francisco to Honolulu were understandably concerned this week as one of the 777s two engines started to fall apart when the plane was still over the open ocean, more than half an hour from landing.

But they didnt really have to worry, thanks to ETOPS.

Several decades ago, twin-engine jets (like Boeings 777) were not allowed to fly the 2,500 miles between the U.S. mainland and Hawaii  or on other long, over-ocean routes. Those routes required jets with three or four engines. The Federal Aviation Administration limited two-engine jet aircraft to routes where they were never more than 60 minutes from the nearest airport. All that changed with the advent of ETOPS.

TravelSkills with Chris McGinnis sponsored by See More Collapse

The FAA has detailed regulations around ETOPS, which stands for Extended-range Twin-engine Operations. Those rules dictate how far two-engine jets are allowed to be from the nearest airport, in case they lose an engine and have to make an emergency landing. The FAA calculates how long it thinks a damaged aircraft can safely fly on one engine before having to land.

The original rule imposed a 60-minute limit on twin-engine jets  the route could never take the plane to a point more than 60 minutes from the nearest airport where it could safely land (i.e., an airport with a runway large enough to accommodate the plane). Thats why several decades back, you only saw three or four-engine jets like the 747, DC-10, MD-11 or L-1011 on trans-oceanic routes.

But as new technology made aircraft engines more powerful, efficient and reliable, the rules were gradually changed to allow twin-engine jets to fly routes that took them farther away from any airports. The 60-minute limit was changed to 180 minutes in 1988, and gradually increased as new aircraft types and engine models were introduced.

For example, depending on the specific model and engine type, Boeings 777s and 787s are ETOPS rated at up to 330 minutes (5-1/2 hours), and the new Airbus A350 at 370 minutes (which means it can be up to 2,800 miles from the nearest airport and still land safely if it loses one of its two engines).

Thats why twin-engine jets have gradually replaced four-engine planes on most international routes: The newest wide-body twin-engine jets are cleared to fly almost any route on earth, except maybe over Antarctica.

Here's a good video that gives a clear and simple explanation of ETOPS.

Getting FAAs ETOPS certification for a new aircraft type is not a simple matter, however. Besides subjecting the aircraft to extensive testing, an airline has to show it has everything in place to handle a lost-engine emergency, from properly trained staff and mechanics to plans for accommodating and evacuating passengers from a diversionary airport in case the plane has to land there.

Thats why when Southwest Airlines announced plans last fall to begin flying to Hawaii with its next-generation Boeing 737 MAX 8s, it couldnt say exactly when the service would begin because it knew it has to go through a months-long ETOPS approval process. Virgin America had to go through a similarly rigorous process before it launched its Airbus A321 flights to Hawaii in 2015.

Related: Review-Virgin America SFO-Honolulu nonstop A321

So, thanks to ETOPS, those United passengers, who were only half an hour from landing when the engine cover fell off, were pretty safe-- but a full investigation will tell the whole story. The 777 on that flight was said to be almost 24 years old, one of the oldest in Uniteds fleet.

The question for United now has to be: Why did the cowling on that planes Number 2 engine come off  and why didnt the other one?

UPDATE: Listen to pilots and Air Traffic Control calmly converse as UA1175 lands at Honolulu

What do you think about flying twin-engine jets over oceans? Please leave your comments below.

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Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis.A homeless woman accused of stabbing two people in San Francisco in disputes over portable toilets was found guilty Wednesday of second-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon and other charges.

Lizette Cauich, a 25-year-old Los Angeles native, wiped away tears as the verdict was read in the unusual case in which she admitted to killing 58-year-old Mitzi Campbell in June 2016 in a crime captured on video.

Cauich took the witness stand in Superior Court in her own defense, saying she stabbed the flagger at a South of Market construction site in self-defense after Campbell pulled her hair  an assertion disputed by prosecutors.

Cauichs boyfriend, 44-year-old Oscar Mendez, was found guilty of accessory after the fact in Campbells killing and assault with a deadly weapon in another daylight stabbing that he and Cauich committed 12 days earlier in the Tenderloin.

The Los Angeles couple with a tumultuous past had agreed to meet in San Francisco in May 2016 to reconcile. Jobless and homeless, they drank 40-ounce beers and used methamphetamine during the day while staying in shelters at night.

Their bout of violence started May 29, when Cauich approached a parking lot at Eddy and Taylor streets to use the portable toilet. When worker Amar Dahmi refused her, she whipped out two knives and attacked, prosecutors said.

The worker fended her off with a trash can, but she returned with Mendez and another man. They stabbed Dahmi several times before he stumbled away toward the Tenderloin police station. Dahmi survived and testified in the case.

The attackers werent caught by June 10, when Cauich approached a construction site on Shipley Street near a Shell station. The workers sent her away, and in security video from a nearby store, Cauich is seen repeatedly stabbing Campbell.

Campbell, a grandmother whose family members held vigil in the gallery every day of the trial, fell dead at the scene.

Defense attorneys argued that Campbells pulling of Cauichs hair triggered the defendants post-traumatic stress disorder. Cauich was said to have suffered years of sexual and physical abuse, causing her to quickly turn to violence to protect herself.

The defense, though, presented no video or eyewitness evidence that Campbell had assaulted Cauich.

Mendez arrived at the scene and attempted to escort Cauich away. He was found guilty of accessory as well as possession of a dirk or dagger.

Cauich was found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon in the attack on Dahmi. The jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on whether the couple committed attempted murder in that incident. The San Francisco district attorneys office must decide whether to retry the couple on the charge.

A sentencing date has not been set.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffskyWarner Bros.

In a case of bringing coals to Newcastle and selling snow to the Eskimos, Detective Chinatown 2 is an action movie imported from China. As we already have that aspect of cinema covered many times over  and as this is only an OK version of the form, nothing outstanding  it would be hard to make a case for why anyone, or at least anyone who doesnt speak Mandarin, should run out to see this movie.

However, there is one thing that will be of particular interest to American viewers, and thats seeing America through another cultures eyes. The film takes place, for example, in New York City, and something about the physical portrait of New York is just a little different from anything Ive ever seen. The buildings and the bridges look beautiful, bathed in an unnatural kind of sunlight, while the streets are menacing.WASHINGTON The judge presiding over the criminal prosecutions of two of the men charged in special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation chided lawyers Wednesday for the number of sealed filings theyve made, and said she was determined to set a trial date soon to keep the case moving forward.

Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman for President Trump, and his business associate Rick Gates were in federal court on Wednesday for a routine status conference. Both were indicted in October on charges related to lobbying work on behalf of a Russia-friendly Ukrainian political party. They have pleaded not guilty.PARKLAND, Fla.  Claims that the expelled student accused of killing 17 people at his former South Florida high school had previously trained with a white nationalist militia in the state, participating in paramilitary drills in Tallahassee, couldn't be corroborated by authorities tracking the group.

Early Thursday, a representative of the Republic of Florida militia told researchers at the Anti-Defamation League that shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz, 19, had been "brought up" into the group by one of its members, the nonprofit said in a blog post.

Lt. Grady Jordan is a spokesman for the Leon County Sheriff's Office in Tallahassee, where the white nationalist militia known as the Republic of Florida is based. Jordan said Thursday that his office has arrested militia leader Jordan Jereb at least four times since January 2014 and has been monitoring the group's membership.

He says his office has "very solid" information on the group and "there's no known ties that we have that we can connect" 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz with the group.

The Republic of Florida calls itself "a white civil rights organization fighting for white identitarian politics" on its website, adding that its "current short-term goals are to occupy urban areas to recruit suburban young whites" in pursuit of "the ultimate creation of a white ethnostate."

A training video the group posted online shows members practicing military maneuvers in camouflage clothing and saluting each other, along with music that says: "They call me Nazi / and I'm proud of it."

The group's representative, Jordan Jereb, told The Associated Press that he didn't know Cruz personally and that the group had no knowledge of his plans for the violent attack. "He acted on his own behalf of what he just did, and he's solely responsible for what he just did," Jereb said.

Jereb said he understood that Cruz had had "trouble with a girl" and he believed the timing of the attack, carried out on Valentine's Day, wasn't a coincidence.

The revelation emerged as Cruz appeared via video, in an orange jumpsuit and with his head slightly bowed, for an initial Broward County court hearing Thursday at which a judge ordered him held without bond. Cruz faces 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Investigators were scouring Cruz's social media posts for possible motives or warning signs of the attack. Several social media accounts bearing Cruz's name showed a young man fascinated by guns who had appeared to signal his intentions to attack a school long before the event.

Nine months ago, a YouTube user with the handle "nikolas cruz" left a comment on a Discovery UK documentary about the gunman in the 1966 University of Texas tower shooting. The user wrote beneath the YouTube video: "I am going to (do) what he did."



Other past comments by YouTube users with Cruz's name reportedly included one remark in September, saying: "Im going to be a professional school shooter." At a news briefing in Florida, Robert Lasky, the FBI special agent in charge, confirmed that the FBI had investigated that comment. But he said the agency couldn't identify the person in question.



In another post on Instagram, where he posted photos of himself in masks and with guns, Cruz wrote anti-Muslim slurs and apparently mocked the Islamic phrase "Allahu Akbar," or God is greatest.



"I have no idea" of the shooter's motive, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said at a news briefing.



After Cruz's mother, Lynda Cruz, died on Nov. 1, Nikolas and his brother stayed with family friends in Lake Worth in Palm Beach County. Unhappy at that home, Cruz asked a former classmate from the school if he could move in with him and his family. He had been living with them in northwest Broward County, about three miles from the school, since Thanksgiving.



"He was a little depressed because his mother had just died, but he seemed to be coming out of it and doing better," said Jim Lewis, an attorney representing the family.



Cruz had gotten a job working at a Dollar Tree store, and he was going to school at an adult education center to get his GED, Lewis said.



Cruz, who underwent hours of questioning by federal and state authorities before being charged early Thursday, was taken into custody Wednesday in nearby Coral Springs about an hour after the shooting, having slipped away among other students after the attack.



Images of students filing from the school in long lines with hands over their heads or on one another's shoulders, and of terrified parents sobbing as they awaited word, have taken on a numbing familiarity in a country that has seen such scenes play out in nearly every corner of the land.



Authorities painted a picture of a gunman who methodically plotted the attack, equipping himself with a gas mask and smoke grenades. Those who knew Cruz  former classmates, neighbors, acquaintances  depicted him as an eccentric and sometimes threatening figure. Like a trail of electronic breadcrumbs, social media posts by him showed a fascination with guns.



Former neighbors, whose acquaintance dated back to when Cruz's mother was alive, said police were frequently called to the family home after complaints that included harassment and threats against those living nearby.



Wednesday's massacre was the largest death toll in a school shooting since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Conn., which killed 26 people, 20 of them first-graders. Like so many attacks since, this one appeared to target students along with teachers and staff.

Authorities were looking into the circumstances of Cruz's acquisition of the weapon. The Associated Press on Thursday cited a law enforcement official saying the AR-15 rifle was legally purchased about a year ago. Under federal law, such guns can be legally purchased by people over 18.



The Broward County school district began offering grief counseling for students, staff and others affected by the shooting. Condolences poured in from near and far, including a telegram from Pope Francis, sent to the archdiocese of Miami, in which the pontiff said he was "deeply saddened."

But much of the outside world remains baffled by the grim phenomenon of regularly occurring school shootings, virtually unknown among developed nations.



The man suspected of opening fire inside a Florida high school on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people, was a former student who had been expelled for disciplinary reasons, the authorities said.

Sheriff Scott Israel of Broward County, Florida, said that the man, Nikolas Cruz, 19, previously attended Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland but was expelled after getting into trouble.

A student at the school said he remembered Cruz as a "troubled kid" who enjoyed showing off his firearms.

"He always had guns on him," the student, who did not give his name, told WFOR-TV. "The crazy stuff that he did was not right for school, and he got kicked out of school multiple times for that kind of stuff."

Jim Gard, a math teacher at Douglas High School, said in an interview that Cruz was a student in his class during the first semester of the 2016-17 school year. In the class, he was quiet and not disruptive, Gard said.

But he recalled that school administrators became concerned last year about Cruz's behavior and alerted the faculty. "We received emails about him from the administration," Gard said in an interview, adding that he did not recall the specific issues.

After the shooting on Wednesday, Gard said that several students told him that Cruz was taken with a girl at Douglas High School "to the point of stalking her."

In the interview with the Miami news station, the student said Cruz was a junior at Douglas High School when he was expelled last year. He said that students would joke that if anyone were to open fire inside the school, it would be Cruz. Because of that, students feared him and mostly stayed away from him, the student said.

"A lot of people were saying that it would be him," the student told WFOR-TV. "They would say he would be the one to shoot up the school. Everyone predicted it."

Israel said that detectives were learning more about Cruz through his social media pages, which he described as "very, very concerning." Screen shots of an Instagram page said to belong to Cruz show many photos of a man holding handguns and other firearms.Paint companies have lost a California Supreme Court appeal and now face a court order to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the state to remove lead paint from older homes in 10 cities and counties, including San Francisco and Oakland.

The companies, however, want the voters to shift the costs to the state. They are sponsoring a proposed November ballot initiative, now in the signature-gathering phase, that would overturn the court ruling and pay for the cleanup of lead paint, asbestos and other hazards in homes and other buildings throughout the state with a taxpayer-funded $2 billion bond.

The states high court denied review Wednesday of an appellate ruling in November that held three companies  ConAgra, NL Industries and Sherwin-Williams  responsible for marketing lead paint for decades while knowing of its health dangers to children. Justices Goodwin Liu and Leondra Kruger voted to take up the case, two short of the majority needed for review.

The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Santa Clara County in 2000 and joined later by six other counties, including Alameda and San Mateo, and the cities of Oakland, San Diego and San Francisco.

The U.S. government banned lead paint in 1978. Judge James Kleinberg of Santa Clara County Superior Court said in his 2014 ruling that the substance was still a health hazard. He said a study conducted between 2007 and 2010 found that at least 50,000 children in the 10 cities and counties had elevated levels of lead in their blood.

In a November ruling, the Sixth District Court of Appeal in San Jose rejected the companies claim of free speech and said they could be held responsible for the consequences of promoting a product whose dangers had long been known in their industry.

However, the court said the companies were responsible only for cleanups of homes built before 1951, when they stopped advertising the product. Andre Pauka, a lawyer for NL Industries, said the companies have estimated that the cost would total $400 million.

The fund would pay for the cost of stripping lead paint from doors, windows and floors of homes. With homeowners consent, it would also cover removal of lead-containing dust sealing or removing lead-contaminated soil.

These companies have dragged out this case for 18 years, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said Thursday. Its past time that they stop shirking their responsibility and start paying to clean up the toxic mess they created.

Pauka said the companies would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

We are being held liable for truthful speech in advertising the product, he said, and are also being ordered to pay amounts disproportionate to anything that the courts thought we did wrong.

He also called the appellate ruling an unprecedented expansion of the states public-nuisance law, which penalizes harmful uses of private property. Courts in seven other states have rejected similar suits.

The case is People vs. ConAgra, S246102.President Donald Trump responded to the Florida shooting in a live address to the nation on Thursday.

"Our entire nation with one heavy heart is praying for the victims and the families," Trump said.

The President's speech focused on the need for increased mental health awareness to stop future shootings and didn't mention gun control. In fact, many on Twitter pointed out that he never even said the word gun.

People were quick to respond to Trump's words on Twitter: Some thanked him for his prayers and others argued that prayers aren't the answer to the problem. Many also pointed out that his address made no mention of tightening gun laws.

Trump also issued a proclamation Thursday honoring victims of the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fl., where 17 were shot dead.

ALSO: For Florida shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz, a life of guns, depression and trouble

The presidential proclamation says: "Our Nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones in the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida."

The former student who opened fire Wednesday with an AR-15 rifle was charged Thursday morning.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.BERKELEY (BCN)

The city of Berkeley has become the first city in the U.S. to provide sanctuary to adult users of cannabis, businesses selling the product, and to property owners where dispensaries and other cannabis-related businesses are located.

The new sanctuary policy, which was announced Wednesday, prohibits city departments, agencies, officers and employees from using city funds to assist in the enforcement of federal laws surrounding cannabis.

The policy does not apply to other substances considered Title I drugs by the federal government. It also does not prevent the use of city resources to investigate cannabis-related crimes that are illegal under federal, state and city laws.

City officials Wednesday said the policy was a response to the federal government's recent announcement that it is rescinding Obama-era guidelines that prioritize enforcement to those involved in selling cannabis to minors, or when marijuana activity was used as a cover or pretext for the trafficking of other illegal drugs or other illegal activity.

This change, city officials said, has led to greater uncertainty for law-abiding cannabis users and businesses. They said it also hampers the newly regulated cannabis market, which is expected to generate $1 billion in annual tax revenue statewide, and $3 million in Berkeley alone.

In a statement Wednesday, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin expressed his support for the policy and hope that it would change attitudes about cannabis use.

"Millions of peaceful Americans have been fined, arrested, imprisoned, or otherwise needlessly criminalized and stigmatized, sometimes for life, because of their use of marijuana," Arreguin said.

He also said that the enforcement of marijuana and other drug laws has had a disproportionate impact on minorities.

"Ending this misguided policy is long overdue," Arreguin said.Cactus pads imported from Mexico may contain pesticides that pose a health risk to consumers, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) warned Wednesday.

Samples of the vegetable, known as nopales, contained high levels of some pesticides that have been banned in the United States for many years.SANTA ROSA (BCN)

A Sonoma County Jail inmate stabbed another inmate Tuesday afternoon with a hairbrush that was filed down to a point, a sheriff's sergeant said.

A corrections deputy who saw the 4:15 p.m. fight in the exercise yard of a protective custody module was able to break up the fight between inmate Bernabe Martinez Ramirez, 26, and another inmate while he was waiting for backup deputies to arrive, Sgt. Spencer Crum said.

Ramirez repeatedly stabbed the other inmate in the face and body with the pointed hairbrush until he was handcuffed when the other deputies arrived, Crum said.

The victim inmate was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital for treatment of multiple stab wounds and returned to the jail around 11:30 p.m., Crum said.

Santa Rosa police arrested Ramirez in June for DUI, child endangerment and battery on a police officer after he crashed his Dodge Intrepid into a traffic signal pole in Santa Rosa.

A woman and a 6-month-old infant were in the vehicle at the time of the crash, and Ramirez tried to take the police officer's gun from its holster, according to Santa Rosa police.

Ramirez has been in custody at the jail since then and the stabbing victim has been in custody since Feb. 1 on child molestation charges. Both inmates have been housed together since Feb. 6, Crum said.

Inmates are housed in a protective custody module if they don't mix with the general jail population because of their charges, gang status or are likely targets of other inmates, he said.

Investigators do not know what prompted the attack, and Ramirez was re-arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and possession of a weapon in jail, Crum said.SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

Roughly two dozen people joined the family of Fernando Carrillo, an undocumented immigrant detained by federal agents in San Jose, for a Valentine's Day demonstration outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in San Francisco's Financial District this afternoon.

Lourdes Carrillo, Fernando's wife, says that despite recommendations from her husband's detention officer and that officer's supervisor that he be released from custody ICE Field Director David Jennings denied that request and Fernando is still in detention.

"David Jennings, we are asking you to let Fernando come home," Lourdes said, in tears, through a public address system outside the entrance to Jennings' offices in the United States Appraisers Building at 630 Sansome St.

"It's because of you that he's not coming home," Lourdes said.

She said she imagines Jennings is a father, and asked him to consider what it would be like if his own children were put in a similar position.

Isabella, Fernando's 15-year-old daughter, also spoke at today's demonstration. "These people have people who love them," Isabella said. "We're not going to give up. We're going to keep spreading that love."

Reverend Deborah Lee, Senior Program Director at the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, got involved in Fernando's case after meeting the Carrillo family at ICE's Contra Costa West County Detention Facility in Richmond. She led today's demonstration in San Francisco.

"We want to use Valentine's Day to remind those who have been detained or deported that they are loved," Lee said.

Lee argued that detention centers like the one in Richmond need to be closed, and rather than building a border wall or ending family-based immigration - lawmakers should pass a clean DREAM Act.

Roughly 60 people wrote Valentine's Day notes to Jennings regarding Fernando's continued detention, according to Lee.

"We want David Jennings to know we're going to keep sending Valentines," Lee said. "This is just the beginning."

The demonstrators sang songs in English and Spanish, including We Shall Overcome and This Little Light of Mine. They were joined by a man with an acoustic guitar who called them the "Justice Tabernacle Choir."

"This breaks my heart," Alyse Ceirante said. "No family should be torn apart like this. It makes no sense."

Ceirante has been to the scene of today's protest before, and the building makes her stomach turn, she said. Her husband is an immigrant who's been trying to obtain legal status for two years.

"It's a long, arduous and expensive process," Ceirante said. "I think they make it as difficult as possible."

The group plans to return to ICE's San Francisco offices later this month for a vigil during Fernando's next court hearing at 9 a.m. Feb. 26.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment.The family of a man killed with a San Francisco police officer's handgun after it was stolen from an unattended vehicle this summer are pursuing legal action against the officer who lost the weapon.

Abel Esquivel was shot and killed near 26th Street and South Van Ness Avenue Aug. 15, just days after the theft of a .38-caliber revolver belonging to officer Marvin Cabuntala.

Esquivel was survived by his mother and sister, who say that Cabuntala failed to follow California Penal Code section 25452, passed in 2016, requiring that police officers leaving handguns in unattended vehicles must use locked containers hidden out of plain view just like civilians.

They held a news conference this morning at the Burlingame law offices of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, to announce that they've filed an administrative claim against Cabuntala - one of the steps involved in filing a lawsuit.

"Unfortunately, law enforcement officers have become brazenly comfortable with failing to properly secure their lethal weapons," attorney Allison Cordova said in a statement.

"Despite efforts by legislators to stem this rampant problem and create measurable and impactful consequences, law enforcement officers and agencies are still failing to secure lethal weapons, and furthermore, escaping the consequences," Cordova said.

"Instead, the family of Abel Esquivel suffers," she added. "Just like the family of Kate Steinle."

The San Francisco Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on the Esquivels' complaint.

Three suspects accused of participating in the shooting have been identified as Jesus Perez-Araujo, Daniel Cruz and Erick Garcia Pineda -- an undocumented immigrant.

The case drew national scrutiny after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials criticized the sheriff's department for releasing Pineda after a domestic violence arrest in accordance with San Francisco's Sanctuary City policies.

Pineda was subsequently arrested again and placed into removal proceedings before the Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review.

ICE spokesman James Schwab did not respond to requests for an update on Pineda's case.SALINAS (BCN)

A Salinas man was sentenced to 18 years in prison for a "violent and prolonged" act of domestic violence inflicted on his wife, according to the Monterey County District Attorney's Office.

Michael Russ, 41, faces his fifth sentence for domestic abuse on his wife, who is referred to as "Doe" in police records, after officers arrested him for an assault that lasted for twelve hours, the district attorney said.

On July 9, 2017, Russ and his wife were parked near Sherwood Park in Salinas when Russ accused his wife of cheating on him during his incarceration for a prior attack on her in 2012 in Santa Maria, according to prosecutors. When she denied the infidelity, Russ became angry.

Russ tried to remove the woman from the car, which she considered as her home, and when she would not leave he engaged the vehicle's child locks to prevent her from escaping, the district attorney said.

Prosecutors said that he punched her in the head and said he knew "somewhere else he could take her." He drove to a dimly lit street and began an assault that involved beating her with his fists, a metal butane can and a wooden cane.

Russ held his wife down and sheared off chunks of her hair with an eight-inch knife and strangled her until she could not breathe multiple times, according to prosecutors.

A civilian found the victim lying on the sidewalk and called 911 the next morning, prosecutors said. She could not stand because of how badly she was beaten and her face was covered in blood from a laceration above her left eye. Both eyes were bruised and swollen shut.

It was later determined that she suffered a facial fracture and cervical spine injuries and was left with bald patches as a result of the attack, according to the district attorney's office.

Russ was arrested by Salinas police two days later.

At the time, evidence found inside the vehicle confirmed the victim's account of the events. Her blood was found throughout the vehicle, from the steering wheel to rear compartment, prosecutors said.

As he was being transported to the jail, Russ told officers he thought he was going to jail for murder, according to prosecutors.

Monterey County Superior Court Judge Julie Culver sentenced Russ, considering his history of the 2012 attack in Santa Maria, which he was on parole for at the time of the 2017 attack, as well as three prior occasions in 2017 for misdemeanor attacks his wife, according to prosecutors.

Culver said at the sentencing that "there was no question" that Russ had beat the victim "within moments of her life," prosecutors said.

The district attorney's office requests that anyone experiencing domestic violence or have loved ones that are call the YWCA at (831) 372-6300 or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1 (800) 799-7233.

(831) 755-5412SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

Transgender residents of San Francisco's single-room-occupancy hotels should have fewer worries about harassment with the passage of an ordinance requiring all-gender bathrooms in such hotels.

The ordinance requires that single-stall bathroom facilities be available for every resident of the hotels, regardless of the resident's gender. Passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Tuesday, it was signed into law by interim Mayor Mark Farrell today.

"Our transgender residents have sadly faced a long history of harassment and discrimination - their homes should be places of refuge," said Farrell in a statement.

"With this ordinance, we are letting the transgender and nonconforming community know we hear their concerns and are working toward a solution," Farrell said.

The new ordinance also requires that signage indicating the new requirements be posted in the hotels.

Many transgender and nonconforming individuals live in single-room-occupancy hotels in San Francisco, according to the mayor's office.

Fifty-nine percent of the 27,715 transgender people who responded to a 2015 survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality said they avoided using a public restroom in the last year.

Two years ago, San Francisco enacted an all-gender restroom policy that has led to gender-neutral bathrooms in public places like restaurants and bars.

Supervisor Hillary Ronen said in the past year, low-income and transgender residents of single-room-occupancy hotels approached her about the issue, "saying that we needed to expand the all-gender restroom policy to include single-room-occupancy hotels."

The supervisor added, "I am proud to have championed this change to ensure that all San Francisco residents feel safer and more comfortable in their homes."A 19-year-old man and 25-year-old woman from Modesto were arraigned today on a murder charge for the fatal stabbing of a 19-year-old Tracy woman in unincorporated Livermore early Monday morning.

Defendants Daniel Gross and Melissa Leonardo, accused in the killing of Lizette Andrea Cuesta, are scheduled to return to court in Alameda County Superior Court in Dublin on Thursday morning to finalize their legal representation and set future court dates.

A motorist found Cuesta stabbed near Tesla Road, roughly 2 miles west of the Carnegie State Vehicular Recreation Area, at 2:06 a.m. Monday, Alameda County sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly said.

She was airlifted to Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley but was pronounced dead later that morning.

Investigators believe Cuesta was dumped from a vehicle and left for dead. She crawled on her stomach for about 100 yards before being found, Kelly said.

He said Cuesta made a "very compelling dying declaration" that led investigators to Gross and Leonardo, who were arrested and booked into Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.

At today's arraignment, several of Cuesta's family members yelled at Gross and Leonardo, who appeared separately in court.

Bailiffs removed those family members from court and Judge Gordon Baranco told people who couldn't remain quiet to leave.

"I have to have order in the court," Baranco said.

Family members of Cuesta and the two defendants declined to talk to reporters after the arraignment.

A GoFundMe page set up at https://www.gofundme.com/zsgwrc-lizette-cuesta-donation-fund on behalf of Cuesta's family had raised nearly $10,000 as of late this afternoon.

225-5936OAKLAND (BCN)

An Alameda County prosecutor told jurors that they should convict a man of murder for the fatal shooting of the man's 16-year-old friend in East Oakland in 2012 because he thinks the shooting was intentional, not an accident, as the defense claims.

In his closing argument in the trial of Kejuan Hill, who's 23 now but was only 17 at the time, for the shooting death of Charles Hill III of Hayward in the 2500 block of Church Street, near the Eastmont Town Center, shortly after 10 p.m. on March 23, 2012, prosecutor Patrick Moriarty said, "This was an execution, ladies and gentlemen."

Moriarty said, "This was not an accident."

Kejuan Hill admitted on the witness stand last week that he fatally shot Charles Hill but claimed he was just trying to play a prank on the other teen, didn't know the gun he was carrying was loaded and it went off accidentally.

Hill's lawyer, Christina Moore, told jurors that they should only convict him of involuntary manslaughter, saying that Hill "played what turned out to be an incredibly poor joke."

Hill testified that he was at a party that night but left with a group of about 11 friends, which didn't include Charles Hill, after they heard that there would be a shooting at the party.

Kejuan Hill said two of his friends got into an argument because one of the friends was armed with what appeared to be a non-functioning gun and the other friend said that was stupid because it would leave them defenseless if there was a shooting.

Hill said one of the friends gave the supposedly non-functioning gun to him to carry and he believed it was incapable of firing because it felt light, as if it didn't have any bullets in it.

Hill said that when he and his friends walked away from the party they happened to run into Charles Hill, who he said was sitting on a curb while he was rolling a joint of marijuana.

Kejuan Hill said he pulled the gun on Charles Hill as a prank but then it suddenly discharged and killed his friend.

Moore said Hill didn't go to the police after the shooting because he grew up in East Oakland and people there distrust the police and that at the urging of his mother he fled to Kansas City, Missouri, where he got a job at a Denny's restaurant using his brother's name.

Acting on a tip, a U.S. Marshals Service-Kansas City Police Task Force arrested Hill at the Denny's on Oct. 26, 2015, three-and-a-half years after the fatal shooting.

Moriarty said when Oakland police finally were able to interview Hill, he initially claimed that he wasn't responsible for the shooting said he could tell them who the real killer was.

Moriarty told jurors that Hill's testimony "was completely untruthful" and his statement that he and Charles Hill were friends was incorrect because Charles' friends told authorities that the two teens weren't very close and one of them said Kejuan never liked Charles.

The prosecutor said that if Kejuan really was close to Charles "he would have comforted his friend in the last moments of his life" instead of running away, changing his clothes and moving across the country.

Jurors began deliberating this afternoon and will resume their deliberations on Thursday morning.

272-6213

Defense attorney Christina Moore (510) 272-6600CONCORD (BCN)

Concord police are warning the public to be on the lookout for scam artists posing as IRS tax collectors.

On Wednesday, police said they've received numerous calls from citizens reporting suspicious phone calls or emails from alleged IRS agents.

Victims said the alleged agents have requested immediate cash payment for overdue taxes, then claim that if the victims did not pay, they would be arrested or deported by local law enforcement agencies.

With tax season here, police are urging the public to be cautious if they receive such phone calls or emails.

Police said that the IRS does not contact people by phone or email, but rather will send an official letter. They also never ask for personal banking information over the phone.

Citizens are asked to beware of unscrupulous tax preparers who promise large tax returns and to be on the lookout for groups masquerading as charitable organizations.

Police also said that local law enforcement agencies do not issue arrest warrants to individuals who owe taxes.By Bay City News

A 25-year-old Salinas resident who was found guilty of two first-degree murders in November was sentenced today to life in prison, Monterey County prosecutors said.

Judge Pamela Butler sentenced Brad Azcona to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the two murders, as well as multiple consecutive life terms for two attempted murders.

Azcona's felony charges stemmed from cases that took place between August and October 2015. Police finally arrested Azcona after a 12-hour standoff on Oct. 8, 2015, during which he hid in the crawlspace of a Salinas home.

The first homicide occurred on Sept. 8, 2015, when Azcona shot and killed 16-year-old Carlos Robles near Duran Street in Salinas. Robles died after suffering four gunshots, and another man was shot in the head after Azcona fired five to seven shots at him.

The second homicide happened in the same month, when Azcona got into a fight with 44-year-old Ramon Herrera in Salinas' Chinatown. He shot Herrera nine times and killed him.

Forty minutes before the second homicide, Azcona had struck another victim with his gun while trying to steal the victim's tablet computer.

He was also sentenced 28 years and four months for assault with a firearm, attempted robbery, negligent discharge of a firearm, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He had previously served a prison sentence for a robbery in 2012, Butler found.

The Salinas Police Department and the Monterey Country District Attorney's Office jointly investigated the case.Several family members of 19-year-old Lizette Cuesta of Tracy yelled at a Modesto couple as they were being arraigned Wednesday on a murder charge for Cuesta's stabbing death in unincorporated Livermore early Monday morning.

Defendants Daniel Gross, 19, and Melissa Leonardo, 25, who reacted calmly to the outbursts by Cuesta's family members, are scheduled to return to Alameda County Superior Court in Dublin on this morning to finalize their legal representation and set future court dates.

A motorist found Cuesta stabbed near Tesla Road, roughly 2 miles west of the Carnegie State Vehicular Recreation Area, at 2:06 a.m. Monday, Alameda County sheriff's Sgt. Ray Kelly said.

She was airlifted to Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley but was pronounced dead later that morning.

Investigators believe Cuesta was dumped from a vehicle and left for dead. She crawled on her stomach for about 100 yards before being found, Kelly said.

Cuesta made a "very compelling dying declaration" that led investigators to Gross and Leonardo, who are being held without bail at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, Kelly said.

Gross and Leonardo, who were both dressed in red jail uniforms, were arraigned separately in brief back-to-back appearances in court.

One of Cuesta's male relatives yelled at Gross when he appeared and a female relative yelled at Leonardo when she appeared.

Some of the eight bailiffs who crowded the tense courtroom then removed several of Cuesta's relatives from court and Judge Gordon Baranco ordered other bailiffs to move Leonardo to a back room momentarily until everything calmed down.

Baranco told those who remained in court, "For those of you who want to leave, please do so now. I have to have order in the court."

All of the dozen members of Cuesta's family who came to court declined to talk to the large group of reporters who attended the arraignment.

The half dozen family members of Gross and Leonardo who came to court, and sat on the opposite side of the courtroom, also declined to speak to reporters.

A court document filed by a sheriff's detective didn't disclose a motive for Cuesta's stabbing death and only said that investigators identified Cuesta as the victim and that probable cause was established that Gross and Leonardo were suspects.

The charging document filed by the Alameda County District Attorney's Office alleges that Gross was the person who fatally stabbed Cuesta.

Alameda County Assistant Public Defender is representing Gross.

Baranco said Leonardo also is eligible to be represented by the Public Defender for financial reasons but that office has declared that it would have a conflict of interest if it represented her so the court will appoint an attorney to represent her.

A GoFundMe page set up on behalf of Cuesta's family has raised more than $11,000 as of 6:35 p.m. Wednesday. The page can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/zsgwrc-lizette-cuesta-donation-fund.

According to a Facebook profile, Cuesta was a graduate of Silver Creek High School in San Jose.

A substance found Wednesday in a package sent to the Stanford University professor responsible for leading the recall campaign against Judge Aaron Persky has been determined to be an "inert powder that poses no health concern," university officials said.

In addition to the white powder, the package sent to Stanford Law School professor Michele Dauber also allegedly contained a threat of rape.

The suspicious package prompted the shutdown of two rooms at the Law School's Neukom Building. The partial closing of the building, however, did not stop operations and activities at the school, according to the university.

After Santa Clara County hazardous materials officials tested the white substance, they confirmed it did not pose a threat.

"Threats intended to silence or intimidate members of our community are absolutely unacceptable at Stanford." university Provost Persis Drell said in a statement.

Dauber said this is not the first time that she has received a rape threat focused around her role in the recall campaign for the Santa Clara County judge who drew controversy for sentencing former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner to just six months in county jail in 2016 for the on-campus sexual assault of an unconscious woman.

"Judge Persky's campaign continues to use hate-filled language and continues to actively defend Brock Turner and attack Emily Doe and me personally," Dauber said in the statement. "The verbal attacks have continued to escalate."

The decision on whether to recall Persky will go in front of voters on June 5 after the campaign led by Dauber collected more than 94,000 signatures to qualify it for the ballot.

Transgender residents of San Francisco's single-room-occupancy hotels should have fewer worries about harassment with the passage of an ordinance requiring all-gender bathrooms in such hotels.

The ordinance requires that single-stall bathroom facilities be available for every resident of the hotels, regardless of the resident's gender. Passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Tuesday, it was signed into law by interim Mayor Mark Farrell Wednesday.

"Our transgender residents have sadly faced a long history of harassment and discrimination - their homes should be places of refuge," said Farrell in a statement.

"With this ordinance, we are letting the transgender and nonconforming community know we hear their concerns and are working toward a solution," Farrell said.

The new ordinance also requires that signage indicating the new requirements be posted in the hotels.

Many transgender and nonconforming individuals live in single-room-occupancy hotels in San Francisco, according to the mayor's office.

Fifty-nine percent of the 27,715 transgender people who responded to a 2015 survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality said they avoided using a public restroom in the last year.

Two years ago, San Francisco enacted an all-gender restroom policy that has led to gender-neutral bathrooms in public places like restaurants and bars.

Supervisor Hillary Ronen said in the past year, low-income and transgender residents of single-room-occupancy hotels approached her about the issue, "saying that we needed to expand the all-gender restroom policy to include single-room-occupancy hotels."

The supervisor added, "I am proud to have championed this change to ensure that all San Francisco residents feel safer and more comfortable in their homes."

A woman accused of stabbing another woman to death for preventing her from using a portable restroom at a San Francisco construction site was convicted of second-degree murder and other crimes by a jury Wednesday.

Lizette Cauich, 25, a homeless woman from Los Angeles, was also found guilty of attempted second-degree robbery and assault with a deadly weapon for the stabbing on June 10, 2016.

Her boyfriend Oscar Mendez, 44, also of Los Angeles, was found guilty in the same case of being an accessory after the fact.

The two were charged in the death of Mitzi Campbell, a 58-year-old San Francisco resident who worked as a flagger controlling traffic at a construction site on Shipley Street.

Cauich and Mendez were also charged in an earlier stabbing that nearly killed parking lot attendant Amar Dahmi on May 29, 2016. Wednesday's verdict is not related to that incident.

Cauich's attack on Campbell was largely captured on surveillance video. Campbell was escorting Cauich out of the alley after she had asked to use a portable restroom on the site and been refused, prosecutor Andrew Ganz said during the trial.

The video, which Ganz played in court during the trial, shows Cauich, a petite woman, swinging wildly at the larger Campbell at the entrance to the alley and striking her several times in the torso.

Cauich then rolls Campbell over and stands over her, going through her pockets until she is confronted by two other construction workers.

The construction workers struggled with Cauich, who was still armed with a knife, over her bicycle as she attempted to leave the scene.

She was ultimately arrested nearby at Fifth and Folsom streets a short time later with Mendez, who Wednesday was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact in Campbell's death for attempting to help her get away.

Roughly two dozen people joined the family of Fernando Carrillo, an undocumented immigrant detained by federal agents in San Jose, for a Valentine's Day demonstration outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in San Francisco's Financial District Wednesday afternoon.

Lourdes Carrillo, Fernando's wife, says that despite recommendations from her husband's detention officer and that officer's supervisor that he be released from custody ICE Field Director David Jennings denied that request and Fernando is still in detention.

"David Jennings, we are asking you to let Fernando come home," Lourdes said, in tears, through a public address system outside the entrance to Jennings' offices in the United States Appraisers Building at 630 Sansome St.

"It's because of you that he's not coming home," Lourdes said.

She said she imagines Jennings is a father, and asked him to consider what it would be like if his own children were put in a similar position.

Isabella, Fernando's 15-year-old daughter, also spoke at Wednesday's demonstration. "These people have people who love them," Isabella said. "We're not going to give up. We're going to keep spreading that love."

Reverend Deborah Lee, Senior Program Director at the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, got involved in Fernando's case after meeting the Carrillo family at ICE's Contra Costa West County Detention Facility in Richmond. She led Wednesday's demonstration in San Francisco.

"We want to use Valentine's Day to remind those who have been detained or deported that they are loved," Lee said.

Lee argued that detention centers like the one in Richmond need to be closed, and rather than building a border wall or ending family-based immigration - lawmakers should pass a clean DREAM Act.

Roughly 60 people wrote Valentine's Day notes to Jennings regarding Fernando's continued detention, according to Lee.

"We want David Jennings to know we're going to keep sending Valentines," Lee said. "This is just the beginning."

The demonstrators sang songs in English and Spanish, including We Shall Overcome and This Little Light of Mine. They were joined by a man with an acoustic guitar who called them the "Justice Tabernacle Choir."

"This breaks my heart," Alyse Ceirante said. "No family should be torn apart like this. It makes no sense."

Ceirante has been to the scene of Wednesday's protest before, and the building makes her stomach turn, she said. Her husband is an immigrant who's been trying to obtain legal status for two years.

"It's a long, arduous and expensive process," Ceirante said. "I think they make it as difficult as possible."

The group plans to return to ICE's San Francisco offices later this month for a vigil during Fernando's next court hearing at 9 a.m. Feb. 26.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment.

Vallejo police are identifying a man who was shot and killed by a police officer Tuesday as Ronnell Foster, 33, of Vallejo.

A patrol officer tried to make an "investigative stop" of Foster, who was riding a bicycle at Marin and Florida streets in an unsafe manner around 7:40 p.m., Lt. Kenny Park said.

Foster fled on foot and the officer chased him, then a "violent physical confrontation" between the two ensued in the 400 block of Carolina Street, Park said.

The officer fired his Taser stun gun but it was ineffective and Foster forcibly took away the officer's metal flashlight and "presented" it in a threatening manner, Park said.

"The officer, fearing imminent and serious physical harm, discharged his duty firearm, striking the subject," Park said.

Caltrans' two-week-long homeless encampment cleanup project in San Jose under the overpass connecting Interstate Highways 280, 680 and U.S. Highway 101 is coming to a close, but the agency's responsibilities are ongoing, a spokeswoman said.

"We reached 98 percent completion on Monday," Caltrans spokeswoman RocQuel Johnson said. "People could try to cut the fence and come back into the area, however, so our efforts are always going to be going on."

In the wake of the 2 acres of Caltrans-owned land being closed off and cleared out that they were residing on, the homeless population of Felipe Avenue has moved just feet away and are now camping on the sidewalk, according to advocate Pastor Scott Wagers.

Wagers, who has more than 25 years of experience as a homeless advocate in the area and organized a protest of the cleanup when it started on Feb. 5, said that all trash had been cleaned out and trees had been cut in the area that the homeless had been inhabiting.

Though the area itself has been chemically treated, groomed and protected with a fence, the homeless have moved their tents and belongings to right in front of the fence.

Wagers described the scene as "something similar to Calcutta."

"It's not a very productive move for the city to move them just feet from where they were," Wagers said. "They've moved maybe 25 or 30 feet out, but they're still here."

Wagers said that he wouldn't be surprised if Johnson was right about the homeless who were evicted trying to move back onto the property.

"They will probably go back around by the freeway to get in," Wagers said. "The general public doesn't understand that they will go to extreme lengths to try to find somewhere hidden away; they aren't going to just lay down and die. That's human nature."

Wagers estimated about 30 to 50 homeless people still remain on the block after Caltrans posted several eviction notices in the area over the span of a month.

According to Johnson, a normal notification of eviction is granted 72 hours beforehand.

Johnson said last week that the agency estimated it would take at least a week to clean up trash and provide security measures for the strip of land.

Since that estimate, the only remaining task to finish up is the removal of wood that was illegally dumped onto the property, she said.

Wagers confirmed around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday that Caltrans had multiple workers, an earthmover and at least one dump truck helping to move logs out. California Highway Patrol officers were present Wednesday as well.

Caltrans crews started their efforts near the end of the property closest to the Story Road freeway exit off Highway 101 and are now deeper toward the area where the Highway 680 to Highway 101 loop begins and where most of the homeless people were located.

San Francisco police found a man dead inside a residence after an hours-long standoff early Wednesday morning.

A male suspect made his way into a residence on Dorland Street and attacked a female victim at about 2 a.m., according to San Francisco police Officer Giselle Linnane.

The victim was able to flee the building and call police.

A hostage negotiation team tried to make contact with the suspect after they arrived, but were unsuccessful. They believed the suspect had barricaded himself.

A police tactical unit entered the residence between 5 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. and found the male suspect dead, Linnane said. She specified that the death did not occur at the hands of police.

The investigation is currently ongoing, and Linnane said there are no updates regarding the suspect and victim's relationship, or the suspect's motives.

Today will be sunny with highs in the lower 60s. North winds will be between 5 and 15 mph, becoming northwest winds between 10 and 20 mph in the afternoon.

Tonight will be clear with lows in the 40s. North winds will be between 5 and 10 mph.

Friday will be sunny with highs in the lower 60s. South winds will be around 5 mph, becoming west winds between 5 and 15 mph in the afternoon.SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

A woman accused of stabbing another woman to death for preventing her from using a portable restroom at a San Francisco construction site was convicted of second-degree murder and other crimes by a jury today.

Lizette Cauich, 25, a homeless woman from Los Angeles, was also found guilty of attempted second-degree robbery and assault with a deadly weapon for the stabbing on June 10, 2016.

Her boyfriend Oscar Mendez, 44, also of Los Angeles, was found guilty in the same case of being an accessory after the fact.

The two were charged in the death of Mitzi Campbell, a 58-year-old San Francisco resident who worked as a flagger controlling traffic at a construction site on Shipley Street.

Cauich and Mendez were also charged in an earlier stabbing that nearly killed parking lot attendant Amar Dahmi on May 29, 2016. Today's verdict is not related to that incident.

Cauich's attack on Campbell was largely captured on surveillance video. Campbell was escorting Cauich out of the alley after she had asked to use a portable restroom on the site and been refused, prosecutor Andrew Ganz said during the trial.

The video, which Ganz played in court during the trial, shows Cauich, a petite woman, swinging wildly at the larger Campbell at the entrance to the alley and striking her several times in the torso.

Cauich then rolls Campbell over and stands over her, going through her pockets until she is confronted by two other construction workers.

The construction workers struggled with Cauich, who was still armed with a knife, over her bicycle as she attempted to leave the scene.

She was ultimately arrested nearby at Fifth and Folsom streets a short time later with Mendez, who today was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact in Campbell's death for attempting to help her get away.The California man accused of fatally stabbing a 19-year-old student in Orange County earlier this month is a member of a neo-Nazi group with ties to San Antonio, according to a report from ProPublica.

Samuel Woodward is charged with murder in the death of his former classmate, Blaze Bernstein. Authorities say Woodward stabbed Bernstein more than 20 times and then buried the body in a shallow grave, which authorities later discovered.

Orange County prosecutors are trying to determine whether the killing was a hate crime, as Bernstein was Jewish and openly gay. ProPublica's recent report may shed new light on those suspicions, as well as on the San Antonio connection.

RELATED: San Antonio man found guilty in death of 14-year-old friend

Woodward was at one time a member of the Atomwaffen Division, ProPublica reported, which has roots in San Antonio, according to he Southern Poverty Law Center's widely cited "Hate Map."

Atomwaffen (German for atomic weapons) Division bills itself as a "Revolutionary National Socialist organization centered around political activism and the practice of an autonomous Fascist lifestyle." The group's mission, according to its website, is to fight against the "cultural and racial displacement of the white race" and rebuild Western civilization for white people.

Propaganda posted to the group's website is racist and violent, and the group often celebrates Hitler and Charles Manson. The group's philosophy centers around real-world action, manifested through activism and "militant training" in firearm and hand-to-hand combat.

One of San Antonio's first encounters with the activisim of Atomwaffen was shortly after the Pulse nightclub shooting, when Steven Billingsley, clad in the group's signature skull mask, showed up to a vigil with a sign that read "God Hates Fags" and performed a Nazi salute. Billingsly would later send Express-News reporter Brian Chasnoff a statement, drenched in the rhetoric of neo-Nazism, about the incident.

"The people attending the vigil are in denial over the nature of what was going on in that cesspool that they call the Pulse club, you can look up materials that depict the most foul behavior that is best left unsaid, not the least of which was hooking up for the explicit purpose of contracting HIV  this is called bug chasing," he said. "We must preserve the purity of our race, oppose the intrusion of foreign religions and do away with homosexuality for good. Heil Hitler!"

Atomwaffen's philosophy is also realized through so-called "Hatecamps," which appear to be like Nazi boy scout nature adventures.

Woodward reportedly attended a similar three-day training camp in Texas, according to reporter Jake Hanrahan, though where the training site is located is unclear.

Attendees hunt, fish, practice firearm and hand-to-hand combat and study survival skills. A video montage of the "Doomsday Hatecamp 2017: Midwest" shows the neo-Nazis burning a copy of the Constitution, a flag of the Soviet Union and pouring out bottles of beer for the movement's "martyrs."

RELATED: Man shot by wife during domestic dispute in Seguin, police say

Mixed with these shots are strange clips of masked men romping through the forest, taking in the beautiful landscape around them, all the while, a villainous war beat drums in the background.

The group posted another video that appears to show black-clad "operatives" roaming around Texas A&M University's campus in the dark of night, posting propaganda posters urging "White Revolution."

Outside of Texas, Atomwaffen members or former members have been linked to four other killings, in addition to Woodward's alleged slaying of Bernstein in California.

In Flordia, Devon Arthurs, a former Atomwaffen member who converted to Islam, is accused of killing his two roommates in May because they criticized his conversion and were planning to blow up a nuclear power plant, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

During the murder investigation, authorities found explosives in a garage adjacent to the apartment where Arthurs allegedly killed Jeremy Himmelman, 22, and Andrew Oneschuk, 18. The explosives belonged to Arthurs' surviving roommate, Brandon Russell, who was the leader of Atomwaffen prior to his arrest.

Last month, a 17-year-old in Virginia allegedly killed his girlfriend's parents because they pushed for a breakup upon discovering his neo-Nazi affiliations, which he was spreading to their daughter, according to The Washington Post. The teen shot himself after killing the parents, Scott Fricker and Buckley Kuhn-Fricker, and remains in critical condition.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

Caleb Downs is a crime reporter for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here.| cdowns@mysa.com | Twitter: @calebjdownsLike most candidates running for Congress, Arthur Jones has a campaign website.

It outlines the Republican candidate's education background, his stance on issues and how to donate to his campaign to represent the Illinois' Third Congressional District.

It also lays out Jones' unapologetically racist and anti-Semitic views.

In a section called "Holocaust?" Jones describes the atrocities as a "racket" and "the biggest, blackest, lie in history." Under another tab titled "Flags of Conflict," he lists the Confederate flag first and describes it as "a symbol of White pride and White resistance" and "the flag of a White counter revolution."

And in his most recent blog post - dated Aug. 24, 2017 - Jones railed against "Radical Leftists" and blamed them for starting racial violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, about two weeks before. Heather Heyer, 32, who had been there to protest white supremacists, died after a self-professed neo-Nazi drove a car into a crowd of demonstrators. He was charged with second-degree murder. Jones painted the death as an accident.

Despite his views, Jones is all but certain to become the GOP nominee for one of Illinois's most prominent congressional districts, one that includes parts of Chicago and several suburbs to the west and southwest. Jones is running unopposed in the Republican primary - and the deadline to file to run against him was in early December.

His chances of winning the seat are extremely slim. The district is rated "safely Democratic," according to Ballotpedia, and two Democrats are facing off against each other: Daniel Lipinski, the incumbent, and Marie Newman. An independent candidate, Mat Tomkowiak, withdrew from the race earlier.

Still, even getting that far in the race was a new milestone for Jones. Over three decades, he has unsuccessfully thrown his hat into the ring for the Third Congressional District seat seven times, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Jones's candidacy comes at a time when far-right groups have had new clout in the national discussion: Some hate groups have ramped up recruitment on college campuses and, for a time, alt-right leaders imagined they had an ally in the White House in the form of Steve Bannon, a former adviser to President Donald Trump.

And when Chicago Sun-Times reporter Frank Main drove to Lyons, Illinois, the suburb where Jones lives, the candidate was no less vocal about his extreme views.

"Well first of all, I'm running for Congress not the chancellor of Germany, all right?" Jones said. "To me, the Holocaust is what I said it is: It's an international extortion racket."

Jones did not immediately respond to interview requests Sunday afternoon. It's unclear how he arrived at the opinion that the Holocaust, a systematic genocide in which an estimated 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazi regime, was a sham.

In 2016, the state election board tossed Jones from the ballot for the Third Congressional District for "flagrant disregard of the election code," the Chicago Tribune reported, although a lawyer for the board did not specify why Jones'ssignatures were not valid.

The newspaper that year also highlighted Jones' former membership in the American National Socialist Workers Party, which the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as a relatively recent offshoot of the National Socialist Movement, "one of the largest and most prominent neo-Nazi groups in the United States."

Representatives from the Illinois Republican Party and the National Republican Congressional Committee, which supports conservative candidates, did not respond to questions sent by email Sunday. But Tim Schneider, the chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, told the Sun-Times that the party denounced Jones.

"The Illinois Republican Party and our country have no place for Nazis like Arthur Jones," Schneider told the newspaper. "We strongly oppose his racist views and his candidacy for any public office, including the 3rd congressional District."In the hours following a horrific school shooting in Parkland, Fla., several high-profile lawmakers took to Twitter to offer their condolences to those affected by the shooting.

FULL COVERAGE: At least 17 reported deaths in Florida school shooting

A number of Democrats took it a step further by calling for gun-control legislation.

"This is the 18th school shooting in the first 43 days of 2018," California Sen. Kamala Harris tweeted. "We cannot accept this as normal. We must address gun violence."

California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom was particularly aggressive, as he retweeted Republicans offering condolences and commented, "Then do something about it."

MORE COVERAGE: Florida high school shooter identified

Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut took to the Senate floor on Wednesday to call for congressional action on gun violence.

"This happens nowhere else other than the United States of America," Murhpy said. "This epidemic of mass slaughter, this scourge of school shooting after school shooting, it only happens here not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction."

Click through the slideshow above to see how politicians are reacting to the shooting.SACRAMENTO  Landlords who evict tenants under the Ellis Act would have to give them a years notice  instead of four months  under one of three tenant-rights bills being introduced Thursday in the Legislature.

Another bill would require landlords to wait 10 days  instead of three  to begin eviction proceedings against tenants who havent paid their rent on time.

And a third bill would require landlords across the state to show just cause  a reasonable reason  before trying to force tenants out.

The bills by Assemblymen David Chiu, D-San Francisco; Rob Bonta, D-Alameda; and Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica, are intended to slow evictions throughout the state as California grapples with a housing crisis.

These will have an enormous impact on a tenants ability to fight an eviction, Chiu said Wednesday.

AB2343 by Chiu would give tenants 10 days before a late rent payment can start the eviction process. Under the bill, tenants would have more time to respond to a landlords eviction court filing: instead of the current five days, they would have 14 days.

Bonta  whose bill does not yet have a bill number  plans to extend just cause eviction protections that San Francisco and other cities have to the entire state. Those protections limit the reasons landlords can evict someone.

The principle behind it is pretty basic: You shouldnt be kicked out of your home without a good reason, said Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, a co-author on Chius and Bontas bills.

AB2364 by Bloom would extend the amount of notice a landlord has to give a tenant when evicting them under the Ellis Act from four months to one year. Currently, elderly and disabled tenants are given one years notice, while all other tenants are given 120 days during an eviction under the Ellis Act, a 1986 law that lets landlords who want to get out of the rental business evict tenants without cause.

Democratic lawmakers, including former Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, tried unsuccessfully for several years to reform the Ellis Act, which has been used by investors as a way to buy affordable properties, evict tenants and flip the rental for profit. Changes to the Ellis Act have been fought by the real estate industry, which also successfully thwarted an attempt last month to expand rent control.

That rent-control bill  authored by Chiu, Bonta and Bloom  would have repealed the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, a 1995 industry-backed law that limits the kind of rent-control rules cities and counties can impose. It died in its first committee hearing.

In its place, tenant rights groups are collecting signatures for a ballot measure to repeal Costa-Hawkins.

Brian Augusta, legislative advocate for the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, a nonprofit law firm that works on tenant cases, said lawmakers are rightfully turning the focus on how to help tenants after taking steps last year to address the affordable housing crisis.

Lawmakers approved and Gov. Jerry Brown signed a sweeping package of housing bills last year, including a new real estate fee to pay for more housing and a $4 billion bond measure that will go before voters in November.

Also among them was SB167 by Skinner that makes it harder for local governments to deny housing projects and SB35 by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, which forces reluctant cities to build more low- to middle-income housing if they arent meeting certain targets. A report this month by the state Department of Housing and Community Development found nearly all  97 percent  of cities in the state are not meeting their housing goals.

The Legislature did quite a bit last year to address the affordable housing crisis, Augusta said. Increasingly, we are seeing tenants facing a number of problems that lead to displacement, rising homelessness and pushing people further from their homes.

Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @MelodyGutierrezA video game developer is offering a "significant discount" on his $45 million property for a buyer willing to pay in bitcoin.

The 65-acre Texas estate called Lake Austin Ranch is currently for sale by Richard Garriott, the creator of the Ultima video game franchise. When the property was listed, it was the most expensive in Austin history. A few months ago, the property's listing was altered to include the seller's preference for a bitcoin sale.

Real estate agent Gary Dolch told the Austin Business Journal they've received interest from a few Californians, but no offer has been yet made.

"He kind of lives in a crypto world. He develops incredible video games and creates a fantasy world. He is super creative in that regard, so it would make a lot of sense that he would love the idea of bitcoin," Dolch told the Business Journal.

MORE: Mammoth San Francisco house sells for $9.7 million, breaking neighborhood record

Owning Lake Austin Ranch, however, will be met with a challenge: There's not a main house on the property. There is currently a 25,000-square-foot site where Garriott intended to build a house in the early 2000s, but Dolch predicts the existing slab and walls will be torn down to make way for a new structure.

The site is atop a cliff overlooking the water, surrounded by juniper, pecan, oak trees and other varieties of plants and wildlife.

"For any nature lover, this is as good as it gets," said Dolch, who co-owns Austin Luxury Group with his wife, Michelle.

MORE: Finally, Chip and Joanna Gaines 'fix up' their own digs: check it out

Lake Austin Ranch includes a two-bedroom, one-bathroom, 1,000-square-foot guest house and a covered marina with eight boat slips.

The property also features two unusual perks. One is the so-called "Curtain Theatre," a 300-seat venue modeled after Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. The round structure allows for an intimate setting that puts all viewers within 25 feet of the stage.

The other is a haunted forest which, sadly for readers, doesn't come with further elaboration.

Elizabeth Robinson of the San Antonio Express-News contributed to this report.Seattle's leading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement attorney admitted Thursday to using immigrants identities to open credit cards during a guilty plea to federal fraud charges.

ICE Chief Counsel Raphael Sanchez used the fraudulently obtained credit accounts to defraud the creditors. The scheme ran for four years before it was discovered last fall.

Sanchez stole the identities of seven people involved in immigration proceedings. Federal prosecutors say Sanchez used fraudulently obtained credit cards to steal from from American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Citibank, Discover and JPMorgan Chase.

Sanchez resigned Monday, the day he was charged. He served as chief counsel in the agency's Seattle office.

In a statement following Thursdays guilty plea, Sanchezs defense attorney Cassandra Stamm described her client as a good person who has made serious mistakes in violation of the law.

Mr. Sanchez looks forward to fully repaying all those affected by his crimes, Stamm said. In short, Mr. Sanchez does not offer excuses for his acts; rather, he simply provides his sincere and immense regret.

Sanchez was charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He pleaded guilty to both counts, and will likely face a four-year prison term.

Raphael Sanchez betrayed that solemn responsibility and abused his official position to prey upon aliens for his own personal gain," acting Assistant Attorney General Cronan said in a statement. "We should not let one bad actor detract from the dedicated work done by all ICE agents and attorneys to keep our neighborhoods safe, and ICE should be commended for quickly and fully investigating this matter and referring it to the Justice Department for prosecution.

Sanchez made charges or drew payments totaling more than $190,000 in immigrants' names, often using PayPal and mobile point of sale devices from Amazon, Square, Venmo and Coin to process fraudulent Internet transactions.Sanchez shopped online in the names of aliens and had them shipped to his residence. He also claimed three aliens as relative dependents on his tax returns for 2014 through 2016.

Investigators recovered an email sent from Sanchezs Department of Homeland Security account in which he paid a Puget Sound Energy bill using information from a Chinese nationals United States permanent resident card.

Sanchez devised and intended to devise a scheme  using the personally identifying information of seven aliens in various stages of immigration proceedings with the United States Immigrant and Customs Enforcement to obtain money and property by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Luke Case and Jessica Harvey said in court papers.

MORE FROM SEATTLEPI: Seattle fisherman a bellwether as citizenship revocations rise

Investigators recovered an email sent from Sanchezs Department of Homeland Security account in which he paid a Puget Sound Energy bill using information from a Chinese nationals United States permanent resident card.

U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle, called for Congress to strengthen oversight of the Homeland Security Department, which includes ICE. Jayapal argued the Homeland Security budget has ballooned with billions of dollars and little oversight.

These actions by Sanchez are outrageous and alarming, Jayapal said in a statement. They continue a long line of reported ICE abuses reported by community members, attorneys and watchdog groups. They all show the clear need for accountability and transparency at ICE. 

We cannot sit on the sidelines and allow this to continue.

Prosecutors and Sanchez have agreed to recommend a four-year prison term to U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik, who is expected to sentence Sanchez later this year. Sanchez was jailed following Thursday's hearing.

SeattlePI senior editor Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at @levipulk. Find more from Levi here on his author page.Rodger Bosch/Associated Press

JOHANNESBURG Cyril Ramaphosa became South Africas president with a message of clean government and inclusiveness on Thursday, stirring the hopes of many South Africans that he can reverse a corrosive period of decline and division under his predecessor, Jacob Zuma.

Ramaphosa, a lead negotiator in the transition from apartheid to democracy in the early 1990s, was elected by jubilant ruling party legislators anxious to shed political limbo and get the leadership of the country back on track. In an indication of the challenges facing Ramaphosa, the two main opposition parties did not participate in the National Assembly vote, arguing it was a sham process because the ruling African National Congress party was tainted by its association with corruption scandals during the Zuma era.KABUL  An annual U.N. report released Thursday offered a stark assessment of the 16-year Afghan war, showing a slight decline in civilian casualties from an all-time high but a rise in complex bombing attacks that have taken a heavy toll in the capital.

The report said at least 10,453 Afghan civilians had been wounded or killed in 2017. At a time when the U.S. and Afghan governments are releasing fewer statistics  the Afghan army stopped publishing military casualty numbers in November, for example  the U.N. report on civilian casualties is one of the few reliable indicators of how the war is proceeding.

The chilling statistics in this report provide credible data about the wars impact, Tadamichi Yamamoto, the U.N. secretary-generals special representative for Afghanistan, said in a statement.

The report came out a day after the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson, issued an upbeat assessment of the Afghan armys recent progress, saying that the Taliban cannot win.

In contrast, the U.N. report focused on a rise in attacks deliberately targeting civilians in 2017. Those attacks, intended to undermine the authority of the U.S.-backed government, accounted for 27 percent of all civilian casualties last year.

This category includes casualties caused by suicide bombers detonating in populated areas and targeted killings, but excludes those caused by ground fighting, air strikes and explosions aimed principally at military targets, like some roadside bombs.

Overall, the 84-page report notes, the number of civilian casualties declined 9 percent compared with the record numbers seen in 2016, driven primarily by a drop in casualties caused by ground clashes. It was the first annual decline in overall civilian casualties since 2012.

The report also says that despite a stepped-up pace of aerial bombardments aimed at the Taliban and Islamic State militants under President Trumps new strategy for the war, civilian casualties from air strikes rose only 7 percent. The U.N. credited better targeting in the U.S.-led air campaign, compared with previous years.

The Talibans response to the air strikes, however, has been ferocious, indicating that what Afghan officials openly call a Pakistani-backed insurgent group is hardly a spent force.

The report put a spotlight on complex attacks, a type of suicide assault that is becoming more deadly, U.N. officials say. These involve two or more commandos with suicide vests seizing a building or taking hostages, fighting for hours and detonating their explosives only when security forces close in.

Deaths from complex attacks and other suicide bombings rose to 605 last year from 398 in 2016, according to the report, with the highest number of civilian casualties in Kabul.

The report blamed the Islamic States Afghan branch for 1,000 civilian casualties  399 killed and 601 wounded.

Air strikes  carried out only by the U.S.-led international forces, in an operation now called Resolute Support, and the Afghan air force, not by the Taliban and their allies  killed 295 civilian bystanders and wounded 336 more, the report said. That was the highest toll since the U.N. started counting in 2009.

Andrew E. Kramer is a New York Times writer.MANILA  The Philippine president offered a nearly $500 bounty for each communist rebel killed by government forces to save on anti-insurgency costs and said insurgents are easier to hit than birds because they have bigger heads.

President Rodrigo Dutertes latest crass remarks, which the government issued to reporters late Wednesday, came after human rights groups condemned him this week for saying troops should shoot female communist guerrillas in the genitals to render them useless.

You kill an NPA today and Ill pay you 25,000 pesos, Duterte said in a speech at an air base in central Cebu city, referring to New Peoples Army guerrillas.

I was computing that if this drags on for four years ... itll be very expensive because its war. If Ill just pay 25,000 for a life, I can save about 47 percent, he said to laughter from the crowd.

There was no elaboration on how he came up with those figures and whether or how the government would pay for claimed kills. Backing up his offer, the brash-talking president encouraged state forces to go for the kill.

If you work really hard to crawl across the forest, youll surely be able to shoot even just one. If you can shoot a bird above you, then how much more an NPA whose head is so big? Duterte said, again eliciting laughter from the crowd.

Regional rebel commander Jaime Padilla, who uses the nom de guerre Ka Diego, said Duterte wouldnt scare the guerrillas into ending their uprising even if he offers a million pesos for each rebel killed because the rebellion has been fueled by deep social ills such as poverty for nearly a century.

These are not remarks of a sane president, Padilla said by telephone. These are words of a thug or a goon, who reigns like a king in our country.

He said the guerrillas remain open to resuming stalled talks with the administration despite the presidents fascist style.

Human Rights Watch said Dutertes remarks encourage government forces to commit war crimes instead of instilling a culture of accountability in accordance with international law.

The volatile president turned up the rhetoric against the communist guerrillas after peace talks brokered by Norway collapsed last year.

Jim Gomez is an Associated Press writer.MOSCOW  After a week of unanswered questions, Russia acknowledged Thursday that five of its citizens may have been killed by a U.S. strike in Syria, the first time Russians have died at U.S. hands in Syrias chaotic battlefield.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova emphasized, however, that the five victims werent Russian servicemen.

According to preliminary information, five people, presumably Russian citizens, may have been killed in combat, the circumstances of which are being clarified, Zakharova said in a briefing in Moscow. Some others have been injured, and its still necessary to check whether they are citizens of Russia or other nations.

Until Thursday, both Russian and U.S. officials said they had no information on Russian casualties in the Feb. 7 clash, which came when pro-Syrian government forces attacked positions of the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters in Syrias oil-rich eastern province of Deir el-Zour and faced a ferocious U.S. counterattack.

Zakharova wouldnt describe how the Russians died, saying the circumstances of the clash are still being clarified. Still, her statement amounted to official recognition that the victims were part of the force that advanced on the U.S.-backed fighters.

This marks the first time that Russian and U.S. combatants have directly faced each other in action in Syria  a scenario Moscow and Washington have anxiously sought to avoid.

Russian forces are supporting the Syrian government in its fight against opposition groups, some of which are backed by the United States, and elements of both sides are fighting the last remnants of the Islamic State group in Syria.

Also Thursday, Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said he asked Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis to end U.S. support for the Syrian Kurdish militia fighting the Islamic State in Syria.

Canikli, speaking in Brussels, said he told Mattis that U.S. support for the Syrian Kurdish militia, known as YPG, has helped Kurdish rebels in Turkey to grow and strengthen, posing an increasingly existential threat to Turkey.

Secretary of Defense Rex Tillerson later met in Ankara with Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A U.S. statement cited a productive and open conversation about a mutually beneficial way forward in the U.S.-Turkey relationship.

Vladimir Isachenkov is an Associated Press writer.Page Content

California legislators are considering a number of bills to fight sexual harassment in the workplace. One such bill would ban confidential settlements of certain claims; attorneys told SHRM Online that making settlement agreements open to the public, though, could have an unintended consequence for claimants. It could result in fewer settlements with employers and more litigation.

Sen. Connie M. Leyva, D-Chino, introduced S.B. 820 to protect workers from being victimized and to ban secret settlements in cases of sexual assault, sexual harassment and sex discrimination. "As we have clearly seen over the last few months, secret settlements serve one primary purpose: to keep sexual predators away from the public eye and continuing to torment and hurt innocent victims," Leyva said in a press statement.

Prohibiting confidentiality provisions would keep claimants from being forced to stay silent about sexual assault and harassment if they want to resolve their claims, wrote Kate Gold and Philippe Lebel, attorneys with Drinker Biddle & Reath in Los Angeles, in an e-mail to SHRM Online. "While that goal is obviously valid and important, prohibitions on confidentiality agreements could have some drawbacks that will not necessarily benefit claimants in these types of lawsuits."

Protracted Litigation

"I think we will see a lot more jury trials with this type of law in place," said Michael Studenka, an attorney with Newmeyer & Dillion in Newport Beach, Calif. A confidentiality agreement does a lot of things. In a case that is not clear cutfor example, where there are some favorable and some unfavorable facts for an employer using a confidentiality agreementthe employer might make a business decision to settle the case quickly and avoid attorney fees and a long litigation process, he explained.

Employers may lose one incentive to settle sexual harassment cases if they have no prospect of keeping any allegations against them and their employees confidential, Gold and Lebel said. True, settling can still help them avoid prolonged litigation.

However, "often, the publicly filed complaint does not contain the embarrassing or most sordid details of the conduct that later surfaces [in a trial] once discovery has been conducted." During the discovery process in litigation, opposing sides ask each other questions and request documents and other information that may be used as evidence.

[SHRM members-only HR Q&A: What are the different types of sexual harassment?]

The proposed law may also decrease the amount of money an employer or an alleged harasser will pay to settle the claim, they said.

Although some victims may want to publicly disclose their grievances, other victims may want to settle quickly and confidentially, avoiding any public exposure of personal matters, Studenka noted.

The proposed law does allow the accuser to opt for a confidential settlement, but if she or he chooses to go public instead, there could be an unanticipated backlash of negative publicity or disclosed facts that the claimant would prefer to keep private, Gold and Lebel said.

Not having a confidentiality agreement can benefit the employer at times; the employer may publicly discuss the allegations, and deny them, give alternative versions of the events or otherwise cast into doubt the veracity of the accuser's account.

What's Next

It appears likely that S.B. 820 will pass in some form, Gold and Lebel said. Nationally, there is a growing public desire for greater regulation and resources to tackle harassment in the workplace, and legislators seem to be feeling the pressure to take action. In addition to California, legislators in several other states, including New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, have introduced similar bills designed to limit confidentiality in sexual harassment settlements and to take a tougher stance on harassment.

"There has definitely been a sea change, and I'm glad to see people talking about the issue and bringing it into the open," Studenka said. "A positive that will come from this is that the victims will know that they have a voice."

HR's Role

The increased awareness about harassment in the workplace could lead to a spike in harassment claims, Gold and Lebel noted. Therefore, employers should evaluate their policies and training practices to ensure that their workforce is well-informed about how to raise concerns.

"As always, employers should take all inquiries about potential harassment seriously," they said. HR professionals should be trained on how to properly investigate and resolve complaints.

It is likely too soon for employers to start making changes to their agreements, they added. "However, given the likelihood that S.B. 820 and similar legislation in other states will pass, employers should follow these bills carefully."



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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!3i Infotech Signals Transformation with a New Brand Identity

MUMBAI, INDIA, Feb 15, 2018  3i Infotech Ltd, the global IT company committed to empowering business transformation, has launched a new corporate brand identity which reflects both the evolution of the Company and its vision for the future.

Over two decades, 3i Infotech has become a recognized leader in providing IP-based software solutions and a wide range of IT services. Its offerings have empowered business transformation for numerous organizations across geographies by helping them improve their processes and streamline their operations.

3i Infotech\-\-s new brand identity represents this successful and ongoing transition to a company with a distinctive portfolio of IT Products and Services, competitive in key growth markets including Banking, Financial Services, Insurance, Government, Manufacturing, Retail, Distribution, Telecom and Healthcare.

Padmanabhan Iyer, MD & Global CEO, 3i Infotech, said: \An ever-evolving business environment creates new possibilities for our clients. To keep pace with changing times and technology, 3i Infotech remains ever sensitive to the needs of customers, focused on providing them with solutions that comprehensively address their challenges, and unlock triggers to their growth.

\Our new brand identity represents a renewed commitment to our clients, and our employees, and reflects how we want to be perceived  as a forward-thinking brand, dynamically keeping pace with the ever-changing technology landscape, which pushes boundaries and brings together the best of expertise, talent, products and services, creating outstanding results across the spectrum.\

With the new 3i Infotech brand identity, the new corporate logo brings to life the brand\-\-s refreshed promise of creating new opportunities and value for its clients, and underscores the strength and focus of its products and services portfolio.

Distinctive colours represent a fresh approach, bringing vibrancy and dynamism to the brand, and stand for a new way of creating results, while the distinctive typeface lends a modern, clean look and highlights the values of innovation, insight and integrity  the core of the Company\-\-s DNA.

3i Infotech\-\-s new tagline \Limitless Excellence\ represents its passion and zeal to go beyond the expected and deliver extraordinary levels of performance using the combination of evolved products and services, exceptional customer engagement and deeper industry expertise.

3i Infotech has also repositioned its services portfolio under the name Altiray. As an end-to-end IT services provider, delivering to perfection is at the core of the 3i Infotech team. The new name reflects this very strength and commitment to nimbly driving consistent, best-in-class outcomes for its services clients.

The new brand identity will be rolled out seamlessly across all offline and online platforms in the coming months.

About 3i Infotech Ltd

Headquartered in Mumbai, India since inception in 1993, 3i Infotech Ltd (BSE: 532628, NSE: 3IINFOTECH) has over 4800 employees in 18 offices and 11 countries, and 1000+ customers across 50 countries and 4 continents. With a comprehensive set of IP-based software solutions and a wide range of IT services, 3i Infotech Ltd has successfully transformed the business operations of customers globally. For more information, please visit www.3i-infotech.com.

Media Contact:

Aparna Venkatesh

CorpComms, 3i Infotech Ltd

E: corporate@3i-infotech.com

T: +91-22 6792 8178Georgetown, SC (29440)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 85F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable.Planets around other stars are the rule rather than the exception, and there are likely hundreds of billions of exoplanets in the Milky Way alone. NASA's Kepler space telescope has found more than 2,400 alien worlds, including a new haul of 95 planets announced on Feb. 15, 2018.

The exoplanet discoveries by NASA's Kepler space telescope keep rolling in.

Astronomers poring through data gathered during Kepler's current extended mission, known as K2, have spotted 95 more alien planets, a new study reports.

That brings the K2 tally to 292, and the total haul over Kepler's entire operational life to nearly 2,440  about two-thirds of all the alien worlds ever discovered. And more than 2,000 additional Kepler candidates await confirmation by follow-up observations or analysis. [7 Greatest Exoplanet Discoveries by NASA's Kepler (So Far)]

Kepler launched in March 2009, on a mission to help scientists determine just how common rocky, potentially habitable worlds such as Earth are throughout the Milky Way. For four years, the spacecraft stared continuously at about 150,000 stars, looking for tiny dips in their brightness caused by the passage of planets across their faces.

This work was highly productive, as noted above. But in May 2013, the second of Kepler's four orientation-maintaining "reaction wheels" failed, and the spacecraft lost its superprecise pointing ability, bringing the original mission to a close.

But mission managers figured out a way to stabilize Kepler using sunlight pressure, and the spacecraft soon embarked on its K2 mission, which involves exoplanet hunting on a more limited basis, as well as observing comets and asteroids in our own solar system, supernovas and a range of other objects and phenomena.

For the new study, researchers analyzed K2 data going all the way back to 2014, zeroing in on 275 "candidate" signals.

"We found that some of the signals were caused by multiple star systems or noise from the spacecraft," study lead author Andrew Mayo, a Ph.D. student at the Technical University of Denmark's National Space Institute, said in a statement. "But we also detected planets that range from sub-Earth-sized to the size of Jupiter and larger."

Indeed, 149 of the signals turned out to be caused by bona fide exoplanets, 95 of which are new discoveries. And one of the new ones is a record setter.

"We validated a planet on a 10-day orbit around a star called HD 212657, which is now the brightest star found by either the Kepler or K2 missions to host a validated planet," Mayo said. "Planets around bright stars are important because astronomers can learn a lot about them from ground-based observatories."

The new study was published today (Feb. 15) in The Astronomical Journal.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.The first SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket soared towards Mars orbit last week. The cargo-lifting rocket was on a test flight that met most of its major objectives. The star of the show was a cherry red Tesla Roadster that the rocket hefted into space, complete with a space-suited mannequin in the driver's seat. SpaceX founder Elon Musk is also the founder of Tesla, and he thought a car would be more interesting than some sort of simulated spacecraft.

In the wake of the successful test launch, space pundits mused on what the successful Falcon Heavy launch would mean for founder Elon Musk's eventual plans to build a Mars colony. Musk once said he hoped to transport a million colonists to Mars. They won't be riding Falcon Heavy rockets  it will be long discontinued by then. The Falcon Heavy will be replaced by a bigger version called the Big Falcon Rocket  or Big F***ing Rocket.

But what impact might these rockets have on Earths atmosphere, especially in an era of rapidly accelerating climate change and continued concerns about the ozone layer?

The Falcon Heavy produces emissions from its oxygen and kerosene fuel inside of its boosters, said Darin Toohey, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Toohey researches how aerosols and trace gases affect Earth's climate  including after a rocket launch.

Back in 2009, Toohey co-authored a study in the journal Astropolitics noting that rockets damage Earth's ozone layer  a natural shield in the stratosphere against the sun's ultraviolet radiation. In an interview with Seeker, he noted that the effects are more pronounced when rockets are launched in bulk. One at a time is not as much of an issue.

"If you were there [in the stratosphere] and waiting around you might notice it's different" after a single launch, he said. "But it mixes after a while, and the plume disperses and it does downwind."

RELATED: Elon Musk's SpaceX Mars Colony Plan by the Numbers

The effects vary depending on what kind of fuel is used in a rocket. One of the greatest concerns to scientists are rockets that use chlorine, such as the space shuttle's solid rocket boosters. "Those destroy ozone. It's just gone," Toohey said. The Falcon Heavy's kerosene boosters would also contribute to ozone depletion due to their outputs of nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide, both of which react with ozone in the atmosphere.

Falcon Heavy can lift about 68 metric tons of equipment, more than double the 29 tons that its closest match  the Delta IV heavy  can launch.

The oxygen fumes from Falcon Heavy have some lasting effects. Cameras on board the rocket showed condensation in the troposphere (lower atmosphere) forming due to the plume. This was a side effect of the extra water from the rocket's fuel, humidifying the upper atmosphere. These are called noctilucent clouds and have been seen behind rockets and airplanes, Toohey said.

What's more worrisome is what may happen when the rocket goes up further in the atmosphere, where oxygen is not as abundant. There, a rockets exhaust can form black carbon. "We're pretty confident that what these black carbon particles do is change the local radiation," Toohey said, meaning that the particles' dark color black carbon absorbs heat and in turn warms the atmosphere around it.

Public sources say the three Falcon 9 rockets that make up Falcon Heavy have about 440 metric tons of kerosene between them. The gas has a 34 percent carbon content, which means the rocket generates roughly 149 metric tons of carbon per launch. Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels is the leading contributor to climate change. The amount from a single launch may not be a big deal, but might become one if SpaceX pursues an aggressive schedule.

RELATED: SpaceX Launches the World's Most Powerful Rocket

For this reason, Toohey urges that Musk spread out his plans to send a million people to Mars. "My first impression would be to do it slowly, not in the same year."

Toohey added, however, that it's hard to get reliable data on how much rockets affect the atmosphere because companies keep rocket data confidential. While Musk is aware of the University of Colorado's work  he spoke there in the past, Toohey said  the department doesn't have much information about his rockets' performance in the high atmosphere.

He urged all rocket companies to become more transparent. Supersonic aircraft, which also fly in the high atmosphere, have been studied extensively and also show effects on ozone, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Toohey said it's silly to do so many studies on the environmental impacts of aircraft and to forget about studying rockets.

Originally published on Seeker.If you live in the high latitudes, expect to see the Northern or Southern Lights shortly. A solar storm is on its way to Earth, as charged particles from the sun move towards our planet.

The solar particles are expected to hit as early as Thursday, February 14, but could arrive the following day. Auroras will shine in the sky as the charged particles hit gas molecules high in the atmosphere, causing molecules to glow. There's also a small chance that the storm will disrupt satellites or power grids.

"Aurora may be visible at high latitudes," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wrote in a statment. This could include the "northern tier" of the United States, with affected states including northern Michigan and Maine.

NOAA added that the forecast calls for a high probability of a G-1 or "minor" storm, which could strengthen to a G-2 or "moderate" storm depending on how the stream of particles hit Earth. Geomagnetic storms are ranked on a scale, with G at the bottom, R in the middle, and S as the most severe. Forecasts now say the particles will give our planet a glancing blow.

RELATED: Microexplosions on the Sun's Surface Are Superheating the Solar Corona

The particles, which originated from the sun after a moderate solar flare on February 12, could also affect power grids or spacecraft. NOAA stated that "weak power grid fluctuations" are possible, as well as a "minor impact on satellite operations."

NOAA and NASA monitor the sun using several telescopes; famous examples are the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). These telescopes help generate weather forecasts by detecting when solar activity occurs. Scientists also study the sun to learn more about its internal structure and gather data to make better predictions about flares and particle ejections.

Solar flares and particle ejections are associated with sunspots  dark areas on the sun's surface  that host intense magnetic activity. As the magnetic fields in a sunspot cross, NASA stated, this can cause a sudden energy explosion, also known as a solar flare. This sends radiation out into space.

Sometimes these explosions can also send off charged particles, which are called coronal mass ejections or CMEs. "CMEs are huge bubbles of radiation and particles from the sun," NASA stated. "They explode into space at very high speed when the sun's magnetic field lines suddenly organize."

RELATED: The Sun Just Released the Most Powerful Solar Flare in More Than a Decade

Many solar flares and CMEs blast harmlessly off into empty space. If they are directed towards Earth, however, space forecasters keep a close eye to see how severe the solar storm will be. If the storm looks bad, engineers can shut down non-essential systems on satellites or prepare for possible fluctuations in the power grid.

The sun has an 11-year cycle of sunspot activity. The last maximum in the cycle was in April 2014, with frequent and powerful solar flares and CMEs. The year 2018, by contrast, is expected to be quieter.

This summer, NASA will launch a car-sized spacecraft called the Parker Solar Probe, which will venture closer to the sun than any other mission dedicated to observing it. After flying by Venus a few times, the probe will sail into the corona  the sun's tenuous upper atmosphere. Parker will make its closest approach at four million miles, which is nearly 15 times closer to the sun than the planet Mercury. Its goal is to learn more about the stream of particles emanating from our sun.

Originally published on Seeker.Rohit Bhartia of NASA's Mars 2020 mission holds a slice of a meteorite scientists have determined came from Mars. This slice will likely be used here on Earth for testing a laser instrument for NASA's Mars 2020 rover; a separate slice will go to Mars on the rover.

A chunk of rock that was once part of Mars, but landed on Earth as a meteorite, will return to the Red Planet aboard a NASA rover set to launch in 2020.

The meteorite, known as Sayh al Uhaymir 008 (SaU008) was found in Oman in 1999, but geologists determined that it likely originated on Mars, according to a statement from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Scientists think collisions between Mars and other large bodies in the solar system's early days sent chunks of the Red Planet into space, where they might wander for eons before falling onto Earth's surface.

Now, NASA scientists are using the meteorite to calibrate an instrument that will fly on the Mars 2020 rover, which is scheduled to drop down on the Red Planet's surface and collect rock samples that could one day be returned to Earth. One of the rover's main goals is to evaluate the potential habitability of ancient and present-day Mars. [How NASA's Mars 2020 Rover Will Work (Infographic)]

The meteorite is being used to calibrate an instrument called the SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals), which will use techniques often used in forensic science to identify chemicals in the Martian rock samples, in features as thin as a human hair.

A close-up of a meteorite that likely came from Mars. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The researchers will study the meteorite on Earth, where they are able to make sure their instruments are producing a correct analysis of the rock, and understand what features of the rock are perceptible to their instruments. When the rover settles onto Mars, researchers can once again use the rock to make sure their instruments are working as they should be, before pointing them at features of the Martian surface.

"We're studying things on such a fine scale that slight misalignments, caused by changes in temperature or even the rover settling into sand, can require us to correct our aim," said Luther Beegle, principal investigator for SHERLOC, in the statement. "By studying how the instrument sees a fixed target, we can understand how it will see a piece of the Martian surface."

There are only about 200 confirmed Martian meteorites that have been found on Earth, according to the statement. The SaU008 meteorite comes from London's Natural History Museum, which lends out hundreds of meteorites (most of them not from Mars) every year for scientific studies. The SHERLOC team needed a Martian meteorite that was robust enough to endure the journey to Mars without flaking or crumbling. (Launch from Earth and entry into the Martian atmosphere are both very strenuous events for everything on board.) The rock also "needed to possess certain chemical features to test SHERLOC's sensitivity. These had to be reasonably easy to detect repeatedly for the calibration target to be useful," according to the statement.

A slice of a Martian meteorite undergoes oxygen cleaning to remove organics. This slice will remain on Earth to be used for testing and calibrating instruments. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Usually, instruments like SHERLOC are calibrated with a variety of materials including rock, metal and glass. And Mars meteorites have been used for instrument calibration in the past. In fact, another instrument aboard the Mars 2020 rover, called SuperCam, will be adding a Mars meteorite to NASA's calibration target, according to the statement. And while this would be the first Mars meteorite to return to the surface of the Red Planet, NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, which orbits the Red Planet, carries a chunk of a Martian meteorite.

SHERLOC will carry other materials from Earth in addition to Su008, including materials that could be used to make a spacesuit for use on Mars. Observations of how the material withstands the radiation, atmosphere and temperature variations on Mars will provide valuable information for possible crewed trips to the Red Planet.

"The SHERLOC instrument is a valuable opportunity to prepare for human spaceflight as well as to perform fundamental scientific investigations of the Martian surface," Marc Fries, a SHERLOC co-investigator and curator of extraterrestrial materials at Johnson Space Center, said in the statement. "It gives us a convenient way to test material that will keep future astronauts safe when they get to Mars."

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.The uncrewed Russian cargo ship Progress 69 approaches the International Space Station on Feb. 15, 2018, to deliver 3 tons of supplies for the orbiting lab's Expedition 54 crew.

A robotic Russian resupply ship linked up with the International Space Station this morning (Feb. 15) to deliver 3 tons of cargo, including fresh food, supplies and science gear for the astronauts on board.

The Progress 69 resupply ship docked at the aft end of the space station's Russian-built Zvezda module at 5:38 a.m. EST (1038 GMT) as both spacecraft flew 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth, over the area just east of the Philippines.

Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, launched the new cargo ship Tuesday (Feb. 13) from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan after a two-day delay. An initial attempt to loft the cargo ship on a swift, 3.5-hour trip to the station was aborted in the final minute Sunday (Feb. 11) due to an unspecified problem.[How Russia's Progress Cargo Ships Work (Infographic)]

Roscosmos was unable to try the new fast-track flight plan for Progress 69 because of that delay; the station would be in a different position. Instead, the agency opted for a two-day rendezvous for the resupply flight.

Russia's Progress cargo ships and Soyuz crew capsules traditionally took two days to reach the International Space Station after launch, but in 2013, Russian engineers devised a faster 6-hour flight plan to cut down the trip to a single day. The new 3.5-hour flight plan would deliver a Progress vehicle to the space station after just two orbits of Earth, compared with the four orbits it takes for the 6-hour approach. Two-day trips to the space station typically require 34 orbits around Earth.

Progress 69 is packed with vital supplies for the station's six-person Expedition 54 crew. Those supplies include3,128 lbs. (1,418 kilograms) of spare parts and other gear; 1,940 lbs. (880 kg) of propellant; 53 lbs. (24 kg) of air; and 48 lbs. (21 kg) of oxygen.

The station's Expedition 54 crew is made up of NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Joe Acaba and Scott Tingle; Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Anton Shkaplerov; and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Norishige Kanai. The space travelers will unpack Progress 69 and then fill it with trash and unneeded items over the next six months. In August, Progress 69 will depart the space station and burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

The launch and docking of Progress 69 aren't the only big events for the space station's crew this week. On Friday (Feb. 16), Tingle and Kanai will venture outside the station on a spacewalk that is scheduled to last 6.5 hours.

You can watch that spacewalk live here, courtesy of NASA TV, beginning at 5:30 a.m. EST (1030 GMT).

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.Paris, Feb 14, 2018 (SPS) - Two French lawyers of the Saharawi political prisoners of Gdeim Izik, expressed their utmost indignation after their expulsion from Morocco, on Tuesday after their detention at the Moroccan airport in Casablanca.

"We, Ingrid Metton and Olfa Ouled, attorneys of the Paris Bar Association, express our deepest indignation for the obstacles and impediments imposed in the exercise of our profession and the right to the defense of our clients," they said in a communique. French lawyers, adding that all their complaints filed in France have not been addressed to date.

The two French lawyers, said in their statement that they traveled to Morocco on Monday to visit their clients and were arrested when they got off the plane in Casablanca at 8:40 pm, and deprived of their passports and "under police escort" inside the international zone of the airport, for more than 18 hours before being expelled from the territory, "the statement said.

In May 2017, the two lawyers were violently evicted by police from the courtroom of the Rabat Court of Appeals during the exercise of their functions, in defense of the Saharawi political prisoners and Ouled was savagely assaulted causing several injuries.

The lawyers reaffirmed that defense must be exercised freely for everyone and everywhere because it is a fundamental principle of the legal profession and that they will continue to defend this principle throughout the world. SPS

125/090/TRABir Lahlou (liberated Territories) Feb 14, 2018 (SPS) - The Sahrawi National Committee for Human Rights expressed its strong condemnation of the Moroccan state in the ongoing detention of 15 Sahrawi students from the ranks of the students and the postponement of their trial for the third time in a row until March.

Facing the postponement, the Sahrawi National Committee for Human Rights denounces the unjustified postponement and the arbitrary and unjust detention of the Saharawi student group and condemns the repression and arbitrary measures against them by the Moroccan prison administration in Marrakech and demands the immediate and unconditional release of the Moroccan state.

It also voices its absolute solidarity with all Saharawi political prisoners and their families who suffer from the despicable practices of Morocco which are contrary to all international norms and conventions.

The Sahrawi National Committee for Human Rights appealed to all the forces of justice, fairness, media outlets, personalities to pressure Morocco to intervene to release all Saharawi political prisoners in Moroccan prisons.

The Sahrawi Commission highly and warmly appreciated the unity of the position of the Sahrawi students and their challenge to the Moroccan colonial authorities and warmly saluted the continued presence of the Saharawi families and solidarity activists and human rights defenders who visited the detainees of the student group in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh.SPS

125/090/TRAMarrakesh (Morocco) February 14, 2018 (SPS) - The so-called Court of Appeal of the Moroccan occupation in Marrakech decided today to postpone the trial of the Saharawi political prisoners known as the group of students until March 13.

The Sahrawi students' group entered the hall of meetings dressed in the Saharwi national dress "Darra" and chanted national slogans demanding the Sahrawi people's right to complete independence.

The Moroccan occupation forces in various forms of security and police have prevented many families of Saharawi detainees from entering the courtroom without any legal justification. This is a method used by the Moroccan occupation authorities in the series of sham and unfair trials that have affected Saharawi civilians in the occupied Territories of Western Sahara. SPS

125/090/TRAWALLINGFORD  A privately held real estate investment firm based in central Massachusetts has purchased the sprawling Bristol-Myers Squibb corporate complex on Research Parkway, town officials confirmed Wednesday.

Terms of the deal between Bristol-Myers Squibb and Calare Properties were not immediately available, but Calare bought the complex for $5 million, according to documents filed with the Town Clerks office.

The sale of the property at 5 Research Parkway comes just months before the pharmaceutical giant was scheduled to have completed its move out of the facility. The company previously announced plans to shut down the 915,000-square-foot research and development facility, located on 180 acres, in June 2015.

Bill Manley, chief executive officer of Calare Properties, said his company sees the property as having exciting leasing potential for both office and pharmaceutical/biotech tenants as well as new development opportunities for a variety of uses, including industrial.

The location provides an unparalleled opportunity for companies in the pharmaceutical, biotech, manufacturing, health care and service industries seeking a facility in the Southern Connecticut region, Manley said in a statement. The extensive acreage and unique physical layout of the campus can accommodate a multitude of uses in addition to potential re-development to meet the needs of future tenants.

Lisa McCormick Lavery, a spokeswoman for Bristol-Myers Squibb, said about 400 employees of the company will remain in Wallingford through the end of September. Some of them will then be relocated to Cambridge, Massachusetts, while others will be moved to New Jersey.

We have entered into a leaseback arrangement with Calare that will allow our employees to remain there through the end of the year, McCormick Lavery said. Bristol-Myers Squibb opened the facility 31 years ago, she said.

The acquisition of the Bristol-Myers complex is the second New Haven County acquisition that Calare has made since the beginning of 2018. Last month, the firm bought a 175,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility at 33 Stiles Lane in North Haven.

The firm sold a 200,000-square-foot industrial warehouse at 40 Pepes Farm Road in Milford to an unidentified institutional investor last March for $13.25 million. Calareacquired that property in 2014.

Joe Mira, chairman of Wallingfords Economic Development Commission, said Calares acquisition of the property is one of the best pieces of economic news the town has had in recent memory.

Lets see where we go from here. Mira said. Hopefully, they can get it fully leasedquickly. They have a few different designs in mind as to how the property could be configured for multiple tenants.

Mira said the deal is also good news for the state, as well.

Thats the underlying positive note to me is that this company had enough confidence in the location and the state economy to do this, he said. The state does have its economic drawbacks, but a lot of it is how we are perceived. Hopefully, this can help change that.

The corporate complex includes a materials handling facility, a central utility plant and a child development center. The utility plant can generate 4.7 megawatts of power for the complex.

In addition to extensive amounts of lab space, the building also includes a state-of-the-art lecture hall, a full-service cafeteria, renovated fitness center and 1,405 parking spaces. The property also has a helipad.

luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.comWASHINGTON  If theres a sweet spot in the legislative race to extend legal protection for young immigrant Dreamers, the Senate failed to find it Thursday.

In a sequence of four separate tries, senators could not muster the necessary 60 votes to move forward on a combination package to continue legal status for 700,000 Dreamers  8,000 or more on Connecticut  and give President Donald Trump the added border security upon which he campaigned in 2016.

We bent over backwards to try to get Republican votes; we put up a bill that funded the Trump wall and Republicans still wouldnt vote for it, said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn, who supported a bipartisan measure that was one of the four defeated.

Its clear that Republicans and Trump dont want a deal, Murphy said in an interview after the vote. This is a totally manufactured crisis that Trump could solve with the stroke of a pen.

After the vote, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn, said he was heartbroken that the Dreamers remain at severe risk of mass, draconian deportation.

Also, he said, I am furious that President Trump threw a ticking time bomb to Congress, and then slammed the door on compromise at every turn.

Trumps preferred measure  a path to citizenship for 1.8 million youthful immigrants brought to this country illegally as children, plus an end to the visa lottery and what he terms chain migration  also met defeat.

The bipartisan proposal, supported by Blumenthal in addition to Murphy, won the votes of seven Republicans, as well as opposition from three Democrats.

It would similarly have provided a path to citizenship for Dreamers plus those who did not win legal status under then-President Obamas 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals  DACA.

Trump set the clock ticking for Dreamers last September when he canceled DACA. Absent Congressional action, most DACA recipient lose legal status as of March 5.

Two federal court injunctions this year have bolstered Dreamers hopes of resisting deportation. But the rulings are temporary, and the legal back-and-forth may take years to resolve.

The bipartisan plan would have kept the visa lottery, established by the State Department to encourage immigration from under-represented countries in Africa and elsewhere. The Trump measure, put forward by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, would have curtailed it altogether.

The Trump measure also would have limited admission of family members of legal immigrants to spouses and minor children.

The bipartisan proposal forged by a centrist group calling itself the Common Sense Coalition would also have kept the decades-old policy of family reunification (Trumps chain migration). But it would have barred a citizenship path for parents of Dreamers who brought children illegally to the U.S.

And it would have committed $25 billion to added security for both the Southern and Northern borders, but would have dispensed it on a year-by-year basis based on annual progress reports by the Department of Homeland Security.

The bipartisan compromise was very hard to stomach for me, but it was the best compromise that had a chance to pass the Senate, Murphy said. Republicans made it totally clear they have no interest in compromise. They just want to appeal to their base.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that President Trump would veto the bipartisan bill if it came to his desk.

Language in the measure would have unleashed a new flood of minors getting smuggled across the border, the statement said. We need to solve the problem, not perpetuate it indefinitely.STAMFORD  A science experiment by Stamford High School students is getting ready to launch into space.

Traveling on a SpaceX Dragon rocket, their project will land at the International Space Station in June as part of the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program sponsored by NASA.

Stamford High was among the 30 finalists for the spaceflight program chosen last summer from a pool of about 11,000. The program asks students to think critically about problems encountered by humans in space, from retaining vision in low pressure to eating and making food  each topics that Stamford students proposed studying.

The winning experiment by 13 junior and senior boys tests how yeast breeds in space.

The final hurdle in securing a spot on the rocket is raising $24,000. The students have set up a GoFundMe page to help.

There were other projects that didnt make the final cut, but will still have their day in the lab.

This week, the Toshiba America Foundation awarded the school $4,000 for a bioreactor students can use to simulate space conditions. One group will use it to test how a certain drug affects pressure on eyesight in zero gravity. Even though that project didnt become a finalist, the students hope their findings can be used in space exploration.

No martian colony or research station can exist if everyone is going blind, senior James Pease said. The notion that our research project might have implications for future habitation of Mars is what drove us to stay up until 3 a.m. for weeks on end.

Having a bioreactor at Stamford High will give it the edge of a research institution, senior Augustus Doricko said.

Our astronauts are losing their vision as they spend longer periods of time in space, he said. We hope whatever research we draw from this can help us keep their vision intact.

Sue Dougherty, a special education teacher who also teaches chemistry and physics, is overseeing the spaceflight projects.

Since Stamford High doesnt have a lab period, students spent nights at the Ferguson Library working on their proposal, consulting with a mentor and collaborating as a team.

You would think we were at a Fortune 500 company the way these boys conducted themselves, Dougherty said.

To contribute to the Stamford High students GoFundMe page, visit gofundme.com/NasaStudents.Ten years ago, flexible work options became hugely popular. People turned to freelance and temporary work because they couldn't find traditional full-time jobs. But now, things are different.

Related: Top 5 Ways Freelancers Can Stay Competitive in the Gig Economy

A December 2017 report from The Adecco Group and LinkedIn compiled data from more than 4 million LinkedIn users and surveyed an additional 102,000 short-term employees. Its finding: 4 percent of respondents chose flexible work because it fit their needs.

Flexible work arrangements allow individuals to go back to school or spend time with their families. Having one of these positions is no longer about worker desperation but rather worker convenience. "Flexible" also now extends beyond positions that allow only occasional telecommuting.

So, amid this new culture, perhaps it's time that employers recognize the benefits of hiring freelancers, gig workers, independent contractors and temporary employees -- in lieu of risking alienating an ever-growing talent pool.

Recognize the part they play in the organization's culture.

Many companies fall within industries with seasonal or unpredictable talent needs. They hire 10 people when business is good, but need to fire them when they unexpectedly lose a major client.

As CEO of the Cincinnati-based recruiting platform Tilr, Carisa Miklusak has seen these scenarios and points out that such layoffs cause big hits to company morale. Companies hire and fire from the traditional W2 workforce as business needs change," she pointed out to me. But: "This type of approach and consistent turnover creates a feeling of instability and can be a negative pull on company culture.

"Using a flexible workforce," Miklusak noted, "erases this feeling of instability, as workers are hired with aligned expectations.

Related: How the Gig Economy Hurts Workers and Consumers

Share these hiring expectations, then, with your whole team. Let everyone know up front how long a flexible worker will be with the company. That way, when this person leaves, shockwaves won't reverberate throughout the organization.

Of course, this doesnt mean treating flexible talent as dispensable. Value these people for the part they play in maintaining a great company culture. Include them in team events, like holiday parties and company lunches. That way, they can enjoy the work environment theyre helping to preserve.

Stop thinking "traditional vs. unconventional."

Its wrong to think of full-time, in-office employees as "traditional," and flexible workers as "unconventional." That type of thinking makes the latter group seem much less valuable.

Melbourne, Australia-based job interview-simulation platform Vervo makes a point of this; the company sees value in workers of all types. We dont see a modern company as a bunch of people in the same city, under one roof between 9 and 5, CEO and co-founder Omer Molad said in an email. We think of our business as a group of people working towards a common mission, with the same values.

Shift the focus at your company from how and where an employee works to what he or she contributes to the team. This starts with defining role expectations. Decide on the main responsibilities the company needs to fill. Then, be open to the various ways a flexible worker can help accomplish those goals.

Highlight how a role can change their lives.

The New York City-based online healthcare platform Virtual Health Partners recognizes that many candidates accept flexible work roles to help achieve personal goals. So, VHP aligns its talent acquisition strategy accordingly.

One of my team members told me that the extra money she earned working with VHP helped her become the first person in her family to ever buy a house, CEO and co-founder Jillian Bridgette Cohen said in an email. Another team member recently called me to say thank you for the opportunity to work flexible hours. She now has time for her three young kids, blogging and running classes.

When looking to hire a flexible worker, recognize that it's important to determine that person's goals. Then, discuss how the role and the company can help him or her get there. Be open to creative solutions. For instance, despite the Affordable Care Act, many people still don't have health insurance. If a flexible worker mentions that having employer-provided insurance -- if only for a few months -- would help his or her family, offer it. This individual might then be willing to accept lower pay for not having to pay out-of-pocket for insurance.

Understand everyones expectations.

Not all flexible workers choose their jobs because its good for their career. In fact, the aforementioned Adecco and LinkedIn report found that 36 percent of flexible workers surveyed took these jobs because they couldn't ind permanent work. Understandably, they hope that a temporary position will transition into full-time one. This is why its important to discuss expectations early.

As pointed out by Kimmie Greene, head of communications for QuickBooks Self-Employed at the Mountain View, Calif.-based financial management software company Intuit, honesty is best; it ensures the best experience for everyone.

Clearly communicating things like review cycles, deadlines and quality expectations is important because then a freelancer knows what is expected of them, and you can manage them without any hiccups, Greene said via email. "Don't leave a sour taste in the mouths of flexible workers. If theres no chance for a transition to a full-time role, let them know.

Related: How the Gig Economy Is Changing Work for Women

"But, if there is a long-term position available, give them a step-by-step explanation of how they can earn the job," Greene also said.

Chances are, if you do that, you'll have a grateful, hard-working potential employee to show for your effort.

Related:

How 'Unconventional' Workers Can Be the Answer to Your Company Culture Woes

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O f all the items lurking under our streets, waiting to one day be rediscovered  the fatbergs, the disused Tube platforms, the remains of Boris Johnsons syphilitic relatives  Londons unexploded Second World War bombs must be the most worthy of reflection.

Business travellers and holidaymakers at City Airport have certainly had plenty of time to do just that. On Monday flights were cancelled to allow the Royal Navy divers time to remove and defuse the 500kg bomb discovered in a nearby stretch of the Thames. Then, on Tuesday, it was a similar story for commuters on their way into the capital, when another suspected wartime bomb caused the closure of the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at the Dartford Crossing.

We should probably be used to this sort of disruption by now. In recent years unexploded ordnance has turned up in several spots in the Thames, at building sites all over town and in a Hampstead back garden. As more of Londons post-war social housing is demolished to make way for taller, privately owned apartment blocks, needing deeper foundations, we can expect such discoveries to become only more common. And these are just the one in 10 that never detonated. Or not yet, anyway.

Such was the scale of the Second World War Blitz bombardment that your daily commute almost certainly takes you past a site where homes were destroyed and lives lost and, likely, you dont even know it. You may be aware of the 111 people who died in a strike on Bank station, or the 173 crushed to death while seeking shelter in Bethnal Green Underground, or the nine people killed on the site of what is now Tottenham Court Roads loneliest Caffe Nero, but the vast majority of Londons 43,000 civilian war casualties were either never properly memorialised or deliberately hushed up by the Government for morale and propaganda reasons.

It was only through the very recent work of historians and volunteers on websites such as bombsight.org and wrsonline.co.uk that I was able to piece together the story of the small scrub of green and childrens play area opposite my own bedroom window. This is where, in March 1945, a V2 rocket hit, demolished a row of terrace houses, killing 35 people, including 12 children.

Second World War bomb that caused chaos at London City airport detonated

Living and working amid a palpable sense of history is one of the privileges of being a Londoner, yet this particular trauma is one that we cant rely on the buildings and streets around us to remember. Instead its these occasionally resurfacing, commuter-inconveniencing explosives that must act as our regular reminder.

Whether we remember these bombs or not, they reshaped more than just the maps. They hardened this citys character, in ways celebrated by that probably overused phrase Blitz Spirit, but hopefully they softened it too, making us a more welcoming refuge for the citizens from other cities, in Syria, Afghanistan and South Sudan, whose lives are still daily devastated by war. After all, not so very long ago, that was us.

Im proud of my namesakes LGBT bravery and success

My invitation got lost in the post. Or there was some terrible mix-up at the party planners. Either way, Im not bitter about missing Ellen DeGeneress star-studded 60th and have been celebrating just as enthusiastically, as if Id been there, clinking glasses with Oprah, Leo, J-Law, Kim, Kanye and the rest.

You see, my namesake and I go way back. In 1997, the year that Ellen made TV history by coming out as gay in her self-titled sitcom, my mum bought what she thought was a cute, personalised

T-shirt for her young daughters birthday. It read: Ellen, you are not alone  a message of LGBT solidarity. Bless.

Its hard to imagine it now but DeGeneress decision to come out was hugely brave and came at great professional cost. Her sitcom was cancelled soon after, and it wasnt until five years later that her talk show took off, turning her into Hollywoods favourite hostess. Ellen, you are definitely not alone.

Make it a date with a snog n fumble

The helpless unromantic in me is heartened by the Valentines week revelations that young people still dont know how to date, despite decades of dating etiquette lessons from television and films.

Pop star Anne-Marie says shes never been on a proper date, and 23-year-old Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan has guilelessly told interviewers that she doesnt even know what one is. Guess theyll just have to settle for a snog n fumble outside the pub after last orders, followed by weeks of wondering whether this means youre actually in a relationship. Never did us any harm.

T hose who advocate a hard Brexit, with trade under World Trade Organisation rules, seem to assume that the introduction of tariffs would automatically be accepted by all concerned. But what if businesses in Europe are not happy with the consequent price hikes?

Brexit, they will argue, was Britains brilliant idea and exporting companies should pay the new tariffs  or else their your operations within the EU.

If European companies begin to impose these conditions others will surely follow and the result could be catastrophic for UK business. Assuming an average tariff of four per cent on total trade worth 550 billion, the extra costs could be up to 22 billion a year.

The UK also benefits greatly from 750 trade agreements negotiated by the EU with non-EU countries which greatly facilitate trade and reduce tariffs. A similar response to increased tariff costs could be expected.

Sorry, Boris Johnson, but there is much for us to fear in the event of a hard Brexit.

Christopher Tew



Foreign Secretary Boris Johnsons defence of our impending exit from the EU makes him look like a man who doesnt want either side to dislike him.

He dismisses the idea of any sort of relationship with the EU as undemocratic but then claims we are not leaving with a V-sign from the cliffs of Dover.

Your editorial [Comment, February 14] hits the nail on the head in identifying Johnsons Jekyll and Hyde persona  we know he will say anything if it means getting the people on his side before changing his tune the next day. In some ways his stance reflects the countrys botched Brexit negotiations. We cant decide which way we want to go  a hard or soft Brexit  and whichever way we choose, it will not be a popular choice.

R Foster



Boris Johnson is in the press yet again, telling the public that they ought to be supporting his coin-flip Brexit decision. Oddly enough, I thought David Davis was supposed to be the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union while Johnson was meant to be our Foreign Secretary.

I see that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is still languishing in an Iranian prison while her baby daughter has spent the past 22 months without her mother.

If only there was someone in a position to speak up for her.

Julian Self



Open talk can stop avoidable deaths

All avoidable deaths in hospital are regrettable but the best thing we can do is talk about them openly. If errors have been made, an apology is due.

Your article, Revealed: deaths of at least 40 patients in London hospitals were avoidable [February 13] rightly points out that the NHS is working hard to learn when mistakes occur, rather than focus on who is to blame. Adverse incidents are rare but we are all human and, despite our efforts, the care we provide can sometimes fall short of the high standards we expect.

At St Georges we spend a lot of time and energy investigating all deaths in our hospitals. The process could help prevent avoidable deaths in the future. That is why we do it.

Professor Andrew Rhodes, Medical director, St Georges University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust



Met merging units makes little sense

The Met Police has changed the way it operates by merging boroughs into Basic Command Units. Many residents and workers in London may not have noticed but this decision will be disastrous for thousands and leave large swathes of the capital virtually unpoliced.

For example, the relatively undemanding boroughs of Sutton and Bromley will merge with challenging Croydon. With a reduced number of police officers it is not difficult to predict that scarce resources will concentrate on Croydon at the expense of Bromley and Sutton.

The Met has finally conceded  in the face of unsustainable budget cuts  that it can longer provide a decent service to all of London.

Clifford Baxter



At last some hope for the first-time buyers

So the number of first-time buyers has reached an 11-year high. Could policies that make it harder for those looking to buy and rent be having an impact? Fewer people using housing as an investment means prices arent as inflated. It is good to see that when the Government needs to step in, well-thought-out policies can work.

Andrew Smith



New London Bridge station is so flawed

Your recent article, More luxury brands flock to London Bridge [February 13], prompted me to ask why businesses are flocking there and the real reason for the appalling design of the station.

Unlike most other central London mainline stations London Bridges platforms are not sheltered from the elements. They do not have toilets or waiting rooms. Gone is the bridge linking all platforms to each other and the board showing all the trains.

A suspicious mind might imagine that having to always head to the concourse for changes, platform information, toilets and the exit will increase footfall into the shops. People can make their own judgments but so far Id say the untangling of the tracks as part of the modernisation of the station has made no difference to punctuality, not when signals are failing further down the line.

P Harris



Dangers of Bolivia are exaggerated

Having read your article, Campaign to stop London firefighters wife from being deported to Bolivia [February 13], we note with sympathy the plight of Colin Jones and Elizabeth Madrid.

However, the Embassy of Bolivia refutes Mrs Madrids worry that her husband would be in danger of being targeted and killed if he were to move there. Bolivia is home to many residents from other countries who live peaceful lives, and welcomes thousands of tourists every year.

Giovanna Vidal, Charge dAffaires, Embassy of Bolivia



Shades of Holmes in the new world

Ross Lydalls article on Victorian small ads [February 14] gives an interesting insight into pre-electronic-era confidential correspondence, but its contents will be no surprise to fans of Sherlock Holmes. He scoured ads in the agony columns with a view to apprehending offenders.404

This page could not be found .I n the next 30 or 40 years white people will cease to be the majority in the United States. Poor whites have already been culturally and economically marginalised by progressive elites who feel more sympathy for those complaining of racial, gender and sexual bias. Even when they voted for Donald Trump, a candidate who spoke to their unease, they were dismissed as irrelevant bigots.

Before she burst to international prominence with Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, her paean to the rigorous parenting of Asian mothers, Amy Chua was a highly regarded lawyer and historian at Yale University. She wrote about the tensions between globalisation and ethnic groups, the pull of market forces and the resistance of people who lost their footing as the social and economic order changed.

Political Tribes is both a manifesto in the spirit of her Battle Hymn, and a taut historical essay about the changes happening in Trumps US. America, Chua writes, has historically been both an ethnic super-group, a strong collective of people from myriad backgrounds, and repeatedly blind to the importance of ethnicity and tribes. Americas own success as a melting pot has led it to minimise the importance of tribalism in other countries, and now increasingly at home.

In Vietnam, then Afghanistan and Iraq, America stumbled around with various military and political agendas, ignoring the tribal motives of the people whose lives they were upending. In Vietnam the US worried the country was eager to sidle up to Communist China without realising that most Vietnamese loathed the Chinese. In Afghanistan, America saw the Mujahideen who fought the Soviets and the Taliban who fostered militant Islam first as anti-Communists, and then as terrorists. They never saw them for what they were, says Chua  beleaguered Pashtuns.

In Iraq, President Bush predicted people would be so thrilled to be free of Saddam Hussein that they would cast aside their ethnic differences and embrace democracy. Not so fast. The Sunnis, the market-dominant minority in Chuas phrase, were terrified of the majority Shias coming to power and persecuting them. Sure enough it happened, triggering years of violent, ongoing unrest.

The brief high point in Americas involvement in Iraq was the surge of 2007, when its troops were encouraged to learn Arabic, study Iraqi manners and engage with the locals as people rather than the enemy. We tend to assume that other nations can handle diversity as we have, writes Chua, and that a strong national identity will overcome more primal group divisions.

It didnt happen in Iraq or Afghanistan or Libya  where President Obama, David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy all predicted the cheerful embrace of democracy only to see the country collapse into civil war.

The problem in America now is the same one it failed to see elsewhere. The American super-group is breaking down into screaming tribes. From the snarling talking heads of Fox News to the students at private universities yelling at their professors for not paying enough heed to their race or sexuality. From the NASCAR and wrestling-loving Trump fans in the South and industrial heartlands to the Whole Foods-shopping, tech-world classes on the coasts who yearn for Obama.

In the ideal America all these groups would get along, admitting their differences but uniting under the banner of their Americanness. The threat to that ideal, and the political exploitation of that threat, is what concerns Chua.

So whats the answer? Here she gets a little kumbaya. In her classroom at Yale she has seen a grandchild of Holocaust survivors find common ground with an anti-Israel activist, and a Black Lives Matter campaigner win over sceptical classmates. She has heard of trailer-park whites who oppose immigration on principle being kind to the immigrants in their community.

Yes, Americans can get along. But asking for more understanding in todays political environment is like trying to play chamber music at Wrestlemania. No one is ready to listen.Y ou wake up and make yourself a cup of Rainforest Alliance certified coffee and afterwards step into your solar-heated shower (timed to minimise water consumption) with your Green People shower gel, gently drying yourself with your recycled hemp towel.

Aah, but what to wear? Sackcloth and ashes? Earthy linens and hessians, as seen on the catwalk at Hermes, Loewe, Max Mara and Preen? (The eco look is in for spring 2018, even if the fabrics used arent sustainable.)

Its hard to love fashion and care for the environment at the same time: some might say impossible, given the cold hard fact that the fashion industry is second only to the oil industry in its negative impact upon the environment. Little wonder that sustainability is on the agenda for so many designers this year. Few, bar Donald Trump, could deny the effects of climate change and with every freak weather event that passes it becomes harder to ignore the very real fact that, as consumers, some of our choices are slowly destroying our planet. We love our planet. If we didnt, David Attenboroughs recent paean wouldnt have been the most watched TV programme of 2017.

The fashion industry certainly has its work cut out. Fashion creates greenhouse gas emissions of 1.2bn tonnes a year  larger than that of international flights and shipping combined. It costs the UK economy an estimated 82m a year to landfill clothing and household textiles. Whether high street or high end, fashions entire business model is constructed around the concept of built-in obsolescence  yet if youre passionate enough there are ways to make a difference.

STELLA McCARTNEY top, 565; skirt, 565; sandals, 675 (stella mccartney.com)

What we need to do is buy less and buy better like we used to 20 years ago, says Livia Firth, one of the most passionate advocates of sustainability. Since launching Eco Age in 2009, Firths organisation has provided sustainability solutions for brands keen to improve their supply chain including Gucci, Chopard and Erdem. Most recently, she partnered with Matchesfashion.com to help create a code of conduct for the brands they stock  although its her pioneering Green Carpet Challenge initiative, which encourages celebrities to wear ethical designs at high profile events (including the Oscars), for which shes best known.

Stella McCartney is another pioneer. Since launching her ready-to-wear label in 2001, she has refused to work with fur, leather or feather, setting what for many is the gold standard across the industry. Even her cashmere is regenerated: her viscose is sustainably sourced and 53 per cent of her womenswear is made from sustainable materials. Ask what prompted her to take this stance  so unfashionable in the early 2000s  and she cites childhood influences. Its based on instinct and the personal values that I grew up with, on an organic farm in the countryside where the whole family was vegetarian, McCartney explains. Its been ingrained in me to have respect for fellow creatures and to be mindful of how one approaches life. I want to design luxurious products, but I also want them to be responsible and ethical.

NINETY PERCENT T-shirt, 40 (ninetypercent.com)

The current system the fashion industry relies on to make products is at best out of date, and at worst actively destroying the planet. This is why, as a brand, we have been working for years to ensure that our supply chains represent some of the most traceable and sustainable in fashion. We believe in this vision for a new textiles economy and will continue to support sustainable solutions in our supply chains.

In terms of finding a solution, McCartney stresses the importance of teamwork. Weve long believed in collaboration, and now more than ever we need to come together to lead this transition to a new global textiles economy. We are making the commitment now and we can only hope others will follow.

In November 2017, McCartney teamed up with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to promote a report highlighting the scale of the problem. It found that the amount of clothing bought has doubled in 15 years, yet the number of times an item is worn has fallen by 20 per cent. Only 12 per cent of clothes are currently recycled into other materials, while every second the equivalent of one garbage truck is burned or landfilled.

CRED JEWELLERY ring, 94 (credjewellery.com)

But even with these shocking facts at our disposal, working out how best to shop sustainably is not easy. Its hard even to figure out the most damaging part of the fashion process: is it fabric manufacturing, transportation or the fast fashion trend? Theres no straight answer, admits Bozena Jankowska, who in 2016 left a 16-year career in responsible investment to launch a sustainable fashion label. You need to look at the entire life cycle of a garment, from the raw fibre, to production, to garment care by the consumer and also to length of wear. She recommends the Higg Index for an overview of the impact fibre production has on the environment, citing cotton, silk and wool as particularly labour-intensive textiles.

But the longevity of any fabric is decreased thanks to the see-now-buy-now culture, and cheap fashion that is, frankly, disposable. As for the human cost, Jankowska cites the use of forced child labour in cotton production (as has been documented in Uzbekistan) and the use of child labour to do intricate embellishments (as has been reported in India) as key factors to consider when trying to shop responsibly. Its critical for designers to ensure they have transparency on their supply chains, and ask their fabric agents or textile mills about their environmental policies. In China its said they know the colour trends for next season by the colour of the rivers.

MATT & NAT bag, 115 (mattandnat.com)

Many big high street chains have made strides to clean up their act. According to a guide published by Greenpeace, the three most exemplary are Inditex (owners of Zara), Benetton and H&M, the last hoping to make all of its clothing sustainable by 2030. Marks & Spencer is also trying hard: it launched its Plan A initiative 11 years ago and by 2025 hopes to be the industry leader in tackling environmental issues. Targets include having 80 per cent of raw materials come from sustainable sources, and to be a circular company generating zero waste.

New London-based womenswear label Ninety Percent has similarly laudable aims. Materials and manufacturers are sourced only from best-practice suppliers, while 90 per cent of distributed profits are shared between charitable causes, with customers having a say in where the money goes by being given a vote with every purchase. Priced between 30 and 350, the label marries high street affordability with a cool aesthetic that deserves to be a hit, with or without its stellar eco credentials.

In the interiors world, meanwhile, vegan homeware is on the rise (try House of Kind), as is eco-friendly paint (pioneers include Edward Bulmer, Auro and Nutshell). Even the jewellery industry, so often accused of over-mining silver and gold (not to mention the human impact of diamond mining), is making inroads to self-improvement. For conflict-free gems, try London-based jewellers Cred or Ingle & Rhode. Look out for the Fairtrade mark, which proves that small-scale miners were paid fairly and can invest in better living and working conditions.

EDUN trousers, 280 (edun.com)

With homeware, jewellery and fashion now far more affordable for our generation than they were for our parents and grandparents, the idea of make do and mend that proliferated during the Second World War seems very far away. Why patch up an old jumper when you can buy a new one  in cashmere  for 69? Shopping is now a hobby, it seems, and whole outfits are bought to then just be worn a few times and discarded, agrees Nina Marenzi, founder of The Sustainable Angle, a not-for-profit organisation which last month staged its seventh Future Fabrics Expo, a showcase of responsibly-produced fabrics (brands in attendance included Roland Mouret and Christopher Kane). This culture has to change. We need to be more curious: read the label, ask questions and research the brands sustainability credentials.

But if affordability and convenience are the main drivers of todays disposable culture, many claim that social media is equally to blame. Cheap prices + pressure to be seen in a new #OOTD = a perfect storm of rampant consumerism, the biggest victim of which is our planet. Yet there are other ways to source new outfits. Why buy when you can rent? The increasing popularity of rental sites such as Girl Meets Dress, Front Row and Chic by Choice proves that more women are considering this eco-friendly option, even if most sites are priced too high to be in reach of the average Primark, Missguided or Boohoo.com devotee keen to show off her latest haul on Instagram.

STELLA McCARTNEY sandals, 385 (stella mccartney.com)

Rather than blaming Instagram, a more positive approach would be to harness its powers. Livia Firth believes social media can also be a force for good. We need to enrol all the bloggers and the Instagram powerhouses and turn them into actors of change, she reasons. Imagine if Kim Kardashian decided to start talking about ethical fashion and ethical issues surrounding women across supply chains. We could retire and watch the world change, thanks to her.L ondon - a home to many tribes where art, food and fashion collide.

What better way of defining ones place in our vast city than ones tube stop, a symbol not only of postcode, but aesthetic ideology. Consider Londons notorious Edgware Road, where cultural legacy complements Burberrys heritage check across all seasons.

In South Kensington we see a commercial luxury hub, where Chanels classic tweed feels at home and affluence is always bold.

Then theres Bank; an occupational symbol of the citys daily grind in which head-to-toe corporate camel from Max Mara neutralises the stresses at the office. In a leather jacket we immediately see a quality investment; the same can be said for Notting Hills dream postcode. Josephs head-to-toe leather encapsulates the settled hipster in the vintage-adorned streets of the romantic suburb.

And finally, Shoreditch High Street, where Pradas philosophy of ugly beauty complements the gritty graffiti-painted streets with graphic print collages that radiate youth.

Edgware Road

Burberrys heritage check pops up in punchy brights for spring.

India wears BURBERRY trench, 1,495; shirt, 395 (burberry.com). Kiran wears BURBERRY coat, 1,795; shirt, 395 (burberry.com)

South Kensington

Chanels urban futurism fuses transparent accessories with classy tweed.

India wears CHANEL jumpsuit, 4,465; boots, 1,155; hat, 920; shopping bag, 2,960 (chanel.com). Kiran wears CHANEL dress, 7,320; boots, 1,155; hat, 920 (chanel.com)

Bank

Max Mara tops up the office trench in cool camel.

Kiran wears MAX MARA trench, 1,365; dress, 445 (maxmara.com). TOPSHOP boots, 62 (topshop.com). India wears MAX MARA trousers, 630; coat, 2,045; jersey, 225; shoes, 445 (maxmara.com)

Notting Hill

Josephs head-to-toe leather look hits the street.

India wears JOSEPH jacket, 2,495; polo, 165 (joseph.com). Kiran wears, JOSEPH coat, POA; polo, 165 (joseph.com)

Shoreditch

Mrs Pradas cartoon collage reverberates above and below street level.

India wears, PRADA shirt, 1,160; shorts, 790; socks, 140; shoes, 795; bag 495 (prada.com). Kiran wears PRADA top, 695; dress, 1,380; socks, 140; shoes, 675; bag, 1,080 (prada.com)

Photographs by Luke + Nik Styled by Sophie Paxton.

Hair by Tomomi Roppongi using Kiehls since 1851.

Make-up by Kristina Ralph Andrews at Saint Luke Artist using Nars Cosmetics.

Fashion assistant: Eniola Dare.T his Friday, Sydney will celebrate the 40th anniversary of its annual Mardi Gras.

If you're in town to shake your tail feather, you'll be needing to fuel up in style first.

Here's my edit of the best restaurants in Sydney.

Chin Chin

The Sydney branch of this Melbourne institution is a force to be reckoned with; huge industrial-chic interiors, subterranean cocktail bar and a menu thats so on point its worth booking breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Tom Ferguson

Tuck into tongue-tingling prawn and bugtail noodles with hell fire chilli sauce; and southern Thai goat curry, braised to perfection and served with refreshing yoghurt, crunchy roasted peanuts and pan fried grated coconut.

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Chin Chin Sydney, 69 Commonwealth St, Surry Hills NSW 2010, Australia, chinchinrestaurant.com.au/sydney

Bloodwood

If Fosters did restaurants, this one would be better. Owner Claire Van Vuuren has put together an impressive menu of beautifully executed shared plates, like silky-smooth slithers of seared yellow fin tuna with tangy pomello; savoury chickpea pancakes; and sweet pork belly served with fresh spider crab.

As all good restaurants should be, Bloodwood is a riot. Watch out for Amanda, its vivacious manager, who before you know it, will have you slinging back shots and dancing on the table. Well, so Ive heard.

Bloodwood, 416 King St, Newtown NSW 2042, Australia, bloodwoodnewtown.com/

23 of the best secret beaches in Australia - in pictures 1 /24 23 of the best secret beaches in Australia - in pictures Click through to see the best secret beaches in Australia. Pictured: Lucky Bay in the Cape Le Grand National Park, WA Shutterstock Hamersley Gorge, WA Shutterstock Spooky Beach, NSW Shutterstock Gordon's Bay, NSW Shutterstock Edith Falls, NT Shutterstock Hyams Beach, NSW Shutterstock Mindil Beach, NT Shutterstock Twilight Beach, WA Shutterstock Lake McKenzie, Fraser Island, QLD Shutterstock Cable Beach, WA Shutterstock Caves Beach, NSW Shutterstock Thistle Cove, WA Shutterstock Wineglass Bay, TAS Shutterstock Bogey Hole, NSW Shutterstock Bremer Bay, WA Shutterstock Alexandria Bay, QLD Shutterstock Ned's Beach, NSW Shutterstock Cape Leveque, WA Shutterstock Little Parakeet Bay, Rottnest Island, WA Shutterstock Honeymoon Bay, TAS Shutterstock East Arnhem Land, NT Shutterstock Coffin Bay, SA Shutterstock Kitty Miller Bay, VIC Shutterstock The Friendly Beaches in the Freycinet National Park, TAS Shutterstock

The Apollo

Located in the swanky suburb of Potts Point - make sure you go and see Elizabeth Bay, its beautiful - this Greek restaurant ticks all the boxes: swish interiors, party vibes, slick service and incredible food.

The menu is easy to navigate, with classics like pan-fried saganaki cheese, oozing gloriously with a sheen of fragrant honey; smoky grilled octopus; and melt-in-the-mouth, oven-baked shoulder of lamb.

The Apollo, 44 MacLeay St, Potts Point NSW 2010, Australia, theapollo.com.au/

Concrete Jungle Cafe

Im not a fan of food fads. I like my dinner to look natural and not like a unicorn threw up on it. So it was with apprehension that I went to the Insta-friendly Concrete Jungle Cafe. Well it showed me.

Smoothie bowls, thick and rich with a crunchy house granola, tasted even better than it looked on social media, and my Buddha bowl, with gloriously fluffy quinoa (no mean feat to make this grain palatable) and a zesty lemon dressing was knock-out. Forget feed friendly, this is face plant food.

Concrete Jungle Cafe, 58 Kensington St, Chippendale NSW 2008, Australia, concretejunglecafe.com/

Ester

Setting the tone for modern Australian dining, this laid back restaurant has one of the most serious menus in town. Chef Mat Lindsay twists and turns each dish to keep you guessing with each mouthful more delicious than the next.

A scorched lump of fermented potato bread with kefir cream was just joyous; whopping rock oysters come with air-like horseradish emulsion and blood sausage sanga that looks like your Nans sausage sarnie on mighty white had a cheeky chutney and rich mayo to die for. Sadly, for me, they only serve natural wines. Martini anyone?

Ester, 46/52 Meagher St, Chippendale NSW 2008, Australia, ester-restaurant.com.au/

Chinese Noodle House

Whether youre looking for a quick bite or full on feast, Chinese Noodle House does the best Beijing dumplings and hand made noodles in town. Grab a seat inside or out and devour huge plates of pork and chive dumplings with lashings of soy sauce and fermented chilli paste and great big bowls of lip smackingly good hand pulled Xinjiang noodles.

Expect no airs and graces, just excellent food.

Chinese Noodle House - Shop TG2 And TG3, Prince Centre, 8 Quay Street, Chinatown, Chinatown, Sydney

Spice Alley

Tucked behind Kensington Street in Chippendale - one of the coolest neighbourhoods in town - Spice Alley is a sensational collection of hawker stalls, woking-up fabulous fare from Vietnam, China, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Grab a Tsing Toa and dive into a plate of spicy Malay char kway teow noodles from Old Jim Kee or a steaming-hot bowl of creamy coconut laksa from Alex Lee. Oh and save time for a Happy Ending. Their sticky mango rice pudding is brilliant.

Spice Alley, Kensington Street, Chippendale NSW 2008, Australia, spice-alley.com.au/

Fable

Dust off a hangover in this cool contemporary cafe, which is a showcase for what Australia does so well, a banging brunch, and none better than the Fable Morning Roll; bacon, luscious field mushrooms, salad, herbs, crunchy radishes, fresh green pesto, Sriracha mayo, mozzarella and egg. Boom!

Coffee is just as on point; creamy and smooth, single origin beans, all roasted in house. Space is at a premium, so get there early and get settled in to a long lazy meal.

Fable Coffee - 1/128 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst NSW 2010, Australia, fable-coffee-sydney.business.site/

Almond Bar

Missing that home cooked vibe? Then get ready to enjoy fabulous family dishes from Syrian sisters Carol and Sharon Salloum at Almond Bar. The food is wholesome, traditional fare with vibrant toppings and a few modern twists. Start with meze - choose from creamy zaatar labna, spicy muhamarra and classic kibbeh (a dreamy mix of minced lamb, bulgar and spices) and then move onto mains.

Watch out for their monthly Syrian breakfast thats served al-fresco in the side street next to the restaurant. Its as riotous as the food.

Almond Bar - 379 Liverpool St, Darlinghurst NSW 2010, Australia, almondbar.com.au/

Freds

Recently voted the best restaurant in Sydney by Australias Delicious magazine, this perfect Paddington restaurant feels like walking into your mates house  well, be it a mate with a kick-ass kitchen, complete with wood burning oven.

The food is pared back. Ingredients do the talking: whole Hawkesbury prawns deep fried until crisp, herb and leek chicken terrine and their signature lamb a la ficelle thats left dangling to slow cook in front of the fire. Warm service and a killer subterranean cocktail bar make this restaurant the complete package.E arlier this year, Norwegian Air launched its inaugural flight to Buenos Aires.

The flight from London Gatwick to Argentinas capital marked the UKs first low-cost route to South America, with a one-way ticket setting you back just 315.

The 14-hour, non-stop flight to Buenos Aires Ezeiza International Airport will now run once per day, increasing from four times per week and will take off all year round  meaning now is the perfect time to book that bucket list trip to South America.

Norwegian Air has taken the aviation world by storm in the past few years and was recently ranked the second best budget airline in the world by Skytrax.

Anyone whos ever flown with Norwegian will know it's great value for money - and with movies included on the long-haul flights, 14 hours will go by in no time.

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The launch of this service continues Norwegians expansion of long-haul flights as the company already offers flights to New York, LA, Las Vegas, Chiciago and Austin. They have also just announced a twice-weekly flight from London's Gatwick to Tampa, Florida for a low 175 one-way. These flights to Tampa will be available from October 31.

The top 10 wallet-friendly destinations for 2018- in pictures 1 /15 The top 10 wallet-friendly destinations for 2018- in pictures Click through to see the most budget-friendly destinations for 2018 (Pictured: Warsaw) Pixabay Gdansk, Poland Pixabay Gdansk, Poland Pixabay Venice, Italy Pixabay Sandefjord, Norway Pixabay Essaouira, Morocco Pixabay Essaouira, Morocco Pixabay Barcelona, Spain Pixabay Barcelona, Spain Pixabay Milan, Italy Pixabay Milan, Italy Pixabay Dublin, Ireland Pixabay Dublin, Ireland Pixabay Cologne, Germany Pixabay Carcassonne, France Pixabay

Norwegians CEO said that if the airline get permission from Russia to fly along the Siberian corridor, Tokyo, Shanghai and Beijing could be next on the long-haul list for the company.Y ou might associate holidays in Jamaica with postcard-perfect white sand beaches and lush green coastline - but theres another side to it you shouldnt miss. This is the Blue Mountains.

Sloping down to Kingston, where we landed at Norman Manley Airport, these jade peaks are a peaceful, cool place to retreat to while exploring the country.

And perched on one of these peaks you'll find one of Jamaica's most iconic hotels, Strawberry Hill. We stopped off on our way from the sleepy fishing village of Treasure Beach to the lush jungle of Port Antonio - following in the footsteps of Bob Marley and Mick Jagger.

Where is it?

If you snake up the Blue Mountains for an hour from Norman Manley International Airport, you'll find Strawberry Hill. The views from the hotel back over Kingston are spectacular, the lights sparkling at night like a thousand fireflies below. For us, it was a photogenic way to split up what would otherwise have been a six hour trip from the the south west coast to the north east coast.

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Style:

Strawberry Hill is set in an old coffee plantation - a slice of the Blue Mountains that was granted to Horace Walpole by the royal family in the 18th century. After going through several more owners and weathering a few hurricanes, the property was bought by Island Records founder Chris Blackwell - who also owns Golden Eye near Ochos Rios - in 1972. Thanks to Chris, the hotel is steeped into musical history and the guest book at the hotel reads like a whos who of the glitterati: Bob Marley recovered here after being shot in 1976 and Mick Jagger and Prince Charles have both visited.

Which room?

Strawberry Hill

Accommodation at Strawberry Hill is made up of 12 Georgian-style tree-house cottages which stand on stilts amidst a jungle of monstera and ginger lilies and look out over Kingston. The suites have all-white interiors with a colonial feel - think four poster mahogany carved beds draped with linens, fretwork detail and a shuttered doors opening to reveal a mini balcony. They also include little kitchenettes should you wish to make yourself a little more at home with tea and coffee. Our room, Cedar, was handily near the restaurant, bar and infinity pool.

Facilities

Start your day as I did with a fabulous, stress-busting massage at the beautiful spa. I normally avoid spas in hot places as lying in a dark room being kneaded like dough is the last thing I want to do. But at Strawberry Hill, the spa looks out through white shuttered windows over verdant emerald hills and tropical birds provide the soundtrack. After an hour of lavender-scented full body massage, I was ready to flop by the magnificent infinity pool, pausing only to occasionally pat the hotel dog, Whitey.

A treatment room at Strawberry Hill's spa / Strawberry Hill

On the opposite slope from the guest cottages, Strawberry Hill has a beautiful flat lawn for barbecue lunches and even a game of croquet if you fancy it.

In the evening, the bar becomes the hub of the hotel, offering rum cocktails, great views and plenty of framed portraits of the famous faces who have graced the hotel. Afterwards, ask for a table on the wrap-around verandah for dinner, which was one of the best meals we had in Jamaica. Particular highlights included the smoked ochi sausage and the rack of lamb. As a tribute to its name and history, strawberry makes a few appearances on the menu.

The Blue Mountains / Strawberry Hill

Best for:

A secluded pit-stop just after arriving or just before leaving Kingston airport. Or as a half way point between coasts, like we did.

What to pack:

Stylish one-pieces for the pool and cotton jumpsuits for the evening. The restaurant has a no jeans or trainer policy. Long sleeves and trousers are a good move for the evenings to avoid mosquito bites. Pack it all up in Away's stylish, super light suitcase.

When to go:

Up in the Blue Mountains, youre shielded from the worst of the heat, but we found the end of January to be just perfect: bright blue skies and a light breeze.

How to get there

BA flies to Kingston from 689 return; Island Routes provide transfers from Kingston airport.

Details

Rooms from 310 a night for a studio suite, including breakfast; strawberryhillhotel.com

Find out more at visitjamaica.comA 17-year-old boy has been stabbed to death in a "targeted attack" in east London, police have said.

The teenager was stabbed repeatedly and found lying in the street at Goldwing Close, Canning Town, on Wednesday night.

Police and paramedics fought to save the victim for up to 40 minutes but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Emergency services were alerted to the stabbing shortly after 8pm.

The boy was attacked on Wednesday evening / PA

Reports on social media suggest the boy was run over by a car before a gang chased him and stabbed him.

Detectives are examining whether an abandoned vehicle found in Freemasons Road, near Victoria Dock Road in east London, is linked to the attack.

A police cordon has been put in place while an investigation is carried out

The victim is the third teenager to die as a result of knife crime in London so far in 2018 and among 12 people stabbed to death across all ages, according to Scotland Yard.

No-one has been arrested in connection with the killing, police said.

Acting Detective Inspector Perry Benton said: At this very early stage we are still piecing together what exactly has happened.

"However we believe the 17-year-old victim has lost his life following a sustained and possibly targeted attack.

We would urge anyone who witnessed the incident, or who has any information, to come forward and speak to police as soon as possible.

A post mortem will be held in due course. Next of kin have been informed.A London guide dog school has called on commuters to be more respectful to visually impaired people and their assistance animals.

The plea by charity Guide Dogs follows reports of people jumping over the animals to get on the Tube in rush hour. One Londoner, Amit Patel, filmed an encounter at London Bridge station where a commuter demanded he and his assistance dog get out of the way.

There are 312 guide dogs supporting the blind and visually impaired in the capital. The Standard visited the charitys training school in Redbridge, where staff spend 20 months getting young dogs to be not just confident enough to recognise steps and kerbs but also to work in crowded stations, Tubes and buses.

Trainer Michelle Henman, 32, said: It can be really intense for them at rush hour when theres not a lot of space. People tread on them by accident and they get knocked, so they have to be happy, solid and confident dogs to go through the Tube at rush hour.

She urged commuters to be more aware, adding: People can sometimes be quite impatient, especially when a Tube turns up as they just want to get on the train. Weve had incidents of people jumping over dogs to push past them and us  its really dangerous. We just ask people to wait 10 seconds. I know a lot of people are busy in London, but try to put yourself in the position of that visually impaired person and that dog  how would you feel if someone pushed passed you on an escalator?

To those Londoners who are more supportive, she said: Dont pat the dog  it distracts them from what they are doing and could be really dangerous.

Trainer Pippa Carlson, 29, said: People will just barge past trying to get to where they want to go, not really concentrating on whos around them. They need to be more aware and just help us out  be more like human beings.

At Liverpool Street station, electronic dance music producer Justin Cunningham, who is blind, described travelling at peak times with his four-year labrador-retriever cross, Nugget. A typical journey would be from his home in Stoke Newington to the West End.

He said that on buses parents with buggies have told him to move your dog please or to take another bus because people are scared of Nugget.T ributes have been paid to a British Airways engineers who was killed after two vehicles crashed on the tarmac at Heathrow Airport.

Medics fought to save him but he was pronounced dead after being taken to hospital.

Colleagues paid tribute to him as kind, gentle and positive man and said he had joined the airline almost three decades ago as an apprentice.

The aftermath of the collision at Heathrow Airport on Monday morning / Jeremy Selwyn

One colleague told the Daily Mail: John was a great friend to us all. He was kind, generous and chatty.

He was a gentle, likeable, positive man with lots of ideas for his future.

One of the vehicles involved in the crash is removed from the taxiway / Steve Parsons/PA

Another wrote on social media: Cant say anything, except for I knew this guy. RIP my friend. Gone way too soon.

Others simply wrote: Rest in peace John.

A British Airways spokesman said: We are deeply saddened by this traffic incident and are offering our full care and support to his family and colleagues.

Man dies after Heathrow Airport vehicles crash

The driver of the other vehicle, who was treated at the scene, suffered a broken shoulder. His injuries were not life-threatening or life-changing.

Scotland Yards Serious Collision Investigation Unit has launched an investigation into the crash. No arrests have been made.A man was rescued from a drain after claiming to have been lost wandering a network of east London sewers for days.

The dishevelled man reportedly spent at least two days walking through a network of drains beneath Romford.

Eventually, he was rescued after concerned locals raised the alarm having heard his desperate pleas for help.

Upon re-emerging into daylight, he immediately asked stunned bystanders if any of them had a cigarette to spare, a witness told the Standard.

Police haul the cold, injured man from the drain in Romford

Police and the London Ambulance Service confirmed they were called to the scene in Brentwood Road as the bizarre incident unfolded.

Lorraine Moss, who saw the rescue, told the Romford Recorder: I could see a man standing in the drain, only the top half of his body was visible and he was covered in dirt.

The man told everyone that he had been stuck for about two days.

Ian Swann, an employee at Reeves Electrical, said he was among those who helped the man out.

"We got some crowbars and got him out from under the road. He just wanted a fag and he wouldnt talk to anyone until they gave him one," he said.

It is believed the man entered the drains in South Street, about a mile away, and was exposed to rain water carried through the system towards the River Rom.

Medics treated the man for ankle injuries and exposure to cold water and temperatures.

A London Ambulance Service spokesman said: We were called by the Metropolitan Police at 12:58pm on Thursday 8 February to Brentwood Road, Romford, to reports of man found in a drain.

We sent an incident response officer and team leaders in an ambulance.

We treated a man at the scene for ankle injuries and for exposure to cold temperatures and water. He was taken as a priority to hospital.

A spokeswoman for the Met said: Police were called to Brentwood Road at 12.21pm on Thursday, 8 February to reports of man trapped in a drain.

Officers attended and freed the 48-year-old man by removing the manhole cover.

Enquiries are underway to establish the circumstances of the male being trapped within the sewer system.T he Defence Secretary today claimed Jeremy Corbyn cannot be trusted after a disclosure that he met a Czech diplomat three times at the height of the Cold War.

Gavin Williamson alleged it was a betrayal of this country that Mr Corbyn met with the envoy, said to have been a communist spy acting under cover. Mr Corbyn strongly denies knowingly meeting a spy but confirmed that he had talks at the House of Commons with a diplomat in 1987.

The furore erupted after The Sun newspaper revealed documents from a Soviet-era archive that described the meetings and revealed the future Labour leader was known to the Czechs under the codename of COB.

According to the declassified papers there were at least three meetings, including two at the Commons. One lasted 90 minutes and was held, said the Czech agent, with the objective to strengthen mutual recognition and the deepening of trust.

At a Nato meeting in Brussels, Mr Williamson said: Jeremy Corbyn has never had Britains interests at heart.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson (David Mirzoeff/PA ) / David Mirzoeff/PA

Time and time again he has sided with those who want to destroy everything that is great about this country, whether it is sympathising with terrorists, backing rogue regimes, or cosying up to those who want to inflict pain and misery on the British people.

That he met foreign spies is a betrayal of this country. He cannot be trusted.

Jeremy Corbyn plays bass guitar on Scottish community visit

Responding to Mr Williamsons comments, a spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: Gavin Williamson should focus on his job and not give credence to entirely false and ridiculous smears, which as we know from Darren Osborne, can have a potentially deadly effect. Osborne was the Finsbury Park terrorist, jailed for life, who told a jury he had intended to kill Mr Corbyn.

The spokesman went on: Jeremy has consistently made the correct calls in the interests of security and peace, including on the Libyan intervention and his opposition to the disastrous Iraq war that has caused catastrophe in the region and made us less safe at home.

Keith Simpson, a Conservative member of the Intelligence and Security Committee, said Mr Corbyn should have assumed any Czech diplomat who sought a meeting to be a spy.

The twitter feed Corbyn4PM, controlled by Mr Corbyns inner circle, tweeted: The scum getting desperate now! Their own story points out that the diplomat met Jeremy and conversation was limited to a general nature. The Scums story is entirely bogus.

Jeremy Corbyn on racism in football

Ex-Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind said: If these documents are genuine, which they appear to be, there is a serious case for Mr Corbyn to answer.

According to The Sun, the Czech records described Mr Corbyn as negative towards USA but positive towards the Soviet bloc and that he backed the Soviet peace initiative.

The records, unearthed from archives of the Czech secret police in Prague, suggested two hard-Left activists introduced the Labour MP to Czech employee Lieutenant Jan Dymic.

Labours official response said: The claim that he was an agent, asset or informer for any intelligence agency is entirely false and a ridiculous smear.T he value of bitcoin has surged once again, leading to predictions it will rise to $10,000 (7,118) by the weekend.

It comes after the price of the notoriously volatile cryptocurrency rallied on Wednesday morning, touching $8,900 (6,417) according to CoinDesk, as the European Central Bank ruled out a ban on digital currencies.

It then made strong gains on Wednesday afternoon, peaking at $9,496 (6,763) shortly before midnight GMT, then continued to climb on Thursday morning reaching $9,870 (7,029).

Christopher Keshian, chief executive of $APEX Token Fund, said: The current prices of many cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, are at levels similar to what we saw last year, prior to the incredibly aggressive bull market in the latter part of 2017.

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We are now observing healthy support levels and pull backs as part of the normalisation from an outlying and momentarily unsustainable growth curve.

He added: Ultimately, we believe cryptocurrencies are in a bull market  but that the upward curve will be jagged one.

The stabilisation follows weeks of turbulence as the value of bitcoin rose and plummeted in cycles that left investors on the edges of their seats.

Russian company the Blockchain Fund launched a hotline to help support investors suffering anxiety as the price crashed below $6,000 (4,272) earlier this month.

The move came amid concerns that the huge changes in the crypto market could spark severe stress for investors, and even lead to suicides.

Some people are in a panic, they dont understand what is happening. At first everything was so good in this market, and now it has faced such changes," Elena Pikhovkina, a psychologist working on the hotline, told Russian site Life.ru.

Bitcoin hit a record high in mid-December as prices soared to $19,850 (14,310) - but tumbled in the first month of 2018.

It finally plummeted to $6,000 (4,325) in early February as a series of high-profile thefts and fears of regulation demolished its gains.

South Korea recently barred people from trading bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies anonymously, but said it is not planning to ban digital currency exchanges.O xfam staff who were sent to the Philippines after a disaster spent weeks lounging round a luxury hotel pool with local girls who appeared underage, a British pilot has told the Standard.

Chris Jacobs claimed guests at the five-star Marco Polo hotel on Cebu island were angry and disgusted by the sight of older male staff cavorting with girls who appeared to be only 14 or 15 years old.

He said he even phoned Oxfam in the UK to complain about what he had seen at the hotel, where the cheapest rooms cost more than 100 a night.

But he heard nothing back from the charity. The incident happened after Typhoon Yolanda left a trail of destruction in 2013 in the impoverished group of islands, sparking an international relief effort.

The aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda

Mr Jacobs, a 44-year-old commercial airline pilot, decided to move into the Marco Polo hotel with his wife Jo for a holiday as their home in Bantayan was without power.

We spent several weeks after the typhoon hit helping to clear up Bantayan, which was not one of the worst hit islands, he said.

Once everyone was safe, and because the power supplies were still down, we decided to spend three weeks at the Marco Polo where we had stayed many times in the past. We were surprised to find a large contingent of Oxfam officials staying at the hotel. It is by far the best hotel in the area. They had brand-new Oxfam-branded vehicles in the car park but didnt seem to travel to the areas that were badly hit.

Oxfam warned about Government funding over sex allegations

Mr Jacobs said he was surprised to see about 20 people who he understood to be working for Oxfam at such a luxurious hotel where rooms cost between 101 and 138 a night  pricey by local standards  and suites cost 1,380 a night. He said only a few of them brought back local girls.

It was not in the area where the typhoon caused the worst damage and some of these Oxfam officials seemed to spend all their time by the pool with young local women. It was the older men who were the problem. A number of guests became upset because the girls looked 14 or 15. My wife Jo felt very uncomfortable about it. I telephoned Oxfams headquarters in Oxford shortly afterwards and told them what we had seen. I didnt hear back from them.

Stark warning to Oxfam: International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt / Getty Images

Yesterday, a senior figure in Oxfam said she was aware of sexual abuse claims involving staff in the Philippines. Lan Mercado, the charitys Asia regional director, told the BBC that cases also took place in Bangladesh and Nepal before she took over as regional director in 2016. She said the scale of misconduct was not comparable to that in Haiti, where Oxfam faces claims that staff paid vulnerable people for sex.

Mr Jacobs claimed he also saw Oxfam officials put Oxfam stickers on tents that had been supplied by another charity, the Rotary Club of Great Britain, and then take photos as though the tents had been provided by Oxfam.

This incident was said to have taken place at Hagnaya, in the north of Cebu island. I was wandering around because there was a massive queue for the ferry when I saw this happen. Weeks later, we had some students who were with Rotary Club stay on our island and they were complaining that Oxfam workers had put stickers on tents that Rotary Club had put up.

Penny Lawrence has resigned as Deputy Chief Executive of the charity saying she took "full responsibility" for the behaviour of staff in Chad and Haiti / PA

These British students with Rotary Club were brilliant  they worked really hard to help people. So were the Red Cross and the United Nations teams. I didnt see Oxfam do much except take photographs of ruined houses to help with the fundraising back home.

Mr Jacobs said guests believed the Oxfam officials were eventually asked to leave the Marco Polo because of the complaints from other residents. He called the charity twice, once at the time and again last week, when the allegations about aid workers paying for sex in Haiti surfaced.

It is not known where the Oxfam officials in Cebu went next. But this week a Twitter user, Oli Craske, tweeted that after the Yolanda disaster he saw officials at a luxury hotel on a neighbouring island, Ormoc, in 2014. Oxfam were holed up in most expensive hotel in town, with multiple 60k brand new vehicles outside that never went anywhere or got dirty, he wrote. Stephen Twigg, chairman of the cross-party Commons select committee on international development, said: These sorts of allegations raise serious concerns and require investigation.

Oxfam whistleblower - women coerced to have sex for aid

The Standard asked Oxfam to comment on the claims about the luxury hotel, the girls and the stickers. A spokeswoman said Mr Jacobss concerns had been referred to the charitys Safeguarding team, who were investigating. While we cant corroborate the allegations at this point, such behaviour is shocking and completely unacceptable, she added.

We can find no record of the allegations being raised at Oxfam headquarters previously  we can only apologise for not doing so. We are also investigating how a call of such a serious nature was not recorded and not acted upon. Such allegations should have been investigated immediately.

She said a check of records had found no evidence of staff staying at the Marco Polo although staff may have visited the hotel. Records however did show staff staying in two other reasonably priced hotels in Cebu.

Oxfam CEO apologises over Haiti sex scandal

Oxfam said it was not aware of any of its stickers being placed on tents provided by the Rotary Club and would never condone such action. Rotary said: Given the nature of disaster relief efforts, it is impossible to say with any certainty if the tents in question were provided by Rotary or Oxfam.

The idea that a charity might put stickers on a rivals aid is corroborated by Labour MP Peter Kyle, a former aid worker. On Facebook, he recounted how his charity delivered a shower unit to a refugee camp. When we arrived a director of a famous charity came running over and said, You cant have that here, take it away, we are the lead charity and we wont have something with your logo on it in case TV crews film here.

I explained we didnt care about logos ... and suggested he put his logos on instead ... we got the Ok to plaster our amazing shower unit with their logos.E lon Musk's powerful Falcon Heavy could remain in orbit for millions of years before bursting into flames and crashing into Earth, scientists have said.

Scientists have now said the billionaire business magnates car has a six per cent chance of crashing into Earth in the next million years, adding that it is likely to burst into flames and burn out before the collision.

The Czech and Canadian researchers also suggested there is a slim chance the vehicles journey could be brought to a fiery end by crashing into the Sun, but that it almost definitely would not collide with Mars.

Hundreds of computer simulations of the rockets journey created by the group show how the Teslas orbit would evolve over the course of the next 3.5 million years.

The scientists calculated that there is a 2.5 per cent the vehicle would smash into Venus, adding that they expected the probability of it colliding with Earth was more substantial.

SpaceX Falcon launch - In pictures 1 /14 SpaceX Falcon launch - In pictures SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral AP SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket climbs towards space Reuters Incredible footage shows the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket passing Earth AP SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk Getty Images SpaceX's gigantic Falcon Heavy rocket successfully blasted off from its launch pad SpaceX SpaceX livestream video shows "Starman" sitting in SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's cherry red Tesla roadster after the Falcon Heavy rocket delivered it into orbit around the Earth Incredible footage shows the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in orbit AFP/Getty Images Printed on the circuit board of a car in deep space Incredible footage shows the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in orbit AP SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral AP The crowd cheers at Playalinda Beach in the Canaveral National Seashore, just north of the Kennedy Space Center, during the successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket AP Visitors have staked out spots near to the fishing pier at Jetty Park to watch the rocket launch Reuters SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral AP A red Tesla Roadster is seen during preparations to use it as a mock payload for the launch of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in Cape Canaveral, Florida REUTERS

In a paper published on Arxiv.org, its authors wrote: We perform simulations to determine the fate of the object over the next several million years, under the relevant perturbations acting on the orbit.

The orbital evolution is initially dominated by close encounters with the Earth. The repeated encounters lead to a random walk that eventually causes close encounters with other terrestrial planets and the sun.

SpaceX's gigantic Falcon Heavy rocket successfully blasted off from its launch pad / SpaceX

We estimate the dynamical lifetime of the Tesla to be a few tens of millions of years.

Despite the rocket missing its Mars orbit and shooting off towards an asteroid field, Musk urged other rocket companies to join him in a new space race as he boasted of his latest mission.F ormer classmates of the expelled student accused of killing 17 people in a mass shooting at a Florida high school have claimed everyone predicted it.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, was detained shortly after the Valentines Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Cruz, who was expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons, was described as a troubled outcast who loved guns.

He was found with an AR-15-style rifle and multiple ammunition magazines, according to Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel.

Suspect Nikolas Cruz posed with guns for pictures on his now-deleted Instagram page / Instagram

"We already began to dissect his websites and the things on social media that he was on and some of the things that came to mind are very, very disturbing," Mr Israel said.

Florida high school shooting - February 2018 1 /20 Florida high school shooting - February 2018 Emergency personnel at the scene of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School EPA Parents wait for news after a reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP Students are evacuated by police from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School AP The suspect is arrested and put in the back of a police car Reuters Students hold their hands in the air as they are evacuated by police AP People wait for loved ones Getty Images Law enforcement personel work the scene Getty Images AP The suspect is escorted into Broward Jail after being checked at hospital Reuters Students are reunited with parents and family EPA A law enforcement officer rushes toward Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP Fire Rescue personnel work the scene Getty Images Students released from lockdown AP People are brought out of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after the shooting Getty Images Police and rescue workers attend the scene REUTERS A family reunites following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP Florida Gov. Rick Scott (right) walks with Sheriff Scott Israel of Broward County to a news conference near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP Students released from lockdown AP Students are released from lockdown AP Students are comforted by parents and family after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Schoo EPA

Victoria Olvera, a 17-year-old student, described Cruz to the Guardian: At first, he was really nice. But later, she said, he just changed. As far as I knew, he was like a future school shooter.

Another student told CNN: A lot of people were saying that it was going to be him. All the kids joked... saying he was the one that screwed up at school, but it turns out everyone predicted it. Thats crazy.

Chad Williams, 18, a senior at the school, remembered Cruz as a troubled classmate from middle school. He said Cruz would set off the fire alarm every day and finally got expelled in the eighth grade.

More recently, Mr Williams claims he saw Cruz carrying several publications about guns when they ran into each other at the high school.

"He was crazy about guns," he told Reuters. "He was kind of an outcast. He didn't have many friends. He would do anything crazy for a laugh, but he was trouble."

Dakota Mutchler, 17, said said she had once been friends with Cruz but that he started progressively getting a little more weird.

Florida students describe panic after shots heard

She said: Everyone in the school that knew him speculated about him.

When someones expelled, you dont really expect them to come back ... If theyre expelled, theyre gone. But of course, he came back.

Maths teacher Jim Gard told the Miami Herald that Cruz had been banned from returning to campus while carrying a backpack.

"There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus," Mr Gard said.

Suspect Nikolas Cruz was arrested after being found with an AR-15-style assault rifle (REUTERS) / Reuters

He claimed administrators had sent an email to teachers warning them about Cruz.

Travis Julmice, an 18-year-old senior, said he had not been in a class with Cruz since middle school.

Nikolas Cruz is walked into Broward Jail after being checked over at hospital (REUTERS) / Reuters

"You could tell he was a little off," Julmice told Reuters. "He was always like a troubled kid, getting in-school suspension a lot. And detentions."

However, Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters outside the school after the shooting that the school had no indication Cruz was a danger.

"Typically, you see in these situations that there potentially could have been signs out there," he said. "But we didn't have any warnings, there weren't any phone calls or threats that we know of that were made."

There were scenes of students frantically running from the building and ambulance crews treating people outside the school on Wednesday afternoon.

The White House cancelled its daily press briefing following the news and President Donald Trump has spoken with Florida governor Rick Scott.

Students are escorted from the school while police searched for the attacker / AP

The president tweeted: "My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting.

"No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school."

Parent John Obin said his son, a student at the school, was in class when he heard several shots.

The father said his son advised that teachers quickly rushed students out of the school.D onald Trump has been branded a piece of s*** by a student who is believed to have been caught up in the Florida school mass shooting which left 17 people dead.

The girls response to the US Presidents message of condolence to those affected by the Valentines Day massacre went viral as she urged him to introduce gun control measures.

Responding to Mr Trumps tweet, the girl, known only as Sarah and believed to be 16, claimed several of her classmates at the high school were killed in Wednesday's horrifying shooting in Parkland.

She urged the president to do something instead of sending prayers as it emerged that a gunman, believed to be student Nikolas Cruz, 19, gone on a deadly rampage.

In response to the tragedy, the US President had tweeted his prayers and condolences to the families of those murdered as the shooter stormed Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

'Piece of s***' The girl, who lashed out at Donald Trump's response, was believed to be a student at the school / Twitter

Dismissing the US leaders message of support, she wrote on Twitter: I dont want your condolences you f****** price [sic] of s***, my friends and teachers were shot. Multiple of my fellow classmates are dead.

Do something instead of sending prayers. Prayers wont fix this. But gun control will prevent it from happening again.

Moment Florida school shooting suspect is arrested

Her message had been shared more than 153,000 times on the social media site by Thursday afternoon.

Florida high school shooting - February 2018 1 /20 Florida high school shooting - February 2018 Emergency personnel at the scene of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School EPA Parents wait for news after a reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP Students are evacuated by police from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School AP The suspect is arrested and put in the back of a police car Reuters Students hold their hands in the air as they are evacuated by police AP People wait for loved ones Getty Images Law enforcement personel work the scene Getty Images AP The suspect is escorted into Broward Jail after being checked at hospital Reuters Students are reunited with parents and family EPA A law enforcement officer rushes toward Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP Fire Rescue personnel work the scene Getty Images Students released from lockdown AP People are brought out of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after the shooting Getty Images Police and rescue workers attend the scene REUTERS A family reunites following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP Florida Gov. Rick Scott (right) walks with Sheriff Scott Israel of Broward County to a news conference near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP Students released from lockdown AP Students are released from lockdown AP Students are comforted by parents and family after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Schoo EPA

The girl, whose social media profile said she was from the Parkland area, also tweeted that everyone who attends the high school has been traumatized by the tragic events that unfolded.

As news broke that the school was on lockdown and a gunman was on the loose, she tweeted: "THERE'S A SCHOOL SHOOTING RN [right now] AT MY SCHOOL.

Sarahs account has posted a number of tweets relating to Parkland and the school in recent weeks.

Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder after he allegedly opened fire at the high school with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.

Police said he had a history of disturbing social media posts, while former classmates said he was obsessed with guns.

Florida shooting: Students and teachers were evacuated as police placed the school on lockdown / AP

Troubled teenager Cruz was marked as a potential campus threat months before the attack.

Florida police released this mugshot of Nikolas Cruz as he was charged with 17 murders

Police and FBI investigators spent the night quizzing Cruz over the massacre as grief-stricken parents demanded to know: Why wasnt he stopped? He was pictured dressed in a hospital uniform as he left Broward's County Sheriff's Office on Thursday morning.

Cruz was transferred to the county jail where he will wait until his first court hearing later the same day.

Gun-crazy Cruz, who was expelled last year, had even joked about killing his former classmates at the Florida school.A former CIA and FBI official broke down in tears live on air as he was interviewed about the mass school shooting in Florida.

Phil Mudd choked back tears before breaking down completely as he discussed the deadly shooting rampage at Majory Stoneman Douglas High School which claimed 17 lives.

Discussing the growing amount of gun violence amongst young people in the US, Mr Mudd said I have 10 nieces and nephews who are talking about bump stocks and legislation.

The former FBI agent, who is now a counter-terrorism analyst for CNN, cried as he told the interviewer: A child of God is dead.

He continued: Can we not we acknowledge in this country that we cannot accept this?

Mr Mudd was so overcome with emotion that he felt unable to complete the interview and said: I cant do it, Wolf, I wont, Im sorry.

Terrifying cellphone footage from inside the Florida shooting

CNN journalist Wolf Blitzer rounded up the interview by saying: Unfortunately it happens all too often and as a result people say we have to learn some lessons, but unfortunately lessons are never learned.

The gunman, who was named as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz and had previously been expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons, went on a rampage at the school on Valentine's Day. .

Nikolas Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder following a shooting at a school in Parkland in the U.S. state of Florida

His former class mates described him as a troubled "outcast" who was obsessed with guns.

Florida high school shooting - February 2018 1 /20 Florida high school shooting - February 2018 Emergency personnel at the scene of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School EPA Parents wait for news after a reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP Students are evacuated by police from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School AP The suspect is arrested and put in the back of a police car Reuters Students hold their hands in the air as they are evacuated by police AP People wait for loved ones Getty Images Law enforcement personel work the scene Getty Images AP The suspect is escorted into Broward Jail after being checked at hospital Reuters Students are reunited with parents and family EPA A law enforcement officer rushes toward Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP Fire Rescue personnel work the scene Getty Images Students released from lockdown AP People are brought out of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after the shooting Getty Images Police and rescue workers attend the scene REUTERS A family reunites following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP Florida Gov. Rick Scott (right) walks with Sheriff Scott Israel of Broward County to a news conference near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP Students released from lockdown AP Students are released from lockdown AP Students are comforted by parents and family after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Schoo EPA

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, of Broward County, said the gunman had at least one rifle as well as multiple magazines.

Between 14 and 18 other people were injured in the attack on Wednesday afternoon.A Spanish advertising firm has sparked a sexism row after rejecting a woman for a job because it said it "needed a man who could handle the pace".

Carla Forcada, a 25-year-old marketing and communications graduate from Barcelona, had applied for an account executive role at PR agency Impulsa Communicacion.

But its response led one of its major clients, Coca-Cola, to drop the firm.

The rejection letter read (in Spanish): "Thank you for you CV... right now, we are in the process of selection but we are looking for a man because the accounts he will work on are Carglass and Coca-Cola...

"And believe me, they need a man who can handle the pace, the visits, who knows about production etc."

Taking to Twitter, Ms Forcada said it was "incredible that there are still companies that do not support gender equality in the workplace".

Shortly after, Coca-Cola said it would not work with Impulsa Communicacion and that the company "rejects this type of discriminatory response".

"We have an inclusive, diverse and egalitarian contracting policy...We regret to see our name related to this discriminatory and unfortunate response."

In the same afternoon, the official account of window repair company Carglass, tweeted Ms Forcada, writing: "We apologise personally to you and everyone offended by this message.

"We have expressed our position to Impulsa Communicacion. Our company promotes gender equality and these actions do not represent us."O xfam re-hired an aid worker who had been sacked over alleged sexual misconduct months earlier, it has emerged.

The charity admitted the "serious error" shortly after Desmond Tutu quit as an ambassador, saying he is "deeply disappointed" about the recent sex scandal.

The Oxfam worker was fired over allegations in earthquake-shattered Haiti, but later re-hired as a consultant in Ethiopia.

Several staff were sacked or resigned in 2011 over a string of lurid claims, including that they had used prostitutes while delivering aid to Haiti.

Oxfam whistleblower - women coerced to have sex for aid

Oxfam said in a statement it had identified that "one of those dismissed by Oxfam as a result of the sexual misconduct case in Haiti" was "subsequently hired by Oxfam as a consultant In Ethiopia".

Hiring the man "even in an emergency as a short-term consultant" was a "serious error and should never have happened", it continued.

It added: "We are still checking how this occurred but it further highlights that we need an organisation and sector-wide approach to the vetting and recruitment of both staff and consultants, especially in emergencies where there is pressure to fill posts quickly in order to help save lives."

The charity is now checking whether there were "any issues" while the man was posted in Ethiopia.

Meanwhile, Mr Tutu's office said in statement: "Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has supported Oxfam International's good work for many years, most recently as one of its global ambassadors.

"The Archbishop is deeply disappointed by allegations of immorality and possible criminality involving humanitarian workers linked to the charity.

"He is also saddened by the impact of the allegations on the many thousands of good people who have supported Oxfam's righteous work."A ctor Josh Gad has revealed that the son of a family friend shot in the Florida school shooting has passed away.

The Frozen star said that he was "so angry" in an emotional post about the boy's condition on Wednesday, as news of the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shook the world.

He later confirmed on his social media account that the boy had passed away of his injuries, saying that his "grief knows no bounds".

Gad wrote: Last night, I received a text while I slept that our friends son passed away from his gun shot wound.

"My grief for this family and the many others knows no bounds. Im so sorry this happened. Im so sorry our leaders are worthless.

"Im so sorry we are bound to repeat this again."

Earlier, Gad had posted: I am so angry tonight. I am so sad. Im putting my phone down because we are debating sensible gun laws again. A child of one of our friends has a bullet in his chest & is critical condition because a 19 year old had access to a military weapon.

"Pretend its normal. Its not, he concluded as followers rushed to add their prayers for what had happened.

Florida school shooting sparks gun control debate

At the time of writing, 17 people have been killed in the incident perpetrated by ex-student, Nikolas Cruz.

Gad later returned to his social media with a politically-charged tweet directed at US Senator Marco Rubio.

Several stars have also expressed their sorrow over the tragic event, with Kim Kardashian West among those posting a plea in the gun control debate.

The reality star said: We owe it to our children and our teachers to keep them safe while at school.

Prayers won't do this: action will. Congress, please do your job and protect Americans from senseless gun violence.Some of the biggest names in British music descended on Brixton Academy for the annual event which saw Lorde crowned Best International Solo Artist while HAIM took home Best International Band.

Grime dominated the night with J Hus receiving the coveted Best Album gong for Common Sense, fighting off competition from Wolf Alice, Gorillaz, The National and Loyle Carner who picked up Best British Solo Artist.

On collecting his award from Naomi Campbell, J Hus said: Mad, mad, mad. I dont know what to say. Im not really good at talking. I want to thank NME so much I worked so hard on that album.

Liam Gallagher says brother is 'worse than Trump'

Alt-J won Best British Band while music heavyweights Kasabian were honoured with Best Live Artist.

Stefflon Don  who kicked off the night with a performance of Ding-A-Ling with Skepta  was crowned the Best New Artist over J Hus, The Magic Gang, Sigrid, SZA and Shame.

Boy Better Know were presented with the Innovation Award, while Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson was honoured with the Icon Award.

Award winner: J Hus collecting his Best British Album gong from Naomi Campbell / Ian West/PA

But Liam Gallagher was the nights biggest winner, being honoured with the coveted Godlike Genius award. Previous recipients include Johnny Marr, Suede, Blondie and his brother Noel Gallagher, who accepted the title in 2012.

Taking to the stage in his trademark Parka, Liam said: I want to dedicate this to my mum the one and f****** only and the army of songwriters that Ive got past and present. As you f****** were.

Girl power: HAIM holding the award for Best International Band / Ian West/PA

He then closed the raucous bash with a set including Greedy Soul, Wall of Glass and Oasis favourites Rock N Roll Star, Cigarettes and Alcohol, and Morning Glory.

Full list of winners:

NME Awards 2018 1 /23 NME Awards 2018 Fae Williams and Professor Green Dave Benett Liam Gallagher Dave Benett Anne-Marie Ian West/PA Ella Eyre Dave Benett Lilah Parsons Dave Benett Stefflon Don Ian West/PA Gabby Allen and Marcel Somerville Ian West/PA Liam Gallagher Dave Benett Sergio Pizzorno and Tom Meighan Ian West/PA Big Narstie Ian West/PA Shirley Manson Ian West/PA Professor Green Ian West/PA Brix Smith Start Ian West/PA Muse Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard Ian West/PA HAIM Este, Danielle and Alana Haim Ian West/PA Roman Kemp Ian West/PA Pale Waves Ian West/PA The Magic Gang Paeris Giles, Kristian Smith, Angus Taylor and Jack Kaye Ian West/PA Alt-J Ian West/PA The Amazons Ian West/PA Blossoms Ian West/PA Amir Amor and Piers Agget Amir Amor and Piers Agget from Rudimental Ian West/PA Selasi Gbmormittah and Joelle Rainford Ian West/PA

Best British Solo Artist

Loyle Carner

Best British Band

Alt-J

Best Album

J Hus - Common Sense

Best Festival

Glastonbury

Best Festival Headliner

Muse

Best Track

Charli XCX - Boys

Best Live Artist

Kasabian

Best International Band

HAIM

Best International Solo Artist

Lorde

Best New Artist

Stefflon Don

Best Mixtape

Avelino - No B*******

Best Collaboration

Craig David and Bastille - I Know You

Best Film

Baby Driver

NME Under The Radar

Pale Waves

Best Music Video

The Big Moon - Sucker

Innovation Award

Boy Better Know

NME Icon

Shirley Manson of Garbage

Godlike GenuisP ierce Brosnan could face a prison sentence in India after fronting an advertising campaign for a chewing mixture that can contain tobacco.

The Irish actor, 64, starred in TV and newspaper ads for Pan Bahar, an Indian concoction that can include tobacco, spices and areca nut or supari, 18 months ago.

It is prohibited from sale in a number of Indian states as areca nut is considered by the World Health Organisation to be carcinogenic.

Brosnan has reportedly been served a legal notice from the Delhi health department under the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003, asking him to explain his appearance in the advertisements.

If he fails to respond within 10 days he could face a fine of 5,000 Indian Rupees (56) or a two year jail term.

Pierce Brosnan: Daniel Craig's 007 can be the rock of agents

Health official S K Arora told the Indian Express: We have issued the notice to Pierce Brosnan through the company, and also reached out to him via social media platforms.

If he fails to respond to the notice, he would face punishment of a fine up to Rs5,000 [56] or two years in prison.

Brosnan previously claimed he was told he was advertising a breath freshener/tooth whitener [and] all-natural, containing neither tobacco, supari, nor any other harmful ingredient.

He said he was deeply shocked and saddened by the unauthorised and deceptive use of his image to promote a potentially harmful product.

In a statement he said: Having endured, in my own personal life, the loss of my first wife and daughter as well as numerous friends to cancer, I am fully committed to supporting womens healthcare and research programs that improve human health and alleviate suffering.

I would never have entered into an agreement to promote a product in India that is dangerous to one's health.

He finished: I shall endeavour to rectify this matter. In the meantime, please accept my sincerest and heartfelt apologies to all whom I have offended.

James Bond wax figures unveiled 1 /5 James Bond wax figures unveiled Finishing touches The team at Madame Tussauds London ensure that Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Daniel Craig, Sean Connery, George Lazenby and Pierce Brosnan are looking their best Jonathan Hordle/Rex The name's Bonds, James Bonds Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Daniel Craig, Sean Connery, George Lazenby and Pierce Brosnan have been immortalised in wax Jonathan Hordle/Rex Big debut The waxworks were unveiled on This Morning where Holly Willoughby joked that Daniel Craig would take over as co-host from Phillip Schofield Ken McKay/ITVRex Spying Antiques expert, Tracey Martin, shows viewers how to make a mint with Bond memorabilia as two waxworks look on from the sideline Ken McKay/ITV/Rex New recruit Holly Willoughby attempted to make Phillip Schofield jealous after the Daniel Craig waxwork entered the studio Ken McKay/ITV/RexT he Spice Girls will embark on a tour to celebrate their reunion, according to reports.

The news comes days after Victoria Beckham, aka Posh Spice, shot down reports.

Speaking to Vogue during a preview of her autumn/winter 2018, she said: Im not going on tour. The girls arent going on tour.

But TMZ has claimed Beckham, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Emma Bunton and Geri Horner have all signed contracts for a tour of the UK and US.

The US website reported: Mel B signed on the dotted line last Friday and were told the other members signed as well [...].

Susanna Reid accuses Geri Horner of throwing shade at the Spice Girls

It spells out the specifics, including the number and location of concerts and compensation.

The five-piece finally ended months of speculation when they reunited for the first time in six years last month at Horners house.

Following the meeting they revealed the time now feels right to explore some incredible new opportunities together.

Spice Girls - In pictures 1 /48 Spice Girls - In pictures Spice Girls at Wembley in 2019 Andrew Timms The Spice Girls reunite for tour rehearsals Spice Girls Instagram Best looks Sporty, Baby, Scary, Ginger and Posh sing as The Spice Girls PA Spice Up Your Life The Spice Girls officially launch Channel Five at Marble Arch in 1997 Rex Viva Forever The Spice Girls - Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton and Victoria Beckham AT 'Viva Forever!' Spice Girls musical launch in 2012 The Spice Girls reunite for the first time since 2012 Victoria Beckham/Instagram Prince Harry meets The Spice Girls PA Reuniting Victoria Beckham, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton and Melanie Brown pose for a photocall at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich ahead of their news conference on June 28, 2007 in London Getty Images Doppelgangers The Spice Girls with their wax doubles at The Rock Circus In The West End, London in 1999 Jeremy Selwyn Book launch The Spice Girls launch their book 'Forever Spice' PA Summer ball The Spice Girls at Capital Radio Summer Jam, Clapham Common in 1996 Rex Patriotic Geri Halliwell at The Brit Awards in 1997 wearing her famous Union Jack dress Rex Features Movie stars Spice Girls 'Spice World' Los Angeles Premiere in 1998 Rex Going for gold The Spice Girls performing at The 2012 London Olympic Games, Closing Ceremony Rex Charitable Spice Girls pose for Comic Relief Red Nose Day Launch in 1997 Alex Lentati Iconic Auction of outfits owned by Geri Halliwell. Her Spice Girls memorabilia auctioned at Sotheby's. All proceed's for The Sargent Cancer Care For Children in 1998 David Crump/Daily Mail Onset The girls filming Spice Girls: Spice World Spice Productions Undercover Ginger and Baby Spice star in Spice Girls: Spice World Spice Productions On tour British pop band, The Spice Girls, perform the first concert of the UK leg of their world tour at the O2 Arena, 15 December 2007 Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images Flying high The Spice Girls pose after naming a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 plane "Spice One" in their honor at Los Angeles International Airport, 12 December 2007 AFP/Getty Images Jet setters The Spice Girls unveiling the new name, Spice One, of a Virgin Atlantic Jet at the Flight Path Museum at Los Angeles Airport PA Model looks The Spice Girls, Emma Burton, Melanie Chisholm, Melanie Brown, Geri Halliwell and Victoria Beckham (L to R) perform during the Victoria's Secret fashion show at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California, 15 November 2007 AFP/Getty Images West End debut Melanie Chisholm, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell and Melanie Brown attend the press night of 'Viva Forever', a musical based on the music of The Spice Girls at Piccadilly Theatre on December 11, 2012 in London Stuart Wilson/Getty Images Selfie stick The Spice Girls: Victoria Bekcham, Melanie Chisholm, Emman Bunton, Melanie Brown and Geri Halliwell Stage stars Spice Girls - Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton and Victoria Beckham during 'Viva Forever!' musical press night at The Piccadilly Theatre, London, Britain MTV Europe Music Awards Spice Girls at the Globe Arena in Stockholm. PA Throwback The Spice Girls: Melanie Chisholm (Sporty Spice), Emma Bunton (Baby Spice) Victoria Adams (Posh Spice) Geri Halliwell (Ginger Spice) and Melanie Brown (Scary Spice) Girl power The Spice Girls in Spice World (1997) London calling Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls performs during the first date of their 17-date residency, part of their reunion world tour Getty Images Raising money The Spice Girls raise money for Children in Need First reunion The Spice Girls reunited in 2007 Jeremy Selwyn Fashionable flare The Spice Girls at 12th Annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, Kodak Theatre, Los Angeles in 2007 Spice and Vinegar Gary Lineker with the Spice Girls promote Walkers Crisps with limited edition Spice Girls range Mini me's The Spice Girls Dolls hit the market in 1997 Rex Risque Victoria Beckham (Adams) and Geri Halliwell perform with The Spice Girls in Dublin in 1999 Rex One down British pop band The Spice Girls. Posh Spice (Victoria Beckham), Sporty Spice (Melanie Chisholm), Baby Spice (Emma Bunton) and Scary Spice (Melanie Brown) Virgin Records BRIT Awards The Spice Girls perform at The Brit Awards in 2000 and win an award for thier outstanding contribution to British music Back stage snaps The Spice Girls take a twitter snap at Olympic Games London 2012 Closing Ceremony. Charming the royals Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls greets Prince Charles at the Prince's Trust Charity Concert Gala at the Manchester Opera House Rex The Spice Girls meet Prince Charles Prince of Wales with the Spice Girls at the Royal Gala celebrating the Princes Trust 21st Anniversary PA The Spice Girls World Tour Melanie Chisholm, Victoria Beckham, Geri Halliwell, Melanie Brown perform The Spice Girls World Tour in 2008 Rex The Spice Girls at The MTV Europe Awards The Spice Girls at The MTV Europe Awards in Sweden IN 2000 Rex Award winners The Spice Girls at The Brit Awards in 1998 Rex Collecting gongs The Spice Girls at The Brit Awards in 1997 Rex With her majesty Queen Elizabeth II meeting Emma Bunton, Victoria Adams, Mel C, Geri Halliwell, Mel B of The Spice Girls at The Royal Variety Performance in 1997 Rex Film debut The Spice Girls take center stage in their feature film debut, the Columbia Pictures Presentation of 'Spice World' in 1997 Getty Images Meeting Mandela Spice Girls Mel B and Geri Halliwell meet Nelson Mandela in 1997 as part of the British Royal tour in 1997 Rex Pepsi promotions The Spice Girls promote Pepsi in 1997 Rex

Music manager Simon Fuller is said to be behind the venture which will reportedly involve a TV talent show, endorsement deals and a compilation album celebrating their greatest hits.

Speaking on Heart Breakfast her co-presenter Jamie Theakston said: I want you guys on the roof of Buckingham Palace, waving that Union Jack. Some sort of Brexit concert, I dont know.

Wouldnt that be awesome?Countries & Areas

Search for country or area A Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan B Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Burundi C Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Cote dIvoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia D Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic E Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia F Fiji Finland France G Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana H Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary I Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy J Jamaica Japan Jordan K Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan L Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg M Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique N Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Norway O Oman P Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Q Qatar R Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria T Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu U Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan V Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Y Yemen Z Zambia ZimbabweDuring 2017 satellite photos showed that by the end of the year eight more Chinese KJ-500 AWACS (Air Warning And Control System) aircraft had been manufactured. The KJ-500 first flew in 2013 and entered service in 2015. But until 2017 only two were known to be in service. Now there are ten of them. This is not unusual for Chinese ships and aircraft, with one or a few entering service and for several years, sometimes a decade or more, no more are produced. In the meantime China is tinkering with the new equipment under operational conditions and compiling a list of changes to the initial design before producing a lot of them.

The KJ-500 AWACS can track over 60 aircraft at ranges of up to 470 kilometers. The KJ-500 aircraft looks more like the American AWACS (with a round radar dome on top) but is smaller and carried by the Y-9 four engine turboprop aircraft (similar to the U.S. C-130). The circular radar dome of the KJ-500 actually contains a triangular AESA radar that does not rotate.

The earlier and very similar KJ-200 design used the smaller (but shorter) Y-8 aircraft and a long box-like AESA radar array on top of the aircraft. The KJ-500 was thought to be created to supplement and eventually replace the eleven KJ-200 (also called the KJ-2000) that has been in service since 2005. There are also four of the export model (ZDK-03) KJ-500s in Pakistan that sold for $300 million and were believed to be KJ-200 variants. That was because the ZDK-03 used the slightly smaller propjet aircraft of the KJ-200 but had the circular radar dome of the KJ-500. American ELINT (electronic intelligence) aircraft have encountered KJ-200s operating over the South China Sea and it was realized that a more advanced Chinese AWACS was possible. The KJ-500 was apparently it.

China has been developing its own AWACS since the 1990s, ever since the U.S. forced Israel to back off selling China the Phalcon AWACS (because it used some American technology). China then bought some AWACS from Russia, while hustling to develop their own. The Chinese Air Force was not happy with its four IL-76 AWACS (A-50s from Russia, converted to use Chinese KJ-200 radar systems) and smaller systems carried in the Chinese made Y-8 aircraft. The Chinese claim that their phased array AWACS is similar to, and superior in some respects, to the Phalcon AESA radar they tried to buy from the Israelis. The Chinese were to pay about the same price for each of the four Phalcon systems they sought to get from Israel that they are charging Pakistan. It turned out that China had not been able to clone the Phalcon system completely.

The KJ-200 carries a flight crew of five and a mission (AWACS) crew of about a dozen. The KJ-500 crew is believed to be about the same size. Both aircraft can stay airborne for about seven hours per sortie. The KJ-200 radar has a range of about 300 kilometers, and the computer systems are supposed to be able to handle 5-10 fighters at a time and keep track of several dozen enemy targets. The 54 ton propeller driven Y-8 is based on the 1950s era Russian An-12 as is the Y-9 which is a more recent (2001) design that is a bit larger and heavier (77 tons) and is basically a stretched (longer) Y-8. China apparently believes that the KJ-500 is a competitive (with Western models) AWACS.

The AWACS proved to be a key to victory for the United States in the 1991, 2001, and 2003 campaigns. The critical advantage here was knowing where all friendly aircraft were at all times. Directing a lot of warplanes over enemy territory has long been a problem. It was elegantly solved with the development of airborne control aircraft like the E-3. But it took over half a century to perfect this approach. The problem was first noted during World War II, when operations involving over a thousand aircraft in the air at once demonstrated how out-of-control things could get. But no technical solution was then available. That is, you could not put a radar in an aircraft powerful enough to get the big picture, the entire picture.

However, the U.S. Navy did plan to use radar equipped TBF (light bombers) Avengers to control the fighter screen protecting the fleet from Japanese suicide bombing attacks during the planned 1945 invasion of Japan. That invasion never came off and the Navy pursued the radar equipped control aircraft idea at a more leisurely pace after the war. This led to the navy E-1 airborne early warning aircraft which first flew in 1956 and entered service in 1960. While mainly used to extend the radar coverage of a naval task force, this type of aircraft also had a vital role in controlling large numbers of friendly warplanes in air battles.

The U.S. Air Force also kept working on the problem. By 1953, the Air Force was able to send propeller driven transports (EC 121 Lockheed Constellations), equipped with powerful radar and radio equipment, off the coasts of North America to watch for Russian bombers. Beginning in 1965, the first of thirty EC 121s was sent to Vietnam, where they controlled combat operations in the northern part of the country. As useful as these aircraft were, it was obvious that, with a little more technology, one could control air combat operations more thoroughly and effectively.

The ultimate solution came in the form of a four engine jet transport converted to a flying radar station and control tower. This was the E-3 AWACS, whose development began in the late 1960s. The first prototypes were flying in the late 1970s and the E-3 entered service in 1982. Flying far enough inside friendly territory to avoid enemy anti-aircraft missiles, the AWACS radar has a radar range from between 200 km (for small aircraft or cruise missiles flying close to the ground) to 600 kilometers (for large aircraft flying at high altitude). The AWACS tracks several hundred friendly and enemy aircraft at once. The AWACS acts as an airborne command center for aircraft and friendly planes are kept out of each other's way. For example, there was not a single friendly air to air collision during the 1991 Gulf war or in any subsequent operations using the E-3.

Enemy aircraft are spotted, identified, and friendly interceptors assigned to take care of the hostile planes using the E-3. One or more AWACS is used to control an air operation and each can stay up 11 hours at a time, or up to 22 hours with refueling and extra crew on board to man the equipment. Its first wartime workout, during the 1991 Gulf war, was a spectacular success, often in more ways than anticipated. For example, the use of over a hundred tankers to refuel combat aircraft would not have been possible without the AWACS being there to efficiently link tankers and aircraft needing fuel. Forming up the Wild Weasels, and coordinating their use with the bombers they escorted, was much easier using an AWACS. Just keeping track of who was who and going where would not have been possible without the AWACS. Its this kind of AWACS capability that the Chinese are working towards and have apparently achieved.While the army killed or captured about 600 ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) members during 2017, ISIL is not dead in the south. Because most of the ISIL violence took place in the south (Mindanao) the legislature extended martial law down there until the end of 2018. During 2017 about half the ISIL dead were from Abu Sayyaf and the rest from BIFF and the Maute Group. But now ISIL survivors from Syria and Iraq are returning and along with new recruits (often from the families of those killed in 2017) ISIL is rebuilding. There are believed to be nearly a hundred ISIL members in Mindanao, nearly half returned from the Middle East, and the security forces want to ensure that the group does not get large enough to be a major problem.

Kuwait Crises

The government is ready to fly home 10,000 or more of the 250,000 Filipinos working in Kuwait after the body of a Filipino woman was found in a freezer. There have been a growing number of incidents of mistreatment of Filipino workers in Kuwait and this murder made all of that widely known. The Filipino government had banned any more Filipinos from going to Kuwait in January because of the rampant abuse. The government is making an issue of the fact that Kuwaiti police did nothing when the family of the victim reported their daughter missing. So far about a thousand Filipinos have accepted the government offer and flown home. The Kuwaiti position is that the Filipino government is exaggerating.

There are two million Filipinos working in the Middle East. Filipinos are treated badly in the Middle East because most of them are Christian. That disdain (and cruelty) is what was at play in the recent murder. The killers were a couple from Lebanon (the husband) and Syria (the wife). In this case it was apparently the wife who was the main antagonist. The couple fled to Syria months ago, in part because Syria does not have an extradition treaty with Kuwait and Lebanon does.

Remittances from the ten percent of Filipinos who work overseas amounts to about five percent of GDP and are a key part of the economy. In effect, over 20 percent of the Filipino workforce is employed outside the Philippines. Filipinos are very popular overseas workers because of their energy, skills and ability to speak English. There are no jobs at home for all this talent because of the corruption (the Philippines is among the ten most corrupt nations) that stifles economic growth.

Bangsamoro

In part because Moslem separatist organizations MILF and MNLF cooperated in eliminating any ISIL activity in the Moslem south Congress is now willing to pass the controversial BBL (Bangsamoro Basic Law) in the next few months. It wasnt just the Moslem willingness to suppress ISIL but also the cooperation between the two former rival organizations. For example, in early 2017 MILF agreed to combine its 2014 peace deal with the government with the 1996 peace agreement rival MNLF signed with the government. This settled several disagreements the two major Moslem organizations had to deal with. The two groups had originally disagreed over who would have what powers under the new autonomy deal. MILF has been pressuring Congress to either pass or reject the peace deal. If approved BBL creates Bangsamoro which is an autonomous Moslem area in the southwest. It was not surprising that this new law would be difficult to get through the national legislature. It was always understood that because of the 2016 elections the treaty would have an opportunity to try getting approval from two different Congresses. The main problem is that too many Christians do not trust the Moslems to remain at peace and curb violence against Christians in the south. While Moslems are the majority in some parts of the south (mainly the southwest that will become Bangsamoro) Christians are the majority in the southern islands that radical Moslems insist should be under Moslem control and all Christians expelled. Even in Bangsamoro Christians are a large minority. As an alternative the government recently proposed that the entire country be given the same option by creating a more federal form of government with the country organized into five entities with Bangsamoro being one of them. This means no appearance of special treatment for Moslems. This five region proposal did not generate a lot of support while the BBL did.

NPA

So far in 2018 NPA (the illegal armed wing of the local Communist Party) has lost about twenty fighters during clashes with security forces and about ten times as many to members surrendering. When you have this many surrenders there are usually even larger losses from desertion (usually by recent recruits who have no police record of their NPA activities) and fewer recruits. The NPA leadership is still unable to exercise control over the entire organization, which is now coming apart.

The government gave up on peace negotiations with the NPA in mid-2017. NPA negotiators were warned that the peace talks (resumed earlier in 2017) would be abandoned if some progress was not made. The government kept the negotiations with the NPA going in 2017 despite persistent NPA demands that hundreds of jailed NPA members be freed first. Since February 2017 the army and police were ordered to exert maximum pressure on the NPA and that apparently worked because the operations concentrated on the NPA factions known to be hostile to a peace deal. This was important because in January 2017 negotiators realized that there were too many NPA factions that refused to make peace and that problem remained unsolved. Until the NPA can regain control over (or disown) disobedient factions the government will continue its efforts to destroy the NPA completely. Both the government and the NPA leadership are trying, in different ways, to deal with the uncooperative NPA factions and that is enough to maintain the option to resume negotiations. But at the moment the government appears to have had enough of NPA instability and irrational behavior. For example, some senior NPA leaders still insist the NPA still has a chance of overthrowing democracy and replacing it with a communist dictatorship. Since August 2017 (after the Marawi City battle ended) the security forces have turned much of their attention to the NPA and that has crippled the leftist rebels. The factions remaining are operating like bandits now and being treated as such in areas where they are still active.

Drug War

Since the police resumed their anti-drug campaign in early December some 6,300 arrests have been made in 4,000 separate operations. There was some resistance and 53 suspects died in gun battles with the police. Most of these deaths were in buy/bust operations where the dealers fought back rather than surrender. That puts the total deaths at just over 4,000 since the operation first began in mid-2016. The anti-drug campaign is still popular inside the Philippines.

February 14, 2018: In the north (outside Manila) police found and arrested the head of the NPA.

The government banned all foreign research ships from the Philippines Rise area off its east coast. This comes after it was revealed that Chinese Ocean Minerals Association had been exploring the area in detail rather than just Chinese government Hydrographic research vessels.

February 13, 2018: In the south (Basilan province) three Abu Sayyaf gunmen surrendered, along with their weapons. This makes nearly 200 Abu Sayyaf who have surrendered since early 2017.

Britain announced that one of its warships, after a visit to Australia next week, will perform a FONOP (freedom of navigation operation) in the South China Sea. In January China protested a U.S. Navy FONOP near Scarborough Shoal as they now consider this area part of China and since 2012 have posted warships (coastguard or navy) to enforce their claim. In 2017 China built an environmental monitoring station on Scarborough Shoal, which is 220 kilometers from one of the main Filipino islands (Palawan) and 650 kilometers from Chinese territory (Hainan Island) and according to international law (and a recent international court decision) is Filipino. The Chinese say they have prior claim to most of the South China Sea and basically dares the rest of the world to try and stop them. This makes sense to most Chinese because the Chinese have long called China Zhongguo, which is usually translated into English as middle kingdom. But a more literal and accurate translation is everything under the heavens. Until the 21st century this mainly meant adjacent land areas. But now China points out that everything means the South China Sea as well. Chinese media report these FONOPs as a violation of international law and most now trigger a response by Chinese warships or warplanes. In reality China rarely opposes the American warships. These exercises are meant to affirm that many of the Chinese claims to the entire South China Sea are invalid and that the right to free passage through Chinas EEZ is assured.

February 12, 2018: In the south (Maguindanao province) seven NPA gunmen surrendered, along with their weapons.

February 11, 2018: In the south (Sulu) marines encountered about 30 Abu Sayyaf gunmen and after a brief gun battle the Abu Sayyaf group fled. The Islamic terrorists lost five dead and at least four wounded while one marine was wounded. The marines pursued the fleeing Abu Sayyaf and hoped that this group might have some of the remaining kidnap victims the Islamic terror group is holding. It was a tip indicating that which brought the marines into this area over the weekend.

In the north (Arba province) soldiers encountered ten NPA rebels who had been looting and extorting food and other goods from local civilians. After a brief clash (in which one rebel was killed) the NPA men fled and the soldiers pursued.

February 10, 2018: In the north (Manila) a large group of demonstrators assembled outside the Chinese consulate to protest the Chinese militarization of the South China Sea and the construction of artificial islands that serve mainly as military bases. While the current Filipino government is willing to work out a deal with China, rather than prepare for a war the Philippines could not win, many Filipinos are angry at the Chinese aggression and seizure of Filipino territory.

February 9, 2018: The Canadian government is under pressure to prevent a Canadian firm from selling sixteen Bell 412 helicopters to the Philippines (for $15 million each) because they might be used for police or paramilitary operations the some Canadians disagree with. Canadian firms have been a major supplier of refurbished and new helicopters of this type to the Philippines in the past. The Canadian government is unlikely to block this sale, as it would mean the Philippines would turn to Russia or China for helicopters and a major Canadian exporter would lose a lot of business and credibility. Many Western nations are openly opposed to the Filipino anti-drug campaign and are pressuring the UN to order a war crimes investigation of the Filipino president responsible. That is not getting a lot of support in the UN where most nations support the Filipino effort.

February 8, 2018: In the south (Lanao del Norte province) soldiers, during a routine patrol. Encountered and killed three Islamic terrorists belonging to the Maute Group. One of the dead was one of the few Maute Group leaders still operating, a man with a $60,000 price on his head. The army has been patrolling the south (Mindanao) since late 2017 seeking remnants of the Maute Group and BIFF.

February 6, 2018: The Philippines changed its policy on allowing foreign research vessels to study the Benham Rise, 250 kilometers off the east coast of the Philippines. In 2012 the UN agreed that the resource rich Benham Rise was indeed part of the Philippines coastal waters and the name was then changed to the Philippines Rise. This is basically an underwater volcano that did not turn into an island. It is a large (250 kilometers square) plateau that is in an area where most of the water is 5,000 meters deep. But the rise is mostly 3,000 meters high and a peak rises out of that plateau and reaches to within 50 meters of the surface. The rise is a rich fishing area but also may have underwater oil and gas deposits. China has never made a claim on the Benham/Philippines Rise but that could change if the payoff were large enough. China had asked permission to send a research ship to study the area and at first the Philippines agreed. But the public reaction was hostile to that, given the Chinese aggression off the west coast in the South China Sea. So the Philippines withdrew that permission and banned any foreign research vessels from studying the Philippines Rise unless they received specific permission. Foreign fishing vessels are banned from the Philippines Rise as well.

At the same time the Philippines repeated that war was not an option in the South China Sea where the Chinese have declared the area an integral part of China and is trying to force foreign ships, especially warships, to ask permission before passing through what had always been considered international waters. Meanwhile China continues to dredge up sand at reefs and created artificial islands which are turned into military bases. China says the new artificial islands will have commercial uses (tourism, recreation).

The U.S. compiled and recently released a report on Chinese activities in the South China Sea during 2017. The numerous detailed aerial and satellite photos showed that that China had continued to expand its artificial islands and installed numerous military facilities on six of these islands. China had promised the Philippines it would not expand these islands and that played a role in the Philippines backing off on its resistance to the Chinese territorial claims. But now China is openly discussing its plans to expand its military presence in the South China Sea and proudly displaying progress on state controlled media. This includes plans to install more sensors throughout the South China Sea and put ten surveillance satellites into orbit so that the South China Sea is covered 24/7.

In late 2017 China appeared to have succeeded in buying cooperation from the Philippines. The Filipino government was willing to accept all the legal gifts (aid, investment, loans) China offered in return for the Philippines not resisting Chinese claims in the South China Sea. President Duterte pointed out earlier in 2017 that China threatened war if the Philippines went ahead with plans to drill for oil in offshore areas that international law recognizes as Filipino but that China claims actually belongs to them. Duterte openly criticizes other nations for not confronting China and sees no point in the Philippines trying to take on China by itself or at least not without a massive amount of support. All the South China Sea nations facing territorial losses because of Chinese claims have backed down to one degree or another. Duterte points out that even the United States is unwilling to go up against China and the Americans made it clear that the main threat to the U.S. from the region right now was North Korea, not China.

Meanwhile the Chinese are openly moving more weapons to bases in the South China Sea as well as their main naval base in southern China (Hainan Island). Chinese officials admit that they are determined to get their way in the South China Sea but it is also the case that China prefers to buy what it wants rather than start a war over it. That is an ancient Chinese tradition that is currently giving a lot of popular and official support inside China. Effective Filipino resistance to these Chinese plans is not considered a possibility. The Chinese see the Philippines as neutralized and many Filipinos are not happy with that.

February 4, 2018: The government reports it is seizing more and more shipments of illegal drugs Chinese drug gangs are smuggling into the Philippines. China remains the main source of methamphetamine pills (shabu) smuggled into the country. Some shabu is manufactured locally and Mexican drug cartels are delivering more of it to Filipino customers via the mail.

January 19, 2018: In the south (Sulu province) Abu Sayyaf released two Indonesian fishermen they had help captive for over a year.

January 18, 2018: China criticized the United States and cautioned the Philippines because yesterday an American destroyer (USS Hopper) carried out a FONOP in the South China Sea near Scarborough Shoal off the coast of the Philippines.While hearing petitions against the Election Act of 2017, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Mian Saqib Nisar said that he cannot accept if a dacoit becomes party head and oversee over the government.

The three-member bench for petitions against the Election Act of 2017 held a hearing on Thursday where both sides gave heated arguments.

CJP remarked that God forbid if a thief becomes party president which he will not accept. Our Prime Minister says he (Nawaz Sharif) is his Prime Minister, he said.

Justice Nisar added, A disqualified person will make parliamentarians do what he himself cannot.

Moreover, Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan asked Salman Akram Raja, the defence of Nawaz Sharif, to present one example in which a disqualified person distributed party tickets.

He reasoned that the Election Act of 2017 doesnt appear as loyalty with the constitution. He said that action could be taken under Article 6 in suspicion of an attack on the institution.Most of the country looks to be in for three or four days of mainly settled weather, but "a period of highly impactful severe weather" is expected early next week, with the arrival of whats left of Tropical Cyclone Gita.

Forecast models were indicating Gitas remnants were likely to cross the North Island, probably on Tuesday, MetService meteorologist Stephen Glassey says early Thursday.

It was too early to say where in New Zealand the heaviest rain and strongest gales would be.

MetService is warning that as Gita crosses the country from the northwest it will bring a period of highly impactful severe weather.

#CycloneGita

MetService have issued a blog with the history & future track of #TCGITA. You can find it at https://t.co/YEkMGeFMG0

This system will likely impact New Zealand early next week, but there is considerable uncertainly regarding the track as it approaches us. ^Lisa pic.twitter.com/D2m1SwozxY  MetService (@MetService) February 14, 2018

But before then much of the country has at least three days of settled, and often fine, weather. For many places the benign spell is expected to last through Sunday.

Unfortunately for Northland and Auckland, drying out after a wet week, conditions are forecast to start deteriorating on Sunday. For the next three days though, the top of the country is looking good.

On Thursday, MetService expects Auckland to be sunny with light winds and a high of 26 degrees Celsius.

Most of the North Island is expected to be mainly fine on Thursday, although it could be cloudy in the southwest.

The top of the South Island and Canterbury are also forecast to be fine, but rain is expected in the west of the South Island and showers are possible in Otago and Southland.

The west and south of the South Island arent expected be as settled as the rest of the country during the next few days.

Early Thursday a front was approaching the southwest of the country, and there is a risk of heavy rain in the west on Friday and Saturday.

On Thursday, Wellington is expected to be fine after morning cloud, with a high of 23C and northerlies.

Christchurch is also expected to be fine after morning cloud, with a high of 28C.

Like much of the rest of the east of the country it is in for several warm days, with highs of 30C predicted for Friday and Saturday, then 28C again on Sunday.

Next week is expected to be much cooler with the arrival of southerlies.

The southeast of the North Island could get the best of the settled spell, with four sunny warm days forecast, getting to 30C at times.

- StuffTwo crews of firefighters have arrived in the Chatham Islands to help tackle the huge scrub fire thats been burning there since the beginning of the month.

The fire broke out on the first day of February and has ripped through about 2500 hectares of land.

The fire is contained, but its not fully extinguished and isnt expected to be until at least the end of the month.

Deputy Principal Rural Fire Officer, Glenn Thompson, says crews have been working incredibly long days and in trying conditions.

He says its important they get swapped out with other crews so they get the chance to have a break.

A team of five from Rotorua, along with another team from Taranaki, arrived in the Chatham Islands yesterday.

Another crew is flying in from Wellington tomorrow.

"The teams are made up of volunteers and career firefighters, so were really grateful to both their employers and their loved ones, who have allowed them to leave to assist us with the fire on the Chathams. Its greatly appreciated."

The crews are expected to stay for at least a week and will work with the local council, land owners, helicopter pilots and Department of Conservation staff to help put out the fire.

"This is an ongoing fire, its a really deep burning fire and its extremely difficult to access, being in a very remote location. There are some deep-seated hotspots all around the fire perimeter, so it will take time and a lot of hard work to put it out."

He says bouts of rain have helped ease the fire, with about 35 millimetres falling recently.

However, thick fog blanketing the islands has at times forced a stop to the work the helicopter crews have been doing.

One firefighting crew from Wellington, which has been fighting the blaze since it began, is expected to fly back from the islands tomorrow and on Saturday.

"The conditions theyve been dealing with have been pretty difficult," he says.

Mr Thompson says the firefighting response has been a huge team effort and he wants to thank all those involved.Do you want to represent your community?

Tauranga City Council is holding a by-election in April for one at large position on council.

Nominations for candidates in the upcoming by-election are now open. Nominations close at noon on Monday, March 5. Prospective candidates are urged not to leave it until the last minute.

To find out more about the role of the council and what its like to be a city councillor, the council is holding a candidate information session on Monday, February 19 from 5.30pm in council chambers at 91 Willow Street. No pre-registration is required and prospective candidates are welcome to turn up on the day.

Dont forget to enrol, you need to be enrolled to vote. If you own a property in Tauranga but live outside of the area you are also eligible to vote www.elections.org.nz.

Timetable for the 2018 by-electionClick the image above to watch the video

Good morning and happy Chinese New Year!

Today we are expecting a fine day but becoming cloudy tonight with light winds.

Its a one-clothing layer day today with a high of 27 and an overnight low of 19 degrees. Humidity is 97 per cent.

High tide is at 8.10am, low tide is at 2.20pm and high tide again at 8.20pm. Sea temperature is 21 degrees, and theres a sea swell of 1.3m. Sunset is at 8.10pm.

If youre going fishing today the best fish bite time is between 5.30 and 8.30pm.

This day in NZ history in 1770 James Cook sighted Banks Island. Cook sighted Banks Peninsula from the Endeavour.

The following day he decided it was an island, which he named for the expeditions botanist, Joseph Banks.

In 1986 was the sinking of the Mikhail Lermontov. At 5.37pm on February 16 1986 the Soviet cruise liner Mikhail Lermontov hit rocks off Cape Jackson in the Marlborough Sounds.

In world history on this day in 1937 Dupont patented a new thread, nylon, which replaced silk in a number of products and reduced costs.

In 1951 Stalin contended the U.N. was becoming the weapon of aggressive war. In 1952 the FBI arrested ten members of the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina.

In 1965 four people were held in a plot to blow up the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell and the Washington Monument.

In 1966 the World Council of Churches being held in Geneva, urged immediate peace in Vietnam.

In 1978 China and Japan signed a $20 billion trade pact, which was the most important move since the 1972 resumption of diplomatic ties.

Today is the birthday of US historian Henry Adams. Born in 1838 he was the son and grandson of the presidents, and once said "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

To check out whats on today please go to our Whats on page. Have a great day!Click the image above to watch the video

Danni van der Heijden is only the second woman to be named as Bay of Plenty Young Fruit Grower for 2018.

The 24-year-old avocado services manager at Trevelyans Pack & Coolhouse in Te Puke won the trophy, after competing against five other contestants in a day-long skills event at the Te Puke A&P Show on February 10 and presenting a speech before an audience of 400 at last nights gala dinner.

Last year Danni came a close runner-up to ErinAtkinson, who won the trophy and went on to win the national Young Grower title.

"Last year I came second, so I pretty much had to come back. Im especially glad to have won the avocado challenge, thats my area, and I cant wait to get to the finals in August. Theres not a lot of women that enter these events, so women winning two years in a row is great."

Danni took five individual challenge awards, and impressed the judges with her speech on science and technology as disruptors to horticulture.

Aaron Wright came in second place, while Hamish McKain was third.

Dannis prize includes an all-expenses paid trip to Gisborne in August, to compete for the title of national Young Grower of the Year 2018, as well as $1500 cash.

Danni credits her success to her training, and says that her competitors put up a great fight.

"Im feeling pretty good," says Danni. "We all did our best, it was a really tough competition, and Im glad to have won.

Chair of the Bay of Plenty Young Fruitgrower Upskilling Committee Katy McGinity says the quality of the contestants was exceptional.

"Its great to see such a high calibre of competitors at the 2018 event. I would like to offer my congratulations to all of the contestants who illustrated not only their own skills, but also the roles and development opportunities that are available in the horticulture industry."

Award-winning comedian Ben Hurley, who owns a small kiwifruit orchard near Katikati, was MC for last nights sell-out BOP Young Grower of the Year awards dinner.

CEO of New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated Nikki Johnston says attracting young people into horticulture is vital to continue the industrys growth.

"Horticulture profits the BOP region by approx. $1.8 billion p.a. and this is growing as the industry expands. It is important to attract and retain employees by focusing on job opportunities though careers and education within the industry.

"Events such as the Bay of Plenty Young Fruitgrower competition illustrate this commitment to developing our young people and are an excellent chance to create awareness about the roles and development opportunities that are available.

"I congratulate all of the Young Fruitgrower competitors who have shown themselves to be upcoming stars of our booming industry."

Horticulture New Zealand CE Mike Chapman agrees on the importance of youth engagement and recognition.

"The Young Grower competitions show that there are capable, ambitious young people entering the primary industries, and demonstrate to the country that horticulture is not only an option for their future, but an exciting and potentially very rewarding one. Todays competitors are a great example of young people who are passionate about the industrys future and their role in it.

"Danni and the other contestants are exactly the kind of people the future of our industry will be based on; young and passionate. We want them thinking about careers in horticulture."A vanguard of 20 Italian Zespri kiwifruit growers have arrived in Tauranga to tap into local knowledge and expertise.

The group are the first of a number of technical tour groups that will bring 120 people from Korea, Japan, China, France and Italy to the region throughout the year.

Zespri global production manager Shane Max says the Zespri-affiliated partners  growers, postharvest operators and supply chain staff  arrive thirsty for local knowledge.

They want to know how to grow better fruit and more of it, and they want to meet the people who are doing it well here, says Shane.

This kind of face-to-face, practical, on-the-ground technical advice helps our overseas growers produce plenty of top quality fruit and ensures Zespris standards are maintained throughout the supply chain.

The knowledge exchange is vital to ensure the year-round supply of kiwifruit internationally, allowing northern hemisphere orchardists to fill gaps in the New Zealand growing season.

Its essential we keep Zespri fruit in front of overseas consumers for 12 months a year, to keep them loyal to our brand, adds Shane.

The delegates will visit the companys head office as well as kiwifruit-related businesses including coolstores, nurseries and retailers in the Bay of Plenty and beyond.

The group from Italy will spend six days in New Zealand and a Korean group will arrive in March, with tours carefully tailored to meet specific needs.

For instance, the Korean contingent who arrive next month will travel to Gisborne because conditions there are very similar to their main growing region.

And the Italians particularly want to see young nurseries and how weve dealt with Psa.Simon Armitage is one of very few contemporary poets who has, through his verse, become a household name. Few other writers match him in accolades: in the thirty years since he was first published, he has been awarded the Forward Poetry Prize, the Keats-Shelley prize, the Hay Medal, and his reworking of The Death of King Arthur was shortlisted for the prestigious T.S. Eliot Prize. He was even awarded the CBE in 2010 for his services to poetry.

In the literary world, he really is an inimitable figure. But his route into poetry was an unusual one: Armitage studied Geography at Portsmouth Polytechnic, did an MA at Manchester, and then went on to work as a probation officer for a number of years. It was only in 1994 that he quit his job and he decided to devote his life to writing. When I met him on Thursday night, I asked whether he saw any congruence between his work in social care and his work as a writer, and he suggested that the two professions both place the same emphasis on compassion and understanding: Ive always thought of art as a way of getting to know yourself and therefore a way of getting to know others. I tend to associate poetry with understanding, and therefore empathy.

In his poem I Say I Say I Say, Armitage draws on his years as a probation officer to reflect on ideas of self-harm and suicide, at once making these experiences disturbingly real for the reader, whilst also refusing to sentimentalise such experiences of emotional turmoil: Lets tell it / like it is, he says, and he does exactly that with characteristic frankness. Though he doesnt see himself as some sort of social worker in verse, he also openly admits that his outlook has remained similar.

We soon got onto talking about the poets who had first inspired Armitage, among them Hughes, Muldoon, Heaney, Plath, and Larkin. Paul Muldoon played a particularly important role, Armitage explains, in his own development as a poet  it was through Muldoon that he first became interested in the lyric voice in conversational English; how to use the phraseology of spoken language in a lyric setting. The Muldoon comparison seems to me to be particularly apt, given that both poets combine entertaining wit with often disarming poignancy.

Armitage also emphasised the significance Ted Hughes has had on his work. Hughes was one of the first poets Armitage read when he was at school, and is someone whose work he has always gone back to. When I ask him why Hughes has had such a strong influence, Armitage stresses their shared Yorkshire roots: I was from the same locality, he said, I understood the terrain a little bit, and the register.

Hughes was on the O-level syllabus when Armitage was still in school, and now Armitages own poems are being studied by GCSE English students across the country. Given that so many young people today are first encountering poetry through his work, I wanted to ask Armitage how he felt about being on the AQA syllabus: I like it, he said, and went on to add that most writers want readers  they might tell you that they dont, but I think they do. He also finds it incredibly rewarding to meet people in their 30s who had first read his work in school.

The weirdest thing, Armitage told me, is that my daughter studied my poems at GCSE. She had to write about her dads poems. Theres a nice circularity to this: Frieda Hughes, daughter of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, had to study her own parents poetry when she was at school. Armitage, in a softer voice, went on: Its sentimental, but it was a matter of huge pride for me  because Id first come into contact with poetry at school when I was her age. And I suppose somewhere deep down I thought if I ever wrote something half decent it might end up in that environment, so it felt like a very satisfying heir loom.

We moved on to talk about the current UK poetry scene, in particular the recent controversy surrounding Hollie McNishs Plum. Earlier this year, poet Rebecca Watts published an article in the PN Review criticising popular poets like McNish, Rupi Kaur, and Kate Tempest as artless. In the days and weeks following, the world of poetry seemed to go into uproar, with the establishment completely divided.

Armitage, rather diplomatically, told me that he agreed strongly with both sides of the argument, though he seemed keen to stress the idea of context: the context in which certain poetry is being offered, and the context in which its being judged. Talking specifically about McNish and Tempest, Armitage added that, as far as he can tell, the performed element of their poetry is the primary element, and the published aspect is the secondary element.

I think what Armitage was tentatively trying to suggest was something along the lines of what Don Paterson, who publishes McNish and Tempest, has said: You dont have to like what people do, but I think you measure it against its own ambitions. Otherwise its like saying TS Eliot was a terrible hip-hop artist. True, but so what. Armitage, being tactful, seemed to be drawing a distinction between spoken-word artists and poets whose emphasis is on the written word. He implied that this contextual distinction needs to be retained when these works are judged.

The whole debate, sparked by Wattss article but continued over the last few weeks in literary journals and newspapers, has made the poetry world ask some serious questions. I asked Armitage whether he thought what we were witnessing was a paradigm shift in poetry  the sort of thing people will look back on as an age-defining moment. He responded: I would hope so  I think it would be very depressing if poetry were to remain exactly the same. He described to me what he called the shift from an analogue to a digital age, a shift which has brought about unquantifiable changes, not least to our language. It seems inevitable, he said that it must force a shift in language, because the transmission and the recording of language has changed. Poetry, if its alert and alive enough, will have a relationship with the living language, and its bound to change with it.

These are, said Armitage, exciting times. The self-examination that the poetry world is currently experiencing will only be a good thing, he suggests: Its certainly made poets ask questions, and its enlivened the debate and the product, he told me towards the end of the interview. He hopes that this debate will encourage the people who we might call gatekeepers in the literary world to start to listen in a different way. For too long, people who have held power in those positions have been listening for noises that they recognise. And that calls in to debate the whole question of what we call poetry and literature, and quite rightly, we should be discussing those things.Ready for more Cambridge theatre? Prepare to travel far and wide from the usual hives of Corpus and ADC (though they will not be forgotten).

Week 5 brings much to be seen. The fifth annual Italian-language production by the Cambridge Italian Society at Robinson- Morte Accidentale di Un Anarchico: The Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Thursday 15th- Saturday 17th). The city is in uproar following news of the mysterious death of an anarchist who fell from a window during a police interview. The police is in panic, fearing the population will begin to riot. With the arrival of a mysterious newcomer, there situation is made worse as he embroils the police in a series of games, ranging from the ridiculously farcical to the deadly serious.

Also, that weekend, Sofa on the Mile (Fitzpatrick Hall, Queens) takes us back to the summer of the Edinburgh Fringe, as three actors, a director and a producer emerge from the last night of their show worn out by their performance and each other. Now they only need to transport their one piece of set, a sofa, from the pavement on the Royal Mile back to their accommodation. A sharp new tragicomedy about youth, hurt and endings, about the things that are gone by morning, and the things that refuse to be left behind.

At the ADC Wander, explores Faryn, a girl used to keeping to herself, living alone in a huge tree with only her guardian to keep her company, and only storytelling to pass the time, and life is comfortable and predictable, that is until she ventures further from the tree than ever before. The Lateshow presents Boys will be Boys, by Melissa Bubnic, a story about how people adapt to survive in an environment where toxic masculinity is held in highest esteem. As a Valentines treat, Cambridge's most wholesome Drag Collective are coming to present you with: Dragtime!: Speed Date. *Hosted by the gorgeous Princess Porcelynn* So, lonely hearts come one and all to meet the most beautiful Kings, Queens, and inbetweens that Cambridge has to offer!

At Corpus, the award-winning satire on terrorism and nationalism, The Lieutenant of Inishmore depicts Mad Padraic, hard at work torturing a drug pusher when the news comes through that his beloved cat is poorly. Thus, he heads back to the island of Inishmore., but when he arrives home, he discovers shenanigans involving shoe polish, an assassination plot, and a teenaged gun-toting admirer.

In Week 6, The CUOS mainshow is the operatic highlight of the Cambridge calendar, this year bringing Donizetti's sparkling comedy, LElisir Damore (The Elixir of Love), to West Road Concert Hall. Sung in Italian (with English surtitles), and with full orchestra and chorus; this is a fully-staged production, suitable for all the family.

The Bard meanwhile is returning to the stage, as Corpus mainshow: Coriolanus. Amid battle, a Roman soldier of great renown defends his city from invasion by his sworn enemy. However, following the victory, Coriolanus must face the demands of potential famine, a divided senate and restless citizenry. The Lateshow in contrast brings us I.M.P.R.O.V.: an Improvised Sitcom, as the Impronauts bring a new sitcom to Cambridge every night for one glorious week.

Weeks 5 and 6 bring an array of comedy, drag, opera and thriller, so dont miss out on getting tickets.365 Threat Monitor scans all emails as they reach your users' mailboxes to detect ransomware, phishing and spam. Receive real-time phone alerts, get real-time security breach updates and instantly delete threats with just one click - for free! Learn More.

GeckoLinux offers both seasoned users and new distro adopters an easy way to try an openSuse-based spin that is loaded with features and an ample inventory of the leading Linux desktops.

The developer released a major update of GeckoLinux earlier this week. I enjoyed testing the beta version last fall, and I was even more pleased with the added embellishments packed into this final version.

Among the attractions of GeckoLinux are its innovations within the openSuse community. These include non-free packages not found in openSuses default repositories.

GeckoLinux has a reputation for polish and out-of-the-box usability. It offers users a better hands-on experience than the more traditional approach taken by the openSuse community.

This latest release, GeckoLinux 423, uses a new build system, called Kiwi. The openSuse community last year changed to another system merged build tool, Open Build Service.

That change caused the GeckoLinux developer some delays in releasing this new spin  but the result was worth the wait.

Both Rolling and Static

GeckoLinux spares users from the nagging dilemma of choosing between Linux distros that offer static versus rolling upgrades. It does both. All you have to do is pick the maintenance method you prefer when you download the ISO file.

GeckoLinux rolling editions are based on openSuse Tumbleweed. The rolling editions update fully tested portions of the operating system as they are developed. No need to wait and install an entire new system on a finite release schedule.

The rolling release editions come in eight desktop flavors: Cinnamon, XFCE, Gnome, Plasma, Mate, Budgie, LXQt and Barebones.

The Plasma desktop leaves much to be desired. It is one of eight desktop options available in the latest GeckoLinux release.

GeckoLinux static editions are based on openSuse Leap 42.2 with its periodic release cycle and long-term support. The Budgie desktop is not available. The other seven desktop choices are available for download.

Each desktop environment has its own ISO file, so you can try your preferred desktop on GeckoLinux or grab one or more desktops to try. The ISO easily converts to a fully functional live session that runs on a DVD or USB. It loads without changing anything on your hard drive. Nothing messes with your existing OS.

Added Benefits

This new release includes live USB persistence. Without persistence, you can not save system settings and added or removed software configured during a live session. Now you can use GeckoLinux as a portable OS that runs just the way you used it in your last live session.

Depending on your hardware, running GeckoLinux from a USB installation may be slower  but you will not notice much sluggishness if the host computer has ample installed RAM.

The benefit is you can install GeckoLinux onto your mail computer and carry the equivalent of a cloned copy on a USB drive to run on any computer you use. You can access your documents on either a USB drive or from a cloud storage center as long as you have an Internet connection.

Having USB persistence, a fully functional live session, and your choice of desktop environments makes using GeckoLinux a flexible computing platform.

GeckoLinux now offers a much smoother booting experience. I like the splash screen added to the live system startup.

Some of my hardware is notorious for being finicky. Some of the test rigs refuse to play well with software designed for newer technology. GeckoLinux did not fall victim to such troubles.

GeckoLinux 423 has better hardware detection. It worked well with the X.Org startup on two very troublesome graphics cards. This new version also includes a repository containing Nvidia drivers enabled by default.

Switching Gears

When I reviewed the beta release last fall, I worked with the Cinnamon edition. That was partly because I use that desktop as my primary driver in Linux Mint.

For the final version testing session, I picked the Plasma edition. I used to be an avid fan of the KDE environment, but my dissatisfaction with Plasma caused that relationship to wither.

My initial experience this time with the Plasma edition was no more rewarding than the last time I tried it, on another distro. That is not the fault of the GeckoLinux distro, though. Plasma performed well within the limitations of its desktop toolkit.

A major benefit of GeckoLinux is the ease with which you can try out leading desktop offerings with a solid OS. So I will share my initial reactions to Plasma without any intention of degrading my otherwise happy experience with the OS itself.

Plasma on GeckoLinux

The Plasma desktop is the latest iteration of the KDE environment. It is based on KDE Plasma 5.9.2. The KDE community, however, released a later version early this month.

It includes the KDE applications. Many of the worthwhile KDE-branded applications, however, are no longer part of the Plasma environment.

Configuring the virtual workspaces in GeckoLinux depends on the desktop environment you run. The options panel in the Plasma desktop is one of its best features.

For instance, KWrite is gone. In its place is the LibreOffice suite. The Plasma desktop is now an overly simplified user interface that does a poor job of competing with the GNOME interface.

I never had much use for the Activities feature in KDE, though accessing an Activities display on the desktop was handy. You pushed the mouse into the upper left screen corner. Now, you thrash through the main menu to reach it via an applet you install on the panel bar.

The Plasma integration into the GeckoLinux infrastructure works well, but I suspect that only die-hard KDE fans will be drawn to using it here.

Bottom Line

I was disappointed in GeckoLinux in only one situation. The practice of including a password for the live session demo mode was a new feature promised in this release. The product description hawks the convenience of not having to enter passwords for the live session user account.

Yet the brief documentation for the ISO download mentions the user password for the live session as linux. I was hoping that the developer merely forgot to update the download information.

Alas, the new version still needs a password. Oh well, maybe the next release.

Otherwise, GeckoLinux 423 is a worthy release that provides improvements over the standard openSuse mindset.

Want to Suggest a Review?

Is there a Linux software application or distro youd like to suggest for review? Something you love or would like to get to know?

Please email your ideas to me, and Ill consider them for a future Linux Picks and Pans column.

And use the Reader Comments feature below to provide your input!If youre being let go from a job you hate, it may be tempting to leave a goodbye present. But while locking a tuna sandwich in your desk drawer on the last day, for example, is unlikely to get you jailed, sabotaging the companys computer systems probably will.

The Register reports that Christopher Victor Grupe, a 46-year-old former IT administrator at Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), has been sentenced to 366 days behind bars for intentionally damaging the firms computer network.

It seems that Grupe was unlikely to win employee of the month at his former job: he was suspended for 12 days in December 2015 for insubordination.

Grupes attorney told the Star Tribune that his clients suspension was attributed to increased stress from working around the clock, which led to him yelling at [his boss] and using some language he probably shouldnt have.

When he returned on December 15, CPR told him he was being fired from its US headquarters in Minneapolis. The company allowed Grupe to resign, rather than being terminated. He signed a resignation letter and promised to give back his laptop, remote access authentication token, and access badges. But two days later, Grupe decided to take revenge.

On December 17, he used his work notebook and credentials to log into CPRs computer network switches. Grupe removed administrator-level accounts, deleted key files, and changed the passwords for other accounts. He then wiped the laptop clean and destroyed all logs to try and hide his crime.

CPR discovered the effects of Crupes actions on January 5 when staff found they couldnt log into the switches. Court documents state that parts of the system went down, and staff had to force reboot all the switches to regain access.

Two days later, outside computer forensic experts hired by CPR traced the damage back to Grupe. A jury found him guilty of one count of intentional damage to a protected computer in October last year. US District Judge Patrick Schiltz sentenced him to a year and a day behind bars yesterday.Nokia in mid-2016 purchased French digital health and wearables specialist Withings for just north of $190 million. Now less than two years later, Nokia is having second thoughts.

The Finnish technology company on Thursday announced it has initiated a review of strategic options for its digital health business. Part of Nokia Technologies, the division includes both consumer and enterprise products such as smartwatches, fitness trackers and connected smart scales.

Nokia said the review may or may not result in any transaction or changes and that any further announcements on the matter would be made if and when appropriate. Other Nokia Technologies units including the patent business, brand partnerships and technology licensing arent in the scope of the strategic review, Nokia said.

In related news, Nokia is also planning to cut up to 425 jobs in its home country of Finland this year according to a report from Mobile World Live. Nokia plans to hold a meeting with employee representatives next week to discuss the cuts.

According to Reuters, Nokia currently employs 6,300 people in Finland and close to 103,000 people worldwide. A reduction of around 425 jobs would equate to about 6.7 percent of its local workforce, or around 0.4 percent globally.Google wants you to have one less thing to worry about on your next trip. The search giant on Thursday announced its Project Fi cellular service has been expanded to include data coverage in 170 countries and territories including destinations like Myanmar and Belize.

As Google Product Manager Jean Choi highlights, the data you use abroad costs the same as the data used in the US - $10 per GB used (although things get a bit more complicated if you use Googles recently announced Bill Protection feature). A complete list of locations covered by Project Fi can be found over on Project Fi's rates page.

Gmail users will receive an added benefit as Project Fi can let you know ahead of time if youre covered on your next trip based on your upcoming international flights from Gmail. As Choi notes, users will receive a notification in the Project Fi app shortly before a trip that shows coverage options and costs.

The feature will be enabled by default although you can turn it off in your account settings. Thats good news because personally, the feature sounds a bit intrusive.

Google launched its Project Fi mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service in April 2015. Originally invite-only and limited to Nexus 6 owners, the service shed its invitation limitation a year later. It relies on service provided by Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular and Three and automatically switches between networks depending on signal strength and speed.The Federal Communications Commission last year updated its broadcasting ownership regulations just weeks before Sinclair Broadcasting announced its plan to purchase Tribune Media. While the timeline for these two events may have been a coincidence, many watchdog groups disagree. In an official investigation uncovered by The New York Times, it turns out that even top officials at the FCC have reason to believe that something wasn't right.

Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey told the Times the FCC's inspector general opened an investigation into FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and his relationships with Sinclair Broadcasting. The investigation is focused on whether or not there was any coordination between Pai, Sinclair and Trump.

For months I have been trying to get to the bottom of the allegations about Chairman Pais relationship with Sinclair Broadcasting, Pallone said. I am grateful to the F.C.C.s inspector general that he has decided to take up this important investigation.

This investigation was originally requested by two representatives who were concerned that Pai and the FCC showed "a pattern and practice of preferential treatment" towards Sinclair.

Most believe the industry regulations were repealed largely to help the Sinclair-Tribune deal go through since they do not serve to benefit the public at all. If the deal went through, this would make Sinclair the largest television broadcaster in the country with an audience of nearly 70 percent of American households. Sinclair has been strongly criticized, most notably by John Oliver, for their politically motivated programming decisions and infamous "must-run" segments.

When the repeals were passed, Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley called Pai's easing of the regulations "groundbreaking." Both Sinclair and the FCC have declined to comment on the current investigation but called the original allegations "baseless." A previous investigation by the Times uncovered secret meetings between Pai, his staff and Sinclair executives in the weeks prior to Pai's appointment as chairman.

The acquisition is still pending but the shadow of an ongoing investigation is likely to delay it even further."Alex Saab has the capacity to take part as a full member of the dialogue delegation and of the social table," said Rodriguez. | Read MoreAn analogue man in a digital world, he writes on an electric typewriter, has never used a computer, and only briefly had a mobile phone, when his father was sick. The narrators of his novels are usually translators, spies, ghost writers or eavesdroppers, always observers and passive witnesses, interpreting the world around them.

"Don't specialise," Javier Marias' parents, both scholars, told him. "Learn about everything." For fans of his cerebrally cool fiction, such as the hypnotic, three-volume espionage thriller, Your Face Tomorrow, it's clear he took this advice. The Madrid native is now the Spaniard that bookies most often peg to win the Nobel, even though he's never considered himself a "professional writer".

His breakthrough novel All Souls put him on the map, but it was the follow-up, A Heart So White, that won him the 100,000 Impac Dublin Award. In Europe he's a literary superstar, the son of a famous philosopher who helped draft Spain's constitution after Franco's reign ended. With 12 translated novels, he's sold more than 8 million books in 43 languages, carving out his own genre of disembodied narrators whose kin might only be found haunting the equally mysterious novels of the late W.G. Sebald, who Marias refers to as his invisible friend.

He learned much of his craft by translating Faulkner, Conrad and Nabokov into Spanish, but it's his epic translation of Thomas Sterne's Tristram Shandy, that influenced him the most, teaching him the art of the long digression, "the tangent, the aside, the lyrical invocation, the rant". It's easy to feel, when journeying down one of Marias' often page-length sentences, a bit like an antiquarian astronaut; roaming across time and space, from the concrete to the abstract, Marias' disembodied voice, everywhere and nowhere, a seemingly endless brook of words, that, if surrendered to, keeps calling you back to its pages, like a comforting friend.

Moving to the essay is no stretch for a man who has written a weekly column for Spanish daily El Pais for more than 20 years, and it's mostly from this pool of more than 1000 essays that Between Eternities comes, displaying the polymath in full bloom.

Always more a gentleman than a scholar, he is never pompous, always just talking on the page, which is why these often-brilliant essays can feel like the elaboration, patiently unfurled, of single thoughts. They also feel a bit like chapters in an elliptical novel about lost friends and noisy neighbours, feeling a fraud when he sees himself on TV, or thinking planes might inspire more confidence if they had the kinds of names that give trusted reputations to ships.

He's touching about the pain of his female friends as their children leave home, and profound on Spanish desires to dig up and rebury the lost bones of the civil war dead. A long essay on Venice as "the key destination in the rest of humanity's dream geography" is a metaphysical primer for anyone visiting the city, and cult-film connoisseurs will recognise his eccentric "Uncle Jesus", as Jess Franco, Spain's Ed Wood, who brought the world hundreds of sexploitation films such as Vampyros Lesbos.He was an intriguing bloke, imperfect  a sober alcoholic who was often very fearful  and so far the only PM to represent a Western Australian seat in the House of Representatives, that of Fremantle. Supporters and opponents alike mourned when, on July 5, 1945, Curtin became only the second Australian PM to die in office. The Japanese surrender was announced on August 15, 1945.

On October 7, 1941, a mere eight weeks before Japan launched its war in the Pacific, Curtin became Australia's 14th Prime Minister at the age of 56.

People have different ideas about turning points in our history. I would argue that John Curtin's leadership during the Pacific War was pivotal. Gallipoli is a legend, the Western Front is important and Federation in 1901 is crucial but, as with John Edwards in his most recent book, I think it's the ALP's John Curtin who really helped secure our future.

While previous biographies of Curtin, particularly those by Lloyd Ross and David Day, broke new ground, John Curtin's War makes a huge and highly accessible contribution to Australian political history. Edwards charts Curtin's fascinating political and personal life from his birth in Creswick, Victoria, in 1885 and his involvement in the late 19th-century socialist ferment in Melbourne, through the horrors of the Great Depression.

The book also charts his struggles for power both inside the ALP and against two prime ministers, namely the Labor rat Joe Lyons, who hailed from Tasmania, and the founder of the Liberal Party, Robert Gordon Menzies, the Melbourne barrister who was in so many ways his polar opposite but who always treated Curtin with the utmost courtesy, a courtesy that was reciprocal.

Edwards examines and explores in depth Curtin's relationship with his future Treasurer, the New South Wales-based Ben Chifley, whose political career he nurtured and whose abilities and friendship he valued. Edwards also documents in loving detail Curtin's close relationship with his son John and especially with his wife and daughter, who were both named Elsie and from whom he was so often separated by distance.

Curtin was the son of working-class Irish immigrants and a firm supporter of White Australia who had left school at 14. He possessed outstanding abilities and debating powers, ascending to the prime ministership and becoming our greatest wartime political leader and a beacon of hope for the labour movement and especially for the ALP.

The book finishes with Australia in peril and the heavy-smoking Curtin  who was prone to nightmares and had a morbid fear of flying  sleepless and haggard with worry about the fate of his ships and troops.Slimani, a French-Moroccan woman residing in Paris, is being both provocateur and slyly referential in her diabolical opening; it echoes the famously insouciant first lines of The Outsider, written by her fellow North African, Albert Camus: "Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I can't be sure."

Leila Slimani's Lullaby  about a parent-nanny co-dependency, which ends in infanticide  front-ends the worst. "The baby is dead," it starts, in a chilling omniscient voice. "It took only a few seconds." The other infant, a toddler, takes longer to be disposed of, fighting off her beloved carer "like a wild animal", until there is skin under her nails, her throat filled with blood, lungs punctured, her head smashed violently. Looking away is an option, but Slimani gambles on you staying the distance.

Overt links between the novels are few, but it's tempting to think that Slimani's brutal contemporary tragedy toys with Camus' infamous opening words, with its suggestions that it is not a mother but modern motherhood  solitary, isolating, under-valued, career-rupturing, and now routinely outsourced  that has died today, or perhaps yesterday, who can be sure, exactly, when mothers choked?

Lullaby by Leila Slimani.

Lullaby was the most read book in France in 2016, is an international bestseller, and won France's prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt. The Goncourt Academy  conservative and prone to crowning male authors  stated it had overturned its tradition of "rewarding[ing] books of the past" to honour Chanson Douce (Lullaby in translation), because it "speaks of the present, of the everyday and of its problems, such as the question of delegating authority and love to a person outside the family. Many will recognise themselves in this book."

Really? There must have been a stampede on the Paris metro after that announcement, with parents  or is that just mothers?  bolting home early from their bureaux to check on their chers petits. And who could blame them, if so? A better response, however, might have been to pause, light another cigarette, and ponder what Slimani's focus really seems to be.

Before writing fiction, Slimani was a journalist specialising in the Arab Spring uprising. A mother of two, she was born and raised in Morocco  by a live-in nanny, and parents who worked  in an affluent, secular bourgeois family, and she has been courageously outspoken on the appalling conditions for Muslim women living under Islamic fundamentalism.On first acquaintance, the sharp suits, sharp shoes and sharp showbiz shots make the Orava Quartet seem less a traditional string quartet and more a typically manufactured "boy band".

Perhaps not 5 Seconds Of Summer but more the early, Brian Epstein-managed "mop top" Beatles who were photographed hamming it up on the cover of each new best-selling album.

Looking sharp: Orava Quartet have a carefully cultivated image.

At 28, Karol ("Kaz") Kowalik is the youngest of the ensemble, so he's usually singled out to leap, lunge or look lonely on their publicity shots.

But lest anyone should think the Orava Quartet is a triumph of style over substance, the four members  first violinist Daniel Kowalik, second violinist David Dalseno, violist Thomas Chawner and Kaz  have become the first string quartet to be recorded on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon Australia label.The stage show fillets the book with swift and free-wheeling flair. It does sacrifice cards from the full deck of humour and horror this natural raconteur has in hand, but retains the wildness and poignancy, the barrelling cross-cultural comedy and tragic ambit, of a coming-of-age story like no other.

Adapting Osamah Sami's prize-winning memoir Good Muslim Boy to the stage was always going to be a challenge. The Iraqi-Australian actor, comedian and writer is only 34, but his life contains enough dramatic incidents for an epic cycle of plays.

Osamah Sami and Rodney Afif in Good Muslim Boy. Credit:Tim Grey

Performed by three actors  Sami as himself, with Rodney Afif and Nicole Nabout playing all other characters  the play focuses on the hair-raising tale of how, on a bonding trip to Iran with his father, Sami's dad dies suddenly in their hotel room. Amid shock and grief, Sami embarks on a desperate quest to return his dad's body to Australia for burial.

It's a hell of a story, packed with colour and absurdity, as Sami navigates encounters with scammers and Samaritans, drug-dealing taxi drivers and cold-eyed bureaucrats, with the clock ticking down on his visa all the while.

The adventure unfolds in brief, rapid-fire scenes, girded by a warm portrayal of moments in the life of a refugee family.

There's the hilarity of Sami's mother shrieking with delight at an AFL match on telly, for instance, or the bafflement of a young Osamah getting the wrong side of the stick when the subtleties of the elaborate Persian courtesy known as taarof (ritual shows of humility where can "no" means "yes, if you ask again") come face to face with Aussie directness.Australia's shellfish reefs are the country's most threatened ocean ecosystem and are almost extinct.

A study led by The Nature Conservancy, the study found more than 90 per cent of shellfish reefs have disappeared off the nation's coastlines and those remaining are more endangered than the Great Barrier Reef.

A Tasmanian Blenny hides among native flat oysters in an artificial kelp forest off Tasmania. Credit:Cayne Layton

Study leader Dr Chris Gillies says globally, 85 per cent of shellfish reefs, made up of species such as mussels, have been lost or severely damaged, but in Australia, it is "even worse".

"Our study confirms (Australia has) less than one per cent of Flat Oyster and 10 per cent of Rock Oyster habitats remaining," Dr Gillies said.Surgeons perform a heart and lung transplant. Credit:Janie Barrett

One in four patients who stay overnight in an Australian hospital will have something go wrong, but a veil of secrecy hangs over which hospitals  and which doctors  have higher rates of complications and which are safety leaders.

The Grattan Institute has also found that a patients risk of developing a complication also varies dramatically depending on which hospital they go to. While researching our report All complications should count: Using data to make hospitals safer, we found that in some cases, the additional risk at the worst-performing hospitals can be four times higher than at the best performers.

Safety statistics are collected for both public and private hospitals but they are kept secret, not just from patients but also from doctors and hospitals, who should be able to access this information to see how they are performing compared to their peers  and to learn from those who do things best.

To make it easier for patients to know what to expect before they get to hospital - and what questions to ask their doctor - the Grattan Institute has developed an online calculator that enables patients and their families to discover how likely it is that complications will arise from a whole gamut of treatment.UNSW Canberra will launch the UNSW Defence Research Institute on Friday - a one-stop shop aimed at growing the university's competitiveness in the lucrative defence market.

Headquartered in Canberra, the office will serve as a contact point for the Australian Defence Force, Defence Industry and other relevant organisations to more easily access the work of academics in Sydney and the ACT.

UNSW Canberra will intensify its Defence research in line with growing demand. Credit:Phil Carrick

The University of New South Wales already conducts research in space, cyber security, systems engineering and logistics, and will intensify its work in line with increasing demand, UNSW Canberra rector Michael Frater said.

"It's really that there's been a big growth in the research at UNSW Canberra in the last few years, and things have got to a scale where having an institute sitting over the top of it makes sense," Professor Frater said.Australia Post strikes again. Richard Merrell of Penrith "mailed an eParcel from Penrith to Minchinbury, a distance of about 14 kilometres along the Great Western Highway. Tracking the parcel, it was processed through the Australia Post facility at Sunshine West in Victoria two days later, two days after that it was in Granville, finally delivered another 2 days later. 6 days to go 14 kilometres!"

While watching ice freeze and curling (C8) can be exciting, according to Richard Stewart of Pearl Beach watching ice thaw is even more so. He remembers his time "living in a town on Lake Huron on Canada, where a local service club would put an old car with a clock inside on the frozen lake and then sell tickets to guess the time it sank and stopped the clock. Lot of fun and given the elements dictated, odds were horrendous."

Barnaby who? According to Nola Ticker of Kiama the big scandal featuring on her local ABC at the moment "is the discrepancy in prize money for the potato race at Robertson Show. Men receive $1000 while women only win a miserable $200. The organisers should be ashamed."

More pearls of wisdom from the classroom (C8). Judy Archer of Hornsby was testing her Year 9 students on war vocabulary, and asked them to define paramilitary. "One student wrote: 'It is the army on wheelchairs'." John Boddington of Dalton "once received an assignment from a student who called Stephen Hawking a 'Professor of Theatrical Physics'. Rather taken by this, I emailed the great man and received this reply from his mathematical amanuensis: 'Gets a bit like that at times!'"

All the ferry talk (C8) brought back memories of the wooden-hulled ferries that carried passengers from Balmain to Erskine Street wharf in the city for Garth Clarke of North Sydney. "They all had names beginning with 'Pro' but only one of them is still afloat, the Proclaim, which is sometimes chartered for special events. Like most things from childhood it is smaller than I remember but no less treasured in my memory."An autistic ex-soldier who sexually abused two 13-year-old Illawarra girls he met through Facebook - and threatened to post intimate pictures of one of them online - will spend at least three years and three months behind bars.

Judge Andrew Haesler said Michael John Park, 24, had exploited the youth and naivety of his two victims with his "self-absorbed" behaviour.

Jailed: Michael Park.

Wollongong District Court heard the two encounters occurred three years apart - the first in 2012 when Park was 19 and the second in 2016 when he was 22.

In the first case, Park molested the girl at his home after she agreed to meet him in person.Former bikie boss Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi, once convicted of the Sydney Airport murder of Anthony Zervas before the charge was sensationally downgraded to manslaughter, has died in hospital after a targeted attack in Sydney's south.

Hawi was ambushed as he sat in a four-wheel-drive inside the Fitness First car park on West Botany Street, Rockdale, just after midday on Thursday.

Paramedics performed CPR on the underworld figure as he was being rushed to St George Hospital in a critical condition.

He later died in hospital.Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi.

In the outlaw bikie world, bigger almost always means better. Unless you were Mahmoud Mick Hawi.

At 178cm tall, Hawis frame was muscular without appearing dominating. There was more to the Beirut-born bikie than brawn.

And so it was that Hawi, whilst still aged just 22, and four years after joining the Comancheros as a teenager, took over running the fierce mob of One Percenters.Jailed former Billabong boss and fraudster Matthew Perrin has had a bid to appeal against his sentence in the High Court knocked back.

Perrin was last January sent to prison for eight years for forging a number of signatures, including those of ex-wife Nicole Bricknell and brother Fraser Perrin, in order to swindle $13.5 million from the Commonwealth Bank.

He appealed against both sentence and conviction in the Queensland Supreme Court and in September had six months shaved from his minimum time behind bars.

Former Billabong chief Matthew Perrin. Credit:Glen Hunt

The leave to appeal over convictions of three charges of fraud and six of forgery was dismissed.The baffling Coroner's finding into the garbage-chute death of Melbourne woman Phoebe Handsjuk has helped lead to a recommendation to make it easier for families to appeal questionable coronial decisions.

After an inquiry partly prompted by The Age's investigative podcast, "Phoebe's Fall", the Coronial Council of Victoria has proposed the legislation be changed to allow findings against the evidence or weight of evidence to be appealed.

Phoebe Handsjuk.

At the moment, aggrieved families can only challenge a decision on an error of law. Despite several cases where families felt aggrieved at a decision, there has been only one appeal of a coroners finding in Victoria since 2008.

Ms Handsjuk died in 2010 after falling down the garbage chute of the luxury high rise building where she shared an apartment with her society boyfriend, Anthony Hampel."There is no place for incidents like this at our school," Mr Anestis said. "It is disappointing and does not reflect the behaviour of the overwhelming majority of our students." He said the school immediately contacted emergency services, with police and ambulance officers attending. "Neither student was seriously injured, and one was taken to hospital as a precautionary measure and has since been released," Mr Anestis said.

Footage of the fight shows the girls in the schoolyard wrestling, punching and kicking each other. The video shows a crowd of students standing back watching the fight, some of whom are cheering. One girl then starts choking the other who falls to the ground apparently unconscious. Several students then run to her aid. A woman claiming to be the mother of the girl involved who was not taken to hospital said her daughter had been a victim of bullying and was defending herself.

"Its not quite as clear-cut as the video shows," she told 3AW radio host Neil Mitchell. "Theres a king punch to the back of the head thats not even on the video." The mother said her daughter had recently left another school to escape bullying, but it had continued at her new school. [My daughter is] very, very bruised and very sore, she said. Shes black and blue as well. As a parent Im disgusted, Im appalled. Im just horrified to actually watch. Im mortified."

The mother, who requested anonymity to protect her daughter's identity, later told The Age she'd been left "disturbed and horrified" by the incident, but praised the way it was handled by the school. "I'm a hundred per cent behind the school," she said. "They handled it in such a professional manner, they've been fantastic." The Age understands the video footage of the incident was circulating on social media after students uploaded it, but it has since been removed following disciplinary action by the school. Police said the girls and their parents had been spoken to and the investigation was ongoing. News of the incident comes on the same day the state government announced $8.9 million funding boost for public schools to combat an increase in violence and aggression on school grounds.

The ''protective schools package'' will see the establishment of a new operations centre and reporting system, as well as extra training for principals, teachers and support staff. The number of minor assaults or aggressive behaviour reported to the Department of Education rose from 1179 in 2016 to 1613 in 2017, although the number of serious incidents declined. Education Minister James Merlino said the spike was directly related to new reporting requirements and an increased focus on the issue. He said he hoped early intervention, rather than strict disciplinary action like expulsion, would put an end to violence in schools. "We have zero tolerance for violence and aggression in schools," he said. "But simply moving the child on doesn't fix the problem."A Perth teenager who stabbed his drunk step-father to death to stop the man from strangling his seven-year-old sister should not go to prison, his lawyer has told a court.

The 18-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was 17 when he killed his step-father inside their Girrawheen home in September 2016.

The teenager was due to be sentenced on Thursday but his case was adjourned. Credit:Heather McNeill

The teenager was due to be sentenced in the Supreme Court of Western Australia on Thursday after pleading guilty to manslaughter by means of excessive self-defence, however Justice Joseph McGrath said he needed more time to make his decision due to the unusual nature of the case.

The court heard the deceased man had a long history of being violent towards his family members, including his wife, two step-sons, aged 17 and 13, and daughter, aged seven.City Council

At a meeting of the City Council it was stated that a deficit of 22,650 was estimated for the current year, but the budget might be balanced if the government made a contribution to the revenue as compensation for rate exemptions. The council decided that the ban on the attendance of Press representatives at committee meetings, which had been in force for a year, should be removed.

Chemin-de-fer raid

Several charges were heard at the Central Police Court yesterday in relation to a police raid on Sunday night. "Heavy fines were imposed on three principals, and 17 persons who failed to appear had their bail estreated. The police stated that at the time of the raid a game known as chemin-de-fer was being played. Complaints, they said, had been received from relatives of women who had lost large sums of money."

Impressive DisplayBarnaby Joyce has survived a vote aimed at forcing him out as Deputy Prime Minister, as he fights claims he asked a friend for a rent-free townhouse when his marriage broke down.

Labor unsuccessfully tried to bring on a motion on Thursday calling on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to sack his deputy for breaching ministerial standards.

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It lost the vote 73-70.

The Nationals leader's relationship with his former staffer and now-pregnant partner Vikki Campion had raised concerns about the potential misuse of taxpayer funds, after she was shuffled around jobs in other senior MPs' offices.Malcolm Turnbull will take the extraordinary step of elevating Mathias Cormann to the role of acting Prime Minister after Barnaby Joyce announced he will take leave to deal with the fallout of his affair with former staffer Vikki Campion.

In a horror question time for the government, Labor has also raised new questions about Mr Joyce's relationship with Greg Maguire - a businessman friend who has allowed the Deputy Prime Minister to live in a flat rent free for six months - and in particular a $5000 payment from his department to Mr Maguire's business.

And in another embarrassment for the government, the Senate has voted 35 to 29 in favour of a motion calling on Mr Joyce to resign for "clearly breaching the standards required of ministers". No Liberals senators spoke in Mr Joyce's defence. The motion has no practical effect but adds to Mr Joyce's discomfort.

Mr Joyce agreed to take paid personal leave after a series of conversations with Mr Turnbull over recent days. It's understood Mr Turnbull was in favour of Mr Joyce taking leave, although the Nationals leader ultimately made the decision.

Mr Joyce's office said he has asked for personal leave because "he wanted to support his family and partner after such intense public focus on personal matters". The decision came after repeated assurances from Mr Turnbull throughout the week that Mr Joyce would act in his place when he travelled to the US next week.Queensland's politicians will knock off work at Parliament before dinner, with new "family-friendly" hours set to take effect.

The Palaszczuk government introduced the new sessional orders, arguing it was outdated to sit until 2am or 3am, and then start again the same day at 9.30am.

Queensland Parliament has introduced new family-friendly hours. Credit:Michelle Smith

Under the new arrangement, sittings will finish at 7.30pm on Tuesday and Wednesday and 6.30pm on Thursday, with committee meetings moved to Mondays.

Lunch breaks have been cut from 90 minutes to an hour."My parents worked hard to make sure we had food on the table, shelter over our head and a bed to sleep in. "I had access to good education but I pay tribute to the generations before me that did not have the same opportunity. If I got sick I knew I could access health care. "I wasn't raised to see the challenges my parents faced living in a remote community but rather I saw two people who worked hard to achieve a brighter future for their community." Ms Lui said she remembered the teachings of her grandmothers, mothers and sisters to stand with pride. "I watched my grandfathers, fathers and brothers work hard to make a living off the sea," she said.

"Growing up on an island, I learnt that it takes perseverance and hard work to get things done. "I was not just the child of my parents, I was the child of my community and Torres Strait - now I consider myself the woman of Cook." Ms Lui said she was fortunate to be raised during a time when there was no electricity, running tap water, phones or adequate transport. "I got to experience firsthand what hardship was all about - or was it?" she asked. "The transition to accessing adequate service made life easier and people adjusted very well to the change."

Her kindergarten was built from corrugated iron walls and roofing with no insultation, and her primary school was built of fibro walls, set on bare concrete floors. "As with every remote child, I left my home and family at the age of 11 to attend high school. I experienced major detachment from my family because suddenly I had to stand up on my own two feet," she said. Ms Lui said her community housing property's cupboards fell apart, there were holes in the floor and leaks in the ceiling. "The chipboard material used to build my house would now be deemed inadequate to withstand certain weather conditions," she said. "You see, Mr Speaker, we all come from different backgrounds and we all embrace our experiences in different ways.

"I have embraced my earlier experiences to give back to society - to help people, to help communities and most importantly to contribute to positive change in society through the fight to equity, fairness and social justice." Ms Lui said she shared her story because she wanted people to understand that people living in rural and remote communities often did not get a choice, and instead accept what they are given. "However, we as members of the Legislative Assembly do in the decisions we make," she said. Ms Lui held a traditional island mat under her arm as she began her speech, which she said was used for housing material, sleeping, conceiving, birthing, initiation, education, marriage, welcoming, meetings, transport, hunting, ceremonies, shelter and "to our final journey".

Cynthia Lui with her traditional mat. Credit:Darren England/AAP "This mat signifies life's journey from 'womb to tomb'," she said. "As I begin this new journey, I will embrace the significance of what this mat represents, as a place to sit down and create an open dialogue around various issues." Ms Lui also spoke other words in her Torres Strait Island language, including koeyma eso and au esoau - thank you. After her speech, sitting was temporarily suspended, as MPs from both sides of the house lined up for their chance to hug and congratulate Ms Lui.Derryn Hinch's Justice Party is expected to contest every upper house region and possibly some lower house electorates at Victorias November election as minor parties jostle for seats.

The federal senator's party has applied for registration in Victoria in preparation for the election, which is expected to see a high number of minor parties vying for upper house seats.

Senator Hinchs chief-of-staff, Glenn Druery, said he was optimistic the party could win one but was aiming for two upper house seats at the Victorian poll.

Derryn Hinch's Justice Party is one of a number of minor parties expected to contest the state election. Credit:Andrew Meares

The party won about 6 per cent of the Victorian Senate vote at the 2016 federal election.Victorias Water Minister has lined up alongside the states agricultural industries and against her federal Labor counterparts, arguing any change to the Murray-Darling Basin plan would destroy farming communities.

Labor under Bill Shorten has backed a Greens push in the Senate to alter the basin plan so that more water is returned to the environment, but Lisa Neville says Victorian farmers have no more water to give.

Minister for Water Lisa Neville and NSW Minister for Primary Industries Niall Blair. Credit:Mark Jesser

The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is a seven-year, $13 billion balancing act - a plan to return Australias largest river system to health while keeping enough water for the competing needs of agriculture and industry across four states.

But five years in, cross-border politics has put the plan in danger, with Victoria and NSW threatening to pull out while South Australia insists it is entitled to more environmental water.NEW YORK: British charity Oxfam, rocked by a sex scandal in Haiti, could be revoked from operating in the Caribbean island, a senior government official said.

The accusations also put the charity in danger of losing its 32 million pounds ($44 million) of British government funding per year.

Oxfam aid workers are accused of paying for sex, a crime in Haiti, leaving the charity at risk of losing its right to operate in the disaster-stricken country.

Haiti was devastated by an earthquake in 2010. Credit:Courtesy Oxfam

Aviol Fleurant, Haiti's minister of planning and external cooperation, said Oxfam officials had been summoned to meet with his ministry staff on Thursday to explain the sexual misconduct accusations allegedly perpetrated by the charity's employees in the wake of the devastating 2010 earthquake.A gunman, identified as a former student, opened fire at a Florida high school on Wednesday, killing 17 people and sending hundreds of students fleeing into the streets before he was arrested, authorities said.

The bloodshed at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland was the latest outbreak of gun violence that has become a regular occurrence at US schools and colleges.

A woman consoles another as parents wait for news regarding a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday. Credit:Joel Auerbach/AP

Below are some of the worst US school shootings in the past 20 years:

Benton, Kentucky, January 23, 2018Australia wants the 54-year-old extradited, after she fled to Israel amid accusations of abuse.

The Jerusalem District Court ruled on Wednesday that Malka Leifer remain in custody while the district psychiatrist determines whether she is fit to stand trial.

Jerusalem: An Israeli court has ordered a former Melbourne school principal accused of child sex abuse be placed under psychiatric evaluation until further notice.

"Now its a matter of wait and see,'' Yehuda Fried, Leifers lawyer, told Fairfax Media from Jerusalem.

The prosecution claims that her behaviour is psychotic and that its all an act.

"They hired private investigators and they took photos inside her house doing normal things like laundry and shopping but I am claiming that youre not always in a psychotic situation, that you can do laundry and other normal things even while being mentally ill,'' he added.

Leifer has avoided court over allegations linked to her time as head of Adass Israel School's girls' campus in Melbourne in the 2000s. She has been living in a West Bank settlement since 2008 after a complaint of child abuse was lodged by a former student who attended the ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Melbourne.

A Jerusalem district court in June 2016 declared her unfit to face an extradition trial on account of her psychiatric illness.Los Angeles: Billionaire Peter Thiel, one of the most powerful men in Silicon Valley and its most prominent conservative, plans to move his home and personal investment firm to Los Angeles because he's disaffected with what he sees as the left-leaning politics of the San Francisco Bay Area, a person familiar with his plans said Thursday.

Thiel, 50, was a co-founder of PayPal Inc. and an early investor in Facebook Inc. - where he still sits on the board - and he has helped finance several other tech startups.

Peter Thiel speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in 2016. Credit:AP

He's also a controversial figure in Silicon Valley because of his support of President Trump and other conservative causes.

He made a $US1.25-million donation to help elect Trump and spoke on Trump's behalf during the Republican National Convention in 2016. His support of the president drew heavy criticism from his tech-industry peers, in particular within Facebook's ranks.EUGENE, Ore.--Arcimoto Inc.  makers of the worlds first Fun Utility Vehicle (FUV)  an affordable, practical, and thrilling pure electric vehicle for everyday commuters and fleets, today announced a partnership with HULA Holdings to launch EV Oasis, a one-of-a-kind electric vehicle charging, education, and rental center in Southern California.

Expected to open in San Diego, California in the summer of 2018, EV Oasis aims to be the quintessential west coast sustainable transportation hub. Planned amenities include 10 DC fast chargers and 24 Level 2 AC connections, educational kiosks, a local organic coffee shop, and an electric vehicle rental center featuring the Arcimoto FUV. HULA Holdings has placed a deposit for 100 all-electric Arcimoto FUVs as part of their rental operation.

As a former San Diego County Planning Commissioner, I can attest that the San Diego region faces enormous challenges with issues like lowering transportation emissions, reducing congestion, and addressing the high cost of transportation and the scarcity of parking solutions in our coastal regions, said HULA Holdings Co-Founder Peder Norby. The Arcimoto FUV is the best Tool in the Toolbox to address these issues with 1/10th the emissions, 1/3rd the parking space, 1/3rd the cost and 10x the fun of an average car.

Finding the right type of vehicle to meet our business objectives was kind of like the story of Goldilocks and The Three Bears, added HULA Holdings Founder and CEO Angus Clark. Every vehicle we evaluated was either too big or too small, too expensive or too cheap (read unsafe), too slow or too short-ranged, too complicated or too unrefined. In the Arcimoto FUV, we believe we have found the perfect blend of just right.

In addition to the rental operation at EV Oasis, HULA Holdings intends to leverage existing and new partnerships to use the Arcimoto FUV fleet in rideshare, delivery, last mile, and hospitality applications throughout the San Diego region.

In this time of fundamental transportation disruption, we are excited to help define the future of the gas station in partnership with HULA Holdings, said Arcimoto President and Founder Mark Frohnmayer. We believe EV Oasis will be a fantastic way for San Diego drivers to see and experience the Fun Utility Vehicle, and we look forward to delivering the first FUV units to this fleet later this year.

About HULA Holdings:

HULA Holdings owns and operates DC Fast-Charging stations in Southern California, located at leading hotel properties from Santa Barbara to San Diego. Since 2011, HULA Holdings charging stations have provided electric vehicle owners safe, convenient and affordable energy while providing ample amenities at their host site locations. HULA is an acronym for High Utilization Local Access and will also be testing autonomous mobility vehicles in the near future. HULA Holdings not-for-profit subsidiary, Corridor Power, is building the countrys first full-service, multi-protocol, Electric Mobility Center in San Diego (Encinitas) California with support from the California Energy Commission and the Center for Sustainable Energy. For more information please visit www.ihulacar.com.

About Arcimoto:

Headquartered and manufactured in Eugene, Oregon, Arcimoto, Inc. is devising new technologies and patterns of mobility that together raise the bar for environmental efficiency, footprint and affordability. Available for pre-order today with a target purchase price of $11,900, Arcimotos FUV defines the Fun Utility Vehicle category: its one of the lightest, most affordable and performance-packed electric vehicles suitable for the daily driver. For more information please visit www.arcimoto.com.AUTO LAB TALK RADIO LIVE FROM NYC SATURDAY MORNING! 7-9 AM FEBRUARY 17, 2018







Auto Lab Talk Radio

The Auto Lab Radio Show Every Saturday 7 to 9 AM On New York City's WNYM Radio AM 970 and Streamed Worldwide On The Auto Channel

This Weeks Show Broadcast Date: February 17, 2018;

Car Question or Concern? Call Toll Free 888-692-7234

Auto Lab is a 28 year old interactive automotive-focused New York area radio call-in show hosted by Professor Harold Wolchok. Each week a cadre of experienced hands-on automotive experts are in-studio with advice for the New York area's 12 million people, providing listeners with honest, practical and street-smart car repair and buying advice.

Auto Lab is also about the automotive industry, its history, and its culture, presenting the ideas and advice of leading college faculty, authors, and automotive practitioners in a relaxed, conversational interactive format.

Listeners can hear the past 18 years of archived Auto Lab shows as simulcast on www.theautochannel.com.

Listen - Auto Lab Page (Includes Audio-on-Demand Archives, Auto Programs at Community College Database, Guests Pictures

This Weeks Show: February 17, 2018

IN STUDIO: Auto Lab's Real World Experts Answer Your Questions; Discuss: Repairs, Second Opinions, Regular Maintenance, How To's, Safety, Used and New Car Buying, Ombudsmen Suggestions

Harold Bendell - Major Auto

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Jerry Pastore-D & J Diagnostic

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Joanne Porcelli, Esq

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Auto Lab Correspondents Remote Interviews: Featuring Auto Safety News, New Car Reviews, Technology and Latest Auto World Information That Will Effect You!

Broadcast Date: February 17, 2018;

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WORLD'S MOST ADVANCED LONDON TAXI

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DRIVER REACTIONS TO AUTOMATED DRIVING FEATURES

Robert Sinclair- AAA NORTHEAST

POT HOLES IMPACT ON TIRESI always have this nightmare when a show is coming up, says fashion designer Carolina Herrera, who presented her final collection for her 37-year-old house on Monday, February 12. We go to the show and everybodys there. Its full of people, and suddenly I realize we are not ready. And I have to come out and stand in front of everyone and say, Can you please come back tomorrow? But on Sunday night at the MoMA, one of Mrs. Herreras favorite museums, she was most definitely prepared, down to the last hemline.

The newly appointed creative director, Wes Gordon, at the fitting for the Carolina Herrera fall 2018 show in New York. Photo: Biel Parklee.

The show came just days after the house announced that Mrs. Herrera would be leaving her role as creative director of the brand she founded in 1981, and ceding the reins to designer Wes Gordon, who has quietly been working at her side for the past 11 months. Mrs. Herrera, meanwhile, will take on the role of global brand ambassador, which means shell be promoting the CH brand and fragrance all over the world.

Scenes from the fitting at the Carolina Herrera headquarters in New York for the Fall 2018 show. Photo: Biel Parklee. Photo: Alex Hodor-Lee. Produced by Biel Parklee. Photos by Alex Hodor-Lee. Produced by Biel Parklee.

The Venezuela-born, New York-based Mrs. Herrera has long been viewed as the grande dame of American fashion, putting forth a vision of impeccable elegance that was very much in evidence in her final foray. This collection celebrates opulence, glamour, and beauty. It embraces bold colors, rich fabrics, and feminine silhouettes, Mrs. Herrera tells the Cut exclusively.

Details of the looks for Carolina Herrera fall 2018. Photo: Biel Parklee. Photo: Alex Hodor-Lee. Produced by Biel Parklee. Photos by Alex Hodor-Lee. Produced by Biel Parklee.

It began with models in sweeping skirts and pants alongside takes on the white blouse, Mrs. Herreras signature. Soon, it evolved into a parade of dresses printed with big cats on the prowl, multi-hued tulle gowns, and a snow-leopard print mink coat  all the picture of ladylike sophistication. For the finale, models walked out in matching crisp white blouses paired with belted skirts of myriad colors, before Mrs. Herrera emerged, to thunderous applause and a standing ovation, for her final bow.

The show finale at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo: Lucas Jackson.

It was an emotionally charged moment, with the white coatwearing members of Mrs. Herreras in-house atelier beaming by her side, and it only got sweeter as the designer welcomed Gordon, who presented her with a bouquet of roses, to the runway.

From Left: Models Lucia Lopez and Cara Taylor backstage at the Carolina Herrera fall 2018 show. Photo: Biel Parklee. Photo: Alex Hodor-Lee. Produced by Biel Parklee. Photos by Alex Hodor-Lee. Produced by Biel Parklee.

Mrs. Herrera explains, This collection is also inspired by the house traditions of craftsmanship, which is why it was so important for me to include my atelier when I took my bow. And Gordon? I trust him, Mrs. Herrera says. Wes is the right person to continue my work.

Model Lex Herl during the rehearsal for the show. Photo: Biel Parklee.

Of her own new chapter, I chose my new title, Mrs. Herrera affirms. It felt like the right time. By doing six collections a year [a single collection takes up to six months to complete], I didnt have time to focus on anything but fashion. This will allow me to spend more time at home with my husband, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, while supporting the brand on a global scale.

Scenes from First Looks. Photo: Biel Parklee. Photo: Alex Hodor-Lee. Produced by Biel Parklee. Photo by Alex Hodor-Lee. Produced by Biel Parklee.

The decision doesnt come without a bit of nostalgia, however. As Mrs. Herrera looks back on her storied career, which began after she moved to New York in 1980, she says that One of my proudest moments was the finale of my first show. It was so glamorous, fashionable, and wonderful. However, I am most proud when I see a woman looking sensational and feeling her best in Carolina Herrera. Heres to the designers next act.Nikolas Cruz.

On Wednesday, at least 17 people were killed during a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, was arrested at the scene, and, on Thursday morning, he was booked into Broward County Main Jail. Cruz currently faces 17 counts of premeditated murder, and is expected to make his first court appearance sometime on Thursday (though the Miami Herald notes he will be denied bond). Here, everything we know about Cruz so far.

Cruz is a former student who had been expelled from the school.

According to Sheriff Scott Israel of Broward County, Cruz is a former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. He had previously been expelled for undisclosed disciplinary reasons. One student told the Herald that Cruz had at least partially been kicked out for bringing bullets in his backpack onto the school premises. Cruz was attending another school in Broward County after his expulsion.

He had allegedly been abusive to an ex-girlfriend.

Victoria Olvera, a student at the school, told USA Today that Cruz had ultimately been expelled after a fight with his ex-girlfriends new boyfriend. She also said that Cruz had been abusive to his girlfriend.

He had been identified last year as a potential threat to his classmates.

We were told last year that he wasnt allowed on campus with a backpack on him, Cruzs former math teacher Jim Gard told the Herald. Gard, who was locked in his classroom during the shooting, added, There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus. However, superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters, We received no warnings. Potentially there could have been signs out there. But we didnt have any warning or phone calls or threats that were made.

Cruz was reportedly obsessed with a female student at the school.

Jim Gard also told the New York Times that several students had alerted him to the fact that Cruz was allegedly obsessed with a female student at the school to the point of stalking her.

He reportedly had ties with a white supremacist group.

The day after the shooting, a leader of the Florida white nationalist group Republic of Florida claimed Cruz had ties to his organization. Jordan Jereb told the Associated Press that Cruz acted on his own behalf of what he just did. He also said Cruz was a member of the group and had participated in paramilitary drills.

Cruz posted images of guns on social media and allegedly wrote threatening comments about wanting to shoot people.

Sheriff Israel has called Cruzs digital profile very, very disturbing, as it contained a number of gun and violence-related posts, according to CNN. Such posts left under the name Nikolas Cruz on YouTube pages and other websites include, I whana shoot people with my AR-14 [sic], I am going to kill law enforcement one day they go after the good people, and I wanna die Fighting killing shit ton of people. He also posted pictures on Instagram of himself holding what appears to be a BB gun, as well as an image of a shotgun and others in which he was covering his face and holding long knives.

Cruz reportedly posted pictures of himself in a Make America Great Again hat, and also wore it to school.

A current and former student told the Daily Beast that Cruz wore a Make America Great Again hat at school. He always wore like really patriotic shirts that seemed really extreme, like hating on the Islamic religion. For example, he would say things such as like, he would degrade Islamic people as terrorists and bombers. Ive seen him wear a Trump hat, one student said. Additionally, Cruz wore the hat in an Instagram photo the company said belonged to him, though his face was covered by a red, white, and blue bandana.

The leader of the white supremacist group says Cruz may have committed the shooting out of hatred of Jewish people or women.

Speaking with the Daily Beast, Republic of Florida member Jordan Jereb said, Theres a very real sense of feminism being a cancer. That couldve played into what he did, but we have female members of RoF. Jereb added, Were not a big fan of Jews. I think there were a lot of Jews at the school that might have been messing with him.

He purchased the rifle used in the attack legally.

The AR-15 rifle that Cruz allegedly used in the attack was purchased legally. No laws were violated in the procurement of this weapon, Peter J. Forcelli of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told the New York Times.

Cruz had been living with the family of a student at the school since his adoptive mom passed away in November.

Cruzs adoptive mother, Lynda Cruz, died in November from the flu and pneumonia, her cousin Kathie Blaine told CNN. His adoptive father died more than ten years ago from a heart attack. Cruz had been living with a friends family since his mothers death, according to an attorney who represents the family. They offered him a home and tried to help the kid out because he really didnt have any other place to stay, attorney Jim Lewis told WPTV. The familys son is a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

This post has been updated.

17 Dead in Florida School ShootingFor his third show for Calvin Klein, Raf Simons created a snowy landscape dotted with big, friendly barns. Except the barns were only fronts, like a Western movie set, and the snow was popcorn, trucked in from Chicago and spread on the floor of the American Stock Exchange. Lots of designers love the movies  Ralph Lauren, for one  but Simons loves how movies work and he uses their narrative and structural devices to tell a meatier story about American fashion.

This was Simonss most impressive collection since he left Europe 18 months ago and became chief creative officer of Calvin Klein. While his first two shows were equally thought-provoking, this one felt more complete and wearable. In terms of newness and imaginative scale, it dwarfs every other brand this week  not that that takes much at the moment. Some friends and colleagues of Simons have suggested to him that he should escape the cheap circus of NYFW and show instead in Europe. But, aside from being inspired by his new home, Simons knows he has the American culture to draw upon. For him and his design team, led by long-time collaborator Pieter Mulier, its as irresistible as new snow. And it gives him a scope that other big-name designers simply do not have or anyway havent seized.

It is also true that success creates success. After the show, as celebrity guests like Nicole Kidman and Laura Dern were trodding through the crumbling corn and posing for selfies, I saw Emanuel Chirico, the chairman and chief executive officer of PVH, which owns Calvin Klein. He described what Simons has done with the brand as transformative, and added that he has been gratified to discover that Simons is as practical in his business sense as he is creative, recalling a recent trip they made to Macys to discuss retail space.

Still, said Chirico, Lets face it, if business were tougher, wed have to be more thoughtful and maybe say no more times to his requests. But its been very positive from that perspective. Chirico said growth has been strong in all divisions of Calvin Klein: Look, I think American fashion is crying out for more creativity and he just brings it to the table.

If last season Simons was conjuring a tale of American horror, with Warhol car-crash images and rubbery materials that evoked body bags, the mood this time was more pastoral. The shift didnt feel as abrupt or calculated as it sounds. For one thing, Simons expanded on elements from the spring collection, including quilts (now as long, slender dresses in muted log-cabin patterns and generous stoles with Mylar backing), and styles loosely based on civic or industrial uniforms, like firefighters orange jumpsuits, Mylar coats and capes, and stiff jackets with reflective taping. Those pieces, Simons told me later, were very much a nod to the heroic efforts recently of Southern California firefighters. Yet surely they were also an acknowledgment of the routine way that tragic events enter our lives through news images.

I was glad that Simons dispensed with photo images on his clothing, as well as overt art references. He has done both for a while, and he had some images in his fall Raf Simons mens collection, but the idea has run its course. And while some guests I spoke to saw in the models strange-but-cute knitted hoods, striped sweaters, and utility gloves a clear reference to the dystopian Todd Haynes movie, Safe, I had the sense that Simons was thinking more generally about the composition of movies  the chopped-up scenes, the blunt use of fakery  as well as how they haunt us.

But what I loved most was that he showed a unique combination of silhouettes and textures. Planted in the corn were masculine coats  at once Calvin and Raf in their minimalist heft  over long, flounced dresses in pale neutral hues that evoked something rural and hippie; a festival or maybe a farm. There were also semi-sheer dresses layered over more fitted plaid styles; the effect was rather like a female figure seen through a window curtain (or, if your thoughts run darker, a shower curtain). And Simons included a pair of sweaters based on Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner  because he often feels, he says, that hes charging after stuff only to have it blow up in his face. Well, not lately.

CALVIN KLEIN 205W39NYC Fall 2018 Photo: Imaxtree

There is definitely a craving at the New York shows to capture a wider range of reality and identity. The four designers of the up-and-coming label Vaquera  David Moses, Claire Sully, Bryn Taubensee, and Patric DiCaprio  gave successful chase to that idea yesterday in a manic show at the Ukrainian National Home on Second Avenue. Gambling was the nominal theme as the designers tweaked notions of dressiness, sin, and money. Models in choppy-looking floral dresses or a flaring teal coat over a matching dress with a roulette diagram flew down the runway like addicts trying to catch the last bus for Atlantic City. Among the sharpest looks was a white cotton christening dress with ties, pieces kissed with lurid bows, and polo-shirt dresses with the faces of fashion gods like Vivienne Westwood and Miguel Adrover planted like brooches above the heart  a nice bit of appropriation with feeling.

Vaquera Fall 2018 Photo: Imaxtree

Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim also had a terrific collection for Monse. They skipped a show in favor of a short film (on YouTube and their Instagram), and that directness was plain in their clothes as well. Among the best looks were a coat artfully layered in poplin and menswear check, a sculptural black cocktail dress in silk, and deconstructed knits that were simply done but deliver a big punch.Lizette Cuesta. Photo: Courtesy of Facebook/lizette.cuesta

In the early hours of Monday morning, 19-year-old Lizette Cuesta was stabbed and left on the side of the road in Northern California. After passing motorists stopped to help her, she was airlifted to a hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries  but not before helping police identify the suspected killers.

Per the Los Angeles Times, 19-year-old Daniel Gross and 25-year-old Melissa Leonardo have been arrested and each charged with a count of murder. The two of them worked at a local Carls Jr. with the victim; in a jailhouse interview, Gross told KTVU that he was in a sexual relationship with both women, which both were aware of and neither objected to. He also claims that the night of Cuestas attack, they had sex with each other in the back of Leonardos car while Leonardo was driving.

Daniel Gross and Melissa Leonardo.

Gross also said that he snapped that night and that Leonardo was not involved with the incident beyond driving.

This victim really, really tried to survive. She fought, Alameda County Sheriffs Sergeant Ray Kelly told the L.A. Times. The last thing we believe she was able to do was point us in the direction of the people that killed her, and thats pretty remarkable.Nicolas de Jesus Cruz was placed in handcuffs by police is loaded into a paramedic vehicle after a shooting incident at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Feb. 14, 2018 in a still image from video. (WSVN.com via Reuters)

17 Fatalities at Florida High School After Ex-student Opens Fire

PARKLAND, FloridaA former student at a Florida high school opened fire in the school on Wednesday, causing numerous fatalities and sending hundreds of panicked young people fleeing their classrooms before he was arrested by police, authorities said.

The Broward County Sheriffs Department said at least 14 victims from the shooting had been taken to area hospitals, but it is not immediately clear how many of those will survive. Two of those in hospital have been reported to have died from their injuries.

Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters a short time later there were multiple deaths.

The Sheriff later told Fox 10 that 17 have been confirmed dead  3 died outdoors, 12 died inside a school building, and 2 died in hospital  with others still remaining in surgery.

The violence erupted shortly before dismissal at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, about 45 miles north of Miami. Live television footage showed students streaming out of the building as dozens of police and emergency services personnel swarmed the area.

There are numerous fatalities. Its a horrific situation, Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters.

The suspected gunman Nicolas de Jesus Cruz, a 19-year-old former student who was expelled for disiplinary reasons, has surrendered to police without a struggle, Israel said.

Its catastrophic, he said. There really are no words.

Nicolas de Jesus Cruz, a 19-year-old former student at Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, identified as suspected shooter. He was previously reported as a threat to the school, according to the @MiamiHerald https://t.co/l7jJXBZlt5 #breaking pic.twitter.com/xmmA0RQOCx  Heavy.com (@HeavySan) February 14, 2018

The Sheriff told Fox that Cruz had multiple magazines with him and was shooting with what police believe was an AR-15 rifle. It remains unclear if Cruz had a second rifle on him.

Israel offered few details on Cruzs motive other than to say he had previously attended the school. I dont know when he left, the sheriff added.

It was the 18th shooting in a U.S. school so far this year, according to gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety. That tally includes suicides and incidents when no one was injured, as well as the January incident when a 15-year-old gunman killed two students at a Benton, Kentucky, high school.

More than five years have passed since a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, stirring the long U.S. debate about gun rights, which are protected by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Scenes Of Fear

Staff and students told local media that a fire alarm went off around the time the shooting started, sparking chaos as some 3,000 students at the school first headed into hallways before teachers herded them back into classrooms, to seek shelter in closets.

Kyle Yeoward, a 16-year-old junior, told Reuters he was in the bathroom on the second floor of the building on the campus where most of the shooting took place, when he heard two shots.

He let loose on the freshman building, Yeoward said

McKenzie Hartley, 19, who identified herself as the sister of a student at the school described the scene in a text message to Reuters: She heard him shooting through the windows of classrooms and two students were shot.

Panicked parents checked on their children.

It is just absolutely horrifying. I cant believe this is happening, Lissette Rozenblat, whose daughter goes to the school, told CNN. Her daughter called her to say she was safe but the student also told her mother she heard the cries of a person who was shot.

She was very nervous. She said that she could hear the person who was shot crying out for help, she said.

Televised images showed dozens of students, their arms in the air, weaving their way between law enforcement officers with heavy weapons and helmets, and large numbers of emergency vehicles including police cars, ambulances and fire trucks.

The school had recently held a meeting to discuss what to do in such an attack, Ryan Gott, a 15-year-old freshman told CNN.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018

By Bernie Woodall

Additional reporting by Melanie Sun

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The Origins of AntifaL: The logo on the front of an Oxfam bookshop in Glasgow on Feb. 10, 2018. (ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP/Getty Images); R: Actress Minnie Driver in Los Angeles on Dec. 9, 2017. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

After Oxfam Haiti Sexual Misconduct Scandal, Actress Minnie Driver Withdraws Support for the Charity

British actress Minnie Driver has left her role as a celebrity ambassador for Oxfam, after a leaked internal report sunk the charity in a sexual misconduct scandal.

All I can tell you about this awful revelation about Oxfam is that I am devastated, Driver tweeted on Tuesday, Feb. 13. Devastated for the women who were used by people sent there to help them, devastated by the response of an organization that I have been raising awareness for since I was 9 years old.

All I can tell you about this awful revelation about Oxfam is that I am devastated.Devastated for the women who were used by people sent there to help them, devastated by the response of an organization that I have been raising awareness for since I was 9 years old #oxfamscandal  Minnie Driver (@driverminnie) February 13, 2018

In a statement to the Telegraph, the actress said: I am nothing short of horrified by the allegations against Oxfam International.

In 2011, Oxfam said its country director in Haiti, Roland Van Hauwermeiren, resigned because an internal investigation was launched into the misconduct of a small number of its workers in Haiti and he felt he should take managerial responsibility, the Independent reported at the time.

But The Times recently reported that it obtained an internal confidential 2011 report on the misconduct that alleged some staffers, including Hauwermeiren and another two in management, were hiring prostitutes in the country devastated by a 2010 earthquake. They acted with a culture of impunity the report stated.

The paper talked to several Oxfam insiders who said some senior staffers were holding parties at Oxfam-rented guest house with as many as five prostitutes at a time. Three sources were concerned that some of the girls were only 14-16 years old.

Oxfam told the paper the allegations of underaged prostitutes were not proven.

But the sources said the internal investigation was watered down to only uncover enough to sack the people implicated.

In addition, Hauwermeiren, 68, admitted to having prostitutes brought to a villa in Haiti rented for him by Oxfam, the internal report stated.

In the end, Hauwermeiren and the two staffers from management were allowed to resign. Four others were fired. Even though prostitution is illegal in Haiti, none of their conduct was reported to Haitian authorities because Oxfam assumed no action would be taken anyway in the decimated country.

The charity withheld specifics of the allegations from public to avoid scrutiny, based on what its chief executive, Mark Goldring, told BBC.

I dont think it was in anyones best interest to be describing the details of the behaviour in a way that was actually going to draw extreme attention to it when what we wanted to do was get on and deliver an aid programme, he said.

Oxfam didnt give the specifics of what happened even to the UK government, UKs international development secretary Penny Mordaunt said, according to The Guardian. Mordaunt threatened to cut government funding to Oxfam  a total of almost $45 million last year.

Similar allegations were raised against Oxfam staffers in Chad, The Guardian reported. Moreover, 87 Oxfam workers have been accused of sexual misconduct just last year, the paper reported. Oxfam employs over 5,000 people around the world.

Oxfam said it now had a dedicated safeguarding team, a confidential whistleblowing hotline, and safeguarding contact point within countries, but Mordaunt said that doesnt matter if the moral leadership at the top of the organisation isnt there.

Mordaunts predecessor Priti Patel told BBC the issue goes beyond the Oxfam scandal as there is a culture of denial in the aid sector about the exploitation and sexual abuse that has taken place historically for decades.

Oxfam deputy chief executive, Penny Lawrence, resigned over the scandal, but Patel called for Goldrings resignation too in a talkRADIO interview.

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Surveillance Footage Shows Robber Attack Virginia Store EmployeeAustralian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce speaks in the House of Representatives on Feb. 1, 2016 in Canberra, Australia. (Stefan Postles/Getty Images)

Australias Deputy Prime Minister Wont Step In To Lead As Turnbull Travels to Meet Trump

Australian Prime Minister (PM) Malcolm Turnbull announced in Parliament today that Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce will be taking leave and will not fill his post as acting PM next week.

Instead, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann will take on the role when Turnbull travels to the United States to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington D.C, reported ABC News.

Deputy Liberal leader and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who would have been next in line to be acting PM, will also be overseas next week.

The Deputy PM was set to stand as acting PM during Turnbulls absence next week  as per the usual convention. But he is now facing immense pressure in relation to news of his affair with former staff member Vikki Campion, who is currently pregnant with their baby.

Joyces appointment as acting PM has been a subject of concern in Parliament after questions surrounding whether Joyce had followed the code of ministerial conduct were raised in regards to Campions employment.

Australias opposition Labor Party questioned the PM on whether the decision for Joyce to take a break meant that Joyce was unable to do his job, reported ABC.

Are we simply meant to believe it is all a big coincidence? Labor leader Bill Shorten asked.

Joyces Scandal

Joyce found himself in hot water after news of his affair with Campion came to light earlier this month.

Joyce broke his silence on the affair on Feb. 12, apologising to his estranged wife Natalie and four daughters, while confirming his relationship with his pregnant partner.

The deputy prime minister also apologised to his electorate following negative publicity over his actions.

Joyce has vehemently denied that he breached any ministerial code of conduct regarding Campions employment.

I am very aware of the ministerial code of conduct. It is without a shadow of a doubt that Vikki Campion is my partner now. But when she worked in my office, she was not my partner. When she worked in Matt Canavans office, she was not my partner. And Damian Drum was not a minister, he said during his statement.

The ministerial code of conduct states that close relatives and partners are not to be appointed to positions in their ministerial or electorate offices, and must not be employed in the offices of other members of the Executive Government without the Prime Ministers express approval.

From NTD.tv

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersUS President Barack Obama pretends to take a selfie as he looks at his by artist Kehinde Wiley after its unveiling at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, February 12, 2018. (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Barack Obamas Portrait May Have Been Made in China: Report

A recently-revealed portrait of President Barack Obama may have been made in China, according to a new report.

Artist Kehinde Wiley was commissioned to paint the portrait of Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama.

Wileys portrait shows the former president sitting on a chair in front of a wall of greenery and flowers.

But sources told the New York Post that Wiley has multiple studios in China and does the bulk of his work there.

Its his base of operation, art critic Charlie Finch, who was a student with Wiley at Yale University, told the outlet. He has dozens of assistants working for him.

Finch indicated that Wiley normally sketches out the most important parts of a work and has his assistants fill out the rest.

Wiley may have completed the important parts while Obama was sitting for him, but the portrait may have then been sent to China for the assistants to finish, according to the Post.

Wiley didnt respond to a request for comment from the outlet.

On his website, Wiley said that a set of paintings called World Stage China came as a result of an invitation for him to start a studio in Beijing. One of the paintings featured on his website shows an African American smiling while reading a book by Chinese communist dictator Mao Zedong.

Wiley has also gained notoriety for painting controversial images of black women decapitating white people.

New York Magazine reported that Wileys first studio in China was opened in 2006.

The magazine conducted an on-site interview with the artist and noted that the subject of his assistants made him uncomfortable. Im sensitive to it, he said.

The assistants were all sent away before the reporter and photographer arrived at the Beijing studio. He acknowledged freely that he has assistants. I dont want you to know every aspect of where my hand starts and ends, or how many layers go underneath the skin, or how I got that glow to happen, he said. Its the secret sauce! Get out of my kitchen!

From NTD.tv

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Timelapse Video Captures Ocean of Clouds Over Vancouver, British ColumbiaAn employee walks past company branding at the Cadbury's Bournville production plant on Dec. 15, 2009 in Birmingham, England. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Cadbury Issues a Food Recall on Caramilk Chocolate Blocks in Australia

Cadbury Dairy Milk has issued a food recall today on a popular limited edition Caramilk chocolate block in Australia.

The white chocolate and caramel block was first introduced in Australia in the 1990s only to be discontinued four years later, reported news.com.au.

It recently reappeared in Australian supermarkets after a popular resurrection in New Zealand where it completely sold out within three weeks.

The chocolate company today issued a statement recalling the 190g chocolate block that has been available for sale in Australia only with best before dates of 17/01/2019 and 21/01/2019.

The reason for the recall is due to small pieces of plastic being found in the blocks.

A limited number of Cadbury Caramilk products have been found to contain small, flexible pieces of food grade plastic as a result of a machinery fault during the manufacturing process, the statement read.

Cadbury Caramilk products containing plastic may cause minor injury if consumed. Our analysis of the samples received to date has determined that this product does not appear to pose a serious health or food safety risk, but a recall has been initiated to prevent the risk of minor injury.

Consumers should not consume the affected product and return it to the place of purchase for a full refund  no proof of purchase required.

Caramilk chocolate bars have proven to be a massive hit in Australia as well with chocoholics clearing out shelves at Woolworth and Coles over the past week, reported the news website.

From NTD.tv

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Boiling water turns to snowCanadian Airlines Rules on Comfort Animals Range From Dogs to Miniature Horses

Miniature horses, monkeys, and pigs can legally fly as emotional support animals on at least one Canadian airline, but an advocate for travellers says the vast majority of jet-setting comfort animals are far less exotic and are a truly necessary accommodation for people with disabilities.

Unusual animal encounters at the airport have been making headlines in recent weeks.

United Airlines turned away a passenger who tried to board a flight with an emotional support peacock last month, and a Florida woman claimed last week that an airline employee told her to flush her dwarf hamster down a toilet after refusing to let the pet on the plane.

Passenger rights activist Gabor Lukacs, who has waged numerous legal battles against Canadian airlines, said the attention paid to these sensational cases undermines the rights of people with disabilities who need emotional support animals to fly comfortably.

We need to move away the focus from the animal to the fellow passenger, said Lukacs.

The animal is not there as a kind of luxurythey are simply there to make sure that a person with a disability is able to enjoy the same way to travel as people who dont have disabilities.

Air Canada and WestJet both have policies on their websites regarding emotional support animals and require that a passenger provide documentation from a licensed mental health professional certifying the need for the animal.

Air Canada only allows emotional support dogs on their flights.

WestJet accepts a much broader range of emotional support animals including cats, miniature horses, pigs, and monkeys, and said decisions about other unusual animals are made on a case-by-case basis, except for those that pose health risks such as rodents and reptiles.

Lukacs said Canadian airlines are obliged to accommodate emotional support animals for people with disabilities and failure to do so would amount to a form of discrimination.

He said the only exception would be if the animal poses a substantial risk of harming other passengers, but insisted that overwhelmingly, pets on planes cause little disruption.

While some have expressed suspicions about pet owners seeking fake documentation for emotional support animals, Lukacs said trying to fly with an animal under false pretenses would amount to fraud.

He added that as a matter of equity  we dont consider that people should be paying extra just because they have a disability, he said. They have the right to the flight and enjoy travel the same way as anybody else.

From The Canadian PressLu Wei, China's former head of the Cyberspace Affairs Administration, speaks at the opening ceremony of the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, in eastern China's Zhejiang Province on November 19, 2014. (Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images)

Chinese Regime Condemns Fallen Internet Czar, Hinting at Greater Crimes

In the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) latest sacking of a top official accused of serious corruption, the wording of the admonishments was so severe that the Party called it rare and unusual.

After the CCP s anti-corruption watchdog agency announced on Feb. 13 that the head of the Cyberspace Affairs Administration, Lu Wei, has been stripped of his post and his Party membership, an online publication affiliated with Peoples Daily, the CCPs mouthpiece newspaper, called the agencys descriptions of his crimes most ruthless and unusually severe, clearly showing that his problems are serious.

From 2013 to 2016, Lu was the internet czar who oversaw strict surveillance and censorship of the Chinese internet. He was also known for maintaining a high profile, unusual for Chinese bureaucrats. For example, he established the annual World Internet Conference in China, an attempt at grandstanding in front of tech executives despite Chinas reputation for having one of the most restrictive internet environments.

The agency, known as the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), called out Lu for a plethora of misdeeds, including outwardly agreeing with, but secretly opposing authority, anonymously framing people, forming cliques and factions, nasty behavior, having inflated sense of ambition, and using any means possible to boost himself.

The relentless criticism suggests Lu had committed something very wrong in the eyes of the Party leadership.

Though the CCDI did not elaborate, there are some clues as to what misdeeds Lu may have been ensnared for. China affairs analyst Chen Simin offered some analysis culled from past news reports and accounts that have surfaced online.

One incident that may have gotten Lu into trouble: In March 2016, during the highly sensitive time of the lianghui annual political meetings in Beijing, a news website affiliated with the Xinjiang authorities called Watching Media published an open letter calling for CCP leader Xi Jinping to step down. The website was soon shut down. Local authorities launched an investigation, with dozens of staff questioned or detained.

But the seditious letters appearance was dangerous enough. Chen predicts that since Lu was the official responsible for patrolling the web, he may be getting punished for the offense. Some observers have suggested that Lu may have orchestrated the incident himself.

The CCDIs harsh words may also serve as a warning for those officials involved with the incident who havent been punished yet. Those listeners may also share some responsibility, Chen wrote.

As for the accusations of forming cliques and factionshinting at the possibility that Lu aligned with an opposition factionChen pointed to previous reports of Lus connections with Ling Jihua, a former top political advisor and known member of the Jiang faction, those officials still loyal to former CCP dictator Jiang Zemin.

Xis anti-corruption campaign has targeted many Jiang faction members who have threatened Xis control over the Party.

In December 2014, several Chinese web portals published an article detailing how Ling Jihuas brother, Ling Wancheng, secretly amassed wealth using his position as general manager of an ad agency belonging to Xinhua News Agency, the CCPs mouthpiece. During the same time period, Lu was in charge of business operations at Xinhua. Chen suggests that Lu could have been involved in Lings misconduct.

Ling Jihua is a former top political advisor with ties to the Jiang political network.

Lus political connections may be what cost him his post. Lu had spent most of his career working in the CCPs propaganda agencies under Liu Yunshan, the former propaganda chief who is also a key associate in the Jiang faction.

Li Jing and Xu Menger contributed to this report.

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersA man uses a mobile phone next to the stand of Chinese telecommunications company Huawei in Barcelona, on Feb. 22, 2016. The company has been widely accused of being a threat to national security. (Lluis Gene/AFP/Getty Images)

FBI, CIA, NSA Say US Citizens Shouldnt Use Huawei or ZTE Phones

The directors of the CIA, FBI, NSA, and other intelligence agencies cautioned against buying phones made by Chinese firm Huawei and fellow Chinese company ZTE.

Were deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that dont share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks, FBI Director Chris Wray testified during a U.S. Senate hearing, CNBC reported.

That provides the capacity to exert pressure or control over our telecommunications infrastructure, Wray said. It provides the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information. And it provides the capacity to conduct undetected espionage.

U.S. lawmakers recently proposed a bill that bans usage of Huawei and ZTE telecoms equipment in the country.

In the hearing Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) asked the group of intelligence chiefs if they would recommend American citizens to use products made by ZTE or Huawei. None did, CNN reported.

Huawei hasnt made much headway in U.S. markets because of government concerns that the Chinese regime could use them to gather intelligence.

A representative for Huawei told CNBC that the United States is inhibiting its business.

Huawei is aware of a range of U.S. government activities seemingly aimed at inhibiting Huaweis business in the U.S. market. Huawei is trusted by governments and customers in 170 countries worldwide and poses no greater cybersecurity risk than any ICT [information and communications technology] vendor, sharing as we do common global supply chains and production capabilities, the firm stated.

ZTE also told Android Authority, As a publicly traded company, we are committed to adhering to all applicable laws and regulations of the United States, work with carriers to pass strict testing protocols, and adhere to the highest business standards.

During the hearing, the chiefs of the intelligence agencies praised American firms for resisting Chinese companies.

This is a challenge I think that is only going to increase, not lessen over time for us, said Adm. Michael Rogers, who is the NSA chief, CNBC reported.

In 2012, Huawei and ZTE were the subjects of a U.S. investigation into whether their equipment provided an opportunity for foreign espionage and threatened critical U.S. infrastructuresomething they have consistently denied, Reuters reported.

Allegations of hacking and internet spying have long strained relations between China and the United States. In 2014 then FBI Director James Comey said Chinese hacking likely cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars every year.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersNSW Police raided six homes in Maitland, NSW, on Feb. 14, 2018. (Screenshot via Google Maps)

Five People Arrested After $2.8M of Cannabis Seized in New South Wales

Five people have been arrested after more than 1,400 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of $2.8 million (US$2.2 million) were seized on Wednesday, Feb. 14, according to New South Wales police.

Officers raided six Maitland homes in the Hunter Valley region following a three-month long investigation, reported AAP.

The homes were alleged fronts for a sophisticated cannabis growing operation. Police found more than 400 mature plants from one home alone, reported The Herald.

Detective Superintendent Craig Jackson said the houses were made to look normal from the outside  where a baby walker and Christmas lights were positioned at the front of the house. However, police said there were still obvious signs.

1400 cannabis plants, five charged, seized in Hunter valley Raids https://t.co/BWuHGBSmlD  NSW Police (@nswpolice) February 14, 2018

He said the houses had boarded-up windows and low-key activity, along with a strong smell of cannabis.

They will do everything they can to fly under the radar  [but] they do not present as your typical neighbour, Jackson said, reported The Herald.

The houses were allegedly fitted with dozens of grow lights, hundreds of meters worth of wiring, fake walls, and watering and ventilation systems.

Whoever is behind these indoor cannabis crops has gambled with not being detected in a regional area and theyve been proved seriously mistaken, Jackson said in a statement.

The five people arrested are Vietnamese nationals where two are illegal immigrants. A 25-year-old male student, 37-year-old male illegal immigrant, 26-year-old male illegal immigrant, 23-year-old woman and a 48-year-old man were remanded and charged with cultivating prohibited plant  large commercial quality.

Police are investigating whether the five are involved in a criminal syndicate, according to the statement.

They have been refused bail and are scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 15.

From NTD.tv

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Sleepy Truck Driver Causes Multi-Vehicle CrashPeople react at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., a city about 50 miles north of Miami on February 14, 2018 following a school shooting. (MICHELE EVE SANDBERG/AFP/Getty Images)

Florida Teacher Hid 19 Students in a Closet When Gunman Opened Fire

A Florida teacher hid 19 students in a closet when they heard a gunman was loose in their high school, impressing people with her quick thinking.

The scene unfolded at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14.

A gunman, later identified as Nikolas Cruz, opened fire and left 17 dead and others wounded.

First, he allegedly set off smoke grenades to trigger the fire alarm so students would file out of classrooms.

Melissa Falkowski and her students heard the alarm and began filing out of the classroom but minutes later a security guard alerted her that someone had begun opening fire.

Falkowski urged the students remaining around her to follow her back into the room.



We sort of huddled in the corner for a few minutes and then I made the decision to move everyone to the closet, Falkowski told CNN.

The students stood in silence, although some cried. Falkowski said she tried to keep everyone calm.

You try to do the best you can for the kids you are supposed to keep safe, she added.

Around 30 minutes later, a SWAT team secured the room and the group was safe.



Falkowski said a recent active shooter training given at the school helped her make quick decisions that may have saved lives.

According to her Facebook page, Falkowski lives in Coral Springs with her husband, who is also a teacher, and their children.

She has been a teacher at the school since 2004.

Cruz was eventually arrested by police officers after the attack on Wednesday.

It was also revealed that at least one other teacher, Jim Gard, hid some students in a closet.

Gard said he also moved to evacuate after the fire alarm went off but then he heard a code red announcement and ushered the six students who hadnt fled into a closet.

Then, they just turned the lights off, as youre supposed to do in a code redyou know, an active shooter, he told NBC.

His math students eventually were all accounted for.

Thank goodness, he said.

From NTD.tv

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Cookie-Crazed Squirrel Attacks New York PolicemanHigh School Student Arrested After Snapchat Threat Round 2 of Florida Tomorrow

A high school student in South Carolina was arrested on Thursday after making a threat of violence on social media.

The Broome High School Student made the threat on Snapchat.

Spartanburg School District Three spokesperson Sherri Horton said an anonymous tip alerted authorities to the threat.

The post on Snapchat showed a juvenile male wearing a mask and holding what appears to be an assault rifle, reported Fox.

The picture caption says Round 2 of Florida tomorrow.

The threat referenced the mass shooting on Feb. 14 that left 17 dead and at least 14 others wounded just north of Miami, Florida. Nikolas Cruz, 19, was identified as the shooter.

Authorities identified the student who posted on Snapchat early Thursday and rushed to his home where they arrested him.

After informing the suspect and his parents of the law violation, the suspect stated his Snapchat post was just intended as a joke, and that he didnt have any serious intentions, Lt. Kevin Bobo told Fox.

The students parents allowed deputies to search the home. They found a mask and a weapon, which turned out to be an airsoft rifle, reported WYFF4.

The student did not have access to any real weapons.

The student was arrested and charged with disturbing the school.

He was taken to the Department of Juvenile Justice facility in Greenville, deputies said.

The student has not been named but is a freshman at Broome, reported WSPA.

Officials commended the student who alerted authorities of the threat.

The District would like to commend the student who came forward with information. It is this kind of courage to speak out that can and will prevent tragedies, District 3 Superintendent Kenny Blackwood said in a statement.

From NTD.tv

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President Trumps First State of the Union AddressOpposition leader Raila Odinga gives an address to his supporters during demonstrations in the Umoja subururb of Nairobi on Nov. 28, 2017, following a denial of permission by police to the National Super Alliance (NASA) leader to hold a rally concurrently to the inauguration of the country's new president. (Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images)

Kenyan Court Revokes Deportation of Kenyan-Canadian Opposition-Linked Lawyer

NAIROBIA Kenyan court on Thursday revoked the deportation of a lawyer who swore in opposition leader Raila Odinga as the countrys president, a ruling likely to worsen relations between the judiciary and President Uhuru Kenyattas government.

Miguna Miguna, who holds dual Kenyan and Canadian citizenship, is currently in Canada after being put on a flight to Toronto by the Kenyan government last week following several days in police detention.

A High Court judge declared Migunas deportation order illegal and ordered the government to surrender his Kenyan passport, which was seized when he was deported. The judge gave the government seven days to comply.

The government said the ruling was not in the best interest of the country, adding it would appeal shortly.

The government still holds its earlier stated view that the deportation of Mr. Miguna Miguna was procedural and done in accordance with the law, Karanja Kibicho, the principal secretary in the ministry of interior said in a statement.

Migunas expulsion came after he was charged with treason over the swearing-in ceremony. The High Court in Nairobi had issued several orders that he be allowed to appear before it, which the government ignored.

The case exposed a deepening rift between Kenyattas government and the judiciary, which had nullified his initial re-election and ordered a repeat election, which Odinga then boycotted.

Odinga justified his swearing in by saying he had won the initial Aug. 8 election which was then invalidated by the Supreme Court.

Last week, Raphael Tuju, the secretary general of Kenyattas Jubilee party, wrote a letter to the Chief Justice David Maraga, accusing the judiciary of favoring the opposition whenever disputes are brought before it.

He cited eight recent instances, which he called evidence of bias, double standards, impunity and poor leadership on the part of the judiciary, including Odingas boycott of the repeat vote, which Maraga did not condemn.

Last week, Maraga sharply criticized the government for failing to comply with court orders in relation to the Miguna case and others.

The office of the chief justice said declined to comment on the letter.

But Miguna welcomed the court ruling, tweeting: (We) are fully committed to the rule of law. We shall use the constitution as the spear and the shield in the fight.

By Duncan Miriri

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersKingpin Granny Allegedly Caught Selling Illegal Opioids From Her Home

A so-called Kingpin Granny was caught selling opioids and other prescription pills from her Tennessee home.

Police officers in the Decatur County area conducted an extensive investigation of the grandmother before arresting her.

Betty Jean Jordan, 75, is accused of selling hundreds of pills, such as morphine, oxycodone, and Xanax, reported Fox17.

Detectives said they found more than 1,000 pills inside her home along with $12,000 in cash and assets after they served a search warrant, reported WMCA.

Jordan was charged with three counts of drug manufacturing, delivery, sale, or possession.

'Kingpin Granny' arrested in major drug deal bust in middle Tennessee, officers say: https://t.co/BMr9ypcjKc  WTVC NewsChannel 9 (@newschannelnine) February 14, 2018

She was also charged with two counts of possession of a legend drug (approved by the FDA) with intent to distribute, and one count of evading arrest.

The Decatur County Sheriffs Office said it expects more arrests to follow as the investigation ramps up.

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Cookie-Crazed Squirrel Attacks New York PolicemanPeople are brought out of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after a shooting at the school that left 17 people dead in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14, 2018. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Man Warned FBI About Florida School Shooter 5 Months Ago

A Mississippi man notified the FBI in September that a user named Nikolas Cruz left a comment on his YouTube channel saying, Im going to be a professional school shooter.

Ben Bennight, 36, reported the comment to the FBI via email on Sept. 24 and flagged it on YouTube, which removed the comment.

Bennights email to the FBIs tip box bounced, with an error message saying that the email address does not exist. He then followed up by calling the FBI tips phone line.

FBI agents responded to the call and visited Bennight the day after, on Sept. 25.

They came to my office the next morning and asked me if I knew anything about the person, Bennight told BuzzFeed News. I didnt. They took a copy of the screenshot and that was the last I heard from them.

The screen name, it wasnt a generic screen name. The screen name was Nikolas Cruz, Bennight said on YouTube. Which is the name of the guy that did the shooting.

The FBI contacted Bennight again on Feb. 14 after Nikolas Cruz, 19, allegedly shot and killed 17 people at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. Bennight received a call from a Mississippi FBI field office and then received another call from an FBI agent in Miami.

Later in the day, agents from the Mississippi field office visited Bennight and questioned him about Cruz.

They asked me if I knew who he was, I didnt. I dont, Bennight said. Then they left.

According to BuzzFeed News, relatives, classmates, and neighbors described Cruz as a loner who often spoke about guns. Cruz was expelled from the school for disciplinary issues.

Jim Gard, a math teacher at the school, told Miami Herald that Cruz was flagged as a potential threat to other students.

The FBI is yet to confirm if the Nikolas Cruz username on YouTube belongs to the suspected shooter.

The Nikolas Cruz account was still active on YouTube until Wednesday evening. YouTube has since deleted it because of multiple or severe violations of YouTubes policy on violence.

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President Trumps First State of the Union AddressMany Deaths in Florida High School Shooting, Senator Says

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson said that there are many deaths in the Florida High School shooting, according to Fox News.

At least 20 people are feared to be injured at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and the gunman in custody, according to WSVN.

The Margate Fire Rescue Team described the shooting as a mass casualty incident which reportedly means that at least 20 people were injured.

The shooter was at large until 4 p.m., when he was reportedly arrested.

Coral Springs police requested that the public avoid the area near the high school, which they say is an active scene. A nearby school is also on lockdown as a precaution, Fox News reported, citing an official.

Authorities said that students and teachers should remain barricaded in classrooms until they are reached by police.

A person who claims to be inside the high school tweeted a picture from inside a classroom where students can be seen sitting under their desks.

Still locked in. I checked the local news and there is 20 victims. Long live Majory Stoneman Douglas High. pic.twitter.com/4kQMAlCBWt  Aidan (@TheCaptainAidan) February 14, 2018

President Donald Trump tweeted a message of grief and support shortly after receiving the news.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school, Trump wrote. Just spoke to Governor Rick Scott. We are working closely with law enforcement on the terrible Florida school shooting.

The FBI is in touch with local law enforcement and is responding to the attack, Fox News reported.

A student told WSVN that he knows the shooter.

Hes been a troubled kid, and hes always had a certain amount of issues going on, the student said. He shot guns because he felt it gave him, I guess, an exhilarating feeling.

I stayed clear of him most of the time. My time in alternate school, I did not want to be with him at all because I didnt want to cause any conflict with him because of the impression he gave off, the student added.

Police identified a student as a person of interest but have not released a name.

WSVN reports seeing at least one person on a stretcher being carried to an ambulance and four more people being tended to by rescue personnel.

CBS shared a video of police arresting a suspect. It is not clear if the person in the video is the same as the gunman.

The Broward County sheriff said that the scene is still active, BBC reported.

MORE: Male in red shirt appears to be handcuffed and apprehended by police officers in Parkland, Florida, following shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School https://t.co/1Y5NBGZMdE pic.twitter.com/EmZdGiSPIP  CBS News (@CBSNews) February 14, 2018

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Surveillance Footage Shows Robber Attack Virginia Store EmployeeCustomers wait in a drive through line at a McDonald's restaurant on March 12, 2013 in Mill Valley, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

McDonalds Employee Fired for Cursing Cop

A McDonalds employee from Normal, Illinois, has been fired for disrespecting a police officer who pulled up to the drive-in window to buy a meal.

A state trooper dropped by the popular fast-food restaurant on Monday, Feb. 12, looking for a tasty lunch. What she got was completely unexpected  an inappropriate barrage of verbal abuse, Fox News reported.

When the employee saw that the car pulling up to the drive-through window was a police car driven by a state trooper, the employee repeated a once-popular and very vile anti-law-enforcement phrase several times.

People of a certain age would know the phrase made popular by the rap group Niggaz Wit Attitudes in its 1988 Straight Outta Compton album.

In any case, it is not a phrase that any McDonalds employee should ever use on the joband the co-owners of this McDonalds restaurant fired the employee as soon as they heard.

We were appalled. And we wanted to take swift and immediate action, and we did, co-owner Mikel Petro, told WMBD.

Of course we cant control the thoughts or feelings of our employees, but we can definitely control the experiences that our customers have, and for a customer to have the experience that she says she did, is absolutely unacceptable.

Petro and co-owner Jack Millan also shared this statement with Fox News, We have the utmost respect for all first responders, including law enforcement officers who protect and serve our communities. This kind of behavior is not tolerated in our restaurants and we immediately addressed this situation.

Multiple Offenses

This is the second time in less than a week that employees at McDonalds have disrespected law enforcement officials.

Florida Today reports an incident which occurred in Palm Bay, Florida, on Friday, Feb. 9. Lieutenant Tim Lancaster from the Palm Bay Florida police department, pulled up to a McDonalds drive-through window in an unmarked car. Lancaster was in full uniform.

When the employee saw Lancasters uniform, the employee refused to give Lancaster his meal. Another employee saw the scene and gave the officer his meal, explaining that the first worker refused to serve police officers.

Lancaster shared his experience on his Facebook page with thousands sharing his post.

A statement from McDonalds spokesperson Carolina Rodriguez said in part, We have respect for all first responders and are investigating. The behavior described in this Facebook post is unacceptable and not tolerated in our restaurants, reported Florida Today.

The same Palm Bay McDonalds in which the incident occurred had in the past hosted a Coffee With a Cop community outreach event, to bring local residents and police officers together in a comfortable environment where they could share concerns.

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Lucky Motorcyclist Narrowly Missed Horrific Multi-Car CrashMissing South Carolina 4-Year-Old Heidi Todd Rescued in Alabama

A 4-year-old girl kidnapped in South Carolina on Feb. 13 has been found alive and unhurt in Alabama.

Riverside, Alabama Police Chief Rick Oliver and Fire Chief Timothy Kurzejeski, acting on a tip, found convicted felon Thomas Evans, 37, asleep in a parked car in a wooded area beside some train tracks, WCVI-TV reported. In the car was Heidi Todd, who had been missing since the prior afternoon.

THREAD: Here's what we know about the disappearance of Heidi Todd, a 4-yr-old girl reported missing from her home on Johns Island in Charleston County, S.C. >>> https://t.co/wRh1KtTllU #HeidiTodd #chsnews #scnews #missingperson pic.twitter.com/tgGf27jjl6  ABC News 4 (@ABCNews4) February 14, 2018

Evans handed Heidi over to officials but managed to drive away, leading law enforcement on a trans-state chase, which finally ended with his arrest in Dekalb, Mississippi, several hours later. The girl is now safe in the hands of Alabamas Department of Human Resources.

Chief Oliver said Evans had just been released from prison on Feb. 1 after serving 10 years for robbery. He had a history of criminal behavior stretching back to 2000, the Post and Courier reported.

Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg announced Heidis rescue to a relieved crowd at a vigil for the little girl on Feb. 14, WCVI-TV reported. What could have been a day of real tragedy has turned out to be a day of great joy, he said.

Beating and Kidnapping

The circumstances behind Heidi Todds kidnapping are still not clear. What is know is that Heidis mother, Brittany Todd, was brutally beaten in what appeared to have been a foiled home invasion somewhere during the afternoon of Feb. 13, WCVI reported.

Three of Todds four children were in the home at the time. When Todd failed to pick up her one of her children from school, school officials called the police, Charleston Interim Police Chief Jerome Taylor told the Post and Courier. Officers went to the Todd residence at 2985 Sweetleaf Lane and found Todd beaten and badly injured. The friend reported Heidi missing around 5:50 p.m. Feb. 13.

At approximately 5:50 p.m. on Tuesday, Charleston Police were dispatched to the Todds home on Sweetleaf Lane in Johns Island. Police were called after the mother didn't arrive to pick up two of her older children from school.#HeidiTodd #chsnews #scnews #missingperson pic.twitter.com/tFlCHyrxKZ  ABC News 4 (@ABCNews4) February 14, 2018

According to Mayor Tecklenburg, Heidis mother was in fair condition and awaiting surgery as of Feb. 15.

Because authorities could not be sure of the circumstances of Heidis disappearance, they could not issue an Amber Alert. However, the FBI issued a $10,000 reward for information leading to the girls recovery. A private citizen offered another $10,000, WCVI reported.

Police originally thought the girl might have wandered off and sent divers to search the lake at the center of in the Whitney Lake neighborhood. Searchers combed the area until 3 a.m., then resumed the search at daylight.

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Neighbors React to Parents Arrest After Their 13 Children Found Shackled, Malnourished in HomeMom Gives Update on Daughter Found Holding Her Eyeballs Outside South Carolina Church

The mother of the woman who gouged out her own eyes behind a South Carolina church has spoken out for the first time since the bizarre Feb. 6 incident.

The mom says her 20-year-old daughter, Kaylee Muthart, is still recovering at a hospital and getting used to being blind.

Churchgoers reported seeing Muthart outside the South Main Chapel holding her own eyeballs. Authorities who arrived on the scene struggled to subdue her in order to administer help.

Most of our deputies have never seen anything like that, Sheriff Chad McBride told Myrtle Beach Online at the time. It took two or three of our guys and two EMTs I believe to kind of subdue her enough for them to start rendering aid.

Katy Tompkins told Fox Carolina that her daughter has admitted to using methamphetamine for six months leading up to her self-injury.

She is very strong, a very strong girl and shes told me she wants to help people, and warn them to never ever touch a drug, Tompkins told Fox.

Doctors believe that some other drug was added to the meth to cause Muthart to behave the way she did.

You never know when you buy (illegal) drugs what will really be in them, Tompkins said.

Tompkins says her daughter is trying to be strong, but still has moments when she cant stop crying.

Were just thankful shes still here, Tompkins said. It could always be much worse.

The mom started a GoFundMe page to help get Muthart a seeing-eye dog.

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersStudents are evacuated from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during a shooting incident in Parkland, Florida, U.S. February 14, 2018 in a still image from video. (WSVN.com via REUTERS)

Florida High School Shooter IDd as Nicolas Cruz: Reports

Nicolas Cruz, 19, was identified as the suspect in a Florida high school shooting on Wednesday afternoon, the Miami Herald reported.

Cruz, an ex-student, who was detained by police in Broward County, has not been officially named as the suspect. Law enforcement sources identified him in reports from the Herald and The Associated Press.

The shooter is suspected to be 19-year old former student Nicolas de Jesus Cruz, says @MiamiHerald. #stonemanshooting pic.twitter.com/VkGrgj2zjz  AJ+ (@ajplus) February 14, 2018

#Parkland school shooting suspect Nicolas Cruz taken into custody, placed on stretcher, transported to hospital surrounded by police. AERIALS: pic.twitter.com/pmILi6kqoo  Vic Micolucci WJXT (@WJXTvic) February 14, 2018

We were told last year that he wasnt allowed on campus with a backpack on him, math teacher Jim Gard told the paper. Cruz was in his class last year.

He said, There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.

Nicolas de Jesus Cruz, a 19-year-old former student at Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, identified as suspected shooter. He was previously reported as a threat to the school, according to the @MiamiHerald https://t.co/l7jJXBZlt5 #breaking pic.twitter.com/xmmA0RQOCx  Heavy.com (@HeavySan) February 14, 2018

The Broward County School District Superintendent, however, didnt know of any concerns raised about Cruz.

We received no warnings, Superintendent Robert Runcie said. Potentially there could have been signs out there. But we didnt have any warning or phone calls or threats that were made.

The attack took place shortly before dismissal at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, about 45 miles (72 km) north of Miami, sending hundreds of panicked students fleeing into the streets while dozens of police and emergency services personnel swarmed the area, Reuters reported.

Fourteen wounded people were transported to area hospitals, Israel told a press conference said. He added that police were still searching the school for victims.

Students hid in classrooms until they were rescued by police in tactical gear, friends and family members said.

McKenzie Hartley, 19, who identified herself as the sister of a student at the school, described the scene in a text message to Reuters: She heard him shooting through the windows of classrooms and two students were shot.

It is just absolutely horrifying. I cant believe this is happening, Lissette Rozenblat, whose daughter goes to the school, told CNN. Her daughter called her to say she was safe but the student also told her mother she heard the cries of a person who was shot, Reuters reported.

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersPeople exit Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after a shooting that reportedly killed and injured multiple people on Feb. 14, 2018, in Parkland, Fla. Numerous law enforcement officials continue to investigate the scene. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Nikolas Cruz Charged in Florida High School Shooting, More Details Released

More details about the gunman accused of murdering 17 people at a Florida high school on Wednesday have been released.

Nikolas Cruz, 19 was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder over the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. On Wednesday, Feb. 14, he was taken into custody without incident by Coconut Creek police.

Cruz was known as a weird kid and loner, Fox News reported. He was a former student at the school before he got expelled for getting into a fight with his ex-girlfriends new boyfriend.

He was expelled from the school last year, according to a news release from the Broward County Sheriffs Office. A mugshot of Cruz was released by the office on Thursday, Feb. 15.

All he would talk about is guns, knives, and hunting, Joshua Charo, 16, a former classmate told the Miami Herald. I cant say I was shocked. From past experiences, he seemed like the kind of kid who would do something like this.

Broward Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters on Wednesday that investigators were sifting through his social media.

Some of the things that come to mind are very, very disturbing, Israel said.

Cruzs mother, Lynda Cruz, died Nov. 1, she was 68 at the time, according to the Sun-Sentinel. Her husband died years ago. The couple adopted Nikolas and biological brother, Zachary, after they moved from Long Island to Broward County.

After the mother died, both boys were left under the care of a family friend.

I know she had been having some issues with them, especially the older one. He was being a problem. I know he did have some issues and he may have been taking medication, Barbara Kumbatovich, Lyndas sister-in-law told the Sun-Sentinel.

[He] did have some kind of emotional problems or difficulties, Kumbatovich continued. [Lynda] kept a really close handle on both boys. They were not major issues, as far as I know, just things teenagers do like not coming home on time, maybe being disrespectful.

Authorities said Cruz was transported to a local hospital as a precaution after he exhibited labored breathing, according to the news release.

Fifteen victims died at the school and two died in the hospital.

The gunmans motive was not clear as of this writing. Police said he was identified as the only possible shooter.

Investigators only found out later that the shooter had hidden in the fleeing crowd and was among the hundreds of students running out of the school.

Cruz was arrested at a nearby house shortly after the mass shooting. He was using an AR-15.

He is expected to make his first court appearance at 1 p.m. according to Fox News.

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Firefighter Going Over 100 mph Before Deadly CrashPit Bull Protects Child During Attempted Burglary in Nebraska

A pit bull protected a 9-year-old who was home alone when a burglar entered the childs home in Nebraska.

The dog was with the child while the mother went to pick up her other children around 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 14.

However, once the man entered the Lincoln, Nebraska, home, the child sent his pit bull after the intruder, reported CBS affiliate 1011 News.

The child had heard the door open before sending the dog after the man, reported KLKN.

The dog chased him all the way to his silver car, which he fled in.

The child then ran to the neighbors house and called his mother, who called the police.

The home is at 30th and T streets, Lincoln Police Department spokesperson Angela Sands told the Lincoln Journal Star.

Police are still investigating the attempted burglary.

Anyone with information is asked to call Lincoln police at 402-441-6000.

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GoPro Dropped Down Deep Well to Check Out Reports of Limestone CavesRoyal Canadian Navy Rear Admiral John Newton takes a picture of the ship's bell from the Franklin Expedition shipwreck HMS Erebus in Ottawa on Nov. 6, 2014. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

Project to Collect Inuit Elder Testimony on Franklin Shipwreck Sites

OTTAWAParks Canada is launching a new initiative in Nunavut to collect and share the testimony of Inuit elders who have knowledge of the doomed Franklin expedition of 1845.

The project is seeking a contractor to conduct archival research and record interviews with Inuit elders with historical knowledge of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror shipwreck sites.

The two ships were part of Sir John Franklins 1845 quest to find the elusive Northwest Passage and their disappearance remains a mystery today. The expeditions 129 crew members were never found.

Catherine McKenna, the minister of the environment and minister in charge of Parks Canada, acknowledged the integral role Inuit oral history played in the search for the Franklin shipwrecks.

In this case, we know that Inuit knowledge helped to find the ships, said McKenna.

Its important that the Inuit stay involvedfor their own sake as well as Canadas, the minister added.

I think theres been a lot of focus on European explorers, she said. Maybe its time to put more of the focus on the Inuit.

Parks Canada archeologists located the wrecked HMS Erebus off the coast of King William Island in 2014 with the help of Inuit historical knowledge passed on orally over generations. The HMS Terror was found at the bottom of Terror Bay two years later, nearly 100 kilometres away.

Parks Canada would like to produce video and audio of the testimonies as well as a book with up to 100 images of the site, including archival photographs.

Louie Kamookak, a leading Inuit historian and educator whose work helped locate the Erebus, said he is encouraged by the project.

Todays younger generations have gotten away from the Inuit oral history, Kamookak said in an email. Preserving Inuit oral history in todays technology would be the only way to pass the stories, knowledge, and culture in any aspect of our amazing ancestors that once lived where no other people chose to live.

From The Canadian PressReserve Bank Reveals Next Generation $50 Banknotes

The Reserve Bank of Australia just revealed the design of the new $50 banknote on Feb. 15 which is expected to be released into general circulation later this year, according to a statement.

The banknote will feature portraits of Aboriginal writer and inventor David Unaipon and the first female member of an Australian parliament, Edith Cowan.

The #new50 is coming in October, see what it looks like  https://t.co/bloQoZ7OVB  RBA (@RBAInfo) February 14, 2018

Governor Philip Lowe said there will be improved security features on the new $50 note.

Improved security and ease of recognition underpin the design of the new $50 banknote. With the release of the $5 and $10 during the past two years, we are confident the Australian public are becoming familiar with the new banknote security features, Lowe said in the statement.

The note will also feature a top-to-bottom clear window that contains dynamic features such as a reversing number, a patch with a rolling-colour effect, and microprint that features excerpts from David Unaipons book and Edith Cowans maiden parliamentary speech.

David Unaipon and Edith Cowan were campaigners for social change and we are proud to continue featuring them on the $50 banknote. The new banknote provides the opportunity to tell more of the rich story behind these distinguished Australians, Lowe said.

A number of design elements which will help tell the stories of Unaipon and Cowan will also be included  such as shields from Unaipons Ngarrindjeri nation and the practices of miwi (our inner spiritual connection to our lands, waters, each other and all living things, passed down since Creation) and navel cord exchange about which Unaipon wrote.

The gum nut brooch that Cowan had made to symbolise how entry into Parliament was a hard nut to crack for women will also be featuring on the note, as well as a picture of the King Edward Memorial Hospital, a womens and maternity hospital that she helped to establish, read the statement.

The new banknote will also include illustrations of the Acacia humifusa wattle, found in the Kimberly region, and the black swan that is the totem animal (ngaitji) of Unaipons Ngarrindjeri clan as well as a native of Cowans home state of Western Australia.

The Reserve Bank anticipates the notes to be in circulation by October this year, while existing $50 banknotes can continue to be used. The bank also said it is expecting to upgrade the $20 banknote in 2019.

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Lost World War I Submarine Found 103 Years LaterGold medalist Shaun White of the United States goes down the podium during the victory ceremony for the Snowboard Men's Halfpipe Final on day five of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics at Phoenix Snow Park on Feb. 14, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea. (David Ramos/Getty Images)

Shaun White Apologizes for Dragging Flag After Winning Gold in Mens Halfpipe at Olympics

Snowboarder Shaun White has apologized for dragging his countrys flag after winning the gold in the mens halfpipe at the Olympics.

After being presented with the flag, it was seen touching the ground and was even getting dragged behind White as he was walking up the slope. At one point, White was stepping on the flag as he walked.

Shortly after, people took to social media to congratulate him on taking home the gold, but also to chastise him for his carelessness with the flag.

I totally just screamed when @shaunwhite won gold. (Sorry @ sister). Except now he has the flag on the ground and I am CRINGING. Stop this madness!  Mara (@Mara_Elizabeth) February 14, 2018

I totally just screamed when @shaunwhite won gold. (Sorry @ sister). Except now he has the flag on the ground and I am CRINGING. Stop this madness! wrote Twitter user Mara.

Shaun White just broke flag code like six times, another Twitter user Luke Perrin wrote.

Hey Shaun White  I appreciate your skills but PICK THE FLAG UP!! The American flag should never touch the ground!! Cmon, kid!! wrote Twitter user Lonny Kaehn.

Hey Shaun White  I appreciate your skills but PICK THE FLAG UP!! The American flag should never touch the ground!! Cmon, kid!!  Lonny Kaehn (@lonny_kaehn) February 14, 2018

Am pleased for Shaun White, but he should not be dragging our flag. Show some respect!  William C Eacho (@AmbEacho) February 14, 2018

In response to the backlash on social media, he said at a news conference on Feb. 14 that he didnt mean any disrespect and was merely caught up the moment.

I remember being handed the flag, but I was trying to put my gloves on and hold the flag and get the board, he said. So honestly, if there was anything, I definitely didnt mean any disrespect.

He said that he has a flag flying on his home and that it is way up there.

So sorry for that, he added. But Im definitely proud, very proud, to be a part of Team USA and being American and to be representing for everyone back home.

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Snowboarder Survives Avalanche in CanadaShooting at Western Hills Mall Near Birmingham, Alabama

At least one person is dead after shootout just outside Western Hills Mall in Fairfield, Alabama, on Thursday, Feb. 15, it was reported.

A manhunt is underway around an area near Interstate 59 near the Birmingham-Southern College campus.

Store manager shot and killed inside Western Hills Mall. No one else was injured according to Fairfield Police Chief. @WBRCnews pic.twitter.com/MWATcOLRNU  Jamiese Price (@ThePriceReport) February 15, 2018

The manager of the Western Hills Mall was identified as the victim in the shooting, AL.com reported.

The mall manager walked outside to investigate a shootout. He was shot and killed.

A shootout in front of Fairfield's Western Hills Mall has left a manager critically injured, and led to a chase on the interstate: https://t.co/X6RQn3Bnj8 pic.twitter.com/7DgaC9kvxW  AL.com (@aldotcom) February 15, 2018

Its too much, a witness told AL.com. It was so scary. There were too many shots to count. This is completely unsafe.

In the incident, two groups got into a shootout outside the mall, Fairfield Police Chief Nick Dyer confirmed.

The shooting occurred in the malls food court area, which led to a chase from the mall that ended on Interstate 59 North, WIAT-TV reported.

An innocent bystander inside a vehicle at the Arkadelphia Exit was also hit by gunfire, the report said.

Two suspects were taken into custody, but there are more suspects at large, police said, WVTM13 reported.

Bush Academy is on lockdown until further notice, police told the station.

Western Hills Mall shootout leaves manager critically injured, leads to interstate chase. @RobinsonCarol is working to gather facts. Story soon.  Jeremy Gray (@jgray78) February 15, 2018

Three cars in front of Western Hills Mall hit with bullets. Drivers are OK @WVTM13 pic.twitter.com/ObAlSwo5KM  Marlei Martinez (@MarleiWVTM13) February 15, 2018

BREAKING: Western Hills Mall manager killed in shooting  Jonathan Hardison (@FOX6Hardison) February 15, 2018

Birmingham-Southern Police report that they worked with Birmingham Police to bring a suspect in Western Hills shooting into custody. MORE >> https://t.co/5SBrJ0hiyS  WIAT CBS42 (@WIAT42) February 15, 2018

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersTrain Derailment in New York, Cars on Fire

Firefighters and rescue crews are responding to a train derailment near Attica, New York, on Thursday, Feb. 15, according to The Daily News.

Photos published online show billowing black smoke.

Another photo of the train wreck in Attica, courtesy of Michelle Poul: pic.twitter.com/2mdGgaw3Mu  news10nbc (@news10nbc) February 15, 2018

Train derailment in Attica near the high school blocking Route 238. @trafficcommand pic.twitter.com/ilHD8mQhXp  WBEN NewsRadio 930AM (@NewsRadio930) February 15, 2018

The train was not carrying any hazardous materials, and it was carrying automobiles, according to a Northfolk Southern spokesman.

Multiple cars are off the track and are on fire, according to reports.

#BREAKINGpolice in #Attica, Wyoming County say they're responding to a CSX freight train derailment near East Main Street. (Photos: Tim Pohl) pic.twitter.com/lf5xvBHp9u  Spectrum News BUF (@SPECNewsBuffalo) February 15, 2018

There was some fire, and a lot of smoke, Daily News Managing Editor John Anderson said, reporting from the scene.

They are putting the fire out  we saw flames as we were coming in, but they are still working on the train.

Another photo of the Attica train wreck, from Tim Pohl: pic.twitter.com/d3moVTgFzY  news10nbc (@news10nbc) February 15, 2018

A Wyoming County HAZMAT was requested to be sent to the scene, the Daily News reported. A Genesee County HAZMAT team was placed on standby.

Two minor injuries have been reported.

Here are some early photos form the scene of the train crash in Attica from Michelle Pohl and Jessica Graham: pic.twitter.com/K0bdw5c9iA  news10nbc (@news10nbc) February 15, 2018

#BREAKING PHOTO: Train cars torn apart in train derailment near Attica, New York Pic via WHEC-TV pic.twitter.com/tnGHIf3RqP  Al Boe BREAKING NEWS (@AlBoeNEWS) February 15, 2018

The Attica Central Schools were placed on notice.

Attica is located about 50 miles east of Buffalo in Wyoming County.

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersPresident Donald Trump speaks on the Florida school shooting, in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House on February 15, 2018 in Washington, DC. (AFP/Getty Images)

Trump Addresses Nation Following Florida School Shooting

A day after 17 people were killed at a Florida high school, President Donald Trump addressed the nation.

Today I speak to a nation in grief, the president started his remarks.

Our entire nation with one heavy heart is praying for the victims and their families, he said.

We are all joined together as one American family, and your suffering is our burden also.

The shooter, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, was apprehended by authorities and has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Cruz had been expelled last year from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, for disciplinary reasons.

In his remarks, Trump called on the nation to answer hate with love, answer cruelty with kindness.

We must also work together to create a culture in our country that embraces the dignity of life, that creates deep and meaningful human connections, and that turns classmates and colleagues into friends and neighbors, he said.

The president said that later this month he will host a meeting with Governors and Attorney Generals to discuss ways to make schools safer.

It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like were making a differencewe must actually make that difference, Trump said.

The shooting was the second deadliest shooting in a U.S. public school after the 2012 massacre of 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

The deadliest school shooting in U.S. history was at Virginia Tech in 2007, when 32 people were killed.

Cruz may have left warning signs on social media. Buzzfeed reported that a person named Nikolas Cruz left a comment under a YouTube video that read Im going to be a professional school shooter. The man who posted the video was alarmed and contacted the FBI, Buzzfeed reported.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Lasky told reporters on Thursday the bureau received the 2017 tip but said investigators had been unable to locate the person who made the comment.

No other information was included with that comment which would indicate a time, location, or the true identity of the person who made the comment, Lasky said.

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersUN Mediator Warns of Violent, Worrying, Dangerous Moment in Syria

UNITED NATIONSThe U.N. Syria peace mediator warned on Wednesday that a recent increase in violence has created one of the most dangerous moments in years of civil war there, as the government bombards rebel areas and foreign powers further intervene.

I have been now four years (as) special envoy, this is a violent and worrying and dangerous a moment as any that Ive seen in my time, Staffan de Mistura told the United Nations Security Council.

Last week was one of the bloodiest in the nearly seven-year-old conflict as Syrian government forces, backed by Russia and Iran, bombarded two of the last major rebel areas: Eastern Ghouta and the northwestern province of Idlib.

The 15-member Security Council is currently negotiating a possible resolution, drafted by Kuwait and Sweden, that would demand a 30-day ceasefire in Syria to allow the delivery of aid and the evacuation of sick and wounded.

The multi-sided conflict is also raging elsewhere, with Turkey waging an offensive against Syrian Kurdish forces in the Afrin region of northwestern Syria, while on Saturday, Syrian government anti-aircraft fire downed an Israeli warplane returning from a bombing raid on Iran-backed positions in Syria.

What we are seeing in Syria today not only imperils the de-escalation arrangements and regional stability, it also undermines the efforts for a political solution. Yet we will not be deterred from pursuing the Geneva process, which is the only sustainable path toward a political solution, De Mistura said.

The U.N.-led Geneva process to try and broker an end to the conflict has been making little or no progress. Last year Russia, Turkey and Iran agreed de-escalation zones to ease hostilities in western Syria where they wield influence.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the Security Council that Russia was supposed to guarantee adherence to the de-escalation zones and the removal of all chemical weapons from its ally Syria.

Instead we to see the Assad regime continue to bomb, starve and yes, gas, civilians, Haley said, referring to President Bashar al-Assads government. Russia can push the regime to commit to seeking a real peace in Syria  now is the time for Russia to use that leverage.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia pushed back on Haleys remarks, saying the Syrian political process should be free from external pressure. He also called on the United States to exert their influence on Syrian opposition fighters to ensure they cease hostilities.Lt.-Gen. Alexander Lapin, chief of staff of Russia's contingent in Syria, speaks to journalists from inside a destroyed warehouse used by ISIS. (Maria Antonova/AFP/Getty Images)

US Strikes Allegedly Killed Scores of Russian Fighters in Syria

The United States has been accused of killing scores of Russian fighters in the ongoing war in Syria.

Sources told Bloomberg that U.S. forces killed more than 200 contract soldiers, mostly Russians fighting on behalf of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, last week.

The sources, identified as one U.S. official and three Russians, said the Russians died in a failed attack on a base held by the United States.

The official said the death toll was around 100, with another 200 to 300 injured, although the Russians said more than double that number died.

Russia officially said it had nothing to do with the attack and the United States accepted the claim but is still in talks with Russian officials searching for an explanation of what happened, according to Bloomberg. The outlet said the assault may have been a rogue operation.

This is a big scandal and a reason for an acute international crisis, said Vladimir Frolov, a former Russian diplomat and lawmaker whos now an independent political analyst. But Russia will pretend nothing happened.

To make things murkier, its not clear who was paying the Russians who were killed or wounded, with Russia, Syria, Iran, or another party possible.



No one wants to start a world war over a volunteer or a mercenary who wasnt sent by the state and was hit by Americans, said Vitaly Naumkin, a senior adviser to Russias government on Syria.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, meanwhile, told The Associated Press that five of its citizens were killed by a U.S. strike in Syria.

According to preliminary information, five people, presumably Russian citizens, may have been killed in combat, the circumstances of which are being clarified, Zakharova said in a briefing. Some others have been injured, and its still necessary to check whether they are citizens of Russia or other nations.

It marks the first time Russian and U.S. combatants have become directly engaged in combat in Syria, according to the outlet.

Russian forces are backing Assad while the United States is backing multiple opposition groups.

Both sides are fighting against the last remnants of ISIS, which was mostly destroyed by the United States in the last year.

From NTD.tv

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Wranglers Wrestle With Alligator to Remove Eggs From NestWhite House Threatens Veto on Schumer-Rounds-Collins Immigration Proposal

WASHINGTONThe White House on Thursday said it would veto any immigration legislation that included the amendment introduced by senators Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Mike Rounds (D-S.D.), and Angus King (I-Maine).

The administration strongly opposes passage of the Schumer-Rounds-Collins amendment, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. This amendment would drastically change our national immigration policy for the worse by weakening border security and undercutting existing immigration law.

The Schumer-Rounds-Collins would render Homeland Security unable to remove most of the estimated 11 million illegal aliens who are currently in the United States, as well as any who could get here by June 30, 2018.

DHS could only remove criminal aliens, national security threats, and those who arrive after June 30which would create a massive surge at the border for the next four months, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a fact sheet published on Feb. 15.

DHS said the amendment would be the end of immigration enforcement in America.

By halting immigration enforcement for all aliens who will arrive before June 2018, it ignores the lessons of 9/11 and significantly increases the risk of crime and terrorism, DHS said.

In a press call on Feb. 15, a White House official called the Schumer-Rounds-Collins amendment totally unworkable and reckless.

All of the operators who looked at it, and the DOJ, were stunned beyond words. I mean, no one has ever seen anything like this, the official said. If this was introduced in the normal course of eventslike the way the Gang of Eight introduced their bill a long time agoit wouldnt have lasted 24 hours.

An administration official said, It is really an unbelievable future amnesty provision that no one here had ever seen and were astounded that members of the Senate were attempting to push this through.

The White House has thrown its full support behind a bill introduced by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

A draft of the Secure and Succeed Act by Grassley was released on Feb. 11 and subsequently updated in preparation to hit the Senate floor on Feb. 14.

The bill addresses Trumps four immigration priorities, including securing the border and closing legal loopholes, ending chain migration in favor of a merit-based system, ending the diversity visa lottery, and giving amnesty to 1.8 million illegal aliens, including recipients in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The White House official said Grassleys bill is the only one being discussed in the Senate that has a chance of becoming a law.

Trump also said he was encouraged with legislation by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), which is gaining momentum in the House.

In September last year, Trump announced a phase out of the DACA program and gave Congress until March 5 to come up with a permanent solution.

Two federal judges have since ruled that Trump cannot end DACA on March 5, and the program remains in place until the Supreme Court decides whether to take up the governments appeal on the first of these rulings.

Former President Barack Obama introduced DACA in 2012 by executive order after legislation giving amnesty to people who entered the country illegally as children failed to pass in Congress.NEWTOWN - The community of activists and family members who lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook shootings reacted with grief, outrage and renewed calls for action following the Valentines Day massacre at a Florida high school.

We can no longer ignore this issue, said the Newtown-based nonprofit, Sandy Hook Promise about the killing of 17 students and adults Wednesday at high school in Parkland, Fla. It is not the time to feel helpless or hopeless, it is time to speak out, take action, and protect our kids from senseless, preventable gun violence. The frequency of school shootings (is) increasing at an alarming rate, and they happen at this rate nowhere else in the world.

The massacre at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School by a troubled 19-year-old, who legally bought the AR-15-style rifle used in the crime, was the deadliest school shooting in the United States since 2012, when Adam Lanza took a similar rifle from an unlocked closet and shot his way into Sandy Hook School, killing 20 first-graders and six educators.

AR-15s are weapons of war designed to kill large number of humans efficiently and effectively, said the Newtown Action Alliance in a social media post. It's time for Americans to vote out any member of Congress or state legislator who will not work to ban these human killing machines.

The Sandy Hook community in mid-December marked the fifth year since its loved ones were lost to senseless violence.

Since 2013, there have been 290 school shootings in America, according to Everytown For Gun Safety, including a late-January shooting at a Kentucky high school that left two students dead and injured 12.

We just wrote a statement a few weeks ago for the children in Kentucky, said the Vicki Soto Memorial Fund, whose namesake is one of the teachers who was slain in the Sandy Hook shootings. Now we are here commenting on the school shooting in Florida todayThis cannot be the new normal.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump tweeted his prayers and condolences to the families in Florida and said No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.

The daughter of the Sandy Hook principal who was slain in the 2012 shootings responded to Trump in a tweet that he was right.

Ive been saying this since my mom was murdered at Sandy Hook in 2012, wrote Erica Lafferty on Twitter. So, is it finally time to talk gun sense?

In a Thursday address from the White House, Trump said he would travel to Florida meet with victims families, explore how to better secure schools and tackle the difficult issue of mental health, the Associated Press reported.

The Newtown Action Alliance, a homegrown nonprofit that lobbies for gun violence prevention, said the problem was the countrys gun policy.

Nothing is more despicable and dishonorable than elected officials who say,Now is not the time to talk about gun control, and blame only mental illness for these school shootings, said Po Murray, the nonprofits chair, in a statement on Thursday. Americans are 25 times more likely to be killed by guns than people from other industrialized nations...(W)e should be embarrassed that we do nothing in this nation to protect our precious children from gun violence.

Leaders from the homegrown nonprofit Sandy Hook Promise called for action.

Talk to your legislators: demand sustainable gun violence prevention methods be implemented, SHP said in a statement. Also, we urge you to call (federal) representatives to support the STOP School Violence Act of 2018. This legislation invests in early intervention and prevention programs to stop school violence.NORWALK  Pennsylvania-based halfway house operator Firetree Ltd. has proposed a sober house for its Quintard Avenue property thats been the subject of a federal lawsuit against the city of Norwalk.

Thats based upon an email shared with neighborhood leaders and obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media.

Firetree has applied for an alternative use of the property as a Sober House with no on-site medical care, wrote Quintard Avenue resident Bob Weiner. The city intends to allow that same use as Federal and State laws protect same non-conforming uses and Federal judgments have allowed Sober Houses just about anywhere. Zoning apparently has previously approved use of 18 beds at that location if the use remains the same.

In the email, which he asked be shared only with Sono community members, Weiner said the judge in the lawsuit required a settlement talk, which was held, but no settlement was reached.

The city intends to fight against the prison house in the courts as long as it takes if the settlement is not reached, Weiner wrote. Any settlement would be financial and would not allow the prison house to be placed there.

When asked Tuesday about where settlement talks stand, Weiner referred Hearst Connecticut Media to the city.

I think the City Hall folks in the Corporate Counsel and P&Z offices are best equipped to respond to queries right now other than basic background, Weiner wrote in an email to Hearst Connecticut Media.

City officials have remained tight-lipped about where settlement negotiations stand.

At this point the settlement discussions are confidential, Corporation Counsel Mario Coppola, head of the citys law department, said Tuesday. Its a pending legal case so I cant comment as to what the discussions have been.

Rick Reardon, a Quintard Avenue resident who fought the proposed halfway house at the address, said Wednesday that a sober house is equally unsuitable. He said the facility would house 18 people and bring traffic to the street.

Nobody can fathom at this point whats going to happen on the street when 18 people move in. This is going to change the face of the neighborhood beyond anything Pivot House could have done, said Reardon, referring to an earlier use of the property. Not one person at the Pivot House owned their own car. A sober house is functional people, you have the worst of the worst and the best of the best. I feel as though the street has been handed a death sentence.

Firetree Ltd. sued the city in July over its denial of a permit to open a controversial halfway house at 17 Quintard Ave. The organization maintains the denial constituted intentional discrimination against persons with disabilities in violation of Plaintiffs rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

In July 2016, Firetree bought the property from Pivot Ministries, a Bridgeport-based nonprofit organization that provided drug- and alcohol-rehabilitation services at the address since 1976.

The new owner undertook renovations and informed the Planning and Zoning office, in writing on July 21, that it intended to provide rehabilitation, education and supervisory programs and services for up to 19 residents who are in the process of transitioning from an institutional setting back to their communities.NORWALK  Dozens of uninsured children walked out of the Day Street Community Health Center on Thursday with healthier smiles following an annual one-day initiative to provide free dental services to those in need.

Children up to age 18 received necessary care that included cleanings, exams, restorative care, fluoride treatments, sealants, fillings, and dental education through the Give Kids a Smile program.

Every year for the past 11 years, we provide those children with free dental care, said CHC care coordinator Enid Guzman. Some of the childrens parents do not qualify for Husky, or some are undocumented.

Guzman said the center reaches out to Norwalk Public School nurses to identify the children most in need.

We let the schools know that we are providing free care to uninsured children, Guzman said. Today we have two dentists and two hygienists who are seeing more than 45 children from age 1 to 18.

CHC dentist Karima Daniel pointed to the numerous negative effects dental issues have on a childs overall health.

Dental problems are the second leading cause of school absences, just after asthma, Daniel said. Children with active dental lesions and pain miss school because of it. Also, with dental issues, they may not be able to eat in a healthy manner, and poor nutrition affects their ability to concentrate and function as kids.

She said especially for teens, dental issues can have a negative effect on their self-confidence.

Daniel said Thursday she treated children with multiple cavities and abscesses. She said while not all necessary dental work may be completed in one visit, it is a good start.

I will try to resolve as much as possible today, Daniel said. After that, the clinic will work with the families for funding.

Since the Give Kids A Smile program was launched nationally by the American Dental Association in 2003, more than 5.5 million underserved children have received free oral health services. In 2017, these free services were provided by more than 30,000 dental team members, 8,000 of whom are dentists.

Each year, Give Kids A Smile is celebrated nationally in February.

Its nice to give back, its very rewarding, Daniel said. The parents are so grateful that their children are getting the care they need.Houston businessman Andrew White, a Democratic aspirant for governor, said that when hes elected, hell step up sex education in schools.

White, speaking in January 2018 to David Martin Davies of Texas Public Radio, declared: "There is a large number of schools in Texas that dont even offer sex education. Now that, to me, its bizarre. So we have to make these investments. If you really are serious about reducing the demand for abortion, there are some really simple ways to do that -- sex education and access to contraceptives."

We wondered if a large number of Texas schools dont offer sex education.

After emailing White's campaign to ask how he reached his conclusion, we noticed that the Austin-based Texas Freedom Network, which describes itself as the states watchdog for monitoring far-right issues, estimated in 2017 that 25.1 percent of the states school districts in 2015-16 didnt teach sex education in their secondary schools--when just 2 percent werent doing so in 2007-08, the group previously found.

Broadly, the groups February 2017 report states that in 2015-16, about eight in 10 Texas school districts taught abstinence alone "or nothing at all when it comes to sex education." Abstinence-plus programs, including information on contraceptives, showed up in nearly 17 percent of districts.

The results were reached starting from a survey sent to 138 of 976 Texas school districts that had high schools that werent also charter school districts--plus the states 10 highest-enrollment districts. Districts were "representative of the diversity in geography, enrollment, racial demographics and district type (rural, urban or non-metropolitan/smaller cities) in Texas public schools," the report says.

The report concedes that it didnt pin down precisely whats taught to students in each district.

Rather, the group asked which textbooks, third-party programs or curricula and/or speakers that districts had obtained and/or used to teach sex education in middle and high schools. Also, the report says, "we asked specifically for materials districts had obtained from crisis pregnancy centers or other alternative-to-abortion organizations, any materials that cover sexual orientation, gender identity/expression or abortion, and copies of class schedules and district policies."

To our inquiry, a network spokesman, Dan Quinn, listed the 35 sampled districts found not to be teaching sex education--nearly all of them rural.

Health class in high schools

Quinn also told us by email: "A key factor in the increase in the percentage of school districts not offering sex education appears to be the Legislatures decision in 2009 to drop health class as a high school graduation requirement."

The 2009 Legislature and then-Gov. Rick Perry advanced House Bill 3 into law. It directed the State Board of Education to spell out the classes students would have to pass to fulfill different kinds of graduation plans. Yet the law barred the board from specifying electives, such as health, as classes that had to be taken to graduate.

Quinn wrote: "Health class is often where students get sex ed. Many school districts either continue to offer health as an elective or make it a local graduation requirement, but a substantial number of school districts appear to have dropped health classes since 2009."

The networks 2017 report states: "We found that districts with no health class were more than four times more likely to offer no sex education at all (as compared with the overall distribution of districts). Conversely, school districts with health classes were more likely to offer either abstinence-plus or abstinence-only sex education. This finding suggests that the decision to remove health education as a state graduation requirement has contributed to the rise in the percentage of districts that teach students nothing at all about human sexuality in high school," the report says.

Health classes dont necessarily cover sex education

We further learned that just because a district offers a health class doesnt mean its students take the class or that the class covers more than the state-required emphasis on abstinence alone as the best practice.

The states curriculum guidelines for the one-semester health class call for students to analyze the "effectiveness and ineffectiveness of barrier protection and other contraceptive methods." They otherwise say each student is expected to analyze the importance of abstinence from sex as the only method thats 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases.

But Lauren Callahan, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency, cautioned against presuming the guidelines show whats being taught because, she noted, thats up to individual districts. State law requires each district board of trustees to establish a local school health advisory council to "assist the district in ensuring that local community values are reflected in the district's health education instruction." Also, the law says each board shall choose course materials related to sex education with the councils advice.

Notably too, not all students lately take health classes. Callahan pointed us to annual school health surveys undertaken by the agency. Per the latest results, nearly 52 percent of districts and charter schools in 2015-16 indicated they werent requiring all high school students to take "health education" to graduate--with 48 percent replying that they did require every student to take a class in health education.

Study: Abstinence-plus instruction isnt widespread

The study estimated that 58 percent of districts offered abstinence-only sex education. In contrast, the study says, nearly 17 percent of districts were taking an abstinence-plus approach by having medically accurate information on condoms and other forms of contraception. Quinn noted that in 2007-08, the network previously found, about 4 percent of districts took an abstinence-plus approach.

Quinn, asked to identify the districts in its 2017 sample that were found to have abstinence-plus teaching materials, listed 30 districts, including eight of the states 10 highest-enrollment districts--such as the Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin districts. But, Quinn wrote, determining "how those ab-plus materials are used in classrooms  whether teachers use them as suggested, skip portions, or whatever  was beyond the scope of this project."

Similarly, David C. Wiley, a Texas State University education professor who worked on the study, told us by phone: "Theres no guarantee that teachers are actually teaching that information."

Upshot: "Texas kids dont get much information about contraception," Wiley said.

As we completed this research, Desi Canela of White's campaign said by email that White reached his conclusion about schools not offering sex education based on the network's 2017 study.

Our ruling

White said a "large number" of Texas schools dont offer sex education.

In fact, most districts offered sex education in high school in 2015-16, according to a statewide analysis, though nearly 60 percent were teaching abstinence alone. The study estimated that 25 percent of districts didn't offer sex education.

On balance, we rate this claim Half True.

HALF TRUE  The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check.

See Figure 1 on PolitiFact.com11 hours ago

US stocks can't hold on to an early gain and resume falling

Banks and energy companies led a broad slide for stocks on Wall Street Tuesday, handing the S&P 500 its sixth loss in the last seven trading days. The S&P 500 fell 0.6% after an early gain faded by midafternoon.

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View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.The following companies are subsidiares of Mohawk Industries: A&S Energie NV, A&U Energie NV, Aladdin Manufacturing Corporation, Aladdin Manufacturing Of New York LLC, Aladdin Manufacturing of Alabama LLC, Alsace Logistique S.A., Avelgem Green Power CVBA, Avon Pacific Holdings Ltd, B&M NV, BGE Mexico S. de R. L. de C.V., Berghoef GmbH, Berghoef-Hout B.V., Bienes Raices y Materiales del Centro S. de R.L. de C.V., C.F. Marazzi S.A., Canterbury Spinners Ltd, Carpet Foundation Ltd, Cevotrans BV, Ceramus Bahia S/A  Produtos Ceramicos, DT Mex Holdings LLC, DTM/CM Holdings LLC, Dal Italia LLC, Dal-Elit LLC, Dal-Tile Chile Comercial Limitada, Dal-Tile Colombia S.A.S., Dal-Tile Distribution Inc., Dal-Tile Group Inc., Dal-Tile I LLC, Dal-Tile Industrias S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile International Inc., Dal-Tile Mexico Comercial S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile Operaciones Mexico S. De R.L. De C.V., Dal-Tile Peru SRL, Dal-Tile Puerto Rico Inc., Dal-Tile Services Inc., Dal-Tile Shared Services Inc., Dal-Tile Tennessee LLC, Dal-Tile of Canada ULC, Daltile, Daltile, Dekaply NV, Durkan, Dynea NV, Eliane Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Eliane S/A - Revestimentos Ceramicos, Emilceramica India Pvt Ltd., Emilceramica S.r.l, Emilgermany GmbH, Emilgroup Asia Ltd, Explorer S.r.l., F.I.L.S. Investments Unlimited Company, Feltex Carpets Ltd, Feltex Carpets Pty Ltd, Feltex New Zealand Ltd, Fibremakers Australia Pty Ltd, Flooring Foundation Ltd, Flooring Industries Limited S.a r.l., Flooring XL B.V., Floorscape Limited, Godfrey Hirst & Co Pty Ltd, Godfrey Hirst (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Godfrey Hirst Australia Pty Ltd, Godfrey Hirst Group, Godfrey Hirst NZ Ltd, Hytherm (Ireland) Limited, IVC BVBA, IVC Far-East Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., IVC France S.a r.l., IVC GROUP LIMITED, IVC Green Power NV, IVC Group, IVC Group GmbH, IVC Luxembourg S.a r.l., IVC Rus OOO, IVC US Inc., International Flooring Systems S.a r.l., International Vinyl Company - Vostok OOO, KAI Group, KAI Keramica Ltd, KAI Mining EOOD, KERAMA CENTER OOO, Kerama Baltics OOO, Kerama Export OOO, Kerama Marazzi OOO, Kerampromservis (LLC), Khan Asparuh - Transport EOOD, Khan Asparuh AD, Khan Omurtag AD, Koninklijke Peitsman B.V., Kraj Kerama OOO, MG China Trading Ltd., MI Finance SRL, MUD (Holding) Brazil Ltda., Management Co EAD, Marazzi Acquisition S.r.l., Marazzi Deutschland G.m.b.H., Marazzi France Trading S.A.S., Marazzi Group, Marazzi Group F.Z.E., Marazzi Group S.r.l., Marazzi Group Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Marazzi Iberia S.L.U., Marazzi Japan Co. Ltd., Marazzi Middle East FZ LLC, Marazzi Schweiz S.A.G.L., Marazzi UK Ltd., Mohawk Assurance Services Inc., Mohawk Australia Pty Ltd, Mohawk Canada Corporation, Mohawk Capital Finance S.A., Mohawk Capital Luxembourg SA, Mohawk Carpet Distribution Inc., Mohawk Carpet Foundation Inc., Mohawk Carpet LLC, Mohawk Carpet Transportation Of Georgia LLC, Mohawk Commercial Inc., Mohawk ESV Inc., Mohawk Europe BVBA, Mohawk Factoring II Inc., Mohawk Factoring LLC, Mohawk Finance S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Acquisitions S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Funding S.a.r.l, Mohawk Foreign Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Investments Inc., Mohawk Global Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Holdings International B.V., Mohawk Industries Inc., Mohawk International (Europe) S.a r.l., Mohawk International (Hong Kong) Limited, Mohawk International Capital N.V., Mohawk International Financing S.a.r.l, Mohawk International Holdings (DE) LLC, Mohawk International Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk International Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk International Netherlands B.V., Mohawk International Services BVBA, Mohawk KAI Luxembourg Holding S.a r.l., Mohawk KAI Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Capital S.A., Mohawk Luxembourg Financing S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Pacific S.a r.l., Mohawk Marazzi International BV, Mohawk Marazzi Russia BV, Mohawk New Zealand Limited, Mohawk Operaciones Mexicali S. de R.L. de C.V., Mohawk Operations Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk Pacific Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Resources LLC, Mohawk Servicing LLC, Mohawk Singapore Private Limited, Mohawk Trading (Shanghai) Co. 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Bhd., Unilin ApS, Unilin Arauco Pisos Ltda., Unilin BVBA, Unilin Beheer BV, Unilin Distribution Ltd., Unilin Distribution Ukraine LLC, Unilin Finland OY, Unilin Flooring India Private Limited, Unilin Flooring SAS, Unilin GmbH, Unilin Holding BVBA, Unilin Insulation BV, Unilin Insulation SAS, Unilin Insulation Sury SAS, Unilin Italia S.R.L., Unilin North America LLC, Unilin Norway AS, Unilin OOO, Unilin Panels SAS, Unilin Poland Sp.Z.o.o., Unilin SAS, Unilin Spain SL, Unilin Swiss GmbH, Unilin s.r.o., World International Inc., Xtratherm, Xtratherm Limited, Xtratherm S.A., and Xtratherm UK Limited.Big changes are coming, but Watertown is already a great place to liveHouse for Sale 1.jpg

(File Photo | Mlive Media Group)

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Lending Tree, an online lending company, has ranked the Grand Rapids real estate market as being the nation's third best for first-time home buyers.

Grand Rapids ranked third in the study, behind Little Rock, Ark. and Birmingham, Ala., according to the study, which reached its conclusion by looking at the credit data from the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) for home buyers in 100 U.S. housing markets.

Fifty-nine percent of home buyers in Grand Rapids qualified with less than prime credit ratings, according to the FHA statistics, according to the Lending Tree survey. That's an indicator of younger home buyers who have not yet established good credit ratings.

Grand Rapids home buyers also came up with lower down payments -- 22 percent of the amount paid by other borrowers, according to Lending Tree. The average down payment for a home in Grand Rapids was calculated at $32,434.

Brian Karimzad, vice president of research at LendingTree, said the FHA statistics show how easy or difficult it can be for first-time home buyers to compete for houses when they go on the market.

Twelve of the top 15 cities in the survey were in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. "Access for first-time home buyers is great as home prices have not outpaced the growth in the economy and affordability is high," Lending Tree said.

The survey results jibe with other recent surveys that indicate millennials living in West Michigan are entering the housing market in larger numbers than many U.S. cities.

The average price of a home sold in the greater Grand Rapids area last year was $206,936, an 8.6 percent increase over 2016, when the average home sold for $190,477, according to statistics gathered by the Grand Rapids Association of Realtors.

West Michigan Realtors struggled with low inventories last year as the number of homes sold fell 3 percent from 2016. Last year, Realtors reported 11,904 home sales throughout the region compared to 12,286 home sales in 2016.PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) -- An orphaned 19-year-old with a troubled past and an AR-15 rifle was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder Thursday morning after being questioned for hours by state and federal authorities following the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. in five years.





Fourteen wounded survivors were hospitalized as bodies were recovered from inside and around Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.





Nikolas Cruz, still wearing a hospital gown after being treated for labored breathing, and weighing in at 5-foot-7 and 131 pounds, was ordered held without bond and booked into jail.





His former classmates thought they were having another drill Wednesday afternoon when a fire alarm sounded, requiring them to file out of their classrooms.





That's when police say Cruz, equipped with a gas mask, smoke grenades and multiple magazines of ammunition, opened fire with a semi-automatic weapon, killing 17 people and sending hundreds of students fleeing into the streets. It was the nation's deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, more than five years ago.





"Our district is in a tremendous state of grief and sorrow," said Robert Runcie, superintendent of the school district in Parkland, about an hour's drive north of Miami. "It is a horrible day for us."





Authorities offered no immediate details about Cruz or his possible motive, except to say that he had been kicked out of the high school, which has about 3,000 students. Students who knew him described a volatile teenager whose strange behavior had caused others to end friendships with him.





Cruz's mother Lynda Cruz died of pneumonia on Nov. 1 neighbors, friends and family members said, according to the Sun Sentinel . Cruz and her husband, who died of a heart attack several years ago, adopted Nikolas and his biological brother, Zachary, after the couple moved from Long Island in New York to Broward County.





The boys were left in the care of a family friend after their mother died, family member Barbara Kumbatovich, of Long Island, said.





Unhappy there, Nikolas Cruz asked to move in with a friend's family in northwest Broward. The family agreed and Cruz moved in around Thanksgiving. According to the family's lawyer, who did not identify them, they knew that Cruz owned the AR-15 but made him keep it locked up in a cabinet. He did have the key, however.





Jim Lewis said the family is devastated and didn't see this coming. They are cooperating with authorities, he said.





Victoria Olvera, a 17-year-old junior at the school, said Cruz was expelled last school year because he got into a fight with his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. She said he had been abusive to his girlfriend.





"I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him," she said.





Cruz was taken into custody without a fight about an hour after the shooting in a residential neighborhood about a mile away. He had multiple magazines of ammunition, authorities said.





"It's catastrophic. There really are no words," said Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel.





Frantic parents rushed to the school to find SWAT team members and ambulances surrounding the huge campus and emergency workers who appeared to be treating the wounded on sidewalks. Students who hadn't run began leaving in a single-file line with their hands over their heads as officers urged them to evacuate quickly.





Hearing loud bangs as the shooter fired, many of the students inside hid under desks or in closets, and barricaded doors.





"We were in the corner, away from the windows," said freshman Max Charles, who said he heard five gunshots. "The teacher locked the door and turned off the light. I thought maybe I could die or something."





As he was leaving the building, he saw four dead students and one dead teacher. He said he was relieved when he finally found his mother.





"I was happy that I was alive," Max said. "She was crying when she saw me."





Noah Parness, a 17-year-old junior, said he and the other students calmly went outside to their fire-drill areas when he suddenly heard popping sounds.





"We saw a bunch of teachers running down the stairway, and then everybody shifted and broke into a sprint," Parness said. "I hopped a fence."





Most of the fatalities were inside the building, though some victims were found fatally shot outside, the sheriff said.





Sen. Bill Nelson told CNN that Cruz had pulled the fire alarm "so the kids would come pouring out of the classrooms into the hall."





"And there the carnage began," said Nelson, who said he was briefed by the FBI.





The scene was reminiscent of the Newtown attack, which shocked even a country numbed by the regularity of school shootings. The Dec. 14, 2012, assault at Sandy Hook Elementary School killed 26 people: 20 first-graders and six staff members. The 20-year-old gunman, who also fatally shot his mother in her bed, then killed himself.





Not long after Wednesday's attack in Florida, Michael Nembhard was sitting in his garage on a cul-de-sac when he saw a young man in a burgundy shirt walking down the street. In an instant, a police cruiser pulled up, and officers jumped out with guns drawn.





"All I heard was 'Get on the ground! Get on the ground!'" Nembhard said. He said Cruz did as he was told.



Lawyers representing former Sears Canada workers and their ex-employer are trying to reach an agreement on whether a trustee should be appointed to review nearly $3 billion paid to shareholders even as the retailer business was in decline.

The ex-workers are upset the payments were made while the pension fund had a shortfall, which was about $266.8 million when Sears Canada sought court protection from creditors.

The opposing parties deliberated behind closed doors Thursday at the Ontario Superior Court in Toronto.

The workers claim the bulk of the $3 billion was paid to Sears Canadas largest shareholder, U.S. hedge fund ESL Investments and its CEO Eddie Lampert  a claim disputed by ESL.

A representative for ESL told The Canadian Press that the company and Lampert only received five per cent of the dividends paid out to shareholders.

Lampert took control of Sears in 2005 and says ESL suffered significant losses from the companys 2017 bankruptcy.

After he and other shareholders were paid by the company, he claims Sears had $500 million in cash available for use and no debt.

Lampert also claims the former employees $300-million figure is deceitful because it conflates Sears retirement plan with health, dental and life insurance that he says has gone unfunded since 2008.

In their motion, the workers also say they are owed $400 million for unpaid health and life-insurance benefits.

Read more:

Will 16,000 Sears Canada retirees see their pensions?

Sears Canada announced in June it plans to close 59 locations and cut 2,900 jobs under a court-supervised restructuring. Here?s a look at the history of the retail giant. (The Canadian Press)

Closing time at Sears Canada: Photos

Final Sears stores close Sunday, marking the end of an era

Read more about:Can McDonalds make parents happier to feed their kids Happy Meals?

Thats the aim of a set of new global menu goals for child customers, announced Thursday, to reduce calories, fat, sodium and added sugar from the ultimate fast food kid magnet.

By 2022, 50 per cent or more of the Happy Meal bundle offerings shown on menus will meet the criteria of fewer than or equal to 600 calories; less than or equal to 10 per cent of calories from saturated fat; fewer than or equal to 650 milligrams of sodium; and less than or equal to 10 per cent of calories from added sugar.

Share your thoughts

Currently, the made-for-kids meal boxes range from 300 to nearly 800 calories across North America.

McDonalds global director of nutrition Julia Braun said in an interview that the move is aimed at the fast food giant being more transparent with their menu items.

Its really all about offering more balanced choices and using fewer ingredients, she said.

This will be our North Star in nutrition, said Braun, adding its their first time establishing specific goals for one of their top selling meal combos.

Though the Happy Meal remains a top seller, she said the burger behemoth will be watching to see if parents are embracing the changes through increased sales of healthier kids meal options.

The new targets are being established in the companys 120 markets around the world including the 1,400 restaurants in Canada, where the federal government is planning to usher in a nationwide ban on food and drink marketing aimed at children.

As a family business, were aware of what the government is doing so the company is paying close attention, said Nicola Pitman, director of menu management at McDonalds Canada.

Starting in June, McDonalds in the U.S. will lead the charge, making all Happy Meals compliant with the new targets. Global markets including Canada will only be required to make 50 per cent of them healthier by 2022, although Canada is already a few steps ahead, offering bottled water and marketing the Happy Meal with a focus on milk, apple slices and yogurt.

The U.S. already offers an organic apple juice with fewer calories and reduced sugar, and is about to offer chocolate milk with less added sugar, while Canada hasnt announced plans to introduce those drinks as of yet.

Kenneth Wong, marketing professor at the Smiths School of Business at Queens University, said its not a coincidence that McDonalds is sprucing up the Happy Meal image now.

I think the big issue here is what it says about the climate facing marketers as they reach out to kids. Children have been found to be unable to discriminate fact from puffery and embellishment in food, he said.

So what McDonalds is doing is actually quite smart. As long as they can keep it a freedom of choice issue and cannot be found to be hiding info that would result in a bad choice, they are safe, he said.

Wong noted its all part of a larger trend to eat more healthily. The fast food industry is often blamed for bad eating habits for both parents and children, which are linked in health studies to obesity, heart disease, diabetes and other health issues.

With tweaks made over the years aimed at parents, the Happy Meal offerings have been veering toward the healthy side, including the addition of apple slices in 2004 and yogurt in 2012. McDonalds Canada went a step further in 2017 by making McNuggets  a top seller in Happy Meals  preservative-free as well as lower in calories and sodium.

Even the toys recently got some competition, with McDonalds Canada now offering childrens books as a parent-pleasing option to those enticing and heavily marketed playthings. Last year, the company distributed more than 3 million books to kids across Canada in the program.

Wong noted the anti-obesity lobby will not be happy until kid-friendly meals are taken off menus entirely, but most parents believe Happy Meals are a treat or bribe, and believe that as long as consumption is limited to special occasions, their child is not at risk.

Read more about:Sometimes, Sean Hannitys website is too much even for Sean Hannity.

This week, the Fox News blowhard and enemy of civility was forced to delete a story about Barack Obamas new portrait. The painting, commissioned by the Smithsonian and unveiled on Tuesday at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, created a buzz in political and art circles, mostly due to the painters untraditional composition and assault on expectations.

Kehinde Wiley did not depict Obama in the Oval Office. He put him in an antique chair and then textured the seven-foot canvas with so many leaves and flowers, you half expected to find a pregnant Beyonce lurking in the background.

Some people loved the bold approach and reimagining of what a presidential portrait should be. Others found it tacky and un-presidential. But instead of contributing to this esthetic dialogue, Hannity staffers put on their tinfoil toques to investigate the possibility the portrait contained  wait for it  Secret Sperm.

Take another look at the painting. See that vein on the left side of Obamas head? Blow it up and look closely. Thats not a vein  its spermatozoa! There is ejaculate on Obamas temple! Hence, the now-deleted headline on Hannitys eponymous clearing house of hot takes that are not quite warm enough for Fox News: PORTRAIT PERVERSION: Obama Portrait Features SECRET SPERM.

Now, why the artist would include clandestine semen on the former U.S. presidents head is not clear. But a decade ago, in a New York Times profile, Wiley said some of his background patterns were like abstractions of sperm.

So, apparently, that and a racist 4chan thread were enough to move Secret Sperm from the fringes of internet hate into the far-right echo chamber, where anti-Obama news is like a cryptocurrency that is impossible to truly grasp.

Hannity deleted the story from his site and released a statement: Earlier today my web staff posted content that was not reviewed by me before publication. It does not reflect my voice and message and, therefore, I had it taken down.

But his caution did not slow down InfoWars Alex Jones, the roid-raging, vitamin-pushing human dumpster fire. Jones, a grown man with no inside voice, linked the Secret Sperm to a religion of degeneracy, and proof elites want everything to be a ritual of abomination.

Me, I say why stop there? As a service to Obama-hating conspiracy theorists who are clearly running out of material, I have carefully analyzed the new portrait. And what I found goes way past Secret Sperm. This entire painting is dripping with discharged symbols that reveal many dark and sticky truths about Barry Hussein Obama.

Here now, 15 troubling revelations from the new Obama portrait:

1. Behind the chair is a yellow-bulb flower with crimson markings: Calophyllum inophyllum. It is native to Kenya. Just like Obama.

2. There are 365 greyed-out leaves: one year until the Race War begins.

3. The shadow on the chairs oval backrest is actually a map of Pangaea, the Paleozoic supercontinent. This is a call for globalization.

4. Look closely at Obamas left hand. His pinky finger appears to be tucked under and obscured. This means Obama has six digits, no opposable thumb, or hes wearing his wedding ring on his middle finger to give the bird to family values. Just like when he was president.

5. The time on his watch is 3:18. Is that the verse in the Koran in which Allah says he is the only God? Obama is a secret Muslim.

6. Grey hair? More like chemtrails.

7. If you turn your head 45 degrees to the left, Obama is no longer sitting  hes taking two knees. Thats how much he hates the military and America.

8. The pupillary response in his left eye is identical to the Eye of Providence. Obama is a Freemason or part of the Illuminati. Obama is watching you.

9. Obama is wearing blue and white . . . but not red. Obama is a secret Israeli.

10. If you squint at the two large, yellow-and-pink flowers, you can make out two slices of Hawaiian pizza, a reminder of the child-sex ring run Democrats continue to run out of down-market restaurants.

11. Why are Obamas ears are dramatically out of anatomical scale? To celebrate the fact he secretly conducted illegal surveillance on every citizen, often laughing into his bong when he heard people fret about jobs.

12. There are nine green leaves obscuring the chair seat and one in front of the backrest because 9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB.

13. If you stare at the upside-down-V shadow on Obamas throat for 30 seconds, you will see an ATF agent kicking down your door to steal your guns.

14. Look at the contrast lines in the chair under his crotch and you can make out the letters U-R-A-N-I-U-M. Busted, Barry.

15. If you magnify the ornate wooden bulb on the chairs right armrest, you will see Michelle in a Black Panther mask.

vmenon@thestar.ca

Read more about:RED DEER, ALTA.An Alberta judge was critical of a section of the Criminal Code that allows for consecutive parole ineligibilities Wednesday as he ruled two men found guilty of murdering three family members will not have to spend additional time in prison before they can apply for parole.

Jason Klaus, 42, and Joshua Frank, 32, were instead sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 25 years  which is automatic for first-degree murder.

I do not view (section) 745.1 as a particularly effective means of addressing Parliaments concerns, especially with respect to those offenders who are convicted of first-degree murders where the only options before the Court involve increments of 25 years, Justice Eric Macklin said.

Indeed, the imposition of consecutive parole ineligibility periods under (section) 745.1 may necessarily conflict with some of the principles and objectives of sentencing.

The Crown had argued that the two men deserved the maximum of 75 years without hope of parole for what the prosecution called a contract killing of sorts.

Macklin told court that factors in the case were not particularly uncommon compared with other murders and did not warrant consecutive sentences.

He also suggested that the two men would have a better chance of rehabilitation if they were not bereft of hope.

Klaus and Frank, sitting in the prisoners dock, did not change their expressions as Macklin spoke.

The defence said the murders werent as gruesome as other cases that resulted in consecutive sentences.

The bodies of Klauss father and sister were found in their burned-out farmhouse near Castor in December 2013. His mothers body was never found but police believe she also died in the house.

There are provisions in the Criminal Code to have sentences served one after the other for multiple murders. But Macklin said that although their crimes were horrific, delaying parole for Klaus and Frank would be a decision out of the ordinary.

Macklin said theres a misconception that multiple murderers automatically get out of prison after 25 years. He said chances of that are slim, because the Parole Board of Canada wont release anyone who is at a risk to reoffend.

During the trial court heard that Klaus was having problems with his father and offered Frank money to kill the family. Klaus had a cocaine and gambling addiction and forged cheques on his parents account, promising to pay them back.

Frank told police after his arrest that he killed the family because he was scared that Klaus would shoot him if he didnt.

Marilyn Thomson lost her brother Gordon, sister-in-law Sandy and niece Monica in the attack. She thanked police, the Crown and Justice Macklin outside court.

Although this does not bring Monica and Sandy and Gordon back we are very grateful that justice has been served and that we now have the opportunity to move on with our lives, she said.

Crown prosecutor Doug Taylor said Justice Macklin gave a well-thought out decision and he was not disappointed with the outcome.

Sentencing is the province of the trial judge. He heard what we had to say and he ruled as he did. I accept that, Taylor said.

Allan Fay, who represented Klaus, was satisfied with Macklins decision. He said it wouldnt have mattered what the sentence was  the families involved were not going to be happy.

How can they be? These people have lost family members, theyve lost friends, said Fay.

Consecutive periods of parole ineligibility have been imposed in Alberta in three other triple-murder cases.

Derek Saretzky was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 75 years in the first-degree murders of two-year-old Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette, her father Terry Blanchette and senior Hanne Meketech in 2015.

Douglas Garland was sentenced to life in prison without parole for 75 years for killing Alvin and Kathy Liknes of Calgary and their five-year-old grandson, Nathan OBrien, in 2014.

Armoured-car guard Travis Baumgartner was sentenced to life with no chance at parole for 40 years for killing three of his colleagues during a robbery in a mall at the University of Alberta in June 2012.

Read more about:OTTAWA Hundreds of New Democrats are flocking to the capital this week for a national convention that will feature a vote on Jagmeet Singhs still-new leadership and a host of policy debates that could stir up divisions in the NDP fold.

Beginning Friday morning, party members will hear speeches and vote policy resolutions that run the gamut from endorsing high speed rail to recognizing the historic mistake of enacting the 1982 Constitution without Quebecs signature.

Singh predicted Wednesday that inequality will be a key theme of the weekend, highlighting his calls for the Liberal government to act on NDP proposals in the upcoming federal budget. These include his demands to crack down on tax havens, raise capital gains taxes, and close the so-called stock option loophole  moves Singh says could bring in billions of dollars to create a national pharmacare program, among other services.

But Singh said he welcomes discussions on a wide range of proposals slated to be brought forward at the convention, such as resolutions on French language laws, the partys stance on the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, and the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion that has divided branches of the NDP in Alberta and British Columbia.

There (are) going to be healthy discussions and I welcome them. But I think the party is very much united around these two principles: the importance of the environment, the importance of the economy, Singh said when asked about the pipeline feud.

Conventions are an opportunity to have great discussions about issues and I look forward to that.

The convention also comes as the party has been rocked by allegations of inappropriate conduct involving two federal politicians. Singh said Wednesday that an investigation continues into unspecified allegations of inappropriate conduct involving Saskatchewan MP Erin Weir, while an internal review is underway in response to allegations of sexual misconduct against Peter Stoffer, a longtime former MP from Nova Scotia.

Singh is scheduled to deliver a keynote address to an expected 1,800 delegates Saturday afternoon. After his speech, members will vote on Singhs leadership, a routine convention procedure that saw his predecessor Tom Mulcair agree to step down after receiving just 48 per cent support from delegates at the 2016 party get-together in Edmonton.

Singh would not say Wednesday if he thinks he should attain a specific threshold of support in the vote. It was barely four months ago that he won the four-way NDP leadership race with a majority showing on the first ballot.

I havent really thought of a number but Im confident that Ill receive the support of the membership, he said.

While many of the policy resolutions submitted by members echo measures Singh already supports  such as proposals to decriminalize all drugs and push for electoral reform  there are grumblings from some corners of the NDP.

Yazan Khader is a member of the Courage Coalition, a group he says is made up of hundreds of activists whose goal is to give grassroots NDP members more influence over the partys policies. In an interview Wednesday, Khader said many in the coalition feel that certain priorities perceived to be unpalatable to the party leadership will be buried and put aside when it comes time for debate at the convention.

He said these include the resolutions to support the elimination of post-secondary tuition in Canada, and block the import of goods that are manufactured in settlements such as the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967.

Clearly, theres a hunger among members for a strong, principled stance, whether thats for workers rights, human rights, Indigenous rights  or even when it comes to foreign policy. And yet theres a bit of reluctance on the part of the leadership, Khader said.

There are also resolutions slated for debate that strike at the heart of the NDPs family feud over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, including one that calls on the party to explicitly oppose the $7.4-billion project.

Others call for the party to formally adopt the Leap Manifesto, a list of principles to transform the economy and shift away from fossil fuels that became a lightning rod for controversy at the NDP convention in 2016.

Avi Lewis, one of the Leap Manifesto authors, said Wednesday that the treatise contains precisely the type of bold ideas that could provoke a wellspring of support for a social democratic party like the NDP. Indeed, that is why he is hosting an event in Ottawa Thursday  organized by Leap and Khaders Courage Coalition  where key advisers to American Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.K. Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn will speak about their campaign strategies.

The terrain seems incredibly fruitful for a party that can step up with the kinds of demands that weve been talking about, Lewis said.

We absolutely want to influence the new leader.

Read more about:MONTREALHydro-Quebec may consider raising its rates for energy-hogging cryptocurrency miners, the utility said Thursday as requests continue to pour in from virtual currency companies looking to establish themselves in the province.

Spokesperson Marc-Antoine Pouliot said more than 100 cryptocurrency companies have expressed interest in coming to Quebec to take advantage of the provinces rock-bottom energy prices.

Weve had such an important volume (of requests) that there are questions being asked on the tariff offered and the quantity of clients well be able to plug in, he said in a phone interview.

Read more: Hydro-Quebec awarded 20-year electricity deal from Massachusetts

Pouliot said a few Bitcoin mining operations have already been established, and Hydro-Quebec is analyzing dozens more requests.

Access to cheap energy is crucial because cryptocurrency miners around the world are competing to solve the equations that feed into the blockchain, the digital record that supports the currency.

The more computing power miners throw at the system, the better their chances of being rewarded with Bitcoin.

Pouliot said Quebec is an attractive destination because it has the lowest rates in North America for large businesses, as well as cold weather, which helps to prevent the electronics from overheating.

He said the high-consuming cryptocurrency operations could be interesting clients for Hydro-Quebec, which currently has an energy surplus.

But that excess capacity could be threatened if the bulk of the requests materialize  which is far from a given at the moment, he admitted.

Some of the proposed projects are as big as 100 megawatts, Pouliot said  more than 20 times what it takes to power Montreals Bell Centre.

One project like that isnt a problem, but now were talking about hundreds, he said.

He said Hydro-Quebec has brought in industry-specific rates before, but generally to give a discount, not a hike.

A spokesperson for Natural Resources Minister Pierre Moreau confirmed the matter of raising rates is being discussed but said no final decision has been made.

Catherine Poulin said the proposal is part of a larger reflection on how to manage rising demand and ensure the networks capacity isnt threatened.

The co-founder of Bitfarms, one of Quebecs largest cryptocurrency mining companies, expressed hope that Moreau would consider the innovation and jobs the company brings to the province in his decision-making process.

We are building the computing power and electrical infrastructure that will power the blockchain with Quebec hydroelectric power, Pierre-Luc Quimper said in a statement.

He said the company has created 80 jobs in the province since July 2017 and hopes to hire 300 more people by the end of the year.

Quimper added that his team would be happy to meet with Moreau to further discuss their activities.

Read more about:MONTREALA spat over a death certificate prompted a man to abruptly leave a Montreal-area hospital with the body of his deceased father earlier this week.

A spokeswoman for the Anna-Laberge Hospital in Chateauguay said Thursday the deceased arrived by ambulance from the nearby Kahnawake Mohawk territory on Tuesday.

The family were hoping to get a certificate before repatriating the body for a quick burial by the end of the day, as per the sons beliefs.

But the hospital explained the deceased would have to be admitted and that the body could not be released to anyone but an accredited funeral facility.

For us, how it works is from the moment a body is admitted at the hospital, we have the responsibility, legally, to release it to an accredited funeral home, spokeswoman Jade St-Jean said.

There are rules for conserving the body  for public health reasons as well as preserving the dignity of the person.

The family refused to have the father admitted and St-Jean said administrators were sensitive to the situation, with a team trying to find a solution that would respect the familys beliefs and the hospitals legal obligations.

While we were doing that, someone left with the body so we called the authorities at that point, St-Jean said, adding no certificate was issued.

The incident came to light after the deceased mans son chronicled the incident and its aftermath in a series of videos on his Facebook page and on YouTube.

In a first video, the man confirmed he was determined to bury his father before sundown Tuesday and didnt allow hospital officials to admit the body or touch it.

The bureaucracy of Anna-Laberge is saying they are not going to release him if we send him in to get declared dead, the son said, adding a local funeral home declined to pick up the body if it was only to transport it.

In two subsequent videos, he confirmed leaving with the body in the back seat of a car and burying him as intended because he was adamant he did want his fathers body preserved in any way.

This is the way that our people are supposed to go, he said. They are not supposed to be planted in the ground with embalming fluid to poison the ground, the earth.

A body can only be for one day. So when your loved one dies in the morning, they are to be buried by the end of the day.

He did not return a call seeking further comment.

Police in Chateauguay, south of Montreal, confirmed they are investigating.

Spokeswoman Nathalie Langevin said they were called on Tuesday and have since been gathering information about what happened.

Langevin said police also spoke with the coroners office and the Crown as part of the probe.

Were trying to establish the facts and we have a lot of things to verify, she said.

St-Jean said the incident was a first for the hospital.

She said they would like to meet with Kahnawake community members to better understand practices and avoid similar incidents.

Read more about:The four candidates vying to lead Ontarios Opposition will face off for the first time today, but the public broadcaster hosting the debate says it does not expect any questions on sexual harassment  the topic that triggered the race in the first place.

The Progressive Conservatives were thrown into turmoil last month after former leader Patrick Brown resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations he vehemently denies.

The first debate of the leadership contest will be hosted by TVO, Ontarios public broadcaster, and moderated by a journalist who himself is the subject of an investigation into sexual harassment allegations.

A spokesperson for TVO says the broadcaster does not expect any questions about sexual harassment during todays leadership debate.

Read more:

Dropping Brown has helped Ontario Tories: poll

Patrick Brown attacks CTV News and his accusers  three weeks after allegations surfaced

Former PC leader Patrick Brown says he can disprove sexual misconduct allegations against him

Debate moderator and veteran journalist Steve Paikin was recently accused of sexual harassment by a Toronto woman, allegations he says are complete fiction. The public broadcaster has said Paikin will continue to host TVOs flagship program, The Agenda, while an independent third party investigates the allegations.

TVO has also said Paikin would not handle stories related to the subject and instead other journalists would cover the topic of sexual misconduct.

Political observers say finance and the carbon tax are expected to be key topics at todays debate.

Former Toronto city councillor Doug Ford, past Ontario health-care ombudsman Christine Elliott, lawyer and businesswoman Caroline Mulroney, and social conservative advocate Tanya Granic Allen are competing for the Tory leadership role.

Ford, the first candidate to enter the race, has set the agenda so far by denouncing the partys proposed carbon tax and promising to revisit Ontarios controversial sex education curriculum.

Political observers say the stakes are highest for Mulroney, a rookie politician and relative unknown who must prove she can discuss policy and hold her own against more experienced and forceful rivals.

The Tory leadership candidates will have another opportunity to square off on Feb. 28 in a final debate to be held in Ottawa.

Voting for the partys leader will take place early next month with the results expected March 10.

Read more about:Members of an Ontario First Nation say they plan to continue the relocation of an endangered herd of caribou off a remote island where theyre being slaughtered by wolves.

Michipicoten First Nation says it is working with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry to move up to nine caribou from Michipicoten Island to Caribou Island near the U.S. border as soon as the weather permits.

In mid-January, the province relocated nine caribou to the Slate Islands because their population on Michipicoten Island had been decimated by wolves that made their way there several years ago using an ice bridge.

Leo Lepiano, the land resources manager for Michipicoten First Nation, says they have been pushing the government to create a backup population out of fears the caribou on the Slate Islands would also be at risk, since there was at least one wolf on the islands as recently as 2016.

The caribou population on Michipicoten was considered a conservation success story after the caribou herd grew from eight animals  brought to Michipicoten Island in 1982  to near 700 before the wolves arrived in either late 2013 or early 2014.

A ministry spokesperson says they hope to capture the caribou in a co-ordinated operation with three helicopters along with help from the First Nation.

Read more:

Opinion | We dont have to choose between jobs and saving woodland caribou

Ontario government to use helicopters to move endangered caribou herd off wolf-laden island

Editorial | Canada must save the woodland caribouKELOWNAThe outcome of the first electoral engagement to take place against the backdrop of the B.C./Alberta trade war was non-conclusive. That is not to say it was meaningless.

On Wednesday the voters in the provincial riding of West Kelowna had the somewhat dubious honour to be the first to have the opportunity to use the ballot box to send a message to the politicians in Victoria and Edmonton who have been feuding over the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline. They took a bit of a pass.

West Kelowna is located in B.C.s wine country. That places it right in the line of fire of Alberta Premier Rachel Notleys retaliatory salvo against the provinces New Democrat government over the possibility that the latter might cap the amount of bitumen oil that transits through B.C.

In this region the competing soliloquies of the two governments potentially add up to more than just a war of angry words.

The Liberals kept the seat formerly held by ex-premier Christy Clark with 57 per cent of the vote. Thats almost identical to her 59 per cent finish in last years general election. If Notleys ban on Alberta purchasing B.C. wine is meant to swing new votes towards the more pipeline friendly political option, it has not happened yet.

Kelowna West is not ground zero of the B.C. pipeline debate. Still, anecdotal evidence this week did suggest it is a top-of-mind issue for a significant number of voters.

But on Wednesday that did not translate into the anti-pipeline vote coalescing behind one of the two parties that oppose the Kinder Morgan project. The New Democrat and Green party scores (23 per cent and 12.5 per cent) were in the same ballpark as those in 2017.

In no small part the support of the Green party for Premier John Horgans minority government is contingent on the NDPs keeping its promise to do all it can to block the Trans Mountain expansion.

But with two parties in contention for the votes of Trans Mountain opponents, the New Democrats cannot bank on the issue to secure a majority mandate in a general election. A plebiscite-style campaign revolving around pipelines would not necessarily be to the NDPs advantage.

As it happens the B.C. throne speech  presented on the eve of the byelection  was remarkably discreet on the pipeline file. There was no mention of the issue until the tail end of the 20-page speech and then only in generic terms.

In more serene circumstances, the statement that Horgans NDP is considering new protections to improve the provinces ability to respond to bitumen spills could have been dismissed as a throwaway line. Any B.C. government diligent in the matter of protecting its coastal waters could have written it (and possibly did).

Some have suggested that Horgans government overshot its target when it raised the notion of controlling the flow of bitumen oil to the Pacific coast; that it did not expect to trigger an all-out conflict with neighbouring Alberta or to set itself on a collision course with Justin Trudeaus government.

The vigour of the pushback from Edmonton and from Parliament Hill has taken many British Columbians by surprise. But that pushback may be doing more to solidify contrary positions than the opposite.

On that score a just-released Insights West poll found British Columbians split 48 per cent for and 44 per cent against the Trans Mountain expansion. More than half of those who oppose the project would consider civil disobedience to disrupt its construction. If there is a middle ground to be found between pipeline opponents and proponents it remains elusive.

But there are those on both sides who do agree a) that this battle could spill from court rooms and legislatures unto the streets and b) that B.C.s Indigenous peoples could have a pivotal role in the outcome of the debate.

Earlier this week, the prime minister delivered what he meant to be a landmark speech designed to reinforce his commitment to change the terms of the relationship between his government and the countrys Indigenous peoples.

Much has been said about the federal Liberal seats that could be in play in B.C. in 2019 as a result of Trudeaus vocal support for the Trans Mountain expansion. But it is the depth of his resolve to change the paradigm between Canada and its Indigenous peoples that may be the most severely tested by this pipeline war.

Chantal Hebert is a national affairs writer. Her column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Read more about:



PARKLAND, Fla.  A former student opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at a Florida high school Wednesday, killing at least 17 people and sending hundreds of students fleeing into the streets in the nations deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.





The shooter, who was equipped with a gas mask and smoke grenades, set off a fire alarm to draw students out of classrooms shortly before the day ended at one of the states largest schools, officials said.





Authorities offered no immediate details on the 19-year-old suspect or any possible motive, except to say that he had been kicked out of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which has about 3,000 students.





Students who knew the shooter, identified as Nikolas Cruz, described a volatile teenager whose strange behavior had caused others to end friendships with him, particularly after the fight that led to his expulsion.





Frantic parents rushed to the school to find SWAT team members and ambulances surrounding the huge campus. Live television footage showed emergency workers who appeared to be treating the wounded on sidewalks.





It is a horrific situation, said Robert Runcie, superintendent of the school district in Parkland, about an hours drive north of Miami. It is a horrible day for us.





The suspect was taken into custody without a fight about an hour later in a residential neighborhood about a mile away. He had multiple magazines of ammunition, authorities said.





Its catastrophic. There really are no words, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters.





The attacker used the fire alarm so the kids would come pouring out of the classrooms into the hall, Sen. Bill Nelson told CNN.





And there the carnage began, said Nelson, who said he was briefed by the FBI.





The Florida Democrat said he did not know if the gunman used the smoke grenades, but he assumed thats why he had a gas mask on.





Most of the fatalities were inside the building, though some victims were found fatally shot outside, the sheriff said.





Victoria Olvera, a junior at the school, said Cruz was expelled last school year because he got into a fight with his ex-girlfriends new boyfriend. She said he had been abusive to his girlfriend.





I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him, she said.





Dakota Mentcher, another junior, said he used to be friends with Cruz. But he cut off the friendship as Cruzs behavior started progressively getting a little more weird. Cruz posted on Instagram about killing animals and threatened one of Mentchers friends, he said.





He remembered that Cruz had a pellet gun and did target practice in his backyard.





Student Daniel Huerfano said he recognized Cruz from an Instagram photo in which Cruz had posed with a gun in front of his face.





Cruz was that weird kid that you see  like a loner, he said.





Freshman Max Charles was in class when he heard five gunshots.





We were in the corner, away from the windows, he said. The teacher locked the door and turned off the light. I thought maybe I could die or something.





As he was leaving the building, he saw four dead students and one dead teacher. He said he was relieved when he finally found his mother.





I was happy that I was alive, Max said. She was crying when she saw me.





Not long after the attack, Michael Nembhard was sitting in his garage on a cul-de-sac when he saw a young man in a burgundy shirt walking down the street. In an instant, a police cruiser pulled up, and officers jumped out with guns drawn.





All I heard was Get on the ground! Get on the ground!' Nembhard said. He said he could not see the suspects face, but the man did as he was told.





The day started normally at the school, which had a morning fire drill. Students were in class around 2:30 p.m. when another alarm sounded.





Noah Parness, a 17-year-old junior, said he and the other students calmly went outside to their fire-drill areas when he suddenly heard popping sounds.





We saw a bunch of teachers running down the stairway, and then everybody shifted and broke into a sprint, Parness said. I hopped a fence.





Beth Feingold said her daughter, Brittani, sent a text that said, Were on code red. Im fine, but sent another text shortly afterward saying, Mom, Im so scared. She was later able to escape.





Students heard loud bangs as the shooter fired. Many of them hid under desks or in closets and barricaded doors.





Television footage showed students leaving in a single-file line with their hands over their heads as officers urged them to evacuate quickly.





The scene was reminiscent of the Newtown attack, which shocked even a country numbed by the regularity of school shootings. The Dec. 14, 2012, assault at Sandy Hook Elementary School killed 26 people  20 first-graders and six staff members.





The 20-year-old gunman, who also fatally shot his mother in her bed, then killed himself.





When Caesar Figueroa got to the Florida school to check on his 16-year-old daughter, he saw helicopters and police officers wielding guns.





It was crazy and my daughter wasnt answering her phone. She finally texted him that she was inside a closet with friends.





Len Murrays 17-year-old son, a junior at the school, sent his parents a chilling text: Mom and Dad, there have been shots fired on campus at school. There are police sirens outside. Im in the auditorium and the doors are locked.





A few minutes later, he texted again, Im fine.





Murray said he raced to the school only to be stopped by authorities under a highway overpass within view of the school buildings. He said he told his son to save his battery and stop texting. The boys mother told him to turn off his ringer.





Murray said hes had just one thought running through his mind since his sons text: All I keep thinking about is when I dropped him off this morning. I usually say, I love you, and I didnt this morning. Hes 17, hes at that age, and I didnt say it this morning, and Im just kicking myself right now over and over and over.



Torontos city manager Peter Wallace has announced he is stepping down for a top public appointment in Ottawa after less than three years at city hall.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus office announced Thursday Wallace is being tapped to become secretary of the Treasury Board starting April 4.

The 59-year-old career public servant, known for his quick wit and frank talk in committee rooms and the council chamber, was appointed to the top job at city hall in May 2015 after retiring as head of Ontarios public service. He was a fellow at the University of Toronto before coming to city hall.

I am only leaving here because this is a fantastic opportunity in the Government of Canada to serve at the national level. That is the only thing that would have moved me, Wallace told the Star in an interview.

Wallace is the latest and highest ranking in a growing list of top public officials to leave their posts during Mayor John Torys administration.

He follows deputy city manager John Livey, who announced his retirement in December and the earlier departures of chief financial officer Rob Rossini, who also retired; TTC CEO Andy Byford, who took the top transit job in New York City; chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat, who announced she would not be seeking to renew her contract in August; interim Toronto Community Housing CEO Greg Spearn, who was passed over for the top job; general manager of transportation services Stephen Buckley, and general manager of solid waste Beth Goodger.

Only the TCH and general manager positions have been filled permanently.

This is a larger exodus than we saw under Rob Ford, said Councillor Gord Perks. I am very worried about where this leaves the city. The only senior public official we have who is still in her job is our city solicitor and she is relatively new.

In a press release, Tory wished Wallace well, saying he set a tone of absolute professionalism and raised the bar on customer service excellence by helping to transform city services to meet the needs of a modern city.

Wallace recommended Giuliana Carbone, deputy city manager, take over on an interim basis to ensure a smooth transition in an election year.

I wouldnt have gone if I didnt have confidence in the professionalism and capacity of the service, Wallace said.

There is much work to do.

Major infrastructure projects representing billions of dollars, including a Scarborough subway extension, SmartTrack GO stations, and Gardiner East replacement, have yet to get underway. The transit projects have not been approved for construction. Planning for a relief line subway continues.

For much of his time at city hall, Wallace and staff have been preparing a long-term financial plan, which was meant to ensure the city runs well, spends public money wisely and delivers the programs and services residents need and want over the long term, the city website says.

In December 2016, it was promised well in advance of the 2018 budget.

It has yet to be delivered.

This city manager has, for three years, faced a council, led by Tory, which has repeatedly rejected his advice about not to delay solving the citys financial problems.

Wallace has compared one-time, unsustainable budget strategies  council again approved such a budget for 2018 on Monday  to kicking the can down the road, and warned that relying on a hot housing market to balance the operating budget could spell disaster should sales sag.

At what will now be his last annual address to the University of Torontos Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance in October, Wallace told a full house the citys budget process has amounted to relentless reinforcement of the status quo.

The most significant new tool to generate revenue approved by council  tolling the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway  was later scrapped unexpectedly by Premier Kathleen Wynne, whose governments sign-off was required for implementation.

In the meantime, Wallace said he was proud to achieve budget restraint requested, including direction from Tory and council for an across-the-board spending freeze in 2018.

I know that thats not everybodys cup of tea, but those were the instructions and weve been able to deliver on them.

He said council is not listening to his advice is not frustrating at all.

There is a reality that public servants provide advice, he said.

We implement what council decides.

Wallace agreed the iceberg remains  the term is a graphic metaphor that appeared on several staff budget presentations, much to the amusement of many city hall watchers, to explain how council had approved billions in capital spending projects but failed to approve the funding needed to pay for them.

All governments always have ambitions greater than their immediate grasp, Wallace said. You would never actually want to have a situation in which you had everything funded. That is the nature of ambition, and is the nature of city building, and its especially the nature of an organization that needs to make sure that other governments contribute.

The Star asked if he thought council has been misguided in approving any projects given the citys limited resources.

No, I dont, he said.

Wallace is proud of the work implemented to create what may be termed a stage-gate process for major projects, which forces council to reconsider any given plan at various points in the decision-making process and also provides various off ramps along the route.

The city really does need to continue to align the policy and fiscal directions, he said. Its making progress on that and it needs to recognize and take pride in the services it delivers, the impacts it has on peoples lives.

Read more about:Ontarios police watchdog is pushing back at chiefs for suggesting their officers might hesitate to provide the life-saving drug naloxone out of fear that it could prompt an investigation by the civilian agency.

In a strongly worded letter Thursday, the director of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said the agency would not back down on its expectation that it be notified in cases where a civilian is injured or dies after an officer administers naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

The message comes in response to a request from the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) that the SIU dispense with its expectation that it be notified when the drug is administered by officers but a death or injury nonetheless occurs. A central reason the OACP provided was that the policy could discourage officers from acting quickly to save lives.

SIU director Tony Loparco took issue with that purported fear.

The SIU rejects the contention that the vast majority of police officers might do anything less than act swiftly in the discharge of their foremost duty, namely, the preservation of life, for fear that their conduct will be subject to a fair and independent investigation.

Loparco goes on to say that such an investigation is precisely the answer for the small minority of officers who may have fallen short in their duty, a position with which the OACP presumably agrees.

The back-and-forth about police naloxone use comes as more front line officers in Ontario  including Ottawa, Waterloo, Durham and the OPP  are being equipped with the live-saving kits in the fight against the opioid crisis sweeping Canada.

In a report to the Toronto police board released Thursday, Chief Mark Saunders outlines a proposed plan for structured deployment of naloxone nasal spray, including to every front line officer in Torontos downtown core.

Opioid-related overdose deaths have more than doubled in Toronto in the last five years, with 186 in 2016 alone.

In his report, Saunders writes that a structured deployment would in all likelihood assist in alleviating public and officer concerns regarding opioid safety issues, particularly in neighbourhoods surrounding supervised injection sites.

That deployment would see naloxone nasal spray being carried by all members of the Toronto drug squad; sergeants and detectives in some units across the city; and by officers and supervisors in the front line Primary Response, Community Response and Major Crime units in the divisions where there are supervised injection sites.

Saunders report also takes into consideration the SIU position on notification, saying the impact of numerous notifications and invocations of the SIU mandate would be organizationally significant and detrimental to our members.

But in his written response to the OACP, Loparco said the SIUs mandate as outlined by Ontarios Police Services Act, is clear: the watchdog investigates police officers in cases of serious injury or death.

Loparco stressed the findings of Ontario court judge George Adams, who in a 2003 review of the SIU stated that the watchdog should be notified immediately whenever its jurisdiction is reasonably suspected to have been engaged.

It is then up to the SIU  not to police services  to determine whether the SIU mandate has been invoked, Loparco said.

He goes on to indicate that being notified of an incident such as a death following the administration of naloxone could result in no investigation being opened at all, or the discontinuation of a probe at an early stage.

The expectation that the SIU be notified is also present in other deaths after a police officer attempts to save a life by, for example, performing CPR. The watchdog is in fact regularly notified of serious injuries and deaths where the extent of the police involvement is emergency medical treatment.

I see no reason to carve out an exception in naloxone cases, Loparco wrote.

Ian Scott, a former director of the SIU, told the Star that he agrees with Loparco completely. Ontarios legislation establishes that the SIU decides whether an incident merits an independent investigation  not the police themselves.

The lines are very clear the legislation is very clear and they should abide by the legislation, Scott said.

The SIUs position on naloxone differs from police watchdogs in other provinces, including Alberta, B.C. and Quebec, where it's not expected that police notify them when the only extent of police involvement is administering life-saving measures.

According to Saunders report to the Toronto police board, the RCMP in British Columbia invested a great deal of time in educating the provinces watchdog, the Independent Investigations Office (IIO) on naloxone.

That included providing statistical data on opioid deaths to show that the watchdog would be unnecessarily overwhelmed and overworked if they invoked their mandate in cases where an officer administered naloxone and the person still passed away from an overdose, the report states.

It goes on to report that that IIO changed its policy on notification, saying that the sole circumstance under which the watchdog would invoke their mandate to investigate would be if a naloxone is administered by an officer while the person is in custody and a death nonetheless occurs.

The Toronto police board is scheduled to discuss the naloxone deployment Thursday.

Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca

Read more about:A total of 5,063 public elementary students were suspended in Toronto this school year after getting caught in what one doctor called, a 1970s-style, cumbersome process over immunization records.

The number of students suspended amounted to 7 per cent of the 73,262 elementary students in 586 Toronto public elementary schools assessed by Toronto Public Health from July to mid-December 2017. Thats a jump from 5.6 per cent last year.

All of the students who were suspended either didnt meet the immunization requirements as they were not up-to-date, their records were not filed on time, or they did not have a valid exemption, said Dr. Vinita Dubey, associate medical officer at Toronto Public Health.

Share your thoughts

All the students are back in school and up-to-date on their immunizations, said Dubey.

Immunization requirements changed this year for children born in 2010 (currently Grade 2 students), said Dubey, who now require two doses of varicella vaccine (for chicken pox) to attend school under the Immunization of School Pupils Act.

It is estimated that the varicella vaccine in children will offer 85 per cent protection after the first dose and 98 per cent after the second dose, said Ontario Ministry of Health spokesperson Laura Gallant in an email.

As a result of this change, the number of Grade 2 students who were outstanding was higher than previous years, said Dubey.

Last year, 46,726 elementary students were assessed in 584 schools; 2,622 (5.6 per cent) students were suspended.

Upon initial assessment, 25,653 of the assessed students were found to have out of date immunization records, and a first notice was sent to parents. A second notice was sent to 18,622 students three weeks later. A suspension order was then sent to 11,974 students, letting their parents know the date that their child would be suspended if Toronto Public Health did not receive updated information.

The number of suspensions depends on the number of students who are assessed, said Dubey, adding that not all students are assessed each year.

We increase the numbers to match our staff capacity to handle the volume of work generated, said Dubey.

Dr. Fatima Kamalia, a Thornhill-based pediatrician, has noticed an increase to the number of kids coming in for emergency vaccination.

Those that get the (suspension)theyre the ones that just missed the (deadline), said Kamalia. Its more negligence on the parents part, not a deliberate decision to not vaccinate.

Kamalia said that part of the problem is that theres no system for doctors to remind parents about their kids immunization, and no system for parents to keep updated about it.

No one has a record of (vaccination shots) except the hospital, she said. Theres no system that allows access of data by hospitals, public health, schools, and physicians.

In Ontario, all parents and guardians of children attending elementary and secondary school must provide their local public health unit with proof of their childs immunization against a number of vaccine-preventable diseases or a valid exemption.

Currently, Toronto Public Health is using a system called Panorama to input immunization information provided to them by parents and guardians.

Parents are sent at least two to three letters to inform them about the need to obtain updated immunization information prior to the deadline, and given a couple of weeks to respond to each letter.

If, after this time, students remain not in compliance, they are suspended until proof of vaccination is provided.

The majority of suspensions last less than 5 days and most are resolved on day 1 to 3 of the suspension period, said Dubey.

In 2014, the provincial auditor generals report program found that the current reporting practice with Panorama continues to result in problems with data accuracy and completeness because it doesnt allow for direct input from health care providers.

In December 2015, the province released a long-term vaccination plan called Immunization 2020, and said it would look at ways to streamline the reporting process to possibly allow physicians and parents to input information directly.

The (Immunization of School Pupils Act) is over 20 years old and parents and guardians are considered the primary reporters of immunization records to public health, said Dubey.

One of the main challenges continues to be that no one knows the requirements or has access to (immunization) records, said Kumanan Wilson, an immunization specialist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

Wilson is helping create a national immunization app called CANImmunize, and aiding the Ontario government in developing a web tool called Immunization Connect Ontario (ICON) (or Digital Yellow Card) for the public to securely look up their immunization records and report it to the Digital Health Immunization Repository.

I think the use of the paper record is very problematic, said Wilson. The advantage of having it through the app is people will know exactly what the requirements are ahead of schedule.

Ontario, he said, is one of two provinces that require immunization records for school entry; the other is New Brunswick. The entire responsibility is on the parent to report, said Wilson. That has to change.

Despite the attempt at modernization, Dr. Hirotaka Yamashiro, president of the Pediatrician Alliance Ontario, says the system continues to be a real mess.

We still right now are relying on people having a yellow card that is kept up to date, he said, adding that only works if the yellow card is never lost and kept on the person at all times. But thats not always the case.

Its so cumbersome, he said. Its laughable in 2018 that we cant keep track of peoples vaccines. Its crazy.

Yamashiro, too, has noticed many parents receiving suspension letters for their kids and finds that it is often the only way they are motivated to update immunization records.

While he sees the government trying to centralize the vaccination system, the responsibility is still on the parents to deal with a system that is frustrating for everybody.

(The system) is pretty complicated, said Yamashiro. Parents, without any medical knowledge, have to update (their kids records online) based on whats on their yellow cardpeople will make mistakes, and Public Health will get mistaken information.

Yamashiro would instead like to see the government have more conversations with family doctors and pediatricians, who do the vaccinations, and first fix the central database.

Pediatricians are always ready to meet them if they want to, he said. If that central database is poor, it doesnt solve the basic problem.

Wilson too notes that even if the Digital Yellow Card becomes fully operational, (the Ministry of Health) have to develop a system whereby the system can easily flow and move that data from parent to doctor to public health to school.

At present, Toronto Public Health is assessing the vaccine records for students from 143 public high school students. Suspension for high school students will begin in the spring.

Theres negligence and a lack of understanding of vaccines, said Kamalia. And gaps in the system.

Yamashiro agrees. Its too bad because its the kids and parents that are caught in a 1970s-style cumbersome process.Ontarios police watchdog says it has no reasonable grounds to charge a Toronto police officer involved in the death of Rui Nabico, who was Tasered and later pronounced dead in November 2016.

The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) concluded that the deployment of the conducted energy weapon, better known as a Taser, was not a factor in the 31-year-olds death.

The SIUs decision is detailed in a lengthy and thorough investigative summary  part of a new public reporting initiative pushed for by the Toronto Star and recommended in a review of police oversight by Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Michael Tulloch.

The report  which includes a summary of the incident, a scene diagram, a comprehensive explanation of the analysis and decision and more  states that Nabico had cocaine in his system and was suffering from a heart muscle disease called cardiomyopathy.

The mechanism of death was a fatal cardiac arrhythmia that would have been fatal irrespective of the use of the Taser, according to a pathologist consulted by the watchdog.

The SIU report, however, does not name the victim; the Star independently confirmed his identity in 2016.

According to the SIU summary, just after noon on Nov. 4 investigators received a call from a resident in the Sagres Cres., near St. Clair Ave. W. and Old Weston Rd. Nabico  who the SIU later determined had placed the call himself  was seen screaming and waving two large knives, the SIU said.

Officers arrived to find Nabico, 31, lying face down on the ground, clenching a knife in each hand, said Tony Loparco, director of the SIU.

After police asked Nabico to drop the knives multiple times, Nabico dropped them within arms reach. When police approached to arrest Nabico, officers told the SIU that he resisted their attempts to handcuff him by hiding his hands under his body. Fearing that Nabico had another weapon hidden, an officer placed his knee on the victims back, and tried to cuff him.

An officer responding to the scene told investigators that Nabico was fidgeting and they were afraid he would stab himself or one of the officers so they discharged a Taser, the SIU said.

The SIU report states that an officer heard the complainant scream and tense up and violently thrash his body to and fro.

As Nabico continued to thrash his body, he was Tasered two more times, the SIU said.

After investigators handcuffed him, the SIU says Nabico began having trouble breathing and was going in an out of consciousness. Thirty seconds later, Nabicos head fell to his chest while he was in a seated position and he went limp.

After a failed attempt to resuscitate him on scene, paramedics rushed Nabico to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

In June 2017, an autopsy report determined that Nabico, who had cocaine in his system and was suffering from a heart muscle disease called cardiomyopathy, died a sudden arrhythmic death after the deployment of a Taser.

Two months later, the SIU says they sent a letter to the pathologist to ask whether or not Nabico could have died due to the combination of cocaine in his system and his heart disease, even if the Taser was not used, and the pathologist said that he would have died irrespective of the Taser.

Turning first to the lawfulness of (Nabicos) apprehension, it is clear from the statement of all of the civilian witnesses that (he) was in possession of two weapons, he was causing a disturbance by screaming and he was a potential threat to the public and later to the police, after their arrival, Loparco said in his report.

Additionally, on all of the evidence, it appears clear that (Nabico) was a threat to himself or others due to his level of cocaine intoxication, his possession of weapons and his irrational behaviour.

Therefore, Loparco said, Nabicos apprehension was legally justified.

The SIU is a civilian law enforcement agency that investigates incidents involving police officers where there has been death, serious injury or an allegation of sexual assault.

Read more about:Premier Kathleen Wynne didnt need to issue a call to arms  her three Liberal colleagues were happy to join in and make a statement about sleeveless clothing after a former prime minister set off a firestorm tweeting how wearing it undermines the credibility of women on television.

At Scarborough Centenary hospital for an announcement on Wednesday, Wynne and Advanced Education Minister Mitzie Hunter addressed the crowd, both wearing long-sleeved blazers over sleeveless dresses.

But when the two spoke to reporters afterwards, theyd ditched the blazers. Alongside them, in short-sleeves, were Consumer Services Minister Tracy MacCharles and Scarborough-Agincourt MPP Soo Wong.

Have your say

The original tweet by former Prime Minister Kim Campbell on Tuesday said she is struck by how many women on television news wear sleeveless dresses  often when sitting with suited men. I have always felt it was demeaning to the women and this suggests that I am right. Bare arms undermine credibility and gravitas!

After receiving backlash online, Campbell was defending it on Wednesday telling critics to read the research! and said she was referring to newscasters.

To all who R outraged by my (retweets) of research re skin exposure and perception, I suggest U contact the scholars at Yale, Harvard and U of Maryland & urge them 2 withdraw their (2012) paper (because) YOU don't agree, & NEVER show it to ANYONE who might find it useful! Me - I'm in Paris.

A spokesperson for Wynne explained that some days the premier and female MPPs wear sleeves, sometimes they dont.

(Wednesday) was a day when three of them happened not to, said Kate Moseley-Williams. We noticed what had happened and decided to have a little fun with the premiers tweet.

Speaking afterwards to the Star, Hunter said she took part in the sleeveless moment to show we have choices as women, and we always need to continue to exercise those choices  and make those decisions for ourselves.Ontarios health minister says he has faith the provincial government will hand back health-care decision-making power to First Nations within a matter of years.

Our ultimate goal is a health-care system where these decisions are no longer made by the provincial government, said Eric Hoskins, as part of an announcement Wednesday for funding in First Nations-run, health-care programs.

Dr. Suzanne Stewart, director of the Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health at the University of Toronto, said she was hopeful the minister would follow through on his promise that Indigenous people are going to be able to self-determine with respect to health.

The Western health care and biomedical supports and interventions have not worked to help Native people, Stewart said. Its time to stop using the approaches that we know dont work.

Indigenous people in Ontario have a lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality rates, and more chronic and infectious diseases. Hoskins called the disparities in health outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Ontario deplorable, and attributed the failing to a cruel system.

The announcement Wednesday stems from the provinces $222 million First Nations Health Action Plan, initially announced in May 2016.

Highlights of the latest spending include: 16 new or expanded primary-care team clinics, 34 new mental health and wellness programs, palliative care training for 1,000 health-care providers and an annual commitment of $55,300 to spend on a discretionary basis for culturally safe home care.

Stewart said the budget numbers matter less than the paradigm shift needed in terms of leadership and decision making for Indigenous health.

Its who is deciding that, who is determining that, she said, Thats where the paradigm shift needs to be for anything to be helpful.

The programs announced Wednesday moved in that direction, encouraging Stewart who said shes always hopeful things are going to change.

The next steps are accountability to ensure that those funds are used by Indigenous people, and not another middle of the road government agency.

Isadore Day, Ontario regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations, called the investments critical.

But as we move forward and the paradigm moves toward giving that authority back to our territories, Day said, focus on maintaining and improving First Nations partnerships with the province will become all the more crucial.

The announcement comes on the same day as a federal promise to establish a legal framework for recognizing the rights of Indigenous people. It was received by many Indigenous activists as a unilateral, colonial mechanism.

Just what we DONT need  more solutions coming from the federal government that will be unilaterally imposed, tweeted lawyer Pam Palmater, a member of Eel River Bar First Nation.South Florida investigators believed David Romigs story was questionable from the start.

When Marion County Sheriffs officials arrived Jan. 30 at Romigs house in Dunnellon, Fla., in response to reports of a home invasion, they found Romigs 64-year-old live-in girlfriend unresponsive, with a gunshot wound to the head. Romigs girlfriend, Sally Kaufmann-Ruff, was rushed to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Romig told investigators at the time that he and Kaufmann-Ruff were sleeping when he was awakened by an intruder. He said his girlfriend was shot after he got into an altercation with the intruder, sheriffs officials said in a statement Tuesday.

Investigators, who thought details about the front door being locked didnt add up, had their suspicions about Romig confirmed later that day when Romig accidentally sent text messages to a detective that were meant for his wife.

I think they are going to arrest me, the first one said. Then, Think they are going to arrest, according to the Ocala Star-Banner.

Romig, 52, was arrested Monday after admitting he might have killed Kaufmann-Ruff during an out-of-body experience, sheriffs officials said. He is charged with second-degree murder, tampering with evidence by staging the crime scene and false reporting of a crime. He is currently being held in the Marion County Jail without bail, officials said.

When investigators arrived at Romigs house in January, Romig showed deputies a pry-bar on a bench near his front door and a partially-smoked cigarette. He said neither of the items were his. Investigators noted that the door appeared to be pried open, as its frame was damaged. Investigators recovered the cigarette, a metal smoking pipe in the front yard and a piece of cloth found in the door frame, which Romig said may have been torn from the intruders jacket, the Star-Banner reported.

DNA results would later match the cigarette, pipe and cloth to Romig. It appeared the cloth had been cut with scissors, as the edges looked straight, the Star-Banner reported.

After his house was searched, Romig went to the sheriffs office for an interview, where he allegedly told detectives a fabricated story. According to the Star-Banner:

He told detectives that he and the victim were asleep in the bedroom when he was awakened by an unknown male leaning over him. He said the suspect covered his mouth with one hand and was wearing a head-mounted flashlight. Romig said he grabbed the suspects arms and then he heard a loud noise.

He said he held onto the intruder as he stood up from the bed. He said he and the suspect continued to struggle and they stumbled into the hallway, just outside the bedroom door entrance. Romig said the suspect had a small revolver in his right hand and pushed him, causing him to stumble backward. He said when the suspect pushed him, the suspect fired another round and Romig fell to the floor.

Later that day, Romig texted his wife about someone breaking into his home and killing Kaufmann-Ruff, the Star-Banner reported. He said he was afraid he did something he couldnt remember.

The nature of Romigs wifes relationship with his girlfriend is unclear.

Officials said that Romig in January said that aside from Kaufmann-Ruffs only child, he was the sole beneficiary listed in her will. Investigators later discovered that in addition to her home and her car, Kauffman-Ruffs estate included more than $200,000 (U.S.) in liquid assets.

On the day of his arrest, Romig told investigators he often blacked out for periods of time and heard voices, sheriffs officials said. He said he had an out-of-body experience the morning of her death and that he was wrestling with himself when the gun went off. He told investigators he staged a home invasion because he had blacked out, officials said.

He is set to appear in court March 20, according to the Star-Banner.The man suspected of opening fire inside a Florida high school on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people, was a former student who had been expelled for disciplinary reasons, the authorities said.

Sheriff Scott Israel of Broward County, Florida, said that the man, Nikolas Cruz, 19, previously attended Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland but was expelled after getting into trouble.

A student at the school said he remembered Cruz as a troubled kid who enjoyed showing off his firearms.

He always had guns on him, a student at the school, who did not give his name, told WFOR-TV. The crazy stuff that he did was not right for school, and he got kicked out of school multiple times for that kind of stuff.

Jim Gard, a math teacher at Stoneman Douglas High School, said in an interview that Cruz was a student in his class during the first semester of the 2016-17 school year. In the class, he was quiet and not disruptive, Gard said.

But he recalled that school administrators became concerned last year about Cruzs behaviour and alerted the faculty. We received emails about him from the administration, Gard said in an interview, adding that he did not recall the specific issues.

After the shooting on Wednesday, Gard said that several students told him that Cruz was taken with a girl at Stoneman Douglas High School to the point of stalking her.

In the interview with the Miami news station, the student said Cruz was a junior at Stoneman Douglas High School when he was expelled last year. He said that students would joke that if anyone were to open fire inside the school, it would be Cruz. Because of that, students feared him and mostly stayed away from him, the student said.

A lot of people were saying that it would be him, the student told WFOR-TV. They would say he would be the one to shoot up the school. Everyone predicted it.

Read more:

Former student opens fire at Florida high school, killing at least 17 people, police say

Mom and Dad, there have been shots fired  in Florida, parents receive chilling texts from their trapped children

In the U.S., the latest mass shootings all have something in common: the AR-15

Helen Pasciolla, who is retired, lives on an elegant street in the Pine Tree Estates development in Parkland, three houses down and across from where the Cruz family resided until about a year ago. Pasciolla said that Cruz told her that the family had to move out of their one-story beige house and sell it because they could no longer afford it.

She said that Cruz has a brother, Zachary, and that both boys were adopted. Their adoptive father died some years ago, she added.

Pasciolla said that the boys mother, Lynda Cruz, had regular problems with their behaviour. On occasion, she said, the mother would resort to calling the police to have them come over to try to talk some sense into her sons. She died Nov. 1 last year at the age of 68.

I think she wanted to scare them a little bit, Pasciolla said. Nikolas has behavioural problems, I think, but I never thought he would be violent.

When she saw his picture on TV Wednesday after the shooting, Pasciolla said that she thought to herself, Oh, my God, thats the kid who lived down the street.

Nikolas father died from a heart attack, family member Barbara Kumbatovich said, and Lynda had sought counselling for Nikolas at a young age: She did her best getting him any help he needed.

Another relative, who spoke on condition of anonymity over the sensitive matter, said Nikolas had been diagnosed with autism.

Janine Kartiganer, who lives two doors down from Cruzs former home, said Cruz looked very troubled.

He wore a hoodie and always had his head down, she said. He looked depressed.

Israel said that the authorities did not yet know the motive for the killing, but were learning more about Cruz through his social media pages, which he described as very, very concerning.

Screen shots of an Instagram page said to belong to Cruz show many photos of a man holding firearms and ammunition used in a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle. One photo shows several guns, including rifles with scopes, laying on a bed. Another appears to show a frog that had been killed.

After Cruz left Stoneman Douglas High School, he took a job at a Dollar Tree store about a mile and a half from the school. A person who answered the phone at the store Wednesday evening said that Cruz worked as a cashier and was well liked by his colleagues.

He was a great guy, the person said.

He added that he last saw Cruz about a year ago before he transferred to another Dollar Tree store closer to his home.

Another student at Stoneman Douglas High School, Ocean Parodie, told The Daily Beast that he visited the store after Cruz was expelled to check on him. He said he was expelled and was happy that he was thrown out, Parodie said. I felt bad for him.

With files from Tribune News ServicesWhen a gunman attacked a high school in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, killing 17 people, the event marked a depressingly familiar milestone.

As of this week, seven of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history have all happened since 2007. The Parkland massacre is now the eighth-deadliest attack.

The nations mass-shooting problem seems to be getting worse. And the latest, most serious shootings all seem to have one new thing in common: the AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle.

The AR-15 that typically has large magazines, shoots rounds at higher velocities than handguns, and leaves more complex wounds in victims.

Read more:

Former student opens fire at Florida high school, killing at least 17 people, police say

Florida school shooting suspect was a former student who had been expelled

Mom and Dad, there have been shots fired  in Florida, parents receive chilling texts from their trapped children

In each one of the older shootings on the 10-deadliest list  including the 2007 attack on Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., that left 32 victims dead  the shooters carried handguns. (The exception is the 1984 San Ysidro, Calif., massacre, where the gunman also used a shotgun and an Uzi semi-automatic carbine.)

But in all of the latest incidents  Newtown, Conn., in 2012; San Bernardino, Calif., in 2015; Orlando, Fla., in 2016; Las Vegas, 2017; Sutherland Springs, Texas, 2017  the attackers primarily used AR-15 semi-automatic rifles.

There are a couple of theories that might suggest why AR-15s would be associated with deadlier attacks. AR-15 rifles shoot small but high-velocity .223-calibre rounds that often shatter inside victims bodies, creating more devastating injuries than the wounds typically left by larger but lower-velocity handgun rounds.

David Hogg, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School recorded video of his barricaded classmates during Wednesday's massacre in Parkland, Fla. One day later, he said, "this is completely unacceptable." (The Associated Press)

Shooters also commonly use the rifles with 30-round magazines, which allow a shooter to fire more rounds uninterrupted, compared to the smaller magazines commonly used in handguns.

Democrats and Republicans are taking different tacks in responding to Wednesday's school massacre. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is pushing legislation, while House Speaker Paul Ryan said, "we need to think less about taking sides." (The Associated Press0

Details were still coming in about Wednesdays shooting in Florida, but officials say the suspected gunman, Nikolas Cruz, 19, was armed with at least one AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and countless magazines, according to Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel.

Theres one thing that does make the Parkland massacre unusual. Of the 10-deadliest mass shootings, Cruz is the only suspected gunman to escape, survive and likely face trial  giving the public a chance to learn why the massacre happened.MANILA, PHILIPPINESThe Philippine president offered a nearly $500 (U.S.) bounty for each communist rebel killed by government forces to save on anti-insurgency costs and said insurgents are easier to hit than birds because they have bigger heads.

President Rodrigo Dutertes latest crass remarks, which the government issued to reporters late Wednesday, came after human rights groups condemned him this week for saying troops should shoot female communist guerrillas in the genitals to render them useless.

You kill an NPA today and Ill pay you 25,000 pesos, Duterte said in a speech at an airbase in central Cebu city, referring to New Peoples Army guerrillas.

Read more:

Duterte tells Philippine solders to shoot female rebels in their vaginas

Philippine President Duterte halts purchase of 16 Canadian helicopters

Philippine leader calls human rights activists criticizing Burmas Suu Kyi noisy bunch

I was computing that if this drags on for four years . . . itll be very expensive because its war. If Ill just pay 25,000 (pesos) for a life, I can save about 47 per cent, he said to laughter from the crowd.

There was no elaboration on how he came up with those figures and whether or how the government would pay for claimed kills. Backing up his offer, the brash-talking president encouraged state forces to go for the kill.

If you work really hard to crawl across the forest, youll surely be able to shoot even just one. If you can shoot a bird above you, then how much more an NPA whose head is so big? Duterte said, again eliciting laughter from the crowd.

Regional rebel commander Jaime Padilla, who uses the nom de guerre Ka Diego, said Duterte wouldnt scare the guerrillas into ending their uprising even if he offers a million pesos for each rebel killed because the rebellion has been fuelled by deep social ills such as poverty for nearly a century.

These are not remarks of a sane president, Padilla said by telephone. These are words of a thug or a goon, who reigns like a king in our country.

He said the guerrillas remain open to resuming stalled talks with the administration despite the presidents fascist style.

Human Rights Watch said Dutertes remarks encourage government forces to commit war crimes instead of instilling a culture of accountability in accordance with international law.

Dutertes pronouncements normalize the idea that government security forces can do as they wish to defeat their enemies, including committing summary executions and sexual violence, said Carlos Conde of the U.S.-based rights group.

The volatile president turned up the rhetoric against the communist guerrillas after peace talks brokered by Norway collapsed last year when he protested continuing rebel attacks on government forces. When a rebel leader recently warned that the guerrillas could kill one soldier a day, Duterte countered by threatening to kill five rebels daily and offering to train tribesmen as militias and give them bounties to kill the insurgents.

Duterte is already under international criticism and facing a preliminary investigation by the International Criminal Court for thousands of deaths in the war on drugs he initiated after becoming president two years ago.

He lashed out at his critics and asked why the ICC was focusing on him when atrocities were occurring elsewhere.

There are Rohingya who are being slaughtered, but they only chose to indict me. OK, you asked for it, lets have a trial. I will cross-examine you, said Duterte, a former state prosecutor, referring to Muslims fleeing from violence and persecution in Burma.

Read more about:Kathmandu , Nepal: president Bidya Devi Bhandari appointed CPN UML chairman KP Sharma Oli as the Prime minister of the country .

He has been appointed as per the article 76 of the constitution of Nepal. As per the provision of the article, present can appoint as the prime minister in case of any party Has no majority and can garner majority.

It is said that newly appointed Prime minister will be sworn in at 4:00 amid a function at Sital Niwas.

Earlier Nepali Congress present Sher Bahadur Deuba tendered his resignation from the post of Prime minister after addressing the nation.WASHINGTONSame old, same old. The day after yet another American shooting massacre, there was, as usual, no sign of action in Washington.

Democrats called again for gun control measures. But Republicans, who control Congress and have consistently rejected the suggestion that permissive gun laws have contributed to the worlds highest rate of mass shootings, rejected the need for legislative change.

In a speech at the White House, President Donald Trump called for love and kindness, and he said he would tackle the difficult issue of mental health. But he proposed no specific action on mental illness, guns or anything else.

It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference. We must actually make that difference, Trump said.

Trump devoted most of the speech to an attempt to console the country. The Wednesday shooting killed 17 people and wounded at least 14 in and around Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

Our entire nation, with one heavy heart, is praying for the victims and their families. To every parent, teacher and child who is hurting so badly, we are here for you, whatever you need, whatever we can do to ease your pain, he said, adding: Your suffering is our burden also.

Directly addressing Americas children, Trump said: Answer hate with love. Answer cruelty with kindness.

I want you to know that you are never alone and you never will be. You have people who care about you, who love you and who will do anything at all to protect you, he said.

Trumps speech was another instance in which his remarks in a written address deviated from his unfiltered commentary. In his first substantive remark, on Twitter on Thursday morning, Trump suggested the local community should have done more to prevent the massacre.

So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again! he wrote.

Trumps Democratic predecessor Barack Obama, who could not convince Republicans to pass gun control measures while in office, took to Twitter to call for action again.

We are grieving with Parkland. But we are not powerless. Caring for our kids is our first job. And until we can honestly say that were doing enough to keep them safe from harm, including long overdue, common-sense gun safety laws that most Americans want, then we have to change, he wrote.

Trump said in the speech that he would visit Parkland. He had already been planning to spend the weekend at his residence at the Mar-a-Lago club about 65 kilometres away.

The suspect, 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz, used an AR-15, the same kind of semi-automatic rifle used in the mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut; Aurora, Colorado; and San Bernardino, California, among other incidents. He made the purchase legally, though he had reportedly experienced mental health challenges.

Read more:

Florida school shooting suspect tied to white nationalist militia, had legal AR-15 rifle

Young athletes, a geography teacher and a coach who died a hero: The victims of the Florida high school massacre

Mom and Dad, there have been shots fired  in Florida, parents receive chilling texts from their trapped children

Trump dismissed the usefulness of gun control in an interview last month, telling Piers Morgan that the problem is that theres sick people and that, if Las Vegas shooting perpetrator Stephen Paddock had been barred from obtaining 55 guns, he would have had 55 bombs, he would have had 55 of something else.

Congress did nothing in response to Paddocks murder of 58 people in October, deciding not even to restrict the bump stock devices that allowed him to turn semi-automatic guns into automatic-style guns.

David Hogg, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School recorded video of his barricaded classmates during Wednesday's massacre in Parkland, Fla. One day later, he said, "this is completely unacceptable." (The Associated Press)

The conversation among legislators played out as usual on Thursday: Democrats advocated popular gun control measures such as background checks for every gun sale and a ban on the sale of military-style weapons; Republicans, offering prayers, said guns were not to blame, instead discussing mental illness and the enforcement of existing laws.

House Speaker Paul Ryan told an Indiana radio station that lawmakers shouldnt talk about taking away a law-abiding citizens rights, saying, Right now, I think we need to take a breath and collect the facts. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told Fox News: The reaction of Democrats to any tragedy is to try to politicize it.

In Feb. 2017, Trump and Republicans repealed an Obama rule that had made it more difficult for people with mental illnesses to buy a gun by adding the background-check database people deemed by the Social Security Administration to be unable to manage their government benefits. The rule was opposed by both gun-rights advocates and civil liberties advocates.

Cruz was reported to the FBI at least once, after a man by the same name commented on a YouTube video in September saying Im going to be a professional school shooter. Though the YouTube username was simply Nikolas Cruz, an FBI official said Thursday that it was unable to determine the true identity of the person who made the comment.

Read more about:WASHINGTONDeclaring the nation united and grieving with one heavy heart, U.S. President Donald Trump promised Thursday to tackle school safety and the difficult issue of mental health in response to the deadly shooting in Florida. He made no mention of the scourge of gun violence.

Not always a natural in the role of national comforter, Trump spoke deliberately, at one point directly addressing children who may feel lost, alone, confused or even scared.

I want you to know that you are never alone and you never will be, Trump said. You have people who care about you, who love you, and who will do anything at all to protect you.

Read more:

Florida teen charged with 17 murders in high school shooting legally bought AR-15

Florida school shooting suspect was a former student who had been expelled

If I dont make it, I love you: In Florida, parents receive frantic texts from their trapped children

While Trump stressed the importance of mental health and school safety improvements, his latest budget request would slash Medicaid, the major source of federal funding for treating mental health problems, and cut school safety programs by more than a third. Last year, he signed a resolution blocking an Obama-era rule designed to keep guns out of the hands of certain mentally disabled people.

The president spoke to the nation from the White House, one day after a former student with an AR-15 rifle opened fire at a high school in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people and injuring 14 more. It was the nations deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, more than five years ago.

Trump, who owns a private club in Palm Beach, Florida, about 64 kilometres away, said he planned to visit the grieving community, but no date was immediately set. He cancelled plans to promote his infrastructure plan in Orlando on Friday and to attend a campaign rally in Pennsylvania next week.

Trumps silence on guns was noted with displeasure by many who are seeking tougher firearm restrictions. But the White House said the president wanted to keep his remarks focused on the victims. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the point was to talk about grief and show compassion in unifying the country.

Before he was a candidate, Trump at one point favoured some tighter gun regulations. But he embraced gun rights as a candidate, and the National Rifle Association spent $30 million (U.S.) in support of his campaign

During his brief, televised statement, Trump said he wanted to work to create a culture in our country that embraces the dignity of life, a phrase likely to resonate with his conservative base.

He pledged to work with state and local officials to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of mental health, adding that safe schools would be a key focus when he meets with governors and state attorneys general later this month.

Trump made no specific policy recommendations, and he did not answer shouted questions about guns as he exited the room.

In contrast, former president Barack Obama tweeted out a call for long overdue, common-sense gun safety laws. Obama wrote: We are grieving with Parkland. But we are not powerless. Caring for our kids is our first job.

In reacting to previous mass shootings, Trump has largely focused on mental health as a cause, dismissing questions about gun control. After a shooting at a Texas church in November left more than two dozen dead, the president said, This isnt a guns situation.

The 19-year-old suspect in Florida, Nikolas Cruz, is a troubled teenager who posted disturbing material on social media. He had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for disciplinary reasons, Broward County, Florida, Sheriff Scott Israel said.

The profile photo on Cruzs Instagram account showed a masked face wearing a Make America Great Again hat like those associated with Trumps campaign.

The leader of a white nationalist militia called the Republic of Florida said Cruz was a member of his group and had participated in exercises in Tallahassee. But neither the Sheriffs Office in Tallahassee nor the Southern Poverty Law Center could confirm any link between Cruz and the militia.

Trump was criticized in early August for saying that both white nationalists and counter-protesters were responsible for the violent clashes at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

While Trump has offered sombre responses to some tragedies, he has also drawn criticism for other reactions.

After the Orlando shootings at a gay nightclub that left 49 dead in June 2016, then-candidate Trump tweeted, Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism. In the wake of a deadly terror attack in London last June, he went after Mayor Sadiq Khan on Twitter.

News of Wednesday afternoons shooting had come as the White House was embroiled in a weeklong scandal surrounding the handling of domestic abuse allegations against Rob Porter, a top aide who resigned last week.

The typically daily White House press briefing was repeatedly delayed, as aides tried to craft a strategy on that issue. One option was to have chief of staff John Kelly, who has come under intense pressure for his handling of the Porter matter, be part of the briefing, according to two White House officials not authorized to publicly discuss internal deliberations.

Once the magnitude of the Florida tragedy became clear, the White House cancelled the briefing. The president tweeted his condolences and the White House deliberated its next move.

Kelly was not in the room when Trump addressed the nation on Thursday morning, and his job security remained an open question. But with the West Wing focused on the shooting aftermath, any immediate change seemed unlikely

Read more about:WASHINGTONAn American detained by U.S. forces was carrying thumb drives containing files on how to make bombs plus administrative spreadsheets describing work he did for Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, at the time he surrendered in Syria last year, according to documents the U.S. government filed in federal court.

The governments justification for holding the detainee without charge, contained in more than 150 pages filed late Wednesday, is loaded with details about the still-unidentified man, who is married and has a 3-year-old daughter. Yet it raises more questions about why he was in Syria. He has told U.S. authorities that he was kidnapped and imprisoned by Daesh and had press credentials to do freelance writing about the conflict.

The case has sparked debate about the governments legal right to hold enemy combatants linked with Daesh under congressionally approved war powers written after the Sept. 11 attacks as well as the constitutional rights afforded every American citizen.

The governments court filing provides a detailed itinerary of the detainees travels across the world, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Turkey and Syria  and the United States where he went to college in Louisiana.

The FBI interviewed someone who met the detainee in New Orleans in July 2005 when he was a college student. The associate described the detainees behaviour at the time as wild and typical of a college student and that he engaged in drinking, partying, gambling and marijuana use. The associate said the detainee did not work but received a sizable amount of money from the Saudi Arabian government each month and that his mother was very wealthy.

The associate also said that in about 2005 or 2006, the detainee lived briefly in Covington, Louisiana, where he also went to casinos and strip clubs. After an argument with friends about not repaying money he used to gamble, the detainee left Louisiana and returned to Saudi Arabia  he has dual citizenship there.

According to the government, the detainee signed up to be a Daesh fighter in 2014 during a visit to Syria, attended one of the militants training camps and later worked various jobs, including distributing vehicles to members of Daesh and guarding an oilfield under Daesh control.

The detainee was captured around Sept. 11, 2017, by U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces at a checkpoint. He said he had been walking for two days. The SDF said all the land within two days walk of the screening checkpoint was controlled by Daesh.

The detainee identified himself as Daesh and told the SDF that he wanted to turn himself in and speak to the Americans, the court filing said. The SDF took him into custody and handed him over to U.S. forces.

The filing says that when he surrendered, he was carrying about $5,250 and a global positioning device. The thumb drives also contained information about how to interrogate captives as well as other how-to manuals for a Daesh fighter, according to the government. He also had clothes, hats, a Quran and a scuba snorkel and mask.

In making a case for holding him as an enemy combatant, the government said the detainees name and other biographical details as well as information labelling him as a Daesh fighter were found on another thumb drive. That drive, which contains what appear to be intake forms for new Daesh recruits, was recovered by local Syrian forces in July 2015. The Defence Department obtained that thumb drive in November 2015. The detainees intake form says he joined Daesh in July 2014 in Jarabulus, Syria, a town that Daesh captured in mid-2013.

U.S. officials have been investigating the detainee trying to find out why he travelled to Daesh-controlled territory in Syria and determine whether he should be charged in federal court  possibly for allegedly providing material support of terrorism  or continued to be held as an enemy combatant. The government is considering one other option: handing him over to another country, perhaps Saudi Arabia because of his dual citizenship.

The government has claimed the right to detain him under war powers Congress passed after 9-11 in the fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the 2002 congressional authorization for the war in Iraq, and presidential power to imprison Americans indefinitely for national security reasons.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the detainee, argues those war powers dont apply in the battle against Daesh. For months, the ACLU has fought the government, first for holding the detainee without giving him access to a lawyer and now for continuing to hold him without charge.

The bottom line is that the government is holding him illegally, said ACLU attorney Jonathan Hafetz. He has a right to be charged with a crime consistent with the Constitution. If the government wants to continue to detain him, they should charge him with a crime.

The government said the detainee claims he had about $50,000 with him when he entered Syria in January 2015 with the help of a smuggler. The detainee claimed that he intended to enter Syria to be a freelance writer and that he obtained press credentials. Its not clear what organization or news outlet issued the credentials. That is one of many details redacted from the court filing. But the government said the detainee indicated that he used his U.S. passport to obtain credentials from other press organizations as well.

He said he was kidnapped by Daesh after he arrived in Syria and was imprisoned for seven months until October 2015. He later trained with Daesh near Mayadin and was sent to the front lines in Deir el-Zour province in Syria. Later, he guarded an oilfield. After another stay in Daesh detention, he spent time working for Daesh monitoring imams and prayer callers and also civilians working on heavy equipment.

After learning that he had an electrical engineering degree, Daesh gave him a car to drive to Raqqa, Syria, where he met with militants who told him about a special Daesh project to use a type of machine, similar to a satellite dish, to transmit microwaves that could bring down an airplane, the government document said. The detainee declined to work on the project.

He remained in contact with his wife and last spoke with her via WhatsApp in July. He told his sister by text and through WhatsApp that everyone was leaving the Daesh and he was leaving, too. He was captured three weeks later.

Read more about:It makes no sense to invest half a million dollars of taxpayers money to have a student graduate from medical school only to deny them access to a residency program  the last requirement they must fulfill before they can become a practising doctor.

But thats what happened to 114 Canadian medical graduates who were not successfully matched to a residency program in 2017. More alarming is the estimate in a report this week from the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada that that number could climb to more than 330 in 2021, if no corrective action is taken.

This is short-sighted and wrong-headed for several reasons.

First, its a waste of taxpayer and students own investments in training (tuition, alone, for an Ontario graduate medical program runs around $25,000 annually, not to mention subsidies from governments).

Second, there is the personal devastation to students who do not obtain a residency placement. Indeed, one graduate student, Robert Chu, tragically took his own life in 2016 after being denied entrance to a residency program two years in a row.

And third, there is a documented shortage of doctors in Canadas health care system. Increasing the number of residencies could help to solve that problem.

In its report, the association made three sensible recommendations to address these issues. They should all be acted on immediately by provincial health ministries and medical schools.

The first is for each province to boost funding to create additional residency spots. There should be one for each medical school graduate.

The second calls for an overhaul of the two-round system overseen by the Canadian Resident Matching Service. That can see Canadian students who attended foreign medical schools in the Caribbean, Ireland and Australia, for example, obtain a position over those who graduated from Canadian ones.

The answer to that competitive problem might be to increase residency placements overall.

The third is for medical schools to create ways to support unmatched graduates, such as allowing them to complete a fifth year of medical school during which they could hone their skills and experiences while waiting to reapply to residency programs.

Its not just medical graduates who would benefit if the provinces and medical schools act on the recommendations. After all, Canadas health care system is not as competitive on the world stage as it could and should be, mostly because of a shortage of doctors.

Indeed, a 2017 report from the New York-based Commonwealth Fund ranked Canada dead last compared to 11 other advanced nations in the number of doctors it has per 1,000 residents.

In 2014, for example, Canada had 2.5 doctors for every thousand people. Norway, by comparison, had 4.4.

That lack of access to doctors in this country was one of the main reasons the fund ranked Canada ninth overall out of the 11 countries in the quality of care patients receive. That is unacceptable.

The country cant leave medical graduates in the lurch, nor can it afford to continue down the path its on with too few doctors to provide much-needed health services for an aging population. The provinces must increase the number of residency spots.Never one to abandon an idea simply because its generally seen as terrible, Donald Trump is again proposing to gut protections for the Great Lakes, thus threatening the environment, drinking water and a great many jobs in his country and ours.

Policymakers of every stripe, on both sides of the border, should again stand up, as they did last year, and decry this idea as the outrageous folly it is. The proposal was killed once. It can be killed again.

Last year, Trump sought to reduce funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, an Obama-era program that has done much toward its titular aim, from around $300 million per year to about $10 million.

Mayors, governors and premiers, researchers and advocates in the Great Lakes states and provinces and beyond, warned that this was a very bad idea. These lakes, polluted and beset by algal blooms and invasive species, are under threat, they argued, and this should not be taken lightly.

The Great Lakes, after all, comprise one of the largest fresh-water resources in the world, a source of drinking water for some 40 million people in the United States and Canada. They provide hundreds of thousands of jobs and habitat for an extraordinary diversity of animal species. They play a profoundly important role in many communities and in the overall health of our part of the planet.

Congress, seized by rare good sense (or perhaps by fear of political fallout), blocked the cut. Nevertheless Trump persisted, proposing a cut nearly as deep in this years budget, released earlier this week.

This squeeze is part of a larger attempt to defund the Environmental Protection Agency, which Trump has often called a job killer, unfriendly as it is to environment-corroding industry.

But you know what would be a real job killer? The destruction of one of the worlds most significant fresh-water fisheries, for example, the inevitable outcome if the Great Lakes are left unprotected from polluters, algal blooms and invasive Asian carp. These lakes, also vital to local tourism, farming and hydro-electricity industries, are thought to sustain about 1.5 million jobs in the U.S. alone.

In Canada, the importance of the Great Lakes can hardly be overstated. They provide drinking water to a quarter of our population and their basin is home to a quarter of our agricultural production. They have played a central role in our cultural and economic history and are held as sacred by First Nations communities.

The prime minister and the premiers of Ontario and Quebec have all vowed, at various times, to protect the Great Lakes. But clearly they cant do that alone. This attempted assault by the White House on our shared environment requires a response.

Nobody thinks this budget will be passed in the form laid out, not least because of the presidents dismal legislative record. Still, defenders of the lakes, including those in Canada, would be unwise to take on faith that Trumps proposal will fail. They must impress again on members of Congress what a short-sighted and dangerous idea this is and urge them to hold the line.

Read more about:Thousands gather to protest verdict, Feb. 11

Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clarks statement that the acquittal of Gerald Stanley and the response of Colten Boushies family is a defining moment for our city, our province, our country, where we decide what kind of country were going to be, is so important if we are to move forward.

It is a critical moment to build bridges of understanding and action between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. We as non-Indigenous people can meet this call rallying support for the necessary reforms and actions by all levels of Canadian society  from our governance structure to our civil society organizations, churches, unions, community groups, educational institutions, business groups, etc.  rural and urban.

If there is to be justice for Colten Boushie we can take these actions and create a Canada that confronts the historical injustices that have led to his death.

This we can do together.

Don Kossick, SaskatoonWe can and must do better federal justice minister vows, Feb. 11

Who do the prime minister and justice minister think they are? Perhaps they think they are people living in a democracy who are allowed to comment. Were they questioning the verdict or commenting on a need for a change in our laws? Is it not in the purview of our politicians to review, update and create new laws that reflect the emerging needs of voters in a democracy? Who created the legal elements many of us are now concerned about in the first place?

Laws change, like Canadas view on sexuality, the rights of access based on race, colour, creed and religion, workplace safety, gender equity, parking your horse without tethering it. Were the politicians who spearheaded those changes acting outside their purview? I think not.

Our laws are here to serve all Canadians. If our politicians feel, and reflect back to us what many of us voters feel, that the legal elements impacting this case require a new think, then they are doing their job. What the real concern is: Will the PM and justice minister just think and talk or will they act? The jury is out on that one.

Don Graves, BurlingtonFor years the Ontario Conservatives have hammered away at Premier Kathleen Wynne for running what they call a corrupt and scandal-ridden government that will do anything to stay in power.

They pointed at alleged scandals ranging from gas-plant fiascos, a Sudbury byelection bribery case, questionable budget-keeping and more as proof the government had lost all integrity, had no conscience and would stop at nothing to win the next election.

So furious were the Tories with their hyped-up outrage that you almost expected them to shout Lock Her Up at any moment.

Suddenly, though, it turns out it may be the Progressive Conservatives themselves  not the Liberals  that is the real party of rot and corruption at Queens Park.

Indeed, interim leader Vic Fedeli has pledged to concentrate on rooting out the rot that has spread throughout the party in recent years.

That rot includes tainted membership lists, controversial candidate nomination meetings, questionable party finances, bullying allegations and failure to conduct  or in some cases possibly overlooking  full background checks on senior party officials.

Worse, though, is the fact that senior party leaders, including some of the most vocal Wynne critics, have been turning a blind eye to the rot and corruption within their own party for years.

Since 2016, warnings have been sounded by rank-and-file members about abuses going on within the Patrick Brown-led party hierarchy.

But the warnings were blatantly ignored or cavalierly dismissed by top Conservative bosses and elected MPPs as the lonely complaints of party cranks.

Richard Ciano, the past Tory president, told the Star in the wake of Browns resignation that there are very serious issues and problems and concerns around membership fraud, around fraudulent nomination meetings and around a whole host of issues that border really on corruption.

While its good Fedeli is looking into the partys own admitted mess, the question is what took him, other MPPs and party officials so long to speak up.

Were they, like the Liberals they love to criticize, willing to remain silent about their own rot to avoid anything that might derail what they see as an easy road to victory in the June 7 provincial election?

Back in 2016, local riding associations started raising questions about a serious shortfall in party fundraising and about how they were being treated by Brown and senior party officials.

Over that summer, local officials spoke of a party filled with internal strife. Many riding associations were furious over what they termed as bullying, threats and a growing rift between the grassroots and the party executive.

Their anger was focused on Bob Stanley, executive director of the Ontario Conservative Party, Babu Nagalingam, a senior Toronto-area organizer and Rick Dykstra, the party president. They spoke of gag orders and threats being made to riding executives over nomination proceedings and fundraising efforts.

But Tory MPPs and other influential Conservatives did nothing.

In the summer of 2017, charges of thuggery and political chaos aimed at party bosses resurfaced. It was so bad that three entire rising executive teams quit en masse. More than a dozen riding nominations were in question after allegations of dirty tricks on behalf of Brown-favoured candidates.

Still nothing was done.

Now there are serious questions about whether party officials knew about allegations of sexual assault against Dykstra during the time he was a federal MP. Dykstra quit suddenly as party president just days after Brown resigned. He has denied any wrongdoing.

But legitimate questions are being raised about whether senior party officials knew about the allegations against Dykstra and Brown, and if they did, why they did nothing at that time.

Slowly the party is starting to take some action. Last weekend it overturned candidate nomination elections in Scarborough Centre and Ottawa West-Nepean. But its done nothing on numerous other riding fights.

In a boosterish letter he sent Wednesday to fellow MPPs, Fedeli claimed the Tories have never been stronger or in better shape. The interim leader said theres been a surge in fundraising and in people volunteering to help in the election since Brown stepped down.

Despite all the controversies swirling around them, the Conservatives still appear headed for victory in June. A poll last week by Campaign Research indicated the party has actually extended its lead over both the Liberals and NDP now that Brown is gone.

Still, given all the rot and scandal within their own ranks, its fair to ask: If this is how the Conservatives run their own party, how will they run the province?

Bob Hepburn's column appears Thursday. bhepburn@thestar.ca

Read more about:The ethical case to fight the deportation of former child refugee Abdoul Abdi from Canada is a straightforward one with no visible shades of grey.

Yet it has ballooned into a needless battle exposing federal and provincial indifference to non-citizen children.

On Feb. 15, a Federal Court will hear an emergency request to temporarily stop Abdis deportation.

The broad strokes of Abdis story are these.

Instability was the only constant in the life of this man, born 24 years ago in Saudi Arabia to a Saudi father and Somali mother. He lived for four years at a refugee camp in Djibouti and then at age 6 landed in Canada along with his sister and aunts.

At age 8, child protective services scooped him and his sister out of their aunts home for reasons unknown. This is not surprising  research in Ontario last year showed Aboriginal and Black children are far more likely to be investigated and taken into care than white children.

The family now speculates this could be because their aunt, who didnt speak much English, took too long to register them for school.

Abdi bounced around among not one or two or a dozen homes but 31 of them, some, he says, abusive situations. A study last year by Ontarios Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth linked foster care experiences to later outcomes of homelessness and criminality, among others.

Abdi, too, got sucked into illegal activities.

When he messed up, he faced the consequences. About four years in prison for multiple offences, including aggravated assault.

He is also paying the price for errors by the system.

On Jan. 4, no alarm bells were sounded in the labyrinthine corridors of power in Canada, when Canada Border Services Agency officers arrested Abdi as he left prison after serving his sentence and was at the gates of a halfway house.

They were going to deport him, they said. Send him packing because it turned out the kid who grew up in Canada was not a Canadian citizen. His crown parents  the Department of Community Services  had never applied for a citizenship for him.

Where was he being banished? Not to Saudi, his birthplace, which might have been the logical though still unjustifiable choice, but to Somalia, the place of his mothers ethnic origins, a place so dangerous that Canadian officials and planes dont go there. A place whose language Abdi does not speak, and where he knows no one.

Repeatedly abandoned as a child, Abdi is now an officially unwanted adult.

It has taken a village, for us to hear of Abdi.

More accurately, it has taken a set of extraordinarily large-hearted individuals, many of whom have never met Abdi, but who are tied together by a passionate rejection of injustice to bring his story to the forefront of our nations conscience.

Last month, Halifax poet laureate and activist El Jones chronicled in the Halifax Examiner just one week of the collective action taken for Abdi.

In it she wove the stories of disparate lives criss-crossing through past injustices. How Jones came across Abdi via Coralee Smith, the mother of Ashley Smith who died in 2007, asphyxiated from a ligature tied around her neck as correctional officers watched.

How Abdis sister Fatouma courageously challenged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a town hall in Nova Scotia, thereby ensuring national attention on this case.

How Jones and journalist/activist Desmond Cole questioned Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Ahmed Hussen at a National Black Summit in that city, and endured criticisms of being disruptive and rude and not supporting a fellow Black minister.

As though, Jones writes, having a Black man sign the deportation papers is progress.

She writes of Abdis fantastic lawyer Ben Perryman who finds himself suddenly under the glare of media spotlight.

And of the near-misses, the small successes, the support and amplification from Black Lives Matter and academics/activists Rinaldo Walcott and Idil Abdillahi, and student activist Masuma Khan among others.

Here is an important thing:

All of us have jobs, and school, and families, she writes. This isnt even the only thing were advocating on this week, because theres always more suffering, more rights being denied, more people in need.

Yet Jones writes of hope, and of love that carries them forward.

Their undertaking serves to underline the inhumanity of the decisions that mark this case.

Federal minister of public safety Ralph Goodale refused to pause a deportation hearing while Abdis lawyers mount a constitutional challenge to his deportation. At its hearing on March 7, the Immigration and Refugee Board will not review the complexities of the case to decide if Abdi can enter or remain in the country, his lawyer told the CBC. His criminal record will inevitably lead to a deportation order, he said.

A deportation order would automatically strip Abdis permanent resident status.

No PR status means he cant keep his job, means he risks going back to prison; being employed is a condition for his release.

And round and round it goes.

This is the face of institutions ganging up against vulnerable individuals. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told an audience in Quebec its time to recognize anti-Black racism exists in Canada. Canada can and must do better, he said.

What are we waiting for?

Shree Paradkar writes about discrimination and identity. You can follow her @shreeparadkarWith opposing factions deeply entrenched on either side of the climate change divide, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seems to think hes found the sweet spot of Canadian politics dithering in the middle.

But trying to find some happy middle ground doesnt work when the force to be reckoned with is nature. You cant cut a deal with her on climate any more than you can barter with her about the laws of gravity.

So, while its refreshing that the prime minister has ditched the petro-swagger of his predecessor, Trudeaus support for the Kinder Morgan and Keystone pipelines keeps us on a path of increased oilsands production, making it virtually impossible to meet our emission reduction targets  which is what matters. No amount of sunny charm can stop sea levels from rising.

Last year Trudeau won a standing ovation from Houston oil executives for saying: No country would find 173 billion barrels of oil in the ground and just leave them there.

While it was a great punchline for an oil gathering, the simple truth is: much of that oil will have to stay in the ground if we are to meet our targets.

Trudeaus support for more pipelines is regarded by many media commentators as simply the practical option, the only one that Canadians will accept.

But that may be changing. Recent polling by Abacus Data found that Canadians have become more worried about climate change and keen to be part of the green energy revolution. Over the past three years, support for building new pipelines has dropped (from 58 to 44 per cent).

Canadians sense both an environmental and moral urgency and an economic wave they want to be part of, notes Abacus chairman Bruce Anderson.

This suggests the main obstacle to climate action may not be the public, but rather the worlds most powerful interest group  the international petroleum industry.

It is, after all, the player with the most to lose.

U.S. environmentalist Bill McKibben has calculated that if 80 per cent of global oil reserves stay in the ground  as the scientific community considers necessary to avoid climate disaster  Big Oil stands to lose $20 trillion.

Yet its central role in blocking climate action is often obscured, with the focus instead on oil and pipeline workers.

While these workers undoubtedly want pipelines, the massive, costly campaign that has derailed climate action in Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere has Big Oils fingerprints all over it.

In a powerful new book, Oils Deep State, Kevin Taft argues that the petroleum industry has effectively captured control of our key democratic institutions  government, opposition, universities, regulators, parts of the civil service, etc.

Taft, who writes from experience as former Leader of the Opposition in Alberta, argues that this capture of democratic institutions explains the otherwise baffling failure of our democracy to deal with something as threatening to our interests as global warming.

Left to its free devices, a healthy democracy will respond to a pressing and substantive issue like global warming with deliberation, debate and resolution, Taft writes.

He notes that thats how Canada and other democracies responded in the 80s and early 90s, but since then, the prolonged efforts and vast expenditures of the fossil fuel industry have corrupted the shape and form of the democratic process itself.

If that sounds overdramatic, consider the fate of the Leap Manifesto, which calls for bold government action to make the leap from fossil fuels to clean energy.

Although it makes a reasonable case  envisioning a Canada based on caring for the Earth and one another, the manifesto provoked outrage when it was presented to the 2016 NDP national convention by one of its creators, Avi Lewis, son of party legend Stephen Lewis.

The NDP is the most environmentally friendly of our major political parties, but the Leap was a step too far for many party centrists. There was even controversy over the decision to consign it to local riding associations, where its ideas could be safely debated in the obscurity of church basements and union halls.

With another NDP convention happening later this week in Ottawa, the manifesto  this time backed by key players from the campaigns of Bernie Sanders in the U.S. and Jeremy Corbyn in the U.K.  is expected to once again make waves.

While just about everyone now acknowledges climate change is bad, actually taking action to stop it continues to be wildly controversial, and Big Oil remains hidden behind the curtain.

Linda McQuaig is an author and journalist whose column appears monthly. You can follow her on twitter @LindaMcQuaig.

Read more about:Kathmandu, Nepal: Newly appointed Prime Minister KP Oli has been sworn in as 41th Prime Minister of Nepal. This is his second term in office as Prime Minister for CPN UML Chairman Oli.





President Bidya Devi Bhandari administered oath of office and secrecy to the newly appointed Prime Minister Oli amid a function at Sheetal Niwas on Thursday.





Following the sworn in as Prime Minister Oli formed 3-member cabinet including him as the Prime Minister.





The newly appointed ministers include CPN-UML leader Lal Babu Pandit as Minister for Population and Environment and Thum Maya Thapa as Minister for Women,Children and Social Welfare.





Newly appointed ministers were also administered oath of office and secrecy at the same function.



Cisco's fastest-growing product ever, an increase in capital returns and prospects for growth drove shares higher after Wednesday's close.

Look who is back in the good graces of Wall Street.

Shares of Cisco Systems (CSCO) - Get Cisco Systems, Inc. Report rose 4.2% on Thursday, Feb. 15, after the company's fiscal second-quarter earnings showed something that has been missing for a while -- a growing top line.

"In Q2, we returned to revenue growth," Chairman CEO Chuck Robbins told investors in a call after the market close.

Cisco's revenue, which had declined for eight consecutive quarters according to FactSet, grew 3% to $11.9 billion, beating a consensus forecast of $11.8 billion. Earnings of 63 cents per share topped expectations of 59 cents per share, on a non-GAAP basis excluding stock option expenses.

Shares rallied after the market close on Wednesday amid signs that a turnaround may be taking hold.

Among other positive notes in the quarter, Cisco's Catalyst 9000 router is catching on. "The Catalyst 9000 is the fastest ramping product in our history," Robbins told investors, noting that its count of 3,100 customers doubled over the prior year.

The router comes with a multi-year software subscription, which contributes to Cisco's focus on software and services with recurring revenues. Recurring revenue made up 33% of total sales in the quarter, an increase of 2 percentage points from the prior year.

Illustrating Cisco's new direction, Robbins said the company is developing a new cyber-risk-management product with Action Alerts Plus holding Apple (AAPL) - Get Apple Inc. (AAPL) Report , German insurer Allianz, and London consultant and insurance group Aon.

Software revenues will benefit from Cisco's $1.9 billion purchase of cloud communications outfit BroadSoft Inc., which closed in early February and did not contribute to fiscal second-quarter results.

Cisco expects revenues to grow 3% to 5% in the fiscal third quarter, exceeding expectations.

"The strong third-quarter guidance reflects the contribution from the BroadSoft acquisition, but even without this impact, Cisco would report another quarter of growth on another easy comparison," Edward Jones analyst David Heger said in a research note following the report. "The company is making steady progress moving to a subscription-based revenue model, but we believe that in the near term it could particularly benefit from improved corporate network spending due to improved worldwide economic growth and tax-reform-related investment in the U.S."

Cisco has a trove of cash overseas, and benefits from the lowered tax rate on repatriated earnings.

Of Cisco's $73.7 billion in cash at the end of the quarter, more than $71 billion is stashed offshore. Cisco plans to repatriate $67 billion of the offshore funds in the fiscal third quarter.

With the influx of funds, CFO Kelly Kramer said Cisco is bumping its dividend up by four cents to 33 cents per share. The company is also adding $25 billion to its stock buyback plan, bringing the total repurchasing target to $31 billion over the next 18 to 24 months.

While the repatriated cash will fund dividends and buybacks, Daniel Ives of GBH Insights noted that it could also be a catalyst for M&A in a research note following Cisco's report.

"Acquisitions are a critical part of, and always have been, of our overall strategy," Kramer said, noting that even after the dividends and buybacks Cisco's cash will exceed its debt by $10 billion to $12 billion. "From a capital allocation perspective," she added, "we're going to continue to be looking for the acquisitions that we can drive value and drive growth with."Shares of U.S. gunmakers popped higher at Thursday's market opening following a Florida school shooting that left 17 people dead on Wednesday. Gunmaker stocks often see quick increases after mass shootings, as enthusiasts apparently buy more weapons because they fear mass killings could result in new government restrictions on gun sales.

Pure gun plays Sturm, Ruger & Co. (RGR) - Get Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. Report traded as much as 2.8% higher in early trading Thursday, while American Outdoor Brands Corp. (AOBC) - Get American Outdoor Brands Corporation Report rose as much as 4.5%. However, both later pulled back to near the flat line.

Sturm closed trading down 0.2% while American Outdoor closed the day up 1.5%.

Olin Corp. (OLN) - Get Olin Corporation Report , a company that sells a mix of gun brands and other products, also rose as much as 2.7% higher and closed the day up 1.56%. So did fellow mixed-product gunmaker Vista Outdoor Inc. (VSTO) - Get Vista Outdoor Inc Report , which tacked on 0.3% early on but closed the day down 0.36%.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, was taken into custody Wednesday in the neighborhood surrounding the school after his alleged shooting spree in Parkland, Fla. He was a former student who was expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for unspecified disciplinary reasons.Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba

Kathmandu, Nepal: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is going to step down from the post of Prime Minister today.





Before submitting his resignation the president Bidya Devi Bhandari, he is going to address the nation.





Prime Minister Deuba reached on the conclusion to resign from the post after Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday submitted its final results of the federal parliamentary elections to the President Bhndari.



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Read MoreSunland Minerals, a joint venture between Botswana Diamonds and Russias Alrosa, is expected to commence exploration work in the first half of 2018 in Botswana.

The objective, said Botswana Diamonds, of the work was to follow-up on 15 previously identified priority geophysical targets in PL232- 235 and PL001-004 in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

It said ground magnetics would be used to supplement the airborne gravity and airborne magnetic data obtained in earlier work.

A soil sample programme would operate in conjunction with the magnetic surveys and the objective was to turn geophysical targets already identified into drill targets, said Botswana Diamonds.

This phase of the work is being supervised by an exploration team from Botswana Diamonds and is fully funded, it said.

Meanwhile, Botswana Diamonds said it had raised 500,000 following the placing of 50,000,000 new ordinary shares with new and existing investors at a price of 1p per placing share.

The net proceeds of the placing would fund ongoing diamond exploration in South Africa and Botswana, it said.



Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished



Bethlehem

After successfully landing bank financing for its new $5 million headquarters in Slingerlands, Monolith Solar is seeking an extension of a deadline to receive tax benefits from the Bethlehem Industrial Development Agency.

Monolith Solar CEO Mike Hickey is also expected to be at the Bethlehem IDA board meeting on Feb. 23 to discuss the project, which was first announced in 2014 at the Vista Technology Campus off the Route 85 bypass.

The IDA has offered Monolith $680,000 in state tax breaks for completion of the project. Monolith currently is located in Rensselaer but has outgrown that facility and is planning to build a new headquarters and warehouse at the Vista Technology Campus on property behind the ShopRite supermarket. Monolith has about 125 employees as well as an office in Syracuse.

The tech park land is owned by Columbia Development of Albany, and BBL Construction is expected to build the 26,000-square-foot facility.

Hickey wrote the IDA a letter on Jan. 25 requesting that the board extend the date by which the project must be completed and still be eligible for financial assistance from April 25 to Dec. 13. The extension is largely a formality.

The state has also offered Monolith $800,000 in cash and tax credits as well.

Hickey wrote that closing of the bank financing would take six to eight weeks, which would be in March. The company would need more time than just until April 25 to complete the construction. To date, only a small amount of site work as been done at the location at 85 Vista Blvd.

"Once we close on the financing, we will continue construction and expand the company... into the town of Bethlehem as planned," Hickey wrote.

The IDA's agenda for the Feb. 23 meeting (the IDA meets at 8 a.m. that day) states that Hickey will also discuss tariffs on solar panels with the board.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

The issue became a big deal for companies like Monolith right around the time that Hickey wrote his letter. That is when President Donald Trump imposed a 30 percent tariff on imported solar panels, seeking to counter the sale of cheap imported solar panels.

Hickey recently discussed this issue in a Daily Gazette story.

Hickey addressed concerns that Schenectady County officials had about the price of contracts it was negotiating with solar companies to get more of its energy resources from solar. Monolith already has a contract with the county and recently opened a solar farm in Rotterdam.

Hickey told the Daily Gazette he didn't expect the 30 percent tariff to translate directly to the cost of solar farms since the panels are just one part of the system costs.

"It's one of those things where there's a lot of smoke now," Hickey was quoted as saying. "I'm actually of the feeling we won't see much of an impact."Albany

Joachim Frank came back to the Capital Region Thursday to share the Nobel Prize with his former colleagues in Albany.

Frank spent more than 30 years at the state's Wadsworth Center pushing the limits of microscopy science, while also teaching at the University at Albany's department of biomedical sciences.

Last fall, nearly a decade after leaving Albany for Columbia University in New York City, Frank won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his revolutionary and groundbreaking inventions in the field of cryo-electron microscopy, a high-resolution technique of molecular imaging that has elevated the biomedical fields to new heights.

While Columbia University basked in the glow of Frank's award when it was announced back in October, it was Wadsworth's turn on Thursday to honor and celebrate Frank's achievement, which was awarded based on breakthroughs he made at Wadsworth during the 1970s and 80s.

"Today we're celebrating the achievements of a great man of science and we're also celebrating the importance of science in our community, and that's an important thing to do," Jill Taylor, director of the Wadsworth Center, said Thursday afternoon during a lecture and ceremony honoring Frank held at the Albany Capital Center. "Speaking of the community, Joachim is now at Columbia and they share our pride in his achievement."

Thursday's event comes as the state Department of Health is hoping to finally get state funds for a new campus for Wadsworth that would modernize its research facilities and create space for new academic and commercial partnerships.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo included $600 million in funding in his executive budget proposal after the Legislature approved $150 million for the initial planning for the project last year.

State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker could not attend the Frank ceremony because he was dealing with an "urgent family matter," and so Sally Dreslin, his executive deputy commissioner, attended in his place.

Dreslin mentioned the importance of the new Wadsworth campus project to maintaining the center as one of the top public health labs in the country and said Frank's success during his time in Albany showed how the lab's focus on a wide range of issues, from newborn screening and environmental toxins to the most dangerous diseases, is an important state asset.

"By honoring (Frank) we are also honoring the Wadsworth Center as the institution where most of the work was done," Dreslin said. "The Wadsworth Center is regarded as the finest state public health laboratory in the United States and perhaps the only one that can claim to have a Nobel Laureate."

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Frank shares the 2017 prize with Jacques Dubochet of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and Richard Henderson of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, two other prominent researchers who also made huge contributions to the field of cryo-electron microscopy, which used a process of freezing biomolecules and scanning them with electron beam microscopes to better visualize how these molecules look and work.

Frank's techniques in the field have led to him creating what are essentially 3-D movies of how ribosomes operate.

Frank said at Wadsworth, breakthroughs would always come in the most unexpected ways since it wasn't set up as a traditional academic research lab. He said that one day a French scientist named Jean-Pierre Bretaudiere was producing a large printout of blood sample data being processed by the lab that gave Frank a new idea on how to create images of molecules on the computer.

The idea was simple but not easily discovered.

"We had the solution the next afternoon," Frank said. "That could not have happened at another institution."MOZART IN THE JUNGLE

Amazon

Season Premiere! Season 4 of the Golden Globe-winning series returns as Rodrigo (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Hailey (Lola Kirke) take their relationship public. Hailey struggles to prove herself as a conductor while Rodrigo fights to keep his inspiration alive. Thomas (Malcolm McDowell) joins a startup orchestra in Brooklyn that challenges Gloria (Bernadette Peters).

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

ESPN2, beginning at 7 p.m. Live

Rhode Island at St. Bonaventure in an Atlantic 10 clash is followed by Georgia State at Georgia Southern in a matchup of Sun Belt teams.

WRECK-IT RALPH

ABC, 8 p.m.

This Oscar-nominated 2012 Disney hit features hulking video-game character Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) who, for decades, has been overshadowed by Fix-It Felix Jr. (voice of Jack McBrayer), the guy who always gets to save the day. Tired of playing a villain, Ralph takes matters into his own massive hands and sets off on a journey across the arcade and through multiple generations of video games to prove he's got what it takes to be a hero. Wreck-It Ralph also features the voices of Jane Lynch and Sarah Silverman.

CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND: "NATHANIEL IS IRRELEVANT."

The CW, 8 p.m.

Season Finale! When Rebecca (Rachel Bloom) decides to make amends for her past, she finds some unexpected challenges. At the same time, West Covina awaits an important new arrival.

ZOMBIES

Disney Channel, 8 p.m.

Original Film! Meg Donnelly ("American Housewife") and newcomer Milo Manheim star in the latest Disney Channel Original Movie, which combines a pop and hip-hop music soundtrack, eye-popping choreography and acrobatic cheerleading moves. The tale takes place in the picture-perfect town of Seabrook 50 years after a zombie apocalypse, when the lives of the harmless zombies change forever when they are finally allowed to enroll in Seabrook High School.

2 DOPE QUEENS: "HOT PEEN"

HBO, 11:30 p.m.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt actor Tituss Burgess is Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams' guest.

Brought to you by the publishers of TV Guide.  TV Guide 2018Dawn, February 12, 2018

Nobody in PakisAtanas brief history, which has witnessed four military coups, has matched Asma JahanAgir for her dedication to public service, her belief in the rule of law, her relentless defence of democracy and pursuit of free and fair elections. She stood for both peace and justice with all of Pakistanas neighbours.

Indians too mourned her loss as did people around the world. She was loved by millions while her detractors treated her with the utmost respect. At a time when Pakistan is once again facing immense political uncertainties and severe tensions with the US and all its neighbours, Asmaas role as a voice for peace and sanity was absolutely vital. Sadly that voice has now gone silent and for the time being there is nobody with the stature or the willingness to take her place.

Throughout her life she took enormous risks. She was the bravest of the brave.

She was born in Lahore in 1952 and educated in the city before being called to the Lahore High Court in 1980. She was first arrested in 1983 for participating in the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy against the military regime of Gen Ziaul Haq. Many more arrests and house arrests were to follow even as she engaged in fighting the cases of those who had suffered at the hands of the establishment.

In 1987 she co-founded the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and became its secretary. The HRCP earned global recognition for its fairness and defence of religious minorities, battered women, children and those who were too poor to seek redress through the courts.

Its annual report on the state of human rights in the country is still one of the most significant and relevant documents put out by any non-state organisation. It is also used by foreign governments to determine the state of human rights in Pakistan.

Together with her sister Hina Jilani and two other lawyers she formed the first law firm established by women and for women in Pakistan. The firm took cases gratis in case abused women were too poor to pay, while the law firm quickly became the centre for defence of the press and other social causes.

Asma Jahangir was perhaps the most honoured Pakistani citizen, receiving multiple human rights awards, honorary degrees and other awards from universities in the US, Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and the Philippines as well as from think tanks and governments all over the world.

Her most prized cases that she took up were also the most dangerous that she faced a the defence of those accused under the blasphemy law. aIt would be hypocrisy to defend a law I donat believe in like capital punishment, the blasphemy law and laws against women and in favour of child labour,aa she told the media in 2005.

Yet Asma will be remembered for much more than her long list of achievements and the services she rendered to a state that has always grappled between orthodoxy and liberalism. She was a remarkable human being with a wonderful sense of humour, a devoted mother and wife and later revelled in the time spent with her grandchildren.

She kept an open house which at any time of day was filled with her friends, litigants, abused women and children, senior politicians and people from the media. Small in height but fiery in spirit, her finger wagging at assertive anchormen on TV, at lawyers and others in court became just one of her many hallmarks.

Her ability to debate or criticise anyone at any time on virtually any subject ensured that she was as much feared by the media as she was loved. She never hesitated to call a spade a spade be they politicians, bureaucrats or generals.

Her defence of the law and the legal system was at times far stronger and more implacable than that undertaken by even senior judges, lawyers and journalists. In a country that has for at least one third of its existence been bereft of law and a democratic system, Asmaas defence of the law was unprecedented.

In moments of crisis, doubt, fears and uncertainty people from all walks of life invariably turned to her and they would come away emboldened, strengthened and ready to take on the world.

She was not for herself, she was for everyone. Her tiny frame knocked up against the harsh world outside and invariably led to her inspiring all those around her. She will be remembered and honoured for ever.You don't necessarily have to go downtown to try some interesting new restaurants in the area. Our restaurant reviewer, Susie Davidson Powell, has made a few trips recently to Latham.

Among some relatively new restaurant spots to find in that community are Tipsy Moose Tap & Tavern, Zaitoon Kitchen, Philly Brewery-Lounge-Coal Oven and Elevation Burger. The most recent stop was Galleria 7 Market, a food hall that provides a few options all in one place.SARATOGA SPRINGS - An error in sales tax payments of an estimated $545,000 has skewed the city's 2017 sales tax revenue downward.

An erroneous payment made to the city in 2015 and 2016, which were recovered by the state's Department of Taxation and Finance in 2017, dropped the city's year-to-year sales tax revenue by 1 percent from 2016  from $11.93 million to $11.81 million in 2017, the state comptroller's office report indicates.

"When you exclude the prior period adjustments, the city took in $12.2 million," said Michael Sharp, the city's deputy commissioner of finance. "Really, the city had the best sales tax year in its history. Our message is the city's economy is strong."

Commissioner of Finance Michele Madigan will make a presentation on the sales tax adjustments at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the City Council meeting in City Hall. She'll give more details on the sales tax dip and how the city is making up for the loss. Last October, when Madigan presented the 2018 proposed budget, she spoke of the negative adjustment calling it "a strain" on 2017. She also kept the 2018 expectations flat at $12.3 million.

"I believe it is in line with the adjusted 2017 sales tax total we've calculated," she said.

Sales tax income in the Spa City is the second largest source of revenue, following property taxes, accounting for 26.6 percent of its budget.

Saratoga County meanwhile continued to grow its sales tax revenue with a 2.26 percent increase in revenue. In 2017, the county got $119.6 million from sales tax compared to $116.9 million in 2016, the state Comptroller's Office said. A large chunk of that sales tax revenue, said county Treasurer Drew Jarosh, comes from sale of gasoline and durable goods. He also said Saratoga County is unique as it has escaped upstate's economic woes.

"In my professional and personal opinion, the county is strong," Jarosh said. "The combination of tourism, conventions, industry and technology has positioned the county, insulating it from the problems other counties in upstate New York are experiencing."

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Certainly, visitation to the Spa City during the summer months remains strong. The New York Racing Association reported that in 2017, the Saratoga Race Course saw 1,117,838 fans pushed through the turnstiles. It also broke records for its handle at $676.7 million. The 2017 handle eclipsed the previous high set in 2015 by 4.4 percent and shattered the prior record set in 2012 by more than 15 percent.

Sharp said since the economic downturn in 2009, the city's sales tax revenue has grown 3 percent to 8 percent every year.

"Our economy is strong and it would have shown that in our sales tax numbers if we didn't have the adjustment," Sharp said. "We are confident in the future. The trends look good for 2018's sales tax."Johannesburg

President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, a master tactician who survived a string of scandals and harsh court judgments during his nearly nine-year presidency, agreed on Wednesday to step down, repudiated by the governing African National Congress Party, cornered by opposition parties and abandoned by millions of voters.

In an address to the nation Wednesday night, Zuma said that he was resigning even though he disagreed with the party's decision ordering him to do so.

"I have therefore come to the decision to resign as the president of the Republic with immediate effect, even though I disagree with the decision of the leadership of my organization, I have always been a disciplined member of the ANC," he said at the end of a lengthy television address.

Only hours earlier he had sounded defiant during a live interview with the state broadcaster SABC, after party leaders had threatened to remove him through a no-confidence vote in Parliament on Thursday. He had indicated that he would not resign, saying the party's effort to pull him from office was "unfair," that he was being "victimized," and that he had done nothing wrong.

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The deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa  whose election as ANC leader in December set off a power struggle with Zuma  immediately became acting president. On Thursday, Ramaphosa is almost certain to be chosen by Parliament to become the nation's fifth president since the end of apartheid in 1994.

The party's decision was a humiliating end for Zuma, a charismatic anti-apartheid hero who was imprisoned on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela and was once the ANC's intelligence chief.

Initially he inspired hope in millions of South Africans. But, tainted by accusations of misconduct, he came to symbolize the corruption that flourished during his time in office.TROY  Chief Brian Owens took command of the Troy Police Department Wednesday promising to lead the 130-member force out of a two-year period marked by officer-involved shootings and questions about its investigative work.

The appointment of the 43-year-old Owens brings a new generation to the helm as he fills the vacancy created by the retirement of his predecessor Chief John Tedesco, 63, in January.

There is probably no greater responsibility of a mayor than his appointments to leadership positions. Theres probably no appointment more consequential than police chief, Madden said

Madden said restoring Troy as a leader in community policing through stronger relationships with the city's neighborhood was a major factor is selecting Owens to head the department with Capts. Daniel DeWolf and Christopher Kehn becoming the two assistant chiefs. DeWolf was sworn in Wednesday and Kehn will be promoted when Assistant Chief George VanBramer retires at the end of March.

While Owens said his first hours on the job were too soon to consider major changes as he is still learning what must be done, he immediately reached out to the department's rank-and-file. He assured them that he would watch out for them.

"You can count on me to try to do what's right, what's best and to take care of you," Owens told the gathering packed with rank-and-file officers at Franklin Terrace on Campbell Avenue.

Officer Nick Laviano, president of the Troy Police Benevolent Association, said officers anticipate the new, younger leadership at the head of the department will improve morale with a more up-to-date approach to policing. It's also anticipated that outmoded technology will be replaced with better equipment including laptop computers in patrol cars, cameras for street surveillance and an agreement on the introduction of body cameras. Officers, detectives and sergeants have spoken in support of the complete change at the department's top tier of leadership giving it a younger perspective by some 20 years.

The department has been slammed by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office investigation of its handling of Sgt. Randall French's fatal shooting of Edson Thevenin during an April 2016 DWI traffic stop. Thevenin's death and the wounding of an alleged parole absconder in August 2017 by a city police officer during a traffic stop angered many community minority members, who have called for changes in the department.

"Police must strike a deft balance between protecting the community and civil rights," Madden said.

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Owens said ties to the community would be strengthened through better communication and encouraging officers to work with residents and businesses to ensure safe neighborhoods. This change is anticipated to take time as the agency shifts its focus.

Internal issues may cause Owens his most trying moments. Stepping into office as chief means he has to handle the outstanding disciplinary investigation off four members of the drug unit, known as the Firearms Interdiction and Narcotics Suppression Unit, following a warrantless search of an Oakwood Avenue apartment in June.

The commander of the unit and a since-retired detective have been indicted in the case. The four subordinate officers remain on paid administrative leave. Owens said he hasnt been involved in the disciplinary investigation but will get up to speed on it.

Owens said he supports the mayors position on the report by Schneiderman's office on the departments handling of the investigation of the fatal shooting of Thevenin. City officials criticized the report for factual errors but have offered no explanation of them citing the pending wrongful death lawsuit by Thevenins family. Madden has said the city will consider the report's recommendations for improving officer-involved shooting investigation, equipping officers with body and dash cameras and changing the policy regarding shooting at moving vehicles.President Donald Trump responded to the Florida shooting in a live address to the nation on Thursday.

"Our entire nation with one heavy heart is praying for the victims and the families," Trump said.

The President's speech focused on the need for increased mental health awareness to stop future shootings and didn't mention gun control. In fact, many on Twitter pointed out that he never even said the word gun.

People were quick to respond to Trump's words on Twitter: Some thanked him for his prayers and others argued that prayers aren't the answer to the problem. Many also pointed out that his address made no mention of tightening gun laws.

Trump also issued a proclamation Thursday honoring victims of the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fl., where 17 were shot dead.

ALSO: For Florida shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz, a life of guns, depression and trouble

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The presidential proclamation says: "Our Nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones in the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida."

The former student who opened fire Wednesday with an AR-15 rifle was charged Thursday morning.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.While the people of Rathcabbin deserve to have the waste removed from the Shannon Vermicomposting facility, it shouldn't be done at the expense of any other place, according to one Nenagh councillor.

Cllr Seamus Morris has urged Tipperary County Council to consider removing the waste to the newly-opened incinerator in Dublin for disposal instead of bringing it by truck to the old dump at Ballyvenny near Ballymackey.

He said everybody knew the consequences of having heavy trucks in the Ballymackey area when the dump was open.

I don't want to take it from one part of Tipperary and dump it in another part, he said.

And Cllr Hughie McGrath wants the residents in Ballymackey, through the Ballymackey Action Group, consulted before any attempt is made to bring the waste to the area.

Nenagh Municipal District Council had been asked by Cllr Michael O'Meara for an update on plans to remove the waste from the facility.

There is funding of 1m to clean up the site, but I know it is far from easy, he said.

Cllr O'Meara, who represents the area, encouraged the council to carry out any action required in conjunction with the local community.

They have had to put up with an awful lot, he said. There are 25,000 tonnes that have to come back out.

The Independent councillor said that roads in the area were in a deplorable state and would need work before any attempt was made to remove that sort of tonnage.

He was backed by Cllr Mattie Ryan and Cllr Ger Darcy, who said that removing it would require a lot of truck loads.

Council environment official Ann Peters confirmed that the council had the money to clean up the site, but said that no decision had been made on when that will happen.

She revealed that because it was organic waste, it would not be suitable for incinerating.

She confirmed moving it would require a lot of truck movements. These would be carried out in standard trucks.

However, Cllr O'Meara said: I am talking about tonnage. It doesn't matter what the material is, it's still 25,000 tonnes.

Cllr Joe Hannigan pointed out: It's 1,750 truck movements.James Kilbane will bring his Country Gospel concert to Bohernanave, Thurles on Sunday 4th March at St. Joseph & St. Bridgets church at 8pm.

The concert is to help fundraising efforts for the parishes two churches of The Cathedral and St. Joseph & Bridgets.

Recently much needed repair work has been undertaken with the Bell Tower in the Cathedral due to damage caused by erosion. Remedial work and cleaning has also been carried out to outside Cathedral statues, with other statues being monitored and more work will be necessary. At St. Joseph & St. Bridgets there has been repairs and decorating, internal and external. To guarantee on-going maintenance with future restoration work then it is necessary to continuously fundraise in the parish and all support will be appreciated on the night.

The concert with James Kilbane will have a strong emphasis on families and everyday Christian family life. James is married for 28 years to Christina and has two adult children. He is interested in the significance of the global World Meeting of Families in August and what the reality of family is all about, in its joys and struggles. The concert also ties to Kilbanes latest album The Family Collection released with Veritas Publications for the August Christian global family meeting in Dublin. Thurles. Fr. Purcell noted it is our hope in this year of the World Meeting of Families that our evening on March 4th will increase the faith we have and strengthen the hope we share.

Since 2004 and Youre a Star programme Kilbane has released a total of thirteen successful albums. He is now multi platinum selling and is a well know voice on radio, television and interent with his country and Christian albums. His music is today growing far and wide in such countries as Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South America as well as America, the United Kingdom and Canada. Kilbanes home grown approach attracts many from every walk of life and many traditions. Currently Kilbane presents his own weekly Sunday gospel show on SKY televison, as well as his music being featured on other Christian channels. The Thurles concert will include many of his family songs including There is a place, Mamas Roses, Because He Lives, The Richest Man, The Nazarene Song and so many more great songs.

To enjoy this family night and Country Gospel concert with James then donation tickets are 20 and are available from The Bookworm Bookshop, Thurles and the Thurles Parish Centre, the concert organising members or by calling 0504 22229. This will make a ideal event to celebrate the Christian family, marking community and to help local parish development. Church access for the concert will be from 7pm with the event starting at 8pm. Support from all churches and interested people will be greatly appreciated. This is event not to be missed.The Guardian, 12 Feb 2018

The formidable human rights lawyer and activist died on Sunday having spent her life fighting against religious extremism and for the rights of women and oppressed minorities

She stood a smidgen over 5ft and had fine, delicate bones. But the bird-like frame contained a courageous heart, an indomitable will and an unflagging social conscience. The death of Asma Jahangir, the Pakistani activist, lawyer and human rights campaigner who passed away on Sunday after suffering a cardiac arrest at her home in Lahore, has left a nation reeling with a profound sense of loss.

Looking through social media I am not surprised by the number of tributes to her, but by the fact that they come from her detractors as well as her supporters. The conservatives who branded her a traitor until last week are now acknowledging her courage. Whether that is out of political expediency or genuine feeling I cannot say. But for the besieged liberal community and the religious minorities of Pakistan, she was indispensable. When plainclothes security men barrelled into my sisteras home one night in 1999, dragging away my journalist brother-in-law at gunpoint, the first person she called was Asma. Thatas how it was. If you wanted someone in your corner, you called Asma. And she would respond at once.

When I heard the news of her death, my first thought, regrettably, was for myself: aWho will have our backs now?a I was not the only one. A legal watchdog and a political fighter, Jahangir patrolled the rights of secular liberals, religious minorities, the politically disenfranchised, wronged women, abused children; she even fought for the constitutional rights of the very same religious extremists and hard-right nationalists who would have had her silenced.

Jahangir was six years old when her politician father, Malik Ghulam Jilani, opposed Ayub Khanas martial law in 1958. In 1971, when her father was arrested by another military dictator, Yahya Khan, the teenage girl filed a petition for his release in the Lahore high court: Asma Jilani v the government of the Punjab.

aCourts were not new to me,a she joked with her customary levity. aEven before his detention, my father was fighting many cases. He remained in jail in Multan. He remained in jail in Bannu. But we were not allowed to go see him there. We always saw him in courts. So for me, the courts were a place where you dressed up to see your father. It had a very nice feeling to it.a

The Lahore high court dismissed her petition. Undaunted, Jahangir appealed to the supreme court. In 1972, after Khanas dictatorship had ended, the court decided it had been illegal and declared him a usurper. Jahangir had won her first case.

She began her legal career as a family lawyer. In 1980, along with her sister Hina Jilani and two friends, she set up a firm specialising in divorce, maintenance payments and custodial cases. It was her work with women that brought her to politics. She realised early on that while it was important to fight for oppressed individuals, what was needed was institutional reform and societal change. So when Zia ul-Haq, Pakistanas third military dictator, amended the constitution to discriminate against women and religious minorities under the guise of an Islamising agenda, Jahangir publicly challenged his ordinance, questioning its moral underpinnings. He was a brutal dictator with a taste for public floggings who responded by slapping a blasphemy case against her, yet she did not shy away from the fight. Many years later, she wrote: aWe may fight terrorism through brute force, but the terror that is unleashed in the name of religion can only be challenged through moral courage.a

Jahangir addresses a 2009 rally in Lahore, protesting against the public flogging of a veiled woman. Photograph: Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images

She was never lacking in that moral courage. Or in the energy required to pursue the goals she set herself. The list of her accomplishments goes on and on. A founder member of Womenas Action Forum and of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan; a long-serving UN special rapporteur on human rights; the first woman president of the Supreme Court Bar Association. She opened the first legal aid centre and refuge for battered women in Pakistan. She took on cases that nobody else would touch. She fought for poor Christians accused of blasphemy, a crime punishable by death, but which also put their defenders at risk of assassination at the hands of religious fanatics. In representing bonded labourers, she fought against institutionalised slavery, and in speaking for girls who wanted to marry of their own choice, took on centuries of misogynistic custom, earning the wrath of mullahs, urbane senators and tribal leaders alike.

What rattled her nationalist detractors the most was her consistent critique of human rights abuses in Pakistan. They labelled her a traitor and accused her of being an Indian spy or an American agent. Why couldnat she highlight similar abuses in other countries? Why must she spread negative propaganda against Pakistan? The fact was that she did call out human rights abuses wherever she found them. She alerted the world to the plight of the Rohingyas, the Palestinians and the Kashmiris, but she was most exercised by atrocities at home. As she said in one interview: aI think it sounds very hollow if I keep talking about the rights of Kashmiris, but do not talk about the rights of a woman in Lahore who is battered to death.a

Jahangir fought on many fronts, but perhaps her greatest ire was reserved for religious extremists and military dictators. She lampooned mullahs mercilessly, mocking their frizzy beards and fuzzy thinking. When other activists called out the ISI, Pakistanas feared intelligence service, they did so cautiously, referring to it as athe deep statea , athe establishmenta or athe powers that bea , knowing what every schoolchild in Pakistan knows: forced disappearances are a fact of life. But Jahangir alone had the courage to go on live television and say: aThese duffers, these duffer generals ... need to return to their barracks and stay there.a Her commitment to democracy was unwavering. She knew that however corrupt, venal or inefficient civilian leaders might be, they were always preferable to military dictators. aHowever flawed democracy is,a she told the New Yorker, ait is still the only answer.a

Activism such as hers did not come without a price. She had stints in jail, was placed under house arrest and was beaten when she took part in rallies. The rightwing media waged a vicious personal campaign against her, impugning her integrity and her faith. On social media she was trolled endlessly, with threats of sexual violence directed not just at her but her daughters. Her life was always in danger. She was the target not just of religious extremists, but the ISI and, at times, even her political opponents, who hated her persistence.

But while others in her place might have lain low for a while or quietly left the country for a spot of afamily timea , Jahangiras response was to go on the front foot. In 2012, she publicly accused intelligence and security agencies of trying to kill her and in so doing turned the spotlight on them. If there was one thing that made her anxious, it was the safety of her three children, whom she eventually sent abroad. But for herself, there was no question of going anywhere. She stayed in Lahore right till the very end, fighting the good fight.We first published this story on Feb. 15, 2018. More than a year later, Huawei has effectively been banned from the U.S. market, and U.S. companies will soon not be able to do business with Huawei. We're still waiting to see the evidence that Huawei is a security threat, either to its customers or to the U.S. as a nation.

The heads of six U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement agencies told the Senate Intelligence Committee this week that they could not recommend that U.S. residents buy Huawei or ZTE products. The implication of this very public warning is that the Chinese brands pose a risk to national security  and possibly to consumer security as well.

But are you really running a higher privacy or security risk if you use a Huawei or ZTE smartphone? Would they be riskier than any other Chinese-made phones? We put the question to some experts in the field.

(Image credit: Enemy of the state? The Huawei Mate 10 Pro in the hands of a suspected Chinese agent. Image credit: Tom's Guide)

"Pretty simply, no and no," said George Smith, a senior fellow at the GlobalSecurity.org think tank. "You can't avoid Chinese products, anyway, in the market, so one wonders why they would even get around to saying this."

"The short answer is that all computers, especially mobile devices, carry with them a certain level of risk to everyone's security and privacy," said Heather McKinnon, a spokeswoman for the mobile-security-software maker Lookout.

MORE: Best Smartphones

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, created a television-friendly note of drama two hours into Tuesday morning's session by asking the six agency chiefs a simple question.

(Image credit: Sen. Tom Cotton during Tuesday's hearing. Credit: U.S. Senate)

"Would you please raise your hand if you would use products or services from Huawei or ZTE?" Cotton said.

None of the agency chiefs  Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Robert T. Cardillo of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, NSA Director Adm. Michael S. Rogers and FBI Director Christopher Wray  did so. None offered any explanation as to why.

"Raise your hands if you would recommend that private American citizens use Huawei or ZTE products or services," asked Cotton. "None of you again raising your hand. Thank you for that."

(Image credit: The intelligence chiefs keep their hands down for Chinese products. Credit: U.S. Senate)

Cotton is the co-sponsor of a bill introduced last week that would ban the use of Huawei and ZTE products by government agencies or contractors. A similar bill was introduced in the House last month.

The agency chiefs were testifying in an open session as part of the Senate Intelligence Committee's national-security threats hearings, which occur around this time almost every year. A closed session, barred to all but those with security clearances, followed Tuesday afternoon.

Bashing Huawei and ZTE is nothing new

The shunning of Huawei and ZTE is reminiscent of the government's sudden crackdown last year on Kaspersky antivirus software, but it's actually been building for much longer.

In 2008 and 2010, the U.S. government blocked bids by Huawei to buy U.S. telecommunications companies. In 2012, a House Intelligence Committee investigation concluded that Huawei and ZTE posed a national-security threat and that the U.S. government and U.S. companies should avoid buying their products.

Both companies are trying to increase their shares of the U.S. smartphone market, but in January, AT&T abruptly canceled its launch of the Huawei Mate 10 Pro smartphone. Later that same month, Verizon reportedly decided that it wouldn't sell any Huawei phones.

Both companies do sell low-end ZTE phones. Unlocked high-end smartphones made by both Huawei and ZTE, including Huawei's Honor spinoff, can be found at many major U.S. retailers.

Unacceptable risk to governments...

Huawei and ZTE both have demonstrable links to the Chinese government. Huawei's founder and CEO held a high rank in the engineer corps of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), and ZTE is partly owned by the Chinese government.

Other Chinese companies such as Lenovo, Xiaomi and BBK (owner of phone makers Oppo, Vivo and OnePlus) don't have such clear government ties and haven't drawn the same amount of scrutiny from Western politicians.

U.S. authorities fear that networking devices made by Huawei and ZTE could be used to spy on American companies, governments and citizens, and perhaps even be used to sabotage U.S. networks and infrastructure in the event of war with China. Australian and British authorities have similar concerns.

"Could you explain what the risk is we face from ZTE and Huawei being used in the United States?" Cotton asked FBI Director Wray on Tuesday.

"We're deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don't share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks that provides the capacity to exert pressure or control over our telecommunications infrastructure," Wray replied. "It provides the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information, and it provides capacity to conduct undetected espionage."

To put it simply, using Huawei and ZTE gear creates an unacceptable amount of risk for U.S. military and government agencies, and for the private companies that supply those agencies. The same could be said for Kaspersky antivirus software.

...But maybe not to you

Nevertheless, there's no public evidence as of yet that Huawei or ZTE smartphones or other products will endanger the privacy or digital security of the ordinary U.S. resident. (Huawei also sells home Wi-Fi routers, laptops and smartwatches to American consumers.)

"This is not specific to ZTE and Huawei, but is something that spans the industry," said Andrew Blaich, a security researcher with Lookout. "The level of risk varies from device to device and manufacturer to manufacturer."

The truth is that every smartphone spies on you to some extent, and most Android smartphones have security flaws related to the platform's relatively open software model. And, well, other Chinese-made phones have been caught sending a suspicious amount of data back to servers in China, if only for commercial reasons.

"We have certainly seen a rash of issues in the last two years that have appeared to be suspicious," Blaich told us, "from the software vendor Adups that is popular on BLU phones (uncovered by Kryptowire), to the social media organized mobile hacking services of the Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) persona that continues to find a number of issues in OnePlus phones (and others) regarding egregious data collection in certain geolocations."

It may be that Huawei and ZTE phones do spy on their users, but so far, Western security experts haven't been able to find much evidence. And it may be that more detailed information was disclosed by the agency chiefs in the closed Senate hearing, but if so, they're not making it public.

Huawei was pretty notorious in recent years for industrial espionage, however. Since 2003, the company has been accused of stealing trade secrets from Cisco, Motorola and T-Mobile, resulting in a flurry of lawsuits and settlements. Huawei and ZTE have even accused each other of stealing secrets.

Rob Graham, chief technology officer of Errata Security in Atlanta, told us that he doesn't know whether Huawei or ZTE phones would be risky for American consumers to use. But he suggested an American alternative, albeit one manufactured in China.

"China cares more about trade secrets than national security secrets, so even average users may have concerns about whether their phones can be hacked by the vendor," Graham said. "In any case, the iPhone is far more secure than any Android phone."

UPDATE: ZTE reached out to us and provided this statement:

"ZTE is proud of the innovation and security of our products in the U.S. market. As a publicly traded company, we are committed to adhering to all applicable laws and regulations of the United States, work with carriers to pass strict testing protocols, and adhere to the highest business standards. Our mobile phones and other devices incorporate U.S.-made chipsets, U.S.-made operating systems and other components. ZTE takes cybersecurity and privacy seriously and remains a trusted partner to our U.S. suppliers, U.S. customers and the people who use our high quality and affordable products for their communications needs."Nevertheless, Toyotas 2019 updates push the Tundra TRD Pro beyond what it was capable of from 2015 to 2018.

Its important to understand the Tundra TRD Pros place in the market. It competes most directly with the Ram 1500 Rebel, both of which fall short of the Ford F-150 Raptor s outright ownership of the high-speed desert racing niche. But while Ford is busy making the Raptor an extremely capable but very expensive upgrade to the F-150, both the TRD Pro and Rebel are more obtainable for the everyman. In other words, the Tundra TRD Pro might not match the Raptors off-road performance, but its also far less expensive.

Toyota has upped the ante with its Tundra TRD Pro for the 2019 model year. The off-road package receives a mid-cycle refresh that includes both cosmetic and suspension upgrades. The move is completely understandable considering how hot the off-road segment is getting these days.

Exterior

New TRD Pro grille

New hood scoop

New LED fog lights from Rigid

New 18-inch wheels

New headlight design shared with 2018 TRD Sport

New Black coating on dual exhaust tips

1/4-inch thick front sid plate with red TRD lettering

The 2019 Tundra TRD Pro makes use of the new headlights and integrates the forward-facing radar sensor into a restyled and less bulky TRD Pro grille.

The current Tundras design has been around since 2014 with a very mild update for 2018. The recent change brought reshaped headlights with smoked lenses for certain Tundra models, new grille designs, and Toyota Safety Sense-P for all trims. The 2019 Tundra TRD Pro makes use of the new headlights and integrates the forward-facing radar sensor into a restyled and less bulky TRD Pro grille.

Another big difference is the hood scoop. The Tundra already has that long slot in the hood above the grille, but the new 2019 TRD Pro trim adds a secondary scoop further back. Some might say it looks like an afterthought. Thinking positively, we say it makes the 2019 model easier to spot. Its worth noting the scoop was first seen on the 2018 Tundra TRD Sport and that its not functional.

On a more functional note, the Tundras halogen fog lights are swapped out for LED off-road lights from Rigid Industries  the same company that makes the Tacoma TRD Pros fog lights and a purveyor of all things LED in the aftermarket.

Combining cosmetic and functional, the Tundra TRD Pros front skid plate now has red lettering inside the stamped TRD logo. The aluminum skid plate still measures 1/4-inch thick as before, helping to keep vital powertrain components safe from trail damage. Exposed front tow hooks make vehicle recovery an easier task.

They are 18-inch BBS forged-aluminum wheels with an all-new design, five spokes, and a 3.35-pound reduction of mass over the outgoing wheels

Last but certainly not least, Toyota gave the 2019 Tundra TRD Pro some new shoes. They are 18-inch BBS forged-aluminum wheels with an all-new design, five spokes, and a 3.35-pound reduction of mass over the outgoing wheels. In total, the new wheels cut 13.4 pounds of unsprung weight from the truck.

Interior

Retains updated gauges from 2018 Tundra

Black leather seats and dash with red contrast stitching

TRD Pro emblems on seatbacks and center armrest

TRD Pro floor mats

TRD shift knob

The minor updates from 2018 carry over, including the revised gauge cluster and all the Toyota Safety Sense-P equipment

Toyota didnt do much with the 2019 Tundra TRD Pros interior. The minor updates from 2018 carry over, including the revised gauge cluster and all the Toyota Safety Sense-P equipment, but otherwise, the differences are nil.

As with previous Tundra TRD Pros, the 2019 version comes with black leather seats with red contrast stitching and the TRD Pro logo embroidered into the seatback. Another logo adorns the center armrest while a TRD-branded shift knob rises from the console. The dash is covered in black leather, too, along with the same red contrast stitching. TRD Pro floor mats finish off the look.

The Tundra TRD Pro offers seating for five in both the Double Cab and Crew Max modes, with the Crew Max boasting limo-like legroom and a nearly flat load floor.

Drivetrain

5.7-liter V-8

381 horsepower at 5,600 rpm

401 pound-feet of torque at 3,600 rpm

Six-speed automatic transmission

Part-time 4WD

The big V-8 kicks out 381 horsepower at 5,600 rpm and 401 pound-feet of torque at 3,600 rpm.

The Tundra soldiers on with its venerable but aging 5.7-liter iForce V-8. The all-aluminum, DOHC engine uses port fuel injection and variable valve timing but lacks modern tech like cylinder deactivation and direct fuel injection. Still, the big V-8 kicks out 381 horsepower at 5,600 rpm and 401 pound-feet of torque at 3,600 rpm.

The engine is paired with a six-speed automatic transmission that powers the rear wheels. Like other 4WD Tundras, the TRD Pro uses a part-time 4WD system with a two-speed, electronically controlled transfer case. 4WD high range can be selected on the fly and 4WD low range, while requiring a full stop and the transmission to be in neutral, multiplies the engines torque for even more low-end power.

The Tundra TRD Pro does not benefit from a traditional locking differential in either the front or rear, but Toyota does include its A-TRAC system. Pressing the traction control button activates the system; individual brake applications keep any one wheel from spinning freely without traction. This causes power to transfer to the opposite horizontal wheel, allowing the truck to continue forward progress.

Toyota does make the awesome TRD cat-back dual exhaust a standard feature on the TRD Pro

Toyota does make the awesome TRD cat-back dual exhaust a standard feature on the TRD Pro. This system makes the V-8s bellows a wonderfully audible tone, giving the truck a more masculine growl. The exhaust system should help improve horsepower and torque figures, too, though Toyota does not have an official statement on the matter. In our experience, however, the TRD exhaust is one of the most lovable features available on a Tundra.

Fuel economy is a downside here, with the 5.7-liter V-8 only achieving an EPA-estimated 13 mpg city and 17 mpg highway on the 2018 Tundra 4WD Crew Max. We dont expect those numbers to change for the 2019 Tundra TRD Pro.

Suspension

New 2.5-inch Fox Racing Shocks at all four corners

1.5-inches more wheel travel up front

More than 2.0 inches more rear wheel travel

Rear Fox shocks have remote reservoirs

The biggest updates on the 2019 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro happen in the suspension department.

The biggest updates on the 2019 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro happen in the suspension department. Gone are the TRD-branded Bilstein shocks, replaced with Fox Racing Shocks. The new Fox dampers are 2.5 inches in diameter and boas 46mm-thick pistons. The front shocks have 11 bypass zones while the rear shocks have 12 zones. Wheel travel is increased by 1.5 inches up front and more than two inches out back.

As for those bypass zones, they control the damping rate. On the front shocks 11 zones, seven of them are dedicated for the compression stroke and four for the rebound. During compression (when the wheel is traveling upwards into the fender) each bypass zone provides progressively more damping. In other words, the deeper into the shocks travel, the stiffer it becomes.

In practice, this allows for a smooth, comfortable ride on regular roads where the shocks arent working hard. On rough terrain and at high speeds where more of the shocks travel is utilized, the stiffer they become. This is in an effort to keep the truck off its bump stops, which makes for a hard landing. The same is true for the rear shocks and its 12 bypass zones, with eight being for compressions and four for rebound. The rears also have a 2.5-inch diameter piggyback reservoir for each shock. This holds more oil, which helps keep shock temperatures down during extended off-road driving.

Like before, the Tundras suspension setup is very similar to the standard TRD Off-Road model

Like before, the Tundras suspension setup is very similar to the standard TRD Off-Road model. The front suspension uses double A-arms with the shock and coil spring combined in a MacPherson strut setup. The rear uses traditional leaf springs on a solid axle with the shocks mounted outboard of the leaf springs.

The truck continues to use Michelin LTX A/T2 tires sized in P275/65R18. The tires offer a good balance between on-road comfort and off-road capabilities, though folks who regularly drive in the dirt might find a more aggressive tire advantageous.

Pricing

Toyota has not released the pricing for its 2019 Tundra TRD Pro. Were betting pricing wont increase too much past the outgoing model. Expect a starting price of around $44,000 for the Double Cab and around $47,000 for the Crew Max.

Toyota will have the 2019 Tundra TRD Pro in showrooms by the end of 2018, so more information will be known then.

The Competition

Ram has given its 1500-series pickup a complete generational change for 2019, including all the special trim levels like the Rebel. Built to be a hard-core appearance package that backs up its looks with actual performance increases, the Ram Rebel uses 33-inch Goodyear DuraTrac tires, boasts an electronic locking rear differential, and is available with Rams four-corner air suspension. Those with the standard coil spring suspension can opt for the Mopar 2.0-inch suspension lift kit.

As for its appearance, the Rebel comes with a unique front bumper, grille, hood, and wheels. Inside, red anodized aluminum accents the black interior while the leather-trimmed seats have a tire tread pattern form the Goodyear DuraTracs in their cloth center section.

Power comes from either the 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 with Rams new eTorque system or the 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 available with or without the eTorque system. The V-6 offers up 305 horsepower and 269 pound-feet of torque, while the Hemi kicks out 395 horses and 401 pound-feet of torque. An eight-speed automatic powers the rear wheels. Interestingly, 4WD is optional on the Rebel.

Prices for the 2019 Ram 1500 havent been announced as of this writing, but like the Tundra TRD Pro, expect them to remain competitive.

Read our full review on the 2019 Ram 1500 Rebel.

The Ford F-150 Raptor is what started the current trend of high-speed off-roading trucks when it launched back in 2010. Now in its second generation, the Raptor enjoys immense popularity and impressive off-road capabilities. The truck uses 3.0-inch diameter Fox Racing Shocks at all four corners with beefy control arms up front and leaf springs out back.

Power comes from Fords high-output 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6. The little engine kicks out an impressive 450 horsepower and 510 pound-feet of torque through a 10-speed automatic transmission. The transfer case is technically a part-time system that can pull full-time 4WD duties when controlled via Fords smart Terrain Management software. The driver simply selects the right mode for the terrain at hand and the truck will do the rest.

All this tech is expensive, however, with the 2018 Raptor starting at $50,020 for the SuperCab truck with no options. The SuperCrew model starts at $53,005 and will crest over $73,000 with all the option boxes checked. Ouch!

Read our full review on the 2018 Ford F-150 Raptor

Conclusion

The improvements made to the 2019 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro give it more capability off-road while not changing much of its on-road persona. Aside from the minor appearance modifications, the truck generally looks the same. The interior shows no signs of upgrades, either. Still, the truck makes for a great daily driver and weekend toy. Only time will tell if Toyota can keep up with the new 2019 Ram 1500 Rebel in both sales and in the dirt. Our bet is Toyota will have a challenging fight on its hands.

The 2019 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro will arrive in showrooms toward the end of 2018. More information will become available then, so stick around to TopSpeed.com as that happens.

Love it Updated suspension sysetm Reviseed appearance New, lighter 18-inch wheels

Leave it Visual changes rather minor No interior updates Aging bones



References

The Toyota Tundra TRD Pro Gets More Capable for 2019

Read our full review on the 2017 Toyota Tundra.

Read more Chicago Auto Show news.

Read more Toyota news.Think VW Killing the Beetle Was Bad? Wait Until You Realize the Audi R8 Is Discontinued too!

It had an awesome run, but future priorities have put it on the back-burnerThis American manufacturer is going to set up shop in India this year to taste how it is to run in the biggest market for two-wheelers. It will go in the Indian bike market to challenge Royal Enfields small bike supremacy in its own backyard. They will bring three models out of their six to the Indian market, all ranging from 110cc to 230cc catering to the commuter segment (the biggest motorcycle segment of the country).

Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland CycleWerks began business not very long ago. Still new to the industry, the company builds small displacement retro style cafe racers and bobbers known for their distinctive retro-chic styling, ride quality and above all value for money. There have been issues with their fit and finish, but are ever improving.

This American manufacturer wants to taste how it is to run in the biggest market for two-wheelers

CCW Misfit

CCW established themselves in 2009 and hasd grown from a modest investment into an international brand that sells its products worldwide. Located in Cleveland Ohio, this American company manufacturers parts in the USA, Taiwan, Korea, China and South Africa and finally assembles its motorcycles in China. All their bikes are now sold to more than 25 countries, and they have no plans of stopping anytime soon.

Started with just one motorcycle, the company now produces six motorcycle models that offer displacements ranging from 125cc to 450cc. All of them are powered by a single cylinder unit which is based out of older Honda motors. Relying on offshore manufacturing in China by CPI Motor Company of Taiwan for most components, including frames.

CCW FXR

And to begin with, the company will get three of its models in the first year of operation, and the remaining half will come the following year. The first one heading to India is The Ace. TheCleveland CycleWerks Ace Standard is a pretty basic motorcycle that puts functionality and efficiency on top of its priorities list. Thanks to its flexible personality, low seat height, and lightweight, the Ace Standard is ideal for city riding.

The motorcycle is built around a 229.65 cc, 4 stroke, air cooled engine which generates a maximum power of 14 hp at 7000 rpm and 11 lb-ft of torque at 5500 rpm. All this power is transferred to the rear wheel employing five-speed, two-stage, constant mesh transmission with wet multi-plate clutch. The unit can propel the motorcycle to a maximum speed of up to 70 mph.

CCW Ace

The Ace will be made available in two variants  Standard and Deluxe. The Standard is a pretty basic motorcycle, while the Deluxe gets a few upgrades such as aluminum wheels, inverted forks, a slightly raised front fender, wide bars, dual surface tires and a flat comfy seat.

The other two models will be Misfit, a cafe-racer-style premium commuter and the FXR, a dirt bike. The Misfit is the sportiest of them all with having a 223cc engine that churns out 16.5 hp power and 13 lb-ft torque and comes with inverted front forks, a 315mm, four-piston disc brake up front and a 220mm, two-piston disc brake at the back.

The FXR, on the other hand, is a street-legal version of a dirt bike having instrument panel, headlights, and indicators. Power comes from a 110cc 4-stroke single engine which is paired with a kick starter. The engine is mounted on a steel frame that seems to incorporate the fuel tank. To be able to deal with any terrain without baking down, the motorcycle is equipped with a pair of light 21 inch wheels which are wrapped in knobby tires. You also get a narrow seat, disc brakes, and a 22 mm carburetor.

It seems like the company is made to sell its bikes in India, a country filled with people wanting cheap, small-displacement bikes. CCW might even find more business selling in India rather than here in the U.S of A. Reportedly, their bikes will fall under the 2-2.5 lakh (roughly $3,126 to $3,900) bracket, which is just where the Enfields place themselves. The first store is planned for Pune, but CCW plans to eventually expand its reach to 30 cities nationwide.

To tussle the mighty homegrown Royal Enfield is a huge gamble I must say. A bike that has so much character and raw power, and to go head to head with that, CCW might have just misplaced their nuts in the brains elsewhere. They are too underpowered when compared to the Enfields but may fare on par with fir and finish.Despite the substantial growth of their economies over the last decades, many African countries are still struggling to transition to higher value-added economic activities. In a global trade context marked by substantial challenges, how can the CFTA support Africas structural transformation?

Notwithstanding the spectacular economic growth registered in the 2000s, economic transformation has eluded most African countries. Yet, Africas progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) impinges on changes in the structure of the continents economies. In todays complex economic and trade environment, setting in motion such a transformation process is no easy task, and doing so will require Africa to address at least three central global challenges: the crisis of the multilateral trading system, declining commodity prices, and the restructuring of global value chains (GVCs).

The crisis of the multilateral trading system means that Africas priority issues are unlikely to be addressed in the short-term at the multilateral level. At the WTOs Eleventh Ministerial Conference (MC11) last December, the lack of political will to reach a compromise resulted in nothing to show on core priority issues for Africa and lest developed countries (LDCs), namely agriculture, special and differential treatment, and fisheries. Looking ahead, there is no roadmap to continue advancing development issues in these negotiations, and the largest players are now focusing on whether and how to revive multilateral negotiations rather than addressing LDCs- or Africa-specific issues. One of the most significant outcomes of MC11 has been that discussions on e-commerce, investment facilitation, domestic regulations and MSMEs will continue notwithstanding the concerns and opposition of most LDCs and African countries. With these rather grim prospects for substantial outcomes at the multilateral level, most countries will pursue their trade objectives through plurilateral, regional, and possibly mega-regional initiatives, to which Africa is largely not party to.

At the same time, the commodity price boom is coming to an end. As a result, Africas current account deficit rose from -3.4 percent of GDP in 2013 to an estimated -7 percent in 2016. Between 2011 and 2016, Africas merchandise exports dropped by 11 percent per year, services exports by 6 percent and inward FDI dropped from 3.1 percent of GDP to 2.7 percent of GDP. These trends reflect the continued vulnerability of African economies to commodity price fluctuations, a persistent problem in the continents history.

Finally, participation and upgrading in GVCs are becoming increasingly difficult because the structure of GVCs is changing. Services value added make up approximately 50 percent of world trade in value added, and cross-border e-commerce is expected to account for 30 percent of all global business to consumer transactions by 2020. Yet, services competitiveness and e-commerce are two areas where Africa lags behind other regions. Since the 2008 global economic crisis, lead firms have been consolidating their supply chains in favour of larger suppliers. Research by ICTSD studying GVCs in the apparel sector finds that global buyers expect suppliers to move into pre- and post-production tasks and meet increasingly stringent private standards, including voluntary sustainability standards.[1] As lead times and labour costs in China rise, an increasing number of buyers are shifting to regional suppliers. In 2016, more than two thirds of European exports and more than half of Asian exports were regional. African producers have struggled to insert themselves in these highly competitive regional value chains in Europe, Asia, and Central/North America. For example, IKEA, the worlds largest home-furnishing retailer, sources from about 1,220 suppliers in 55 countries, with only one major supplier country in Africa.

In this context, the CFTA offers a strategy to open new markets for African producers, which is particularly important in light of preference erosion in traditional markets. If negotiated and implemented successfully, such a continent-wide integration project can promote economic diversification away from commodities; unlock firm productivity through greater scale economies, agglomeration effects, and increased competition; and embed trade-related reforms in areas such as services, regulations, and trade facilitation to make African businesses more competitive in regional and global value chains.

Regional value chains for economic transformation

Regional value chains (RVCs) can help African value-added producers to enter and upgrade in export markets. African businesses can find it easier to enter regional markets characterised by similar consumer taste, less sophisticated marketing and distribution channels, less stringent standards, and fewer information asymmetries. In 2016, intra-African trade accounted for only 18 percent of African exports, but one third of exports of manufactured goods. Between 1998 and 2014, intra-African trade accounted for 57 percent of export growth for capital goods, 51 percent for processed foods, 46 percent for consumer goods, and 44 percent for processed industrial supplies.

RVCs tap into fast-growing demand driven by urbanisation and the rise of the African middle class. It is estimated that the continents middle class will reach 1.1 billion people (42 percent of total population) in 2060, pulling demand for higher value-added goods and services. Some studies suggest, for example, that the rise of the middle class in Eastern and Southern Africa could drive a seven-fold growth in the consumption of high-value processed foods by 2040. African-based companies like Tiger Brands (South Africa), BIDCO (Kenya), Blue Skies (Ghana), and Camlait (Cameroon) are responding to the challenge by capitalizing on their market knowledge and established supplier and distribution networks. The rise and expansion of SMEs across the continent has been noteworthy too, in particular in processing and distribution of staple goods and dairy products, as well as in beer brewing. RVCs can also be important platforms to supply global markets, although this requires countries to develop complementary capabilities in the manufacturing of intermediary products, assembly, and logistics.

Opening up and deepening regional markets

Intra-African trade has grown, but this is largely reflective of trade in final goods from larger economies such as South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya to their respective regional economic communities (RECs). However, building RVCs structured around growing intra-regional trade in intermediate products can deliver win-win outcomes across the continent. For example, in the Southern African apparel RVC, South African firms have invested in Lesotho and Swaziland, and Mauritian firms in Madagascar, to supply South African clothing retail chains.[2] Compared to firms supplying overseas markets, firms supplying regional markets have moved into more complex and profitable products and tasks. In Eastern Africa, agro-processing firms traditionally supplying EU supermarket chains have entered the supply chain of regional supermarket chains. In doing so, they diversified markets, reduced exposure to global market volatility, and successfully re-negotiated price and payment conditions with EU buyers.

Political will to create larger, competitive markets is essential to create real market access for established businesses and new entrants. Across most African RECs, at least four elements stand in the way of real market access in trade in goods: non-tarrif barriers (NTBs), cumbersome border procedures, complex rules of origin (RoO), and anti-competitive practices by incumbents. Research shows that while a CFTA that would only address tariff elimination would enhance intra-African trade, even more significant growth in exports and welfare would accrue from NTBs elimination and trade facilitation.[3] Trade facilitation would have a significant impact on both the value and level of sophistication of intra-African trade. On RoO, the CFTA process can draw key lessons from the RoO regimes applied in existing RECs. Compared to COMESA, the product-specific RoO regime implemented in SADC has proved restrictive and costly for the private sector, especially SMEs, without necessarily being more effective in preventing trade deflection.[4] TFTA negotiators have opted for the SADC approach, which is likely to hamper competitive sourcing strategies from businesses and strain the negotiating capacity of smaller economies. Finally, African domestic markets tend to be small and favour high industry concentration and dominant firms. Regional cartels have been operating in fertilisers, cement, and sugar, among others. Abuse of market power harms manufacturers operating downstream or upstream the value chain, deters new entrants, and discourages investment in better processes and products by incumbent firms. The CFTA could establish an effective continent-wide mechanism to address cross-border anti-competitive practices as well as enshrine reforms and build capacity at domestic level on competition policy.

Making the most of the CFTA

African governments have adopted a comprehensive approach to the CFTA, for example by including competition policies on the negotiating agenda and by making it part of the broader Boosting Intra-African Trade (BIAT) Action Plan. Below are some policy recommendations to ensure that the CFTA promotes RVCs and economic transformation.

Ensuring a comprehensive and ambitious approach to negotiations

Coordination failures have been a well-known constraint to Africas industrialisation. African businesses need access to complementary markets and resources to be able to compete in RVCs and GVCs. Trade negotiators often sequence and pace negotiations based on technical considerations which do not correspond to the priorities of the private sector. Real market access for businesses should be unhindered by, among others, NTBs and unnecessarily restrictive RoO. Regional institutions on competition policies should overcome weak or absent institutions in most countries, and should address not only issues related to mergers and acquisitions, but also abuse of dominant positions, again with a potential priority focus on key sectors.

Services and e-commerce contribute a rising share of trade in value added. However, not all services are created equal. Research by ICTSD finds that the most important contribution to structural transformation and the SDGs comes from backbone services, namely infrastructural services. Africas exports of goods-related services such as freight and forwarding and aftermarket services have recorded a 9 percent per year growth between 2011 and 2016. Although this is good news, because the latter are closely associated to production and exports, other services exports have fallen during the same period. African value added producers need faster-growing backbone services. While services liberalisation can play an important role in unleashing the development potential of the services sector, complementing it with pro-competitive domestic regulations is essential in order to lower prices, increase product quality and variety, promote new entry, and widen access. At the technical level, this may require the CFTA negotiators to move beyond their confidence zone with regards to trade in services, for example with a negative list approach, and competition. African policy-makers could consider a complementary approach by combining services liberalisation with regulatory convergence (if possible), investment, and capacity building in services sectors that are essential for industrial development.

Governments should also leverage the CFTA to develop a continental approach to e-commerce which suits the development needs of Africa, based on the mandate of Agenda 2063, namely to bridge the digital divide and build an integrated e-economy that aims, among other objectives, to increase broadband penetration by 10 percent and broadband connectivity by 20 percent by 2018, use information and communication technologies (ICT) for education, and provide venture capital to young ICT entrepreneurs and innovators.

Tapping into lead firms

African lead firms are driving the development of RVCs across the region. Policy-makers should engage with lead firms to maximise their contribution to regional value chains and industrial development across borders. Policy-makers in home countries, such as South Africa and Nigeria, can provide incentives to their lead firms to invest across borders in productive and trade capacity. Home and host countries can also partner with lead firms to promote supplier and skills development across the region. Finally, development finance institutions in the largest African economies and at the regional level should be given an explicit mandate to develop productive cross-border investment.

Domestic policies to complement the CFTA

At the domestic level, building RVCs requires effective industrial and agricultural policies backed up by strong political leadership, as well as a competent bureaucracy that is responsive to the private sectors needs but also independent from it, cutting across ministries responsible for investment, skills, infrastructure, and heavily focused on implementation and monitoring. Implementation and monitoring are often the weakest elements in African policy-making, and yet they are critical to ensure institutional learning and adjustment.

Some policies likely to impact on RVCs are best implemented at the sub-national level, such as cluster development, technical and vocational education and training, and supplier development programmes in partnership with industry. For example, urban development policies can have a major impact on production and export competitiveness. African cities are home to one third of the continents total population, but account for 80 percent of its GDP.[5] This is where one finds the most productive firms, skilled workforce, dynamic entrepreneurship, and key institutions. Policy-makers thus need to seize the opportunities offered by the CFTA and RVCs also though more local economic policies, as well as regional corridors such as West Africas Growth Ring.

Gender mainstreaming needs purposive policies

The CFTA will have gender-differentiated welfare impacts, which will vary, across countries.[6] Research by ICTSD shows that domestic policies to increase womens access to resources matter, but also that gender equality is critical for upgrading into value chains because of the critical role women play in some of them. Examples such as tea plucking in Kenya and Sri Lanka, fish processing in Cambodia, and production supervision in the apparel industry in Myanmar are cases in point. CFTA negotiators should find innovative approaches to support trade and gender equality.

Judith Fessehaie is Manager, Trade and Development Programme, ICTSD.

This article is published under Bridges Africa, Volume 7 - Number 1, by the ICTSD.

[1] See Morris, Mike, Justin Barnes, and Moshe Kao. Global Value Chains, Sustainable Development, and the Apparel Industry in Lesotho. Geneva: ICTSD, 2016; Staritz, Cornelia, Leonhard Plank, and Mike Morris. 2016. Global Value Chains, Industrial Policy, and Sustainable Development  Ethiopias Apparel Export Sector. Geneva: ICTSD, 2016. Samah El-Shahat and Violante di Canossa. Opportunities for sustainable development in global value chains: A case study of Myanmar garment sector. Geneva: ICTSD, 2018 (forthcoming).

[2] Morris, Mike and Cornelia Staritz. Industrialization Trajectories in Madagascars Export Apparel Industry: Ownership, Embeddedness, Markets, and Upgrading. World Development 56, issue C (2014); Morris, Mike, Justin Barnes, and Moshe Kao. Op. cit.

[3] Depetris Chauvin, Nicolas, Ramos, Priscila, and Guido Porto. Trade, Growth, and Welfare Impacts of the CFTA in Africa. 2016; Karingi, Stephen, and Simon Mevel. Deepening Regional Integration in Africa: A Computable General Equilibrium Assessment of the Establishment of a Continental Free Trade Area followed by a Continental Customs Union. Paper presented at the 15th Global Trade Analysis Project Conference, Geneva, June 2012.

[4] Paul Brenton, Frank Flatters, Paul Kalenga. Rules of Origin and SADC: The Case for Change in the Mid Term Review of the Trade Protocol. Africa Region Working Paper Series No.83. World Bank, 2005; Peter Draper, Cynthia Chikura, Heinrich Krogman. Can rules of origin in sub-Saharan Africa be harmonised? A political economy exploration. German Development Institute Discussion paper 1/2016.

[5] UN-Habitat. The State of African Cities 2010: Governance, inequality and urban land markets. Nairobi, Kenya: United Nations Human Settlements Programme, 2010.

[6] Depetris Chauvin, Nicolas, Ramos, Priscila, and Guido Porto. Op.cit.African countries should take make use of factoring in order to take advantage of the opportunities for expanding the continents regional value chains, participants at a regional factoring conference held in Dakar have heard.

Kanayo Awani, Managing Director of the Intra-African Trade Initiative at the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), said on Wednesday at the opening of the two-day Regional Conference on Factoring that, in spite of the potential upside, Africas small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) continued to face difficulties in accessing finance.

Ms. Awani, who is also Chairperson of FCIs Africa Chapter, noted that in other regions, such enterprises accounted for the largest shares of trade finance transactions concluded through factoring, noting that in Europe, for instance, factoring represented 10.4 per cent of GDP at 1.5 trillion Euros.

Africa only accounted for one per cent of global factoring transactions, stated Ms. Awani who explained that the low volumes of factoring in Africa was largely attributable to lack of information and awareness.

She said that the conference, co-organized by Afreximbank and FCI, the global representative body for the factoring and receivables finance industry, was to equip participants with relevant tools to tap into the opportunities available to grow factoring in the continent, especially in the context of intra-regional trade.

Ms. Awani added that the event would provide a regional view on factoring and offer attendees opportunity for discussions on the current state of the industry, new challenges, products and markets development. It would also create new skills and networking opportunities for the participants and give them practical information on successfully setting up factoring businesses.

Earlier, Peter Mulroy, Secretary General of FCI, said that despite the low factoring level in Africa, the continent had achieved important milestones that could help develop it further in the years to come.

Today we are witnessing the birth of numerous initiatives at the government, ministerial and central bank levels in such markets as Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana and others. This is, in part, thanks to the development of the model law on factoring by Afreximbank, the removal of burdensome stamp duty tax, the development of inclusive policies at the central bank level to promote and support financing to SMEs through factoring, and the push for development of cross-border factoring, he added.

Also speaking, Ismaila Gueye, Coordinator at the Directorate of Financial Sector and Competitiveness at the Ministry of Economy and Planning of Senegal, who represented his Minister, said that African exporters were encountering a loss of competitiveness due to the fact that factoring and open account trade were not commonly used in Africa as was the case in all other regions of the world. He commended Afreximbank and FCI for promoting such financial practices, saying that it would help put local SMEs on a level playing field with their global competitors.

The conference brought together more than 80 representatives of central banks, regulatory bodies, government agencies, legislative authorities, commercial banks, law firms, entrepreneurs, exporters and factoring companies from West Africa and beyond.

The presentations delivered by Ms. Kanayo Awani of Afreximbank and Mr. Peter Mulroy of FCI are available to download courtesy of Afreixmbank.

Speech by Ms. Kanayo Awani

Managing Director of the Intra-African Trade Initiative, Afreximbank

We are excited that this Conference which we have dubbed Domestic and International Factoring: Alternative Tools for Developing SME Financing in Africa is taking place in this historic and beautiful resort city of Dakar. The vibrancy of this country, most importantly, is etched in the hospitality of its people (Teranga), which we have enjoyed since arriving here.

There couldnt have been a better location for the Conference!

Todays workshop is a continuation of the Banks capacity building activities aimed at developing the skills of African factors, creating awareness on the potential benefits of the product and ultimately, promoting the emergence and development of factoring businesses across the continent. This particular workshop is however, unique in that it will look concretely at the importance and effectiveness of factoring in developing SME financing in Africa.

There is overwhelming evidence that regional cooperation and integration remain the key instruments through which an African economic renaissance can be attained and marginalization mitigated.

Indeed intra-African trade and deeper regional integration provide impetus for the expansion of value chains through industrialization. This presents new market opportunities for enterprises, in particular SMEs. This is because Senegals Industrial Park on the outskirts of Dakar can be the processing hub for Malis cotton, yarn or even fabrics. Senegal can also process its groundnuts and those of the region; as well as its fish and those of its neighbours such as Mauritania. However, in spite of the potential upside, small and medium sized enterprises, and in fact whether in terms of regional or domestic supply chains, continue in Africa to face a large number of constraints chiefly the lack of access to finance.

Taking learnings from other regions, such as Europe, where SMEs account for the largest share of factoring volume which is the equivalent of 10.4% of the GDP for EU or 1.5 Trillion Euros, the opportunity exists for Africa to expand its regional value chains through factoring.

The paradox however is that Africa, a continent exceptionally endowed with both human and natural resources, presently accounts for a paltry 1 percent of the global factoring turnover.

It is within this context that the Bank is leading efforts to develop factoring in Africa. The Bank has a dedicated line to support factors in Africa. The Bank also sponsored the development and promotion of a Model Law on Factoring in Africa that was launched in October 2016. The Bank partners key institutions across the continent to advocate for reforms in financial regulations to facilitate growth of factoring in Africa case in point being the collaboration with Nigerian Export Import Bank (NEXIM) in pushing for changes to the foreign exchange regime in Nigeria to admit Factors as dealers of foreign exchange in a bid to expand the modes of payment to include Open Account.

The Bank is also working with the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA) to institute and harmonize Factoring law among its 17 West and Central African member countries, using Afreximbanks model law as guide.

Government of the Republic of Senegal, through the Emerging Senegal Plan (Plan Senegal Emergent), emphasizes financial inclusion and SME support as a critical pillar for structural transformation. The food and beverage industries in Senegal, for instance, which are already playing a critical role across regional value chains in West Africa, presents a blueprint for empowering SMEs through factoring as a tool for accelerating regional integration.

We believe that this Conference is an integral part in the journey to transform Africa. The knowledge we will garner in the next two days will be instrumental in equipping participants with relevant tools to support the growth of factoring in the continent.

As I close, please permit me, Honourable Minister, distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, to use this opportunity to thank the Government of Senegal for supporting this Conference. I also thank our partner, FCI, as well as our event Sponsors, who have helped make this Conference possible. Our gratitude also goes to all Resource Persons. We also welcome attendees, some of whom have travelled from far distances. We will be pleased to meet and engage with you all and look forward to continuing dialogue into the future.

I trust that you will all find this Conference a rewarding learning experience.

I thank you.Vacation Agent Magazine

A version of this article appears in print in the February 2018 issue of Vacation Agent Magazine. SubscribeThank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.The ABS ticket is valid the whole day on the day after your Thalys trip. No worries.

Regarding domestic Belgian trains: this is mass transit. The Belgian railways are essentially just a commuter railway. You can just buy tickets and go.Just take small denomination AUD notes $5, 10 and 20's plus a bag of gold coins to give to the kids.

You will find AUD is accepted around the cruise ship terminal at Noumea but not widely excepted elsewhere in the city and its handy to have some local currency which can be obtained from the ATM's at the Casino Supermarket near the CST.

Lifou and Isle de Pins are gorgeous islands and AUD will be accepted at the markets near the tender jetties and at the cafe and shops on Kuta Bay on the Isle de pins. MI is as described in #12 and AUD will be accepted there.

There will be information sessions held on board and info will also be provided in the ships daily newsletter. If you decide to DIY make sure you allow plenty of time to get back to the ship. If you aren't doing a ship tour and you are late the ship wont wait and I can tell you I have lost count of the amount of passengers who have scrambled back on board just as the gangway was being pulled up.

Vila again AUD is widely accepted around the Port and in the main shopping centre. Vatu if required can be obtained from Goodies Bon Marche in the main shopping area.

For DF I have heard good reports about Marlenes at Noumea but I haven't shopped there. DF at Vila is regarded as the best in the SP and can be purchased at and at Prouds in the town centre.

Often the ship will have specials on DF which are pretty good value although there is not much in the way of variety. Depending on the ship DF purchases will either be put in your cabin the night before you arrive in your home port or be made available for collection from a nominated point on the day of disembarkation.

Whatever you do don't open a bottle until you clear customs otherwise you run the risk of being charged duty on your whole purchase not just the opened bottle.

I have done most of the full day ship tours at Vila and felt they were good value with the Pele Island adventure one of the best.

When we visit Vila now we catch a water taxi from the wharf to the town and that in itself is something of an experience @$5/person each way and just wander the town taking in the sights.

The SP is one of our favourite cruise ship destinations and one we really enjoy.

Enjoy your cruise.

Edited: 3 years agoJust beginning research into a trip to Australia & New Zealand. Trip will not be until end of Jan/beginning of Feb. in 2 years. My husband,myself (early 40s) and our twins, who will be 14 at the time. We will have 2 full weeks in Australia,(16 days), followed by 12 days in NZ. Coming from Thailand, so jet lag won't be much of a factor.

Looking for a 2 week itinerary with:

1. The mildest weather (we live in AZ & want to AVOID the heat - I know that this is the middle of the summer and mostly impossible, but this is the time we will be traveling because we are going in conjunction with another trip). Hoping Aussies can direct us to the right area that has milder (or at least a dry heat!) temperatures at that time plus:

2. Wildlife

3 Nature

4. Beach is not a priority - we will be coming to OZ from beaches in Thailand, and also spend a lot of time on the CA coast.

5. Not interested in "checking boxes" but slower travel, get a feel for one or two areas.

6. I love the idea of a farm stay, or something of the sort. Any good ones?

7. Don't want to "repeat" things we may experience/ see in NZ. Have considered Tasmania, but wonder if this is too similar to NZ?

Thank you !Re: Traveling from Liberia Airport to Tamarindo

1. Re: Traveling from Liberia Airport to Tamarindo

There is a prebooked hotel to hotel (or airport to hotel) shared shuttle van for $54 with Interbus at about 12 pm.

You can also check out .Hello :)

We're planning a 23 days self drive trip, from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam. Found the 4x4 rental company, fully equipped for camping. So happy for that. Last year we did a 23 days self drive in Namibia. Wow!!! Following my research, I understand that it's totally not the same... but we're are so looking forward for this new adventure.

Even though I have millions of questions I'll stick with just this one. :)

My itinerary is all done all the way to Mwanza, Tanzania.

We want enter Serengeti National Park throught Ndabaka Gate and end up in Arusha,... and that's where I need help with. Finding camps where we can do my own camping, etc... for 4 ( maybe 5 )nights, beginning of May 2018.

You think it's too much driving?? Is it doable?

While I'm in Mwanza, should I get all the papers before hands from there to enter the Serengeti park? If so, where?

Thanks for your help and inputs.Noticed you've posted a separate thread re hiking in Kumano Kodo. Have not hiked in that area though have visited twice by car. To visit Nachi Taisha and Fall, consider staying in nearby seaside onsen town of Kii Katsuura. There is a headtrail from Nachi Taisha leading further uphill to Hongu Taisha, though better assess duration, public transports and difficulty.

you may refer to our last visit in Koyasan and Kumano Kodo in last May.

Considier also JP Alps for few days in May for some stunning landscape on clear days.

Our visit to Hida Road in May 2007.

Edited: 3 years agoI wouldnt recommend staying in San Jose for your purposes. Although we enjoyed a couple of days there, checking out the restaurant scene and a couple museums, the city shuts down early as the sun was up and down at 6am /pm (check sunset/sunrise times) so if you return later you are driving mountain roads in the dark, which I dont recommend. The traffic is terrible by our city standards in SAN Jose. (hours of driving a day in gridlock, it took 3.5 hours to get through the mountains and 2 to get to our hotel in SAN Jose) and the roads through the mountains are narrow and full aggressive. If you want to leave and return every day you will be frustrated. You said you were planning to visit, Monteverde Cloud Forest, Arenal Volcano and Catarata La Paz. I would pick one place and use it as your home base so at least one day you are not driving and pick the spot you are most interested in. I havent been yet, but have heard good things about La Fortuna and you will be closer to the ocean if you decide to take a trip to the beach. Check for transport offers/deals with the hotels if you dont want to drive. Pure Vida!I agree with going later in the day if possible. Evenings too if they are open. School tours are impossible to predict...they go all year. No way at all to find out if they are scheduled....just assume there WILL be school tours. It is not just local schools, but schools from all over the country...the world even.

We were there in April one year and went to AMNH...it was packed, school tours everywhere...but we still got a decent walk thru ourselves. The next year (April again) we went to MoMA and it was not bad at all.

Pick your museums and timing carefully. Good advice in all posts above.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.- Leader of Thirdway Alliance Kenya (TWA), Ekuru Aukot, wants Members of Parliament (MPs) allied to National Super Alliance surcharged for boycotting their parliamentary duties

- During an interview with one of the local TV stations, Aukot also claimed he is the official opposition leader and will soon unveil his own shadow Cabinet

- The TWA boss was reacting to an incident where NASA MPs stormed out of Parliament in protest amid vetting of new cabinet secretaries

- The NASA legislators have repeatedly said they do not recognize the Jubilee government and will not do so even in Parliament

Former presidential candidate and leader of Thirdway Alliance Kenya, Ekuru Aukot, wants Members of Parliament (MPs) allied to the National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition surcharged for boycotting their parliamentary duties.

Aukot, who was being interviewed on Citizen TV's JKLive on Wednesday, February 14, held that there was no reason why the NASA MPs should be paid after they absconded duty.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

"I wish these individuals who boycotted parliamentary duties could be surcharged. What they are doing is betrayal of the people," he said.

READ ALSO: Sahau Inspekta Mwala, huyu ndiye mcheshi mfupi zaidi nchini Kenya?

Ekuru Aukot wants NASA MPs) surcharged for boycotting their parliamentary duties.Photo: Courtesy.

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The Thirdway Alliance Kenya boss also claimed he is currently the official opposition leader in the country and will soon unveil his shadow Cabinet.

"I am the official opposition leader of Kenya. We are currently interviewing Kenyans for the positions of our own shadow Cabinet," he said.

READ ALSO: NASA MPs walk out of Parliament amidst vote on drastic electoral law changes

Aukot was reacting to a question relating to a recent incident where NASA MPs stormed out of Parliament amid vetting of new cabinet secretaries.

As was earlier reported by TUKO.co.ke, the NASA lawmakers on Wednesday, February 14 walked out of Parliament because they did not want to be involved in the vetting of cabinet secretaries appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

READ ALSO: Uhuru Kenyatta's new look cabinet

NASA Members of Parliament were in full disagreement of Uhuru's Cabinet nominees. Photo: Courtesy.

The NASA legislators have repeatedly said they do not recognize the Jubilee government and therefore will not support its decisions in Parliament.

This was not the first time the opposition MPs were walking out of Parliament amid debate. They also did so when a Jubilee-sponsored Bill seeking to amend electoral law was tabled in parliament for debate.

NASA principals talk in one accord for the 1st time since Odinga's 'swearing in' - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko.co.ke- Odinga said he considered Morgan Tsvangirai a champion and a distinguished political leader of the Second Liberation of Zimbabwe

- According to the Kenyan opposition leader, the late Tsvangirai inspired hope to many Zimbabwens suffering under the dictatorship of former president Robert Mugabe

- He said the fallen Zimbabwen opposition chief remained a source of inspiration to a generation of leaders across the continent for his courage and determination

- Tsvangirai died on Wednesday, February 14 at a South African clinic after he lost a two year fight with colon cancer

National Super Alliance (NASA) leader and Kenya's opposition chief, Raila Odinga, has paid emotional tribute to his fallen friend Morgan Tsvangirai.

In a Facebook statement seen by TUKO.co.ke on Thursday, February 15, Odinga said Tsvangirai was a distinguished political leader of the Second Liberation of Zimbabwe.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

"I have learned with deep sorrow the death of Tsvangirai . I considered him a champion and distinguished political leader of the Second Liberation of Zimbabwe," the statement read in part.

READ ALSO: Sahau Inspekta Mwala, huyu ndiye mcheshi mfupi zaidi nchini Kenya?

NASA leader Raila Odinga and the late Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Ttsvangirai were close friends.Photo: Facebook/Raila Odinga.

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Tsvangirai, Odinga added, fought for democracy, freedom and justice for his country.He inspired many and gave hope to Zimbabwean.

"Until his death, Tsvangirai remained a source of inspiration to a generation of leaders across Africa for his courage and determination in the face of monumental odds," Odinga said.

READ ALSO: Africa mourns Morgan Tsvangirai

The Kenyan opposition chief further said his family, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party and National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition will join the people of Zimbabwe in mourning the fallen politician.

READ ALSO: Apologise to Raila Odinga and Kenyans - NRM youth tell envoys

Tsvangirai, who was the president of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, was pronounced dead on the evening of Wednesday, February 14, 2018.

The iconic African politician died in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he was reportedly undergoing treatment.

He had been battling colon cancer for two years and died at the age of 65.

Do you support Raila Odinga's call for fresh presidential election? - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko.co.ke- The government of Uganda has rejected blood donations organised by the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC)

- Police on Wednesday, February 14, blocked the party members from conducting the blood drive at its headquarters

- Uganda in recent months has been hit with shortage of blood, forcing the government to appeal for blood

The Ugandan government on Wednesday, February 14, barred members of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change(FDC) from conducting a blood donation drive.

TUKO.co.ke understands that the party's members had organised a blood drive at it's headquarters, aiming at collecting a considerate amount of blood to help fellow Ugandans.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Sahau Inspekta Mwala, huyu ndiye mcheshi mfupi zaidi nchini Kenya?

However,the said blood drive was brought to a sudden halt by police officers who were acting on orders from above.

TUKO.co.ke has learnt that the officers stormed the FDC headquarters in Najjanakumbi,on Valentines Day and ordered everyone to stop what they were doing.

The Ugandan government is also said to have arm-twisted the Ugandan Blood Bank officials into playing part in the absurd move.

The move irked quite a number of Ugandans who had turn out at the FDC headquarters in large number to donate blood.

READ ALSO: Government official attracts fierce backlash after pouring Busaa on pregnant mother

Their disappointment was echoed across the entire country with more Ugandans condemning the government for blocking the blood donation drive.

Quite a throng of Ugandans claimed the government had crossed the line in their fight against the opposition.

READ ALSO: Govt official claims a snake swallowed KSh 10 million missing cash

READ ALSO: Kenyan woman excites social media after appearing to blow her nose with KSh 1000 note

The government's move to bar the blood drive came at a very unfortunate time; a time when Uganda is in dire need of blood.

Uganda in recent months has been hit with shortage of blood, forcing the government to appeal for blood.

ALSO WATCH: Raila won August 8th presidential election-NASA

Source: Kenyan Breaking News- High Court judge Luka Kimaru said the government erred in deporting Miguna Miguna to Canada

- While declaring the deportation illegal,the judge revoked the deportation and ordered the government to surrender Miguna's passport

- Miguna was deported after five days of high drama which saw him detained in five police stations

- He was arrested for allegedly declaring himself the general of NRM which was previously banned by the government but later that ban lifted by the court

- Miguna was also accused of participating in the illegal oathing of NASA leader Raila Odinga

Self-styled National Resistance Movement Secretary General Miguna Miguna has been handed the go-ahead to return to Kenya after the High Court revoked his deportation.

Justice Luka Kimaru on Thursday, February 15, said the order by Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi was illegal, hence making the deportation null and void.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Sahau Inspekta Mwala, huyu ndiye mcheshi mfupi zaidi nchini Kenya?

Miguna Miguna was deported aftr 5 days in detention. Photo: Miguna/ Facebook

READ ALSO: South Africa's President Jacob Zuma bows to pressure and resigns over corruption

The court has now given the government seven days to surrender Migunas revoked passport to facilitate his return to the country.

Miguna was deported on the night of Tuesday, Febraury 6 after spending five days behind bars.

He had initially been arrested for the hand he had in the outlawed swearing in ceremony of NASA leader Raila Odinga.

High Court declares Miguna Miguna's deportation illegal. Photo: NASA/ Facebook

READ ALSO: Surcharge NASA MPs for absconding their parliamentary duties - Ekuru Aukot

Government claimed the barrister had denounced his Kenyan citizenship and never bothered to disclose that he was a citizen of another country contrary to the law.

The courts decision to invalidate Migunas deportation comes after the vocal NRM Secretary General filed a high voltage suit seeking reinstatement of his Kenyan passport and citizenship.

High Court declares Miguna Miguna's deportation illegal. Photo: NASA

READ ALSO: Miguna Miguna deported

Miguna filed the suit on Monday, February 12 through his lawyer, Nelson Havi who also swore an affidavit on Miguna's behalf.

He wants the court to force the government to clear Miguna of allegations labeled against him and which led to his deportation to Canada.

Miguna Miguna has been one of the most vocal Jubilee government critic in recent times. Photo: Nation

READ ALSO: Attorney General Githu Muigai resigns, Uhuru replaces him

In addition, the petition demanded the court to compel the government to provide him with security after expunging his name from the criminal records.

Have anything to add to this article or suggestions? Share with us on news@tuko.co.ke

High school leaver builds own electricity power plant | Faces of Kenya on TUKO TV:

Source: Tuko.co.ke- TUKO.co.ke samples for you some of the drama that led Zari to finally break things off with Diamond Platinumz

So Zari finally dumped Tanzania Bongo superstar Diamond Platinumz and I am over the moon with happiness for her.

No amount of love in the world should ever make a woman persevere through what Diamond put Zari through..

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

So, you go Zari, more power to you and your kids! She finally got rid of his promiscuous self on Valentine's Day of all days.

READ ALSO: Picha za kupendeza za mjukuu wa Moses Wetangula zasisimua Wakenya

READ ALSO: Outgoing AG wants Uhuru's name removed from Omtatah's case challenging cabinet appointments

TUKO.co.ke takes you down memory lane to all the BS Diamond put this fine Ugandan socialite through and I bet at the end of this article, you'll be cheer leading Zari on like I am.

1. The women

Diamond had a harem of exes behind him. More than 10! And classic guy stuff, these women never remained in his past. He was often found partying with them, or saying suggestive things about them in the media, especially about former Miss Tanzania, Wema Sepetu

2. The children

Akuku Danger for who? Diamond had children across East and Central Africa, all of them with groupies, probably from one night stands.

For some of the women, they were the designated mipango wa kando whenever he was in their countries for concerts and other stuff.

READ ALSO: Meet Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula's mixed-race grandson as he celebrates valentines with the mum

Hamisa Mobetto is the most famous mistress of Diamond. Above she's with the son she and Diamond conceived.

READ ALSO: Diamond Platinumz's wife inspects hubby's cassava in public and it is amazing

One Kenyan woman went to the extent of taking her child to Tanzania and left it at Diamond's doorstep because she couldn't cater to its finances anymore.

What's worse is that this was a pattern with majority of the women. None of them, except Hamisa, got any child support.

3. The suggestive photos

On Monday, January 29, photos and videos of Diamond and Wema getting a little bit too comfortable for the public emerged online. They were at an exclusive party in Tanzania and Diamond could not keep his hands off his ex.

4. The international trip with an ex

They both denied it but Diamond and Hamisa (once again) were exposed for heading on to Dubai together and partying in the same location, in the same room, breathing the same air and within a foot of each other.

So we don't know why they were denying it anyway...and all that time Zari was home with the kids while daddy played sponsor with non-Zari's. To make matters worse, he'd just been from a baecation with Zari in London.

READ ALSO: I miss you but I don't want you back - Hamisa tells Diamond

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5. Side b*tches taking on Zari on social media

The key side bae who had the balls to take on Zari was model Hamisa Mobetto. This woman went onto social media to taunt Zari about being in a relationship with Diamond long before they sired a child outside his marriage with Zari.

She claimed they'd been dating secretly for 9 years and it was inevitable for them to have a child since they planned on it.

In turn, Zari taunted Mobetto that she was with her husband (Hamisa claimed Diamond was her husband) and that she should find a single man instead of going for other people's men.

6. Bailing on her when her ex died despite saying he would be there

He promised he would stand by her during the funeral of her ex-husband, the father to her first three children but at the last minute, he bailed without giving a reason. Zari had to go through the mourning process with friends and family while he was off globe-trotting, promoting his music and doing God knows what else.

READ ALSO: Parliament record shows incoming sports cabinet secretary dropped out of standard 7

7. Zari promising to cheat on Diamond any time

Because he was constantly cheating on her, Zari told a fan that one day she too will cheat on him with a younger man, much younger than his 27-year-old backside!

I believe, thought, that it was a tongue in cheek response though we may never know with these celebs.

Have something to add to this article? Send to news@tuko.co.ke

Source: TukoThe situation in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone in eastern Ukraine has escalated but no Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded over the past day.

Ukrainian Defense Ministrys spokesman for ATO issues Dmytro Hutsuliak said this at a briefing on Wednesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

No Ukrainian servicepersons have been killed or wounded in enemy attacks, he said.

He also added that militants fired 14 times at the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces over the past day. All attacks were recorded in Luhansk direction.

iyRussian-backed militants launched 14 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 Luhansk direction, militants used 120mm mortars to shell Ukrainian positions near Troitske (69km west of Luhansk) and Lozove (13km west of Donetsk). Defenders of Mayorske (45km north of Donetsk) and Travneve came under grenade launcher, small arms and heavy machine gun fire.

In Donetsk direction, the tensest situation was observed in the outskirts of Avdiivka (18km north of Donetsk), where the enemy fired at Ukrainian strongholds, using 82mm mortars, grenade launchers and machine guns. The enemy also opened fire from 120mm and 82mm mortars and infantry weapons on the defenders of Butovka coal mine (11.4km north-west of Donetsk).

In addition, illegal armed formations used heavy mortars, grenade launchers of different types and small arms near Novotroitske (32km south of Donetsk) and Vodiane (16km north-west of Donetsk). Militants also opened fire from weapons on infantry combat vehicles and small arms outside Krasnohorivka (29 km west of Donetsk).

As a result of the enemy shelling, four Ukrainian servicemen were wounded.

olUkraine will become a new destination of Ryanair, and flights to the country will start to be operated in fall 2018.

This information was confirmed by Chief Legal Officer/Secretary at Ryanair Holdings Juliusz Komorek in an interview with the Polish portal Fly4free.

When asked which country Ryanair will soon appear in, Komorek replied: "There is such a country east of Poland. Obviously, it's Ukraine."

Answering a question about whether he confirms the statement by Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelian that the airline will start to fly to Ukraine already in autumn, simultaneously to Kyiv and Lviv, Komorek said: "Its a realistic timeline, and I hope that this will happen. The details of the agreement are being agreed upon."

Concerning the future routes to and from Ukraine, Komorek said that they would not coincide with those announced last spring, when the arrival of the low-cost airline in Ukraine was first announced. "There will be some changes in this timetable, but the flights from Ukraine to Poland will be definitely launched," he said.

olUkrainian President Petro Poroshenko has confirmed that he has recently had a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which they talked about the exchange of hostages and the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to Donbas.

The head of the Ukrainian state said this in comments to reporters on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The purpose [of the conversation] consisted mainly of two parts. The first part concerned what was expressed exactly three years ago, during the signing of the Minsk-2 [agreements] at the beginning of 2015. We need peacekeepers like air," Poroshenko said.

In addition, he noted that he had discussed with Putin the return of hostages.

"The second position is that we cannot, in any case, stop in the way of the release of our hostages. I have discussed specific details - lists, specific surnames of those whom we must return from occupied territories and those whom we must return from Russia," Poroshenko said.

At the same time, he assured that at the moment everything was being done to return Ukrainian soldiers illegally imprisoned in occupied territories, as well as journalist Roman Sushchenko, film director Oleh Sentsov, activist Oleksandr Kolchenko and Crimean Tatars - all who now stay in Russia.

Poroshenko declined to name Ukrainians who could be returned home, but assured that efforts were being made to "take steps this month that will allow us to call surnames and call a date."

Earlier reports in the media said that Poroshenko had a telephone conversation with Putin on February 12.

opDeputy Prime Minister of Poland Piotr Glinski is convinced that the meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Pavlo Rozenko to be held in Warsaw on February 16 will be effective.

"I am pleased that Vice Prime Minister Rozenko accepted the invitation, and I am convinced that this meeting will be good. I hope for mutual understanding both concerning the most difficult historical issues and the general vision of the multidimensional cooperation between our countries," Glinski said in a commentary to PAP.

The main topics of the meeting will be the amendments to the law on the National Memory Institute of Poland, which, in particular, foresees the punishment for denying the crimes of "Ukrainian nationalists" against citizens of the Second Polish Republic, and restoration of search and exhumation works in the places of death of Poles in Ukraine.

After the completion of negotiations, Rozenko and Glinski plan to lay flowers to the graves of the Cossacks and leaders of the army of the Ukrainian Peoples Republic at the Wolski cemetery in Warsaw and light the icon lamps near the monument to the victims of the Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932-1933.

olUkrainian Foreign Minister Klimkin Pavlo Klimkin has met with the local Ukrainian community while making a visit to the State of Kuwait.

This is reported by the press service of the Ukrainian embassy in this country.

"Making a visit to the State of Kuwait, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Klimkin Pavlo Klimkin met with representatives of the Ukrainian community, in particular the Ukrainians studying at the Kuwait University. During the meeting, the minister got acquainted with the activities of the Public Union of Ukrainian-Kuwaiti Friendship, the peculiarities of life of Ukrainian citizens and the specifics of work of the Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Kuwait," the press service of the Embassy of Ukraine in Kuwait reports.

As the Embassy reports,  Klimkin answered the questions that Ukrainians living abroad are most concerned about, in particular, about the possibility of simplifying the visa regime with Kuwait, launching direct flights between Ukraine and Kuwait, conducting concerts of Ukrainian bands in the country, the possibility of official registration and functioning of Ukrainian non-governmental organizations and a weekend school of the Ukrainian language, etc.

Among other things, the diplomat thanked the community for their active participation in the volunteer activity, in particular, in making donations for the needs of Ukrainian defenders.

olThe judge ordered to release Trukhanov in the courtroom.

Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov charged with embezzlement has been freed against the guarantees of Ukrainian Member of Parliament from the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko parliamentary faction Dmytro Golubov.

The ruling was passed by Kyiv's Solomyansky district court on February 15.

The judge ordered to release Trukhanov in the courtroom.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Trukhanov was detained at Kyiv Boryspil International Airport on Wednesday, February 14, 2018.

Trukhanov is suspected of embezzlement of property through abuse of power under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

On February 13, agents of the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine and prosecutors of the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office served four officials of Odesa City Hall, including the mayor, with indictments.

The prosecutors demanded that the court arrest Trukhanov or grant him a UAH 50 million bail as an alternative.The country is unable to resist a nuclear power while the Budapest memo "turned out to be fake".

Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), Oleksandr Turchynov, who served as acting president of Ukraine from Feb 23 to Jun 7, 2014, says Ukraine never declared war on Russia despite Moscow's ongoing military aggression because it is unable to defend itself effectively in case of a full-scale war with a nuclear power.

Read alsoDonbas reintegration law not to rule out liberation of occupied territories by force  NSDC secretary Turchynov said Thursday, testifying in the Viktor Yanukovych treason case, an UNIAN correspondent reported from a courtroom at the Obolonsky district court of Kyiv.

"Indeed, war is declared amid military aggression. The problem is that, unfortunately, after Ukraine's complete nuclear disarmament following the signing of the Budapest Memorandum, today there is no weapon in Ukraine capable of resisting a nuclear power, which Russia is," he said.

"We don't have the military means to counter the nuclear power in case they employ the entire arsenal of their weapons, and that is why both in February-March 2014, and, unfortunately, now that we have a combat-capable army, defense industry, weapons sufficient to protect the country, unfortunately, we cannot declare war on the aggressor," Turchynov added.

Read alsoMessage claiming Kyiv "abandoned" Crimea in 2014 political manipulationAccording to him, following consultations with Ukraine's partners, guarantors of the country's security after it had renounced its nuclear weapons, it turned out that "they can support us only at the diplomatic, not military, level."

Turchynov underlined that the Budapest Memo actually turned out to be "a fake".

"That's why we could not declare war on a nuclear power, since the nuclear power was ready for such war, and its armed forces were ready to invade, but Ukraine could not defend itself in case of a full-scale war at the time," the NSDC secretary stressed.

As UNIAN reported earlier, on Jan 15, 2018, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that it was Ukraine who violated the Budapest memorandum by allowing the Maidan uprising, not Russia, which "never used" nuclear weapons against the Ukrainian state.

Head of the Russian Foreign Ministry claims that Russia continues to "respect" Ukraine's territorial integrity.

UNIAN memo. In 1994 Ukraine renounced its nuclear weapons. After that, also in 1994, Ukraine, the United States, Russia and UK signed a Memorandum of Security Assurances in connection with Ukraine's accession to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (Budapest Memorandum).

The document contains provisions guaranteeing Ukraines sovereignty and security.

According to the Memorandum, the United States, Russia, and UK committed, in particular, to respect Ukraines independence, sovereignty and existing borders; refrain from the threat of force and application of force against the territorial integrity and political independence of Ukraine.

Subsequently, the two other nuclear powers, China and France, expressed similar guarantees to Ukraine in the form of statements.

However, in March 2014, after the introduction of troops, Russia occupied the Ukrainian Crimea and began destabilizing the situation in Donbas.

The Russian Federation has been supplying the so-called DPR and LPR terrorists with weapons and live force, deploying mercenaries and regular troops to Donbas.

The fighting has been ongoing in Luhansk and Donetsk regions since mid-April 2014.A group of bombers carrying cruise missiles was supported by a pair of Su-30.

Russia's Tu-95 (NATO reporting name "Bear") bombers worked out over the occupied Crimean peninsula conditional launches of cruise missiles on mainland Ukraine.

According to a statement by the Air Force Command of Ukraine's Armed Forces posted on Facebook Thursday, "a group of Russian strategic T-95 bombers carrying missiles, accompanied by a pair of Su-30 (NATO reporting name Flanker-C) fighter jets, carried out a flight in the airspace over Crimea, having worked out conditional launches of cruise missiles toward mainland Ukraine," the report said.

As reported earlier, the Russian Federation will deploy in the illegally-annexed Crimea its S-400 Triumph missile systems for "protection against aerial threats from Ukraine," RIA Novosti wrote citing its sources.The move confused the Ukrainian delegation, she said.

OSCE special representative to the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk, Toni Frisch, did not disclose the fact of his meeting with Russian presidential aide Vladislav Surkov, according to Ukraine's representative in the TCC's humanitarian subgroup in Minsk, First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Iryna Gerashchenko.

The Ukrainian official in a Facebook posting has called on OSCE officials representing the organization in the Tripartite Contact Group for Donbas settlement, to adhere to an unbiased approach to negotiations.

Read alsoUkraine talks resume in Minsk - mediaShe said that the Ukrainian representatives in Minsk today were confused with "the strange fact that the OSCE coordinator Toni Frisch, as it turned out, had met with Vladislav Surkov's adviser in Moscow and did not inform the group and the TCG about the meeting or its outcome."

"Before that, he categorically refused to visit the "lost" Russian [soldier] Ageyev at a pre-trial detention facility in Starobelsk, claiming it would be a political visit," Gerashchenko noted.

"We insist on an unbiased and independent approach of coordinators to their work, inadmissibility of the couloirism and on resolving all issues in the trilateral, not bilateral format. It's Ukraine-Russia-OSCE," Gerashchenko stressed.

She also said that the key issue raised by Ukraine's envoy to the TCC, Leonid Kuchma, was that of security and inadmissibility of armed provocations.

"He stated the unacceptability of provocations both from the side of the Russia-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and from Russia itself, and cited as an example the fact of provocative shooting toward Ukraine from the Ushakovka settlement on the Russian side. The Ukrainian side stressed that on the third anniversary of the signing of the Minsk Agreements, the key blocks remain unfulfilled: security and humanitarian ones, and we demand that the shellings be ceased, hostages and political prisoners immediately released, a border issues group created as well as security zones on the Ukraine-Russia border, with access of OSCE on a constant basis," Gerashchenko said.

Read alsoU.S. ready to help stop war in Donbas - VolkerShe also noted that "despite all artificial obstacles, we continue to work on the issue of hostage release".The suspect in the shooting has been apprehended.

A Ukrainian law enforcer took a gunshot in the leg amid clashes reported between police and groups of aggressive protesters outside the Solomensky district court in Kyiv where a preventive measure was being heard for Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov, who is charged with embezzlement.

Among those rallying outside the court were representatives of the newly-created controversial National Squads organization, a C14 group, and men sporting black uniform with Donbas Battalion badges.

Read alsoOdesa Mayor Trukhanov detained at Kyiv Boryspil AirportProtesters demanded that the suspect be remanded in custody. The most active group intended to storm their way into the courtroom but were eventually blocked by law enforcers cordoning the premises.

The wounded police officer "was taken to the hospital while the shooter  to the police station", according to a report by the municipal police.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the court released Mr Trukhanov against the guarantees of Ukrainian Member of Parliament from the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction Dmytro Golubov.

Trukhanov was detained at Kyiv Boryspil International Airport on Wednesday, February 14, 2018. Trukhanov is suspected of embezzlement of property through abuse of power under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.Ukrainian troops doubted whether they should fire back when Russians first attacked them.

Colonel-General, First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Mykhailo Koval, who served as Acting Defense Minister from March 25 to July 3, 2014, says the Ukrainian army was demoralized when Russia unleashed aggression against Ukraine and the military were not ready to shoot at the enemy.

Read alsoEx-Russian MP: Yanukovych got $1 bln for refusal to join EU"When [so-called former 'Defense Minister' of the self-proclaimed 'Donetsk People's Republic' Igor] Girkin's people shot at SBU officers near the town of Slovyansk and killed Alpha task force members, soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from a unit of the 80th Air Assault Brigade doubted whether to shoot at those mercenaries or not. They were not ready for this. The Alpha captain was already dead, they were under fire, but they were thinking whether they needed to respond," Koval said during interrogation at court hearings on ex-president Viktor Yanukovych's treason case in Kyiv, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

"I'll give you one example: [Russian-backed] separatists came to the village of Olenivka, fraternized with them [Ukrainian troops], drank vodka together, and then shot them like pigs," he added, stressing that "the army was demoralized."

As UNIAN reported earlier, Yanukovych is charged with treason, complicity with the Russian authorities, deliberate actions committed to redraw the state border of Ukraine in violation of the Ukrainian Constitution. He is also accused of waging an aggressive war.

The judicial panel of Kyiv's Obolon district court on June 29, 2017, satisfied the prosecution's request for the trial of Yanukovych in absentia.Russian-led forces in eastern Ukraine continue to use weapons banned by the Minsk agreements.

Russia's hybrid military forces attacked Ukrainian army positions in Donbas 14 times in the past 24 hours, with four Ukrainian soldiers reported as wounded in action (WIA).

Read alsoUkrainian troops eliminate enemy subversive group in Shyrokyne (Video)"In the Luhansk sector, the enemy used 120mm mortars against our positions near the villages of Troyitske and Lozove. The illegal armed formations also shelled the defenders of the villages of Travneve and Maiorsk, using grenade launchers of various types, small arms and heavy machine guns," the press center of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) Headquarters said on Facebook on Thursday, February 15.

In the Donetsk sector, the outskirts of the town of Avdiyivka became the epicenter of escalation, where the Ukrainian defenders came under fire from 82mm mortars, grenade launchers and machine guns. "In the same area, the occupiers repeatedly fired 120mm and 82mm mortars and infantry weapons at the defenders of Butivka coal mine. In addition, heavy mortars were used by the enemy near the village of Vodiane, which is in the Mariupol sector, and near the village of Novotroyitske. Simultaneously, the invaders engaged grenade launchers of various types and small arms. Moreover, they opened fire from infantry fighting vehicles' cannons and a whole arsenal of small arms near the town of Krasnohorivka," the report says.The bodies were found in the house where they temporarily lived.

Members of a Ukrainian marine brigade have been found dead in the place of their residence.

Read alsoUkraine reports 4 WIA's amid 14 enemy attacks in last dayThe military police of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the National Police of Ukraine are now probing into the death of the servicemen, the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) Headquarters said on Facebook on Thursday, February 15.

According to preliminary information, the bodies were found in the house where they temporarily lived.

A criminal case has been opened as part of the investigation.

The ATO Headquarters has not yet provided other details.The bodies were found with gunshot wounds.

The Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) of Ukraine has confirmed the murder of four marines near the village of Shyrokyne in Donetsk region in the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) zone, eastern Ukraine.

"The ATO Military Prosecutor's Office has opened a criminal case under Part 2.1 of Article 115 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (deliberate murder of two or more persons)," Ukrainian Prosecutor General's press secretary Larysa Sargan wrote on Facebook on Thursday, February 15.

Read alsoATO HQ reports Ukrainian marines found dead in place of residenceA pre-trial investigation included the examination of the scene with the participation of experts. It also involved a number of other urgent and priority investigative actions aimed at solving the case.

"The bodies were found with gunshot wounds; [there were also] signs of concealing the crime (arson and planted explosives) in the room where they were staying," Sargan wrote.

She noted that "two fellow marines' involvement in the homicide was established after careful examination of the evidence obtained. The two were detained in keeping with Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine. Investigative experiments and interrogations were conducted with the participation of their lawyers, during which the latter made a confession about the circumstances of this murder committed on the basis of bulling and hazing in the military."

Other investigative actions with the detainees are under way. They are facing charges under Part 2.1 and Part 2.12 of Article 115 of the Criminal Code (deliberate murder of two or more persons committed by prior conspiracy).

Forensic, chemical, explosive, ballistic, immunological, cytological, molecular and genetic, and other types of tests are scheduled.

A preventive measure in the form of arrest is to be decided.As a rule, Russia conceals the number of losses in any campaign so the latest devastating blow on the units of its private military company called "Wagner" in Syria will not lead to any revelations by the Kremlin on the real death toll. Moscow may only recognize some insignificant losses, only to hide more significant ones.

Moscow desperately needs to convince everyone that the number of those killed in action was rather small, that's in order not to suddenly face repercussions as a result of that combat failure, even more so the one by the PMC Wagner, which is not part of the Russian armed forces and not an official government structure of any kind and, accordingly, can qualify as an illegal paramilitary group. These days, Russia is trying to at least somehow determine their status. Anyway, the Kremlin must be held accountable for the operations of its illegal troops.

Russia will respond, but the response will be a masked one

As for Moscow's potential reaction to the latest embarrassment in Syria, I suggest there will be no direct response. But, there should be no doubt that Russia will go for some tactical action, allegedly not linked to the losses sustained. And this means that sabotage and combat operations should be expected, disguised as anti-terrorist missions, for example, against the "Islamic state" or other terrorist groups.

So, Russia will respond, but the response will be a masked one. They will employ spec-ops units, able to do their job effectively. In this way, Russia will attempt to prove to its adversaries that Moscow always delivers a tough response following losses on a battlefield.

As regards the statement by U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis claiming the Americans had no accurate intel on whose troops exactly were in the attack area in Syria and that the Russians at that time said that their forces "were not there"... U.S. intelligence and other special services are well-versed in the situation on the ground, so they were well aware of whom those forces represented. But, of course, they don't admit it in order not to disclose their capabilities.

There is also a practice of "mutual silence": there are both Russians, and Americans in different structures, units, and at different bases, but neither side speaks up about it. However, the intelligence is always aware of the situation and confirmed locations where contingents are stationed, as well as the legal status of certain paramilitary groups, including of that specific Russian group that has been deployed there.

Russia never speaks of hundreds of its KIAs in its foreign campaigns not to undermine its image as a powerful player

The story with the annihilation of Russian mercenaries in Syria will also have implications within Russian borders. First of all, this will lead to image losses, including Vladimir Putin's. In the heat of their presidential campaign, such reports are unlikely to be favorable to the country's current leader. Therefore, he will keep concealing facts and refuting reports... At the same time, the opposition  Navalny, Yavlinsky, and even Sobchak  will further be disseminating the story to hit Putin harder during the campaign.

In the end, the situation will to some extent add negativity to the already notorious image of both Putin and Russia, but no large-scale implications are to be expected. That's because the Russian government will try to play down both the combat losses and the very significance of this news event. At the same time, the Kremlin will accuse politicians who speak up for conspiring against Russia and President Putin. That is, the Russian authorities will exploit the news to discredit their opponents criticizing them. This will be done to ensure that the story does not resonate with the Russian public and does not cause indignation. After all, real people, Russian citizens, were killed in a faraway land...

But this task is nothing new for the Russian government that has also been concealing the death of its citizens in eastern Ukraine. Russia never speaks of hundreds of its KIAs in its foreign campaigns not to undermine its image as a powerful player.

Will Wagner's losses in Syria affect the number of those in Russia willing to become a mercenary, pursuing better money? Typically, structures as PMC Wagner welcome special-ops troops who simply receive another status, also receiving a completely different payment  this is huge money for them, indeed.

These are "soldiers of fortune". They are perfectly aware of the risks. They do realize they might be injured or killed in war. Given the basic features of potential candidates for the job, I don't believe the number of those willing to apply will decrease. These people can take risk and their psyche is rigid. More money more risk as they say. But the count doesn't go by millions or hundreds of thousands. These are individuals who have already been to "hot spots" or trained in special units for such "job". And such people don't throw away an opportunity when times are rough...

Army General Mykola Malomuzh is a former head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of UkraineThe suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, was expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons.

A former student unleashed a hail of gunfire in a Florida high school on Wednesday, killing at least 17 adults and children, authorities said.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott ordered government flags flown at half-staff through Monday in honor of victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, a public school of some 3,000 students outside Boca Raton, CNN reported.

Read alsoAt least 20 people killed in shooting at Texas churchThe school is closed for the rest of the week, Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said. The district will offer grief counseling to students and their families.

"This has been a day where we've seen the worst of humanity. Tomorrow is gonna bring out the best in humanity as we come together to move forward from this unspeakable tragedy," he said.

The suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, was expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons, Runcie said. He is due in court Thursday.

The shooting, which is among the 10 deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history, revived debate over gun control while American politicians offered their condolences.

"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school," U.S. President Donald Trump said.Russian anti-virus experts believe about 2,000 attacks were launched and that they were principally aimed at Ukrainian government networks and financial and energy assets in the country.

The Russian military was directly behind a "malicious" cyber attack on Ukraine last summer that spread across Europe, British ministers have said.

The UK government has taken the unusual step of publicly accusing Russia of June's NotPetya ransomware attack, the BBC reports.

Reckitt Benckiser  maker of Dettol, Durex and Strepsils  was among the UK firms whose sales were affected.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said Russia was "ripping up the rule book" and the UK was duty-bound to respond.

Russia has denied responsibility for the NotPetya attack  which is estimated to have cost companies more than $1.2 billion  and pointed out that Russian firms were among those whose systems were affected.

Ransomware, computer viruses that threaten to delete the target's files unless they pay a ransom, is regarded as the fastest growing form of computer virus.

Read alsoThe Washington Post: Russian military was behind 'NotPetya' cyberattack in Ukraine, CIA concludesRussian anti-virus experts believe about 2,000 attacks were launched and that they were principally aimed at Ukrainian government networks and financial and energy assets in the country.

Ukraine has been locked in a simmering conflict with Russian-backed separatists since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014.

In the NotPetya attack, businesses which strong trade links with Ukraine, such as Reckitt Benckister, Dutch delivery firm TNT and Norwegian shipping giant Maersk were badly affected.

Reckitt Benckiser, whose other brands include Nurofen, Veet and Clearasil, said the attack disrupted its manufacturing output and shipping capacity for up to two months and contributed to a fall in revenues.

Foreign Office minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon said the UK's decision to identify the Kremlin as responsible for the attack underlined the fact that the government will not tolerate "malicious cyber activity".

He said: "The UK government judges that the Russian government, specifically the Russian military, was responsible for the destructive NotPetya cyber attack."

"Its reckless release disrupted organizations across Europe costing hundreds of millions of pounds. The Kremlin has positioned Russia in direct opposition to the West yet it doesn't have to be that way.

"We call upon Russia to be the responsible member of the international community it claims to be rather than secretly trying to undermine it."

Mr. Williamson warned that the West had "entered a new era of warfare, witnessing a destructive and deadly mix of conventional military might and malicious cyber attacks".

Russia, he claimed last month, could cause "thousands and thousands" of deaths through crippling cyber attacks on UK infrastructure. Moscow dismissed suggestions it was spying on UK energy networks.

Theresa May accused Russian President Vladimir Putin in November of attempting to "sow discord" in the west by meddling in elections, spreading misinformation and engaging in cyber warfare.

MPs have asked social media firms to investigate claims Russian hackers sought to influence the outcome of the 2016 EU referendum.

YouTube said earlier this week that it had found no evidence of this, while a separate inquiry by Facebook reached the same conclusion.The incident at a weapons depot follows the reported deaths of scores of Russian mercenaries in a U.S.-led coalition attack last week.

Fifteen Russians employed in Syria by a private security company have been killed after an explosion rocked an arms depot at their base in the country, according to a monitoring group.

The incident happened at the company's weapons storage facility at Tabiya Jazira in the northeastern province of Deir Ezzor, said the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, according to The Guardian.

Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the company in question was in charge of "protecting the oil and gas fields controlled by the Syrian regime."

"Fifteen Russians working for a Russian private security company were killed in an explosion at a weapons depot of the company in Tabiya Jazira in Deir Ezzor province," he told Agence France-Presse.

Read alsoVideo released of U.S. massive airstrike on Russian mercenariesThe Russian workers were accompanying regime forces as they advanced towards the oil and gas fields on the eastern banks of Euphrates river controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters.

The Observatory's website suggested the regime fighters had been trying to access weapons at the depot but set off a booby-trap explosion. It said a total of 23 people were killed, including 15 Russians. The other casualties were believed to be regime fighters of the al-Baqir brigade.

Their reported deaths come after the U.S.-led coalition against jihadists struck the Coneco plant last week in retaliation for an attack on an SDF base near the gas field on the eastern bank of the Euphrates river. Scores of Russian mercenaries were reportedly killed in the attack.

The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad denounced the strikes as a "war crime."

The U.S.-led coalition was established in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, but it has bombed troops loyal to Damascus on several occasions.Still, both sides want to maintain communication channels.

EU Ambassador to Russia Markus Ederer says the relations between the European Union and Russia have hit rock bottom, and the current period may become more dangerous than the Cold War.

He recalled that several important agreements were signed in the field of arms control during the Cold War: the Treaty on Open Skies, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty), the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START III).

Read alsoConflict with Russia could start unpredictably  British army chief"The great powers have been phasing out the Treaty on Open Skies. And the United States and Russia are making serious claims against each other under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Some experts forecast all this may affect the possible prolongation of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between Russia and the United States (START III), which is expiring in 2021. I'm worried about this. If we do not try to minimize the threats stemming from this situation, the current period may become more dangerous than the Cold War," Ederer said in an interview with the Russian newspaper Kommersant.

"The relationship between the European Union and Russia seems to be at the lowest level since the end of the Cold War, but there are some signs of stabilization of the situation. Still, there is a mutual lack of trust along with a wide gap in the understanding of how we have reached that point," he added.

Yet, he said, both sides still want to maintain communication channels.According to Matveyeva, at least 30 others from Sverdlovsk fought alongside her husband in Syria, including nine from Asbest.

Yelena Matveyeva was eagerly awaiting what she hoped would be her husband's return to Russia from Syria, where he had been allegedly fighting for months as a mercenary alongside forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Spirits buoyed that he could be home in weeks, she decided to buy a new dress. While in a store in Asbest, their hometown in Russia's Sverdlovsk region, east of Moscow, she got a call from a friend, Radio Liberty wrote.

Matveyeva said her friend asked her if she had heard anything from her husband or Igor Kosoturov, another military contractor from Asbest. "I said, 'I haven't been able to call him for three days,'" Matveyeva recounts. "Literally, in a minute he calls me back and says, 'Stasa [her husband Stanislav] and Igor are dead.'"

Both are suspected of having been killed when the U.S.-led coalition targeted pro-Syrian government forces with air and artillery strikes in Syria's Deir al-Zor Province on February 7.

There are conflicting reports on the number killed, with as many as 200 cited by Bloomberg, the first agency to break the story.

What seemed clearer was that many of the fatalities were Russians, not officially in the service of the Russian armed forces, but working as military contractors.

Russian officials either refused to confirm or flatly rejected that any Russians were killed in the February 7 strikes. A Russian Foreign Ministry source said on February 14 that such reports were nothing more than "classic disinformation."

But many are skeptical  to say the least  of such official denials, least of all Matveyeva and other wives and relatives of Russian contract soldiers who may have been killed in Deir al-Zor.

According to Matveyeva, at least 30 others from Sverdlovsk fought alongside her husband in Syria, including nine from Asbest.

Read alsoFifteen Russian security staff killed in Syria explosion  The GuardianThe Russian business daily Kommersant reports that 600 Russians had been contracted by the St. Petersburg-based PWC Vagner paramilitary group to fight inside Syria.

Matveyeva says her husband's parents have heard nothing about the fate of their son. They also do not know where he was inside Syria, she explains, saying all they have are some recent photos of him apparently taken there.

Matveyeva says she is not thinking about compensation and hasn't even told their two children what has likely happened to their father. What she does want is for Russian authorities to release his body  if he was indeed killed  and to admit that he died fighting in Syria.

"I would like, first of all, that everyone knows about my husband. Not only him but all the guys who died there for no reason. It's all crazy. Wherever they sent them, there was no defense. They just threw them into battle like pigs," she contends. "The government should avenge them somehow. There should be something in their memory so that the wives won't be ashamed of their husbands and their children can be proud."

Yelena shows reporters a video sent to her by the wife of another Russian mercenary reportedly killed in Deir al-Zor on February 7. She's convinced it shows the U.S. air strikes that hit her husband's convoy.

However, closer inspection suggests it is from a 2015 promotional for a video game called AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Op Squadron.

The video pops up on YouTube from time to time as genuine combat footage and even the Russian Defense Ministry passed it off in November 2017 as "irrefutable evidence" of alleged U.S. help for extremist Islamic State militants in Syria.

Matveyeva shows to reporters a Cross of St. George she says her husband received while fighting in eastern Ukraine, where a conflict between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces has left more than 10,300 dead since April 2014.

He was awarded it, an accompanying document from the Union of Cossack Fighters says, for "bravery and heroism in defending the Russian-speaking population of Novorossia."

She recalls that after her husband returned from Donbas  the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk  he worked renovating apartments before heading for Syria in September 2017.

Matveyeva says her husband rarely, if ever, talked about his time in eastern Ukraine or Syria. "If someone died, he would take care of the funerals, and I would be the last one to know," she says.UNICEF/UN057954/Gilbertson VII Photo

Download A Call to Action here: http://uni.cf/uprooted_data

NEW YORK, 15 February 2018  Gaps in data covering refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and internally displaced populations are endangering the lives and wellbeing of millions of children on the move, warned five UN and partner agencies today. In A call to action: Protecting children on the move starts with better data, UNICEF, UNHCR, IOM, Eurostat and OECD together show how crucial data are to understanding the patterns of global migration and developing policies to support vulnerable groups like children.

The Call to Action confirms alarming holes in the availability, reliability, timeliness and accessibility of data and evidence that are essential for understanding how migration and forcible displacement affect children and their families. For example:

- There is recorded information on age for just 56 per cent of the refugee population under UNHCRs mandate;

- Only 20 per cent of countries or territories with data on conflict-related internally displaced persons (IDP) break it down by age;

- Nearly a quarter of countries and territories do not have age disaggregated data on migrants, including 43 per cent of countries and territories in Africa; and

- Lack of information on migrant and displaced children deprives the affected children of protection and services they need.



Information gaps fundamentally undermine our ability to help children, said Laurence Chandy, UNICEF Director for the Division of Data, Research and Policy. Migrant children, particularly those who migrate alone, are often easy targets for those who would do them harm. We cant keep children safe and provide them with lifesaving services, both in transit and at their destination, if we dont know who they are, where they are or what they need. We urge Member States to fill these gaps with reliable disaggregated data and to improve cooperation so that data is shared and comparable.

Many refugee children have experienced or witnessed appalling violence and suffering in their countries of origin and sometimes also during their flight in search of protection and security. They need and deserve care and protection but in order to provide this, we need data on their identity and needs. In no area is coordination on data and strengthening capacity more important than for children, especially the most vulnerable, said Volker Turk, UNHCRs Assistant High Commissioner for Protection.

We need reliable and better data on child migrants to protect them and guarantee their best interests. Data disaggregation by age, sex and origin can inform policymakers of the real needs of child migrants. This will ensure that no child is left behind and that they are not exploited. All migrant children are entitled to care and protection regardless of their migratory status, said IOM Director General William Lacy Swing.

Time is of the essence when it comes to integration into education, said OECD Director for Employment Labour and Social Affairs Stefano Scarpetta. Success or failure at this vulnerable age can have lifelong labour market consequences. Only with a comprehensive knowledge  backed up by appropriate data  can we identify and address the needs of these children, better protect them and build upon their skills and capabilities as they make their way through the school system and into the labour market.

In many countries, available national data do not include information on migrants and refugees age, sex and origin, or if they travel unaccompanied or with their families. Differing criteria for age categories and for recoding data make disaggregation extremely challenging.

This makes it very difficult to estimate accurately how many children are on the move worldwide. Data on children moving undocumented across borders, those displaced or migrating internally, or children left behind by migrant parents, are even scarcer.

While much of global migration is positive, with children and their families moving voluntarily and safely, the experience for millions of children is neither voluntary nor safe, but fraught with risk and danger. Children who do not have access to safe and regular migration pathways often turn to irregular and dangerous routes, putting them at risk of violence, abuse and exploitation. Many children lose their lives taking perilous informal migration routes  drowned at sea or lost in the desert  but their deaths regularly go unreported and uncounted.

In 2016, over 12 million children around the world were living as refugees or asylum seekers, while an estimated 23 million children were living in internal displacement  16 million as a result of conflict and 7 million due to natural disasters. Yet the true number of children driven from their homes remains unknown and is apt to be significantly higher than the estimate because of gaps in reporting and data.

In the absence of reliable data, the risks and vulnerabilities facing children on the move remain hidden and unaddressed. In some contexts, children who cross borders irregularly may be held in detention alongside adults or prevented from accessing services that are essential for their healthy development, including education and healthcare. Even in high income countries, the number of refugee and migrant children out of school is unknown because it is not counted.

The need for better data collection and analysis are key features of the related but distinct Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees currently being developed for adoption in 2018. While there are ongoing efforts to strengthen data collection and analysis at both the global and country levels, far more needs to be done. As Member States work towards finalizing these two agreements, the five agencies and partners urge them to address the evidence gaps and include the rights, protection and wellbeing of children as central commitments in the final texts. If these gaps are not addressed, it will be impossible to implement and monitor the Compacts and the impact they could have for children on the move.

###

Note to Editors:

UNICEF, UNHCR, IOM, Eurostat and OECD urge Member States to address the data and evidence gaps pertaining to children on the move, and include the following child-specific considerations in the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees:

1. Disaggregate data by age and sex;

2. Cover key issues relating to children affected by migration and displacement;

3. Make better use of existing data, and share it;

4. Coordinate data efforts within countries and across borders;

5. Make special efforts to collect and analyse data on children.



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For more information, please contact:



Christopher Tidey, UNICEF New York, ctidey@unicef.org, +1 917 340 3017

Jorge Galindo, IOM HQ, jgalindo@iom.int, +41 7179205

Stylia Kampani, IOM GMDAC, skampani@iom.int , +49 3027877816

Spencer Wilson, OECD, spencer.wilson@oecd.org, +33 1 45 24 81 18

Dana Sleiman, UNHCR, sleiman@unhcr.org, +1 347 541 1790Chief Minister Balochistan Abdul Quddud Bizenjo said that in the form of CPEC Balochistan has got an important opportunity for development, opening new avenues of investment, trade and business for whole country

QUETTA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :Chief Minister Balochistan Abdul Quddud Bizenjo said that in the form of CPEC Balochistan has got an important opportunity for development, opening new avenues of investment, trade and business for whole country.

He expressed these views while meeting Chinese delegation headed by Michael H. Wang CEO Dynavolt Hisel Company. The CM said that government has taken concrete steps for restoration of peace and security in the province, building safe and healthier environment essential for international investors coming to the province for business.

The CM said that Balochistan is becoming an attractive region for investment, where there are unexpected investment opportunities. The CM said that by utilizing solar power we can overcome energy crisis in Balochistan.

The delegation expressed desire of making investments in various public sectors, including transmission line sector, establishment of micro grid station, generating solar power in different parts of the province, especially in Awaran.

The Chief Minister said that presence of infinite natural resources including large amounts of oil and gas reserves have made Baluchistan favorable region for investment, which can meet energy needs of whole country.

The CM said that Balochistan's resources are the people's property and their best use will be ensured. The CM said that in the past Balochistan board of Investment was not operational due to which province lost dynamic opportunities of international investment and business.

Present government is actively running this department, promoting investment, trade and business. The Chief Minister said that China is our old friends, government will facilitate all the investors including Chinese investors.

The Chief Minister said that due to the ongoing CPEC development projects and large international investments, poverty will be eradicated from the province and there will be unusual improvement in the lives of the people.Opting for nothing less than an examination of the purpose and philosophy of 21st century labour -- in short, how and why do we work in an era of automation and disposable consumerism? -- Stacey Tenenbaum's re-evaluation of the humble shoe shiner smashes any and all Dickensian or Jim Crow notions of the trade with smiles and (mostly joyful) tears.

She travels the globe, from Times Square to La Paz, Bolivia and from Sarajevo to Etobicoke to assess the evolution of the most local of services: cleaning and burnishing shoe leather in a public space. Shiners addresses socioeconomic hot buttons issues of the day, such as race, class, ecology, automation of labour, addiction, politics and human dignity. But, it is first and foremost a character study in a waning trade that has always attracted interesting characters. Combine this with Van Royko's low-f-stop cinematography and you almost smell the oil, leather, and Kiwi.

Tactile close-ups of fingers and cloth, skin on skin, are mixed with medium shots to emphasize the 'power-difference' between the person 'in the chair' (which is not always a literal chair) and the shiner, which the film then smoothly undoes. Finally, a healthy mix of wide shots to show their labour employed inside the context of their city. Shiners has a craftswoman's ebb and flow as Tenenbaum effortlessly flits back and forth across their stories.

In New York there is former accountant and pastry chef, Don, who has a chair (and a megaphone) amongst the thick foot traffic of one of the world's most popular corners. Humourously heckling anyone and everyone to drum up business, he is a street philosopher on freedom and human kindness. He lambastes and connects in that quintessential New York way. Don's ace-in-the-hole is his lack of a boss; the world is his office where he flirts, dances, and engages with the constant stream of humanity

Meanwhile, in urban Bolivia, shoe shiners wear full face masks to hide their identity to avoid bullying or embarrassment in their private lives of attending college or raising a family. They work for pennies in church plazas and side streets, their gear neatly folds up in the most efficient of boxes which double functions as the rest for the patron's foot.

Sylvia, a mother of three young children, feeds her family by shining. Her husband may or may not appear on screen, several men are suggested by the editing, but in the end this was unclear. In Sylvia's meager subsistence, every day is take your kids to work day by necessity. Unlike the men in her profession, she opts not to wear the mask and emotionally embraces small acts of kindness when they happen.

Unlike the rest of the people in the doc, she is not doing the job by choice, but she still does her work with skill and pride. The high-altitude walk above La Paz with her gear and her kids (the youngest in a jury-rigged backpack, is epic and beautiful at the same time as you see the poverty. She hopes her kids become lawyers or accountants just the same.

Ramiz in Bosnia is very much in love with his dead father, a man who shined shoes during the ugly conflict in the 1990s, even as the shells were dropping down on nearby buildings. His dad was nationally recognized as a hero for maintaining morale and normality in a crazy time. He now carries on the tradition of shining shoes and the hope of being embraced by the city as 'the last shoe shiner in Sarajevo. It seems trivial, but my favourite detail of this story is the light-switch in Ramiz's apartment which has to be clicked off using dexterity and a dinner fork. In shoe shining, the details matter.

An old-timey (ok, ok, it is totally hipster) barbershop in Toronto employs a university student, Vincent, to polish shoes, a practice that has helped him recover from a pretty serious motorcycle accident. Simple human interactions calm his anxiety and PTSD, he is also knitting the barbers hats with Pulp Fiction quotes. The Nite Owl barbershop is like stepping into another world in a nonchalant, of the way, part of town.

The upscale analog of this is in Tokyo, where you are served sparkling wine while your shoes are polished (and re-laced) by men in suits. Rather than open air, it is a hidden private experience where you wait out (and witness) the service in a serene and posh lounge, an oasis from one of the world's fastest paced and most populated cities.

The owner has a wonderful sense of style, and he has thought about shining shoes far more than you have. He has a twinkle in his eye and a spring in his step. His customers are so amazed by the work, they are hesitant to wear their shoes for the walk home.

Meanwhile, back in the United States, there is an ex-boxer who gets all the people in his Alcoholics Anonymous circles to learn the art of shining as therapy for their demons. Educated and career driven Americans, men and ladies alike, in this recovery programme take to the working-therapy instantly and effectively. More smiles, more tears. The joy (leavened with the serious situations) in this movie can get quite infectious, and it becomes fun to watch people step down out of the chair and continue the conversation in the absence of awkwardness.

Shiners is nothing shy of a complete re-evaluation of what labour means in the modern world, and our relationship between work and identity goes far, far further than simply money. Tenenbaum's film is high on charm and showmanship, it engages with issues without bludgeoning you to death with outrage or didacticism, and weaves its stories to change hearts and minds on things both something specific, and universal. If the film does not exactly re-invent the narrative wheel, well so what? It does what great documentaries, hell, great cinema, is supposed to do: Open your mind, fill your heart.

Review originally published during Hot Docs in May 2017. The film will have a special 3-day engagement at The Royal Cinema in Toronto, screening on February 17 at 7:30PM, February 18 at 4:30PM, and February 20 at 7:00PM. Director Stacey Tenenbaum and one of the subjects, Vincent Zacharko, will be in attendance for a Q&A at the screenings on February 17 and 18.A delegation of Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) led by its President Zahid Latif Khan called on Commander Southern Command, Lieutenant General Asim Saleem Bajwa here on Thursday

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :A delegation of Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) led by its President Zahid Latif Khan called on Commander Southern Command, Lieutenant General Asim Saleem Bajwa here on Thursday.

Talking to the delegation, Asim Saleem Bajwa said China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will open new avenues of regional prosperity, connectivity and sustainable peace in the region. He said the betterment of law and order in Balochistan is the foremost priority of the government and in this respect Pakistan Army is assisting with the training and capacity building of police and other law enforcement agencies.

CPEC has now become a reality and it will serve as a gateway to Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics, he added. While lauding RCCI's efforts in promoting business activities in the region Bajwa said that the business community especially private sector should come forward and play its due role in economic prosperity of the country.

He assured full support and cooperation of his office for the upcoming RCCI 10th All Pakistan Chamber Presidents Conference in Gwadar next month. On the occasion, RCCI chief, Zahid Latif Khan apprised him on the current activities and future programs of the chamber.

Giving details on the upcoming Gwadar Conference, he said RCCI has been organizing this event for the last 9 years on regular basis. This time we picked Gwadar as event venue so that business community can see the development on the ground and get awareness and future aspects of CPEC.

RCCI Chief also shared the proposed agenda highlights for the upcoming conference which includes China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and its possible impacts on Inter and Intra Regional trade, connectivity and regional trade integration.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Federal, Secretary Ministry of Commerce and Textile Industry, Muhmmad Younas Dhaga on Wednesday said that it was priority of the government to evolve comprehensive Strategic Trade Policy Framework (2018-23) for increasing country's trade

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Feb, 2018 ) :Federal, Secretary Ministry of Commerce and Textile Industry, Muhmmad Younas Dhaga on Wednesday said that it was priority of the government to evolve comprehensive Strategic Trade Policy Framework (2018-23) for increasing country's trade.

Owing to government prudent trade policies, country's exports increased in last three months and are expected to reach at $ 23 billion in coming months till June, 2018, Secretary Commerce said this while addressing to consultative sessions for the Strategic Trade Policy Framework 2018-23 with the business community of the country here on Wednesday.

The consultative sessions for the Strategic Trade Policy Framework 2018-23 with the business community was organized by Ministry of Commerce and Textile Industry here. Secretary Commerce said that the objective of organizing the consultative sessions across the country with business community, think tanks and academia is to deliberate on existing STPF 2015-18, point out its loopholes, and identify current issues from stakeholder's viewpoint.

He said that in recent negotiation with China and Indonesia on Free and Preferential Trade Agreement, the government was successful for getting tarrif reduction facility on top exports of the country.

He informed that in the upcoming STPF, Ministry of Commerce is devising the Long, medium and short term trade policy for the period of five years so that trade could benefit from the incentives announced in STPF 2018-23.

The major focus of STPF would be upon boosting exports in the Technology and Services Sector, competitiveness and investment linkages, particularly attraction of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the export related Industry and integration of local industry into global value chain.

He emphasized upon the stakeholders for their concrete proposals based upon proper research of markets and data, for their consideration by Ministry of Commerce and incorporation of the same in the upcoming STPF 2018-23.

On the occasion business community of the country, appreciated the efforts of Ministry of Commerce and Textile Industries for considering consultation with the traders. In consultative meeting Vice President of Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) hailed the government efforts for consulting the with business community to make consensus on STPF 2018+19.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Aftab Ahmed Sheikh on Thursday informed the Senate that flight operations of PIA to Kuwait and Oman were suspended due to continuous losses on these routes

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Aftab Ahmed Sheikh on Thursday informed the Senate that flight operations of PIA to Kuwait and Oman were suspended due to continuous losses on these routes.

Replying to a calling attention notice raised by Sherry Rehman regarding suspension of flight operations on the said routes, the minister said PIA has its own 13 aircrafts while remaining 24 aircrafts were acquired on dry leased.

He conceded that situation has been gradually deteriorated resulting closures of various routes. He said PIA suffered loss of Rs 44 million in 2013, Rs 31 million in 2014 and Rs 37 million in 2015 on the said routes.

He said new Chief Executive Officer of PIA has been appointed about five months ago and was asked to present a comprehensive revival plan before the Cabinet. He also suggested to set up a special committee of the house to look into the affairs of PIA.Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) achieved yet another milestone in enhancing its Cloud Services portfolio by signing Cloud Solution Provider(CSP) partnership and Service Provider Licensing Agreement Partnership (SPLA) with Microsoft

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) achieved yet another milestone in enhancing its Cloud Services portfolio by signing Cloud Solution Provider(CSP) partnership and Service Provider Licensing Agreement Partnership (SPLA) with Microsoft.

The partnership agreements were signed at ptcl Headquarters, by Adil Rashid, Chief Digital Services Officer, PTCL and Abid Zaidi, Country Manager, microsoft Pakistan, along with Dr. Daniel Ritz, PTCL President and CEO, Leila Serhan, Regional General Manager, Microsoft North Africa, East Mediterranean and Pakistanand other high-ranking officials from both companies.

Riding the tide of digital transformation in Pakistan, PTCL has stepped forward to bring one-window solutions, from serving connectivity needs to becoming an end-to-end business partner for IT requirements of the local market.

Facilitating organizations to achieve their objectives, PTCL recognizes that every business is different, and each cloud deployment requires customization with elements that make the overall solution unique to the customer, thereby befitting individual business strategies.

Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider Program will allow PTCL to offer an array of services using Microsoft Cloud inclusive of Microsoft Office 365, Azure, Dynamics 365, Enterprise Mobility Suite, Power BI, Windows &other value-added services across Pakistan.

Microsoft Service Provider Licensing agreement (SPLA) will enable PTCL to offer Microsoft's updated service portfolio across its own in-country Cloud platform on a flexible billing model.

Dr. Daniel Ritz, President and CEO, PTCL on the occasion said, "PTCL's collaboration with Microsoft is a significant step in our efforts to enhance our Digital Solutions offerings to create greater value for our Enterprise and SME Customers, who will now get benefit through best-in-class cloud solutions.

We believe that this initiative will be a strong catalyst in development of the ICT sector in Pakistan." Leila Serhan, Regional General Manager, Microsoft said "Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more, and today's announcement is an important milestone on this journey in Pakistan.

With Cloud Solution Provider(CSP) & Microsoft Service Provider Licensing agreement (SPLA) partnership, our customers can now get everything from one vendor which makes PTCL a one-window solution provider, thereby simplifying processes for end customers.

This is exactly what the customer needs today. Microsoft partnership would open up new Digital Services opportunities for PTCL as well as its enterprise and SME customers, whereby PTCL would be able to develop deeper business relationships; emerging as an end-to-end business partner.

PTCL customers will benefit from tailored IT services offered through a dedicated as well as shared hosting environment. Moreover, customers would be able to use the most current and updated Microsoft platform.Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah presiding over the 30th Sindh Coal Authority (SCA) Board meeting here at the CM House on Thursday awarded exploring licenses to Sindh Lakhra Coal Mining Company (SLCMC) over 20,000 acres at Thatta/Sonda to conduct feasibility study for development of mining

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah presiding over the 30th Sindh Coal Authority (SCA) Board meeting here at the CM House on Thursday awarded exploring licenses to Sindh Lakhra Coal Mining Company (SLCMC) over 20,000 acres at Thatta/Sonda to conduct feasibility study for development of mining.

The board meeting was attended by its members, MPAs Ghulam Qadir Chandio, Khairunisa Mughal, Dr. Mahesh Kumar, Chairman P&D Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary Sohail Rajput, Secretary Energy Agha Wasif, Secretary Finance Jahangir, DG Sindh Coal Authority Arjan Kumar and other concerned officers, according to a press release.

The CM Sindh said that significant coal reserves are available at small coal fields of Sonda, Jhimpir, Lakhra, Indus East and Badin but major mining activity is going on only at Lakhra while limited activity is in progress at Jhimpir.

Therefore, the chief minister directed Sindh Lakhra Coal Mining Company (SLCMC) to initiate projects there. The CM Sindh after thorough discussion approved awarding exploration license to SLCMC over 20,000 acres at Thatta/Sonda to conduct feasibility study for development of mining project.

The CM Sindh said that the construction of roads was not the job of SCA.

Therefore being chairman of SCA board, he approved transfer all its on-going road sector schemes to Works & Services Department and also abolished four positions of SCA engineers, including of chief engineer SCA.

Since the road sector works have been taken away from the SCA, therefore the chief minister also abolished the positions of chief engineer, superintendent engineer, executive engineer, assistant director (engineering) and of protocol officer.

On the recommendation of SCA, the board approved creation of some positions such as assistant director (Finance) BS-17, deputy director (mining) BS-18and also upgraded the positions of steno/senior scale steno/PA/APS/PS and of computer operators in higher grade.

With the abolition of these posts there would be a saving of Rs 6.24 million annually. The CM Sindh was told that SCA has earned Rs560 million under royalty and Cess in the years 2015-16 & 2016-17.

The Sindh Coal Authority requested the chief minister to enhance the annual grant in aid of SCA from Rs50 million to Rs90 million. The CM Sindh keeping in view the performance and scope of the SCA enhanced its grant in aid to Rs100 million with effect from June 1.(@FahadShabbir)

Ambassador of Turkey to Pakistan Mustafa Yurdakul called on Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training, Engr. Muhammad Baligh Ur Rehman here on Wednesday.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Feb, 2018) : Ambassador of Turkey to Pakistan Mustafa Yurdakul called on Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training, Engr. Muhammad Baligh Ur Rehman here on Wednesday. The Federal Minister welcomed the visiting dignitary and matters of mutual interests were discussed during the meeting.

Baligh Ur Rehman said that both Pakistan and Turkey are brotherly countries and enjoying cordial relations. The Ambassador of Turkey said that the two countries have exemplary ties in all fields including education and these relations will be further enhanced in future.

The Federal Minister lauded Turkey for its progress in all fields including technology, education, economy etc. The two sides also discussed matters related to education and pledged to enhance cooperation in the field of education.

The Federal Minister said that the promotion of quality education is the priority of the government of Pakistan.

He said that funding for education sector in Pakistan has been increased. He said that number of out of school children has phenomenally reduced in the country and enrolment has accelerated. The Federal Minister said that students from other countries are studying in different educational institutions in Pakistan.

Turkish Ambassador noted that Pakistan is peaceful and established country. He said that Turkish students are studying in Pakistan and they are satisfied with the quality of education here. He said that Turkey will also offer scholarships to Pakistani students to study in Turkey.A forum of Universities' Deans and Heads of Departments of education at its meeting held here at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) reviewed the existing teachers' training programs to make them more productive for quality education

Islamabad, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018) : A forum of Universities' Deans and Heads of Departments of education at its meeting held here at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) reviewed the existing teachers' training programs to make them more productive for quality education.

It was first meeting of the forum that was aimed at preparing recommendations for updating and improving the existing teachers' training programs. The Form with country-wide participation of the Universities' Deans and eminent educationists also took the task of addressing the challenges and issues, arising out the reforms introduced earlier by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in the field of teachers' education.

The inaugural session of the forum was addressed by the AIOU's Vice Chancellor Professor Dr. Shahid Siddiqui, consultant HEC Dr. Mahmood-Ul-Hasan Butt and Dean Education AIOU Dr. Nasir Mahmood. The forum initiated a policy-debate for giving a guide-line to the policy-makers and the relevant departments.

It will work out necessary changes and amendments that could be brought about in the educational reforms. It was decided that the forum will meet on regular basis to design educational programs and curriculum in light of the national Professional Standards (2009).

Addressing the inaugural session, Dr. Shahid Siddiqui said that the teachers are the important component of quality education. They needed to focus on knowledge, skill and attitude to leave a good impact on the students for their proper brought-up.

The teachers, he asserted should be a role-model before his students for all practical purposes. He should enrich and modify the available curriculum through better performance and conduct in the class-room.

He hoped that the Forum will be productive one in the prevailing upon the short-comings in the existing teachers' education programs. The VC emphasized that professional development should be carried out at all levels, as a continuous process.

He suggested that similar forum should be arranged at the provincial levels. Dr. Mahmoodul Hasan Butt appreciated the initiative taken by the AIOU for improving the teaching norms and practices.

The University has been playing a leading role in teachers' education, and it was the first one in the country that had launched teachers' training at the very beginning, starting with a Arabic program.

He spoke about the code of professional conduct and ethical values which he said must be adhered to by the teaching community. Dr. Nasir Mahmood, giving a background briefing of the forum said it was necessitate for addressing the issues, presently being faced by the educational sector for producing well-trained and committed teachers.

The evolution of teacher education in the country took place in the form of PTC, CT, B.T, then B.Ed, B.S.Ed, M.Ed and recently into ADE and B.Ed four-year degree programs. He hoped that the forum's recommendations will help further improve these programs.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

President Mamnoon Hussain Thursday said Pakistan was a land of opportunity and the government through good legislation and facilities has opened up new vistas for investors from across the world

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :President Mamnoon Hussain Thursday said Pakistan was a land of opportunity and the government through good legislation and facilities has opened up new vistas for investors from across the world.

Talking to Pakistan Turkish business Forum delegation, who met him here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr the President said Pakistan would be pleased to offer these facilities to traders and merchants from brotherly country of Turkey.

Turkey's Ambassador to Pakistan Ihsan Mustafa Yurdakul and investors from Pakistan and Turkey and high officials were present on the occasions. The President said relations between Pakistan and Turkey were of extraordinary nature, which were difficult to replicate in the world of foreign relations.

He said trade and investment needs to increase between the two countries and called for an increase in exchange of trade, manufacturers and investors.

The President said there were a number of opportunities for investment in many areas in Pakistan and urged the Turkish investors to focus on energy and food processing sectors.

The President also pointed to the opportunities in the health and pharmaceutical sectors and called for exploiting these areas for mutual benefit. The President said Pakistan and Turkey were tied in a strong bond of history, culture and belief and appreciated the cooperation between the two countries in trade and investment.

The President was also appreciative of the fact that Turkish investors in Pakistan were organizing special training for Pakistani engineers and workers in Turkey and hoped it would pay dividends.(@FahadShabbir)

Pakistan Post and National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) Thursday signed'a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish 200 NADRA registration Counters at Post Offices across the country

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :Pakistan Post and National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) Thursday signed'a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish 200 NADRA registration Counters at Post Offices across the country.

The contract signing ceremony was held at the NADRA Headquarters, Islamabad. Federal Minister for Postal Services Molana Ameer Zaman Bokhari was the chief guest on the occasion. Director General Pakistan Post Rubina Tayyab and Director General Operations NADRA Nisar Ahmed also attended the MOU signing ceremony.

After successful completion of pilot project of establishing 10 NADRA counters at various post offices, the project would be further extended to 200 post offices across the country. Federal Minister for Postal Services Molana Ameer Zaman appreciated the officials of NADRA and Post office for successfully completing the pilot project.

He said that this collaboration is very good initiative between the two government departments. He said that the project would benefit people of rural areas and they easily can renew their National Identity Cards and marriage registration.

DG Operations NADRA Nisar Ahmed said that NADRA will further expand its service delivery to citizens at their doorsteps, even in the remotest areas of the country without any hassle and long queues.

In particular, the relationship helps enhance the infrastructure of the NADRA, which will subsequently augment service delivery and improve customer care in a befitting manner. The vast network of post offices across the county would be utilized for issuance of "duplicate", "renewal" and modification (address and marital status only) cases of the CNIC/NICOP through the NADRA online application "Pak-Identity." He said that till June, 100 counters would be established in various parts of the country and the remaining 100 counters would be established after June.

DG Pakistan Post said that Pakistan post has network of 12,500 post offices across the country, adding that Pakistan Post intends to initiate more such projects with NADRA in future.AJ&K Prime Minister, Raja Farooq Haider Khan and Minister for Information, Tourism and Information Technology Raja Mushtaq Minhas Thursday expressed deep sorrow and grief over the sad demise of veteran senior journalist and ex-president of Rawalpindi Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) Ashfaq Sajid

MIRPUR (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) , :AJ&K Prime Minister, Raja Farooq Haider Khan and Minister for Information, Tourism and Information Technology Raja Mushtaq Minhas Thursday expressed deep sorrow and grief over the sad demise of veteran senior journalist and ex-president of Rawalpindi Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) Ashfaq Sajid.

In their separate condolence messages, the two leaders prayed for the rest of the departed soul in eternal peace and grant of courage to the bereaved family to bear the loss with fortitude. They paid tribute to the services of deceased for the journalist community in twin cities and termed his death as irreparable loss for his family and journalists community.A delegation of ANP led by its Central President Asfandyar Wali Khan Thursday visited Chinese Embassy at Islamabad and met with Ambassador Yao Jing

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :A delegation of ANP led by its Central President Asfandyar Wali Khan Thursday visited Chinese Embassy at Islamabad and met with Ambassador Yao Jing.

Asfandyar was accompanied by ANP General Secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Secretary Information Zahid Khan and Senator Shahi Syed. A statement issued by Baacha Khan Markaz here said that Mian Iftikhar Hussain while briefing media regarding the meeting afterwards told that Chinese Ambassador praised the sacrifices of ANP for the establishment of peace.

He also invited ANP president to visit China which he accepted. Mian Iftikhar told that ANP President Asfandyar Wali expressed resolved to continue efforts for the establishment of lasting peace in the area.

He also praised China for its investment in Pakistan. Asfandyar termed CPEC a golden opportunity for initiating development in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and tribal areas adding that it would usher area into new phase of prosperity creating endless opportunities for the people.

Mian Iftikhar told that meeting took place in a very pleasant environment and it was agreed that relations between the two countries would be further strengthened. ANP President also assured cooperation to China for peace and greater interest of people, said the statement.(@rukhshanmir)

An accountability court of Islamabad Thursday rejected a plea of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Capt (R) Muhammad Safdar for two-week exemption from appearance during the hearing of references filed against them by the National Accountability Court

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :An accountability court of Islamabad Thursday rejected a plea of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Capt (R) Muhammad Safdar for two-week exemption from appearance during the hearing of references filed against them by the National Accountability Court.

Accountability Court-1 Judge Mohammed Bashir rejected the plea after hearing arguments placed by Khawaja Haris, counsel for the Sharif family. The counsel pleaded that Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, who was not feeling well, had to undergo important tests in London, and presence of his clients being her family members there was necessary and, therefore, they should be granted exemption from court appearance from February 19 to March 15.

He said his clients were appearing in the court regularly as per its directives.

They had earlier travelled abroad, but came back to attend the court proceedings, he added and assured that after remaining abroad for the exempted period, they would come back.

The NAB prosecutor, however, objected, saying that the trial was heading towards conclusion. Earlier, court recorded statements of four witnesses, namely Deputy Director NAB Sultan Nazir, DD NAB Lahore Zawar Manzoor, Geo Group coordinator Waqas Ahmed and Director External Publicity Wing Toqeer Shah.

The case was adjourned till February 22. On next date of hearing, the court will record statements of two witnesses from London via video link in the supplementary reference regarding London based Avenfield Apartments. Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and Cap (retd) Muhammad Safdar attended the accountability court proceedings.(@rukhshanmir)

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Dir Lower Wednesday declared separation of newly established village from Village Charingo , Kas, Ghwargay and Toot Patay Tehsil Balambat District Dir Lower and named as "Mansoora" in the interest of public

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Feb, 2018 ) :Deputy Commissioner (DC) Dir Lower Wednesday declared separation of newly established village from Village Charingo , Kas, Ghwargay and Toot Patay Tehsil Balambat District Dir Lower and named as "Mansoora" in the interest of public.

Deputy Commissioner Lower has asked all the concerned to make necessary correction of the relevant documents in record concerned. It was notified by Deputy Commissioner Dir Lower here on Wednesday.Minister of State for Finance and Economic Affairs Rana Muhammad Afzal Thursday informed the Senate that the government was cognizant of foreign media campaigns regarding 'free Karachi', and Pakistani missions were vigilant and actively working to counter such moves in the United States and some European countries

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :Minister of State for Finance and Economic Affairs Rana Muhammad Afzal Thursday informed the Senate that the government was cognizant of foreign media campaigns regarding 'free Karachi', and Pakistani missions were vigilant and actively working to counter such moves in the United States and some European countries.

Responding to a calling attention notice raised by Murtaza Wahab and others in that regard, the minister said the government was seized of the issue since first it surfaced in Geneva last year.

Later on, the malicious campaign was also initiated in US cities, he added. The minister said it had transpired that the campaign in the US was being funded by anti-Pakistan lobbies. "Our missions in the US have also mobilized the Pakistani-American community against the systematic move against their homeland.

The response of the Pakistani diaspora is very encouraging," he added. He said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs instructed its missions in the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the US to approach the host governments as well as relevant local authorities with a view to sensitize them about Pakistan's concerns on the campaigns like 'free Balochistan' and 'free Karachi'.

The minister said Pakistan's embassy in Washington had raised the matter with the US State Department and conveyed the country's concerns, highlighting the need for US authorities to curb activities that impinged upon the sovereignty of any country.

He said the US State Department was told that such campaigns were against the spirit of international law and norms of inter-state relations. "We were assured that the State Department has taken cognizance of our concerns and will look into the matter within the parameters of the US laws on freedom of expression," he said.

Rana Afzal said in addition to handing over a demarche to the State Department in Washington, the matter was also taken up with the local authorities in New York. He said the Foreign Secretary, during her meeting with the visiting US Acting Assistant Secretary of State on January 15, also registered Pakistan's strong protest regarding the malicious campaigns.

"The US Acting Assistant Secretary of State gave the reassurance that the US respects Pakistan's territorial integrity and that this support is absolute," he added.Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Thursday said the government was committed to the socio-economic empowerment and uplift of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Thursday said the government was committed to the socio-economic empowerment and uplift of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan.

Talking to Chief Minister Gilgit Baltistan Hafiz Hafeez-ur-Rehman here at PM Office, he said China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would create new economic opportunities for the people of the region.

The prime minister assured the chief minister that all proposed projects relating to Gilgit-Baltistan, under the CPEC portfolio, would be pursued for their early finalization and implementation.

Dir-Chitral CPEC Link Road project was being accorded priority, he added. The chief minister briefed the prime minister about various development projects including some landmark projects under the umbrella of CPEC.

About power situation in Gilgit-Baltistan, he said the government during past two years had added 54 MW to the existing 82 MW power which was being produced in the area for last 70 years.

He informed that recovery situation of power dues had also witnessed significant improvement and stood at around 80 percent recoveries at present.

Work on establishment of regional power grid was underway, he added. The chief minister said the two proposed power projects of 180 MW capacity under CPEC project would be instrumental in meeting the energy requirements of the region.

He also briefed about the efforts of Gilgit-Baltistan government to promote tourism in the region and said an increase in PIA flights to Gilgit would encourage tourism. He also apprised the prime minister about the progress on various landmark projects including establishment of a cancer hospital, medical college and cardiology centre for the people of Gilgit-Baltistan.

Minister for Kashmir Affairs Chaudhry Muhammad Barjees Tahir, Deputy Chairman Planning Sartaj Aziz and senior government officials were present during the meeting.(@rukhshanmir)

QUETTA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :With the efforts of the NAB Balochistan, all valuable illegal property in Mushtaq Raisani's case has been transferred to Balochistan government on Thursday.

Former Secretary Finance Mushtaq Raisani bought illegal property in DHA Karachi including billions of rupees worth accommodations, commercial and residential plots. According to the investigative officer Shoaib Sheikh, this all property was on the name of residents of remote areas of Balochistan.

In May 2016 NAB Balochistan raided former Secretary Finance Mushtaq Raisani's resident and recovered billions of rupees and arrested him.Further investigations revealed that accused also possess valuable illegal property in DHA Karachi.

A team headed by Deputy Director NAB Balochistan Mohammad Shoaib Sheikh was formed in the light of NAB orders regarding property rights of illegal property in finance case. The team including Ashaq Jamali Additional Secretary Finance department Balochistan in 2017 along with the Sindh government and DHA Karachi officials on priority basis started working on transferring the registries of this illegal properties to Balochistan government.

By the efforts of the NAB Balochistan investigative team the illegal property has been transferred and handed over to Balochistan government successfully. APP/arjDefence Minister Khurram Dastgir says Pakistan will pay India in its own coin in case of any Indian misadventure.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Feb, 2018) : Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir says Pakistan will pay India in its own coin in case of any Indian misadventure. In a statement on Pakistan's security policy in the Senate, he said any Indian aggression, strategic miscalculation, or misadventure regardless of its scale, mode, or location will not go unpunished and shall be met with an equal and proportionate response. The Minister said every inch of Pakistan's soil will be robustly defended.

He said instead of blaming Pakistan without substantiation, India must answer for state-sponsored espionage against Pakistan.

He said living evidence of Kulbushan Yadav is in front of the world. He said the arrest of Indian spy Kulbushan Jadav indicates New Delhi's designs to use a third country for espionage against Pakistan. Khurram Dastgir said India has failed to deliver justice to the 42 Pakistanis murdered in Samjhota Express terrorism eleven years ago. He said Cold Start deployment against Pakistan, lethal violation of Line of Control and human rights abuses in Kashmir are compounded by India's jingoism.(@rukhshanmir)

A delegation of journalists from Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Hazara Division visited Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) here on Thursday

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :A delegation of journalists from Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Hazara Division visited Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) here on Thursday.

The delegation apprised ISPR Director General Major General Asif Ghafoor about media efforts in those areas, a press release said. The ISPR DG acknowledged and appreciated their contributions and assured them full support.A meeting of the Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO) selection board convened in the chair of Chief Executive Officer Mujahid Islam Billah

FAISALABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :A meeting of the Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO) selection board convened in the chair of Chief Executive Officer Mujahid islam Billah.

The meeting was also attended by board members including General Manager Operation Nizam au Din Marwat, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Nazir Ahmed Sumro and Director General (HR & Admin) Ch Muhammad Ali.

The board recommended the four Sub Divisional Officers (SDOs) for promotion from SDO BPS-17 to Executive Engineer (XEN) BPS-18. These SDOs are included Engineer Naeem Javed, Engineer Syed Faheem Ali Shah, Engineer Kantesh Kumar and Engineer Mazhar Iqbal.

After the final approval of the Board of Directors (BOD) FESCO, the notification for the promotion and further posting of them would be issued.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani and other senators voiced concerns over the recent IMF report in which it suggested the country to make drastic changes in the National Finance Commission (NFC) award as it had failed to settle distributions of resources among the provinces

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani and other senators voiced concerns over the recent IMF report in which it suggested the country to make drastic changes in the National Finance Commission (NFC) award as it had failed to settle distributions of resources among the provinces.

Chairing the Senate session, Raza Rabbani said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) could not dictate the country on the distribution of resources among the provinces."We are not a colony that they dictate us to use our resources," he added.

Responding to a point raised by the Chair and other lawmakers, Minister of State for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan said Pakistan had successfully completed the IMF programme last year. "During that time, we were under certain obligations but after the completion of the programme, this annual review report of the IMF is not binding on us rather it is only advisory," he said.National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi Thursday condoled the death of senior journalist and former President of RIUJ Ashfaq Sajid

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi Thursday condoled the death of senior journalist and former President of RIUJ Ashfaq Sajid.

In their separate condolence messages to a member of bereaved family, the speaker and deputy speaker expressed their heartfelt grief and sorrow over the sad demise of Ashfaq Sajid.

They paid tribute to the services of Ashfaq Sajid in fields of journalism and freedom of press in the country.

They prayed to Almighty Allah to rest the departed soul in eternal peace and grant courage to the bereaved family to bear this irreparable loss with equanimity.(@FahadShabbir)

Governor of Sindh, Muhammad Zubair, Thursday said that Pakistani youth are talented and hardworking and the government is providing them with full assistance and cooperation

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :Governor of Sindh, Muhammad Zubair, Thursday said that Pakistani youth are talented and hardworking and the government is providing them with full assistance and cooperation.

He said this while addressing a reception hosted in the honour of participants of the second-momentum conference, said a statement issued here. Besides Pakistani participants the reception was also attended by foreigners at Governor House here.

On the occasion, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Momentum, Aleem Jafari, Aamir Jafri, Anam Shakeel and Humayoun Basheer were also present. The Governor of Sindh said that the highly qualified youth of the country had came to gather and exchanging their ideas with each other.

He said that the foundation of the renowned companies of the world had been laid by the talented and qualified youth. Adding that they were used to came to gather and kept sharing their views with each other.

He said that because of such programmes they achieved great successes in the world. Governor Zubair said that without participation of the youth the goal of national prosperity and progress could not be achieved.

He said that pakistani population is accounted for 60 percent of the youth and we have to bring them forward for the progress and prosperity of the country by providing opportunities to them. CEO Momentum Aleem Jafari and others also spoke on the occasion.Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Thursday strongly condemned the targeting of a school van by Indian security forces across the Line of Control (LoC) which resulted in the martyrdom of van driver.'

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Thursday strongly condemned the targeting of a school van by Indian security forces across the Line of Control (LoC) which resulted in the martyrdom of van driver.

' He said such unprovoked and unethical acts had exposed the real face of India, which continued to violate the Geneva Convention by targeting innocent school children.' He prayed for eternal peace of the departed soul and grant of courage to the bereaved family to bear this irreparable loss with fortitude.Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah Thursday said Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government had increased the salaries of government employees up to 125 percent during its five years tenure

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah Thursday said Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government had increased the salaries of government employees up to 125 percent during its five years tenure.

Starting debate on Presidential address to the joint session of the Parliament, he said supremacy of the parliament should be ensured and all institutions should perform their duties within their constitutional domain.

He said supremacy of the parliament could be ensured by giving adequate time to the proceedings of two Houses by all parliamentarians including prime minster and minsters. The leader of the opposition regretted that the country was facing a number of challenges on the external front but they were not getting the required attention.

He said Pakistan had all the potential to become a developed country provided its resources were exploited judiciously and properly.

The growers of sugarcane were not being paid due prices of their products.

Middle man was paying sugarcane farmers only Rs90 per maund. Sindh government had fixed sugarcane price Rs160 per maund and middle man is paying Rs130 per maund. He said Rs40 per litre tax was being collected from petroleum products.

The PPP had provided financial assistance to 4.8 million people during their tenure. Chief of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party Mehmood Khan Achakzai said, he was being portrayed as traitor. Certain tv anchors were leveling baseless allegations against him.

Such baseless allegations, he added pinched him very much. He asked the chair to allocate reasonable time to discuss horse trading allegations being leveled against Senate elections.Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Thursday said that people of Pakistan and the armed forces are fully capable to defend the motherland

Islamabad, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018) : Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Thursday said that people of Pakistan and the armed forces are fully capable to defend the motherland.

"India is continuously violating the ceasefire at LoC and targeting the innocent civilians to which Pakistan army was giving effective response" the Prime Minister said in an interview with INP's Editor Tariq Sumair here on Thursday.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi asked India to enter into dialogue for the resolution of Kashmir issue in line with the UN resolutions. Regarding Afghanistan, he said Pakistan's position is very clear that the issue can be resolved through dialogue and not war.

He reiterated that Pakistan would continue to play its role for peaceful settlement of Afghan issue and said that Kabul government cannot hold Pakistan responsible for its own failure. The Prime Minister categorically stated that there is no confrontation between institutions as the constitution has clearly provided the power of every institution.

He said the Election Commission should seriously look into the horse trading attempts in the Senate elections and said they would boycott the Senators elected by purchasing votes. He said the PML-N is neither involved in any such act nor it supports the horse trading.

Without naming PPP, the prime minister said how a party having not a single MPA in the province was talking of getting its nominated people elected as Senator. He said those elected through horse trading can't be representative of the people.

Answering a question Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said new chairman for the Senate would be nominated after consultation in the party. He said leader of the opposition Syed Khursheed Shah would be consulted about caretaker Prime Minister at an appropriate time.

He however welcomed the statement by Syed Khursheed Shah that the caretaker prime minister should be a spotless person having ability to organise transparent elections.

Regarding placing Pakistan on terror financing watch list, he said a meeting to discuss the matter will be held on 20th February and all aspects would be considered.

He said Pakistan is keeping the international community about ground realities. He said LNG is a mega project which helped ending energy crisis in Pakistan but certain political opponents were levelling baseless allegations to keep them alive in the media.

He said surplus electricity is available in the country and the promise of Nawaz Sharif to end the power crisis is being fulfilled. He said there is also no major issue about transmission lines but the real problem is electricity theft which has doubled in areas where there were complaints of theft.

He said federation and provinces must cooperate to bring an end to load shedding. The Prime Minister said there is 40% theft of electricity in Sukkur, Peshawar, Hyderabad and Quetta power distribution companies.

He said there was less ratio of theft in electricity when there was ten hours of load shedding but this has doubled now. To a question about suggestions given to the former Prime Minister to go to Lahore through the Motorway after his disqualification, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the remarks were given by Mian Nawaz Sharif in a lighter vein and did not name any one.

He said decisions are taken with consensus in the party and every one accepts that. He said first it was decided that he would proceed through motorway and later the leadership reviewed this decision and every one accepted it.

Regarding NAB letter, the Prime Minister said it was for the Ministry of Interior to decide over placing the Names of Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Capt Retd Safdar on the ECL.The Sukkur Press Club (SPC) Thursday paid tributes to Asma Jahangir, prominent advocate who breathed her last in Lahore

SUKKUR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :The Sukkur Press Club (SPC) Thursday paid tributes to Asma Jahangir, prominent advocate who breathed her last in Lahore. President Javed Memon, Secretary General Nasarullah Waseer and others highlighting the services rendered by her expressed their sympathies with the bereaved family members.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Ambassador of United Arab Emirates (UAE) Hamad Obaid Alzaabi Thursday stressed upon joint ventures between International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) and UAE varsities

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :Ambassador of United Arab Emirates (UAE) Hamad Obaid Alzaabi Thursday stressed upon joint ventures between International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) and UAE varsities.

He expressed his desire during a visit to Faisal Masjid campus of the IIUI, a news release said. The ambassador met with IIUI Rector Dr Masoom Yasinzai and President IIUI Dr Ahmed Yousof Al-Draiweesh.

During the meeting, issues pertaining to mutual interests and enhancing bilateral educational ties were discussed in the meeting. The meeting was also attended by IIUI Vice President, Dr Muhammad Munir.

He said that collaborations from both sides would help in improvement in academic excellence. IIUI Rector thanked UAE for infrastructural support of UAE since inception of the university and vowed that UAE students would be provided best opportunities of education at IIUI.

The IIUI President briefed the envoy about the university faculties, its research units, constituent units and its roadmap for internationalization and dissemination of islam's message of peace. Later, UAE Ambassador also visited Islamic Research Institute photo gallery and Publication Press.(@FahadShabbir)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said on Wednesday that Pakistan and the United States must work together to eliminate terrorism and should focus more on what unite them rather than emphasizing elements that divide them.

In an interview with Los Angeles Times' Editorial board and reporters, the Ambassador allayed concerns that relations have entered an irreparable zone, saying that the two countries have worked together for 70 years and need to find common ground for achieving shared objectives.

"This is a very important relationship for us," said the Ambassador when asked how serious was the tension between the U.S. and Pakistan. "For 70 years, Pakistan and the United States have worked together.

We think we achieved results when we worked together," However, he said, unfortunately this time around, the two countries have begun to focus more on what divides them, rather than on what unites them.

"And that is something that we hope will change," he added. Referring to President Trump's tweet, the Ambassador said that the relationship should not be categorized and described in the terms that it was done, adding that people felt humiliated and there was a big public outrage.

"We think there is still enough work to be done by Pakistan and the United States, particularly to stabilize Afghanistan ... and also to finish up what we started together, to eliminate terrorism from our region," he added.

To a question, Ambassador Chaudhry said that Pakistan has come a long way in defeating terrorism and that's a reality. "They are on the run. We are pushing them away. In Pakistan, the law-and-order situation has drastically improved." He then compared the improving law and order situation in Pakistan with the situation in Afghanistan where security was deteriorating.

That, he said, was a big concern for Pakistan which has borne the brunt of all that instability in Afghanistan. ""All our gains against terrorism will be at risk if Afghanistan does not stabilize.

" He said that it is being perceived in Pakistan that the country was being scapegoated for failure in Afghanistan.

He said nobody in Pakistan would support terrorists who had killed their children. "That's not acceptable to anyone of us. We don't like the Taliban and the Haqqani (network group). We do not want them in our land.

They should be participating in the political mainstream in Afghanistan." Ambassador Chaudhry said that Pakistan is pleased with the US commitment to stay in Afghanistan, but added it needs to follow a more comprehensive approach.

He said there were serious governance and corruption issues in Afghanistan and blaming Pakistan and accusing it for providing safe haven was an oversimplification of the quagmire in that country.

"We need to take a more holistic picture than just scapegoating our country." To a question, the Ambassador, while alluding to the new condition-based US strategy to bring stability to Afghanistan, said that part of that strategy should be a political approach, whereby creating an environment for Afghan factions to come together.

"We've got to convince the Taliban and persuade them that they have more to gain at the (negotiating) table than on the battlefield. That's the challenge we have," the ambassador, adding that it would be a pity if the US and Pakistan pick up a bilateral fight rather than working together for the shared interest in stabilizing Afghanistan and bring peace there.

Asked about possibility of tension escalating between Pakistan in the aftermath of aid suspension, the Ambassador stated that channels of communication between the two countries were open, but emphasized that instead of simply talking, they two sides should have a structured engagement.

"It's just conversations that we're having. But we think that we need to actually engage more seriously and in a more structured format," the Ambassador said. "It is important these conversations are continued and upgraded.

(@FahadShabbir)

The third round of the political consultations between the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation took place in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, BelTA report said

MINSK, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :The third round of the political consultations between the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation took place in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, BelTA report said.

The Belarusian delegation was led by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrei Dapkiunas. The UAE delegation was headed by Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for Human Rights and International Law Ahmed Abdul Rahman Al Jarman.

The parties considered the whole range of issues on the bilateral agenda. Particular attention was paid to further development of cooperation in the political, trade and economic sectors, intensification of a visit exchange, and also the expansion of the legal framework of bilateral relations.

The sides praised a high-level of trust between Belarus and the UAE and fruitful cooperation in the international arena, in particular on human rights issues. The sides exchanged views on the development of the situation in the middle East and North Africa, considered ways for resolving regional and international conflicts, and discussed the main trends in the development of bilateral and multilateral relations in the post-Soviet space.Bilateral cooperation and prospects for strengthening inter-parliamentary ties were discussed at a meeting between Chairman of the Council of the Republic Mikhail Myasnikovich and Speaker of the House of Representatives Vladimir Andreichenko with Prime Minister of Turkey Binali Yildirim on Wednesday, BelTA reported

MINSK, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :Bilateral cooperation and prospects for strengthening inter-parliamentary ties were discussed at a meeting between Chairman of the Council of the Republic Mikhail Myasnikovich and Speaker of the House of Representatives Vladimir Andreichenko with Prime Minister of Turkey Binali Yildirim on Wednesday, BelTA reported.

We intend to ensure the implementation of all our previously-made agreements. We have many common topics and issues for discussion. We welcome the intensification of inter-parliamentary cooperation and are looking forward to a visit of Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Ismail Kahraman this May, said Mikhail Myasnikovich.

The chairman of the Council of the Republic also paid attention to the development of cooperation between the two countries in the transport sector. "Our ministers have signed an agreement on international combined transportation of goods, which has good prospects.

We also discussed maritime transportation. In November 2017, we agreed with Ukraine to support the Dnieper waterway in order to organize full-fledged river-sea traffic", Mikhail Myasnikovich said.

There is also a potential to develop the Belarusian-Turkish cooperation in air transportation, the report said.

The chairman of the Council of the Republic also views the partnership of Belarus and Turkey in the field of standardization as promising.

"An important document has been signed in the sector. We need to move towards mutual recognition of standards. This will save our companies from unnecessary bureaucracy", Mikhail Myasnikovich said.

Vladimir Andreichenko said that Belarus views Turkey as a reliable friend and an important partner. "We are pleased with the fact that the two countries have been steadily developing their relations.

Your current visit is another important step in the development of political, trade, economic and investment ties between our states", he said. Binali Yildirim thanked for a warm welcome and noted that Turkey is interested in expanding cooperation with Belarus in many areas, including trade and economic sector, science, tourism, culture, youth policy.

"We have made serious progress in developing cooperation between our countries and we can do much more", the Turkish premier stressed. He expressed confidence that the forthcoming visit of the speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey to Belarus will make its contribution to the development of the bilateral ties.(@rukhshanmir)

Seventy-two salvage ships and 20 helicopters have been deployed in China's coastal waters to ensure travel safety at sea during the Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, Xinhua report said

BEIJING, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018) :Seventy-two salvage ships and 20 helicopters have been deployed in China's coastal waters to ensure travel safety at sea during the Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, Xinhua report said.

Spring Festival is the most important occasion for family gatherings and falls on Feb. 16 this year. The peak travel period around the festival, known as Chunyun, will last for 40 days from Feb.

1 to Mar. 12, as many Chinese people return to their hometowns. Du Haipeng, an official in charge of salvage work with the Ministry of Transport, said that Bohai Bay, the Taiwan Strait and the Qiongzhou Strait usually had the most passengers during this period.

Twenty large salvage ships and 12 helicopters have been posted to these waters.

The Ministry has also deployed salvage ships in case of emergencies in areas where cargo freight is heavy and fisheries active, such as the estuaries of the Yangtze and the Pearl rivers, and waters off Zhoushan Island.

To prevent ice blockage in the Bohai Sea, three large salvage ships have been readied. As the number of travelers going to Taiwan by sea is expected to rise this Spring Festival, Du said that the ministry had sent two large salvage ships and three helicopters to waters off Xiamen City in east China's Fujian Province.

Another 50 vessels and 10 emergency squads are standing by. Nearly 4,000 personnel will take shifts to monitor river and sea transport 24 hours a day during the Spring Festival.Lima, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :Five detainees at a juvenile center in Peru's northern city of Trujillo died Wednesday when a blaze broke out in the facility, police said. "Right now, we know we have five people dead -- five minors who have died. We are still at the site," police official Helber Ordonez told AFP.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Lion dance was performed in Cambodia on Thursday to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, which will fall on Friday, Xinhua reported

PHNOM PENH,(APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :Lion dance was performed in Cambodia on Thursday to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, which will fall on Friday, Xinhua reported.

Three lion dance troupes staged at the Royal Palace and the Chinese Embassy here. At the palace, the troupes were welcomed by Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Royal Palace Minister Kong Sam Ol, while at the embassy, they were greeted by Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Xiong Bo.

Xiong said he felt at home when he saw the lion dance. "May the New Year bring good luck, good health and new success to the peoples of our two countries," he said. Meanwhile, the ambassador expressed his belief that the China-Cambodia relations will be further deepened in the New Year, which is also the year that the two countries mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties.

Bo Reth, vice-president of the Association of Khmer-Chinese in Cambodia, said the lion dance was to celebrate the Chinese New Year and to promote Chinese culture and traditions in Cambodia. Lion dance is usually invited by traditional Chinese families to perform as a symbolic ritual to usher in the Spring Festival and to ward off bad luck and evil spirits.

The Chinese New Year is broadly celebrated in Cambodia, even though it is not a public holiday in this Southeast Asian country. Thai Norak Sathya, secretary of state and spokesman for the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, said it is estimated that more than 60 percent of the Cambodian people celebrate the festival.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Thursday stepped down to pave the way to the left alliance for formation of a new government, Xinhua reported

KATHMANDU,(APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Feb, 2018 ) :Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Thursday stepped down to pave the way to the left alliance for formation of a new government, Xinhua reported.

After making an address to the nation following a cabinet meeting this morning, Deuba put forth his resignation in the wake of completion of the electoral processes of provinces, House of Representatives and National Assembly.

Election Commission had submitted the final results of the Federal and provincial assembly elections to President Bidya Devi Bhandari Wednesday evening. "Under my leadership, the three-tiers of crucial elections were held successfully, which has set the foundation for a long transition," he said in the address, highlighting the major roles of the incumbent government.

Deuba was sworn-in as Nepal's 40th prime minister on June last year under the alliance with CPN Maoist Centre, replacing Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Deuba served as the prime minister of Nepal from 1995 to 1997, from 2001 to 2002 and from 2004 to 2005.

Deuba was sacked by the then King Gyanendra Shah in 2005 over failing to hold elections and bring Maoist rebels to the negotiating table. Deuba's exit came at a time when the Himalayan country is implementing the federal set-up as provisioned in the constitution promulgated in September 2017.

Nepal successfully held three-tier elections of local bodies, provinces and parliament in 2017 under the leadership of Deuba, giving high expectations that the country will usher in much-needed political stability and development.

Deuba is lauded for bringing the agitating Madhes based parties who were against the new constitution to the election board. However, Deuba's Nepali Congress faced humiliating defeat in the polls as the party President Deuba is blamed for his poor leadership role.

The opposition parties had been lashing out Deuba for sticking in power for almost two months even after the completion of elections. He is also criticized for taking some controversial decisions as the outgoing prime minister.

Meanwhile, CPN-UML, which emerged as the largest political party in the elections, has officially claimed for the formation of the new government with support from the CPN Maoist Centre. The CPN-UML Standing Committee meeting held on Wednesday decided to put forth its Chairman KP Sharma Oli as the next prime minister.

The left alliance have claimed for premiership afore President Bhandari this morning.

Rubios Restaurants, Inc. has announced the opening of a new Rubios Coastal Grill location in Las Vegas, Nevada. Beginning Thursday, March 8, 2018, Las Vegas area residents will be able to visit the new Rubios Coastal Grill at 8431 Farm Road, Suite 110, in DCs Plaza.

To celebrate the opening and demonstrate its commitment to the local community, Rubios is donating fifty percent of sales* from opening day to the United Blood Services in Las Vegas. Additionally, all guests that purchase an entree at the Las Vegas location on March 8 will have the opportunity to win free Rubios for one year; three winners will be awarded at random .

Consistently ranked as one of the top fast casual chains in the nation, Rubios Coastal Grill is known for popularizing the fish taco and its unique and delicious coastal cuisine. Co-Founder Ralph Rubio brought his love of fish tacos to the United States after a college trip to Baja California, Mexico. Since its first restaurant opened in San Diego in 1983, Rubios Coastal Grill has established a passionate fan base throughout the Southwestern United States and has been touted as Americas most loved fish tacos. Cited by The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times as the countrys top fish taco expert, Rubios has sold more than 200 million Original Fish Tacos.

Since opening the first Rubios restaurant in San Diego 35 years ago, our reputation for delicious coastal cuisine and authentic fish tacos has spread across the nation, and our following of loyal fans has continued to grow, said Rubio. Were excited to offer Las Vegas residents another location to enjoy our food and new coastal ambiance.

Ralph Rubios culinary passion is evident in the inventive recipes used to make Rubios award-winning seafood dishes. In addition to the famed Original Fish Taco thats hand-dipped in Rubios signature beer batter, Rubios serves fish tacos made with grilled or blackened ono, Wild Alaska Coho Salmon, grilled shrimp and other seafood. Rubios innovative recipes also include a variety of burritos, bowls and salads, and feature responsibly-sourced seafood, all-natural chicken raised without antibiotics and all-natural steak. Guacamole featuring creamy Hass avocados is made daily in the kitchen, and fresh produce arrives throughout the week. More information about Rubios commitment to food quality can be viewed at https://www.rubios.com/food-philosophy/made-mission.

Rubios Las Vegas restaurant will showcase decor that draws inspiration from the sea and features elements and aesthetics reminiscent of the brands beach heritage. Hues of cobalt, green, indigo and sand sparkle throughout the restaurant while modern pendant lighting illuminates natural wood pieces and community seating. Artwork that highlights the brands philosophy, quality ingredients and cooking techniques are spread throughout the dining room.The national election body has dismissed allegations of bias ahead of the upcoming Senate election later this month.

The National Election Committee (NEC) said that the proper authorities were organizing the February 25 election in accordance with the law, adding that the NEC would perform its duty independently and neutrally to ensure a free and fair election with respect to multi-party democracy.

Following the dissolution of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party late last year, three NEC members selected by the CNRP resigned and new members were appointed that are seen as being close to the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party.

Mu Sochua, CNRP vice president, said holding the Senate election without the CNRP was insane.

Rong Chhun, one of the NEC members who resigned after the CNRPs dissolution, said the NEC statement showed that the body was concerned over its negative public image.

There is no reason for them to release the statement declaring their stance. It just simply means that they are guilty because the public is judging and watching. Therefore, they have to defend themselves, he said.

Dim Sovannarom, NEC spokesman, declined to explain the reasoning for the release of the statement.The Ministry of Interior has filed a complaint with the Phnom Penh Municipal Court against the now-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Movement, a group formed by the countrys former opposition leader, Sam Rainsy.

The CNRM was formed in January after the government took Rainsys former party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, to court over an alleged plot to overthrow Prime Minister Hun Sen, resulting in the partys dissolution and the banning of many of its members from politics for five years.

Khieu Sopheak, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said the governments complaint was made against five senior members of the CNRM who were living abroad for illegal political activities.

The government has not named the five CNRM members included in the complaint.

You must wait for the court summons. And we will wait for a further action to get more evidence.

Ky Tech, a government lawyer, and Ly Sovanana, a court spokesman, declined to comment.

The ruling Cambodian Peoples Party has overseen a crackdown on political dissent in recent months that has seen the CNRP dissolved and its president, Kem Sokha, arrested on treason charges.

In November, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the CPP to dissolve the CNRP and banned 118 of its officials from politics for five years. Most of the CNRPs 55 MPs had already fled the country.

The former CNRP president created the CNRM in January to lobby for the release of Sokha, his successor to the partys presidency.

Mu Sochua, CNRP vice president and a founder of the CNRM, said the CNRM would continue to operate regardless of the governments attempts to shut it down.

The dictator always fears the shadow of the CNRP, revealing what patriots are doing to save the nation is right, she said. We have no reason to stop our movement if we dont get any solutions.

However, Sokha and other members of the CNRP have publicly distanced themselves from the group.

Leading members of the ruling party have called the CNRM a terrorist group.

Sok Sam Oeun, a veteran human rights lawyer, said as there was no law that said the CNRMs activities were illegal, their actions could not be punished in the courts.

Lao Mong Hay, an independent political analyst, said the lawsuit was part of a communist approach to governance.

Filing this lawsuit is pure legal harassment by the [Interior Minsitry] to cause problems for the senior CNRP officials and make it difficult for them to ever return home in the future, he said.The Cambodian government has released a 132-page book detailing its efforts to root out foreign-backed color revolution and defending its crackdown on the countrys opposition.

The book argues the case for the dissolution of the CNRP and rehashes and expands on many of the claims made by senior Cambodian Peoples Party officials over the past two years.

Government-aligned media outlet Fresh News published the book in full on its website on Wednesday, saying 70,000 copies would be printed.

The book paints a picture of Cambodia on the brink of war due to the actions of the CNRP and civil society organizations, which are said to be funded by superpowers.

The book also criticizes media outlets Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, Voice of Democracy and Beehive Radio for exaggerating events in order to poison the social environment, and accuses civil society organizations like Licadho, Adhoc, the National Democracy Institute, Transparency International, Comfrel and Nicfec of being allies of the opposition.

Phay Siphan, a government spokesman, and Tith Sothea, a media spokesman, could not be reached for comment.

The release of the book follows the publication by the government of numerous propaganda pamphlets and videos intended to support the government line, which has drawn ridicule from Cambodians on social media.

Mu Sochua, CNRP vice president, said Cambodians would not be fooled by the book. Now, the book is written by the government, but in the spirit of our nation, history will condemn those who have killed democracy.

Am Sam Ath, a legal adviser to local rights groups Licadho, said the government was seeking to defend its actions. I believe that other organizations, too, do not serve the interests of any political party. What we do is serve the public interest, he said.

Astrid Noren-Nilsson, senior lecturer at the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies at Lund University, said the main purpose of the book was to make the CPPs positions on color revolution official.

It is not so much about convincing Cambodians of the threat of color revolution, as it is about setting in stone that the CNRP are viewed as enemies of the nation and that it would be utterly foolish to participate in an attempt to bring the party back to life.A group of U.S. Senators last week proposed a new bill that could see restrictions placed on Cambodian officials including asset freezes.

The bill, known as the Cambodia Accountability and Return on Investment (CARI) act, could see senior officials assets frozen if the leader of Cambodias main opposition group, Kem Sokha, remains in prison and free and fair elections are not held later this year.

"Democracy is dead in Cambodia today because the Cambodian government is under the influence and control of China," Senator Lindsey Graham said in a statement after introducing the bill.

Sokha was arrested on charges of conspiring with the United States to overthrow Prime Minister Hun Sen and his party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, was later ordered dissolved in a case where similar allegations were made.

Both the CNRP and the United States have denied the allegations.

Ted Cruz, a leading senator from Texas who also sponsored the bill, added that the CARI act was an appropriate response to "Hun Sen's protracted tyranny and unrelenting destruction of democracy in Cambodia."

In late January, eight influential senators, including Sen. Graham, Sen. Dick Durbin, Sen. John McCain, and Sen. Marco Rubio, wrote a letter to the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Hailey, urging her to work with US partners and allies of the United States government to isolate the Cambodian government, pressure them to reverse course.

"We also urge you to consider using the voice of the U.N. Security Council to raise concerns about the crackdown, given the central role the council played in crafting Cambodias political restoration in the early 1990s in the wake of civil war and Khmer Rouge era atrocities."

The CARI bill also authorizes counter influence programs to highlight China's role in the destruction of Cambodia during the 1970s, according to the press release.A federal appeals court has ruled that the latest version of President Donald Trump's order restricting travel is unconstitutional because it unlawfully discriminates against Muslims.



In a 9-4 decision, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia said that after examining official statements from Trump and other White House officials, "we conclude that the Proclamation is unconstitutionally tainted with animus toward Islam."



The court upheld a lower court injunction that had been issued against the so-called travel ban but stayed the decision pending the Supreme Court's upcoming consideration of the travel order.



The court joins the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco as the second federal appeals court to rule against the ban.



A three-judge panel for the Ninth Circuit ruled in late December that the president failed to make a "legally sufficient" finding that entry of those barred would be "detrimental to the interests of the United States."



The president's travel order his thirdhas been in effect since early December when the Supreme Court said it could go into effect while it made its way through the courts.

The order in varying degrees bars people from coming to the U.S. from eight countries  six of which are predominantly Muslim. The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments regarding the order in April.

Trump issued the first version of the travel ban at the end of his first week of office, arguing that it addressed pressing security concerns.CAFRA TT statement on administration of justice in relation to Yugge Farrell

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CAFRA Trinidad and Tobago joins in the expressions of concern and alarm over the treatment of 22-year-old Yugge Farrell by the administration of justice in St Vincent and the Grenadines. We take note that Yugge Farrell was charged with using abusive, insulting and offensive language against the spouse of the Minister of Finance, who is also the son of the Prime Minister and Minister of Legal Affairs and with whom she has alleged that she had been in a relationship.

As an organization committed to confronting unequal power relations between women and men, between the state and individuals and inequalities in society, CAFRA TT is troubled by this case. We wonder whether the police of St Vincent and the Grenadines routinely charge the many persons who insult or curse each other in public places. And if not, as we suspect, we ask what were the considerations of the police in charging this 22-year-old woman. We wonder why the resources and the attention of the Director of Public Prosecutions were engaged with this rather minor charge. We question why Ms Farrell was sent to a mental health institution for observation, when she indicated that she intended to plead not guilty and was represented by an attorney.

Many womenas rights and social justice advocates across the region following this case are questioning whether the administration of justice has functioned in a non-biased and fair manner. We seek to understand the motivations for what seems to be a disproportionate wielding of state power against this young woman.

Given the persons involved in this case, directly or indirectly, and the tremendous differences in positional power among them, the responsibility is on the State to show how the conduct of this case, from investigation, charging and prosecution was consistent with other cases of this type. The police and the prosecution have a rule of law obligation to show how their pursuit of this case was aas usuala and not, by contrast, extraordinary and targeted.

St Vincent and the Grenadines, like other Caribbean countries, has a high per capita rate of sexual violence. Domestic violence is prevalent, with very few charges laid by the police and even fewer perpetrators prosecuted. Yet a 22-year-old woman, using what can only be described as very mild language in the context of the sexualized and violent invective women hear every day on our streets, has been exposed to the heavy hand of the law. She was deprived of her liberty for three weeks in a mental health institution before she was granted bail. This charge hangs over her head with the case adjourned to December 2018.

CAFRA TT expresses its solidarity with Yugge Farrell and all social justice advocates following this case across the Caribbean. We call for an independent inquiry by the relevant authorities into the administration of justiceas conduct of this case.

5 February 2018The collapse of 13-month-long talks overnight Wednesday to restore a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland might force the British government to seek emergency powers and rule the province directly from London for the first time since 2007, acknowledge British officials.

The move, which Protestant politicians in Northern Ireland are urging, would risk clouding relations between Britain and Ireland and complicate already fraught Brexit negotiations between London and Dublin.

Direct rule also would upend the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended three decades of sectarian conflict that left 3,600 people dead, risking a violent backlash from die-hard Irish Republican Army militiamen. Both Britain and the Irish Republic are guarantors of the peace agreement.

Failed talks



Talks between Northern Irelands two main parties, the Democratic Unionist Party and the IRA's political wing, Sinn Fein, fell apart only hours after Prime Minister Theresa May visited Belfast. During her mid-week trip to Northern Ireland, May said she was confident there would be a breakthrough in the negotiations between the mainly Catholic Sinn Fein, which is in favor of a united Ireland, and the mainly pro-British Protestant DUP.

The fact that the talks fell apart so soon after Mays visit is being seen widely as a blow to her authority.

Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley (R) leaves 10 Downing Street after attending a Brexit sub-committee meeting in central London, Feb. 8, 2018. Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley (R) leaves 10 Downing Street after attending a Brexit sub-committee meeting in central London, Feb. 8, 2018.

Britains Northern Ireland minister, Karen Bradley, said London now had uncomfortable decisions to make. The British governments only immediate legal option is to call for new elections in Northern Ireland, but it is coming under pressure from the DUP not to do so and to opt instead for direct rule.

Theresa Mays minority Conservative government in London relies on a handful of DUP lawmakers in the Westminster parliament to survive. May also needs to avoid angering the Irish Republic, however, in order to smooth out differences with Dublin connected to Brexit, Britains planned exit from the European Union.

Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Arle Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Arlene Foster (C) arrives to speak to the media with her deputy leader Nigel Dodds (L) along side at the Parliament Buildings on the Stormont Estate in Belfast on Feb.12, 2018. Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Arlene Foster (C) arrives to speak to the media with her deputy leader Nigel Dodds (L) along side at the Parliament Buildings on the Stormont Estate in Belfast on Feb.12, 2018.

Dublin has questioned publicly the impartiality of the British government in the political stalemate in Northern Ireland because of its need for DUP support in the House of Commons in London.

Internal clashes



Northern Irelands parties clashed Thursday over who was to blame for the failure to reach a deal to restore a power-sharing administration to govern the province. The British province has been without a devolved administration  a key part of the 1998 peace deal  for more than a year since the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein withdrew from the power-sharing government with the DUP after a dispute erupted over an energy scheme amid allegations of fraud.

The latest round of talks between the archrivals fell apart over a sharp disagreement on additional rights for Irish-language speakers and legal protections for the use of Gaelic. Sinn Fein accuses the DUP of sabotaging the talks, a charge rejected by their adversaries, who blame them for making too many demands and refusing to compromise.

Irish Republic officials are warning London that they are opposed to the re-imposition of direct London rule of Northern Ireland. But British involvement in Northern Ireland's governance is now inevitable, says a former British Cabinet minister. Theresa Villiers, who was Britains Northern Ireland secretary between 2012 and 2016, said time has run out and London will have to pass legislation to set a budget and sort out various other key issues.

Brexit complicates matters



Relations between London and Dublin are already severely strained over Brexit and the possibility of a reintroduction of a so-called "hard border" involving tariffs and security checks between the south and north of the island of Ireland following Britains departure from the EU.

FILE - The old disused border post on the border b FILE - The old disused border post on the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland near Jonesborough, Northern Ireland, Jan. 30, 2017. FILE - The old disused border post on the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland near Jonesborough, Northern Ireland, Jan. 30, 2017.

As news broke of the collapse of the talks, the Irish Republics Taoiseach (prime minister) Leo Varadkar, maintained that power-sharing and working together are the only way forward for Northern Ireland.

He dismissed a call by DUP leader Arlene Foster for London to resort to some form of direct rule. For the British government to do that, it would have to pass legislation giving it emergency powers to take over the running of the province.

FILE - Ireland's Prime minister Leo Varadkar arriv FILE - Ireland's Prime minister Leo Varadkar arrives for the EU Social Summit in Gothenburg, Sweden, Nov. 17, 2017. On Thursday, his government was on the verge of collapse. FILE - Ireland's Prime minister Leo Varadkar arrives for the EU Social Summit in Gothenburg, Sweden, Nov. 17, 2017. On Thursday, his government was on the verge of collapse.

In her statement, Foster said it was incumbent on London to intervene to set a budget and start making policy decisions about our schools, hospitals and infrastructure.

Irelands foreign affairs minister, Simon Coveney, said the collapse of the talks was not expected and was hugely disappointing. He told Irish broadcaster RTE he believed there was no appetite to move toward direct rule.

British and Irish officials were scrambling Thursday to try to salvage something from the mess and get the provinces politicians back to the negotiating table, but DUP leader Foster said there is no current prospect of renewed discussions leading to the re-establishment of Northern Ireland's government. And the angry recriminations flying between the parties suggest shes likely right.

Direct rule would undermine the delicate balance between Northern Irelands nationalists and Unionists at a time there already are fears that sectarian conflict could be reignited because of Brexit. Northern Irelands most senior police officer warned recently the re-introduction of a 'hard border' complete with frontier checks and security installations would be seen as fair game for attack by die-hard Irish republicans.

George Hamilton, the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said last week that a hard border would have to be patrolled 24 hours a day and would put his officers lives in greater danger from hard-core paramilitary groups who have never approved of the Good Friday Agreement. He described as severe the threat from the New IRA and other dissident groups opposed to the peace settlement in Northern Ireland.

FILE PHOTO: A car drives past a sign saying "No Bo FILE - A car drives past a sign saying "No Border, Hard border, soft border, no border" in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, Aug. 16, 2017. FILE - A car drives past a sign saying "No Border, Hard border, soft border, no border" in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, Aug. 16, 2017.

The last thing we would want is any infrastructure around the border because there is something symbolic about it and it becomes a target for violent dissident republicans, he said. Last year, there were five serious attacks by dissident republicans on Northern Ireland police officers, one in Belfast that left two policemen wounded.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can download this video to view it offline.JOHANNESBURG - Less than 24 hours after Jacob Zumas late-night resignation, South Africa has a new president: Cyril Ramaphosa, a successful businessman and stalwart of the African National Congress party, who was instrumental in the push to force Zuma to resign.

Ramaphosa was sworn in Thursday in Cape Town, after he was nominated in parliament without opposition.

The occasion came just over 12 hours after Zumas sudden concession to his partys mounting insistence that he step down before his term officially ends in mid-2019.

Ramaphosa, who spent the last four years as deputy president under Zuma and who recently took over from Zuma as president of the ANC, immediately launched a charm offensive on the usually fractious house. He pledged to work with the nations many opposition parties, and to remember his place  a stark contrast to his predecessors combative nature.

Cyril Ramaphosa is cheered by Parliament Speaker B Cyril Ramaphosa is cheered by Parliament Speaker Baleka Mbete, left, after being elected President in Parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, Feb. 15, 2018. Cyril Ramaphosa is cheered by Parliament Speaker Baleka Mbete, left, after being elected President in Parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, Feb. 15, 2018.

And I will do this as a servant of the people, he said. Because I do believe that when one is elected, you basically become a servant of the people of South Africa. And I will seek to execute that task with humility, with faithfulness and with dignity as well. That is what I will seek to do.

Those comments generated applause from lawmakers. But not all parties were present. Before nominations began, the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters party walked out, because the party argues that parliament should be dissolved and snap elections be held to replace Zuma.

WATCH: South Africa's New President Vows to Fight Corruption

Mmusi Maimane, leader of the Democratic Alliance, the largest opposition party, chastised Ramaphosa and his party for standing by Zuma amid his long-simmering corruption scandals, and also called for early elections.

We dont have a Jacob Zuma problem, we have an ANC problem, Maimane said ...This is a moment in our country where we must move Section 50 and go back to the people of South Africa and ask them for a fresh mandate, so that we can bring a new beginning to South Africa."

He also had a message for the new president: "Mr. Ramaphosa, I wish you strength, but know: we will hold you accountable and I will see you in 2019 on the ballot box.

Newly-elected ruling African National Congress (AN FILE - Newly elected ruling African National Congress (ANC) party president, Cyril Ramaphosa, right, and former ANC president and South African President Jacob Zuma, left, attend the party's 106th birthday celebrations in East London, South Africa, Jan. 13, 2018. FILE - Newly elected ruling African National Congress (ANC) party president, Cyril Ramaphosa, right, and former ANC president and South African President Jacob Zuma, left, attend the party's 106th birthday celebrations in East London, South Africa, Jan. 13, 2018.

Ramaphosa will deliver his first state of the nation address Friday, a speech that Zuma was supposed to give earlier this month. The sudden cancellation of that address signaled the beginning of the end of Zumas controversial nine-year presidency, leading to his own party recalling him earlier this week, and nearly ending with what would have been an embarrassing no-confidence in parliament.

Ramaphosa has acknowledged that he faces many challenges in his new role. These include cleaning up years of alleged corruption in his own party, trying to reduce the economic inequality that persists nearly three decades after the end of apartheid -- and holding on to his new job when the nation holds elections in 2019.

But on this, the first day of his presidency, he  and many lawmakers, from all sides  were hopeful, and grateful to be at the cusp of a new era for the Rainbow Nation.

Thank you all for this great opportunity that Ive been given, he said. I will try to work very hard not to disappoint the people of South Africa.WHITE HOUSE - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday vowed to "tackle the difficult issue of mental health," and to make school safety "our top priority." But he left gun control advocates frustrated by making no mention of the issue in reacting to the latest mass killing at an American school.

One day after a 19-year-old man with a high-powered semi-automatic rifle killed at least 17 people at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Florida, Trump acknowledged he was speaking "to a nation in grief." He also announced he would soon visit the community of Parkland, on the edge of the Florida Everglades, to meet with victims' families and local officials.

Devoting a portion of his brief nationally televised address "directly to America's children," the president told them: "If you need help, turn to a teacher, a family member, a local police officer or a faith leader."

He called on Americans to work together to change the culture to one "that embraces the dignity of life, that creates deep and meaningful human connections, and that turns classmates and colleagues into friends and neighbors."

Students grieve outside Pines Trail Center where c Students grieve outside Pines Trail Center where counselors are present, after Wednesday's mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Feb. 15, 2018. Students grieve outside Pines Trail Center where counselors are present, after Wednesday's mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Feb. 15, 2018.

After Trump finished speaking, one of the few reporters allowed in the Diplomatic Room to witness his remarks asked him, "Will you do something about guns?"

The president  many of whose core supporters see unrestricted gun ownership as a constitutional right  left the room without responding. However, his silence did nothing to quiet the debate over American gun laws that erupts after every mass shooting. Nineteen of the nation's deadliest such attacks have occurred in the past decade.

"This was an opportunity for the president to start a discussion about the need to recalibrate protocols governing how federal agencies and local authorities can utilize information pertaining to potential threats to public safety posed by maladjusted individuals," Michael Smith II, an international security fellow at the non-partisan New America think tank, told VOA. "The president squandered that opportunity."

An official with the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence agreed.

"It's really clear that the issue of gun violence gets Teleprompter Trump,'" said the group's media director, Andrew Patrick, declaring the president's six-and-a-half-minute address "devoid of emotion" and contending it "deflected blame to the mentally ill."

The president, Patrick said, "clearly doesn't particularly care about this issue." He noted that Trump received strong support in his 2016 election campaign from the National Rifle Association, a leading advocate for the rights of gun owners.

The NRA has not responded to inquiries about the Parkland killings, and went silent on social media following the school shooting. However, the organization and its supporters have argued after previous mass shootings that the focus should be on the individuals who commit the crimes, not on the guns themselves. They also argue that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms.

'Effective enforcement' needed

America's top law enforcement officer did not suggest any policy or legislative changes in response to the Florida shooting, but declared the status quo is not sustainable.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks about violen Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks about violent crime and opioids at the Major County Sheriffs of America 2018 Winter Conference in Washington, Feb. 15, 2018. Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks about violent crime and opioids at the Major County Sheriffs of America 2018 Winter Conference in Washington, Feb. 15, 2018.

"This situation that we have seen just cannot continue. We will take such action as we're able to take. We've got to reverse these trends we're seeing in these shootings," said U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions at a conference of the Major County Sheriffs of America. He added "it cannot be denied that something dangerous and unhealthy is happening in our country."

Sessions called for "effective enforcement" of existing gun laws.

"It's not good if we've got gun laws that say criminals can't carry guns that never get enforced. So we intend to enforce our laws and, if anything, the recent events have caused us to know we need to do even more in the future," he said.

America's resistance to passing stronger gun control laws baffles some observers in other countries.

"Seems a bit much for mass shootings to be so regularly blamed on mental health problems in a country where it's easier to get assault rifles than antidepressants," said neuroscientist Dean Burnett, a lecturer at the Cardiff University Centre for Medical Education in Wales, in a Twitter posting.

On Thursday morning, he wrote on Twitter that there were "So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed."

After a shooting in a Texas church in November killed 26 worshippers, Trump said it appeared that the gunman was a "very deranged individual."

After a gunman in a Las Vegas Strip hotel fired on a crowd of concert-goers last October, killing 58 and wounding more than 850, the president tweeted the shooter was "a sick man, a demented man."

Trump added, however, after that shooting that his White House would "be talking about gun laws as time goes by."CAIRO - Egyptian authorities on Thursday ordered a senior Islamist leader to remain in police custody for two weeks after a day of questioning by state security prosecutors about his alleged links to Egypt's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.

The order was the latest development in the government's crackdown on dissent ahead of next month's presidential election.

Abdel-Monaem Abul Fetouh, 66, was arrested Wednesday night shortly after his return from a trip to London. On Thursday, a prosecution statement said he had been ordered detained for two weeks pending completion of an investigation.

The statement said Abul Fetouh was facing accusations that he spread "false news'' that could hurt Egypt's national security and joining an outlawed organization  Egyptian parlance for the Brotherhood  that sanctions the overthrow of the government by force and endangers society.

Abul Fetouh's attorneys demanded that their client be taken to a hospital for a checkup after he felt a "sudden bout of exhaustion,'' according to the statement, which did not say whether prosecutors agreed to the request.

Separately, a statement by the Interior Ministry said senior Brotherhood leaders living in exile in Britain and Turkey had held secret meetings with Abul Fetouh to finalize plans to sow confusion and instability in Egypt to coincide with attacks against vital state installations "to create a state of chaos that will allow them [the Brotherhood] to return to the political scene's forefront.''

Election allegedly targeted

The plan was to be executed during next month's presidential election, it added. Documents pertaining to the alleged plot were found at Abul Fetouh's home, it added.

Abul Fetouh is the leader of the Strong Egypt party, whose deputy, Mohammed el-Kassas, was detained about a week ago, also over alleged links to the Brotherhood. At least five senior members of his party were released early Thursday, just hours after their detention over similar accusations.

The questioning of both men is part or a wider investigation into what authorities say is a plot to resurrect the Brotherhood as well as dealings with media outlets loyal to the group. The Muslim Brotherhood was outlawed and declared a terrorist organization shortly after the ouster by the military in 2013 of Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president and a Brotherhood stalwart.

Their detention also points to a stepped-up crackdown on dissent ahead of the March 26-28 vote that is virtually certain to be won by the incumbent general-turned-president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Standing between the president and another four years in office is an obscure politician and a supporter whose eleventh-hour entry into the race spared the president and his government the deeper embarrassment of a one-candidate election.

The officials said Abul Fetouh would also be questioned by prosecutors about comments he recently made to Al Jazeera, the television news network that Cairo sees along with its host nation, Qatar, as uncompromisingly hostile to its government and accommodating toward militant Islamic groups in the region.

Vote boycott urged

In the February 11 interview, he accused authorities of fabricating cases against critics and violating the constitution. Abul Fetouh was also among prominent opposition figures who last month called for a boycott of the vote, something that pro-el-Sissi lawmakers and media celebrities described as tantamount to an attempted coup.

Abul Fetouh was a longtime Brotherhood member but quit the group in 2011 to run for president in the 2012 election won by Morsi, whose one-year rule proved divisive. Under el-Sissi, pro-government media have insisted that his sympathies continue to be with the Brotherhood.

The security officials said prosecutors possessed documents and video recordings that allegedly show that Abul Fetouh has been in contact with Brotherhood leaders living in exile.

Abul Fetouh's arrest was the latest in a series of high-profile, election-related detentions that have rocked the country ahead of the vote.

Former military chief of staff Sami Annan was arrested last month, days after he declared his intention to run for president. The military accused him of incitement against the armed forces and forgery. Earlier this week, the country's former anti-graft chief was arrested after he told a television interviewer that Annan possessed documents secured abroad that incriminated the country's leadership. An army colonel who released a video in which he declared his intention to run for president is serving a six-year prison sentence following his conviction for violating the military's ban on political activism.

Besides Annan, a string of would-be candidates, including a former prime minister and a rights lawyer, have quit the race amid charges of coercion by authorities or fears about the safety of their supporters.Ethiopia's prime minister has announced he will resign, in what he says is an effort to advance reforms aimed at easing the country's political unrest.

Speaking on state television Thursday, Hailemariam Desalegn said he has submitted his letter of resignation as both prime minister and chairman of the ruling EPRDF coalition.

The prime minister said he is stepping down "to be part of the solution and for the success of the reforms and the solutions we have put in place."

Hailemariam said the proposed reforms, which he did not specify, come at a time of unrest "where many lives have been lost, people have been displaced and property damaged, and there are efforts to harm investments."

He said both the EPRDF and his party, the Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement, have accepted his resignation, and he hoped parliament would accept it.

FILE - Supporters of Bekele Gerba, secretary gener Supporters of Bekele Gerba, secretary general of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), chant slogans to celebrate Gerba's release from prison, in Adama, Oromia Region, Ethiopia, Feb. 14, 2018. Supporters of Bekele Gerba, secretary general of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), chant slogans to celebrate Gerba's release from prison, in Adama, Oromia Region, Ethiopia, Feb. 14, 2018.

Hailemariam, 52, has served as prime minister since September 2012, when he was appointed one month after the death of his predecessor, Meles Zenawi.

Ethiopia has been going through political unrest since a wave of anti-government protests in 2016, mainly in the southern Oromia region, prompted officials to declare a state of emergency.

In recent weeks, the government has released hundreds of prisoners -- many of whom were arrested on charges of terrorism or inciting violence -- in an effort to ease political tensions. Prominent journalist and blogger Eskinder Nega was among a group of more than 700 released Wednesday.WASHINGTON - The troubled 19-year-old man accused of the latest mass shooting in the United States was ordered held without bond Thursday during a brief court appearance.

Nikolas Cruz, charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, appeared in a Florida court, his hands shackled at the waist and wearing an orange jailhouse jumpsuit. His attorney did not contest the prosecutions request to keep Cruz jailed as he awaits further court proceedings.

Magistrate Judge Kim Theresa Mollica told Cruz, Youre charged with some very serious crimes.

WATCH: Accused Florida School Shooter Ordered Held Without Bond

His court appearance came hours after President Donald Trump gave a brief White House address about the tragedy, saying he was speaking to a nation in grief.

Trump said he would meet soon with officials from across the country to tackle the difficult issue of mental health in preventing mass killings and make school safety our top priority. He did not mention any new gun control proposals.

Later in the day, hundreds gathered outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., to mourn the lives lost. Vigils were held across the United States, including in California, Las Vegas, Texas and Kentucky.

Twitter comment

Earlier, in a Twitter comment, Trump said, there were so many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!

So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2018



WATCH: Trump discusses finding solutions for mental health issue during White House statement on shooting

The leader of a white supremacist group, the Republic of Florida, said Cruz was one of its members and engaged in paramilitary drills. But neither the Leon County Sheriffs Office nor the Southern Poverty Law Center could confirm any link between Cruz and the militia.

Authorities have accused Cruz of opening fire with an assault rifle Wednesday on students and teachers at the south Florida high school where he had been enrolled before being expelled last year for disciplinary reasons.

Cruz fired in five classrooms on two floors of the high school, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said. When he was done, Cruz dropped the gun and his backpack full of ammunition and left the building along with other students fleeing the scene.

WATCH: Details on shooter from scene of incident

Police arrested Cruz Wednesday afternoon outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, about 70 kilometers north of Miami.

They said Cruz, wearing a gas mask, began firing outside of the school and continued to shoot inside the building.

In addition to the 17 deaths authorities reported, the shooting left 15 others hospitalized, some of them in critical condition.

Israel called the attack a horrific, homicidal, detestable act.

AR-15 rifle, ammunition

Israel told reporters the shooter was armed with multiple ammunition magazines and an AR-15 rifle, which authorities say he legally purchased a year ago after a background security check. Authorities offered no immediate explanation for the mayhem that unfolded at the end of the school day on a sunny afternoon.

Im absolutely sick to my stomach to see children who go to school armed with backpacks and pencils lose their lives, Israel said. This nation, we need to see something and say something. If we see different behavior, aberrant behavior, we need to report it to local authorities.

On Thursday, he said, Sadly, copycat threats have been made at other schools in the aftermath of Wednesdays mayhem. Israel called those making the threats pathetic and vowed to learn their identity and prosecute them.

FILE - Police patrol the area outside Marjory Ston Police patrol the area outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following a school shooting incident in Parkland, Florida, Feb. 15, 2018. Police patrol the area outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following a school shooting incident in Parkland, Florida, Feb. 15, 2018.

As the investigation into the violence continued, new details emerged about the shooter from students and teachers who knew him.

Investigators looking into Cruzs online activity, including his social media accounts, turned up what Israel described as very disturbing things. The county sheriff gave no details.

No official reason for his expulsion has been disclosed, although the Associated Press cited a student who said Cruz was kicked out of the school after a fight with his ex-girlfriends new boyfriend. He then enrolled at a different school.

Social media accounts that acquaintances of Cruz said were his showed him brandishing weapons.

Students wait to be picked up after a shooting at Students wait to be picked up after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Feb. 14, 2018. Students wait to be picked up after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Feb. 14, 2018.

Must do better

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in a Washington speech, said that gunmen carrying out mass shootings in America often have given signals in advance of their mental instability. Perhaps we havent been effective in intervening, he said. We can and must do better.

Florida Governor Rick Scott said, We want to make sure this never happens again.

Scott said he will meet with state lawmakers to work on programs to try to ensure that people with a known illness do not touch a gun.

Trump issued a proclamation honoring the victims of the shooting and ordered American flags at U.S. installations around the world to be flown at half-staff through Monday.

Max Charles, second from right, 14, a student at M Max Charles, second from right, 14, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., speaks to members of the media after being picked up by family members at a nearby hotel, Feb. 14, 2018, in Coral Springs, Fla. Max Charles, second from right, 14, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., speaks to members of the media after being picked up by family members at a nearby hotel, Feb. 14, 2018, in Coral Springs, Fla.

After previous mass shootings in the U.S., some lawmakers have called for tightening the countrys gun control laws. But the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution enshrines gun ownership.

Gun-rights advocates in Congress, supported by the National Rifle Association, have defeated efforts to ban sales of certain types of guns or attachments to weapons that increase their firepower.

It is the second mass killing in Florida in nearly two years. In mid-2016, Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard, killed 49 people and wounded 58 others in a terrorist and hate crime attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando.?

In Photos: Florida High School ShootingPORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI - The Haitian government could revoke British charity Oxfam's right to operate in the disaster-stricken Caribbean island, a senior government official said, potentially deepening the crisis that has engulfed the troubled NGO.

Oxfam is under threat of losing its British government funding over sexual misconduct accusations in Haiti and Chad.

Senior staff have already left the charity, and the threat of losing its right to operate in Haiti heaps pressure on Oxfam.

Aviol Fleurant, Haiti's minister of planning and external cooperation, said Oxfam officials had been summoned to meet with his ministry staff on Thursday to explain the sexual misconduct accusations allegedly perpetrated by the charity's employees in the wake of the devastating 2010 earthquake.

"The allegations appear very serious and we don't rule out the possibility to revoke Oxfam's authorization to operate in Haiti as an NGO, should alleged misconduct prove to be true," he said by phone late Tuesday. "We want this issue to be addressed to its full extent and alleged abusers prosecuted by

criminal courts."

Prostitution is a crime in Haiti, but it was not clear what other crimes the Oxfam officials may have committed.

Oxfam officials in Haiti were not immediately available for comment during the country's Carnival holiday.

Britain will stop funding overseas aid agencies if they fail to learn the lessons from Oxfam's sex abuse scandal, and the government will discuss possible prosecutions with law enforcement, the British development minister said Wednesday.JERUSALEM - Israel's attorney general on Thursday praised a police investigation into the prime minister over corruption allegations, saying it was conducted "thoroughly" and "by the book" even as the Israeli leader has shrugged off its conclusions.

In a speech at Tel Aviv University, Avihai Mandelblit lauded the more-than-yearlong probe into a pair of corruption scandals that have engulfed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, culminating this week when police recommended that he be indicted on bribery and breach of trust charges in both cases.

The recommendations now go to Mandelblit, who will review the material before deciding whether to file charges.

"The investigations were carried out by the book, exactly as is expected by law enforcement authorities to deal with cases like these: professionally, thoroughly, creatively and with sophistication, with the aim to get to the truth," he said.

Netanyahu has denied wrongdoing and has called the police recommendations  which said he accepted nearly $300,000 in gifts from two billionaires, among other allegations  "biased, extreme, full of holes, like Swiss cheese." Netanyahu has accused the police of being overly aggressive in their probe and his supporters in parliament have bashed the police, claiming they were orchestrating a coup d'etat.

Mandelblit said he intends to ignore the noise and plans to make a decision based on the evidence.

The police recommendations dealt an embarrassing blow to the Israeli leader but they do not yet threaten his lengthy rule. Immediate reaction fell along partisan lines, an indication that his coalition will stand behind him for now. He can remain in office while Mandelblit makes his decision, a process which could take months. Netanyahu has vowed to remain office and even seek re-election.

Mandelblit, a Netanyahu appointee, did not say when he expects to make his decision. However, noting the significance of the case, he said he plans to conduct the process without "unnecessary delays."

Netanyahu is accused of receiving lavish gifts from Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer. In return, police say Netanyahu had operated on Milchan's behalf on U.S. visa matters, legislated a tax break and connected him with an Indian businessman.

In the second case, Netanyahu is accused of offering to give preferential treatment to a newspaper publisher in exchange for favorable coverage.NAIROBI - Kenya's High Court has declared the recent deportation of a prominent opposition politician illegal. The ruling is expected to further ratchet up tensions between the government's executive branch and the judiciary.



Delivering his ruling Thursday, Kenyan high court justice Luka Kimaru termed the deportation of a prominent lawyer and opposition politician, Miguna Miguna, illegal. He ordered authorities to present Miguna's Kenyan passport in court within seven days.



The Interior Ministry quickly hit back with a statement, saying it would appeal Thursday's ruling. The Interior Ministry rescinded Miguna's Kenyan citizenship last week and alleges that he acquired his passport illegally.

FILE - Lawyers Miguna Miguna, right, and Tom "T.J. FILE - Lawyers Miguna Miguna (R), and Tom "T.J." Kajwang (C) attend a mock "swearing-in" ceremony for opposition leader Raila Odinga at Uhuru Park in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, Jan. 30, 2018. FILE - Lawyers Miguna Miguna (R), and Tom "T.J." Kajwang (C) attend a mock "swearing-in" ceremony for opposition leader Raila Odinga at Uhuru Park in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, Jan. 30, 2018.

Miguna was deported after he was charged with treason over his role in opposition leader Raila Odinga's self-inauguration as the so-called "people's president" on January 30.



A court had ordered Miguna's release on bail, but the government failed to comply and instead sent Miguna to Canada, where he is also a citizen.



Earlier this month, authorities defied another court order to immediately lift the suspension of four private media outlets. The interior minister had said the outlets were under investigation for allegedly conspiring to subvert the government and spark violence. The broadcasters had planned live coverage of Odinga's self-inauguration.



Lawyers marching Thursday in the capital said the government must respect the rule of law. One of them, Ochieng Gor, said the government must be true to the constitution.

"It's not optional for people to obey what laws they want to obey and [choose] which ones not to obey," he said. "If we go that way, then we are going to have anarchy in this country. It's the rule of law that keeps us together as a country."

Brewing tensions

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta addresses a Jubil FILE - Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta addresses a Jubilee Party campaign rally in Nairobi, Oct. 23, 2017. FILE - Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta addresses a Jubilee Party campaign rally in Nairobi, Oct. 23, 2017.

Tension has been brewing between the government and the judiciary for months. President Uhuru Kenyatta called the judges "thugs" at a campaign rally last year after the Supreme Court threw out Kenyatta's August election victory and forced the electoral commission to conduct a new poll.



Kenya's chief justice issued a rare statement last week warning that the government's recent defiance of court orders could threaten the rule of law.



This week, the ruling Jubilee coalition replied with a three-page open letter to the chief justice accusing the judiciary of bias in favor of the opposition.



Constitutional law expert Dunstan Omari says Kenya is still adjusting to the changes in the new constitution enacted in 2010.



"This is a hangover from 1964 until 2010," he said. "So, the Jubilee regime wants to go back to that era where the judiciary could take directions from the executive. But the types of freedom Kenyans have seen, the type of bill of rights that the constitution provides, that cannot happen."



Lawyers in Kenya have been wearing yellow ribbons as a form of protest. The country's largest lawyers association has threatened that its members will boycott court sessions if the government continues to disobey court orders.CW Prescod Primary hosts Daddy, Mommy Day

Social Share

The CW Prescod Primary School kicked started their Literacy Week with a Daddyas and Mommyas Day last Monday, February 12.

Counsellor at the school Patsy-Ann Garraway explained that the mothers were invited to spend the morning with their children in Kindergarten and Grade 1, since the fathers had visited those grades last term, while the fathers of children from Grades 2 through Grade 5 were invited this term.

aThis time itas for Grades 2 to 5, where we have the dads coming in. They would tell the students about what work they do and interact with the students and teachers. And from there they will have ice-cream with the students at breaktime. And then we are having a mini conference about responsible fatherhoodand how to mentor other men to step up to their responsibility,a Garraway explained.

Superintendent of the Kingstown Chateaubelair circuit of the Methodist Church Reverend Adolph Davis told the fathers at the short conference that being a father means you are responsible for the childas life.

aWhether or not you like it, the fact that you name aDaddya, that childas future is significantly going to be determined by you. Whether you are there or not there. Their future is going to be affected by youbeing a responsible father starts with understanding how important you are to the equation,a Reverend Davis said.

He elaborated that if fathers display a very competent way of handling lifeas challenges and circumstances, their children will adopt that ability.

Furthermore, fathers donat realize how their example affects children, Davis said.

aHe saw his daddy doing that (beating the mother), so he is convinced that it is not his faulthe learn that from his daddy. Some of you have girl children, and even girl children allow men to mistreat and abuse them, because that is what they see daddy doing mommy.We donat realize how our example affects our children,a Davis stated.

Principal of the CW Prescod School Suzette Abbott King explained that research shows parentsa involvement can have a powerful influence on childrenas literacy. She asked parents to encourage their children to read and write, expose them to nursery rhymes and read with and for them.

SEARCHLIGHT observed some parents interacting with children whose fathers were not present. The event was, however, well supported, with many parents participating.(CB)Here's an edited list of mass shootings in the United States:

May 18, 2018: At least 10 people were killed in an active shooter situation at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas.

Feb. 14, 2018: A former student who had been expelled for disciplinary problems is arrested after a shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead and 16 wounded.

Oct. 1, 2017: Gunman opens fire on a country music concert in Las Vegas, Nevada, killing at least 58 people and wounding more than 500 others, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

June 2016: Gunman kills 49 people at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

FILE - People hold candles during a vigil downtown FILE - People hold candles during a vigil downtown for the victims of a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, June 13, 2016. FILE - People hold candles during a vigil downtown for the victims of a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, June 13, 2016.

?December 2015: Couple kills 14 people after storming California social services agency. They are killed in gun battle with police.

November 2015: Gunman kills three after storming a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic; he is arrested after a hourslong standoff with police.

October 2015: Gunman kills nine at an Oregon community college before killing himself after a gun battle with police.

July 2015: Gunman kills five at U.S. Navy Reserve center in Tennessee before being shot and killed by police.

June 2015: Gunman kills nine people in South Carolina church before fleeing, is captured the following day. The gunman, Dylann Roof, was sentenced to death.

Mourners pass by a make-shift memorial on the side FILE - Mourners pass by a make-shift memorial on the sidewalk of in front of the Emanuel AME Church following a shooting in Charleston, S.C., June 18, 2015. FILE - Mourners pass by a make-shift memorial on the sidewalk of in front of the Emanuel AME Church following a shooting in Charleston, S.C., June 18, 2015.

?May 2015: Nine killed in shootout between rival motorcycle clubs and police at Texas restaurant.

October 2014: Teenage gunman kills four teens, two of whom are his cousins, in Washington state high school before committing suicide.

September 2013: Gunman kills 12 people at a naval facility in Washington before dying in a gun battle with police.

FILE - A makeshift memorial with crosses for the v FILE - A makeshift memorial with crosses for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting massacre stands outside a home in Newtown, Conn., on the one-year anniversary of the shootings, Dec. 14, 2013. FILE - A makeshift memorial with crosses for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting massacre stands outside a home in Newtown, Conn., on the one-year anniversary of the shootings, Dec. 14, 2013.

?December 2012: Gunman kills 26 adults and children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut before killing himself.

August 2012: Gunman kills six people at Sikh Temple in Wisconsin before committing suicide after being shot by police.

July 2012: Gunman kills 12 people during showing of a Batman movie in Colorado.

January 2011: Gunman kills six people and wounds U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona.

Cali Wilson, 7, draws a rainbow on a poster at the Cali Wilson, 7, draws a rainbow on a poster at the office of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, Jan. 16, 2011. Cali Wilson, 7, draws a rainbow on a poster at the office of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, Jan. 16, 2011.

?November 2009: U.S. Army psychiatrist kills 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas.

April 2007: Virginia Tech student kills 32 people before committing suicide.

October 2006: Gunman kills five girls in Pennsylvania Amish school before committing suicide.

January 2006: Ex-postal worker kills eight before committing suicide in California in rare case of female shooter.

April 1999: Two Columbine High School students kill 12 students, one teacher and themselves in Colorado.

November 1991: Gunman kills four University of Iowa faculty members and a student before committing suicide.

October 1991: Gunman crashes pickup into a Texas cafe, then begins shooting; kills 23 people before committing suicide.

August 1986: Gunman kills 14 postal workers in Oklahoma before committing suicide.

July 1984: Gunman kills 21 people at a McDonalds in California before being killed by police.K.P. Sharma Oli has been picked to become the new prime minister of Nepal after leading an alliance of two communist parties to a sweeping victory in recent parliamentary elections.

A spokesman for the president's office says Oli was named to form a new government after the results of last November and December's elections were made official late Wednesday night. The results led Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to resign earlier Thursday after just eight months in office.

The 65-year-old Oli served as prime minister from 2015 to 2016, a few years after Nepal's transition in 2007-2008 from a monarchy to a federal republic. During his tenure, protests over the constitution led to a crippling blockade of the India-Nepal border by New Delhi, which pushed Nepal towards closer diplomatic relations with neighboring China.

The landlocked, impoverished Himalayan nation has been gripped by political instability since the establishment of an elected parliament in 1990, including a decade-long Maoist insurgency and the abolishment of the monarchy in 2008.ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has criticized as "extremely unfortunate" a new U.S. report labeling the south Asian country's weapons a continued threat to regional American interests.



The annual global threat assessment notes that Pakistan continues to produce and develop new types of nuclear weapons, including short-range tactical weapons, sea-based cruise missiles, and longer-range ballistic missiles.

"These new types of nuclear weapons will introduce new risks for escalation dynamics and security in the region," said the report, which has been sent to a congressional committee for review.



Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal criticized the report Thursday for its "singular negative focus" on Pakistan.

FILE - Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Moham FILE - Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal briefs journalists in Islamabad, Pakistan, Feb. 4, 2018. FILE - Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal briefs journalists in Islamabad, Pakistan, Feb. 4, 2018.

He told a weekly news conference in Islamabad that "any credible threat assessment" would have cautioned about what Pakistan alleges are India's "fastest growing" stockpiles of nuclear weapons.



"We have consistently maintained that Pakistan's nuclear posture is purely defensive, in order to deter the aggressive designs of its hostile neighbor in the east," Faisal said in a direct reference to rival India. The U.S. report "smacks of partisanship," he concluded.



Washington is particularly worried about Islamabad's short-range small nuclear weapons because U.S. officials believe their introduction into the Pakistani army's arsenal has increased chances of nuclear conflict in the region.



Pakistani officials maintain the nation's short-range battlefield NASR (Hatf-IX) nuclear-capable missile would deter bigger neighbor India from imposing a sudden, limited assault with conventional forces under New Delhi's "Cold Start" doctrine.



The military announced last year it had enhanced NASR's flight maneuverability and extended its range to 70 kilometers from 60.

Kashmir

Rawalpindi, Islamabad Pakistan, Line of Control, K Rawalpindi, Islamabad Pakistan, Line of Control, Kashmir Rawalpindi, Islamabad Pakistan, Line of Control, Kashmir

India and Pakistan have fought three wars and the two nuclear-armed nations remain locked in routine military skirmishes along their de facto border in the disputed Kashmir region known as the Line of Control.



On Thursday, Pakistan's army alleged Indian fire from across the Kashmir frontier hit a school van, killing the driver and forcing residents to flee. There has been no comment from India.



The U.S. intelligence assessment report has also warned of escalating tension in the event of a major terrorist attack in India or an increase in violence on the Kashmir Line of Control.



Pakistan's fragile relations with the U.S. have deteriorated lately over allegations Islamabad covertly maintains ties with the Taliban and other militant groups fighting American forces in Afghanistan.



Pakistani authorities deny any links with the militants.When stockpiles of yellow fever vaccine run low, partial doses are effective, according to a new study.

The report on the vaccine, which currently is in short supply, comes as officials in Brazil attempt to contain an outbreak with what they describe as the largest-ever mass vaccination campaign using partial doses.

Yellow fever is a mosquito-borne viral disease found in tropical Africa and South and Central America. Severe cases can cause jaundice and death, but most cases involve fever, muscle pain and vomiting.

Congo outbreak, experiment

During a major outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2016, the government aimed to prevent the disease from spreading in the capital, Kinshasa. Health officials launched a mass vaccination campaign targeting 7.6 million people.

But the outbreak had depleted vaccine stockpiles. Hoping to stretch the available supply, the World Health Organization reviewed the small number of available studies on using reduced doses and recommended using one-fifth of a dose per person.

It seemed to work.

Researchers took blood samples from more than 700 people before and after they received the partial dose. In the new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, nearly all of those vaccinated with the lower dose developed enough antibodies to the virus to prevent infection.

That was the encouraging thing, that this can be done as a potential way  when theres supply limitations on the vaccine  to help potentially control an outbreak, said study co-author Erin Staples at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hundreds infected

More than 350 people have become infected with yellow fever in Brazil since late last year, and health officials have launched a campaign targeting nearly 24 million people with a one-fifth dose of the vaccine.

Staples says the new study is good news for controlling outbreaks like Brazils in the short term. But, she notes, We still need some information about how long immunity will last.

A full dose of yellow fever vaccine provides lifelong immunity. Researchers will continue to study how long people who received partial doses are protected.SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO - Puerto Rico's Housing Department said Wednesday that it would suspend a $133 million deal with a U.S. company hired to repair homes damaged by Hurricane Maria because a review board found the contract had been improperly awarded.

The department's contractor review board published a ruling Tuesday saying New York-based Adjusters International had received the contract, which was subsidized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, though it did not meet several requirements.

Eric Perez-Ochoa, an attorney for Adjusters International, said in a statement that the company had complied with all requirements and was studying the board's decision, adding that it was "deeply disappointed.'' He said thousands of Puerto Ricans were enrolled in the home repairs program and that crews were conducting nearly 1,500 home inspections a day, with 700 Puerto Ricans helping out. He said the company offered a savings of more than $20 million compared with another proposal.

"This decision puts that progress at risk and may cost Puerto Rico more money,'' he said.

Company officer was Trump pick

A company vice president, Daniel Craig, had been nominated by U.S. President Donald Trump to the No. 2 position at FEMA but later withdrew from consideration. Craig, an ex-FEMA official under former President George W. Bush, had faced a 2011 federal investigation that concluded he falsified government travel and timekeeping records  findings he has rejected as being the result of a poor investigation. The 2011 report has not been publicly disclosed.

FEMA spokesman Daniel Llargues said the agency was not involved in any process tied to the contract, and he referred all questions to Puerto Rico's Housing Department.

Meanwhile, Puerto Rico Housing Secretary Fernando Gil said in a statement that his agency was evaluating other options to avoid interrupting home repairs. He noted his agency had requested that Puerto Rico justice officials submit the contract to the review board even though they are not legally required to do so.

"Ensuring transparency in contract awards is of paramount importance,'' Gil said. "Our focus continues to be to help all families that require our assistance and ensure the reconstruction of Puerto Rico.''

Chickens stand at the entrance to a house that was Chickens stand at the entrance to a house that was damaged by Hurricane Maria, at the squatter community of Villa Hugo in Canovanas, Puerto Rico, Dec. 11, 2017. Chickens stand at the entrance to a house that was damaged by Hurricane Maria, at the squatter community of Villa Hugo in Canovanas, Puerto Rico, Dec. 11, 2017.

Officials have said that Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm that struck more than five months ago, destroyed between 70,000 to 75,000 homes and damaged another 300,000 homes across the island of 3.3 million people.

Adjusters International was contracted to make minor repairs to homes, such as fixing roofs, walls, windows and water heaters. It was unclear how many homes the company had repaired or how much, if any, it had been paid for its work. Housing Department spokeswoman Leticia Jover did not return messages seeking comment. A department report stated in part that the company had approved nearly 10,000 applications and that nearly 36,500 applications had been completed.

The contract had been challenged by one of the companies that lost the initial bid, Los Angeles-based AECOM.

Awaiting court ruling

Jover said the contract would remain suspended until a ruling from Puerto Rico's Court of Appeals.

The review board said that Adjusters International should have been disqualified because it did not meet requirements, including having a $35 million line of credit and a certification authorizing it to do business in Puerto Rico.

"The offer from Adjusters should have been disqualified and under no circumstance should it have proceeded to the second round of evaluations,'' the board said.

Puerto Rico has come under increased federal scrutiny after the U.S. territory awarded a $300 million contract to tiny Whitefish Energy Holdings LLC after the storm. The contract's cancellation led later to the resignation of the power company director. Whitefish is based in Whitefish, Montana, hometown of U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

Congress has set aside several billion dollars in disaster recovery funds for Puerto Rico, but concerns remain over potential mismanagement of money in a U.S. territory struggling to restructure a portion of its $73 billion public debt amid an 11-year recession.

Officials with FEMA and the Treasury Department said in a recent letter that they were temporarily withholding a billion-dollar emergency loan because the island was not facing a cash shortage as it has repeatedly warned about in recent months.CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - Cyril Ramaphosas long and eventful career has taken him from trade union activist to multimillionaire  and now likely to president of South Africa.

After South Africa dismantled apartheid, Ramaphosa saw his hopes for the countrys top job seemingly dashed.

True to his pragmatic character, he opted instead for life in business  a move that brought him spectacular wealth.

But Wednesdays announcement by President Jacob Zuma that he was resigning immediately, following a decision by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to recall him, cleared Ramaphosas way to the top job.

In this photo supplied by the South African Govern In this photo supplied by the South African Government Communications and Information Services (GCIS) South African President Jacob Zuma, left, and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, right, with minsters and deputy ministers at a scheduled routine meeting In this photo supplied by the South African Government Communications and Information Services (GCIS) South African President Jacob Zuma, left, and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, right, with minsters and deputy ministers at a scheduled routine meeting

?Impressive rise, wealth

It was after Ramaphosa failed to clinch the ANC nomination to succeed president Nelson Mandela in 1999 that he swapped politics for a foray into business that made him one of the wealthiest people in Africa.

The 65-year-olds impressive rise to eventually lead the ANC following its December conference would have come as no surprise to Mandela.

Mandela once described Ramaphosa as one of the most gifted leaders of the new generation, the young campaigners who rose in the 1970s, filling the void left by their jailed elders.

During his business career, Ramaphosa held stakes in McDonalds and Coca-Colas local ventures and made millions in deals that required investors to partner with non-white shareholders.

He became one of the richest men on the continent, reaching No. 42 on the Forbes list of Africas wealthiest people in 2015 with a net worth of $450 million (383 million euros).

A supporter gestures during an address by African A supporter gestures during an address by African National Congress (ANC) President Cyril Ramaphosa during the Congress' 106th anniversary celebrations, in East London, South Africa, Jan. 13, 2018. A supporter gestures during an address by African National Congress (ANC) President Cyril Ramaphosa during the Congress' 106th anniversary celebrations, in East London, South Africa, Jan. 13, 2018.

Return to politics

Out of politics for a decade, Ramaphosa returned to the fray in 2012 when he was elected to the ANCs No. 2 post.

He became deputy president of the nation in 2014, but was forced into a careful balancing act. He served Zuma, tarred by accusations of corruption and incompetence, and also delivered occasional, cautious criticism.

His ambivalence led to criticism.

Mmusi Maimane, leader of the main opposition Democratic Alliance party, accused Ramaphosa of being at best a silent deputy president, and at worst a complicit one.

Early life, contributions

Born Nov. 17, 1952, in Soweto township west of Johannesburg, a centrt of the anti-apartheid struggle, Ramaphosa became involved with student activism while studying law in the 1970s.

He was arrested in 1974 and spent 11 months in solitary confinement.

After studying, he turned to trade unionism, one of the few legal ways of protesting against the white-minority regime.

He founded the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in 1982, which grew to have 300,000 members and led massive mine strikes in 1987 that shook the foundations of white rule.

When Mandela was released in 1990 after 27 years in prison for opposing apartheid, Ramaphosa was a key part of the task force that led the transition to democracy.

Ramaphosa rose to global prominence as the ANCs lead negotiator, with his contribution seen as one factor in the success of the talks and the resulting peaceful democratic handover.

He then led the group that drew up the countrys world-renowned new constitution.

South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is FILE - South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is silhouetted in the Farlam Commission, Aug. 11, 2014. Ramaphosa is facing a probe into the 2012 Marikana killings of striking miners. FILE - South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is silhouetted in the Farlam Commission, Aug. 11, 2014. Ramaphosa is facing a probe into the 2012 Marikana killings of striking miners.

?Popularity shaken

Ramaphosa, who is relaxed and low-key at public appearances, has managed to steer clear of major corruption scandals but his return to politics was not free from controversy.

His popularity was badly shaken in 2012 when 34 striking mine workers were killed by police at the Marikana platinum mine, operated by London-listed Lonmin, where he was then a non-executive director.

Shortly before the massacre, the worst police killing since the end of apartheid, Ramaphosa had called for a crackdown on the strikers, whom he accused of dastardly criminal behavior.

Powerful insider

Ramaphosa has four children with his second wife Tshepo Motsepe, a doctor.

He was accused in 2017 of having affairs with several young women, which he denied.

Ramaphosa did admit to an extramarital affair but told local media that he had since disclosed the relationship to his wife.

Some saw the sudden revelations as a smear campaign by associates of Zuma, who backed another candidate at the crunch party conference  his ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

The impact of the scandal was short-lived, and Ramaphosa based his campaign on his pledge to rebuild the countrys economy, boost growth and create much-needed jobs.

Our ability to overcome these challenges has been undermined over the last decade by a failure of leadership and misguided priorities, he said in a rally speech.

For the first time since the advent of democracy, there is a real chance that the transformation of our country may suffer significant reverses.

If he becomes president, his opportunity to try to transform the country will finally have arrived.

Ramaphosa has no association with any of the corruption scandals that have plagued South Africa, wrote his biographer Ray Hartley in The Man Who Would Be King.

But the years he spent at Zumas side, playing the inside game suggest he is more comfortable as a powerful insider than as a radical reformer.

WASHINGTON - Doctors are releasing the first detailed medical reports about the hearing, vision, balance and brain symptoms suffered in what the State Department has called health attacks on U.S. diplomats in Cuba. Still missing: A clear diagnosis of just what happened to trigger their mysterious health problems.

All together, the symptoms are similar to the brain dysfunction seen with concussions, concluded a team of specialists from the University of Pennsylvania who tested 21 of the 24 embassy personnel thought to be affected.

Whatever the cause, the Havana patients experienced persisting disability of a significant nature, the Penn team concluded.

Cuba has insisted there were no attacks.

The Journal of the American Medical Association released the report late Wednesday, although key findings were first disclosed by The Associated Press in December.

The mystery began in late 2016 when U.S. embassy personnel began seeking medical care for hearing loss and ear-ringing that they linked to weird noises or vibrations  initially leading investigators to suspect sonic attacks. Now, officials are carefully avoiding that term, as doctors involved in the probe wonder whether the sounds were a byproduct of something else that might help explain the full symptom list: memory problems, impaired concentration, irritability, balance problems and dizziness.

Wednesdays report makes clear that the findings are preliminary, essentially a listing of symptoms and tests. And important complications remain, including that theres no information to compare the patients brain or hearing health before they went to Cuba.

Before reaching any definitive conclusions, additional evidence must be obtained and rigorously and objectively evaluated, JAMA associated editor Dr. Christopher Muth cautioned in an accompanying editorial. He noted that many of the symptoms overlap with a list of other neurologic illnesses.

It really looks like concussion without the history of head trauma, report co-author Dr. Douglas Smith of Penn's Center for Brain Injury and Repair, said in a podcast provided by JAMA.

He said that sound, heard by 18 of the 21 patients, couldnt be to blame: There is no known mechanism for audible sound to injure the brain. We have to suspect that it's a consequence of something else.

The new report outlined the battery of testing the patients underwent, including some findings that cant be even unconsciously altered, bolstering the doctors belief that the symptoms were not mass hysteria. At least six people had a change in work performance noted by supervisors and colleagues, the JAMA report found.

Viruses or chemical exposures are unlikely, Smiths team wrote, although they couldnt be systematically excluded.

Advanced MRI scans spotted a few changes in what are called white matter tracts of the brain in some patients, with three showing more than would be expected for their age, the report said. But the authors acknowledged those abnormalities could be due to something earlier in life.

For many the symptoms lasted months, and doctors designed customized rehabilitation therapy that did seem to help.

Dr. S. Andrew Josephson, neurology chairman at the University of California, San Francisco, who wasnt involved in the study, called the work a really important step because it carefully describes the medical findings and shows they are remarkably similar across the group of patients.

It moves you closer to understanding what the possible causes may be, he said.

The State Department, which wasnt involved in writing the article but reviewed it to ensure it did not contain any classified information, issued a health alert Wednesday citing the article in order to inform U.S. citizens and medical providers.

We encourage private U.S. citizens who have traveled to Cuba and are concerned about their symptoms to share this article with their doctor, the State Department said.RIO DE JANEIRO - A series of muggings, armed robberies and confrontations during Rio de Janeiro's Carnival celebrations are underscoring the deteriorating security situation in the city.

TV Globo on Wednesday showed videos of gunfire between rival drug gangs, teenagers punching tourists in areas usually considered relatively safe and a policeman narrowly escaping after several people attacked him in front of his home.

Rio state Gov. Luiz Fernando Pezao acknowledged there weren't enough police on hand during the first couple days of Carnival, though more than 17,000 policemen worked in Rio state each day during the festivities.

"We were not prepared. There was a failure on the first two days, and then we brought backup for police. I think there has been a mistake in our part,'' Pezao said.

Statistics from the Friday to Tuesday bash have not yet been released. However, Pezao said the number of firearms confiscated by authorities was "incredible.''

A year after hosting the 2016 Olympics, Rio is experiencing a spike in violence. Days before Carnival, rival drug gangs closed key arteries of the city.

Last year Rio used almost 12,000 policemen during Carnival, but it also counted on the help of 9,000 members of the country's armed forces. This time there was no federal aid during the bash.

Politicians avoided Rio during one of the most political Carnivals in Brazil's history, with revelers targeting Pezao, President Michel Temer and especially Mayor Marcelo Crivella, an evangelical bishop who is no fan of the party and left the city for Europe.

Beija-Flor de Nilopolis won the samba-school parade title on Wednesday in Rio's Sambadrome using corruption as a theme. One of its floats portrayed a rat below the building of state-oil Petrobras, which is at the center of a corruption scandal that has engulfed politicians across Latin America.

Crowd favorite Paraiso do Tuiuti finished in a surprising second place, likely because of its political tone. The samba-school's anti-slavery theme attacked Temer's labor reform and the president himself. One of Tuiuti's floats featured a vampire wearing a presidential sash.

Next week Temer, whose popularity is at single-digits, wants to push through a reform of Brazil's pension system. Analysts have said bill is unlikely to pass with October's presidential election approaching. The Carnival atmosphere did not help the president make his case for austerity.KEDROVOYE, RUSSIA - For Russian mother Farkhanur Gavrilova, the blow came a week ago when an acquaintance called her to say that her son was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Syria that pitted Russian and U.S. combatants against each other for the first time in the Syrian war.

Gavrilova's son, 37-year-old Ruslan Gavrilov, was one of seven men in this central Russian village of 2,300 who are believed to have joined a private military company called Wagner. The company reportedly was involved in a Feb. 7 attack on U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria and suffered devastating losses in a U.S. counterstrike.

On the morning of Feb. 8, she said, her son's colleague called to say he was told by an unidentified caller that Ruslan had died in the Feb. 7 airstrike.

"He was torn to pieces," said Gavrilova, 67, speaking Thursday in her sparsely furnished apartment. "If he was alive  he is a plucky guy  he would have tried to call."

People walk past a house with a Soviet-era slogan People walk past a house with a Soviet-era slogan that reads "Glory to the Party, Motherland and People!" in the village of Kedrovoye, Russia, Feb. 15, 2018. People walk past a house with a Soviet-era slogan that reads "Glory to the Party, Motherland and People!" in the village of Kedrovoye, Russia, Feb. 15, 2018.

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday for the first time acknowledged that five Russians had been killed by the U.S. strike in Syria, emphasizing they weren't on active military duty. Previously, both Russian and U.S. officials said they had no information on Russian casualties in the clash.

Russian forces are supporting the Syrian government in the fight against opposition groups, some of which are backed by the United States, and elements of both sides are fighting the last remnants of the Islamic State group in Syria. Moscow and Washington long have feared a collision between Russian and U.S. combatants in Syria and sought to prevent it by maintaining a regular communications link between the militaries.

Observers blame the Feb. 7 clash on a lack of coordination between the Russian military and private military contractors in Syria.

Along with the Russian military, thousands of Russians have also reportedly fought in Syria as private contractors. That allows the Kremlin to keep the official death toll from its Syrian military campaign low, helping to avoid negative publicity as President Vladimir Putin runs for re-election in Russia's March 18 presidential vote.

Lure of high pay

Gavrilova said she had tried to dissuade her son, who was remodeling apartments, from going to Syria but he was lured by a promise of a high pay.

"Why did they leave? Because of poverty, to make money," Gavrilova said.

Russian law forbids the hiring of mercenaries or working as one.

Putin declared victory in Syria on a visit to a Russian military base there in December, and ordered a partial pullout of troops. Many Russian politicians and commentators long have assailed the Kremlin for failing to acknowledge the Russian contractors' presence in Syria.

A push for oil assets appears to have been the top mission for Russian private contractors in Syria. The Associated Press last year obtained a copy of a contract between a Russian company and the Syrian government that would give the Russians a 25 percent cut of the proceeds from the oil fields they capture and guard.

Unlike many other military contractors with previous experience of fighting alongside Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, Gavrilova's son hadn't even done his military service.

"I thought they went there to do some odd jobs," Gavrilova said. "They did not even undergo medical tests. He called me from Krasnodar and asked: `Mother, what is my blood type?"'

The Krasnodar region in southern Russia hosts a training base for the Wagner company on the grounds of a Russian Defense Ministry installation, according to social media evidence and testimony of the relatives. A listing for the company could not be found to seek comment.

Gavrilova and a relative of another Wagner fighter said the men from Kedrovoye all traveled to Krasnodar before traveling to Syria.

Others fighting, dying

Asked if she knew anyone else in the village whose family members were fighting in Syria, Gavrilova pointed at a two-story house just across the yard. Yevgeny Berdyshev, interviewed there, quoted his half brother Alexander Potapov as saying he was driven to go to Syria by "patriotic sentiment."

Yevgeny Berdyshev, half-brother of Alexander Potap Yevgeny Berdyshev, half-brother of Alexander Potapov who is believed to be fighting in Syria, stands at the window at his home in the village of Kedrovoye, Russia, Feb. 15, 2018. Yevgeny Berdyshev, half-brother of Alexander Potapov who is believed to be fighting in Syria, stands at the window at his home in the village of Kedrovoye, Russia, Feb. 15, 2018.

"He would say: 'Putin is waging the right war. He's killing IS fighters.' But I understand, of course, that he didn't have a choice," Berdyshev said.

Potapov, a 54-year-old father of two, had fought in two separatist wars in Chechnya. Yet work was hard to come by, especially because he was no longer young, and had a hand injury and a criminal conviction, Berdyshev said. Potapov worked at a sawmill before he left in October last year with Gavrilov.

Starved of reliable information about Russians in Syria, the residents in Kedrovoye, 1,400 kilometers (880 miles) east of Moscow, are getting together, compiling lists of who went to Syria and exchanging any news they get from the men's associates.

Potapov's brother showed a piece of paper with six names of other locals now in Syria.

One more, Igor Kosoturov, originally from the nearby town of Asbest but linked to Kedrovoye people, is also believed to have been killed in Syria. Natalya Krylova, a local legislator in Asbest, confirmed Kosoturov's death.

Yevgeny Berdyshev shows a list that residents of t Yevgeny Berdyshev shows a list that residents of the village have compiled of the locals who are fighting in Syria, in Kedrovoye, Russia, Feb. 15, 2018. Yevgeny Berdyshev shows a list that residents of the village have compiled of the locals who are fighting in Syria, in Kedrovoye, Russia, Feb. 15, 2018.

Krylova, who has been friends with him for several decades, said the 45-year-old Kosoturov went to fight alongside Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine in 2015 and received the town's award for a "humanitarian mission" there.

Oleg Surnin, head of a paramilitary Cossack group in Asbest, said by phone it was "evident" that Kosoturov and another Asbest resident, Stanislav Matveyev, were killed in the U.S. airstrike on Feb. 7, but he wouldn't elaborate.

The grieving families are waiting for those who survived the U.S. strike to come home and describe what happened to the others.

"At first, everyone was weeping out loud, but how long can you cry?" Gavrilova said. "It's the uncertainty that's gnawing at me."

She said she couldn't understand why Russian men ended up on a battlefield in Syria if they were not part of the Russian army.

"Why were they taken away? Why does this organization exist?" she asked.

Berdyshev is indignant about the Russian government's refusal to even acknowledge the existence of the private contractors.

"They do exist," he said. "The government sends in troops, it is responsible for its actions. They sent in the troops, they sent back the troops, but actually there are still some [Russians], and it's all secretive."The U.S. Senate could vote on several immigration reform proposals Thursday, as lawmakers weigh competing plans that address issues such as protecting young undocumented immigrants, boosting border security and changing the rules for family-based immigration.

Late Wednesday, a bipartisan group of 16 senators announced an agreement on legislation that would offer a path to citizenship for the undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children and protected from deportation by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program terminated by President Donald Trump.

WATCH: US immigration decision

?The bill would also authorize $25 billion in border security funding over the course of 10 years, while also focusing immigration enforcement efforts on repeat or serious criminals, those who represent a threat to national security and those who arrive in the country illegally after the end of June.

Trump backs more sweeping reforms that would add further limits to family-based immigration and prioritize newcomers who have advanced work skills over the current lottery system.

In a White House statement Wednesday, Trump urged lawmakers to enact "responsible and common sense immigration reform that delivers for the American people."

In this Jan. 30, 2018 file photo, President Donald In this Jan. 30, 2018 file photo, President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington. In this Jan. 30, 2018 file photo, President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Trumps call reflects a broadened White House agenda on immigration compared to nearly six months ago, when the president rescinded DACA, the Obama administration policy benefiting the young immigrants, and gave Congress six months to craft a permanent legislative replacement.

Trumps plan is encapsulated in legislation Senate Republicans brought to the floor during a week of deliberations devoted entirely to immigration issues.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, echoed the presidents call and argued for major changes to federal immigration law.

"Common sense dictates that we cannot simply treat one symptom of our broken immigration policy. We must address the underlying problems, as well. That means fixing broken parts of our legal immigration system," McConnell said. "We must also ensure the safety of the American people."

DACA

Democrats argued that sweeping alterations of Americas immigration system be considered separately from legislation addressing the plight of beneficiaries of DACA, sometimes called Dreamers.

"We will not stand by and allow Dreamers be held hostage, political hostage, to the administrations entire immigration agenda," Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin said.

DACA granted undocumented young people temporary permission to work and study in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients will be at risk of deportation beginning March 5, the date Trump set for the program to expire.

Democrats have proposed pairing a DACA fix with limited border security enhancements palatable to many senators of both political parties, and argued vigorously against Trumps broader immigration agenda.

"Were here to address a crisis that President Trump started last September when he ended DACA," Robert Menendez of New Jersey said. He added that many elements of current immigration law, such as promoting family reunification, should be preserved.

"There is nothing more common sense that uniting brothers and sisters and sons and daughters [from other countries]," Menendez said. "They are bound by blood and held together by love."

FILE - People protest for immigration reform for D FILE - People protest for immigration reform for DACA recipients and a new DREAM Act, in Los Angeles, Jan. 22, 2018. FILE - People protest for immigration reform for DACA recipients and a new DREAM Act, in Los Angeles, Jan. 22, 2018.

Republicans accused Democrats of misrepresenting the substance and intent of presidents proposals, arguing that Trumps plan to fix DACA is more generous to young immigrants than anything former President Barack Obama ever achieved.

North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis mocked any characterization of the White House plan as "hard line."

"The hard-line plan is to have nearly three times as many people with a path to [U.S.] citizenship. Citizenship. Not a piece of paper," Tillis said. "The last time we did any major immigration bill, I was 5 years old. I think its about time to look at how the world has changed and maybe open your eyes to a better way  that benefits the person trying to come to this country but benefits our country as a result of their entry."

McConnell has stated his intention to conclude Senate debate on immigration by weeks end. Anything the Senate passes would have to be approved by the House of Representatives and be signed by President Trump to become law.Authorities in southern Florida have charged a 19-year-old man with 17 counts of premeditated murder in connection with the latest mass shooting at a U.S. school.

Police arrested Nikolas Cruz after the attack Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, about 70 kilometers north of Miami.

They said he was a former student there who began firing outside of the school and continued to shoot inside the building before eventually blending in with a group of students as they fled.

In addition to the 17 deaths authorities reported as of late Wednesday, the shooting left others hospitalized.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Fl

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel called the attack a "horrific, homicidal, detestable act."

Israel told reporters the shooter was armed with an AR-15 rifle and multiple ammunition magazines, and that the victims included both children and adults.

"I'm absolutely sick to my stomach to see children who go to school armed with backpacks and pencils lose their lives," Israel said. "This nation, we need to see something and say something. If we see different behavior, aberrant behavior, we need to report it to local authorities."

As an investigation into the violence continued Thursday new details emerged about the shooter from students and teachers who knew him.

Nikolas Cruz appears in a police booking photo aft Nikolas Cruz appears in a police booking photo after being charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder following a Parkland school shooting, at Broward County Jail in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Feb. 15, 2018. Nikolas Cruz appears in a police booking photo after being charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder following a Parkland school shooting, at Broward County Jail in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Feb. 15, 2018.

'Disturbing' online activity



Investigators looking into Cruz's online activity, including his social media accounts, turned up what Israel described as "very disturbing" things. The county sheriff gave no details, but said Cruz had been expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons.

In a tweet Thursday morning, President Donald Trump said there were "so many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!"

The Associated Press cited a student who said Cruz was kicked out of the school after a fight with his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. He then enrolled at a different school.

The Miami Herald quoted a teacher at the school as saying Cruz threatened other students last year.

Anxious family members wait for news of students a Anxious family members wait for news of students as two people embrace, Feb. 14, 2018, in Parkland, Fla. Anxious family members wait for news of students as two people embrace, Feb. 14, 2018, in Parkland, Fla.

One student told reporters Cruz had a reputation in school of being "mentally unstable" and that he had threatened others.

"He was definitely not the kind of person who should have been allowed to have a gun," the student said.

The Orlando Sun Sentinel also reported that Cruz's mother died in November, leaving him in the care of a family friend where he was unhappy and subsequently went to live with another family that is cooperating with investigators.

Before going to a hospital to meet with victims and their families, Florida Governor Rick Scott gave his reaction to the attack, saying it was "absolutely pure evil."

"The first you think about is, you know, God I hope this never happens to my family. Then, you think about, you're furious," Scott said. "How could this ever happen in this country? How could this happen in this state? This is a state that is focused on keeping all of our children safe."

Max Charles, second from right, 14, a student at M Max Charles, second from right, 14, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., speaks to members of the media after being picked up by family members at a nearby hotel, Feb. 14, 2018, in Coral Springs, Fla. Max Charles, second from right, 14, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., speaks to members of the media after being picked up by family members at a nearby hotel, Feb. 14, 2018, in Coral Springs, Fla.

State will pay for funerals



The state's Attorney General Pam Bondi said Florida will pay for the funerals and counseling for the families. The local school system is also making grief counselors available for students.

Students told television networks Wednesday unfolded like a normal day of school until a fire alarm sounded. They said they then heard gunshots, sending the students either running from the building or trying to hide.

Video taken inside a classroom showed students crouched under desks, screaming in shock and terror while gunshots sounded. Other students hid in closets, using their cellphones to text emergency messages to their parents.

President Trump offered Florida authorities all the federal help they need and tweeted his "prayers and condolences" to the victims and their families. "No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school," he said.

Prior mass shootings have brought calls for tighter gun controls in the United States. Trump said after a November attack at a Texas church that stricter laws would not have stopped that gunman.

Students wait to be picked up after a shooting at Students wait to be picked up after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Feb. 14, 2018. Students wait to be picked up after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Feb. 14, 2018.

Senator urges concrete action



Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut was among those Wednesday who urged more concrete action, blaming Congress for what he called a "scourge" of school shootings.

"It only happens here, not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction. We are responsible for a level of mass-atrocity that happens in this country with zero parallel anywhere else," Murphy said.

He added on Twitter, "If you're a political leader doing nothing about this slaughter, you're an accomplice."

Don't tell me tomorrow isn't the appropriate time to debate gun violence. If you're a political leader doing nothing about this slaughter, you're an accomplice.  Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) February 15, 2018

Connecticut is home to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, where 20 elementary school children and six adults were massacred in a 2012 shooting.



Mike Bowman contributed to this reportDALLAS - A Texas elementary school teacher who died almost a week after getting sick from the flu became a talking point online after her husband said she didn't immediately fill her prescription for an antiviral drug after deeming the $116 insurance co-pay too high.

While her husband told the Wall Street Journal that he picked up the prescription the day after she refused it and she then started taking the medication, Heather Holland, 38, died three days later on Feb. 4.

Doctors told The Associated Press that while it's ideal to start taking antiviral medication as quickly as possible, it's no guarantee that one's condition will not drastically worsen.

Antivirals make it "not zero, but less likely'' that complications will develop, said Dr. William Schaffner, infectious diseases specialist at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, who added, "antivirals are not a magic potion.''

Frank Holland of Willow Park, just west of Fort Worth, told the newspaper that his wife, a second-grade teacher, came home feeling a bit sick Jan. 29. The mother of two went to work in nearby Weatherford on Jan. 30 but by evening had a fever.

She went to the doctor on Jan. 31. Frank Holland said a rapid flu test was positive for influenza B. The doctor wrote her a prescription for oseltamivir phosphate, a generic form of the antiviral medication Tamiflu.

Frank Holland told the Wall Street Journal that they had the money, but she was frugal and didn't want to fill it.

She went to a Fort Worth hospital on Feb. 2. The following day, blood tests showed she had sepsis, a complication of infections, he said.

Antiviral drugs - when taken within 48 hours after becoming sick - can lessen symptoms, shorten the time one is sick by about one day and reduce complications.

"There are people who are going to do very well, regardless of getting Tamiflu or not. There are people that are going to do very poorly, regardless of getting Tamiflu or not. And then there's kind of the middle segment of the population where Tamiflu really may push them to the right outcome,'' said Dr. Luis Ostrosky, an infectious disease expert with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth and Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston.

Dr. Trish Perl, chief of infectious diseases at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said that "in some cases it may be useful'' to give patients an antiviral even after the 48-hour onset.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the flu shot is the best way to prevent seasonal flu. Frank Holland said he couldn't remember whether she got a flu shot this season. Generally, he said, they've both been "pretty healthy.''CAIRO - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says Hezbollah's growing arsenal and its role in regional conflicts threatens Lebanon's security. Tillerson, on tour of the Middle East, spoke in Beirut where he met with President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

Tillerson's visit to Lebanon came amid simmering regional tensions over the conflict in Syria, along with a territorial dispute with Israel over both its land and sea borders. Hezbollah's role in Lebanese politics, as well as its participation in the fighting in Syria, Iraq and Yemen were key topics of discussion.

Tillerson says that the U.S. has considered Hezbollah a "terrorist organization" for over 20 years and stressed that he had discussed with Lebanon's top leaders the need for the group to withdraw its forces from Syria, saying that its "entanglement in regional conflicts threatens Lebanon's security," in addition to having "destabilizing effects in the region.

"The United States has considered Hezbollah a terrorist organization for more than two decades now. We neither see, nor do we accept any distinction between its political and its military arms,"said Tillerson. "It is unacceptable for a militia like Hezbollah to operate outside the authority of the Lebanese government. The only legitimate defender of the Lebanese state is the Lebanese armed forces... Their presence in Syria has perpetuated the bloodshed, increased the displacement of innocent people and propped up the barbaric Assad regime."

Tillerson stressed that he had urged Lebanese leaders to "dissociate (the country) from foreign conflicts," adding that the international community "expects all parties... including Hezbollah (to) cease its activities abroad to reduce tensions in the conflict."

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, left, speak U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, left, speaks during a press conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, at the Government House, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, left, speaks during a press conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, at the Government House, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018.

Addressing the dispute between Lebanon and Israel over offshore natural gas reserves, Tillerson struck a conciliatory note, saying that the U.S. had not tried to pressure either side into accepting an agreement, but just wanted to "break the stalemate":

"This is an extremely important issue to Lebanon,"said Tillerson. "It's important to Israel, as well, to come to some agreement, so that private companies can go to work offshore and determine what in fact might be available in terms of natural resource development and how to get started."

Secretary Tillerson downplayed reports in the Lebanese media about the U.S. pressuring Beirut into giving up part of its territorial waters to Israel, insisting that the U.S. had "asked no one to give up anything, (but is) looking for a solution."

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri responded that he had explored "new ideas" with Secretary Tillerson to resolve the dispute with Israel and move forward with the exploration process.

"What is ours is ours and what is Israel's is Israel's,"said Hariri. "I think we're trying to find solutions that will be fair to us and fair to everyone.....There are some new ideas and I think we are going to exploit those ideas to finally explore for oil and gas."

Tillerson insisted that the U.S. was not in a position to guarantee Lebanon's border with Israel, but rather to help to find "a final border agreement along the Blue Line" separating the two countries.

"Let's get the border agreed first and then people can think about it if they need a security wall or not at that point,"said Tillerson. "But we're hopeful that the current talks around establishing an agreed upon border will yield a final resolution of that. We think it would be very, very important and useful to lowering the tensions along the border, if the two sides could agree to that."

Tillerson, who is ending his regional tour in Turkey, said that country "is still an important NATO ally" and that "so many aspects of (the U.S.') relationship (with Ankara) are positive." Both countries' "endpoint objectives," he insisted, "are to defeat ISIS and terrorism" and find an "end to the conflict in Syria." He added that the U.S. had "not given any heavy weapons," to its Kurdish YPG militia ally, and so "there is nothing to take back."WASHINGTON - Republicans are resisting requests by Democrats for U.S. intelligence chiefs to present their annual global threat report to a congressional panel so they can avert a likely showdown with the head of the FBI over aspects of the Trump-Russia investigation, two Democratic sources said on Wednesday.

Republican leaders on the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee have not scheduled the customary hearing, said the Democratic sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

On Tuesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray joined Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, CIA Director Mike Pompeo and other agency heads when they presented the 2018 Worldwide Threat Assessment report to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

FBI Director Christopher Wray, accompanied by CIA FBI Director Christopher Wray, accompanied by CIA Director Mike Pompeo, right, speaks at a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on worldwide threats, in Washington, Feb. 13, 2018. FBI Director Christopher Wray, accompanied by CIA Director Mike Pompeo, right, speaks at a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on worldwide threats, in Washington, Feb. 13, 2018.

If the House committee were to bring in intelligence chiefs, Democrats would almost certainly ask Wray about material omissions of fact" the FBI found in a classified memo Republicans on the panel released this month.

The memo asserted FBI and Justice Department bias against President Donald Trump in seeking a 2016 warrant to monitor the communications of Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser.

A U.S. official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that none of the directors of the leading U.S. intelligence agencies has been invited. Jack Langer, a spokesman for the committee chairman, Representative Devin Nunes, a Republican who is a staunch Trump supporter, declined to comment.

The dispute is the latest sign of partisan fighting over several investigations arising out of U.S. intelligence agency conclusions that Russia directed a hacking campaign and spread disinformation to meddle in the 2016 election.

Trump has dismissed three congressional investigations and one by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller as a "witch hunt. Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied Moscow sought to interfere in the election and Trump has said he believes him.

FILE : Special Counsel Robert Mueller (R) departs Special Counsel Robert Mueller (R) departs after briefing members of the U.S. Senate on his investigation into potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 21, 2017. Special Counsel Robert Mueller (R) departs after briefing members of the U.S. Senate on his investigation into potential collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 21, 2017.

Trump denies any collusion between his campaign team and Russian officials.

At Tuesday's Senate panel hearing, intelligence chiefs said Russia was likely to try to attack the 2018 U.S. midterm elections in November.

Mike Quigley, a committee Democrat, said that skipping the hearing would deprive lawmakers of the ability to question the intelligence chiefs in public about their assessments. "We are flying blind for political reasons," Quigley said.Uganda is on a mission to reassure international donors amid allegations of fraud and misuse of funds intended to serve the countrys nearly 1.4 million refugees. On Thursday, the government called for a speedy investigation, giving police three weeks to present the results of their inquiry.

The allegations first surfaced in early February, aired by United Nations Resident Coordinator Rosa Malango, and they target both Ugandan government officials and staff with U.N. humanitarian agencies.

Full details have not been released. However, the accusations include reports of inflated refugee numbers, fraudulent food distributions, and subjecting arriving refugees to extortion.

There are also reports of trafficking of girls and women within the refugee settlements.

Aid cuts feared

Hillary Onek, Ugandas minister of relief, disaster preparedness and refugees, expressed fear Thursday that the scandal would lead to a cut in aid.

We want to reassure the country and our partners that no stone will be left unturned. We have zero tolerance on corruption and abuse of public funds. Whoever will be found to have been involved will be firmly dealt with in accordance with the law of the country.

Onek said four officials from the Office of the Prime Minister, which oversees refugee affairs, have been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.

President Yoweri Museveni had tough words for anyone found guilty.

FILE - South Sudanese refugees queue to receive a FILE - South Sudanese refugees queue to receive a lunch of maize mash and beans, at the Imvepi intake center, where newly-arrived refugees are processed before being transferred to the nearby Bidi Bidi refugee settlement, in northern Uganda, June 6, 2017. FILE - South Sudanese refugees queue to receive a lunch of maize mash and beans, at the Imvepi intake center, where newly-arrived refugees are processed before being transferred to the nearby Bidi Bidi refugee settlement, in northern Uganda, June 6, 2017.

The ones who are stealing refugee money will go to jail. Because to steal what is meant for refugees, what is meant for desperate people, so, these thieves they will pay. They bring shame to Uganda. Because these refugees, they are from other countries, the donors who are giving support to the refugees are from other countries.

$2 billion sought

The conflict in South Sudan has sent more than one million refugees into northern Uganda since 2016. Last year, Uganda hosted an international donor summit calling for $2 billion to meet the humanitarian needs of the refugees and host communities for one year.

According to U.N. agencies and the Office of the Prime Minister, only 30 percent of the funds pledged have been received.

Meanwhile, Uganda is grappling with yet another influx of refugees fleeing communal clashes in the Democratic Republic of Congo. According to the U.N. refugee agency, about 3,000 Congolese are crossing into Uganda on a daily basis, making a precarious ten-hour journey over Lake Albert in rickety boats.

Nearly 40,000 Congolese refugees have arrived since the start of the year.

Minister Onek says Uganda is overwhelmed and needs more support.

Where shall we be? Its a big problem. We need the international support. Without that, our policy may change, to make sure that we dont get all this burden. Its too much, for a small country like ours.

As Ugandan authorities investigate who is stealing refugee money in their own backyard, they are also calling on neighboring countries and the international community to end the conflicts forcing people from their homes in the first place.ISLAMABAD - The United Nations has documented a nine percent reduction in civilian casualties in Afghanistan in 2017 but warned of increased harm to civilians this year as warring sides are expected to intensify hostilities.

The armed conflict last year caused a total of 10,453 civilian casualties, including 3,438 deaths, according to the annual report by the U.N Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, released Thursday.

Each of these figures represents a hope crushed for a better future, lamented UNAMA chief Tadamichi Yamamoto while addressing a news conference in Kabul.

"We are concerned that we will see greater harm this year unless necessary steps are taken by all parties to prevent civilian casualties," cautioned Tadamichi.

In 2016, the conflict-related civilian casualties stood at 11,434, including 3,510 fatalities.

Important step

Danielle Bell, director of human rights of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, speaking Thursday described the nine percent reduction in civilian casualties last year as an "important step" towards minimizing harm to non-combatant Afghans.

"But I must emphasize that 2017 was the fourth consecutive year where the mission recorded more than 10,000 civilian casualties," Bell told reporters in Kabul.

The report noted that suicide attacks together with improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, caused 40 percent of the civilian casualties.

Another 33 percent of the casualties have been blamed on ground engagements between Afghan forces and anti-government elements while the rest were caused by targeted killings, explosive remnants of war and airstrikes by government forces and their foreign partners.

FILE - Men mourn over relatives' bodies in a hospi FILE - Men mourn over relatives' bodies in a hospital near the site of an explosion in Herat, Afghanistan, June 6, 2017. FILE - Men mourn over relatives' bodies in a hospital near the site of an explosion in Herat, Afghanistan, June 6, 2017.

The report attributes two-thirds of responsibility for civilian casualties to anti-government elements, mainly Taliban and Daesh (Islamic State). Pro-government forces, which include Afghan National Security Forces, international military forces and pro-government armed groups were responsible for 20 percent of civilian casualties," Bell said.

The rest, she added, were caused mainly by unattributed cross-fire and unattributed explosive remnants of war.

Bell said a key finding of the report is that civilian casualties attributed to Afghan forces decreased by 23 percent compared with 2016 due to efforts made to reduce harm during ground engagements with insurgents.

But she raised concerns about increasing numbers of casualties in aerial operations conducted by Afghan and international forces.

In 2017, UNAMA documented 631 civilian casualties (295 deaths and 336 wounded) from airstrikes, a seven percent increase from last year, and the highest number recorded by UNAMA (since 2009), Bell warned.

The report acknowledged a 12 percent reduction in civilian casualties caused by the Taliban, though the insurgent group was still held responsible for 45 percent of the overall civilian casualties in 2017.

Bleak forecast for 2018

U.S. President Donald Trump under his new Afghan war strategy has instructed military commanders to step up ground and air operations against the Taliban to force them to come to the negotiating table. The insurgents in turn have vowed to retaliate with more force in the coming summer fighting season.

We are concerned that we will see greater harm this year unless necessary steps are taken by all parties to prevent civilian casualties, cautioned Tadamichi.

The UNAMA chief again emphasized the need for redoubling collective efforts to seek a peaceful resolution to the Afghan conflict to bring an end to long running civilian sufferings.

But in the absence of such a peace agreement we call on those parties making the decisions to use weapons that kill and maim civilians to commit and to making changes that will have a much stronger impact on civilian protection.

A U.S. intelligence assessment submitted to a congressional committee this week anticipates the overall situation in Afghanistan will "modestly deteriorate in 2018 in the face of persistent political instability, sustained attacks by the Taliban-led insurgency."

"Afghan forces will maintain control of most major population centers with coalition force support, but the intensity and geographic scope of Taliban activities will put those centers under continued strain," the assessment noted.KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is in Kuwait this week for an international conference aimed at raising funds for Iraqi reconstruction. He spoke Wednesday with VOA's United Nations Correspondent Margaret Besheer at Al-Bayan Palace, Kuwait City, about the effort to rebuild Iraq, ongoing conflicts in Syria and Yemen, the situation in North Korea, and concerns over ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. The transcript has been edited for clarity.

Rebuilding Iraq

Question: The conference is wrapping up, but while there have been some significant contributions for the Iraq Reconstruction Fund, they are falling quite short of the $100 billion that was sought at the beginning of the conference. So how concerned are you that if Iraq doesn't get an infusion of finances quickly, and a significant amount of money quickly, that some of the gains and stability could be lost if basic services aren't restored, if young people don't have jobs  are you concerned about that?

Guterres: Well, first of all, this was not a pledging conference, it was a conference about reconstruction, and so not all of the contributions that have been given to Iraq were to be presented here. And I have to say that I am surprised with the high level of pledges that were made in different forms of assistance that were mentioned. The last figure I had was already at about $30 billion. And even if it was a pledging conference, no pledging conference that I remember  and I have been in many, especially in the humanitarian field  ever reach the target. Because after the pledging conference, things go on and then many other donations come and many other commitments come, but here the most important question is not the money that is made available to Iraq, it is the capacity to create conditions for massive private-sector investment in Iraq. And that is why this conference was also so important, because it was an opportunity for the Iraqi government to present a set of very important reforms in regulations for private investment, in anti-corruption, in rule of law. In all those conditions that are essential for private companies to be willing to invest in Iraq  and it is private investment that is going to change Iraq  it's not through donations that we are going to create the conditions for Iraq to recover, to rebuild the country, and especially to provide all the investments that are necessary to create jobs, to change the society, to make it again a prosperous country, and the country able to play an important role in international relations. So, I am very happy with the way the conference was organized. With the way the Iraqi government participated, the way the U.N. was engaged, the way the World Bank, the European Union were engaged. Of course, the generosity of Kuwait. It's remarkable. The country that was invaded by Iraq just some decades ago, to be able to now assume the leadership in providing support to the neighbor is quite remarkable, quite an act of generosity that should be underlined. But all these, I think, give me hope that the stabilization of Iraq can be a reality in that the whole region will benefit. And if you look at the region, there is so much trouble around that it's good at least things are moving in the right direction.

Q: So, if things are moving in the right direction, how do you see the long-term role of the United Nations in Iraq? What do you see the as the future of UNAMI [the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq]? How much longer do you think UNAMI needs to be in Iraq, for instance?

Guterres: Well, this is something that is impossible to predict at the present moment. We'll have elections  the prime minister was asking about our support in order to make sure that the elections are handled properly  and this will be a very important step, but there [is] still a lot of humanitarian work to be done. There is all the return of people that [were] displaced, there are still more than 2 million people displaced, so this [is] a huge humanitarian work that is still necessary. On the other hand, there is the reconciliation among communities, there is all the work UNDP [the U.N. Development Program] will be leading now in relation to the resilience, the stability of the country. There is the need to have normal relations between Irbil and Baghdad. So, there are lots of things in which I believe a U.N. mission is still necessary, but it now all depends on the rhythm with which the Iraqis will be able to rebuild the county and re-establish a normal democracy in the country. It depends a lot on the success of the Iraqi programs, the possibility to reduce in a quicker way, the presence of the U.N. mission. Then there are the U.N. agencies that will go on their work as they are in many other countries in the world, but the U.N. mission, in itself, is aiming at the stabilization of Iraq. Once that stabilization is reached, normally the U.N. mission will, of course, no longer be necessary.

Syria conflict

Q: Secretary-General, staying in the region, if we could talk about Syria. There's been a real military escalation in the past week. You've called for de-escalation, but beyond that, how worried are you that a negotiated political settlement may be slipping further and further away there?

Guterres: "Well, I'm, first of all, very worried with the conflict in itself. We were hoping that with all the measures that were taken in Astana with the escalation that, progressively, violence would diminish in Syria and, unfortunately in the recent past, as you have seen, it became again extremely increasing. We have seen it in Eastern Ghouta, in Idlib, we have seen it in Afrin, we have seen it in the conflict between Israel and the different militias more or less directly linked with Iran. It has been, indeed, a series of developments that are very worrying. Obviously, that was a positive thing in the fact that the Sochi Conference  that many suspected could be a new process that would undermine Geneva or could launch a number of disturbing initiatives on the country  Sochi was finished with the decision to have a constitutional commission, but that to be formed in Geneva and under the auspices of my special envoy and in the context of the Geneva political process that, as you know, was launched by a resolution in the Security Council on both governance, elections and the constitution. So theoretically, conditions are created to move forward with the political process, but all this violence and all this contradiction are indeed a threat to the political process in itself. And so, obviously, I'm worried, but we'll do everything we can to make sure that in Geneva we can move positively in the future to try to create conditions to put an end to this horrible conflict.

Q: But in the past week, since Israel had struck inside Syria and such, have you been on the phone with anyone in Israel? With Anyone in Turkey? We have Afrin going on. Have you been in touch personally or is this  [U.N. Special Envoy on Syria Staffan] de Mistura?"

Guterres: We have been in contact through different, through different  including personal contacts of mine  but through all our mechanisms, we have been trying to do our best in order to reduce this dramatic escalation of conflict. Fortunately, some of the aspects have been reduced, but others are still going on and they are a source of great concern to me. And the suffering of the Syrian people especially  the suffering of the Syrian people  people usually don't talk about it. I mean, we talk about military operations, the parties to the conflict, the political dimension, but those that are there  living, being bombed, not having hospitals, not having schools for their children, in permanent threat for their lives. I mean this level of suffering, that I have been following since I was High Commissioner for Refugees, is absolutely appalling, and I mean there should be, based on their conscience in all the actors that are relevant in this conflict, that its high time to stop it. This is nonsense."

Progress in Yemen

Q: Well, we can look a little farther east and see more suffering in Yemen, 22 million people in need of assistance. This week, you welcomed a $1 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia and the UAE toward the humanitarian needs there. Since these two countries are leading the coalition that's fighting the Houthis on the ground, have you been able to elicit any personal  have you made any personal progress yourself in terms of getting a commitment from the coalition to stop the fighting?

Guterres: I think that there are some important developments. Recently, there was an increase in humanitarian aid. There is the decision to open corridors to facilitate access to the different areas of the country. These are positive steps. We are still lacking a political process, and I'm appointing a new special envoy and I will do everything I can to make sure that a serious political process can be put in place, because without a political process this will be a never-ending conflict. And, as we know in relation to Yemen and in the past, Yemen is a place where it's impossible to win a war, and so only a political process can solve the problem.

Q: So what do you think your new envoy, Martin Griffiths, I believe it's going to be?

Guterres: This is not yet decided because it needs to go through the Security Council, and that process has not been launched.

Q: I think it's been launched, but it hasn't  they have until Thursday, maybe, to come back to you. What do you think? I mean, nothing has changed among the parties in terms of political will, to come to the table.

Guterres: Many things have changed since, if you look at, I mean, we had recently divisions on the side of the Houthi-Saleh coalition that was dismantled, and you also had divisions in the south. So, some things have changed and these things [that] have changed prove that a political solution is necessary. And I hope that the Houthis will feel the need to seriously engage in a discussion, and I hope that the coalition and the government will also feel the need to engage in a serious discussion. I mean, what is the solution that is needed, of course, a situation that allows for the Houthis to have a normal participation in the political life of Yemen. But at the same time, to have guarantees from the security point of view in relation to the neighbors of Saudi Arabia and not to allow for the creation inside Yemen of an army that is not the army of the country. That, of course, will have to be discussed, negotiated, both from the point of view an inclusive political system allowing for everybody to participate and from the point of view of the security arrangements that are necessary to make sure that all will feel comfortable with the solution. But it's, it's seen from the point of view of an observer. It looks reachable, but political will is always the difficult part.

Q: So do you think we could be close to some sort of breakthrough?

Guterres: I hope that soon it will be possible to relaunch a serious political process, but we need to cross our fingers.

Watching North Korea

Q: OK. You just came back from South Korea. You went for the Olympics and to make an official visit. You met briefly with the ceremonial head of state of North Korea, Kim Yong Nam. Did you any have contact with any other members from the North Korean delegation?

Guterres: Yes, there were some brief contacts but there was not a negotiation, obviously in this context. I had very important contacts with the government of South Korea, and I think the central question is the following: These Olympic Games created an improvement in the relations between the North and the South. So, there is an improvement in the inter-Korean relations. But these needs [sic] to be used as a window of opportunity to solve the real problem  and the real problem is the need for a peaceful denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. And that requires not only good relations between North and South, but it requires, in my opinion, essentially a serious discussion between North Korea and the United States, together with the other relevant countries  that's the group of six, but I mean between North Korea and the United States. And the North Koreans must understand that they have to accept denuclearization, but the others must understand that denuclearization needs to be accompanied by the security guarantees that allow for it to be acceptable for North Korea. And this is where we are not yet  the need for these direct discussions, serious discussions, aiming at a peaceful denuclearization of North Korea, and are not yet in place. And it's essential to take profit of this window of opportunity, and that the unity of the Security Council  that unity is crucial also for diplomatic engagement to be launched and to be successful.

Q: Do you have any plans to send [Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey] Feltman back, or to do anything from your end?

Guterres: No. We are in permanent contact with the parties and we will do whatever at the certain moment might be useful. We are not agitating ourselves. We don't intend to have any protagonism or try to have any merits on whatever. We are here to serve. We know who are the key interlocutors. The key interlocutors inside in the front line  North Korea and the United States  but, of course, China, Russia, South Korea, Japan, these are the protagonists. We are in a supporting role. We'll do everything possible to facilitate what is needed, and what is needed is a serious negotiation for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, done in the context of a regional security arrangement and in a peaceful way.

Myanmar and the Rohingya

Q: Finally, Secretary-General, I wanted to ask you about Myanmar. On Tuesday, your refugee chief Filippo Grandi, he told the Security Council that the conditions are not conducive for the voluntary return of the Rohingya refugees because the causes of their flight have not been properly addressed yet. So are you, have you been in touch, are you disappointed in Aung San Suu Kyi? She's been highly criticized for her handling of this. Have you spoken with her recently, and are you still planning to name a special adviser?

Guterres: Yes, the special adviser will be soon appointed. But the central question that Filippos Grandi raised is the following: We considered that it is essential to recognize the right of return, voluntary in safety and dignity, of those that fled and returned to their place of origin not to be put in camps. But for that to be possible, a massive investment is necessary. Not only in the reconstruction of the villages destroyed in the field, but in the reconciliation for people not to be afraid to come back. And the guarantees that the forces that were expelling them will not be retaliating against them again. And this is the investment that the government of Myanmar has not yet made. And before that investment is made, it will be very difficult to have conditions for that massive voluntary repatriation as we all wish to happen. There is still a long way to go, and I think the government of Myanmar needs to understand that they cannot procrastinate things, that they need to engage seriously in creating the conditions for the return to be possible. Unfortunately, that has not yet been done with the determination and the courage, because we know that large part of the population is against the Rohingya's, we know that. But that is why politicians need courage, is to overcome those differences because the situation of the Rohingya population in Myanmar was absolutely unacceptable.

Q: But those sorts of reconciliation talks and unity talks and things like that, can  they are such drawn out processes, they can take years. So, what are these Rohingya that are in Bangladesh going to do in the meantime?

Guterres: There are many things that can be done much more quickly than years. There's physical reconstruction and there are a number of things that can be done both to support the Rohingyas and the local community. And doing so, people understand that they have also something to gain with this process. So, reconciliation is not just a matter of gestures, it is a matter of investments made for people to understand that living together, they can live better.

Q: So, realistically, how long do you think before the Rohingyas can start going back?

Guterres: I think that, in small numbers, there are things that can be done relatively quickly. A process of return, a large group of refugees  and we have done several processes of return  in different parts of the world as High Commissioner for Refugees  a process of return can take sometimes two, three years to be properly organized. But it requires planning, it requires investment, it requires a very serious effort in order to make it successful. If not, we risk to have a situation in which return takes place and then people flee again. And unfortunately, that's, for instance, what we see in South Sudan. I helped as UNHCR, together will all my colleagues, and lots of elements of the civil society, we have helped about half a million people return to South Sudan and now there are more than one million refugees that fled South Sudan again. This is what we don't want to happen with the Rohingyas in Bangladesh.Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa says the government will help in laying the late MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai to rest.

Tsvangirai succumbed to colon cancer in Johannesburg yesterday.

Tsvangirais opposition party the Movement for Democratic Change also met this morning to make burial arrangements.

The ruling Zanu PF's acting Information Minister, Simon Khaya Moyo, said the death of Tsvangirai was untimely, Such a development was not expected and really we are very sad about it. I believe not only the party, not only the government -- -minister of information as well, but I believe the entire people of Zimbabwe are saddened by this development and all I can say really is that God giveth and he taketh, and we wish his soul to enter and rest in eternal peace. We mourn of course with the family, the relatives and all those who were close to him, and we want to say go well, go well and go well.

Speaking to the government controlled Herald newspaper, Permanent secretary in the ministry of information, George Charamba says the government has also instructed the Zimbabwean embassy in Pretoria to assist the Tsvangirai family.

The leadership is now aware of the sad passing on of VaTsvangirai. In the interim, while the family is taking the necessary decisions, the Zimbabwean Embassy in Pretoria has been instructed to help in any way appropriate in the circumstances including assuming the costs that are attendant to the proper handling of the body of the late, Charamba, who is also President Emmerson Mnangagwas spokesman said.

Could Tsvangirai, a former Prime Minister, be buried at the Heroes Acre, a place he shunned during his opposition reign as a place where only Zanu-PF members are laid to rest? Khaya Moyo was non-committal I wouldnt say anything at the moment, we are still going to be meeting, and decisions will be taken accordingly.

International Crisis Group Southern Africa project director Pius Pigou says the late Tsvangirai was an inspirational leader. He was the embodiment really in many ways of the hopes and aspirations of Zimbabweans who dreamt for a better Zimbabwe that many had idolized in the early 1980s, something that was possible in a democratic dream.

Pigou added, A spirit of resistance, a man who had a common touch which defied the elitist type of politics for much of the era that has been characterized by elitist politics in Zimbabwe. His passing is of terrible sadness but represents enormous challenge to the new cadre of leadership in Zimbabwe in the opposition, that must continue to take forward the ideals for which Morgan Tsvangirai and the people around him fought for the last 20-or so years.

CAN THE MDC SURVIVE WITHOUT TSVANGIRAI?

Some political analyst though are of the opinion that the MDC might not survive the death of Tsvangirai as factional fights escalated in the party as he was battling for his life. Pigou though says the partys chances of survival are high, That has been a question for some time as to whether the MDC will be able to live on beyond Morgan Tsvangirai. It is important to remember that the struggle for democracy in Zimbabwe was not just about this man. He had many people around him, many of those split away or went in their own direction after various episodes in the MDCs troubled history. It really now remains to be seen whether the remnants of this organization will be able to pull tighter. Weve seen some evidence of this in the last six months or so with respect to the development of the MDC Alliance, but weve seen in the last couple of weeks the kind of internal fighting that exists both with the alliance and within the MDC itself. One hopes that Mr. Tsvangirais passing is going to help those individuals actually focus on the reality of what is important to Zimbabweans, and not about individual, personal preferences and agendas.

One of Zimbabwes music legends, Thomas Mapfumo says the nation has lost an icon, Its a great loss for the Zimbabwean people, we have lost a freedom fighter, a man who stood by the people, a man who was for the people Mapfumo tipped Tsvangirais 40 year old vice president Nelson Chamisa to succeed him. We asked him if the party can survive pot Tsvangirai, Of course, why not? There are youngsters like Chamisa, I mean he is a youngster. If Obama (former US President Barack Obama) was able to rule America, why not Chamisa. Chamisa can also do it in Zimbabwe. Hes good, he is intelligent. Mapfumo also said Tsvangirais heroism was unquestionable, You dont question about that. Tsvangirai is a hero.

Johannesburg-based political analyst Joy Mabenge of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition says though it would be very difficult for the MDC to fill Tsvangirais big boots as he was a charismatic man of the people.

Political science lecturer, Shakespear Hamauswa of Mulungushi University in Zambia says the death of Tsvangirai will unsettle the opposition party ahead of the crucial 2018 elections.

The passing on of Dr. Richard Morgan Tsvangirai is something that has saddened the country, the whole nation the whole southern Africa. We are looking at the supporters of Morgan Tsvangirai who are now in deep mourning. They were expecting their leader would lead them into new Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai fought for democracy, fought for human rights and the people were expecting that he was going to overcome this cancer disease, but unfortunately he has gone to a better place and the people of Zimbabwe are saying to Morgan Tsvangirai he fought a good fight and he left a legacy that will definitely remain in the hearts of Zimbabwe. He has left an indelible mark that cannot be erased by anyone. His name has a place in the history of Zimbabwe, especially in the struggle for democracy and human rights.

Chamisa concurred with Hamauswa, saying its such a sad loss, a tragic loss, particularly in the context of elections in the next four or five months, because we have always said that the president, president Morgan Tsvangirai, has been the best foot forward, in terms of our fighting chance, in terms of winning the elections in 2018 now this unfortunate development is obviously a very sad and huge blow on the democratic movement, on the party, of excellence and also on the country, its such a sad day, particularly in the context of African democracy, president Tsvangirai was one of the few icons on the continent who worked tirelessly to give Zimbabweans a chance for an alternative.

He added that Tsvangirai was a courageous leader, A charming father, a caring citizen, a genuine democratic a very considerate patriot. Whatever he did, he did not keep grudges, he did not do things on his own, he would consult as much as possible, he maintained the tenacity of a fighter in whatever he believe in. He led us so well, he continued to inspire hope, and he was the face of courage. Service and sacrifice, were his traditional hallmarks and as a trade unionist, he liked consensus, he liked the working of people together, he like the comparison of views to say which ever is the best view let it flow.

In a press statement, former vice President vice president Joice Mujuru, who is now the leader of the opposition National Peoples Party also praised the late Tsvangirai, We salute you son of the soil. You fought your excellent battle for the good of mankind. Your name shall forever remain written in the annals of Zimbabwes struggle for democracy. Mujuru added, The history of Zimbabwe cannot be fully written post-independence without mentioning the heroic and brave deeds of Doctor Morgan Richard Tsvangirai in fighting for our beloved Zimbabwe under his able leadership of the MDC-T.

The late Tsvangirai was only one of the very few African leaders who were invited to the White House in 2009 by former America President Barack Obama who praised him for his resilience. Well, I want to welcome Prime Minister Tsvangirai to the Oval Office. Added President Obama, He and his delegation have been meeting with my team throughout the day. I obviously have extraordinary admiration for the courage and the tenacity that the Prime Minister has shown in navigating through some very difficult political times in Zimbabwe. There was a time when Zimbabwe was the bread basket of Africa and continues to have enormous potential. It has gone through a very dark and difficult period politically. The President - President Mugabe -- I think I've made my views clear, has not acted oftentimes in the best interest of the Zimbabwean people and has been resistant to the kinds of democratic changes that need to take place.

On the same trip, Tsvangirai had the opportunity to meet then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who also recognized the work he was doing in Zimbabwe. Well, Im delighted to welcome the prime minister back to Washington. We had very productive meetings last time when he was here. We continue to support the efforts for reform and positive changes inside Zimbabwe. And of course, the prime minister has played a major role in attempting to move his country on the right path.

The US and British embassies in Harare, Gaborone and Nairobi government also sent condolence messages to the Tsvangirai family and saluted his struggle for democracy.South African President Jacob Zuma has resigned after more than a week of intense pressure from his party to step down.

With just an hour left ahead of a Wednesday midnight deadline to resign or face a no-confidence vote, Zuma finally did what he swore he would not do: He quit.

Had he not done so, he would have faced what was likely to be an embarrassing, messy no-confidence vote in parliament Thursday, bolstered by the African National Congress, the party that brought him into the presidency in 2009.

On Tuesday, the party recalled him, a move they expected to provoke his immediate resignation. When that didn't happen, ANC lawmakers lobbied for a planned no-confidence vote to be moved earlier, to Thursday.

Zuma rendered that unnecessary in his 20-minute address to the nation.

"I have, therefore, come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect," he said. "Even though I disagree with the decision of the leadership of my organization, I have always been a disciplined member of the ANC. As I leave, I will continue to serve the people of South Africa as well as the ANC, the organization I have served all of my life, in it."

However, he retained the tone of defiance he had exhibited earlier in the day, when he accused the party of being "unfair."

"I do not fear exiting political office," he said. "However, I have only asked my party to articulate my transgressions and the reason for its immediate instruction that I vacate office. This was important in view of the discussions I had with the president of the ANC and the secretary-general of the party that were aimed at uniting our organization, the ANC."

ANC response

The ANC welcomed the resignation and thanked Zuma for his nine years as president.

Zuma's final presidential term was set to end in mid-2019. The ANC leadership has argued in the past week, though, that he needed to leave sooner. The party has lost ground in recent elections, largely due to Zuma's growing unpopularity.

ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte praised Zuma's efforts in bringing key developments to the nation still riven by inequality less than three decades after the end of apartheid.

"While we acknowledge mistakes that may have been committed, President Zuma leaves a legacy of delivery in many critical areas," she said.

Duarte also encouraged lawmakers to support Zuma's deputy and successor as leader of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa. Parliament has said they hope to swear-in a new president by Friday morning at the latest, and have the new leader deliver the State of the Nation address Friday night.

Corruption scandals

But Zuma also leaves behind bitterness and many questions. Zuma had maintained that the ANC has never told him what he did wrong to deserve a recall from his party or a no-confidence vote.

When asked directly after his resignation, Duarte did not specify what Zuma's "mistakes" may have been. But for years, Zuma has been mired in ever deeper, ever wider corruption scandals. For years, members of the party  including Duarte  vociferously defended him in the face of criticism and against eight no-confidence votes in parliament.

But those allegations are threatening to be resurrected in court, and make a quiet retirement unlikely for Zuma: He could face numerous corruption investigations, including a pending case that includes 783 charges of corruption.50 long-standing PAWI disciples recognized

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Hundreds gathered at the annual meeting of the local branch of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the West Indies (PAWI) to celebrate 50 of the churchas longest standing disciples last Sunday.

On February 12, a stadium at the Arnos Vale Sporting Complex was lined with well-dressed church goers, who had turned out for the first formal meeting of the organization in 2018, held under the theme aRepositioning to reach generation next.a Even more smartly dressed were the 50 awardees, who were being recognized for working alongside the organization for its entire existence, or much of its existence.

Political and church leaders alike delivered speeches celebrating the longevity of PAWI and the sacrifice and service of the 50.

Therefore, putting on their preaching hats, both Opposition Leader Godwin Friday and Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves stood before the crowds, quoting the Bible and referencing the scriptures to the faithful.

aJob (referencing the scripture reading for the day) was a revolutionary and PAWI has proved to be a revolutionary Christian organization in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG),a the Prime Minister praised, aThey have brought amazing change, and they have brought the amazing changeain an amazing grace.a

aYou come to PAWI because of the sustenance of the word of God. If you werenat interested in that, you would have been sleeping in your bed this morningahaving been to Hufflesa but you are here,a Gonsalves told the crowd, as one woman shouted aAmena, abecause youare looking for sustenance.a

Delivering more high praise, the Prime Minister declared, aI would say that if it were not for the Pentecostal Assembly of the West Indies, St Vincent and the Grenadines would not be as good a place as it is today.a

In a similar vein of gratitude, but speaking specifically to the 50 long-standing members, the Leader of Opposition intoned, aOver the years you have contributed positively to our country, to our people. Through your Ministry and the teachings of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, you have offered hope to many and a positive path for our people to travel.

aThe recognition that you receive here, while thoroughly deserved, is but a small token of the gratitude we hold for you and a mere foretaste of the great reward that is open to you at the end of your journey here on earth,a he continued.

For the future, he requested of them, abe our moral compass, help us as a nation to chart a safe course through the stormy seas of life.a

Reverend Nolan Warner, administrative officer of PAWI, also thanked the awardees in the context of their remaining in the face of difficulties. aTo the awardees, please appreciate youave served well; your sacrifice and sometimes your ability to stand in the face of clear, not being appreciated, sometimes not being understood,a had not gone unnoticed, he said.

Reverend Sonny E Williams, District Presiding Bishop of PAWI, was also recognized, being awarded for being the longest serving bishop for PAWI SVG, with a term of 16 years. He asked those in attendance to rise and give the 50 a standing ovation, saying, aWe have been deliberate in modelling this activity so that we can highlight the little people who have made the big thing in PAWI.a

The awardees, who were introduced one by one, walked through the archway specially designed for the occasion to receive their awards. A special luncheon was organized for them to partake of after the ceremony.(KR)The Movement for Democratic Changes National Council, which is the top decision-making body outside congress, on Thursday endorsed Nelson Chamisa as acting president of the party at a meeting in Harare boycotted by vice presidents Elias Mudzuri and Thokozani Khupe.

Mudzuri, who claims to be the legitimate acting president, was supposed to attend a funeral wake of the late party leader Morgan Tsvangirai at his house.

Deputy party chairperson Morgan Komichi told journalists that Chamisa will be acting president for a year.

However, he did not say whether Chamisa, who was appointed by Tsvangirai together with Mudziri in controversial circumstances, will be the MDC-Ts candidate in the forthcoming presidential election.

While the National Council was making moves to put a lid on wrangling over the presidential seat, thousands of people gathered at the MDC-Ts Harvest House to express their sadness over the death of their leader, who succumbed to cancer of the colon.

Chamisas rise to the top was quickly questioned by Mudzuri and his group, who claimed that the 40 year-old presided over an unconstitutional National Council meeting.

Party secretary general Douglas Mwonzora said the National Council violated the MDC-Ts constitution and therefore the appointment of Chamisa was null and void.

Mwonzora said the MDC-T is expected to hold an Extra Ordinary Congress to elect Tsvangirais successor. He did not spell out the timeframe for holding the crucial event.

Meanwhile, in a condolence message, Chamisa described the death of Tsvangirai as a big blow to the party, which was formed in 1999 and has contested elections over the years.

In a statement, Chamisa said, From humble beginnings, a giant was born. President Morgan Tsvangirai was a champion of the workers struggle, a doyen of democracy, a diplomat and a statesman---all rolled into one. Zimbabwe, Africa and indeed the world will always remember yesterday 14 February 2018 as a black Wednesday.

 The party is at a loss for words. As a leadership, we are all still struggling to come terms with the death of this great patriot who nurtured some of us and became a pathfinder in the countrys struggle for democracy. It may have been befitting that he die on Valentines Day to signify the boundless love that he had for his country and its people. His death is not only a loss to the Tsvangirai family. It is a loss to the party and to Zimbabwe.

He said Tsvangirais death was a loss for Africa, whose death equally leaves a yawning gap that will always be difficult to fill by any Zimbabwean.

He taught this country democracy and the dignity that comes with tolerating political differences. During his short stint in government, he showcased that his criticism of the Mugabe regime went beyond mere rhetoric. He lived his words. He was bound to his ideals; a man of principle, a man of honour and indeed a humble man. President Tsvangirai showed it was possible to use government as an arena to infuse positive change in the lives of the people.

He noted that as he ebbs into the sunset, the only befitting tribute this party can pay him is by showcasing unity and togetherness. The spirit of oneness, convergence, accord and agreement will be in keeping with his legacy in this dark hour for the family, for the party and for Zimbabwe.

President Tsvangirai had outgrown his family and his party. As we remember his mammoth contribution to the peoples collective struggle for positive change, we can only do so with the realization that he was a national hero.

His towering contribution will continue to loom large for generations to come.

The story of Zimbabwes politics will never be fully told without due recognition to the towering brand of Morgan Tsvangirai---a man whose indelible footprints will endure until end of time. He shook the world. He marked a dispensation and moved hearts and minds.

Many people, including President Emmerson Mnangagwa, sent condolence messages to the Tsvangirai family. Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe would fund Tsvangirais funeral as he was once the countrys prime minister.

He told the state-controlled Herald newspaper that We will make him State-assisted funeral. It will be taken by the State. We had him as prime minister for a period of five years or so, its very important that we as a Government we must pay our respects to one of us.

According to the Herald, he described Tsvangirai as a national figure who obdurately insisted on free, fair, credible and non-violent elections as a way of strengthening our democracy and our overall re-engagement with the rest of the world.

On behalf of the ruling Zanu-PF party, Government, our nation, and that of my family, I wish to express deepest condolences to the Tsvangirai family on the sad passing yesterday (Wednesday) of Morgan Richard Tsvangirai, the former Prime Minister of Zimbabwe and leader of the opposition MDC-T party.Former Zimbabwe Prime Minister and leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai died in South Africa Wednesday at age 65.

Known by his supporters as MT or Save after his totem or lineage honorific name, Tsvangirai succumbed to colon cancer after a two-year battle.

Battle With Cancer

In a brief media statement two years ago, Tsvangirai had told the nation that, On the 8th of May 2016, my Zimbabwean doctors referred me to South Africa where a further diagnosis revealed that I am suffering from cancer of the colon. On the reason for going public, Tsvangirai said, "It is my firm belief that the health of national leaders, including politicians, should not be a subject of national speculation."

According to some analysts, Tsvangirai's dramatic political battle with former president Robert Mugabe stands as one of the most intriguing and important world events of recent times.

Mugabe labelled Tsvangirai a puppet of the West who wanted to reverse the gains of independence. The former president on many occasions told Zimbabweans that, It was the Europeans and the British that created Tsvangirai as a politician.

Despite being tortured in police detention, facing treason charges, multiple arrests and open provocation by the Mugabe regime, Tsvangirai preached tolerance and like U.S. civil rights movement leader Doctor Martin Luther King Junior followed the path of peaceful resistance. This approach won Tsvangirai wide approval from world leaders.

Invitation to the White House

The late Tsvangirai was only one of the very few African leaders who were invited to the White House in 2009 by former American President Barack Obama who praised him for his resilience. Well, I want to welcome Prime Minister Tsvangirai to the Oval Office. Added President Obama, He and his delegation have been meeting with my team throughout the day. I obviously have extraordinary admiration for the courage and the tenacity that the Prime Minister has shown in navigating through some very difficult political times in Zimbabwe. There was a time when Zimbabwe was the bread basket of Africa and continues to have enormous potential. It has gone through a very dark and difficult period politically. The President - President Mugabe -- I think I've made my views clear, has not acted oftentimes in the best interest of the Zimbabwean people and has been resistant to the kinds of democratic changes that need to take place.

On the same trip, Tsvangirai had the opportunity to meet then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who also recognized the work he was doing in Zimbabwe. Well, Ivm delighted to welcome the prime minister back to Washington. We had very productive meetings last time when he was here. We continue to support the efforts for reform and positive changes inside Zimbabwe. And of course, the prime minister has played a major role in attempting to move his country on the right path.

Humble beginnings

Tsvangirai was born on the 10th of March 1952 in Gutu, Masvingo province. He was married to Elizabeth Tsvangirai nee Macheka after his first wife Susan Tsvangirai died in a car accident in 2009. He was left injured and hospitalized after the crash. His former spokesman the late veteran journalist, William Bango who helped him edit his autobiography titled Morgan Tsvangirai: At The Deep End wrote about his former boss, Tsvangirai rose from village life as a son of a humble carpenter, Dzingirai Chibwe Tsvangirai and Lydia Tsvangirai, to struggling for power with former president Mugabe."

He added, "Tsvangirai had an advantage over many other rural Rhodesian children born in the 1950s  his parents believed he should receive the best possible education to ensure his future. The first of nine children, Tsvangirai made the most of his schooling and subsequent opportunities, which saw him start his working life as a sweeper in a textile factory and move on to the Trojan Nickel Mine as a plant operator.

Beginning of Trade Unionism

It was here that Tsvangirais involvement with the trade union movement began, and in 1985 he took up the full-time position of vice-president of Zimbabwes Associated Mine Workers Union.

Three years later he became secretary-general of the biggest labor union in the country, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). Over the next decade Tsvangirai played a key role in organizing and uniting Zimbabwes trade union and civil movements into an informal opposition to the ruling Zanu-PF government of Mugabe which by then was a de facto one party state having united and formed a government of national unity with the main opposition party PF Zapu in 1987.

The labour movement in the late 1990s under Tsvangirai was to provide the wind to the sails for the formation of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change or MDC as worker grievances then gave rise to a formidable challenge against the Mugabe's government.

On his time as secretary general of the ZCTU, Tsvangirai said, In 1998, together, we turned the workers voice into a sonorous national chorus that could shout for a national shut down to articulate the genuine concerns of the countrys workers. Together, we galvanized the workers into a formidable force that could blow out the smoke from our productive industries to clamor for national attention. The government began to take us seriously. We achieved that together. Tsvangirais ability to organize protests against the government led many to push him to form a labor backed opposition party.

Formation of the MDC

This culminated, in September 1999, in the launch of the MDC. Said Tsvangirai about the launch, In 1999, through the national working peoples convention, together with the workers of this country, Zimbabweans clamored for a labor-driven political party. That working peoples convention gave birth to the Movement for Democratic Change in 1999. Since then, the party has become a perennial peoples voice in Parliament. It became a formidable political force that administered the countrys major cities and towns and Zanu PF---- to this day----remain visitors and strangers in the countrys cities, towns and other rural enclaves where the gospel of change has made a huge imprint.

Under Tsvangirais leadership, the MDC contested the 2000 parliamentary election and the 2002 presidential election, both hampered by electoral irregularities and intimidation, including two sets of treason charges leveled at Tsvangirai.

The opposition leader like many Zimbabweans after the liberation war was once an avid supporter of Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party. But he grew to detest their alleged violence and oppression.

Government of National Unity

Tsvangirai, the only opposition leader who has ever won an election against Mugabe since 1980, was denied outright victory in 2008, after failing to get the 50 percent plus one vote. Tsvangirai won the presidential election by 47 percent of the votes, while Mugabe got 43 percent.

But Tsvangirai the standard-bearer of the MDC withdrew after hundreds of his supporters were allegedly murdered by Mr Mugabes supporters. He alleged that his party was facing a war rather than an election, and we will not be part of that war.

In his letter of withdrawal to the Zimbabwe Election Commission on the 23rd of June 2008, Tsvangirai cited a number of reasons for withdrawal: The violence currently obtaining in this country which has resulted in numerous deaths, destruction of homes, displacement of various people and injuries to people is something that is clearly in the public domain. As of today, the country has recorded at least 86 deaths, 10 000 homes destroyed, 200 000 people displaced and 10 000 people injured.

The UN Security Council unanimously agreed to take its first formal action on Harare by ruling that a free and fair presidential election run-off was impossible because of violence.

The council, including Zimbabwes allies South Africa, China and Russia that had previously long opposed discussion on Zimbabwe, made the decision after the Netherlands said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had taken refuge in its Harare embassy fearing for his life.

The protagonists parties in Zimbabwe, namely ZANU PF and the two MDC factions agreed on 15 September 2008, to work together to halt political and economic impasse that had crippled the nation in the new millennium.

This agreement (affectionately known as the Global Political Agreement (GPA)) ushered in an array of hope and paved way for the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU), which ended on the 29th of June 2013.

Analysts argue that Tsvangirai's successful formation of a coalition government kept alive Zimbabwe's hopes of peace and democracy, establishing Tsvangirai according to Bango as a luminary in a continent all too often known for bloody leadership.

Books about Tsvangirai

This is the same conclusion that was reached by author Professor Steven Chan in his book, Citizen of Zimbabwe: Conservations with Morgan Tsvangirai. In July 2004, as he was awaiting the verdict in his treason trial, Tsvangirai spent several days in conversation with Chan. Chan writes: 'I have not made a saint of him, not even an Atlas. I hope I have not criticized him too much or too unfairly. Probably no one could have done for Zimbabwe what he has."

In another biography, Face of Courage: A Biography of Morgan Tsvangirai, Sarah Hudleston described Tsvangirai as, an internationally respected man who has dedicated himself to restoring Zimbabwe to a workable democracy.

Tsvangirai Accolades.

In his Life Time, Tsvangirai collected a number of accolades from organizations throughout the world recognizing his fight for human rights in Zimbabwe. For two consecutive years Tsvangirai was seen as the favorite to win the much coveted Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2010, he was listed among hopefuls to land the award having lost out to Obama in 2009. The National Democratic Institute, a US based pro-democracy group, gave one of its highest honors to Tsvangirai in 2010. The NDI's W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award which recognizes individuals and groups who have demonstrated a commitment to democracy and human rights.

Tsvangirai was introduced to the audience by NDI chair Madeleine Albright, who told his story of a man working to overcome many obstacles. "The essence of free government is that when one set of policies is not working, an alternative can be considered, she said. But when democracy has been subverted, presenting that alternative requires courage, persistence and faith. Fortunately, Mr. Tsvangirai possesses each of these qualities. His character is steady and strong."

In 2009, the International Bar Association gave Tsvangirai an award in recognition of his inspiring leadership in the struggle to secure the rule of law in Zimbabwe.

In accepting the award Tsvangirai said, I am merely the voice of millions of Zimbabweans that held on to an idea for ten years; to restore dignity to Zimbabwe, to restore security to Zimbabwe and to restore hope.

He was also given the International Lifetime Achievement Award 2009 from the Spanish Foundation Cristobal Gabarron, for his fight for peace and democracy.

In 2013, Tsvangirai was awarded an honorary doctorate in public administration by the Sun Moon University in South Korea, his second one from the same country in three years after he was conferred with an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by Pai Chai University in 2012. He was handed the honor in recognition of his efforts towards democracy and peace in Zimbabwe.

Future of the Party

As Tsvangirais health deteriorated he hinted in a media statement on the 8th of January that he was considering stepping down, At a personal level, I feel an air of satisfaction as I reflect on the great journey we have traveled together even as I seriously ponder about the future. You, the people have traveled with me a journey that had its own tribulations."

He added, "Yet it was also a journey in which we worked hard and achieved so much together. I am in the process of writing a book that is set to be a collective national treasure on the great things we have achieved together over the years in our journey of service and sacrifice.

This announcement triggered a bitter struggle among his three vice presidents, Nelson Chamisa, Thokozani Khupe and Elias Mudzuri which is threatening to tear the party apart. The three all claim to be anointed successors of Tsvangirai.

University of Kent lecturer and Tsvangirais former advisor, Doctor Alex Magaisa, said the opposition was facing its worst crisis yet. He wrote on his blog: The current situation is typically what constitutions are designed to cover when they include incapacitation as a ground upon which a president can be removed from office. It is also recognized that when a leader becomes incapacitated, the unscrupulous around him can use their proximity to take advantage of him."

Magaisa argued that the behavior of people around Tsvangirai suggested that he was being taken advantage of by those claiming to represent his best interests. The public is no longer sure who is telling the truth.

The veteran trade unionist did not name a successor but hinted that he might want the young Turks in his party to take over, I am looking at the imminent prospects of us as the older generation leaving the levers of leadership to allow the younger generation to take forward this huge task that we started together so many years ago with our full blessing and support.

It was therefore not by accident but by design that when I disclosed to you my health status, I also took a bold step to appoint an additional two Vice Presidents to assist me. As I have said before, while politicians only think about the next election, true statesmen think about the next generation, for current leaders are only but caretakers for future generations. We do not have any entitlement to lead but we have a duty to serve."Street in Rome suburb collapsed into construction site.

Rome's public prosecutor has launched an investigation following the collapse of a street in the city's north-west suburb Balduina on the evening of 14 February. The collapse swallowed eight cars which fell into a construction site located ten metres below Via Livia Andronica.

There was nobody injured in the collapse but 22 families living locally have been evacuated as a precautionary measure.

The incident has been used by opposition politicians to attack the administration of Rome's mayor Virginia Raggi who said that the "person responsible will have to pay."

Inhabitants in the area say that they had already reported water leaks and cracks around the buildings before a part of the construction site gave way on 14 February.Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue.

The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website:

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.SAK donates schools supplies around SVG

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Small Acts of Kindness (SAK), a Toronto based non-profit organization, this week distributed a large quantity of school supplies to schools throughout the nation.

On Monday, the Kingstown Government School was awarded for placing first in SAKas act of kindness video competition.

Kwesi Bibby, director of SAK, handed over a laptop, a printer and school supplies for the Kindergarten classes, on the grounds of the school at Stoney Ground.

Principal of the school Chedica Jones said she was excited to learn that her school had won.

aWe had put together a video and let the children act it out and submitted itIam excited. Grade 5 and 6 (acted in the video),a Jones said.

Later on Monday, the group distributed a keyboard and school supplies to the Lodge Village Government School.

On Tuesday, February 13, school and office supplies were handed over to the Bishopas College Kingstown.

Today, February 16, from 2 p.m., SAK will be hosting its first annual awards ceremony, to honour students and teachers.

Bibby explained that nine students who were nominated by their respective schools will be honoured for being respectful to their peers and teachers, while six teachers, some of whom are retired, will be honoured for exemplary contribution to nation building. Bibby explained that all the contributions are part of their activities for SAK week.

SAK began in 2015, with participation by people from various nationalities. In St Vincent and the Grenadines, the focus is to provide continuous support to schools throughout the year (CB).Sir James Mitchell booms  Why is Camillo so silent?

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Former Prime Minister Sir James Mitchell and founder of the New Democratic Party has declared that aNo Confidencea motions are fundamental to a democracy and should take precedence over everything else.

He has also queried why Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves has not responded to allegations recently made against him.

Speaking on the OMG morning show on BOOM FM on Wednesday, Mitchell said he disagreed with the four lawyers who have publicly stated opinions on the manner in which the aNo Confidencea motion was handled in the House of Assembly on January 31.

aI respect the intelligence of the PM (Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves), I respect PR (Queenas Counsel Parnell Campbell), I respect Alexis (Queenas Counsel Dr Francis Alexis of Grenada) and I respect Linton (Dr Linton Lewis), but they have all in their own time, in my view, not always been correct on constitutional matters.a

Gonsalves, Campbell, Alexis and Lewis have all, in public statements, agreed that Section 47 of the Constitution contains a subsection which makes it possible for a majority of the House to decide if a motion of No Confidence should be debated. The four veteran attorneys also agree that a aNo Confidencea motion, like any other motion, may be amended and that a aConfidencea motion and a aNo Confidencea motion are two sides of the same coin.

Mitchellas belief is that the No Confidence motion should not have been aamendeda, stating that a aConfidencea motion is not an amendment.

aWhere any motion is under consideration in the House, an amendment may be posed to the motion if it is relevant. RELEVANT,a he reiterated.

aNow, who decided what is relevant? The Speaker, nobody else,a Mitchell, who retired from active politics in 2001, said.

aA motion of No Confidence is not a motion of Confidence. A motion of Confidence cannot replace a motion of No Confidence,a he opined.

In commenting on the time that the motion was brought, that is, during the debate on the 2018 Appropriation Bill, Sir James stated, aWhen a motion of No Confidence is tabled, it is incumbent on the Government to prove that they have authority to bring a Budget.a

However, in response to the question on whether he believed that the aNo Confidencea motion would have succeeded, he responded, aYou have to test it to see. I am not going to engage in prophecy.

aA motion of No Confidence is fundamental to our democracy,a he opined, aThe motion of No Confidence is a way you bring down the Government.That takes precedence over anything else.a

The veteran politician, while on radio, also chastised Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves for not making a statement regarding his alleged involvement with model Yugge Farrell.

aWhy is Camillo silent, why is Camillo not having a press conference?,a he asked.

aAs a Government Minister, you should respond to allegationsbecause you have a responsibility to justify the morality of your position.

aThe problem is, fundamentally, sending the girl to the mental institution,a Mitchell told the radio host, when he was asked what in particular, regarding the situation, Camillo should have responded to in Parliament.

Mitchell had further intoned, aIf Farrell wins her case, as I expect she will,a but Iam not going to prejudge the court, but what Iam saying is, should she win, she is then entitled to sue the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines.aThe island of Balliceaux: Sacred lands or economic opportunity?

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March 12th-13th, 2018 Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines

The island of St Vincent, known by the Garifuna as Yurumein, is part of a wider Caribbean living llegacy of indigenous peopleas presence, existence and resistance to colonial imperatives within the Americas. It is on this island, now part of the multi-island state of St Vincent and the Grenadines, that the Garifuna nation, a nation of hybrid indigenous people, created from the intermarriage between African and Kalinago peoples, was born.

As the conflict between the British colonial powers and the indigenous Kalinago and Garifuna intensified over control of lands in Yurumein, the Kalinago and Garifuna people resisted, through fierce guerrilla warfare, the might of the British military machinery for over a century. Nonetheless, in 1795, the Garifuna surrendered and in 1797, were expelled by force first to the island of Balliceaux, which is now part of St Vincent and the Grenadines and subsequently to the remote island of Roatan, off the coast of Honduras in Central America. The British remained in control of Yurumein, attempting to establish a sugar based economy. This was not very successful. However, the British did manage to develop the island along traditional colonial lines, imposing their language, culture, way of life and institutions . The island became politically independent in 1979 and these social and economic institutions have since been maintained.

The descendants of those 2,248 Garifuna persons who were expelled to Central America now number over 300,000 and they have never forgotten the brutal impact of that expulsion. The memory of the loss of their homeland still remains vivid and painful, even after more than 200 years. Those Garifuna descendants who mainly reside in Honduras, Belize, Guatemala and Nicaragua and the United States still consider Yurumein their aSpiritual Homelanda, a place to which a pilgrimage must be made at any available opportunity. Yurumein still resonates in songs and mournful laments in ceremonies practised within the Garifuna culture, especially in relation to the celebrations honouring the ancestors. The central focus of this pain is the island of Balliceaux. Balliceaux is specially revered as a sacred place, as it was here that approximately 2,500 of the 4,776 Garifuna who were held in captivity died within a period of six months, subsequent to their surrender to the British in 1795.

In 2002, UNESCO proclaimed the Garifuna Heritage and Culture as one of the Intangible Masterpieces of the Heritage of Mankind. In 2007 the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP ) was ratified by the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines. In 2016, the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People was concluded by the Organization of American States (OAS). These documents seek to promote the rights of indigenous people to all aspects of their heritage and culture, including protection of sacred sites and may provide some new international impetus for implementing and designing cultural preservation programmes. However the national development priorities of Governments or the domestic legal context and the legal rights of private citizens may impact the exercise of the rights granted under international conventions. In addition, there needs to be properly documented information on the history, archaeological research and other baseline information required to ground a substantial project for cultural preservation.

For this conference, we are inviting papers by scholars, researchers, practitioners and cultural activists engaged in regional and international development that explore, strategize and/or theorize the relationship between cultural heritage preservation, sacred sites and economic development in the Caribbean. Papers with particular reference to Balliceaux are especially welcome. Papers may include those presented at previous conferences, seminars or workshops.

Subjects may include, but are not limited to the following:

a The issue of Yurumein as an Ancestral Homeland and its significance to Garifuna people internationally;

a Exploring the place of Balliceaux within the context of the Vincentian component of the Garifuna Heritage and Culture;

a Best Practices for negotiating the use of Heritage Sites or Sacred Sites in the context of National Economic Development objectives;

a Preservation of land rights and rights to Sacred Places a Land Issues in relation to the island of Balliceaux ;

a Public Policy and Practice in relation to Education or National Development in St Vincent and the Grenadines in relation to the Garifuna Heritage and Culture generally and the significance of the island of Balliceaux specifically;

a Opportunities and Challenges for the involvement of the Garifuna diaspora in the development and implementation of sustainable institutional platforms for viable strategies for cultural preservation or economic development on the island of Balliceaux :

a Opportunities and Challenges presented by International Conventions, such as the UNDRIP and the OAS Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People, for defining strategies in relation to the preservation of the island of Balliceaux as a Sacred Site;

a Theories and research in relation to the History, Geography and Archaeology of St Vincent and the Grenadines with special reference to the island of Balliceaux;

a Proposals/Strategies for the merging of Cultural Preservation and Development objectives for the island of Balliceaux.

Papers: Participants interested in submitting papers are asked to submit an abstract of no more than 300 words and a one-page biography, including mailing address, presentation format, email address(es) telephone contacts/phone, and fax number(s) and Skype addresses by email to Sherise Browne, IGRC Conference Secretariat, at [email protected] by February 15th, 2018. Papers must keep to a reading time of 15  20 minutes (approximately 7 a 8 pages). Participants can submit papers which have a practice focus, which describes exemplary practices or programmes in the community and which may take the form of a case study, demonstration or technical report. Presentations may also be based on the reporting of original research or on the general application of any theoretical framework.

For more information, call 784-45-62124 or send an email to the above address.VINLEC continues to assist Dominica with electricity restoration

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St Vincent Electricity Services Limited is again assisting the people of the Commonwealth of Dominica by providing technical support to the Dominica Electricity Services Limited (DOMLEC).

The islandas electricity supply was severely disrupted following the passage of Hurricane Maria, last September.

A team of five from the Transmission and Distribution Department left the island on Sunday, February 11 for Dominica to help with the restoration of electricity. This team is being led by Rodney Duncan (line supervisor, Construction and Maintenance) and will work with staff from DOMLEC to rebuild the network and restore electricity to sections of the island. The other members are Mowai Latham, Lamont Sterling, Kemmael Jacobs and Kemoul Harry.

VINLECas initial response to Dominica was part of an initiative, where regional utilities provide assistance to countries that are impacted by natural disasters immediately after the incident.

VINLECas decision to reach out at this time comes in light of the developments on the island, where a number of customers remain without power. VINLECas acknowledges that electricity supply is critical, as many essential services (water, gas, communications) and infrastructures depend on its continuity for their smooth functioning. In addition, the way of life of the citizens is altered without electricity supply.

During the 2017 hurricane season, VINLEC provided technical assistance to Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands after their systems were damaged by the passage of hurricanes.If you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE).HARTFORD  One Bridgeport and two New Haven charter schools have been denied an additional $627,000 in state money for 57 seats they filled without authorization.

The State Board of Education voted 7-1 to not award the extra seats after hearing nearly two hours of public testimony, much of it from traditional public school teachers opposed to the request.

Only Board Chairman Allan Taylor voted to approve the seats.

If we dont spend that money for charter school seats we are not going to be able to give them to the Hartford school district, Taylor said. He saw denial as going back on a commitment.

Other board members called the situation a deliberate action by charter schools to game the system.

They all knew the number of seats that had been approved, Estela Lopez, a state board member said, referring to the charter schools. For whatever reason, they went over the number of seats when funding had not been allocated.

Donald Harris, another board member said, two seats or 35 seats, the limit was overstepped.

More Information Charter seat request Charter School Host District OK'd enrollment 10/17 count Capitol Prep Harbor Bridgeport 404 439 Common Ground High New Haven 200 202 Elm City College Prep New Haven 719 752 See More Collapse

I am not in favor of doing any additions, Harris said. I dont think it is right.

The state Board of Education last summer divvied up 9,913 charter school seats when it was still uncertain whether the unsettled state budget would support them. The budget approved by the General Assembly in October supported them plus an additional $613,000.

Even with legislative funding, charter school seat allocations are determined by the state school board. The charter schools filled 57 extra seats without any assurance they would be approved and then came to the state school board Wednesday for the money.

Capital Preparatory Harbor School in Bridgeport wanted 35 seats, Common Ground High School in New Haven sought two seats and Elm City charter school that is part of Achievement First asked 20 seats. Each school gets $11,000 per student, and so the three were requesting a total of $625,000.

Before the vote, Morgan Barth, who is an Achievement First principal, said the students would be kept at his schools with or without the additional funding. Instead, he said the school would face painful budget cuts.

Steve Perry, founder of Capital Preparatory Harbor School of Bridgeport, felt so confident his school would get the additional funding before the vote he would not say what would happen if they didnt.

Afterward, Perry left saying he would continue to educate children too.

Commissioner of Education Dianna Wentzell said the request grew out of a highly unusual budget session and was guided by a letter sent to the department by State Senate President Martin Looney, D-New Haven, in January clarifying that the extra money approved in the budget was intended to fund additional seats.

During the public participation portion of the meeting, Stratford Schools Superintendent Janet Robinson, whose district faced more than $2 million in cuts, asked how the state can award more seats to charter schools while mercilessly cutting districts like hers where school days have been cut to avoid layoffs.

Why are our scarce tax dollars being spent on charter schools? Robinson asked. We are decimating our public schools and sending money to charters.

Kristen Record, a Stratford school teacher and former Connecticut Teacher of the Year, told the panel during the public speaking portion that sending more money to charter schools is absolutely not fair.

The children of my public school district have become victims of a system that is neither fair nor equitable, Record said.

Michael Brosnan, a Bridgeport teacher, told the board that his district accepted 180 students from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria with no additional funding. He called the idea of awarding a parallel system of schools for unapproved expansion reckless.

Don Williams, executive director of the Connecticut Education Association, said the charter school industry was treating the state board as a virtual ATM.

Perry, whose Bridgeport-based charter school has 445 students in K-12, said the school is only asking for what it was promised in its charter agreement. He called the 404 seats the school was funded a clerical error and said his school is not sitting on a surplus but actually running in a deficit, always borrowing Peter to pay Paul.

Barth, from Achievement First  which Elm City feeds into  argued that charter schools are not taking money away from traditional public schools. He blamed over-enrollment on low student turnover and commitments made to students to guarantee them seats through high school.

Dacia Toll, Achievement First president, said the school is not prepared to decide which students will go and which stay.

We felt we legally and morally had to serve students who have been with us for many years and are simply moving up to the next grade, Toll said. Some of the comments today were simply misinformed about what is actually going on here.

Miquell Shaw, a senior at Amistad, also pleaded to the state board, telling members how the school changed his life, keeping him out of jail like many of his family members.Considering just how thoroughly e-commerce is shaking up the bricks and mortar retail business, it should not come as a surprise that it is also disrupting the warehouse and distribution business.

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Considering just how thoroughly e-commerce is shaking up the bricks and mortar retail business, it should not come as a surprise that it is also disrupting the warehouse and distribution business.

Paul Derksen, senior vice-president for QuadReal Property Group, the real estate arm of the B.C. pension fund BCICM, said the way people are now shopping is changing the way warehouse buildings need to work.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Paul Derksen discusses the use of warehouses at the RBC Convention Centre on Wednesday.

At a Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) event in Winnipeg on Wednesday, Derksen said, "At the end of the day its about how everything gets made in China and comes into North America."

Since the U.S. has about a US$375-billion trade deficit with China, it is understandable there is a lot of effort being applied to the efficient movement of all that stuff around North America.

Amazon is building a 600,000-sq.-ft. distribution centre in Calgary, its seventh in the country.

It is one of millions of square feet of distribution space in the Calgary region that increasingly functions as an inland port of sorts for the busy West Coast ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert.

With so much more product coming from offshore and so many more consumer purchases that bypass the retail store, the way warehouses function is changing.

For one thing, Derksen said rather than shipping pallets in from the manufacturer to the warehouse and then shipping them out  still in the pallets  to the stores, product is now increasingly unbundled at the warehouse.

"The retailers now want to get product from the warehouse to the customer," Derksen said.

"That requires a shift in how you build warehouses."

It means that distribution centres need to be configured on land that has room for trucks to access the building from two sides  entering with palletted product at one side of the building and leaving on the other side with the unbundled orders ready to be delivered to customers doors.

Derksen showed examples of some of the most modern versions of the souped-up warehouse, including multi-level facilities in very dense Asian cities and fully automated, robotic warehouses with artificial intelligence features so the most popular items at that time are most easily accessible to the robots.

He said that in some of the busiest cities in the world like Chicago and New York there have been instances where old warehouses in the inner cities that have been converted to lofts have been converted back to warehouses as retailers try to figure out ways to tighten up the delivery process.

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But while there are sophisticated technologies now commercially available  like full automated turnkey warehouse systems that use robots to pick orders  Derksen said modern warehouse transformations are currently still limited to the speciality and "very, very large scale" operators.

As for Winnipeg, Derksen said QuadReal, which owns about 2.2 million sq. ft. of space here, "loves" the market.

"We call it our bond," he said.

"It is a very steady market. We know what happened last year. We know what to expect next year."

He did say that Winnipeg may not be ideally suited for the mega distribution centres like the one Amazon is currently building in Calgary because it is just too far from any port.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.caOTTAWA  An Arctic studies course aimed at helping Prairie students become environmental scientists has been put on ice, as Churchill approaches nine months without its railway lifeline. But provincial tourism officials say theyre optimistic the line will be running this fall.

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OTTAWA  An Arctic studies course aimed at helping Prairie students become environmental scientists has been put on ice, as Churchill approaches nine months without its railway lifeline. But provincial tourism officials say theyre optimistic the line will be running this fall.

"The connection we have as Canadians to the North is vital, absolutely, and its part of our heritage. How do we maintain that without a train?" said Ryan Brook, an agriculture professor with the University of Saskatchewan specializing in wildlife and Indigenous land management.

Since 1995, Brook has helped run a 10-day course called Churchill and the Manitoba Coastal Region, which has students meet local Indigenous people and scientists, and conduct experiments aimed at learning about climate change, ecotourism and protected areas.

The students often encounter species like the polar bear, beluga whale, caribou, fox and Canada goose, through visits to the Churchill Northern Studies Centre and a field camp inside Wapusk National Park.

"This link that Manitoba has to its north is really unusual; we dont see that in other provinces nearly as much, where we have that immediate and direct connection, that weve had for so long, that we can easily access the north like that," said Brook, who was raised on a Manitoba farm.

His course ran every two years starting in 1995, until student demand made it an annual excursion in 2004. In 2012, the University of Manitoba started jointly offering the course with its own instructor, though its decided not to do so this year.

Brook leads two trips of roughly 20 pupils each: the university course and a separate, annual high school excursion. Together, he estimates they contribute roughly $50,000 to the local economy in hotel, restaurant and service bills.

Each year, students would drive or take buses to Thompson, and pay $120 for a return-trip train ticket to Churchill. The train also helped them bring up tents and big boxes holding hundreds of pounds of research equipment, often with no extra fee.

Brooks colleagues sometimes pay $4,000 to fly to communities in Nunavut, and they call Churchill "the accessible Arctic."

Now, Brook is trying to plan out a budget for a $2,000 trip that will cost at least an extra thousand dollars, which he doubts many students can afford.

"Im planning my trips right now, and Im signing up students and planning my research activities and setting dates, with absolutely no knowledge whether were going to have a train this August or not for passengers. And frankly, given the lack of leadership on this issue, Im pretty doubtful."

Brook has taken the train up to Churchill every year since 1994, until last years washout. He acknowledged issues along the line, which have been documented in multiple reports, with sagging rails that had trains sometimes arriving more than 15 hours late. But he said it was still a gem for researchers.

The University of Manitoba has been circumspect as to why it no longer plans to send up an instructor. It said Wednesday that students can still sign up for the Saskatchewan course, and have a credit transferred.

Ryan Brook Students examine marine life during low tide on the Hudson Bay coast in August 2016.

The environment faculty "is unable to offer the course in 2018 for a variety of reasons that it continues to address," reads a statement, adding that it aims to bring it back next year.

Acting environment department head Mark Hanson told the Manitoban student paper that "the financial structure of the course" led the university to suspend the course. "There are other reasons, but unfortunately, privacy and confidentially preclude me from elaborating further at this time," he said.

Brook says the lack of concrete action by federal and provincial governments has him questioning the claim of Canada being an Arctic country, if it cant train students to understand the region.

"We have to have hands-on experience, so these kinds of opportunities are not important, theyre not useful, theyre not neat  theyre essential  and our students must have these kinds of training opportunities to have any real chance of having effective careers," he said.

Meanwhile, the provincial tourism authority says it has faith that the railway will be up and running in time for next years tourism season, which peaks in the late summer and October.

During the ongoing Olympics coverage, a Travel Manitoba ad celebrating Churchill has aired, including a scene where tourists marvel from the Via Rail dome car.

Linda Whitfield, the agencys marketing head, said the commercial aired prior to the May 2017 washout, and "we chose not to discontinue or edit it for a couple of reasons," she wrote in an email.

"We are confident that at some point the rail line issue will be resolved and Churchill will again be reachable by rail," Whitfield wrote.

She added that people can still take the train to Thompson before flying to Churchill.

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Via Rail said its waiting for a reopening date to be set before it plans its scheduling.

On Thursday, the Canadian Transportation Agency will hold a private hearing in its ongoing probe of whether Omnitrax abandoned the railway in violation of federal law, while a court hearing is scheduled next week in the Liberal governments lawsuit against the company.

This weekend, the federal NDP convention will consider three separate motions from Manitoba riding associations, calling on Ottawa to solve the railway crisis.

Brook said he knows that governments have put up funding for the town and started legal processes.

"These things are taking a long time, and I would love to see some sort of real provincial and national leadership on this. I think thats the missing piece right now."

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.caOTTAWA  The Conservatives are calling on the Trudeau government to raise the quota for privately sponsored refugees, saying Canadians want to open their wallets and arms wider, especially for Yazidi refugees fleeing the Islamic State group.

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OTTAWA  The Conservatives are calling on the Trudeau government to raise the quota for privately sponsored refugees, saying Canadians want to open their wallets and arms wider, especially for Yazidi refugees fleeing the Islamic State group.

"Theres a huge demand of generosity from Canadians," Tory immigration critic Michelle Rempel said Monday. "We are calling on the government to lift that gap."

The private-sponsorship program involves small groups of Canadians paying a familys living expenses for a year. The Tories want Ottawa to process more permits through the program, specifically some of the most vulnerable social and ethnic groups.

Winnipeg is home to one of the largest Yazidi communities in Canada, and family members say they have relatives languishing in refugee camps in northern Iraq after fleeing IS atrocities.

In November 2016, the Immigration Department reported there were roughly 45,000 refugees for whom private-sponsorship applications were being processed. That backlog has church and community groups phoning their MPs, wondering when they can sign a lease and start finding jobs for arriving families.

"They are not being listened to; this needs to change today," Rempel said Monday. "This is the No. 1 request that we get, in terms of immigration."

The Liberals have set an 18,000 target for privately sponsored refugees, with plans to raise it by 1,000 each year. To Rempel, thats a puzzling cap when the Liberals find resources to deal with whatever number of asylum-seekers cross illegally into Canada through a loophole that grants them a refugee hearing.

"This is a policy gap that the government needs to address immediately, because there are many groups that have raised funds, to bring these people into Canada, and are being stymied by the governments inefficiency and unwillingness to help these groups," Rempel said.

"If we can raise money to bring these survivors of genocide to Canada through the PSR program, why would we stop them from doing that? These are the most persecuted people in the world. And thats the question Im getting."

Winnipeg group Operation Ezra has brought more than 50 Yazidi refugees to Manitoba since July 2016, all privately sponsored. In the past, it has mentioned family members have relatives with deteriorating living conditions whom they would like to bring to Canada.

Brandon-Souris MP Larry Maguire sits on the House immigration committee, where he heard "very shaking" testimony about the plight of Yazidi people.

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The Conservative MP said he regularly gets calls from groups in his riding who want to bring in refugees. "There is that generosity throughout Canada," Maguire said. "Anything we can do to help them come in would be a plus."

Winnipeg Liberal MP Terry Duguid said hes proud of the citys Yazidi community, but hasnt yet examined the immigration quota set by his Liberal colleagues. "Our community has welcomed them with open arms, and we would love to have more," he said Tuesday.

The government has almost reached its goal of resettling 1,200 northern Iraqi refugees fleeing violence by the so-called Islamic State group. That goal was set a year ago when Rempel tabled a motion that got all-party support, originally aimed at Yazidis with a deadline for the end of 2017.

As of a month ago, 1,200 visas had been issued, mostly to Yazidis, though roughly 200 were still awaiting flights amid logistical challenges. In November, the Yazidi Association of Manitoba offered to assist with the airlift, saying it could navigate paperwork issues and cultural issues.

That group has helped welcome more than 100 refugees to Winnipeg, all through "government-assisted" resettlement, where Ottawa financially supports them for a year, instead of a sponsor group.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.caIn a sober reminder of the danger they face while on the job, city Transit workers held a memorial Wednesday to mark the one-year anniversary of the stabbing death of their colleague.

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In a sober reminder of the danger they face while on the job, city Transit workers held a memorial Wednesday to mark the one-year anniversary of the stabbing death of their colleague.

It took place the same day that police sought the public's help to find a suspect in the latest assault against a bus driver, and the Free Press reviewed updated statistics about the number of assaults on drivers.

The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505 a held a vigil for Irvine Jubal Fraser, who was stabbed last Valentine's Day at the last stop on his route at the University of Manitoba campus. A 23-year-old man, who was a passenger on the bus, has been charged with second-degree murder.

"Today, were gathered to commemorate his memory and to make it clear that one life lost on the job is too many. Our union has, and will continue to work with everyone, to ensure that our workplace, Winnipeg Transit, is safe for operators and riders," said union president Aleem Chaudhary.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Pins availabe at the Amalgamated Transit Union memorial for Irvine Jubal Fraser.

Police said Wednesday, the most recent incident of a driver being assaulted happened Jan. 21 around 4:35 p.m. A man got on a bus at Portage Avenue and Fort Street and told the driver he didn't have money to pay the fare. A short time later, he punched the driver and fled.

Meantime, statistics obtained through a freedom-of-information request show that that most dangerous shift last fall involved the No. 16 bus route in the late afternoon.

Data show there were 51 assaults on drivers in 2017. Forty-six of them were level one, four were level two assaults and one was level three  the stabbing death of Fraser on Feb. 14.

The assault levels are broken down by the city:

The No. 16 bus, which travels between Selkirk Avenue in the North End and Osborne Street, registered seven assaults. The No. 14 bus, which travels from St. Mary's Road to Ellice Avenue, ranked second-worst with five assaults.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Crystal Hanley, right, hugs Penny Teron at a memorial held by the Amalgamated Transit Union in Winnipeg for Irvine Jubal Fraser, an operator killed on the job a year ago.

The most assaults happened during the afternoon rush hour, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Meantime, October and November had the most run-ins, with seven and eight assaults, respectively.

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Acting Winnipeg Transit director Greg Ewankiw said changing abusive behaviour on buses is a challenge.

"We board approximately 170,000 people per day and so there's a lot going on," he said. "This is a challenge that's being seen all across Canada, really across North America, and there isn't really any single one method (to fix the problem)."

The city's transit advisory committee is considering whether to put police officers on buses on a regular basis.

Beat officers currently ride as much as they can in accordance with their busy schedules, Winnipeg Police Const. Rob Carver said.

jessica.botelho@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @_jessbuRaymond Cormier did not love Tina Fontaine, or at least, in 2015, that's what he wanted to tell one of his neighbours.

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This article was published 15/2/2018 (1307 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

Raymond Cormier did not love Tina Fontaine, or at least, in 2015, that's what he wanted to tell one of his neighbours.

Only thing was, that neighbour was an undercover police officer. So now, thanks to a hidden microphone the officer was wearing, the jury that will decide whether Cormier is guilty of second-degree murder for Fontaine's 2014 death, knows it too.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Steve Lambert Raymond Cormier.

Those tapes fill in more of the story of Tina's last days. Most of it is dark, but there is a fleck of light in it.

But first, the question of the love that was utterly lacking. In one long 2015 conversation the undercover officer, posing as a neighbour in a Manitoba Housing apartment block, mentioned that Cormier must have loved Tina.

"No," Cormier replied. "No, no, no, no, no, wrong. I wanted to f--- Tina."

These words, muffled on the tape, thud into the courtroom like lead. Some observers shift uncomfortably in their seats, recoiling, taking in sharp breaths. It takes a moment to rest the hairs standing taut on the back of the neck.

At the time of Tina's death in August 2014, Cormier was in his early 50s. Tina was just 15 years old, and, according to some who knew her, looked even younger: her hands, one witness told court earlier in this trial, were tiny.

Yet Cormier talked about his lust for Tina on numerous occasions, to that undercover cop and other people in his orbit who listened. To some, he insisted he never sexually exploited the girl; to others, he said that he did, multiple times.

Once, she went to his house: "So automatically I'm thinkin' 'alright, I'm gettin' laid tonight, right?'" he told a friend.

There were other things court heard on Wednesday, that gave a window into how Cormier sees girls and women.

Because there was another occasion, after Tina was dead. This time, the woman was an undercover police officer, posing as a 19-year-old named Jenna. In 2015, she met Cormier in the hall of his Logan Avenue apartment block.

In that scenario, she appeared distressed, banging on a nearby door and screaming for its occupant  another undercover cop  to come out. She was crying, her sobs choking the audio recorded by a hidden microphone.

Cormier emerged from his apartment and tried to console her. He told her to breathe in, breathe out. He asked if she needed to go to the hospital for psychiatric treatment. He urged her to remember there were children in the building.

As he did this, the officer told court, Cormier stood very close to her, right in her personal space.

Yet in October 2015, two months before he was arrested in Vancouver, Cormier seemed content to let "Jenna" die.

On that occasion, the undercover officers staged a domestic violence incident inside their apartment. Cormier later entered to see Jenna appearing battered (thanks to make-up) and comatose (thanks to acting), lying on the floor.

The male officer left it to Cormier to decide how to handle her body, he told court. Few other details about this scene emerged at the trial, but somehow Jenna ended up being carted away in a truck, unconscious and unresponsive.

So whether or not Cormier is guilty of murder  and it is not up to me to decide  evidence suggests he is at least guilty of this, a moral if not legal crime: he saw some of the girls and women who cycled through his life as things.

Things to be used, should it please him. Things to be abused. Things to be f---ed.

And this is the core of the hurt, the root of so much violence against girls and women: the entitlement to take or coerce or exploit bodies which are not or cannot be freely given. This is where so much human unravelling starts.

But there is also this: some people in Cormier's orbit tried to help Tina, in their own way.

For instance there was Cormier's acquaintance, Sarah Holland. She did drugs with him and, according to Cormier's secretly taped conversations that heard in court, once asked what he was doing hanging around with the young girl.

"I'm trying to get laid, what the f--- do you think I'm doin'?" he said that he replied.

Holland, according to Cormier's taped account, told him flatly how young Tina was. (In some versions of his story caught on the recordings, Cormier said he backed off pursuing her at that point; other statements contradict that.)

Holland testified earlier in the trial that on one occasion, Cormier tried to grab at Tina's breasts. The teen tried to move away from him, eventually taking refuge in Holland's bedroom because Cormier was "creeping her out."

Cormier tried to enter the room. Tina and Holland, the latter testified, told him to get lost.

What is awful to think: that could be one of the last flashes of kindness anyone offered Tina, before her body ended up in the river. And she deserved so much more love, care and protection, but maybe that counts for something.

Or maybe not.

- - - -

While the jury in the Cormier trial listened to the tapes, another trial was underway on the second floor of the building. It's a manslaughter trial against Danny Williams, in the agonizing death of 21-month-old Kierra Williams.

The toddler was rushed to hospital in July 2014, malnourished and suffering from grievous wounds. For this abuse her mother, Vanessa Bushie, was convicted of second-degree murder last year, and sentenced to life in prison.

Yet like Tina, Kierra too had people who tried, with what little power they had, to help her. On Wednesday, court watched video of a police interview with one of Kierra's older siblings, not yet a teen herself when it happened.

She told an officer about an older sister who had sometimes visited, who never yelled when Kierra cried and instead murmured "shhhhh," and rocked her to sleep. She spoke about how she would feed her little sister baby food.

"She'd only eat when I fed her," the girl told police.

There are people who cared about Kierra, and tried in their own ways to help her. People who saw Tina for what she was  a vulnerable child  and at least tried to deter a middle-aged man from turning a lecherous gaze upon her.

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In each of their cases, these points of care were not enough to save them.

Yet the fact they exist is something to build on. If there are points of care around vulnerable children, how can we build a society that links them, creates a net, something that will catch and hold young lives safe from the abyss?

It is late afternoon, now. On the street outside the Law Courts building, underneath the arcing steel sculpture that presides over the York Avenue plaza, men with flags march in quiet vigil. One of them holds a sign, calling for justice for Tina.

She is remembered enough to be just Tina, now. Four letters for a life. No last name needed.

And it is Valentine's Day, and there are no words to say, if not about love. So what do you do? All that you can: you lock eyes with the man holding the sign, put a hand over your heart, and hope that justice, like love, will be done.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.caThe US Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, warned yesterday that time is running out for any peaceful resolution of the confrontation with North Korea. He told the Senate Intelligence Committee that Pyongyang poses a potentially existential threat to the United States and it is likely that North Korea will conduct more weapons tests this year.

The Trump administration has repeatedly declared that all options are on the table, including military attacks, to prevent North Korea from building a nuclear missile capable of hitting continental America. Trump himself has made bellicose warnings, including that he would totally destroy the small, economically backward country if it threatened to launch nuclear weapons against the US.

Coats told the committee North Korea had made repeated statements that nuclear weapons were necessary for its survival, suggesting its leaders do not intend to negotiate them away. While reiterating the Trump administrations intention to apply maximum pressure, he declared: Decision time is becoming ever closer in terms of how we respond to this.

These remarks follow US Vice President Mike Pences trip to Asia that included South Korea, where he held talks with President Moon Jae-in and attended the Winter Olympics opening ceremony last Friday. Speaking in Tokyo before his arrival, he said the US would soon announce the toughest and most aggressive round of economic sanctions on North Korea ever and poured scorn on North Korean efforts to ease tensions through the Olympics.

Pence deliberately snubbed top North Korean officialsKim Yo-jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong-un, and Kim Yong-nam, the countrys formal head of state. He skipped a dinner attended by Kim Yong-nam, as well as officials and leaders attending the Olympics from other countries. In a display of imperial arrogance, he refused to stand when the joint North-South Korean team appeared during the opening ceremony.

Kim Yo-jong brought a message from her brother offering to hold a summit with Moon at an early date. As reported by a presidential spokesman, Moon responded: Lets create conditions to make it happen. The cautious character of Moons response was underscored on Sunday when South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon told the media that any summit would require the right conditions.

In his talks with Kim Jong-uns sister, Moon made clear that the US would have to be involved in any rapprochement between the two Koreas. The early resumption of dialogue between the US and North Korea is absolutely necessary for the development of inter-Korean relations, he reportedly told Kim Yo-jong.

The US has repeatedly insisted that negotiations on the dangerous standoff on the Korean Peninsula will occur only if Pyongyang capitulates to US demands to abandon its nuclear arsenal, dismantle its nuclear and missile facilities and allow ever-more intrusive inspections of its industrial and military apparatus.

Moon, who won the South Korean presidency last year by pitching to widespread anti-war sentiment, has publicly espoused talks with North Korea as a means of easing tensions and averting the danger of a disastrous conflict. At the same time, he has been careful not to alienate the Trump administration or the powerful military-intelligence apparatus in South Korea, which has strong links to the US and is hostile to any concessions to North Korea.

Moon bowed to US pressure last year to fully deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile system in South Korea despite condemnations from North Korea and China. In doing so, he broke a key electoral promise.

North Koreas offer to hold a summit with Moon is clearly aimed at dividing South Korea from the United States. Both Pence and US Defence Secretary James Mattis have stressed that there are no differences between the US and South Korea. I know that people are watching for a wedge theres no wedge there, Mattis said, adding there was strong co-ordination between the two countries.

In an interview with the Washington Post on his flight back to Washington, Pence hinted that the US could consider holding direct talks with North Korea. He emphasised that the campaign of maximum pressure on North Korea would remain until it made major concessions to US demands for denuclearisation. So the maximum pressure campaign is going to continue and intensify, he said. But if you want to talk, well talk.

Genuine negotiations, however, remain unlikely. Pence used his meetings with President Moon to insist that South Korea make no concessions to North Korea. As reported by the Washington Post: Moon assured Pence he would tell the North Koreans clearly that they would not get economic or diplomatic benefits for just talkingonly for taking concrete steps toward denuclearisation.

Following the Olympics, the US and South Korea will go ahead with massive joint military exercises that last year involved more than 300,000 troops, backed by sophisticated warplanes and warships, in a thinly disguised rehearsal for war with North Korea. The US has been bolstering its military forces in East Asia, placing nuclear-capable B-52 and B-2 bombers on Guam and indicating that Marine Expeditionary Units, previously deployed to the Middle East, will be positioned in the Asia Pacific.

Speaking at yesterdays Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, CIA director Mike Pompeo said he saw no indication theres any strategic change by the North Korean regime in its efforts to build a nuclear arsenal. In January, he declared that Pyongyang was a handful of months away from having a nuclear missile able to hit the United States.

Pompeos comments yesterday are a further indication that the Trump administration is engaged in advanced preparations for attacking North Korea. He confirmed that the CIA had assessed how North Korea would react to a pre-emptive US strike. We have written about various forms of actions, he said, adding that the intelligence community had also measured the certainty and uncertainty we have around that analysis.

Asked to elaborate further, Pompeo demurred, saying: I would prefer to share that with you in closed session this afternoon.

What the Trump administration is actively considering is an unprovoked and illegal act of military aggression that could quickly escalate into a catastrophic war that would drag in nuclear-armed powers such as China and Russia.If the grand coalition between the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats comes to pass, Germanys military leadership will exert a degree of political influence on its policies unlike in any other government since the end of World War II. Important elements of the coalition contract agreed by the CDU/CSU and SPD last week bear the hallmark of the Bundeswehr (Armed Forces) brass.

At the Berlin Security Conference at the end of November, leading military officials had already presented a comprehensive catalogue of demands for upgrading Germanys military capabilities. In his summation to the conference, Luftwaffe Inspector Karl Mullner said, We have stated that as the Federal Republic of Germany, we want to take on more responsibility in the world, and I think it is important that we all realize that this is not to be had for free. He hoped that politicians recognize this and provide the appropriate means.

In the exploratory coalition paper, which the CDU/CSU and SPD presented in mid-January after lengthy talks, the comprehensive armaments upgrade plans were only mentioned in the margins. Above all, the SPD leadership feared that the party would otherwise reject the continuation of the grand coalition.

The chairman of the Bundeswehr Association, Lieutenant Colonel Andre Wustner, all but burst a blood vessel, according to some media reports. He attacked the political agreement with extraordinary sharpness. He said he was shocked that the exploratory paper dedicated only a few dry sentences to the army.

The increase of the defence budget by 2 billion for each of the next four years and the combination of this increase with development aid were completely unacceptable, he continued, declaring: If this is actually decided, then it is an agreement at the expense of the Bundeswehr, at the expense of our reliability and alliance abilityand thus at the expense of the security of Germany. That is irresponsible.

Instead of holding the officer accountable for his attack on elected politicians and parliamentary deputies, party officials all stood firm and deepened their collaboration with the military brass. The coalition agreement now clearly bears its signature.

A comparison with previous coalition agreements makes this clear. In the agreement to form a government between the Christian Democrats and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) in 2009, the word Bundeswehr appears nine times. At the time, chapter 5 was headed, For a powerful and modern Bundeswehr and began with the words, The Bundeswehr is an essential instrument of German peace policy. Then followed a few paragraphs about the abolition of military conscription and the importance of the Bundeswehr as a parliamentary army.

Four years later, the formation of a grand coalition with the SPD already stood under the auspices of a major foreign policy offensive and intensive military rearmament. The pro-government Science and Politics Foundation (SWP), in collaboration with representatives of all parties, leading journalists and professors, had published the strategy paper New PowerNew Responsibility, and former President Joachim Gauck had called for more German responsibility in all the worlds crisis regions, speaking on the 2013 Day of German Unity. Gauck had explicitly emphasized that this also meant taking military responsibility.

At that time, the word Bundeswehr appeared 24 times in the coalition agreement. The chapter Realignment of the Bundeswehr said, We are committed to a strong defence with modern and efficient armed forces. This was followed by agreements about the modernization and upgrading of the army.

In the current coalition agreement, the word Bundeswehr appears 38 times and the decision on military rearmament permeates all areas of the document. Government policy as a whole is now geared towards returning Germany to an aggressive foreign and great power policy.

The core of the current coalition agreement, the chapter, Germanys Responsibility for Peace, Freedom and Security in the World, is 20 pages long and reads like a strategy paper for a third German grab for world power. The list of areas of interest includes the Western Balkans, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Afghanistan, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Armaments production is to be massively expanded and specifically promoted. The agreement states, The Bundeswehr will procure what it needs, not what it is offered. What is needed is a transparent, effective and an optimized armaments processes.

In this context, the coalition paper completely redefines the concept of the parliamentary army. Where this was previously understood as meaning the strict subordination of the military to parliament and the elected government, it is now said that the Bundestag assumes a special responsibility for our soldiers. Parliamentary control is thus transformed into a duty of care.

In order for the Bundeswehr to be able to properly fulfil orders given to it in all dimensions, we will provide the soldiers with the best possible equipment, training and support, the paper states.

To this end, the trend reversals in personnel, materiel and finances initiated are to be systematically continued and in addition to ensuring the sustainable financing of the Bundeswehr, the necessary conditions are to be guaranteed for planning and financing security investments over the years. In the future, parliamentary army means that parliament must ensure the implementation of the requirements of the army brass.

An important role in this reversal of parliamentary control of the army into parliamentary support for the military leadership is being played by the Bundestag defence committee. It is therefore not surprising when the Bundeswehr Journal rejoices that the right-wing extremist Alternative for Germany (AfD), with five members in the committee, now has a weighty voice.

The AfD parliamentary group in the committee is led by Rudiger Lucassen, who leaves the Bundeswehr after 34 years of service as Colonel iG (General Staff) and, according to Wikipedia, has set up a training and procurement services company for military and police organizations.

Another AfD committee member, Gerold Otten, was also a professional soldier. He left the Luftwaffe (air force) in 1997 as a major and worked for the armaments sector of the Airbus Group, most recently as sales manager for the Eurofighter.

Another member of the AfD group on the committee, Berengar Elsner von Gronow, is a member of the Bundeswehr Reserve.

Together with the AfD, four members of the Left Party sit in the defence committee: Christine Buchholz, a leading member of Marx21 (the German sister organisation of Britains Socialist Workers Party), who regularly visits troops with Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU); Matthias Hohn, until recently federal managing director of the Left Party; Alexander Neu, a former OSCE employee who has represented the Left Party in the parliamentary defence committee for a long time and who discusses controversially but supports all its decisions; and Tobias Pfluger, who has previously posed as an opponent of militarism but now acts as a left fig leaf in the defence committee.

None of these reactionary lackeys dare to expose what was really agreed in the coalition negotiations. Which Bundeswehr organs, military leaders and intelligence agents participated in drafting the government agreement? What additional talks and agreements have been held with the Bundeswehr?

Anyone who wants to fight seriously against war and rearmament must ask these questions and support the struggle of the Socialist Equality Party against the coalition agreement and for new elections.

The military caste has played a devastating role in German history. It formed the backbone of the empire and survived defeat in the First World War and the November Revolution of 1918 only because the right-wing SPD leadership allied itself with the Army Supreme Command to quell the revolutionary uprising of the working class, culminating in the murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. In the Weimar Republic, it acted as an anti-democratic state within the state and contributed significantly to the rise of National Socialism (Nazism).

In the 1950s, there were massive protests against German rearmament. These could only be broken because the SPD spoke in favour of the Bundeswehr and because civilian control of the military was guaranteed. Now, the grand coalition is returning to aggressive great power politics and is helping the reactionary military caste regain power and influence. This must not be allowed.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced last night that the Senate will vote today on four immigration amendments after both parties agreed to a framework far to the right of any public discussion on the subject since the 1920s, when the government implemented racial quotas to block millions from entering the US.

After weeks of sham debate in which Democrats postured as opponents of Trumps far-right proposals, the leading bipartisan amendment, put forward by Republican Susan Collins and supported by Democratic leadership, is the same as Donald Trumps initial proposal in January.

This amendment, dubbed the moderate option by the corporate press, would give $25 billion to construct a border wall. This vast sum would militarize the border, trapping thousands more in death by hypothermia or dehydration. It would also transform the immigration and border police into a powerful and visible force in towns and cities across the country, giving them tools to conduct Gestapo-like mass raids and arrests and to jail immigrants at an unprecedented rate.

In exchange, 1.8 million immigrant youth brought to the US as children would be forced to wait 10 to 12 yearsuntil the oldest are nearly 50 years oldbefore some acquire citizenship. The bill would do nothing to protect the parents of the 1.8 million, leaving them vulnerable to deportation.

Trump has come out in support of another proposal by Iowa Senator Charles Grassley that would eliminate family-based petitions and thereby slash immigration by over 20 million over the next decades. That a proposal to cut legal immigration will earn the votes of Republicans and likely some Democrats would have been unheard of just a few years ago.

Dara Lind of Vox noted yesterday in an article titled Legal immigration has replaced amnesty as the core of the debate that in the 1990s and early 2000s, the debate over immigration reform centered on how to grant citizenship to all immigrants in the US without documentation. That era is over, Lind writes. In the midst of a messy Senate debate over immigration policy, its now clear that the most contentious question in Congress is one thats been dormant in legislative fights for years: whether or not to cut legal immigration.

The Democrats have fully participated in this rightward shift. They merely dress up their racist and xenophobic initiatives with references to diversity and the American melting pot.

Democratic Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin took to the Senate floor yesterday and accepted the notion put forward by Attorney General Jefferson Sessions that asylum applicants are committing fraud. Is there exploitation in the system? Durbin asked. You bet there is. Is there abuse in the system? For sure Should we be dedicated to cleaning this up? Sign me up, on a bipartisan basis.

Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders came out in support of the proposal to construct a border wall, stating, We have to protect the dreamers Im willing to make some painful concessions. Sanders said he is scrambling now for three to five more votes required to pass the Collins deal.

Sanders recently criticized a guest worker program that allows Vermont resorts to hire foreign ski instructors rather than Americans. Now do you not think we can find young people in Vermont who know how to ski and snowboard?... I think we want to take a hard look at guest worker programs. Some of them remain very unfair.

If a reform bill passes the Senate, it will face opposition from Republicans in the House who will likely add additional anti-immigrant measures. Whatever measure makes it through will then have to be sufficiently anti-immigrant to secure Trumps approval. It is highly unlikely that Congress would be able to override a possible Trump veto with a 2/3 override vote in both houses.

Trump has made clear he will veto a third proposal by Republican John McCain and Democrat Christopher Coons, saying that it does not include sufficient funding for the immigration police, even though it only allows young immigrants to become permanent residents as opposed to citizens.

The secret negotiations between Republicans, Democrats and Trump are taking place in direct opposition to the vast majority of Americans, roughly 90 percent of whom want the young immigrants to become citizens. Polling shows that while the two parties have shifted toward more xenophobic positions, the population has shifted overwhelmingly in favor of immigrants. A recent Gallup report shows that just 35 percent of Americans want to decrease immigration levels, down from 65 percent in 1995.

The Democratic Party has sought to push the immigration debate into the background, focusing attention instead on questions of sexual abuse and bogus allegations of Russian interference in the elections. During congressional hearings for Trumps budget proposal, Democrats failed to raise any opposition to hiring 2,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and 750 new Border Patrol agents. During Trumps State of the Union address last month, the entire congress, Democrats included, gave a standing ovation to one of Trumps guests, an ICE officer whose job it is to tear immigrants from their families and deport them.

Meanwhile, recent weeks have seen a dangerous intensification of raids and indiscriminate immigration arrests, the purpose of which is to instill terror among the nations 12 million undocumented people. ICE agents launched a series of raids in Southern California Sunday, arresting over 100 people across the region.

ICE spokeswoman Sarah Rodriguez insinuated that agents targeted immigrants without criminal records in retaliation for efforts by Los Angeles to block local officials from collaborating with immigration agents. Rodriguez said uncooperative jurisdictions forced ICE to conduct at-large arrests in the community, putting officers, the general public and the aliens at greater risk and increasing the incidence of collateral arrests.

As immigration officials deport children from their schools, workers from their job sites, and split thousands of families across the country, the corporate press has dedicated much more time to whether Donald Trump slept with a pornographic film star or whether he sufficiently denounced an aid accused of domestic abuse. This sordid congressional debate shows that the only way to defend the rights of immigrants is to break with the two anti-immigrant parties and mobilize the entire working class, regardless of immigration status, in defense of democratic rights.Some 20,000 protesters, many of them young people, took part in an anti-fascist march through Macerata, Italy on Saturday afternoon. One week earlier, on February 3, a local fascist, Luca Traini, had wounded six residents in a racist shooting.

Demonstrations against fascism were also held in Bologna, Milan, Piacenza and other cities. Young people from all over Italy, however, insisted on traveling to Macerata to demonstrate their solidarity with those affected and their readiness to fight against the resurgence of the fascist threat. On Thursday, the ruling Democratic Party (PD) officially cancelled the demonstration.

One banner read: Jennifer, Mahamadou, Gideon, Wilson, Festus, Omarthese are the names of the six hit by the indiscriminate shooting on dark-skinned people the week before. The site of the opening rally, a small park, was quickly overcrowded, and a happy, relaxed mood spread as the demonstration promised to be a success. Many sang and chanted slogans against fascism and war.

Asked by a reporter what they thought about the absence of PD politicians, one participant replied, That surprised me too. One woman said, There is no longer any difference between the left and the right, and another, We are also fighting for our right to demonstrate.

On Thursday, Interior Minister Marco Minniti (PD) tried to ban the demonstration. He was supported by PD leader Matteo Renzi, who called on all sides to moderate the tone. Beforehand, Macerata Mayor Romano Carancini, who also belongs to the PD, warned of violent conflicts and advised against any rally.

Carancini based this warning on the brazen appearance of fascist organisations such as Forza Nuova and CasaPound, who had also called for demonstrations. The leader of Forza Nuova, Roberto Fiore, had publicly expressed his solidarity with the assassin Luca Traini and called for donations for his legal fees, and on Thursday night, about 30 fascists paraded loudly and virtually unmolested through Macerata.

All the organisations under whose name the demonstration and rally had been originally announced, including the National Association of Italian Partisans (Anpi) and the Cgil union, quickly caved in. They cancelled the demonstration. The electoral alliance Free and Equal (LeU, Liberi e Uguali), which claims to be to the left of the PD, did the same.

LeUs lead candidate, Pietro Grasso, spoke on Thursday during a visit to Macerata and supported the decision to cancel the demonstration. Grasso said he accepted the decision of the mayor. Sententiously, he declared that the values of the constitution were inviolable and that one should not equate fascist and anti-fascist rallies, but added, The decision whether or not to demonstrate must be made by those responsible for security.

All this meant more and more pro-refugee campaigns, solidarity groups, NGOs and even individual Macerata residents declared publicly that they would take to the streets on Saturday as planned, to defend immigrants against fascism and racism.

On Saturday, the mayor closed schools and the university and stopped public transport at 1:30 p.m. He positioned an intimidating police force in the city centre. Many frightened shopkeepers shut their shops and locked their doors and shop windows.

The demonstration, however, was a success. It passed peacefully and made clear that there is a deep gulf between the majority of the Italian population and the party bigwigs. It showed that a large part of the youth and working class disagree with xenophobic programmes and right-wing government policies.

The campaigns of all the parties for the March 4 parliamentary election are largely marked by nationalism and xenophobia, an atmosphere that favours right-wing and fascist forces. The Lega, Forza Italia and the Five Star Movement seek to outstrip each others anti-immigrant demands, while the PD government is readying troops for North Africa and making common cause with the Libyan Coast Guard against migrants. The political elite has created a climate in which for weeks there has been a  black wave of right-wing extremist attacks.

Resistance to this is now growing, but it finds no expression in the existing party spectrum. The electoral alliances to the left of the PD also offer no alternative. Rather, they have sprung up to capture any independent movement in the working class and divert it back into the old channels of bourgeois politics.

This applies in particular to the LeU electoral alliance and its lead candidate, Pietro Grasso. This alliance consists mainly of politicians who came from the Italian Communist Party, which was dissolved in 1991. Most of them have already held responsible positions in government, state or the trade unions. These include veteran party cadres such as Massimo DAlema, Pier Luigi Bersani and Guglielmo Epifani. Bersani was for years chairman of the Partito Democratico (PD), Epifani was head of the Cgil union, and DAlema was even prime minister and foreign minister under Romano Prodi.

In the current election campaign, they are focusing their fire on the person of Matteo Renzi, who marginalised them when he took over the leadership of the PD and the government four years ago. Renzi comes from the Christian Democrat faction Margherita, with which the Left Democrats (DS) merged in October 2007 to become the Democratic Party (PD). Since then, this wing has increasingly determined the party line.

In December 2016, when Renzis defeat in the constitutional referendum revealed the dwindling influence of the PD, some old Stalinists concluded that it was necessary to found a party outside the PD to shore up bourgeois rule. On this basis, the Democratic and Progressive Movement (MDP), a PD split-off, and  Possibile  joined together with the Italian Left (Sinistra Italiana, SI) to form LeU in December 2017. As the LeU leaders have stated several times, they would tolerate a PD government as long as it was without Renzi.

Lead candidate Pietro Grasso is a former Senate president and anti-Mafia prosecutor. He continually makes it abundantly clear that he sees the political situation through the eyes of a public prosecutor, subordinates everything to the state, and accords it the power to immediately prohibit any independently developing movement. This was also evidenced by his call to cancel the demonstration in Macerata.

The right-wing and fascist forces are closely linked to the Italian state. The police and military often sympathise with the fascists, while at the same time hunting down undocumented immigrants and socialists and sealing the borders against people fleeing imperialist wars.General Motors announced Tuesday that it would shut down one of its four auto factories in South Korea by the end of May. More than 2,000 workers are set to be laid off from the plant in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province and the closure would have a devastating impact on jobs throughout the city. The companys move marks an intensification of the assault, not only on autoworkers in South Korea, but internationally.

GM, which employees 15,663 South Korean workers through its affiliate GM Korea, is using the plant closure and the threat of a complete exit from the country to win financial concessions from the South Korean government and drive down wages. The company pointed to high labor costs, along with falling sales, as the reasons for its decision. GM CEO Mary Barra foreshadowed the closure last week when she said GM Korea had to be viable.

The company is now in talks with the government and the Korean Metal Workers Union (KMWU), which represents autoworkers at companies like GM Korea, Hyundai and Kia. GM president Dan Ammann issued a veiled warning to workers to accept the auto producers demands, saying: Time is short and everyone must move with urgency. The company expects acquiescence before the end of February, when product allocation decisions are made.

While the companys specific demands have not been made public, GM is calling for additional financial support from the state-run Korean Development Bank, which owns 17 percent of GM Korea. GM, headquartered in Detroit, owns 77 percent, while the remaining 6 percent is owned by the Shanghai-based SAIC Motor Corporation.

Seoul is questioning GMs rationale and is considering looking into GM Koreas business practices. GM may have pocketed as much as three trillion won ($2.78 billion) from its Korean affiliate through underhanded means since acquiring the company in 2002. This includes 462 billion won ($431 million) in interest on loans from 2013 to 2016, with the company charging rates higher than the commercial average. Some of the funds supposedly went to research and development.

Lee Hang-koo, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, refuted GMs explanation, saying: The R&D costs were too high given the number of new cars released here. Based on strategic bookkeeping, GM took all the money from GM Korea and now is asking for money from the Korean government.

The supposedly militant Korean Metal Workers Union is stepping in to ensure workers anger is directed into safe channels for the government and company. The union denounced GMs decision as unilateral. Senior KMWU official Dang Sung-geun said: We cant accept this. The company informed us about the closure plan, not asking for our opinion. It was already the end of the discussions.

In other words, the KMWU is upset that it was not directly involved in the slashing of wages and factory conditions so that it could sell the decision to its membership more easily.

Adding insult to injury, GMs decision was announced a few days before the Lunar New Year, a major holiday in Korea, in an attempt to forestall industrial action.

The Gunsan branch of the KMWU held a protest at the factory after the closure was announced. But aside from empty posturing, the union bureaucrats will do nothing to defend workers jobs. Kim Jae-hong, who leads the branch, said at the protest: Lets protect our right to live on our own. This indicates that the protest would not be expanded outside the plant.

In fact, the KMWU has been involved with the job cuts at Gunsan from the beginning. In early 2014, when GM Korea announced it would lay off an entire shift comprising 1,100 workers, a union official told the media: Job cuts are inevitable because of reduced production. We will settle the situation through negotiations. The following year, the KMWU sanctioned the shifts elimination, promising workers would be relocated. Instead, hundreds were sacked.

The KMWUs refusal to defend Gunsan workers and oppose the companys demands has paved the way for this latest round of firings. There has been no attempt to unite workers at the soon-to-be-shuttered factory with GM workers at the other three GM plants in South Korea, let alone with workers at other companies like Hyundai or the broader international working class.

At best, the KMWU will stage a few partial strikes and token protests to let off steam, while limiting the impact on the company. The union will then enforce speedups after the strikes are over to make up for lost production.

The closure will have a significant impact on the city of Gunsan. Gunsan worked really hard to rescue GM, buying GM cars produced from the factory, city council chairwoman Park Chung-hi told Reuters. The whole town is now in panic. She added that one in five city residents among a population of 280,000 were reliant in some way on GM Koreas factory.

In the US, President Donald Trump claimed, during a trade-related meeting, that GM was bringing jobs back to the United States. He also attacked the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement. Trump called for retaliatory taxes on goods such as steel, which would have a negative impact on South Korea, declaring: Countries are taking advantage of us. He lashed out at South Korea and Japan specifically, accusing them of not paying enough to host the US military, a further sign of the growing tensions with nominal allies.

As militarism and economic instability on the Korean Peninsula and the region grows, workers and youth in the United States, South Korea and throughout Asia are increasingly coming into conflict with multinational corporations and governments. Unions like the KMWU or the United Auto Workers in the United States are striving to subordinate their members to the demands of big business. What is required is a unified struggle of workers in South Korea and internationally on socialist principles to defend jobs and living standards. This will require a political break from all the defenders of capitalism, including the trade unions.Large rallies organised by right-wing and fascist forces have taken place in Greece protesting the use of the name Macedonia by the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, on Greeces northern border.

A rally held February 4 in Athens, estimated by the police at 140,000, easily overfilled the main Syntagma Square, with up to 500,000 attending according to other reports.

The rally was officially endorsed by the Greek Orthodox Church, with senior clergy invited to speak. A large contingent of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn was present. It was preceded by a similar event two weeks earlier in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, Greeces second largest city and the capital of its Macedonian region.

Along with sections of the military, one of the leading organisers of both rallies was the Pan Macedonia Association (PMA), a US-based organisation with chapters among the Greek diaspora around the world. The PMA is an extreme right-wing organisation, which was on friendly terms with the 1967-74 military junta. It was founded in 1947, the year Truman declared his doctrine committing the US to a global engagement against communism and the USSR.

The PMA website states, The Truman Administration through the aforementioned Doctrine Plan and the financial support of America along with the so many sacrifices by the Greek people and the Greek blood spilled during the Civil War, saved Macedonia from the tentacles of the Communist threat.

The Macedonia name dispute has been ongoing for over a quarter century since the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991, with Greek governments claiming that use of the name by its northern neighbour conceals irredentist ambitions over the northern Greek province of Macedonia.

In 1993, Macedonia joined the United Nations under the provisional name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). Since then repeated attempts to resolve the dispute have stalled, with Greece vetoing Macedonias accession to NATO and the European Union in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

Hopes for a settlement were rekindled following a two-hour meeting between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his Macedonian counterpart Zoran Zaef, held on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos January 24. At a press conference, Zaef declared that the names of Alexander the Great airport and highway, named after the Ancient Macedonian king, would be changed to Friendship. Stating our activities show our goodwill, he added, This testifies that we have no territorial claims.

Tsipras stated, We must find a solution to all the open issues so that our northern neighbour can continue on their Euro-Atlantic path.

The Western powers, led by the United States, have placed maximum pressure on both countries to resolve the dispute with the aim of enabling Macedonia to join the NATO alliance, as part of Washingtons military escalation along Russias border. This effort was spearheaded by NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg, who made a two-day official visit to Macedonia last month. During the visit he addressed the countrys parliament in the capital Skopje, urging a solution to a dispute that has weighed on this regionand this countryfor far too long.

The issue has been used repeatedly by successive Greek governments to stoke nationalist sentiments as a means of deflecting social tensions outwards towards an external foein this case one of the most impoverished countries in Europe with an effective unemployment rate of 45 percent.

Huge rallies in the early 1990s, when the dispute first arose, played no small part in legitimising far-right discourse in Greece. It was during this period that Golden Dawn first emerged as a political group.

Today far-right forces are again seeking to utilise the dispute. That they are able to do so is chiefly the responsibility of Syriza, which formed a coalition with the far-right Independent Greeks (ANEL) three years ago, after being swept into power on an anti-austerity ticket.

Once the Syriza-led government betrayed its anti-austerity mandatesigning a third bailout package with Greeces creditors just a few weeks after Greek workers and youth delivered a resounding rejection of austerity in the July 2015 referendumthe road was open for the far-right to exploit popular anger.

Far from resisting this rightward lurch, sections of the pseudo-left in Greece are adapting themselves to it. In a statement following the rally, Panagiotis Lafazanis, the leader of Syriza splinter Popular Unity (LAE), struck a nationalist pose as defender of the Greek capitalist state. He declared, We do not underestimate the irredentism of FYROM, nor the efforts of our neighbour to hijack the regions ancient history.

Former Speaker of the Greek Parliament and ex-Syriza MP, Zoi Konstantopoulouwho left the party making a few leftist noises about Syrizas austerity agendadeclared her hope in the run-up to the rally that Syntagma Square will be flooded with people [L]et it be Macedonia that becomes the pretext for people to stand on their feet again, rise up, strive and gather once again at Syntagma.

The Stalinist Communist Party of Greece (KKE), in a statement last year, called for for an end to irredentist propaganda, for a mutual recognition of the inviolability of borders and the territorial integrity and sovereignty of both countries.

Mikis Theodorakis, the veteran composer of many of the songs associated with the anti-junta struggle during 1967-74, was the main speaker at the Athens rally. Referring to himself as an internationalist patriot, he railed against the Syriza government as ethno-nihilists, declaring that he always fought against fascism in all its forms, above all in its most devious, treacherous and dangerous form, the left-wing one.

Theodorakis is the embodiment of a generation of radical opportunists who began to shift to the right after they betrayed the militant struggles of the European working class, during the late 1960s and early 1970s. As a leading figure within the KKE, he was instrumental in paving the way for the restoration of bourgeois democracy in Greece after the fall of the colonels. He famously declared that the only option was either [the exiled conservative statesman Konstantinos] Karamanlis or the tanks.

With the integration of the KKE into bourgeois politics after the fall of the colonels, Theodorakis was an MP for the party from 1981 until 1990 when he defected to the conservative New Democracy, serving as a minister without portfolio for more than two years in Constantine Mitsotakis administration.

Theodorakis speech was greeted enthusiastically by the far-right, including Golden Dawn MP Ilias Kasidiaris, who tweeted, Mikis began from Ioannis Metaxas EON[1930s fascistic youth organisation] and closed his circle at the rally next to patriots and nationalists! All intermediate stances and backflips are struck off.

Theodorakis shot back at critics who balked at such a brazen association with the far-right, declaring that Golden Dawn members also love their country, albeit in a pugnacious manner.

The Independent Greeks issued a press release after the Athens rally stating, The term Macedonia that Skopje seek to adopt sums up the irredentism of our neighbouring state. Every nation-state has specific characteristics, such as a common history, and if these characteristics that constitute it are eroded then it leads to its disintegration.

Syriza is opposing none of this, with Tsipras echoing the nationalist poison of his coalition partners this week when he declared: Through these negotiations the country is being called upon not to give, but to take back. To convince her neighbours to stop using the term Macedonia with no qualifiers, to stop all irredentist references everywhere, to convince them not to usurp symbols and names that dont belong to them.

Workers and youth in Greece should take these developments as a warning. Conscious that the Syriza-led government is despised by wide sections of the working class, a significant section of Greeces elite has concluded that it can no longer rely on democratic norms to impose its austerity agenda.

The main speaker at the Thessaloniki rally was retired General Frangkoulis Frangos, who in 2011 was cashiered by then-Prime Minister George Papandreou amid rumours that he was planning a coup against his social democratic PASOK government. Since then Frangos name has been linked to initiatives to form a populist far-right party.On Tuesday night, at a meeting of the French presidential press association, Emmanuel Macron called for a return of the draft and threatened possible air strikes in Syria, a former French colony. Coming only days after a US bombing killed dozens of Russian military contractors in Syria and Israel struck targets in Syria, this constitutes an unambiguous warning of the danger of world war.

It also exposes the character of the German-French axis that Macron is trying to assemble with a potential Grand Coalition government between conservatives and social democrats in Berlin. It aims to convert Europe into an aggressive militarist bloc, sending youth to kill or be killed in imperialist wars involving all the major world powers.

I want obligatory service, open to women and to men, [that provides] an insight into military matters, Macron declared, repeating a campaign pledge made last year to return to the draft. He added that the length of service could be between three to six months, but that is not yet fixed.

As he did when first calling for the draft during his 2017 presidential campaign, Macron cynically tried to downplay its significance, claiming that the draft could have a civic component. That is, conscripted youth might also end up patrolling cities in France, as soldiers did during the recent, two-year state of emergency. However, Macron himself admitted in his 2017 speech on the draft that it is also in preparation for major wars, saying: We have entered an epoch in international relations where war is again a possible outcome of politics.

On Tuesday night, Macron said he was ready to launch air strikes on Syria, as the media whipped up a campaign around unsubstantiated US allegations that the Syrian government used chlorine gas. A campaign had erupted in the French press accusing Macron of forgetting the red line he set in his UN speech last September, pledging to attack Syria if France or its allies declare that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons in the ongoing NATO war in the country.

If [France] has reliable evidence that banned chemical weapons are being used against civilians, we will strike, he said. We will strike the places where these weapons are being used and where their use is organized. The red line will be respected.

Macron added that he was in close contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to send warnings and threats to the Syrian regime. I repeated this to President Putin, asking him to be very clear with the Syrian regime, which has reaffirmed that it is not using chemical weapons.  But we are watching it, Macron said, adding: As soon as the proof is established, I will do what I said.

Should Macron launch these strikes, this would be an unprovoked act of war by France against its former colony, abetted by the other NATO powers, threatening to provoke war with Russia. The attempt to justify it based on unverified US allegations of poison gas use stinks of a provocation. Previous such claims, including poison gas attacks in Ghouta in 2013 and Khan Shaykhun in 2017, proved to be provocations, where NATO-backed Islamist militias staged gas attacks that they blamed on the regime in order to provide a pretext for NATO attacks on Syria.

This follows German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyens trip to Iraq last weekend to announce an escalation of the German military presence there, and the publication last week of the program of a proposed Grand Coalition government in Berlin.

A key plank of the program is collaboration with France on trade, military and Middle East policy. Von der Leyen and her French counterpart, Florence Parly, are set to jointly open the Munich Security Conference this weekend, in a show of Franco-German military unity.

Macrons discussion of an attack on Syria underscores that the Berlin-Paris axis is preparing a vast expansion of European military aggression, with explosive global consequences. Over the 25 years since the Stalinist regime dissolved the USSR, removing the main military counterweight to imperialist war, US imperialism has consistently sought to counterbalance its growing economic weakness by resorting to war and the use of its military advantages.

This culminated in the unveiling last month of a US National Defense Strategy that brands Russia and China, both major nuclear-armed powers, as Washingtons principal enemies.

Over the same period, Paris has pursued an ever more bellicose foreign policy. Besides fighting wars in its former African colonial empire, it repeatedly joined US-led wars--in 1991 against Iraq, in 2001 in Afghanistan, and the 2011 wars in Libya and then Syria--despite clashing with Washington over its 2003 invasion of Iraq. Under Macron, it is stepping up this offensive, while handing over billions of euros in tax cuts to the rich and financing these reactionary policies with deep social cuts aimed at the working class.

What is emerging is an explosive political collapse of the world capitalist system that threatens workers across Europe and the world with catastrophic consequences. It involves not only NATO conflicts with Russia and China, but the eruption of barely concealed differences between the NATO powers, which fought world wars between rival alliances twice in the 20th century.

Macrons remarks Tuesday night pointed in particular to significant differences emerging between Washington and the Berlin-Paris axis over Russia and the Middle East.

Firstly, despite his bellicose threats against Syria, Macron ruled out an immediate strike and indicated his distrust of US allegations of Syrian poison gas use. But today we do not have proof, established by our intelligence services, that chemical weapons banned by treaty have been used against civilian populations, he said.

This begs the question of why Macron reacted to these unverified allegations, which he himself apparently does not trust, by threatening to bomb Syria.

Secondly, according to the business daily Les Echos, Macron called for dealing with the Syrian war by developing closer ties with Russia and opening a dialog with the three member states of the Astana process, that is, Iran, Turkey, and Russia. This seems to place Macron on a very different course than the US National Defense Strategy and the US bombing of Russian contractors in Syria. It followed Macrons cordial February 9 phone call with Putin, in which he also called for stepped-up trade and political collaboration with the Kremlin.

According to an Elysee palace communique, during this phone call, Macron congratulated Putin on the dynamic of our bilateral relations since the Versailles meeting on May 29, and noted that, Our political exchanges are regular and ongoing. It also hailed the ongoing development of relations between French and Russian economic and cultural forces, thinkers and youth.

Finally, Macron hailed the permanent dialog now ongoing between France and Turkey, who Macron said earlier this month had reassured him about its invasion of Syria to attack Kurdish forces. By contrast, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived yesterday for crisis talks in Turkey, whose Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned that its alliance with Washington could break completely over US support for Kurdish forces in Syria

These European-American differences again erupted into the open around yesterdays NATO defense ministers summit in Brussels. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that it would be absolutely without any meaning if NATO and the EU start to compete.

US Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison warned of a potential break-up of military relations between the United States and Europe over plans led by Berlin and Paris for European military cooperation. She said, Certainly we do not want this to be a protectionist vehicle for the EU and were going to watch carefully because if that becomes the case then it could splinter the strong security alliance that we have. We want the Europeans to have capabilities and strength but not to fence off American products or Norwegian products or potentially UK products.Seventeen people were killed and at least 14 more wounded Wednesday afternoon in the latest horrific school shooting in the United States. The tragedy unfolded at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, located some 30 miles northwest of Fort Lauderdale, in Broward County.

According to reports, a former student started shooting from outside and then entered the school building, firing an AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle with multiple magazines at students and teachers, evidently targeting people randomly. Students barricaded themselves inside classrooms and then ran from the building while frantic parents raced to the scene.

The shooting rampage began at about 2:30 in the afternoon, shortly before the end of the school day. Students said someone pulled a fire alarm just before shots started to ring out. The gunman was reportedly on the loose in the school for more than an hour.

Just after 4 PM, the Broward County Sheriffs Department announced that the suspected shooter had been apprehended. They said he surrendered without incident several miles from the school. He was identified as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who had been expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons.

Cruz was reportedly a member of the Army Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC).

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters later in the afternoon that the dead and wounded included adults as well as students, but he said he did not yet know how many of each.

A video posted on social media showed students cowering under desks during the melee. Hannah Siren, 14, was in math class on the third floor of the freshman building when the shooting broke out. She told the Sun-Sentinel newspaper, The people next door to us must have not locked their door. They all got shot.

Lisette Rozenblet, whose daughter attends the school, was quoted by NBC News as saying, Her biggest fear is a school shooting. She is always begging me to be home-schooled because she was scared of this.

Math teacher Jim Gard told the Miami Herald he had taught the suspect last year and said he was troubled. There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.

The mass shooting in Parkland was the 18th school shooting just since the beginning of 2018, i.e., in the space of less than seven weeks. There have been school shootings in 13 states so far this year, including at least two each in Texas, California and Michigan. While many of these events did not result in fatalities or injuries, a good number did.

NBC News has compiled a list of shooting incidents since the beginning of the year that resulted in injuries and/or deaths at elementary, middle and high schools. As of February 5, these shootings had killed four people and wounded more than 20 others.

They include:

 Oxon Hill High School in Prince Georges County, Maryland on February 5one student injured

 Salvador Castro Middle School in Los Angeles, California on February 1two students shot

 Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky on January 23two students killed and 18 injured

 NET Charter High School in New Orleans, Louisiana on January 22one student injured

 Italy High School in Italy, Texas on January 22one student injured

 Coronado Elementary School in Sierra Vista, Arizona on January 10one student killed.

Since the 1990s, school shootings have become a common and horrific feature of American life. Names such as Jonesboro, Columbine, Virginia Tech and Newtown have become synonymous with violent and bloody eruptions at schools and campuses that in some cases claim dozens of lives.

These are just a subset of a much longer list of mass killings. According to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization, 2017 was the deadliest year of mass shootings in modern US history. The group counted 345 mass shootings, defined as an incident in which four or more people are shot (not including the shooter). Overall, the website calculates that more than 15,000 people in the US died from gun violence last year, with another 31,000 injured.

The period that has seen an escalating eruption of mass shootings in America roughly corresponds to more than a quarter century of virtually uninterrupted war waged by US imperialism, beginning with the first Gulf War of 1991. Throughout this entire period, the ruling class and both of its major parties have promoted militarism and glorified military violence, while they carried out shock and awe attacks on defenseless populations that killed millions and destroyed entire societies.

In parallel with the growth of militarism there has been a continuous increase in social inequality and a drastic deterioration in the social conditions of the working class, and particularly the young generation. Today, young people, who have known nothing but war overseas, face worsening prospects for secure and decent employment and a massive burden of student debt. Hence the growth of scourges such as the opioid epidemic and an ever-rising suicide rate among young people.

Politics and culture have been blighted by the deliberate cultivation of nationalism and anti-immigrant racism and efforts to encourage the most backward conceptions.

No section of the political establishment and neither of the two big-business parties can offer any policies to address the social crisis. The response of the politicians to each mass shooting is to demand a further buildup of the police apparatus of the state and a further crackdown on Internet speech and criminalization of political dissent. The Republicans promote gun rights and the Democrats cart out their hobbyhorse of gun control, without any examination of the social and political conditions that produce violence.

Donald Trump, as usual, expressed with particular banality and insincerity the inability of the ruling class to address the question of why such events recur with numbing regularity in America. Shortly after the shooting in Parkland had ended, he tweeted: My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.

This is a man who just a few weeks ago in his State of the Union address presented a delusional picture of a grateful and happy nation moving from success to success.

The reality is a growing political radicalization and overall movement to the left within the working class and particularly among the youth, who have registered in poll after poll a growing interest in socialism and hatred for capitalism. This anticipates the renewal of class struggle on an unprecedented scale. This is the path, directed politically against capitalism and for socialism, to resolving the social impasse that generates malignant events such as Wednesdays eruption in Florida.Country

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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Disney Parks (NEW YORK) -- For a sweet treat thats on trend, visitors to Walt Disney World cant miss the rose gold cupcake at Sunshine Seasons in Epcot, or the similar versions at Main Street Bakery in Magic Kingdom and at Disneys Hollywood Studios at The Trolley Car Cafe. Disney ParksAt The Polynesian Resort, saddle up to the Barefoot Pool Bar for a rose gold margarita.

Disney ParksThen, its back to the cupcakes. The Polynesian has a rose gold vanilla cupcake with guava pastry cream at Capt. Cooks and at Kona Cafe.

Disney ParksAt Disneys Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, theres a rose gold unicorn cupcake with rose gold sponge and hazelnut cream cheese filling at Gasparilla Island Grill.

Disney Parks

At Disneys All-Star Music Resort, Disneys Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa and Disneys Old Key West Resort, youll find a rose gold chocolate cupcake with strawberry buttercream filling and topping, chocolate ears and chocolate crispy pearls. These can be found at Intermission Food Court, the Artists Palette and the Paddock Grill.

Disney Parks

Contempo Cafe at Disneys Contemporary Resort now has a rose gold vanilla cupcake with strawberry filling, vanilla buttercream, strawberry crispy pearls and a dark chocolate rose gold Minnie hat.

Disney ParksABC News is owned by parent company Disney.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Seventeen people were killed in a mass shooting at a Florida high school Wednesday afternoon, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel announced Wednesday.

The shooting took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland around dismissal time, and the suspect is in custody, Israel said.

Israel said the victims included both students and adults, but did not reveal specific numbers. The suspect, identified by Israel as Nikolas Cruz, 19, is in custody. Israel said he is a former student of the school who got expelled for disciplinary reasons.

Police believe the suspect used an AR-15-style weapon, Israel said, adding he had countless magazines.

He said 12 people were killed within the school building, two people were killed just outside the building, one person was killed on a nearby street corner and two people died in the hospital.

Police have confirmed 17 people are dead after a mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida

He added that two people are currently undergoing surgery.

Israel said that the suspect had been taken to Broward Health North hospital and released to police custody: I dont think his injuries were anything significant, he said.

Israel said the community was enduring a horrific, horrific day.

According to an unidentified student who spoke with WSVN, the school had a fire drill earlier in the day, and when the shooting occurred, people thought it was another drill.

We already had a drill today so we thought it was just another drill, the student said. He added, We heard a pop and then from the other side of the school, we saw the whole school running out.

Inside a classroom at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

Lissette Rozenblatt, 49, a mom whose daughter is a sophomore at the school, tells PEOPLE, She kept texting me and she kept saying she was fine and she was hiding. She told me to please call the police because somebody was hurt, and she kept hearing that person crying out for help.

Story continues

Caesar Figueroa, whose daughter attends the school, told CNN, She says she heard 10 shots, a window blew and everybody started screaming and running.

 For more compelling true crime coverage, follow our Crime magazine on Flipboard.

Parkland is a Fort Lauderdale suburb of about 30,000 people. The school has an enrollment of 3,208, according to the Broward County Public Schools website.

Florida Senator Bill Nelson told CNN, Its a bad day for Florida and for the country.

Nelson added, How many of these have we had? Are we coming to expect these mass shootings to be a routine kind of matters and after every one we say enough is enough? And then it continues to happen.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.The family of a deceased San Antonio woman whose body went missing from her casket has sued the funeral parlor for negligence, with their attorneys alleging they allowed an embalming company with an employee who was into Satan access to the body, according to court records and published reports.

On August 15, 2015, a memorial service was held at Mission Cherry Park for Julie Mott, a 25-year-old woman who died from natural causes.

Sometime later that day, after the memorial service but before the body was transferred to a crematorium, Mission lost possession of Julie Motts body and to this day has been unable to explain how they lost the body, according to the $2.5 million lawsuit, which was obtained by PEOPLE.

The pending lawsuit went to trial three weeks ago and a jury was expected to begin deliberations Tuesday.

In an unexpected twist last week, the familys attorney questioned a third party embalming contractor about one of his employees social media posts, according to reports in the San Antonio Express-News.

Hes testified hes into Satan, Alex Katzman, an attorney representing the Mott family, said in court. Did you know that?

No, said Frederick Beyer, an owner of Beyer & Beitel Mortuary Services, which embalmed Julie Mott. I didnt know anything about Satan.

Is there any concern in regard with him having access to departed loved ones, Katzman asked.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

No, Beyer responded, according to an article in the Express-News.

Motts family has accused the funeral home owners of using third-party contractors to transport bodies to be prepared for burial or cremation, and allege the company provides numerous people with the access to the facilities with security codes that havent been changed in decades, the newspaper reported.

Julie Mott

In closing arguments Tuesday, attorneys for the Mott family accused someone associated with the third-party contractor of taking the young womans body, according to local TV station KSAT12.

Story continues

Motts mother Sharlotte told jurors last week that she is heartbroken because she has been unable to bury her daughter, according to the Express-News.

Her urn sits empty, Sharlotte cried. We cant even put a picture [on it]. Shes not there.

Allegedly Obsessed Ex-Boyfriend to Stand Trial

Meanwhile, a criminal trial associated with the case is expected to begin in April.

Motts ex-boyfriend Bill Willburn was arrested last year. He was charged with two counts of criminal trespassing.

The [suspect] had been invited to the service the day before and had been the last to leave, a police report obtained by PEOPLE states. [The suspect] had been obsessed with [Julie Mott] calling and texting.

In two separate incidents, Wilburn was spotted trying to gain entry into the funeral home after a criminal trespass notice was filed against him, according to police reports.

 For more compelling true crime coverage, follow our Crime magazineon Flipboard.

San Antonio police obtained a warrant to collect a DNA sample from Wilburn, according to local TV station KSAT12.

I think hes being a little disingenuous and I dont think that hes giving us all the information that we need, SAPD spokesman Sgt. Jesse Salame told KSAT12. And he certainly hasnt been what I would call overly cooperative.

Police officials have not called Wilburn a suspect in the disappearance of Mott, according to KSAT12.

PEOPLEs attempts to reach the attorneys litigating the lawsuit, as well as the attorney for Wilburn, were unsuccessful.Happy Valentines Day, Donald Trump; you just got trolled by Chelsea Handler.

Former talk-show host Handler took some time out Wednesday to razz the president, a frequent target of her social-media barbs.

In her tweet, Handler made reference to reports that Trump had an affair with Stormy Daniels, which have gained traction in the past two days.

Also Read: Stormy Daniels 'Is Going to Tell Her Story' About Trump, Her Manager Says

Happy Valentines Day to @realDonaldTrump and @StormyDaniels! Handler wrote.

And to @MikePenceVP and Mother! the comedian added, a reference to the vice president and his reported pet name for his wife.

Handlers tweet drew mixed reactions. Along with responses showing support for the former Chelsea Handler star, there were a number of responses of the b-b-but Clinton! variety.

Also Read: Jenna Jameson Rips Chelsea Handler for 'Not Very Feminist' Porn Stars Comment

There were also a number of responders who were more than happy to trot out reports that Chelsea Handler seemingly allowed American Pie star Jason Biggs to urinate in her face once.

Daniels made headlines earlier this year with multiple reports, including a 2011 interview she did with In Touch where she said she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006. A statement attributed to her in late January read in part, 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.

However, hours after the denial was made public, following Trumps State of the Union address, Daniels appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and coyly suggested that the denial might not be authentic.

Also Read: Jenna Jameson Weighs in on Stormy Daniels, Shares Her Own Trump Story

On Tuesday, the topic resurfaced after Trump attorney Michael Cohen told the New York Times that he had paid Daniels $130,000 just before Election Day. Following Cohens disclosure, Daniels manager Gina Rodriguez told the Associated Press was prepared to offer her version of events.

Story continues

Everything is off now, and Stormy is going to tell her story, Rodriguez said.

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Related stories from TheWrap:

Stormy Daniels 'Is Going to Tell Her Story' About Trump, Her Manager Says

Trump Lawyer Admits He Gave Stormy Daniels $130K but Says Trump Had Nothing to Do With It

Stormy Daniels Won't Confirm Denying Trump Affair in Confusing Talk With Kimmel (Video)Police are searching for a 4-year-old girl from the Charleston, South Carolina, area, who went missing Tuesday night after her mother was beaten in a possible home invasion, authorities allege.

The child, Heidi Renae Todd, was reported missing at 5:50 p.m. Tuesday night in the area of 2985 Sweetleaf Lane in the Whitney Lake subdivision on Johns Island, the Charleston Police Department said in a statement on Twitter.

The little girl vanished after an uninvited man who had come to the familys home allegedly brutally beat her mother, say authorities, who are still investigating a motive, the Post and Courier reports.

The mother, who was scheduled to undergo surgery for her injuries, gave investigators a limited description of the suspect: a Hispanic male said to be skinny, 25-30 years old with short hair & dressed in all grey, Charleston police said on Twitter.

The FBI has offered a $10,000 reward for information about Heidis disappearance.

Police were alerted to Heidis disappearance after her mother did not show up at a school to pick up two of her four other children, according to the Post and Courier. The womans husband is in the Coast Guard and was out of town for training, officials said.

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The child was last seen wearing pink pants and a blue shirt, say police, who do not know how long the child has been missing, the Post and Courier reports.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

Her mother was taken to the hospital just before midnight Tuesday night, local station Live 5 News reports.

She was in reasonably fair condition under the circumstances, Mayor John Tecklenburg said at a press conference Wednesday. She had been able to answer only limited questions from police, Tecklenburg added.

As well-wishers offered prayers for the little girl on social media, hoping for her safe return, police, firefighters, the U.S. Coast Guard and dive teams spent more than nine hours Tuesday night into Wednesday morning searching a nearby lake and woods in the area for the child, the Post and Courier reports.

 For more compelling true crime coverage, follow our Crime magazine on Flipboard.

Anyone with information on Heidi or her whereabouts can call 843-743-7200 and ask for the on-duty Charleston police central detective. Police have also established a 24-hour tip line that may be reached at 843-619-6123.Olympic snowboarder Shaun White on Wednesday gave his third set of comments in 24 hours about a settled sexual harassment lawsuit against him that resurfaced in the public consciousness in the wake of his historic third gold medal win.

Representing Team USA at the Olympics in a sport that I love is a true honor, and I was thrilled to win gold, White, 31, said in a statement to PEOPLE. I regret my behavior of many years ago and am sorry that I made anyone  particularly someone I considered a friend  uncomfortable.

I have grown and changed as a person, as we all grow and change, and am proud of who I am today, White continued.

That statement followed two earlier public comments about the suit, which was initially filed in May 2016 by Lena Zawaideh, the former drummer in Whites band, Bad Things, according to USA Today.

Zawaideh amended her suit in August of that year. It originally argued breach of contract, as she said she had not been paid her agreed-upon monthly fee, but Zawaideh included new allegations of sexual harassment in the updated complaint, in part citing text messages between her and White.

White appears to have first been asked about the issue at a news conference Wednesday afternoon, following his victory in the halfpipe event that day at the PyeongChang Games in South Korea.

When a reporter questioned whether the allegations could cloud his legacy, White responded, Im here to talk about the Olympics, not gossip. But I dont think so. I am who I am and Im proud of who I am. And my friends love me and vouch for me, and I think that stands on its own.

Lena Zawaideh

In an appearance hours later on NBCs Today show which aired Wednesday morning stateside, White said he was truly sorry for the word gossip and added this:

Its a poor choice of words to describe such a sensitive subject in the world today. Im just truly sorry. I was so overwhelmed with just wanting to talk about how amazing today was and share my experience.

Story continues

In a followup answer to co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, White said: Ive grown as a person over the years. Youve known me for a long time now. Its crazy how life works and twists and turns and lessons learned. Every experience in my life, I feel like its taught me a lesson and I definitely feel like Im a much more changed person than I was when I was younger. Im proud of who I am today.

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A rep for White has not responded to PEOPLEs requests for further comment.

In her amended suit, Zawaideh claimed White repeatedly sexually harassed her and forced his authoritarian management style on her for over seven years and among other things allegedly sent her graphically sexual text messages, including images of penises, according to the Washington Post.

Keep Following PEOPLEs Complete Coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics

Snowboarder Shaun White at the end of his final run in the men's halfpipe final at the 2018 Winter Olympics, where he won gold

In contrast to this weeks statements of contrition, White initially vehemently denied Zawaidehs allegations.

Many years ago, I exchanged texts with a friend who is now using them to craft a bogus lawsuit, he reportedly said in a statement in 2016. There is absolutely no coincidence to the timing of her claims, and we will defend them vigorously in court.

He and Zawaideh, who has not publicly discussed the matter this week, eventually reached an undisclosed settlement in May 2017, according to the Post.Hollywood Stars Call for Gun Control After School Shooting in Parkland, Florida

The U.S. experienced another mass shooting on Wednesday when a man opened fire on a high school in Parkland, Florida, leaving 17 people dead.

The incidence of yet another school shooting brought the topic of gun control back into the national conversation, sending both Parkland and the hashtag #GunControlNow trending across the country.

A number of Hollywood stars, including Reese Witherspoon, Elizabeth Banks, Alyssa Milano, Gabrielle Union and Sophia Bush were among those calling on lawmakers to pass new legislation to limit civilian access to certain firearms and prevent future shootings.

Also Read: Piers Morgan Calls out Trump After Florida School Shooting: 'What Are You Going to Do About It?'

Heartbroken over the news of another school shooting, Witherspoon wrote. This is the 18th in 45 days of 2018. Students & teachers shouldnt have to fear for their safety. We must do more to prevent these senseless acts of gun violence. My heart is w/ the people in Parkland, FL. Enough is enough.

Police were alerted around 2:30 p.m. ET of an active shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County. The suspect was later identified as Nikolas Cruz, a former student who had been expelled for disciplinary reasons. 17 people were killed and at least 14 more were injured.

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Piers Morgan Calls out Trump After Florida School Shooting: 'What Are You Going to Do About It?'

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Ex-CIA Agent Cries Over School Shooting: 'We Cannot Accept This!' (Video)Celebrities expressed their condolences and outrage that another American school was the target of a mass shooting after at least 17 people were killed in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday.

Kim Kardashian West, Ellen DeGeneres and Reese Witherspoon were just a few of the many A-listers who shared their consolations to the victims and families affected by the tragedy and called for more to be done to stop this happening again.

We owe it to our children and our teachers to keep them safe while at school. Prayers wont do this: action will. Congress, please do your job and protect Americans from senseless gun violence, tweeted the Keeping Up with the Kardashians reality star, who has become a firm supporter of the need to enact stricter gun legislation after her October 2016 Paris robbery.

No words, no actions, no laws are enough until we end this epidemic of school shootings in our country. My heart is with the students and parents of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, DeGeneres, 60, tweeted.

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Heartbroken over the news of another school shooting. This is the 18th in 45 days of 2018. Students & teachers shouldnt have to fear for their safety. We must do more to prevent these senseless acts of gun violence. My heart is w/ the people in Parkland, FL. Enough is enough, echoed Witherspoon.

Other stars who shared messages on social media included Britney Spears, Mark Ruffalo and Ben Platt. Politicians Nancy Pelosi and Gabby Giffords, as well as Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and President Donald Trump, also tweeted in response to the shooting.

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Those in PyeongChang, South Korea, covering the Winter Olympics, such as Savannah Guthrie and Johnny Weir, also expressed their sadness from afar.

The total number of casualties was confirmed as 17 on Wednesday evening. The suspect, who remains in custody, is a former student of the school who got expelled for disciplinary reasons.

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 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click hereto get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

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Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said 12 people were killed within the school building, two people were killed just outside the building, one person was killed on a nearby street corner and two people died in the hospital.

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Parkland is a Fort Lauderdale suburb of about 30,000 people. The school has an enrollment of 3,208, according to the Broward County Public Schools website.

The city is now the site of the 18th school shooting in the U.S. this year.In April, Anna Faris will headline a remake of Overboard, the beloved (and incessantly-replayed-on-TV) 1987 comedy starring Goldie Hawn as a snooty heiress and Kurt Russell as the low-class clown who convinces her  after she falls off her yacht and comes down with amnesia  that shes his wife as well as the mother of his four unruly kids. This new version from directors Bob Fisher and Rob Greenberg swaps the genders of its main characters, so that its Fariss low-level cleaning lady who tricks her jerky rich boss (Eugenio Derbez) into believing hes her husband. But for a lot of moviegoers, that switcheroo isnt enough to justify this latest example of Hollywood double-dipping  as proved by a social media backlash of escalating proportions.

Fariss new Overboard debuted its latest trailer (above) on Monday, and it was immediately met with a raft of unhappy reactions on Twitter, all of which boiled down to a simple question: Why try to improve upon a cult classic that needed no improvements in the first place?

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As that last tweet made clear, this backlash has less to do with the suspected quality of this new Overboard (or the funniness of star Faris) than with its fundamental existence. Studios are naturally interested in milking their name-brand properties for profit, since they assume its easier to sell audiences on a familiar title/plot than a wholly original work. However, in this age of endless sequels, reboots, and remakes, viewers are unsurprisingly apt to groan at re-dos of their favorite comedies, dramas, and action-adventure sagas, especially when  as in this instance  the original is a perfect example of goofball class-warfare 80s comedy headlined by two of Hollywoods most enduringly likable stars (who, moreover, have been a real-life couple for 35 years). Apparently to many the entire endeavor simply speaks to a lack of moviemaking imagination  in terms of both basic storytelling ideas and finding a novel vehicle for a talented comedian like Faris.

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Despite this tide of negativity, Overboards box-office fortunes will no doubt ultimately rest on whether its funny in its own right. Well know soon enough if thats the case: The film docks in theaters on April 13.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:.@WillieGeist Mystified by Media Love for Kim Jong Un Sister: Completely Mind-Boggling pic.twitter.com/Gew8wjReqw  Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) February 14, 2018

Willie Geist wants you to know he is not here for the medias fascination with North Korea.

On Morning Joe Wednesday, Geist said that he and Koreans at the Olympics in Pyeongchang were surprised by the fawning media coverage of Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, who helps lead one most tyrannical and oppressive regimes on Earth.

To see foreign, to see an ally, at least some members of the media praising this woman, Kim Jong Uns sister, part of the dictatorship there, was completely mind-boggling to a lot of South Koreans, Geist told his Morning Joe colleagues Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

Also Read: 'Morning Joe' Blasts Trump Administration Security Snags: 'This Isn't a Safe White House' (Video)

I was talking to South Koreans here, you know, people around the hotel, people driving cars and cabs and people who own restaurants, and they couldnt believe it, he added. I mean, they said, I cant believe some people where you live are falling for this routine because none of us are.

Geist was widely praised on social media for a tweet that chided his colleagues at other networks for its positive coverage.

Something about N.K killing, starving & imprisoning its people while threatening South Korea with nuclear annihilation, he noted sardonically.

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Over the weekend, CNN, ABC, Reuters, the New York Times  and Morning Joes own NBC  went to great lengths to praise the North Korean Olympic delegation, lauding a cheering squad essentially comprised of slaves and comparing Kim Yo Jong to Ivanka Trump. The headlines looked something like this.

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Related stories from TheWrap:

'Morning Joe' Blasts Trump Administration Security Snags: 'This Isn't a Safe White House' (Video)

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Michael Wolff Gets Nasty After 'Morning Joe' Spat: 'The President Is Right About Mika'A man opened fire at a high school in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people, according to law enforcement.

Im saddened to say that 17 people lost their lives  Sheriff Scott Israel, the Broward County Sheriffs Office tweeted on Wednesday evening.

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The gunman, identified as 19-year-old Nicolas Cruz, was apprehended about an hour after shots were reported at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Officials said earlier in the day that there are at least 14 victims who are being transported to Broward Health Medical Center and Broward Health North hospital following the mass shooting.

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Broward County Public Schools Supt. Robert Runcie confirmed that there were fatalities to reporters at the scene.

There are fatalities that are involved. We cant confirm the number at this point, he said. There are numerous fatalities. Its a horrific situation. Its just a horrible day for us.

Israel said the suspect in custody is a former student at the high school.

He was taken into custody, I believe about an hour after he left Stoneman Douglas, after he committed this horrific, homicidal, detestable act, Israel said. The FBI and our crime scene people will be investigating this horrific scene as soon as the buildings are clear. Right now, the buildings are not safe enough to be cleared.

Law enforcement responded to reports of an active shooter-situation shortly before 3 p.m. ET, writing #BSO is working a developing incident regarding a report of active shooter located at 5901 Pine Island Rd, Parkland. Heres what we know so far: deputies are responding to reports of a shooting at Stoneman Douglas High. There are reports of victims. PIO will be on scene 3:15pm.

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Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was placed under lockdown following the reports of shots fired.

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Dozens of law enforcement vehicles and officers were on site as students and teachers frantically ran for safety. Agents from the Miami office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are also responding to the scene, according to multiple reports.

Broadcast networks broke into regularly-scheduled programming with live coverage of the tragedy.

President Donald Trump quickly took to Twitter to offer his condolences.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school, Trump tweeted.

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The tragedy marks one of the deadliest U.S. school shootings of all time. The 1927 Bath School massacre was the worst in the nation, leaving 38 elementary school children and six adults dead. More recently, 32 people were killed during the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, and 27 died during the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.

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Subscribe to Variety Newsletters and Email Alerts!These Pedestrian Traffic Signals Got a Romantic Update Just In Time for Valentine's Day

Forever alone no longer!

The little digital figure that tells pedestrians to walk or wait on traffic signals across the globe has met his mate.

In Southern Taiwan, the signals have been replaced to feature a couple holding hands when the light is green. When red, the male figure appears to be proposing to his female companion, Taiwan News reported.

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The new lights were installed at 40 crosswalks on Tuesday, according to the outlet, and commissioned by local authorities. The plan is to, eventually, install the new signs throughout Pingtung county in Taiwan.

As well as being cute, the signs are intended to attract attention from pedestrians and improve crosswalk safety.

In a statement to the news site, Pingtungs mayor said of the signs, In 2018, the green man on the traffic has finally changed. And the change also emphasizes Pingtung as a county filled with love.On The Amazing Race, Lucas, of Team Ocean rescue, forgot one of the most important rules of the competition: Keep your passport on you at all times. Lucas somehow lost his passport on a plane from Zimbabwe to Dubai en route to Bahrain, leaving him and fiancee Brittany stranded as the other teams took off for the next leg of the race.

The couple had to go to the U.S. consulate in Dubai to get a temporary passport. Even after that setback, Lucas and Brittany were thinking positively.

We are going to try to find the first flight out to Bahrain, Brittany said. Lucas added, And the good part is there are flights leaving every hour, and its a very short flight  an hour and 15 minutes. So hopefully everybody is lost.

Sadly for Lucas and Brittany, nobody was lost. In fact, they were milking camels in the hot Bahraini sun.

By the time Lucas and Brittany showed up to what would have been their first challenge of the leg, it was already dark and every other team had finished for the day. Host Phil Keoghan was waiting for them and commended them on their tenacity, but it was too late.

Unfortunately, as you can see, the sun is set, Keoghan said. The teams have checked in. Youre the last team to make it to Bahrain, and unfortunately, youre eliminated from the race.

I figured, Brittany said.

Lucas became emotional, feeling he had let down his family, his friends, and, worst of all, his fiancee.

The Amazing Race airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on CBS.

Check out this amazing proposal on The Amazing Race:

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Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram  or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Kylie Mar, on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.At least 17 people died today at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after a 19-year-old carrying an AR-15 opened fire there on Wednesday afternoon, officials said. The attack in Parkland, Florida, marks what is now the 18th school shooting so far in 2018. (To compare, by this time last year, there had been 7.) AR-15-style rifles were also used in the Texas church shooting, as well as the attacks on San Bernadino, Las Vegas, Sandy Hook, and Pulse nightclub. The victims in Parkland were both adults and students; the suspect is now in custody. The attack is now among the 10 deadliest in American history.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting, President Trump wrote on Twitter. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school. The National Rifle Association spent $30 million supporting Trump in the 2016 election. There has been no movement by his administration to lift the Congressional stalemate over gun safety legislation, with most Republican members of the House refusing to politicize a tragedy. (Despite the fact that as David Frum has pointed out in The Atlantic, more shootings tend to beget looser gun restrictions, rather than the opposite, and despite the fact that mass shootings are so frequent these days that the idea of holding off discussion for a set mourning period would be essentially a Sisyphean exercise.) I feel today like our government, our country, has failed us and failed our kids . . . failed to keep us safe, a Stoneman Douglas High School teacher told Anderson Cooper on CNN.

Earlier this month, Ava Olsen, a 7-year-old who survived a shooting at her South Carolina elementary school, wrote President Trump a letter, asking how he planned to protect children like her and her classmates. He wrote back, with bland assurances, and without specifics. Are you going to keep kids safe? How can you keep us safe? Olsen asked in her letter, Dont let any more bad people get guns and hurt kids. Thoughts and prayers have never been enough.[MUSIC] [MUSIC] After all that, this table in the background, is a marble table you guys! Like come on. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]

Kim Kardashian is leading a pack of celebrities who are calling for change after yet another devastating school shooting this year.

As classes came to a close on Wednesday afternoon, a student opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 victims and wounding more than a dozen, with an AR-15 style semiautomatic gun. It's a tragedy that prompted many A-listers to take to stand on social media regarding stricter gun legislation.

We owe it to our children and our teachers to keep them safe while at school. Prayers wont do this: action will. Congress, please do your job and protect Americans from senseless gun violence, Kardashian expressed in an impassioned plea that has already been retweeted over 250,000 times.

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Reese Witherspoon, Britney Spears, Ellen DeGeneres, and Mark Ruffalo also joined the reality star on social media, with the Legally Blonde alum echoing her sentiments, tweeting: Heartbroken over the news of another school shooting. This is the 18th in 45 days of 2018. Students & teachers shouldn't have to fear for their safety. We must do more to prevent these senseless acts of gun violence. My heart is w/ the people in Parkland, FL. Enough is enough.

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The latest tragedy hits close to home for the KKW Beauty mogul, who has spoken out about gun control and stricter laws since her traumatizing Paris heist in October 2016. During Paris Fashion Week, the social media star was held at gunpoint by a group of burglars in her hotel room, after displaying her $5 million diamond ring on social media.

"I hope that we won't become numbed by the increasing number of gun-related tragedies we see on the news," the mom of three wrote in an essay on her personal app in June.

After vowing to wear orange to commemorate National Gun Violence Awareness Day, she continued her empowered message: We all have a voice and a right to feel safe, to be protected from people who are a threat, particularly when handed a deadly weapon. I want to help build a safer future for my children and I believe together we can find ways to do that, while still protecting the rights of the American people."A shooting at a Parkland, Florida high school has left numerous dead and over a dozen reportedly injured. The Parkland shooting took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida near Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday afternoon just before 3:00 pm. The shooting has incurred at least 14 victims and numerous fatalities.

As of 4:00 pm EST, the reported shooter Nicholas de Jesus Cruz is in police custody. Cruz, 19, is a former student of the high school. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said in a press conference: From what I understand, there was a time where he did attend the school. I dont know why he left, I dont know when he left.

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Math teacher Jim Gard told the Miami Herald that Cruz had previously been identified as a potential threat to students and was banned from visiting the schools campus with a backpack. Gard followed lockdown protocol after a group of students ran into his classroom in panic. By 2:40, Gard reports that police SWAT teams had entered the school and began evacuating each of the campus buildings, one by one.

The city of Parkland, where Wednesdays shooting took place, was named the safest city in Florida in 2017. The tragedy marks the 18th US school shooting so far in 2018.

(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty)Sebastien Roblin

Security,

Some history you may not know.

How 1 Very Special Submarine Ravaged Japan During World War II

At midnight on July 23, the Barb slipped up to within a kilometer of the shore, and a landing party commanded by Lt. William Walke, paddled quietly to the beach. While three men took up guard positionsthey encountered a sleeping Japanese guard in a watchtower, whom they left unharmedthe other five buried the demolition charge and managed not blow themselves up jury-rigging the detonation circuit. They were furiously rowing back to the Barb when a second train passed.

In the closing months of World War II, heavy losses and depleted fuel stocks kept many of Japans remaining combat aircraft grounded and warships in port, awaiting an anticipated amphibious invasion. Starting in July 1945, Allied battleships embarked on a series of naval bombardments of coastal cities in Japan in an effort to draw these forces out to battlewith little success. However, a week before the battleships began lobbing their massive shells, a legendary U.S. submarine toting a rocket launcher began its own campaign of coastal terror that foretold the future of naval warfareand also engaged in the only Allied ground-combat operation on Japanese home-island soil.

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Submarines still made use of deck guns during World War II, most of them ranging between three and five inches in caliber. These were used to finish off unarmed merchant ships or sink smaller vessels that could evade torpedoesbut also were occasionally directed to bombard coastal targets, such as in early-war Japanese raids on the coasts of California and Australia. The problem was that a single gun was unlikely to inflict much damage in a short amount of time, and the submarines were highly vulnerable to air, sea and land attack as long as they remained surfaced.

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In 1942, the German Kriegsmarine actually tested submarine rocket artillery that could be fired underwater, but gave up on the idea due to its impracticality. Rumors that Germany had modified their subs to launch V-2 ballistic missiles at the United States led to a vigorous and bloody submarine hunt in the closing weeks of World War II.

The U.S. Navy, meanwhile, considered a much cruder solution: taking one of the Mark 51 rocket launchers it used on some of its LSM landing ships and strapping it to the main deck of a submarine. The twelve spin-stabilized 127-millimeter rockets mounted on the launch rack could only be fired while surfaced, and had a maximum range of three miles. However, a full volley could be ripple fired in the space of five seconds. The fixed launcher was unable to traverse, so the entire submarine had to turn to adjust the aim laterally.

Capt. Eugene Fluckey of the Gato-class submarine USS Barb volunteered his boat to try out the experimental rocket launcher in 1945. At the time, the Navy was actually testing the weapons viability as an anti-kamikaze weapon, but Fluckey managed to cajole the R&D staff into releasing the Mark 51 in time for his patrol, making the Barb the only rocket-launching submarine of the U.S. Navy in the conflict. You can check out footage of the rocket launcher on the Barb here.

The Barb, which displaced 2,400 tons submerged, was one of the top-scoring Allied submarines of World War II. By the most conservative count, it sank seventeen ships totaling ninety-seven thousand tons of shipping. Other tallies are considerably higher.

In January 1945, on his fourth patrol as commander of the Barb, Fluckey snuck his boat into the shallow waters off of Namakwan Harbor off the coast of China and torpedoed six ships before hightailing away, an action that earned him the Medal of Honor. Despite this exploit, Fluckey was concerned it would be difficult to find much enemy shipping on his fifth and last war patrol, so he was keen on being well equipped to attack targets on land.

The Barb set sail from its base in Midway on June 8 loaded with one hundred rockets. It arrived off the Japanese home islands on June 20. At 2:30 am on June 22, it surfaced off of the town of Shari in northeastern Hokkaido Island, unleashing a volley of twelve rockets into the slumbering community. It then sailed northward to the coast of Southern Sakhalin Island, then known as the Japanese prefecture of Karafuto. (All of Sakhalin is presently administered by Russia.)

Over the following month, the Barb expended sixty-eight rockets on Shikuka, Shoritori and Kashiho, mostly firing late at night at near-maximum range. She also used her four-inch deck gun to bombard the towns of Kaihyo To, Shibertori and Chiri. The attacks targeted civilian industrial sites, including a cannery, seal rookery, lumber yard, paper factory and several small shipyards, as well as a military radio, radar and lighthouse stations. When Japanese seaplanes began hunting the sub during the day, Fluckey retaliated with a volley of rockets aimed at the Shikuka military airfield. The Barbs guns also destroyed more than three dozen civilian sampans, while its homing torpedoes took out local trawlers, tugboats and a few large merchant ships.

The Barbs most famous exploit did not involve those weapons. Observing trains passing along the Japanese coastline, Captain Fluckey hatched a scheme to dispatch a landing party to blow up one of the trains by burying the Barbs fifty-five pound scuttling charge (essentially a self-destruct device) under the tracks. Rather than using a timer, the explosives would be jury-rigged only to blow when the pressure of a passing train completed the circuit, a trick Fluckey likened to a childhood walnut-cracking prank. A landing party of eight was selected on the basis of their unmarried status and membership in the Boy Scouts. Fluckey believed the scouts would have better pathfinding skills.

At midnight on July 23, the Barb slipped up to within a kilometer of the shore, and a landing party commanded by Lt. William Walke, paddled quietly to the beach. While three men took up guard positionsthey encountered a sleeping Japanese guard in a watchtower, whom they left unharmedthe other five buried the demolition charge and managed not blow themselves up jury-rigging the detonation circuit. They were furiously rowing back to the Barb when a second train passed.

Fluckey described what happened next in his autobiography Thunder Below!: The engines boilers blew, wreckage flew two hundred feet in the air in a flash of flame and smoke, cars piled up and rolled off the track in a writhing, twisting mass of wreckage.

All sixteen train cars derailed, killing 150 passengers. The Barbs crew added a train to the tally of enemy ships sunk on their battle flag. Its landing party had just performed what would be the only U.S. ground operation on the Japanese home islands during World War II. The Barb continued its rampage along the Sakhalin coastline through July 26 before returning safely back to its base in Midway Island on August 2.

The Barbs raids on the Japanese coastand even those performed by Allied battleshipswere premised on the Japanese militarys inability, by 1945, to effectively defend the home-island coastlines, which included a lack of coastal-defense guns. Many of the casualties of the Barbs attacks were likely civilians in largely undefended towns. On the other hand, targeting civilian merchant ships was a standard practice undertaken by all sides in World War II.

While the rockets the Barb employed appear to have been effective, its not clear that they were superior to having another deck gun. But within a decade of the Barbs last mission, new rocket-based technologies in the form of guided cruise and ballistic missiles drastically reduced the relevance of big guns on warships or coastal defenses. The new weapons could be launched by a submerged submarine a long distance from the shore, safe from immediate retaliation.

Thus the Barbs last rocket-laden patrol presaged the future of undersea warfare. Submarines, such as the enormous Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine, which has a variant carrying 154 land-attack cruise missiles, can pose a threat even to a nation with a well-defended coastline. The Barbs month-long seaside rampage will remain a unique incident for some time to come.

Sebastien Roblin holds a masters degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring.

This first appeared last year.

Read full articleMakayla Annis, 7, was choking until her classmate Andrew Ramirez, 8, performed the Heimlich. (Photo: ABC)

Its no secret that kids are always watching their parents and picking up on their habits, a reality that often makes parents more mindful of what they say or do in front of their children. But for one 8-year-old boy, observing his father gave him knowledge that allowed him to save a friends life.

Andrew Ramirez sprang into action when he saw that his 7-year-old classmate Makayla Annis was choking during their class Valentines Day celebration. While enjoying treats on Wednesday, Makayla ended up with a gummy bear lodged in her throat. According to Andrew, he saw her turning pink and knew he had to do something, which led him to perform the Heimlich maneuver.

I saw Makayla choking, grabbing her neck, and I quickly gave her the Heimlich maneuver, Ramirez explained to ABC News.

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The lifesaving tactic is something Andrew learned from his father, Dr. Rene Ramirez, who works in emergency medicine at a hospital in the Fresno, Calif., area. Dr. Ramirez heard about the incident from his 5-year-old daughter and believed that it might have been exaggerated. But from how Makayla, and her parents, reacted to Andrews deed, its evident that Andrews watching his dad ultimately saved a young girls life.

Andrew demonstrated for ABC News exactly what he did, teaching all the viewers a little something in the process as well. If theyre choking, you get them right about right here, and you just push back like youre giving them a really hard hug, Andrew said.

I was very surprised, Makayla added. This young gentleman helped me.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.



Adam Schiff speaks during a media availability after a closed-door meeting of the House Intelligence Committee: AP Photo/Alex Brandon

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee has said there is an abundance of information about possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia that the public has yet to see.

There is certainly an abundance of non-public information that weve gathered in the investigation, Representative Adam Schiff told reporters.  And I think some of that non-public evidence is evidence on the issue of collusion and some ... on the issue of obstruction.

Mr Schiff is the ranking Democrat on the House committee charged with investigating Russian meddling in the US election. The probe is being conducted in parallel with that of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating allegations of collusion by the Trump campaign and obstruction of justice by Donald Trump himself.

Mr Trump has said repeatedly that he did not collude with Russia, and did not obstruct the any investigations into the issue.

Democrats on the intelligence committee tried unsuccessfully last week to release a classified document on the Russia investigation, which rebutted claims from an earlier memo written by Republicans. Mr Trump refused to approve the memos release last week, citing security concerns.

But Mr Schiff said on Wednesday that there was ample non-classified evidence of Trump campaign collusion already in the public domain. He pointed to a June 2016 meeting between Trump campaign members and a Russian lawyer, and the White Houses misleading statement on that same meeting months later.

"All of this is evidence of collusion," Mr Schiff said. "Now, I've never said that there was proof beyond a reasonable doubt. That's for Bob Mueller to decide. But to say there's no evidence of collusion, you'd have to ignore all this."

Mr Schiff also said that his committee should inform people of any "unpatriotic" or "immoral" actions by the Trump campaign, even if Mr Mueller decides that he cannot file criminal conspiracy charges.

Story continues

The former federal prosecutor suggested that his committee should move forward by following the money  or more specifically, looking into allegations of money laundering.

We know that in other places they use money laundering as a way of entangling people, as a way of compromising people. To me that is far more potentially compromising than any salacious video would be, he said.

The comment was reference to a controversial research dossier claiming the Kremlin possesses video of Mr Trump committing salacious acts in a Moscow hotel room. Mr Trump has denied the allegations in the dossier, calling them fake news.From left: Models Mekhi Lucky, Quis Crawford, Shaun Ross, and Ralph Souffrant. (Photo: Shaun Ross via Instagram)

The modeling industry has made a major effort to embrace individuality in the last few years, and one photo of four male models is proof that weve come a long way.

Shaun Ross, the first international male fashion model with albinism, found three guys he had a lot in common with and just had to capture the moment. He shared the photo on Instagram, and its truly mesmerizing.

The 26-year-old redhead is seated between Ralph Souffrant and Mekhi Lucky. Souffrant, 22, on the right, is from Haiti and has a skin condition similar to vitiligo that granted him a smattering of dark freckles.

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Lucky, on Rosss left, is from North Carolina. He was discovered after his mugshot went viral in 2016 due to his hypnotic heterochromatic eyes, and he was later given the nickname prison bae. In 2017, the then 20-year-old was signed by St. Claire Modeling.

And behind them is Quis Crawford, who has vitiligo.

Rosss caption makes the photo even more powerful: I remember when I entered the modeling industry and I was alone I did not believe that I could make such an impact but these beautiful men are just as courageous as me and they will continue to show the world how comfortable they are in their skin #inmyskiniwin #blackboymagic, he wrote.

The other men shared it on their profiles as well. Beauty comes in every color, flavour, sound, height, shade, name & age #blackexcellence, Souffrant wrote of the image.

I used to pray for times like this, to shine like this , Crawford wrote. Beauty at its best we love colors , Lucky said.

And their followers agree.

Rosss original shot got 88k likes. So MUCH beauty in just one picture!!!! Oh God! Simply perfect! one fan commented on Rosss post. The most beautiful variety the human race has to offer. You are all works of art, wrote another. Souffrants post garnered 17k likes. Amazing! Love this @vogue @essence needs to redo that black Issue. Time for US to be seen, someone said. Just beautiful i absolutely love every shade, every freckle, every blemish, Everything, another comment said. This pic is the best thing that happened in 2018, someone wrote on Luckys gram.

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Youre are shining now, and you are the light of more people  a follower wrote on Crawfords post.

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Amy Schumer celebrated Valentines Day as a newlywed.

Just days after going public with their romance, the Trainwreck star secretly tied the knot with Chris Fischer in an intimate ceremony on Tuesday. Around 80 guests attended the low-key nuptials in California.

Schumer, 36, confirmed the happy news on Instagram on Thursday with a series of gorgeous photos from their special day. Here is everything you need to know about their wedding.

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John Early officiated the ceremony: The comedian and actor was in costume as his character Vicky With a V when he presided over their nuptials in a blond wig. (Its the second photo in the slideshow above.)

The couple wed overlooking the ocean in Malibu: The pair exchanged vows at sunset on an estate overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Two dogs (including Schumers pup, Tati) were the flower girl and ring bearer. Schumers sister, Kim Caramele, was a bridesmaid.

A lot of famous faces were in attendance: Jennifer Lawrence, in a floor-length pink dress (as seen in photo 6 above), sat in the second row to watch her BFF say, I do. In Schumers Instagram Story, she also shared a photo of Jake Gyllenhaal  who knows both the bride and groom. Jennifer Aniston, Larry David, Judd Apatow, and Jerry Seinfeld were also reportedly on hand to celebrate.

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No, Amy isnt pregnant: Despite speculation the pair pulled off a shotgun wedding  theyve been dating for only around six months  the actress shut down rumors that a pregnancy is the reason they got hitched. She also encouraged followers to donate to Everytown for Gun Safety in lieu of sending gifts.

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Schumer had a glam squad on hand: Although reports claim the wedding was somewhat impromptu, the actress had no problem getting an all-star team together to help her look the part of a blushing bride. In her Instagram Story, Amy thanked makeup artist Georgie Eisdell, hairstylist Riawna Capri, and her stylist Leesa Evans for their help on her big day. She also hired three photographers.

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Amy Schumer and Chris Fischer (Photos: Getty Images)

So who is the man that stole Amy Schumers heart?

Fischer gained notoriety around New York City as Mario Batalis sous chef at famed Italian restaurant Babbo. In 2016, he won the James Beard Award for American Cooking for his cookbook, The Beetlebung Farm Cookbook: A Year of Cooking on Marthas Vineyard. He has worked all over the world at top restaurants in Rome, London, and Tokyo.

Fischer runs Beetlebung Farm in Marthas Vineyard, Mass., a place Schumer frequents (despite possibly getting banned from the island). The Fischer family has owned the Massachusetts staple, which is a 5-acre parcel of land in the southwest corner of the island, since the 1950s. Fischer took it over in 2010, after his aunt retired. (Fun fact: Schumer knows a thing or two about a farm because in 2016, she bought back her fathers.)

Schumer filmed her upcoming comedy I Feel Pretty over the summer in Boston, and its been speculated thats when the pair began dating. They were first photographed on a date in November and, most recently, packed on the PDA at Ellen DeGeneress birthday party last weekend.

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This is the first marriage for the actress.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:A senior White House official resigned Wednesday after learning that his past marijuana use would keep him from receiving a security clearance, according to a Politico report.

The departure of George David Banks, who advised the White House on energy and environment as a member of the National Economic Council, comes amid growing criticism of a slew of senior officials working in the Trump administration without permanent security clearance.

Banks told Politico that the White House Counsels office said Tuesday that he would not receive permanent clearance because he had admitted to smoking pot in 2013. The White House subsequently accepted his offer of resignation, he said.

It was an honor to serve the president at the White House and I look forward to supporting the president in the future, he told Politico.

White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter resigned last Wednesday following public allegations that he abused multiple ex-wives. David Sorensen, a White House speechwriter, resigned on Friday over domestic abuse allegations. As many as 40 White House officials are said to be working without full security clearance, including Jared Kushner, President Trumps son and law and key advisor, according to a CNN report.

Banks, a former aide in the George W. Bush administration, advised the Trump White House on international energy, environment and climate issues. He often served as the administrations public face on international climate change issues, including at international climate change negotiations.

White House officials in at least the previous administration have admitted to smoking marijuana, including President Obama and his National Security Advisor Susan Rice. The Trump administration has shifted gears on marijuana, making enforcement of the federal restrictions on the drug a priority.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. An email to Bankss White House email address was returned as undeliverable early Wednesday afternoon.The suspect in the Florida high school shooting has confessed, police said Thursday.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, told police he was responsible for the shooting and added that he hid extra ammunition in his backpack and shot students in the hallways and on school grounds, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said.

Israel also revealed Cruzs bizarre movements in the hour after he allegedly opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, killing 17 and wounding others.

Cruz arrived at the school by taking an Uber car, took the rifle out of a case and began shooting in classrooms, Israel said. He then dropped the AR-15 assault rifle he used and his vest to blend in with students. Cruz then left the school and ran along with other students fleeing to blend in.

He then went to a Walmart, bought a drink in a Subway, left and then went to a McDonalds. After walking out of the McDonalds he was taken into police custody without incident.

The news comes after the FBI confirmed agents were warned five months ago about a YouTube comment that may have come from Cruz.

Parents wait for news after a reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14, 2018.

In 2017, the FBI received information about a comment made on a YouTube channel. The comment simply said, Im going to be a professional school shooter. No other information was included with that comment which would indicate a time, location or the true identity of the person who made the comment. The FBI conducted database reviews, checks, but was unable to further identify the person who actually made the comment, FBI Special Agent Rob Lasky said during a press conference.

The username on the comment was nikolas cruz.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel also said that over the past few years his office had received about 20 calls for service regarding Cruz and his younger brother, and that each one would be looked at and scrutinized.

Cruz is charged with murdering 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Wednesday. He was arrested by authorities when he fled the scene.

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The details of Cruzs online comments came as former classmates, teachers and neighbors have said they long feared Cruz may have been capable of violence. Cruz, a former student at the school, was expelled last year for disciplinary reasons.

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting is the 6th school shooting resulting in injuries this year. There have been 17 incidents of gunfire in schools this year, according to gun control group Everytown USA. It is also the deadliest school shooting since the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, which claimed the lives of 20 children and six adults.

This is a terrible day for Parkland, Broward County, the state of Florida and the United States, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel said at a press conference Wednesday. Its just catastrophic. There really are no words.

Videos and photos posted by students on social media painted a gruesome picture of the shooting, showing blood spilled on the floor of classrooms and bullet holes in the screens of laptops. Text messages shared between students and their family members shared on social media showed teenagers saying goodbye.

Authorities said the gunman used an AR-15 rifle, a semi-automatic weapon made for military use and seen in other mass shootings, including the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson told CNN the suspect also wore a mask and carried smoke grenades during the attack.

This is just pure evil, Florida Governor Rick Scott told reporters at a press conference Wednesday evening, where he also pledged whatever state resources are necessary to law enforcement or to help any family member whos impacted.

How could this ever happen in this country? How could this happen in this state? Scott said, adding that his prayers are with everybody impacted.

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Heres what we know about the shooting so far:

17 people were killed

At least 17 people were killed in the shooting on Wednesday, with 12 slain inside the school, according to Sheriff Israel.

Three other victims were shot outside the building and on a nearby street corner, and an additional two victims died at nearby hospitals. Sheriff Israel told CBS and other media that a football coach was among the victims, and added that the son of a deputy sheriff was also shot. According to Israel, five of the 17 victims had still not been identified at 9:30 p.m ET.

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Sixteen victims are being treated at local hospitals, according to the Orlando Sentinel, including seven victims at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale. Of those seven, two were in critical condition and five were stable, a doctor told local reporters. Another another nine victims were taken to Broward Health North Medical Center, of whom three were in critical condition.

A doctor at Broward Health North declined to give information about specific patients cases, but predicted a positive outcome. Theyre going to have successful surgeries. Theyre going to recover. Theyre going to go home, Igor Nichiporenko told reporters.

Another victim was taken to Broward Health Coral Springs, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie described the shooting as an unspeakable tragedy representing the worst of humanity, adding in a statement that the school district was cooperating with law enforcement agencies. No parent should ever have to send their kids to school and have them not return, Runcie told reporters. Weve got to find a way for this to stop.

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Marjory Stoneman will remain closed for the rest of the week, the Broward County Sheriffs Department announced. Nearby Westglades Middle School will remain open, and grief counselors will be stationed at a number of nearby locations for students, family members, and school faculty and staff.

The suspect has been identified as Nikolas Cruz

The sheriffs office identified the suspected shooter as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who was charged Wednesday with 17 counts of premeditated murder. The suspect had previously attended the school but was expelled for disciplinary reasons, officials said.

Cruz is an orphaned teenager who moved in with a friends family after his mother died in November 2017, James Lewis, an attorney for that family, told the AP. While living there, he attended an adult correctional school and worked at a local dollar store.

Students at the school described Cruz as an outcast and a loner in interviews following the incident. Some said Cruz would talk about his guns, knives and hunting, and that everyone predicted he would turn into a school shooter.

During the incident, The school was initially placed on lockdown, but started dismissing students as a SWAT team worked on clearing the buildings. Broadcast news footage showed students running from the school building with their hands up.

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The FBI said it is working with local law enforcement, and set up a tips page for information or for witnesses to upload photos or videos related to the incident.

The gunman used an AR-15 assault rifle and carried smoke grenades

Israel said that Cruz had one AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle and multiple magazines with him. Gunmen in past mass shootings, including Newtown, the 2017 shooting on the Las Vegas strip and the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando have used similar style rifles.

Cruz was also wearing a gas mask and equipped with smoke grenades, which he used to set off a fire alarm so kids would come pouring out of classrooms and into the hall, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson told CNN. And there the carnage began.

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Leaders respond: That terrible day you pray never comes

President Trump spoke with Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who said he will continue receiving updates on the investigation from law enforcement. In a tweet, Trump offered condolences to family members of the victims and said no child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.

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On the other side of the world at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, American figure skating duo Alexa Scimeca-Knierim and Chris Knierim dedicated their pairs skating program to the victims of the shooting. We wanted to skate for the 17 children that died in the Florida shooting, Scimeca-Knierim said in an interview after their performance.

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Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said he was devastated and saddened by the deadly shooting, which he called a clear attackdesigned [and] executed to maximize loss of life. Rubio also said in his statement Wednesday that he hopes authorities can find out in coming hours and days more about how and why the killer carried out the attack. Today is that terrible day you pray never comes, Rubio said.

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Meanwhile, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy  who has become a vocal advocate for gun control legislation in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in his state  responded to the horrific scene while speaking on the Senate floor.

This happens no where else other than the United States of America, this epidemic of mass slaughter, this scourge of school shooting after school shooting, he said. It only happens here  not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction. We are responsible for a level of mass atrocity that happens in this country with zero parallel anywhere else.

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Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords said the shooting should strike fear into all Americans, while calling on Congress to enact stricter gun control legislation. Is it safe to send our kids to school? Are we safe in our homes and communities? the former Congresswoman, who survived a shooting in 2011 wrote on Twitter.

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Florida Congresswoman and former Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the victims of the shooting are weighing heavy in my heart while praising first responders. This senseless violence must end, she wrote.

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Students and teachers described the worst nightmare

This is the worst nightmare that you hope never happens to you, Melissa Falkowski, a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas who hid 19 students in a classroom closet during the shooting told CNN on Wednesday. We could not have been more prepared for this situation, which is what makes it so frustrating, Falkowski said, adding that she felt like our government, our country has failed us and failed our kids and didnt keep us safe.

Senior David Hogg said he heard a fire alarm, the second of the school day, and saw a flood of people running toward him, according to the Orlando Sentinel. A TV production student, Hogg pulled out a video camera to record himself and a group of other students who sought safety in culinary instructor Ashley Kurths classroom. Its horrifying, Hogg said. My sister talked to people yesterday that shell never talk to again.

https://twitter.com/morganw_44/status/963929436239298562

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This story has been updated to include more context about how Everytown for Gun Safety categorizes an incident as a school shooting.BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine police seized a package containing objects adorned with Nazi symbols, the Security Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday, the latest confiscation of such artifacts in the South American country. The package, which was shipped from the United States to the northwestern Argentine province of Salta, contained four World War Two helmets, a knife, and a figurine of the imperial eagle all displaying swastikas. It also contained three posters with references to the Third Reich, and two rifles, one a replica. Police raided the home of the individual who picked up the package from a post office, the Ministry said, adding that the person was cooperating with authorities. "There is no room in Argentina for these types of expressions, which make reference to a tragic era in human history," Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said in the statement. In the 1940s, millions of Jews were murdered by the state in Nazi Germany, a genocide known as the Holocaust, along with others denoted as inferior. After the fall of the Third Reich at the end of World War Two, a number of high-ranking Nazi officials fled to South American countries, including Argentina. Last June, police seized a cache of Nazi artifacts hidden behind a library in the house of an art collector in Buenos Aires. (Reporting by Luc Cohen; Editing by David Gregorio)Warning: This recap of the Dont Ask Dont Tell episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story contains spoilers.

The arc of time always endorses progress, but its amazing how long it can take to get from no way to no duh. Obviously, in 2018 we agree that women should be allowed to vote and people of color should have access to drinking fountains etc., but those basic things took decades of horrible, hateful debate until they were suddenly accepted as common wisdom. Gay people can now serve openly in the military thanks to a radical policy change by President Obama and it already feels like such a no-brainer that people dont even really debate it anymore. Yet that policy change followed a hundred years of institutionalized homophobia, unreported assaults, murders, and dishonorable discharges. This weeks episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace whisked us back to those dark times and as difficult as it was to watch, it felt valuable and necessary to truly appreciate how much better things are now. Lets talk about it!

We began with Donatella Versace completely queening out.

Gianni had just informed her that he was intending to come out in the press, and rather than applaud him for his bravery, Donatella was VERY concerned about the companys bottom line. In her opinion, the rock stars and literal royalty theyd been dressing would not want to be associated with a gay designer. That is obviously an insane line of reasoning today  A gay person? In fashion??  but in her mind it made sense. Fortunately, Gianni was still feeling grateful to be alive after nearly succumbing to AIDS-related symptoms and in his mind coming out would be a celebration of life. It would also, it appeared, trigger a certain psychopaths obsessions with him.

That same Advocate article in which Versace came out as a homosexual had been hastily taped up in the back of Andrew Cunanans closet. And considering his apartment was empty save for trash bags and tattered underwear, the presence of these magazine pages made clear that Versace was still on his radar in a big way.

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Also, he was deeply in debt and hed taken to shooting up heroin between his toes, both of which were bad signs. Andrew Cunanans journey had definitely taken a detour through some dark woods.

We then met up with Jeff Trail (an incredible Finn Wittrock) working at some kind of compressed gas factory. During a testy lunch conversation with a coworker, we gathered that his post-military career had been less-than-prestigious compared to his Annapolis peers and he honestly didnt want to talk about it, thank you.

After conning his credit card company into allowing him one last purchase (a flight to Minneapolis!), Cunanan arrived attempting to resume his BFF-status with Jeff Trail and David Madson. But it became immediately clear neither of them wanted to see him. In Jeffs case, it was because apparently Cunanan had sent a postcard to Jeffs dad ostensibly OUTING HIM. (A true gay psycho power play if there ever was one.) And David was just straight up tired of getting proposed to by someone who made his stomach turn.

You know? Like, thank you for the $10,000 Rolex you clearly stole from a trick, but Id rather not enter into a joint tax status with you.

Even though Jeff couldnt even stand to look at Cunanan, he agreed to let him crash at his place. But he had no intention of actually being there, as he then couch surfed at this pregnant sisters house. She was about to give birth any minute, and he was excited to become a proud gay uncle. There was not yet an Instagram back then, but just imagine all the gay uncle photos hed post around the holidays! Things were looking bright.

It was pretty awkward when David took Andrew out that night, and Andrew couldnt stop bragging to Davids co-workers that they were engaged. David had made the mistake of replying to his constant proposals with TBD but Andrew took that as a yes. Anyway, it was so stressful to me. But I DID enjoy this lady absolutely wailing on a clarinet. Go girl!

Back at Jeffs place, Andrew was the worlds worst houseguest and immediately began going through all of Jeffs stuff. He found the gun, obviously, but he also found Davids old Navy uniform along with a VHS tape of the CBS special hed appeared in (anonymously) talking about being gay in the military. And even though to us it was a brave document of being a closeted soldier in a time when that could get you killed, Andrew seemed resentful and hateful toward Jeff, pointing a gun at the TV instead. Truly twisted.

We then flashed back to Jeffs time in the Navy, specifically the series of incidents in which another gay naval officer was routinely assaulted by his comrades and only Jeff stepped in to stop it. Jeff was doing the right thing in helping his peer, but this immediately painted a target on his back for being another potential gay. And things got worse when gay soldiers began to name names in order to avoid dishonorable discharge. Or, in certain cases, named tattoos.

Oh god. Jeff cut off his tattoo with a box cutter. That alone should tell you how intense this was getting.

Around this time the Navy decided to kinda-sorta address homosexuality in the military by distributing comic books that dramatized Dont Ask, Dont Tell. At the time I think people thought this policy would protect the inner lives of gay servicemen, but in retrospect, we know that it led to more discharges and persecution than ever before.

So, yeah. Things were pretty bleak. (Spoiler: Jeff did not end up hanging himself in this scene.)

Ironically, one of the saving graces in Jeffs turmoil came when he encountered a bright and personable guy at a local gay bar. The thing with sociopaths is sometimes they use their gift/curse for the betterment of others, and in this case, Andrew Cunanan was just the fun-night-out that Jeff needed to feel like himself. And over the course of several hangs, we got the sense that Jeff was ready to embrace his sexuality and even go so far as to appear in a television interview that could potentially get him kicked out of the military. In other words, he was ready for the runway.

Loved this visual reference to Get Out. I love that from now on, anytime someone eats Froot Loops while sitting cross-legged will be forever marked as a psycho. And yeah, when Jeff arrived back at his now-messy apartment to find Andrew doing this, guess what he said? Get out! Even though all those years ago Andrew had been a friendly face at a gay bar, he was now overstaying his welcome in Jeffs life. And unfortunately for Jeff, he was too honest about this fact.

Because as we learned last week, after Andrew lured Jeff to Davids loft with the promise of returning his handgun (Jeff, cmon. Did you really think Andrew had placed the gun in his duffel accidentally?) he suddenly found himself on the business end of a hammer. Really terrible.

And the tragic button was that while Jeffs mangled corpse was lying wrapped in a rug, his sister went into labor and gave birth. Damn.

Dont Ask Dont Tell was another wonderful exploration of the life and trials of one of Cunanans victims, and it was especially elegantly told. Tying together Versaces coming-out interview with Jeff Trails staying-in interview was the perfect way to describe the exact nature of being closeted in 1997. If even wealthy, super successful artists struggled to make that leap, how on earth could an everyman in the military do it? It was an untenable situation, and like many other elements of gay life in the 90s, it contributed to the environment that pushed Andrew Cunanan to commit the crimes he did. Theres still a long way to go before homosexuality is a non-issue with some people, but this episode was a lovely and painful reminder that things really have gotten better. Hopefully, we can keep that going.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:In 1977, humans launched twin robotic probes into space several weeks apart. The two Voyager spacecraft barreled away from Earth for a tour of our planets siblings in the solar system. At each encounter, the Voyagers set records for the best-looking pictures of these planets humanity had ever taken, far better than anything seen through a telescope. There was Jupiter, furiously churning with gargantuan storms. There was Saturn, encircled by vinyl-like rings. There was Uranus, robins-egg blue and featureless. There was Neptune, cloud-speckled and cerulean.

When the planetary safari was over, Voyager 1 turned back toward Earth in 1990 for one last picture before its cameras were shut off. The resulting photograph, the Pale Blue Dot image at the top of this story, became the most distant image ever taken of Earth.

Voyager has held onto that record for 28 years. But a year from now, it may get knocked out of first place.

Sometime after January 2019, New Horizons, the spacecraft that brought us photos of the heart-shaped terrain on Pluto, will turn back toward Earth. The probes camera, the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager, or LORRI for short, will start snapping away. Nearly three decades after the original, humanity will get another Pale Blue Dot.

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Weve been talking about it for years, says Andy Cheng of the plan to take another Pale Blue Dot image. Cheng is a scientist at Johns Hopkins Universitys Applied Physics Laboratory and the principal investigator for LORRI.

Its a risky move. The attempt requires pointing LORRI close enough to the sun so that objects in the darkness are illuminated, but not so close that sunlight damages or destroys the camera. But were going to do it anyway, for the same reason as before, Cheng says. Its just such a great thing to try.

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The photo shoot will take considerable coordination. All activities on the spacecraft need to be choreographed in elaborate detail and then checked and checked again, Cheng says. Taking a LORRI image involves more than just LORRIthe spacecraft needs to point the camera in the right direction, LORRI needs to be operated, the image data needs to be put in the right place and then accessed and transmitted to Earth, which requires more maneuvers of the spacecraft, all of which needs to happen on a spacecraft almost 4 billion miles away.

At that distance, our home in the universe will look tremendously small. Itll be very hard to pick out that tiny, bright dot, he says.

The shot will come more than 70 years after the creation of the first image of Earth from space. On October 24, 1946, more than a decade before Sputnik, a V-2 missile launched from New Mexico with a camera in tow. The missile flew for only a few minutes before crashing back down, but its camera managed to capture a grainy, black-and-white view of Earth against the blackness of space.

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LORRI and the other instruments on New Horizons are currently in hibernation. In December, LORRI photographed two objects in the Kuiper Belt, a region of asteroid, comets, and small rocks beyond Neptune. The resulting images, which NASA revealed last week, broke Voyagers record for the farthest images ever taken from Earth. Voyager was about 3.75 billion miles from Earth when it captured the Pale Blue Dot image. New Horizons was 3.79 billion miles from Earth when it photographed the Kuiper Belt objects. The spacecraft travels over more than 700,000 miles of space every day.

LORRI and the other instruments will wake up this summer in preparation for a flyby of MU69, a Kuiper Belt object discovered in 2014 with the Hubble Space Telescope. The object is so far from Earth that even with Hubbles eyes, astronomers dont know whether MU69 is one object or two. LORRI will solve that mystery next year when it sends back detailed images. After that, itll get in position to photograph Earth and try to recreate the famous Pale Blue Dot shot.

Taking images and returning them from the greatest distancesits just mankinds reach extending farther, Cheng says.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a stark warning on Wednesday to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, urging it not to approve a draft criminal sentencing reform bill that Sessions claimed would reduce sentences for "a highly dangerous cohort of criminals." In a letter seen by Reuters, Sessions told Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman and fellow Republican Charles Grassley that he feared passage of the legislation would be "a grave error." Grassley's committee is slated to make edits to the draft bill at a hearing on Thursday, before it can be sent to the full Senate for a possible vote. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Andrew Hay)A day after Shaun White dismissed questions about his 2016 sexual assault case as gossip, the attorney of his accuser fired back, saying the three-time Olympic gold medalist has minimized the problem of sexual harassment in this country, per USA Today.

Lawrance Bohm represents Lena Zawaideh, a former drummer in Whites band. Zawaideh filed a suit against White in 2016, with allegations that White sent Zawaideh lewd text messages and forced her to watch sexually disturbing videos. After White contested the charges, he reached a settlement in May 2017, the terms of which have not been disclosed.

Until Tuesday night, the case had received relatively little attention. But at Whites press conference following his gold medal in the snowboard halfpipe, he referred to the allegations as gossip and refused to address any non-snowboarding questions. That led to Bohm releasing a statement on behalf of his client:

There are powerful forces at play which prevent Ms. Zawaideh from speaking about the allegations and ultimate outcome of the sexual harassment case. Before Mr. White made his comment, Ms. Zawaideh believed that this matter was in the past, and she was happy to put the situation behind her so she can focus on her blossoming music career. Unfortunately, by his recent comments and conduct, Mr. White has minimized the problem of sexual harassment in this country.

Bohm continued: No woman wants to be called a gossip or a liar by the harasser. Minimizing sexual harassment maximizes the harm to Ms. Zawaideh. Hopefully, before our country declares someone the best of the U.S., there will be investigation and due diligence.

The attorney of Shaun Whites accuser fired back following the star snowboarder dismissing sexual assault allegations as gossip at his halfpipe gold medal press conference. (AP)

In the hours following his press conference, White, 31, issued multiple apologies, first in a statement released to the media: I regret my behavior many years ago and am sorry that I made anyone  particularly someone I considered a friend  uncomfortable. I have grown and changed as a person, as we all grow and change, and am proud of who I am today.

He then issued another apology on NBCsToday: Im truly sorry that I chose the word gossip, he said. It was a poor choice of words to describe such a sensitive subject in the world today. Im just truly sorry. I was so overwhelmed with just wanting to talk about how amazing today was and share my experience, but yeah.

More Olympic coverage from Yahoo Sports:

 Shaun White apologizes for dismissing harassment question

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 Shaun White violates Flag Code after gold medal win

Sydney (AFP) - Australia's prime minister imposed a formal ban on sex between ministers and their staff on Thursday after his deputy made "a shocking error of judgement" by having an affair that left an aide pregnant and the government reeling.

Malcolm Turnbull announced the amendment to the ministerial code of conduct at an extraordinary press conference during which he slammed deputy Barnaby Joyce for causing "terrible hurt and humiliation" to his wife and four children.

"Barnaby made a shocking error of judgement in having an affair with a young woman working in his office," he said.

"In doing so, he has set off a world of woe for those women and appalled all of us.

"Our hearts go out to them. It has been a dreadful thing for them to go through in the glare of publicity."

Joyce, 50, has been under immense pressure since his affair with former media advisory Vikki Campion, 33, who is now pregnant with their child, became public last week.

It has led to allegations that he breached ministerial rules, with the crisis dominating the front pages and parliament question time, with calls mounting for him to resign.

Joyce, whose National Party is in a coalition with the prime minister's Liberals, will take leave next week, allowing him to side-step the role of acting leader while Turnbull is on a visit to the United States.

Turnbull departs for Washington next Wednesday for meetings with US President Donald Trump and is scheduled to be overseas for four days.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, as deputy Liberal leader, would normally step in if Joyce was unavailable. But she will also be travelling, which means Senate leader Mathias Cormann will take the position.

Turnbull said the break would allow Joyce to "consider his own position".

The prime minister could sack him, but that risks fracturing the ruling coalition and could cause a rift between the Liberal and National parties.

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- 'No good comes of it' -

Joyce admitted to the affair after a picture of his pregnant lover was splashed across the front page of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, and has publicly apologised to his shattered wife of 24 years Natalie and their daughters.

Turnbull said times had changed and people expected politicians to set an example.

"I am not here to moralise. But we must recognise that whatever may have been acceptable or to which a blind eye was turned in the past, today, in 2018, it is not acceptable for a minister to have a sexual relationship with somebody who works for them," he said.

"It is a very bad workplace practice. And everybody knows that no good comes of it."

As such, he amended the code of conduct to make unequivocally clear that "ministers, regardless of whether they are married or single, must not engage in sexual relations with staff".

Joyce -- best known internationally for threatening to euthanise Hollywood star Johnny Depp's dogs over a quarantine violation -- denies he breached any rules, which could be grounds for him to be removed from office.

He has defended the two jobs, one for a minister, that Campion was given after she stopped working for him last year.

The code stipulates that "partners" of ministers cannot be given jobs in ministerial offices without the express approval of the prime minister.

Joyce is also under fire over revelations that he accepted a rent-free apartment from a millionaire friend after his marriage collapsed.

Labor accused him of breaching ministerial standards by asking for a place to live, and in effect receiving a gift of not paying rent for six months. Joyce insists it was offered and he did not ask for it.

Joyce was re-elected in his rural constituency in New South Wales late last year after being forced to stand down over a once-obscure rule barring dual citizens from federal office.

He campaigned on a platform of being a pillar of the community who upheld conservative values, including marriage.BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's government will declare an emergency in its northern border state of Roraima to boost funding and troops to help control an influx of Venezuelan refugees into the country, Defense Minister Raul Jungmann said on Wednesday. Thousands of Venezuelans escaping economic crisis in the Andean country have crossed the border with Brazil in recent months. The local government said Venezuelan arrivals represent 10 percent of the population of Roraima's capital, Boa Vista, or around 40,000 people, straining public services. According to Jungmann, the armed forces will double troop numbers in the state, set up a field hospital and create a screening center for Venezuelans. Brazilian President Michel Temer flew to Boa Vista on Monday for meetings with local authorities to assess the situation. (Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)Adam Pengilly represented Great Britain at the 2010 Olympics, and later became an IOC member. (Getty)

Adam Pengilly, a former Olympic skeleton athlete and current International Olympic Committee member, has been told to leave PyeongChang after an altercation with a security guard in the host city on Thursday morning.

Pengilly, a 40-year-old Brit, allegedly injured the security guard while leaving a hotel. He has admitted to swearing while running past the guard.

The IOC released a statement later in the day apologizing for Pengillys behavior, thanking police, and announcing that Pengilly would be sent home.

Following an interview with the IOC Ethics and Compliance officer, he will leave the Olympic Games and South Korea with immediate effect, the statement read.

We would like to once again thank all the authorities and the police who are doing an excellent job and deserve all our thanks. Mr. Pengilly has expressed his apologies to the security man involved.

The IOC also noted that Pengillys IOC term will expire on February 25, so additional punishment is likely unnecessary.

Pengilly, speaking to insidethegames, disputed the characterization of the incident as a fight:

I tried to walk past a security guard when he told me to go the other way. He blocked my path, came close to me, and asked to see my accreditation. I showed it and, when he came even closer to me, I asked to see his manager. He wouldnt take me to his manager and asked to take a photograph of my accreditation. This went on for 30 seconds or so, and then I ran past him. I heard him shout stop but didnt turn around or look back. I have since heard that he fell over and has evidently suffered scratches, but I did not hear him fall or shout out. At no point did I touch him and, although I have been told that footage makes it look as if I pushed him, this was not the case and, if anything, he was coming towards me. This was my mistake and my error and I am sorry  I should have turned around and I also apologize for swearing. I am sorry to the security guard. I have spoken about IOC members being held to a higher standard and I have let myself and others down. But, to reiterate, some are saying there was a fight or a scuffle  this was incorrect.

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Other reports, as Pengilly noted, suggest the incident was more violent. Per the Korea Times, the security guard said he confronted Pengilly because the IOC member was walking in a bus lane, not a road for pedestrians.

The guard claimed Pengilly refused to comply with his instructions, dragged him about 30 meters and knocked him down, the Korea Times reports. The guard added that Pengilly threatened him, telling him he would never work in Korea anymore if he tells his supervisor about the incident.

The altercation has reportedly been caught on camera.

Prior to Thursday, Pengilly was best known for his strong stance that Russia should have been completely banned from the 2016 Rio Olympics, and more generally that the IOC should have been tougher on Russia in the wake of widespread state-sponsored doping.

Coincidentally  or perhaps not  he is now receiving a harsher punishment than many IOC members who have done much worse.

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 Wetzel: Weve already seen enough, bring the NHL back to Olympic hockeyBy Andrea Hopkins OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada will create a legal framework to guarantee the rights of indigenous people in all government decisions, doing away with policies built to serve colonial interests, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday. In a sweeping speech that condemned past governments for failing to do enough to protect the rights of aboriginals, Trudeau said the planned legislation would ensure "rigorous, full and meaningful" implementation of treaties and other agreements and could establish new ways to resolve disputes. While treaty rights with aboriginals are already recognized under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the framework would ensure the constitution is the starting point for such matters as resource development, self-governance, land rights and social issues. It will include new legislation, policy or other mechanisms to put those rights in action, Trudeau said. He did not provide details. "We need to get to a place where indigenous peoples in Canada are in control of their own destiny, making their own decisions about their future," Trudeau said in the House of Commons. The government will consult with indigenous groups as well as provinces, industry and the public as it writes the legislation, which will be introduced this year and implemented before the 2019 election. If the government follows its words with tangible actions, "this can be an incredibly important step in Canada's journey of reconciliation," said Ry Moran, director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. Trudeau is under pressure to make good on his 2015 election promise to repair the government's relationship with indigenous groups. On Tuesday, he met with the family of an aboriginal man who was slain by a white farmer after a not-guilty verdict on Friday in the high-profile case triggered calls for changes to Canada's justice system. Indigenous Canadians, who make up about 5 percent of Canada's 36 million people and face more poverty and violence, have fought for generations to gain greater control of the development of the country's natural resources. Thousands of legal challenges brought by aboriginal groups have ground their way through the court system at a huge cost, said Ken Coates, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan. With the Supreme Court broadly accepting indigenous rights, the government appears ready to try to clarify and implement them in decision-making, rather than making decisions first and then fighting in court. "I'm really hopeful this will be a major reset of the relationship," Coates said. (Additional reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Leslie Adler)At least 17 are dead, several others injured, after a shooting at a Florida school where a former student, who has since been taken into custody, opened fire Wednesday at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

President Donald Trump has since sent his prayers and condolences to the families of the victims, while celebrities including Mark Ruffalo, Reese Witherspoon, Stephen King, Kim Kardashian West, and Ellen DeGeneres shared their thoughts on social media.

No words, no actions, no laws are enough until we end this epidemic of school shootings in our country, tweeted DeGeneres. My heart is with the students and parents of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Read more reactions below.

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This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it.BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Thursday expressed anger over a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the remote Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China also claims, and said India should stop any action that might complicate the dispute. China claims the region in the eastern Himalayas as "South Tibet", and it has denounced Indian leaders' visits there as attempts to bolster India's claims. "China's position on the China-India boundary question is consistent and clear-cut," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in a statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency. "The Chinese government has never recognized the so-called Arunachal Pradesh and is firmly opposed to the Indian leader's visit to the disputed area," Geng said. "We will lodge stern representations with the Indian side," he said. Modi is visiting as part of a tour of India's northeastern states. "I am delighted to visit Arunachal Pradesh and be among the wonderful people of this state," Modi said in a Twitter post. China and India have improved ties in recent years but there is still deep distrust over their long festering border dispute, which triggered a brief war in 1962. Chinese and Indian troops faced off on another disputed part of the border last year. Chinese spokesman Geng said China and India had reached an important consensus on properly managing disputes, and the two sides were working to resolve their contested border through negotiation and consultation. "The Chinese side urges the Indian side to honor its commitment and abide by the relevant consensus, and refrain from taking any action that may complicate the boundary question," Geng said. Modi is expected to visit China in June for a summit of the Chinese and Russian-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization security bloc. He inaugurated a convention center in the Arunachal Pradesh state capital of Itanagar and said the state authorities had prepared an excellent roadmap for development until 2027. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Sanjeev Miglani in NEW DELHI; Editing by Robert Birsel)Here are the charts of the day for February 15, 2018.

Cisco (CSCO): Shares are getting a boost in midday trade. The worlds largest networking equipment maker said sales grew about 3% last quarter. Thats Ciscos first rise in revenue in more than two years. The company also revealed a $25 billion increase to its stock repurchase plan.

TripAdvisor (TRIP): Shares zooming higher in early trade. The travel sites sales for the holiday quarter were higher than the previous year, and it issued a stronger-than-expected forecast for the current year.

Teva (TEVA): Shares jumping in midday trading. The news here  Warren Buffetts Berkshire reports a new stake in the generic drugmaker, close to nearly 19 million shares. Activist fund Jana Partners also disclosed a stake in Teva.

For more on todays big stock movers check out the Final Round, live at 3:55pm eastern, right here on Yahoo Finance.By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Thursday threw out a constitutional challenge by the conservative group Citizens United to New York state's requirement that registered charities disclose their donors annually.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected claims that the requirement violated the First Amendment because it intimidated donors from contributing, cutting off money needed to conduct free speech, and was a prior restraint on the ability to solicit donations.

Writing for a 3-0 panel, Circuit Judge Rosemary Pooler said New York has important interests in stopping fraud and abuse by charities, and requiring them to disclose names, addresses and contributions of their largest donors makes enforcement easier.

"While we think it plausible that some donors will find it intolerable for law enforcement officials to know where they have made donations, we see no reason to believe that this risk of speech chilling is more than that which comes with any disclosure regulation," Pooler wrote.

The court also found no reason to believe that New York and its Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a Democrat, enforced the disclosure requirement "in anything but a uniformly content-neutral fashion."

Citizens United was also the plaintiff in the landmark 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case allowing unlimited independent spending by corporations and labor unions in election campaigns.

It advocates for limited government, free enterprise and strong families.

"We are extremely disappointed by today's adverse ruling," general counsel Michael Boos said in a statement. He said the group may ask the entire appeals court to rehear the case, or appeal to the Supreme Court.

Schneiderman, in a statement, said the decision "affirms that Citizens United can no longer shroud its biggest donors in secrecy," and was "a victory for all those who believe in fairness" in the non-profit sector.

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Thursday's decision largely affirmed U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein's August 2016 ruling dismissing most claims.

It also dismissed a claim that Schneiderman's decision to enforce the disclosure requirement more aggressively without saying he was doing so was a due process violation.

The court said no advance notice was needed because charities were already expected to follow the law.The case is Citizens United et al v. Schneiderman, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 16-3310.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Phil Berlowitz and Susan Thomas)Philip Mudd, a CNN counterterrorism analyst and former FBI deputy director, broke down in tears on the air on Wednesday while discussing Wednesdays deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school.

Mudd, who spent close to three decades working in the CIA and FBI before retiring in 2010, was overcome by emotion when asked by CNNs Wolf Blitzer for his thoughts on the massacre in Parkland, Fla., where police say a former student, armed with an AR-15-style rifle, killed 17 people and injured at least a dozen more.

I have 10 nieces and nephews and were talking about bump stocks? Were talking about legislation? A child of God is dead, Mudd said, his voice breaking. Can we now acknowledge in this country that we cannot accept this?

Mudd, appearing from a studio in Miami, then waved off the camera.

I cant do it, Wolf, he said. Im sorry.

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Blitzer calmly pivoted to his next guest while acknowledging Mudds uncharacteristic breakdown.

This is so emotional, Blitzer said. Unfortunately it happens all too often. And as a result, people say weve got to learn some lessons. Unfortunately lessons are never, never learned.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., echoed Blitzers critique in an impassioned speech on the Senate floor.

As we speak, there is a horrific scene playing out at a high school in South Florida, Murphy said. If you turn on your television right now, youre going to see scenes of children running for their lives.

Murphy, who was one of the first officials to arrive at the scene of the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., noted that Wednesdays shooting was the 18th at a U.S. school this year.

This happens nowhere else other than the United States of America, he said. This epidemic of mass slaughter, this scourge of school shooting after school shooting. It only happens here, not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction. We are responsible.

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A composed Mudd returned to the air to echo his earlier refrain  that the country is not serious about addressing gun violence.

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We know the answer, everybody knows the answer, Mudd said. In places like Japan and Western Europe, they do not have the violence against children that we have in this country.

We refuse to accept that we can learn from other countries, he added. Its not that complicated.

Read more from Yahoo News:The fallout from the year's biggest cryptocurrency hack to date continues. On Monday, Reuters reported that 10 traders who used the Tokyo-based exchange Coincheck are preparing to file a lawsuit with Tokyo's District Court on Thursday. The plaintiffs will be represented by Hiromu Mochizuki, who has been tweeting some updates about the case.

During the aftermath of its recent $530 million hack of NEM tokens, Coincheck froze transactions on its platform, holding plenty of virtual wealth hostage in the process. The present suit demands that Coincheck let the plaintiffs withdraw their virtual currencies in order to remove them from the platform and relocate the coins to external wallets. Reuters reports that the group may pursue a follow-up lawsuit for damages related to the hack later in February.

Coincheck withdrawals in Japanese Yen were frozen on January 27. Last week, Coincheck indicated that it would resume withdrawals of JPY after "[completing] the technical safety confirmation with the cooperation of external experts."

After announcing the loss of 500 million tokens of NEM in late January, Coincheck outlined its plans for "reparations" to affected customers.

Among those plans, Coincheck vowed to "discover the root cause of the breach, safeguard our customers, and [take] more effective measures for system risk management and prevention of similar events in the future."The President shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.

 Article II, Section 3, U.S. Constitution

These words are not a suggestion. They are a command. They impose an affirmative duty on the President  and, as the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee reminded us five years ago, the clause is mandatory. It was inserted into the Constitution because the Founders rejected the notion that, like the English king, a President could suspend, ignore or violate a law he didnt like.

These words also have especially significant meaning today, as the President weighs whether or not to speak with a law enforcement officer charged with investigating alleged criminal acts that could encompass the Presidents own conduct or the actions of his family and colleagues. President Trump has said that he is not only eager to talk to Special Counsel Robert Mueller for the investigation into Russia interference with the 2016 election (and any other federal crimes he encounters in the process of that inquiry) but that he wants to do so under oath. Nonetheless, the New York Times reports that some of the Presidents lawyers have now advised Trump to refuse any interview with Mueller.

Whether this course of action is in the Presidents best interests is one question. But would President Trump refusing to speak with Mueller be unconstitutional? Would it violate his unique obligation to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed? While there has never been a litigated matter covering this precise situation  at least to my knowledge  the Constitution, the common law and common sense all suggest the answer is yes.

There is nothing ambiguous about the words of the Constitutional command, and it is not a logical stretch to say that an obligation to faithfully execute the laws would include an obligation for the President to cooperate with an authorized law enforcement officer making an authorized inquiry  especially when the President and his family are themselves subjects of the investigation. The President has a Constitutional obligation to help Mueller execute the law, not hinder him.

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This would be a new application of the Faithful Execution clause, but there is ample legal precedent for the other branches of our government to review and sanction the Chief Executive for a failure to abide by Presidential obligations. Presidents Truman and Nixon bore the scars of such recent battles.

If Trump does refuse to speak to Mueller, he risks a grand jury subpoena. Two previous Presidents went that route and neither Clinton nor Nixon fared very well in the courts. The President would then likely have to testify under oath and incur substantial risk of perjury and self-incrimination. Or he could claim a Fifth Amendment right to avoid answering Muellers questions by asserting his testimony would tend to incriminate him. (In which case: Yikes The Donald morphs into The Don.)

On the face of it, one could reasonably argue that there is a direct conflict between the mandatory obligation to take care to see to the faithful execution of the law and the interposition of a Fifth Amendment right to frustrate the prosecutor. I respectfully suggest Taking care appears to be the direct opposite of Taking five. But the novel legal question of whether the Take Care clause strips the President of any Fifth Amendment rights in these circumstances  even if it resolved in the Presidents favor  certainly does not immunize the President from impeachment.

The Fifth Amendment would hardly serve the Presidents interests in a proceeding before a dutiful Congress.

While in a criminal trial, the court instructs the jury that they may not infer a consciousness of guilt from the silence of the defendant (and therefore the invocation of the Fifth Amendment), the opposite is true in civil cases. There, when a party fails to deny any allegation, or fails or refuses to answer a pertinent question based on a Fifth Amendment claim, the jury is free to assume that the defendants failure to swear I didnt do it is powerful evidence that he did do it.

Impeachment proceedings are closer to civil cases than criminal ones. Congresss rights are very broad. And while there is no precedent, I suggest Congress is free to do what logic suggests: infer guilt by reason of the Presidents imposition of the Fifth Amendment.

A failure to cooperate in full with Mueller would remove any doubt of the Presidents abject contempt for his Constitutional obligations.

The irony here is that because it is exclusively Congresss duty to hold the President accountable for Constitutional offenses, Trump is more likely to commit them. I predict Trump will listen to his lawyers. I would give the same advice they are giving him. The calculation is simple. The President needs to estimate which government officer is less likely to end his presidency before 2020: Robert Mueller or Paul Ryan.

Would Congress live up to its Constitutional obligations? Would it impeach by reason of the Presidents failure to cooperate with Mueller, his failure to aid in the faithful execution of the law?

This Congress? Ha!President Trump and former President Barack Obama. (Photos: Evan Vucci/AP; Stephane Cardinale/Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

President Trump said there were so many signs that the suspect in the tragic shooting Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., was mentally disturbed. He pointed out on Twitter Thursday morning that many neighbors and classmates were aware of his troubling behavior, and he urged Americans to report to the authorities anything that may indicate possible future violence.

Later Thursday morning, during an address to the nation, Trump focused on the importance of prayer, community and mental health but not guns: We are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of mental health.

At least rhetorically, there is widespread consensus that people with psychological issues should have access to mental health services, even if there are disagreements over how theyre provided. But there is strong polarization over whom the government should allow to purchase firearms  including those with mental health issues.

One of Trumps first actions in the White House was to quash former President Barack Obamas recommendation for a new regulation that would prevent people with severe mental health illnesses from purchasing guns.

That nullified regulations origins stretch back over 10 years to the tragic Virginia Tech massacre in April 2007. With bipartisan support, Congress overwhelmingly passed the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 to address loopholes in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) that allowed the Virginia Tech shooter to buy firearms despite having been identified as a danger by a judge.

Waiting for word from students, anxious family members gather south of the campus following the shooting on Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. (Photo: Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

In January 2013, just one month after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Obama issued a presidential memorandum calling on government agencies to actively participate in submitting data to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the NICS.

In December 2016, the Social Security Administration issued a rule for complying with the 2007 act by submitting to the NICS the names of certain recipients of Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income benefits, those with a designated representative to receive and handle their payments. The rule was meant to ensure that people who are not mentally competent to handle their own finances or hold full-time employment should not be allowed to purchase firearms. The Obama White House estimated that this would prevent roughly 75,000 people with documented mental health issues or legally established incompetence from buying firearms.

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Robin Lloyd, the director of government affairs at Giffords, a gun-control organization established by former congresswoman and shooting victim Gabrielle Giffords, said these two criteria actually establish a fairly high threshold for mental incompetence. But she said that a number of due-process provisions were embedded in the rule: i.e., people who fall into that category would be notified of their status and invited to present evidence to petition to regain their gun rights.

The rule predictably divided politicians and pundits along ideological lines: The gun-rights crowd called it unconstitutional, whereas the gun-control crowd called it long-overdue common-sense legislation.

But there was another group that got swept into this public dispute. On this issue, advocates for persons with disabilities sided with organizations like the National Rifle Association (NRA). The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) opposed the Social Security Administrations rule on the grounds that it advances the stereotype that people with mental disabilities are prone to violence. Faiz Shakir and Vania Leveille, respectively the national political director and senior legislative counsel of the ACLUs Washington Legislative Office, wrote an open letter to Congress outlining the organizations position:

There is no data to support a connection between the need for a representative payee to manage ones Social Security disability benefits and a propensity toward gun violence. The rule further demonstrates the damaging phenomenon of spread, or the perception that a disabled individual with one area of impairment automatically has additional, negative and unrelated attributes. Here, the rule automatically conflates one disability-related characteristic, that is, difficulty managing money, with the inability to safely possess a firearm.

Law enforcement vehicles arrive at the hotel in Coral Springs, Fla., where parents were instructed to pick up their children Wednesday night. (Photo: Wilfredo Lee/AP)

The Consortium for Citizens With Disabilities, which advocates for people with physical and mental disabilities, and the National Council on Disability, a federal agency that advises the president and Congress on these issues, also publicly opposed the rule on the grounds that it promoted harmful stereotypes about people with disabilities.

In early 2017, the Republican-controlled Congress invoked the Congressional Review Act to revoke the rule with House Judiciary Resolution 40, which Trump swiftly signed it into law. The NRA celebrated Trump for counteracting Obamas last-minute gun grab and government overreach.

Today marks a new era for law-abiding gun owners, as we now have a president who respects and supports our right to keep and bear arms, said Chris W. Cox, the executive director for the NRAs Institute for Legislative Action. Our thanks go to President Trump and the congressmen and senators who led the fight for this important legislation.

Lloyd was disappointed with the federal action, and again when Congress passed a similar bill in March 2017 that would prohibit the Department of Veterans Affairs from submitting records to NICS and remove all of the current records.

What do we see the House do? Instead of taking action on any of the number of bipartisan proposals that have been introduced  whether to ban bump stocks or to get the appropriate records into the background check system  we see Congress pass a bill that makes it easier for dangerous and untrained individuals to carry concealed firearms across the country, she said.

Lloyd took issue with the gun lobbys claims that we simply need to enforce the laws already on the books, rather than passing new regulations.

Right now, what Congress and President Trump are doing is actively weakening our laws. Theyre not enforcing the ones on the books. Theyre making it much harder for states to enforce their own laws in the case of the concealed-carry bill. Theyre preventing real and meaningful bipartisan action.

Read more from Yahoo News:DAMASCUS/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel will face "more surprises" should it again attack Syrian territory, Damascus said on Tuesday, after Syria's air defenses shot down an advanced Israeli warplane during the fiercest flare-up between the old foes in 36 years. The F-16 jet was hit over northern Israel on Saturday as it returned from a raid on a Syrian position blamed for launching an Iranian-made drone across the border. Iran is supporting President Bashar al-Assad in Syrias near seven-year civil war. "Have full confidence the aggressor will be greatly surprised, because it thought this war - this war of attrition Syria has been exposed to for years - had made it incapable of confronting attacks," Assistant Foreign Minister Ayman Sussan said. "God willing, they will see more surprises whenever they try to attack Syria," Sussan said during a Damascus news conference. The downed F-16 was the first warplane Israel has lost to enemy fire since its 1982 Lebanon war. Its two-man crew survived, with injuries, after bailing out of the stricken jet. Israel retaliated by destroying around half of Syria's anti-aircraft batteries, according to an initial assessment shared with Reuters by an Israeli official who requested anonymity. Israel has said it will press ahead with missions in Syria, where it has launched scores of sorties against suspected arms transfers to Iranian-sponsored Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas. "There are no limitations, and nor do we accept any limitations," Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told reporters during a tour of Israel's border with Syria and Lebanon. "We will continue to defend our vital security and other interests. And I would like to paraphrase the well-known saying: 'This is not the time to bark, this is the time to bite.'" Tehrans involvement in Syria, including the deployment of Iran-backed forces near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, has alarmed Israel. It has also has accused Iran of building precision-guided missile factories for Hezbollah in Lebanon. Syria and Hezbollah celebrated the F-16 shoot-down as a blow to Israeli military superiority. Israel's Army Radio said on Tuesday that investigators believed pilot error - rather than Syrian capabilities - were mainly at fault for the F-16's failure to evade what was probably an aged SA-5 missile. Israeli military spokesman declined to comment on that report, saying the investigation was ongoing. Saturday's incident stirred up further questions in Israel about the effectiveness of a coordination mechanism set up with Russia, which has also been reinforcing and arming Assad's army. Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the flare-up by urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to avoid escalation in Syria. Moscow said on Monday it did not have information to support Israel's allegation about an Iranian military presence in the site bombed for launching the drone. Zeev Elkin, a Russian-speaking Israeli cabinet minister who serves as Netanyahu's interpreter in the talks with Putin, defended the coordination mechanism on Tuesday as granting Israel "freedom of action in the skies above Lebanon and Syria". "I don't think the Russians ever pledged that they would take military action against the Iranians and the Syrians for us," Elkin told Israel Radio. "We are going one-on-one against the Syrians. We don't need assistance from the Russians. We know how to deal with Syrian anti-aircraft fire, as everyone ultimately saw." (Reporting by Kinda Makieh in Damascus, Dan Williams in Jerusalem and Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow, Writing by Tom Perry, Editing by William Maclean)



It sure looks like Danica Patrick accidentally released the news that shell drive in the Indianapolis 500 for Ed Carpenter Racing.

IndyCar announced that a deal was done for Patricks participation in the May race earlier in the week. But the sanctioning body said an official announcement regarding the details of Patricks arrangement  namely who shes driving for  would be announced at a later date.

Wednesday at Daytona 500 media day, Patrick said the following when asked about the Indy version of the 500. The Memorial Day weekend race will be her final major-series race before she retires from driving.

Actually, I didnt have time to meet up with Ed and the people, Patrick said. Did I just say that out loud? Oh, well.

There are no other IndyCar owners named Ed other than Ed Carpenter, who fields a full-time team in the IndyCar Series.

Sundays Daytona 500 is Patricks final NASCAR race. Shes driving the No. 7 car for Premium Motorsports and is sponsored by GoDaddy, her first NASCAR sponsor. The domain company started sponsoring Patrick when she was in the IndyCar Series with Andretti Autosport.

GoDaddy is also sponsoring her Indy 500 effort. Patricks got her own brands as associate sponsors on the car and she said that if GoDaddy didnt sponsor her, she had serious thoughts of sponsoring herself.

I literally thought to myself, Im going to do this, Patrick said. The power of NASCAR, advertising, the platform is big. Ive got other companies that need some publicity. I mean, it crossed my mind. It didnt have to happen. It probably was not really going to happen. But, sure, Id have done that, yeah.

While Patricks lone IndyCar Series win came in Japan at Twin-Ring Motegi, the Indianapolis 500 may be her most successful IndyCar race. Shes finished in the top 10 in five of her six starts and was third in 2009. Patrick will have a competitive car from ECR; expecting a win is probably out of the question but she could be in contention for a sixth top-10 finish.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!Donald Trump Jr. weighed into the feud between U.S. Olympic skater Adam Rippon and Vice President Mike Pence Tuesday night, keeping their apparent disagreements on LGBT rights in the headlines.

Rippon, who is gay, was part of the U.S. team that won bronze in the team figure skating Monday, but has repeatedly been quizzed by reporters in Pyeongchang, South Korea, about comments he made that apparently criticized Pence.

Despite insisting in a press conference that he didn't want his "Olympic experience being about Mike Pence," the issue will not go away and a tweet Tuesday night from Donald Trump Jr., the president's son, fanned the flames again.

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Really? Then Perhaps you shouldnt have spent the past few weeks talking about him. I havent heard him mention you once??? Trump Jr. tweeted, in response to a news report covering Rippon's press conference.

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Rippon has always been vocal with his criticisms of the Vice President. During an interview with USA Today last month, he expressed his distaste at the decision to send Pence as the leader of the U.S. delegation to Pyeongchang.

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You mean Mike Pence, the same Mike Pence that funded gay conversion therapy? Im not buying it, Rippon said

He added: If it were before my event, I would absolutely not go out of my way to meet somebody who I felt has gone out of their way to not only show that they arent a friend of a gay person but that they think that theyre sick. I wouldnt go out of my way to meet somebody like that.

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Rippon was referring to Pences congressional campaign website in 2000, where he said resources should be directed forward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behaviour.

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This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekPresident Donald Trump has backed a Republican immigration proposal in the Senate: AP

President Donald Trump has threatened to veto any immigration legislation that does not mirror his own proposal to dramatically reshape the USs immigration system and build a border wall.

In the midst of a Senate immigration debate over a measure to protect young undocumented immigrants  so-called dreamers  Mr Trump threw his support behind a Republican bill that he says incorporates his four principles outlined in a White House framework for any immigration bill.

I am asking all senators, in both parties, to support the Grassley bill and to oppose any legislation that fails to fulfill these four pillars  that includes opposing any short-term Band-Aid approach, Mr Trump said in a statement.

According to the White House framework, Mr Trump would grant about 1.8m dreamers legal status, including a path to citizenship  in exchange for increased immigration enforcement, the construction of his long-promised border wall, and a restructuring of legal immigration channels that moves away from reuniting families and gives priority to higher-skilled immigrants.

Mr Trump essentially forced Congress to address US immigration policy, a big talking point during his presidential campaign, when he rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme in September. The Obama-era policy lets young immigrants who were brought to the US illegally as minors live and work in the US without fear of deportation.

Mr Trump said legislation that does not include his priorities will not  in his own words - deliver safety, security and prosperity to the American People.

Republican Senator Chuck Grassleys legislation, which is being co-sponsored by five other Republicans, would offer a chance for citizenship for up to 1.8m dreamers. It would also provide $25 billion for border security, restrict family-based immigration and end a visa lottery.

The National Immigration Law Center called it a copied and pasted version of President Trumps #DACA ransom.

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Its not a serious proposal to #ProtectDreamers and only caters to one audience  anti-immigrant restrictionists, the organisation wrote on Twitter. Anything that resembles this bill should be rejected immediately.

On Wednesday, the White House said the President would not support the bipartisan McCain-Coons proposal, from Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Coons.

White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said the plan would increase illegal immigration, surge chain migration, continue catch and release, and give a pathway to citizenship to convicted alien felons.

The Department of Homeland Security also slammed the measure for not putting a single penny toward border security.

The McCain-Coons proposal does not authorise a single penny for appropriations for border security, ensuring that our nations border is never secured or our national security protected, DHS said in a statement. Rather than securing our border, the McCain-Coons proposal requires DHS to submit a strategy on border security Congress  something that DHS has already done.

The measured proposed by Mr McCain and Mr Coons would give a pathway to citizenship for 3.2m illegal immigrants and authorise only $3 billion of the $25 billion President Trump had requested for border security.

The clock is ticking as senators search for an agreement that will receive the 60 votes needed for the bill to clear the chamber. They have less than three weeks to go until DACA expires, and any measure approved by the Senate would also need to be approved by the more conservative House of Representatives.

Immigration has been a troublesome issue for Congress, with former President Barack Obama having implemented DACA only after a lack of congressional action on immigration reform.

With less than three days to go before the Senates immigration debate is expected to end, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, one of the key immigration negotiators, is pulling out all the stops to oppose parts of Mr Trumps framework.

Mr Durbin on the Senate floor told the story of US Olympian Chloe Kim, who has won a gold medal in snowboarding during the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea.

Mr Durbin said the 17-year-olds family would not have been allowed to come to US under policies endorsed by the President.Cairo (AFP) - Egypt's prosecutor Thursday remanded a leading government critic Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh in custody for 15 days over alleged links to exiled members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, officials said.

His arrest Wednesday came after he joined a call for a boycott of a presidential election next month that the incumbent, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, is expected to win easily after most rivals were sidelined or withdrew.

The interior ministry said Abul Fotouh, a former leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood and candidate in the 2012 presidential election, had contacts with the group's members in exile "to sow trouble and instability".

Abul Fotouh was detained shortly after he arrived from London where he gave interviews in which he was critical of the Egyptian government.

A member of his Strong Egypt party said he was transferred to the prison hospital on Thursday, without giving more details.

In response to the arrest, Abul Fotouh's party announced a "temporary cessation" of its activities and condemned what it called an "atmosphere of oppression and tyranny".

Sisi was elected in 2014, a year after the former army chief ousted his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi.

Abul Fotouh, once a leading member of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, had supported mass protests against the Islamist that prompted the military to topple him.

He has since been critical of Sisi who has been accused of clamping down on dissent.Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has grown tired of President Donald Trump ridiculing her Native American lineage.

So at a surprise speech Wednesday at the National Congress of American Indians 2018 Executive Council Winter Session in Washington, D.C., Warren pushed backwith history.

"Ive noticed that every time my name comes up, President Trump likes to talk about Pocahontas. So I figured, lets talk about Pocahontas," Warren told a crowd of over 500 tribal members from across the United States.

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The progressive firebrand then quickly relayed the real-life story of Pocahontas, a native woman who played an outsized role in mediating the relationship between English colonizers and American Indian tribes in the early 1600s. Warren also criticized popular depictions of Pocahontas's relationship with English settler John Smith as misleading and damaging to native histories.

"In the fairy tale, Pocahontas and John Smith meet and fall in love... In reality, the fable is used to bleach away the stain of genocide," Warren proclaimed.

Pocahontas's second marriage to tobacco planter John Rolfe brought a period of peace between eastern tribes and Jamestown. But, as Warren puts it, "Pocahontas was not around to enjoy it." Rolfe took Pocahontas to London to showcase his new wife as a "civilized savage." Pocahontas eventually died in London at the age of 21.

Warren said the story of Pocahontasand the distortion of itis representative of Native Americans' struggle for truth and freedom at large.

"Indigenous people have been telling the story of Pocahontasthe real Pocahontasfor four centuries. A story of heroism. And bravery. And pain," Warren said. "And, for almost as long, her story has been taken away by powerful people who twisted it to serve their own purposes."

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The senator, who claims partial Native American heritage, explained her familys background in the speech, saying that her mothers family was part Native American and that she eloped with Warrens father because his family did not approve of their relationship.

I get why some people think theres hay to be made here, Warren said. You wont find my family members on any rolls, and Im not enrolled in a tribe.

A handful of influential conservatives have charged Warren with being a fake, arguing that she's used her Native American lineage as leverage to obtain prestigious roles at Harvard University and elsewhere. Some, like Trump, have openly mocked her heritage claims, disparagingly calling her Pocahontas and other off-color remarks.

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Warren nevertheless shifted the conversation from her personal grievances to larger, systemic injustices against Native Americansmost of which predate Trump's tenure as president by a few centuries.

"Our countrys disrespect of native people didnt start with President Trump. It started long before President Washington ever took office," she said.

Warren then promised to uplift stories of Native Americans next time the president or anyone else ridicules her for being part Native American.

"For far too long, your story has been pushed aside, to be trotted out only in cartoons and commercials," she said. "So Im here today to make a promise: Every time someone brings up my familys story, Im going to use it to lift up the story of your families and your communities."

Warren also staunchly criticized the U.S. federal government's historical mistreatment of native communities and challenged the nation to address myriad issues facing those same communities today.

"Washington owes you respect," she said. "But this government owes you much more than that."

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekThe EPA says concerns about Administrator Scott Pruitt's safety have required him to travel first and business class.

Federal regulations discourage first-class travel, but Pruitt has received a blanket waiver due to security concerns.

The EPA inspector general is already investigating Pruitt's travel habits.

The Environmental Protection Agency is stressing concerns about the safety of Administrator Scott Pruitt amid a flurry of new reports on the Trump appointee's first-class flights and travel costs.

Pruitt, whose travel habits are under investigation by the agency's inspector general, came under fresh scrutiny this week after a Washington Post story detailed at least $90,000 in travel costs accrued by the EPA during a short stretch in June.

On one of the flights in question, from Milan to Washington, D.C., Pruitt traveled aboard Emirates Airlines , which is known for its luxury premium cabins, CBS News reported Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, Politico reported Pruitt flew first class on an American Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., to Boston. The EPA confirmed Politico's reporting to CNBC.

The renewed attention on Pruitt's travel is a potential concern for the EPA and the Trump administration, which has already seen one high-level deputy, former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, resign over criticism of his use of chartered flights. Pruitt is widely viewed as one of the most effective members of the administration, particularly in its bid to roll back Obama-era environmental regulations.

But his starring role in President Donald Trump 's deregulation agenda  and his history of climate change skepticism  have also made him one of the administration's most polarizing figures.

Due to security concerns, Pruitt has received a blanket waiver to travel first and business class, according to EPA spokesperson Jahan Wilcox.

Federal rules require that government employees book the lowest-cost travel arrangements that meet their needs, fly U.S. carriers and take first-class flights only in certain cases.

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On Tuesday, Pruitt told the New Hampshire Union Leader that security personnel made the decision that he fly first class.

"We live in a very toxic environment politically, particularly around issues of the environment," Pruitt said in an interview with the paper. He told the Union Leader there were some "incidents" during travel when he took his post early last year.

The EPA's Office of Inspector General opened 70 probes into threats against agency facilities and staff in fiscal 2017, up from 45 in 2016, Patrick Sullivan, the EPA's assistant inspector general for investigations, told the energy and environment website E&E News last month.

The EPA declined to comment when asked about why first-class travel is viewed as more secure, also saying members of Pruitt's security detail were behind the decision. A representative of Pruitt's security team could not immediately be reached for comment.





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Addis Ababa (AFP) - Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn resigned Thursday after long-running political turmoil, an unprecedented move in the vast East African country.

The decision by Hailemariam, in power since 2012, comes after months of escalating anti-government protests and signs of growing splits within the country's ruling coalition.

In a broadcast on state television, Hailemariam said he had worked hard to solve the problems in Ethiopia, but that he believed his resignation was also part of the solution.

"My decision is to be part of the ongoing reform programmes," Hailemariam said, according to state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate.

"I believe my party and government will make history again by conducting (a) peaceful power transition," he added.

Hailemariam will remain in power until parliament and the full council of the ruling coalition party, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), confirm his resignation. It remains unclear who will take over after that.

The streets of the capital Addis Ababa were calm following the surprise announcement.

Ushered into office after the death of former prime minister Meles Zenawi, a one-time Marxist who had led the rebellion that overthrew the Communist Derg regime, Hailemariam transformed from a relatively little-known politician to a technocrat and influential leader.

While Ethiopia is one of Africa's poorest countries, Hailemariam continued a streak of rapid economic growth.

Unlike many in the ruling elite, Hailemariam was not part of the rebel movement which toppled the Derg. Instead he was studying civil engineering in Addis Ababa, was completing his master's degree at Finland's Tampere University when the dictator fell.

- Political divisions -

Political analyst Hallelujah Lulie said the seeds of Hailemariam's departure were sowed in 2015, when anti-government protests erupted that led to hundreds of deaths and prompted the government to impose a 10-month state of emergency in October 2016.

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While the decree halted the unrest, protests still erupted occasionally and the upheaval laid bear divisions within the four ethnically based parties that under the EPRDF umbrella have ruled Ethiopia since 1991.

"There's a general consensus that the way he handled the crises was not all that good," Hallelujah said.

"The divisions within the EPRDF did not heal, and we cant tell whether theyre going to be healed or not," he added.

In a bid to ease tensions, the government last month began issuing a string of pardons and prisoner releases, after Hailemariam said jailed "politicians" would be released "to improve the national consensus and widen the democratic platform".

Earlier this week, men wielding sticks and stones blocked roads around the capital and the Oromia region, which has been at the centre of the protest movement, in a two-day strike to push for more prisoner releases.

The developments have caused top elites in the military and intelligence services to lose confidence in Hailemariam, Hallelujah said, while the regional governments at the centre of the protests, Oromia and Amhara, have increasingly shrugged off federal government control.

"He is unable to control the party and he is unable to control the government, and I think it is the right decision that he resigned," Hallelujah said.

In a country long dominated by its major ethnic groups -- most recently the Tigray, the ethnic group to which Meles belonged -- Hailemariam notably comes from the minority Wolayta people in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region.

He was also the first Protestant to lead Ethiopia, where the majority of Christians follow Orthodox traditions.(Reuters) - A shooter opened fire at a Florida high school on Wednesday, killing 17 people and sending hundreds of students fleeing into the streets before being taken into custody by law enforcement, authorities said. The bloodshed was the latest outbreak of gun violence that has become a regular occurrence at U.S. schools and colleges. Below are some of the worst U.S. school shootings in the last 20 years: BENTON, Kentucky, Jan. 23, 2018 - A 15-year-old boy kills two fellow students, both also 15, at Marshall County High School in western Kentucky with a pistol and wounds 14 others. Four other high schoolers suffered non-gunshot wounds in the ensuing panic. AZTEC, New Mexico, Dec. 7, 2017 - A 21-year-old man disguised as a student enters the local high school, kills two students and then shoots himself to death. SAN BERNARDINO, California, April 10, 2017 - A man dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after killing his estranged wife at North Park Elementary School. An 8-year-old student is also shot to death. ROSEBURG, Oregon, Oct. 1, 2015 - A man opens fire on the campus of Umpqua Community College, killing nine people before he is shot dead by police. MARYSVILLE, Washington, Oct. 24, 2014 - A freshman at Marysville-Pilchuck High School fatally wounds four students in the cafeteria before killing himself. SANTA MONICA, California, June 7, 2013 - A onetime digital media student fatally shoots his father and brother, sets their house on fire, and then kills three people at Santa Monica College. The gunman kills himself. NEWTOWN, Connecticut, Dec. 14, 2012 - A man fatally shoots his mother, then kills 20 children and six adults before killing himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School. OAKLAND, California, April 2, 2012 - A former nursing student kills seven people and wounds three at Oikos University, a Korean Christian college. CHARDON, Ohio, Feb. 27, 2012 - Seventeen-year-old student at Chardon High School kills three students and wounds three in school cafeteria. HUNTSVILLE, Alabama, Feb. 12, 2010 - A biology professor at the University of Alabama at Huntsville opens fire during a staff meeting, killing three faculty members and wounding three. DEKALB, Illinois, Feb. 14, 2008 - A former graduate student kills five students and wounds 16 at Northern Illinois University before taking his own life. BATON ROUGE, Louisiana, Feb. 8, 2008 - Nursing student at Louisiana Technical College kills two classmates and herself in a classroom. BLACKSBURG, Virginia, April 16, 2007 - A gunman slaughters 32 people and kills himself at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, popularly known as Virginia Tech. NICKEL MINES, Pennsylvania, Oct. 2, 2006 - A gunman kills five girls in a one-room Amish schoolhouse, before killing himself. SHEPHERDSTOWN, West Virginia, Sept. 2, 2006 - A 49-year-old man shoots himself and his two sons to death during a visit to the campus of Shepherd University. RED LAKE INDIAN RESERVATION, Minnesota, March 21, 2005 - A 16-year-old high school student kills seven people and wounds several others in a shooting rampage after killing two people off-campus. He then kills himself. COLD SPRING, Minnesota, Sept. 24, 2003 - Fifteen-year-old student fatally shoots a freshman and a senior at Rocori High School. TUCSON, Arizona, Oct. 29, 2002 - A failing student shoots and kills three professors and then himself at the University of Arizona School of Nursing. GRUNDY, Virginia, Jan. 16, 2002 - A recently dismissed graduate student kills a dean, a professor and a student at the Appalachian School of Law and wounds three others. SANTEE, California, March 5, 2001 - A student at Santana High School kills two students, wounds 13. LITTLETON, Colorado, April 20, 1999 - Two teenagers rampage through Columbine High School, fatally shooting 12 students and a teacher and wounding more than 20 others before killing themselves. JONESBORO, Arkansas, March 24, 1998 - Two boys, ages 11 and 13, fire on their middle school from woods, killing four girls and a teacher and wounding 11 others. (Compiled by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Tom Brown)In the summer of 2016, Jerome Goddard, a medical entomologist in Mississippi, received an email from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with a desperate ask. The agency was conducting an urgent search for insect scientists around the U.S. who could take up to a six-month paid leave from work to help the CDC fight the Zika outbreak in the U.S., and possibly respond to areas with local transmission if needed.

Thats how bad it isthey need to borrow someone, says Goddard, an extension professor of medical entomology at Mississippi State University. We cant find people to investigate an outbreak.

Medical entomologythe study of insects and arthropods that impact human healthhas been a shrinking field for at least two decades, and the lack of bug scientists is now interfering with the nations ability to respond to infectious disease outbreaks. The CDC, which has about 12,000 employees, only has 13 medical entomologists on staff.

The dwindling workforce has serious consequences for human health; diseases spread by insects are on the rise in the United States. Chikungunya, a new disease spread by mosquitoes, has emerged in the past five years, and since 1999, seven new tick-borne diseases have been discovered in the United States. Cases of Lyme disease have increased from a reported 17,209 in 2001 to 36,429 in 2016a 111% rise. (The CDC estimates that the number of people diagnosed with Lyme disease each year in the U.S. is much morearound 300,000.)

The recent emergence of the mosquito-borne Zika virus, in 2015, has heightened scientists concerns. At the start of the Zika epidemic, little was known about the viruss ability to cause serious medical problems, and the CDC had to perform nearly 200,000 diagnostic tests itself. Amid the already complicated outbreak, a serious gap in the countrys response became clear: There simply were not enough scientists trained in medical entomology available to respond.

Story continues

We discovered during the Zika response that we didnt have enough entomologists to send them out and consult, says Ben Beard, the deputy director of the division of vector-borne diseases at the CDCs National Center for Emerging & Zoonotic Infectious Diseases in Fort Collins, Colorado. Not only that, but the states dont have them and the counties dont have them. Where have all the entomologists gone?

Researchers in and outside of the CDC say that young people are more interested in genetics and lab work than identifying and collecting bugs. As professors have retired, they have been replaced with people who dont have the practical field and control experience or even interest, says Janet McAllister, a medical entomologist at the CDC. That leaves a concerning knowledge gap in todays young entomologists, she says.

MORE: Zika Linked to a Spike in Birth Defects in the U.S.

One possible reason why entomology is so unpopular is that young scientists just arent learning about it. A few years ago, Goddard searched publicly available American and Canadian medical school curricula and found that only 11 of 120 participating institutions included course content about arthropods. We need people who can go out in a village, town or jungle and figure out what a disease is, where is it coming from, whats the host, whats the vector, and what the heck can we do about it, he says. There are hardly any of these people.

Entomology is also one of many scientific fields that has been hit hard by budget cuts. When funding to hire and keep entomologists falls at the federal and local levels, Beard says it drives down the number of PhD candidates at universities who can graduate and find jobs.

That becomes a major problem when theres an outbreak. During those times, the need for medical entomologists increases, and funding spikes accordinglybut typically only temporarily. In 1999, the mosquito-borne West Nile Virus appeared in the United States, and by 2004, it was endemic in 48 states. That year, federal funding for state and local West Nile Virus surveillance and prevention efforts reached a high of $24 million per year. But an assessment years later revealed that funding had dropped, and the proportion of states with adequate access to medical entomologists fell about 10% from 2004 to 2012. Those same gaps were clear during the Zika response, as the CDC struggled to find enough entomologists to respond to states requests for help.

Yet despite the need, the number of young scientists entering the medical entomology field remains low, and its contributing to inadequate mosquito surveillance and control systems across the U.S. In 2017, the CDC and National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) surveyed 1,083 vector control organizations throughout the U.S. and found that 84% reported needing improvement in at least one core competency area, like pesticide resistance testing, routine mosquito surveillance and species identification.

The CDC is working to address the gap. In 2017, the agency announced that it was providing nearly $50 million in funding to universities in order to establish centers of excellence to help address emerging vector-borne diseases in the U.S. The five centers are tasked with providing training to rebuild what Beard calls the next generation of public health entomologists, as well as research and other partnerships to help the U.S.s ability to quickly and adequately respond to insect-spread diseases. In total, the CDC is providing $220 million in supplemental funding for state, local and territorial health departments, non-profits and universities to support efforts related to Zika and health outcomes from the virus.

This represents a commitment to rebuild that capacity to create new jobs and train new students, Beard says, but also to train people who work in this area to make sure they have the skill sets to do this. Zika was a real shot in the arm to accomplish this.Manila (AFP) - The Philippine military has welcomed its first transgender officer, the defence department said Thursday, swearing in a prominent member of Congress as a reservist.

Geraldine Roman, 50, who became the Catholic-majority nation's first transgender person elected to Congress in 2016, took her oath on Wednesday.

"That indeed makes her the first transgender officer in the Armed Forces of the Philippines," defence department spokesman Arsenio Andolong said in a statement.

"Her being part of the (military) underscores the fact that gender is not an issue when it comes to serving the country," he added.

The Philippine military frequently inducts prominent figures like legislators and cabinet members as reserve officers.

Roman was appointed as a lieutenant colonel in the army reserves, alongside two fellow House of Representatives members, the statement added.

"War and disaster do not recognise gender, it affects everybody, and everyone must defend and serve our communities, and our country," the statement quoted her saying during the ceremony.

Born to a politically prominent family based near Manila, Roman changed her gender in the 1990s.

Her political success has been hailed by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) campaigners in a conservative society where divorce and same-sex marriage are both banned.

The Philippine military last year announced it would accept LGBT applicants "as long as they act and move with dignity".Florida Republicans Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. Rick Scott were swift to condemn the horrific school shooting in their state on Wednesday afternoon, offering prayers after a gunman killed at least 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Scott called for thoughts and prayers as news of the shooting emerged, and Rubio sent off a tweet calling the shooting an event you pray never comes.

Shortly after the shooting in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R) tweeted that "Today is that terrible day you pray never comes." (Photo: Drew Angerer via Getty Images)

But both men have a history of coziness with gun advocates, receiving A+ ratings and endorsements from the National Rifle Association ahead of their respective elections in 2014 and 2016. The distinction is reserved for legislators who have excellent voting records on Second Amendment issues and who have vigorously fought to promote and defend the right to keep and bear arms.

During a Republican presidential primary debate in 2015, Rubio said new gun laws were ineffective and infringe on the rights of law-abiding people and do nothing to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. A few months later, he went out and bought a gun on Christmas Eve.

Critics were quick to remind the lawmakers of their track records of voting against gun restrictions that could help prevent tragedies like the one in Parkland.

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Some discussed Rubios longtime acceptance of campaign donations from the NRA. An analysis by The New York Times last year found he had received more than $3.3 million from the group.

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Rubio rejected calls for gun control in an interview with Fox News after the Parkland shooting, saying it was the wrong time to discuss such efforts because people dont know how this happened.

I think its important to know all of [the facts] before you jump to conclusions that theres some law we could have passed that could have prevented it, he said. There may be, but shouldnt we at least know the facts? I think that we can always have that debate, but ... you should know the facts of that incident before you run out and prescribe some law you claim could have prevented it.

Story continues

Later on Wednesday, Rubio said federal authorities told him the shooting was a clear attack that was designed and executed to maximize loss of life.

Scott has also long resisted gun control efforts. Shortly after the massacre at Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016, the Florida governor repeatedly said the Second Amendment didnt kill anybody.

Lets remember, the Second Amendment has been around for over 200 years, Scott told CNN at the time. Thats not what killed innocent people; evil killed innocent people.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said Wednesday that the shooter in Parkland was armed with an AR-15 assault-style rifle, a high-capacity weapon that has become synonymous with many of Americas deadliest mass shootings. The shooter in the Orlando attack used a similar weapon, which is easier to obtain in Florida than a handgun. HuffPost reporters purchased an AR-15 in Orlando in just 38 minutes only two days after the shooting.

Many lawmakers have been urging Congress to take action to rein in access to such weaponry, but those efforts have mostly failed.

A bipartisan effort to ban bump stocks, which give semiautomatic weapons the capability to fire long bursts of ammunition, gained steam shortly after 58 people died in a mass shooting at a Las Vegas music festival last year. Rubio said he was open to legislation that would ban bump stocks and that Congress should move to prevent such attacks in the future.

But four months later, the effort has largely failed at the national level, even as states and cities have moved to ban their sale.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who had just been elected when the Sandy Hook massacre took place, slammed his colleagues on Wednesday after the attack, saying Congress inaction had led to such shootings.

This happens nowhere else other than the United States of America, Murphy said. This epidemic of mass slaughter ... it only happens here, not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story mistakenly stated the Orlando shooter used an AR-15.

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GANGNEUNG, South Korea  A television sits inside the warm-up room here at the Gangneung Ice Arena, where the skaters stretch and prepare just before taking the ice. For reasons that arent clear, on Thursday morning, it was tuned to CNN International.

Thats how, moments before the biggest skate of their life, Chris Knierim and Alexa Simeca-Knierim saw the news that 17 people had been killed in a school shooting in Parkland, Florida. It is the fifth school shooting resulting in injury in America this year, according to the Washington Post.

Another tragedy. Another senseless, senseless tragedy. Another.

The Knierims gasped at the stunning footage inside the high school. They choked up and then tried to perform their free skate here, the culmination of an Olympics that saw them win bronze in the team event.

They didnt perform well, a number of stumbles and mistimed spins, but when it was over, they hardly cared.

Like nearly every other American, their thoughts were with the victims, their families, the community in Broward County and our United States of America that deals with these massacres on some kind of constant loop.

We are so privileged and lucky to be doing what we are doing and it is so sad that 17 people died from the United States, Alexa said after, through a cracked voice as tears streamed down her face. I told Chris, The world is so much bigger than us. 

The news, they said, didnt affect their performance. They blocked it out despite the heavy heart and the shock of the moment. This, they wanted to make clear, was not about them. It was about the victims. It was about the country they were here to represent.

The team was never expected to contend for a medal. Once they had secured one in the team competition, their pairs competition was something of a bonus, a chance to have fun as the first married American pairs team since 1988.

Then came Parkland, Florida. Then came that CNN broadcast.

Chris Knierim of the USA falls while performing with partner Alexa Scimeca Knierim in the pairs free skate figure skating final. The Knierims were skating with heavy hearts following a school shooting in Florida. (AP)

Its why Alexa couldnt stop crying. She knows Americans are crowded around televisions watching the horrors from Florida, and if a couple minutes of primetime skating could provide even the smallest measure of distraction, relief or joy, then she wanted to do what she could.

Story continues

To finish with a more than disappointing skate with a heavy heart for those that were lost today, Im just overwhelmed, Alexa said. I think I kind of put pressure on myself today because I wanted to honor those who were lost and skate well for them and have somewhat of a happy moment for our country.

I wanted to lift the spirits of those who are probably mourning.

They probably still did for some. The Knierims are about emotion and beauty, not technical skill or medal contention. None of that felt like much in this moment. Even the Olympics felt painfully small and meaningless in the face of real life back home.

Its a sentiment that likely extends across Team USA.

Even though we are here in PyeongChang, our hearts are with them, Alexa said when asked what message she would send home. Even though we are living in a different world with Olympic hype, we are hurting, too.

She dabbed her eyes after saying that. It did little good. More tears were coming. Here and in the States.

More Olympic coverage from Yahoo Sports:

 Shaun White apologizes for dismissing harassment question

 Jeff Passan: Reconciling harassment allegations with Whites Olympic gold

 Japanese star suffers brutal crash at Olympics

 More heartbreak for British speed skater: It was taken away from me

 Shaun White violates Flag Code after gold medal win

President Donald Trump has given his condolences to the families of the victims of the Florida shooting: AP

President Donald Trump has responded to the school shooting in Florida, saying no child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting, he wrote on Twitter. Just spoke to Governor Rick Scott. We are working closely with law enforcement on the terrible Florida school shooting.

A shooter opened fire at a Florida high school, killing multiple people and sending students fleeing into the streets before being taken into custody by law enforcement.

The White House cancelled its daily press briefing after news of the shooting broke. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the President has offered Florida federal assistance, if needed.

We continue to keep the victims, and their friends and family, in our thoughts and prayers, Ms Sanders said.

The Secretary of Homeland Security has also been in touch with state and local officials, according to the Associated Press.

Democratic Senator Bill Nelson of Florida said had spoken to the FBI to make sure that all federal resources are being made available to help.

Praying for everyone at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Just spoke with Broward Undersheriff to ensure they have everything they need, Mr Nelson tweeted. Will continue to monitor closely.

The states other senator, Republican Marco Rubio, wrote on Twitter: We are monitoring the horrible unfolding situation in Broward County, Florida with reports of a shooting at a local high school.

Gun violence has become a regular occurrence at US schools and universities. There has been an average of one school shooting per week since 2014, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a research and advocacy group that lobbies the government for stricter gun control laws.

In January, a 15-year-old gunman killed two students at a Benton, Kentucky, high school.

More calls by Democrats for tighter gun control laws are expected.A gunman opened fire at a Florida high school, summoning grimly familiar scenes of fleeing students and distraught parents.

The Valentine's Day bloodshed is the latest outbreak of gun violence that has become a regular occurrence at schools and college campuses across the United States over the past several years.

It was the 18th shooting in a U.S. school so far this year, according to gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety. That tally includes suicides and incidents when no one was injured, as well as the January shooting in which a 15-year-old gunman killed two fellow students at a Benton, Kentucky, high school.

Here is what we know about the incident in Florida so far:

What happened?

The assailant began firing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School toward the end of the school day, spraying bullets both inside and outside the school and sending classrooms into lockdown.

Authorities apprehended the suspected shooter off of the schools campus and took him into a custody about an hour after the incident.

The large high school is in the city of Parkland, about an hour north of Miami.

How many people died?

As of now, sheriffs officials have identified 17 victims. That number could rise as more information continues to come in.

Of those victims, five died outside of the school and 12 were shot inside the building.

What weapons were used?

The assailant was wielding an AR-15, a semiautomatic rifle that has been used in other mass shootings, and had multiple magazines, Mr Israel said.

Is there a suspect?

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel has identified the suspect as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, a former Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student who had been expelled for disciplinary reasons.

Investigators are already piecing together information about Mr Cruz, and Mr Israel said they have quickly turned their focus to Mr Cruzs online footprint.

Some of the content they have found is very disturbing, Mr Israel said.

The teenager is in custody.

Story continues

What has been the reaction?

Donald Trump weighed in on Twitter by saying his prayers and condolences were with the families of the victims, adding that No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school. He said he had spoken to Florida Gov Rick Scott.

Other elected officials called the shooting the latest evidence that America must pass new laws to try and stem periodic mass gun violence.

Senator Bernie Sanders said that after numerous school shootings since the start of 2018, Congress might want to consider common-sense gun safety legislation and save innocent lives.

Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy said on the Senate floor that this happens nowhere else other than the United States of America, which he called a consequence of our inaction.A survivor of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida has said policymakers need to look in the mirror and take some action.

My sister is a freshman, and she had two of her best friends die - thats not acceptable. That is something we should not let happen in this country, said senior David Hogg during an appearance on CNN. We need to dig out of this hole there is something seriously wrong here. And some of our policymakers... need to look in the mirror and take some action because... without action, ideas stay ideas and children die.

At least 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, about 45 miles north of Miami, were killed after a gunman opened fire on them with an automatic rifle. It was one of the deadliest school shootings on record in the US. Officials said another 14 were seriously injured.

The suspect has been identified as 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz, who was arrested after a brief manhunt. Mr Cruz had been expelled for disciplinary reasons, while teachers said they had previously been warned that he could pose a danger to the campus.

The incident has again demonstrated the divide between Democrats and Republicans on gun policy.

Please dont pray for me. Your prayers do nothing. Show me you care in the polls, wrote another survivor on Facebook. In a long post, junior Cameron Kasky blasted Florida's Republican senator Marco Rubio and Republican Governor Rick Scott.

At Capitol Hill in Washington, Republicans offered their condolences while Democrats called for action.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on the Senate floor said it was time to do something about the gun violence epidemic.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, a prominent advocate for gun control, had addressed the issue on the Senate floor on Wednesday. He had originally planned to discuss a separate issue, but spoke for several minutes on that days shooting.

This happens nowhere else other than the United States of America  this epidemic of mass slaughter, this scourge of school shooting after school shooting, said Mr Murphy, who represents the district where the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting took place in 2012 where 26 people were killed.

Story continues

He added: It only happens here not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction. We are responsible.

Gun violence has become a regular occurrence at US schools and universities. There has been an average of one school shooting per week since 2014, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a research and advocacy group that lobbies the government for stricter gun control laws.

In January, a 15-year-old gunman killed two students at a Benton, Kentucky high school.By Zachary Fagenson and Bernie Woodall

PARKLAND, Fla. (Reuters) - The man accused of opening fire at a Florida high school on Wednesday, killing 17 people, was a troubled former student who loved guns and was expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons, police and former classmates said.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, was arrested about an hour after a shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters.

Cruz, who had been expelled from the school for reasons that have not been made public, was found with multiple ammunition magazines and one AR-15-style rifle, Israel said.

"We already began to dissect his websites and the things on social media that he was on and some of the things that came to mind are very, very disturbing," Israel said.

Chad Williams, 18, a senior at Stoneman Douglas High school, remembered Cruz as a troubled classmate from middle school. He said Cruz would set off the fire alarm, day after day, and finally got expelled in the eighth grade.

More recently, Williams saw Cruz carrying several publications about guns when they ran into each other at the high school. Williams thought Cruz was there to pick up a younger sibling.

"He was crazy about guns," Williams told Reuters by the side of the road near the high school. "He was kind of an outcast. He didn't have many friends. He would do anything crazy for a laugh, but he was trouble."

(For a graphic on Florida school shooting click, http://tmsnrt.rs/2nX8ECo)

Jillian Davis, 19, said she was in a school Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps with Cruz in the 9th grade. She remembered him as a quiet and shy young man who would almost change personality when angry. He talked a lot about guns and knives but no one took him seriously, she told Reuters.

"I would say he was not the most normal or sane kid in JROTC. He definitely had a little something off about him. He was a little extra quirky," said Davis, who graduated from the school last year.

Story continues

'A LITTLE OFF'

Math teacher Jim Gard told the Miami Herald Cruz had been banned from returning to campus while carrying a backpack.

"There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus," Gard told the newspaper in an interview.

Administrators sent an email to teachers warning them about Cruz, Gard told the paper.

Another student, 17-year-old junior Dakota Mutchler, told reporters at a hotel in nearby Coral Springs that he hadn't spoken with Cruz in more than a year. Students were reuniting with their parents and friends at the hotel.

Mutchler said he declined to communicate with Cruz, a former friend, after the suspect contacted him two weeks ago on Snapchat.

"Everybody that knew of him had a sort of suspicion about him," Mutchler said. Cruz had once told him he had used a pellet gun in his backyard for target practice, he said.

Travis Julmice, an 18-year-old senior, said he had not been in a class with Cruz since middle school.

"You could tell he was a little off," Julmice told Reuters at the Coral Springs hotel. "He was always like a troubled kid, getting in-school suspension a lot. And detentions."

However, Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters outside the school after the shooting that the school had no indication Cruz was a danger.

"Typically, you see in these situations that there potentially could have been signs out there," he said. "But we didn't have any warnings, there weren't any phone calls or threats that we know of that were made."

Runcie later said Cruz was still a student at Broward County Public Schools but declined to provide further details.

Israel said earlier Cruz may have been enrolled at Taravella High School in Coral Springs after his expulsion but the sheriff did not know if Cruz still attended Taravella.

(Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles and Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Paul Tait)By Zachary Fagenson and Bernie Woodall

PARKLAND, Fla. (Reuters) - The man accused of opening fire at a Florida high school on Wednesday, killing 17 people, was a troubled former student who loved guns and was expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons, police and former classmates said.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, was arrested about an hour after a shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters.

Cruz, who had been expelled from the school for reasons that have not been made public, was found with multiple ammunition magazines and one AR-15-style rifle, Israel said.

"We already began to dissect his websites and the things on social media that he was on and some of the things that came to mind are very, very disturbing," Israel said.

Chad Williams, 18, a senior at Stoneman Douglas High school, remembered Cruz as a troubled classmate from middle school. He said Cruz would set off the fire alarm, day after day, and finally got expelled in the eighth grade.

More recently, Williams saw Cruz carrying several publications about guns when they ran into each other at the high school. Williams thought Cruz was there to pick up a younger sibling.

"He was crazy about guns," Williams told Reuters by the side of the road near the high school. "He was kind of an outcast. He didn't have many friends. He would do anything crazy for a laugh, but he was trouble."

Jillian Davis, 19, said she was in a school Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps with Cruz in the 9th grade. She remembered him as a quiet and shy young man who would almost change personality when angry. He talked a lot about guns and knives but no one took him seriously, she told Reuters.

"I would say he was not the most normal or sane kid in JROTC. He definitely had a little something off about him. He was a little extra quirky," said Davis, who graduated from the school last year.

Story continues

'A LITTLE OFF'

Math teacher Jim Gard told the Miami Herald Cruz had been banned from returning to campus while carrying a backpack.

"There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus," Gard told the newspaper in an interview.

Administrators sent an email to teachers warning them about Cruz, Gard told the paper.

Another student, 17-year-old junior Dakota Mutchler, told reporters at a hotel in nearby Coral Springs that he hadn't spoken with Cruz in more than a year. Students were reuniting with their parents and friends at the hotel.

Mutchler said he declined to communicate with Cruz, a former friend, after the suspect contacted him two weeks ago on Snapchat.

"Everybody that knew of him had a sort of suspicion about him," Mutchler said. Cruz had once told him he had used a pellet gun in his backyard for target practice, he said.

Travis Julmice, an 18-year-old senior, said he had not been in a class with Cruz since middle school.

"You could tell he was a little off," Julmice told Reuters at the Coral Springs hotel. "He was always like a troubled kid, getting in-school suspension a lot. And detentions."

However, Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters outside the school after the shooting that the school had no indication Cruz was a danger.

"Typically, you see in these situations that there potentially could have been signs out there," he said. "But we didn't have any warnings, there weren't any phone calls or threats that we know of that were made."

Runcie later said Cruz was still a student at Broward County Public Schools but declined to provide further details.

Israel said earlier Cruz may have been enrolled at Taravella High School in Coral Springs after his expulsion but the sheriff did not know if Cruz still attended Taravella.

(Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles and Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Paul Tait)Authorities have identified the suspect in a Florida school shooting as Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old former student.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters Mr Cruz had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for disciplinary reasons.

We have already begin to dissect his websites and some of the social media he was on, Mr Israel said, calling some of the content very disturbing.

At least 17 people died after a gunman opened fire from both within and outside the school. He was carrying an AR-15, a type of semiautomatic rifle, and multiple magazines.

Mr Cruz was arrested without incident somewhere off campus about an hour after the shooting, Mr Israel said.

A former teacher told the Miami Herald that he believed the Mr Cruz was already on the school's radar.

We were told last year that he wasnt allowed on campus with a backpack on him, math teacher Jim Gard told the Herald. There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.

But Broward County Public Schools superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters there were no red flags giving authorities a reason to be on guard.

We didnt have any warnings, Mr Runcie said. There werent any phone calls or threats that were made.Seventeen people have been killed in the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, authorities confirmed.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters that 12 victims died inside the school, three victims died outside, and two died in the hospital after a lone gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Another 14 to 18 people were injured.

Doctors for the Broward Health North hospital system, where the victims were treated, said three people were still in critical condition.

School district superintendent Robert Runcie called the shooting  one of the 10 deadliest in US history  "a horrific situation".

"It is a horrible day for us," he told reporters.

Authorities have identified the suspect as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, a former student at the school. Mr Israel said the suspect had been expelled before the shooting for "disciplinary reasons". The sheriff's office is still combing through Mr Cruz's online activity, which Mr Israel said included some "very disturbing" content.

Teachers at the school told the Miami Herald that they had been warned not to let Mr Cruz onto school grounds, as he had been flagged as a potential threat. Mr Runcie, however, said he was not aware of any threats from the former student.

Mr Cruz was arrested off-campus about an hour after the shooting, Mr Israel said. Authorities believed he used an AR-15 rifle and multiple magazines to carry out the massacre.

Witnesses said a fire alarm went off at the same time the shooting commenced at the high school on Wednesday afternoon, shortly before classes were to be dismissed. Students ran into the hallway before teachers pulled them back inside.

One teacher, Melissa Falkowski, told CNN she pulled 19 students into a closet with her to protect them. They waited 40 minutes for the shooting to stop.

Another student told WSVN 7 that she saw the shooter gun down her teacher as he opened the door to let students inside. The door was left swinging open as the students cowered inside.

Story continues

"As he walked by the door was open," the student, identified only as Alex, said. "He could have walked in at any time, and we just had to be as quiet as possible."

Several parents learned of the shooting from their children, who sent them panicked text messages from inside the building. Students were eventually escorted out of the building by SWAT teams to be reunited with their families.

The shooting is the 18th school shooting in the US this year, according to gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety. It was the sixth where students were wounded or injured.In response to the school shooting in Florida President Donald Trump said it is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference  and he did not mention the issue of gun control.

Instead, he promised to prioritise school safety and tackle the difficult issue of mental health. He did not say the word gun or discuss AR-15s, which have repeatedly been used in mass shootings.

It was Mr Trumps fourth address to the nation after a mass shooting. The President also said in his White House address that his administration was working with local authorities to investigate the attack.

Later this month, I will be meeting with the nations governors and attorney generals, where making our schools and our children safer will be our top priority, he said. We must also work together to create a culture in our country that embraces the dignity of life, that creates deep and meaningful human connections, and that turns classmates and colleagues into friends and neighbours.

At least 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, about 45 miles north of Miami, were killed after a gunman opened fire on them with an automatic rifle. It was one of the deadliest school shootings on record in the US. Officials said another 14 were seriously injured.

The suspect has been identified as 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz, who was arrested after a brief manhunt. Mr Cruz had been expelled for disciplinary reasons, while teachers said they had previously been warned that he could pose a danger to the campus.

Earlier in the day, the President also brought up the issue of mental health in a tweet.

So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior, Mr Trump wrote. Neighbours and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!

Story continues

The incident has again demonstrated the divide on gun policy between the USs two main political parties, with Republicans mostly only offering condolences to victims families while Democrats called for action.

This happens nowhere else other than the United States of America  this epidemic of mass slaughter, this scourge of school shooting after school shooting, said Senator Chris Murphy, who represents the district where the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting took place in 2012 when 26 people were killed.



He added: It only happens here not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction. We are responsible.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appeared to be the one Trump administration official urging Congress to consider possible solutions to gun violence in the wake of the Florida shooting.

I will say personally, I think the gun violence  its a tragedy what weve seen yesterday, and Id urge Congress to look at these issues, Mr Mnuchin said at an unrelated hearing in the House of Representatives on the White Houses budget request for Fiscal Year 2019.

The Treasury Department later told Politico that Mr Mnuchin was not stating his opinion on whether Congress should consider passing new gun control laws. He was responding specifically to a question from Democratic Representative John Lewis about the availability of funds in the budget to address the issue of gun violence, the department said.

Gun violence has become a regular occurrence at US schools and universities. There has been an average of one school shooting per week since 2014, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a research and advocacy group that lobbies the government for stricter gun control laws.

The group also said there have been 18 school shootings in the first 45 days of 2018. In January, a 15-year-old gunman killed two students at a Benton, Kentucky, high school.

As they have in the past, Democratic lawmakers responded to the Florida school shooting with calls for expanded background checks. They also want to create a committee to examine gun violence.

Attempts to pass stricter gun laws have gone nowhere in recent years.

We hope that we will have more than a moment of silence, said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Shorty afterwards, House Speaker Paul Ryan gave the same response to the shooting that the top House Democrat had predicted.

In a few moments when this vote closes we are going to go upstairs and hold a moment of silence for the victims of this shooting, the Wisconsin Republican said at his weekly press conference.

Like Mr Trump, Mr Ryan also brought up the issue of mental health, saying it is often associated with mass shootings and also appears to be related to Wednesdays attack.

We passed legislation on mental health, he said.

We passed legislation cleaning up the instant background check system, he added, placing blame on the Senate for not acting to address loopholes.

When asked if he would be willing to establish a select committee on gun violence, Mr Ryan said: I think Congress should do its job. We passed mental health legislation two years ago.

The top Republican said that the law is just being implemented, but added: The question is, are those laws where they need to be, is it being implemented correctly?

Former President Barack Obama even made a rare foray into the political fray.

We are grieving with Parkland. But we are not powerless. Caring for our kids is our first job, he tweeted. And until we can honestly say that were doing enough to keep them safe from harm, including long overdue, commonsense gun safety laws that most Americans want, then we have to change. The President has responded to the high school shooting that left 17 dead

 Nikolas Cruz charged with 17 counts of murder

 Suspect set off fire alarm to entice students out of classrooms

 Gunman was wearing a gas mask and carrying smoke grenades

 Fellow high schoolstudent used to joke that Cruz would shoot up the school

 Cruz, 19, reportedly crazy about guns and posted on Instagram about killing animals

Donald Trump has been criticised for his reaction to the mass shooting at a Florida high school, after failing to mention gun control.

The president told his countrys school children: You are never alone.

He made no mention of the USs gun laws.

Earlier today a survivor of the shooting hit out at Trump, calling him a f***ing piece of s***.

She said: Do something instead of sending prayers. Prayers wont fix this. But control will prevent it from happening again.

Troubled loner teenager Nikolas Cruz has been charged with murder after the gun rampage in Florida which left 17 dead.

Police in Florida released this mugshot image of Nikolas Cruz after he was charged with 17 counts of murder.

Cruz, 19, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, was expelled from the Florida school for disciplinary reasons.

He posted disturbing Instagram pictures brandishing guns and knives in the run-up to the atrocity.

Broward County Police released a mugshot image of the gun crazy teenager after he was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday.

Cameras capture the moment teen suspect Nikolas Cruz, 19, is arrested after the deadly shooting in Florida.

Orphaned Cruz, reportedly wearing a gas mask and armed with smoke grenades and an assault rifle, is thought to have set off a smoke alarm to lure pupils into a hall.

He then opened fire with an AR-15 rifle, killing three people outside the school then entering the building and slaughtering a further 12. Two more students died after being taken to hospital.

Authorities offered no immediate details about Cruz or his possible motive, except to say that he had been kicked out of the high school, which has about 3,000 students.

Students who knew him described a volatile teenager whose strange behaviour had caused others to end friendships with him.

Story continues

Disturbing images on Nikolas Cruzs Instagram account, which has since been deleted, showed him posing with firearms and knives.

Shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz is restrained on the ground after being arrested by police outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Fellow students joked that Cruz would shoot up the school

A student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas told reporters that students pupils used to joke that Cruz would one day shoot up the school.

We were kind of saying that it would be him, he said. Everyone predicted it.

Victoria Olvera, a 17-year-old junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, said Cruz was expelled last school year after a fight with his ex-girlfriends new boyfriend. She said Cruz had been abusive to his former partner.

This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it.

Deadliest mass shootings in modern US history

Chad Williams, 18, spoke to the press on the side of the road near the school: He was crazy about guns, he told Reuters.

He was kind of an outcast. He didnt have many friends. He would do anything crazy for a laugh, but he was trouble.

Daniel Huerfano, a student who fled the attack, said he recognised Cruz from an Instagram photo in which Cruz posed with a gun in front of his face.

Shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz is hauled away by police in Florida minutes after the shooting. (WSVN 7 News)

He was that weird kid that you see, like a loner, he said.

Dakota Mutchler, a 17-year-old junior, said he used to be close friends with Cruz but had not seen him in more than a year following his expulsion from school.

He started progressively getting a little more weird, he said.

Disturbing social media posts

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said that some of Cruzs social media activity uncovered so far was very disturbing.

An Instagram account linked to Cruz showed him brandishing guns and knives, while other posts boasted about killings animals with a pellet gun.

We have already begin to dissect his websites and some of the social media he was on, Mr Israel said.

Some of the things that have come to mind are very, very disturbing.

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An Instagram account purportedly belonging to the suspect, now deleted, was littered with pictures of weapons and disturbing captions claiming calling shooting group therapy and talking about purchasing firearms.

Former classmates said that the account did indeed belong to Cruz.

The account showed selfies thought to be of the suspect posing in all black outfits and wearing a balaclava.

One student recalled Cruz posting on Instagram about killing animals and said he had talked about target practice in his backyard with a pellet gun.



Medical personnel tend to a victim following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

Potential threat to students

A teacher told the Miami Herald that Cruz may have been identified as a potential threat to other students.

Jim Gard, a maths teacher who said Cruz was in his class last year, said he believes the school had sent out an email warning teachers that Cruz should not be allowed on campus with a backpack.

There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus, Mr Gard said.

Cruzs background

The suspect was adopted as a baby, according to ABC News, and his parents are both dead. His adoptive mother Lynda Cruz died in November last year. His adoptive father Roger Cruz dies of a heart attack several years ago.

After the death of his parents Cruz moved in with a family friend, but was unhappy living there and went to live with a friend and his family. They have not been named.

Broward County Mayor Beam Furr said Cruz had treatment at a mental health clinic for a while, but had not been in treatment for more than a year.

It wasnt like there wasnt concern for him, Mr Furr said.

We try to keep our eyes out on those kids who arent connected. Most teachers try to steer them toward some kind of connections. In this case, we didnt find a way to connect with this kid.The FBI was tipped off about a YouTube comment from someone using the name nikolas cruz who said they were going to "be a professional school shooter in September - five months before a man with same name allegedly opened fire on pupils in Florida.

The bureau had received information about the comment last year, said Robert Lasky, the special agent in charge of the Miami division.

But he said the tip did not include additional details that could help reveal the shape of a potential threat.

No other information was included with that comment, which would indicate a time, location or the true identity of the person who made that comment, he told reporters. The FBI conducted database reviews, checks, but was unable to further identify the person who actually made the comment.

In September, someone using the name "nikolas cruz" wrote: Im going to be a professional school shooter

It is unclear whether it is the same Nikolas Cruz, who has been charged with 17 counts of murder after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Authorities said 19-year-old saying Mr Cruz was a former student who had been expelled for bad behaviour.

Officials are now attempting to reconstruct Mr Cruzs life in the lead up to the shooting and have been examining his online behaviour.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said an initial review of websites and social media pages associated with Mr Cruz had yielded some very disturbing content.

He added that the shooter was wielding an AR-15, a type of semiautomatic rifle, and numerous magazines. A spokesman for the Department of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco later confirmed the gun was obtained legally.

Students who knew Mr Cruz have described him as troubled. But Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said school officials had not received any specific tips or seen red flags to alert them to danger.

Potentially there could have been signs out there, Mr Runcie told reporters outside of the school. But we didnt have any warning or phone calls or threats that were made.

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A maths teacher named Jim Gard who said Mr Cruz was one of his students has told reporters he recalled the high schools administration emailing teachers about Mr Cruz.

He told CBS News Cruz was a quiet kid and said he had not noticed anything bizarre.Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, took the Senate floor on Wednesday to rebuke his colleagues, following the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

Let me just note once again for my colleagues This happens nowhere else other than the United States of America, this epidemic of mass slaughter, this scourge of school shooting after school shooting. It only happens here, not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction, he said.

We are responsible for a level of mass atrocity that happens in this country with zero parallel anywhere else, he later added.

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Murphy originally intended to address the Senate on immigration matters, but he decided to chide his Senate colleagues for not doing enough to enact stronger gun laws. Turn on your television right now, youre going to see scenes of children running for their lives, the legislator said, according to The Daily Beast.

The congressman dealt with the Sandy Hook massacre almost six years ago. In December 2012, 20 school children were murdered in Newtown, Connecticuta tragedy that prompted him to lead a plea for gun control. I'm the same age as all of these parents. I walked out of that tragedy feeling like I had just been handed my mission in public service, that if I wasn't able, in my career in the Senate, to do something meaningful to pay homage to those kids and those teachers, then I had failed, he told Politico in 2016.

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Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat from Arizona who was shot in the head by a gunman in 2011, also joined the call to take action over gun control after the rampage in Florida. She posted a Twitter thread asking lawmakers to find the courage to pass legislation and fight against this fear.

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Giffords concluded her Twitter thread by urging Congress to pass laws to protect our children and stop dangerous people from accessing guns. And if Congress wont act, Americans voters must.

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According to the organization Everytown for Gun Safety, there have been a shooting every 2.5 days18 school shootingsin the U.S. so far this year. Since 2000, there have been more than 130 shootings at elementary, middle and high schools, and 58 more at colleges and universities, The Washington Post reported.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekStudents from a Florida school where at least 17 people died in a mass shooting on Wednesday have spoken out against gun violence and called on lawmakers to do something to prevent more mass shootings.

What we really need is action. Because we can say, Yes, were going to do these things, thoughts and prayers. What we really need more than that is action, student David Hogg, who survived Wednesdays massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, told CNN on Thursday, speaking about mass shootings in schools. This is the 18th one this year. Thats unacceptable.

Hogg continued, Were children, you guys are, like, the adults. Take action, work together, come over your politics and get something done.

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A 19-year-old former student has been charged with the murder of 17 students. It was the deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012. But in the first 45 days of 2018, there have been 18 school shootings in the U.S., twice the number in the same period last year.

The federal government has so far failed to pass gun reform legislation that would address mass shootings. President Donald Trump tweeted his condolences for the victims and their families on Wednesday.

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My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school, Trump said.

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Yet several lawmakers have shared Hogg's sentiments that thoughts and prayers are insufficient.

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Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, took to the Senate floor on Wednesday to decry government inaction.

Let me just note once again for my colleaguesthis happens nowhere else other than the United States of America, this epidemic of mass slaughter, this scourge of school shooting after school shooting. It only happens here, not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction, he said.

Story continues

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekGunman Nikolas Cruz, 19, charged with 17 counts of murder

Trump seems to reject moves towards gun control measures

Victims: friends and family pay tribute to lives cut short

The school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that claimed 17 lives has provoked an eruption of impassioned calls for action against gun violence from young survivors, community leaders and law enforcement, as the suspect was reported to have confessed to carrying out one of the worst massacres in modern American history.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, told interrogating officers of the Broward County sheriffs office that he began shooting students that he saw in the hallways and on school grounds, according to an official report obtained by the Associated Press. The teenager went on to say that he brought additional magazines to Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school and kept them hidden in a backpack until he got on campus to begin his assault.

News of Cruzs alleged confession came as local officials lined up to express their determination that something must be done to stem the bloodletting in US schools and other public places. The shooting ranked among the 10 deadliest gun rampages in the country, three of which have happened in the past four months.

The violence has to stop. We cannot lose another child in this country to violence in a school, said Floridas governor, Rick Scott, promising to meet state lawmakers to search for solutions on mental illness and gun control. The sheriff in charge of Broward County, Scott Israel, called the event a horrific, horrific day and urged the public to do more to report suspicions: Dont think about calling us  call us, he said.

The official in charge of public schools in Broward County, which includes Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school, the scene of Wednesdays tragedy, said: Now, now is the time for this country to have a real conversation on sensible gun control laws.

But amid the anguished cries for action rising up from Florida, a national tone was set by Donald Trump that was largely devoid of a sense of urgency. In a televised address to the nation made in part directly to the children of America  you are never alone, he said  the president gave no concrete indications of steps to prevent repetitions of Wednesdays disaster.

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Trump said he would visit Parkland, and stage in coming weeks a meeting of governors from around the country to discuss school safety. But he warned against early measures: It is not enough to take actions that make us feel we are making a difference. We must actually make that difference, he said.

Nikolas Cruz, in shackles, appears in Broward County court on Thursday afternoon. Photograph: Susan Stocker/AP

The suspected shooter, Nikolas Cruz, 19, made his first appearance in court on Thursday, charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit, with his hands cuffed at his waist, Cruz listened silently as the judge ordered that he remain in custody without bond.



Before the court hearing, details emerged of potential warning signs that had been missed in advance of the massacre.



The FBI disclosed that they had been informed last September that a YouTube user going under the name Nikolas Cruz had expressed a desire to become a professional school shooter.

FBI special agent Rob Lasky said data reviews had been carried out but the bureau could not further identify the person who made the comment.

The shooting started at about 2.40pm on Wednesday, shortly before Stoneman Douglas broke for the day. The gunman entered the compound of about 3,000 students meticulously equipped and prepared, with gas mask and smoke grenades and quantities of ammunition sufficient to move around the three storeys of the building, leaving a trail of devastation behind him.

Pamela Bondi, Floridas attorney general, described the terrible job of having to inform families of the deceased. Many of them had siblings in the school who survived, and a brother or a sister did not, so that was extremely tragic, she said.

Video footage captured by students recorded long bursts of gunfire of about 40 discharges accompanied by screaming as students cowered under tables and hid in closets. According to the Broward County sheriffs report, Cruz told interrogating officers that he had thrown off his AR-15 rifle and armored vest as students began to flee the building so that he could blend in with the crowd and escape; he was caught about an hour later walking along a sidewalk.

Survivors accounts also recorded acts of extraordinary courage, including reports of a football coach, Aaron Feis, who jumped in front of the gunman to shield his pupils from the bullets.

When he was tragically, inhumanely killed, he did it protecting others, said Sheriff Israel after Feiss death was confirmed.

There were also accounts of exceptional bravery from students. Colton Haab, 17, pulled 90 fellow pupils from the hallway into a classroom after the shooting started and barricaded the door with synthetic sheets as gunshots rang outside. I knew if he broke the window he was coming in the room, and if he was coming in that room I was going to stop him with everything I had or die trying, he said.

Twelve people died inside the school, two outside and another on the street. A further two people died in hospital, and 14 were injured. Medical staff said on Thursday that of the injured, five had been released and seven remained in critical condition.

Parkland, a well-to-do suburb of Fort Lauderdale, has now entered that most mournful ledger of American towns that have had carnage wrought upon their schools. It will forever be tagged with Columbine, the Colorado high school where 12 students and a teacher were killed in 1999, and Sandy Hook, scene of the mowing down of 20 young children and six adults in 2012.

What Parkland appears unlikely to become associated with, given the present state of the nation, is any search for a solution at federal level. A day after the tragedy, signs of any meaningful debate within Congress were scant at best.

We need to pray, and we need to take a breath and collect the facts, were the responses given by Paul Ryan, Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, when asked how the nations lawmakers would react.

Jeff Sessions, the US attorney general, delivered more pointed words to a conference of sheriffs, saying we have got to confront the problem. This situation cannot continue. But aside from a promise to study the intersection of mental health and criminality, he avoided references to specific policy changes.

Anger and frustration began to explode, however, among those touched most intimately by the calamity. A pupil named Sarah at Stoneman Douglas responded to Trumps tweeted condolences by lashing out in her own tweet: I dont want your condolences  multiple of my fellow classmates are dead. Do something instead of sending prayers.

Small groups of students assembled on Thursday morning on the roadway outside Stoneman Douglas, still processing the loss of friends and classmates killed in the attack. Kaleb Martinez, 16, a junior year student was inside the school when the shooting occurred but had left the freshman building where the shooter is said to have opened fire just 10 minutes before the massacre began.

Im just blessed to be here today, he said, adding he had seen through social media that two of his friends were reportedly killed.

This is the best, definitely the best time to be talking about cutting out guns. Matinez said. People who have guns, that needs to go, that needs to stop. This is crazy. No family should have to worry about sending their kids to school and if theyre going to come home or not. Its a terrible feeling.

Any debate about how to respond to gun violence is likely to be informed by details unfolding about the Parkland shooter. Questions are now being asked about how a teenager known widely in his community as a troubled kid, who had received sporadic treatment for mental health problems and was expelled from Stoneman Douglas school for violence, had an obsession with firearms and delighted in shooting animals could so easily buy a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle of the sort that has been at the centre of so many previous rampages.

Despite this litany, and despite being too young to buy beer, Cruz was able legally to purchase an AR-15 about a year ago, according to a law enforcement official cited by Associated Press  federal law in the US allows anyone over 18 to buy a rifle given limited background checks.

Another pressing question was how an individual whose last known employment was working in a low-paying dollar store could afford multiple rounds of ammunition, enough to sustain prolonged bursts of firepower. In his Instagram and other social media feeds, Cruz had posted images of at least six guns spread across his bed with the caption arsenal and a box of bullets that he noted cost me $30.A furious mother whose son survived the Florida school shooting has spoken out, denouncing a country that has "gone bananas".

A gunman opened fire at the high school on Wednesday, killing 17 and leaving more than a dozen injured. A suspect, named by police as Nikolas Cruz, was arrested in the aftermath.

Aerial footage showed familiar scenes of frightened students spilling out of the school with their hands raised in the air to seek refuge. The latest outbreak of gun violence is the 18th shooting in a US school so far this year, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.

An unnamed mother whose son was trapped in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the small city of Parkland, around 45 miles north of Miami, launched into an angry tirade about the carnage.

'We can't let this go on... no more of our children can die anymore,' she told West Palm Beach News.

Nothing is going to change. Nothing! Not one thing is going to change because this country has gone bananas!

My point is, and this is what everyone needs to hear in America... what is it going to take to make a change in this country?! she later shouted.

She continued: If they didn't do it for the four and five year-olds and they're not doing it for our 14 and 15-year-olds. Who are they going to make this change for?!

Her son, who studies theatre at the school, described being inside the school's theatre room rehearsing at the time the teenagers heard the fire alarm go off for the second time that day.

Recounting what took place after the alarm, he said: What happened was, four students stepped out, we heard three gunshots, and we all ran inside.

There are two rooms in the theatre room. I went inside one of them, and five minutes passed and our teacher said she wanted everyone in the back room where we were safe,' he recalled of the moment, nervously.

He added: An hour passed... there were 70 kids and there was a book keeping room where the SWAT team came and we ran. We just ran It was scary. It was crazy.

Story continues

The suspect has been identified as Mr Cruz, a 19-year-old former who had been expelled for disciplinary reasons. Teachers said they had previously been warned he could pose a danger to the campus.

Police say that just as classes of pupils were being sent home for the day Mr Cruz started spraying bullets into the hallway of the school. Authorities said he had an AR-15 rifle and multiple magazines.By Michel Rose and John Irish PARIS (Reuters) - Iran's ballistic missile program must be placed under international surveillance, French President Emmanuel Macron said, in an bid to get tougher on Tehran while preserving the nuclear deal that Donald Trump has threatened to scrap. With the 2015 deal, aimed at stopping Iran developing nuclear weapons, put in jeopardy by the U.S. president, Britain, France and Germany are working on a plan to satisfy him by a May 12 deadline to address Iran's ballistic missile tests and its regional influence. Macron said France, one of the signatories to the nuclear deal, wanted to preserve it as nothing better had been offered. However, he said the use of Iranian-linked missiles in Yemen and Syria needed to be addressed because they were a security problem for French allies. "I want a new cycle of negotiations with regional parties and the permanent members of the Security Council, like we did for the nuclear deal, but widening it to regional countries so that we can reduce and eradicate this insecurity," Macron told reporters late on Tuesday. "And (we need) to put Iran under surveillance over its ballistic missiles. It's indispensable for the security of the region and so we need a mechanism of sanctions and control adapted to that." While Iran accepted curbs on its nuclear work - which it says is for purely peaceful purposes - it has repeatedly refused to discuss its missile program, something the United States and the Europeans have called for. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Feb. 8 that the West must ensure the nuclear deal succeeds before trying to negotiate other issues. Citing Iranian influence in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen, Macron said Tehran's foreign policy "can sometimes be a factor of destabilisation and we need to have a dialogue with the Iranian regime." He added: "I think all forms of military solution to this situation are an error. We've lost too much time on the ballistics and on regional activities." Macron's comments come days after anti-aircraft fire downed an Israeli warplane returning from a bombing raid on Iran-backed positions in Syria. Macron, whose foreign minister travels to Tehran on March 4, said he wanted to wanted to organize a meeting of the main players in the Syrian crisis. "I want that we have in the coming weeks a meeting on Syria that eradicates the ballistic activities in Syria that puts in danger all the regional powers," he said, without elaborating. (Additional reporting by Marine Pennetier; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)Berlin (AFP) - A Turkish group in Germany said Thursday it was taking legal action against a lawmaker of the far-right AfD who defamed the ethnic minority as "camel drivers".

The latest controversy sparked by the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party came as Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim was Thursday due to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel on a visit aimed at healing frayed relations.

The AfD -- which entered Germany's parliament with almost 13 percent of the vote last September -- often makes headlines with hate speech before usually backing away from the most incendiary comments.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he condemned extremist politicians who make "ruthlessness and hatred ... their strategy".

A lawmaker in the formerly communist eastern heartland of the party, Andre Poggenburg, Wednesday attacked Turkish immigrants over criticism of German plans for a new "homeland" ministry.

He said Germany needed no advice on its culture and history from Turks who he said bore responsibility "for their own genocide", the mass killings of Armenians in the World War I-era.

"Are they crazy?" he told several hundred mostly-male AfD supporters in Nentmannsdorf, a village near Dresden.

"These camel drivers should go back to where they belong, far beyond the Bosphorus, to their mud huts and multiple wives."

He also labelled dual passport holders with Turkish roots as "landless rabble we don't want here anymore," sparking shouts of "deport them!" from the crowd.

Gokay Sofuoglu, chairman of the Turkish Community in Germany organisation, which represents the three-million-strong minority, said it would take legal action under hate speech laws.

Prosecutors in Dresden said they had launched a preliminary investigation.

Poggenburg, the AfD leader in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, later defended his comments as "pointed political satire" in the tradition of Ash Wednesday when German politicians make gloves-off remarks about each other.

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- 'True face' -

The slur comes at a time when Germany and Turkey are seeking to restore ties after Berlin's strong criticism of a mass crackdown after a failed 2016 coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Yildirim said on Wednesday he hoped that a jailed German-Turkish journalist, Deniz Yucel, would soon be freed, which would remove a major .

On his way to Berlin he told Turkish journalists that "I hope we will overcome the problems we have encountered and open a new chapter".

Poggenburg's comments were widely condemned in Germany, with even AfD national leader Joerg Meuthen saying they "clearly went too far and should not have been made".

A regional politician of the far-left Die Linke party, Rico Gebhardt, said the language was like that of Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels and was "inexcusable and a shame for a civilised country".

The state premier of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, said the AfD was showing its "true face".

And Social Democratic lawmaker Johannes Kahrs suggested the AfD be placed under surveillance by the domestic security service BfV which monitors radical groups.

The controversy follows public anger against another AfD member, Peter Boehringer of Bavaria state, who in a foul-worded group email allegedly branded Merkel a prostitute.

The AfD was launched at the height of Europe's sovereign debt crisis in 2013 on an anti-euro platform, but from 2015 turned its anger against a mass influx of mostly Muslim asylum-seekers.

At Wednesday's event, reported Die Welt daily, one of its most extremist members, Bjoern Hoecke, openly greeted supporters of the street movement PEGIDA, short for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident.By Hyunjoo Jin SEOUL (Reuters) - General Motors' South Korean unit is offering workers three times their annual base salary, money for college tuition and more than $9,000 towards a new car as part of a voluntary redundancy plan at the troubled automaker. The package, made in a notice to employees seen by Reuters, came after GM said on Tuesday it will shutter the plant in the southwestern city of Gunsan by May and decide within weeks on the fate of its remaining three factories in the country. Unionized workers staged a protest regarding the planned closure on Wednesday. The so-called Voluntary Separation Programme opened to employees on Tuesday and will last until March 2, according to the internal document. "This is the most compensation we can provide given our management conditions and it will be difficult for us to offer more benefits going forward," the company said in the letter. "GM Korea has recorded a financial loss of nearly 3 trillion won ($2.8 billion) over the past four years and continues to make losses as a result of low utilization rates, continued rises in labor costs and an excessive workforce," the letter said. Detroit-based GM has said it will book an $850 million charge to reflect the restructuring costs, including $375 million in cash related to employee expenses. A GM Korea spokesman confirmed the details of the document, saying the offer was "part of efforts to proceed with restructuring in an orderly manner". The average annual wage at the plant, including wages and allowances, is around 87 million won, the GM spokesman said. Across South Korea, the average household income was 50.1 million won in 2016. Workers will also be eligible for up to 13.2 million won towards two years of university tuition. Education fees for kindergartens and junior and high schools for their children will also be covered. A GM Korea source said some 150 factory workers were let go last year under a similar compensation package. ($1 = 1,076.8000 won) (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Additional reporting by Cynthia Kim; Editing by Lincoln Feast)By Tina Bellon and Jan Wolfe

(Reuters) - A few U.S. states have laws allowing police and family members to obtain orders barring people suspected of being a threat from possessing guns, but Florida does not. Some gun control proponents and legal experts said Wednesday's school shooting might have been thwarted if it had.

Suspected shooter Nikolas Cruz's history of violence in school and disturbing social media posts would have allowed authorities to prevent him from legally obtaining a firearm in California and Connecticut, which have gun violence restraining order (GVRO) statutes, the experts said.

The killing of 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, could give new momentum to such laws.

A federal GVRO law was proposed last year, and its supporters in Congress on Thursday urged its passage.

"Americans are grappling today with the fact that multiple warning signs failed to stop a young man from killing 17 students and teachers at a Florida school," said Representative Don Beyer, a Democrat from Virginia, in a statement.

The National Rifle Association and other groups have opposed such laws as violating gun owners' due process rights. A judge can issue an initial restraining order and confiscation of firearms without a hearing.

The NRA did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Florida gun rights advocate Jon Gutmacher dismissed the idea that a GVRO law would have stopped the Parkland shooting.

"Intervention, counseling, and meaningful support are our only hope at preventing these things," he said.

A large number of states have laws allowing gun confiscation in cases involving suspected domestic violence or stalking offenses. GVRO codes allow such an order to be issued when a person more broadly poses a risk to themselves or others.

Connecticut, Indiana and Texas allow law enforcement to seek such an order. California, Washington and Oregon extend the right to family, household members, and domestic partners.

Story continues

The initial hearing takes place without the subject present, and the subject usually will not learn a restraining order has been issued until police contact them about turning over their guns. A hearing will then follow two or three weeks later, after which the order may be vacated or extended for up to a year.

Former classmates described Cruz, 19, as troubled and "crazy about guns" - talking a lot about firearms and knives.

One of the schools math teachers told media that Cruz had been banned from returning to campus after he threatened students last year and that administrators sent an email to teachers, warning them about Cruz.

Cruz may have also left warning signs on social media. A person with his name wrote a comment last year under a YouTube video that read "I'm going to be a professional school shooter."

Cruz also participated in paramilitary training with a white nationalist militia called the Republic of Florida, a leader of the group said on Thursday.

If Cruz had lived in California, for example, a report by a household member or police officer would have been sufficient grounds for preventing Cruz from obtaining his AR-15 assault rifle, said John Donohue, a professor at Stanford Law School.

Cruz's YouTube comment was reported to the FBI in 2017 but FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Lasky told reporters on Thursday that investigators were unable to find Cruz based on the comment.

The comment was likely too vague to trigger FBI action even if the agents had been able to locate him, said James Jacobs, a law professor at New York University School of Law.

Two Democratic lawmakers in Florida proposed GVRO bills for that state in October. Hearings have yet to take place, but Patricia Brigham, co-chair of the Florida Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, said the proposals face long odds in a statehouse controlled by Republicans who tend to toe the NRA line.

Florida Governor Rick Scott's office did not respond to a call seeking comment.

"Florida should absolutely enact one ASAP," said Kris Brown, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, one of the largest gun control groups. "If one had been in place in this case, we do believe it would have had the potential to save lives."

(Reporting by Tina Bellon and Jan Wolfe; Editing by Anthony Lin and Grant McCool)Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Haiti's foreign minister said Thursday that his country would open a probe on the sexual misconduct scandal embroiling the British charity Oxfam.

The Haitian government "wants to shed light on this issue and find those responsible, those who are involved in this case and, if found guilty, to punish them in accordance with the law," Haitian Foreign Affairs Minister Antonio Rodrigue told reporters.

The British charity has come under sharp criticism for its handling of allegations that staff members hired prostitutes in Haiti following the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Officials postponed until next week a meeting originally set for Thursday with Oxfam representatives because a Haitian cabinet minister and two senior Oxfam officials were not immediately available, Rodrigue told reporters.

The Times of London reported last Friday that young sex workers were hired by senior staff in Haiti after the earthquake, which left up to 300,000 people dead in the impoverished Caribbean country.

Groups of young prostitutes were invited to homes and guesthouses paid for by the charity for sex parties, according to one source who claimed to have seen footage of an orgy with sex workers wearing Oxfam T-shirts.

Oxfam has denied allegations that it was not transparent about the scandal, which prompted the resignation of Oxfam's deputy head.

The charity investigated sexual misconduct allegations in 2011. Roland van Hauwermeiren, who led Oxfam's team in Haiti, was one of three staff members who resigned over the incident while four others were fired.Doha (AFP) - An irritated world number one Caroline Wozniacki progressed to the Qatar Open quarter-finals on Thursday in a feisty match where she complained and apparently mocked her opponent Monica Niculescu's grunting.

The recently crowned Australian Open champion won 7-5, 6-1 against the Romanian -- who had knocked out Maria Sharapova in a previous round -- but was visibly agitated in the ninth game of the first set, complaining her opponent was making noises as the Dane was about to hit the ball.

Wozniacki was so upset about the sounds coming from the other side of the net that she complained to French umpire Emmanuel Joseph.

"It isn't in the rule book that you are not allowed to grunt when the opposing player hits?" courtside microphones caught her asking Joseph.

The umpire said he thought everything was "regular", but Wozniacki added: "It's the only way she can win."

She then mimicked the grunts.

Afterwards she complained that her opponent was "a player that tries to get into your head".

She also told Danish TV that her opponent had used "unfair methods".

"(I) just tried to let him know to pay attention to her grunting because she'll hit the ball and two seconds later when the ball is on my side and I'm right about to hit, she'll start grunting and make a noise," the Dane told reporters.

"And she will change the grunt according to what she feels like."

Asked if she thought her opponent was grunting deliberately, Wozniacki responded: "I think that she didn't do it in the second set, so..."

The spat overshadowed a relatively routine victory for the 27-year-old, which ensured she retained her number one ranking after Simona Halep also advanced to the final eight.

By reaching the quarter-finals, Halep now has a chance of reclaiming the world's top spot if she goes one round further than the Dane.

The tournament could also see a rematch of the Australian Open final, as the pair are seeded one and two in Doha.

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Halep beat Anastasija Sevastova 6-4, 6-3, hitting 29 winners on her way to victory.

She also shrugged off injury concerns coming into the match about an ankle injury which had kept her out of action since Melbourne.

But she seemed relatively untroubled breaking her opponent's serve late in each set to advance to the last eight.

"I'm really glad that I could finish it in two sets and play like I played," said Halep.

The world number two will play 18-year-old American qualifier Catherine Bellis in the last eight, who beat defending champion and world number five Karolina Pliskova 7-6 (7/4), 6-3.

It is the first time the teenager has beaten anyone ranked in the top five.

"I think it's definitely a milestone. It's great," she said.

Bellis put part of her success down to eating ice cream every night in Doha, which "gives me a bit of energy".

World number three Elina Svitolina is out, beaten 6-4, 7-5 by a resurgent Petra Kvitova.

And Garbine Muguruza, world number four, breezed through beating Sorana Cirstea 6-0, 6-4.At least 17 people were killed and 15 injured when a shooter opened fire in a South Florida high school on Wednesday afternoon.

The suspected shooter, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, is a former student who was expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons. He was arrested on Wednesday hours after the attack and has since been charged with premeditated murder.

The attack marks the 18th school shooting of 2018.

A troubled former student armed with an assault-style rifle returned to his Parkland, Florida, high school on Wednesday and opened fire, killing at least 17 people and injuring 15, officials said.

Police said the accused gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, began shooting outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shortly before dismissal, then barged inside. Wearing a gas mask and armed with smoke grenades, he pulled a fire alarm to lure students out of classrooms, according to Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who said he had been briefed by law enforcement. Cruz then sprayed students and staffers with bullets before blending in with the panicked crowd to escape.

He went up and down the hallway just banging and shooting into the classrooms, one student, Natalie, told CBS News. He shot through my door and broke my window.

Madison Sheib, a 15-year-old sophomore, was working on a study sheet in her math class when she heard what she first thought were the sounds of chairs being shuffled on the floor above her. When she and other students realized what it was, they ran for cover.

We ran into a corner and turned off all the lights, Sheib told HuffPost. We just kept hearing gunshots and screaming.

Wednesdays attack marks the 18th school shooting of 2018.

The school, in the suburban community about 15 miles northwest of Fort Lauderdale, was quickly placed on lockdown. Police detained Cruz nearly two hours later, just before 4 p.m., according to the Broward County Sheriffs Department. Cruz was charged with 17 counts of murder on Thursday and jailed without bond at Broward County Jail, according to The Associated Press.

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Three victims remained at Broward Health North hospital in critical condition, and three others were in stable condition, hospital officials said just after 7 p.m. on Wednesday. Among those killed was a school football coach, whom police declined to name but family and friends identified as assistant coach and security guard Aaron Feis. The son of a deputy sheriff was wounded.

I am so sad about this news, Feis cousin Joey Fulco told HuffPost. The entire Feis family [is] devastated.

Jamie Guttenberg, a student, was also killed in the shooting, her father, Fred Guttenberg, confirmed in a Facebook post on Thursday. According to Local 10 News, Jamies brother Jesse, who was also in school during the attack, survived.

My heart is broken, Fred Guttenberg said. I am broken as I write this trying to figure out how my family gets [sic] through this.

Parents wait for news after reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday. One woman's forehead is marked from an Ash Wednesday ritual. (Photo: Joel Auerbach/AP)

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said the gunman used an AR-15 assault-style rifle and had multiple magazines of ammunition on him.

Twelve of his victims died inside the school building, two outside the building, one on a nearby street and two others in the hospital, Israel said, adding that the victims were a mixture of students and adults.

After being detained by police, Cruz was treated at Broward Health North and released to police custody.

Weve begun to dissect the social media he was on, Israel said during a news conference. Some of the things are very disturbing.

The Republic of Florida, a white nationalist militia, confirmed on Thursday that Cruz had attended some of its paramilitary drills in Tallahassee.

Cruz had legally purchased the gun he used during the shooting, the familys attorney, Jim Lewis, told the Sun Sentinel. Law enforcement sources confirmed to the AP that the AR-15 was purchased around a year ago.

It was his gun, Lewis said. The family made him keep it in a locked gun cabinet in the house, but he had a key.

The newspaper said Cruz and his brother Zachary had been living with family friends after their adoptive mother died in November.

The family is devastated. They didnt see this coming, Lewis said. They took him in, and its a classic case of no good deed goes unpunished. He was a little quirky and he was depressed about his moms death, but who wouldnt be?

Broward County Mayor Beam Furr told CNNs Anderson Cooper that Cruz had been treated at a mental health clinic for mental health issues, but that he hadnt been back in more than a year. Lewis told ABCs Good Morning America that Cruz had recently started therapy again in the wake of his mothers death.

Cruzs late mother would sometimes call the police to help her deal with her two sons behavioral problems, former neighbor Helen Pasciolla told The New York Times.

Cruz had reportedly been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High the year before for disciplinary reasons. He is currently enrolled as a student within the Broward County Public Schools system, though police declined to name which school he was attending. He also worked at a nearby Dollar Tree, the general store chain confirmed.

This has been a day weve seen the worst of humanity, Superintendent Robert Runcie said during a news conference late Wednesday. Tomorrow is going to bring out the best in humanity as we come together to move forward from this unspeakable tragedy.

One unidentified student, speaking to local station WSVN, said the suspect had shown him photos of a gun collection he owned.

It surprises me that this is going on today, but it doesnt shock me that it was him, the student said. Hes been a troubled kid, and hes always had a certain amount of issues going on.

Math teacher Jim Gard told the Miami Herald that the suspect reportedly wasnt allowed to carry a backpack on the school campus. There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus, Gard said.

Gard told The New York Times that other students told him Cruz had been obsessed with a female student to the point of stalking her.

Senior Eddie Bonilla told CBS Miami he wasnt surprised his former classmate was arrested.

Honestly a lot of people a lot of people were saying it was going to be him, Bonilla said. We actually, a lot of kids threw jokes around Iike that, saying that hes the one to shoot up the school, but it turns out everyone predicted it. Its crazy.

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Sheib, who was hiding in her math class during the attack, told HuffPost she heard the fire alarm go off after the first round of gunshots. Students  including herself  attempted to stay calm while police arrived. Eventually, an officer smashed the door window and ushered students out of the building.

Sheib credits her math teacher, Zipora Lazarus, with keeping students calm.

Lazarus was very, very good with handling people, Sheib said. I started bawling when police finally broke in, and she was very nurturing. Ive never seen that side of her because shes just my math teacher, but this brought out the best of everyone.

Sheibs brother, 19-year-old John Miceli, had frantically texted his sister to make sure she was OK.

Madi please be okay, he wrote in a text shown to HuffPost. I love you.

A wave of relief washed over him when she finally responded with I love you too.

A female student, speaking to CBS Miami, said her drama teacher instructed them to hide in a closet after they heard gunshots. As many as 40 students were hiding in the closet, crying and without information about the shooter, the news outlet reported.

That student later reported that they had safely made it out.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

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Many parents had gathered near the school, hoping to receive news about their children, Daily Beast reporter James LaPorta reported from the scene. Some of them formed prayer circles, supporting one another as they were waiting.

Superintendent Runcie told reporters that more needs to be done to prevent such tragedies.

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We cannot live in a world thats built on fear, he said. We have to do what we can to make sure that we provide the greatest safety measures we can for our kids.

Runcie also stressed the need to better treat and address mental health issues across the country. He added that he was speaking generally and didnt know if the suspect in this case has mental health issues but said, No sane person is going to go and commit such an atrocity.

The school employs a full-time police officer, according to online records.

The number of school police officers increased sharply after the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado. The officers are in part meant to help stop school shootings.

President Donald Trump offered condolences to the families of the victims on Twitter, adding: No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.

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But on Thursday the president appeared to criticize people in the community who knew he was a big problem, and he cautioned such instances needed to be reported to the authorities.

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After speaking with federal authorities about the shooting, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in a tweet that it was clear the attack was designed and executed to maximize loss of life.

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Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) also spoke about the violence, posting on Twitter: My thoughts and prayers are with the students, their families and the entire community.

State Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the state will pay for the victims funeral expenses as well as counseling services for those affected.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday night, Sheriff Israel called for people to report any suspicious activity they see online, including individuals with assault-style rifles or weapons, to law enforcement in order to prevent a major tragedy like this devastation that happened in Parkland tonight.

Israel also suggested that firearms should be off-limits to those who are being treated for mental health issues.

While people who are victims of mental health illnesses in this country are being treated, in the opinion of this sheriff, they should not be able to buy, surround themselves, purchase or carry a handgun, Israel said. Those two things dont mix.

Sara Boboltz, Ryan Grenoble and Doha Madani contributed reporting.

Parents wait for news after a reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018.

Medical personnel tend to a victim outside of Stoneman Douglas High School.

Waiting for word from students at Coral Springs Drive and the Sawgrass Expressway just south of the campus of Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., after a shooting on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (Amy Beth Bennett/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images)

People are brought out of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Students are released from a lockdown outside of Stoneman Douglas High School.

An officer tells parents waiting at Coral Springs Drive and the Sawgrass Expressway to go to the Marriott hotel to meet up with their kids from Stoneman Douglas High School.

Waiting for word from students at Coral Springs Drive and the Sawgrass Expressway just south of the campus of Stoneman Douglas High School.

Students are evacuated by police out of Stoneman Douglas High School.

A family reunites outside of Stoneman Douglas High School.

A video still shows students being evacuated from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Students and adults leave following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Students are released from a lockdown outside of Stoneman Douglas High School.

Parents meet at the Fort Lauderdale Marriott Coral Springs Hotel.

Students react following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

A young woman who just walked out from the direction of the high school, who refused to give her name, gets a hug as she reaches the overpass at Coral Springs Drive and the Sawgrass Expressway just south of the campus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Students react at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Students are brought across Coral Springs Drive from the the campus of Stoneman Douglas High School.

People embrace while leaving the Fort Lauderdale Marriott Coral Springs Hotel after a deadly shooting at Marjory Soneman Douglas High School.

Students react following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Waiting for word from students at Coral Springs Drive and the Sawgrass Expressway just south of the campus of Stoneman Douglas High School.

Students react at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Rescue workers help a victim near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Police put a suspect in handcuffs near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Iran told the U.S. to withdraw its forces from Syria and cease operations there Wednesday because Washington's presence was deemed illegal by the local government.

Ali Akbar Velayati, the top adviser to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, defended his country's presence in Syria, saying Iran was acting on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose armed forces have resisted a rebel and jihadi uprising since 2011. Iran has deployed elite forces and supported majority-Shiite Muslim militias fighting alongside the Syrian military with support from Russia, which has also questioned the U.S.' role in the war-torn country.

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"Iran is in Syria legitimately and based on the invitation of the Syrian government. Those who have to leave Syria are the ones who have not been permitted by the Syrian government," Velayati said on the sidelines of a conference at the Islamic Azad University in Tehran, according to the semi-official Mehr News Agency.

GettyImages-871352036

GEORGE OURFALIAN/AFP/Getty Images

Velayati's remarks came shortly after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he was "quite concerned" about an incident Saturday in which Israel said an Iranian drone crossed into Israeli airspace. Israel responded by downing the device and conducting air raids on pro-Syrian government positions near Damascus. Syria fired back, downing one Israeli F-16 with anti-aircraft weapons.

Story continues

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The Trump administration has closely aligned itself with Israel and has supported its calls to contain and isolate Iran's growing influence across the Middle East.

"I think this again illustrates why Irans presence in Syria is only destabilizing to the region. We think Iran needs to withdraw its military, its militia from Syria and allow the hope for the peace process to take hold in Geneva," Tillerson said Wednesday during a conference with his Jordanian counterpart in Amman.

Both the U.S. and Iran have supported campaigns against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria, but tensions have spiked since the group was declared defeated in the both countries. Saturday's violence between Israel and Syria coincided with a deadly clash between the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS and pro-Syrian government forces also fighting ISIS in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

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The U.S.-led coalition destroyed a Russia-built T-72 tank, reportedly killing up to three of its operators. Air Force Commander Air Force Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigian said Tuesday that the tank had approached and fired on positions held by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a mostly Kurdish Pentagon-backed group that included Arabs and ethnic minorities, before it was bombed by a U.S. drone.

The incident came only days after the U.S.-led coalition killed up to 100 pro-Syrian government forces after another "unprovoked attack" against the SDF in eastern Syria. Various sources have given different estimates as to the number of casualties, some of which were believed to be Russian citizens operating with a private military company, but Russia and Syria disputed the U.S.'s account with one Moscow senator calling it "an unprecedented act of aggression."

GettyImages-917682142

LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images

The U.S. has said it would stay even after ISIS was defeated to prevent a jihadi resurgence and potentially to see a political transition, essentially meaning Assad's departure from power. The U.S. campaign against pro-Assad forces in Deir Ezzor may be undermined by a flight of Kurds attempting to repel an offensive by Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies in the northwestern district of Afrin.

Trump has accused Iran of supporting terrorism and developing ballistic missiles that threatened regional security. For this, he decertified and has threatened to scrap a 2015 nuclear deal, a move that was panned by Iran and the deal's other signatories, which included China, France, Germany and the U.K.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekSoldiers of 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, attached to 5th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, stationed at Fort Stewart, Ga., fire a round out of an M1A2 System Enhancement Package Version 2 Abrams tank down range during a field trai

Michael Peck [timestamp]

Security,

During the Aberdeen demonstration, Honeywell showed a windowless cockpit mounted in an all-terrain vehicle with an opaque canopy.

The Mad Scientists at DARPA Want to Build a Tank for the Army Like No Other

DARPA has offered a peek at what may be the tank of the future.

Or, at least how the tank of the future will move. Several contractors recently demonstrated how they intend to improve mobility and situational awareness for DARPA's Ground X-Vehicle Technologies (GXV-T) research project, which aims to develop a small, lightweight vehicle that may look like a dune buggy or one of those Mars rovers.

Were looking at how to enhance survivability by buttoning up the cockpit and augmenting the crew through driver-assistance aids, said Maj. Amber Walker, DARPAs GXV-T program manager, in an agency news release. For mobility, weve taken a radically different approach by avoiding armor and developing options to move quickly and be agile over all terrain.

During a May demonstration at the Armys Aberdeen Test Center, various design teams showed off their work. A Carnegie Mellon University team demonstrated shape-shifting wheel-track mechanisms that transition from a round wheel to a triangular track and back again while the vehicle is on the move, for instant improvements to tactical mobility and maneuverability on diverse terrains.

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Qinetiq displayed electric motors built directly into a vehicle's wheel hubs. while Pratt & Miller climbed steep slopes using a novel high-travel suspension that extends up to six feetforty-two inches upward and thirty inches downward, according to DARPA.

Traditional armored vehicles have small windows and periscopes that offer limited visibility. Much like the F-35 fighter, GXV-T will have a ring of sensors to provide 360-degree situational awareness without the poor tank commander having to stick his neck out of the hatch.

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During the Aberdeen demonstration, Honeywell showed a windowless cockpit mounted in an all-terrain vehicle with an opaque canopy. The crew has 3-D goggles and wraparound displays. In off-road courses, drivers have completed numerous tests using the system in roughly the same time as drivers in ATVs with full visibility, DARPA notes.

Raytheon's Virtual Perspectives Augmenting Natural Experience (V-PANE) system fused data from multiple video and Lidar cameras mounted on the vehicle, to create a real-time 3-D model of the vehicle and the terrain around it. Carnegie Mellon's Off-Road Crew Augmentation (ORCA) predicts the best and safest route for the vehicle.

Interestingly, the ORCA software enables the vehicle, if needed, to drive itself off-roadeven around obstacles, according to DARPA. Which raises the question of whether DARPAs tank of the future will be able to function autonomously.

Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the National Interest. He can be found on Twitter and Facebook.

Read full articleThe U.S. Middle East peace plan, which senior White House adviser Jared Kushner is in charge of, is fairly well advanced, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesdaybut still does not meet his standards.

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I have seen the plan, elements of the plan, its been under development for a number of months, Tillerson said during a meeting with officials in Amman, Jordan, according to Bloomberg. I have consulted with them on the plan, identified areas that we feel need further work.

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So I think it will be up to the president to decide when he feels its time and hes ready to put that plan forward. I will say its fairly well advanced, said Tillerson according to Reuters.

Tillerson, who declined to provide details on the plan, has also been sidelined by Kushner, whom President Donald Trump tasked with forging peace in the Middle East despite having no government experience prior to moving into the West Wing.

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Trump has called the plan a very good proposal for Israel and a great proposal for the Palestinians.

Tillerson tried to convince regional alliesJordan being a key playerthat the U.S. is an honest broker, despite Trumps controversial decision in early December to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Palestinian leaders denounced Trumps move because it undid the understanding that Jerusalems status would be determined by peace talks.

Trump remains committed to seeing a Middle East peace process go forward, said Tillerson, who also signed a five-year package extending U.S. aid to Jordan.

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Story continues

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi reiterated his kingdoms strong opposition to Trumps decision. He called for a two-state solution in any settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

The challenge is how to move forward and how to make sure a difficult situation does not get worse, Safadi said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confidence in Kushner brokering peace due to his real estate experience. Kushner is leading a very able team with many, many abilities, Netanyahu said late last month.

Since entering the White House, Kushners broad portfolio, which includes forging peace in the Middle East and leading relations with China, has reportedly been reduced by White House chief of staff John Kelly as part an overhaul in daily operations.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekUpdate: On Tuesday, JetBlue apparently kicked a passenger off a flight after the travelers support animal touched the seat. The accusation came from Twitter user Jon Schneider, who took to social media after he was reportedly removed from Flight 224, traveling from Los Angeles to New York.

@JetBlue JUST KICKED US OFF OUR FLIGHT BECAUSE OUR EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMAL WAS IN OUR LAP AND HIS PAW WAS BARELY TOUCHING THE SEAT! WORST AIRLINE OUT THERE DO NOT FLY! he wrote. Flight attendants Mark and Nancy on flight 224 need to be fired.

JetBlue responded to Schneiders tweet, writing: Sorry to hear. Please use this link to DM your confirmation code.

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Dog

Getty Images

Newsweek reached out to Schneider, though he did not immediately respond.

Doug McGraw, corporate communications director at JetBlue, said the traveler did not comply when he was asked to remove the emotional support animal from a seat, reserved for human use only.

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Customers can hold emotional support animals in their lap or they can rest on the floor at the seat without obstructing the aisle. In this instance, the customer placed their emotional support animal on a seat and the crew politely asked the customer to remove it, McGraw said. After the customer refused several requests, our crewmembers determined the customer was unwilling to comply and would need to be rebooked on the next flight.

Schneiders tweet came on the heels of a Florida woman claiming Spirit Airlines forced her to flush her pet hamster down the toilet on Thursday. According to Belen Aldecosea, the airline originally said she could bring the animal, but then would not allow the hamster on the plane. Aldecosea didnt know what to do with the pet, so she flushed it down the toilet.

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Spirit denied it was the airline's idea to flush the hamster. That at no point did any of our agents suggest this guest (or any other for that matter) should flush or otherwise injure an animal, they said in a statement. Unfortunately [a reservation representative] did misinform the guest that a hamster was permitted to fly as an emotional support animal.

This story was updated to include a full statement by JetBlue.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekNikolas Cruz, the expelled student suspected of killing at least 17 people and injuring more than a dozen others at his former high school in Parkland, Florida, was described by his former classmates as a loner with a temper. On Thursday, the Broward County Sheriffs Office said Cruz confessed to being the shooter.

The 19-year-old was charged Thursday with 17 counts of premeditated murder, after he allegedly opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Wednesday afternoon. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting is the 6th school shooting resulting in injuries this year. There have been 17 incidents of gunfire in schools this year, according to gun control group Everytown USA.

Authorities said Cruz used an AR-15 rifle  a semi-automatic assault-style rifle that has been used in numerous other mass shootings  in the shooting. He also hid additional magazines in his vest and backpack, according to the police report. The suspect, who was expelled from the school last year for disciplinary reasons, was taken into custody about an hour after fleeing school grounds. Authorities believe the suspected shooter worked alone.

Described by former classmates as loner, Cruz was an orphaned teenager whose mother died in November 2017, according to The Sun-Sentinel. His mother and her husband, who died years ago, according to the paper, had adopted Cruz and his biological brother. The two boys had then moved in with a family friend, an attorney for the family told the Associated Press.

This totally came out of left field. They had no idea, no predilection, James Lewis, the attorney, said. They had no clue that this kid was dangerous, he added.

A leader of a Florida white supremacist militia called the Republic of Florida had claimed that Cruz was a member of the organization and had participated in a training exercise, but later appeared to back away from that claim.

Lt. Grady Jordan with the Leon County Sheriffs Office in Tallahassee said investigators have found no known ties between Cruz and Republic of Florida, a group that his office tracks.

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More than 3,200 students attend Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where approximately 130 teachers work. Videos published as the shooting unfolded showed dozens of students streaming out of classrooms as authorities escorted them out of classrooms following a lockdown. Graphic images and videos posted by students inside these classrooms showed children crying and blood on the floors in the aftermath.

The suspect appeared in court on Thursday and was ordered to be held in jail without bond. Public defenders representing Cruz argued that he had brain development issues, as well as mental illness. They described Cruz as deeply sad, saddened by the loss of these children in the shooting, and called him a broken child. Among the conditions that public defenders said Cruz grappled with was trouble with impulse control.

Shooting Timeline

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said in a news conference Thursday that the suspect arrived at the high school Wednesday at 2:19 p.m., getting a ride from an Uber car. He entered the schools building 12 with his rifle in a soft, black case, and began shooting at 2:21 p.m. During his rampage, the shooter fired into five classrooms across three floors of the building, according to the sheriff.

Next, after making his way up three floors, the suspect dropped his rifle and backpack and ran outside toward the tennis courts at 2:28 p.m. The suspect crossed fields and ran west along with others who were fleeing, and tried to mix in with the group that were running away, fearing for their lives, said Israel.

Then the suspect ran to a Wal-Mart at 2:50 p.m., where he bought a drink at a Subway restaurant, said the sheriff. He went to a nearby McDonalds ten minutes later and left shortly after. A police officer found the suspect walking, and arrested him without incident at 3:41 p.m.

Accounts from Peers

Students at the school described Cruz as a loner and a troubled kid in interviews after the suspected shooter opened fire at his former high school. Some said Cruz was a quiet outcast. Others described him as someone who would act up when he was angry and describe the kinds of weapons he owned.

All he would talk about is guns, knives and hunting, former classmate Joshua Charo, 16, told the Miami Herald. I cant say I was shocked. From past experiences, he seemed like the kind of kid who would do something like this.

One student said kids at the school joked that Cruz would end up opening fire at the school one day  a similar anecdote used by former classmates of Omar Mateen, the gunman who killed 49 people and injured 53 others at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., in 2016.

A lot of kids threw jokes around like that, saying that he would be the one to shoot up the school. It turns out, you know, everyone predicted it, one student told WJXT, a Jacksonville, Florida, news station. Its crazy.

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Jim Gard, a math teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas who taught Cruz in 2016, told CNN Cruz was a quiet kid in class and never had any problems with him before he was expelled. But, speaking with Miami Herald, Gard said that he believed an email from the school administration had circulated among teachers, warning that Cruz had made threats against other students.

We were told last year that he wasnt allowed on campus with a backpack on him, Gard said. There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.

Ocean Parodie, a 17-year-old student at the school, told The Daily Beast Cruz once yelled in class. He was upset and just started yelling at the teacher, Parodie said. The teacher was trying to help him and he just took it the wrong way.

Superintendent Robert Runcie of the Broward County School District told reporters school officials had received no warnings or threats of the shooting before it happened. Potentially there could have been signs out there, he said. But we didnt have any warning or phone calls or threats that were made.

Life at Home

Cruz lived with a friends family after the death of his mother in November and worked at a local Dollar Tree store while attending school at an adult education center, the attorney for the family said.

He seemed to be getting his life back together, getting over his depression, the loss of his mother, Lewis, the attorney, told the Associated Press. And this totally came out of left field.

Cruz had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year. Though officials had declined to say why Cruz had been expelled, the mother of one student told the New York Times he had brought knives to campus.

After Cruzs mother died in November, he lived with his friends family, according to their attorney. At their home, Cruz had a firearm locked in a cabinet, Lewis said, adding that there are a lot of 18- and 19-year-olds with firearms in the area. This is about something went seriously wrong with this kid, and no one can explain it right now, Lewis said.

The family had another son who attended the school, Lewis said, and was on campus during the shooting. The son had no involvement in the shooting, Lewis said. He said the family did recall Cruz saying on Wednesday morning that he would not be going to school because he doesnt go to school on Valentines Day.

So why this happened? Nobody saw it coming and nobody knows why, the attorney said.

Helen Pasciolla, a retired neighbor who lives in the Cruz familys former neighborhood in Parkland, told the New York Times that Cruz had regular behavioral problems. Pasciolla said their mother would sometimes call the police to come over and talk to Cruz.

Nikolas has behavioral problems, I think, but I never thought he would be violent, Pasciolla said to the Times.

Broward County Mayor Beam Furr told CNN the suspected shooter had gotten treatment from a mental health clinic for a period of time. It wasnt like there wasnt concern for him, Furr said. We try to keep our eyes out on those kids who arent connected. Most teachers try to steer them toward some kind of connections. In this case, we didnt find a way to connect with this kid.

Emerging Social Media Profile

Authorities have begun looking into what they describe as Cruzs social media profile, findings which Sheriff Israel described to reporters as very, very disturbing.

In September 2017, YouTube user Ben Bennight told the FBI about a worrisome comment left on one of his videos written by another user named nikolas cruz. The comment, as detailed by an FBI agent at a press conference Thursday, said, Im going to be a professional school shooter. Bennight told BuzzFeed News that the FBI visited him in September and asked if he knew the user. He said he did not, and the FBI took a copy of the screenshot and that was the last I heard from them, he said.

YouTube and Bennight did not respond immediately to requests for comment from TIME.

Unverified images on social media accounts cited by multiple media sources appear to show a man holding firearms, wielding knives, and showing a collection of guns on a bed.

Daniel Huerfano, a student who fled Wednesdays attack, told the AP he recognized Cruz from an Instagram photo where he posed with a gun in front of his face.

A 17-year-old junior named Dakota Mentcher also recalled to the AP that Cruz had posted Instagrams about killing animals. Mentcher said Cruz would also talk about doing target practice in his backyard with a pellet gun.

He started going after one of my friends, threatening her, and I cut him off from there, Mentcher said. I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him.

This story has been updated to reflect more detail about how Everytown for Gun Safety categorizes an incident as a school shooting.

Correction: The original version of this story included a claim from Jordan Jereb, the leader of white supremacist organization The Republic of Florida, that Nikolas Cruz was a member of his group. Jereb has since withdrawn that claim.Pristina (AFP) - In Kosovo, the guerrillas who fought for independence from Serbia a decade ago are revered as heroes.

However, with the 10th anniversary of Kosovo's independence declaration on February 17, they fear a new international court is preparing to indict them for war crimes.

Kosovo's war veterans association boasts 40,000 members, although the actual numbers who battled Serbian forces during the 1998-99 conflict were undoubtedly lower.

But they wield considerable political clout, with streets and squares named after their fallen comrades across the territory, whose independence has been recognised by more than 110 countries, but not by Belgrade or Moscow.

The association maintains links with the ruling parties, the PDK of President Hashim Thaci and AAK of Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj.

The veterans are behind a petition that gathered 15,000 signatures urging lawmakers to abolish Kosovo's own 2015 legislation that established the Hague-based tribunal.

With the EU-backed court poised to issue indictments, ruling coalition MPs have twice attempted to repeal the law since December.

- Western firmness -

"MPs who support this initiative and the politicians who lead it despite their denials will be the subject of specific and harsh consequences," said US ambassador to Pristina Greg Delawie.

"They know this, we have told them."

His strong words were noted in the country of 1.8 million people, which depends heavily on the international community.

The court will work under Kosovo's legal system but sit in the Hague for the sake of witness protection. It will investigate accusations of war crimes allegedly committed by the members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), an ethnic Albanian guerrilla movement.

Speculation abounds that President Thaci, the former head of the KLA's political wing, and parliamentary speaker Kadri Veseli, ex-chief of the guerrilla secret services, could be among those facing prosecution for war crimes against civilians.

Story continues

The prime minister's brother Daut Haradinaj, 39 -- a member of parliament and also a former KLA commander -- is also said to be among potential suspects.

"I have no fear," he told AFP.

The court, composed of foreign judges, "violates the sovereignty of the Republic of Kosovo," said the MP, who lost two other brothers in the war.

The tribunal was created following a 2011 Council of Europe report that accused the KLA of the kidnapping and disappearance of 500 civilians, mostly ethnic Serbs and Roma but also ethnic Albanian political opponents.

The Kosovo war -- the last conflict in the former Yugoslavia -- claimed more than 13,000 lives. It ended after a NATO air campaign forced out the Serbs and put Kosovo under UN protection.

More than 10,000 of the dead were ethnic Albanians, almost 2,300 were Serbs and Montenegrins and the remainder included a few hundred Romas.

- 'Just war' -

Veteran association leader Hysni Gucati, 59, said he was offended by the "injustice" of a tribunal aimed at trying "only KLA members", although the court's chief, Bulgarian Ekaterina Trendafilova, denied the charge.

"We waged a just war for the liberation of our country," the veteran said, showing photographs of atrocities committed by Serbs.

"We have opposed the court and will continue to do so," said Xhevded Qeriqi, 43, chief of the Council for Defence of former KLA fighters, another association.

But the parliamentary rearguard action seems to be failing.

Describing the court as a "historical injustice", Thaci nevertheless insisted Kosovo would respect "all its international obligations".

He told AFP he was willing to assist investigators "at any moment, under any circumstances, at any time, with all my capacity."

Will the people of Kosovo support the veterans?

There are no opinion polls, but Arben Hajrullahu, professor of political science at the University of Pristina, has doubts.

"We will not have a rebellion of a majority of citizens, who will be happy that all this is cleared up once and for all," he said.

An MP from the opposition LDK party, Doruntina Maloku, 35, is pleased with this new chance to hold to account the assassins of her father, Enver Maloku, killed in January 1999 in Pristina.

The slain journalist was close to the "father of the nation" Ibrahim Rugova, a political opponent of the KLA.

For Maloku, "an entire population should not be afraid of the accusations of crimes brought against certain people."The accused Florida school shooter made his first court appearance Thursday, speaking only two words in a very short hearing.

The 19-year-old replied, "Yes, ma'am," when a magistrate asked if he was Nikolas Jacob Cruz. He did not enter a plea and was denied bail. He hung his head and stared at the floor during his appearance.

The shooting claimed 17 lives and left several people injured Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, authorities said.

The campus was placed on lockdown as authorities led students to safety and first responders triaged the wounded.

Cruz, a former student, was taken into custody without incident about four miles away in Coral Springs on the eastern edge of the Everglades.

He was armed with at least one AR-15 assault weapon and multiple ammunition magazines, according to Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel.

"It's horrible. It's catastrophic," said Israel. Cruz had been expelled by the school, the sheriff said.

Authorities, who later tracked the teenager's internet posts, found several that were "disturbing," Israel said.

After receiving medical treatment for an undisclosed injury, Cruz was escorted to jail wearing a hospital gown.

The alleged gunman pulled a fire alarm at the school to lure students into hallways, authorities said.

We were told last year that he wasnt allowed on campus with a backpack on him, said math teacher Jim Gard, who said Cruz had been in his class last year. There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus, the instructor told the Miami Herald.

Students cowered in classrooms and closets as round after round was fired on campus. Facebook Live footage showed students screaming and crying as loud gunfire is heard outside.

12 people died inside the school, Israel said. Two died outside. Another was gunned down on a nearby street corner and two others died later while being treated in a nearby hospital.

Story continues

Frantic parents were held back by law enforcement officers as they begged for word on their children. Some students were seen clutching Valentines as they ran from the school. It was also Ash Wednesday and some parents carried the Catholic ash marking on their foreheads.

Students inside the school texted with family, warning them to stay away because they could hear the gunman's weapon being fired.

President Trump was among those tweeting his sympathies.

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Wednesday's carnage marked the 18th school shooting of 2018.

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Related Articles:Luxembourg (AFP) - You may not be able to pronounce it or even have heard of it, but Luxembourg's national language Letzebuergesch is making a comeback and fighting for official European Union recognition.

Spoken by fewer than 400,000 people and listed as "vulnerable" by the UN cultural and educational body UNESCO, the local vernacular is now being promoted by the government of the tiny Grand Duchy.

Draft legislation went before parliament in early January to help spread "Luxembourgish" -- as it is known in English -- both at home among the 590,000-strong population and abroad.

"We decided to open negotiations with the European institutions to find agreement on an administrative arrangement" for use of the dialect, the education ministry said in a written response to AFP.

"Concretely, that would mean that every citizen would have the right to address European institutions in Luxembourgish and to receive an answer in the same language."

Letzebuergesch is listed as "vulnerable" by UNESCO with just 390,000 speakers of the Moselle-Franconian dialect.

But that could be changing.

In 1976, Lex Roth, reputed for his translations from French of Asterix, Tintin and La Fontaine's Fables, struggled to start classes in Luxembourgish for foreigners.

"Today we have to turn people away," the 84-year-old said.

- National language -

The country's national statistics institute (STATEC) classifies it as the main language for 55.8 percent of the population trailed by Portuguese with 15.7 percent and French on 12.1.

By nationality, it is spoken by nine out of every 10 Luxemburgers but only by five percent of foreign residents -- who make up nearly half the population.

The dialect was not officially recognised as the national language until 1984 and now stands alongside French and German for administrative and legal purposes.

Letzebuergesch is considered to open doors on the local jobs market. But with nearly one in every two workers hailing from abroad -- landlocked Luxembourg has borders with France, Belgium and Germany -- many are not familiar with it.

Story continues

"The commercial strength of Luxembourgish comes from a combination of factors -- political with the promotion of the language and also the necessity for workers to master the language in everyday situations," said Nicolas Ragonneau, marketing director at the publisher Assimil.

- Tidal wave -

Back in 2012, Assimil published a conversation guide to the local dialect that sold 10,000 copies in a year.

"We were very surprised by the sales, a real tidal wave compared to the number of speakers and what's more for a language under threat of dying out," said Ragonneau.

Assimil went on to put out two more books on learning the language and a fourth is in the works.

At the Ernster chain of book shops, the number of texts for learning Luxembourgish has soared from just a handful by local publishers to more than 20.

"You can say there is growing demand for language texts," said Gabi Bisenius, a Luxembourgish content specialist with the chain.

"There's a great willingness from people who do not speak Letzebuergesch to learn it."

That is borne out by a visit to the National Language Institute, a centre for public learning.

"Luxembourgish classes, especially for beginners, are under siege as soon as we open registration," said the institute's director Karin Pundel.

Thirty percent more places have been opened for the Luxembourgish courses in the past two years.

A law passed last year grants naturalisation to foreigners who can understand the local language and have lived for five years in the Grand Duchy.

"With the new legislation on nationality now in force, there will probably be even more people registering," Pundel added.

The institute holds official language tests in Luxembourgish. "For now, we are booked up until July," Pundel noted.

While the number of Britons enrolling is increasing, raising theories of a Brexit effect, they represent only about five percent of class students.

"I think that quite simply more and more people who come to live in Luxembourg want to integrate and feel at home," said Pundel.By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts' top court ruled on Wednesday that police can carry out traffic stops for motor vehicle violations as a pretext to probe for other crimes, but the justices expressed concerns about how racial bias could influence such stops.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rejected arguments by a lawyer for a man convicted of cocaine possession that "pretextual" traffic stops violate defendants' rights under the state's constitution to be protected from unreasonable seizures.

Justice Elspeth Cypher said "the fact that a traffic law has been violated is, generally speaking, a legally sufficient basis to justify stopping a vehicle, irrespective of any additional suspicions held by the officer(s) conducting the stop."

But Cypher, writing for a 7-0 court, said Rogelio Buckley's attorney in arguing for banning pretextual traffic stops had raised "considerable, legitimate concerns" about the role racial profiling plays in police stopping vehicles.

Justice Kimberly Budd, in a concurring opinion, said while Buckley, who is black, had not himself argued he was stopped for "driving while black," concerns about bias were "well founded."

"Further, recent tragic events have shown that the fear people of color have of being stopped by police is justified: African-Americans have been killed during routine traffic stops," Budd wrote.

The court left open the possibility of considering the issue in the future. Budd encouraged Massachusetts' legislature to require data collection on traffic stops.

The law firm that represented Buckley, Wood & Nathanson LLP, expressed disappointment, saying the decision gave "short shrift to the real world difficulties faced by people who are subjected to pretextual stops."

Rahsaan Hall, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts' Racial Justice Program, called the ruling "a setback for racial justice, for the police accountability movement and for the physical safety of people of color in Massachusetts."

Story continues

Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz said he was "committed to promoting fair procedures to guide the police in their interactions with the public."

According to the ruling, Buckley was a passenger in a car that parked in 2013 near a Whitman, Massachusetts, apartment where police suspected drug activity was occurring.

After police witnessed two people from the car go into the building and then drive off without its headlights on, police stopped the vehicle for speeding.

Police found a firearm and cocaine in the car. Buckley was convicted in 2015 of a cocaine possession charge. He originally also faced firearm charges.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Peter Cooney)When we hear of a disaster like Wednesdays shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., most of us wish we could do something to comfort the survivors. Fortunately, there are a few dozen volunteers with Lutheran Church Charities who know just what to do: Sit quietly and let those who are suffering pat their big, fluffy head.

Unfortunately, the 130 golden retrievers who form LCCs K-9 Comfort Dog Ministry have been very busy lately.

Hours after news of the mass shooting broke, the LCC sprang into action to deploy its dogs to the scene. One lived just an hour away, and 16 others are currently making their way to Parkland, along with their 29 handlers, from 10 other states. At prayer vigils, hospitals, community gatherings, and eventually the school itself, the comfort dogs will be available to anyone who wants to pet them.

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When people pet a dog, they relax, and when they relax, theyre able to talk about what they went through, Tim Hetzner, president and CEO of Lutheran Church Charities, told Yahoo Lifestyle. A key part of the healing process is to be able to talk about whats happened.

The dogs only go where theyre invited, and they wait in an area to the side, in case some of those suffering are allergic or afraid of them, Hetzner said. These arent the amateur therapy pets that have been so derided in the news of late. The LCC trains the purebred goldens for 16 to 18 months (2,000 hours), beginning when they are just eight weeks old. Each dog is then placed with a Lutheran church or school to serve that community as needed. Then, when national disasters strike, they travel to those areas for a week at a time and work with the local counselors already there.

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They come up to you and get dog hair all over you, and then just nuzzle up to you and put a smile on your face, Tracy Szymanski director of guest services of Sunrise Hospital in the Las Vegas area told Today of her experience with the dogs last October.

Story continues

They dont bark, bite, jump up, Hetzner said. Theyre trained to either sit or to lie down on the ground  it depends on the situation. A lot of times with students that are on the ground, the dog lies down on the ground, and they lie on top of the dog. Theyre kind of comfort rugs with a heartbeat sometimes.

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Sandy Hook, Orlando, Las Vegas, Baton Rouge, Sutherland Springs, Marshall County, Ky.  these dogs have been comfort rugs in many places reeling from a mass shooting in recent years. But the program began after a different type of disaster, Hurricane Katrina.

We were asked by FEMA to do search and rescue with people and their pets, because at that time FEMA would not rescue pets, Hetzner said. Out of that we saw the value of an animal with somebody in a crisis situation, even to the point that they were willing to risk their life staying in a home thats underwater rather than part with their pet.

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The LCC began its K-9 program in 2008, and its an extension of the mission to share mercy, compassion, presence, and proclamation of Jesus Christ to those who are suffering and in need. Like the dogs themselves, the LCCs humans are on the scene to calm and provide comfort.

Were not counselors, but were trained to shut up and listen, Hetzner said. Our dogs do that also.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.



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PYEONGCHANG, South Korea  For three days, Mikaela Shiffrin waited on the one thing that unquestionably could keep her from her goal of five Olympic gold medals at the PyeongChang Games: the weather. The winds swirled around Yongpyong Alpine Centre enough to cancel a pair of events and leave in question her quest.

After the giant slalom race Thursday afternoon, it was well alive (at least until she pulled out of the Super-G). Shiffrin shattered the field in her second run, winning with an inspired blitz through tricky terrain that gave her the second gold of her Olympic career.

Theres nothing to hold back for in the second run, Shiffrin said after her first, which ended in 1:10.82, two-tenths of a second behind Italys Manuela Moelgg. She restrained nothing on the second run, which she finished in a total of 2:20.2, .39 ahead of silver medalist Ragnhild Mowinckel before Federica Brignone, who took bronze.

[After finishing fifth at Sochi], I set a goal to become the best GS skier in the world, Shiffrin said after winning gold. To be able to put down a run that was taking risk and fighting for it, I was really happy about that.

The 22-year-old Shiffrins five-gold objective was particularly audacious considering the havoc the wind wrought on the schedule. But after winning gold Thursday, she scrapped the Super-G. Shell return to Yongpyong on Friday for the slalom  in which she won gold at the Sochi Games and is the distinct favorite here because of her technical skill  but will skip Saturdays Super-G.

Mikaela Shiffrin, of the United States, attacks the gate during the first run of the Womens Giant Slalom at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. (AP)

Then comes three days of training for the downhill Wednesday, followed by the combined  which marries downhill and slalom  on Feb. 23. Its a daunting schedule for any racer, even at four races.

Last night, Shiffin said, I was like, Are we ever gonna race? 

They finally did Thursday. And it was an auspicious start to an Olympics she plans to make memorable.

More Olympic coverage from Yahoo Sports:

 Shaun White apologizes for dismissing harassment question

 Jeff Passan: Reconciling harassment allegations with Whites Olympic gold

 Japanese star suffers brutal crash at Olympics

 More heartbreak for British speed skater: It was taken away from me

 Shaun White violates Flag Code after gold medal win

Robert Farley

Security,

It might just be past success.

The Military's Greatest Enemy Isn't Russia or China

A wise man once pointed out that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view. Relative to the 1970s and 1980s, the United States is almost incomparably powerful and secure, enjoying presumptive military advantage over any opponent or plausible coalition of opponents. We sometimes forget, for example, that there is some history to the idea of Russian troops freely operating in Ukraine. And the point is not that the United States deserves some kind of comeuppance for its arrogance. Geopolitics isnt a Shakespearean drama, or a morality play. Noting that Russia, China, and others have the growing capability to act independently in their regions does not imply that they will act justly, or that they have any special right to torture their neighbors.

Back in Sept. 2015, Air Force General Frank Gorenc argued that the airpower advantage the United States has enjoyed over Russia and China is shrinking. This warning comes as part of a deluge of commentary on the waning international position of the United States. The U.S. military, it would seem, is at risk of no longer being able to go where it wants, and do what it wants to whomever it wants. Diplomatically, the United States has struggled, as of late, to assemble coalitions of the willing interested in following Washington into the maw of every waiting crisis.

(This first appeared in Sept. 2015.)

Does this mean that U.S. global power in on the wane? If so, should we blame this decline on specific policy decisions made by this administration, or the previous administration? As Dan Drezner has argued with respect to who is winning the Ukraine crisis, the answer depends crucially on the starting point.

Recommended: Stealth vs. North Koreas Air Defenses: Who Wins?

Recommended: Americas Battleships Went to War Against North Korea

Recommended: 5 Places World War III Could Start in 2018

Story continues

Pax Americana:

In the early 1990s, the United States established a degree of military and political supremacy rarely, if ever, glimpsed in the history of the modern state system. This supremacy was built on a degree of long-term economic stability and growth that rarely endures in advanced economies. An extremely advantageous geographic situation abetted this advantage, along with the near collapse of Americas premier strategic competitor. The rest of the worlds major players decided to go along in order to get along.

The successful U.S. embrace of standoff precision-guided munitions (PGM), combined with effective and well-financed investments in training and force protection, made the U.S. military effectively unbeatable in conventional conflict. This did not always mean that the United States military could achieve its political objectives through the use of force, but it generally meant that the U.S. could put in other military in check.

The idea that this level of dominance might wane was hardly alien to the conversation on U.S. foreign policy in the early 1990s. Liberal internationalists suggested that this represented a moment, not unlike the immediate wake of World War II, in which the United States could establish a rule-based system that would endure beyond the dwindling advantage enjoyed by American military power.

Neoconservatives, on the other hand, rejected the idea that American military power needed to decline. The draft Defense Planning Guidance document of 1992, for example, proposed a set of military, economic, and political steps designed to maintain U.S. power and preclude the emergence of peer competitors. Although dismissed at the time, many of these idea have persisted, in bipartisan form, though several Presidential administrations.

Both of these perspective had to contend with serious problems. First, even in the 1990s, very few analysts denied the potential for China and India to enjoy long-term economic growth exceeding that of the United States. While both nations had endured severe economic hardships during the Cold war, by the 1990s both were experiencing sustained growth in excess of U.S. rates, and both were becoming deeply integrated in the global economy.

Thus, the U.S. needed to either convince the Chinese and Indians to play nice, or develop a means of preserving presumptive military advantage over each. Both of these things are very hard. Moreover, the United States needed to ensure against a resurgence of traditional military powers in Eurasia, including Germany, Russia, and Japan, either through containment or co-option.

The New Baseline:

Surprisingly, many of these things worked out. Germany and Japan remain (relatively) docile and harmless. India is feeling its way to closer alignment with the United States. Russia is struggling to maintain control over borderlands that it had ruled for centuries prior to 1990. Even China, which has enjoyed nearly uninterrupted high economic growth (at least until a few weeks ago), and which has engaged in a remarkable military buildup, has only begun to probe the political and military weaknesses of the existing order in the East and South China Seas. As a variety of theorists pointed out in the early 2000s, some kind of US unipolarity might endure for a while.

So why the concern?

In the Science of Muddling Through, Charles Lindblom suggested that organizations and decision-makers rarely revisit core assumptions when making decisions. Instead of examining the roots of a problem, organizations settle on two or three easily understandable options, then base their decisions upon a set of pre-established metrics. Decision-makers rarely look at the big picture, in part because looking at the big picture only rarely tells them something useful about the day-to-day decisions they need to make.

As a strategic framework, muddling through has its merits. It refrains from deep theorization, and allows an organization (in this case, the United States) to evaluate decisions based on intelligible, readily available evidence. Muddling through can lead to altogether better outcomes than an effort to impose a grand theoretical framework on the world.

But muddling through is particularly susceptible to bad choices in baseline. If we lack an intellectual framework that can help us understand the huge, enduring advantages that the United States possesses, we will likely overstate the importance of short run trends. Conversely, if we choose as a baseline a moment that was essentially ephemeral (the zenith or nadir of national power, for example), we run the risk of completely misunderstanding foundational shifts in the international balance of power.

The Weird 1990s:

And this is where we find ourselves now. The theorists and analysts who expressed concern about the long-term viability of U.S. power in the 1990s were right; predictable long-term trends were going to lead to the diminishment of U.S. superiority over potential challengers. The advantages that the U.S. enjoyed over China, Russia, and others in the 1990s were ephemeral, and the shrinking gap is the consequence of a return to a more normal balance of international power.

The question isnt whether unipolarity will persist, or whether U.S. primacy will endure. Unipolarity and primacy do not necessarily include the military, economic, and diplomatic capability of dictating terms on Russias borders, or at Chinas twelve mile limit. The United States will never feel as invulnerable as it did in the 1990s, mostly because the 1990s were a deeply weird period in the history of modern geopolitics.

Wrap:

A wise man once pointed out that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view. Relative to the 1970s and 1980s, the United States is almost incomparably powerful and secure, enjoying presumptive military advantage over any opponent or plausible coalition of opponents. We sometimes forget, for example, that there is some history to the idea of Russian troops freely operating in Ukraine.

And the point is not that the United States deserves some kind of comeuppance for its arrogance. Geopolitics isnt a Shakespearean drama, or a morality play. Noting that Russia, China, and others have the growing capability to act independently in their regions does not imply that they will act justly, or that they have any special right to torture their neighbors.

Nor is it to suggest that the Bush and Obama administrations deserve no blame for their foreign policy choices. Allowing that they are not responsible for U.S. relative decline is different than suggesting that neither President has made serious mistakes. Moreover, theres nothing wrong with the steps that the United States has taken designed to ensure future military superiority. The third offset wont bring back the 1990s, but it will help keep the United States more than competitive against potential challengers.

But the appropriate question should be will the offset (and various other policy initiatives) help maintain U.S. military superiority? not will it help ensure U.S. military supremacy? Moving forward, the U.S. military will need to navigate a world in which it enjoys advantages that are merely large, but not overwhelming. Thats not such a bad place to be. For better and worse, the 1990s are gone.

Robert Farley, a frequent contributor to TNI, is author of The Battleship Book. He serves as a Senior Lecturer at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky. His work includes military doctrine, national security, and maritime affairs. He blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money and Information Dissemination and The Diplomat.

This first appeared in Sept. 2015 and is being reposted due to reader interest.

Read full articleWreckage at the crash site of a Saratov Airlines Antonov An-148 - TASS

Russian experts investigating the weekend plane crash outside Moscow that killed 71 people said Tuesday that the accident may have been caused by ice on speed-measuring instruments which led to faulty information on the craft's airspeed.

"A factor in the development of a special situation in the flight could be the wrong data about flight speed on pilots' indicators which was likely due to iced pitot tubes (speed probes) while their heating systems were shut off," said the Russian Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) which investigates aircraft incidents.

The Antonov An-148 plane took off from Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Sunday to the Russian city of Orsk and went down in a field around 70 kilometres (40 miles) southeast of Moscow shortly after. All 65 passengers and six crew members on board died.

The IAC said it has completed analysis of the on-board flight recorder and would still need to analyse the black box which recorded conversations in the cockpit. It would also look at whether the pitot tubes, a vital piece of equipment which measures airspeed, could have malfunctioned.

Iced-over pitot tube instruments were previously named as the likely reason behind the Air France 447 flight crashing into the Atlantic in 2009, killing 228 people on board.

Russian Emergency Situations Ministry workers collect wreckage from the fallen plane

The RBK newspaper on Tuesday quoted sources as saying that the captain of the Russian flight refused the de-icing procedure while the plane was in Domodedovo airport. Kommersant newspaper previously said that this was optional given the relatively mild temperatures at the time.

The IAC said the flight began having problems two and a half minutes after takeoff at an altitude of about 1300 metres (4260 feet), at which point instruments began to display vastly different speeds.

The plane's autopilot was turned off and it began to sharply lose speed until impact with the ground at 1127 GMT, the IAC said.

Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said it would consider the IAC's findings in its criminal investigation.

Story continues

Emergency workers have been combing through deep snow at the crash site. On Tuesday, the emergency ministry said they had recovered 1,400 body parts and 900 plane fragments.

The wreckage site where the plane crashed after taking off from Moscow Credit: AFP

Authorities were taking DNA samples from relatives of the victims in order to complete identification.

The emergency ministry added Tuesday that it lifted two engines from a crater formed by the plane's impact, sending them to be investigated. The search would continue on Wednesday, it said.

The flight was operated by the domestic Saratov Airlines, which announced that it would suspend usage of the An-148.

Russia has suffered numerous plane crashes, with airlines often operating ageing aircraft in dangerous flying conditions.

A light aircraft crashed in November in Russia's far east, killing six people on board.

In December 2016, a military plane carrying Russia's famed Red Army Choir crashed after taking off from Sochi, killing all 92 people on board.

Pilot error was blamed for that crash.

In March 2016, all 62 people on board died when a FlyDubai jet crashed in bad weather during an aborted landing at Rostov-on-Don airport.Kathmandu (AFP) - The leader of Nepal's largest Communist party was named prime minister Thursday, two months after leading his party to a thumping victory in landmark elections billed as a turning point for the impoverished Himalayan nation.

K.P. Sharma Oli will head the first government elected under a new national constitution that cements Nepal's transformation from Hindu monarchy to a federal republic 11 years after the end of a brutal Maoist insurgency.

The Communist leader is expected to take the oath of office later Thursday, presidential secretary Bhesh Raj Adhikari told AFP.

Sher Bahadur Deuba had earlier resigned as prime minister in a televised address after just eight months in office.

An alliance of Oli's main Communist party and the former Maoist rebels trounced Deuba's Nepali Congress party in last year's polls.

The historic elections in December were the first under the country's new post-war constitution, which sets out a sweeping overhaul of the political system, devolving significant power from the centre to the seven provinces.

The Communist alliance won a landslide victory, but the handover of power was delayed by disagreements over how the new election rules in the constitution should be implemented.

The long delay has dampened the optimism that accompanied the polls, when many voters cast their ballots hoping a new government would bring much-needed stability and development.

Nepal has cycled through 11 prime ministers since the civil war ended in 2006, allowing corruption to flourish and growth stagnate.

Rules under the new constitution make it harder to oust the premier, raising hopes that the next government could last a full five year term.Netflix (NFLX) has a content problem, although not the content problem you think.

The popular streaming service, which announced Wednesday it had signed American Horror Story producer Ryan Murphy to a multiyear, multimillion dollar deal to exclusively create content for it, now faces a problem unique to its aggressive business model: too much content and not enough room for that content to succeed as it should.

Earlier this month, Netflix made a huge marketing push for Altered Carbon, a futuristic, Blade Runner-esque 10-episode series that may have cost over $7 million an episode based on some outside estimates. But just two days after the costly show premiered, Netflix essentially thwarted any promotional momentum the show had built up by revealing a new original film called The Cloverfield Paradox during Super Bowl LII. The publicity stunt worked and spurred a ton of chatter on social media and quick-hit movie reviews. But it also highlighted the real problem Netflix now has with the model of incessant content production it pioneered: by releasing and promoting its sci-fi flick the way it did, Netflix cannibalized users attention away from its just-announced sci-fi show.

Netflix has been great at developing a lot of content, but what it hasnt been great at is the traditional, Hollywood style of marketing and creating enough buzz around shows, explains Omar Akhtar, an analyst for the San Francisco-based Altimeter Group. Thats not where their budgets lie. Theyd rather spend on great content.

Improving quality control

The costly Netflix original series Altered Carbon never really got the space and attention it deserved when it first debuted in early February.

Indeed, thats why traditional film studios dont usually release more than one film on the same weekend: They dont want to shoot themselves in the foot by forcing people to choose  a tactic that could hurt the film studios revenue.

The streaming service could also get better at picking the content they should produce, not to mention killing content thats underperforming. Last year, Netflix got more aggressive with canceling shows that werent well received. After only one season it canceled Girlboss and Gypsy.

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I think they can do a bit better in terms of quality-control and what they think is going to test well, adds Akhtar. Theyve got a ton of data available to them.

Netflix said it does use data-driven tactics to figure out what users watch and which kinds of content it should produce.

The company hasnt revealed what Altered Carbons viewership looks like so far, however, it may have to settle for a slow burn, with users discovering and tuning into the show over a longer stretch of time rather than having an instant hit on its hands. But in terms of having a chance to linger in the public consciousness in any significant way  the same way a new theatrical film release generates opening-weekend buzz and ultimately, creates an ongoing conversation through social media, news and word-of-mouth  Altered Carbon never got that chance. Instead, Netflix may have inadvertently sacrificed a potentially good series for a Super Bowl marketing gimmick hawking a film that received a 18% Rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Netflixs problem may only worsen as it signs more top-tier Hollywood talent like Murphy. The 52-year-old producer of shows such as Glee and the American Crime Story anthology, follows in the footstep of Scandal creator Shonda Rhimes, who announced last August that she too was leaving traditional network television to create original content for Netflix.

The brand of Netflix is just creativity, Rhimes told Yahoo Finance in November. And thats exciting: the idea that I get to write in whatever manner I want to write, in whatever form I want to write because I want to write it.

In need of a fresh update?

Netflixs current user interface can be an overwhelming experience.

That may be true, but making that original content stand out is compounded by Netflixs cluttered user interface. Although Netflix now parses out its original series and films in a category of its own, navigating Netflixs entire catalog on your TV, computer or smartphone can be an overwhelming experience. It also doesnt help that the streaming service doesnt offer trailers for every show and movie in its catalog by default  one of the few areas where Amazons (AMZN) streaming service has a leg up. (Netflix offers trailers for some of its original content, but its more an exception than the rule.)

Netflix needs a fresh update, Akhtar contends. The way we usually experience movies is not by looking through a virtual catalog. For the most part, Netflix trailers are not a thing unless its a big marquee release like Stranger Things. In the long turn, Id like to see more trailers within Netflix. There isnt enough of that.

Netflix wants to eventually become a single virtual TV platform replacing the need for traditional network TV. And while there are certainly more people cutting the cord these days, Netflix fully replacing network TV isnt going to happen in the short-to-medium term, if ever, thanks to growing competition from competitors like Hulu and Amazon, not to mention traditional TV networks like CBS, which continue to experiment with streaming services and online original content of their own.

In addition to spending billions on top producers, Netflix should focus on developing and promoting its content, giving them the space and attention they deserve. That would be a win, not just for Netflix, but content producers and viewers, too.



JP Mangalindan is the Chief Tech Correspondent for Yahoo Finance covering the intersection of tech and business. Email story tips and musings to jpm@oath.com. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.

More from JP:

Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedInBy Alexander Winning

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - On the day Jacob Zuma finally caved to pressure to quit as South African president, he ranted to the state broadcaster for an hour about the ill treatment he had received at the hands of the party he had served since his teenage years.

Zuma, besieged by sleaze and graft scandals throughout his nine tumultuous years in power, said it was "unfair" the African National Congress had told him to resign, mainly because his comrades had not followed proper party procedure.

To South Africans who have suffered economic stagnation and national embarrassment under Zuma, it was yet more evidence of a leader unable to look beyond the byzantine inner workings of Africa's oldest liberation movement to consider the greater good of Nelson Mandela's 'Rainbow Nation'.

Zuma, a 75-year-old anti-apartheid veteran and Zulu polygamist, has been South Africa's most controversial leader since the end of white minority rule in 1994.

It was Zuma's mastery of the ANC's internal dynamics that enabled him to survive for so long, but his political influence had been on the wane since Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa replaced him as ruling party leader in December.

As recently as August, after loyal lawmakers helped him defeat a no-confidence vote brought by the opposition, he cracked jokes and broke into song with a cheering crowd outside the South African parliament.

Six months later, he was forced to resign after the ANC's parliamentary caucus told him it would help the opposition sack him on Thursday via yet another no-confidence vote.

"It's us who got South Africa into this mess by electing Zuma to be president," Jackson Mthembu, ANC chief whip has said. "We should have looked closely into the man. With hindsight we made a terrible error of judgment."

Zuma was acquitted of raping a family friend in 2006 and is still fighting nearly 800 counts of corruption over a government arms deal from the late 1990s when he was deputy president.

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He was found to have violated the constitution for failing to repay public money used to renovate his homestead but has so far escaped with giving a half-apology. He eventually paid back more than $500,000.

Zuma has come under fire over his ties to the Gupta family, whose members include three businessmen accused of using their friendship with him to amass wealth and influence government policy. The Guptas and Zuma deny any wrongdoing.

In 2012, Zuma also angered many for scolding "clever blacks" in a speech.

FACTBOX: The major scandals of Zuma's presidency

SIMPLE MAN?

Ramaphosa, 65, now controls the ANC's National Executive Committee, its top decision-making body.

A former trade union leader and one of the country's richest black businessmen, Ramaphosa has promised to root out corruption and revitalise a sluggish economy, pledges which have driven a "Ramaphosa rally" in the rand currency.

Waning electoral support for the ANC and public anger at near-daily corruption revelations encouraged the ANC to pressure Zuma into resigning well before his second term was due to end in mid-2019.

Zuma, whose Zulu middle name Gedleyihlekisa means "the one who smiles as he hurts you", has cast a long shadow over South African politics for the past decade.

He was booed in front of foreign dignitaries at liberation hero Nelson Mandela's memorial service in 2013, lampooned in the media and criticised for overseeing years of economic decline.

But the folksy charm of Zuma, a teetotaller, and his modest upbringing ensured that he always retained a loyal following, especially in rural areas.

"There is no politician whose name carries the same weight in rural areas as Jacob Zuma," said Carl Niehaus, an ANC spokesman who quit in 2009 after a scandal about his personal finances only to re-emerge eight years later as a Zuma cheerleader. "He was a pro-poor president under whose leadership basic living conditions improved drastically."

During the apartheid era, Zuma was imprisoned for 10 years with Mandela on Robben Island. Later he went into exile, before returning as white rule came to an end.

Commentators had written off Zuma's political career on several occasions, but he proved them wrong time after time, earning himself the nickname of the "great survivor".

Ronnie Kasrils, a former intelligence minister and anti-apartheid veteran who spent years in the ANC underground, said Zuma was not the "simple man" he portrayed himself to be.

"Astute and engaging from earlier days, along the way Zuma has become driven by a lust for wealth and power," Kasrils wrote in "A Simple Man", his recent biography of Zuma.

Using skills honed as the ANC's intelligence chief during apartheid, Zuma silenced dissenting voices by promoting little-known officials who did his bidding to powerful positions in the security and intelligence portfolios.

Zuma also ensured the top leadership of the ANC was always controlled by loyalists who could, if needed, thwart attempts to unseat him.

"The politics of patronage sustained Zuma," said Bantu Holomisa, an opposition leader and former ANC member. "All those who would have questioned him were rewarded with cabinet posts and ambassadorships abroad. Those who were deemed undesirable were ferreted out of the ANC."

OPPORTUNITY FOR CHANGE

For Zuma, everything changed in December.

Ramaphosa defeated Zuma's preferred successor, his ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, in the ANC leadership contest. Several prominent Zuma allies on the National Executive Committee recognised which way the wind was blowing and switched allegiances.

Zuma made some last-minute concessions in the hope that opponents would let him see out his time, agreeing to establish a judicial enquiry into allegations that the Gupta brothers had influenced cabinet appointments and received unfair access to state tenders.

But it was too little, too late. South Africans started discussing "when" not "if" Zuma would be given the boot.

Early this month parliamentary speaker Baleka Mbete agreed to schedule another no-confidence vote against Zuma following a request by one of Zuma's political nemeses, Julius Malema of the ultra-left Economic Freedom Fighters party.

Zuma said Ramaphosa was willing to let Zuma stay on as president for several months, but the party's executive committee wanted Zuma gone immediately.

Analysts caution that Zuma's legacy will take time to fade.

"Zuma's departure is nothing more than an opportunity for change," said Ralph Mathekga, a political analyst and author. "Government coffers have been ransacked and our state-owned enterprises are on their knees. South Africa is broke."

(Editing by James Macharia and David Stamp)The suspect's Instagram page shows him posing with weapons - Instagram

The gunman who allegedly killed at least 17 people at a Florida high school on Wednesday was a former student who posted disturbing material on social media and was "crazy about guns".

Police identified the suspect as Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old who had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, about 45 miles (72 km) north of Miami.

The suspect was wearing a gas mask and carrying smoke grenades, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida told CNN.

Mr Nelson, who said he had been briefed by the FBI, said the attacker "set off the fire alarm so the kids would come pouring out of the classrooms into the hall. And there the carnage began."

He said he did not know if the gunman had used the smoke grenades but he assumed that's why he had a gas mask on.

Frightened students ran out onto the streets as shots rang out before SWAT team members swarmed the building.

Florida shooting

Authorities later announced that they had taken the suspect into custody and took him to hospital after locating him in Coral Springs, a little over a mile away from the school. The gunman surrendered to police without a struggle, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said.

Inside the suspect's disturbing Instagram page

The Instagram page of the alleged shooter paints a picture of a man obsessed with guns and knives.

One of the more recent posts shows target practice, captioned "Group therapy. Sometimes it really f---ing works."

Cruz appeared proud of his arsenal Credit: Instagram

Others show him posing proudly with his weapons, which include pistols and knives, and in one Instagram post, he seemingly asks followers for advice on a certain model of gun.

He also posed for selfies where he wore all black clothes and a balaclava.

One photograph shows a dead toad, which he claims to have killed.

He is seen posing with knives Credit: Instagram

His Instagram profile contained the word annihilator.

One post about purchasing a shotgun reads: I plan on getting this but I need more information on it so if someone could give advice on how much Im spending and background cheeks [sic] please to god let me know."

Story continues

Students at the school have confirmed the Instagram page is his.

One student, who escaped the shooting, wrote on Twitter: "He literally had an Instagram where he posted pictures of animals he killed gruesomely."

Flagged as a threat

Jim Gard, a Maths teacher, said Cruz had been in his class last year.

We were told last year that he wasnt allowed on campus with a backpack on him, Mr Gard told the Miami Herald. There were problems with him last year threatening students.

However, Robert Runcie, the Broward County School District Superintendent, told reporters he was not aware of any concerns raised about the student.

We received no warnings, Mr Runcie said outside the school. Potentially there could have been signs out there. But we didn't have any warning or phone calls or threats that were made.

One student, who did not wish to be named, told TV station WSVN-7 that Cruz had said he had guns at home and talked about using them.

Hes been a troubled kid, the student said. Hes always had a certain amount of issues going on. He shot guns because he felt it gave him, I guess, an exhilarating feeling.

'Very disturbing' social media history

Mr Israel said the gunman had an AR-15 assault rifle and "countless magazines".

We already began to dissect his websites and the things on social media that he was on and some of the things that came to mind are very, very disturbing," he said.

His Instagram account was taken down after the shooting, but screenshots were sent to various media outlets.

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Everything he posts is about weapons, one student told ABC News. Its sick.

Daniel Huerfano, a student who fled Wednesday's attack, said he recognised Cruz from an Instagram photo in which Cruz posed with a gun in front of his face. Huerfano recalled Cruz as a shy student and remembered seeing him walking around with his lunch bag.

"He was that weird kid that you see ... like a loner," he added.

In brief | Worst US mass shootings

One pupil said other teenagers had long thought the suspect would shoot up the school.

The pupil told local television station WFOR-TV: A lot of people were saying it was going to be him. A lot of kids threw jokes around saying that he was going to be the one to shoot up the school. It turns out that everyone predicted it. Thats crazy.

Broward County Mayor Beam Furr said during an interview with CNN that the shooter was getting treatment at a mental health clinic for a while, but that he hadn't been back to the clinic for more than a year.

"It wasn't like there wasn't concern for him," Mr Furr said. "We try to keep our eyes out on those kids who aren't connected ... Most teachers try to steer them toward some kind of connections. ... In this case, we didn't find a way to connect with this kid."

Another student, named as Brandon, was asked whether he was surprised to learn the identity of the gunman, and replied: No. He continued: He told me he got kicked out of two private schools, and was held back twice. He seemed a little off.

'Crazy about guns'

Chad Williams, 18, a senior at Stoneman Douglas High school, remembered Cruz as a troubled classmate from when they attended middle school together. He said Cruz would set off the fire alarm, day after day, and finally got expelled in the eighth grade.

Police escort the suspect into the Broward Jail after checking him at a hospital Credit: Reuters

More recently, Williams saw Cruz carrying several publications about guns when they ran into each other at the high school. Williams thought Cruz was there to pick up a younger sibling.

He was crazy about guns, Williams told Reuters, speaking by the side of the road near the high school. He was kind of an outcast. He didnt have many friends. He would do anything crazy for a laugh, but he was trouble.

Victoria Olvera, a 17-year-old junior, said Cruz was expelled last school year after a fight with his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. She said Cruz had been abusive to his girlfriend.

'If anyone would do it, it was him'

Dakota Mutchler, 17, said he used to be close friends with Cruz but hadn't seen him in more than a year following his expulsion from school.

"He started progressively getting a little more weird," Mutchler said. "He started going after one of my friends, threatening her, and I cut him off from there.

"I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him."

Travis Julmice, an 18-year-old senior, said he had not been in a class with Cruz since middle school.

"You could tell he was a little off," Julmice told Reuters at the Coral Springs hotel. "He was always like a troubled kid, getting in-school suspension a lot. And detentions."Update | The suspect in Wednesday's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, has been identified by reports as Nikolas Cruz.

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Cruz, a 19-year-old former student at the high school, was detained by police and taken to Broward Health North hospital in Pompano Beach briefly before being transferred to the Broward Sheriff's headquarters, the Miami Herald reported.

Trending: Zuma's Reign Over South Africa Is Over

At least 17 people died in the massacre, deputies said.

Cruz had been expelled from the high school for disciplinary reasons, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel told the newspaper on Wednesday night. He said investigators scoured social media sites the shooter may have visited and that some unverified images pictured a man purporting to be Cruz brandishing guns and knives.

Our investigators began dissecting social media, Israel said. Some of [the] thing[s] that come to mind are very, very disturbing.

According to a former math teacher of Cruz at the school, he had been previously identified as a security threat and had been informed last year that he wouldn't be allowed on campus with a backpack.

We were told last year that he wasnt allowed on campus with a backpack on him, Jim Gard told the Herald. There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.

Following the shooting, a male in a maroon shirt was shown being apprehended by police off campus. He was later picked up by an ambulance and transported to the hospital. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said that the suspect, who had been taken into custody, was not a current student, but they believed he had at one time attended the high school.

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The Broward Sheriff stated that gunshot victims were being transferred to Broward Health Medical Center and Broward Health North Hospital.

Story continues

Reports suggest that the shooting began shortly before students were dismissed for the day. The Broward Sheriffs Office tweeted at 2:53 p.m. about an active shooter situation at 5901 Pine Island Road in Parkland and that deputies were responding amid reports of victims.

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School board officials said students and staff heard what sounded like gunfire shortly before classes were dismissed and that the campus went on lockdown right away, NBC 6 South Florida reported.

Police issued a "be on the lookout" warning for a white male dressed in a burgundy shirt, the TV station reported at 3:24 p.m.

The high school has 3,208 students, grades nine through 12, according to local news outlets.

Following the shooting, President Donald Trump tweeted an offering of prayers and condolences to the victims of the shooting, adding that "no child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school."

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The president went on to say that he had spoken to Florida Governor Rick Scott and was working closely with local law enforcement.

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This story has been updated with more information on Cruz and the number of reported deaths.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekThe teenager suspected of carrying out Wednesday's mass shooting at a Florida high school is on suicide watch in jail and sad and remorseful as he faces 17 counts of premeditated murder, according to his attorneys.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, was taken into custody by local police Wednesday after tragedy struck Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people died from gunshot wounds and another 14 were injured.

One of Cruzs attorneys described his mental state as that of a child.

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What was relayed to me was He is such a child, Gordon Weekes, a chief assistant for Broward Countys public defenders office, told the Sun Sentinel. Thats the impression our attorneys are getting.

Weekes added that Cruz was wearing a black suicide-prevention vest.

GettyImages-918690996

Getty Images/Susan Stocker

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Another public defender for Cruz, Melissa McNeill, spoke about the loss her client had experienced in lifehis brain had not fully developed. But she said he understood the gravity of the situation.

Hes sad. Hes mournful. Hes remorseful, McNeill told reporters. He is fully aware of what is going on. And hes just a broken human being. I cant disclose any conversations Ive had with him.

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Weekes explained how the defense team was reeling from the shooting.

Could you just make sure the community understands, from the defenses standpoint, we understand the level of mourning that is going on in the community and we join in that mourning, Weekes said.

Story continues

He added, We are parents. Our kids attend schools in this community as well. We know what those parents are going through. Actually, we can never know exactly what they are going through, but we can appreciate and empathize with their grief.

Cruz appeared in court for the first time Thursday, when he was ordered held without bail.

White supremacist group the Republic of Florida claimed on Thursday that Cruz had trained with it or had some affiliation. One member of the group told the Anti-Defamation league that Cruz had taken part in one or more training exercises with the group.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekTeachers were warned not to let suspected Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz on to campus wearing a backpack, a staff member has said, as details emerged of very disturbing social media posts left by the teenager.

Seventeen people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, when the 19-year-old allegedly opened fire with an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle on Wednesday. Police said he was carrying countless extra magazines of ammunition.

But as a picture of the suspect began to emerge, maths teacher Jim Gard said there had been problems with him last year threatening students and that he had been asked to leave.

Senior staff had emailed teachers to warn them that he wasnt allowed on campus with a backpack on him, he told the Miami Herald.

Cruz has now been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Fellow students claimed they had joked about Cruz as a future killer, with one telling WFOR-TV: A lot of people were saying it was going to be him. A lot of kids threw jokes around saying that he was going to be the one to shoot up the school. It turns out that everyone predicted it.

Daniel Huerfano, a student who fled Wednesdays attack, said he recognised Cruz from an Instagram photo in which he posed with a gun in front of his face. He was that weird kid that you see ... like a loner, he added.

Dakota Mutchler, a 17-year-old junior, said he used to be close friends with Cruz but had not seen him in more than a year following his expulsion from school, and that he started progressively getting a little more weird.

Mr Mutchler recalled Cruz posting on Instagram about killing animals and said he had talked about doing target practice in his backyard with a pellet gun.

He started going after one of my friends, threatening her, and I cut him off from there, he added.

A third student alleged Cruz had been abusive towards an ex-girlfriend.

Story continues

On his now-deleted Instagram profile were images of multiple knives and guns. One showed a box of 150 rifle rounds and another sought advice on buying a shotgun.

A law enforcement official close to the investigation told AP after Cruz was charged, early on Thursday, that the teen had bought his AR-15 legally.

A photograph first tweeted by a local ESPN radio reporter showed Cruz at the moment of his arrest wearing a Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) t-shirt. Police sources told the New York Posthe was a member of the US Army junior ROTC group.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said Cruz had been expelled for disciplinary reasons but that I dont know the specifics.

The countys mayor, Beam Furr, told CNN Cruz had received some mental health treatment but had not attended a clinic for more than a year.

The Orlando Sentinelquoted family members as saying Cruz had been adopted at birth along with his brother by Lynda and Roger Cruz. Mr Cruz died some years ago and his widow passed away last November, the paper said.

Her sister-in-law, Barbara Kumbatovich, told the Sentinel Ms Cruz had sought counselling for Nikolas when he was younger. The boys were left in the care of a family friend after their mother died, she added.

Unhappy there, Cruz asked to move in with a friends family in north-west Broward. The family agreed and Cruz moved in around Thanksgiving.

According to the familys lawyer, who did not identify them, they knew that Cruz owned the AR-15 but made him keep it locked in a cabinet. He did have the key, however.

The lawyer, Jim Lewis, said the family was devastated and was cooperating with police. They had not seen the tragedy coming, he said.

Additional reporting by agenciesDonald Trump has waded into the aftermath of the Florida school shooting with a tweet suggesting suspect Nikolas Cruz was mentally disturbed, just moments after the teenager was charged.

The US President tweeted: So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behaviour. Neighbours and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!

Cruz has been charged with the premeditated murder of 17 people at a school in Florida.

Police say the 19-year-old was behind Wednesdays shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

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A further 14 people were wounded and taken to hospital following the attack in which Cruz allegedly targeted students and staff with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.

He was also said to have been equipped with a gas mask, smoke grenades and a large amount of additional ammunition.

It was the nation's deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, more than five years ago.

Mr Trumps tweet contrasted with the measured tone of his earlier message of condolence to victims.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school, he tweeted on Wednesday.

Cruz, whose social media posts about guns and knives have been described by police as very disturbing, was arrested about two miles away after he fled the scene of the massacre.

Authorities offered no immediate details about Cruz or his possible motive, except to say that he had been expelled from the high school, which has about 3,000 students.

Students who knew him described a volatile teenager whose strange behaviour had caused others to end friendships with him.

Cruz was booked into the Broward County Jail early on Thursday, still wearing the hospital gown he was given after being treated for laboured breathing following his arrest.

Story continues

He was later questioned overnight before being taken to jail.

Additional reporting by agenciesThe Berlin Film Festival is getting its own version of the #TimesUp-inspired all-black dress code at the Golden Globes.

Actress and screenwriter Anna Bruggemann and other high-profile German stars are calling on female festival attendees to eschew constricting designer gowns and high heels in favor of comfortable outfits. Dubbed #NobodysDoll, the movement aims to prevent women from being subjected to the red carpets patriarchal gaze and to treat them like artists, not dolls, according to comments Bruggemann made to The Guardian.

Women are expected to squeeze into tight-fitting, low-cut dresses and totter on impossible heels in order to serve the gaze of those wholl judge whether they are marketable or not, she told the British newspaper. Its time we had different images to look up to, of headstrong, unconventional women.

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Bruggemann, who said she intended to wear sneakers and a turtleneck sweater paired with a skirt, added that she was inspired by similar sartorial stances in response to #MeToo and #TimesUp. But #NobodysDoll takes things a step further by encouraging attendees to re-examine how their ensemble affects their body image.

When #MeToo happened and all these beautiful Hollywood actresses said, Its time for more equal rights, and we should all be feminists, I thought, well, equality begins when we women really stop thinking about our bodies as something we have to improve, Bruggemann said.

My campaign is about asking when does a woman become that object that men feel they have the right to take for themselves, to decide everything from how she looks, to how low-cut her outfit is.

Bruggemann also clarified that attendees should wear what they like, whether its sweats and flats or a glam straight-off-the-runway number.

Low-cut gowns [are welcome] as well, if thats your thing, she said. The main thing is that the actress feels comfortable in it.

Though a few virtual critics have mocked its feminist intent, #NobodysDoll has seen some support online.

Story continues

This is brilliant, one admirer tweeted. Red carpets are such a stark visual reminder of the inequality of physical standards. They need a good shake-up from women with the balls to do it.

About 70 film industry figures have backed the campaign, though the Berlin Film Festival has resisted other nods to the #MeToo movement. Organizers declined to replace the red carpet with a black version, and theyve been criticized for inviting a South Korean filmmaker accused of sexual assault. Scheduled panels will address sexual misconduct in the film industry, however.

Also known as the Berlinale, the festival starts Thursday and is expected to welcome stars like Greta Gerwig and Tilda Swinton.

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Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.Pakistan on Wednesday began seizing assets from Jamaat-ud-Daawa (JuD), a UN-designated terrorist organisation, whose leader Hafiz Saeed is a prime suspect in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, officials said.

The move comes as Washington piles pressure on Pakistan to take action against Hafiz Saeed after he was released from house arrest in the eastern city of Lahore.

The interior ministry ordered authorities to take over "assets (moveable, immoveable and human resource) associated with" two of Hafiz Saeed's organisations, according to a notifcation that was obtained by AFP and dated to Saturday.

A senior interior ministry official confirmed the order.

The official said medical centres and ambulances owned by Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) -- the charitable wing of Saeed's Jamaat-ud-Dawa -- were taken into "state custody" on Wednesday.

"Medical centres owned by FIF have been taken over by the government," the official said adding that the health facilities and ambulances were now classified as property of the Punjab government.

The move comes after Pakistan quietly amended its anti-terror laws to ban organisations listed as terrorists by the United Nations.

The change was made by President Mamnoon Hussain on Friday and published by the law ministry late Monday.

"The amendment means that all individuals and entities listed by the United Nations also stand banned under Pakistani laws now," a senior government official told AFP.

The spokesperson of JuD was not available for comment.

Observers say Pakistan fears being put on money laundering and terrorist financing lists.

Saeed JuD is believed to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a militant group that battles Indian troops in disputed Kashmir and was blamed for the Mumbai attacks.

Six Americans were among those killed during the three-day siege in Mumbai, when gunmen who arrived by sea sparked battles with Indian commandos.

The drama brought nuclear-armed India and Pakistan to the brink of war.

Saeed, who has a $10 million US bounty on his head, has denied involvement.

He was listed by the UN in December 2008 for being associated with LeT, as well as having links to the Al-Qaeda terror network and Taliban militants.In 1979, Sweden became the first country in the world to ban corporal punishment of kids. Now, senior officials in the country say the law isnt strict enough  and they want to change that.

Although the law is still in effect, most parents who slap, spank, or beat their children in Sweden usually get away with it, say Anna Karin Hildingson Boqvist, interim ombudsman for children, and Anita Wickstrom, who led an inquiry on childrens rights, in a new opinion piece in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, according to The Local Se.

Parents who use violence against their children are subject to Swedens penal code, which says that if the act causes pain or leads to bodily harm, they face the same punishment as those who assault adults. But Boqvist and Wickstrom say these parents usually end up not being punished.

Violence against children does not always cause visible injuries, and in these cases  especially in the absence of witnesses  the childs ability to describe pain becomes crucial to whether or not it can be considered an assault and criminal offense, they wrote. In practice, the law demands that children be able to describe pain in the same way as adults.

The authors urge the Swedish government to write new laws that would eliminate the pain reporting aspect. Specifically, theyre calling for a rule in which the violence is not required to have caused pain. It should focus on violence exercised by parents or caregivers.

Experts say the law could also be a good idea for other countries, including the U.S. I totally agree with this, Gina Posner, MD, a pediatrician at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, Calif., tells Yahoo Lifestyle.

Sweden has been a frontrunner for laws involving negative behavior and bullying, Robert Keder, MD, a pediatrician who specializes in developmental behavior at Connecticut Childrens Medical Center, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. But he admits that this kind of law is a challenge because youre trying to legislate a behavior.

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Currently in the U.S., child abuse, which generally involves using a closed fist or item to injure a child, is illegal, but corporal punishment, which includes slapping or spanking, is not, Keder says. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics strongly discourages parents from using corporal punishment, saying it has limited effectiveness and has potentially deleterious side effects.

When a child is slapped or hit for punishment, it teaches the child that violence is the way to solve problems and shift behaviors, Mayra Mendez, PhD, LMFT, a licensed psychotherapist and program coordinator for intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental health services at Providence Saint Johns Child and Family Development Center in Santa Monica, Calif., tells Yahoo Lifestyle. They also get a message that they are pretty much not worthy of being talked to or interacted with in a way that is respectful, she says.

Using corporal punishment to discipline a child can also provoke anxiety and anger that damages the parent-child relationship, licensed clinical psychologist John Mayer, PhD, author of Family Fit: Find Your Balance in Life, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. Not only that, it bypasses a teaching aspect of discipline, making it more likely that the child will do the same behavior again, he says.

When a child misbehaves, its much better to use redirectional and educational strategies, Keder says. The first and most important thing is to use praise to promote positive behaviors, he says. So, if your children tend to squirm a lot, praising them when they do sit still can go a long way toward reinforcing that behavior.

If the child is doing something thats irritating but not problematic or attention-seeking, like jumping on the bed, he recommends suggesting a preferred substitute, like asking them to help you in the kitchen. If theyre doing an attention-seeking behavior, just ignore them  that should make it stop, Keder says.

And if the child is doing something intentionally wrong or risky, use the words no and stop, along with a negative consequence, he says. For younger children, a time-out is most effective, while losing a privilege like cellphone use can be effective for teenagers.

Ultimately, experts say its a good idea for all countries to effectively ban corporal punishment of children. The bottom line is that these physical methods are weak, Mayer says. Banning such techniques gives a strong, loud, and clear message to parents that there are other, better techniques.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.UPDATE: 7:49 p.m EST - Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School announced on Twitter that "it will be closed Thursday, February 15 and Friday, February 16, 2018 (for the rest of this week). All school activities are also cancelled."

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UPDATE: 6:27 p.m EST - The Broward County Sheriff said via Twitter that "17 people lost their lives" after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School this afternoon. Nicolas Cruz, 19, remains in custody.

Trending: Solar Storm Could Light Up Sky Over U.S. Tonight: How to See the Northern Lights

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UPDATE: 5:50 p.m EST - A video was given to local news station WSVN 7 showing students being evacuated from a classroom at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after this afternoon's shooting.

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UPDATE: 5:33 p.m EST - The Associated Press has confirmed that Nicolas Cruz is the suspected school shooter. According to the Miami Herald, Cruz was a potential threat to other students when he attended Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. One of the high school's math teachers, Jim Gard, said Cruz was in his class last year and was not allowed on school grounds with a backpack on.

We were told last year that he wasnt allowed on campus with a backpack on him, Gard told the Herald. There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.

UPDATE: 5:09 p.m EST - Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel confirmed that the suspect was not a current student, but had previously attended the school. He added that the suspect was in custody and is about 18 years old. The name of the suspect has not yet been released.

"It's catastrophic. There are really no words," Israel said.

UPDATE: 4:46 p.m EST - The Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie has confirmed that there are "multiple fatalities," but does not have the exact count. Runcie also said that the shooter could possibly be a former student.

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UPDATE: 4:28 p.m EST - The Broward Sheriff has said that there are currently 14 victims, which have all been taken to Broward Health Medical Center and Broward Health North hospital.

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"So far we have at least 14 victims. Victims have been and continue to be transported to Broward Health Medical Center and Broward Health North hospital. #StonemanShooting," the tweet read.

Don't miss: Connecticut Chinese Family to be Deported on Lunar New Year After 20 Years in U.S.

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UPDATE: 4:25 p.m EST - President Donald Trump has tweeted that he is sending his "prayers and condolences" to the victims and their families.

"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school. "

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Melania Trump has also tweeted about the shooting, saying that her "heart is heavy" over the incident.

"My heart is heavy over the school shooting in Florida. Keeping all affected in my thoughts & prayers," tweeted the first lady.

UPDATE: 4:10 p.m EST -

A man in a red shirt has been apprehended by authorities, according to local reports.

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Students are now being evacuated from the school, according to the Broward School District.

Florida Senator Bill Nelson has said there are "many fatalities."

UPDATE: 3:49 p.m. EST - Amid an active shooting scene at a Florida high school Wednesday, reports said the FBI was aware of the situation.

Most popular: Florida Shooting Suspect Nikolas Cruz Called Himself 'Annihilator' In Social Media Posts And Was Obsessed with Guns

The FBI is aware of reports of an active shooter at Stoneman Douglas High School and is in contact with local law enforcement agencies," a spokesperson said. "At this time, the FBI is responding to the scene and taking appropriate action."

Police issued a "be on the lookout" warning for a white male dressed in a burgundy shirt, NBC South Florida reported.

According to reports, there are as many as 40 students and a teacher huddled in a closet inside the high school. There had not yet been any word on the extent of injuries, though initial reports said at least 20 people were injured.

Original story:

On Wednesday, police responded to shots fired at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

At least 20 people were injured, according to initial reports from local news station WSVN-TV.

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The Broward Sheriffs Office sent out a tweet, calling it an active shooter situation.

"#BSO is working a developing incident regarding a report of active shooter located at 5901 Pine Island Rd, Parkland. Here's what we know so far: deputies are responding to reports of a shooting at Stoneman Douglas High. There are reports of victims. PIO will be on scene 3:15pm," the tweet said.

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The extent of injuries remained unknown. Coral Springs Police asked people to avoid the area.

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According to video from the scene, multiple people were taken out on gurneys and placed into ambulances. The footage also showed groups of children walking across Pine Island Road.

According to local news outlets, grades nine through 12 are enrolled in the school, for a total of 3,208 students.

Some students took to social media during the incident to say they were still on lockdown.

"Still locked in. I checked the local news and there are 20 victims. Long live Marjory Stoneman Douglas High," said Twitter user @TheCaptainAidan.

President Donald Trump was informed about the incident, according to reports.

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This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekParents wait for news after reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida: AP

Students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida have been left shaken and stunned after a gunman opened fire on their campus and killed 17 people.

Joel Leffler, who has a son and a daughter at the school located about 45 miles north of Miami, said that both of his children were safe but in shock.

My son called me as it was unfolding, running. He had to jump a fence, Mr Leffler told NBC News. My son heard around eight gun shots as he was running out.

When he saw his daughter, she was whispering, he said.

My daughter, who was there in the freshman hall where the shooting took place  she's in shock right now and she's being taken out by SWAT, Mr Leffler said. She saw multiple dead bodies.

The attack occurred right before students were to be dismissed for the day, sending the school into lockdown. Some students hid in classrooms until they were rescued by police in tactical gear, friends and family members told Reuters.

A suspect has been taken into custody by law enforcement.

My daughter, as of right now, she's still trapped in a closet. She's afraid to speak, a man who identified himself as Caesar Figueroa and said his daughter was inside the school, told CBS News.

I told her, Don't call me, because I don't want no one to hear your voice. So, she's still trapped in a closet in there, he said.

McKenzie Hartley, who identified herself as the sister of a student at the school described the scene in a text message to Reuters: She heard him shooting through the windows of classrooms and two students were shot.

Geovanni Vilsant told the Miami Herald that there were three bloody bodies on the floor as he was fleeing the school.

There was blood everywhere, he said. They werent moving.

One high school senior elsewhere at the school said to the newspaper that there were SWAT teams everywhere with big guns, cops everywhere, helicopters.

Victoria Olvera, a junior, was able to walk out of the school after getting clearance by police officers. She told the Herald that she was in history when she heard shots.

Story continues

Everyone started running, she said.

The Broward County sheriff's office said on Twitter that there were at least 14 victims. It did not make clear if that number included people who were wounded in addition to the dead.Officials in Florida have said there were numerous fatalities following a school shooting and that at least 17 people had been shot.

Police rushed to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, 45 miles north of Miami, following reports that there was an active shooting incidents. The report came as students were about to leave for the day.

Having initially said the gunman was still at large when they arrived at the school, police subsequently said a suspect had been taken into custody at around 4.14pm on Wednesday afternoon. A Broward County sheriffs spokesman would not say if the suspect was a student.

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Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said it was believed the shooter was an 18-year-old former student. He was later captured without incident. He said that 14 people had been taken to local hospitals after having suffered varying degrees of injury.

Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters: There are numerous fatalities. Its a horrific situation.

As students told of how they hid inside closets to try and keep safe, Mr Runcie said there was no evidence that more than one shooter was involved in the attack. He said the school had received no advance warning of a possible threat.

It is a day that you pray every day that you never have to see, he said, according to the Associated Press. We didnt have any phone calls or threats that we know of that were made. We cannot live in a world built on fear, we have do what we can to provide the greatest safety measures for our kids.

Asked whether mental health may have been a factor in the incident, he replied: No sane person is going to go and commit such an atrocity.

Mental health issues in this country are growing and its certainly something that needs to be addressed in our school system he added.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.

Story continues

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Students and their parents told how children hid in classrooms until they were rescued by armed police in tactical gear.

McKenzie Hartley, who identified herself as the sister of a student at the school described the scene in a text message to Reuters: She heard him shooting through the windows of classrooms and two students were shot.

My daughter, as of right now, shes still trapped in a closet. Shes afraid to speak, a man who identified himself as Caesar Figueroa and said his daughter was inside the school, told CBS News.

I told her, Dont call me, because I dont want no one to hear your voice. So, shes still trapped in a closet in there.

Live television showed dozens of students, weaving their way between law enforcement officers with heavy weapons and helmets, and large numbers of emergency vehicles including police cars, ambulances and fire trucks.

Florida Governor Rick Scott said on Twitter that had he had been in touch with local officials about the incident.

The shooting was the latest in a deadly series of attacks at US schools. A 15-year-old gunman in January killed two students at a Benton, Kentucky, high school.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting, President Donald Trump said on Twitter. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.At least 17 students at a Florida high school were killed after a gunman opened fire on them with an automatic rifle, in one of the deadliest school shootings on record in the US.

Officials said another 14 were injured at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the small city of Parkland, around 45 miles north of Miami.

The suspect has been identified as 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz, who was arrested after a brief manhunt. Mr Cruz had been expelled for disciplinary reasons, while teachers said they had previously been warned that he could pose a danger to the campus.

It was the 18th shooting of the year either in or around school premises, according to research by Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit group which advocates for gun control.

Just as classes were being sent home for the day, police say Mr Cruz began spraying bullets into the high school hallway. Authorities said Mr Cruz carried countless magazines and an AR-15 rifle.

Florida senator Bill Nelson, who claimed to have been briefed by the FBI on the issue, said the shooter wore a gas mask and carried smoke grenades.

He also said that the fire alarm had been set off so that his victims would pour out into the hall.

Its a horrific situation, Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters after the shooting. It is a day that you pray every day that you never have to see.

He added: We didnt have any phone calls or threats that we know of that were made. We cannot live in a world built on fear, we have do what we can to provide the greatest safety measures for our kids.

Asked if the incident was related to mental health, Mr Runcie said: No sane person is going to go and commit such an atrocity.

Local news reported that a number of people could be seen being loaded into ambulances on a stretcher soon after the shooting.

Other students could be seen running to police safety outside of the school, where they all dumped their backpacks in a pile and were told to sit on the grass.

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The school day at Stoneman Douglas typically ends at 2.40pm, and the first tweet from the Broward County Sheriffs Department about the incident came at 2.53pm.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters the that authorities believe Mr Cruz killed three people outside the school, before entering the building and killing another 12. Two people later died after being taken to hospital.

We have already begin to dissect his websites and some of the social media he was on, Mr Israel said of the steps taken to look into Mr Cruz's background. He called some of the content very disturbing.

At around 4.15pm, police said the suspected shooter had been taken into custody after being tracked down without incident.

Its a horrific, horrific day. My triplets attended this school, and its horrible, just horrible, Sheriff Israel said.

Jim Gard, a maths teacher at the school who said he taught Mr Cruz last year, told the Miami Herald that teachers had been warned not to let the former student on campus with a backpack.

There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus, Mr Gard said.

Former classmates also has troubling memories of Mr Cruz. Jillian Davis, a recent graduate of the high school recalled his strange talking, sometimes about knives and guns.

Authorities confirmed that Mr Cruz was expelled from the school, but did not provide a reason why.

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One student was texting with a CBS reporter from inside a closet in the school, and described a chaotic scene.

All of a sudden there was a really loud noise... people are crying in the closet, the student said.

Other parents said their children hid in classrooms until they were rescued by armed police in tactical gear.

My daughter, as of right now, shes still trapped in a closet. Shes afraid to speak, a man who identified himself as Caesar Figueroa told the broadcaster. I told her, Dont call me, because I dont want no one to hear your voice. So, shes still trapped in a closet in there.

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Aerial footage from local news showed a number of people lying on the ground outside the school, and being treated for injuries. Meanwhile, dozens of emergency vehicles responded to the scene, including armed law enforcement.

US President Donald Trump paid tribute to the victims on Twitter.

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Sending his prayers and condolences to the families of the victims, he later said he was working closely with law enforcement on the terrible Florida school shooting.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, a prominent advocate for gun control, addressed the issue on the Senate floor that afternoon, urging his fellow legislators to take action. He had planned to discuss a separate issue, but spoke for several minutes on that days shooting.

This happens nowhere else other than the United States of America  this epidemic of mass slaughter, this scourge of school shooting after school shooting, said Mr Murphy, who represents the district where the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting took place in 2012 where 26 people were killed.

He added: It only happens here not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction. We are responsible.The suspect in the fatal shooting of a Chicago police officer reportedly had a lengthy criminal record and was carrying a semiautomatic handgun and a bulletproof vest.

Commander Paul Bauer was shot and killed after attempting to help apprehend a person of interest in downtown Chicago who matched a description sent out over police radio. After initially saying Mr Bauer was off duty, authorities clarified that he was working at the time of the incident.

Authorities said they planned to file charges within 36 hours after detectives worked overnight gathering evidence. While they had not yet named the suspect, a partial portrait began to emerge.

The alleged assailant was carrying a semiautomatic handgun with an extended ammunition clip and wearing a bulletproof vest, according to a police official who spoke to the Associated Press.

The suspect also had compiled a criminal record that stretched back years and included multiple convictions, according to multiple news outlets that cited court records and police sources.

A spokesman for the Chicago Police Department did not immediately respond to the Independent's request for comment.

Police leadership was addressed by Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel at the start of the day.

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Mr Bauer had served on the force for decades and left behind a wife and daughter, authorities said. A police spokesman said the department would work to care for his family.

CPD officers will step in for Paul & take his young daughter to school from here on in, spokesman Anthony Gugliemi said.By Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is open to talks with North Korea, but only to convey the U.S. stance that "the most tyrannical and oppressive regime on the planet" must give up its nuclear weapons, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday.

Pence told the Axios news outlet in an interview the United States would continue to intensify diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea and that the sanctions would not be lifted until it abandoned its weapons programs.

We want to make sure North Korea understands us, and if theres an opportunity for talks that can communicate the fixed policy of the United States of America to them, the president has made it clear he always believes in talking. But talking is not negotiation  talking is understanding one another, he said.

Pence spoke after attending the Winter Olympics in South Korea last week, at which he avoided contact with a North Korean delegation that held talks with the South Korean leadership.

Pence was widely seen as having been outplayed by a "charm offensive" by the North Korean delegation, which included North Korea leader Kim Jong Un's sister Kim Yo Jong.

Pence said he did not greet the delegation given that North Korea's was "the most tyrannical and oppressive regime on the planet."

"I didnt avoid the dictators sister, but I did ignore her," he said. "I didnt believe it was proper for the United States of America to give any countenance or attention in that forum to someone who is not merely the sister of the dictator, but is the leader of the propaganda effort.

Pence called North Korea a "prison state" and accused the ruling family of widespread abuses, including the murder of Kim Jong Un's brother and uncle.

This is evil the likes of which we have witnessed rarely in our time around the world. And I wanted to send by my silence a very clear message that the people of the United States of America know who were dealing with, he said.

Story continues

South Korea says its president, Moon Jae-in, who has been pushing for a diplomatic solution to the standoff over North Korea's development of nuclear weapons capable of hitting the United States, was offered a meeting with Kim in Pyongyang via his sister.

The North-South thaw has prompted speculation that it could lead to direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang after months of tension and exchanges of insults between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim, which has fuelled fears of war.

Pence told Axios that regardless of the North-South talks, there was "no daylight" between the allies on the need to intensify pressure on Pyongyang.

We will all remain united in our shared commitment that the Kim regime in North Korea must permanently abandon their nuclear weapons program to see it dismantled, to accept denuclearisation before there is any progress whatsoever on the pressure on the sanctions, he said.

Also on Wednesday, the head of the U.S. Pacific Command, Admiral Harry Harris, stressed the threat posed by North Korea at a congressional hearing and said Pyongyang was clearly engaged in a "charm offensive" toward the South.

"I think it behooves us and our Korean allies not to be charmed (and) consider North Korea for the regime it is and deal with it on the basis of fact, not charm," he told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton, David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick; Writing by David Brunnstrom and Susan Heavey; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)By Yara Bayoumy and Tulay Karadeniz ANKARA (Reuters) - Top U.S. diplomat Rex Tillerson and Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan had a "productive and open" talk on Thursday about improving ties strained recently over their policies on Syria, in a meeting following weeks of escalating anti-American rhetoric from Ankara. Tillerson arrived in Turkey on Thursday for two days of what officials have said would likely be uncomfortable discussions between the allies, whose relations have frayed over a number of issues, particularly U.S. support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, seen as terrorists by Turkey. Turkey launched an air and ground assault last month in Syria's northwest Afrin region to drive the YPG from the area south of its border. Ankara considers the YPG to be an arm of the PKK, a banned group that has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey. The militia is the main ground element of the Syrian Defence Forces (SDF), which the United States has armed, trained and aided with air support and special forces to fight Islamic State. "The two engaged in a productive and open conversation about a mutually beneficial way forward in the U.S.-Turkey relationship," said a U.S. State Department spokesman traveling with Tillerson. In a photo distributed by the Turkish presidency before the start of the more than three-hour meeting, the two are shown shaking hands, although only Tillerson was smiling. Erdogan conveyed his priorities and expectations on Syria, the fight against terror and other regional issues, a Turkish presidential source said. Ahead of the meeting, Turkey had called for the United States to expel the YPG from the anti-Islamic State SDF forces it is backing in Syria. "We demanded this relationship be ended, I mean we want them to end all the support given to the Syrian arm of PKK, the YPG," Turkish Defence Minister Nurettin Canikli told reporters in a briefing in Brussels, a day after meeting U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on the sidelines of a NATO meeting. "We demanded this structure be removed from SDF," he said. TACTICAL DIFFERENCES Tillerson, who is on a five-city tour, told a news conference in Beirut before arriving in Ankara that the United States and Turkey had the same main objectives, and put their differences down to tactics. He is due to meet the foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, on Friday. Islamic State fighters were driven last year from all the population centers they occupied in both Syria and Iraq, but Washington still considers them a threat, capable of carrying out an insurgency and plotting attacks elsewhere. Ankara has placed greater emphasis in recent months on the need to combat the Kurdish militia and has said the United States is merely using one terrorist group to combat another. Turkey says the United States has yet to honor several pledges: to stop arming the YPG, to take back arms after Islamic State was defeated in Syria, and to pull YPG forces back from Manbij, a Syrian town about 100 km (60 miles) east of Afrin. Canikli also said that Mattis had told him the United States was working on a plan to retrieve weapons given to the YPG, especially heavy weapons. However, Tillerson later said that Washington had "never given heavy arms" to the YPG and there was therefore "nothing to take back". Turkey is the main Muslim ally of the United States within NATO and one of Washington's most powerful friends in the Middle East dating back to the Cold War era. But widening differences on Syria policy are just one of a number of issues that have caused a rupture in that strategic relationship. Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of the NATO meeting in Brussels, Mattis said his talks with his Turkish counterpart were open and honest, but acknowledged the differences. "I believe we are finding common ground and there are areas of uncommon ground, where sometimes war just gives you bad alternatives to choose from ... We continue to collaborate on ways to ensure their legitimate concerns are addressed." The Turkish offensive against the YPG in Syria has so far been limited to Afrin, a border region where the United States is not believed to have troops on the ground. But Turkey has openly discussed extending it to other areas where its forces could potentially come into contact with units supported by the Americans. It says Washington should pull its forces out of the way; the United States says it has no plans to withdraw. (Additional reporting by Idrees Ali in Brussels; Ezgi Erkoyun and Ali Kucukgocmen in Istanbul; Lisa Barrington in Beirut; Editing by David Dolan/Peter Graff)Former classmates of the suspect in Wednesdays deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school say they werent surprised to discover he was the alleged gunman, but a Broward County commissioner admits officials missed the signs.

I cant say I was shocked, Joshua Charo, a 16-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., told the Miami Herald. From past experiences, he seemed like the kind of kid who would do something like this.

I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him, Dakota Mutchler, a 17-year-old junior at the school, told the Associated Press.

A lot of people were saying it was going to be him, Eddie Bonilla, another student, told CBS Miami. A lot of kids joked around like that, saying that he was going to be the one to shoot up the school. But it turns out everyone predicted it.

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Police say the 19-year-old suspect, Nikolas Cruz, killed 17 people and wounded at least a dozen others in the rampage. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters that Cruz had been expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons. Israel said that an AR-15-style weapon and countless magazines were recovered at the scene. According to the Associated Press, Cruz purchased the weapon legally about a year ago.

All he would talk about is guns, knives and hunting, Charo said. He used to tell me he would shoot rats with his BB gun and he wanted this kind of gun, and how he liked to always shoot for practice.

Mutchler said Cruz often boasted on Instagram about killing animals and that he started progressively getting a little more weird.

He was that weird kid that you see, Daniel Huerfano, another former classmate, told the AP. Like a loner.

Nikolas Cruzs booking photo. (Photo: Broward County Jail via AP)

On Thursday, President Trump seemed to suggest that the community failed to report the warning signs to authorities.

So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior, the president tweeted. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!

Story continues

Broward County Commissioner Beam Furr admitted as much in an interview with NPR.

We missed the signs, Furr said. We should have seen some of the signs.

Furr told CNN that Cruz had been receiving treatment at a mental health clinic, but stopped going about a year ago.

It wasnt like there wasnt concern for him, Furr said. We try to keep our eyes out on those kids who arent connected.

Parents wait for news after reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday. (Photo: Joel Auerbach/AP)

Most teachers try to steer them toward some kind of connections, he added. In this case, we didnt find a way to connect with this kid.

Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that he did not know of any threats posed by Cruz to the school.

Typically you see in these situations that there potentially could have been signs out there, Runcie said. I would be speculating at this point if there were, but we didnt have any warnings. There werent any phone calls or threats that we know of that were made.

But Jim Gard, a math teacher at the school, told the Miami Herald that administrators had identified Cruz as a potential threat.

Gard remembered that the school administration had previously sent out an email warning teachers about Cruz.

We were told last year that he wasnt allowed on campus with a backpack on him, Gard said. There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.

Israel said that investigators reviewing Cruzs social media accounts found disturbing images of him brandishing weapons.

Police evacuate students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday. (Photo: Mike Stocker/ South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

At a press conference on Thursday morning, Israel urged the public to report changes in behavior to law enforcement.

Dont think about it. Call us, Israel said. If theres something in your gut that tells you, Somethings not right with this person  this person has the capabilities in my mind to do this or do that, please dont remain silent.

According to BuzzFeed, at least one person appears to have reported Cruz to authorities.

The site reports that in September, YouTube user Ben Bennight alerted the FBI that a commenter had posted an alarming remark on one of his videos.

Im going to be a professional school shooter, wrote the commenter, named Nikolas Cruz.

According to Bennight, FBI agents conducted an in-person interview with him the following day.

They came to my office the next morning and asked me if I knew anything about the person, Bennight said. I didnt. They took a copy of the screenshot and that was the last I heard from them.

Read more from Yahoo News:An Italian Eurofighter flies next to a Montenegrin Learjet 45 during a simulated interception exercise. A year on from Montenegro joining the Alliance, NATO has started air policing over the country.

Michael Peck [timestamp]

Security, Europe

In the end, while the skies may be more hostile, NATO has little choice but to emphasize airpower if military force is to be used.

NATO Admits It May Lose Control of the Skies in a War

NATO's new airpower strategy makes a startling admission: the alliance cannot count on achieving control of the skies.

In fact, NATO admits that the good old days, when it could operate freely over combat zones like Afghanistan, Libya and Serbia, are over.

Where once the Soviet Union was the only threat the alliance faced, NATO's air forces must now be ready to confront a world of rogue nations, terrorist groups and cyberwarfare. Not to mention a Russia resurgent for the first time since the end of the Cold War.

NATO has just released its new Joint Airpower Strategy, or JAP, the organization's first such air warfare blueprint since its birth in 1949. Given that airpower was always the alliance's key advantage against the Soviets, it's not surprising that planners are grappling with how to make it relevant in the post-Cold War environment.

Most significant is the admission that NATO aircraft must be prepared to globally, and also accept that the skies may be truly unfriendly.

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"Future challenges and threats will be transnational and multidimensional in nature and will likely have long-term consequences for peace, security and stability in the Euro-Atlantic region," the JAP states. "For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the Alliance has to be able to conduct operations against any peer-state actor. As a result, the future operating environment may be one in which air superiority can neither be assured at the onset of operations nor, once obtained, be an enduring condition."

Anti-access technology such as more lethal air defenses have made air operations more difficult, while cyberwarfare threatens to sever the command and control links that make airpower so flexible and responsive. The document concedes that the days of practically risk-free air strikes is over.

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"The development, proliferation and integration of adversary ballistic and cruise missiles, advanced layered air defense, cyber and electronic warfare systems will change the dynamics of Alliance air operations, which have more recently been conducted in permissive conditions," according to the JAP. "Forces will need the ability to operate despite the existence and further proliferation of such capabilities, which may result in threat environments ranging from permissive to highly-contested."

Interestingly, NATO sees lawfare as big a threat as anti-aircraft missiles. Given the trend that engagements during conflict occur in more densely populated areas, detecting and targeting, while considering the Law of Armed Conflict, will become increasingly challenging as urbanization continues to proliferate and megacities emerge," the JAP notes.

Indeed, the JAP warns that "winning the information war can be every bit as important as winning the war in the air." When NATO aircraft strike, "Strategic Communications" -- or StratCom -- must be integrated into the air campaign plan so the enemy gets the message and disinformation to smear NATO is neutralized.

The JAP also urges NATO to improve the resilience of its command systems against hacking and jamming. NATO should also exploit new technologies such as drones and directed energy weapons.

In the end, while the skies may be more hostile, NATO has little choice but to emphasize airpower if military force is to be used. For all the limitations of aircraft -- their temporary presence over a battlefield, the difficulties in targeting -- the alternative is putting boots on the ground. That's a prospect NATO relishes even less.

Michael Peck is a contributing writer at Foreign Policy and a writer forWar is Boring . Follow him on Twitter: @Mipeck1.

Read full articleNikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old charged with killing 17 people during Wednesday's shooting at a Florida high school, trained with the white supremacist group the Republic of Florida, according to the Anti-Defamation League. An ROF spokesman, Jordan Jereb, told the ADL Thursday that Cruz had been a member of his group.

A discussion on the forum 4chan also described Cruz as a member of the ROF.

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A 2015 report from the Southern Poverty Law Center described Jereb as the leader of the ROF and said that he and a group of high school friends had spent months posting numerous videos warning of a tyrannical global power running the world.

Jereb has described himself as a right-wing extremist nut. He was charged in 2016 for having threatened a staff member of Florida Governor Rick Scott. He is believed to be around 22 years old.

Jereb has been known to ride a bike through Florida neighborhoods wearing paramilitary garb. He has said that the Republic of Florida wants to secede from the United States.

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Three former classmates told ABC News that Cruz was seen with Jereb and was part of the ROF. Jereb told the ADL that his group had not ordered Cruz to shoot up the school.

The ROF is known to have young, white, male members and to promote violence, such as gun ownership and knife fighting. The group has also been linked with the far-right League of the South.

Cruz was a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where Wednesday's mass shooting occurred.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekNearly seven decades after Russia and China struck their first major alliance, an expert analysis showed Wednesday just how powerful the U.S.s two leading military rivals have become. Despite setbacks over the course of their relationship, recent initiatives have allowed China and Russia to once again shift global military strength from West to East.

On February 14, 1950, the Peoples Republic of China and the Soviet Union signed the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance. Less than five years after World War II and only months after the guerrilla forces of Mao Zedong expelled the Chinese nationalist Kuomintang government to Taiwan, the worlds two largest communist powers joined forces at the onset of what would be a nearly half-century Cold War between Moscow and Washington. Already wary of growing U.S. influence in Asia, the two nations vowed to defend one another in the event of an attack from U.S.-backed Japan or any of its allies.

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In the event of one of the contracting parties being attacked by Japan or any state allied with it and thus being involved in a state of war the other contracting party shall immediately render military and other assistance by all means at its disposal, an excerpt from Article I of the treaty read.

1949_Mao_and_Stalin

Wikimedia Commons

Sino-Soviet might was first demonstrated when Chinese forces supported Soviet-backed North Korea during a three-year war with its U.S.-backed neighbor, South Korea, months after the treaty was signed, forcing a stalemate along a border that still separates the Korean rivals today. The friendship would not last, however, and the two began feuding by the end of the decade. Russia and China fell out due to ideological differences as Stalins eventual successor, Nikita Khrushchev, softened the Soviet stance toward the West, infuriating a more hard-line Mao. After growing estranged and even engaging in sporadic border clashes, their Communist alliance officially expired in 1979.

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It was not until July 16, 2001, about a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union, that a new partnership was established. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Jiang Zemin, signed the 20-year Sino-Russian Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation.

While the document did not explicitly mandate that one of them use military action to defend the other and mostly focused on improving economic and diplomatic relations, it did call on Russia and China to increase trust between their militaries and expand and deepen confidence-building measures in the military field so as to consolidate each others security and strengthen regional and international stability.

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Since then, and in recent years especially, the two nations have made good on this pact. Russia and China have sought to both bolster and modernize their own armed forces while participating in joint maneuvers and attempting to limit what they see as an expansionist U.S. military. Most recently, Moscow and Beijing were identified as the foremost military powers behind the U.S. in a report Tuesday from The International Institute for Strategic Studies. In an accompanying statement to its 2018 Military Balance assessment, the U.K.-based institute said the countries rapidly advancing armed forces may even surpass the Wests if measures were not soon taken.

GettyImages-872499106

KONSTANTIN ZAVRAZHIN/AFP/Getty Images

Powers such as China and Russia are challenging the global predominance of the United States and its allies and while great-power war is not inevitable, states are systematically preparing for the possibility of conflict, the institute wrote.

Russian and Chinese interests have been far from monolithic, as their previous split showed, but they have often found common ground politically as they increasingly assert themselves on the international stage. Russia and China have taken a united stand against U.S. agendas in North Korea, Syria and beyond, for example.

As a result, President Donald Trump criticized them in his debut foreign policy vision in December. Trumps so-called America First National Security Strategy targeted Russia and China because they challenge American power, influence and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity and are determined to make economies less free and less fair, to grow their militaries, and to control information and data to repress their societies and expand their influence, according to the document.

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Russia and China have dismissed the U.S.s depiction of them as hostile powers, suggesting the U.S. remains stuck in the Cold War and was having difficulty coping with a multipolar geopolitical environment. They have also pushed back against U.S. military presence along their European and Asian borders respectively.

ChinaRussiaMilitary

CHINA MILITARY ONLINE/WANG HUAWEI/WANG TAO/ZHOU HUANCHENG

Few analysts have predicted any immediate war between the U.S. and its Russian and Chinese rivals, but extremely tense situations in Syria and North Korea have at times threatened to drag the major powers into a serious conflict. The U.S. has continued to intimidate North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un with possible military action over his refusal to give up nuclear weapons he believed were necessary for deterring such an invasion. Meanwhile, recent clashes between a U.S.-led coalition and pro-Syrian government forces have killed scores of those fighting in support of Russia-backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including an unknown number of Russian citizens.

As crises mount abroad, China and Russias relationship is only set to improve in the near future. China is scheduled to host the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in June and Putin is expected to attend. On the 68th anniversary of the first true Sino-Soviet treaty, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang predicted Wednesday that the event would bring the powers closer.

With regard to the Russian Presidents visit to China, it is a tradition for the heads of state of China and Russia to exchange visits annually. In addition, they maintain close communication through bilateral meetings or on the sidelines of multilateral occasions, letters and telephone conversations, Geng said at a regular press conference.

This fully demonstrates the uniqueness of China-Russia relations, which are developing at a high level, he added.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekShould best friends be banned in school [Photo: Getty]

Remember that school chum who was your BFF? Well, children today might have to wave goodbye to that type of friendship as the term best friend is being banned in certain schools because it lacks inclusivity.

A psychologist in the US has revealed that a growing number of schools are preventing children from using the term best friend over fears that some kids are being left out.

Clinical psychologist Dr Barbara Greenberg told CBS New York that there has been a trend in some US and European schools to outlaw the phrase.

The idea of banning the phrase best friends is a very intriguing social experiment, she said.

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Though Dr Greenberg admits it is difficult not to allow children to maintain close relationships, she explains that the schools involved want to encourage children to have multiple friendships rather than just relying on one friend.

Lets face it, you cant ban somebody from having a close relationship, and you cant really ban somebody from having a best friend but what the schools are trying to do is foster the idea of kids having more than a single friend.

Prince Georges school, Thomass private day school in Battersea first flouted the idea of a best friend ban back in 2013 after announcing that it was encouraging children to have lots of good friends.

Though there is no official best friend policy Ben Thomas, the schools headmaster, said at the time that he would support the idea.

There is sound judgment behind it, he told The Telegraph. You can get very possessive friendships, and it is much easier if they share friendships and have a wide range of good friends rather than obsessing too much about who their best friend is.

I would certainly endorse a policy which says we should have lots of good friends, not a best friend, he continued.

Some schools want to encourage children to have a wide range of friendships [Photo: Getty]

Last month, parenting expert Liz Fraser offered her support for a move aimed at discouraging best friendships at primary schools.

Appearing on Good Morning Britain the mum-of-four admitted she never had a best friend growing up and believes the idea will help encourage children to have more broad friendships. It immediately [separates] this friend out as being different from all other friends, which immediately sets you into a mini group, she explained.

Story continues

Some children dont have a best friend, I didnt have a best friend, if I did have a best friend I think its because no one wanted to be friends with us.

But some viewers didnt agree with the whole concept with many taking to social media to describe the idea of preventing children from having one best friend as ridiculous.

Schools thinking of banning kids having best friends  quite possibly the most ridiculous thing Ill ever hear, one user tweeted.

First, it was this gender neutral thing and now its Should schools ban best friends?. Its actually these adults making these things an issue, when they dont need to be. Just let them be kids! This is getting stupid now, another agreed.

But some viewers could see the reasoning behind the suggestion.

I think best friends can be sometimes bad cause some kids see that as thats there friend and want them around no one else or it can make other kids feel left out its a weird one, one women tweeted.

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Read more from Yahoo Style UK:

Pulling up the drawbridge: Should you refuse visits from friends after giving birth?

Is it OK to be disappointed by your babys gender?

Should crying babies be banned from cafes?Young students may soon have to say goodbye to their best friend, and they have Prince George to blame.

The concept was introduced when the royal tot first started school a few years ago. Ben Thomas, headmaster of St. Thomass Day School, said at the time, I would certainly endorse a policy which says we should have lots of good friends, not a best friend, according to the Telegraph. We cant help but wonder  does this mean George doesnt have someone he can call a best friend? Boy, would he be missing out.

Taking the focus off being BFFs may encourage kids to be more inclusive. (Photo: Getty Images)

In the last few months, the trend has moved from Europe to America, according to Barbara Greenberg, a clinical psychologist specializing in family and relationship issues. Why would schools do such a thing? They want to foster inclusivity, Greenberg tells Yahoo Lifestyle. And they want their schools to be characterized as having children that dont exclude other ones. So what they did was take an extreme stance, which was to ban the whole concept of best friends in the hope that children would then form a group of friends.

Of course, thats a lot to ask. The backlash is that Its just natural for children to have best friends. How can you take away kids best friends? Greenberg, who sparked controversy when she wrote an article about the concept for U.S. News & World Report in January, wants to make sure the heart of the message is heard. I think the real message is being lost here, she points out, and the real message is that we want children to be more inclusive and to think about who else they can invite to play with them, to join in with them.

So does that mean no more best friend heart necklaces? Probably not. The whole idea of banning best friends completely is unlikely to ever happen, Greenberg states. I dont think that will work. Research shows that people do better with a small group of close friends, rather than a large group of acquaintances.

She offered an alternative. I think the more realistic message would be to be more inclusive rather than to be best friends. The more palatable and realistic way to go about it is to include rather than ban.

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Greenberg uses lunchtime as an example of the perfect opportunity to implement an inclusivity rule. Instead of not allowing kids to call someone their best friend (because, lets be realistic), she suggests schools encourage students to look around the room for someone who is alone and invite the person to join them and their BFF. Who else can you invite? she says. Look around. The cultural norm should start to move toward people looking around and seeing who wants to join. The motto should be #include, #invite, rather than #ban.

When I asked multiple friends who work in schools throughout New York City about the #BestFriendBan, none of them had heard of the concept, and they certainly dont support it. Thats ridiculous, one said, while a charter school network administrator called it crazy.

The trend is picking up, though. Probably because well do anything the royals do. Thats what we encourage at camp, Jay Jacobs, who operates Timber Lake Camp, told CBS. I think that there are pitfalls in just having one friend. Remember, as you grow up, interests change, children go in different directions.

The jurys still out on how this rule is being implemented and whether kids would get in trouble if they accidentally promise best friendship in exchange for an Oreo. Greenberg said, I would certainly hope that they dont use the punishment model if they are trying to teach kindness.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.Parkland (United States) (AFP) - Authorities in Florida could offer no explanation Wednesday night as to why a former student armed with an AR-15 rifle opened fire at a high school earlier that day, killing at least 17 people.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel identified the gunman as Nikolas Cruz, 19, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland who had been expelled for "disciplinary reasons," but was currently enrolled in Broward County Public Schools.

Cruz, whose fellow students described him as "troubled," was arrested without incident in the nearby town of Coral Springs after the Valentine's Day rampage and taken to hospital with minor injuries, the sheriff said.

He had mixed in with students fleeing the school before being caught, officials said.

"We have already begun to dissect his websites and things on social media that he was on and some of the things... are very, very disturbing," Israel said.

"If a person is predisposed to commit such a horrific event by going to a school and shooting people ... there's not anybody or not a lot law enforcement can do about it."

Israel said both students and adults had been killed, 12 of whom have now been identified.

Fifteen people were killed at the school itself and 17 were taken to hospital, two of whom died of their wounds, the sheriff's office said. One of those killed was a football coach, and one student injured was a deputy sheriff's son.

"This is a terrible day for Parkland," Israel said, speaking of the city of about 30,000 people, located 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Miami.

A teacher at the school said Cruz had been identified previously as a potential threat to his classmates.

"We were told last year that he wasn't allowed on campus with a backpack on him," math teacher Jim Gard said in a Miami Herald interview.

"There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus."

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Cruz was also said to have been in the Junior ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) program while at school.

A law enforcement source told CBS News that the gunman pulled a fire alarm before opening fire, but Israel could not confirm that report.

- 'Everyone started running' -

The shooting, one of nearly 20 at a school since the start of the year, will once again throw the spotlight on the epidemic of gun violence in the United States, where there are 33,000 gun-related deaths annually.

But when questioned at a press conference late Wednesday, Florida Governor Rick Scott -- who described the massacre as "just pure evil" -- declined to make a statement on gun control in the aftermath of the shooting.

"There's a time to continue to have these conversations about how through law enforcement, how through mental illness funding that we make sure people are safe, and we'll continue to do that," said Scott, a Republican.

At the same briefing, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said the state will cover the costs of funerals and counseling for survivors.

"We will continue to work together as a team, as a family, and love and take care of all of these victims and their family members," she said.

Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky told CNN she had spoken to a number of students after the shooting erupted shortly after 2:00 pm (1900 GMT).

"They were very scared," she said. "And almost in shock when they came out."

Students, some with their hands in the air, were led out of the school by heavily armed police officers and an armored vehicle filled with a SWAT team on the scene.

Student Jeiella Dodoo told CBS News that she and her schoolmates evacuated calmly after hearing what they thought was a routine fire alarm.

"The alarm went off so we had to evacuate from our classes," she said. "Then we heard gunshots.

"I heard about six gunshots," she said, "and then some people started running and then everyone started running because we were like 'If it's real, then just run.'"

Teacher Melissa Falkowski told US networks that she had helped 19 students squeeze into a closet with her.

"We were in there for probably 40 minutes. We were locked in the closet until SWAT came and got us," she told CNN.

Police officers in helmets, bulletproof vests and armed with automatic weapons could be seen stationed at several points around the sprawling school complex, which serves nearly 3,000 students.

"Just a horrible day for us," said the superintendent of the county's school district, Robert Runcie.

"This is very sad to me and our family too," 61-year-old Joseph Panikulangara, whose 17-year-old niece Dhiya attends the school, told AFP.

The FBI said it was assisting local law enforcement with the investigation.

When asked about security, Hunschofsky said a police officer is always stationed at the school and there is a "single point of entry."

- No child should 'feel unsafe' -

President Donald Trump offered his "prayers and condolences to the families of the victims."

"No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school," he said on Twitter.

But since January 2013, there have been at least 291 school shootings across the country -- an average of about one a week, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit group that advocates for gun control.

"It is pretty clear that we're failing our kids here," said Falkowski, the teacher who helped shield her students from harm in a closet.A lawyer representing the woman who settled a sexual harassment lawsuit with Olympic snowboarder Shaun White last year called out the athlete for minimizing sexual harassment on the world stage.

In a statement provided to USA Today, Lena Zawaidehs attorney Lawrance Bohm said Whites comments were damaging to his clients character.

Mr Whites comments, on the world stage, directly impugn the character of Ms. Zawaideh, he wrote. No woman wants to be called a gossip or liar by the harasser.

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The sexual harassment allegations, which were first filed in a 2016 lawsuit, resurfaced this week as Whites quest for a history-making gold medal in Pyeongchang heated up. NBC, the official broadcaster of the Winter Olympics in the U.S., repeatedly referred to him in promotional materials as the best of the U.S, prompting Slate to wonder why the network had been mum on the allegations.

Following his win on Wednesday, White was asked about the allegations during a news conference and dismissed them as gossip. He later walked back his comment, saying it was a poor choice of words to describe such a sensitive subject in the world today.

Zawaideh, a former bandmate, accused White of repeatedly sexually harassing her and sending her lewd text messages.

Her lawyer seemingly referenced NBCs continued praise of White by referencing the tagline. Hopefully, before our country declares someone the best of the U.S., there will be investigation and due diligence.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Toronto firefighter Constantinos Danny Filippidis told investigators he doesnt know what happened after he was reported missing Wednesday, Feb. 7, from Whiteface Mountain during an annual ski trip with colleagues. The search ended Tuesday when Filippidis turned up in Sacramento, California, some 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) west of the Adirondacks.

At this point, we want to assist Danny in getting back the last six days of his life, said New York State Police Maj. John Tibbitts.

Filippidis was heading back to the Lake Placid, New York, area on Wednesday. Tibbitts said the firefighter had agreed to be interviewed by state police but that hes not aware that Filippidis broke any laws.

Frank Ramagnano, president of the Toronto Professional Firefighters Association, told reporters at a news conference Tuesday evening that Filippidis appeared to be confused and was unable to give direct answers.

He had phoned (his wife) and called her by a nickname. She quickly recognized the voice and that it was him, Ramagnano said. Then they lost contact and he contacted her again and they kept him on the phone and asked him to call 911 to get him help as soon as possible.

Filippidis told deputies he remembered little, but thought hed suffered a head injury, rode in a big rig-style truck and slept a lot, Sgt. Shaun Hampton of the Sacramento County Sheriffs Department told the Post-Standard of Syracuse.

Filippidis said he bought an iPhone to call his wife and told deputies that a truck dropped him off in downtown Sacramento, where he got a haircut, Hampton said.

Tibbitts said it was too early in the missing person investigation to comment on details provided from others. He also declined to estimate the cost of the six-day search, which involved a helicopter and up to 140 people a day, some combing the snow with hands.

Police distributed a picture of Filippidis taken in California on Tuesday, hoping people who recognize him can help solve the mystery.

He wants to find out where he was as badly as we want to find out where he was, Tibbitts said.Former adult film actress Stephanie Clifford says she is ready to tell her story after the presidents lawyer reportedly breached a nondisclosure agreement preventing her from speaking publicly about her alleged affair with President Donald Trump.

The actress, who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels, said through her manager on Wednesday that attorney Michael Cohen invalidated their agreement when he acknowledged on Tuesday that hed paid her $130,000 in a private transaction just before the 2016 presidential election.

Everything is off now, and Stormy is going to tell her story, manager Gina Rodriguez told The Associated Press.

Stephanie Clifford alleged in a 2011 interview that she'd had an affair with Donald Trump shortly after his wife, Melania, gave birth to their son. (Photo: Gabe Ginsberg via Getty Images)

The alleged affair between Clifford and Trump made headlines in January when In Touch Weekly revealed excerpts of a previously unpublished 2011 interview with the actress.

The interview appeared to validate a Wall Street Journal report that Trumps lawyer arranged a $130,000 payment to Clifford in October 2016 to buy her silence about the relationship. Trumps legal team and Clifford initially denied both the affair and the payment.

But on Tuesday, Cohen acknowledged to The New York Times that hed paid Clifford $130,000 out of his own pocket  although he would not address why he made the payment or whether Trump was aware at the time.

Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly, Cohen told the Times. The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.

Another article published Tuesday at The Daily Beast reported that Cohen is shopping a book proposal about Trump that would discuss Cliffords story.

In the wake of these reports, Rodriguez said her client is now free to speak publicly about her alleged relationship with Trump and will soon announce how and when she will do so.

Rodriguez, Clifford and the White House press office did not respond to requests for comment.

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In 2011, In Touch said, Clifford told the tabloid shed had sex with Trump in his Lake Tahoe hotel suite in the summer of 2006, the year after Trump had married his third wife, Melania Knauss, and just months after she gave birth to their son, Barron.

Clifford described the sex as textbook generic, according to the magazine, and added, I actually dont even know why I did it, but I do remember while we were having sex, I was like, Please, dont try to pay me.

An attorney for Clifford released a statement on her behalf in January denying that the affair happened. But the actress has evaded direct, public questions about whether she had a sexual relationship with Trump.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Carly Novell is a 17-year-old senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and was one of the fortunate ones on Wednesday afternoon: She survived the Parkland, Florida, shooting that devastated her school and took the lives of 17 classmates and bystanders.

It was the 17th school shooting incident this year alone.

Carly Novell shared a tweet on Thursday, which has since gone viral, about how she made it through the shooting by hiding in a closet with 18 of her classmates. That feat alone is remarkable, but the student added that when her grandfather, Charles Cohen, was twelve years old, he also hid in a closet while his entire family was murdered during one of Americas first mass shootings by a lone gunman.

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The shooting Carly Novell is referencing in her tweet was lone wolf Howard Unruhs Walk of Death. On Tuesday, Sept. 6, 1949, Unruh murdered 13 people and wounded three others in a 20-minute shooting rampage.

Carly Novell told HuffPost that Cohen was in a his house with his grandmother, mother, and father in a Camden, New Jersey, neighborhood when Unruh started shooting people.

His mom told him to hide in the closet while they stayed in the room, she told HuffPost.

My grandpa heard everything and after that he lived with his cousin until he went to military school I believe. He never really talked about what happened and I didnt find out until after he died. But family was so incredibly important to him because of what happened, she said. He wasnt as lucky as me.

Carly Novell said she hid from the shooter in her school in a closet in our newspaper room.

I didnt have to hear anything. But I still felt it all, she said.

We were all squished together in the closet and I was comforting my friends while they were having panic attacks. I didnt know when I would get out. I just knew that I had to survive and I had to make sure everyone was OK. Ive never felt more relief than when I did when the police came and got us.

Story continues

The teenager also told HuffPost that she really just didnt think it was real.

I just wanted to stay safe and keep everyone safe. When I got out, I was just hoping to see my mom and hug her because I couldnt even imagine how scared she was, she said.

Carly Novell added that she wishes her grandfather, who passed away in 2009, was here now because she feels like they share something really important.

A family photograph of Merri Novell with her daughter Carly and father Charles Cohen. (Photo: Merri Novell)

Novells mother, Merri Novell, gave HuffPost permission to speak with her daughter and spoke about the residual impact the 1949 shooting had on her father.

When I grew up, I witnessed my fathers pain. He tried to hide it with jokes but it was always forever present, Merri Novell told HuffPost via email, adding she would hide as a child.

I would practice making myself really small to see if I could hide in the smallest of places. As I got older, I carried those fears with me but also carried my fathers pain too. I witnessed the anguish my father felt whenever another mass shooting occurred. He would call me with such deep sadness in his voice and share the news with me. It was so painful to witness.

Merri Novell said that her father was against guns, believing that no one should own a gun except for law enforcement  a sentiment she and Carly Novell both share. She described her daughter as something of an activist and couldnt get over the irony of her hiding in a closet from a shooter.

I am glad [my father] wasnt alive to have to feel the anguish and pain that we felt yesterday. It would have been too much for him to handle. I am proud of Carly for carrying on my fathers message and speaking out against gun violence, Merri Novell said. None of this is new  history keeps repeating itself. When is society going to wake up and realize that guns kill people. There is no use for guns in a civilized society. We need new laws to protect our loved ones from all of this senseless grief.

Prior to her tweet about her grandfather on Thursday, Carly Novell tweeted at conservative political commentator Tomi Lahren.

Lahren had said on Twitter that the left was pushing an anti-gun and anti-gunowner agenda and that the Florida shooting isnt about a gun its about another lunatic.

Guns give these disgusting people the ability to kill other human beings, Novell wrote in response. This IS about guns and this is about all the people who had their life abruptly ended because of guns.

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Novell is headed to college next year to study journalism and continues to hope for change.

This has been happening repeatedly, there are too many lives being lost because people dont want to make a difference, she said. It happened to my grandpa and it happened to me. People value the right to bear arms over peoples lives. I cant even comprehend it.

A previous version of this story cited Everytown data that indicated the Parkland shooting was the 18th school shooting incident of 2018. Everytown later updated their count to exclude a suicide that occurred at a closed school, and their statistic cited in this story has been updated accordingly.

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Parents wait for news after a reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018.

Medical personnel tend to a victim outside of Stoneman Douglas High School.

Waiting for word from students at Coral Springs Drive and the Sawgrass Expressway just south of the campus of Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., after a shooting on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (Amy Beth Bennett/Sun Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images)

People are brought out of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Students are released from a lockdown outside of Stoneman Douglas High School.

An officer tells parents waiting at Coral Springs Drive and the Sawgrass Expressway to go to the Marriott hotel to meet up with their kids from Stoneman Douglas High School.

Waiting for word from students at Coral Springs Drive and the Sawgrass Expressway just south of the campus of Stoneman Douglas High School.

Students are evacuated by police out of Stoneman Douglas High School.

A family reunites outside of Stoneman Douglas High School.

A video still shows students being evacuated from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Students and adults leave following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Students are released from a lockdown outside of Stoneman Douglas High School.

Parents meet at the Fort Lauderdale Marriott Coral Springs Hotel.

Students react following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

A young woman who just walked out from the direction of the high school, who refused to give her name, gets a hug as she reaches the overpass at Coral Springs Drive and the Sawgrass Expressway just south of the campus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Students react at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Students are brought across Coral Springs Drive from the the campus of Stoneman Douglas High School.

People embrace while leaving the Fort Lauderdale Marriott Coral Springs Hotel after a deadly shooting at Marjory Soneman Douglas High School.

Students react following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Waiting for word from students at Coral Springs Drive and the Sawgrass Expressway just south of the campus of Stoneman Douglas High School.

Students react at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Rescue workers help a victim near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Police put a suspect in handcuffs near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Updated | Students at Austin High School in Houston, Texas, staged a protest Wednesday in support of a classmate who is being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after getting into a physical altercation.

Dennis Rivera-Sarmiento, 19, is an undocumented immigrant from Honduras and was booked by the Harris County Sheriff's Office on January 31.

A video of the students walking out of Austin High School was circulated on Twitter by a local ABC13 reporter with the hashtag #FreeDennis. Students in the video chanted and carried banners as they marched away from the school and toward a neighborhood nearby.

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Rivera-Sarmiento was reportedly pulled out of school in late January after Houston Independent School District (HISD) police responded to a "reported assault of a female student across the street from the Austin High School campus," according to Houston Public Media. HISD said Rivera-Sarmiento got into a verbal dispute that turned into a physical aggression, which resulted in his arrest.

"In line with the commitment expressed by both the Board of Education and the Superintendent, HISD has not used district resources to assist in deportation actions and we do not report students to ICE. Our Superintendent and administration remain steadfast in the districts commitment to educating every student regardless of their immigration status," HISD said in a statement, adding that students are and will continue to be safe in the district's classrooms.

Sara Martinez, a 17-year-old senior at Austin High School, also posted a five-second video of the protest to Twitter. "[The protest is] for Dennis and we are doing this because he was just defending himself from bullies. HISD did him injustice by working with the police, they should protect their students and not fail them," Martinez told Newsweek.

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"We don't want anything like this to happen to anyone else," 15-year-old sophomore Andrea Gonzalez, one of the rally's organizers, told The Houston Chronicle. "Today it could be Dennis, tomorrow it could be us."

"On Jan. 31, 2018, deportation officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged an immigration detainer with the Harris County Sheriffs Office Jail on Dennis Raynel Rivera-Sarmiento, 19, a citizen of Honduras, following his arrest on criminal charges of assault causing bodily injury. That same day, the jail released him into ICE custody," ICE spokesperson Leticia Zamarripa said in a statement.

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Zamarripa also said that Rivera-Sarmiento was supposed to leave the United States before March 4, 2015. His arrest on January 30 was the first contact the Austin High School student had had with ICE officials since he was released on an order of supervision in 2013.

Immigrant youth network United We Dream started a petition for Rivera-Sarmiento's release, which now has 9,072 signatures. According to the petition, Rivera-Sarmiento had been bullied by classmates for being undocumented. He had also been admitted to two Texas colleges to study computer science in Fall 2018.

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This article has been updated to include comments from Houston Independent School District.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekDamascus (AFP) - Syria on Wednesday repelled Israeli surveillance planes that breached its southern border, state media reported, days after an Israeli fighter jet was downed during raids on the war-torn country.

"Syrian air defences have repelled Israeli surveillance planes over Quneitra, forcing them to leave Syrian airspace," the official SANA news agency said.

On Saturday, the Syrian government said it fended off an Israeli raid on a military base in the centre of the country, hitting more than one warplane.

That came after the Israeli military said one of its fighter jets had crashed after it came under heavy fire from Syrian air defences during strikes against "Iranian targets" in the war-hit country.

Israel has carried out dozens of air strikes on the Syrian armed forces and their allies since the civil war broke out in 2011.

Iran with Russia is the main military backer of the Damascus government.

Israel has largely confined its operations to targeting Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group that is a key ally of Iran.The Taliban has called for the American people to pressure President Donald Trump into reviving Afghan peace talks.

The letter was released by the militant group's spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid. The group's call comes despite its continued attacks on Afghan civilians, including the ambulance bomb attack in January that killed more than 100 people.

"If the policy of using force is continued for another one hundred years," the letter says, "the outcome will be the same...as you have observed over the last six months since the initiation of Trump's new strategy."

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The Taliban regularly claims to be undefeatable in Afghanistan, and the letter continues that theme. It says that "3,546 American and foreign soldiers" have been killed in the country and brags that its heroin production, one of its key streams of revenue, has almost doubled.

According to The Guardian, the group's spokesman Mujahid said: "The Islamic emirate has a clear message for Trump and his hand-kissers that if you go ahead with a policy of aggression and speak from the barrel of a gun, dont expect Afghans to grow flowers in response."

The U.S. has for years advocated an Afghan peace process with the recognized government of President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul leading the process. But Trump has said that "we don't want talks with the Taliban."

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He has accelerated a bombing campaign against the radical Islamist group as part of his wider battle against jihadi groups in the Middle East.

02_14_Afghan_Taliban

Faridullah Ahmadzai/AFP/Getty

Last August, Trump announced a new strategy of expansion in the country, putting more American boots on the ground and increasing the number of U.S. military personnel to 14,000.

Story continues

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Thousands of troops have poured into Afghanistan since Trump announced there would be a broader U.S. role in the country. The increase came at the request of General John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan and the leader of NATOs Resolute Support Mission.

Washington is also battling the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in the country, where it has grown in influence against the Taliban, particularly in the eastern province of Nangarhar.

The U.S. would refuse any negotiation with ISIS, which it has fought against across the Middle East. But the Taliban has engaged in a series of initial peace negotiations with the Kabul government in recent years.

The U.S. launched its occupation of Afghanistan in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekBelgrade (AFP) - A decade after its southern province formally broke away, Serbia bluntly refuses to recognise Kosovo's independence, but President Aleksandar Vucic has warned something must change for his country to join the European Union.

The "normalisation" of ties between Belgrade and Pristina is a crucial requirement for each side's bid to join the bloc -- yet this goal remains elusive, two decades after the Kosovo war claimed 13,000 lives.

That conflict, pitching ethnic Albanian rebels against Serbian forces controlled by Belgrade, set Kosovo on the path to unilaterally declaring independence on February 17, 2008.

The former foes have been engaged in EU-mediated talks since 2011 and reached some agreements on issues such as freedom of movement and trade.

But a binding agreement that would put an end to the territorial dispute is called for within the European Commission's latest enlargement strategy.

"The content of that agreement is being considered in advance as a recognition of Kosovo's independence," Serbia's EU Integration Minister Jadranka Joksimovic said.

But "Serbia will not recognise Kosovo," she insisted, reiterating a red line that Belgrade has refused to cross.

- Mountain to climb -

In recent years, Belgrade has lobbied to prevent Pristina joining various international organisations, especially the United Nations.

Nevertheless Serbia's powerful president has warned that his citizens must decide if they want to "pay a certain price" to join the EU, for which Serbia has candidate status.

"Are these easy obstacles for us? They are not, they are like the Himalayas, but we would not be the first to climb Mount Everest," Vucic told reporters last week.

Serbia considers Kosovo the cradle of its history and religion and the preamble to the Serbian constitution describes Kosovo as an "integral part" of its territory.

But Kosovo is now recognised as a state by more than 110 countries, including the United States and most EU members.

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- 'Wishful thinking' -

Last year when he was sworn in as president, Vucic called for an "internal dialogue" on Kosovo.

But Serbia's weak and divided opposition almost unanimously refused, instead accusing him of trying to spread responsibility for an anticipated recognition of Kosovo.

Analyst Dusan Janjic said there was only a "small number of people from state institutions" involved in the dialogue, who either advocate the status quo or engage in "wishful thinking" over how to regain control of Kosovo.

Public opinion surveys regularly show some 60 percent of citizens support dialogue with Pristina. But around 65 percent are against EU membership if Serbia has to recognise Kosovo's independence.

"It takes two to tango," said Vucic.

"Others should understand that they have to make compromises as well, not only Serbia."Beirut (AFP) - Hezbollah's involvement in regional conflicts poses a threat to the security of Lebanon and is a destabilising influence in the Middle East, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday.

"Hezbollah is not just a concern for the United States. The people of Lebanon should also be concerned about how Hezbollah's actions, its growing arsenal, bring unwanted and unhelpful scrutiny on Lebanon," Tillerson said in Beirut.

"Hezbollah entanglement in regional conflicts threatens the security of Lebanon and has destabilising effects on the region," he said of the Iran-backed Shiite movement, which is part of the Lebanese government.

Hezbollah, branded a "terrorist" organisation by the United States, is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has fighters on the ground in the war-torn country supporting the regime.

"Their presence in Syria has perpetuated the bloodshed, increased the displacement of innocent people and propped up the barbaric Assad regime," Tillerson said at a news conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

On Wednesday, speaking in Amman, Tillerson had appearing to soften Washington's tone, conceding that Hezbollah is part of the "political process" in Lebanon.

Hezbollah's influence was at the heart of a political crisis in Lebanon over Hariri's shock resignation announced from Saudi Arabia in November that was later rescinded.

Tillerson's visit comes at a time of tension between Lebanon and Israel -- which fought a devastating war with Hezbollah in 2006 -- over issues such as offshore energy exploration.

Lebanon is upset about Israel's construction of a dividing wall along the border between the two countries, which are still technically at war.

Lebanon says part of the wall follows the UN-demarcated "Blue Line" that was drawn up after Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, and insists some sections will cut into its territory.

"We are engaging with the governments of both Lebanon and Israel to ensure Lebanon's southern border remains calm," Tillerson said.

"And we remain committed to helping Lebanon and the Lebanese people prosper through the development of their natural resources in agreement with all of their neighbours."Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump will deliver a televised address Thursday in the wake of a deadly rampage at a Florida school.

"The president will address the nation on the tragic shooting in Parkland, FL at 11am," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.

Trump earlier issued a proclamation ordering flags on US embassies, government buildings and military installations to be flown at half staff "as a mark of solemn respect" for the victims of Wednesday's school massacre in Parkland, Florida.

Seventeen people were killed when Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old former student, entered the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and opened fire with an AR-15 rifle as students cowered in closets and under desks.

Cruz was later arrested without incident.

The massacre has reignited debate about US gun laws and the failure to protect against repeated mass shootings in US schools and elsewhere.

Trump, who has not yet spoken publicly about the latest attack, skirted that debate in an early morning tweet, instead emphasizing the shooter's mental state.

"So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior," Trump tweeted.

"Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!"Trumps speech in response to Florida high school shooting was code for: forget background checks and other gun control measures

It has been observed that there are two Donald Trumps: Twitter Trump and Teleprompter Trump. Early on Thursday, Twitter Trump came dangerously close to blaming the victims of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

He described the suspect as mentally disturbed and stressed that it was important to report such instances to authorities, again and again!

A few hours later, Teleprompter Trump was more disciplined and measured, but still had a political axe to grind. It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference, he said. We must actually make that difference.

It was Trump code for: forget background checks and other gun control measures that might make you feel better. Instead, his second amendment-friendly prescription was: We are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of mental health.

It has now become a sombre ritual after gun massacres for US presidents to put on their most statesmanlike mien and play the role of comforter-in-chief. It took Trump more than 20 hours to make public remarks after a former student, armed with an AR-15 rifle, killed 17 people and injured 14 others in Parkland. Barack Obama, by contrast, spoke less than six hours after the 2012 shooting of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

As Washington has become more polarised, so these statements have become more politicised. On the day of what was then the worst modern American shooting in Orlando in June 2016, Obama felt compelled to describe it as a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that allows them to shoot people at a school, or a movie theater, or a church or a nightclub.

For his part, on Thursday, wearing a dark suit, white shirt and striped blue tie and American flag pin, Teleprompter Trump spoke for six and a half minutes under a portrait of George Washington in the Diplomatic Room at the White House. He earned instant plaudits from supporters for a dignified tone as he spoke of terrible violence, hatred and evil and, as he did after the Las Vegas shooting in October 2017, quoting scripture. He promised to visit Parkland.



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But his emphasis on mental health rather than guns came from a familiar playbook focusing on individual rather than social or political culpability. When he visited Las Vegas, after it became the scene of the worst modern mass shooting, Trump called the gunman demented and a very sick individual. After a shooting at a Texas church left 26 people dead in November 2017, the president said mental health was the problem, adding that this isnt a guns situation.

In common with abortion rights, which he used to support, Trump has shifted his position on gun control, apparently for political expediency. On his 99th day in office, he told the National Rifle Association he was their friend and champion. He also signed a resolution passed by the Republican-led Congress blocking an Obama-era rule designed to keep guns out of the hands of certain mentally disabled people.

As Trump left the lectern at the White House on Thursday, a CNN correspondent shouted: Mr President, why does this keep happening to America? Will you do something about guns? The president did not reply.

Less than an hour later, Obama tweeted: Caring for our kids is our first job. And until we can honestly say that were doing enough to keep them safe from harm, including long overdue, commonsense gun safety laws that most Americans want, then we have to change.For Need to Impeach campaign founder Tom Steyer, its not a matter of if, but when, President Donald Trump will be removed from office.

"There will be increasing evidence and increasing urgency with the American people to get this guy out of office as people realize we really can't survive him," Steyer said during a recent sit-down with Newsweek in New York City.

When it happens, I don't know. Exactly what the next events will be, I don't know. That there will be next events, I do know, said Steyer, adding that they will support his campaign's objective.

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Before launching Need to Impeach in October to demand impeachment proceedings, Steyer said he was betting that every day would bring more evidence to back up his case that the president deserves to be booted from the White House.

And we think thats happening, the Democratic billionaire said, citing a recent New York Times op-ed column on 10 ways Trump has obstructed justice.

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Were going to see more information coming out of the investigations. Were going to see more attempts to obstruct justice, Steyer predicted. Were seeing them almost on a daily basis at this point.

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According to Steyer, there is no need to wait for the results of special counsel Robert Muellers intensifying investigation into possible collusion between Trumps campaign and Russians in the election because he obstructed justice and that has always been the primary basis for impeachment of the president of the United States."

Among instances that Trump critics say show he committed obstruction of justice are his comment to former FBI Director James Comey last February to let go of an investigation on resigned national security adviser Michael Flynn, and that Trump later fired Comey because of this Russia thing.

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Steyer added that he cannot foresee what steps may lead to Trumps impeachment because the president constantly commits new, unpredictable offenses.

I liken it to being on a wild horse, Steyer said. We as a country are on a wild horse and we dont know where its going.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Newsweek.

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For Need to Impeach, the biggest roadblock has been partisanship, Steyer said, with Republicans hunkered down trying to defend the indefensible.

Democratic Representative Al Green of Texas has forced two votes to start proceedings on impeaching Trump. The most recent one in Januaryafter Trump referred to Haiti and African nations as shithole countriesdrew eight more Democrats in favor, but failed 355 to 66.

"He has lowered the standards for Americans. I mean, just as a glaring example, no other American president used a four-letter word, bathroom language, in meetings," Steyer said of Trump.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Minority Whip Steny Hoyer have opposed pursuing impeachment while Mueller carries out his probe. But Steyer said that more politicians have shown willingness to support a movement against Trump when it doesnt explicitly involve impeachment.

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Steyer said he is relying not on the number of people in Congress whose votes are needed to initiate impeachment proceedings, but on the voice of the American people.

Need to Impeach has collected more than 4.7 million signatures on a petition demanding Congress to begin proceedings to remove Trump. Its largest event to date, Party to Impeach, will take place on Saturday, ahead of President's Day, with impeachment-themed house parties planned in more than 500 communities across the U.S.

Obviously, the elected officials dont want to hear me at all. The only thing they can hear and have to hear is the voice of 4.5 million Americans and counting, Steyer said. That is a shockingly powerful statement.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekPresident Donald Trump flew into a rage about reporting on the size of the crowd at his inauguration and screamed at White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus to fix the story early on the first full day of his presidency, according to an interview with Priebus for a new book.

This story is bullshit, a furious Trump is reported as saying during an early morning call to Priebus. The morning after his inauguration on January 21 Trump had seen the crowd numbers published in The Washington Post and became indignant. He called Priebus screaming.

Theres more people there. There are people who couldnt get in the gates...Theres all kind of things that were going on that made it impossible for these people to get there the president said, Priebus recalled.

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Priebus spoke to writer Chris Whipple for a forthcoming book entitled The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency, adapted in Vanity Fair.

02_15_Priebus

Carlos Barria/Reuters

Trump reportedly then ordered Priebus to contact Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the Interior, so that he could find out from the Park Service what the numbers were. "Tell him to get a picture and do some research right away, Trump said, according to Priebus.

The presidents former chief of staff said he tried to calm Trump down, but couldnt.

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Is this something that I really want to go to battle over on day one? Who needs a controversy over the inauguration? Priebus told Whipple. Priebus said he faced a decision to either go to war over this with the president of the United States or try to punch back against the story.

Story continues

Read more: Trump said he was wrong on inauguration crowd size, new book says

Later that day, White House press secretary Sean Spicer attacked the reporting during his first press conference, arguing it was the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.

Trump had ordered Spicer to go out and attack the press, according to another recent book by Fox News host Howard Kurtz. The fact was that the crowd size was smaller on the Washingtons National Mall than it was at President Barack Obamas inauguration.

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Kurtzs book claims counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway had also tried to calm the president down but was unable. She invoked a line that she often employed when Trump was exercised over some slight, Kurtz wrote. Youre really big, she said. Thats really small.

Priebus told Whipple the strategy Spicer came up with was to say that actually, if you combine online and television, radio, and in-person, it was the most watched inauguration. That was difficult to prove and didnt undermine the reporting about the crowd size in Washington.

Trump later regretted ordering Spicer to dispute the numbers, according to Kurtz, telling aides: I shouldnt have done that and You were right.

Priebus was ousted from the White House less then eight months later and current White House Chief of Staff John Kelly replaced him last August.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekNo administration has waited as long as Donald Trump's to appoint a science adviser since the role was codified by Congress in 1976. (Photo: Kevin Lamarque / Reuters)

Almost 390 days since President Donald Trumps inauguration, a critical White House role remains conspicuously vacant. Despite repeated calls from lawmakers and top scientists to nominate a science adviser and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Trump has yet to appoint one.

This is longest that the science office  which is currently operating with a skeleton staff  has gone without a director since at least 1976, when Congress codified the role. A former presidential science adviser called the lag mind-boggling.

A Feb. 6 Science magazine article reported the White House interviewed candidates last year. It wasnt clear why no one was hired.

Trump has demonstrated a disdain for science that some say may be complicating his search. In a scorching New York Times op-ed published in January, physicists Neal Lane, a science adviser to President Bill Clinton, and Michael Riordan said it will be difficult at this point, if not impossible, to find an accomplished, reputable scientist who would agree to work with Trump.

Citing the presidents many assaults on health and environmental policy, including his decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement and his appointment of Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lane and Riordan said the president hasnt just displayed a contempt for science, but for evidence in general.

No president in recent history has needed a capable science adviser more while apparently wanting one less, the scientists wrote. They noted that a capable adviser could have helped prevent, or at least blunt, some of Trumps worst science-related policy decisions.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama with White House science adviser John Holdren in 2009. (Photo: Jim Young / Reuters)

Since 1976, the White House science adviser has played an important role in providing independent and expert advice to sitting presidents on a wide range of critical issues, including disaster management (Barack Obama, for instance, relied on his science adviser, the physicist and former Harvard professor John Holdren, to help navigate the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown) and disease (Holdren later assisted Obama in tackling the outbreaks of Ebola and Zika).

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Most modern presidents have apparently recognized the importance of the position, which requires Senate approval. According to The Washington Post, Obama and Clinton, as well as John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, all named a science adviser before taking office. George W. Bush  who, until Trump, had been the modern president whod dawdled the longest to choose a science adviser  named physicist John Marburger within five months of taking office.

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Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly expressed alarm at Trumps failure to choose a science adviser, and at reports that the Office of Science and Technology Policy remains significantly understaffed. The Boston Globe reported this week that the office now has just 50 people, considerably fewer than during Obamas tenure, and less than half are scientists.

Democrats on the House Science Committee urged Trump in a letter last month to immediately hire qualified scientific advisers.

Sound scientific and technology advice is indispensable to US national security and economic growth, and to forming federal policies that help drive the kind of research and technological advances that made this country great, the lawmakers wrote.

Obama adviser Holdren told the Globe this week that it was mind-boggling that Trump was making decisions without a science adviser  one who could help deal with crises like North Koreas nuclear program, climate change and the opioid epidemic.

Its vital for the president to get the best science advice, and right now, he isnt getting that. His decisions are being made without the benefit of science, Holdren said.

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Strengthen city, county and state climate efforts

If the federal government refuses to stand up against climate change, itll be more important than ever for cities, counties and states to pick up the slack and become climate leaders. That means committing to divest from fossil fuels, embrace clean energy, set emissions targets and develop climate action plans, among other measures.



The ominous signals coming out of D.C. point to even more work needed at the city and state level, said Kate Kiely, national media deputy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council. In November, the NRDC announced partnerships with 20 cities across the country from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Houston, Texas, to make strides in renewable energy.



According to Brune, cities could have an especially big influence in the climate change fight. We should be pushing cities to go 100 percent clean energy and to reject natural gas and coal and other fossil fuels, he said. A majority of people now live in cities, so this could have a dramatic impact.



In the U.S., at least 20 cities have made commitments to rely completely on clean energy.



People should organize and get their own cities to move forward, Brune said.



Contact your mayor, city council, or county or state representative and get them to set a timeline to stop using fossil fuels.

Push companies and institutions to divest from fossil fuels

There are a lot of things that the president cant undo. He cant stop the fact that solar and wind are cheaper than coal and gas. He cant change the fact that dozens of businesses have already committed to clean energy, Brune said.



As of December, more than 640 institutions worldwide, including several universities, churches and for-profit companies and banks, have pledged to divest from their fossil fuel investments. According to Go Fossil Free, a 350.org campaign, the commitments amount to more than $3.4 trillion.



Consumers should petition companies to ditch their fossil fuel investments, and students should urge their schools and colleges to do the same.



As we wrap up the hottest year in history, we know that investments in the fossil fuel industry fund these climate impacts. Thats why its more critical than ever that we push our institutions to divest from the fossil fuel companies that are knowingly perpetuating the climate crisis, Lindsay Meiman, U.S. communications coordinator for 350.org, told HuffPost.



Want to push a company, school or place of worship to divest from fossil fuels? 350.org has a list of resources to help you start a campaign. Or find an existing one to get involved in.

Put your money where your mouth is

Petitions and protests can be powerful, but moving your money speaks volumes too. As a consumer and as an investor, ensure you're not personally financing climate change. This means, for example, choosing banks that are free of fossil fuel connections.



Your ATM card or checking account or your mortgage, these should not be financed by companies that are taking your checking fees or other payments to subsidize the Dakota Access Pipeline or finance drilling offshore. Make sure your money aligns with your values, Brune said.



In September, Amalgamated Bank became the first North American bank to commit to divest 100 percent from fossil fuels. Aspiration has bank accounts that are fossil fuel-free, and Beneficial State Bank has credit cards that dont invest in fossil fuels.



Anthony Hobley, CEO of the Carbon Tracker Initiative, said consumers should also ensure that their pensions, 401(k) or other retirement savings accounts are similarly not underwriting fossil fuel companies.



A lot of pressure can be made through the financial industry, Hobley said from London. Ordinary people who hold pensions can put pressure on companies through their pensions. Put pressure on the people who manage your money and thats one way to keep pressure on those companies too.



The financial services companies that manage retirement accounts arent used to getting many letters from the people whose money they manage, Hobley added. It wouldnt take much of an organized effort for them to take notice.



Are your investments supporting fossil fuels? FossilFreeFunds.org is a web tool that allows people to check whether their individual investments or employer-provided 401(k) is supporting coal companies, oil and gas producers, and fossil-fired utilities.

Making a "financial case" for clean energy

Hobley believes the best chance we have of convincing Trump to care about climate change is to make a compelling financial case for renewables.



With new clean energy technologies getting more efficient and cheaper than fossil fuels, a transition to renewables is inevitable, said Hobley. Its just a matter of time.



Trump can no more stop this transition than a previous U.S. president couldve stopped the transition from steam locomotives to the automobile or the typewriter to the computer. The technological genie is already out of the bag, he said. Its not a case of if, but when. But the when is important because of the 2 degrees budget, and thats where a lack of political leadership or resistance can have a real impact.



Clear political leadership from both the U.S. and China could mean a "smoother" and faster transition to clean energy. A lack thereof, however, could make it easier for big oil and gas companies to stay in denial  and that would be to their detriment, Hobley said. It would mean pouring more money, billions or trillions of dollars, into fossil fuel assets that we simply dont need.



Trump now has the opportunity to make the United States a leader in clean energy.



These are complicated and highly technical products, Hobley said. With an educated and skilled workforce, these are the kinds of things that should be manufactured in the U.S.



Creating new jobs was a central part of Trumps election platform. Maybe someone should remind him that the clean energy industry creates more jobs per unit of energy than coal and natural gas. In 2015, the number of U.S. jobs in solar energy overtook those in oil and natural gas extraction for the very first time.



A 2015 report by NextGen Climate America found that a transition to clean energy would add a million jobs by 2030 and up to 2 million jobs by 2050, while increasing the nation's gross domestic product by $290 billion and boosting household income.



We should be citing such figures and urging utility companies and public utility commissions to embrace clean energy. (Public utility commissions regularly hold hearings that are open to the public. Attend them, and voice your thoughts!)

Speak out!

Whats the single biggest way you can influence climate change? According to the NRDC, its speaking up.



Talk to your friends and family, and make sure your representatives are making good decisions, Aliya Haq, deputy director of NRDCs Clean Power Plan Initiative, wrote in a blog post. The main reason elected officials do anything difficult is because their constituents make them.



In the coming months and years, there will be mass mobilizations that folks should join to push back against Trumps regressive policies and hateful rhetoric, said 350.orgs Meiman. Folks can engage online by joining online actions, signing petitions and contributing their voice on social media to push back on Trumps agenda.



You can also participate in protests in your area or join and support local nonprofits in their fight against climate change.

Reduce your own carbon footprint

Power your own home with renewable energy, invest in energy-efficient appliances and lightbulbs, and remember to weatherize.



Building heating and cooling are among the biggest uses of energy, said NRDCs Haq. Make your home more energy-efficient by sealing drafts and ensuring your home is adequately insulated and ventilated too.



Also consider changing your diet. Cut down on meat consumption or even eliminate it from your diet completely, Brune said. I do think that people can have a powerful impact on the environment just by eating less meat.



It takes 14 times as much biologically productive land to produce 1 ton of beef as it takes to produce 1 ton of grain, according to the Global Footprint Network.



Global livestock is also responsible for 14.5 percent of all anthropogenic carbon emissions, data from the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization shows.



Driving a fuel-efficient vehicle is another way to reduce your carbon footprint. You can also take steps to be more fuel efficient when you're on the road, no matter what car you drive.

Support environmental journalism

A major shortcoming of journalists during the presidential election was their failure to highlight climate change as a vital topic  and to force Trump (and Hillary Clinton, too) to address this crisis.



Over the next four years, Trump needs to be held accountable, and the press must make climate change a central issue in his presidency.



The Society of Environmental Journalists, a nonprofit membership organization supporting environmental journalists in the U.S. and around the world, aims to improve the quality, accuracy and visibility of reporting on the environment. You can also support nonprofit environmental news outlets such as Inside Climate, Grist and High Country News.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.President Donald Trump pauses as he arrives to speak about the mass shooting at a South Florida High School from the White House, Feb. 15, 2018, in Washington. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP)

President Trump limited his immediate public response to the third-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history to a pair of messages posted to Twitter on Wednesday.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting, Trump first tweeted. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.

Moments later, the president sent out a second message to his 47.8 million followers. Just spoke to Governor Rick Scott. We are working closely with law enforcement on the terrible Florida school shooting, the president wrote.

The White House canceled a planned briefing, and press secretary Sarah Sanders released a statement.

Late Thursday morning, Trump spoke about the tragedy in a brief televised address from the White House, saying that no child, no teacher, should be in danger in an American school. He said he would visit Parkland, Fla., where 17 people, most of them students, were killed and more than a dozen injured, to meet with families and local officials, and would work with governors to tackle the difficult issue of mental health.

Let us pray for healing and peace and let us come together as one nation to wipe away the tears and strive for a much better tomorrow, Trump said.

He did not mention guns in his remarks. The shooter used an AR-15 assault-style rifle and had multiple magazines, according to law enforcement officials.

The grim numbers from Parkland meant that it ranked as one of the deadliest school shootings on American soil, behind only the massacres at Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook Elementary. For some, the extent of the death toll  and Trumps initial four-sentence public response  made for an easy comparison with the presidents predecessor.

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On the day of the Sandy Hook murders, Obama delivered powerful remarks in front of the White House press corps that many Democrats hoped would lead to stronger gun control laws.

Trump has resisted strengthening firearm laws in the wake of mass shootings, echoing an argument that the time for discussing legislative solutions to gun violence is not in the immediate moments following such tragedies.

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On the Senate floor, Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who represents constituents who include the parents of the children killed at Sandy Hook, laid out the Democrats well-honed response to that idea.

As a parent, it scares me to death that this body doesnt take seriously the safety of my children, and it seems like a lot of parents in South Florida are going to be asking that same question later today, he said. We pray for the families, for the victims. We hope for the best.

Read more from Yahoo News:Rob Porter (Yahoo News photo illustration; photos: AP, Getty)

At least once a week, somebody says something to me like: Well, you must have plenty to write about these days! And every time, I have to suppress the urge to scream.

Sure, theres a lot going on in Washington, but while the headlines may change, the larger narrative of perpetual shame remains remarkably constant. And you know, I had a lot to write about when I was covering crime on the night shift, too, but that doesnt mean I enjoyed seeing people get killed.

The latest fiasco in Donald Trumps Washington  I mean, if you leave aside for a moment the stunningly rapid accumulation of public debt that will, within a decade or so, almost certainly lead us into a catastrophic crisis from which our kids may never recover, thanks to this last gasp of complete recklessness from self-involved boomers who keep rising back up like zombies at the end of some predictable horror film  involves the White House staff secretary, Rob Porter, who had to resign after a British newspaper revealed that not one but two of his ex-wives had accused him of beating them.

This was quickly followed by the resignation of another White House aide, a speechwriter named David Sorensen, whose ex-wife also accused him of abuse (including burning a cigarette into her hand), although he claims she was the one beating him, and he says he intends to shine a light on the grossly underreported and unacknowledged issue of female-on-male domestic violence.

Dude.

Theres an old saw about reporters asking politicians: When did you stop beating your wife? Its meant as an outrageous illustration of biased questioning. I never thought it would sound like a totally reasonable thing to ask in the White House Briefing Room.

Lets get back to my initial point, though, about how the larger story of this completely dysfunctional administration never really changes. At bottom, its about bad people acting badly, or good people enabling bad behavior because theyre in so far over their heads that they can almost touch the bottom.

Story continues

As I said during the last presidential campaign, there was never any reason to think that Donald Trump would run his White House any differently than he did his business.

The rise of the Trump Organization was always fueled by a combination of garish spectacle and mountainous debt. Trump entrusted much of the company to his dilettante children. And when it came to filling out the top ranks, Trump once actually said he made it his practice not to surround himself with anyone smarter than he was.

Check, check and check.

The sad thing about Porters sudden implosion, aside from what it says about the culture of the place, is that he was probably one of Trumps few truly qualified hires, serving in a job thats actually quite important. Porter is a Harvard-educated Rhodes scholar and former chief of staff to Sen. Orrin Hatch, which means he would have been a solid candidate for a senior post in any serious-minded administration, provided it didnt bother listening to the FBI or care much about domestic abuse.

Thats more than you can say for Trumps daughter and son-in-law (who also hasnt been able to get the security clearance he ought to have as a senior adviser). Or for the communications director, Hope Hicks, a former model and corporate flack with no government experience. Or for Stephen Miller, a fringy young press aide who somehow ended up in charge of domestic policy. Or for Omarosa Manigault, a reality TV star, who recently quit and started dumping on the place, which was a real shock, given that she has no history at all of seeking attention.

These were some of the best and brightest promised by Sean Spicer, the long-since-departed press secretary, who apparently didnt realize that the term itself, coined by the journalist David Halberstam to describe the men who led us into the Vietnam War, was meant ironically. Or maybe he did.

There are some serious people in this administration. One of them, the former Sen. Dan Coats, took a detour from his work as director of national intelligence to scold the Congress this week for its criminal disregard of all fiscal sanity. Another, Rex Tillerson, presides over the hollow shell of a building that used to be the State Department.

But according to Peter Baker, my former colleague at the New York Times, this administration has an unprecedented turnover rate of 34 percent (meaning that a third of the people hired ended up leaving in their first year), and scores of key posts remain unfilled. Trumps second chief of staff and designated grown-up, the retired Gen. John Kelly, seems likely to exit in a matter of weeks.

One insider whos been mentioned as a possible replacement for Kelly is Mick Mulvaney, who somehow manages to run the critical budget office while moonlighting as the head of an entire separate agency. Mulvaney said something truly remarkable during an appearance on CBSs Face the Nation last Sunday.

The host, Major Garrett, asked Mulvaney, a former congressman, if he himself would have voted for the presidents profligate budget proposal.

Oh, probably not, Mulvaney replied. But keep in mind Im not Congressman Mick Mulvaney anymore.  My job as the director of the Office of Management and Budget is to try to get the presidents agenda passed. And right now the top priority for this president was getting the Defense Department the money necessary to defend the nation.

Let me translate that into normal-person speak: You and I both understand this budget would be completely ruinous for the country  I cant even pretend Id support it. But you know, its never going to be enacted anyway, and theres really no point in arguing with the guy.

I guess thats what passes for integrity in the West Wing right now. Or maybe its just the equivalent of sending up a flare for rescuers.

The really sad part, to me, is that it didnt have to go down this way. Like John Kennedy or Barack Obama, Trump had a moment when he probably could have persuaded anyone he wanted to come serve at his side in Washington.

No, he wasnt the uplifting new leader those men were, but there was a sense after Trump won in 2016 that he was unprepared for the job and in need of shoring up. There was a feeling then, among Republicans anyway, that the patriotic thing was to help him succeed.

All Trump had to do was say some version of: The people have put me here, and I know what I dont know, and Im calling on the very best minds that our party and our country have to offer. I need your help, and I need your expertise. He could have built a truly first-rate administration.

That moment has long since passed, and now no one with a reputation still to lose wants to have anything to do with this calamity. What we sensed then, and know now, is that Trump isnt a guy who asks for help. Hes not inspired by talent and intellect; hes threatened by it.

Trump told us long ago exactly what kind of manager he is  the kind who needs to know hes the smartest guy at the table.

No wonder hes had so much trouble filling the chairs.

Read more from Yahoo News:WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday pledged the Justice Department would work to vigorously enforce federal gun and violent-crime laws and preventively identify potential mass shooters, as the country reeled from a Florida school shooting that killed 17 people.

"It cannot be denied that something dangerous and unhealthy is happening and we are, once again, watching the images of our children  terrified  streaming from their school with their hands above their heads," the top U.S. law enforcement officer told a meeting of sheriffs. "We are going to take action. We must reverse these trends."

(Reporting by Lisa LambertEditing by Chizu Nomiyama)By Dustin Volz and Sarah Young WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) - The White House on Thursday blamed Russia for the devastating 'NotPetya' cyber attack last year, joining the British government in condemning Moscow for unleashing a virus that crippled parts of Ukraine's infrastructure and damaged computers in countries across the globe. The attack launched in June 2017 by the Russian military "spread worldwide, causing billions of dollars in damage across Europe, Asia and the Americas," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. "It was part of the Kremlin's ongoing effort to destabilize Ukraine and demonstrates ever more clearly Russia's involvement in the ongoing conflict," Sanders said. "This was also a reckless and indiscriminate cyber attack that will be met with international consequences." The strongly worded but brief statement was the first time the U.S. government has blamed Russia for what is considered one of the worst cyber attacks on record. Many private sector security experts had fingered Moscow months ago. The statement came days after leaders of U.S. intelligence agencies again warned that Russia, and potentially other adversaries, were likely to attempt to use cyber means to meddle in the U.S. midterm elections in November. Experts said the White House vow of a response needed to be met with clear action, especially because U.S. President Donald Trump has sought to improve relations with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and has at times appeared dismissive of the cyber threat posed by Russia. The U.S. government is "reviewing a range of options," a senior White House official said when asked what consequences Russia would face. It was not clear what those options were, nor what was meant by "international consequences." Earlier on Thursday Russia denied being behind the attack, saying the accusations were part of a "Russophobic" campaign that it said was being waged by some Western countries. The White House had intended to release a statement about 'NotPetya' at the same time as London, but those plans were delayed due to a school shooting in Florida, according to three sources familiar with the matter. 'EMPTY PROMISE'? The U.S. government has been quicker to blame other nations, most notably North Korea, for destructive cyber attacks, including the WannaCry ransomware attack in May 2017. Some administration officials have worried that publicly blaming Russia without imposing some cost could raise questions about why the United States was not retaliating, said two sources familiar with the internal debate. Others argued that because the United States also conducts covert cyberspace operations that could not be discussed in public, the statement attributing blame to Moscow required no elaboration, the sources said. In addition to covert operations, retaliation could take the form of further sanctions on Russia or other diplomatic penalties. Trump has resisted the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies that Moscow also meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. After he met Putin in Vietnam last November, Trump said he believed the Russian leader when he denied his government interfered in the election. Democrats and some Republicans have criticized the Trump administration for not imposing sanctions that were passed unanimously by Congress last summer and were intended to punish Moscow for meddling in the 2016 election. "With Russia, if we are promised consequences, people are going to be looking for tangible proof" of a response, said Kenneth Geers, a security researcher at the cyber firm Comodo and former U.S. intelligence official who works at NATO's think tank on cyber defense. "Otherwise it seems like a real empty promise." The NotPetya attack started in Ukraine, where it crippled government and business computers before spreading around Europe and the world, halting operations at ports, factories and offices. Britain's foreign ministry said in a statement released earlier in the day that the attack originated from the Russian military. "The decision to publicly attribute this incident underlines the fact that the UK and its allies will not tolerate malicious cyber activity," the ministry said in a statement. "The attack masqueraded as a criminal enterprise but its purpose was principally to disrupt," it said. "Primary targets were Ukrainian financial, energy and government sectors. Its indiscriminate design caused it to spread further, affecting other European and Russian business." (Reporting by Dustin Volz in WASHINGTON and Sarah Young in LONDON; Additional reporting by Katya Golubkova in MOSCOW, Andrea Shalal in MUNICH, Teis Jensen in COPENHAGEN, and Steve Holland and John Walcott in WASHINGTON; Editing by Mary Milliken, Bill Rigby and Daniel Wallis)Things are still looking pretty bleak for Huaweis plans to conquer the U.S. market. Earlier this week, half a dozen top members of intelligence agencies, including the FBI, CIA and NSA reaffirmed surveillance concerns about the company and fellow Chinese smartphone maker ZTE.

All of this is nothing new, of course. The companies troubles date back at least as far back as 2012, when a House Intelligence Committee cited both as a potential security risks over close ties to the Chinese government. The following year, they were both barred from selling product to the U.S. government.

FBI director Chris Wray echoed those concerns during a hearing Tuesday, stating, We're deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don't share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks.

Huawei has since issued a response, accusing the government of inhibiting [its] business in the U.S. market and adding, "Huawei is trusted by governments and customers in 170 countries worldwide and poses no greater cybersecurity risk than any ICT vendor, sharing as we do common global supply chains and production capabilities.

The letter closely echoed the statements of an angry Richard Yu on stage last month at CES. Weve won the trust of the Chinese carriers, Yu fumed at the companys keynote. Weve also won spots on all of the European carriers.

That off-the-cuff speech came after an AT&T deal fell through last second, seemingly at the behest of the same lawmakers warning against purchasing the companys hardware. It was a big blow for the company, given that a majority of U.S. phone purchases still go through carriers.

Meantime, Huawei has attempted to double down on non-carrier retailers here the States. That aggressive push, however, has put the company in even more hot water, as fake reviews for its flagship the Mate 10 Pro have reportedly surfaced on Best Buys website, apparently linked to a Facebook contest spurred on by Huawei.By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council is considering a British proposal to praise Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for pledging nearly $1 billion to ease Yemen's humanitarian crisis, as U.N. experts accuse a Saudi-led military coalition of using "the threat of starvation as an instrument of war" in Yemen. The draft statement, seen by Reuters on Thursday, broadly expresses concern about civilian casualties and restrictions on commercial and humanitarian food, fuel and medical imports and calls on all parties to allow unhindered aid access in Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015, backing government forces fighting Iran-allied Houthi rebels. The draft statement only calls out the Houthis by name, condemning the group for missile attacks on Saudi Arabia and using sea mines. "The Security Council should be naming and shaming everyone," said Human Rights Watch U.N. Director Louis Charbonneau. "A statement that condemns one side, the Houthis, but doesn't even mention the abuses of the other, the Saudi-led coalition, simply nurtures the atmosphere of impunity." The draft statement, which the 15-member council has to agree by consensus, "notes with appreciation" the Saudi Arabia and UAE pledge of humanitarian aid and a Saudi intention to deposit $2 billion into Yemen's central bank to shore up a weak Yemeni currency. UAE is part of the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen. Independent U.N. experts monitoring Yemen sanctions reported to the Security Council that a coalition blockade in November of areas under Houthi control - which Riyadh said was to stop a flow of arms to the Houthis from Iran - "had the effect of using the threat of starvation as an instrument of war." Yemen relies heavily on food imports and is on the brink of famine. Nearly 1 million people have been infected with cholera. The Saudi U.N. mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.N. experts report. Iran has denied supplying the Houthis with weapons. "Houthi forces are also using the population as a pawn when they escalate their strikes against Saudi Arabia, knowing full well the brunt of reprisals will be felt by the civilian population," according to the report made public on Thursday. The U.N. experts said Saudi-led coalition air strikes and indiscriminate use of explosives by the Houthis and fighters loyal to late former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh disproportionately affected civilians in Yemen in 2017. "The panel has seen no evidence to suggest that appropriate measures were taken by any side to mitigate the devastating impact of these attacks on the civilian population," the report said. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by James Dalgleish)Parents and family gather near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after Wednesdays shooting. (AP)

The tragic shooting that has claimed at least 17 lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Wednesday spared the life of UFC fighter Alexey Oleyniks daughter.

Polina Oleynik is a student at the high school.

Olynik posted a video of his daughter being interviewed by a local TV crew in the wake of the shooting on Twitter Wednesday afternoon.

No comment, terrible moments of parents, Olynik wrote.

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Oleyniks manager Abe Kawa confirmed with MMA Fighting that Polina was unharmed.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters that 19-year-old Nicolas de Jesus Cruz has been arrested as a suspect in the shooting at the Ft. Lauderdale-area school that is home to around 3,200 students. An AR-15 style assault rifle was recovered at the scene, Israel said.

Oleynik, 40, is scheduled to fight Junior Albini at UFC 224 on May 12 in Rio de Janeiro.By William Schomberg

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will stop funding overseas aid agencies if they fail to learn the lessons from Oxfam's sex abuse scandal, and the government will discuss possible prosecutions with law enforcement, the British development minister said on Wednesday.

Penny Mordaunt told anti-poverty groups that Britain - one of the world's most generous foreign development donors - would cut funding if they could not show they were clear of the kind of abuse that has rocked Oxfam.

The Times newspaper reported on Friday that some Oxfam staff paid for sex with prostitutes in Haiti after the country's 2010 earthquake. Oxfam has neither confirmed nor denied that specific account but has said an internal investigation in 2011 confirmed sexual misconduct occurred and it has apologised.

"Unless you safeguard everyone your organisation comes into contact with, including beneficiaries, staff and volunteers, we will not fund you," Mordaunt told a conference attended by representatives of development agencies in Stockholm.

"Unless you create a culture that prioritises the safety of vulnerable people and ensures victims and whistleblowers can come forward without fear, we will not work with you," she said.

"And unless you report every serious incident or allegation, no matter how damaging to your reputation, we cannot be partners."

Mordaunt said she was due to meet the head of Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) on Thursday. The NCA has led investigations which led to the jailing of British citizens for sex crimes committed abroad.

"While investigations have to be completed and any potential criminals prosecuted accordingly, what is clear is that the culture that allowed this to happen needs to change. And it needs to change now," she said.

'SERIOUS SEXUAL CRIMES'

A spokeswoman said Mordaunt would discuss how her office and the NCA could work together to implement laws on sexual exploitation and abuse, but added that the meeting did not relate specifically to criminal activity involving Oxfam staff.

Story continues

The Haitian government could revoke Oxfam's right to operate in the Caribbean island, said Aviol Fleurant, the minister of planning and external cooperation.

Oxfam officials had been summoned to meet with his ministry staff on Thursday to explain the accusations of sexual misconduct, Fleurant said.

"The allegations appear very serious and we don't rule out the possibility to revoke Oxfam's authorization to operate in Haiti as an NGO, should alleged misconduct prove to be true," Fleurant said by phone late on Tuesday. "We want this issue to be addressed to its full extent and alleged abusers prosecuted by criminal courts."

Prostitution is a crime in Haiti, but it was not entirely clear what other crimes the Oxfam officials may have committed.

Oxfam receives around 32 million pounds ($44 million)of British government funding a year. The European Commission has also said it could cut off its funding for Oxfam which stands at around 68 million euros ($84 million) a year.

This week, Mordaunt called on all British charities active abroad to be transparent about their operations.

Only six out of 10 global aid agencies were willing to disclose the extent of sex abuse by their staff in a survey conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The scandal has bolstered critics of Britain's commitment to spend the equivalent of 0.7 percent of economic output on foreign aid.

(Reporting by William Schomberg in London; additional reporting by Joseph Guyler Delva in Port-au-Prince; Editing by Gareth Jones and Grant McCool)Washington (AFP) - The United States and Britain on Thursday blamed the Russian military for last year's devastating "NotPetya" ransomware attack, calling it a Kremlin effort to destabilize Ukraine which spun out of control.

Statements from Washington and London said Russia would face ramifications for the attacks that crippled computer networks in the United States and Europe, including those of some big corporations.

A White House statement, echoing one from Britain's Foreign Office hours earlier, pointed the finger at the Russian military for the June 2017 attack and called it "the most destructive and costly cyber attack in history," resulting in billions of dollars in economic losses.

"It was part of the Kremlin's ongoing effort to destabilize Ukraine," the US statement said.

The White House added that "NotPetya," which hit thousands of computer systems and caused damage across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, was a "reckless and indiscriminate cyber attack that will be met with international consequences."

Earlier in London, Foreign Office Minister for Cyber Security Tariq Ahmad said the British government decided to publicly attribute the blame, underscoring that Britain and its allies "will not tolerate malicious cyber activity."

"Primary targets were Ukrainian financial, energy and government sectors," the British statement said, adding that NotPetya's "indiscriminate design caused it to spread further, affecting other European and Russian business."

British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said the attack was further evidence of a "new era of warfare," with "a destructive and deadly mix of conventional military might and malicious cyber attacks."

Russia "is ripping up the rule book by undermining democracy, wrecking livelihoods by targeting critical infrastructure and weaponizing information," he said.

Story continues

The accusation was immediately denied by the Kremlin.

"We categorically reject such accusations. We consider them unsubstantiated and groundless," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

"This is nothing but a continuation of a Russophobic campaign that is not based on any evidence," he said.

- 'More sophisticated attack' -

The attack blocked thousands of computers worldwide, particularly affecting multinational companies and critical infrastructure, such as radiation monitors at the old Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the ports of Mumbai and Amsterdam.

Companies hit included the Russian oil group Rosneft, Danish shipping company Maersk, US pharmaceutical giant Merck, French construction specialist Saint-Gobain and the British advertising firm WPP.

Ukraine, which is battling Russia-backed rebels in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people, was the worst affected country.

Banking operations were compromised in what authorities said was an unprecedented attack, which even disrupted arrivals and departures informations at the capital's main Boryspil airport.

The virus, which demanded a payment worth $300 as it locked up files at companies and government agencies, was reminiscent of the WannaCry ransomware attack that swept the world a month earlier in May 2017, hitting more than 200,000 users in more than 150 countries.

Britain and the United States have blamed North Korea for the WannaCry attack, saying it may have been an attempt by the isolated communist regime to access foreign currency.

The NotPetya attack appeared smaller in scale, with global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab estimating there were thousands of victims.

Comparing it to WannaCry, the director of European police agency Europol, Rob Wainwright, said at the time that NotPetya showed "indications of a more sophisticated attack capability intended to exploit a range of vulnerabilities."

- Cyber-diplomatic tensions -

The public accusations come amid rising tensions over Russia's cyber activities, amid fears of a disinformation effort led by Moscow aimed at disrupting the 2016 US election and stoking political divisions.

Social media automated accounts or "bots" believed to be directed from Moscow have been blamed for efforts to manipulate public opinion in the United States and elsewhere.

Some British politicians have accused Russia of attempts to disrupt the democratic process in Britain by online interference in political campaigns such as the 2016 Brexit referendum and a 2017 general election.

Speaking on Wednesday, John Chipman, director of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, said Russia was engaged in "capabilities beyond conventional military force that are easier to develop and deploy unaccountably."

"There is still no effective response from the West either in the form of countermeasures or sanctions," he said.Prime Minister and climate change action advocate, Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi, is among the high-profile experts presenting at the Pacific Climate Change Conference next week at Te Papa National Museum.

The three-day event, co-hosted by Victoria University of Wellington and Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (S.P.R.E.P.), has more than 160 invited speakers from backgrounds including science, government, business, indigenous rights, law, activism, media and the arts.

Among the line-up of speakers are renewable energy expert Professor Daniel Nocera from Harvard University, Professor D. Kapuaala Sproat from the Native Hawaiian Law Center, environmental scientist Dr. Patila Malua-Amosa from the National University of Samoa, climate scientist Professor Michael Mann from Pennsylvania State University, indigenous bio-cultural heritage expert Aroha Mead and graduate lawyer Sarah Thomson, who filed a legal case against the New Zealand government for its emission targets.

It is the second time Victoria University has hosted the Pacific Climate Change Conference.

Climate change scientist and conference co-organiser Professor James Renwick says Victorias inaugural conference in 2016 highlighted the deep and long-lasting effects climate change was having on Pacific communities.

In 2016, we heard from people whose daily lives are impacted by climate change-whether its more frequent extreme storms demolishing sea walls and destroying food crops, or warmer seas affecting fisheries and damaging corals. We heard the President of Kiribati express very real concerns that his people may no longer have land to stand on if sea levels continue to rise.

But we also heard from people who are dedicating their work to better understanding the science, legal, political, economic and human aspects.

This second conference is a chance to get the very latest information, exchange knowledge and ideas, and reignite connections that can bring positive change.

Victorias Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Pasifika), Luamanuvao Winnie Laban says the conference is a vital chance for the voices of the Pacific to be heard.

We have representatives from at least 11 Pacific island nations attending this conference so its an invaluable opportunity to share expertise and experience, and come together to find solutions.

At the last conference, we asked representatives from Pacific nations, including New Zealand, to find out how their governments are reducing greenhouse gas emissions, in accordance with the Paris Agreement, and report back. We look forward to hearing their progress.By William Schomberg LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will stop funding overseas aid agencies if they fail to learn the lessons from Oxfam's sex abuse scandal, and the government will discuss possible prosecutions with law enforcement, the British development minister said on Wednesday. Penny Mordaunt, the Secretary of State for International Development, told anti-poverty groups that Britain - one of the world's most generous foreign development donors - would cut funding if they could not show they were clear of the kind of abuse that has rocked Oxfam. The Times newspaper reported on Friday that some Oxfam staff paid for sex with prostitutes in Haiti after the country's 2010 earthquake. Oxfam has neither confirmed nor denied that specific account but has said an internal investigation in 2011 confirmed sexual misconduct occurred and it has apologized. "Unless you safeguard everyone your organization comes into contact with, including beneficiaries, staff and volunteers, we will not fund you," Mordaunt told a conference attended by representatives of development agencies in Stockholm. "Unless you create a culture that prioritizes the safety of vulnerable people and ensures victims and whistleblowers can come forward without fear, we will not work with you," she said. "And unless you report every serious incident or allegation, no matter how damaging to your reputation, we cannot be partners." Mordaunt said she was due to meet the head of Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) on Thursday. The NCA has led investigations which led to the jailing of British citizens for sex crimes committed abroad. "While investigations have to be completed and any potential criminals prosecuted accordingly, what is clear is that the culture that allowed this to happen needs to change. And it needs to change now," she said. 'SERIOUS SEXUAL CRIMES' A spokeswoman said Mordaunt would discuss how her office and the NCA could work together to implement laws on sexual exploitation and abuse, but added that the meeting did not relate specifically to criminal activity involving Oxfam staff. A senior Haitian official said the country is seeking cooperation, and ultimately accountability, in the case. "Haiti is expecting genuine collaboration from Oxfam, the U.K. and the Belgium government," said Justice Minister Heidi Fortune in an interview on Wednesday. Fortune said he is preparing a formal request that will be sent to Belgium's foreign ministry demanding help pursuing legal proceedings against the former head of Oxfam's operations in Haiti, Roland van Hauwermeiren, a Belgian national. "This will be done rapidly," he added. Haiti could also revoke Oxfam's right to operate in the Caribbean island, said Aviol Fleurant, the minister of planning and external cooperation. Oxfam officials had been summoned to meet with his ministry staff on Thursday to explain the accusations of sexual misconduct, Fleurant said. "The allegations appear very serious and we don't rule out the possibility to revoke Oxfam's authorization to operate in Haiti as an NGO, should alleged misconduct prove to be true," Fleurant said by phone late on Tuesday. "We want this issue to be addressed to its full extent and alleged abusers prosecuted by criminal courts." Prostitution is a crime in Haiti, but it was not entirely clear what other crimes the Oxfam officials may have committed. Oxfam receives around 32 million pounds ($44 million) of British government funding a year. The European Commission has also said it could cut off its funding for Oxfam which stands at around 68 million euros ($84 million) a year. This week, Mordaunt called on all British charities active abroad to be transparent about their operations. Only six out of 10 global aid agencies were willing to disclose the extent of sex abuse by their staff in a survey conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The scandal has bolstered critics of Britain's commitment to spend the equivalent of 0.7 percent of economic output on foreign aid. (Reporting by William Schomberg in London; additional reporting by Joseph Guyler Delva in Port-au-Prince; Editing by Gareth Jones, Grant McCool and Christian Schmollinger)Brussels (AFP) - US concerns over the EU's landmark defence cooperation pact and increasingly strained relations between Washington and Turkey look set to loom large as NATO defence ministers meet for talks on Wednesday.

The US and Ankara, two of the transatlantic alliance's most important members, are at loggerheads over Turkey's military offensive in northern Syria, which US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday warned was detracting from the fight against the Islamic State group.

The two-day meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels is expected to approve changes to NATO's command structure aimed at making the alliance fit for the challenges of warfare in the 21st century, particularly cyber tactics and hybrid warfare, as fears grow about Russian assertiveness.

But a working dinner with EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini on Wednesday night has taken on greater significance after senior US officials voiced fears about the bloc's defence pact and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned it must not undermine the alliance.

Stoltenberg said Tuesday that efforts to boost EU defence spending were welcome, but only if they were coordinated with NATO plans, warning there was "no way" the EU could replace the transatlantic alliance in guaranteeing European security.

"It will be absolutely without any meaning if NATO and the EU start to compete," the former Norwegian premier told reporters.

"European allies are absolutely aware that the defence, the protection of Europe is dependent on NATO."

The EU's so-called permanent structured cooperation on defence agreement, known as PESCO, has projects in view already to develop new military equipment and improve cooperation and decision-making.

But on Sunday a senior official working with US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Washington had concerns some of the proposed initiatives risked "pulling resources or capabilities away from NATO".

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- Turkey row -

And on Tuesday US ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison ramped up the pressure, warning the EU there could be serious consequences if it shuts US defence companies out of cooperation projects.

"Certainly we do not want this to be a protectionist vehicle for the EU and we're going to watch carefully, because if that becomes the case then it could splinter the strong security alliance that we have," she told reporters.

The US concerns have surprised some European diplomats, with one insisting that EU defence cooperation poses no threat to NATO, adding that "a little explanatory work" is required to clarify matters with the Americans.

Wednesday's dinner now represents an important chance for Mogherini to reassure the US, which is NATO's biggest contributor.

Potentially more serious is the festering row between the US and Turkey over Ankara's "Operation Olive Branch" launched last month against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

While Turkey views the YPG as a "terrorist" group, the US has been working closely with the militia against Islamic State in Syria and giving it weapons, infuriating Ankara.

US ambassador Hutchison said Turkey remained an important ally and the two sides were trying to resolve the dispute.

Mattis is to meet his Turkish counterpart on the sidelines of the meeting on Wednesday.

A diplomatic source said that while the row was "a topic of concern for NATO", it was not a matter for the alliance to resolve.

"The issue will be solved bilaterally between the US and Turkey," the source said.Washington (AFP) - The top US intelligence official issued a warning on Tuesday about the dangers of climate change in testimony that was seemingly at odds with the skepticism of President Donald Trump and other members of his administration.

"The impacts of the long-term trends toward a warming climate, more air pollution, biodiversity loss, and water scarcity are likely to fuel economic and social discontent -- and possibly upheaval -- through 2018," said Dan Coats, the Director of National Intelligence.

"The past 115 years have been the warmest period in the history of modern civilization, and the past few years have been the warmest years on record," Coats said in prepared remarks to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The intelligence chief did not directly attribute global warming to human activity in his annual Worldwide Threat Assessment report, but he starkly outlined the dangers of climate change.

"Extreme weather events in a warmer world have the potential for greater impacts and can compound with other drivers to raise the risk of humanitarian disasters, conflict, water and food shortages, population migration, labor shortfalls, price shocks, and power outages," he said.

"Domestic policy responses to such issues will become more difficult -- especially for democracies -- as publics become less trusting of authoritative information sources," he added.

Trump once derided global warming as a "hoax" and withdrew the United States from the Paris climate change agreement upon taking office.

The US leader cast doubt on the veracity of global warming science as recently as December 28.

"In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year's Eve on record," Trump tweeted.

"Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against."Aboard the USS Carl Vinson (AFP) - With a deafening roar the fighter jets catapulted off the US aircraft carrier and soared above the disputed South China Sea, as its admiral vowed that the mighty ship's presence was proof America still had regional clout.

"US presence matters," Rear Admiral John Fuller told reporters on board the USS Carl Vinson. "I think it's very clear that we are in the South China Sea. We are operating."

The Carl Vinson, one of the US Navy's longest-serving active carriers, is currently conducting what officials say is a routine mission through the hotly contested waters where years of island reclamation and military construction by Beijing has rattled regional nerves.

Following criticism that the Trump administration's commitment to the Asian region has been distracted by North Korea, reporters were flown onto the ship Wednesday as it sailed through the sea.

In a rapid series of take-offs and landings, F18 fighter jets roared off the deck, travelling from zero to 290 kilometres (180 miles) per hour in a dizzying two seconds.

Fuller, commander of the Carl Vinson Strike Group, said the 333-metre- (thousand-foot-) long ship's presence was a way to reassure allies.

"The nations in the Pacific are maritime nations," he said. "They value stability ... That's exactly what we are here for. This is a very visible and tangible presence. The United States is here again."

- China challenged -

But the location of the strike group -- which includes a carrier air wing and a guided-missile cruiser -- is also a very direct message to China, whether US officials admit it or not.

Its voyage comes just a month after the Pentagon's national defence strategy labelled China a "strategic competitor" that bullies its neighbours while militarising features in the South China Sea.

Beijing claims most of the South China Sea -- believed to hold vast oil and gas deposits and through which $5 trillion in trade passes annually -- and has rapidly built reefs into artificial islands capable of hosting military planes.

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The Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei also have claims in the sea.

Compared to the 11 active aircraft carriers in the US Navy, China currently boasts just one carrier.

But the rising Asian superpower has made no secret of its desire to build up its naval forces and become much more regionally assertive.

Last month Beijing said it had dispatched a warship to drive away a US missile destroyer which had "violated" its sovereignty by sailing close to a shoal in the South China Sea.

Major naval nations like the US, Britain and Australia are determined not to let China dictate who can enter the strategic waters.

They have pushed "freedom of navigation" operations in which naval vessels sail close to Chinese-claimed militarised islets in the South China Sea.

"We will follow what international rule says and we will respect (it), even if there are disputes there," Fuller said.

- Alliances shifting -

The nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson -- the ship that took Osama Bin Laden's body for burial at sea -- began a regular deployment in the Western Pacific last month.

The carrier is home to 5,300 sailors, pilots, and other crew members as well as 72 aircraft.

Washington has announced plans for it to dock in Vietnam -- a first for the communist nation which is rattled by China's expansionism in the sea and has forged a growing alliance with its former foe the US.

Britain said on Tuesday it will sail its own warship from Australia through the South China Sea next month to assert freedom of navigation rights in support of the US approach.

But alliances are shifting.

The Philippines, a US treaty ally, was once the strongest critic of Beijing's expansionism in the South China Sea, successfully winning a tribunal case in The Hague over their claims.

But it has changed course under President Rodrigo Duterte in a bid for billions of dollars worth of Chinese investment.

Duterte last week said it was not time to fight China over the row, adding the Philippines should "not meddle" with Washington and Beijing's competition for superpower status.

In Wednesday's trip, the USS Carl Vinson hosted top Duterte aides and key Philippine military officers.

Duterte's communications secretary Martin Andanar described the carrier as "very impressive" and its equipment "massive".

Asked if Manila welcomed US patrols in the disputed area, Andanar told reporters: "The United States has been a big brother of the Philippines, a military ally."A 'Resist white supremacy' sign at Cox Farms in Virginia: Cox Farms

A farm in Virginia has faced a backlash for displaying a roadside sign that urged passersby to "resist white supremacy".

The team at family-owned Cox Farms in Centreville, Virginia, said they used their signs to promote messages of inclusion about Black Lives Matter, immigration and other social issues.

They have faced criticism and lost business over the messages in the past, they said in a Facebook post.

And the owners told The Independent that some folks seem to be very riled up by the white supremacy sign in particular. Cox Farms had been wrongly denounced as having created a thinly-veiled attack declaring all Trump supporters white supremacists, a representative said.

In a Facebook post, the team wrote: We sincerely believe that fighting injustice and white supremacy is a responsibility that can  and should  unite us all. We struggle to see how anyone other than self-identified white supremacists would take this as a personal attack.

However, in a later post the farm owners said they had been overwhelmed by the mostly positive response.

They wrote: During the off-season, we have nothing to sell, lots to say, and plenty of time for conversation.

These signs are messages of inclusion posted so that they might provide assurance to someone who felt their validity and their belonging was being questioned, and to speak out in an increasingly hostile climate.

First and foremost, were grateful for the support weve received from our neighbours and local community, and from across the country.

Were glad to know that so many people recognise why a sign like this is necessary and relevant and important right now.

The responses have also highlighted how much confusion and misinformation there is surrounding the very notion of white supremacy.

White supremacists including militia groups and former KKK leader David Duke rallied about 90 miles from Centreville in Charlottesville, Virginia, last August. One woman was killed when a car drove through crowds of opposing protesters.

In an address following the violence, Donald Trump initially blamed both sides and only later issued a statement condemning Nazi and white supremacist groups.Barack Obama used to say it was the part of the job he hated the most  speaking in the aftermath of mass shootings and trying somehow to act as consoler-in-chief.

He had plenty of practice  Orlando, Kalamazoo, San Bernardino, Charleston and Aurora. He spoke after each, and wondered aloud why the US had succumbed to a pattern of mass shootings that has no parallel anywhere else in the world.

Perhaps the toughest speech he had to deliver was in December 2012, when 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Four years later, appearing in the Oval Office with some of the parents of those youngsters who lives were stolen, and appealing for support for gun control measures, he wiped tears from his eyes. Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad, he said.

School shootings are all too common in a country unable to pass gun legislation (Getty)

Six years later  a period in which at least 400 people have been shot in more than 200 school shootings, and in which 590 individuals died in 346 mass shootings in 2017 alone  another US president is making another speech after yet another mass fatality incident takes its turn to dominate the headlines for a day or two.

Donald Trump called on Americans to answer hate with love, answer cruelty with kindness and said he would work to find ways to tackle the problem of mental health. He did not name the suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, or mention the word guns. He certainly did not mention the AR-15 semi-assault profile  the so-called civilian version of the fully automatic M-16 model used by the military

Gun control campaigners say it is bewildering that after so many incidents of gun violence, politicians remain seemingly unwilling to act to control guns, especially when the American public supports regulation.

A poll by Quinnipiac University last November, found 94 per cent of Americans believe there should be background checks for all gun purchases, 79 per cent believe there should be a mandatory waiting period for purchases, 64 per cent support banning assault-style weapons and 64 per cent support banning the sale of magazines that carry more than 10 rounds. Tellingly, 63 per cent said it was possible to make new gun laws without interfering with gun rights as afforded by the US Constitution.

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You cannot find an issue on which there is more agreement, Kristin Brown, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told The Independent.

The trouble is, we have a stalemate in congress. Too many lawmakers get their funding from the NRA (National Rifle Association) and they block changes that would help stop this. Instead, they tweet about praying for the families.

She added: Everyone approves of greater gun regulation. The only people who dont want this are the people who want to sell more guns.

Ms Brown said the NRA, which was founded in 1871 as a recreational group designed to promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis, today got most of its funding from gun manufacturers.

Its role as a lobbying group took off after 1977 when it formed its own Political Action Committee (PAC), to channel funds to legislators at state and local level. It even issues a rating to politicians, scoring them on how supportive they are of NRA policies.

Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate who received $1.3m (920,000) up to 2016 from the NRA, currently has an A+. Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, who received $171,977 in 2016 also has an A+. Senator Jeff Sessions, who is now the Attorney General, has an A.

By contrast, the NRA has scored Democratic senators Chuck Schumer of New York and Floridas Bill Nelson both with an F.

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On Wednesday, Bess Kalb, a writer for Jimmy Kimmel Live, drew attention to the NRAs influence by responding to legislators tweeting message of condolence, by listing how much money they have received from the organisation.

Today, it is estimated that the NRA spends about $250m per year, far more than all the countrys gun control advocacy groups put together. In 2016, it endorsed Mr Trumps presidential run and provided his campaign with up to $30m. Shortly after he took office, Mr Trump attended the NRAs national convention in Atlanta.

Only one candidate in the general election came to speak to you, and that candidate is now the president of the United States, standing before you, he said. You came through for me, and I am going to come through for you.

Since then, Mr Trump has been a vocal supporter of gun rights. He supports a Republican bill pending before the Senate that the NRA considers its legislative priority and which would establish a nationwide right to carry a concealed weapon  even in those states and cities opposed to such laws.

The right of self-defence doesnt stop at the end of your driveway, said one of his campaigns policy documents. Thats why I have a concealed carry permit and why tens of millions of Americans do too. That permit should be valid in all 50 states.

Activists say in addition to that measure, Mr Trump and the Republican Party have backed moves to make it easier to buy silencers, blocked an Obama-era rule that would have made it harder for the mentally ill to buy weapons, made it easier for people labelled fugitives to get guns, loosened gun restrictions on federal land and ignored an undertaking to set up a select committee on gun violence.

Finally, New York magazine reported, Mr Trump has proposed cutting millions of dollars from the budgets of the organisations that carry out background checks.

There are an awful lot of guns in America: up to 265 million at the last count. Sales always go up after mass shootings as people fear the imposition of new regulations. After the Las Vegas mass shooting in October in which Stephen Paddock killed 58 people, the stock prices of gun companies increased.

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At the same time, although congress vowed to ban the so-called bump stock, the device that renamed Paddock to shoot his weapon as if it were an automatic, no such national restriction has been passed, even though some states, such as Massachusetts, have passed bans.

The NRA initially said it supported making the purchase of such devices more difficult. But when a bipartisan group of politicians presented federal legislation to ban them, the NRA voiced opposition, saying it was an infringement on second amendment rights. The legislation, spearheaded by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, has since stalled.

The NRA and gun rights activists took heart from a 2008 Supreme Court decision  District of Columbia v. Heller  which for the which for the first time said the second amendment guaranteed an individuals right to own guns. Yet, the ruling also allowed for gun control.

For gun control, in other words, the problem is not constitutional law but political will, the New Yorkers legal expert Jeffrey Toobin wrote after the June 2016 Orlando night club shooting that left 49 people dead.

Many states and localities have taken advantage of the gaps left by Heller to make serious efforts to limit gun violence. But because most guns are easily portable over state and jurisdictional lines, there is only so much that can be done without action by the federal government. And Congress, especially with the House of Representatives in Republican hands, seems implacably opposed to any sort of gun restrictions.By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A divided New York State Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, on Thursday threw out the indictment of a man who spent more than six years in the Rikers Island jail in a Manhattan murder case, saying his constitutional right to a speedy trial was violated.

The 4-3 decision favoring Reginald Wiggins came less than a month after the federal appeals court in Manhattan dismissed on speedy trial grounds the indictment of an upstate man, Joseph Tigano, held for nearly seven years before being convicted on marijuana charges.

Wiggins had been 16 when he was charged in the May 2008 shooting death of a 15-year-old bystander outside a "Sweet Sixteen" party on West 90th Street in Manhattan, by a shot meant for a guest.

But he waited in jail as the Manhattan District Attorney's office spent more than five years trying first to win testimony against him from co-defendant Jamal Armstead, and then going through three mistrials of Armstead.

Wiggins finally pleaded guilty to manslaughter in September 2014, before Armstead could be tried a fourth time, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Armstead later pleaded guilty to attempted murder.

Writing for Thursday's majority, Judge Eugene Fahey said prosecutors cannot indefinitely delay trials to gather evidence, and delays such as Wiggins' erode faith in the "fundamental fairness" of the criminal justice system.

Even if prosecutors acted in good faith, "their decision to pursue a strategy for Armstead's cooperation that continued to be unsuccessful after five years cannot justify that extraordinary delay," Fahey wrote.

Chief Judge Janet DiFiore dissented. She said five years was "an extensive amount of time, even for a murder case," but prosecutors made "diligent efforts" to move forward and Wiggins "apparently acquiesced" in some of the delay.

Wiggins, now 26, has been imprisoned at the Green Haven correctional facility, about 65 miles (105 km) north of Manhattan, state records show.

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The office of Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance declined to comment.

"A 16-year-old kid was held at Rikers Island for over six years without a trial," said Ben Schatz, a lawyer for the nonprofit Center for Appellate Litigation, who handled Wiggins' appeal. "We're glad the court saw this as a violation of his constitutional right to a speedy trial."

Officials including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio have been working on a timeline to close Rikers Island, which has been marred by overcrowding and reports of violence.

The case is People v Wiggins, New York State Court of Appeals, No. 15.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Tom Brown)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.Nairobi (AFP) - Separatist campaigners on the East African island of Zanzibar have appealed to a regional court to challenge the legality of its union with mainland Tanzania, they said Thursday.

Rashid Salum Adiy, head of the Zanzibar Rights of Freedom and Autonomy (Zarfa) organisation, a group not recognised by the Tanzanian authorities, claims to have the backing of 40,000 supporters for his appeal.

Adiy, who has organised protests in the past denouncing the union between Zanzibar and Tanzania, argues the independence-era union agreement favours the mainland at the expense of the Indian Ocean archipelago.

He has filed an appeal to the East African Court of Justice to challenge the legality of agreement.

"Based on the evidence we have, we argue that this union has no legal basis," Adiy told AFP. "It is purely political, for it does not take into account the interests of citizens."

The court, in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, will hear the case on March 8.

The court was set up to rule on matters of the East African Community (EAC), the six-member bloc including Tanzania, as well as Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda.

Some Zanzibari opposition parties have long wanted to break ties and return to the independence it briefly enjoyed in early 1964 before merging with Tanganyika.

The islands are already semi-autonomous, with their own elected parliament and president.

Elections in 2015 were repeated the following year after alleged irregularities. The opposition Civic United Front (CUF), which had promised to campaign for full autonomy of the islands, declared themselves the winners of the first poll, which was then annulled.

The long-ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) retained power in Zanzibar, the party of Tanzanian President John Magufuli.By Alfonce Mbizwo HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa led tributes to late opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Thursday, describing the long-time rival of recently ousted president Robert Mugabe as a dedicated defender of democracy. Arguably Zimbabwe's most popular politician, Tsvangirai died on Wednesday evening aged 65 after a long battle with cancer. His death in a South African hospital cast his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) into unknown territory less than six months before elections, the first in Zimbabwe not to feature 93-year-old Mugabe. Tsvangirai will receive a state funeral, but will not be buried at the National Heroes' Acre, largely reserved for ruling Patriotic Front guerrillas killed during the independence war, Mnangagwa said. "He remained a national figure who obdurately insisted on free, fair, credible and non-violent elections as a way of strengthening our democracy," Mnangagwa, who replaced Mugabe in November after he was forced to stand down by the military, said in a statement. In political terms, the ruling ZANU-PF party and Mnangagwa, who paid a personal visit to Tsvangirai in January, stand to gain from the opposition leader's death, due to fighting within the MDC over who should succeed its founding father. The party's National Council announced that its vice president, Nelson Chamisa, was taking the role of acting president following Tsvangirai's death. The MDC described Tsvangirai as a hero who had "left his footprints on the sands of history", in large part through his tussles - both literal and figurative - with Mugabe. Tsvangirai suffered repeated abuse and harassment from Zimbabwe's security and intelligence services, including a 2007 beating in police custody that left him with a badly swollen face and a deep gash in his head. Scores of his supporters were beaten and killed during campaigning for a 2008 election that eventually resulted in four-year unity government with Tsvangirai serving as prime minister to Mugabe's president. The tense relationship between the two was tempered by moments of respect and humor, and the pair once joked about Tsvangirai fearing Mugabe would try to poison him when they started their custom of taking afternoon tea together every Monday. In central Harare, crowds of people wearing bright red MDC t-shirts gathered outside the party headquarters. Many wept with grief. (Reporting by Alfonce Mbizwo; Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)Harare (AFP) - Morgan Tsvangirai, the veteran Zimbabwean opposition leader who confronted Robert Mugabe's regime for many years, died on Wednesday after a battle with cancer, a party official said. He was 65.

Tsvangirai, who founded the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party in 1999, was among the most prominent critics of Mugabe, the long-time authoritarian leader who was ousted from power in November.

"It is sad for me to announce that we have lost our icon and fighter for democracy," Elias Mudzuri, one of the vice-presidents of the MDC, said on Twitter.

Tsvangirai's death in a South African hospital, where he was receiving treatment, was confirmed to AFP by two other senior party members.

Mugabe's ZANU-PF government detained him on numerous occasions due to his vocal criticism of the regime.

Security forces first swooped on Tsvangirai, then a feisty trade union leader, in 1989 after he bluntly warned about the rising tide of political repression in the country.

Ten years later he set up the MDC, which rose to pose the greatest challenge to Mugabe's all-powerful government.

In March 2007, police badly beat up Tsvangirai and dozens of opposition activists when they attempted to stage an anti-government rally in a township in Harare.

In the election the following year he beat Mugabe in the first round of the vote -- but after violence against Tsvangirai's supporters, which he claims cost 200 lives, he was forced to pull out of the run-off.

He went on to form a unity government with the ruling ZANU-PF after disputed elections, but was widely seen as being outmanoeuvred as he served as prime minister under Mugabe.

- 'Rest in power' -

Tsvangirai claimed to have been the target of four assassination attempts -- including one in 1997 in which he said attackers tried to throw him out of his office window.

Last week senior members of his party clashed in public in a power struggle between Mudzuri and another of his deputies Nelson Chamisa, 40, over who was in charge of the party -- months before key elections. Analysts warn that the party is likely to face a major split following his death.

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Tsvangirai's death firmly places President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the ZANU-PF veteran who took over after Mugabe's ousting, on the path to victory in elections that are to be held before July.

"Very sad indeed -- as you know the president (Mnangagwa) visited him at home to wish him well -- but God gives and God has taken," ZANU-PF spokesman Simon Khaya Moyo told AFP.

"The fact that the President visited him shows what type of person he was," said Moyo.

Tsvangirai who announced two years ago that he had been diagnosed with colon cancer, was the face of bravery in Zimbabwe opposition politics.

"Morgan Tsvangirai represented courage and determination in the face of oppression, and gave ordinary Zimbabweans faith to believe in the future, " tweeted British foreign minister Boris Johnson. "He was one of the bravest political leaders of his time and will be sadly missed".

David Coltart, a fellow opposition leader who was one of the founding members of the MDC but later joined a splinter group, wrote on twitter that Tsvangirai will be remembered as one of Zimbabwe's "greatest patriots" and that he deserves to be called a "hero".

"Although like all of us he made mistakes, none of us ever doubted his commitment to transform Zimbabwe into a modern, democratic, tolerant state," Coltart said.

The young opposition politician Fadzai Mahere said in a tweet "Rest in power" Tsvangirai. "Thank you for forging the path and blazing the trail in the struggle for democracy."

"ZANU-PF has not won recent elections, it has rigged them," Tsvangirai told AFP last year.

"Anyone who is interested in ending ZANU-PF should unite, in spite of ideological differences."

Harare-based political analyst Alexander Rusero described Tsvangirai as "a larger-than-life character" of Zimbabwean opposition politics.

"Tsvangirai will be remembered as the brave man who demystified dictatorship in Zimbabwe. He was the godfather of genuine opposition politics who formed a formidable opposition to Mugabe's dictatorship," Rusero told AFP.

South Africa's ruling ANC party, Kenyan leader Uhuru Kenyatta and the government of Botswana expressed their condolences over the passing of Tsvangirai.Jacob Zuma's scandal-plagued reign over South Africa came to an end on Wednesday, after he announced his formal resignation on orders handed down from the African National Congress (ANC).

The decision came hours after police raided the luxury home of the Gupta family, Indian-born billionaires who have long been at the center of corruption allegations against the president.

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PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP/Getty

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In a 30-minutes farewell address, the 75-year-old said he resented the way the ANC had forced him out of government after replacing him as party leader in December.

Even though I disagree with the decision of the leadership of my organization, I have always been a disciplined member of the ANC, he said. I have therefore come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect."

The ANC had replaced Zuma as party leader with Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa last year.

Then, on Tuesday, the congress called for Zuma's resignation and when he hadn't stepped down by Wednesday, the organization threatened to back an opposition motion in parliament to force him out of government.

Zuma's decision to finally step down amid the growing pressure was celebrated by the ANC, with the organization's Deputy Secretary General Jessie Duarte saying the move "provides certainty to the people of South Africa at a time when economic and social challenges to the country require an urgent and resolute response."

A scandal-plagued legacy

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With Zuma facing more than 783 allegations of corruption in connection with a 1990s arms deal and being ordered to repay millions of dollars in public funds spent on updating his private home, his successor will have to work hard to regain public trust.

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Just hours before Zuma's resignation, the raid on the Guptas's home was a reminder of the scandals that have plagued his presidency.

The Guptas had faced accusations of using their influence to exercise control over state companies and contracts two years ago, with the release of a 350-page report published by a corruption watchdog.

Police said the raid at the Guptas's home had been in connection with a state-funded dairy farm, which prosecutors have alleged operated as a "scheme designed to defraud and steal," according to Reuters.

Proescutors seized 220 million rand ($19 million) in state funds that had been allocated to the scheme, in addition to freezing bank accounts of one member of the Gupta family, Atul Gupta.

What lies ahead

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As Acting President, Ramaphosa is expected to be sworn in as Zuma's successor as early as Thursday afternoon.

South Africa's new leader will inherit a scandal-plagued presidency, as well as what has been branded by the Bloomberg Misery Index as the world's "second most miserable economy" after Venezuela.

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RODGER BOSCH/AFP/Getty

High hopes have been placed in Ramaphosa's ability to help salvage South Africa's economy and repair divisions that have deepened under Zuma's rule.

A return to Mandela's vision

Ramaphosa has long shared Nelson Mandela's vision for South Africa and was at the former South African president's side when he was freed in 1990 after serving 27 years in prison.

When the ANC began negotiations with the then-ruling National Party (NP) to end apartheid and move towards non-racial elections, Ramaphosa helped lead the team carrying out the ANC's side of the talks.

However, his political ambitions were stymied when Mandela chose Thabo Mbeki as his deputy instead of Ramaphosa, and task Ramaphosa with the important task of drafting a new constitution for the country.

Speaking at celebrations on Saturday marking Mandela's release, Ramaphosa said now is the time for South Africa to renew and rebuild the country's economy and reaffirm the values Mandela stood for, as well as his vision of a non-racial society.

How he will implement his ambitious plans for the future remains to be seen.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekCape Town (AFP) - Cyril Ramaphosa, a former anti-apartheid activist turned businessman, was named South Africa's president Thursday and immediately vowed to fight corruption in a direct reference to accusations levelled at his predecessor Jacob Zuma.

Tainted by scandal, Zuma resigned on Wednesday following intense pressure from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) that he had dominated for his nine years in power.

"Issues to do with corruption, issues of how we can straighten out our state-owned enterprises and how we deal with 'state capture' are issues that are on our radar," Ramaphosa told lawmakers in parliament.

"State capture" refers to the alleged corruption of government institutions and state-owned businesses by Zuma's associates.

"Tomorrow we will also have an opportunity to outline some of the steps we are going to be taking," he said.

ANC lawmakers celebrated his appointment with songs, dancing and a standing ovation.

Ramaphosa, a hugely wealthy former entrepreneur, will deliver his first State of the Nation address to parliament in Cape Town on Friday evening.

After multiple corruption scandals, economic slowdown and falling popularity among voters, the ANC had threatened to oust Zuma via a no-confidence vote in parliament.

Hours before his resignation, Zuma said he had received "very unfair" treatment from the ANC, which he joined in 1959, spending decades in the party fighting white-minority rule.

He said he was angry over the way in which the decision had been carried out "as there is no evidence of if I have done anything wrong."

Zuma, 75, has been locked in a divisive power struggle with Ramaphosa, his deputy who won control of the ANC in December.

- Markets soar -

The political turnaround saw benchmark South African stocks scoring their biggest gains since June 2016 following news that the pro-business reformist would be taking the helm.

The FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index rose as much as 2.7 percent, while the rand, already the world's best-performing currency over the past three months, rose 0.4 percent to 11.6667 per dollar.

Story continues

"Ramaphosa's arrival in the presidency will be met by a surge in investor and consumer confidence over the coming weeks in anticipation of his reform agenda," said the London-based Eurasia consultancy group.

During the apartheid era, Zuma, who had no formal education, spent 10 years in jail on Robben Island alongside Nelson Mandela before rising through the ANC ranks to take power in 2009.

Local media said he had been pushing for a resignation deal that would include his legal fees to fight a series of criminal charges -- but Zuma denied it in his speech.

One case against him relates to 783 payments he allegedly received linked to an arms deal before he came to power.

Other graft allegations have centred on the three Gupta brothers, who are accused of unfairly obtaining lucrative government contracts and even hand-picking Zuma's ministerial appointments.

Police on Thursday said an arrest warrant had been issued for one of the brothers, Ajay Gupta.

The political standoff had plunged South Africa -- the continent's most developed economy -- into confusion over who was actually running the country.

- Tricky election looms -

Zuma, a Zulu traditionalist with four wives and a proud singing voice, had been scheduled to stand down next year after serving the maximum of two terms.

In local polls in 2016, the ANC recorded its worst electoral result since coming to power in 1994 under Mandela as white-minority rule fell.

Ramaphosa, 65, must now work to revive the economy and crack down on what he has admitted is rampant government corruption if he is to repair the party's tarnished reputation before a tricky general election next year.

He is a former trade unionist and Mandela ally who led talks to end apartheid in the early 1990s and then became a multi-millionaire businessman before returning to politics.Israel has a lot of excellent arguments on the Palestinian issue. They could have had a state. They refused, and not just in 1937 and 1947. They turned down proposals put forward by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert and by former US President Bill Clinton. They wanted more than a state. They insisted on the right of return.

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Israels excellent claims are useless, however, when the Palestinians are right. And sometimes, admittedly, they are right.

Lets put settlements aside for a moment. Even in the event of a peace agreement, if and when we reach one, the settlement blocs wont be evacuated. But Israel has insisted on exceeding the blocs through outposts or settling within a Palestinian population.

IDF roadblock on Shuhada Street. With all due respect to our deep and historical connection to Hebron, settling within the city is complete foolishness (Photo: EPA)

Two points of friction have been serving about 90 percent of Palestinian propaganda: Hebron and Nabi Salih. Hebron, the city of the patriarchs, is much more central to the Jewish peoples history than Netanya or Ashdod. Its the place where Jewish settlement hardly ever stopped, not even during 2,000 years of exile. But with all due respect to our deep and historical connection to Hebron, settling within the city is complete foolishness.

The same applies to Neve Tzuf, a settlement established near two Palestinian villages, Deir Nidham and Nabi Salih. The latter is the place of residence of the Tamimi family, which has produced both terrorists and anti-Semitic propaganda. If that were the entire story, we would have been able deal with it. But this village has also produced 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi and 11-year-old Janna Jihad.

We can keep talking about Palestinian rejectionism and anti-Semitic propaganda and support for terror rather than for reconciliation and peace. I have done it repeatedly. We should know the facts, but we should also know it wont help. Because the images produced by these two girls, and the images dispatched to the world from Hebrons Shuhada Street, are much stronger. Because these spiteful settlements create friction. The people who have come there, although not everyone, seek to increase the level of conflict. They will try to take over private lands and the nearby fountain, and they will do anything so that the images produced by the unstoppable clashes will serve the Palestinians.

Whats the difference, the outpost supporters might ask, between the Zionist settlement on one side of the Green Line and settling on the other side? After all, its the same act.

Well, its completely different. Zionism was a movement for rescuing persecuted Jews. They didnt come here because they were eager to come to a land that was not sown. They came because they were forced to flee. Because in those years, when empires were collapsing and when nation states were being established, there was a massive migration of nations, transfers of many communities and population swaps.

Ahead Tamimi. Defeating Israel in news media (Photo: EPA)

But what used to be justified before there was a state becomes unjustified as soon as the Jews have a state of their own. And whoever says there is no difference between a settlement adjacent to Nabi Salih and Tel Aviv is saying exactly what the anti-Israel propaganda is saying. The ends are connected.

In our foolishness and helplessness, we have created a justification for the Palestinians. It isnt clear that the entire settlement enterprise is unjustified, but it is clear that only a small part of that enterprise creates most of the problem. Its the part in which even the greatest people who speak in favor of Israelincluding the most important one, Prof. Alan Dershowitzare at a loss for words. Because the Palestinians' work is being done by a minority among the settlers and outpost builders, and because there is no justification for land theft or for an appropriation of lands or for damaging orchards, or for the rest of the tricks carried out by a minority that wishes to drag us towards one big state, which will be neither Jewish nor democratic.

Janna Jihad and Ahed Tamimi are already defeating us on new media. They dont have to be Anne Frank to do that, and all these comparisons are an insult to common sense and a disrespect of the Holocaust. They are defeating us because their struggle is specifically, and only specifically, justified. And only someone capable of admitting that sometimes, just sometimes, the Palestinians are right is capable of dealing with the Palestinians where they are wrong.WASHINGTON - Republicans are resisting requests by Democrats for US intelligence chiefs to present their annual global threat report to a congressional panel so they can avert a likely showdown with the head of the FBI over aspects of the Trump-Russia investigation, two Democratic sources said on Wednesday.

Republican leaders on the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee have not scheduled the customary hearing, said the Democratic sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

On Tuesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray joined Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, CIA Director Mike Pompeo and other agency heads when they presented the 2018 Worldwide Threat Assessment report to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

If the House committee were to bring in intelligence chiefs, Democrats would almost certainly ask Wray about "material omissions of fact" the FBI found in a classified memo Republicans on the panel released this month.UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations' Mideast envoy briefed the Security Council behind closed doors Wednesday at the request of Kuwait and Bolivia on what Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour called the "catastrophic" humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

Bolivian Ambassador Sacha Llorentty Soliz said Nikolay Mladenov, the special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the council that drinking water is short, hospitals have been closed and "doctors stopped doing surgeries." Mladenov also cited Gaza's 47 percent unemployment rate, rising to 60 percent for young people, he said.

Llorentty Soliz said he highlighted that the situation in Gaza has been worsened by the US suspension of millions of dollars in funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's press conference immediately after the release of the police recommendation to indict him was good, eloquent, sharp and accuratelike only he knows how to do.

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Netanyahu seemed genuinely emotional. He may have realized, perhaps for the first time, the extent of the mess he is in.

No speech, as good as it may be, can rescue Netanyahu from the legal imbroglio he has gotten himself into. The police recommendations are firm, decisive and reasoned. Even if the two cases against him are combined into one case, even if Case 2000 is closed and Case 1000 is reduced from bribery suspicions to fraud and breach of trust, Netanyahu wont be able to completely escape an indictment.

Unlike Olmert, Netanyahu wasnt haunted by his past, but by new blatant acts, which mostly took place in the prime ministers bureau (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Of the many details we have been exposed to, the most significant event seems to be Netanyahu's efforts to arrange tax breaks worth a lot of money for businessman Arnon Milchan. The police suspect, according to the summary of the investigation, that Netanyahu received benefits worth hundreds of thousands of shekels from Milchan and tried to repay him with favors worth millions.

Its hard to imagine what Netanyahu was thinking when he demanded, according to the police, the illicit gifts. Netanyahu, as we know, returned to the Prime Ministers Residence after Ehud Olmert was forced to resign under similar criminal circumstances from his past, which came back to haunt him. Netanyahu, it seems, was more advanced: He wasnt haunted by his past, but by new, serious, blatant acts, which mostly took place in the prime ministers bureau.

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapids name was also mentioned in this part of the Milchan case. Lapid was summoned to testify in the case since he had served as finance minister during the relevant period. Likud Knesset members rushed to attack him (MK David Amsalem even called him a snitch). In some reports, Lapid was referred to as the key witness in the affair, but according to the police briefing, quite a few people witnessed Netanyahu's moves in favor of Milchan, including senior Finance Ministry employees.

The expected attacks on Lapid, which comes straight out of the Likuds talking points, and the fact that his name has been mentioned as a witness for the prosecution, likely make him uncomfortable. For Lapid too, the recommendations have turned into an event that requires proper media management to prevent them from affecting the public popularity he has been enjoying up until now.

Lapid. Will his involvement and the attacks on him affect his popularity? (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

This raises the following question: How will the recommendations affect the political system? In the first stage, Netanyahu will try to get through the next few days, withstand the first wave of pressure and close ranks.

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, the weak link in the coalition, isnt interested in elections. He came up with a strategy on the go (Im not a demolition contractor) and would like to wait for the attorney generals decision. The problem with this plan is that it doesnt necessarily match Netanyahu's interests.

In the long run, Netanyahu cant afford to sit down and wait for the attorney generals decision. If the AG decides to indict him, it will be very hard for him to run an election campaign with such a cloud hanging over his head. If he does go to elections before the AGs decision, he would be able to win, come back and tell the AG and the public: Youve seen it all, youve heard it all, youve reelected menow stop bothering me with legal trivialities.

Like in every political adventure, the maneuver wont necessarily work in this case. Netanyahu's big problem is that evidence has rules of its own, and these rules are isolated from the voices outside, both those in favor of him and those against him.

In any event, the night of February 13, 2018 will possibly be remembered as the beginning of the political end of the best politician we ever had here: Benjamin Netanyahu.Despite threats from US President Donald Trump to cut aid to countries that vote in favor of a UN resolution against American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, Jordan has secured a five-year $6.4 billion aid package from Washington.

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The United States infuriated even its Arab allies in December when Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and initiated the move of the US embassy from Tel Aviv. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would not cooperate with the United States in its efforts as a mediator.

Jordanian King Abdullahs Hashemite dynasty is the custodian of the Muslim holy sites, making Amman particularly sensitive to any changes of status there. The king has warned that Trumps decision could undermine stability and fuel radicalism.

Tillerson with Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi (Photo: AP)

Jordanian foreign minister Ayman al-Safadi reiterated on Wednesday that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the only solution we believe can work.

The Trump administration has said it would back a two-state solution if the parties agreed to it.

But the Trump administration has courted King Abdullah, a moderate pro-Western Arab leader whose kingdom has long upheld US interests in a turbulent region.

On Wednesday US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met the king at his personal residence where the two emphasized strong US-Jordanian ties.

Commenting on the memorandum of understanding signed for $6.375 billion in aid on Wednesday, the US State Department said: (It) highlights the pivotal role Jordan plays in helping foster and safeguard regional stability and supports US objectives such as the global campaign to defeat ISIS, counter-terrorism cooperation, and economic development.

Conflicts in neighboring Syria and Iraq have damaged Jordans economy, forcing it to borrow heavily from external and domestic sources. Jordan has been an important part of the US-led coalition battling Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Peace plan 'fairly well advanced'

Tillerson also noted on Wednesday that the US work on a new Middle East peace plan is fairly well advanced, though he provided no details on an initiative. Tillerson said President Donald Trump would decide when to announce the peace plan.

I have seen the (administrations peace) plan... Its been under development for a number of months. I have consulted with them on the plan, identified areas that we feel need further work. I will say its fairly well advanced... Tillerson said.

Tillerson says US committed to Mideast peace (: )

X

There has been little detail on the plan so far. Officials told Reuters in December it would deal with all major issues, including Jerusalem, borders, security, the future of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees, and would also urge Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states to provide significant financial support to the Palestinians.

The plan is being crafted by a team led by Jared Kushner, Trumps son-in-law and senior adviser, and US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt, both of whom have traveled to key regional capitals since the Trump administration came to office.

Palestinians have grown increasingly concerned that any plan Trump unveils will shortchange them, a fear exacerbated by his move on Jerusalem, which upended decades of US policy that the status of the ancient city must be decided in negotiations.

Tillerson on Wednesday also expressed concern over Saturdays confrontation between Israel and Iranian assets in Syria. Syrian air defenses shot down an Israeli F-16 jet after it bombed a site used by Iran-backed forces in Syria.

He said Iran should withdraw its forces and militias from Syria, where Tehran backs President Bashar Assad.

Responding to the comments, a senior Iranian official, Ali Akbar Velayati, said Irans military presence in Syria was legitimate and based on an invitation from Damascus. He called on US forces to leave Syria.Israel's President Reuven Rivlin sent his condolences to Florida on Thursday morning after a former student opened fire at a high school, murdering 17 people, including Jewish students.

"The people of Israel stand with the people of Florida, and all America, in grief this morning. Our hearts go out to the victims and their families," Rivlin wrote on Twitter."The Justice Ministry issued an unusual official statement on Thursday, stressing the Attorney General and State Attorney's Office "are working in full coordination and excellent cooperation with the Israel Police" amid criticism of the police's conduct during investigations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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On Tuesday, the police announced they have collected sufficient evidence to indict the prime minister for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in two cases.

"For the avoidance of doubt, the Israel Police's announcement about the completion of the investigation in cases 1000 and 2000 was done in accordance with the attorney general's instruction 4.1003, which deals with 'Guidelines to law enforcement authorities on releasing information on investigations.' The announcement was done with the advance approval of the attorney general and the state attorney, as it required and customary," the Justice Ministry statement said.

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit (Photo: EPA)

"The legal position concerning these cases will be formulated only after a thorough examination by prosecution officials of the evidence gathered in the investigation," the ministry further noted.

Channel 2 journalist Guy Peleg reported on Wednesday that Justice Ministry officials had criticized the police's recommendations to indict Netanyahu, claiming the police put Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit in an impossible situation. "Any withdrawal from the recommendations, even the smallest one, would appear like a collapse."

Justice Ministry and the State Attorney's Office officials also reportedly said that "not everything being claimed in the recommendations has evidence to back it up... the case is only 95 percent baked and not ready to be transferred (to the prosecution) at this time."

Also on Wednesday, Maj. Gen. Meni Yitzhaki, who led the investigation, defended the investigations and intelligence division Lahav 433, saying its investigators were "professionals."

Yitzhaki, who was the head of Lahav 433, refused to make any further comments on the matter. Despite recently retiring from the police, he stayed on to complete the investigations.

Former Lahav 422 head Meni Yitzhaki (Photo: Yoav Dudkevitch)

Meanwhile, Channel 10 journalist Baruch Kra reported that state witness Ari Harow, Netanyahu's former chief of staff, told police investigators that the prime minister held a meeting with two ministers close to himZe'ev Elkin and Yariv Levinto discuss how to implement some of the things he had agreed upon with Yedioth Ahronoth publisher and owner Arnon Mozes.

When questioned about it, the two ministers reportedly insisted they do not remember the meeting. Netanyahu, however, confirmed the meeting in his own questioning, but claimed they discussed how to deal with the possibility the so-called Israel Hayom bill is advanced.

Poll: More Israelis believe police than Netanyahu

Almost half of Israels electorate believe the police over the prime minister, a poll showed. The poll, aired on the commercial television channel Reshet, said 49 percent of respondents sided with the polices version that Netanyahu had acted improperly. Twenty-five percent said they believed Netanyahu, who denies wrongdoing. The remainder, 26 percent, said they did not know whom to believe.

But the poll supported Netanyahu more when people were asked whether Netanyahu should remain in office or temporarily step aside. Forty-nine percent said he should stay put, 43 percent that he should suspend himself.

Many of the 495 respondents representing a cross-section of Israels Hebrew-speaking voters44 percentsaid they did not think the investigation was a deliberate attempt to topple Netanyahu. Thirty-eight percent thought it was.

Voters for Netanyahus Likud party tended to favor of the prime minister - 50 percent said they believed his denial of wrongdoing. Sixty percent said the investigation was a deliberate attempt to topple him and almost three quarters, 73 percent, said he should stay in his position.

Separate polls on Israels two other main channels also showed that a majority of respondents preferred the polices version of events but also said that if elections were held today, Likud would remain as the largest party in the Knesset

Reuters contributed to this report.Terrorist Omar al-Abed, who murdered three members of the Salomon family in their home in Halamish last year, was given four life sentences on Wednesday.

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Military court judge Lt. Col. Dov Gilboa, who held the minority opinion, argued al-Abed should be sentenced to death.

Al-Abed was convicted in December of three counts of murder after the July attack, which claimed the lives of Yosef Salomon, his daughter Chaya and his son Elad. He was also convicted of the attempted murder of Yosef's wife Tova, incitement and stone-throwing.

Terrorist Omar al-Abed in court (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

Al-Abed received three life sentences for the murders of the Israelis and a fourth for his attempted murder of Tova Salomon, who was wounded in the attack. He was also ordered to pay the family NIS 1.8 million in compensations.

The three-judge panel also demanded in their sentencing that the terrorist would not be released in any future prisoner exchange deal.

"These are very exceptional circumstances," wrote Judge Gilboa in the dissenting opinion. "The defendant, from the inception stage and until the criminal massacre, acted as one who wishes to carry out a slaughter. His offenses are among the gravest in the State of Israel's aw book. It follows that the defendant must be given the maximum punishment. The question arises whether it is enough to sentence him to a punishment that would result in him never again seeing the light of day, or whether the defendant must return his soul to his Maker."

Judge Lt. Col. Dov Gilboa

"Throughout the trial, I watched him enjoy himself and smiling, even doing so in front of the family," Gilboa added. "I determine that the defendant's punishment is the death sentence."

Ahead of the sentencing, Elad Salomon's widow Michal and her father Dan Landa called for legislation that would deduct terrorists' salaries from the tax money Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.

"Sadly, since (the attack) and until today, more good people have been added to the list of those murdered and wounded, and more families came under the cloud of pain. Just recently, we lost two amazing educators who could've shaped generations of students with values and culture," Michal and her father wrote.

"The State of Israel is facing the Palestinian Authority, which explicitly incites the murder of Jews through every means at its disposal. It created a delusional situation in which the murder of Jews has become an easy way of getting money, a solution for personal and social problems, and more," they accused.

"We asked the justice system and the government in the State of Israel to demonstrate determination and strengthen the deterrence of the terrorists, their families and those who aid themwith the death penalty, with home demolition, by revoking residency, and by handing down severe punishment to those who knew and failed to prevent."

Michal Salomon, who was able to save her children when she hid them in an upstairs bedroom, did not come to court for the verdict or the sentencing, because she did not want to see the terrorist's face.

In comments written ahead of the trial, Michal's father Dan Landa spoke about the pain the family has been dealing with since the attack and asked the judges to sentence the terrorist to the maximum penalty.

"Into the house burst the murderer, a black soul filled with a passion for murder, waiting for the moment it could kill and crush," Landa wrote. "Michal told us about the murderer's smiling face, which she saw as he broke into the house. A happy face indicating that this is not a believer about to fulfill a difficult duty, but an impulsive person eager to satisfy his passion. The villain raised the knife, stabbed and stabbed and couldnt get enough of the bloodshed. If he hadn't been stopped by the bullet fired from soldier A.'s gun, we would be facing 10 graves today."

Following the verdict in December, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman tweeted: "A death sentence is the only proper punishment for such a despicable act. I call on the judges to demonstrate their courage and sentence the terrorist to death. Jewish blood isn't cheap! There is no room for terrorists, not even in our prisons."After submitting their recommendation to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for bribery, the police are now examining one of the prime minister's alleged attempts to help his billionaire friend Arnon Milchan.

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Police have asked the Tax Authority for information on attempts to cancel the law, which gives tax exemptions to returning residents for 10 years.

Netanyahu allegedly sought to amend the law and extend the exemption period to 20 years, which would've greatly benefitted Milchan.

Billionaire Arnon Milchan (Photo: AP)

The Tax Authority has made no less than five attempts to cancel the law, which has been dubbed the "Milchan law," over the past six years, but these attempts have been thwarted by the government and Knesset every time.

Critics of the legislation, which exempts new immigrants and returning residents from paying taxes on their income abroad for a decade, say it discriminates in favor of returning residentsand mostly tycoonsand against Israeli citizens. Critics have warned the law could turn Israel into a "tax haven." Furthermore, critics argue that instead of Israel joining developed countries in the fight against money laundering, the law will have the opposite effect.

Among the law's critics was also the state comptroller, who harshly criticized it five years ago.

The law, which came into effect a decade ago, is estimated to have caused NIS 10 billion in losses to state coffers. However, there is no accurate data of these losses, precisely because the law exempts returning residents and new immigrants from reporting their income abroad to the Tax Authority.

"We can't know exactly what is the sum that hasn't been paid in taxes because of this exemption, and there are different estimates. In any case, we're talking about billions of shekels," a Tax Authority official said.

Milchan and Netanyahu (Photo: Courtesy of Channel 2 News)

The law was passed in 2008, while Ehud Olmert was prime minister, and was meant to encourage immigration to Israel and the return of wealthy Israelis who left, as well as encouraging them to invest their money in Israel.

Police investigators suspect Netanyahu has shown an interest in the law and turned to then-finance minister Yair Lapid in 2014, asking him twice whether Milchan had spoken to him about it. Lapid told the police Netanyahu and Milchan approached him on the matter four times.

The prime minister allegedly told Lapid the law was "important for the state" and could help businessmen like Milchan, who had returned to Israel.

Tax Authority officials estimated that an extension of the exemption period from 10 years to 20 would have given Milchan tens of millions of shekels in tax benefits.

Lapid, however, did not amend the law.

Milchan was not the only one to enjoy the tax benefits afforded by the law. Even though there is no accurate data, Tax Authority officials believe other businessmen who immigrated to Israel also enjoyed the benefits of the law.ANKARA - Turkey's defense minister says he has asked his American counterpart that the United States end its support for Syrian Kurdish fighters and remove them from a US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, that if fighting the Islamic State group in Syria.

Nurettin Canikli also says in comments televised live from Brussels on Thursday that he told US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, that US support for the Syrian Kurdish militia, known as YPG, has helped Kurdish rebels in Turkey "to grow and strengthen," posing an increasingly "existential" threat to Turkey.

Canikli said he presented documents to Mattis proving "organic" links between the YPG and Kurdish rebels in Turkey.TEHRAN - A top Iranian general has lashed out at Israel during a commemoration for a Hezbollah figure killed in a 2008 Damascus car bombing that the group blamed on Israel.

Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran's Quds Force, pledged retaliation for Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah's ex-military chief who was considered one of the world's most-wanted terrorists by Israel and the United States.

Soleimani said the appropriate revenge for Mughniyeh's slaying is "not launching one missile or killing one person, but the dismantling and uprooting of the baby-killing Zionist regime."UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations' Mideast envoy briefed the Security Council behind closed doors Wednesday at the request of Kuwait and Bolivia on what Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour called the "catastrophic" humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

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Bolivian Ambassador Sacha Llorentty Soliz said Nikolay Mladenov, the special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the council that drinking water is short, hospitals have been closed and "doctors stopped doing surgeries." Mladenov also cited Gaza's 47 percent unemployment rate, rising to 60 percent for young people, he said.

Llorentty Soliz said he highlighted that the situation in Gaza has been worsened by the US suspension of millions of dollars in funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.





Water shortages in the strip (Photo: AFP)

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, known as UNRWA, was notified January 16 that the US was withholding $65 million of a planned $125 million installment. The US demanded a "fundamental re-examination" of the agency in addition to changes to its programs, which have been heavily criticized by Israel.

Llorentty Soliz said he told the council the primary responsibility for "the catastrophic situation in Gaza" rests with Israel.

Israel's UN ambassador, Danny Danon, countered that the responsibility lies with the Islamic militant group Hamas, which dominates Gaza.

Electricity shortages in the strip (Photo: MCT)

Hamas "has been holding the people of Gaza hostage in pursuit of its own nefarious goals, ignoring their most basic needs. Hundreds of millions of dollars in international aid that should go directly towards humanitarian purposes have been misappropriated towards terror," Danon said in a statement to AP.

Mansour said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will address the Security Council on February 20 on the situation of all Palestinians and will ask members to implement UN resolutions "to end the occupation that started in 1967, to allow for the independence of the state of Palestine, and therefore to save the two-state solution."

Since the mid-1990s, several US-mediated rounds of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on setting up a Palestinian state alongside Israel have ended in failure.

Gaps in positions only widened in the past decade as Israeli settlement expansion continued and the Palestinians failed to end a crippling political split between Hamas and Abbas' internationally backed self-rule government in parts of the West Bank.

The gap has widened even further since December 6 when US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel . The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of an independent Palestine and Abbas said Trump's action ruled out the United States as a mediator for peace.

Danon said: "Instead of coming to the Security Council with the intent to incite against Israel, chairman Abbas should instead focus on disarming Hamas and putting an end to its regime of terror."BEIRUT - US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said at a news conference in Beirut on Thursday that he had not asked Lebanon "to give up anything" on its dispute with Israel over their maritime border.

"We are looking for a solution," he said.Prof. Simcha Goldin, whose son Hadar Goldin was killed and captured by Hamas in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge, rejected on Thursday claims of a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, argued that "there is prosperity in Gaza," and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "abandoning and ignoring" his son.

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"The campaign about Gaza, as if there is some kind of a horrible humanitarian crisis there, which is why action is needed in one way or another, is a corrupt campaign which is not based on truth," Goldin said in an interview with Ynet.

"There is prosperity in Gaza, there are 100,000 new homes being built, which is why there is no state of emergency and no catastrophe there," he claimed.

Goldin's parents at court (Photo: Amit Shabi)

Goldin said the family is scheduled to meet with the prime minister on March 15.

"Netanyahu knows he left in Gaza and excellent Golani officer and an excellent Givati officer. He knows that. The defense minister and the IDF chief also know that. The question is, what are they doing (about it)? They ignore and abandon, which is a very bad way to begin the 70th anniversary celebrations to the State of Israel," he accused.

The Goldin family took its struggle to the High Court of Justice in November, petitioning the court to bar the government from handing over the bodies of Hamas terrorists back to the organization, to order the government to revoke visitation rights from all Hamas prisoners in Israel as well as to reduce the number of entry visas for humanitarian purposes granted to Gaza residents.

"The Security Cabinet has decided to exert pressure on Hamas so it understands holding onto IDF soldiers is a burden, to send a message that Israel is changing the rules and a heavy toll will be exacted for every additional day they hold on to those soldiers," Simcha Goldin said in November.

"However, in a highly absurd situation, the government hasn't the slightest inclination to implement the Cabinet's decisions. Israel has completely halted visitations of Gaza residents to Israeli jails, but families in the West Bank are asking to visit prisoners on a daily basis. The government of Israel has capitulated to Hamas," Goldin accused.

The State Attorney's Office told the High Court on Thursday that Israel has recently stopped family visits to Hamas security prisoners from the West Bank, after having already barred visits of relatives from Gaza.

Families of Palestinian prisoners on their way to visit them in Israeli jails (Photo: Oren Hazan's twitter account)

On Thursday, a panel of three High Court judges discussed the humanitarian entry given to Hamas members and their families for medical treatments.

The Goldin family demanded that the Security Cabinet's decision would be carried out in full, barring any entry of Hamas members into Israel for medical treatments.

"It is time to make it clear to Hamas and its people that the days of medical treatments in Israel are over, and from now until the return of the soldiers, these treatments would be done in Qatar, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan," the Goldin family said in a statement.

The judges made an exception Thursday, allowing Simcha Goldin to address the court during the hearing.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu led the Security Cabinet to make a decision to put pressure on Hamas, but we've noticed this decision is not being implemented," Prof. Goldin told the judges in pain. "The prime minister is not using his moral authority to return my son. That is why we sought legal aid, because we saw the prime minister's commitments are not in line with his actions."

Hadar Goldin, left, and Oron Shaul

"My son was killed during Operation Protective Edge, and we're entering the fourth year in which he is being held by Hamas in Gaza," Goldin continued. "I'm a lieutenant colonel in reserves, all of my children are army officers, and I know soldiers can die in battle. I taught my children that the IDF sends soldiers to battle and the prime minister is responsible for bringing them back."

"Three years ago, he (Netanyahu) said in a meeting with us that in any agreement with Gaza, the soldiers' return would be a precondition," Prof. Goldin claimed. "We've been seeing upgrades and rehabilitation done to Gaza in recent years, but it's not happening (the soldiers haven't been returned). This is why we went on this moral struggle to put pressure on Hamas."

He asked the court to "make sure the government follows through on its decisions," including the one to return his son and Shaul. "Had it been possible, I would've demanded to bring the prime minister here to provide answers for the family and the citizens of Israel on why this decision is not being implemented."

"He who has mercy on the cruel, is being cruel to the families of the kidnapped soldiers," Goldin charged.US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged Hezbollah on Thursday to cease its activities abroad to help reduce tensions in the region.

Tillerson said it is unacceptable for a militia like Hezbollah to operate outside the authority of the Lebanese government.

He spoke at a joint press conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, an ally of the West who is at odds with Hezbollah.

Tillerson said Hezbollah's engagement in Syria has "perpetuated the bloodshed" in that country and threatens the security of Lebanon.BEIRUT - Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says the US has "never" given the Syrian Kurdish militia heavy weapons.

Tillerson, speaking in Beirut before his visit to Turkey, was responding to a question about taking back heavy arms from the Kurdish militia, known as the People's Defense Units or the YPG. Ankara views the YPG as a terrorist group. The YPG is the main US ally in the fight against Islamic State militants.

"We have never given heavy arms to the YPG so there is none to take back," Tillerson said.

Tillerson is leaving Lebanon for Turkey.

Washington's program to arm the YPG has been a sharply divisive issue with Turkey. Turkish officials say US President Donald Trump told them that the militia will receive no more arms. The White House called it "adjustment to the military support" to the group.CAIRO (AP) -- Egyptian security forces killed 53 militants since the beginning of a massive security operation, mainly in restive northern Sinai Peninsula, the epicenter of a years-long Islamic insurgency, the armed forces said Thursday.

Spokesman Col. Tamer el-Rifaai said that forces also arrested five militants and 680 others including "criminal elements" and people suspected of supporting militants. He spoke at a press conference in the presence of senior military and Interior Ministry officials.

El-Rifaai also said that forces found and destroyed hundreds of militant hideouts, targets and explosive devices.

The casualty figures couldn't be independently verified as journalists and independent investigators are banned from accessing the turbulent Sinai region.US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday that Lebanon's security was threatened by the growing arsenal of Iran-backed group Hezbollah and its involvement in regional conflicts.

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Speaking alongside Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri in a Beirut news conference, Tillerson also said the United States was engaging with Lebanon and Israel to ensure the border remained calm.

Tillerson urged Lebanese leaders to uphold the country's commitment to staying out of regional conflicts, a reference to Hezbollah's role in wars around the Middle East including in neighboring Syria where Iran also holds major sway.

Sect. of State Tillerson with Lebanese President, FM (Photo: AFP)

Israel has accused Iran of seeking to set up weapons factories in Lebanon , and the Israeli military last month said the country had turned into one " large missile factory ".

Lebanon is a big recipient of US military support. Tillerson said Washington remained committed to supporting the Lebanese army and internal security forces.

The secretary of state also added he had positive discussions in Lebanon on how to break a "stalemate" with Israel over gas drilling rights along the countries' disputed maritime border and maintain calm along the volatile frontier.

Lebanese PM Saad Hariri (Photo: AP)

Tillerson was in Lebanon on a brief stopover amid a growing dispute between Lebanon and its southern neighbor, Israel, over oil and gas reserves, and Israel's construction of a border wall that Lebanon says encroaches on its territory. The US has been trying to mediate in the dispute, and Tillerson suggested Israel should stop building a border wall until the border between the two countries is agreed on.

"We've asked no one to give up anything. Rather, we're looking for a solution," Tillerson told reporters at his joint press conference with Prime Minister Hariri.

Israeli border wall in north (Photo: EPA)

He also called on Hezbollah to cease its activities abroad to help reduce tensions in the region.

"Hezbollah's presence in Syria has only perpetuated the bloodshed, increased the displacement of innocent people and propped up the barbaric (Syrian President Bashar) Assad regime," Tillerson said at the news conference with Hariri, a western ally whose coalition government includes the group.

"Their presence in Iraq and Yemen has also fueled violence. And the consequences of Hezbollah's involvement in these far-off conflictswhich have nothing to do with Lebanonare felt here."

Earlier on Thursday, Tillerson met with key allies of Hezbollah, including President Michel Aoun, Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

L-R: Nabih Berri, Michel Aoun and Saad Hariri (Photo: Reuters)

Aoun, who kept Tillerson waiting for several minutes at the palace ahead of their meeting, said he asked Tillerson to work on preventing what he said were ongoing Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty and said Lebanon rejects Israeli claims over parts of the countries' maritime border.

The Lebanese presidency denied there was any departure from protocol and Rafik Chalala, who heads Aoun's media office, said Tillerson had arrived a few minutes earlier than expected and that the meeting began on time. He pointed to Tillerson's comments he left in the guest book in which he thanked the presidency for the "warm welcome."

Tillerson embarrassed by Lebanese President Aoun (: )

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At his meeting with Berri, a pro-Hezbollah politician, one of the photographers asked the men to shake hands. Berri laughed and said: "Why do you need that?"

They then looked at each other, chuckled and obliged.

Tillerson, who arrived in Beirut from neighboring Jordan, is the most senior official from the Trump administration to visit Lebanon and the first by a US secretary of state in four years.

Lebanese Energy Minister points to disputed maritime gas fields (: AP)

Israel has recently escalated its threats over Lebanon's invitation for offshore gas exploration bids along the countries' maritime border claiming that Lebanon will be drilling in areas owned by Israel. Lebanese officials deny the Israeli statements, saying the area where the country plans to drill belongs to Lebanon.

The long-standing dispute resurfaced recently as Lebanon signed a deal with an international consortium to start exploratory offshore drilling next year.

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman described the exploration tender as "provocative" and suggested Lebanon had put out invitations for bids from international groups for a gas field "which is by all accounts ours."

His comments drew sharp condemnation from Hezbollah , as well as Lebanese officials, including Hariri.

"What is ours is ours and what is Israel's is Israel's. We are trying to find solutions that will be fair to us and fair to everyone," Hariri said at Thursday's news conference.

There are over 800 square kilometers (300 square miles) of waters claimed by the two countries. US officials have previously tried to mediate the dispute, including most recently by David Satterfield, the US acting assistance secretary of state who visited the border area in south Lebanon last week, and was accompanying Tillerson on Thursday.

Tillerson, during his short visit, also reinforced support for Lebanon's government headed by Hariri and for the Lebanese armed forces.

The visit comes amid a new US effort to squeeze Iran with sanctions against Hezbollah and the Trump administration is hitting Hezbollah's financial network with new penalties as part of its efforts to limit Iran's influence throughout the region.GAZA CITY -- Hamas is condemning a US bill that sanctions the Islamic militant group for using civilians in Gaza as "human shields."

The House unanimously passed the Hamas Human Shields Prevention Act on Wednesday. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum says Thursday that the bill sides with "the Israeli narrative."

The bill steps up US pressure against Hamas, which Washington and much of the West already considers a terrorist organization. As such the bill would not add any additional sanctions on the group.

Echoing Israeli complaints, the bill says Hamas routinely instructs Palestinians not to flee from Israeli airstrikes, forcing them to act as "human shields."The government of Poland has decided to reexamine a draft bill on restitution for Holocaust survivors whose property was confiscated during World War Two. The bill was put up for inspection by the country's Justice Ministry, and may be shelved altogether.

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The World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) voiced deep concern by the decision and called on the Polish government to move forward quickly with improved legislation to address property confiscations.

"We urge the government of Poland to quickly pass amended legislation that is just and fair for all who lost property, including Polish survivors of the Holocaust and their families," said WJRO Chair of Operations Gideon Taylor.





Polish Holocaust survivors outside the Polish Embassy in Tel Aviv (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

"We are concerned that this administrative step will delay passage of this legislation. Elderly Jewish and non-Jewish claimants who have waited over 70 years for justice for their lost property cannot wait any longer," Taylor added.

Jewish sources within the country said they presumed the law's return to the Justice Ministry was caused by a rising wave of anti-Semitism in the European country, which raised concerns in the upper echelons of government that speaking about returning lost property to Jews will not be taken well by the public.

The draft bill, originally published October of last year amid an international storm, was supposed to be approved by late 2017. WJRO soundly criticized it the moment it was made public, since it included articles that effectively blocked the vast majority of survivors and their families from ever receiving any restitution.

Israel officially communicated its protest to the Polish government, as did the administration of President Donald Trump and other European governments

According to the bill, a Holocaust survivor seeking to file a claim for restitutions must be a current citizen of Poland and needs to have lived in the country when his or her property was seized by the post-war communist regime.

The liberation of Auschwitz in 1945. Poland remains the only major European country to have not enacted a law providing restitution for lost property (Photo: AP)

Additionally, under the proposed law, heirs will be able to file a claim, but they must be children or grandchildren of the survivors.

The stringent conditions preclude most survivors from filing a claim, since many Jewish families living in Poland were annihilated during the war by the Nazi regime, leaving no heirs to claim the property, while most who survived left Poland during the Holocaust or shortly afterwards.

The bill further lists other limitations, including survivors not being to file claims regarding property they owned through stocks in a company. In addition, the bill said that once it was made law, claims will only be possible for a year before property reverts to the Polish Finance Ministry.

The WJRO has been urging the Polish government since 1993 to provide the appropriate, extensive attention required to returning property owned by the country's Jewish community, 90 percent of which was murdered during the Holocaust.

Poland, in fact, remains the only major European country that has not yet enacted a law for the restitution of Jewish property seized by the Nazis or the country's regime.

Polish Deputy Justice Minister Patrick Yaki said when the bill was originally published in October that he was "ashamed that only now, 28 years after the communist regime was toppled, was such a law being drafted. This issue should have been resolved long ago."

Due to the outcry and controversy surrounding the law, Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki began personally overseeing the bill's drafting. As a result, some progress had been made and some of the bill's more draconian articles were apparently removed, but nowwith the controversy surrounding the " death camp bill "Poland has decided to return the law for examination by the Justice Ministry for reasons unknown.

While the property issue has yet to be resolved, Polish parliament removed from its docket a bill to limit kosher slaughter in the country, and will not be putting it to a vote.

Had the bill been enacted, it would have banned the export of kosher meat from Poland, intended for many Jewish communities in Europe and even Israel.

Senior Polish official appeals to citizens to report anti-Polish sentiment abroad

Poland's senate leader has appealed to Poles living abroad to report to the authorities any statements deemed to hurt "Poland's good name"part of a wider campaign by the government to defend the country against what it calls historical untruth and slander.

Polish Senate Speaker Karczewski appealed to Poles living abroad to report to the authorities any statements deemed to hurt 'Poland's good name' (Photo: Karczewski's Twitter account)

The letter, posted recently on the Senate's website and reported by German media Thursday, is linked to a controversial new law that penalizes publicly and falsely attributing the crimes of Nazi Germany to the Polish nation. The government insists it is not to block historical research, but critics say its wording is unclear.

Israel has vehemently protested the law, adopted earlier this month, saying it could limit discussion about the Holocaust and whitewash the role some Poles played during Germany's occupation of Poland from 1939 to 1945. The United States has also expressed "disappointment" over the law.

Observers say the campaign, which also includes ads on YouTube, is a means for the ruling Law and Justice party to consolidate its power by rallying voters around the idea that Poland needs to be defended against a hostile outside world.

In his letter sent last week to Polish organizations in the world, Senate Speaker Stanisaw Karczewski appealed to millions of their members to "document and react" to signs of anti-Polish sentiment and "statements and opinions that hurt (Poland's good name)" and to report them to Polish diplomatic missions.

The letter acknowledges individual Poles committed shameful deeds during the war, but that they were not typical of the entire nation.

In Germany, a senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party called the letter "regrettable."

"This partisan tactic consists in spreading the feeling in Poland that they're being treated unjustly abroad," Norbert Roettgen told the Thursday issue of the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung.

"This political behavior by the government and by the (Law and Justice) party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski is a shame and very regrettable," he added.JERUSALEM -- Israel's attorney general has praised a police investigation into the prime minister, saying it was done "by the book."

In a speech at Tel Aviv University on Thursday, Avichai Mandelblit says the investigation was carried out "professionally and "thoroughly" and that "although it would be hard, he would have no problem indicting the prime minister (if the evidence required it)."

Police this week recommended that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted on bribery and breach of trust charges in two corruption cases. Netanyahu has denied wrongdoing and has accused the police of being overly aggressive in their probe.

The recommendations now go to Mandelblit, who will review the material before deciding whether to file charges. Netanyahu can remain in office during that process, which could take months.

Mandelblit did not say when he expects to make his decision but he said he plans to conduct the process without "unnecessary delays."Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit provided his first public comments Thursday evening on the police recommendations to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for bribery. Mandelblit said he saw attempts to drive a wedge between his office and the police, and reiterated they worked in perfect lockstep.

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"Our goal is of paramount importance: to ensure the rule of law in the State of Israel," the attorney general added. "Turning every stone to discover and make public the truth."

Speaking at an event organized by the Friends of Tel Aviv University and the magazine Liberal, Mandelblit said the prime minister's investigations were "managed by the book, in precisely the fashion expected of law enforcementwith professionalism, thoroughness and creativity."

AG Mandelblit rejected any attempts to drive wedge between law enforcement authorities (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

"I suggesting taking such publications of tensions of conflict with more than a grain of salt," the attorney general advised his listeners.

On the inquiries themselves into the illicit gifts affair and the premier's talks with Yedioth Ahronoth owner and publisher Arnon Mozes, Mandelblit said that they were "conducted with the utmost professionalism and determination, with a single goal in mindto reach the truth."

"Police carried out the investigations with much diligence and at the appropriate pace," he added. "Police mapped out the interests involved in the cases under review, and interrogated the relevant parties. The investigation's findings are the factual basis upon which we will make a legal decision in the future."

(Photo: Motti Kimchi)

"Throughout the course of the investigation, law enforcement involved were only led by professional considerations. Demonstrations, speeches, tweets and other background noiseswhich accompanied the investigation throughoutwere summarily ignored," Mandelblit stated.

The attorney general went on to say, "I reject unequivocally claims alleging anything other than professional motives behind the investigations, or any purpose other than discovering the truth and preserving the rule of law.

"Similarly, inspecting the evidence and reaching a decision will also be guided in a professional, forthright manner while ignoring background noises or calls to decide motivated by non-topical motives.

"We intend to carry on with this procedure without undue delay, born of an understanding of the importance of reaching a decision on these cases. I don't yet know what that decision will be, but I do know it will only be made according to both the evidence and law. No other motives will intercede."

(Photo: Motti Kimchi)

After his prepared remarks, Mandelblit took questions from the assembled audience. Answering one question, he said, "I'm a professional. Of course it will be difficult to indict a sitting prime minister, or minister, but that is what I was brought up to do.

"I wish to discover the truth and will have no professional qualms about indicting the prime minister or anyone else. The decision is mine alone, as is the responsibility for it."

On whether the prime minister should take a leave of absence now, Mandelblit said, "It's up to him at this stage. I have made no such suggestions to him. While the (police's) recommendations do mean something, they have no legal power (of their own). If we get to that point, we'll have to reexamine the matter."

Earlier Thursday, the prime minister himself commented once again on the police's recommendations before taking off for the Munich Security Conference. "My wife and I were taken aback by the support, sympathy and warmth so many Israeli citizens showed us," the premier said.

"I will continue serving them, and our country, with responsibility, determination and a great confidence, because I'm positive the truth will win in the end," he stated.

PM Netanyahu (R) and his wife Sara departing for Munich (Photo: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

The Justice Ministry issued an unusual official statement on Thursday, stressing the Attorney General and State Attorney's Office "are working in full coordination and excellent cooperation with the Israel Police" amid criticism of the police's conduct during investigations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"For the avoidance of doubt, the Israel Police's announcement about the completion of the investigation in cases 1000 and 2000 was done in accordance with the attorney general's instruction 4.1003, which deals with 'Guidelines to law enforcement authorities on releasing information on investigations.' The announcement was done with the advance approval of the attorney general and the state attorney, as it required and customary," the Justice Ministry statement said.

"The legal position concerning these cases will be formulated only after a thorough examination by prosecution officials of the evidence gathered in the investigation," the ministry further noted.

Channel 2 journalist Guy Peleg reported on Wednesday that Justice Ministry officials had criticized the police's recommendations to indict Netanyahu, claiming the police put Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit in an impossible situation. "Any withdrawal from the recommendations, even the smallest one, would appear like a collapse."

Justice Ministry and the State Attorney's Office officials also reportedly said that "not everything being claimed in the recommendations has evidence to back it up... the case is only 95 percent baked and not ready to be transferred (to the prosecution) at this time."

Public Security Minister Erdan (L) said that while he supported police and their work, PM Netanyahu was innocent until proven guilty (Photo: Avihu Shapira)

The minister tasked with overseeing the policePublic Security Minister Gilad Erdanalso lent his voice in support of their work Wednesday afternoon during a Knesset plenum session.

Erdan said that while he backed the police, he stressed Mandelblit's final decision should be awaited, and that in the meantime Netanyahu still enjoyed the presumption of innocence.After crushing blows in Iraq and Syria, global jihadists could be eyeing Egypt's Sinai Peninsula as a new home base, the army said Thursday, as it presses an offensive in the region.

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Cairo last week announced a major operation against jihadists across swathes of territory, including the volatile region which has been at the heart of a persistent Islamic State (IS) group insurgency.

The Egyptian army's extensive operation against IS in Sinai

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The security sweep in the Sinai, Nile Delta and Western Desert near the border with Libya comes as the country prepares for polls next month in which President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is seeking re-election.

The Egyptian army killed 53 jihadists in Sinai thus far

The spokesman told a tightly controlled press conference that 53 jihadists have been killed since the start of the operation, while more than 680 people have been detained.

The security operation, which involves the army, navy, air force and police, began last Friday and targeted "terrorist and criminal elements and organizations" in north and central Sinai, parts of the Nile delta and the western desert, Colonel al-Rifai said Thursday.

Rifai added forces have destroyed over 1000 kg (2205 lbs) of explosives, 378 militant hideouts and weapon storage facilities including a media center used by the militants.

The air force, which has carried out more than one hundred airstrikes in northern and central Sinai since the operation began, has focused on militant hideouts outside residential areas to avoid hitting civilians, air force Brigadier General Alaa Dawara said.

The air force carried out more than one hundred attacks

In November, Sisi ordered his armed forces chief of staff to restore security in Sinai within three months after terorrists carrying IS banners killed more than 300 worshippers at a mosque.

The attack was the deadliest of its kind in Egypt, which is the Arab world's most populous country and a main regional ally of the United States.

Egypt has been under a state of emergency since April last year, after two suicide bombings at churches claimed by IS killed at least 45 people in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria.

Reuters contributed to this report.- A pastor, Reverend Sunshine Adams, has challenged Shatta Wale to carry out his threat to burn churches in Ghana

- According to him, Christians would respond to the attack if it is carried out

Reverend Sunshine Adam, the Head Pastor of the Paradise Way Chapel, has dared Shatta Wale to try burning churches in Ghana.

According to the pastor, the dancehall artiste would experience the power of God if he carries out his threat.

Reverend Sunshine went on to say that are blessings, powers and rewards in Christs movement, as compared to the Shatta Movement, of which Shatta Wale is the leader.

Rev. Sunshine Adams of the Paradise Way Chapel

READ ALSO: Rising Ghanaian musician haunted by Ebony's death

Let Shatta Wale and his group of people dare attack any church or man of God and I will personally show him how powerful the Lord is, Sunshine fumed.

He further declared that Christians would respond with force if the Shatta Movement attempts to burn any church before December 2018.

Jesus movement is more powerful and mighty than any movement on earth including the so-called Shatta Movement, he stressed.

Shatta Wale is reported to have threatened to burn down churches, in reaction to a prophecy that he would die soon.

A prophet, E.K Mensah, the founder and leader of the Christ Vision Prayer Ministry, allegedly predicted that Shatta Wale would soon follow Ebony, who passed away in an accident on Thursday February 8, 2018.

READ ALSO: We don't want to die - Top Kumawood actors who rushed to see a prophet

Watch a touching video on the life of the late Ghanaian musician, Ebony:

We are looking for unique stories and photos about developments happening in your area. Get in touch with YEN on Facebook or Instagram

Source: Yen- Ghanaians have commented on whether former president Mahama could win the 2020 polls

- Some social media users have urged the former president to wait for the 2024 polls instead

Following the hotly contested 2016 general elections that saw the the New Patriotic Party regain political power, a lot of Ghanaians have commented on the likely idea that former President Mahama will contest the 2020 polls.

Going further, many more Ghanaians wondered if former president Mahama is likely to win the 2020 polls should he contest it, especially considering the defeat the National Democratic Congress (NDC) suffered in 2016.

YEN.com.gh asked the question to our readers on social media, and put together a series of reactions Ghanaians shared regarding aforementioned question.

I no chop since more...

A simple no...

No competence in the NDC...

Mahama and Bakayoto together...

In Jesus name...

A strong NPP man but...

I wish I had my old teacher...

Governance...

No voters ID, no comment...

JM at an all-time high...

READ ALSO: Zylofon gives us Val's Day goals in new photos

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Source: YenGhanaian actress Priscilla Opoku Agyemang, popularly known as Ahuofe Patri, has wowed many of her fans and followers on social media with stunning photos to mark this years Valentines Day.

In a latest round of photos of the actress to hit social media, she was seen dazzling in her fiery red in celebrating Vals Day which has come to be known by some as 'World Chocolate Day'.

READ ALSO: Ebony's yet to be released gospel video pops up on social media

In one of the photos that captured the unmatched beauty of Ahuofe Patri, the actress captioned it with the famous words, I love you.

Another photo spotted by YEN.com.gh via her Instagram page, saw the actress looking breathtaking, as she stood close to a window while looking into the future.

Since the photos were posted on her social media handle, it has been liked and commented on by a teeming number of her fan base with many people complimenting her ravishing look.

Not too long ago, the actress outdoored her love for pets as she posed with some of her foreign-bred dogs.

READ ALSO: An Ebony tattoo goes wrong on man's scalp

The photos with her pets were taken on a trip to the beach.

In recent times, Ahoufe Patri has been seen on the set of a skit started by her fellow actor, Kalybos which is known as 'The Adventures of Kalybos'.

Their partnership once again on set shows they allegedly parted ways with director Kofi Asamoah and Kofas Media.

Ahoufe Patri came into the limelight after some skits of herself and Kalybos -born Richard Asante- went viral on social media titled, 'Boys Kasa'.

She went on to feature in a few commercials and landed a role in a TV series known as 'Cocoa Brown', and has been on the climb in her career.

READ ALSO: Ebony's response to her managers when they asked her about her many tattoos

YEN is building a platform where Ghanaians can share local news and own experiences with each other. Witnessing an incident?

Want to tell about a local problem? Know someone who is extremely talented and needs recognition?

Your stories and photos are always welcome. Send us a message via YENs official Facebook page.

Source: YenLGBT nonprofits such as SAVE and Unity Coalition|Coalicion Unida are urging the Archdiocese of Miami and Florida lawmakers to reverse its un-Christian policy of intolerance and hate after a lesbian Catholic school teacher was fired from her job last week for marrying her partner, who is also a woman.

First-grade teacher Jocelyn Morffi was terminated from Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic School after school officials learned she had married her longtime girlfriend, Natasha Hass, Feb. 3. Florida remains one of the few states where employers can still fire someone based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Morffi revealed the news in a public Instagram post, saying she married the love of my life and unfortunately I was terminated from my job as a result.

In their eyes Im not the right kind of Catholic for my choice in partner, Morffi said. However, I will continue with #teachhope and will inform you of the new location for the February 25th outing very soon. Also thank you for the outpour of love and support.

Morffi was recognized in The Miami Herald in 2015 for a program she started at Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic School called #teachHope70x7, which encouraged children to feed the homeless and spread hope in the community. The "70x7" references a bible passage about forgiveness.

Parents at Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic School learned of their childrens teachers firing from a letter the school issued last Thursday.

Today a difficult and necessary decision has been made regarding Ms. Jocelyn Morffi, our first-grade teacher. She is no longer teaching at our school," the letter read. "Please know that your child(children)'s education is of the utmost concern for us and throughout the next days and weeks your child's daily school routine will not be disrupted as Ms. Morffi's replacement will be selected very soon."

Archdiocese, via Facebook.

A group of upset parents showed up to the school the day after receiving the letter, voicing their disagreement with the school's decision to dismiss Morffi. Some even threatened to pull their children out of the school.

Tony Lima, executive director of SAVE, said Morffi approached him and his LGBT rights group for assistance.

I think its shocking that this continues to happen in South Florida, Lima told The Miami Herald. Religious exemptions are a means to discriminate. Its important to continue educating the community that this kind of stuff happens in this day and age. But its even more important to pass comprehensive statewide protections.

Herb Sosa, director of Unity Coalition|Coalicion Unida, said religious exemption is an unjust, discriminatory and outdated law that [we] strongly call for its elimination  now.

The firing of a liked and celebrated teacher for living her truth of love and marital union once again highlights the need for protection of all Floridians from discrimination, Sosa said. Her marriage is legal in our state and should be seen as a beacon of all things good and honest, not a threat or reason for losing her job.

Mary Ross Agosta, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Miami, told Politico Florida that Morffi was fired for violating her contract. She said Catholic school employees have to sign a contract pledging they will follow church policy, which includes a prohibition on same-sex marriage.

When a teacher is in a Catholic school and signs a contract it is expected the policies, procedures, teachings, and traditions of the Catholic Church will be respected and honored," Agosta said. This is a Catholic school. Parents send their children to a Catholic school because of the churchs teaching, the discipline and the spirituality. This was a well-liked teacher for seven years. But when a contract is broken, it leaves the employer with no other choice.

Miami's current archbishop, Thomas Wenski, has a long history of anti-gay comments. When the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015, Wenski released a statement comparing the ruling to the 1857 Dred Scott case, which stated that black people could be legally owned as property in the United States.

Sosa says its time for the Archdiocese of Miami to reverse its policy of intolerance and hate  two qualities that are anything but Christian, in teaching or practice.

It is time for the Archdiocese to really learn and put into practice what being a true Christian is, Sosa said. There is nothing immoral, conflicting or shameful in Ms. Morffis commitment to her partner and her students, and both are equally as strong and unquestionable.

Jocelyn Marffi (left) married Natasha Hass in the Florida Keys on Feb. 8, 2018. Photo via Facebook.

Javier Estevez, who is running for State Representative in District 105, said Morffis firing is discrimination, plain and simple, and is unacceptable.

This proves the fact that private schools arent as tolerant as they make themselves out to be, which makes the Florida Legislatures new proposals to protect bullied LGBTQ students a failure even before being put into action, Estevez said.

When the Human Rights Ordinance, the law that protects all people from discrimination, was passed in 1998, it included a religious exemption regarding sexual orientation for LGBTQ people.

Plain and simple, the case of this fired teacher points to the need for us as a community to go back to that ordinance and eliminate the exemption, said Damian Pardo, head organizer of the Gay8 Festival, which takes place Sunday, Feb. 18, in Little Havana and includes various programming for lesbian women. What happened was discrimination cloaked in the rule of law  a law the Catholic Church could not have defended against any other minority group. We have our marching orders to go back and repeal the exemption.

Despite protests from parents, LGBT nonprofits and other supporters, openly gay State Rep. David Richardson  a Miami Beach Democrat running for Congress, who is the top fundraiser in the primary for Floridas 27th Congressional District where Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic School is located  said Morffis dismissal is likely legal.

Its 2018, but you may be surprised to learn that you can be fired from your employment not just because of gay marriage but also because youre gay, Richardson told Politico Florida.

He said Morffis firing highlights a need for federal legislation and the passage of FL HB347 (18R), which would ban Florida hotel owners and employers from discriminating against people due to their sexual orientation or gender. Richardson said the Republican-led legislature in Tallahassee has rejected the bill for years.

Last Thursday at the Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerces State of Our Community business luncheon, Richardson via Skype said in Tallahassee theres a focus on LGBT related bills, including efforts to get a gay marriage ban out of statute and to separate an anti-discrimination bill regarding housing and employment protections for LGBT individuals. Richardson proposes to have one bill on housing protections and another on employment that is LGBT inclusive, but he says that isnt going anywhere with the Republican leadership in Tallahassee.

The bill regarding anti-discrimination against the LGBT community that has been filed for the last 10 years or so is not moving. Its not being heard, Richardson said. I also cant get anyone here in the Republican leadership to hear the bill to get the gay marriage ban out of statute, even though theres a law in the books that says every year we clean up the statutes and delete the ones that are no longer applicable.

Morffi's attorney, Erica Canas, told NBC 6 she and her client are considering legal action against Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic School and the Archdiocese of Miami.

"Jocelyn is humbled by all the love and support she has received from family, friends, the students' parents and the public. She feels that the manner of her firing was unfair, not only to her, but to her students as well," Canas said.

Pardo said the Archdioceses decision to terminate Morffi because of her sexual orientation is legalized discrimination based on their own homophobia.

And the people who paid the ultimate price are the children in that classroom who lost an amazing teacher and dont understand why, Pardo said.Walgreens faces backlash from conservative groups after announcing a trans-inclusive bathroom policy this month.

The change came after cisgender woman Jessie Meehan was told to use the mens room because the employee thought she was too masculine to use the womens room, according to PinkNews. Meehan sued the chain through the ALCU and asked instead of a financial statement that all 8,100 stores changed their bathroom policy.

The American Family Association launched a petition against the change on their website in response. The anti-LGBT group previously led a boycott against Target for the same reason in 2016.

Walgreens new policy could potentially result in female customers becoming victims of voyeurism, sexual assault and physical attack, the petition reads. Walgreens must immediately reverse its dangerous policy that allows men unrestricted access into womens restrooms.

Walgreens said in a Nov. 17, 2017 memo that All individuals have a right to use restroom facilities that correspond to the individuals gender identity, regardless of the individuals sex assigned at birth.

One Million Moms also wrote against the policy change.

In a shocking policy announcement, Walgreens has now directed its stores to allow men full and unrestricted access to womens restrooms in all of its 8,100 stores, it said.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.



The biggest black holes in the universe are growing faster than the rate of stars being formed in their galaxies, according to two new studies using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes.

Over many years, astronomers have gathered data on the formation of stars in galaxies and the growth of supermassive black holes (that is, those with millions or billions the mass of the Sun) in their centers. These data suggested that the black holes and the stars in their host galaxies grow in tandem with each other.

Now, findings from two independent groups of researchers indicate that the black holes in massive galaxies have grown much faster than in the less massive ones.

"We are trying to reconstruct a race that started billions of years ago," said Guang Yang of Penn State who led one of the two studies. "We are using extraordinary data taken from different telescopes to figure out how this cosmic competition unfolded."

Using large amounts of data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope and other observatories, Yang and his colleagues studied the growth rate of black holes in galaxies at distances of 4.3 to 12.2 billion light-years from Earth. The X-ray data included the Chandra Deep Field-South & North and the COSMOS-Legacy surveys.

The scientists calculated the ratio between a supermassive black hole's growth rate and the growth rate of stars in its host galaxy. A common idea is that this ratio is approximately constant for all galaxies.

Instead, Yang and colleagues found that this ratio is much higher for more massive galaxies. For galaxies containing about 100 billion solar masses worth of stars, the ratio is about ten times higher than it is for galaxies containing about 10 billion solar masses worth of stars.

"An obvious question is why?" said co-author Niel Brandt, also of Penn State. "Maybe massive galaxies are more effective at feeding cold gas to their central supermassive black holes than less massive ones."

Another group of scientists independently found evidence that the most massive black holes' growth has outstripped that of stars in their host galaxies. Mar Mezcua, of the Institute of Space Sciences in Spain, and her colleagues studied black holes in some of the brightest and most massive galaxies in the universe. They studied 72 galaxies located at the center of galaxy clusters at distances ranging up to about 3.5 billion light-years from Earth. The study used X-ray data from Chandra and radio data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array, the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array and Very Long Baseline Array.

Mezcua and her colleagues estimated the masses of black holes in these galaxy clusters by using a well-known relationship that connects the mass of a black hole to the X-ray and radio emission associated with the black hole. The black hole masses were found to be about ten times larger than masses estimated by another method using the assumption that the black holes and galaxies grew in tandem.

"We found black holes that are far bigger than we expected," said Mezcua. "Maybe they got a head start in this race to grow, or maybe they've had an edge in speed of growth that's lasted billions of years."

The researchers found that almost half of the black holes in their sample had masses estimated to be at least 10 billion times the mass of the Sun. This places them in an extreme weight category that some astronomers call "ultramassive" black holes.

"We know that black holes are extreme objects," said co-author J. Hlavacek-Larrondo of the University of Montreal, "so it may not come as a surprise that the most extreme examples of them would break the rules we thought they should follow."

References: The work by Mezcua et al. was published in the February 2018 issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) and is available online (https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx2812, preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.10268). The paper by Yang et al. has been accepted and will appear in the April 2018 issue of MNRAS (preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.09399).

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls Chandra's science and flight operations.

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.The finish line approaches; the collective memories roll by in wavesone following another evoking a clap dance of history that mistily melt before our eyes and remembrances. Teeming grandstands wild with full throated voices. Big, big rich races like the Stewart Fraser Memorial and even Breeders Crown finals that brought the best pacers in North America to Edmonton.

Those were the days when Northlands was the place to bewhen wagering on a per-capita basis was the highest in all of the continent.

Old racetrackers like myself remember and will never forget. It was, as we like to say, the good old days and we lived through it all. The great and the much more recent not so good. But, after 118 years of hosting Standardbred and Thoroughbred racing, the last time harness racing will take place at Northlands is this Saturday afternoon.

The pacers, after a six-week break, will now move to Balzacs Century Downs. Then, this fall, they will move into their new homeCentury Mile adjacent to the Edmonton International Airport where a new history will arrive and new memories will begin and crystallize.

But before we go it is time to recognize a more recent pastthis past weekends celebration of the best harness horses and people of 2017. Standing alone at the top was Kelly Hoerdt who was recognized as not just Albertas top driver and top trainer but, completing the Triple Crown, Albertas Horseperson of the Year as well.

Its a milestone for me, said Hoerdt, 51. Ive been the leading trainer a few times; I was the leading driver one other time. And, in 2010, I was also named Horseperson of the Year. But Ive never won all three in the same year. So this was very special, said Hoerdt, who was named Canadas top Horseperson in 2013. It was a great night; one Ill never forget. Asked to somehow sum up what it meant, Hoerdt said Managing my 40-horse stable, driving my own horses, catch-driving for other trainers, all the long hours of training, the day-to-day paperworkwhich is enormousI guess it means that maybe Im not doing it all for nothing.

Given what he accomplished last year, it was almost a foregone conclusion that Hoerdt would win all three major titles. As a trainer, Hoerdt sent out 117 winners from 480 starts amassing a Universal Trainer Rating System (UTRS) percentage of .393. As a driver Hoerdt won 95 races from 376 drives for a Universal Driver Rating System (UDRS) of an even .400 percentage. Getting to .400 as a driver was something Id never accomplished before. I had a percentage of .370 a couple of times. But this was by far my best. Its hard to do. A lot of things have to happen right.

As is his usual wont, Hoerdt immediately shifted the praise away from himself. Instead, he credited his owners, his horses and his stable help. I have some great owners, I had some very good horses and I wouldnt possibly be where I am without the help of my staff. Youve got to have a lot of good people in the right places, Hoerdt said pointing out the likes of Porter Hill, Joe OBrien, Amy Henry and Jessica Henriquez. Porter, Joe, and Amy are here with me in Alberta while Jessica runs my 12-horse B.C. operation by herself and does a really great job. So, a big special thanks to her. Ive been very lucky.

Hoerdt said his stable has won more money in the past. Money-wise last year was my fourth-best season. I didnt have as many superstar stakes performing horses as Ive had in the past. But I had a lot of really hard-knocking overnight horsesclaimers and condition horsesthat came through for me. So, at the end of the day, the numbers were still there.

That said, three of Hoerdts horses still took home individual awards. Custards Laststand was named 2017s champion Alberta-sired colt or gelding while Iwontdothatagain was easily voted the champion aged horse. Custards Laststand, owned by Hoerdt and Blair Corbeil, won four of his eight races including the $80,000 Super Series Final in October taking a lifetime mark of 1:55. He also had two seconds and a third. We always had high hopes for Custards Laststand and he delivered, said Hoerdt.

Iwontdothatagain, owned by Hoerdt and Ed Keryliuk, was simply in a class by himself winning 17 of his 26 starts while also notching five seconds and a third. He was one of only six horses that won 17 or more races in all of North America. Ive never had a horse that won that many races before. Hes like driving a car. Remarkably, Iwontdothatagain was claimed for just $4,000 13 months ago.

A real Cinderella story, said Hoerdt, who immediately won Iwontdothatagains next start after the claim for $9,000. Then he won a pair of races for $20,000 and was on his way leaving behind the claiming ranks for good and immediately winning the open class. Iwontdothatagain has now won his last six starts including the Jim Vinnell stake elimination in a lifetime best of 1:52.3 and then the $50,000 Vinnell final. He is scheduled to race again at B.C.s Fraser Downs on Friday. Hes a thrill to drive every time. Its so much fun to sit behind a horse with that much talent and is so versatile.

As well as Iwontdothatagain and Custards Laststand, yet another Hoerdt-trained horse, Kokanee Seelster was recognized this past weekend as a joint winner of the Champion Fastest Boy award along with Royal Renegade - both horses taking marks of 1:51.4. At the awards banquet I had so many people come up to me and say what a great year. But you know what? At the end of the day I know we can always do better. We dont rest on our laurels. We know we have to go out and fight harder, get better horses, continue to put horses in the classes where they belong, and keep trying to win races. We know weve got to stay sharp and keep the machine running. Were not going to rest.

While all the award winners are available online at thehorses.com we would be very much remiss without talking about Horse of the Year, Outlaw Fireball, Owned by J.F. Gagne, Peter Van Seggelen, Carl Warnaar, and Tapron Holdings, Outlaw Fireball, who also ran away with Albertas Three-Year-Old Filly of the Year, was the picture of consistency while bankrolling $241,109. Limited to just 14 starts, Outlaw Fireball won eight times, was second four times and third twice. Her big win came in the $132,390 Northlands Filly Pace when she roared down the stretch to win by three parts of a length in a lifetime equalling mark of 1:55.1.

She was so dominant, said Gagne. And so consistent. She never missed the board. The only reason she didnt get more wins was because there were no more races for her. Even so she won so much money. Especially for an Alberta-bred. Outlaw Fireball was turned out for the year after finishing second - after some traffic problems in the backstretch in her $80,000 Super Series Final for three-year-old fillies. Ill bring her back in the spring, said Gagne, probably the late spring. Right now were just letting her grow. Hopefully shell be even better this year. Its going to be interesting to play with her again.

(Courtesy thehorses.com/Curtis Stock)A piece of legislation in Virginia that calls for the legalization of historical or instant racing was passed by the House of Delegates on Tuesday (February 13). The bill, which will now move to the Senate, could lead to a sale of Colonial Downs.

According to an article by the Fauquier Times, the passage of the bill is a necessary step in a potential deal that would see the ownership of the shuttered raceway change hands.

Colonial Downs, harness racing's only one-turn oval and the location of the first sub-1:50 trotting mile, shut its door in the spring of 2015.

Although specific plans for live harness racing in the state have not been made public, Virginia Equine Association Executive Director Jeb Hannum has been quoted as saying that some of the monies collected via historical racing will be earmarked for harness racing in the state.

"New money coming to the Virginia Equine Association from historical racing will go to support member groups  the Virginia Gold Cup, harness racing, the breeders, flat racing, and other racing industry events and programs such as the local steeplechase races and point-to-points," Hannum was quoted as saying.

Hannum went on to say, "re-opening Colonial Downs will benefit the entire equine industry and all agricultural-related businesses."

(With files from the Fauquier Times)Live cover enabled Willyorwonthe ($25.00) to overcome a second-row start and spring an 11-1 upset over even-money choice Nebraska Jack in Wednesday evenings (Feb. 14) featured $8,500 Preferred 3 trotting event at The Raceway at Western Fair District.

The five-year-old Angus Hall gelding was outsprinted by a trio of leavers to the clubhouse turn, including longshot Avuncular (Nick Steward), who burst to the fore before yielding to even-money favourite Nebraska Jack (Doug McNair) upon reaching the backstretch. While Nebraska Jack controlled early splits of :30.3 and 1:01.3, Willyorwonthe stalked comfortably from fourth before Alfie Carroll slid him second-over to follow the cover of Windsun Hugo (Robert Shepherd) into the second circuit.

As Windsun Hugo turned up the pressure on Nebraska Jack, Willyorwonthe was towed closer up the far side. In fact, the eventual winner had the opportunity to claim the pocket past three-quarters in 1:30.3 as Avuncular broke stride nearing the far turn, but Carroll elected to keep Willyorwonthe two-wide before angling a path deeper off a final-turn duel. Willyorwonthe responded at once and coasted away in the final 70 yards to claim his 14th career win in 2:01. Nebraska Jack, all-out in the stretch, finished two lengths back in second, while Charmbo Chrome (Paul MacKenzie) switched three-wide off the pegs in mid-stretch to mount a rally for third.

Trainer William Megens owns and bred Willyorwonthe, a winner on arrival from Woodbine following a dead-heat runner-up effort at the Toronto oval earlier in the month.

To view Wednesdays harness racing results, click the following link: Wednesday Results  The Raceway at Western Fair District.On Wednesday (February 14), the Ontario Ministry of Finance issued a statement explaining that it remains committed to the continued operations of Ajax Downs and Quarter Horse racing in Ontario.

The Ministrys statement came in light of multiple mainstream media reports in regard to what the future holds for Ajax Downs.

The Ministry of Finance statement explains that, No decisions have been made regarding slots at Ajax Downs. Regardless of what happens, we remain committed to the continued operations of Ajax Downs and Quarter Horse racing in Ontario. Our government recognizes that horse racing is an important part of Ontarios heritage and plays an important role in creating jobs in communities all across the province.

On Wednesday, Ajax Council had vented its frustration in regard to contents of a media report that was published last week. The council stated that it did not want to learn about the future of the slot machines at Ajax Downs via reports in the media.

It has been reported that, earlier this week, Ajax council unanimously endorsed a third-party review of casino proposals in Ajax and Pickering. The review would include a cost-benefit analysis, according to the report. We need to see those numbers, Wards 1 and 2 regional Coun. Shaun Collier was quoted as saying. Im sure the Ajax site will stand head and shoulders over other sites.

Ajax MPP Joe Dickson also issued a statement on the situation, explaining, I agree with Ajax Council that the Ajax Downs facility is one of the most important racetracks in Ontario. And while no decisions with regards to the slots have been made at this time, regardless of what happens were committed to the continued operations of Ajax Downs. The Premier and I recently met with the parties involved in order to come up with a plan to make that happen. Since my childhood, I have had an avid interest in horse racing. I recall as a four-year-old walking up the Picov property with my grandmother, where I saw my first horse race. I was hooked and have been involved ever since.

Ajax Mayor Steve Parish has made it known that the Town of Ajax will fight to keep casino gaming at Ajax Downs.Mark Weaver, who shares ownership of Hannelore Hanover, told harnessracing.com on Wednesday afternoon (February 14) that the six-year-old world champion mare will not only return to the racetrack in 2018, but she will do so as a mother-in-waiting.

After a spectacular 2017 campaign, Hannelore Hanover was named Canadas 2017 Horse of the Year and Older Trotting Mare of the Year at the recent OBrien Awards Black Tie Gala, which took place earlier this month at the Hilton Mississauga / Meadowvale hotel in Mississauga, Ont. For a complete rundown of the 2017 OBrien Awards winners, click here.

Weaver has told harnessracing.com that Hannelore Hanover  the United States Older Trotting Mare of the Year in 2016 and 2017 and one of the favourites to be named the US Trotter of the Year and Horse of the Year at the Dan Patch Awards dinner in Orlando on Sunday, Feb. 25  will be bred this spring to the world champion trotter Southwind Frank, who stands at Diamond Creek Farm of Pennsylvania. The embryo will then be transferred to a recipient mare to carry to term.

"This is something we've thought about doing, and we talked to some people we respect, like Adam Bowden (at Diamond Creek Farm) who has done it with a couple horses, Ray Schnittker, and other experts, and they all said they would 100 per cent do it," explained Weaver. "We can race her coming off potentially a Horse of the Year season or we can breed her, or we can be a little bit greedy and do both. We would love to have a baby from him and her."

Weaver, who also shares ownership of Southwind Frank, said he also consulted with Dr.

Bridgette Jablonsky at Hanover Shoe Farms and Dr. Pete Sheerin at Nandi Farms. He said the embryo will be transferred to a recipient mare at Nandi Farms in East Freedom, Pa.

"It's a tough thing to do, as we have a six-year-old mare who has the potential to make $1 million, and she can also have a baby," said Weaver. "We believe that Southwind Frank as a sire is in a good spot in Pennsylvania. We're supporting Southwind Frank and getting a baby from Hannelore. Everything together we just thought it made sense."

Hannelore Hanover won 10 of 17 races in 2017, including her 1:49.2 effort in the Allerage Farms Open Trot at the Red Mile, the fastest mile ever by a female trotter. Her other victories included the Breeders Crown, Maple Leaf Trot and Armbro Flight. Owned by Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Burke Racing Stable, Frank Baldachino and J&T Silva Stables, Hannelore Hanover's $1 million in earnings last year brought her career total to $2,473,814.

(Harnessracing.com)From the surprise of being nominated to the thrill of winning, the start of 2018 will certainly be remembered by Chantel Gillis, honoured with the Outstanding Groom Award at the 2017 O'Brien Awards on Saturday, February 3.

Gillis, 22, grew up around the horses and started grooming at an early age for her parents, Arleen and Joe. Over the years, her responsibilities in the barn increased and Gillis relished the opportunity.

Its a relaxing, fun and challenging environment, Gillis told the Truro Daily News. I like doing everything around the barn and, somehow, some way, Ill definitely always have a horse. Helping with the horses is what I enjoy.

Gillis also thoroughly enjoyed her O'Brien Awards experience, her first time at the annual black tie gala. The trip to Toronto also gave her the chance to visit her sister Christina, who was the person that submitted the nomination to Standardbred Canada's committee. Chantel admitted she didn't have any nerves about the nomination...for the most part.

I felt fine until about 10 minutes before the award and then I thought, Oh, my gosh, its happening!

Gillis currently attends the University of Dalhousie, studying her Agricultural Business Degree, while working for the Paul Langille Stable. Although a full-time student, Chantel is at the barn every morning and puts in long days looking after nine of the horses. She admits her story and dedication is similar to so many caretakers in the harness racing industry, equally worthy of recognition.

I feel a lot of grooms deserve this award, so it was amazing to win, said Gillis. It was a great experience, with a red carpet and everything beautifully done.Former Standardbred groom Jason Jay Waples passed away on Monday, February 5 at the age of 35.

Beloved husband of Jenny. Loving Dada of Jack and Abby. Dear son of Gordon and Denise Waples, and son-in-law of John and Jo-Dee VanLooy. Cherished brother of Amanda Waples (Tyrone T Hammond) and brother-in-law of Jason VanLooy and Jamie (Ryan) Peltier. Loving grandson of Keith and Eileen Waples, and Steve Sonny and the late Jean Haddon. Jay will be fondly remembered and missed by his aunts, uncles, cousins and his closest friends Jeff MacLeod and Andrew Milligan who loved him like a brother.

Jay was a loving father, husband, son and brother. His devotion to those around him was as deep as his love for nature. His passion for hunting and fishing was so strong he could have lived under the open skies, enjoying the excitement of every new adventure out in the wild. He always found the time and went out of his way to help family, friends and neighbours. He will be missed by so many for his quick wit and all around infectious personality. Gone too soon but never forgotten, always in our hearts.

Cremation and a private family service has taken place. A Celebration of Jays Life will be held on a later date.

In lieu of flowers, a trust account for Jack and Abby has been set up with BMO Bank; Transit #0301; Account # 3976014. To make a donation please contact your local BMO branch, or give trust information to your regular financial institution. Funeral Arrangements entrusted to Rod Abrams Funeral Home.

Messages of condolence can be left below or on the Rod Abrams Funeral Home website.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Jay Waples.Sydney Weaver says, Representing kids with physical disabilities is an honour. Its in part because of this attitude that Weaver has been selected as a 2018 Provincial Easter Seals Ambassador.

Along with her male counterpart, Alex Krenta from Ottawa, Weaver looks forward to representing all children and youth who live with a physical disability in Ontario.

Weaver, a chatty 17-year-old from Acton, Ontario, is thrilled to have been chosen as a 2018 Provincial Easter Seals Ambassador, and her mom and dad, Lisa and Don, along with her older brother, Scott, couldnt be more proud.

Born with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy that sometimes causes muscle spasms, Sydney uses a wheelchair for mobility and requires help picking up items and getting dressed. With assistance from Easter Seals, her family was able to modify her van to be more accessible, making it easier for her to get around her community.

Sydney is an accomplished young woman with many interests and hobbies. In 2015, she was a torch bearer at the Parapan Am Games. In addition, she has an orange belt in jiu jitsu and a junior lifeguard badge in swimming.

Currently in Grade 12, Sydneys favourite subjects are History and English. She also enjoys writing, listening to music and singing, though she freely admits that I cant sing! In addition, Sydney loves harness racing, and writes for an online industry publication, and is developing a love of Thoroughbred racing, as well. In 2012, she won the Marie Hill Youth Writing Contest for HoofBeats, an American harness racing magazine.

In considering her future path, Sydney hopes to pursue a career in journalism and communications. I enjoy writing because it gives me a chance to express myself through words and I think thats an incredible power, and it can bring people together.

When discussing her disability, Sydney says, My life is so typical of any teenager, the only difference is that when planning activities I have to take my physical disability into account, and make adjustments. Other than that, I can do anything any other kid is capable of.

An Easter Seals camp veteran, Sydney has been to Camp Woodeden for six summers, where shes been able to try new activities, meet old and new friends, and be independent. She says, Easter Seals has meant so much to me over the course of my young life. I can go to camp and meet other kids like me, do any activity, and I can get the equipment I need to be more independent.

On becoming an Easter Seals Provincial Ambassador, Sydney says, Because Easter Seals has been life changing for me, I want to be able to help kids have the same experiences Ive had, the ones that Easter Seals has allowed me to have. Im looking forward to letting people know that kids with physical disabilities are just like other kids. Sometimes we just have to alter how we do things to accomplish our tasks.

For the past 95 years, Easter Seals has played an important role in providing support for children and youth with physical disabilities from all ethnic and religious backgrounds. Thanks to its generous donors, Easter Seals continues to offer programs to allow kids to experience freedom, independence and a sense of accomplishment. Easter Seals helps by providing financial assistance for mobility equipment and communication devices, as well as fully accessible summer camp opportunities at its two properties, Camp Merrywood and Camp Woodeden. Easter Seals helps kids BE KIDS. For more information or to donate, visit easterseals.org.

(Easter Seals Ontario)The 28th Annual 'Just Pray NO!' to Drugs Worldwide Weekend of Prayer and Fasting

Contact: Steven L. Sherman, "Just Pray NO!" , 727-647-6467, justprayno@aol.com CLEARWATER, Fla., Feb. 15, 2018 / Standard Newswire / -- The weekend of April 7 8, 2018 has been designated as the 28th Annual "Just Pray NO!" to drugs Worldwide Weekend of Prayer and Fasting for the addicted and their families.Since April 7th, 1991 "Just Pray NO!" has united Christians around the world in intercessory prayer on behalf of those bound by alcoholism, drug addiction and other life controlling compulsions.Addiction in America is an ever increasing national crisis! Millions of Americans have addictions. 100 people die every day from overdoses. This rate has tripled in the past 20 years."Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." James 5:16Not only is substance abuse America's number one health problem, the devastation of alcoholism and other drug addiction has impacted families and communities worldwide. Substance abuse has been directly linked to violence and sexual immorality and is a major source of income for organized crime and terrorist activities.Make a formal commitment to join with believers in Christ from around the globe this coming April. Put on the full armor of God and fervently pray in spirit and in truth. We are seeking to enlist millions of prayer warriors from around the world to join us in battle!"We are not only praying for the release of those bound by substance abuse but also for people to be delivered from pornography, gambling, obesity and smoking," said Steven Sherman, "Just Pray NO!" founder. "We seek individuals and groups which are willing to commit to pray weekly on behalf of the addicted and their families, and then join with multitudes of other committed Christians from around the world in prayer and fasting April 7  8, 2018."If you believe that God is calling you to intercede for the addicted please contact us. To find help for addiction through prayer and Christian ministries log on to our web site: www.justprayno.org . To learn how groups can participate in our annual prayer event, click on "Information on the Annual Worldwide Weekend of Prayer" or email: justprayno@aol.com For a personal interview with "Just Pray NO!" Founder and Author Steven L. Sherman, in the U.S.A. call: (727) 647-6467 or email: justprayno@aol.comOn August 3, 2016, seven kilometers above Alaskas Aleutian Islands, a research plane captured something MYSTERIOUS: an atmospheric aerosol particle enriched with the kind of URANIUM used in NUCLEAR FUELS and BOMBS. Its the FIRST TIME scientists have detected such a particle just floating along in the atmosphere in 20 YEARS of plane-based observations.

Uranium is the heaviest element to occur naturally on Earths surface in an appreciable amount. Normally it occurs as the slightly radioactive isotope uranium-238, but some amount of uranium-235, the kind humans make bombs and fuel out of, occurs in nature. Uranium-238 is already rare to find floating above the Earth in the atmosphere. But scientists have never before spotted enriched uranium, a sample uranium containing uranium-235, in millions of research plane-captured atmospheric particles.

One of the main motivations of this paper is to see if someobody who knows more about uranium than any of us would understand the source of the particle, explains scientist Dan Murphy from NOAA. After all, aerosol particles containing uranium enriched in uranium-235 are definitely not from a natural source, he writes in the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity.

Murphy has led flights around the world sampling the atmosphere for aerosols. These tiny particles can come from polution, dust, fires, and other sources, and can influence things like cloud formation and the weather. The researchers spotted the mystery particle on a flight over Alaska using their Particle Analysis by Laser Mass Spectrometry instrument. They considered that perhaps the signature came from something weird, but evidence seems to point directly at enriched uranium.

They were not intending to look for radioactive elements. The purpose of the field campaign was to obtain some of the first global cross-sections of the concentration of trace gases and of dust, smoke, and other particles in the remote troposphere over the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, according to the paper.

But where the particle came from is a mystery

Its pretty clear it came from recently made reactor-grade uranium, the authors write (aka, not from Fukushima or Chernobyl). Perhaps from burnt fuel contaminated with uranium, they thought. They tried to trace it to a source using the direction of the wind -but their best estimate pointed vaguely to Asia. Higher probability areas include some parts of China, including its border with North Korea, and parts of Japan.

You dont need to worry about atmospheric radiation from just one particle, though. Its not a significant amount of radioactive debris by itself. But its the implication that theres some very small source of uranium that we dont understand.

One author, Thomas Ryerson from NOAA, is hoping that someone in a field thats not intimately associated with atmospheric chemistry can say a-ha! and give them a call.

I doubt! By the way, Alaska will also have a mercury problem soon!

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Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, GizmodoYes, the decision belongs on the local level

No, no one should be able to dictate whether people wear masks

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View ResultsEdward Hopper and Marshall's House from Bob Burnett on Vimeo.

This morning, the first public unveiling of my friend Bob Burnett's new short film, "Edward Hopper & Marshall's House." Bob undertook this as a personal project after encountering the subject of one of Edward Hopper's most famous watercolors several years ago, an experience he wrote about on TOP.

"From 1930 until 1967, Edward and Josephine Hopper spent summer seasons in South Truro, Massachusetts, painting the local landscape and taking advantage of the unique Cape Cod light. The neighbors, the Marshall family, have owned their home since 1913spanning five generations. It still looks remarkably similar to when Edward Hopper painted it more than 80 years ago. This film presents how the concept of family and an artists work can reach beyond the confines of a period in time."

Directed and filmed by Bob, edited by Jay Salbert, with sound design by Alan F. Jones. The photographs used, in addition to some Hopper family snapshot images that are part of the Whitney Museum collection, include portraits by Hans Namuth and Arnold Newman, and a Corbis Historical portrait by Oscar White.

In addition to being an independent filmmaker, Bob creates documentary and media productions for a wide range of foundations and public policy organizations. For example, a few years ago he created the videos that introduced the MacArthur Fellows to the world. He has received more than 150 film festival and industry awards for his work. His previous film, "The Art of Richard Thompson," was screened at film festivals worldwide.

"Edward Hopper & Marshall's House" reminded me of my beloved childhood art teacher, Gerald Landt, who loved Hopper's work, and it put me in mind of the similarities between Hopper and Winslow Homer, from an earlier generation, and Andrew Wyeth, from a later one, engaging deeply with the spirit of a particular place, its land, and its light. I found Bob's new film enjoyable and moving and I hope you enjoy it too! Big thanks to Bob for picking TOP's audienceyoufor today's reveal.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)

Featured Comments from:

James McKearney: "Big thanks to Bob Burnett for this beautiful film and to TOP for making it available here. I am very pleased that Marshall's House still retains the peaceful and pleasant look it had when Hopper painted it. Seeing some of the inside of the house is a great bonus. In the second edition of her book entitled Hopper's Places, Gail Levin presents some present-day photos of the places that Hopper painted on Cape Cod and many other locations. Years ago while driving on back roads in Truro and Wellfleet on the Cape, I had the feeling that I saw what appeared to be the site where Hopper painted 'The Forked Road' (1934). After some research using old railroad maps of the area, I was convinced that I was correct. Seeing some of the places that Hopper painted is always rewarding, especially so to discover another on one's own."

Adam Carlberg: "It amazes me how I can sit through a two-hour feature film and not be half as entertained or enlightened as I was when watching this seven-and-a-half minute gem. Well done, Mr. Burnett."

Dennis Whitehead: "Well done Bob! As someone posted, you've packed a big beautiful story into a perfectly crafted small space. Great work!"

Paul Richardson: "I was in Truro last summer, on vacation, and decided to look for Marshall's House, thinking it would be simple to find. It wasn't. I used Google maps, and kept getting wrong directions and driving in circles, and so I went to the public library, figuring that getting directions there would be a snap, as they'd probably dealt with this request a thousand times. Well, again I was wrong. Nobody there seemed to know what I was talking about, and while they tried to be helpful, I didn't get anywhere. I finally found the right road (I think) but still couldn't find the house. Finally I simply gave up. But this summer, I'm going to try again. I'm more determined than ever after this post. I know it's there somewhere."Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (Sama), the country's central bank has inked a deal with US-based Ripple, a key provider of real-time gross settlement system and currency exchange, to help banks boost their payments infrastructure using its blockchain technology xCurrent under a pilot programme.



This ground-breaking programme is a first-of-its-kind to be launched by a central bank.



Under this, all participating banks from Saudi Arabia will use xCurrent to instantly settle payments sent into and out of the country, with greater transparency and lower costs, said a statement from Ripple.



Samas use of xCurrent has the potential to radically shift how banks in the country send money globally, it stated.



Saudi Arabia now has access to every financial institution (banks and payment providers) on RippleNet, which will not only help modernize their payments systems, but also further their reach into major corridors.



Additionally, the banks customers will experience faster, cheaper and more transparent cross-border transactions.



Under this programme Sama will provide interested Saudi banks with management and training.



Ripple said the central bank's use of xCurrent will help fuel global momentum for blockchain.



Dilip Rao, the global head of infrastructure innovation at Ripple, pointed out that the agreement with Sama was part of a wave of recognition by financial institutions of the impact blockchain solutions can have on payments.



"Samas recent adoption of xCurrent, makes it the second central bank to use blockchain technology to revolutionize payments, following the Bank of Englands successful proof of concept with Ripple in 2017," he stated.



According to him, Sama joins over 100 financial institutions who already rely on Ripple to power end-to-end tracking and instant settlement for their payments around the world.



The addition of Saudi central bank is part of a larger global trend favouring blockchain solutions for payments.



Central banks around the world are leaning into blockchain technology in recognition of how it can transform cross-border payments, resulting in lower barriers to trade and commerce for both corporates and consumers, remarked Rao.



Sama is leading the charge as the first central bank to provide resources to domestic banks that want to enable instant payments using Ripples innovative blockchain solution, he added.-TradeArabia News ServiceWhile the first week of VAT in the UAE saw a slump for several businesses, the following weeks saw the businesses come back to normal, said an industry expert.



Introduction of VAT certainly created a stir in the country, but in its first month of implementation, businesses have realised that VAT is a clear and transparent policy posed to the final customer, added Vikas Panchal, business head at Tally Solutions in the Middle East, a leading international accounting and compliance software provider.



The UAE introduced a 5 per cent VAT starting January 2018 with a standard return filing period of 3 months, applicable to most of the businesses while few businesses will be asked to file on a monthly basis.



An estimated 350,000 companies are subject to VAT in the UAE, and penalties for filing incorrect returns, start at Dh3,000 ($816) as well as a Dh10,000 fine for a first-time failure to keep the required tax-related records.



Despite the concerns and seemingly endless number of questions surrounding it, VAT was introduced by the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) in a relatively smooth rollout last month. While businesses had mixed views and opinions about VAT, the shift to the new era has been positive.



Businesses have not only changed their core operations, but are now better managing their financial records, technology and human resource mix. The day-to-day activities have become more organised and many have found stable jobs with the introduction of new divisions and departments.



Studies indicate that VAT will help to support the UAE's long-term sustainable development process, increase individual prosperity and promote the community stability. It has been noted that businesses, whether it be jewellery or a grocery shop have witnessed a steady stream of income even after the imposition of VAT.



The businesses were not only least affected by the imposition of value added tax (VAT) because it is one of the lowest rates in the world, but also because the government will be pumping back tax funds into the development projects which, in turn, will boost a number of industries in the country.



Since the establishment of the UAE, the government has provided unlimited support to all business sectors, thus offering significant opportunities to foundations and companies to grow and expand both inside and outside the UAE, and introduction of VAT certainly has no negative effects.



What was anticipated to be a challenge for the growth of the country, has turned out to be positive. UAE businesses have realised that VAT has not only brought transparency to company accounts and financial dealings, but has also helped them make smart adjustments to their monthly budgets to absorb the new tax.  TradeArabia News ServiceMore than 300 hospitality properties are under construction in the Middle East, which, on completion, will add 105,037 rooms to the current supply. Of this Makkah and Riyadh alone will boast nearly 30,000 rooms, according to industry monitor STR.



Saudi Arabias focus on tourism as one avenue to diversify the kingdom away from oil dependence is receiving a boost with a slew of hotel projects now under construction, stated STR in its latest data on Middle East and Africa (MEA) region.



In capital Riyadh, a total of 6,290 hotel rooms are now being built to complement the 13,104 rooms in inventory while in Makkah city about 23,307 are now in construction, which will add to the 32,377 rooms already in the market, it added.



In other Gulf areas, current hotel projects in Dubai would add 36,394 rooms to the 97,736 rooms in supply while in Abu Dhabi about 4,064 rooms are now being constructed to boost the 26,678 rooms available to clients, said the report.



According to STR, the revenue per available room (RevPAR) and average daily rate (ADR) of Jeddah hotels slightly dipped in January despite an increase in demand during the month.



The ADR was 2.4 per cent lower to SR732.33 while RevPAR slipped 2.1 per cent to 370.3 on an industry occupancy rate of 50.6 per cent. RevPAR, a key hotel industry performance indicator, is obtained by multiplying a hotels ADR by its occupancy rate, it stated.



The months high demand growth figure was boosted by the school holiday during the middle of January, STR said in its report.



Hotel room availability in Jeddah was up 11.7 per cent in January, while demand grew at a faster 12.1 per cent rate, it stated.



On the Africa scenario, STR report said a total of 146 projects are being implemented in the region which will add another 26,030 rooms.-TradeArabia News ServiceThe Electric Vehicle Road Trip (EVRT) Middle East recently concluded following nine days, 2,000 km, seven emirates, two countries, over 20 new charging points, and countless thrills.



Hundreds of UAE families and VIPs including Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al-Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, racing legend Doug Herbert, Alex Hirschi AKA Supercar Blondie, and Ben Pullen, managing director of Global EVRT  joined the road trip participants for a special celebration event at the finishing line at The Sustainable City in Dubai, said a statement.



The grand finale event, the e-Mobility Showcasing Day, provided the perfect podium to celebrate and discover more about electric cars, eco-friendly technologies and sustainable living, while also welcoming home the convoy and its achievements from the longest road trip in the Middle East  all without using a single drop of petrol.



The trip included driving out into the Abu Dhabi desert to Madinat Zayed before driving to Sohar in Oman and then Muscat, setting up discussions with key government and industry officials, like Nama Group, who supported the charging stations built by GreenParking and sponsored the road trip as well as Global EVRTs The Future of Mobility Roundtable Muscat, the first event of its kind in Oman.



The 2018 event also leaves a lasting legacy for the future of electric mobility in the region through a new network of permanent charging stations established along the route by GreenParking, including some of the first charging points in Oman at various IHG Crowne Plaza and Intercontinental Hotels as well as in the UAE.



When the convoy reached Ras Al Khamiah Race Track, the first ever EV vs Petrol drag race was held in the UAE. The Tesla S85D model was victorious, with three wins to EV, by racing legend Doug Herbert and celebrity Supercar Blondie, and one win to petrol (due to a false start), all before passing through Umm Al Quwain, Ajman and Sharjah before finally arriving in Dubai.



Pullen said: Electric vehicles are a key part of the future of mobility and transportation in the Middle East and were proud to leave a lasting legacy in the new network of state-of-the-art charging stations built along the route of the 2018 edition of EVRT Middle East to compliment the ongoing efforts of the government and private organisations.



Our mission to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles for the creation of smart and sustainable societies is now a reality, thanks to the foundations laid by the UAE and Oman government, and our key partners, like Chevrolet, Nama Group, Emirates NBD, The Sustainable City, GreenParking and IHG, which helped provide and build the infrastructure needed to make our event a success, and we look forward to working closely with them to bring an even bigger and more exciting event to the region next year, he added.  TradeArabia News ServiceBusiness France, the national agency supporting the international development of the French economy, will be running four French pavilions at the Gulfood exhibition later this month in Dubai, UAE.



The event will take place from February 18 to 22, at the Dubai World Trade Centre.



This trade show devoted to new F&B products will feature around 70 French companies, all eager to present their latest offerings and know-how, said a statement.



France renews a strong participation at the event this year, highlighting the latest French products on a surface area of 800 sq m across four halls: fine food in the world food section in Sheikh Saeed Hall; dairy products in Hall 1; meat and poultry in Hall 3; drinks in ZaAbeel Hall.



For the first time at Gulfood, visitors will be able to discover a live cooking show provided by Cordon Bleu, the world renowned French Culinary Arts and Hotel Management institute, it will be held the whole week in Sheikh Saeed Hall and undertaken by the select Chefs Nicolas Houchet and Emil Minev.



The role of Le Cordon Bleu is to teach a whole range of technical and University training programmes for working in the restaurant, hotel and tourism industry since 1895. Le Cordon Bleus teaching method is based on practical learning with demonstrations and practical classes.



The institute is developing its network year after year attracting 100 nationalities across the campuses. Le Cordon Bleu has a presence in the Middle East, with two institutes in Lebanon, awaiting other expansions in the region.



France is a major player in numerous segments, including dairies, fruits, vegetables, meat, and products for bakery to name just a few, agri-food products combine quality and excellence to cater closely to the requirements of consumers in the region.



Marc Cagnard, Business France director in the Middle East, said: Agri-food is Frances largest industry sector in terms of both revenue and jobs.



By 2040, the global population is likely to be approaching 9 billion and the French agri-food market is estimated to be growing by an average of 4 per cent a year, with health food alone set to grow 2.5 per cent a year over the next three years, he added.



France is the 6th largest exporter worldwide with $65 billion. The Middle East region boasts a market share of more than 3.4 per cent for French food exports which represents a value of $2.2 billion. The two first partners in the area are Saudi Arabia and UAE, making both a value of $1.1 billion. They are followed by Egypt and Lebanon.



In 2016, the UAE imported $400 million of food and beverage products from France, making the Emirates the 24th export market for the French industry. French exports of F&B products to UAE have doubled since 2010. Saudi Arabia is the 20th export market for France. More in details, for UAE imports, France is the 11th largest supplier and the second from Europe.



This year, the regional partner agencies DEVUP Centre Val de Loire and Bretagne Commerce International will also be in attendance to support companies from their region during Gulfood.



Other partners that will contribute to the shows success include Evian, the number one mineral water in the world and in the Middle East; Badoit, sparkling mineral water talented for fine dining and endorsed by top Chefs worldwide; and Cafes Richard, a traditional French-style coffee roaster linked to the French gastronomy, Art de Vivre and to Paris (the leader on its market), it stated.  TradeArabia News ServiceMiddle East's leading professionals in the oil and gas field will discuss best practices and potential opportunities through cooperation and strategic partnerships at the first edition of the International Gulf Downstream Association Conference and Exhibition, to be held later this year in Bahrain.



The event will be held under the patronage of HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Prime Minister of Bahrain.



The conference will take place from October 23 to 25, at Bahrain's International Exhibition Center and Conferences, under the slogan "towards a competitive refining through innovation and technology".



It will be organised by the Gulf downstream association (GDA), in cooperation with the National Oil and Gas Authority (Noga), with the support from national, regional, and international companies.



Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, the Minister of Oil, expressed his sincere appreciation to HRH Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, for his total care and support to the international conferences that is being hosted by Bahrain, which confirms the ongoing support from HRH to the development process in the oil and gas sector in Bahrain.



The Minister of Oil emphasised the status of the activities of the oil and gas sector and petrochemicals, in Middle East, praising the existing cooperation between the GDA and other organisations and Noga in choosing Bahrain to hold their events.



Shaikh Mohammed confirms the support of the government of Bahrain in attracting and hosting specialised events, in the oil and gas sector. Also, to provide all kinds of facilities that help the organisers in achieving what they aspire to reach and to exchange the sharing of experience between the relevant authorities.



The first edition of the conference will be a replacement for the series of petro-tech conference and exhibition, which was hosted by Bahrain in the past years and that it would be a strategic platform in the Middle East's leading professionals in the field of refining capacity to meet the challenges of business and the exchange of best practices and potential opportunities through cooperation and strategic partnerships.



Shaikh Mohammed stated that this conference and its exhibition aims to involve regional stakeholders and international partners in all parts of the business community, academia and technological services providers to take advantage of the opportunities for investment, innovation and growth.



The official praised the efforts of the chairman of the GDA Board; Mohammad Ghazi Al-Mutairi, CEO of KNPC; Suleman Al Bargan, executive director of Domestic Refining and NGL Fractionation, Saudi Aramco; Ebrahim Talib, deputy chief executive of Bapco; Dr Nabil Bourisli, president and CEO of KPI; Jassim Ali Al Sayegh, CEO of Adnoc; GDA secretary general, Audah Al Ahmadi and many others in establishing this global conference in the Kingdom of Bahrain.



The Minister has confirmed the keenness of Bahrain in the success of the oil and gas specialised entities and in achieving their objectives. As well as the exchange of views on the status of the oil and gas market and insure the opportunities of knowledge share and best practice.



In a related context, the board chairman of the GDA, Mohammad Ghazi Al-Mutairi, expressed his sincere thanks and appreciation to the Minister of Oil, as well as for supporting and encouraging the GDA, and the support from Noga, which strengthens the relationship of the oil companies.



Al-Mutairi continued explaining that the vision of Gulf oil refining is expanding this global event in order to include all of the players of downstream Industry in the final stages of addressing the strategic opportunities faced by the Middle East, particularly the Gulf; confirming that the conference will focus on how engineering smart are. The substantive programme of the conference will cover a wide range of topics, including the issues of regional integration and cooperation and attracting investment and qualified labour force for the future, to invest opportunities in the region.



On his part, chairman of the conference; Suleman Al Burgan, executive director of the Domestic refineries and NGL- NC Fractionation in the Saudi Aramco company; stated that the activities of the exhibition accompanying the conference will witness major meetings, round table discussions, and workshops, which will be offered by more than 220 experts in the field of downstream industry.



He noted that the conference provides a great opportunity for the participants and visitors to exchange innovative ideas and feasible solutions to the challenges faced by the downstream sector and industries.



It should be noted that the GDA has been established after the approval of the Council of Ministers of Bahrain in its meeting on 11 July 2016.  TradeArabia News ServiceFinnish telecom giant Nokia has launched its new security risk index assessment and managed security services to address rising security threats to telecom networks.



Together, they form a unique, holistic approach to targeting security challenges across mobile, IP and fixed networks in the digital transformation era, when new services and virtualized systems also introduce new vulnerabilities.



In addition to addressing their own security needs, operators can white label Managed Security Services to enterprises under their own brand, which offers revenue potential in the fast-growing enterprise security market and optimizes time to market, said a statement from Nokia.



Growing regulatory pressure and increasingly complex networks carrying sensitive data from Internet of Things (IoT), personal devices, and social and business applications have heightened the importance of data security for operators, it stated.



Nokia is taking a unique, integrated approach that starts from assessing operators' security risks across various security domains, benchmarking against industry peers, and providing a 360-degree gap analysis and suggestions for performance improvements. This is the essence of the Security Risk Index, it added.



After the assessment, a managed service, powered by Nokia NetGuard software, will complete the holistic security approach.



Nokia experts design the network security infrastructure, information management and monitoring systems to ensure that critical information assets are adequately protected against known and unknown threats, and that the operator meets applicable security compliance standards and regulations.



Having secured their own networks, operators can go on to offer the Managed Security Services, or selected elements of it, to their enterprise customers, said the Finnish company in its statement.



In partnership with Nokia, operators can easily implement a security portfolio to open a new revenue source and increase customer loyalty, it added.



Patrick Donegan, principal analyst, HardenStance, said: "Telecom operators need strategic security partners that have a deep understanding of the unique aspects of their network environment and the threats that they and their customers face. Nokia's Security Risk Index and Managed Security Service propositions are an important contribution to addressing those challenges."



Friedrich Trawoeger, head of Managed Services at Nokia, said: "Operators must be prepared for a security breach. A dynamic, managed security proposition is needed to eliminate possible threats, so we are taking a comprehensive approach to security from assessing risks to managing and maintaining our customers' security infrastructure."



"This is the best approach to defend against attacks. In addition, the resale white label model will allow our customers to monetize the security opportunity," he added.-TradeArabia News ServiceInternational superstar Ricky Martin is set to premiere his brand-new single Fiebre at the closing night of the Emirates Airline Dubai Jazz Festival on Friday, February 23 in Dubai, UAE.



ChillOut Productions will once again showcase an impressive line-up of international artists at the Emirates Airline Dubai Jazz Festival 2018, taking place at the Dubai Media City Amphitheatre between February 21 and 23.



Now in its 16th year, the festival will also feature Grammy award-winning performers like Duran Duran, and crowd favourites like John Legend.



This will be Latino icon Ricky Martins first live appearance where he performs his biggest hits and premieres his new single Fiebre giving fans at the Dubai Jazz Festival an exclusive rendition of his next big single.



On the heels of his worldwide smash hit VentePaCa, Ricky is back with "Fiebre", featuring Wisin & Yandel. This song will take over radio and clubs with strong electrifying fusions of Caribbean rhythms and seductive lyrics. Fans will also get to see on this same night the music video filmed in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico directed by Carlos Perez (Elastic People).



Upon return from Dubai, Ricky will continue his all-in residency in Las Vegas at the Park Theatre in the Monte Carlo Hotel & Casino.  TradeArabia News ServiceCredit: Kevin MazurBilly Joel has reportedly shelled out $3.5 million for a horse ranch in Wellington, Florida.

The Daily Mail reports the Piano Man purchased the five-acre ranch last month for his wife, Alexis, who is an accomplished equestrian.

"He just wants to keep making his wife happy," a source tells The Mail. "This purchase was all about her." In October, Billy and Alexis welcomed their second daughter, Remy Anne.

The property is described as a "beautifully maintained" farm located a short distance from Wellington's Winter Equestrian Festival, one of the country's largest equestrian events. The ranch includes a 12-stall barn with groom quarters and a ring to practice dressage, an equestrian sport where the rider and horse perform a series of pre-determined movements.

Joel is already familiar with the neighborhood: He purchased an adjacent property for $3.6 million in 2016. Bruce Springsteen and Bill Gates also own properties in the area.

Copyright 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.By Rajan Pandey for TwoCircles.net

In 2014, Narendra Modi emerged as the strongest national Leader as BJP reached the above majority figure of 282 seats, making a clean sweep in states like Gujarat (26 out of 26), Rajasthan (25 out of 25), Delhi (7 out of 7), Uttarakhand (5 out of 5), Himachal (4 out of 4) and Goa (2 out of 2). Along with this, it also performed extremely well in states like Jharkhand (12 out of 14), Chattisgarh (10 out of 11), Madhya Pradesh (27 out of 29), Maharashtra (43 out of 48 to BJP alliance), while Uttar Pradesh gave it a never before push with 73 out of 80 seats (71 for BJP and two went to its ally Apna Dal).

Fast forward to 2018 and see what the conditions in these states are. In the recently concluded Gujarat assembly elections, BJPs seat tally came down to two digits (99 seats) for the first time since 1995, while Congress secured 79 seats. If we project the leads of Congress on Lok Sabha seats, then there are roughly around 9 LS seats where INC took lead over BJP. Further, there are some 4 more seats where BJPs lead over Congress is somewhere around 2% only. It is perhaps because of this reason that INC president Rahul Gandhi is said to have given his state unit the target of 20 LS seats in 2019 elections. Whether they achieve it or not is a separate case, but the loss of 10 to 13 seats for BJP could not be ruled out.

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The case of Rajasthan could be more worrying for the BJP. In the recently concluded by-elections in Rajasthan, Congress experienced a positive vote swing of 11% in Ajmer and 25% in Alwar, while BJP experienced a two-digit negative vote swing on both parliamentary constituencies. As anti-incumbency against CM Vasundhara Raje mounts, experts are expecting a BJP rout in assembly elections, due by year-end. If this happens (which is quite likely), the BJPs loss could continue in the 2019 elections as well as an absolute turnaround in consecutive elections is not new for Rajasthan. In 2008 assembly elections, Congress got 96 out of 200 assembly seats and in the 2009 Loksabha elections, it won 20 out of 25 seats. Even if this trend does not repeat itself, doing a sweep in Rajasthan this time too seems a far cry for BJP as of now.

With reports of minor but significant gains being made by opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh, these states too may account for a loss of some seats. And the current situation is far from upbeat for BJP in Jharkhand, where CM Raghubar Dass tenure has been full of controversies. Forget the opposition; his own cabinet colleague and senior BJP leader Saryu Rai have resigned from one of his ministries in protest against the functioning of Das. Further, though BJP is trying hard to keep the communal polarization pot stirring, even party leaders in the state dont expect that it will be able to repeat its performance of 71 seats in 2019. In this scenario, a loss of around 60 to 70 seats for BJP in 2019 seems quite plausible. Given its current strength of 272 in the Lok Sabha, that would take BJP down to around 200. On the other hand, despite tall claims by the Congress party, it does not appear to be crossing 120-25 seat mark as of now.

In that situation, allies will play a decisive role. But BJP is facing stiff opposition from its NDA allies like Shiv Sena (which has declared that it will go solo in 2019 elections) and TDP already,

while reports of smaller parties like RLSP of Upendra Kushwaha exploring possibilities of a tie-up with RJD in Bihar are also coming. The big brother attitude of BJP in NDA matters could also be understood from the fact that it has no convener officially since 2013. Further, complaints about near despot-like work-style of PM Modi and party president Amit Shah could be heard not from the allies alone, but also among senior party leaders, who keep silent as Modi-Shah duo appears invincible as of now. However, once the party starts losing this opposition is expected to surface. In that scenario, Modi wont be supported by the allies for the top job once BJP falls short of a majority, and search for an agreeable face may lead to L.K. Advani, Rajnath Singh or Sushma Swaraj. There is also a chance that with outside support from Congress, which would have no option but to do so to avoid a BJP led NDA government, the regional parties could patch up an alliance. In that scenario, with his masterly management skills and accommodative stance, Sharad Pawar too could emerge as a consensus candidate, which explains his renewed enthusiasm and recent political initiatives.

*The author is a veteran journalist*By Mirza Mosaraf Hossain, TwoCircles.net

In another incident of Indian workers being abused in Gulf countries, it has emerged that nine workers from West Bengal who went to Saudi Arabia through a contract with touts have been detained in a single room for the last two months. Their passports have been taken away and they have been forced to do menial jobs although they were assured a secure job in multinational companies. Furthermore, they have been refused salaries for the last four months and have been given only one meal a day. To make matters worse, they have been subjected to abuse when they asked for salaries and there have been no arrangements for medical treatment of the ones injured.

Though the families of some of the workers approached their respective district administrative authorities to bring them back home, the efforts are yet to materialise. The families are urging the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee for their return.

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The nine workers are from three different districts of Bengal. Prabhat Biswas, Basudev Das and Sukhdev Biswas are from the same village, Goal Bathan, under Gaighati block of North 24 Parganas; Shymal Pal from Sulantu village of East Burdwan district. The other five: Ruhul Amin Biswas, Alauddin Dhabak, Babar Ali Mondal, Gias Mondal and Azhar Mondal are from Nadia district.

They all set out to Saudi Arabia on October 8, 2017, with the help of the two local touts, Jasimuddin Dhabak and Enamul Mondal.

These touts assured them the job of carpenters in multinational companies and for which they had to give them Rs 1.3 lakh each as fees. But it did not turn out as planned. Instead, they were compelled to do the job of scavengers and sweepers and most of the days they have to stay at home without work. The touts, meanwhile, have gone missing.

According to Inzamul Mondal, the brother of Azhar Mondal, since October 8 last year, my brother and the others had to move to four different places in search of a job and they are harassed every day in each possible ways.

The workers are now kept at Al-Hamra village of Al-Khafji district, located 663 km from Riyadh and close to the Saudi border with Qatar.

The incident was highlighted last month and several local Bengali newspapers covered it after the families of Ruhul Amin and Alauddin Dhaba approached the S.D.O and D.M Office of Nadia but with little success. Najma Biswas, the wife of Ruhul Amin Biswas, was disappointed at the inactiveness of the Nadia district administration. She said,  we approached the S.D.O and the DM office in January month and then we were assured that necessary steps will be taken to bring my husband and others back home. But till now, they havent taken any initiative to bring them back and due to the district administrations ignorance, the workers have been living on one meal a day and being tortured.

TwoCircles.Net managed to talk to Basudev Das over the phone and he said, I was assured that I will be given a job with Rs 30,000 as salary by Jasimuddin and Enamul Mondal, the touts, in a good company. But here we are not given sufficient meals and work, only those days when we have work we are given two times meals and most of the days we are workless. We are pleading to all to rescue us from this place, otherwise, our condition will worsen with each day. he added,  I am the sole earner in my family of five members. My parents, my wife and my child are having an extremely difficult time making ends meet.

Allauddin Dhabak said, We are now in utter despair. we are kept in an old building quite far away from the city near the Qatar border. We are not allowed to go outside and are always rebuked by our boss whenever we request them to let us go home. We do have not a single penny. Four guards are always there to watch our every movement. Now I am talking to you from the bathroom after locking the door. He added, we dont know whether we will go home alive because anything may happen to us at any time.

TwoCircles.Net also contacted the officials at the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia and sent all the relevant documents of the nine workers including their passport copies and phone numbers to sort out the problem and bring them back home. The Officials said they will take all necessary steps to bring them back.Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.

0108263 License for publishing multimedia online



Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349Alamogordo is a small, friendly city in the Tularosa Basin in Southern New Mexico. The city is flanked by White Sands National Monument and White Sands Missile Range on the west and the Sacramento Mountains on the east. The proximity to the missile range has caused the city and surrounding area to have quite a few interesting attractions related to science and space, including the New Mexico Museum of Space and the White Sands Missile Range Museum. For those who love the outdoors, there are a number of beautiful natural sights to explore in both the desert and the mountains, including Lincoln National Forest, Grindstone Lake, and the massive sand dunes at White Sands National Monument. A number of other attractions and interesting features make Alamogordo an attractive vacation destination. CDC information for travelers. Hours/availability may have changed.

1. White Sands National Monument  Courtesy of sianamira - Fotolia.com

White Sands National Monument is a unique preserved area containing the largest gypsum sand dune field in the world. Massive sand dunes that resemble ocean waves cover 275 square miles of New Mexicos desert. Much of the sand dune field is contained within the National Monument. The park also provides an opportunity to see the unique plants and animals that call the area home. Other activities include camping in the backcountry, bicycling, driving the scenic drive, hiking, horseback riding and more. White Sands Missile Range also occupies the area and conducts regularly scheduled missile tests. Dunes Drive, which is the only way to access the dune field, may be closed for several hours with as little as a days notice so check for road closures before driving in.



2. New Mexico Museum of Space  New Mexico Museum of Space



The New Mexico Museum of Space History is a Smithsonian-affiliated complex containing a museum and planetarium. The museum was created to preserve and display artifacts and exhibits related to the space age and the history of space flight. The museum consists of one main building, several outbuildings, and outdoor exhibits. The main museum has exhibits about the Solar System, the history of space flight, and the primates that were sent to space on early missions. Nearby there is an IMAX Theater and Planetarium that screens daily films. The outdoor area has a number of larger items on display including a memorial to the astronauts in the Challenger and Columbia space disasters, the burial site of the first chimpanzee in space, and Sonic Wind No. 1 rocket sled. 3198 State Route 2001, Alamogordo, NM 88310, Phone: 575-437-2840 You are reading "19 Best Things to Do in Alamogordo, New Mexico" Back to Top



3. Alameda Park Zoo, Alamogordo, NM  Courtesy of TOMO - Fotolia.com

Alameda Park Zoo was built in 1898 and boasts that it is the oldest zoo in the American Southwest. The zoo is very involved in conservation efforts, making it a zoo you can feel good about visiting. For example, they are participants in the Species Survival Plan for the Mexican wolf, and they also help mend injured birds of prey, many of which are later released to the wild. There are a number of other species that call the zoo home, including the Hawaiian goose, the Markhor goat, and White Sands pupfish. The lemur exhibit is also quite popular. Its debatable whether or not the zoo is the oldest in the southwest, but either way a day at the zoo makes for a great day out in Alamagordo. 1321 N. White Sands Blvd., Alamogordo, NM 88310, Phone: 575-439-4290 You are reading "19 Best Things to Do in Alamogordo, New Mexico" Back to Top





4. The Toy Train Depot, Alamogordo, New Mexico  Courtesy of nikirov - Fotolia.com



The Toy Train Depot is a model train museum and toy store that operates in a retired train depot that was used as far back as 1898. The interesting building still retains features of the original train depot such as the dispatchers window and the stamped tin ceiling. The museum has a variety of scale models of passenger trains, locomotives, and freight cars. Americas Park Ride Train Museum is also located at the same site and operates a narrow gauge railway, offering rides to museum guests for a small fee. In addition to the models, the museum also contains historical railroad artifacts, equipment, and train-related ephemera. 1991 N. White Sands Blvd., Alamogordo, NM 88310, Phone: 575-437-2855 You are reading "Fun Things to Do in Alamogordo, New Mexico this Weekend with Friends" Back to Top or More places to see near me today, what to do, weekend trips



5. Tularosa Basin Museum of History  Tularosa Basin Museum of History



The Tularosa Basin Museum of History is a history museum that is owned and maintained by the Tularosa Basin Historical Society. The museums collection contains artifacts, documents, and personal items from local history. Items on display include a bison trophy head, prehistoric native American artifacts, more than 3,000 historical photographs, and a pottery collection from La Luz Pottery Factory. The most prized item in the museum is an extremely rare 47-star US Flag. The flag was not an official US state flag and is thought to have been created to celebrate the entry of New Mexico into the United States. 1004 N. White Sands Blvd., Alamogordo, NM 88310, Phone: 575-434-4438 You are reading "What to Do in Alamogordo, New Mexico this Weekend" Back to Top or Restaurants near me, stuff to do near me



6. White Sands Missile Range Museum, Alamogordo, NM  Courtesy of Zack Frank - Fotolia.com



White Sands Missile Range Museum has displays related to the history of Americas missile and space activity. The works of various accomplished scientists are showcased, including that of Dr. Clyde Tombaugh and Dr. Wernher von Braun. On the outside of the museum is a missile park which has more than 50 missiles and rockets that have been tested at the White Sands Missile Range. Many of the missiles are pointed skyward, which gives visitors the impression that they are ready to be fired. The museum is located within an operational military compound, which means you will need to be prepared to go through security. Wsmr P Rt. 1, White Sands Missile Range, NM 88002, Phone: 575-678-2250 You are reading "Top Romantic Tourist Attractions in Alamogordo, New Mexico" Back to Top or More must do for couples, what to do near me, places to visit this weekend



7. Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, Alamogordo, New Mexico  Courtesy of Laurens - Fotolia.com

Oliver Lee Memorial State Park is a state that preserves the 19th century ranch house that belonged to Oliver Lee as well as a canyon through the Sacramento Mountains. The park offers a wide variety of outdoor activities, including hiking, camping, viewing wildlife, nature walks, touring the ranch house, and more. One of the most popular trails in the park is the Dog Canyon National Recreational Trail, which starts at the visitor center and covers a distance of 5.5 miles, climbing more than 3,000 feet up the canyon wall. Those who hike the trail will be able to enjoy gorgeous views of the Organ Mountains and the Tularosa Basin. 409 Dog Canyon Road, Alamogordo, NM 88310, Phone: 575-437-8284 You are reading "What is There to Do with Kids in Alamogordo, New Mexico" Back to Top or More tourism, attractions for couples, food, things to see near me today



8. Heart of the Desert/Eagle Ranch Pistachios Farm Tour  Courtesy of vikakurylo81 - Fotolia.com

Heart of the Desert/Eagle Ranch Pistachio Farm is known for their award winning, homemade pistachios. The popular pistachio brand is based at Eagle Ranch, which is a self-contained pistachio farm and production facility. The farm offers free guided tours. Guests will have the chance to learn how the pistachios are grown and processed. Tour groups travel by foot through the farm, and the tour takes approximately 45 minutes. They are wheelchair accessible, giving a greater number of people a chance to attend the tours. During the tour you will visit the processing plant, the pistachio field, and the packaging and shipping areas, giving you a full overview of the process. 7288 US-54, Alamogordo, NM 88310, Phone: 575-434-0035



9. International Space Hall of Fame, Alamogordo, NM  International Space Hall of Fame

The International Space Hall of Fame honors those individuals who have put forth effort, imagination, and hard work into advancing our knowledge of the universe and space exploration. The program began in 1976 and is the only institution that recognizes both men and women from around the world who have played a significant role in space exploration. Some prominent individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame include Edwin Buzz Aldrin, Yuri Gagarin, and Sir Isaac Newton. The Hall of Fame is part of the New Mexico Museum of Space History, which contains other interesting exhibits related to space exploration. 3198 State Route 2001, Alamogordo, NM 88310, Phone: 575-437-0318 "Best Things to Do in Alamogordo, New Mexico for Locals & Tourists - Restaurants, Hotels" Back to Top or Beautiful places near me, what to do, restaurants for breakfast, travel guide, nearest beach



10. Shroud Exhibit and Museum, Alamogordo, NM  Shroud Exhibit and Museum

The Shroud Exhibit and Museum923 New York Avenue, Alamogordo, New Mexico 88310, Phone: 575-415-5206



11. What is there to Do in Alamogordo, NM: Desert Foothills Park  Courtesy of Laurens - Fotolia.com

Desert Foothills Park is a facility on the outskirts of the National forest and the foothills of the Sacramento Mountains. The park has a number of trails with both paved and dirt paths available. There is a roofed picnic area that can be used for cookouts and picnics and there are bathrooms on site as well. A number of easy walking, jogging, and biking loops can be composed within the park. For a nicer hike, take a walk through the park and then exit across the bridge to the Goat Springs Trail. A number of other hiking trails are accessible from the park, making it a great jumping-off point for those looking to explore the foothills. 2510 E. 1st Street, Alamogordo, NM 88310 "New cool stuff to do in Alamogordo, New Mexico" Back to Top or Romantic Getaways, Wedding Ideas close to me this weekend, honeymoon, anniversary Ideas, fun places near me



13. Sacramento Mountains Museum, Alamogordo, NM  Sacramento Mountains Museum

The Sacramento Mountains Museum and Pioneer Village tells the fascinating story of pioneers who came and occupied land previously inhabited by the Mescalero Apaches. Settlers came looking for a better home, more temperate weather, and more natural resources. The museum has exhibits related to the resilience of the settlers as they struggled to make a home in the West, as well as exhibits and models of Cloudcroft, the railroad, and more. The Pioneer Village provides plenty of opportunities to learn about village life during the time of the pioneers. There is also a General Store that offers a variety of souvenirs and gifts for purchase. 1000 US-82, Cloudcroft, NM 88317, Phone: 575-682-2932



14. New Mexico Rails-to-Trails  Courtesy of Jeff Schultes - Fotolia.com

The New Mexico Rails-to-Trails Association maintains a network of multiuse trails occupying the sites of former railroad lines. There are several trails within the network with skill levels ranging from easy to moderate. For those who are looking for an easy hike, try the Grand View Trail, which offers a relaxing hike through pinon and juniper forests. These are especially beautiful in fall, spring and winter. You can do it as an out and back hike or a 1.7-mile loop. For a slightly more difficult hike check out the Salado Canyon Trestle Trail and Bridal Veil Falls Trail, which share a trailhead, making them easy to combine. For even more of a challenge, try out Switchback Trail and Trestle & Crossover Trail.



15. Grindstone Stables, Alamogordo, NM  Courtesy of MelvinL - Fotolia.com



Grindstone Stables in Ruidoso near Alamogordo offers a one-hour horseback ride experience. Each ride is led by a trained and experienced guide to give you an amazing and safe experience. The trip passes by Grindstone Lake and then ascends to the top of Townsend Ridge. In total, the trip is about three miles long and includes plenty of chances to take beautiful photos of the scenery and to see wildlife. The trailride welcomes all ages and children ages five and up ride by themselves. Children under five ride free of charge as long as they can fit in the saddle with an adult in their group, making a ride at Grindstone a great option for a family outing. 523 Resort Drive, Ruidoso, NM 88345, Phone: 575-257-2241 You are reading "19 Best Things to Do in Alamogordo, New Mexico" Back to Top or Amazing things to do around me & More pictures of fun cheap vacation spots



16. Grindstone Lake  Courtesy of gatito33 - Fotolia.com



Grindstone Lake is beautiful and secluded mountain lake and a popular destination among those that love exploring the outdoors, fishing, hiking, and biking. There is a system of trails that covers a total of 18 scenic miles on five different trails. The trails are open to a number of activities, including horseback riding, mountain biking, and hiking. The trails welcome dogs on leashes, so feel free to bring Fido along for the day. The lake is stocked with catfish, bass, and rainbow trout, and the lake allows visitors to launch non-motorized boats, making it popular for fishing. Other activities include swimming, disc golf, and wildlife viewing. Grindstone Canyon Road, Ruidoso, NM 88345 You are reading "19 Best Things to Do in Alamogordo, New Mexico" Back to Top or More weekend getaways, what to do near me, must see attractions, stuff to do near me



17. Things to Do in Alamogordo, NM: Noisy Water Winery  Noisy Water Winery



Noisy Water Winery is a winery and wine shop offering a selection of local wine and gourmet goodies. They have an interesting selection of wines, many of which are made locally in southern New Mexico. Theres also a fabulous range of gourmet cheeses and other gourmet snacks and food items. The store is a great one-stop-shop for picking up goodies for family members, friends, and yourself. Anyone back at home will certainly be grateful for whichever gifts you pick up at Noisy Water Winery, and indulging in the things you buy for yourself will have you dreaming of making another trip to Alamogordo. 2342 Sudderth Drive, Ruidoso, NM 88345, Phone: 575-257-9335



18. What is there to Do in Alamogordo, NM: Plateau Espresso  Plateau Espresso



Plateau Espresso is a coffee shop in the middle of Alamogordo. The shop is a popular gathering place among those looking for a hip, laid-back place to grab a cup of Joe while meeting up with friends or listening to live music. They offer a number of coffee-based drinks, including espresso beverages, cold brews, and hot brewed drinks. Some of the most popular items on the menu are the Caffe Latte, the White Chocolate Mocha, the Espresso Macchiato, and the Cappuccino. Items on the menu are priced comparably to popular nationwide coffee chains, but the experience of hanging out at this local joint is so much better. 2724 N. Scenic Drive, Alamogordo, NM 88310, Phone: 575-434-4466 You are reading "19 Best Things to Do in Alamogordo, New Mexico" Back to Top or Getting married, lunch near me, romantic things to do, places around me



19 Best Things to Do in Alamogordo, New Mexico

Attraction Spotlight: White Sands Missile Range Museum

The White Sands Missile Range Museum, located in White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, is a literal physical piece of history. Visitors to the site will be able to see the place where the nuclear age began and learn about how this impacted life as we know it, even now.

History

The missile range was established in 1945 and is still the largest overland military testing range in the United States, at 3,200 square miles. The first atomic bomb was tested here, at the Trinity Site, on July 16th, 1945. The museum opened in 1999 before closing for repairs, opening again after restoration was completed in 2004. Its mission is to educate people about the history of the nuclear age as well as the state of space travel, with a focus on how it relates to the White Sands area.

Permanent Attractions and Exhibits

Just outside of the actual museum is the missile park, which displays a collection of some of the rockets and missiles that were previously tested at the White Sands range. Guests should make sure to check them all out, including the Pershing II, the WAC Corporal, the Loon (which is the US version of a V-1), and the Patriot. There are over 50 different items available to see, and they can also be viewed on the White Sands website.

The inside of the museum features a variety of exhibits as well.

- V2 Tank- This hydrogen peroxide tank was powered with a mix of both alcohol and oxygen (in its liquid state). A turbopump was invented because of this tank, which allowed the oxidizer and fuel to be pumped as quickly as was necessary to sustain the flight energy needed. Inside the assembly was the hydrogen peroxide that mixed with sodium permanganate which created the steam that drove the turbopump) and allowed the V-2 to hit over 100 miles of altitude.

- Atomic bomb model- The museum features a scale model of the very first atomic bomb ever detonated at the Trinity Site.

- V2 motor: On display at the museum is an actual rocket engine that has been cut open in order to better display the inner workings.

- Slide rule- Before scientists and students were able to easily work out math problems on a calculator, they had to use a slide rule like the one on display at the museum. This specific slide rule is the type that was specially designed by German scientists in order to accurately calculate rocket trajectories.

- Portable calculator- Not quite the kind most guests will be used to, this portable calculator was used by the scientists at White Sands to look at date from the early missile experimental findings.

- Drone Control System- The museum has on display a formation control system from the 1980s that was used to pilot drones using the joystick on the machine.

There are also many more things to see, including exhibits focusing on the local prehistoric cultures as well as the Old West history so guests should make sure to budget at least a couple of hours to see it all. The museum is open all year round on weekdays from 8am to 4pm and on Saturday from 10am to 3pm.

Educational Opportunities

The missile range and museum is a perfect place to take students to introduce them to the history and importance of the White Sands site. The field trips are best for grade levels 9 through 12 due to the frank discussions of war. Contact the staff at the museum for additional information including cost, number of chaperones required, and types of tours being offered. If possible, teachers can request a tour guide to lead them through the missile site, park, museum, etc while explaining the history in a fun and engaging way. Reservations are highly recommended and can be made by contacting the museum directly at least a few weeks in advance of the planned field trip.

Teachers can plan ahead by talking to students about the nuclear age, the birth of space exploration, and the history of White Sands and the Trinity Site. They can also discuss the political changes that were brought about by the first atomic bomb explosion in history.

Shopping

There is a small gift shop located at the missile museum which sells a small collection of merchandise like books and DVDs that focus on the history of the site and the missiles that were launched there. Guests can also purchase commemorative pins, personalized bricks, or just choose to make a donation to help support the mission of the museum as well as its daily operations.

White Sands Missile Range Museum, Wsmr P Rt 1, White Sands Missile Range, NM, 88002, Phone: 575-678-2550

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Attraction Spotlight: New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, New Mexico

The New Mexico Museum of Space History is a planetarium and museum complex located in Alamogordo, NM. The museum focuses on displays and artifacts dedicated to the Space Age and space flight. As one of the 15 divisions of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, the museum's mission is to educate both visitors and the local people of New Mexico about the world of technology and history, and the science of space. Having played a substantial role in the development of the U.S. Space Program via preserving, interpreting, and collecting artifacts associated with the history of space, the museum achieved AAM accreditation as of 1993. More Things to Do in Alamogordo

Permanent exhibitions

Inside the museum is a range of informative displays and exhibits about space exploration. The Basin Overlook exhibit highlights the occurrences in greater New Mexico and the Tularosa Basin that aided the exploration of space. A gallery of maps, photographs, and information describes the White Sands Missile Range, Holloman Air Force Base, and the Tularosa Basin. The interactive Icons of Exploration exhibit showcases a collection of the museum's most celebrated artifacts and objects, highlighting the underlying themes of the museum and including moon rocks as well as replicas of the first satellites launched by man; Sputnik and Explorer.

The Living and Working in Space exhibit shows how humankind has adapted to the environmental challenges of inhabiting space. Space suits are on display here, as well as clothing, a space toilet, Soviet and American space food, and a bioinstrumentation pack. A further exhibit is Rockets!, which is a tactile exhibit with buttons to press that in turn create rocket sounds and allow 3D models of rockets to be observed; this exhibit gives the timeline of the development of rocketry over the years and pays tribute to many of the pioneers in the field of rocketry. The Looking Out, Looking Back exhibit describes the history of satellites, their importance, and how they have changed over the years in terms of technology.

The Space Science in New Mexico exhibition celebrates the Tularosa Basin and New Mexicos link to space travel developments and the impact of the pioneers of space flight. The gallery displays a fuel injector that was part of a rocket made by Robert Goddard as well as some instruments from the German V2 rockets that were previously tested at the White Sands Missile Range. The final indoor exhibit is the International Space Hall of Fame. Dating back to 1976, this hall honors the achievements, efforts, and imagination of many who have advanced humankind's knowledge of space and the universe. The museum also contains the New Horizons Theater and Planetarium. This planetarium hosts four different showings per day and has the first Spitz SciDome 4K Laser fulldome projection system in the world.

The outside area also has the Astronaut Memorial Garden, which contains space-related artifacts documenting the exploration of space over the years. Examples of this outdoor exhibit are the Little Joe rocket, famed from its testing of the Apollo Launch Escape System, and the Sonic Wind 1 rocket sled, which was ridden by Dr. Stapp. By the flagpoles just outside the museum, the remains of Ham, the first chimpanzee in space, lies buried. Another exhibit located outside is the Astronaut Memorial Garden, which was created in memory of the astronauts who died in the Challenger disaster. Partially inside and partially outside is the Daisy Track exhibit, an air-powered sled track also known as the Daisy Air Rifle, which was used to test safety devices. Further displays include the sounding rockets and whisper dishes. Visitors can learn about all of these exhibits from the information plaques located beside each display. Also on site is the Museum Support Center, where volunteers and employees restore and conserve the large number of artifacts on display at the museum.

Ongoing programs and education

The museum offers young people of all ages the chance to join the New Mexico Rocketeer Academy program. For kindergarten through 9th grade there is a summer camp that has two programs to choose from. The camps are either half day (Comets) or full day (Mercury) and are divided into age groups and topics. Topics have ranged from dinosaurs to flying and space robots. The museum also has an outreach program, whereby a portable planetarium dome can be taken to schools for a performance. Another program run by the museum is the Museum Camp-Ins program. These camp-ins see children and adult chaperones travel through the museum participating projects as they go and seeing presentations and movies.

3198 State Rte 2001, Alamogordo, NM 88310, Phone: 575-473-2840

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Attraction Spotlight: Alamogordo Museum of History

Visiting the Alamogordo Museum of History, in scenic Alamogordo, New Mexico, is like being able to stop into history. Guests will learn about the local communitys contributions, which includes the physical (like pottery) as well as historical figures that have served in the cabinets of multiple presidents.

History

The historical society was founded in 1964 as a non-for-profit agency with a mission of helping create a greater love and appreciation for the history of the city as well as the entire Tularosa Basin. Although the entire historical society was nearly dissolved in 1997, it pulled through after bringing in new, passionate volunteers. There are now 200 members, which includes 35 volunteers dedicated to continuing the mission of the museum (those volunteers have clocked more than 5000 hours combined). The volunteers help run workshops, act as docents/tour guides, help process archival research, and process photographs. The museum itself exists solely on dues collected from members, donations, memorial and building funds, and purchases at the gift shop.

Permanent Exhibits

The permanent exhibits at the museum focus on Tularosa Basins interesting history, which includes the history of Alamogordo, Ruidoso, Tularosa, Cloudcroft, La Luz, and other communities in Sacramento.

The subjects of the exhibits cover a range of different areas, including the railroad, the local school for the blind, the military, the national monument, pottery, scouting, ranching, Native American history, and historical local figures.

Albert Fall- One of the biggest exhibits at the museum focuses on Albert Fall, who was the Secretary of the Interior during the Harding presidency (from 1921 to 1923). The museum features a variety of artifacts from that time - including the chair that Fall used in his office in Washington, DC and a framed picture of Hardings cabinet that included Fall (which includes the chair to confirm authenticity).

47-Star Flag- There is also a flag with 47 stars, as the state of New of Mexico was star number 47 in January of 1912. However, as the US only adopts amended flags on the Fourth of July, the addition of the state of Arizona the same February meant the number of stars was changed again before the new flag was released. This flag is unique not only due to the number of stars, but also because it is handmade.

Punch Bowl- According to a family tradition by the Chase family, the American pressed glass punch bowl that is featured at the museum was given to Fall and was made by the L.E. Smith Company out of Jeanette, Pennsylvania.

Katherine Ortega- Another historical figure featured at the museum is Katherine Ortega, who served as the United States Treasurer under both the Reagan and Bush presidencies (from 1983 through 1989).

She was the tenth woman in a row to hold this office, as well as being only the second Hispanic ever to be Treasurer. The artifacts from her term include a sheet of one-dollar bills that was signed by Ortega as well as Robert Leuver (who gave her the bills as the acting Director of Printing and Engraving. He also signed the bills), a picture of Ortega and her husband, and an urn filled with shredded bills from the time she was Treasurer.

Special Events

From time to time the historical society museum will host special events on the premises, designed to help guests further understand the history while also having fun!

One of the more recent additions to those special events is the La Luz tour that focuses on pottery. This is a limited time offering and includes a walking tour (so guests should make sure to wear comfortable shoes). The tours last anywhere from an hour to two hours, and guests are asked to bring their own water if they think they may get thirsty while walking. Reservations are required and can be made at the museum. There is no cost, but donations are encouraged.

Also, when new exhibits open at the museum, many times the museum will have special openings and dedications for them. A recent example of this is the opening of the local missions exhibit - which features the stories of eight different local missions in the Tularosa basin.

Shopping

The museum offers a gift shop with a variety of merchandise related to exhibits at the museum and the history of the surrounding area. Stop by and pick up a book, a kitchen towel, coffee mug, journal, or a gift card. All purchases at the gift shop help support the museums daily operations, as the museum is a non-for-profit organization.

Tularosa Basin Historical Society, 1004 N. White Sands Blvd, Alamogordo, NM, 88310, Phone: 575-434-4438

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Wisconsin cities and towns like Madison, Milwaukee, Bayfield and Green Bay have much to offer in the way of cultural sites, great restaurants, breweries and museums. Wisconsin Dells, the water park capital of the country, is packed with family fun in the form of theaters, parks, museums, and tours of nearby natural wonders. Wisconsin offer plenty to see and do for couples and families with kids of all ages. CDC information for travelers. Hours/availability may have changed.

1. Cave of the Mounds  Cave of the Mounds

Cave of the Mounds is a National Natural Landmark in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin. The natural limestone cave was discovered in 1939, but its formation began much earlier, approximately 488 million years ago. The Chicago Academy of Sciences considers the cave to be of significance to the Midwest, and thanks to its wonderful beauty, it is known by many as the jewel box. Beyond its stalactites, stalagmites, and columns, the Cave of the Mounds also has other interesting formations such as thin soda straws, lily pads, and angled helictites. The cave is accessible on a walking tour that visitors of all ages can handle easily. 2975 Cave of the Mounds Road, Blue Mounds, WI 53517, Phone: 608-437-3038



2. The Historic Third Ward  Steve Gadomski/stock.adobe.com



The Historic Third Ward is a nationally-listed Historic District designated in 1984 to preserve some of Milwaukee's most historic attractions, including the nationally-renowned Milwaukee Public Market and the lovely Third Ward Riverwalk. The district, which spans 10 square blocks just south of the city's downtown district, is home to more than 70 historic buildings and serves as one of the city's most prominent creative hubs, known for its extensive collection of art galleries and studios, theaters, boutiques, and creative culinary options. Visitors can ride the electric Hop streetcar system throughout the district and explore a plethora of shopping, dining, and entertainment possibilities, ranging from high-end indie boutiques and art stores to clever cafes, low-key brewpubs, and a myriad of international cuisine offerings. Other attractions include the lovely Henry W. Maier Festival Park, which hosts a variety of concerts and public special events throughout the year. 525 East Chicago Street, Milwaukee, WI 53202, Phone: 414-273 - 1173 You are reading "25 Best Things to Do in Wisconsin" Back to Top



3. Taliesin Preservation (Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center)  Taliesin Preservation (Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center)

The Taliesin building was famous architect Frank Lloyd Wrights Wisconsin home and drafting studio. Wright designed the building himself in the tradition of the Prairie School, which emulated the natural landscape of the Midwestern plains. The building was completed in 1911, but it needed to be reconstructed later in the decade after a disgruntled employee set fire to one of the wings. Subsequently, Wright used the home as a place to store his large collection of Asian art. Today, visitors can come to Taliesin to learn about the life and times of Frank Lloyd Wright. The grounds have a visitor center and restaurant, and guided group tours are offered. 5607 County Road C, Spring Green, WI 53588, Phone: 608-588-7900 You are reading "25 Best Things to Do in Wisconsin" Back to Top





4. Chudnow Museum of Yesteryear  Chudnow Museum of Yesteryear



The Chudnow Museum of Yesteryear is a museum of Americana from the 1920s and 30s housed in a Milwaukee building built in 1869. The museum is named after its second owner, Avrum Chudnow, a longtime collector of mementos and memorabilia. During the time he worked in this house, Mr. Chudnow began to display his interesting collection of items, formally opening the museum in 1991. Today, the exhibits in the museum are clustered into different still lifes, including a grocery store, movie palace, speakeasy, train depot, and political room. Outside, the museum shows off a classic 1930 Chevrolet car. 839 North 11th Street, Milwaukee, WI 53233, Phone: 414-273-1680 You are reading "Fun Things to Do in Wisconsin this Weekend with Friends" Back to Top or More places to see near me today, what to do, weekend trips



5. Activities Near Me: Bookworm Gardens  Bookworm Gardens



Bookworm Gardens is a seasonal garden with plenty of literature-inspired fun for the little ones. Located in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the gardens cover an area of 35 acres and have references to over 60 famous childrens books within their colorful, engaging displays. Bookworm Gardens is a wireless zone that celebrates nature, reading, art, and music. Children learn about the flowers and crops of the region and can also read together in one of the many reading nooks scattered throughout the space. There are also a number of interactive activities, such as areas for making music, worm-digging in the worm bin, and alphabet letter searches. 1415 Campus Dr., Sheboygan, WI 53081, Phone: 920-287-7895 You are reading "What to Do in Wisconsin this Weekend" Back to Top or Restaurants near me, stuff to do near me



6. Things to Do in Wisconsin: Harley-Davidson Museum  Harley-Davidson Museum



Harley-Davidson motorcycles are an American classic, and what better place to enjoy them than in a museum devoted entirely to this iconic brand. The Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has over 450 motorcycles and artifacts from the company that makes them. In addition to the bikes themselves, the museum has exhibits about racing competitions, the design and customization of these motorcycles, and the history of the legendary H-D line. The museum building itself is an architectural gem, taking up 20 acres along the Milwaukee riverfront with great views of the city skyline. Special group and youth tours are available by request. 400 West Canal Street, Milwaukee, WI 53201, Phone: 877-436-8738 You are reading "Top Romantic Tourist Attractions in Wisconsin" Back to Top or More must do for couples, what to do near me, places to visit this weekend



7. What to Do in Wisconsin: EAA AirVenture Museum  EAA AirVenture Museum

The EAA Airventure Museum is a facility in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, dedicated to the innovative technologies that have taken humanity into the air. EAA stands for Experimental Aircraft Association, and this group showcases the history of manpowered flight with a number of interactive displays at this museum. The exhibits here include 200 different historical aircraft, the child-friendly KidVenture gallery, a flight simulator, and a collection of airplanes in which guests can take short rides. In addition, the museum has an entire hangar devoted to aviation during World War II, adding some history into the mix. It also has a gift shop and concessions and is special-needs accessible. 3000 Poberezny Road, Oshkosh, WI 54902, Phone: 920-426-4818 You are reading "What is There to Do with Kids in Wisconsin" Back to Top or More tourism, attractions for couples, food, things to see near me today



8. Tristan Crist Magic Theatre  Tristan Crist Magic Theatre

A Lake Geneva attraction not to be missed, Tristan Crists hour-long show is filled with the magic and joy of up-close illusions in a cozy, comfortable setting. Crist combines classic tricks, such as cutting his assistant in half, with new mirages he creates each year. The show is made that much more interesting by a big screen that shows the magic up close, so everyone in the audience has the chance to be truly amazed by Crists sleights of hand. The show was created specifically to give the feel of a Las Vegas show in a more intimate, small-town setting. The theater has only 51 seats, so every single audience member is close to the action. 100 N Edwards Blvd, Lake Geneva, WI 53147, Phone: 262-248-0505



9. Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame  Courtesy of Todd Taulman - Fotolia.com

Its hard to spend even an hour in Wisconsin without seeing some kind of Green Bay Packers paraphernalia. The football team and its legendary cheese head are almost synonymous with the state itself. Fortunately, to learn more about the history and growth of this great American football team, one needs only travel to the teams home turf, Lambeau Field, as this is also the site of the two-story, 15,000-square-foot Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame. The museum is highly interactive, with a number of video and audio displays, including recordings of famous Packers describing how they felt during landmark games in their careers. It also contains many one-of-a-kind artifacts, such as the teams 13 championship trophies and a true-to-life replica of famous coach Vince Lombardis office. 1265 Lombardi Avenue, Green Bay, WI 54304, Phone: 920-569-7512 "Best Things to Do in Wisconsin for Locals & Tourists - Restaurants, Hotels" Back to Top or Beautiful places near me, what to do, restaurants for breakfast, travel guide, nearest beach



10. Wisconsin Things to Do: Green Bay Botanical Garden  Green Bay Botanical Garden

Green Bay Botanical Garden is located in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Since its establishment in 1996, the gardens have continuously grown and expanded and now cover 47 acres of diverse plant and flower species intertwined with fountains and stone paths. The gardens are divided into areas dedicated to different plants, including the Four Seasons Garden, which houses plants that thrive in the winter like lilacs, crabapples, and magnolias; the Scandinavian-style Kaftan Lusthaus; and the traditional Vanderperren English Cottage Garden. Each winter, the garden is covered with over 200,000 holiday lights as part of the annual WPS Garden of Lights. 2600 Larsen Road, Green Bay, WI 54303, Phone: 920-490-9457



11. Places of Interest in Wisconsin: The Farm  The Farm

The Farm in Door County, Wisconsin, is the perfect place to bring the kids to learn about how farmers do their job. Referred to as a living museum of rural America, the farm has exhibits on every aspect of Wisconsin farm life, from livestock to crops. The territory has garden and animal areas, a horse stable, a barn and granary, and a restaurant and gift shop to top off the tour. Visitors can purchase milk to feed goat kids, lambs, and piglets or see the old cabin, sugarshack, and woodshed, all of which were built in the 19th century. Kids and adults alike will have a blast meeting the animals on the farm, educating themselves about the rural way of life, and learning about historical life out on the Wisconsin prairie. 4285 Hwy 57 Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235, Phone: 920-743-6666 "New cool stuff to do in Wisconsin" Back to Top or Romantic Getaways, Wedding Ideas close to me this weekend, honeymoon, anniversary Ideas, fun places near me



12. Fun Things to Do in Wisconsin: Wisconsin Maritime Museum  Wisconsin Maritime Museum The Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, is a treasure trove of artifacts from the United States seafaring history. The largest exhibit is the USS Cobia, a World War II-era submarine launched by the US to fight on the Pacific front in 1943. During its tenure, the Cobia downed two ships; today it has been almost completely restored, and guests can tour its upper deck and top inner floor. These areas include engine rooms, quarters, torpedo rooms, and other functional spaces on the vessel. The museum has a number of other galleries landside that showcase the regions history as a shipbuilding community. These include a model ship and car ferry gallery. 75 Maritime Drive, Manitowoc, WI 54220, Phone: 920-684-0218



13. Wisconsin Attractions: Milwaukee Art Museum  Courtesy of Henryk Sadura - Fotolia.com

The Milwaukee Art Museum, which houses a collection of more than 25,000 pieces and has been open since 1882, is one of the countrys largest museums. The museum building itself is an architectural landmark. It includes two structures, the Finnish-designed modernist War Memorial Center and the postmodern Quadracci Pavillion, which features a suspension bridge and a winged roof attachment that protects it from the elements. The collection here includes artifacts from ancient times to the present, but it is best known for its displays of American decorative art, post-1960 American art, and works of German Expressionism. The halls also contain one of the largest samples of paintings by famous Wisconsin artist Georgia OKeefe. 700 N Art Museum Dr, Milwaukee, WI 53202, Phone: 414-224-3200



14. Activities Near Me: Palace Theater in the Dells  Palace Theater in the Dells

The recipient of a TripAdvisor certificate of excellence, The Palace Theater in the Dells is a regional theater with a rotating schedule of exciting performances. The season includes a wide array of shows, which range from Disney stories to festive seasonal specials to classic Broadway hits performed by their national touring companies. The Palace is more than just a theater, as tickets to every performance can be purchased with an accompanying meal or snack. All shows are kid-friendly, and the theater is located in the heart of Wisconsin Dells, making it the perfect addition to a family vacation to the waterpark capital of the world. 564 Wisconsin Dells Parkway South, Wisconsin Dells, WI 53965, Phone: 608-253-4000



15. Wisconsin Vacation: Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary  Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary



Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary spans 700 acres of wildlife refuge territory in the city of Green Bay, Wisconsin. The sanctuary is the largest park in Green Bay, and its curated areas are all about introducing visitors to nature and wildlife. Guide-led programs targeted towards children offer educational looks and up-close time with the animals from the sanctuary, while 6 miles of trails allow for independent exploration as well. In the winter, these trails double as cross-country ski tracks. The sanctuarys manmade body of water, Manger Lagoon, is open to guests for catch-and-release fishing, and community activities regularly take place here. 1660 East Shore Drive, Green Bay, WI 54302, Phone: 920-391-3671 You are reading "25 Best Things to Do in Wisconsin" Back to Top or Amazing things to do around me & More pictures of fun cheap vacation spots



16. Wisconsin Tourist Attractions: Pabst Mansion  Pabst Mansion



The Pabst Mansion in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is the charming historical home of Captain Frederick Pabst, who founded the famous Pabst Brewing Company. The large brown brick mansion was built in the Flemish Renaissance Revival Style and was occupied by the Pabst family until 1908. Following this, several archbishops lived in the house until 1978, when it was purchased by Wisconsin Heritages, Inc. and opened to the public. The historic interiors of the home are on display, and they incorporate 4,000 pieces of decorative and fine arts, including china and dinnerware, clocks, and furniture. The facility offers group and educational tours as well as general admission. 2000 West Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53233, Phone: 414-931-0808



17. Old World Wisconsin  Old World Wisconsin



Old World Wisconsin is an engaging exhibit that gives visitors a picture of what life looked like in the state at the end of the 19th century, when a wave of immigrants arrived in the Midwest to settle and begin new lives. The exhibit consists of a re-creation of an 1880s farming village, complete with livestock in the fields, a local blacksmith, and a general store. There are many unique activities that give guests a real perspective on the daily lives of the former settlers. This means learning about making handicrafts, working on the farm, and sitting in at the one-room schoolhouse. With plenty to do, this museum is the largest in the world dedicated to rural history. W372 S9727 Hwy 67, Eagle, WI 53119, Phone: 262-594-6301 Next read: drive-in theaters Wisconsin You are reading "25 Best Things to Do in Wisconsin" Back to Top or More weekend getaways, what to do near me, must see attractions, stuff to do near me



18. Wisconsin Activities: Olbrich Botanical Gardens  Courtesy of Mariusz Blach - Fotolia.com



Olbrich Botanical Gardens are a Madison, Wisconsin, highlight. Established in 1952 by Michael Olbrich, the gardens contain a number of open-air sections and a closed conservatory. Among the themed garden areas is the traditional English Sunken Garden, which has manicured hedges and a reflecting pool, as well as the rock, meadow, and rose gardens. Perhaps the most important feature of the outdoor section is the Thai Garden, which is home to one of only four Thai pavilions outside Thailand and the only one of its kind in the continental United States. The Bolz Conservatory is Olbrichs newest addition, a massive glass pyramid with more than 750 plants from hundreds of species. 3330 Atwood Ave, Madison, WI 53704, Phone: 608-246-4550



19. Things to Do Around Me: Paine Art Center and Gardens  Paine Art Center and Gardens



Paine Art Center and Gardens combines the beauty of artistic expression with the allure of garden flowers in a breathtaking historical estate setting. When the manor home was built in 1925, owners Nathan and Jessie Paine commissioned the architect to design it in the Tudor Revival style native to England. Both the interiors and exteriors remain true to their original look, making them an enchanting exhibit all on their own. Inside, the home boasts a rich rotating collection of fine and applied arts, while outside, the outdoor rooms of the formal and English-style botanical gardens continue to wow visitors to this day. 1410 Algoma Blvd., Oshkosh, WI 54901, Phone: 920-235-6903 You are reading "25 Best Things to Do in Wisconsin" Back to Top or Getting married, lunch near me, romantic things to do, places around me



20. Things to See Near Me: National Railroad Museum  National Railroad Museum



The National Railroad Museum is a museum dedicated to the railroad history of the United States. One of the oldest museums of its kind, it is located in Ashwaubenon, a suburb of Green Bay. The museum has a large collection of locomotives situated outside on its property, as well as a number of railroad artifacts and photographs within its exhibit halls. A railroad track encircles the museums territory, and visitors can climb aboard and take a ride during the summer season. Guided and self-paced museum tours for adults are available, as are hands-on kids tours targeted towards different age groups. 2285 S Broadway, Green Bay, WI 54304, Phone: 920-437-7623



21. Madison Eats Food Tours  Madison Eats Food Tours



Madison Eats Food Tours explores the city's rich and diverse culinary scene as part of walking and cycling restaurant tours, with a focus on the city's best locally-owned restaurants and venues. The company, which was founded in 2012 by award-winning regional food writer Otehlia Cassidy, offers a chance to explore Madison's lovely and unique neighborhoods on foot and taste diverse, delectable dishes from the city's top chefs and restaurateurs. Tours include a Willy Street Global Eats tour focusing on Indonesian, Thai, and Ethiopian fare, a Capitol Square/Downtown tour tasting gourmet cheeses and liqueurs, and a Dane Co. Farmer's Market tour offering opportunities to meet and greet with area producers. Private tours are available for bachelor and bachelorette parties, business groups, and private special event groups. Phone: (608) 628-8927



22. Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts  Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts



Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts is a designated City of Cedarburg landmark, originally formed in 1988 as part of the Wisconsin Quilt History Project, which endeavored to preserve the history and creativity of Wisconsin's quilters through artwork and story records. Since 2001, the museum has operated out of the Hoffmann-Boeker farmstead, which is set on 2.2 acres and showcases seven preserved timber and stone structures, including a farmhouse, ice house, and summer smokehouse and blacksmithery. Museum exhibits and artifacts are showcased within the farmstead's renovated barn area, including collections of quilts and coverlets, textiles, fiber arts, clothing, and costumes dating back as far as the 18th century. Rotating exhibits are showcased in addition to permanent collections, including explorations of regional indigenous weaving and crafting. N50 W5050, Portland Rd, Cedarburg, WI 53012, Phone: 262-546-0300 You are reading "25 Best Things to Do in Wisconsin" Back to Top or More romantic weekend getaways, more places of interest in, wedding venues near me, time zone, what to do



23. Treinen Farm Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch  Treinen Farm Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch The Treinen Farm Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch is located on a real 200-acre family farm. Owned and managed by the Treinen family for almost a century, the farm grows hay, corn, soybeans, and pumpkins and breeds Belgian horses, which pull their wagons. Their 15-acre corn maze is the biggest in Wisconsin. The farm welcomes visitors during the season to enjoy their horse wagon rides, pumpkin patch, tube slides, hayrides, tractor tire playground, corn sandbox, cows to be milked, farm animals, pumpkin slingshot, steers to rope, bounce house, and much more, although the most fascinating feature on the farm is, of course, their amazing maze. The latest maze was created together with the University of Wisconsins Geology Museum and is shaped like a trilobite, which is the official state fossil. When seen from the air, it is obvious that the maze is divided into sections, each with a different trilobite specimen, while the center has a huge, 500-foot-long design of this ancient fossil. From far away, it is hard to believe that the whole design is cut out of a corn field. W12420 State Road 60, Lodi, WI 53555-9779, Phone: 608-622-7407



24. Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory  Courtesy of Henryk Sadura - Fotolia.com



The Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory, fondly known to locals as the Domes, is a set of three glass domes located in a park in the city of Milwaukee. The domes were constructed in the 1950s and 60s and today each has a theme. There is the Show Dome, the Tropical Dome, and the Desert Dome. The Show Dome has a seasonal rotation of garden shows, while the Tropical Dome is home to over 1,000 plant species that thrive in tropical weather, including a number of fruit trees. As expected, the Desert Dome is full of plants that love dry climates, with most of the species coming from Africa and the Americas. 524 S. Layton Blvd., Milwaukee, WI 53215, Phone: 414-257-5611



25. Activities Near Me: Circus World  Circus World



Circus World is a circus lovers heaven in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. The large complex combines a circus-themed museum with daily live circus performances to create a fun family attraction beloved by both kids and kids at heart. The program includes a classic big top circus show, a show with live tigers, an interactive circus where the kids themselves get to perform, a musical comedy act, and music- and animal-related activities. These live shows happen at Circus World in concert with an extensive historical exhibit that incorporates classic circus posters, an old Ringling circus structure, and a group of circus wagons located outdoors. 550 Water St., Baraboo, WI 53913, Phone: 608-356-8341



25 Best Things to Do in Wisconsin

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Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center

Situated in Ashland, Wisconsin, the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center combines a host of indoor exhibits and outdoor trails as part of a joint conservation and education effort. The mission of the center is to celebrate Lake Superior and its surrounding area.

Its museum-style exhibits feature a mural describing the different communities that have lived in the area since its settlement, a model 18th-century fur trading post, and a replica iron mine. Outside, the center has a -mile boardwalk trail that incorporates hands-on activities for kids. The trail winds through local environments such as black ash and tamarack swamps and a sedge meadow.

29270 County Highway G, Ashland, WI 54806, Phone: 715-685-9983

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Wisconsin Deer Park

The Wisconsin Deer Park is a family-friendly petting zoo located in Wisconsin Dells. One of the areas oldest attractions, the deer park has been around for over 50 years. Visitors can walk along a four-block path in the zoos 28 acres to meet and learn about all the different kinds of deer and other wildlife.

The deer at the park are at various stages of life, from fawns to fully grown adults. The other furry friends in the petting zoo include goats, llamas, horses, and emus. Guests and their children are welcome to feed the animals in the designated feeding area.

2183 Wisconsin Dells Parkway, Wisconsin Dells, WI, 53965, Phone: 608-253-2041

Rick Wilcox Magic Theater

The Rick Wilcox Magic Theater is one of the top-rated attractions of the Wisconsin Dells area. Rick and Suzan perform an entertaining comedy and magic show, known as the Grand Illusion Show, to the delight of a crowd of 550 people several times per week.

The show features intriguing family-friendly magical illusions combined with the Wilcoxes on-stage chemistry to make for a night of fun for parents, grandparents, and kids. Rick and Suzan are always available to give autographs after the show, and the theater even has an in-house shop with its own collection of magic-themed souvenirs and kits.

1670 Wisconsin Dells Pkwy, Wisconsin Dells, WI 53965, Phone: 608-254-5511

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In less than 6 days, were headed to Walt Disney World for the 2018 Disney Social Media Moms Land & Sea Celebration. To say that Im excited is an understatement. I had to hold off on posting about it here on the blog since we had a huge surprise planned for my Mom. Lets just say #MissionAccomplished.

When I first received the invite from the Disney team back in October 2017, I was pleasantly surprised. I was aware of the conference/celebration because I had blogger friends who attended in the past, so Im looking forward to having my own first-hand experience. The fact that I can share this experience with my family is icing on this magical cake.

In case youve never heard of the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration, it is an invite-only gathering of social media influencers and opinion leaders. It marries the conference experience with the magic of Disney and is also one of the few family-friendly influencer conferences available.

Since its a land and sea adventure, we will spend a few days at Walt Disney World and then we will set sail on the Disney Dream for a 3-night cruise to the Bahamas and Castaway Cay (Disneys private island).

After a really tough year last year, I cant think of a better way to start my 2018 than at the happiest place on earth.

You can keep up with all the happenings by following the #DisneySMMC hashtag on social media. Of course, Ill also be posting lots of pics and sharing some of our adventures on Instagram stories.If Schulz, who has been extremely vocal in condemning Turkish politics, assumes a position in the new German government is not good news for Ankara concerning its relations with Berlin, Daily Sabah reports in its article Will Germany's new government have new problems with Turkey?

After the parliamentary elections in Germany six months ago, all analysts agreed on the same point that the German political elite could work out a coalition government out of a very diverse and divided lower chamber. Only very few thought it would be that difficult. After six months of deliberations, tergiversations and volte faces, the end of the tunnel has come into view, albeit a very distant and dubious exit.

The Jamaica coalition, tipped in the aftermath of the elections, regrouping the conservative bloc, liberals and Greens has been a total mismatch. Chancellor Angela Merkel, as the head of the biggest political group, has been since trying to put together a workable coalition. The visible choice was to continue the grand coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SPD). The latter had refused a new coalition partnership because the party was steadily losing ground when in power as a junior partner in a coalition. As the six months passed without a government, opinion polls still pointed at a steady decrease in SPD support. That probably alarmed the new SPD leader, Martin Schulz, and his team, who decided to hold new negotiations with Merkel. And a solution was found after shaky weeks of difficult bargaining and haggling.

It will, however, be up to the voters and militants of the SPD to give their assent to participation in the government through a popular vote. The result is not secure at all, but in the case of support from a majority of party militants, we will see yet another coalition formed by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)-Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) and the SPD. This time it is more than probable that the portfolio of foreign minister will be held by SPD leader Schulz himself.

This may not be good news for Ankara. Already, the very tense and deep-running resentments have only been superficially healed between foreign ministers Mevlut Cavusoglu and Sigmar Gabriel. Schulz, who has been extremely vocal in condemning Turkish politics, be it in domestic or foreign issues, has been advocating for a very serious overhaul of relations. Despite being in the government coalition, he did not hold any ministerial portfolio at the time, which gave him a much higher latitude to criticize the Turkish government.

The saying goes that a politician in power and the same politician in opposition are two different life forms. Empiric evidence suggests that is mostly true in most cases. However, I do not think that Schulz will instantly moderate his stance and prose on Turkey the day he holds the Foreign Ministry portfolio. His probable nomination will also coincide with the EU-Turkey summit to be held in Varna, Bulgaria, by the end of March. The combination of all these circumstances is rendering the coming EU-Turkey summit extremely delicate.

For the time, none of Turkey's institutional allies, be it NATO partners, primarily the U.S., or its EU partners, primarily France and Germany, are supporting Turkey's military operation in Afrin. Not that they have any tangible alternative to offer to solve the situation in Syria, which has become an open battlefield for all kinds of foreign powers. No country, except for perhaps the Astana partners, can offer a viable semblance of a solution in Syria. With the Israeli armed forces bombing Iranian targets in Syria, the number of fighting forces have increased recently.

Turkish wording on official declarations, most of the time, goes far beyond accepted formats of international declarations, creating increased unpredictability. EU partners starting with France, very directly question whether the Turkish military operation in Afrin can be seen as an annexation. This is hardly understandable on the part of Turkey's best partner in the EU. At the same time, the presence of Iranian troops, seconded by Russian military support and aerial coverage is not condemned with similar severity. Nor is the re-emerging atrocities of the Bashar Assad regime using chemical weapons against the civilian population with impunity being condemned.

So, the situation is that Syria is being immolated on the grounds of regional stability, killed by the Assad regime, which is supported by Russia and Iran. Since the beginning of the uprising in Syria, PKK-affiliated armed groups have sided with Assad. The U.S. does not know what to do, when to do it or with whom to do it. Three U.S. administrations, extremely different from one another, those of George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, with very different policies, have totally destroyed the Middle East. Turkey is going to try to implement a security zone by paying a heavy price in military and civilian losses and will probably be bluntly reprimanded for that at the summit with the EU. The EU has no Syria policy either. Never has the situation has been so diffuse, so incomprehensible, so revolting and so intricate in this region since World War I.Next month marks the seventh anniversary of a civil war in Syria. Since 2011, Turkey has received a constant flow of displaced Syrians fleeing the conflict, who Turkish officials refer as "guests," has reached 3,506,532. Turkey has so far spent more than $30.2 billion on the wellbeing of this displaced population. As Daily Sabah writes in the article Syrian refugees in Turkey surpasses 3.5 million, refugees mainly took shelter in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. Some of them have sought to reach Europe via the Aegean and Mediterranean seas, but hundreds died en route to Greece and other littoral countries.

Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) has led the efforts to shelter refugees. Originally set up to help disaster victims, AFAD was tasked with accommodating refugees amid the Syrian crisis. At some 21 accommodation centers, including tent camps and modern prefabricated housing units, AFAD hosts 227,894 Syrian refugees. The rest either lives in houses they rented or bought or at homes provided by charities around Turkey's all 81 provinces. Modern camps provide the refugees access to all basic services, from education to vocational training courses. Education is the main concern for refugees as youth and children make up the majority of Syrians taking shelter in Turkey.

Turkey has so far reached out to 612,603 Syrian children in its bid to provide them with education. They attend public schools, schools run by charities and schools set up at some refugee camps. In seven years, AFAD spent more than $5.5 billion for Syrian refugees while another $16.3 billion was spent by the government for health services. Turkey has also invested $15.4 billion on their education. The aid, however, was not confined to those staying in Turkey, and some $1.6 billion was spent on humanitarian aid in Syrian towns liberated from Daesh by the Syrian opposition backed by the Turkish army in 2016. In addition, the Turkish Red Crescent and other charities have spent another $2.05 billion on Syrian refugees.

Ankara has often criticized the international community for not funneling sufficient humanitarian aid for the refugees in Turkey and not taking in more refugees. Filippo Grandi, the head of the U.N. refugee agency who was scheduled to visit Turkey this week appealed the U.S. and other nations Monday to take in more displaced people. With dramatic changes in its migration policies, Washington has scaled back resettlement programs under President Donald Trump. Grandi also called on Denmark and other countries that have reduced quotas for refugees to raise them again.After its charm offensive at the Olympics, North Koreas delegation has returned home from South Korea, leaving some questions behind. Chief among them: Can the new opening between the two Koreas, begun amid the feel-good spirit of the Winter Games, be nudged and nurtured into serious dialogue over North Koreas nuclear program?

The New York Times reports in its article Is North Korea Causing Trouble or Giving Peace a Chance? that theres a somewhat better chance of engagement now owing to two developments since President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, Vice President Mike Pence, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and the North Korean delegation, including Kim Yo-jong, the only sister of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, attended the Olympic opening ceremony.

First was Mr. Kims surprise decision to dispatch his sister, his most trusted envoy, to carry his personal invitation for Mr. Moon to join him in a summit meeting in the North. Mr. Moon and Ms. Kim met four times during the Olympics, the highest-level contact between the two Koreas in years. Mr. Moons visit would be an even rarer event, since the reclusive Mr. Kim has never met another foreign leader.

While many officials fear that North Koreas primary goal is to drive a wedge between South Korea, which has been eager to engage the North, and the United States, which has resisted engagement, close coordination between Washington and Seoul would keep the alliance strong.

Mr. Pence did not shake hands with, or even smile at, Ms. Kim, as he sat in front of her at the opening ceremony. He could have at least stood when South Korean and North Korean athletes marched in together.

North Korea is a reprehensible regime and the world must never forget that. Still, leaders seeking solutions to major problems like North Koreas nuclear program dont have the luxury of picking their adversaries. Mr. Pence might have used the occasion to raise American concerns with Ms. Kim directly, although the South Koreans say she didnt seem to want to speak with him, either.

All of which leaves unresolved the question of whether North Korea is exploiting South Koreas desire for peace in order to secure economic or other benefits and break the alliance with the United States, or it wants to resolve the nuclear crisis and other disputed issues.

Neither does anyone know whether Mr. Trump, who has been effective at winning international support for tougher sanctions against North Korea, is serious about pursuing negotiations. Both are wild cards. Much will depend on how the North-South dialogue evolves.

But a special burden rests with North Korea, whose nuclear program violates United Nations Security Council resolutions and is a real threat. If Mr. Kim is serious about resolving the crisis, he could send an early signal by releasing the three Americans still held in North Korean prisons or announcing a pause in his nuclear and missiles testing, The New York Times believes.The "Ways to Combat National and Religious Extremism" round table was held in Moscow yesterday. Experts discussed implementation of the National State Policy Strategy until 2025, efforts of government bodies and civil society institutions in combating extremism. A report on manifestations of aggressive xenophobia and radical nationalism in Russia in 2017 was also presented.

As member of the presidium of the Interethnic Relations Council under Russian President, deputy director of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Zorin, said on the sidelines of this event, today there is a positive trend in combating these risks: "Both authorities and civil society institutions accumulated huge experience, the situation is improving, but there are risk factors - social and economic inequality, lack of social opportunities, corruption. It creates an environment that enables people who promote extremist ideas."

In order to prevent spread of radical ideology, Zorin proposed to intensify educational work in kindergartens and at work places, including in higher and special educational institutions, as well as in families. He said that ethnographic dictation, which helps to spread information about the country, traditions and customs, is a great example.

"It is necessary to improve employment rate, especially when it comes to young people who leave the North Caucasus republics to find a job. We must reorientate education process in the North Caucasus republics to meet today's market needs. Today there are too much lawyers and economists, while we really need specialists in construction and oil and gas industries," Vladimir Zorin said.

He urged to maintain dialogue with people who left the North Caucasus republics to study or work: "The Moscow Caucasian Club is actively working on this. I'm talking about legal education. Sometimes terrorism hides behind higher ideals, justice and equality. But in reality it works with criminal structures for some specific criminal purposes."

Deputy director of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology believes that public opinion leaders should take more active position: "It's important to not just judge and punish, but also understand what's bad and what's good. We all must make greater contribution."

Member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, Alexander Brod, said in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza: "We're worried about current situation in the North Caucasus, where people who fought in radical groups in Syria return. Some return legally, some illegally, however, according to law enforcement agencies, recruitment continues. There are sleeper radical cells. We must be alert, we must keep situation under control. The North Caucasus region is a risk zone, there's a large number of protest groups, low standard of living, judicial authorities, municipal and regional authorities aren't always efficient. It's no coincidence that thousands of young people from the North Caucasus region went to Syria. And now, according to law enforcement agencies, this danger zone may spread to the regions of Central Asia."

According to Brod, several weeks ago, the Human Rights Bureau, representatives of various organizations, federal experts, public and religious leaders held roundtables in Stavropol and Dagestan, dedicated to prevention of national and religious extremism. They were held in universities with participation of expert community, public, national, religious leaders. "Our task was to draw attention of the authorities of the North Caucasus region to situation with education of young people, to creation of conditions for their future, to improvement of legal environment and work of government bodies. We saw the desire of non-governmental organizations in these regions, we saw that they want to actively interact with federal experts," Brod said.

He supported measures taken by the head of Dagestan Vladimir Vasiliev, aimed at improving situation with corruption, inefficient management and nepotism. "These problems lead to dissatisfaction, frustration and, of course, protests, so recovery processes throughout the North Caucasus region must continue. The government must rely on activities of non-governmental organizations in its work. It's time to stop illegal persecution of human rights defenders, opposition journalists. The Human Right Council repeatedly expressed its concern to the Chechen Republic and other Russian regions. Cases related to murders of journalists were not investigated. I think that federal government has lost sight of problems of the North Caucasus region over the past few years, its more distracted by other important issues like foreign policy," Brod noted.

In his opinion, it's necessary to come up with a new agenda for the North Caucasus region, its economic development and human rights development: "This region shouldn't be abandoned, since it's a risk zone where some radical sentiments may break out. It's necessary to take current situation under control. In addition, true religious figures always rely on humanistic principles that are at the base of any religious doctrine, any religious denomination. That's why true believers always fight against extremism."Vestnik Kavkaza spoke with the archaeologist, restorer, historian at the Karazin Kharkiv National University, Tatyana Krupa, about her observations of the architectural appearance of Yerevan showing signs of the Erivan Khanate historical monuments systematic destruction by the authorities of modern Armenia.

- Please tell us, what have you found out during your visits to Yerevan?

- First of all, I want to note that I grew up with Armenian godfathers in Kharkiv, my aunt was married to an Azeri from Baku, that is, I have no hatred for either of the nation. On the contrary, I respect them both and have a desire to work with them. I have been in Yerevan for several times, studied the monuments. A reception there was the most cordial, but there was something embarrassing: I was walking around the city, but did not see the Erivan Khanate architecture, though it had been a long historic period. I am engaged in the protection of the cultural heritage, which is why a question emerged: why do I see the Armenian churches, modern architecture of a beautiful city, but do not see any remains of the Erivan khanate palaces, at least, archaeological ones? I saw only the so-called Persian mosque - but where is the rest? This region is famous for its ancient stone buildings, Erebuni Fortress, Teishebaini have been preserved, but where are the remains of the khan's palaces?

They could not have disappeared as a result of wars: there were no large-scale military actions neither during World War I, nor during World War II. Yerevan was not bombed, there were no earthquakes of the same scale as in Spitak. At the same time, the 19th-century palace complexes and mosques have not been preserved, although the usual buildings of that time have remained, and it is possible to recognize them. Meanwhile, there should be numerous mosques in the capital of the Erivan Khanate. For example, there were 17 mosques in occupied Shusha, and there could not be less of them in Yerevan. So why have they disappeared? Unfortunately, the only conclusion is that they were deliberately destroyed by the Armenian authorities with a specific purpose. And it is clear what this goal was, considering the confrontation with the Ottoman Turkey and the Safavid Iran. The historical sources indicate clearly the existence of these sites, in particular, the photographs of Azerbaijanis, residents of Yerevan at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as paintings, for example, the picture of the Erivan Palace in the Tbilisi Art Museum. But the buildings themselves have been destroyed, which means that the political myths about the past of Yerevan have nothing to do with history.

None of the scientific historians will argue that Yerevan is a territory of large Azerbaijan. It happened so that today the Republic of Armenia is located on this territory. We wish the country development and prosperity - but where have gone the cultural heritage of the 17-19th centuries? The palace complexes of the khanate capital, it is worth saying the khanate had been rich and independent, were wiped off the face of the earth in the framework of the doctrine of the heritage destruction and the levelling of historical memory.

- How do you assess these attempts to destroy a whole historical layer of the region?

- In the 8-10th centuries, there was the Khazar Khaganate on the territory of Ukraine- therefore, the Ukrainian language has many Turkic words - but nobody tries to hide these historical pages from us. If I begin to deny the existence of this period, to demolish its remains and not mention it in my works, I will seize to be a historian, and become a madwoman. Moreover, if I destroy the historical monuments, I will simply become a criminal. Armenians have preserved many last names like Mirzoyan, Amirkhanyan, and Bekirian that are of the Turkic origin, and this is a part of the heritage of the Armenian people, as, for example, the Urartian period is a legacy of the contemporary Azerbaijani and Georgian peoples. One can not claim that during millennia, since the Paleolithic times, one people remains unchanged - the ancient Urartians can not be compared to modern Armenians, because other nations came to these lands, got married, gave birth to children.

Once again, an example from the history of Ukraine - some of our nationalists believe that the Trypillia culture represents ancient Ukrainians. But it was a different people, people from the territory of Anatolia, whose protocenter was located on the territory of modern Turkey. Yes, the Trypillia culture participated in the ethnogenesis of modern Ukrainians, but it is not equal to Ukrainians, because later, the Saltovo-Mayakis, nomads, Turks, Pechenegs of the Old Kipchak clan and Cumans came. The ethnogenesis of the Armenian people took place in a similar vein.

- This year Armenia celebrates the 2800th anniversary of Yerevan, the city is proclaimed even more ancient than Rome by the Armenian scientific community. Is this scientifically reasonable? Has the cultural heritage of the period before the Khanate been preserved?

- Of course, dates are also the part of the political myths. Another Ukrainian analogue - In Kharkov, there are both the Golden Horde layers and monuments of the early Iron Age era of the 5th century BC, but the documented date of Kharkivs foundation is 1654. This year Kharkov was first mentioned as a city. The settlement existed before was not Kharkiv. I have to admit that I do not know about any documents, in which Yerevan was mentioned under this or that name 3 thousand years ago. On the territory of Yerevan, there is an ancient settlement of the Urartian period dating back to 10-8th century BC, but this is Erebuni and Teishebainii, the city of Yerevan itself has nothing to do with it. A citys age can be determined by its first mention in documents, and not by monuments of other eras. Unfortunately, now, it is common practice, for example, to celebrate the 2000th anniversary of Balaklava, a settlement near Sevastopol. It does not matter that two thousand years ago nobody mentioned it, the main thing is to declare, mark, cut down the budget and mock the people.

- What do you think about the words of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that Azerbaijanis should return to their historical lands?

- First of all, I am perfectly aware that Azerbaijan does not have claims to the territorial integrity of Armenia as a modern state since Azerbaijan speaks about this at all possible international stages. But it is quite appropriate for the President to recall that the Erivan Khanate is a part of the general history of the Caucasus, especially from the point of view of the struggle for the return of the territories that were seized from Azerbaijan 30 years ago. I should note that Azerbaijan is definitely the owner of Karabakh, it was its territory during the formation of the Azerbaijani Republic, not speaking about the occupied areas around the Karabakh autonomy - and all these lands should be returned to Azerbaijan.

Therefore, there is no sense in accusing the President of Azerbaijan of declaring war and seizing Armenia, this is absurd from the point of view of the international law. The situation is so that today, Azerbaijan is stronger in the military terms after the military reform and many other reforms that allowed to strengthen the army - but, on the other hand, the issue of returning the Azerbaijani territories has not been resolved yet.Albania's President Ilir Meta will visit Azerbaijan to attend the 6th Global Baku Forum, which is to be held on March 15-18, 2018, the press office of the State Committee said.

The forum is organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center with support of the State Committee on Work with Diaspora

Ilir Meta will participate in panel discussion dedicated to the current geopolitical situation in Balkan region. Peace and security issues in the Middle West region, the growing role of youth in the modern social and political life and other topics are to be discussed at the event as well.

Ilir Meta has been holding office since April 2017 and previously worked as a prime-minister, foreign minister and chairman of the parliament.Turkey's Ambassador to Moscow Huseyin Dirioz, speaking at a meeting with the chairman of the Russian Federation Council's International Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev, noted the dynamics of development of Russia-Turkey relations.

"Indeed, the relations between our countries are developing at a rapid pace," the Turkish diplomat stressed. "Last year, eight meetings between the heads of our countries were held," he recalled. Dirioz drew attention to the fact that the heads of Russian and Turkish ministries also try to interact as often as possible. "We are pleased with the very close cooperation, an active dialogue between the two countries," the ambassador said.

"Russia is a very important partner for us both in bilateral relations and in terms of geopolitics," RIA Novosti cited him as saying.

The Turkish diplomat also said that the Astana talks on Syria make an important contribution to the Geneva process and political settlement in this Arab republic. According to him, the interaction between Moscow and Astana is of great importance for establishing peace in the region. "We are pleased to note the effectiveness of the Astana process and the recent Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi," the Turkish Ambassador to Russia said.

The head of the political research of the Center for Modern Turkish Studies, Yuri Mavashev, speaking with the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that during the restoration of Russian-Turkish relations, Moscow and Ankara came closer to each other than they were at the end of summer 2015. "If we talk about international politics, we were brought closer by the Syrian issue here, since those agreements on Syria that were achieved allowed us to neutralize our previous disagreements. Previously, the problem of Russian-Turkish relations was a shift in the economic direction, when the parties discussed only business, and political issues were put off, but now the countries frankly admit that their positions may not coincide on a number of issues, but they do not stop dialogue," he said.

"For the first time the countries of the region managed to start addressing the issues of Middle East security in the Russia-Turkey-Iran format. The experience of joint actions in Syria can be used in neighboring regions, given the high tension in Central Asia and Transcaucasia. We should understand that in the modern world the problem of one country very soon becomes a problem for others. The current high level of ties between Russia and Turkey shows that the parties have realized their responsibility not just for interstate relations but also for peoples," Yury Mavashev called.

"Mr. Ambassador, with whom I spoke in order to clarify Turkey's position, assessing our relations, said that without public diplomacy it will be very difficult to bring the people's position to the attention of the leadership. "The decision at the state level is one thing, but a decision at the public level is also required," the head of the political research of the Center for Modern Turkish Studies concluded.Resuming flights between Russia and Egypts resort cities is impossible at the moment, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on the sidelines of the Sochi investment forum.

According to the minister, he was approached by the Egyptian deputy foreign minister in Kuwait yesterday, who asked when the resort cities will be open for air traffic . "I said there is no such an opportunity now," TASS cited Dvorkovich as saying.

The minister recalled that flights to Cairo will be restored in late February. The decision to this effect was made after Cairo airport tightened security to comply with Russias request.The European Union's stance on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is closer to the positions of Russia and China on the issue than the one of the Untied States, the EU ambassador to Russia Markus Ederer said.

The EU regrets that the position of the US on the issue is different from the one of Brussels, which is "closer" to the positions of Beijing and Moscow, the official said in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper.

He stressed that the EU considered that in the nuclear-related issues the JCPOA was the best possible agreement and there were no reasons to cast doubt on Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal.

According to the diplomat, the EU had also voiced concerns over several other Iran's activities, such as its policy in the region or the ballistic missile program, however these issues should be considered independently of the JCPOA.Iran plans to access Europes power network through adjacent neighbors electricity networks, Iranian minister of energy Reza Ardakanian said.

Saying that Iran is paving the way for the investment of Iranian and foreign private sectors in renewable energies, the minister noted that investors can export their generated power to other counties using the Iranian power grid, IRNA reported.

Ardakanian also recalled that Iran has energy exchange with its neighboring countries, such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Iraq.The Knesset voted against a draft law implying the recognition of the genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Israeli media reported.

The legislative body rejected the bill proposed by the Yesh Atid party, the Jerusalem Post newspaper writes.

The media outlet added that Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid stressed that Israel should recognize the Armenian 'genocide'.Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov will pay a working visit to Germany on February 16-17 to take part in the 54th Munich Security Conference, the republic's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

During the visit, the minister will deliver a speech and will hold bilateral meetings.

The conference agenda will focus on the future role of the European Union as a global actor in its relations with Russia and the US, arms control issues, as well as the tensions over North Koreas nuclear weapons program.Yerevan must understand that occupation of Azerbaijani lands will never produce desired political outcome, the spokesperson for Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry Hikmat Hajiyev said, commenting on continuation of occupation of Azerbaijans lands and Armenian aggressive separatism.

He recalled that this year marks the 30 years of Armenian aggressive separatism started in Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan in late 80s of the last century.

"As is well known, since the beginning of 1988, Armenia overtly laid claim to and engaged in active support of aggressive separatism in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO) of Azerbaijan. Those claims were preceded by the attacks on the Azerbaijanis both in Nagorno-Karabakh and in Armenia, resulting in civilian casualties and a flood of Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons. Thus, at the end of 1980s, more than 200,000 Azerbaijanis were forcefully expelled from Armenia. More than 40.000 indigenous Azerbaijani population of Nagorno-Karabakh were also subject of ethnic cleansing and brutal terror attacks," Hajiyev stressed.

"On 1 December 1989, the Supreme Soviet of Armenia adopted a resolution calling for the reunification of the Armenian SSR with Nagorno Karabakh. However, on 10 January 1990, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a resolution on the Nonconformity With the USSR Constitution of the Acts on Nagorny Karabakh Adopted by the Armenian SSR Supreme Soviet on 1 December 1989 and 9 January 1990, declaring the illegality of the proposed unification of Armenia with Nagorny Karabakh without the consent of the Azerbaijan. On 30 August 1991, the Azerbaijan SSR adopted a Declaration on the restoration of state independence of Azerbaijan and on 18 October 1991 and 29 December 1991, this was officially confirmed," the spokesperson for Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry said.

The spokesman stressed that the unlawfulness within the Soviet legal system of attempted unilateral secession of Nagorno-Karabakh without Azerbaijans consent was confirmed at the highest constitutional level.

Azerbaijan did not so consent, so that the definition of the territory of Azerbaijan as it proceeded to independence and in the light of the applicable law clearly included Nagorno-Karabakh," he noted.

"Armenia must finally understand that the military occupation of the territory of Azerbaijan is not a solution and will never produce a political outcome desired by Armenia. The resolution of the conflict is possible only on the basis of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognized borders," Hajiyev said.

"The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan has never been and will never be a subject of negotiations. Azerbaijan remains committed to the conflict settlement process based on this understanding," he added.NATO will increase its presence in Iraq,NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, noting that a NATO training mission will be sent there.

"In response to a request from the Iraqi government and the Global Coalition, I expect we will agree to begin planning for a NATO training mission in Iraq. This will put our presence on a firmer footing," NATO chief said.

He noted that the new mission will allow for a larger, more coordinated effort to build Iraqi defense institutions and add support in tactical areas, such as countering roadside bombs, Stars and Stripes reported.

This will help make Iraq safer. And us more secure, Stoltenberg stressed.Russia's President Vladimir Putin has sent a message of condolences to US President Donald Trump over the tragedy at a school in Florida.

President Putin has expressed sincere sympathy and support for the relatives and dear ones of the victims and wished early recovery to all those affected, the Kremlins press-service said.

Seventeen people were killed yesterday as a result of the shooting in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, 14 injured are in the hospital. Police identified the suspected gunman as Nikolaus Cruz, saying that he had been a Douglas student "expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons".Russian Black Sea Navy spokesman Vyacheslav Truhachev refuted news on accidents or dangerously close maneuvers between Russia's military transport Kyzyl-60 and British survey vessel HMS Enterprise.

Earlier, the Daily Star reported that Kyzyl-60 and the HMS Enterprise came dangerously close near Bosphorus. The Kyzyl-60 was leaving the Syrian port of Tartus, where a Russian naval logistics center is located, and was heading for Russia, Sputnik reported.

The British vessel was leaving the Black Sea, were it participated in military exercises and patrolled the sea along with two other NATO ships.Russia will further cut its dependence on the United States when it comes to systems in the financial and banking sectors if it is hit with more sanctions, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, RIA Novosti reported.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said yesterday that sanctions against Russia in retaliation for Moscow's meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election would be released shortly.

"We are actively working on those sanctions. You should expect them in the near future," he added.NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg plans to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the Munich Security Conference, a NATO official said. at a briefing on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO ministers of defense.

The official recalled that Stoltenberg keeps in close contact with Russian Foreign Minister. "The last meeting was held in New York in September, and the next meeting is scheduled to be held at the Munich Security Conference," TASS cited the official as saying.Armenia's government plan to reconstruct Vanadzor, the country's third biggest city, under support from the head of Tashir Group Samvel Karapetyan and his brother, Armenian prime minister Karen Karapetyan.

One of the central streets will become a so-called old street, as in Tbilisi. A part of financing will be borne by Samvel Karapetyan. The brothers are now in negotiation over construction of Marriott and Hyatt hotels in the city.

It has also become known that Karen Karapetyan has managed to persuade a member of the National Assembly Vahan Harutyunyan to build an aerial tramway here, ARKA reported.

According to the media, the brothers also intend to build Disneyland in the city.NATO Defense Ministers agreed to create a so-called military Schengen zone to ease military movements across Europe.

Yesterday, the defense ministers agreed the proposal at the meeting in Brussels, RIA Novosti cited with reference to the military diplomatic source.

The idea has been expressed by the senior United States Army commander in Europe, Lieutenant General Ben Hodges. He said that allied troops and military equipment should move across Europe "as quickly as migrants do".

"We should have to meet all the EU road laws, respect sovereignty, but it is a surprisingly cumbersome process in several countries to get permissions to move troops, weapons, ammunition, even just regular convoys," Hodges said, adding that, for example, moving forces to Poland from Germany requires a five-day notice period.

This proposal was supported by a number of countries, including Lithuania, Estonia and the Netherlands.

The editor-in-chief of the newspaper 'Journalistic Truth', Vladislav Shurigin, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, explained that such a "military Schengen zone" has already existed for a long time, and not just de facto, but also de jure, in the form of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, which was signed in 1990.

"That's why there is nothing new for us here. These are internal European affairs," the expert said.

A military observer of the TASS news agency, retired Colonel Viktor Litovkin,agreed that this agreement will not create any new threats for Russia.

"The only thing is that it gives the NATO strategists greater mobility. Now, in order to transfer the battalion from one country to another, they have to undergo all sorts of border and customs procedures. Now it will not be necessary," he explained.

On the other hand, according to the expert, the mobility of NATO-member countries will not radically increase, as the alliance does not have enough vehicles to transfer such a large amount of equipment that may be needed if they start fighting against Russia.

Victor Litovkin specified that by doing this NATO pursues only one goal - to show that they are ready to fight with Russia on an equal footing. "Moreover, Russia is able to move its troops on its territory much faster than the alliance does. For example, Russia has concentrated its grouping to start military operations against ISIS in Syria in 3-4 weeks. The US needed 6 months to collect troops in the Gulf countries for the 2003 Iraq operation," the military observer of TASS stressed.HA NOI  According to Ha Nois Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the city produces some 250,000 tonnes of organic vegetables every year.

More than 95 per cent of this is sold to traders and at wholesale markets instead of being sold at supermarkets, Voice of Viet Nam (VOV) radio reports.

Nguyen Thi Hoa, a vegetable grower in Van Noi Commune, ong Anh District which is well-known for producing a considerable amount of the citys organic vegetables, says these vegetables sold in the market have the same price as normal ones, some VN10,000-12,000 (US$0.5) a kilo.

Growing organic vegetables requires efforts and standard techniques, from sowing and fertilising to spraying pesticides.

To grow organic vegetables, farmers need to plant them on chemical-free soil and use safe fertilisers and water. They have to take measures of integrated pest management to minimise damages caused by pests which means more costs and labour.

However, fluctuating vegetable prices and an unstable market have caused farmers to lose interest in investing in organic vegetables.

Vegetables grown in areas specialising in organic vegetables also have little chance of being sold at convenience stores or supermarkets.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, cooperatives and companies buy only 4.8 per cent of organic vegetables from farmers, and only 1.5 per cent of these vegetables are sold at supermarkets.

Nguyen Thi Huyen, owner of Ba Chu cooperative in Van Noi Commune, told VOV that 17ha out of 30ha of organic vegetables of the cooperative have a certificate of origin, but most of them are sold to local retail or wholesale markets by farmers.

Besides Van Noi Commune, organic vegetables grown by Linh Nam Agricultural Service Cooperative in Hoang Mai District meet a similar fate.

The cooperatives organic vegetables are distributed to offices, schools, supermarkets and residential areas in the city. However, this consumption accounts for only 45-50 per cent of their produce.

At least 50 per cent of fruits and vegetables, equal to some five tonnes a day, has to be consumed at wholesale markets. There is no differentiation between the quality of organic vegetables sold at markets and that of normal vegetables as they are mixed together, according to Le Hong Minh, deputy head of Linh Nam Agricultural Service Cooperative.

As a result, consumers are unable to identify which vegetables are safe for consumption and which are not. Farmers, meanwhile, suffer losses due to low profits from organic vegetables.

High demand for the organic

Ha Noi needs to produce large amounts of safe food to meet the demand of nearly eight million people and nearly 21 million tourists every year.

The citys vegetable supply meets only 60 per cent of the consumers demand. The rest of it is either imported or supplied by neighbouring localities, such as Vinh Phuc, Hung Yen, Bac Ninh, Bac Giang.

While organic vegetables struggle to find consumers, the lack of logistics is also posing a problem.

Nguyen Huong Tra, a resident of Hoan Kiem District, says she wants to buy organic vegetables for her child but does not know where to buy them from. She ends up buying vegetables at supermarkets.

Farmers have to sign a document for supermarkets guaranteeing the quality of their produce before it can be sold. This criterion, however, is suitable for large-scale vegetable-growing areas, according to Nguyen Thi Thoa, head of planting division at the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The majority of households growing organic vegetables are small farmers, which has become an obstacle in selling their produce to food stores and supermarkets.

Vu Thanh Son, general director of Ha Noi Trade Corporation (Hapro), said consumers did not have trust in organic vegetables as there were no standards to identify them.

"Besides taking longer to grow, organic vegetables need a strict process of packaging, transporting and preserving, which adds to their cost," Son said.

Few consumers are ready to spend on organic vegetables. This is one of the reasons why organic produce has fewer consumers.

Profits brought by organic vegetables of Hapro are very low, not enough to compensate expenses on transporting and preserving costs, he said.  VNSHCM CITY  The number of passengers taking flights at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCM City rose to a record 124,000 in a day, according to Nguyen Nam Tien, deputy director of the airport.

The number on Sunday set a record compared to previous years, Tien spoke on Tuesday at a meeting with the inspection team of the Civil Aviation Authority of Viet Nam.

As many as 827 flights were recorded at the airport on Sunday, while 794 were recorded on the peak day of 2017, Tien added.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Viet Nam said the number of passengers was expected to increase by 20 per cent this year to more than 4.1 million on a total of 26,288 flights.

More X-ray machines, check-in counters and an additional luggage belt as well as aerobridges leading from the terminal to departure gates had been set up to serve passengers, he said.

A team had been established to solve problems at the airport, he added.

In the last several days, there were unexpected problems that delayed flights for 30 minutes to one hour. Several flights were delayed for four hours.

A representative of Vietjet Aviation Joint Stock Company said that 6,609 flights had been scheduled during this Tet, an increase of 978 compared to the same period last year.

The total number of passengers on these flights were expected to total nearly 1.4 million, up by 25 per cent compared to the same period last year.

The routes seeing an increase in flights were from: HCM City - Hai Phong City, Thanh Hoa Province, Thua Thien-Hue Province, Quang Nam Provinces Chu Lai airport, Quy Nhon city in Binh inh Province, Khanh Hoa Provinces Cam Ranh City and Kien Giang Provinces Phu Quoc; and Ha Noi - Can Tho.

Forty per cent of the total number of passengers on Vietjet flights have checked in online.

Tran Doan Mau, director of Southern Airports Authority, said airline companies had encouraged customers to check in online.

Vo Huy Cuong of Civil Aviation Authority of Viet Nam instructed companies to continue asking passengers to check in online to reduce congestion at ticket counters.

"If flights are delayed, the companies should have representatives to speak to passengers," he said.

To prevent traffic jams, the airport authority should fine individuals parking more than the regulated time of 3 minutes at pick-up and drop-off areas, Cuong added.  VNSby Vu Thi Hong

In Gia Loc District Military Headquarters, some fifteen kilometres from the seat of the provincial authorities, there was Tuan, a single office cleaner of about forty, who with a long wooden handle broom and a big damp cloth in her hands busy all day long, sweeping the courtyards and offices and cleaning the desks and chairs. She seemed sad with some fine traces of a girl in her prime of life. She had a skinny body with a pale complexion due to illness. Her eyes looked rather strange, wild and bright, blankly staring at the vast emptiness outside.

Waking up at five in the morning, she swept both the outer and inner courtyards and the floors of the corridors and study, which were covered with cigarette butts, toothpicks, used teabags, paper and other odds and ends.

Many officers and men, newly-recruited or already-retired, came and left, yet she had stayed there year after year like part of the furniture.

She was said to have been chosen by the unit boss Tu thanks to her beauty rather than her capacity as a receptionist as she had just been demobbed from the road-opening unit of Truong Son battlefield. After a few months in that post, she was transferred to the cleaning section as she wasnt a good receptionist, leading to the rumours from other officers. Worse still, she spent hours daydreaming around her house.

* * *

To the surprise of her neighbours, Tuan never welcomed any visitors. Nobody had ever come to her tiny hut, except Phuong, a reporter of the provincial newspaper. She was Tuans close friend in the group of voluntary young female road workers.

A reunion notice was sent to us ex-volunteers in the daily national paper Tien Phong, Phuong said when she stepped into Tuans hut. She was greatly surprised at her ex-comrades silence. Her room looked dim in the fading winter light. On Tuans bed, Phuong saw a thick mass of blankets. Surely, shes sleeping soundly under it, she said to herself.

You crazy friend, listen to this message written by me on your behalf, Mai Thi Tuan, 45 years old and unmarried, wishes to meet her former comrades-in-arms of the Female Volunteers Brigade on the Truong Son Battlefield at our place in the Gia Loc District Military Headquarters on.

Whats wrong with you? Phuong exclaimed when she found her lying on her back with a pale face and hands crossed under her neck, eyes in tears. Youre angry with me, right? Phuong asked. Suddenly, Tuans skinny long fingers trembled violently as if she was having a fit. By chance, Phuong saw a lot of torn pieces of paper on the ground. She picked them up. They were from the same newspaper in her hands. Lying beside her close friend in sadness and touching her thin shoulders, Phuong said to her in a repentant voice, Im sorry youre upset. I only want to look for that young man of yours

Saying so, Phuong spread the blanket wide enough to cover Tuans body and hugged her tightly, while Tuans body quivered violently with her choking sobs. Tuan looked very thin with her protruding bone joints.

Wheres the shapely body of the jungle queen? Phuong whispered to herself. If a beauty contest had been held then, certainly Tuan would have won in terms of both behaviour and beauty. Not only men, but also women were dazzled by Tuans lovely body in the fresh and clear stream water. Oddly enough, Tuan was not aware of her own beauty. She just focused on hard work all day long. She had no time to contemplate her beauty. She was worthy of being a model for any artist! Whats more, young men, officers and soldiers alike, were infatuated with her, so she was showered with letters and gifts. Poor Tuan, her gifts were almost always shared by her colleagues, whereas her letters were read aloud for all to hear and enjoy. Among Tuans colleagues, Phuong was the one who could understand and sympathise with her feelings: her pure heart belonged to a military scout, born and bred in Ha Noi.

During a trip to take provisions and weapons back to her unit, about half a day away, she heard a train of horrible screams echoing up from a deep mountain creek. Carefully going down she found a wounded soldier trapped among thick bushes. She tried her best to pull him up to the path. His name was Chien. A high fever had gripped him on the way home after a long scouting trip. Without her help, he would have fallen into an abyss. She rigged up a temporary hut with leaves and branches in the forest to take care of him. After a night and a day when his fit of fever had lowered noticeably she carried him on her back to a nearby field hospital before returning to her unit.

* * *

Leaving the clinic, Chien went straight to Tuans place. Unluckily for him, she had just made a trip to the lowlands on business. Chien asked Phuong to hand a sealed letter to his saviour. To her surprise, when the war ended much later, nobody came to visit Tuan and she paid no attention to any youths who had tried to win her hand. When peace was restored, she left the armed forces to accept a job in the district military committee, whereas Phuong became a reporter. Both remained friendly to each other, although they rarely met. For Phuong, fortune smiled upon her: she got married and birthed a handsome boy. She could not hack Tuans way of life, resigning herself to live in the compound of the military district unit. At last, Phuong found a way out for her former comrade-in-arms: to initiate a reunion of ex-volunteers of her former brigade on Truong Son battlefield near Tuans place in the hope that, among other things, Tuan might meet her old flame. Phuong made up her mind to carry out her plan despite Tuans refusal at first. Why has he kept so silent over the past twenty years? Is he alive or dead? Phuong often asked herself.

Beyond Phuongs expectation, she found Tuan reacted well. Phuong swept her hands over her friends back and shoulders. Suddenly, Tuan breathed heavily then embraced her old friend tightly. Although her finger nails hurt Phuong badly, she twisted her body without any complaints. When Tuans sharp pain eased off, Phuong assuaged her in a soft voice, Take it easy, my dear! Drink a glass of lemonade or eat a plum.

All of a sudden, Tuan opened her eyes wide and stared at Phuong angrily.

What did you do that for? Do you pity me?

Oh, no no! Why do you think that?

Leave me alone, Tuan said, turning her face towards the wall, covering her head with the blanket.

Calm down, Phuong retorted and released her friends grip.

Picking up her bag up from the table, she let all its contents roll over the bed.

Whats the matter with her today? she whispered to herself. After that, she rode her bike back to work.

* * *

Suddenly, there were three loud rings of the doorbell.

In her greasy clothes Tuan slowly walked to the door. Opening it, she was so panic-stricken that she stepped backwards at once. Standing in front of her was a tall and thin elderly man that looked like a skeleton, in a faded and threadbare military uniform with sunken cheeks, high cheekbones, a sunburned complexion and glassy eyes.

Miss Tuan, Ive read your message, he told her. Although I live very far from here, Ive given up everything to get here. Do you recognise me?

Frankly, not at all! she mumbled, without looking straight at his eyes.

Why havent you invited me in? he said. Am I so ugly? I havent seen you over the past twenty years. Youve changed a lot. No beautiful features of former Miss Tuan left! However, I recognise you the same as ever.

The skeleton slowly walked in. His loosened joints sounded weird. While she could not identify who he was, he kept coming forwards. She continued backing towards her bed in a corner of the room.

Obviously, youve failed to recognise me, he told her. Previously, you always hid whenever I reached your place then drove me away. I knew that I was nothing but an ugly man among many handsome youths. Those days, you were proud of yourself as a queen, beyond my reach. Well, where are the suitors now? Poor you, youve turned out terribly!

The skeleton suddenly seized her shoulders and shook them violently with his strong hands, sending off a deadly stench, which made her tremble. Im very happy to find you here. Will you accept me or chase me away as you did before? Tell me whether you love me or not, he asked.

She tried to remove his pointed fingers in vain.

Now how can you run away? You belong to me forever, said the skeleton, laughing detestably. Youre nothing but a dry skeleton unworthy of being conquered, he added, bending down his horrible face closer to hers.

She screamed out in terror.

Luckily for her, it was just a nightmare. That night she was unable to sleep.

* * *

Three days later, she heard two short rings on her doorbell.

This stranger was a bearded man of about forty. He looked fairly handsome with big and sharp eyes.

Hi Tuan! Do you recognise me? said the newcomer with a sweet smile while she was preparing dinner.

Please, help yourself to a hot cup of tea, she told him.

Allow me to introduce myself first, he said. Im Bao, the boy who got malaria and shared the same first-aid station with you at the foot of the Ba Co Pass in 1974

Which Bao? Sorry, I cant recollect that event at all, she uttered in an embarrassed voice, while she was trying to rack her brain.

It happened a very long time ago, he told her, taking out of his breast pocket a piece of paper cutting from an old daily before handing it over to her. Ive been looking for you for so many years, but all my efforts came to nothing. Not until a few days ago, did I see this piece of information about your whereabouts. At once, I left ak Lak on my motorbike. It took me two days to cover that long distance. Now, I feel very happy to find you quite well but changed a bit, just a bit.

You shouldnt be so gallant, she smiled warmly. I became a crazy old woman a long time ago. My hair has turned hoary and my complexion is rough. Supposing that you saw me in the street, you could hardly recognise me.

How can you say so? he said, bending down his head in front of her, eyes in tears. Try to recollect the days we stayed at the first-aid station at the foot of the Ba Co Pass. I was then a boy in my late teens on the way to the southern battlefield. It was at the road section of your unit that I suffered from malaria. Owing to the high fever, I went so mad that I sometimes undressed, smeared my whole body with mud and shrieked wildly. You were often tortured terribly by a high fever too. Yet, when recovering, you walked into the forest to search for me, washed my head and dirty clothes in the stream before taking me back to the station. You also mended my old pieces of clothing. You looked after me better than my sister. Without such care, I would have died in the deep jungle. Strangely enough, youve forgotten your poor little brother Bao, he reproached her bitterly.

After a lengthy rebuke, he held her rough hand and applied it to his face. My dear sister, actually Ive fallen in love with you since then, he declared seriously.

In confusion, she let him kiss her on the hands, forehead and cheeks while his hot tears spilled over her face.

In fact, she could not forget those days woe at the foot of the Ba Co Pass, far from the road to critical engagements with heavy bombardment, with a great number of wounded soldiers huddled together in the field clinic, with the bravery of conscripted female volunteers in charge of mending roads to the frontline, with the medical workers wholehearted devotion to patients and, last but not least, with Tuans care for him?

Tuan also remembered the moment that Bao said goodbye to her before he left the clinic for the battlefield in the South. Suddenly, he embraced her tightly and sobbed his heart out. My esteemed sister, I love you dearly. Ill never forget you, he blurted out. Dear sister, allow me to kiss you, just once. Ive never kissed a girl. I might die before I do, he added.

Enough of your gloomy talk! she warned him. Staring fixedly at his face, she gave him a warm kiss on the lips.

* * *

A few minutes later, Tuan softly took off his fingers, heaving a sigh.

Well, let bygones be bygones, she said. How are you getting on? How many children have you got? What about your job? she asked him.

I remain single, sister. After 1975, I stayed behind in the South for nearly three years while most of my comrades-in-arms returned to the North. After that I was dispatched to Cambodias battlefields. When I was wounded I returned home to Viet Nam. I decided to resume my unfinished course at my university. Now Im a construction engineer, he told her. What about you? Where are your husband and children? Perhaps theyre out, I think.

Regrettably, Ive stayed single since then. Neither husband nor children! Nobody wants to marry such an old and ugly woman as me, she uttered a deep sigh.

Dear sister, Bao was going to say something to her, but he stopped short. Ive been waiting for you so many years. Now you must be mine. I cant lose you once again. Saying so, he moved closer to her then suddenly hugged her tightly before taking her to the bed.

* * *

Bao, youd better forget me and return to your family that was looking forward to your homecoming. Just take it for granted that there was nothing special in our relationship, she persuaded him.

No, never! Ill take you out of this indecent corner. Do you want to stay with me in ak Lak?

Thanks for your good intention! she exclaimed. My life will end here. For me, thats fine. If you still think of me

Thats a crazy idea! Ill return home to solve everything. Then Ill get here to welcome you home. Youre the sole young woman worthy of being loved in my eyes. Dont give me up, my dear honey!

* * *

Several days after Bao left, the seat of her Military District was bustling with many visitors coming to Tuans humble house. Among them was a high-ranking retired military officer, some drivers in transit en route from Viet Nam to Laos, many friends in her former platoon, some with their kids and a company director in an expensive limo. Sadly, Phuong, the initiator of this reunion was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps, she was on a business trip abroad. As a result, Tuan was so busy all day that she had little time to think of Bao. She was on tenterhooks as if something important might wait for her. Time and again, a nightmare came to her during her broken sleep. This night was the same. When she saw off the last visitor to the gate and was going to go in, a car screeched to a halt outside the compound.

Who comes here so late at night? she asked herself. Walking back to the gate, in the dim light, she saw a man in a black overcoat with a felt hat covering his whole forehead.

Whos that? she asked in a quivering voice.

Without answer, the man slowly proceeded to the gate. Taking a piece of paper out of his pocket, he said in a bossy voice, Is this your short notice written by Phuong?

Yes, Its , itsmine, Tuan mumbled.

He stood motionless, staring at her, then dropped the notice onto the ground and rushed towards his car. Looking after the moving vehicle for a while, she remained unable to identify him. Why did he run away so hastily? she asked herself. Stooping down to pick it up, she tore it into pieces. After that she walked into her hut and looked for a small bottle of sleeping pills. Putting a few into her mouth she swallowed them up with a glassful of water to get a deep sleep. Half an hour later, she found herself gliding over the lawn, the forest and land that she had never set foot on. After that, she flew over the deforested stretches of jungle and bomb craters. Then she found herself standing on a mountain peak, staring at a deep abyss below. From the bottomless pit a cold draught of air rose up with a horrible human voice.

Help Help! Anyone? Its Chien!

Dont worry! Tuans here to save your life.

All of a sudden, a sharp rock pierced through Tuans shoes. She lost her balance and fell down to the deep huge gorge. She cried her heart out, arms and legs spread wide to find something to keep her back. Unexpectedly, a strong hand lifted her out of the vast emptiness. It turned out to be an awful nightmare.

* * *

Terrible! How wildly have you shouted? a stranger bent down his head, closer to Tuans face. Mai, fetch me a warm glass of water, he said softly to his little girl between seven and eight.

A moment later, when she regained consciousness, she went to the next door neighbour to borrow a thermos flask of boiling water to prepare tea to welcome a visitor who had spared no pains to look for her. Blinded due to war, wherever he wanted to go he was led by his child. Of course, Tuan did not remember this war invalid at all.

Obviously, you would hardly know me, dear Tuan, he told her, a warm glass of tea in hand. Ive never met you before. I belonged to a platoon staying on the Viet Nam-Laos borderland. I was not lucky enough to enter Sai Gon during our victory day. Before that, I had been seriously wounded near ac Pet and treated at various clinics, big or small, including in Nghia an District. As a seriously disabled soldier, I did not dare return home for fear that I might cause lots of trouble for my young wife. Therefore, I made up my mind to stay there for good. Undoubtedly, she knew that I was still alive. At last, she went to this health centre to look for me. Fortunately for us, weve got this beloved daughter, you see. Listening to his lengthy narrative, Tuan still felt something secret in his voice.

You still miss Chien of Ha Noi, dont you? he asked her abruptly.

Yes. What happened to him?

He might never return home.

What do you mean? Is he alive? He must be alive!

He might have died on the battlefield, I think, he replied, tears in his eyes.

Come what may, dont hide the truth, she entreated. Ill look for him at any cost, providing hes still alive.

He helped the little kid stand up. Both started to leave. Reaching the gate, he slowly turned. Its no use waiting for him! I myself dont know his whereabouts. Over the past fifteen years since the day I met him in the field hospital. It was there that he told me everything about you. In fact, Ive broken my promise to him when I came here to meet you. Yet, Im unable to do otherwise. Please forgive me, he said.

Tuan left home that afternoon. Still, she hasnt returned to her hut in Gia Loc District.

Translated by Van MinhPRETORIA, South Africa  South African President Jacob Zuma resigned on Feb 14 as the ruling ANC party finally turned against him after nine years of corruption scandals, economic slowdown and falling popularity.

Zuma railed against the African National Congress (ANC) for "recalling" him from office and threatening to oust him via a parliament no-confidence vote due on Thursday.

In a 30-minute national television address, Zuma said he had "come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect".

Zuma has been in a power struggle with multi-millionaire former businessman Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy president who now becomes interim president.

Ramaphosa, who won control of the ANC when he was elected as its head in December, is set to be voted in by lawmakers as South Africas new president on Thursday or Friday.

Zuma, whose reputation has been stained by years-long allegations of graft, complained that the ANC party had never explained to him why he had to leave office.

In an earlier TV interview on Wednesday he said he had received "very unfair" treatment from the party he joined in 1959 and in which he had fought for decades against apartheid white-minority rule.

He said he was angered over "the manner in which the decision is being implemented... I dont agree as there is no evidence of if I have done anything wrong."

Police raid

The partys national executive committee ordered his recall from office on Tuesday, after a 13-hour meeting at a hotel outside Pretoria.

ANC officials had said that if Zuma did not resign on Wednesday, the partys lawmakers in the Cape Town parliament would vote out Zuma on Thursday.

But senior party official Jesse Duarte said after the resignation that "we are not celebrating".

"We have had to recall a cadre of the movement that has served this organisation for over 60 years, its not a small matter," she added.

On Wednesday morning, police had raided the Johannesburg home of the Gupta business family, which is accused of overseeing a web of corruption under Zumas rule.

Police said three unidentified people had been arrested in investigations into "Vrede Farm" - allegations that millions of dollars of public money meant for poor dairy farmers were syphoned off by the Guptas.

Local media reported that Zuma had been pushing for an exit deal that included covering his potentially ruinous legal fees fighting multiple criminal charges - but he denied the allegations in his resignation speech.

One case against him relates to 783 payments he allegedly received linked to an arms deal before he came to power.

Many other graft allegations have centred on the three Gupta brothers, who are accused of unfairly obtaining lucrative government contracts and even being able to choose Zumas ministerial appointments.

Zuma has admitted he is friends with the Guptas, originally from India, but has denied any wrongdoing.

The political wrangling in recent weeks plunged South Africa - the continents most developed economy - into confusion over who was running the country, with last Thursdays annual State of the Nation address cancelled at the last-minute.

Decline of Mandelas Party

Zumas presidency was marred by slow economic growth, continuing racial inequality and record unemployment that fuelled public frustration.

He was scheduled to stand down next year after serving the maximum two terms since coming to power in 2009.

In local polls in 2016, the ANC recorded its worst electoral result since coming to power in 1994 with Nelson Mandela at the helm as white-minority rule fell.

Ramaphosa, 65, the deputy president, must revive the economy and crack down on what he has admitted is rampant government corruption if he is to boost the partys tarnished reputation before a tricky election next year.

He is a former trade unionist and Mandela ally who led talks to end apartheid in the early 1990s and then became a hugely wealthy businessman before returning to politics.

Zumas hold over the ANC was shaken in December when his chosen successor - his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma - narrowly lost to Ramaphosa in a vote for the new party leader.  AFPWarbirdsNews has received word from the International F-104 Society concerning a former Royal Netherlands Air Force Lockheed F-104G Starfighter which has recently gone on display following a substantial refurbishment at the University of Erzurum in eastern Turkey, roughly a hundred miles from both the borders with Armenia and Georgia.

While the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was not a good fit with the U.S. Air Force, which took fewer than 300 examples on strength, the type enjoyed great success in the export market with more than 2,200 serving aircraft serving in foreign air arms. Part of this success was due to Lockheed and the US Government reaching license manufacturing agreements with a number of different countries, which set up their own, indigenous production lines. The Fokker Aircraft Company in the Netherlands was one of these manufacturers who built Starfighters under license. Their factory, nestled beside Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, built 350 Starfighters; about a third of which were for the Royal Netherlands Air Force, and the rest for West Germany. They built two main variants, in a roughly two to one split between the F-104G interceptor and RF-104G tactical reconnaissance model.

One of the F-104Gs which rolled off Fokkers production line at Schipol in 1964 was construction number 683-8286, which the Royal Netherlands Air Force formally accepted as D-8286 on October 5th, 1964. She first joined the so-called Dutch Masters Operational Conversion Unit at Leeuwarden Air Base, but also served in the Tactical Strike role with both 311 and 312 Squadron at Volkel Air Base, as well as in the All-Weather Interceptor role with 322 and 323 Squadrons, also at Leeuwarden. By the late seventies, the Netherlands was winding down their Starfighter fleet, and struck a deal with Turkey to transfer a number of their F-104G and RF-104G airframes to that nation. So on December 15th, 1980, D-8286 became 64-8286 with the Turkish Air Force. Initially, the Starfighter joined 142 Filo (squadron) at Murted Air Base, near the Turkish capital, Ankara, with the side code 4-286. By the mid 1980s, the aircraft moved to Balkesir Air Base in the far west of Turkey, where she gained a new side code, 9-286. She was operational until at least the autumn of 1987, but entered storage soon after with the influx of lower-time ex-West German Luftwaffe Starfighters during that period. Roughly in the year 2000, the Starfighter was gifted to the Erzurum Technical University in Erzurum, and at some point, they placed the aircraft on display, mounted on a pole on campus. More recently, the university brought the vintage fighter down from its perch for a complete static restoration, including a new paint job.

Oddly, as the International F-104 Society laments, the restoration team made an odd decision with the markings by placing a spurious D in front of the side code, creating a hybrid Dutch-Turkish Air Force jet. However, the group then acknowledges that, Nevetheless it is great to see that people have put a lot of effort to save this aircraft from being scrapped, and giving it a place where it can be honored. We at WarbirdsNews agree heartily with that sentiment, and are glad that the Starfighter is still seen proudly on display for all to enjoy her heritage.

WarbirdsNews wishes to thank the International F-104 Society for the details, and permission to use Cana Urguzs images of the Starfighter back on its pole.By Feb. 09, 2018

Help Special Olympics athletes by participating in the 2018 Peel & Holland Western Kentucky Polar Plunge & Polar 5k on Saturday, February 17. Too scared? Keep reading for another way to help. Either way, youll be Freezin for a Reason!Last year, the Polar Plunge raised more than $95,000 to support the efforts of Special Olympics athletes.The Plunge is a truly unique event and includes a fun, festive atmosphere with food and great prizes. The Plunge works just like a Walk-a-Thon, but with one big twist. Participants still solicit donations to support their effort (a BEAR minimum of $75 to take part or $50 for Junior Plungers), but instead of walking, Polar Bears take a chilly dip into the lake at Kentucky Dam Village State Resort Park.You can choose to run into the lake from the Kentucky Dam Village shore, or jump from the docks.This year's event is again joined by the Polar 5k, which will run a beautiful route through Kentucky Dam Village State Park that same day.Also returning is the "Triple Crown" - win it by completing the 5k, jumping from the dock AND running in from the shore. There's no extra money raised needed to go for the Triple Crown.Register at the link provided below.Prizes will be given for the top individual fundraiser and for the top fundraising teams in corporate/civic, school and law enforcement divisions. There are also prizes for the best individual and group costumes.Cant plunge, but still want to support Special Olympics? No problem. Register as Too Chicken to Plunge. You get a special Too Chicken shirt and are still eligible for all other fundraising awards.Early packet pickup for 5k runners is Friday, Feb. 16 from 4-6 pm at Kentucky Dam Village State Resort Park (in the Lodge's lobby).Same-day registration for the 5k begins at 7:30 am Saturday, with the race beginning at 9 am.Check-in for the plunge is from 9 - 10:45 am on Saturday. Opening ceremonies for the plunge start at 10:45 am, and the plunge begins at 11:30 am.For more on how you can get involved in the Western Kentucky Polar Plunge or for sponsorship information, contact Laura Miller at 270-293-9054 or lmiller@soky.org.

On the Net:Fish and Wildlife Officials Take Action Against Chronic Wasting DiseaseWetzel County Schools will be closed Feb. 16 due to an impending work stoppage.

Superintendent Ed Toman confirmed the details, stating he had been notified by Sandi Hurst, who represents Wetzel Countys West Virginia School Service Personnel Association. Hurst had informed Toman that the association was walking out on Friday, Feb. 16.

Toman said there would not be enough drivers, cooks, aids, and secretaries available at the schools Feb. 16; therefore, the school system decided to close for that day.

This action comes after West Virginia House of Delegates, on Tuesday, cautiously approved raises for state police, teachers and school personnel. However many lawmakers said the raises werent enough.

Under the measure, public school teachers would receive an across-the-board wage increase of $808 for fiscal year 2019  calculated to be equal to 2 percent of the average teachers pay of $40,400. They would receive $404  or an amount equal to a 1 percent  each of the following three years, totaling $2,020 over the four-year period.

State employees are also concerned about being able to afford their health insurance benefits however. The governor did place a freeze on Public Employee Insurance Agency (PEIA) rates, for 17 months; however, state employees are still concerned about the future of those benefits.

Throughout all this, Wetzel County Schools employees have been holding informational pickets prior to the school day.

Elliot Kendle, of the Wetzel County Education Association, has noted that the informational pickets and walk-ins that are taking place throughout Wetzel County are demonstrations of our solidarity with and support of teachers, education service personnel, and other public employees throughout West Virginia. These protests are a response to the actions of the Governor and the Legislature. We are united in our struggle to fix PEIA, obtain a competitive salary, and stop the attacks on employee rights.SASKATOON, SK  On May 5, members of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party will elect a new leader. This new leader will represent the party in the 2020 provincial election and, if elected, become the premier of this prairie province.

Throwing his hat into the ring for the upcoming contest is Robert Rudachyk, an outspoken member of Canadas Heathen community.

Rudachyk is no stranger to politics. He ran as a Liberal candidate for the Saskatoon Riverside constituency, hoping to be elected a member of the legislative assembly in the 2016 provincial election. This bid was unsuccessful, but it did not discourage him from trying again, and making this bid for party leadership.

I have also become dismayed at the extremely polarized politics of Saskatchewan, with the governing Sask. Party veering far to the right, and the front runner in the NDP leadership race preparing to take his party far to the left if he wins.

Announcing his campaign for party leadership to the Wild Hunt, Rudachyk explained, 

That means that there is no one speaking for the majority of us in the centre unless you are willing to compromise your ideals. For that reason I felt the need to answer the call to try and lead my party and win some seats in the provincial legislature to bring reason back into politics here. In this way I can serve the needs of all peoples in this province.

In order to get his name on the ballot, Rudachyk has some work ahead of him.

The first thing I need to do is to collect the signatures of 150 party members and raise $1,500 to buy into the race. After that, I will be vetted to determine if I am suitable to be a candidate. As I have already been a candidate for the party that should not be difficult, he said.

Rudychyk is running on a platform that includes a number of issues that he considers very important, and that he feels are informed by his Heathen beliefs. There is a focus on education, energy and the environment, health care, infrastructure and expansion into the north, and also relations with First Nations.

In a recent letter to the Minister of Public Safety, the Honourable Ralph Goodale, Rudachyk affirmed his strong anti-racist position, and commitment to developing improved relations with First Nations.

His letter was a response to the racist threats being made toward First Nations persons in the wake of a recent trial that has divided the province of Saskatchewan.

In a Battleford, Saskatchewan courthouse, a white farmer named Gerald Stanley was charged with the second-degree murder of a young Indigenous man named Colten Boushie. Boushie was shot in the back of the head, and killed with a single shot. Stanley was acquitted by an all-white jury and released, sparking outrage across the country.

In his letter, Rudachyk suggests to the Minister that Stanley should at very least lose his license to purchase or possess a firearm. He also suggests that this should be extended to anyone making racist threats on social media, in order to prevent vigilante violence and cause more deaths. Rudachyk wrote:

To that effect, I would like to ask you what is going to be done with regards to all those people posting very racist posts on social media threatening to shoot any Indian that comes on their property, or the increasing numbers of people threatening violence on openly racist forums?

In addition to his published platform, Rudachyk is also an outspoken supporter of having non-cosmetic dentistry and optometry added to public healthcare coverage.

Canada is poised to legalize cannabis this summer, and Rudachyk supports the addition of medical cannabis to the provincial prescription drug plan, as well.

Once his nomination is confirmed, Rudachyk will need help to ensure he can win the vote to become party leader, and he is reaching out to Pagans and Heathens in Saskatchewan and across Canada for support.

I am in need of help to succeed, I need any Pagans and Heathens in Saskatchewan to join the party and help me get on the ballot, I need people across Canada who are willing to donate any money they can to please do so, he said.

These campaigns do not come cheap, but every little bit helps, and I need volunteers who can help me with my web design, my phone calls and to sign up more members to vote for me in May. Any help that can be given is deeply appreciated.

Born in Saskatoon, raised in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Rudachyk has also worked and lived in Vancouver and Kelowna, BC. His professional life has seen him working as a lab technician, first aid attendant and as an English teacher for two years in Japan.

He calls beekeeping one of his true passions, and also is involved with historical re-enactment, wood and amber carving, brewing, cooking, hunting and fishing. These interests reflect his interest in environmental and scientific issues as well as world affairs.

If he is successful, this father of two who now works as Regional Manager for a transport company expects some drastic changes to his life.

My life will change a lot. I will need to start actively recruiting candidates to try and get seats in the Legislature in 2020, I will need to aggressively fund raise so that we can compete against the two parties with current MLAs, and I will have to raise our partys profile so that we can be seen as a viable alternative to both. 

Rudachyk is the first openly practicing Heathen to run for office in Saskatchewan, and also the first to be green lit for a nomination for a major federal party in Canada.

The Wild Hunt will report on this story as it unfolds.Nothing goes better with morning coffee than to catch up on the news about the escapades of Saakashvili

Mikhail Saakashvili has received an identity card in Amsterdam, which gives him the right to live and work in the European Union Today in Amsterdam, for the first time in a while, I have a document proving my identity. Immediately upon arrival in the Netherlands, I was given an identity card that entitles me to live and work in the European Union, the entire procedure took only a few minutes. Saakashvili said. The ex-President of Georgia was earlier deported from Ukraine, via a private flight to Poland. Saakashvili was stateless as both countries stripped him of citizenship.

But They leave out the part that Saakashvili has an US passport also. So as far as being stateless? Dont think so.but it sounds good

Thus, the beat goes on

WtR

PS: He is not done wanting to be Ukraine president. Just got in troubleThe Trump administration on Wednesday blocked a Chinese-backed investor, Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, from buying Lattice Semiconductor, a California maker of highly programmable computer chips, Bloomberg reports. Earlier in the day, officials separately blocked federal agencies from buying software from Kaspersky Lab, a Russian cybersecurity company, amid concerns about Russian spying. Kaspersky Lab has never helped,  Continue reading The Russian and Chinese companies that have been blocked by security fears

Source: The Russian and Chinese companies that have been blocked by security fears

And that is a mistake.but point fingers at others and you yourself will ignore what is happening around you

WtRYes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain.

Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred.

For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here.Bond has been set at $500,000 for Julie Cahlaway, accused of a scam that netted hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Cahlaway is accused of targeting a recently divorced Nebraska man online. She allegedly moved to Omaha and forged an ultrasound to convince the victim she was pregnant and needed money for medical bills.

The investigation alleges that over a years time she obtained $375,000 from men she met through online dating services.

An arrest affidavit filed by a Douglas County Sheriffs investigator states Cahlaway promised to invest the familys money in oil ventures but instead spent it on herself.

Cahlaway faces two counts of felony theft by deception.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled in March.Jetex is a world leader in our industry, and Luxivair SBD is proud to support their continued growth into the U.S. and other markets through this integral co-branding partnership.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA, February 15, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Luxivair SBD and Jetex Flight Support have entered into a strategic partnership to provide global customers a first-class experience into Southern California. Jetex customers entering the United States through Luxivair SBD will experience the quality they are accustomed to receiving at any one of Jetex's operations established in over thirty countries around the world. This partnership expands Jetex's global offerings - the first of its kind in the United States. The announcement was made at the National Business Aviation Association Schedulers and Dispatchers conference in Long Beach last week.



Jetex customers entering Southern California will be greeted by Luxivair SBD's 12,000 sq ft two-story terminal featuring a spacious glass-enclosed atrium lobby, and offers ramp-side vehicle access, a pilots lounge, snooze room, flight-planning room, conference facilities and crew cars. Guests also have access to an extensive range of concierge services, a complimentary snack bar, a luxurious movie theatre, and an outdoor lounge area complete with a stunning panoramic view of the airport and the San Bernardino Mountains.



Passengers will also benefit from on-site U.S. Customs at Luxivair SBD, helping international flights avoid some of Southern California's most congested airspace at LAX or Van Nuys. The FBO is located in the greater LA Basin, approximately 60 miles east of Los Angeles and boasts convenient access to many of Southern California's top attractions, most of which are located within a one-hour drive from the Airport.



"Jetex customers will delight in the unexpected when they land at Luxivair SBD," says FBO Manager, Ms. Wendy Bechtel. "From our first-class amenities to our dedicated concierge and ground support crew, every detail will be attended to with class and efficiency."



"Jetex is a world leader in our industry, and Luxivair SBD is proud to support their continued growth into the U.S. and other markets through this integral co-branding partnership - a relationship we are confident will seamlessly complement the incredible Jetex customer service experience," said Mike Burrows Executive Director of Luxivair SBD and SBD International Airport.



A global leader in executive aviation, Jetex is recognized for delivering flexible, best-in-class trip support solutions to customers worldwide. Jetex provides exceptional FBOs, aircraft fueling, ground handling and global trip planning. The company caters to an elite clientele including owners and operators of business jets for corporate, commercial and personal air travel.



Jetex CEO and President Adel Mardini said "The Luxivair SBD Terminal is a truly outstanding facility, and fully in keeping with the exceptional standards of luxury the Jetex name has become synonymous with. It is a logical choice for us to partner with Luxivair SBD to launch our first FBO service in North America, which joins our state-of-the-art operations center in Miami to provide coast-to-coast presence. This is set to be the first of many openings, as we continue to develop our network both within the United States and on a global scale."



About Luxivair SBD: Catering to the private aircraft community, Luxivair SBD at San Bernardino International Airport, 60 miles east of Los Angeles, offers a unique and elegant experience for all pilots and travelers -- with an impressive collection of best-in-class facilities and personal services designed to answer your every need. As Southern California's premier FBO, Luxivair SBD offers a thriving business complex designed to support the complete needs of corporate and private aviation with a full range of services needed to keep their aircraft operating at peak performance. To learn more visit https://www.luxivairsbd.com.



# # #We share Select Italy's passion for attention to detail, service of the highest quality, and a client-centric focus.

NEW YORK, NY, February 15, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ -- A new alliance has been formed between Select Italy, an American boutique travel company founded in 1997 specializing in customized travel, and UVET, a global travel industry leader and innovator with almost 70 years of experience in corporate, MICE and leisure travel. With its established global presence, UVET boasts a vast network of incoming agencies offering local insight and real-time support throughout "Il Bel Paese."



In this newly formed venture, Select Italy joins UVET under its umbrella of diverse travel brands, with the long term strategy of ongoing growth in North America. With about 1,500 employees and an annual turnover of EUR 2.6 billion, UVET will contribute to the growth of Select Italy by providing access to its comprehensive portfolio of hand-picked products and access to additional destinations. Select Italy, together with UVET, will remain committed to the highest level of service, offering superior products to its clientele.



In the words of Mr. Luca Patane, President & CEO of UVET: "We are excited to partner with Select Italy, as we share the same values and vision creating the opportunity for both of us to combine efforts. This enables our company to enter the North American market, which will now have access to additional travel products. We share Select Italy's passion for attention to detail, service of the highest quality and a client-centric focus. This is a stimulating way to start the new year and we look forward to a bright future."



Mr. Jacopo Sertoli, President of Select Italy adds: "To partner up with UVET makes us very proud, and this is the result of the efforts made by my father. The North American market will now be able to rely on an unprecedented opportunity to have premium services for Italy and beyond."



About Select Italy: Founded in Chicago in 1997, and now based in New York, Select Italy has been a trusted ambassador of Italian travel expertise since its establishment by Andrea Sertoli and currently led by his son, Jacopo. With the acquisition by UVET, Jacopo will remain closely involved in the Company's operations. Select Italy offers a wide array of superior products and services including customized itineraries, state-of-the-art tours and packages, wedding/honeymoon trips, unique culinary classes, a complete pre-departure ticketing service for museums, cultural and musical events, private guided services, private yacht charters, transportation, hotel reservations, villa bookings and more. Select Italy is committed to creating the perfect vacation and maximizing enjoyment for its clients by adhering to the highest standards of professionalism. For more information call (800) 877-1755 or visit www.selectitaly.com



About the UVET Group: Founded in Milan in 1950, the group has grown to be a leader in the Italian travel industry, providing innovative solutions and products for corporate and leisure travel, ground and air transportation, MICE and pharmaceutical conferences. UVET Group's portfolio of brands consists of UVET American Express Global Business Travel & Ufleet (Corporate Travel & Fleet Management); Settemari and Amo il Mondo (Tour operating); Made in UVET (Destination Management); Uevents and Congress Lab (MICE); UVET Network and UVET Retail (Travel Distribution); Tripitaly Drive (Land Transportation); UHC-Uvet Hotel Company (Hotel Management); Blue Panorama (Airline); TNS (System Integrator and IT Solutions). With over 1,500 employees worldwide and an annual turnover of EUR 2.6 billion. For more information visit www.uvet.com



# # #Feb 15, 2018 | By Tess

Additive Industries, a Dutch pioneer of metal 3D printing technologies, recently announced the top six finalists of its Additive World Design for Additive Manufacturing Challenge 2018. The six finalists, selected from over 52 contestants, have each used metal 3D printing processes to redesign and improve an industrial product.

The Additive World Design for Additive Manufacturing Challenge, launched during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven in October 2017, invited both professionals and student designers to submit their proposals for an innovative redesign which leveraged 3D printing.

This years challenge, which marks the third edition, saw submissions from across the world and from a range of different sectors, including the aeronautics, medical, high-tech, and automotive industries.

This years redesigns demonstrate again how product designs can be improved when the freedom of 3D printing is applied, said Daan Kersten, Additive Industies CEO. Its not only about topology optimization anymore, but about eliminating manufacturing difficulties, minimizing assembly and lowering logistical costs. These redesigns are really demonstrating a broad range of applications.

Without further ado, here are the top six finalists. The first threefrom the professional categorywere Indian company Intech DMLS, France-based 3D-medlab, and Italys Aidro Hydraulics. Intech DMLS gained recognition for demonstrating how 3D printing could help the avionics sector reduce part numbers as well as increase part efficiency and reduce weight.

3D-medlab, for its part, got through for its 3D printed Medical Part Gripper, which Additive Industries said shows that even when additive manufacturing is already applied to producing prosthetics in the medical field, there is still room for extended applications. In its submission, 3D-medlab redesigned and 3D printed an impactor, which is used to hold such things as acetabular cups during surgery.

Left to right: Intech DMLS Avionics System; 3D-medlab Medical Part Gripper; Aidro Hydraulics Hydraulic Manifold

The Aidro Hydraulics team redesigned a hydraulic manifold part for 3D printing with reduced weight and optimized flow performance. In addition to the three professional finalists, an honorable mention was given to Fabian Baum from Germanys EDAG Engineering company who designed the LightHinge+.

In the student category, Philipp Kaindl from the Technical University of Munich was selected for his 3D printed Gasification Burner, which integrates a coal swirling mechanism that increases the thermal efficiency of the burner.

Yogeshkumar Katrodiya from Germanys Fraunhofer IGCV was recognized for his project which integrated conformal cooling channels into a shaft and gear part. By designing the part for 3D printing, the student was able to create better cooling efficiency and reduced the parts weight by 50 percent thanks to topology optimization.

Left to right: Philipp Kaindl Gasification Burner; Yogeshkumar Katrodiya Functionally Integrated Shaft and Gear; Cassidy Silbernagel Ultimaker 2+ Hot End

(Images: Additive Industries)

Finally, Cassidy Silbernagel from the University of Nottingham in the UK was selected as a finalist for his upgraded multi-filament Ultimaker 2+ all metal hot end. This project, if you havent already guessed, consisted of upgrading an Ultimaker 2+ 3D printer. In addition to the multi-filament and all metal hotend, Silbernagel also enhanced the printers part cooling capabilities.

The winners of each category will be announced at the upcoming Additive World Conference Award Dinner on March 14, 2018 in Eindhoven.

Posted in 3D Printing Events

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Feb 15, 2018 | By Tess

A team from Cornell University, including researcher Huaishu Peng, has developed a hybrid 3D printing system guided by augmented reality (AR). The innovative system, called the Robotic Modeling Assistant or RoMA for short, enables users to design 3D models in situ using AR technology and have the model 3D printed simultaneously.

In a video demonstrating the novel RoMA 3D printing system, a user equipped with an augmented reality headset and a handheld design tool can be seen virtually designing an object on a circular platform. As the user shapes the 3D model digitally, a robotic arm swoops in to begin 3D printing the shapes structure on the same platform.

And though the resulting 3D printed object is quite rudimentarythe robotic arm only builds the skeleton of the object out of 3D pen-like extruded plasticthe process is fascinating to behold.

RoMA's two handheld controllers: indicator and cutter

The idea for the technology is that it can be used to create partially printed physical models which can serve as a tangible reference for the designer and she adds new elements to her design.

The RoMA system is made up of a number of hardware components, including an augmented reality headset, handheld controllers (an indicator and a cutter), a rotating platform, and a 6DOF robotic 3D printer.

The 3D printer setup is further enabled by a custom designed AR CAD editor, as well as an end-to-end pipeline that integrates AR and robot control, and a proxemics-inspired mechanism that makes it possible for the human user and robot to interact.

More specifically, when the user is designing his or her model as the robotic arm extrudes plastic, if the user touches the rotating build platform, the robotic arm will automatically move away from the 3D print. Similarly, when the user leaves the vicinity, the robot resumes control of the build platform and rotates it at will.

3D printed teapot structure build using RoMA

With RoMA, users can integrate real-world constraints into a design rapidly, allowing them to create well-proportioned tangible artifacts, say the researchers of the innovative technology. Users can even directly design on and around an existing object, and extend the artifact by in-situ fabrication.

In the video below you can watch a designer create a teapot model on the spot, using her hand as a reference for the teapots size and her finger as a sizing guide for the pots handle. It is pretty amazing to see the designer and the robotic 3D printer working in perfect tandem.

Notably, RoMA can also be used to 3D print new structures onto existing objects or around them. The researchers demonstrate these rudimentary abilities by 3D printing a sort of scaffolding around a LEGO structure (and even placing a LEGO man on a second 3D printed level) and by 3D printing a protruding shape from the back of a toy lions head.

Overall, its a pretty neat system that we can definitely see being used for proof of concept or early stage design models. If the 3D printing can be further refined, the systems potential would increase significantly.

Huaishu Pengs RoMA 3D printing system builds off a previous project he and Cornell researchers developed which is capable of rapidly 3D printing wireframe prototypes to enhance the 3D design process. The researcher also worked on a project for Disney Research which consisted of 3D printing objects made from layered felt.

You can find the full research paper detailing the RoMA 3D printing system here.

Posted in 3D Printing Technology

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janet belton wrote at 2/22/2018 4:14:49 AM:Love this. Amazing. How can I get this technology?



Aziz Rana in the Boston Review:

No part of the vision statement for the Movement for Black Lives received as much immediate mainstream pushback as its stinging repudiation of U.S. foreign policy. Its demands, which included a call for military and security divestment, permanent opposition to the War on Terror, and a declaration of solidarity with Palestinians, generated criticism about specific policies (especially with respect to Israel and Palestine) and about the perceived disconnect between police brutality toward black citizens and U.S. military practices in distant lands. The implication was that by extending their vision beyond the national borders, black freedom activists were combining issues that were not inherently connected and better left to the security experts.

Moreover, critics were uncomfortable with the statements rejection of one of the most common mechanisms for outsider groups to gain inclusion in U.S. life: national security citizenship. By this I mean the idea that one shows ones worthiness for membership by supportingand being willing to fight and die forthe security policies of the state. To this day, the idea that oppressed groups earn inclusion through sacrifice on behalf of the state remains a potent one. Simply recall Bill Clintons effort during his 2016 Democratic National Convention speech to reach out to Muslims, a group that had been targeted and demeaned by Donald Trumps campaign. If youre a Muslim and you love America and freedom and you hate terror, Clinton offered, stay here and help us win and make a future together. Behind the rosy rhetoric, the clear implication was that Muslims rights were conditional on their support of U.S. security commitments and that such support was how Muslims cemented their status as Americans.

More here.Syeda Hameed in The Citizen:

Phaili hain fizaon mein iss tarah teri yaadein

Jis simt nazar unthi awaaz teri aaiyee

Sau baar chaman mehka sau baar bahaar aiyee

Duniya ki wohi raunaq dil ki wohi tanhai

You lit up my life as you did the life of thousands like me. Dear friend and mentor Asma Jahangir who would have thought I was seeing you for the last time on November 28 2017, the date is etched on my heart.

On reaching Lahore I wrote to you. You had just returned from Islamabad after a difficult day. But your home and hospitality was ready to welcome me. It was an unforgettable evening around your splendid table with family, friends, bonhomie. Then I heard from you the saddest words I had ever heard you speak. We were talking about the total embargo on visas. Friends from Pakistan were longing to come to India; there were family weddings, there was Jashn e Rekhta, personal bereavements. But visa doors had been slammed on the faces of all applicants. With exception though. I said to you, 'Why don't you come, you are the only one in Pakistan who still has a multiple entry visa'. Then came your heart wrenching words. 'It's not about me. It's about all of us here on this side of the border. Ab dil nahin chahta...we feel unwanted by a country we have stood by consistently for a quarter century despite every possible deterrent'.

Today her janaza procession will be led by her indomitable sister Hina Jilani and carried on the shoulders of women of WAF (Womens Action Forum) which she helped found in the 1970's. But none of us from this side will be there. It would have been so simple for dozens of us to have driven our vehicles for 6 hours. It is only 300 miles from Delhi to Lahore. We who have been choking back our tears ever since the news broke will be denied her last deedar.

We will sit in Delhi and recall the year 2000 when at the height of Kargil she brought to Delhi 72 women in two buses under the banner of WIPSA (Womens Initiative for Peace in South Asia). When the buses pulled into Ambedkar Bus Depot, many of us were there with flowers. The first one to disembark was a small slightly built woman, holding in her hands two white pigeons. The hands opened, the pigeons fluttered away in the Indian skies. That was Asma Jahangir.

The same woman who was the first to welcome a bus load of Indian women who had gone to Lahore on Bus of Peace led by Nirmala Deshapande and Mohini Giri. She came to receive us at Lahore's Faletti's Hotel with bangles and dupattas for each musafir, breaking both stereotypes, in this one Asma-stroke, both became symbols of power.

More here.David Byrne at his own website:

Its not hopeless.

No matter what some of my friends seem to imply, I firmly believe we can have gun control and reduce gun violence in this country. Allow me to be optimistic. At this point, any cause for hope is worth considering.

First off, I guess I have to be clear that I am for gun control. I believe the situation in the U.S. is unacceptable; more controls are necessary, and there is proof that they can work. Just look at the data. There is a staggering split in U.S. gun deaths and gun deaths in a host of other countries, as a New York Times report recently found. This is not news, but it bears repeating. They note that being killed by a gun in Germany is as common as being killed by a falling object in the U.S. Yet the results are pretty much the same, as the graph below from KD Nuggets shows:

We are at war here. Just look at those numbers. How could you conclude anything other than that we Americans are living in a war zone? More people die of violent gun-related deaths in Chicago than American soldiers in Afghanistan, a sad fact that has given the Second City an unfortunate nicknameone that inspired Spike Lees latest film. And just days after the rampage in Orlando, a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News bought an assault weapon in 7 minutes.

More here.Jillian Steinhauer at The New Republic:

In 1972, artist Gordon Matta-Clark began entering abandoned apartment buildings in the South Bronx and cutting holes in the floors. His cuts were strategic: neat rectangles whose clean lines contrasted with the decay around them, even as their geometry echoed nearby windows and door frames. They were also thorough: He sliced through all the layers of a given floor and removed the cutout section. In his black-and-white photographs of the series, Bronx Floors, a sunlit window can often be glimpsed through the freshly carved holes. The cuts appear as portals. They connect spaces above and below, inside and outside.

Matta-Clark knew how buildings were made. In the late sixties, hed returned home to New York City from Cornell University, where hed gotten an undergraduate degree in architecture. But he wasnt interested in erecting more modernist monoliths. The buildings New York already had were crumbling, along with its infrastructure, and the city had neither the money nor the will to fix them. Matta-Clark knew firsthand the enormous cost of this neglect; his cousin died in 1973 when the Broadway building he lived in collapsed. In words that remain chillingly prescient, Matta-Clark identified the South Bronx as a neighborhood where the city is just waiting for the social and physical condition to deteriorate to such a point that the borough can redevelop the whole area into the industrial park they really want.

more here.Nicholas Thompson and Fred Vogelstein in Wired:

One day in late February of 2016, Mark Zuckerberg sent a memo to all of Facebooks employees to address some troubling behavior in the ranks. His message pertained to some walls at the companys Menlo Park headquarters where staffers are encouraged to scribble notes and signatures. On at least a couple of occasions, someone had crossed out the words Black Lives Matter and replaced them with All Lives Matter. Zuckerberg wanted whoever was responsible to cut it out.

 Black Lives Matter doesnt mean other lives dont, he wrote. Weve never had rules around what people can write on our walls, the memo went on. But crossing out something means silencing speech, or that one persons speech is more important than anothers. The defacement, he said, was being investigated.

All around the country at about this time, debates about race and politics were becoming increasingly raw. Donald Trump had just won the South Carolina primary, lashed out at the Pope over immigration, and earned the enthusiastic support of David Duke. Hillary Clinton had just defeated Bernie Sanders in Nevada, only to have an activist from Black Lives Matter interrupt a speech of hers to protest racially charged statements shed made two decades before. And on Facebook, a popular group called Blacktivist was gaining traction by blasting out messages like American economy and power were built on forced migration and torture.

So when Zuckerbergs admonition circulated, a young contract employee named Benjamin Fearnow decided it might be newsworthy. He took a screenshot on his personal laptop and sent the image to a friend named Michael Nunez, who worked at the tech-news site Gizmodo. Nunez promptly published a brief story about Zuckerbergs memo.

More here.Admissions Applications to Aberdeen Hall are accepted year round and are increasingly competitive.

At Aberdeen Hall, we seek to admit well-rounded students who choose to be at our school. We are looking for students who demonstrate leadership through academic performance, involvement in co-curricular activities and civic engagement. We care about our students and seek those who value education and are prepared to enrich our incredible school community.

Inquire Now

Drilling Underway at the Kurnalpi Nickel-Cobalt Prospect

Adelaide, Feb 15, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Mithril Resources Ltd ( ASX:MTH ) is pleased to advise that a 900-metre Reverse Circulation drilling program is underway at 100%-owned Kurnalpi Nickel-Cobalt Prospect (located on EL28/2567 approximately 70 kms north east of Kalgoorlie, WA - see Figure 1 in link below).- RC drill program testing new bedrock EM conductors and historic nickel-cobalt drill intercepts- Historic intercepts include;o 42m @ 1.25% nickel, 0.07% cobalt from 24 metres including 6m @ 1.78% nickel, 0.20% cobalt from 28 metres, ando 19m @ 1.08% nickel, 0.07% cobalt from 33 metres including 6m @ 1.17% nickel, 0.11% cobalt from 35 metres- Results expected mid-March 2017Drilling will test both new bedrock EM conductors and a zone of high-grade nickel-cobalt intercepts identified from historic drilling (See ASX Announcement dated 7 February 2018 and Figure 2 in link below). The historic intercepts include;o 42m @ 1.25% nickel, 0.07% cobalt from 24 metres in KURC22 including 6m @ 1.78% nickel, 0.20% cobalt from 28 metres, ando 19m @ 1.08% nickel, 0.07% cobalt from 33 metres in KURA42 including 6m @ 1.17% nickel, 0.11% cobalt from 35 metres.The new drill holes will also be cased for future downhole EM geophysical surveying.Assay results are expected mid-March 2018 and Mithril will inform the market when they come to hand.To view figures, please visit:About Mithril Resources Limited

Mithril Resources Limited (ASX:MTH) is an Australian resources company whose objective is the creation of shareholder wealth through the discovery of mineral deposits.

The Company and its exploration partners are actively exploring throughout the Kalgoorlie, West Kimberley and Murchison Districts of Western Australia for economic nickel, copper, zinc, and vanadium deposits.

In the Kalgoorlie District, Mithril is exploring for nickel on the Kurnalpi, Lignum Dam and North Scotia Projects which lie along strike from, or adjacent to previously mined high-grade nickel at the Silver Swan and Scotia Nickel Deposits.

In the West Kimberley, Mithril is exploring for zinc on the Billy Hills Project which lies adjacent to the previously mined Pillara Zinc Deposit.

In the Murchison, Mithril is exploring for copper, nickel and zinc mineralisation on the Nanadie Well Project and for copper, silver, zinc and lead on the Bangemall Base Metal Project. Mithril's exploration partner  Monax Mining Ltd is also exploring for vanadium on the Limestone Well tenements.Elon Musk's leap forward in the space race has left at least one of his billionaire rivals feeling left out.

"I was a little bit jealous," Richard Branson told CNN's Christine Romans on Tuesday.

Branson, whose Virgin Galactic is racing to launch tourists into space before SpaceX, called Musk's stunning Falcon Heavy launch "extraordinary."

"They all just did fantastic," Branson said at the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Summit in Washington. He added that Virgin Galactic is "thinking about what we can do to upstage that one."

Musk may have set the bar impossibly high. SpaceX captivated the world last week by executing the first-ever launch of its new rocket, called Falcon Heavy. SpaceX then one-upped itself by guiding two of the Falcon Heavy's first-stage rocket boosters to simultaneously land upright back on Earth.

"That was probably the most exciting thing I've ever seen -- literally ever," Musk said.

Always the showman, Musk pulled off another marketing coup by sending his personal Tesla roadster deep into space aboard the rocket. A dummy dressed in a spacesuit is sitting at the wheel, with David Bowe's "Space Oddity" blaring on the car stereo.

Related: What happened to the Tesla Musk shot into space?

Branson told CNN that Virgin Galactic would be "very disappointed" if it didn't launch into space -- with people -- in the next few months.

Virgin Galactic is competing with not just Musk's SpaceX, but Blue Origin, a private space venture launched by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos.

"I hope that Virgin Galactic will be the first of the three entrepreneurs fighting to put people into space to get there," he said.

He said 800 Virgin Galactic engineers are working hard to make sure their technology is safe. "We will wait for their word before putting anybody up," Branson said.

Branson praised President Obama for recalibrating NASA to lean more heavily on private enterprise rather than doing it all itself.

"Elon, Jeff and ourselves can do things for a fraction of the price that governments can do it -- and I think we can make it a little more exciting as well," Branson said.

--CNNMoney's Jackie Wattles contributed to this report."It not only took out the Silver Room, but the whole block, I think 22 businesses were lost because of the common attic. We couldn't stop it," said retired Volunteer Chico Firefighter Larry Van Blaricom.

In 1970, a popular bar in downtown Chico went up in flames in the early morning hours.

"A hotel behind it, it burned too, I was out there for part of the night than transferred up here," said Van Blaricom.

As the fire burned, the fire marshall noticed one of the walls was unsound. He helped other to escape, but couldn't get himself out of the way in time.

"Quite a night. And it was really sad when we found out that Ray was killed," said Van Blaricom.

Nearly half a century later, the community comes together to remember and honor Ray Walter Head, who lost his life that Valentine's Day.

"He cared very much for the guys, you know he cared because he got everybody out, and didn't make it himself," said Van Blaricom.

"Everybody that ever knew him spoke nothing but highly of him," said Terry irion, the now-retired Fire Marshall who came onto the job after Head passed away.

The third generation firefighter, Head served the department for nearly 40 years. And he knew the risks.

"It's your job, you sign on and take the good with the bad. Most of these guys here are willing to lay their life on the line. It's just one of those jobs," said Irion.

"it's important for us to always recognize and honor those who fell I the line of duty, giving their greatest sacrifice to their bothers and sisters, and so for me it's always a constant reminder of how dangerous this job can be and that we should always be vigilant in how we approach it" said Chico Fire Chief Steve Standridge.

And though it's been decades since the Silver Room fire tragedy, the historic downtown area is still just as vulnerable.

"Many of these buildings aren't sprinklered, they don't have modern fire protection, they have shared attic space, so once a fire is started here they can be very difficult to put out" said Standridge.The Redding city planning commission has recommended the city council adopt an ordinance making recreational marijuana sales legal within the city. This process started back with the passage of Proposition 64, making marijuana legal in the state of California. Like a lot of cities around the state, Redding had no law concerning the distribution, growth or use of marijuana. Since then the city council ordered that an ordinance is drafted allowing for the indoor growth, sale, and distribution of recreational marijuana within the city.



Tuesday night that ordinance cleared one of the final hurdles with the city planning commission recommending the city council adopt the ordinance. The city planning commission's role was to check the zoning rights for marijuana businesses. Some of the reasons stated for the city to have an interest in this issue is the elimination of the illegal sale of marijuana in the city and keep these drugs out of the hands of people under the age of 21. As the ordinance language says... "The city of Redding has a substantial interest in regulating cannabis." the city council is now expected to hear this item at its March 6th meeting where the council will either adopt or deny the ordinance.Fintech M&A also ticked up for the year with 336 transactions in 2017. Among fintech sub-sectors, both insurtech and blockchain saw record levels of VC investment and deal volume in 2017, with insurtech accounting for US$2.1B across 247 deals and blockchain generating $512M of investment across 92 deals. Geographically, the US accounted for almost two-thirds of global fintech investment in Q4'17, with $5.8B in funding raised, and almost half of the full-year 2017 global total, with US$15.2B raised for the year. M&A accounted for the majority of this funding, with US$8.7B in deals in 2017. US PE funding in Q4'17 achieved its second highest quarter ever at US$3.4B. Fintech investment in Europe reached over US$2B in Q4'17, with VC investment achieving a new record of US$960M - while total investment for 2017 reached US$7.44B. In Asia, fintech investment moderated to US$748M for Q4'17, to reach only US$3.85B for all of 2017, after more than US$10B in funding in 2016. The global fintech market has advanced considerably over the past few years, says Ian Pollari, Global Co-Lead, KPMG Fintech. As the sector matures, investors have shifted from experimenting with fintech to seeking out value-driven opportunities. This is particularly true for corporates who continue to invest and see fintech as a strategic play that will help accelerate their digital transformation agendas. Key 2017 annual highlights Total global fintech investment was US$31B, the same level of investment as 2016.

The number of PE deals reached a record high of 139 in 2017, providing US$17B in investment.

2017 saw the third-highest annual total for VC fintech investment of the decade.

The median deal size for angel/seed-stage deals was up to US$1.5M, compared to US$1M in 2016, while the median deal size for early-stage rounds was also up to US$5.5M from US$5.1M in 2016. The median deal size of late-stage deals decreased year-over-year, from US$19.1M to US$16M.

Corporate participation in VC deals reached a record high of 19 percent in 2017, although corporate VC investment globally was down significantly year over year, with just US$5.4B invested in 2017 compared to US$9.6B invested in 2016. Key Q4'17 highlights Global fintech investment rose marginally from US$8.5B in Q3'17 to US$8.7B in Q4'17.

Global fintech deal activity dropped to 307 deals in Q4'17, from 327 in Q3'17, with VC deals dropping from to 227 from 250. While noticeable, the decline in fintech deal activity has been far more moderate compared to declining deal activity in other technology sectors.

Global VC funding dipped slightly from US$3.7B to US$3.2B quarter over quarter.

Fintech exit activity achieved a new high of US$2.4B in Q4'17, highlighting the growing maturation of some fintech subsectors. US dominates global fintech investment; Brazil starts to make waves

Fintech funding in the Americas rose slightly quarter over quarter, with US$5.9B invested across 168 deals. In total for 2017, the Americas saw US$19.8B invested across 711 deals. While the US accounted for the lion's share of fintech investment, with US$5.8B invested across 149 deals during Q4'17, Brazil had an excellent showing, with a US$50M raise by Creditas breaking into the top 10 fintech deals in the region. Europe VC fintech investment reaches new high for third straight quarter

Europe saw over US$2B in total fintech funding across 94 deals in Q4'17, while total European fintech funding for all of 2017 was US$7.44B across 446 deals. For the third straight quarter, Europe reached a new high for VC investment in fintech, with US$960M across 68 deals. Despite ongoing economic uncertainty related to Brexit, the UK continued to see resilience in its fintech market - accounting for US$1.6B of Europe's total investment. Asia fintech funding declines, with less than $750 million raised in the region.

After a solid US$1B+ quarter in Q3'17, total fintech funding in Asia declined to US$748M across 38 deals in Q4'17. VC funding faltered considerably in the region, dropping almost 50 percent quarter over quarter to US$550M. Decreased fintech investment in China accounted for much of the decrease in investment in Asia. China saw just US$45.8M in investment in Q4'17, while total investment in 2017 was US$1.33B. On an annual basis, total fintech funding in Asia was US$3.85 billion in 2017 - a massive drop-off from the more than US$10B invested in 2016. On the positive side, corporate participation in fintech deals skyrocketed in Asia during Q4'17, rising from a twelve-quarter low of 11 percent in Q3'17 to reach a new high of over 31 percent. The fintech market is continuing to expand and evolve, says Murray Raisbeck, Global Co-Lead, KPMG Fintech. So much is happening - from the increasing focus on insurtech and blockchain, to the ramifications of maturing companies, such as challenger banks, looking to expand and grow. With regulations changing, particularly in Europe, 2018 will likely be an exciting year.Time-critical logistics firm GBA Services Germany has gained approval to operate road feeder services under new stricter regulations.

The company was recently approved as a carrier of secured air cargo/mail under the newly-strengthened German Aviation Act, which takes effect in March.

As a registered haulier, GBA Logistics Germany is now approved for the ground transportation of all air cargo that is secured, working for known consignors and regulated agents.

The German Aviation Act now imposes stricter regulations than those set by the European Union, requiring that shippers, freight forwarders and hauliers working on their behalf create a security manual setting out all their procedures.

Every company involved in the ground transportation of air cargo in Germany must also appoint a security manager, and provide all drivers with security training as well as conducting background checks.

All hauliers carrying secured cargo must now be approved by Germanys Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA).

The new, stricter regulations take the place of the previously-accepted haulier declaration.

The approval process and ongoing compliance normally require the use of an external consultant.

GBA said it has its own approved internal trainer and avsec expert, Maik Maertens, who is an accredited LBA Instructor, and is also accredited by LBA and the EU Commission as an independent EU ACC3Validator.

Says Maertens: We are delighted to have achieved the distinction of LBA approval at such an early stage in our German operations, having only launched our business in mid-2017.

For our existing customers as well as freight agents and their customers, GBA can now provide services which not only adhere to the new regulation, but ultimately maintains their secure supply chains and saves them time and money on urgent airfreight shipments."

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Alabama set a record for exports in 2017 for the second consecutive year.

The state exported $21.7 billion in goods in 2017, 6 percent higher than its 2016 tally of $20.5 billion. The total also reflects a larger trend, with Alabama exports soaring 21 percent since 2011 and 50 percent over the past decade.

Gov. Kay Ivey, who announced the record this morning, said a rising tide of exports is "strengthening our economy at home and creating more opportunities for our citizens."

"The companies sending Alabama-made products to markets across the world are not just large, multinational companies, but also small and medium-sized companies located in communities across the state," Ivey said. "Setting a new annual export record is just another example of the economic success that Alabama is enjoying right now."

Alabama is 22nd in the U.S. in export volume, moving up one spot from the previous year. Nationally, exports rose 6.6 percent.

Alabama businesses exported goods and services to 189 countries. The Top 5 markets were Canada ($4.14 billion), China ($3.62 billion), Germany ($2.94 billion), Mexico ($2.9 billion), and Japan ($682.6 million). Exports to China and Mexico both grew by 10 percent, while shipments to Japan jumped 30 percent, officials said.

Alabama Secretary of Commerce Greg Canfield said exporting is a "fundamental economic pillar that supports growth in our state, and increasing demand for Alabama-made products around the globe underscores the success of our dynamic manufacturing sector."

Transportation equipment is Alabama's top export category, rising nearly two percent to $10.9 billion in 2017. That encompasses not only vehicles but parts and components for automobiles, aircraft and spacecraft.

Other top exports included chemicals ($2.3 billion), primary metals ($1.9 billion), minerals and ore ($1.3 billion), and paper ($1.1 billion), according to trade figures. Exports of minerals, primarily coal, rose 158 percent last year, while primary metals and paper each rose about 28 percent.

"With much of the world's purchasing power located outside the U.S., Alabama companies are looking at markets beyond our borders for growth opportunities," said Hilda Lockhart, director of the Commerce Department's Office of International Trade. "Exports enhance the quality of life for all Alabamians and elevate prosperity in the state. Creating jobs through exports for the state's citizens is key to accelerating Alabama globally."A California businessman has penned an op-ed asking his state's elected officials to be more like Alabama.

Yes, you read that right.

"As the state legislature returns to Sacramento for a new session, my hope is that they'll choose to be less like themselves  and more like Alabama," writes Tom Manzo, president of Timely Industries in Pacoima and founder of the California Business and Industrial Alliance. "The future of our state's small and mid-sized businesses (not to mention the people they employ) depends on it."

Manzo's words appeared in the Orange County Register. They were inspired by news of Toyota-Mazda's decision to build a $1.6 billion auto plant in Huntsville, employing 4,000 people.

Manzo said 15 states sought the plant, but California was not one of them.

"California has a well-earned reputation of being business unfriendly, and according to one analysis has lost over 1,700 companies in the past decade. It really is not difficult to figure out why, given that we have some of the highest minimum wages, tax rates, and workers compensation rates in the nation. Our state's workers compensation loss adjustment ratio is twice as high as Alabama's, meaning we are paying more due to litigation and permanent disability claims."

He also mentions Aerojet-Rocketdyne's decision last year to leave California for Alabama, as Alabama has the third most technical workforce in the country.

Manzo goes on to sing the praises of Birmingham's culture and food scene as magnet for young workers. Why does Manzo care so much about Alabama? Because his company manufactures pre-finished door frames, he writes, and the home of its biggest competitor is Alabama.

"Many Californians would bristle at the notion of being bested by Alabama. But employers aren't so picky," he says.Alabama's commercial construction industry is a $12 billion business, employing almost 156,000 people full-time and generating a payroll of more than $6 billion a year.

Gov. Kay Ivey was in Birmingham today talking to the Associated Builders and Contractors of Alabama.

That's according to an economic impact study commissioned by the Associated Builders and Contractors of Alabama, the state's largest commercial construction association. Gov. Kay Ivey spoke to the group earlier today in Birmingham.

"Alabama's commercial construction industry, with its $12 billion impact on our economy, continues to play a vital role in moving our state forward," Ivey said of the study. "I am committed to workforce development efforts, which prepare Alabamians for the jobs of today and of tomorrow, and provides employers with the trained workers they need."

The study was conducted by Keivan Deravi, an Auburn University at Montgomery professor of economics, using data from 2015, the latest year of detail information.

The report states that Alabama's commercial construction industry, encompassing non-residential building, accounts for more than $444 million in sales, income and utility taxes toward the Education Trust Fund.

David Pugh, chairman of the board of Associated Builders and Contractors of Alabama, said the study was timely and needed.

"No one had ever taken the time to sit down and analyze the size and scope of it," Reed said. "This study confirms what we already knew. Our state has a relatively small economy. But given the relative size, it's kind of unusual to see the kind of success that this state has had in the construction industry."

And Pugh thinks its a conservative estimate. Many of the commercial contractors in Alabama do big business nationally and internationally. What's unclear, he says, is how many of those dollars are flowing back into Alabama.

For example, Alabama-based Caddell Construction has been tapped to build the new $943 million U.S. embassy in Mexico City. Caddell also built one prototype for President Donald Trump's border wall. Other players, such as Brasfield & Gorrie, BL Harbert International, Turner Industries, have national reputations, he said.

Jay Reed, the Associated Builders and Contractors president, said these numbers show the importance of the industry in terms of its size and importance to Alabama's economy. Attracting big industry, such as Huntsville's $1.6 billion Toyota-Mazda project is good, Reed said, but commercial construction is an "old friend" in need of attention.

"We have a major economic engine in this state that other states would love to have," Reed said. "But that economic engine needs funding for craft training."

For example, Alabama's Academy of Craft Training provides instruction for students interested in construction careers. Pugh said the industry has been working to make sure that skilled positions - stone and brick masons, painters, traditional craft workers - are filled. It was already working towards this prior to the recession, but the next generation of workers need to know the possibilities in the industry.

"You've had a love affair with high-tech industry without realizing how high-tech construction is," Pugh said. "People with craft skills are making good money, and if you move up into the supervisory level, you'll make a good living with benefits and have a career that can last a lifetime.

"We just need a few more partners, one being the state, to keep the wheels turning," he said.Four Alabama chefs, two restaurants and one bar have made the James Beard Foundation's preliminary list of semifinalists for its 2018 culinary awards.

The Beard Foundation's restaurant and chef semifinalists were announced this morning.

Birmingham's Highlands Bar and Grill is a semifinalist for the country's most outstanding restaurant for the 10th consecutive year. In each of the previous nine years, Highlands has gone on to be a finalist for the top restaurant award but has yet to win.

Also, for the fifth year in a row, Dolester Miles, Highlands' longtime pastry chef, is a semifinalist for the country's most outstanding pastry chef. Miles has gone on to be a finalist in that category for the past two years, but she has not won.

The Southern National, a new restaurant from chef Duane Nutter that opened in Mobile last fall, is a semifinalist for the country's best new restaurant.

Also, The Atomic Lounge in Birmingham is a semifinalist for outstanding bar program.

Three Alabama chefs are among the semifinalists for best chef in the South. David Bancroft of Acre in Auburn and Bill Briand of Fisher's Upstairs at Orange Beach Marina in Orange Beach are semifinalists for the third year in a row, and Timothy Hontzas of Johnny's Restaurant in Homewood is a two-time semifinalist.

Each category includes 20 semifinalists, and the field will be narrowed to five finalists on March 14.

The overall winners will be announced at the annual James Beard Foundation Awards ceremony on May 7 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Previous James Beard Award winners from Alabama include:

---> Highlands Bar and Grill's Frank Stitt, for best chef in the Southeast in 2001.

---> The Bright Star in Bessemer, the America's Classic award in 2010.

---> Chris Hastings of Birmingham's Hot and Hot Fish Club, for best chef in the South in 2012.

For a complete list of all of this year's restaurant and chef semifinalists, go here.Alabama has had few incidents of deadly school shootings, but it may have one of the earliest, and strangest.

Alabama's first school shooting happened in 1856, according to a newspaper report that circulated at the time.

"An atrocious murder has just been committed in Florence, Ala.," the Daily Dispatch in Richmond, Va., reported on Aug. 16, 1856. The Daily Dispatch carried an article attributing the story to a writer at the Mobile Morning Herald. A headmaster at a school in Florence was said to have had a pet sparrow. A student stepped on the bird and killed it. The headmaster killed the student by strangulation. The boy's father came to the school and shot the headmaster to death, according to the newspaper clipping. There are no names mentioned in the news report. The Mobile Morning Herald is known to have published from 1842-44; it's not clear if there was a newspaper by that name still publishing in 1856.

Billy Warren, the city historian for Florence and longtime resident, said he'd never heard of the sparrow-killing incident. Florence had a newspaper in 1856, but records are not preserved before 1872, he said.

In a chronological listing of school shootings, Wikipedia lists only three earlier school shooting incidents in America. The Enoch Brown School Massacre took place on July 26, 1764 and was possibly the earliest school shooting, in Greencastle, Pa. During Pontiac's War, four Native Americans entered a schoolhouse, shot the headmaster, and killed 9 students with other weapons.

On Nov. 12, 1840, a University of Virginia law professor was shot and killed by a student. On Nov. 2, 1853, a student in Louisville, Ky., took a pistol to school and killed the headmaster for excessively punishing his brother the day before.

While Alabama hasn't had as many deadly shooting incidents as some other states, it has had several in which people were killed or wounded on high school or college campuses.

On Oct. 17, 1978, Robin Robinson, 13, was paddled by Lanett Junior High School principal Lewis Hoggs, after having a disagreement with another student. Robinson left the school, and returned with a .22-caliber handgun and shot Hoggs, grazing the top of his head.

On Oct. 31, 1980, Rudy Farmer, 17, pulled out a .22 pistol and wounded a fellow student in the art room at Hueytown High School. He then shot and killed himself.

On Feb. 5, 2010, Hammad Memon, a 14-year-old native Pakistani student, killed Todd Brown, 14, at Discovery Middle School in Madison. In 2013, Memon pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Just a week later, on Feb. 12, 2010, University of Alabama at Huntsville biology professor Amy Bishop, 44, killed Gopi K. Podila, 52, chairman of the biology department at UAH; biology professor Maria Ragland Davis, 50; and biology professor Adriel D. Johnson, 52. She also shot and wounded biology professor Luis Rogelio Cruz-Vera, biology professor Joseph G. Leahy, and staff assistant, Stephanie Monticciolo.

On Oct. 6, 2012, University of South Alabama student Gil Collar was shot to death by a campus police officer after approaching the officer naked and under the influence of drugs. The officer said he felt threatened.

On Oct. 11, 2016, a student at Vigor High School in Mobile shot and wounded another student.

On Jan. 25 this year, Jonah Neal, 16, fired a weapon at Murphy High School in Mobile after an altercation. No one was wounded.Two Hoover High School seniors are charged in the ambush killing of a Clay teen over the weekend.

Authorities say the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Brandon Burpo was motivated by revenge, and claim the teens lured him out of his home and then opened fire.

Traquarus Malik Brannon and Jada Lyniese Williams were formally charged Thursday. Brannon is charged with capital murder; Williams with murder, said Jefferson County sheriff's Chief Deputy Randy Christian.

The suspects, both 18, are dating and were taken into custody Monday at school. Brannon was booked into the Jefferson County Jail at 8:06 p.m. Monday and remains held without bond.

Williams was booked into the jail at 8:03 p.m. Monday and released at 1:55 a.m. Tuesday, after posting $60,000 bond.

The shooting happened just after 1 p.m. Sunday in the 4400 block of Winchester Hills Way in Clay. Jefferson County sheriff's deputies arrived on the scene to find Burpo wounded. He was rushed to UAB Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:09 p.m.

Christian said information at the scene was that Burpo had received a phone call, went outside to meet someone nearby and was shot.

Sheriff's detectives reviewed records from the victim's cell phone and discovered the call luring him out came from Williams.

Williams and Brannon, when questioned Monday, claimed the victim had recently robbed them. Williams admitted making the call that lured the victim out. When Burpo arrived at their vehicle, Brannon began shooting at him, Christian said.

A third suspect believed involved fled the area and is actively being searched for.

"We are seeing a disturbing violent culture among some of our young people where murder has become something easy for them to consider and callously carry out,'' Christian said Thursday. "They put zero value on life and do not fear or really understand consequences. That's an incredibly sad thing to consider."

"Our detectives worked around the clock on this case and are to be commended,'' he said. "We will locate and hold this third suspect accountable."

Brandon Burpo

It's the third time this year Hoover students have been implicated in violent crimes.

Last week, Hoover police announced felony charges against 16-year-old Preston Barker Moore. The Spain Park High School student is charged with two felony counts of first-degree assault.

The incident happened Feb. 3. Police were notified by Grandview Medical Center that two juvenile victims had arrived at the hospital with injuries from an attack. Both of the juvenile males told officers they had been stabbed while at a location in the 1000 block of Inverness Cove Way.

One of the victims had a severe laceration to his hand, and the other received a cut on his elbow as well as a stab wound to the thigh. The victim with the hand injury was taken to Children's of Alabama for further treatment. The other victim was treated and released from Grandview.

Authorities said both of the teens told officers they were attacked while involved in a drug transaction. Moore, they said, got into a vehicle they were in and began attacking them with a knife. They tried to get away, and Moore chased after them. The victims were able to make it to their car and flee the scene.

In January, two teens were charged with felony murder in the December 2017 shooting death of Tyric Toodle, a former Vestavia Hills and Spain Park high School student. Isaiah Jovan Flowers, 18, of Birmingham, is charged with murder. He graduated from Vestavia Hills High School attended the University of South Alabama.

The 15-year-old suspect, whose name has not been released because of his age, also attended Spain Park High School. He is charged through Jefferson County Family Court.Tragedy was averted Wednesday afternoon when a gunman tried to enter a Calhoun County daycare to get his toddler daughter, authorities said this afternoon.

The daycare worker, however, blocked his entrance despite the man's threats to kill everyone in the building, said Sheriff Matthew Wade. "I call her a hero,'' the sheriff said. "In today's world, you don't know how you would react, but you hope you would react the way she did."

Wade identified the suspect as Daniel Blake Turner, 23, of Anniston.

The ordeal began about 2 p.m. at the small daycare on Dewey Drive off of Friendship Road near Oxford. Wade said they received a 911 call from the daycare reporting a man with a gun. Sheriff's deputies, Oxford police and even a game warden who was nearby and heard the police radio call, flocked to the scene.

When they arrived, Turner was already gone. The daycare worker told lawmen the man went to the daycare demanding his 1-year-old daughter.

The worker, whose name hasn't been released, refused to let him inside. While she blocked his way, she also instructed other workers to usher all of the children into a room to keep them safe should he make entry.

Turner then threatened to drive his truck through into the daycare, Wade said. He went to his truck and retrieved a rifle. "He threatened to kill everyone in the building,'' he said.

At that point, the man decided to leave. The sheriff was able to get his phone number and personally placed a call to him, telling him they would like to talk with him. He voluntarily went to the sheriff's office where he was undergoing questioning as of 3 p.m.

Authorities sought a felony warrant for making a terrorist threat, but a magistrate issued a misdemeanor charge of menacing. However, Calhoun County District Attorney Brian McVeigh reviewed the case Wednesday evening and upgraded the charge to felony making a terroristic threat.

"Domestic issues really make people do things they wouldn't do,'' Wade said. "Thank God no child was injured."

Wade continually praised the daycare worker. "I told her numerous times I was proud of her,'' he said. "She was very upset as anybody would be, but she did what she had to do and she did it right."Julio Cesar Baeza was not yet one year old in 1994, when his parents brought him from Mexico across the Rio Grande into the United States.

His father, Jose Baeza, spent most of the family's savings on a broken-down old car he found in New Mexico and got it up and running for the long trip to Florida, where he and his wife, Rosa Luna, hoped to move in with relatives and find work picking oranges or peppers.

They only made it as far as Albertville, a north Alabama town which at the time was home to about 15,000 mostly white residents. The Baezas were part of the front crest of a wave of more than 5,000 Latino immigrants who settled in Albertville - and thousands more who arrived in other Sand Mountain communities - over the past 25 years.

They lived in a stranger's house with multiple families at first, eventually upgraded to sharing a mobile home with another family, then got their own trailer and ultimately were able to buy their own house.

The close-knit family from the central Mexican state of Guanajuato had achieved their version of the American dream.

'We aren't going anywhere'

Both of Julio Baeza's parents worked in the chicken plants at the beginning, but his father was a skilled welder so after about a year he shifted into metalworking. In 2001, the Baezas opened a restaurant called El Rinconcito in an Albertville strip mall, building the business over the ensuing years into a cornerstone of the local Mexican community.

Over time, Jose Baeza came to be seen as a man new arrivals could go to for help securing housing, getting jobs and establishing lives in Marshall County. And in 2006 a group of high schoolers went to him when they wanted to find a way to make a strong political statement.

In April of that year, the elder Baeza became a key figure in a watershed moment for Albertville's Mexican immigrants, when he helped the teens organize a march of thousands of the community's members in support of immigration reform.

It was a political awakening for the local Latino community, for the Baeza family patriarch, and for Julio, who said it was that event that demonstrated to him for the first time how much power his people wielded.

"The march surprised the white and older community who had been here," he said during an interview in a booth at his family's restaurant earlier this month. "Some people may have a grudge or something against us, but I think people are now used to the fact that we aren't going anywhere."

Concrete action

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey in September, Julio Baeza - who was then 23 years old and ready to organize and lead on his own - turned the energy of his community into concrete action. He solicited and collected more than a dozen pallets piled high with donated non-perishable food, toiletries, water bottles and other essential items from 33 mostly Hispanic-owned area businesses, loaded up a couple of U-Haul trucks, and drove them to Houston with some close friends.

Julios Cesar Baeza (rear center) poses in front of a truck filled with donated items that he and his friends delivered to Houston in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey last year (Courtesy Julio Cesar Baeza)

His life had come full-circle 11 years after tragedy had rocked his family. On Dec. 28, 2006, Julio's father died in a catastrophic car accident in Utah when he lost control of his vehicle during a heavy snowstorm on the return leg of a cross-country family road trip. The car rolled several times and careened into a deep ravine, but every other member of his family survived the crash.

Julio Baeza's mother eventually remarried an American citizen, which helped her surviving family members get their green cards and permanent residency. Over the past decade, Baeza says he has been driven by his father's example and by the attainment of his legal immigration status - which many of his friends and neighbors have not been able to obtain - to help both immigrants and U.S. citizens in Marshall County and beyond.

Growing up in the dining room and kitchen of El Rinconcito, Baeza says he met many people and learned the value of hard work, two things that have come in handy as he has pursued his dream of taking the torch from his father and being an effective organizer for area Latinos and other people in need.

"My father wasn't a superhero, he's just someone who liked helping other people," he said. "A lot of people appreciated a lot of the stuff he did for them, and I just grew up seeing all that. I'm my father's son."

Bridging the gap

Though dozens of Latino-owned businesses selling everything from Mexican food to Quinceanera dresses are thriving across Marshall County, the county courthouse in downtown Albertville still flies the rebel flag and has a Confederate monument prominently displayed on its front lawn.

Yet Baeza believes that through doing good works in Marshall County and beyond, he may be able to help bridge that gap and bring people together.

Before that can happen, Baeza says that it is vital that protections for immigrants remain intact and are strengthened. The divisive rhetoric of President Donald Trump, combined with the increase in deportations of immigrants who have not committed crimes, has led to a rise in fear among many immigrants over the past year.

That growing fear reminds Baeza of the passage of the anti-immigrant state law H.B. 56 in 2011 and the ensuing couple of years, which he remembers as "a low point" for immigrants in Alabama.

Thousands of Latino immigrants fled Alabama that year to avoid the impacts of the law, which allowed local police to check immigration status during traffic stops, made it illegal to employ undocumented workers, and even directed schools to inquire about children's immigration status.

The law was eventually largely neutered through federal court challenges.

But that dark period gave rise to a number of advocates like Baeza. Victoria Siciliano, spokeswoman for the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said she believes the backlash to Trump's rhetoric and policies is having a similar impact today.

"We saw the same thing happen during 2012, when H.B. 56 was tearing apart immigrant communities throughout Alabama. Times of strife make community leaders emerge to help their neighbors," she said. "With an anti-immigrant federal government in place, many have realized the importance of enacting change locally."

A Confederate monument sits outside the Marshall County Courthouse in downtown Albertville. (Connor Sheets | csheets@al.com)

'You shall receive'

Baeza says his next goal is to get Hispanic business owners in Albertville to attend local public meetings, as he says most local governmental bodies do not have any non-white members, and many area meetings do not even feature a Latino in the audience.

"The reason I organize is because I feel like we're lacking involvement in the Hispanic community now, and I feel like there's not enough of the government and community reaching out to us either. We've been here 30 years and there's still no Hispanic person of the City Council," Baeza said.

"At the same time it's like, ask and you shall receive ... I feel that we need to speak up and make our voices heard."

Siciliano feels similarly. Though there are many barriers to immigrants participating in local politics, she says it is vital that they find ways to make their concerns heard and advocate for themselves.

"Local government meetings are notoriously inaccessible for many in the immigrant community, either because of lack of language access or because meetings are held during inaccessible times of day for working people. Local governments do very little to encourage minority attendance at their meetings," she said.

"Still, people like Baeza are becoming engaged everywhere around the country, and it makes a huge positive impact."A missing South Carolina child abducted after her mother was brutally beaten in Charleston Tuesday was found in Alabama late Wednesday afternoon.

Heidi Renae Todd, 4, was recovered in Riverside. The girl - missing for more than 24 hours - was found about 4 p.m. in a wooded area off Highway 78 near Depot Street.

Her accused abductor - Thomas Lawton Evans - was captured just over the Mississippi line after a brief car chase.

It all began when two Norfolk Southern employees ,who just happened to be working on the railroad tracks at Riverside, spotted a vehicle parked too close to the railroad tracks. To access this location, the vehicle would have used a private road that leads to the railroad's tracks, said railway spokeswoman Susan Terpay.

The employees were suspicious when they got closer to the car and saw a man asleep in the driver's seat and a young girl, who was awake, sitting in the passenger seat. The employees, Mark Burk and Chris Jackson, and a contractor, Donnie Pepper, were concerned about the safety of the child, and reported the information to the Riverside Fire Department.

Burke, a 30-year Norfolk Southern employee who lives on Oxford, and a father himself, says he was concerned about the safety of the child.

Once alerted by the railroad workers, Riverside Police Chief Rick Oliver Riverside Fire Chief Tim Kurzejeski went to investigate. They found the vehicle - a blue Chevrolet Impala - with a white male asleep behind the wheel. A little girl - later determined to be Heidi - was awake in the passenger's seat. Oliver said he knocked on the window to wake up the man. He told him to get out of the car and escorted him away from the vehicle, he said. The man - later identified as Evans - was very nervous, he said.

Heidi was then taken from the car by Evans. She was wearing an adult hoodie and adult pajamas, which raised Oliver's curiosity and concern."That just piqued my interest,'' he said.

The chief still didn't know, however, that it was the missing South Carolina girl and the suspect.

Oliver ran the man through a national crime database after obtaining his name and social security number. He then told him he was going to take him in. The suspect, he said, asked him to hold Heidi. He said he smelled alcohol on the man's breath.

"I knew he was going run,'' Oliver said. "I just had that feeling."

Evans jumped back into the vehicle fled on Highway 78 toward Pell City. Pell City police got on Interstate 20 and Highway 78 but couldn't find the fleeing suspect, said Pell City Police Chief Paul Irwin. He was driving the blue sedan with an Illinois tag.

Oliver said ALEA, as well as FBI agents from Birmingham and Gadsden, quickly responded to the scene. "We obtained information on the vehicle and tracked it to the Mississippi line,'' he said.

He said Evans told him he had just been released from prison on Feb. 1 for a robbery conviction. According to the Post-Courier, Evans' criminal history shows numerous arrests for car break-ins and substance abuse starting in 2000 that escalated to the armed robbery charge in 2009.

The suspect was then captured in Lauderdale County, Mississippi by Lauderdale and Kemper county deputies.

Heidi was taken by Kurzejeski back to the fire station. The fire chief said she watched the Disney channel and requested cookies and chocolate milk. "I told my wife I got a little head start on what it's like to be a grandparent because that little girl was going to get whatever she wanted,'' he said with a laugh. "She was just a super trooper."

Heidi was later turned over to DHR officials and was checked out at an undisclosed hospital. Law enforcement officials and her father are reportedly en route from South Carolina Alabama to pick up her.

Thomas Lawton Evans

Heidi is believed to have been taken sometime Tuesday. She was discovered missing when her mother failed to pick up the other children at school. A friend reportedly went by the house and found the mother badly injured. Heidi was officially reported missing at 5:50 p.m. Tuesday and a massive search has been underway since then.

South Carolina police and the FBI described the suspect as an "unwanted visitor." They released a sketch of of a man Wednesday, but later said the person in that sketch was not a suspect.

Later Wednesday evening, they identified the suspect as the 27-year-old Evans. He is expected to face kidnapping and other charges. Late Wednesday night, FBI officials in South Carolina confirmed Evans was the man stopped by them and later taken into custody in Mississippi.

"We are so thankful that she is safe," Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said Wednesday night, according to the Post-Courier. "What could have been a day of great tragedy has turned out to be a day of great joy."

A mother of five, Heidi's mother was in "reasonably fair condition under the circumstances" and was expected to undergo surgery, the mayor said, according to that report.

The woman's husband, a former firefighter, is in the Coast Guard, officials said; he was out of town for training when his daughter went missing.

Oliver said he hopes he can meet Heidi's father. He said he is "tickled to death" at Wednesday's outcome. "The good Lord just put me (and the fire chief) in the place we need to be to get her,'' he said.

Updated at 9:12 p.m. to include comments from Riverside Police Chief Rick Oliver and Fire Chief Tim Kurzejeski.A murder trial ended in mistrial Wednesday when the 65-year-old suspect became disruptive during his testimony.

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Virginia Vinson declared a mistrial for Dwight Philsanders Hinton. He was on trial for the 2015 stabbing death of 48-year-old Rodney Carlton Square.

Birmingham police and firefighters responded to 3622 Doby Avenue about 2:45 p.m. that Friday in Novermber 2015. When they arrived on the scene, they found two men injured from the fight. Square had been stabbed in the upper body; Hinton had multiple facial injuries. The initial call was two stabbing victims, and Birmingham Fire and Rescue officials said they had responded to that same home an hour earlier.

The fight erupted in the driveway of that home. Square was pronounced at UAB Hospital at 2:45 p.m.

Hinton, whose address at the time was list as 3627 Doby Ave., also was taken to the hospital by ambulance. He was booked into the Jefferson County Jail the following day. The arrest affidavit in the case said only that Hinton fatally stabbed Square with a knife.

Hinton's trial began on Monday at 1:30 p.m. when a jury was struck and sworn. On Tuesday, records show, attorneys delivered their opening statements and testimony began. Prosecutors rested their case on Tuesday afternoon.

On Wednesday, Hinton took the stand in his defense. It was then something went wrong.

"The defendant testified and was very disruptive, showed inappropriate behavior in court,'' Vinson wrote in her order declaring the mistrial. The state asked for a mistrial and it was granted. "Due to behavioral issues of the defendant, a mental evaluation will be ordered, and a new trial date will be set once his evaluation is complete."

Officials with the district attorney's office said they could only confirm a mistrial and not elaborate because it is still a pending matter. Efforts to reach Hinton's attorney weren't immediately available.

Hinton was booked back into the Jefferson County Jail about 12:30 p.m. He is being held without bond.A Talladega High School student was arrested Thursday morning after a gun was found in his backpack.

Talladega City Schools Superintendent Terry L. Roller said his staff was on high alert following Wednesday's mass shooting in Florida. "This morning, a student at Talladega High School was observed exhibiting suspicious behavior,'' he said. "His backpack was searched, and a gun was discovered."

Roller said Talladega police were called, and the student was taken into custody. Law enforcement recommended and carried out a thorough search of the school and the grounds. The appropriate administrative staff was called and remained at the school until law enforcement completed their assessment.

Calvareous Wallace, 18, was booked into the Talladega County Jail at 10:32 a.m. He is charged with possession of a concealed weapon without a permit.

"All safety procedures were appropriately followed according to the school's safety plan,'' he said. "I want to commend the staff at the high school for their actions and thank the Talladega Police for their quick response and help in ensuring our students' safety."

This story will be updated as more information is released.Two men were charged with murder Wednesday night after a man was found dead in an empty apartment in Huntsville, according to Huntsville police.

Michael Christian Stoltzfus, 30, and James Michael Romans, 24, were being held in Madison County Jail Wednesday night, said Huntsville police spokesman Lt. Michael Johnson. Bond has not been set.

Police responded to the apartment at 4308 Boxwood Drive around 9:30 a.m. and found the victim, a white male, dead in a vacant apartment, Johnson said.

Police believe the victim was homeless. Johnson said the preliminary investigation showed the victim was physically attacked, but his body will be sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences to determine the cause of death. His identity is being withheld pending the notification of family.

Investigators said that the altercation stemmed from a domestic situation between one of the suspects and the victim.Huntsville police are investigating after a man was found dead in an apartment complex off Boxwood Drive Wednesday morning.

Police are treating the investigation as a "potential homicide." Lt. Michael Johnson said Investigators have a person of interest in custody.

Official charges against the person of interest have not been filed as of late Wednesday afternoon.

Police responded to the apartment at 4308 Boxwood Drive around 9:30 a.m. and found the victim, a white male, dead in a vacant apartment, Johnson said.

The victim has not been identified. Johnson said his body will be sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences to determine the cause of death.

Additional details about the case were not immediately available.Attorney General Jeff Sessions said images of children fleeing their school in the wake of a mass shooting are something "we don't need to continue to see."

Speaking to the Major County Sheriff's of America conference, Sessions said yesterday's massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida was a tragedy the country shouldn't have to endure. Former student Nikolas Cruz allegedly opened fire at the school late Wednesday, killing 17 people.

"We are once again, watching the images of our children-- terrified-- streaming from their school with their hands above their heads. It's image we don't need to continue to see. When parents, once again, go to sleep in fear that their kids will not be safe when they go to school," said Sessions, a former Alabama Senator.

"We've got to confront the problem, there's no doubt about it," he added. "It cannot be denied that something dangerous and unhealthy is happening our country."

Sessions also stressed the importance of people speaking out when they see indicators of violence, such as threats Cruz reportedly made on social media. In most school shootings, the AG said "we've had advanced indications and perhaps we haven't been effective enough in intervening immediately to deal with that."

"Perhaps we've seen that again in this case," he said.

"You are experienced professionals you and I both know we can't arrest everybody that somebody thinks is dangerous," Sessions told the sheriffs. "But I think we can and must do better. We owe it to every one of those kids crying outside their school yesterday and all those who never made it out. Our hearts are hurting today."FarmPAC, the political action committee of the influential Alabama Farmers Federation, endorsed Rep. Martha Roby, R-Montgomery, for re-election on Tuesday.

The federation represents some 360,000 members. The endorsement for the 2018 election marks the fourth consecutive campaign where Roby gained the organization's backing.

"Agriculture is the largest employer in Alabama's Second District, and I know how important it is for our farmers to have someone willing to fight on their behalf in Washington as they continue to provide food and fiber for the world," the congresswoman said in a statement. "I am grateful to have the strong support of the Alabama Farmers Federation, and I look forward to continuing to stand up for all of Alabama's farmers in Congress."

Jimmy Parnell, the federation's president, called Roby "a true friend of farmers."

"She not only understands the issues facing the agriculture community, but she is also extremely responsive to the needs of the members we serve," he said. We are proud to stand by Martha Roby and continue to support her as she works on behalf of the people of Alabama's Second District."

Roby is running for a fifth term. She is being challenged in the Republican primary by former Roy Moore campaign manager Rich Hobson, state Rep. Barry Moore and former U.S. Rep. Bobby Bright, whom Roby defeated in 2010.Former Alabama House Majority Leader Micky Hammon of Decatur was sentenced to three months in prison today and ordered to pay $50,657 in restitution for converting campaign contributions to personal use.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson sentenced Hammon this morning in Montgomery. Hammon will report to a federal facility to begin his sentence on March 29.

Hammon pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud.

Hammon left the courtroom with his family after the sentencing this morning. Hammon's attorney, Stephen Shaw, declined comment.

Before he was sentenced, Hammon spoke in court and apologized to the court and to his family.

"I just ask for everyone's forgiveness," Hammon said.

Prosecutors recommended probation and no prison time for Hammon. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Ross said Hammon accepted responsibility when he learned of the government's case and saved the government time and resources that would have been needed to bring an indictment.

Thompson said he found the recommendation for no prison time unusual. The judge indicated he thought that would send the wrong message to other public officials. He said Hammon violated the trust of those who gave to his campaign.

"I don't see how I cannot give him some time in prison," Thompson said.

Thompson ordered Hammon to serve three years of supervised probation after release.

Shaw, Hammon's attorney, asked Thompson to reconsider the sentence or allow Hammon to serve it on weekends. Shaw said that would allow Hammon to continue to work.

Thompson said the sentence was reasonable, fell within guidelines and was "sufficient but not greater than necessary."

The guidelines allowed the judge to impose a fine of up to $20,000, but he imposed no fine, citing Hammon's inability to pay.

Hammon was ordered to pay the restitution to the court, which will distribute it to campaign contributors. Ross said Alabama Power Company's employees political action committee indicated it did not want to receive restitution. Ross said restitution owed to any contributors that refused it would go to a crime victims' fund.

Hammon was elected to the House in 2002. When Republicans took control of the House in 2010, Hammon was picked as the majority leader and held that position until February 2017.

The guilty plea in September automatically removed him from office.

Ross said Hammon received campaign contributions, deposited them into his campaigns bank account, then wrote checks on that account that he deposited into his personal account. Hammon also used money directly from his campaign account for personal spending, Ross said.

Ross said the crime was mail fraud because the campaign contributions came by mail. Ross praised the U.S. Postal Inspection Services, saying its investigators "doggedly pursued this case."

Ross said the crime was discovered in the course of an unrelated investigation, which he declined to give any information about.

Hammon was the fourth Alabama House member removed from office because of corruption charges since 2014.

The others were Reps. Greg Wren, R-Montgomery, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and resigned; former House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, who was convicted of 12 felony ethics violations; and Rep. Oliver Robinson, D-Birmingham, who pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy, bribery, fraud and tax evasion.Rep. Will Ainsworth, R-Guntersville

A Republican state lawmaker from northeast Alabama said he will sponsor a bill to allow some public school teachers and administrators to receive firearms training and be authorized to carry concealed weapons during the school day.

Rep. Will Ainsworth of Guntersville, who is running for lieutenant governor, said educators in his district asked him to bring legislation to allow them to protect themselves after a former student killed 17 people in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday.

"Our children are sitting ducks in gun-free schools, and as the parent of three public school students, I believe we must act now in order to prevent another tragedy," Ainsworth said in a press release.

Ainsworth said he still has research to do but expects the bill to allow schools to designate employees to undergo training and have concealed carry access to firearms during the school day. He compared the idea to the policy of allowing undercover air marshals to be armed and protect passengers on commercial airplanes.Update:

The suspect in the Parkland, Florida school shooting has been identified as Nikolas Jacob Cruz. Cruz is a 19-year-old former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and had reportedly been identified as a threat in the past.

His identity was first reported by the AP and then later confirmed by law enforcement.

Suspect Nikolaus Cruz, 19, is in custody. #stonemandouglasshooting  Broward Sheriff (@browardsheriff) February 14, 2018

Broward County later corrected the spelling of the suspect's first name to "Nikolas."

Law enforcement said 17 people were killed in the shooting spree.

"I'm saddened to say that 17 people lost their lives."- Sheriff Scott Israel #stonemanshooting  Broward Sheriff (@browardsheriff) February 14, 2018

CNN has confirmed the weapon used in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida was an AR-15 chambered in .223.



An AR-15 is semi-automatic. It is not a machine gun or an assault rifle. The .223 is an intermediate round that is popular for small game hunting.  David Hookstead (@dhookstead) February 14, 2018

Video from the scene shows a man believed to be Cruz being loaded into a police car. He had reportedly been expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons.

Cruz allegedly had a history of issues at the school.

"We were told last year that he wasn't allowed on campus with a backpack on him," math teacher Jim Gard told The Herald. "There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus."

Twelve of the victims were killed inside the school and three outside it, including one standing on a street corner, sheriff's officials said. Two more victims died of their injuries at local hospitals.

BREAKING: At least 15 people are dead following shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, law enforcement officers on the scene tell @ABC News. https://t.co/Aau6yqVpPe pic.twitter.com/IPBivlnCu2  ABC News (@ABC) February 14, 2018

Florida Attorney General Pamela Bondi said her office will pay for the funeral expenses of those killed in the Florida shooting, as well as counseling for the survivors.

Earlier story:

A gunman opened fire at a high school in Parkland, Florida Wednesday afternoon, killing several people.

Law enforcement officials at the scene said the shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is believed to be an 18-year-old former student. The Broward County Sheriff's Office said in a tweet there were "at least 14 victims" though it's not clear how many of those were injured or how many died.

In an afternoon briefing, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said "multiple" people were killed.

Some of the victims have been transported to the hospital.

So far we have at least 14 victims. Victims have been and continue to be transported to Broward Health Medical Center and Broward Health North hospital. #StonemanShooting  Broward Sheriff (@browardsheriff) February 14, 2018

The shooter, who has not been identified, was taken into custody without incident, Broward County Sheriff's officials said. The incident began around 3:30 p.m. EST.

Shooter is now in custody. Scene is still active. #stonemanshooting  Broward Sheriff (@browardsheriff) February 14, 2018

Stoneman High School is located about 30 miles northwest of Fort Lauderdale.

Pictures taken inside the school by students show them locked down as police tried to contain the scene.

The president has responded to the incident and said he's been in contact with Florida Gov. Rick Scott.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018Lambda Legal announced Wednesday the female same-sex couple involved in a controversial "promposal" at Alexandria High School last month will be able to attend prom together as a couple on March 10.

The firm received a letter from Calhoun County School District Superintendent Joe Dyar and Alexandria High School Principal Mack Holley confirming Janizia and Raven will be able to attend prom together, according to a statement from the firm.

The response from the school district came after Lambda Legal sent a letter to the district requesting the students be allowed to attend prom, the district provide a written apology to the students and their families and for any disciplinary records related to the "promposal" be expunged.

"We are encouraged by the school's response and we are pleased the district has provided clear and unequivocal confirmation that the girls can attend prom together. This is a great first step, and we are hopeful that we can work together with Calhoun County School District to effect real change for LGBT students because every student deserves a safe and affirming environment," said Lambda Legal Senior Attorney and Students' Rights Strategist Paul D. Castillo. "There is still work ahead, but today Janizia and Raven are excited about prom, and we couldn't be more thrilled that they can continue planning for their big night."

Janizia's mother said she is glad her daughter and her girlfriend can attend prom together.

"When you have children who are black and who are LGBT, you are always worried about their safety. We look to our schools to create safe spaces for them when they are away from us at home. I'm glad that we have proof that my daughter and her girlfriend can go to prom together, and I hope that is a sign that our children will be treated like every other student going forward," said Jeanise Ross-Walton, Janizia's mother.

"My girlfriend and I have been looking forward to prom night for weeks. I am so relieved that the school said we can go to prom together. Now we can get back to dress shopping just like all the other girls in school," said Janizia Ross.

The request to expunge any disciplinary history and other steps outlined in Lambda Legal's letter continue to be reviewed by the district.

One of the girls and another friend was suspended from school after one of the girls asked the other to attend prom with her during her performance at the school talent show.

School officials have said the girls were suspended because they broke school rules, not because of their sexual orientation.Baldwin County school officials announced Wednesday they will no longer negotiate a city school split with Gulf Shores, and are asking the state superintendent to intervene.

Superintendent Eddie Tyler, in a statement, said he spoke with Alabama interim state superintendent Ed Richardson on Tuesday and asked him to rule on a disagreement the two sides have on the start date for the new Gulf Shores city school. Gulf Shores wants to starts with the new city school system in the fall; Baldwin County is pushing for an August 2019 date.

"Gulf Shores has refused to respect our sincere concerns regarding the serious consequences of a rushed split this summer, leaving only a matter of months to prepare," said Tyler. He said that Gulf Shores, during previous talks, "answered our questions with a question -- asking us why we opposed."

Tyler said, "You can't make progress when the answers to legitimate questions are only questions back."

Kevin Corcoran, the president of the Gulf Shores City School Board, was not immediately available for comment.

A spokeswoman with the Alabama State Board of Education said Thursday that a meeting of the parties involved with be scheduled within the next two weeks "for a review of the issues."

The decision to halt negotiations comes about three weeks after the initial meeting in which both sides disputed whether Gulf Shores needed a superintendent to move forward with talks. Gulf Shores eventually hired Suzanne Freeman as its interim superintendent.

Tyler said that Gulf Shores' demands to start 2018 "are ridiculous" and linked to a decision last year by the Baldwin County School Board to build a new school in Orange Beach.

"They knew these facilities would be complete and ready for students in August 2019," Tyler said. "To know this from the beginning and still demand a 2018 start date is disrespectful at best."

The decision to halt negotiations also comes after an announcement last week from Gulf Shores that the newly formed city system will allow "out of district" students who are currently in the Gulf Shores feeder pattern. That includes students in Orange Beach and in nearby unincorporated areas such as Fort Morgan and Ono Island.

Tyler called the Gulf Shores actions, "while impressive on the surface, is yet another empty commitment."

"This is a standard practice to allow students who are already in the graduation pattern to stay in place and finish where they have attended the majority of their schooling," he said. "We have always expected that those children who want to graduate a Dolphin, would be allowed to graduate as a Dolphin."

Tyler criticized Gulf Shores for having "no vision" or plan that has been publicly communicated to them or others.

"Offering a free cruise isn't worth much if you don't know where the cruise is going, what kind of ship you will be traveling on or what you are going to be asked to pay for once you get there," Tyler said. "This is how I feel about the actions of Gulf Shores. There has been a lot of 'talk' about their vision and their hopes, but they have yet to offer anything of any substance on how they will do this, including the simple question I have asked in every meeting -- how are you going to get this started in just a matter of months?"

The following is the complete statement from Tyler:

After three weeks of talks with representatives from Gulf Shores City Schools, we are disappointed that they have refused to negotiate in good faith and we have agreed to submit our concerns to the State Superintendent for resolution.



Gulf Shores has refused to respect our sincere concerns regarding the serious consequences of a rushed split this summer, leaving only a matter of months to prepare.

While we have raised the question of rushing this matter in every meeting, we have yet to hear from them why they think rushing is better than taking just one year to properly plan this out. They always answered our question with a question - asking us why we were opposed. You can't make progress when the answers to legitimate questions are only questions back.



At our last meeting, we proposed engaging an independent mediator to try and speed up talks and make meaningful progress. The City of Gulf Shores representatives told us they would go back to meet with their board and get back with us the next day. Instead of getting back with us, they put out a press release to the public offering to take students from outside their city limits into their school system, so long as they are paid for doing so.



Previously we raised concerns about the legality of not having a superintendent and instead of simply informing us of their intentions to resolve this matter, they again went to the public with their actions in some condescending tone about the legitimacy of our concerns, even though the law is clear on this matter.



It is our belief, for these and other reasons, that Gulf Shores has not been negotiating in good faith. I do not believe they intend to negotiate in good faith but only act in a selfish manner to accomplish the goals they first set out - which is the opposite of negotiating.



I have made the decision that we cannot continue to work with a group who cannot be trusted to work in good faith. Therefore, I called last week to set up an appointment to talk with State Superintendent Dr. Ed Richardson, asking him to take up the disagreement on the start date. I spoke with Dr. Richardson yesterday during Mardi Gras break and he has agreed to take up the matter and render a decision.



I made it clear to Dr. Richardson that it is not in the best interest of the 580 students, who live outside the city limits, to be subjected to an untested, undefined and unknown new school system. These children deserve better. I will keep my conversation with the State Superintendent confidential but I am pleased to report that he shares our position concerning what is in the best interest of all students. After our talk, I am very comfortable placing this decision in his very capable hands.



Gulf Shores has continued to say this can be done and that we are just over reacting. With a June 30 separation date to start school, this would be completed in less than six months from when we first met on January 24 and that has never been done in Alabama. We reviewed the splits across Alabama in recent history and none have ever been done in the six months Gulf Shores has suggested, though they have stated numerous times that this has in fact been done before.

Gulf Shores' demands to start in 2018 are ridiculous knowing that their reason for leaving was spurred by our decision to build new facilities in Orange Beach. They knew that these facilities would be complete and ready for students in August 2019. To know this from the beginning and still demand a 2018 start date is disrespectful at best. Again we continue to ask, what would be the harm in waiting one year to be sure everyone can start with the best opportunity and the least disruption?

To be clear, compare the dates of when systems were formed by the city councils and when the state approved the split, not some suggested date of when people may or may not have started fantasizing about the future. And in all of these splits, has there ever been one this complicated? Our students are currently studying in a one-to-one computer setting. Our technology standards are very high, our curriculum interfaces with our classroom education. This is a split district, with a history of political differences. We have advanced placement students studying in other schools of Baldwin County. We have special education children that they will be required to educate but for which they will need to prepare facilities and resources. Baldwin County has never faced a split and we want to ensure this one is done right - and why wouldn't we? I think we owe these families the opportunity to start off with the likelihood they will succeed.



Let me be clear again, as I have stated numerous times, we have celebrated their decision and look forward to their future. We have zero intention of preventing them from completing their split; in fact, we believe that their exit will allow us to focus more resources on the remaining students in the nearby areas and the rest of Baldwin County. This isn't to say we don't love these kids and wish them the best - in fact, that is why we are fighting to be sure that this can be done. We want them to have the best chance at success - long term success, not some silly goal of setting a new state record for creating a new city school system.



The offer by Gulf Shores to accept students in the feeder patter, while impressive on the surface, is yet another empty commitment.



First of all, this is a standard practice to allow students who are already in the graduation pattern to stay in place and finish where they have attended the majority of their schooling. We have always expected that those children who want to graduate as a Dolphin, would be allowed to graduate as a Dolphin. Again, look to other splits which took place in Mobile County and others across the state.



Second, we have no idea what their school system will look like. What kind of educational standards do they intend to implement? Will they use computers in a one-to-one environment as we do? What will their curriculum be? Will it transfer easily back into where we are currently with our students or will they be behind when they transfer back in? Will they hold the same holiday and school schedules to accommodate families with children in both the Orange Beach Elementary school and the new Gulf Shores School? Will they use the same uniforms or require parents to purchase new ones for one year before returning to the Baldwin County system?



Third, there is a financial motive for this. Many have wondered how Gulf Shores can operate at the level they have suggested without any new taxes. This was the dilemma in Saraland, Satsuma and Chickasaw where the systems opened with no new taxes only to have tax votes almost immediately following their first years. By including an additional 580 students, Gulf Shores would receive nearly $3.5 million more in funding for the first year, while their additional expenditures would be minimal.



Fourth, they have appointed an interim superintendent, who was released from her contract as the Trussville City School superintendent. This is likely why Gulf Shores has gone out of their way to be clear that their new interim superintendent is not being considered for any permanent position.



Yet, they expect everyone to jump on board with their vision, a vision with no leader, no plan, inadequate funding and not enough time to work out the problems that are inherent in starting a new school system with 2,000 children across city lines with the highest technology demands of any in Alabama.



Offering a free cruise isn't worth much if you don't know where the cruise is going, what kind of ship you will be traveling on or what you are going to be asked to pay for once you get there. This is how I feel about the actions of Gulf Shores. There has been a lot of 'talk' about their vision and their hopes but they have yet to offer anything of any substance on how they will do this, including the simple question I have asked in every meeting - how are you going to get this started in just a matter of months? More importantly, aren't these children better off if we take a year and properly plan this out and prepare for the best transition we can provide the students, parents and teachers?



I do not believe the representatives from Gulf Shores are focusing on the right people. I believe they are more interested in doing what they said they were going to do at the beginning and are determined not to change their plans. My focus is the same today as it was when I started in education 42 years ago and that is the best interest of the children. That is where I will make my stand, regardless of whether these children reside in the City of Gulf Shores, Orange Beach or other surrounding areas.



I have made the decision that we will no longer meet with Gulf Shores and we will submit to the will of the state superintendent to determine what is the best course of action.

Eddie Tyler, Superintendent

This story was updated at 1:50 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, to include a comment from the Alabama State Board of Education.census-information.jpg

(U.S. Census Bureau)

Baldwin County Sheriff Huey 'Hoss' Mack

By Huey "Hoss" Mack, Baldwin County Sheriff

The first thing you see at the website about my work as the Baldwin County Sheriff is a message of gratitude for my family and for the citizens who elected me. I've got both in mind as I share this warning about how poor implementation of the 2020 census could endanger the well-being of families and taxpayers all across our state.

The U.S. Constitution mandates that the census be done every 10 years to ensure federal dollars are allocated fairly and efficiently. In 2010, it failed to do so by missing more than two million children across the county, most from disadvantaged families. A lot of these kids lived in suburbs and rural areas.

Unfortunately, that could happen again. Recognizing we can't rely on door-to-door canvassing to count everyone living in far flung communities, the U.S. Census Bureau plans to use the Internet, more satellite data, handheld devices to coordinate field workers, and a call center to help people fill out the questionnaire.

The problem is that most of these practices will be used for the first time. To make sure they work and don't waste taxpayer money, the Census Bureau had planned a series of tests, but several have already been canceled because the Bureau doesn't have enough funding.

Here's why everyday folks should care about this. Every year the federal government allocates billions of dollars to states and communities based on census information. A lot of this money funds programs that are tremendously important to our families, such as the National School Lunch Program, the state Children's Health Insurance Program, Head Start and other early education programs. In 2015, for example, nearly $600 billion was allocated for the programs listed above, and others, based on census data.

Right now, there are about 112,000 Alabama families with children who live below the poverty line. Many depend on these programs to help feed their kids, ensure they're healthy, and prepared to learn when they get to school. An inaccurate count would likely mean there won't be enough money to support the programs in our state.

As a father, I worry a lot about this. As a sheriff committed to public safety, I worry just as much. Voluminous research shows the connection between educational failure and involvement in crime.

With empty bellies and lack of access to high-quality early childhood education like Head Start, chances are kids won't be ready to learn when they enter kindergarten. Without access to health care, they're going to miss more days of school and won't be treated for vision problems that impact academic achievement, or mental health problems that could increase the chances they'll run afoul of the law.

I'm also worried about natural disasters. Tornadoes in 2007 and 2011 killed hundreds and caused more than $11 billion in damage. Census date determines how much we get to rebuild. If our data isn't accurate, we won't get enough money or know how to spend it where it's needed the most.

Right now, census funding is about $3 billion short of what's required by 2020 to ensure the technology will deliver and that people will participate. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has requested an additional $187 million for this fiscal year, but it's still millions less than what some experts say is needed.

Alabamians should also know that we stand to lose a seat in Congress if we don't have an accurate count of the citizens who depend on elected leaders to represent our interests in Washington.

The good news is that Senator Richard Shelby is the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, which has the power to address the funding shortfall. He's well aware of these challenges and working in good faith for solutions.

We should support the Senator and all of his colleagues in Congress to continue these efforts. With $600 billion in taxpayer dollars at stake, we need to get this right.Its a dark moment for Zimbabwe. Iconic opposition leader and former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has died after a two-year battle against colon cancer.

His death will remain as one of the rare moments that has united Zimbabwean politicians from across the political divide. His loyal supporters are inconsolable at the loss of their icon, but perhaps the greatest tribute is that those from the ruling elite, who have opposed and ridiculed him as a politician, have shown him respect.

Tsvangirai has, without doubt, been one of the greatest and most influential political figures in Zimbabwean history. He has always fought for the underdog, starting his activism as a trade unionist while working in a nickel mine.

His early years as a miner must have prepared him well for the rigours of his political life. In his speeches, he liked to draw from the at the coal face language of his early life in the mine tunnels.

It was his courage that stood out throughout his career. He challenged the regime of President Robert Mugabe at a time when many believed it was suicidal to do so. In 1989, Mugabe imprisoned him when he expressed solidarity with the student movement, which was protesting against corruption. He immediately became a target and there was an attempt to assassinate him.

As secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, Tsvangirai honed his motivational and organisational skills. In 1998, he was the face of the large-scale protests against price hikes and taxes that the government was imposing to fund the profligacy of the political elite. Pioneering activists recognised his leadership skills and selected him to chair the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a group that was campaigning for constitutional reforms.

As his civic work grew beyond the traditional domain of trade unionism, the Mugabe regime felt threatened. The president dared him and his comrades in the unions to join politics if that was what they wanted. They obliged and formed the Movement of Democratic Change (MDC) in 1999, with Tsvangirai as its first leader. That would mark the beginning of his remarkable political career.

As leader of the new party, Tsvangirai worked with civic organisations, including the NCA, to defeat Mugabes proposed new constitution in 2000. The battle between the sides was over the process. Tsvangirai and the activists believed the process should be broad-based and more inclusive, while Mugabe had handpicked a commission chaired by a judge to write a constitution favouring his regime.

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The defeat of Mugabes constitutional proposal was a seminal moment for a number of reasons. It showed that Mugabe could be defeated  it was the first time that he had lost a plebiscite. However, it was also a double-edged sword, which awakened Mugabe and his party, ZANU-PF, from their slumber.

Realising that the MDC and civic society were a potent force, Mugabe unleashed the might of the repressive state machinery upon his opponents. ZANU-PF won the general election in June 2000 by a small margin, and, had the regime not used violence, the ruling party would probably have lost.

Tsvangirai contested three presidential elections, and many believe he would have won, had he not been cheated by the regime. The most glaring of this election manipulation and rigging was in 2008.

For the first time, Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in March that year. However, after a delay of six weeks, the electoral commission announced that Tsvangirai did not have enough votes to claim absolute majority. Many believe those results were manipulated.

This necessitated a second round of election between him and Mugabe. As it happened, the campaign for the runoff election was marred by egregious violence by state-sponsored groups, who terrorised mainly rural voters who were believed to have voted for Tsvangirai. Human rights groups say more than 200 people were killed, thousands were injured and many more lost their homes and property.

The violence against his supporters was so bad that Tsvangirai was forced to withdraw from the race a few days before the runoff election. This led to a sham runoff election in which Mugabe effectively ran alone. The African Union and the South African Development Community had to intervene, and this led to the formation of an Inclusive Government, a coalition between the MDC and ZANU-PF.

Tsvangirai could have remained stubborn, but he compromised and joined Mugabe as prime minister, in the coalition arrangement brokered by then South African President Thabo Mbeki. Tsvangirai always said he decided to work with his tormentor-in-chief because it was the necessary step to take in order to save lives.

The economy was in seriously bad shape and Zimbabweans were in a desperate situation. As it happened, Zimbabweans had much respite during those five years of the coalition government. Things got worse after 2013, when Mugabe again claimed victory in very controversial circumstances.

During his long struggle for democracy, Tsvangirai endured several unlawful detentions, beatings and torture at the hands of the Mugabe regime. The most vicious of these attacks was on March 11, 2007, when he was bashed mercilessly by state security agents while preparing to attend a prayer meeting in the suburb of Highfields.

It was this ugly spectacle that awakened Africa and the rest of the world to the sadist nature of the Mugabe regime and prompted them to take a more hands-on approach.

Despite all the heavy challenges that he faced, Tsvangirai remained resolute. Internally, he faced criticism from some of his comrades, with whom he had founded the party, but, towards the end of his life, he had been reunited with them under the banner of the MDC Alliance.

Some argued that he probably stayed on too long as leader of the opposition, but he always maintained that the job they had started in 1999 needed to be completed. Towards the end, however, he was preparing to hand over to a new generation, as he put it in his statement. He was unwell and he knew that he could not carry on any longer.

Sadly, his party is severely divided, as different factions vie to succeed him. The greatest irony in this moment after his death is that those who fought him and beat him up are giving him honour and respect, while those who struggled alongside him started fighting each other before he has even been buried. Its an undignified fight which could have been avoided with proper succession planning.

How will Tsvangirai be remembered? He will live long in the memory of Zimbabweans as a tenacious fighter for democracy and freedom. He will always be a hero to many people. His name went far beyond Zimbabwe and is one of the most recognisable names from the southern African region.

He gave people hope. He inspired a generation, and, no doubt, his legacy will inspire future generations. He was not without fault, but then who among humans is? I worked with him and remember a humble, unassuming character who wanted the best for his fellow Zimbabweans and for humanity. It was a great honour and privilege to work with him.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.On January 17, Italys parliament approved the deployment of up to 470 troops in Niger to combat irregular migrant flows and the trafficking of people towards Libya, and, from there, to Europe. A number of other European countries are pursuing similar policies, including France, Germany, and Spain.

These policies have been preceded, in recent years and months, by a plethora of studies and articles. Many of them were focused on measures that differentiate between distinct migratory waves, with the purpose of divert[ing] migration rather than attempting to stop it (pdf). Others investigated the costs and benefits of outsourcing migration control, the European Unions strategy for Sahel Security, and the financial cost of the migration crisis for European countries.

No less attention was given to the lucrative business of NGOs in relation to migratory waves, to the role of organised crime in the smuggling of migrants to Europe, and, last but not least, to the importance of showing solidarity towards these desperate people.

But none of these claims or efforts, nor the related policies carried out by European countries in the region, offer long-term solutions to, and deep understanding of, the key structural conditions at the base of the ongoing migratory waves. These short-term policies and analyses speak to the gut of European public opinion but fail to provide structural answers to present and future generations.

Structural problems

The acronym OPL 245 means little, if anything, to most people. Yet, it is the name of the deal for the acquisition of the largest oil block (over 9 billion barrels of crude) in Africa. It is situated off the coast of Nigeria, from where, historically speaking, 12 million slaves were exported to European colonies in the Americas beginning in the 15th century. It is the most populous country in the continent and the one from which the largest number of migrants have arrived by sea to Italy in 2016.

The $1.1bn invested by European oil and gas companies in the acquisition of this oil block would have covered over 80 percent of Nigerias entire health budget for 2015. The ordinary citizens of Nigeria did not see a penny from the deal. The acquisition, finalised through blackmail, benefitted only a very limited number of corrupt officials and money launderers.

OPL 245 is hardly an exceptional case. Indeed, the natural resources (fuel, gold, gas etc) of most, if not all, African countries and a number of the states in the Eastern Mediterranean are still being syphoned off through offshore companies that, to a large extent, are linked to European and American companies and businessmen. As the Panama Papers confirmed, anonymous companies (about 1400) and tax havens are used to exploit the natural wealth of some of the worlds poorest countries.

It is necessary to at least deconstruct the common image of a generous Europe committed to finding humanitarian solutions to 'millions of migrants', and that has to cope with the consequences of 'others' problems'.

Only by opening Europe to African products beyond raw materials  while guaranteeing an equal share of the benefits to African populations  and addressing the structural conditions that undermine the development capacity of millions of people, will the EU be able to implement a vision based on sustainable solutions.

The search for these solutions also involves the need to put pressure on rich Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait and others, to assume concrete responsibilities.

Some of these countries are among the major recipients of the almost $1.5bn in rifles, rocket launchers, heavy machine guns, mortar shells and anti-tank weapons currently exported from Europe (largely via the Balkans) to the Middle East: some of these arms are currently being in used in Syria and Yemen, contributing to the destabilisation of the region as a whole.

And destabilisation is indeed another key aspect to be considered when addressing the structural conditions that are fostering migration and the trafficking of people. It is a story as old as the world: People tend to migrate when they feel unsafe or unable to fulfil their needs. In this context, it is enough to mention that, according to data provided by the US State Department, incidents of terrorism increased by 6500 percent (199 attacks in 2002, 13,500 in 2014) since George W Bush started the so-called war on terror in 2001.

Despite the fact that 15 out of 19 hijackers who flew passenger jets into the Twin Towers were Saudi citizens, the Bush administration decided to respond to the 9/11 attacks by striking Afghanistan and Iraq. It is not by chance that these two countries are the ones that suffered half of the total number of the incidents of terrorism mentioned above. The destabilisation of a large part of the Middle East and North Africa and the profound influence that this has had on the stability of neighbouring regions is partially, if not mainly, a direct result of decisions taken at the time.

The future ahead: structural solutions

How will migration affect Africa and Europe in the coming decades? The answer is to a large extent bound to demographics. The total population of Africa will grow from the current 1.2 billion to 2.5 billion by 2050, while some European countries will see their populations decline or stay relatively stagnant over the same period. For example, the EU predicts Italys population to decline from nearly 61 million to under 59 million by 2050.

This further explains why tackling migration and the trafficking of people by deploying troops or diverting human flows is a red herring. Only structural solutions will enable the EU and other international players to turn the challenges that these numbers bring with them into opportunities. From the perspective of the EU, these structural solutions include five main policies:

1. Exposing and sanctioning the ongoing exploitation of Africas natural resources by private and public European companies in order to tackle some of the structural causes of migration  those hindering the development of many countries in the region.

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2. Overcoming the self-serving cliche of investing in African countries, while opening Europe  including by involving multinational corporations  to African products and enabling local populations to sustain their economies.

3. Monitoring and stemming the flow of weapons produced in European countries and sold in African and Middle Eastern countries affected by wars (Yemen first and foremost).

4. Providing legal protection and opportunities  possibly using some of the 6bn euros ($7.5bln) allocated by the EU to strengthen Europes external borders  for climate migrants, that is those (millions of people) who flee African countries because of the effects of climate change.

5. Moving from crisis management to crisis prevention. This includes rejecting the policy of outsourcing migration management, a short-term solution that has created an economic boom in a number of centres, some located in desert areas, becoming an industry that profits off the most vulnerable.

It could be claimed that none of these policies is realistic, or fully feasible. If so, it is necessary to at least deconstruct the common image of a generous Europe committed to finding humanitarian solutions to millions of migrants, and that has to cope with the consequences of others problems.

Indeed, too often we tend to approach the dramatic present of many Middle Eastern and African countries as something that pertains to peoples and contexts that are largely detached from our political, historical and economic past and present.

This mindset is often part of an ongoing medievalisation of these regions, that is, the tendency to juxtapose an allegedly medieval Middle East and Africa with a modern, secular, normative West.

It is necessary to overcome this segregated interpretation of our history and their history, paving the way for a more humble approach towards the peoples region and their sufferance. This new attitude will help to reshape the paradigmatic schemes through which to look at the European Neighbourhood and to realise Eric Hobsbawms wish to rescue not only the stockinger and the peasant, but also the nobleman and the king.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.At 2,295, suicide and complex attacks kill and injure more people than any previous recorded year in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan suffered more than 10,000 civilian casualties in 2017, as deadly suicide and complex attacks killed and injured more people than any previous year in the war-torn country, according to the UN.

In its annual report released on Thursday, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN Human Rights Office, documented 3,438 deaths and 7,015 injuries  a decline from the record-high figure in 2016.

The chilling statistics in this report provide credible data about the wars impact, but the figures alone cannot capture the appalling human suffering inflicted on ordinary people, especially women and children, Tadamichi Yamamoto, the secretary-generals special representative for Afghanistan, said in a statement.

At nearly 2,300, 2017 recorded the highest number of civilian casualties from suicide and complex attacks in a single year since the UN mission began documentation in 2009.

The use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs)  suicide and non-suicide  by armed groups led to the majority of the casualties last year, with ground engagements accounting for the second-highest number of victims.

I am particularly appalled by the continued indiscriminate and unlawful use of IEDs such as suicide bombs and pressure-plate devices in civilian populated areas, Yamamoto said. This is shameful.

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The report attributed 42 percent of the casualties to the Afghan Taliban, while noting an increase in victims of attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group, which was responsible for 10 percent of the casualties.

Pro-government forces, including Afghan national security forces and international military forces caused a fifth of the civilian casualties.

Zeid Raad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for the perpetrators to be held accountable.

The people of Afghanistan, year after year, continue to live in insecurity and fear, while those responsible for ending lives and blighting lives escape punishment, he said in a statement.

Such attacks are prohibited under international humanitarian law and are likely, in most cases, to constitute war crimes.

Difficult year

This year, a wave of attacks by armed groups have killed nearly 150 people in recent weeks.

On May 31, in the deadliest attack in the Afghan capital, at least 150 people were killed after a massive truck bomb ripped through the heart of Kabuls diplomatic district.

To date, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Despite the decline in overall figures, Danielle Bell, UNAMAs human right director, said, Much more needs to be done.

It is the fourth consecutive year where weve seen more than 10,000 civilians killed or injured, she told Al Jazeera from Kabul.

It has indeed been a difficult year.

While we did see an improvement on the battlefield by Taliban and pro-government forces, more still needs to be done.

Women, children affected

Women and children continued to bear the brunt of the armed conflict.

UNAMA reported a five percent rise in female deaths at 359, with 865 injured.

Total child casualties stood at 3,179 (861 killed and 2,318 injured)  an overall 10 percent decrease compared with 2016.

We cannot sleep day and night due to the frightening sounds of firing, an 11-year-old girl injured by a bullet during a ground engagement in Arghandab district, Zabul province in September, told UNAMA.

The UN agency also reported cases of sexual abuse and child recruitment by Afghan national security forces and anti-government elements.Cyril Ramaphosa elected new South African president in the wake of ex-leader Jacob Zumas resignation.

Cyril Ramaphosa, head of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), has been sworn in as South Africas president, fewer than 24 hours after the resignation of embattled ex-leader Jacob Zuma.

I will try very hard not to disappoint the people of South Africa, Ramaphosa said on Thursday as he ended his speech to parliament, shortly after ANC politicians elected him.

Zumas nine-year presidency came to an end on Wednesday, when the 75-year-old announced that he would heed an ANC order and stand down ahead of a scheduled no-confidence vote against him in parliament.

His resignation in a televised address to the nation came after weeks of pressure to step down due to long-standing corruption allegations.

The election of Ramaphosa was largely ceremonial, with no other candidates put forward for the presidency.

South Africas two main opposition parties, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), refused to vote for Ramaphosa, who served as deputy president under Zuma.

A number of EFF members also left the parliamentary chamber as proceedings began.

The EFF has called for the dissolution of parliament and fresh elections, citing no faith in the ANC government who they accuse of protecting Zuma.

Focus on corruption

But in his address to parliament, Ramaphosa pledged to work with the opposition and tackle corruption while finishing his predecessors term, which ends with elections next year.

Leave 2019 aside, let us deal with the current moment and work together on how we are going to improve the lives of our people, rather than grandstanding, Ramaphosa told the members of parliament.

Issues that have to do with corruption, of how we can straighten out our state-owned enterprises and how we deal with state capture are on our radar.

Al Jazeeras Fahmida Miller, reporting from Johannesburg, said Ramaphosas speech was likely to be well received by many South Africans.

He spoke about appearing in parliament in future to exercise his accountability to the House and the country, Miller said.

This marked a change of direction from Zuma, Miller added, who often dodged parliamentary questions and refused to answer any inquiries into government decisions clearly.Violence in country called the most violent and worrying moment as US and Russian diplomats again trade blame at UN.

The UN special envoy for Syria has given warning that violence in the country is the worst he has seen since taking the job four years ago.

Staffan de Misturas remarks on Wednesday came as the US and Russia again traded blame at the UN over the ongoing conflict.

Civilians have been killed on a horrific scale  reports suggest more than 1,000 civilians in the first week of February alone, he told the UN Security Council.

I have been now four years as the special envoy. This is as violent and worrying and dangerous a moment as any that I have seen in my time of tenure so far.

De Mistura mentioned all the countries now fighting in Syria, including the Turkish operation around Afrin and the Syrian governments continued bombardment of Eastern Ghouta and Idlib.

He talked of developments in recent days, including the US attack on Assads forces near Deir Az Zor and Israeli air attacks in Syria including on Iranian targets. But both these operations were later defended by Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN.

The United States will always reserve the right to act in self-defence. The [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] regime has become a front for Iran, Hezbollah, and their allies to advance the irresponsible and dangerous agenda for the Middle East, she told the Security Council.

Haley defended the US attack on Assads forces near Deir Az Zor [Mohammed Elshamy/Anadolu]

She criticised Russia for failing to stop the Assad regime from bombing and gassing civilians, drawing a sharp response from Moscows permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia.

Nebenzia said the US and its allies should use their influence over the opposition groups to prevent violence.

Meanwhile, the UNs latest modest peace effort based on the outcome of a conference in the Russian city of Sochi seems now to be in doubt.

De Mistura wants to select members of a new committee to come up with a new constitution for Syria. But Syrias ambassador at the UN rejected that.

Participants of the conference did not lend any authority for Mr De Mistura to set up this committee, said Bashar al-Jaafari, the Syrian diplomat.

Earlier on Wednesday, the first convoy of aid since November was delivered to Eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held enclave east of Damascus.

Diplomats point to a familiar and cynical pattern by the Syrian government. It is only when Syria is in the international spotlight, a small amount of aid is finally delivered.

The first convoy of aid since November was delivered to Eastern Ghouta [Yousef Albostany/Anadolu]

Aid also reached Deir Az Zor, which was liberated in November last year from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

Abdirahman Meygag, deputy director of the World Food Programme in Syria, told Al Jazeera from Damascus on Thursday that his team visited the city two days earlier for the first time since 2014.

The majority of the city is uninhabitable, 80 percent of the city has been destroyed, he said.

We have seen that there is no electricity, the majority of people depend on generators. Water is not running. The sewage system is disfunctional.

He also said thet the majority of the people depended on foreign assistance.

For a year and a half the UN has been doing airdrop operations in Deir Az Zor city. We kept the people alive there. However, the city needs more than that and we are there to assist. We need to step up our operations.A candidate seeking to become the first Muslim mayor of a US city says she wont let the threat derail her.

A woman seeking to become the first Muslim mayor of a city in the US state of Minnesota has claimed receiving a death threat online.

Regina Mustafa, running for mayor in the city of Rochester, which is about 160km southeast of Minneapolis, said a threat to execute was made online by Militia Movement earlier this week.

I have no way of knowing if the person is nearby or across the country, Mustafa told the Post-Bulletin.

On her Twitter page, Mustafa said: It wont derail me. But any threats must be taken seriously. No one should feel threatened when wanting to serve their community in elected office.

Threat to "Execute" me made online. It won't derail me. But any threats must be taken seriously. No one should feel threatened when wanting to serve their community in elected office.  Regina Mustafa, MS, ADC (@ReginaMustafa) February 12, 2018

Mustafa said the threat, made on a post she made on Google Plus last year, has been reported to the police.

Almost 12,000 of Rochesters 114,000 population is Muslim.

In response to the threat, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) requested police to investigate the matter.

We urge state and federal law enforcement authorities to investigate this implicit threat of violence targeting a member of a minority community seeking to take part in our nations political process, said Jaylani Hussein, CAIR Minnesota chapters executive director.

According to a report in the Star Tribune, Mustafa had people shout at her from passing cars.

The report adds that a man walked up to her at a coffee shop last year and told her to go home.

Rochester Police Department told The Independent that it was investigating the incident but as the threat was directly not aimed at Mustafa, it would be difficult to prosecute the individual.

Im concerned theyre considering this as harassment, she said.

Ive suffered harassment. I know what harassment is. This is a threat.Leading opposition figure joins growing list of detainees over his alleged contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood group.

Egyptian police have arrested Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a leading opposition figure and former presidential candidate, over his alleged ties with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.

State Security Prosecution has ordered his detention for 15 days in prison pending investigations on charges related to leading a terrorist organisation and spreading false news inside and outside the country, according to media reports.

The arrests came just days after an Egyptian lawyer submitted a complaint to the public prosecutor, calling for the arrest of Aboul Fotouh after the politician appeared on an Al Jazeera television show from London.

In his complaint, lawyer Samir Sabry accused Aboul Fotouh of spreading fake news and demeaning Egypts President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Aboul Fotouh was taken away along on Wednesday along with six members of his Strong Egypt Party who were visiting him in Cairo upon his return from London, according to Egyptian news media.

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Aboul Fotouhs son confirmed the report from his home in the Egyptian capital on his Facebook page.

On the orders of the countrys public prosecutor, the senior Strong Egypt Party members who visited him were detained on Wednesday, according to news media reports.

They were Ahmed Abdel Jawad, Ahmed Salem, Mohamed Osman, Abdul Rahman Haridi, Ahmed Imam and Tamer Gilani.

The same night, all of them were released but Aboul Fotouh remained in custody for questioning by prosecutors on Thursday,according to the news reports.

A former member of the Muslim Brotherhood and leader of the Strong Egypt Party, Aboul Fotouh ran as an independent candidate in the 2012 presidential elections, gaining nearly a fifth of the vote in the first round.

The vote six years ago marked Egypts first competitive elections following the 2011 revolution, which overthrew long-time leader Hosni Mubarak.

Aboul Fotouh has become the latest detainee in a string of arrests of political figures, government critics and former officials.

Egyptians will go to the polls next month in a presidential election in which incumbent President Sisi looks poised to extend his term in office.

Several potential candidates have either been arrested or faced threats, intimidation and physical violence, forcing them to drop out.

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In the interview with Al Jazeera last week, Aboul Fotouh condemned Sisis crackdown on opposition and said that the upcoming presidential elections were not fair, transparent, or democratic, especially with the absence of real opposition.

A boycott of this mockery is a duty, in our opinion, because we dont accept for Egyptians to participate in a farce, he said of the March vote.

Amid the crackdown on the opposition, the US state department has called for free and fair elections.

We support a transparent and credible process with regard to the electoral process, and thats one of the reasons why the secretary spoke about the importance of having full, unfettered access to the polls so that people can vote, Heather Nauert, state department spokesperson, said on Tuesday.

Hisham Genena, a former chief auditor of Egypt, was also detained on Tuesday for 15 days over his claims that the countrys former army chief Sami Anan was in possession of documents and evidence that would undermine the country and its leadership.A Salvadoran woman serving a 30-year prison sentence after having a stillbirth is released after 10 years behind bars.

A woman in El Salvador serving a 30-year prison term for allegedly aborting her child has been released after the countrys Supreme Court reduced her sentence.

Teodora del Carmen Vasquez was convicted in 2008 of aggravated homicide, after being charged under a strict abortion law prohibiting abortion or miscarriages.

Carmen Vasquez, her lawyers and human rights groups always maintained she had given birth to a stillborn baby girl after suffering health complications.

She spent more than 10 years in prison.

My effort has been worth it and now Im very happy to go back to my family again, she said after leaving prison on Thursday, surrounded by relatives and activists.

Amnesty International called her release a positive step but stressed that Carmen Vasquez case should serve as an example and eventually end a ban that has resulted in the imprisonment of dozens of women.

Its encouraging to see Teodora stepping out of jail, where she should have never been in the first place, but El Salvador is still far from fully ensuring the rights of women and girls in the country, said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnestys Americas director.

Carmen Vasquezs sentence was reportedly commuted by the Supreme Court and the justice ministry, but prosecutors maintain she strangled her baby.

She is still guilty for the system, but she can be released due to a legal process we interposed, and at the same time an appeal against the 30 years sentence is in process, said Katia Recinos, who works with the pro-choice group Citizens Association for the Decriminalization of Abortion.

In March, we expect Maya Veronica, another woman jailed for abortion, to be released through the same legal process, Recinos told Al Jazeera.

According to Amnesty, Carmen Vasquezs lawyers will seek compensation and redress for the time she spent behind bars.

Translation: Amnesty International  Teodora is free

Abortion in El Salvador

El Salvador is one of only five countries where abortion is criminalised in all cases.

Under the law, which was implemented in 1998, women can be charged with murder and other related charges for an abortion or suspected abortion carried out for any reason.

Additionally, medical professionals can face prosecution for not reporting a suspected abortion.

If convicted of abortion, a woman faces two to eight years in prison. Those convicted of homicide are facing sentences of to up to 50 years.Ethiopia is at a critical political juncture, analysts say, after the snap resignation of the countrys prime minister.

Some describe it as a transformational moment; others the result of an unprecedented wave of protests.

But whatever it is labelled, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegns surprise resignation is setting the stage for a crucial succession race, that is likely to shape the future course of a country rocked by violent unrest and political instability.

Hailemariam, who has sat at the helm of the Ethiopian government since 2012, announced on Thursday he would be stepping down as prime minister and head of the ruling coalition.

He cited ongoing unrest and a political crisis in the country as major factors in his resignation, which he described as vital in the bid to carry out reforms that would lead to sustainable peace and democracy.

Awol Allo, a lecturer at Keele Universitys School of Law and an expert on Ethiopia, said the announcement was not entirely unexpected, as rumours that Hailemariam would step down after the ruling party congress next month were widespread.

But [the resignation] came sooner than most had expected, Allo told Al Jazeera.

Figures within the ruling Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) have been at odds, he explained, and mass protests in the countrys restive Oromia region and elsewhere, calling for greater freedoms, have increased pressure on Hailemariams government.

The ruling coalition, which controls all seats in Ethiopias 547-strong parliament, is composed of four political parties delineated along ethnic lines: the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), the Oromo Peoples Democratic Organisation (OPDO), the Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Southern Ethiopian Peoples Democratic Movement (SEPDM).

The TPLF is perceived to be the most dominant group within the ruling coalition, even though Tigrayans make up only six percent of the countrys population. Members of the group also hold influential positions in the security forces and other sectors.

By contrast, the Oromo and Amhara people, who have long-standing grievances against the government and say they are politically, economically and socially marginalised, make up over 61 percent of the population.

Protests and strikes

Widespread protests broke out in the populous Oromia region, home to the Oromo, in 2015, after plans for a contentious development project in the capital, Addis Ababa, were unveiled.

But the demonstrations quickly spread to other parts of the country, including, most notably, the Amhara region, with protesters demanding wider political freedom and equality, as well as an end to human rights abuses.

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Hundreds of people were killed and thousands were arrested in a government crackdown that prompted condemnation from human rights groups.

Ethiopia also imposed a state of emergency, which was lifted after 10 months.

Still under pressure, the Ethiopian government announced plans last month to shutter an infamous prison in Addis Ababa and release thousands of prisoners, including journalists, political leaders and opposition figures.

The government has released more than 6,000 prisoners so far.

But this week, widespread youth-led protests broke out once more in Oromia and a three-day strike was declared, amid rising tension over what many viewed as the slow release of the prisoners.

The effect of these protests is unprecedented in the countrys history, according to Allo.

This is the same protest movement that forced this government to declare a state of emergency, forced it to release political prisoners, [and now] forced the prime minister to resign, he said.

This protest [is what] brought about this radical change.

Jawar Mohammed, a US-based Oromo activist and executive director of the Oromia Media Network, agreed that Hailemariams exit was a product of the demonstrations.

The resignation also reflects the governments inability to control or respond appropriately to the protesters demands, which include reforms to the democratic sphere and greater equality, he told Al Jazeera.

Befekadu Hailu, an Ethiopian writer and activist, echoed those sentiments, explaining that the states earlier tactics  including the violent crackdown and the promise to release all political prisoners  did not work in stemming the unrest.

I think the pressure from the popular movements and also the reformist members of the ruling coalition forced the resignation to come early, Befekadu said.

But, according to Mohammed, whoever is appointed the next prime minister must be a reformist with strong support to implement reforms.

The issue right now is timing, he said. How fast can they reform?  The options right now are speedy reform, or a revolution where the regime will be completely swept away.

At a crossroads

The EPRDF accepted Hailemariams resignation Thursday morning, and the coalitions council of ministers is expected to convene on Friday to name his successor, according to local media reports.

Asafa Jalata, a professor of African Studies at the University of Tennesse-Knoxville whose research focuses on the Oromo, said many people in Oromia hope Lema Megersa, president of the regional government, may take on the duties of prime minister.

That could help ease ongoing political tensions in the short-term, until Ethiopians cast their votes in general elections, which are scheduled for 2020, he said.

Others have suggested that Ethiopian Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu and Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen could also be considered for the position.

Ethiopia is at a crossroads, Jalata told Al Jazeera.

One would wish that learning from the past crisis, different stakeholders, including the government, would facilitate a transformation to democracy.

But major questions remain.

If they choose a candidate from either of the two main groups who have been protesting for most of the past three years, the Oromo and the Amhara, then it will be interesting to see how they are going to appease the other group that they leave out of this coalition, Al Jazeeras Mohamed Adow, reporting from Doha, said.

For his part, Befekadu said that, while it is difficult to predict what will come next, he feared the most dominant group within Ethiopias ruling coalition, the TPLF, may take drastic measures to maintain its grip on power, including a potential coup.

That is my worst fear, Befekadu said, adding that he has not given up hope, however.

I hope there will come a person who will decide to reconcile the radicalised division in Ethiopia. Thats my hope.Hailemariam Desalegns resignation comes amid political crisis and lingering unrest in the Horn of Africa country.

Hailemariam Desalegn says he has submitted his resignation as both Ethiopias prime minister and chairman of the countrys ruling coalition.

Hailemariams announcement comes amid a political crisis and lingering unrest in the Horn of Africa country, which has been releasing thousands of political prisoners to ease tensions.

Unrest and a political crisis have led to the loss of lives and displacement of many, Hailemariam said in a televised address on Thursday.

I see my resignation as vital in the bid to carry out reforms that would lead to sustainable peace and democracy, he said.

Hailemariam added, however, that he will stay on as prime minister in a caretaker capacity, until the ruling Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and the countrys parliament accept his resignation and name a new premier.

Al Jazeeras Mohammed Adow, reporting from Doha, said parliament will meet on Friday to choose Hailemariams successor and noted that Ethiopian Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu is considered to be a leading candidate for the position.

If they choose a candidate from either of the two main groups who have been protesting for most of the past three years, the Oroma and the Amhara, then it will be interesting to see how they are going to appease the other group that they leave out of this coalition, he said.

Hundreds of people have died in a wave of violence across Ethiopia, initially sparked by an urban development plan in the capital, Addis Ababa, in 2015.

The unrest spread as demonstrations against political restrictions and human rights abuses broke out.

Prisoners released

Demonstrations demanding greater freedoms began in late 2015 and engulfed much of the restive Oromia and Amhara regions, Ethiopias most populous areas, before spreading to other parts of the country.

The unrest led to a months-long state of emergency that has since been lifted.

The government has long been accused of arresting critical journalists and opposition leaders.

Human rights organisations and opposition groups have called for their release, saying they were arrested on trumped-up charges and punished for their points of view.

In January, Hailemariam announced that his government would release detainees and so far 7,000 people either saw their charges dropped or were pardoned.

An academic-turned-politician, Hailemariam has led Ethiopia since 2012, after the death of former leader Meles Zenawi.

He served as deputy prime minister and foreign minister under Meles before assuming power, and he was also elected chairman of the African Union in 2013.A 19-year-old expelled from Florida school charged with 17 counts of murder after one of deadliest US school shootings.

Police in the US state of Florida has charged a 19-year-old suspected of shooting students and adults at his former school with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

The man, identified as Nikolas Cruz, was accused on Thursday of opening fire the previous day at a high school in the town of Parkland, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern US history.

Authorities warned late on Wednesday that the death toll could rise, as some of the 15 wounded people were in critical condition and undergoing surgery.

Police said Cruz had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for disciplinary problems. On Thursday, the leader of white supremacist group in Florida confirmed that Cruz had been a member.

The 19-year-old was taken into custody shortly after the shooting.

Officials said the gunman began shooting outside the school at about 2:40pm local time (19:40 GMT) on Wednesday. Some students believed a fire drill was taking place.

The attacker, armed with a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, a gas mask, smoke grenades and multiple magazines of ammunition, entered the school and continued his rampage.

Those inside the school can be heard yelling Oh my God! as shots rang out in videos circulating on social media.

A student told local media he had to wait in a closet while the school was under a code red lockdown.

I was just in disbelief. I was texting my friends and my family, the student told WPTV-TV, an NBC affiliate in West Palm Beach, Florida, after being evacuated from the school.

I didnt believe it was actually happening, he said.

The gunman then fled the scene and was taken into custody about an hour later in a neighbouring city, officials said.

It is a horrific situation, Broward County public school Superintendent Robert Runcie told The Associated Press. It is a horrible day for us, he added.

17 people were killed in the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history. pic.twitter.com/FXYB2hyKSR  AJ (@ajplus) February 15, 2018

Sheriff Scott Israel called the shooting catastrophic, saying that there really are no words.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting, US President Donald Trump said. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school, he added.

More than a dozen school shootings in 2018

Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, an organisation advocating for gun control, had recorded 17 shootings at schools this year alone prior to Wednesdays incident in Florida.

Everytown defines a school shooting as any time a firearm discharges a live round inside a school building or on a school campus or grounds.

At least two of the shootings were classified as attempted or completed suicides with no intent to harm others. At least one occurred when a gun unintentionally discharged.

Wednesdays school shooting is among the deadliest in US modern history [Anadolu]





In January, a 15-year-old male student allegedly opened fire at a high school in Benton, Kentucky, killing one person and injuring more than a dozen others.

Nearly 300 school shootings have been reported since 2013 across the US, Everytown said.

Wednesdays shooting is among the 10 deadliest mass shootings in modern US history.

It has again renewed the debate surrounding gun control in the US.

Last year, a gunman opened fire on a church in Texas, killing 26 people. About a month earlier, another attacker killed at least 58 people at a concert in Las Vegas, Nevada.Macron said he is considering a profound reorganisation of the way in which Islam is funded and its preachers schooled.

A leading representative of French Muslims has urged Emmanuel Macron not to interfere in the organisation of the countrys second-largest religion, days after the president said he would try to redefine relations between Islam and the state.

The statement came from the leader of an organisation set up 15 years ago in a bid to defuse concern about conservative religious leaders and foster a form of Islam that would fit better with Frances hard line secularism that insists on separation of church and state affairs.

Everyone must stick to their role, Ahmet Ogras, president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), told Reuters in an interview.

The Muslim faith is a religion and, as such, takes care of its own household affairs. The last thing you want is the state to act as guardian, said Ogras, a Frenchman of Turkish descent who has led the CFCM since mid-2017.

Macron, elected last May after a runoff victory over far-right leader Marine Le Pen, said in a February 11 newspaper interview he planned to revisit the way Islam was overseen.

What Id like to get done in the first half of 2018 is set down markers on the entire way in which Islam is organised in France, he told the Journal du Dimanche. The priority would be to bring back what secularism is all about.

Traditionally Catholic France is home to the largest Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe, with the latter estimated at 6.5 million out of a population of 67 million.

Emergency search-and-arrest powers

The official rule is strict separation between religion and state, with the former considered a strictly private matter. The rule has been used to justify ban on the wearing of the Hijab, a headscarf worn by many Muslim women who feel it is part of their religion, by public service employees as well as any wearing of fully concealing head-to-toe veils in public places.

Macron has been under pressure to limit Muslim preachers and mosques, as a wave of attacks has killed more than 230 people in France since 2015.

The attacks were carried by Muslim individuals claiming to avenge French wars in Muslim countries.

France is militarily involved in Afghanistan and Mali, and in Syria it has reportedly provided material support to some armed groups fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) and the Syrian government.

Frances response to attacks on its soil has been to enact emergency search-and-arrest powers, which are made permanent under tougher security legislation. Several mosques have been shut and imams expelled.

Macrons declarations in the February 11 newspaper interview suggest he is considering a profound reorganisation of the way in which the Islam faith is funded and its preachers schooled.

Back in 2003, Nicolas Sarkozy, interior minister at the time and president from 2007 to 2012, engineered an agreement among the countrys main Islamic groups to create the CFCM.

The idea was to have a council to speak for Muslims similar to the way the French Bishops Conference speaks for Catholics or the Consistory speaks for Jews.KP Oli from Communist Party of Nepal was sworn in on Thursday as countrys 41st prime minister.

Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli from the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) has been sworn in as the 41st prime minister of Nepal, formally concluding the long-delayed democratic transition.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari administered the oath of office at Sheetal Niwas at 4:30pm on Thursday in the capital, Kathmandu, hours after she appointed Oli to the post.

KP Oli, as he is popularly known, succeeds the Nepali Congress Partys Sher Bahadur Deuba, who resigned nearly two months after an alliance of communist parties swept the parliamentary and provincial elections.

{articleGUID}

A surprise alliance of Maoist former fighters and the CPN (UML) registered a surprise victory in December.

This will be Olis second stint as prime minister. He previously held the top executive post from October 2015 to August 2016.

Nepal: The Maoist Dream

Born in the hills in eastern Nepal on February 22, 1952, Oli was educated in the plains of Jhapa in eastern Nepal, where he became influenced by local communist leaders as a teenager.

In 1970, Oli became a member of the Nepal Communist Party and began an underground life, as the erstwhile royal regime cracked down on communists.

Oli spent 14 years in jail during autocratic monarchy for his involvement with radical communist politics, but has veered to the right in the last two decades.

The secondary school dropout won elections to parliament in 1991, 1999, 2008 and 2013. He served as home minister in 1994 and foreign minister in 2007.

In February 2014, his party elected him chairman.Communist party member who spent 14 years in jail becomes Nepals 41st prime minister with many challenges ahead.

A previous version of this story stated that Khadga Prasad Oli is Nepal's 41st prime minister. It has been updated to reflect that Oli is the country's 38th prime minister.

Kathmandu, Nepal  A year and a half after his first stint as prime minister abruptly ended, Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli returned on Thursday to the seat of government in the capital.

Oli, 65, was sworn in at the Shital Niwas as Nepals 38th prime minister having secured nearly a two-thirds majority in the landmark parliamentary elections held late last year. He enjoys an unprecedented mandate to rule Nepal under a two-year-old post-war constitution.

Last October, the former communist revolutionary who spent 14 years in jail engineered a surprise left alliance that brought him an election victory.

However, the chairman of Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), the largest party in the parliament known by its acronym UML, faces a host of challenges in delivering his election promise of political stability and economic growth.

Political analyst Jhalak Subedi told Al Jazeera the inauguration marked a significant step towards Nepals republican journey after the autocratic monarchy was abolished in 2008.

In the last 70 years, we have gone through a lot of political changes  from monarchy to federal republic. For the first time in our history, a body elected by people was able to deliver a constitution. This is the result of many political struggles in Nepal, he said.

{articleGUID}

Subedi said the events of past few years  the promulgation of the constitution in 2015 and successful elections at the local, provincial and federal level  demonstrated the Nepali people had truly become sovereign.

Traditional and external players such as India and the royal palace used to be decisive in Nepali politics. They no longer play a major role. Now, increasingly, its the elected officials who wield power, he said.

Challenges ahead

Addressing UML legislators at his partys headquarters in Kathmandu on Thursday, Oli pledged to work towards fulfilling his election pledges.

I would exert my utmost efforts to further our countrys national interest, he said.

Olis first tenure between 2015 and 2016  which ended after a coalition partner abandoned him for a rival party  was marked by a series of crises.

Six months after a devastating earthquake killed more than 9,000 people, the landlocked country faced a border blockade with India. Nepal imports nearly all of its oil and most food and medicine from India.

Oli ended up signing long-term trade and transit agreements with Nepals northern neighbour China.

He also alienated the Madhesis minority group, which was demanding constitutional amendments to ensure more rights.

Subedi said Oli must walk a fine line in dealing with both India and China.

Obviously our two neighbours will try to increase their influence. But it would serve Oli well if he strikes a balance in our relations with these countries, he said.

The future of Nepals government will depend on negotiations between UML and its coalition partner, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), Subedi said.

The two communist parties have vowed to merge into one, but it remains to be seen if power-sharing can be achieved.

Talks on the merger have been off and on since the November-December elections but have failed to make headway.

Unconfirmed local media reports suggested the parties may unite with Oli and Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal as co-chairs.

Who is Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli?

Born on February 22, 1952, Oli was educated in the plains of Jhapa in eastern Nepal. A secondary school dropout, he became influenced by local communist figures in his teens.

At the age of 18, Oli became a member of the Nepal Communist Party. He began an underground life, as the erstwhile royal regime cracked down on communists.

Oli spent 14 years in jail for his involvement with radical communist politics, but over the past two decades has veered to the right.

Oli was elected as a member of parliament in elections in 1991, 1999, 2008 and 2013. He served as home minister in 1994 and foreign minister in 2007.

In February 2014, UML elected him as chairman.Nineteen-year-old ex-student who allegedly opened fire with AR-15 rifle charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

At least 17 people have been killed in Florida after a gunman opened fire on a local high school, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in US modern history.

Authorities warned late on Wednesday that the death toll could rise as some of 15 people who were wounded were in critical condition.

Police say the suspect is 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz who was expelled from high school for disciplinary problems. He was taken into custody shortly after the shooting.

On Thursday morning, police charged Cruz with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Officials said the gunman began shooting outside the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida at about 2:40pm local time (19:40 GMT) on Wednesday. Some students believed a fire drill was taking place.

The gunman, armed with a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, a gas mask, smoke grenades and multiple magazines of ammunition entered the school and continued his rampage.

Those inside the school can be heard yelling Oh my God! as shots rang out in videos circulating on social media.

A student told local media he had to wait in a closet while the school was under a code red lockdown.

I was just in disbelief. I was texting my friends and my family, the student told WPTV-TV, an NBC affiliate in West Palm Beach, Florida, after being evacuated from the school.

I didnt believe it was actually happening, he said.

The gunman then fled the scene and was taken into custody about an hour later in a neighbouring city, officials said.

It is a horrific situation, Broward County public school Superintendent Robert Runcie told The Associated Press. It is a horrible day for us, he added.

17 people were killed in the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history. pic.twitter.com/FXYB2hyKSR  AJ (@ajplus) February 15, 2018

Sheriff Scott Israel called the shooting catastrophic, saying that there really are no words.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting, US President Donald Trump said on Twitter shortly after the shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school, he added.

On Thursday, the leader of white supremacist group in Florida confirmed Cruz had been a member.

More than a dozen school shootings in 2018

Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, an organisation advocating for gun control, had recorded 17 shootings at schools this year alone prior to Wednesdays incident in Florida.

Everytown defines a school shooting as any time a firearm discharges a live round inside a school building or on a school campus or grounds.

At least two of the shootings were classified as attempted or completed suicides with no intent to harm others. At least one occurred when a gun unintentionally discharged.

Wednesdays school shooting is among the deadliest in US modern history [Anadolu]





In January, a 15-year-old male student allegedly opened fire at a high school in Benton, Kentucky, killing one person and injuring more than a dozen others.

Nearly 300 school shootings have been reported since 2013 across the United States, Everytown said.

Wednesdays shooting is among the top 10 deadliest mass shootings in the US modern history.

It has again renewed the debate surrounding gun control in the US.

Last year, a gunman opened fire on a church in Texas, killing 26 people. About a month earlier, another gunman killed at least 58 people at a concert in Las Vegas, Nevada.Hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons without charge or trial have launched an open-ended boycott of Israels military courts.

In a joint statement announcing Thursdays move, 450 people jailed under Israels controversial practice of administrative detention said their decision had been taken collectively and unanimously.

The core of resisting administrative detention policy comes from boycotting this Israeli legal system, the detainees, held in various locations, said in the statement.

We put our faith and trust in our people, their power and institutions, and in the civil society which will not leave us alone in this fight.





The prisoners also urged the Palestinian Authority to take the issue of administrative detention to the International Criminal Court (ICC) as soon as possible.

Lawyers backing

Administrative detention is a vague legal process that allows Israel to imprison Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip without charge or trial for an indefinite period. These arrests are based on undisclosed secret evidence.

In recent months, there has been a spike in the number of arrests made without charge, especially as protests across the occupied territories  including East Jerusalem  erupted over a US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital.

Sahar Francis, director of Addameer, a Ramallah-based prisoners rights group, said there were three stages to the prisoners move.

The first is to boycott the reaffirmation hearings, which endorse detention based on an undisclosed national security threat, Francis told Al Jazeera.

Then, they will boycott the appeals court, which is a military court, but there for lawyers to appeal the reaffirmation decisions, she said.

And the final stage is to boycott the option to appeal to the constitutional court.





Lawyers representing the detainees have also agreed not to attend court hearings.

We have agreed to adhere to the prisoners wishes and have a moral obligation to do so, Amjad al-Najjar, a lawyer for the Hebron-based Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC), told Al Jazeera.

Both Addameer and PPC currently oversee at least 40 administrative detention cases.

Throughout the duration of the boycott, detainees will be risking losing access to family visitation rights and prison canteens, as well face the possibility of solitary confinement as a means of reprisal.

Refusal to attend court hearings may also result in the forceful transfer of prisoners, which constitutes kidnap, said al-Najjar.

This is what happened in 2014, the last time administrative detainees decided to strike against the practice, he said.

During their forced transfer to hearings, detainees are often beaten, verbally abused and dragged in chains, according to al-Najjar.

Other risks include courts going ahead with hearings even without the presence of the prisoners and their lawyers, in violation of international standards, Addameers Francis explained.

Rallies in solidarity

Administrative detention is subject to renewal every six months. It is authorised by a military order as opposed to judicial decree.

Historically, the longest detention period of this kind lasted for eight consecutive years during the first Intifada, or mass uprising, which began in 1987.





Francis said some people have spent a total of 10 years in administrative detention, but over a span of 15 years  so they are briefly released for about four months in between.

Occasionally, some detainees are forced to go into exile as a condition for their release.

The prisoners action has the backing of a number of groups, including the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners Affairs and the Palestine Liberation Organisations (PLO) Central Council, the second-highest Palestinian decision-making body.

Demonstrations in solidarity with the detainees are expected to take place across various cities in the territories, including Ramallah, Hebron and Nablus.

The detainees, which include three women and a 17-year-old boy, are held either in Ramallahs Ofer jail or in at least three different detention facilities inside Israel.

This is in direct contravention of international law, which prohibits Israel as an occupying power from transferring Palestinians from the occupied territories.

Such unlawful deportation constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute of the ICC.

Among those held are seven parliamentarians, including 54-year-old Khalida Jarrar, a deputy at the Palestinian Legislative Council and a key figure in the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine  a leftist political party that Israel considers a terrorist group.

This is not the first time an attempt aimed at abolishing administrative detention has been made.

In 2002, following the start of the second Intifada, a strike lasted for three months, while in 2014 a similar effort that went on for 63 days ended without any results.

According to al-Najjar, several agreements were signed between rights groups and prison administrations, but these deals were immediately broken by Israeli authorities who run the prisons.

Under these agreements, administrative detention cannot be renewed for more than three times in a row. Upon the third renewal, the Israeli army is expected to provide prisoners and their lawyers with a list of accusations so they know what theyre up against.

Its the only way to build a case, but, of course, this doesnt happen, said al-Najjar.Human rights groups, rebels and indigenous activists have accused Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte of inciting the military to commit war crimes after he offered a $384 bounty for each communist rebel killed.

Dutertes incendiary rhetoric encourages violations of conventions on armed conflicts, Carlos H Conde of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement to Al Jazeera on Thursday.

Dutertes pronouncements normalise the idea that government security forces can do as they wish to defeat their enemies  including committing summary executions, said Conde.





Last week, Duterte said he would train indigenous people, or lumads, to become paramilitary fighters and pay them 20,000 pesos ($384) for each communist rebel they kill in their communities in the southern island of Mindanao.

You want money? Ill give you money, he said. I will make it 20,000 pesos per head.

The controversial comments followed an earlier report quoting Duterte as telling the military to shoot female communist rebels in the genitals, to make them useless.

Cash for killing

The president made the bounty offer after the recent killings of an indigenous leader and his son, who were known members of a paramilitary force in their community.

The armed communist rebel group, New Peoples Army, has claimed responsibility for the killing in early February, accusing the two of land grabbing and extortion.

Jose Maria Sison, the exiled leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines, said Duterte is acting like the chieftain of a criminal gang with his order.

In a statement to Al Jazeera, Sison warned Dutertes solution would result in massacres and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.

The cheapest, most beneficial and best way to solve the nearly 50 years of armed conflict in the Philippines is to engage in peace negotiations, Sison said.

He said the government should address the root causes of the armed conflict and work out comprehensive agreements on social, economic and political reforms in order to lay the basis for a just and lasting peace.

Instead of promoting measures to ensure those responsible for abuses, including communist rebels, are held accountable in accordance with international law, Duterte is encouraging his troops to commit war crimes with his bounty offer, Conde of Human Rights Watch said.

Rachel Chhoa-Howard of Amnesty International also denounced Dutertes latest policy as both appalling and inhumane.

Indigenous people of the southern Philippines protest Dutertes policies in 2017 [File: AP]

By putting a price on human life, President Duterte has again exposed the callousness of his administrations policies, Chhoa-Howard said in a statement to Al Jazeera on Thursday.

It encourages killing rather than capturing insurgents, in clear violation of the right to life.

Insult to indigenous people

Accusations of international law violations have hounded the Philippine leader since he came into office in 2016.

Recently, the International Criminal Court announced it had taken the first step to investigate Duterte for possible crimes against humanity over his drug war, which has killed thousands of people.

Meanwhile, the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development (ALCADEV), one of the largest indigenous groups in the southern Philippines, said killing for money is not part of their culture.





To even ask us to kill, as if killing is the way to peace in our communities, shows ignorance of our plight and our struggle.

The underlying principle of our struggle to defend the land of our ancestors can never be bought, an ALCADEV statement posted on social media said.

Weve never asked you to kill anyone; all weve ever asked for is justice.

Chad Booc, who teaches indigenous children in Mindanao, told Al Jazeera the real culprit of violence in indigenous areas in the southern Philippines is the military.

He said the government is targeting indigenous lands, where coal mining operations are being planned.

Booc said the military had been harassing indigenous communities, alienating them, and turning them against the government.

He added that the indigenous community finds the presidents offer insulting and feels outraged that the president thinks so lowly of them, that they will be enticed to kill for money.

Bloody rebellion

Jerome Succor Aba, head of an alliance of Muslim and indigenous groups, said in a statement that his community survived centuries without much need of cash, by using the resources of their ancestral lands.





The communist rebels said they operate in the area to protect indigenous people from military harassment.

The Duterte administration has been engaged in on-and-off peace negotiations with the rebels since mid-2016.

But following new clashes between government forces and rebels in 2017, Duterte signed a proclamation labelling the communist fighters a terrorist group, essentially breaking off the peace process.

The military has also compared the communist rebels to armed Muslim fighters, who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS). But the communists say they are fighting for social justice and equality.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) launched a rebellion in 1968 that has so far claimed the lives of more than 30,000 people.

Meanwhile, Sison, the communist leader, warned of a bigger civil war in the Philippines, if Duterte succeedds in concentrating powers in his hands as a fascist dictator.

Sison was referring to Dutertes push to change constitution that would pave the way to a federal form of government.

This article was updated to include the statement of Jose Maria Sison, the exiled leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines.Human rights activists in Iran have reported that at least six detainees have died in prisons over the past two months.

In a rare public statement, President Hassan Rouhani has announced the appointment of a four-member committee to investigate what it called detention houses in the country.

President Rouhani appointed a four-member committee to investigate and deal with regrettable incidents in a number of detention houses. The committee is tasked with investigate[ing] the issues and report back to the President about the possible negligence in this regard, the presidency website said on Wednesday.

The committee comprises some of the highest members of Irans government, the ministers of interior, intelligence, and justice, as well as vice president for legal affairs.

Human rights activists reported that at least six detainees have died in prisons over the past two months in Iran. The judiciary has confirmed three deaths in custody but said all three had committed suicide.

Kavous Seyed-Emami, an Iranian-Canadian sociology professor, was arrested on January 24 and died in prison. Irans judiciary said Seyed-Emami, 63, had committed suicide.

Seyed-Emami was the managing director of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation.

Tehrans prosecutor, Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi, was quoted as saying by state media this week that Seyed-Emami had set up the NGO as a cover to collect classified information on Irans missile programme.

They had installed cameras in strategic locations in Iran under cover of monitoring the environment, but in reality, they were monitoring Irans missile activities, Dolatabadi said.

He said on Wednesday that Seyed-Emamis suicide was a blow to their investigations.

Nine other staff members of his organisation have also been arrested, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), a non-profit group based in New York.

Seyed-Emamis family called for an independent investigation into his death and said they were under pressure from authorities not to publicise the case.

His son Raam Emami said his mother was summoned by judicial officials last week to meet with her husband but was then informed of his death, according to Reuters news agency.

Raam said in a statement on Wednesday: We have a right to know why my father was arrested and the circumstances that led to his passing  We will use every legal channel at our disposal toward an independent investigation.

The Canadian government said on Tuesday it was seriously concerned about the circumstances surrounding Seyed-Emamis death and has pressed Iran for details.Cape Towns water crisis continues unabated despite some very welcome recent rainfall. The area has been suffering from a drought since 2015, said to be the worst in 100 years.

Following on from yet another unseasonably dry winter, average dam levels are currently hovering around a quarter full.

The countdown to what has become known as Day Zero is well under way. This is the day that the reservoir levels drop below 13.5 percent and the city must turn off all taps.

Initial estimates had put that date at some time in April and then into May. On Tuesday, the city of Cape Town announced that this date has now been pushed back to June 4.

The respite is thanks in part to some much-needed rain and also to contributions from the Western Cape farmers who have reduced their water usage from the municipal supply from 30 percent to 10 percent. They also donated 10 billion litres of water last week, which has the potential to last up to 20 days.

Recent days have also seen some much needed rainfall, not enough to break the drought, but welcome nevertheless. In the event, Cape Town had 5mm of rain on Tuesday afternoon.

This followed 7mm the day before. The February average is 17mm. There were reports of as much as 20mm of rain falling in the surrounding area in a 10-minute spell.

As is often the case, such heavy rainfall in a short period after a long dry spell led to some flooding. At least nine people were killed in two separate road accidents.

Five people were killed near Villiersdorp early on Wednesday morning. Western Cape traffic chief Kenny Africa said: A driver and four of his passengers were washed away due to flooding. The five occupants jumped out of their vehicle, and the water washed them away. All five drowned.

The other incident took place in the Montagu area; another car was hit by a wall of water, killing all four passengers.

No further rain is expected in the foreseeable future. However, if they can keep Day Zero to that date in June, they will have made it to the start of the winter rains. There can be some hope that the taps will not run dry.South Africa: Ramaphosas major challenges after Zuma

After the celebrations of Ramaphosas election die down, focus will shift to what needs to be done to improve life for South Africans.US secretary of state warns that Lebanons security is being threatened by Hezbollahs influence in regional conflicts.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has warned that Hezbollahs influence in regional conflicts is threatening Lebanons security.

Tillerson made the comments on Thursday after meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Thursday during a short stopover in Lebanons capital, Beirut.

Hariri is part of a unity government under Aoun that also includes rival political factions such as those supported by Hezbollah, a popular Shia group which is represented in the Lebanese parliament and has a powerful armed wing.

The Iran-allied Hezbollah has been fighting in Syria alongside regional allies to defeat both anti-government rebels and al-Qaeda-linked fighters.

At a press conference alongside Hariri, Tillerson reiterated that the US does not recognise a distinction between the Hezbollahs political and military wings.

It is impossible to talk about stability, sovereignty and security in Lebanon without addressing Hezbollah, Tillerson told reporters in Beirut.

The US has considered Hezbollah a terrorist organisation for more than two decades now  It is unacceptable for a militia like Hezbollah to operate outside the authority of the Lebanese government. The only legitimate defender of the Lebanese state is the Lebanese armed forces.

Al Jazeeras Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said that Tillersons remarks were part of the wider US policy in the region aimed at containing Iran.

Iran has a lot of strength and influence in Lebanon through Hezbollah, she said.

[Tillerson is] also making it clear that the only option the US has right now is to strengthen Lebanons institutions like the army, hoping that the army will become stronger than Hezbollah.

Khodr noted, however, that it is going to be very hard for the US to come up with a strategy to confront and contain Iran.

Clearly, the Americans do not have much power and influence in the region, she said.

Border dispute

Tillerson also said that Washington was engaging with both Lebanon and Israel to ensure their border remained calm.

Tensions between the two countries have risen in recent months because of Israeli plans to build a wall at the border, and because of Lebanons decision to begin exploring for oil and gas in an offshore block.

For his part, Hariri said that Lebanon has the right to explore, exploit and develop its natural resources in its territorial waters.

What is ours is ours and what is Israels is Israels. We are trying to find solutions that will be fair to us and fair to everyone, Hariri said at the press conference.

We want to move to a state of permanent ceasefire but Israels daily violations of our sovereignty hinder that process, as does Israels escalating rhetoric. This needs to stop, Hariri said.

In his meeting with Tillerson earlier on Thursday, Aoun rejected Israeli claims over the two countries dispute and called on the US to play an effective role in resolving it.

The US top diplomats visit to Beirut was part of a five-country tour of the Middle East.

Later on Thursday he arrived in Turkey, where he is scheduled to hold talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.High hopes on talks scheduled to begin on Thursday between President Gnassingbes government and opposition parties.

After months of ongoing protests, people in Togo and the international community have set their hopes on the upcoming talks between President Faure Gnassingbes government and opposition parties.

The hope of everyone involved is that the dialogue will have the parties resolve the ongoing crisis, Jeannine Ella Abatan, a West Africa researcher based in Dakar, Senegal, said about the talks which are scheduled to begin on Thursday.

This crisis started in August, when protesters took to the street demanding constitutional reform, including term limits for the president.

But as the protests continued, the demands of the opposition changed.

They have shifted from the return of the 1992 constitution to Faure Must Go, meaning people are no longer just protesting for constitutional reforms or term limits, Togolese human rights activist Farida Nabourema told Al Jazeera.

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They want the end of the Gnassingbe dynasty and they clearly stated that.

That dynasty has been in power since 1967, when Eyadema Gnassingbe, father of the current president, came to power.

Eyadema ruled until his death in 2005, after which Faure became the leader of the west African country.

It was Eyadema who removed the three term limit for president from the constitution, leading to the Gnassingbes becoming the longest reigning dynasty in Africa.

Although Faure Gnassingbes resignation has now become the oppositions main focus, Abatan says there is no chance this will actually happen.

As a result, the protesters have lost hope in the talks even before they have gotten under way.

No one believes in these talks. We have had over 20 of these in Togo since 1991. No one believes in this, especially not the opposition, Nabourema told Al Jazeera.

The opposition is not naive enough to expect a dictatorship to negotiate its own dismissal, she added.

In September, the government did try to give in to some demands by releasing prisoners and proposing a referendum on the reinstatement of the three term limit.

However, that bill did not get enough support since the term limit would not be imposed retroactively, meaning President Gnassingbe could potentially rule until 2030.

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Despite these divisions between the ruling party and the opposition, both sides will sit down with each other, mostly because of pressure from the international community.

The international community, mainly the African Union and neighbouring countries, has played a very big role in creating this opportunity. I think they should continue to play that role, especially during and after the talks, Abatan said.

I think they should be the guarantor of the implementation of whatever is decided, and then they should be able to follow the implementation process so we dont end up with what happened in 2006, she said.

In that year, the Global Peace Agreement (GPA) was signed, which sought to end similar indifference between the government and opposition.

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The arrangements made in the GPA still have not been implemented, mostly because of lack of pressure to enforce them.

This time around the international community, but also the parties involved need to make sure that any agreement is actually implemented so we can see an end to this political crisis.

However, Nabourema thinks Thursdays talks are very likely to fail.

It is an opportunity to show international institutions that the opposition is interested in finding a peaceful solution to the problem, she said.

And if the talks do indeed fail, Nabourema says the protests will continue once again.

They have tried so many things, including deploying armed militias, arresting hundreds of people, putting cities under siege , shutting down the internet.

People will be back on the streets and make the country ungovernable.Turkish PM urges Greece to rein in tensions as the two sides blame each other over the recent collusion in the Aegean.

Turkey has urged Greece to refrain from tensions between the NATO allies after two vessels from the neighbouring countries collided in the Aegean Sea.

Mondays incident, which is the latest of the incidents that have raised tensions in the Aegean, reportedly occurred near the uninhabited Imia islets, just off the Turkish coast and an historic flashpoint in a long-running demarcation dispute.

We explicitly expressed to him [Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras] that staying away from tensions will be better, with regards to relations between the two countries, Binali Yildirim, Turkeys prime minister, said on Wednesday.

Yildirims remarks came a day after he and Tsipras spoke over the phone on latest incident and recent developments in the Aegean Sea.

The Greek navy said nobody was hurt in the collision  second such incident in a month  which it blamed on the Turkish boat.

The navy, quoted by the national media, said the Turkish patrol boat had violated the countrys territorial waters, made some risky manoeuvres and hit a Greek coastguard vessel patrolling the area.

The Greek boat, which was financed with European funds to monitor Greek seas and European borders, suffered damage, the navy said.

Greek violations

Yildirim said that there have been further violations by the Greek side recently, which started with an incident in January over disputed tiny inhabited Kardak islets.

The Turkish Coastguard blocked Greeces Defence Minister Panos Kammenos on January 28 from approaching a pair of islets in the Aegean, according to the Turkish media.

Coastguard officers warned Kammenos, who was heading to the Kardak islets in an assault boat to lay a wreath there. Following the warning, the Greek boat left Turkeys territorial waters.

A decades-long dispute between Turkey and Greece over the uninhabited Aegean islets brought the two countries to the brink of armed conflict in 1996 and led to renewed tensions this year.

It is not only Turkey that should be careful in avoiding such violations; at the same time, actors in the field from Greece should be more careful and act in accordance with the law and stay away from disputed areas, Yildirim said.

He said d the two prime ministers had agreed to ease tensions and keep their communication line open via political and diplomatic channels.

Turkey and Greece, NATO allies, have been at odds over a host of issues from ethnically split Cyprus to sovereignty over airspace and overflights.On a visit to Turkey, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hopes to ease anger over US support for Syrian-Kurdish YPG.

The US secretary of state has started a two-day visit to Turkey, where Rex Tillerson hopes to ease increasing tension between US and Turkish officials over the conflict in Syria.

A war of words between the NATO allies has escalated ever since Turkey launched a military offensive into the Afrin region of northern Syria last month in an effort to root out Kurdish YPG fighters, who figure among a US-backed coalition of armed groups.

On the heels of visits to Kuwait, Jordan and Lebanon, Tillerson arrived in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Thursday where he met President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Earlier this week, Turkey demanded the US expel the YPG from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) coalition, which has been fighting Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) in Syria with support from the US.

We demanded this relationship be ended, Nurettin Canikli, Turkeys defence minister, told reporters in a briefing in Brussels on Thursday.

The Turkish government views the YPG as an extension of the outlawed the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long war against Ankara.

We want them [the US] to end all the support given to the Syrian arm of PKK, the YPG, Canikli said, as reported by Reuters news agency.

War of words

Earlier this month, Erdogan accused the US of sending stockpiles of weapons to the YPG in Syria, a claim Tillerson himself denied on Thursday.

The US has never given heavy arms to the YPG and, therefore, there is nothing to take back, Tillerson said.

Turkey has also demanded that US troops leave Manjib, a Syrian town east of Afrin that is held by the Kurdish militia, or risk a confrontation.

In response, Paul Funk, the commander of US forces in Syria and Iraq, said the US and its partners in Syria would hit back if attacked.

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You hit us, we will respond aggressively. We will defend ourselves, Funk said, during a visit to Manjib this month.

The Turkish president then threatened to deliver an Ottoman slap  a tactic used by Ottoman forces in the 17th century that, according to legend, could be instantly fatal  if the US does not get out of the way.

While Tillerson has taken a conciliatory tone saying this week the US was keenly aware of the legitimate security concerns of Turkey, officials in Ankara have been more blunt.

Our ties have reached a very critical stage, Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkeys foreign minister, said on February 12, local media reported.

Either we improve our ties, or they will deteriorate completely.

Other issues

The increasingly complex political reality in Syria has led to what Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy to Syria, described as the most violent, dangerous and worrying situation he has witnessed since he took up his post four years ago.

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What we are seeing in Syria today not only imperils the de-escalation arrangements and regional stability, it also undermines the efforts for a political solution, de Mistura said on Wednesday.

But Syria is not the only cause of strained ties between Washington and Ankara.

Last year, the two countries temporarily suspended non-immigrant visa services at their respective embassies over the arrest of several staff members at the US consulate in Istanbul.

Turkish officials alleged the staff members had ties to Muslim leader Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of being responsible for a deadly failed coup in 2016.

While Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the US, has denied the allegations, the Turkish government has put pressure on Washington to extradite Gulen to face charges for the attempted putsch.

The United States has so far refused to extradite the Muslim leader.Richard Doan didnt think much of the blare of the fire alarm when it went off Wednesday afternoon.

It had gone off once earlier that day already, and only 30 minutes stood between the 17-year-old senior and school dismissal.

Even as he stepped out of his Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School class and heard people yell about a shooting, he still wasnt concerned.

Rumors were going around about an active shooter drill, after all. When he made it outside, he heard the screams: Run. Go back.

He turned back around and ran to the classroom he had left. His teacher shoved him into the corner of the closet with 18 others, where they stood for about an hour, waiting. On their phones, they scrolled through social media feeds to see what was happening outside. Then, they read the local news reports. A shooting. A lockdown.

Around them, a scene was unfolding. Across the spread-out campus at 5901 Pine Island Road in Parkland, Florida, shots from a rifle rang out through the hallways.

Doan would later find out the suspected shooter was his former classmate, Nikolas Cruz, later confirmed by Broward County Sheriffs Office said.

Just a week ago, Doans future had been looking up. He had just been accepted to UF, his brothers alma mater. But it didnt matter much knowing some of his classmates may never even graduate high school. The reality of a school shooting was sinking in.

You dont really understand it until it happens, he said. I cant really believe this happened to my school.

***

By the end of the day, 17 people were dead.

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A report from BCSO said authorities arrested expelled Stoneman Douglas student 19-year-old Cruz as the suspect.

The victims included 14 students, a football coach, an athletic director and a teacher, the sheriffs office said.

Cruz admitted to authorities he was the gunman and had an AR-15, the report said.

He was booked at the Broward County Jail, the sheriffs office said. During first appearance, a judge ordered him to be held without bond.

Doan said he remembers how Cruz walked around the school with a sly look on his face.

Cruz had thick, red hair, his face splattered with freckles and posture bent, Doan said.

Doan watched him once kick over trash cans and pull fire alarms, Doan said.

Oh, thats just Nik, they would all say. Everyone knew him, but they kept their distance, Doan said.

When Doan found out Cruz was the named suspect, he wasnt surprised.

Its just unfortunate because we knew this kid. There was something off about him, Doan said. I wish we couldve done something.

***

Kevin Doans phone buzzed while working at his parents day spa a couple miles down from the high school.

His younger brother texted him his school was on lockdown, but he was safe.

The 22-year-old UF alumnus and his mother scrolled through Twitter for information. Old classmates began texting him in a group chat.

They shared news articles, videos of screams and pictures of blood in the classrooms they once learned in. It didnt seem real.

Its like this dark cloud overtook the entire atmosphere, he said. I dont even know how to process it.

The brothers had lived in Parkland with their parents since 2002, he said. Their town was almost never in the news, but when it was, it was for being one of the safest cities in Florida. The high school had about 3,300 students and about 13 buildings.

At the beginning of the school year, Broward County Public Schools seemed to have been implementing more safety policies. They started doing active shooter drills.

Still, they never felt unsafe  they had no reason to feel otherwise.

Kevin Doan, a former UF Student Body vice president and double Gator, said he waited until the suspect was caught and SWAT escorted his brother out of the closet he had hid in before he drove over to the school.

As Richard Doan waited for his brother, he walked passed his former Advanced Placement psychology teacher, who lay on a stretcher, but was conscious. Her face was sunken behind her iconic black-framed glasses as she was lifted on an ambulance.

Outside, students frantically called their parents. Authorities walked around strapped with guns and bulletproof vests. Helicopters buzzed above them. No one knew how many had been shot or killed yet.

Just one life lost  thats already a disaster in itself, Richard Doan said.

Melissa Falkowski, Doans 35-year-old journalism adviser, was the one who directed him and the other students into the closet.

Even 24 hours after the incident, she hadnt slept.

She knew the teacher who died. The coach. She taught the brother of one of the 14 students killed.

She didnt know Cruz, but she said shes having a hard time understanding how he sat down at a McDonalds after killing 17 people, which the sheriffs office reported.

Its insane, she said. The whole thing is insane.

***

David Rojas nearly dropped his phone when one of his best friends called to tell him there was a shooting at his old high school.

Shocked, he texted another friend about the news.

No no no this CANT BE HAPPENING, the 21-year-old wrote.

Rojas, a UF biomedical engineering senior, was studying before class at the Reitz Union when he learned of an active shooting at his alma mater.

Rojas said he lived in Coral Springs and went to Stoneman Douglas before coming to UF.

Campus security used to monitor the high schools lunches around every corner, and Rojas said it always felt secure. Even when he went back to visit the campus a few years ago, he said he almost wasnt let in because he didnt get prior clearance.

He began making phone calls. Each one brought a sense of relief. One person safe. Then two. Then three. Thank God, he wrote to his friend.

But I cant watch this anymore.

Contact Paige Fry at pfry@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter at @paigexfry.

Contact Elliott Nasy at enasby@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter at @_ElohEl.

Richard Doan and his classmates wait to be escorted out of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School by a SWAT team, following a school shooting that left at least 17 dead.

Kevin Doan, left, with his brother Richard Doan, right.UF is the first U.S. institution to create a center for communications devoted to social change.

The College of Journalism and Communications launched the Center for Public Interest Communications on January, said Ellen Nodine, the program director of the center. It will focus on promoting social good through communications.

There was no money associated with the creation of the center, as it is not a physical building, Nodine said. The center is a designation that will allow the college to fundraise specifically for public interest communications research.

Nodine said that this type of communication is different than public relations because it does not represent one company or industry.

We are using the information from a lot of different fields in order to create the messages that are most effective to move populations to action, Nodine said.

However, she said she hopes to create a public interest communications specialization within the public relations major in the future, she said.

The centers goals are to further develop the public interest communications curriculum, increase research in the field and continue to grow the community through the frank gathering, an annual conference for social change in Gainesville, Nodine said.

Before the center was established, funding for public interest communications had to go through the college, but now it can be directed to the center.

The center had been in works for three years, Nodine said. The college has previously offered a few public interest courses under the Department of Public Relations before that.

Diane McFarlin, the colleges dean, wrote in an email that Ann Christiano became the first chair for UFs public interest communications eight years ago. She has developed public interest communications initiatives at the college since.

Christianos position was created when Frank Karel, a 1961 UF College of Journalism and Communications alumnus, and his wife gave an endowment to the college to fund the field before Karel died in 2009.

We are very proud to be the academic epicenter of (public interest communications) and excited to watch the field grow in both popularity and distinction, McFarlin said.

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Shannon Claflin, a 21-year-old UF public relations junior, said she is proud of her college for making this stride to expand the curriculum and create the center.

Claflin said shes interested in possibly taking a course in public interest communications because she wants to work for a nonprofit after she graduates.

I think it would be beneficial for me to take some of these courses and look into what the program entails, she said.

UF's College of Journalism and Communications.On a cold January morning in 2005, in the village of Saru in southern Estonia, farmer Rein Kiv and his son made a curious discovery. On the sandy floor of their shed, they found a cluster of 16 rats with their tails inexplicably tangled into a knot. The rats were squeaking and struggling to escape but the harder they pulled the tighter the knot became. The animals were apparently trying to dig themselves out of a narrow burrow but in the struggle some of them got buried under the sand. Seven of the rats in the tangle were already dead. Reins son decided to put the diabolic little scene to an end, and picking up a stick, killed the rest of the wretched animals.

Rein Kiv didnt know then, but what he had discovered was an extremely rare phenomenon called rat kings. They have been sighted since the past five centuries with approximately 60 such sightings recorded in history books.

Rat king from Dellfeld, Germany, found in 1895. Photo credit: Edelseider/Wikimedia

A handful of preserved specimens are also kept in various museums. The largest known rat king, which was found in 1828 in a miller's fireplace at Buchheim, consist of 32 rats, and is preserved at the museum Mauritianum in Altenburg, Germany. The rat king of Saru is now located at the Natural History (Zoological) Museum at the University of Tartu, preserved in alcohol and exhibited to visitors. Due to long-lasting exposure to open air, the tails of the rats had dried up and the knot had became loose. Nevertheless, the heavily compressed parts of the tails testified that the knot had once been very tight.

Rat kings are apparently a freak of nature, but what exactly causes them is debatable. According to one hypothesis, a rat king is created when rats are frightened and nervously grasp each other with their tails. Or when its cold and the rats huddle together as they usually do when sleeping, and their tails become glued together by tree sap, blood, food, feces etc., and the bonding material freeze as the animals slept. Once the animals awaken they try to free themselves by moving in different directions causing their tails to become entangled in a tighter knot.

The explanation has a ring of truth considering that most rat kings were discovered in colder countries during winter. All rat kings studied so far also involve the black rat, except for one rare discovery in Java, which doesnt even have a freezing climate.

Illustration of a rat king discovered in 1683.

Professor Andrei Miljutin from the University of Tartu believes that rat kings occur in regions where two factors coincidecold winters and the presence of the black rat.

Indeed, the black rat is more common in Southern Europe, but there are mild winters there, Andrei Miljutin wrote in a paper. Winters are severe in Northern Europe and Canada, but there are no black rats or they are very rare. There are large numbers of brown rats, R. norvegicus, in Northern Europe and North America, but they do not create rat kings. This is obviously due to their relatively shorter, thicker, and less flexible tails than in R. rattus. 

Andrei Miljutin also believes that the occurrence of rat kings is more frequent than presumed. During his research, Miljutin was able to find three examples in Estonia, only one of which was widely reported in the media and only because the finder had a journalist among his relatives. Many discoveries never leave the local community and remains overlooked by scientists at large. Besides, who knows how many rats kings remain buried in tunnels and underground burrows undiscovered?

Rats arent the only animal that can become entangled by their tails in this fashion. In 2013, six living squirrels were found stuck together with pine sap in a squirrel king in Regina, Canada. They had to be separated by veterinarians.

A rat king at Chateaudun museum, France. Photo credit: Selbymay/Wikimedia

A rat king preserved at the museum Mauritianum in Altenburg, Germany. Photo credit: WikimediaMark Wilson/Getty Images(PARKLAND, Fla.) -- Another mass shooting that -- this time, at a high school in Parkland, Florida -- has changed the infamous rankings of the deadliest mass shootings in the nation's modern history.



On Wednesday, it was at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County. In November, it was in a church in Texas. In October, it was at a country music festival in Nevada.



The list of the deadliest mass shootings spans 52 years and six states.



Four of the five worst gun massacres on the list -- including the deadliest, at a concert in Las Vegas - occurred in just the past year and a half.



The country "has experienced an increase in mass casualty attacks" wrought by mentally troubled individuals "who commit mass murder in furtherance of some perceived grievance or ideological cause," John Cohen, a former counterterrorism coordinator for the Department of Homeland Security and a consultant for ABC News, said after the massacre in Las Vegas, in which 58 people were killed.



ABC News has compiled a list of the 11 deadliest mass shootings, which includes some incidents that had the same death tolls.



1. Route 91 Harvest Festival, Las Vegas  58 deaths  Oct. 1, 2017



Stephen Paddock, from Mesquite, Nevada, was identified by authorities as the shooter holed up in a Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino hotel suite, packing as many as 19 guns. Around 10 p.m. he opened fire on thousands of country music concert attendees across the street below, killing 58 people; more than 500 others were injured.



2. Pulse nightclub, Orlando, Florida  49 deaths  June 12, 2016



Around 2 a.m. Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old former security guard, opened fire and killed 49 people who were in an Orlando gay nightclub called Pulse. During the rampage, Mateen, a U.S. citizen, was killed by responding police in a shootout. His ISIS-inspired hate crime injured more than 50 other people. Law enforcement sources told ABC News that Omar Mateen's wife, Noor Mateen, had tried to dissuade him from committing the act. She was charged with aiding and abetting him, as well as committing obstruction. Noor Mateen has pleaded not guilty.



3. Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, Virginia - 32 deaths - April 16, 2007



Virginia Tech senior Seung-hui Cho, 23, purchased a 9-mm Glock handgun on March 13, 2007, and a .22-caliber gun within a week before he started shooting people at the Blacksburg campus, including five professors and 26 fellow students. The South Koreanborn Cho began his rampage in a dorm room, where two students were shot and killed. According to police, he rearmed at his dorm room and left a note before going out and killing 30 more people in four classrooms, He then turned a gun on himself.



4. (tied) Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut  26 deaths  Dec. 14, 2012



Adam Lanza was 20 years old when he entered Sandy Hook Elementary School wearing a bulletproof vest and armed with a semiautomatic rifle and two semiautomatic handguns  a Glock and a Sig Sauer. He breached the school by shooting out a window pane of the front office, then gunned down and killed 26 people, including 20 first-graders and six adult school staff members. Not included in the death count is Lanza's mother, Nancy Lanza, who police say was slain before he arrived at the school, as well as Adam Lanza, who took his own life at the school.



4. (tied) First Baptist Church, Sutherland Springs, Texas  at least 26 deaths  Nov. 5, 2017



At least 26 people were killed and 20 others were injured when a shooter opened fire at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs. Further details of the shooting in the rural community, about 30 miles southeast of San Antonio, were not immediately clear.



5. Luby's Cafeteria truck ramming and shooting, Killeen, Texas  23 deaths  Oct. 16, 1991



After slamming his Ford Ranger truck into the window of Luby's Cafeteria, 35-year-old George Jo Hennard said, according to The Killeen Daily Herald, "This is what the women of Bell County made me do." He then started firing his guns and murdered 23 people and left 20 more wounded. Ten of Hennard's victims were killed by single shots to the head. Once police responded, Hennard retreated to a restroom, where he killed himself.



6. McDonald's, San Ysidro, California  21 deaths  July 18, 1984



James Oliver Huberty entered the fast food restaurant armed with a long-barreled Uzi, a pump-action shotgun and a handgun and took the lives of 21 adults and children and injured 19 others, including an elderly person and a baby, according to The San Diego Tribune. An hour after the shootings, a police sharpshooter killed Huberty, reported the Tribune. Before he went out to commit mass murder, he reportedly told his wife, "I'm going hunting ... hunting for humans," according to The New York Daily News.



7. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Florida - 17 deaths - February 14, 2018



A former student who had been expelled from a Florida high school returned to the campus and opened fire both inside and outside of the school, at times firing through the glass windows of classroom doors.



Authorities arrested 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman over disciplinary problems, in the aftermath of what has become the deadliest school shooting since an attack on an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.



There were 17 people killed in the Valentine's Day shooting and more than a dozen others were injured, some critically.



8. (tied) University of Texas, Austin, Texas  14 deaths  Aug. 1, 1966



U.S. Marine sniper Charles Joseph Whitman lugged a cache of rifles, pistols and a sawed-off shotgun up to the observation deck of the university's landmark clock tower. He then fired at will, striking unsuspecting students. He killed 14 people and wounded at least 30 others.



Whitman's terror was ultimately foiled after police officers Ramiro Martinez and Houston McCoy shot him dead.



Including the murders of his wife and mother, whom he killed earlier that day, the death toll stands at 16.



8. (tied) Inland Regional Center, San Bernardino, California  14 deaths  Dec. 2, 2015



Husband and wife Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, dressed in tactical gear and armed themselves with assault rifles and pistols when they entered a mandatory Christmas party at a social services center where Syed worked, fatally shot 14 of his unarmed colleagues and left at least 17 others injured.



The couple then fled the center and died in a hail of bullets on a San Bernardino street when police caught up to their car.



On the day of the attack, FBI agents later confirmed, the couple researched ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi online.



8.(tied) Edmond Post Office, Edmond, Oklahoma  14 deaths  Aug. 20, 1986



Patrick Henry Sherrill, 44, was a part-time postman who returned to his office a day after receiving a poor performance review. Armed with three handguns, he entered the federal building through the back and shot anyone in sight. He murdered 14 fellow postal workers 10 minutes before fatally shooting himself in the head. Authorities later determined Sherrill was angry that he might lose his job.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Posted on: February 15, 2018 11:24 AM

Education and health ministries provided by the diocese of Jerusalem could be at risk if the Municipality goes ahead with plans to make churches pay Arnona, or municipal taxes. For centuries, religious bodies in the city have been exempt from such taxes, but the Jerusalem Municipality is now demanding millions of pounds from religious groups as part of an on-going dispute with the countrys finance ministry. The Anglican Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem runs a range of social care initiatives across its diocese, which includes Jerusalem, Jordan, Palestine, Israel and Lebanon, including 18 kindergartens, schools, colleges and vocational training centres, and seven hospital and healthcare centres. Sources say that its ability to continue these ministries and the support it provides vulnerable people is at risk if it has to divert funds to pay the taxes.

The Times of Israel reports that the Anglican Episcopal Church of Jerusalem has been hit with a bill of 7 million NIS (approximately 1.4 m GBP). In total, the municipality is claiming more than 650 million NIS from 887 properties in the city belonging to churches and a number of UN agencies. The newspaper reports that the Catholic Church has been billed 12 million, the Armenian Church 2 million and the Greek Orthodox Church 500,000.

The Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, has placed a block on churches bank accounts: the diocese of Jerusalem had two accounts frozen without notice. The new taxes are part of an on-going dispute between the Mayor and the countrys finance minister, Moshe Kahlon, over the amount of funds the city receives from the national government. Historically, the State of Israel has prevented the municipality from collecting taxes from churches under a long-standing agreement to protect places of worship. But Mayor Barkat says he will collect the taxes unless the national state refunds the difference to the city.

The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem have united against the move, saying that the collection of the Arnona taxes is contrary to the historic position between the Churches within the Holy City of Jerusalem and the civil authorities across the centuries.

In a joint statement, the church leaders, including the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem, Suheil Dawani, say that: The civil authorities have always recognised and respected the great contribution of the Christian Churches, which invest billions in building schools, hospitals, and homes, many for the elderly and disadvantaged, in the Holy Land.

We declare that such a measure both undermines the sacred character of Jerusalem, and jeopardises the Churchs ability to conduct its ministry in this land on behalf of its communities and the world-wide church.

They continue: We request the Municipality to retract their statement and ensure that the status quo which was sanctioned by the sacred history is maintained, and the character of the Holy City of Jerusalem is not violated.

We stand firm and united in our position to defend our presence and properties.

In addition to Archbishop Suheil, the statement was co-signed by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Theophilos III; the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Patriarch, Nourhan Manougian; the Latin Patriarchates Apostolic Administrator, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa; the Custos of the Holy Land, Father Francesco Patton; Archbishop Anba Antonious, of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate; Archbishop Swerios Malki Murad, from the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate; Archbishop Aba Embakob, of the Ethiopian Orthodox Patriarchate; Archbishop Joseph-Jules Zerey, from the Greek-Melkite-Catholic Patriarchate; Archbishop Mosa El-Hage, of the Maronite Patriarchal Exarchate; Bishop Ibrahim Sani Azar, from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land; Bishop Pierre Malki, of the Syrian Catholic Patriarchal Exarchate; and Monsignor Georges Dankaye, from the Armenian Catholic Patriarchal Exarchate.Posted on: February 15, 2018 10:18 AM

Last nights resignation of President Jacob Zuma provides South Africa with a golden opportunity to start anew, the Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, said. There had been mounting pressure on Zuma to step down. He denies wrong-doing, but has been linked to a series of corruption scandals. In December, South Africas Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was elected as the new president of the ANC. He automatically became Acting President of South Africa when President Zuma resigned last night.

President Zumas resignation is an acknowledgement that public power is to be exercised on behalf of and in service to the people of South Africa, rather than for the self-service of the incumbent, Archbishop Thabo said. Even more important is that once one has taken the oath of office as President of the country, one has an obligation to be accountable to all the citizens of the country rather than to the party to which one belongs.

The indiscretions that the outgoing President found himself embroiled in pointed to the undeniable breakdown of a contract between himself and the people he was obligated to serve, as well becoming a source of division within his party. Consequently, the country had descended to a state of painful distress.

He continued: Hard as it might have been for President Zuma to have arrived at his decision to quit his post, it has nevertheless relieved him from the burden of rejection that had placed his standing on the wrong side of our countrys glorious history.

He must be thanked for making peace with himself and the country by bowing to the inevitable and affording us much-needed relief.

The country now has a golden opportunity to start anew. May those called upon to take up where he left off not squander the gift of this moment.

I hope I will be speaking for many by saying we have a country to build, a new vision to shape and a future to craft that our children will be happy to inherit. Even in this trying hour, I hope we can mobilise and direct our energies to towards nation-building.

Speaking before President Zuma stood down, the former Primate of Southern Africa, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town Njongonkulu Ndungane, welcomed plans for a vote of no-confidence in the beleaguered president, saying that it would take the country forward, following a period of great uncertainty and limbo.

He said that the removal of President Zuma would start to give South Africa some much-needed forward direction and that the plan to remove this man who has brought the country to its current position is heartily welcome.

South Africas National Assembly is due to formally elect Cyril Ramaphosa as President this afternoon. He will then be sworn in by the countrys Chief Justice.Posted on: February 15, 2018 3:45 PM

As Cyclone Gita headed towards Tonga last weekend, a group of young Anglicans gathered at All Saints Church in Fasi, Nukualofa to prepare their response. They had received training in geographic information systems  or GIS  and knew how to use it to carry out Community Integrated Vulnerability Assessments to work out who would be most at risk from the impending winds. They had identified 22 homes in their neighbourhood which were least likely to ride out Cyclone Gitas winds or which sat in the most flood-prone areas.

On Monday, the youngsters visited the homes to help batten down roofs and lift furniture; and they distributed simple survival kits to homes where widows and elderly people lived. They returned to the church for a debrief before heading home to secure themselves before Gitas 260 kmh winds arrived on Monday night.

On Tuesday, the youngsters headed out again to check on the elderly and widows, and worked to clear debris from their properties.

Our young people did a very good job before, during and after the cyclone, surveyor and GIS expert Viliami Folau, a member of All Saints, said. They weren't lavish. Just a few items  candles, canned fish, matches, biscuits, water  but when the young people handed them to the elderly, you should have seen the smiles on those old people's faces.

It was knowing that the church cares for them. I think that's the most important thing of all. These old people, these widows, see that during the bad times, even cyclones, the church wants to ensure that they're OK.

In the Pacific, events like Gita are getting more frequent, and more severe. So its good to see the young people learning about climate change, and becoming truly engaged with disaster preparedness, prevention  and recovery.

The Diocese of Polynesias Fei Tevi, a consultant to Pacific Island governments, said that Gita had blown down three homes within walking distance of All Saints Church. A further five families homes had sustained major structural damage.

I have experienced two category 5 cyclones in three years, he told Anglican Taonga. This is going to become the norm in this region. And as a church, we need to find a way to be responding to the needs of the people in these types of extreme situations. GIS and CIVA training is one of the ways we can do that  and weve done it well here. Its a success.

Gita has been described as the worst storm to hit the Tongan islands in 60 years. It struck about 8 pm on Monday, peaking at 233 km/h between 11 pm and 2 am. It brought down electricity lines, and destroyed a number of buildings, including the national parliament. The roof of the weather centre was taken off; and the state broadcasters transmissions were halted for a while.

Of the 30 people injured, one remains in a critical condition with severe head wounds. A 72-year-old man died from a heart attack, and officials are linking his death to the storm.John McDonnell will bankrupt the Tube and theres no such thing as a free market

No sooner has John McDonnell outlined his ambition to renationalise energy, rail and water than news reaches us of a shortfall. The Guardian notes:

Transport for London (TfL) has insisted it is not facing a financial crisis despite planning for a near 1bn deficit next year after a surprise fall in passenger numbers.

Mr McDonnell told BBC Radio 4s Today earlier:

It would be cost free. You borrow to buy an asset and when that asset is producing profits like the water industry does, that will cover your borrowing cost.

The assets make the profits. The profits pay the bills. What about if people alter their behaviour?

He went on:

We arent going to take back control of these industries in order to put them into the hands of a remote bureaucracy, but to put them into the hands of all of you  so that they can never again be taken away.

But bureaucrats will still run the entity, albeit ones appointed by the State, right? Who are they accountable to? How does anyone get redress for poor service? Is McDonnell seeking to serve taxpayers best or just tying to give meaning, direction and authority to the State?

Public ownership is not just a political decision, its an economic necessity. Well move away from the failed privatisation model of the past, developing new democratic forms of ownership, joining other countries, regions and cities across the world in taking control of our essential services.

So you take over the London Underground, and budget accordingly. And then theres a 1bn deficit. Which means..? As Ronald Reagan put it in 1986: The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, Im from the government and Im here to help.

But business has never been independent of the State. What of PPI, regulation and subsidies, which rather dampen the idea that immense profits are being made? (In 2006-7, the Government spent 6.8 billion of public money in the the privatised rail industry  around half what it cost to run the entire thing.) What of Government calls for curbs on executive pay and vows to fix the broken housing market? So much for the free market.

Tony Blair told us Stability can be a sexy thing. Theresa May wants to be strong and stable. They seek to maintain the status quo. Doesnt that add up to the established businesses and their links to Government rolling on and on and not entrepreneurship, the best of which is often triggered by volatility and daring?

McDonnells monocular and forgetful call for re-nationalisation has not come out of the blue. Its just an addendum to current and recent Government policy and a crisis of purpose.

Paul Sorene

Posted: 15th, February 2018 | In: Broadsheets, Key Posts, Money, News, Politicians Comment | TrackBack | PermalinkROME - Theatre, photography, cartoon animation and storytelling are used to recount the experience of three young Egyptians who lived in Italy without documents for years before having their status regularised, and who have now gone back to the places where it all began. A return to the past in search of the future to recover their old hopes and dreams and imagine how things might have worked out differently. This is 'It was tomorrow', a documentary by Alexandra D'Onofrio that tells the story of Ali Henish, Mahmoud Hemida and Mohamed Khamis.



The film is the result of anthropological research over a period of three years with the active participation of the protagonists and is distributed by Gina Films. "For years I had been interested in the issue of asylum seekers, refugees and migrants," the director tells ANSAmed. "I wanted to explore the theme of imagination, of the future with respect to the past. In the stories of migrants I was always hearing about the search for better life opportunities, for a place to fully express oneself," D'Onofrio explains.



In 2011 she suggested making a documentary to Ali, Mahmoud and Mohammed, who she had known for a while. Then "in 2012 there was the news of the amnesty, and so there was the whole regularisation procedure after they had spent years without documents, while waiting for a proper job, rights, to be able to pay their taxes. But also to have the tranquillity of being able to walk around without fear, to travel and see their families," continues the director. In this idea of the return home there was also the idea of returning to where they first arrived, "where it seemed their life was about to start again".



In reality, "all the years spent underground slowed down the idea of this new life, making it false" and so returning to the starting point "was like really starting from day one". The images and cartoon animation used in the documentary aim to illustrate "the memories, desires and feelings that do not appear on camera, but become visible through storytelling and drawing". Ali arrived in Italy in 2007 after graduating in humanities and qualifying as a sailor. "I went on board a ship to work and the second time we arrived in Italy I stayed," he tells ANSAmed.



"It was my dream to come to Europe. I was 23." But life in Italy was not what he expected. "It was extremely difficult. I had no relatives, I didn't speak a word of Italian and I remained for a long time without documents," he says. Now he works as a sales assistant at the department store Rinascente in Milan. "I had been waiting for a residence permit since I arrived. I was no longer afraid to lose my job. I had achieved my first goal, the basis for building my future." He had been thinking about going back to where it all started even before meeting the director, and to return with legal documents and without the fear he had felt when he abandoned the ship was "moving". Ali tells migrants wanting to come to Europe that it is important to be well prepared. He also advises against making the journey without legal documents "because living like that, without knowing what will happen in future, is really hard".'It was tomorrow', 3 Egyptian immigrants recall the future Documentary by Alexandra D'Onofrio

(ANSAmed) - ROME, FEBRUARY 15 - Theatre, photography, cartoon animation and storytelling are used to recount the experience of three young Egyptians who lived in Italy without documents for years before having their status regularised, and who have now gone back to the places where it all began. A return to the past in search of the future to recover their old hopes and dreams and imagine how things might have worked out differently. This is 'It was tomorrow', a documentary by Alexandra D'Onofrio that tells the story of Ali Henish, Mahmoud Hemida and Mohamed Khamis.



The film is the result of anthropological research over a period of three years with the active participation of the protagonists and is distributed by Gina Films. "For years I had been interested in the issue of asylum seekers, refugees and migrants," the director tells ANSAmed. "I wanted to explore the theme of imagination, of the future with respect to the past. In the stories of migrants I was always hearing about the search for better life opportunities, for a place to fully express oneself," D'Onofrio explains.



In 2011 she suggested making a documentary to Ali, Mahmoud and Mohammed, who she had known for a while. Then "in 2012 there was the news of the amnesty, and so there was the whole regularisation procedure after they had spent years without documents, while waiting for a proper job, rights, to be able to pay their taxes. But also to have the tranquillity of being able to walk around without fear, to travel and see their families," continues the director. In this idea of the return home there was also the idea of returning to where they first arrived, "where it seemed their life was about to start again".



In reality, "all the years spent underground slowed down the idea of this new life, making it false" and so returning to the starting point "was like really starting from day one". The images and cartoon animation used in the documentary aim to illustrate "the memories, desires and feelings that do not appear on camera, but become visible through storytelling and drawing". Ali arrived in Italy in 2007 after graduating in humanities and qualifying as a sailor. "I went on board a ship to work and the second time we arrived in Italy I stayed," he tells ANSAmed.



"It was my dream to come to Europe. I was 23." But life in Italy was not what he expected. "It was extremely difficult. I had no relatives, I didn't speak a word of Italian and I remained for a long time without documents," he says. Now he works as a sales assistant at the department store Rinascente in Milan. "I had been waiting for a residence permit since I arrived. I was no longer afraid to lose my job. I had achieved my first goal, the basis for building my future." He had been thinking about going back to where it all started even before meeting the director, and to return with legal documents and without the fear he had felt when he abandoned the ship was "moving". Ali tells migrants wanting to come to Europe that it is important to be well prepared. He also advises against making the journey without legal documents "because living like that, without knowing what will happen in future, is really hard".



(ANSAmed).



TUNIS - The production of phosphates in Tunisia since the start of the year has been under 160,000 tons, down from the 500,000 tons over the same period last year, the Gafsa Phosphates Company (CFG), located 369 km south-west of Tunis, has reported.

The drop is due to the paralysis of activities of various productive units in Methlaoui, Redeyef, Mdhilla and Om Larayes.

Tension was reported in the area after the announcement last January of the results of a competition to hire 1,700 new employees. Since then, in fact, a group of protesters demonstrated near the production site with a permanent sit-in to demand a job.

A sharp drop in production was also registered in November 2017 after a blockade by a group of unemployed workers on the N14 highway in Meknassi, a route for trucks carrying phosphates.

A sit-in was organized also in front of the municipality of Gasfa with the participation of the local coordination for employment and development.

According to local press reports, Tunisia has lost almost two billion dollars over the past few years due to the drop in the export of phosphates following repeated protests in the area of Gasfa.Turkey: construction starts on new Ataturk center in Taksim Building an icon of Gezi Park protests in Istanbul

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, FEBRUARY 15 - Work to demolish and rebuild the Ataturk Cultural Center has started in Istanbul. The center is one of the symbols of Taksim square, an icon of the Gezi Park protests in 2013.



As announced last year by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the building will be replaced by a new structure that will include an opera theater with some 2,500 seats, an exhibition space, a cinema, a library, a cafe, restaurants and a parking lot, occupying an area of over 35,000 square meters, six times bigger than the current one. The project was signed by Murat Tabanlioglu, son of the architect who designed the original project.



Erdogan has described the new version as ''more beautiful'' of the current structure, which was inaugurated in 1969 to host concerts and cultural events but has been closed for the past decade. However, protests have been reported. According to the Chamber of Turkish architects, ''the demolition symbolizes the systematic attacks to buildings that are a symbol of the republic era''. During the Gezi Park protests, the structure was occupied by demonstrators who covered it with banners and flags to protest against Erdogan.



Over the next few months Taksim - a symbol of Istanbul - will radically change. On the opposite side of the square, in fact, a large mosque is being built, a project which has also been slammed by opposition members. (ANSAmed).



TEL AVIV - The decision to ask the Churches of Jerusalem to pay the municipal tax ''goes against the historic position throughout the centuries of the Churches and civil authorities'', said the heads of Christian churches in the city. They said that the ''measure undermines the holy nature of Jerusalem and undermines the Church's ability to conduct its ministry in this land on behalf of communities and the Church worldwide''.

According to the newspaper Israel Ha Yom, the mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, has decided to change an ''old policy'' and start asking for municipal taxes (arnona) not only to churches but also to the UN in the city. The paper - which reports a sum of 650 million Shekel in taxes - added that they do not apply to prayer sites - which remain exempt - but to institutions that belong to Churches and the United Nations, some of which also have commercial activities.

''We will not accept anymore that the city's residents pay for these sums'', Barkat was quoted as saying by the paper.

All heads of Christian churches, including the Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Patriarchate Pierbattista Pizzaballa and the Custodian of the Holy See Francesco Patton, as well as Greek-Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III signed the petition.

''Civil authorities - said the Christian heads - have always recognized and respected the great contribution of Churches that invest billions in the construction of schools, hospitals and homes, many for the elderly and the disadvantaged, in the Holy Land''.

''We ask the city - they added - to withdraw its announcement and ensure that the status quo sanctioned by holy history is maintained and that the nature of the holy City of Jerusalem is not violated''.

Morocco OKs law against violence on women, wives excluded Harassment through text messages punished but not spousal abuse

(ANSAmed) - RABAT, FEBRUARY 15 - Morocco's parliament has approved legislation against violence on women. It took 1,200 days for MPs to approve law 103-13, also known as 'Hakkauoi law', after Family and Solidarity Minister Bassima Hakkaoui who promoted it.



The legislation obtained its second and final approval on Valentine's Day with 168 yes votes and 55 nays and is considered a step forward to promote gender equality.



The law's first vote dates back to June 2006, when 83 lawmakers voted in favor and 22 against.



The legislation now extends the term violence to acts of aggression and abuse via text messages, vocal messages or photos, sexual exploitation, aggression and abuse in the workplace and harshens punishment in situations like pregnancy or in the event that violence is perpetrated by people who are known to the victim, like colleagues. However, the legislation does not contemplate spousal abuse, a controversial issue in civil society.



From now on, someone who abuses a woman on the street can be sentenced to six months in prison while someone who forces a minor into marriage can get one year. However, prosecuting spousal violence is still difficult, although the national council for human rights CNDH has urged an amendment to the legislation in this sense. Article 486 of the Moroccan criminal code punishes sexual violence but is ambiguous in its definition, according to experts.



The approval of this law closes the winter session of parliament. The 395 MPs of the House chaired by Socialist MP Habib El Malki and 120 Senators led by Hakim Benchmach will meet again on April 14 for the spring session. (ANSAmed).



UAE's Dubai Airports has completed the installation of new and enhanced smart gates at Dubai International (DXB) Terminal 1.





An array of 20 of the new smart gates is now fully operational in the arrivals area of Terminal 1 in addition to the 10 installed last year in departures.

In total, some 127 smart gates are now available across the entire airport, reducing average transaction times from minutes to under 10-15 seconds.

The launch of the new smart gates coincides with the start of UAEs Month of Innovation, which is being observed from February 1 to 28 to celebrate innovators and promote innovation.

Smart gates do not require a dedicated card and can identify a traveller by either their passport, Emirates ID, e-gate card or a QR barcode generated via the GDRFA smartphone app.

Smart gates can be used by UAE citizens and residents, GCC nationals and passport holders from a number of countries that are eligible for visa on arrival.

All UAE residents who are older than 15 years can use their Emirates ID to pass through the smart gates since the new service was launched in 2017.

The new smart gates facility has reduced queuing times at Dubai International (DXB) with more than 5.5 million travellers using it in 2017.



Dubai International was the first airport in the region and among the first globally to introduce automated immigration gates in 2002.Oman Air has contributed to the reduction of the noise footprint of the UKs Heathrow airport.

Independent analysis from the Civil Aviation Authority commissioned by Heathrow has shown that the noise footprint at the UKs busiest airport is continuing to shrink  52,000 fewer households are impacted by noise compared to 2006.

Heathrows latest Fly Quiet and Green league table, which ranks the performance of 50 airlines on seven noise and emission metrics, shows that Oman Air has climbed 15 places due to its nearly perfect score of 99 percent. The league table also shows a 30 percent reduction in the number of aircraft departing in sensitive night time hours.

Oman Airs performance has improved greatly after it worked with Heathrows noise team to make a number of operations changes.

Acting CEO Abdulaziz Al-Raisi said: We are delighted to have significantly improved our noise levels at Heathrow airport. Our team have worked hard to achieve this important benchmark and I would like to particularly thank Capt. Ahmed and Capt. Abdul Rehman who have been instrumental in making it happen.

The analysis, which has been undertaken by the airport regularly since 2006, forms part of Heathrows noise action plan and its pledge to deliver more regular and transparent communications to local residents. The area around the airport affected by average noise measurements over the course of a 24-hour operating day, is measured using the preferred European measure of noise, has decreased by 15% over the past 11 years. This means 15% fewer households within the area are impacted by noise.

Oman Air is pleased to be contributing to the reduction in noise at Heathrow airport and will continue to collaborate with the noise team to improve its performance further. Oman Air is committed to operating the cleanest, quietest and most efficient flights possible across its growing international network. The Boeing Dreamliner aircraft in Oman Air fleet is known to be the first commercial aircraft to utilise carbon composites in its airframe manufacture, is lighter and uses 20 per cent less fuel than similarly-sized aircraft. Also, Oman Air recently welcomed the first of its newest aircraft, the Boeing 737 MAX, which offers greatest range capability, also quieter on-board experience, and significantly reduces both fuel use and carbon dioxide emissions. The two aircraft are amongst the most efficient operating in the world today.Qatar Airways has acquired the Sheraton Melbourne Hotel.

The Sheraton Melbourne joins a growing list of establishments acquired and managed by Dhiafatina Hotels, including the Sheraton Skyline Hotel at Londons Heathrow Airport, The Novotel Edinburgh Park in Edinburgh Scotland, the Oryx Rotana Hotel in Doha, and The Airport Hotel located at Dohas Hamad International Airport (HIA).

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker, said: The acquisition of the Sheraton Melbourne Hotel complements Qatar Airways global strategy for growth, and further strengthens our offering for passengers travelling on board our daily flights to Melbourne. Melbourne is an incredibly important destination on the Qatar Airways network, so much so that last year we began flying our state-of-the-art Airbus A380 aircraft to Melbourne.

Qatar Airways is committed to going places together with our passengers, and I am delighted to announce the acquisition of the Sheraton Melbourne Hotel as part of the Dhiafatina portfolio, hand-picked to extend the excellent service our passengers receive, both in the air and once they arrive at their destination.ED teams raided three sites in Surat, four in Mumbai and two in Delhi on Thursday morning.

Mumbai: A team from the Enforcement Directorate led a multi-city raid on showrooms and offices of billionaire diamond jeweller Nirav Modi who is at the centre of a Rs 11,346 crore fraud in the Punjab National Bank, and possibly other lenders.

ED teams raided three sites in Surat, four in Mumbai and two in Delhi on Thursday morning.

Also read: PNB scam: Nirav Modi got fraudulent LOUs for overseas credit

PNB, the second largest public sector bank in the country, filed a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday against Nirav Modi and companies linked to him for defrauding the bank in connivance with bank officials in a Mumbai branch.

It is alleged Modi and his associate companies fraudulently acquired PNB guarantees worth USD 1.7 billion that they later used to obtain overseas loans. The bank alleged Modi worked with some junior PNB officials to get the letters.

The scam started in 2011.

While PNB did not name the other lenders, Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank are said to have offered credit based on letters of undertaking (LOUs) issued by PNB.

An LOU is a letter of comfort issued by one bank to branches of other banks, based on which foreign branches offer credit to buyers. Foreign bank branches too are under investigation.

Three other jewellers, Gitanjali, Ginni and Nakshatra are under the scanner with the CBI and ED looking at their arrangements with various banks and end use of money, a senior official of a public sector bank told PTI.

Also read: PNB tanks 9 per cent on Rs 11,400-crore scam

This could be the biggest banking fraud in India as its quantum was bigger than an estimated 9,000 crore scam at erstwhile Satyam computers.

Refresh for more updatesAiyaary becomes the latest movie to be banned by the neighbouring country, allegedly over its patriotic tones.

It was only earlier this week that Pakistans Central Board of Film Censors refused to certify, and even view Pad Man. It claimed that the movie was against our traditions and culture, not allowing their distributors to import the film.

And there doesnt seem to be any respite for Bollywood movies yet, with Aiyaary now being banned by the neighbouring country too. It is learnt that the reason for the no objection certificate (NOC) being denied to the film by Pakistan is because it shows the corruption in the countrys army, and also has a negative portrayal of the nation. A source puts it succinctly, Pakistans intelligence agency, ISI, has refused to issue an NOC.

Aiyaary joins a long list of Neeraj Pandey movies to be banned by Pakistan. While his film Special 26 was released in Pakistan, movies like A Wednesday, Baby, Naam Shabana and even M.S Dhoni were banned in the country.

An unsurprised Neeraj reveals that he wasnt even going to apply for a release in Pakistan, owing to his track record. This time, I had told my team to not even try for a release in Pakistan. But then, we had the luxury of time, due to the frequent postponement of the film, he says. We had strong queries (demand for the film) from Pakistan, but I knew that it would not get released here.

Deepika Padukone in a still from the movie Padmaavat

Neeraj pragmatically mentions that its the patriotic theme of the movie that could be an issue. I dont think Im a problem, he says. It has to be this film. The theme is very patriotic, and doesnt cut well there. Even Dhoni wasnt allowed to be shown there.

Interestingly, even the Indian army had demanded that Aiyaary be screened to them, before issuing an NOC to it. The film passed, despite there being some issues that had cropped up earlier.

And while Padmaavat was okayed by the Pakistan censor board this year, the censor board later received flak for letting the movie through, uncut. In 2017, Pakistan banned six Hindi films, including Tiger Zinda Hai, Tubelight and Raees.

R. Balki, the director of Pad Man, had been a tad upset with the banning too. He had earlier said, I think they have their own reasons. But you cannot ban a film like this. Youre doing something unfair to humanity. Its a story of this mans life and the issue its addressing. The Middle East has welcomed the film, and its the first film to be screened in Iraq. Youd think the country is so conservative, but its doing well there. Im sure there will be a lot of pressure to see the film. Its a simple film for humanity, and thats all.

 With inputs from Sanskriti Media and Uma Ramasubramanian'Black Panther' desperately tries to keep pace with other Marvel offerings but fails miserably.

Rating:

Director: Ryan Coogler

Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Forest Whitaker, and Andy Serkis.

The latest film in the Marvel Universe has arrived with 'Black Panther' and it continues the tradition of big budgeted crowd pleasing event films from Marvel.

'Black Panther' tells the story of T'halla/Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) who, after the events of 'Captain America: Civil War' (2014), returns home i.e Wakanda to take his place as King. However, when an old enemy Erik "Killmonger" Stevens (Micheal B Jordan) reappears on the radar, T'Challa's alter ego Black Panther is tested when he is drawn into a conflict that puts the fate of Wakanda and the world at risk.

The Wakanda aspect of the film is great, with a rich and interesting culture so seldom used in the superhero film. But after an impressive introduction, pretty much all about Wakanda, becomes kind of a dull place. This movie is filmmaker Ryan Coogler's third feature, following two very different films - 'Fruitvale Station' and 'Creed'. Kudos to director for successfully passing a strong message of racial diversity and cultural acceptance in today's world, but while doing so he fails to deliver a thrilling superhero film. The film desperately tries to keep pace with other Marvel offerings but falls short on that front.

The story is like any other superhero film story. The plot is quite predictable, as there simply isn't all that much excitement to go around. The core story is so generic that almost everything you expect will happen, does indeed happen.

The film starts off fast but comes to a halt halfway through. Due to slow pacing, the runtime feels very overlong as well. Another distraction is the graphics which is just average, especially towards the end of the film the action relies overly on CGI and it doesn't look that good for Marvel film standards.

A still from 'Black Panther'.

The acting is okay. Chadwick Boseman performs nicely, but, I dare to say, his superhero act comes off boring and that because of its poor characterisation. In superhero origin story, it is always interesting to see protagonist's transformation but here T'challa is a completely new person with almost no similarities other than his name. He doesn't grow into a King instead he simply change his political view which is quite underwhelming to watch. Lupita Nyong'o, Martin Freeman, Danai Gurira, and Forest Whitaker perform below standard. The women characters are powerful and all have a significant role in the story. Letitia Wright, as T'challa's brilliant younger sister Shuri, shines in her part. Michael B. Jordan is good as the main villain. He is given a rich personality over everybody else and his political beliefs, compared to the protagonists', are more compelling. His character's journey is one of the interesting parts in the film and it makes viewers care about the conflict between him and T'challa.

Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan in the still from 'Black Panther'.

Some action sequences are really well choreographed, for instance a long one shot action scene inside a casino and a subsequent car chasing sequence, which is quite great. Ludwig Goransson's orchestral music that booms during the exciting moments is quite exciting mainly due to distinct usage of African instruments. And there are few short scenes that brings the giggles and puts a small break in the action scenes, all done in a formulaic Marvel style.

'Black Panther' is the eighteenth film released by Marvel Studios for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As the Marvel scene is beginning to become over saturated with so many back-to-back films, at least this movie allows you to take a break from an actual Marvel film.The mass marriage function, organised under the Mukhyamantri Kanyadan Yojna, was scheduled to be held on Thursday.

According to another district official, the mass marriage function has been postponed for the second time in three days. (Photo: PTI)

Raigarh: Marriage of 251 couples was postponed twice in Raigarh as Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, who was slated to attend the mass ceremony, cancelled his visit to the district.

The mass marriage function, organised under the Mukhyamantri Kanyadan Yojna, was scheduled to be held on Thursday. But it has been postponed now, said District Women and Child Development Officer T K Jatwar.

The function will be held after the new date for chief minister's visit is finalised, he said.

According to another district official, the mass marriage function has been postponed for the second time in three days.

Earlier the function was to be held on February 13, on the birth anniversary of late BJP leader Lakhiram Agrawal, the official said.

After Raman Singh's visit on February 13 was cancelled, it was rescheduled for February 15. But the function has been now deferred further, he said.

Opposition Congress demanded that the mass marriage be held on the scheduled date.

Family members of 251 girls who are going to get married have completed rituals like 'haldi rasm' and postponing the marriage is not appropriate, former Congress MP Pushpa Devi Singh said.

The function should be held on Thursday, she said.PNB chief Sunil Mehta said there were no solid proposals by Nirav Modi on repayment, got vague proposals.

New Delhi: Punjab National Bank Managing Director Sunil Mehta was asked by media on Thursday on why it took so long for his bank to detect a fraud of such magnitude -- Rs 11,400 crores -- looted by jewellers, including billionaire Nirav Nodi, since 2011.

Mehta said the transactions were not entered into the system and that it was detected only in the third week of January. If probe agencies say it is our fault, we will accept it, he said.

Mehta also said the government was monitoring the situation and was fully supportive of its attempts to nab the culprits.

Mehta told the media the bank was confident and committed in resolving this. We will honour all our bona fide commitments to bankers, clients etc, Mehta said. PNB has the capability and capacity to come out of this.

The PNB chief also said there were no solid proposals by Nirav Modi on repayment of this amount. He said, They have submitted some vague plans which are under consideration.

Read: PNB fraud: ED conducts multi-city raids on Nirav Modi showrooms

Mehta said two employees in connivance with the borrowing companies undertook the fraudulent transactions. We complained to the CBI on January 29 and CBI registered the case on January 31.

Mehta added: We detected the fraud on January 3. We will not spare anyone within the bank, whether junior or senior, and will take him to task for misconduct in this fraud. Hum kisi bhi galat kaam ko badhava nahi dengey, Mehta said.

It is learnt Nirav Modi left the country on January 1.

Mehta said this was a standalone incident  a $1.8 billion fraud  and that it has taken place in only one of our branches.

Also Read: PNB detects Rs 11,000Cr fraud, Nirav Modi to face fresh CBI probe

He said: "PNB is a 123-year-old institution. We have gone through many ups and down but came out with flying colours. We have even faced the 1947 crisis. We want the media's help in spreading the work that the bank is doing all it can to stop these frauds. We were the first ones to detect and report these frauds which started in 2011. We are following our clean banking agenda.

"The bank has the capability and capacity to come out of the situation. We don't wish to speak much on the issue to not become a hurdle to investigations. We request you all to give us some breathing time and space. We will honour all our bonafide commitments.

"We do not encourage any wrong or fraud practices, we will take this up as a cancer cleansing process. We are committed to clean banking and we have told all our bankers informed of the issue. Out complaint has been lodged in the FIR, which is leading to raids on the culprits," says Sunil Mehta, Managing Director of PNB.

PNB, the second largest public sector bank in the country, filed a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation against Nirav Modi and companies linked to him for defrauding the bank in connivance with bank officials in a Mumbai branch.

It is alleged Modi and his associate companies fraudulently acquired PNB guarantees worth USD 1.7 billion that they later used to obtain overseas loans. The bank alleged Modi worked with some junior PNB officials to get the letters.

The Enforcement Director on Thursday raided Nirav Modis homes, offices and showrooms in several cities.Senior Army official said, 'Details on the outcome of the enquiry will be intimated in due course as per progress.'

'A prelim enquiry was ordered on Feb 12 by the Army to ascertain facts on suspected leakage of classified information from IT devices of a Lt Colonel posted in Jabalpur,' senior official said. (Photo: PTI/Representational)

New Delhi: A day after reports of an Army officer being detained in Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh over alleged honey trap by Pakistans spy agency ISI, a senior Army official on Thursday said that such reports are pure speculation.

The remarks came after the officer in question was picked up for an enquiry by a team from the Army Headquarters in Delhi.

Reports of detention of officer, Honey Trapping, money exchange at this stage are pure speculation and neither accurate nor substantiated. Details on the outcome of the enquiry will be intimated in due course as per progress, a senior Army official said.

The official further said, The officer has only been questioned as part of ongoing enquiry & nothing else. Therefore he continues to perform his routine duties in unit. Evidence related to case including digital evidence has been seized & sent for further forensic analysis.

A prelim enquiry was ordered on February 12 by the Army to ascertain facts on suspected leakage of classified information from IT devices of a Lt Colonel posted in Jabalpur.

However, it is yet to be established whether it has happened inadvertently or deliberately as reported, the officer added.The Sena said, 'If Congress accepts and propagates Hinduism, then BJP will not be left with any counter-issue.'

The Sena further criticized candidate for the post of K'taka CM B S Yeddyurappa, for instances of violence inflicted upon the Marathi-speaking community in Karnataka under his leadership in the state. (Photo: PTI)

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Thursday claimed that Congress president Rahul Gandhis increasing association with Hindus has shaken the political ground of Bhartiya Janata Party in the electoral state of Karnataka.

A similar strategy was followed by Congress against the Bharatiya Janata Party during Gujarat elections.

In the editorial page of its mouthpiece Saamana, the party highlighted Rahul Gandhi's recent visits to both Hindu and Muslim religious places in Karnataka and termed it as a strategy of 'soft Hinduism' by Congress.

The party said, "If Congress accepts and propagates Hinduism, then BJP will not be left with any counter-issue."

It further quoted the BJP candidate for the post of Chief Minister in Karnataka B S Yeddyurappa saying, "Rahul Gandhi consumed non-vegetarian food before visiting the temple" as it pointed towards the practice of mud-slinging by both BJP and Congress.

Read: BJP slams Rahul Gandhi for visiting temple after eating chicken

It criticised the parties for hurting religious sentiments of different communities for the sake of winning State Assembly elections.

It further said that instead of focusing on 'food politics' the parties should discuss more important issues.

It criticized Yeddyurappa for instances of violence inflicted upon the Marathi-speaking community in Karnataka under his leadership in the state.

The party further said that the BJP and Congress have stooped too low to claim certain electoral gains.To protest against V-Day celebrations, the Bharat Hindu Front cadres performed marriage rituals between a dog and a donkey in Chennai.

The Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam on Thursday filed a petition in the Coimbatore family court seeking divorce between a dog and a goat, married by a group in protest against Valentine's Day on Wednesday. (Photo: ANI)

Coimbatore: The Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (TPDK) on Thursday filed a petition in the Coimbatore family court seeking divorce between a dog and a goat, married by a group in protest against Valentine's Day on Wednesday.

Earlier on Wednesday, numerous protests were witnessed across the nation against Valentine's Day.

To protest against Valentine's Day celebrations, the Bharat Hindu Front cadres performed marriage rituals between a dog and a donkey in Chennai.

Read: V-Day 'alien' concept, Hindutva group gets dog, donkey married instead

Later the protesters were detained by the Chennai Police.

Members of Bajrang Dal also harassed couples at Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad.

Moreover, Bajrang Dal members in Hyderabad also staged a protest against Valentine's Day.Day dedicated to love went starkly different for USAs two most powerful couples.

Barack and Michelle Obama indulged in some romantic public display of affection on Twitter while Melanie and Trump's timeline remained cold. (Photo: AP)

Valentines Day saw two completely differenct reactions from USAs two most popular and powerful couple.

One of the two, undoubtedly one of the most beloved couples, Barack and Michelle Obama indulged in some romantic public display of affection on Twitter on Valentine's Day.

The former president and his wife have always been very vocal about their affections for each other and it turns out that Valentines Day was the perfct occasion to showcase their love for each other.

Michelle dedicated a Valentine's Day playlist on Twitter to her husband who is her "one and only".

To this the former president replied by tweeting a picture of the two embracing in front of what looked like a glorious vista from a countryside. He also said that his wife "makes every day and every place better".

In fact, recently while at the unveiling of their official portraits for the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, Barack Obama complimented artist Amy Sherald for her striking and unconventional painting of his wife and also joked about Michelle's 'hotness' that was captured by the artist.

On the other hand, interestingly, President Donald Trump and his wife Melania did not tweet anything for each other on Valentine's Day.

Melanie Trump looked festive in a USD 2,995 Calvin Klein wrap coat as she played cupid to exchange Valentine's Day cards with young patients at the Children's Inn at the National Institutes of Health.

While, the first lady shared her excitement on Twitter before her visit, tweeting: 'Looking forward to a very sweet afternoon visiting @theChildrensInn & celebrating Valentines Day with some kids at @NIH! #HappyValentinesDay, it was noticeable that she had no words of affection for her husband, the President.

Soon enough, people were quick to read into Melanies tweet with many pointing out that she didn't wish her husband a happy Valentine's Day.

'Absolutely love that she doesn't even mention her husband,' a woman named Alexandra tweeted.

She went on to say that Melania's tweet really means: 'Happy Valentines Day to everyone except my flabby wet baby of a husband, who I hate.'

One Thomas joked, 'In our country, we traditionally spend this day with our spouses. Problems at home?'

While Peter Cassizi wrote, Hey @realDonaldTrump - this is what they call a totally deserved burn from wifey.Born and brought up in Mumbai, Albert says that the celebrations will go on through the night and will continue for next one week.

Strings of lights hang from the Kwan Kung Temple  the only Chinese temple in the city  all set to welcome the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Dog. Numerous incense sticks burned by devotes has filled this three-storey temple with fragrance. Unlike a regular temple, where you are expected to remove your shoes by the door, you can walk straight up to the altar.

While the ground floor houses the Goddess of Mercy; Kwan Kung, the God of War  the famous general immortalised in Chinese history  sits on the top floor of the building amidst the red coloured walls.

This building projects the image of being an ancient temple, and this unassuming place of worship is surrounded by absolute peace. Albert Tham, 66, the caretaker of the temple, tells us that it was once a navy workshop that was brought by the Chinese population in 1919 to build this temple.

The Goddess of Mercy

Almost 100 years later, the temple buzzes back to life each year around February. Prepping for the eve, Albert places fruits and chocolates on a tray as offerings to devotees coming in to pray. Worshippers will start coming in around 11 or 12 in the night. They come in, thank God for fulfilling their wish, and ask for another one for this year, smiles Albert.

Born and brought up in Mumbai, Albert says that the celebrations will go on through the night and will continue for next one week.

The ancient ritual of visiting a Chinese temple, Albert explains, involves burning an incense stick, paper money, and candles. It is believed that as you burn the incense stick and offer prayers, it reaches God. Its as if the smoke is carrying your fervent, and solemn requests straight to heaven.

According to Chinese beliefs, candles are symbolic of lighting up your life. Paper money  gold and silver prints on paper  are meant to represent wealth or money that is offered to the God. Treated as real money, it is respectfully placed in the bundle of fire.

With just a few Chinese families left in Mazgaon, and the rest having scattered all over the city, the New Year festival is a special time where folks come together to celebrate the occasion. Families bring cooked food and fruits as offering to Kwan Kung, since the Goddess of Mercy is mainly prayed to by women all year round. This, after being offered to the God, is taken back for feasting.

And as any celebration demands, after prayers people go on visiting house-to-house wishing everyone a happy New Year. However, says the caretaker, there are some customs which have been wiped off with time. In the old days, my ancestors were not allowed to cut nails, wash clothes or hair. But these days hardly anyone follows the tradition, Albert shrugs.

One custom that still has reminds Albert of his childhood, is that of receiving money (for good luck) in red envelopes from elders. Now its a circle of life for Albert. Now I am an elder, so I give money to kids, he laughs.

Another symbol of the festival is the dragon dance, which was a tradition and hasnt been practiced through the ages. However, Albert hopes to bring it back. We revived the tradition last year and will have it this year too, he smiles.

The dance is another element that is supposed to bring good luck. Much like trick or treating during Halloween, the dragon then goes door to door and is offered food or paper money to let the good luck in the house, explains the 66-year-old.

However, with changing times, the zeal of celebration seems to be dying for this minority community in the Maximum City. These days, people are pressed for time. Earlier, I would witness people flocking the temple as early as 9 pm or 10 pm in the evening. Now, people turn up only closer to midnight. These days, people pray less, and spend a lot more time on feasting and partying, explains Albert in conclusion.Thackeray will be accompanied by a delegation of locals from Ratnagiri who are opposing the project.

It is notable that the Shiv Sena has announced a break-up from its ally in the state, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and will be contesting the 2019 general election alone. (Photo: ANI)

Mumbai: Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray will be meeting Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, on Thursday over widespread objection on an upcoming oil refinery in Ratnagiri district.

Thackeray will be accompanied by a delegation of locals from Ratnagiri who are opposing the project.

It is notable that the Shiv Sena has announced a break-up from its ally in the state, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and will be contesting the 2019 general election alone.

The chemical industry projects in Ratnagiri are also part of Shiv Sena's grievances with the BJP, given the projects require displacement of several houses in the area as well as pose health hazards.

Locals are up in arms over the West Coast Refinery and Petrochemical project proposed to go on floors in Ratnagiri district along the Konkan coast, and have staged protests as well.

Besides the refinery, the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project is also proposed to come up just 15 kilometers away.Google is virtually synonymous with online search and Chrome is the most popular browser on the web with a roughly 60 percent market share.

This photo shows the Google logo at the companys headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Starting February 15, 2018, Google will start using its Chrome browser to reshape the web by eradicating ads it deems annoying or otherwise detrimental to users. (Photo: AP)

On February 15, Google will begin using its Chrome browser to eradicate ads it deems annoying or otherwise detrimental to users. It just so happens that many of Google's own most lucrative ads will sail through its new filters. The move, which Google first floated back in June, is ostensibly aimed at making online advertising more tolerable by flagging sites that run annoying ads such as ones that auto-play video with sound. And it's using a big hammer: Chrome will start blocking all ads  including Google's own  on offending sites if they don't reform themselves.

There's some irony here, given that Google's aim is partly to convince people to turn off their own ad-blocking software. These popular browser add-ons deprive publishers (and Google) of revenue by preventing ads from displaying. Google vice president Rahul Roy-Chowdhury wrote in a blog post that the company aims to keep the web healthy by "filtering out disruptive ad experiences."

But the company's motives and methods are both under attack. Along with Facebook, Google dominates the online-advertising market; together they accounted for over 63 per cent of the $83 billion spent on US digital ads last year, according to eMarketer. Google is also virtually synonymous with online search, and Chrome is the most popular browser on the web, with a roughly 60 percent market share.

So to critics, Google's move looks less like a neighbourhood cleanup than an assertion of dominance. Google's effort focuses on 12 ad formats criticized by a group called the Coalition for Better Ads, whose members include Google, Facebook, News and the News Media Alliance, which represents 2,000 newspapers in the US and Canada. Among those blackballed formats are pop-ups, large ads that hover above the page and ads that flash with bright background colours.

But those standards were intended to be voluntary, said Paul Boyle, senior vice president of public policy for the newspaper alliance that helped create them. Instead, he said, Google is turning the standards into de facto law. Critics also note that the standards conspicuously exempt one of Google's most significant forms of advertising - so-called pre-roll video ads, which run videos on Google's YouTube.

Scott Spencer, Google's director of product management, said via email that the coalition is looking into video ad formats, including pre-roll ads. Any new standards will be incorporated "when the research is complete," he said. "Chrome filtering is not favouring our own business, our ads or our platforms, or anyone else's," he said.

Accusations of self-dealing have long haunted Google. Last June, European Union regulators hit it with a 2.4 billion euro ($3 billion) fine for unfairly directing search results to its own shopping listings, from which it gets a direct cut of revenue. A similar Federal Trade Commission probe of Google ended in 2013 with a settlement and no fine.

More recently, the News Media Alliance has urged Congress to look at how Google pressures media outlets to put stories in its "Accelerated Mobile Pages" format, which also tightly restricts ad formats and provides Google with a new source of revenue in exchange for giving publishers favoured treatment in search results. Google will phase in the restrictions in coming months; disputes will be handled by the coalition, not Google. Users will see a notification when Chrome blocks ads and can opt to view them if they want.

Website publishers have had months to prepare, yet many are still running afoul of the new standards. According to a recent search of Google's Ad Experience Report, 1,408 sites had "warning" or "failing" status. Some were targeted to have their ads to be shut down on February 15. Sites flagged included niche interest sites like www.playstationlifestyle.net and www.bridalguide.com, as well as established newspapers such as The Hamilton Spectator in Canada and a number of porn sites.

Spectator owner Torstar said it has fixed the problem; other sites wouldn't comment publicly. Atlanta-based Gray Television Inc. also had at least a dozen of its TV station websites flagged. Gray said it switched to compliant formats and that its sites were cleared as of February 14. Google said that almost half of the warned sites fixed ad problems after being notified.

Among these were about 50 websites run by Townsquare Media, the third-largest radio station owner in the US. The sites ran so-called "prestitial" ads that take over the screen after someone clicks on a link, according to Jared Willig, Townsquare's senior vice president of digital. The company subsequently developed a new and less intrusive ad format that solved the problem, Willig said. While he agreed with the push toward fewer distractions, Google's outsized influence gives him pause. "They wield a lot of power, which is a little scary," Willig said. "But in this case, they're using that power to make the internet better." Others were less sanguine.

"Who's to say what's a good ad and what's a bad ad?" asked Chris Pavlovski, the CEO of Rumble, a Toronto-based video platform that considers itself a rival to YouTube. "For some reason, we have an arbitrator that owns a browser and dictates what we can put on our websites." Overall, Google wields too much influence over publishers, said Sean Blanchfield, the CEO of PageFair, a startup that helps publishers get around ad blockers.

"Traffic comes from Google Search, users come through Google Chrome, monetization is from Google ads," Blanchfield said. "Publishers are beginning to feel like they're playing in a gig economy operated by Google."Nikolas Cruz, 19, was arrested about an hour after a shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

An police officer tells parents waiting at Coral Springs Drive and the Sawgrass Expressway to go to the Marriott hotel to meet up with their kids following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. (Photo:AP)

Florida: The man accused of opening fire at a Florida high school on Wednesday, killing 17 people, was a troubled former student who loved guns and was expelled for disciplinary reasons, police and former classmates said.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, was arrested about an hour after a shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters.

The sheriffs office earlier spelled the suspects name as Nikolaus.

Cruz, who had been expelled from the school for reasons that have not been made public, was found with multiple ammunition magazines and one AR-15-style rifle, Israel said.

We already began to dissect his websites and the things on social media that he was on and some of the things that came to mind are very, very disturbing, Israel said.

Chad Williams, 18, a senior at Stoneman Douglas High school, remembered Cruz as a troubled classmate from when they attended middle school together. He said Cruz would set off the fire alarm, day after day, and finally got expelled in the eighth grade.

More recently, Williams saw Cruz carrying several publications about guns when they ran into each other at the high school. Williams thought Cruz was there to pick up a younger sibling.

He was crazy about guns, Williams told Reuters, speaking by the side of the road near the high school. He was kind of an outcast. He didnt have many friends. He would do anything crazy for a laugh, but he was trouble.

Jillian Davis, 19, said she was in a school Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps with Cruz in the 9th grade. She remembered him as a quiet and shy young man who would almost change personality when angry. He talked a lot about guns and knives but no one took him seriously, she told Reuters.

I would say he was not the most normal or sane kid in JROTC. He definitely had a little something off about him. He was a little extra quirky, said Davis, who graduated from the school last year.

Math teacher Jim Gard told the Miami Herald that Cruz had been banned from returning to campus while carrying a backpack.

There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus, Gard told the newspaper in an interview.

Administrators sent an email to teachers warning them about Cruz, Gard told the paper.

Another student at the school told local WSVN-TV that Cruz was known to have guns at home.Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce, married for 24 years, is expecting a child with his former staffer in April.

Turnbull denounced the affair at a press conference in Canberra after a week in which the scandal threw his centre-right government into turmoil. (Photo: File)

Sydney: Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Thursday banned sex between ministers and staff and rounded on his deputy for a "shocking error of judgment" by having an affair with a press secretary.

Deputy Australian Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, a Catholic who campaigned on "family values" and married for 24 years, is expecting a child with his former staffer in April.

Turnbull denounced the affair at a press conference in Canberra after a week in which the scandal threw his centre-right government into turmoil and strained the alliance between his Liberal Party and Joyce's National Party.

He stopped short of sacking Joyce, which would have put the government's narrow one-seat majority at risk were he expelled from parliament.

But Turnbull said the scandal had prompted overdue changes to ministerial conduct rules, and announced new standards broadly similar to a ban on relationships between lawmakers and staffers adopted last week by US Congress.

"In 2018, it is not acceptable for a minister to have a sexual relationship with somebody who works for them. It is a very bad workplace practice. And everybody knows that no good comes of it," he said.

"Ministers, regardless of whether they are married or single, must not engage in sexual relations with staff. Doing so will constitute a breach of the standards.

He said the changes take effect "as of today" and that Joyce will "have to consider his own position" as leader of the National Party.

Turnbull said earlier Joyce would take a week's break next week, which avoids the need for him to fill in as acting prime minister during Turnbull's scheduled visit to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington next week.

The week off comes after an opinion poll showed support for Joyce, a plain-spoken small-town accountant turned politician, had tumbled in his rural electorate.

The percentage of voters backing him crashed to 43 percent, according to the ReachTEL poll published in Fairfax newspapers on Thursday, down from the 63 percent margin he won at a by-election in December.

He also faces intensifying pressure over his failure to declare the relationship with his former press secretary, Vikki Campion, when she was hired for two highly-paid government positions outside his office.

And there are questions about Joyce's acceptance, rent-free, of a townhouse belonging to a wealthy friend, Greg Maguire, and whether Joyce broke ministerial rules forbidding asking for gifts. Joyce denied asking for the townhouse.

"Most people would realise that at the time of a marriage break-up, it is not unusual for those who you are close to, to offer support," he told parliament.

"Mr Maguire approached me...he said: 'You're living out of a suitcase, and this is basically something that I should try and help you with.' I took him up on the offer but I offered to pay for it."

He has also said he did not break any rules over Campion's employment because she was not his "partner" at the time.In the 3,000-word letter, the Taliban urged the American people to press their government to withdraw from Afghanistan.

Despite informal and regular contact between the Taliban and senior Afghan officials, there are no prospects of early public peace talks that could bring an end to the protracted war. (Representational Image)

Kabul: In a rambling nearly 3,000-word letter issued Wednesday, the Taliban urged the "American people" to press their government to withdraw from Afghanistan, reminding them that the Afghan war is the longest conflict in which they have been embroiled  and at a cost of "trillions of dollars."

The letter was addressed to "the American people, officials of independent non-governmental organizations and the peace loving Congressmen."

It repeated the Taliban's longstanding offer of direct talks with Washington, which the United States has repeatedly refused, saying peace negotiations should be between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

The letter promised a more inclusive regime, education and rights for all, including women. However, it seemed to rule out power-sharing, saying they had the right to form a government.

"Our preference is to solve the Afghan issue through peaceful dialogue," the letter said. "America must end her occupation and must accept all our legitimate rights, including the right to form a government consistent with the beliefs of our people."

Despite informal and regular contact between the Taliban and senior Afghan officials, there are no prospects of early public peace talks that could bring an end to the protracted war.

In the letter, the Taliban railed against widespread corruption in the government and a burgeoning narcotics industry, from which officials say the insurgents make millions of dollars in taxes and tolls, charging those dealing in the drugs to move their illicit cargo to market. Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium, the raw material used to make heroin.

The letter assailed US President Donald Trump's strategy announced in August 2017, that called for military force to bring a more compliant Taliban to the negotiation table.

"If the policy of using force is exercised for a 100 more years and a 100 new strategies are adopted, the outcome of all of these will be the same as you have observed over the last six months," the letter said.This is the first shipment of food and medicine in the last three months in the area besieged by Syrian troops. Supplies of food and medicines for about 7200 people, equal to 1440 families. The WHO sent 1.8 tons of medicines, sufficient for 10 thousand treatments. Director WFP: "Much more needed". The evacuation of 700 patients is still suspended.

Damascus (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The eastern Ghouta region, a rebel stronghold on the outskirts of Damascus and long under government siege, has received a shipment of aid (in the picture) for the first time in the last three months. For weeks, the UN agencies and NGOs present in the area have appealed to the Syrian authorities to allow the delivery of food, medicines and basic necessities and encourage the evacuation of hundreds of people in critical health conditions.

About 400 thousand people live in the enclave under siege to the east of Damascus, where mortar shells hit even Christian locations in the capital. The area is the subject of repeated government artillery attacks, in an attempt to curb the opposition of the rebel militias.

In recent weeks, hundreds of people have been killed in the context of the offensive launched by the military to regain control of the area.



According to the UN Humanitarian Affairs coordinator, yesterday's delivery of humanitarian aid enabled the delivery of food and supplies to 7200 people. The Syrian Arab Red Crescent (Sarc), an NGO active in the area and involved in the delivery of aid, emphasizes that nine trucks are sufficient to contribute to the needs of 1440 families.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports the sending of 1.8 tons of medicines, sufficient for about 10 thousand treatments.

WHO representative in Syria Elizabeth Hoff adds that stocks include antibiotics, medicines for daily dialysis cycles, insulin, trauma kits, treatment for pneumonia and hospital beds. However, the delivery of aid yesterday in eastern Ghouta is quite small compared to the UN standards. Jakob Kern, director of the World Food Program (WFP) for Syria warns: "Much more is needed".

These statements were re-launched by the UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura who, in an intervention at the UN Security Council, recalled that this delivery "benefits 2% of the population" and "serves much more".

At present there are no official statements from the Syrian government and the evacuation of 700 critically ill patients remains suspended.

Meanwhile, Sweden and Kuwait are preparing a draft resolution to be presented to the Security Council, to reach a ceasefire and ensure continued humanitarian assistance. The UN continues to call for a cease-fire after days of intense bombing that killed at least 200 people in the area. For Damascus, and Russia, the request "is not realistic".

The eastern Ghouta region has been under siege since 2013. This is an area of strategic importance and is completely surrounded by the Syrian regular army units that stop aid delivery. Hence the rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation inside it.Concrete measures have also been taken against forced labour. There is greater awareness of the problem and more freedom to criticise. The authorities have boosted wages, and taken steps to protect at-risk groups. Still, reforms by central authorities are lagging in terms of local implementation.

Geneva (AsiaNews)  A new report released on Tuesday by the United Nations International Labour Organisation (ILO) found that the systematic use of child labour in Uzbekistans cotton harvest has come to an end, and that concrete measures to stop the use of forced labour have been taken.

Under the late President Islam Karimov, entire schools were forced to close in October to send students to pick cotton under tight controls, with scarce food and low wages.

The report, which looked at steps taken to end child labour and forced labour in cotton fields in 2017, is based on 3,000 unaccompanied and unannounced interviews with a representative sample of the countrys 2.6 cotton pickers.

The study shows that the vast majority of the interviewees engaged voluntarily in the annual harvest, and awareness about the unacceptability of both child and forced labour has increased.

It confirms earlier findings that the systematic use of child labour in the cotton harvest has ended, though continued vigilance is required to ensure that children are in school.

In September 2017, the authorities ordered the withdrawal of certain risk groups (students, education and medical personnel) from the harvest at its early stage, and increased wages to attract more voluntary pickers.

The 2017 cotton harvest took place in the context of increased transparency and dialogue, said Beate Andrees, head of the ILOs Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Branch.

This, she noted, has encompassed all groups of civil society, including critical voices of individual activists. This is an encouraging sign for the future.

However, there is still a lag between the sheer amount of new decrees and reforms being issued by the central government and the capacity to absorb and implement these changes at provincial and district levels,Migrants go home making up to 2.98 billion trips by train, bus, or motorcycle. Some 380 million travellers are expected with Thailand and Malaysia as the favourite foreign destinations. Many are hoping for a heavy red envelope. Fireworks have been banned.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Chinese New Year starts at midnight tonight, and will be celebrated in many countries in the Far East.

The new year will usher in the Earth Dog Year. According to the traditional horoscopes, it will be a year of a lot of work, but few results, which will come instead next year.

For hundreds of millions of Chinese, the first task will be going home after a year of work. Many migrants working in the big cities have spent months preparing their holidays with the family.

The lucky ones were able to get tickets on superfast trains, whose seats were booked in just a few hours.

For others, it is buses or motorbikes that can take up to ten hours or almost an entire day to travel to remote villages in Hunan, Guangxi or Guangdong.

An estimated 2.98 billion trips will be made during New Year's holidays.

As one of the few holiday periods in China's labour market, at least 380 million travellers are expected to visit destinations such as Hainan Island, Beijing, and the cities in the Northeast. Outside the country, the most popular destinations are Thailand and Myanmar.

In a message to the nation, President Xi Jinping asked all the people to "work hard". "There will be difficulties in our endeavor, but battling them will also purify our souls and strengthen our faith," Xi said.

Some people are fighting against the commodification of Chinese New Year, pushing for a return to the ancient cultural traditions such as preparing special foods, organising calligraphy exhibits, cleaning the kitchen, following superstitions and experiencing religious feelings.

Many others are only worried about getting a hong bao", a red envelope with new money.

According to a survey of social media, the most generous are the people of Fujian, especially the city of Putian, where red envelopes can contain up to 12,000 yuan (almost US$ 1,900).

However, the authorities have dealt a blow to another old tradition, fireworks. In order to protect air quality, they have been banned.by Jehan Perera*

Local elections results could reverse the process of national reconciliation. Under President Sirisena, relations between the government and ethnic minorities has improved. Now The danger is [. . .] a vicious cycle in which Sinhalese nationalism in the South feeds and sustains the rise of Tamil nationalism in the North.

Colombo (AsiaNews)  Results from Sri Lankas local elections, which saw former President Mahinda Rajapaksas party win big, will jeopardise the process of reforms and national reconciliation undertaken by the current government with great effort after the end of the civil war.

The victory of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (Sri Lanka People's Front, SLPP) took everyone by surprise. Opposition leaders are now saying President Maithripala Sirisenas popular mandate is at an end.

The situation is critical. The performance of the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance headed by Sirisena's Sri Lanka Freedom Party raises questions about the process of national reconciliation that began with his 2015 presidential election.

Prior to the change of government, relations with ethnic minorities and the international community were in a state of acute deterioration. This situation was largely reversed by the present government.

In the past three years the relationship between the government and ethnic communities improved in a significant manner. Ethnic minority parties became partners of the government either by joining it or by having understanding relationships.

The main frame of the reconciliation process that the government has provided is a combination of constitutional reform and transitional justice.

This has enabled a greater measure of power sharing on the one hand, and the delivery of the commitments made to the UN Human Rights Council on the other hand.

With regard to the latter, the government continues to return land taken over by the military during the civil war, and to amend laws relating to terrorism and enforced disappearances. It also set in place the law for an Office of Missing Persons.

The government was proceeding along these two tracks prior to the announcement of local government elections, albeit slowly. [...] [T]he slow pace of reform resulted in disillusionment to the Tamil people who were the main victims of the war in its last phase. This disillusionment has found its political expression in the political rise at these elections of the Tamil Congress in the North [. . .].

There was hope that once the local government elections were concluded the government would restart the reconciliation process that had been put on hold during the campaign period. However, the results of the election put this recommencement into jeopardy.

The opposition SLPP led by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa campaigned on the theme of the governments betrayal of the national interest to LTTE proxies and to the international community.

This touched a responsive chord in the majority ethnic Sinhalese electorate which turned out in larger numbers to vote for the SLPP. The danger now is that this could set off a vicious cycle in which Sinhalese nationalism in the South feeds and sustains the rise of Tamil nationalism in the North.

Irrespective of changes in the government and opposition, it is in the national interest that the reconciliation process should continue. [. . .] [T]he past three years the governments relationship with the ethnic minorities and with the international community has improved greatly.

In the context of failed reconciliation processes elsewhere in the world, Sri Lanka came to be seen as a model of post-war reconciliation to be strengthened and emulated.

The situation should not be permitted to regress into what it was during the period of the previous government when Sri Lanka was at the receiving end of international condemnation and economic sanctions.

Internally, ethnic minorities saw the government as an oppressor and not as a protector. Avoiding a slide towards a vicious cycle requires that the reconciliation process continue without reversal.

In the present post-election circumstances, in which the governments very survival is at stake, it will be difficult for the government to continue with its present reconciliation process if there is opposition to it.

The landslide victories that the SLPP scored in predominantly Sinhalese areas shows that it is too powerful a political force to be kept out of national decision-making on issues as sensitive and controversial as the ethnic conflict.

This suggests that even as the government struggles for its political survival in the remaining two years of its term of office, it needs to constructively engage with the SLPP on the future of the reconciliation process.

As a first step the government needs to identify and engage with the moderates in the SLPP.

*Christian activist and executive director of the National Peace Council (NPC) of Sri LankaKavous Seyed Emami, 64, was a leading member of the Persian Wildlife Foundation. But according to the prosecution he was part of an espionage ring organised by the CIA and Mossad. Irans Revolutionary Guards released a video that ostensibly backs the suicide theory; however, some Iranian lawmakers, activists and the dead mans family have rejected the official version.

Tehran (AsiaNews)  Iranian-Canadian sociologist Kavous Seyed Emami was discretely buried Tuesday under a heavy downpour. About 200 people took part in the funeral ceremony in the small cemetery of the mountain village of Emameh, about 40 km from the capital, Tehran.

According to Iranian authorities, the scholar took his own life in Evin prison, a place where political prisoners and dissidents are held.

Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said that Seyed-Emami was arrested on 24 January for being a member of a spying ring operated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Israels Mossad.

The 64-year-old Seyed-Emami was the managing director of the Persian Wildlife Foundation, one of Irans most important conservationist organisations focused on protecting the countrys biodiversity.

Last Friday (9 February), prison authorities urgently called the scholar's wife to inform her that he had taken his own life.

Family and friends have challenged the official version and do not believe that he committed suicide in his cell.

In Iran itself, many people, including moderate and progressive lawmakers, want to know what really happened as the affair has many loose ends.

An autopsy was recently performed, whose results are expected in the coming days. The dead mans family are especially eager to see the post-mortem report.

Tehran Prosecutor Dolatabadi said the authorities had dismantled an espionage operation conducted by the CIA and Mossad designed to cause environmental crises.

According to the indictment, the Persian Wildlife Foundation was set up about a decade ago as a cover to collect classified information in defence and missile fields.

Its members had infiltrated the local scientific community and collected sensitive information, including data about missile bases.

For Prosecutor Dolatabadi, Seyed-Emami was one of the main contacts for US agents and an intelligence officer had stayed at his home.

Allegedly, one of the main financial backers of the network is an Iranian-American, Morad Tahbaz, who also holds British citizenship. He too is a member of the Persian Wildlife Foundation and was arrested last month.

Recently, Irans Revolutionary Guards (Pasdaran) released a video ostensibly showing Seyed-Emamis last hours as evidence of the official claim of suicide. However, several Iranian lawmakers, after seeing it, have raised doubts about its veracity, and have demanded further investigations.

One of them is Ali Motahhari, a deputy speaker of Irans Majlis (parliament). He said that the video does not show the moment when the scholar took his own life by hanging himself with his shirt.

In fact, according to some anonymous sources, Seyed-Emamis death is related to renewed infighting between Irans right-wing (Pasdaran and conservatives) and the moderate-reformist camp close to President Hassan Rouhani.

The bone of contention appears to be the presidents soft stance at home and towards the West, including the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JPCOA) in 2015.by Shafique Khokhar

Police arrested four people in connection with phoney blood samples taken from at least 12 women. The criminals promised government medical assistance but instead took advantage of the victims poverty.

Lahore (AsiaNews)  A criminal gang in Punjab stole spinal fluid from poor women, unaware that they were undergoing a delicate medical operation, and sold it on the black market. Police discovered the scam and arrested four people.

The criminals were active in the Hafizabad area  and took advantage of their victims poverty, and enrolled in a phoney government-funded medical assistance programme.

Various health care specialists spoke to AsiaNews about the issue. This is a crime against humanity, said Dr Ammar Aslam, Services Hospital Lahore. Its sad to see human organs and parts stolen but what is to be determined is who the clients are and who is buying this stuff from them.

According to police who broke up the gang, at least 12 women were the victims of the deception, including a teenager. In fact, the scam came to light after the father of a 17-year-old woman noticed that she was very weak after what he thought was a medical examination.

The crooks tricked the victims by telling them that they were just going to provide a blood sample, said regional police officer Ashfaq Ahmed Khan. But instead of taking them to the hospital, they were brought to the home of a female gang member to have spinal fluid removed.

Stealing spinal fluid is a new scam in our country, said Aslam Masih, deputy head of the Lay Camillian Family, a Catholic NGO. In Pakistan, he explained, 30 per cent of the population (about 59 million people) lives below the poverty line. Only an experienced surgeon can perform a similar procedure. This is why those arrested should not be treated as ordinary criminals."

The Catholic association has been working in rural Punjab since 2001. It raises awareness about the risks of illegal medical practices, and its employees visit the sick and organises free medical camps.

Last year it set up three such camps in the Okara district, providing screening and free medical drugs for the poor.

Even in our medical missions, we only prick fingers to get a few drops of blood, Aslam Masih said. The government should expand its search to break up this network of murderers.

For Dr Bilal Ahmad, it is unclear what the purpose of this gang was. If the quantity [of spinal fluid] increases above a certain level, it can lead to permanent paralysis and even death. The needle can damage the hindbrain. Media and government health facilities should raise awareness.

This is worse than organ trafficking, said Cecil Shane Chaudhry, executive director of the National Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Pakistan. We demand a thorough investigation. Those responsible should be taken to task.

Hamza Arshad, writer, researcher and activist, believes that the case "shows the bankruptcy of [Pakistani] society. People want to become rich overnight. Many gangs act with impunity.

"Some make porn movies of children; others extract kidneys; and still others are involved in land frauds and forged documents."

"All these vile actions take place under the sun, he laments, and now this scandal. In his view, It is due to a weak justice system and institutional flaws. Sadly, The poor fall prey to false promises, often with dangerous consequences ".

(Kamran Chaudhry contributed to this article)by Paolo Fossati

The Asian continent is different from all the others since it is extremely varied in terms of religions, cultures and economic realities," the prelate said. In Singapore, faith is a fundamental component for the countrys development.

Rome (AsiaNews)  Mgr William Goh Seng Chye, archbishop of Singapore, discussed a number of issues with AsiaNews the day after his meeting with Pope Francis, issues like the reality of Asia, the life of the Church and religious harmony in Singapore, and his personal observations about Amoris Laetitia.

Nine years after the last ad limina visit, the 11 bishops of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei (BCMSB) visited the Vatican between 4 and 9 February, to honour the tomb of the holy apostles Peter and Paul and meet Pope Francis.

Born in Singapore in 1957, Mgr Goh was ordained archdiocesan priest in 1985. For four years, he was assistant parish priest at the Holy Cross Church before travelling to Rome in 1992 to finish his studies in dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Upon his return home, he taught and lectured at the St Francis Xavier Major Seminary of (SFXMS) between 1992 and 2005.

In 2005, Mgr Goh was appointed SFXMS rector and spiritual director of the Catholic Spiritual Centre, a position he held until his ordination as the fourth archbishop of Singapore in 2013. What follows is the first part (of three) of an interview with Mgr Goh.

"The real challenges for the Catholic Church are here in Asia, said Mgr William Goh Seng Chye, during his first ad limina visit to the Vatican as archbishop of Singapore. "The Asian continent is different from all the others, since it is extremely varied in terms of religions, cultures and economic realities," he added. In this context, Singapore stands out as a reality in its own right.

"It is a very particular Asian country, characterised by strong economic and technological progress, perhaps similar to South Korea and Hong Kong. Together with Malaysia and Brunei, it belongs to a Bishops Conference that brings together nations that face different political, economic and religious challenges.

Singapore is a unique country, the expression of a cosmopolitan and highly educated society. More than 40 per cent of its residents have at least one university degree. About 75 per cent of the population is ethnic Chinese, but there are important Malay (13.5 per cent) and Indian (9 per cent) communities.

One of the peculiarities that characterise the rich city-state is the relationship between the government and religion. "Unlike other countries, the prelate explained. However, we like to define ourselves more as a 'multicultural and multi-religious state'. The government is in fact secular in order to preserve the unity of the nation, but most ministers and officials profess a faith. The state is not against religion, but is in favour of it, seeing it as a fundamental component for the countrys development.

The government provides important support to all religions, without favouritism. For example, it is customary to invite religious leaders to take part in numerous meetings and ask them for advice on issues affecting the country, especially from a moral and social point of view.

Some ministries, like the Ministry of the Family or the Ministry of Education, collaborate closely with religious leaders. Along with youth policies, these are the areas in which the government invites us to express opinions because we all work for the good of the country."

The collaboration between the State and religions for the countrys development is also reflected in the archbishops personal involvement. "I was appointed presidential advisor for minority rights and religious harmony. Thanks to the work of governmental interethnic and inter-religious bodies, there are frequent occasions for discussion and talks among all groups in Singapores cosmopolitan society. Our ability to live together peacefully, especially among different religions, is truly a miracle.

Among the various initiatives, religious groups have set up a non-governmental organisation, the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO), which provides a significant place for sharing different experiences of faith, this thanks to the important help from the government. All this makes Singapore a truly unique reality, where every religious problem is dealt with directly among religious leaders, even with a phone call. This is the beauty of our country, there are no conflicts," the archbishop said.

"All religions are on the same level and do not exercise any political power. Instead, all the countries that surround Singapore have a dominant religion, favoured by their governments. When this happens, the tendency to discriminate against others is strong. Unlike what happens in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, religions in Singapore do not have political power and do not seek it. For this reason, dialogue is easier and the common goal is the good of the country.

Whenever foreign delegations visit Singapore, they make sure to meet local religious leaders. Recently, even Prince Charles of England visited the country and held talks with leaders on how to promote religious harmony. In Singapore we try to be a model, but ultimately the problem of many countries is the mutual exploitation of religion and politics. This is why I believe that elsewhere our system may not be effective ", Mgr Goh noted.

The day before the interview, Mgr Goh met Pope Francis along the bishops of Malaysia and Brunei. The archbishop said that these countries are very different from one another. For this reason, during the audience with the pontiff, the presentation of each took a long time. "As a result, there was little time for questions and observations," the archbishop explained.

Still, "We managed to have a very meaningful talk, Mgr Goh said. 'Ask me all the questions you want, any! Even if you do not like the pope, you can tell me," Pope Francis told us with the humility that is his trademark. He was present like a father and as such he listened to us.

For my part, I asked him two questions that are close to my heart. First, I explained my curiosity about the efficiency of a structure organised around small dicasteries in the context of a universal institution to which billions of people belong. After, I asked for clarifications on the theme of communion for the divorced included in Amoris Laetitia, Pope Franciss second apostolic exhortation.

Many in the Church have doubts and are uncertain. Such confusion and division also frighten me, but the Holy Father told me: 'Chapter VIII cannot be decontextualised. It is only the end of the exhortation. Chapter IV is more important, where its principles are explained. For Pope Francis, the question cannot be reduced to whether divorced people can receive communion or not?' Rather, the question is: 'How can we reach them, [and] assist them from a spiritual point of view?' Unfortunately, sometimes there are different approaches between academics and those involved in grassroots pastoral outreach. Pope Francis belongs to the latter group.by Willy Wo-Lap Lam

After getting his Thoughts consecrated in the constitutions of the state and the party, Xi Jinping places his "allies and cronies" in important roles, marking the rise to power of the stars of the Sixth Generation. Yet, no legitimate heir is waiting in the wings, although one could emerge at the next Congress, in 2022. Courtesy of the Jamestown Foundation .

Hong Kong (AsiaNews)  In mid-January, the Chinese Communist Party further confirmed Xi Jinpings status as the second-most powerful politician since Chairman Mao Zedong by enshrining Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a new era in the State Constitution. This followed Xi Thoughts insertion into the CCP Constitution at the 19th Party Congress in October (Peoples Daily, January 24; Radio Free Asia, January 19). Since the CCPs foundation in 1921, no leader other than Mao has earned such an elevated place in the party pantheon. In Chinese elite politics, however, what matters most is whether a paramount leader can fill senior positions in the Party and the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) with his allies and cronies.

In the run-up to and at the 19th Party Congress, Xi appointed dozens of his proteges to the Politburo as well as top Party posts such as the heads of the Central Committee General Office, the Organization Department and the Propaganda Department (BBC Chinese, October 25, 2017; HK01.com [Hong Kong], October 25, 2017). Moreover, in the wake of the massive restructuring of the PLA command-and-control apparatus in December 2015 and January 2016, Central Military Commission (CMC) Chairman and Commander-in-Chief Xi named trusted generals to scores of senior military slots. The purge of enemy factions in the PLA was completed with the arrest early this month of former Chief of the General Staff General Fang Fenghui on alleged corruption. Fang was linked to the two big tigers of the PLA, former Central Military Commission vice-chairmen Generals Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, who were arrested under Xis orders in 2015 (Xinhua, January 9; Global Times, January 9). In the New Year, Xi moved to further consolidate his hold over the military through the virtual merger of the PLA and the quasi-military Peoples Armed Police. The PAP, which had been under the dual control of the CMC and the State Council since its founding in 1982, will henceforward report only to the CMC (Apple Daily [Hong Kong], December 27, 2017; Oriental Daily [Hong Kong], November 5, 2017).

What is perhaps even more significant is that after the 19th Party Congress, the core leader and zuigaotongshuai (; supreme commander) has been filling top regional poststhe party secretaries, governors and mayors of important provinces and citieswith members of the so-called Xi Jinping Faction. Reshuffles have also taken place at the vice-governor level or equivalent in almost all of Chinas 31 major administrative districts (China News Service, January 7). The Xi Faction refers mainly to Xis subordinates, associates and followers when he served in Fujian (1985-2002), Zhejiang (2002-2007) and Shanghai (2007). Sub-sets of the Faction consist of cadres who have worked in his home province of Shaanxi, as well as graduates of Tsinghua University, Xis alma mater. Shaanxi-related officials have gained Xis trust through taking good care of the many members of the Shaanxi-based Xi Clan (See China Brief, June 9, 2017). This will ensure that Xi will be spared the conundrum that has bedeviled generations of top leaders, namely orders cannot go beyond the Zhongnanhai [party headquarters] to the rest of the country.

These appointments have confirmed the fact that the Xi Faction is now the most dominant clique within the higher echelons of regional administrations. Highest-ranked Xi cronies who have benefitted from the latest reshuffles are Shanghai Party Secretary Li Qiang (born 1959) and Guangdong Party Secretary Li Xi (1956). A former party secretary of Jiangsu, one of Chinas richest provinces, Li Qiang spent the bulk of his career in Zhejiang. He was the party secretary of the quasi-capitalist haven of Wenzhou and secretary-general of the provincial party committee when Xi was party boss of the same province. Li Xi served in Shaanxi from 2004 to 2011, during which he cultivated good ties Xis relatives in the central China province. Both were inducted into the Politburo at the 19th Party Congress. Another Shaanxi alumnus who has made good is Wang Dongfeng (1958), who was based in Xis native province from 1981 to 2004. He was named Deputy Party Secretary of Tianjin in 2013 and Mayor of the metropolis in early 2017. Shortly after the 19th Party Congress, Wang was promoted Party Secretary of Hebei Province (Caixin.com, January 4; Ming Pao [Hong Kong], January 1; Peoples Daily, November 1, 2017; South China Morning Post, October 29, 2017).

Yet the biggest contingent of Xi Faction affiliates who have been rewarded with promotions comprises his underlings and associates in Fujian and Zhejiang. Take, for example the newly appointed Fujian Party Secretary Yu Weiguo (born 1955). Yu began his career in Fujian in 1995 as Assistant Party Secretary of the port city of Xiamen, which is also where Xi served when he first arrived in the coastal province in 1985. Yu rose to the position of Xiamen Party Secretary in 2009. From 2013, he climbed the Fujian hierarchy rapidly by becoming first Deputy Party Secretary, then Governor and now Party Secretary. Another fast-rising member of the Xi Faction is Tang Yijun (1961), who was installed Mayor of Chongqing early this month. Tang, who spent almost his entire career in Zhejiang was in charge of the anti-corruption apparatus during the five years Xi was based in the rich coastal province. Last year, Tang attained the rank of Party Secretary of the major city of Ningbo as well as Deputy Party Secretary of the province before his transfer to Chongqing (Caixin.com, October 30, 2017; Tianjin Radio, October 29, 2017).

Also consider the intriguing career of Hu Huping (born 1962), who was appointed Party Secretary of Shaanxi earlier this month. After graduating with a degree in hydraulic engineering at Tsinghua University, he worked in teaching and administrative posts at Chinas premier institute of learning until he became Party Secretary of Tsinghua from 2008 to 2013. Hu was transferred to Zhejiang in 2013, where he served for two years as Director of the provincial Organization Department. He was then promoted to be Deputy Party Secretary of Shaanxi in 2015, after which he rose rapidly through the ranks to become the provinces No. 1 cadre (Singtao Daily [Hong Kong], October 30, 2017; CCTV.com, October 29, 2017).

Apart from Xis proteges and cronies, a number of newly elevated cadres have backgrounds in the defense, aerospace and high-tech sectors. This tallies with Xis belief that there should be a symbiotic relationship between the civilian and military sectors (See China Brief, October 26, 2014). One of the most famous members of this so-called Defense-Aerospace Faction in party politics is Zhang Guoqing (born 1964), who was transferred early January from Mayor of Chongqing to Mayor of Tianjin. An electrical engineer by training, Zhang spent almost his entire career at the China North Industries Group Corp (Norinco), which is Chinas largest arms manufacturer. Nicknamed the young marshal of the defense industry, Zhang became a Vice-President of Norinco in 1996, when he was barely 32-years-old. After serving as Norincos President from 2008 to 2013, he was transferred to Chongqing as Deputy Party Secretary, and later, Mayor (Economics Daily, January 2; Lianhe Zaobao [Singapore], January 1).

Equally meteoric is the career of the new Party Secretary of Liaoning Chen Qiufa (born 1954), who worked for decades in the defense and aerospace establishment. While he was trained in electrical engineering at the National Defense University, Chen held posts in the administrative and disciplinary fields at the now-defunct Ministry of Aerospace Industry, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, and the Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND). From 2000 to 2013, he was Vice-Minister at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), which has close ties to the military R&D establishment. Chen was appointed Deputy Party Secretary of Liaoning in 2015. He subsequently became governor, and early this month, Party Secretary of the northeastern province (Ming Pao, October 1, 2017). Another ex-MIIT technocrat who has won Xis favor is Lou Qinjian (1956), who was MIIT Vice-Minister from 2008 to 2010. Previously, Lou, who has a doctorate in computer science, served in research and administrative positions at the now-defunct Ministry of Electronic Industry (1982-1998) and the Ministry of Information Industry (a forerunner of MIIT) from 1998 to 2008. Transferred to Shaanxi as vice-governor in 2010, Lou rose to the top post of Party Secretary of the province in 2016. He was transferred to Jiangsu one month after the 19th Party Congress (Peoples Daily, January 23, 2018; Jiangsu Party Committee News, October 27, 2017).

One major takeaway of these personnel developments is that several Sixth Generation (roughly defined as cadres born in the late 1950s to the late 1960s) rising stars have been identified who could become candidates as Xis successor. Until the 19th Party Congress, attention had been focused on the Chongqing Party Secretary Chen Miner (born 1960), who seemed to enjoy the patronage of Xi. However, apart from involvement in poverty relief when he was a top official in impoverished Guizhou Province (see China Brief, December 8, 2017), Chens career lacks involvement in important policies that typically mark a national-level cadre. Chens 6G competitors include Shanghai Party Secretary Li Qiang (1959), Shaanxi Party Secretary Hu Heping (1962), Hebei Party Secretary Wang Dongfeng (1958), Tianjin Mayor Zhang Guoqing (1964), Chongqing Mayor Tang Liangzhe (1960) and Liaoning Governor Tang Yijun (1961). 6G rising stars coming from the party system are represented by Ding Xuexiang (1962), the Head of the Personal Office of President Xi Jinping (), who was promoted to the Politburo with the substantive post of Director of the Central Committee General Office at the 19th Party Congress (Oriental Daily [Hong Kong], October 24, 2017; Ming Pao, August 15, 2017).

The fact that the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee endorsed by the 19th Party Congress did not contain any 6G potential successors is a good indication that Xi (born 1953) plans to remain the paramount leader at least until the 21st Party Congress in 2027. It is, however, likely that at the 20th Party Congress scheduled for 2022, at least one 6G cadre will be inducted into the PBSC as heir-apparent to Xi. In the well-established party tradition, this leader-in-waiting will undertake a five-year apprenticeship for the post of General Secretary. Given that it is also an ingrained CCP convention that the General Secretary must have ample experience serving in local-level administration, Xis successor could well emerge among the 6G regional cadres elevated in the past few months. Apart from achievements in traditional areas such as GDP growth, these competitors for Xis mantle must above all demonstrate that they would profess total and unqualified fealty to what his admirers call the Mao Zedong of the 21st Century.By Jonathan Knott, Associate Research Fellow in Battery R&D, University of Wollongong

Paul Jones/UOW, Author provided

Lithium-ion remains the most widespread battery technology in use today, thanks to the fact that products that use it are both portable and rechargeable. It powers everything from your smartphone to the worlds biggest battery in South Australia.

Demand for batteries is expected to accelerate in coming decades with the increase in deployment of electric vehicles and the need to store energy generated from renewable sources, such as solar photovoltaic panels. But rising concerns about mining practices and shortages in raw materials for lithium-ion batteries  as well as safety issues  have led to a search for alternative technologies.

Many of these technologies arent being developed to replace lithium-ion batteries in portable devices, rather theyre looking to take the pressure off by providing alternatives for large-scale, stationary energy storage.

Australian companies and universities are leading the way in developing innovative solutions, but the path to commercial success has its challenges.





Read more:

A month in, Tesla's SA battery is surpassing expectations





Australian alternatives

Flow batteries

In flow batteries the cathode and anode are liquids, rather than solid as in other batteries. The advantage of this is that the stored energy is directly related to the amount of liquid. That means if more energy is needed, bigger tanks can be easily fitted to the system. Also, flow batteries can be completely discharged without damage  a major advantage over other technologies.

ASX-listed battery technology company Redflow has been developing zinc-bromine flow batteries for residential and commercial energy storage. Meanwhile, VSUN Energy is developing a vanadium-based flow battery for large-scale energy storage systems.

Flow batteries have been receiving considerable attention and investment due to their inherent technical and safety advantages. A recent survey of 500 energy professionals saw 46% of respondents predict flow battery technology will soon become the dominant utility-scale battery energy storage method.









from Redflow





Ultrabatteries

Lead-acid batteries were invented in 1859 and have been the backbone of energy storage applications ever since. One major disadvantage of traditional lead-acid batteries is the faster they are discharged, the less energy they can supply. Additionally, the lifetime of lead-acid batteries significantly decreases the lower they are discharged.

Energy storage company Ecoult has been formed around CSIRO-developed Ultrabattery technology  the combination of a lead-acid battery and a carbon ultracapacitor. One key advantage of this technology is that it is highly sustainable  essentially all components in the battery are recyclable. Ultrabatteries also address the issue of rate-dependent energy capacity, taking advantage of the ultracapacitor characteristics to allow high discharge (and charge) rates.

These batteries are showing excellent performance in grid-scale applications. Ecoult has also recently received funding to expand to South Asia and beyond.









from www.ecoult.com









Read more:

Politically charged: do you know where your batteries come from?





Repurposed storage solutions

Rechargeable batteries are considered to have reached their end of life when they can only be charged to 80% of their initial capacity. This makes sense for portable applications  a Tesla Model S would have a range of 341 km compared to the original 426 km. However, these batteries can still be used where reduced capacity is acceptable.

Startup Relectrify has developed a battery management system that allows end of life electric vehicle batteries to be used in residential energy storage. This provides a solution to mounting concerns about the disposal of lithium-ion batteries, and reports that less than 5% of lithium-ion batteries in Europe are being recycled. Relectrify has recently secured a A$1.5m investment in the company.









from Relectrify





Thermal energy storage

Energy can be stored in many forms  including as electrochemical, gravitational, and thermal energy. Thermal energy storage can be a highly efficient process, particularly when the sun is the energy source.

Renewable energy technology company Vast Solar has developed a thermal energy storage solution based on concentrated solar power (CSP). This technology gained attention in Australia with the announcement of the worlds largest CSP facility to be built in Port Augusta. CSP combines both energy generation and storage technologies to provide a complete and efficient solution.

1414 degrees is developing a technology for large-scale applications that stores energy as heat in molten silicon. This technology has the potential to demonstrate very high energy densities and efficiencies in applications where both heat and electricity are required. For example, in manufacturing facilities and shopping centres.

Research and development

Sodium-ion batteries

At the University of Wollongong Im part of the team heading the Smart Sodium Storage Solution (S4) Project. Its a A$10.5 million project to develop sodium-ion batteries for renewable energy storage. This ARENA-funded project builds upon previous research undertaken at the University of Wollongong and involves three key battery manufacturing companies in China.

Weve selected the sodium-ion chemistry for the S4 project because it sidesteps many of the raw materials issues associated with lithium-ion batteries. One of the main materials we use to manufacture our batteries is sodium chloride  better known as table salt  which is not only abundant, but also cheap.

Well be demonstrating the sodium-ion batteries in a residential application at University of Wollongongs Illawarra Flame House and in an industrial application at Sydney Waters Bondi Sewage Pumping Station.









Paul Jones/UOW





Gel-based zinc-bromine batteries

Gelion, a spin-off company from the University of Sydney, is developing gel-based zinc-bromine batteries  similar to the Redflow battery technology. They are designed for use in residential and commercial applications.

The Gelion technology is claimed to have performance comparable with lithium-ion batteries, and the company has attracted significant funding to develop its product. Gelion is still in the early stages of commercialisation, however plans are in place for large-scale manufacturing by 2019.

Challenges facing alternatives

While this paints a picture of a vibrant landscape of exciting new technologies, the path to commercialisation is challenging.

Not only does the product have to be designed and developed, but so does the manufacturing process, production facility and entire supply chain  which can cause issues bringing a product to market. Lithium-ion batteries have a 25 year headstart in these areas. Combine that with the consumer familiarity with lithium-ion, and its difficult for alternative technologies to gain traction.

One way of mitigating these issues is to piggyback on established manufacturing and supply chain processes. Thats what were doing with the S4 Project: leveraging the manufacturing processes and production techniques developed for lithium-ion batteries to produce sodium-ion batteries. Similarly, Ecoult is drawing upon decades of lead-acid battery manufacturing expertise to produce its Ultrabattery product.





Read more:

How to make batteries that last (almost) forever





Some challenges, however, are intrinsic to the particular technology.

For example, Relectrify does not have control over the quality or history of the cells it uses for their energy storage  making it difficult to produce a consistent product. Likewise, 1414 degrees have engineering challenges working with very high temperatures.

Forecasts by academics, government officials, investors and tech billionaires all point to an explosion in the future demand for energy storage. While lithium-ion batteries will continue to play a large part, it is likely these innovative Australian technologies will become critical in ensuring energy demands are met.

Jonathan Knott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Originally published in The Conversation.Picketing workers and management from Australian Paper have sat down for a second meeting with the Fair Work Commission (FWC), which will now decide to either suspend the picket, or force the company to negotiate.

At the latest meeting held at the FWC staff representative and AMWU delegate Dean Griffith argued that the workers have always been ready to negotiate, with Australian Paper refusing to come to the table while the industrial action has taken place.

The head of Australian Paper HR, Rod Beales, was called to the witness stand and questioned by both parties, and FWC Commissioner Sarah McKinnon, as was Griffith, and Australian Paper management.

Australian Paper applied to have the picket line suspended, which can be done through sections 425 and 426 of the Fair Work Act. Companies can argue the case that the picket line is causing harm to a third party, or that the suspension of the action would be beneficial to resolving the dispute.

Griffiths says, The company put it a request to get the picket line terminated. They put up their case, we put up our argument over keeping the line.

We have said we are open to negotiations, but the company keeps holding ground that while action takes place it is not going to happen.

The company tried to get a suspension, they first asked for a two week suspension, then while we were in there they expanded that to four weeks.

The Commissioner asked me if a suspension of the picket line be helpful to getting negotiations up. I said we never put the negotiations on hold, it was the company.

The Commissioner then asked the company why did it not deal with them. The company said Nippon (the owner) does not negotiate with employees while they take industrial action.

She will hand down a finding following evidence, as to whether the line will be suspended, or whether we can keep the line and force the company to negotiate.

Griffiths says he expects to hear from the FWC either this afternoon, or tomorrow morning.

The line is still up, everyone is still on it, we are waiting for the commissioner to come up with her findings.

Everyone is staying strong and the outstanding points are non-negotiable. We hope they put pressure on the company to force them to the tables.

As for how the company has been operating following the month-long picket, Griffith says, From my understanding, they are bringing envelopes in from Malaysia, the warehouse is nearly dry, and instead of going through the warehouse the orders are going straight to the customer.

Australian Printer contacted Australian Paper for comment, but did not hear back from them prior to publication.

Comment below to have your say on this story.

If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at [email protected]

Sign up to the Sprinter newsletterWhat started as a quest to apprehend a stolen rental van has led San Francisco-based Bandango Van Rentals owner Sharky Laguana to enter the political sphere in an effort to change the laws that made it so difficult for him report, track down, and reclaim his stolen property.

In early February, Laguana said a woman signed a contract for a one-day van rental. The next day, a man, who Laguana said sounded to be under the influence, called asking to extend the rental by a month. Laguana informed him that the woman who signed the contract was the only one authorized to extend the rental period.

The woman never called, and the vehicle wasnt returned.

...this gentleman called several more times, and always trying to extend the rental for a month, always sounding like he was under the influence, and not necessarily terribly coherent, he said.

Under California law, rental companies must wait five days after a car is due to report it as embezzled. Companies must also show proof that they sent a certified letter demanding the vehicle be returned.

After sending a letter that was undeliverable because the mailing address was a UPS store, Laguana said he knew the vehicle was stolen.

However, as he prepared to take all the necessary information to the San Francisco Police Department to report the vehicle embezzled, the stolen van pulled out in front of him on the expressway.

This is where the story gets crazy: Im driving back from a dental appointment just before 5pm and notice Im right behind one of our vans. Thinking they are returning I call the office to give them a heads up and holy shit its the stolen van! Heres a pic I took while following pic.twitter.com/WisYoLsGFE  Sharky Laguana (@Sharkyl) February 9, 2018

What ensued was hours of following and staking the vehicle out as it stopped at various points throughout the city, first at a Korean restaurant and eventually a parked location in the Mission District.

During this time, Laguana and one of his employees (who declines to be mentioned by name), repeatedly tried to have a police escort join them so they could reclaim the vehicle.

Our goal at that point was to have the police provide us an escort, and ask the people to exit the vehicle so that we could claim the vehicle and drive it home, Laguana said. We did not need, or at any point ever request that the police arrest the individuals. In fact, quite the opposite, I made it very clear that I was not wanting the occupants arrested, I just wanted to recover our vehicle.

However, Laguana said SFPD stopped being interested in apprehending the vehicle once they were told it was "a rental.

As soon as they found out it was the rental car, they weren't interested in helping us anymore, he said. They said, This is the SFPD, we're not going to chase your van all over the city. And I said, Okay. Well, we're following, obeying all traffic rules, staying a safe distance, and I was hoping just that when it comes to a stop, maybe you guys could come out to us. This is a civil matter; we're not going to help you."

Once the stolen van ended up in the Mission, the employee took his dog on a walk by the van to get a better look at who was inside. Laguana said at this point, a police officer pulled up next to him.

So I get out of my car, I say, excuse me officer, can I borrow a minute of your time. This time I'm very upfront about it being a rental vehicle, because of what had happened previously. I didn't want to waste anybody's time, Laguana said.

After going with the officer to the police station across the street and retelling the whole ordeal, the officer said that he couldnt help until all the paper work was filled out and original copies of all supporting documents were filed. Laguana knew this could take hours and that the vehicle could very well be gone by the time they finished.

So, he took a risk and bluffed.

So [my employee and I] walk up to the van, we ask them to roll down the window And then I say,  we're from Bandago, and this vehicle, I just reported it stolen at the police station right there, and I point across the street to where the police station is.

Laguana said he didnt want to press charges, only the van returned.

The presence of the police station was enough, and after about 15 minutes all occupants of the vehicle left.

After going home, Laguana took to Twitter to retell the whole ordeal and to express his frustration, not just with SFPD, but with the laws that made it so difficult to report and apprehend the van in the first place.

Now, Laguana said he is helping to write new legislation, with the help and support of the American Car Rental Association, which will make it easier for rental car companies to track and reclaim vehicles that are deemed stolen.

Happy to participate to solve this problem. Thank you for your advocacy.  Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) February 12, 2018

Although the details and language of the legislations hasnt been approved or finalized, Laguana said that he wants to focus on being able to immobilize vehicles that are considered embezzled  either though remote, GPS, ignition lock or a boot put on by the city.

Through his Twitter rant, Laguana received support from several California state senators and assemblymembers. He also recieved a lot of media attention, with several local news stations reaching out to tell the story.

In a statement from Assemblymember David Chius office, the San Francisco representative said that this is not how government should work. The statement indicated Chiu will be working with colleagues to determine the appropriate next steps.

Laguana also said he had been in contact with SFPDs media relations, which he called a productive conversation.

In a statement provided to ABC7News, SFPD said that the situation is being investigated internally.Photo via Tribes of the World/Flickr

Saudi Arabia is requiring car rental office employees to be Saudi nationals beginning March 19, according to an article by the Saudi Gazette.

The article reported the Ministry of Labor and Social Development aims to increase the employment of nationals in the job market and will provide support and training to Saudi citizens to enable them to work in the car rental sector.

It only applies to the front desk staff currently so supervisors and managers will still be mainly expats, said Bob Farrow, a Middle East car rental consultant. I think over next few years in Saudi there will be more and more moves along these lines, already they have introduced a basic form of taxation on expat staff and their companies.Photo of autonomous LEAF at the 2014 Geneva auto show courtesy of Nissan.

The U.S. Transportation Department will hold a summit on March 1 to identify priority federal and non-federal activities that can accelerate the safe roll-out of autonomous vehicles.

The meeting will take place at the department's headquarters in Washington, D.C., with anticipated attendance by key stakeholders including auto manufacturers, technology companies, road safety advocates and policymakers. It will also be open to the public.

The conference was prompted in part by recent reports that the Trump administration plans to unveil revised self-driving car guidelines this summer as the government sets out to rewrite regulations that pose barriers to robot vehicles.

While the U.S. National Highway Traffic-Safety Administration (NHTSA) has gone on record that it wants to identify any "unnecessary regulatory barriers" to self-driving cars, the group will use the forum to seek comments on what types of research to conduct before determining whether to eliminate or re-write regulations.

The agenda for the summit will include "several stakeholder breakout sessions on various topics related to automation," according to NHTSA.

In September, landmark legislation to speed the introduction of self-driving cars unanimously passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, but stalled in the Senate. Automakers must meet nearly 75 auto safety standards, many of which were written with the assumption that a licensed driver will be in control of the vehicles. While several automakers lobbied for the legislation, auto safety groups called for further safeguards.

Last September, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced the first set of revisions to the guidelines by the Obama administration.

Originally posted on Automotive FleetStuart Rothenberg, founder of the Rothenberg Political Report and a go-to political analyst for national newspapers and network news programs, will speak at the 2018 International Car Rental Show. Rothenberg will be the featured speaker for the American Car Rental Associations (ACRA) general seminar. Political pundit Stuart Rothenberg has been a regular contributor to CNN and PBS NewsHour. (Photo courtesy of Leading Authorities, Inc.)

One of the preeminent political pundits of the last three decades, Rothenberg writes a weekly column for Capitol Hills Roll Call and has also written for The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post. His network television appearances include Meet the Press, Face the Nation, and Nightline, and he has been a regular contributor to CNN and PBS NewsHour.



There seems to be more uncertainty in politics today than ever before, says Gordon Reel, vice president, Government & Public Affairs for Enterprise Holdings and ACRA board member. ACRA brought Stu in to give attendees his insights on which way the political winds are blowing  and why. Having his keen insight will help ACRA and its constituents be prepared.



For ACRA to be able to bring Stuart Rothenberg to the 2018 ICRS is a coup, and his knowledge and perspective further fortify the high-level education of this years agenda, says Chris Brown, executive editor of Auto Rental News.



To have an in-person perspective from one of Washington, D.C.s true insiders is a first and a coup for ACRA and the International Car Rental Show, says Chris Brown, executive editor of Auto Rental News. Rothenbergs address rounds out the already high-level, wide-ranging, and in-depth programming offered at this years event.



ACRAs general session will take place at 10am, April 16. The 2018 International Car Rental Show convenes April 15-17 at Ballys Las Vegas.George Frey/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Former Massachusetts Governor and one-time Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is getting ready to announce he will run for the U.S. Senate in Utah, according to senior advisers familiar with the matter.



"Hes probably going to run for the Senate, Ron Kaufman, a senior adviser to Romney, told ABC News' "Powerhouse Politics Podcast" Wednesday, he added "He really does believe in service to the country."



Romney first re-ignited speculation that he indeed is ready to make another foray into national politics with a tweet at the beginning of February.

What makes Romney's expected announcement and desire to occupy a seat in the Senate particularly interesting is his relationship with the man who currently occupies the Oval Office.



Heres what I know: Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. Hes playing members of the American public for suckers. He gets a free ride to the White House, and all we get is a lousy hat, Romney said in March referring to then-candidate Donald Trump.



The comments were some of the harshest during a bitter 2016 presidential campaign. Now with Romney potentially occupying a seat Congress upper chamber, those tensions between him and the president are sure to resurface.



Romney was a favorite target for Trump on Twitter during the campaign, where the then-presidential candidate called him a dope" and a fool," as well as "one of the dumbest and worst candidates in the history of Republican politics."



Former aides to the former GOP presidential standard-bearer dont expect the bitterness to subside immediately if Romney becomes a senator.



There will be tension there Im sure, Kevin Madden, a senior adviser and spokesman for Romneys 2012 presidential campaign, told ABC News of Romneys relationship with Trump should he succeed Hatch.



I think there are areas where he can be helpful to the White House and there are always areas where hes going to disagree and hes going to be very clear and public about those disagreements, Madden added.



Other former Romney aides do not see his potential Senate campaign as a vehicle to criticize President Trump.



I do not anticipate that Gov. Romneys candidacy will be a protest against the president, Ryan Williams, a former Romney spokesman, told ABC News, Hes not running to take on President Trump. Hes running to get results. But, at the same time, if he sees something undermining Americas ideas or its institutions, I think hell speak out.

For those GOP senators that have already taken up the mantle and spoken out when they believe President Trump has overstepped the boundaries of American political decorum, a Senator Romney who is willing to continue that push back is welcome.



We desperately need more independent voices around here. And hed provide a good one. A loud one, Senator Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., himself an at times vehement Trump critic, told ABC News this week. Flake also said he met with Romney "a couple of weeks ago."



At 72 years old, Romney would be the oldest freshman senator popularly elected to a full term should he win in November. Romney would undoubtedly become one of the most well-known members of the Senate upon his arrival, and speculation over which coveted committee assignments he might seek is already well underway.



I think hes very interested in foreign affairs and on ensuring that we maintain global security and that Americas standing in the world is respected, Williams said.



Madden also posited that Romney has a desire to make his voice heard not only on domestic policy.



I think he does feel he has something to offer on some of the bigger challenges the country is facing. Mainly on the national security and foreign policy front, Madden said, So I think hell look to quickly establish his voice there.

The sitting chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., announced last year that he would not seek re-election in 2018, and even as reports continue to circulate that he may rethink he decision, Romney could still be eyeing a position on the high-profile committee.



I know he served as governor and ran in a presidential race and did a lot of work to understand foreign policy issues, Corker told ABC News this week, I think he's going to be a strong voice on multiple issues, personally.



When asked about whether or not Romney is eyeing a position on the committee he chairs, Corker, referencing his potentially impending retirement, said that decision might be out of his hands.



Well, I may not be here, Corker said.







Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.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.Seventy-five new jobs will be coming to Hernando County over the next three years. Hernando County Commissioners approved an incentive package this week that will bring a new company to the county as well as help expand a current one.

County not naming new company yet

Company will hire 60 employees with wages of $37,506

Interconnect Cable Technologies creating 15 new jobs

Because of a non-disclosure agreement, the county's not naming the company. It will join 125 other businesses that call the land owned by the Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport home.

The county is calling it "Project Diamond."



"One of the reasons we call it 'Project Diamond' is because we have a 285-acre site that we prepared along with Duke Energy a couple of years ago through our site readiness program, and so this is like a diamond in the rough if you will," Hernando County Administrator Leonard Sossoman said.



The new company will be looking to hire 60 new employees with wages of $37,506.

Interconnect Cable Technologies Corporation is also creating 15 new jobs with wages of $32,614. That corporation is one of several companies currently located on the east side of the airport, which is completely built up.

The county's goal now is to keep the development momentum going and bring more companies into the west side of the airport.

"Over the last probably 10 years we've seen a lot of expansion," Valerie Pianta, Manager of Economic Development, said. We've got two million feet of space currently being used by manufacturers and distributors. The airport property is 2,400 acres and we still have 1,000 acres available to expand."



With business growth comes the need for more infrastructure. Sossoman said there are plans to widen Airline Drive leading into the airport's property,

to expand the roads around the area where project diamond will be built, and to develop hundreds of new homes in the county.



"It's good to be able to see the county progressing and moving forward. I don't think we're stagnant at all. I think we're hitting it on all eight cylinders if you will," Sossoman explained.

No information has been released regarding when applications for these new positions will open.

GET OUR NEW APP Our new Spectrum News app is the most convenient way to get the stories that matter to you. Download it here.Originally posted at: 5:20 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018

A former student opened fire at a South Florida high school on Valentine's Day, killing at least two and sending more than a dozen to hospitals, Broward County Sheriff's officials said.

The Ash Wednesday shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland was one of at least four shootings at middle and high schools across the nation since the beginning of the year, reported CNN.

Legislators from the Tampa and Orlando areas expressed their condolences on social media and offered their support to first responders who may head to South Florida to help the students, staff, medical teams and law enforcement agencies in Parkland.

My heart breaks for the victims, students, and teachers of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. My prayers are with them, their loved ones and our first responders. .  Daniel Webster (@RepWebster) February 14, 2018

Following the news on the terrifying shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and praying for the students, teachers and law enforcement officials.  Tom Rooney (@TomRooney) February 14, 2018

We just had a moment of silence on the floor of the Florida House. No words are adequate to lessen the pain. We pray for the victims and families affected. May God comfort them and guide us. #MarjoryStonemanDouglas  Richard Corcoran (@richardcorcoran) February 14, 2018The Vinoy Renaissance Resort plans to add a little more history to its iconic grounds with a new restaurant opening later this month.

New restaurant to be named 'Paul's Landing'

Named for early settler of St. Petersburg

Restaurant scheduled to open Feb. 19

"The Vinoy always matches where historic meets hip, and this trendy new restaurant is grounded in a real person named William Paul," General Manager Barbara Readey said.

Hotel historians said William Paul was one of the earliest settlers in St. Petersburg.

"William Paul was a carpenter in the Navy," Director of Restaurant Operations Mark Heimann said. "Back in the 1850's, the Navy was trying to create a railroad depot. They found this land and [Paul] quickly built a barracks and a smokehouse."

Paul reportedly called the area where the Vinoy now sits "Pauls Landing." He loved the area so much, he brought his family there to start a new life.

"He brought some orange seedlings with him, and planted the first orange grove in South Central Florida and lived here for several years," Heimann said.

The Vinoy is bringing back "Pauls Landing" with a waterfront bar and restaurant. Heimann is incorporating history into the menus.

"We pulled the smoke from the smokehouse, the citrus from the citrus grove he had, and the seafood from the fish he caught in the gulf," Heimann said.

Pauls Landing will open to the general public on Feb. 19.Top health officials are set to take up a sweeping crackdown on the state's nursing homes.

14 people died from heat after Hurricane Irma

State agencies would be more empowered under proposal

Oct. 8: Florida nursing home laying off employees after deaths during Irma



It comes five months after 14 seniors died from sweltering inside a south Florida nursing home in the wake of Hurricane Irma.

There has been a lot of finger pointing going on about just who was to blame for not immediately evacuating that nursing home in Broward County.

Under the plan on the table, each assisted living facility would be required to identify staffers in charge of implementing state-mandated emergency response plans.

State agencies would also be more empowered to bring about enforcement actions, but many critics say this bill doesn't go nearly far enough.

They say there should be undercover investigations done by independent entities.

Stay with Spectrum Bay News 9 and Spectrum News 13 for updates.

The Munich Security Conference begins on Friday. BILD spoke to Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, chairman of the Munich Security Conference.

BILD: Will a wider conflict erupt in the Middle East after an Israeli warplane was shot down in Syria?

Wolfgang Ischinger: I hope not. However, the situation is highly explosive. Iran and Israel are facing each other irreconcilably. The US are not exerting their role as stabilizing power in the region. In addition, it seems, that America has not been fully accepted in that capacity anymore by all parties.

BILD: How dangerous is the Syrian war for Israel?

Ischinger: From Israels point of view, its existancial. Because one of the many war participants in Syria is ironically Iran. Its a country that has a nuclear program that is threatening Israel and that is arming its enemies. Thats how things are viewed in Israel.

BILD: How can an expansion of the conflict be prevented?

Auch Interessant



Ischinger: The most important players have to agree on a common strategy. We need some sort of security architecture for the Middle East. And it should be carried by the most important players, such as the US, Russia, China and the EU

BILD:  the EU? The EU plays a rather minor role in the Syrian conflict?

Ischinger: That is precisely the problem. The EU represents 500 million people. For many countries, it is the most important trade partner, but the EU fails when it comes to foreign policy, as it does in the Middle East. European Heads of State or Secetaries of State travel individually to countries affected by crisis with their own agenda, instead of coordinating their activities and speaking with one voice. We dont have a strategy for the Middle East. Unfortunately, we are engaging in Tourism in the Middle East.

Iran Brussels EU invites mullahs to anti-terror seminar A delegation from Tehran is currently visiting the EU parliament. The reason for the visit is a joint seminar on anti-terror work!

Iranian protest With fast internet, the regime would be gone soon The founders of Amadnews, the biggest Telegram channel of the protests, about how they became the main platform, how the world can help.

BILD: In this regard, what do you expect from the next government?

Ischinger: The next government should aim to ensure that the EU becomes more effective. This will only be possible, if we work together on the basis of majority decisions. As long as every small country is able to prevent a common foreign policy with a veto, the EU will continue to play a secondary role in working to solve international crisis, just as it is currently in Syria. The first step, however, is to forgo veto powers.

BILD: Are you demanding that nation states reliquinsh external responsibility? That contradicts every European vote in recent years, right?

Ischinger: No. People are rejecting the EU because it deals with the curved cucumber rule and it gets involved in their day-to-day trivialities. However, they wish the EU would make their lives safer, protect their borders, fight terrorism and crime. A common European foreign and security policy is the best answer to the right-wing populism of our time. There is no going back to the national idyll of regionalism in Europe.

BILD: Is the establishment of a EU army one step in this direction?

Ischinger: Yes, the establishment of the defence union is an important step in the right direction. We have to be able to represent our interests by greater reliance on military strength. We have to be able to defend ourselves once we have used all tools of diplomacy.

BILD: If we establish a EU army, can we then save money on the Bundeswehr?

Ischinger: On the contrary. Germany serves as a role model here as well. We are not talking about rearmament, we are talking about equipment. The Bundeswehr is squeaking all over the place. Helicopters arent flying, ships are performing poorly, tanks arent driving. We need an intact army to contribute to the EU and NATO. And for that we should use 1,5 percent of the gross national product for defence by the end of the current legislative period. Otherwise, we wont fulfill our obligations to which we subscribed.

BILD: The Munich Security Conference begins on Friday. Will it be possible to restore peace in Syria during the conference?

Ischinger: I dont expect any major breakthrough. But representatives from all parties will attend. I would like to sit them together on stage, so that they can figure out a solution. However, more realistic are informal meetings behind the scenes. And therein lies the true value of the Security Conference. It can help to restore lost confidence and trust.

PS: Sind Sie bei Facebook? Werden Sie Fan von BILD.de-Politik!For Immediate Release, February 15, 2018

Contact: Stephanie Kurose, (202) 849-8395, skurose@biologicaldiversity.org

Trump Budget Puts Elephants, Red Wolves, Whooping Cranes on Path to Extinction

WASHINGTON African elephants, red wolves, salmon and whooping cranes are among the 10 endangered species that would most likely be driven closer to extinction under President Trumps proposed budget for 2019, according to a new Center for Biological Diversity analysis.

The administrations budget proposal released Monday would slash the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services budget by $300 million, or 19 percent. It would cut funding for the Multinational Species Conservation Fund by 45 percent, and the National Marine Fisheries Service budget by 4 percent.

Trumps budget would be a staggering death-blow to some wildlife species that are already trying to fight off extinction, said Stephanie Kurose, endangered species policy specialist at the Center. By starving wildlife recovery programs of funding, Trump is turning his back on hundreds of endangered species that desperately need help. Its despicable.

Among the 10 species most threatened by this budget are: North Atlantic right whale, the Florida grasshopper sparrow, the laurel dace (a small fish that lives in Tennessees Cumberland Mountains), the Puerto Rican parrot, a tree in Hawaii called the Kokio, the Oahu tree snail, and the spring-run chinook salmon of the upper Columbia River.

Trumps proposed budget completely eliminates funding for specific programs that have been essential to preventing critically imperiled species from going extinct, including the Patuxent whooping crane breeding program and the Washington Regional Fisheries Enhancement Group, which supports statewide salmon recovery efforts.

In addition, the administrations proposal completely abolishes state endangered species recovery funding, which is often used by states to manage nongame programs and help animals across the country.

Trumps heartless proposal goes against everything that Americans care about when it comes to endangered species, Kurose said.

Win: Protection Upheld for Arctic's Ringed Seals We celebrated this week when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Endangered Species Act protection for ringed seals, Arctic ice seals threatened by climate change. The ruling reverses a 2016 lower-court decision that rejected protection for the seals, which give birth in snow caves built on top of sea ice. Global warming is causing caves to collapse and leaving pups vulnerable to death by freezing or predation.



The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned to protect these seals in 2008. Four years later they were put on the endangered species list  but the oil industry and the state of Alaska challenged that decision.



"The decision underscores the recklessness of the Trump administration's proposal to open up the Arctic Ocean to oil drilling," said the Center's Kristen Monsell. "Ringed seals have a shot at survival thanks to the Endangered Species Act, but only if we rapidly reduce the greenhouse pollution destroying their habitat."



Read more in Anchorage Daily News. Riccardo Lennart Niels Mayer  123RF.com

Not being able to flush

Not being able to wash

Not enough to drink, and other consequences

What are the authorities planning

This scenario will affect businesses, the economy, education, recreation and social life. It will also have significant implications for the health of people living in Cape Town. The city therefore needs to put plans in place to reduce the risks.The immediate health effects can be categorised into three main areas. Pressure on the sanitation system which raises the prospect of the spread of life threatening diseases such as dysentery; loss of hygiene because people cant wash their hands; dehydration and heat strokes. In addition, there could be other consequences such as stress levels spiking and people becoming violent as they try and access water or over stretched health facilities.Firstly, the city depends on a waterborne sewage system and the inability to flush toilets may lead to a breakdown in sanitation. People may be unable to dispose of faecal waste easily and may resort to disposing of their faeces outside. Many viral, bacterial and protozoal diseases are spread in the faeces and the risk of environmental contamination will significantly increase. Infectious diseases that cause diarrhoea, vomiting or dysentery, such as enteroviruses, salmonella, shigella, or E Coli, will be more likely.In addition, viral hepatitis may also be transmitted in faeces. In other parts of Africa, a breakdown in sanitation has led to outbreaks of infectious diseases. Recently, the city has faced a number of disease outbreaks such as diphtheria and typhoid - it is important to present early to health facilities if an infectious disease is suspected, especially in children.Secondly, the absence of water in taps, wash basins and showers may lead to a loss of hygiene. Skin infections such as impetigo and infestations such as scabies may increase as well as conjunctivitis. A reduction in effective hand washing may also increase the spread of acute respiratory viruses that cause coughs, colds, flu like illnesses, bronchitis and pneumonia.A loss of sanitation and hygiene may also lead to an increase in hand-to-mouth transmission of infectious diseases that cause diarrhoea, vomiting and dysentery as outlined above. A lack of hand hygiene and water to clean food may also lead to an increase in food-borne diarrheal diseases.People with immune deficiencies, such as those with HIV or who are malnourished, may be particularly at risk as well as small babies and the elderly. An increased incidence of diarrhoeal diseases will have a negative impact on childhood nutrition in vulnerable communities.Thirdly, the absence of a readily available water supply may predispose people to dehydration and heat stroke. Children are particularly vulnerable especially if they contract diarrhoea. This would also be a particular risk on very hot days and to those performing manual labour without an adequate supply of fluids. In addition people may be tempted to drink contaminated or non-potable water if they cannot afford to buy water or cannot easily access points of distribution.Lastly, there may be conflict over water as a scarce resource and an increase in unrest, violence and injuries. And some businesses may be unable to function without a water supply and people may lose their income or jobs. This may place increased psycho-social stress on communities and have consequences for mental health as well as harmful alcohol use.Conflict could also break out at health facilities as waiting times and staff workload increase because of a spike in illnesses.To deal with these challenges, various bodies in the City of Cape Town are working together to respond appropriately.For example, the city is working with the police and the National Defence Force to ensure that order is maintained when Day Zero arrives.From an environmental health perspective, there are routine systems in place to monitor and respond to outbreaks in the city. Surveillance for outbreaks will be enhanced over this period.But the water supply to most health facilities will be maintained to enable them to manage ill patients, outbreaks and cases of dehydration.Water will also be supplied through designated distribution points to limit the risk of dehydration, maintain hygiene standards and enable the flushing of toilets through the use of grey water. Areas that are at a high risk of outbreaks such as informal settlements will have their water supply maintained. This will assist with these areas to dispose faeces.Residents are still being encouraged to wash or sanitise their hands to reduce the risk of infectious diseases spreading.South African bean-to-bar chocolate brand De Villiers Chocolate is now offering international consumers a bite of Africa. In the past quarter, the company has secured listings in three major global food retailers: Marks & Spencer in the UK, Cost Plus World Market in the US and David Jones in Australia.

From Hermanus to the world

It's one of the few African chocolate brands to be stocked by multinational, UK-based retailer Marks & Spencer, following a rigorous regional selection process by the groups buyers to determine the best products to include from the continent.De Villiers Chocolate is also listed in Cost Plus World Markets catalogue, a fine food retailer in the US, with close to 300 markets across North America. Australians have also been introduced to the brand, with De Villiers Chocolate stocked by the countrys gourmet food retailer, David Jones  an affiliate company of Woolworths Holdings, the exclusive national retailer of De Villiers Chocolate.The news marks the chocolate company's first venture into international markets, and "a definite highlight for the brand", says owner and chocolate maker Pieter de Villiers. To be granted space in fine food retailers across the globe is an achievement which we, in our humble beginnings, could never imagine.The brand was conceptualised by De Villiers when he was still working as an engineer, and the first batches of chocolates were made in his garage in Hermanus  a small seaside town outside Cape Town  and sold at farmers markets. As popularity grew, De Villiers turned his chocolate-making hobby into a full-scale operation, becoming one of the first chocolate makers in Africa to trade commercially.De Villiers Chocolates global expansion is complemented with an increased national footprint in South Africa too. The brand's products are sold under its own-label in Woolworths stores nationally, and it also plans to roll out 12 interactive in-store chocolate pods or standalone booths in a number of Woolworths stores countrywide, following a successful launch in one of the retailers flagship stores last year. This is in addition to De Villiers Chocolates standalone stores in the Cape Winelands at Spice Route in Paarl and Franschhoek.De Villiers says he hopes this expansion into international markets bodes well for recognition, and desirability, of chocolate made in Africa. This continent produces 70% of the global cocoa bean crops but produces less than 3% of the worlds chocolate  largely due to artisanal chocolate makers being unable to compete with mass producers who export the continents beans in bulk.I think this is an important step in showing consumers in other countries that there is more to the worlds chocolate than Belgian or Swiss chocolate. As a proud African, I am very happy to offer a taste of Africa to the world, said De Villiers.While the first Publisher Audience Measure Survey (Pams) has been released by the Publisher Research Council, the data is still being validated and will not be available until it is checked. However, the PRC is happy with the overall picture gleaned from the research and presented this in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

Fusion is the future

Pams

The key demographics are a fairly good match with the Establishment Survey (July 2016 to June 2017) and Pams. Pams is slightly higher at the top end while ES is slightly higher at the bottom end, says Terry Murphy, managing director, Nielsen Watch Services, South Africa.Looking at LSMs, what is interesting is the Amps and Pams are tracking almost on top of one another on the top end, so from about LSM 7 and up, they are mirroring each other. And we are pleased to see that, however, we also really interested in why there are differences between the Amps profile and the ES profile. We have agreed with the PRC to have an audit to understand exactly what that is about from the bottom to the top, she adds.She pointed out that while it is tempting having lived with Amps for the last 20 years to compare Amps and Pams, because Amps is all we have ever known, but we must know that these are not the same surveys. Pams is designed for reading and readership, while Amps was built for all media and products.Murphy confirmed that the next step is fusion, calling it the obvious route to go with the rest of the world already running towards it. In South Africa, we have been indoctrinated to believe that single source is the best and that we are so lucky to have it, but the reality is that the world is not as simple as it was, and medias and products are fragmented. There are also fewer respondents per question and so we need more questions, but that only leads to longer questionnaires and that is also not working anymore.And, she adds, the reality is that it does not have to. It is rubbish with poor response rates. Single source no longer does the trick. In the next 100 days, we will have fusion in South Africa. It is not the future, it is the current. Nielsen does it all over the world and it is not new for us. It is no longer the vision; it is the preferred solution.She explains that fusion allows for proper analysis of detailed behavioural analytics and trustable data. It brings together separate media assets for the most granular view of customers, and cross-platform behaviours which support analytics, flexible media and targeted and unduplicated reach and frequency planning.In short, data fusion requires two data sources, for example, Pams dataset and Homescan or FMCG panel data that are fused into a third data set.The survey comprises fieldwork undertaken from July to November 2017, with a total sample of +17,000, weighted to the HIS. It includes 53 newspapers, 92 magazines and 10 sites, total 155. The survey was conducted by Nielsen.Ninety-nine percent of municipalities were sampled. This equals 232 out of 233 municipalities. Sample points were stretched to maximise diversity. They were limited to points of two over SAL to maximise national coverage.Flooding increased the sample by 70%, with 7,000 of the 17,0000 sample flooded people. The flooded sample was only asked reading and demographics questions, while the primary sample was asked about products and services. "These answers were matched to the flooded sample," says Peter Langschmidt, consultant to the PRC, "and is a world first.". A significant cost efficiency was generated through the use of the flooding methodology. Pams interviews he adds cost 34% of what companies paid for per Amps interview in 2015.This was not the only world first; there were a few more. Another one was self-selection. The tablet was handed to the respondent who could then choose titles without anyone looking over their shoulder. This worked to a certain extent - certainly it did in newspapers, resulting in niche and weekend papers now coming through.Two placebo titles were also placed to measure overclaim. One had six respondents and the other 56. This is one in 300. This has added credibility to our entire process and model, he says.There were also several new questions added to the Survey. The first is multiple pickups, which examined how many times a title is picked up before a reader is finished with it. Another new question is the time spent reading. The topics of interest for newspapers was also examined and this gave clients the opportunity to look at lifestyle, and the ability to plan around interests rather than conventional definitions.The PRC will always tell you the good and the bad, says Langschmidt. He says they think they have made progress on readers per copy on newspapers, but not magazines. We are there, and we are telling you we are not.The Cape Town and Western Cape Convention Bureau has won the bid for Cape Town to host its third major water conference, the International Conference on Sanitation, Waste and Water, which takes place from 20 to 23 November 2018 at the Century City Conference Centre.

Sanitation, water and waste management in Africa

These include:

Addressing clean water and poor sanitation

Innovation and resilience in wake of drought

This follows the Convention Bureaus successful bids for the International Water Associations (IWA) 2018 Water Loss Conference, to be held from 7 to 9 May 2018, and the Young Water Professionals Conference, held in December 2017. In addition, the Cape Town and Western Cape Convention Bureau welcome the Water Institute of South Africas biennial conference and exhibition in June 2018 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC).The conference has been brought together through a partnership of the World Toilet Association, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, the University of North West and the University of Limpopo.According to Aifani Tahulela from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology: "The conference aims to bring together practitioners and academics from all over the world with interest on better management of sanitation, water and waste in Africa and other third world countries with a view to learn from each other."It is expected that some 600 delegates will participate in these important discussions on the use and management of clean water across the world.In addition, it aims to achieve long-term outcomes which will significantly benefit our province and country. Academic publications in the form of a journal issue, conference proceeding and a book; A doctoral seminar that would bring together and network doctoral students working in sanitation, water and waste-related topics; Long-term research partnerships between various participating research institutions, individual academics, and practitioners; Exhibition by organisations that are involved in sanitation, water and waste management innovations with potential for selling their products and establishing research partnerships.Wesgro CEO, Tim Harris said: On behalf of the Cape Town and the Western Cape Convention Bureau, I would like to thank the conference organisers for selecting Cape Town for this critical gathering on water, hygiene and sanitation. We are also grateful for the support of the South African National Convention Bureau. It could not come at a more important time for our province. We are currently facing the worst drought in 400 years, and new and innovative ideas on how we can adapt to the realities of climate change will be critical.Our colleagues in the convention bureau will be working closely with this conference to help them become water-neutral so that they can come and visit Cape Town without any worry that they may make our water scarcity worse. In fact, these conferences are vital for our economy, bringing in the best and brightest minds who not only boost tourism but who may come back as future investors. We warmly welcome you to Cape Town and the Western Cape, which is open for business, and we look forward to working with you in helping us save water, continued Harris.Mayor of Suwon City, and spokesperson for the conference, Tae-young YEOM added: Resulting from problems associated with poor sanitation, waste management and water standards, it is reported that over 84 million people (one in 10) throughout the world do not have access to clean water. More than 2.3 billion people do not have access to a toilet while 289,000 children are dying on an annual basis because of the problems associated with lack of clean water and poor sanitation. This conference therefore squarely lands itself into addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number six which is clean water and sanitation access by all by 2030.The Western Cape minister of economic opportunities, Alan Winde said: Water is a very topical subject in Cape Town right now, but it should be on everyones mind as the world faces the challenges of climate change, population growth and ensuring public health. We welcome this conferences 600 delegates to our province and applaud the efforts of the organisers to ensure that it remains water-neutral. One of our Project Khulisas focus areas is on growing conference tourism to create more jobs. Conferences generated R425m for the province in 2016/17, a figure we are seeking to grow."CEO of South African Tourism, Sisa Ntshona welcomed the news saying: "Securing these important international conferences for South Africa  and Cape Town in particular, where the water issue is so topical and pressing  is a major feather in our business events industry's cap. The South African Tourism is thrilled that the increased bid support being provided by our national, provincial and city convention bureaus is already bearing fruit, significantly boosting our chances of hosting such major global conferences. The healthier our business events industry is, the more jobs we can create and sustain, the more economic growth we can stimulate, and the more our country's intellectual capital base can be enhanced and enriched.""While Cape Town is busy fighting the worst drought in recorded history, it is clear that we are also positioning ourselves globally as a city and a society that demonstrates enormous innovation and resilience when it comes to water management issues. It is our firm belief that this crisis will lead to Cape Town becoming a global site of interest when it comes to water challenges that other cities will have to contend with in this new era of climate change.Conferencing and tourism are especially important for our city. The fact that three water conferences have been held in Cape Town over the past year is certainly a testament to that. We, therefore, welcome this latest conference and suspect that there will be many more," concluded Lance Greyling, the City of Cape Towns director for enterprise and investment.There has been a decline in the production of eggs and chickens and this has resulted in SA relying on imported chickens to meet demand.

tookapic via pixabay

Concerns over job losses, recurrence

Compensation for birds culled

Briefing Parliament's portfolio committee on agriculture, forestry and fisheries on Tuesday about the outbreak of the avian flu, the South African Poultry Association (Sapa) said the culling of birds to contain the outbreak had resulted in a loss of R954m in the sector.Sapa confirmed that no new outbreaks had been reported on commercial farms since mid-January. However, farms affected have had to cull all birds and recall and destroy all eggs as part of measures to control the spread of the virus. Farms also had to shut down production for up to six months while they embarked on surveillance and cleaning.Rosina Semenya, the portfolio committee chairwoman, was concerned that 1,300 people had lost their jobs and asked if small-scale farmers and traders were being compensated."We have received the report from SA Poultry and are awaiting reports from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and from the Food and Allied Workers Union."We need a combined approach to revitalise this aspect of the sector in order for the farm workers to be trained and up-skilled in improving biosecurity measures so that they are not laid off."We would also like to know what happens if there is a recurrence of avian flu, as there are some ostriches that are still infected," she said.Sapa has called for a more holistic approach to compensating farmers, taking into consideration the labour and chemicals used to clean farms. Late in 2017, Agriculture Minister Senzeni Zokwana said in a reply to a parliamentary question from the DA that his department would not compensate for birds culled."Chickens infected with HPAI [highly pathogenic avian influenza] show an extremely high mortality rate within a very short period and no part of the carcasses can be used for any purpose except for the production of compost on site."Eggs from infected sites must be destroyed as per the instruction on the quarantine notice and such eggs are also considered to have no value."Detailed guidelines on how compensation will be applied for the culling of uninfected birds are currently being developed."DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) has started an initiative to support 3.5 million small-scale farmers to sustainably transform their mode of farming to commercially viable and profitable.

Sergei Andreichuk via Wikimedia Commons

Agra head for Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda, Nuhu Hatibu, said in Dar es Salaam that the programme aims at ensuring farmers income improves and when analysed should be higher than the GDP. According to him, the programme started in June last year and will run all through to December 2021.He said that to ensure farmers benefit, all Agra sponsors including Bill and Melinda Gates and the Master Card Foundation, among others, have signed a contract that will see them have a single coordinated point of contact to empower the farmers."We decided to come up with an agriculture model for industrialisation through joint investment in Tanzania, as earlier we worked separately and doing the same thing without coordination," he said.He said, they aim is to increase the farmers' ability to invest in sustainable systems that will lift them from poverty. According to him, farmers should be able to handle climate and market shocks, invest in machinery and reduce post-harvest losses. "Farmers need to have a system, that ensures timely supply of inputs, irrigation through solar-powered technology pumps," he said.He noted that if the right systems are put in place, the government's vision of a country industrialised through agriculture will be realised.With Jacob Zuma finally announcing his resignation from the presidency following pressure from the ANC National Executive Committee to do so or face a motion of no confidence, the question arises on his possible legal remedies should he feel aggrieved at being compelled to vacate his office and official residence. Is it possible that our highest citizen could approach the employment tribunal to challenge the fairness of his departure?

The South African Constitution guarantees every employee the right to fair labour practices. The Labour Relations Act gives effect to this in that it provides a statutory right against unfair dismissal. Employees who wish to challenge the fairness of their employment termination may approach the statutory employment tribunal, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. This free service allows the CCMA to consider evidence relating to the procedural and substantive fairness of such a termination. If the CCMA concludes that the employer acted unfairly, it may order the reinstatement or re-employment of the employee, or award compensation of up to 12 months' remuneration.Could we thus see a situation where Zuma lodges a dispute at the CCMA to be reinstated to his position? If Parliament removes him, would that not constitute a dismissal under the LRA which would allow him to challenge the fairness of his removal? If he resigns, could he not (like many disgruntled ex-employees) suggest that he was forced to resign as his employer made continued employment intolerable? Would the CCMA be able to hear such his claim of constructive dismissal?The ticket for access into the CCMA door is an employment relationship. Only employees may claim the protection against unfair dismissal. If you do not fall within the definition of an "employee" then you cannot be dismissed form employment - no dismissal; no possible claim of unfair dismissal. But why should the President not be seen to be an employee? Our tribunal and labour courts have generously interpreted the definition of "employee" in the past to include sex workers (Kyle v CCMA) and employees with expired work visas (Discovery v CCMA). Should it not come to the assistance of the President as well?In Parliament of the RSA v Carlton the Labour Appeal Court considered whether Members of Parliament were employees for the purpose of whistleblowing under the Protected Disclosures Act. The LAC reasoned that MPs hold office, swear an oath of faithfulness to the Republic and obedience to the Constitution, had a unique and specific statutory right to remuneration, are subject to a code of conduct and are elected to office. It ridiculed the thought of an MP approaching the Labour Court after losing her seat post an election. It concluded that MPs are thus not employees for the purpose of either the LRA or PDA.Zuma would thus not be entitled to approach the CCMA should he feel aggrieved at having to vacate his office.The term 'customer engagement' is arguably one of the biggest buzzwords in today's business landscape. It's so widely used that when many people hear the phrase, they interpret it as a checkbox item. It is, however, an ongoing crucial relationship between a company and its customers, which is determined by the customer's preferences and behaviour.The Design Indaba Festival of Creativity 2018 has announced that a series of specially designed Chef's Table events, featuring Bertus Basson and Studio H, will be happening during the festival in addition to all the sights and sounds on offer.

Studio H's Visa Street Food Festival  Design Indaba website

Rich past and exciting future

Stomach and soul satisfied by food and beauty

Award-winning South African chef, Bertus Basson  of the restaurants Overture, Spek and Bone, and Bertus Basson at Spice Route fame  will collaborate with progressive food experience designer, Hannerie Visser of Studio H. Merging food and design into a unique experience of local flavours presented in a stimulating way, this progressive Chefs Table is set to be a milestone event on the 2018 Cape Town culinary calendar.The Bertus Basson Chefs Table events will take place on the evenings of Wednesday, 21 February, Thursday, 22 February and Friday, 23 February only. Spaces are limited and bookings are essential. The destination is the Artscape Theatre Centre in Cape Town.Basson has looked to local flavours and childhood experiences when conceptualising his menu. We are constantly being inspired by just being South African. We are inspired by our rich past and exciting future, says Basson.As a gastronomical landscape, South Africa has a hugely diverse range of flavours, techniques, histories and interpretations to draw on; from bunny chows to melktert, braaivleis to pickled fish. This distinctive melting pot of cultures offers a unique taste experience to the world.I cant think of a more exciting time to be cooking South African food, exploring my own food heritage and sharing South Africa with the world, Basson continues.Visser, on the other hand, grew up on a grape farm and, inspired by her mother and grandmother, understood from an early age that in order to be happy, stomach and soul need to be satisfied by food and beauty. She brings this experience to every project, enhancing the local source and identity of the experience. Using honest ingredients by cultivating great relationships with farmers and producers, suits our country perfectly. We are a nation of farmers, makers and entrepreneurs, people living close to the earth, says Visser.Based in Cape Town, Vissers Studio H is known for events such as the Spier Secret Festival and Street Food Festival and the food zine publication and website, Chips! Most recently, Studio H was invited to present its S/Zout project at Dutch Design Week 2017, which consisted of a range of condiments made from salt-tolerant carrots, cabbages, strawberries and tomatoes. Studio H will have Africas first 3D food printer on show as part of the Design Indaba line-up.Tickets are available through Webtickets and because seats are limited, booking is essential.For updates on the Design Indaba Festival of Creativity 2018 and more information on the pop-up Chefs Table experiences, please click hereFive people have been arrested in connection with the investigations into the controversial Vrede Dairy Farm project.

A source close to the investigations toldthat two more people were arrested on Wednesday in the Free State."They will all be appearing at the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court tomorrow [Thursday]," the source said.Their arrests come after three people - including one of the Gupta brothers and a business associate - were arrested early on Wednesday morning.On Wednesday morning, the Hawks swooped on the Gupta family at their compound in Saxonwold. They blocked off the road in the elite Johannesburg suburb. About 15 cars and a strong police contingent could be seen outside the compound.The Hawks were later seen driving out in flashy cars believed to belong to the family.Hawks spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi said the arrests were part of an ongoing operation. "We are expecting more arrests."Saxonwold residents hailed the arrests saying they were pleased the law had finally taken its course."The proliferation of the Gupta compound has had residents up in arms. In recent years they have blocked out the gates, but before you could see government officials coming in," said Saxonwold resident Richard Bottger."To see the Hawks here is really encouraging. This is showing the electorate that there is a positive change coming.""This is fantastic, it feels like real change is happening in SA and it's positive for all of us. These guys were merely here to rape SA. This shows real progress. Things are really happening," Bottger said.Another resident Brownyn Coppeller said: "I feel an enormous sense of relief that it's finally happened - there's a palpable feeling of celebration."But at the same time, I feel angry that it has taken so long. The damage has been and done and you wonder if everything will be put back together again, the same way that is was."She said she had been living in the area for 20 years and has seen a number of cars belonging to government officials driving in and out of the compound.Thereported in January that investigators in the state capture corruption cases had discovered that money was allegedly laundered through Estina for the benefit of the Guptas, their associates and companies.The alleged laundered money was used to buy the family's Bombardier Global 6000 private jet with tail registration ZS-OAK and a fleet of cars. Atul Gupta apparently directly scored R10-million.Vrede Dairy Farm was not even up and running when Atul, the eldest of the three Gupta brothers linked to President Jacob Zuma, had the R10m deposited into his personal bank account.A preservation order obtained by the Asset Forfeiture Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority in the High Court in Bloemfontein this week reveals that Atul received the money despite not having any interest in the project or providing any farming-related services.The order, seen by the Sunday Times, also reveals how the Guptas and their business associates became beneficiaries of the lion's share of R220m paid by the Free State agriculture department to the company, Estina, in a project meant to benefit the poor.This is the second preservation order obtained by the AFU, after the McKinsey and Trillian order granted earlier.With a combined viewing of over 675-billion, President Jacob Zuma's exit was the biggest story to hit South African social media. It even dwarfed online activity on Oscar Pistorius.

Flooded with celebration

#Zexit Zumas final moment before he leaves the podium. He appeared very emotional at the end of his speech (@AlexMitchley) pic.twitter.com/gkxNC0NLVJ  Team News24 (@TeamNews24) February 14, 2018

Anti-climax

Zuma and the blade runner both broke the internet on Valentine's Day, five years apart.Internationally 40% of the world's reporting focused on Zuma's exit, making it bigger than #WinterOlympics and #Trump combined.According to media monitoring firm ROi Africa, 80% of social media conversation in the last 24 hours focused on the president.Statistics show that 70% of posts related to Zuma's exit while 11% were about Gupta arrests. "South Africans did not take to the streets like our neighbours (in Zimbabwe) but instead took to their devices, as timelines were flooded with celebration.""The story drowned out Valentine's Day and many wished South Africa a happy Valentine's Day even though we are single," said ROi Africa managing director Tonya Khoury.Holding the top spot for close to three years, the #ZumaMustFall hashtag finally fell off social media on Wednesday night and was quickly replaced with #ZumaHasFallen, #ZumaResigns and #ZumaRecalled."What I find interesting is the lack of physical celebration on the streets - no South African flags, no hooting or shouting, no dancing on the streets.""Perhaps we are all just relieved and exhausted from a week of late-night anxiety. The exit has been drawn out for so long that perhaps physically it's an anti-climax," Khoury said.The Times via i-Net bridge.Tower Property Fund could receive a rerating this year and raise capital as the junior property stock looks to stabilise its Croatian portfolio and complete developments in Cape Town.

CEO Marc Edwards, who was speaking after the release of financial results for the six months to November, said the company was in its best position in a year, having navigated a barrage of challenges here and abroad.The company, which owns a R5.1bn portfolio across SA and Croatia, increased its distribution to shareholders 6% to 40.7c per share in a challenging but slowly improving operating environment in the six months to November, said Edwards.As much as 70% of Tower's assets by value are in SA and 30% in Croatia. In SA, the properties are split by value: Gauteng 29%; the Western Cape 31%; and KwaZulu-Natal 10%.The total distribution for the reporting period was R138m."Last year, we retained 96% of the tenants across our portfolio amid weak economic conditions. We have implemented a number of short-term initiatives, which should positively affect the returns and strengthen the financial position of the company," the CEO said.These included the ring-fencing of Tower's Croatian properties into a subsidiary called Tower International, raising additional external equity capital to fund Tower International and the completion of the Piazza and Napier street developments at Cape Quarter in Cape Town.These projects would create a substantial cash injection into Tower and strengthen the company's financial position."Once we have completed these projects, I believe Tower will be rerated and we will be able to raise substantial capital. We need to grow our market cap but not for the sake of growth."The growth needs to be sustainable. There is appetite for us to acquire properties in exchange for shares in Tower which will help us achieve this," said Edwards.Bridge Fund Managers investment analyst Richard Henwood said Tower's results showed the company was meeting its objectives. "The Tower Property Fund management team have performed admirably in a tough economic environment, both in SA and Croatia," said Henwood.Tower had held talks with Agrokor, the parent group of its main retail tenant in Croatia, Konzum. Agrokor went into administration last year and struggled to make rent."In Croatia, the team successfully negotiated with - Agrokor to ensure the tenant remains committed to paying contracted rentals. The team has also secured an agreement with Spar Hrvatska, which helps secure current rentals and future cash flows from their Croatian retail assets for the next three years," said Henwood.The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes news that Ethiopian journalists Eskinder Nega and Woubshet Taye are free from prison after each served nearly seven years.

"We are pleased that Eskinder Nega and Woubshet Taye are finally free since their arrests and convictions were shameful miscarriages of justice," said CPJ Africa program coordinator Angela Quintal."We now urge the Ethiopian government to drop charges against other journalists and to implement the reforms needed for a free press to flourish."Woubshet and Eskinder were both arrested in 2011 and convicted in 2012 in unrelated cases. CPJ research shows that the terror-related charges the journalists faced were fabricated in retaliation for their critical reporting.Eskinder, a prominent columnist and editor of now-shuttered newspapers, and Woubshet, a former editor with the weekly newspaper Awramba Times, were among 746 prisoners that the Ethiopian government last week announced would be pardoned, according to news reports

A representational photo.

MUMBAI (PTI): Around 40 ships, submarines and fighter aircraft participated in 'Paschim Lehar', a tri-service maritime exercise off India's western coast, Indian the Navy has said.



The objective of the exercise, which commenced on February 12, is to build interoperability, an official spokesperson said on Wednesday.



"This exercise includes participation of a large number of ships, submarines and aircraft from the Western Naval Command of the Indian Navy. Units from Eastern Naval Command, Indian Army, Indian Air Force and the Coast Guard are also participating to build interoperability," the spokesperson said in a statement.



"Over 40 ships and submarines, a similar number of maritime surveillance, fighter aircraft, helicopters and Remotely Piloted Aircraft of the Indian Navy and the IAF are participating.



"The Amphibious capabilities of the armed forces, along with the elements of Army Amphibious Brigade will also be deployed and tested for operational tasking during the exercise," it said.



The exercise includes a number of weapon firings, including missile, gun and torpedo firings during the initial phase. The second phase is structured to validate and refine the operational plans of the Western Naval Command, the statement said.

iStock/Thinkstock(SEATTLE) -- The chief counsel for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Seattle has been charged with stealing the identities of multiple immigrants over a four-year span, according to charging documents obtained by ABC News on Wednesday.



Raphael A. Sanchez is accused of devising a scheme to defraud major banks by using the identities of seven people who were in various stages of immigration proceedings" with ICE between 2013 and 2017, according to the documents, which were filed in federal court on Monday.



Prosecutors alleged that he "devised and intended to devise a scheme" to defraud the several financial institutions, including American Express, Bank of America and Capital One, in an effort to obtain money and property under "false and fraudulent pretenses," the documents said.



Sanchez, who resigned from his post at the agency effective Monday, faces charges of aggravated identity theft and wire fraud.



His lawyer, Cassandra Stamm, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment early Wednesday. She did, however, tell CNN that she planned to withhold comment on the matter until after Sanchez appeared in court.



Sanchez is scheduled to make his first court appearance in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Thursday.



This case is under an investigation conducted by ICE's internal affairs office, according to the immigration agency. ICE could not comment further and referred additional questions to the Department of Justice, as the matter is now pending judicial proceedings.





Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Research News

Chemical cluster could transform energy storage for large grids

Timothy Cook, assistant professor of chemistry, and PhD candidate Anjula Kosswattaarachchi partnered with the University of Rochester on the research. Photo: Douglas Levere

By BOB MARCOTTE and CHARLOTTE HSU

In order to power entire communities with clean energy, such as solar and wind power, a reliable backup storage system is needed to provide energy when the wind isnt blowing and the sun isnt out. One possibility is to use any excess solar- and wind-based energy to charge solutions of chemicals that can subsequently be stored for use when sunshine and wind are scarce. During these down times, chemical solutions of opposite charge can be pumped across solid electrodes, creating an electron exchange that provides power to the electrical grid. The key to this technology, called a redox flow battery, is finding chemicals that can not only carry sufficient charge, but also be stored without degrading for long periods, thereby maximizing power generation and minimizing the costs of replenishing the system. Researchers at the University of Rochester and UB believe they have found a promising compound that could transform the energy-storage landscape. In a paper published in Chemical Science, an open-access journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the researchers describe modifying a metal-oxide cluster, which has promising electroactive properties, so that it is nearly twice as effective as the unmodified cluster for electrochemical energy storage in a redox flow battery.

A redox flow battery uses excess solar- and wind-based energy to charge solutions of chemicals that can subsequently be stored for use when sunshine and wind are scarce. At that time, the chemical solutions of opposite charge can be pumped across solid electrodes, creating an electron exchange that provides power to the electrical grid. Illustration: Michael Osadciw, University of Rochester



The research was led by the lab of Ellen Matson, assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Rochester. Matsons team partnered with Timothy Cook, assistant professor of chemistry in the UB College of Arts and Sciences, to develop and study the cluster. Energy-storage applications with polyoxometalates are pretty rare in the literature. There are maybe one or two examples prior to ours, and they didnt really maximize the potential of these systems, says first author Lauren VanGelder, a third-year PhD student in Matsons lab and a UB graduate who received her BS in chemistry and biomedical sciences. This is really an untapped area of molecular development, Matson adds. The cluster was first developed in the lab of German chemist Johann Spandl, and studied for its magnetic properties. Tests conducted by VanGelder showed the compound could store charge in a redox flow battery, but was not as stable as we had hoped. However, by making what Matson describes as a simple molecular modification  replacing the compounds methanol-derived methoxide groups with ethanol-based ethoxide ligands  the team was able to expand the potential window during which the cluster was stable, doubling the amount of electrical energy that could be stored in the battery. Cooks team  including fourth-year PhD candidate Anjula Kosswattaarachchi  contributed to the research by carrying out tests that enabled the scientists to determine how stable different cluster compounds were. We carried out a series of experiments to evaluate the electrochemical properties of the clusters, Cook explains. Specifically, we were interested in seeing if the clusters were stable over the course of minutes, hours and days. We also constructed a prototype battery where we charged and discharged the clusters, keeping track of how many electrons we could transfer and seeing if all of the energy we stored could be recovered, as one would expect of a good battery. These experiments let us calculate the efficiency of the device in a very exact way, letting us compare one system to another, he says. Because of these studies, we were able to make molecular changes to the cluster and then determine exactly what properties were effected.

Ellen Matson (left), University of Rochester assistant professor of chemistry, and PhD student Lauren VanGelder at work in Matson's lab. VanGelder is lead author on a paper describing modifications to a redox flow battery that make it nearly twice as effective for electrochemical energy storage. Photo: Matson Lab, University of Rochester

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Digital EditorAriz Khan, an alleged Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorist arrested by the Delhi Police from the Indo-Nepal border, was nabbed after police got leads from the interrogation of suspected terrorists.

Khan, who was linked to serial blasts in UP, Gujarat, Delhi and had escaped during the Batla House encounter, was on the run for a decade. He was on the radar of various state police forces and the NIA.

The Congress "political hypocrisy" stands exposed, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Thursday after a suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorist, who had escaped the 2008 Batla House encounter, was arrested from the Indo-Nepal border.

The minority affairs minister stressed that the Batla House episode was related to security and "not religion". He further charged the Congress with politicising a "sensitive" issue of security.

The Special Cell was working on the leads gathered from an interrogation of arrested terrorists with links to the Indian Mujahideen(IM) and other terror outfits that led to arrest of Khan from Indo-Nepal border Wednesday evening, said P S Kushwah, DCP (Special Cell).

"During the past few months, inputs were received through different sources that absconded terrorists of IM and SIMI have set up their base in Nepal and are frequently visiting India to indoctrinate unemployed youth," he said.

It was learnt that the outfits were sourcing new recruits as many of their top leaders were already arrested by police.

"They have been planning the revival of the weak and scattered network of Indian Mujahideen," he said.

In the meantime, the Special Cell team headed by ACP Govind Sharma arrested SIMI ideologue Abdul Subhan alias Abdus Subhan alias Tauqeer in January 2018.

Tauqeer was teaching in Nepal along with Khan and he provided valuable inputs to Special Cell about his movements.

A few days ago, a specific information was received that Khan will be coming to UP from Banbasa, Indo-Nepal border, to meet an associate, the officer said.

A team of Special Cell including inspectors Chandrika Prasad, Amul Tyagi, Ravinder Joshi and Satish Rana, moved to the area near Banbasa Indo-Nepal border and laid a trap.

Khan was apprehended at about 5.20 PM on February 13, near Sharda Inter College, Banbasa, Nepal Road, after a sustained surveillance near the border area, police said.

He was wanted by the NIA in a case for conspiring with other members of IM to commit terrorist acts in India. He was also wanted by police in Delhi, Gujarat, UP, Rajasthan for serial blasts in 2007-2008.Traders associations from across Delhi on Thursday held a mega rally at Ghanta ghar in Chandni Chowk to protest against the ongoing sealing drive and demand that the government immediately brings an ordinance to stop the exercise.

The traders under the banner of Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) also urged the Delhi government to convene one day special session of the state Assembly and pass a Bill to stop sealing drive that began from the Defence Colony Market in late December.

The rally started from Red Fort and culminated at Ghanta Ghar where a public meeting was held and the traders put forth their demands.

"The MPs from Delhi in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are keeping silent, perhaps they have forgotten that they are the elected representatives and many more elections will be held in future. They should not test the patience of traders. Also many have become jobless after the sealing of shops," said CAIT secretary general Praveen Khandelwal.

The trader assocations demanded the government immediately begins preparations of a new Master Plan 2021-2041 and constitute a working group comprising trade representatives, senior officials, town planners, architects for the purpose under the Chairmanship of Lt Governor of Delhi.

On the occasion of Valentines Day, a group of traders offered roses to passersby near municipal offices in central Delhi to draw their attention towards the issues they are facing because of the ongoing exercise.The Supreme Court is likely to pronounce tomorrow its verdict on the decades-old among riparian south Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud had on September 20 last year reserved the verdict on the appeals filed by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala against the 2007 award of the Tribunal (CWDT) on sharing of water.

The decades-old was decided unanimously by CWDT in 2007, after determining the total availability of water in the Cauvery basin at 740 thousand million cubics (tmc) feet at the Lower Coleroon Anicut site, including 14 tmcft for environmental protection.

The final award makes a yearly allocation of 419 tmcft to Tamil Nadu in the entire Cauvery basin, 270 tmcft to Karnataka, 30 tmcft to Kerala and 7 tmcft to Puducherry.

The top court had earlier clarified that any other forum could touch the matter relating to the Cauvery river basin only after it gives its verdict.

The apex court had in January said the verdict would be pronounced within a month, adding that the matter has already created enough confusion for decades.

The top court during the course of pendency of appeals of the neighbouring states against the arbitral award of 2007, had passed several orders directing Karnataka to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.

On September 30, 2016, the Supreme Court had pulled up Karnataka for its repeated "defiance" in flouting its orders for releasing Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu and said no one would know when the "wrath of the law" would fall on it.

Later, Karnataka had moved a review petition in the apex court against its three orders on on the issue and direction to the Centre to create the Cauvery Water Management Board (CWMB), saying "grave miscarriage of justice" had been caused to it following the three apex court orders of September 20, 27 and 30, by which it was directed to release water.

Tamil Nadu had earlier also alleged that Kerala was drawing water in excess of what has been allocated to it by the tribunal.

The apex court had on December 9, 2016, upheld the maintainability of appeals filed by the riparian states saying it has the "jurisdiction to decide the parameters, scope, authority and jurisdiction of the tribunal".

The Court had rejected the Centre's objection that the CWDT award amounted to a final decree and it had no jurisdiction to hear the appeals against the award.Visiting Arunachal Pradesh under the shadow of protests by China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today hailed the patriotic nature of the people of the border state, saying they greet each other with 'Jai Hind' and announced naming the New Delhi-Naharlagun Express as "Arunachal Express".

Modi's second visit to Arunachal Pradesh was vehemently opposed by China which urged India to refrain from taking any action that may "complicate" the boundary question. It is his first visit to the frontier state after the Army's standoff with Chinese soldiers in Doklam plateau last year.

Modi, who earlier visited Arunachal Pradesh in February 2015, told a public rally here that he "cannot stay without meeting you all". China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet.

Clad in traditional tribal headgear, Modi dedicated the state civil secretariat building to the people, laid the foundation stone for the Academic Block of the Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Science and inaugurated the Dorjee Khandu state convention centre.

"My visit to Arunachal Pradesh is related to three key projects in the state. The secretariat is already functional and this was a good step taken by the state government," he said at the rally at the Indira Gandhi Park here before leaving for Tripura to address election rallies.

The prime minister hailed the patriotic nature of the people of Arunachal, saying they greet each other with 'Jai Hind'.

Modi also announced that the New Delhi-Naharlagun Express would now be called "Arunachal Express". The train, he said, will connect the "people of the state with mainland India".

The frequency of the train, connecting the capital to the state, would also be increased from one to two days a week.

Modi complimented Chief Minister Pema Khandu for the "wonderful work he is doing".

"He has prepared a top quality roadmap on how Arunachal Pradesh should be in 2027. And, he did not only ask officials for inputs but also people from all walks of life," he added.

On other issues, Modi accused the previous UPA regime of neglecting the North East and said his government has given priority to the region with ministers and senior officials regularly visiting it.

Seeking to highlight the significance of the region, he said important meetings should not only be held in the capital but "we must go to all states. And that is why I came to Shillong for a Northeastern Council meeting. An important meeting related to agriculture was held in Sikkim."



Without naming Manmohan Singh, Modi said, the former prime minister could not visit the state on the pretext of workload, "But I am such a PM who cannot stay without meeting you all".

The prime minister said he would personally tell people to go to Arunachal Pradesh to hold important meetings at the convention centre.

"This is more than a building, it is a vibrant centre that will further the aspirations of Arunachal Pradesh. There will be conferences and cultural activities that will draw government officials and private companies," he said.

Modi said he has directed the state government not to wait for inauguration of any project but start utilising it after its completion.

Modi said the Centre is taking up the Ayushman Bharat Yojana on mission mode to provide quality and affordable health care to nearly 50 crore people across the country.

He said the scheme, billed as the world's largest government-funded health care programme, is a path-breaking initiative and would bring a "paradigm shift" in the health sector.

"The scale of this scheme is un-parallelled and it will bring a paradigm shift in our health sector. It is time to give India a health care system that makes quality treatment affordable within a limit of Rs 500,000 per family," he said.

Modi asked the state government to frame a new health policy and work to attract private investments in the sector.

Referring to the BJP-led NDA government's crusade against corruption, Modi said the government has been able to curb corruption through the direct bank transfer (DBT) scheme.

"The Centre has saved Rs 54 billion through Aadhaar-enabled direct benefit transfer of about 400 government schemes," he added.The Congress on Thursday said that a whistleblower had alerted the government in 2016 about the Rs 115 billion banking fraud by fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi but Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley ignored the tip.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said whistleblower Hari Prasad had written to the Prime Minister's Office as early as July 2016, alerting the government about the "biggest bank loot scam in 70 years" in independent India.

"What does the Prime Minister do? Nothing. What does the Finance Ministry do? Nothing. What does the Corporate Affairs Ministry do? Nothing. What does the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Finance Ministry do? Nothing," Surjewala told reporters on Thursday.

"You are in power, a fraud is happening under your nose. What were you doing and how did they let the accused escape? Face the truth and answer questions."

He also asked Prime Minister Modi what the fugitive billionaire was doing with him at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January.

He said the "chhota Modi" was part of a delegation travelling with Prime Minister Modi despite "the complaint against him".

The election in Tripura's Charilam Assembly seat, which was postponed following the death of CPI(M) candidate, will be held on March 12, Chief Electoral Officer Sriram Taranikanti said.

CPI(M) candidate Ramendra Narayan Debbarma died of cardiac arrest while campaigning on February 11.

Regular poll schedule in the ST reserved Charilam Assembly constituency in Sipahijala district was cancelled after the death of the candidate, Taranikanti told reporters here last evening.

Nomination for the seat will begin from today and the last date of filing documents is February 22, he said. The last date of withdrawal of nomination is February 26.

Only CPI(M) will be allowed to file fresh nomination as other nominations are declared as valid, he said.

The result of this particular election will be declared on March 15.

Polls for 59 Assembly seats of the 60-member house will be held on February 18.Two Indian Air Force pilots were killed in a crash in Majuli today, minutes after their microlight aircraft took off on a routine sortie, defence ministry officials said.

The aircraft crashed in the river island around noon, soon after taking off from the Jorhat air base, they said. The pilots killed in the crash were Wing Commander J James and Wing Commander D Vats.

"An Indian Air Force Microlight Virus SW-80 crashed around 1200 hrs today, after getting airborne from Air Force Station Jorhat, for a routine sortie," the defence ministry said in a statement in New Delhi.

A court of inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident, the ministry said.

The pilots attempted an emergency landing but the aircraft crashed in a sand bar in the northern part of the district and went up in flames, Tezpur-based defence spokesperson Lt. Col. Harshvardhan Pande said on Thursday. The crash took place at Darbar Chapori, a sand bar in the Brahmaputra where there is no human habitation.

People from villages in the district spotted the aircraft going up in flames and informed the authorities. IAF personnel from the 10 Wing Air Force Station in Jorhat rushed to the spot while police and senior officials of the district set out for the crash site, accessible only by boat.

The IAF had procured around 80 Slovenian-origin microlight aircraft about three years ago. They are usually deployed for environmental and bird recce missions, an IAF official said.All global chokepoints are currently under pressure from China's One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative through which Beijing intends to displace the US and its allies from the Indo-Pacific region, a top American commander told lawmakers today.

"One Belt One Road is, in fact, much more than just an economic engine that China is undertaking," Admiral Harry Harris, Commander of the US Pacific Command told members of the House Armed Services Committee during a Congressional hearing on Indo-Pacific region.

Harris said it is a good thing as long as it seeks to link economically the population of China with markets and resources in Europe, and Africa, and Central Asia.

"Anything you put to improve the quality of life for folks through trade is a positive. But I think also that seeks to displace the United States and our friends and allies in the region, in the Indo-Pacific region by China," Harris said.

"It is a concerted, strategic endeavour by China to gain a foothold and displace the United States and our allies and partners in the region," he said.

One needs to look at the bases and places where China is putting its emphasis to see the realisation of this, he said.

"They are in a position today to influence the shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz, in the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea which means the Suez Canal, and also in our hemisphere in the Panama Canal," he said.

"Also, finally in the Strait of Malacca, all those global chokepoints are under pressure from China's One Belt One Road initiative," Harris said.

Notably, India was the first country to object to OBOR, part of which passes through the Pak-Occupied Kashmir. India has said that the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) violates India's sovereignty. Last year India had skipped China's summit.

Following India's objections, many countries including the United States have come out openly against China's

Touted as Chinese President Xi Jinping's ambitious project, the One Belt One Road initiative focuses on improving connectivity and cooperation among Asian countries, Africa, China and Europe.Bilateral talks are likely to focus on the progress on the Chabahar port of Iran that New Delhi is helping develop, bilateral trade  particularly the issue of Indian investment in Iran's Farzad-B gas field and Indias oil imports from Iran. Mutual concerns over regional security, especially the situation in Afghanistan, should also come up for discussions between Rouhani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi when they hold their delegation level talks in New Delhi on ...

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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Digital EditorA day after high-level fraudulent practice to the tune of $1.8 billion in one of the Punjab National Bank's Mumbai branch was reported to the stock exchanges, Sunil Mehta, MD and CEO said it "will not spare anyone" involved in the wrongdoing. "We are known for clean banking. The fraud started in 2011.

We have brought it under the notice of regulatory and law enforcement agencies as soon as we came to know about it. We will not spare anyone involved in the fraudulent practice," Mehta told reporters here in hurriedly called press meet on Thursday. Meanwhile, ...arrived in Hyderabad today on a three-day India visit during which the two countries will discuss regional and issues of mutual interest.

Union Minister of State for Power R K Singh and Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan received him at the Begumpet airport.

"He is scheduled to address Muslim intellectuals, scholars and clerics in the city at 6.30 pm today," an official said.

During his two-day visit to the city, President Rouhani, who is accompanied by a 21-member delegation, will also meet people of Iranian-origin living in Hyderabad.

He will address a congregation at the historic Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad tomorrow after offering Friday prayers, the official said, adding that religious scholars will also participate in the session.

Rouhani is also expected to visit historic sites, including the Qutub Shahi tombs at Golconda here.

This is Rouhani's second visit to Hyderabad and the first after becoming president.

He would stay at the Taj Krishna hotel tonight, and leave for New Delhi tomorrow evening.South African President Jacob Zuma, who survived a string of corruption scandals and harsh court judgments during his nearly nine-year presidency, has quit finally after intense pressure from the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

Deputy President and ANC's new leader Cyril Ramaphosa is now the acting President until the National Assembly elects a new President' South Africa's Times Live reported.

Despite an earlier show of defiance, Zuma announced his resignation in a 30-minute farewell address to the nation on late Wednesday, just an hour before the deadline set for him by the ANC, in an effort to avoid dividing the party.

Zuma said he was resigning even though he disagreed with the ANC's decision.

"No life should be lost in my name and also the ANC should never be divided in my name. I have therefore come to the decision to resign as President of the republic with immediate effect even though I disagree with the decision of the leadership of my organisation. I have always been a disciplined member of the ANC," he said.

He said he wished to be removed in line with the Constitution, the BBC reported.

Zuma, a former member of the ANC's military wing in the days of apartheid, rose through the ranks of the party to become the President. He led the country for more than a third of its time after apartheid.

But he leaves office with several scandals hanging over him and with South Africa's economy in dire straits.

He apologized to the nation for the errors committed during his term in office. Speaking in Zulu, he said he believed he had performed the task given to him by the country, but where he had erred, "may I please be forgiven".

Zuma said he would continue to serve the party and the country.

The ANC said Zuma's resignation provided "certainty to the people of South Africa".

Influence peddling in his administration was so widespread, according to the nation's former public protector, that it became a form of state capture in which Zuma's business partners or friends influenced government decisions for their personal interest.

His resignation ended an extraordinary day in the South African politics, which had begun with a dawn raid on the controversial Gupta family  a clan of Indian-born businessmen  at the centre of the graft allegations levelled against Zuma.

The Guptas have been accused of "state capture"  using their close ties with Zuma to influence ministerial appointments, secure multi-million dollar government contracts and gain access to inside information.

Meanwhile, acting President Ramaphosa said South Africa was coming out of a "period of uncertainty, a period of darkness and getting into a new phase".

Neeshan Balton, the executive director of the Ahmed Kathrada foundation, an NGO dedicated to the values of the freedom struggle, said Zuma's resignation would be greeted by a "sigh of relief from all South Africans".

"For the first time in almost a decade, South Africans can rejoice that the sun has set on the Zuma era.

We can finally celebrate that the President, who had become a symbol of the erosion of state integrity, has left office," he said. His many scandals

ARMS DEAL: Zuma is still fighting 783 counts of corruption over a 30 billion rand (now $2.5 billion) government arms deal arranged in the late 1990s when he was deputy president. The charges were set aside in 2009, but were re-instated in 2016.

RAPE ACCUSATION: Zuma was charged with raping Fezekile Khwezi Kuzwayo, the HIV +ve daughter of a friend who had been imprisoned on Robben Island with Zuma during the apartheid era. He was acquitted in 2006.

NKANDLA UPGRADES: Soon after becoming president, it emerged that millions of dollars of public money had been spent on upgrades to Zumas Nkandla home, including a swimming pool that one minister justified as a fire-fighting resource. He paid back more than $500,000 after unsuccessfully trying to argue his case in court.

SONONO KHOZA: Zuma apologised to South Africans in 2010 after fathering a child out of wedlock with his friend Irvin Khozas daughter, Sonono Khoza.

CLEVER BLACKS: He caused a controversy in 2012 for scolding black people who become too clever in an address to South Africas National House of Traditional Leaders, saying they become the most eloquent in criticising themselves about their own traditions.

WATERKLOOF LANDING: Zumas friends, the Gupta brothers, used the top-security Waterkloof air base to fly in 200 wedding guests from India for a family members wedding in 2013, sparking a public outcry.

NENEGATE: He fired finance minister Nhlanhla Nene in December 2015, replacing him with unknown parliamentary backbencher Des van Rooyen. Zuma was forced re-appoint a previous finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, four days later after the rand collapsed.

ELECTORAL DEBACLE: The ANC lost its grip on local government in three metropolitan areas in 2016, the ruling partys worst election result since the end of white minority rule in 1994.

STATE CAPTURE: In 2016, the Public Protector, South Africas main anti-corruption watchdog, published a report entitled State of Capture alleging the Guptas had tried to influence the appointment of cabinet ministers and were unlawfully awarded state tenders.August 28, 2021, Saturday

The US Intelligence Community assesses that the origins of the novel coronavirus disease may never be definitively identified ...The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday deplored Congress for linking Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Nirav Modi by terming the latter as 'Chota Modi' (junior Modi).

Addressing a press conference here, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "What is this word 'Chhota Modi'? The BJP takes strong offence to the kind of language being used by describing someone like that. It is derogatory, scandalous and demeaning."

Punjab Bank (PNB) has filed two financial fraud complaints of Rs. 11400 crore and Rs 280 crore against Nirav Modi, a billionaire celebrity jewellery designer.

Earlier in the day, the Congress came with a photo featuring both the Prime Minister and Nirav taken during World Economic Forum meeting at Davos, Switzerland.

In the photo, Prime Minister Modi is sitting in the centre and in the rows of industrialists standing behind is Nirav Modi, who the Congress today christened "Chhota Modi (Little Modi)," alleging that he used clout with the government to slip out of the country.

Prasad advised the Congress to stop the photo

"The Congress should stop photo Many good and cosy photographs of many of the Congress leaders with Mehul Choksi are available with us, but we don't want to stoop to that level," Prasad said.

Nirav Modi's uncle Mehul Choksi is owner of Gitanjali Gems and co-accused in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) F.I.R. related to cheating Punjab Bank of over Rs 280.70 crore.

The Congress also targeted Prime Minister Modi for allowing Nirav Modi to be part of the Indian business delegation at Davos.

Answering this allegation, Prasad said, "Nirav Modi did not meet PM Modi at Davos. Nirav Modi had arrived in Davos on his own and was present at CII group photo event.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A government delegation from Canada has paid a visit to the Golden Temple in Amritsar on Thursday, ahead of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's visit to India.

Canadian Prime Minister will visit the Golden Temple on February 21.

On January 22, the Canadian Prime Minister announced that he will travel to India for a state visit from February 17 to 23.

The visit - which includes stops in Agra, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and New Delhi - will provide an opportunity for Trudeau to connect with the Indian leaders in government and business, promote empowerment of women and girls, and strengthen Canada and India's close economic ties.

The prime ministers will reaffirm the close friendship between the two countries, and discuss ways to further deepen bilateral cooperation.

Trudeau will also participate in several business roundtables to promote further trade and investment between Canada and India, as Canada works closely with Indian leaders to advance economic opportunities in both countries.

While in India, Trudeau will engage with youth, and visit several landmarks, including the Taj Mahal, the Jama Masjid, and Swaminarayan Akshardham.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress on Thursday took potshots at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after a photo of Rajasthan Health Minister Kali Charan Saraf urinating on the walls of the pink city went viral and said the government should be ashamed and apologise.

Congress leader Raghu Sharma said that the minister should apologise for his act.

"The government talks about Swachh Bharat Mission but its health minister here in Rajasthan is caught urinating in public. The government should be ashamed and must publicly apologise," Congress leader Raghu Sharma told reporters here.

Yesterday, a picture of State Health Minister urinating had gone viral. However he shrugged it off, saying it was 'not a big issue'.

The picture comes as the Jaipur Municipal Corporation is working hard to bring the city on the top charts under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

According to rules, those urinating on roads are asked to cough up fine of Rs. 200.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two years after the death of their son, a couple here in Maharashtra has been blessed with twin grandchildren via surrogacy using their son's cryo-preserved semen.

A Pune based woman's son Prathamesh Patil died of cancer two years ago in Germany.

She became the grandmother of the twins after doctors at Pune's Sahyadri Hospital performed the In-vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedure and fused Patil's semen, which was extracted and preserved long before his death, with the eggs of a donor to form embryos.

The embryos were then transferred into the womb of a surrogate mother who gave birth to the twins -- a boy and a girl -- on Monday.

After her son's death, the mother contacted the semen bank in Germany and brought it to India after completing the formalities.

She then approached the hospital for an IVF procedure with the help of her son's semen.

IVF, Gynaecology and Obstetrics Department Head Supriya Puranik said she was happy that advancement in science and technology was bringing a smile on people's face.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday fired a fresh salvo at the ruling Left government in the poll-bound Tripura and said the latter party does not believe in democracy but violence.

Addressing a gathering at Santirbazar in Tripura, the Prime Minister said, "Communist Party does not believe in 'gantantra' they believe in violence and 'gun-tantra'. Left party in Tripura does not believe in democracy. What they believe in is violence."

He further said that the Left party wass attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in the state as it is scared of its defeat in the elections.

Exhorting the people of the state to oust the CPI(M) government from power, the Prime Minister said, "They (CPI-M ) will have to answer about all their wrongdoings in the last 25 years. People of Tripura have suffered for 25 years due to the misrule of Left party. I urge people of the state to remove them."

He also took a dig at the Congress party saying that the "Left and Congress are two sides of same coin who have ruined the state."

The Prime Minister further questioned the CPI(M) government for not ensuring the minimum wages and not implementing the recommendations of seventh pay commission.

He also recounted the work done by the Centre for Tripura and said, "We want to enhance connectivity in Tripura. In our journey to build a 'New India', we also want to build a modern and new Tripura. We simplified the norms relating to bamboo. Earlier it was classified as a tree, we changed it to grass. This helped so many bamboo growers."

The legislative assembly election in the CPI(M)-ruled state will be held on February 18 to elect members of the 60 constituencies.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United States President Donald Trump on Thursday said that he is planning to meet with the families of the students and teachers who were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School yesterday.

President Trump made the announcement during a nationwide address from the White House, in which he described the massacre as a "scene of terrible violence, hatred and evil".

"In times of tragedy, the bonds that sustain us are those of family, faith, community, and country. These bonds are stronger than the forces of hatred and evil - and these bonds grow even stronger in the hours of our greatest need," Donald Trump said.

17 people died on Wednesday when the 19-year-old suspect, Nikolas Cruz, who was a former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and was expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons, opened fire.

Cruz was booked on 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday.

According to local media, 15 people were injured.

Further, the leader of a white nationalist militia on Thursday reportedly claimed that Nikolas Cruz was a member of his group and also participated in paramilitary drills in Tallahassee, according to reports.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India Transact Services Ltd. (ITSL), an omni-channel merchant digital payment solutions company and a Group company of AGS Transact Technologies Ltd., is strengthening its merchant acquisition portfolio by enabling loans to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across metros and tier II and tier III cities.

ITSL has partnered with leading digital lending firms including Flexiloans, Capital Float and Arthimpact (Happy Loans) to facilitate MSME's access to unsecured working capital loans. The company will leverage its unique pan India sales and distribution network across 700 towns and cities, and offer this facility to all the qualifying merchants with Ongo Point-of-Sale terminals.

Lack of experience, absence of collaterals and infrastructure, and small ticket size make lending to MSMEs challenging. As per the report released by International Financial Corporation (IFC), small businesses in emerging markets, such as India, are facing a funding gap of USD 2.1 to 2.6 trillion exists for all organized and unorganized MSMEs. Since the end-to-end process is mostly online, it is convenient for the partners to lend loans to MSMEs without any securities.

Most small merchants who are otherwise not eligible for bank loans due to prevailing strict evaluation criteria can avail Ongo LACR loans from ITSL partners based on their transactions on Ongo terminals.

"We are delighted to see that the Union Budget has given a big push to MSMEs by encouraging Fintech players in the digital lending space. MSMEs contribute around eight percent of GDP, 40 percent of the total exports and around 45 percent of the manufacturing output," said executive vice president, sales and marketing, India Transact Services Ltd., Sunil Khosla.

"We believe they will lead the digital payments growth in in the immediate future. Therefore, in addition to a unique digital payment portfolio we are offering an alternative lending model as a value added service to the qualifying Ongo POS merchants. Our lending solutions will help these merchants on a large scale by simplifying loans and addressing their challenges related to working capital requirements," added Khosla.

He added that the partnering with digital lending providers accelerates us towards becoming a 360 degree merchant services company in retail solution. As Merchant acquiring forms almost 70 percent of ITSL's total we are leveraging our strong foothold across 700 towns and cities to reach relevant enterprises and empower 10,000 merchants by FY18-19.

Here, the loan approval and disbursement cycle is faster because merchant's POS transaction data and KYC documents are already available with ITSL. Depending on the merchant profile and the volume of card transactions on Ongo POS terminal, lending partners will offer loans to merchants in the range of Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 50,00,000. The recovery of loans is through Ongo POS transactions. Therefore, the merchants do not have to run around anywhere for loan or repayment as the entire process is online.

Earlier this year, the company partnered with an Israel based company to enable Indian MSMEs create digital presence in less than a minute.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Iran President Dr. Hassan Rouhani will arrive here on Thursday evening on a three-day visit to India.

Rouhani will address the Muslim congregation at Makkah Masjid, after performing the Friday prayers at the historic mosque before leaving for Delhi.

Religious scholars from different schools of thoughts will also participate in the session.

This is the second time that the Rouhani will be visiting Hyderabad, and the first visit after assuming charge as the President in 2013.

The Iran President holds a doctorate in Constitutional Law (with the thesis titled- Flexibility of Shariah and Islamic Law) from Glasgow's Caledonian University in the United Kingdom.

He is considered an authority on law and has published over 100 books and scientific papers on subjects including Security, Nuclear Diplomacy, Economic System, Islamic Political Thought, Islamic Revolution, Environment and Islamic Legislative Power among others.

It is pertinent to mention that the architect of Hyderabad, Mir Momin, was an Iranian and the magnificent Charminar is a replica of Hazrath Imam Raza shrine in Mashhad, Iran.

President Rouhani will be accorded a ceremonial reception on February 17. He will call on President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

During the visit of the President Rouhani, both sides would review the progress achieved in bilateral relations and also exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual interest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)With the stepping down of Sher Bahadur Deuba from the post of Prime Minister of Nepal on Thursday, CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli is all set to be the new premier.

Oli, who claimed the portfolio with the President Bidhya Devi Bhandari this morning, will be taking the oath this evening at 4 pm in Shital Niwas.

He will be the 41st Prime Minister of Nepal along with that he will also be the first Premier of Nepal after the promulgation of the new constitution in 2015.

Addressing the nation from Prime Minister's Official residence on Thursday morning Prime Minister Deuba announced his resignation from the post deeming his tenure to be successful.

"For the implementation of the constitution, the conduction of all three-tier elections has been completed successfully which was my responsibility to be completed. We now have arrived at the stage of formation of the new federal government. To facilitate the government formation I hereby announce my resignation from the post," Outgoing Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said addressing the nation on Thursday morning.

To be sworn in Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is all set to be the next premier of Nepal this evening at 4 pm taking the oath of the secrecy from the President Bidhya Devi Bhandari in Sheetal Niwas.

"The next Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli will be taking the oath this evening at 4 PM in Sheetal Niwas," Chetan Adhikari, Press Advisor for KP Oli informed ANI over Phone.

The section 76's sub-section 1 of the Constitution of Nepal has the provision of electing the leader from the major party in the parliament to be nominated as Prime Minister and can form the government.

The subsection 2 of the same section in Nepali constitution also has the provision for the appointment of new Prime Minister in case any of the parties failed to garner a complete majority.

It has stated that the President can appoint the leader of a party who can complete the majority mark by getting support from other incumbent parties.

But the government formed after garnering support from two or more than two parties is mandated to testify the support in parliament within 30 days of its formation.

In case the government fails to get endorsed then the President should give another chance to garner a majority and upon the repeated failure the President can dissolve the House of Representative and call for another election within 6 months.

The constitution also has fixed the number of ministers in the centre with a number limit of 25 seats inclusive of Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Ministers, State Ministers and Minister Aide.

The Section 76's subsection 9 of the Constitution of Nepal has the provision limiting the number of the cabinet as well as ensures the inclusiveness in the government which also will see members from the State assemblies too.

The state government also will have cabinet members not exceeding 10 percent of the total number of members in the state assembly. But it will require the announcement of the state centre, Chief Minister of the state as the prerequisite.

The constitutional provision stated in Section 168 about the formation of the state government which is similar to the formation of the government at the centre.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fought back against a police finding that he had accepted approximately USD 300,000 in bribe, saying that no one can force him to step down.

"The coalition is stable, and no one, me or anyone else, has plans to go to elections. We will continue to work together with you for the citizens of the State of Israel, until the end of our term," The New York Times quoted Netanyahu as saying.

"I read the recommendations report. I can say this is a slanted document, extreme, full of holes, like Swiss cheese, and holds no water," Netanyahu said at a conference of local government officials in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.

The Israeli police on Tuesday recommended that Prime Minister Netanyahu be indicted on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.

The police said that there was enough evidence to prosecute him on allegations that he had accepted lavish gifts from wealthy businessmen and also tried to negotiate a corrupt deal with a newspaper publisher, The Telegraph reported.

Netanyahu is accused of accepting bribes worth one million shekels.

The first probe against the Prime Minister focused on claims that he and his family illegally accepted extravagant gifts including champagne and cigars from Arnon Milchan, an Israeli Hollywood producer, and James Packer, an Australian millionaire.

It is believed that to return the favour, Netanyahu allegedly helped to pass legislation that would benefit Milchan's businesses and also tried to get him a visa to the United States.

The Prime Minister admitted to taking the above-mentioned gifts but claimed that they were presents between friends and had nothing to do with any political favours.

It is also believed that Netanyahu offered a corrupt deal to Arnon Mozes, the publisher of Yedioth Ahronoth, one of Israel's largest newspapers.

Netanyahu allegedly said that he would restrict the circulation of Israel Hayom, a free sheet newspaper which had eaten into Yedioth Ahronoth's market share.

In return, the Prime Minister allegedly wanted more favourable coverage.

Netanyahu and his allies also tried to discredit the police investigation and cast it as a political witch hunt.

The final decision on whether or not to bring charges against Netanyahu lies with Israeli attorney general Avichai Mandelblit.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday hit out at the Congress for cornering Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government over the PNB fraud case and said that 1.77 billion dollars scam happened during the UPA regime.

Speaking to media in Shillong, Sitharaman said, "This happened in their tenure. The allegations are coming out now. This is coming out as it is their (UPA's) gift. We will definitely take action. This has not happened in (20)14."

A political blame game broke out on Thursday after the Punjab Bank detected a 1.77 billion dollars scam in which businessman Nirav Modi acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from one of its branches for overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

PNB has suspended 10 officers in this scam and referred the matter to CBI for investigation.

The scam was started in 2011 and was detected in the third week of January this year, after which the PNB officials reported it to the concerned agencies.

Earlier today, while addressing a press conference, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said, "On 26 July 2016, Prime Minister was handed with all papers regarding Nirav Modi and one of his relative. It was said that complaint had 42 FIRs. The Prime Minister Office acknowledged the complaint, they also sent registrar of companies to take some action. But in the end, the government couldn't do anything. Modi ji, take action, otherwise, Chote Modi (Nirav Modi) will run away."

"How can Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi dupe the entire banking system through forged Letters of Understanding under the nose of the Modi government? Who is responsible for biggest bank loot scam?" he asked.

CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury also trained guns at Modi government and tweeted a group photograph showing Nirav Modi along with Prime Minister Modi at Davos.

"If this person had fled India before the FIR on Jan 31, then he is here, photographed at Davos with PM, a week before the FIR, after having escaped from India? Modi govt must clarify," he asked.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court on Thursday directed that two main accused of the OP Jindal Global University rape case will remain in jail until the Punjab and Haryana High Court decide the appeals filed by the convicts within five months.

Earlier in May, 2017, a Sonepat court had convicted the students for gang raping and blackmailing a fellow female student for over a year.

The Supreme Court was hearing a petition filed by the victim after the High Court in September 2017 let off the three convicts.

The top court had already stayed the High Court's order in November 2017.

The case dates back to 2015 when a student of OP Jindal Global University in Sonepat had alleged that her friend Hardik Sikri had blackmailed her using photos of her.

The woman had alleged that Sikri forced her to have physical relations with him and his two friends, Vikas Garg and Karan Chhabra.

The three accused were earlier jailed by a trial court for raping the victim but the Punjab and Haryana High Court had suspended their conviction and sentence in September last year on the grounds that the woman was "promiscuous" and had "casual sexual escapades".

The victim approached the top court challenging the High Court's order of suspension of convicts' sentences.

She alleged that the accused have been blackmailing her as they have her objectionable pictures and expressed apprehension of circulation of those photographs.

On April 11, 2015, the victim had lodged a complaint with the university administration alleging that the trio, final year law students of the university, had been blackmailing and raping her since August 2013.

She had also alleged that the accused had her objectionable photos and they used to threaten to make the photos viral and coerced her to have physical relations with them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan on Wednesday banned two charities linked to the mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Hafiz Saeed.

Pakistan's interior ministry issued a notification against the Saeed-founded Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) charity, as well as its associated organisation, the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), Al Jazeera reported.

"As per the instructions, we have already started taking over all the facilities, offices, schools, dispensaries and seminaries which belong to the JuD and FIF," Al Jazeera quoted Rana Sanaullah, law minister for Punjab province, as saying.

Saeed, who is the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), was designated a "terrorist" by the United Nations (UN) and had a USD 10 million-bounty placed on him by the United States in 2012.

Pakistan banned the LeT but allowed its charity wings to continue operating. This included 300 seminaries and schools, hospitals, a publishing house and ambulance services.

This move by the Pakistan government comes days before a key meeting by the Financial Action Task Force, a global money-laundering watchdog, which is due to consider a US-sponsored motion to place Pakistan on a list of countries failing to prevent "terrorism" financing.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan Supreme Court on Thursday issued an arrest warrant against country's former ambassador to United States Hussain Haqqani.

Haqqani took to Twitter to express his disappointment.

"Sad that highest court of #Pakistan persists with such antics for local TV news coverage. Such political 'warrants' have not been honoured abroad in the past, won't work now," he tweeted.

Earlier in September 2017, Haqqani's portrait was removed from the Pakistan Embassy in Washington.

He served as Pakistan's ambassador to the United States from 2008 to 2011.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)No meeting took place between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nirav Modi in Davos, said sources on Thursday.

Punjab Bank (PMB) has filed two financial fraud complaints of Rs. 11400 crore and Rs 280 crore against Nirav Modi, a billionaire celebrity jewellery designer.

"No official business delegation travelled with PM Modi. There was no meeting between Nirav Modi and PM Narendra Modi in Davos, it was just a photo opportunity at an event," said sources.

The Congress targeted Prime Minister Modi for allowing PNB fraud-accused Nirav Modi to be part of the Indian business delegation at Davos.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi tweeted: "Guide to Looting India by Nirav MODI. 1. Hug PM Modi 2. Be seen with him in DAVOS Use that clout to: A. Steal 12,000Cr B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the Govt looks the other way. From1MODI2another."

The Congress said the Prime Minister should speak on the "biggest banking loot of the past 70 years" and explain how the designer was allowed to flee despite PNB writing to the CBI on January 29 this year to issue a look-out notice against Modi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday congratulated K P Sharma Oli on being sworn in as Nepal's Prime Minister for the second time.

Prime Minister Modi spoke with his Nepalese counterpart on the phone and congratulated him on assuming the office.

KP Sharma Oli was sworn in as the 41st Prime Minister of Nepal, earlier on Thursday.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 65-year-old Prime Minister at a function held at the President's Office, Shital Niwas, in Maharajgunj.

Oli, who had previously served as the country's Prime Minister from October 11, 2015, to August 3, 2016, is the first premier of Nepal after the promulgation of the new constitution in 2015.

Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) UML's Oli is well-known for his pro-China stance.

Earlier in the day, Sher Bahadur Deuba, while addressing the nation from the Prime Minister's Official residence, announced his resignation from the post, deeming his tenure successful.

"For the implementation of the constitution, the conduction of all three-tier elections has been completed successfully which was my responsibility to be completed. We now have arrived at the stage of formation of the new federal government. To facilitate the government formation I hereby announce my resignation from the post," Deuba had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday will address various rallies in Tripura ahead of the assembly elections in the state.

Other senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders will also be campaigning for the upcoming polls.

Prime Minister Modi will address rallies in Santirbazar of South Tripura and Agartala of West Tripura districts.

He will visit Arunachal Pradesh and will inaugurate the Dorjee Khandu state convention center at a function in Itanagar.

The Prime Minister will also dedicate the state civil secretariat building to the nation and will lay the foundation stone of the academic block of the Tomo Riba institute of health and medical science.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress Party on Thursday lambasted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Nirav Modi's fraud case asserting that the "government couldn't do anything" despite the tip-off in 2016 of the loot.

Addressing the jeweller as 'Chhota Modi' in a press conference here, Surjewala said that Nirav was part of a delegation travelling with the prime minister despite "the complaint against him."

He further asked the Prime Minister Modi to take actions, adding that "otherwise Chote Modi will run away".

"On 26 July 2016, Prime Minister was handed with all papers regarding Nirav Modi and one of his relative. It was said that complaint had 42 FIRs. The Prime Minister Office acknowledged the complaint, they also sent registrar of companies to take some action. But in the end the government couldn't do anything. Modiji, take action, otherwise Chote Modi will run away," he added.

He asked how can Niravi Modi and Managing Director of Gitanjali Gems, Mehul Choksi dupe the entire banking system "under the nose" of Prime Minister Modi.

"How can Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi dupe the entire banking system through forged Letters of Understanding under the nose of the Modi government? Who is responsible for biggest bank loot scam unleashed by chhota Modi?" asked Surjewala.

The Congress leader asked why the prime minister was quiet, adding that, "loot and run away" is the new motto of Prime Minister's government.

"The biggest bank loot scam has been exposed in the last 24 hours. Around 30 banks have lost money due to this scam," he said.

He added that Prime Minister Modi government mismanaged risk management system of the banking system.

Calling it the biggest bank scam since 71 years of independence, Surjewala said, "Many banks will have to pay collaterals".

Earlier on Wednesday, the Punjab Bank had confirmed fraudulent activities at its branches in Mumbai, worth transactions USD 1771.69 million for the benefit of some account holders.

Managing Director of PNB Mehta said that the scam was started in 2011 and was detected in the third week of January this year, after which the PNB officials reported it to the concerned agencies.

Mehta further said that the Government of India is monitoring the situation and the bank is getting full support in nabbing the culprits.

PNB has also suspended 10 of its officials in connection with the case.

Modi had allegedly cheated the bank to the tune of Rs. 280.7 crore.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had on Monday booked Nirav Modi, his brother Nishal Modi and the officials of PNB in this regard.

It has emerged that the fraudulently issued Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) from the Mumbai branch of PNB were in favour of Hong Kong branches of Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank, that helped facilitate Rs 280.7 crore fraud by Modi among others.

According to the official sources, Nirav Modi left the country on January 1.

CBI had received the complaint form PNB on January 28 and a case was registered in the case on January 31st.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two days before suspending 10 of its officials in connection with jewellery designer Nirav Modi fraud case, the Punjab Bank (PNB) on Monday sent a caution notice to all the banks, informing about the modus operandi of the fraud.

The notice was sent to Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Canara Bank, Central Bank of lndia, Corporation Bank, Catholic Syrian Bank, Dena Bank, Dhan Laxmi Bank, lClCI Bank, IDBI Bank, lndian Overseas Bank, Indusind Bank, J & K bank, Karnataka bank, Karur Vysya Bank, Lakshmi vilas Bank, Oriental bank of Commerce, Punjab & Sindh Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, State Bank of lndia, State bank of Mauritius, Syndicate Bank, Union Bank of lndia, United bank of lndia, UCO bank, Vitala Bank, and Exim bank.

Meanwhile, Axis Bank on Thursday issued a letter to Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), notifying that it had undertaken transactions against Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) issued by other banks, with PNB in the past.

The letter further read, "Axis Bank is also an active participant in the secondary market for such transactions, and the bank had sold down all of the referred transactions."

Axis Bank requested PNB "to take note of the above and arrange to bring it to the notice of all concerned."

However, PNB had sent the notice after it was found that the fraud had been carried out by the perpetrators in collusion with the staff at one of the branches in Mumbai, wherein one junior level branch official unauthorisedly and fraudulently issued LoUs on behalf of some companies belonging to Nirav Modi group viz. Solar Exports, Steller Diamonds and Diamond R Us for availing buyers' Credit from overseas branches of Indian Banks.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had on Monday booked Nirav Modi, his brother Nishal Modi and the officials of PNB, for allegedly cheating the bank to the tune of Rs. 280.7 crore.

The case against the famous jewellery designer comes after the Income Tax department raided Modi's offices in Delhi, Surat and Jaipur.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) today has raided premises of Nirav Modi nationwide, and registered a case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Nirav Modi and others in this connection.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Shiv Sena on Thursday claimed that Congress president Rahul Gandhi increasing association with Hindus has shaken the political ground of Bhartiya Janata Party in the electoral state Karnataka.

The similar strategy was followed by Congress during the Gujarat elections against Bhartiya Janata Party.

In the editorial page of its mouthpiece Saamna, the party highlighted Rahul Gandhi's recent visits to both Hindu and Muslim religious places in Karnataka and termed it as a strategy of 'soft Hinduism' by Congress.

The party said, "If Congress accepts and propagates Hinduism, then BJP will not be left with any counter-issue."

It further quoted the BJP candidate for the post of Chief Minister in Karnataka B. S. Yeddyurappa saying, "Rahul Gandhi consumed non-vegetarian food before visiting the temple" as it pointed towards the practice of mud-slinging by both BJP and Congress.

It criticised the parties for hurting the religious sentiments of different communities for the sake of winning the state assembly elections.

It further said that instead of focusing on 'food politics' the parties should discuss more important issues.

It criticized Yeddyurappa for instances of violence inflicted upon the Marathi-speaking community in Karnataka under his leadership in the state.

The party further said that the BJP and Congress have stooped too low to claim certain electoral gains.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday dared Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to make his Members of Parliament resign and join the protest for special category status to the state.

Reddy on Tuesday had said that his party's MPs would resign on April 6 if the Centre failed to grant special category status to Andhra Pradesh by April 5.

In a meeting during his historic padyatra in Nellore district, the YSRCP chief also questioned the Andhra Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party MP's commitment for special category status.

The opposition party leader advised Naidu to join him in protest if his intention was genuine.

Reddy questioned why special category status would not be accrued to Andhra if 25 MPs resigned on the floor of the house.

TDP minister Adinarayana Reddy has however called Reddy's announcement as a mere drama.

The ruling party has announced that it will quit the Democratic Alliance on March 5 if the central government does not fulfill all the 19 promises made by the Center to Andhra Pradesh.

The party has for the first time officially came out, saying its ministers in the Cabinet will resign and TDP will get out of the NDA on March 5 if the Centre does not fulfill all the 19 promises sworn by Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Minister of State (MoS) for Power RK Singh on Thursday took cognisance and spoke to Arrah's Superintendent of Police (SP) Avkash Kumar about the explosion at Harkhen Kumar Jain Dharmshala in Bihar.

Earlier in the day, one got injured after an explosion took place at Harkhen Kumar Jain Dharmshala in Bihar's Arrah city.

On immediate information, police rushed to the spot and took the injured to a local hospital for treatment.

"There were five people in the room, out of which one is injured and has been sent to hospital. Their purpose can only be identified after investigation," Arrah's Superintendent of Police (SP) Avkash Kumar told ANI.

"One aadhaar card and a pistol have been recovered from room," Kumar added.

A case has been registered and further investigations are on.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Final hearing on the validity of a special law passed to protect unauthorised constructions in Delhi will begin in the Supreme Court from April 2.

The apex court said that it will be a day-to-day hearing to decide the issue expeditiously.

In December, the Lok Sabha passed The Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Second (Amendment) Bill. It gives immunity to slums and some unauthorised constructions in Delhi until December 31, 2020.

The sealing drive started in Delhi from December 22. Till now, over 1,500 commercial establishments have been sealed across the city.

The ongoing sealing drive, which was restricted to local markets, will now be extended to residential areas.

The Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee on Monday directed three civic bodies - South, East and North Delhi - to identify residential buildings where stilt parking is illegally being used for commercial activities.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy on Thursday slammed the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Chief Asaduddin Owaisi over his statement aiming to attest to the patriotism of the Indian Muslims.

"Owaisi can count Muslims army men killed. But can he also count how many Muslims are in terrorists organisation attacking the army?" Swamy tweeted.

On Tuesday, Owaisi had slammed those questioning the patriotism of Muslims, while making a reference to the fact that five out of seven army soldiers killed by terrorists at the Sunjuwan army camp attack were Kashmiri Muslims.

While the Congress Party supported Owaisi's stand, the Indian Army ejected claims by saying the army does "not communalise martyrs.Taliban insurgents issued an astounding 17,000-word appeal to the "American people", asking them to pressure the U.S. officials to end the 17-year-old conflict in Afghanistan.

The letter emailed to the media in English and four other languages contained official statistics about the human and economic costs of war.

Referring to the U.S. officials as "war-mongers" and usurpers, it also asserted that the protracted American "occupation" had brought only death, corruption and drugs to their impoverished country.

"Prolonging the war in Afghanistan and maintaining American troop presence is neither beneficial for America nor for anyone else," The Washington Post quoted the letter.

"Stubbornly seeking the protraction of this war will have dreadful consequences for the region and the stability of America herself," the document added.

The letter, sent under the banner of "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," was issued just weeks after a blitz of deadly insurgent attacks in the Afghan capital.

At least 25 terrorists belonging to the Islamic States (IS) group were killed in the airstrikes carried out by the United States in Afghanistan's northern Jawzjan province bordering Turkmenistan, on February 7.

Further, the letter's talking points included a list of goals that the U.S. government had set out to achieve in entering the war in Afghanistan, including eliminating terrorism, establishing the rule of law and eradicating drugs.

It also systematically presents arguments, backed up with international statistics, to show that these efforts have failed or have had extremely negative consequences.

"As confirmed by your own military authorities, 3546 American and foreign soldiers have been killed, more than 20,000 American forces injured and tens of thousands more are suffering mentally," the letter said, asserting that the actual casualty figures were much higher but were being "concealed" by the U.S. leaders.

The letter also said that there had been 751 U.S airstrikes in September.

"You should ask your generals that despite using such force, have you retaken even a single inch of land from the Taliban," the document asked.

The overall message of these arguments was that the American people should make a "rational" assessment of the war.

"You proclaim to be a developed and civilized nation. We leave it to your judgment to decide whether the prevailing conditions of insecurity, chaos and soaring drug problems in Afghanistan constitute reforms or crimes against humanity," it concluded.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has for the first time officially announced that it will severe alliance with the Democratic Alliance by March 5 if the Centre does not fulfill all the 19 promises made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Andhra Pradesh MP Adinarayana Reddy also said their ministers in Central Cabinet will also resign.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had earlier said a solution will soon be arrived upon regarding the Centre's agreement to provide special assistance to the state of Andhra Pradesh.

"Central government had agreed to give special assistance measures to Andhra Pradesh for five years. Earlier, this assistance was to be given by externally aided program. However, in month of January, the state government suggested alternative methods, and solution is likely to be finalised soon," Jaitley said in his address at the Rajya Sabha.

A rift has emerged between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ally- TDP in the state, after the Union Budget presented on February 1 did not reflect the agreement.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United States President Donald Trump on Thursday offered his condolences, following the shooting at a school in Parkland, Florida.

"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school," President Trump wrote on Twitter.

Trump also assured the US citizens that a strict action will be taken against the shooter.

"Just spoke to Governor Rick Scott. We are working closely with law enforcement on the terrible Florida school shooting," said another tweet from the President.

First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump, too offered her condolences.

"My heart is heavy over the school shooting in Florida. Keeping all affected in my thoughts and prayers," she wrote on Twitter.

At least one died and 14 others were injured after an unknown gunman opened fire at a high school in Parkland.

The shooting suspect is said to be in police custody.

Dispatch at the Broward County Sheriff's Office confirmed the school was on lockdown and police were on location.

Moreover, Coral Springs Police asked the public to avoid the area as it was an active scene.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An American TV hosts have sparked controversy after they made 'Islamophobic' remarks in an interview with a Muslim fashion blogger, who grew up in Oklahoma City of United States.

Iranian-American Muslim fashion blogger Hoda Katebi was told during a segment on local Chicago's WGN News' morning show that she 'does not sound American' because of her views, on live television.

The chat show host Robin Baumgarten asked Katebi about her opinion on Iran and nuclear weapons and she was laughed at for growing up in Oklahoma.

She was on the show to talk about bridging the gap between America and the Middle East through fashion and being an American hijab wearing Muslim and discussed being physically assaulted for wearing her hijab starting in the sixth grade in Oklahoma.

However, soon she was asked, 'Let's talk about nuclear weapons,' to which Katebi responded while laughing uncomfortably with, 'Okay.'

After which, Baumgarten's co-anchor Larry Potash said, "Some of our viewers say, We can not trust Iran."

"I don't think we can trust this country... I am a pacifist, I don't believe in violence," Katebi responded.

Katebi was called for an interview on her book, Tehran Street Style, and her blog. It was aired live on January 31.

After the interview, Katebi wrote a post on her blog Joo Joo to share her ordeal.

"So hindsight is always 20/20, and I honestly should have just stopped him right there and questioned why he thought it was okay to make this ridiculous comment and pose it as a question..." she wrote.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Minister of Statistics and Programme Implementation Shri D. V. Sadananda Gowda said that the government is committed to improve Statistical system to meet data requirements. The Minister also said that the Ministry intends to prepare National Report on baseline data to monitor the status of progress for goals and targets under SDGs.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) proposes to undertake several initiatives during the Financial Year 2018-19 to further improve statistical system to meet the data requirements in the emerging socio-economic scenario of the country. In the Union Budget 2018-19, the Ministry was allocated Rs. 4859 crore.

The Ministry has been operating two Schemes, namely, (i) Capacity Development (CD) Scheme and (ii) Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) Scheme. In addition, the Ministry provides Grants-in-Aid to Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), an institute of National importance, for its day to day functioning, infrastructure development and research/academic activities. The allocation in 2018-19 are: Rs. 208 crore for CD, Rs. 3950 crore for MPLADS and Rs. 269 crore for ISI.

The Union Cabinet under the leadership of the Hon'ble Prime Minister, adopted the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics in 2016. The Ministry is in the process of evolving a National Policy on Official Statistics to give furtherance to these Principles. A National Quality Assurance Framework for Official Statistics will be prepared by the Ministry during 2018-19.

The Ministry brings out estimates of macroeconomic aggregates, estimates on various socio-economic parameters and on short term indicators from time to time, as per pre-determined calendar of releases for facilitating better understanding and assessment of the progress of the economy and the society for promoting evidence based policy formulation. These statistical products/ outcomes are consistent with the relevant international standards and methodology, and the compilation processes undergoes revision from time to time to accommodate best practices.

During 2018-19, the Ministry is proposing to initiate steps to revise the base years of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and Consumer Price Index (CPI) to accommodate and factor the changes take place in the economic scenario of the country. The new base year for GDP and IIP will be 2017-18 and for CPI, it will be 2018.

The Ministry has launched a Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) in April, 2017 to assess the labour force scenario in the country.

The results of this survey (Rural and Urban) would be made available to the government and non-government stakeholders in 2018-19. The Ministry proposes to launch new surveys to address the data gap and to ensure regular flow of data for services sector and informal sector. The Ministry also proposes to launch a Time Use Survey, which inter-alia aims at assessing the contribution of women in non-marketed social and economic activities, which have not been measured so far.

As part of Digital India initiative of the Government, the Ministry intends to optimally and extensively utilize ICT for data collection, compilation and dissemination. The Ministry is at an advanced stage of establishing a National Data Warehouse on official statistics. The data warehouse will act as repository of all official statistics.

The National Statistical System Training Academy (NSSTA) has been established as an apex training academy on official statistics to impart training to statistical officers/ staff of Centre & State/UT Governments and other countries, academia and students. It also prepares a pool of resource persons on different subject domains who impart training at lower levels.

The data collection machinery of the NSSO in NE Region is being strengthened by opening new offices or upgrading existing offices in Itanagar, Aizwal, Imphal and Agartala.

In consonance with the Prime Minister's vision of a 'New India' by 2022, the Government appointed Prabhari Officers for coordinating the efforts of Centre and States in achieving rapid transformation of 115 identified backward districts. Steps are being taken by the Government to establish a comprehensive database and an efficient feedback mechanism. The CSO and the NSSO are identifying parameters on which data for the 115 districts could be provided periodically for inclusion in the comprehensive database for facilitating assessment of progress.

The Ministry is the nodal agency for devising framework for monitoring Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). During 2018-19, the Ministry intends to prepare National Report on baseline data to monitor the status of progress for goals and targets under SDGs.

The Guidelines on MPLADS have been modified with changing requirements as well as on advice/feedback received from the stakeholders. The modifications are intended to imbibe systemic improvements in the design and implementation of the Scheme and to ensure optimum utilisation of Government Funds. The Ministry has developed a new Integrated MPLADS portal for use of all the stakeholders, an attempt towards ensuring transparency and making citizens aware of the implementation of the Schemes.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Loan Agreement for financing of Rajasthan Water Sector Restructuring Project for the Desert Areas was signed between Government of India and the New Development Bank (NDB) on 13th February 2018 at New Delhi. This is the first tranche loan of USD 100 million approved by the NDB under the Multi Tranche Financing Facility of USD 345 million for this project.

The objective of this Project is to rehabilitate the 678 km long Indira Gandhi Canal system built during 1958-63 to prevent seepage, conserve water, and enhance water use efficiency as mandated by both national and state level policies on water use. The execution of the project would multiple benefits such as:

i. Arresting the seepage by rehabilitating the deteriorating canal lining of the Indira Gandhi Nahar Project (IGNP) which needs urgent attention;

ii. Rehabilitation of waterlogged areas;

iii. Modernization and optimization of the irrigation management practices in the project area by involvement of the water users' associations (WUA) in the command area

iv.

Strengthening of drinking water supply and irrigation facilities in the project area

The project implementation period is 6 years. Government of Rajasthan will implement the project primarily through Rajasthan Water Resources Department.

The Loan Agreement was signed by Mr. Govind Mohan, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs on behalf of the Government of India and Mr. Shaohua Wu, Director General, Project Financing on behalf of the NDB. The Project Agreement was signed by Mr. Shikhar Agarwal, Principle Secretary, Water Resources Department on behalf of the Government of Rajasthan. The representatives of the Government of India, NDB and the Government of Rajasthan also signed Facility Framework Agreement under which NDB has agreed to provide Multi-Tranche Financing Facility for amount aggregating to USD 345 million to the Republic of India for this project.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jet Airways (India) fell 2.79% to Rs 781 at 9:32 IST on BSE after net profit declined 45.9% to Rs 165.25 crore on 10.4% increase in net sales to Rs 6086.20 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016.

The results were announced after market hours yesterday, 14 February 2018.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 106.07 points, or 0.31% to 34,262.02.

On the BSE, 85,000 shares were traded in the counter so far compared with average daily volumes of 4.04 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock had hit a high of Rs 792.45 and a low of Rs 771 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 883.65 on 5 January 2018. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 352 on 15 February 2017.

The stock had outperformed the market over the past 30 days till 14 February 2018, rising 1.48% compared with 1.77% fall in the Sensex. The scrip had also outperformed the market in past one quarter, rising 17.48% as against Sensex's 3.17% rise. The scrip had also outperformed the market in past one year, rising 125.40% as against Sensex's 21.31% rise.

The mid-cap company has equity capital of Rs 113.60 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

Jet Airways is India's premier international airline which operates flights to 64 destinations, including India and overseas.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)With a view to bring the economically disadvantaged section of the society in the unorganized sector within the pension fold or old age income security coverage, Government had launched the Atal Pension Yojana (APY)in May 2015.  

Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) in association with Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance conducts APY Outreach Programme on a regular basis. Accordingly, PFRDA has observed a Campaign namely, Makers of Excellence for the Chairmen and MDs of all the Public Sector Banks, Private Sector Banks, Regional Rural Banks, Cooperative Banks (Rural & Urban) & Department of Post for registration of subscriber under APY during the month of Dec 2017 for a fortnight. Under the campaign, nearly, 6 lacs APY accounts were sourced by the APY Service Provider Banks. Targets were allocated to various banks to be achieved during the Campaign. A total of 21 banks- 6 Public sector banks, 14 Regional Rural Banks and 1 Cooperative Bank were able to achieve the target under the campaign and became the Makers of Excellence.

PFRDA has planned to award the Top Management of the winning banks at the upcoming PFRDA Pension Conclave in national capital.

The winning Banks and their performance is as below:

1 CANARA BANK PSU 6,050 35,000 101,6692 INDIAN BANK PSU 2,588 15,000 76,8233 ANDHRA BANK PSU 2,903 15,000 57,3154 BANK OF BARODA PSU 5,460 30,000 42,6655 ALLAHABAD BANK PSU 3,143 20,000 30,0296 VIJAYA BANK PSU 1,603 10,000 28,2417 GRAMIN BANK OF ARYAVART RRB 700 3,500 5,9158 MADHYA BIHAR GRAMIN BANK RRB 698 3,490 5,5079 PRAGATHI KRISHNA GRAMIN BANK RRB 650 3,250 5,38310 PRATHAMA BANK RRB 412 2,060 5,28811 BARODA UTTAR PRADESH GRAMIN BANK RRB 924 4,620 5,12512 ANDHRA PRADESH GRAMEENA VIKAS BANK RRB 768 3,840 4,89313 BARODA RAJASTHAN KSHETRIYA GRAMIN BANK RRB 819 4,095 4,56014 PURVANCHAL BANK RRB 570 2,850 3,36815 KAVERI GRAMEENA BANK RRB 497 2,485 2,94216 DENA GUJARAT GRAMIN BANK RRB 234 1,170 2,32217 BIHAR GRAMIN BANK RRB 376 1,880 2,25818 CHAITANYA GODAVARI GRAMEENA BANK RRB 203 1,015 1,71419 PALLAVAN GRAMA BANK RRB 256 1,280 1,43120 SAPTAGIRI GRAMEENA BANK RRB 207 1,035 1,07421 THE BEGUSARAI CENTRAL COOPERATIVE BANK LTD DCCB 9 45 113

The APY scheme became operational from 1st June, 2015 and is available to all citizens of India in the age group of 18-40 years. Under the Scheme, a subscriber would receive a minimum guaranteed pension of Rs.1000 to Rs.5000 per month, depending upon his contribution, from the age of 60 years. The same pension would be paid to the spouse of the subscriber and on the demise of both the subscriber and spouse, the accumulated pension wealth is returned to the nominee.

The APY Scheme follows the same investment pattern as applicable to the NPS contribution of Central Govt employees. During the year 2016-17, it has earned a return of 13.91%.

The number of current APY Subscribers has crossed 86 lacs mark. The yearly addition in APY enrollment is provided below:

24.84 23.99 37.63 86.46

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Sun Pharmaceutical Industries' (Sun Pharma) consolidated net profit fell 75.17% to Rs 365.39 crore on 16.04% decline in total revenue from operations to Rs 6653.23 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016. The results were announced after market hours yesterday, 14 February 2018.

Sun Pharma's bottom line in Q3 December 2017 was adversely impacted by one-time deferred tax adjustment of Rs 513 crore related to changes in US tax rates.

Dilip Shanghvi, Managing Director, Sun Pharma, said that the company's Q3 performance reflects a gradual improvement in profitability over the first half of this year, despite a challenging US generic pricing environment. Sun Pharma continues to evaluate opportunities in the specialty segment to further enhance this business, he said.

Nestle India's net profit rose 59.58% to Rs 311.83 crore on 10.23% increase in revenue from operations to Rs 2601.46 crore in Q4 December 2017 over Q4 December 2016. The results were announced after market hours yesterday, 14 February 2018.

Jet Airways (India)'s net profit declined 45.9% to Rs 165.25 crore on 10.4% increase in net sales to Rs 6086.20 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016. The results were announced after market hours yesterday, 14 February 2018.

Yes Bank announced the listing of its debut $600 million bond issue under its maiden $1 billion MTN programme on Global Securities Market (GSM), India's first capital raising platform for international investors in any currency, located at the Gujarat International Finance Tec City (GIFT City) IFSC. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 14 February 2018.

Indiabulls Real Estate said that its board considered the recommendations made by the committee for sale of its residential and commercial assets at Chennai, being a non-core market for company's real estate business operations. The board also took on record the resolutions passed by the board of its 100% subsidiaries Navilith Holdings (Cyprus) and M Holdco1 (Mauritius), authorizing execution of non-binding documents with third party institutional investor, for reorganization of its commercial leasing business in India for achieving sustainable long term growth and for further strengthening of their on-going businesses. The said resolutions further authorize the respective companies to share information and endeavor to conclude the transaction before 31 March 2018, subject to necessary approvals & to take all necessary steps, as may be required. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 14 February 2018.

Zensar Technologies said that it has won the mandate for providing JD Edwards 9.2 implementation for Africa's leading specialty chemicals conglomerate, SynChem. The project involves integrating three of its holding companies into one single ERP framework, to bring in seamless operational excellence. Zensar will be managing the implementation across the key functional areas of finance, manufacturing, supply chain and asset maintenance. The announcement was made at the fag end of market hours yesterday, 14 February 2018.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The World Bank (IBRD) has issued a US$350 million bond that raises funds for its development activities around the world, while highlighting four of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The sole investor in the bond is the Folksam Group, one of Sweden's leading insurance and investment management companies.

The World Bank issues between US$50-US$60 billion in the global capital markets every year, and proceeds of all its bond support development programs that are aligned with the SDGs. This includes, for example, projects that are creating access to health care for uninsured women and children in Argentina; improving the quality of primary and maternal healthcare in Swaziland; improving waste management in six urban districts in China; upgrading water and sanitation facilities to improve the lives of women and children in India; and supporting the rehabilitation of a coral reef in Indonesia.

Arunma Oteh, World Bank Vice President and Treasurer, said: "The global community has made an ambitious commitment to achieve the SDGs, and this requires a new way of looking at development finance. Through our partnership with the Folksam Group, we are able to offer a bond that supports specific development priorities for Swedish investors while raising funding for all our operations that are aligned with all SDGs.

Engagement with investors like Folksam is key to linking investment to impact, defining effective reporting mechanisms and supporting the development of sustainable investment products and capital markets.

Mahmoud Mohieldin, World Bank Group Senior VP for the 2030 Development Agenda, UN Relations and Partnership, said: To achieve the SDGs, we have to focus on building capacity of development actors at the local level to finance and deliver services that change the lives of people in their communities. By working with investors like Folksam, we can leverage capital markets globally to support action towards the SDGs locally."

Jens Henriksson, President and CEO, the Folksam Group, said: "Working for a sustainable world is at the core of the Folksam Group's values. The 17 SDGs constitute a solid foundation for achieving sustainable development within business and society. While we support all 17 SDGs, through engagement with our clients, we have chosen to focus on four specific SDGs within our sustainability strategy. These are good health and well-being, gender equality, responsible consumption and production and climate action.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two security personnel lost their lives and two others sustained injuries as a blast rocked Afghanistan's Parwan province on Saturday, officials said.

According to a police official, the security personnel were busy defusing an explosive device on a road in Khalazai area on the outskirts of Charikar, the capital of Parwan province, when it exploded, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Taliban described the blast as a roadside bombing, claiming that it was planted by the militant group and struck a vehicle of security personnel, killing several persons.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three construction workers were killed and at least 15 others were feared trapped under the debris after a four-storeyed under-construction building collapsed here on Thursday, an official said.

"Three men were killed and seven others injured after the building crashed at 4 p.m. in Kasavanahalli (a south-eastern suburb)," city Mayor Sampath Raj told the media.

"At least 15 others are still trapped under the debris and are being rescued by the Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel."

The injured have been admitted to different hospitals.

Rescue work being carried out after an under-construction building collapsed near Sarjapur road at Kasavanahalli locality in Bengaluru on Thursday. Photo credit: PTI

"The building was at least six years old and was under repairs or renovation," Deputy Commissioner of Police Whitefield (eastern suburb) division Abdul Ahad told the media here.

The exact reason for the collapse and the details of the workers are yet to be ascertained, he said.

In October last year, five men and two women were killed as a building collapsed after a cooking gas cylinder exploded in the city's southern suburb of Ejipura.The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Thursday said that it, in a joint operation with the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), seized 347 kgs of poppy straw and arrested one person from the India-Nepal border in West Bengal.

The consignment was seized after the NCB personnel intercepted a tractor on National Highway 34 in Darjeeling district's Panitanki on Wednesday afternoon.

"Gopal Mahto, 26, a resident of Bihar has been arrested on Wednesday from Gosh Pukur toll plaza in Panitanki, near the India-Nepal border. 347 kgs of poppy straw worth approximately Rs 20 lakh have been seized from him," NCB Kolkata Zonal Director Dilip Kumar Srivastava said in a release.

Investigation revealed that the seized consignment was procured from West Bengal's Malda and was intended to be smuggled to Nepal, he added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The army is investigating a Lieutenant Colonel posted in the Army Base Workshop at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh over suspected leak of classified information through IT devices, a Central Command spokesperson said here on Thursday.

His computer's hard disk, laptop and his mobile phone have been seized by Military Intelligence (MI) personnel.

According to a statement from the Indian Army's Central Command, headquartered in Lucknow, a preliminary inquiry was ordered on February 12 to ascertain the facts about the suspected leak of information from the officer's IT devices.

"It is, however, yet to be established whether it has happened inadvertently or deliberately, as reported," the statement said.

The officer had been questioned only as part of the ongoing inquiry and nothing else, and therefore, he was performing his routine duties in the unit, the statement said.

"Evidence related to the case including digital evidence has been seized and sent for further forensic analysis".

Reports of the detention of the officer, "honey trapping", money exchange, etc., at this stage could at best be described as pure speculation and neither accurate nor substantiated, the statement underlined.

"Details on the outcome of the inquiry will be intimated in due course as per the progress," it added.

The case assumes extra significance as it comes close on the heels of the arrest of Indian Air Force officer Arun Marwah on similar charges. Marwah was "honey-trapped" by girls and was sending classified information out of the country.

He was questioned for 10 days and then remanded to 14-day judicial custody.

--IANS

md-hindi/nir/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A day after a massive $1.8 billion fraud by billionaire diamond trader Nirav Modi was unearthed by Punjab National Bank in its Mumbai branch, the AAP on Thursday attacked the BJP-led central government saying it ignored complaints against the top jeweller.

The AAP also alleged that the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) was "benefiting big businessmen and defrauders like Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi and its leaders were involved in the scams done by these people".

Party leader Sanjay Singh told a media conference that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was supporting corruption.

"It is a very serious issue, the Centre should have an answer on this," he said.

Earlier in the day, the Enforcement Directorate launched a nationwide raid on the offices, showrooms and workshops of Nirav Modi.

AAP leader Raghav Chadha said whistle-blower named Hari Prasad had written to the Prime Minister's Office on July 26, 2016, on "banking fraud" by Nirav Modi but "no action was taken".

He also noted that Nirav Modi was part of a delegation travelling with Prime Minister Modi to Davos in January despite the complaint against him and a letter received by the Central Bureau of Investigation from the PNB seeking to alert the government that there was a huge scam and Nirav Modi might flee.

"Is the bank employee the only accused? Their (BJP's) leaders are involved in it? Modi junior (Nirav Modi) and Modi senior (Narendra Modi) certainly have a connection," he alleged.

Citing the cases of Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, Chadha said: "In a country with experienced agencies, why have we not been able to track down such criminals."

He then criticised the FRDI bill, saying it would affect the account holders of banks that have been cheated by "defrauders like Nirav and Mallya".

--IANS

mg/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The BJP on Thursday released its "Vision Document" for the February 27 Meghalaya Assembly elections, promising to implement 7th Pay Commission recommendations for government employees, regularise contractual employees and provide job to every youth, among others.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman released here the document which focuses on development and also promises sanitary napkins for all women from the Below Poverty Line (BPL) households.

"This document underlines what we are talking about... It is time for change in Meghalaya. This simple message tells you a lot. We are not here because it's election season but we are people who believe that change and positive change require a lot of concerted efforts," she said.

Union Tourism Minister K.J. Alphons, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) General Secretary in-charge of Meghalaya, Nalin Kohli, Meghalaya BJP chief Shibun Lyngdoh and former Congress minister Alexander Hek, who joined the party earlier this year, were also present at the release of Vision Document.

"Concerted efforts at different levels are needed so that benefits reach everybody, in line with the national message that Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave in 2014 and which is what we are striving to accomplish -- 'Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas'."

Underscoring the "need for change" in this Congress-ruled state, Sitharaman said: "Why is that we want change? Change can be brought by any party or government ... if you have the advantage that a certain party (Congress) had for consistently being in power for the last 10 years... With also the same party in power at the Centre, won't you expect a state like Meghalaya to get its due?"

Wooing young voters, the vision document promises to provide employment to two lakh youth in the tourism industry, create more employment for the educated youth in public and private sectors and providing opportunities for self-employment to the youth.

It also promised to enact and implement a comprehensive labour law for minimum pay security and work-life balance, in addition to creating an environment for big investors to invest in the state.

Noting that Meghalaya could be a centre of international-standard healthcare in the northeastern states, the BJP promised to make health insurance of Rs 5 lakh available to every citizen, besides raising sufficient infrastructure to promote medical tourism, naturopathy, traditional methods of treatment, etc.

Promising 24x7 electricity to every household, the BJP's Vision Document vow to reduce electricity bills by 30 per cent in urban areas and 50 per cent in rural areas by promoting more efficient use of power.

In a bid to woo employees, the document promises to ensure implementation of the 7th Pay Commission for all government employees of the state, regularising the contractual employees and framing a strong employment policy for the state.

On security front, the BJP promises to curb insurgency through development and creation of jobs, and promote the use of latest technology to curb crime and solve cases. It also says that if voted to power, the BJP would ensure safety and security of the women and children of the state against sexual abuse.

--IANS

rrk/nir

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A complaint was lodged against former All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) member Maulana Salman Husaini Nadwi here on Thursday for allegedly demanding a Rs 5,000 crore as bribe to get the Ayodhya dispute solved in favour of the Hindus, police said.

The complaint was filed in the Hasanganj police station by Ayodhya Sadbhavna Samiti's (ASS) General Secretary Amarnath Mishra, who heads the 'samjhauta varta prabhari', and also accused Nadwi had sought 200 acres land and a seat in the Rajya Sabha.

Nadwi was removed from the AIMPLB's executive committee, at its recent meeting in Hyderabad, for seeking the construction of the Babri mosque away from the disputed site in Ayodhya and the board subsequently announced his "disassociation" from it.

Mishra, in his complaint, said that he had met Nadwi on February 5 and discussed with him ways to thrash out the long-standing dispute of the Ram Janmabhoomi. "Nadwi thereafter sought a written proposal in this regard and said that if Rs 5,000 crore, 200 acres of land and a Rajya Sabha seat is assured, he will take the matter forward within the AIMPLB and get the matter amicably settled in our favour," he claimed.

He also said that the meeting was held at the Nadwa seminary in presence of Imam Council general secretary Haji Masroor Khan, who has endorsed the charges.

Police said they were probing the matter and appropriate action would be taken after that.

--IANS

md/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Without naming Pakistan, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said that talks cannot be held with countries that have trained their guns at India.

"We are open to conflicting views but we are not so open to senseless violence and irrational terrorism," Naidu said while releasing here a set of five books on Indian foreign policy published by think tank Indian Council for World Affairs (ICWA).

"We also know that first we must create conditions for a dialogue," he said.

He referred to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's statement that one can change friends but one cannot change neighbours and said: "There is no intention to change neighbours, but there should be change in attitude."

Describing terrorism as an enemy of mankind which has no religion, Naidu said that no religion condones or preaches terrorism.

Stating that people on both sides of the border love each other because of past history, he said that, however, some people are giving "unasked advice" to engage in dialogue.

"They should also know the reality on the ground and what is happening. It is a fact and it is known to everybody that our neighbour is aiding, abetting, funding, training terrorists," the Vice President said.

Stating that this was affecting the relationship, he said that that is why India's stand has been that talks and terror can't go together.

"We can't have talks with countries that have trained their guns at us," Naidu asserted. "Some educated leaders are suggesting that we should engage in a dialogue with one of our neighbours who is fomenting trouble and encouraging cross-border terrorism. We need to be clear about our country's diplomatic stand."

He said that India does not have any problem with any other country in the world and gave as an example India's good ties with both Israel and Palestine.

The five books released in Thursday's function are "Regional Satraps and the Battle for India's Foreign Policy" by Kalyani Shankar, "Media and Foreign Policy in India" by Shubha Singh, "Technology and International Relations: Challenges for the 21st Century" by Bhaskar Balakrishnan, "Squaring the Circle: Mahatma Gandhi and the Jewish National Home" by P.R. Kumaraswamy, and "India-Iran Relations:Under the Shadow of the Iranian Nuclear Issue and Challenges for Indian Diplomacy".

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday accused the Congress and Left parties of having a "secret understanding" for the February 18 Tripura Assembly polls.

"Congress and Left parties like in Kerala and West Bengal have a secret deal for the Tripura polls. To change the future of Tripura, reject the two parties and vote for BJP," Modi said while addressing two election rallies.

"Both parties destroyed Tripura. Do not trust them. By putting up candidates in the elections, Congress is doing drama in Tripura though both the Congress and Left parties have 'dosti' (friendship) in Delhi," he said.

"No big Congress leader came to Tripura for election campaign because they (Congress and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) have a clandestine pact."

Terming the Congress as "vote cutting party", the Prime Minister said the Congress is "helping" CPI-M to win Sunday's polls.

Modi asked the people to "uproot" the Left parties from Tripura and throw them to "some corner of the earth".

The Prime Minister said the Rose valley chit fund organisation (a Kolkata based company) had pilfered several thousand crore of rupees of 14 lakh Tripura people and accused the Left Front government of not having properly probed the scam.

"After assuming power (in Tripura), the BJP government will inquire into the robbing of huge sums of poor people's money," Modi told the gathering.

In his second phase of election campaigning in Left-ruled Tripura, Modi on Thursday addressed two election rallies with almost the same issues and topics. He came to Tripura from Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanagar and addressed a mammoth rally at Santir Bazar in southern Tripura and gave a speech at another public gathering in Agartala before leaving for Delhi.

Earlier on February 8, the Prime Minister addressed two election rallies in northern Tripura and western Tripura.

Attacking the CPI-M-led government, the Prime Minister said that of every Rs 100 spent, the central government is providing Rs 80 but there is no sign of spending the central fund properly.

The Prime Minister said the central government long back had given Rs 988 crore for implementation of the Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojana in Tripura but the works valued at Rs 650 crore were started recently.

"Under the non-lapsable pool of resources scheme Rs 242 crore had been given to Tripura in four years but Rs 60 crore still remained unspent."

"The Left parties have been misleading the people and encashing the poverty of the people," he said.

He said the Left government has been providing salaries and allowances to state government employees according to what should have been given to government employees 25 to 30 years ago.

He promised that a BJP government would provide higher scale of salaries and allowances to state government employees at par with the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations.

Modi said the central government has invested thousands of crores to expand the rail and road network in Tripura. "The Agartala airport is being developed and digital network is also being upgraded in Tripura."

"To improve the livelihood of the people, the central government has made easy accessible of bamboo. The government would provide houses to all and electricity to each household across the country."

He said that democracy "is in danger" under the rule of Left Front in Tripura.

Modi said the CPI-M during its 25-years rule "destroyed both democracy and the future of Tripura".

He accused the CPI-M party cadres of killing 10 BJP functionaries and two young journalists and promised that a high level inquiry would be held and the perpetrators punished when a BJP led government comes to power.

He said he would attend the swearing in ceremony of the BJP ministers after March 3.

BJP's national general secretary Ram Madhav, Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is the party's Tripura election in-charge, and state president Biplab Kumar Deb among others also spoke at the rallies.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress party in Kerala has decided to approach the High Court with a petition to seek a CBI probe into the killing of Youth Congress worker Shoaib in Kannur district, a party member said on Thursday.

Former Congress MP and State Minister K. Sudhakaran, who is leading the protest, said nothing was going to come out if the Kerala Police probed this murder, and hence "only a CBI probe would bring out the truth, for which we will go forward".

"I had intervened when Shoaib was jailed in a false case and we came to know that CPI-M had planned to eliminate him when he was in jail.

"I called a top jail officer and since he promptly acted, the plan was foiled. He was a target for the CPI-M and they eliminated him," said Sudhakaran.

Three days after the murder of Shoaib, the police continue to remain clueless. Though more than two dozen people have been questioned, no arrest has been made so far.

Thirty-year-old Shoaib was murdered on Monday night. The Kannur Congress unit blamed CPI-M activists, but they have denied the allegations.

Shoaib, along with a few others, was waiting in front of an eatery near Mattanur around 10.45 p.m. on Monday when four persons in a car threw bombs to create a scare.

Shoaib's friend, who was injured during the attack, told the media that Shoaib was slashed with a sword and "butchered".

"After Shoaib fell down, one of the attackers sat near him and butchered him, as if he (attacker) was a butcher engaged in cutting meat. I got injured when I tried to prevent the attack," said his friend.

Youth Congress President Dean Kuriakose who has reached Kannur said that the entire conspiracy in the murder would be revealed if the police arrested the former Secretary of senior CPI-M legislator E.P. Jayarajan, who belongs to the same place where the incident happened.

The Indian Union Muslim League on Thursday passed a resolution condemning the brutal act.

"The Left government's approach to this murder is not fair. What has surfaced now is that in each and every similar attack, the CPI-M is a party and this is a very serious issue.

"Speculations are that the real culprits are being allowed to escape," the IUML resolution read.

The Congress party has also decided to continue its dharna (protest) in Kannur till justice is served.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)They went through a shocking decline recently. Bitcoin, the leader in cryptocurrencies, fell from its high of under $20,000 in mid-December to around $6,000 in value in less than two months.

It has recovered somewhat since then, but the world of cryptocurrencies has been shaken like never before. Yet its major stakeholders are still convinced that the virtual currencies, which are not linked to any authority or central bank, are here to stay.

The price graph of Bitcoins last year went up considerably, leading people to believe that it would be a one-sided market phenomenon, says Ajeet Khurana, Head of Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Committee of the Internet and Mobile Association of India. "Now that there has been a price correction, it definitely shows maturing of the ecosystem," he told IANS in an interview.

Maturing or shaken for good? Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his 2018 Budget speech earlier this month had said that cryptocurrencies were no legal tender and the government discouraged its use. He also said it would not allow its use for illegal activities.

"The government has said it is not a legal tender and it cannot be used for any digital payment. We will always agree with government directives. We are hopeful that with increase in awareness, misunderstanding among people will fade," Khurana said.

Cryptocurrencies are "mined" through blockchain technology and massive computing power, which keeps a record of all transactions within its structure, available publicly. It is neither controlled, nor endorsed, by central bankers -- except for Japan, where it has seen some legal acceptance.

The market cap of all such currencies has fallen from more than $800 billion at its height to less than half at present. In India, an estimated five million people have invested in such currencies which are stored digitally.

Industry stakeholders are now keeping their fingers crossed as they are hopeful that the Indian government would chalk out some sort of a framework for the cryptocurrency market by March this year. A committee set up by the government to look into issues relating to cryptocurrencies is expected to submit its report next month.

According to Khurana, many investors do not know enough about the currencies and the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) panel is making efforts to increase awareness. "A significant number of participants do not have enough knowledge about cryptocurrencies. We keep sending cautionary notes in articles and video format in the public domain on a regular basis," he added.

On December 29 last year, the Indian government had sounded an alarm cautioning investors in cryptocurrencies, comparing them to "Ponzi schemes". The Finance Ministry statement had said that as virtual currencies were not backed by assets, their prices were entirely a matter of speculation.

"Consumers need to be alert and extremely cautious as to avoid getting trapped in such Ponzi schemes... The price of Bitcoin and other VCs (virtual curencies), therefore, is entirely a matter of mere speculation resulting in spurt and volatility in their prices. There is a real and heightened risk of investment bubble of the type seen in Ponzi schemes," the statement had said.

Cryptocurrency stakeholders are hopeful, though, that the government's guidelines by March could infuse a new lease of life. "It has survived several jolts along its way. Despite the jolts, it continued to exist. Around 2014-15, the non-tech participants with significant risk appetite started showing interest in it," Khurana said.

For now, it's Caveat Emptor -- buyer beware. But as in many get-rich-quick schemes, the early entrants have made huge gains, luring several others to put in their money into this new virtual world of overwhelming promise.

(Aparajita Gupta can be contacted at aparajita.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.)Taking on Amazon, Google and Apple, Facebook is now set to officially roll out two smart home speakers in 2018.

According to a report in Taipai-based website Digitimes, the two models  Aloha and Fiona with 15-inch touchscreens  will be launched around July.

"Supply chain sources said that Facebook was originally slated to release the devices in May, but has decided to reschedule the launch to allow more time for perfecting the acoustic quality of the gadgets and software modification," the report said on Wednesday.

Designed by Facebook's Building 8 hardware lab, the Aloha model is reportedly more sophisticated than Fiona.

"The Aloha model, to be marketed under the official name Portal, will use voice commands but will also feature facial recognition to identify users for accessing Facebook via a wide-angle lens on the front of the device," the report added.

Facebook has signed music licensing contracts with Sony and Universal Music for smart home speakers.

The Facebook move is going to further fuel the global smart speaker market.

According to the market research firm Canalys, the global smart speakers market is likely to double to over 50 million units in 2018.

Apple has launched "HomePod", Amazon has "Echo" smart home speaker series, while Google offers "Home" and "Home Mini".The Punjab National Bank (PNB) has charged that foreign branches of other Indian banks may also be involved in what has turned out to be the biggest fraud in the country's banking sector involving diamond trader Nirav Modi.

"There is clear criminal connivance of the group companies of Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Gems with our branch official and also, apparently, with officials of overseas branches of Indian banks," the PNB said in a detailed note sent to 30 Indian nationalized banks, a private bank and a foreign bank.

A copy of the note is available with IANS.

The PNB virtually accused other banks' foreign branches of not sharing with it information or documents made available to them by these Indian companies at the time of availing buyers' credit from them.

"The Buyers' Credit availed against fraudulent LoU (Letter of Undertaking) was used either to retire import bills or replenish the maturing Buyer's Credit of some other banks," the PNB said.

At the same time, the PNB has admitted to the involvement of one of its retired employees and officials of other Indian banks in the modus operandi adopted by diamond companies to dupe them.

The PNB note said "the suspected fraud had been carried out by the perpetrators in collusion with the staff" at its Brady House Branch in Fort in south Mumbai.

The note, dated February 12, was addressed to the Chairmen, Managing Directors and Chief Executive Officers of these banks, signed by the PNB General Manager, International Banking Division, New Delhi.

The PNB said that on examination of SWIFT (international payment network) trail, it was found that a junior level branch official had unauthorizedly and fraudulently issued Letters of Undertakings (LoUs) on behalf of some companies belonging to billionaire diamond trader Nirav Modi to avail buyers' credit from from foreign branches of various Indian banks.

The companies were: Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds and Diamond R Us, which only had Current Accounts and did not enjoy the privilege of any fund/non-fund based limits with the branch.

"None of the transactions were routed through the CBS System, thus avoiding early detection of fraudulent activity," the PNB's mail said. CBS is the core banking solution system which tracks all transactions.

Worse, the PNB said, the same modus operandi was used by the unidentified PNB official in other diamond majors like Gitanjali Gems Pvt. Ltd, belonging to Nirav Modi's maternal uncle Mehul Choksi, Gitanjali Gems, Gili India and Nakshatra, for issuing similar LoUs and Foreign Letter of Credit (FLCs).

However, these companies enjoyed credit facilities under the fund-based/non-fund based schemes of PNB.

In the case of FLCs, the bank's preliminary investigations made the stunning revelation that while issuing FLCs of smaller amounts by SWIFT, the transaction was routed through the CBS but "subsequently, amendments were made in these FLCs by substantially enhancing the amount of FLC and transmitted through SWIFT, without routing these enhancements through CBS," said the PNB letter.

Later, the official would convey via SWIFT the acceptance of bills for the full amount of the FLC to the overseas negotiating branch, said the PNB, clearly hinting at a possible major exposure of other banks in the fraud.

Further probe revealed that LoU's were opened in favour of foreign branches of Indian banks for imports of pearls for a period of one year although the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines stipulate a total period of 90 days from the date of shipment.

"This stipulation was overlooked by the overseas branches of Indian banks, who are also required to follow RBI guidelines," the PNB note stated.

The entire fraud came to light only after the retirement of the unidentified official and when the companies again approached the Brady House Bank for availing similar LoUs.

When the current PNB officials demanded a 110 percent margin because they were not sanctioned any FB/NFB limits, the companies informed the branch that they had been undertaking such transactions for several years!

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The NDA government on Thursday sought to distance itself from the financial fraud done by jeweller Nirav Modi, blaming the previous Congress-led UPA regime for influencing loans that became non-performing assets (NPAs) while asserting that the guilty will not be spared.

Addressing a press conference, Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said no loans have been given in the Narendra Modi government's tenure which can become NPAs and the loan to Nirav Modi was given during the tenure of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

"The Prime Minister had said in the Lok Sabha that our government has not given any loans that have become NPA (Non Performing Assets). The legacy of NPAs comes from the Congress," he said.

Prasad also questioned Congress' right to comment on the incident, claiming that their government allowed liquor baron Vijay Mallya to run away with around Rs 9,000 crore which he had taken as loan from 17 Indian banks.

He promised action against Nirav Modi and against all those who helped him in the fraud. "No one will be spared.

"When Vijay Mallya ran away, there was no action against him. This time action was taken immediately. The Income Tax (Department) is taking very strict action against him (Nirav Modi)," he said.

Prasad also slammed the Congress for referring to Nirav Modi as "chhota Modi".

"Rahul Gandhi is the President of a party not because of his capability but because of his family. What kind of language are they using?"

Asked if the incident will taint the Prime Minister's image, he said: "The Prime Minister's image cannot be worse than that of the Congress and (Congress spokesperson Randeep) Surjewala. Prime Minister Modi has the blessing of the people of India."

The Congress on Thursday asked the Modi government to come clean on the government's "failure" to prevent the scam and identify those who helped the alleged kingpin, billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi to flee the country.

The Congress accused the Prime Minister's Office and other authorities of not taking action even after a complaint was filed to the PMO in July 2016.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Noted social activist Anna Hazare on Thursday said he had high hopes from Prime Minister Narendra Modi but was disappointed after his three-and-a-half-years in office.

Addressing a public rally at Chamba in Tehri Garhwal district, Hazare blamed the Central government for the pitiable condition of farmers across the country.

"When Modi became the Prime Minister, I harboured a lot of hope. I thought good days were ahead, but now I am disappointed," he said.

For this reason, he said, I would soon begin an agitation against the Union government and seek the support of Uttarakhand.

The Gandhian also said that so far he had remained quiet as he wanted the Central government to get time for bringing a turnaround in the fortunes of the people.

But now, he rued, almost three-fourths of the tenure of Modi had passed and he had been forced to start the agitation out of disappointment.

He also demanded Rs 5,000 pension for the farmers on the lines of retired government servants and officials.

For all such issues, I will start an agitation on March 23 at Ramlila Ground in Delhi, the octogenarian announced at the rally held in VC Gabbar Singh Negi Square.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday claimed to have "clinching evidence" against North Delhi Mayor Preeti Aggarwal, who is facing allegations of largescale corruption.

AAP spokesperson Dilip Pandey told the media here that a senior officer in the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) wrote to the civic body's commissioner asking to register an FIR against BJP leader Aggarwal "for interfering in the evaluation of technical bidding to help a company".

"Nothing in this country is an apt synonym to the word scam as the Bhartiya Janta Party," Pandey said.

"We have this clinching evidence and her dismissal is the only way for the BJP to save itself."

Pandey read out parts of the letter, in which the officer alleged that the mayor entered his room while the tender was in the middle of evaluation process, and later some of the employees of that company (one of the bidders) went to the mayor's room.

"The intervention in the evaluation process of tender was improper, illegal, irregular and unjustified," he said, quoting the letter.

"Is the letter not sufficient for the BJP to dismiss her and initiate a CBI inquiry? The BJP should take cognizance and initiate the inquiry so that the truth comes out."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A day after their arrest for allegedly attacking media persons at an event in Kolkata, the Hindu Samhati chief and three of its activists were sent to police custody for two days on Thursday, a police officer said.

The four accused were arrested on Wednesday evening for assaulting the journalists at Esplanade after they tried to talk to members of a Muslim family who allegedly converted to Hinduism.

"The four were charged with attempt to murder (IPC 307), causing grievous hurt (IPC 326) and causing damage to property (IPC 427). They have been remanded to two days of police custody till February 17," a police officer said.

The event was organised on the occasion of the organisation's 10th foundation day.

After the event, political parties including the Trinamool Congress and the BJP condemned the attack on journalists.

Formed in 2008, the Hindu Samhati website describes itself as an NGO that is "the icon of hope to Hindus in West Bengal" and says it regularly monitors violence against Hindus in the state.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Assembly polls in Tripura on Sunday will see 23 women contesting, including two pitted against Chief Minister Manik Sarkar. The northeastern state has also seen a marked rise in the percentage of women voters -- touted as the highest in the country so far.

Of the national parties, the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has this time fielded seven women candidates, followed by Congress with five, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with four while the Trinamool Congress has fielded two women.

The Tripura Assembly has 60 members.

The 23 women are among 297 contenders in the fray for the February 18 Tripura polls. The previous assembly elections in 2013 saw 15 women contesting, of whom five won while seven forfeited their deposits. In the 2008 assembly polls, 31 women had contested, of whom three won while 22 forfeited their deposits.

Chief Minister and CPI-M politburo member Manik Sarkar is pitted against two women in his Dhanpur assembly constituency (in western Tripura) -- BJP's Pratima Bhoumik and Congress' Laxmi Nag (Barman), who was also a minister in the erstwhile Congress ministry (1972-1977).

In the outgoing Tripura council of ministers, out of 12 ministers, one is a woman.

In the 2013 and 2008 assembly polls, women in Tripura scripted a record in the electoral history in India by casting 92.94 per cent and 91.72 per cent votes, respectively, against the 90.73 per cent and 90.74 per cent of their male counterparts.

Tripura Election Department's brand ambassador and ace gymnast Dipa Karmakar, who narrowly missed out on a bronze medal in the women's vault event at the Rio Olympics in Brazil in 2016, told IANS: "Unlike other parts of India and the northeastern states, Tripura women are not only conscious about political and apolitical issues, but also aware about education, health and socio-economic matters."

Karmakar, 25, urged women to come out in bigger numbers to participate in and in important governing bodies to empower other women.

Noted social activist and Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar's wife Panchali Bhattacharya said that women of Tripura, including those from the tribal and Scheduled Caste communities, are more politically conscious than in other parts of India.

"Due to the Left Front government's woman-friendly series of initiatives, women are empowered on all fronts and platforms. Tripura is one of the few leading states in the country that has reserved 50 per cent seats for women in local government bodies," said Bhattacharya, 67, a Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) Vice-President and convenor of Working Women's Forum.

Bhattacharya, who had worked as a government official in the central social welfare board for more than 30 years, said that women are fully protected and secure in Tripura and the gender ratio in the electoral rolls, population, government services, and literacy is much better than in other states.

The final electoral rolls of Tripura, published on January 5, shows a record increase in the gender ratio among voters in the state -- at 971 females to 1,000 males.

"Though I have no exact data readily available, the sex ratio of Tripura in the electoral rolls is much higher than the national average and most states in India," Tripura Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sriram Taranikanti told IANS.

In last year's electoral rolls in Tripura, there were 965 female voters for every 1,000 males.

According to Tripura's electoral rolls, there are a total of 25,79,060 voters, including 12,67,785 females -- an increase of 2.52 per cent from last year.

In eight of the 60 Tripura assembly constituencies women voters outnumber men --- Agartala, Ramnagar, Town Bardowali, Banamalipur, Teliamura, Ampinagar, Pabiachara, Dharmanagar.

The Tripura government reserved 50 per cent seats and posts for women many years ago in local bodies -- with the result that today in many Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samities, Zilla Parishads, Municipal Councils and Agartala Municipal Corporation, the percentage of women is higher than men.

Union Information and Broadcasting and Textile Minister Smriti Irani, who was here to campaign for the forthcoming polls, feels that women in Tripura are unsafe under the Left rule.

"It is a matter of grave concern that crime against women is very high in Tripura. My sisters and mothers are not getting justice here because law enforcing agencies are not women-friendly. Otherwise, women would be much more empowered," Irani told IANS.

However, Tripura's lone woman minister (in-charge of social welfare department) Bijita Nath strongly refuted Irani's contention. "Irani's views are politically motivated, and not based on facts," Nath told IANS.

Former Congress Minister and veteran woman leader Laxmi Nag, 68, said that women of Tripura are very aware about all socio-economic and political issues.

"Since Tripura joined the Indian Union in October 1949, successive governments, irrespective of political parties, have helped to empower women in the political and societal sectors," Nag, who is contesting against the Chief Minister in Dhanpur, told IANS.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India's exports plunged by 9.80 per cent to $24.38 billion in January, from $27.03 billion worth of merchandise shipped out in December 2017, official data showed on Thursday.

However, on a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis, the exports for January grew by 9.07 per cent to $24.38 billion from $22.35 billion reported for the corresponding month of last year.

"Exports during January 2018 have exhibited positive growth of 9.07 per cent in dollar terms vis-a-vis January 2017. Exports have been on a positive trajectory since August 2016 to January 2018 with a dip of 1.1 per cent in the month of October 2017," the Commerce Ministry said in a statement.

Exports during January 2018 were valued at $24,383.97 million as compared to $22,356.32 million during January 2017.

The data pointed out that healthy growth in exports was led by "Engineering Goods (15.77 per cent), Petroleum Products (39.5), Gems and Jewellery (0.89), Organic and Inorganic Chemicals (33.6), and Drugs and Pharmaceuticals (8.6)".

"Non-petroleum and non-gems and jewellery exports in January 2018 were valued at $17,523.24 million as against $16,607.36 million in January 2017, an increase of 5.51 per cent," the ministry said.

As per the data, country's imports during the month under review declined by 2.93 per cent to $40.68 billion in January 2018 from $41.91 billion in December 2017.

But on a YoY basis, it increased by 26.10 per cent to $40.68 billion from $32.26 billion reported for the corresponding period of the previous year.

Segment-wise, the data showed that India's oil imports during January shot up by 42.64 per cent to $11.65 billion, from $8.17 billion in the same month last year.

Non-oil imports during last month stood at $29.02 billion with a growth of 20.49 per cent over $24.08 billion in January 2017.

Consequently, India's merchandise trade deficit on a YoY basis widened to $16.29 billion during last month as against $9.90 billion in the corresponding period the previous year.

"The marginal growth in exports of gems and jewellery and contraction in sectors such as textiles, yarn and iron ore dampened the expansion of merchandise exports to a three month low in January 2018," said Aditi Nayar, Principal Economist, ICRA.

"Imports recorded a broad based surge with the exception of a few items such as gold, pulses and project goods. The dip in gold imports was more than offset by higher imports of silver, pearls, precious and semi precious stones."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An alleged ideologue of terror organisation Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, linked to the Islamic State, went on trial on Thursday for his involvement in the 2016 attack in the Indonesian capital.

Cleric Oman Rohman, popularly known as Aman Abdurrahman, was one of the founders of the organisation which has been the most active radical Islamist group in Indonesia in the last two years, Efe news reported.

The 2016 attack in Jakarta was carried out close to a shopping mall. Eight people, including the four attackers, were killed and over 20 people were injured.

The accused appeared for the first hearing with a court-appointed lawyer after he refused to appoint one to defend himself. The court in the southern district of Jakarta can hand him a death penalty.

Abdurrahman has already served several sentences for terrorist activities, including a 9-year prison term for running a training camp for militants in Aceh, the Indonesian province situated on the island of Sumatra.

The cleric, who swore loyalty to the IS from prison, should have been released in August 2017 but was put in preventive detention as a suspect in the 2016 attack and other cases.

Sidney Jones, Director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, told Efe that the result of the trial could depend on the testimony provided by Zainal Anshori, operational leader of the JAD, who was sentenced to seven years in prison on Monday.

JAD was established in 2015 and in January 2017 the US State Department designated it as a global terrorist group.

Jones said that JAD cells started acting independently after the 2017 arrest of Anshori and other important leaders of the organisation.

Indonesia has witnessed several Islamist attacks, including one on the islands of Bali in 2002 that had left 202 dead, mostly foreign tourists.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Brussels, Feb 15 (IANS/AKI) Italy's Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti met her Turkish counterpart Nurettin Canikli here on Thursday amid a bilateral row over the blockade by warships in the Mediterranean of a drill ship owned by Italian energy giant Eni.

"Bilateral meeting between Roberta Pinotti and Nurettin Canikli at NATO Defence Ministerial in Brussels," Italy's Defence Ministry tweeted.

Pinotti did not brief journalists on the meeting. It was her second this week with Canikli, who she met for talks on the dispute in Rome on Tuesday during a summit of 15 Defence Ministers from the US-led global coalition fighting the Islamic State jihadist group.

Pinotti said on Tuesday that Italy is using "bilateral" and "diplomatic" channels to end the standoff which began when Turkish military vessels blocked the Eni drillship on Friday off the southwest coast of Cyprus and ordered it not to continue its journey to an area off the southeast coast of the island to explore for natural gas.

Italy's Foreign Affairs minister Angelino Alfano held talks with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu on Tuesday in Kuwait as part of the diplomatic efforts to end the obstruction of the Eni drill ship.

Turkey, which does not have diplomatic relations with Cyprus, claims that part of Cyprus's offshore maritime zone falls within the jurisdiction of Turkey or of Turkish Cypriots.

The contested prospect is Block 3 of Cyprus's exclusive economic zone, Eni said, adding that it will not move the drill ship until the dispute is resolved.

--IANS/AKI

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Japan has detected a suspected cargo transfer between a North Korean ship and a Belize-registered vessel, which apparently involves goods violating international sanctions imposed on North Korea, an official said on Thursday.

The transfer allegedly took place on Tuesday in the East China Sea between Belizean ship Wan Heng 11 and the North Korean Rye Song Gang 1, a Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesperson told Efe news.

Tokyo reported the incident to the UN on Wednesday.

In the incident, captured by a Maritime Self-Defence Force airplane, both ships approached each other closely after exchanging light signals.

The Japanese government said it believes that the movement was "a possible transfer of goods violating the sanctions imposed on Pyongyang".

The incident was the latest in a series of incidents involving North Korean vessels allegedly violating the ban on supplies to Pyongyang imposed as a result of its repeated nuclear and missile tests.

The alleged incidents provoked criticism from US President Donald Trump in December.

South Korean authorities had seized and were investigating two ships, one from Hong Kong and the other from Panama, suspected of selling oil to North Korea in violation of the UNSC sanctions.

Allegations in December that US satellites had detected Chinese ships selling crude oil to North Korean vessels at least 20 times since October, which China has denied, led Trump to express his disappointment on the social media.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Punjab and Haryana High Court to decide within five months the appeals of the accused in the O.P. Jindal Global University gang rape case.

A division bench of Justice S.A. Bobde and Justice L.N. Rao said that the two accused -- Hardin Sikri and Karan Chhabra -- will continue to remain in custody while another accused Vikas Garg, who was granted protection from arrest, will continue to be out of jail.

The bench said: "In the interest of justice, we don't propose to discuss on merits of the case, since appeals are pending in the High Court.

"We find it appropriate that two interim orders passed by this court (SC's order staying grant of bail by HC and protection from arrest to Garg)... will remain in force till pending of the appeals."

It added: "We request the Punjab and Haryana High Court to dispose of the appeal as expeditiously as possible, no later than five months. Parties are directed to appear before the High Court on March 6."

The three accused -- Hardin Sikri, Karan Chhabra and Vikas Garg -- were earlier jailed by a trial court for raping a fellow student but the Punjab and Haryana High Court had suspended their conviction and sentence in September last year on the grounds that the woman was "promiscuous" and had "casual sexual escapades".

Challenging the High Court's order of suspension of their sentences, the victim had approached the apex court.

She alleged that the accused have been blackmailing her as they have her objectionable pictures and expressed apprehension that those could get circulated.

During the course of argument on the issue of sharing the iCloud account password with the victim, senior advocate Shanti Bhushan claimed that his client could not remember the password as he was in jail for more than two and a half years and never used the account in iPhone, which was seized by the investigating agency.

Seeking relief for accused Garg, senior advocate Sidhartha Luthra argued that his client was sentenced to seven years jail for rape but not for gang rape and he was on bail during the trial itself.

In January, the apex court had protected Garg from arrest keeping in mind his conduct during the bail period.

On April 11, 2015, the victim had lodged a complaint with the university administration alleging that the three accused final year law students of the university, had been blackmailing and raping her since August 2013.

She had also alleged that the accused were having her objectionable photos and they used to threaten to make the photos viral, and coerced her to have physical relations with them.

In May 2017, the trial court in Sonipat had held the three guilty of the offence and awarded a 20-year sentence each to Sikri and Chhabra and a seven-year jail term to Garg, for gang rape and blackmailing the victim.

Later, in September 2017, the High Court had suspended their sentence and granted them bail against which the victim approached the top court.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In relief to Kerala CPI-M state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, his son Binoy Balakrishan on Thursday told the media here that his financial dealings with a Middle East resident are in the clear.

Trouble started for Binoy and Kodiyeri when a three-page letter dated January 5 from H.I.A. Al Marzooqi, sponsor of a Dubai-based company, was made available last month to the media, stating that he had started legal proceedings against Binoy for alleged fraud of Rs 13 crore.

However, things changed fast after Marzooqi filed a petition against Binoy over a cheque dishonour, to the tune of Rs 1.72 crore and a travel ban was imposed on Binoy in Dubai.

Speaking to a TV channel from Dubai on Thursday evening, Binoy said that the controversy arose because of a "misunderstanding".

"Al-Marzooqi is a nice gentleman and he was not aware of what exactly was the issue. When he was told of what happened, he agreed to withdraw the case. And since tomorrow is a holiday here, I will file a new application to lift the travel ban. Moreover I also have a few programmes here," said Binoy.

With the opposition Congress and the BJP taking it up both inside and outside the assembly, the issue has been raging for the past few weeks causing a huge dent in the image of both the CPI-M and Kodiyeri.

It even saw party general secretary Sitaram Yechury coming under fire from the Kerala unit of the party over the manner in which the issue surfaced in the media.

The latest development would come as a huge relief for Kodiyeri, as he is all set to get a second three-year term at the helm of the state unit of the ruling CPI-M as the upcoming state party conference is to be held at Thrissur from February 22-25.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A local leader of the ruling CPI-M and five of his accomplices were arrested in this Kerala district on Thursday for kicking a pregnant woman, resulting in her losing the baby, police said on Thursday.

All six, including the Communist Party of India-Marxist's T. Thamti, were produced before a court near here and sent to judicial custody, a Kodanchery police station officer, who did not wish to be identified, told IANS.

"All those involved in the assault have been identified and there are no more accused in the case."

The incident took place on January 28 when the victim's husband Siby Chacko had an argument with the group of men following a property dispute over boundaries.

Soon, the argument turned violent and a fight broke out. In the melee, Chacko's wife who was eight months pregnant, was kicked in her belly and collapsed.

She was taken to the Medical College Hospital here but the baby could not be saved and the mother had to undergo an abortion. She was discharged after a week in the hospital.

It was only after the local political parties -- including the Congress and the BJP -- took up the issue that the police acted.

The state BJP unit had planned a march on Thursday to the police station which was cancelled after the accused were arrested.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday demanded a thorough investigation into the fraudulent transactions worth $1.8 billion in Punjab National Bank and said she would not let the Central government off the hook until the people's money is secured.

Banerjee said she has written to the Finance Ministry to scrap the proposed Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill.

"Today people are shocked to see what has happened in the Punjab National Bank in Mumbai. There has been a scam of Rs 11,000 crore. This is the money of common people. Who took away the money? Who ate it up?" she asked during a public meeting in Jhargram district.

"Offenders will run away after stealing the money but what will happen to the common man? Scams like this must be investigated. The security of people's money must be ensured. We will not let them (the Central government) off the hook until that happens," she said.

PNB, the second largest public sector bank in India, detected some fraudulent and unauthorised transactions (messages) at $1,771.69 million (around Rs 11,515 crore) in one of its branches in Mumbai for the benefit of a few select account holders.

The fraud was detected on Wednesday in the PNB's Brady House Branch in south Mumbai, which is its second-biggest lending branch in the country. A CBI probe has been initiated into the matter and 10 employees of the bank have been placed under suspension.

Accusing the Centre of trying to take away the people's money deposited in the banks with its FRDI Bill, Banerjee said she has written two "strong letters" to the Finance Ministry demanding the withdrawal of the bill.

"We asked the government to withdraw the bill as they are trying take away the money of the common people. This must not happen. The finance minister acknowledged my letter but then sent a reply through a state minister saying the bill would not impact anything," the Trinamool Congress supremo said.

"Today I have written one more strong letter before coming here demanding the withdrawal of FRDI bill. Eating up the money of common man will not be allowed."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Six years ago, the contested story of Sen. Elizabeth Warren's Native American heritage began its rise from local newspapers to national headlines, and eventually into presidential speeches and Twitter feeds.



On Wednesday, Warren raised the subject herself  not budging from the story she has relayed for years  in a surprise speech to the National Congress of American Indians.



I get why some people think theres hay to be made here. You wont find my family members on any rolls, and Im not enrolled in a tribe,



And I want to make something clear. I respect that distinction. I understand that tribal membership is determined by tribes  and only by tribes. I never used my family tree to get a break or get ahead. I never used it to advance my career, Warren said.



The stories she grew up with are real, Warren said, which is what she has regularly said on the matter. There is no known documentation of Warrens Native American ancestry (though somewhere in the 2012 back-and-forth a genealogist estimated Warren was 1/32 Cherokee), but the senator has steadfastly argued that she was raised on stories of Native American family members and this is what she knows to be her family's heritage.



One such story is the beginning of her parents marriage back in Oklahoma, where she was raised. Her mother was a beauty, Warren said, and her father fell head over heels in love with her.



But my mothers family was part Native American. And my daddys parents were bitterly opposed to their relationship. So, in 1932, when Mother was 19 and Daddy had just turned 20, they eloped, she said.



Warren has been adamant about the pride she feels to be Native American  though the topic has dogged her politically. At the event, a days-long policy summit in Washington, D.C., attended by a wide range of tribal leaders, Warren described her dedication to fight against the countrys disrespect of Native people.



For far too long, your story has been pushed aside, to be trotted out only in cartoons and commercials, she said.



Warren used President Donald Trumps nickname for her, Pocahontas, as an example of the disrespect.



So Im here today to make a promise: Every time someone brings up my familys story, Im going to use it to lift up the story of your families and your communities.



The president has repeatedly called Warren Pocahontas in campaign speeches, tweets and once when honoring Navajo WWII veterans.



She said she's Native American. And I said Pocahontas, it's Pocahontas. And somebody said to me, one of the media, Mr. Trump, would you apologize? I said yes I'll apologize, to Pocahontas I will apologize, because Pocahontas is insulted by the statement, Trump said on the campaign trail in June of 2016.



The questions began, however, four years earlier. At the time, the Republican incumbent senator of Massachusetts, Scott Brown, was up against Warren for the senate seat. He brought up Warrens undocumented claim of Native American heritage in a debate and asserted that shed been using it to get ahead in jobs.



The main evidence of Warrens use of her heritage was to list herself as a minority in a legal directory in the 1980s and 90s. She was later described as the only minority female faculty member at Harvard Law School in a 1996 survey report on diversity.



Warren has repeatedly denied that she ever used it to advance her career. All I can say is, I busted my tail as a teacher. I am qualified for my job," she said in 2012.



On her family, Warren said, Theyre gone, but the love they shared, the struggles they endured, the family they built, and the story they lived will always be a part of me. And no one  not even the president of the United States  will ever take that part of me away.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Most experts who vetted Facebook's Messenger Kids -- a video calling and messaging app designed for the under 13s -- received funding from the social media giant, the WIRED has reported.

When Facebook rolled out the app for children in December 2017, the company claimed it had worked closely with leading experts in order to safeguard younger users. But what it did not mention was that many of those experts received Facebook funding, said the report on Wednesday.

"After talking to thousands of parents, associations like National PTA and parenting experts in the US, we found that there's a need for a messaging app that lets kids connect with people they love but also has the level of control parents want," Loren Cheng, the Facebook's Product Management Director, said in a statement at the time of the app's roll out.

Facebook stressed that the app was "co-developed" with parents, kids and experts through conversations with organisations like National PTA, Blue Star Families and an advisory board with more than a dozen experts, from groups such as the Yale Centre for Emotional Intelligence, Connect Safely, and Sesame Workshop.

The WIRED reports has detailed Facebook's financial ties with some of these organisations and experts.

"At least seven members of Facebook's 13-person advisory board have some kind of financial tie to the company," the report said.

The National PTA said Facebook donated money for the first time in 2017, which the organisation used to fund a survey and roundtables.

The report, however, noted that funding from Facebook might not have affected the feedback or research around Messenger Kids.

The advisers who spoke to WIRED offered thoughtful perspectives often supported by research.

"It is important that families are armed with resources and tools to help them take advantage of the opportunities that the digital world offers while building good digital habits and ensuring children have the skills they need to be responsible online," National PTA President Jim Accomando was quoted as saying.

Since its launch in December 2017, Messenger Kids is facing widespread criticism for encouraging children to join social media.

British Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt in December warned the social media giant to stay away from his children.

"Facebook told me they would come back with ideas to PREVENT underage use of their product, but instead they are actively targeting younger children. Stay away from my kids please Facebook and act responsibly!" Hunt posted on Twitter.

On January 30, more than 100 child health experts urged Facebook to withdraw the app.

In an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the experts said that the "younger children are simply not ready to have social media accounts".

"We are writing to urge you to discontinue Messenger Kids, Facebook's first social media app designed specifically for children under the age of 13," said the letter signed by doctors, educators and child health experts and several organisations, chief among which is the US-based Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood.

--IANS

gb/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on a day-long visit to Arunachal Pradesh and poll-bound Tripura, took a dig at the Congress over what he said was leakage of funds meant for the poor during its rule.

"There is no dearth of funds in our country. But when a bucket carrying water has a hole, it will leak. That was the situation in our country earlier," Modi told a rally here.

Complimenting the state for hosting a vast majority of Hindi-speaking people, Modi said if there was a state in the northeast where Hindi was most widely spoken, it was "my Arunachal".

The Bharatiya Janata Party formed a government in the state amid a high-voltage political drama in January 2017 after Chief Minister Pema Khandu switched loyalties with 33 legislators.

"If you travel to Arunachal Pradesh for a day, you will hear more Jai Hind than you will hear after travelling the entire country for a week," said Modi.

He also inaugurated a convention centre in Itanagar and said the "vibrant centre will further the aspirations of Arunachal Pradesh".

"There will be conferences and cultural activities that will draw government officials and private companies. I am personally going to tell people - go to Arunachal Pradesh and hold your important meetings at the centre," he said, asking why such meetings should be held in Delhi alone.

"We must go to all states and that is why I came to Shillong for a northeastern council meeting and an important meeting related to agriculture was held in Sikkim."

Modi said a lot needed to be done in the health sector not only in the northeast but across the country. He emphasized the need to develop human resource, infrastructure and modern technology in the sector.

"The health sector needs special attention. Healthcare has to be of good quality and it must be affordable. We are working towards building medical colleges in all parts of the country. When one studies in a particular area, one becomes better acquainted with the local health challenges."

Modi will later travel to Tripura where he is expected to address two rallies ahead of the February 18 Assembly election. The BJP is looking to unseat the Left government in the state.India has signed a second loan agreement for $100 million with the New Development Bank (NDB) for efficient use of water in desert areas of Rajasthan, an official statement said on Thursday.

"This is the first tranche loan of $100 million approved by the NDB under the Multi Tranche Financing Facility of $345 million for this project," the Union Finance Ministry release said.

The loan agreement to finance Rajasthan Water Sector Restructuring Project for the Desert Areas was signed between Economic Affairs Department Joint Secretary Govind Mohan and NDB Project Financing Director General Shaohua Wu here on Tuesday.

The objective is to rehabilitate the 678-km-long Indira Gandhi Canal system built during 1958-63 to prevent seepage, conserve water and enhance water use efficiency as mandated by both national and state level policies on water use.

"The project implementation period is six years. The Rajasthan government will implement the project primarily through the Rajasthan Water Resources Department," said the release.

The representatives of NDB, Central and state governments also signed Facility Framework Agreement under which NDB has agreed to provide Multi-Tranche Financing Facility for $345 million to the country for this project.

The project is aimed at arresting the seepage by refurbishing the canal, rehabilitation of waterlogged areas, modernisation of the irrigation management practices by involving water users' associations, and strengthening of drinking water supply and irrigation facilities.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Hours after his name figured in the Israeli Police recommendations seeking to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for corruption, Indian businessman Ratan N. Tata on Thursday termed the reports factually incorrect and apparently motivated.

Hollywood producer Arnon Milvhan reportedly attempted to promote a free trade zone on the Israel-Jordan border as part of his partnership with Tata according to reports appearing in an Israeli news media outlet, Ynetnews.

"According to the police, the most glaring example of Netanyahu working against Israel's interests to benefit Milchan was his efforts (to) promote a free trade zone on the Israel-Jordan border, a project the Hollywood producer sought to promote as part of his partnership with Indian industrialist Ratan Naval Tata," Ynetnews reported.

Tata, 80, has contested the allegations in a statement here: "The reports in the media of a 'partnership with Arnon Milchan' and the claim of 'a huge profit' are both factually incorrect and appear to be motivated."

The former Chairman of Tata Sons, the salt-to-software conglomerate, added that the 'Tata project' being referred to in the Israeli media was a proposal received by Tata in 2009 from the Israeli establishment.

It sought the assistance of Tata organisation in preparing a concept plan, as part of a broader peace initiative with Palestine, for a low volume automotive assembly plant on the banks of the Jordan river, said the Tata statement.

The intention was to provide skilled employment to Palestinians. To be viable, the plan envisaged the establishment of a free trade corridor to Haifa to facilitate exports and offset higher logistics costs in Israel.

"These discussions on the project were directly held between a Tata team and the Israeli authorities and not with Arnon Milchan as stated by the Israeli media. Tata wishes to clarify once again that there has never been any partnership in any such project with Milchan," it said.

A broad concept plan for a low output automobile assembly plant was prepared by Tata Motors. It never reached the stage of detailed planning or costing as the peace initiative itself was not put in place. The car project died a natural death.

During Tata's visit to Tel Aviv on November 1, 2017 to address a conference on Mobility, he met a team of Israeli investigators at their request and enunciated these facts to them.

--IANS

qn/mr/sug

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Writer and Producer Twinkle Khanna riding high on success of her just released film "Pad Man", now wants to work for reproductive rights of women.

Twinkle attended the success celebration of her film and discussion organised by Unicef (United Nations Children's Fund) and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to discuss the taboo around menstrual hygiene on Wednesday in Mumbai.

Asked whether she has any films in pipeline after "Pad Man", Twinkle said: "I don't know about a movie but next I would like to work for the reproductive rights and that would be my next venture."

Asked whether she would like to produce a biopic of her father Rajesh Khanna or husband Akshay Kumar, the "Mrs Funnybones" writer said: "No.. I am interested in stories which have layers to it and which have larger ramification.

"It's great for somebody to write a story which is about one person's life but for me, there has to be layers and the story has to have message and that's what I believe in."

"Pad Man" has already collected over Rs 52 crore at the box-office since its release on February 9.

Asked if she expected this reaction from the audience and whether the film would succeed in changing people's mindsets, Twinkle said: "No. I did not expect this. We were worried because it was a risk.

"We did not know whether people would take it and at this point of time, both, the commercial and the critical success has been overwhelming."

"Who would have thought, even five years back, that Balki (Director R. Balki) and Akshay (Kumar) would make people watch a movie on sanitary pads. But we did it and we are really happy right now."

"'Pad Man' is more than movie. I am hoping its part of a movement where women are no longer held back or embarrassed by their biology. I think commercials also should stop showing blue liquids on sanitary pads instead of red," the former actor said.

Twinkle also suggested that though promise of iPads to school girls cannot be fulfilled, at least they should be provided with sanitary napkins.

"Today, 80 per cent of our women who are using cloth or other things should be able to use hygienic products during their days of menstruation.

"We can't promise all our school girls iPads unfortunately but we can definitely get them sanitary napkins which they need.

"When we began 'Pad Man', we were very clear that this is a movie that would initiate a conversation about menstruation and menstrual health upon the collective consciousness of this country and I am really glad to see that happening," Twinkle said.

"Pad Man" has been banned in Pakistan. According to members of the censor board of Pakistan, films on "taboo" topics such as menstruation should not be allowed to show in the country.

Reacting to the ban in the neighbouring country, Twinkle said: "I think women menstruate no matter where you put a boundary or a border. We as women menstruate this side (India) and that side (Pakistan) so it's important for them to see it as well and I wish that they would change their mind and show the movie."

"Pad Man" tells the real life story of an Indian man named Arunachalam Muruganantham and how he came to inventing low cost sanitary napkins for women in Indian villages.

Directed by R.Balki, the film is based on a short story from Twinkle Khanna's book "The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad".

--IANS

iv/in

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Rome, Feb 15 (IANS/AKI) Italy will not send police officers to Syria "as long as the political and military situation remains uncertain", Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti has said.

Italy has not received a request to deploy policemen to Syria although it had discussed with the US the idea of extending its police training mission in Iraq to the war-wracked country, she told Italian daily Corriere della Sera.

"But our position is clear: as long as the political and military situation remains uncertain, our decision remains to support the coalition in Iraq.

"We have the second largest number of security force members there after the US," Pinotti said.

Italy will cut its 1,500-strong military contingent in Iraq this year, drawing down at least 700 troops, Pinotti told a summit here on Tuesday.

Fifteen defence ministers from the US-led global coalition against the Islamic State jihadist group attended Tuesday's summit including US Defence Secretary James Mattis.

--IANS/AKI

vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Note ban and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) by the Indian government have reduced the number of Indian tourists visiting South Africa last year, a South African tourism official said on Thursday.

"South Africa witnessed a slowdown in terms of the number of bookings from Indians in 2017 as a result of demonetisation and the GST," South Africa Tourism's acting head for India and South East Asia Alpa Jani told IANS here.

India is the eighth largest market for South African tourism after Britain, the US, Germany, China, Australia and the Netherlands.

While during 2016, 95,400 Indians had visited South Africa, only 89,872 had visited the country from January to November in 2017. For the whole year of 2017, the official expects the total number of Indian tourists to reach around 96,000.

"We had expected around 100,000 Indian tourists visiting South Africa in 2017, but after the note ban we noticed that Indians were sceptical of travelling due to lack of cash," Jani said.

A 60-member team from South African Tourism department was visiting the city on Thursday as part of a multi-city road show to showcase the tourism in the southernmost country of the African continent.

It expects to see 100,000 Indians visiting the country in 2018.

Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg are some of the most popular destinations for Indian travellers.

The high value currency note ban in November 2016 and the new indirect tax regime (GST) in 2017 had slowed down the Indian economy, according to the Economic Survey for 2017-18.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Days after Manohar Parrikar's comment about his fear of girls drinking beer went viral and inspired the #GirlsWhoDrinkBeer on social media, a Delhi-based novelist has put out an open invite for a beer date with the Goa Chief Minister.

Kota Neelima in an open letter to Parrikar on Wednesday wrote that she along with like-minded men and women will be turning up in Goa on March 5, to share a beer with him at his office or residence, in a bid to "drive home a point against patriarchal notions in and democratic governance".

"I have also taken the liberty of assigning 5 p.m. on March 5, 2018, at your office for this meet because, knowing your kind nature, I am sure that you would delay/cancel such a meet-for-beer event, especially with girls.

"So, we will be there, you can count on us. I hope you will be there to meet us. Do please remember #BeerKeAageJeetHai!," Neelima wrote in her letter to Parrikar, which has also been shared by the author on her Twitter account.

Neelima urged "like-minded women and men" to join her on the beer rendezvous at the Chief Minister's "office or residence".

"I am particularly concerned because you hold a constitutional position and take decisions that impact the destinies of lakhs of men and women, including beer-drinking girls.

"It is the responsibility of well-meaning citizens to allay your fears and ensure that you are able to perform the duties of your office 'without fear or favour' as your oath states," the letter stated.

Neelima told IANS that the campaign to meet Parrikar over a beer had drawn a healthy response on social media.

"The invite is open to both men and women. We will turn up in large numbers in Goa on March 5 to meet the Chief Minister and share a beer with him," Neelima said.

Neelima, a Delhi-based writer, has six novels to her credit.

Last week, the Goa Chief Minister during an interaction with students had said: "I have begun to fear now, because even the girls have started drinking beer. So (the) barrier of that tolerance limit is being crossed... Not all of them".

The comment had triggered controversy with women posting photographs of them drinking beer along with #GirlsWhoDrinkBeer.

Parrikar on Wednesday, in his first clarification on the issue, said that he had actually expressed concern and not fear and that he was not against anyone who drank beer. He also accused the media of "twisting" his comment.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Odisha government on Thursday invited European nations to be partner countries in Make in Odisha Conclave to be held in November this year.

The second edition of the flagship investors meet of the state government will be organized November 11-15.

A state government delegation on Thursday held a round table meeting with trade counsellors from several European countries in New Delhi where they highlighted the investment opportunities in the vibrant business ecosystem of Odisha.

The delegation, led by Industries Secretary Sanjeev Chopra, briefed diplomats from six European countries about the state's 'Vision 2025' that focuses on diversifying its industrial development.

The government has set a target of generating employment for 30 lakh citizens by attracting investments worth Rs 2.5 lakh crore in the focus sectors which include ancillary and downstream industries in metal sector, chemicals, plastics and petrochemicals, electronics manufacturing and IT, agro and seafood processing, tourism, textiles and apparel.

"Owing to the proactive and progressive governance, Odisha is fast emerging as the manufacturing hub of Eastern India. Odisha's business friendly policies and the development of world-class infrastructure have received very positive feedback from investors across the globe," said Chopra.

He said over the last 3 years, the state government has embarked upon the implementation of a Business Reforms Programme to make it easier for companies to set up and operate in the state.

Chopra also presented some of the advantages of doing business in Odisha that include an "able and stable government, identified focus sectors based on competitive strengths, infrastructure led industrial development, resource rich coastal state, highly skilled technical manpower, first of its kind single window portal in the country - GOSWIFT, 100,000 acres of industrial land bank mapped through first of its kind GIS-based platform".

--IANS

cd/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said the proposed vehicle scrapping policy is almost ready and soon vehicles older than 15 years could be scrapped.

"Along with Niti Aayog, we have almost finalised the scrapping policy. This would lead to the scrapping of vehicles older than 15 years," said Gadkari after inaugurating three electric vehicle charging points at Niti Aayog.

Though he declined to divulge further details, it is learnt that the government is considering tax benefits for scrapping 15-year-old vehicles. For this it may approach the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council.

The government has been working on formulating a vehicle scrapping policy to reduce fuel-guzzling and polluting old models, to recycle and bring down the cost of components and to make transport green and cost-effective.

"We have a Rs 4.5 lakh crore automobile industry. The scrapping of old vehicles would fetch us plastic, rubber, aluminium, copper and steel. The waste coming out from scrapping units in ports and automobile clusters would bring down the cost of raw materials and spare parts. This would boost our exports," he said.

The government has been planning to scrap all Medium and Heavy Commercial Vehicles (MCHV), which account for 2.5 per cent of the country's total vehicles but contribute over 60 per cent of the air pollution.

The Delhi government is also planning to come out with a policy scrapping passenger cars older than 15 years.

Initially, the Union government may propose a voluntary vehicle modernisation programme followed by a regulation determining the life of vehicles. It may provide incentives to vehicle owners like payment of scrap value and discount from auto majors at the time of purchasing a new vehicle after scrapping the older one.

Vehicular pollution is the major cause of air pollution. The emissions from the vehicles contribute to rising levels of toxic carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and particulate matter.

Last year, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had ordered the removal of all decade-old diesel vehicles from the roads of the National Capital Region (NCR). The Supreme Court rejected appeals challenging the ban.

--IANS

mgu/and/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)CPN-UML Chairman K.P. Sharma Oli was on Thursday appointed the 41st Prime Minister of Nepal.

President Bidya Bhandari appointed Oli as the new Prime Minister of the Himalayan country.

Oli's communist party secured near majority in Parliament and is supported by the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN Maoist Centre) to form the government.

Earlier in the day, outgoing Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba put in his papers.

Oli is likely to form a small Cabinet from his party, CPN-UML, and the CPN (Maoist Centre).

The Maoist Centre and UML are set to merge soon.

The oath taking of Oli will take place later in the evening.

In the morning, Oli, along with Chairman of the Maoist-Centre Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', met President Bhandari, and Oli laid claim to the top executive post on the basis of majority votes, the President's Office said.

--IANS

giri/rn

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)CPN-UML Chairman K.P. Sharma Oli was on Thursday sworn in as the 41st Prime Minister of Nepal, 69 days after the elections of the Federal and Provincial Assemblies.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari administrated the oath of office to Oli at a ceremony organised at the presidential residence.

Following his swearing in, Oli formed a small Cabinet inducting two ministers from his Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist).

Lal Babu Pandit was appointed the Minister for Population and Environment and Thammaya Thapa was appointed the Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare.

As widely expected, the CPN (Maoist Centre) led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda", which had extended support to Oli to form the government in the Himalayan country, did not send the ministers in the Cabinet for now.

This is the second time Oli has been appointed to the top post. He was the Prime Minister from October 11, 2015 to August 4, 2016.

He had to step down from the prime-ministerial post after the CPN (Maoist Centre) withdrew its support to his government. Now, he has reached to the post following the support from the same party.

Ahead of Oli's appointment, outgoing Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, submitted his resignation after the Election Commission submitted the final results of the elections held in December to the President. Deuba's Nepali Congress finished third in the race.

Oli claimed the top executive post with the support of the Left alliance which had garnered a majority victory in the elections held in two phases on November 26 and December 7.

Prachanda's Maoist Centre and UML are set to merge soon.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The opposition on Thursday mounted a belligerent attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government, accusing it of failing to act on time against a bank fraud of Rs 20,000 crore and of complicity in letting the alleged kingpin billionaire diamond merchant Nirav Modi flee the country.

The government refused to take the blame for the fraud in India's second biggest state-run bank, saying it happened during the UPA rule and that Prime Minister Modi won't spare anyone involved in the scam. The BJP took offence to Congress calling Nirav a "Chhota Modi", saying it was shameful and irresponsible.

The Congress led the opposition charge with party President Rahul Gandhi alleging that Nirvav Modi's case was a guide to "looting India" which involves getting closer to and hugging Prime Minister Modi and then slipping away from the country -- like liquor baron Vijay Mallya.

The Congress circulated a picture of Prime Minister Modi with Indian CEOs at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January in which Nirav Modi is seen standing in the second row.

It asked Prime Minister Modi to come clean on the government's "failure" and identify those who helped the "Chhota Modi" run away.

Defending the government, IT and Communication Minister Ravi Shankar said it took "strong offence" to the Congress calling the billionaire jeweller "Chhota Modi", saying it was "derogatory, scandalous and demeaning" to the Prime Minister.

The Congress posed a series of questions to the Prime Minister, saying the PMO failed to act even after a complaint was filed to Modi's office as early as July 26, 2016.

"The Congress demands accountability, responsibility and recovery of the money and answers on who had protected another 'Chhota Modi' and helped him flee the country," party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters.

It pegged the scam at more than Rs 20,000 crore -- Rs 11,400 on account of Nirav Modi's actions and Rs 9,872 crore through exposure of various banks by his uncle Mehul Choksi.

Surjewala said the Prime Minister and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley should break their silence.

Accusing the NDA government of trampling upon the entire banking system, he said risk management system, fraud detection ability and regulatory mechanism of banks were "severally compromised" under the Modi government.

"Entire system was bypassed. All regulatory mechanisms broke down. Everything escaped the eyes of auditors and investigators. Risk management and fraud detection ability came to a naught. Yet, the Modi government would have us believe that this entire fraud was being perpetrated by two employees."

Citing a complaint by whistleblower Hari Prasad, the Congress said Modi was made aware of this fraud on July 26, 2016 and it was acknowledged by the PMO.

"Multiple documents, including a list of 42 FIRs that were pending, were also in the knowledge of the Prime Minister. Despite all this, Nirav Modi travelled in the business delegation to Davos in January with Prime Minister Modi."

Alleging that "loot and escape" had become the hallmark of the Modi government, Surjewala said: "Post-escape of 'Lalit Modi' i.e. 'Chhota Modi' and 'Vijay Mallya', another 'Modi scam' has hit India's banking sector the hardest. First, Lalit Modi escaped. Vijya Mallya escaped. ABG's Rishi Agarwal escaped. Now, we are told that Nirav Modi has also escaped (from) India."

CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury guessed that the businessman Modi may be in Switzerland where he was photographed with Prime Minister Modi.

"If this person had fled India before the FIR on January 31, then he is here, photographed at Davos with the PM, a week before the FIR, after having escaped from India? The Modi government must clarify," Yechury said.

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee demanded a thorough probe into the fraud, vowing she would not let the Central government off the hook until the people's money was secured.

Banerjee said she has written to the Finance Ministry to scrap the proposed Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill.

The ruling AAP in Delhi also attacked the government, alleging that the BJP was "benefiting big businessmen and defrauders like Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi and its leaders were involved in the scams done by these people".

The government sought to distance itself, blaming the Congress-led UPA regime for influencing loans that became non-performing assets (NPAs) while asserting that the guilty will not be spared.

Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said no loans had been given in Modi government's tenure which can become NPAs and the loan to Nirav Modi was given during the tenure of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

"The legacy of NPAs comes from the Congress."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday issued an arrest warrant against the country's former Ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, in the "Memogate" scandal.

The 2011 "Memogate" controversy revolves around a memorandum allegedly drafted by Haqqani ostensibly seeking help from the Obama administration in the wake of the Osama bin Laden raid to avert a military takeover in Pakistan.

Haqqani, who served as Ambassador from 2008 to 2011 in the US, was removed from office for his alleged role in the issue, the Dawn newspaper reported.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) asked Interpol to issue a red warrant to nab Haqqani, who has failed to comply with the court orders to appear before it in the "Memogate" case.

On January 3, 2013, Haqqani left Pakistan with the commitment to come back on a four-day notice and the court had allowed him to go abroad.

He, however, did not return to the country and breached his commitment with the court. On June 4, 2013, the court had directed the executive to bring him back.

Additional Attorney General Waqar Rana had earlier said that all measures will be taken to bring Haqqani back from the US.

Reacting to the move, Haqqani said on Twitter that it was "sad that highest court of Pakistan persists with such antics for local TV news coverage.

"Such political 'warrants' have not been honoured abroad in the past, won't work now," he said.

On February 1, the top court had constituted a three-member bench to resume hearings of the controversial case.

In December 2017, three people had separately lodged FIRs against him for delivering hate speeches and writing books and articles against the Pakistan armed forces.

They accused Haqqani of contributing to enemy propaganda while residing in the US, "which was threatening the peace of Pakistan".

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was on Thursday rushed to the Lilavati hospital in Mumbai after being diagnosed with food poisoning, an official said.

A Chief Minister's Office functionary said that Parrikar was examined at the state government-run Goa Medical College near here late on Wednsday night after complaining of stomach pain.

"He was examined at the Goa Medical College last night, where doctors established the cause of his illness as food poisoning. He was rushed to Lilavati hospital in Mumbai today (Thursday) for further examination," the official told reporters here.

--IANS

maya/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A partially blind teacher working with a government school in the national capital has been arrested for molesting two minor students, police said on Thursday.

The police said the incidents were reported to them by the school management on Friday, but the accused teacher -- identified as Awadhesh Kumar -- was arrested on Monday.

"The victim students of Class 8 of a government school at Maurice Nagar complained to their parents about Kumar repeatedly molesting them inside the school over the last couple of weeks," a senior police officer told IANS.

"The police were approached by the school management after the victims' family members demanded strict action against Kumar. The victims -- aged 13-14 years -- said in the complaints that Kumar used to touch their bodies inappropriately after calling them separately on the pretext of giving them extra tutorials," he said.

Kumar taught students Hindi language. The victims alleged that sometimes he called them for helping him in walking as he is partially visually impaired. When victims complained against him, Kumar claimed that he was being targeted because of his partial vision.

"We have booked Kumar on the charges of stalking, molestation and under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. We suspect that some other girls might also also have been targeted by Kumar. The counselling of victims and other students is being done," the officer added.

The school management has put up a letter box so that similar complaints could be received from other students in case they were also targeted by Kumar.

--IANS

sp/nir

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Priyadarshan's upcoming film in which actor Abhishek Bachchan will play the lead role, will commence its shoot in Dharamsala on June 5, said the director.

"The script is ready. We are considering a few to play the heroine's role. We have a few options and will be finalised soon. Then we will move on to others in the cast line," Priyadarshan told IANS over phone from Chennai about the family comedy.

This will be the 93rd film of his career that has entered the 36th year.

In Bollywood, this is going to be his 27th film as a director.

--IANS

sg/nn/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)As a part of his election campaign in Tripura, Congress President Rahul Gandhi will address a public rally in Unakoti district on Friday.

The party said on Thursday that Gandhi will address a public meeting at Ramkrishna Mahavidyalaya Stadium Ground.

Tripura will witness Assembly election to 60 seats on February 18 and the results will be declared on March 3. The Congress has fielded candidates in 56 seats.

--IANS

sid/him/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court on Thursday said it would start, from April 2, final hearing on validity of the Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2006 and subsequent legislation, which protects unauthorised construction from being sealed in the national capital.

A division bench of Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta was told by the Central government it would file a reply "justifying" the 2006 law within a period of three weeks.

It also said that it had nothing to do with the sealing as it was for the municipal bodies in Delhi to look into it and the government was concerned with the law.

Posting the matter to April 2, the court said: "For a proper management of the cases, we make it clear that we do not propose to hear any counsel on behalf of the petitioners.

"If there are any submissions that they wish to make, they may do so through the amicus. We will, of course, hear the Union of India, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the Delhi Government and the corporations."

In December last, while expressing concern over rampant illegal construction in Delhi, the apex court had said that the authorities do not appear to have carried out their statutory duties in preventing illegal construction and ordered restoration of its 2006 monitoring committee to identify and seal such offending structures.

The court was hearing several pleas seeking relief from the ongoing sealing drive.

In December 2017, the union cabinet had approved the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Second (Amendment) Bill, 2017, extending the immunity to illegal constructions in Delhi, and preventing their demolition or sealing till December 31, 2020.

--IANS

gt/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)South African President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday resigned from his office with immediate effect making the announcement in a televised address to the nation.

The 75-year-old has been under increasing pressure to give way to Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, the ANC's new leader.

Zuma, who has been in power since 2009, faces numerous allegations of corruption.

His resignation came at the end of a long speech in which he said he disagreed with the way the ANC had acted towards him.

According to BBC, he said he did not fear a motion of no-confidence, adding: "I have served the people of South Africa to the best of my ability."

Zuma also said that violence and division within the ANC had influenced his decision to step down.

"No life should be lost in my name and also the ANC should never be divided in my name. I have therefore come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect," he was quoted as saying.

"Even though I disagree with the decision of the leadership of my organisation, I have always been a disciplined member of the ANC.

"As I leave I will continue to serve the people of South Africa as well as the ANC, the organisation I have served... all of my life."

Meanwhile, the ANC said Zuma's resignation provided "certainty to the people of South Africa".

Deputy Secretary General Jessie Duarte told reporters: "President Zuma remains a principled member of the ANC. The ANC wants to salute the outstanding contribution he has made."

--IANS

sku/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The NDA government has taken "strictest" and "fastest" action against jeweller Nirav Modi accused of duping the state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) of thousands of crores but the Congress was doing over national interest, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said here on Thursday.

Addressing a press conference, Prasad said that the scam started in 2011 when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was in power and is the "latest in line in the legacy of corruption and fraudulence left by the Congress Party".

He said that the agencies are already taking action against Nirav Modi who fled the country.

"The ED (Enforcement Directorate) and the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) are already in action against Nirav Modi. ED has already raided nine properties associated with Nirav Modi, three in Surat, four in Mumbai and two in Delhi. Assets worth Rs 1,300 crore have been seized. Action has been taken to initiate revocation of his passport," Prasad said.

He added the CBI is also raiding 20 locations associated with him and has seized his Mumbai residence.

He said that the CBI first received a complain from PNB pertaining to Rs 280 crore on January 29 this year and a case was registered on January 31. Lookout notice was issued on February 1.

"The Prime Minister had said in the Lok Sabha that our government has not given any loans that have become NPA (Non Performing Assets). The legacy of NPAs comes from the Congress," he said, claiming that it was a "well known fact" that Nirav Modi was close to the Nehru-Gandhi family.

"The genesis of the scam was in 2011 and interesting thing to note is that the total income of Geetanjali Jewels almost doubled within a span of 2 years between 2011 and 2013. Geetanjali Jewels -- a company owned by Mehul Choski who is also one of the partners along with Nirav Modi in the firms booked for fraud by PNB," Prasad said.

Prasad also questioned Congress' right to comment on the incident, claiming that their government allowed liquor baron Vijay Mallya to run away with around Rs 9,000 crore which he had taken as loan from 17 Indian banks.

He also slammed the Congress for referring to Nirav Modi as "chhota Modi". "Rahul Gandhi is the President of a party not because of his capability but because of his family. What kind of language are they using?"

He denied the incident will taint the Prime Minister's image, saying PM Modi "has the blessing of the people of India".

The Congress on Thursday asked the Modi government to come clean on the government's "failure" to prevent the scam and identify those who helped the alleged kingpin, billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi to flee the country.

It accused the Prime Minister's Office and other authorities of not taking action even after a complaint was filed in July 2016.

--IANS

mak/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan hit out at Tamil Nadu governments - current and earlier ones - for neglecting villages, the farm sector and putting the farming community in a crisis.

Haasan, who earlier said he would adopt a village and make it into a "model village", revealed that his recent visit to the US was to tap to achieve "his goal" the technology and knowledge of Indians who have migrated there.

In his latest weekly column in Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan Haasan, the superstar said he met K.R. Sridhar, founder of Bloom Energy that makes the Bloom Box -- a generator of clean power based on fuel cell technology.

Haasan said he discussed with Sridhar the possibility of Bloom Box being used in Tamil Nadu villages, adding that Sridhar foresees the days when the state would become a major consumer of such technology.

According to the actor, his political journey was to adopt a village, turn agriculture into a profitable activity and (promote) industrialisation in nearby areas without polluting the environment.

Haasan said one person in the US mentioned that 'Ulaga Nayagan' (global hero) was now becoming an 'Ulloor Nayagan' (local hero).

--IANS

vj/him/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)For the last half of the 20th century, the United States was the world's beacon for democracy and economic development and India was a laggard. These roles are reversing as the end of the second decade of the 21st century approaches.

India is becoming a beacon and the US is becoming a flashlight. In large part, this is a consequence of leadership.

India has a leader in Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is pursuing the future. The US has a leader in Donald Trump who is pursuing the past. President Trump is emphasising individualism and isolationism. Prime Minister Modi is stressing engagement and expansionism.

Freedom House, in its annual report titled "Freedom in the World 2018" released in January, noted that "A long list of troubling developments contributed to the global decline of democracy, but perhaps most striking was the accelerating withdrawal of the United States from its historical commitment to promoting and supporting democracy."

The report's aggregate Freedom Score rating (aggregate score) for the US in 2017 was 86 out of 100 points. Its aggregate score for India was 77. This shows that, overall, on the dimensions being measured, the US scores higher. But its score has dropped substantially from 94 in 2008.

Today the majority of the countries that rate 90 and above on their aggregate scores are older and smaller. They do not have the size or stature to assume the democratic leadership mantle if America under the Trump Administration relinquishes it.

India does. In the last part of 2017, as Prime Minister Modi called for more democratic processes and participation in India's political parties, it appears that he may encourage the country to step forward to take on that obligation.

Time will tell how this plays out. What is certain, at this point, based upon Modi's opening address at the Davos Word Economic Forum on January 23, is that the Prime Minister is using India's democracy as a selling point and putting the country centre stage in terms of its own economic growth and promotion of cooperation.

In his Davos remarks, Modi stressed that India is the "largest democracy on planet Earth" and provided a litany of the enormous opportunities for companies to invest in "inclusive economic development". He also struck a strong free-trade, globalisation note while calling for unity to address the issues of climate change, terrorism and protectionism.

Modi didn't directly say that India is open for business. But his message, throughout his comments, was that it is.

Trump, on the other hand, in his closing address at Davos, stated explicitly that "America is open for business..." But the implicit message, throughout his comments, was that it is not.

At various points during his speech, Trump asserted: "As President, I will always put America first..."; "The United States will no longer turn a blind eye to unfair economic practices..."; "My administration is proud to have led historic efforts... to de-nuke the Korean peninsula".

According to press reports, Trump's speech was fairly well received while he stayed on script. Trump was, however, booed when he answered a question after concluding his prepared remarks by declaring, "...it wasn't until I became a politician that I realised how nasty, how mean, how vicious and how fake the press can be."

Therein lies the rub. Even in a setting where President Trump was trying to present his more cooperative side, his inherent combative nature and self-centred perspective came though. By contrast, Prime Minister Modi was collaborative and ecumenical in his presentation of self and India. This was most evident when he concluded his speech by observing:

"If you want wealth with wellness, work in India; if you want peace with prosperity, live in India; if you want health with whole life, be in India. And our promise is that your agenda will be part of our destiny. We both will have a shared and successful future."

To sum up: Trump's nationalistic communication to the world at Davos was "My way or no highway." Modi's was "Our way is the skyway."

America's retrenchment under Trump leaves a leadership vacuum in the world. India under Modi appears poised to fill that vacuum.

What stands out and is differentiating about Modi is his espousing a positive and constructive agenda in terms of world involvement. There is no assurance exactly where India will conclude its journey to world leadership. It can however be stated unequivocally near the beginning of 2018 that India is on the right trajectory and climbing upward.

It can be stated with equal certainty that the US is not. It is on a glide path headed downward. This is true because those who live in the past and retreat from the playing field are restricting their future.

(Frank F. Islam is an entrepreneur, civic and thought leader based in Washington, DC. The views expressed are personal.)(ATTN EDITORS: This is the seventh in a 10-part "Translating India" series where 10 noted translators -- in articles written exclusively for IANS -- share their experiences of translating from their respective languages.)

By Rita and Abhijit Kothari

K.M. Munshi's name is familiar to many Indians, largely through the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, which he founded. The more politically aware also remember that he was a member of the Rajya Sabha, the Governor of Uttar Pradesh and special agent to Hyderabad during the turbulent post-Partition period. Historians and political scientists think of him as crucial to the evocative and contestable idea of asmita in Gujarat -- regional and cultural pride -- that has animated forms of cultural nationalism.

Despite these varying levels of acknowledgement and familiarity, Munshi remains unknown as a litterateur to a majority of Indians outside Gujarat. However, as inhabitants of Gujarat and its close observers, we have seen Munshi's profound presence in the social memory of Gujarat's literate sections. The characters of his novels, Munjal Mehta and Minaldevi or Kaak and Manjari, have set, for generations, a template of romance and love. The feudal and martial qualities of this fiction created, in the words of Munshi himself, the glory that was Gujarat.

Although a serious student of history, Munshi was very clear that his historical fiction used history only as a backdrop against which his characters lived, loved and struggled. He made no claim to historical accuracy and often interspersed in his stories real historical characters and events with fictional ones.

For him, perhaps as in the case of many Indian historians of his period, the recovery of a glorious past was also a strategy he adopted when faced with the European conception of history. If the readers and critics of Munshi's time were willing to overlook historical inaccuracies as artistic liberty, the contemporary reader, far less familiar with history, seems to accept Munshi's version of 12th century Gujarat as gospel truth.

Despite Munshi's significance, very little of him is read outside Gujarat. While the Hindi language has had translations of some of Munshi's works, he remains inaccessible to many constituencies. As far as the English language is concerned, Munshi remains more accessible through some of his historical writings as well as essays that he himself wrote in English. As translators, we were driven by multiple reasons for translating Munshi's "Patan Trilogy", comprising three famous novels, "Patan Nee Pratbhuta", "Gujarat No Nath" and "Rajadhiraj". Apart from providing to the English reading public one of Gujarat's most prominent and canonical writers, we were also driven by the need to communicate how Gujarat's social memory and history was shaped by Munshi's fiction.

Located in the Solanki (Chalukya) era of Gujarat's history (940-1244 CE), the Patan trilogy chronicles the rise of the most famous ruler of this dynasty -- Siddhraj Jaysinh. We are introduced to him in the first novel, where he is but a young boy when his father, King Karnadev, dies. His mother, Minaldevi, acts as regent along with the shrewd and wise Prime Minister, Munjal Mehta. The second and the third novels continue the saga of Siddhraj's reign.

The trilogy is more than a chronicling of a king. It has a racy element with twists and turns that keep the reader gripped -- almost like a best-seller. Its memorable characters, high romance and melodrama cannot but leave an impact on the reader. First published in a serialised form, the novels, when they first appeared, captured the imagination of the readers of Gujarat who waited eagerly for each new episode not unlike the popular television serials of today.

As translators, we were deeply aware that we had to preserve this quality. We also had to enter and live in the world of 12th century Gujarat and draw the reader into it. Hence our translation is as attentive to the period as it is to the theatricality that characterises Munshi's trilogy. It is gratifying to note, at least based on our anecdotal evidence and the reviews, that we seem to have gained some success in achieving this goal.

(Rita and Abhijit Kothari translated K.M. Munshi's Patan Trilogy)

--IANS

rita-abhijt/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday for a planned six-and-a-half hour spacewalk, NASA has said.

Mark Vande Hei of NASA and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are scheduled to begin the spacewalk at 7.10 a.m. to move components for the station's robotic system into long-term storage, the US space agency said on Wednesday.

The spacewalk will be the 208th in support of space station assembly and maintenance and the third in 2018.

The two spacewalkers will move a Latching End Effector (LEE), or hand, for the Canadian-built robotic arm, Canadarm2, from a payload attachment on the station's Mobile Base System rail car to the Quest airlock.

This LEE was replaced during an Expedition 53 spacewalk in October 2017, and will be returned to Earth to be refurbished and relaunched to the orbiting laboratory as a spare.

They also will move an aging, but functional, LEE that was detached from the arm during a January 23 spacewalk and move it from its temporary storage outside the airlock to a long-term storage location.

That LEE will be available as a spare part on the Mobile Base System, which is used to move the arm and astronauts along the station's truss structure.

The spacewalk originally was scheduled for January 29, but was postponed when a new LEE, installed during the spacewalk, encountered startup issues.

Those issues were later resolved through software updates written by Canadian Space Agency robotics specialists.

The spacewalk was rescheduled again to accommodate the February 15 docking of the Russian Progress 69 cargo spacecraft that launched on February 13, NASA said.

The 69P is due to complete its delivery when it docks on Thursday at 5.43 a.m. EST (4.13 p.m. India time).

--IANS

gb/in

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress on Thursday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Rs 11,500 crore fraud in the PNB and asked him to come clean on the government's "failure" to prevent the scam and identify those who helped the alleged kingpin, billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi, to flee the country.

Posing a series of questions to the Prime Minister and his government, the Congress accused the PMO or any other authority of taking action even after a complaint was filed to the Prime Minister's Office as early as July 26, 2016.

"The Congress demands accountability, responsibility and recovery of the money and answers on who had protected another 'Chhota Modi' and helped him flee the country," party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters.

Pegging the scam at Rs 30,000 crore, he said the Prime Minister and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley should not remain quite and the government should not merely issue "unsigned" press releases. "They have a lot to answer for."

Accusing the NDA government of trampling upon the entire banking system, Surjewala said risk management system, fraud detection ability' and the regulatory mechanism of banks have been severally compromised under the Modi government.

"Entire system was bypassed. All regulatory mechanisms broke down. Everything escaped the eyes of auditors and investigators. Risk management' and fraud detection ability came to a naught. Yet, the Modi government would have us believe that this entire fraud was being perpetrated by two employees."

He said Modi was made aware of this entire fraud by a whistleblower, Hari Prasad, by way of a written complaint filed July 26, 2016 and acknowledged by the PMO.

"Multiple documents, including a list of 42 FIRs that were pending, were also in the knowledge of the Prime Minister. Despite all this, Nirav Modi traveled in the business delegation to Davos in January 2018 with Prime Minister Modi."

Alleging that "loot and escape" had become the hallmark of the Modi government, Surjewala said: "Post-escape of 'Lalit Modi' i.e. 'Chhota Modi' and 'Vijay Mallya', another 'Modi scam' has hit India's banking sector the hardest. First, Lalit Modi escaped. Vijya Mallya escaped. ABG's Rishi Agarwal escaped. Now, we are told that Nirav Modi has also escaped (from) India."

He said the scam involved over 30 banks including Punjab National Bank, Allahabad Bank, Axis Bank, State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Indian Oversees Bank, Corporation Bank, Andhra Bank, Vijaya Bank, Canara Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank and the Export Import Bank of India.

Posing questions to the Prime Minister, the Congress spokesperson asked how Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi duped the entire banking system through forged letters of understanding under the nose of his government.

"Who is responsible for the biggest 'bank loot scam," Surjewala queried, asking why the Prime Minister did not take any action to protect the banking sector from the fraud despite a written complaint received in July 2016.

"Why were all the authorities, including Finance Ministry, its financial intelligence units and all other authorities sleeping?"

--IANS

sid-sar-vsc/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 27-year-old woman has approached the Supreme Court, saying her husband is suffering from acute porn addiction as a result of which their marriage is on the rocks, and sought a complete ban on online pornography.

The woman, a resident of Mumbai, blamed porn sites for her husband's addiction, which she claimed had "ruined" her matrimonial life.

She said that because of this habit, her 35-year-old husband has become so "perverted" that he is ignoring his day-to-day activities and their marriage is in trouble as he is indifferent to her physical and material needs. He has also been insisting on a divorce by mutual consent and has already moved the family court.

The woman has moved the court through lawyer Kamlesh Vaswani, seeking to become party to a plea filed by the advocate in 2013 to ban online pornography.

In her affidavit, she said: "My husband has been an addict of porn and spends a lot of his precious time watching porn...

"He is suffering from lack of virility and vitality and thus is unable to initiate sexual intercourse. However, my husband has at times forced me to have unnatural oral sex with him against my wishes. Thus he is exhibiting abnormal behaviour ruining my married life."

The woman said she came to know that her husband has been a pornography addict since his teens.

"The easy availability of porn in this country is a serious impediment in the progress of this nation as a whole new generation is adversely affected leading to perversion of youth, loss of moral and spiritual values which if not checked can lead to total lack of productivity, rise in sex crimes, matrimonial disputes and a state of doom...," she added.

Last year, another woman had approached the apex court saying her marriage has been ruined due to her husband's porn addiction.

A Class 12 student had also moved the court seeking a direction to block sleazy sites and cited cases of his friends who were addicted to porn.

The Supreme Court has been exploring the possibility of banning watching of pornographic material in any form at public places and has also sought the view of the government on if it can be made a crime.

However, the Central government said it only favours banning child pornography sites and not going beyond, considering a citizen's right to privacy, and also because it does not want to do moral policing.

--IANS

gt/him/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress on Thursday wished Prime Minister Narendra Modi for Valentines Day by releasing a video on its official Facebook page. But it was a wish very different from the ones we are familiar with.

It began by asking Modi to hug less and work more and to spread love, not jumlas. It also highlighted accusations of sectarianism against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, with the advice to break-up with hatred and took on some of the PMs pet project like radio programme, Mann ki Baat, by asking him to listen to ...The National Investigation Agency (NIA) today took the custody of five accused arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police in connection with the escape of Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Mohammed Naveed Jhatt from the SMHS hospital, an official spokesman said here.

The NIA spokesman said the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate here granted a two-day transit remand of the five accused who had been nabbed by the police on February 8, two days after the escape of 22-year-old Jhatt alias Abu Hanzalla from the busy hospital in the city.

The five accused -- Shakeel Ahmed Bhat, Tika Khan, Syed Tajamul Islam, Mohammed Shafi Wani and Jan Mohammed Ganai -- were arrested by the police for allegedly conspiring in the escape of Jhatt. All the five accused are residents of Pulwama.

The NIA re-registered the case pertaining to the escape from custody of Jhatt from the SMHS hospital where he was brought in for treatment on February 6.

The accused will be produced before the NIA special court at Jammu tomorrow for seeking police custody, the spokesman said. The designated court for the NIA is in Jammu, the winter capital of the state.

Two policemen -- head constable Mushtaq Ahmed and constable Babar Ahmed -- of the Jammu and Kashmir Police were killed by Jhatt and his accomplice on the fateful day.

Bhat is believed to be one of the masterminds of the escape of Jhatt and his motorcycle had been used in the escape of the terrorist, police said.

Khan, a resident of Pulwama, is alleged to have provided his car for further transportation of Jhatt out of the city, police said.

Jhatt is at present believed to be in the Pulwama area of South Kashmir, they said.

Shafi, who is from Narbal on the outskirts of Srinagar city, had posed as a patient to provide cover for the terrorists escape.

Jhatt had managed to escape on February 6 after at least two other militants attacked the police escort team at the SMHS Hospital here, killing two cops.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Attacks blamed on the Taliban in northern and western Afghanistan killed at least 10 members of the country's security forces, officials said today, while a land mine explosion in western Herat province killed two children.

In western Farah province, police commander Abdul Razaq Alkhani said a Taliban attack killed seven policemen last night. The Taliban hit a police post in Bala Buluk district and the hours-long fighting also killed three insurgent before the Taliban were pushed back, Alkhani said.

In northern Faryab province, Karim Yuresh, spokesman for the provincial police chief, said a Taliban attack killed three policemen in Qaysar district, also last night.

Ten Taliban insurgents were also killed in the ensuing gunbattle, he added.

The two children killed in a land mine explosion in western Herat province were children of a local Taliban figure, said Abdul Ahad Walizada, spokesman of the provincial chief police. He blamed the Taliban but did not provide more details.

The Taliban have not claimed responsibility for either of the two attacks.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Punjab government today decided to seek its Advocate-General's view on recruitment of teachers from their respective districts in border areas under the special cadre approved by the state cabinet.

In its meeting chaired by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, the cabinet today decided to create a separate cadre of teachers for the six border districts -- Pathankot, Amritsar, Fazilka, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur and Gurdaspur.

While some ministers suggested that the border cadre teachers be recruited from the same districts, the chief minister advised that the matter be put up to the AG for his opinion, according to an official release.

The meeting also decided to set up a cabinet sub-committee to oversee the implementation of the Right to (RTE) Act and to examine suggestions of the department on revamping the system in government schools.

The cabinet took serious note of the fact that private schools continued to deprive poor students of admission despite reservations for them under the RTE Act.

The sub-committee, comprising Finance Minister Manpreet Badal, Higher Education Minister Aruna Chaudhary, Rural Development Minister Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, will submit its report within 15 days, an official spokesperson said after the cabinet meeting.

The cabinet also informally discussed the Education Department's proposal on formulating a policy for rationalisation of the teacher-student ratio to make it more balanced, as also suggested by the central government.

The department has been asked by the cabinet to present a formal proposal in this regard in the next meeting.

Earlier, the cabinet, which approved 19 draft service rules for various cadres in the school education department, discussed the need for special cadre for the border districts. It was decided that the employees appointed in the border cadre would have their separate promotion channels.

The new rules, necessitated by the old ones becoming outdated and irrelevant in the changing environment, also provide for special incentives such as additional House Rent Allowance (HRA) and one additional increment at every level in the border cadre.

Under the old rules, the service conditions of non-teaching staff were governed by the rules framed in 1941, while those of headmasters, lecturers, masters and classical and vernacular teachers were governed by the rules framed in 1955 and 1978.

Several court judgements have since underlined the need to change in the selection process.

Taking guidance from these judgements, and in order to recruit the best personnel in different services, a new set of qualifications has been proposed in the various sets of draft rules which the cabinet has approved, it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Aiming to double tourist arrivals in the state in five years, the Amarinder Singh government in Punjab is planning to promote several thematic circuits including agri-tours, the Amitsar circuit, the frontier trail etc.

The circuit touring concept would be promoted to attract specific segments of the market, an official release said after the state cabinet gave its nod to a draft of Punjab State Tourism Policy, 2018. The policy aims to make the state a world-class destination in five years.

Other circuits that would be promoted include; the Mughal Circuit; the Maharajah Circuit; the Patiala Trail; the Ludhiana Circuit; the Chandigarh Circuit; Nature Circuit; Taste Punjab; the Punjab Retreat; Fashionable Punjab; Punjab in Style and Festive Punjab.

The state cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Singh, agreed that the new policy would help attract high value tourism through development of resources and a series of initiatives, including information dissemination through the social media.

The new policy will replace the existing tourism policy of 2003, the release said.

The policy also aims to provide impetus to rural tourism, medical tourism, heritage tourism and film tourism.

Under the policy, the state government will work relentlessly to double the annual tourist visits from 25 million to 50 million in the next five years, the release said.

Training and capacity building activities will be made available, under the skill development programme, to the maximum number of people, thus helping in employment generation for local youth.

The policy also envisages investment promotion in tourism through an investment portfolio for the information and motivation of potential investors.

With electronic methods and social media deployment high on the agenda, the marketing operations would be managed by a team of well-qualified and experienced professionals.

"During 2016, a total of 6.60 lakh foreign tourists visits were recorded in the state, as against 2.43 lakh in 2015, while the number of domestic tourist visits stood at 3.87 crore in 2016 as against 2.58 crore in 2015, helping Punjab attain the 13th rank in domestic tourist visits and 10th rank in foreign tourists visits," the release said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Divestment-bound Air India's unpaid fuel bills and airport charges are likely to raise its debt figure from the current estimate of around Rs 50,000 crore, according to a senior government official.

The government is expected to invite expression of interest (EoI) from bidders for Air India this month.

"While there is clarity on Air India's borrowings from financial institutions, its unpaid fuel bills and airport charges are likely to raise its liabilities," said an aviation ministry official.

He added the total liabilities could exceed the official estimate of approximately Rs 50,000 crore as it did not include outstanding bills.

The national carrier had a debt of Rs 51,890 crore as on September 30 last year as per provisional figures.

Of the total debt, the aircraft loans accounted for Rs 18,364 crore and the working capital loans Rs 33,526 crore.

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju was quoted in an interview last month as saying that a debt figure of Rs 70,000 crores would not be surprising.

"When our exercise of calculating Air Indias debt began, we found that the sum was hovering around the Rs 50,000 crore mark. But I wont be surprised if the total debt reaches Rs 70,000 crore. Since people are looking at the books carefully, they may find more, he was quoted in a media report.

The expression of interest document will lay down the eligibility criteria for bidders, including details of Air India's assets as well as specify how much stake the government wants to divest.

It will, however, not mention the reserve price for Air India, as per the official.

As part of reviving the ailing airline, the government decided on Air India's strategic disinvestment last year and a group of ministers, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, is working out the modalities of the stake sale.

Earlier this month, minister of state for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha told reporters that at least 51 per cent of Air India's ownership will be transferred to the private sector and that the government's ownership will be 49 per cent or less.

The national carrier is likely to be offered for bidding as four different entities.

Air India, its low-cost arm Air India Express and subsidiary AISATS would be one entity, while regional arm Alliance Air would be a separate entity.

Besides, Air India Air Transport Services Ltd (AIATSL) and Air India Engineering Services Ltd (AIESL) would be sold separately.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress leader Anand Sharma today took a jibe at the BJPs vision document for Meghalaya, which promised 2 lakh jobs for the youths and pensions for daily wage labourers, saying they are good in selling dreams.

Sharma's comment came here shortly after Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman had released BJP's vision document for Meghalaya in the state capital.

I was told BJP has released its vision document, it has promise the sun, the moon and the stars, but we have no quarrel they can promise more because they are nationally known now for selling dreams, making false promises and betraying the mandate and people, Sharma told reporters.

Elections to the 60 assembly seats in Meghalaya will be held on February 27.

BJP, which is looking to unseat the Congress which is in power for almost 15 years, is contesting in 47 seats. The Congress is contesting in all seats.

He said Meghalaya has to watch out as the BJP promised 2 lakh jobs in tourism sector whereas the number of unemployed youth as per records available in public domain it is over 1 lakh only.

They will bring unemployed people from other states but that is not going to happen because they have no intention in honoring what they say, the Rajya Sabha Deputy Leader of Opposition said.

Charging the Prime Minister with failing to keep his 2014 poll promise of creating 2 crore jobs in a year, Sharma said, In three and a half year, the youths of India are looking for 7 crore jobs. Jobs have not been created.

He described decisions on demonetization and GST as "reckless" that destroyed jobs.

I charge PM and his government in Delhi for having destroyed jobs and not in thousands but in millions and tens of millions particularly the demonetization where none of four objectives were made - black money, terror funding and counterfeit- and another decision which led to loss of jobs, businesses is the flawed GST implementation," he said.

The former Union Minister also accused the BJP of funding its ally, the National Peoples Party.

These partners (ally NPP) are also generously funded by the BJP and I say it with full sense of responsibility that you can check what their sources of funding are and they are getting ample funding from the BJP, he alleged.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Donald Trump's latest travel ban on travellers from six largely Muslim countries is "unconstitutionally tainted with animus toward Islam," a federal appeals court ruled today, delivering another blow to the policy.

In a 9-4 vote, the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond said it examined statements made by Trump and other administration officials, as well as the presidential proclamation imposing the ban, and concluded that it "second-guesses our nations dedication to religious freedom and tolerance."



The 4th Circuit is the second federal appeals court to rule against the ban. In December, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals found that Trump exceeded the scope of his authority with the latest ban.

The 4th Circuit court upheld a ruling by a federal judge in Maryland who issued an injunction barring enforcement of the ban against people from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen who have bona fide relationships with people in the US.

The US Supreme Court has already agreed to hear the travel ban case in April. In December, the high court said the ban could be fully enforced while appeals made their way through the courts.

In its ruling, the 4th Circuit said the ban has a "much broader deleterious effect" than banning certain foreign nationals.

The ban, the court said, "denies the possibility of a complete, intact family to tens of thousands of Americans." "On a fundamental level, the Proclamation second-guesses our nations dedication to religious freedom and tolerance," Chief Justice Roger Gregory wrote for the court in the majority opinion.

American Civil Liberties Union Deputy Legal Director Cecillia Wang, who argued the case before the court, said she was not surprised by the ruling.

"The Constitution prohibits government actions hostile to a religion," Wang said.

The International Refugee Assistance Project, one of the groups challenging the ban, said the policy has had a "devastating impact" on US families waiting to reunite with their family members and foreign students seeking educational opportunities in the US.

"Today's ruling affirms that they are being unjustly targeted by this ban," said Mariko Hirose, the groups litigation director.

The administration has said the ban is a legitimate measure to protect national security.

During a hearing before the 4th Circuit in December, Deputy US Assistant Attorney General Hashim Mooppan told the judges that the president has broad authority to bar foreign nationals he believes would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.

He said the latest restrictions were the product of a global, multi-agency review that found the specified countries do not share enough security-related information with the US. He said the ban is designed to protect the nation from terrorism and other threats.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Paul Niemeyer said the 4th Circuits ruling was an attempt to "second-guess US foreign policy, in particular, the presidents discretionary decisions on immigration, implicating matters of national security." Niemeyer said the majority should have based its decision on the text of the presidential proclamation alone and not considered statements Trump made on the campaign trial and after he became president.

"At bottom, the danger of this new rule is that it will enable a court to justify its decision to strike down any executive action with which it disagrees. It need only find one statement that contradicts the official reasons given for a subsequent executive action and thereby pronounce that the official reasons were a pretext," Niemeyer wrote.

The ruling was the second time the 4th Circuit has rejected a travel ban. In May, the court cited Trumps remarks on Muslim travellers while rejecting an earlier version of the ban, finding it "drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination."



Trump announced his initial travel ban on citizens of certain Muslim-majority nations shortly after taking office in January, bringing havoc and protests to airports around the United States. A federal judge in Seattle soon blocked it, and courts since then have wrestled with the restrictions as the administration has rewritten them.

The latest version blocks travellers from the listed countries to varying degrees, allowing for students from some, while blocking other business travellers and tourists, and allowing for admissions on a case-by-case basis.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Army has launched a preliminary inquiry against a Lieutenant Colonel of the Army's Central Command here for suspected leak of classified information, an official said today. "His gadgets have been sent for forensic tests. However, the Army officer (of Electronic and Mechanical Engineers Corps) has neither been picked up nor detained so far," defence PRO of Lucknow-headquartered Central Command, Gargi Malik Sinha told PTI over phone. The inquiry was ordered on February 12 and "it is yet to be established whether it has happened inadvertently or deliberately as reported", a press release issued by the Central Command headquarters. "Reports of detention of the officer, honey trapping, money exchange at this stage are pure speculation and neither accurate nor substantiated," it said. The officer is with 506 Army Base Workshop here in Madhya Bharat area "The Army ordered the preliminary inquiry against the officer on February 12 to ascertain the facts on suspected leakage of classified information from IT devices," the release said "The officer has only been questioned as part of the ongoing inquiry and nothing else and therefore he continues to perform his duties in the unit," the statement added. Evidence related to the case, including digital evidence, has been seized and sent for forensic analysis, the release said. The Lieutenant Colonel's wife too is an Army officer. Right now, the officer in question is working with the 506 Army Base Workshop - a key defence establishment, where Bofors howitzers, among other guns, are repaired and overhauled, a former employee of the workshop said. "The workshop, with an Army Brigadier at the helm of affairs, had played a part in developing indigenously Dhanush guns, popularly known as desi Bofors, which are yet to pass the muster," he added. Colonel B P Singh, PRO of Madhya Bharat Area of Central Command of the Army, could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Assam government today introduced a Bill in the state Assembly to set up a yoga council for regulating the teaching and practice of yoga.

The proposed council will aim at assuring quality of service and avoid misinterpretation and misuse of the system, a state government official said.

On behalf of the Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary introduced 'The Assam Yoga Council Bill, 2018' in the House.

During the introductory remarks, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) MLA Aminul Islam opposed the proposed council saying the existing healthcare facilities in the state are in bad shape and the focus should be to improve them instead of spending money on something new.

Congress MLA and former minister Rakibul Hussain pointed out that minister Sarma, who also holds the finance portfolio, has been absent in the House since the beginning of the Budget Session and requested the Speaker to allow introduction of such bills when he is present.

However, Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami allowed tabling of the Bill in the House and requested the members to discuss the need of the council while deliberating the document at a later stage.

In his written statement on the Bill, Sarma said: "It is time Assam establishes a Yoga Council for setting up of a proper mechanism necessary for regulating yoga and naturopathey sector."



The council is proposed to be set up in order to assure quality of service and avoid misinterpretation and misuse of the system, besides ensuring yoga institutions to offer safe, reliable and quality medical healthcare, he added.

Sarma said the council will be empowered to grant affiliation and accreditation to institutions teaching yoga as well as withdraw the same.

The other objectives are "to confer registration on the institutionally qualified professional practitioners, to confer registration to other yoga practitioners fulfilling the terms and conditions laid down in the draft Bill", he added.

The minister further said in his statement that the council will regulate course curriculum of studies for registration by yoga practitioners and advise the state government as well as academic institutes in the matter of research on the subject.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi High Court today pulled up the director of Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) here over its failure to place before it a scientific report in connection with the recent arson attacks on the properties of some lawyers in the national capital.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said that the evidence was collected by three different police stations for three different incidents in the city, but the forensic reports were still awaited.

"Why can't we say that it is deliberately delayed and in connivance with the accused," the bench said and asked Deepa Verma, Director CFSL, "if it had been a case of terrorists, what would have they done".

"This is happening in the capital of India. It is an emergency situation. A leader of the Delhi High Court Bar Association, its executive member and a lawyer have been attacked," it said, adding that the forensic laboratory has not yet begun their work.

The court had sought reports from the FSL on the attacks that took place on January 4, 9 and 22 on the lawyers representing a woman advocate, who was allegedly assaulted by policemen and dragged out of her house, after a stalking case was lodged against her by a woman purportedly over a property dispute.

It noted that the FSL had received the samples on January 30.

"Both the delay and the manner in which the samples have been sent to the FSL have to be scrutinised by the Delhi Police Commissioner. The Commissioner will take action for the delay and file a status report," the bench observed and asked the FSL to file their report on or before the next hearing on February 21.

During the day, another bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Deepa Sharma was informed by the police that they have lodged an FIR against a police official and others, including a father and son, in the assault incident of the 60-year-old woman lawyer allegedly by police.

Those lawyers, whose properties were attacked, have been representing the woman advocate in the assault case.

On January 9 and 22, arson attacks were carried out on the properties and cars of senior advocates Vikas Pahwa and Kirti Uppal, also the president of the DHCBA, by using inflammable material.

Uppal's Hyundai Tucson car that was parked outside his house in south Delhi's Nizamuddin West, was set on fire by unidentified people.

On January 4, two cars -- a Maruti Swift and a Honda Amaze -- parked in the east Delhi house of advocate Ravi Sharma were torched by unidentified persons.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A city court today remanded four activists of a right-wing group to two days' police custody in a case of assaulting media persons during a programme held here yesterday.

Hindu Samhati Mancha president Tapan Ghosh and three others were booked under charges of attempt to murder, causing grievous injury with weapons among others, a Kolkata Police officer said.

The journalists were attacked when they tried to talk to a family of 14 members that had apparently converted to Hinduism at the programme organised by the Mancha.

Political parties including the BJP condemned the attack on media persons.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A foreign national has accused a Catholic priest in Kerala of raping her after befriending her on Facebook, the police said today.

They were verifying the complaint of rape filed against Syro-Malabar catholic church priest Fr Thomas Thanninilkkumthadathil filed by the Bangladeshi woman based in the UK, police said.

The priest reportedly went absconding following the complaint filed against him yesterday.

In her complaint filed at Kaduthuruthy in the district, the 42-year-old woman alleged that Thomas raped her in Kerala after befriending her on Facebook.

Thomas (36) committed the offence after promising her that he would marry her.

Police said Thomas was currently serving as vicar of a church at Perumthururth near Kaduthuruthy.

Pala diocese of the Syro-Malabar Catholic church issued a release today stating that Thomas has been dismissed from pastoral service and "all stages of priesthood."



An explanation was sought from Thomas after summoning him to the diocese on February 13 when the Church authorities came to know about his misconduct, it said.

The diocese said it would fully cooperate with the legal action initiated against the priest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Critically-acclaimed Iranian director Majid Majidi's first India-set film "Beyond the Clouds" is set to hit the theatres on April 20 worldwide.

The movie, which marks the debut of Shahid Kapoor's half-brother Ishaan Khatter and Malayalam actor Malavika Mohanan, was earlier scheduled to release on March 23.

Speaking about the development, producer Shareen Mantri Kedia of Namah Pictures said, "He is a visionary whose emotional connectivity and narrative transcends the boundaries and limitations of language. We are glad that audiences and fans across the globe will now be able to simultaneously share the experience of Majid Majidi's magic as it comes alive on April 20th."



Sujay Kutty, Business Head Zee Studios, said the change in the release plans as they wanted to have a date which works across the globe.

"The film has many firsts for us to be proud of - an all India team under Mr Majidi's leadership, a platform for two brilliant debutants and an India story showcased by such a legendary artiste. We decided to make this change in the release date as not everyday do you get such an opportunity with such promise and such brilliant talent," he said.

Majidi, is best known for world cinema classics like "The Song of Sparrows", "Baran", "The Color of Paradise" and "Children of Heaven".

"Beyond the Clouds" was filmed at numerous locations in the country.

Music maestro AR Rahman has composed the music for the movie, which also happens to be his second project with Majid.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The RJD and the Congress today said they had worked out a formula for jointly contesting the three upcoming by-polls in Bihar.

RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav and acting state Congress president Kaukab Qadri told reporters here the Rashtriya Janata Dal would field candidates for the Araria Lok Sabha and the Jehanabad Assembly seats.

The Congress will contest from the Bhabhua Assembly constituency.

The by-polls, necessitated by the death of the incumbents, will take place on March 11.

The last date for filing of nominations is February 20.

While the RJD held the Araria and Jehanabad seats, Bhabua was with the BJP.

The by-elections are the first major political event in the state after the July 2017 disintegration of the ruling Grand Alliance comprising the JD(U), RJD and Congress. As the alliance collapsed, JD(U) leader and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar joined hands with the BJP to form and lead a coalition ministry in Bihar.

The RJD and Congress stayed together as the main opposition to the coalition ministry.

The electoral pact comes in the wake of discordant voices raised by some leaders of the two parties, signalling cracks in their partnership.

Yadav and Qadri rejected suggestions of strains in the alliance.

"There was no strain in our alliance at any stage, though such rumours were being floated by our adversaries. We will contest the by-polls jointly and the RJD will field its candidates in the Araria Lok Sabha seat and the Jahanabad assembly segment. The Congress will contest the Bhabhua Vidhan Sabha seat," Yadav told reporters.

Yadav, son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, said the party has decided to field Sarfaraz Alam from Araria and Suday Yadav from Jahanabad.

Alam, who quit the JD(U) last week to join the RJD, is the son of Mohammad Taslimuddin, whose death necessitated the by-poll in the Lok Sabha seat.

Suday Yadav is the son of Mundrika Yadav, after whose death the Jahanabad Assembly seat fell vacant.

Qadri said the Congress candidate for Bhabhua would be declared later.

"The Congress will help the RJD win both the seats emphatically and attain a handsome victory in Bhabhua with the support of our long-time ally," Qadri said.

The two leaders said the parties were committed to defeating "communal forces" represented by the BJP and took a dig at Nitish Kumar, saying the decision by his Janata Dal (United) to stay away from by-polls was tantamount to his having "conceded defeat".

Earlier this week, the RJD had indicated it was thinking of fielding its candidates in all the three seats where by-polls were due. The Congress had taken exception to that, saying it would contest from Bhabhua, where the party was the runner-up in the 2015 Assembly polls, even if the RJD insisted on fielding its own candidate from there.

The NDA, comprising JD(U), BJP, RLSP and HAM, is yet to declare its seat-sharing formula and candidates for the by-polls.

"Lalu (RJD's jailed national president) has been a valued ally since the UPA days. Together we shall defeat the communal forces represented by the BJP. But we are amazed to see the capitulation of Kumar before the BJP. So much for his claims of his party's mass base." Qadri said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The BJP today released its 'vision document' for Meghalaya, promising to provide free sanitary napkins to all women from BPL households and pension to daily-wage labourers if the party came to power in the state.

Elections to the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly will take place on February 27 and the results will be declared on March 3. The BJP is contesting 47 seats and has no pre-poll alliance with any party.

In the manifesto, released by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at a press conference here, the BJP promised to resolve the ban on coal mining, which affected thousands of families dependent on it, if voted to power.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had banned coal mining in Meghalaya in 2014.

The BJP has also promised to implement the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations for state employees.

Highlighting that the youth are the strength of the state, the BJP said it will create an environment for big businesses to invest in the state and create jobs in large numbers.

According to the document, every youth in the state is assured of job opportunity. The BJP will create at least two lakh employment opportunities in the tourism sector, it said.

Stating that Meghalaya can become the centre of a robust healthcare system, the 'vision document' said the BJP will establish a specialised cancer treatment hospital here and upgrade all health institutes, besides making available Rs 5 lakh health insurance under the Centre's new healthcare programme.

Pointing to the failure of the ruling Congress to build 'pukka' roads in every village and provide 24/7 electricity to every household, the document assured housing for all with 'pukka' roofs, setting up of more government schools with trained teachers and setting up of agricultural markets.

The document also promised that the BJP will try to resolve the inter-state boundary issues taking advantage of the party's governments at the Centre and in Assam.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor-supermodel Tyra Banks says "Black Panther" is more than just a movie, it is a "movement".

The 44-year-old TV personality lauded the new Marvel film, calling the Chadwick Boseman-starrer the "self-esteem and the boost that her community" rightfully deserves, People magazine reported.

"This is the moment, we need this. We need this movie right now. It's not a movie, it's a movement. It's a living organism. This is the self-esteem and the boost that my community not just needs right now but deserves," Banks told reporters at the New York premiere of "Black Panther".

The story revolves around new King T'Challa/ Black Panther (Boseman) who returns to his reclusive, technologically advanced African country of Wakanda after the events in "Captain America: Civil War" to serve as its new leader and how he faces the challenges.

Also starring Michael B Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Andy Serkis among others, the film releases in India tomorrow.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)International hospitality chain Carlson-Rezidor Group is planning to operate 100 hotels across its various brands in India by the end of 2018, a top company official today said.

Presently, the group operates 89 hotels across the country and plans to open one hotel every six weeks.

"India is the fastest growing market for Carlson and it is the second largest international brand in the country. We currently operate 89 properties across various brands in the country. We plan to add 11 more by this year-end," CEO of Carlson-Rezidor Group Raj Rana told reporters at an event here today.

Rana said that India is a growing market and there is plenty of opportunities for international brands to step up their presence in the country.

The Group has 10,000 rooms as of now, and another 1,500 would be added when the number of hotels touches 100.

Rana said besides these 100 properties, another 41 are in the pipeline which are already in construction stage, he said.

He also said that at present, demand for rooms outweighs supply, and the room rates are expected to go up which would result in good return on investments made by the property developers.

The Carlson group today upgraded the Park Plaza Ballygunje property, which started operations in 2012, into the upscale Radisson brand.

The Kolkata property had been developed by city-based Mukti Group, which plans another Carlson brand hotel in Siliguri.

Carlson-Rezidor has brands like Radisson Blu, Radisson Red, Radisson, Park Plaza, Country Inns and Suites and Park Inn.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The authorities have seized more than Rs 43 lakh unaccounted cash, 35,077 bottles of liquor, arms and ammunition and drugs in poll bound Nagaland, Chief Electoral Officer Ahijit Sinha said here today.

Ahead of the February 27 polls, personnel of various departments also seized 26,579 beer cans during raids across the state till yesterday, Sinha said.

The teams have confiscated seven small arms with 87 ammunition and banned drugs including 19,162 of capsules and tablets, 58 bottles of cough syrup, 220 kg of ganja, 5 gram heroine, 36 gram brown sugar and five rolls of opium, he said.

Two vehicles have also been seized.

Election to the 60-member Assembly will be held on February 27 and results will be out on March 3.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Centre will consult state governments early next month to set up a mechanism for protecting farmers income when market prices fall below the minimum support price (MSP), Agriculture Secretary S K Pattanayak said today.

A model law is also being prepared to ensure tenant cultivators get institutional credit and interest-subsidy, he added.

"We will call a meeting of state governments early next month to discuss a mechanism so that farmers get MSP," Pattanayak told PTI on the sidelines of a conference on food security organised by the Vivekanand International Foundation.

Stating that the Centre is open to all suggestions from stakeholders, he said the ministry is studying the model adopted by Madhya Pradesh and Telangana governments.

While Madhya Pradesh is paying farmers difference between the MSP and the market price, Telangana government will offer fixed amount to farmers on per acre of land.

In his Budget 2018 speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced that Niti Aayog in consultation with central and state governments will put in place a fool-proof mechanism to ensure farmers get benefit of MSP.

Asked whether doubling farmers' income is a political target or a realistic target, Pattanayak said, "This is a challenge we are attempting. ...The government has shifted the policy focus from production to income centric."



Farmers' income could be enhanced more than two times if water is made available in 55 per cent of unirrigated farm lands, he said, and added, "It is easier for us to double income of poor farmers."



Whereas in irrigated farm lands, the Secretary said farmers should grow high-value crops in order to generate better rains. For instance, farmers in Haryana have started growing mushrooms and flowers.

Pattanayak highlighted various schemes launched by the government to boost farmers' income such as soil health card, farm insurance, linking mandies through electronic platform and irrigation.

On concerns over climate change, Pattanayak said India is not "poorly" placed as reflected in the Economic Survey for 2017-18. The government has already introduced climate resilient seeds and technologies.

The country should focus on growing climate smart crops like pulses and millets as it will take time to ensure irrigation to entire cultivable farm land, he added.

To promote production of millets, the official said demand needs to be created and the best way is to supply through Midday Meal Scheme and PDS.

The country achieved pulses revolution in 2016-17 by increasing production by over 6 million tonnes. There is near self-sufficiency in pulses and deficit will be not more than 1 million tonnes, he said.

"In pulses production, we are repeating performance this year as well," he added.

Asked about high pulses import despite record production of 24 million tonnes, he said that the government has increased import duty on some pulses and edible oils to curb shipments and boost local prices.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a major haul, 1500 kg cannabis, worth Rs 1 crore, was today seized from a truck in insurgency-hit Kondagaon district in Chhattisgarh, police said.

Police arrested the driver of the truck and his associate, both residents of Dinajpur district of West Bengal, who they suspect are part of an inter-state narcotics smuggling racket.

"There was information about supply of the contraband from Odisha via Kondagaon following which local police swung into action," Kondagaon Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallav told PTI.

A truck was intercepted during checking of vehicles under Kotwali police station limits and around 1500 kgs of cannabis was seized from it, he said, adding that the contraband was found packed in plastic bags that were concealed inside the truck.

The arrested duo are identified as Jagnath Das and Swapan Adhikari, Pallav said.

As per preliminary investigation, the seized cannabis worth Rs 1 crore and was being supplied from Odisha to West Bengal, he said.

A case has been registered in this connection, the SP said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)China today vehemently opposed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Arunachal Pradesh which it claims as part of South Tibet and urged India to refrain from taking any action that may "complicate" the boundary question.

Reacting sharply to Prime Minister Modi's visit to Arunachal Pradesh, foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said China would lodge a "stern" diplomatic protest with India.

"China's position on the China-India boundary question is consistent and clear-cut," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang in response to reports that Modi visited Arunachal Pradesh today.

"The Chinese government has never recognised the so-called Arunachal Pradesh and is firmly opposed to the Indian leader's visit to the disputed area," Geng was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua agency.

"We will lodge stern representations with the Indian side," he said.

Geng said that China and India had reached important consensus on properly managing disputes, and the two sides were working to resolve the territorial disputes through negotiation and consultation.

"The Chinese side urges the Indian side to honour its commitment and abide by the relevant consensus, and refrain from taking any action that may complicate the boundary question," Geng said.

"(These three areas) located between the illegal 'McMahon Line' and the traditional customary boundary between China and India, have always been Chinese territory," he was quoted as saying in the Xinhua report.

He further stated that the 'McMahon Line' drawn by Britain in 1914 was an attempt to incorporate the areas into Indian territory.

He urged India to cherish the hard-won momentum of improvements in bilateral relations and create enabling conditions for the boundary talks and the development of bilateral relations.

China routinely protests visits by Indian leaders to Arunachal Pradesh and reiterates its claims over the frontier state.

China had objected to the then US Ambassador to India Richard Verma's visit to Arunachal Pradesh in October last year.

The India-China border dispute stretches across 3,488 kms. Both sides have held 20 rounds of talks so far through their Special Representatives to resolve the issue.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Unidentified miscreants shot a cleric when he was on his way to a madrassa from his home in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district, a police official said today.

Maulvi Talib was shot at and injured in Hath Chhoya village in the district yesterday, Circle Officer Rajesh Tiwari said.

The cleric has been admitted to an area hospital.

The reason behind the attack was not immediately clear, but a police team was investigating the matter, Tiwari added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Thane court has acquitted a 24- year-old man of the charge of killing his parents giving him the benefit of doubt.

Additional Sessions Judge at Kalyan, S P Gogarkar, acquitted Sagar Dinkar, observing that the prosecution failed to prove the charge under IPC section 302 (murder) against him.

"Considering the scanty evidence produced on record, it is very difficult to connect the accused with the alleged crime," the judge said in his order earlier this week while acquitting the man.

The prosecution told the court that the man, who lived with his parents and other siblings at Vashind in Sahapur taluka here, was reluctant to take up a job to support his family and used to have frequent quarrels with his parents over the issue.

Narrating the tale to the court, the prosecution said on March 6, 2016 Dinkar went out with his brother to the nearby village and killed his parents next day after returning to his house



"The accused went into the house first but came out after a short while and told his brother that he had killed their parents," they said.

The prosecution told the court that when Dinkar's brother went inside the house, he found their parents lying dead in pool of blood.

Also, they added, that Dinkar who fled the scene then was arrested by the local police later.

However, the judge observed that the prosecution relied on the oral evidence of the family witnesses, who have not supported the prosecution story, and said the evidence submitted is uncorroborated.

With that, the judge also wondered why Dinkar's younger sister, who was present in the house at the time of the incident, was neither cited as a witness nor her statement recorded by the police.

The judge also observed that though a knife was recovered from the accused, the witnesses failed to corroborate the statement of the investigating officer on the seizure of the weapon along with blood-stained clothes.

"It is also pertinent to note that the investigating officer said in his cross-examination that there were no blood stains on the seized knife," the judge said.

Moreover, the judge also observed that the investigating officer also admitted there were incidents of dacoity and robbery in that area that night, and noted that the possibility of attack for robbery cannot be overruled.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Not only Hindus but every citizen of the country has a responsibility towards cow protection, given its importance in human life, Union Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir said today.

Addressing a programme at Gaganpahad on the outskirts of the city, the minister also said that cow slaughter regulations are not implemented effectively by states.

Underlining that cow holds a special place in Indian culture, the BJP leader said, "Protection of cows, regarded as Gaumata, is not only the responsibility of Hindus, but of every Indian".

"Cow slaughter is already illegal across the country and24 out of 29 states currently have various regulations prohibiting either the slaughter or sale of cows. Unfortunately, the same is not implemented effectively," the minister said at an event.

The event was organised by a cow shelter called Satyam Shivam Sundaram Gau Nivas.

On the occasion, Ahir also urged the West Bengal government to take measures to stop illegal smuggling of cattle to Bangladesh from its border.

He said the practice of cow slaughtering would neither stop by shouting slogans nor by abusing, accusing or killing people.

"We must make people realise the importance of the cow peacefully," the minister said.

He also underlined the need of setting up more cow shelters to protect their slaughtering and killing.

"I am surprised to find that a large number of cattle are being smuggledtoBangladesh via West Bengal. I urge the state to stop the illegal practice. Cow protection is considered very sacred and every Indian isconcernedabout it," he added.

The Telangana BJP unit president B Laxman accompanied the minister to the event, the release said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A four months pregnant woman was allegedly assaulted by six people, including a CPI(M) functionary, over a land dispute following which she had to undergo an abortion here, police said today.

The six people were arrested for assaulting Josna Sibi, 28, at a village in the district on January 28, they said.

A scuffle had broken out between her husband and neighbours over a boundary dispute during which Thambi, a CPI(M) branch secretary of Velamcode, kicked Sibi on her stomach, police said.

A profusely bleeding Sibi was rushed to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital where she had to undergo an abortion, they added.

A complaint was lodged by her in this connection on February 2.

While one person was arrested on February 8, the others were apprehended today following an investigation.

The accused were arrested on charges of unlawful assembly, rioting, voluntarily causing hurt, criminal trespass and wrongful restraint.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today ordered the Director General of Police to crack down on those involved in alleged extortion of money from businessmen and industrialists.

He directed the police chief to activate all available resources to identify and take strict action against the culprits, irrespective of who they are, according to an official release.

The issue was raised during a Cabinet meeting by some members, who urged Amarinder Singh to take cognisance of reports related to extortion of money, also known as "Goonda Tax", from businesses and industries in some parts of the state.

Finance Minister Manpreet Badal alleged that his name was being vilified in the whole process, that was adversely affecting business sentiment, which the state government was striving hard to promote.

On which, the chief minister told the DGP to initiate immediate steps to crack down on those involved in extortion, without taking into consideration their political or other affiliations.

Amarinder Singh asked the DGP to ensure that the message goes down the rank and file of the police force that no laxity or delay in the matter would be tolerated.

Such activities hinder the governments efforts to bring industrial and economic development back on track, and to provide a clean and transparent environment to boost industry and investment in the state, he said.

The chief minister also asked the chief secretary to monitor the work of the committee set up to check illegal mining in the state.

Opposition party SAD has been criticising the state government for extortion of money from businesses in Bathinda allegedly at the behest of some Congress MLAs.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress Working Committee, the party's highest decision-making body, will meet on February 17 and is likely to discuss the schedule for its plenary session that will ratify Rahul Gandhi's election as its president, a senior leader said today.

"The Congress Working Committee will meet on February 17 at 4 PM," AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi told PTI.

Asked about the agenda of the meeting, he said it was likely to discuss the schedule for the Congress plenary session which is expected to be held soon.

Sources said the AICC plenary session, which will ratify Gandhi's election as Congress president, is likely to be held before the second part of Parliament's Budget Session starts on March 5.

The session could be convened later this month, the sources said.

The party is considering holding it either in Delhi or in Mohali, near Chandigarh. However, this could not be officially confirmed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Dalit farmer sustained severe burn injuries after he set himself on fire outside the Patan district collector's office today alleging delay in handing over a piece of land allotted to him under a government scheme, a police official said.

The man was identified as Banubhai Vankar, who hails from Unjha village, the official said.

Nine other Dalit men were detained by the police after they tried to storm into the premises of the collectorate with the intention to commit suicide and were later released, a police station officer of Patan B-Division police station said.

"As many as nine people were detained briefly after they tried to storm into the office of the collector with the intention to commit suicide. They had expressed their intention to the collector on a previous date and police were deployed in large numbers to prevent any such attempt," the official said.

"However, Banubhai Vankar from Unjha village managed to enter the collectorate premises by jumping over the barricade and set himself on fire. He has been shifted to a hospital in Ahmedabad," the official said.

Farmers from as many as four villages were protesting over the delay in providing physical possession of the government land allotted to them despite some of them having deposited the required fee to the revenue department for the same, the police said.

An affected farmer, Hemaben Vankar from Dudhda village in Sami taluka of the district, said that in 2015 she had filed an application in the state revenue department to get a piece of land under a government scheme to the landless Dalits.

She, however, alleged that even after depositing Rs 22,236 for the transfer of the land to her, she is yet to get the land.

NGO Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch, fighting for the rights of Dalits, gave a call for Patan bandh to protest against the "administrative negligence" in the transfer of land to Dalits, "which forced a group to attempt suicide".

Independent MLA Jignesh Mevani, who is also the convener of the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch, in a statement said it was a "matter of shame" for the BJP government that Dalits had to resort to extreme steps to fight for their rights.

He demanded suspension of the collector and superintendent of police holding them responsible for the suicide attempts by the farmers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi today alleged that development has been stalled in Tripura under the communists, just as the traffic stops at red signal, and the state will progress when the 'reds' are ousted from power



Addressing two election rallies here and at Shantirbazaar in South Tripura district, Modi said "the loot and bullying tactics" of ruling Left will no longer remain unchecked and a new BJP led government would come up after the Sunday election.

"You have to stop before a red traffic signal. Even if you are in a hurry, you cannot go ahead. Similarly the red flags of the Left Front have stopped progress in Tripura. Time to change this and usher in good governance," he said, adding "the Left will be difficult to find in Tripura after the results are declared".

The prime minister said high level inquiry would be instituted to probe the killing of two journalists in the state last year and claimed they were targeted because they were exposing the misdeeds of the CPI(M)-led government.

"Democratic ideals and the Left cannot go together. Journalists are being killed in Tripura, political murders are occurring. The communist government is silent. On forming the government in Tripura, we will fully investigate political murders and punish the guilty," the prime minister said



A channel reporter was killed on September 20 while covering an IPFT programme, while local vernacular daily journalist was shot dead inside the battalion headquarters of Tripura State Rifles on November 21.

Modi said development would come to Tripura after the BJP led government comes to power.

The BJP is contesting in 51 seats, while its alliance partner Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) has fielded candidates in nine seats in the election to the 60-member Assembly.

Launching a scathing attack on the Manik Sarkar government, he said, "Poor people had to commit suicide because their hard earned money was looted by chit funds and some state ministers were accused of being involved. Those who are involved in the chit fund scam would not go unpunished."



The communists had destroyed democracy in the state and reduced it to a partisan society that needs to be changed, Modi said.

Alleging that the states revenue generation is poor, he said the Left Front also cannot spend the money what the Centre dispatches to them.

The state government started work for Rs 650 crore two years after the Centre allocated Rs 988 crore under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, and as a result many important roads could not be built, Modi said.

He also alleged that the records of implementation of MGNREGA showed that ponds were dug in areas bigger than entire Tripura and the state government failed to geo-tag the ponds.

Modi said the communist government sheds crocodile tears for labourers but did not grant them minimum wages.

He said if voted to power, his party would provide minimum wages to the labourers as per central rates, and pay salary to state employees according to the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission.

Referring to the killing of 10 BJP workers in the past one year in the state, Modi said he hoped that the Election Commission would ensure a peaceful and fair Assembly election.

A state government official had been arrested on corruption charges but he was released because he was close to Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, the prime minister alleged.

On the Congress, he said the party and the CPI(M) are fighting in Tripura but are friends in Delhi.

Modi said, "The Congress had run its governments with the support of the CPI(M) in Delhi. They fielded candidates in this election which is nothing but gimmick.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam today dismissed as a 'lie' the claim of Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan that the state was becoming a "training centre" for extremists.

"It is a blatant lie," he said answering a question from reporters here on Radhakrishnan's remark yesterday.

He also asserted that Tamil Nadu continued to be a haven of peace.

"In the whole of India, it is in Tamil Nadu where law and order situation is good and the state is a haven of peace and if the incidents in other states are compared, one will be able to understand it," Panneerselvam said.

Speaking at a meeting in Coimbatore yesterday to pay homage to the 1998 serial bomb blast victims, Radhakrishnan had charged that Tamil Nadu was "becoming the camp and training centre" for extremists.

"Tamil Nadu is no longer the peaceful state (amaidhi poonga)... Naxalites, Maoists, Tamil extremists and Islamic terrorists have joined hands against the administration, which was evident during the jallikkattu agitation last year, the Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping had alleged.

Such extremist elements were engaged in planning for next 10 to 20 years, Radhakrishnan had said adding it was not known if the incumbent regime in Tamil Nadu knew it.

Panneerselvam also targeted the Centre over scaling down devolution of tax proceeds to Tamil Nadu.

He said the union government had been reducing devolution saying it was a developed state, and added that it was a "wrong economic premise."



To encourage Tamil Nadu further its pioneering projects and welfare schemes, he said the 15th Finance Commission should devolve "appropriate and fair share of tax proceeds."



Asked on Palaniswami-led government completing a year in office and whether he regretted demitting the Chief Minister's office, he sounded philosophical.

"What did we bring to lose," he quipped which was a reference from the Bhagavad Gita.

K Palaniswami, an AIADMK strongman from the Western Tamil Nadu Kongu region, became the Chief Minister after Panneerselvam's revolt last February against late J Jayalalithaa's aide V K Sasikala.

Just before Sasikala went to jail in the disproportionate assets case in February 2017, she had led a party meet in which Palaniswami was elected legislature party leader paving the way for him to become the Chief Minister.

In August last year, Palaniswami and Panneerselvam came together easing out Sasikala and her close relative T T V Dhinakaran from the party.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)British tech firm Dyson will pump GBP 150 million (about Rs 1,300 crore) into its Indian operations over the next five years as it looks to make inroads into the burgeoning consumer durable market here.

The company, which launched its products in the Indian market, will set up 20 stores across Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

"India is a very important market for us and we see a lot of potential here. We expect it to be one of our top markets in the next few years," Dyson Chief Engineer and member of Dyson Board, Jake Dyson told PTI.

He added that the company's engineers spent time in Indian homes to ensure its products meet local requirement.

Dyson, which operates in over 80 countries, counts markets like the US, the UK and China among its largest.

"In India, we will invest GBP 150 million in the next five years. This will be directed towards retail expansion and other activities," Dyson said.

The range launched today includes cord-free vacuum cleaners (starting Rs 324 billion), hair dryer (Rs 279 billion) and air purifiers (starting Rs 34,900).

"We will offer products through our own retail stores, direct to home and online through our website and Amazon.in," Dyson said.

He added that the company will set up 20 retail stores - which would also act as demo zones - in top 10 Indian cities and the first one is slated to come up in Delhi.

"Initially, the focus is on these key cities and as we see demand from other cities, we will take a call(on expanding there)," he said.

When asked if the company plans to manufacture its products in India, Dyson said it would depend on the sales volume.

"We are aware that some of the components are sourced from India and so, it would make sense. But depending on the volume we see, we will take a decision," he said.

The company may also explore setting up R&D unit in India, he added.

On marketing, Dyson said the brand would focus on the digital medium.

Apart from the traditional sales channel, the company also intends to focus on direct selling, a route that like Eureka Forbes have embarked on years ago.

Dyson said the company would have an in-house team for after-sales service.

"We want to manage the entire life cycle, right from the purchase to after-sales, in-house right now as it will enable us to offer superior customer experience," he added.Eating at home may lead to less food wastage as compared to dining out, according to a first of its kind study that followed daily eating habits of adults.

The same people who on average left just three per cent of their food on their plates when choosing their own meals, left almost 40 per cent behind when given a standard boxed-lunch type of meal.

Plate waste at home was 3.5 per cent higher when diners went for second or third serving, researchers said.

What we leave behind on our plates is the primary focus of efforts to reduce food waste, and this study shows that it is potentially more important to concentrate on other conservation measures at home, including using up food before it spoils, said Brian Roe from The Ohio State University in the US.

Prior research typically has focused on "plate waste" in settings such as school cafeterias and buffets and has found much greater waste - from about seven per cent at an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet to 18 per cent waste of French fries at an all-you-can-eat university dining hall.

The new study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, is the first of its kind to follow adult eaters through their normal day-to-day eating patterns, said Roe.

"This study allows us to go into the daily eating habits of adults and suggests that when people are choosing their own food, there's not a lot left on their plate," he said.

The researchers tracked food waste through pictures the 50 study participants took on smartphones before and after meals. The study ran for about a week and included all meals eaten at home or away from home.

To compare plate waste in a controlled environment versus a home dining environment, the researchers had participants dine twice in a lab setting - on lunches that included a lunch meat sandwich, cookies, pretzels, a fruit cup and a beverage of the diner's choice.

Based on this study, it is probably more important to focus on meal planning and using up foods (and leftovers) before they spoil than on what is left on the plate at home, Roe said.

"Better meal planning is a good place to start. Coming up with a recipe for the leftovers that your family and your kids will actually eat is the next step," Roe said.

Corby Martin of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana, said that the negative effects of being provided with too much food or serving yourself too much are becoming more apparent.

"When this happens, people are much more likely to have a lot of plate waste after their meal," he said.

Roe and his colleagues are developing a phone app designed to track food waste. They will soon begin testing the "Food Image" app in a pilot project.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Central investigation agencies today turned up the heat on embattled jewellery designer Nirav Modi in a huge bank fraud case, by seizing diamond and gold jewellery worth Rs 5,100 crore in nationwide searches and initiating the process for revoking his passport, officials said. The CBI and the ED moved separate applications to the external affairs ministry seeking the revocation of passports of Modi and his maternal uncle Mehul Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali jewellery chain, both accused in the 280-crore bank fraud case the officials said. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) completed the analysis of computers seized from premises linked to him and was going through the two fresh complaints received from Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Tuesday that it had been defrauded of Rs 11,400 crore to decide its future course of action. The day for companies and outlets owned or partnered by the 46-year-old diamond merchant, who has fled the country on January 1, began with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) carrying out searches at properties linked to him in Mumbai, Delhi and Gujarat and claiming to have seized gold and diamond jewellery and precious stones worth Rs 5,100 crore.

As many as 17 locations in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Surat were raided by the ED after the agency filed a Rs 280-crore money laundering case against Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal and Choksi yesterday, following a complaint by the bank. ED officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said five properties belonging to Modi and the other accused in Mumbai were sealed by the agency. The ED has also written to the Income Tax department for sharing all documents seized by it during raids on January last year from premises linked to Modi and his associates. The ED filed the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after going through a CBI FIR registered on January 31. The agency also went through the PNB complaint that was made out against Nirav Modi and others. The ED, they said, would probe if the allegedly defrauded bank funds were laundered and these proceeds of crime were subsequently used by the accused to create illegal assets and black money. Modi, a regular feature on the lists of rich and famous Indians since 2013, was booked by the CBI, along with wife, brother and Choksi on January 31, for allegedly cheating the state-run bank to the tune of Rs 280 crore. The bank has sent two more complaints to the CBI on Tuesday, saying the scam was worth more than Rs 11,400 crore. In a related development, the CBI officials said Modi and other members of his family, who fled the country last month, allegedly made fraudulent transactions of over Rs 11,400 crore through 150 letters of understanding issued by the bank. Modi, who holds an Indian passport, left India on January 1, while his brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, also left the country on same day. However, whether they travelled together has to be probed, they said. Modi's wife Ami, a US citizen, left on January 6 and his uncle Choksi departed on January 4, the officials said. The bank became suspicious only on January 16 when the accused companies --Diamond R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds (all accused in the CBI FIR) -- approached it with import documents and a request to issue Letters of Understanding (LoUs) for raising buyers' credit for making payments to the overseas suppliers. The bank, however, could not find any past entries in the system, the FIR has alleged. It approached the CBI on January 29 with a complaint of Rs 280 crore fraud, officials said. Modi, who is believed to be in Switzerland, was also present in a group photograph of Indian CEOs with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, issued by the Press Information Bureau, during the World Economic Forum on January 23, six days before the bank sent its first complaint against him to the CBI, according to the officials. The agency immediately swung into action registering an FIR on January 31 followed by searches at 20 locations in Mumbai and Surat and issued a look out circular on February 4 against Nirav Modi and three absconding accused, they said. A look out circular is issued by enforcement agencies to all exit and entry ports to inform them about the movement of an accused. The question why the PNB did not send one complaint to the CBI and decided to give separately is also under the scanner of the agency, they said. The agency is analysing the fresh complaints and will take a call whether to register fresh FIRs or expand the ambit of the existing FIR related to fraudulent transactions of worth Rs 280 crore, they said. In these cases, the bank has alleged that the LOUs were issued to Hong Kong-based branches of Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank, they said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Salvadoran woman serving a 30-year jail sentence for having an abortion was released from prison today on the orders of the Supreme Court, her lawyer said.

Wearing a white T-shirt, Teodora Vasquez was greeted by her family and members of organizations who fought her case in the courts as she left a Womens Rehabilitation Center outside San Salvador. Among those lining up to embrace her were her parents and 14-year-old son.

"I am happy. I have lost many years of my life, but I am happy to start a new life," Vasquez told reporters.

She added that, after getting her high school certificate and completing other courses behind bars, she wanted to go to university.

But her goal now, she said with tears in her eyes, is "to work for, to fight for other women who have been unjustly convicted in cases like mine."



Rights groups celebrated her release.

"She is free. Teodora is free, happy to recover her freedom after going through a whole ordeal, and she has already reunited with her family and is returning home," a spokesman for the Citizens Association for the Decriminalization of Abortion, Jorge Menjivar, told AFP.

Vasquez was convicted in 2008 of aggravated homicide, months after suffering a stillbirth in her ninth month of pregnancy in 2007.

A national court upheld the sentence in a ruling in December which backed the countrys severe anti-abortion laws, despite rights organizations arguing that she was unfairly incarcerated after having the stillbirth.

Vasquez, now 34, served 11 years of the sentence.

Her lawyer Victor Hugo Mata said her sentence had been commuted by the Supreme Court and the justice ministry.

The Supreme Court provided no details of its decision.

The deputy justice minister, Raul Lopez, said only that Vasquez was "very well prepared and today can open an area for herself in productive life."



Under a law that came into force in 1998, all abortions are illegal in El Salvador, regardless of whether the pregnancy results from rape or poses a medical threat to the woman.

Prison terms range from two to eight years, but women can be charged with more serious crimes instead, as in Vasquezs case.

Twenty-six other women are currently incarcerated in the small Central American country for falling foul of the strict stance against abortion.

Morena Herrera, head of the Citizens Association for the Decriminalization of Abortion, said the freeing of Vasquez was "a light of hope" suggesting much could be done for other women incarcerated for abortions.

"This situation of criminalizing women needs to be overcome," Herrera said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Essar Oil has sold its entire production of coal-seam gas or CBM from a West Bengal block to state-owned GAIL India Ltd using the same formula that Reliance Industries used for pricing of its CBM.

GAIL will buy 2.3 million standard cubic metres per day of coal-bed methane (CBM) that Essar Oil and Gas Exploration and Production (EOGEPL) will produce from its Raniganj block in West Bengal for USD 7.1 per million British thermal unit.

According to an evaluation of bid posted by Essar on its website, GAIL outbid Matix Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd, Graphite India Ltd and Positron Energy Pvt Ltd to bag the supplies.

The price is more than double of the USD 2.89 per mmBtu price set by the government for most of the domestically produced conventional natural gas.

Essar used the same formula which Reliance Industries had first used in 2012 to seek bids for its CBM gas from its Sohgpur block in Madhya Pradesh, and then again last year for selling the CBM. In the first instance, the oil ministry had not approved the price.

Like RIL, Essar had sought bids for potential users in the form of a deductible from 12.67 per cent of Brent crude oil price plus USD 0.52 per mmBtu plus USD 0.26 per mmBtu, according to the bid document.

GAIL bid a deductible of 1.89, which translated into a gas price of USD 7.12 per mmBtu (on gross calorific value) at today's Brent oil price of USD 64.80. At three-month Brent crude average of USD 65.8, the gas price comes to USD 7.23 on gross calorific value (GCV) basis.

Interestingly, GAIL had in the similar bid process run by RIL last year for 3 million standard cubic metres per day of Sohagpur CBM gas quoted a deductible of 3.495. RIL had bid a deductible of 1.836 to win all the supplies.

RIL's Sohagpur gas at today's oil price comes to USD 7.15 per mmBtu on GCV basis.

The formula used by RIL and Essar is the same at which Petronet LNG, a joint venture of public oil companies, whose chairman is the oil secretary, used to import long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar.

EOGEPL had invited bids from prospective buyers of gas based on a government notification dated April 11, 2017, which lays out a policy framework for the early monetisation of CBM gas.

The policy provided marketing and pricing freedom at arm's length price in the domestic market to contractors of CBM blocks.

EOGEPL has invested about Rs 4,000 crore in the Raniganj East CBM block in drilling wells, setting up supply infrastructure, and laying customer pipelines to Durgapur and nearby industrial areas, according to the company.

The block has 348 completed CBM wells, alongside robust gas and water handling capacity.

The Raniganj East block is India's most prolific CBM block, which has achieved gas production of more than 1 mmscmd (million standard cubic metres per day), which will be gradually scaled up a saleable volume to 2.3 mmscmd.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An expelled former student armed with a powerful assault rifle unleashed a hail of gunfire in a Florida high school, killing at least 17 people and injuring 15 others, including an Indian-American student, in one of the grizzliest mass shootings in the US.

The 19-year-old suspect identified as Nikolas Cruz, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland who was expelled for disciplinary reasons, was arrested shortly after the deadly rampage yesterday.

The school has a large number of Indian-American students and at least one student from the community sustained minor injures after he was hit by splinters.

The ninth grader is being treated at a hospital.

Cruz was a troubled teenager who posted disturbing material on social media before the shooting spree, officials said.

"This is a terrible day for Parkland," Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said, speaking of the city of about 30,000 people, located 80 kilometers north of Miami.

"Nicolas Cruz was the killer. He is in custody. We already began to dissect his websites and social media that he was on ... some of the things that come to mind are very, very disturbing," he told reporters in Florida.

He had a variety of gun and violence-related postings on social media sites.

"He had countless magazines, multiple magazines, and at this point, we believe he had one AR-15 rifle," he said.

He was also equipped with a gas mask and smoke grenades.

According to investigators, Cruz pulled the fire alarm to draw people out of classrooms and increase the number of casualties, the CNN reported.

Israel said Cruz was expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons.

"I don't know the specifics," the sheriff said. However, according to media reports, Cruz was expelled last year after a fight with his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend.

The gunfire began outside the school and continued inside, where 12 of the victims were killed, Israel said. All of those victims have been identified, he said, but no identities will be made public until the families of all of those affected have been notified.

Israel, however, could not confirm the number of victim students.

Authorities said 15 victims were being treated in the hospital. Three of them are in critical condition.

Cruz was set to be booked into jail after being questioned for hours by state and federal authorities.

Cruz was escorted by sheriff's deputies from the Broward Sheriff's headquarters to the county jail in Fort Lauderdale early today, US media reports said.

"This is a sad day for the country and the community. We all Indian-Americans are praying for the victims," Shekar Reddy, whose friend's son was among those injured in the mass shooting, told PTI.

Parkland, with a population of 31,000 in 2016, was named Florida's safest city last year, according to one analysis.

It is the deadliest school shooting since 26 people were killed at Connecticut school Sandy Hook in 2012.

The FBI is assisting local officials in the probe. Federal and local authorities told NBC that there was no indication that the gunman had an accomplice or accomplices.

President Donald Trump offered his "prayers and condolences to the families of the victims.

"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school," Trump tweeted.

The mass shooting incident revived debate over gun control in the US.

Florida Senator Chris Murphy termed it as "a horrific scene" playing out at a high school in South Florida.

"Turn on your television right now, you're going to see scenes of children running for their lives. It's what looks to be the [18]th school shooting in this country, and we have not even hit March," he said on the Senate floor.

The mass shooting, said to be 18th school shooting of the year, have rekindled the debate on the controversial gun control legislation in the US.

Murphy rued at the incident, claiming it was a fallout of "our inaction".

Every day in this country, 46 children are shot, said Congressman Donald M Payne.

"Every day in this country, seven children die from gun violence. Those statistics do not occur in any other high-income country on this planet," he said, urging the members of the US Congress to use their "power to make the world safer for all children."



Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said another American community is reeling from the horror of gun violence, perpetrated against innocent school children.

"Too many families have lost someone to the senseless epidemic of gun violence. Congress has a moral responsibility to take common-sense action to prevent the daily tragedy of gun violence in communities across America. Enough is enough," Pelosi said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Rs 11,400 crore fraud in Punjab National Bank (PNB) came to light because of the government's pressure to clean up the banking system, Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar said today after updating Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on the case.

The country's second largest lender PNB has detected a USD 1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400 crore) scam where billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) from a branch in Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

The alleged fraud, which has been going on since 2011, came to light only in January this year.

Talking to reporters after meeting Jaitley along with senior bank officials, Kumar said the fraud transaction came to light "because of the pressure" from the government.

"If it (LoUs) was to get rolled over, it would have got rolled over this time also," he said, adding the next roll over came to notice on January 23.

The secretary said the moment it came to notice that "it has to be rolled over, it was not rolled over. So, because of the pressure on the banks to clean up the system, they couldn't do it and the bank itself detected it."



On why the fraud went unnoticed for seven years, Kumar said it is a "systemic issue" and has to be looked into.

Earlier in the day, the secretary said PNB will make the required provisioning and it has "sufficient" funds for it.

"Whole lot of assets will be recovered. Nobody will be spared," Kumar said.

He further said that the issue is an "isolated case of a single branch" and all possible action will be taken against the guilty persons.

"This is not likely to escalate to other banks. We have already frozen the case," he said, adding all other banks have been alerted about the case.

PNB has suspended 10 officers and referred the matter to CBI for investigation.

The CBI has received two complaints from the PNB against Nirav Modi and a jewellery company alleging fraudulent transactions.

Meanwhile, Kumar, who briefed the Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance on Demands for Grants along with other secretaries, was also quizzed about the PNB fraud case by the lawmakers, sources said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)"He seemed like the kind of kid who would do something like this," said a former classmate of Nikolas Cruz, the gunman who is suspected of fatally shooting 17 people at a school in Florida.

Cruz, 19, preened with guns and knives on social media, bragged about shooting rats with his BB gun. He got kicked out of school in part because he had brought bullets in his backpack, according to one classmate.

He was later expelled from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland for still-undisclosed disciplinary reasons, Miami Herald reported today.

Administrators considered him enough of a potential threat that one teacher said a warning was emailed last year against allowing him on the campus with a backpack.

"All he would talk about is guns, knives and hunting," said Joshua Charo, 16, a former classmate at the high school.

"I can't say I was shocked. From past experiences, he seemed like the kind of kid who would do something like this," Charo was quoted as saying by the paper.

Detectives were digging into the past of Cruz who had no previous arrests but had displayed plenty of troubling behaviour before officers took him into custody after what ranks as the third-deadliest school shooting in American history.

Cruz, who was arrested soon after the shooting and taken to police headquarters, could face multiple state charges of first-degree murder and attempted murder.

At Stoneman Douglas High, he was part of the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps during his freshman year, classmates said.

Charo said he spoke little and "was into some weird stuff."



"He used to tell me he would shoot rats with his BB gun and he wanted this kind of gun, and how he liked to always shoot for practice," Charo said.

Federal authorities said that they did not believe the shooting was connected to terrorism.

Friends said he spoke little of his relatives. He and his brother were adopted when they were young by Lynda and Roger Cruz, of Long Island, New York, according to relatives. They raised the boys in Parkland.

Roger Cruz died over a decade ago and Lynda struggled with the boys, said Barbara Kumbatovich, a former sister-in-law.

"She did the best she could. They were adopted and had some emotional issues, she was quoted as saying by the Miami Herald.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Centre will award Raghbir Singh Khandpur on February 28 for his contribution to science and his efforts to make the Science City in Punjab's Kapurthala into an international-level facility, a PIB release said today.

Khandpur is a former director General of the Centre for Electronics Design and Technology and the Pushpa Gujral Science City in Kapurthala.

He has been selected for a national award this year by the central government's Department of Science and Technology for his contribution in the field of science, technology and communication, it said.

The award would be bestowed on him for steering the development of the Science City almost from scratch to an international-level centre, the release said.

The award will be given to him in New Delhi on February 28 on National Science Day, it said.

He is also the founder director of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) in Mohali.

Khandpur has served as a scientist for 24 years at the CSIO, Chandigarh, as head of the Medical Instruments Division and also as the head of the Electronics Division.

He has authored 10 books of international repute and is a holder of seven patents for innovative designs. Khandpur has published over 60 research and review papers, the release said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Full freedom has been given to locals commanders of the army along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir to effectively retaliate any act of violence by Pakistani troops, Army sources said today.

They said the Indian Army has been inflicting heavy casualties to Pakistani troops while replying to Pakistani shelling along the LoC in the last few weeks.

The local commanders now have been given full freedom to retaliate to any Pakistani misadventure, the army sources said, adding the Army is resorting to coordinated fire assaults in replying to any Pakistani shelling along the LoC.

Following the attack on the Sunjuwan military station in Jammu, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman warning Pakistan had said the neighbouring country "will pay for its misadventure".

Six Army personnel and a civilian were killed in the terrorist attack on the Sunjuwan military station. The attack on the camp came days after four Army men were killed in Pakistani firing in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir.

On his return from a three-day trip to Nepal, Army Chief Gen. Bipin Rawat was today given a detailed briefing about the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Army sources claimed that a total of 20 Pakistani Army personnel were killed this year while the number was 138 in 2017.

The sources said senior commanders of Pakistan Army have been frequently visiting Pakistani posts in the last few weeks in the wake of aggressive response by India to Pakistani actions.

They said Pakistan has increased the alert levels at all its posts along the LoC due to Indian actions.

"We are inflicting heavy pain on Pakistani side," said an army official.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The organisations working for the cause of the Bhopal gas tragedy victims today said they will campaign against the BJP in the upcoming bypolls to two Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh.

They alleged that the ruling party has failed to resolve the issue of compensation to those who suffered in the world's worst industrial disaster.

The five organisations fighting for the rights of the gas victims told reporters that they will raise their issues during the campaign for the Mungaoli and Kolaras Assembly seats bypolls slated this month, and also during the state elections due later this year.

Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh president Rashida Bee said they would highlight the alleged false promises made by BJP leaders regarding compensation to the industrial disaster victims in their voter education programme ahead of the bypolls.

"We plan to share copies of official documents with the electorate in the two areas to substantiate our allegations of betrayal by the BJP leaders," she said.

"The by-elections will be our first step in making the long pending issues of the gas disaster a part of the state polls later this year and the general elections next year," she further said.

"We hope to provide a critical edge to ensure the defeat of BJP in Mungaoli and Kolaras," Rashida Bee added.

Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pensionbhogee Sangharsh Morcha's Balkrishna Namdeo said the BJP's campaign in the by-election mostly rests on the promises made by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

"Our strategy is to present facts on the government's betrayal of the promises on compensation to the six lakh victims of the disaster," he said.

Bhopal Group for Information and Action's Satinath Sarangi said they will not align with any political party and seek public support for their campaign resources.

The bypolls in Mungaoli and Kolaras Assembly seats will be held on February 24, and the counting of votes would take place on February 28.

The byelections were necessitated following the death of the sitting Congress MLAs Mahendra Singh Kalukheda (from Mungaoli) and Ram Singh Yadav (Kolaras).

Thirty-three years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, the survivors are still fighting for adequate compensation and proper medical treatment for ailments caused by the toxic leak.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress today alleged that the NDA government was looking the other way when billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi used his clout with the prime minister to slip out of the country and steal Rs 12,000 crore, drawing comparison with the case of liquor baron Vijay Mallya.

State-owned Punjab National Bank yesterday said that it had detected a USD 1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400 crore) scam where Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from a branch in Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

"Guide to looting India by Nirav Modi--1. Hug PM Modi 2. Be seen with him in DAVOS. Use that clout to: A. Steal 12,000 crore B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the government looks the other way," Congress chief Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surejewala raised questions on whether Nirav Modi had been tipped off following which he left the country.

"Who is Nirav Modi? The new #ModiScam? Was he tipped off like Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya to escape by someone within the government," he asked.

"Has it become the norm for letting people run away with public money? Who is responsible," Surjewala tweeted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh today said farmers will be compensated for crop loss due to untimely rainfall and hailstorms that occurred in several parts of the state recently.

Replying during the general discussion on a Budget demand proposal for fiscal 2018-19 in the Legislative Assembly, Singh assured farmers that his government stands by them in their hour of happiness as well as crises.

"The officials have been directed to complete the assessment of damage to crops due to the recent untimely rainfall coupled with hailstorm, within a week. After the process, the affected farmers will be compensated under the provisions of Revenue Book Circular 6-4," the chief minister said.

Last year, after 96 tehsils were declared drought hit in the state, the state government had sanctioned a sum of Rs 546 crore for providing compensation to farmers. Of which, compensation to the tune of Rs 330 crore has been distributed so far, he said.

Earlier in 2015, the state government had disbursed relief of Rs 2000 crore collectively from various funds to the drought-hit farmers, he added.

"In view of loss to farmers due to sudden rainfall and hailstorm occurred few days back in the state, necessary directive has been issued to the revenue department. A survey is being conducted for assessmentof damage to crops and the information has been received of damage to crops in an area of around 26,000 hectares," Singh said.

He said the issue was also discussed in the state Cabinet meeting today. "It was decided that disburse of compensation be made to farmers as early as possible," he said.

The chief minister further said his government has taken several steps to reduce the burden of farming cost on cultivators.

"The state government has been providing resources and facilities to farmers. In 2003, the agriculture budget was Rs 834 crore which has now increased to Rs 13,480 crore," he said.

In the past 14 years, the land under irrigation has increased to 36 per cent from 22 per cent in Chhattisgarh. The number of electricity-powered irrigation pumps has increased from 75,000 to 4.50 lakh during this period, the CM said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Irked over the lack of any action plan to make the buildings in the national capital earthquake-proof, the Delhi High Court has directed the heads of municipal bodies to either prepare one in four weeks or be present before it on the next date of hearing.

The direction by a bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and A K Chawla came after it noted that the corporations have not yet complied with its previous directions, issued way back in 2015, to make an action plan to make buildings in Delhi compliant with requirements of the National Building Code 2005 for seismic zone-IV, where the city is placed.

"The court had required the corporations and local bodies to prepare a comprehensive action plan and ensure compliance with the concerned National Building Code 2005 or any revision thereafter, in the light of the threats, such as earthquakes, having regard to Delhis location (within the Seismic Zone-IV).

"Further proceedings and orders show that till date the direction to prepare an action plan has not been complied with.

"In these circumstances, the Commissioners of the corporations (North Delhi Municipal Corporation, South Delhi Municipal Corporation, East Delhi Municipal Corporation and New Delhi Municipal Council) shall ensure that an action plan, in accordance with the court's directions, is prepared within four weeks from today, in default they shall be present in court on the next date of hearing," the bench said.

With the direction, the court listed the matter for further hearing on April 11.

The bench was hearing a PIL by advocate Arpit Bhargava questioning how safe were the buildings in Delhi if an earthquake, like that in Nepal, occurs here. The April 2015 Nepal earthquake had killed nearly 9,000 people and left about 22,000 injured.

The court had earlier observed that Delhi fell in a high risk seismic zone IV and had sought action plans from various authorities to ensure that buildings in the city survived an earthquake.

It had earlier also noted only 25 per cent buildings in the national capital are constructed with a sanctioned plan and authorised in accordance with the law. The remaining 75 per cent of Delhi appeared to be entirely outside the building regularisation as they are unauthorised, the court had then observed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a temporary respite, the Calcutta High Court today directed the CID not to arrest former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh's husband M A V Raju till March 15 in connection with its probe into a case of alleged extortion and illegal exchange of banned notes for gold. Hearing an anticipatory bail plea by Raju, a division bench comprising justices Joymalyo Bagchi and R Bharadwaj directed Raju to cooperate with the investigators and appear before the Netaji Nagar police station once a week. The court asked his lawyer the reason behind moving the plea for anticpatory bail since his name did not figure in the FIR.

Raju's counsel Bhaskar Sen submitted before the court that the CID has conducted search and seizure operations at his residence and has taken away several documents and land deeds as well as other assets, including gold ornaments of their household deity. Claiming that Raju was facing harassment as he was the husband of Bharati Ghosh, his counsel said the recent activities of the CID have made him apprehensive about his arrest in the case and that is why he has moved the court to seek anticipatory bail. Ghosh, who was the West Midnapore superintendent of police for more than six years, was transferred as commandant of the third battalion of the state armed police on December 26 last year. She resigned from service two days later. She was once considered close to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and was also awarded a service medal on August 15, 2014. Ghosh was transferred twice, once by the Election Commission before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and the second time by the state itself before the 2016 Assembly elections. She was, however, reinstated as West Midnapore SP as soon as the elections got over on both occasions. An arrest warrant was also issued against Ghosh last week in connection with an extortion case registered at Daspur police station in West Midnapore district, following her resignation. The CID, probing cases relating to alleged extortion and misconduct against Ghosh, had also conducted raids at various properties, including a house in Kolkata that belongs to her husband Raju. A few police officers of inspector and sub-inspector ranks have been arrested by the CID in connection with the probe. Denying the harassment allegations levelled by Raju's counsel, state Advocate General Kishore Datta told the court that investigations were being held into alleged extortion and cheating of a businessman by some lower level police officials in West Midnapore. He claimed that a large amount of money has been recovered from the residence of Raju and his wife apart from deeds of land holdings. Datta told the court that the CID wants to question Raju to find out whether there is any connection between the alleged cheating case and the money and documents recovered. He stated that Raju had not appeared before the CID even after notice was served to him, citing health conditions. After hearing both the parties, the division bench directed Raju to cooperate with the investigators. In its interim order, the court fixed March 12 as the next date for hearing his anticipatory bail prayer. Raju was also directed by the court to appear before the Netaji Nagar police station once a week.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Madras High Court today upheld the CBI's jurisdiction to register a case against members of the Centralised Admission Committee of Puducherry in a case of illegal PG medical admissions in the Union Territory. The court dismissed a plea filed by committee members including Puducherry Health Secretary B R Babu for quashing the FIR against them, saying there is no necessity to put spokes in the wheel of investigation for "unsustainable reasons".

The petitioners had claimed that the agency had not taken the consent of the Union Territory for filing the case.

When the petition came up, Justice G Jayachandran said the FIR registered against the petitioners was for offences under IPC as well as Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act. "The PC Act extends to the whole of India except to the state of Jammu and Kashmir and applies to all citizens of India and outside India. "So in the light of the above, this court holds that CBI has territorial jurisdiction over the Union Territory of Puducherry by virtue of Section 2(2) and Section 5 of Delhi Special Police Establishment Act 1940," the judge said. The Union Territory's consent was not required to register and investigate offences notified under Section 3 of the Act, the court said. It was alleged that the officials entered into a criminal conspiracy during March-July 2017 in the matter of admissions to the PG-medical courses in Puducherry. According to the CBI FIR, "the accused officers cheated bona fide students who were issued provisional admission certificate during counselling by the Centralised Admission Committee (CENTAC)" but were later denied the seats they were allocated. It is alleged by the CBI that public servants in criminal conspiracy with private hospital officials abused their official position and cheated bona fide students. It claimed that as part of the conspiracy, the private medical colleges denied admission to bona fide CENTAC- sponsored students and admitted others collecting exorbitant fees. According to the prosecution, the petitioners, responsible for admission into various professional courses in the Union Territory, had violated the procedure and directions of the centre, Puducherry government, Medical Council of India and the directions issued by the Supreme Court in respect of PG Medical admissions for 2017-18. Senior Counsel VT Gopalan for the petitioners argued that the Union Territory has its own police force to take care of its law and order. Unless it "gives consent for CBI to exercise the power and jurisdiction, the agency cannot register a complaint for the alleged offences that took place within the Union Territory," the counsel said. Rejecting the contention, the judge said the court was "satisfied that prima facie materials are available." The CBI alone was competent and capable to investigate the complaint which has wide interstate ramification in the administration of medical education. There was no necessity to invalidate the action by misinterpretation of the provisions of law, the judge said. "The petitioners have already been brought under the scanner of investigation.They are not charged for any offence." "If they have any valuable defence they can establish the same by co-operating with the investigation.There is no necessity to put spokes in the wheel of investigation for the unsustainable reasons," the judge said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 32-year-old Intelligence Bureau official was found dead along roadside in Rajasthan's Jhalawar district, police said today.

The official identified as Chetan Prakesh Galav, who is posted in New Delhi, went to his parents house in Ramganjmandi town last morning, SHO of Jhalawar's Sadar police station Sanjay Prasad Meena said.

The official failed to reach his house in Jhalawar till late in the evening yesterday after which his family members started searching for him, he said.

He was found lying along the Bhawanimandi-Jhalawar road by his family members who rushed him to a hospital where he was declared brought dead, the SHO said.

The official's body was handed over to his family members after postmortem today for the last rites, another police officer Sanjay Prasad Meena said.

Exact reason of death could be known only after the postmortem report is received, he said.

A case has been registered in the matter and investigation was underway, Meena said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The capital raising committee of Idea Cellular will meet on February 21 to approve details of company's plan to raise Rs 3,500 crore through qualified institutional placement, including the issue price and discount.

"..a meeting of the Capital Raising Committee of the Company is scheduled to be held on February 21, 2018, inter alia, to consider and approve the issue price including a discount, if any, thereto as permitted under the SEBI Regulations for the Equity Shares to be allotted to the qualified institutional buyers pursuant to the QIP," Idea said in a regulatory filing.

The floor price in respect of QIP, based on pricing formula, has been fixed at Rs 86.84 per share and the company may give a discount of up to 5 per cent on the floor price.

The face value of each equity will be Rs 10 for QIP, as per the latest filing.

According to industry sources, Idea has appointed Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citi Group to manage QIP process.

On January 4, the board had approved a proposal to raise up to Rs 6,750 crore.

The company has already raised Rs 3,250 crore by allotment of shares to entities of promoter Aditya Birla Group (ABG).

The board of Idea on February 14 approved that the balance Rs 3,500 crore can be raised by issue of equities to eligible bidders through QIP.

The first tranche of fund raising had a bearing on the shareholding pattern of the company and also on its merger deal with Vodafone. The two parties have agreed that ABG will buy a minimum of 2.5 per cent of the merged entity from Vodafone for Rs 1,960 crore.

This equity sale transaction will reduce funding requirement on Vodafone Group from Rs 9,350 crore to Rs 7,390 crore to meet debt arrangement for the merged entity.

Infusion of Rs 3,250 crore, along with the proposed capital raise, will reduce Idea's net debt and as a result Vodafone's net-debt contribution to the merged entity will also be reduced.

The net debt of Idea as on December 31, 2017 stood at Rs 55,781.8 crore.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)If a film-maker says his work, which could be defamatory, is correct and truthful, how can the censor board bar it from being screened, the Delhi High Court today asked the CBFC.

Will you curtail a media organisation from covering a protest, the court asked CBFC.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru's queries to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) came during the hearing of a woman's plea that her documentary on two units of soft drink giant Coca Cola was denied clearance for screening by the censor board which claimed it was allegedly "misleading and politically motivated".

When the producer, Jharana Jhaveri, went in appeal to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT), it upheld the CBFC's August 31, 2016 decision denying clearance to the documentary and saying it was "replete with per se defamatory imputations".

The petitioner has challenged the CBFC's decision as well as the May 8, 2017 order of the FCAT denying clearance to the film which is focused on two plants at Mehdiganj in north-eastern Uttar Pradesh, where villagers were shown making negative statements about the soft drink giant's units.

After viewing the film, the high court today said the film -- Charlie and the Coca Cola Company -- does defame the soft drink giant, but questioned how the CBFC could censor the film or deny it certification if the film-maker was saying that the statements in the production were correct and truthful.

"If the film-maker is attesting to the truth of the statements made, which are defamatory, then how can you censor it? Will you curtail a media organisation from covering a protest? Should the producers only show good things and nothing bad? That is a bad philosophy to follow," the court said.

It also said if the documentary defames Coca Cola, it will sue them for damages or for stopping them from showing the film.

The court asked the petitioner to make the company also a party to the proceedings so that its side can also be heard. It listed the matter for hearing on April 18.

Defending its decision, the censor board said the allegations in the film against Coca Cola were unsubstantiated and would ruin relations with a friendly state -- United States of America.

The court did not accept the contention saying then it "would mean that people of this country cannot say anything. It would mean no one can say anything about the 1962 Sino-India war as it could affect friendly relations with China," it added.

The court also said that there was nothing in the film which would put at risk the sovereignty, integrity and the national security of the country.

It also observed that there was nothing obscene about the film, nor did it have any content which went against public order.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The domestic watch industry, which witnessed a slowdown post demonetisation will face the impact of increase in import duty, a top official of Japanese watch maker, Seiko said today.

The industry, which witnessed a slow down in the wake of demonetisation and implementation of GST, now has to face the impact of increase in the import duty from 10 to 20 per cent, Seiko Watch India President and COO, Niladri Mazumder told reporters here.

The industry was still looking at how increase in the duty will impact its performance, he said adding there could be a short term impact, which has to be deliberated upon.

When asked whether the company proposed to hike the watch price in view of this, Majumder said it was too early to decide and will depend on overall impact on the industry.

Majumder, who is here to launch the company's product Presage, a collection of nine watches at Zimson showroom, said the company with a Compounded Annual Growth Rate of 20 per cent for the last 11 years, is growing at 15 per cent at present.

South India contributed significantly to the turn over of the company followed by North.

Stating that Presage, the latest fine mechanical watch collection will be a trend setter in India for another five years, the COO said the company will launch a collection for women by March.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan's Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan has said that India has not only wasted the opportunity for normalisation of ties with Islamabad but also restricted the space for peace through its "hostile" stance, according to a media report.

The defence minister made the comments yesterday while announcing a policy statement in the Senate, Dawn reported.

"The unremittingly hostile, anti-Pakistan stance by the current Indian government has drastically reduced the space for any advocacy of peace," he said.

Khan noted that the Indian government also "wasted the opportunity for making peace at a time when a political consensus existed within Pakistan for improving relations with India".

"Pakistan's perception of threat from India is not reflex; it is based upon a thorough assessment of Indian capacity to threaten Pakistan's military from an unprecedented forward position," he said and reminded that "the threat is calculated on capacity, not intent".

The statement was made after Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman warned Pakistan after Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad militants attacked a military camp in Sunjuwan in Kashmir that left six soldiers and a civilian dead.

The paper also reported an escalation in ceasefire violations along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary.

Violations of a 2003 ceasefire pacta key confidence building measure between India and Pakistanhave seen a spike in 2017 compared 2015 and 2016, it said.

The pattern has continued this year and there have been more than 200 violations in the first six weeks of 2018, the report said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An Indian-origin businessman who ran an unauthorised money-lending service in the UK has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison after being found guilty of crimes under the country's financial regulations.

Dharam Prakash Gopee, charged under the the UK's Consumer Credit Act 1974 and the FinancialServices and Markets Act 2000, has also been issued with a Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO), which will severely restrict the 64-year-old's ability to carry out any illegal money-lending activity in future.

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said this was the first case where it had sought such an order, which underlines the seriousness of the case.

"The court is sending a very clear message that deliberate and repeated offending will lead to long periods of imprisonment. The FCA will continue to take whatever action is necessary to bring offenders to justice and protect consumers," said Mark Steward, Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight at the FCA.

Between 2012 and 2016, Gopee acted as an illegal lender despite being refused a consumer credit licence by the UKs Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and failing to secure authorisation from the FCA.

According to the FCA, he loaned money to vulnerable consumers at high rates, securing the loans against their property, and then sought to take possession if they failed to pay.

Over the four-year period, his own loan books showed that he issued approximately 1 million pounds of new loans and took in at least 2 million pounds in payments from old and new consumers, none of whom were aware that he did not have a licence.

In sentencing Gopee, Judge Beddoe noted at Southwark Crown Court in London last week that Gopee was aware of the regulator's serious concerns, but ignored them, deciding instead to "deliberately flout the law".

He continued to pressurise debtors with demands for payment, threatening court action that he knew could not be sustained.

Commenting on the defendant's activities as a whole, the judge said that Gopee's business practices "exploited the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of many, many people" who were unaware that their trust in him was misplaced.

He described the scheme constructed by Gopee as involving one contrivance after another in an attempt to get around the law, showing "a horrid pattern of exploitation".

The Serious Crime Prevention Order will begin on Gopee's release from custody and will last for five years. It includes conditions prohibiting him from conducting any business in the credit sphere, limits the number of bank facilities he is permitted to operate, and requires him to make disclosures of those banking facilities to the FCA.

Breaching the terms of the order is a criminal offence, punishable by upto five years' imprisonment.

Gopee had already been banned from acting as a company director, having been disqualified in May 2016 for the maximum period permissible of 15 years under the UK's Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986.

A number of his companies have already been wound up in the public interest following proceedings by the Official Receiver, and he has also been the subject of a restraint order obtained by the FCA in June 2015 under the UK's Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Following the lifting of a reporting restrictions, the FCA revealed that it had to bring two sets of proceedings against Gopee for contempt of court in relation to repeated breaches of that restraint order.

In April 2016, having denied various breaches - including failing to disclose assets, continuing to deal with assets, opening and using new accounts - Gopee was found to be in contempt and imprisoned for a term of 18 months. He was released early by the court in September 2016, having promised to comply with the order. However, he went on to commit various additional breaches.

Further proceedings were therefore brought against him, and on this second occasion, having admitted the new breaches he was imprisoned for a term of 15 months in October 2017, in the lead up to his criminal trial this month.

Gopee continues to serve his 15-month jail term for contempt, and his sentence for the recent offences will begin after that term has been completed in June.

Proceedings have now also begun at Southwark Crown Court in London to confiscate the proceeds of Gopee's criminality.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An Indian-origin science teacher has been jailed for over four years after he pleaded guilty to placing cameras in toilets of three schools where he worked in southwest England.

Rahul Odedra positioned the cameras in cubicles and toilet roll holders to film dozens of women and girls using the facilities, the Gloucester Crown Court was told.

The 46-year-old was described by Judge Ian Lawrieas "not wholly bad, and not wholly good" as he sentenced him yesterday for "persistently and deliberately"carrying out his perverse compulsion.

Odedra had earlier pleaded guilty to one offence of attempting to possess an indecent image, two offences of possession of indecent images and 20 offences of voyeurism between 2009 and 2017.

"He would set it up in the lunch period and then take it down later," prosecutor Anjali Gohil told the court.

"No one goes to a toilet, locks the door and expects to be filmed for third parties to see," she added.

The judge agreed that it was a "gross breach of trust" and a "brazen" violation.

"You are facing the consequences of what is long held voyeuristic compulsion to look at females. A toxic secret with the consequence you are going to prison," he told Odedra.

"People's dignity should be respected. This was a carefully calculated intrusion into people's privacy. This is some of the worst examples of this type of offending. You caused immeasurable emotional harm to your victims," he noted.

The teacher, described as good at his job, was caught when a pupil noticed he was trying to film up her skirt and reported him. Police later seized 200 videos showing women or girls on the toilet or filmed up their skirts.

On analysis of the images, officers found that he had cropped and clipped the films he captured in the toilet so that he could watch back-to-back images of females "in the act of wiping".

Odedra's lawyer, Joseph Keating, told the court that his client is aware of seriousness of the offences, which were born out of an "interest in voyeurism".

"At the time of doing this, he had little comprehension of the impact on the victims as they were not physically harmed, but he now fully understands the lasting impact that will be hard to bear. He would like to apologise. He is deeply sorry for what he did," he said, adding that his client had lost "everything good in his life" as a result of the offences.

Besides the prison sentence, Odedra was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order and was ordered to sign the sex offenders' register for life.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Addressing a nation in grief following a shooting incident at a Florida school in which 17 people were killed, US President Donald Trump today said that these children became a victim of terrible violence, hatred and evil.

An expelled former student armed with a powerful assault rifle unleashed a hail of gunfire at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, killing at least 17 people and injuring over a dozen others, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in the US.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, who was expelled for disciplinary reasons, was arrested shortly after the deadly rampage yesterday and charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

"My fellow Americans, today I speak to a nation in grief... Yesterday, a school filled with innocent children and caring teachers became the scene of terrible violence, hatred and evil," Trump said in his address, a day after the incident.

Our entire nation, with one heavy heart, is praying for the victims and their families. To every parent, teacher and child who is hurting so badly, we are here for you, whatever you need, whatever we can do to ease your pain. We are all joined together as one American family, and your suffering is our burden also," the President said.

No child, no teacher should ever be in danger in an American school. No parent should ever have to fear for their sons and daughters when they kiss them good-bye in the morning, he said in his remarks that lasted for a little over six minutes.

Trump said the entire community of Parkland is now in shock and pain and searching for answers.

Trump said he is planning a visit to Parkland, but did not say when.

Speaking directly to America's children, especially those who feel lost, alone, confused or even scared", Trump said he wants them to know that they are never alone.

You have people who care about you, who love you and who will do anything at all to protect you. If you need help, turn to a teacher, a family member, a local police officer or a faith leader. Answer hate with love, answer cruelty with kindness, Trump said.

He said that his administration is working closely with local authorities to investigate the shooting and learn everything they can.

We are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of mental health, the President said.

Later this month, Trump said he will be meeting with the nation's governors and attorney generals.

Making our schools and our children safer will be our top priority. It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference. We must actually make that difference.

In times of tragedy, the bonds that sustain us are those of family, faith, community, and country. These bonds are stronger than the forces of hatred and evil and these bonds grow even stronger in the hours of our greatest need, Trump added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will arrive here this evening as part of his three-day India visit during which the two countries will discuss regional and international issues of mutual interest.

The External Affairs Ministry had said earlier that during the visit of the president of Iran, both sides would review the progress achieved in bilateral relations and also exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Rouhani will land at the Begumpet Airport around 4 pm today where Union Minister of State for Power R K Singh will welcome him.

"He is scheduled to address Muslim intellectuals, scholars and clerics at 6.30 pm," an official source said.

Telangana Chief Secretary Shailendra Kumar Joshi, who held a coordination meeting yesterday at the state secretariat, directed officials of different departments to makefoolproof arrangements for Rouhani's visit.

During his two-day visit to the city, the Iranian president will be accompanied by 21 delegates.

He will also interact with the Iranians settled in Hyderabad, the source said.

Rouhani will address a congregation at the historic Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad after offering Friday prayers, the source said, adding that religious scholars from different schools of thought will also participate in the session.

He is also scheduled to visit the Salar Jung Museum tomorrow.

The president of Iran is also expected to visit historic sites here, including the Qutub Shahi tombs at Golconda, the source said.

This is the second time Rouhani will be visiting Hyderabad, but it is his first visit after assuming charge as the president. He will leave for New Delhi tomorrow, the source added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Israel's attorney general has praised a police investigation into the prime minister over corruption allegations, saying it was conducted "thoroughly" and "by the book" even as the Israeli leader has shrugged off its conclusions.

In a speech at Tel Aviv University, Avihai Mandelblit yesterday lauded the more-than-yearlong probe into a pair of corruption scandals that have engulfed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, culminating this week when police recommended that he be indicted on bribery and breach of trust charges in both cases.

The recommendations now go to Mandelblit, who will review the material before deciding whether to file charges.

"The investigations were carried out by the book, exactly as is expected by law enforcement authorities to deal with cases like these: professionally, thoroughly, creatively and with sophistication, with the aim to get to the truth," he said.

Netanyahu has denied wrongdoing and has called the police recommendations, which said he accepted nearly USD 300,000 in gifts from two billionaires, among other allegations, "biased, extreme, full of holes, like Swiss cheese." Netanyahu has accused the police of being overly aggressive in their probe and his supporters in parliament have bashed the police, claiming they were orchestrating a coup d'etat.

Mandelblit said he intends to ignore the noise and plans to make a decision based on the evidence.

The police recommendations dealt an embarrassing blow to the Israeli leader but they do not yet threaten his lengthy rule. Immediate reaction fell along partisan lines, an indication that his coalition will stand behind him for now. He can remain in office while Mandelblit makes his decision, a process which could take months. Netanyahu has vowed to remain office and even seek re-election.

Mandelblit, a Netanyahu appointee, did not say when he expects to make his decision. However, noting the significance of the case, he said he plans to conduct the process without "unnecessary delays."



Netanyahu is accused of receiving lavish gifts from Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer. In return, police say Netanyahu had operated on Milchan's behalf on US visa matters, legislated a tax break and connected him with an Indian businessman.

In the second case, Netanyahu is accused of offering to give preferential treatment to a newspaper publisher in exchange for favourable coverage.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Animal rights advocacy group, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has written to a Tamil Nadu Minister, whose bull died during a jallikattu event, seeking his support to repeal an act passed to ensure conduct of the bull taming event in the state.

Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar's bull died after it was injured when the animal hit a wall at the jallikattu venue in Puthukottai on February 11.

The bull 'Komban' was injured when it smashed into the wall near vadivasal' (entry point).

The bull was taken to a nearby hospital after being provided first aid, but had succumbed to head injuries.

In his February 14 letter to Vijayabaskar, PETA India Lead of Public Policy Nikunj Sharma said young men who may be sole or primary earners, "are killed" in jallikattu and that a ban on this "cruel activity would prevent countless injuries and deaths."



Sharma referred to media reports quoting Vijayabaskar as saying he felt as if he had lost a close family member, "a child" in response to his bull's death.

"Certainly, a good father would take steps to ensure that his other children, whether human or bull, don't suffer the same fate. Because you are the Health Minister, we hope you will agree that Tamil citizens and bulls should not continue to be injured and killed in this cruel activity."



"For these reasons, we request that you support a repeal of The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Act, 2017," Sharma said in the letter.

Sharma said video footage taken during jallikattu events held in several districts of Tamil Nadu after the passage of the Act "reveals rampant cruelty to bulls."



Sharma said "participants hit and tackled bulls and twisted and bit their tails, humans stabbed and jabbed bulls with sickles and other sharp objects. Bulls were deprived of adequate shade, food, and water," he said.

Unauthorised jallikattu events took place outside designated areas and without permission, he claimed, adding human participants and spectators "were often injured or killed."



Bulls were commonly injured and sometimes killed, but their deaths often went unreported," Sharma said in his letter to the Minister.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Environment minister Harsh Vardhan today met Japanese Ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu during which the envoy expressed his country's readiness to help India in addressing the issue of air pollution.

During the meeting, Vardhan also shared information about future events including the Regional 3R forum of Asia and Pacific to be held in Indore in April and science and technology in society forum 'India-Japan Workshop' in Delhi on February 28.

"Shared with Amb. Hiramatsu about #CleanAirForDelhi campaign. He said, Japan was facing same problem in 60s & 70s. Japan shared a paper on its #BlueSkyInitiative to control air pollution and expressed readiness to cooperate with India to address this problem under the Initiative," he tweeted.

Vardhan also met Fiji's Attorney-General and Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and discussed various issues related to climate change issues while acknowledging that the issue was a global threat and needed urgent action.

"We had an engaging discussion on #ClimateChange issues. Both acknowledged, #ClimateChange is a global threat and the need for urgent pre-2020 #ClimateAction. @FijiAG," he tweeted.

Vardhan said, during his meeting with Sayed-Khaiyum, he thanked the presidency of Fiji for its efforts in bringing all parties together during COP23 and ensuring Common But Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)K P Sharma Oli today became Nepal's Prime Minister for the second time, over two months after his Left alliance with former Maoist rebels swept the country's historic parliamentary polls, kindling hopes for the political stability in the Himalayn nation.

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari appointed 65-year-old Oli as the country's 41st prime minister.

Oli, who is known for his pro-China stance, had served as the country's prime minister from October 11, 2015 to August 3, 2016.

The appointment was made under the article 76 of Nepal's Constitution which states that in case of no clear majority of any party in the House of Representatives, the President shall appoint as Prime Minister the member of the House of Representatives who can have the majority with the support of two or more political parties.

Oli's PM candidacy was supported by the UCPN-Maoists, Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal, and Madhesi Rights Forum-Democratic along with 13 other small parties.

Earlier, former prime minister and Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba had addressed the nation and submitted his resignation to the president.

Deuba was elected as the 40th Prime Minister on June 6 with the support from CPN (Maoist Centre) which is now a part of Left alliance and opting for merger with CPN-UML.

"The elections of three tiers of government have been successfully held under my leadership setting the foundation to long transition," Deuba said in the television address.

The Left alliance of the CPN-UML, led by Oli and CPN-Maoist Centre, led by Prachanda, secured almost two third majority in the Parliament during the parliamentary elections.

Oli's party CPN-UML secured 121 seats in the 275-member Parliament and became the largest party in the Parliament.

The Nepali Congress has 63 seats while the CPN-Maoist Centre has 53 seats.

The combine strength of the CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre was 174, sufficient to form a majority government at the Centre.

The Madhesi parties, Rastriya Janta Party Nepal has got 17 and Federal Socialist Party Nepal has got 16 seats in the Parliamentary elections.

The elections were seen as the final step in Nepal's transition to a federal democracy following a decade-long civil war till 2006 that claimed more than 16,000 lives.

In 2015, when Nepal adopted a new Constitution that split it into seven states, dozens of people were killed in ethnic clashes over territory and rights.

Following the adoption of the new Constitution, the ethnic Madhesi group, mostly of Indian-origin, protested for months, saying they were not getting enough territory in one of the provinces and were also facing discrimination.

The polls were seen as a major step towards implementing the new Constitution.

Oli had served as deputy prime minister during the then interim government led by Girija Prasad Koirala in 2006 after the successful conclusion of the second Peoples Movement. He was elected as a member of Parliament in the House of Representatives for the first time from Jhapa district in 1991.

He had also served as Minister of Home Affairs in 19941995. He was re-elected to the House of Representatives from Jhapa electorate in 1999.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today alleged that the BJP, which has joined hands with an "anti-national divisive outfit" in Tripura for the assembly polls, was "violently attacking" CPI(M) workers.

"Tripura is witnessing an unholy alliance by the BJP that makes tall talk on nationalism while joining hands with a regional outfit of anti-national divisive forces," Vijayan said in a Facebook post.

This alliance is resorting to "violent attacks on CPI(M) workers. But they will not succeed in their nefarious plans," he said.

"The BJP in Tripura comprises discredited and corrupt defectors from the Congress party. People of Tripura will no doubt reject this anti-people, anti-peace alliance," the chief minister said.

He also expressed confidence that voters in Tripura would once again elect the left front with a thumping majority in the assembly polls.

"Tripura is a symbol of peace, harmony and unity of people across religions, tribal and non-tribal, in a region beset with ethnic differences," Vijayan said.

This has been possible because of the policies of the Left front Government led by Manik Sarkar, which enabled progress in all fields, he said.

People of Kerala and the country as a whole are looking to the people of Tripura to sound the first bell of the defeat of BJP in the coming elections which will be repeated all over India, the chief minister added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today came out in support of the teaser song of 'Oru Aadar Love" against which a police complaint has been filed for hurting religious sentiments.

Intolerance towards the free expression of art and thought cannot be accepted, Vijayan said in a Facebook post.

Referring to the police complaint in Hyderabad against the film's director, Omar Lulu, over the song 'Mani Manikya Malaraya poovi', Vijayan said intolerance from any quarter cannot be accepted.

"In this matter, if anybody suspects that Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists were hand in glove, they cannot be blamed," he said.

The song went viral in the social media catapulting debutante actress Priya Prakash Varrier to instant stardom with her wink and smile.

Vijayan, who hails from Thalassery in the northern Kannur district, said the song is a re-mix of the mapilla pattu (traditional Muslim song), penned by P M A Jabbar and rendered by Thalassery Rafeeq. It was broadcast by Akashvani in 1978.

The rendition had made the song very popular, he said.

The song about Prophet Mohammad's love for his wife and his marriage has been sung during traditional Muslim wedding ceremonies for decades, Vijayan said.

"The controversy reminds us that fundamentalists, whichever section they belong to, hate all expressions of art. They cannot tolerate the bliss and knowledge common people receive through art and literature," he said.

Art and literature are "strong weapons against religious fundamentalism and communalism and we need to stand by the followers of liberal arts," Vijayan added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Private bus operators in Kerala today decided to go on an indefinite strike from tomorrow demanding further increase in bus fares, saying the hike announced by the state government was "insufficient".

The Kerala government had yesterday announced the hike in government and private bus fares. It will come into effect from March 1.

Representatives of the private bus associations in the state met here today and said that private buses across the Kerala will keep off the road from tomorrow as part of an indefinite strike seeking further increase in fares.

"We are disappointed with the announcement on the fare hike... It is insufficient to meet even our daily needs," a private bus operator said here.

The decision to go on a strike was taken in view of the spiralling fuel prices and operational costs, leaders of private bus operators' federation said.

They also alleged that many of the demands made by the bus operators, including a hike in minimum charge of students' concession, bring petrol and diesel under the GST, withdrawal of increased road tax and constitution a regulatory committee, were not addressed by the state government.

The minimum charge should be increased to Rs 10 and there should be a 50 per cent hike in students concession, the federation said.

According to the charges announced by the government, the minimum fare for an ordinary bus service will be Rs 8, up from Rs 7, and for fast passenger services, the fare will be Rs 11 instead of Rs 10.

Along with the minimum fare, charges per kilometre for all category of services have also been raised. The hike ranges between eight paise and Rs 6.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan took the decision at a Cabinet meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram yesterday.

Meanwhile, Transport Minister A K Saseendran appealed to the private operators to withdraw their decision to go on a strike.

He said the announcement was made on the basis of the recommendations of Justice C Ramachandran panel that went into the problems faced by the transport industry.

Private bus operators are very well aware of it, Saseendran said in Kottayam.

The Congress-led UDF Opposition had slammed the LDF government's move to increase the fare, saying the state government was putting more burden on the people who were already suffering due to steep raise in price of essential commodities.

The operators also decided to hold an indefinite hunger strike in front of the Secretariat in the state capital from February 19 to press for their demands.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today termed as factually wrong the statement of Union Minister Kiren Rijiju that the state had sought a ban on the Popular Front of India, a Muslim organisation.

Vijayan was reacting to Rijiju's reported statement that Kerala had pressed for a ban on the PFI at the annual DGP conference held at Madhya Pradesh last month and Centre was considering it.

A statement from the Chief Minister's office, quoting Vijayan, said the state has not asked for a ban on PFI at the meet or on any other occasion.

It was not the government's policy to seek ban on communal organisations or extremist outfits, Vijayan said.

RSS would be the first outfit to be declared as outlawed if an organisation has to be banned on the basis of triggering communal divide and riots, he said.

"It is not possible to face these organisations through banning them," he said, adding, past experience has proven it.

"It is the same attitude in the case of PFI also," the chief minister said.

"The ideology of communal and extremist outfits and their threat will not cease to exist just by banning," he said.

Extremism has to be faced through stringent legal proceedings and mobilising people against it, Vijayan said.

He said the state government had initiated strong steps against communal and extremist forces, result of which was evident on the law and order front.

A total of 104 cases were registered against 'NDF-PFI' workers for triggering religious tension between 2005 and 2011, he said.

Only 14 cases were registered during 2013 and 2017, Vijayan said.

Facts prove that Kerala is at the forefront in safeguarding securalism, Vijayan said and pointed out that the National Crime Record Bureau documents collaborated this.

Meanwhile, the state police clarified that there was a presentation on the topic 'Radicalization-PFI' at the DGP meet but there was neither a suggestion nor any recommendation to impose ban on the PFI.

The presentation was prepared by a DGPs of a few states and presented by the Kerala DGP,a statement issued by the Police Information Centre said.

"Kerala police has not proposed nor written for imposing such a ban on PFI till date," the statement added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Leader of opposition in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, Ram Govind Chaudhary, had to be rushed to a hospital today after he took ill while speaking on the motion of thanks to the Governor's address.

While delivering his speech, Chaudhary suddenly looked uncomfortable and sat down.

He continued speaking from his seat despite apparent discomfort. UP Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna then suggested that he be taken to a doctor.

Khanna also requested Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit to adjourn the house for ten minutes. The Speaker acceded to the request.

Doctors posted inside the Assembly premises examined Chaudhary and referred him to the Civil Hospital here. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath later visited him there.

Meanwhile, Khanna informed the house that Chaudhary was fine and there was no complication in his health condition.

The House decided that the debate on the motion of thanks be taken up on February 26 when the chief minister will also address the Assembly.

The budget for the next fiscal will be presented in the House tomorrow.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Lt Governor Anil Baijal today reviewed the three-year roadmap of the Delhi Police on combating cyber crime in the national capital.

Baijal desired that effective awareness campaigns be launched to educate people about precautions that they must take while using their gadgets, according to the LG office.

The LG directed the police during a meeting to focus on building a skilled, capable and dedicated human resource because that would be its primary weapon in combating cyber crime.

The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, Principal Secretary (Home) Manoj Parida, Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik and senior police officers.

"A year-wise road map for three years was also discussed in the meeting. The LG stressed upon periodic assessment and review of the progress made upon them, so that the work can be accomplished in a time-bound manner," the LG office said in a statement.

It stated that the LG has advised police to "suitably incentivise" existing personnel besides making appropriate modifications to its recruitment procedures for inducting the best talent available to help it fight cyber crime effectively.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Lt Col Prasad Purohit, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, today turned hostile while deposing in a court here as a witness in the 2007 Mecca Masjid bomb blast case.

Purohit had been listed as a witness by the CBI in the case related to the blast at the Mecca Masjid here on May 18, 2007 which killed nine persons and injured several others.

The case was later taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

A sessions court here which is conducting trial in the case had summoned Purohit as a prosecution witness yesterday, said a prosecution officer.

During his deposition, Purohit said he had worked as an intelligence officer in the Army, and whomsoever (among the accused) he had met, it was only while discharging his official duty.

He denied that he was examined by the CBI in the Mecca Masjid blast case. The CBI never recorded his statement when he was lodged in the Nashik jail, he claimed in the court.

Contradicting the CBI's contention, Purohit said he didnt know Bharat Bhai, one of the accused. He knew Swami Aseemanand, another accused, Purohit said, but the two never spoke about the death of Sunil Joshi, a co-accused, he stated.

The prosecution declared him as hostile after he denied giving any statement to the CBI.

The Supreme Court granted bail to Purohit in the 2008 Malegaon blast case in August 2017, after he spent nine years in jail.

The Hyderabad court has examined 222 witnesses in the Mecca Masjid case so far. The next hearing would be on February 26.

Two of the eight accused in the case -- Swami Aseemanand and Bharat Mohanlal Rateshwar alias Bharat Bhai -- are on bail, while three others are in jail.

Two accused are absconding, while Sunil Joshi, another accused, died.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Nomination papers of six candidates were rejected today during the scrutiny of the total 754 nominations filed for Ludhiana Municipal Corporation elections.

Now, a total of 747 candidates are in the fray for the elections as one of the candidates from ward number-41 had filed his nomination twice.

Nomination papers of Sarinder Pal from ward-21, Paramjeet Kaur from ward-37, (both Independents), Jatinder Singh from ward-38 (Jai Jawan Jai Kisan Party), Harshpreet Kaur from ward-52, Sharanpreet Kaur from ward-55 and Santosh Kalra from ward-58 (all three from the BJP) have been rejected during the scrutiny, an official release said.

Meanwhile, all four nominations filed for the by-elections to the ward number-17 in Jagraon Municipal Council and three nominations received for the ward number-5 in Payal Municipal Council have been found valid.

District electoral officer Pradeep Kumar Agrawal and Additional District Electoral Officer Neeru Katyal said anyone can withdraw his or her nominations and election symbols would also be allotted to the independent candidates.

In Ludhiana Municipal Corporation, around 10.50 lakh voters would cast their votes to elect their representatives in 95 wards. As many as 5.67 lakh voters are male, 4.82 lakh are female while 23 belong to the third gender.

The polling would be held on February 24 and the results would be announced on February 27.

The voting would for the ward number-17 in Jagraon Municipal Council and ward number-5 in Payal Municipal Council would be held on February 24 and counting would also be held on the same day.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Mark Wilson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) - -Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon again refused to answer questions from the House Intelligence Committee behind closed doors Thursday, spurring calls from the panels leading Democrat to hold him in contempt of Congress.



I think the next step for Congress to take is to initiate contempt proceedings, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told reporters after the interview.



Bannon apparently was not as tight-lipped when he also met with special counsel Robert Mueller's team this week. The former top White House aide met with Muellers team for 20 hours over several days, sources close to Bannon confirmed to ABC News.



Former Trump legal team spokesman Mark Corallo met Thursday with Mueller's team, according to sources familiar with the meeting.



While meeting with congressional investigators, Bannon, according to Schiff and Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, who is helping to lead the Russia investigation, would only answer questions from a list of 25 provided by the White House.



He did not answer all the questions wed like answered, Conaway said.



Bannon, who spent roughly three hours behind closed doors, repeatedly asserted that he had been instructed to invoke executive privilege on behalf of the president, Schiff said.



Schiff said the executive privilege claims in the congressional interview  which he said covered questions about the transition, administration, and Bannons post-White House activities - were breathtaking, insupportable and at times it was laughable.



At one point, Schiff fumed, Bannon refused to discuss conversations he had after leaving the White House with people who played no role in the administration.



There is no plausible claim of privilege that could apply to those circumstances, he said.



Schiff called the list of questions from the White House that Bannon limited himself to answering were self-serving and misleading.



There were questions along the lines of, did you meet with x? And because the question was written by the White House the answer was invariably 'no,' he recalled.



When we asked the question, Did you talk with x, the answer was 'yes.' When we asked, What did they discuss? there was the invocation of privilege, Schiff said.



Schiff said accepting the White Houses stonewalling of Congress would have deep implications for future congressional investigations.



He said Bannon did not make a case against being held in contempt to the committee, an opportunity provided to him under House rules.



I dont know why Mr. Bannon would go along with this strategy unless this is an effort to re-ingratiate himself with the White House, Schiff said.



Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Conaway suggested hed have to confer with House lawyers and House Speaker Paul Ryan about how to go about responding to Bannon, and potentially holding him in contempt of Congress.



A key figure in the Trump campaign and West Wing until he was forced out of the administration in August, Bannon has been at odds with the House panel investigating Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election over his testimony.



He first met with the committee behind closed doors in January, when he told congressional investigators privately that the meeting between Trump campaign officials and a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton in June 2016 at Trump Tower was "unpatriotic," according to sources familiar with the meeting.



Bannon's comments came after he attempted to distance himself from disparaging comments he made about the meeting attended by Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort in "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," by author Michael Wolff.







Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Actor Luke Wilson saved a woman from a smoking car following a crash.

Wilson, whose own car was clipped in the three-vehicle accident, also involving a Ferrari, pulled a 50-year-old woman from the wreckage of her BMW, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"He was the hero, he led the charge," said tattoo artiste Sean Heirigs, who was the eyewitness.

Heirigs said Wilson feared the smoke coming from the woman's car could result in flames and decided to save her.

"We were able to get her leg out from being stuck and then she came out and Luke was pulling her through the back trunk area and then we both carried her to the curb.

"And this was all going on while the Ferrari's wheels are still spinning and blowing rubber and smoke everywhere and it's loud and you're smelling lots of smoke and there's glass," he added.

Neither Wilson nor Heirigs was hurt. The woman from the BMW is hospitalised with serious injuries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Madras High Court has upheld the conviction of two wives of a former AIADMK MLA in a disproportionate wealth case, holding that they abetted the public servant in acquiring wealth through illegal means.

Dismissing the appeal filed by the spouses of former AIADMK MLA, late V Panneerselvam, the judge, however, allowed their plea to modify the one-year jail term from rigorous to simple imprisonment, consideration their health.

Panneerselvam, who represented Bodi constituency between 1991 and 1996, was convicted and sentenced to three years rigorous imprisonment by an additional sessions court judge in January 2007.

His spouses were convicted to one year rigorous imprisonment.

The three filed an appeal against the lower court order but Panneerselvam died in February 2012.

He was charged by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) with amassing wealth to the tune of Rs 21.36 lakh by abusing his official position.

The directorate also charged Panneerselvam's wives P Janaki Ammal and P Dhanapakkayam with abetting him to amass wealth by lending their name to acquire property from unknown source.

Justice G Jayachandran, who dismissed the appeal, in his order said, "On considering the evidence let in by prosecution as well as the defence to explain the source of income this court finds that no error in the conclusion of trial court judgement."



The judge also said purchase of land in the name of spouses during the check period while Paneerselvam held a public office clearly indicated the source for purchasing those properties not being declared to the competent authority to be considered as unknown source.

Hence, the judge held that there was no merit in the appeal and dismissed it and confirmed the trial court order.

The judge, while acceding to the request of the counsel for the MLA's wives that they were suffering with various ailments, modified the order to simple imprisonment instead of rigorous imprisonment.

He also directed the trial court to execute the warrant of arrest after expiry of two weeks from today if the appellants fail to surrender within that time.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A local organisation has lodged a police complaint against Malayalam actress Priya Prakash Varrier and film director Omar Lulu for allegedly hurting sentiments of the Muslim community through a song in their forthcoming movie "Oru Adaar Love".

However, police have not registered an FIR in the matter yet.

The complaint against the two was filed at Jinsi police station by a group of people under the aegis of Janjagran Samithi.

"This is a deliberate effort to hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims. We demand that a case under IPC section 295 of the IPC should be registered against actress Priya Varrier, director Omar Lulu and producers of the film," Samithi president Mohsin Ahmed told PTI.

IPC Section 295 pertains to injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class.

Jinsi police station Inspector Faheem Hashmi has confirmed receipt of the complaint.

"We have received a complaint stating that the religious feelings of a particular community are hurt. We would bring it to the notice of senior officers and act according to their directions," Hashmi said.

The Hyderabad Police had yesterday registered a case against the film director on a complaint that the song "Manikya Malaraya poovi" in the film written and directed by Lulu had an "objectionable" reference to Prophet Muhammad's wife.

Also, Mumbai-based Raza Academy had yesterday wrote to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) seeking blocking of the video of the song for "hurting" religious sentiments of Muslims.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A court here today awarded 10-year imprisonment to a man for running an illegal distillery.

Additional District Judge Kaushalesh Kumar Singh passed the order against Nawal Kishore Chaudhary alias Lutera, who was arrested in December last year.

The court also slapped a fine of Rs one lakh on the accused.

According to Special Public Prosecutor Triveni Prasad Sinha, Chaudhary was arrested on December 10, 2017 in Rajauli Police Station area in the district after he assaulted a journalist working with a Hindi daily.

Journalist Vikas Kumar was beaten up in Rajauli Dih village where he had gone to cover a police raid on illegal distilleries, he said.

Sale and consumption of liquor has been completely banned in Bihar by the Nitish Kumar government nearly two years ago.

Chaudhary's wife Meena was also arrested in connection with the assault on the scribe, who was seriously injured and had to be rushed to a hospital in Ranchi, the public prosecutor said.

Trial in the case relating to assault on the scribe is taking place separately.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)China today shut down for a week to celebrate the Chinese New Year welcoming the year of the Dog, triggering the world's largest annual human migration where people go to their villages for family reunions.

All the government and private offices as well as most of business have been closed all over the country with millions of Chinese heading to home to be with their kin or for holiday destinations for tourist spots in China and abroad.

Around 380 million domestic trips are expected during the week-long holidays, the China National Tourism Bureau said.

The Chinese New Year also known as Spring Festival is celebrated for about a month. The official holiday however lasts for a week.

There is a mad scramble for air, rail and bus tickets. Reports say highways are also clogged with heavy traffic.

Official media accounts say nearly 2.98 billion trips are expected to be made during theChunyun or Spring Festival travel rush, and hundreds of thousands of Chinese, mostly migrant workers, will go home using every means of transport including motorcycles.

After the week, the return rush starts in the same way. Considering the numbers, it is regarded as the world's biggest annual human migration.

This year China bids farewell to the year of Rooster and welcome the year ofthe Dog.

In the Chinese lunar calendar, years are grouped into a 12-year cycle, with each year assigned to an animal symbols, including rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster,dog and pig.

Most of the places all over the country are decorated with buntings featuring dog.

"Chinese people's way of celebrating the festival has changed from a carnival ritual to a more restrained and environmentally friendly manner, due to lifestyle changes and concerns over pollution," Zhang Yiwu, a professor of Chinese literature at Peking University, told state-run Global Times.

The Chinese government is also promoting the festival abroad to spread Chinese culture.

Chinese New Year celebrations will also be held in more than 400 cities in over 130 countries and regions, a government announcement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Maharashtra CID today told the Bombay High Court that it had identified some more accused in the killing of Left leader Govind Pansare but was unable to arrest any of them so far.

The high court told the CID and the CBI, probing the killings of Pansare and rationalist Narendra Dabholkar respectively, that they have to outsmart the accused because if such crimes go unpunished, other criminals feel emboldened.

Appearing for the state Crime Investigation Department (CID), advocate Ashok Mundargi submitted a progress report in investigation into the Pansare case before the high court in a sealed envelope.

He said while some "new persons had been identified as accused", the probing authorities were facing difficulty in tracing them, as some of them had changed their residential addresses and phone numbers, and many of them were even living with new identities.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also told the high court that several of the accused persons in the Dabholkar case had changed their contact numbers and illegally obtained new mobile phone numbers.

The CBI counsel, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, said while the probing agency was trying to sift through phone conversations for a clue on the whereabouts of the accused, it was a mammoth task.

A bench of Justices S C Dharamadhikari and Bharati Dangre, however, told the probing agencies that they must not refrain from securing the assistance of experts and accessing latest technology in their investigation due to lack of funds.

"Do not shy away from getting the latest technology on the ground of lack of funds. You tell us what is required and we will pass orders ensuring that funds are allocated," the bench said.

It also suggested that the CBI and the state CID seek the assistance of the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Singh, however, told the court that they were already in touch with the NIA.

To a court's query on whether senior most officials kept a track of the progress made in the two cases, Singh said the CBI director was kept in the loop at all times.

He said progress reports submitted in sealed covers in the high court were vetted by the CBI director.

The submissions came while the bench was hearing a plea filed by the family members of Dabholkar and Pansare seeking that the court monitor the probe into both the cases.

The court has now directed the probe agencies to submit their respective reports on the further progress made in the two cases by March 1 this year.

"When crimes like these go undetected or unpunished, other criminals feel emboldened and the rate of similar crimes rise. The probe agencies have to outsmart the accused persons," the bench said.

Dabholkar was shot dead on August 20, 2013 in Pune while he was on his morning walk.

Pansare was shot at on February 16, 2015 in Kolhapur and succumbed to his injuries on February 20.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Five Russian citizens were likely killed in a US-led coalition bombing on pro-regime Syrian fighters last week, Moscow said today, as it acknowledged non-military casualties in the attack for the first time.

"We are possibly talking about the deaths of five people, supposedly citizens of the Russian Federation. Others are injured. But this all requires verification, in particular their citizenship. We are not talking about Russian soldiers," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

At the time of the February 7 attack in Deir Ezzor, the Russian defence ministry insisted it had no servicemen in the eastern province of Syria.

However, many Russian citizens are fighting in Syria as mercenaries working for a private military company called Wagner, according to numerous reports.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Due to a bumper crop, wholesale prices of tomato in Madhya Pradesh have plummeted to as low as Rs two per kg from Rs 30 in October, farmers said.

Yogesh Septa, a farmer from Raipuria village in Petlawad area of Jhabua district, a major tomato-producing region, said, "We are getting on average Rs two per a kilogram of tomatoes in wholesale markets. We won't recover even the production and harvesting cost at this price."



The wholesale price was between Rs 20 to Rs 30 per kg in October, but it fell due to a sudden bumper crop this month, he said.

Farmers' organisations have demanded that the state government take steps to protect the interests of tomato-producer farmers.

Madhya Pradesh Kisan Sena secretary Jagdish Rawalia said there was a shortage of facilities such as cold storages and processing units.

"The government should encourage farmers to set up small cold storage facilities and processing units rather than helping big industrialists," he said.

Kedar Sirohi, founder of Aam Kisan Union, said the state government should bring tomato farmers under its Bhavantar Yojana, where farmers are paid the difference between market price and support price of a crop whenever the market prices fall.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Malaysia today defended the decision to allow a high-level Israeli delegation to attend a UN conference in Kuala Lumpur after the move sparked widespread anger in the Muslim-majority country.

Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said Malaysia, as host of last weeks international forum on urban development, had no choice but to allow all UN member states to take part.

Malaysia has no formal diplomatic ties with Israel and many in the country support the Palestinian cause, with thousands taking to the streets in December to protest when US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the Jewish states capital.

The Israeli delegation at the conference was led by David Roet, who used to be Israels deputy ambassador to the UN, and included other senior foreign ministry officials and a former minister, the Times of Israel reported.

Roet posted pictures of himself on Twitter at various locations around Kuala Lumpur and next to a Malaysian flag.

"I have great hopes for good relations between our two countries in the future," he said in a tweet.

Opposition groups and Islamic NGOs attacked the government for allowing him to take part in the event, with Rais Hussin from political party Bersatu labelling it a "great disservice to the Palestinian cause".

"Israel will be very happy that this has happened," he told AFP.

But Foreign Minister Anifah insisted Malaysia had been compelled to allow Israel to participate, noting the letter of invitation to the Jewish state was not signed by any Malaysian official.

"The issue of Malaysia tacitly establishing links with Israel through the hosting of this forum does not arise," he said in a statement.

"Our position on Israel remains unchanged. To imply otherwise is an indication of malicious and malignant intent."



Malaysia has previously stopped Israelis from entering the country for international events.

In 2015 two Israeli windsurfers were denied visas for a competition on the holiday island of Langkawi, forcing them to withdraw from the event.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Thousands of Muslim women today participated in a silent march to protest the proposed Triple Talaq bill.

The morcha was organised by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) local chapter and various religious organisations.

Political parties like the NCP, the Congress and Janata Dal had extended their support to the morcha which started from ATT High School around 2 PM and culminated at the office of the Additional Collector.

The participants demanded that the bill be scrapped and that the government should not interfere in the Islamic law.

A memorandum was submitted to Additional Collector by a delegation.

Police deployed extra personnel to avoid any untoward incident, an official said.

The Lok Sabha last year passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017, which criminalises the practice of talaq-e-biddat wherein Muslim men divorce their wives by uttering the word 'talaq' thrice.

The bill is currently pending in Rajya Sabha.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) today said a Nepal-based suspected drug smuggler was arrested and 85 gram smack seized from his possession.

The man was identified as Gopal Thapa (23) and the cost of the seized smack was nearly Rs 85 lakh, the SSB said.

Deputy Commandant of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) Dilip Jha said, "Last night, during a routine checking at Danda Head border post on Indo-Nepal border the SSB arrested the Nepal-based drug smuggler."



During interrogation, the accused said he had brought the smack from India and also disclosed his links with drug smugglers in the Nepal, he said.

He said that a case under various sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act was registered against the accused at Sonauli Police Station.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Nepal will have a new president on March 5 in place of the Himalayan nation's first woman president Bidhya Devi Bhandari, according to sources at the country's election commission.

While the election for Nepal's new president would be held on March 5, the vice president would be elected on March 16, they said.

The Election Commission of Nepal has proposed the dates for the elections after consulting the leaders of major political parties.

However, the final date and schedule of the election will be announced after the new Cabinet makes formal decision in this regard, the sources said.

Bhandari was elected as the first woman president of Nepal in October, 2015.

With the formation of the new Parliament, the tenure of the president expires. The process of electing a new president starts once the new prime minister is appointed.

CPN-UML chairperson K P Sharma Oli today became Nepal's Prime Minister for the second time, over two months after his Left alliance routed the ruling Nepali Congress in the country's historic parliamentary polls.

Oli had earlier served as the country's prime minister from October 11, 2015 to August 3, 2016.

Earlier, former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had addressed the nation and submitted his resignation to the president.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today conducted searches in multiple properties linked to billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi in Mumbai, Delhi and few other cities and seized diamonds, jewellery and gold worth Rs 5,100 crore, agency officials said.

The raids came after the ED filed a money laundering case of alleged fraud of Rs 280-crore against Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal and business partner Mehul Choksi and others yesterday, following a complaint by Punjab National Bank (PNB).

"The ED searched 17 premises across India of Nirav Modi and Geetanjali Gems in a case related to fraud in PNB. Stocks of gold, diamond and precious stones worth Rs 5,100 crore were seized," the central probe agency said in a statement.

Sources said that the cost of the precious items seized by the agency from the showrooms and workshops was based on the "stock value". Fixed deposits valued at Rs 3.9 crore have also been seized, they said.

Five properties in Mumbai were put under "prohibitory orders" by the agency and the raids are expected to continue till tomorrow, the sources said.

The ED has also moved the Ministry of External Affairs with a plea to revoke the passport of Modi and his partner and relative Choksi, they said.

The agency has now enlarged its probe into the case and apart from the FIR, the sources said it will now look into the entire charge of PNB being defrauded Rs 11,400 crore after the bank sent a complaint to it.

The complaint was shared with the CBI yesterday, they said.

Agency sleuths swooped down on multiple showrooms, workshops, residences and offices linked to Nirav Modi and Choksi since early this morning.

They searched Modi's residence in Kurla, jewellery boutique in Kala Ghoda area, three company offices in Bandra and Lower Parel in Mumbai, three premises in Surat in Gujarat and showrooms in Chanakyapuri and Defence Colony in Delhi.

Raids were also conducted in Jaipur and Hyderabad, they said.

The agency has also written to the Income Tax Department to share all documents it seized when it raided Modi, Choksi and others in January last year on charges of alleged tax evasion.

The ED filed the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after going through a CBI FIR registered early this month.

The agency is probing if the allegedly defrauded bank funds were laundered and proceeds of crime were subsequently used by the accused to create illegal assets and black money.

Modi (46), a regular feature on the lists of rich and famous Indians since 2013, was booked by the CBI, along with his wife and brother, besides business partner Choksi on January 31, for allegedly cheating the state-run PNB to the tune of Rs 280 crore.

The bank has sent two more complaints to the CBI on Tuesday, saying the scam was worth more than Rs 11,400 crore.

The CBI had earlier raided the residences of Modi, his brother, wife and Choksi, all partners of Diamond R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds and two bank officials -- Gokulnath Shetty (now retired) and Manoj Kharat, who were also named in the FIR as accused.

"The public servants committed abuse of official position to cause pecuniary advantage to Diamond R US, Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds and a wrongful loss of Rs 280.70 crore to Punjab National Bank during 2017," the CBI FIR has alleged.

The bank had also alleged in the complaint that a fraudulent issuance of Letters of Undertakings (LOU) took place on January 16 this year for and on behalf of the accused firms, which approached the bank and presented a set of import documents to the branch with a request to allow buyers credit for making payment to overseas suppliers.

The diamantaire is an India citizen but his brother and wife are not Indian nationals.They all have left India between January 1 and 6, the CBI said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) told the Bombay High Court today that there was no need for judicial inquiry into the fire at two restaurants in Kamala Mills compound last year.

The fire at roof-top restaurants 1 Above and Mojos Bistro claimed 14 lives on December 29.

BMC's counsel Anil Sakhre today said the civic body was already conducting a detailed inquiry, and action had been taken against several officials.

"Twelve officials from the BMC and fire department have been booked for negligence and a departmental enquiry has also been initiated against them. We are taking all necessary steps. So there is no need for a judicial inquiry," Sakhre said.

He made the submission before a division bench of justices R M Borde and R G Ketkar which was hearing a PIL filed by former IPS officer Julio Ribeiro, seeking judicial inquiry into the fire.

The bench asked the Maharashtra government to state if it was in favour of a judicial inquiry, adjourning the hearing to tomorrow.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Under flak for a Rs 11,400 crore fraud case involving Punjab National Bank, the BJP today said no one irrespective of stature will be spared by the probe agencies and rejected Congress' attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi as "baseless".

The party fielded Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to counter allegations against the Modi government and he dubbed the Congress' reference of "chhota Modi" for the scam's main accused, Nirav Modi, as "derogatory, demeaning, shameful, utterly irresponsible and scandalous".

Official sources also pointed out that Nirav Modi was not part of prime minister's official delegation to Davos as being claimed by the Congress.

Asked at the press conference about the action taken by the Prime Minister's Office after Bengaluru resident Hari Prasad warned it in a letter in July 2016 against Nirav Modi and other accused, Prasad said it was acknowledged and what action different departments took will be conveyed later.

Seeking to turn the heat on the Congress, Prasad pointed out that the alleged fraud had started in 2011 when it was in power and questioned whose "blessings" were with Mehul Choksi, Nirav's business partner, as the income of Choksi's firm Gitanjali Gems doubled between 2011-13.

The fraud has been unearthed under our government and action is being taken, he said.

Prasad also said that Nirav was not part of the prime minister's delegation to Davos and had come to the Swiss town on his own. He joined a CII delegation for a group photograph with him, he said.

"I wish to deny this with full authority. No personal meeting (of Nirav) with the prime minister took place," he said.

"Those living in glass houses, which are already broken, should not throw stones at us as the Modi government is working with full honesty. I want to make it clear on the government's behalf as well that nobody irrespective of his stature in the banking system will be spared," he said, admitting that establish banking practises were bypassed.

Tax payers money would not be allowed to go waste, he said.

He cited "speedy" action taken by the CBI and the Enforcement Direction after the scam came to light and said with 9 properties of the accused worth over Rs 1300 crore have been seized.

To a question about the accused having already fled India, he hinted that the government will move to get them deported, saying India's clout had increased and its voice was being heard by foreign countries.

"You wait for the action... Do you see any let up in our action against Vijay Mallya," he said, referring to the liquor baron being prosecuted by India on charges of cheating and fraud. He is currently in the UK after fleeing India.

Attacking Rahul Gandhi, Prasad referred to a tweet by a disgruntled Congress leader and said the Congress president had gone to attend an event organised by Choksi in 2013.

He claimed that the Congress' attack on the government was born out of its "pain" over its electoral losses and it will lose to the BJP in Tripura as well.

He asked the Congress not to do photo politics- a reference to Nirav's presence in a group picture with the prime minister- and said his party also has "cozy" photos of its leaders with Choksi but it will not stoop to this low.

Defending the government, he quoted Modi to say that no loan given by banks under his government had turned Non Performing Assets, which were a "legacy" of the UPA.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The lawyer of Rajasthan IPS officer Dinesh MN, named by the CBI as an accused in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter case, told the Bombay High Court today that the trial court discharged him because there was no prima facie evidence.

Raja Thakre also pointed out that the CBI chose not to challenge the lower court's discharge order.

While discharging Dinesh last year, the special CBI court not only cited lack of official sanction for his prosecution, but also noted that there existed no prima facie evidence against him, the lawyer said.

"The same court rejected the discharge applications filed by three junior police officers who were alleged to have accompanied me (Dinesh) to the encounter site. That is because the CBI had claimed they were the ones who shot at Sohrabuddin," Thakre said.

"The CBI failed to ascribe any distinct role to me and said merely that I had conspired to have Sohrabuddin and (his aide) Prajapati killed. However, the CBI court held that there was no prima facie evidence to suggest I had been part of the conspiracy, much less that I had a role to play in the actual killings," he said.

Therefore, Dinesh's discharge was akin to "acquittal", the lawyer claimed.

According to the CBI,Dinesh was involved in the fake encounters of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, a gangster who allegedly had terror links, and his associate Tulsiram Prajapati.

Dinesh travelled, on November 24, 2005, from Udaipur to Ahmedabad for executing the encounter, the agency had said, adding that he was accompanied by three junior officers of Rajasthan Police -- Rehman Abdul Khan, Kartar Singh and Yudhvir Singh.

Dinesh's contention is that he had gone to Ahmedabad to attend an official training program.

"I had the permission of the director general of Rajasthan Police, I stayed at the government circuit house. That proves that I had gone to Ahmedabad on official duty," his lawyer told the high court.

The high court is hearing, on a daily basis, applications filed by Sohrabuddin's brother Rubabuddin Shaikh, challenging the discharge of former deputy inspector-general of Gujarat D G Vanzara, Dinesh M N and Gujarat IPS officer Rajkumar Pandiyan.

The court is also hearing applications filed by the CBI challenging the discharge of Rajasthan Police constable Dalpat Singh Rathod and Gujarat Police officer N K Amin.

Meanwhile, three more prosecution witnesses turned hostile in the fake encounter cases' trial before the special CBI court here today.

The three witnesses refused to identify two farmhouses near Ahmedabad where Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi were allegedly kept before they were killed in fake encounter.

The panch witnesses said they had never been to the farmhouses, and had been just made to sign the panchnama (inspection report) by Gujarat Police.

A total of 33 witnesses has turned hostile in the case so far.

Sohrabuddin and Kausar Bi were killed in an alleged fake encounter by Gujarat Police in November 2005, while Prajapati was killed in another alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat and Rajasthan police in December 2006.

Of the 38 people charged by the CBI in the case, 15, including Vanzara, Pandiyan and Dinesh MN, and BJP president Amit Shah were discharged by the special CBI court.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Norway is working to put sustainable use of oceans on the top of the international agenda, the country's envoy here today said, exhorting the world to work together to check marine pollution.

Ambassador of Norway to India Nils Ragnar Kamsvag made the remarks during his address at the opening of the three-day World Sustainable Development Summit, hosted by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) at the India Habitat Centre.

The envoy cited an incident from last year, when a whale was found on the west coast of Norway, with over 30 plastic bags inside her stomach, to underscore his point.

"Its (beaked whale's) stomach and intestines were filled with large and small pieces of plastic. The images of this 'plastic whale', as it came to be known, became a symbol of us violating our natural habitat.

"This led thousands of new volunteers to clean up waste that was littering our beaches and fjords. Similar to the inspiring beach clean-up efforts at Versova Beach in Mumbai," Kamsvag was quoted as saying in a TERI statement.

The envoy said the garbage may have travelled the seas for a long time before being mistaken for food by the beaked whale.

"This means, we need to work together to solve this problem. We need international cooperation to make a difference," he said.

The Norwegian government is working to put sustainable use of healthy oceans "on the top of the international agenda" to move this crucial issue forward, Kamsvag said.

Incidentally, the Scandinavian nation will host the sixth 'Our Ocean' conference in 2019.

In the run-up to the conference, Norway intends to benefit from the insights generated by many ocean-related initiatives now underway.

The 'Our Ocean' conference focus on the key ocean issues - marine protected areas, sustainable fisheries, marine pollution, and climate-related impacts on the ocean.

"Our Prime Minister, Erna Solberg, is establishing an international High-level Panel on Building a Sustainable Ocean Economy. The objective is to increase international understanding of how the sustainable use of the oceans can play a key role in meeting the world's most vital needs in the years to come.

"The ambition is to make a significant contribution to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. There is global momentum for the sustainable use and conservation of the oceans," the Norwegian ambassador said.

He said Norway would like to encourage all of you, governments, research institutions, businesses and civil society to join the concerted effort and take action to develop a sustainable ocean economy.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Odisha government today said its "Vision 2025" seeks to diversify industrial development in the state with a target to attract investments worth Rs 2.5 lakh crore and generate jobs for 30 lakh people.

Principal Secretary, Industries, Sanjeev Chopra said this at a meeting in New Delhi held by the state government with trade consulates representing several European countries in the run up to 'Make in Odisha' conclave 2018.

The state government delegation led by Chopra said Vision 2025 aims to get the huge investment in focus sectors like ancillary and downstream in metal sector; chemicals, plastics and petrochemicals; electronics manufacturing and IT; agro and seafood processing; tourism and textiles.

"Owing to the proactive and progressive governance, the state of Odisha is fast emerging as the manufacturing hub of eastern India," Chopra said, addressing senior officials of various trade consulates and embassies at the meeting.

Stating that Odisha is on a steady path of progress and growing at a rate higher than the national average, he said business-friendly policies and development of world-class infrastructure have received very positive feedback from investors across the globe, an official release said.

Chopra also highlighted the advantages of doing business in Odisha like single window portal, low cost of doing business, dedicated sector-specific clusters and 1,00,000 acres of industrial land bank, among others.

Following the meeting with trade consulates, Odisha government will be inviting several countries from the European Union to participate in the Make in Odisha conclave as partner countries, another senior official said.

The second edition of the flagship Investors Meet of the state government will be organised during November 11-15, 2018. 'Make in Odisha' conclave will be part of the meet.

The first edition was held in 2016, which saw the state receive investment intent of Rs 2,03,270 crore across 10 diversified sectors, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Odisha government today rejected the Centre's offer to relax the quality norm for procuring paddy from districts affected by unseasonal rains, saying it will "adversely affect" the farmers.

The central government has reduced the minimum support price (MSP) for discoloured paddy from Rs 1,550 to Rs 1,410 per quintal, state Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister S N Patro said.

"This is not acceptable to the state as it will cause serious loss to the farmers. I have requested the chief minister to seek the intervention of the prime minister for the benefit of the farmers," he said.

The Centre has also relaxed the fair average quality (FAQ) specifications for paddy procurement in 15 districts affected by unseasonal rains, Patro said.

FAQ is used to describe food products such as grain and fruit that are of a good enough quality to be sold. FAQ norms for paddy is laid out by the Centre every year before the start of the procurement season.

"There is no meaning to relax the FAQ when the farmers will not get the appropriate MSP," he said.

The state government and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who hails from Odisha, separately wrote to the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution to relax FAQ norms for the paddy produced in the 15 unseasonal rain hit districts of Odisha.

Patro said the Centre had in 2010 relaxed the FAQ norms for three districts without changing the MSP.

Pradhan, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, however, said that by rejecting the Centre's offer, the state government has been forcing the farmers to get a price which will be at the whims of rice millers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Odisha government today announced roadshows in 10 countries as part of its efforts to attract more tourists to the state.

Over 1 lakh foreign tourists have visited the state in 2017, official sources said.

"The state will organize road shows in 10 countries, including the USA, the UK, Japan, France, Germany and China. These are the countries from where maximum tourists arrive in Odisha," state tourism secretary tourism Mona Sharma said after attending a Tourism Advisory Committee meeting here.

Chief Secretary A P Padhi, who presided over the meeting, also announced the setting up of an e-visa facility at Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar, Sharma said.

As Odisha now has the facility for international flight operations, the tourist footfall has increased, the tourism secretary said.

The meeting also deliberated on ways to attract more investments in hotel industry, she said.

"The arrival of foreign tourist has gone up to 1 lakh, a growth of around 31 per cent from last year. Similarly, the arrival of domestic tourists has also increased by around nine per cent," Sharma said.

The Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC) has also produced seven promotional films on the state's prospects and they were widely appreciated at home and abroad, the tourism secretary said.

Around 30 ecotourism spots have been developed in the state, the official said, adding that the state government has also lifted curbs on photography in tribal museums.

Around 37 tourism projects, involving private sector investments through a single window mechanism, have been approved by the state government in the last few years.

"Of these 37 projects, 12 have been cleared in 2017. The infrastructure for a tourist complex at Shamuka beach in Puri district has been laid and the project is now ready for allocation to private players," she added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Assuming the mantle of responsibility amid a power struggle in the AIADMK, Chief Minister K Palaniswami seems to have proved his mettle in his one-year-rule by overcoming challenges and effectively implementing the 'Amma' government policies.

The former MP hailing from Edapadi in Salem, who will be completing one year in office tomorrow, has been credited with deftly handling crisis after crisis that threatened the survival of the AIADMK government in its post Jayalalithaa era.

Senior party leader and AIADMK spokesperson, B Valarmathi, said Palaniswami has "learnt" from former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, the nuances of troubleshooting especially that of "fighting against all odds."



"He has done really well in the past one year, leading the party and government well as per the wishes of supporters and people. He has been fighting against all odds, in true Amma (Jayalalithaa) style," she told PTI today.

Jayalalithaa was often lauded for her determination in facing political and governance-related challenges and issues.

Valarmathi, a former minister, said Palaniswami has been "bravely facing so many problems," apparently referring to Palaniswami's tussle with sidelined party leader T T V Dhinakaran.

Political observers feel Palaniswami has delivered "effective governance" in the past one year even as AIADMK accuses the opposition of launching a "campaign of falsehoods" against the ruling dispensation.

Another party spokesperson, R M Babu Murugavel, said Palaniswami, along with his deputy O Panneerselvam, has ensured effective rule in the state.

Tamil Nadu was leading in many social and economic parameters including women's safety, education and law and order, he said, adding, this was proof of the Chief Minister's good governance.

Following the Panneerselvam storm last year owing to his differences with deposed and jailed party leader V K Sasikala and his subsequent revolt against her, the latter had nominated Palaniswami for the chief ministerial post.

Touted to be a Sasikala loyalist then, Palaniswami won a crucial confidence vote days after taking over as Chief Minister even as Panneerselvam continued his tirade against the government.

However, a twist in the script came in August last year when hectic backroom parleys led Palaniswami and Panneerselvam to bury the hatchet and merge their respective factions.

A key demand of the Panneeerselvam faction to order a probe into Jayalalithaa's death as a condition for merger was also met by Palaniswami.

The merger and subsequent elevation of Panneerselvam as deputy chief minister had angered Dhinakaran whom the Chief Minister-led cabinet had earlier sidelined.

During the year gone by, Palaniswami also faced a revolt by 18 AIADMK MLAs owing allegiance to Dhinakaran that threatened the government though they were subsequently disqualified by assembly speaker P Dhanapal.

Many political pundits initially gave little chance to Palaniswami in the wake of the Panneerselvam episode and later during his tussle with Dhinakaran.

However, they now seem to acknowledge that the leader, known for his calm demeanour, is a hard nut to crack, thanks to his political experience of nearly four decades.

State ministers, including D Jayakumar, now firmly assert that the government will not only live through its term ending 2021, but also continue in power thereafter.

In line with the AIADMK's 2016 poll manifesto, the government has commenced the process of state-run liquor shops.

Palaniswami's initial orders as chief minister was to close down 500 such outlets.

The government also recently unveiled the subsidised two-wheeler scheme for working women with an annual income of Rs 2.5 lakh which has elicited a huge response.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan today expressed serious concern about the move by some members of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to include it in the grey list ahead of the groups meet in Paris.

Foreign Office (FO) spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal at the regular press briefing accused the FATF of changing the goalposts to target Pakistan after some of its members nominated Pakistan for the grey list.

Pakistan has serious concern over and objections to the introduction of this new procedure, which is unprecedented and in clear violation of established rules/practices of the FATF. Since 2015, time and again the goal posts have been shifted for reporting by Pakistan, Faisal said.

The letter was politically motivated and its real aim was to hamper economic progress of Pakistan, as it was initiated even before the completion of Pakistans Mutual Evaluation and designed to manipulate the FATF process, he said.

Pakistan was listed as grey in 2012 but was removed in 2015 after strenuous efforts to address the concerns of the group, Faisal said.

After the exit (in 2015), the FATF referred Pakistan to the APG (Asia-Pacific Group) due to residuary concerns regarding implementation of UNSCR 1267 sanctions on some entities (Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, and Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation), he said.

He said while the APG was analyzing Pakistan's report, the US and UK jointly submitted a letter to the FATF on January 20, nominating Pakistan for placement in the grey list. France and Germany subsequently joined this nomination.

Faisal said every country goes through a peer-based evaluation process called Mutual Evaluation for monitoring of compliance with the FATF standards.

Since Pakistan is not a member of the FATF, its Mutual Evaluation is conducted by the APG.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was set up in 1989 with primary aim to set standards to combat money laundering but in 2001, its mandate was expanded to include countering terrorist financing. It can take action against any country by including a country in black or grey lists.

Talking about the Worldwide Threat Assessment Report by US, the spokesman said the singular negative focus on Pakistans nuclear programme is extremely unfortunate.

We have consistently maintained that Pakistans nuclear posture is purely defensive, in order to deter the aggressive designs of its hostile neighbour in the East, Faisal said.

He said the complete silence of the report on Indias ambitious nuclear programme and delivery system is really surprising and smacks of partisanship".

"Any credible threat assessment should have cautioned the world about Indias fast growing nuclear stockpiles and development of long-range delivery systems that have ignited a new arms race in our region," he added.

US President Donald Trump, in his first tweet of 2018, had lashed out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to terrorists and accused it of "lies and deceit" and of fooling US leaders while sheltering terrorists.

Unveiling his new South Asia policy in August last year, Trump had warned of tougher measures against Pakistan if it failed to cooperate with the US in the fight against terror.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan today said that it was fully prepared to defend itself in case of any "aggression" by India and asked New Delhi to stop blaming it without any concrete evidence.

Foreign Office spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal made the comment while addressing a media briefing.

If India is bent upon aggression, Pakistan is fully capable of defending itself. The Pakistani nation should not be taken for granted by anyone. If India wants peace then it should refrain from aggressive rhetoric with the sole objective of securing electoral wins, he said.

He said India has a "kneejerk" tendency to assign unilateral blame without evidence and it also blamed Pakistan for spy pigeons and worse but Pakistan strongly rejects the allegations.

He said a similar tendency was shown after Sunjwan camp attack and certain Indian police and defence officials, and media insinuated against Pakistan.

A group of heavily armed Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists struck the sprawling camp of the 36 brigade of Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry in the early hours on February 10, triggering a gunbattle. Seven people were killed in the attack.

He also rejected the comments of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman by saying that "the familiar tendency of apportioning blame on Pakistan, without concrete evidence, is regrettable".

Sitharaman had blamed Pakistan for the terror attack at the Sunjuwan Military Camp and made it clear that it will pay the price for the "misadventure".

We have repeatedly seen India arrogating to itself the role of judge, jury and executioner. The reflex assignment of blame and smear campaigns, based on unfounded allegations, carry no credibility, Faisal said.

To a question, he defended the regular summoning of Indian deputy high commissioner over LoC violations which he said was part of responsibility of Pakistan is to effectively and emphatically defend its borders, be they physical, diplomatic, political or intellectual.

He also said Pakistan does not support any move by foreign states to interfere in the internal affairs of the Maldives and influence its upcoming elections.

We believe that the internal affairs of Maldives should be solved internally in consultation with all the stakeholders. The sovereignty and territorial integrity of Maldives should be respected by all, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistans Supreme Court today issued an arrest warrant for the country's former envoy to the US Husain Haqqani after he failed to appear before it in the 'Memogate' case.

The Memogate case is based on a 'memo' which Haqqani, who currently lives in the US, allegedly gave to a high-ranking American official in May 2011, seeking US help against possible military intervention.

Haqqani denied any role in the 'memo' but a judicial commission in 2012 held him responsible.

A case was also launched at the Supreme Court against him and he was forced to quit as Pakistan's Ambassador to the US.

Haqqani left the country in January 3, 2013 after a commitment with the court that he would come back to face charges but never returned.

Chief Justice Saqib Nisar on February 1 set up a three-member bench to take up the case.

During todays hearing, he said that Haqqani had submitted an undertaking before leaving for the US that he would appear before the court but has failed.

A court official said that Additional Attorney General Rana Waqar told the court that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has asked Interpol to issue a red warrant against Haqqani.

He also informed the court that the FIA needs an arrest warrant issued by the court to proceed against Haqqani.

The bench accepted the plea and issued the arrest warrant against him.

It is however unlikely that he would return or handed over by the US authorities to Pakistan.

Haqqani said recently that he would not return to face the case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Palm oil imports surged by 36.17 per cent to 8,34,444 tonnes in January 2018 on increased shipment of crude palm oil (CPO), industry body Solvent Extractors Association (SEA) said today.

India, the world's leading vegetable oil buyer, had imported 6,12,762 tonne palm oil in January 2017.

The country's total vegetable oil imports increased by over 25 per cent to 12.91 lakh tonnes in January this year from 10.28 lakh tonnes in the year-ago.

The share of palm oil is more than 60 per cent of the country's total vegetable oil imports.

Among palm oil products, import of CPO increased by 63.23 per cent to 6,72,762 tonnes in January this year from 4,12,140 tonnes in the same period last year.

The shipment of crude palm kernel oil (CPKO) also increased to 11,018 tonne from 3,999 tonne, while that of RBD palmolein declined to 1,50,664 tonne from 1,96,623 tonne in the said period.

The industry body has expressed concern that viability of local refineries processing CPO are hit because of nil import duty on by-products like PFAD and palm stearin.

"Palm Stearin and PFAD are generated to the extent of 25 per cent to CPO. Import duty on actual user condition on these by-products is nil and their import is increasing up by leaps and bounds seriously affecting the viability of refineries engaged in processing of CPO," it said in a statement.

Among soft oil, import of soybean oil increased to 2,24,870 tonnes in January 2018 from 1,66,573 tonnes in the year-ago.

The shipment of sunflower oil, however, declined to 1,70,831 tonnes from 2,14,872 tonnes, while that of rapeseed oil to 16,702 from 17,878 tonnes in the said period.

In the Budget 2018, the government hiked import duty on crude cottonseed oil, olive oil and safflower oil to 30 per cent from 12.5 per cent, and on refined oils to 35 per cent in line with other crude and refined oils.

Also, the government has announced 10 per cent social welfare surcharge on all imported goods including edible oils and this will increase marginally the import duty, the SEA said.

India imports palm oil mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia, and a small quantity of crude soft oil, including soybean oil from Latin America. Sunflower oil is imported from Ukraine and Russia.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A parliamentary panel on Thursday questioned ministry officials about the alleged $1.77 billion (Rs 113.6 billion) fraud in state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) and asked them to submit a report on it.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, which met to deliberate upon the demands for grant, asked the ministry officials, including Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar, that how could the taxpayers money be used for recapitalising the bank which was not well managed.

Members expressed their concern over such large-scale fraud in PNB and questioned the recapitalisation process of the state-run when they are not well managed and the taxpayers money is leaking, a member, who was present in the meeting, said.

The committee is headed by senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily, and former prime minister Manmohan Singh is also a member.

The committee has asked the ministry officials to submit a report before the panel on this fraud, another member told PTI.

In what could be the biggest banking fraud in India, PNB had on Wednesday said it detected a Rs 113.6 billion scam in which billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from one of its branches for overseas credit from other Indian lenders. PNB has suspended 10 officers and referred the matter to the CBI for investigation.

While PNB did not name the other lenders, Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank are said to have offered credit based on LoUs issued by PNB.



An LOU is a letter of comfort issued by one bank to branches of other banks, based on which foreign branches offer credit to buyers. Foreign bank branches too are under investigation.

In the complaint, PNB had named three diamond firms  Diamonds R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds  saying they had approached it on January 16 with a request for buyers credit for making payment to overseas suppliers.

Nobody will be spared: FinMin

The ministry on Thursday said the assets in the Nirav Modi fraud case would be recovered and nobody would be spared.

Talking to reporters on the PNB fraud case, Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar said the bank would make the required provisioning and that it had sufficient funds for it.

Whole lot of assets will be recovered. Nobody will be spared, Kumar said.

The secretary further said the issue was an isolated case of a single branch and all possible action will be taken against the guilty persons.



This is not likely to escalate to other We have already frozen the case, he said, adding all other have been alerted about the case.Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was today admitted in a private hospital in Mumbai after he complained of stomachache and underwent a check-up at Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).

He was admitted to Leelavati Hospital in Mumbai today.

"His treatment is being overseen by senior oncologist P Jagannath," said an official at the hospital.

The official said, "Primary symptoms in Parrikar's case appears to be of an ailment similar to what actor Amitabh Bachchan had been diagnosed with in 2005."



"Jagannath is the same doctor who successfully performed a surgery on Amitabh Bachchan for diverticulitis, a condition where balloon-like pouches develop in the large intestine.

"Primary symptoms of the Goa chief minister look similar. We need to wait for results of tests that may be carried out (before reaching a conclusion)," he said.

Parrikar was brought to Mumbai by a flight after initial examination at the GMCH for apparent food poisoning, an official in the chief minister's office had said earlier.

He visited the GMCG last night for check-up, complaining of stomach pain, the official said.

"He went home after initial check-up and again came to the hospital this morning for a second round of check-up. His health is better now, but he has been referred to a hospital in Mumbai for further check-up," the official had said.

The budget session of the Goa Assembly will begin on Monday. Parrikar, who also holds finance portfolio, would be presenting the Budget during the session.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Punjab Cabinet today approved policies on tourism, advertisement and foodgrain transportation even as all ministers announced that they would voluntarily pay their own income tax, which at present is being given from the state exchequer.

The development comes within days of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh suggesting that elected representatives of the state, including ministers and MLAs, pay their own income tax.

In a Cabinet meeting, chaired by Amarinder Singh here, it was announced that all state ministers would voluntarily pay their own income tax, which is currently being paid out of the government exchequer.

The announcement followed a personal appeal by the chief minister during a meeting of the state Cabinet here, an official spokesperson said.

With respect to MLAs, Amarinder Singh had said that the final decision on their self-payment of income tax would be taken after receiving their feedback on the proposal.

The tax is currently being paid by the government and draining the exchequer, the chief minister had said on Tuesday.

Punjab is probably the only state in the country to follow the system of the government paying taxes for all ministers and MLAs, Amarinder Singh had said.

The tax being paid by the state government on this account stood at Rs 11.08 crore, while Rs 10.72 crore was spent on payment of income tax of the MLAs, the remaining was for the ministers, an official release said.

The Cabinet also approved the Punjab Municipal Outdoor Advertisement Policy-2018, aimed at regulating the process of outdoor advertising in order to address technological changes in the field, while ensuring enhanced public safety, the release said.

It is expected that this policy would lead to generation of an additional Rs 200 crore in revenue for the state.

The new policy stipulates provisions relating to permissible content on outdoor advertisement and also provides for identification of suitable places where advertisement rights can be awarded, it said.

In the absence of such a policy, the government was being deprived of revenue while private companies were making money, Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu told the Cabinet.

Another major decision of the cabinet was to approve the draft of Punjab State Tourism Policy, 2018, aimed at doubling the annual tourist visits and establishing the state as a world-class destination in the next five years, the official release said.

Giving its approval on the draft, the state cabinet agreed that the new policy would help attract high value tourism through responsible and sustainable development of sensitive tourism resources through a series of initiatives, including information dissemination and optimal use of electronic techniques including the social media.

The new policy, aimed at providing impetus to the tourism industry, will replace the existing tourism policy, it said.

Under the new policy, the state government would work to double the annual tourist visits from 25 million to 50 million in the next five years by creating new infrastructure and improving the existing one, the release said.

To facilitate smooth and timely procurement of grains during the 2018-19 Rabi season, the Punjab Cabinet has given its nod to the Punjab Food Grains Transportation Policy, 2018-19 and the Punjab Labour & Cartage Policy, 2018-19.

Meanwhile, a cabinet sub-committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu to crackdown on unauthorised occupation of government land in the state, the release said.

Finance Minister Manpreet Badal and Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa are other members of the committee, an official spokesperson said.

The sub-committee has been tasked with identification of such unauthorised occupation. It will also suggest ways and means of getting such properties vacated in order to help the state government monetise them and raise the much-needed revenue, he said.

The Cabinet also approved restructuring and renaming of key departments relating to planning and policy, a release said.

It gave the go-ahead to renaming the Department of Planning as Department of Economic Policy and Planning, while the Punjab State Planning Board will be known as Economic Policy and Planning Board.

This will help the two units to primarily focus more cogently on formulating policies for the development of the state, and on monitoring and reviewing the implementation of these policies, besides suggesting mid-course corrections.

The decision has been taken following the abolition of Planning Commission, the Government of India, which has now been replaced with the NITI Aayog - an organisation entrusted with the task of policy making, the official release said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to constitute a committee to be headed by him for the commemoration of 550th birth anniversary of Sikh Guru Nanak Dev.

The 550th Prakash Utsav of the first Guru of the Sikhs will be celebrated in 2019.

He in a letter said it would be most appropriate that the prime minister heads this committee under the aegis of Ministry of Culture to impart a sense of purpose to the efforts, according to an official release.

The chief minister also sought special assistance from the Centre to the state government for both commemorative and infrastructure projects, especially in places associated with the life of the first Guru of the Sikhs.

He informed Modi that a detailed report is being prepared and sent to him shortly.

Amarinder Singh said the state government had decided to commemorate the event in a befitting manner so that the teachings and message of the great Guru could be showcased before the country as well as the rest of the world.

The chief minister also pointed out that a state-level committee had been constituted to draw up an action plan and a programme of events.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi's brother and president of Gujarat Fair Price Shop Owners Association Prahlad Modi today said several people have been denied monthly ration at fair price shops in the state because of problems in the software installed at these shops.

The state government had launched Maa Annapurna Yojana in April 2016 to provide subsidised food-grains to eligible beneficiaries through 17,000-odd ration (fair price) shops under the National Food Security Act.

These shops are linked with central database through the E-FPS software. Under the system, a customer has to give Aadhaar card details and thumb impression to avail his or her quota of ration.

Prahlad Modi, who is the younger brother of the prime minister, said this software is not working properly at several shops, forcing beneficiaries to go back empty-handed.

Talking to PTI, Modi said several fair price shops in the state have complained about difficulties in the software which validates thumb impressions of customers and reads their Aadhaar cards.

"There are a number of problems with the software. Sometimes it does not read the thumb impression and doesnt accept Aadhaar card details when it takes a little longer to process. At times, there is a problem while logging in as the software runs slow," he said.

The government should ensure that these problems are sorted out, and, in the meantime, shop owners should be allowed to use the old manual system for disbursing the monthly ration, he demanded.

"The government should provide an alternative so that a customer is not forced to go back empty handed. It should also provide training to shop owners on how to operate the software," he added.

Modi and other members of his association met senior officials of the Food, Civil Supply and Consumer Affairs Department in this regard yesterday.

"The government has agreed that no beneficiary should be forced to go back without subsidised food-grains due to the problems in the software. It has assured that some alternative will be provided until the problems are sorted out," he said. The state government has installed the E-FPS software at 17,000 odd ration shops in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi had left the country on January 1 much before the CBI received a complaint from Punjab National Bank on January 29 about a Rs 2.8 billion fraud, officials said.

His brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, also left the country on January 1, while wife Ami, a US citizen, and business partner Mehul Choksi, the Indian promoter of Gitanjali jewellery chain, departed on January 6, the officials said.

The agency issued a lookout circular against all the four after registering the first FIR against them, they said.

A lookout circular is issued by enforcement agencies to all exit and entry ports to inform them about the movement of an accused.

Modi, who is believed to be in Switzerland, was also present in a group photo of Indian CEOs with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, issued by the Press Information Bureau, in World Economic Forum on January 23, six days before the bank sent its first complaint against him to the CBI, according to the officials.

The diamantaire is an India citizen but his brother Nishal and wife Ami are not Indian nationals, the officials said.

Nirav Modi, a regular feature on the lists of rich and famous Indians since 2013, was booked by the CBI, along with wife, brother and business partner Choksi on January 31, for allegedly cheating the state-run Punjab National Bank to the tune of Rs 2.8 billion.

The bank has sent two more complaints to the CBI on Tuesday, saying the scam was worth more than Rs 114 billionBillionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi and other members of his family, who fled the country last month, allegedly made fraudulent transactions of over Rs 114 billion through 150 letters of understanding issued by the Punjab National Bank, officials said.

Nirav Modi, who holds an Indian passport, left India on January 1, while his brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, also left the country on same day. However, whether they travelled together has to be probed, they said.

Nirav Modi's wife Ami, a US citizen, left on January 6 and his uncle and business partner Mehul Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali jewellery chain, left on January 4, the officials said.

The bank became suspicious only on January 16 when the accused companies --Diamond R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds (all accused in the CBI FIR) -- approached it with import documents and a request to issue Letters of Understanding (LoUs) for raising buyers' credit for making payments to the overseas suppliers.

The bank, however, could not find any past entries in the system, the FIR has alleged.

It approached the CBI on January 29 with a complaint of Rs 2.8 billion fraud, officials said.

Nirav Modi, who is believed to be in Switzerland, was also present in a group photograph of Indian CEOs with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, issued by the Press Information Bureau, during the World Economic Forum on January 23, six days before the bank sent its first complaint against him to the CBI, according to the officials.

The agency immediately swung into action registering an FIR on January 31 followed by searches at 20 locations in Mumbai and Surat and issued a look out circular on February 4 against Nirav Modi and three absconding accused, they said.

A look out circular is issued by enforcement agencies to all exit and entry ports to inform them about the movement of an accused.

Nirav Modi, a regular on the lists of rich and famous Indians since 2013, was booked by the CBI, along with wife, brother and business partner Choksi on January 31, for allegedly cheating the state-run Punjab National Bank to the tune of Rs 2.8 billion.

The bank again approached the CBI within a fortnight of the first complaint giving details of more transactions which were over Rs 114 billion.

The question why the PNB did not send a complaint to the CBI and decided to give it in tranches is also under the scanner of the agency, they said.

An LoU is a letter of comfort issued by one bank to branches of other banks, based on which foreign branches offer credit to buyers.

The bank has claimed in three complaints to the CBI that so far it has detected 150 LoUs which were fraudulently issued by its officials in connivance with Nirav Modi and the other accused in the case, officials said.

The agency is analysing the fresh complaints and will take a call whether to register fresh FIRs or expand the ambit of the existing FIR related to fraudulent transactions of worth Rs 2.80 billion, they said.

In these cases, the bank has alleged that the LOUs were issued to Hong Kong based branches of Allahabad and Axis bank, they said.

The PNB has claimed in the complaint that overseas branch of used the funds to clear their own liabilities, the officials said.

During searches conducted by the agency which included the residences of Nirav Modi and the other accused along with companies, the CBI recovered 95 crucial documents related to import bills, they said.

The agency has also seized computers and other digital devices and has completed mirror imaging of computers seized during the searches, the officials said.As a political storm brewed over India's biggest bank fraud, Punjab National Bank today said billionaire diamantaire Nirav Modi has made "vague" offers to repay some of the $1.77 billion he and companies linked to him obtained in loans abroad using fraudulently acquired guarantees of the state-owned lender.

A fortnight after the scam was first reported, PNB Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Mehta said it has the capability to recover the dues from Modi and promised to take action against all wrongdoers.

As the Enforcement Directorate conducted multiple searches on establishments linked to Modi, seizing diamonds, jewellery and gold worth Rs 51 billion and sealing six properties, the ministry said recovery would be made and nobody will be spared.

"Whole lot of assets will be recovered. Nobody will be spared," Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar said, adding that the scam was an "isolated case of a single branch" and is not likely to escalate to other

PNB has already suspended 10 officers and referred the matter to CBI for investigation.

Opposition seized on the issue, with Congress releasing a picture of Nirav Modi in the business delegation that met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Davos at the World Economic Forum last month.

"Guide to looting India by Nirav Modi--1. Hug PM Modi 2. Be seen with him in DAVOS. Use that clout to: A. Steal 12,000 crore B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the government looks the other way," party president Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

Attacking the government, Aam Aadmi Party alleged that Nirav Modi could flee the country because he had access to the Prime Minister's Office.

Modi, who grew up in Antwerp and has boutiques in cities including New York, London, Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore, left the country on January 1, much before the CBI received a complaint from PNB on January 29, putting an initial estimate of the fraud at Rs 2.8 billion.

His brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, also left the country on January 1, while wife Ami, a US citizen, and business partner Mehul Choksi, the Indian promoter of Gitanjali jewellery chain, departed on January 6, officials said.

PNB alleges that Modi, his wife and brother worked with some officials at a Mumbai branch to obtain letters of undertaking in 2011 without following due procedures. The officers did not record transaction entries in the bank's systems but transmitted instructions to foreign branches of including Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank through the SWIFT global payment system.

The case came to light when Modi's companies sought a fresh loan last month. By then, the officials who were allegedly conniving with them had retired and the new ones asked for 100 per cent cash margin to issue the letters. When Modi's companies insisted that they had used the facility before, PNB got alerted.

"This cancer that's been going on since 2011, we have brought it out and we are resolving it," PNB's Mehta said at a press conference, adding that the bank would honour all its commitments. "If the entire onus is on us, we will take responsibility."



Mehta said the bank detected the fraud and has referred the matter to the law enforcement agencies.

"Nirav Modi has not come out with any concrete plan to repay so far. But they're coming out with some vague offers, which are under examination," Mehta said.

Modi, he said, has not come to the bank "personally" and "we have requested to him to come and give us a written plan and how he is going to make a repayment".

He said Modi had sent a formal message last week.

Asked about recovery of the amount, Mehta said the process has been initiated and the Enforcement Directorate has started seizing assets. "We are trying to protect the interest of all the lenders," he said.

He said the bank was examining its whole system. "If we find any loopholes, we will plug them up," he said, adding it was a standalone case limited to one of its branches in Mumbai. He also said all other branches of the bank have been scanned to check any fraudulent activity.

Mehta further said that the government too was examining the issue on day-to-day basis.

"The matter is under investigation. We have not received any direction from our regulator RBI in the matter but they are our regulator, whatever direction they will give we will comply," Mehta said.

On the amount of provisioning the bank would be required to make, the CMD said it was difficult to give any technical number "right now" as the matter was under investigation.

He, however, said the bank will honour all its bona-fide commitments. "We want to convey to all our stakeholders that PNB is pursuing clean banking agenda as a responsible bank."



He also said the bank conducts forensic audit where it has doubt that fraud has been committed.

"This is the thing which is already documented so we may not require it. But if there is need be we may go for it," he said, amid volley of questions from reporters at the press conference.

The PNB CMD further said the bank has informed all other lenders about the case.

"We have issued advisory as well to them. We were the first to inform SEBI about this under the disclosure norms. So all these things are as per our clean banking agenda," Mehta added.

In the last 123 years, he said the bank has seen many ups and downs.

"The bank in its full capacity will take every action to book wrongdoers. This fraud had started in 2011. Our own bank detected first and told the law enforcement agencies about this. PNB is fully committed to its clean banking policy. That is why we are the first one to detect and report this to the various law enforcement agencies," he said.

PNB shares continued to bleed for the second day in a row, ending with a steep loss of 12 per cent at Rs 128.35 apiece on BSE.

(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.)Accusing the opposition of sympathising with criminals, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today declared in the state Legislative Council that police encounters in the state would not stop.

Speaking in the House during the Zero Hour, Adityanath pointed toward the opposition and said everybody knew who gave patronage to criminals.

A total of 40 dreaded criminals have been gunned down in 1200 encounters, and this will continue, the chief minister said.

He was replying to Devendra Pratap Singh's (BJP) question on propriety pertaining to the February 13 directive of Chairman Ramesh Yadav asking the Yogi Adityanath government to get a CBI probe conducted into three cases, including of two police encounters.

"It is unfortunate that some people are showing sympathy toward criminals. This is dangerous for democracy. The Noida incident which took place on February 3, in which Jitendra Yadav was hit by a bullet was not a police encounter, and police does not count it as an encounter. Even the person affected had endorsed it," Adityanath said.

The chief minister urged the Chair to consider the questions raised by Devendra Pratap Singh.

To this, Leader of Opposition Ahmed Hasan (SP) said the Chair had already directed the government to get a CBI probe conducted. "Now it can either recommend a CBI probe or may not do so. What is the relevance of the objection," Hasan asked.

Later, Chairman Ramesh Yadav said he would reserve his decision on the question of propriety raised by Singh.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The process to give out-of-turn promotion to Constable Raghunath Gaith, who foiled the suicide attack by militants on a CRPF camp in Karan Nagar, has been initiated, a senior officer said today.

On Monday, a gunfight broke out between security forces and militants after their attempt to strike the CRPF camp here was foiled. Mujahid Khan, a jawan of the paramilitary force from Bihar, was killed in the incident.

"We have started the process of out-of-turn promotion for Raghunath Gaith. He foiled the suicide attack on our Karan Nagar Battalion headquarters. The jawans who foiled the suicide attack at Sumbal (in Bandipora district) last year, will also be given out-of-turn promotions," Director General, CRPF, R R Bhatnagar told reporters here.

He also congratulated CRPF personnel for a clean operation at Karan Nagar as there was no collateral damage.

"Our jawan, Mujahid Khan, gave the best example of bravery and sacrifice by laying down his life while fighting the terrorists at Karan Nagar. I salute his bravery and sacrifice. I also congratulated the jawans for their quick response to the 'fidayeen' (suicide) attack and ensuring that the terrorists did not get away," the DG CRPF said.

Bhatnagar said that he has also awarded the personnel who took part in successful operations against militants in the Valley in this and last year.

He said that the successful run of security forces against militants would continue as all agencies -- the CRPF, the police and the Army -- were working in excellent coordination.

"The operations (against militants) will continue," he said.

Asked if the CRPF will share its strategy for successfully foiling two suicide attacks within eight months with other forces such as the Army, Bhatnagar evaded a direct reply saying "all security forces are working with alertness and success. They will continue to do so".

Replying to a question, the DG said that the CRPF will provide the compensation due to Khan's family within the next few days.

"We take care of the families of our martyrs. They (Khan's family) will get compensation within two to three days. We have taken an initiative 'Bharat Kay Veer' in which Rs 25 crore has been collected for the jawans," he said.

"As far as (Khan's family) returning the compensation that was from the Bihar government. We are in touch with the Bihar government on that (issue)," he said.

The family members of Khan had yesterday refused a cheque of Rs 5 lakh from the Bihar government, saying it was "demeaning" as Army personnel killed in such incidents get Rs 11 lakh.

Asked if there was possibility of more suicide attacks in Kashmir, Bhatnagar said security agencies were acting on all intelligence inputs. "What all intelligence inputs we have, I can share it," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court has criticised a Bombay High Court order granting bail to three accused in a 2014 sensational murder case of Pune-based techie Shaikh Mohsin and said a court cannot make observations which may appear to be "coloured with a bias for or against a community".

The top court set aside the order of Bombay High Court of January 12, 2017, by which it had granted bail to all the three accused in the case.

A bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao set aside the high court's decision to grant bail to the accused who were allegedly members of right wing outfit Hindu Rashtra Sena, saying it was difficult to understand why the high court said that "the fault of the deceased was only that he belonged to another religion".

We have no doubt that a Court, fully conscious of the plural composition of the country, while called upon to deal with rights of various communities, cannot make such observations which may appear to be coloured with a bias for or against a community," the bench said.

Critical of the views expressed by the high court, the top court said, "It is possible that the Judge wanted to rule out a personal motive against the victim, but only emphasised communal hatred. It is also possible that the single judge may not have intended to hurt the feelings of any particular community or support the feelings of another community but the words are clearly vulnerable to such criticism. The direction cannot be sustained."



The apex court further said "the fact that the deceased belonged to a certain community cannot be a justification for any assault, much less a murder".

The high court had in the bail order observed that the fault of the deceased was only that he belonged to another religion. I consider this factor in favour of the applicants/accused. Moreover, the applicants/accused do not have criminal record and it appears that in the name of the religion, they were provoked and have committed the murder."



The apex court said the single judge of the high court may not have intended to hurt the feelings of any community but the words were clearly vulnerable to such criticism.

It allowed the appeal of the brother of the deceased and directed the accused to be taken into custody and their bail application to be heard afresh by the high court.

The top court said the bail applications of the accused should be decided by the high court within six weeks.

Mohsin was assaulted and killed by a group of around 25 people for allegedly sporting a beard and wearing a pastel green-coloured shirt while he was on his way with his friend to have dinner.

The accused were alleged to be highly motivated after attending a meeting of Hindu Rashtra Sena, half an hour before the incident and ended up assaulting the victim.

The sessions court had rejected bail to the accused saying the deceased was assaulted because he looked like a Muslim and that the deceased prima facie had no concern with disgracing Shivaji Maharaj.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and his ministers today announced that they would voluntarily pay their own income tax, which at present is being given from the state exchequer.

The development comes within days of Singh suggesting that elected representatives of the state, including ministers and MLAs, pay their own income tax.

The announcement followed a personal appeal by the chief minister during a meeting of the state Cabinet here, an official spokesperson said.

With respect to MLAs, Singh had said that the final decision on their self-payment of income tax would be taken after receiving their feedback on the proposal.

The tax is currently being paid by the government and draining the exchequer, the chief minister had said on Tuesday.

Punjab is probably the only state in the country to follow the system of the government paying taxes for all ministers and MLAs, Singh had said.

He had pointed out that the tax being paid by the state government in this regard stood at Rs 11.08 cr. While Rs 10.72 cr was being spent on payment of income tax of the MLAs, the remaining was for ministers, the chief minister had said.

Singh has also been appealing to members of the Congress in Punjab and rich farmers to give up their power subsidy in the state's larger interest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat today held extensive talks with Britan's Chief of General Staff Gen Nicholas Carter and explored ways to expand defence cooperation between the two countries.

Rawat and Carter also deliberated on evolving security situation in the region, an Army official said.

"The focus of talks was on enhancing bilateral defence cooperation," he said.

India and Britain have robust defence cooperation. All the three services of both the countries regularly hold joint exercises besides having wide-ranging cooperation in other areas.

The last joint exercise between the armies of the two countries was held in Bikaner from December 1-14 last year.

The joint naval exercise 'Konkan' was held in May last year at Plymouth in the UK.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Banks should not refuse to accept coins of all denominations from customers and any non-compliance may result into penal action, the Reserve Bank said today.

Despite advisory that none of the bank branches should refuse to accept small denomination notes or coins tendered at their counters, complaints keep coming about non-acceptance of coins by bank branches, RBI said.

Denial to accept coins, either for exchange or deposit, leads to refusal on the part of the shopkeepers and small traders which causes inconvenience to the public at large, the bank said.

"You are, therefore, once again advised to immediately direct all your branches to accept coins of all denominations tendered at their counters either for exchange or for deposit in accounts," RBI directed all the banks.

The regulator has also advised banks, preferably to accept coins, particularly, in Re 1 and Rs 2 denominations by weighment.

However, accepting coins packed in polythene sachets of 100 each would perhaps be more convenient for the cashiers as well as the customers, it said.

"Such polythene sachets may be kept at the counters and made available to the customers. A notice to this effect may be displayed suitably inside as also outside the branch premises for information of the public."



In order to obviate the problems of storage of coins at the branches, coins may be remitted to the currency chests as per the existing procedure, it added.

The stock thus built in the currency chest should be utilised for the purpose of re-circulation.

"Any non-compliance in this regard shall be viewed as violation of instructions issued by the Reserve Bank of India and action including penal measures as applicable from time to time, may be initiated," RBI added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A retired government official and his wife were allegedly killed with their throats slit in their house here today, the police said.

Additional Superintendent of Police, Munger, Harishankar Prasad, said a newspaper hawker raised an alarm this morning when he noticed a stream of blood coming out of the house of 75-year-old Rajniti Kunwar.

When neighbours forced open the door, Kunwar and his 70-year-old wife Kanti were found dead with their throats slit, Prasad said.

He said investigations were on to ascertain the motive of the killings and identify the culprits.

Kunwar had retired from the post of Circle Officer in the district in 2002, Prasad said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Iranian President Hassan Rouhani today lauded India's cultural diversity, saying multiple faiths and schools of thought co-exist peacefully in the county.

Speaking at a meeting with Muslim intellectuals, scholars and clerics here tonight, Rouhani, who arrived here on a three-day India visit, said Islam is not a religion of violence, but one of moderation.

"Iran wants unity, independence and support for the East. Iran wants fraternity with India. We do not want to have any differences with other countries as well," said Rouhani who is on his first India visit since assuming charge as president in 2013.

The Iranian President lauded India's culture and traditions, and said the country was a "living museum" of religions and schools of thought.

"We see a lot of temples, other places of worship, and they are living in peace. They are having peaceful co-existence," he said.

Muslims, non-Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs are coexisting in peace in India, he said.

However, the West has created fissures between nations, he said.

"The enemies of Islam want to represent Islam as a religion of violence. Islam is not a religion of violence. Islam is a religion of moderation, Islam is a religion of kindness," he said.

Iran believes that there is no military solution to problems which are diplomatic in nature, Rouhani said.

"When a war is imposed, people have no other option but to defend themselves, and those who defend are the true companions and true followers of the almighty God," he said.

"The Western world oppressed and exploited the Eastern world and its resources" and caused tensions and differences to arise between oriental countries, he said.

"When we Muslims (in the past centuries) possessed universities and technologies, and others did not possess (them), we...transferred our teachings and science to them.

"However, when they (West) reached the (same level of progress), they did not (give) the same treatment. They did not provide us with technology fairly and justly," he said.

Calling for unity among Muslims, Rouhani said his country wants to clear the "hurdles" faced by the people of war-torn countries such as Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Yemen are facing.

"We want to clear the hurdles for the people of Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen. The solution is unity and brotherhood in joint effort," he said.

Despite tight security, Rouhani allowed some of those present to click selfies with him after the speech.

Iran Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif also spoke at the event.

The Iranian President is scheduled to visit the famous Mecca Masjid here and offer prayers tomorrow. Later, he would be leaving for New Delhi.

Earlier, he arrived in Hyderabad on a special flight from Tehran and was received by Union Minister of State for Power R K Singh and Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan along with senior officials of Telanaga government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An industrialist from Tamil Nadu today made an offering of Rs one crore at the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala here with a request to use the donation for a temple-run trust for handicapped.

The devotee Shobhana Ramachandhran, Managing Director, TVS Srichakra Limited, Madurai handed over the bank DD for Rs one crore to K S Srinivasa Raju, Joint Executive Officer, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, that governs the temple, temple sources said.

Last week the Chennai based Sri Guru Chandrikananda Samiti Trust had donated Rs one crore with a request to utilise the offering for a temple-run Vedic Trust, the sources said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat will address representatives of various wings affiliated with the organisation during its Sangh-Samagam here on February 18.

The RSS chief arrived here today on a five-day tour during which he will hold regular interaction with Swayamsevaks from February 15 to 20 at the Trade Facilitation Centre at Bada Lalpur.

Senior RSS leaders Dattatreya Hosabale, Indresh Kumar, Suresh Soni, Krishna Gopal, Bhaiyyaji Joshi among others will also be present during the session.

Meanwhile, the Congress party today lodged its protest against the RSS chief alleging that the RSS was misusing government institution.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Sanskrit is a "flexible" language and scientists have agreed that it is suitable for computer-based communications, Assam Governor Jagadish Mukhi said today.

It is a "scientific" language with a vast vocabulary, he said after inaugurating three-day conference - "Sanskrit: The Inexhaustible Source of Knowledge" - at Nalbari here.

"Flexibility is a notable aspect of Sanskrit, and scientists today have agreed that it is the most suitable language for communicating through computers," Mukhi asserted.

Sanskrit, the mother of all languages, has its origins in India and the world knows that, the governor said.

Former vice-chancellor of Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi, Professor Radhavallabh Tripathi, who delivered the key note address at the programme, said Sanskrit is a source of wisdom and a potent medium for intellectual discourses.

The three-day conference has been organised by Kumar Bhaskar Varma Sanskrit and Ancient Studies University under the patronage of the Assam Department of Education.

Lauding the efforts of the university, Mukhi said all branches of knowledge, be it humanities or sciences, have flourished in Sanskrit.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court today directed the Punjab and Haryana High Court to dispose of an appeal in a case related to a gang rape in a Haryana private university within five months.

A bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao said its earlier direction, staying the order on suspension of the sentence in the case, will continue till the high court disposes of the appeal.

The court was hearing a plea by the woman, challenging the bail granted to the convicts in the case by the high court.

The trial court had awarded 20 years imprisonment to two of the convicts for various offences under the Indian Penal Code, including gang rape and criminal conspiracy, and the provisions of the Information Technology Act.

The third accused was awarded a seven-year jail term after being convicted in the case.

However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had suspended their sentences on the pleas filed by them and granted them bail.

The apex court had on February 7 said it cannot tolerate "continuous blackmail" and asked the convicts to share the password of 'iCloud', where they had allegedly stored obscene photographs of the woman.

'iCloud' is a mobile application used for storing data, including photographs, videos, documents and music, and it is tough to hack it without a password.

The apex court had earlier stayed the high court's order suspending the sentence awarded to three convicts by the trial court.

The woman had claimed in the FIR that she had taken admission in the private university in Sonepat in August 2013 and got acquainted with one of them.

She alleged that the convicts, who became good friends, raped and forced her to send her obscene pictures and blackmailed her.

The woman claimed that the two others also raped her at the university campus after which she lodged an FIR in April 2015.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A local school trustee was booked today by police for allegedly beating up students as she was irked by the noise made by them ahead of Annual Day preparations.

As many as 18 students suffered bruises and developed swelling on their hands after they were caned last evening, a police official said.

"The students of the school situated on the Station Road were preparing for their annual day function yesterday. In the process, the students were shifting benches in a class room. The trustee, who resided in the same building where the school is located, was disturbed by the noise in the class room," Thane Nagar police station inspector Mandar Dharmadikari said.

He said irked by the noise, the trustee came down and caned at least 18 students.

No arrest is made so far.

The trustee has been booked under section 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means) of the IPC, Dharmadikari said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray today told Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis that his party would oppose the proposed oil refinery project in the Konkan region as local people are against its execution.

"People in Nanar (in Rajapur taluka of Konkan region) are opposing the project. Hence, the Sena is also opposing it. I have brought with me a stack of letters from locals who are opposing the project," Thackeray told reporters after his meeting with the chief minister at the latter's official residence 'Varsha'.

He said the future of the project depended on the local people.

"If people do not want the project to happen, it cannot be allowed. Two organisations that have opposed the project met the chief minister along with me and opposed the project," Thackeray said.

The tough posturing by the Sena on the proposed project is likely to further strain the relations between the two alliance partners in the state government which is headed by the BJP.

Meanwhile, Industries minister Subhash Desai, who was also present at the meeting, said, "the MoU for the project will not be signed during the upcoming investment summit (Magnetic Maharashtra)".

He said that any project needs consent of 70 per cent people from the affected villages.

"However, 78 per cent people have given their consent against the project. In such a situation, the government cannot push the project," said Desai.

A mega refinery and petrochemical complex is proposed in Rajapur in Ratnagiri district.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Odisha government today said Jaga and Kalia -- the conjoined twins who were separated after surgery last year -- are likely to be discharged next month from AIIMS, New Delhi.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Pratap Jena said the twins will return to Odisha and the state government is making preparations for their treatment in the state.

"The separated twins are likely to be discharged from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi in the second week of March as their condition has improved," he told reporters here.

Last year, the Odisha government had sanctioned Rs one crore from the Chief Ministers Relief Fund (CMRF) for the twins' treatment.

"As overstay in hospital may cause infection, we are considering to shift Jaga and Kalia to Bhubaneswar from New Delhi," Jena added.

He said a five-member doctors team from Odisha will soon visit the AIIMS to review the health condition of Jaga and Kalia. Later, a decision will be taken on shifting of the twins to Odisha, the minister said.

The minister said Jaga has recovered fast compared to his separated brother Kalia.

The 31-month-old kids have been kept under constant supervision at the AIIMS since they were admitted there in July last year.

The twins, hailing from Milipada village in Kandhamal district, were separated in the heads in two phases.

The final head separation needed a 22-hour surgery by a team of doctors at the AIIMS on October 25 and 26 last year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Separatist groups today called for a complete shutdown in Kashmir on Saturday to protest against a Supreme Court decision to stay the FIR against army personnel, including a Major, in the Shopian firing incident that left three dead and several injured.

The Joint Resistance Leadership, comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik, issued a statement criticising the apex court for restraining the Jammu and Kashmir Police from taking any coercive steps against Army officers accused in the Shopian firing case.

Father of Major Aditya, the officer named in the FIR related to the killing of three civilians in Army firing on January 27, had approached the Supreme Court seeking the FIR be quashed.

The apex court had on Monday asked the state government to file a response within two weeks.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)South African police have obtained an arrest warrant for absconding Ajay Gupta, the India-born close aide of scandal-hit former president Jacob Zuma, media reports said today.

The Hawks - the police's elite high-priority crimes unit - yesterday arrested three people as they raided the posh home of India-born Guptas, a controversial business family linked to Zuma, who resigned today.

Ajay the patriarch of the embattled Gupta family is "on the run" and surrounded by a team of heavily armed bodyguards, Times Live reported.

Hawks officials confirmed that Ajay was a fugitive from the law and that they had obtained a warrant for his arrest, the report said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)South African police today said they have obtained an arrest warrant for absconding Ajay Gupta, the India-born close aide of scandal-hit former president Jacob Zuma, media reports said.

The Hawks - the police's elite high-priority crimes unit - yesterday arrested three people as they raided the posh home of India-born Guptas, a controversial business family linked to Zuma, who resigned today.

Ajay the patriarch of the embattled Gupta family is "on the run" and surrounded by a team of heavily armed bodyguards, Times Live reported quoting police officials.

Hawks officials confirmed that Ajay was a fugitive from the law and that they had obtained a warrant for his arrest, the report said.

The warrant comes amid media reports indicating that Ajay's brother Atul was also being sought.

Their nephew Verun Gupta today appeared before the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court on charges of corruption fraud and theft, the report said.

The charges relate to the theft of 220-million rand (USD 19 million) from the Free State agricultural department.

Verun appeared alongside his co-accused and Gupta family lieutenants Ronica Ragovan Ashu Chawla Nazeem Howa Kamal Vasrum and Free State agricultural officials Peter Thebetha and Takisi Janki Masiteng and chief of staff of national mining department Sylvia Dlamini.

Howa Gupta Chawla Vasrum and Gupta were released on 200000 rand bail each while Thebetha Masiteng and Dlamini were each released on 10000 rand bail, the report said.

They will appear in court again on August 17.

Hawks spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi confirmed that they were searching for Ajay.

"As far as our team investigating state capture is concerned, he is a fugitive from the law," he said.

"He has surrounded himself with bodyguards. We spoke to his lawyers he was meant to be surrendered but never did.

"We have issued a warrant of arrest for him. Although those protecting him must know they are protecting a wanted suspect. They will be charged with aiding and abetting a suspect," the officer said, adding that they had flagged border posts and were hoping to close in on Ajay soon.

Yesterday, the Hawks carried out raids at the home of the Gupta family in the plush suburb of Saxonwold in Johannesburg in connection with the Vrede farm investigation.

The Gupta family owns a range of business interests in South Africa, including computing, mining, air travel, energy, technology and media.

The three brothers, Atul, Rajesh and Ajay, moved to South Africa in 1993 from India, just as white-minority rule was ending.

They are known friends of 75-year-old President Zuma - and his son, daughter and one of the president's wives worked for the family's firms, media reports said.

The Gupta brothers have been accused of wielding enormous political influence in South Africa, with critics alleging that they have tried to "capture the state" to advance their own business interests.

The Vrede farm investigation relates to the Estina dairy farm near Vrede, in the Free State, a project which was originally meant to help poor black farmers but from which the Gupta family are alleged to have pocketed millions of dollars, the allegations they deny.

Zuma's links to the Guptas are one of the reasons he resigned before the 2019 general election. The Guptas and Zuma have denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Minister Harsh Vardhan today said all states involved in stubble burning have been told to take firm action to curb it by the next season as part of efforts to combat air pollution in the Delhi-NCR region.

There should be a judicious balance between economic development and environmental protection, Vardhan said while addressing hundreds of school children, who had come to his residence for a limited exhibition, showcasing advancements in science and technology in India.

Stressing that children should be ambassadors of environmental protection, the minister said that the hazard of climate change and global warming was turning into a reality.

People should take conscious efforts in mitigating stress on and climate.

On the issue of air pollution in the Delhi-NCR region, Vardhan said that all states involved in stubble burning have been told to take firm action to curb it by the next season.

He said that Indias progress in the field of science and technology is "exponential" and science can address most of the problems the society is facing now.

Vardhan said that while the role of the government is to prepare a roadmap for environmental protection, adherence to the rules and regulations is the primary responsibility of the stakeholders.

He has been interacting with thousands of school children to generate scientific temperament among them



"As developmental efforts need to be sustained, its impact on climate should be mitigated through a series of efforts, including environment-friendly lifestyle," he said.

The ministry has drawn up a national campaign to develop around some 500 simple lifestyle habits that can be easily adopted, in an effort to sensitise the hazards of climate and global warming.

The campaign named Green Good Deeds can have a cascading effect, if everyone adopts even one deed a day.

During the last one month, the ministry has invited thousands of children from various schools to enlist their support to the campaign.

"Every citizen should become a Green Volunteer so that we could relay the environment we inherited from our ancestors to the generation that is yet to take birth. That is our moral responsibility," the minister said.

Noting that his government is undertaking several good deeds including Green Good Deeds, Vardhan pointed out that there has been intervention from the highest political level to bring down the level of air pollution in Delhi and its surrounding areas, which has become an international subject of discussion.

"All states involved in stubble burning have been told that they need to take firm measures to curb it by the next season. In fact, even budgetary allocations were made to support the efforts of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and the NCT of Delhi to address air pollution.

"The government has also decided to subsidise machinery required for in-situ management of crop residue to prevent burning of stubble in the next winter," he pointed out.

"Unless there is public involvement and commitment, no such drive can be taken to its logical conclusion. Like Corporate Social Responsibility, it is the Green Social Responsibility of every citizen to maintain environment,"Vardhan said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Firing a fresh salvo at North Delhi Mayor Preety Agarwal, the AAP today sought her dismissal from the post, claiming it has a "clinching evidence" against her involvement in alleged irregularities in tendering process in the civic body.

The mayor, refuted all charges made by AAP spokesperson Dilip Pandey and accused the Arvind Kejriwal-led party of targeting her to divert attention when there are corruption allegations against Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain.

"No name is as big a synonym of scam, as the BJP, in the country... In a letter written by a senior officer to the commissioner, he had asked for an FIR to be registered against the NDMC mayor for interfering in the evaluation of technical bidding to help a company," Pandey alleged, as he waved the letter purportedly written by the officer, at a press conference held at the party office here.

The senior AAP leader also reiterated its demand to "initiate a CBI inquiry against Agarwal".

"The time for giving her resignation is over, now she should be dismissed by the BJP. We have this clinching evidence and her dismissal is the only way for the BJP to save its face," Pandey told reporters.

"Is it (letter) not sufficient enough for the BJP to dismiss her and initiate a CBI inquiry. BJP should take cognisance and initiate the inquiry, so that the truth comes our," he said.

Pandey also read out portions of the letter, in which the senior officer has alleged that the mayor entered his room while the tender was in the middle of evaluation process, and later some of the employees of that company (one of the bidders) had entered the room of the mayor.

"The intervention in the evaluation process of tender was improper, illegal, irregular and unjustified," he said, quoting from the letter.

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) has been ruled by the BJP since its inception in 2012.

The mayor also held a press meet at the Delhi BJP headquarters here, hours after Pandey's conference, rubbishing the allegations.

Agarwal claimed, "She never indulged in any corruption and neither will allow anyone else in the NDMC to do so".

On the allegation of entering the room of the senior officer late last year, she claimed, "There was some sanitation activity that day at the Civic Centre, and there were a large number of people amassed around me, even some mediapersons were also there."



"Was there a red-light bulb glowing on top of the room, which said the entry was restricted or did I broke into the room. The allegation of interference is all false and baseless," she said.

A visibly upset Agarwal, also claimed that "posters bearing her image had been put up in various public places by the AAP."



"How can someone use my picture without taking my permission. We will initiate defamation case against it (AAP)," she said.

Pandey also alleged that certain officials in the NDMC's advertising department were "transferred during the tenure of the previous mayor, which were brought back by her, after she became the mayor," Agarwal denied the allegation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held talks with Prime Minister Saad Hariri today in Beirut where he offered Washington's support for a "free and democratic" Lebanon.

Tillerson's visit, part of a tour of the Middle East, comes at a time of tension between Lebanon and neighbouring Israel, notably over the role of Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.

The Iran-backed group, a member of Hariri's government, is an arch-foe of Israel and branded a "terrorist" organisation by the United States.

It is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has fighters on the ground in the war-torn country supporting the regime.

Hezbollah's influence was at the heart of a political crisis in Lebanon over Hariri's shock resignation announced from Saudi Arabia in November that was later rescinded.

"The United States stands with the Lebanese people for a free and democratic Lebanon," Tillerson, the highest-ranking US official to visit the country in four years, wrote in the visitors' book after talks with President Michel Aoun.

On Wednesday, speaking in Amman, Tillerson conceded that Hezbollah is part of the "political process" in Lebanon, appearing to soften Washington's tone.

"We support a free, democratic Lebanon free of influence of others, and we know that Lebanese Hezbollah is influenced by Iran. This is influence that we think is unhelpful in Lebanon's long-term future," he said.

"We also have to acknowledge the reality that they also are part of the political process in Lebanon."



Later, US Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein said however that Lebanon "would be better off without Hezbollah's terrorism and malign influence".

After his talks in Beirut Tillerson was due to head to Turkey seeking to ease tensions with the NATO ally over Ankara's ongoing operation against a US-backed Kurdish militia inside Syria.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union minister and senior BJP leader Pon Radhakrishnan has claimed that Tamil Nadu no longer remained a peaceful state, but is turning out to be a "training centre" for extremists.

Addressing a meeting organised by various Hindu outfits and the BJP to pay homage to those killed in the serial bomb blasts here on February 14, 1998, he alleged that Tamil Nadu is "becoming a camp and training centre" for such forces.

"Tamil Nadu is no longer the peaceful state ("amaidhi poonga")... Naxalites, Maoists, Tamil extremists and Islamic terrorists have joined hands against the administration, which was evident during the jallikkattu agitation last year," the Union minister of state for finance and shipping alleged.

Stating that these forces were engaged in a long-term planning for the next 10-20 years, Radhakrishnan said it was not known whether this had been brought to the notice of the government and the police department.

The massive agitation in support of jallikattu at Marina Beach in Chennai and elsewhere in the state turned violent on January 23 last year, when the agitators continued to protest despite the promulgation of an ordinance to allow the bull-taming sport.

The minister accused the state government of not allowing him to pay homage to those killed in the serial blasts 20 years ago - that claimed 52 lives - during an election rally that was to be addressed by BJP veteran L K Advani.

He also said the government did not allow the construction of a pillar in memory of those killed in the blasts.

Later, police briefly detained around 900 activists of various Hindu outfits and the BJP, when they gathered at a short distance from the meeting venue and attempted to pay homage to those killed in the blasts.

Meanwhile, a group of Vishwa Hindu Parishad workers performed annual rituals at Perur near here for those killed in the blasts, police said.

In all, 19 bombs exploded in various parts of the city shortly before Advani was to address a public meeting at R S Puram locality.The city-based Topaz Solar will set up a 500 MW solar module plant in Odisha for an investment of Rs 240 crore, company officials said here.

Company Chairman Ganesh Natarajan told reporters here of the Rs 240 crore investment for the plant, Rs 180 crore will be invested in plant and machinery.

Of the Rs 240 crore investment, the promoters and investors will chip in with Rs 80 crore while the remaining Rs 160 crore will be raised through debt, Natarajan said.

Topaz has entered into strategicc partnerships with French, German and Polish firms for setting up the plant that will come up near Cuttack.

In the second phase, the company will set up a 700 MW module which will take the total solar module-cum-cell production capacity of the Odisha plant to 1,200 MW in the final stage, he said.

The Odisha government has given single window clearance to the project located in a SEZ classified zone, Natarajan said.

Natarajan said the company would also be setting up skill development centres in eight districts in West Bengal.

The centres will impart training to labourers as well as rooftop installers of solar panels.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two Indian Air Force pilots were killed in a crash in Majuli today, minutes after their microlight aircraft took off on a routine sortie, defence ministry officials said.

The aircraft crashed in the river island around noon, soon after taking off from the Jorhat air base, they said.

The pilots killed in the crash were Wing Commander J James and Wing Commander D Vats.

"An Indian Air Force Microlight Virus SW-80 crashed around 1200 hrs today, after getting airborne from Air Force Station Jorhat, for a routine sortie," the defence ministry said in a statement in New Delhi.

A court of inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident, the ministry said.

The pilots attempted an emergency landing but the aircraft crashed in a sand bar in the northern part of the district and went up in flames, Tezpur-based defence spokesperson Lt. Col. Harshvardhan Pande told PTI.

The crash took place at Darbar Chapori, a sand bar in the Brahmaputra where there is no human habitation.

People from villages in the district spotted the aircraft going up in flames and informed the authorities.

IAF personnel from the 10 Wing Air Force Station in Jorhat rushed to the spot while police and senior officials of the district set out for the crash site, accessible only by boat.

The IAF had procured around 80 Slovenian-origin microlight aircraft about three years ago. They are usually deployed for environmental and bird recce missions, an IAF official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu today hit out at those suggesting dialogue with Pakistan, saying talks with countries who train guns at India are not possible.

His remarks came days after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had suggested that talks with Pakistan are necessary to end bloodshed in the state.

"It is baffling that some educated leaders are suggesting that we have to engage in a dialogue with one of our neighbours who is by all accounts fomenting trouble and encouraging cross-border terrorism...we cant have talks with countries that have trained their guns at us," Naidu said without naming Pakistan.

He was addressing a gathering at the Indian Council of World Affairs here.

Naidu said Indias love for peace is more out of a concern for the welfare of humanity and not because it is weak and incapable of fighting.

"So, our diplomacy relies on building bridges across the world with dialogue as the sole sustainable method to resolve disputes.

"We are open to conflicting views but we are not so open to senseless violence and irrational terrorism...we have been the pioneers in the non-aligned movement. Our alignment is with the forces of peace and non-violence," he said.

The Vice President said the present government has recognised the importance of states in its foreign policy as well as security, trade and economic relations with the neighbouring countries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A special court today reserved its order on a plea of a director of two Dubai-based firms, seeking cancellation of a non-bailable warrant (NBW) issued against him in a money laundering case connected with the Rs 3,600-crore VVIP chopper deal.

Special Judge Arvind Kumar said he would pass order on the plea of Rajeev Saxena, one of the directors of M/s UHY Saxena and M/s Matrix Holdings, after hearing arguments from accused and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The ED had alleged that Saxena was "non-cooperative" and evading the probe in the case.

Special public prosecutor N K Matta, appearing for ED, said Saxena has not joined the probe despite repeated summons.

"The investigation in the matter is going on since June 2016 and Saxena is aware that he is needed in the probe, yet he has been evading it," the counsel said.

The agency claimed that during the probe it was found that AgustaWestland, United Kingdom, had "paid an amount of Euro 58 million as kickbacks" through two Tunisia-based firms.

Saxena had approached the court for cancellation NBW issued against him on October 6 last year.

In his application, Saxena had said that he was not an absconder and had given all the details and documents to the ED.

Saxena's name was mentioned in a charge sheet filed against his wife Shivani Saxena, who was released on bail after being arrested by the ED. He has not been arrayed as an accused so far and the agency has told the court that another supplementary charge sheet may follow.

Saxenas are residents of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, an archipelago which is home to the most expensive properties in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the charge sheet claimed.

The probe agency alleged that the two Dubai-based firms were the entities "through which the proceeds of crime have been routed and further layered and integrated in buying the immovable properties/shares, among others" in this case.

Maintaining that AgustaWestland had paid Euro 58 million as kickbacks through two Tunisia-based firms, the ED has alleged that "these companies further siphoned off the said money in the name of consultancy contracts to M/s Interstellar Technologies Limited, Mauritius and others which were further transferred to M/s UHY Saxena and M/s Matrix Holdings Ltd, Dubai and others."



The agency had also arrested Delhi-based businessman Gautam Khaitan who is currently out on bail. It had registered a PMLA case in 2014 and named 21 people in its money-laundering FIR.

On January 1, 2014, India had scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of kickbacks of Rs 423 crore paid by it to secure the deal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Mumbai attack mastermind has said he will challenge the government's "illegal" action in the court of law after Pakistan launched a crackdown on seminaries and health facilities run by him.

Under pressure to act against banned groups, Pakistan took control of a seminary and four dispensaries run by Saeed-linked Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF).

"After detaining me for 10 months without any legal ground, the government has now issued a notification regarding taking over our schools, dispensaries, ambulances and other assets. It will hamper our relief operations in Punjab, Balochistan, Sindh, Azad Kashmir and northern areas," Saeed said after the government's action.

According to the interior ministry notification, a copy of which available with PTI, "the federal government is pleased to direct that requisite actions with regard to freezing and taking over of assets (movable, immovable and human resource) associated with JuD and FIF shall be taken in pursuance of Ordinance No II of 2018."



The notification issuance date is February 10.

Punjab Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has also said that on the interior ministry's directions, and his charities have been banned to operate in Pakistan and the government have already started taking over all the facilities, offices, schools, dispensaries and seminaries that belong to the JuD and FIF.

In a message to his workers, Saeed appealed for calm and asked them not give any violent reaction to the government action against their charities.

"This is the most difficult time but the workers must remain peaceful. The rulers are acting like more loyal than a king. India never bothered to implement UN resolutions on Kashmir but our rulers have got passed the president ordinance to take action against patriotic organisations like JuD and FIF," he said.

Saeed said the Pakistani government is "taking extreme action against us" to please America and India.

"We will fight our case in court against this illegal action," said Saeed, who heads the charity JuD, believed to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group.

Pakistan has come under intense pressure to rein in terror groups after US President Donald Trump accused the country of harbouring terrorists and suspended nearly USD 2 billion in security assistance to it.A 63-year-old woman, who was allegedly prevented by a private hospital in the city from leaving the premises for not clearing her bills, was discharged today following the intervention of the Calcutta High Court



Hearing a habeas corpus (writ seeking production of a person before court) petition moved by the husband of the woman, a division bench comprising justices Joymalyo Bagchi and R Bharadwaj directed the Bidhanagar Police to ensure the release of Bandana Bagchi and submit a compliance report.

Acting on the court's order, officials from the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate in Salt Lake approached the hospital authorities and secured Bagchi's release.

Public prosecutor Saswata Mukherjee submitted a compliance report before the court later.

The patient's husband, Subir Bagchi, said that his wife was admitted in the Salt Lake hospital after she complained of chest pain on December 13.

He contended that even after paying Rs 1.10 lakh to the hospital as charges for her treatment, the hospital administration had on December 26 claimed that bills amounting to a few lakh of rupees were yet to be cleared and that she would be released once the dues were paid.

Alleging that the hospital did not attend to his wife since December 26, he said Bandana Bagchi had been prevented by the hospital from leaving the premises over the past one-and-a-half months.

The hospital's counsel said that Bagchi's family members had not taken her home despite the issuance of a release order.

Claiming that the hospital authorities did not misbehave with her, the lawyer said a cheque submitted by the family had bounced.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Reiterating its opposition to the proposed Rs 1.45 lakh crore oil refinery in coastal Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena today said the project won't be allowed to be "thrust" on the locals there.

"No memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the project has been signed yet. My stand is clear. The project will not be imposed on the locals in any circumstances," Industries Minister Subhash Desai told reporters here.

"Chief minister Devedra Fadnavis and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray will hold talks later today to sort out differences (between Sena and BJP) on the proposed project," the Shiv Sena leader said.

Snubbing the Sena, Fadnavis has given the go-ahead for the mega refinery that is proposed to be set up at Nanar in Ratnagiri district.

The state government is expected to sign a MoU with a consortium of state-owned refineries to set up the mega refinery, at the Magnetic Maharashtra global investors summit starting February 18.

The Industries Department, headed by Desai, has included the project in the list of MoUs to be signed at the summit, which would go a long way in meeting the state government's target of attracting Rs 10 lakh crore investment commitments in the three-day summit.

The project involves setting up one of the world's largest refinery complexes in over two phases.

The state government estimates that the construction of the refinery and allied industries would bring in investments to the tune of Rs 1.45 lakh crore and provide direct and indirect employment to lakhs of people.

The Sena has been rallying the villagers of Nanar and surrounding areas where the refinery is proposed to be set up. Thackeray had asked his party cadres to prevent the project at any cost on the grounds that it would destroy the of the Konkan region.

A local body called the Konkan Vinashkari Prakalp Virodhi Samiti (Committee for Opposing Destructive Projects in Konkan), which is spearheading the project, claims that residents of 16 villages have opposed the project.

The government has notified 16,000 acres of land in the area as an industrial area and land acquistion by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation has already begun.

Former Sena leader Narayan Rane, who hails from Konkan and is now a part of NDA, is also opposing the project.

Asked if Thackeray would attend the summit, to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Desai said an invitation has been extended to the Sena president.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Yamuna basin states have agreed to convey their concurrence to the draft inter-state agreement for construction of Lakhwar, Renuka and Kishau dams on the river and its tributaries, the Water Resources ministry said today.

The implementation of these projects will help augment the availability of water in the Yamuna and benefit basin states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi, the ministry said.

The states agreed to convey their concurrence to the draft agreement at the seventh meeting of the Upper Yamuna Review Committee which was chaired by Union water resources minister Nitin Gadkari here, according to an official release.

Minister of state for water resources Satya Pal Singh, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and water resources ministers of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi also took part in the meeting.

Leaders and senior officers from the central government and the basin states also attended the meeting, it said.

"Member states agreed to convey their concurrence to the draft inter-state agreement for construction of Lakhwar, Renuka and Kishau dams on river Yamuna and its tributaries...

"The states have agreed to sign the project specific agreement for the construction of these projects so that proposal for approval of cabinet can be taken forward," the statement said.

Since investment clearance for the Lakhwar project is already available, the cabinet approval can be processed on immediate basis, the statement issued by Union water resources ministry added.

Gadkari also emphasised the need for greater co-operation among states to address the increasing challenges in the water sector.

The issue of non-supply of authorised share of Yamuna water for Haryana and Rajasthan from the Okhla Barrage was also discussed in the meeting, the statement said.

"The need for early completion of the work for installation of telemetry system at the release points for real time data of discharge was emphasised so that there can be greater transparency in the flow data at various control points," it said.

The issue of return flow from Delhi and its quality was also deliberated along with the pollution in Wazirabad pond. Gadkari called upon the governments of both Delhi as well as Haryana to take immediate and stringent action to control pollution, according to the statement.

Gadkari also chaired a separate meeting of ministers and officials from 18 states which have been approved for National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) funding for long term irrigation fund (LTIF).

"The minister expressed concern over low and slow utilisation of NABARD funds by states. He called upon them to work out ways to increase their utilisation so that the aim of Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP) of bringing 76 lakh hectares of land under irrigation can be realised," the ministry said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jacob Zuma's decision to resign as the president of South Africa did not mean that the battle against corruption and state capture has ended, the foundation of Indian-origin activist Ahmed Kathrada said today.

Zuma, 75, announced he had stepped down in a nationally-televised address, three days after the ruling African National Congress's national leadership decided to ask him to resign, which he had defiantly refused.

"Despite it having taken a long time for the voices of ordinary people to be heard, we can finally celebrate that the President, who had become a symbol of the erosion of state integrity, has left office," said Neeshan Balton, Executive Director of the Foundation named after the late veteran activist and close friend of Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid icon.

Kathrada spent 26 years and 3 months in prison, including 18 years on the infamous Robben Island, as one of the political prisoners of the apartheid government. He died at the age of 87 last year.

"On this occasion, I wish that Ahmed Kathrada could have been with us to know that his letter, written almost two years ago, calling on Zuma to step down, had eventually struck a chord," Balton said.

"I think that he would have been saddened that it had taken so long for Zuma to 'submit to the will of the people', but also proud of the work done by individuals across all sectors of society, putting pressure on the ANC to take the decision to recall him, leading to his resignation," he said.

He also stands accused of having been influenced by various people to appoint people to ministerial positions and as heads of parastatal bodies who would support state capture plans and corrupt activities to syphon of billions of rand of public money.

South Africa's elite police unit had yesterday arrested three people as they raided the Johannesburg home of India-born Guptas, a controversial business family linked to Zuma.

The Gupta brothers have been accused of wielding enormous political influence in South Africa, with critics alleging that they have tried to "capture the state" to advance their own business interests.

Zuma's links to the Guptas was one of the reasons he was being forced to resign before the 2019 general election.

Balton cautioned though, that while Zuma's recall is indeed a victory for the people, the fight against state capture is ongoing.

"We have removed someone who had presided over a systemic process of state capture that has crept into all tiers of government," Balton said.

"The ANC leadership now has a duty to ensure that corruption is tackled and that any attempt to exonerate those behind its facilitation is quashed," Balton said as he called for firm action," he said.

"We furthermore hope that law enforcement agencies are committed to investigating and prosecuting those who have facilitated state capture. There must be serious consequences for the corrupt, to serve as a deterrent to others. There must be justice," Balton said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)By Koustav SamantaBENGALURU (Reuters) - Rice prices in India and Thailand fell this week, pressured by sluggish overseas demand, while Bangladesh scrapped a plan to import Thai rice, citing delays in finalising a deal.In India, prices for 5 percent broken parboiled rice fell by $12 to $420-$424 a tonne, having touched their highest since September 2011 a couple of weeks earlier."Demand is weak. Buyers are postponing purchases, expecting a further drop in prices," said an exporter based in Kakinada in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.A statement released by a government body last week said ...By Nichola GroomLOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The United States government doubled its financial support for solar power projects overseas during President Donald Trump's first year in office under a climate-friendly investment policy inherited from the Obama administration, according to a Reuters review of government documents.The growing U.S. support for foreign solar projects comes despite an ongoing federal investigation into past U.S. solar loans abroad. It also deepens confusion about Trump's position on government support for renewable energy as his administration downplays the global ...By Rajendra Jadhav, Rupam Jain and Tom LasseterMUMBAI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Nirav Modi's name is a stamp of corporate India's growing global prestige. On Hollywood red carpets, his diamonds have sparkled on the necklines and dangled from the earlobes of actors and models like Kate Winslet, Dakota Johnson and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.Back in India, billboards above the traffic jams of New Delhi bear the image of Priyanka Chopra, a Bollywood star and former Miss World who is fast becoming a household name in the United States, also draped in Modi's jewels.But on Thursday, officials at the ...By Manoj Kumar and Krishna N. DasNEW DELHI (Reuters) - Punjab National Bank, India's second-largest state-run lender, sought to soothe investors on Thursday after the discovery of a $1.77 billion scam at a single branch sent its shares plunging and raised fears about the scale of fraud in the sector.Investigators launched raids across Mumbai and New Delhi, targeting offices and homes linked to Nirav Modi, a billionaire jeweller and diamond merchant the bank has accused of being at the centre of the fraud.Modi, who has not spoken about the case so far, could not be reached for comment. His ...Technology and real estate investments led deal-making by sovereign funds in 2016 and the first half of 2017 according to a report published on Wednesday, with six funds accounting for over 70 percent of transactions. Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), which reinvest surpluses from commodity exports or trade, have about $7.5 trillion under management globally. In recent years they have increased their exposure to unlisted assets in pursuit of higher returns, although some funds are now hitting upper limits on their allocations. The IE Business School's latest annual Sovereign ...The material comprises pre-manufactured slaps, moulds for their local production and cranes for erecting them among other things report CT.

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A ship known as Team Spirit ducked at the Douala Port on Wednesday night with some five thousand tons of building material and equipment destined for the construction of the Japoma stadium which is scheduled to host some group games of the 2019 AFCON. The equipment comprised pre-cast concrete, moulds for casting concrete locally and cranes for uplifting them among many other things.



According to the chief of logistics and customs for Yenigun company, Mustafa Kalayciuglo, the equipment consist of 75 pieces of precast concrete with a total weight of 500 tons, two mobile Crowley cranes with lifting capacities of 80 and 120 tons respectively, and 32 containers of assorted building material including iron, spare parts for the cranes and other heavy machinery.



The customs relay officer for Yenigun construction company, Etong Lucien Abel said even before the arrival of the ship, he had contacted the Ports Authorities to do the necessary paper works and also to be given pride of place to duck as there were many other ships at sea waiting to be given the authorization to duck.



Though the ship ducked late at night on Wednesday, by midday on Friday, they were almost complete with the offloading. Everything is done fast so that the material should get to the construction site without any delay, said Etong Lucien. We have mobilised more than 200 trucks for the operation and we are working with two offloading companies plus the Yenigum team. We have our own equipment to offload the ship, he added.



It is worthy to note that this was the third ship arriving in Cameroon from Turkey with material for the construction of the Japoma stadium. The fourth consignment is expected to arrive in the country by the end of the month or early March. It would be recalled that 75 per cent of the precast was to be done in Turkey and 25 per cent on the spot in Cameroon.



Fred VUBEM TOH

Win McNamee/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- President Donald Trump has often pointed to mental illness as the underlying cause for mass shootings, but one of his earliest actions as president was to undo a regulation that would have made it more difficult for people with a known mental illness to buy guns.



Nearly a year ago, on Feb. 28, 2017, President Trump signed H.J. Res. 40, effectively ending the Social Security Administration's requirement to enter the names of people who receive mental health benefits into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. This is the database used by the FBI to determine who is able to purchase firearms.



President Trump has addressed the nation about mass shootings four times throughout his time in office. On Thursday, President Trump tweeted that the shooter involved in Floridas Parkland High School tragedy showed signs of being mentally disturbed, and urged for greater awareness for similar cases.



In November, President Trump cited mental health as the reason for the Sutherland Springs, Texas, church shooting that left 26 people dead.



"Mental health is your problem here. This was a very, based on preliminary reports, a very deranged individual, a lot of problems over a long period of time. We have a lot of mental health problems in our country, as do other countries. But this isn't a guns situation," President Trump said of the First Baptist Church shooting during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.



According to estimates from the previous administration, had the Obama-era regulation gone into effect, an estimated 75,000 individuals with mental illnesses would have been added to the database. These individuals would have been notified by the Social Security Administration of their possible restrictions to buy firearms but would have the opportunity go through an appeal process.



Although the rule was made effective days before Trump took office in January 2017, compliance was not required until December 2017.



At the time, the optics of the bills signing seemed to be downplayed by the White House despite the presidents busy, public schedule that day  he addressed the Joint Session of Congress later that evening.



The White House has not responded to ABC News' request for comment.





Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.| BY Ricki Green |

Pfizer Consumer Healthcare has launched a major new campaign for Centrum across Australia and New Zealand.

With the latest hit single from Fitz and the Tantrums, HandClap, the TVC shows a broad range of people celebrating the benefits of living a healthy life.

Director Aaron Brown of Clockwork Films, utilised renowned local choreographer, Stephen Tannos in order to find people with a genuine sense of rhythm to bring this creative to life. Throughout this process, the actions within each scenario were crafted to ensure the resultant film captured the desired level of high energy.

Says Chevaun Fenton, marketing director, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, ANZ: While our intention is for broad appeal, this campaign pointedly includes a younger demographic than previously considered. We believe that the upbeat track and dynamic film, which shows a range of people living and loving life, will help to shift consumer perception of the brand and widen its appeal.

Director  Aaron Brown

Producer  Heath George

General Manager  Jamie Cohen

Executive Producer  Damien Whitney

DOP  Simon Ozolins

Editor  Joe Morris| BY Ricki Green |

Mango Melbourne has appointed experienced PR manager Jessica Allison as head of communications.

Allison joins the Mango team with more than 12 years experience across a broad range of industries and verticals, including client and agency-side roles.

Says Kate Sterling, managing director, DDB Group Melbourne: Jess passion and enthusiasm to work as part of an integrated team like ours, and her proven experience in positioning PR rightly at the centre of strategy and creativity, made her the perfect choice for us as we enter 2018.

Her wide knowledge and capability across categories, including Luxury, Consumer, Retail and Lifestyle, is a brilliant plus for our existing clients but also of enormous value given our relentless focus on growth.

Allison has worked across agencies including PR Edge, Haystac and Red, along with in-house roles at Harvey Nichols in London and Cynthia Rowley in New York.

Mango also welcomes back managing director Rebecca Ahern from maternity leave.

Says Allison: Even from the early days of my career Ive always admired the work that has come out of Mango and DDB. When I met Kate and Rebecca the chemistry felt right, so Im thrilled to be joining them and looking forward to delivering clever communications solutions for our clients in 2018 and beyond.| BY Lynchy |

To welcome in the Year of the Dog (pronounced Kaww in Cantonese), TBWA\Kuala Lumpur has launched an imaginative pun-filled Chinese New Year campaign for U Mobile, having launched on 29 January and running for the CNY period.

The online film promotes the telcos new P99 (pronounced P Kaww Kaww) Unlimited HERO Plan, and includes many other uses of the word Kaww layered into the product messaging.

Traditionally CNY communications in Malaysia are tear-jerking and highly emotional with a focus on family reunions, so we decided to do something very different. Keeping in line with the comical style of the U Mobile brand gave us the licence to be a little crazy, resulting in a witty and whimsical film, which makes people smile, said Ng He Xiang, creative group head, TBWA\Kuala Lumpur.

U Mobile is really driven by our customers passion hence we are always coming up with unlimited ideas on how we can enhance their mobile experience. That drive is also inspired by healthy competition in the industry. The video truly captures our DNA of being a fun and quirky brand, said Jenny Chin, Head of Marketing Services, U Mobile.| BY Lynchy |

Y&R has appointed Dr. Ketchayong Skowratananont (Dr. Lek), as chief executive officer for Y&R Thailand. He takes over agency leadership from Sanjay Bhasin, who left the company last year.

Skowratananont (pictured left) brings with him more than 20 years experience in business development, marketing, sales and customer relationship management, most recently as chief commercial officer of Thai Smile Airways, the subsidiary of Thai Airways, a role which he held for two years.

A loyal client of Y&R for more than a decade, Skowratananont worked closely with the agency during his 15 years at DTAC, Thailands second largest mobile phone provider, most recently as chief executive officer for the companys subsidiary, Paysbuy, Thailands first online payment platform. Prior to this, he was head of DTACs prepaid business unit Happy Brand, where he was responsible for growing the companys market share from 29per cent to 34per cent and increasing the companys prepaid subscribers from 10 million to 22 million in 5 years.

Skowratananont is the first CEO for Y&R Thailand to come from a non-agency background, and will report to Chris Foster, Regional President, Y&R Asia.

Foster, said, Having Dr. Lek onboard is a big win for us. Not only is he a dynamic leader with big ideas, but he also brings with him a plethora of valuable experience; is well respected and connected, and has a deep understanding of the market. Dr. Lek also understands our business; how we operate and the challenges we face.Notice for the Postmedia Network

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The outcome of a religious freedom review headed by Philip Ruddock could undermine or even nullify the ACT's Human Rights Act, the territory government has warned. In a submission to the religious freedom inquiry, announced to to smooth the way for the passage of the same-sex marriage bill last year, the ACT government wrote the right to religious freedom was one of many freedoms already protected under the territory's human rights framework. The bill was passed in 2004 and enshrines the individual's right to worship or believe what they choose. It also enshrines an individual's right to not be coerced into the adoption of religious belief or practice. Religious freedom is also protected in the ACT by anti-discrimination laws, which guard against discrimination on the grounds of religious conviction. "The Act has recently been amended to include changes to protect against religious vilification. The introduction of religious vilification was also recommended by the Law Reform Advisory Council, and by the ACT Human Rights Commission," the submission reads. "The commission had received complaints of vilifying acts that had proved difficult to assess on their merits because they were not able to be clearly established to be on grounds of race, and it was clear that religion was the target of the offensive behaviour." Chief Minister Andrew Barr said any federal legislation that came from the inquiry that "locked in" discriminatory practices, like denying goods or services to same sex couples getting married, would contravene the ACT's Human Rights Act "and the values of the Canberra community". "The right to Freedom of Religion is no greater or lesser than the right to Freedom from Discrimination. These freedoms must be routinely balanced and limited against each other, and that's what the ACT's Human Rights Act does," Mr Barr said. "We strongly reject any suggestion that the Commonwealth should override or negate the ACT's discrimination laws as a result of this Review." The submission goes further, saying to "nullify or override such laws without reference to the territory's elected representatives or the will of the ACT community would represent a significant undermining of the territory's democratic fabric". The inquiry will report its findings by March 31.

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Inmate attacks on jail staff were higher in the ACT than any other Australian jurisdiction in the last financial year, a report says. Figures, contained in the Productivity Commission's report on government services, show the Canberra prison system was the worst for prisoner-on-staff assaults, at a rate 1.80 per 100 prisoners, in 2016-17. Victoria (1.63), Western Australia (1.60), and NSW (1.55) posted the next highest rates. There were no serious assaults on prison officers recorded in the ACT. The ACT also recorded the highest rate of prisoner-on-prisoner serious assaults, with 3.59 per 100 prisoners, according to the data, Queensland was second highest with a rate of 3.08, while the Northern Territory had the lowest at 0.18. The figure is a spike on the previous year, where the ACT had the third lowest number of Australian jurisdictions at 0.75, although it was in line with the 2014-15 figure of 3.21. The ACT placed third, behind NSW (27.48) and Victoria (20.88), for prisoner-on-prisoner assaults with a rate of 15.72 assaults per 100 prisoners. The number is a drop on the previous years result of 16.92 and only the third highest result in the jurisdiction over the past six years. The "serious assaults" category included all sexual assaults and acts of physical violence that caused injuries that required overnight hospitalisation or ongoing medical treatment. While the "assaults" classification referred to physical violence that caused physical injury but did not require overnight hospitalisation or on-going medical treatment. Despite the alarming figures, the report warned Canberra's small prison population could distort the numbers. "A relatively high rate in a jurisdiction with a small prisoner population may represent only a very small number of actual incidents," the report said. The report also said the data could not be directly compared across jurisdictions because each state and territory had different reporting practices and had varied arrangements for the delivering prisoner health care. "Not all jurisdictions have access to the medical information needed to accurately classify incidents into the assault categories used in this indicator," it said. Canberra University school of law and justice head Professor Lorana Bartels said violence at the jail could be attributed to a number of factors, including drug use and the mixing of prisoners. "Our traditionally more community-oriented sentencing regime  where only the most serious, usually violent offences result in imprisonment  might translate to angrier, harder people in prison," she said. "The main challenge probably comes from the fact of having all detainees  unsentenced and sentenced, max to min, men and women, in the same facility. In addition, it is a population that is very connected on the outside, i.e., outside beefs are brought inside. "There is anecdotal evidence of increasing use of ice inside (and in the general population), which is associated with higher aggression, compared with heroin." Professor Bartels also suggested that reduced out-of-cell hours could play an important factor. "The report details that out-of-cell hours were 14.1 in 2009-10 and 8.9 in 2016-17. "Violence tends to increase as out-of-cell hours decrease." However, Justice and Community Safety Directorate spokeswoman said there was an " inherent potential for conflict" among prisoners at all jails. "There are often pre-existing relationships between individuals who are incarcerated at the AMC. "These issues are not unique to the ACT; however, as the ACT is a one-prison system, association issues, separation and the dynamic between certain detainees is something that is carefully managed by ACT Corrective Services staff, with the interest of detainee and staff safety paramount." The spokeswoman said the jail had employed an extra 14 guards from 2015-16 to 2016-17 to manage the growing population. ACT Corrective Services had also a multidisciplinary panel of senior staff to review and respond to violence, aggression or assaults within the AMC, including referrals to ACT Policing. "The government's response to the Moss Review reflects our commitment to implementing transformational change and sharing with the community what we will do differently to improve the care, safety and health of detainees. "The government acknowledges the importance of ensuring that assaults, including those committed within the AMC, are thoroughly investigated with a view to holding offenders to account through prosecution of offences." The spokeswoman also said the government had conducted a recent security review of operation and had already begun work on the recommendations. CORRECTION: A previous version of this story said there were no ACT figures available for serious assaults on prison officers in the report. In fact, there were zero serious assaults on prison officers. This was a reporter error.

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Living Songlines symposium. National Museum of Australia. Friday, February 23, 9am to 5pm. $45 adults concessions and Friends full members. Bookings essential. nma.gov.au/whats-on/events/living-songlines-symposium#bc=hpt-symposium. Award-winning Australian filmmaker Lynette Wallworth will be one of the participants in a one-day symposium examining the impact and legacy of the National Museum of Australia's Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters exhibition. Wallworth won the Outstanding New Approaches to Documentary Award at the 38th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards for her virtual reality film Collisions, which had screenings at the museum. At the symposium, she will be talking about another of her films, Always Walking Country: Parnngurr Yarrkalpa, being shown in Songlines, and about the process of collaboration between herself and female Martu artists from the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Always Walking Country: Parnngurr Yarrkalpa was made for the 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Dark Heart but is now part of the National Museum's collection along with the painting whose creation it documents, Hunting Ground. "I filmed the women painting a large canvas that's part of the Songlines exhibition," Wallworth says. During the long days the women worked on Hunting Ground, she would film some sections a frame at a time periodically as well as edit the material gathered to capture the process of creation as the imagery was built up layer by layer and the creators worked, ate and even slept on the canvas. "It became like this lived entity." The film, Wallworth says, documents the intensity of the creative process as the women transform the canvas into a finished work with their gradually applied layers of paint, many of which are invisible to the eye. Wallworth has had a fruitful collaboration with the Martu people but she was initially reluctant to go there despite being invited by them as they had seen and liked some of her earlier work. "I was worried about how I would respond ...and not knowing what I could create in the amount of time I had." As it turned out, she needn't have worried - all concerned were happy with the result. She's looking forward to coming to Canberra and not just for the symposium. "I'm happy because I haven't seen the exhibition yet - I've heard wonderful things," Wallworth says.

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Canberra police are calling for witnesses after a number of assaults and a disturbance in Civic earlier this month. In the early hours of the morning on Saturday, February 3, police said they were called to the intersection of Mort Street and Bunda Street by reports of a disturbance between a number of people. "Police received additional reports of three assaults occurring between 2.45am and 3am near Bible Lane, Civic," ACT Policing said in a statement on Friday. "Police would like to speak to anyone that may have witnessed these incidents." Members of the public were reminded to contact police if they witnessed anti-social behaviour on 131 444 or Triple Zero (000) in an emergency. Anyone with information about the incidents was urged to contact police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, quoting reference number 6229720.

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Canberra is enjoying a "golden era" of affordable airline travel, according to Flight Centre, as a second international carrier touches down in town. On Monday Qatar Airways launched a new daily route to Doha from the capital via Sydney. Flights to Europe currently start at $1025, and the service offers connections to 150 destinations, including across Africa and the Middle East. Flight centre ACT and NSW manager Dan Heathwood said Canberra's market had become highly competitive as a price war broke out between the Middle-Eastern carrier and Singapore Airlines, who first opened Canberra up to overseas travel in 2016. For those willing to skimp on luggage, Fairfax unearthed fares with Qatar Airways as low as $889 return to London. At Singapore Airlines, an all-inclusive trip to London was currently on sale with prices starting at $1,323. Canberrans can fly direct to the carrier's hub in Changi, and then on to a further 135 destinations, while return flights travel home via Sydney. "I don't think fares have ever been this affordable, especially long-haul," Mr Heathwood said. "And demand is growing." A spokesman for Singapore Airlines said fares tended to drop each year around January and were based on "market demand". "Since launching international flights to Canberra in September 2016 we have seen strong growth in demand from Canberra and the surrounding region," the spokesman said. That was why, just a month before Qatar Airways landed, Singapore Airlines announced a major overhaul of its ACT services. While it's direct route to New Zealand will end come May 1, the carrier has instead ramped up flights to Singapore in a new daily service. An arms-race in luxury is also underway. Singapore Airlines will switch its Canberra aircraft to a Boeing 777-300ER, allowing customers to fly first class and premium economy for the first time. And on Monday, Qatar Airways unveiled its new Qsuite business class which features double beds and adjustable private cabins for up to four people. Senior manager of Australasia for Qatar Airways Adam Radwanski said, as other aircraft in the fleet were retro-fitted with the design, Qsuite would become a permanent fixture of the Canberra route. Qatar Airways advised travellers to book before March 7 to claim discounted fares to Europe while London flights late in the year with Singapore Airlines crept back up to the $1800 mark. Standard fares to Paris at the airline were about $1600, the spokesman said. Mr Heathwood said there was nothing to suggest international fares from Canberra would drastically go up, but said travellers should "get in quick". "You never know with flights, but certainly at the moment it's brilliant for Canberra." Unlike Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways does not have an open skies agreement with Australia and is restricted to 21 flight frequencies per week into Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth airports. The airline has rejected suggestions it is using Canberra as a "back door" into Sydney, with a 70-minute stopover in the city on the new ACT route. Chief executive Akbar al-Baker said he would prefer to fly direct, but Canberra's runway fell short of the required 4300 metres for outgoing long-haul flights. He has also flagged his desire to build a five-star hotel in Canberra. Canberra Airport managing director Stephen Byron said the airport's masterplan allowed for another 600 metres to be added to the main runway. However that would only take the runway to a length of 3883 metres. The airport has welcomed the two airlines' international routes as proof of Canberra's growing tourist appeal. - With Katie Burgess

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A man who has worked in the adult entertainment industry for years allegedly trafficked a woman into Australia and forced her into sex work in a Canberra brothel, a court heard on Thursday. Bradley Lester Grey, 53, was arrested earlier this week after ACT and NSW police raided the Moonlight Gentleman's Club in Auburn, NSW. He was extradited from Sydney to Canberra charged with human trafficking, forced labour and breaking immigration law, as well as raping and committing an indecent act on the woman it's alleged he trafficked into Australia for sex work. The offences all relate to the one alleged victim, but prosecutors told the court there were more possible victims who police were aware of, but who were reluctant to speak out. Following the Auburn raid, two women who were not Australian citizens were taken to the Villawood detention centre, the court heard. At his appearance in the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday Mr Grey made an application to be released on bail. But prosecutors opposed his release, saying he posed a risk of reoffending, interfering with witnesses and not appearing at court. Legal Aid duty lawyer Hugh Jorgensen told the court Mr Grey lived in Sydney and was employed at the Moonlight Gentlemen's Club in Auburn. He had worked at two licensed brothels in Canberra before they folded, he said. Mr Jorgensen said the man had a rental property in Sydney to return to, and a limited criminal history. He said Mr Grey denied allegations he "somehow procured [the woman's] entry to the country," and the man did not know where the woman now lived. Jane Campbell, from the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions office, said the victims were in extreme fear about their lifestyle choices being exposed, as the man still had access to their photographs. She said the alleged victims and witnesses were particularly vulnerable, and feared Mr Grey would carry out alleged threats to expose them in the sex industry. Magistrate Karen Fryar refused the man bail, noting in particular allegations he had warned workers not to contact authorities and allegations he had threatened to expose victims' personal details. She noted too the man's "significant debt", and the impact that had on the question of the likelihood of him not appearing in court or reoffending while on bail. The charges followed a six-month police investigation into allegations of forced labour and human trafficking. Outside court, police said their investigations were ongoing and they anticipated further charges. "We will allege this man actively procured young women from overseas with the sole intent of providing these women to men for sexual services," ACT Policing's Superintendent Scott Moller said. The case returns to court on March 8.

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Personal injury lawyers dissatisfied with the ACT government's citizens' jury on compulsory third party insurance are setting up their own deliberative democracy workshop on the future of the scheme. A group of Canberra law firms, including Blumers, Malliganis Edwards Johnson, Slaters, and Maurice Blackburn, will pay a consultant to run a workshop on the ACT's current common law, at fault scheme, after concerns the government-run jury was "flawed". But the consultant running the project has denied it is a rival citizens' jury. Instead, she wanted the process to "complement" and "value-add" to the process already under way. "We're using the citizens' jury as a starting point, but we're looking to garner stories," Nicole Seils of CNS Projects said. "The reason I took this on is because I believe views about going through the current system can be better captured." The six-hour workshop will be held in Canberra on February 28. Running the deliberative democracy workshop will be Dr Wendy Russell, an associate at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the Australian National University and head of Double Arrow Consulting, a Canberra firm that specialises in two-way engagement. Ms Seils said the law firms have had no contact with Dr Russell, so as to not undermine the integrity of the process. "Wendy is entirely independent. She tells me what the process needs to be from a deliberative democracy point of view, and she'll be the lightning rod on the day. She doesn't report back to the client, she reports back to me and I've been asked by the client to ensure the process has integrity," Ms Seils said. Invitations to participate in jury have gone out to 32 people who've made claims through the scheme. Anyone who had made a claim was barred from participating in the government's jury for fear they would influence the other jurors in a certain way. Ms Seils said the law firms provided them with a list of more than 100 names, which they whittled down using a randomised selection process "to make sure there was no fettering of the list to land a certain outcome". There will be several "observer positions" available on the day to representatives from the Chief Minister Treasury and Economic Development Directorate and the law firms. Ms Seils said the workshop would not be open to the public, to protect the privacy of the participants. She accepted that could open the process up to criticism but said it the focus was making it a "safe space" for participants. The session will begin with participants speaking in a "popcorn format" in a circle, sharing their experience with the current CTP as they felt comfortable with "no hot seat", Ms Seils said. The participants will then be asked what they believe the jury formulating the new CTP scheme needs to know, taking into account the priorities the jury identified last year. The learnings from the day will be compiled in a written report, which will be publicly released on March 12. Ms Seils said she hoped the government saw the workshops as a "genuine effort to get Canberrans' voices on the record". "The citizen's jury has done good work - we're hoping to value-add," Ms Seils said. "I believe to get a good out you need the rich advice and learnings from people who've gone through the process. "There's a richness of experience here that can't be tampered with. These people have gone through things and their emotions are really important to capture. I hope their experience helps the jury define the nuance of the models. " The government's citizen jury last week came under fire after an independent report from a deliberative democracy expert found the close involvement of expert decision makers in the jury's deliberation stages risked undermining the autonomy of jurors. ANU Associate Professor Dr Ron Levy also found the ACT government's framing of the existing CTP scheme favoured abandoning the status quo, possibly undermining "the key rationale of creating a citizens' jury as an arm's-length decision-making body". However Dr Levy commended the exercise as worthwhile and recommended the practise of deliberative democracy continue, but with changes. Chief Minister Andrew Barr criticised the autonomy of the report as it was prompted by questions from the ACT Law Society. Dr Levy maintains his work is independent. Me Barr told the ACT's parliament on Tuesday he planned on legislating a new scheme before the end of the year. The jury and stakeholder group will meet for the final time next month.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/3c412461-bf4d-4520-b7c0-ffc78104fc2f/r0_123_2000_1253_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgnews, federal-politics

Jacqui Lambie has called on scandal-plagued Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce to step down and focus on his personal life, admitting she's pleased to be missing out on events she's dubbed "50 shades of parly". The former independent Tasmanian senator - who suggested Mr Joyce resign in 2015 over his handling of the Shenhua coal mine - said a focus on the National leaders' affair with pregnant staffer Vikki Campion was preventing politicians from getting on with the job. "They haven't been able to stop the tap from dripping and I think [Mr Joyce] has got some personal things he needs to fix up, and I think the only way he's going to be able to do that's from the backbench - I just don't think his mind's in the right place to be deputy prime minister at the moment," Ms Lambie said. The leader of the Jacqui Lambie Network said the handling of Mr Joyce's affair by journalists and some politicians was "really quite disgusting", calling out the likely impact it was having on his wife, Natalie, and four daughters. "There's a lot more stuff that's going on they could be talking about that's more important to the damn country than whacking this out - but this is the way their advisers handle things too," she said. "Barnaby could've just walked on the backbench by now and it'd've been over three days ago. It's all scrambling now and it's getting ugly. "And now people are saying 'what, you think affairs don't happen up in there in Canberra'. It's really out of control. What have we got - 50 shades of parli?" Ms Lambie will return to Canberra this month to promote her upcoming book, Rebel With a Cause. It will be her first visit to the capital since resigning from Parliament in November. Senator Lambie's realisation she was a dual citizen, and thus ineligible to sit in the Senate, is detailed in the final chapter of her candid memoir. The "heavy-handed bitch slap" delivered by a "100-year old document that no one looks at" came as she was trying to figure out how to end her autobiography. "Moral of the story is don't ever wish for a bang, because I can tell you it just blew it away," she said. Ms Lambie said she looks forward to visiting Canberra - an "absolutely beautiful place" with "great eateries" - and one day returning to represent her island state. "In the meantime I'll just wait on the sidelines and see what offers come up, do things short-term, and wait for another shot at the Senate seat down here in Tasmania," she said. First, there's another election to win. The Jacqui Lambie Network has 12 candidates in the Tasmanian state election and the party aims to snag three seats, despite polling suggesting they could win none. But Ms Lambie's memoir promises "you can't keep a bloody Lambie down" and she will dedicate the next several weeks to promoting her book, launching February 21, and promoting her party ahead of the Tasmanian election on March 3. "I'm hoping the book and the state candidates go off with a bang," she said.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/4548fe67-d322-4061-a9a9-3517bd30d92b/r0_122_2000_1252_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgI have been wondering with all the snow lately how all the accidents and mishaps on our highway are the fault of the highways? When did we kill common sense?

If the roads are icy and snow covered should, we not drive to road conditions? If you are not comfortable driving the speed limit in the snow, slow down move over to the right. Dont keep up with traffic, thats when you become a hazard to you and everybody out there with you.

I will give you that the roads dont seem to be well maintained in spots but put the blame where it belongs, with the drivers not the road

Carla CalhounBefore launching into an anti-political correctness diatribe that makes one wonder if he owns a red "Make Canada Great Again" hat, ask a fair question. How many countries have changed or considered changing their anthem?

Fortunately, there is a way to Google that, roughly a dozen countries, ranging from Germany to Russia to Nepal, have revised their anthems over the years. Some are small changes, others quite wide-ranging. Iraq overhauled theirs after the fall of Saddam Hussein, as did South Africa after the fall of the apartheid regime. Not every country that changes its anthem needs to undergo a transformative event, of course, and as a mature liberal democracy, Canada may make adjustments to its anthem to promote the national values of equality and inclusivity for all. It's sad and unfortunate there are some who view that as a negative.

The new "gender neutral" lyrics to O Canada are actually the second change to the anthem since its inception. The first change was actually involving the same lyrics as this change, oddly enough. The original edition of our anthem had the lyric "Thou dost in us command," which was changed in 1914 to "In all thy sons command." No matter which version has been in force, it's been a bit of a grammar struggle that would really only sound normal if spoken by Yoda, the Jedi Master from Star Wars.

It is always a general source of amusement for me when people try to portray a unique and isolated, though consequential, event as though it's part of some continuum to undo the moral or cultural fabric of an entire nation. If people are so concerned that an alteration to the anthem will see "our backbones will deteriorate into mush" perhaps they may want to invest in some national grade calcium.

Personally, I will continue to stand true north, strong and free when I proudly sing the new words to O Canada.

Richard McAdamMadison Erhardt

Voting has been steady in the Kelowna West byelection as residents go to the polls to chose a replacement for former premier Christy Clark.

Clark resigned from politics following her minority government's defeat in the B.C. legislature last summer, and Liberal candidate Ben Stewart is hoping to swap places with her for a second time.

Stewart won the riding in 2013, but stepped aside so Clark could run after she was defeated in her Vancouver-area riding.

Stewart, along with Shelley Cook (NDP), Robert Stupka (Green), Kyle Geronazzo (Libertarian), and Mark Thompson (Progressive Conservatives) are vying for the seat.

Elections B.C. says 13 per cent of the riding's nearly 47,000 voters cast ballots in advance polls.

We'll have results as they come in tonight, after the polls close at 8 p.m., so stay tuned to castanet for the latest updates.Photo: Colton Davies Dozens of people took part in a march for missing and murdered Indigenous women through downtown Penticton on Wednesday.

A national, annual march for missing and murdered Indigenous women made its way through Penticton on Wednesday for the first time ever.

Dozens of people gathered at Gyro Park and marched through the city's downtown, ending again at Gyro Park. Many held signs with messages or with descriptions of women currently missing.

The march, held each year on Valentines Day, originated in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside in 1992. It has since expanded to cities across Canada.

Jan Lipscombe, the executive director of the Okanagan Nation emergency transition house, said the march is meant to recognized missing and murdered women as well as their family members who have had to grieve.

"There are people here today who have actually sisters, aunties and other relatives that have gone missing. So we're here to support them and never to forget," Lipscombe said while marching.

She added she was very pleased with the community's representation for Wednesday's first-ever march in Penticton.

As of 2015, there were 106 unsolved homicides of Indigenous women between 1980-2012, as well as 98 missing person cases with foul play suspected, according to a national RCMP report.

The Government of Canada launched an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in 2016, which is ran separately from the federal government.Photo: Pixabay

A Vernon woman has started a group intended to bring 'joy and laughter' to local seniors.

The group plans to go to local senior homes with their children to bring those who may not get visitors or few visits from friends and family.

I decided to post the new group on the Vernon Community Forum and I wasn't expecting the amount of interest we got on this," said Kari Wutzke, one of the creators of Vernon Adopt a Senior. "Vernon is quite a majority seniors orientated."

It will take time to work through some of the kinks of starting a group of this nature, says Wutzke, but she feels Vernon Adopt a Senior is needed and will succeed.

"We want it so that you take on one senior and have that be your 'person'," she said. "Then you do whatever works for you if that's taking them to the park or taking them out for coffee, painting or reading stories."

It's an opportunity for children to play, laugh and bond with an older person, according to the Vernon Adopt a Senior Facebook page.

"What we would like to do is get into the [retirement] homes and there is many of them in Vernon," she added.

If you are interested in getting involved, message the Vernon Adopt a Senior Facebook page.Photo: Contributed

Looking for love on Valentine's Day? You are not alone.

Websites like Plenty of Fish, eHarmony, and Tinder usually see a spike in the number of users February 14.

There are more than 100 million users worldwide on one site, according to one dating site.

That is a big pool of fish to choose from, but how do you know who or what you are choosing?

In the online dating world, the degrees in which people misrepresent themselves can vary.

That misrepresentation may be a simple 'white lie' about height or weight or it can be more devious, like lying about being married or even who they are.

A survey of users on a dating site found roughly 53 per cent of people lied on their online dating profile.

20 per cent of women admitted to using an older photo from when they were younger and thinner.

More than 40 per cent of men said they lied about their jobs in an effort to sound more successful.

In the past RCMP have warned would-be love-seekers to be vigilant while looking for love online.

Online romance scams typically happen when somebody uses photos to create a fake online profile with the aim of luring potential victims into relationships. Another term that has been gaining in popularity is 'catfishing.'

Some of these fake relationships can last years, costing victims more than money  often times their dignity and self-confidence.

In 2016, victims of romance scams in Canada lost more than $18 million  that works out to about $23,000 lost per victim, according to the RCMP.

"This idea of misrepresenting online is not that unique, it is quite common or prevalent," explains Dr. Joti Samra.

Dr. Samra is a registered psychologist with a clinical practice in Vancouver.

"I think most people want to believe that people are good, and we can trust people, and we can trust our own judgements ... so when that is thrown upside down it calls into question a lot of things."

Dr. Samra says that that can often lead to real damage in victims.

"There is often a lot of shame and embarrassment," especially with women explains Dr. Samra.

Many victims never report the crime or tell their loved ones due to shame, fear of ridicule and denial.

Perpetrators of online scams are lured by the cloak of anonymity; the perception that 'no one will know who I am' and 'no one will find out what I am doing.'

Dr. Samra says for some people who fabricate online profiles, it might be out of boredom, or it could be somebody who is introverted; in this virtual world is it very easy to create an identity that is whatever you want it to be.

"It is easy. It is a photo and words."

"It might not have mal intent to it," says Dr. Samra. "But when we look at people who are communicating very blatant, blunt lies, where there is no ambiguity, where it is very clear there is an absolute misrepresentation, often there is a personality disorder component, like narcissism in particular."

At the heart of narcissism is a grandiose sense of self and a real inability to have empathy or conscious of behaviour, explained Dr. Samra.

"Empathy is truly being able to understand the impact your behaviours have on other people."

At the end of the day, it is fraudulent and can be considered criminal behaviour.

Online dating is the way of the future, but you want to quickly get to a point of meeting in person.

Dr. Samra suggests some rules to follow.

"Don't get caught up in texting and sending pictures. If you haven't met person to person, you don't know who the person is. If they don't want to meet in a safe and public space you probably need to abort that communication."

She added, "trust your intuition. Often we'll look back and say 'something wasn't right' or 'I didn't feel comfortable.' As soon as something twigs something trust it, and tell yourself 'think I need to check this out properly.'Chelsea Powrie

The program coordinator of the South Okanagan Women in Need Society said she and her staff have been "bursting into tears" due to several recent overdose deaths of women who use their programming.

"We've lost clients that are directly attached to our program, that had one-to-one workers here," Gwen Wain said. "We know that last year, 1,420 people died [from overdoses] in British Columbia, and that was really 1,420 preventable deaths."

That's why Wain believes education and outreach will help alleviate this epidemic. The SOWINS facility in Penticton offers naloxone kits and clean, safe drug parephernalia, as well as a shower, washing machines and food.

"It's really difficult for people to access consistent support and services," Wain said. "When clients come in, we can talk about what their drug of choice is, when they use, how they can use more safely."

She believes stigmas around drug use cause people to hide their addictions, leading to more and more people dying alone.

Andy Watson of the BC Coroners Service could not comment on any overdose statistics for February until the end of the month, but he said they are keeping a close eye on the Okanagan.

"If we had any cause for concern, we would work with [Interior Health] for a public alert," Watson said. "We would come up with a strategy."

The SOWINS drop-in centre has an open door policy from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.Photo: Contributed

The Canadian Mental Health Association has a new stove, thanks to a donation from the Community Foundation of the South Okanagan Similkameen.

We were working with a 50-year-old stove that had broken knobs, said Leah Schulting, executive director of the CMHA. Staff and clients are so happy to have a brand new, fully operational, six-burner stove.

The CMHA's Unity House serves healthy meals seven days a week to people living with mental illness, since good nutrition can help lead to good mental health. More than 10,000 meals were served by staff and volunteers last year.

The new stove will allow CMHA to continue and grow the meals program.Colton Davies

With a snowpack level 131 per cent of normal in the Okanagan as of Feb. 1, the province is releasing much more water than usual from the Penticton dam.

"It doesn't mean that we're going to get flooding, but the probability is higher. So we have to take that into account when we start to schedule our releases," says Shaun Reimer, section head of public safety and protection with the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.

Reimer says 25 to 30 cubic metres of water per second are flowing through the Okanagan Lake dam.

Typically, the dam is at minimal flows this time of year, about five to 10 cubic metres per second.

A higher-than-normal snowpack makes the current response more predictable than a lower snowpack  which was the case last February before near-record rain in the spring caused widespread flooding.

"It's a very different circumstance than last year, when we had such a low snowpack that we really felt like drought conditions were setting up," Reimer said. "This year, we have higher snowpacks, so we're going to be drawing down the lake in anticipation of that higher-than-normal snow melt."

While releasing more water from the lake is a necessity, Reimer said there are implications downstream, such as eroding riverbanks.

He said riverbank protection work will take place next week, as a response from "extreme erosion" that occurred last spring.

"We're probably going to have to drop the flows in Okanagan River temporarily just to get in there."

Reimer said he's been flooded with emails and phone calls from residents who are concerned about the potential of flooding again.

However, as last year would indicate, he pointed out the real risk of flooding is dependent on weather patterns in March, April and May.

"Yes, the elevated snowpack is concerning, but a lot of what's going to happen is going to be how the water comes down," he said. "How quickly it comes into the lake or how slowly it comes into the lake. That's really going to determine the potential for flooding or the severity of flooding."Photo: Town of Oliver A render of the new steel-frame canopy for the new Coast hotel in Oliver, approved by council members on Tuesday.

A newly-proposed entrance canopy by the developer of Oliver's new hotel is alright by council members.

Council voted 3-2 to allow Mundi Hotels to alter the timber-frame canopy to a steel-frame canopy for the new Coast hotel that is currently under construction.

Councillors David Mattes and Petra Veintimilla were the dissenting votes against the plan.

The proposal required council to approve an amendment to the town centre development permit, and councillors were conflicted when it was first brought forward on Jan. 22.

Council had asked the developer to reevaluate their newly-proposed design, who came back with the same proposal and pushed it again.

The developer argued a steel-frame entrance is less costly than the timber-frame option and still meets the requests of town staff and council.

"This port-cochere design and materials is still over budget, although we felt this was a necessary compromise as we really want to fit in with the towns emphasis on natural materials and we feel we achieved this," Mundi said in a report addressed to council.

Mundi added in support of its proposal that fir timbers will still be used as accents for the top perimeter of the entry, providing "a reflection of the natural surroundings."

The hotel on Station Street is expected to be completed by late-spring.Photo: Wayne Moore

UPDATE 11:15 p.m.

Robert Stupka believes in the message the Green Party is delivering. He just doesn't feel enough people bothered to listen.

Stupka, making his first leap into the political ring, said voter apathy was the most disappointing part of the campaign for him.

"Last night (Tuesday) as I was canvassing still there were many people who were unclear of who they were voting for, and said they were going to do their research the night before," said Stupka.

"It was evident they not engaged with the campaign and what we were putting out there. That is really troubling to me in terms of our democracy, and the future of this region to be honest."

Only 13,624 votes were cast in the byelection, about half the votes cast in last May's provincial election.

"We joined this campaign to show Kelowna what leadership could look like for this riding. We tried to inspire them as much as we could, and we did everything we could to provide an alternative voice, which we feel is right for the times. "

Stupka said he is not a career politician, but said he would consider running again if the system were changed to a proportional representation system.

While the Green Party remained at about 13 per cent support, the small gathering at the party's campaign headquarters vowed to keep up the fight.

It was suggested the area apply to establish a riding association for Kelowna West, and consider working closely together with the other two Kelowna ridings in future election campaigns.

UPDATE: 10:18 p.m.

The BC Greens' Robert Stupka earned about 13 per cent of votes cast in Wednesday's Kelowna West byelection.

Preliminary numbers now all polling stations have reported.

Ben Stewart (BC Liberal): 7,692

Shelley Cook (NDP): 3,197

Robert Stupka (Green): 1,727

Mark Thompson (BC Conservative): 898

Kyle Geronazzo (Libertarian): 110

ORIGINAL: 8:10 p.m.

Green Party candidate Robert Stupka is cautiously optimistic as the polls close in Kelowna West.

Stupka said as of yesterday he'd heard there were a number of people who had not yet made a decision as to whom they would vote for.

He did indicate several traditional Liberal supporters have come over to the Green Party.

Stupka believes if the NDP can hold about 20 per cent of the vote and the Conservatives can attain another 10 per cent, the Greens can steal the seat away from the BC LiberalsAlanna Kelly

UPDATE: 11:15 p.m.

Liberal Ben Stewart is now the MLA of Kelowna West, again.

Quails' Gate Estate Winery was packed with supporters and friends of Stewart who applauded and congratulated him on Wednesday night.

Stewart said he is humbled by the voters.

I didnt believe that we would have as strong of a showing as it is starting to indicating, I am thrilled by that and humbled by the voters and people who got out.

He won Kelowna West with 7,692 votes, or just under 57 per cent of the ballots cast.

Stewart resigned his from his previous seat in 2013 after winning and allowing Clark to step in.

I want to make sure there is more access to affordable housing, said Stewart to the crowd. if 9,000 new jobs are created then where are all these people going to live and stay?

Stewart, who is also the founder of Quails' Gate Estate Winery, spoke how the government and Premier John Horgan has made B.C. an island.

I think the premier really has to look serious at if he wants to be a trading province or be an island on its own, he said. We have to have free trade in Canada. That is one of the things I am working for.

Preliminary numbers shows Stewart winning 7,692 votes. NDPs Shelley Cook had 1,505, Greens Robert Stupka with 826, BC Conservatives Mark Thompson with 435 and Libertarians Kyle Geronazzo with 55.

Leader of BC Liberals Andrew Wilkinson FaceTimed Stewart to congratulate him during the evening.

Premier John Horgan issued a statement, saying he knows Stewart "will represent the people of Kelowna West with integrity and compassion."

Horgan also congratulated Cook for running what he called a stellar campaign.

"Given Kelowna West is historically a BC Liberal seat, we knew we were facing an uphill battle," he said.

"I will be in there like the rest of the MLAs making certain that we hold them accountable for every dollar they are promising to spend," he said.

The victory means the Liberals now have 42 seats, one more than the governing New Democrats.

Stewart will be on air with Okanagan Oldies 103.9 Thursday morning. Tune in here.

 with files from The Canadian Press & Jon Manchester

UPDATE: 10:18 p.m.

Ben Stewart has won the Kelowna West byelection.

Preliminary numbers now all polling stations have reported.

Ben Stewart (BC Liberal): 7,692

Shelley Cook (NDP): 3,197

Robert Stupka (Green): 1,727

Mark Thompson (BC Conservative): 898

Kyle Geronazzo (Libertarian): 110

UPDATE: 9:59 p.m.

Ben Stewart has won the Kelowna West byelection.

With 104 of 111 polling station results in, Stewart has retained the riding for the BC Liberals.

Ben Stewart (BC Liberal): 6,537

Shelley Cook (NDP): 2,801

Robert Stupka (Green): 1,580

Mark Thompson (BC Conservative): 792

Kyle Geronazzo (Libertarian): 100

UPDATE: 9:53 p.m.

Ben Stewart has won the Kelowna West byelection.

With 97 of 111 polling station results in, Stewart has retained the riding for the BC Liberals following the resignation of Christy Clark last summer.

Ben Stewart (BC Liberal): 5,690

Shelley Cook (NDP): 2,514

Robert Stupka (Green): 1,437

Mark Thompson (BC Conservative): 709

Kyle Geronazzo (Libertarian): 95

UPDATE: 9:48 p.m.

Ben Stewart has won the Kelowna West byelection.

With 93 of 111 polling station results in, Stewart has retained the riding for the BC Liberals following the resignation of Christy Clark last summer.

Ben Stewart (BC Liberal): 5,177

Shelley Cook (NDP): 2,356

Robert Stupka (Green): 1,362

Mark Thompson (BC Conservative): 659

Kyle Geronazzo (Libertarian): 88

UPDATE: 9:44 p.m.

Ben Stewart has built an insurmountable lead for the BC Liberals in the Kelowna West byelection.

With the latest results from 87 of 111 polling stations, Stewart has retained the riding for the BC Liberals following the resignation of Christy Clark last summer.

Ben Stewart (BC Liberal): 4,852

Shelley Cook (NDP): 2,231

Robert Stupka (Green): 1,273

Mark Thompson (BC Conservative): 631

Kyle Geronazzo (Libertarian): 83

UPDATE: 9:38 p.m.

Ben Stewart has won the Kelowna West by-election for the BC Liberals.

With the latest results from 78 polling stations, the result was not unexpected.

Ben Stewart (BC Liberal): 4,481

Shelley Cook (NDP): 2,044

Robert Stupka (Green): 1,100

Mark Thompson (BC Conservative): 598

Kyle Geronazzo (Libertarian): 72

UPDATE: 9:34 p.m.

Ben Stewart has built an insurmountable lead for the BC Liberals in Kelowna West.

With the latest results from 69 polling stations, Stewart is all but officially the riding's new MLA.

Ben Stewart (BC Liberal): 4,024

Shelley Cook (NDP): 1,835

Robert Stupka (Green): 982

Mark Thompson (BC Conservative): 543

Kyle Geronazzo (Libertarian): 69

UPDATE: 9:30 p.m.

Results from 59 polling stations are now in, and BC Liberal Ben Stewart is heading to victory in Kelowna West.

Ben Stewart (BC Liberal): 3,119

Shelley Cook (NDP): 1,505

Robert Stupka (Green): 826

Mark Thompson (BC Conservative): 435

Kyle Geronazzo (Libertarian): 55

UPDATE: 9:23 p.m.

With 52 of 111 polling stations are now in, Ben Stewart is heading to victory in Kelowna West.

Ben Stewart (BC Liberal): 2,805

Shelley Cook (NDP): 1,359

Robert Stupka (Green): 726

Mark Thompson (BC Conservative): 387

Kyle Geronazzo (Libertarian): 49

UPDATE: 9:18 p.m.

With 45 of 111 polling stations are now in, Ben Stewart is heading for what looks like another BC Liberal victory in Kelowna West.

Ben Stewart (BC Liberal): 2,220

Shelley Cook (NDP): 997

Robert Stupka (Green): 559

Mark Thompson (BC Conservative): 296

Kyle Geronazzo (Libertarian): 43

UPDATE: 9:14 p.m.

Thirty-six polling stations are now in, and Ben Stewart is heading for what looks like another BC Liberal victory in Kelowna West.

Ben Stewart (BC Liberal): 1,759

Shelley Cook (NDP): 804

Robert Stupka (Green): 444

Mark Thompson (BC Conservative): 231

Kyle Geronazzo (Libertarian): 30

UPDATE: 9:08 p.m.

With 29 polls in, BC Liberal Ben Stewart is maintaining a strong lead.

Ben Stewart (BC Liberal): 1,398

Shelley Cook (NDP): 679

Robert Stupka (Green): 358

Mark Thompson (BC Conservative): 194

Kyle Geronazzo (Libertarian): 27

UPDATE: 9 p.m.

BC Liberal Ben Stewart is maintaining about 55 per cent of the vote as results from 27 polling stations are now in.

Ben Stewart (BC Liberal): 1,205

Shelley Cook (NDP): 543

Robert Stupka (Green): 295

Mark Thompson (BC Conservative): 157

Kyle Geronazzo (Libertarian): 22

UPDATE: 8:58 p.m.

With 17 of 111 polling stations in, BC Liberal Ben Stewart is maintaining a healthy lead in the Kelowna West byelection.

Ben Stewart (BC Liberal): 700

Shelley Cook (NDP): 291

Robert Stupka (Green): 173

Mark Thompson (BC Conservative): 93

Kyle Geronazzo (Libertarian): 13

UPDATE: 8:55 p.m.

With 13 polling stations in, the BC Liberals' Ben Stewart has extended his lead.

Ben Stewart (BC Liberal): 500

Shelley Cook (NDP): 185

Robert Stupka (Green): 188

Mark Thompson (BC Conservative): 61

Kyle Geronazzo (Libertarian): 8

UPDATE: 8:50 p.m.

Ben Stewart has taken the early lead in the Kelowna West byelection.

With results in from six polls, Stewart has 56 per cent of the vote, to NDP challenger Shelley Cook's 21 per cent.

Ben Stewart (BC Liberal): 279

Shelley Cook (NDP): 105

Robert Stupka (Green): 85

Mark Thompson (BC Conservative): 25

Kyle Geronazzo (Libertarian): 4

ORIGINAL: 8:30 p.m.

A crowd is starting to build at Ben Stewart's Liberal headquarters as they await results in the Kelowna West by-election.

Stewart's election night headquarters is at his Quails' Gate Winery in West Kelowna.

About 20 people are hovering around waiting for numbers to roll in. Polls closed at 8 p.m.

Castanet's Alanna Kelly reports the mood in the room is calm and collected.

Stewart entered the room briefly, but did not speak to media and went back upstairs.

Supporters are sipping wine, awaiting word from the anticipated front-runner and former MLA.

Castanet will have more as results come in.

 with files from Alanna KellyPhoto: Castanet Staff

The Okanagan-Skaha School District has appointed a new secretary-treasurer, who will begin his tenure on Jun. 1.

Kevin Lorenz has been working in the same position in New Westminster for the past four years. He also has experience in the Okanagan, having been an assistant secretary-treasurer in Vernon.

In a media release, SD 67 said they feel Lorenz "brings a wealth of knowledge in the financial and business operation of a school district."

Lorenz will replace current secretary-treasurer Bonnie Roller-Routley, who is retiring.Photo: Contributed

An Osoyoos man is facing an impaired driving charge after a single-vehicle incident Wednesday evening on Highway 97 north of 62nd Street.

A witness saw the 2007 Chevrolet LS travelling south at high speeds before losing control and hitting a utility pole at 5:10 p.m.

The crash broke the pole at its base, causing it to lean over the vehicle, suspended only by its utility lines.

Highway 97 was closed for three hours due to the danger posed to both road users and emergency workers on scene by the downed power lines.

Though the vehicle was equipped with an impaired driving interlock device, which requires an in-car breathalyzer before the vehicle will start, the 47-year-old driver was taken to hospital displaying symptoms of inebriation.

Once released to the RCMP, breath samples showed a blood alcohol concentration 2.5 times the legal limit.

This is not the man's first incident with impaired driving, and he is now facing charges.Photo: Michelle Jansen

Two months after plans to open a rehab centre in Penticton fell through, the Brandon Jansen Recovery Centre Inc. (BJMRC) announced they will be opening a centre in the city next month.

Michelle Jansen, president and CEO of BJMRC, said a rehab centre will be opening in Penticton on Mar. 1, and that they will be opening similar centres in Osoyoos and Vernon soon after.

Jansen said both facilities in Penticton and Osoyoos will be able to occupy six people.

No definitive timeline is set for when the Osoyoos rehab centre will open, but Jansen said a property has been secured and that she's working closely with the town's planners to have the property zoned.

She told Castanet the addresses won't be provided in advance, "in order to avoid the same issues we had with the initial Penticton property."

In December, Jansen had planned to open a six-bed rehab centre on Juniper Drive in Penticton.

After hearing the news, several neighbouring homeowners bought the property instead, effectively killing the plans for the centre. Two homeowners Castanet spoke to at the time said they were largely concerned for their children's safety, as the homes share a common driveway.

Jansen said since that incident, property owners reached out to BJMRC offering them to purchase their real estate to house a rehab centre.

The Penticton rehab centre's scheduled opening falls in line with the anniversary of Brandon Jansen's death, Michelle's son, who passed away from a fentanyl overdose at 20 years old on Mar. 7, 2016.Photo: Google Street View

A road work project worth $1.25 million begins today in Oliver at the block where the new Coast hotel is being built and a new park is planned.

Penticton-based Grizzly Excavating has been hired by the town to "undertake water, sewer, storm water and road upgrades" at Fairview Road and Station Street.

The majority of construction will happen on Station Street, according to the town, and will be ongoing until June depending on weather.

Residents can expect traffic disruptions and temporary road closures for the duration of the work.

"We ask that people be patient and help support the local businesses during this project," town staff said in a news release.

The new Coast hotel on Station Street is expected to be complete by June.

Plans are also in the works for a new park adjacent to the hotel, which were presented to council members for the first time on Monday.

Council members haven't yet decided on a design plan, but construction for the park is anticipated to begin once hotel construction is complete.Photo: Village of Lumby

The Village of Lumby and the Splatsin have signed a protocol agreement which outlines the two governments working relationship.

"It's a great day as we formalize an amazing working relationship with our Splatsin partners," says Mayor Kevin Acton.

The purpose of the agreement and the overall intention is for the two communities to enter into a more formal agreement respecting a long-term, cooperative working relationship.Photo: Contributed

There is growing concern in the Village of Lumby around the potential of spring flooding.

The village sent a letter to the North Okanagan Region District asking it to release water from the Grizzly, Haddo and Aberdeen Reservoirs before they get to the point of overflowing.

"We are greatly concerned with the current snowpack levels in the Aberdeen Plateau and are wanting to be proactive in response to potential flooding," was stated by the village in a press release.

The regional district controls the Duteau Creek storage reservoirs (Aberdeen, Haddo and Grizzly).

The province has reported that snowpack levels are "131 per cent of normal in the Okanagan"  120 per cent of normal is the threshold for where the province starts to be concerned with the potential for flooding.

"The village will continue to monitor the creek levels, the reports from the provinces River Forecast Centre as well as communicate our continued concerns with the RDNO." The press release went on to state, "the Village of Lumby has done everything in its power to be proactive in the past to prevent flooding and the damage it causes. However, we would like to remind residents that the Province only funds flood response during an actual emergency or flood event."

Given the likelihood that there could be excessive snow accumulation in the higher elevations, with spring rains to follow, the village is requesting to work closely with the RDNO to mitigate the risk of disastrous flooding to Lumby residents and businesses.

For 2018, the village has ordered 48,000 sandbags from Emergency Management BC to mitigate potential flooding. Residents can pick those up at various locations throughout the village.

"A friendly reminder that private property owners are responsible for the protection of their own property."Win McNamee/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- The organization tasked with putting on President Donald Trumps inauguration last year paid nearly $26 million to an event planning firm run by an adviser and close friend of Melania Trump, according to tax filings made public Thursday.



The adviser, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, created a company, WIS Media Partners based in California that handled some of the festivities throughout the days leading up to the presidents inauguration.



The firm, as described by a source with knowledge of Winston-Wolkoffs dealings, paid out contracts to other sub-contractors that were hired, used some of the funds to hire sub-contractors. But Winston-Wolkoff was paid $1.62 million directly for her work, according to the source.



Winston-Wolkoff has not responded to an inquiry from ABC News. She is currently a member of the first ladys staff.



The news of the filing was first reported by the New York Times.



Mrs. Trump had no involvement with the PIC, and had no knowledge of how funds were spent, said the first ladys spokesperson Stephanie Grisham in a statement to ABC News. The first ladys office went on to describe Winston-Wolkoff as a special government employee with the Office of the First Lady. She volunteers her time and receives no salary for her efforts.



According to the filing, the other top payouts went to an event production organization for $25 million, a ticketing agency tasked with creating all the tickets and invitations for the festivities that was just shy of $4 million and another nearly $4 million payment to David Monn an event planner based in New York. A source with direct knowledge said Monn was recommended to the committee by Winston-Wolkoff but was paid directly, not part of her much larger payment.



The leadership of any Presidential Inauguration Committee can hire any organization at their own discretion.



Other top payouts went to a second event production organization, which was paid $25 million, a ticketing agency received $4 million to design and print the tickets and invitations for the festivities, and nearly $4 million payment to David Monn, a third event planner based in New York, according to the charitable tax filing, known as a Form 990.



Reached by phone, a representative for David Monn LLC declined immediate comment.



The tax filing is the first time since last years event that there is a clearer picture of how the $107 million raised was spent for the inauguration. The inauguration committee was led by the presidents longtime friend Thomas Barrack, who the president, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge, recently approached to see if he would be inclined to be his next Chief of Staff.



Barrack has said he would not take that job, according to sources.



Barrack was not paid as part of his role overseeing the inaugural festivities.



As part of their tax filing Thursday, the Inauguration Committee also released details of how it donated $5 million to other organizations.



The break down includes:



The American Red Cross (Hurricane Relief Efforts) $1,000,000



Samaritans Purse (Hurricane Relief Efforts) $1,000,000



The Salvation Army (Hurricane Relief Efforts) $1,000,000



Smithsonian Institution $250,000



The White House Historical Association $1,000,000



Vice Presidents Residence Foundation $750,000



Some of these donations were already announced publicly in the wake of the multiple

hurricanes last year. As part of their statement, the Inaugural Committee says they have a remaining $2.7 million which would be used for any final payments and whatever is eventually left over will also be donated to charity.



This is a developing story. Please refresh for details.



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE:FHN), parent company of First Tennessee Bank, is increasing the minimum pay level of employees to $15 an hour.

The pay increase reflects the companys continued investment of tax savings in its people, officials said.



Late in 2017, First Horizon announced $1,000 one-time cash bonuses to 70 percent of employees and a $16.5 million contribution to the First Tennessee Foundation.

First Horizons continued strong results are driven by the individual and collective efforts of all our employees, said Bryan Jordan, First Horizons chairman and CEO. As a result of the recent tax reform, First Tennessee invested a portion of the tax savings back into our people and our communities to strengthen our business.

The investment in people and communities follows First Horizons merger with Capital Bank, which closed on Nov. 30, 2017. The merger created the fourth largest regional bank in the Southeast with approximately $41 billion in assets, $31 billion in deposits, $28 billion in loans and nearly 350 branches in Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, Texas and Virginia.Equipment for complex water purification which can improve or in some cases replace the process of disinfection with chlorine.

Specialists of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU), participant of the Project 5-100, developed a unique equipment for complex water purification which can improve or in some cases replace the process of disinfection with chlorine.

The developed equipment is an electrolysis unit producing an innovative reagent of sodium ferrate. Ani Petkova, chief researcher of the Laboratory "Mechatronics" of SPbPU, explained that sodium ferrate is capable of decomposing many toxic chemicals into low-toxic products, as well as destroying microorganisms, providing the disinfectant effect.

According to the researchers of Polytechnic University, unlike chlorine, forming harmful residual organochlorine compounds, the new reagent does not form toxic substances in the process of water purification.

Scientists believe that the use of the developed equipment will significantly reduce the cost of the water treatment process. "To disinfect 1 liter of drinking water in summer, only 0.5 gram of sodium ferrate is required instead of 4.5 gram of chlorine. In the cold season, 0.2 gram of ferrate will be needed instead of 2 gram of chlorine," calculated Ani Petkova. She added that the necessary dose of reagent is reduced approximately to 10 times.

Scientist mentioned the developed equipment can be used both for the drinking water preparation and for disinfection of industrial and domestic wastewater.

This is one of the most actual area of ferrate usage due to the requirement of chlorine absence in most wastewaters. "The water drained into natural water reservoirs can't be treated with chlorine, as it has a long-term effect and forms toxic compounds while interacting with organic matter in rivers and water reservoirs. There is no such problem with ferrate, as it reacts quickly and decomposes to non-toxic products, which allows draining the treated water into natural water reservoirs," Ani Petkova noted. Tests conducted by SPbPU scientists also demonstrated that ferrate can neutralize chlorine in the water, which was already purified.

Moreover, specialists of Polytechnic University conducted the tests at the landfill of hazardous wastes "Krasny Bor" (Leningrad region) . The results showed that sodium ferrate is able to cope with serious contaminants such as oil products and their derivatives, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur-containing substances, cyanides, ammonia, heavy metals and other pollutants in industrial wastewater and reservoirs.

Scientists believe that the equipment can be useful for the countries with a developed sewage system, as well as regions requiring local treatment of drinking and wastewater. "It seems that China may be interested in such development. Chinese experts are actively engaged in research of disinfecting properties of sodium ferrate," said Ani Petkova. "The reason is periodic unpleasant odor in the coastal areas, where salt water is actively used for domestic purposes. It enters the drains and causes the release of sulfur-containing substances. The use of sodium ferrate can possibly solve this problem," the scientist added.

She also noted that the reagent can be useful in emergency situations. "In such cases, when certain groups of the population temporarily have no source of drinking water, and water from natural sources should be previously disinfected. For such situations, a mobile unit can be developed that produces a ferrate at the site where this group of people is located," the researcher added.If the Chicago Plan Commission signs off on the plans, the developers still would require City Council approval before construction can begin, but the citys go-ahead is expected. The projects would further accelerate rapid changes in Fulton Market, which was long the domain of meatpackers and food wholesalers  and, in recent years, top-notch restaurants.River North Point was long identified as the home of the Chicago Sun-Times, which had its name on the buildings exterior. The large letters were removed late last year after the newspaper moved to a building near the Fulton Market district west of the Kennedy Expressway.The Blind Pig Sale, Cont.

Joe Malcoun's fortieth birthday present

by Sabine Bickford

From the February, 2018 issue

"The sale officially took place on my fortieth birthday," says Joe Malcoun. "I spent my fortieth birthday in a boardroom ... signing the last documents then waiting in an office of the Michigan Liquor Control Commission. Best birthday present ever," he says with a grin.



In our December 2017 Marketplace Changes item on the sale of the Blind Pig, talent buyer Jason Berry credited an unnamed "local businessman" with leading the group that rescued the downtown music club. That mastermind turns out to be Malcoun, CEO of Ann Arbor-based Nutshell software.



"It was funny. For the last year we watched the community fret, we watched the comments on MLive, their Facebook comments about, 'Aw man, I bet the Pig's going to some assholes who'll turn it into some condos,'" Malcoun says. "Well, we didn't. We didn't turn it into some condos. We stepped up."



Malcoun describes the other investors as a "pretty broad group of local folks. Not everyone's giving me their permission to share their names, but there's a few that are pretty particularly notable, given the role they'll play," he says. "We have musicians represented with a friend of mine, Darrin Greenawalt. He has a band called Darrin James Band; he's an investor. [There's also] Noah Kaplan of Leon's Speakers. He's going to redesign the sound stage. My partners, who helped me put the deal together, are Jason Costello and Bennett Borsuk. We have Jon Oberheide; he's one of the founders at Duo" Security, and contractors Al and Josh Bloom. "We have a great cross section of the Ann Arbor community."



Malcoun says the Pig's longtime owners, the Goffett family, "were awesome--they were really nice folks. It was very emotional. When we purchased it, they asked us to take care of it. They wished us well.



"They didn't disappear. If we have questions, they give us help. They truly want to see us succeed. We're very lucky we have a great

...continued below...

relationship with them."At this early stage, he says, "we're just observing and seeing what's normal for the place. We're talking and getting to know the staff every weekend; we're trying to get these new systems set up. We're trying to design the website, and we're reinvesting in the ticketing system, so they'll be in and out quickly. Honestly, I don't think people are going to see a lot of change."But Malcoun, who admits that he's a fan first, insists that the key to the Blind Pig's future success is giving Berry the freedom to invest in more local talent."The prior owners built it; they made it the thing that you and I love. [But] in recent years, there wasn't as much of an investment in local music, and there's less risk being taken overall. One of the big changes was telling Jason to do what he wants to do. If he wants to book more local music, we're going to do more of that."Malcoun stresses, though, that the venue can't succeed without a supportive audience. "My hope is that the community, who vocalized that they didn't want it to become a condo, show their support [by] coming out and supporting the Pig.Because truth is, without that support, we can't keep it from turning into condos one day."[Originally published in February, 2018.]The role of Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican, has drawn scrutiny in part for his meetings with Sinclair executives since the election of President Donald Trump, who selected Pai to lead the agency. Democrats have said FCC policy this year has seemed to be crafted to benefit the Maryland-based broadcaster, as he pushes to ease barriers to media consolidation."The company's supply chain network is oversized relative to its national store footprint," Penney said. Penney will shift the work to two large distribution centers in Lenexa, Kan., and Columbus, Ohio. The distribution center will close on July 1 and the customer service center will close on Sept. 1.Manufacturing jobs, many of which go to union workers, are up 110,000 in Indiana over the last eight years, while manufacturing jobs in Illinois are up only 8,000 in that same time period, Gov. Bruce Rauner said as he began his budget address Wednesday. In just the last year alone, private sector union jobs are up 36,000 in Wisconsin, and up 47,000 in Michigan, but down 9,000 in Illinois. And many factory workers in other states are now out-earning our brothers and sisters here in Illinois.It all goes back to when state officials decided to short-fund the pension accounts of public employees, the biggest one being the teachers' pensions. Those pensions exploded in the 1990s when schools found a nifty way to tighten their budgets  let teachers retire early, give them end-of-career raises to bump up their pensions as an incentive, and replace them with younger, lower-paid faculty. In the short term, it worked, and other state officials took up that banner."Destiny does not lead us in a straight line," she wrote in the series' third book. "As if to some silent music, people and events come into our lives. We are led this way or that and sometimes in a circle. Unknowingly, we all move to life's silent tune. This is destiny's dance."5) Marvels Black Panther, which premieres Friday, is the hottest ticket in town, so why not do some good when you view it? The Midway Chicago Chapter of the Top Ladies of Distinction Inc. is hosting a fundraiser screening at Studio Movie Grill in Chatham, with proceeds supporting the Midway Chicago Chapter of Top Teens of America Scholarship Program. Tickets come with popcorn and a soft drink. Regular admission is $30. 9:30 a.m. to noon Saturday. 210 W. 87th St., 773-420-4475, studiomoviegrill.comBut the American craft beer movement took off, and Quenchers was among the first Chicago bars to embrace the trend. Its menu came to include one of the citys great beer-focused events, long before most local bars were doing such things: the annual monthlong Stout Fest every January.Three Floyds bought multiple lots around its brewery in 2014 to expand brewing production and build a distillery. The new plans calls for Three Floyds to continue building outward from its existing operation, including construction on an undeveloped lot north of the distillery and a lot south of the brewery that formerly housed another business.Patterson has teamed up with the Investigation Discovery network for the new true-crime series Murder is Forever, which premiered last month. Mondays episode, scheduled to air at 9 p.m., is based on the death of Small, who was buried alive in a plywood box in an isolated wooded area near Kankakee while his kidnappers tried to extort $1 million from his family. Small suffocated underground because a makeshift breathing tube was inadequate.Celebrities have increasingly been open about their reproductive health in recent years. Model Chrissy Teigen, currently pregnant with her second child, described her experience with in vitro fertilization to Self magazine in 2016: "Emotionally, it could be really hard. When you have these high-highs and low-lows, and you're, like, cuckoo pants." Her close friend Kim Kardashian West has written about having early-onset pre-eclampsia and placenta accreta, a high-risk condition in which the placenta grows deeply into the uterine wall, while delivering her daughter North. Others such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Adele have publicly discussed their postpartum depression, and Hayden Panettiere entered a treatment center in 2015 to battle the condition.The so-called Marvel Cinematic Universe pictures are plenty violent in their PG-13 way (though of course millions will be taking their preteens to Black Panther this weekend). Its up to the filmmakers to establish a set of visual and kinetic ground rules for the action, the violence itself. Working and thinking like grown-ups, directors Patty Jenkins and Ryan Coogler made a lot of the killing in Wonder Woman and Black Panther come to something purposeful. Compare their achievements to a Zack Snyder Superman movie, where the brutality grinds on and on, numbingly, and you appreciate them all the more.The results are enjoyably chaotic roughly half the time, erratic and tonally nuts the other half. Director Sicheng has a genuine facility for arch widescreen slapstick. His story, meanwhile, veers from vaguely homophobic and vaguely racist encounters with the locals to the aforementioned missing organs. (One good shot: a tidy line of NYPD officers vomiting in unison.) Taylor Swifts Welcome to New York is recycled like mad on the soundtrack. Released strategically for the Chinese New Year period, this is also the first Chinese project shot in America with union crews. Our heroes dash through various Manhattan landmarks, including an eerily empty New York Public Library; an eerily empty Grand Central Terminal; and a happily crowded Times Square, perfect for the end-credits dance number.It was quite healthy that it didnt really become a career until maybe 16, 17 years into the band, because we all had other jobs, Bjornson says. I remember writing most of the Ruun album in 2006 while working nights as a guard at a psychiatric ward here in town. It wore me out, so after the Ruun tour I started doing my own business built around the band to gain independence, and thats when the band started taking off more. We never thought of music as a vessel for popularity. Its a beautiful fairy tale that if you give just enough input to the machine you get something back, but its not like that at all. We never wanted something back from it because you can get embarrassed when it gets wrapped up with more mundane ambitions. We knew from the start that the music was enough in itself.Al Maskati and Ullman knew having a No. 1 song was probably a good thing, but they werent aware of how the success of Hold On, Were Going Home would change their careers on a cellular level. Everybody was like, You have the No. 1 song! How do you feel?  Al Maskati remembers. And we were just like, Um, how do you feel? Its crazy, because that was one of the first things we ever put out, and it was a No. 1 record. Some people, they spend their whole lives chasing that kind of worldwide breaking record, and we had that right off the bat. We appreciate that moment, dont get us wrong, but it came so quickly.Insurance coverage of colonoscopies to screen for colorectal cancer is a frequent source of frustration for consumers, including a reader who asks about his situation. In addition to his query, I also address questions about Medicare premiums and delays in determining Medicaid eligibility.



Q: When I had a screening colonoscopy in 2015, the doctor removed a polyp and told me to come back for another colonoscopy in three years. I paid nothing for the 2015 test because it was a preventive screening. When I scheduled my appointment for this year, the provider said the procedure was diagnostic because of that earlier polyp removal. Doesn't the law protect people in these situations from being charged for more frequent but necessary screening?



Not necessarily. The Affordable Care Act greatly expanded coverage of preventive services, including requiring commercial insurers to cover screenings for colorectal cancer without charging patients anything out-of-pocket if they're between ages 50 and 75. In general, screening colonoscopies for people at average risk are recommended every 10 years by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. (Under the law, preventive services are covered at no cost by insurers if they meet the task force's recommendations.) There's no charge to the patient for the test, even if a benign growth called a polyp is found and removed.



Doctors may recommend more frequent "surveillance" testing, as they did in your case, if during screening they find any polyps, which may put you at higher risk for colon cancer. Since the task force doesn't have a recommendation for high-risk colorectal cancer screening, insurers aren't required to cover it without cost sharing.



"Insurers will cover the test, but whether the patient is held harmless for the copay and deductible depends on the insurer," said Dr. J. Leonard Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society.



Medicare also covers screening colonoscopies without charging beneficiaries anything out-of-pocket. The program covers tests every 10 years, and every two years if someone is considered high-risk. But there's a catch: In contrast to private coverage, if a polyp is found during the test, that procedure is then considered diagnostic and patients will be subject to a copayment.



Q: I signed up for a plan on healthcare.gov last fall in Virginia after I lost my employer coverage and learned that my 16-year-old daughter might be eligible for Medicaid. Two months have passed, and we still don't have an answer. I understand that her coverage will be retroactive back to the date we applied, but in the meantime, I have to pay any medical bills. The state says it has 45 days to make a decision, but we're past that. What can I do?



Even though the federal government allows states 45 days to act on a Medicaid application, a few weeks is typical and "at this point it's well beyond the acceptable range of time for getting an eligibility determination," said Tricia Brooks, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families.



If you haven't done so already, confirm that the Virginia Medicaid program has received your application and find out specifically what they need from you to act on it. If you're racking up medical bills, let Medicaid officials know that your financial situation is critical and consider asking your daughter's providers to contact them too, Brooks said.



In many states, including Virginia, local legal-aid societies, community health centers and other groups are on hand to help sort out application glitches even though the open enrollment period has ended. Check out the Get Covered Connector for links to assisters in your area.



Q: I'm a federal government retiree receiving a small Social Security payment. I'm trying to figure out why I'm paying $134 every month now for my Medicare Part B premium instead of $109. I signed up at age 65, and it's deducted from my Social Security check. From what I've read, if you're having premiums deducted from Social Security, you generally pay $109. Why am I paying more?



The standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B, which covers many outpatient services and physician visits, is $134 in 2018, unchanged from last year. In recent years, many Medicare beneficiaries have been shielded from Part B premium increases because by law they must be "held harmless" if the premium increases are larger than their Social Security benefit increases, which have generally been flat.



This year, for many people those circumstances have changed. Because of a 2 percent cost-of-living adjustment to Social Security benefits, 42 percent of Part B enrollees are now subject to the full $134 Medicare Part B premium, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.



From your description it sounds as if you are one of those people, said David Lipschutz, senior policy attorney at the Center for Medicare Advocacy.Numb isnt right either. Growing numb to a tragedy this profound and far-reaching is to admit defeat  not just in the fight to curb mass shootings, but in the fight to believe we should try to. The fight to believe that human lives are sacred and miraculous and worthy of our best efforts."It's given us an incredible high-tech solution to provide the high-touch service our guests desire," says Kerri Sholly, a Four Seasons spokeswoman. Sholly recalls a recent hotel guest at the Four Seasons Austin, where she works, who had preordered a room service breakfast. At 6 a.m., the guest messaged the hotel that the order was wrong. "Our employee responded within seconds and was able to resolve the issue with the guest solely by chat," she recalls.Sinker quickly designed a pair of prayer candles  one with an image of a VHS tape with Russian script on it and the words Pee Tape, and another with special prosecutor Robert Mueller depicted in a heavenly glow. Liberals and other opponents of Trump can pray to the candles to protect Mueller. And in the hope that the alleged pee tape of Trump watching prostitutes urinating on a Moscow hotel room bed previously occupied by President Barack Obama is, in fact, real. Those allegations, which have never been proved, were raised in former British spy Christopher Steeles notorious dossier, and denied by Trump. It was first reported by BuzzFeed.Most who stopped in the lobby appeared to be at City Hall for other matters: A couple getting married, the bride pregnant, in a cream-colored fur coat, glittery gold boots and white flower crown. City employees, some headed to lunch and others returning. High-heeled women and sharply suited men stood alongside elderly guests in jeans and sneakers, some of who drifted in to pay bills or request city services. A man in a wheelchair, who almost passed the crowd, returned to wait in line. Two older women stood in the line, too, both patiently clutching their walkers as they waited for their chance to honor the life of the commander.There are mothers out there, and then there are mothers who do not share the same genealogy with you. These are people who expound love and caring to all ...The wake will be open to the public, but the funeral Mass will be limited to law enforcement officers, family, friends and dignitaries, a police spokeswoman said. An overflow area will be available for others.I want to dispel some perceptions that might be out there that the African-American community, especially in the Cabrini-Green area, arent saddened by this loss, said Boone, who lives in Galewood. I think theres a perception that we didnt feel hurt by this, but we are deeply saddened by this loss. I want them to see this community is represented.States Attorney Kim Foxx noted Williams sentencing at a news conference Wednesday announcing charges in the slaying of another police officer, Cmdr. Paul Bauer, who was fatally shot downtown Tuesday. Her office will also prosecute that slaying "to the fullest extent of the law," she said.Rios was northbound on I-55 when he attempted to exit at California Avenue. He tried to avoid waiting for other cars exiting the ramp and veered into the middle lane, then to the far left lane before returning to the right exit lane. He then crashed into guard rail on the exit ramp, prosecutors said.At the time of the fraud, O'Brien was working as special assistant attorney general for the state Department of Revenue, where she also reportedly held the position of chief counsel to the Illinois Lottery. She also owned her own real estate company and worked part time as a loan originator for Amronbanc Mortgage Corp., records show.In announcing murder charges against Legghette, an emotional police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told reporters that when Bauer heard the call of the fleeing suspect, he didnt turn away and let others worry about it because of his rank or the fact that he wasnt in his own district.Prosecutors detailed Legghettes extensive criminal history, including convictions in two drug cases, a gun offense, a misdemeanor battery and a robbery in the late 1990s in which he and a co-defendant robbed two people at gunpoint before leading police on a high-speed expressway chase. During the chase, Legghette threw the robbery proceeds and a gun out the car window, Lisuzzo said. He was ultimately arrested after a roadblock forced them to exit the expressway, abandon the car and try to flee on foot, he said.Milwaukee District West train No. 2243 stopped in Elmwood Park after a pedestrian was hit by the train about 6:30 p.m., according to Metras official Twitter feed. The train had last stopped at Western Avenue and was not scheduled to stop again until the Franklin Park station, according to its timetable.Bailey entered the Walgreens at 943 W. Irving Park Road about 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, with a suitcase, took items from the shelves and put them in the suitcase, two men told police. Bailey then walked past the registers without paying for the items, and one of the men, 34, tried to stop him from leaving the store, according to police.Willie Woods was last seen around 5 p.m. in the 1200 block of East 72nd Street in the Grand Crossing neighborhood, police said in a missing persons alert."New York's correction officers work day in and day out to ensure the security of our communities," Cuomo said. "The current system, however, makes it difficult to hold bad actors fully accountable. The bottom line is that those who break the law and abuse their positions of power must be held responsible for their misconduct, and this proposal will help to ensure accountability and promote safety in the correctional system."

But the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association believes the current disciplinary process is "effective and well-functioning."

Michael Powers, president of NYSCOPBA, agreed that there is no place for bad actors in state prisons. But he said Cuomo's proposal would "unfairly punish the dedicated hardworking men and women of NYSCOPBA."

"A fair and unbiased system is already in place which determines the level of discipline for members that are accused of wrongdoing," he said. "The system, which was part of a contractual agreement, has terminated officers who have committed egregious acts."

Instead of pushing for changes to the disciplinary process, Powers believes Cuomo should give correctional officers more resources to combat growing violence in state prisons.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 14, 2018. (Susan Walsh / AP)Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., center, leaves the Senate chamber on Thursday. The Senate blocked a bipartisan proposal to protect young undocumented immigrants from deportation after President Donald Trump's administration threatened a veto of the plan he said would create a "giant amnesty." (Zach Gibson / Bloomberg)The teen pregnancy lawsuits filed on behalf of nine grant recipients represent the latest effort by those who oppose the Trump administration's decisions to seek relief from another branch of the government - the judicial system. Judges have blocked parts of the implementation of versions of the controversial ban restricting the entry of travelers from certain countries. They also have blocked efforts to let employers deny insurance coverage for contraceptives based on religious or moral objections. And in January, a federal judge in northern California ordered an injunction stopping plans to cut back protections for undocumented "dreamers" who came to the United States as children.Most teachers could be idiosyncratic or very egotistical, but for him, it was all about the music and loving it and playing with faithfulness to the score, to the composer, she said. He took for granted that what we were doing there in his studio was for the sake of the music and for the transcendent meaning of it and not for ourselves. I think that was the thing that impressed me the most.It is time to discuss why it is lawful for people to buy military assault weapons. It is time to discuss why semi-automatic weapons are legal. It is time to discuss why people can legally buy a high-capacity magazine that holds up to 100 rounds. It is time to discuss why we allow the sale of guns at gun shows that are impossible to regulate. It is time to discuss why we forbid federal law enforcement agencies from keeping a database on guns so weapons used in killings and other crimes can be traced. It is time to discuss why there is no limit in federal law on the number of guns someone can buy  even though we know that gangs use straw purchasers who buy four, five, six guns at a time. Why are we afraid of the dialogue?The former student charged with stalking and killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., wasnt a terrorist. At least, not by the usual definition. From what we know now, he wasnt out to terrorize the population as a way of advancing a cause. He evidently was a disturbed misfit whod been expelled from the school, who legally bought a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle, who set off the fire alarm so students would come out of classrooms.He also called for broader pension reform, which lawmakers have largely ignored since May 2015. Thats when the Illinois Supreme Court rejected cost-saving pension changes that had been signed into law. The ruling, however, should not have been the last word. Lawmakers could and should have been sending proposals back up the flagpole to see what the court might accept  including Senate President John Cullertons suggestion that pension benefits could be changed, constitutionally, if retirees got something in return.A Syracuse businessman will spend the next three to six years in prison for committing sales tax fraud, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance said.

According to a press release, Robert Woodward, 45, of 4510 Quamby Road, Clay, pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and third-degree criminal tax fraud, both felonies. The owner of Rob's Cycle Supply Inc. in Syracuse, Woodward admitted he failed to pay approximately $37,000 in New York state sales tax, which he collected from customers between March 2012 and August 2013.

Woodward also admitted he tried to pay several tax assessments with a forged check. However, since his guilty plea, he has reportedly made a partial payment for his combined tax liabilities.

Woodward was sentenced Feb. 8 to three to six years in prison. The case was prosecuted by the Onondaga County District Attorney's Office.

"Business owners who disregard their obligations to collect and remit sales tax violate the trust of their customers, deprive the communities where they operate of revenue for vital services, and put similar businesses at a competitive disadvantage," Acting Commissioner Nonie Manion said.

To report tax evasion and fraud online, visit the tax department's website at tax.ny.gov or call (518) 457-0578.

Love 0 Funny 3 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 3I have made a commitment that I will change whatever needs to be changed, Berrios said. We need to make sure that everything is done properly across the board, and I am working  to make sure that all of these inequities are taken care of to the best of our abilities.Church service is not everyones cup of tea (wine?), but this weekend Steppenwolf (1650 N. Halsted St.) will welcome guests for another kind of worship at the Thank the Lorde! event, which honors the late, great black feminist lesbian poet Audre Lorde. Per the event description, the program serves to further and protect the development of an eroticism rooted in the spiritual practices and legacies of Black women and gender non-conforming femmes, and it features performances from several local artists. Scheduled in the middle of Black History Month, theres no better time to pay your respects. Saturday and Sunday, 8 p.m. $20. Tickets: steppenwolf.org31795 Hanlon Road, Libertyville: $1,250,000 | Listed: Aug. 3, 2021



This five-bedroom home has four bathrooms, oak floors, a barn, a carriage house and a three-and-a-half car heated garage. The kitchen features double ovens, a Sub Zero refrigerator, a stone backsplash, granite countertops, under-cabinet lighting and an island. A butlers pantry with custom cabinetry and wine refrigerator is adjacent to the kitchen. A dining room that seats 20 has custom built-ins and a fireplace, and the family room has three walls of glass and French doors that open onto a stone patio. The primary bedroom suite has Palladium windows, a walk-in closet with organizers and a bath with a soaker tub, dual vanities and a walk-in shower. A fun feature of this home is the screened childrens playhouse. A front veranda and a portico between the kitchen and the carriage house offer space for outdoor entertaining.



Agent: Millie Kepler and Therese Schaefer, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, 847-490-3052 and 847-878-0963



*Some listing photos are virtually staged, meaning they have been digitally altered to represent different furnishing or decorating options.



To feature your luxury listing of $800,000 or more in Chicago Tribunes Dream Homes, send listing information and high-res photos to ctc-realestate@chicagotribune.com.



Join our Chicago Dream Homes Facebook group for more luxury listings and real estate news.A change could be challenging, because it would be harder for the district to look back at historical data and compare year to year, Wendel said. When PARCC first came out  as with the science exam  the district also provided training for staff and information sessions for parents, and a major shift to any assessment would require additional resources to make sure everyone involved truly understands what new data can or cannot show.Hain said via text message that he is currently Desert Snow's director of marketing and a lead instructor to more than 2,000 federal, state, and local law enforcement officials each year. However, Hain said he'd be violating a nondisclosure contract with Desert Snow if he discussed payment. He said he typically teaches four to five times nationally per year, but has started to taper his involvement and "will not have any outside employment as sheriff.""If that's what the money was for, how are we going to move toward any of that (eductional equity) if we're going to turn around and eat it all up on pension support?" she said. "It just becomes somewhat of a shell game."Certainly the shooter left plenty of other clues behind: including a frightening social media footprint and equally alarming accounts from his peers who saw him as a weird loner who allegedly killed animals and abused females. All of which begs the questions: Did anyone try to get this young man the help he was so desperately crying out for? Was there really no way to stop him from purchasing an AR-15, especially in light of reports the FBI had been alerted to some of his social media rantings months ago?The panel features Stephen Packard, who has been a restoration visionary for four decades. He will be giving an overview of successful land preservation and restoration in the Chicago area. Another panelist will be David Holman, who is a data specialist and chronicler of natural lands across Illinois.The village of Aurora is ankle-deep in water problems  and the state is going to need to throw a lifeline before things get any worse.

Drinking water in Aurora is provided by an 85-year-old water plant at Wells College that will need to be replaced sooner rather than later. More urgently, the village is working on a plan to protect its water supply from becoming tainted with toxins found in algal blooms, which intensified last summer in Cayuga Lake.

To that end, the village hopes to design and construct an activated carbon filtering system before the hot summer months bring another round of algae blooms to the lake. Aurora would like to have its short-term fix approved within the next few weeks so that the system can be up and running by Aug. 1  and that's where the state can and should make an immediate impact.

Auburn and Owasco were the local guinea pigs for activated carbon treatments backed by state funding last year, and the results have been positive. So New York needs to now look beyond Owasco Lake and help other municipalities facing the same problems.Trilla said he wished there had been a sign on the truck to let other drivers know he was hauling a special item from the World Trade Center. He also said it meant more to him after visiting the National September 11 Memorial & Museum and some college friends while in New York City.Its been nearly two years since we started bargaining with the board. If we dont reach an acceptable tentative agreement during Thursday nights bargaining session, we are prepared to go on strike on Friday, teachers union President Brad Larson said in a statement. This is not a decision we came to lightly. We need to be able to attract and retain quality teachers, so we can continue to provide an outstanding education to our students.Because he was so successful in his own business endeavors, it has always given me great joy to let him know the minute something good happens when it comes to my career. When I got my first job out of college, my dad was my first call. When I found out I won the distinguished sales award for my company  which meant an all-expenses-paid trip to a five-star resort in Arizona  I called my dad. When I got my first on-air reporting job, who did I call? My dad. And, when I won the President's Club award  another trip, this time to Hawaii ... Dad was the first to know.Vahora was shot multiple times during an attempted armed robbery at the Clark gas station where he worked, 733 E. 142nd St., according to police. Another employee also was shot during the robbery but survived, police said.BJ of Frankfort, made my point when I defended teachers and their work. Just as I would not criticize the work day or week or lifetime of work for a truck driver, I do not feel that people like BJ should criticize or minimize the work of teachers. Also, when I said that no one seemed to care about teachers or other state workers pensions before 2008, I tried to point out that the average person did not even think about state worker pensions until some people in the private sector lost or saw their pensions diminished. Then they thought if I am hurt, everyone else should be hurt also. School districts and their employees are required to contribute a set percentage, based on their employees wages to the state retirement systems. So, increasing local taxes would not increase employees pensions . . . The times he stated are the minimum required by the state. I doubt if he could find a full-time teacher who works that minimum. Teachers pensions are a minimum of 20 years teaching and turning age 55. Most teachers, starting in their early 20's, work far more then 20 years. I worked 37 years. Yes, my pension is for my life, as are most pensions private or public. Illinois public employee pensions are guaranteed by the state constitution, and are considered a contract. By the way, teachers also pay property taxes. If you think teachers have it made, perhaps you should have chosen a different profession."What I'm sharing with you  these lessons, these ideas, these principles  these are things my husband and I had to learn," she said. "We were not raised to raise children this way. (Our 7-year-old son) is teaching us to embrace our humanity from a place of justice and from a place of dignity."The Liberal Senator Jim Molan delivered his first speech to the Senate on February 14, 2018.

Molan acknowledged the unique circumstances of his election. From seventh place on the coalitions NSW Senate ticket, he found himself taking his place in the chamber eighteen months after the 2016 federal election.

Senator Fiona Nash (Nat) was disqualified by the High Court on October 27, 2017, due to her dual citizenship. The court ordered a special recount of the ballot which resulted in the election of Hollie Hughes (Lib). Hughes was then disqualified because she had taken a job with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in 2017, a time held by the High Court to still be part of the election period. Molan was then elected. She was disqualified under of the Constitution for holding an office of profit under the crown.

Molan, 67, is a former Major-General in the Australian Army. He was Chief of Operations for the Multinational Force in Iraq in 2004-05. He retired from the army in 2008.

Hansard transcript of first speech by Senator Jim Molan (NSW-Lib).

The PRESIDENT (17:30): Order! Before I call Senator Molan, I remind honourable senators that this is his first speech and, therefore, I ask that the usual courtesies be extended to him. Senator Molan.

Senator MOLAN (New South Wales) (17:31): Mr President, thank you very much. Can I begin by saying that theres probably no-one in this entire chamber this evening who is listening to this who is more surprised than I am that Im giving a first speech in the Australian Senate. The joke relating to a certain Australian skater has been done to death by some of my colleagues; its been thrown at me from across the floor, but I do recognise a parallel. I listened to Senator Steele-John give his first speech a little while ago. He commented that he was the youngest appointed to this chamber. I am definitely not competing with him on that issue! Im proud to be a member of the fastest growing demographic in this country.

I thought I would use this speech to introduce myself to the Senate. What happened last week makes that somewhat redundant as my background, character and motives have been stated, examined and questioned, both inside this chamber and in public, so I hope just to put certain things into context. Before I proceed, I would very much like to thank the coalition leadership team in the Senate for the support and comradeship they provided to me over the last weekespecially Senator Marise Payne, the Minister for Defence, who is overseas at the moment, who defended me so passionately. In his valedictory speech, George Brandis claimed that there is a unique feeling of comradeship within the coalition in the Senateindeed there is and I have certainly felt it. I particularly extend my appreciation to those that defended me in the other place and especially to the Prime Minister. My first week in this place certainly presented me with a reminder of the importance of ensuring that I cannot be misrepresented and that my message is always clear, as is my absolute commitment to the values of an inclusive and diverse Australian society.

I will never take for granted the privilege to speak in a democratic forum such as this. Democracy, in both concept and practice, has been a significant part of my career and my life, perhaps more so than for many Australians. As a soldier, amazingly enough I have accompanied five countries down their road to democracy. I spent 2 half years maintaining security and backing up the police in Papua New Guinea at the start of PNGs democracy. I spent five years in two postings as a diplomaton Jakartas streets during the fall of Suharto and the establishment of democratic government in Indonesia; and with four of my embassy Defence staff in East Timor, unarmed, evacuating thousands in the weeks before Peter Cosgrove and his troops arrived, including negotiating with armed militia for the life of Bishop Belo. I commanded the force evacuating Australian citizens from the Solomon Islands, a young nation that had stumbled in its democratic progress. Finally, I spent a year as chief of operations in the senior headquarters of the coalition forces in Iraq over the second year of the Iraq war helping coordinate an allied army growing to 300,000 in vicious daily combat at the cost of 900 of our US soldiers lives against those who would deny any form of democracy to Iraqis or to anyone else. These experiences have given me an innate respect for democracy and a particular realisation of what it may mean to be an Australian senator. They also explain my determined approach to assist real democratic reform within the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party.

My parents, Andy and Noni, were at least third-generation Australians, with our children the fourth generation. Working-class Australians, they gained a middle-class lifestyle after World War II via hard work and a realisation, especially on my mothers part, that education for their six children was the way to success in life. Our family story is not an uncommon Australian success story. It is also not a story that does or should only apply to the past. Anne and I have four adult children, all of whom have worked and studied hard in the best Australian tradition to receive the benefits available in this magnificent country. Of significance, two of them this year have achieved homeownership, one in rural Victoria and one even in Sydney, and a third is on the cusp of doing so in Melbourne.

Although I retired from the Army nine years ago, my 40 years as a soldier taught me a lot that seems applicable to parliamentary and wider social life. First, leadership is everything. Whenever we wanted to achieve real effects, even in this technology dominated world, we still turned to the best person. As chief of operations in Iraq, I was at the centre of the most technically advanced headquarters in the history of war, yet we consistently turned to people as people when we wanted to get things done. Human leadership in this age of technology has never been more important, be it in the military or in society.

Second, Australia brings its unique culture into its military. Blind obedience to orders or authority does not make good soldiers; nor does it make good citizens. We encourage our diggers to question every order for as long as possible because all of us are a lot smarter than any one of us. But, when the final decision is made by the boss, we expect support for that decision until the situation changes significantly. This ethos and duty, this understanding of loyalty and teamwork in a questioning environment, is something that I intend to personally carry into this house. I need to say that the only order I ever obeyed without question was Duck!

Third, as a leader, once you find someone who knows what they are doing, get out of the way. This could be the military equivalent of the age-old principle of subsidiarityonly ever do what you do wella principle of value in any organisation and one which reflects the Liberal principles of small and appropriate government to maximise freedom of the individual.

Fourth, stereotypes are invariably wrong. If you think that all a senior military leader has to do is give an order and everyone obeys, you have never had the joy of running a big military or interagency organisation. Modern military organisations that I was connected with were so diverse that most people did not have to acknowledge my authority over them. In Iraq, for example, subordinates had to be convinced that my plan was good, that my directions gave them a fair chance of not being killed, or that I was not directing them to go outside their remit or outside my authority. Consultation, influence and persuasion are required perhaps more in modern militaries because the consequences of failure are immediate: you can, too often, count the bodies.

Operation Sovereign Borders was my introduction to the coalition, and I must say I was mightily impressed. Scott Morrison was generous enough to call me the co-author of our effective border protection controls. To be a co-author is a great honour because our policy enabled one of the most successful and most humane approaches to a complex strategic law enforcement and humanitarian problem. With the focus now on winding down offshore centres on Manus and Nauru, many forget previous failed policies and the need to effectively and coherently manage them. If I am indeed a co-author, I am one of at least four co-authors, some of whom are present here today. Unless were blinded by ideology, there are lessons in that policy for all of us. What really made Operation Sovereign Borders work was simply leadership and management 101nothing more, nothing magical, nothing too complex. Australia had to consistently demonstrate national resolve in facing down the people smugglers and those in foreign bureaucracies and elsewhere that were corruptly furthering their efforts. Across all levels involved, this national will was, and remains, encapsulated in that three world goal: stop the boats. Those who criticised it as a three-word slogan missed the whole point, and many miss it to this day.

We turned that policy into a strategy which showed how the policy would be achieved. Tony Abbott, Scott Morrison and I launched it in the media and the PMO turned it into a three-document election policy. That was really the easy part. Compared to having an effect in the real world of real people, policy is pretty easy. Policy is never an end in itself. The hard work is always implementation. Operation Sovereign Borders has been so successful because of the alignment which existed from the Prime Minister all the way down to the implementers, including the hands-on management by ministers. It dramatically restored my faith in how effective Australian governments could be. It remains effective to this very day. I am immensely proud of the team that put this together and the results it achievedthe lives it saved and the criminal activity it disruptedand I am particularly proud of the government behind it all to this very day.

Its only fair to this house that I state what I hope to focus on as a senator for New South Wales. I will put the people of New South Wales and Australia first, to the best of my ability, in everything this house asks me to consider. I admit to still being in the learning phase of how I might do that, but that is the objective. I am very sensitive to the overwhelming support I have received from good Libs all over Australia, particularly those who supported me during my preselection in 2016and the 10,100 people who amazingly voted for me below the line at No. 7 during the double-dissolution electionthe superb, extraordinary democratic reformers in New South Wales. Also those who have wished me well I would like to thank as a senator, including Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who was among the first to ring when there was an indication that my appointment might happen. Last week I received the most extraordinary support from a very wide cross-section of our society, either expressed directly to me, through my office or through the mediaa level of support that I found absolutely humbling.

Whatever I find myself doing in this great institution, I will work for it to be ethical. Ethics is about consistently doing the right thing, about being secretly beholden to no-one, and, in a political and parliamentary sense, about working for the voters who elected us. In terms of the Liberal Party, it means representing the members of my party and voters rather than disguised narrow factional interests. I am of no faction and beholden to no individual or group. I am a New South Wales Liberal, and that is where my loyalty lies. Those journos that call me a member of the New South Wales hard Right have never met a member of the New South Wales hard Right. My conclusion is that the behaviour of such factionsLeft, Centre or Rightis rarely in the interests of the party, its members or those who might consider voting for a right-of-centre party. I stand beside Walter Villatora, Tony Abbott, Angus Taylor and many other New South Wales Libs whilst still recognising the sterling qualities of those who opposed us.

Given my career expertise defence and wider national security are, of course, big issues for me. I always and publically acknowledge that the 2016 Defence white paperparticularly the accompanying funding, industry and technology links, the resultant force structure and, most recently, the defence export policyis the best that Australia has had since the first defence white paper back in 1976. This is to the great credit of our coalition prime ministers and defence and defence industry ministers.

I also think that the Australian Defence Force itself is better than I have seen it since the end of the Vietnam War. Thats a coalition achievement of the Howard, Abbott and Turnbull governments, and of defence leaders, and one achieved despite the extraordinary neglect of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd period. But I look around the world at the impact of Russia, Iran, China, North Korea and Islamist extremismwhat Americans call four nations and an ideologyon the liberal world order, and particularly on strategic uncertainty and growing instability in our region.

I look at the relative decline of US military power from 16 years of war, eight years of President Obama and seven years of crippling sequestration. I have failed to see for many years, despite any special relationships with any of its allies, how the US can come to the aid of all or even most of its allies in any extreme situation. The US government and military now acknowledge this in their desire to refinance their military. Many US allies around the world, from the Baltic to the Sea of Japan, seem to have retreated into complacent dependency, based on the myth of infinite US power and resolve as a reason for underinvesting in their own defence self-reliance, and this affects all of us. The centre pole of Australias defence policy tent, the US, may no longer stand as straight or as tall as we hoped.

My view is that we need to increase our self-reliance to manage strategic uncertainty through increased readiness, preparedness and all-round adaptability. Once before, in the decades up to 1941, Australia blindly put its security in the hands of an old friend, with a resulting situation that almost did not end well for us. As the foreign affairs white paper pointed out, an ascendant power, China, is challenging a status quo power, the US, in our region. War with China or involving China is not inevitable, and Ive said this many, many times. We should welcome Chinas emergence as a world power, if for no other reason than it has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, but we, Australia, should welcome China from a position of strength. Im reminded by commentators that since the 1500s a status quo power has been overtaken by a rising power some 16 times, and war has resulted in 12 of those occasions. Twelve of 16 are not good odds and require prudent policy.

I have no expectations that governments immediately spend one more dollar on defence, but for years Ive advocated that we must be more open about the strategic risks that are being taken in the name of the Australian people. We should all know how much defence we get for what we spend, but we should also know how much risk we take for the money we do not spend. I understand that we ask government to take risks in every single policy area. Defence is only different in that its a classic public good: unlike many areas, such as health and education, the public cannot buy more defence from another source if they want less risk.

Defence is also the only major area of government that is wholly a federal government responsibility. But as Ive written, as early as 2012, defence policies of all parties in all governments for decades have merely been a list of inputs to Defencethat is, ships, planes, tanks, people and dollarswhereas the most important part of any defence policy is the output: how Australia is going to deter the next war by being able to win it. Of course this requires governments to state what they consider the next war is going to be, and so define an output oriented defence policy. I reject the views of commentators and academics that its too hard to determine this output. Such a specification of the next war can be done in a generic sense, and it must be done or the necessary logic in our defence policy is totally absent. The US and the UK did it for years in terms of the kinds of wars they could win, and only abandoned it when it became politically too sensitive because of the self-induced defence shortfalls we see in those nations today.

I totally reject that there is a security issue in telling the Australian public and the world how we, the government, intend to win the next war in a generic sense. The world needs to know this, because that is the essence of deterrence, and we all need to know it, because how else can the government know if it is succeeding in defence or, more importantly, how can the voters ever judge how well a government is meeting its defence responsibility?

For obvious reasons, control of our borders and immigration is important to me, as it is to most Australians. We now effectively control our borders in a way that few now trust the opposition to do. However, I am concerned that the level of legal migration now that we control our borders is in excess of the capacity of our cities to absorb, both culturally and in terms of infrastructure. We are approaching limits on this, if we have not already exceeded them. I dont have the answers, but I certainly have the concerns.

As a new New South Wales senator, New South Wales issues will be my priority. The first person that I called once I was confirmed was the Premier of New South Wales, the leader of the best state government in this country. This may be quaint to some, but I had no need, obligation or desire to call a faction leader. I will work tirelessly for the re-election of the coalition at the federal level, as I did during the double-D election, during the Bennelong by-election and at other elections, because a right-of-centre coalition government, even if we may have faults, will benefit the people of Australia more than anything else, and we are short of volunteering and donating party members. My wariness of a Labor-Greens government is due to the impact such a government would have on national defence, on our borders, on an already stretched deficit and on cultural issues, as we have all seen before.

My last focus is the catch-all of what I call national resilience. This is what we may have taken for granted in past years: the strength of our economy, community confidence in our culture, and the integrity and influence of our institutions. Of course, Australia has changed and will continue to change. As a Liberal from a conservative base, Im not afraid of change. Im a staunch conservative on international affairs, because the world out there is confused, disrupted and replete with nationalism, and its getting a touch of militarism. The big bad world could not care less what Australia has achieved internally. Ironically, they may even see it as weakness. However, on every social issue that comes before this house, I will not be stereotyped and I will make up my mind issue by issue. Two of those issues are the attention we pay to the fastest growing demographic in this nationpeople of my ageand the support we give to Defence Force veterans, many of whom are here today.

Someone once said that, if opponents dont speak against you, you probably are not standing up for enough. Anyone whos googled meand that seems to be most of the Western world and all the media in the last week or soknows that various opponents regularly speak against me because I have publicly voiced my views on issues. I was targeted because I criticised the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government over its neglect of its national defence responsibilities. Some single-issue polemicists wanted to take me to the International Criminal Court years ago as a supposed war criminal because I fought in Iraq, and that has echoed more recently. Those who failed to stop the boats or said it could not be done attacked me, and of course they attacked many others, because we did it. I was publicly attacked by apologists at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas because I was a board director, with a military background, of the then brilliant St James Ethics Centre. And, most recently, I was abused as a murderer at a function held in Redfern. If opponents dont speak against you, you are probably not standing up for enough.

One of my early US bosses in Iraq used to say a prayer at the start of our daily battle update. That prayer was Psalm 144 and is a particularly muscular part of Christianity. Its a good prayer for going into battle in Iraq or for use in general everyday life. I used it in the eulogy I was honoured to give for Captain Bryce Duffy, killed in 2011 in Afghanistanmay he rest in peace. And we are honoured to have Bryces parents in the gallery today, Kim and Kerry Duffy. We are honoured to have you present with us today. Many of us may understand their loss, but none of us can ever fully repay them. Psalm 144 goes:

Praise be to the Lord my Rock,

who trains my hands for war,

my fingers for battle.

He is my loving God and my fortress,

my stronghold and my deliverer,

my shield, in whom I take refuge 

My view of our Judaeo-Christian culture is not one of victimhood or persecution. Instead, its one that acknowledges centuries of success in overcoming challenges to produce the nation that is modern Australia and that will enable us to face similar challenges in the future. I acknowledge that our community may not yet have reached perfection, but we remain a lot closer than most nations or institutions, particularly those prone to criticising us. We are challenged almost daily as to our culture, but I have confidence in what we have and what we are. Being a Liberal never stops me from being progressive, the way Menzies thought of Liberals and the way John Howard delivered. If we know what is valuable in our magnificent society then we know what to defend from the assaults of the pessimists and the ideologues. All it takes is the kind of confidence embodied in Psalm 144.

I came here in such strange circumstances that my gratitude to others, I suspect, is different from most senators. I dont think it appropriate to thank the High Court, but in the spirit of coalition unity I would like to mention Fiona Nash and to acknowledge Hollie Hughes. We are indeed in strange times.

Some of my family, close and extended, are in the gallery, and of course I thank them, and they know my gratitude to them. My wife, Anne, is there, as are two of our adult children, Erin and Felicity, with our other children, Michael and Sarah, unable to be with us.

I mention many of the national leaders that I have had contact with over the years: John Howard, Tony Abbott, Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton, Angus Taylor, Connie Fierravanti-Wells and especially Stuart Robert, who has been a particular friend, plus, of course, the two senators who escorted me into the Senate last week, Linda Reynolds and David Fawcett. I note my deep respect for one in particular, Scott Morrison. Because Ive worked so closely with him, I recognise his particular leadership and competence. As Treasurer, he must now look back on the border protection era as halcyon days.

But, of course, we are not short of outstanding parliamentarians in the Liberal Party. I owe much to the stimulation Ive received over the years from Peter Jennings, Steven Loosley, Simon Longstaff and Allan Behm. For special reasons, I would like to thank one comrade who often made me look good, and thats Ken Brownrigg. I have no election staff or campaign director to thank, but the closest is Scott Briggs who advised me years ago to have a go.

Let me finish with reference to the most important determinant of what I am, the Australian military. If I had a military mentor over the years, it is retired Lieutenant General Des Mueller, who launched the book that I wrote back in 2008, and I thank him for 25 years of wise counsel. Des was and is a brilliant blend of Sparta and Athens. My boss in Iraq was US General George Casey, who commanded the war in Iraq for three long years while I ran it for him for only the first of those years.

Too many to name are the Australian soldiers of all ranks whove worked for me, with me or above me over 40 years, because Ive learnt so much from them while pretending to know much more than I ever actually did. Many of them have contacted me in the past week to express their support for me when the place of men and women in uniform in our society was challenged.

Napoleon said: if you want to learn a nations interests, go to the graves of its soldiers. Many Australian dead have been brought back to Australia, but many still lie close to where they fell. Australias interests lie across the face of this earth. We are an international nation with worldwide interests. Ive visited many battlefields and played cameo parts on some. What strikes me is the consistent performance of Australian soldiers, sailors and airmen over more than 100 years and around the world. Todays soldiers are as good as, if not better than, any we have sent overseas, and much of that is due to our Australian culture and the leadership, training and equipment that accompany them. To me, they represent everything that is good about Australia because they are Australian. I dedicate my efforts in this house to them. Thank you.But the ACLU said in its letter that school board member's emails are publicly available through the Freedom of Information Act , and as such "the board does not have any legitimate interest in maintaining the privacy of documents that are public under FOIA. The General Assembly has already determined that the public interest in government transparency outweighs any interest the board may have in keeping such records private."When the woman got out of her vehicle following the accident, one male got out of the Acura and got into her vehicle and drove off, the release states. Police said Wednesday that the 15-year-old has been identified as the other male, the driver who hit the woman's vehicle and remained in the Acura and talked to the woman when she got out of her vehicle to discuss the crash.President Trump released his

Monday calling for increased spending on the military, border security and the opioid crisis. But the White House blueprint has already been overtaken by events. The two-year budget deal

boosts spending for both the military and domestic programs by nearly $300 billion over the next two years, complicating White House efforts to reorder federal priorities.





"We really thought we could cut a deal with the Democrats that would increase defense spending in order to defend the nation," White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told

. "But when the doors closed, what happened was they would not give us a single dollar worth of additional defense spending without giving us additional money for welfare spending and that's just the world we live in."



Pueblo nonprofits get $1.3 million from ARPA money

Pueblo City council approved 10 projects at seven local nonprofits designed to alleviate hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.You are here: Arts

Dubai announced on Wednesday the 2018 Dubai Spring Festival Grand Parade would be held Friday on the occasion of the Chinese New Year celebration.

The parade is announced by Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Dubai, Li Lingbing, in partnership with United Arab Emirates (UAE) developer Meraas and Dubai Police.

Li and Osama Al Ayoub, the Chief Executive Officer at Meraas and Colonel Jasim Khalil Mirza, director of the Security Awareness Department of Dubai Police, announced the parade will take place at Dubai's City Walk Friday.

The parade will witness around 30 parading groups, consisting of over 1,000 visiting Chinese, expatriates and international friends, along with the Dubai Police band.

Showcasing Chinese arts, traditions and culture, the grand parade will include ethnic costumes and traditional art forms, such as Tai Chi, Peking opera, acrobatics and fairy tales.

Moreover, in line with the traditions of giving away red packets during Chinese New Year, 10,000 small gifts decorated with Chinese characteristics will be distributed during the parade.

"The Spring Festival is of great significance to the Chinese people and is the most important traditional festival in our calendar, akin to the importance of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha in the region," said Li.

She added that this year's celebration in Dubai could be record-breaking.

Dubai, the business and trade metropolis of the United Arab Emirates, will also see celebrations at various locations including Dubai Parks and Resorts, Al Seef, La Mer, Dubai Airport, Boxpark, The Outlet Village, Dubai Design District, The Beach and Dubai Mall, the Consul General added.

The UAE is home to over 270,000 Chinese residents and over 4,000 firms from China.





Spectacular fireworks lit up the night sky over the Hudson River in New York City on Wednesday as part of the celebrations of the Chinese Lunar New Year that falls on Friday.

The fireworks display, themed "Happy Spring Festival", was held near Pier 84 over the Hudson River, close to the Chinese consulate general in New York.

In mostly red and gold, the two major auspicious traditional Chinese colors, the display created images representing Chinese cultural elements, like the dog, one of the 12 traditional zodiac signs, and the Chinese knot.

Prior to the display, Zhang Qiyue, Chinese consul general in New York, hosted a celebratory gala for 300-odd local celebrities and officials.

Designed and organized by China's Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), the display was executed by Fireworks by Grucci, a New York-based fireworks company.

"It (was) fantastic, especially on Valentine's Day," Scott C. Cooper, director of business development at Fireworks by Grucci, told Xinhua.

He said Grucci was excited to work with CAFA to stage the event, which is already a must-see for New Yorkers and international visitors to the city during the Lunar New Year. The two sides initiated the cooperation in 2014.

Aside from the fireworks show, the week-long Lunar New Year celebrations in the U.S. city also include a performance by the New York Philharmonic, the lighting of the Empire State Building, and the annual Lunar New Year Parade and Festival in Chinatown.

The headline event of this eight-day-long festival is a special "Students Day" on Friday at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

New York City became the largest urban school district in the country to recognize the holiday for its public school children in 2016.There are few places that speak so honestly about the reality of love, and one such place is the Museum of Broken Relationships in the Croatian capital city.



The museum displays symbolic objects of lost love: a bass guitar left by ex-boyfriend, a gnome used to smash a partner's car, or an axe used to chop an ex-lover's furniture as a way to vent his anger. These, and many other exhibited items in the museum, offer a glimpse into people's failed love affairs.

The museum is particularly popular on Valentine's Day when couples cautiously walk through the exhibit, looking at the tangible record of others' mistakes, as if they are trying to learn from them. They observe the seemingly ordinary objects and read the stories behind them.

The creators of the museum are Olinka Vistica and Drazen Grubisic, an arts producer and visual artist from Croatia. It all started as a simple, small idea, and a very personal thing.

"Olinka and I were together at the time. While we were breaking up, we were talking about what to do with the objects that are left behind. These little things, little trinkets sometimes mean so much to us. They triggered the surge of memories and then you feel bad," Grubisic told Xinhua.

The idea was to make a small art project to find a way to make things better for the heartbroken by storing the objects away where they could be preserved, Grubisic explained. That way, instead of destroying the objects, or keeping them at a delicate time when it tortures a person to see them, they are housed in the museum's collection.

At the beginning, Vistica and Grubisic asked their friends to donate personal mementos of their broken relationships. With that collection, the exhibition traveled the world. After a few years, in 2010, the permanent Museum of Broken Relationships finally settled in Zagreb.

Anyone can contribute to the museum by sending the physical items and their accompanying story. The exhibition is still traveling around the world and right now it is on its way to Norway, Japan, and probably, Shanghai in June.

In 2016, the very first franchise opened in Los Angeles.

"It's a love museum, but maybe just upside down because you get to look at love when it is gone, but I think it is the sincerest view of it, in a way, because you don't have your pink glasses on. It is pretty real," Grubisic said.

As for the curatorial aspect, the museum's collection changes every couple of years. The objects are grouped by different themes. So today, a visitor to the Zagreb museum can walk through a room that speaks about business relationships that turned personal.

"We try to combine and get a balance between very sad and really funny, sometimes hilarious, objects and to show the whole spectrum of things," Grubisic noted.

The museum started with only 50 objects and now has up to 2,600. Since then, the museum has gone on to become one of the most visited in Croatia, not only on Valentine's Day but throughout the year.A duty-free company that operates at London's Heathrow Airport has apologized after Chinese customers accused it of discrimination.

Chinese social media users alleged Chinese customers had to spend more than 1,000 pounds ($1,387) to qualify for a discount voucher at World Duty Free while other nationalities had to spend 79 pounds.

In response to the allegations, World Duty Free issued an apology on Twitter.

"We're grateful for comments shared on social media today regarding our VIP voucher scheme," the statement said. "We've investigated this straight away and identified an issue which we have corrected with immediate effect. Please accept our sincere apologies."

The company, which is based in Bern, Switzerland, did not respond to requests for a full explanation.

A Heathrow Airport spokesperson said: "We have been made aware of this offer which we find unacceptable. We are currently working with our commercial partner to understand how this happened and ensure it does not happen again."

The allegations surfaced on Weibo, when a part-time Chinese employee at the store at the airport's Terminal 2 known as @Renjiannaipao, published allegations on the social media platform.

The claim that Chinese travelers were being discriminated against went viral with people posting to complain about mistreatment.

@Julialovekshwrote on Twitter: "Will never shop in the duty free store at Heathrow any more. Chinese customers deserve to be treated with respect!! What a hideous and discriminating event to happen in 2018!! Disgusting."

@QianyunZhu_zqy tweeted: "Shame on you World Duty Free! When celebrating Chinese New Year with promotion info in Twitter, please remember Chinese customers are still waiting for your official explanation and apology for the racial discrimination. What a racist and two-faced company."

Increasing numbers of Chinese tourists are visiting the UK and other destinations and they are known for being big spenders.

The number of Chinese visitors to the UK increased by 33 percent in 2017. They collectively spent 667 million pounds, according to UK tourism authority Visit Britain.ZTE has always adhered to laws and remains a trusted partner of U.S. suppliers and customers, the Chinese telecom company said Wednesday, a day after U.S. intelligence officials warned Americans against its products.

"ZTE is proud of the innovation and security of our products in the U.S. market," a ZTE spokesperson said, adding that the company takes cybersecurity and privacy seriously.

The statement came in response to the U.S. government's recent move to block the entry of select Chinese companies.

On Tuesday, the directors of six top U.S intelligence organizations, including the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Security Agency, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that they would not recommend private citizens to use products from ZTE and Huawei, another Chinese telecom company.

In addition, two U.S. senators proposed bills last week to block the use of Huawei and ZTE equipment, stymieing the Chinese companies' expansion in the U.S. market. In January, U.S. telecom companies Verizon and AT&T dropped plans to sell Huawei phones.

"As a publicly traded company, we are committed to adhering to all applicable laws and regulations of the United States, work with carriers to pass strict testing protocols, and adhere to the highest business standards," the ZTE spokesperson added.

It was not the first time the United States has targeted Chinese companies. Fintech firm Ant Financial's plan to acquire U.S. money transfer company MoneyGram International was rejected by the U.S. government panel in January due to "national security concerns."

China has expressed opposition and concerns over rising protectionism in the United States after high-profile planned deals were blocked citing security concerns.You are here: China

Beijing's public security bureau has reinforced security and fire safety during the week-long Spring Festival starting Thursday.

The bureau said the police would target bustling downtown areas, temple fairs and public transport terminals, and has mobilized 700,000 volunteers for street patrols.

The bureau has checked 5,700 fire risks, treated 560 tonnes of inflammable waste and arrested 1,700 suspects for various criminal offenses ahead of the festival.

During the fire prevention campaign, 2.6 million people have been mobilized to take part in cleaning. The fire department has also watered sites for fireworks as the capital is experiencing its longest dry spell in 47 years, recording 115 consecutive days without "effective precipitation" as of Wednesday.

The fire department said that the city would have 122 mass activities during the festival, ranging from temple fairs to snow sport festivals, which will be closely watched for fire risks.President Xi Jinping has called on boosting the quality of poverty relief efforts as the country targets 30 million more people it plans to lift out of poverty in the coming three years.

The pressure on and difficulty of conducting relief missions are intense, as are the unsettled die-hard challenges they will face, Xi said at a symposium on Monday about poverty alleviation in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China.

At the symposium, held during his just concluded inspection tour in the province, Xi listened to briefings on poverty relief by officials at various levels, according to an official release of the symposium issued on Wednesday.

The symposium studied policies in the fight against poverty to be implemented during the next three years.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, sent Spring Festival greetings to the public and officials working at the forefront of poverty alleviation.

Steps should be taken to boost preparedness for various potential challenges at a time when problems such as bureaucracy and corruption still exist, Xi said.

A clear mind is needed to understand the difficulties ahead to win the war against poverty. One also is needed to realize the urgency in identifying and resolving demanding issues, Xi said.

Efforts to fight poverty must be maintained and the quality of poverty relief missions should be improved even as their aim targets the poorest areas to ensure substantial progress is made, Xi said.

The president put forward eight detailed requirements on the relief missions.

Officials, particularly high-ranking local leaders, should enhance poverty relief efforts and departments involved at the central level should research and formulate an action plan for the poverty fight, map out the timeline and roadmap for the fight over the coming three years and offer effective guidance, Xi said.

Goals and standards should be fulfilled to ensure all people living in poverty gain a better living standard by 2020, effectively eliminated poverty from all poor counties, Xi said.

The system for managing nationwide poverty relief missions should be reinforced and the assessment and evaluation procedures should constantly be improved in accordance with the progressing relief missions, Xi said.

Precision by the missions should be further improved and the management of funds should be perfected to make the relief missions transparent and clean, Xi said.

Discipline and supervision should be stepped up to tackle demanding issues such as irregular use of funds. Officials involved at various levels should be trained to master the ways to eradicate poverty and improve their capabilities in handling challenges during the poverty fight, Xi said.

Also, efforts should be geared up to better inspire the impoverished population and motivate and encourage them to fight poverty, Xi said.

In his review of the country's poverty relief missions, Xi said the fight against poverty enjoys unprecedented strength, scale and influence. He said it has achieved decisive progress.

Systems have been built regarding areas such as responsibilities, policies, funds and experts, supervision and assessment, Xi said.

A system of Chinese characteristics for eliminating poverty has been established to offer effective institutional guarantees for poverty relief and to offer Chinese wisdom and solutions for global relief efforts, Xi said

The major experiences China has acquired include upholding the leadership by the CPC, ensuring precision, increasing investment, involving social participation, conducting stringent checks and motivating the poor residents, Xi said.

Such experiences should be further updated and developed in the long run, Xi said.It's festival time in China! The whole of China is now decorated with festive lanterns to greet the traditional Lunar New Year or Spring Festival 2018, the Year of the Dog, which falls on February 16 this year.









Historically, the Chinese people have their own unique traditional culture which spawned many traditional festivals, most of which still preserve their grandeur and importance even in today's modern world. Boasting rich cultural meaning and a long history, Chinese New Year is one of the world's most colorful and exuberant events and triggers grand celebrations all across the globe.





The set of traditions has been passed down over centuries during the month-long festive days: from family reunions to New Year fireworks, temple fairs and performances to dumplings, or "Jiaozi", local delicacy feasts and exchanging gifts. In fact, Spring Festival is the lifeblood of Chinese culture which has the potential to meet the demands of the times.





In recent years, as a powerful international actor, China has been enhancing the country's image to promote Chinese traditions, values, languages, and culture in foreign countries. Surely, Chinese culture has tied other countries with a message of Chinese friendship.





Since 2010, the brand "Happy Chinese New Year" gala, introduced by the Chinese Ministry of Culture, has been staged around the world through the bridge of Spring Festival. The warm welcome from international audiences has made Chinese New Year a branded global cultural communication event. This year, the "Happy Chinese New Year" gala has brightened the stages at over 400 cities in over 130 countries, including 53 countries and regions along the Belt and Road routes.





Happy Spring Festival comes to Kolkata, capital of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. On February 12, 2018, local citizens got a slice of the extravagant New Year celebrations at a Chinese Cultural Show at Kala Mandir Auditorium, Kolkata. The event was organized by the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China to promote Chinese culture and to reinvigorate the Indo-Sino friendship.





Performers from Liuzhou Arts Theater of Guangxi of China and Guangxi Acrobatic Troupe Co. Ltd brought audiences distinctive dances like the "Blooming of Jasmine," "Flowers Bloom in the Rain," "Thousand-hands Bodhisattva" and "Spirit of the Water" as well as acrobatic performances like "Magic Cube" and "Ballet on Shoulders." The troupes mesmerized Bengal people with their artistic dance, music and solo shows, expressing their New Year wishes to the Indian people.





Towards the end of the show, a good number of viewers made very positive comments after watching the performance, saying it was superb and mind-blowing, and thanked the Chinese Consulate and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region for bringing to West Bengal the splendid Chinese singing and dancing.





The friendship between India and China dates back to ancient times, and Kolkata is the joint-link between India and China, two great Asian nations and ancient civilizations. It is believed that the cultural celebrations will make Indian people know more about the diversified and rich culture of China, further deepening cultural cooperation and exchanges between China and West Bengal or the whole India. Undoubtedly, such type of cultural programs will increase people-to-people contacts bridging the gap between the two nations.





Rabi Sankar Bosu, Secretary of New Horizon Radio Listeners' Club, West Bengal, India





Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.



 Flash

After three years of suspension, British tour operator Thomas Cook resumed services in Tunisia and brought back British tourists to the north African country, a Tunisian tourism official said Wednesday.

According to Bassem Ouertani, the regional tourism delegate in Sousse, seaside province of eastern Tunisia, the British tour operator resumes its activities in Tunisia at the rate of three weekly flights.

"The first flight has landed on Tuesday at the airport Nefidha-Hammamet from Birmingham, with 220 British tourists", said Ouertani.

The frequency of flights of this tour operator is expected to reach, from the beginning of this May, 10 flights per week.

The decision of the British authorities to ban travel to Tunisia dates back to June 2015 following a bloody attack at a hotel in Sousse killing at least 38 dead including 30 English tourists.

Last July, British diplomacy decided to partially lift this restriction with the exception of certain areas of Tunisia, including those bordering with Libya and Algeria.

Holding about 8 percent of the country's GDP, tourism sector posted a growth of 23.2 percent in 2017 by receiving over 7 millions tourists of all nationalities, said the communication office of the Tunisian Ministry of Tourism.

According to the ministry, among these tourists are about 1.69 million Europeans, with an increase of nearly 20 percent, of which 27.956 are British tourists.

 Flash

The German government and Federal Intelligence Service (BND) have applied for additional funds from the parliament to build up the country's own surveillance capabilities, German newspaper Die Zeit reported on Wednesday.

Die Zeit cited a document classified as "top secret" in which the office of the Chancellery asked German lawmakers to approve a fresh injection of 400 million euros (496 million U.S. dollars) into "Project Georg".

Speaking to Die Zeit, BND director Bruno Kahl explained that Germany needed its own modern intelligence infrastructure, such as espionage satellites, to "access information quickly and independently, and conduct independent and up-to-date assessments".

Kahl argued that the investment was worth-while despite marking an increase over the original estimated costs of more than a quarter. After all, he said, it was "not always enough to rely on third parties for information, purchase images on the commercial market, or request content from international partners".

According to Die Zeit, the chief objective of "Project Georg" is to reduce German dependence on the powerful intelligence services of the United States. Even prior to the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump, transatlantic relations between Berlin and Washington were severely strained by the revelations of NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

Amongst others, the Snowden leaks showed that the U.S. had been spying on the cell-phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a form of behavior amongst official allies which she privately likened to "American-style Stasi methods".

A growing perception that Berlin cannot fully trust Washington as an international partner, let alone rely on it to ensure its national security, has only been reinforced by the protectionist "America First" rhetoric of president Trump and his ambivalent attitude towards key tenets of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

In the report, Die Zeit drew attention to a consequential change of strategy in the elite policymaking circle surrounding Merkel towards more national emancipation, as well as intensified military and intelligence cooperation in the European Union (EU) as opposed to NATO.

Aside from smaller independent initiatives such as "Project Georg", a first step towards such a new multipolar reality in the global security landscape was taken with the establishment of the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) by 25 of the EU's current 28 members in December 2017.

The PESCO pact will allow 25 participating EU member states to pursue greater cooperation on matters of defense and security.

PESCO and other European Defense Union initiatives have been presented as complements to NATO -- foremost a defense alliance -- but observers have noted that they represent a general change in political orientation, with European allies less confident of support and cooperation from the U.S.





You are here: World

 Flash

A British national was arrested in Morocco's Marrakech over links to an international drug trafficking network, the police said in a statement on Wednesday.

According to the statement, the 39-year-old British citizen is subject to two international arrest warrants issued by France and European Union in 2014 and 2016 respectively, for drug trafficking.

The police said the man was arrested on Tuesday immediately after arriving in Morocco on a flight from Doha airport in Qatar.

The suspect was remanded in custody and under an investigation awaiting his extradition procedure.





 Flash

Warring clans in South Sudan's Jonglei state on Wednesday signed an agreement to end hostilities and embrace peaceful coexistence after 39 people died during clashes that erupted last year.

South Sudan's Defense Minister Kuol Manyang Juuk told Xinhua by phone that the state government officials and community chiefs initiated a dialogue that included youth and women representatives from the two sub-sections of Abii community to end the violence.

"I am happy that the two clans were able to iron out their differences that divided them and reached an agreement to live again in harmony," Juuk said.

The defense minister said that although the two clans agreed to end fighting, the state authorities still deployed heavy presence of security forces along a previously created buffer zone to monitor any violations and to uphold relative calm in the area.

The Jonglei region has suffered decades of communal and tribal violence, mainly caused by rivalry over livestock and grazing land.

Last week, 15 people were killed and 8 others injured, in addition to the 22 killed and 18 injured in December last year, when members of Nyara clan fought with Biong clan within the section of Abii community over the ownership of land in the same area.





You are here: World

 Flash

Cyprus' economy growth rate reached 3.9 percent on an annual basis in 2017, a statement of Eurostat made available in Nicosia said on Wednesday.

Cyprus' statistical service put growth at 4.0 percent in the last quarter, saying it was the highest quarterly increase since the third quarter of 2008.

Finance Minister Harris Georgiades has said that it is important to achieve a high growth rate because it encourages foreign investment.

Cyprus was pulled back from bankruptcy in a 10-billion-euro assistance package by the Eurogroup and the International Monetary Fund in 2013.





 Flash

It is important for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Greece to build confidence between them in order to settle the name issue, FYROM Prime Minister Zoran Zaev told reporters Wednesday.

Zaev said the FYROM government was doing its best to come to an internal consensus in the country to find a final solution, assuring citizens that dignity and identity were an indispensable part of the negotiations with Greece.

The prime minister said he was optimistic a solution would be found soon.

"I'm glad that essentially all open issues have been dissected. Having been launched with seven starting positions, I know now that they have been reduced to four positions, meaning three have been settled. I believe in the policy of the new government that the remaining positions will be settled soon," Zaev told reporters.

He also voiced hope that the next steps would harmonize the two countries' positions on the remaining outstanding issues.

"Our positions should serve as a bridge of unity and towards finding a solution to the issue of Greece with our constitutional name," Zaev said.

"Understandably, the key positions are vital, for example the name, the constitution -- whether it is going to be changed or not, the language, and other matters that have been mentioned. It is the essence of the negotiating process itself," the premier said.

The head of government also said he expected the two parties to be pragmatic and for any possible solution to be upheld in a referendum.

To FYROM, solving the name issue with Greece is very important as it is considered the main obstacle to be overcome in order to start negotiations talks for European Union (EU) accession and NATO accession.

The name issue between the two countries has existed since 1992, one year after FYROM declared independence from Yugoslavia and chose the name Macedonia, which is also the name of a northern Greek province.

Athens worries the use of the same name by the neighboring state could lead to territorial claims.

 Flash

Fountains across the Croatian capital's landmark National and University Library have been lit up red to celebrate the Chinese New Year, which falls on Feb. 16.

Above the fountains, dozens of Chinese red lanterns were erected for this week's celebrations.

Earlier this week, a traditional Chinese lion dance was presented at Ban Jelacic square in the city center of Zagreb, which according to local Chinese businessmen was the first of its kind here in decades.

Mayor of Zagreb Milan Bandic was invited to conduct "eye dotting" for the "lions" along with Chinese ambassador Hu Zhaoming. The show attracted crowds of locals and media despite the snowy weather.

Later that day, a gala was held in Zagreb to celebrate the Chinese New Year saw the attendance of Deputy Speaker of Croatian Parliament Zeljko Reiner, former president Stjepan Mesic, and local primary school teachers and shipyard workers.

Speaking to Xinhua ahead of the event, Reiner said that he expected the diplomatic and all the other relations between Croatia and China would further develop in the new year.

"We have a long-lasting history of excellent relations and particularly in some fields like education, sports, culture and so on. What I personally expect is that we might develop much more our economic relations because there are huge possibilities for both sides to develop it," Reiner said.

CLOSER ECONOMIC TIES

More than 160,000 tourists from China visited Croatia in 2017, up nearly 60 percent from the previous year, according to figures. Starting from July this year, patrols by Chinese police officers will be deployed in Croatia's major tourist destinations in a bid to better help Chinese tourists.

Trade and economic ties between both countries strengthened in recent years, notably in 2017, when two Chinese companies invested millions of euros in local electronic supercar manufacturer Rimac and a wind power project respectively.

The most significant progress was the successful bid for the Peljesac bridge by a Chinese consortium in January this year, when Croatian highway authority found the Chinese offer of 2.08 billion kuna (about 340 million U.S. dollars) without VAT to be the most favourable.

The Peljesac bridge will connect the southernmost part of the southeastern European country and Dubrovnik to the rest of the mainland. With the bridge, Croatia will have a continuous land link that bypasses the territory of the Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Chinese ambassador Hu Zhaoming has expressed his "greatest hope" that the bridge contract would be signed as soon as possible.

"Let us bring forward the vision of a bright future and wish China-Croatia relations would achieve greater development in the new year," the ambassador said while addressing the gala.





 Flash

Determined to carry out a European Union (EU) decision to move the block's medicines agency from London to Amsterdam after Brexit, the Dutch government insists the selection process was "fair and square" despite Italy's legal bid to overturn the outcome.

"The Netherlands was chosen as the new home ground for EMA fair and square, based on a procedure agreed upon by all member states. Every step we take in the relocation project is in close cooperation with the European Medicines Agency (EMA)," Dutch minister of Health Bruno Bruins told Xinhua.

Earlier this month Italy and the city of Milan, which narrowly lost the tender, appealed to the European Court of Justice (EUJ), claiming that the voting procedure was not appropriate and the decision was taken on the basis of incorrect information.

EU ministers opted for Amsterdam in the third and final vote last November. In late January, EMA director Guido Rasi said that the new accommodation in Amsterdam won't be finished on time during a presentation of the relocation project organized by the Dutch health ministry in the Hague.

According to the Dutch plan, the EMA will be moved into temporary premises in 2019 and into its permanent building in 2020, a situation the agency's director said was "not optimal".

The temporary premise was not the same as the one included in the bid book submitted by the Netherlands. It has only half the space compared with the current premises in London and the organization's staff still have to use external meeting facilities, according to Rasi.

"A temporary office building was always part of our bid. The building we have now selected is completely functional with office spaces for all employees and ready to use conference facilities at the same location. And next to that we are constructing a brand new building. This new building is especially designed for the EMA and will meet EMA's requirements for decades to come," Bruin told Xinhua.

HOSTING EU AGENCIES BRING ECONOMIC BENEFITS

Two EU agencies based in London, the EMA and the European Banking Authority (EBA) which coordinates banking rules and regulations for the bloc, should be relocated to another EU member state by March 30, 2019, the date when Britain leaves the EU. Eight cities had applied for hosting the EBA which employs some 100 people. Paris won the bid.

Ninteen cities had bid to host the EMA. As one of the EU's biggest institutions, the medicines agency has an annual budget of over 300 million euros and employs around 900 people.

"All countries would like to host EU agencies, especially the EMA, which is of particular economic interest," said Thomas Christiansen, Chair in European Institutional Politics at Maastricht University. Apart from its highly qualified staff, the EMA also means business with its meetings and conferences, which attract medical industry representatives from all over Europe.

European Commission assessed bidding cities mainly on six criteria including transport links, availability of schools for the children of the agency's employees and organization for a smooth move.

Earlier last week, Commission's spokesperson Alexander Winterstein said the Commission had "very clear procedures in place for how information submitted" was to be assessed.

He stressed that EU countries "had all the information they needed" when they took the decision on where to move the agency. But he also said that France and the Netherlands were the only two candidate countries which asked "for certain parts of the information submitted to be treated confidentially".

A draft law on the relocation must now pass through the European Parliament (EP). The legislative file is to be put to a vote in the EP's environment committee on March 12 and in plenary session the same week.

Last week EP president and political group leaders decided to send a fact-finding mission to Amsterdam, led by rapporteur on the relocation Giovanni La Via, an Italian MEP. The delegation will visit the temporary location and the future headquarters for the EMA.





 Flash

The Libyan Ministry of Justice on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the European Union mission in Libya for the development of prisons and criminal justice.

The Minister of Justice, Mohamed Abdel-Wahed, signed the MoU at the ministry's headquarters here with the Head of EU Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) in Libya, Vincenzo Tagliaferri, and EU Ambassador to Libya, Bettina Muscheidt.

Under the MoU, the EU mission will "provide technical and logistical programs that work with the penal institutions of the judicial system," Abdel-Wahed said.

"Institutional support will be provided in the field of judicial expertise and prison management and health care, in addition to developing the curricula of legal institutes to establish a state of institutions and the rule of law," Abdel-Wahed added.

The MoU aims to develop the criminal justice system by harmonizing national legislation with international conventions and by helping to build the capacity of judicial and police personnel through specialized training courses and visits of European experts.

In May 2013, EU mission launched its special mission EUBAM Libya for integrated border management, in addition to liaison with the Libyan authorities concerned in security and judicial reform.

However, the mission faced difficulties working from within Libya. The mission is currently based in the Tunisian capital Tunis temporarily.





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China will continue to provide assistance within its capacity to Iraq through bilateral ways, and actively participate in the economic reconstruction of Iraq, said Chinese Ambassador to Kuwait Wang Di on Wednesday.

China supports Iraq's efforts in realizing national stability and development, Wang Di said.

The ambassador made the remarks at the Kuwait International Conference for the Reconstruction of Iraq (KICRI), held in Bayan Palace in Kuwait.

China respects the independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Iraq, and congratulates Iraq for retrieving all the territories occupied by the extreme organization, he added.

And China supports the efforts made by Iraqi government in safeguarding peace and stability, realizing national reconciliation and economic reconstruction, the ambassador said.

China and Iraq enjoy a traditional friendly relationship, Iraq is considered as China's important cooperative partner in West Asia and North Africa, he said.

In recent years, the practical cooperation between the two counties is steadily moving forward, and China is willing to further cooperate with Iraq in all areas under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, he added.

Chinese companies have always been actively participating in the construction of Iraq in all areas such as oil-gas, electric, communication, infrastructure and etc, he said.

The three-day KICRI kicked off Monday in Kuwait City, which brought together several economic powers, as well as regional and international organizations, to make contributions to rebuilding Iraq after many years of war and conflict that ripped through various parts of the country.





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A senior Chinese diplomat on Wednesday said that China will continue to play the role of a responsible major power so as to strengthen cooperation with the United Nations and make greater contributions to building a new type of international relations and a human community of common destiny.

Yu Jianhua, the new Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), noted that China will always be a full supporter to the multilateralism and the UN when presenting his credentials to Michael Moller, the Director-General of the UNOG..

"Geneva is one of the most important multilateral diplomatic centers in the world and the birthplace of multilateral diplomacy for new China. China has always been an active advocate of multilateralism and a staunch supporter of the cause of the United Nations," he stressed.

"In 2017, President Xi Jinping paid a historic visit to the United Nations headquarters in Geneva and delivered an important speech on building a human community of common destiny, thus sending a strong signal of China's full support to the United Nations and multilateralism ," he said.

While welcoming China's new permanent representative, Moller said that the United Nations attaches great importance to China's position and role.

The important concept put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping in his address to the United Nations headquarters in Geneva in 2017 still continues to have a significant impact on the related UN and multilateral works, Moller said.

The UN official added that the United Nations is willing to strengthen cooperation with China and push for better cooperation of the international community in dealing with global challenges.

Prior to his appointment to Geneva, Yu had been serving as Vice Minister of Commerce and Deputy China International Trade Representative.





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Libya's Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the administrative judiciary is not competent to consider cases against the constitution assembly.

"The Supreme Court issued its final verdict on the decision of the appeal court to suspend the draft constitution, which ruled that the administrative judiciary is not competent to consider cases related to the constitution assembly," assembly spokesman Siddiq Al-Dresi told Xinhua.

"Under this judicial ruling from the highest court in Libya, the draft constitution procedures are valid. The parliament should prepare the referendum law to present the draft constitution to the people," Al-Dresi added.

In August 2017, the appeals court ruled that the draft constitution should be suspended on grounds that the assembly held the voting session on a holiday.

Al-Dresi demanded to hold a meeting of those rejecting the draft constitution, and to work to bring the views together, "because the constitution is a social contract that must have consensus between all the spectrum and representatives of cities."

The constitution drafting assembly last July voted for a draft constitution and presented it to the parliament. However, the Parliament refused to issue a referendum law at that time until a court ruling is issued regarding the validity of the drafting procedures.

UN Envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salame, also stressed the international community's expectation of the Supreme Court's ruling to make a unified international position on the future constitution.





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Total contributions by countries participating in Kuwait International Conference on Reconstruction of Iraq (KICRI) reached 30 billion U.S. dollars, Kuwait Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah said Wednesday.

He made the announcement at the closing session of the conference.

This amount came from 76 participating countries, along with 51 international development funds, 107 local and international NGOs, in addition to 1,850 representatives from the private sector, he said.

In a press conference after the session Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari said the amount of contributions announced at the conference, including investments and grants, do not meet all the needs for Iraq, but they were not small, adding that they will continue to seek investment, which is an important economic factor to overcome Iraqi ordeal.

Iraqi Planning Minister Salman Al Jumaili on Monday said that reconstruction in Iraq requires 88.2 billion U.S. dollars.

According to a report provided at the conference by the minister, the total damage in Iraq by anti-IS military operations amounted to 45.7 billion dollars, the most affected sectors in this country by the war against IS include housing sector, power, industry and commerce, oil and gas and transport.

KICRI, kicked off Monday and concluded today, brought together several economic powers, as well as regional and international organizations, to make contributions to rebuilding Iraq after many years of war and conflict that ripped through various parts of the country.





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Libya's eastern-based army spokesman Ahmad Mismari said Wednesday that an agreement will be signed soon to unify the military establishment in Libya under Egyptian auspices.

"The meetings to unify the military establishment will continue tomorrow in Cairo, to complete the final consultations in particular," Mismari said in a press conference in Benghazi, eastern Libya.

"We have agreed on most of the items related to the structure and unification of the military establishment in all Libya. We agreed on the structure and formation of defense and national security councils and the general command," Mismari said, adding that the Egyptian-brokered agreement would be signed soon.

Mismari also noted that the only obstacle to be discussed is related to the ongoing political division, expecting all remaining points to be terminated.

Since October 2017, the Egyptian capital Cairo has hosted four extended meetings for a number of Libyan military officers to unite the national army.

The Egyptian committee on Libya, headed by the Egyptian deputy defense minister General Mohammed al-Kashki, called on all parties later last year to support the unification, restructuring, and organization of the Libyan military establishment.

Libyan UN-backed prime minister, Fayez Serraj, agreed with the eastern-based army Commander Khalifa Haftar, during two meetings in May and July 2017 in United Arab Emirates and France, to develop a strategy for a unified Libyan army under civilian authority.

Since the fall of the late leader Gaddafi's regime in 2011, Libya has been plagued by insecurity and political division between eastern and western authorities.





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The U.S. Department of State announced Wednesday that Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan will visit five European countries to take part in conferences and hold talks with senior officials.

Sullivan will arrive in Munich on Feb. 16 to attend the Munich Security Conference, kicking off his visit to Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Latvia and Belgium. He will participate in a nuclear security and arms control panel discussion with foreign government officials to reaffirm the U.S. stance on global nuclear security, as well as hold talks with officials from Germany and other countries.

The senior U.S. diplomat will then travel to Rome to talk about cooperation on Ukraine, Libya and the Islamic State (IS), and deliver remarks at the local American Studies Center to discuss U.S.-Italian cooperation on global security issues.

He will visit Kiev on Feb. 21 to meet Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, and Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin. Sullivan will stress the importance of Ukraine speeding up credible economic and anti-corruption reforms and underscore U.S. support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, according to the State Department.

He will arrive in Riga on Feb. 22 and meet senior Latvian officials to reaffirm commitment to NATO's Article 5, which considers an attack against one ally to be an attack on all allies.

Brussels will be his last stop on Feb. 23. Sullivan will participate in the Sahel donors' conference and discuss U.S. continued support for the development, security, and political issues of the African region.

Cross-Atlantic ties have been strained in recent years, especially after the Trump administration assumed office in January 2017. Bilateral discords revolve round the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, Washington's recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and its constant push for Europe to increase the latter's share of defense expenses.

For their part, European nations complain about the U.S. doing little to curb Moscow's move on the Ukraine issue, which they see as a blatant aggression of European nations.

Birthday wishes

Call 281-422-8302 or email david.bloom@baytownsun.com to wish someone a happy birthday. We will print your birthday wish on Page 2 of The Sun.

Happy Birthday WishesAs Lunar New Year becomes increasingly recognized across the world, expats who spend the traditional festival in China are discovering a wide range of enjoyable pursuits.

Huda Mohammed, a doctoral student at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, is looking forward to spending her third Spring Festival in China. "My favorite part of Lunar New Year is the fireworks," the Yemen national said. "I went out with my friends to the street at 11pm on New Year's Eve in 2016 to see the fireworks. It was so nice."

She said her friends even searched online to check locations where fireworks could be seen, and we visited them to enjoy the displays.

"After the stunning fireworks, we returned to the campus and had some dumplings made by my Chinese friends," she said.

She also had fun with the online red envelope games on WeChat. People can give and receive digital red envelopes, or hongbao, containing real money, on their phones.

"We just kept receiving and giving red envelopes, which was really fun," she said.

For Huda, the best thing about spending Spring Festival in Beijing is the lack of passengers on public transportation, which she called "super good".

According to data from the city's department of statistics, as many as 8 million people of Beijing's population of 21 million are from other parts of China, which means that about 40 percent of the city's residents may return to their hometowns to spend the traditional festival with their families.

In addition, a large number of people choose to travel abroad during the holiday, meaning traffic congestion is not an issue during the festival period.

For expats who stay in the capital, it's a good time to travel around and enjoy the city. "I like Beijing during Spring Festival. Many people leave the city and it's really easy to get around," said Bill Siggins, 60, an editor from Canada.

Siggins' wife hails from Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province.

He said he goes to Miaohui - a type of fair held during Spring Festival - where people can enjoy traditional food and cultural shows in public parks.

"I'll eat some weird traditional Beijing food - duck intestines or some other organ - and buy a Chinese New Year symbol to hang on the door," he said.

He often travels to his wife's hometown to spend the festival with her family.

"It's always good to see my mother-and father-in-law, and we always have a great time on New Year's Eve. We eat way too much food, have too much fun watching the TV gala and then get way too crazy with fireworks at midnight," he said.

This year, he plans to drive to Xi'an for the coming holiday.

Newcomers always have a good time during Spring Festival.

Gopolang Molale, a 24-year-old master's student at UIBE, will be celebrating his first Spring Festival in China.

"I'm excited that I'm going to experience this festival in China and be part of it," the South African national said. "I know some of the traditions about this festival such as people going back home and getting together. I wonder if it's like Christmas for Westerners? The Beijing municipal government has invited us to a traditional concert. I'm very much looking forward to it."

He also plans to travel to Shanghai during the holiday and visit the Disneyland resort there, the sixth in the world, which opened in 2016. According to the theme park, cartoon characters will dress in traditional Chinese costumes during the holiday period.

(China Daily 02/15/2018 page6)A megachurch pastor in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. has come under fire after a netizen shared a photo of his $230,000 Bentley Bentayga parked outside the church and suggested that he had been leeching of the community tithes.

On Feb. 5, Facebook user Jarrell Taylor posted a photo of Pastor William H. Curtis' costly Bentley Bentayga that was parked outside the Mount Ararat Baptist Church in Pittsburgh. The car is said to be the world's fastest SUV with a maximum speed of 187 mph, Christian Today detailed.

"If ya pastor driving a Bentley truck ... he's sucking ur community dry with hope and tithes," said Taylor on Facebook.

When asked for comment regarding the controversial car, Pastor Curtis' assistant said he would probably not address the questions on the issue. His choice of an expensive vehicle also drew criticism from many who believe that religious leaders should live a more humble lifestyle.

"To own a car that expensive you have to be among the top 10 percent of income earners or even higher of these United States of America, and I can't consider how preaching could lead someone to so much wealth," said Union Theological Seminary's Religion & Society associate professor, Samuel Cruz.

Curtis, who has been the senior pastor of the Pittsburgh megachurch starting 1997, was also the co-owner of a technology and marketing firm called The Church Online. He spearheaded a Community Tithe Program, which circulates more than 10 percent of their church's weekly offerings to small churches and other ministries.

Last December, celebrity pastor John Gray III defended pastors who lived opulent lifestyles during an interview with Greenville News. The Lakewood Church associate pastor said those who work hard, make an honest living and pay taxes have the right to live according to the lifestyle they can afford and provide nice stuff for their family.

Citing an example from the Bible, Pastor Gray said God blessed King Solomon with a lot of riches. However, he acknowledged that it was wrong for pastors to "pimp the church" and other people just to "enrich themselves."A wave of fear is now engulfing illegal immigrants in the United States due to the ongoing crackdown by the Trump administration.

But local US judges are intervening to stop immigrant families from being split up.

The trend began on February 1 in New Hampshire when a federal judge stopped the deportation of 50 Indonesian Christians. The same thing happened in New Jersey the next day as another federal judge protected another group of 50 Indonesian Christians from being deported by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), reports Christianity Today.

Despite the position of the ICE, all 100 illegal immigrants from Indonesia are allowed to remain in the United States for now.

It was US District Judge Patti Saris who gave 50 illegal immigrants in New Hampshire 90 days to to reopen their cases the moment they receive the necessary paperwork.

The Indonesians are believed to be part of a population of at least 2,000 Chinese Indonesian Christians who've fled their homelands because of violence two decades ago, Christianity Today reports. Some of them have been granted legal migrant status while others have not been so lucky. Many of them have entered the country legally but have overstayed their tourist visas.

The 100 illegal immigrants have settled down, have jobs and have also raised families.

US District Judge Patti Saris said that the current situation is very tough considering that the immigrants in question are hardworking people who have stayed in the United States with the government's blessing and were even given work permits.Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has condemned intolerance and violence in the country after four were wounded when a sword-wielding man recently attacked a church in Sleman in the middle of its Sunday service.

In a statement on Feb. 12, President Widodo called for strong police action against the suspect in the recent sword attack in St. Lidwina Church in Sleman. The Indonesian president said any person who attempts to promote intolerance in the country must be firmly dealt with, The Tempo relayed.

"There is no place in our country for intolerants. Especially those who are violent," said Widodo on Monday. "You cannot even speak intolerant words."

In addition, President Widodo pointed out that freedom of religion was protected by Indonesia's constitution. He said the people of Indonesia had co-existed peacefully for quite some time despite their religious differences, but he acknowledged that such attacks happened also in other countries.

Meanwhile, the suspect in the sword attack on Sunday, Feb. 11, is reportedly a university student. He allegedly targeted Pastor Karl Edmund Prier, who was leading the choir that morning, before destroying the religious statues near the altar, The Jakarta Post reported.

Pastor Prier's injuries were mostly at the back of his head. The attacker also managed to wound parishioners Budijono and Martinus Parmadi Subiantara plus a police officer named First Insp. Adj. Munir.

The attacker was reportedly given a warning shot by police but he ignored it. The cops later shot the assailant and brought him to the hospital to have his injuries attended to.

Sukatno, the parish chairman of St. Lidwina, said their church members were not affected by the sword attack because they know that the assailant only aimed to destroy the peace. He also revealed that they would continue to hold mass at their church this coming weekend.

In the wake of the attack, MAARIF Institute supervisory board member Fajar Riza Ul Haq urged the people to unite against intolerance, religiously motivated violence, and attempts to destroy peace in their community.Open Doors Rebuilds Nearly 700 Christian Homes Destroyed by ISIS in Nineveh Plains 15 February, 2018 by Samuel Smith/CP , |

Nearly 700 Christian homes have been rebuilt by Open Doors and its partners in the Nineveh Plains of Iraq following years of genocide and destruction committed by the Islamic State.

Over three-and-a-half years ago, IS jihadis forced Christians and other religious minorities in the region to choose either to convert to Islam, pay a hefty tax to keep their faith, or be killed. In the midst of these life-threatening circumstances, hundreds of thousands of believers decided to flee their homes and seek refuge in neighboring countries or in the Kurdish north.

But now that the city of Mosul and surrounding Nineveh Plains have been liberated for months, members of the Christian community are slowly rebuilding their homes after they were trashed and desecrated by the brutal terrorist group.

Although resettling Christians haven't received much aid to date from foreign governments, some have benefited from the help of international humanitarian groups in restoring their once beloved homes.

Open Doors, a Christian ministry that operates in over 60 countries worldwide, recently announced that at least 678 homes have been restored in the Nineveh Plains because of their and their partners' efforts.

Open Doors and its local partners have helped to rebuild 286 houses in Qaraqosh, a town that was once the biggest Christian town in Iraq.

"But as the Lord told His people through the prophet Isaiah, God is doing a 'new thing' in Qaraqosh, Iraq's largest Christian city," an Open Doors report states. "Shops and restaurants are open, children go to school, busloads full of students head to Mosul daily for their studies at Mosul University, and increasing numbers of Christians are returning to the Assyrian city more commonly known as Baghdeda."

Additionally, Open Doors and its partners have helped to support the restoration of a total of 392 houses throughout the rest of the Nineveh Plains.

Open Doors says the efforts have resulted in a "new hope for almost 700 families."

The progress being made in Northern Iraq spans beyond what Open Doors has been able to support.

Father George, a Christian leader in Qaraqosh, told Open Doors that as many as 1,054 of 2,658 houses on their list to be repaired were restored by the end of 2017.

Read more about Open Doors rebuilding homes on The Christian Post.Heaven isnt what it used to be.

A friend of mines favorite Sunday school song growing up was Dwell in Me, O Blessed Spirit, the first verse of which goes, Dwell in me, O Blessed Spirit, Gracious Teacher, Friend Divine. For the home of bliss that waits me, O prepare this heart of mine. But my friend, Laura Smit, who is now a theology professor at Calvin College, notes that this song is now revised in the hymnal to read For the kingdom work that calls me, O prepare this heart of mine. Apparently, those revising the song worried that speaking of the home of bliss that waits me leads to otherworldly passivity. Rather than prepare our hearts for the home of bliss in the age to come, we should focus on the kingdom work that calls me.

This revision reflects the broader trend of evangelical scholars and pastors countering a wispy, ethereal view of heaven, separated from our present life. Rather than use rapture movies to scare non-Christians into faith so they are delivered from the burning earth, these evangelicals insist that Christian hope is not for the annihilation of the earth, but the restoration of all creation to service of the Lord. Our heavenly hope is that the Lord sets things right, and heaven comes to earth. Our kingdom work now anticipates the new creation to come, in which we reign with King Jesus in the renewed creation.

I embrace the main features of this counter-narrative to the rapture account. Redemption restores Gods good creation. Heavenly hope involves a material, embodied restoration. Heaven and earth will come together as Christs kingship is recognized by all creation. Moreover, we should embrace the kingdom work that calls us, as the revised song states. Yet, I also sense that we impoverish our hope for heaven when we turn it into an expression of our current activist emphasis upon kingdom work.

Resurrection Hope in the Present Age

New Testament scholar Richard Middleton speaks for many in this kingdom work movement in insisting that we need to drop pious ideas of a perpetual worship service as our ultimate purpose in the eschaton. Instead, we need to focus on what we will do in the new creation. Likewise, in his popular recent book, All Things New: Heaven, Earth, and the Restoration of Everything You Love, pastor John Eldredge laments that everybody I talk to still has these anemic, wispy views of heaven, as a place up there somewhere, where we go to attend the eternal-worship-service-in-the-sky. Instead, the renewal of all things simply means that the earth you loveall your special places and treasured memoriesis restored and renewed and given back to you.

A watershed book for the recent discussion of these issues was N. T. Wrights Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. Wright presents a forceful counter to a rapture-based view of heaven where the earth is left behind. As he does so, he presents a wide-ranging vision of how the church is to bring real and effective signs of Gods new creation to birth even in the midst of the present age.

A key verse for Wright is Pauls admonition at the end of his great exposition of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 to give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain (15:58). While many interpreters understand this labor as preaching the resurrected Christ (referenced by Paul several times earlier in the chapter), Wright claims that all faithful actions in the Christian life will last all the way into Gods new world. In fact, it will be enhanced there.

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These actions give signs of what is to come: What you do in the presentby painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourselfwill last into Gods future. Christian identity in the present age and the age to come is framed in terms of what we as humans do. For only will our own actions, as real and effective signs, last into Gods future; in the coming age God will undertake fresh projects through us as actors in his new world.

Hopeful or Harmful?

While I celebrate Wrights holistic vision in Surprised by Hope, his account here creates more problems than it solves. What does it mean for our actions to last into the new creation? Wright unpacks his idea by saying, I dont know what musical instruments we shall have to play Bach in Gods new world, though Im sure Bachs music will be there. Our present actionswhether in composing a cantata or a poem or sewing or caring for the needyare signs of the coming new creation. But is this really a healthy way to cultivate resurrection hope?

A friend of mine is facing death; he spent his life as an auto mechanic. Will his repaired cars make their way to the new creation? If not, why does Bachs contribution have kingdom value, while my friends does not? Likewise, a pastor in my home state of Michigan mentioned to me that many members of his congregation assume that there will be plenty of woods and deer in heaven. So naturally, they fantasize about shooting a 39-point buck in the heavenly woods. Can deer hunting be a clue, a real and effective sign, of the coming new creation? Why include the human labors of Bach but exclude those of Michigan hunters?

Middleton, Wright, and others have sought to counter a boring view of heaven. But is the solution to focus on our own desires and actions as effective signs and project them into the future? I fear that such an approach does not generate a cosmic view of Gods work in restoring the whole creation (as they desire), but small, individualized versions of paradise.

Instead of this approach, we should rediscover the wisdom in the historic Protestant notion that God provides means of grace to the churchreal and effective signs, through the Spirit, through which the Father gives his people concrete foretastes of Christs coming kingdom.

Preaching the gospel of Christ, as in 1 Corinthians 15, is the Spirits instrument for transformation. In addition, many Protestants add the sign-actions of baptism and the Lords Supper. These Protestant traditions assume that not all spiritual experiences are equalinstead, we need to gather corporately to hear Scripture proclaimed and to look to Christ himself as the one who will give us a taste of heaven. For he is the one who has gone to heaven before us, and through the Spirit, we are united to him. Rather than discuss whether we will be pulling out rifles to shoot deer in heaven, we need to hear, wash, eat, and drink the Word together in these acts of worship, receiving real and effective signs of the age to come.

Concrete New Creation Hope

How can the celebration of a sacrament, such as the Lords Supper, lead us to properly cultivate new creation hope? When we come to the Table, we enter into a corporate experience of worship where the biblical images for the coming age are at the center. Consider just two.

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Temple: We come to Christ, the Temple, the dwelling place of God, as people whose true identity is to be temples of the Holy Spirit. Personally and corporately, we receive atoning forgiveness and new life from Christ, the High Priest. We also feed upon Christ as the manna in the wildernessmanna that provided a foretaste of the promised land of milk and honey and was placed in the Temples Holy of Holies.

Marital Fellowship: We celebrate together at the Table in joyful yet aching anticipation of the wedding feast to come. In the Old and New Testaments, the Lord speaks of his people as his spouse, and Revelation speaks of the coming wedding feast of the Lamb. This is not just an abstraction, either now or in the age to come. As we celebrate the Supper now, we celebrate a foretaste of a great feast that includes table fellowship with peoples of all nations and cultures and ethnicities. Were brought together as a people who praise and delight in our life-giving spouse and lover, Jesus Christ.

These concrete instruments of the Spirit do not give us a to-do list of tasksfor now or for the age to come. To the contrary, through the Word and Sacraments, the Spirit does something greater than disclosing a list of tasks: the Spirit reveals our true and future identity in Christ, which even death itself cannot sever.

Thus, Im left with a conclusion that is unfashionable at the moment, against the grain of the cottage industry of recent evangelical books: that its basically right to see worship as central to the purpose of the eschaton. By this, I dont mean that hitting a high C in singing or mastering our footwork in the worship-dance will be central. Rather, corporate worship is an appropriate image for our final end because the Triune God and his glory will be the central actors in the age to come. Our lives will be lived only in him, always pointing beyond themselves to the Lord of life; we wont be defined by what we do.

The central question is not what we will do in heaven, but what drama will we be incorporated into? If this is our question, we find our acting instructions in receiving Gods Word in worship exalting Christ our Lord, not in setting our eyes our own good deeds of kingdom work now.

If we have a problem with imagining heaven as a gathering of worship of the risen King, the real issue may be with our expectations of worship. All too often, we would rather sing of our own deeds now than to worship in anticipation of the delights of communion with God and one another in the coming age. Let earth and heaven combine/Angels and men agree/To praise in songs divine/The incarnate Deity (Charles Wesley).

I recall a pastor of a church focusing on ministry to millennials who shyly mentioned to me that in five years of ministry, he had never even spoken of the coming culmination of the kingdom. We just focus on how we can participate in the kingdom in our practices here and now, he said. But as he said it, he realized that there was something hollow about this. Is our action, our own work, at the center of the cosmos? Does this really reflect Pauls lofty hope that the Lord is achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all with our present order? (2 Cor. 4:17)

Paul, for one, values our all of our work as Christians as labor that brings glory to God. Yet he declares, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Fruitful work now is necessary, he says. But it pales in comparison to Christian hope. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far (Phil. 1:21, 23). We can and should offer our lives as service to God in the world, whatever our vocation and whatever our calling.

For both Bach and the auto mechanic down the street, heavenly hope is not to keep doing what we have been doing or what we wish we could have done in this earthly life. Life in the coming age will be better because of who we will be: adopted children of the Father who will be fully and completely united to the Son, Jesus Christ. For to live is Christ, and we will never need to move beyond delight-filled communion with our spouse and Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.

J. Todd Billings is the Gordon H. Girod Research Professor of Reformed Theology at Western Theological Seminary. His latest book, released today, is Remembrance, Communion, and Hope: Rediscovering the Gospel at the Lords Table (Eerdmans).In 2020, we were the church on our heels. A global pandemic shut down much of our world. But the church has been on the move since it was birthed; it will continue to be on the move until God makes all things new.|

Image: Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Chaplains from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) arrived in Parkland, Florida, within hours of Wednesdays school shooting that killed at least 17 teens and faculty members.

This is the fifth deployment this year for the ministrys rapid response team, trained to provide emotional and spiritual support amid crises.

Each 2018 deployment has been gun-related.

Our hearts break for the parents who sent their children to school, and are now with them in the hospital, or living a parents worst nightmare, said Jack Munday, international director of the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team, in a statement.

So many lives have been forever changed by this evil act. As we pray for the students, faculty, and families, we know God can bring hope and comfort, in Jesus Christ, in the darkest hours.

At times of tragedy, Christian churches and ministries rally to remind survivors of a God who the Psalms tell us heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

For decades, they have been among the first on the scene to care for people in the wake of hurricanes, tornados, fires, and other uncontrollable natural disasters. In recent years, ministries increasingly find themselves consoling victims of manmade violence: shootings and terrorist attacks.

BGEA president and CEO Franklin Graham first formed the rapid response team in the wake of 9/11, and its chaplains have since responded to hundreds of crisis events, including last years major shootings in Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs, Texas.

Of the 26 shootings that BGEA chaplains have responded to in the US, more than half have taken place since 2014including the 5 so far this year. Gun violence now makes up about a tenth of the incidents the rapid response team has addressed in America over its history.

Last month, the BGEA sent 14 chaplains to Benton, Kentucky, where they set up outside a barbeque restaurant to hear from and pray with families impacted by a January 23 shooting that killed two high school students. The ministry currently has two teams deployed to respond to recent police shootings.

In many cases, BGEA chaplains partner with local churches to reach out to community members and ensure they have ongoing support even after the team leaves.

Parkridge Church, which met for seven years at the high school where yesterdays Parkland shooting took place, has teamed up with fellow churches in the community to host a vigil today.

Im praying that our churches, our church specifically, and other Bible-believing churches in our area, that we will point people to Jesus, pastor Eddie Bevill said in an interview with CT blogger Ed Stetzer.

Hes the only hope we have. Hes the only thing that provides a future. Hes the only one who can bring peace where there is nothing but lostness and struggle and anger and fury and confusion  We just want to see Christ in the forefront of all of this.

The Humanitarian Disaster Institute (HDI) at Wheaton College reflects the new scope of disaster ministry, which now includes responding to mass shootings alongside the more traditional relief efforts that surround natural disasters.

HDI researchers have found that such forms of religious support help victims of mass shootings in similar ways as they have been shown to help victims of natural disasters. Recent studies indicate that people connected to churches and religious communities fare better in their recovery.

Several Baptist churches in the Parkland area have been involved in the initial wave of grief and outreach to the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, particularly those with students in their congregations who attend the school.

Less than 10 minutes away, Church by the Glades lost one member of their church and another was injured, the Baptist Press reported. The churchs lead pastor, David Hughes, raised the question: Do we let fear and cruelty, violence and hatred win, or do we continue to fight against the darkness and continue to bring the message of hope and light that comes through Jesus Christ?

With every shooting, Americans become more vocal in their heartbreak and outrage, demanding more from people of faith than blanket statements about thoughts and prayers with whatever city suffered the latest incident. Questions inevitably arise over where was God during the tragedy?

People will be turning to Christian leaders for guidance in the aftermath of the senseless violence that happened yesterday, said Jamie Aten, HDI founder and executive director.

One of the biggest challenges pastors will face is the pressure to explain why someone would do something like this. Yet, no answer will take away the pain and heartache, he said. What will be most helpful to those struggling is to meet them in their suffering by creating space for lament, providing comfort, encouraging community, and reminding others of the hope we have in Christ.

Such efforts have been shown to reduce the severity or longevity of trauma following a mass shooting.

Even Christian leaders far from Parkland are grasping for an adequate way to address the latest attack, which happened to take place on Valentines Day and on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.

My heart, thoughts, and prayers are for and with the families and friends of shooting victims in Parkland, Florida, tweeted Johnathan Alvarado, a Pentecostal pastor in Atlanta. This tragedy on Ash Wednesday reminds us of how marred and diseased we are by sin. I'm still wearing ashes on my head and heart.Black History Celebrated in the White House Contact: Mat Staver, 407-875-1776, Liberty@LC.org



President Trump saluted black Americans who have served in the military since the Revolution for giving "their hearts, their sweat, their blood and their very lives to defend the United States, its flag and its highest ideals." He said they helped defend for all Americans the dream of a colorblind society that inspired such civil rights pioneers as Frederick Douglass, Harriett Tubman, Booker T. Washington, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr.



Trump said, "This vision of freedom, equality and dignity lives in the heart of every American patriot and, just like so many African Americans throughout our history who have struggled and sacrificed for freedom, we must do our part to make that vision real for every single American. As long as we have faith in our citizens, confidence in our values and trust in God, we will not fail."



In addition, the Coalition of African American Pastors (CAAP) held a press conference on Monday criticizing the Congressional Black Caucus Democrats (CBC) who sat during this year's State of the Union Address. The CBC sat when President Trump shared the news of the black unemployment rate hitting an all-time record low of 6.8 percent in December 2017, down from 16.8 percent in March 2010. The new rate is projected to drop even more because of the massive tax cut and reform initiative recently signed by the president.



During Monday's press conference, Jonathan Alexandre WASHINGTON, Feb. 15, 2018 / Christian Newswire / -- President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, along with Vice President Mike Pence, celebrated Black History Month at the White House Tuesday, by hosting a reception with the theme of "African Americans in Times of War." Several Cabinet secretaries attended, along with Liberty Counsel's Director of Public Policy Jonathan Alexandre.President Trump saluted black Americans who have served in the military since the Revolution for giving "their hearts, their sweat, their blood and their very lives to defend the United States, its flag and its highest ideals." He said they helped defend for all Americans the dream of a colorblind society that inspired such civil rights pioneers as Frederick Douglass, Harriett Tubman, Booker T. Washington, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr.Trump said, "This vision of freedom, equality and dignity lives in the heart of every American patriot and, just like so many African Americans throughout our history who have struggled and sacrificed for freedom, we must do our part to make that vision real for every single American. As long as we have faith in our citizens, confidence in our values and trust in God, we will not fail."In addition, the Coalition of African American Pastors (CAAP) held a press conference on Monday criticizing the Congressional Black Caucus Democrats (CBC) who sat during this year's State of the Union Address. The CBC sat when President Trump shared the news of the black unemployment rate hitting an all-time record low of 6.8 percent in December 2017, down from 16.8 percent in March 2010. The new rate is projected to drop even more because of the massive tax cut and reform initiative recently signed by the president.During Monday's press conference, Jonathan Alexandre criticized a year "of angry faces and sassy soundbites" that has run its course. Instead, he emphasized there is a generation of leaders who aren't afraid to take a stand. He said, "I'm here to say there is a new move in our community and a unique moment in our nation. We understand this moment to be just what we've needed, just what we've been waiting for. A moment when an individual and not government decides what to do with their paycheck That's the moment we are living in. But the Congressional Black Caucus chooses to sit it out. It's a posture of negligence. How can we be strong sitting down when for so long we've been fighting diligently for the right to be counted... A generation of black leadership who is excited to continue to work with President Trump's administration to see these numbers finally working in our favor. Congressional Black Caucus, sit if you may, but I'll take a stand. Because we are on the move." Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.



Share TweetContemporary African art: who to buy now

There are many talented artists whose work is still affordable. In the run-up to 1-54 Online, Powered by Christies, leading curators, collectors and critics pick the names to look out for

Touria El Glaoui, founding director of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London, New York and Marrakech The additional online format, 1-54 Online, Powered by Christies, has enabled us to expand our capabilities and to do so internationally, despite the global challenges presented by Covid-19, says Touria El Glaoui, founder of the worlds leading contemporary African art fair. Christies has a strong commitment to showcasing contemporary African art, and we are excited to assist in giving its clients more opportunity to engage with the work and practices of artists from Africa and its diaspora.

Tuli Mekondjo, Edalo la Ngalangobe, The Birth of Ngalangobe, 2020. Mixed media on canvas, photo transfer, collage, acrylic, millet grain and resin on canvas. 118 x 88.3 cm. Image courtesy of Guns & Rain Thina Dube, We don't like them and they don't like us, 2020. Acrylic, drawing ink, charcoal and soft pastel on Fabriano. 100 x 70 cm. Image courtesy of Guns & Rain

Romeo Mivekannin, serie Le Modele Noir, Le marche aux esclaves, dapres Jean-Leon Gerome, 2020. Acrylic and elixir bath on free canvas, 248 x 255 cm. Courtesy of Galerie Eric Dupont

Artists to watch? Romeo Mivekannin, shown by Galerie Eric Dupont, and Devan Shimoyama, presented by the New York-based De Buck Gallery, are receiving a lot of attention at the moment, says El Glaoui. Mivekannin creates large works on free canvas made from burlap sacks sewn together, which explore the representations of the Black body throughout history. Shimoyama explores his identity and the politics of queer culture with large works that incorporate glitter, rhinestones and sequins.

Tokini Peterside, founder and director of Art X Lagos, Nigeria Tokini Peterside founded ART X Lagos in 2015 after spending several years developing Nigerias luxury and culture sectors. As West Africas first international contemporary art fair, its aim is to promote contemporary African art. The global discourse on visual art is incomplete without Africas perspectives, histories and stories, says Peterside. We need to make African art a cornerstone of the global art market by investing in institutions and expanding the collector base. African art shouldnt be marginalised or considered niche.

Zohra Opoku, Undercovered, 2017. Image courtesy of Marianne Ibrahim Gallery

Among Petersides favourite African artists working today is Njideka Akunyili Crosby, whose work uses images of Nigerian pop culture to counter generalisations about the African experience. Zohra Opoku brilliantly uses installation, sculpture and photography (above) to explore her Ghanaian-German heritage and conceptualise West African traditions, spirituality and family lineage. Taiye Idahor from Nigeria uses diverse media to explore female African identity. Her 2018 show Okhuo, at Tyburn Gallery in London, used the figure of the Queen Mother of the Benin Kingdom to reflect on women and power. Andre Magnin, curator and founder of MAGNIN-A, Paris In 2009 the curator Andre Magnin founded his eponymous gallery MAGNIN-A with the mission to promote contemporary African art on the international market. Although the market for African art is now booming thanks to an influx of fairs and museum shows, works are still affordable, he says. Cheri Samba from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo is a major figure in African painting, says the gallerist. He applies his unique African vision to world news in his work. Romauld Hazoume from Benin uses found objects to make monumental works that incite critical discussions on the historical, political and economic problems facing Africa. Following in the footsteps of the great photographer Malick Sidibe, Omar Victor Diop from Senegal uses his camera to situate African culture in the dynamic, pop, contemporary world  where it is often ignored by the West.

Isabel Millar, Post-War and Contemporary Art specialist at Christies, London Its exciting that 1-54 will be the first major fair going ahead physically in London this year and that the model has been adapted so quickly to incorporate an online element, says Christies specialist Isabel Millar.

I just love that 1-54 has partnered with Christies this year; it shows a great commitment to showcasing contemporary African art  Josefina Kapelo

The collaboration with Christies will open up the fair not only to those who are unable to travel to London, but also to many of our collectors internationally who may be well-versed in other categories, but who are new to contemporary African art. Taking place alongside the digital fair will be an intimate presentation of around 30 exhibitors at Somerset House and a 1-54 Highlights exhibition at Christies King Street. Among Millars favourites works on display at Christies is Molten (below) by Sungi Mlengeya, a self-taught painter from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

Sungi Mlengeya, Molten, 2020. Acrylic on canvas. 150 x 140 cm. Offered in 1-54 Online, Powered by Christies, 7-12 October, Online

As with many of her works, the palette is minimal, with a dark female figure rendered flat against a white background, says Millar. Theres a real sense of intimacy in this work: although the figure is lying down and looking back over her shoulder, she appears elevated, powerful and timeless.

Joana Choumali, I am afraid I won't be able to attend this, 2020. Embroidery on digital photography printed on canvas. 80 x 80 cm. Price on application. Offered in 1-54 Online, Powered by Christies, 7-12 October, Online

Im also drawn to the dreamlike and exquisitely detailed works by Joana Choumali that Loft Art Gallery is bringing to the fair, she says. Ekene Emeka Maduka, a talented young painter born in Nigeria and now based in Canada, is another favourite. Her bold, colourful figurative paintings often depict the artist herself within rich narratives that address her Nigerian heritage, culture and femininity. According to Millar, The African contemporary art market is on the rise, but there are many talented artists whose work is still affordable  now is a great time to start a collection.

Jean Pigozzi, photographer and collector Just over 30 years ago I went to see a show called Magiciens de la terre in Paris. I was struck by the work exhibited by a group of African artists, and I decided to start my own collection, says Jean Pigozzi, who has since amassed more than 10,000 works by more than 100 African artists. For guidance Pigozzi hired the shows curator, Andre Magnin. He has acquired nearly all of his collection directly from the artists themselves. 'My good friend Charles Saatchi gave me some important advice: if you like an artist, buy them in depth,' Pigozzi says. Some of Pigozzis current favourites? Congolese sculptor Bodys Isek Kingelez makes great work and is showing at MoMA this year. I like Frederic Bruly Bouabre from Cote DIvoire and George Lilanga from Tanzania, too.

Josefina Kapelo, founder and director of Boogie-Wall, London Since opening in October 2019, Boogie-Wall  the first female-run gallery in London to exclusively show works by women  has garnered praise and attention from critics and collectors alike. I decided to open my gallery in London because of its innovative and inspiring art scene, says Josefina Kapelo. The city offers great opportunities for an emerging gallery like ours.

Delphine Diallo, Cowrieshells (Shango/Yoruba), 2020. Photographic print mounted on Dibond White Frame and anti-reflection glass. 60 x 80 cm. Image courtesy of Boogie-Wall Adelaide Damoah, No 8 Dreams of the Overcoming Series, 2020. Cyanotype, pen, gun-metal pigment and 24-carat gold leaf on hand-made watercolour paper. 29 x 38 cm. Image courtesy of Boogie-Wall

For its 1-54 debut, Boogie-Wall is presenting works by Delphine Diallo, Adelaide Damoah and Namsa Leuba. These three ladies are inspiration itself and incredibly talented, says Kapelo. Their work brings extraordinary depth and emotion. Kapelo, who has visited the fair each year since its launch in 2015, is particularly drawn to its engaging presentation of artists and galleries. Its one of the few art fairs in the world where I end up mesmerised after my visit, she says. I just love that 1-54 has partnered with Christies this year; it shows a great commitment to showcasing contemporary African art to a more global audience.

Namsa Leuba, Flash II (from the Weke series), 2018. Pro pigment print, collage on aluminium. 90 x 110 cm. Image courtesy of Boogie-Wall

Othman Lazraq, president of the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL), Marrakech My parents have been collecting modern and contemporary African art for 40 years, and the market is always changing, says Othman Lazraq, president of MACAAL in Marrakech. The non-profit space, which aims to nurture a broader awareness of contemporary African art, opened to the public in early 2018 (but is temporarily closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic). We are cultivating the younger generation of artists through MACAAL LAB, which works with schools and universities, as well as offering three-month residencies to African artists, he says.

Zanele Muholi, 2015. Installation view courtesy of The Brooklyn Museum

Many African artists approach powerful topics with a sense of humour, and despite a lack of gallery infrastructure and cultural policy, there is a new network of professionals carving out a vibrant cultural landscape across the continent, Lazraq continues. One example is the fantastic Senegal-based artist Fabrice Monteiro, who uses photography to address issues surrounding pollution and the pillaging of Africas natural resources. I also adore the work of South African artist Zanele Muholi. She is both an artist and an activist, using photography, video and installation works to highlight violent subject matter. Her wonderful 2015 show Isibonelo/Evidence, at the Brooklyn Museum, addressed LGBT issues in Africa.



Rakeb Sile, co-founder of Addis Fine Art, Addis Ababa and London Addis Fine Art was born from a desire to represent the rich talent in contemporary visual art in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, says Rakeb Sile of Addis Fine Art. We are committed to bringing the strength and diversity of art from the region to an international audience through our programming. Co-founded by Sile and Mesai Haileleul in Addis Ababa in 2016, the gallery has since expanded overseas, opening a London outpost in October 2020 in Cromwell Place. Due to the current climate, a lot of people will not be able to join us physically at the fair, explains Sile. So 1-54 Online, Powered by Christies will allow us to reach that audience as well as Christies supporters and collectors.

Addis Gezehagn, Floating City XVIII, 2020. Acrylic on canvas. 150 x 170 cm. Image courtesy Addis Fine Art

The gallery is exhibiting new works by Addis Gezehagn, Ermias Kifleyesus, Tsedaye Makonnen and Tesfaye Urgessa at Somerset House as well as one work by Tadesse Mesfin at Christies. Each artist brings something distinctive to the wider curatorial theme of our presentation, which explores the tumultuous nature of the human condition, explains Sile. For the gallerist, collecting contemporary African art can be a gateway into cultures and histories which are not widely known. Learning the history of an Ethiopian modernist painter like Tadesse Mesfin allows you to see the world in a completely different light, he says. Like many of his peers, Mesfin studied in the USSR in the 1980s. Look closely at his paintings and you can see nods to Russian realism, which he was taught there.

Tadesse Mesfin, Pillars of Life: Saturday Market Day VI. Oil on canvas. 161.5 x 130 cm. Image courtesy of Addis Fine Art

I would encourage new collectors to see African countries individually, rather than considering the continent as a monolith. This is because each nation is extremely diverse in its artistic practice. Be sure to reach out to galleries and ask a lot of questions about the artists and their influences, and why they work in their chosen medium.

African artists have always produced innovative work, but only recently has it truly been appreciated on the international stage  Rakeb Sile, Addis Fine Art

And the market? The African art market is becoming more and more dynamic, with more galleries and collectors becoming interested in what is happening on the continent, says Sile. African artists have always produced astounding and innovative work, but only recently has it truly been appreciated on the international stage.We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Go to formLakehead University law students carried placket signs and headed out of the former Port Arthur Collegiate Institute building for a trek around the north core in what they called a Walk of Solidarity-Justice for Colten Boushie.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.Apel de exprimare a interesului privind intentia de participare la serviciile de suport la formarea/consolidarea grupurilor de femei pentru accesarea granturilor din cadrul Proiectului de Rezilienta RuralaWhy a Kurdish National State Will Fail

On one of the Kurdish nationalist websites, Diyarbakir is described as the main centre for Kurdish economics, culture and politics in Turkey. The website, whose mission is both political and educational, provides a brief history of the city, claiming its ancient Byzantine name, Amed, as a Kurdish name. Yet the website completely ignores the city's Islamic history and its population fluctuations during the Ottoman period, which turned Diyarbakir into a Kurdish majority city. Today, Diyarbakir has a population of nearly one million people, three-quarters of them, according to Kurdish sources, speak Kurdish. The thermometer of Kurdish nationalism This, indeed, is the city that Kurdish nationalists, especially the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), consider to be the thermometer of the Kurdish nationalist movement in the Turkish republic. Although the size of its Kurdish population is not even close to one third of the Kurds of Istanbul, Diyarbakir occupies a prominent position in the sacred geography of radical Kurdish nationalists, who imagine a Kurdistan that extends from western Iran to the Mediterranean and from the Georgian-Turkish borders to the outskirts of Baghdad. As a Byzantine city, Amed was an Assyrian-Christian religious centre, to which the Islamic conquest armies arrived in as early as the reign of the second caliph, Omar ibn Al-Khattab. The city, which occupied a vital position on the banks of the river Tigris, became one of Islam's main frontier outposts of the Arabian peninsular, soon after its fall to the Muslims. To secure the extended Islamic frontiers against the Byzantines, the Umayyad rulers encouraged Arab tribes to settle throughout the Arabian Peninsula province, from the upstream of Tigris in the east to the Euphrates in the West. Amed fell right at the heart of the area where the tribes of Bakr bin Wa'il were to settle. This is the reason behind the city's new name, Diyarbakir, or the land of Bakr. Other tribes from Rabi'a settled in the precincts of Mosul, while tribes from Mudar settled a little further to the west. Changing demographics However, the Arab presence on the north-eastern frontiers of Islamdom started was to recede in the subsequent centuries, whether due to the decline of the Arabs' military power, because of the successive migrations of Turkman tribes, or due to the continued population displacements of the peoples of the Middle East. During the 16th century, only seven out of 19 districts of the Ottoman province of Diyarbakir were designated Kurdish. By the second half of the 19th century, the Armenians and Assyrians represented the majority of Diyarbakir residents. It was not until the eruption of the Kurdish-Armenian conflict in the Hamidian period (1876-1909), and the displacement of the Armenians during the First World War, that the Kurds became the majority of the city's population. Diyarbakir is not the sole city in the sacred Kurdish geography that did not acquire its Kurdish character until recently, and very recently indeed. Kirkuk grew as a Turkman city around the citadel where Turkish troops were deployed in the Islamic middle ages. The city continued to have an absolute Turkman majority until the Iraq Petroleum Company started producing oil from the fields in the city's vicinities, and moved its headquarters from Tuz Khurmatu to Kirkuk in the 1930s. For purely economic reasons, Kirkuk turned into a magnet, attracting Arab and Kurdish workers. The Iraqi 1957 census shows that Kirkuk was becoming a mixed Turkman, Kurdish and Arab city, although the Turkmans were still the biggest ethnic group among its residents. Recently, a Kurdish leader did not hesitate to describe Kirkuk as "the Jerusalem of the Kurds", in a rather reckless attempt to elevate the dispute over the city to the level of the conflict over Palestine. Just like Kirkuk, and despite the presence of the Kurds in the Syrian towns of Hasaka and Qamishli since the early Ottoman era, a significant proportion of north-eastern Syrian Kurds go back to two waves of Kurdish migration from the Turkish side of the borders. The first wave resulted from the Kemalist state's repression in the aftermath of Shaykh Sai'd revolution in the mid-1920s, while the second was associated with the Dersim events of the late-1930s. Pastoral tribes Amuda, which was described by the mufti of Baghdad, Abu Al-Thana Al-Alusi, in the travelogue of his famous journey to Istanbul in the mid-19th century as a small Arab Muslim town, is considered today a Kurdish city. Yet, the Arab-Muslim town of Amuda was transformed by population movements into an Assyrian majority town in the early 20th century, and did not become a Kurdish majority city until after the Kurds expelled the Assyrians in 1937. The Kurds were first mentioned by the early Islamic historians, such as Tabari, Baladhuri and Mas'udi, in their reports of the early Islamic conquests. They were described as pastoral tribes who dwelled in the mountainous region that is divided now between Iran, Iraq and Turkey. During subsequent centuries, Kurds started to spread into the adjoining plains, whether under the impact of economic forces, wars, or the rise and fall of states. Muslim leaders since the Zinkids and the Ayyubids have found the Kurds to be competent soldiers. Rukn al-Din district, or the Kurds' neighbourhood, in Damascus, goes all the way back to the early Ayyubid times. And just like other professional soldiers in the Islamic middle period, the Kurds were soon to occupy a prominent position in the military feudal system. The battle for survival Allegiance and rebellion of the Kurd aghas played an important role in the movement of Kurdish tribes during the Ottoman era. The Kurds of Afrin, for instance, settled in this north-western Syrian region in the 17th century in the aftermath of the failure of a Kurdish agha's rebellion against Istanbul's authority. If the mountain tribes who were encountered by the early Muslim conquerors represented the original Kurdish mass, it would be rather difficult to attribute all Kurds of our times to that mass, just as it would be naive to consider the Arabs of Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine and Iraq as pure descendants of the Arab tribes of Mudar, Rabi'a, Hamadan and Azd. Over the centuries, and as a result of continuous displacement, migration and wars, some Kurds ceased to be Kurds. At the same time, others, of Arab, Armenian and Turkic backgrounds, would, in the battle for survival, join stronger and more effective Kurdish tribal alliances. However, the late arrival of Kurds in some cities and areas of the Middle East does not make them any less citizen, in any case. The right of the Kurds to exist in Kirkuk, Amuda, Qamishli, Diyarbakir, Damascus, Istanbul and Baghdad is no less than that of the Arabs of Taif, Sanaa, Tripoli, Tunis and Ohran. This expansive part of the world, extending from Central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was shaped by a series of movements, displacements and migrations of peoples that continued ever since the Islamic conquests. What this history testifies to is the fragility of the myth of racial purity claimed by Kurdish nationalists (as well as by their Arab and Turkish counterparts), and the shaky foundations upon which the Kurdish nationalist geography is based. In this part of the world, it would be rather difficult to invoke the European nationalist model and its national state without enormous costs. Throughout the 20th century, peoples of the Middle East paid a heavy price for the illusions of nationalist projects that have only been proven to be an utter failure with the passage of time. The people need to learn the lesson. The endeavour to transform Kurdish nationalist geography into a national state will not be any less of a failure, and will open the gates of hell in the entire Middle East. The real struggle today is the struggle against the fanaticism of the nationalist state, the struggle to make it less exclusive, more embracing of the plurality of its peoples, and more truthful in acknowledging the diversity of these peoples' cultures and heritage.

Basheer Nafi is a historian of Islam and the Middle East.By Sander Kushen, a Common Cause intern

Russia is using our weak disclosure requirements and lack of corporate transparency to influence our economy and politics, according to a panel held at a Washington-based think tank held on Wednesday.

The panel was held by the Center for American Progress (CAP) and hosted several experts who spoke on the urgency of the issue, including Heather Conley, the Senior Vice President for Europe, Eurasia, and the Arctic from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Conley cited Russias long history of influencing fledgling democracies in Europe. In places like Bulgaria, initial economic investments from Russian oligarchs would lead to political relationships, which were ultimately used to strengthen those economic connections. This corruptive cycle of money and power would continue until Russian surrogates occupied the highest levels government, said Conley.

Now, due to a lack of transparency and disclosure in our own government, Russia is in the midst of doing the exact same thing to the United States.

Russias political and economic influence depends on the normalcy of corruption, according to Franklin Foer, National Correspondent at The Atlantic. Foer asserts that this has happened due to people complicit in this project: big law firms; those who sue journalists to keep the public in the dark; elusive, big-money lobbyists; and politicians who rely on dark money.

According to Foer, people like Paul Manafort represent a good chunk of what happens in many of Americas big firms.

Yet the influence of Russian money doesnt end with American firms. The possibility of Russian influence is glaring in our current president, who the panelists claimed is especially vulnerable.

Trumps pattern of conduct, including a lack of transparency, troubling partnerships, and lack of due diligence may have made him a target for Russian economic backing, asserted Diana Pilipenko, Associate Director of Anti-Corruption and Illicit Finance at CAP.

So whom do we blame for this attack on our democracy? According to the panelists: ourselves.

The Kremlin exploits system vulnerabilities that are already present, explained Pilipenko. She then went on to promote better transparency and campaign finance laws to expose the now-anonymous donors backing our economy and politics.

Earlier this week, top intelligence chiefs warned lawmakers that Russia is also using information campaigns and cyberattacks to influence the upcoming 2018 elections. Meanwhile, Trump still refuses to enforce sanctions on Russia that were passed by an overwhelming majority in congress.

Russia is working toward complete control of our democratic institutions, and so far both congress and our president are letting it happen without resistance.Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

Patient monitoring devices are the devices with the digital technology used to measure the persons health condition. The accuracy of the results with patient monitoring devices may help to early diagnosis of the disease, leads to more efficient and specific treatment. The major advantages of the patient monitoring devices include accuracy of the results with less time and reduce the cost for disease diagnosis. These devices are commonly used to measure oxygen saturation level, pulse rate, body temperature, blood pressure, and heart activity among others. Physicians prefer the patient monitoring devices to enhance the excellence in the patient care.

Increase in the technological advancements such as wireless devices of patient monitoring devices, the rise in prevalence of various diseases such as diabetes and hypertension which require lifelong monitoring, increase in geriatric population, growth in the adoption of patient monitoring devices are anticipated to fuel the growth of patient monitoring devices. Moreover, increase in the healthcare awareness, ease of operating and availability of the wider products in the market, and rise in healthcare expenditure expected to propel the market Global Patient Monitoring Devices Market over the forecast period. However, product recalls, lack of awareness in rural areas, a high cost of the devices, and lack of favorable reimbursement policies for medical devices are the key factors restrain the patient monitoring devices market growth.

A sample of this report is available upon request @

https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/global-patient-monitoring-devices-market/#ulp-4H8Z4LpNMLEuOnnx

Patient monitoring devices market is segmented on the basis of product type, technology, application, and end user

Based on the product type, patient monitoring devices are segmented into the following:

 Blood pressure monitors

 Blood glucose monitors

 Heart rate monitors

 Pulse oximeters

 Weight monitors

 Sleep apnoea monitors

 Breath monitors

 Others

Based on the technology, patient monitoring devices are segmented into the following:

 Portable devices

 Standalone devices

 Wireless technology devices

 Others

Based on the application, patient monitoring devices are segmented into the following:

 Cardiovascular conditions

 Neurological conditions

 Haematological conditions

 Respiratory conditions

 Physiological conditions

 Others

Based on the end user, patient monitoring devices are segmented into the following:

 Hospitals

 Clinics

 Ambulatory surgical centres

 Home care settings

 Others

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https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/global-patient-monitoring-devices-market/#ulp-c654SbFYO64MsOhu

Patient monitoring devices market is growing at a significant CAGR owing to increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular, and neurological advancements. Market players majorly focusing on the innovation of new devices with advanced technology to gain larger market share. Acquisitions and mergers, collaborations, product approvals, product launchings, and patent approvals are the strategies followed by the competitors for increasing their revenue in the patient monitoring devices market. For instance, in September 2015, Zoll Medical Corporation acquired Kyma Medica Technology for broadening the product portfolio in cardiovascular monitoring devices. In addition, in March 2014, Nihon Kohden has awarded a U.S. patent for the advanced technology which reduces the false alarms in the patient monitoring systems.

Geographically, patient care monitoring devices are segmented into Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Middle East and Africa. North America holds significant share in patient monitoring devices owing to rise in geriatric population prone to chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer, increase in healthcare expenditure, and patent approvals for novel technologies in the region. In Europe, due to high adoption of novel technologies, technological advancements, and well-developed healthcare infrastructure are propelling the patient monitoring devices market. However, Asia Pacific exhibiting significant growth in global market which is attributed to growing prevalence of chronic diseases, rise in healthcare expenditure, and rise in per capita income are driving the patient monitoring devices market in the region.

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Some of the players in patient monitoring devices market are GE Healthcare (U.K.), Philips Healthcare (Netherlands), Nihon Kohden (Japan), Roche Diagnostics Limited (Switzerland), Abbott Laboratories (U.S), Omron Healthcare (Japan), Zoll Medical Corporation (U.S.), Cardinal Health (U.S.), and Medtronic (Ireland) to name a few.

Get access to full summary @

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Vaccine adjuvants are the substances added to the vaccines for enhancing the vaccine ability to protect against the infection. Vaccine adjuvants improve the immunogenicity of purified antigens, which has immunostimulatory capabilities and has been used in the vaccines for more than 90 years. Nowadays, a very less number of vaccine adjuvants are available such as MF 59 and aluminium salts. Vaccines are combined with the adjuvants to ensure body produces an efficient immune response to protect the person against the infection.

Increase in the prevalence of various zoonotic and other infectious diseases, increase in the demand for improved vaccination against various diseases, government focus on organizing the immunization programs, an increase in the use of synthetic and recombinant vaccines anticipated to propel the vaccine adjuvants market over the forecast period. Furthermore, increase in the prevalence of livestock & companion animal diseases, technological advancements in the aluminum hydroxide adjuvants, and government support for R&D activities are anticipated to fuel the vaccine adjuvants market over the forecast period. However, stringent regulatory policies, side effects associated with the adjuvants usage, and high cost for the R&D activities might impede the growth of vaccine adjuvants market over the forecast period.

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Vaccine adjuvants market is segmented on the basis of product type, vaccine type, route of administration, application, and end user

Based on the product type, vaccine adjuvants market is segmented into the following:

 Pathogen components

 Combination adjuvants

 Particulate adjuvants

 Adjuvant emulsions

 Others

Based on the vaccine type, vaccine adjuvants market is segmented into the following:

 Human vaccines

 Veterinary vaccines

Based on the route of administration, vaccine adjuvants market is segmented into the following:

 Oral

 Mucosal

 Parenteral

 Others

Based on application, vaccine adjuvants market is segmented into the following:

 Infectious diseases

 Cancer

 Others

Based on the end user, vaccine adjuvants market is segmented into the following:

 Pharmaceutical industries

 Biotechnology industries

 Veterinary vaccine manufacturing industries

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Vaccine adjuvants market is growing at a significant CAGR owing to increase in the prevalence of infectious diseases in humans, livestock & companion animals around the globe. Growing need for enhancing immune response and limited immunogenicity of novel vaccines expected to fuel the vaccine adjuvants market. Acquisitions and mergers, collaborations, and novel adjuvant introductions are the strategies applied by the market players to dominate the vaccine adjuvants market. For instance, in August 2013, FDA approved the Sequiruss Afluria quadrivalent vaccine for people with 18 years or older. Similarly, funding by the government organizations to augment adjuvants research is anticipated to boost the vaccine adjuvants market. For instance, in April 2016, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded 6 grants to various organizations including universities such as University of Wisconsin about US$ 3.1 Mn grants for vaccine adjuvants research.

Geographically, vaccine adjuvants market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Middle East & Africa. North America is expected to hold a major share in vaccine adjuvants market owing to rise in the incidence of infectious diseases, government initiatives for organizing immunization programs, an increase in the collaborations for R&D activities on vaccine adjuvants are fuelling the market. For instance, in July 2016, U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases has collaborated with Chinas Jilin Jian Yisheng Biopharma for the development of Ebola PIKA adjuvant vaccine. Europe holds a significant share in vaccine adjuvants market owing to rising in the prevalence of cancer, influenza, and other infectious diseases, increase the awareness about the vaccine adjuvant applications in the manufacturing of vaccines, and rise in the R&D activities are expected to propel the market growth. Asia Pacific vaccine adjuvants market is growing significantly due to rise in birth rate, increase in the prevalence of various infectious diseases, and development of newer adjuvants for improving the vaccine immunization.

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Some of the players in vaccine adjuvants market are Invivogen (U.S.), MVP Laboratories, Inc. (U.S.), CSL Limited (Australia), SEPPIC (France), Brenntag Biosector (Denmark), Novavax, Inc. (U.S.), Agenus, Inc. (U.S.), OZ Biosciences (France), and Jilin Jian Yisheng Biopharma Co. Ltd. (China) to name a few.

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Website @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.comWe are analyzing the site. Please wait a few seconds..Cost-sharing initiative for the set-up of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) services for agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU). Its mission is to advance food and nutritional security, increase prosperity and encourage sound natural resource management in ACP countries. It provides access to information and knowledge, facilitates policy dialogue and strengthens the capacity of agricultural and rural development institutions and communities. CTA operates under the framework of the Cotonou Agreement and is funded by the EU.

There is a general consensus that smallholder farming needs to become more productive, more sustainable and more profitable. Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)  or drone-based systems  services can contribute towards these goals by bringing some of the tools of precision agriculture to producers, which include large and medium-scale holdings and associations of small-scale farmers growing the same crop in contiguous areas. Typically, UAS services are provided by entrepreneurs who invest in the equipment, learn the skills to use it, conduct or sub-contract data analysis, interpret the findings and advise their customers.

UAS can inform a range of services, including mapping and surveying (e.g. farm boundary delineations, crop area calculations, elaboration of digital elevation models), crop inventory (e.g. count of tree crops, yield estimations), crop scouting (e.g. identification of location-specific crop stress, assessment of biomass development), crop damage assessment (e.g. for insurance purposes), crop management advice (e.g. nitrogen application on selected crops), infrastructure inspection (e.g. irrigation systems, farm to market roads, etc.), and increasing farmers credit-worthiness via the integration of farmer profiles with high resolution images, crop diagnostics, and accurate and up-to-date georeferenced data sets. UAS can thus help increase returns to farmers and create new knowledge-intensive employment opportunities in rural areas, offering educated rural youth an alternative to migration.

Recognising the opportunities provided by UAS, in 2017 CTA partnered with leading private sector operators, and assisted ICT start-ups in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Jamaica, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia in acquiring the capacity to deliver UAS services. CTA organised a series of activities including training on the operation of drones and mounted multispectral sensors, understanding of safety and privacy principles and regulations, management and processing of remote sensed data, development of business plans and networking opportunities. In addition, CTA provided some financial support for the acquisition of necessary equipment.

On 26 January 2018, by issuing Decision EX.CL/Dec. 986-1007 (XXXII), the Executive Council of the African Union (AU), requested the AU and Member States to harness drones for agriculture as a selected emerging technology of relevance for the development of the African continent.

In line with this continent-wide policy recommendation, CTA, in partnership with Parrot  a global leader in the professional UAV industry - has decided to support an increase in the number of UAS operators and countries covered across Africa. Selected companies / organisations would benefit from the following:

Full support for one company executive to attend an 8-day training workshop in Zambia. The training will include the basics of using unmanned aerial systems for agriculture, regulations, flight planning and flying your drone, data capture and analysis, notions on data interpretation, and business model development. CTA will cover costs of international travel and accommodation;

Partial financial support for acquiring UAV equipment (UAV, sensor) and analytical software;

1 year free access to the AIRINOV FIRST+ agriculture mapping cloud platform limited to 100 frames per day which is equivalent to 10 hectares coverage at a flight altitude of 150 meters; The frames could be cumulated over a week (700 frames).

Technical backstopping until the end of 2019;

Remote and (based on merit) onsite support for UAS business development;

Training (distance learning) in the use of social media for marketing purposes;

Marketing for UAS services via dedicated CTA social media platforms.

Expressions of interest are accepted from companies / organisations registered in Sub-Saharan Africa and operating in the ICT4Ag / agricultural / agribusiness / agriculture advisory sectors. Priority will be given to countries that already have RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems) regulations in place which grant security of the airspace, but that also do not represent a disincentive to would-be UAS entrepreneurs/start-ups investing in delivering UAS services.

Expression of interest

Interested parties are invited to read what follows with great attention and submit the requested documents in PDF format not later than 10 April 2018 (2 PM, CET) to the following address: uav4ag@cta.int.

Documents to be submittedThis is a dark story about how one very wealthy man is trying to undermine the freedoms enjoyed by the Press. His name is Max Mosley.

Mosleys notoriety chiefly stems from his role as the instigator of an orgy in his private flat in 2008. Until that moment the multi-millionaire son of fascist Oswald Mosley (with whose far-Right politics he seems once to have sympathised) had taken no interest in Press regulation.

He took great exception to his orgy  in which blood was shed, and violence inflicted  being described as Nazi by the now defunct News of the World. Mr Justice Eady found no evidence that it was, and the newspaper was made to pay Mosley 60,000.

Still, there was no doubt a sado-masochistic orgy involving several prostitutes had taken place. A wiser man would have gone away and devoted himself to good works, or at any rate kept his peace. Not Max Mosley.

Max Mosley has taken legal action against a range of newspapers  including the Daily Mail - demanding they delete any references to his German-themed sadomasochistic sex party

Having publicly declared a lifelong devotion to sado-masochism, which he described as perfectly harmless, he launched a crusade against the Press, or those parts of it he didnt like.

He took himself to France  not a country famous for the robustness of its media  and persuaded judges to force Google to stop providing links to images of his sado-masochistic private life.

And when, after the Leveson Inquiry, Impress was set up as the state-approved regulator of the Press  though no major newspaper has joined it  Mosley provided the great bulk of its funding. It spends nearly 1 million a year.

But this vengeful, bitter man has not stopped there. His latest threat is so utterly preposterous that readers may think I am pulling their leg. I wish I were.

Mosley wants the Mail and other major newspaper groups never again to refer to his role in the orgy, or party as he euphemistically calls it. He also stipulates that 34 articles published by the Mail since 2013 which mention his orgy should be permanently deleted. These include many opinion pieces, one or two of which were written by me.

In other words, an historical fact  the orgy  must be erased from history, if Max Mosley and his lawyers get their way, and we must never allude to it again. This very article, and the views I express in it, will have to be destroyed. Im not joking.

The orgy, which involved Mr Mosley (pictured) and five prostitutes, was exposed by the News of the World in 2008 and became the subject of one of the biggest privacy trials in history

His reasoning (if thats not too elevated a word to describe this bully-boy demand) is that the orgy was deemed by the judge to be a private affair. It is therefore not the business of the Press to write about it in any shape or form, even though it was the subject of a widely reported court case

Thats not all. Mosley also objects to this and other newspapers suggesting that the state-approved regulator Impress is funded or bankrolled by him. Articles which have stated that this is the case should be deleted, and the charge never repeated.

And yet, as Ive said, Mosley provides nearly all the running costs of Impress, which is expected to run short next autumn. Its true the cash is funnelled through the so-called Independent Press Regulation Trust. But who funds this body? Max Mosleys family trust. And to whom will they turn when Impress needs re-financing? Max Mosley.

Bizarrely, his assault on newspapers is being mounted under the cloak of the Data Protection Act. This was a well-intended measure designed, in the digital age, to stop banks, insurance companies and other commercial concerns misusing peoples private data. It was never intended to be applied to newspapers. This is a novel and terrifying development.

In a relatively long life as a journalist, I doubt I have come across such a brutish attempt to corral and censor a free Press as Max Mosleys. What is true, and happened, cant be written about because it offends a vindictive multi-millionaire.

Hes absolutely wrong, of course, to insist that his orgy is a purely private matter. For whether he likes it or not, as the benefactor of the sole state-approved regulator of the Press, he is an influential public figure.

Pictured: Max Mosley, the son of wartime fascist leader Oswald Mosley, at the Silverstone Grand Prix. He has launched legal action in a bid to censor the press

People have a justifiable interest in knowing about his former extraordinary shenanigans. Some may regard them as irrelevant. Others (I suggest the majority) may think it noteworthy that a man driven by hatred for parts of the Press should be keeping alive the highly controversial state-approved regulator.

Lets imagine the potential effects of his prohibitions if the seemingly lawful but morally questionable activities of institutions and individuals were censored as Mosley proposes.

Would the media be free to write about the repugnant activities of senior Oxfam employees? Very possibly not. For the miscreants could argue that what they did took place in their free time with consensual prostitutes. Unless the women involved were under age, no law was broken.

And yet most people are rightly shocked that prostitutes were taken advantage of by older and richer men who should have known better. The same might be said of the rich and powerful Max Mosley, whose exploitation of consensual prostitutes will not seem harmless to most people.

I wonder whether, under Mosleys law, the film mogul Harvey Weinstein would argue that the gross sexual advances he is alleged to have made in private are his own affair since (so he claims) he was behaving entirely legally.

The former Formula One boss (pictured with Hugh Grand and Steve Coogan during the Leveson Inquiry) also wants to restrict reporting on the 3.8million his family trust spends bankrolling the controversial Press regulator Impress

Looking back 50 years, it seems likely that the affair of John Profumo, Minister of War, with the prostitute Christine Keeler wouldnt have come to light in the kind of world promoted by Mosley in which privacy rights trump most other considerations.

Were he to follow Mosleys example, John Major could demand that his four-year affair with former Tory MP Edwina Currie (which took place before he became prime minister) be deleted from newspaper websites, while history books which referred to it would have to be pulped.

Of course, the affair took place a long time ago. It scarcely matters now. Yet it once threw some light on the most powerful man in the country. The past cant be undone, nor history re-cast.

Except in Mosleys sinister world  or, one might add, in former Soviet bloc countries. There, the discreditable records of public figures could be obliterated and reassembled in a more favourable light.

Dodgy politicians, crooked policemen, doctors who have affairs with their patients, dishonest businessman  all of them would breathe a sigh of relief if they believed their private malefactions might never come to light.

I give Max Mosley one thing. He is a formidable adversary of a free Press. Nor is he the only one. Last November, the Lords voted by 211 to 200 to introduce a draconian law that would force newspapers to pay all legal costs if they are sued under data protection legislation, even if they win. Unless, that is, they join the Mosley-funded Impress.

The Tory Government has said it will overturn the Lords amendment, and we must hope it has the courage of its convictions.

But no one should underestimate the determination of Mosley and his allies. Even ten years ago, who would have dreamt that there would be a state-approved regulator of the Press, or that its benefactor would insist his deviant practices be written out of history? In the year 2018, in what is supposed to be modern liberal Britain, freedom of expression is under threat as never before.A week or two ago, I pointed out that Brexiteers and Remainers alike are convinced that if George Orwell were alive today he would be firmly on their side

A week or two ago, I pointed out that Brexiteers and Remainers alike are convinced that if George Orwell were alive today he would be firmly on their side.

This raises another question. In our contemporary climate, would George Orwell be allowed a platform to speak up about anything?

In America, the wonderful comic writer Garrison Keillor has been silenced following allegations of improper conduct. The long-running radio show he created has been given a new name and old episodes are no longer being repeated; his weekly newspaper column has been cancelled; and a plaque in his honour at his old university has been removed.

And what exactly was his crime? No one is saying. According to Keillor, he placed his hand on a womans back, meaning to console her after she told him of her unhappiness.

She recoiled. I apologised. I sent her an email of apology and she replied that she had forgiven me and not to think about it. We were friends. We continued to be friendly right up until her lawyer called.

Nearly 70 years after his death, George Orwell is still regarded as one of our greatest essayists and novelists, but a trawl through his life and work by the Thought Police would, Im sorry to say, unearth far worse.

Even his most sympathetic biographers acknowledge that, as an officer of the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, he paid regular visits to the waterfront brothels of Rangoon. After spending time in Morocco, he also confessed to his friend Harold Acton that he seldom tasted such bliss as with certain Moroccan girls.

A friend recalled Orwell saying that he found himself increasingly attracted by the young Arab girls. He confessed to the same friend that he told his wife, Eileen, he had to have one of these girls on just one occasion. Eileen agreed, and so he went ahead.

During his marriage to Eileen, Orwell made an improper advance to a young woman, Lydia Jackson. He did not attract me as a man and his ill health even aroused in me a slight feeling of revulsion, she recalled.

Once he was better, he wrote Lydia a suggestive letter, letting her know when his wife was away, and adding: I know its indiscreet to write such things in letters, but youll be clever & burn this, wont you?

But Lydia had no wish to go along with this deceit. His masculine conceit annoyed me, she said.

After the sudden death of Eileen, Orwell made a pass at another young woman, who lived in the flat below.

I wonder if you were angry or surprised when I sort of made advances to you that night . . . he wrote to her. It is only that I feel so desperately alone . . . Of course, its absurd to make love to someone of your age.

In the current climate, Orwell might even find himself in court on a charge of historic sex abuse.

In our contemporary climate, would George Orwell be allowed a platform to speak up about anything?

A few years ago, letters were discovered in which a childhood friend, Jacintha Buddicom, revealed that when Orwell was 15 and she was 17, a bit of canoodling had accelerated into something more violent, and he had attempted to rape her. Jacintha shouted, kicked and screamed before running home with a bruised hip and a torn skirt. Afterwards, she broke off all contact with him.

Nearly 60 years later, Jacintha wrote to a relative about the additional hurt she suffered when she realised he had turned her into a character in his most famous book.

She wrote: At least you have not had the public shame of being destroyed in a classic book as Eric did to me. Julia in Nineteen Eighty-Four is clearly Jacintha, of that I feel certain . . . in the end he absolutely destroys me, like a man in hobnailed boots stamping on a spider.

It hurt my mother so much when she read that book that we always thought it brought on her final heart attack a few days later. Be glad you have not been torn limb from limb in public.

Does this mean the works of George Orwell should be removed from libraries and bookshops? Of course not. But if he is to be excused, then why not other literary heroes?Today, when thousands of British holidaymakers visit Prague every year to enjoy its spectacular architecture and glorious beer, it's easy to forget how different that great city once was.

In the mid-Eighties, the capital of what was then Czechoslovakia was a grey, frightened place, shivering behind the Iron Curtain.

Daily life was ruthlessly controlled by the Communist Party. Free speech was forbidden. Dissent was routinely punished by long stretches in prison.

It is a sign of how far Mr Corbyn has taken the Labour party to the Left that this week's revelation about those meetings with an agent from a Soviet bloc country seems almost unremarkable

Far from being a socialist paradise, this was a society in which independent thought marked people out as traitors.

Anyone who came to the attention of the secret police, the infamous StB, had their phone tapped, their apartment watched and they were even followed in the street.

Push too far against the system, and they might lose their job, even their home. They might be forbidden from travelling to another town. They might even find their own children used as spies against them.

In the West, most viewed this regime with utter horror. But not everybody. There were always apologists for tyranny.

In 1986, a secret police agent held three meetings in London with a young MP, Jeremy Corbyn. He handed the agent a report about British security activities, talked bitterly about the United States, as well as about the policies of the Thatcher government.

Jeremy Corbyn (pictured in 1984) warned a Soviet-backed spy about British intelligence activity at the climax of the Cold War, according to secret documents

But he was 'positive' about the Eastern Bloc  including the regime in Czechoslovakia  and had warm words for the Soviet Union's foreign policy, specifically a 'peace initiative' that was actually a poorly disguised attempt to encourage Western nuclear disarmament.

It is a sign of how far Mr Corbyn has taken the Labour party to the Left that this week's revelation about those meetings with an agent from a Soviet bloc country seems almost unremarkable.

That said, University of Buckingham professor Anthony Glees, an expert on Cold War intelligence, says that Mr Corbyn was guilty, even at best, of 'breathtaking naivety'.

But that is surely far too generous.

In the mid-Eighties, few had any illusions about the blood-stained cruelty of the Communist bloc. It was, after all, almost two decades since historian Robert Conquest had published his ground-breaking book The Great Terror, which proved Stalin had murdered millions during the Thirties.

Mr Corbyn had a choice. Nobody forced him to meet a man very obviously working for the Czechoslovakian secret police.

Most Labour MPs would have refused in a heartbeat. But Mr Corbyn went along  and not just once, but three times.

Inevitably, Mr Corbyn's cult members have tried to excuse this as proof of his refreshingly idealistic independent-mindedness.

In truth, it is yet more proof of his membership of that most closed-minded, conformist and predictable tribe of all: the bien-pensant North London Left. These are people for whom patriotism is a dirty word, the West is the fount of evil and the Communist experiment has been unjustly maligned.

The Labour leader met the Czech agent at least three times after being vetted by communist handlers in 1986, papers reveal

The type could hardly be more familiar. As early as 1941, George Orwell wrote that the high-minded Left took 'their cookery from Paris and their opinions from Moscow.' They felt it their 'duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings'.

All the time they were 'chipping away at English morale, trying to spread an outlook that was sometimes squashily pacifist, sometimes violently pro-Russian, but always anti-British'.

And right from the start, the Kremlin saw them as 'useful idiots', whose deluded beliefs could be twisted to serve its own ends. In the Twenties, for example, Soviet agents recruited Norman Ewer, a senior journalist on the Labour-supporting Daily Herald. Ewer promptly recruited two Special Branch officers with Left-wing sympathies, who tipped him off about impending raids on suspected Communists.

The Herald itself was also suborned by Soviet intelligence. In 1920, senior Bolshevik Lev Kamenev told Lenin he had paid the newspaper 40,000, with the aim of winning support among the British working classes.

Mr Corbyn allegedly provided the spies with material about the arrest of an East German, according to the leaked documents

Soviet agents enjoyed their greatest success in the Thirties, when they recruited the so-called Cambridge Five  Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross  who systematically betrayed secrets to Moscow in the following decades. Their spying resulted in countless deaths and huge damage to the West.

But even today, many on the high-minded Left try to defend them. Almost unbelievably, the playwright Alan Bennett recently claimed that their treachery was not 'particularly important', and was 'excusable' because it was motivated by their genuine Marxist idealism.

In fact, it could hardly have been more important, or indeed less excusable.

Two examples of their betrayal: Guy Burgess handed over 4,000 documents to his Soviet handler in the last year of World War II. And Kim Philby passed details of a planned landing by Western-backed exiles in Albania in 1948, ensuring that hundreds of men were rounded up and killed.

Mr Corbyn was not in their league. He was not a spy, for the obvious reason that he never had access to secret information.

One page of the documents reveals contact was established with Mr Corbyn twice in 1986

Back in 1986, the Czechs probably saw the backbench Labour MP as an 'agent of influence', like the former union leader Jack Jones who took payments from the KGB until breaking with them over their brutal repression in Czechoslovakia.

So in other words, Jeremy Corbyn was perfectly happy to sit down with the very people whom Jack Jones, a Marxist, rejected as too extreme. That says it all about Mr Corbyn's lack of a moral compass.

Mr Corbyn was not the only Labour MP targeted by Communist spy agencies.

Tom Driberg, a homosexual, was almost certainly recruited as a KGB agent after being blackmailed about his wildly promiscuous sex life.

An even more notorious example was Labour MP John Stonehouse, best known for mysteriously disappearing on a Florida beach in 1974 before turning up in Australia and then being imprisoned for fraud.

It transpired that Stonehouse, a junior minister in the Wilson government, had passed secrets to Mr Corbyn's chums in Czechoslovakian intelligence for years in return for payment of so-called 'red gold'.

Years later, Stonehouse claimed he'd fallen victim to a honey-trap in the Fifties, his lover sending 'sensations of joy to every crevice of his brain' and spurring him on to one last 'magnificent thrust'  at which point he realised that the Czechs were filming him through a mirror in the ceiling.

All of this might sound comical. But when you consider the nature

of the regimes these men served  the prison camps, the walls and wires, the everyday cruelty and unending repression  there is nothing funny about it.

Many others allowed themselves to be suborned by the Communists.

The writer George Bernard Shaw defended Stalin's reign of terror on the grounds that people sometimes needed to be 'pushed off the ladder with a rope around their necks'. His friend H. G. Wells claimed he had 'never met a man more candid, fair and honest' than Stalin.

As a historian, I am sorry to say that my own profession was particularly culpable. The most infamous example was probably the Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, even now a hero to many on the Left, who, disgracefully, said that the 'sacrifice of millions of lives' would be worth it for a Communist utopia.

An even more shocking example was Christopher Hill, who ended his career as the Master of my old Oxford college, Balliol. A brilliant historian of the English Civil War, he denied there had been a famine in Ukraine in the Thirties and defended Stalin's Terror as 'non-violent'.

Later, it transpired Hill had been recruited by the NKVD, the forerunners of the KGB, while visiting the Soviet Union in the Thirties. Working in the Foreign Office during the Forties, he regularly passed secrets to his handlers; one expert even calls him 'one of the best placed Communist moles in Britain'. He never paid for his betrayal  ending his academic career as one of the most respected intellectuals in the land.

By these standards, Jeremy Corbyn's actions might look insignificant. Yet I think they could hardly be more revealing. The Czech secret police  ruthless, murderous men who hated Britain and everything it stood for  saw him as a potential agent of influence.

His defenders say that those were different times, that he was naive, not wicked. I don't buy it. This was 1986, not 1926. People knew what life behind the Iron Curtain was like.

Yet the record shows beyond doubt that, at a time when Eastern European dissidents were still being persecuted, imprisoned and tortured, Mr Corbyn was happy to strike up a relationship with one of the regime's secret policemen.

The record also shows he has changed his views very little. As his enthusiasm for regimes such as Russia, Venezuela and Iran suggests, Mr Corbyn has never wavered in his admiration for dictators, his hatred of many Western values and his contempt for our national security.

I believe that Mr Corbyn is not merely unfit to serve as Labour's leader, he is not even fit to serve as a Labour MP.

One more thing. We now know of his links with the Czech secret police. But what about the East Germans? What about the Bulgarians, the Hungarians and the Poles? And what about the Russians? What have they got on him? Wouldn't you just love to know?Brits have never eaten out as much as we do now. Restaurants, once the preserve of special occasions, were often quite intimidating places.

Over the last generation, however, more and more chains have opened, catering to families wanting to eat out without blowing their pay packets. The average family now spends 45.10 a week on dining out, compared with 56.80 on food at home, according to the Office for National Statistics.

But do these places offer good value? At least half the costs of running a restaurant are the rent, business rates and wages, all of which have increased over the past year. There is also VAT for the taxman. Ultimately though, restaurants control the prices they charge  and the level of mark-up.

A recent Which? report found that the average mark-up on a bottle of wine in a UK restaurant was 167 per cent  and in one case was 300 per cent. The food is more difficult to calculate. We recruited Janet Brinkworth, a food economist who works on TV programmes including the BBCs Eat Well For Less. She took away dishes, weighed the ingredients, calculated their raw weight and priced them as if they had been bought from Sainsburys.

Brits have never eaten out as much as we do now. Restaurants, once the preserve of special occasions, were often quite intimidating places

Though the ingredients might be higher quality than the supermarket options, that is likely to be balanced by the fact that restaurants can source ingredients cheaply from a wholesaler. Brinkworth believes this method is the fairest way of working out the true cost of the ingredients used.

With this, we calculated the mark-up for the food. This, of course, does not include the costs of cooking or serving the food nor the VAT, but nevertheless, it is a revealing exercise.

If you thought 300 per cent was a high mark-up for wine, you might well be surprised at the mark-ups being slapped on some pretty basic dishes.

Carluccio's

Spaghetti Carbonara: 10.50

Described on the menu as a Roman Classic, the dish was served in a stylish bowl with an enormous rim, giving the impression of a slightly larger portion than it really was, though it was still generous: the full dish, with sauce, weighed 430g.

Nonetheless, the raw ingredients do not amount to much including: an egg, 32g of smoky bacon, some Grana Padano cheese and cream.

Cost of ingredients: 1.53

Mark-up: 586 per cent

Chicken Milanese: 12.95

A thick piece of chicken breast, flattened, and then given a crispy bread crumb and cheese coating, the dish was accompanied by a rather ungenerous salad topped by two yellow plum tomatoes and half a red one.

Cost of ingredients: 2.08

Mark-up: 523 per cent

Green beans: 3.50

Side dishes of vegetables are often how the cost of restaurant meals can creep up. This little dish of green beans totalled just 28 beans, with a drizzle of olive oil.

Cost of ingredients: 88p

Mark-up: 298 per cent

Chicken Milanese: 12.95 A thick piece of chicken breast, flattened, and then given a crispy bread crumb and cheese coating, the dish was accompanied by a rather ungenerous salad topped by two yellow plum tomatoes and half a red one

Risotto ai funghi: 12.95

A staple vegetarian dish in many Italian restaurants, this is finished with a hit of chilli and truffle oil, which is a very luxurious ingredient, costing 35 a litre. But, in fact, only about 11p of it was used in this dish.

Cost of ingredients: 2.16

Mark up: 500 per cent

Carluccios says: The profit on food in restaurants is actually very slim.

The cost of the ingredients is a tiny part of the price you pay with ingredients in each dish costing typically 25 per cent of the final price. The remaining costs have to cover myriad items.

The chain says 20 per cent goes to HMRC in VAT and then there are labour costs, which are significantly more expensive than the actual ingredients.

Giraffe

Indo-coco curry: 9.95

Part of the Bowls For The Soul menu, this vegetarian potato and chickpea curry was not that large and came with a bowl of basmati rice. There were quite a few ingredients but none were expensive, the priciest being half a red pepper.

Cost of ingredients: 1.14

Mark-up: 773 per cent

Smokey Chicken pide: 10.50

Pide is a filled Turkish flatbread, and Giraffe has two on the menu. This one had slices of chicken and peppers on top and was pretty decently sized, with five large pieces of chicken breast on top.

Cost of ingredients: 4.10

Mark-up: 156 per cent

Slow-cooked jerk ribs: 15.50 This was a good-sized portion of ribs, weighing 700g (cooked), served with sweet potato fries and a dish of mango salsa

Slow-cooked jerk ribs: 15.50

This was a good-sized portion of ribs, weighing 700g (cooked), served with sweet potato fries and a dish of mango salsa.

Cost of ingredients: 6.94

Mark-up: 123 per cent

Beer battered onion rings: 3.50

Six onion rings you could buy from Tesco for 58p served with a dish of bar-becue sauce.

Cost of ingredients: 1.26

Mark-up: 178 per cent

Alex Meyer of Boparan Restaurant Group, which owns Giraffe, says our analysis of the cost of its Indo-Coco Curry does not reflect our actual cost price. Prices charged include the food prices, VAT, staff costs, rent, rates and all other costs involved in running a restaurant.

Jamie's Italian

Veggie tagliatelle bolognese: 9.95

Served as a main or starter, we ordered a main. This dish has few expensive ingredients, save the porcini (dried mushrooms), which were cut up small. There was pangrattato, an Italian term for breadcrumbs. It was served in a large, stylish bowl, making the meal appear more substantial than it was.

Cost of ingredients: 1.58

Mark-up: 530 per cent

Sicilian chicken: 14.95 The menu described it as half a chicken  what arrived comprised the breast and a boned-out leg

Tuscan pizza: 12.95

This was a good-sized pizza, nearly 30cm across, with six large slices of Tuscan fennel salami, an expensive ingredient, and mozzarella from Westcombe in Somerset. There were nine olives and a little tomato sauce.

Cost of ingredients: 6.04

Mark-up: 114 per cent

Sicilian chicken: 14.95

The menu described it as half a chicken  what arrived comprised the breast and a boned-out leg.

Cost of ingredients: 5.58

Mark-up: 168 per cent

Sweet fries: 3.95 An increasingly popular dish, these amounted to 150g sweet potatoes

Sweet fries: 3.95

An increasingly popular dish, these amounted to 150g sweet potatoes.

Cost of ingredients: 1.29

Mark-up: 206 per cent

A spokesman for Jamies Italian would not comment on the mark-ups, but says they work hard to find the very best ingredients. Everything is meticulously sourced from producers in Italy and around the UK. We always use free-range and higher-welfare meat from great British farms.

Pizza Express

Romano Margherita Bufala pizza: 13.15

This pizza was 35cm in diameter. It was a basic margherita  cheese and tomato  but had a generous amount of mozzarella and fresh basil.

Cost of ingredients: 3.98

Mark-up: 230 per cent

Romano Margherita Bufala pizza: 13.15 This pizza was 35cm in diameter. It was a basic margherita  cheese and tomato  but had a generous amount of mozzarella and fresh basil

Classic sloppy Giuseppe: 11.95

A spicy pizza with spiced beef, pepper, onion and mozzarella. The beef would cost about 14p. Most of the cost is the base. The same pizza bought from a supermarket would cost 4.25.

Cost of ingredients: 2.06

Mark-up: 480 per cent

Grand chicken Caesar salad: 11.65

The lettuce leaves cost next to nothing, but there is 100g of chicken, a whole egg, anchovies and some croutons.

Cost of ingredients: 3.03

Mark-up: 284 per cent

A spokesman for Pizza Express says: We are proud of the pizzas and other dishes that we serve and that our customers keep coming back.

Wagamama

Sirloin steak chilli ramen: 13.50

This chain serves various types of ramen (a Japanese noodle soup) including this one which has generous strips of rare steak on top of the bowl.

Cost of ingredients: 5.82

Mark-up: 132 per cent

Salmon teriyaki soba: 13.25

Janet Brinkworth says that by using thinly-sliced salmon tail, the dish seems to have more fish than the 105g served.

Cost of ingredients: 4.85

Mark-up: 173 per cent

Sirloin steak chilli ramen: 13.50 This chain serves various types of ramen (a Japanese noodle soup) including this one which has generous strips of rare steak on top of the bowl

Yasai katsu curry: 9.75

sweet potato, aubergine and butternut squash, coated in breadcrumbs. They were served with sticky rice  and curry sauce over the top.

Cost of ingredients: 2.33

Mark-up: 318 per cent

A spokesman for Wagamama says: The suggestion of huge mark-ups is both factually incorrect and very misleading.

Our customers know that any restaurant has major costs which contribute to price. That includes our hard-working staff wages, our central location rent, the crockery, the cooking equipment, the furniture, design and our management costs.

Byron

Byron Burger: 9.50

Properly-sourced British beef ground fresh into a 6oz patty and cooked medium, so its pink and juicy, is how Byron describes its burgers. The main one on its menu also has dry-cure bacon, red onion and mature cheddar.

Cost of ingredients: 1.90

Mark-up: 400 per cent

Mushroom burger: 8

A vegetarian alternative, this features a portobello mushroom instead of a beef patty. And not a particularly large mushroom. It also has a large slice of goats cheese, which is quite a bit more expensive than the cheddar used in the Byron burger.

Cost of ingredients: 1.50

Mark-up: 433 per cent

Chicken burger: 9

Grilled chicken breast in a bun, with shredded iceberg, costing a mere 2p, a large slice of tomato, costing 4p, and some red onion. It looks a decent sized burger, but you are only getting 155g of chicken.

Cost of ingredients: 1.61

Mark-up: 459 per cent

Byron Burger: 9.50 Properly-sourced British beef ground fresh into a 6oz patty and cooked medium, so its pink and juicy, is how Byron describes its burgers. The main one on its menu also has dry-cure bacon, red onion and mature cheddar

Sweet potato fries: 4

Becoming almost as popular as standard potato fries in some outlets, these were a fairly good-sized portion: 225g. But 4 is pretty steep for just a side dish.

Cost of ingredients: 1.64

Mark-up: 144 per cent

Coleslaw: 3

Coleslaw is one of the highest-margin dishes you can serve. Its just shredded carrot, white cabbage and a few onions, covered in mayonnaise, which helps give it a relatively long shelf-life  meaning you dont have to throw it away at the end of the day. Bryons serving was pretty small, weighing 165g.

Cost of ingredients: 18p

Mark-up: 1,567 per cent

Bryon says: We feel the estimate provides inaccurate information for our customers. Our menu process reflects this high quality of produce, made fresh daily and served by our hard-working teams.A baby boy who was born four months early and weighing 575 grams - about the same as a tub of butter - continues to defy the odds of survival.

Vincent Presland, of Kurri Kurri, NSW, was born December 13, 2017, after his mother, Grace Watt, 25, was rushed to hospital with high blood pressure.

Four days later Ms Watt gave birth to Vincent via emergency Caesarean section.

New mother Grace Watt (pictured right) revealed her son Vincent (pictured left) was born at 25 weeks and six days

She explained because her son was born at 25 weeks and six days, he was classed as 'extremely premature'.

He weighed 575 grams, and measured just 21.9 centimetres long.

Speaking to FEMAIL, Ms Watt said she found the experience difficult because she didn't have any complications during the pregnancy.

Baby Vincent weighed just 575 grams and measured 21.9 centimetres when he was born at 25 weeks

'I was really scared because they don't really tell you everything that's happening.'

The mother-of-one said at 23 weeks her blood pressure started to rise.

She said the decision to deliver Vincent was made quite suddenly because as well as her blood pressure rising, scans showed her baby had rolled on to his umbilical cord and stopped breathing.

Vincent spent eight weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) after he was born

After Vincent was born he was put straight on oxygen and was ventilated a week later due to respiratory failure and a duct near his heart.

So far the couple's newborn son has spent eight weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and last week he was moved to a special care unit.

Ms Watt's said he could spend a further five weeks there before he will be allowed to go home.

Ms Watt has spent day after day by her baby's bedside but said her partner, a contract worker, has only been able to visit nights and weekends

Ms Watt said two days before Vincent was born tests revealed she had the start of a condition known as pre-eclampsia.

In Australia, a mild form of the condition occurs in five to 10 per cent of pregnancies. One to two per cent of cases are so severe they can be life-threatening.

While symptoms can be hard to detect, high blood pressure and protein in the urine are key symptoms.

Following baby Vincent's birth he was put straight on oxygen and was ventilated a week later due to respiratory failure and a duct near his heart

Ms Watt shared nine weeks on from their son's birth he seemed to be making some progress.

'Yesterday he was put onto low-flow oxygen, but today he had to go back to high-flow because his breathing became a little bit heavy,' she said.

'It's been one step forward and two steps back.'

Mr Presland (pictured) with his new son, who has so far had to spend nine weeks in hospital

Ms Watt said although she's spent day after day by her baby's bedside, her husband, Nick Presland, a contract worker, has only been able to spend evenings and weekends with his new son.

And while it's too early to reveal what health conditions baby Vincent may suffer as a result of his premature birth, his mother said she only wants to be able to take her child home.

'We were just thrown into this situation, and we weren't expecting any of this to happen. But we're doing all we can to stay positive.'

Baby Vincent continues to show signs he is getting stronger every day, though Ms Watt revealed the process was sometimes 'one step forward, and two steps back'

She said its expected that Vincent may be able to come home in five weeks, but this was dependent on his development.

He currently weighs 1880 grams (1.88 kilos), and Ms Watt said he is hitting his growth milestones for a baby of his size.

Family and friends have also rallied to support the new family.

The friends and family have rallied in support of the new parents and have set up a webpage to help raise funds to cover the cost of setting up the family's home

A GoFundMe page has been started to raise money to help the couple set up their home for their child. So far it has raised over $1,100.

McDonald's Kurri Kurri is also holding an event for the family on Wednesday, February 21, with 20 percent of the profits generated between 6pm and 7pm to be donated to the family.Princess Olympia of Greece was front and centre for the Michael Kors show during New York Fashion Week.

The 21-year-old royal slipped into a stylish knit dress for the occasion, which she wore under an oversized trench coat.

The part-time model and university student has taken a break from her studies to attend Fashion Week, mingling with the likes of the Hilton sisters at some of the most hotly-anticipated shows.

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Princess Olympia of Greece continued to rub shoulders with fashion's elite on Wednesday as she attended the Michael Kors Fall/ Winter 2018 show at New York Fashion Week

The 21-year-old royal slipped into a stylish ensemble for the occasion, complete with oversized trench coat. She joined British model Harley Viera-Newton on the front row

Cutting a stylish figure, Olympia opted for a grey knit dress embellished with a white collar for the Michael Kors show.

She teamed the piece with a nude oversized trench, accessorising with a pair of tan mule sandals and coordinating clutch bag.

Wearing her blonde hair in a sleek side parting, Olympia posed for pictures before joining British model Harley Viera-Newton in the front row.

The part-time model and university student has taken a break from her studies to attend Fashion Week, attending some of the most hotly-anticipated shows

Cutting a chic figure, Olympia opted for a grey knit dress embellished with a white collar

(L-R) Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece and Denmark, Michael Kors, and Harley Viera-Newton

Olympia was born in New York City and enrolled in the city's prestigious Parsons School of Art and Design in 2016.

The princess' luxury apartment in Soho is thought to be owned by her parents, and sits in a block where units are rented out for around $9000 (6,400) a month.

Olympia has been firmly integrated with the city's inner circle of socialites.

She teamed the piece with a nude oversized trench, accessorising with a pair of tan mule sandals and coordinating clutch bag

As well as being close friends with Paris and Nicky Hilton- who attended her 21st birthday last year, she is pals with Poppy Delevingne and cousin Talita von Furstenberg.

As well as a busy social life, the royal has also walked for the likes of Dolce and Gabbana, and starred alongside Nicky in a fashion shoot for W magazine alongside Thandie Newton and Zoe Kravitz last year.

Princess Olympia is the granddaughter of King Constantine II, who served as the last serving monarch of Greece before the abolition of the monarchy in 1973.With their thick, glossy hair and glowing complexions, it is of little surprise that these stunning online daters are inundated with offers from potential partners.

What is perhaps more surprising is that they are not in their 20s or 30s - but are decidedly middle-aged.

The youthful-looking daters are among the most popular profiles on elite dating website BeautifulPeople.com, which prides itself on rejecting 'ugly' applicants and only admits the very best looking singletons.

The site requires potential members to supply recent photos and a brief profile, then existing members vote them either 'in' or 'out' over a 48-hour period. Only one in 10 are successful.

Greg Hodge, managing director of the site, said: 'We have always welcomed members of all ages, but when we launched in 2002 it seemed most applicants trying out online dating were young.

'Now, even your gran will know she can join a dating site and find romance if she wants to. And if shes hot, then shes very welcome to try and join ours.'

Among the successful applicants are wine charity volunteer Daisy, from Yorkshire, entrepreneur Mayumi, from Tokyo, American lawyer Gregory Silva. But can you guess how old they are?

Daisy, a charity volunteer from Yorkshire

Blonde beauty Daisy is 57 turning 58 but said she gets approached on the site by 'much younger men'. She said she is looking for 'friendship' or possibly 'a good-looking silver fox'. But those hoping to bag a cougar beware. 'Toyboys are not keepers,' Daisy added

Louise Hargadon, a wine expert from London

With her mega-watt smile and glamorous get up, it is difficult to believe Louise is 55 years old

Tanya Jacksha, a healthcare professional from Omaha, Nebraska

Tanya, who coyly said she was in her '50s' admits she has been told she looks like supermodel Christy Turlington and actress Denise Richards but said she doesn't think she looks 'anything like them'. The 50-something attracts 'younger guys' but said she finds them 'more relatable'

The singleton has been impressed with the number of men she's met who are ready to spoil her in a bid to win her over. She said: 'I'm also really surprised how many times men have offered to fly me places (and have actually done it), put me up in hotels, sent limos for me, taken me shopping, sent me to the spa, taken me to their company party. It's amazing!'

Mayumi, an entrepreneur from Tokyo

Mayumi's beautiful smile and radiant skin make her look younger than her 55 years

Gordon Jackson, former journalist and lawyer from Tuscon, Arizona

This 67-year-old retiree admits he might have been 'too picky' in his youth but is now focused on finding 'a great all-round person'. With two previous careers, he certainly has lots to say

Gregory Silva, lawyer from Winston Salem, North Carolina

This silver fox, 60, has been married twice but says he has 'no regrets' about past relationships. He said: 'Ive made mistakes, but have always understood those have always been opportunities to better myself. I love differently now. I have more empathy and understanding'

The savvy online dater admits he has been contacted by attractive young women from Europe who are looking to visit the US but that he 'stays away' from them

Chris Kagan, MD and entrepreneur from Berkley, California

Chris is approaching his 70th birthday but said most people think he's two decades younger. His wish list for a partner?'I need someone sophisticated, well educated, intelligent, creative, fit and beautiful,' he said. Chris, a trained radiologist also admits he 'prefers younger women'

Brian Parks, su rgeon from Pinehurst, North Carolina

Widower Brian, 62, said his two daughters are 'very encouraging' when it comes to his love life. With his toned physique and boyish smile, it is not surprising he has been approached by women as young as 20. He said: 'I understand at this point in my life the woman I meet will have had similar experiences and that we are all colored by our past. That past has to be vibrant and not a black hole. I love life and have learned to accept the disappointments'

Adriaan Troost, entrepreneur and model from Amsterdam

Dutch dater Adriaan, 62, has been married twice and has two children. He has been single for 13 years but is not 'desperate' for a partner. On his dating experiences, he said: 'One older lady invited me to her seaside villa in the south of Spain because she wanted company for a week. I politely declined the invitation, it was not what I was looking for.'

Richard Goble, actor from LondonA father-of-two who began transitioning into a woman is now back to living as a man after changing his mind seven months into the process.

James Cohen, 36, from Leeds, who is father to Seren, eight, and Electra, seven, told wife Eirian, 36, that he wanted to start living as a woman named Kara in January last year, explaining that he had been hiding his true gender since he was a child.

The couple split up but continued to live together as best friends and started paying for private hormone treatment to kickstart Kara's transition.

But in July last year, seven months after the announcement, Kara admitted that she no longer wanted to look like a woman and wanted to live as a man named Jim.

Jim, who describes himself as 'gender fluid', now lives with his daughters, Eirian and her new partner in Portugal and Eirian claims he has never been happier.

James Cohen, 36, from Leeds, who is father to Seren, eight, and Electra, seven, told wife Eirian, 36, that he wanted to start living as a woman named Kara in January last year. She changed her mind seven months later and is now living as a man named Jim, pictured at the end of last year

James, left on his wedding day in 2009. Right, living as Kara in the first part of 2017

Jim decided to move in with Eirian and his daughters, pictured last month, at the end of 2017

Eirian, an author, said: 'Jim had hidden his feminine feelings all his life and despite dressing as a woman last year, he still didn't feel 100 per cent happy.

'People were then assuming he shouldn't do anything that's not female related and that's when he felt as though he was being put in another box.

'Jim is gender fluid and doesn't particularly relate to either gender at the moment, he is just himself.'

Eirian and James eloped in Jamaica in 2009 and went on to have their two daughters. Before his transition, Eirian described her husband as a 'man's man' and a 'typical bloke', but admits she knew there was 'something she wasn't admitting'.

Eirian and James eloped in Jamaica in 2009 and went on to have their two daughters

Author Eirain and Kara with daughters Electra, left, and Seren, right, in April last year

She said: 'James kept saying he didn't know who he was, then he would change the subject and didn't want to tell me what he meant.

'When we got married he seemed to be quite obsessed with my wedding dress, and he wanted to try it on as a laugh.'

The mother-of-two admitted it was still a 'shock' when her husband of eight years told her he wanted to be known as Kara. But she continued to support the father of her children.

She continued: 'We'd forked out privately for him to have hormone treatment straight away so it was a shock when seven months later he told me that he no longer wanted to look like a woman.

Eirian and Kara in April last year. Their marriage ended but the couple are still 'best friends'

'He decided in July last year that he didn't want to appear female any longer. Jim stopped wearing his blonde wig, dresses and heels and instead grew a beard.'

Despite being initially 'confused', Eirian continued to support Jim.

'After all we had eight happy years of marriage and two daughters,' she said.

Eirian said their daughters accepted that their father was transitioning into a woman and that they've explained the latest stage 'in a way they understand'.

She added: 'They don't mind if he had a beard or wears a dress, kids aren't born with prejudices, that's something they learn.'

Jim decided to move in with Eirian and his daughters at the end of last year and their friendship has 'continued to grow'.

Eirian added: 'Jim is now the happiest he has ever been, he has no regrets about transitioning into a woman and feels lighter for having explored his feminine side after keeping it repressed for all those years.

'I've had online trolls accusing us of lying about Jim being trans because he know has short hair and a beard but what they don't realise is that people can be gender fluid, we never let them get to us anyway.

'We receive so many positive messages and my businesses are doing really well.'

Eirian is currently writing Passion for Freedom which will be released on March 12 this year.

Jim said: 'I'm glad I made my first transition and I have absolutely no regrets, everyone should do what makes them happy. Eirian and I are still best friends.'A bride and groom who were left devastated after their precious wedding pictures were ruined have travelled around the world recreating snaps of their special day.

Che Dyer and her husband Warren, from Mitcham, south-west London, have taken snaps in 11 different countries so far, including Bali, Paris and the French Alps.

Yoga teacher Che, 32, has posed in her stunning white wedding dress while visiting famous landmarks such as the Sydney Opera House and the Northern Lights.

The newlyweds sadly lost their wedding pictures after their photographer's dog scratched the disc containing the snaps, leaving them 'salvageable'.

Che Dyer and her husband Warren, from Mitcham, south-west London, are travelling the world to re-create their wedding snaps. They are pictured here in front of the Sydney Opera House

Che, 32, (pictured in her wedding dress in Goa, India, with Warren) was devastated by the loss of their wedding pictures, after their photographer's dog scratched the disc containing them

Che admitted that she had been upset after losing their wedding pictures, but came up with the idea to re-create them when thinking about dressing up for a music festival.

So far, the couple have travelled to Belgium, the French Alps, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia, Sweden, South Africa, India, Bali and Austria, as well as taking part in a professional shoot in the UK.

Their original wedding took place in 2013 in their former home of South Africa.

'I was pretty upset at not having any decent photos of us in our wedding kit, so I just decided to throw it out there as a dress up idea for a music festival we were going to,' Che said.

The yoga teacher came up with an idea to re-create the snaps while going to a music festival. The couple are pictured here in the French Alps

Che said the idea was a joke at first, but they began packing their wedding outfits everywhere they went

'I casually joked to my husband that I was going to dress up in my wedding dress to get some wedding pictures.

'To my surprise he responded with, "Cool, what should I wear?" So the first wedding dress adventures took place at the music festival.'

'After having such fun at the music festival in our wedding kit, I joked with Warren that we should just keep doing this to make an '"around the world wedding album" to replace the one we never got.'

The couple took their wedding outfits to Amsterdam and the French Alps, before enjoying a third trip to Seville, in Spain.

The couple, who married in 2013 in South Africa, have had wedding shoots in 11 countries so far. They are pictured here at the Lion Sands Tree Lodge in Kruger Park, South Africa

They have travelled to exotic locations around the world, including Bali, Indonesia (pictured)

The pair also had a professional wedding shoot in Kent, with a smoke bomb in the background

'We took another two trips in our wedding gear to Amsterdam and the French Alps, which were fun but it was on our third trip to Seville Spain that we really made it a thing.'

Che said her custom-made dress had stood the test of time after being packed up on dozens of occasions but admitted to asking strangers for help when taking it on and off each time.

She said: 'The first outing with the dress was hilarious because we had no idea what we were doing and how best to do it all.

'Changing into the wedding dress definitely isn't a one-man job. The first time I put the dress on we realised that Warren had no idea how to do the whole thing up, so we had to ask two ladies who were looking on in amusement to help me get into my dress.

One of the first places the newlyweds travelled to after coming up with the idea was Amsterdam (pictured)

Che said that every time she puts their wedding outfits on, it's a reminder of how they felt on their big day. The couple are pictured here on the Gili Islands in Bali

'Since then we have become quite 'professional' at carting around our wedding kit. We've discovered it rolls up pretty easily and clips to the outside of Warren's backpack.

'I usually pack it into my suitcase when we fly and it takes up literally half my suitcase.'

She added: 'Although we will never be able to recreate all the amazing feelings of our actual wedding day, every time we put our wedding outfits on, it's a little reminder of our commitment to each other and how we felt on that day.

'Our favourite shot from each place is now printed and hanging on our wall at home.

'In some ways I am grateful to not have had wedding photos as we now have an incredible growing wedding album around the world with many more amazing memories and locations and we always have a little reminder on every trip we take to take time to reconnect back to each other.'Hope Hicks cut a downcast figure as she headed to work on Thursday morning, amid the news that she and her ex-boyfriend Rob Porter have broken up after he was accused of domestic violence by two ex-wives.

The White House communications director, 29, left her Washington, D.C. residence on Thursday morning a little after 7, donning a casual $69.90 safari jacket from Zara over an all-black outfit, keeping things simple in a turtleneck and tailored pants.

Her eyes were trained straight ahead as she walked towards her parked vehicle with a large black purse in her hands, as well as a pair of glasses, which she then safely tucked inside her bag.

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Forlorn: Hope Hicks cut a downcast figure as she headed to work on Thursday morning, amid the news that she and her ex-boyfriend Rob Porter have broken up

Greeting the day: The White House communications director, 29, left her Washington, D.C. residence this morning a little after 7

Focus: She kept her eyes trained ahead of herself as she walked towards her parked vehicle before stepping inside

Hands full: Hicks was carrying a large black purse, her smartphone, and a pair of glasses, which she ended up tucking safely inside her bag

Windy? The White House communications director tried to keep her hair out of her face

Dressing down: Hicks was donning a $69.90 casual safari jacket from Zara over an all-black outfit, keeping things simple in a turtleneck and tailored pants

Any messages? She checked her smartphone before hopping onto her parked vehicle

Expressions: While Hicks seemed in high spirits when she headed out on Valentine's Day, on Thursday morning she kept a straight face

Accessories: Hicks added a chic touch to her outfit thanks to a pair of five-inch stilettos

While Hicks seemed in high spirits when she headed out on Valentine's Day, on Thursday morning she kept a straight face as she boarded her vehicle.

On Wednesday, one person close to Hicks told DailyMail.com that Hicks and Porter's dating came to an end after Porter resigned last week when his two ex-wives came forward to accuse him of abuse.

The revelations by DailyMail.com have set of a crisis in the White House over the handling of Porter's past.

The pair were on their way to becoming a bona fide Washington power couple, as two of President Donald Trump's most trusted and closest aides.

But their falling out was seen as inevitable, one West Wing aide said Wednesday, after Porter's two ex-wives accused him of spousal abuse.

Break-up: On Wednesday, one person close to Hicks told DailyMail.com that Hicks and Porter's dating came to an end after Porter resigned last week

Former duo: Hicks and Porter were on their way to becoming a bona fide Washington power couple, as two of President Donald Trump 's most trusted and closest aides

Separate ways: But Hicks and Porter's falling out was seen as inevitable, one West Wing aide said Wednesday, after Porter's two ex-wives accused him of spousal abuse

Praise: 'Hope is smarter than some people give her credit for,' the White House official said. 'She's an incredibly strong woman, independent-minded'

It's over: A second person close to Hicks confirmed Wednesday that she and Porter had gone their separate ways following the accusations of abuse against Porter

Who made the call? It is so far unknown who out of Hicks and Porter ended the relationship

Together: DailyMail.com first reported less than two weeks ago that Hicks and Porter became an item in November

Decisions: In the intervening hours, Hicks herself was involved in some of the deliberations about whether and how to defend her then-boyfriend

Statement: Kellyanne Conway expressed her support for Hicks on Wednesday

Remarks: Amid fears that Porter's past could become Hicks' present, Conway declared on CNN's 'State of the Union' program: 'I don't worry about her in that respect'

Entourage: Conway said Hicks had 'a great support system around her' including West Wing colleagues, along with a big advocate in the Oval Office

'Hope is smarter than some people give her credit for,' the White House official said.

'She's an incredibly strong woman, independent-minded, and a tireless supporter of President Trump.'

A second person close to Hicks confirmed Wednesday that she and Porter had gone their separate ways.

It is so far unknown who ended the relationship.

DailyMail.com first reported less than two weeks ago that the couple became an item in November.

That revelation led to an avalanche of controversy as Porter's former spouses shared their stories with DailyMail.com, and then with other news outlets.

The result has become a powerful object lesson in the emotional scars battered women can carry with them long after their abusive relationships end.

It has also brought about a sense of national outrage about how the White House grants security clearances to aides who have access to classified information.

In high spirits: Hicks was all smiles as she stepped out of her residence on Wednesday

Theme: On Valentine's Day, Hicks was carrying a supermarket bag with the word 'love' on it

Porter had been working at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on a temporary clearance, as are dozens of other political appointees in the White House complex.

When DailyMail.com first confronted the White House eight days ago with an account from Porter's second wife, the West Wing went into a frenzy of activity  until publication of his first wife's gruesome black-eye photos led to his eventual exit.

In the intervening hours, Hicks herself was involved in some of the deliberations about whether and how to defend her then-boyfriend.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters cryptically on Tuesday that Hicks 'was not part of a lot of the conversations that took place'.

'I don't recall any of you being in the room,' Sanders snarked, 'to be able to say specifically what comments she made or didn't make.'

Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway expressed her support for Hicks on Wednesday, and referred DailyMail.com to her remarks three days earlier on CNN.

Past: Hicks and Porter were pictured last month going on a date in D.C.

How it started: Porter and Hicks, pictured in China in November, began dating that month

Speaking out: Colbie Holderness, Porter's first wife, (left) told DailyMail.com that he repeatedly punched and choked her. His second wife Jennifer Willoughby (right) has also claimed that Porter was abusive in their marriage

Amid fears that Porter's past could become Hicks' present, Conway declared on CNN's 'State of the Union' program: 'I don't worry about her in that respect.'

'In the case of Hope, I have rarely met somebody so strong with such excellent  excellent  instincts and loyalty and smarts,' she added.

'I didn't have the presence of mind and the professional capabilities at her age that I see in her every single day.'

Conway said Hicks had 'a great support system around her' including West Wing colleagues, along with a big advocate in the Oval Office.

'Hope is absolutely fantastic,' President Trump said Saturday through a spokesperson.

'She was with the campaign from the beginning, and I could not ask for anything more. Hope is smart, very talented and respected by all.'

Trump declared Wednesday in the wake of the Porter crisis that he is 'totally opposed to domestic violence of any kind.'

'Everyone knows that,' Trump told reporters, 'and it almost wouldn't even have to be said.'

But with support for Chief of Staff John Kelly waning inside the White House, Trump continued on Wednesday to miss easy opportunities to give the retired Marine Corps general his public backing.

'Did your staff handle the [Rob] Porter allegations properly?' one reporter asked him following a planned event to tout his infrastructure plans. 'Is General Kelly's job safe?' another shouted.

The president sat stone-faced, uttering an occasional 'thank you' while his press aides shooed journalists and cameramen out of the Cabinet Room.Olympic figure skater Alexa Scimeca Knierim, 26, has dedicated her most recent performance with husband Chris Knierim, 30, to the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.

The couple took to the ice in the pair free skating event in Pyeongchang on Thursday.

She wrote: 'May the hearts of those who are mourning the loss of victims in the shooting today be lifted up. You are on my mind and on my heart. God bless you all.'

Tribute: Olympic figure skater Alexa Scimeca Knierim, 26, has dedicated her most recent performance to the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting

Perfect match: Alexa took to the ice with husband Chris Knierim, 30, to compete in the pair free skating event at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games on Thursday February 15

Sympathy: In an interview straight after their performance she added that 'today was much more than about us'

Tragedy: At least 17 people were killed when gunman and former-student, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on Valentine's Day

At least 17 people were killed when gunman and former-student, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on Valentine's Day.

In an interview after their performance she added: We wanted to skate for the 17 children that died in the Florida shooting. And today was much more than about us.'

The couple have also been making headlines for kissing after every routine, ending their Valentine's Day performance with a passionate embrace on the ice.

Chris, originally from California, also presented his wife with a large stuffed teddy bear and a hand-cut red heart printed with the words: 'Will you still be mine'.

Sealed with a kiss! The couple has also been making headlines for kissing after every performance

Dazzling: On Valentine's Day the couple wowed the crowd and finished in 14th place following the short program

Fairytale ending: The couple are hoping for a mixed-pairs medal after winning a team bronze

Valentine: The figure skater presented his wife with this hand-made card off the ice rink

The romantic gestures were caught on camera and marked the end of a dazzling display on the first day of the mixed-pairs competition.

The couple, who have been skating together since 2012 and married in 2016, are making their Winter Olympics debut.

They have already helped the US win bronze in the team competition. They are now the first married couple to compete in the mixed pairs since 1988.

Their short program, which they performed on Wednesday morning, saw Chris throw his wife high into the air so she can perform a dazzling twist.

The routine impressed the crowd and the couple finished in 14th place overall, meaning they qualify for the free skate on Thursday.

Breathtaking: Chris leans is wife down into a difficult hold as they continue to skate

Overwhelmed: The couple soak up the amazing atmosphere after their Wednesday routine

The Knierims first garnered media attention when they kissed following their routine in the team competition on Friday.

Speaking after the romantic moment, Alexa, originally from the Chicago suburb of Addison, Illinois, told PEOPLE: 'When we kissed, in the back of my mind I was like: "Were on Olympic ice". Its still such a big deal, were still like kids taking it in.'

After hearing the cheers from the crowd she asked her husband to 'do one more'.

The Knierims first met in 2010 at an event in Wichita, Kansas. Two years later they were paired together and fell in love on the ice.Identical twin brothers brought a whole new meaning to the idea of a special 'twin connection' when they proposed to identical twin sisters at the exact same time.

Josh and Jeremy Salyers, 34-year-old twins from Tennessee, met their respective fiances, Brittany and Briana Deane, both 31, at the Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio, last August, and their romance very quickly blossomed from there, with all four feeling an instant connection from the moment they met.

The two sets of siblings, who regularly dress in matching outfits and will likely marry in the same ensembles, even plan on having a joint wedding ceremony, and want to live together in a single house after they tie they knot.

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Popping the question: Identical twin brothers Josh and Jeremy Salyers, both 34, proposed to identical twin sisters Brittany and Briana Deane, both 31, on February 2

Romantic: The brothers popped the question at Twin Lakes State Park in Virginia, the site of their first date with the sisters

Someone for everyone: Josh and Brittany are set to get married, while Jeremy and Briana will be saying 'I do'

Added touch: The double-infinity, diamond rings the brothers gave them are meant to symbolize that they are forever twins

So it should come as no surprise that when it came to popping the question, the brothers ensured that their girlfriends got an identical experience, planning every corresponding detail down to a perfectly-matched tee.

Brittany and Briana, both 31, thought they were filming a commercial with their boyfriends on February 2 when they headed to Twin Lakes State Park in Virginia, the site of their first date with the brothers.

The two sisters were decked out in matching cerulean dresses and white shrugs, while their boyfriends donned cerulean ties and matching gray suits.

Brittany and Briana had no idea that the film crew they were working with was actually from Inside Edition and there to capture every second of their surprise until the end of the shoot.

After posing together at several scenic spots at the state park, the twins were led to a pavilion featuring a fireplace that was decorated with rose petals and candles.

Two of a kind: The twin sisters were decked out in matching cerulean dresses and white shrugs, initially thinking they were at the state park to film a commercial

In sync: Josh and Jeremy wore matching suits and cerulean blue ties that matched their future wives' identical dresses

Fate: The couples even paired off in birth order, with first born twins Jeremy and Briana instantly connecting while their slightly younger siblings bonded

But of course: The couples first met at the Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio, last August

Makes sense: The two sets of twins want to have joint weddings at the Twins Days Festival

For the final shot, Josh and Jeremy both dropped down on one knee and presented the girls with matching engagement rings after the director yelled, 'Action!'

Brittany and Brianna were stunned and happily shouted, 'Yes!' at the same time.

The double-infinity, diamond rings the brothers gave them are meant to symbolize that they are forever twins.

'We're the luckiest twins in the world,' the sisters told Inside Edition.

Brittany was the first to spot the 'handsome' brothers at the Twins Days Festival last year, and they struck up a conversation with them at their hotel the next day.

'We struck up a conversation about their twin relationship and life, and we found out they were very similar to us,' Josh told The News Journal.

Next step: All four of them want to live in a house together after their nuptials

Magical moment: Brittany was the first to spot the 'handsome' brothers at the festival, and they struck up a conversation together the next day

Double take: The identical couples have an infinity for wearing matching clothes

Reuinted: Briana and Brittany work at the same law firm in Virginia after attending law school in different states

Always together: Josh and Jeremy work in the same manufacturing plant in Hagerstown, Maryland

'I was instantly drawn to Brittany. We actually stayed a little longer to try and talk with them some more.'

The couples even paired off in birth order; however, they insist that the romances between the two older siblings  the twin As  and the younger of the pairs  the twin Bs  happened naturally.

Jeremy and Briana instantly connecting while their slightly younger siblings bonded.

'It was one of the most magical moments,' Briana said. 'For me, it went in like slow motion, like a movie. We all believe in soulmates and we all felt that instant connection.'

Josh and Jeremy work in the same manufacturing plant in Hagerstown, Maryland, and they admitted that they had always hoped to marry another set of twins.

Perfect match: Both sets of siblings wanted to marry twins who would understand their bond

Intuition: 'We have always known that there were identical twin boys who were going to marry us one day,' Briana said. She is pictured with her future husband Jeremy

Look of love: Josh said he was instantly drawn to Brittany when he met her and her sister for the first time

Josh explained that other women just didn't understand the relationship he had with his brother, but they weren't the only ones set on marrying twins.

'Ever since we were little girls, we have always known that there were identical twin boys who were going to marry us one day,' Briana said.

Like their future spouses, Briana and Brittany work at the same law firm in Virginia. They attended different law schools, with Brittany in Wyoming and Briana in Texas, but neither of them liked being apart.

Josh and Jeremy have also lived separately for a short period of time, and like their future wives, they didn't enjoy it.

The couples are having a double wedding in Twinsburg during the Twins Days Festival with the plan of having all the twins and multiples at the festival attend their nuptials.

Brittany and Briana have already started looking for matching wedding dresses with their mom, and the couples plan on living in a house together after they say 'I do.'Fraser was seen on set with the woman playing their supposed matchmaker Violet Von Westenhotlz

tars Parisa Fitz-Henley as Meghan and Murray Fraser as Prince Harry and will be released in the spring

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Filming is well under way for the Lifetime movie documenting Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's love story - but it seems that one of the main stars was taking a break on day two of production.

Actor Murray Fraser who is playing Harry was on set without his on-screen wife-to-be but had company in the form of Karin Inghammar, who is playing Violet Von Westenholtz, the rumoured matchmaker of the royal couple.

Parisa Fitz-Henley, who takes the role of Meghan, was nowhere to be seen as the actors filmed scenes in downtown Vancouver which involved Harry greeting the crowd on a red carpet.

Murray was decked out in black tie, but kept his red puffa jacket on off-set in light of the chilly Canadian temperatures while Karin stunned in a floor length sequin gown - again with the addition of a thermal coat.

Photos from the set of the new flick, set to be released ahead of the royal wedding in May, see actors Murray Fraser who plays the Prince and Parisa Fitz-Henley, starring as his fiance, embrace their roles as a royal couple.

Actor Murray Fraser who is playing Harry was on set without his wife-to-be but was instead joined by actress Karin Inghammar, who is playing Violet Von Westenholtz

Violet is the rumoured matchmaker who introduced Harry and Meghan to each other and led to the couple meeting on secret dates before eventually announcing they were engaged

Muuray was without Parisa on the set in Vancouver as he filmed scenes with fellow actress Karin on the red carpet wrapped up in big coats to protect against the chill

As the cameras began rolling the duo had to take of the big padded coats they had been wearing. Both were dressed for a black tie event with Karin in a sparkling floor length gown and Murray wearing a bow tie

After months of speculation following about who introduced Meghan and Harry, following their engagement announcement it's believed the mystery matchmaker was Violet Von Westenholtz who first set Harry and Meghan up on a blind date back in July 2016.

Violet, 33, is the daughter of former Olympic skier Baron Piers von Westenholz, who is a close personal friend of Harry's father, the Prince of Wales. She was also a childhood friend of Harry's and worked with Meghan before setting the pair up.

The cast were all spotted on set of the film, 'Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance', in Vancouver for the first time on Wednesday.

Jamaican-American actress Parisa, who plays the 36-year-old Meghan in the film, was seen wearing a bright red dress as she took to the set.

The colour, length and style is not dissimilar to the dress worn by Meghan during her appearance on the Today Show in 2016 - believed to be the early stages of their relationship, as the film will document the couple's life before their relationship went public.

Sources revealed that Violet von Westenholz (right) is the secret matchmaker who first set up Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (left)

She is the daughter of former Olympic skier Baron Piers Von Westenholz (center), who is a friend of Harry's father, Prince Charles

Playing Prince Harry is British actor Murray Fraser who resembled the royal thanks to his stubble and red hair

The choice in dress reflects the filmmakers decisions to tell the royal couple's story before their relationship went public

Meanwhile British actor Murray was seen dressed in a formal black suit with an open collared white shirt, one of Prince Harry's less distinguishable ensembles.

While Murray is relatively new to on-screen roles his co-star Parisa is best known for her role as Reva Connors in Jessica Jones back in 2015.

As well as Canada, where Meghan previously lived, production is also set to take place in Los Angeles with lifetime looking to release the move in the coming spring.

The real-life Harry and Meghan, meanwhile, will tie the knot on May 19.

Parisa, 40, said on Instagram she is 'psyched' to finally be able to reveal she has been cast along with Murray in the highly anticipated movie, and noted she was 'so happy' to be working with him.

Royal fans have been given a first look inside Lifetime's new movie telling the story of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal romance. Pictured: Parisa Fitz-Henley who plays Meghan

He was dressed in a typical outfit choice for the prince of a formal black suit with an open-collar shirt, keeping warm off set in a red winter coat

The pair appear to be getting on famously both on and off set with Parisa sharing a selfie of herself and her co-star in bed earlier this week.

This isn't the second time Murray has played in a royal-related work of fiction, since his acting credits also include PBS' Victoria, starring Jenna Coleman as the eponymous queen.

The actor has also played in The Loch, a mini series and serial killer mystery that aired last year.

Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance follows in the footsteps of Lifetime's William & Kate: The Movie, the network's 2011 rendition of Harry's older brother William's relationship with his now-wife, Kate Middleton.

In that instance, Camilla Luddington, who plays Jo Wilson in Grey's Anatomy, was cast as the duchess, while William was portrayed by Nico Evers-Swindell.

Lifetime revealed last month it was working on a movie based on the lives of Meghan and Harry, 35.

Lifetime are planning to release the movie in Spring ahead of the royal wedding which will take place on May 19

Jamaican-American actress Parisa, who plays the 36-year-old Meghan in the film, could be seen wearing a bright red dress as she took to the set

The colour, length and style is not dissimilar to the dress worn by Meghan during her appearance on the Today Show in 2016

The news was confirmed by head of programming Liz Gateley during a conference, Deadline reported at the time.

Lifetime's film will portray the lives of both the Prince and the Suits actress ahead of their meeting, before detailing their meeting via a mutual friend.

It will then follow the story of their secret romance, before the couple went public at the end of 2016, and subsequently announced their engagement in November 2017, garnering intense media attention.

Director Menhaj Huda, who has worked on The Royals, a drama about a fictional British royal family, will work on the movie, while Merideth Finn and Michele Weiss will executive produce.

While no release date has been confirmed, the channel's previous film William & Kate: The Movie aired 11 days before the pair's wedding on the 29th April 2011.

Murray and Paris appear to be getting on famously on and off set, with the actress sharing this selfie from a bed last week

Prince Harry and Meghan met in the summer of 2016 after being set up on a blind date by a mutual friend, thought to be fashion designer Misha Nonoo.

In November 2016 Harry confirmed their romance after he released a statement asking for his girlfriend's privacy to be respected, revealing she had been subject to a torrent of abuse amid rumors of their romance.

Just weeks later the Prince visited the American actress on set of Toronto-based legal drama Suits, before the couple were first sighted together in London during December 2016.

The duo then made a number of low key appearances together in 2017, and announced their engagement in November 2017, spending Christmas together with the Queen at Sandringham.

The couple is now set to marry on May 19 this year at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England.

The news of Lifetime TV's new film came after it was reported that Meghan's ex-husband and film producer Trevor Engelson is making a show about a divorced American mother who moves to London to marry a British royal.

The show, which is currently untitled, is believed to have been inspired by a conversation he had with producer Dan Farrah, musing on what would have happened if he and Meghan had had children together.Advertisement

For the past week, Australian designers including Alice McCall, Dion Lee and Zimmermann have turned up the heat on the New York Fashion Week runway.

But the shows continued off the catwalk as well, with some of the country's top influencers putting on a striking sartorial display in the front row.

Here, FEMAIL looks at some of the most notable fashion moments off the runway as the women offer a glimpse into their enviable winter wardrobes.

The Australian fashion shows at New York Fashion Week continued off the catwalk, with some of the country's top influencers putting on a striking sartorial display in the front row (pictured second from left is Zanita Whittington)

Here, FEMAIL looks at some of the most notable fashion moments off the runway as the women offer a glimpse into their enviable winter wardrobes (pictured far left are Sarah Ellen and Mimi Elashiry at the Alice McCall show)

SARAH ELLEN

Actress and model Sarah Ellen hasn't disappointed with her NYFW style, with the former Neighbours star rocking a range of feminine, edgy and effortlessly stylish looks throughout the week (L-R in looks by Michael Kors, Alice McCall and Georgia Alice and Zimmermann)

ZANITA WHITTINGTON

Zanita Whittington, the founder of Zanita Studio, rocked looks by Woolrich (left) and Calvin Klein, Nanushka and Tibi (centre)

MIMI ELASHIRY

Model and influencer Mimi Elashiry (right) is pictured front row at Badgley Mischka alongside Stassi Schroeder, Alex Stafford and Lela Loren

Mimi is pictured at the Alice McCall show in the designer's $275 Hearts On Fire top and $315 On My Way high waisted jeans

JESSICA KAHAWATY

Model and humanitarian Jessica Kahawaty mixed up her looks between edgy and feminine and is pictured (L-R) in Tom Ford, Michael Kors and Bottega Veneta

BAMBI NORTHWOOD BLYTH

Model Bambi Northwood-Blyth is pictured alongside Olivia Palermo and and Nina Agdal at the Zimmermann show

Bambi wore this stunning Zimmermann look paired with Louboutin heels

OLYMPIA VALANCE

Model and actress Olympia Valance is pictured at the Alice McCall show with Cartia Mallan in a stunning white look by the designer

PIXIE BELLAOver the past 12 months, parents have been posting snaps of the letters they've received from schools scolding lunchboxes they packed for their kids.

And now Australian TV personality, Grant Denyer, claims he has become the latest parent to receive a note home from school.

Appearing on his radio show, Breakfast with Em, Grant and Ed on 2Day FM, Grant said a letter was sent home with his daughter Sailor claiming her lunch included an 'inappropriate' item.

Australian TV personality, Grant Denyer, claims he has become the latest parent to receive a note home from school

The item in question? A homemade, gluten-free, choc-chip muffin, which Grant and Sailor had made together.

'The note said it was inappropriate because it was an unhealthy item in a lunchbox and that contravenes school policy on lunches,' Grant said.

Grant told his co-hosts that he was completely embarrassed when he received the note and it left him feeling like the 'worst parent in the world'.

The item in question? A homemade, gluten-free, choc-chip muffin, which Grant and Sailor had made together

Grant told his co-hosts that he was completely embarrassed when he received the note and it left him feeling like the 'worst parent in the world'

THE SCHOOL'S LUNCHBOX POLICY In a note, the school detailed other lunchbox items that parents could include: - a slice of fruit loaf/raisin bread - pancake or pikelet (add mashed bananas to the mixture for a change) - fruit, date, pumpkin or plain scone - small handful of rice crackers - wholemeal crackers with a slice of low-fat cheese - cup of popcorn - small handful of dried druit (for over 5-year-olds only) - snow peas, feta, pitted olives - low-fat cheese cubes or sticks Advertisement

When it comes to school lunches, 'no one is above the law', Grant said.

Em Rusciano suggested the note was a little too far despite an obesity issue in the country.

Grant has joined a long line of parents shamed for their school lunch choices.

A Melbourne mother was recently slammed by a school after she packed a lamington for her child.

The tasty treat was returned to the mortified mother uneaten along with a note from the kindergarten, Seven News reported.

The note said the lamington 'did not comply with the school's nutrition policy' and the mother was told never to include a lamington in her child's lunch again.

'That's bad, Australia getting too PC!! It's a bloody lamington,' one person wrote on Twitter.

A Melbourne mother was been slammed by a school after she packed a lamington in her child's lunchbox

The note said the lamington 'did not comply with the school's nutrition policy'

'Kindergarten needs to keep their noses out of kids lunch box! If the parent gives it to their child it's none of their business!' said another.

The notes are likely aligned with the New South Wales Healthy Schools Canteen strategy, which was launched in 2017.

Under the system, food like fruits, vegetables and sandwiches make up at least 75 per cent of canteen menus and "occasional foods" like pies, sausage rolls and pizza make up just 25 per cent.The nationalist Movement for a Better Hungary party, more commonly known as Jobbik, is hugely popular with younger voters.

The migrant crisis has stoked anti-immigration feeling in Hungary, and more broadly across eastern Europe.

At the height of the refugee crisis, as many as 10,000 people were crossing the border from Serbia into Hungary every day - with the crossing point just minutes from Asotthalom in the south.

While the party has strenuously defended itself against accusations of anti-semitism and racism, the Jobbik party has a long history of anti-Gypsy campaigning

The far-right party leader, Gabor Vona is trying to improve its image by repackaging it as a conservative 'peoples party'.A mother has released incredible pictures of her baby's open heart surgery - when he was aged just seven days old.

Aimee Roberts, 25, was devastated when a scan just after birth showed baby Leo was suffering from four congenital heart problems.

Both she and partner Alex Nicholls, 26, were told their son would need open-heart surgery - and were told to fear the worst.

In rare cases, heart defects can sometimes require immediate surgery following birth to ensure the best chance of survival.

And the new mother said she had 'never cried so much' as when she handed her son to the anesthetist when he was just seven days old - on the day he had been due.

Miss Roberts, from Keynsham, Somerset, waited anxiously for six hours as little Leo was taken into surgery.

His body temperature was lowered to almost hypothermia levels before they could operate.

Aimee Roberts, 25, was devastated when a scan just after birth showed baby Leo was suffering from four congenital heart problems

And although the surgery was a success, Miss Roberts said it was 'awful' seeing her son lying 'lifeless' under a heater to bring his body temperature back up.

She said: 'I cried straightaway. His eyes were puffy. He wasn't alert. Covered in wires with a machine breathing for him. He was being pumped with medication.'

She added that five days later, on November 19, 2017, Leo contracted an infection and doctors had to completely re-open his chest - and leave it open for a week, covered by just a suction pad.

Miss Roberts said: 'We were thrown into a world that few know exist. We had to learn so much new terminology. I knew he would teach us, but I didn't know it would be like this.

'We learnt all about echocardiograms, ECG's, monitors, blood tests, diagrams, risks and odds.

'Nothing can make you surrender more than having to give your child to a surgeon when there's a chance of death. I have never cried so much.'

Both she and partner Alex Nicholls, 26, were told their son would need open-heart surgery - and were told to fear the worst

And the new mother said she had 'never cried so much' as when she handed her son to the anesthetist when he was just seven days old (pictured with Alex and Leo)

And although the surgery was a success, Miss Roberts said it was 'awful' seeing her son lying 'lifeless' under a heater to bring his body temperature back up

But Miss Roberts has praised the work of the surgeons, doctors and nurses from ward 32 at Bristol Children's Hospital who saved Leo's life

'He still has two heart conditions, which we have a review for at the end of February. He's still not perfect, but he's doing really well,' Miss Roberts said

Leo was born a week prematurely, on November 6, 2017, at St Michael's Hospital, Bristol, with four different congenital heart conditions.

He was diagnosed with coarctation (narrowing) of the aortic arch, Patent Ductus Arteriosus (abnormal blood flow between the heart's arteries), multiple holes in the heart, and Bicuspid Aortic Valve (two heart valves instead of three).

Miss Roberts, a British Airways air hostess, said: 'When he was diagnosed we didn't believe it at first.

'I blamed myself completely. I kept asking myself, "What could I have done differently?"'

But doctors assured her that Leo's heart conditions were congenital, and there was nothing she could have done differently.

Miss Roberts added that Leo weighed 7lb 1oz at birth - but because he was so ill, his weight dropped almost immediately to 5lb.

And as Leo was born a week prematurely, doctors had to wait seven days until he was the correct weight to operate on.

Miss Roberts, from Keynsham, Somerset, waited anxiously for six hours as little Leo was taken into surgery

Five days later, on November 19, 2017, Leo contracted an infection and doctors had to completely re-open his chest - and leave it open for a week, covered by just a suction pad

Leo was born a week prematurely, on November 6, 2017, at St Michael's Hospital, Bristol, with four different congenital heart conditions

Miss Roberts was discharged from St Michael's Hospital and moved to the Cots For Tots charity house opposite, for the parents of severely ill babies.

She said: 'I was told when to go back to the Intensive Care Unit to feed [every two hours], as well as how much to feed, and I even had to ask if I could hold him.

'I didn't feel like a parent.'

When Leo was just a week old, on his due date, he had open heart surgery - and she said that if they had waited any longer, he could have died.

'We met with the surgeons and the anaesthetist and were made to sign a consent form,' Miss Roberts said.

'They made it sound as though they were asking us, but it was mandatory to save his life.

'It was a complete blur when they were telling us the risks, death was an option. Along with paralysis, infection, damage to spinal cord, stroke and internal bleeding.'

She added that Leo had to stop feeding before his surgery, which upset him.

He was diagnosed with coarctation (narrowing) of the aortic arch, Patent Ductus Arteriosus (abnormal blood flow between the heart's arteries), multiple holes in the heart, and Bicuspid Aortic Valve (two heart valves instead of three)

Doctors assured Miss Roberts that Leo's heart conditions were congenital, and there was nothing she could have done differently

Miss Roberts added that Leo weighed 7lb 1oz at birth - but because he was so ill, his weight dropped almost immediately to 5lb

And as Leo was born a week prematurely, doctors had to wait seven days until he was the correct weight to operate on

WHAT IS OPEN-HEART SURGERY? Open-heart surgery is primarily given to adults to unlock arteries, allowing blood to flow to the heart more efficiently. However, in rare cases, it can be used on children, and babies, to correct congenital defects that pose a risk to their health. It involves cutting the chest open, with incisions used in modern procedures being much smaller than those made in traditional surgeries. According to the National Institutes of Health, the process can take between three and six hours and involves putting the patient to sleep. Risks of the surgery include death, infections and even heart attacks. Advertisement

'He was nil by mouth for four hours before theatre - he was so hungry - he was crying. When he finally fell asleep, I took over the crying role.

'I couldn't sleep that night before and sat with him in the high dependency ward. My mum and sister arrived, us and Alex sat waiting.'

Leo remained in hospital for the first nine weeks of his life, during which time he had five further operations for complications and infections arising from the surgery.

Miss Roberts said: 'Leo was pricked so much for cannulas, blood and long lines that he began to hate being touched.

'His heels were completely covered in dots from where he had so many heel pricks.

'Eventually, myself and Alex had to say that enough was enough, and we no longer consented to anyone inserting a cannula, longline or PICC line into him whilst he was awake.'

But she has praised the work of the surgeons, doctors and nurses from ward 32 at Bristol Children's Hospital who saved Leo's life.

'He still has two heart conditions, which we have a review for at the end of February. He's still not perfect, but he's doing really well,' Miss Roberts said.

'February is heart awareness month, and it's just the fact that I was told to look out for it and that's what saved his life. What if we hadn't pushed for that scan?'

Miss Roberts has set up a Crowdfunding page to raise money for the staff at ward 32.

She said: 'We are raising money for the ward that saved Leo's life because simply saying thank you doesn't seem enough. They not only cared for our son, but for ourselves as well.'

To donate, visit here.

Miss Roberts was discharged from St Michael's Hospital and moved to the Cots For Tots charity house opposite, for the parents of severely ill babiesTen killer viruses that pose the most 'urgent' threat to humanity have been revealed by concerned experts.

The World Health Organization has released its annual list of lethal pathogens that research should be fast-tracked for.

Ebola and Zika, which both have caused brutal pandemics in the past four years, were named amid fears they could strike again.

For the first time ever, 'Disease X' - representing a pathogen currently unknown to scientists - was mentioned by the WHO.

The World Health Organization has released its annual list of lethal pathogens that research should be fast-tracked for

The list, published this week, comes amid mounting fears of a global pandemic, with experts concerned about the flu season that rocked the world.

Dr Tedros Adhanom, director general of the WHO, warned earlier this week humanity is 'vulnerable' to an outbreak that could kill millions.

'Not in any order'

Announcing the list of 'prioritised diseases', a statement on the WHO's website read: 'The order of diseases on this list does not denote any ranking of priority.

'This is not an exhaustive list, nor does it indicate the most likely causes of the next epidemic.' The list was not in an alphabetical order.

Crimean Congo haemorrhagic fever, which kills 40 per cent of those it strikes and was recently spotted in Uganda, made its way onto the list.

Officials are also concerned about Marburg virus, considered to be one of the most deadly pathogens in existence. It also rocked the African nation in November.

The other five lethal diseases mentioned on the list of needing urgent action include: Lassa fever, MERS, SARS, Nipah virus and Rift Valley fever.

WHAT IS MOST LIKELY TO CAUSE THE NEXT EPIDEMIC? In February 2018, The World Health Organization released its annual list of lethal bugs that they warned there is an 'urgent' need to accelerate research into. The ones that they prioritised were: Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever

Ebola

Marburg virus disease

Lassa fever

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)

Nipah and henipaviral diseases

Rift Valley fever (RVF)

Zika

Disease X Advertisement

It is the first time 'Disease X' has made its way onto the list, which is compiled by a branch of the WHO that aims to fast-track disease research.

WHO said: 'Disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease.

'And so the R&D Blueprint explicitly seeks to enable cross-cutting R&D preparedness that is also relevant for an unknown Disease X as far as possible.'

Dropped off the list...

Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (SFTS), first spotted in China just seven years ago, has been dropped from this year's urgent list, the third of its kind.

While the WHO warned SFTS and 14 other viruses pose a 'major' threat to humanity, but there isn't an 'urgent' need for accelerated research.

Flu concerns

Flu was included on the list of prioritised diseases. The killer virus has caused havoc around the world so far this winter, gripping the US, UK and Australia.

This year marks the 100 year anniversary of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which killed 50 million people across the world - three times more than World War 1.

Chikungunya, monkeypox, emergent non-polio enteroviruses (including EV71, D68), leptospirosis, dengue, yellow fever and HIV/AIDs were included.

And tuberculosis, malaria, smallpox, cholera, leishmaniasis, West Nile Virus and even plague also made it onto the secondary list.

The latter prompted international concerns in autumn last year, after triggering the 'worst outbreak in 50 years' in Madagascar, killing more than 200 people.Going for a brisk daily walk or bike ride really can stave off Alzheimer's disease, according to new research.

It boosts white matter found deep within the brain that consists mainly of nerve fibres, or axons.

A study of older people found those with poor fitness levels had faster deterioration in the vital 'hubs' between neurons, putting them at greater risk of dementia.

Going for a brisk daily walk or bike ride really can stave off Alzheimer's disease, according to new research

'Improving people's fitness may improve their brain health'

Neurologist Assistant professor Kan Ding, of the University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas, said: 'This research supports the hypothesis that improving people's fitness may improve their brain health and slow down the ageing process.'

Nerve fibres are extensions of neurons surrounded by a pale 'sheath' called myelin. giving white matter its colour.

When they go awry the speed and transmission of electrical nerve signals slow down, leading to cognitive decline including the memory problems characteristic of Alzheimer's patients.

By comparison, grey matter is tissue found on the surface of the brain, known as the cortical region.

It contains the cell bodies of neurons, and has a darker hue.

White matter comprises millions of bundles of nerve fibres used by neurons to communicate across the brain.

White matter comprises millions of bundles of nerve fibres used by neurons to communicate across the brain

WHAT IS ALZHEIMER'S? Alzheimer's disease is a progressive, degenerative disease of the brain, in which build-up of abnormal proteins causes nerve cells to die. This disrupts the transmitters that carry messages, and causes the brain to shrink. More than 5 million people suffer from the disease in the US, where it is the 6th leading cause of death, and more than 1 million Britons have it. WHAT HAPPENS? As brain cells die, the functions they provide are lost. That includes memory, orientation and the ability to think and reason. The progress of the disease is slow and gradual. On average, patients live five to seven years after diagnosis, but some may live for ten to 15 years. EARLY SYMPTOMS: Loss of short-term memory

Disorientation

Behavioral changes

Mood swings

Difficulties dealing with money or making a phone call LATER SYMPTOMS: Severe memory loss, forgetting close family members, familiar objects or places

Becoming anxious and frustrated over inability to make sense of the world, leading to aggressive behavior

Eventually lose ability to walk

May have problems eating

The majority will eventually need 24-hour care Source: Alzheimer's Association Advertisement

Professor Ding and colleagues say their finding adds to evidence that exercise improves brain health and could be a lifesaver when it comes to preventing Alzheimer's.

The study published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease enrolled people at high risk of developing the condition who had early signs of memory loss, or mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

It found lower fitness levels were associated with weaker white matter, which in turn correlated with their brains working less efficiently.

Unlike previous studies that relied on study participants to assess their own fitness, the new research objectively measured cardiorespiratory fitness.

This was through a formula called maximal oxygen uptake which measures the most oxygen a person uses while exercising, giving an indication of how strong their lungs and heart are, and how fit they.

Scientists also used brain imaging to measure the functionality of each patient's white matter.

Participants were then given memory and other cognitive tests to measure brain function, establishing strong links between physical activity, mental health and cognition.

Professor Ding said it underlined the simple yet crucial mandate for human health - the importance of regular exercise.

The question is: why?

But the study also left plenty of unanswered questions about how fitness and Alzheimer's disease are intertwined.

Ding said these include what fitness level is needed to notably reduce the risk of dementia, and whether it is too late to intervene when patients begin showing symptoms.

Some of these topics are already being researched through a five-year national clinical trial led by his O'Donnell Brain Institute lab.

The trial, which includes six medical centres across the US, aims to determine whether regular aerobic exercise and taking specific medications to reduce high blood pressure and cholesterol levels can help preserve brain function.

The study also left plenty of unanswered questions

Scientists REVERSE Alzheimer's in middle-aged mice using the same drug as Merck A team at Cleveland Clinic published a paper showing they had successfully reversed Alzheimer's in a middle-aged lab mouse. Their trial used a BACE1 inhibitor, essentially the same method as Merck's, in a similar aged subject. They claim their tests on a 20-month-old mouse - equivalent to a 50-year-old human - show it could be possible to halt the disease if it is caught decades earlier than usual. Lead author Riqiang Yan admitted he was 'shocked' when their attempts to reduce amyloid plaque in mice completely eradicated the dangerous build-ups that slowly cripple the brain. Already aware of the Merck failure, Yan told Daily Mail Online last night that he still believes BACE1 is the answer to preventing and treating Alzheimer's. Yan envisions a future when these enzymes, known as BACE1 inhibitors, could be available as a vitamin that all humans take preventatively to stave off neurodegenerative disease. Advertisement

It involves more than 600 older adults at high risk to develop Alzheimer's.

Professor Rong Zhang, of UT Southwestern, who is overseeing the clinical trial, said: 'Evidence suggests what is bad for your heart is bad for your brain.

'We need studies like this to find out how the two are intertwined and hopefully find the right formula to help prevent Alzheimer's disease.'

He is director of the Cerebrovascular Laboratory in the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where the Dallas arm of the study is being carried out.

Fitness and forgetfulness

The research builds upon prior investigations linking healthy lifestyles to better brain function, including a 2013 study from Prof Zhang's team that found neuronal messages are more efficiently relayed in the brains of older adults who exercise.

In addition, other teams at the O'Donnell Brain Institute are designing tests for the early detection of patients who will develop dementia, and seeking methods to slow or stop the spread of toxic proteins associated with the disease such as beta-amyloid and tau, which are blamed for destroying certain groups of neurons in the brain.

Added Prof Ding: 'A lot of work remains to better understand and treat dementia. But, eventually, the hope is that our studies will convince people to exercise more.'

About 850,000 people in the UK have dementia, with Alzheimer's by far the most common form. The number of patients is set to rise to one million by 2025 and two million by 2050.

Identifying lifestyle factors that reduce the risk is vital, while scientists desperately hunt for a cure.When pop icon Taylor Swift said she 'couldn't have asked for a better year' back in December, the internet had one question: what version of 2017 had she been living in?

By most accounts, 2017 was not a good year.

It brought us two devastating hurricanes in Houston and Puerto Rico, the deadliest shooting in American history in Las Vegas and the deaths of cultural icons like Linkin Park's Chester Bennington and The Sopranos' Frank Vincent, among other things.

Now a new poll has revealed that happiness in the US took a nosedive in 2017 as Americans' well-being, generally defined as 'a state of being comfortable, healthy and happy', hit record lows.

The map above shows the 21 states that saw an decrease in resident well-being in 2017 (shown in black). All of the remaining 29 states' scores remained the same from 2016 (shown in gray)

Overall, the nation's well-being score fell from 62.1 out of 100 in 2016 to 61.5 out of 100 in 2017, according to the poll by Gallup-Sharecare.

The poll also found that in 21 US states there was a decline in residents well-being compared with 2016 levels.

Additionally, not a single state saw an increase in well-being in 2017 for the first time in the 10-year history of the poll.

That's the largest number of states to see a drop in well-being in over 10 years, shattering the previous record of 15 states after the Great Recession in 2009.

States with a decline in well-being in 2017 Arkansas Georgia Louisiana Mississippi North Carolina South Carolina Texas Alaska Arizona California Hawaii Nevada Oregon Washington Maine New Jersey Pennsylvania Virginia Missouri Ohio West Virginia Advertisement

The polling data comes from interviews with more than 160,000 US adults in all 50 states, conducted from January to December 2017.

The 'Well-Being Index is calculated based on what Gallup calls the five essential elements of well-being:

Purpose : liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals

: liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals Social : having supportive relationships and love in your life

: having supportive relationships and love in your life Financial : managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security

: managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security Community : liking where you live, feeling safe and having pride in your community

: liking where you live, feeling safe and having pride in your community Physical : having good health and enough energy to get things done daily

The states taking the two bottom spots in the 2017 rankings were Arkansas and Louisiana.

The third lowest was West Virginia, which has had the lowest well-being score in the country for nine years in a row.

Ten of the 21 states that in their well-being score in 2017 were located in the southeast region of the country including states like Texas, Missouri, Georgia and Virginia.

The entire west coast and two bordering states also experienced a dip in well-being.

The full list of states that saw the decline is as follows: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Maine, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Missouri and Ohio.

Gallup said the declines were primarily driven by worsening scores in measures of mental health, purpose and social well-being.

In the states that saw an overall decline, residents were more likely to report experiencing significant worry on any given day and less likely to report of receiving positive energy from friends and family members,

They were also more likely to report diagnoses of clinical depression.

South Dakota and Vermont led the nation's well-being rankings for the first time in the history of the Gallup-Sharecare poll, both with a well-being score of 64.1 out of 100 in 2017.

Their scores were unchanged from the previous year.

Hawaii, which has claimed the top spot in the poll six times in the last 10 years including 2016, came in third with a score of 63.4.

The findings have widespread implications in part because research has shown that compared to workers with lower well-being, those with higher well-being perform better in the workplace and are better at adapting to change.

They are also less likely to take unplanned time off and will contribute more to the success of their organizations and communities, Gallup said.

Gallup released a statement with the poll results on Tuesday regarding the importance of the findings.

'State and community leaders can study and adopt best practices from states with consistently high well-being scores, such as Hawaii, South Dakota and Vermont, in order to maximize the chances that their own constituents are best able to lead a life well lived,' it said.Cannabis does more harm than good as a medical treatment, health officials have warned.

New medical guidelines issued in Canada, where cannabis has been legal for medicinal use since 2001, warns that the effects of the drug outweigh any minor benefits for the vast majority of conditions.

And in the few conditions where it can be helpful - for example as pain relief for multiple sclerosis - the impact is only marginally better than placebo.

The document, published in the Canadian Family Physician journal, warns doctors to 'take a sober second thought' before prescribing the drug.

New medical guidelines issued in Canada, where cannabis has been legal for medicinal use since 2001, warns that the effects of the drug outweigh any minor benefits for the vast majority of conditions

Professor Mike Allan of the University of Alberta, who led the team writing the guidelines, said: 'While enthusiasm for medical marijuana is very strong among some people, good-quality research has not caught up.'

The document, which will be distributed to 30,000 doctors in Canada, will come as a major blow to those seeking the legalisation of cannabis for medical use in Britain.

Campaigners including MPs, peers and industrial leaders wants the Government to allow companies to be allowed to import or grow the drug for medical use.

The movement  notably backed by former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and billionaire businessman George Soros  insist the current ban is irrational.

But the Canadian guidance, for which all existing clinical evidence about medical cannabis was reviewed, found little evidence that cannabis could help many patients at all.

The only robust evidence for its use was as pain relief for severe conditions such as cancer, nerve pain, and multiple sclerosis.

And even then the impact was marginal.

For nerve pain, for example, just 39 per cent of patients saw a moderate improvement in pain while using medical cannabis - a tiny improvement on the 30 per cent who used a dummy placebo drug.

For patients with muscle spasticity - a common symptom of MS or spinal cord injuries - cannabis saw a 35 per cent improvement in pain, compared to 25 per cent on placebo.

DOES CANNABIS INCREASE THE RISK OF PSYCHOSIS? Going from being an occasional marijuana user to indulging every day increases the risk of psychosis by up to 159 percent, research revealed in July 2017. Marijuana is thought to cause psychosis-like experiences by increasing a user's risk of depression, a study found. The two mental health conditions have previously been linked. Frequently abusing the substance also significantly reduces a user's ability to resist socially unacceptable behavior when provoked, the research adds. Study author Josiane Bourque from the University of Montreal, said: 'Our findings confirm that becoming a more regular marijuana user during adolescence is, indeed, associated with a risk of psychotic symptoms. '[Psychosis symptoms] may be infrequent and thus not problematic for the adolescent, when these experiences are reported continuously, year after year, then there's an increased risk of a first psychotic episode or another psychiatric condition.' The researchers, from the University of Montreal, analyzed around 4,000 13-year-olds from 31 high schools in the surrounding area. Every year for four years, the study's participants completed questionnaires about any substance abuse and psychotic experiences. Psychotic symptoms included perceptual aberration - for example feeling that something external is part of their body - and thinking they have been unjustly badly treated. The participants also completed cognitive tasks that allowed the researchers to assess their IQ, memory and stimuli response. Advertisement

The best impact was for patients undergoing chemotherapy for cancer.

Half of patients found medical cannabinoids helped their nausea and vomiting, compared to 13 per cent on placebo.

Professor Allan said: 'Medical cannabinoids should normally only be considered in the small handful of conditions with adequate evidence and only after a patient has tried of number of standard therapies.

'Given the inconsistent nature of medical marijuana dosing and possible risks of smoking, we also recommend that pharmaceutical cannabinoids be tried first before smoked medical marijuana.'

For other conditions - such as depression or anxiety - the researchers found very little evidence cannabis would help.

Professor Allan said: 'For example, there are no studies for the treatment of depression.

'For anxiety, there is one study of 24 patients with social anxiety in which half received a single dose of cannabis derivative and scored their anxiety doing a simulated presentation.

'This is hardly adequate to determine if lifelong treatment of conditions like general anxiety disorders is reasonable.'

But there was plenty evidence of the side effects.

About 11 per cent of patients were not able to tolerate medical cannabinoids at all, compared to 3 per cent of those taking placebo.

Half suffered said they felt sedated, a third felt dizzy and one in 11 felt confused.

The document said: 'We recommend against use of medical cannabinoids for most medical conditions owing to lack of evidence of benefit and known harms.'

Professor Allan said it would probably be poorly received due to the power of the cannabis campaign lobby.

'This guideline may be unsatisfactory for some, particularly those with polarized views regarding medical cannabinoids,' he said.

David Raynes of the National Drug Prevention Alliance, which opposes relaxation of the UK's drug laws, said last night: 'Cannabis in my view is being deliberately oversold as a medication, deliberately so by people whose primary objective is drug legalisation.

'Nations should be cautious and should not be seduced by extravagant and unscientific claims by noisy lobbyists.'Katharine Gallagher, 27, died on December 5, 2017, in her Tustin, California, home.

The Boston University graduate started experiencing flu-like symptoms on Thursday night and went to the doctor on Sunday where was sent home with antibiotics.

Two days later her boyfriend came home to find her dead on the bathroom floor after she appeared to be getting better that morning .

She had caught severe acute bronchial pneumonia.

Jonah Smith, 17, died December 29, 2017, when his heart stopped beating in the backseat of his sister's car.

His family said he showed no flu-like symptoms except he had complained of a backache, but continued to go to work at a fast-food restaurant and see friends.

After his death, doctors confirmed that the teen from Arizona had the flu and pneumonia and believe he may have suffered from an underlying medical condition, though he was never known to have one.

Kyler Baughmen, 21, became sick on December 23, 2017, with a mild cough and runny nose.

The body builder celebrated Christmas and went back to work December 26, but the following day was rushed to the hospital.

He died on December 28 from kidney failure due to septic shock caused by the flu.

Jeremy Westerman, 27, fell ill with the swine flu around Christmas.

The fitness trainer had symptoms of nausea and lethargy but did not seek treatment.

His parents say he became violently ill on January 2 and went to bed with a high fever and died in his sleep.

He was one of at least 20 to die of the virus in the Dallas-Fort Worth area this flu season.

Katie Oxley Thomas, 40, of San Jose, California, died of the flu just 48 hours of falling ill.

The mother-of-three and marathon runner's condition declined so quickly that she was moved to intensive care, placed on life support and died all in the span of 15 hours on January 4, 2018.

Her family said she had received her flu shot before getting sick.

Jenny Ching, 51, went to the hospital in Massachusetts with flu-like symptoms.

After being diagnosed with the flu she developed an infection and pneumonia.

The mother-of-two died on January 6, 2018, just a week after being diagnosed.

Jonah Rieben, four, died on January 6, 2018, just hours after first showing symptoms, making him the first child to die from the flu in Ohio this season.

The boy who loved to play with his 16 adoptive siblings was born with Noonan syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes heart defects and developmental delays. Doctors are still investigating if his condition contributed to his death.

Jonah's older brother, who also suffers from a disorder, is in the hospital with a severe case of the flu.

Nico Mallozzi, 10, of New Canaan in Connecticut, had been sick and bed-bound all weekend during the hockey tournament in Buffalo, New York, forcing him to miss every game.

Eventually, he was hospitalized and diagnosed with Influenza B, which had developed into pneumonia and caused sepsis.

He died on Sunday January 14, 2018, in a Buffalo hospital.

Zainab Momin, a third-grader of Montgomery, Alabama, died on Tuesday January 16, 2018.

She died in hospital the day her school was closed due to snowy weather.

More details are pending about her specific case and symptoms.

She is the first child to die of the flu in Alabama this season.

Amanda Franks, 38, was killed by the flu on January 17 after being diagnosed just three days prior.

The mother-of-four from New Hampshire was prescribed Tamiflu but did not take it because 'the doctor said the side effects were a lot of times worse than the flu'.

Septic shock set in and she died in the ambulance on her way to the hospital.

Emily Grace Muth, six, was killed by the flu on Friday January 19, 2018.

She first fell ill on that Tuesday and went to urgent care where she received Tamiflu.

By Friday her breathing was labored and her mother called the ambulance but they said to keep her hydrated and she would be okay within a week.

Hours later she stopped breathing and died.

Tandy Harmon, a 36-year-old mother-of-two in Oregon died on Friday, January 19, 2018. She went to the hospital with flu symptoms on Wednesday, but was told to go home to rest and hydrate. Hours later, Harmon was back in the emergency room, where she quickly declined and had to be placed on life support by that evening. Harmon had developed MRSA and pneumonia and died two days later.



Lily Kershaw, 5, died of the flu on January 22 in Nebraska.

She was the first child to die of flu-related causes in the state so far this season, although there have been 21 adult fatalities so far.

More details are pending about her specific case and symptoms.

Dylan Winnik, 12, died of the flu on Tuesday January 23, 2018.

He fell ill two days earlier and his parents thought he had the common cold because his symptoms were mild.

The seventh-grader died two days later.

Dylan is the first flu death in Palm Beach County, Florida, this season.

Timothy Schell, 51, died of the flu on January 31, just days after taking a flight from his home state of Michigan to Colorado.

He suddenly developed symptoms after landing in Colorado where he and his wife, Dana, intended to spend their vacation skiing.

Schell - nicknamed 'Smiley' - was young at heart and always laughing, his obituary said.

Savanna Jessie, seven, was killed by the flu on Thursday February 1, 2018.

The first-grader was found unresponsive in her Columbus, Indiana, home the morning after.

She was taken to the hospital where she received treatment but was sent home and put to bed.

She tested positive for influenza B, strep throat and scarlet fever at the time of her death.

Angie Barwise, a 58-year-old who beat the flu once this season, was killed by another strain of the virus on February 3, 2018.

The grandmother from Fort Worth, Texas, was diagnosed with influenza Type A three days after Christmas and recovered after being prescribed Tamiflu.

She fell ill again weeks later and was diagnosed with influenza Type B, which led to pneumonia and sepsis, killing her.

Jenna Libinsky, 24, died on February 7 in a Las Vegas hospital after coming down with the flu in late January.

She had gone to the doctor five times in eight days after January 25, but wasn't feeling better despite treatment.

After her death, her father Neil said that the family just thought it was a bad chest cold.

Heather Holland, 38 died from the flu on February 11 in Weatherford, Texas.

The mother-of-two hesitated to buy the Tamiflu prescribed by her doctor because, as she told her husband, it 'cost too much'.

Within four days of her diagnosis, Heather's body had gone into septic shock, a condition that ultimately killed her.

Aaron Masterson, 12, was declared brain dead and taken off of life support on February 11.

Aaron, a middle-schooler from Huntsville, Alabama, suffered from cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that damages the lungs and restricts the ability to breathe.

His pre-existing condition weakened his immune system, making his flu diagnosis far more severe and caused him to suffer brain damage.

Aaron was one of more than 63 children to be killed by the flu this season.





Nevaeh Hernandez, six, died from the flu on February 12, in spite of getting vaccinated against the illness.

The first hospital Nevaeh went to reportedly failed to diagnose the virus and sent her home with a 104 degree fever.

After her condition continued to worsen, her mother took her to another hospital where she slipped into a coma.

Her father, who is in armed services and was stationed in Germany, flew home after hearing she was in a coma but she had died by the time he arrived.Almost 2,000 patients were forced to endure the indignity of mixed-sex wards last month, official figures reveal.

The number is at its highest level since 2010, when the Government imposed a crackdown on the practice.

A total of 1,908 patients were placed in mixed-sex wards in January, almost twice as many as the same time last year.

Last month hospitals were temporarily allowed to put patients on the wards to help ease winter overcrowding.

A total of 1,908 patients were placed in mixed-sex wards in January, almost twice as many as the same time last year

Many of the wards have shared bathrooms and toilets which many patients find extremely humiliating. Labour accused ministers of leaving patients 'embarrassed and denigrated' and called for urgent action to reverse the trend.

The Government promised to end the so-called wards of shame in 2010 following a long-running Daily Mail campaign.

They introduced 250 fines for hospitals for every mixed-sex 'breach' and initially the figures started to fall.

But they have been climbing steadily since 2015 as overcrowded hospitals are increasingly forced to put patients wherever there is space.

In January, an emergency panel convened by NHS England agreed to temporarily lift the mixed-sex ward fines.

The latest figures are the highest since June 2011 and almost double the 1,036 reported for January 2017.

A breach counts as any occasion when a patient is placed on a ward with the opposite sex, not including intensive care, high dependency units or A&E.

Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour's health spokesman, said: 'These record mixed-sex ward breaches are a severe indicator of patient care worsening under the Tories'

The figures were released by NHS England alongside weekly performance statistics on how the NHS is coping this winter.

Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour's health spokesman, said: 'These record mixed-sex ward breaches are a severe indicator of patient care worsening under the Tories.

'Jeremy Hunt must now urgently explain what the Government is doing to minimise these humiliating breaches following NHS England's unprecedented decision to lift the ban in January. Mixed-sex ward breaches leave patients embarrassed and denigrated, and Labour will end this improper practice once and for all.'

Phillippa Hentsch, head of analysis at NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts said: 'In January, the number of patients in mixed-sex wards reached its highest level since June 2011.

'This is not a position trusts want to be in, but the level of demand means trusts have to make patient safety a priority, which may at times compromise patient experience. Despite this, NHS staff continue to deliver high-quality care to more patients than ever.'

Ministers first promised to end the scandal of mixed-sex wards in 1994 when Tory Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley pledged a crackdown.

The Labour government repeated the pledge in 1999 but by 2008, had admitted it would be unachievable

In 2010 the Coalition government announced new fines and this initially led to a 90 per cent drop in breaches. But this has lasted just a few years.

The figures also show that an average of 817 beds were closed due to the winter vomiting bug norovirus in the week up to February 11. This was up by 28 per cent compared to the previous week.

Despite problems with the bug, NHS England said hospitals were coping better than usual as they had freed up 2,000 spaces by tackling bedblocking, where beds are occupied by someone who doesn't strictly need one.THE WORD FOR WOMAN IS WILDERNESS by Abi Andrews (Serpents Tail 12.99)

THE WORD FOR WOMAN IS WILDERNESS

by Abi Andrews (Serpents Tail 12.99)

Nineteen-year-old Erin is on a mission to defy the trends in world exploration.

Historically, it was enraptured men who headed into the vast unknown in search of adventure and isolation  a trope that hasnt changed much in the modern world, where rugged ex-SAS types are poster boys for intrepid endeavour.

Determined, Erin says: I want . . . to prove to myself and everyone else that solitude is as much mine as any Mountain Mans, and heads off from England towards icy Alaska. She travels in cramped cargo ships and hitch-hikes across endless America.

Erin is a captivating heroine  funny, feminist and intensely curious, she riffs on Bear Grylls, the beauty of the natural world and the contraceptive pill as she makes her way to a tiny cabin in desolate Denali. Brilliantly odd, and oddly brilliant.

THE HAZEL WOOD

THE HAZEL WOOD by Melissa Albert (Penguin 7.99)

by Melissa Albert (Penguin 7.99)

Aficionados of shadowy fairytales will love this darkly enchanting debut, where the borders between the real world and a scary supernatural realm are whisper-thin.

Alice, black of eye and short of temper, loves her feisty mother Ella, but is fascinated by her estranged, enigmatic, reclusive grandmother Althea, who wrote the odd Tales From The Hinterland and then sequestered herself away in the Hazel Wood, in lonesome countryside, on the proceeds of her fiction.

But when Ella disappears into the woods, kidnapped by dangerously unruly characters from Altheas storybook, Alice realises that the Hinterland is all too real.

Searching for Ella in this eerie world, Alice is caught in a sinister web of stories within stories, an entanglement of menace and magic, where her past is called into question and her future looks out of kilter.

HOME

HOME by Amanda Berriman (Doubleday 12.99)

by Amanda Berriman (Doubleday 12.99)

This packs a huge emotional punch. The subject matter is heartbreaking  childhood poverty, abuse, the helpless frustration of a mother trying to do her best for her child. It is made all the more vivid and desperate as the narrator is four-year-old Jesika Petrowski.

Jesika lives with her mother and baby brother in a mole (mould)-infested flat  there are junkies on the stairwell, a boiler that doesnt work, and a landlord who is threatening to evict them.

Jesika describes these horrendous conditions with a childs matter of factness, unaware of the seriousness of the situation, unlike the reader who is fully cognisant of all thats going wrong, in the worst kind of ways.

It is bleak stuff, but Berriman manages to leaven the darkness with light  Jesika is entirely engaging, sweet, emphatic and cross as she tries to interpret the grisliness of the grown-up world.NATURE

OWL SENSE

by Miriam Darlington (Faber 15.99)

When Miriam Darlington becomes obsessed by a wild creature, she does nothing by halves.

Her 2012 book Otter Country saw her wading through marshes, hiding between mossy rocks, paddling down rivers and swimming in sea lochs in search of wild otters.

Now, she has turned her questing attention to owls.

Each chapter presents a search for one of eight different species: barn, tawny, little, long-eared, short-eared, pygmy, snowy, and Eurasian eagle owl.

Darlington volunteers with The Barn Owl Trust, meets experts and conservationists and travels to Serbia and France to tick off her owls.

Author Miriam Darlington gives an in-depth glimpse into the life of eight different species of owl in a new book (file image)

Along the way, her family is afflicted by the bombshell of her teenage sons mysterious and terrifying seizures  and its clear that Darlington has to counter a measure of motherly guilt in order to continue with her book.

Its impossible not to feel intense sympathy here  as well as with her melancholy refrain about the loss of habitats and the depredations of humankind.

Humans, of course, have long mistrusted owls, seeing them (among other things) as portents of evil. Anyone who has lain awake at night in the country and heard the haunting sound of an owl is immediately in touch with the most primitive side of the human spirit.

Darlington is good on literature (as youd expect, since she is a poet) and folk belief, giving us plenty of stories and scientific owl lore.

For example, the barn owl is a heart-faced killer whose hissing youngsters, unattractive babies that only a mother could love, have been known to devour their weaker, more recently hatched siblings, swallowing them down whole.

Her field notes are excellent. I had no idea that the barn owl is using its distinctive heart-shaped white face (so ghostly in the dark) to enable it to hunt. Its facial disc acts like a sound scanner to capture sound waves and transport the faintest of whispers to the asymmetrical ears.

The owls hearing is so accurate it should be called earsight. Darlington concludes: It is not surprising that the owl once developed a reputation for possessing a dark side; its skills must have seemed skin-creepingly powerful. [But] the ignorance has been replaced by a little more understanding.

On a lighter note, Darlington offers rare moments of comedy. For example, on a birdwatching trip to the yearly owl festival in the Serbian town Kikinda, she unwittingly disturbs (with an accidental camera flash) a whole roost of long-eared owls and slinks back to her stony-faced group.

OWL SENSE by Miriam Darlington (Faber 15.99)

She had committed the ultimate infringement  disturbing the owls  and you feel her acute embarrassment. Darlington is a fine writer and assiduous researcher. Owl Sense scores highest where she manages to combine facts about owls of all shapes and sizes with a lyrical appreciation of the meaning of the mythic power of these birds.

And, in comparing attitudes to wildlife in different countries, she notes that the French equivalent of the RSPB has only 45,000 members (in contrast to more than a million in Britain), that the French like to kill wildlife and that, in France, no bird-lover dares leave a bird book on the seat of a car or else the tyres would be slashed.

Bird slaughter is also rife in Eastern Europe, Greece, Italy and Malta  25 million birds a year.

British people would have no sympathy with that unsentimental truth, so vive la difference!BOOK OF THE WEEK

FIGHTERS AND QUITTERS

by Theo Barclay (Biteback 20)

Nothing becomes a political career better than the melodramatic ending of it  or the seeming ending of it.

Peter Mandelson resigned from high office twice (the undeclared 373,000 mortgage loan from a less-than-usual source; the passport application for businessman Srichand Hinduja), yet he was still granted a peerage and elevated to the Lords, and sat on 35 of the 43 Cabinet committees. As Mandelson memorably said: Im a fighter, not a quitter.

One of my favourites is Mark Harper, who managed to hire an illegal immigrant as a cleaner while serving as Conservative Minister of State for Immigration. He resigned, and was soon promoted to Chief Whip.

Nevertheless, how we always relish the spectacle of smug ministers squirming before the firing squad of public opinion, amid scandalous revelations  orgies, corruption, snobbery, even outright criminality.

Christine Keeler (pictured) was 19 when she was seduced by John Profumo, Secretary of State for War. Theo Barclay uncovers political resignations including John's in a new book

Our insatiable appetite for outrage, as Theo Barclay describes it in these brilliant and pithy summaries of great political resignations, always makes me, at least, feel better.

The Profumo Affair of 1963, a notorious tale of randy aristocrats, call girls and Russian spies, remains a turning point. After that, the public never again gave politicians the benefit of the doubt.

Nineteen-year-old Christine Keeler was easily and callously seduced by the womanising John Profumo, Secretary of State for War, who gave her a surreptitious grope behind a suit of armour.

Other assignations took place in a Mini Cooper and a Bentley. With hindsight, she was no vamp, but a troubled and vulnerable teenager, procured by osteopath Stephen Ward, who derived  immense excitement and satisfaction from organising orgies.

Unfortunately for Profumo, Keeler was also sleeping with Eugene Ivanov, a Soviet naval attache and spy. The security services monitored the hanky-panky and Harold Macmillan was informed. Questioned by the PM, Profumo said later: I felt I couldnt tell the truth at that stage.

His embarrassment compounded the volume of lies, and he left the Commons in total disgrace.

Mendacity  as this book demonstrates time and again  is always the unforgivable sin.

Secretary of State Chris Huhne, who was willing to lie in public to save his own skin, was sentenced to eight months in prison. Hed asked his wife, years before, to take his speeding points, and she suddenly remembered this during their acrimonious divorce battle.

John Profumo (pictured) was also sleeping with spy Eugene Ivanov, before his resignation

Huhnes chief crime wasnt the speeding: it was that by misleading the police, he was guilty of perverting the course of justice.

Perhaps the funniest story in this book concerns the plight of Lord Lambton, Minister for the Royal Air Force, who, using the alias Mr Lucas, visited call girls in Maida Vale in London.

His marriage was disintegrating, not least because his wife, Bindy, after she left hospital having broken both legs go-karting, drove the wrong way down the A1 and veered straight into the path of a lorry. Nearly every bone was shattered.

In Maida Vale, a tabloid newspaper, tipped off by Lambtons pimp, concealed tape recorders and cameras in the walls and inside a teddy bear on the bed. Photographs were passed to the police, who were upset to see Lambton smoking cannabis. Upon being cautioned, Lambton said that the sheer tedium of his ministerial job had driven him into the arms of prostitutes.

Surely all men visit whores? he asked an incredulous Robin Day in a television interview.

Lambton moved to Italy and held spectacular parties where Tony Blair and Kate Moss were among his illustrious guests.

Also roped into the scandal  by mistake  was Lord Jellicoe. The police had uncovered a document from Lambtons favourite call girl with repeated references to the word Jellico, which, in fact, referred to the Jellico hotel where she met her clients.

Jeremy Thorpe's (pictured) friends attempted to assassinate Norman Scott to hide the extent of his homosexual relationship

Lord Jellicoe confessed anyway, because he had also used sex workers. Friends later called it damned hard luck.

The Jeremy Thorpe business was less comical. Though exonerated in court, Thorpe, MP for North Devon and leader of the Liberals, remained a sinister person, who perhaps used a murder conspiracy to hide the extent of his homosexual relationship with Norman Scott, a stable lad and male model whom Thorpe introduced to people as a cameraman on a current affairs programme with which he was collaborating.

When Scott began to make blackmail threats, Thorpes peculiar friends moved into action, though the assassin they hired was not exactly top-notch. He went to Dunstable instead of Barnstaple, missing the target by 162 miles. On a second attempt, instead of shooting Scott, he shot Scotts dog, Rinka, before the gun jammed.

Almost as bizarre is the saga of former Postmaster General John Stonehouse, who faked his own death in 1974. Hed been spying for the Czech secret service, embezzled money and was deep in debt.

He travelled to Miami  and apparently drowned.

In fact, Stonehouse had made his way on a fake passport to Australia, where police suspected he was Lord Lucan, who had vanished two weeks before Stonehouse.

FIGHTERS AND QUITTERS by Theo Barclay (Biteback 20)

Extradited back to the UK, he claimed he was still legally the MP for Walsall North and attended the House. Only when imprisoned for fraud in Wormwood Scrubs did he resign. In prison, he once played chess with Ian Brady.

On the other hand, in fairness, there are the plethora of honourable resignations and Barclay gives them their due. Geoffrey Howe and many others in Margaret Thatchers Cabinet could no longer tolerate being treated like a cross between a doormat and a punchbag.

Robin Cook and Clare Short quit the Blair administration because they were unconvinced by the case for the Iraq War.

Edwina CURRIE went because her remark that eggs were contaminated with salmonella meant egg sales dropped by 60 per cent.

Four million hens were destroyed, and farmers demanded a 19 million rescue package. Subsequent independent medical studies, however, showed that Currie was correct  she was sacrificed by the government, which stood by the Ministry of Agriculture, rather than the Department of Health.

A story new to me is that of Katherine Ramsay, Duchess of Atholl, the first woman MP in Scotland, who was uniquely alert to foreign totalitarianism. She translated Mein Kampf into English and discovered the extent of Hitlers militarism. Along with Churchill, she saw the imminent danger posed by the German dictator.

In 1938, she publicly criticised Neville Chamberlain for his appeasement policies and was threatened with deselection by her Tory constituency. The Duchess immediately resigned, forcing a by-election, which, after standing as a single-issue candidate, she lost.

Everything she (and Churchill) foresaw came to pass.We are facing a seismic moment that could determine the future of Britain as an industrial power.

Because, amid the furore over the collapse of outsourcing firm Carillion, another potential tragedy is unfolding virtually unnoticed.

The episode has echoes of the asset-stripping excesses of the Eighties movie Wall Street  and involves a group of ruthless Mayfair-based entrepreneurs who are plotting the takeover and dismemberment of the nation's oldest engineering firm.

GKN  or Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds, as it was once known  is a vast company with a history reaching back 259 years. Its products have played a huge part in the long story of this nation.

GKN  or Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds, as it was once known  is a vast company with a history reaching back 259 years. Its products have played a huge part in the long story of this nation

Today, the firm, chaired by veteran industrialist Mike Turner, is exactly the kind of manufacturing champion and global exporter that is going to be vital to the UK's prosperity as the nation embarks on a future post-Brexit, trading freely with the rest of the world.

Far from wallowing in its past, the company under the leadership of silver-haired chief executive Anne Stevens is now a high-tech engineer that maintains a laser-like focus on the future.

GKN makes components for the world's biggest aerospace firms, as well as the 'drivelines' (what we used to call drive shafts) for many of the world's leading motor manufacturers.

The FTSE 100 giant is a supplier to firms such as Airbus, Boeing and BMW.

The company is also vital to the defence industry. Among other things, it produces key components for America's famed Black Hawk helicopter and the F18 Hornet fighter, and is working with the Pentagon on the next-generation stealth bomber programme.

GKN makes components for the world's biggest aerospace firms, as well as the 'drivelines' (what we used to call drive shafts) for many of the world's leading motor manufacturers

Last year alone, it sold 3.3 billion of aerospace components and other equipment to the U.S.

Spanning the manufacturing sector with separate automotive, aerospace and paint divisions, it boasts 58,000 staff around the world.

But it is not just its size  given its formidable defence interests, it is of huge strategic importance to this country. Yet now it is the subject of a dramatic hostile takeover bid that has transfixed the City.

The bid will serve as a litmus test for whether Britain's great engineering and defence firms can remain independent in the modern age.

Perceived by its predators to be a sleeping giant that can be made leaner and more profitable, Redditch-based GKN is in the sights of a firm called Melrose, which is making an audacious 7.4 billion hostile bid.

Melrose is run by Chris Miller  a former acolyte of the legendary City asset-stripper Lord Hanson  who works alongside a group of slick financial whizzes with a penchant for Hermes ties, pin-striped suits, long lunches and the ski slopes.

Miller and his close associates, David Roper and Simon Peckham, have become fabulously rich using rapacious tactics.

Last year, they were each handed around 40 million in shares. Previous years saw payouts to the trio in excess of 100 million, making them among the wealthiest plutocrats running FTSE100 firms.

The FTSE 100 giant is a supplier to firms such as Airbus, Boeing and BMW

Melrose has become something of a City favourite with a reputation for seeking out dull, underperforming industrial groups, then ruthlessly stripping out 'costly' assets and selling them on for a big profit within five years.

But investment for aerospace engines is a long-term process and it can sometimes be 40 years, with 15 years or more of research, before any return starts to flow.

Respected aerospace analyst Howard Wheeldon is unsparing in his criticism of Melrose.

Under the mantra of improving the business, he says, it 'strips the assets, loads the company up with debt and is nothing more than a vulture'.

Vultures, he adds, are more often than not 'the death knell of fine companies'. For not all that Miller and his team tackle turns into investor gold.

Earlier this month, Melrose revealed it was to cut 270 jobs at the Brush turbo-generator enterprise at Loughborough, which it bought a decade ago.

Analysis of Melrose's previous transactions shows that almost every company brought under its umbrella has been sold off to foreign or private equity buyers.

Its declared goal with this takeover bid is to 'simplify and de-clutter' GKN, as if re-energising the vast and complex engineering concern  which has extensive research and development facilities  can be compared simply to cleaning out the attic before moving house.

If Melrose is successful in persuading GKN investors to sell the company, Miller, Roper and Peckham could personally reap a bonus of up to 285 million between them  riches beyond the dreams of avarice.

When I met its senior executives at their swanky West End of London offices, they gleefully boasted how they would close down GKN's head offices in the heart of the Midlands, sack all the staff and empower the divisions and factories around the world by letting the local managers loose and giving them autonomy.

Yet now it is the subject of a dramatic hostile takeover bid that has transfixed the City. The bid will serve as a litmus test for whether Britain's great engineering and defence firms can remain independent in the modern age

Employing cost-cutting measures and smart accounting, they say they would improve the profit margins and sell off parts of the business to the highest bidder  who would almost certainly be foreign  irrespective of whether that would damage Britain.

The result could be that vital technology for, say, electric cars  designed and developed in GKN's own labs  falls into the hands of owners in China where GKN has factories, wasting a decade's worth of investment and research.

The company already has 2 billion of orders for its new electric 'driveline', with Volvo among the first big motor manufacturers to sign up.

Some observers might argue that this kind of free-market capitalism purges inefficiency and complacency, leading to more successful firms. Indeed, at least one major shareholder in GKN has quietly backed the takeover bid.

Yet there is far more to it than that: not least the matter of Britain's standing proud as a global trading nation with blue riband firms that are respected around the world.

We know from recent experience how destructive unwanted hostile takeovers of British firms can be, and how assurances given by predatory companies cannot be trusted.

The last bitterly fought battle was the 12 billion takeover of Cadbury by U.S. firm Kraft in 2010. Kraft promptly broke its pre-takeover promise to keep open a factory near Bristol where the Wispa bar was made, and moved production to Poland.

It closed Cadbury's Slough headquarters, shifted the company's tax domicile from Britain to low-tax Switzerland, and meddled with the size, ingredients and taste of emblematic brands, including the Creme Egg.

Indeed, I would argue that in recent decades untrammelled takeovers by asset strippers and foreign intruders looking for short-term gains have undermined Britain's manufacturing capacity, inventiveness and economy.

Among their victims have been the nation's flagship chemical and life sciences group Imperial Chemical Industries, which was splintered into several parts and largely sold overseas after a failed hostile bid by the late Lord Hanson in the early Nineties.

Britain's biggest defence and power manufacturer General Electric Company (GEC) was also sold off bit by bit by a new management.

And the last of Britain's large-scale brewers, Scottish & Newcastle, was swallowed  and all but destroyed  by mass market European lager producers Carlsberg and Heineken.

These raids on great, iconic British companies mean there are now huge industries where Britain has lost its competitive edge to Germany, the U.S. and Japan in global markets.

Not surprisingly, Business Secretary Greg Clark has come under pressure from GKN chairman Mike Turner, who argues that his company is precisely the

kind of specialist engineering giant that ought to be at the forefront of our new industrial strategy after leaving the EU.

Turner will be encouraged by recent words from PM Theresa May in the Commons, where she pledged scrutiny of the hostile bid and that she would act in the 'national interest'.

But all that has been heard from Clark's department so far is that it is monitoring the situation.

The phrase fills me with dread, since the Department of Business was also supposed to be keeping an eye on Carillion, which it allowed to fall into insolvency, putting 30,000 sub- contractors at risk.

A bid by one British firm from another may not seem like a matter for government. But at the least GKN's role as an aerospace contractor, supplying the defence sector and Rolls-Royce among others, means the Government should order an inquiry on national security grounds.

What now has to happen is for the Government to declare the Melrose takeover bid a threat to Britain's industrial base and strategic defence interests.

There would be few City executives with enough brass neck to pursue a deal viewed in Whitehall following such a declaration.

The problem with trying to stop hostile takeovers is that they're often driven by short-term investors such as hedge funds.

They buy large chunks of shares in the target company as bid rumours emerge, in the hope of making a killing for their investors.

These get-rich-quick merchants have little interest in the long-term health of a firm like GKN. It's all about making a buck.

Make no mistake, it would be a gross dereliction of duty if the Conservatives  who pledged to support Britain's high-tech economy  allowed GKN to be torn into dozens of pieces and sold off like a smashed-up car.

At the very moment when British manufacturing is seeking to stretch beyond Europe to the rest of the world, GKN is just the kind of business that should be getting all-out support from the Government.Nearly 800million was wiped off the value of beleaguered investment firm Standard Life Aberdeen after it lost its biggest customer.

In a bruising setback, life insurer Scottish Widows said it was pulling a 109billion pot of cash out of the firm, equal to nearly 17 per cent of total assets.

Widows, which is owned by Lloyds, gave Aberdeen Asset Management the right to run its money back in 2014.

But the contract included a get-out clause if Aberdeen merged with one of Widows' competitors.

Scottish Widows, which is owned by Lloyds, gave Aberdeen Asset Management the right to run its money back in 2014

And the 11billion tie-up with rival insurer Standard Life last year sparked a rethink.

The two sides have been talking for six months, with possible solutions, including potential assets sales, considered.

MERGER MISERY Standard Life Aberdeen was formed last year in an 11billion merger

The business looks after 646billion of investors cash

Joint chief executives Martin Gilbert and Keith Skeoch earned 5.6million between them in 2016

Bosses are looking to save 200million a year and slash 800 jobs through the tie-up

But investors have fled the pair since the deal, with 23billion pulled out in the nine months to September 2017

Scottish Widows is now pulling out 109billion  17 per cent of its total assets

But no deal has been reached and Lloyds is to pull out. It sent Standard Life Aberdeen's shares down 7.7 per cent, or 29.3p, to 360p.

Its joint-bosses Keith Skeoch and Martin Gilbert said: 'We are disappointed by this decision in the context of the strong performance and good service we have delivered for Lloyds Banking Group, Scottish Widows and their customers.'

The company said the Widows deal brought in less than 5 per cent of its revenues. It will take a 40million accounting hit from the end of the partnership.

The loss is a fresh blow for the firm, which has seen clients leave since the merger.

The notice period for terminating the contract is 12 months, so there will be no immediate changes for customers  and Lloyds has left the door open for a possible change of heart.

Bosses said Aberdeen had delivered good performance, and if competition issues can be resolved they would consider putting cash back in.

Widows head Antonio Lorenzo said: 'We will begin an in-depth assessment of the market to identify a long-term strategic partner, or partners, to manage assets.'

Next week, Lloyds chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio is expected to ramp up its insurance and investments to chase higher profits. Lloyds shares rose 0.7 per cent, or 0.43p, to 67.08p.Shares in British interiors and womenswear firm Laura Ashley tumbled after it issued a third profit warning in 12 months.

The retailer, which is famous for its floral wallpaper and pastel-coloured furniture, said sales dropped almost 8 per cent in the six months to December 31.

Profits plummeted by 45 per cent to 4.3million, forcing it to downgrade expectations for the full year.

Struggles: Laura Ashley tumbled after it issued a third profit warning in 12 months with sales dropping almost 8 per cent in the six months to December 31

The share price fell 5.7 per cent, or 0.35p, to 5.75p yesterday, prompting analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald to lower its target price from 12p to 9p.

Khoo Kay Peng, chairman of Laura Ashley, blamed its falling profits on the lower value of sterling.

Boutique hotels in Hertfordshire and the Lake District proved popular and it is looking to expand the venture both in the UK and overseas.

Earlier this month Laura Ashley said it would close more than 120 stores in Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Khoo said he was confident of progress, with online sales up 5.1 per cent in the final six months of 2017.Starman: Elon Musk is planning a network of broadband satellites

SATELLITE INTERNET Broadband internet could soon be beamed into homes, serving 3bn people, by Elon Musks SpaceX after the firm won regulatory backing for a new network of satellites.

DUAL DITCHED Information provider Relx is scrapping its unusual dual structure in favour of a London-based parent company.

The Anglo-Dutch group said the move would simplify operations but there would be no changes to locations, activities or staff numbers.

PROFITS CRASH Kit Kat and Shreddies owner Nestle said profits fell 24 per cent last year to 7.3billion as sales were hit by weak demand in North America and Brazil.

DRUG BACKED A drug developed by British medicine maker AstraZeneca and Merck to treat a rare genetic disorder which causes tumours to grow on nerves, has been given special status by US regulators, meaning tax breaks and market exclusivity for seven years.

EXPANSION PLAN Bosses at Uber said the company is expanding into food delivery, freight, driverless cars, buses and even bikes.

AVON FALLING Cosmetics company Avon is pulling business from Australia and New Zealand in a bid to return to profit.

RETAIL SALE Property firm Newriver has bought two retail parks in Cardiff and Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, for 26.5million.

INVESTMENT BOOST Lawsuit funding business Therium Capital Management has been handed an extra 300million of investment.

Its leading backer is thought to be US insurer Amtrust Financial.

BANK OK Online bank Monzo is set to launch services in Ireland after winning permission to operate overseas from the Bank of England.

DEALS HOPE Deal-making will pick up in the first half of 2018 as the world economy accelerates, says legal IT firm Intralinks. It expects a 10 per cent rise in M&A.

FUNDS RAISED The private equity owner of Shawbrook Bank has raised 400million to invest in financial services firms.

Pollen Street Capital has spent half of it, with some put towards an 868million deal to take Shawbrook private last year.

RECORD TALLY Investors put a record 538billion into private equity funds last year, says McKinsey.The boss of GKN last night warned that a takeover by predator Melrose would destroy the British engineering giant as the battle for control of the company intensified.

GKN, which supplied cannonballs to the British Army in the Battle of Waterloo and now makes parts for fighter jets and military helicopters, is fighting off an unwanted 7.4billion from the turnaround specialists.

Speaking to the Mail, GKN chief executive Anne Stevens declared: 'They absolutely would destroy this company and I just feel so passionately I don't want to give them a chance.'

GKN supplied cannonballs to the British Army in the Battle of Waterloo and now makes parts for fighter jets and military helicopters

The comments came as 259-year-old GKN, which also makes parts for commercial aircraft and cars, warned that Melrose was 'more focused on financial engineering than real engineering'.

Pressure was last night mounting on ministers to block the proposed takeover amid concerns over Melrose's plans to break up the crucial defence supplier and sell it piecemeal all over the world.

But the comments sparked a furious response from Melrose, claiming that GKN could only flourish with a 'change of control, new leadership and fresh thinking'.

Melrose specialises in buying firms cheaply and selling them on at a profit three to five years later.

As such, Melrose's potential ownership has sparked major concerns for UK industry, and fears about national security in the UK and the US.

Setting out the GKN defence strategy yesterday in a letter to shareholders, chairman and veteran industrialist Mike Turner said: 'The Melrose offer is not a good deal  it is low-price and high-risk.

'Melrose's management team lacks relevant experience and its short-term business model is inappropriate for GKN.

'Your board believes that Melrose is more focused on financial engineering than real engineering. A short-term private equity style strategy is not the right way to provide sustained shareholder value.'

Victory for Melrose would mark the biggest hostile takeover in the UK for a decade, and cast doubt over the future of 58,000 employees around the world including 6,000 in the UK.

Tom Enders, the boss of plane maker Airbus, a key customer of GKN and major UK employer, warned, in response to questions about GKN, that his company could not afford any supplier to take its foot off the pedal.

And one major car maker is understood to have said Melrose's ownership may affect GKN's position as a partner on electric cars.

GKN plans to return 2.5billion to shareholders partly through selling its powder metallurgy business.

Addressing fears that the money should be put into the business instead, finance chief Jos Sclater said: 'We'd love to, but we have got to win a takeover battle otherwise we are not going to be around.'

Stevens said the powder metallurgy was already a leader in its field. She said: 'We felt we had delivered value and it was time to return it to the shareholders.'

Melrose has a strategy of 'buy, improve, sell', and says GKN underperforms and can do better.

Christopher Miller, Melrose chairman, has announced plans to 'declutter' GKN, slash head office staff and speed up decisions.

It said: 'Melrose's view [is] that the fundamental transformation in culture and approach needed to improve GKN is only possible with a change of control, new leadership and fresh thinking.

'Melrose notes that, in defining itself, GKN continues its fixation with sales performance at the expense of profit and cash.'Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau are being sued for nearly $5,000 in unpaid medical bills, legal documents seen by DailyMail.com reveal.

Despite announcing a separation last year after 12 years of marriage, the ex-teacher and her former pupil are still listed as husband and wife in the lawsuit filed on February 5 in Washington state.

Letourneau, 56, and Fualaau, 34, are accused of racking up $4,901 in medical bills at Highline Emergency at the hospital's main campus in Burien, Washington.

Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau, pictured above in 2015 with their daughters Audrey and Georgia, are accused of racking up $4,901 in bills at Highline Emergency Main Campus in Burien, Washington

Letourneau (left), 56, and Fualaau (right), 34, announced their separation in May 2017. In legal documents they are still listed as husband and wife who share assets and debts

The lawsuit against Letourneau and Fualaau was filed in Washington state on February 5. They have yet to respond to the filings

The payments that Letourneau and Fualaau are accused of not paying are broken down into eight different sums. Two services cost $176.29, while others cost $321, $334.95, $542.85, $572.85, $778 and $898, totaling in at $3,800.23

Collection agency PSC, Inc, is suing the estranged couple over their unpaid bills at Highline Medical Center, pictured above

The former couple initially owed $3,800 to the medical center, but with interest the bills have grown to a total of $4,901, the lawsuit states.

Collection agency PSC, Inc, is suing the estranged couple for the entire unpaid balance as well as interest and attorney fees.

The suit explains that Letourneau and Fualaau are still legally married and have marital community assets and debts.

It is unclear what medical procedures the couple received from the emergency center, but the facility offers a number of services.

Services offered at 24-hour Highline include a cardiac catheterization lab for heart attacks and other emergencies, a stroke center and private treatment rooms.

The center also has a 'dedicated observation unit offering greater comfort for patients who need observation for longer periods of time for chest pain or other conditions', according to its website.

Fualaau filed for legal separation from Letourneau in May 2017 after 12 years of marriage. Letourneau filed a motion to dismiss the case but later skipped court hearings. The case is still pending

In the months after the separation, Fualaau shared photos of himself and his daughters. While Letourneau was not pictured, it is believed that she was still living with Fualaau in their shared rented home

While it is unclear if they are still living together, in December, Letourneau (right) and Fualaau (back center) were spotted together at a bar in Burien, Washington, where they posed for photos with other patrons

The payments that Letourneau and Fualaau are accused of not paying are broken down into eight different sums.

Two services cost $176.29, while others cost $321, $334.95, $542.85, $572.85, $778 and $898, totaling in at $3,800.23.

With $1,100.90 interest from not paying the bills, the total the couple are accused of not paying hits $4901.13, according to legal documents.

Letourneau and Fualaau have yet to respond to the legal filings and the case is still ongoing.

Fualaau filed for legal separation from Letourneau in May 2017 after 12 years of marriage.

Letourneau filed a motion to dismiss the case but later skipped court hearings. The case is still pending.

In the months after Fualaau's filings, he and his wife, who have two adult daughters,, appeared to still be living together in a rented apartment in Des Moines, Washington.

While it is unclear if they are still together, in December, they were spotted together at a bar in Burien, where they posed for photos with other patrons.

Letourneau was jailed in 1997 for seven years for second-degree child rape after admitting to having a sexual relationship with her then-12-year-old student Vili

Letourneau gave birth to the couple's first child while out on bail that year, and their second while in prison. She and Fualaau were married shortly after her release from prison in 2004

Letourneau was jailed in 1997 for seven years for second-degree child rape after admitting to having a sexual relationship with her then-12-year-old student Vili - a story that generated worldwide headlines.

Fualaau was in Letourneau's second grade class in Seattle, but the teacher did not begin to have a sexual relationship with her student until four years later when he was 12.

Letourneau, then 34, was fired from her job, got a divorce from her first husband, lost custody of her four children and was sent to prison.

But the media attention and jail sentence did not stop her from marrying her younger lover shortly after her release in 2004.

She gave birth to the couple's first child while out on bail that year, and their second while in prison.

As recently as August 2017, Fualaau was working at a branch of Lowes Home Improvement in Seattle. He also works part time as a DJ under the name DJ Headline.

Letourneau was employed as a legal assistant, unable to teach due to her status as a sex offender, but it's not clear whether she is still working as one.

Her sex offender status has been downgraded from Level 2 to Level 1, meaning her name no longer appears on a state-wide sex offenders register.Tom Jeffries arrested in Cambodia over a 'twister-style sex game' party

A Briton arrested in Cambodia over a 'twister-style sex game' party has told of his relief after being kicked out of the country and sent home.

Tom Jeffries, 22, told of his ordeal as he had to shave his long ginger hair to protect from head lice while he was held in tough Siem Reap prison.

Mr Jeffries, from Fareham, Hampshire, was arrested with nine more revellers at a 'Let's Get Wet Party' in a private villa in Siem Reap, a town near the ancient temples of Angkor Wat.

He was told he could face a year behind bars in the foreign country.

Meanwhile his father Gary and the rest of the family were thousands of miles away back home worried about him.

Speaking for the first time since his release, he told the MailOnline: 'I'm very pleased to be back in the UK and I'd like to thank my family and friends for their tremendous support during this recent ordeal.'

'I'd been in Cambodia for two years. I love the country and greatly respect the people and the culture.'

'I didn't know that attending a social pool-side event, which happen almost every day in Siem Reap, would be offensive to the Cambodian culture and I sincerely apologise to anyone who was (offended). I meant no disrespect to the Cambodian people. I completely deny the charges made against me.'

Police in Cambodia released this image claiming to tourists at a party - but the families say the picture is five years old - and not at the villa party Mr Jeffries was attending

Footage from a similar 'Let's Get Wet Party' shows the kind of behaviour that took place

The villa in Siem Reap with a pool where the alleged lewd party was held close to the sacred Angkor Wat site

Rubbish was strewn all over the villa garden after police raided the party last month and arrested Mr Jeffries and nine others

Mr Jeffries was released on bail, his passport was returned and he was advised that he was free to leave the country of his own volition last Friday. He arrived back in the UK the following day.

His father, Gary added: 'Tom was released on bail, his passport was returned and he was advised that he was free to leave the country. He left the country of his own volition on Friday, arriving back in the UK on Saturday.'

Tom was one of four Brits deported including Paul Harris, 32, Vince Hook, 35, and Billy Stevens, 21, although charges against them still stand.

The alleged partner organiser Dan Jones, 30, is believed to have been kept in Cambodia along with two Canadians, a Norwegian, a New Zealander and a Dutch national.

The eight men arrested had their heads shaved to prevent an outbreak of lice while being held in Siam Reap prison (above)

The group were held in Siem Reap prison as they awaited trial and were told that they could be jailed for a year

All ten of those arrested including Mr Jeffries (second from the left) lined up looking glum following their arrest

They had all been arrested two weeks ago by police who raided their pool bash at a private villa in the city, flanking Cambodia's famous Angkor Wat temple ruins.

Mr Jeffries, pictured at home in Fareham, Hants, has told of his relief to have been freed

They were among 77 party-goers rounded up and accused 'pornographic dancing'.

They all deny the allegations, saying that they were wearing 'sexy clothing', but they were not nude and had not produced pornography.

Those left behind face up to a year in prison over producing pornographic pictures and materials.

A prosecutor accused party organisers of circulating obscene images online to promote the event.

Jones is said to have organised three pub crawls a week inviting 100 people to pay 5 a head for the crawl and for drinks at his private home.

Another freed Brit, Paul Harris, 32, was manager at the Angkor Wat pub where the events began. The events have been permanently cancelled.

Mr Jeffries was not deported from Cambodia and was not charged.Joseph Nocito Sr., 76, was charged with 10-counts of tax fraud by the IRS. He allegedly claimed his 39,000-foot home was a corporate business expense

The former chief executive of a Pennsylvania health services company accused of claiming his luxury cars and 39,000-square-foot mansion were business expenses has been charged with tax fraud.

Joseph Nocito Sr., 76, was indicted on Wednesday with 10-counts of tax fraud and conspiracy to conceal personal income from the IRS.

Prosecutors alleged that Nocito claimed corporate business expenses on the millions of dollars it cost to build his mega-mansion he called 'Villa Noci'.

The businessman also reportedly claimed payments for his personal butler, a Jaguar, Maserati and Rolls Royce as corporate expenses.

Nocito is also accused of understating his personal income and concealing millions of profit his company made.

Nocito's home has 12 bedrooms, 13 full bathrooms and 22 fireplaces. The home is worth $4.25 million. Prosecutors claim Nocito evaded more than $4 million in personal income tax

Nocito named his mega-mansion 'Villa Noci'. He reportedly also claimed his personal butler, a Jaguar, Maserati and Rolls Royce as corporate business expenses

His attorney issued a statement saying that Nocito has cooperated with the investigation and looks forward to resolving the matter in court.

Nocito is the former president and chief executive officer of Automated Health Systems, a health services management company in the North Hills, Pennsylvania.

The home he allegedly filed under business expenses has 12 bedrooms, 13 full bathrooms, 22 fireplaces and is valued by some real estate experts at $4.25 million.

In the 21-page indictment, it also stated that Nocito wrote off country club memberships, family mortgages and private school tuition for his grandchildren.

The charges against Nocito were expected after his personal assistant, Ann Harris, pleaded guilty in 2015 to tax fraud.

She admitted to helping the former CEO evade more than $4 million in federal income tax.

Harris entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors to help investigate her former boss.

Nocito is not the first in his family to be charged with tax fraud. His son, Joseph Nocito Jr., plead guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and filing a false income tax form.

He was charged with 16 months in jail in February 2016.

Nocito Sr. is not in custody and will be arraigned in federal court on March 6. He faces up to 32 years in prison and could pay a fine of $2.5 million.Pictured: Benjamin Robb strapped to a stretcher after an altercation at Ruby Club in Pattaya, Thailand, on Friday night. The Melbourne man died shortly after of a brain injury

A fluorescent red sign reading 'sexy room' shines in a corner, while women in towering stilettos and skimpy hot pants speak with tourists as they clutch their beers under a damaged awning.

Welcome to Ruby Club - the seedy nightclub in Thailand's notorious red light district where an Australian man was allegedly fatally bashed by an American for holding a local waitress by her neck.

Ruby Club describes itself as the place to be 'to heat things up and bring a flirty mood to your night out'.

On the bar's website, a 'selection of fun girls all dedicated to putting a smile on your face' is advertised.

The venue also spruiks five rooms for patrons to stay the night, a large bar and 'cosy seating'.

On Friday night, the venue lost its flirtatious sheen, when Melbourne man Benjamin Robb was allegedly hit by American tourist Jose Manuel Polanco, 43, over his treatment of a waitress.

Mr Robb was pictured inside the bar, being strapped to a plastic stretcher as patrons gather around him.

He would die of a brain injury soon after.

Ruby Club, in Thailand's notorious red light district, is a small bar where patrons drink on the patio under what appears to be a row of portable fans

The club's website boats a 'selection of fun girls all dedicated to putting a smile on your face' (pictured: women who work at Ruby Club)

Ruby Club advertises itself as the place to be 'to heat things up and bring a flirty mood to your night out'

Polanco left the bar, but later handed himself in to police, who told media the New Yorker was provoked when Mr Robb picked up a local waitress by her neck.

Officers said Polanco asked Mr Robb to stop but the 42-year-old did not, and then Polanco became aggressive.

But the woman at the centre of the altercation has reportedly told police the whole situation was just a 'misunderstanding'.

A source close to the investigation told ThaiVisa the woman involved, waitress Rung-Arun Sangsuwan, had told police she and Mr Robb were 'just joking' and she did not feel under threat.

Polanco, 43, has been charged with manslaughter, but denied the charges and claims he was acting in self defence.

He did not apply for bail and remains in custody ahead of his court date.

Mr Robb was allegedly attacked by American Jose Manuel Polanco Jr because he was holding a local waitress up by the neck and she was turning blue

The woman has reportedly told police the situation was a 'misunderstanding' and she and Mr Robb had been 'just joking'

Polanco handed himself into police after the altercation, and has been charged with manslaughter - but denies the charge and claims he was acting in self defence (pictured: Benjamin Robb on the floor at Ruby Club)

Polanco is being held in Thailand awaiting a court date, and has not applied for bail

Polanco has previously been convicted and jailed for manslaughter, after the death of Michael Cooper in 1993, who had given the then-school student $20 to look at his car.

Ruby Lounge earlier released a statement regarding Friday night's incident, and confirmed that no other customer of staff member was injured during the fight.

'An altercation lasting less than 20 seconds between two customers on Friday night resulted in one person being taken to hospital with serious looking injuries, which sadly resulted in him passing away in the early hours of Saturday morning,' the statement read.

'The other individual involved handed himself in to police and it is understood he is to remain in custody until a court appearance in 10 days or so.

'Whilst our thoughts remain with the victims relatives, we would also like to thank the emergency services for their prompt and professional attention in dealing with the incident.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Ruby Club for further comment.

Above the main club in Soi six, Pattaya, are five rooms for patrons to spend the night (pictured)A mother who lost her newborn baby to a string of unthinkable and 'sinister' injuries is still waiting for answers six years after his death.

Michael Smedley was only five months old when he died following traumatic head under suspicious circumstances in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, in 2012.

An autopsy later revealed he had 26 bruises and cuts on his little body, damage to his anus, blood on his nappy, and had injuries consistent with 'shaken baby syndrome', when he died.

Michael Smedley (pictured) died following traumatic head injuries in 2012 under suspicious circumstances in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, when he was only five months old

An autopsy later revealed Michael's (pictured) little body was covered in 26 bruises and abrasions, he had injuries consistent with 'shaken baby syndrome', damage to his anus, and blood on his nappy when he died

His mother Tayla Smedley - who was only 16 when her son died - has been forced to endure years of legal roadblocks including forensic inadequacies and the suspension of the lead detective in the case.

'They [the DPP] keep saying there's not enough evidence, but I don't understand how much more evidence they need than what's already been presented,' Ms Smedley told ABC.

'I love my girls but it breaks my heart when they bring up Michael because I can't tell them they will grow up without their older brother.'

The heartbroken mother had been unable to care for her son leading up to his death as she was 'living in her car' but said Michael was a happy baby.

'He always smiled, he always laughed, there wasn't really a sour bone in his body,' she said.

Michael had been in the care of Ms Smedley's friend Tamara Cole and her partner Oliver Deighton who has been the only person of interest in the case in six long years.

The heartbroken mother was unable to care for her son at the time of his death as she was 'living in her car' - but she said Michael (pictured) was a happy baby

Michael (pictured) had been in the care of Ms Smedley's friend Tamara Cole and her partner Oliver Deighton, who has been the only person of interest in the case in six long years

Mr Deighton was alone with Michael in the hours before the boy became unconscious, before Ms Cole returned home to collect the child and take him to daycare.

He said he left Michael alone on a changing table while he went outside as a friend had come to collect a set of car keys.

Mr Deighton said when he re-entered the room he saw Michael slide towards the edge of the table and topple over head first.

He said he caught the boy before he hit the ground but the baby began jerking and hiccupping.

An hour later when Mr Deighton went to retrieve Michael after Ms Cole came home he noticed the baby was not breathing and his body had become limp.

Michael was pronounced dead just after 4pm at Alice Springs Hospital  more than six hours after he slid off the changing table.

Haemorrhaging on Michael's eyes and swelling on his brain are symptoms of shaken baby syndrome but blood was also found in his nappy and a swab appeared to show sperm, the inquest heard.

The inquest also found a CT brain scan was performed shortly before he was pronounced dead and a pediatrician was of the view Michael had been 'shaken vigorously'.

Mr Deighton was alone with Michael (pictured) in the hours before the boy became unconscious, before Ms Cole returned home to collect the child and take him to daycare

Mr Deighton (pictured) said Michael began jerking and hiccupping after he fell off the change table he had left him on as he gave a set of keys to a friend, a 2016 inquest heard

A doctor at the time also described bruising found on the sole of Michael's foot as 'sinister', the inquest heard.

Medical disagreement over the cause of Michael's death sparked the coronial inquest but it did not result in much-needed closure for Ms Smedley.

'I want Michael to have justice, I want people to know that it wasn't an accident, I want him to be remembered for all the right reasons and not all the wrong,' Ms Smedley told the publication.

Mr Deighton was called to give evidence on the final day of the inquest in December 2016.

But he was withdrawn as a witness when he refused to answer questions, stating his responses might implicate him in Michael's death, which he was entitled to do.

Mr Deighton works as disability carer and was questioned by police but never charged.

It is believed he still lives in Alice Springs.When Danielle Hausotte took her pet chihuahua for a regular vet check up it she wasn't expecting the news that Peanut was suffering form a very serious disease.

The vet discovered that the little rescue dog had a heart murmur which would then be diagnosed as Mitral Valve Disease, which reduces the blood flow to and from the heart.

Unfortunately no cure for the disease exists in Australia, just palliative care requiring Peanut to ingest medication every day for the rest of her life, however Mrs Hausotte was not ready to give up on her little friend.

Rescue Chihuahua Peanut has been diagnosed with a fatal heart disease unless $50,000 can be raised to have a new surgery performed on her in time

'The medication assists her quality of life but doesnt fix anything,' Mrs Hausotte wrote on the GoFundMe page.

'The next stage is Congestive Heart Failure which could occur next year or tomorrow.'

Most dogs die within six to 12 months of the diagnosis.

'But there is hope. Veterinary surgeons in Japan have developed a life-saving procedure with an incredible 94% success rate,' Mrs Hausotte wrote.

Peanut's owner Danielle Hausotte is reaching out to the community through GoFundMe to help save her beloved Chihuahua

In 2017 Japanese vet Dr Masami Uechi performed the life-saving procedure on a 10-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel in an Australian first, The Sydney Morning Herald reported, giving Mrs Hausotte hope for Peanut.

Dr Uechi is returning to Australia in April, and Mrs Hausotte hopes to have enough money raised by then.

Of the $50,000, $25,000 covers Dr Uechi's surgery fee, and $5,000 goes towards travel and accommodation for the vet and his team.

A further $10,000-$20,000 is needed for pre and post-surgery care.

Peanut is in dire need of live-saving surgery or will be facing a shortened life on daily medication

Scans and tests revealed that Peanut has Mitral Valve Disease, which reduces the blood flow to and from the heart

'This isnt just an opportunity to save little Peanuts life; it also assists specialists here to continue to learn more about this disease and surgical procedures,' Mrs Hausotte wrote.

'So that for future generations of our fur babies this diagnosis doesnt have to be a devastating death-sentence.'

Mrs Hausotte said she is grateful for any amount that people may be able to donate and for those who can't to please share the campaign.

At the time of publication $1100 of the $50,000 target had been raised.A founding member of the notorious Sydney surf gang the Bra Boys - Jai Abberton - is behind bars after being arrested for armed robbery.

The 43-year-old former professional surfer was refused bail on a charge of armed robbery with an offensive weapon causing wounding or grievous bodily harm.

He is also charged with entering a dwelling with the intent to steal, causing grievous bodily harm.

Jai Abberton (centre), a founding member of the notorious Sydney surf gang the Bra Boys, is behind bars after being arrested for armed robbery

Abberton (right) was refused bail on a charge of armed robbery with an offensive weapon causing wounding or grievous bodily harm

Abberton (pictured in 2006) is also charged with aggravated entry of a dwelling with the intent to cause wounding and resisting or hindering police

Police said Abberton, who is the brother of fellow Bra Boys founders Koby and Sunny, forced his way into a South Coogee unit in December last year and 'assaulted a 43-year-old man with a knife'.

The occupant of the unit was taken to hospital and treated for a non-life threatening leg injury.

Police arrested Abberton on Wednesday after making inquiries into the December 12 incident. He was refused bail and faced Waverly Local Court on Thursday.

The court heard that Abberton entered the South Coogee home of a man known to him with two other men on December 12 last year.

One of the other men was wearing a balaclava and the resident was allegedly assaulted with a pole.

Police allege Abberton told the alleged victim: 'I should get a knife out at you and get you to sign this unit over.'

One of Abberton's alleged accomplices grabbed a meat cleaver from the kitchen and cut the back of the man's left leg, the court heard.

Abberton allegedly locked the man's dog in a bedroom to protect it from harm.

He is accused of stealing the man's wallet, an amount of cannabis and Valium.

The court heard Abberton was on a disability support pension due to mental health issues.

Magistrate Lisa Stapleton refused bail and adjourned the matter to Central Local Court on April 19.

'These are very serious matters of violence alleged against Mr Abberton,' Ms Stapleton said.

Abberton (right), who is due to appear at Waverley Local Court on Thursday, is the brother of fellow Bra Boys founders Koby (left) and Sunny (centre)

Two years ago, Koby Abberton told news.com.au that Jai had discovered Islam.

'Jai is going to the mosque and has just come through Ramadan,' Koby said.

In 2003, Jai Abberton shot dead standover man Tony Hines, whose naked body was found at the base of cliffs at Maroubra, in Sydney's east.

Two years ago, Koby Abberton (centre) told news.com.au that Jai had discovered Islam

The Abberton brothers were the subject of a 2007 documentary called Bra Boys: Blood Is Thicker Than Water, narrated by Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe

Abberton (pictured) - a former professional surfer - was found not guilty of murder on the grounds of self-defence, after he shot dead standover man Tony Hines in 2003

Abberton was found not guilty of murder on the grounds of self-defence, claiming Hines was going to rape a woman.

Koby was found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to the same matter and given a nine month suspended sentence.

The Abberton brothers were the subject of a 2007 documentary called Bra Boys: Blood Is Thicker Than Water, narrated by Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe.Former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus is providing a new behind-the-scenes look at President Donald Trump's private rants over the size of his inauguration crowd.

The episode provided a preview of the coming turmoil of the Trump administration, and instantly cost then-press secretary Sean Spicer a measure of credibility when he insisted Trump had the the most people watching his inauguration 'ever'.

For the president's first chief of staff, the whiplash began almost immediately  on his first day in office.

The president called Priebus on his cell phone to vent at 6am after reading coverage of the inaugural crowd size in the Washington Post.

Reince Priebus, Former Chief of Staff to President Donald Trump, appears on 'Meet the Press' in Washington, D.C., Sunday, Feb. 4, 2018. A new book describes President Trump's tirade about coverage of his inaugural crowd size

Former chief of staff Reince Priebus is revealing details of the phone call where President Trump called him to complain about coverage of his inaugural crowd size. Priebus is seen in this January 2017 photo with Trump in the Oval Office

A combination of photos taken at the National Mall shows the crowds attending the inauguration ceremonies to swear in U.S. President Donald Trump at 12:01pm (L) on January 20, 2017 and President Barack Obama sometime between 12:07pm and 12:26pm on January 20, 2009

'He said, 'This story is bulls**t,' Priebus told author Chris Whipple, who is writing a book about chiefs of staff.

'He said, "There's more people there. There are people who couldn't get in the gates. . . . There's all kind of things that were going on that made it impossible for these people to get there",' Priebus said, describing the tirade. The book was excerpted in Vanity Fair.

Then Trump started throwing out orders. 'Call [Interior Secretary] Ryan Zinke. Find out from the Park Service. Tell him to get a picture and do some research right away,' the president demanded, essentially telling Priebus to solve the problem.

Priebus tried to talk the president down, but ultimately decided it wasn't worth trying to fight him.

The crowd at Trump's inauguration as the 45th president of the United States at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., January 20, 2017

Priebus discussed his role for a new book about White House chiefs of staff

'It doesn't matter,' Priebus told him. 'It's Washington, D.C. We're in an 85 percent Democrat area. Northern Virginia's 60 percent. Maryland's 65 percent,' the former Republican National Committee chair tried to explain.

'This is a Democrat haven, and nobody cares.'

According to the book, Priebus thought: 'Is this something that I really want to go to battle over on day one? Who needs a controversy over the inauguration? ...Am I going to go to war over this with the president of the United States?'

Spicer then followed at the daily press briefing with a quote he may never live down.

'This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period,' he said.

In this July 28, 2017, file photo, then-White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus walks to boards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md

Trump listens during a working session regarding the Opportunity Zones provided by tax reform in the Oval Office of the White House on February 14

Trump himself was equally colorful on a trip to CIA headquarters. 'We had a massive field of people,' the president said. 'You saw that  packed. I get up this morning, I turn on one of the networks and they show an empty field. I said wait a minute, I made a speech. I looked out the field was, it looked like a million, a million and a half people, they showed a field where there was practically nobody standing there.'

The book describes a lunch Priebus had with former Obama chiefs of staff before taking over. The president gave him advice that Priebus was not always able to heed.

'Every one of these guys at different times told me something that pissed me off,' Obama told Priebus in the White House. 'They weren't always right; sometimes I was. But they were right to do that because they knew they had to tell me what I needed to hear rather than what I to hear,' according to the book. 'That's the most important function of a chief of staff. Presidents need that. And I hope you will do that for President Trump'

Obama aides had spent months preparing briefing books for the succeeding team not that the Trump team made much use of them.

'All the paperwork, all the briefings that had been prepared for their transition team, went unused,' said Obama chief of staff Dennis McDonough. 'Unread. Unreviewed.'

Priebus, who has returned to his old law firm and still fields calls from Trump, made little effort to mask the chaos.

'Take everything you've heard and multiply it by 50,' Priebus said. 'No president has ever had to deal with so much so fast: a special counsel and an investigation into Russia and then subpoenas immediately, the media insanitynot to mention we were pushing out executive orders at record pace and trying to repeal and replace Obamacare right out of the gate.'

Steve Bannon said he couldn't have been chief of staff because of the way he carried himself.

'Trump looked around and I remember I had a combat jacket on and I hadn't shaved in a week,' said Bannon. 'I had the greasy hair [hanging] down. . . . I'm the senior guybut look, it was obvious Reince had to be chief of staff.'For much too long, the debate about Britain's departure from the EU has been mired by tedious rows between so-called 'hard' and 'soft' Brexiteers.

This has been deeply unedifying  and, more to the point, hugely unhelpful to the Government's negotiators as they deal with their bullying and obstructive Brussels counterparts.

Worst of all, many of the Cabinet have been briefing against each other amid rumours of threatened ministerial resignations. And all the time, the clock ticks down to the Brexit deadline.

Indeed, there are barely 12 months left before the two-year departure period set in motion by the triggering of Article 50 comes to an end and we leave the EU.

People who voted Remain are becoming increasingly concerned that the Brexiteers are incapable of delivering what they promised. This is why Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's speech yesterday (pictured) was so important, writes Peter Oborne

It's not surprising that the 17million who voted to leave are getting fed up and impatient.

Conversely, those who voted Remain are becoming increasingly concerned that the Brexiteers are incapable of delivering what they promised.

This is why Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's speech yesterday was so important.

The fact is that his vision for Brexit moves beyond the acrid dispute between hard and soft Brexiteers and defines a new prospectus that is much more in line with our national history and which is reassuringly optimistic.

His idea is 'liberal Brexit'  a potent concept which challenges head-on the claim by Remainers that the decision to leave the EU will result in us abandoning the principle of free trade that has underpinned the existence of the EU.

For their argument is false. The EU may be a free-trade zone between member states but it acts as a protectionist zone with regard to the rest of the world.It imposes tariff barriers which protect uncompetitive EU producers and represents the complete antithesis of the free-market principles that made Britain the greatest manufacturing country in the world in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Pictured: Boris Johnson delivers a key speech on Brexit at London's Policy Exchange yesterday

But the EU's system of protectionism has long been a crying scandal. For instance, Brussels pays billions of euros in subsidies to French and German farmers, leading to higher prices for European consumers and which make it much more difficult for farmers in the Third World to get access to the European market.

Brussels also prevents member states from negotiating their own trade deals across the globe  simply forcing them to behave as members of a single economic bloc in a way that would make those great Victorian pioneers of free trade (such as the textile entrepreneur Richard Cobden) turn in their graves.

So Boris Johnson's central idea  that our future trading patterns should be global and not tied down by Europe  is both liberal and profoundly persuasive.

Crucially, too, he links this free-trade vision to another magnificent British tradition  representative democracy.

This is important as, historically, free trade has never been just about commerce and creating prosperity.

It has also been about free speech, the rule of law and freedom of conscience  principles that are woven into British institutions and which have created a climate in which trade could flourish and enrich the nation as a whole.

Contrast this, as the Foreign Secretary rightly did, to the undemocratic nature of the EU  where a very small political and bureaucratic class is out of touch with the people they are meant to represent.

In sum, the EU has been quite deliberately fashioned as an elite project that is hostile to nation states and to the freedom and democracy of ordinary people.

The fact is that his vision for Brexit moves beyond the acrid dispute between hard and soft Brexiteers and defines a new prospectus that is much more in line with our national history and which is reassuringly optimistic, writes Oborne

This explains the emasculation and, in some cases, collapse of traditional European political parties such as Germany's once-great SPD, the equivalent of our Labour Party.

Never forget that the abiding mission of Brussels is to create a new European super-state, something that very few voters actually want.

Of course, Remainers  for whom Mr Johnson is a distrustful figure in view of what they see as his undeliverable promise that the Government will be able to invest 350million more into the NHS post-Brexit  have sneered at his speech.

They always sneer at whatever Mr Johnson says or does.

However, I believe they under-rate him. They concentrate on what they see as his bombast and personal ambition, rather than the fact that this is a man with a deep intellect who has studied the origins of European civilisation while reading classics at Oxford University.

Boris Johnson's central idea  that our future trading patterns should be global and not tied down by Europe  is both liberal and profoundly persuasive, writes Oborne

The truth is that Mr Johnson is the only senior Cabinet minister who has been utterly consistent on Europe.

We were reminded of this yesterday. He repeated his view that Britain should leave the customs union.

We cannot remain a member of the single market. And Britain must completely sever its ties with the EU after a transition period in approximately three years' time.

Yes, if I was to be critical, Mr Johnson is weak on details about how this will be achieved.

He did not set out yesterday the nature of the trade agreements that Britain must strike with countries across the world in the aftermath of Brexit.

He did not say what kind of trading arrangement he envisaged would define our relationship with the EU. Does he think Britain will simply trade with the EU on the terms of the World Trade Organisation, as every other country is permitted to do?

Or does he hope that Britain will be able to negotiate a more favourable deal involving the trade of manufactured goods? Also, how does he see the relationship between the City of London and the EU?

That said, Mr Johnson's blueprint is a very good starting point. In his wake, other Cabinet ministers, including Brexit Secretary David Davis and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, will make speeches in the coming weeks setting out more details about the future of Britain's relations with Europe.

Most importantly, Theresa May is due to make two key speeches. On Saturday, she'll explain the security relationship Britain wants with the EU.

Liberal Democrat protesters are pictured outside London's Policy Exchange as the Foreign Secretary prepared to make his speech making the case for Brexit yesterday

She is due to follow that with a speech that describes the overall relationship she wants Britain to have with the EU post-Brexit.

If all the speeches cohere, then Mrs May will have achieved something truly remarkable.

She would have brought to an end the very damaging Cabinet feuding over Europe which has caused so much damage.

It is no exaggeration to say that the disputes within the Tory Party over Brexit have been more toxic than those between our negotiators and their EU counterparts.

This, I'm afraid to say, shows how our political class have betrayed the public.

Now they are morally duty-bound to proceed with a united and coherent vision for the future of Britain and Europe and then to achieve it at the negotiating table in Brussels.

Millions of us hope that all sides of the Government can use Boris Johnson's vision of a 'liberal Brexit' and come together to help Britain move on towards a new age of prosperity and democracy outside the suffocating maw of the EU.Nothing with Boris Johnson is ever boring. That is why the remote Europhile Establishment so envies and disdains him.

His speech yesterday hailing the liberal merits of Brexit had its unruly moments.

He was sweating like a Marseilles kebabier. He went off on a couple of eccentric flights and his delivery was staccato, full of plosives and yelps.

But at the core of this speech, amid the Boris brio, was the golden truth that Brexit offers a surer, safer liberalism than that dated 'stockade' of the EU (a stockade being where farmers pen dumb sheep).

He knew some would misrepresent this speech as trouble-making.

Boris Johnson's speech at London's Policy Exchange yesterday hailing the liberal merits of Brexit had its unruly moments, writes Quentin Letts

To that end he was punctiliously warm about Theresa May, saying her Lancaster House and Florence speeches had acquired 'the lapidary status of the codes of Hammurabi or Moses'.

Coming from anyone else, that could have sounded cheeky. Coming from Boris, it was a compliment fringed by characteristic humour.

Hammurabi, a Babylonian king circa 1760 BC, was one of ancient Mesopotamia's mightiest men. Mrs May should count herself esteemed.

Foreign Secretary Johnson began by praising the 'entirely noble sentiments' of most Remain supporters and acknowledged three chief areas of their concern: Europe's future geopolitical strength, Britain becoming insular after independence, and economic uncertainty.

He offered reassurances on all these from a liberal perspective.

He was sweating like a Marseilles kebabier. He went off on a couple of eccentric flights and his delivery was staccato, full of plosives and yelps. But at the core of this speech, amid the Boris brio, was the golden truth that Brexit offers a surer, safer liberalism than that dated 'stockade' of the EU

At the core of this speech, amid the Boris brio (pictured), was the golden truth that Brexit offers a surer, safer liberalism than that dated 'stockade' of the EU (a stockade being where farmers pen dumb sheep)

It needed saying because Leavers should not just sit back on the referendum victory. 'We cannot expect the case to make itself.' Indeed not.

Even as the event was being broadcast, the BBC's News channel was flashing up Twitter messages from the London commentariat. Nearly all of those chosen came from Europhiles. Classic.

On the geopolitics, Boris noted that Mrs May said Britain would continue to defend Europe militarily.

Our aid spending was 25 per cent of all of the continent's. That would continue, he said.

On the insular argument, he quoted the late Labour foreign secretary Ernie Bevin: 'My foreign policy is to be able to take a ticket at Victoria station and to go anywhere I damn well please.'

More Britons lived in Australia than in the EU, said Mr Johnson.

On the geopolitics, Boris (pictured) noted that Mrs May said Britain would continue to defend Europe militarily

He noted the paradox that our facility with foreign languages had actually worsened since we joined the EEC. Student exchange programmes would continue.

We would not be returning to a menu of Spam and cabbage and liver (oh  I happen to like all three of those). Brexit was 'not some great V-sign from the cliffs of Dover' but merely a demand for self-determination.

All this was put with vigorous arm-waving, clenching of fists, hurling of elbows and narrowing of eyes.

Boris puts more oratorical vim into one sentence than Philip Hammond puts into an entire Budget. That matters because it connects and is thus more democratic.

The inventiveness of his language and his theatricality make him watchable, as did the rivulets of sweat that ran down his cheeks. The tiny room at think-tank Policy Exchange was baking.

Boris puts more oratorical vim into one sentence than Philip Hammond puts into an entire Budget. That matters because it connects and is thus more democratic, writes Quentin Letts

He quoted 19th century liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill's belief that 'only the nation could legitimise the activities of the state'.

An electorate moulded by 'national solidarity' was essential to keep politicians in check.

'If we're going to accept laws we have to know who is making them and we have to be able to interrogate them in our own language.'

Boris said he was often sworn at in the streets. It was a free country. At least voters knew who he was. They did not know who made European laws.

And this led to the best passage, when he pointed out that hardly anyone in Britain has a clue about the 'Spitzenkandidat' process, yet it has held sway over us.

Ditto, who could explain the difference between the EU's charter of fundamental rights and its court of human rights? Gulps all round. And that was in a think-tank.

Within seconds of the speech's completion, the EU-loving Twitterati were attacking it. They always do. Bright, brave, buoyantly British Boris had again skewered them.Hungary's nationalist government introduced legislation that would empower the interior minister to ban non-governmental organisations that support migration and pose a 'national security risk'.

The bill, submitted to parliament late on Tuesday, is a key part of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's anti-immigration campaign targeting US billionaire George Soros, whose philanthropy aims to bolster liberal and open-border values in eastern Europe.

The government says the bill, which would also impose a 25 percent tax on foreign donations to NGOs that back migration in Hungary, is meant to deter illegal immigration that Orban says is eroding European stability and has been stoked in part by Soros.

It comes after Soros came under fire in the UK for funding efforts to stop Britain's departure from the European Union.

Hungary's nationalist government introduced legislation that would empower the interior minister to ban non-governmental organisations that support migration. Pictured, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban

Soros said Britain had enjoyed 'the best of all possible worlds' as an EU member and called Brexit a 'lose-lose proposition'.

But he was criticised for his intervention by Leave supporters such as Tory MP Henry Smith who said Soros was 'no friend of Britain's'.

Hungary and Poland are both under nationalist governments that have clashed with the European Union leadership in Brussels over their perceived authoritarian drift deviating from EU standards on democracy and rule of law.

But Orban's message, championing conservative Christian beliefs and rejecting multiculturalism, has gone down well with Hungarian voters and his Fidesz party is expected to secure a third straight term in a general election due on April 8.

The bill says that NGOs that 'sponsor, organise or support the entry or stay of third-country citizens on Hungarian territory via a safe third country to extend international protection ... qualify as organisations supporting migration'.

Such activity - including campaigning, advocacy, recruiting volunteers, producing information booklets - would have to be approved by the interior minister, who could deny permission if he saw a 'national security risk'.

If an NGO continued with such activity, Hungarian prosecutors could act to withdraw the NGO's tax number, essentially paralysing them, slap them with heavy fines and ultimately dissolve them.

The bill is a key part of Orban's anti-immigration campaign targeting George Soros, (pictured) whose philanthropy aims to bolster liberal and open-border values in eastern Europe

Organisations that support migration will have to pay tax on the foreign funding or assets they receive, the bill says, with a possible exemption on funding that serves humanitarian goals.

Activists who organise or support migration could also face restraining orders preventing them from approaching the EU's external borders in Hungary.

Orban has been embroiled in an escalating 'Stop Soros' feud with the 87-year-old Hungarian-born Jew, waging a billboard and media campaign asserting that he would 'settle millions from Africa and the Middle East'.

Soros has rejected the campaign against him as 'distortions and lies' meant to create a false external enemy.

Orban has been embroiled in an escalating 'Stop Soros' feud, waging a billboard and media campaign. Above, a billboard in Budapest that says 'Soros wants to transplant millions from Africa and the Middle East'

Pro-government media reported earlier that the new legislation could lead to a ban on Soros, who has U.S. and Hungarian citizenship, entering the country.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee, an NGO that has been providing support for the legal and human rights of various groups including asylum seekers and prisoners since 1994, said the bill was unacceptable and served political goals.

'(Its goal) is to stigmatise certain civil organisations that the government does not like... and to distance them from society, and in the end make their operation impossible,' the committee, which receives a major chunk of its funding from Soros, said in a statement.

Poland, Hungary and other ex-communist eastern member states of the EU have all pushed a strong anti-immigrant stance, even though the number of asylum seekers who want to stay in these countries are very few compared to western European countries.

Last year, the Orban government introduced a measure requiring NGOs that get money from abroad to register with the state, raising alarm in the EU and United States.

The European Commission said last year it was taking Budapest to the EU's top court over its NGO laws as well as a higher education law that targets the Central European University in Budapest founded by Soros.Following an article published in the Daily Mail on 1 June 2017 headlined 'While liberal hand wringers made empty pledges to take in a refugee, one acclaimed writer quietly did so  only to have her kindness betrayed', Mohammed Ahmed complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation that the Daily Mail had breached Clause 2 (Privacy) of the Editors' Code of Practice. The complaint was upheld and IPSO has required the Daily Mail to publish this adjudication.

The article reported that a journalist had written a first-hand account, published in The Sunday Times, of her experience while the complainant, who was an asylum seeker at the time, was living as a guest in her house. The article included the complainant's first name and an unpixelated photograph of him.

The article reported various details about the complainant's background, including his journey to the UK, and went on to report a number of incidents recounted in The Sunday Times article, which The Sunday Times journalist described as 'warning signs' about the complainant. The Sunday Times journalist said that she had discovered pornographic images on her computer, left there by the complainant. The nature of these images was described in the article. She had also said that, while living with her, the complainant had suffered from various illnesses, and had regularly attended the Accident and Emergency department at a hospital. The article included details of the illnesses, and reported that the journalist had given him a 'lecture about not abusing the NHS'. She also wrote that the complainant had asked her 'where he could find the nearest park, as he'd been told that London parks were the best place to buy marijuana'.

The complainant expressed concern that he had become the subject of a story in a national newspaper, which he considered to be an intrusion into his privacy. He had not consented to the publication of The Sunday Times article, and did not believe that there was any justification for its re-publication.

The newspaper said that the matters complained of had already been placed in the public domain when the journalist's account was published by another newspaper which had a readership of two million people. It said that the article had been derived entirely from this first-person account and that the article was clearly attributed as such. The journalist was entitled to share her story, pursuant to her right to freedom of expression, and it noted her reputation for probity and honesty. The newspaper said that in any event, the information published was not of an intrinsically private nature and was in the public interest.

IPSO's Complaints Committee said that the newspaper was entitled to comment on the journalist's first-hand account of her experiences, but rejected the newspaper's position that publication of the article was justified as the information had been published by another newspaper, with a large number of readers, and so was already in the public domain.

The article included extensive information about the complainant, relating to: his family and personal relationships; his domestic arrangements; his financial circumstances; his journey to the UK; his asylum application; his relationships and interactions with the journalist, including an argument they had had; his health; his drug use; and allegations about the downloading of private, sexual material on The Sunday Times journalist's computer. These details were used to create a detailed and intimate portrait of the complainant, and his life. The complainant was clearly identified in the article, which included his first name and unpixelated photograph. The complainant was not a public figure, and had not disclosed any of this information publicly, or consented to its publication. The Sunday Times article had made clear that he had been upset at the idea of being the focus of coverage in a national newspaper.

The Public Interest section of the Code makes clear that the regulator will consider the extent to which material is already in the public domain. However, the simple fact that information has previously been published in another publication does not relieve editors of the duty of considering whether material it intends to publish complies with the terms of the Code. The re-publication of the information, given the extent of the detail, and the fact that no steps were taken to obscure the complainant's identity, represented an intrusion into his private life. The Committee recognised that the newspaper was reporting on material of significant public interest, but the fact that this material had been published by another newspaper was not sufficient to justify the extent of information reported about the complainant, and the resulting intrusion into his private life. The journalist's right to freedom of expression did not outweigh the complainant's right to privacy in this instance. There was a breach of Clause 2.A self-styled 'paedophile hunter' has remained defiant despite facing jail over a series of controversial alleged citizen's arrests.

Richard Warner, 42, appeared in Adelaide Magistrates Court on Wednesday charged with one count of aggravated assault.

The online campaigner, who runs a Youtube channel titled 'Adelaide Pedo Hunter', was arrested in December for allegedly setting up anti-paedophile stings.

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A self-styled 'paedophile hunter' (pictured) has remained defiant despite facing jail over a series of controversial alleged citizen's arrests

Richard Warner (pictured), 42, appeared in Adelaide Magistrates Court on Wednesday charged with one count of aggravated assault

The online campaigner, who runs a Youtube channel titled 'Adelaide Pedo Hunter', was arrested in December for allegedly setting up anti-paedophile stings (pictured)

The father-of-one filmed himself arresting alleged child sex groomers after pretending to be a young boy online and luring them to meetings.

Speaking outside court his lawyer Michael Woods said the public is on the alleged vigilante's side, Seven News reported.

'It's disappointing we're here and we've been charged with these offences, but Mr Warner would like to thank the overwhelming community support,' he said.

'It is disappointing when someone thinks they're doing the right thing and doing the community a favour and then face criminal charges and serious criminal charges.'

The father-of-one (pictured) filmed himself arresting alleged child sex groomers after pretending to be a young boy online and luring them to meetings

The Federal Police may be planning to slap Mr Warner with more charges, possibly relating to the exposure of the identities of the alleged paedophiles.

Mr Warner will appear in court again in March, and police have charged one person caught in his online campaign with sex offences.

South Australian law bans the publication of the identity of people charged with a sexual offence until they plead guilty or are committed to stand trial.Radio host Neil Mitchell has slammed army bosses for asking soldiers who are 'allies' of the gay community to put a rainbow flag next to their name in the staff directory.

The Australian Defence Force's new plan aims to 'embrace diversity' and create a sense of 'inclusion' for members of the LGBTI community in the military.

Mitchell unleashed on the move on Thursday, labelling it 'political correctness blended with social engineering'.

'I think our army my have lost the plot,' the 3AW Radio host said.

Radio host Neil Mitchell says Army bosses have 'lost the plot' amid plans to ask soldiers who are 'allies' of the gay community to put a rainbow flag next to their name in the staff directory

The Australian Defence Force's new plan aims to 'embrace diversity' and create a sense of 'inclusion' for members of the LGBTI community in the military (stock image)

'Perhaps the Defence Force has become so politically correct they'll have to get permission from the enemy to attack them.

'If you decide to not put a gay flag next to your name, what are you? Are you a bigot?'

Mitchell said he supports the LGBTI community, but claimed the ADF's plan 'is something else'.

'I wouldn't put my name next to a flag on a staff directory. It's my business, not the army's, not the bosses,' he said.

His comments come amid fears the plan could backfire and exclude those who do not want to identify as 'allies' of the LGBTI community.

Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans Association NSW President Bruce Relph said the idea was flawed because sexuality did not belong in the military.

There are fears the plan could backfire and exclude those who do not want to identify as 'allies' of the LGBTI community (stock image)

Mitchell (pictured in 2014) said he is supports the LGBTI community, but claimed the ADF's plan 'is something else'

'This is nuts... I respect people in the military because they are good soldiers not because they have a rainbow next to their name,' he told The Daily Telegraph.

The plan comes 25 years after the Defence Force first lifted their ban on including lesbian, gay and bisexual soldiers in the military.

Those who identify as LGBTI weren't allowed to march in ADF uniform at the Sydney Mardi Gras until 2013.

The Australian military lifted bans on lesbians, gays and bisexuals in 1992, and paved the way for New Zealand, the UK and America to follow suit.Gavin Williamson (pictured outside Downing Street) risked igniting a diplomatic storm yesterday by claiming there is no point in Britain listening to Emmanuel Macron

Gavin Williamson risked igniting a diplomatic storm yesterday by claiming there is no point in Britain listening to Emmanuel Macron.

The Defence Secretary took aim at the French president amid growing concerns in London at his increasingly hostile Brexit strategy.

The intervention came after Mr Macron threatened to launch strikes on the Syrian government for allegedly using chemical weapons against civilians.

But the senior Cabinet member, who is tipped to be a future Prime Minister, said that the UK felt no need to 'copy' decisions in neighbouring countries.

'What is the point in listening to French politicians,' he said.

'We have our own foreign policy, we don't need to copy [others].'

The comments will raise concerns about tension between the UK and France, who are close military allies and the only European countries with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Mr Macron threatened a major escalation in Syria on Tuesday by threatening to launch air strikes against President Bashar Assad's government.

The warning followed claims that Syrian government forces dropped a chlorine bomb from a helicopter on Saraqeb, a rebel-held town, earlier this month.

The Syrian Government yesterday denied the accusations, while Mr Macron said that French officials had yet to find any the necessary evidence to launch a strike.

While the UK is highly engaged in launching air strikes against Islamic State forces in the country, it has steered clear of attacking Government troops.

Mr Williamson yesterday said that he would 'dutifully study' Mr Macron's comments but refused to be drawn on a change in the UK's policy.

The intervention came after Mr Macron (pictured) threatened to launch strikes on the Syrian government for allegedly using chemical weapons against civilians

The UK refused to join similar retaliatory strikes launched by Donald Trump in Syria last year over suspected chemical weapon use.

Former defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon later said that Britain would support similar actions if 'legal, proportionate and necessary'.

Mr Williamson's dismissal of Mr Macron during a ministerial meeting at NATO's Brussels headquarters will stoke fears that ties between Paris and London are under strain.

Although Mr Macron and the Prime Minister promised to work together during a recent summit, sources have said there is growing unease at France's hard-line position on Brexit.

Several other EU member states have raised concerns about the aggressive approach being driven by French officials during closed-door meetings to devise the bloc's negotiating position.

The comments will raise concerns about tension between the UK and France, who are close military allies and the only European countries with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Pictured: Gavin Williamson

The defence secretary used yesterday's meeting to hold clear the air talks with his US counterpart James Mattis over the fate of two British members of 'the Beatles' terror cell.

The US has called for Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, who were recently captured after helping Mohammed 'Jihadi John' Emwazi, to be returned to their home countries for trial.

But Mr Willamson yesterday insisted that the UK would not allow the Islamic State fighters back into the country, while dismissing a deepening rift with the US.

The Tory minister said: 'There is no disagreement. We've just been with one another and had an exceptionally productive meeting.

'The United States has been one of our closest and longest-standing allies.'

Addressing the possibility of the captured fighters being turned back over to the UK, he said: 'These people are quite happy to incite violence and hatred on the streets of Britain.

'Do I want them back in Britain? No I don't. These people have turned their back on British ideas, British values.'A man, 28, from Dallas and a St Kilda woman, 27, are helping police with inquiries

They crashed their stolen car into a house in Thornbury about 4.50am

After robberies overnight north of Melbourne, the couple were spotted by police

Two burglars were arrested after fleeing from police down a dead-end street

Two bungling burglars have been arrested in Melbourne's north after driving down a dead-end street while trying to escape police.

After a series of burglaries at Preston and Westmeadows overnight, the man and woman were spotted by police crashing their stolen car into a Beecher Street house in Thornbury about 4.50am.

A short police chase followed before the duo drove into a dead-end street and were promptly arrested.

Police say the stolen vehicle attempted to ram a patrol car once cornered in Western Avenue (pictured) in Westmeadows which is a dead end street

The man and woman were spotted by police crashing their stolen car into a Beecher Street (pictured) house in Thornbury about 4.50am

Police say the stolen vehicle attempted to ram a patrol car once cornered in Western Avenue Westmeadows which is a dead end street, where the two occupants were arrested.

A 28-year-old man from Dallas and a 27 year-old St Kilda woman are currently assisting police with their inquiries.

Anyone who witnessed the incident or with any information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.A South Florida prep school student and son of a Miami-Dade police officer has claimed that he was the victim of hazing encouraged by his English teacher.

The 16-year-old student, who has not been named, said that he was subjected to in-class abuse by his classmates at the all-boys Belen Jesuit Preparatory School because he did not bring in a bottled water donation for the school's annual festival, CBS4 News reported.

The teen alleged that the abuse occurred on February 5, during class and was encouraged by his English teacher, Cristina Ramirez.

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A 16-year-old student at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in Florida has accused English teacher Cristina Ramirez of encouraging his classmates to haze him on February 5. Ramirez denies that she witnessed or participated in any kind of hazing of the boy

The teen reportedly told investigators that Ramirez provided two of his classmates with 'caution' tape and then told them to tie him down to a chair. Ramirez then allegedly instructed other students to throw 'non-lethal' objects at the teen, including pencils, shoes and balled up paper.

The teen admitted that he had uttered a vulgar word at Ramirez and was given a one-day suspension as a result.

The suspension was lifted after the teen claimed to have been hazed.

Ramirez, who has taught for more than twenty years, was placed on leave by the school while the police investigate the alleged incident.

Through her lawyer, Ramirez has denied the student's claims, stating that she was not involved in and did not witness any alleged hazing of the student.

Belen Jesuit put Ramirez on leave pending the police investigation into the alleged incident

A petition encouraging Belen Jesuit to 'Bring Back Mrs. Ramirez' claimed that the alleged victim of the hazing had used a vulgar term in front of Ramirez and then made the hazing claim after having been reprimanded and suspended

Ramirez's lawyer produced an e-mail, apparently sent on February 5, the same day as the alleged incident, in which the student who made the hazing claims appears to apologize for having said a vulgar term in class.

In the e-mail, the student alleged wrote that he 'would never mean to disrespect anyone in such a way' and noted that he 'has a girlfriend myself and cannot imagine saying something so inappropriate to her. For whatever it's worth, I'm sorry.'

The student did not mention the alleged hazing.

A petition urging the prep school to 'Bring Back Mrs. Ramirez,' posted on Change.org, and signed by more than 4,800 people, appears to provide some additional background into what happened.

'What CBS failed to report is the students blatant disrespectful, sexist, inappropriate comments made toward Mrs. Ramirez just a few weeks ago,' wrote petition starter Johnathon Cliff, who described Ramirez as being 'Belen Jesuits most highly-qualified, inspirational, loving, and sympathetic educators.'

'As a result of his comments, specifically telling Mrs. Ramirez that his favorite pastry is p-y, the student was suspended from school,' Cliff noted. 'This week, the student failed to bring in his allotted water donation for Belens annual Tombola festival and Mrs. Ramirez reprimanded him as every student is expected to pull his own weight for the success of the annual festival.

'In frustration and because of the warranted suspension and ensuing repriman [sic], the student told his parents he was hazed by Mrs Ramirez in front of his entire class, initiating a school-wide investigation by the Miami-Dade Police Department.'

Miami-Dade Police told CBS4 News that the fact that the teen's parent is a fellow police officer has no bearing on how they are conducting their investigation into the incident.

If the hazing claims are proven to be true, the state's attorney's office would be the ones who decide what charges, if any, would be brought against those involved in the incident.A life-size photo frame with the words 'I took the leap' has been built at the historical site of an Aboriginal massacre, enraging locals.

The frame was erected at The Leap, a mountain near Mackay on Queensland's east coast, where an Aboriginal woman leapt to her death with her three-year-old child in her arms in the 1860s.

The woman's daughter survived the jump, but she died while trying to evade capture by the Queensland Native Police.

She was one of about 200 people who jumped off a cliff to evade capture by the police, in a historical event which has been remembered as a massacre.

The frame, which reads 'I took the leap', has offended locals in Mackay, where the woman's descendants still live

The frame, which reads 'I took the leap', has offended locals in Mackay, where most of the woman's descendants still live.

Deb Netuschil, the great-great granddaughter of Johanna Hazeldean, the baby who survived the jump, has slammed the sign.

Ms Netuschil said the sign was offensive and 'taking the Mickey' out of the site's tragic history.

'When I saw that I felt it as really disrespectful and quite insensitive to our family,' she told the ABC.

'(It was) a time in our history where there was loss of our culture and our language, our culture, our people, our way of life.'

Deb Netuschil, the great-great granddaughter of Johanna Hazeldean, the baby who survived the jump, has slammed the sign as 'disrespectful'

A sculpture of the Aboriginal woman who leapt to her death remains outside The Leap hotel

Ms Netuschil acknowledged there might not have been ill-will by those who built the sign, but said it was never-the-less offensive.

'To erect something without putting too much thought into it, I think (there is) insensitivity around that and disrespect,' she said.

The Department of Environment and Science told the publication the sign was erected without the council's permission

A department spokesperson said the sign was 'insensitive' and confirmed it would be removed.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Mackay council for comment.

A sculpture of the Aboriginal woman who leapt to her death remains outside The Leap hotel.

The statue was built, with permission, to acknowledge and remember the dark history of the massacre.MPs last night demanded that a law firm immediately withdraws more than a dozen claims of wrongdoing by British troops after an Iraqi refugee claimed they were fake.

Basim Al-Sadoon, 37, says he arranged hundreds of false abuse claims against UK soldiers to win huge Ministry of Defence payouts.

Al-Sadoon, who now lives in Denmark, says some of his clients exaggerated claims for money, produced fake paperwork and accused soldiers of wrongdoing even when they were not present.

He said: 'It was a racket, all of it. All these people cared about was money. It was like a claims factory and it didn't matter if the claims were true or false.'

He was employed by UK-based Iraqi middleman Mazin Younis, who was paid 1.6million in 2009 for passing clients on to the British law firm Leigh Day.

Basim Al-Sadoon (pictured), 37, said the racket he was involved in was aimed at winning payouts from the Ministry of Defence

Yesterday the firm admitted that about 20 claims from a total of 600 it had lodged in the High Court had come from Mr Al-Sadoon, either via Mr Younis or directly.

That figure included 17 claims that Mr Al-Sadoon, who ran an office in the Iraqi city of Basra, had later admitted were false, the company added.

It said all 600 claims were under review by both the firm and the MoD after the High Court ruled in December that the MoD had unlawfully detained and ill-treated four Iraqis. These claims could result in big payouts for other claimants.

A Leigh Day statement said: 'Should any of the remaining claims appear to be false or otherwise without merit as the review process continues, we would of course take the appropriate steps in accordance with our professional obligations with the court, the client and the Ministry of Defence.'

But last night the firm was under pressure to withdraw the claims immediately before any more taxpayers' cash was spent on them.

Ex-defence minister Andrew Murrison said: 'Fictitious or embroidered claims should be dropped before they cause any more misery to soldiers and their families and cost to the taxpayer.'

Ex-Sergeant Brian Wood, who was falsely accused by lawyers of mistreating Iraqis, said: 'If he has admitted lies they should 100 per cent be withdrawn.'

They exaggerated claims, produced bogus papers and falsely accused soldiers of wrongdoing

Sgt Wood took part in Battle of Danny Boy in May 2004 which was the subject of an inquiry based on false claims by Iraqis that were thrown out by a judge.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said he was 'repulsed' Mr Al-Sadoon's revelations.

Tory MP Johnny Mercer added: 'If a case is built on an individual who has lied I don't know how they can take it forward. This guy is a self-confessed liar.' On Wednesday, Mr Al-Sadoon alleged that he helped find more than 300 clients and that many faked their allegations purely to make money.

He told The Sun: 'It was all about money  people exaggerating'. He blamed the British legal system 'for making it so easy' and said many clients used forged documents from Iraqi officials to back their claims: 'There was no specific standards to accept cases. OK, you have a story and a little papers from any military camp.

'Also, you can get papers from Red Cross office in Basra fraudulently. You can collect some case elements.

'After that, you start your story. If you have an old spot on your body from old torture, you can use it, as well, as evidence.

'In Iraq it's easy to get doctors' papers. Doctors, for cash, can give you many reports. Claims were exaggerated to make money.'

Mr Al-Sadoon ran an office in Basra where he handled accusations made by locals against the British Army

Mr Al-Sadoon lodged his own fake claim following an alleged beating by soldiers he knew to be Danish.

Despite that, he says he and 17 other Iraqis made identical allegations against British soldiers in claims submitted through Leigh Day. This claim is still active but he will now withdraw it.

Mr Younis, who employed Al-Sadoon, said last night that most claims involved detention by British forces, were supported by evidence, and did not involve allegations of mistreatment. 'I never asked Mr Al-Sadoon to lie or to exaggerate claims,' he declared.

He said it was 'unimaginable to assume that a fraudulent evidence could have passed through Leigh Day and the MoD'.

An MoD spokesman said fake claims caused 'unnecessary distress' for soldiers and their families, adding: 'Credible claims should be and are investigated, but false allegations make it harder for justice to be served.'

Leigh Day denies any wrongdoing and a spokesman said: 'The claims in question have not proceeded past the early procedural stage and are now being reviewed with all other cases following the High Court judgment in December.

'Leigh Day vehemently denies any allegation that it knew any claims to be false or encouraged false claims at any time.'Body cam footage shows the shocking moment an Ohio sex offender flagged down police on the highway to reveal he had assaulted a child.

In the newly released video, 22-year-old Mark Fry can be heard sobbing while sitting in the back of a police cruiser in Richfield during the July incident.

'I'm sick,' a shirtless Fry cries out the officer, while holding his head down in the back seat.

'I understand that you're sick, but what did you do?,' the officer asks Fry.

Newly released body cam footage shows an Ohio sex offender flag down police to admit he abused a child

Mark Fry is heard crying while sitting in the back of a police cruiser in Richfield back in July

He told the officer he is 'sick' and that his young victim would 'tell you about it' while in the cruiser

Fry said he was trying to get to the police station, but did not know where it was located

'I hurt her,' Fry is heard crying out. Officer responds, 'Yeah? How?'

The offender then replies: 'In a way somebody should never be hurt.'

The officer said: 'You're obviously here for a reason,' and the man replied: 'She'll tell you about it.'

The young victim was still sitting in the back of Fry's vehicle at the time he flagged down police, Fox 8 Cleveland reports.

Fry pleaded guilty to the child sex crimes in Cuyahoga County and received a sentence of 35 years to life

According to News 5 Cleveland, Fry reportedly raped the child, who was just seven-years-old, after he took her from her home on Ruby Avenue hours prior to the police incident.

Fry said during the hysterical incident he was trying to get to the police station, but did not know where it was located.

'I pulled in here and stopped, he pulled in here and said, "take me to jail... I did something really bad,"' the officer says in the video.

'What happened with Mark Fry is by far the exception to the rule,' Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Jeff Schnatter (pictured) said

Fry's court case had just closed. He pleaded guilty in Cuyahoga County Court

According to Fox 8, Fry's court case had just closed.

Fry pleaded guilty to the child sex crimes in Cuyahoga County Court. He received a sentence of 35 years to life.

'What happened with Mark Fry is by far the exception to the rule,' Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Jeff Schnatter said in a statement to the local news station.

'Obviously there's a lot of news about victims of sex offenses coming forward, so I think there's a feeling of safety to come forward.'The man accused of the brazen daylight execution of a Sydney lawyer asked one of the country's most notorious jail escapees for his autograph.

John Killick became Australia's most wanted man when he was plucked from the city's maximum security Silverwater prison in a helicopter hijacked by lover in 1999.

He was serving time in prison several years ago when he met the man this week accused of shooting dead Bankstown lawyer Ho Ledinh.

'I knew him inside  I can only say how I found him he was quite the gentleman really,' Killick said.

John Killick broke out of Silverwater jail and was scooped up by a hijacked helicopter in 1999

A man, 38, has been accused of the murder of Ho Ledinh at the Happy Cup cafe in Bankstown

'People liked him inside because he was quiet and kept to his own business.'

Killick's audacious escape meant he was a notorious figure behind bars at Wellington prison.

When both the now-accused killer and Killick finally got out of their prison greens, the pair met up for coffee.

He asked for the older jailbird's personal signature on his first autobiography, Gambling for Love.

'He was always a gentleman, he was always polite,' Killick said.

The book delved into the audacious jailbreak, Killick's crimes, escapes and love life. He recently released a new book, The Last Escape.

Killick's Russian lover Lucy Dudko spent seven years in prison over the helicopter heist

This is the helicopter used in John Killick's brazen escape from Silverwater max security jail

Homicide detectives rushed to arrest the globetrotter on Tuesday when he turned up at the airport with a one-way ticket to Bali.

Police had not been planning to quickly charge the man over the father-of-six's tragic death but their hand was forced by his sudden departure.

He is currently in police custody and did not apply for bail in a Sydney court on Wednesday. Bail was formally refused.

Ledinh's accused killer is seen after he was charged at Mascot Police Station on Tuesday

John Killick

Mr Ledinh was gunned down at the Happy Cup cafe in Bankstown between 3.30 and 3.35pm on January 23.

Investigators believe the killer had co-conspirators.

Mr Ledinh's friends have suggested his strident anti-communist views or criminal connections could be a motive for the slaying.Advertisement

Authorities missed multiple red flags before Nikolas Cruz, a deeply troubled 'loner' who was expelled last year for 'fighting over his ex-girlfriend' and once posted that he was 'going to be a professional school shooter', opened fire on his Florida high school.

Nikolas Cruz shot 17 people dead when he went on the rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Wednesday wearing a gas mask and spraying bullets from an AR-15 assault rifle he was able to buy legally. He was arrested about a mile away from the school yesterday, and questioned for hours after briefly being treated for 'labored breathing'.

On Thursday afternoon, he was arraigned on 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Details have already began to emerge about the isolated teen, who exhibited at least 15 major warning signs before the school mass shooting - the third worst in US history.

Cruz, who had a troubled past, was a member of a white nationalist group, and had bought the AR-15 rifle in the past year. He had also recently suffered the loss of his adoptive mother.

Experts suggest he may also be suffering from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, a congenital condition which causes development and behavioral issues, low IQ and poor reasoning and judgment skills.

Stoneman Douglas students revealed they were scared of the gun obsessed 19-year-old who would boast about hurting animals and would take knives and bullets into school. His former classmates say they always suspected he was capable of carrying out such a heinous crime.

It also appears that the FBI missed out on an opportunity to intervene before the shooting, when a bail bondsman in Mississippi last year alerted the feds about an alarming online message Cruz wrote saying he was 'going to be a professional school shooter'.

Cruz, who stopped getting mental health treatment about a year ago, was eventually expelled after fighting with his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. Students say the gunman had also been abusive to his girlfriend, the student said, while a teacher said the teenager once become obsessed with a girl to the point of 'stalking her'.

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Former student Nikolas de Jesus Cruz , 19, entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland armed with an assault rifle and began shooting on Wednesday. He is pictured (right) in a mugshot after being charged this morning with premeditated murder and (right) being escorted by officers

Valentine's day shooter Nikolas Cruz was expelled last year for 'fighting over his ex-girlfriend' and made shocking Instagram posts detailing a twisted obsession for guns, violence and hurting animals, it has emerged. He was arrested (pictured) after he stormed Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Wednesday afternoon armed with an assault rifle

Former classmates of the 19-year-old, who was charged this morning with 17 counts of premeditated murder, said they had feared he was capable of a school shooting as they revealed he was 'crazy about guns'. Pictured: Cruz's charge sheer

Cause for concern: 'I'm going to be a professional school shooter.' wrote Cruz on a video that had been shared by YouTube vlogger Ben Bennight (Cruz's comment above)

Bennight alerted the FBI to a comment shared by Cruz on one of his videos in September; Bennight revealed that the FBI was quick to respond, arriving at his office the next day to find out if he knew anything. That was after he called a local field agent, revealing that his initial attempts to send in a screengrab of the comment failed when the email address he found listed on the agency's website came back with a domain error saying that it did not exist

Cruz's Instagram is filled with disturbing posts of what appears to be himself with his face covered showing off a terrifying arsenal of weapons.

Sheriff Israel reported that some of things the shooter had been posting was 'very disturbing'.

In one Instragram post, Cruz posted a screengrab of Google search results for 'what does allahu akbar' mean. Allahu Akbar means 'God is great' in Arabic, and is something Islamist terrorist often shout before attacks.

He captioned the photo: 'Well at least we know what it means when a sand durka [a racial expletive for an Arab person] says 'allahu akbar' [laughing face emojis].'

How did they miss the warning signs?

Cruz posts: 'I'm going to be a professional school shooter' on YouTube

FBI is alerted about his concerning behavior but drop investigation

Buys assault weapon AR-15 aged 18

Joins white nationalist group

Boasted about hurting animals, and seen shooting at and torturing livestock and chickens

Took knives and bullets to school

Expelled for fighting

Scared his neighbors; peeking in their windows, throwing eggs at cars and attacking their animals

Abusive to girlfriend

Stalked another girl

Disturbing Instagram page full of posts about weapons and ammunition

Stops his mental health treatment

Banned from carrying back pack at school

Fetal alcohol syndrome

Recently orphaned after adoptive parents died

Students who say they knew Cruz, claimed he liked to kill animals and was also racist.

'He was crazy because he liked to kill small things, like little animals - frogs and other animals like that and he just had a crazy mind. He was racist and he was just crazy,' one told 10ABC News.

They added that he was a volatile teenager whose strange behavior had caused others to end friendships with him.

'Nick attacked one of my friends once,' one student, who did not identify himself wrote on social media. 'He brought shotgun shells to school and made many threats against others. He had an insta full of pictures of dead animals that he killed.'

The teen, who wrote that his parents had prohibited him from giving interviews, added: 'Mental illness needs to be recognized or things like this happen. People i know are f***ing dead.'

It has also emerged that Cruz was a former member of white supremacist group Republic of Florida, according to its leader Jordan Jereb. Jereb told the Anti-Defamation League that Cruz had participated in more than one training exercise near Tallahassee area, and had carpooled with other members from south Florida.

The group describes itself on its website as a 'white civil rights organization fighting for white identitarian politics' to create a 'white ethnostate' in Florida.

Jereb, who said that his group condemned the mass shooting in Florida, said that Cruz was introduced to the group after having been 'brought up' by another member but declined to say who that was.

It comes as an attorney for the family Cruz lived with said he already owned his AR-15 before he moved in with them and had bought it legally.

Cruz's Instagram is filled with disturbing posts of what appears to be himself showing off weapons, his face sometimes covered, along with other disturbing images and captions

Cruz's Instagram account was filled with photos of guns, knives and ammunition, including, in this case, a box of 150 bullets

In another photo, posted on Nikolas Cruz's Instagram, it shows a well-used hand painted target which appears to show the gunman practicing his shooting skills

Cruz had a vast arsenal of weapons according to his Instagram photos, such as this which shows multiple rifles and assault weapons laid out on his bed

This photo posted on the Instagram account of Nikolas Cruz shows him showing off one of his weapons

Family lawyer Jim Lewis said: 'It was his gun. The family made him keep it in a locked gun cabinet in the house but he had a key.'

Cruz is believed to have set off the fire alarms to draw people out into the halls shortly after 2pm before he opened fire - and then managed to evade police by pretending to be one of the terrified students running for cover.

The shooter was armed with at least one AR-15 rifle, had 'multiple magazines' and smoke grenades when he stormed the school wearing a gas mask and killed 17 students and staff. He was taken into custody off the school campus about an hour after the shooting broke out.

This morning, the orphaned teenager was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder after being questioned for hours by state and federal authorities following the deadliest school shooting in the US in five years.

However, it appears that the authorities were contacted with concerns about Cruz five months ago.

Ben Bennight says he alerted the FBI to a comment shared by Cruz on one of his YouTube videos back in September.

He says the FBI was quick to respond to the concerning statement, arriving at his office the very next day to find out if he knew anything about the young man.

President Trump and former President Obama weighed in on the tragedy with tweets on Thursday

Cruz will wait at the county jail until later Thursday, when he's expected to make his first court appearance

Cruz was dressed in a hospital uniform as he was seen leaving the Broward County Sheriff's Office early Thursday morning

Pictured above is the mobile home where Cruz had been staying with a friend's family before the shooting

In the backyard of the home, beer cans and plates were set up as shooting targets

There continued to be a police presence on the campus on Thursday. Investigators were no doubt continuing to comb the scene for clues

That was after he called a local field agent, revealing that his initial attempts to send in a screengrab of the comment failed when the email address he found listed on the federal agency's website came back with a domain error saying that it did not exist.

He didn't get a follow up from the FBI until Wednesday though, after the shooting. At a press conference Thursday morning, an FBI officials said they followed up on the report but were 'unable to further identify the person who made the comment'.

Broward County Mayor Beam Furr also revealed that Cruz had been getting treatment at a mental health clinic for a while, but hadn't been back to the clinic in more than a year.

'It wasn't like there wasn't concern for him,' Furr told CNN. 'We try to keep our eyes out on those kids who aren't connected.  In this case we didn't find a way to connect with this kid.'

Authorities offered no immediate details about Cruz or his possible motive, except to say that he had been kicked out of the high school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which has about 3,000 students.

He had also only recently lost his adoptive mother.

Cruz was adopted at birth, along with his biological brother Zachary, by loving older couple Roger and Lynda Cruz, after the couple moved from Long Island in New York to Broward County. Roger died several years ago from a heart attack.

It's unclear if he was adopted from the U.S. or aboard. Adopted children from abroad sometimes have issues adjusting due to neglect in their orphanages, especially children from Russia.

Lynda, 68, who is believed to be the only person Cruz was close with, died of pneumonia on November 1 neighbors, friends and family members told the Sun Sentinel.

'Lynda was very close to them,' her sister-in-law Barbara Kumbatovic told The Washington Post. 'She put a lot of time and effort into those boys, trying to give them a good life and upbringing.'

While his brother was quiet and liked to stay indoors, Nikolas constantly got into trouble and appeared to have 'emotional issues'. Neighbors told the Sun Sentinel that the police were called several times to deal with Nikolas.

Medical personnel tend to a bloodied victim as they help to evacuate them from the school

The students sprinted away from the building and gathered at the trees on the other side of the road

Gunshots were first heard at about 2.25pm on Wednesday before Cruz, who had escaped among fleeing students, was arrested a short time later in Coral Springs

'Lynda dealt with it like most parents did. She was probably too good to him,' Kumbatovic said. 'She was a lovely woman. She was a hard-working woman. She made a beautiful home for them. She put a lot of effort and time into their schooling, their recreation, whatever they needed. She was a good parent. And she went over and above because she needed to compensate for being a single parent.'

She added: 'I don't think it had anything to do with his upbringing. It could have been the loss of his mom. I don't know.'

Students said Cruz (pictured) was expelled last school year after a fight with his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend

The boys were left in the care of a family friend after their mother died, Kumbatovich said.

Friend and neighbors of the family say they saw Cruz attempting to kill or torture animals on a number of occasions.

Christine Roxburgh said she, and all the other neighbors, were terrified of the teen who would bang his head against a cement wall if his legal guardians tried to send him to school.

'He could have killed any of us,' she said.

Roxburgh added that she'd even caught Cruz peeking in her window.

'I said, 'What are you doing here?' He said he was looking for golf balls. I said, 'This isn't the golf course,'' she said.

Her husband Malcolm Roxburgh said the teen disliked pigs kept by another family and 'sent over his dog...to try to attack them', while another neighbor, Shelby Speno says she witnessed Cruz shooting at chickens owned by another resident.

'Lynda the mom was always apologetic. She had her hands full,' Shelby said.

Another neighbor described the teen as looking 'depressed.'

As shocking details of the shooting emerged today, several peers at Cruz's former school also shared accounts of the 'troubled teen.'

It has emerged that the teenager had been banned from carrying a backpack on campus prior to being expelled and had already been identified as a potential threat to students long before the deadly rampage.

Student Adam Habona, who lived next door to Cruz for six months described him as a violent loner who stole from neighbors and hurled coconuts at their homes.

Habona told Sun Online he believed the suspect had racist and extreme political views and said Cruz once smashed a security glass of a classroom door before he was expelled.

'One time he stole something out of neighbor's garage another time he was throwing coconuts at the neighbor's houses. He was not a good kid,' he said.

Chad Williams, 18, a senior at Stoneman Douglas High school, remembered Cruz as a troubled classmate from middle school. He said Cruz would set off the fire alarm, day after day, and finally got expelled in the eighth grade.

More recently, Williams saw Cruz carrying several publications about guns when they ran into each other at the high school. Williams thought Cruz was there to pick up a younger sibling.

'He was crazy about guns,' Williams told Reuters by the side of the road near the high school. 'He was kind of an outcast. He didn't have many friends. He would do anything crazy for a laugh, but he was trouble.'

Jillian Davis, 19, said she was in a school Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps with Cruz in the 9th grade. She remembered him as a quiet and shy young man who would almost change personality when angry. He talked a lot about guns and knives but no one took him seriously, she told Reuters.

'I would say he was not the most normal or sane kid in JROTC. He definitely had a little something off about him. He was a little extra quirky,' said Davis, who graduated from the school last year.

Another classmate, Emily Sucher, 16, remembered Cruz as an 'off kid' who would 'smile weirdly, make weird comments.'

In the hours since the shooting, there has been speculation Cruz may have fetal alcohol syndrome - a congenital condition which causes developmental and behavioral issues - given his facial features - a low nasal bridge, small eyes and thin upper lip - and behavior.

What is fetal alcohol spectrum disorder? Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is caused by mothers drinking too much alcohol while pregnant, which affects their infant's development. The CDC has identified 0.2 to 1.5 infants with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder for every 1,000 live births in certain areas of the United States. Conditions can range from mild to severe including abnormal facial features (such as a smooth ridge between the nose and upper lip), small head size or overall size. It can also cause learning disabilities, a low IQ, poor memory, poor reasoning and judgment skills, vision or hearing problems as well as problems with the heart, kidneys, or bones. There are no tests to diagnose FASD, a lifelong disability without cure, and therefore doctors must rely on physical or mental signs. There are many types of treatment options, including medication to help with some symptoms, behavior and education therapy, parent training, and other alternative approaches. Advertisement

Nathalie Brassard, a program director at the non-profit organization FASCETS, which works with parents of FASD children, told Daily Mail Online the association has merit.

'Some of the characteristics suggest that he might have been living with an invisible brain-based condition - it could have been FASD or many others, but this young individual may have been functioning differently,' Brassard said. 'He was kicked out of school because of behavioral issues, and that is something that often happens.'

Canada-based Brassard, who has supported families living with FASD for 20 years, said that Cruz's case echoes many others she has seen of adopted children with brain-based conditions but no clear diagnosis due to lost or unclear paperwork.

'Very often the information is lacking [such as alcohol consumption during pregnancy] so the formal diagnosis of FASD may not come. That's why we use the language of 'brain-based conditions' because regardless of why, they have this behavior.'

She added that if Cruz is identified as having a brain-based condition, it should drive us to look at how invisible brain disorders are treated in the justice system and in schools. 'We have to understand that individuals with brain-based conditions cannot do the same things that everyone else can do,' she said.

Meanwhile, traumatized students said that once they heard reports of a mass shooting at the school they knew it would be Cruz, while one teacher said he had been identified as a potential threat to his classmates last year.

Matthew Walker, a 17-year-old student at the school, told WFOR-TV that all his classmates 'knew it was going to be him'.

'A lot of people were saying it was going to be him,' he said. 'A lot of kids threw jokes around saying that he was going to be the one to shoot up the school. It turns out that everyone predicted it. That's crazy.'

'He was going class to class just shooting at random kids. Everything he posts (on social media) is about weapons. It's sick.'

Victoria Olvera, a 17-year-old junior at the school, said Cruz was expelled last school year because he got into a fight with his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. She said he had been abusive to his girlfriend. Another student said that part of the reason Cruz was expelled was that he was caught carrying bullets in his backpack.

'I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him,' she said.

Police described the gunman as a student and member of the U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program. Nikolas de Jesus Cruz, 19, is pictured being taken into custody

Cruz, wearing a maroon colored top, is taken into custody two hours after opening fire on his high school

The suspected gunman was checked out at a hospital after his arrest (above in a hospital gown) and is now being held at a secure location in a public building

A student, on a stretcher, is loaded into the back of an ambulance after the mass shooting on Wednesday afternoon

Authorities were seen inspecting the AR-15 rifle the teen gunman used in the mass shooting on Wednesday. It has emerged that he was able to obtain the gun legally

School officials said Cruz was attending another school in Broward County after his expulsion.

President Donald Trump said in a Tweet this morning that Cruz appeared to be 'mentally disturbed'.

He wrote: 'So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!'

He had earlier offered sympathy and said he spoke with Florida's governor, but he has not addressed the nation. Trump has cited mental health before as a cause for mass shootings, dismissing questions about gun control.

After Cruz's mother died, he and his brother were left in the care of family friend Barbara Kumbatovich, of Long Island, said.

Unhappy there, Cruz asked to move in with a former classmate from Stoneman Douglas, in a mobile home park in northwest Broward. The family agreed and Cruz moved into his own room in the home around Thanksgiving.

'The family brought him into their home,' said Jim Lewis, an attorney representing the family who took in Cruz, adding that it 'wasn't working out' at his family friend's in Lake Worth, Palm Beach.

'They got him a job at a local dollar store,' he told the Washington Post. 'They didn't see anything that would suggest any violence. He was depressed, maybe a little quirky. But they never saw anything violent.  He was just a little depressed and seemed to be working through it.'

Cruz brought his AR-15 with him to the family's home, where it was kept in a locked cabinet that the teen had a key to. Sources told CNN that the gunman purchased the rifle in the past year and passed a required background check to obtain it. Federal law allows people 18 and over to legally purchase long guns. At 21, people can legally buy handguns from a licensed dealer.

Twitter user Oli shared the above posts to Twitter. He wrote: 'I decided to write my experience of the parkland shooting today at douglas. Im worried about my friends and anything can send me into a fit of crying. My heart goes out to the lives lost and im praying for everyone who was hurt and all the families that are having to suffer'

While living with the family, Lewis started going to a school for at-risk youth. Usually every morning, the father of the family would drive Cruz to school, but on Wednesday he overslept and then gave a cryptic reason why.

'He said, 'It's Valentine's Day and I don't go to school on Valentine's Day,'' Lewis said.

Lewis said the family is devastated and didn't see this coming. They are cooperating with authorities, he said.

'No indication that anything severe like this was wrong,' Lewis said. 'Just a mildly troubled kid who'd lost his mom. ... He totally kept this from everybody.'

The family's cream-colored home was empty Thursday morning but in the backyard a bullet-riddled Bud Light can was stuck on a twig of an avocado tree overlooking a creek.

Broward County Mayor Beam Furr confirmed during an interview with CNN that the shooter was getting treatment at a mental health clinic for a while, but that he hadn't been back to the clinic for more than a year.

'It wasn't like there wasn't concern for him,' Furr said.

'We try to keep our eyes out on those kids who aren't connected ... Most teachers try to steer them toward some kind of connections. ... In this case, we didn't find a way to connect with this kid,' Furr said.

Israel said investigators were dissecting the suspect's social media posts.

'And some of the things that have come to mind are very, very disturbing,' he added without elaborating.

Daniel Huerfano, a student who fled Wednesday's attack, said he recognized Cruz from an Instagram photo in which Cruz posed with a gun in front of his face. Huerfano recalled Cruz as a shy student and remembered seeing him walking around with his lunch bag.

'He was that weird kid that you see ... like a loner,' he added.

Students were seen fleeing the building with their hands in the air, as they ran for safety from the gunman

Students went in single file from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as armed SWAT response teams watched on

Dakota Mutchler, a 17-year-old junior, said he used to be close friends with Cruz but hadn't seen him in more than a year following his expulsion from school.

'He started progressively getting a little more weird,' Mutchler said.

Mutchler recalled Cruz posting on Instagram about killing animals and said he had talked about doing target practice in his backyard with a pellet gun.

'He started going after one of my friends, threatening her, and I cut him off from there,' Mutchler said.

'I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him,' Mutchler said.

Broward County School District Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that he did not know of any threats posed by Cruz to the school.

'Typically you see in these situations that there potentially could have been signs out there,' Runcie said. 'I would be speculating at this point if there were, but we didn't have any warnings. There weren't any phone calls or threats that we know of that were made.'

TIMELINE OF FLORIDA SCHOOL SHOOTING 2.25pm: Gunshots ring out through the corridors of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The school goes into immediate lockdown. 2.30pm: Authorities respond to an active shooter at the school in Parkland where they say the shooter is still active. 3.pm: Hundreds of students flee the school with their hands raised as SWAT arrives to tackle the ongoing situation 3.30pm: Students and teachers begin posting harrowing footage from inside the school where they are trapped and unable to leave their classrooms. 4pm: Just after 4 p.m., Broward County Sheriff's Office announced on Twitter that a suspect had been apprehended 4.30pm: The suspect - named as Nikolas Cruz - was transported handcuffed and via ambulance to local hospital where he was placed under armed guard. Advertisement

However, a teacher told The Miami Herald that Cruz may have been identified as a potential threat to other students. Jim Gard, a math teacher who said Cruz had been in his class last year, said he believes the school had sent out an email warning teachers that Cruz shouldn't be allowed on campus with a backpack.

Gard,told the Miami Herald: 'We were told last year that he wasn't allowed on campus with a backpack on him. There were problems with him last year threatening students and I guess he was asked to leave campus.'

He said that he had been told by several students that Mr. Cruz was obsessed with a girl at the school to the point of 'stalking her'.

Another student named Oli took to Twitter to share a lengthy post about knowing Cruz and the harrowing experience of the shooting incident itself.

'I knew the kid who shot up the school he had a ton of mental health issues that just got ignored by all the adults. He literally had an Instagram where he posted pictures of animals he killed gruesomely and he physically assaulted one of my friends once.'

Another student, who was not identified, but claims to know Cruz told WSVN he was obsessed with guns and showed him pictures of them on his phone.

'He's been a troubled kid and he's always had a certain amount of issues going on. He shot guns because he felt it gave him, I guess, an exhilarating feeling.'

He added that Cruz made him nervous.

'I stayed clear of him most of the time. My time in alternate school, I did not want to be with him at all because I didn't want to cause any conflict with him because of the impression he gave off.'

Former classmate Joshua Charo, 16, told the Miami Herald that all Cruz 'would talk about is guns, knives and hunting'.

'I can't say I was shocked. From past experiences, he seemed like the kind of kid who would do something like this,' Charo said.

'He used to tell me he would shoot rats with his BB gun and he wanted this kind of gun, and how he liked to always shoot for practice,' Charo added.

One student added that Cruz started selling knives out of a lunchbox when he started high school.

As a high school freshman, Cruz was part of the US military-sponsored Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corp program at the school.

Cruz, equipped with a gas mask, smoke grenades and multiple magazines of ammunition, and armed with at least one AR-15 rifle, stormed the school yesterday, killing 17 and injuring at least 20, according to the sheriff.

Police said he started firing before he entered the school building and left behind a deadly trail. Twelve of the people shot dead were found dead inside the school building, two more were killed just outside the school and another in a nearby street. Two other people died later after being rushed to hospital.

Police arrived at the scene to find hundreds of students fleeing the school. They later learned the shooter had concealed himself in the crowd and was among those running off the campus.

Investigators were able to identify him after trawling surveillance video. He was arrested about and hour after the shooting first broke out when police cornered him in a nearby neighborhood. He now faces multiple murder charges.A man pulled from Boulder Creek has been identified as a University of Colorado student from Saudi Arabia, according to the Boulder County coroner.

Khalid Rafee, 21, was found face-down in a shallow part of the creek near Arapahoe Avenue and 13th Street in Boulder on Friday morning, The Daily Camera reported.

The mechanical engineering student, who is believed to have been at a bar the night before, was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Boulder police spokeswoman Laurie Ogden says the investigation is not complete but investigators do not suspect foul play.

Khalid Rafee, 21, was found face-down in a shallow part of the creek near Arapahoe Avenue and 13th Street in Boulder on Friday morning

'We extend our deepest condolences to Khalid's family upon hearing of this tragic news,' Interim Dean of Students Andrea Zelinko said in a statement.

'He was a mechanical engineering student here at CU Boulder and he will be sorely missed by his friends and all those who knew him. We have been in touch with Khalid's friends and we will continue to outreach to those affected to offer campus support resources.'

Mark Schaefer, who was on his way to go fly fishing when he found the body, said Rafee was lying face-down in about six inches of water in the middle of the creek.

Because the water levels were low that day, Schaefer doesn't think the student died upstream.

'He either fell directly off that Arapahoe [overpass] bridge or maybe he stumbled in the creek,' Schaefer told The Daily Camera. 'But he didn't float there.'

Police believe Rafee was at the Pop-Up Bar on Walnut Street before his death

He added that although emergency workers performed CPR on Rafee and transported him to a hospital, it was obvious the student, who was wearing 'nice jeans and a denim jacket', was dead.

'He looked like he could have been going to the bars, for sure,' Schaefer said, according to the local news outlet.

Police believe Rafee was at the Pop-Up Bar on Walnut Street at about 1.15am but haven't given any other information on the case.Britain last night publicly blamed the Russian government for a 'reckless and destructive' cyber attack and Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson accused Vladimir Putin of 'ripping up the rule book'

Russia today denied being responsible for a major cyber attack that infected thousands of computers across Europe.

The Kremlin accused Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson of being 'Russophobic' after he made the claim.

In an extraordinary move likely to spark a diplomatic firestorm, last night the Government blamed the Kremlin for 'malicious cyber activity'.

The attack last year targeted Ukraine and spread across Europe. Its primary targets were the Ukrainian financial, energy, and government sectors.

But it was designed to spread further and affected other European and Russian firms in June.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: 'We categorically reject such accusations.

'We consider them unsubstantiated and groundless.

'This is nothing but a continuation of a Russophobic campaign that is not based on any evidence.'

Mr Williamson made the claims last night as he accused Vladimir Putin of 'ripping up the rule book'.

He told the Daily Mail: 'We have entered a new era of warfare, witnessing a destructive and deadly mix of conventional military might and malicious cyber attacks.

'Russia is ripping up the rule book by undermining democracy, wrecking livelihoods by targeting critical infrastructure, and weaponising information. We must be primed and ready to tackle these stark and intensifying threats.'

Ukraine has been locked in a simmering conflict with Russian-backed separatists since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014.

Foreign minister for cyber security Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon said the UK's decision to identify the Kremlin as responsible for the attack underlines the fact the Government will not tolerate 'malicious cyber activity'.

He said: 'The UK Government judges that the Russian government, specifically the Russian military, was responsible for the destructive NotPetya cyber attack of June 2017.

In an extraordinary move likely to spark a diplomatic firestorm, the Foreign Office accused the Kremlin of 'malicious cyber activity'

'The attack showed a continued disregard for Ukrainian sovereignty. Its reckless release disrupted organisations across Europe costing hundreds of millions of pounds.'

He added: 'The Kremlin has positioned Russia in direct opposition to the West yet it doesn't have to be that way. We call upon Russia to be the responsible member of the international community it claims to be rather then secretly trying to undermine it.

'The United Kingdom is identifying, pursuing and responding to malicious cyber activity regardless of where it originates, imposing costs on those who would seek to do us harm.

'We are committed to strengthening co-ordinated international efforts to uphold a free, open, peaceful and secure cyberspace.'

His comments point to UK intelligence agencies discovering evidence indicating the involvement of the Russian military.

Meanwhile, the Defence Secretary risked igniting a second diplomatic storm yesterday by claiming there is no point in Britain listening to Emmanuel Macron.

Mr Williamson took aim at the French president amid growing concerns in London at his hardline position on Brexit.

He spoke out after Mr Macron threatened to launch strikes on the Syrian government for allegedly using chemical weapons against civilians. The Tory MP, who has been tipped as a potential future Prime Minister, said the UK felt no need to 'copy' decisions in neighbouring countries.

The attack last year targeted Ukraine and spread across Europe. Its primary targets were the Ukrainian financial, energy, and government sectors (file photo)

'What is the point in listening to French politicians,' he said. 'We have our own foreign policy, we don't need to copy.'

He said he would 'dutifully study' Mr Macron's comments but refused to be drawn on a change in the UK's policy.

The UK refused to join retaliatory strikes launched by Donald Trump in Syria last year over suspected chemical weapon use. Former defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon later said Britain would support similar actions if 'legal, proportionate and necessary'.

Mr Williamson's dismissal of Mr Macron, during a ministerial meeting at Nato's Brussels headquarters, will stoke fears that ties between Paris and London are under increasing strain.

Mr Macron threatened a major escalation in Syria on Tuesday by threatening to launch air strikes against president Bashar Assad's government.

The warning followed claims that Syrian government forces dropped a chlorine bomb from a helicopter on Saraqeb, a rebel-held town, earlier this month.

The Syrian government yesterday denied the accusations, while Mr Macron said that French officials had yet to find enough evidence to launch a strike.Jeremy Corbyn (pictured in 1984) warned a Soviet-backed spy about British intelligence activity at the climax of the Cold War, according to secret documents

Jeremy Corbyn warned a Soviet-backed spy about British intelligence activity at the climax of the Cold War, according to secret documents.

The Labour leader met the Czech agent at least three times after being vetted by communist handlers in 1986, papers reveal.

Two meetings took place in the heart of British democracy  the House of Commons. And in records of the meeting an espionage agent noted how Mr Corbyn was 'occasionally explosive'.

A spokesman for Labour denied the party leader had met a spy and insisted he liaised with a diplomat instead.

Mr Corbyn allegedly provided the spies with material about the arrest of an East German, according to the documents leaked to The Sun.

The Labour leader was even given a three-letter codename: COB.

The records summarised Mr Corbyn's political outlook in 1986 towards the end of the Cold War. It said: 'Negative towards USA, as well as the current politics of the Conservative Government.'

The documents also suggest he was 'positive' towards the Soviet bloc and was 'supporting the Soviet peace initiative'. Mr Corbyn was 'very well informed' of operatives in contact with 'anti-communist agencies', the papers state.

The Labour leader was the 326th coded source listed in documents relating to Operation Obrana  defence in Czech.

The Labour leader met the Czech agent at least three times after being vetted by communist handlers in 1986, papers reveal

The records, which were found in the archives of the Czech secret police in Prague, suggest the Labour leader was approached in 1986 by activists Tony Gilbert and Sandra Hodgson of the ultra-left wing Liberation movement.

Along with Czech agent Lieutenant Jan Dymic, they later met in the House of Commons on November 25. A second Commons meeting on October 24, 1987, served 'to strengthen mutual recognition and the deepening of trust'.

The communist handlers noted down Mr Corbyn's character traits in the document, which is likely to have been seen by Russian President Vladimir Putin  a senior KGB figure at the time.

The report's author said: 'Owns dogs and fish. Behaviour is reserved and courteous, however, occasionally explosive (when speaking in defence of human rights), though the performance is calm and collected.'

Mr Corbyn allegedly provided the spies with material about the arrest of an East German, according to the leaked documents

One page of the documents reveals contact was established with Mr Corbyn twice in 1986

Czechoslovakia, which at the time was a puppet state of President Gorbachev's USSR, relied on a secret police force called the Statni Bezpecnost.

Professor Anthony Glees, an expert in security and intelligence studies, said of the documents: 'These files show Jeremy Corbyn had been targeted by Czech intelligence services. Mr Corbyn says he didn't know, but it shows breathtaking naivety from someone who wants to head the British Government.

He added: 'At the time dissidents were under attack and being imprisoned in Czechoslovakia. In the struggle between the dissidents who were trying to overthrow the communist government and the Czech government, Corbyn is working on the side of the Czech government.

The Soviet intelligent recruitment strategy during the Cold War Soviet spies gathered intelligence on the UK during the Second World War and Cold War by communicating with Communists and Communist sympathisers in the country. In the mid-1930s, the USSR began a new agent recruitment strategy that involved attracting bright young Communists or Communist sympathisers from leading universities. They were told to break all links with other Communists and use their talents and educational success to penetrate the corridors of power. The most successful of 'Stalin's Englishmen' were the 'Cambridge Five'Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncrosspossibly the ablest group of foreign agents ever recruited by Soviet intelligence. It wasn't until the 1970s that Britain became a hard espionage target for Soviet intelligence for the first time. MI5's Operation FOOT led to more than 100 Soviet intelligence officers being expelled from London in 1971, marking a major turning point in counter-espionage operations in Britain during the Cold War. It followed a long campaign by the Security Service to persuade successive governments of the need for the expulsions. Over the previous two decades, the Security Service acknowledged: 'The steady and alarming increase ... in the number of Russian intelligence officers threatened to swamp our then meagre resources.' For several years, most Soviet agents in Britain were put on ice and the KGB was forced to ask Soviet Bloc and Cuban agencies to help plug the intelligence gap. However, the KGB's contacts with probably its most important British agent in the 1970s, Geoffrey Prime, who worked at GCHQ until 1977, were unaffected by the FOOT expulsions because, since his recruitment in Berlin, he had been run exclusively outside the UK. Source: MI5 Advertisement

'The Czechs were interested in anti-communists and they are using Corbyn for immediate operational information useful to them.'

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: 'The claim that he was an agent, asset or informer for any intelligence agency is entirely false and a ridiculous smear.

'Like other MPs, Jeremy has met diplomats from many countries. In the 1980s he met a Czech diplomat, who did not go by the name of Jan Dymic, for a cup of tea in the House of Commons. Jeremy neither had nor offered any privileged information to this or any other diplomat.'

Tory grandee Malcom Rifkind, a former chairman of the intelligence and security committee, said: 'If these documents are genuine, which they appear to be, then there is a serious case for Mr Corbyn to answer.'

Mr Rifkind added: 'As a member of Parliament, he should have reported these meetings to the Home Office if he had any suspicion he was an intelligence officer from a Communist country.

'It would have been very unwise for him not to have done that.'Paedophiles are using secret TV-style internet channels to view child sex abuse on demand, a report warns.

The rise of smartphones, super-fast internet and encrypted communications has allowed offenders to target children worldwide on a previously inconceivable scale.

A dossier by the UK-led We Protect Global Alliance Against Child Sexual Exploitation found abusers no longer need to download videos to their hard drives because they can stream them live online for as little as 11.

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Individual sites hosting up to a million paedophiles who regularly meet to plan abuse and share images

Technology has helped the threat to evolve and escalate as it helped offenders to interact while shielding their identities

Police have also seen chilling increased interest in the abuse of pre-verbal children, some under a year old, because they cannot speak to report their ordeal.

The study highlights a disturbing new trend whereby so-called offending communities can stream vile images of youngsters being abused on internet services similar to commercial film and TV subscription channels.

It said paedophile groups, often lurking on the secretive dark web, were providing organised libraries of content and the mechanisms to request custom-made content  in other words, specifying what they wanted to see. Services have reached a level of resilience and availability that many offenders have no need to retain content on local devices, the report found.

The findings come amid concern that social media and technology giants are doing too little to tackle the insidious growth of online sex abuse, with children often groomed on their sites.

Child protection organisations last night ordered the Government and social media companies to take action. Andy Burrows, of the NSPCC, said: One of the most troubling parts of this report is how easy it is to view online abuse  as easy as watching TV on demand. Its clear offenders have taken advantage of evolving technology to facilitate their abuse, so its absolutely vital that Government and social networks get their act together and start using technology to prevent grooming.

The rise of smartphones, super-fast internet and encrypted communications has allowed offenders to target children worldwide on a previously inconceivable scale

By last year, use of the so-called dark web  a hidden part of the internet also used by hackers and drug gangs  had quadrupled to around four million, with individual sites hosting up to a million paedophiles who regularly meet to plan abuse and share images.

Technology has helped the threat to evolve and escalate as it helped offenders to interact while shielding their identities, the WeProtect alliance said. Its report was compiled with input from the UKs National Crime Agency, Interpol, the US Department of Justice and Swedish software firm NetClean.

It said that while traditionally poverty-stricken children in Third World countries had been vulnerable to exploitation by sex tourists, the internet had subverted this notion and meant youngsters in the developed world, including the UK, were at risk.

Crime minister Victoria Atkins told a summit in Stockholm yesterday that we cannot allow any corner of the internet to become a safe space for paedophiles.High-profile Sydney barrister Charles Waterstreet has pulled out of appearing on Q&A's panel to discuss the #MeToo movement.

His inclusion on the February 15 panel sparked outrage on social media because of sexual harassment accusations against him by three former paralegals - claims he denies.

The ABC announced Mr Waterstreet had to withdraw on Thursday, the same day he was due to appear on the show.

'Barrister Charles Waterstreet has had to withdraw because of concerns about his appearance expressed to him by the New South Wales Bar Association,' it said.

'It is disappointing Mr Waterstreet will not be able to contribute to the perspectives canvassed in tonight's discussion.'

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High-profile Sydney barrister Charles Waterstreet has defended agreeing to appear on Q&A to discuss the #MeToo movement

Taking to Twitter on Thursday, Mr Waterstreet said 'it is with deep regret that I announce that I am pulling out of the Q&A special on the #metoo movement'.

'I was looking forward to discussing the topic from a legal perspective, sharing my knowledge of the law and past cases to broaden the wider community's knowledge of this important subject,' he said.

'However, I must be first and foremost guided by my obligations to the NSW Bar Association and the broader legal profession.

'When considering these obligations, I do not consider that it would be appropriate for me to appear on the panel, given the controversial nature of the topics.

'I look forward to watching the other panellists tonight.'

The controversial criminal lawyer said he could contribute his expertise to the 'lively debate', particularly on legal distinctions between sexual harassment and assault

Mr Waterstreet was forced to defend his invitation to appear on the show late last month.

The controversial criminal lawyer said he could contribute his expertise to the 'lively debate', particularly on legal distinctions between sexual harassment and assault.

'As a barrister, every shade of sexual assault and harassment is exposed to me so that qualifies me to present legal distinctions,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'It would also allow me the opportunity to grow my understanding and appreciation of the issues surrounding this topic.'

ABC asked him to be on the panel without ever saying why, and the allegations against him weren't mentioned, but 'taken as a given', he said.

'I thought I could contribute rather than stand silent,' he said.

Mr Waterstreet has a history of taking on challenging cases, often of a sexual nature and frequently dealing with issues of consent, few others will touch.

He is defending Sydney businessman Liam 'The Wolf' Murphy, who is accused of sexually assaulting two women he met via online fetish forum Fetlife.

Mr Waterstreet has a history of taking on challenging cases, often of a sexual nature and frequently dealing with issues of consent, few others will touch

He is defending Sydney businessman Liam 'The Wolf' Murphy (L), who is accused of sexually assaulting two women he met via online fetish forum Fetlife

The colourful lawyer, who inspired ABC's Rake TV series, hoped to discuss the presumption of innocence, even on social, as opposed to criminal, matters.

'Also the distinction between sexual harassment and sexual assault, which has been blurred in the current climate,' he said.

Mr Waterstreet was to be on the panel alongside actor Rachel Griffiths, Macquarie University gender studies professor Catharine Lumby and employment lawyer Josh Bornstein on the Q&A episode.

In anticipation of his Q&A panel appearance, he said he expected to be 'firmly challenged' by them and host ABC breakfast radio presenter Virginia Trioli, standing in for Tony Jones, about his alleged misconduct.

'Hopefully it will be brief. I have great faith in the host and the character and the other panellists that it won't derail the discussion,' he said.

'The point isn't to talk about me, but the whole issue. I have rights too.

'I would applaud a lively debate discussing this highly misunderstood but laudatory campaign.'

The colourful character, who inspired ABC's Rake TV series, hoped to discuss the presumption of innocence, even on social, as opposed to criminal, matters

Law student Tina Huang, 21, alleged he played her a video during her job interview of himself receiving a hand job from two naked prostitutes

Numerous posts online compared the barrister to disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, which Mr Waterstreet said was ridiculous.

'To compare the allegations against me with his is to be hysterical and to undo much of the fantastic work the #MeToo campaign can and will achieve,' he said.

'I spend my days in court defending the underdog. I abhor the conduct of Harvey Weinstein, and to compare us in a rational debate is harmful.'

Mr Waterstreet said there was a tendency on social media to sensationalise comparatively minor allegations and compare them to much more serious ones.

'A sense of proportion should be exercised, even by those who sadly believe [the allegations against me],' he said.

'People are passionate on social issues but passion and justice should be even-handed.

'It is hurtful to see down-and-out lies repeated by otherwise rational people and there needs to be a line drawn between unseemly and impermissible.'

Genevieve Wilks, who worked for Mr Waterstreet for 10 months, claimed she and other female employees were frequently sexually harassed and subjected to crude comments

Am email Mr Waterstreet allegedly sent several female employees including Ms Wilks in 2015

Mr Waterstreet was late last year accused of sexual harassment by three paralegals who claimed he made inappropriate comments during their employment.

Law student Tina Huang, 21, alleged he played her a video during her job interview of himself receiving a hand job from two naked prostitutes.

Another woman using the pseudonym 'Anita' claimed he made sexual comments, showed her explicit images, and showed her a 'double penetration' dildo.

Genevieve Wilks, who worked for Mr Waterstreet for 10 months, claimed she and other female employees were frequently sexually harassed and subjected to crude comments.

University of Sydney banned Mr Waterstreet from posting job ads through its careers centre in response to the allegations.

Mr Waterstreet said the masturbation video Ms Huang saw was part of a case, as were any other explicit material, as potential hires would need to be comfortable working on those kinds of cases.

He also denied many of the other allegations, and Daily Mail Australia has seen correspondence and spoken with witnesses who refuted many of the claims.

Actress Rachel Griffiths will also be on the panel of the Q&A special on February 15

Macquarie University gender studies professor Catharine Lumby will join Mr Waterstreet on the panel

Employment lawyer Josh Bornstein is the third member of the special Q&A panel

Dozens of social media users nonetheless insisted it was 'deeply inappropriate' for him to be on the panel, calling it an 'unacceptable, petty little stunt'.

'There are one of two messages women can take from this @QandA : 'you don't matter' or 'we don't believe you',' one woman wrote.

Other comments compared him to Harvey Weinstein, Don Burke, and Craig McLachlan, and one even set up a petition calling on ABC to kick him off the panel.Children as young as 13 are illegally buying anti-anxiety pill Xanax on social media sites such Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, a charity has warned.

Online dealers are openly advertising the drug for as little as 25p to teenagers alongside pictures of pills piled high and boasting of next day delivery.

Experts have warned Xanax  which is 20 times stronger than Valium and designed to treat severe anxiety  is becoming increasingly popular among teenagers.

It is often glamourised in US rap music and is said to be rife among grammar schools where pupils are self-diagnosing anxiety disorders due to the high pressure they find themselves under.

Children as young as 13 are illegally buying anti-anxiety pill Xanax on social media sites such Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, a charity has warned (file photo)

It has led to a growing number of Xanax-related hospital admissions, with six schoolgirls last week rushed to hospital after taking the drug during their lunchbreak.

Xanax, the brand name for alprazolam, can only be legally obtained on a private prescription in the UK - but it can be bulk bought on the dark web in batches of thousands for as little as 25p per pill.

Charity Addaction branded the social media sites unpoliceable after seeing a dramatic rise in drugs being advertised and sold over their platforms in the past six months.

On Instagram yesterday, there were more than 3,700 posts captioned with the hashtag xanaxforsale.

Before viewing the posts, the social media site warns that they may contain graphic content and provides a link to information and support on self-harm and suicide.

But a simple click on show posts leads to hundreds of posts showing piles of pills and linking to accounts which offer overnight and next day delivery.

Neil Coles, an early Intervention Substance worker, said social media platforms were easy to access and therefore required little or no specialist knowledge to access the drugs.

He said: On the dark web, 1mg pills can be as cheap as 25p if they are bulk bought. But it is pretty standard to get it from social media such as Instagram now as well.

Online dealers are openly advertising the drug for as little as 25p to teenagers alongside pictures of pills piled high and boasting of next day delivery (file photo)

Dealers advertise it to teenagers and then give them a link to an untraceable form of communication called Wickr to continue the transaction.

Its become unpoliceable  the dealers routinely close down their account when they get a certain amount of followers and then open it up again under a slightly different name.

He continued: Im encountering Year 9s buying them online and selling them to their peers - thats children as young as 13 and 14. Its the trendy thing to do at the moment.

Its the zeitgeist, theres lots of memes [viral internet pictures] about Xanax and hip hop stars in the US rap about it a lot in their lyrics.

Weve also seen teenagers using it in places you might not expect - like grammar schools and other high-pressure environments. They are self-diagnosing anxiety disorders and then using the pill to self-medicate.

He told how he had a 14-year-old grammar school boy had recently got into a violent altercation with his parents after trying to ween himself of the drug.

After a classmate had first sold the teenager the drug, telling him it would make his day easier and would help him deal with the stress, he began to take it daily.

However, after taking it for weeks on end he decided to stop after others began collapsing in school having also become hooked.

Mr Coles said that a side-effect of withdrawing though was huge mood swings that resulted in a violent altercation with his parents.

Experts have warned Xanax  which is 20 times stronger than Valium and designed to treat severe anxiety  is becoming increasingly popular among teenagers (file photo)

Xanax is an addictive tranquiliser that works faster than Valium  which is the brand name for diazepam  but the effect does not last as long.

It makes users feel very relaxed, but mixed with alcohol increases its potency and puts users at risk of potentially fatal heart and breathing problems.

Earlier this month, a group of schoolgirls at Burntwood School in Wandsworth, southwest London, were rushed to hospital after taking Xanax.

The girls were reportedly unable to walk after trying the pills  which were thought to have been off the dark web - during their lunch break.

Last year, a group of up to 20 teenagers aged between 15 and 16 in Wiltshire needed medical treatment after taking the drug recreationally.

A teenager from Kent, who admitted spending his GCSE year trying drugs on school nights, said he had searched on social media to find dealers.

He told the BBC: It is possible now to go on INstagram and find a drug dealer. You have to find a page which you tell sold drugs, based on either their pictures or whatever.

He added that the conversation would then move from social media to other apps that could not be tracked and were therefore safer to use.

Experts recently warned that Xanax  the brand name for alprazolam - had become one of the top five drugs used among young people alongside cannabis and alcohol.A partygoer stole the thumb from one of the famed Terracotta Warriors at Philadelphia Museum during a holiday party after snapping selfies with the statues.

Federal authorities said that 24-year-old Michael Rohana of Delaware pocketed the artifact during Franklin Institute's Ugly Sweater Holiday Party after sneaking into the closed exhibit and stealing the thumb.

The statues which were built to protect emperor Qin Shihuangdi in the afterlife, and date back to 200 B.C are on loan from China.

Michael Rohana, 21, stole the thumb from the warrior during a party at the Philadelphia museum

In an affidavit from the FBI, a young man in a long-sleeved green sweater and a Phillies cap entered the exhibit during one of the museum's signature Science After Hours parties on December 21, according to USA Today.

FBI Special Agent Jacob Archer said that the suspect was caught on film snapping selfies with 'a priceless part of China's cultural heritage'.

In a statement Wednesday night, The Franklin Institute said 'standard closing procedures were not followed' by a security contractor.

When confronted about the thumb, Rohana produced it and returned it to the FBI, which gave it back to the Franklin Institute

Rohana sneaked into the closed off Terracotta Warrior exhibit at the Franklin Institute (pictured above), took selfies with the statute, and snapped off its thumb

'As a result of this incident, we have thoroughly reviewed our security protocol and procedures and have taken appropriate action where needed,' the Franklin Institute said.

The affidavit says that Rohana originally entered the closed exhibit alone, then brought two friends in to show them around.

Rohana took a selfie with one of the sculptures before leaving, and according to the affidavit, he 'appeared to break something off the Cavalryman's left hand and put it in his left pocket'. He also shared the pictures to Snapchat.

Special Agent Archer interviewed Rohana at his home in Delaware on January 13, and asked him 'if he had anything in his possession that he wanted to turn over to the FBI.'

Rohana then went to his bedroom and retrieved the thumb from a desk drawer. Rohana has since been charged with art theft.

The thumb has since been returned to the museum.Shocking footage of a vicious brawl between two schoolgirls has emerged, with the fight ending with a teenager in hospital.

The video shows two students at St Helena's Secondary College in Eltham North, Melbourne, attacking each other on the school grounds about 1.30pm on Wednesday.

The footage obtained by the Herald Sun shows the students punching and strangling each other, as well as wrestling on the ground.

Shocking footage of a vicious brawl between two schoolgirls has emerged, as the fight ended with a teenager in hospital

One of the girls was unconscious after the fight, while other students watched on and cheered.

St Helena Secondary College acting principal Anesti Anestis told the Herald Sun 'appropriate disciplinary action will now follow'.

'There is no place for incidents like this at our school. It is disappointing and does not reflect the behaviour of the overwhelming majority of our students,' he said.

He said neither student was seriously injured in the melee, although one was taken to hospital as a 'precautionary measure and has since been released'.

The school called emergency services, and both police and ambulance officers arrived at the school after the fight broke out.

A Victoria Police spokesman said they were investigating the incident.

'Emergency services were called to the address on Wallowa Road following reports of a fight between two girls shortly after 1.30pm.'

Both students and their parents were spoken to by police officers on Wednesday.Four-year-old Heidi Renae Todd was found inside a vehicle Wednesday by police chief in Riverside, Alabama

Authorities say the man who kidnapped a 4-year-old girl in South Carolina after beating up her mother has been arrested in Mississippi.

Riverside, Alabama, Police Chief Rick Oliver said 37-year-old Thomas Evans was arrested Wednesday after a police chase in Lauderdale County, after he handed the child over to police in Alabama before speeding off.

Oliver found Evans sleeping in a car with Heidi Todd in the woods near a railroad track. The chief says Evans handed him the child when he said they needed to go to the police station before taking off in his vehicle.

The chief said at a news conference that the girl was watching cartoons, drinking milk and coloring while she waited to be reunited with her father.

She disappeared Tuesday from her home in Charleston and her mother was found badly beaten.

Evans is charged with kidnapping and more charged are expected. The chief didn't say if he had a lawyer.

Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said the police chief in Riverside, Alabama, saw Heidi Todd inside a vehicle Wednesday afternoon and managed to get her out safely before the driver sped away.

Prosecutor Scarlett Wilson says 37-year-old Thomas Evans is wanted for kidnapping. Authorities did not say why he might have kidnapped the girl.

According to Mayor John Tecklenburg, he has seen a photo of Heidi with FBI, smiling and making a paper airplane.

'What could have been a day of great tragedy has turned out to be a day of great joy,' Tecklenburg said, according to Post and Courier.

The girl disappeared from her Johns Island home Tuesday. Tecklenburg says her mother was found badly beaten after she failed to pick up two of her other children from school.

Riverside, Alabama, is on Interstate 20 about 35 miles (55 kilometers) east of Birmingham.

A desperate hunt is underway for a missing four-year-old girl in South Carolina who vanished from her home after her mother was brutally beaten by an intruder.

Heidi Renae Todd was last seen at her family home in John's Island near Charleston on Tuesday afternoon.

She was reported missing at 6pm after police arrived at the house to find her 31-year-old mother Brittany brutally beaten.

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Thomas Evans, 37, was arrested Wednesday night in Mississippi after evading police earlier in the day

Friends say the attack happened at 10am but no one knew until later in the day when Brittany failed to pick up the older children from school.

Brittany's mother has since described her attacker as a slim-build, Hispanic man in his 20s who was dressed entirely in gray.

The FBI is now offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who knows where the child may be. An additional $10,000 was donated to the reward fund by an anonymous donor on Wednesday.

Police have released a sketch a person of interest who has been seen in the neighborhood over the last few days.

They would not go as far as to say that he is the man who beat Brittany, stating only that they wanted to speak to him because he had been seen in the area in recent days.

He was depicted with an elaborate a flame tattoo on one side of his face and a lightning bolt on the other cheek.

The girl's father was working for the US Coast Guard in Virginia when she vanished. He has since returned home.

Heidi's mother Brittany, 31, (above with one of her younger siblings) was brutally beaten as she tried to enter the home. She was not found for several hours, by which point Heidi was missing

Police released this sketch of a person of interest who they say want to talk to. The man has a distinctive flame tattoo on his left cheek and was in the area several days ago

He is not being labeled a suspect at this time but authorities are eager to speak to him.

They believe the intruder followed Brittany home from dropping off the children at school in the morning.

Police will not say whether they think he snatched the girl or if she wandered out of the house herself while her mother was unconscious.

Two other, younger children were inside the house with their mother when police arrived. They were not harmed.

Earlier today, police searched local lakes and woods but couldn't find her.

'There are many things that we do not know, yet, that we are still investigating, but there's one thing we know, and that is that Heidi Todd is missing, and we need everyone to be on the lookout for this young lady,' Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Later, he said: 'Heidi is a bright, precious young child.

'The wish and prayer of the Todd family is simple - to find Heidi safely.

'Keep your eyes or ears out for Heidi or for this gentleman of interest that we'd like to talk to about the incident.'

Mayor Tecklenburg described the family as 'wonderful' and paid tribute to her father - a former firefighter who now works as for the Coast Guard.

Heidi was last seen wearing a hot pink top and blue trousers. Police do not know if she wandered out of the home while her mother was unconscious or if she was taken by the same intruder who beat her mother

Heidi was last seen at her family'S $300,000 home in John's Island near Charleston, South Carolina, by her mother. Police found the woman inside at 5pm on Tuesday, beaten unconscious. When she came to, she realized Heidi was missing

Heidi's father Kevin (above with her mother) works for the US Coast Guard in Virginia. He was not in South Carolina at the time of his daughter's disappearance

Heidi's mother Brittany is in a 'fair condition' in hospital but is undergoing surgery.

She was able to speak to give a 'very brief' description of her attacker.

Heidi was wearing a hot pink top and blue pants when she disappeared.

She is the middle child in the family. The youngest, who was also inside the home at the time, is only a few months old.

Police outside the home on Tuesday night after Heidi vanished. They searched local lakes and woods but have found no trace of the girlDuring Britains darkest hour, it was the company that helped transform the nations hopes. In one of its factories, it built more than 800 Spitfires; in others, steel helmets and ammunition boxes were produced by the million.

It manufactured specialised tanks for the D-Day landings as well as tank parts, shell cases and countless components for aircraft including the Mosquito.

But then, GKN was only drawing on its history; from before the Napoleonic Wars, it had been supplying munitions to the British Army  its cannonballs helped to defeat the French at Waterloo.

GKN has a reputation for making some of Britain's most powerful weaponry over the centuries

The FTSE 100 giant is a supplier to firms such as Airbus, Boeing and BMW

GKN may not be as much of a household name as two other companies founded in 1759  Wedgwood and Guinness  but its contribution to British life has been infinitely more significant than pottery and stout.

Today, one in two of the worlds cars contain GKN parts, fighter jet canopies are built by the company, and it also produces parts for the B-21 stealth bomber in the U.S., and turbines, combustion chambers and nozzles for Europes Ariane 5 space rocket.

Carpenters and DIY enthusiasts will have bought screws made by GKN and our great-grandparents will have travelled on GKN-made railway lines across the globe.

The company started as the Dowlais Iron Company near Merthyr Tydfil, to deal in  according to its deeds  the Art, Mystery, Occupation and Business of an Iron Master and Iron Manufacturer.

Cannonballs made by GKN helped to defeat the French at Waterloo

Corporate raiders at Melrose are thought still to be interested in GKN after the companys earlier hostile 7.4 billion bid for the engineering giant was rejected

These were the earliest days of the Industrial Revolution and the bellows for the firms first furnace were powered by a water wheel that had to be rotated, hamster-like, by the tread of workers feet when the water supply ran short.

SOON, it became clear that conflict was good for the firm that went on to become GKN. With the British fighting the Seven Years War against France, then the American War of Independence, the Army had a large demand for the iron needed to make musket balls.

The company expanded rapidly under the stewardship of John Guest, the works manager whose surname would later provide the first of GKNs initials.

Guest and his son Thomas embraced new technologies  especially the steam engine, which not only replaced unreliable water wheels, but also powered the locomotives that pensioned off the horses that lugged the iron down the valleys.

In 1815, Thomas Guests son, Josiah, took over the firm, and it was he who capitalised on the dawn of the railways to make the firm fantastic profits.

During Britains darkest hour, GKN was the company that helped transform the nations hopes

According to Andrew Lorenz in his book GKN: The Making Of A Business, 1759-2009, during the 1830s, Dowlais was producing 20,000 tons of rails a year, for lines in Britain, Russia and the U.S. When Josiah Guest died in 1852, he left behind a company in very healthy shape indeed.

It was not until July 1900 that the firms name changed, when Arthur Keen, a thrusting entrepreneur who had founded the successful Patent Nut & Bolt Company (PNB), bought Dowlais from Josiahs son, Ivor.

The new company was called Guest, Keen & Co, but not for long. Keen bought a screw manufacturer called Nettlefolds from its reluctant owner Edward Nettlefold two years later.

The name became Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds, or GKN for short.

The outbreak of war in 1914 saw GKN and similar firms coming under government control. Although some of its highly-skilled employees were in reserved occupations, many did see action.

Among them was Sergeant John Collins, who won the Victoria Cross in 1917 in Palest

GKN  or Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds, as it was once known  is a vast company with a history reaching back 259 years. Its products have played a huge part in the long story of this nation

He was not the first GKN man to have won the award  John Williams, who worked at GKNs bolt and nut factory, had been awarded the VC for actions during the battle of Rorkes Drift in 1879.

After the war, GKN successfully navigated depressions and slumps. Britains gradual re-armament throughout the Thirties was a boon, and when war did break out, factories owned by GKN were turned over to the cause.

But while war was good for GKN, peace brought uncertainty. The post-war Labour government nationalised GKNs steel interests, which were briefly returned to the company by the Conservatives before being re-nationalised again by Labour in the Sixties.

As GKN, with a 100,000-strong workforce, entered the turbulent Seventies, a new threat came in the form of the increasingly militant trades unions.

Unsurprisingly, GKN was supportive of Margaret Thatchers battles against the Brothers. When one executive met the PM, he told her that he couldnt believe she would do what shed promised.

The executive recalled: She turned on me  I shall never forget those eyes  and said: You can believe me. 

GKN continued to diversify. It made armoured personnel carriers such as Saxons and Warriors for the Army, and owned a large chunk of Westland Helicopters.

Anybody who owned a Mini  as well as countless other makes  drove a car which featured joints made by GKN. Airbus wings are made by a subsidiary of GKN, and the firm owns one of the worlds oldest aerospace companies, Fokker Technologies.

Whether GKN survives remains to be seen. If it is to keep going, the board will need to draw on the same sense of Art and Mystery that was enshrined in its deeds more than two centuries ago.Doctors are releasing the first detailed medical reports about the mysterious symptoms suffered by US diplomats in Cuba last year.

University of Pennsylvania researchers have confirmed the diplomats suffered brain injuries, but said the cases weren't accompanied by head trauma, as would have been expected, and there is no clear diagnosis of the trigger.

The symptoms are similar to the brain dysfunction seen with concussions, concluded the team of specialists, who tested 21 of the 24 embassy personnel thought to be affected.

Whatever the cause, the Havana patients 'experienced persisting disability of a significant nature,' the Penn team concluded - despite Cuba insisting there were no attacks.

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Doctors are releasing the first detailed medical reports about the mysterious symptoms suffered by US diplomats in Cuba last year, confirming the diplomats suffered brain injuries, but said the cases weren't accompanied by head trauma, as would have been expected

The symptoms are similar to the brain dysfunction seen with concussions, concluded the team of specialists, who tested 21 of the 24 embassy personnel thought to be affected but there has been no trigger determined

The Journal of the American Medical Association released the report late on Wednesday, although key findings were first disclosed by The Associated Press in December.

The mystery began in late 2016 when diplomats at the US Embassy first began noticing health symptoms that they associated with weird sounds or vibrations heard in their homes, leading investigators to believe it was a 'sonic attack'.

The diplomats all suffered from a combination of symptoms including ringing in one ear, sharp ear pain, headaches, vertigo, memory problems, impaired concentration, irritability, and balance problems and dizziness.

Wednesday's report makes clear that the findings are preliminary, essentially a listing of symptoms and tests.

Important complications still remain, including that the lack of information to compare the patients' brain or hearing health before they went to Cuba.

'Before reaching any definitive conclusions, additional evidence must be obtained and rigorously and objectively evaluated,' JAMA associated editor Dr Christopher Muth cautioned in an accompanying editorial. He noted that many of the symptoms overlap with a list of other neurological illnesses.

'It really looks like concussion without the history of head trauma,' report co-author Dr Douglas Smith of Penn's Center for Brain Injury and Repair said in a podcast provided by JAMA.

The mystery began in late 2016 when diplomats at the US Embassy first began noticing health symptoms that they associated with weird sounds or vibrations heard in their homes, leading investigators to believe it was a 'sonic attack'

Doctors detected abnormalities in the white matter tracts of the embassy workers. White matter tracts (right) are the 'highways' that connect regions of the brain. They are essential for passing information to different parts of the brain

He said that the sound, heard by 18 of the 21 patients, couldn't be to blame, adding: 'There is no known mechanism for audible sound to injure the brain. We have to suspect that it's a consequence of something else.'

The mysterious case has sent US-Cuba relations plummeting from what had been a high point when the two countries, estranged for a half-century, restored relations under former President Barack Obama in 2015.

Cuba is also conducting an investigation, but has complained that the American government has shared so little information about patients that it is having trouble reaching any conclusions.

The new report outlined the battery of testing the patients underwent, including some findings that can't be even unconsciously altered, bolstering the doctors' belief that the symptoms were not mass hysteria.

At least six people had a change in work performance noted by supervisors and colleagues, the JAMA report found.

The mysterious case has sent US-Cuba relations plummeting from what had been a high point when the two countries, estranged for a half-century, restored relations under former President Barack Obama in 2015

Cuba is also conducting an investigation, but has complained that the American government has shared so little information about patients that it is having trouble reaching any conclusions

Viruses or chemical exposures are unlikely, Smith's team wrote, although they couldn't be 'systematically excluded'.

Advanced MRI scans spotted 'a few' changes in what are called white matter tracts of the brain in some patients, with three showing more than would be expected for their age, the report said. But the authors acknowledged those abnormalities could be due to something earlier in life.

For many the symptoms lasted months, and doctors designed customized rehabilitation therapy that did seem to help.

The State Department, which wasn't involved in writing the JAMA article but reviewed it to ensure it did not contain any classified information, issued a health alert on Wednesday citing the article 'in order to inform US citizens and medical providers.'

'We encourage private US citizens who have traveled to Cuba and are concerned about their symptoms to share this article with their doctor,' the State Department said.Salim Mehajer's alleged staged car crash accomplices have faced court over the incident and were filmed hurling abuse at reporters outside.

Four family members briefly appeared in Burwood Local Court in Sydney's inner west on Thursday, charged with conspiring to cheat and defraud.

Michael Moufferrige, 28, wife Nora Anne Bush, 32, brother Elias Moufferrige, 30, and sister-in-law Fakaha Ki Malinda Moufferrige, 31, lashed out as they left the building.

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Salim Mehajer's alleged staged car crash accomplices have faced court over the incident and were filmed hurling abuse at reporters outside(pictured is Fakaha Ki Malinda Moufferrige)

Four family members briefly appeared in Burwood Local Court in Sydney's inner west on Thursday, charged with conspiring to cheat and defraud(pictured is Nora Anne Bush)

Michael Moufferrige (pictured), 28, wife Nora Anne Bush, 32, brother Elias Moufferrige, 30, and sister-in-law Fakaha Ki Malinda Moufferrige, 31, lashed out as they left the building

'F*** off you dogs!' screamed Ms Bush as she ran from a waiting crowd of reporters (pictured is Elias Moufferrige)

The four are accused of helping the disgraced former Auburn deputy mayor stage a car crash in Lidcombe in October last year (pictured is Salim Mehajer)

'F*** off you dogs!' screamed Ms Bush as she ran from a waiting crowd of reporters, News.com.au reported.

'Not guilty, my name is Bob, get out of here' Michael Moufferrige said as he walked past the cameras.

When asked whether he knows Mr Mehajer, Mr Moufferrige said 'No' and continued walking away.

The four are charged with one count of conspiring with each other, Mehajer and his business associate, Ahmed Jaghbir, to cheat and defraud an insurer.

A court previously heard Fakaha Moufferrige was driving and Bush was in the passenger seat when they collided with Mehajer's Mercedes AMG before 9am on October 16.

'Remarkably, the airbags do not go off in either vehicle,' magistrate Jennifer Giles said at Mehajer's bail hearing last month.

'Not guilty, my name is Bob, get out of here' Michael Moufferrige (pictured) said as he walked past the cameras

Michael Moufferrige was allegedly seen driving behind the two women before the crash, and later he and his brother Elias were heard in telephone intercepts to be claiming $10,000 for helping Mehajer, the court heard.

Court documents say Michael Moufferrige has previously spent time in custody and been charged with violent offences.

The four relatives, who all live at the same East Lidcombe address, will remain on bail ahead of their next mention on March 28.

They're all required to report to police three times a week and to not contact or go near Mehajer and Jaghbir, who are both charged with perverting the course of justice and conspiracy to cheat and defraud over the crash.

The four accused allegedly faked the crash involving Mehajer so he could avoid facing court on charges of assaulting a taxi driver at the Star casino (pictured is Elias Moufferrige)

Mehajer has been behind bars at Silverwater Correctional Complex since being refused bail in January (pictured is Michael Moufferrige)

Jaghbir, 28, is also defending an unrelated murder charge following the shooting death in March last year of Sydney underworld figure Kemel Barakat.

He was granted strict conditional bail over the crash last month.

The four are accused of helping the disgraced former Auburn deputy mayor stage a car crash in Lidcombe in October last year.

The four accused allegedly faked the crash involving Mehajer so he could avoid facing court on charges of assaulting a taxi driver at the Star casino.

Mehajer has been behind bars at Silverwater Correctional Complex since being refused bail in January.A relieved mother who reunited with her son at the Florida high school where a shooter armed with a AR-15 rifle killed 17 and injured 50 spoke out in fury on Wednesday.

'We can't let this go on... no more of our children can die anymore,' the unnamed mother to a teen boy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland told the West Palm Beach News.

'Nothing is going to change. Nothing! Not one thing is going to change because this country has gone bananas!,' she said.

Her son, a theater student, explained to the reporter about how he had been inside the school's theater room rehearsing at the time the teens heard the fire alarm go off, for the second time that day.

A Florida mother (right) who reunited with her son (left) spoke furiously after the school shooting took the lives of 70

'Nothing is going to change. Nothing! Not one thing is going to change because this country has gone bananas!,' the unnamed mother told the West Palm Beach News

Her son, a theater student, described how he heard the fire alarm go off Wednesday afternoon

The student said after the alarm: 'What happened was, four students stepped out, we heard three gunshots, and we all ran inside.

'There's two rooms in the theater room. I went inside one of them, and five minutes passed and our teacher said she wanted everyone in the back room where we were safe,' he recalled of the moment, nervously.

'An hour passed... there were 70 kids and there was a book keeping room where the SWAT team came and we ran. We just ran...,' he said.

'It was scary. It was crazy.'

The teen did not have his cell phone with him at the time to contact his parents.

Police and emergency crews are seen gathered at the scene of the high school (left). The mom and teen spoke Wednesday afternoon after the shooting

Mom to the teen said that while she is relieved to have gotten the text from her son that he is safe, she feels for the victims

He said he was able to reach them by using others students' phones.

'I didn't have my phone but I was trying to text my parents to tell both of them that I'm OK and i'm safe. I was texting from multiple phones,' he told WPBF.

'As soon as I got out, I called them, telling them I was OK.'

The teen revealed he was worried even more that something may have happened at his sister's middle school.

'Thank God nothing happened there. It's very tragic.'

The gunman was identified as Nikolas Cruz, 19 (pictured) who students said was 'obsessed' with weapons

Students are evacuated by police from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018

The gunman opened fire on several innocent students, killing 17 and injuring at least 50 others

Mom to the teen said that while she is relieved to have gotten the text from her son about his safety, she feels for shooting victims everywhere.

'My point is, and this is what everyone needs to hear in America... what is it going to take to make a change in this country?!,' she shouted.

She went on: 'If they didn't do it for the four and five year-olds and they're not doing it for our 14 and 15-year-olds. Who are they going to make this change for?!'

Nikolas Cruz, 19, the gunman said to be 'obsessed' with weapons, stormed into Douglas High Wednesday afternoon when he opened fire on several innocent students.

Cruz has been taken into custody.

The high school is currently on lockdown as investigation ensues.

People gather waiting for word from students at Coral Springs Drive and the Sawgrass Expressway just south of the campus following following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida

The shooter surrendered to cops Wednesday afternoon after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High SchoolDashcam footage has emerged of a driver nearly mowing down joggers who darted in front of his 4WD as he turned at an intersection.

The vision, which starts with the vehicle waiting behind two cars at a busy stretch of road in New South Wales, has sparked a social media debate over who is in the wrong.

As the driver paused for traffic to slow on his right hand side, a pair of runners can be seen crossing the path of the 4WD moments before the vehicle turned left and almost hit them both.

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The shocking vision shows the dashcam owner as he waited behind two other cars at a busy stretch of road (pictured) in New South Wales

As the driver paused for traffic to slow on his right hand side, a pair of runners (one pictured) can be seen crossing the path of the 4WD before he turned left and almost hit them both

The two pedestrians jumped out of the way of the turning vehicle and the driver continued without turning back.

The driver shared the footage on Dashcam Owner's Australia and asked the community of road safety enthusiasts who they believed was at fault.

'Honestly wondering if I was at fault or the runners? After the ranger took off, I was looking to my right to check for an opening,' dashcam owner Carlos said.

The moderators of the Facebook page told its followers they believed the footage displayed a 'grey area' of the road safety rule-book.

'If you are turning into a street and there are pedestrians crossing you must give way to them, however that is technically not what occurs here,' the post read.

'According to the NSW RMS - "You must also give way to pedestrians if there is a danger of colliding with them, even if there is no marked pedestrian crossing."

'So technically you should give way to them to avoid an accident but at the same time we feel they should not walk in front of a vehicle when the driver would be looking the other way.'

Impassioned social media users were also divided over which party was truly at fault in the footage.

Some blamed the jogging pedestrians for causing a dangerous situation by walking in front of a car at an intersection.

'Pedestrians also should not just run across the road expecting cars to stop,' Kevin Scott said.

'The runners were plain dumb, almost suicidally so, but the law is unambiguous, the driver of a vehicle turning at an intersection must always give way to pedestrians,' Rob Stewart wrote.

The driver shared the footage (pictured) on Dashcam Owner's Australia and asked the community of road safety enthusiasts who was at fault

However others pointed out the driver was at fault for failing to check both directions before turning.

'Runners were clearly visible for at least five seconds before collision. Driver is 100% at fault,' Tracey Hastie wrote.

'The car driver was required to give way at the intersection, which includes pedestrians,' Kevin Swenson said.

According to Australian Road Rules, a pedestrian must not cause a traffic hazard by moving into the path of a driver.

The rules also state that a driver is not required to give way to a pedestrian who is crossing the road that the driver is leaving.Getting shot in the face outside a Sydney gym on Thursday afternoon was just another bloody chapter in the life of ex-bikie boss Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi.

A masked gunman opened fire on the former Comancheros president, 37, at Fitness First Rockdale, in the city's south, about 12.10pm on Thursday.

Paramedics and police tried to save the father-of-two as the suspected gunman leapt into a getaway car.

Hawi died hours after being taken to hospital in a critical condition where he was reportedly 'brain dead'.

The Lebanese migrant was freed from jail about two years ago for his role in a fatal brawl between the Comancheros and rival gang the Hells Angels at Sydney Airport.

Former Comancheros boss Mick Hawi, with wife Caroline Gonzales, in a social media photo. The pair have been married since 1995 and have two sons

Hawi, left and right, pleaded guilty to manslaughter over his role in a fatal brawl at the airport

A shot of Sydney Airport following the violent fracas in the terminal in 2009

Authorities screened off parts of the airport from onlookers following the stunning brawl

The melee was described in court as an 'explosion of violence' - featuring a flurry of punches and stabbings - and ended with Anthony Zervas, the brother of a Hells Angels gang members, being knifed in the chest and bludgeoned to death with a 17kg steel bollard.

'You're a dead man, you're f***ing dead,' witnesses recalled underworld figure Hawi screaming at the rival group.

'Next time we see you, you're going to have bullet holes through you. You are a dead man walking'.

Shocked passengers watched as the deadly 'all in brawl' unfolded in front of them. The incident, which sparked international headlines, led to a nationwide crackdown on bikie activities.

Hawi was running a car detailing company when he was taken into custody. He had been president of the Comancheros since 2002 but was replaced after going into police custody.

Forensics (in white) inspected the former Comanchero boss's bullet-riddled Mercedes SUV

New South Wales police cordoned off the crime scene in the Fitness First car park

Hawi stepped out of his Mercedes SUV - and was killed in a hail of bullets

A jury originally found him guilty of murder and affray and he was sentenced to close to two decades behind bars, eligible for parole in 2030. But the conviction was overturned on appeal.

Hawi later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to about three-and-a-half years' jail time.

Justice Clifton Hoeben found Hawi had been part of the 'ferocious' fighting throughout the terminal but had not played a role in the deadly assault on Zervas, 29.

Relatives claimed he was a 'changed person' after his initial stint in jail. He volunteered with a funeral company. His wife told the court in an affidavit that he 'want(ed) nothing more to do with the Comancheros.

The judge found Hawi's prospects for rehabilitation were 'good' and prison authorities described him as pleasant and polite behind bars.

Daily Mail Australia understands he was freed in early 2016. He has two sons aged in their primary school years.

Hawi had kept a low profile since his release - that is, until he opened the door of his luxury Mercedes SUV in the gym car park today and critically injured by a hail of bullets.Students have described the 'violent' past of troubled teenage gunman Nikolas Cruz amid an outcry over how he was able to go on the rampage at a Florida school.

Cruz, 19, is suspected of murdering 17 in the horrific Valentine's Day attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

It has emerged that the teenager had been banned from carrying a backpack on campus prior to being expelled and had already been identified as a potential threat to students long before the deadly rampage.

One pupil at the school revealed that they 'knew it was going to be him' and others said he had 'always been very violent' and had become 'progressively more weird'.

Authorities are now trying to piece together exactly how he was able to carry out the horrific mass shooting given the warning signs that students and staff have since revealed.

Cruz was wearing a gas mask when he stormed the school armed with an AR-15 rifle, multiple magazines and smoke grenades, killing 17 people and injuring dozens more.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, was arrested after he stormed Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Wednesday afternoon armed with an assault rifle

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said Cruz had been expelled from the high school unspecified disciplinary reasons but he managed to reenter the school before unleashing terror.

He had been banned from carrying a backpack around last year after bullet fragments were found in his bag after he got into a fight with fellow student.

Broward Sheriff Scott Israel said Cruz was a former student at the school but had been expelled for unknown 'disciplinary reasons' last year

As a high school freshman, Cruz was part of the US military-sponsored Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corp program at the school.

Sources told CNN that the gunman purchased the rifle in the past year and passed a required background check to obtain it.

His traumatized former classmates said that when they first heard the gunshots ringing out on Wednesday, they immediately knew it would be Cruz.

Dakota Mutchler, a 17-year-old junior, said he used to be close friends with Cruz but hadn't seen him in more than a year following his expulsion from school.

'He started progressively getting a little more weird,' Mutchler said.

'He started going after one of my friends, threatening her, and I cut him off from there.

'I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him.'

Cruz had posted multiple photos on his Instagram of him posing with various weapons

Authorities dissecting his social media accounts reported that some of things he had been posting was 'very, very disturbing'

Student Adam Habona, who lived next door to Cruz for six months described him as a violent loner who stole from neighbors and hurled coconuts at their homes.

Habona told Sun Online he believed the suspect had racist and extreme political views and said Cruz once smashed a security glass of a classroom door before he was expelled.

'One time he stole something out of neighbors garage another time he was throwing coconuts at the neighbours houses. He was not a good kid,' he said.

Matthew Walker, a 17-year-old student at the school, told WFOR-TV that all his classmates also 'knew it was going to be him.'

'A lot of people were saying it was going to be him,' he said.

'A lot of kids threw jokes around saying that he was going to be the one to shoot up the school. It turns out that everyone predicted it. That's crazy.'

Another classmate, Chad Williams, described Cruz as 'kind of an outcast' who was known for unruly behavior at school, including a penchant for pulling false fire alarms, and was 'crazy about guns.'

Current student attendee Alaina Cruz told Good Morning Britain people have been predicting the former pupil might do something like this: 'Yeah, it's true. Ever since middle school he's always been very violent, just not in the right state of mind. He just used to break things around the school just for the fun of it. He wasn't a good kid.'

One teacher said Cruz had been identified as a potential threat to his classmates last year.

Jim Gard, a math teacher who taught Cruz last year, told the Miami Herald: 'We were told last year that he wasn't allowed on campus with a backpack on him.

'There were problems with him last year threatening students and I guess he was asked to leave campus.'

Another student took to social media soon after the shooting claiming that Cruz had mental health issues that were 'ignored by all the adults'.

The suspected gunman was checked out at a hospital after his arrest (above in a hospital gown) and is now being held at a secure location in a public building

Authorities inspect the AR-15 rifle the teen gunman used in the mass shooting on Wednesday

Authorities quickly started dissecting his social media accounts to try and piece together a motive following the shooting.

They reported that some of things he had been posting was 'very, very disturbing'.

Cruz's Instagram is filled with disturbing posts of himself showing off weapons, a bullet-riddle target with the caption 'group therapy' and also a post that showed a Google search for 'Allahu Akbar'.

In one post, he shared an online ad for a Maverick 88 Slug shotgun. Another showed a bullet-riddled target with a caption 'Group Therapy.' The post before that one showed a Google search for 'Allahu Akbar.'

Students also claimed he had another Instagram page with photos of small animals he had killed and that Cruz talked of doing target practice in his backyard with a pellet gun.

Despite all of this, school superintendent, Robert Runcie, told reporters on Wednesday that he didn't know of any concerns raised about Cruz.

'We received no warnings,' he said.

'Potentially there could have been signs out there. But we didn't have any warning or phone calls or threats that were made.'

Cruz was adopted as an infant and raised by Roger and Lynda Cruz, a family member told ABC News. Family say his adoptive mother died a few months ago.Virtually all of Australia's shellfish reefs have disappeared, making them the country's most threatened ocean ecosystem.

On Thursday scientist called for more investment to rescue the important marine habitats.

While recent global focus has been on the destruction of coral reefs, a study led by the Nature Conservancy found that between 90 and 99 percent of shellfish reefs have vanished since British colonisation 230 years ago.

The reefs, formed by millions of oysters or mussels clustering together, used to occur in bays, estuaries and nearshore coastal waters in both tropical and temperate regions across every state in Australia.

Virtually all of Australia's shellfish reefs have disappeared, making them the country's most threatened ocean ecosystem, scientists say

They are complex living structures that provide food and shelter for a range of other invertebrate and fish species, while aiding water filtration and shoreline protection.

'We already knew shellfish reefs were in bad shape globally with 85 percent of them lost or severely degraded,' said study leader Chris Gillies, marine manager at The Nature Conservancy.

'Our study confirms the situation for these important marine habitats in Australia is even worse, with less than one percent of flat oyster and 10 percent of rock oyster habitats remaining.'

Ian McLeod, senior research scientist at James Cook University's Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystem Research, said few people were aware of the issue, with the Great Barrier Reef being what first springs to mind as Australia's most endangered ocean ecosystem.

'And its true that the Great Barrier Reef and other coral reefs are under threat, but its the shellfish reefs that have really suffered the most,' he said.

'Its just that most of them disappeared before we were born so people aren't aware we've lost them.'

Much of the destruction occurred during the 1800s and early 1900s due to overfishing, habitat modification, disease outbreaks, invasive species and a decline in water quality.

The study, published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, said the most dramatic decline had been for reefs formed by the flat oyster, with just one known location left -- Georges Bay in Tasmania -- from 118 historically.

Scientists say the degradation of shellfish reefs contributes to the release of stored carbon, worsening climate change and increasing coastal risks associated with more frequent and intense storms, sea level rise and ocean acidification

The second worst was the rock oyster, with only six reefs remaining from 60 previously.

Scientists said their degradation contributed to the release of stored carbon, worsening climate change and increasing coastal risks associated with more frequent and intense storms, sea level rise and ocean acidification.

But the reefs can be restored by eliminating the threats that previously wiped them out.

The study recommended better education on the function and value of shellfish ecosystems, extra protection for those that remain, and more money for restoration projects.

'There is still time to arrest the decline in shellfish reefs and restore them to places where they once provided people and nature these benefits,' said Gillies.A teenage student has been arrested for allegedly plotting a school shooting after his grandmother found a semiautomatic rifle hiding in his guitar case and a detailed journal which contained plans for a pressure cooker bomb.

Joshua Alexander O'Connor was arrested by police in Everett, 30 miles north of Seattle, Washington, on attempted murder and other charges at ACES High School according to The Daily Herald.

His grandmother called 911 and showed responding officers a journal where he allegedly drew up plans to shoot students and use homemade explosives at the school, police said.

O'Connor wrote that he wanted the death count to be as high as possible so that the shooting would be infamous, according to court papers.

Joshua Alexander O'Connor was arrested by police on attempted murder and other charges at ACES High School (pictured)

His entries included details about making pressure-cooker bombs, activating inert grenades and deploying explosives for maximum casualties, court papers said.

He allegedly wrote: 'I'm preparing myself for the school shooting. I can't wait. My aim has gotten much more accurate... I can't wait to walk into that class and blow all those (expletives) away.'

He continued: 'I need to make this count. I've been reviewing many mass shootings/bombings (and attempted bombings) I'm learning from past shooters/bombers mistakes.'

After his grandmother read the entries, she found a semiautomatic rifle hiding in his guitar case. She then called police on Tuesday.

Detectives serving a search warrant at the grandmother's house seized the student's journal, the rifle and inert grenades.

In court on Wednesday, deputy prosecutor Andrew Alsdorf said that O'connor bought the rifle because it was the same style used in the Columbine High School massacre in 1999.

Public defender Rachel Forde noted the gun and the grenade shells were legal to possess.

She said the 'musings and ventings' in O'Connor's journal weren't enough evidence to support a charge of attempted murder.

Another entry allegedly described an armed robbery of a convenience store that police believe O'Connor participated in Monday night.

Cash from the robbery was supposed to help fund the school shooting, said deputy prosecutor Andrew Alsdorf in court. When police search his room, they also found a green-and-black jacket that reportedly matched the one worn by the gunman in the robbery.

O'Connor's bail was set at $5million.

The incident comes just as 17 people were shot dead by former student Nikolas Cruz, 19, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida.Finance Minister Mathias Cormann will replace embattled Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce as acting PM when Malcolm Turnbull flies to the United States next week.

Joyce, who was revealed to be expecting his first son with former staffer Vikki Campion last week, will be taking leave from February 19 to February 25.

Ordinarily, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Julie Bishop, would be next in line for the role, but she is currently overseas.

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Barnaby Joyce (right) will take leave from February 19 to February 25 after revelations of his affair and unborn child with former staffer Vikki Campion (left) became headline news last week

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann (pictured) will replace Joyce as Acting Prime Minister while Malcolm Turnbull is in the United States

Turnbull and Joyce have reportedly been discussing the Deputy's leave since Monday, but the New England MP only agreed to take time off on Thursday

Earlier, Ms Bishop had told ABC Radio she would have been happy to cancel her trip to cover for Joyce if needed.

'If circumstances change then of course I would change my plans, but that's not my understanding,' she told ABC radio.

'The Prime Minister has confirmed the usual arrangements will apply when he is overseas, that is, the Deputy Prime Minister is Acting Prime Minister, and I understand that will be the case next week when Prime Minister Turnbull is overseas.'

The Deputy Prime Minister's affair with 33-year-old pregnant former staffer Vikki Campion has caused controversy within the halls of Parliament, and many members of the Coalition are understood to have aired their concerns about Joyce standing in for Turnbull next week.

Joyce's office has released a statement claiming he will use his time on leave to support both his family and Ms Campion after a week of intense media scrutiny.

'The Deputy PM is on leave next week after he advised the PM he wanted to support his family and partner after such intense public focus on personal matters,' the statement read.

The Prime Minister and his embattled Deputy have been discussing the idea of him taking leave since Monday, but Joyce only agreed to take a break on Thursday, Sky News reported.

The Nationals leader (pictured in 2016 with wife Natalie and their daughter) has suffered a sharp drop in his primary vote, which fell from 65 per cent in December to 43 per cent as a result

Joyce's former media adviser Vikki Campion (pictured) is carrying the embattled Deputy Prime Minister's child. She is expecting a son in April

Labor leader Bill Shorten used the announcement to question if Joyce's decision to stand down was a sign his role as Deputy was untenable.

'Doesn't the Prime Minister's announcement just before Question Time about the arrangements of who will be Acting Prime Minister confirm the Deputy Prime Minister cannot do his job?' he asked.

'Or are we simply meant to believe it's all a big coincidence?'

Politicians aren't alone in their concerns about the New England MP.

A ReachTEL poll conducted in Joyce's seat on Tuesday night revealed there had been a dramatic slump in his primary vote.

At the December 2 by-election, Joyce held 65 per cent of the primary vote, while only 43 per cent of those polled said they would vote for him following last week's revelations.

Despite this, he smirked when asked by TV reporters in Canberra if he was confident he would survive politically after Nationals MPs rallied behind their embattled leader.

'Yes, I am. I am very confident,' he said.

Barnaby Joyce smirked for the TV cameras on Thursday and told reporters he was 'very confident' he would survive in his high-powered role within the National Party

TIMELINE OF BARNABY JOYCE AND VIKKI CAMPION - Media adviser Vikki Campion begins working in Barnaby Joyce's office in August 2016. - She shifts to Matt Canavan's office in April 2017. - Campion returns to Joyce's office for several weeks when Canavan is forced to step down over citizenship questions in July. - Campion moves to Nationals whip Damian Drum's office in August 2017, before going on stress leave. - Joyce reveals in parliament in December he is separated from his wife of 24 years, Natalie. - Campion is pregnant with Joyce's child and is due to give birth in April. Source: AAP Advertisement

The Nationals leader's very public split from his wife of 24 years, Natalie, is turning off more men than women, the poll of 1,206 residents commissioned by Fairfax Media found.

Almost half of voters surveyed in his rural northern New South Wales seat believe their local member should either resign as Deputy Prime Minister or leave parliament altogether.

Mr Joyce faced voters at a December 2 by-election, triggered by the discovery he was a dual New Zealand citizen through his father.

His affair and separation from the mother of his four daughters has divided voters in his electorate, with 47.2 per cent of them believing he should either resign as Deputy Prime Minister or quit parliament altogether, compared with 45.3 per cent who say he should stay as Nationals leader.

Men appear to be more offended by his affair, with 49.6 per cent of male voters in his seat believing he should quit his party leadership or leave politics, compared with 44.9 of women in New England.

Despite the bad political news, the poll found Mr Joyce would hold his seat 52 per cent to 48 per cent, after preferences, if he faced a challenge from his long-time nemesis and former independent MP Tony Windsor.Controversial Muslim activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied has confirmed a complaint has been lodged about her to the Australian Human Rights Commission.

The 26-year-old London-based writer, who grew up in Brisbane, told her 47,000 Twitter followers her social media messages had upset someone.

'So apparently my tweets are worth complaining about to the Aus Human Rights Commission,' she said on Wednesday before deleting that message.

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Controversial Muslim activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied has confirmed a complaint has been lodged about her to the Australian Human Rights Commission

The 26-year-old London-based writer told her 47,000 Twitter followers her social media messages had upset someone

'I cant give you more details ... but it does make me wonder - should I have been reporting every single thing that people said to me that was racially, religiously or sexually charged?.'

The Human Rights Commission would not confirm to Daily Mail Australia if a complaint had been made about Ms Abdel-Magied, who last year moved to the U.K.

She did not disclose which of her tweets had prompted the complaint.

The founder of Youth Without Borders has been a magnet for controversy since April last year, when she linked Anzac Day with the plight of Palestinians and asylum seekers held in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

While she apologised for that message, she last month stirred more controversy when she linked diversity quotas with Western colonialism.

In November, she told The Project her treatment in Australia by her critics was like an abusive relationship

Last month she linked diversity quotas for minorities with Western colonialisation and slavery

'Don't like 'diversity' quotas? Well, your ancestors shoulda thought about that before they went all over the world colonizing and enslaving. #justsayin,' she wrote in January.

In November, the former ABC-TV host controversially likened Australia's treatment of her to an abusive relationship, telling The Project it was 'like dating an abusive guy, you love a lot of things about them but they hurt you deep'.

Former Labor leader Mark Latham in August accused her of 'anti-white racism' after she engaged in a controversial Twitter conversation with journalist Osman Faruqi about the dual citizenship crisis in parliament.

Faruqi, who has taken legal action against Mr Latham, had tweeted 'the white people are getting f***eed, Yas, it's happening,' to which she replied: 'Hahahaha. Look, they wanted people to go back to where they came from ... and they didn't realise it included them too?'.

In April last year, she was widely slammed for her Anzac Day tweet which said: 'Lest. We. Forget. (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine)'.An Australian-wide product recall has been issued for Cadbury Caramilk chocolate after it was discovered some products were found to contain plastic.

An Australian-wide recall has been issued for Cadbury Caramilk chocolate (pictured)

In the post shared to the Cadbury Dairy Milk Facebook page a warning urged chocolate-lovers to return blocks with the best before date of 17/01/2019 and 21/01/2019.

'A limited number of Cadbury Caramilk products have been found to contain small, flexible pieces of food grade plastic as a result of a machinery fault during the manufacturing process,' a statement read.

'Cadbury Caramilk products containing plastic may cause injury if consumed.'

While an analysis of the samples received so far showed there was not a serious health risk, the recall was initiated to prevent minor injury as a precaution.

A warning urged chocolate-lovers to return blocks with a best before date of 17/01/2019 and 21/01/2019

Cadbury advised consumers should not eat the affected product and, instead, return it to the place of purchase for a full refund - no proof-of-purchase required.

The news follows revelations Caramilk-enthusiasts had taken to the black market to sell the highly sought- after treat.

A chocolate frenzy swept the market with fast-thinking opportunists selling their precious golden bars to make a tidy profit.

The highly sought after Caramilk left supermarket shelves as quickly as they were stacked, leaving many caramel lovers missing out on the rare treat.

Those lucky enough to get their hands on a block have been making a sneaky profit, selling the chocolate bars online from as little as $8.

Some shared images of the limited golden bars, a mix of white chocolate and caramel, where they said they were selling it for $30 per 190 gram block

Some people even took to Twitter to boast about their stash of Caramilk which cost '$60'

The popular Cadbury chocolate bar was first sold in New Zealand where it sold out in three weeks.

Commenters on the social media update were apprehensive about giving up their caramel goodness in spite of the risks.

'You can't have my Caramilk sorry I'll take the risk,' wrote one man.

'You're not getting my caramilk back, its hard enough getting my hands on it in the 1st place so Ill take the risk,' penned one woman.

Others were less than impressed they were asked to return their precious milky treats.

The highly sought after Cadbury chocolate bar sold out of many supermarkets

The popular Cadbury chocolate bar was first sold in New Zealand where it sold out in three weeks with Australia appearing to follow suit

'No!' said one woman. 'Are they serious? Firstly you tease us with small quantities of this extremely desirable chocolate which I am yet to find and now you say it could be contaminated with plastic???? Come on!!!! You need to get your act together and make this a regular Aussie product minus the plastic. Why should the kiwis have it and we dont?'

Another thought it was all a ploy to get the chocolate back on the shelves.

'So Cadbury can't seem to keep the supply up on this flavour in Australia, and now they want people to return them!! Good luck there!'

Commenters on the social media update were apprehensive about giving up their caramel goodness in spite of the risks

Some were less than impressed they were asked to return their precious milky treatsA woman has died after a utility truck smashed into her car while she was stopped at a red light in Melbourne.

Victorian police were called to the scene at the corner of Wellington Road and Braeburn Parade in Rowville, Melbourne's outer east shortly after 11am on Thursday.

The woman was stopped at an intersection when a Holden Rodeo utility truck reportedly smashed into her silver Mitsubishi Lancer sedan.

The female driver died at the scene.

The woman was at an intersection in Melbourne's east when a Holden Rodeo utility truck reportedly smashed into her silver Mitsubishi Lancer sedan

Victoria Police said she was the only person in the vehicle at the time of the horror smash.

The driver of the Holden Rodeo, a 33-year-old man from Seville in Melbourne's east, was taken into police custody.

Major Collision Investigation Unit detectives remain at the scene to investigate circumstances surrounding the fatal collision.

Wellington Road at Silkwood Way has been blocked off in both directions, with traffic expected to be diverted well into the afternoon.

Officers urged any witnesses to speak to the police or phone Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.The body of a missing man has been found in the wall of an abandoned motel by a thief who had broken into the property.

Timothy Johnson was last seen on December 6 and police found his car the next day at Crestview Baptist Church in Griffin, Georgia.

Captain Dwayne Jones said investigators searched the property three times and cadaver dogs searched the area twice but found nothing.

However, more than two months later, a trespasser stumbled across his body at a former Howard Johnson motel.

Timothy Johnson (pictured) was last seen on December 6 and his body was found by a thief

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution quotes the Spalding County Sheriff's Office saying the thief found the body near a wall that exposed copper pipes and plumbing.

He fled the scene and called 911 and the body was taken to the state crime lab for an autopsy and positive identification.

Griffin police Lt. Joe Hudson rushed to the motel and later notified fire crews who were eventually able to locate the body.

The sheriff's office said: 'Identification documents found on the remains indicated (it was) Timothy Johnson.

Mr Johnson's car was found by police officers at Crestview Baptist Church in Griffin (pictured)

'The body was taken to the GBI crime lab for an autopsy and positive identification.

'All indications are that the body recovered is Timothy Johnson. No foul play is suspected at this time, but investigators are awaiting results from the autopsy.'A young boy claiming to be the son of ex-bikie boss Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi was comforted by friends at the scene of his father's execution-style shooting in a gym car park.

The teenage boy arrived at the Fitness First gym in Rockdale, Sydney, at 3pm after the 37-year-old former Comancheros boss was shot six times by a masked gunman.

Heartbreaking photographs taken at the scene show the distraught boy being consoled by grieving loved ones only hours after the shots were fired.

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The teenage boy (pictured) arrived at the Fitness First gym in Rockdale, Sydney at 3pm after the 37-year-old former Comancheros boss was shot six times by a masked gunman

Heartbreaking photographs taken at the scene show the distraught boy being consoled by grieving loved ones only hours after the shots were fired

The young man reportedly told waiting media: 'Do you know who that is? It's my dad.'

The teenager was photographed hugging and speaking with two men and two women outside the Rockdale gym.

He left the scene shortly after and departed in a car alongside his girlfriend and her mother, The Daily Telegraph reports.

Hawi went into cardiac arrest following the brazen daylight shooting and was rushed to St George Hospital in Sydney's south where he was unable to be saved and died.

The father-of-two was in the front seat of his luxury Mercedes SUV when he was shot six times by at least one gunman in a balaclava, witnesses said.

Hawi's bullet-ridden black car can be seen sitting outside the gym, where the former bikie boss was known to train regularly.

Shots appear to have been fired at the driver's side window, with one shattering the passenger window and going into the Fitness First building.

The young man (pictured) reportedly told waiting media: 'Do you know who that is? It's my dad'

NSW Ambulance said they responded to reports of a shooting at a Fitness First (pictured) on West Botany Street in Rockdale, in Sydney's South, on Thursday

Hawi (pictured) went into cardiac arrest following the brazen daylight shooting and was rushed to St George Hospital in Sydney's south where he later died.

The shooter fled in a vehicle and was last seen on Lindsay Street, police say.

Officers have cordoned off the area and the forensic examiners are assessing the crime scene.

'A crime scene has been established and investigations are continuing,' a police spokesperson said.

A crime scene has also been set up on nearby Chandler Lane, where a vehicle, believed to be the getaway car, was torched and abandoned.

Reshan Mutukrishna, who owns a physiotherapy clinic inside the gym, said Hawi was a regular.

The father-of-two (pictured left and right) was in the front seat of his luxury Mercedes SUV when he was shot six times by at least one gunman in a balaclava, witnesses said

Hawi's bullet-ridden black car (pictured) can be seen sitting outside the gym, where the former bikie boss was known to train regularly

Officers cordoned off the area and forensic examiners assessed the crime scene (pictured)

Mr Mutukrishna said he heard four loud bangs, which he initially thought were weights being dropped, before the gym was locked down.

'I heard a lot of screaming and shouting, I just thought maybe someone fell at the gym,' he said.

'It's shocking. It's sad but it's not surprising.'

A man who works at Opposite Lock South Sydney, which is located across the street, told Daily Mail Australia he heard six shots but didn't look outside.

'I only saw the aftermath, everyone trying to stop the bleeding,' he said.

Two people dressed in black were seen fleeing the scene shortly after the shooting (pictured)

A vehicle, believed to be the getaway car, was torched and abandoned nearby the scene

Mr Mutukrishna said he heard four loud bangs, which he initially thought were weights being dropped, before the gym was locked down (Pictured is Hawi's car)

Police set up a crime scene around the car where the former bikie boss was shot (pictured)

NSW Police have cordoned off the carpark in front of the gym's entrance where a black four-wheel drive with apparent bullet holes is parked (pictured)

Police are investigating if there is a connection between the shooting and a car that was set alight nearby on Beach Street in Kogarah shortly afterwards.

Men who had been working out inside the gym at the time of the attack said they didn't hear any gunshots.

One of the men said he was on the treadmill at the time Hawi was shot.

A large group of Comanchero bikies and women are weeping outside of the hospital, which is being guarded by public order and riot squad officers.The Senate has called on an embattled Barnaby Joyce to resign as Deputy Prime Minister.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale moved a motion at Parliament House in Canberra calling on Mr Joyce to quit as Nationals leader for 'clearly breaching the standards required of ministers' and if he does not resign, urging his party to sack him.

The motion passed the Senate on Thursday afternoon with the support of Labor, the two Nick Xenophon Team senators and independent Derryn Hinch.

The Senate has called on an embattled Barnaby Joyce to resign as Deputy Prime Minister

The motion passed the Senate with the support of Labor, two Nick Xenophon Team senators and independent Derryn Hinch

Labor and the Greens have zeroed in on the under-fire Nationals leader over his acceptance of a rent-free apartment in Armidale offered to him by millionaire businessman Greg Maguire.

The 50-year-old former accountant is also being grilled over whether any rules have been broken in regard to jobs provided to his former staffer and now partner Vikki Campion, 33, who is seven months pregnant.

It came after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull confirmed his troubled deputy would not be filling in for him next week as he visited the United States, with Liberal Finance Minister Mathias instead filling the role with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop overseas.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale moved the motion calling on Mr Joyce to resign for 'clearly breaching the standards required of ministers'Already looking for a good excuse to take another holiday? Look no further than Jetstar's latest batch of dirt cheap deals.

The airline's offering bargain one-way flights on a bevy of domestic and international destinations.

Head to Bali for $199, Phuket for $209 or Honolulu for $239. Or, if Australian vacations are more your cup of tea, Jetstar will fly you to wintry Hobart for $65, balmy Cairns for $95 or Byron Bay for as little as $45.

Jetstar has announced a bevy of discount domestic and international flights

Customers will be able to fly to a range of holiday destinations such as Bali, Phuket and Honolulu at bargain rates

The discounts are available for a limited time - some flights, however, are running as late as December

The discounts deals are available for a limited time or until sold out, and are only available within particular dates.

Most of those dates fall within April, May or June - but if you're looking to plan your end-of-year holiday six months in advance, you'll be happy to hear that some of the international bargains are running as late as September and December.

Head to the Jetstar website for further details.Bondi dog owners have been warned of someone planting dog treats contaminated with poison under trees up and down Lamrock Avenue.

A local couple found small white packages on Sunday and have reported it to police, council and local vets.

Vix Erber, a dog owner who resides in Bondi and posted the initial post on Facebook, spoke to Daily Mail Australia and says this is not the first time this sort of incident has happened.

'Poisoned treats' are found in parks and under trees in Bondi

Vix Erber is a Bondi local and says this is not the first time something like this has happened

'We're used to this happening in Bondi and it's disappointing that we now have to be scared walking the streets with our dogs,' said Ms Erber.

'Gone are the days where you dont have to consider the thought of your dog being poisoned or stolen.

A Waverly council spokesperson confirmed to Daily Mail Australia they received a call on Sunday from a resident concerned there was an attempt to poison dogs in the area.

Bondi dog owners are sharing the Facebook post alerting other dog owners of the packages

Dog owners in Bondi are on alert for these packages

'We can confirm Council did receive a call on Sunday from a resident concerned there was an attempt to poison dogs in the area,' the spokesperson said.

'We sent some rangers to the area and they were unable to find any substance.

'Councils Public Place Cleansing team also attended the area and also didn't find anything.'

The poisoned treats are described as white pieces of material held down by pebbles.

Some people have dogs as their kids and would be devastated if their dog was killed

Locals are outraged this sort of thing is still happening nowadays

The council says there has been no evidence of the suspicious packages

Waverly Council is taking all reports of dog poisoning seriously

Ms Erber is outraged that this sort of thing could be happening nowadays.

She said people have dogs as their children because they couldn't have children and those who are putting out the 'poisoned treats' are killing people's children.

'I have a dog, a French bulldog, Vegas, and if he were were to eat one of those treats I would feel like it's someone is purposely trying to kill my child.

'It's beyond comprehensible that people would do this and these people should be treated as murderers.

'They're killing our children. Some people's dogs are their children.'

Waverly Council is taking all reports of dog poisoning seriously and are unable to find any evidence of this occurring.Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has banned his ministers from having sex with their staff and has sent Barnaby Joyce on leave.

The PM formally addressed Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce's affair with his former media advisor Vikki Campion, 33, in a press conference in Canberra on Thursday.

He announced the ministerial code of conduct had been rewritten to forbid ministers engaging in sexual relations with their staff, regardless of whether they were married or single.

'I do not care whether they are married or single, I don't care. They must not have sexual relations with their staff, that's it,' Mr Turnbull said.

The PM spoke with media about Mr Joyce's marriage breakdown and affair with the 33-year-old outside the Prime Minister's Courtyard in Canberra on Thursday

'I think we know that the real issue is the terrible hurt and humiliation that Barnaby his conduct has visited on his wife Natalie and their daughters and his new partner.'

'Barnaby made a shocking error of judgement in having affair with a young woman in his own office. In doing so he has set off a world of woe for those women before all of us. Our hearts go out to them.'

'It has been dreadful for them to go through with the glare of publicity. Marriage breakups are dreadful.'

'But to do it, to experience it in the full. To experience it in the full glare of the spotlight is a dreadful business.'

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has formally addressed Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce's affair with his former media advisor Vikki Campion

Mr Turnbull addressed the ministerial code of conduct and revealed a slight rewrite which now formally bans relationships between ministers and their staff.

'Doing so will constitute a breach of the standards and while this new standard is very specific, ministers should be acutely aware of the context in which I am making this change and the need for them always to behave in their personal relations with others.'

Mr Turnbull also encouraged Mr Joyce to 'consider his position' as he moved forward with Ms Campion, who was pregnant with his child.

On Tuesday, Mr Joyce apologised to his estranged wife, Natalie, daughters, pregnant partner Vikki Campion, Coalition MPs and voters, but showed no sign he intended to step down.

The embattled Deputy Prime Minister (pictured, right) spoke out about his affair with staffer Vikki Campion (pictured, left) on Tuesday

'I would like to say to Natalie (pictured, left) how deeply sorry I am for all the hurt this has caused,' said Mr Joyce (pictured, right)

'I would like to say to [my wife] Natalie how deeply sorry I am for all the hurt this has caused. To my girls, how deeply sorry I am for all the hurt it has caused them,' Mr Joyce told reporters outside federal parliament on Tuesday.

Mr Joyce said his marriage had been under pressure for some time before the affair began.

Mr Joyce denied breaching the ministerial code of conduct, which says frontbenchers cannot employ close relatives or partners or get them work in other ministerial offices 'without the prime minister's express approval'.

The Nationals leader said Ms Campion was 'without a shadow of doubt' his current partner, slamming accusations he used his position to get her ministerial jobs.

Mr Joyce is expecting a child with his former media adviser Vikki Campion (pictured), having split with his wife of 24-years, Natalie, in December last year

'I am very aware of the Ministerial Code of Conduct. It is without a shadow of a doubt that Vikki Campion is my partner now.'

Despite Ms Campion expecting a baby with Mr Joyce, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister denied he breached the code because she 'could not be considered his partner at the time'.

Ms Campion worked for Mr Joyce from May 2016 until May last year. She fell pregnant to the National Party leader a couple of months later.

Following her departure from Mr Joyce's office, Ms Campion worked for Resources Minister Matt Canavan, and then Nationals MP Damian Drum.

The Nationals leader said Ms Campion (pictured) was 'without a shadow of doubt' his current partner, slamming accusations he used his position to get her ministerial jobs

Prior to her job as a political staffer she spent eight years with The Daily Telegraph as a reporter and later Chief of Staff, a role she held for seven months until July 2014.

But the former journalist's life out of the limelight came to an end after news she was in a relationship and expecting a child with Mr Joyce made headlines last week.

Ms Campion is now in hiding with less than two months until her due date as Mr Joyce faces a growing battle to hold onto his job as the Deputy Prime Minister.Advertisement

A cowering Nikolas Cruz was comforted by his public defender as he was ordered held without bail during his first court appearance on Thursday, in connection to the deadly shooting at a Parkland, Florida high school on Wednesday that left 17 dead and 14 injured.

The 19-year-old wore an orange jump suit and shackles on his wrists and ankles as he was officially charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

He kept his eyes down and didn't speak in court today, other than to confirm his name with a polite 'yes ma'am' to the judge.

Standing next to him was his public defender, Melisa McNeil, who comforted him by putting a hand around his shoulder.

After the hearing, Cruz's defense team revealed that he was on suicide watch and that he understood the magnitude of his actions.

McNeill told reporters gathered outside the courtroom that her client was sad and remorseful.

'He's sad. He's mournful. He's remorseful. He is fully aware of what is going on, and he's just a broken human being,' she said.

She became emotional while speaking to reporters, saying she's fully aware of the impact the shooting has had on the community, as a parent herself.

'I had to have the exact same conversation that every parent in Broward had to have with their children this morning, then I had to walk and meet with him,' McNeill said. 'I'm fully aware of the impact this has on the people who live here.

According to her LinkedIn, she has worked in the homicide division of the Broward public defender's office since 2000.

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A cowering Nikolas Cruz (center, in orange) was ordered held without bond during his first court appearance on Thursday, where he was officially charges with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Cruz (left and right in orange) mostly kept his head down for the brief bond hearing on Thursday

'He's sad. He's mournful. He's remorseful. He is fully aware of what is going on, and he's just a broken human being,' Cruz's public defender Melissa McNeil (pictured) said after the court hearing

Gordon Weekes (pictured), who is also representing Cruz, said the teen 'is deeply troubled and he has endured significant trauma that stems from the loss of his mother'

Another member of the defense team, Gordon Weeks, was brought to tears as he addressed reporters, telling them that Cruz 'recognizes' what he has done and is 'deeply sad'.

'He is dealing with the shock of all this that's going on,' Weeks said.

McNeill and Weeks said that Cruz suffers from autism, depression and has dealt with significant psychological problems - all without the sort of support system that most people have.

'When your brain is not fully developed, you don't know how to deal with these things,' McNeil said. 'That's the child I'm sitting across from.'

Weeks added: 'The child is deeply troubled and he has endured significant trauma that stems from the loss of his mother.'

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has said she is 'certain' prosecutors will be seeking the death penalty for the teen shooter.

Florida gunman Nikolas Cruz's arrest affidavit The complaint affidavit against Nikolas Jacob Cruz reveals he has been charged with 17 counts of pre-meditated murder and confirms both of his parents are dead. The documents say that at 2.23pm on February 14, multiple 911 calls were received of a shooting taking place at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Cruz's height is give as 5'87, his weight as 128 lbs and birthplace United States of America. The affidavit outlines the chain of events that happened during the Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School massacre According to the document, Cruz was first spotted by an unnamed witness after arriving by Uber Both of Cruz's parents are deceased and he is living with a family, who give him his own room The affidavit states that Cruz admitted being the shooter and that he planned to blend in with crowd after carrying out the killings Cruz was charged with a total of 17 counts of premeditated murder relating to the shootings Cruz made his first court appearance accompanied by a public defender 'Multiple deceased persons were observed at the scene,' read the affidavit, which continues that 'the shooter attempted to blend in with fleeing students and was able to elude arriving officers'. A sworn statement from a witness, whose name was redacted, said he recognized Cruz as a 'troubled former student' who arrived in a 'small goldish colored vehicle' The witness stated Cruz was wearing a maroon shirt, black pants and a black hat and was carrying a black duffel bag and black backpack. He was walking 'purposefully' towards school buildings the witness said. 'Within a minute he heard gunshots and called a "Code Red" indicating an emergency on campus,' the affidavit reads. According to the affidavit, both Cruz's parents are deceased and he was staying with a family who have given him his own room in their house. 'Cruz stated that he was the gunman and entered the school campus armed with an AR-15 and began shooting students that he saw on the hallways and on the school grounds'. 'Cruz admitted that as students began to flee on foot he decided to plan to discard the AR-15 and vest with additional magazines so he could blend in with the crowd.' Advertisement

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel revealed on Thursday afternoon that Cruz had tried to mix in with a group of students fleeing the school before stopping at fast food restaurants after the attack.

The sheriff said Cruz headed to a Wal-Mart and bought a drink at a Subway restaurant before walking to a McDonald's. Cruz was confronted by a police officer and taken into custody about 40 minutes after leaving the McDonald's.

Cruz was initially taken to the hospital to be treated for 'labored breathing'.

He was soon released to the police who spent most of the night questioning Cruz, trying to make sense of the horrific school shooting - now the third deadliest in American history.

The fact that it was the 30th mass shooting so far this year has spurred activists to call on Congress again to revamp the nation's gun control policies. President Trump, a staunch defender of the National Rifle Association, said at a press conference on Thursday that the real issue lawmakers need to tackle is mental health, not guns.

Meanwhile, details are starting to emerge about the shooter, who recently was orphaned, stopped getting mental health treatment about a year ago and even had ties to a white supremacist group.

Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School painted the picture of a weird and disturbed teen who sold knives out of a lunchbox, bragged about killing animals and was finally kicked out of school for fighting and carrying bullets in his backpack.

An FBI official also said Thursday that they were warned - not once, but twice - about the shooter. One of the warnings came in September, from a bail bondsman in Mississippi who alerted the feds about an alarming online message Cruz wrote saying he was 'going to be a professional school shooter'

This photo provided by the Broward County Jail shows Nikolas Cruz, the teen suspected of killing 17 and injuring more than a dozen in a school shooting on Wednesday in Florida

Cruz was dressed in a hospital uniform as he was seen leaving the Broward County Sheriff's Office early Thursday morning

He was given an orange jumpsuit after arriving at the county jail Thursday morning

Ben Bennight says he alerted the FBI to a comment shared by Cruz on one of his YouTube videos back in September. He says the FBI was quick to respond to the concerning statement, arriving at his office the very next day to find out if he knew anything about the young man.

He didn't hear from the FBI again until after the shooting on Wednesday. At a press conference Thursday morning, an FBI official said they followed up on the report but were 'unable to further identify the person who made the comment'.

Broward County Mayor Beam Furr also revealed that Cruz had been getting treatment at a mental health clinic for a while, but hadn't been back to the clinic in more than a year.

'It wasn't like there wasn't concern for him,' Furr told CNN. 'We try to keep our eyes out on those kids who aren't connected.  In this case we didn't find a way to connect with this kid.'

President Trump and former President Obama weighed in on the tragedy with tweets on Thursday

Trump spoke about the shooting at a mid-morning press conference from the White House

Authorities offered no immediate details about Cruz or his possible motive, except to say that he had been kicked out of the high school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which has about 3,000 students.

Officials wouldn't say why exactly Cruz had been expelled, but fellow students said it was because he got into a fight with his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend and because he was caught with bullets in his backpack.

Authorities quickly started dissecting the shooter's social media accounts in a bid to piece together the motive. Sheriff Israel reported that some of things the shooter had been posting was 'very disturbing'.

In one Instagram post, Cruz posted a screengrab of Google search results for 'what does allahu akbar' mean. Allahu Akbar means 'God is great' in Arabic, and is something Islamist terrorist often shout before attacks.

He captioned the photo: 'Well at least we know what it means when a sand durka [a racial expletive for an Arab person] says 'allahu akbar' [laughing face emojis].'

ABC News reported Thursday that Cruz appeared to have ties to a white nationalist group called the Republic of Florida. A spokesman for the group confirmed Cruz was a member.

Cruz's Instagram is filled with disturbing posts of what appears to be himself showing off weapons, his face sometimes covered, along with other disturbing images and captions

In one Instragram post, Cruz posted a screengrab of Google search results for 'what does allahu akbar' mean. Allahu Akbar means 'God is great' in Arabic, and is something Islamist terrorist often shout before attacks. He captioned the photo: 'Well at least we know what it means when a [racial lslur] says 'allahu akbar' [laughing face emojis].'

Cause for concern: 'I'm going to be a professional school shooter.' wrote Cruz on a video that had been shared by YouTube vlogger Ben Bennight (Cruz's comment above)

The group describes itself as a 'white civil rights organization fighting for white identitarian politics' and seeks to create a 'white ethnostate' in Florida.

The leader of the group, Jordan Jereb, told the Anti-Defamation League that Cruz was brought into the group by another member and had participated in training exercises with the group.

Jereb said that Cruz was not ordered to pull off the shooting and that they are not a terrorist organization.

He added to ABC News that he had not seen Cruz in 'some time' but after the shooting on Wednesday 'he knew he would be getting this call'.

He also said he had 'trouble with a girl' and he believed the timing of the attack, carried out on Valentine's Day, wasn't a coincidence.

A law enforcement official says he knows of 'no known ties' between the suspect who confessed to a deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school and a white supremacist group.

Lt. Grady Jordan is a spokesman for the Leon County Sheriff's Office in Tallahassee, where the white nationalist militia known as the Republic of Florida is based.

He says his office has 'very solid' information on the group and 'there's no known ties that we have that we can connect' 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz with the group.

Cruz suffered a major blow in November when his adoptive mother Lynda Cruz, 68, died of pneumonia. Lynda was apparently the only person Cruz was close with.

'Lynda was very close to them,' her sister-in-law Barbara Kumbatovic told The Washington Post. 'She put a lot of time and effort into those boys, trying to give them a good life and upbringing.'

Lynda and her husband, who died of a heart attack several years ago, adopted Cruz and his biological brother, Zachary, after the couple moved from Long Island in New York to Broward County. Cruz was an infant when he was adopted. It's unclear if he was adopted from the U.S. or aboard. Adopted children from abroad sometimes have issues adjusting due to neglect in their orphanages, especially children from Russia.

Tyra Hemans, a 19-year-old senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, sobs as she holds signs honoring slain teachers and friends near the police cordon around the school in Parkland Florida, U.S., February 15, 2018

A man with a sign is seen after the news conference in the hallway outside the courtroom where Nikolas Cruz appeared via video at a bond court hearing after being charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S., February 15, 2018

The White House flag was lowered to half-staff on Thursday in remembrance of the victims who died in the shooting on Wednesday

The shooting was the 30th mass shooting of the year, a fact that has propelled many, including Kim Kardashian, to demand Congress enact stricter gun control laws

A group of police officers stand guard in front of the entrance of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, on Thursday

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, right, speaks to reporters at a Thursday morning press conference about the shooter

City, county and state officials release balloons in honor of the victims during a prayer vigil for the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting at Parkridge Church in Coral Springs, Florida on February 15, 2018

While his brother was quiet and liked to stay indoors, Cruz constantly got into trouble and appeared to have 'emotional issues'.

'Lynda dealt with it like most parents did. She was probably too good to him,' Kumbatovic said. 'She was a lovely woman. She was a hard-working woman. She made a beautiful home for them. She put a lot of effort and time into their schooling, their recreation, whatever they needed. She was a good parent. And she went over and above because she needed to compensate for being a single parent.'

She added: 'I don't think it had anything to do with his upbringing. It could have been the loss of his mom. I don't know.'

Longtime Cruz family neighbors Malcolm and Christine Roxburgh told the Sun Sentinel that the police came to the boy's house many times, as he used to get in trouble and harass people. He didn't have an arrest record though.

Malcolm Roxburgh said a neighbor across the street kept pigs, and Nicolas Cruz targeted the family.

'He didn't like the pigs and didn't like the neighbors, so he sent over his dog over there to try to attack them,' Roxburgh said. Another neighbor, Shelby Speno, said she once witnessed Cruz shooting at chickens owned by another resident.

Roxburgh's wife said she once caught Cruz peeking in her window.

'I said, 'What are you doing here?' He said he was looking for golf balls. I said, 'This isn't the golf course,'' she said.

And, the couple said, when the boy didn't want to go to school, he would bang his head against a cement wall. They were scared of him. 'He could have killed any of us,' Christine Roxburgh said.

After their mother's death, the boys were left in the care of a family friend - but Cruz didn't stay there very long.

Classes for the rest of the week have been cancelled at the school in Parkland, Florida (pictured above on Thursday)

There continued to be a police presence on the campus on Thursday. Investigators were no doubt continuing to comb the scene for clues

Pictured above is the Broward County Jail where Cruz is being held pending his trial

Unhappy there, Cruz asked to move in with a friend at a mobile home park in northwest Broward. The friend's family agreed and Cruz moved into his own room in the home around Thanksgiving.

'The family brought him into their home,' the family's attorney, Jim Lewis, said. 'They got him a job at a local dollar store. They didn't see anything that would suggest any violence. He was depressed, maybe a little quirky. But they never saw anything violent.  He was just a little depressed and seemed to be working through it.'

Cruz brought his AR-15 rifle with him to the family's home, where it was kept in a locked cabinet that the teen had a key to. Sources told CNN that the gunman purchased the rifle in the past year and passed a required background check to obtain it. Two federal law enforcement officials said the Smith & Wesson M&P rifle was purchased legally at Sunrise Tactical Supply in Coral Springs, Florida. Federal law allows people 18 and over to legally purchase long guns. At 21, people can legally buy handguns from a licensed dealer.

While living with the family, Lewis started going to a school for at-risk youth. Usually every morning, the father of the family would drive Cruz to school, but on Wednesday he overslept and then gave a cryptic reason why.

'He said, 'It's Valentine's Day and I don't go to school on Valentine's Day,'' Lewis said.

Lewis said the family is devastated and didn't see this coming. The family's son was a junior at the school and was there when the shooting happened. Lewis said the family is cooperating and no one there is suspected of wrongdoing, he added.

The family's cream-colored home was empty Thursday morning but in the backyard a bullet-riddled Bud Light can was stuck on a twig of an avocado tree overlooking a creek.

How were at least 16 warning signs missed for Nikolas Cruz? 1. 'I'm going to be a professional school shooter' Nikolas Cruz left a comment on a YouTube video back in September using his own name that simply read: 'I'm going to be a professional school shooter' 2. FBI was warned about the comment but couldn't identify him Vlogger Ben Bennight alerted the FBI to the comment shared by Cruz. The FBI was quick to respond, arriving at his office the next day but only after Bennight called a local field agent, revealing his initial attempts to send in a screengrab of the comment failed when the email address he found listed on the agency's website came back with a domain error saying it did not exist. The FBI was unable to identify the person who posted the comment. 3. Bought an AR-15 age 18 After Cruz's mother died, he eventually moved in the the family of a former classmate, where he brought his AR-15 which was kept in a locked cabinet that he had the key to. He was able to purchase the rifle in the past year and passed a required background check. Federal law allowed people 18 and over to legally purchase long guns. At 21, people can legally buy handguns from a license dealer. Cruz was also studying marksmanship in the Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps. 4. Troubling Instagram page Cruz's Instagram page is filled with disturbing posts of what appears to be himself showing off with weapons with his face covered, asking for advice on buying firearms, and making racist comments about Muslims. 5. Was a member of a white nationalist group and came to training exercises Jordan Jereb claims that Cruz was a member of the Republic of Florida, which aims to make Florida its own white-entho state. Jereb claimed Cruz, who was adopted, was brought up in the organization by another member and he reportedly carpooled to at least two training exercises held by the group. 6. Boasted about hurting animals Students who say they knew Cruz claimed he liked to kill animals. 'He was crazy because he liked to kill small things, like little animals - frogs and other animals like that and he just had a crazy mind,' one told 10ABC news. Another classmate claims he would tell him he shot rats with a BB gun. 7. Took knives and bullets to school Former classmate Joshua Charo, 16, said all he 'would talk about is guns, knives and hunting'. Another student said he started selling knives out of a lunchbox when he started high school, while he was also found to be carrying bullet casings in his bag. 8. Was banned from carrying a backpack Jim Gard, a math teacher, who had Cruz in his class last year, said he believes the school sent out an email warning teachers he shouldn't be allowed on campus with a backpack. 'There were problems with him last year threatening students and I guess he was asked to leave campus'. 9. Expelled for fighting The deeply troubled 'loner' was expelled last year for 'fighting over his ex-girlfriend' with her new boyfriend. 10. Abusive to his ex-girlfriend Students claim the gunman was abusive to his girlfriend 11. Stalked another girl Mr Gard also claimed that he was taken with another student 'to the point of stalking her', while another student who claims to have been friends with Cruz said he had to cut him off because he started 'going after' and 'threatening' a female friend of his. 12. Peeping Tom Neighbor Christine Rosburgh said she, and all the other neighbors, were terrified of the teen who would bang his head against a cement wall if his legal guardians tried to send him to school. She also claims she caught him peeking in her window and when she confronted him, he said he was looking for golf balls. 'I said, "This isn't the golf course". 13. Stopped his mental health treatment Cruz had been getting treatment at a mental health clinic, but stopped about a year ago and dropped off the radar. He was showing signs of depression. Broward County Mayor Beam Furr said: 'It wasn't like there wasn't concern for him. We try to keep out eyes out on those kids who aren't connected... In this case, we didn't find a way to connect with this kid.' 14. Possible fetal alcohol syndrome Natalie Brassard, a program director at the non-profit FASCETS, which works with FASD children, said some of Cruz's characteristics 'suggest that he might have been living with an invisible brain-based condition - it could have been FASD or many others.' Conditions of FASD can range from mild to severe but can include learning disabilities, intellectual disability or low IQ, poor reasoning and judgment and a host of other issues. 15. Orphaned Cruz's adoptive mother, Lynda Cruz, 68, died of pneumonia in November last year. She was one of the only people that was remotely close to Cruz. His adoptive father Roger Cruz died of a heart attack several years ago. After his mother died, he and his brother were left in the care of family friend Barbara Kumbatovich, of Long Island, New York. He is believed to have lived for a few weeks at the Lantana Cascade mobile-home neighborhood with a different family friend before moving in with a former classmate's family in Parkland around Thanksgiving. 16. Disturbing posts on Snapchat Cruz was investigated by state authorities in 2016 after he filmed himself cutting his own arms on Snapchat and saying he wanted to buy a gun. He posted the video on the social media app in September 2016, 17 months before he allegedly committed the school shooting. He posted the Snapchat clip just days after turning 18 year of age and shortly after he broke up with his girlfriend who was cheating on him, his mother told investigators. Advertisement

Pictured above is the mobile home where Cruz had been staying with a friend's family before the shooting

In the backyard of the home, beer cans and plates were set up as shooting targets

The backyard of the home on Easter Cay Way is littered with garden furniture and toys. Eerily, a Hot Wheels toy in a container is still beeping. A tan Kia Soul stands in the driveway

Above, a look at a storage shed on the property. No one appeared to be home on Thursday

A paper plate, apparently a shooting target, was on another tree.

Few people on the Lantana Cascades estate speak English. One neighbor who would not give his name said he only met Cruz once when the people in the house introduced him.

'He seemed like a nice kid but it was only the once,' the elderly man said. 'Then he was gone. I never saw him again.'

The backyard of the home on Easter Cay Way is littered with garden furniture and toys. Eerily, a Hot Wheels toy in a container is still beeping. A tan Kia Soul stands in the driveway.

Another neighbor, whose house on a neighboring street overlooks the home where Cruz had been staying, described Wednesday night on Lantana Cascades as 'a madhouse.'

'Dozens of police came. It was shortly after 5pm.

'They taped two whole streets off and made those nearest the house get out. I stayed though.

'I saw them go in and bring a lot of stuff out, but it was dark so I couldn't see what.'

Nikolas Cruz, 19, was arrested after he stormed Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Wednesday afternoon armed with an assault rifle

The suspect, wearing a maroon colored top, is taken into custody two hours after opening fire on his high school

Authorities inspect the AR-15 rifle the teen gunman used in the mass shooting on Wednesday

The suspected gunman was checked out at a hospital after his arrest (above in a hospital gown) and is now being held at a secure location in a public building

Students called Cruz 'weird' and a 'loner' - even those who'd been friendly with him said they hadn't seen him in more than a year since his expulsion.

Dakota Mutchler, 17, recalled Cruz posting on Instagram about killing animals and said he had talked about doing target practice in his backyard with a pellet gun.

I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him. Dakota Mutchler, Stoneman Douglas High student

'He started going after one of my friends, threatening her, and I cut him off from there,' Mutchler said.

He said students weren't surprised officials had identified Cruz as the shooter: 'I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him.'

Victoria Olvera, a 17-year-old junior at the school, said Cruz was expelled last school year because he got into a fight with his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. She said he had been abusive to his girlfriend. Another student said that part of the reason Cruz was expelled was that he was caught carrying bullets in his backpack.

Matthew Walker, a 17-year-old student at the school, told WFOR-TV that all his classmates 'knew it was going to be him.'

Broward Sheriff Scott Israel said Cruz was a former student at the school but had been expelled for unknown 'disciplinary reasons' last year

'A lot of people were saying it was going to be him,' he said. 'A lot of kids threw jokes around saying that he was going to be the one to shoot up the school. It turns out that everyone predicted it. That's crazy.'

'He was going class to class just shooting at random kids,' he said. 'Everything he posts (on social media) is about weapons. It's sick.'

One teacher said he had been identified as a potential threat to his classmates last year.

Math teacher Jim Gard, who taught Cruz last year, told the Miami Herald: 'We were told last year that he wasn't allowed on campus with a backpack on him. There were problems with him last year threatening students and I guess he was asked to leave campus.'

Another student took to social media claiming Cruz had mental health issues that were 'ignored by all the adults'.

'He literally had an Instagram where he posted pictures of animals he killed gruesomely and he physically assaulted one of my friends once,' the student added.

Another student, who was not identified, but claims to know Cruz, told WSVN he was obsessed with guns and showed him pictures of them on his phone.

'He's been a troubled kid and he's always had a certain amount of issues going on. He shot guns because he felt it gave him, I guess, an exhilarating feeling.'

He added that Cruz made him nervous.

'I stayed clear of him most of the time. My time in alternate school, I did not want to be with him at all because I didn't want to cause any conflict with him because of the impression he gave off.'

He's been a troubled kid and he's always had a certain amount of issues going on. He shot guns because he felt it gave him, I guess, an exhilarating feeling. Anonymous classmate of the shooter

Former classmate Joshua Charo, 16, told the Miami Herald that all Cruz 'would talk about is guns, knives and hunting'.

'I can't say I was shocked. From past experiences, he seemed like the kind of kid who would do something like this,' Charo said.

'He used to tell me he would shoot rats with his BB gun and he wanted this kind of gun, and how he liked to always shoot for practice,' Charo added.

One student added that Cruz started selling knives out of a lunchbox when he started high school.

But Broward County School District Superintendent Robert Runcie said he did not know of any threats posed by Cruz to the school.

'Typically you see in these situations that there potentially could have been signs out there,' Runcie said. 'I would be speculating at this point if there were, but we didn't have any warnings. There weren't any phone calls or threats that we know of that were made.'

As a high school freshman, Cruz was part of the US military-sponsored Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corp program at the school.

President Trump tweeted Thursday morning, saying there were signs that the shooter was 'mentally disturbed'.

He also entreated Americans to report similar people to the authorities.

'So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior.

'Neighbors and classmates knew he was such a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!' he wrote.

Trump has cited mental health before as a cause for mass shootings, dismissing questions about gun control.

Trump spoke later in the morning about the shooting at a press conference from the White House.

Taking up the now-familiar ritual of public consolation after terrible violence, Trump spoke from the White House Diplomatic Room. In a slow, deliberate style, he sought to reassure a troubled nation as well as students' families and shooting survivors in Florida.

'We are all joined together as one American family, and your suffering is our burden also,' Trump said. 'No child, no teacher, should ever be in danger in an American school.'

Trump, who owns a private club in Palm Beach, Florida about 40 miles from the town of Parkland, where the shooting happened, said Thursday he was making plans to visit the grieving community.

He did not answer shouted questions about guns as he exited the room.

Staff and students walked single file outside the school as they evacuated after the shooting

Students were seen fleeing the building with their hands in the air, as they ran for safety from the gunman

Medical personnel tend to a bloodied victim as they help to evacuate them from the school

An injured female was transported from the school on a stretcher by first responders on Wednesday afternoon

TIMELINE OF FLORIDA SCHOOL SHOOTING 2.25pm: Gunshots ring out through the corridors of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The school goes into immediate lockdown. 2.30pm: Authorities respond to an active shooter at the school in Parkland where they say the shooter is still active. 3.pm: Hundreds of students flee the school with their hands raised as SWAT arrives to tackle the ongoing situation 3.30pm: Students and teachers begin posting harrowing footage from inside the school where they are trapped and unable to leave their classrooms. 4pm: Just after 4 p.m., Broward County Sheriff's Office announced on Twitter that a suspect had been apprehended 4.30pm: The suspect - named as Nikolas Cruz - was transported handcuffed and via ambulance to local hospital where he was placed under armed guard. Advertisement

Just before the shooting broke out at 2:25pm, some students thought they were having another fire drill.

Such an exercise had forced them to leave their classrooms hours earlier. So when the alarm went off Wednesday afternoon shortly before they were to be dismissed, they once again filed out into the hallways.

That's when police say Cruz, equipped with a gas mask, smoke grenades and multiple magazines of ammunition, opened fire with a semi-automatic weapon, killing 17 people and sending hundreds of students fleeing into the streets. It was the nation's deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, more than five years ago.

'Our district is in a tremendous state of grief and sorrow,' said Robert Runcie, superintendent of the school district in Parkland, about an hour's drive north of Miami. 'It is a horrible day for us.'

Police arrived at the scene to find hundreds of students fleeing the school. They later learned the shooter had concealed himself in the crowd and was among those running off the campus.

Investigators were able to identify him after trawling surveillance video. He was arrested about an hour after the shooting first broke out when police cornered him in a nearby neighborhood. He had multiple magazines of ammunition on him, authorities said.

Seventeen people were killed and more than a dozen injured.

'It's catastrophic. There really are no words,' said Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel.

A local politician told DailyMail.com that the high school has high-definition surveillance cameras that captured every single shot by Cruz and authorities are pouring through them now.

The cameras allegedly picked up Cruz walking across the empty parking lot toward the school carrying his rifle, as classes were in session.

The two school resource officers, from the Broward County Sheriff's Office, are supposed to monitor the perimeter.

DailyMail.com reached out to the sheriff's office for comment, but they did not respond.

Students released from a lockdown embrace following following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

Students are evacuated by police from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, after a shooter opened fire on the campus

Medical personnel tend to a victim following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018

Medical personnel tend to a victim following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018

Terrified students barricaded themselves in their classrooms as the shooter prowled the halls, armed with an assault rifle

Frantic parents rushed to the school to find SWAT team members and ambulances surrounding the huge campus and emergency workers who appeared to be treating the wounded on sidewalks. Students who hadn't run began leaving in a single-file line with their hands over their heads as officers urged them to evacuate quickly.

Hearing loud bangs as the shooter fired, many of the students inside hid under desks or in closets, and barricaded doors.

'We were in the corner, away from the windows,' said freshman Max Charles, who said he heard five gunshots. 'The teacher locked the door and turned off the light. I thought maybe I could die or something.'

As he was leaving the building, he saw four dead students and one dead teacher. He said he was relieved when he finally found his mother.

'I was happy that I was alive,' Max said. 'She was crying when she saw me.'

Noah Parness, a 17-year-old junior, said he and the other students calmly went outside to their fire-drill areas when he suddenly heard popping sounds.

'We saw a bunch of teachers running down the stairway, and then everybody shifted and broke into a sprint,' Parness said. 'I hopped a fence.'

Sen. Bill Nelson told CNN that Cruz had pulled the fire alarm 'so the kids would come pouring out of the classrooms into the hall.'

'And there the carnage began,' said Nelson, who said he was briefed by the FBI.

Students released from a lockdown are overcome with emotion following following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018

Parents wait for news after a reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018

The scene was reminiscent of the Newtown attack, which shocked even a country numbed by the regularity of school shootings. The December 14, 2012, assault at Sandy Hook Elementary School killed 26 people: 20 first-graders and six staff members. The 20-year-old gunman, who also fatally shot his mother in her bed, then killed himself.

Not long after Wednesday's attack in Florida, Michael Nembhard was sitting in his garage on a cul-de-sac when he saw a young man in a burgundy shirt walking down the street. In an instant, a police cruiser pulled up, and officers jumped out with guns drawn.

'All I heard was 'Get on the ground! Get on the ground!'' Nembhard said. He said Cruz did as he was told.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott joined law enforcement agents near the site of the deadly school shooting on Wednesday night and offered his condolences to the victims' families and survivors.

Scott said that he couldn't imagine what the families of the victims are going through. He also said he would be visiting hospitalized survivors.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said the state would cover funeral expenses for the victims and counseling for survivors.

The school will be closed for the rest of the week.

Gunshots were first heard at about 2.25pm on Wednesday before Cruz, who had escaped among fleeing students, was arrested a short time later in Coral Springs

Majory Stoneman Douglas High School is located in Parkland, west of Boca Raton, in Florida

South Florida remained on edge on Thursday. Miami's main criminal courthouse building was put on lockdown after an unspecified threat was reported, Miami-Dade County's state attorney said on Twitter.

Another Broward school briefly also went on lockdown after reports of a shooting, which turned out to be unfounded, local media reported.

A law enforcement officer is assigned to every school in the Broward County district, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High board member Donna Korn told a local newspaper. The sheriff's office also provides active shooter training and schools have a single point of entry, she said.

'We have prepared the campuses, but sometimes people still find a way to let these horrific things happen,' Korn said.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is in Parkland - Florida's safest city last year.

It's also a lucrative area to live because the schools are so good.

The incident comes just a few weeks after a 15-year-old boy opened fire at his rural Kentucky high school, killing two and injuring more than two dozen others.

It's the 30th mass shooting of the year and the third-deadliest school shooting in American history, behind Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech.Sydney has been warned the shooting death of an ex-Comancheros boss could spark a resurgence in bloody bikie gang wars that terrorised the city throughout the 2000s.

Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi died after being shot in the face by a masked gunman outside a Fitness First gym in Sydney's south.

A balaclava-wearing assailant fired multiple bullets at the father-of-two, 37, in a Rockdale car park about 12.10pm on Thursday.

The brazen daylight shooting has sparked fears there could be a resurgence in street gang wars as police investigate the former bikie's connections.

Scroll down for video

Former Comancheros boss Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi (pictured) has died after he was shot in the face in Rockdale, south of Sydney

Six bullets were fired at the driver's side of Hawi's Mercedes SUV about 12.10pm on Thursday

A stray bullet (bottom left) went through the window of the nearby Rockdale gym

Two masked suspects were seen fleeing the scene shortly after the violent shooting (pictured)

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mal Lanyon told media the 'planned and targeted attack' had no 'regard to human life' (pictured suspected shooters fleeing scene)

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Mal Lanyon told media the 'planned and targeted attack' had no 'regard to human life'.

'Police are very adept and investigating a number of links, organised crime is something we investigate routinely,' he said.

'[Hawi] has a history with that group and it's something we will explore.'

The Lebanese migrant was freed from jail recently for his infamous role in a fatal brawl between the Comancheros and the rival Hells Angels gang at Sydney Airport in 2009.

Hawi was found guilty in 2011 of murdering 29-year-old Anthony Zervas during a brawl at Sydney airport in March 2009 but the conviction was later overturned.

Police are investigating Hawi's (above) bikie links to identify the masked gunman

The Lebanese migrant was freed from jail for his infamous role in a fatal brawl between the Comancheros and the rival Hells Angels gang at Sydney Airport in 2009 (stock image)

Mr Zervas, who was the brother of Hells Angels member Peter Zervas, died after being beaten with a bollard when the bikie gangs brawled inside the airport.

Hawi was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

He was given parole in 2015, with strict bail conditions preventing him from associating with outlaw motorcycle gang members, or possessing firearms or drugs.

Since being released from prison, there is believed to have been a power struggle in the gang Hawi used to lead, according to Ten News.

The 37-year-old reportedly told friends and family he knew he was a marked man and had been living life looking over his shoulder.

Hawi had left the gym when he was shot a number of times in the face as witnesses tried to staunch the bleeding but he went into cardiac arrest.

The former bikie gang leader was rushed to St George Hospital in Sydney's south in a critical condition and was declared brain dead.

The father-of-two was confirmed dead hours later.

The gunman is believed to have jumped into a getaway car and police later found out a burnt out vehicle in nearby Kogarah.

'We put sufficient resources out there to prevent any retribution that may be considered as a result of his shooting,' Assistant Commissioner Lanyon said.

The gunman is believed to have jumped into a getaway car and police later found out a burnt out vehicle (pictured) in nearby Kogarah

The 37-year-old reportedly told friends and family he knew he was a marked man and had been living life looking over his shoulder days before the fatal shooting

The brazen daylight shooting has sparked fears there could be a resurgence in street gang wars as police investigate the former bikie's connections

Bullet holes were clearly visible in the windows of Hawi's Mercedes SUV

Since being released from prison, there is believed to have been a power struggle in the gang Hawi used to lead

'It was a serious, brutal callous attack and one police will not stand for.'

One of Hawi's distraught teenage sons arrived at the taped off crime scene shortly after 3pm.

Meanwhile, a large group of emotional family and friends gathered outside the hospital, which remains under heavy police guard.

The former bikie was known to regularly train at the gym.

Forensics police are examining his bullet-riddled car as detectives spoke to witnesses.

Four bullet holes were clearly seen through the driver side window. One shattered the passenger side window and went into the gym, witnesses said.

Police said the shooter fled in a getaway car and was last seen on nearby Lindsay Street.

A teenager claiming to be Hawi's son was photographed at the car park just after 3pm (pictured)

Distraught friends and family were seen at the scene comforting each other Thursday

'Do you know who that is? It's my dad,' the young boy told the Daily Telegraph before getting in a car with two other people and leaving the scene

Reshan Mutukrishna, who owns a physiotherapy clinic inside the gym, said he often saw Hawi at the Fitness First.

Mr Mutukrishna said he heard four loud bangs - which he initially thought were weights being dropped - before the gym went into lockdown.

'I heard a lot of screaming and shouting, I just thought maybe someone fell at the gym,' he said.

'It's shocking. It's sad but it's not surprising.'

Hawi's son was photographed at the car park just after 3pm. The boy was seen being consoled by several other distraught people.

'Do you know who that is? It's my dad,' he told the Daily Telegraph before getting in a car with two other people and leaving the scene.

A man who works at Opposite Lock South Sydney, which is located across the street, told Daily Mail Australia he heard six shots but didn't look outside.

The 37-year-old father-of-two is pictured with his wife Carolina Gonzales who he married in 2002

Hawi (pictured) was found guilty in 2011 of murdering 29-year-old Anthony Zervas during a brawl at Sydney airport in March 2009

Hawi went into cardiac arrest and was taken St George's Hospital (pictured are police at the scene)

'I only saw the aftermath, everyone trying to stop the bleeding,' he said.

Police are investigating if there is a connection between the shooting and a car that was set alight nearby on Beach Street in Kogarah shortly afterwards.

Men who had been working out inside the gym at the time of the attack said they didn't hear any gunshots.

One of the men said he was on the treadmill at the time Hawi was shot.

Fitness First said it had closed the Rockdale gym until further notice. 'We are fully complying with the police investigation,' a spokeswoman said.

'Our priority is ensuring our staff and members are provided the right support at this time.'Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been ridiculed for his 'cringe-worthy' speech addressing Barnaby Joyce's affair with his former staffer on Thursday.

Mr Turnbull revealed a re-write of the ministerial code to ban sexual relationships between his ministers and their staff, and slammed Mr Joyce for his 'shocking error of judgement'.

While some were puzzled at his decision not to sack Mr Joyce - sending him on leave instead - others were left baffled at his awkward wording.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (pictured) has been ridiculed for his 'cringe-worthy' speech addressing Barnaby Joyce's affair with his former staffer on Thursday

Mr Turnbull said by having an affair with his former staffer, Vikki Campion, 33, Mr Joyce 'set off a world of woe', adding that his ex wife and four daughters were the ones hardest hit by the 'dreadful business'.

'It has been a dreadful thing for them to go through in the glare of publicity. Marriage breakups are dreadful. But to do it, to experience in the full glare of the spotlight is a dreadful business.'

He went on to explain how Mr Joyce's upcoming leave would allow him time to prepare for the birth of the child he is expecting with Ms Campion, which is due in less than two months.

'I think it is that he needs that leave. He needs that time to reflect. He needs that time to seek forgiveness and understanding from his wife and girls. He needs to make a new home for his partner and their baby who is coming in April.'

Mr Turnbull revealed a re-write of the ministerial code to ban sexual relationships between his ministers and their staff, and slammed Mr Joyce for his 'shocking error of judgement'

Mr Turnbull said by having an affair with his former staffer, Vikki Campion (pictured), 33, Mr Joyce 'set off a world of woe'

The dis-jointed speech was hailed 'pathetic' by disappointed civilians, who took to Twitter to blast the Prime Minister and what has become known as his 'bonk ban'.

'The most pathetic speech Malcolm Turnbull has ever given,' a social media user wrote.

'The #bonkban is all about making it look like the affair is what Barnaby Joyce did wrong. When in actuality it was the job for his mistress that's the main issue,' someone else argued.

Another had a similar complaint: 'Can't believe Turnbull is attempting to spin Barnaby Joyce. I thought he was calling the presser to sack him. It's not the affair, it's the subsequent chain of events that is resultant ie. nepotism and corruption.'

Several social media users were left confused and baffled at Mr Turnbull's bizarre speech

Several pointed out how re-writing the ministerial code of conduct was an embarrassing reminder of the nation's current political standing.

Photo shopped images poking fun at the current state of Australian parliament also plagued social media in the wake of Mr Turnbull's speech.

A mocked up photo showed a sign erected on a fence outside parliament house stating 'ministers, no bonking on the hill'.

Several pointed out how re-writing the ministerial code of conduct was an embarrassing reminder of the nation's current political standingAn investigation determined that Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin's chief of staff, Vivieca Wright Simpson (pictured) altered emails and made false statements so that taxpayers could be billed for Shulkin's wife's trip to Europe over the summer

Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin's chief of staff, Vivieca Wright Simpson, has been accused of altering an email and making false statements in an effort to ensure that taxpayers could be billed for Shulkin's wife's European jaunt last summer.

Veterans Affairs Inspector General Michael Missal said in a report that Simpson tried to push for her boss to get an award from the Danish government, which would then allow Shulkin's wife, Merle Bari, to join him on his 10-day trip abroad - leaving American taxpayers footing her bills, the New York Post reported.

Prior to the Shulkins' trip, Simpson allegedly sent emails to one of Shulkin's aides, James Gough, who was communicating with European veterans officials at the time, asking for Gough to confirm whether their boss would be receiving the award.

'Were working on having a dinner at the US Ambassadors Residence in honor SEVCA [the secretary] but that has not been confirmed by US Embassy Copenhagen yet,' Gough wrote in response to Simpson's query.

Missal said that Simpson took Gough's response and altered it to make it look like he had written, 'Were having a special recognition dinner at the US Ambassadors Residence in the honor of SECVA.'

No award was actually given to Shulkin during the trip to Denmark.

Simpson tried to push for her boss, David Shulkin, to get an award from the Danish government, which would then allow Shulkin's wife, Merle Bari, to join him on his 10-day trip

When first asked about the email, Simpson reportedly told Missal that she had no recollection of whether she had changed the words in the email. When she was approached a second time about altering the email, Simpson said, 'I responded appropriately to the email.'

Inspector General Missel decided not to press charges against Simpson for her actions, but did forward the issue to the Justice Department for potential criminal prosecution.

Missal's report also stated that Shulkin himself, as well as his staff, had not be fully transparent with the VA's ethics officials or the public about the trip to Denmark and England over the summer.

During the trip, Shulkin is said to improperly accepted Wimbledon tickets as a gift, as well as gone on a tour of England's Westminster Abbey and Denmark's Rosenborg Castle, and taken a cruise on the Thames.

Shulkin (right, with Donald Trump in January) said that the investigation 'reeks of agenda'

Missal wrote that his office's investigation into the trip abroad had uncovered 'serious derelections by VA personnel,' while noting that 'the [inspector generals office] cannot determine the value VA gained from the Secretary and his delegations three and a half days of meetings in Copenhagen and London at a cost of at least $122,334.'

In a written response, Shulkin said that 'It is outrageous that you would portray my wife and me as attempting to take advantage of the government.'

Shulkin also wrote that Missal's report 'reeks of an agenda.'

Army veteran and retired Marine Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) tweeted Wednesday that, 'Its exactly corruption and abuses like this that doesnt help our veterans,' adding that Shulkin 'must RESIGN now.'

Five current and former Trump cabinet members have been probed by their agency inspector generals regarding travel expenses.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was forced to resign over the issue in 2017.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Environmental Protection Administration head Scott Pruitt have acknowledged the use of government or private flights at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars.

Zinke and Pruitt are being investigated by agency watchdogs for their trips, which they said ethics officials approved. Perry has made the same case.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was investigated for use of government aircraft for official trips. A Treasury audit last October said he failed to provide enough proof of why he needed to use more expensive modes of travel but there was no violation of law.A 22-year-old woman who paid her way through undergraduate school at Duke by performing porn seems to be off to a fresh start in the Big Apple.

Adult film actress Belle Knox, who has been known to speak candidly about her suicidal past and financial setbacks, is currently enrolled at New York Law School in Tribeca, sources confirmed to Page Six.

Troubling life details about Knox, whose birth name is Miriam Weeks, were recently made into a Lifetime drama, 'From Straight As to XXX.'

The studious performer first shot to fame at 18 after it was disclosed she had been making scandalous films to pay her steep tuition fees.

The teen at the time told DailyMail.com she was 'aroused' by pain - as seen in troubling modeling photos taken prior to her career in porn.

Belle Knox poses for photos on March 18, 2014 in New York City. The adult film star shot to fame years ago after is was disclosed she paid her way through Duke with the profession

Knox is now a student at New York Law School in Tribeca, sources confirmed to Page Six

A worrisome carving of the word 'FAT' was pictured in photos on her left thigh.

'Oh yeah, she is a major league cutter,' one blogger said in an online post.

'From the thighs down to the toes... apparently, her ex-boyfriend that cheated on her told her she was fat so she carved the word into her thigh,' the user suggested.

Other viewers of her videos remarked about the scars, commenting that the cutting 'should be more of a concern than having sex on camera.'

Knox told XOJane previously: 'I'm a sl*t that needs to be punished.'

The law school student has acknowledged being a cutter, but says those days are behind her.

The student told DailyMail.com that her parents were not aware of her decision to enter the adult industry but became 'absolutely supportive' of her choice at the time

The law school student has also acknowledged being a cutter, but says those days are behind her

Knox, who has caused nationwide uproar and family heartache, was raised a devout Roman Catholic in a loving home in Spokane, Washington

'Like young men and women grappling with depression, I used to take it out on myself,' she said, while insisting she had been clean from self-harm for years.

Knox, who has caused nationwide uproar and family heartache, was raised a devout Roman Catholic in a loving home in Spokane, Washington.

Miriam's father Kevin and mother Harcharan, were reportedly 'floored' at first by their daughter's decision to turn to porn to fund her $60,000-a-year education at the elite university.

The student told DailyMail.com that her parents were not aware of her decision to enter the adult industry but ultimately became 'absolutely supportive' of her choice.

Belle described her first experience making a film, which featured a violent scene in which she performed oral sex on her male co-star.

But more recently the film star has been out of the spotlight as she focuses on her studies

Know, a self-proclaimed feminist, majored in Women's Studies and Sociology at Duke University

A man who met Knox for dinner recently said she 'wouldn't stop talking about herself'

She said the scene was 'feminist' because of the 'painful', 'nasty', name-calling-filled romp session.

The self-proclaimed feminist majored in Women's Studies and Sociology at Duke University.

When out of class, she spent her time filming and traveling from Los Angeles to Phoenix and New York for photo shoots.

More recently, the film star has been out of the spotlight as she focuses on keeping good grades.

A man who met Knox for dinner at San Remo Cafe in Greenwich Village, told Page Six she seemed rambunctious.

'She was really loud and wouldn't stop talking about herself,' the man said.A man has been stung by a deadly Irukandji jellyfish in Queensland's Whitsunday region.

Emergency services were called to Henry Darwen Drive near Bowen Marina about 7.30am on Thursday.

The man was taken to Bowen Hospital in a stable condition.

Irukandji jellyfish are one of the deadliest creatures of Tropical North Queenslands coastal and reef waters (stock image)

He was suffering from chest and abdominal pain.

Irukandji jellyfish are one of the deadliest creatures of Tropical North Queenslands coastal and reef waters.

They range in size from about 1-2 centimetres.

A spate of Irukandji sighting in late 2016 and early 2017 caused alarm.

More to come.A young woman with Cystic Fibrosis awaiting a double-lung transplant has been deemed not sick enough to receive vital pension payments.

Rhianna Johnson, 24, from Bundaberg was admitted to hospital in January and has been forced to give up work following doctors advice as she gets too exhausted because of her struggle to breathe.

Her lungs are currently working at 37 per cent of their potential and this has fallen 10 per cent in the last month alone.

Rhianna Johnson, from Bundaberg in Queensland, was admitted to hospital in January as her lung function plummeted

Rhianna's mother, Marietta McLellan, explained she is forced to help her daughter with simple daily chores because Rhianna is too out of breath to manage herself.

But Centrelink has decided her case is not serious enough to warrant awarding her pension payments from the Disability Support Pension.

At one stage last year Rhianna's lung function dropped to just 23 per cent prompting doctors to send her to the Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane for a transplant review.

In the past year, Rhianna's best lung function was just 55 per cent.

'She looks so normal to people in the street,' Mrs McLellan told Daily Mail Australia.

'It's hard for people to understand how sick Rhianna is when they don't see her.

Rhianna's lung function dropped to just 23 per cent last year prompting doctors to send her for a transplant review in Brisbane

'They don't spend all day with her, holding her hair back, keeping her upright and trying to console her when she is so upset and exhausted.

'I am often having to bathe Rhianna because she is so exhausted from just breathing all day that she can't do it herself.

'I help her with her treatments, physiotherapy and medications as well as cooking and preparing her food because anything that slightly increases her heart rate causes her to cough, which often results in vomiting. '

A fundraising page has been set up by Rhianna's mum to raise money to pay for her medical bills and basic living costs which she cannot afford while she is not working.

A fundraising page has been set up by Rhianna's mum, Marietta McLellan (pictured right) to help fund daily living expenses

The appeal has raised more than $6,000 of the $15,000 target so far and her mother is pleading for people to donate to ride out the period until Rhianna can get a transplant.

Mrs McLellan said: 'Our biggest plight is that other people with CF and other terminal illness don't have to fight so hard to get some help.

'Rhianna originally applied for the Disability Pension in July 2017 when her doctors told her to reduce her work load, they denied her because apparently she 'lived independently' and 'didn't need help with anything'.'

But this ruling baffled the family because when Rhianna moved house in December 2016 - after a two-month spell in hospital including seven days on oxygen - they feared she would never leave her bed.

The appeal has raised more than $6,000 of the $15,000 target so far and her mother is pleading for people to donate

The full cost of Rhianna's medication is $6,000 per month but she still has access to a Health Care Card which subsidises the cost to around $150.

But Mrs McLellan said they still remained extremely concerned about the possibility of her daughter losing her card.

'There are people with CF fighting for a Health Care Card because the government are taking it off them because they 'earn too much',' she said.

'They don't seem to realise that even if you worked full time you wouldn't be able to afford your medications, let alone any other living expenses, without a health care card.'

Centrelink is run by the Department of Human Services and spokesman Hank Jongen said: 'The department is investigating this case as a priority to ensure we are doing everything we can to help them through this situation.

The full cost of Rhianna's (pictured right with her mother Marietta) medication is $6,000 per month

The ruling by Centrelink left Rhianna's family baffled but the government department has promised to review the situation

'In situations like these a person must meet specific criteria in order to qualify for Disability Support Pension and a person whose ability to work is affected by a disability or medical condition may be eligible for other payments, such as Sickness Allowance or Newstart Allowance.'

The family is set to relocate to Brisbane once Rhianna's transplant is completed to allow for the post-surgery treatment and recovery to be carried out.

Cystic Fibrosis primarily affects the lungs and digestive system and there is no cure for the genetic condition.

It causes an excess amount of thick and sticky mucas affecting the body's lungs, airways and digestive system, preventing basic functions and trapping bacteria in the lungs leading to regular infections and irreversible damage.

According to Cystic Fibrosis Australia, lung failure is the major cause of death for CF sufferers.US senators have asked Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska if he worked with the former MI6 officer behind the the dossier containing salacious allegations about Donald Trump.

Senator Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, has written to Mr Deripaska's London-based lawyers to formally ask him if his client has worked with Christopher Steele.

The allegation were made in a series of private memos before the 2016 election and included the claim Mr Trump asked prostitutes to perform a lurid act while in Russia.

Scroll down for video:

US senators have asked a lawyer representing Oleg Deripaska (left) about the oligarch's relationship with Christopher Steele (right)

The President branded the dossier 'a pile of garbage' calling it a 'tainted' document that the FBI must not use as a basis for investigation.

In his letter to lawyer Paul Hauser, which was sent last month, Mr Grassley asks whether there are any links between him, Mr Deripaska and Mr Steele, the Telegraph reported.

He asked in the letter: 'Have you ever hired or otherwise worked with Mr. Christopher Steele?' or his companies and continues 'if so, when, and what was the nature of the arrangement?'.

Sen. Chuck Grassley has demanded to know from London-based lawyer Paul Hauser if Deripaska has employed Steele

'Is it the case that Mr Steele, through you, works or has worked on behalf of Mr Deripaska or businesses associated with him? If so, when has such work occurred?,' Sen. Grassley wrote.

'Are you otherwise aware of any business or financial relationships between Mr Steele and Russian government officials, Russian oligarchs, or Russian businesses?'

Mr Steele's 35-page dossier claims that Russia collected a file of compromising information on Trump including sex tapes with which to blackmail him.

He was initially hired by a US political research firm FusionGPS by Republicans who wanted to stop Trump's campaign to win the Republican nomination for the 2016 election.

But he was kept on by Fusion GPS even after Trump won the nomination and his information was passed to the Democratic Party.

Mr Steele, 53, runs two companies Orbis Business International and Orbis Intelligence Limited with business partner Charles Burrows, 59.

Orbis Intelligence saw its retained profits more than double from 199,000 ($280,000) to 441,089 ($620,000) last year.

At the beginning of this month the House Intelligence Committee released a Republican memo which alleged the FBI relied on an unverified dossier compiled by Mr Steele that they used to look into any connections between Trump's campaign and Russia.

President Trump, who approved the release of the GOP memo, has so far declined to do the same with a second Democratic memo in its current form on the grounds it contains sensitive information.

A spokeswoman for Mr Hauser's law firm, Bryan Cave, declined to comment.This is the shocking moment a suspected drug smuggler dumped millions of pounds worth of cocaine in the sea during a US Coast Guard chase.

A person was caught on camera dumping 1,800lbs of cocaine into the waters, with an approximate street value of 16.5 million.

The grainy footage shows the alleged criminal picking up heavy bags of drugs and chucking them into the sea, as an accomplice steers the speedboat.

A Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton boarding team was chasing the vessel in the international waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean near Central America on February 4 when it captured the footage.

They apprehended the suspected smugglers and seized more than 1,800 pounds of cocaine from them.

It comes as more the US Coast Guard announces it will offload more than $190m (135m) of cocaine from drug smugglers off the waters off Florida.

This is the shocking moment a drug smuggler dumped millions of pounds worth of cocaine in the sea during a US Coast Guard chase

The criminal was caught on camera dumping 1,800lbs of cocaine into the sea, with an approximate street value of 16.5 million

The grainy footage shows the person picking up heavy bags of drugs and chucking them into the sea, as an accomplice sails the speedboat

The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton are scheduled to dump seven tons of cocaine in Port Everglades, Florida, which was seized in international waters in various operations of the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

The Cutter Hamilton is a 418-foot US national security boat that has its home port in Charleston, South Carolina.

It is one of many Coast Guard boats that operates in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Basin, which are known drug transit zones off of Central and South America.



Captain Mark Gordon, cutter Hamilton commanding officer, said: 'The hard work of all our servicemen and women, along with our allied partners, directly contributed to the interdiction of 7 tons of cocaine at sea.

'It truly is a team effort stopping these drugs from entering the United States, but more important than the drugs themselves are the arrests and the linkages these cases represent and the steps closer to dismantling the criminal networks that tried to move them into the United States.

'These transnational criminal organizations would have used the illicit proceeds from these drugs to not only expand their networks but to continue to sow violence, corruption, and a break down in the rule of law throughout the world.'

A Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton boarding team was chasing the vessel in the international waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean near Central America on February 4

The US coastguard apprehended the suspected smugglers and seized more than 1,800 pounds of cocaine from the vesselOne of the fugitive killers of record-breaking yachtsman Sir Peter Blake has been captured by police after more than 15 years on the run.

Jose Irandir Cardoso was arrested after military police who intercepted him at a routine stop on the Brazilian island of Marajo found he was carrying his brother's ID and discovered his true identity after checking his fingerprints at a local station.

Cardoso, one of the Amazon pirates jailed over the 5 December 2001 killing of Kiwi hero Blake, vanished after being sentenced to 32 years in prison.

Local reports said he had been on the run for 16 years.

Jose Irandir Cardoso, pictured centre, was arrested after military police at a routine stop on the Brazilian island of Marajo found he was carrying his brother's ID. He had been on the run for 15 years

Last night he was being held at a prison in Breves on Marajo, a large river island bordered by the mouth of the Amazon river in northern Brazil, after being paraded in front of local media by police who captured him.

The violent death of Sir Peter Blake, the world's most famous sailor at the time, had international repercussions.

Jose Irandir Cardoso, pictured centre, was one of the Amazon pirates jailed over the 2001 killing of Kiwi sailor Sir Peter Blake. Cardoso vanished after being sentenced to 32 years in prison

It is not clear how Jose Irandir Cardoso, pictured centre, had been on the run for so long after being found guilty of armed robbery and his involvement in the killing of Kiwi sailor Sir Peter Blake

The 53-year-old, knighted in 1995, was monitoring global warming and pollution on the Amazon for the United Nations when his boat called Seamaster was attacked by armed robbers wearing balaclavas and crash helmets.

Blake was fatally shot in the back by one of the assailants after a rifle he had used to defend himself and his crew malfunctioned.

The attackers fled with an outboard motor and some watches after injuring two other crew members with knives.

Pictured, Renir Ferreira Macedo and Jose Irandir Colares are lead by Brazilian police in 2001 following the murder of New Zealand yachting hero Sir Peter Blake

Ricardo Colares Tavares, the man who shot the Kiwi sailor dead, was later sentenced to 37 years in prison

Jose Irandir Cardoso, found guilty of armed robbery leading to death along with five accomplices from a gang called the Water Rats, was jailed for 32 years.

It was not immediately clear on Thursday how Cardoso went on the run, although it is believed he may have vanished after being allowed to sleep at home under strict house arrest conditions.

Police confirmed only that he had been a fugitive from the Amapa State Penitentiary Service and he had been held around 11pm local time on Tuesday after trying to pass himself off as his brother Sergio Roberto Colares Cardoso.

Sir Peter won the 1989-90 Whitbread Round the World Race and held the Jules Verne Trophy from 1994 to 1997 by setting the fastest time around the world as co-skipper of ENZA New Zealand.

He also led his country to successive victories in the America's Cup, the sport's most prestigious trophy.

He was appointed as a goodwill ambassador of the UN's environment programme five months before his death.

Sir Peter Blake, pictured in New Zealand, won the 1989-1990 Whitbread Round the World Race and held the Jules Verne Trophy from 1994 to 1997 by setting the fastest time around the world as co-skipper of ENZA New Zealand

Pictured, Sir Peter Blake is swamped with streamers as the Americas cup Homecoming Parade makes it's way up Auckland's Queen Street in 1995

Pictured, the coffin of twice America's Cup winner and round the world yachtsman Sir Peter Blake arrives at the church of St. Thomas-a-Beckett in Warblington, Hamshire

His daughter Sarah Jane was among the 14 crew that set out on the Omega-sponsored research expedition that ended in tragedy.

He was buried at Warblington churchyard near Emsworth in Hampshire, the small town where he and his wife Pippa raised their two children.

Helen Clark, New Zealand Prime Minister at the time, called Blake a 'living legend' after his death.

His headstone bears the words of John Masefield's famous poem Sea-Fever poem: 'I must down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and sky, and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.'A girl's head was split in half and two of her friends were injured when a lawnmower's blades flew off at high speed.

Nur Afini Roslan, a student at the Tuanku Abd Rahman secondary school in the town of Gemas in the south-western Malaysian state of Negeri Sembilan, was on the school playing field when the accident happened.

She was killed when the flying blade cut her head in two, local media report.

14-year-old Nur Afini Roslan, pictured left, was a secondary school student who was playing when a lawnmower's blade split her head in two, causing her to die instantly. Her body, pictured right, has been taken to hospital for a post-mortem exam

The two friends the 14-year-old was with at the time were also injured, though not seriously.

Police Superintendent Hamazah Abd Razak said the accident happened at 10.30am and that the girl was believed to have died instantly at the scene.

Her friends Mohd Farhan Reza Badrol Hesam, 13, and Abdullah Hazlan, 14, received 'light' injuries though they were not detailed in reports.

A small tractor seen in pictures of the aftermath of the incident is believed to have been pulling a mower attachment which malfunctioned disastrously.

A tractor, pictured, is believed to have been pulling the lawnmower when it malfunctioned, sending the blades flying, in the field where 14-year-old Nur Afini Roslan was playing

Police rushed to the scene, pictured, where Nur Afini Roslan died instantly after a lawnmower's blades split her head in two. Two of her friends were also injured, although not seriously

Nur Afini Roslan, 14, pictured centre was a secondary school student in Malaysia who was tragically killed when a lawnmower's blade accidentally flew off and split her head in two

Nur Afini Roslan's father crying next to her body, pictured, after a tragic lawnmower incident caused her death in the field she was playing in. Police are currently investigating the incident

The superintendent added: 'We deployed a team to the scene upon receiving the emergency call.

'The girl's remains have been taken to the Tampin Hospital for a post-mortem examination, while the injured students were taken to the Gemas Health Clinic for treatment.'

The identity of the person operating the mower was not released, and it was not clear who was responsible for its maintenance.

Police say they are investigating the death.Boris Johnson was savaged as 'pitiful' and a poor Foreign Secretary today after his big Brexit speech fell flat.

The Foreign Secretary laid out his vision for a liberal Brexit in an eagerly anticipated speech yesterday, kicking off what is due to be a series of Government interventions to lay out the 'road to Brexit'.

But Mr Johnson was condemned for a lack of detail on how Brexit would actually be delivered.

In an upbeat speech, Mr Johnson called on Leave and Remain supporters to unite behind the Brexit mission and denied it was a 'giant V-sign from the cliffs of Dover'.

Boris Johnson (pictured making yesterday in Westminster) warned cancelling Brexit would be a 'disastrous mistake' but acknowledged for the first time that anger at the result was 'hardening'

Tory rebel Anna Soubry led criticism of Mr Johnson, branding him 'pitiful' and a poor foreign secretary

Tory rebel Anna Soubry led criticism of Mr Johnson.

She told Channel 4 News: 'I'm afraid to say that Boris has confirmed my very worst fears about him. I don't think he's a very good Foreign Secretary.

'It was actually a pitiful speech and I think a lot of people found it really rather embarrassing.'

An unnamed minister told Politico there was 'nothing' in the speech.

They said: 'Absolutely no detail. He is completely in denial about the complexity of the exit and the negative economic and political consequences.

'It is bluster, which will cost the country dear. The tragedy is that by the time anybody realises it and he has been proved wrong the real cost will have set in and we will have left the EU. In five years time he will be dead meat.'

Despite the criticism Tory darling Jacob Rees-Mogg - the leader of Brexiteer backbench Conservatives - yesterday said the speech was 'reassuring' and a 'classic of Boris oratory'.

Following his speech, Mr Johnson dodged questions over whether he would resign if the Cabinet fails to fully endorse his vision of a buccaneering, free trade Brexit.

He also admitted to detecting a 'hardening of the mood, a deepening of the anger' over the June 2016 vote.

Mr Johnson accepted he was divisive but insisted 'people's feelings matter' and that he wanted to engage with critics.

Speaking at Policy Exchange in Westminster (pictured) the Foreign Secretary admitted opposition Brexit was 'hardening' but insisted 'these fears can be allayed'

Mr Johnson was greeted by protesters at the central London venue for his big Brexit speech

In his speech, Mr Johnson said: 'Brexit is about re-engaging this country with its global identity & all the energy that can flow from that.

'And I absolutely refuse to accept the suggestion that it is some unBritish spasm of bad manners.

'It's not some great V-sign from the cliffs of Dover.'

He added: 'Brexit is the expression of a legitimate and natural desire for self-government of the people, by the people, for the people.

'And that is surely not some reactionary Faragiste concept'.

Mr Johnson argued efforts by Remain-supporting ministers to keep Britain closely aligned with Brussels rules after Brexit would not amount to 'taking back control'.

The British people should not have new laws imposed from abroad, he declared, extolling the benefits of leaving the EU's customs union and the single market.

Mr Johnson insisted Brexit was about 'self confidence' and rejected the calls for a second referendum

In a warning to Mrs May ahead of the next phase of negotiations - in which the EU is demanding the right to impose EU laws during the transition - Mr Johnson said: 'If we are going to accept laws, then we need to know who is making them, and with what motives.

'We need to be able to interrogate them in our own language, and we must know how they came to be in authority over us and how we can remove them.'

He added: 'People voted Leave  not because they were hostile to European culture and civilisation, but because they wanted to take back control.

'That is why it is so vital not to treat Brexit as a plague of boils or a murrain on our cattle, but as an opportunity'.

In a message to Remainers, he said: 'More people voted Brexit than have ever voted for anything in the history of this country.

'I say in all candour that if there were to be a second vote I believe that we would simply have another year of wrangling and turmoil and feuding in which the whole country would lose.

'So let's not go there.'Before the fatal shooting that left former Comanchero president Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi with bullets in his face, violent bikie gang wars terrorised Sydney streets for years.

Hawi - a key player in a violent feud between the Comancheros and rival gang the Hells Angels - was killed in a brazen daylight shooting Thursday afternoon when he left a Fitness First gym in Rockdale.

Drive by shootings, bashings, fire bombings and stealing cars are just some of the violence that occurred during the conflict between the two outlaw groups.

Shaking the bikie underworld, Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi (pictured) was killed in a brazen daylight shooting Thursday afternoon when he left a Fitness First gym in Rockdale

Before the fatal shooting, the violent bikie gang wars between Comanchero and Hells Angels terrorised Sydney streets for years

Hawi, a former Punchbowl High student, first became a household name after a violent brawl at Sydney Airport which killed Hells Angel Anthony Zervas (pictured)

Witnesses said Hawi yelled: 'You're dead. You're f***ing dead. Next time we see you, you're going to have bullet holes through you' (airport crime scene pictured)

The two gang members had a history dating back to when they were at school with each other, but it did not stop the fight on March 22, 2009 (pictured)

Hawi, a former Punchbowl High student, first became a household name after a violent brawl at Sydney Airport involving Hells Angel Anthony Zervas, the brother of fellow Angels member Peter Zervas.

The ugly brawl believed to be over drugs and money began in the sky when the pair were on a flight back to Sydney as they pushed and shoved their way off the plane until it exploded into a fatal fight.

Each of the underworld gang members had 'backup' arrive at the airport which rolled in to the terminal terrifying passengers.

The public stabbing and bollard-bashing terrified innocent onlookers in the domestic passenger terminal, ending 29-year-old Zervas's life and landing Hawi behind bars.

Witnesses said Hawi yelled: 'You're dead. You're f***ing dead. Next time we see you, you're going to have bullet holes through you.'

Born in Beirut, Hawi moved to Australia with his family when he was five-years-old and grew to have a substantial property portfolio.

Hawi and Zervas reportedly went to school with each other, but their steep history did not stop the fight on March 22, 2009.

Before the brutal attack, a Hells Angels clubhouse was firebombed in Petersham.

In true tit-for-tat bikie war style, the Hells Angels kneecapped a man believed to be a Comanchero at a motorcycle show at Silverwater.

However, police believed the firebombed clubhouse was caused by another gang, Notorious - who drive black-tinted luxury 4WD instead of motorbikes.

Two years after the Sydney Airport brawl, Hawi was found guilty of murdering Zervas and was sentenced to 28 years with a non-parole period of 21 years.

The 37-year-old successfully appealed and the charge was downgraded to manslaughter with a maximum sentence of six years and two months with a non-parole period of three years and six months.

Hawi, who became the national leader of the motorcycle group at 28-years-old, was released on parole with 22 conditions, one being he was not allowed to associate with bikie gang members.

In 2015, Hawi, a father-of-two, was released from prison and reportedly told friends and family he was stepping away from the bikie underworld for good, although he felt like he had a target on his back.

The former Comanchero gang president often took extra safety precautions including driving in a bullet proof car - which helped him escape death in 2007 when his car was shot a number of times.

Hawi (pictured) was found guilty of murdering Zervas and was sentenced to 28 years with a non-parole period of 21 years, but successfully appealed

Hawi reportedly told friends and family, including wife Caroline Gonzales (pictured together) he was stepping away from the bikie underworld for good when he was released from prison

Hawi met Ms Gonzales (pictured left) in 1995 and they have two young children together

Despite the violent chaos of the ongoing gang feud, Hawi married his childhood sweetheart Carolina Gonzales, who he met 22 years ago.

The pair wed in 2002 and had two children together.

During the two years of his recent freedom, Lebanese-born Hawi said he spent life looking over his shoulder, according to Ten News.

A balaclava-wearing assailant fired multiple bullets at the father-of-two in a south Sydney car park about 12.10pm.

Hawi was rushed to hospital in a critical condition and later died.

The gunman is believed to have jumped into a getaway car. Police later found out a burnt-out vehicle in nearby Kogarah.

The terrifying daylight shooting has sparked fears there could be a resurgence in violent street gang wars.



During the two years of his recent freedom, the Lebanese born father said he spent life looking over his shoulder which ended today after he was shot dead in Sydney's south

A balaclava-wearing assailant fired multiple bullets at the father-of-two at about 12.10pm (alleged suspects pictured fleeing the scene)

The brazen daylight shooting has sparked fears there could be a resurgence in street gang wars as police investigate the former bikie's connectionsThis terrifying video shows construction workers clinging on for their own life as the aerial platform they are standing on blows in the wind.

Filmed in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the platform is held up only by ropes and looks as if it may smash at any moment, during a storm at 4pm on Friday, February 9.

One of the two workers was so scared he threatened to jump - but didn't and the pair were eventually rescued by local firefighters, who abseiled the pair down.

Miraculously, they only suffered minor injuries.

The clip shows two workers holding on tight to a metal platform as a furious storm wildly smashes it against the building they are working on.

They were working on the ninth floor when they faced rain and strong winds.

The storm, that only lasted 20 minutes, saw flooded streets, falling trees and more than 100,000 people were left without light in the Brazilian city.

This terrifying video shows construction workers clinging on for their own life as the aerial platform they are standing on blows in the wind

The clip shows two workers holding on tight to a metal platform as a furious storm wildly smashes it against the building they are working on

Believed to have been filmed in China, the platform is held up only by ropes and looks as if it may smash at any moment

Wind and grey water meant the construction workers visibility was low as the platform they stood on fell from a horizontal to almost diagonal position and swayed into the building.

The workers clung on for their life as they fell back and forth as a red tube appeared to guide them.

The brave men grab onto the ropes above their head which appear to become more lose as the video goes on.Chris Whitty and Boris Johnson today criticised Nicki Minaj for spreading an 'untrue' and 'ridiculous' myth that coronavirus vaccines can cause impotence - before she hit back on social media just minutes later. The Prime Minister said he would rather listen to NHS England's top GP Nikki Kanani about the jab as he and the Chief Medical Officer both condemned the remarks by the star, who has not yet been vaccinated. Minaj had been mocked after telling her 22million Twitter followers last night that her cousin will not get the vaccine because his friend allegedly became impotent after being jabbed and his fiance cancelled their wedding. The 38-year-old tweeted yesterday: 'My cousin in Trinidad won't get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure you're comfortable with ur decision, not bullied.' Mr Whitty and Mr Johnson both criticised Minaj after being asked about what she said by a reporter during their press conference from Downing Street this afternoon. Minaj then took to Twitter again after watching a video of the two men speaking, saying: 'I love him even tho I guess this was a diss? The accent ugh! Yassss boo!!!' Moment later she recorded an audio message for Mr Johnson in a comedic British accent, tweeting: 'Send this to the Prime Minister and let him know they lied on me. I forgive him. No one else. Only him.' She said: 'Yes, hello Prime Minister, Boris, it's Nicki Minaj - I was just calling to tell you that you were so amazing on the news this morning. And I'm actually British. I was born there. I went to university there. I went to Oxford. I went to school with Margaret Thatcher. And she told me so many nice things about you. I'd love to send you my portfolio of my work, since you don't know much about me, I'm a big, big star in the United States.'A teenager hunting for kangaroos was left with a smashed jaw when the animal fought back and attacked him.

Joshua Hayden, 19, was out with his brother near Kellerberrin in Western Australia on Tuesday night when his jaw was broken as they hunted three animals.

He says he was lining up a shot at two kangaroos from the moving car and was leaning out of the window when it attacked and bounced straight off the windscreen.

Joshua Hayden, 19, was out hunting with his brother near Kellerberrin in Western Australia

After the other one disappeared, Mr Hayden put two of the animals in his crosshairs but the animal charged at the car before he could pull the trigger.

Mr Hayden was out cold for around 30 seconds before he regained consciousness and initially thought his brother had hit him.

'It actually collided with the side of the car and smashed the front window,' he told the ABC.

'Then it bounced back onto me and headbutted me straight in the jaw.'

He has been referred to the Royal Perth Hospital after two trips to local hospitals at Northam and Kellerberrin - 200km east of Perth.

He was lining up a shot at two kangaroos from the moving car and was leaning out of the window

Doctors have told him he will have to wait 10 days for surgery to allow the swelling to go down.

The pair say they often go out hunting for kangaroos to eat but have not come across them fighting back on previous expeditions.

Mr Hayden was out cold for around 30 seconds before he regained consciousness after being smashed in the face by a kangaroo at full-speed

A Western Australian teenager sustained head injuries after being collected by a kangaroo while allegedly hanging out the window of a moving car.

The young male received facial fractures as a result of the run-in, which occurred as he was travelling through the north east town of Northam on Wednesday, ABC News reports.

St John Ambulance revealed he had been transported to Royal Perth Hospital for treatment, but was in good health.

A Western Australian teenager sustained head injuries after being collected by a kangaroo while allegedly hanging out the window of a moving car (stock image)

The well being of the kangaroo was unknown.

The incident comes just weeks after a cyclist was wiped at by a large kangaroo while riding in Bonnah, in Queensland, on Australia Day.

The cyclist, Rebecca, was thrown off her bike and partially dislocated her right shoulder as a result of the forceful impact.

Footage of the collision showed her setting the pace at the front of a group of riders who were making their way through the south-east Queensland countryside.

The kangaroo then emerged from the right-hand side of the road before collecting Rebecca and miraculously landing on its legs before hopping off.Staff Sgt Byron White, 34, was arrested and charged with nine counts of third-degree rape and continuous sexual abuse of a child

A Delaware Air Force reservist has been accused of raping and impregnating a teen, making him the fourth airman to be charged with such a crime within the past year.

Staff Sgt Byron White, 34, was arrested and charged with nine counts of third-degree rape and continuous sexual abuse of a child on Wednesday.

Court documents show that the teen told police she was 13 years old when the abuse started.

In the documents, the teen said she met White on Facebook and the relationship gradually became sexual.

She told police that she would sneak White into her house while her great aunt was asleep, according to the The News Journal.

The teen told authorities that she became pregnant last May and White, a reserve loadmaster assigned to an Air Force Reserve Command unit at Dover Air Force Base, knew.

Authorities said the teen had initially told them that a man broke into her home and got her pregnant, but the case was closed after a negative pregnancy test.

She told investigators she had lied because she did not want White to get in trouble.

But later that month, she did end up pregnant.

White is the fourth airman from the Air Force base to be charged with such a crime. Zepplin Taylor-McGinness (pictured), 21, was charged with second-degree rape last week

Investigators said she told them White was the only person with whom she had sex, and Facebook messages confirmed they had sex at least nine times from May to December, according to the Journal.

In December, the Division of Family Services received a top through its hotline regarding the teen's alleged abuse.

The division then notified state police about the tip.

White is listed on the Delaware Aerospace Education Foundation as a staff member.

According to its website, the nonprofit focuses on educating kindergarten through 12th-grade students the value of STEM.

He is being held at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center on $200,000 bond.

In April 2017, Airman First Class Dalian Washington (left), 26, and Airman First Class Akeem Beazer (right), 22, were charged with sex abuse of a 15-year-old girl

'The U.S. Air Force holds individuals appropriately accountable for their actions, whether through the Uniform Code of Military Justice or through coordination and cooperation with local authorities,' the Air Force said in a press release. Pictured is the Dover Air Force Base

White is the fourth airman from the Dover Air Force Base to be charged with such a crime.

Just last week, Zepplin Taylor-McGinness, 21, was arrested and charged with four counts of second-degree rape and child endangerment.

He is accused of raping a runaway 14-year-old girl he met on Tinder.

In April 2017, Airman First Class Dalian Washington, 25, and Airman First Class Akeem Beazer, 21, were charged with sex abuse of a 15-year-old girl.

'The U.S. Air Force holds individuals appropriately accountable for their actions, whether through the Uniform Code of Military Justice or through coordination and cooperation with local authorities,' the Air Force said in a press release.

This is the incredible moment a man was hauled from a drain where he said he had been trapped for three days before his desperate cries for help were finally heard.

The 48-year-old, whose first words at seeing daylight were: 'Does anyone have a fag?', told his rescuers he had spent 72 hours wandering the sewers for six miles trying to find a way out.

He staggered through pipelines under east London until residents above ground were drawn to his shouts for help.

Police were called, with officers forced to remove a manhole cover to haul the 'dishevelled' man out, before he was rushed to hospital by paramedics.

It is unclear who the man was or how he fell down the drain. He was treated for exposure to the cold and injuries to his feet.

Police officers pull the man from the drain in Romford, east London. He claimed to have been trapped in the sewer system for three days

The unbelievable scene was captured by Sam Palmer, who heard the victim's desperate cries for help from her workplace.

The man claimed he had fallen in up to six miles away on February 5 and could not get out of the manhole cover so began walking along the tunnel.

Ms Palmer said the victim had told police he'd been stuck in the sewer for up to three days.

She said: 'When he was pulled out, the first thing he did was ask for a spare cigarette.

'He looked very dishevelled but at that moment, the crowd gave a sigh of relief as we knew he was okay.

According to witnesses, the first thing he said as he emerged into daylight was: 'Does anyone have a fag?'

The man claims he fell down a drain in Barking, east London, and walked for six miles before being rescued through a manhole cover in Romford (pictured)

'Before that we had all been really worried. It was unbelievable, certainly something I will never experience again in my life.

'Afterwards officers used the bathrooms at a nearby business to wash their hands following the mucky task in Romford, east London.

Ms Palmer was alerted to the unknown man's plight after a neighbour heard his cries for help.

She added: 'We could hear a faint cry for help and we began searching. But we were looking up and all around.

'He just kept shouting "help" over and over again but he didn't say that he was in a drain.'

'Eventually we gave up and went back to work, but a while later, two police cars pulled up outside my workplace.

A man claimed he had fallen in up to six miles away on February 5 and could not get out of the manhole cover so began walking along the tunnel.

'When they told me why they were here, I took them over to where we had heard him shouting.'

Lorraine Moss, from Romford, was on her way to work when she saw the man stuck in the drain.

'Initially, I assumed that someone had been run over,' she said. 'However, as I got closer I could see a man standing in the drain.

'Only the top half of his body was visible and he was covered in dirt. It took quite a few people to lift off the cover off and then there he was.'

Witness Stephanie Noe, 29, added: 'It was so strange. The man was really dirty and I don't think he was wearing any shoes.

People working nearby eventually heard his pitiful cries for help coming from beneath the road and called police

'He looked a bit bewildered and confused. He was saying that he'd been down there for a couple of days.

'I don't think he knew where he was.'

A spokesman from the London Ambulance Service said the man was treated for exposure to the cold and injuries to his feet after being pulled out last Thursday.

He said: 'We were called by the Metropolitan Police at 12:58pm to Brentwood Road, Romford, to reports of a man found in a drain.

'We sent an incident response officer and team leaders in an ambulance. We treated him at the scene for ankle injuries and for exposure to cold temperatures and water.'

The man told police that he had entered the sewers in Barking, six miles away, three days earlier, but did not offer a reason for why he had entered the sewer system.

The unbelievable scene was captured by Sam Palmer, who heard the victim's desperate cries for help from her workplace

But officials from Thames Water confirmed that following an investigation, they believe that the unknown man entered via an exit of the surface water system on a new housing estate, about a mile away.

A spokesman said an engineer checked but could not find any broken manholes that he could have fallen through, following a call from police.

The system carries rainwater from roads straight out to the River Rom so the explorer had not come into contact with toilet waste during his journey.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: 'Officers attended and freed the 48-year-old man by removing the manhole cover.

'He was taken to an east London hospital for treatment to injuries to his feet. His injuries are not life threatening.'

He added that the investigation had now been closed.Horrifying new details have emerged of how a 21-year-old Russian student killed her boyfriend during a sex game before dismembering his corpse.

Anastasia Onegina murdered lover Dmitry Sinkevich, 24, a former policeman and conscript soldier, at her flat in Oryol before slicing him up using a kitchen knife.

She beheaded him, cut off his genitals and cheeks, severed his limbs, removed several fingers and toes and then gutted him.

Some pieces she threw into the bins outside, others she stored in the freezer, and yet more were hung on hooks around her apartment like a butcher's shop.

Anastasia Onegina, a 21-year-old student from Russia, admits killing lover Dmitry Sinkevich, 24, before butchering his corpse and stuffing some parts in her freezer

Onegina murdered Sinkevich during a BDSM sex game before using a large kitchen knife to sever his head and limbs, remove his cheeks and genitals, and remove some fingers and toes

Onegina also disemboweled Sinkevich (pictured together) before throwing some parts of him in the bins outside, placed others in the freezer, and hung yet more from meat hooks

Onegina initially denied killing Sinkevich, telling police she had found him dead before dismembering the corpse - afraid she would be accused of murder - but has now admitted causing his death.

Sinkevich died of asphyxiation during a BDSM sex game, investigators say.

A neighbour call Lyubov who saw inside her flat after the death and dismembering said: 'I managed to see how it was.

'His meat was hanging on hooks, but they did not allow me to stop and look too closely.

'His hands and feet in the trash, guts in a package in the refrigerator, fingers are scattered across the flat.'

As Anastasia Onegina was cutting up his body, her sister Ksenia called her on her phone and asked what she was doing.

Sinkevich was a policeman and former conscript in the Russian military, and according to social media had an interest in BDSM and the occult

Noise next door: Local news reports that the couple's neighbours frequently complained of the noise from their 'weekly orgies'.

Rumours: Neighbours say both Onegina and her late partner were fans of occultism and BDSM

'I'm dismembering my boyfriend,' she said. Ksenia called their father, who is a policeman, and he alerted authorities.

Onegina's husband previously died in suspicious circumstances shortly after their wedding.

After his death, she was sentenced to a psychiatric hospital for a year and a half, but was then released.

A court has now ordered her to undergo psychiatric tests as the murder investigation continues.

Neighbours say the couple were fans of occultism and BDSM, and his social media included satanist images.

They 'made a lot of noise'.

One report stated: 'Neighbours said that they held weekly orgies, and complained about them.

'They were said to be into sadomasochism and similar practises.'

His final picture shows them together going for a walk with her dog at 7.50 am on Sunday. He died and was dismembered later the same day.

Final snap: The last known photo of the pair shows them walking her dog on the day he died

In the dead man's social media profile he had written: 'In love with Anastasia Onegina.'

His profile showed he was subscribed to a satanist group and he posted pictures linked to the devil.

A picture showed him in his policeman's uniform in 2015.

On her online account, Onegina wrote: 'I only want 3 things in this world: See you. Hug you. Kiss you.'

One report said: 'Her classmates say she was a bit crazy since childhood.

'She is from the family with many children, her dad is a policeman.

'The question is, how could she be left without custody and supervision by the relevant authorities?

'The most interesting thing is that she gives the impression of quite a normal girl.'

The suspect is also known as Anastasia Beloshapkina and Anastasia Savosto.A student at one of Victoria's most prestigious schools has been suspended after teachers found he had been plotting against classmates using a detailed 'hit list'.

The damning document, titled 'HITLIST 2018 (Revamped)', included insulting descriptions of senior students at Melbourne Grammar School, The Age reported.

Some students were bashed for their sexuality, others for having low IQ and another for being too honest, making them 'too hard to manipulate'.

A student at Melbourne Grammar School (pictured) has been suspended after teachers found he had been plotting against classmates using a detailed 'hit list'

Another student was criticised for bad teeth, while someone else for having feminist beliefs.

In one entry, the student seemed to comprehend the viability of killing one of his male peers.

'I don't think I'll be able to kill him he never shows up anyway,' the description read.

Victoria Police have been involved, but the school's headmaster, Roy Kelley, said no further action was currently being taken against the child.

'Melbourne Grammar School is aware of the compilation of a 'negative' list of students in the senior school, created by a fellow student,' Mr Kelley told the publication.

The damning document, titled 'HITLIST 2018 (Revamped)', included insulting descriptions of senior students along with a ranking (stock photo)

'We regard this incident as a very serious matter. We consider the actions of the student involved in creating this list to be unacceptable.'

He said the school had suspended the student immediately after learning about the list and had offered counselling to those affected by its contents.

Names had been categorised into school houses, with each student having a personalised ranking.

Some were listed because they had mocked the student in the past, while one was accused of being a 'communist that supports women's rights'.

Victoria Police have been involved, but the school's headmaster, Roy Kelley, said no further action was currently being taken against the child

Another student was described as a 'snarky lil bitch' while another was 'degenerate weeb trash'.

Copies of the list had made its way around senior students and their parents - one of which said there was a lack of information provided by the school.

Fees for a year of tuition and boarding at the private Anglican school cost well over $50,000 per student.

Among the school's alumni are three former prime ministers, Malcolm Fraser, Stanley Bruce and Alfred Deakin.



Letters sent by Princess Diana to the friend of an AIDS victim who she gave 580 to have been made public.

Correspondence between Princess Diana and a friend of Vincent Hickey show the kind-hearted spirit of the 'People's Princess' to those less fortunate than herself.

In July 1996, Margaret Bendon got in touch with Diana on behalf of Mr Hickey, who had AIDS and bowel cancer, to ask for money for a visit to Loudres, France.

Diana's personal assistant wrote back to Ms Bendon, saying the Princess would consider the request.

Then six days later, a second letter was sent by the Princess with an enclosed cheque.

Diana then sent back a third letter, saying she was happy the money she sent had gone to good use after being informed Mr Hickey and Ms Bendon had traveled to Loudres.

Princess Diana had sent a personal letter to Miss Margaret Bendon, who was the friends of AIDS sufferer Vincent Hickey

A copy of the cheque which Ms Maraget Bendon was sent after sending a letter to Princess Diana

She explained that her mind had been put at ease after she received a letter detailing her generous donation went to a genuine cause.

She wrote: '...you need not have worried about proving your request was genuine!

'I was delighted to be able to help and so glad that he (Vincent) was well enough to travel.

'I am sure that the benefit from such an experience goes a very long way to bring this comfort and to be able to play a part in providing it has given me great pleasure.'

The Coutts & Co cheque shows the sum was paid from the account of 'His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales Office'.

Princess Diana said she was 'delighted' the money had been put to good use

Ms Bendon had sent a letter to Princess Diana's office and received two replies within the space of six days

Diana helped to raise the profile of AIDS victims worldwide, and hellped to open the UK's first purpose built HIV/AIDS unit in London.

The People's Princess also broke taboos surrounding the illness by shaking hands and hugging victims of the disease.

The letters on Kensington Palace headed paper, have now been put up for auction by a collector of 20th century autographs.

They are being sold by Henry Aldridge and Son of Devizes, Wilts, for an estimated 3,000.

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: 'These include the finest content letters of Lady Diana known to exist.

'They demonstrate the empathy and generosity Diana was able to show to some of the most vulnerable people in society.'

The letters are being sold on February 24.

MailOnline has contacted Kensington Palace for comment.A family friend of a 16-year-old shot by police has claimed he was unarmed when officers opened fire.

Jai Hunt was injured on Wednesday when police were called to a Springfield house over a domestic incident.

But the allegations have been denied by the force union and the police said the officers made 'good decisions' in a split second.

The teenager, who was named as Jai Hunt, was injured on Wednesday when police were called

A police officer runs back to their patrol car to bring out a first aid kit after the boy was shot

It is alleged the teenage boy was trying to lunge at officers while holding a knife when he was shot by officers.

But family members today claimed that was not the case, Nine News reports.

At a press conference on Thursday, Ian Leavers of the Queensland Police Union said: 'The allegation the offender was unarmed when police defended themselves is patently untrue.'

Meanwhile, Ian Stewart, the Queensland Police commissioner told reporters: 'They made good choices, good decisions, to not only protect themselves but others present at the time.'

A search was initiated at the house in Springfield, Queensland, on Wednesday afternoon following the shooting

It is alleged the teenage boy was trying to lunge at officers while holding a knife, police said

The youngster is still recovering in hospital and is understood to have spoken to investigators from his bed about the incident.

He told them he was lunging at officers to attack his father during a fight which is claimed to have related to a history of domestic abuse, Nine reported.

Queensland police commissioner Ian Stewart (left) and the Queensland Police Union's Ian Leavers (right)

Mr Leavers described it as a 'very complicated family situation'.

Family friends have said the boy has Asperger's and is fascinated with knives while his father is codeine dependent and had been unable to take his tablets since the start of the month.

No charges have been made by police in relation to the incident which is being investigated by the Queensland Police Service Ethical Standards Command.

No charges have been made by police in relation to the incident and Jai Hunt is still recovering in hospital

The incident is being investigated by the Queensland Police Service Ethical Standards Command

The youngster was allegedly shot multiple times before being rushed to hospital in Brisbane

Jai, who has been described as a 'friendly boy', was allegedly shot multiple times before being rushed to hospital in Brisbane.

His grandfather, Jim Hunt, told the Courier Mail the boy was 'having a bit of a blue' with his father prior to the incident.

'He's never been in trouble with the police,' he said.

The house was locked down as a crime scene while forensic teams and detectives set up a cordon

Detective Superintendent Brian Swan said in a statement in the aftermath of the shooting that he believed both policemen fired at the 16-year-old.

'That young person has threatened officers armed with a knife,' he said.

'The officers drew their firearms and that person was shot once, we believe.'Advertisement

The devastation of World War One is laid bare in these striking photographs which show a soldier with shellshock, horses and men hauling massive guns through thick and clinging mud and troops tending to their injured comrades and going on deadly reconnaissance missions.

Some of the shots show soldiers sitting in a trench at the Battle of the Somme, checking on the wounded and dead among splintered trees and rubble-covered ground. Other pictures show the hard slog of 60lb guns being hauled to the front at the Somme, the Divisional Cyclist Company loading up their bicycles and Canadian machine gun crews taking cover at Vimy Ridge.

The Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive, was one of the largest battles of the First World War. Fought between July 1 and November 1, 1916, near the Somme River in France, it was also one of the bloodiest military battles in history. On the first day alone, the British suffered more than 57,000 casualties, and by the end of the campaign the Allies and Central Powers would lose more than 1.5 million men.

These original black and white photographs were painstakingly colourised over a number of months by electrician Royston Leonard, 55, from Cardiff, south Wales, and bring to life the stark reality of life in the trenches of the First World War

A soldier smokes a cigarette as he appears to tend a dead or injured fighter on a roughly hewn makeshift bridge across a muddy river. Fought between July 1 and November 1, 1916, near the Somme River in France, the Battle of the Somme was one of the bloodiest military battles in history. On the first day alone, the British suffered more than 57,000 casualties, and by the end of the campaign the Allies and Central Powers would lose more than 1.5 million men

The original black and white photographs were painstakingly colourised over a number of months by electrician Royston Leonard, 55, from Cardiff, south Wales, and bring to life the stark reality of life in the trenches of the First World War.

'Some would say that the First World War is when the old world died,' he said.

'From the hell of the battle fields came new ideas, but it is a pity most were about new ways of killing.

'New machines were made for the air and ground, but also mixed in were new ideas for peace and the way forwards to a better world. It would take another war to learn these lessons and finally bring peace to Europe.

The 112th Royal Scots carry out a daylight reconnaissance patrol, in Meteren on the French-Belgian border, June 23 1918. At the outbreak of war The Royal Scots consisted of two Regular battalions. By the time of the Armistice on November 11 1918, over 100,000 men had served with the Regiment. Of these 11,213 (Over 10 per cent) had been killed. The number killed equates to roughly 1 in 10 of all Scotsmen, of whatever arm or unit, being killed on all the WW1 battlefields - a staggering figure from a single regiment . In addition to those killed, over 40,000 were wounded

Battle of the Somme, 1918. This stark image shows the terrible conditions soldiers in the trenches lived and worked in. The trenches were the front line in the The Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive, which became one of the largest battles of the First World War. Because the ground in the area is chalky and easily dug, the trench sides were known to crumble easily after rain, and so were built up with wood, sandbags or any other suitable material

As defensive and offensive tactics developed later in the war, trench positions became formidable fortresses with barbed wire belts tens of yards deep in front of them, with concrete shelters and emplacements, often below ground level. Machine guns would be permanently trained on gaps deliberately left in the wire, and the artillery would also have the positions registered for firing at short notice (Source: Long Long Trail)

Massive guns being dragged by men and horses to the Somme. The 60 pounder was a heavy field gun or 'gun of position' designed to be towed by either a horse team or mechanical vehicle. During the First World War the British Army deployed more than a million horses and mules, many used to drag the 'heavy guns'. On average the British Army lost 15 per cent of its horses every year of WW1 - only a quarter of horse deaths were caused by enemy action. The biggest killer was 'debility'  a condition caused by exposure to the elements, hunger and illness

'Even in the middle of hell you can see the hope of better times, but in some images it is just hell - man's hell made of blood death and steel.

'In the middle of no man's land grows a flower for we made this hell around it. Sad we forgot until it was too late, but it did not and grew to remind us.'

World War One was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history.

The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was more than 41 million: there were over 18 million deaths and 23 million wounded, ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history.

The total number of deaths includes from 9 to 11 million military personnel and about 5 to 6 million civilians. The Allies lost about 6 million military personnel while the Central Powers lost about 4 million. At least 2 million died from diseases and 6 million went missing, presumed dead.

The casualty rate was exacerbated by the tactical stalemate caused by gruelling trench warfare.

A solider who appears to be suffering with shell shock is pictured on the left as his comrades provide medical aid to others. By the end of World War One the British Army had dealt with 80,000 cases of shell shock. In the early years of the war it was believed to be the result of a physical injury to the nerves. Cases of 'shell shock' were therefore considered as either a physical or psychological injury, or simply as a lack of moral fibre. It is now considered to be a type of posttraumtic stress syndrome, a reaction to the intensity of the bombardment and fighting

By November 1918, half of the British Army's horses were in France. Horses and mules had four main roles during the war: Supply horses and mules moved ammunition, general supplies and ambulances. Riding horses were ridden by soldiers behind, and sometimes even in, the frontline. Teams of gun horses pulled artillery and cavalry horses were used in battle

Canadian machine gun crews at Vimy Ridge. The Battle of Vimy Ridge was a military engagement fought as part of the Battle of Arras, in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France. The main combatants were the four divisions of the Canadian Corps in the First Army, against three divisions of the German 6th Army. The battle, which took place from April 9 to 12 1917, was intended to attract German reserves from the French front. By nightfall on 12 April 1917, the Canadian Corps was in firm control of the ridge. The corps suffered 10,602 casualties: 3,598 killed and 7,004 wounded. The German 6th Army suffered an unknown number of casualties with approximately 4,000 men became prisoners of war

It was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved.

Unresolved rivalries still extant at the end of the conflict contributed to the start of the Second World War only twenty-one years later.

Striking images like these are featured in British author Michael D. Carroll's new book, Retrographic on the colourisation of historical images. It is available on Amazon now for 16.85.

The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was more than 41 million: there were over 18 million deaths and 23 million wounded, ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history. The total number of deaths includes from 9 to 11 million military personnel and about 5 to 6 million civilians. The Allies lost about 6 million military personnel while the Central Powers lost about 4 million. At least 2 million died from diseases and 6 million went missing, presumed deadRussian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has accused Instagram of caving by removing videos filmed by an escort of oligarch Oleg Deripaska and the Deputy Prime Minister allegedly discussing US relations.

The media watchdog in Russia blocked Navalny's website after he posted the videos alleging a deputy prime minister enjoyed lavish hospitality from a billionaire tycoon.

Deripaska has accused Navalny of spreading lies about him and Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko by discussing footage.

Deripaska and Prikhodko were reportedly filmed by an escort on the billionaire's private yacht in 2016, which the Russian opposition, led by Navalny, claim is evidence of corruption and bribery.

The video has disappeared from Instagram, which prompted Navalny to issue a statement saying: 'Instagram decided to comply with Russian illegal censorship requests and deleted some content about oligarch Deripaska. Shame on you, Instagram. This content was spotlighted by our corruption investigation.'

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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny (pictured) has claimed internet providers in the country had started blocking access to his website (also pictured)

Billionaire Oleg Deripaska (in blue) and Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko (glasses) were reportedly filmed by an escort on Deripaska's private yacht in 2016; Alexei Navalny, a thorn in the Kremlin's side, claims this is evidence of corruption

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, centre, attends a rally in Moscow, Russia. He claims his website has been blocked

The videos and photos of Deripaska and Prikhodko on the yacht first emerged on the social media accounts of Anastasiya Vashukevich (pictured on the yacht on the day in question with Deripaska), a woman working as an escort under the name Nastya Rybka

Thorn in Kremlin's side: Alexei Navalny produced the report on February 8 accusing the pair of corruption after he tracked down the pictures on Rybka's Instagram account

Russia's media watchdog on Thursday blocked the website of opposition leader Alexei Navalny after he posted a video alleging a deputy prime minister enjoyed lavish hospitality from a billionaire tycoon.

State body Roskomnadzor has threatened to block any site distributing the video, including YouTube and Instagram, but both remain accessible in Russia.

'Roskomnadzor has blocked https://navalny.com/ at the request of (Russian oligarch Oleg) Deripaska,' Navalny said on Twitter.

'The site remains accessible through some service providers, but this is temporary,' he added.

Roskomnadzor confirmed the website had been added to a list of banned pages that service providers are required to block, in comments to Russian news agencies.

Navalny, who has been barred from running against President Vladimir Putin in next month's election, says the video appears to show The Russian leader's former top foreign policy adviser Sergei Prikhodko vacationing on the yacht of 50-year-old Oleg Deripaska, an aluminium magnate.

Nastya Rybka had initially said she wasn't going to remove the offending pictures and video, but as of Wednesday, the material appears to have been deleted, save for a couple of pictures of her on the yacht

Both Deripaska and Prikhodko, who rarely makes comments to the media, denied the allegations.

In one video, the two men can be heard referring to 'bad relations with America' and 'Nuland', referring to Victoria Nuland, the then Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs in the Obama administration.

A Russian court has now ruled that the videos and images must be removed from the social media platforms, because they invade Deripaska's privacy.

Deripaska won an order from the Ust-Labinsk district court in his native Krasnodar region which ordered 14 Instagram posts and seven YouTube videos that 'breach his right to privacy' must be removed, according to BloombergQuint. Both YouTube and Instagram have yet to respond to the ruling.

As it is not possible for internet providers to block specific pages on Instagram and YouTube, the entire sites may be blacklisted in Russia, a spokesperson for the Russian Association for Electronic Communications told the BBC.

Navalny claims that the videos allegedly showing Miss Rybka, Deripaska and Prikhodo, are evidence of government corruption and has refused to take down the videos.

Navalny quoted public records suggesting that Prikhodko spent several days on the yacht and was flown there by Deripaska's private jet.

He also speculates whether the meeting had anything to do with the Trump presidential campaign, specifically Deripaska's reported links to former Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort.

A spokesman for Deripaska rejected Navalny's report, saying: 'These scandalous and mendacious assumptions are driven by sensationalism and we totally refute these outrageous false allegations in the strongest possible way.'

According to a letter posted online by Navalny's team on Monday, Google warned him to remove the material from his YouTube channel or face being blocked.

Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor, gave YouTube and Instagram until the end of Tuesday to delete the material or face censure.

As of Wednesday evening, it appeared that the offending Instagram and YouTube posts from Anastasiya Vashukevich, a woman working as an escort under the name Nastya Rybka, had been removed.

A screengrab of Alexei Navalny's website, which he claims has been blocked by a Russian communications watchdog

Supporters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny gesture from a window during a rally calling for a boycott of March 18 presidential elections, Saint Petersburg, January 28, 2018

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny speaks during an interview with AFP at the office of his Anti-corruption Foundation (FBK) in Moscow on January 16, 2018

However the pictures and footage can still be seen on the YouTube channel of Mr Navalny. The 25-minute video has been viewed almost five million times.

Miss Rybka, who has written a book about working as an escort, claims to have had an affair with Deripaska and says she was hired to spend time on the oligarch's yacht.

Miss Rybka, originally from Belarus but now based in Dubai, posted several videos in August 2016 showing Deripaska on his yacht talking with Deputy Prime minister Prikhodko.

The videos were only picked up by Mr Navalny on February 8 as part of an investigation.

In one snippet, Deripaska explains to Miss Rybka why relations between Russia and the United States are so bad.

'We've got bad relations with America. Why? Because the friend of Sergey Eduardovich [Prikhodko], Nuland is her name, is responsible for them. When she was young, she spent a month on a Russian whaling boat, and after this, she hates the country.

Deripaska won an order from the Ust-Labinsk district court in his native Krasnodar region which ordered 14 Instagram posts and seven YouTube videos that 'breach his right to privacy must be removed

Investigated: Navalny quoted public records suggesting that Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko, pictured, spent several days on the yacht and was flown there by Deripaska's private jet

Navalny speculates during his YouTube video that the meeting could have had something to do with Paul Manafort's (left) relationship with Deripaska; The Russian duo can also be heard discussing Victoria Nuland (right), who was the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs during the Obama administration

On Tuesday, Miss Rybka had put it to a vote among her Instagram followers, who, she claims, convinced her not to take down the videos and pictures.

However as of Wednesday, she appears to have deleted the offending images and videos.

Deripaska filed suit after Mr Navlny's investigation and accused My Rybka of illegally using private images.

Roskomnadzor, the government's media watchdog, gave YouTube and Instagram three days to take the videos down or be investigated.

It also ordered YouTube to take down Mr Navalny's video, which was still online on Wednesday and had attracted five million views.

YouTube told the New York Times that it hadn't figured out how to react.

But Mr Navaly called on both YouTube and Instagram to resist the Russian government's demands in an interview with The Times.

Last week, several media outlets were also ordered to redact reports that initially picked up on Mr Navalny's report. They all complied as of Wednesday, according to Interfax, the Russian news agency.

Deripaska is a controversial figure who has been linked to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump's campaign manager Paul Manafort.

Manafort offered to provide briefings on the US Presidential race to Deripaska, according to a Washington Post report from September although there is no evidence such briefings ever took place. In 2014, Deripaska accused Manafort of owing him nearly $19 million in a Cayman Islands court.

In 2008, he was at the centre of a British political scandal, when it emerged that then-Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, Lord Peter Mandelson and banking heir Nat Rothschild had all spent an evening on his yacht Queen K in Corfu in August.

Mr Navalny, on the other hand, is banned from running in next month's presidential election in Russia.

He is known for probing the behaviour of well-known Russian figures.A pet dog in China has managed to return home three days after it was stolen by dog thieves, according to local media.

Apparently, the thieves had not been able to sell the pooch to restaurants because it was too skinny, so they set it free.

The pet had been shot a poisonous dart by the thieves, but the dart was not deadly, said a report on Chinese news site QQ.com.

One of Mr Xiao's family members pets the dog after it returns home. The pet was reportedly poisoned and stolen by dog thieves at its home in Gaoping, eastern China's Zhejiang Province

The dog's owner was ecstatic to see his pet coming home yesterday in Gaoping, eastern China's Zhejiang Province.

'I didn't expect it would come home again. I thought I lost it forever,' the man was quoted saying in the QQ.com report.

A video taken by the owner, who identified himself as Mr Xiao, shows one of his family members petting the white pet upon its return.

According to the report, Mr Xiao's his dog went missing on the night of February 11 after he went to bed.

The man said his dog guarded the house on the porch every night. But on the morning of February 12, he couldn't find his dog so he went to check the footage from his home security cameras.

The video apparently showed that the dog had been stolen by someone with the help of a toxic syringe. Mr Xiao called the police immediately.

Mr Xiao, the owner, said his dog had always been thin. He suspected the dog thieves set the animal free after failing to sell it for its meat and the dog found its way home afterwards

The man said his dog guarded the house on the porch every night, but he couldn't see the dog on the morning of February 12. He realised it had been stolen after watching CCTV footage

On February 14, Mr Xiao suddenly saw his dog on a hill behind his house. The dog was said to be avoiding him and appearing scared. Mr Xiao shouted at the dog, telling him to come home, but it ran away.

To the man's surprise, his pet walked back to his house a few hours later. Mr Xiao said he noticed the dog couldn't walk steadily, and suspected it was the after effect of the poisonous dart. He also said the dog would get frightened more easily than before.

The man said his dog had always be thin. He guessed the thieves released the dog after failing to sell it for its meat, and the dog found its way back home.

He called his pet's returning 'a miracle'.

Chinese police discovered over 10,000 deadly darts as they raided a factory last December

Every year, thousands of pet dogs are poisoned and stolen in China, and as many as 20 million dogs are killed annually to satisfy the dog meat industry.

Last December, Chinese police bust a gang that had sold nearly 200,000 poisonous syringes to dog thieves.

The suspects, from central China, produced the syringes with toxic chemicals in their underground factory before selling them across the nation through social media platforms, according to reports from Chinese media.

The use of poison in stealing or killing pet dogs is a common practice in China, but few suspects are arrested and punished partially due to the lack of animal protection laws in the country.This is the shocking moment a group of vegans holding a peaceful protest were attacked by who they claim is an 'aggressive farmer' that told them to 'eat a bacon sandwich'.

Activist group, Thame Market Animal Save, were laying roses for animals who were being sent to slaughter on Valentine's Day.

Ed Winters, 23, from London known as 'Earthling Ed' was among the vegans who were protesting the animals going to slaughter in the Thame Livestock Market, Oxfordshire, yesterday afternoon.

Mr Winters said a couple of activists were upset because there was a man and a woman in a car laughing at them for laying roses at the entrance of the market in a vigil to mark the lives of the sheep being sold by farmers for slaughter.

The man  believed to be a farmer  had a trailer to transport animals at the back of his car.

Mr Winters told MailOnline: 'I asked them, "What's the joke..? Could you explain what's so funny?"

Activist group, Thame Market Animal Save, were laying roses for animals who were being sent to slaughter on Valentine's Day

Ed Winters, 23, from London known as 'Earthling Ed' was among the vegans who were protesting the animals going to slaughter in the Thame Livestock Market, Oxfordshire

The man  believed to be a farmer  had a trailer to transport animals at the back of his car

'He said, "You look like p*****, what are you doing?"

I told him we are laying down roses to pay our respects for the animals about to be slaughtered.'

The farmer then on to tell Mr Winters he looked ill and 'should eat a bacon sandwich'.

Mr Winters replied 'why, so I can get cancer?'

Mr Winters claims the man called him a 'p****' and told him 'he needs a bacon sandwich'

The farmer got angry after Mr Winters confronted them for laughing at him, and then 'attacked' him

Thames Valley Police confirmed to MailOnline that a police officer witnessed the fracas and saw the 'farmer' was taken to Thame police station

After the man laughed at Mr Winters, he inquired 'what's so funny?'.

He then told him to get off his car and and started shoving the activist, before being taken to Thame Police station by officers that saw the fracas.

Thames Valley Police told MailOnline: 'A man pushed the victim outside Thame Livestock Market just before midday.

'An investigation is being carried out but no arrests have been made at this time.

'If anyone has any information about the incident please call police on 101 and quote reference number 258 (14/2). 'Advertisement

A former coastguard station that played an important role in the Second World War and was visited by Sir Winston Churchill before being converted into a tea room and holiday let is on the market for 1.5 million, having lowered the original asking price by 2 million.

Bluebird Tea Rooms sits in a stunning position on top of the iconic White Cliffs of Dover with breathtaking panoramic views across the English Channel.

The lookout post played an important part in Britain's defences during the Second World War and the underground operations room, built 35ft below the building, was visited by Churchill twice during the war.

A former coastguard station that played an important role in the Second World War and was visited by Sir Winston Churchill before being converted into a tea room and holiday let is on the market for 1.5 million, having lowered the asking price by 2 million. The stunning boutique stay overlooks the stunning White Cliffs of Dover

Bluebird Tea Rooms sits in the stunning position on top of the iconic White Cliffs of Dover with breathtaking panoramic views across the English Channel. It was once played a critical role during the Second World War as a lookout for potential attacks from German occupied France

That room is now just used for storage but the building would make a great business for someone or could potentially become a stunning family home if permission was granted for change of use.

The 'one of a kind' property was previously marketed for 3.5m but is now on the market with Humberts for 2m less.

The land was acquired by the Ministry of War in 1914. Two huts were erected and used as a signal station for the Dover Patrol during and after the First World War.

An obelisk monument, which is next to the building, was built in 1921 as a tribute to the sailors of the Dover Patrol who lost their lives during the conflict.

The lookout post played an important part in Britain's defences during the Second World War and the underground operations room, built 35ft below the building, was visited by Churchill twice during the war. it now offers tea and scones with an indoor wood burner and idyllic seaside views

The 'one of a kind' property was previously marketed for 3.5m but is now on the market with Humberts for 2m less. A modern kitchen allows for tea, coffee and lunches to be prepared for up to 35 covers at any one time

The signal huts were replaced by a purpose-built brick Coastguard lookout in the late 1920s and then an underground operations room was built as war loomed again with two anti-aircraft guns sited to the rear.

It was important during the Second World War as its position was close to Hellfire Corner - the stretch of the Channel bombed and shelled relentlessly by the Germans - and the operations room was used extensively to monitor and coordinate shipping in the Channel.

The room housed the Magnetron radar device, which was credited with saving the UK from Nazi invasion by identifying the waves of incoming German aircraft so Spitfires and Hurricanes could target them.

The land was acquired by the Ministry of War in 1914. Two huts were erected and used as a signal station for the Dover Patrol during and after the First World War. The signal huts were replaced by a purpose-built brick Coastguard lookout in the late 1920s and then an underground operations room was built as war loomed again with two anti-aircraft guns sited to the rear

It was important during the Second World War as its position was close to Hellfire Corner - the stretch of the Channel bombed and shelled relentlessly by the Germans - and the operations room was used extensively to monitor and coordinate shipping in the Channel. It now offers a tranquil stay for people wanting to get away from the bustling city, with an abundance of natural light streaming through painted white French paneled windows

It was such an important piece of equipment it was guarded by two foot soldiers around the clock and Churchill visited twice to see it in action.

After the war, as a fully equipped coastguard station with radar scanner, the property was the principal centre for monitoring what had become the busiest shipping lane in the world.

But with new technology development and an increase in sea traffic, the decision was made to build a new multi-million pound coastguard station nearer to Dover at Langdon Cliff.

After the war, as a fully equipped coastguard station with radar scanner, the property was the principal centre for monitoring what had become the busiest shipping lane in the world. While the shipping lane is no longer as important, the views across the channel remain just as compelling, with floor to ceiling windows offering stunning panoramic views

This station was decommissioned and bought in 1994 by the current owners.

It now has 1,453 sq ft of accommodation with the ground floor mostly devoted to the business.

The tea room can provide 34 covers and seating outside for another 32 covers in summer and there is a kitchen for the tea room and a separate kitchen for the holiday let.

Upstairs there is a sitting room, two bedrooms, a bathroom and a balcony.

This station was decommissioned and bought in 1994 by the current owners. It now has 1,453 sq ft of accommodation with the ground floor mostly devoted to the business

The tea room can provide 34 covers and seating outside for another 32 covers in summer and there is a kitchen for the tea room and a separate kitchen for the holiday let. Upstairs there is a sitting room, two bedrooms, a bathroom and a balcony

A trapdoor leads down two step ladders to the operations room, which is only about 15ft by 8ft.

The tea room business was run from 1997 until last Christmas but is now offered with vacant possession. It could be expanded to become a bistro by introducing evening meals.

Martin Jordan from Humberts said: 'Lots of agents say a property is unique, but this is a real one-off property. It's pretty special.

The tea room business was run from 1997 until last Christmas but is now offered with vacant possession. It could be expanded to become a bistro by introducing evening meals

'The sense of history going back to the war is incredible.

'A deciphering machine that was a forerunner to modern radar was kept in the underground room and guarded by two foot soldiers 24/7.

'There's a trapdoor that leads down a step ladder onto a half landing about 15 or 20ft down then another ladder to the domed-ceiling room.

'Being so close to the White Cliffs it had sentries on guard. The owner still has an air warden helmet from the Second World War he found in there.

'Now it has 360-degree views, with lovely countryside when you look inland and a 180-degree vista of the cross-Channel boats coming into Dover when you look out to sea.

'A buyer would need to apply for a change of use if they wanted to live in it as it only has permission for use as a holiday let and tea room, but if that was granted it would make a lovely family home with absolutely stunning views.'A beggar who was threatening passers-by to get their money has been found to have more than half a million pounds of cash in his pockets.

The man was stopped by police after he had been bullying local people to give him cash when banknotes started falling out of his jacket.

It took officers more than a day to count out all the cash, which added up to an astonishing six million Swedish krona, or 537,000.

He had been bothering people outside Resecentrum station in Uppsala, Sweden, The Sun reports.

A beggar who was threatening passers-by to get their money has been found to have more than half a million pounds of cash in his pockets (file photo)

As the largest banknote in Swedish currency is 1,000 krona (90), the man must have had at least 6,000 banknotes on him.

An Uppsala Police spokesperson said the unnamed man had been arrested on suspicion of money laundering, which in Sweden can lead to a two-year prison sentence.

She said the man had been 'very angry' when demanding money but police did not know whether he had got the money through begging.

He could have got the enormous sum through winning a lottery or from the proceeds of crime, she said.

The man had been trying to collect enough money to get on a train to his home in the west of Sweden, she said.

'I have never heard of so much money in a situation like this. There were just more and more bundles,' said police chief Jale Poljarevius.

'Anyone who walks around with six million in cash will be a suspect of crime.'

Uppsala is Sweden's fourth-largest city, around 50 miles north of Stockholm.A promising teenage music producer was stabbed to death in a 'postcode war', becoming the 12th person to stabbed in London since New Year's Eve.

The 17-year-old victim found lying in a street in Canning Town, east London yesterday has been named locally as Promise Nkenda.

Police say it was a 'targeted and sustained attack', which took place at around 8pm.

Paramedics battled to save him for around 40 minutes but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The 17-year-old found lying in a street in Canning Town, east London yesterday has been named locally as Promise Nkenda

His family claim it was a 'targeted attack', which took place at around 8pm. Police and paramedics battled to save him for around 40 minutes but he was pronounced dead at the scene

Promise is now the 12th person to be stabbed in the capital since New Year's Eve

His sister claims his murder was a 'set up' after three friends he was with suggested he join them on a trip to Canning Town. No arrests have yet been made.

Maludi, 34, said her brother was loved by everyone he met: 'He was very friendly, it's just heartbreaking.

'His favourite hobby was playing the drums, he loved his music and was studying music and media at BCE College and had been there since last year.

'He was shocking everyone how fast he was progressing. His dream was to become a music producer.

'He liked R&B, hip hop and dancehall and wanted to work with Kojo Funds, Yxng Bane, Lethal Bizzle, Wiley and Dizzee Rascal.

'He was well loved everywhere he went.

'I'm shaking, they have taken away a really precious boy, we are all devastated and I do not think anyone can repair it.

'It's about postcodes, but everyone should be free to go wherever they want, it's a free country.

'Promise never got into trouble, I think it was a set up.

'These people were prepared, they knew what they were aiming for, he was at home and his friends took him out.

'They were in Canning Town and the girl said 'let's go to my uncle's'.

'Now we are just waiting to hear how he died, if they stabbed him straight away or if they beat him up first.'

Victim: Promise Nkenda was found stabbed in the street after going on a trip to Canning Town from North Woolwich with friends

Promise's (pictured) sister claims his murder was a 'set up' after three friends he was with suggested he join them on a trip to Canning Town. No arrests have yet been made

Promise, the youngest in his family, leaves behind Maludi and another older sister as well as his older brother.

At the family home in north Woolwich, east London, Maludi pleaded for her brother's killers to hand themselves in and for any eyewitnesses to contact police.

His father Ndomingiedie Nkenda was too upset to speak.

But Maludi added: 'My parents are devastated, I urge anyone who knows my brother's killers to come forward.

'I'm pleading with you, this is a big loss for us, this knife crime must stop, it is not needed, it's nonsense.

'Promise's killers need to know the pain we are going through?'

Friends visited the murder scene in Canning Town, east London this afternoon with flowers but were prevented from laying the bouquets behind the cordon by police.

A team of forensics were searching under cars and in bins on street where Promise was found on Wednesday night.

A family friend at the scene said: 'It's too painful to talk about right now, we are all devastated.'

The youngest in his family, he leaves behind Maludi and another older sister as well as his older brother

Friend Rychus Ryter said on Facebook: 'Lost my Lil bro Promise Nkenda R.I.P bro forever going to be missed love from myself and the whole ilford family my prayers go out to Mama Annie and the family.

'We Need To Stand Up against this Gun & Knife crime

Janna Doxey added: 'R..I.P Promise never thought tuesday was gonna be the last time I saw you in the endz.

'He was such a respectable young man can say a bad thing about him.'

Lance Cepal added: 'Cant believe this. I'm so f***ing hurt.

'Promise man, I will miss u like crazy Bro. So sad to hear this right now. I feel mashed up inside.

'Another brother gone away from me. Why!!! Karim gone, now it's you.

'We didn't even get to sip on that BelAir we promised each other Promise Nkenda.'

Met Police's Acting Detective Inspector Perry Benton said: 'At this very early stage we are still piecing together what exactly has happened.

'However we believe the 17-year-old victim has lost his life following a sustained and possibly targeted attack.

Sabri Chibani (pictured) was attacked inside a house near Stretham Common before staggering outside and collapsing in the street

'We would urge anyone who witnessed the incident, or who has any information, to come forward and speak to police as soon as possible.'

Promise's murder comes just days after a 19-year-old was stabbed to death a few miles away in Streatham, south London.

In total, a dozen fatal stabbings have taken place since New Year's Eve.

Sabri Chibani was attacked inside a house near Stretham Common before staggering outside and collapsing in the street.

Witnesses said a young man, believed to be Mr Chibani's brother, fought to save the teenager before he was pronounced dead at the scene at 3.50pm.

His family said he dreamed of a better life in Britain and had moved to the capital just weeks earlier.

The victim's father told Italian news website Blitz Quotidiano: 'I am destroyed. Sabri was a boy who everyone loved.'

Friends who paid tribute to the youngster described him as 'easygoing and friendly', who 'never had any problems with anybody'.

The death of a 17-year-old in Canning Town came after 19-year-old Sabri Chibani (pictured) was fatally stabbed on Sunday

Nadir Ayoub, 21, who used to catch the school bus with Mr Chibani, told the Evening Standard: 'We want to know what happened. We are tormented by this news. We are trying to understand it.

'The family is totally destroyed, they cannot understand it. Sabri was not the type to ever go looking for trouble. I have known him for 10 years, he never insulted or made fun of anyone.'

Sabri was a former player for a youth football team whose family to Italy from Tunisia.

He grew up in Piacenza, 43 miles south of Milan in northern Italy.

His brother Mr Ayoub said Sabri saw 'a great future for himself' in London.

In total, a dozen fatal stabbings have taken place in the first 46 days of 2018Owen Scott (pictured), who tried to murder his three young children and stepdaughter by hitting them over the head with a hammer before crashing his car into a pub at 92mph with them inside, has been jailed for life

A father made paranoid by drug use tried to murder his three young children and stepdaughter by hitting them over the head with a hammer before crashing his car into a pub at 92mph with them inside.

Owen Peter Scott was arrested at the scene of the crash after he and the children, including his nine-month old baby, were pulled from the wreckage of the vehicle near Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

A psychotic episode caused by years of 'recreational' cocaine and cannabis abuse meant Scott believed his family was being chased by a 'sinister gang' and he attacked the children to save them from a worse fate.

A judge told Owen Peter Scott that his ex-partner 'was haunted by the screams of her children that she heard when she first saw them in hospital'.

One of the children, a seven-year-old girl, lost part of her skull and required a shunt fitting which will drain fluid from her head for the rest of her life.

The court heard from Simon Keeley QC, prosecuting, who summarised a statement made by the mother, Sheryl Rogers.

She said the most seriously injured girl was very angry about what her father had done to her.

'She openly hates him', Mr Keeley added.

Owen Scott's mother Pauline (shown right) is seen leaving Sheffield Crown Court after her son (left) pleaded guilty to attempted murder in January

He said the statement gave details about how the girl has lost 'most of the right side' of her skull which has been replaced by a plate designed to grow with her.

Scott admitted four counts of attempted murder and dangerous driving and was today handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 14 years at Sheffield Crown Court.

A judge heard how Scott drove his children - the seven-year-old girl and two boys aged 21 months and nine months - and his eight-year-old stepdaughter 250 miles before colliding with the brick wall of the Travellers Inn at 92mph.

His daughter will be wheelchair-dependent for the rest of her life, the court heard, and remains partially paralysed in hospital after losing a large section of her skull in the attack.

Prosecutors said Scott had first hit the children over the head with a hammer, but after failing to kill them he decided to crash into a building head-on.

At Sheffield Crown Court today, Scott was ordered to serve a minimum term of 14 years for attempted murder.

The judge, Mrs Justice O'Farrell, told Scott: 'You will have to live for the rest of your life knowing that you have damaged, in some cases irrecoverably, the health, both physically and psychologically, of your children.'

She heard how Scott had been a loving father to his children even after the breakdown of his relationship with his former partner.

But in the weeks before the incident, he developed paranoia, put down to a temporary psychosis caused by his long-term recreational cocaine and cannabis use.

Prosecutor Simon Keeley QC said Scott became convinced he was being chased by a gang who meant him and his children harm.

Scott picked up the children - who lived with his ex-partner Sheryl Rogers in the Southampton area - and went on a two-day trip around the country, crashing into the pub 230 miles from their home in the early hours of August 23.

Mr Keeley said police had only traced part of Scott's route but he first went to the Isle of Wight before travelling to Liverpool.

He bought a satnav in Colne, Lancashire, and visited a Burger King in Bury, Greater Manchester, before heading to the Huddersfield area and then into South Yorkshire, where the crash happened on the A629.

A police sergeant who witnessed the collision said uninjured Scott clambered over the seriously injured children after the crash.

Two girls were found on top of each other on the central console of the car, a 21-month-old boy was found in a footwell and his little brother was in a carry-cot, also in a footwell, the judge heard.

'You made no attempt to comfort or assist them or check whether they were injured,' the judge said.

A judge heard how Scott drove the children - two girls, aged seven and eight, and two boys aged 21 months and nine months - 250 miles before colliding with a wall of the Travellers Inn

The judge spent 10 minutes listing the 'life-threatening and life-changing' injuries suffered by each child, including multiple blows to the head consistent with a hammer found in the car.

As well as the seven-year-old girl losing part of her skull and also undergoing 13 operations, the 21-month-old still has a hole in his skull which will require further surgery, the judge said.

Both the boys have to wear protective helmets.

Michelle Colborne QC, defending, said her client was a recreational drug user who had been taking cannabis since he was 13 and spent 100 on cocaine at weekends.

She said doctors believe he was suffering a temporary psychotic episode caused by his drug use.

Miss Colborne said Scott was convinced a Southampton-based gang was after him and his children and he tried to kill the children to save them from a worse fate.

During a previous hearing, the court was told how Scott (pictured) had a hammer in the car at the time and used it 'to inflict blows on the children in the car to their heads'

The judge told him: 'You, their father, on whom they were entitled to rely for love, affection and comfort and, in particular, on whom they did rely to keep them safe, inflicted shocking injuries that will have long-term limiting implications for them.

'You will have to live for the rest of your life knowing that you have damaged, in some cases irrecoverably, the health, both physically and psychologically, of your children.'

'Ms Rogers is 'haunted by the screams of her children that she heard when she first saw them in hospital'.

Scott, of Fawley, Hampshire, sat in the dock wearing a grey shirt and tie and flanked by a security guard.

He showed no apparent emotion at any point during the hearing.

Owen Peter Scott was arrested at the scene of the crash (pictured) after he and the children, including a baby, were pulled from the wreckage of the vehicle near Barnsley, South Yorkshire

Detective Chief Inspector David Stopford said: 'The scene, when officers first attended, was so horrific that they were astounded to find the children were alive.

'This has been, without doubt, one of the most harrowing cases I've worked on. The ordeal those young children were subjected to was utterly horrendous and I'm pleased that Scott has today been jailed for a significant length of time.

'Three of the four children are now recovering at home with their family.

'A seven-year-old girl is still receiving treatment in hospital today but we are hopeful she will soon be able to be at home with her family and her siblings.'

Peter Mann from the CPS said: 'This was a serious and determined effort to kill four young children.

'Each of them has suffered traumatic and life-changing injuries as a result of this incident, and one child remains in hospital.

'Medical specialists concluded that Scott inflicted multiple, deliberate blows upon them consistent with a hammer attack. The sheer ferocity of the attack and the appalling nature of the children's injuries is utterly shocking.

'Our thoughts remain with them along with their family and friends.'The mother of a Melbourne teenager who hospitalised a fellow student following a brutal schoolyard brawl said her daughter was acting in self defense.

Horrific footage of the vicious fight at St Helena's Secondary College in Eltham North on Wednesday, obtained by Herald Sun, shows two Year 9 girls ferociously attacking each other.

One of the female students was taken to Austin Hospital after appearing to pass out from being held in a 'choke hold' - a move the mother of the perpetrator said was completely necessary.

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The mother of a Melbourne teenager who hospitalised a female student following a brutal schoolyard brawl (pictured) has defended her daughter

One of the female students was taken to Austin Hospital after appearing to pass out from being held in a 'choke hold'

She said her daughter had recently moved schools due to being bullied, and 'connections' made via social media had made her a target at her new school as well.

'It's not quite as clear cut as what the video shows,' she told 3AW.

'There's a king punch to the back of the head, that's not even on the video, from the one that got taken away in the ambulance.'

She said her daughter, who has been suspended for five days, was also 'very bruised and sore' from injuries inflicted by her opponent.

'As a parent I'm disgusted, I'm appalled. I'm just horrified to watch that.'

The vicious fight occurred at St Helena's Secondary College (pictured) in Eltham North on Wednesday

'If you watch the video...they're actually filming it for the bullies at the other school.'

'She was not the aggressor, she was defending herself.'

The mother wanted to distinguish rumours suggesting her daughter had been expelled from her previous school, saying the matter had been 'sensationalised'.

'That video is only partial video, it doesn't show the lead-up during the day, it doesn't show what happened on Monday.'

'There's a lot more facts and a lot more information that people are not aware of.'

Acting principal Anesti Anestis told Herald Sun there was 'no place' for such incidents at the school.

The mother wanted to distinguish rumours suggesting her daughter had been expelled from her previous school, saying the matter had been 'sensationalised'

'It is disappointing and does not reflect the behaviour of the overwhelming majority of our students,' he said.

He said neither student was seriously injured in the melee, although one was taken to hospital as a 'precautionary measure and had since been released'.

Both police and ambulance officers were called to the school, and arrived shortly after the fight broke out about 1.30pm.

A Victoria Police spokesman said the incident was being investigated.

The concerned parent revealed her daughter had recently began training in martial arts.Britain's former spy chief today warned there intelligence sharing was being put at risk by Brexit as the UK became more distant from the EU.

Sir John Sawers, the former head of MI6, said ministers were wrong to insist that security partnerships would continue as they do now.

He said the exchange of data with EU allies was vital to tackling threats and would be eroded by Brexit.

Theresa May is due to address security issues around Brexit on Saturday when makes a major speech in Munich.

Sir John Sawers (file image), the former head of MI6, said ministers were wrong to insist that security partnerships would continue as they do now

Sir John told Prospect: 'My concern on the intelligence and security front is over the exchange of data.

'Data is now central to the way in which security services in particular monitor threats  the rules on exchange of data are going to be set in the EU and we won't be round the table with our voice, with our weight, stressing the vital importance of these data exchanges to our national security.'

He added: 'Right now, we have ended up turning our back on Europe and not having a real welcome mat laid out for us in Washington and we've got to work out which way we want to turn and be prepared to pay a price one way or the other.'

The former spook also warned that Mrs May was poorly suited to the challenge of delivering Brexit.

He said: 'I don't think she's a natural at engaging on these big political issues with foreign leaders.'

Best for Britain chairman and former Foreign Office minister Lord Mark Malloch Brown seized on the intervention.

He said: 'When a former head of MI6 breaks ranks like this it shows the level of conflict and disruption inside Whitehall.

Theresa May (pictured last night at Buckingham Palace) is due to address security issues around Brexit on Saturday when makes a major speech in Munich

'Britain is adrift abroad as well as at home. We are no longer led just buffeted by daily news headlines.

'This interview shows the level of anxiety that rudderless Government is generating.'

Mrs May and Mrs Merkel will hold talks at the German Chancery on Friday - the day before the PM gives a major speech in Munich on Britain's security relationship with the EU post Brexit.

It is part of a strategy by the British Government to try to bypass the EU and go straight to the heads of EU member states to press their Brexit case.

Number 10 have wanted to get the Brexit transition deal signed off by the Brussels club by the end of the month so we can move on to talks about or future trading relationship.The heartbroken ex-girlfriend of a homeless former soldier who died while sleeping rough in Edinburgh has paid emotional tribute to her 'soulmate'.

Selina Robinson and Darren Greenfield enjoyed a whirlwind one-year romance living together in Brighton and Leeds, having met in 1997 while on a military tour of Bosnia.

Mr Greenfield, who died on December 17, 2017, had fallen on hard times after leaving the army in 1998. He became a regular outside of Edinburgh Waverley railway station where he begged for loose change in his military fatigues.

Selina Robinson, 44, the heartbroken ex-girlfriend of homeless former soldier Darren Greenfield, 47, who died while sleeping rough in Edinburgh, on December 17, 2017 had paid tribute to her 'soulmate' (pictured together on holiday in 1998, and sleeping rough 2017)

He was often seen holding a sign bearing his soldier number and a message that read: 'Soldier in need, please help, thank you God bless.'

The ex-serviceman, who served with the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, died after being admitted to hospital, though the cause of death has not yet been released.

Now his devastated ex-girlfriend Ms Robinson has paid a heartbreaking tribute to tragic Darren as she shared holiday snaps during a romantic weekend break away.

The mother-of-two, 44, who now lives in Melbourne, Australia, met Darren when she was 21 and admitted to struggling to adapt to civilian life after being discharged herself (Ms Robinson: pictured left in 1995, and right in 2017)

During their relationship they became inseparable and 'shared something rare and beautiful - unconditional love,' she told The Sun.

'Darren showed me how to love and be loved and we were soul mates,' she said.

'There is nothing I would not have done for this guy and I feel saddened it's too late now. I wish I could have been there for him in the end,' she added.

The mother-of-two, 44, who now lives in Melbourne, Australia, met Darren when she was 21 and admitted to struggling to adapt to civilian life after being discharged herself.

Expressing her sorrow on Facebook, she wrote: 'Tribute to the most humble gent who touched the hearts of many. Till we meet again. You are loved and will never be alone. I have the most fondest memories to keep you alive. No more battles just be at peace my sweet x.'

The veteran is said to have rejected the offer of help from a number of charities.

Mr Greenfield, who died on December 17, 2017, had fallen on hard times after leaving the army in 1998. He became a regular outside of Edinburgh Waverley railway station where he begged for loose change in his military fatigues (the couple together on holiday in 1998)

He served with the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, the oldest tank unit in the world that is based in Tidworth in Wiltshire, from 1986 to 1990. He then served with the Royal Army Pay Corps from 1990 - 1992, and then the Adjutant General's Corps from 1992 - 1998, when he left the Army

Mr Greenfield had served with the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, the oldest tank unit in the world that is based in Tidworth in Wiltshire, from 1986 to 1990.

He then served with the Royal Army Pay Corps from 1990 - 1992, and then the Adjutant General's Corps from 1992 - 1998, when he left the Army.

The news of his death provoked fury among campaigners who called for more to be done to help veterans adapt to civilian life.

The news of his death provoked fury among campaigners who called for more to be done to help veterans adapt to civilian life. Military charities said at least 13,000 former soldiers are homeless  a record high

Military charities said at least 13,000 former soldiers are homeless  a record high.

Soon after Mr Greenfield's death, Tommy Davidson, of Ancre Somme Association Scotland, which is dedicated to honouring Scots who have served in conflicts, said he came across Mr Greenfield while shopping six months ago.

He said: 'I kneeled down beside him and asked him some questions, like had he eaten or had something to drink that day.

'At that time he said he had something in the pipeline that he was just waiting on coming through.'

Expressing her sorrow on Facebook, she wrote: 'Tribute to the most humble gent who touched the hearts of many. Till we meet again. You are loved and will never be alone. I have the most fondest memories to keep you alive. No more battles just be at peace my sweet x.'

Mr Davidson said he wants more to be done to help ex-soldiers sleeping rough, adding: 'These people would have given their lives at one point when they were serving, so we should be able to help get them a home and career opportunities.

'They are highly skilled people  there must be something we can do to help them get back on their feet.'

Dave Goldspink, who served with Mr Greenfield, wrote on Facebook: 'He was a true gentleman and a fantastic soldier who went on to serve in the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment.

Before his death Mr Greenfield was often seen holding a sign bearing his soldier number and a message that read: 'Soldier in need, please help, thank you God bless.'

'I was shocked and dismayed to see this sad news about Darren's passing. Again another proud squaddie dies on our streets. This Government should hang its head in shame.'

Homeless Kevin Murphy, 46, who was sitting on the Princes Street exit at Waverley Station last night, told MailOnline: 'Dan used to sit here everyday eight till one. It was a busy patch.

'Dan had it in the morning. He was one of the good guys. You could talk about anything with him.'

He added: 'He didn't talk about his [military] service. I only knew about it because he sat with his sign.

'I was shocked when I found out what had happened as last time I saw him he looked healthy. But living on the street can hit you very hard.'Two of the outlaw motorcycle gang's most notorious leaders had a monster 'blow up' weeks before a violent daylight shooting.

Ex-Comanchero bikie president Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi was fatally shot by a spray of bullets to his face during the brazen assassination at a Sydney gym.

The 37-year-old was believed to have gotten in a heated argument with his successor Mark Buddle, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Outlaw motorcycle gang's most notorious leaders Mick Hawi (pictured) and Mark Buddle had a monster 'blow up' weeks before the violent daylight shooting

The 37-year-old was believed to have a heated argument with his successor Buddle (pictured)

Ex-Comanchero bikie president Hawi was fatally shot by a spray of bullets to his face during the brazen assassination at a Sydney gym (pictured)

Buddle, 32, gave himself the Comanchero president role when Hawi was sentenced to 21 years jail for murdering Hells Angels associate Anthony Zervas and texted some fellow members saying he was the 'f***ing commander of the world' last year.

The notorious gang members had growing tensions, despite the 32-year-old fleeing overseas after being named a suspect in the fatal shooting of Gary Allibon in 2010.

An underworld source told the publication Buddle would be 'just one of many people and avenues of investigation' into the assassination shooting of Hawi Thursday afternoon.

Reportedly a professional hit, Hawi, a father-of-two, was shot a number of times in the face when he left the Fitness First gym in Rockdale at 12.10pm.

The 37-year-old was taken to hospital in a critical condition but died hours later.

Footage shows two masked people fleeing the scene shortly after the fatal shooting, believed to be the shooter and a getaway driver.

A underworld source told Daily Telegraph Buddle would be 'just one of many people and avenues of investigation' into the assassination shooting

Footage shows two masked people fleeing the scene shortly after the fatal shooting, believed to be the shooter and a getaway driver (pictured)

A vehicle involved in the shooting was torched and dumped near the scene (pictured)

Hawi came close to death years ago when the bullet-proof car he was driving was sprayed with bullets in 2007.

The former bikie gang leader was found guilty of murdering Zervas but successfully appealed the sentence.

The charge was downgraded to manslaughter with a maximum sentence of six years and two months with a non-parole period of three years and six months.

Hawi, who became the national leader of the motorcycle group at 28-years-old, was released on parole with 22 conditions, one being he was not allowed to associate with bikie gang members.A prominent Los Angeles dentist was arrested Wednesday and accused of strangling his wealthy mother in October for financial gain.

Beverly Hills Police claim Daniel Yacobi strangled his 67-year-old mother Violet Yacobi on October 10, 2017.

She was discovered unconscious and not breathing inside her $7million Beverly Hills home later that afternoon by Daniel and his sister, according toABC 7.

The siblings had gone to check in on her after they were unable to reach her for several hours, police said.

Beverly Hills Police claim Daniel Yacobi strangled his 67-year-old mother Violet Yacobi on October 10, 2017

She was discovered unconscious and not breathing inside her Beverly Hills home later that afternoon by Daniel and his sister. She is pictured with her late husband Soloman

Yacobi was arrested on Tuesday, roughly four months after his mother's death. He is pictured in a booking photo

Police responded to the home and Violet was pronounced dead at the scene and later pronounced homicide by strangulation.

Immediately after the death Daniel, 36, took to social media to share his grief, praising his mother as amazing and saying a day doesn't go by when he doesn't think of her.

'Mom I love you and miss you dearly. No words can express what you mean to me,' he wrote. He expressed similar sentiments in a post on January 8, what would have been Violet's 68th birthday.

But police believe the words are empty, and that he murdered his mother to collect her life insurance money.

'The crime was committed with the motivation of financial gain, and certainly that's very disturbing in this situation,' Lt ELisabeth Albanese told ABC.

Detectives used a high-tech crime task force and searched through computers and electronic devices, finding clues that lead them to believe Daniel is the killer.

'A homicide investigation was initiated that same night, and as they began to work through their investigation and talk to witness and uncovered some evidence,' Albanese explained.

'That's what's led them to believe that her son was the suspect in the homicide.'

Police responded to the Beverly Hills home and Violet was pronounced dead at the scene and later pronounced homicide by strangulation

Immediately after the death Daniel, 36, took to social media to share his grief, praising his mother as amazing and saying a day doesn't go by when he doesn't think of her. But police believe the words are empty, and that he murdered his mother to collect her life insurance money

Prior to his arrest he worked as a high-profile dentist to the stars, and has several offices in Southern California. On his website he posts photos with some of his clients, including Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actor Alfonso Ribeiro (pictured)

The 36-year-old posted on what would have been his mother's 68th birthday in January to say how much he missed her

Daniel pleaded not guilty and is currently being held without bail, and is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.

Prior to his arrest he worked as a high-profile dentist to the stars, and has several offices in Southern California.

On his website he posts photos with some of his clients, including Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actor Alfonso Ribeiro.Pictured: Shakil Khan (date of photograph, unknown) claims his brother is harassing him

An entrepreneur has failed to get a High Court injunction to stop his brother from sending emails following an 'unfortunate family dispute'.

Shakil Khan, an investor in digital music service Spotify who specialises in tech start-ups, claims emails sent either to or about him by his brother Tanweer Khan amount to 'harassment' - an allegation Tanweer denies.

He tried to block Tanweer from sending any more emails to him and his associates - including Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek - or from mentioning him in any correspondence.

Shakil asked for an injunction to prevent further communication and for his identity to be protected so the case would remain private.

But a senior judge ruled on Thursday that the emails had caused Shakil little more than 'annoyance or distress' and did not justify an injunction.

Mr Justice Nicklin said the businessman could 'exercise a degree of self-help' and simply delete them.

The judge, who said Shakil plays a 'significant role' in Spotify and is a close personal friend of Mr Ek, also refused to deal with the case anonymously.

He said there was no element of blackmail involved in the emails and therefore 'no justification' for Shakil's identity to remain a secret.

The court heard there were 70 emails sent by Tanweer to his brother, Mr Ek and other associates between late 2016 and 2017.

The brothers had fallen out over comments made by Shakil about their father in a podcast last year and also over a business venture of Tanweer's.

While some of the emails sent were 'strident', Mr Justice Nicklin said they did not amount to harassment and said there was a risk Tanweer would be 'persistent' if his complaints were ignored.

The judge at the High Court in London (pictured above) refused to grant an injunction, saying Mr Khan had not shown enough proof to show Tanweer was guilty of harassment

Refusing to grant an injunction, the judge said: 'I do not consider these emails have crossed the line from unattractive, even unreasonable, to oppressive and unacceptable.'

The judge added: 'I accept there may be an element of distress caused by continuing to wonder whether the defendant is continuing to send emails, what they contain and to whom.

'But this is nowhere near the level of oppression that requires or justifies a court injunction.'

The judge did not make any findings as to whether the emails amounted to harassment, which he said would be an issue for a later hearing.

A spokesperson for Spotify said Mr Shakil Khan is not currently employed by the company.A stalker in India has attacked a married woman with acid after she refused his proposal on Valentines Day, leaving her permanently scarred.

The 30-year-old victim, from a small village near Jaipur, in Rajasthan, northern India, was working as a cleaner in a mall when the accused, Mehboob Khan, is claimed to have approached her with a bottle of acid in his hand.

Khan, a 35-year-old auto-rickshaw driver, had been stalking the victim for over two years and lived near her, police said, but had never previously been aggressive.

But he allegedly threatened to kill her if she did not divorce her husband of ten years and marry him.

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Mehboob Khan, 35 is claimed to have approached the woman, 30, with a bottle of acid and thrown it over her face, chest and hands

Never believing he would kill her, the mother of three refused his proposal again and walked away, but Khan, who has been divorced twice, quickly followed her and suddenly threw the bottle of acid over her face, chest and hands.

The attack also injured Khan himself and another girl nearby, shopping in the mall.

He tried to flee following the attack but he was apprehended by members of the public shopping in the mall who heard the victims screaming for help.

The mall failed to have CCTV cameras installed where the incident happened, however, the moment people caught Khan before beating him was caught on another camera.

Khan tried to flee following the attack but he was apprehended by members of the public shopping in the mall who heard the victims screaming for help

Police were quickly informed and all three were rushed to a nearby government hospital, SMS Hospital.

Doctors confirmed the victim suffered 15 per cent burns to her face and chest but is now in a stable condition. Khan is being treated at the same hospital but is being guarded by officers and will be arrested as soon as he is well enough to be discharged.

Dr Sunil Srivasatava, assistant professor, at the department of plastic surgery and burns unit, at SMS Hospital, in Jaipur, said: 'She will unfortunately be scarred forever. She'll need at least two surgeries in the future for facial reconstruction and some portion of her arms. Fortunately, shes not had any major organ loss.

She will be kept under observation for at least 45 days then her surgeries will be planned. Her attacker has suffered minor injuries on his arms and is getting basic treatment. He has not been affected badly but required admission to the hospital for treatment.

The attack also injured Khan himself and another girl nearby, shopping in the mall. He will be arrested as soon as he is well enough to be discharged

Deputy Superintendent of Police Ashok Gupta, of Jaipur West, said: The attacker was the neighbour of the woman and had been stalking her for more than two years. He tried to force her to divorce her husband and marry him.

'He approached her on Wednesday and repeated his demands and when the woman refused he threw acid on her.

The woman suffered 15per cent burns and the accused suffered minor injuries along with another girl in the mall. All of them are being treated in the same hospital.

'Police have registered a case against Mehboob Khan and imposed sections, 354D (stalking), 326A (throwing acid) 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code on him. He will be arrested following his discharge from hospital.Nearly three times as many White House officials were lacking long-term security clearance a year after Donald Trump's election than previously thought.

Documents obtained by NBC News show that 130 employees within the Executive Office of the President had interim clearances as of November, including Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and the president's daughter, Ivanka Trump.

The White House's top lawyer, Don McGahn, had not been fully approved to view the nation's top secrets as of November, either, the report said - and he was in a class of hires that immediately followed Trump's Jan. 20, 2017 inauguration.

Nearly three times as many White House officials were lacking long-term security clearance a year after Donald Trump's election than previously thought

Among the 130 employees within the Executive Office of the President who had interim clearances as of November: Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and the president's daughter, Ivanka Trump

How many White House officials remain in limbo is unknown. A CNN report on the interim security clearances offered a comparatively meager total of 30-40 employees.

NBC says the documents it obtained listed 34 individuals who began working at the White House on the day of Trump's inauguration as having interim clearances still.

McGhan, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her chief deputy Raj Shah were on a list of senior staffers with permanent clearance that allowed them to view top-secret information such as the president's daily intelligence briefing.

They had only interim clearance to view sensitive compartmented information, which is the most sensitive government information and a higher clearance category, NBC reported.

Roughly a quarter - 47 - of the White House employees who report directly to the president had interim clearance, the documents reportedly disclosed.

Among them were Dan Scavino, manager of the president's social media channels, and Christopher Liddell, head of strategic initiatives at the White House.

Of the full list, 85 of the political appointees were working White House, vice presidents office or on the National Security Council, NBC says. Another 50 or so worked for the National Economic Council, the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Trade Representative's office, within the residence and other offices with close ties to the West Wing.

WHAT'S IN THE FOLDERS?: Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner is seen leaving his Washington D.C. home on Thursday morning

'This is really astounding. I can't imagine this many senior level officials have ever lacked a fully adjudicated clearance so late in game,' tweeted Mark Zaid, a lawyer who specializes in cases involving national security and security clearances. 'It is disturbing that they have been given access to SCI for such lengthy period of time while in interim status.'

NBC's deep dive into the security clearance statuses of White House officials was prompted by the resignation of Rob Porter, the White House staff secretary accused of domestic violence by two ex-wives.

Porter was allowed to handle sensitive information despite flags on his file by the FBI.

FBI Director Christopher Wray testified under oath that the bureau had updated the White House on the status of Porter's background check four times since he began working for Trump on the day of the Republican president's inauguration.

After offering a November update that would have taken place after the FBI spoke to Porter's former spouses, the bureau closed its case file on the White House official in January.

From there, Trump's spokeswoman says the file went to the Office of Personnel Security, an obscure entity with a director whose name was not provided to DailyMail.com by the White House after multiple requests.

The personnel security office was in the process of adjudicating Porter's file when the DailyMail published a pair of reports revealing the White House official's alleged pattern of spousal abuse.

'How do you have any job if you have credible allegations of domestic abuse?' asked Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina

The Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee plans to query the FBI about Porter and why he was allowed to remain as White House staff secretary.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, who made a name for himself with zealous probes into Benghazi, told CNN that Oversight was probing the matter.

'How do you have any job if you have credible allegations of domestic abuse?' Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, asked. 'Again, I am biased towards the victims...I spent two decades believing them. But you dont have to be biased towards the victim to ask how in the hell did this happen?'

Gowdy told CNN's New Day, 'Whether or not there is a security clearance issue or not, I have real questions about whether someone like this can be considered for employment, whether theres a security clearance issue or not. So yeah, Im troubled by almost every aspect of this.'

'Who knew what when and to what extent  those are the questions that I think ought to be asked ... And if you knew it in 2017 and the bureau briefed them three times, then how in the hell was he still employed?' he said.

He said chief of staff John Kelly was one person to ask, as is White House counsel McGahn, who sources have said had knowledge of the abuse allegations.

'What did you know, from whom did you hear it?' Gowdy said. 'The chronology is not favorable from the White House.'

He said he has additional questions for the FBI and would seek a meeting with Wray.

Asked how Porter could have remained at the White House, he responded: 'Thats a good question and I dont know the answer.'

'If you knew it in 2017 and the bureau briefed them three times, then how in the hell was still he employed? The security clearance is a separate issue  its an important issue, but separate.'The convicted man, now 18, pleaded guilty to manslaughter using self-defence

A judge has decided he needs more time to decide on the sentence he will pass

A teenager who stabbed his stepfather and killed him to stop him from strangling his seven-year-old sister has been found guilty of manslaughter.

The 18-year-old from Girrawheen in north Perth, is now facing a prison sentence after stabbing his step-father 25 times.

But his lawyer told the court in Perth he should not go to jail as he was defending himself and his sister.

The 18-year-old from Girrawheen in north Perth, is now facing a prison sentence after stabbing his step-father 25 times

The teenager was due to be sentenced at the Supreme Court of Western Australia on Thursday.

But a judge has decided he needs more time to pass sentence because of the unusual nature of the case.

The court was told the man killed had a long history of violence towards several family members including his wife, two teenage step-sons and daughter.

The eldest step-son, aged 17 at the time of the killing in September 2016, pleaded guilty to manslaughter by excessive self-defence, WA Today reported.

When he was killed, the court heard, he had returned home at around 7pm after an all-day session downing eight or nine full strength beers with friends.

Hearing her children screaming, the man told his wife that he 'hadn't done anything' before her daughter emerged to tell her the man was choking the youngest boy, 13.

Forensic detectives were brought in to investigate the crime scene after the man was stabbed 25 times

The case is being heard at the Supreme Court of Western Australia in Perth

She then found him strangling the boy again in the shower before telling her: 'You wanna see me choke someone? This is what choking looks like.'

A tussle broke out between the wife and the man as he started to strangle the little girl in her bedroom.

The eldest son heard and witnessed the attacks on his siblings, ran to his room and pulled out his 'Bear Grylls' knife and unleashed on his step-father, stabbing the man a total of 25 times.

Most of the wounds were to the man's chest as he turned to attack the boy as he stabbed him before collapsing on the floor.

His family said outside the court they wanted 'justice to be done' as prosecutors urged the judge, Justice Joseph McGrath to impose a custodial sentence.

Bernard Standish argued his actions had been 'completely disproportionate' to the events he had seen earlier in the evening.

But a psychiatric report commissioned by the court itself had found the teenager poses no risk of reoffending.

The court heard he had shown extremely high levels of remorse for his actions.

The 18-year-old will be sentenced on Wednesday, February 21.This is the terrifying moment a group of anti-hunt demonstrators had their car smashed up.

The attack allegedly came from pro-hunt thugs wearing waxed jackets and driving high-powered Land Rovers.

North Cambridgeshire Hunt Saboteurs Association were monitoring the Fitzwilliam Hunt when they were set upon by a handful of men in tweed flat caps in a narrow country lane.

Footage shows the hunt saboteurs' car surrounded by the high-powered vehicles, with one skidding in front of them to block them in, before four people jump out.

One then approaches the saboteur's car with what appears to be a torch and smashes in several of their windows.

A woman screams as the narrator yells: 'OK they've just put our window through! Police! 999! Now!'

This is the terrifying moment a group of anti-hunt demonstrators had their car smashed up

The attack allegedly came from pro-hunt thugs wearing waxed jackets and driving high-powered Land Rovers

The saboteurs are so scared they manage to drive their vehicle around the cars, saying: 'We are going to drive to Huntingdon Police Station now. We are being attacked.'

But within a few seconds, the alleged pro-hunt supporters give chase and try and make them pull over.

One of the anti-hunt demonstrates - filming as the drama unfolds - says: 'We are being beckoned by this d***head to pull over but I'm not pulling over now. No.'

The Land Rover aggressively tailgates the 'saboteurs', before the cars speed through a village, thought to be Lutton, Northamptonshire.

The back window of the car is shattered and several occupants claim to have recieved injuries from the broken glass.

A statement from North Cambridgeshire Hunt Sabs said: 'After a successful day preventing hunting at the Oakley Hunt in Bedfordshire, North Cambs checked on a known meet location of the Fitzwilliam.

The attack resulted in criminal damage after the car was attacked with batons

The back window of the car is shattered and several occupants claim to have recieved injuries from the broken glass

'Upon finding the hunt the North Cambs vehicle was surrounded and blocked in by several four wheel drive vehicles, just outside of Lutton near Huntingdon.

'One vehicle collided with the North Cambs' car after racing up alongside on the verge and driving across the lane in front of the moving sab vehicle.

'Several hunt supporters got out of their vehicles and used heavy implements to smash the windscreen, side windows and rear window of the North Cambs car.'

They added: 'Lacerations from broken glass were caused to the occupants, who then managed to get out of the situation and were pursued at high speed through country lanes by their assailants, before finally driving to Peterborough police station to make full statements and submit video evidence for prosecution.'

Lee Moon, spokesperson for the Hunt Saboteur Association said: 'The Fitzwilliam hunt are under increasing pressure from hunt saboteurs'

Lee Moon, spokesperson for the Hunt Saboteur Association said: 'The Fitzwilliam hunt are under increasing pressure from hunt saboteurs and will soon be in court to answer charges of illegal hunting.

'Time and again we see hunts resorting to violence when decent folk stop their illegal killing.

'These people are fools because we will never be deterred by acts of violence and in fact it only proves how effective we're being and spurs us on to greater efforts.

'Whether the police decide to act or not, North Cambs sabs will have the backing of other sab groups to ensure justice is done.'

The North Cambs sabs had been out earlier in the day, monitoring the Oakley Hunt with Beds and Bucks Hunt Sabs and Cambridge Hunt Saboteurs.

They claim they had prevented that hunt from moving by containing the riders and hounds, saving two foxes from being chased.

They then moved on to tail the nearby Fitzwilliam Hunt, which takes place over 600 square miles of land in the area of Cambridgeshire between Stamford in the North to Higham Ferrers in Northamptonshire.

North Cambs said their vehicle was surrounded and blocked in by several four wheel drive vehicles, just outside of Lutton near Huntingdon

'Several hunt supporters got out of their vehicles and used heavy implements to smash the windscreen, side windows and rear window of the North Cambs car' the anti-hunt group claimed

The hunt has been running for more than 250 years in the area and members also use a golden eagle.

Between November and March, the family-owned pack goes out two days a week, and the hunt says that it always stays within the law.

Images from the attack have now been handed to Cambridgeshire Police.

A spokesman said: 'We have been contacted with reports of an alleged incident of criminal damage and assault that happened at about 4.15pm on Saturday February 10 near Lutton.

'An altercation took place between two groups of people, which resulted in a vehicle being damaged and a man being assaulted. The victim received minor injuries as a result of what happened.

'The incident is being investigated by officers.

'Anyone with information regarding this incident should call police on 101 quoting CF0082500218 or visit www.cambs.police.uk/report.

'Alternatively, contact Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111 or via www.crimestoppers-uk.org'

A spokesperson for the hunt said: 'The Fitzwilliam (Milton) Hunt does not condone the type of behaviour that is alleged to have taken place, even in the face of extreme provocation.

'We will of course assist the police with any enquiries.'

The Hunting Act came into force on February 18, 2005, and banned the hunting of mammals with dogs in England and WalesThree weeks ago, I asked President Trump why hed done nothing to stop another mass shooting after the recent horrendous massacre in Las Vegas.

He was a sicko, he replied, I mean thats the big problem  theyre sick people.

Ah yes, thats the BIG problem with the US culture of gun violence obviously - mental illness, not guns.

In Davos I asked President Trump why he'd done nothing to stop another mass shooting after the horrendous massacre in Las Vegas. 'He was a sicko,' he replied, 'I mean that's the big problem  they're sick people'

The definition of insanity, Albert Einstein once said, is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.

In the case of Americas attitude to mass shootings, the definition of insanity is different: the worlds richest, most powerful country does absolutely nothing over and over again, and nobody expects different results.

Five years ago, a deranged, angry young 20-year-old man used an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and high capacity bullet magazines to murder 26 people including 20 kids at a school in Sandy Hook, Conneticut.

Yesterday, a deranged, angry young 19-year-old man used an AR-15 and high capacity magazines to murder at least 17 people including many kids at a school in Parkland, Florida.

This deranged, angry young 19-year-old man used an AR-15 and high capacity magazines to murder 17 children and teachers at a school in Parkland, Florida

As the US slips once more into its familiar Groundhog Day post-gun-massacre pattern of feigned shock, hand-wringing thoughts and prayers, insincere cable news blather, and pathetic inaction, Id like to explore President Trumps sicko premise.

My eldest son was once refused an alcohol-free beer at a Malibu restaurant.

At the time, he was 21 years old, 6ft 1in tall, with long hair and a full beard.

Remember when a 9-year-old girl accidentally shot dead this instructor, Charles Vacca, at a range in while firing an Uzi, and it was all entirely legal?

The reason he was given was that he had no I.D. on him and non-alcoholic beer actually still contains a tiny amount (under 0.5%) of alcohol in it.

A week later, a tiny, waif-like 9-year-old girl accidentally shot dead an instructor at a Bullets and Burgers gun range in Arizona.

She had fired  and lost control of - an UZI sub-machine gun, one of the most dangerous high-powered weapons in the world.

This was all entirely legal.

Thats sicko, right?

I mean, no rational human being could possibly think that putting such a hideous killing machine in the hands of a little girl is anything other than complete madness?

Wrong.

A lot of Americans, tens of millions of them in fact, think thats perfectly OK.

And they see no contradiction with my son being declined an alcohol-free beer.

Why?

Because he had no unalienable constitutional right to an alcohol-free beer, whereas the little girl had an unalienable constitutional right to bear arms.

Looking at the images from Parkland yesterday, I thought of how a grown man can't get a beer without ID in the US, yet a child can fire an Uzi and a teenage killer could own an AR-15

I thought of this after yesterdays mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The shooter, former student Nikolas Cruz, was too young to be allowed to buy a beer in a state that like many in the US has zero tolerance alcohol laws.

But he was legally able to buy a semi-automatic military style rifle.

Thats sicko, right?

Well, I think it is. But again, tens of millions of Americans have no problem with it.

Cruz apparently passed a background check when purchasing his gun.

This despite the fact he had been treated for mental issues, expelled from the school he attacked (among many concerning acts of behaviour, he sold knives out of his lunchbox and was found with bullets in his backpack), banned from returning to the school after threatening teachers, and accused of abusing a girlfriend.

Oh, and despite the fact he had posted endless photos of himself on social media brandishing guns and regularly threatening to shoot people including students at the school.

His Instagram account included an image of a guns holographic laser sight pointed at a neighbourhood street. A second showed at least six rifles and handguns laid out on a bed with the caption arsenal. Another photo showed a box of bullets with the caption cost me $30.

The social media clues: His Instagram included an image of a gun's holographic laser sight pointed at a neighbourhood street. This image showed at least six rifles and handguns laid out on a bed with the caption 'arsenal'

Another photo showed a box of bullets with the caption 'cost me $30'

Cruz also enjoyed posting photos of animals he had gruesomely killed.

Short of announcing live on TV that he was about to do what he did, Cruz couldnt have made his nefarious intentions any clearer.

He was a monster waiting to explode, and all who knew him were very aware of exactly where he might execute that explosion.

I think everyone in the school had it in the back of their mind that if anyone was going to do it, it was most likely gonna be him, said student Dakota Mutchler.

The teachers all knew, which is why an email was sent out warning them all to keep an eye out for Cruz after he was expelled, especially if he had a backpack with him.

And yet whilst it was deemed too dangerous for Cruz to buy a beer, it was deemed perfectly sensible to let him buy an AR-15.

Id say thats pretty damn sicko- wouldnt you?

When I interviewed President Trump, in Davos at the World Economic Forum, I told him: Only eight people were killed in America last year by Islamist terrorism. By comparison, domestic gun violence killed at least 32,000. Two of the worst mass shootings in American history have now happened on your watch in Las Vegas and at a church in Texas. People will be saying, youre very tough on security, you want to keep Americans safe, but if you dont do anything about gun violence at all that seems an irrational position for somebody who wants to keep Americans safe?

Trump then tried to deflect my question by talking about another country.

Take a look at Paris, he said, where you have very tough guns controls. Take a look at that terrible slaughter where so many people were killedby thugs with guns. So the bad guys have the guns and if you would have had somebody with a gun when they walked in so you could have bullets going in the other direction, you wouldnt have hundreds of people killed.

This, of course, is the same warped logic spewed so often by Trumps paymasters at the NRA (before news of the shooting broke, the NRA retweeted a gun manufacturers photo of two guns on a heart and the caption Get your significant other something theyll appreciate this Valentines Day) only good guys with guns can stop bad guys with guns. So the only answer to mass shootings is for everyone else to be armed too.

What Trump didnt say is that 130 people were killed in Paris that night; a terrible toll, but around a quarter of the number of people killed by guns in America EVERY WEEK.

When I pointed out that countries like Britain, which also has very tough gun laws, average just 32 gun deaths a year, he deflected again: But you have a lot of terrorism.

Yes, its true Britain had a number of Islamist terror attacks in 2017.

But the total death total was smaller (35) than the number murdered by guns in America EVERY DAY.

I asked Trump specifically why he had done nothing to stop even bump stocks (an attachment that allows semi-automatic guns to fire like fully automatic guns) being sold, after it emerged the Vegas shooter had converted a dozen AR-15s by using them.

I asked Trump about the Las Vegas shooter's massive arsenal. If he didnt have a gun, he would have had a bomb... he would have had 55 bombs

If he didnt have a gun, he would have had a bomb, or would have something else, the President answered.

But he had 55 guns, I said.

The point is, he would have had 55 bombs, said President Trump, as if somehow it is as easy to purchase 55 bombs in America, where they are strictly illegal.

Why cant you make it more difficult for him? I persisted.

(Current US gun laws are so lax even terror suspects on the no-fly list are allowed to buy firearms)

Trump sighed. Im a Second Amendment person. I think you need it (guns) for security. Youve had so many attacks where there was only a bad persons gun  going in this direction and if they had bullets going in the opposite direction, you would have saved a lot of lives.

Then he repeated: So I get what youre saying but I believe in the Second Amendment.

In other words, he intends to do absolutely nothing to stop these massacres happening again.

Well, Im sorry Mr President, but this just isnt acceptable.

You cant pretend to be tough on security but turn a blind eye when yet another US school (there have been over 280 school shootings since Sandy Hook) is turned into a human slaughterhouse.

Mr President, you cant pretend to be tough on security but turn a blind eye when yet another US school (there have been over 280 school shootings since Sandy Hook) is turned into a human slaughterhouse. It's spineless and cowardly

Its spineless and cowardly, and you know it.

Imagine your son Barron had been in that school yesterday - and then decide what is the right thing to do.

No child, teacher or anyone else should feel unsafe in an American school, you tweeted yesterday.

Yet the tragic truth is no child, teacher or anyone else now feels SAFE in an American school.

The Florida attack was the ninth biggest gun atrocity in American history.

That means three of the countrys worst ever mass shootings have now happened on your watch - in just five months.

Yet one of the only things youve done about guns as President was to roll back an Obama-era regulation that made it harder for people with mental illness to get guns.

Thats sicko, Mr President.

And anyone who thinks the only answer to this carnage is even more guns is also sicko.Lantana mayor David Stewart is accused of asking for sex in exchange for installing speed bumps in a woman's neighborhood

A Florida mayor has been accused of promising to install speed bumps in a woman's neighborhood in exchange for sex.

Lantana resident Catherine Padilla filed a complaint with the Florida Commission on Ethics in January, claiming mayor David Stewart told her if she had sex with him he would put down the speed bumps she had been campaigning for.

The alleged incident took place about three years ago, when Mayor Stewart drove Padilla to a motel one day after they had lunch and told her he wanted to 'occupy' a room with her, she claims.

'[He said] have sex and I'll guarantee you that your street will get the speed humps that you want,' Padilla told CBS12.

She claims she told the mayor 'no' and got out of his car when he said he wanted to have sex with her in the room.

Padilla says she hadn't spoken up until now because she didn't feel strong enough before. But now, after getting over her ex-husband's January 2015 death, she is ready to come forward with the allegations.

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Catherine Padilla has campaigned for speed bumps on her street, creating a petition that 71 per cent of the town's residents signed

Padilla says Stewart continued the harassment, calling her to say it wasn't too late to have sex with him in exchange for the speed bumps before Town Hall voted on the safety measure

Speaking to The Palm Beach Post, Padilla said she and Stewart became friends about five years ago at Kiwanis Club meetings, and she didn't find it strange when he asked her to lunch to discuss the speed bumps after one of the meetings.

Although she denied the mayor's alleged sexual advances at the motel parking lot, Padilla says Stewart continued the harassment, calling her to say it wasn't too late to have sex with him in exchange for the speed bumps before the meeting where the Town Council was to vote on the safety measures.

Before the Council approved the speed bumps in August 2015, Padilla had created a petition and got about 71 per cent of the town's residents to sign it.

Padilla told CBS5 that Stewart said, 'have sex and I'll guarantee you that your street will get the speed humps that you want'

Stewart, who has been mayor since 2000 and is running for re-election unopposed, is denying the accusations

The mayor is denying any accusations of misconduct.

'These accusations are totally and completely false,' he told The Palm Beach Post. 'I won't dignify them by commenting. I continue to focus on doing my best for the residents of our town and community.'

After hearing about the complaint, Stewart showed up at Padilla's house but she wouldn't let him in and he left, according to a police report.

Stewart, who's described on the town's website as 'Ernest Hemingway meets Jimmy Buffett meets Santa Claus', has been mayor since 2000, and is running unopposed in the March 13 election.A California man charged with stabbing a 19-year-old woman and leaving her to bleed to death on the side of the road insisted in a jailhouse interview that he 'snapped' and never intended to hurt her.

Daniel Gross, 19, was arrested on Tuesday along with his fiancee, 25-year-old Melissa Leonardo, in connection to the killing of 19-year-old Lizette Cuesta.

Cuesta was discovered by motorists early Monday morning crawling on her stomach along Tesla Road near Livermore, California, and leaving behind a 100-yard trail of blood.

The victim succumbed to her injuries at a hospital two hours later, but not before making what law enforcement officials have characterized as a 'dying declaration' that led to the arrests of Gross and Leonardo.

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Murder suspect speaks: Daniel Gross (left), 19, who is suspected of stabbing to death his lover Lizette Cuesta, 19 (right), said in a jailhouse interview he 'snapped' and acted in self-defense

The teenager had crawled nearly 100 yards on Tesla Road near Livermore, California, leaving a trail of blood behind her, before she was spotted by a passing motorist

Speaking from Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, California, on Wednesday, a resigned Gross told the station KTVU that he 'didn't plan to do this at all,' although he declined to go into the specifics of Cuesta's slaying.

He did make a claim that he was acting in self-defense after the victim allegedly elbowed him in the ribs while armed with a knife, which he had given her for protection.

He noted that at no time during Mondays incident did Cuesta try to attack him with the knife.

'I feel like s***. I f***ing hate myself,' he said. 'I wish I could go back in time and that this never happened.'

Gross told the station that the violent altercation took place after he and Cuesta had a consensual sexual encounter involving bondage in the back of Leonardos car as the woman drove. All three had smoked marijuana that night.

Gross, 19, and his fiancee, Melissa Leonardo (right), 25, were both arrested over Cuesta's brutal murder

Cuesta was found severely injured by motorist Richard Loadholt and a friend who were driving by at about 2am

When told about Cuestas crawling for 100 yards and identifying him and Leonardo to police as her alleged killers before drawing her final breath, Gross said: 'I'm not mad at her.'

Gross claimed that Leonardo played no part in Cuesta's death and her role was limited to driving the car.

The 19-year-old man explained that he, Cuesta and Leonardo all worked together at a Carl Jr's fast-food eatery in Tracy.

Cuesta had joined the staff five months ago, and sometime later she began having sex with Gross, who was engaged to Leonardo. Gross claimed the women did not object to that arrangement.

But those who knew both Gross and Leonardo painted a radically different picture of their relationship, claiming that the 25-year-old woman was extremely jealous and possessive.

Misty Dawn Grasty, who grew up with the 19-year-old in the same sober living house, told Fox40 that Leonardo once got physical with her fiance for merely looking at another woman in public.

Montana Howland, who considers Leonardo his sister, claimed the Gross was known to have violent tendencies.

'Daniel has always talked about if someone pisses him off bad enough he will kill them,' he said.

Alameda County sheriff's sergeant Ray Kelly said on Tuesday that the murder suspects were friends with the victim.

Backseat sex romp: Gross (left and right) said he and Cuesta had sex involving bondage in the back of his fiancee Leonardo's car as the woman drove. All three worked together

He said Cuesta had willingly got in a car with Gross and Leonardo before she was beaten and stabbed multiple times.

Authorities said Cuesta had been out in freezing weather for several hours before she was found covered in blood by UPS workers carpooling to work on Monday.

'The fact that Lizette was so strong and able to survive was really a testament to her character as a person,' Kelly said.

He added that the fact that Cuesta had fought so hard to survive and was able to identify her alleged assailants to police was 'pretty remarkable.'

'A dying declaration is a very compelling piece of evidence thats recognized in the court to be very credible and reliable information,' Kelly said.

Ray Cuesta, Lizette's bereaved father, told CBS San Francisco that he was proud of his brave daughter for helping bring her accused killers to justice.

'She didnt give up. She won. She showed them,' he told the station. 'I know she passed away, but when they did this to her, they figured they got away with it. She didnt let them get away with it. She brought peace to herself and peace to me and my family. I love her.'

Cuesta was airlifted to hospital (above) but died about two hours later. She had bled so much it was impossible to tell her hair color and looked at first to have lost one of her arms

Alameda County sheriff's sergeant Ray Kelly said on Tuesday that Cuesta had willingly got in a car with Gross and Leonardo before she was beaten and stabbed multiple times

Courtesy: KRON 4

Cuesta was found severely injured by motorist Richard Loadholt and a friend who were driving by at about 2am on their way to work at a UPS facility.

They gave her a blanket and said they prayed with the teenager and kept her awake and talking until emergency responders arrived.

'I hope it will be encouraging to her family to know that their daughter did have that spirit to fight,' Loadholt said.

Cuesta had bled so much it was impossible to tell her hair color and looked at first to have lost one of her arms.

She was airlifted to hospital but died about two hours later.

Kelly said he couldn't discuss a motive in the killing because the investigation was ongoing.

A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help Cuesta's family and so far has drawn more than $13,000 in donations.Jeremy Corbyn (pictured in 1984) warned a Soviet-backed spy about British intelligence activity at the climax of the Cold War, according to secret documents

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson accused Jeremy Corbyn of having 'betrayed' Britain today after secret documents revealed he met a Soviet-backed spy during the Cold War.

Mr Williamson said the revelation, contained in secret files held by Czech security services, proved the Labour leader 'cannot be trusted'.

The incendiary intervention provoked a furious response from Labour, which has already angrily labelled the claims as a ridiculous smear.

Confidential papers show Mr Corbyn met the Czech agent at least three times after being vetted by communist handlers in 1986, papers reveal.

Two meetings took place in the heart of British democracy  the House of Commons. And in records of the meeting an espionage agent noted how Mr Corbyn was 'occasionally explosive'.

Mr Corbyn allegedly provided the spies with material about the arrest of an East German, according to the documents leaked to The Sun.

The Labour leader was even given a three-letter codename: COB.

Speaking at a Nato meeting in Brussels today, Mr Williamson blasted: 'Time and time again he has sided with those who want to destroy everything that is great about this country, whether it is sympathising with terrorists, backing rogue regimes, or cosying up to those who want to inflict pain and misery on the British people.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson accused Jeremy Corbyn of having 'betrayed' Britain today after secret documents revealed he met a Soviet-backed spy during the Cold War

'That he met foreign spies is a betrayal of this country. He cannot be trusted.'

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn hit back at the Defence Secretary.

They said: 'Gavin Williamson should focus on his job and not give credence to entirely false and ridiculous smears, which as we know from Darren Osborne [jailed for life for the attack on Muslims in Finsbury Park], can have a potentially deadly effect.

'Jeremy has consistently made the correct calls in the interests of security and peace, including on the Libyan intervention and his opposition to the disastrous Iraq war that has caused catastrophe in the region and made us less safe at home.'

The secret records summarised Mr Corbyn's political outlook in 1986 towards the end of the Cold War. It said: 'Negative towards USA, as well as the current politics of the Conservative Government.'

The documents also suggest he was 'positive' towards the Soviet bloc and was 'supporting the Soviet peace initiative'. Mr Corbyn was 'very well informed' of operatives in contact with 'anti-communist agencies', the papers state.

The Labour leader was the 326th coded source listed in documents relating to Operation Obrana  defence in Czech.

The Labour leader met the Czech agent at least three times after being vetted by communist handlers in 1986, papers reveal

The records, which were found in the archives of the Czech secret police in Prague, suggest the Labour leader was approached in 1986 by activists Tony Gilbert and Sandra Hodgson of the ultra-left wing Liberation movement.

Along with Czech agent Lieutenant Jan Dymic, they later met in the House of Commons on November 25. A second Commons meeting on October 24, 1987, served 'to strengthen mutual recognition and the deepening of trust'.

The communist handlers noted down Mr Corbyn's character traits in the document, which is likely to have been seen by Russian President Vladimir Putin  a senior KGB figure at the time.

The report's author said: 'Owns dogs and fish. Behaviour is reserved and courteous, however, occasionally explosive (when speaking in defence of human rights), though the performance is calm and collected.'

Mr Corbyn allegedly provided the spies with material about the arrest of an East German, according to the leaked documents

One page of the documents reveals contact was established with Mr Corbyn twice in 1986

Czechoslovakia, which at the time was a puppet state of President Gorbachev's USSR, relied on a secret police force called the Statni Bezpecnost.

Professor Anthony Glees, an expert in security and intelligence studies, said of the documents: 'These files show Jeremy Corbyn had been targeted by Czech intelligence services. Mr Corbyn says he didn't know, but it shows breathtaking naivety from someone who wants to head the British Government.

He added: 'At the time dissidents were under attack and being imprisoned in Czechoslovakia. In the struggle between the dissidents who were trying to overthrow the communist government and the Czech government, Corbyn is working on the side of the Czech government.

Mr Corbyn, pictured second right with Gerry Adams in 1983, is accused of meeting a Soviet backed spy

The Soviet intelligent recruitment strategy during the Cold War Soviet spies gathered intelligence on the UK during the Second World War and Cold War by communicating with Communists and Communist sympathisers in the country. In the mid-1930s, the USSR began a new agent recruitment strategy that involved attracting bright young Communists or Communist sympathisers from leading universities. They were told to break all links with other Communists and use their talents and educational success to penetrate the corridors of power. The most successful of 'Stalin's Englishmen' were the 'Cambridge Five'Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncrosspossibly the ablest group of foreign agents ever recruited by Soviet intelligence. It wasn't until the 1970s that Britain became a hard espionage target for Soviet intelligence for the first time. MI5's Operation FOOT led to more than 100 Soviet intelligence officers being expelled from London in 1971, marking a major turning point in counter-espionage operations in Britain during the Cold War. It followed a long campaign by the Security Service to persuade successive governments of the need for the expulsions. Over the previous two decades, the Security Service acknowledged: 'The steady and alarming increase ... in the number of Russian intelligence officers threatened to swamp our then meagre resources.' For several years, most Soviet agents in Britain were put on ice and the KGB was forced to ask Soviet Bloc and Cuban agencies to help plug the intelligence gap. However, the KGB's contacts with probably its most important British agent in the 1970s, Geoffrey Prime, who worked at GCHQ until 1977, were unaffected by the FOOT expulsions because, since his recruitment in Berlin, he had been run exclusively outside the UK. Source: MI5 Advertisement

'The Czechs were interested in anti-communists and they are using Corbyn for immediate operational information useful to them.'

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: 'The claim that he was an agent, asset or informer for any intelligence agency is entirely false and a ridiculous smear.

'Like other MPs, Jeremy has met diplomats from many countries. In the 1980s he met a Czech diplomat, who did not go by the name of Jan Dymic, for a cup of tea in the House of Commons. Jeremy neither had nor offered any privileged information to this or any other diplomat.'

Tory grandee Malcom Rifkind, a former chairman of the intelligence and security committee, said: 'If these documents are genuine, which they appear to be, then there is a serious case for Mr Corbyn to answer.'

Mr Rifkind added: 'As a member of Parliament, he should have reported these meetings to the Home Office if he had any suspicion he was an intelligence officer from a Communist country.

'It would have been very unwise for him not to have done that.'A British International Olympic Committee member and former Olympian has been sent home from the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang following an altercation with a security guard.

Adam Pengilly, 40, was dismissed after the incident, where he was accused of injuring a security card outside of a hotel for Olympic organisers.

The IOC announced the departure on Thursday and apologised for Mr Pengilly's behaviour, saying that the organisation was 'extremely sorry for the incident that he caused'. Pengilly was one of only two IOC members who didn't support allowing Russians to compete at the Winter Games.

Adam Pengilly, pictured, when he was competing with Team GB in the 2010 Vancouver Games where he finished in 18th place

They said that Mr Pengilly's IOC membership would expire as of 25 February, the day of the closing ceremonies, and end his eight years with the independent organisation.

Pictured, Adam Pengilly competing for Team GB at the 2010 Winter Olympics

An IOC spokesperson said: 'Following an interview with the IOC Ethics and Compliance officer he will leave the Olympic Games and South Korea with immediate effect.

'We would like to once again thank all the authorities and the police who are doing an excellent job and deserve all our thanks.

The statement gave no details on the incident but said that Mr Pengilly had also apologised for the incident.

But, speaking to insidethegames, Mr Pengilly denied any intention to have brought harm to the security guard, explaining that he had only tried to walk past him when he was told to go the other way.

Mr Pengilly said: 'He blocked my path, came close to me, and asked to see my accreditation.

'I showed it and, when he came even closer to me, I asked to see his manager. He wouldn't take me to his manager and asked to take a photograph of my accreditation.

'This went on for 30 seconds or so, and then I ran past him.

'I heard him shout "stop" but didn't turn around or look back. I have since heard that he fell over and has evidently suffered scratches, but I did not hear him fall or shout out.

'At no point did I touch him and, although I have been told that footage makes it look as if I pushed him, this was not the case and, if anything, he was coming towards me.'

Pictured, Adam Pengilly was elected a member of the IOC athletes' commission during the Closing Ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics

Adam Pengilly, pictured, was elected to the IOC in 2010 on an election campaign that ran on a focus on athletes and an eradication of doping

Mr Pengilly is a former skeleton slider who competed in two Olympic Games, 2006 in Turin and 2010 in Vancouver, finishing eighth and eighteenth respectively. He has been one of the few members critical of IOC President Thomas Bach's decision to let Russian athletes participate in the Olympics.

Reporters pressed IOC spokesman Mark Adams to explain the rapid expulsion Friday. He says it was because it happened during the games and because Pengilly acknowledged his behavior.

There are two other IOC members facing serious criminal charges who have been allowed to take part in Olympic activities. Adams says that's because their cases are "in process."

On 25 February 2010 he was elected to the IOC board, a considerable honour as it is but particularly so considering Britain was gearing up for its own 2012 Games in London.

During his election campaign, he said: 'Unfortunately, I hear from athletes telling of sporting politics and administration taking all control out of their hands- of management always changing policies, or simply doing their job poorly. And every time, it is the athlete who suffers.'

Mr Pengilly said that he wanted his focus to be on athletes and help eradicate doping that's use had become far too commonplace for sport and the spirit of the Olympic Games.

He has been an outspoken critic of the IOC's approach to Russia, saying that athletes should not be banned for as long as the organization was planning.A Ukrainian-born oligarch and the richest man in the UK has reportedly bought a $90 million mansion in Manhattan, just down the street from a home he already owns.

Sir Leonard 'Len' Blavatnik purchased the property at 19 East 64th Street in New York City's Upper East Side neighborhood, within throwing distance of Central Park, for a record-breaking price, according to the New York Post.

This latest buy previously served as the Wildenstein art gallery for 85 years.

His other property on the street is located just a hop, skip and jump away at 15 East 64th Street, which he bought for $50 million in November 2007.

'He wants to control the block!' a source in New York real estate told the Post.

Sir Leonard 'Len' Blavatnik purchased the property at 19 East 64th Street in New York City's Upper East Side neighborhood for $90 million, sources say, and it's right down the street from a home he already owns

Blavatnik, age 60, has had his eye on the property next door, for a while.

In 2016, the The British-American businessman even attempted a lawsuit against its former owner, David Wildenstein, claiming the art gallery owner used his verbal offer on the townhouse to up the price.

That lawsuit was thrown out, though, as a judge refused to believe the Warner Music Group owner actually thought an oral conversation between the two would hold up in court as a binding contract for sale, according to the Post.

It's not clear whether that prospective buyer was the Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, but it is clear the sale likely turned a nice profit for the company, chaired by Chen Feng.

Leonard Blavatnik (center) is seen here with his wife, Emily (left), and Lady Annabel Weidenfeld at a Celebration of the Life of Lord George Weidenfeld St the Victoria & Albert Museum On Brompton Road in West London on June 26, 2016

The Chinese hedge fund, HNA Group, purchased the townhouse from David Wildenstein for $79.5 million, just 10 months ago in April

Now, all 25,000 square feet of the late 19th-century, structure at 19 E. 64th belong to Blavatnik

The Chinese hedge fund purchased the townhouse from Wildenstein for $79.5 million, just 10 months ago in April.

Both then, and now, the sale has marked the highest purchase price ever paid for a townhouse inside New York City, the Post reported.

And now, all 25,000 square feet of the late 19th-century, lime stone structure finally belongs to media mogul Blavatnik.

The 41-foot-wide, commercially-zoned property is said to have 'great bones,' but will take some time, effort and a considerable amount of money to get back to residential shape.

The Russian-born entrepreneur is not new to collecting and renovating properties in the Big Apple, with four homes located within two blocks of each other

Blavatnik also owns New York City's widest townhouse, measuring 75 feet across, at 2 East 63rd Street

Blavatnik is seen left with Rita Ora and right with Cardi B, at the Warner Music Group Pre-Grammy Party in association with V Magazine on January 25 in New York City

The Russian-born entrepreneur is not new to collecting and renovating properties in the Big Apple, with four homes located within two blocks of each other.

In addition to Edgar Bronfmans former home, situated just a building over from this latest acquisition, Blavatnik also owns New York City's widest townhouse, measuring 75 feet across, right around the corner at 2 East 63rd Street.

The father-of-four snatched up what was the previous location of the New York Academy of Sciences for $31.25 million.

He also has a spot in the Upper East Side's exclusive 834 Fifth Avenue building, which is a luxury residential housing co-op, where current listings are comparable to what it cost him to have a home there, according to Zillow.

Blavatnik paid $80 million for a place to hang his hat, there. The property had been previously owned by President Donald Trump's current ambassador to England, Woody Johnson.

He also has a spot in the Upper East Side's exclusive 834 Fifth Avenue building (shown here), which is a luxury residential housing co-op

This 7-bedroom, 10 bath home spans 12,000 square feet, located in the same building as Blavatnik's $80 million property

The current listing for a property neighboring Blavatnik at 834 Fifth Avenue is $76 million

'Situated on the 7th and 8th floors, this magnificent front corner duplex boasts 20 rooms of unparalleled grandeur and scale,' the listing reads

This floor plan shows the grand scale of a home available for purchase now at 834 Fifth Avenue

For those curious about his relationship with his place of birth, 'He has had no contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2000, 18 years ago, and plays no role in Russian politics,' a spokesperson said.

Blavatnik, who was born in Ukraine in 1957 back when it was part of the Soviet Union, made his fortune through business via diversified investments in myriad companies through his conglomerate company, Access Industries, which he founded in 1986.

The British-American businessman, investor, and philanthropist purchased Warner Music Group for $3.3 billion in 2011, and has been racking up the cash ever since.

Also in 2011, he brought petrochemicals maker LyondellBasell out of bankruptcy in the midst of the worldwide financial crisis for a price tag north of $2 billion. Three years later in 2014 the value of his stake had rise to over $10 billion.

The year prior, he amassed $7 billion by unloading his share of a Russian oil ventuer TNK-BP in 2013, according to Bloomberg.

He also holds a 10 percent stake in fashion and accessories company Tory Burch, which is valued at $3 billion.

Blavatnik landed at number 42 on Business Insider's 50 Richest People on Earth list in January 2016, back when his net worth was estimated to be $16.7 billion.

Now, that number is up to $20.6 billion, according to Forbes.

Blavatnik bought the townhouse at 15 East 64th Street for $50 million in November 2007

Blavatnik was raised in Moscow and immigrated to the US with his parents at age 18 in 1978.

He's now a citizen of both the US (since 1984) and the United Kingdom.

Blavatnik was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in June, in honor of his philanthropy.

The founder also owns an impressive property in London, next door to Kensington Palace.

He bought the spectacular mansion at 15 Kensington Palace Gardens in 2004 for $70 million, and spent close to $300 million more in 2013 for renovations on his home across the pond, based on today's exchange rate.

He and his wife, Emily Blavatnik, have four children together.



Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, said that there are some 'glimmers of hope' on getting stricter gun laws passed, but Republicans would have to feel politically vulnerable.

'I think Republicans will act if they are faced with mass losses in these elections,' Blumenthal said Thursday morning on CNN. 'And an answer to your question, what can be done? In a word: elections.'

Blumenthal made his comments on the heels of the second deadliest shooting at a U.S. public school  in Parkland, Florida  with the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in the senator's home state, resulting in the most casualties.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, whose home state of Connecticut was deeply impacted by the Sandy Hook shooting, said Thursday that Republicans would be motivated to support gun control if they knew it would cost them big in the next election

Sen. Blumenthal (right) also told CNN's Chris Cuomo (left) that he saw 'glimmers' of hope when it came to gun control measures getting passed, including three successful ballot initiatives in 2016, and Republican Sen. John Cornyn's willingness to do something on background checks

The Connecticut senator argued that the political momentum in the country was toward gun restrictions, instead of gun rights, pointing to a number of successful ballot initiatives in the 2016 cycle.

'In the last election where states had gun violence prevention measures on their ballots, three out of four succeeded in referendum and many candidates with this issue succeeded in elections last time around,' Blumenthal argued.

What the Democrat failed to mention is that two of the three initiatives passed in left-leaning states  California and Washington  while another squeaked by in Nevada, which has been trending blue.

A fourth measure, to expand background checks in the more moderate state of Maine, died at the ballot box.

At the federal level, Blumenthal touted Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas' involvement in bipartisan legislation to strengthen federal background checks as progress.

Cornyn introduced the legislation, which was co-sponsored by Blumenthal, in the aftermath of the Sutherland Springs church shooting in Texas last November.

Blumenthal called it only a 'glimmer' of hope because Cornyn's bill didn't do much to expand the background check system, but instead pushed federal agencies and states to draft plans on how to better report background information to NICS, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, according to the Texas Tribune.

Congress also never delivered on talk that the body might ban bump stocks in the aftermath of the deadliest shooting in modern history, when a gunman killed 58 from his hotel room window raining bullets onto an outdoor concert venue in Las Vegas last October.

For several weeks after the rampage, Republicans seemed amenable to a bump stock ban, with the National Rifle Association expressing support, but momentum for the bill, introduced by Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, soon petered out.

That's because, as CNN's Harry Enten pointed out, public opinion in favor of gun control tends to spike right after mass shootings, but then returns to the more long-term trend of Americans favoring access to guns over restrictions.

Currently, Enten noted, Americans support the Republican stance on guns  by one point  over the Democratic position.

And while Blumenthal urged that restricting gun ownership become a 'groundswell, grassroots issue,' Republicans know that won't play well with their base.

There's a 59 per cent partisan gap on the issue, with 79 per cent of Republicans supporting Second Amendment rights, compared to just 20 per cent of Democrats.Donald Trump on Thursday blamed 'the difficult issue of mental health' for a deadly massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida less than a day earlier.

The president made no mention of gun control, or of the AR-15 rifle that Nikolas Cruz used to mow down dozens of students and teachers, including at least 17 who lost their lives.

Cruz bought the firearm legally at a gun shop in February 2017.

'Yesterday a school filled with innocent children and caring teachers became the scene of terrible violence, hatred and evil,' he said underneath the portrait of George Washington in the White House's Diplomatic Reception room.

Playing the role of consoler-in-chief and speaking to 'a nation in grief,' a somber Trump said all Americans 'hurt for the entire community of Parkland, Florida that is now in shock and pain and searching for answers.'

The president also said he will visit that community soon  perhaps as soon as this coming weekend  and tried to calm the lingering anger and fear that has gripped the nation.

President Donald Trump addressed the nation in the wake of Wednesday's gun massacre at a Florida school but made no mention of guns or gun control

Trump spoke for 6-1/2 minutes and blamed 'the difficult issue of mental health' for a series of mass shootings

This video screen grab image shows shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz on February 15 at Broward County Jail in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The heavily armed teenager who gunned down students and adults at a Florida high school was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder

Medical personnel tended to a victim following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018

This shocking picture was posted on Cruz's Instagram account, showing a collection of at least seven different firearms

Cruz's other social media postings include these photos of a bullet-riddled homemade target and a box of rifle ammunition

'I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you,' he said, quoting God himself in the 2nd book of Kings from the Hebrew Bible.

The president is scheduled to spend Saturday and Sunday at Mar-a-Lago, his private resort club that sits just 40 miles away from Parkland, in Palm Beach.

He ignored questions from an agitated pool of reporters, including one who yelled, 'Mr. President, why does this keep happening in America? Will you do something about guns?'

Lawmakers and activists erupted on Twitter when they realized that Trump hadn't used the words 'gun,' 'rifle,' weapon' or 'firearm' in his speech.

Democratic state Rep. Bob Lion of Connecticut, which saw the horrendous school shooting in the town of Newtown more than five years ago, tweeted: 'Trumps comments on Parkland made NO mention of guns.'

'Donald Trump didn't have a single word for the 96 Americans killed by guns every day. 30,000-40,000 dead every year,' wrote U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, a Virginia Democrat.

'No plan. No strategy. Not even a mention. Just the same thing we know to expect in response to gun violence: silence.'

Democratic lawmakers like Connecticut's Bob Lion and U.S. Rep. Don Beyer were outraged that Trump didn't talk about guns in his speech

Progressive activists like columnist Nicholas Kristof and immigration lawyer Gail Seeram suggested Trump is passing up an opportunity to talk about guns because the NRA contributes heavily to Republicans

Gail Seeram, an immigration attorney, tweeted that 'children must be 21 for legal access to alcohol  why are guns sold to 18 year old[s]?'

'Trump blames school safety & mental health for #FloridaSchoolShooting but no mention of SENSIBLE GUN CONTROL & money to Republicans by NRA to avoid sensible gun control,' she added.

The liberal New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof complained that Trump sometimes 'mentions the gunning down of Congressional baseball players. But no mention of tackling gun safety systematically.'

At the grassroots level, a Brooklynite who tweets under the handle 'Pass Me a Pickle' vented her spleen at the National Rifle Association.

'Trump says making children safer will be his administration's top priority. He didn't mention guns at all in this speech. Which means he's full of crap,' she wrote.

'Because we all know where his allegiance lies. #GunReformNow #NRAKills.'

Instead of calling for a national conversation about how to reconcile gun rights with public safety, Trump addressed the nation's children 'who feel alone, lost, confused or even scared.'

'I want you to know that you are never alone and you never will be. You have people who care about you, who love you, and will do anything at all to protect you.'

'If you need help,' he said, 'turn to a teacher, a family member, a local police office or a faith leader.'

'Answer hatred with love. Answer cruelty with kindness.'

The president tweeted his condolences  and this plea for people to tell law enforcement when they see dangerous behavior that might signal a future attack

Florida Gov. Rick Scott did mention firearms in his remarks at a press conference Thursday, saying alongside law enforcement leaders that it was time 'to have a real conversation about how do we make sure parents who know their children are safe, and that individuals with mental illness don't touch guns.'

'We need to have a real conversation so we have public safety in this state,' he said.

America's long-running debate about firearm ownership, which is legally permitted on a scale seen nowhere else in the world, may have taken a turn this week, at least with respect to the kind of weapon the murderous Cruz used on Wednesday.

His gun of choice, the AR-15, has been used in some of the nation's worst mass-shootings.

Killers wielding AR-15 and AR-15 style weapons committed mass murder in Las Vegas, Nevada; Newtown, Connecticut; Aurora, Colorado; Orlando, Florida; San Bernardino, California; and Sutherland Springs, Texas.

On Thursday Piers Morgan a DailyMail.com editor-at-large, tweeted his anger at 'gun nuts' from the National Rifle Association for protecting ownership of the semi-automatic rifles whose visual style resembles military assault weapons.

Politicians and celebrities were quick to express outrage over the fact that another AR-15 was used in a mass shooting

And Democratic politicians were quick to find fault.

'My bill to ban assault weapons is ready for a vote. How long will we accept weapons of war being used to slaughter our children?' asked California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Trump earlier tweeted his condolences, his pledge to assist Florida Gov. Rick Scott, and his frustration with 'neighbors and classmates' of Cruz who failed to alert authorities about the 19-year-old's erratic and foreboding behavior.

'No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school,' the president wrote barely more than an hour after the massacre.

In a more pointed message 15 hours later, Trump tweeted that there were '[s]o many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior.'

'Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!'

Attorney General Jeff Sessions pledged on Thursday to do more to help American communities to prevent gun violence.

The president's Mar-a-Lago resort club is just 40 miles away from the scene of the massacre, and he's expected to be there all weekend, so he announced Thursday that he will visit the town of Parkland, Florida

'It cannot be denied that something dangerous and unhealthy is happening, and we are once again, watching the images of our children  terrified  streaming from their school with their hands above their heads,' Sessions told the Major County Sheriffs Association.

'When parents, once again, go to sleep in fear that their kids will not be safe when they leave for their school bus in the morning. We must confront this problem,' he declared.

He also told the sheriffs to encourage their communities to be on the lookout for tell-tale signs of future school shootings.

'It is too often the case that the perpetrators of these terrible attacks had given of signals in advance. You are experienced professionals. You and I know that we cannot arrest everybody that somebody thinks is dangerous. But I think we can and must do better,' he said.

'We owe it to every one of those kids crying outside their school yesterday and all those who never made it out. Our hearts are hurting today.'

Attorney General Jeff Sessions pledged on Thursday to do more to help American communities to prevent gun violence

South Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy, who is not running for re-election, told a Fox news Channel audience Thursday morning that 'I don't know anyone who would not pass a bill today that would prevent the next mass shooting.'

But first 'you have to find out how he accessed the gun.'

'You got to find out whether there was a data point at some point in his background where someone could have reported it. Whether or not he accessed the gun legally or illegally,' Gowdy cautioned.

The Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees Americans the 'right to bear arms,' but courts have ruled that governments can restrict that right when genuine and emergent public safety concerns can be shown to take priority.A couple who spent more than 200,000 transforming a derelict rented cottage into an idyllic country home have lost their High Court bid to stay after their landlord ordered them out.

The cottage - known as Mellinzeath near Falmouth, Cornwall and its barn were just shells when Stephen Smyth-Tyrrell spotted an opportunity to transform the properties 25 years ago.

Mr Smyth-Tyrrell, whose family have been landowners in the area since 1760, spent about 230,00 renovating the property as holiday lets.

A couple have been forced out of an idyllic country cottage after 25 years despite spending over 200,000 renovating it. The cottage - known as Mellinzeath near Falmouth, Cornwall and its barn were derelict shells when Stephen Smyth-Tyrrell spotted an opportunity to transform the properties 25 years ago

But he and his wife Beaujolois have never owned Mellinzeath, instead renting it from farmer William Bowden and his father before him.

Trouble broke out in June 2014 when Mr Bowden issued the couple with notice to quit Mellinzeath, which is set in about nine-and-a-half acres of land.

The Smyth-Tyrrells took the dispute to the High Court in London, insisting they had the right to stay.

Mr Smyth-Tyrrell, whose family have been landowners in the area since 1760, spent about 230,00 renovating the property as holiday lets. But he and his wife Beaujolois have never owned Mellinzeath, instead renting it from farmer William Bowden and his father before him

The couple, whose home Bosvathick is about three miles away, had poured cash into making Mellinzeath a draw for holidaymakers, the court heard.

Work they carried out on the cottage and barn had increased the property's value from, at most, 190,000 to 375,000.

Following floods in 2012, they had dredged the millpond, re-ordered and banked the stream, also altering its course.

And, despite having rented out Mellinzeath for tourists, the couple said they have yet to recoup their investment.

But after a hearing at London's High Court, Judge Paul Matthews has ruled that Mr and Mrs Smyth-Tyrrell have to leave.

The cottage is part of the Bowden family's 750-acre Boswidjack Farm, in Constantine and was first rented to Mr Smyth-Tyrrell in 1993 for just 400 a year.

Trouble broke out in June 2014 when Mr Bowden issued the couple with notice to quit Mellinzeath, which is set in about 9.5 acres of land. The Smyth-Tyrrells took the dispute to the High Court in London, insisting they had the right to stay

The original lease was for 15 years, but the Smyth-Tyrrells stayed on after that on a yearly tenancy, paying an increased rent of 1,000 a year.

Ruling against the couple, Judge Matthews said there had never been a 'common understanding' that they could stay on indefinitely.

Neither Mr Bowden nor his father had given Mr Smyth-Tyrrell any 'promise or assurance' that he could stay beyond the initial 15-year term.

The Smyth-Tyrrells never had any long-term security of tenure and money they spent on Mellinzeath was 'at their own risk', the judge ruled.

Work they carried out on the cottage and barn had increased the property's value from, at most, 190,000 to 375,000. Following floods in 2012, they had dredged the millpond, re-ordered and banked the stream, also altering its course

He concluded: 'I find that Mr and Mrs Smyth-Tyrrell here played a long game to try and get the ownership of the land from their neighbour without letting on that this was what they were trying to do.

'In the meantime, they thought they could recoup their expenditure - and indeed make a profit - from the refurbishment of the property and then letting it for holiday lets.

'If it has not succeeded it is because it was a speculation which could have gone either way but which in the event has not proved as profitable as hoped.

The cottage is part of the Bowden family's 750-acre Boswidjack Farm, in Constantine and was first rented to Mr Smyth-Tyrrell in 1993 for just 400 a year

'If they had a made a fortune, recouping their expenditure many times over, Mr Bowden could not have complained.

'Mr and Mrs Smyth-Tyrrell have had what they bargained for, and indeed more.. Enough is enough.'

The judge's ruling opens the way for Mr Bowden to seek possession of Mellinzeath from Mr and Mrs Smyth-Tyrrell.Amazon on Wednesday beat out Microsoft to become the third most valuable company in the world.

The Seattle-based e-commerce giants price per share rose $36.54  2.6 percent - on Wednesday, closing at $1,451.05.

That gave Amazon a market capitalization of $702.5billion, surpassing that of another Washington state-based tech giant, Microsoft.

Amazons stock surge has catapulted its founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, 54, to the top of the list of the worlds richest humans.

As of Thursday, Bezos net worth was valued at $121.3billion, according to Forbes.

The company founded by Bill Gates saw its shares rise $1.40 on Wednesday  1.6 percent  to $90.81.

Amazon on Wednesday beat out Microsoft to become the third most valuable company in the world. The Seattle-based e-commerce giants price per share rose $36.54  2.6 percent - on Wednesday, closing at $1,451.05

Amazons stock surge has catapulted its founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos (left), 54, to the top of the list of the worlds richest humans. Bill Gates (right), Microsoft's founder, is the second richest

Gates, 62, will have to take solace in being just the second wealthiest person in the world. His net worth is valued at just over $91billion.

Investor Warren Buffett, French magnate Bernard Arnault, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg round out the top five wealthiest people.

Amazon still has a ways to go to catch up to the two most valuable publicly traded companies in the world.

Apple, the iPhone maker, leads the pack with a market capitalization valued at $849.2billion, according to The Seattle Times.

Alphabet, the parent company of search engine Google, is the second most valuable firm with a market cap of $744.8billion.

Facebook, the social network, is the fifth most valuable publicly traded company with a market capitalization of $521.5billion.

Analysts say that Amazons stock price continues to climb because the company is expected to grab an even larger share of the retail market in the months and years to come.

The companys revenue has grown by at least 19 percent each year for the past decade  an unprecedented level of success for firms with sales in excess of $1billion.

Last month, Microsoft beat Wall Streets profit forecast, helped by growth in its cloud computing business, but took a $13.8 billion one-time charge due to the new US tax law.

The company founded by Bill Gates saw its shares rise $1.40 on Wednesday  1.6 percent  to $90.81

Stock of the worlds largest software company have risen almost 50 percent over the past 12 months.

Since Chief Executive Satya Nadella took the helm in 2014, Microsofts cloud business - which includes products such as Office 365, Dynamic 365 and Azure - has emerged as a major growth area.

Revenue from what Microsoft calls its intelligent cloud segment rose 15.3 percent to $7.8 billion in the companys fiscal second quarter, including 98 percent growth for Azure.

Analysts on average had expected $7.51 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Amazon Web Services is the leader of the $14.4 billion cloud computing market with more than 31.8 percent market share, but Azure has been growing fast and holds the No. 2 position with 13.9 percent of the market, according to 2017 third quarter estimates by research firm Canalys.A woman charged with killing a 34-year-old who died just minutes after a botched cosmetic procedure in New York in 2015 is fighting extradition in London, police said.

Donna Francis was charged with criminally negligent homicide in the death of Kelly Mayhew, who went to Francis's office in the basement of a Far Rockway house in May 2015 to receive silicone injections in her rear.

Francis fled to London after learning the young television producer had died, according to NBC New York. She was finally tracked down and arrested by police in London in December 2017.

Silicone is banned for cosmetic uses in the United States, but is used on the underground market to increase the size of certain body parts, including breasts and butts.

Scroll down for video

Donna Francis (pictured right in London in February) was charged with criminally negligent homicide in the death of Kelly Mayhew (left), who went to Francis's office in the basement of a Far Rockway house in May 2015 to receive silicone injections in her rear

Francis fled to London after learning the young television producer had died, according to NBC New York . She was finally tracked down and arrested by police in London in December 2017. The home out of which she conducted her business is pictured

Mayhew's mother was with her for the procedure that afternoon, and said that when her daughter stopped breathing she begged Francis for help.

The pair had traveled to see Francis from their home in Maryland, and the victim's mother said she'd had five previous plastic surgeries.

Mayhew died after the third silicone injection when she turned purple and her body went into shock. Her mother said she implored Francis to call 911, but instead the woman fled

'On the third injection the daughter turns purple,' Lt Richard Rudolph told NBC. Mayhew then immediately went into shock.

But instead of calling 911, Francis allegedly cleared up her supplies and ran from the home, fleeing in a gray SUV.

The panicked mom also called the friend who had connected them with the woman, but she did not pick up the phone, the New York Daily News reported at the time.

Emergency personnel responded to the home and found Mayhew unresponsive. They performed CPR and rushed her to the hospital, where she died.

NYPD detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Francis more than a year later, and a Queens jury indicted her, but it was too late, as she had already fled to London.

She was arrested by British police in December at her new job as a hospital driver, more than two years after Mayhew's death, but was released on a monitoring bracelet and refused to speak at a court appearance.

NYPD detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Francis more than a year later, and a Queens jury indicted her, but it was too late, as she had already fled to London. She is pictured left avoiding reporters in February

Francis is due back in court on March 10, but detectives have said it could be months or years until she is extradited to the United States.

'We're not going to give up,' Rudolph said.

Francis was only publicly named as the suspect in Mayhew's death on February 8.

Police also think that Mayhew might not have been Francis's only victim, as people were on a waiting list for her procedures. Detectives say there were actually people waiting outside in their cars on the May evening Mayhew died.

She is certainly only one of many victims who have died due to illegal silicone injections in the United States in recent years.

Mayhew's lawyer told NBC it would be 'inappropriate' to comment on the pending extradition.Eight-year-old Maelys de Araujo vanished while attending a wedding in near Chambery in the Alps in August, in a case which has gripped France

The mother of a murdered French girl whose remains were found this week said her child would 'haunt' the ex-soldier who has finally confessed to killing her after months of interrogation.

Eight-year-old Maelys de Araujo vanished while attending a wedding in near Chambery in the Alps in August, in a case which has gripped France.

On Wednesday, chief suspect Nordahl Lelandais, 34, admitted to killing the eight-year-old child and led investigators to her remains after police found a trace of her blood in his black Audi car.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, the child's grief-stricken mother Jennifer Cleyet-Marrel called him a 'murderer' and a 'monster' and said he would be haunted by his deeds.

She said: 'I had to wait five-and-a-half months before this monster finally broke his silence.

'Maelys will haunt you night and day in prison until you die and go to hell. Maelys had her life in front of her, you ripped it off, we never saw her again because of you, I couldn't hold her in my arms and tell her how much I love her.

'My little angel, I couldn't protect you from this predator, and this guilt will follow me for a long time.

'Maelys I am so proud of you my pet, you are so beautiful, so smiling, you are my marvel, my sunshine, you will always be in my heart.

'This monster won't hurt anyone now. May justice be done and no child subjected to such an act.

'We miss you so much. We will carry on your fight until the end my princess.'

Maelys's mother Jennifer, pictured right with her husband Joachim last September, has told her daughter's killer: 'Maelys will haunt you night and day in prison until you die and go to hell'

Maelys's mother shared this emotional Facebook post condemning Maelys's killer as a 'monster' along with family pictures

Candles, toys and messages are displayed in tribute to Maelys today in Le Pont-de-Beauvoisin where she was seen for the last time

A woman and her daughter are seen in front of the tribute messages to Maelys today as her mother spoke out to condemn the killer

Jennifer Clevet Marrel said of her daughter: 'My little angel, I couldn't protect you from this predator, and this guilt will follow me for a long time'

Lelandais, a former military dog-handler who is also charged with murdering a hitchhiking soldier last April, claimed he killed Maelys 'by mistake' but has so far refused to give details of her death.

When a trace of her blood was found in his car he finally agreed to co-operate with the police and led them to the spot where the remains of the child were found in a remote snow-covered ravine near the village of Domessin in Savoie.

Relatives of the dead soldier, 24-year-old Arthur Noyer, said they too were hoping to learn the truth about his death.

Noyer was last seen in the early hours of April 12, 2017, hitchhiking in Chambery after leaving a nightclub. Parts of his skull were found on a hiking tail in Montmelian, near Chambery, in September.

Telephone records place Noyer and Lelandais in the same area at the same time on the night of the dead man's disappearance.

He admitted killing the youngster 'involuntarily' after she went missing during a wedding in Pont-de-Beauvoisin, north of Grenoble.

Nordahl Lelandais (pictured) is reported to have agreed to co-operate with the police in the investigation after a trace of Maelys de Araujo's blood was found in his car

Police were reported to have found the buried bones of the dead child on Wednesday. They are pictured by a garden cabin along a road near Domessin in the Eastern French region of Savoie on Wednesday

There are now suspicions that Lelandais could be responsible for the unsolved Alps murders in which a British man, his wife and mother-in-law were killed in a forest car park in September 2012.

Other cases in which it is suspected that Lelandais may be involved include that of Adrien Mourial, a 24-year-old Belgian citizen who went missing near Lake Annecy in July, and Jean-Christophe Morin and Ahmed Hamad, who vanished in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

Lelandais' alleged links to these murders have prompted police to begin poring over files of other missing people in the region amid fears that he could be a serial killer.

A Grenoble prosecutor said last night that the parents of Maelys are 'not longer in the dark; adding that 'they know that their daughter is dead, that she was killed. And a few minutes ago, we told them that we had discovered the remains of the child.'

'It is this terrible conclusion that the prosecutor of Grenoble has delivered, the culmination of six months of investigation and research.' he added.

French Gendarmes stand by a vehicle along a road near Domessin in the Eastern French region of Savoie on February 14, 2018 during the transport of suspected killer Nordahl Lelandais, a former military dog trainer, to the alleged scene of the murder

Lelandais was taken for the first time since he was charged to the scene of the crime on Wednesday under a heavy police escort, Parismatch.com reported.

His change of heart was thought to have come about after a trace of Maelys's blood was found in the boot of his car, according to a source who spoke to the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity.

It took a whole day of searching, made very difficult by the snow and the steep terrain, to uncover the remains of the little girl, Le Figaro reported.

The unmarried suspect from the village of Domessin, 18 miles from Chambery, was also charged in December over the April killing of a hitchhiking soldier.

There are also suspicions that Lelandais could be responsible for the unsolved 2012 murders of Saad al-Hilli, Iqbal al-Hilli and her mother Suhaila al-Allaf who were shot dead while on holiday in Chevaline, near Annecy. A passing French cyclist, Sylvain Mollier was also killed.

There are fears that Lelandais could be responsible for the unsolved Alps murders in which a British man, his wife and mother-in-law were killed in a forest car park in September 2012

There are also suspicions that Lelandais could be responsible for the unsolved 2012 murders of Saad al-Hilli (left), Iqbal al-Hilli (right) and her mother Suhaila al-Allaf who were shot dead while on holiday in Chevaline, near Annecy

But despite a massive manhunt, the investigation failed to result in any charges - but hopes were rekindled in December when Annecy prosecutor Veronique Denizot confirmed to The Telegraph that the case would be re-opened to probe Lelandais' possible involvement.

No motive was found by police for the murders despite extensive investigations in Britain, France and Iraq. Investigators have previously suggested the killer could have a military background.

Grenoble prosecutor Jean-Yves Coquillat said that investigators and police dogs found some of Maelys De Araujo's remains Wednesday in a snow-covered ravine, six months after she went missing.

French Gendarmes block road access with a vehicle near Saint-Franc, in the Eastern French region of Savoie on February 14, 2018, where a forest is being searched in relation with the August 2017 disappearance of the eight-year-old girl

French Gendarmes along a road near Domessin in the Eastern French region of Savoie on February 14, 2018 during the transport of suspected killer Nordahl Lelandais to the alleged scene of the crime

The prosecutor said Lelandais told investigators on Wednesday that he killed her accidentally, hid the body and then returned to the wedding party before eventually dumping the body in the ravine.

Lelandais had also been a guest at the wedding in Pont-de-Beauvoisin, near the mountain city of Chambery - but it is not clear if he was formally invited or not.

The prosecutor said Lelandais did not explain the circumstances of the girl's death. A former army dog handler, Lelandais was in September charged in relation to her disappearance.

One unconfirmed report said that the police dogs found the girl's skull and later her bones in the Chartreuse Massif, about an hour from the wedding location.

At the time of the girl's disappearance he was reported to be a friend of the groom who turned up uninvited to the wedding reception.

Several clues pointed towards the former soldier during the police investigation into the disappearance, officials say, including a trace of her DNA found in his vehicle, mobile phone data, and CCTV images filmed on the night she vanished.

The footage showed a car, identified by investigators as belonging to Lelandais, with 'a faint silhouette in a white dress' like the one Maelys had been wearing.

Her parents 'recognised elements of the dress, particularly the strap', their lawyer Fabien Rajon said.

Lelandais's defence had previously challenged the chronology of events as described by prosecutors.

Lelandais was initially charged with 'kidnapping, illegal confinement or arbitrary detention of a minor of less than 15 years' in connection with Maelys' disappearance

Volunteers: Thousands of people take part in searches for Maelys after she went missing last year

Time running out: No signs of the missing girl were found last year

His lawyer confirmed last year that while a trace of her DNA had been found on the dashboard, his client 'completely denied' kidnapping her.

He said several DNA traces, including that of his client, had been found on the dashboard and that someone who was in contact with the child could have 'transferred' her DNA in to the vehicle.

He also suggested that the children could have climbed into the car unbeknownst to the driver, noting that all the windows were left down during the party.

Police searched woodland near the wedding reception venue where Maelys went missingA boyfriend used the 'Find My Friends' iPhone app to help locate his missing partner - only to discover she had been shot dead.

Lanecia Nelson was found dead near a charter school in southwest Atlanta, Georgia, in the early hours of Wednesday.

The 24-year-old's partner, who has not been named, had been able to pinpoint the area with the help of the app, which uses GPS, and found some of her clothes.

A boyfriend used the 'Find My Friends' iPhone app to help locate his missing partner - only to discover she had been shot dead. Lanecia Nelson was found dead near a charter school off Martin Luther King Jr. Drive (pictured) in Atlanta, Georgia

The 24-year-old's partner, who has not been named, had been able to pinpoint the area with the help of the app, which uses GPS, and found some of her clothes. He then flagged down police who made the grim discovery of her body on a woodland trail

He then flagged down police who made the grim discovery of her body on a woodland trail.

Her death has since been ruled as a homicide after the Fulton County Medical Examiners office said she had been shot in the head.

A uniformed officer was alerted by the boyfriend on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

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Police dogs were then used to locate the body at 2.40am about 500 yards away.

Authorities say the man cooperated with police and was not considered a suspect.

Nelson's relatives had reported her missing on Tuesday.

Officer Donald Hannah told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 'Our homicide unit is working to gather and explore all possible leads.'

Police Lt. Carven Tyus told WSBTV: 'We'll be reaching out to family members, trying to ascertain where exactly the victim was, who she was last seen with, and we'll just seek help from the public in identifying what happened here.'Commonwealth Day 2018, the annual celebration of the Commonwealth of Nations, will be held next month in the organization's 53 member states.

Queen Elizabeth II is set to attend a multi-faith service at Westminster Abbey in London and give her annual address, this year centering on solving important global challenges like ensuring environmental sustainability and promoting fairness and equality.

But what is the Commonwealth of Nations? When is Commonwealth Day 2018? Here's everything you need to know about what the Commonwealth is, which countries are in it, its history, its flag, how it's celebrated and if you can watch the special celebrations on TV.

Queen Elizabeth is welcomed in Mozambique shortly after the country's formal admission into the Commonwealth of Nations, she serves as Head of State for most Commonwealth nations

What is the Commonwealth?

The Commonwealth of Nations is an intergovernmental association that consists mainly of former territories once controlled by the British Empire.

Association in the Commonwealth of Nations is voluntary. The organization is currently headed by Queen Elizabeth II and based at the Marlborough House in London. The Commonwealth is designed to promote peace, human rights, democracy and other core values among its member nations.

The Commonwealth currently holds more than 2.4 billion people and encompasses more than 11.5 million square miles (29.9 million square kilometers). Its GDP is estimated to be in excess of $14.6 trillion (10.4 trillion) as of 2014.

Which countries are in the Commonwealth?

The Commonwealth consists of 53 independent countries, the vast majority of which were at one point controlled by the British Empire.

The United Kingdom is one of the member states in the Commonwealth of Nations, as are Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. Other member states include India, Pakistan, Singapore, Barbados, Namibia and Papua New Guinea. The member states of the Commonwealth of Nations hail from Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

What is the history of the Commonwealth?

The origins of the Commonwealth of Nations date back almost a century.

The 1926 Balfour Declaration enshrined equality and autonomy to the Dominions of the British Empire, while the 1931 Statute of Westminster further codified the independence of the Empires Dominions and officially established the Commonwealth.

After a wave of decolonization swept across the world after World War II, the Commonwealth of Nations was officially declared by the London Declaration on April 28, 1949.

Over the years, a number of countries have either voluntarily left or joined the Commonwealth, while others have recognized their own Heads of State in lieu of the British Monarchy. Yet it remains one of the worlds preeminent intergovernmental organizations to this day.

What is the Commonwealth flag?

The Commonwealth flag was adopted in 1976 and modified in 2013.

It consists of a gold globe that represents the global nature of the Commonwealth surrounded by 24 gold spears set against a blue background.

When is Commonwealth Day?

Commonwealth Day 2018 will be on Monday, March 12.

Formerly known as Empire Day, it is traditionally held on the second Monday of March annually and was first introduced back in 1902 in honor of the late Queen Victorias birthday on May 24. It was subsequently changed to its current date in 1973.

How is Commonwealth Day celebrated?

Observance of Commonwealth Day is not uniform across all 53 member states.

In the United Kingdom, the Union Jack is flown over all government buildings while the Queen gives a special address focused on a particular theme each year and attends a special multi-faith service at Westminster Abbey with the Royal Family.

In Canada, the Union Jack is raised alongside the Canadian flag on government buildings, military bases and other establishments. In the Bahamas and Belize, Commonwealth Day is officially marked in schools with special assemblies and the reading of the Queens address.

Can you watch the Commonwealth Day celebrations on TV?

The multi-faith service and Queens address at Westminster Abbey can be seen on BBC One on Commonwealth Day 2018.A Utah Republican has been arrested in a prostitution sting a week after a GOP politician in a neighboring city was forced to resign after claims he paid an escort for sex.

Blake Cozzens, 28, the Iron County Republican Party Treasurer, was arrested after investigators posted advertisements posing as a female prostitute with the help of a confidential informant.

His arrest comes resignation of state Representative Jon Stanard, from neighboring St George, who quit after a call girl told DailyMail.com he paid her for sex during two business trips to Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2017.

Blake Cozzens, a local Republican treasurer, has been arrested after police officers posed as a prostitute

Cozzens was one of five men arrested by St. George Police Department. He allegedly traveled from his home in Cedar City to St. George to meet with the informant, with whom he had discussed a sex act in text messages.

Once Cozzens handed over $100, investigators arrested him, according to court documents, The St. George Spectrum reported.

The property developer owns Stress-Free Property Management and is a known real estate developer in the area.

Cozzens, the son of Councilman Paul Cozzens, who is currently running for a seat on the Iron County Commission, has since been released.

Stanard, 43, who is married with three kids, exchanged text messages with call girl Brie Taylor and arranged to meet her in Salt Lake City on at least two occasions last year.

Stanard was elected to the Utah House of Representatives in 2012 and has three children

Call girl Brie Taylor (above) claims Stanard paid her for sex during two business trips to Salt Lake City

In one particular exchange, Taylor asked Stanard if she should bring any 'accessories' or 'toys', perhaps a 'corset'.

Taxpayer funds were used to pay for at least two hotel rooms he is alleged to have used to meet up with the prostitute.

Stanard voted in favor of stricter laws on prostitution, including increasing the penalty for soliciting sex to $2,500.

On his website he states: 'I am a strong advocate for conservative family values. I am pro-life, as well as for traditional marriage.'A small Michigan town has been left in shock after three dead bodies were found early Thursday morning in what is believed to be a double murder suicide.

A man is believed to have shot dead his wife and daughter before turning the gun on himself at his home in Sebewaing in the town's first homicide since the 1970s, police said.

Their bodies were discovered during a well-being check after a neighbor was unable to reach the residents of the home, State Police Chief Bill Owens told the Huron Daily Tribune.

So far none of the names have been released, but Owens said the victims were all family members.

A man is believed to have shot dead his wife and daughter before turning the gun on himself in a Michigan home, police said. Their bodies were discovered early Thursday morning, State Police Lt Dave Kaiser, who said the Sebewaing Police department is leading the investigation into the deaths

Police say they believe a man killed his wife and adult daughter at a Michigan home before fatally shooting himself.

Lt Dave Kaiser told MLive.com that the suspected assailant fatally shot himself.

It's thought the incident happened around 1am.

Owens says state police investigators were at the scene Thursday.

Though he would not officially identify the suspects, he told WNEM that the victims are long-term residents of the town and open a carpet-cleaning business.

He also revealed to the outlet that the husband and wife were in the 50s, and the daughter was in her 20s.

The home is on the 500 block of Beach Street in Sebewaing, which is about 95 miles north of Detroit and has an estimated population of 1,669 as of 2016.A Royal Navy officer in charge of teaching future commanders how to operate submarines worth 1.1billion took his eye off the ball and caused a crash costing 2.1million.

Commander Justin Codd, 45, pleaded guilty to causing damage to submarine HMS Ambush.

He was sentenced to forfeiting a year of seniority at Portsmouth Naval Base.

The Astute-class machine was taken out of service for three months to undergo repairs costing 2.1million.

Commander Justin Codd, 45, pleaded guilty to causing damage to submarine HMS Ambush (above, Commander Codd pictured in 2003)

Sentencing Codd, Judge Advocate Robert Hill said: 'You have, save for this incident, an exemplary record. It was more in the nature of a momentary aberration than a careless attitude.'

Captain John Atwill, prosecuting, said that Codd was leading a group of students on the final day of the Perisher training course when the accident happened off Gibraltar on July 20 2016.

He explained that the students were practising controlling the submarine at periscope depth observing shipping movements.

Hit: The Royal Navy's 7,400 tonne high-tech hunter-killer submarine needed 2.1million worth of repairs after it smashed into a merchant vessel in 2016 (the damaged sub in 2016)

HMS Ambush pictured arriving in Gibraltar in 2016, shortly before the crash in July that year

Cpt Atwill said the failure happened because, despite the submarine having two periscopes, Codd failed to carry out his own observations and relied on the images provided by his students.

He said that the students had focused on a yacht called Katharsis and had not identified the risk posed by the tanker MV Andreas, which was 'loitering' in the nearby area.

Cpt Atwill said: 'Cdr Codd's decision to focus on teaching, not safety, compounded the error carried out by the students.'

Captain Sean Moore, defending, said that the incident was the worst day in the defendant's 22 years of 'exemplary service'.

Probe: The Ministry of Defence have been investigating the incident for almost two years

He said: 'This is a failure that will live with him for the rest of his life.

'No officer becomes teacher of the Submarine Command Course because they are good enough, they must be the best the submarine service has to offer.

'Perisher is widely acknowledged as the toughest command course in the world.'

He added: 'This was a case where at the end of a long and demanding period of training with the finish line in sight, Cdr Codd took his eye off the ball.'

He continued: 'This is not a case of teacher deliberately ignoring an obvious threat or taking a calculated risk.'

Cpt Moore said that Codd was highly respected by senior commanders and had been involved in learning lessons from the accident.

He added that the senior students involved in the training had gone on to pass the Perisher course.

Cpt Moore said: 'Not only did he remain as teacher but he revised the training procedures.

'Having written the book on optronic periscopes, having learned from this incident, he's taken the lead in rewriting the book.'

The court heard that the punishment would impact on Codd's career progression and his salary of 78,000 a year.A delivery driver high on cocaine who stabbed to death a French tourist was jailed for life today.

Nicholas Foy, 39, had snorted four-and-a-half grams of the drug in a 24-hour drink and drugs binge when he ran up to nuclear scientist Laurent Volpe, 49, wielding a kitchen knife and wearing nothing but pink shorts.

He plunged the large knife into his stomach, which passed through Mr Volpes liver before threatening passers-by, yelling 'do you want some?'

Mr Volpe, who was on a two-week holiday with his wife Cecile Chapais and their two children, collapsed at the scene in Eltham, south-east London shortly before 7pm on August 11 last year.

Mr Volpe, an accomplished triathlete from the south of France, had spent the day sightseeing with his family.

They returned to Eltham, where they were staying through a house swap and Mr Volpe popped to a nearby Co-op to get food.

But on his way back when he bumped into dad-of-three Foy. When police arrived Foy punched an officer before he was Tasered and arrested.

Foy had consumed five pints of lager, a litre of Jack Daniel's whiskey and rum, and taken up to four-and-a-half grams of cocaine before leaving the house

And as he was taken to hospital for treatment to self-inflicted knife wounds to his foot, he headbutted another officer and had to be sedated by medical staff.

Paramedics took Mr Volpe to Kings College Hospital in a critical condition but died three days later despite having a liver transplant.

Foy admitted manslaughter, claiming a lack of intent, but denied murder but was convicted of murder at the Old Bailey on Monday. He was jailed today for life with a minimum of 17 years.

In the days before the attack Foy, who suffers depression, had not taken his medication, and chose to self-medicate with cocaine and alcohol instead, the judge said.

Foy, left, plunged the knife into the stomach of Mr Volpe, right, who later died despite a transplant

He had consumed five pints of lager, a litre of Jack Daniels whiskey and rum, and taken up to four-and-a-half grams of cocaine before leaving the house at 6.45pm.

Judge Sarah Munro QC said: 'You took with you a large kitchen knife, going back and forward across the road to gouge your foot, believing there was a bomb.

'Cecile Chapais lost her partner, two children lost their father, a brother his sibling, and a mother her son as a result of your selfish and murderous act.

'He was a respected scientist and an accomplished triathlete. He was a loving father.

'His children no longer have a second parent to whom they can turn.'

His wife described him as 'smiling, kind, passionate and full of life' in a statement.

Judge Munro said: 'She refers to the loss of someone with whom to share her worries, someone with whom to share her bed, and someone to share parental responsibilities.'

Foy was seen screaming at passers-by 'do you want some?' after he plunged the knife into his victim's stomach

He attacked his victim - who was on holiday - dressed only in pink shorts after a drink and drug booze

His son said, 'I dont have a dad anymore', while his daughter added, 'there is no word to describe how I feel'.

Judge Munro said: 'Madam Chapais now has to do the job of two parents on her own, and at the same time hold down her job as the sole remaining breadwinner in the family.

The French scientist had been on his sightseeing holiday just one day when he was attacked

'Laurent Volpes mother has suffered the ultimate loss - the loss of a child.

'You had spent the previous evening, night and morning of the 11th of August filling yourself with alcohol and cocaine.

'You took all that knowing the combination could make you angry, paranoid, aggressive and violent.

'You have a longstanding history of drink and drug abuse. You started taking cocaine aged 17, and took the drug daily until 2013.

'You also told the jury you have had a problem with alcohol for two years. Your records suggest it was a lot longer.

'You have also suffered depression for many years. Your depression is of some significance.

'But what is of most significance is that in the days prior to the murder, you chose not to take your medication, deciding instead to self medicate with drink and cocaine.

'You deliberately combined a large amount of alcohol with very significant amounts of cocaine in a binge which lasted about 24 hours.

'You knew to combine the two could make you paranoid, violent and dangerous.

Foy had not only failed to take medication for depression, but had decided to self-medicate using cocaine and alcohol

'You took an extremely large knife out into the street when you were in a state of self-induced extreme intoxication.

'You held the knife out as you ran and deliberately stabbed a complete stranger in the abdomen, causing his collapse and death.'

In mitigation Orlando Pownall QC, defending, said: 'Everything that happened happened during the course of what was undoubtedly a psychotic or paranoid state.'

He said Foy, who has previous convictions for common assault, had showed 'genuine' remorse, while his partner described him to the court as an 'amazing father'.

His partner sobbed and was comforted by their son as Foy was led from the dock.Max Mian, 19, had taken Ketamine and MDMA before scaling the tall Westgate Shopping Centre in the city centre

An Oxford University student who had been on a drug binge fell to his death after climbing up a new shopping centre development and falling off, an inquest heard.

Max Mian, 19, had taken ketamine and MDMA before scaling the tall Westgate Shopping Centre in the city centre in October last year.

The teenage student had told a friend he wanted to explore the building site. Mr Mian left his flat at 3.30am, after spending the night at the pub.

He was found by a construction worker early the next morning, lying on the floor outside a John Lewis store.

An inquest heard Mr Mian, a second year Classics undergraduate at Brasenose College, Oxford, began to worry about the amount of money he was spending on drugs, according to close friends.

A post-mortem examination ruled he had died from a number of injuries from falling a moderate height. Other injuries may have been masked by the fall.

The court also heard that Mr Mian had been known to scale structures while under the influence of drugs.

Robyn Salt, a close friend and flat mate of Mr Mian, described the events leading up to his death to the coroner.

She said: 'We had come back to Oxford on the first of February to begin our second year at Oxford. Max was worrying a bit about the work ahead but no more than a usual person would be.

'He was also worried about how much money he was spending on recreational drugs and mentioned how he thought it was getting out of control. When under the influence before, he would jump on bus shelters and climb things regularly. His drug of choice was ketamine.

'That night we went out to Wetherspoons and while in the pub he asked if he could borrow one of my keys so he could take ketamine. He didn't appear affected by it though, I know he had built up a tolerance to it.

'He had said previously that he wanted to enter the (Westgate) building site as he would love the adventure.

'I left and went back to the flat and was in the kitchen making some toast. Max came out of his room and was hungry so had some too. He went and played Grand Theft Auto on his Playstation.

'He seemed moody but this was not out of character and he just looked very sleepy. He was planning to have a freshers party the next day before we went to a club.

'I went to sleep and when I woke up in the morning Max wasn't in his room and I just thought he had gone to rehearsals.'

The inquest in Oxford was told however that it could not be confirmed whether the presence of Ketamine had a direct effect on Mr Mian

It was not mentioned in the hearing whether he had been involved in any 'free running' prior to his death.

Electrician Tommy Whittle found the body on October 2 at 6.50am while on his way to work.

He said: 'I was taking my usual route across the site and passed John Lewis on the ground floor. As I was walking I saw a body directly outside John Lewis. It showed no signs of life and I immediately called 999. Police arrived around five minutes later.'

Sergeant Neil Streeter described to the inquest what he saw, saying: 'I found a man on the ground outside the main John Lewis entrance in the courtyard part of the Westgate Shopping Centre. It was a building site with various materials and machinery around.'

A toxicology report found a low level amount of alcohol in his system, along with 257mg of Ketamine and MDMA. Both drugs are often abused for their euphoric effects and can cause delerium.

The inquest in Oxford was told it could not be confirmed whether the presence of ketamine had a direct effect on Max. The second-year student had no significant medical history and no previous problems.

Police constable Sarah Williams told coroner Darren Salter that she checked CCTV coverage of the area but found nothing of note.

Mr Mian was found outside a John Lewis near the building site of the Westgate shopping centre in Oxford

An artists concept of the Westgate shopping centre in Oxford. Mr Mian was found near the building site of the centre

Paramedics confirmed that Mr Mian was dead upon their arrival.

A statement was read to the inquest on behalf of Max's parents, Shah and Helen Mian. They said: 'Max was a wonderful son. Intellectually, he was very bright and he had made many friendships at Norwich School and at college, who have both made fitting tributes.

'He is much missed. He had worked and played hard at university, perhaps burning the candle a bit much at both ends. He treated the summer at the end of his first year as a gap year and went on holiday with his friends to Vietnam before a family holiday to Sicily.

'We took Max back to Oxford on February 1 ahead of his next term. He was a little nervous but was looking forward to the challenge. He was soon bouncing around with his friends and looked happy.

'We were not aware of Max taking drugs apart from that he had mentioned he had the odd joint at parties. We were aware of three occasions where Max had climbed buildings and we had told him this was risky behaviour.

Max Mian was a second year Classics undergraduate at Brasenose College, Oxford

'We do not believe he would have taken his own life and this was a tragic accident.'

Coroner Mr Salter recorded a verdict of accidental death, adding: 'He had fallen to the ground. Unfortunately we do not know the whole circumstances of where this was from, or whether he was climbing up or down the building.

'But he has fallen from a considerable height, whereabouts is difficult to say. He did not access the building from the inside, but there are possible areas he could have climbed up.

'There is no evidence of any suicidal intent, but more to the point there was cause for concern from family and friends with his risk taking behaviour.

'It is difficult to be precise on the effects the drugs had. It is different for people with different tolerances. The ketamine is obviously more relevant due to the amount described but this level is typically found with recreational use.

'The side effects of delirium, hallucinations and irrational behaviour are a concern but I cannot comment on the effects experienced in the death.

'They are likely to be relevant here and account for Max's behaviour that leads to the conclusion of an accident. There is no evidence of suicide and it is a tragic accident.'

John Browers, Principal of Brasenose College, said: 'We are all still shocked and saddened by this tragic accident. Max was a popular member of the college community and an excellent student.'

President of the Brasenose Junior Common Room, Manish Binukrishnan, said: 'Max quickly established himself among the students as a friend to many, standing out with his humour, friendliness and compassion. His death was truly saddening and the Brasenose JCR community has come together to mourn his loss and give our thoughts to his family and friends.'A pastor who found his neighbor's dog in the middle of a frozen pond in his backyard bravely shuffled out onto the ice to miraculously save the pet.

Jeff Mann had just returned home from work when his wife Selina noticed something splashing around in the pond and quickly shouted that there was dog in the water.

Mr Mann, from Marshfield, Missouri, quickly sprung into action and put on his winter boots before he picked up a rope.

The terrified dog, whose new name is Lazarus, could be heard desperately yelping as it struggled to pull itself up and out of the freezing cold water.

Jeff Mann (pictured) bravely stepped out onto the ice and desperately tried to help the dog

He had just returned home when his wife Selina shouted that the neighbor's dog had ended up in their frozen pond

But the pastor quickly put on his winter boots and carefully shuffled out onto the frozen pond

Mr Mann gently walked towards the dog and his worried wife recorded the tense moment on camera.

He tried to toss the rope at the dog and eventually managed to throw it into the pet's mouth on his sixth attempt.

The dog was able to bite hold of the rope and pull itself up and out of the water.

Mr Mann, who is a pastor at the local CrossBridge Baptist Church, wrote online: 'Neighbor's dog got in my pond this afternoon.

'The pond is aerated. So there is no ice in the middle. This poor guy almost drowned.

'Selina saw him from the kitchen window. He is a smart dog. I'm glad I didn't want to take a polar bear plunge which I thought I was about to.

Thankfully he was able to throw the rope towards the dog who was able to bite hold of it and pull itself out

The dog was walking perfectly after it pulled itself out of the water thanks to the help of Mr Mann

Jeff Mann had just returned home from work when his wife Selina (pictured together) noticed something splashing around in their pond

Mr Mann (pictured) is a pastor at the CrossBridge Baptist Church in his hometown of Marshfield, Missouri

'The ice was cracking. His new name is Lazarus!'

Mr Mann also told the News-Leader: 'I figured I was going to fall in and I was just going to have to break the ice to get to him.

'Once I was already out there, your mind starts running like "Man, this is pretty dangerous".

'The really neat part of it was that the dog was smart enough to bite onto the rope. If he didn't do that, I was going to have to go out there and bust through the ice.'A mother has been sentenced to jail time for secretly baptizing her daughter in violation of a judge's order one day after the court granted the father full custody.

Kendra Stocks, 36, will begin a seven-day jail sentence on Friday in Charlotte, North Carolina, after being found guilty of contempt of court in the August 2016 baptism of her daughter.

Both Stocks and the child's father, Paul Schaaf, are practicing Catholics, but Schaaf was shocked when his ex-girlfriend posted photos of the baptism on Facebook without seeking his input beforehand, the News and Observer reported.

The baptism at St. Peter's Catholic Church occurred just one day after a judge gave Schaaf full custody of the girl, 'specifically including decisions concerning religion.'

The baptism at St. Peter's Catholic Church (pictured) occurred just one day after a judge gave Schaaf full custody of the girl, 'specifically including decisions concerning religion'

Video courtesy of WSOC-TV

The daughter, who just turned four, is the product of a brief six-month relationship between Stocks and Schaaf that ended in February 2014.

Schaaf filed for custody two months later, citing chronic disagreements over visitation, holidays and the infant's medical care. He was also upset that his last name was not included in the daughter's name, court documents say.

Judge Sean Smith's contempt order says Stocks demonstrated 'very erratic, bizarre conduct' during the relationship and after the child was born, 'including poor decision-making and an inability to cooperate'.

Feuds over spiritual matters apparently delayed the baptism ceremony for some time, until Stocks went forward with it in secret.

Her attorney argued that Stocks did not fully understand when the custody order went into effect, and that she didn't believe she was violating the court order because both parents wanted the child to be baptized.

Smith's order rebutted those claims, citing the transcript of the August 26 hearing at which he repeatedly asked Stocks if she understood his ruling.

The day after the hearing, Stocks went forward with the baptism, listing her cousin as the godmother and Schaaf's brother as the godfather. The brother did not attend the ceremony because he was never told about it, court records indicate.

Stocks was found guilty of contempt and sentenced to ten days in jail in March, but the sentence was suspended pending her attempt to appeal.

Her appeal was dismissed on Monday and the sentence upheld, though it was cut to seven days.

'I'm scared,' she told the Observer of the looming week in jail. 'I'm sad about what has happened.'

'I don't regret having her baptized. That was in her best interest... I don't see how this is in the best interest of the family. Her father is sending her mother to jail.'In celebration of Chinese New Year, cities across the United Kingdom will be holding special events and dragon parades to mark the start of the Year of the Dog.

Chinese New Year, the Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival, falls on Friday, February 16 in 2018 as per the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar.

Fireworks are a significant part of the two-week long celebrations in Asia and many also give children money in red envelopes for good luck, but how and where can you celebrate Chinese New Year 2018 in the UK?

Chinese New Year, the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, falls on Friday, February 16 in 2018

How to celebrate Chinese New Year 2018 in London

Despite Chinese New Year being on Friday, February 16, most of the celebrations in London will take place on the following Sunday, on February 18, between 10am and 6pm.

Londons celebrations are considered to be the largest outside of Asia and attract hundreds of thousands every year to the free event.

The day will start off with the iconic Chinese New Year parade from Charing Cross Road to Shaftesbury Avenue and will be followed by a lineup of artists from China and other contemporary acts.

In Trafalgar Square, screen shows and a thanksgiving ceremony will be followed by firecrackers, speeches and the Lions Eye-Dotting ceremony at 12pm.

Traditional dragon and flying lion dances can be seen from 12:50pm and the stages will welcome performances from Chinese dancers, musicians, acrobats and artists. Street food stalls will also be available.

Londons celebrations are considered to be the largest outside of Asia and attract thousands

For the grand finale, there will also be a special effects light show from 5:30pm, organised by the London Chinatown Chinese Association (LCCA). Gok Wan will also make an appearance for the end of the Year of the Dog festivities.

In the West End, Chinese Spectrum radio will host a stage and welcome British-Chinese talent at Charing Cross Road while Leicester Square will put on some child-friendly activities like calligraphy.

The Chinese Community Centre Chinese Orchestra will be performing at Shaftesbury Avenue where attendees can also expect to see martial arts, including tai chi chuan and taekwondo.

From 12pm to 6pm, Chinatown will be open to those wanting to have a sit down meal in one of Londons many authentic Chinese restaurants as well as see lion dances and take selfies with Chinese zodiac animals.

More information can be found by following #CNYLondon hashtag on social media.

Chinese New Year London road closures

Due to Chinese New Year celebrations taking place on Sunday, February 18 in London, many roads will be closed to make way for the 700,000 people expected to visit the area, according to TfL.

From 6am GMT, Dean Street and Duncannon Street will be closed and an hour later, Pall Mall East and the Charing Cross slip road will also be out of bounds.

Shaftesbury Avenue will be shut between Piccadilly Circus and Charing Cross Road in both directions from 8am.

Chinatown will be open to those wanting to have a meal in one of Londons many restaurants

This includes closures from St Giles High Street to Charing Cross Road as well as between Denmark Street and St Martins Place.

The Eastbound Piccadilly tube line from Hyde Park Corner will also be shut in addition to the eastbound Piccadilly Underpass.

All roads within the Chinatown area will also be closed including High Holborn to the west of Kingsway until 8pm.

How to celebrate Chinese New Year in Manchester

Manchester will also be putting on a parade on Sunday, February 18 2018 in what is expected to be the citys biggest Chinese New Year celebration yet.

The dragon procession will start at 12pm in Albert Square and will head towards Manchesters Chinatown. Charlotte Street will also host a funfair with an abundance of rides.

Martial arts and dance displays will also be showcased in Albert Square and a fireworks show will begin at 6pm.

The Confucius Institute and Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art will be putting on events at the Arndale for families and street food stalls will also be set up in St Anns Square.

UK cities will be putting on events and parades to celebrate the start of the Year of the Dog

Newcastle will be marking the Year of the Dog for 15 days, starting on February 16 and there will be events held between 11am and 4pm in the citys Chinatown in Stowell Street.

Liverpool will also have an extended celebration that will start on February 16 and end the following Sunday. Liverpudlians can expect to see light shows and lanterns put up around their Chinatown.A super-strict headmaster who banned pupils from wearing lipstick and fake tan found dead at his home had suffered a marriage breakdown, MailOnline can reveal.

Gary Vyse, who hit the headlines after he criticised parents for allowing their children to wear heavy make-up, was discovered at his home in Kent during the half term holiday.

His body was found by police after they were called earlier this week to his home where he lived alone.

Gary Vyse, 37, a super-strict headmaster known for banning false eyelashes and fake tan who was found dead at his home had suffered a breakdown of his marriage, MailOnline can reveal

Mr Vyse criticised parents in June 2016 for allowing pupils at Hundred Of Hoo Academy in Rochester, Kent, to wear heavy make-up, telling them: 'School is not a fashion parade'

Police said they are not treating his death as suspicious. Mr Vyse, a father of two young children, saw the breakdown of his marriage in around 2014.

In October 2016, he was arrested for drink driving after crashing his BMW car near his parents home in Kent.

His family did not want to comment on his death, nor did his ex-wife Kathy, 34, a science teacher. When asked about his death at her Gillingham, Kent, home, she replied: 'I'd rather not say anything.'

Mr Vysewas was arrested for drink driving after crashing his BMW car near his parents home in Kent in October 2016

Mr Vyse's death has left family, colleagues, former pupils and friends stunned.

Kelly Tolhurst, Conservative MP for Rochester and Strood, said: 'I am devastated and so very sad to hear the news. I am so very proud of Gary and what he has done for education in Medway.

'He was one of our best and we were so lucky he was here. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, colleagues and pupils at this horrendous time. A tragic loss.'

The police have said there are no suspicious circumstances and have not released any further details.

Mr Vyse's body was found at his 350,000 semi detached home in Rochester, Kent, at 9.30pm on Monday.

Neighbours said they saw police and paramedics at the home on Monday but since he moved in 18 months ago they rarely saw him.

Mr Vyse was known as an inspirational teacher with no nonsense approach to discipline and hit the headlines in June 2016 by banning pupils from wearing make-up at the Hundred of Hoo Academy in Kent.

He criticised parents for allowing their children to attend school in heavy makeup saying it wasn't a 'fashion parade'.

Weeks later he made headlines again after crashing his BMW car while twice over the legal limit.

After pleading guilty at Mid Kent Magistrates' in October 2016 he was banned from driving for 18 months and apologised for the 'moment's recklessness' which had caused him embarrassment.

In a statement he said: 'Many will know of my 'no excuses' policy for pupils at my school and that is something that I myself also live by.

'My actions were wrong and this is something I will always regret. I would like to apologise for what has happened, and reassure you that the moment of recklessness which has caused great embarrassment for me, was incredibly out of character and it's certainly not something I condone.'

His bosses said they were disappointed by his actions but added they were 'aware of the extenuating circumstances that surrounded Mr Vyse that preceded the incident.'

He was in charge of six schools across Kent as chief executive of the Williamson Trust and was considered one of the most influential educational leaders in the area.

Williamson Trust chairman Michael Costello said: 'It is with great sadness that I announce the death of Mr Gary Vyse, the chief executive of The Williamson Trust.

'Mr Vyse passed away at home on Monday, February 12. We are all shocked and saddened by the loss of such a strong and influential leader.

'Gary was an extraordinary individual with a passion for education, and a real drive to do the best for the trust, its staff and its students.

'Gary had been part of the trust since its inception in April 2011. He was always dedicated to achieving the best possible outcomes for the children of the trust.

'The Williamson Trust's board of directors and senior leadership team will help guide our schools as we come to terms with the loss of Gary.

'Our thoughts and prayers are with Gary's family and friends.'

Andrew Mackness, Medway Council's portfolio holder for children's services, said: 'I am deeply shocked and saddened by today's tragic news about Gary.

'As well as being someone I valued as a professional friend and colleague, Gary had been a leading light in driving real improvement in education in Medway and in shaping the way we educate our young people.

'His track record, drive and energy in championing education was outstanding and he will leave a lasting legacy for which we are very grateful.

'Our thoughts at this very sad time are with his family and all the students and staff of The Williamson Trust family who we know will miss him greatly.'

Dominic Herrington, regional schools commissioner for South East and South London, said: 'I am deeply saddened by this news.

'We always had the utmost respect for Gary's dedication to improving the life chances of children at The Williamson Trust. Our thoughts are with his family and those who knew him.'

Former students and friends took to social media to praise Mr Wyse for his work. Carmen Jane Robinson posted on Facebook: 'If it's true about Gary Vyse then it's very sad news and my thoughts go out to his young family.'

Corrine Simmons posted: 'I'm so shocked and saddened by this news. He was honestly one of the best mentors and teachers I ever had throughout my time at Hundred of Hoo!

'Helped me through a lot in school (2003-2008), was always there for me and was always a great laugh. Always pushed you to do your best and you could always tell he was so proud!'

Mr Vyse rose to prominence during a glittering teaching career. He became head teacher of the Hundred of Hoo Academy in September 2011.

The academy had been placed into special measures in April 2009, but by December 2012 Ofsted rated it 'good'.

Under his guidance, the academy rose to the top 20 per cent of secondary schools in England and Wales for the pupils' progress.An Army captain was killed by a forklift truck when he was returning from a run at the Iraqi airbase where he was stationed, an inquest has heard.

Dean Sprouting, 46, died on January 31 at the Al Asad airbase in Iraq, which was used to train Iraqi soldiers as part of a mission against ISIS.

Senior Coroner for Oxfordshire, Darren Salter said the cause of Capt. Sprouting's death was multiple injuries at the opening of his inquest on Thursday.

Captain Dean Sprouting (pictured) died on January 31 at the Al Asad airbase in Iraq

'Captain Sprouting had been out running and was returning into the airbase when he was struck by a forklift truck,' he said.

'He was immediately taken to medical facilities at the airbase but soon succumbed to his injuries. There is still more evidence to be obtained.

'There is currently no date set for the full inquest and there may not even be one if the body is transferred to authorities in Scotland.

'They do not have coroners in Scotland, like in England and Wales.'

Capt. Sprouting (above, with his wide) was killed by a forklift truck when he was returning from a run at the Iraqi airbase where he was stationed

The married father-of-two was in Iraq to train local soldiers as part of a mission against ISIS

Capt. Sprouting, who is from Jarrow, South Tyneside, but lived in Stirling in Scotland, is survived by his wife Linda Sprouting, who works in the Civil Service.

The father-of-two was part of the Adjutant General's Corps serving with the Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland.

He was the second soldier to die while carrying out Operation Shader, the joint US-UK exercise aiming to reduce the presence of ISIS in the region.We're 2.5 million strongmore than 1.7 million girls and 750,000 adults who believe in the power of every G.I.R.L. (Go-getter, Innovator, Risk-taker, Leader) to change the world. Since 1912, weve built girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place.This is the touching moment a cystic fibrosis sufferer married his partner in hospital as he battles a potentially deadly infection.

Leslie Fitz-Gerald, from the Gold Coast, wed Kaylee Evans at Brisbane's Prince Charles Hospital, where he has spent the last three months in isolation, on Sunday.

Fitz-Gerald, a stockbroker, said he was forced to plan the wedding in just 24 hours amid fears he might not have much time left.

Leslie Fitz-Gerald, a cystic fibrosis sufferer from the Gold Coast, married his partner Kaylee at a hospital in Brisbane on Sunday fearing he might die from a rare infection

He and Kaylee had planned to get married next year, but they decided to bring the ceremony forward after Leslie's condition worsened

He told the Gold Coast Bulletin: 'We had a big wedding booked for next year but things got out of control and we wanted to make sure that if things did go south, we were officially Mr and Mrs.'

Leslie told how he and his brother Nathan were born with cystic fibrosis, a genetic condition that causes a buildup of mucus in the lungs and digestive system.

Both had double lung transplants in their 20s, with Leslie forced to have a second after his body rejected the first set of organs.

Early last year, Nathan was diagnosed with terminal melanoma before passing away in October.

His brother's death hit Leslie hard and he lost a lot of weight afterward, before contracting flu, a viral infection, and now a rare fungal infection.

Leslie (bottom left) became ill last year after brother Nathan died from skin cancer (pictured paying tribute to him). Leslie explained that he lost weight, became stressed and contracted a series of infections which ended up with him in isolation in hospital

He has been in isolation at the Prince Charles Hospital for three months while he attempts to fight the illness with the help of special medication brought from overseas.

Leslie says he has to take drugs just to get himself from his bed to a chair to prevent an anxiety attack which could be fatal.

All of which has left him living 'day by day', he said. It was that which prompted him to get married to Kaylee.

In an emotional post on his Facebook page after the ceremony, he said: 'For a man who takes pride in a lot of things, not being able to bathe or dress yourself or stand at the altar like a man and read your vowels is an extremely hard thing to do.

'But Im happy to share this with anyone because with help of my family members and brothers and we did it!

'I was blown away looking at my wife walking down the aisle next to her sister and best friend both whom I dearly love we got through it. It was perfect.

'From here its a fight to the death with dangerous drugs on board fighting a potentially fatal infection. But will go the rounds as usual.

'To those I love its been a hell of a journey loved every minute of it.'Advertisement

A visit to 'Poldark' country inspired Charles Dickens to help change the law protecting the working conditions of miners, an historian has claimed.

Barry West, 57, has found evidence the Great Expectations writer was one of the first people to campaign for the impoverished mining community.

He says the 19th century author was so shocked by witnessing the appalling working conditions down the mines he felt compelled to act.

Mr West says he used his influence to write a letter to the Morning Chronicle on the day when the Mines and Collieries Bill was set to be considered by the House of Lords.

An historian claims to have unearthed evidence proving a visit to Cornish mines inspired Charles Dickens to campaign to improve working conditions. The miners - like the ones pictured at East Pool mine - endured appalling conditions

This undated picture shows young Cornish miners in the Kenidjack Valley. Following Dickens' intervention, it became illegal for women or children under the age of 10 to work down the mines

Dickens, left, was so shocked by witnessing the appalling working conditions down the mines he felt compelled to act, according to historian Barry West, right. The author wrote a letter to a newspaper on the morning legislation was discussed

The legislation prohibited all underground work for women and for girls and boys under 10.

Dickens' letter outlined why it was vital that the law was passed, Barry of St Austell, Cornwall, says.

His angry missive describes how miners are 'out of sight in the dark earth' and robbed of ' humanity, policy, social virtue and common decency'.

Mr West has discovered the letter during research and has verified its authenticity with academics.

And he claims the timing of when it was published matched a visit Dickens is understood to have made to the Botallack Mining District in Cornwall.

He used the letter to outline his horror at the conditions women and children faced.

It has long been speculated that Dickens was a passionate advocate of improving the lives of those living in the type of 'Dickensian' Britain.

But this evidence has been hailed as the first actual proof he had a direct role in trying to influence the legislation.

Mr West pieced together the proof following the discovery the letter was published on July 25, 1842.

This has now been authenticated by experts at the University of York, and been heralded as proof that Dickens fought tirelessly for the rights of the impoverished.

Dickens' letter describes how miners are 'out of sight in the dark earth' and robbed of ' humanity, policy, social virtue and common decency. Pictured: Workers at Cook's Kitchen Mine in Cornwall. The date is unknown

It's long been speculated Dickens was a passionate advocate of improving the lives of working people. But this letter has been hailed as the first actual proof he had a direct role in trying to influence the legislation. Pictured: Workers at East Pool mine

Mr West pieced together the proof following the discovery the letter was published on July 25, 1842. This has now been authenticated by experts at the University of York. Pictured: The man engine at Dolcoath Mine in Camborne, Cornwall

The letter read: 'For many years these mines and all belonging to them have been out of sight in the dark earth, have been utterly out of legislative mind, that for so many years all considerations of humanity, policy, social virtue and common decency have been left rotting at the pits mouth.'

The letter is understood to have been inspired by a visit from the Oliver Twist author to the Botallack Mining District in Cornwall in 1842.

He described it as the 'very dreariest and desolate portion of the sea coast' and led to him taking an interest in the bill.

Barry, who works as a trade union official and researcher of Cornish history, said: 'There are many references to Dickens and at times intervening anonymously in the debate on the Mines and Collieries bill which excluded women and girls from mines and set minimum ages for the employment of boys.

'Dickens clearly had concerns about women and children in mines. Here in Cornwall mining was very often a family affair.

'In the early 1800s, women and children were working in the mines as well. Young women took work as Bal Maidens dressing ore on the surface.

'Using special hammers, they would carefully select and crush the ore to a manageable size an essential task taken before further processing.

'By the age of eight or nine, a miner's child, whether it was son or daughter was felt to be old enough to make their contribution to their family's small income.'

Mr West, pictured, said: 'Dickens clearly had concerns about women and children in mines'

Today, the area is a known beauty spot and has been used as the location for filming BBC drama Poldark. Pictured: Cast and crew filming scenes for series three of the programme

Barry said he was thrilled to uncover a link that had never been made about Dickens and miners.

He added: 'I feel a great satisfaction in making this very important link with Dickens, Cornwall, the Cornish Miners here and the much bigger picture around the working conditions of people working in or on mines all over the country at that time

'He clearly did much more than simply reflect his experiences in novels, he did something about it. Maybe there is a message to us all there.

'After many painstaking hours of searching online, contacting mining experts, emails to academics, Dickens' associations, libraries, reading books, contacting records offices and museums, I found what i was looking for.

'This was a letter to the papers and correspondence from him saying that' I want to see the very dreariest and desolate portion of the sea coast of Cornwall.'

'The Morning Chronicle article was found as a part of many late night searches online.

'This was evidence that Dickens had a real interest in the working conditions of those that worked in the mines and that he was prepared to put pen to paper and write to the papers to let them know exactly what he thought.

'I really could not believe what I found'.The founder of the Philippine mega-church the Kingdom of Jesus Christ was detained by US Customs and Border Protection agents at Honolulu's airport on Tuesday after piles of cash and a cache of rifle parts were discovered on board the private jet he was on.

Apollo Quiboloy, 67, was preparing to depart for the Philippines on board the Cessna Citation Sovereign plane along with five other people when federal agents boarded the jet and proceeded to search it.

According to court documents cited by Hawaii News Now, officials discovered $350,000 in $100 bills folded inside socks and packed into a suitcase.

US Customs and Border Protection agents searched this private jet associated with the founder of the Philippine mega-church the Kingdom of Jesus Christ at Honolulu's airport and seized hundreds of thousands of dollars in undeclared cash and gun parts

Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, 67, was on board the Cessna Citation Sovereign jet, along with five other people preparing to return to the Philippines

His associate Felina Salinas (right) was charged with bulk cash smuggling after claiming $350,000 in undeclared cash was hers

The search of the private aircraft also yielded parts to assemble military-style firearms, the news site reported, citing unnamed sources.

CBP agents arrested 47-year-old Felina Salinas, who was the only US citizen on board the jet and claimed that the money belonged to her.

According to a criminal complaint, Salinas, who manages the Kingdom of Jesus Christs storefront church in Waipahu, Hawaii, declared only $40,000 before the flight but not the $350,000. She was charged with attempted bulk cash smuggling.

Salinas made her initial court appearance on Wednesday and was released on $25,000 bond. She is due back in court on February 27.

Meanwhile, Quiboloy spent most of the day in federal detention before being let go.

Salinas (left and right) made her initial court appearance on Wednesday and was released on $25,000 bond. Salinas manages the Kingdom of Jesus Christs storefront church in Waipahu, Hawaii

Founded in 1985, Quiboloy's church now claims to have 4 million members in the Philippines and 2 millions abroad

The private jet he was on remained in Honolulu pending a likely seizure by federal agents. Quiboloy later took a commercial flight and returned to his native Philippines.

The 67-year-old pastor describes himself as the 'Appointed Son of God' and his church, which was founded in September 1985, claims to have six million members worldwide, including four million in the Philippines.

Quiboloy is said to be a long-time friend and supporter of Philippines' controversial President Rodrigo Duterte, who has been waging a bloody war on drug dealers and addicts since his election in June 2016.

Quiboloy was born in 1950 near Davao City, Philippines, and is the youngest of nine children of Jose Quiboloy y Turla and Maria Carreon y Quinto.

Friends in high places: Quiboloy is said to be a long-time friend and supporter of Philippines' controversial President Rodrigo Duterte (right)

Quiboloy is pictured in this undated photo sharing a meal with the President Duterte

According to a video about his life, on the night of his birth, Quiboloy's mother 'saw a vision of God on the Heavens in a white cloud' and heard a voice telling her, 'That's my son.

Quiboloy went on to attend Bible College and in 1985 founded the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Church after claiming to have been told by God a dozen years earlier, 'I will use you.'

Quiboloy also claimed that in 2005, God made him his 'Appointed Son' and that he has been living a sin-free life from that time.Puneet Kaur, 28, died when her hair became entangled in the rear wheel of her go-kart

An Indian woman has died after her hair got caught in the wheels of an amusement park go-kart, tearing her scalp from her head.

The freak accident happened in the northern state of Haryana when Puneet Kaur, 28, was on holiday with her family.

She was rushed to hospital after the incident in Pinjore but was declared dead on arrival.

The accident happened on Wednesday when Puneet Kaur and her husband were on a Valentine's Day outing.

She was riding as a passenger in the go-kart. Although she had her hair tied into a bun, the Indian Express reported it suddenly came loose and entangled in one of the rear wheels.

Her distraught husband Amardeep Singh, an agriculturist, told police, 'My wife and I were enjoying the ride on the go-kart.

'Suddenly, my wife's hair got loose and I heard her scream. I raised an alarm and when the kart stopped, her scalp was peeled off. I do not know the quality of the rubber band [she used to tie her hair into a bun] and the helmet given to my wife.'

Police say no-one has been charged in relation to the tragic Valentine's Day accident, and a postmortem will be conducted soon

No arrests are reported to have been made in relation to the incident which will now be the subject of post mortem.

A manager at the go-kart station insisted that all safety and security procedures had been followed, which included the use of proper head gear.

'We gave a rubber band and a helmet to the woman,' Sushil Kumar told The Indian Express, adding that it was a 'tragic accident'.The United States doesn't have a 'bloody nose' strategy for North Korea, senators of both parties and a Trump administration official said Thursday, rejecting claims the US wants to strike the North's nuclear program in a way that avoids an all-out war.

The harmonized message could quell speculation that President Donald Trump is contemplating limited military action to demonstrate US resolve toward North Korea without provoking a wider conflict.

Such a strategy would be widely seen as dangerous given the North's capability to inflict a devastating retaliation on US ally South Korea.

A senior White House official, at a briefing Wednesday, told lawmakers that no such approach has been adopted, Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, and James Risch, a Republican from Idaho, said at a Senate hearing on Thursday.

An administration official who was testifying confirmed their accounts.

The United States doesn't have a 'bloody nose' strategy for North Korea, senators of both parties and a Trump administration official said Thursday. President Donald Trump is seen right. North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un is seen left

The White House had 'made it very clear there is no bloody nose strategy for a strike against North Korea,' Shaheen told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which was considering the nomination of Susan Thornton, Trump's choice to be the top diplomat for East Asia.

'We were told clearly by administration people about as high up as it gets that there is no such thing as a "bloody nose" strategy, that they've never talked about, they've never considered it, they've never used that term, and it's not something that that people ought to be talking about,' Risch said.

Thornton confirmed the administration's policy remains one of 'maximum pressure' through economic sanctions to get North Korea to negotiate on eliminating up its nuclear weapons.

At the same time, the US is keeping military options on the table.

'Our preference is to achieve denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through a diplomatic settlement, but we will reach this goal one way or another,' she said.

Trump has pledged to prevent North Korea from perfecting a nuclear-tipped, long-range missile that could strike the US mainland.

Senator Jim Risch (left), a Republican, and Senator Jeanne Shaheen (right), a Democrat, both say they have been assured by the Trump administration that there is no plan for a 'bloody nose' strike

The North's rapid tempo of weapons tests in the past year has led the CIA director to say the country may only be months away from the target.

The 'bloody nose' moniker emerged in December, when a British newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, cited unnamed sources saying the White House had 'dramatically' stepped up preparation for a military solution because diplomacy was not working.

Victor Cha, a Washington-based Korea expert who had long been regarded as Trump's choice to become U.S. ambassador to South Korea, referred to it in a commentary two weeks ago and said some administration officials were considering preventive military action against North Korea.

Cha warned of thousands of Americans being put at risk in South Korea and the start a nuclear war.

It wasn't clear whether Cha was passed over as ambassador because of policy differences with the White House or problems with his security clearance.

US intelligence officials this week assessed the risk of conflict with North Korea as higher today than at any time since the end of the Cold War.

Their wide-ranging intelligence report also predicted North Korea will conduct more missile tests this year and refuse to negotiate away its nuclear capabilities.

Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong (left), and South Korean President Moon Jae-in (right) shakes hands in Seoul on Saturday. Both governments united their Olympic teams for the PyeongChang Games, which has led to a decrease in tensions on the peninsula

Tensions have eased somewhat on the divided Korean Peninsula in recent weeks as the two Koreas forged a diplomatic opening inspired by their joint participation in the Winter Olympics, now taking place in South Korea.

The US has signaled openness to talks with North Korea but remains wary of its intentions.

The North hasn't said it's willing to engage Washington.

'There will not be any letup on pressure,' Thornton said.

'We are leaving the door open to engagement ... and we want that engagement to consist of one issue, which is denuclearization.'A Salvadorean woman sentenced to 30 years in prison for giving birth to a stillborn child has finally been freed.

Teodora del Carmen Vasquez, 35, was convicted of aggravated homicide in 2007 after the birth of her child.

Authorities accused Ms Vasquez of having had an abortion, an act considered a crime under any circumstance - even rape - in El Salvador.

Her exoneration comes as a surprise after her appeal was rejected by judges in December.

El Salvador's Supreme Court said there were 'powerful reasons of justice and fairness which warranted granting her the grace of commuting her sentence'.

Teodora del Carmen Vasquez (pictured) has been freed after 10 years in prison for giving birth to a stillborn child in 2007

The 35-year-old (pictured hugging her mother outside court in IIopango, El Salvador) was convicted of aggravated homicide in 2007 after the birth of her child

Amnesty International Norway campaigned on behalf of Ms Vasquez, and had previously expressed concern that she appeared before the same judges who sentenced her 10 years ago.

'It is deeply tragic, and very unjust,' Ina Strom, spokeswoman for Amnesty International, said after the appeal ruling last year, which provoked condemnation from human rights groups.

The traumatic stillbirth came in 2007, and Ms Vasquez, already mother to a young son, was heavily pregnant when she started experiencing labour pains while at work.

She called emergency services, but shortly afterwards her waters broke and she escaped into a toilet where she passed out from the pain.

Authorities accused Ms Vasquez (pictured with her mother and father) of having had an abortion, an act considered a crime under any circumstance - even rape - in El Salvador

Back in jail: Teodora del Carmen Vasquez had appealed her conviction for aggravated homicide, but this was rejected by judges in El Salvador in December

She gave birth while unconscious and when she came to, she discovered that her baby daughter had been stillborn.

Authorities were called to the scene and she was arrested and accused of having had an abortion.

Ms Vasquez was charged with aggravated homicide. Unable to afford a good defence lawyer, she was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

For the past ten years, Ms Vasquez has been incarcerated at the Ilopango prison on the outskirts of San Salvador, capital of El Salvador.

Her son Angel, now 13, was unable to visit her.

Upset: Women cry outside the Isidro Menendez Judicial Center after a hearing held to review the sentence of Vasquez resulted in her losing the appeal

Anger: Her supporters are seen visibly upset outside the court in San Salvador

Lost hope: Ms Vasquez is seen arriving in court late last year before her appeal was rejected

Jailed: Ms Vasquez was convicted of aggravated homicide in 2007 after giving birth to a stillborn daughter and sentenced to 30 years in prison

Hope: Ms Vasquez is set to return to Ilopango prison on the outskirts of San Salvador, where she has spent the past ten yearsA dramatic car chase ended abruptly for one police vehicle after it failed to turn a corner and crashed into a concrete bollard.

Dashcam footage shows police cars in a high speed chase in Holyhead, North Wales.

One of the vehicles completely fail to make the turn and crash straight into the bollard, with the front panel of the car flying through the air.

The footage was captured on dashcam yesterday by a passing driver at around 1:08pm.

At the start of the clip, police cars can be seen turning a corner as they take part in the high-speed chase.

It is unclear who they are chasing.

Dashcam footage captured the moment a car chase ended for one police vehicle after it crashed into a concrete bollard

The first two vehicles make the turning comfortably, with other cars pulling in to give the officers room.

The third police car can be seen flying around the corner at speed before running into the bollards that protect a war memorial on the turning.

The car doesn't move and with parts of it sent flying, the police vehicle is out of the chase.

Another squad car was sent to the scene of the collision to assist the officers who had crashed.

The a spokesperson for the North Wales Police confirmed that that no one was injured in the incident and said that the matter was under investigation.A model who filed a police report against billionaire Mohamed Hadid, accusing him of date raping her, says he boasts about his supermodel daughters Gigi and Bella to lure young women into bed.

Miranda Vee, 23, who also accused Guess co-founder Paul Marciano of sexual assault, told Page Six that she met Hadid at an apartment on North Crescent in Los Angeles in March 2017.

She alleges that she had felt safe going into a meeting with the father of Bella, 21, and Gigi, 22.

'I thought this is a father who must be respectful,' she said.

Reportedly, when she arrived, Hadid, 69, had two glasses of champagne out and Vee sat down on a couch facing him.

'He said: "Oh you're so far, why don't you sit closer?"' Vee told Page Six.

Model Miranda Vee, 23 (pictured), who filed a police report against billionaire Mohamed Hadid, accusing him of date raping her, says he boasts about his supermodel daughters Gigi and Bella to lure young women into bed

According to Page Six's sources, Hadid will send direct messages to models on Instagram introducing himself as 'the father of Gigi and Bella' (Pictured, Gigi, Mohamed and Bella Hadid in Paris, France, November 2016)

Vee (left) told Page Six that she met Hadid (right) at an apartment on North Crescent in Los Angeles in March 2017. She alleges that she had felt safe going into a meeting with the father of Bella, 21, and Gigi, 22

Vee said she moved to sit next to Hadid and they talked about a number of subjects including her career and his daughters.

'Then he started touching me, touching my leg and my face and he said I looked very pretty... and very young,' Vee claims.

She said she began to feel woozy from the champagne and before she knew it, she and Hadid were in the bedroom having unprotected sex, even though, 'I told him no.'

Afterwards, she said he immediately left and, despite later exchanging texts, she never saw him again.

According to Page Six's sources, Hadid will send direct messages to models on Instagram introducing himself as 'the father of Gigi and Bella'.

In a 2016 private Instagram message between Hadid and an unnamed model, he allegedly introduced himself with a profile picture of Gigi, and wrote: 'I am the father of Gigi and Bella Hadid' and 'You are the perfect example of a womans body'.

He left his personal phone number but it is not known if they met up.

Vee (left and right) claims that Hadid greeted her with champagne and then asked her to move closer to him. She says she began feeling woozy from the champagne and, before she knew it, Hadid began having sex with her

Vee (pictured) claims they had unprotected sex, even though, 'I told him no.' Once the intercourse ended, she says Hadid immediately left

According to Page Six, in a 2016 private Instagram message between Hadid (pictured, November 2017) and a model, he introduced himself with a profile picture of Gigi, and wrote: 'I am the father of Gigi and Bella Hadid' and 'You are the perfect example of a womans body'

Vee was accompanied by lawyer Lisa Bloom when she spoke with investigators about the chain of events leading to the alleged sexual assault, according to Page Six on Tuesday.

'She filed a police report alleging sexual assault against both Paul Marciano and Mohamed Hadid,' Bloom told the newspaper. 'We went to the LAPD headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.

Bloom said that the she and Vee 'sat with two detectives for about two hours' and that Vee 'answered all of their questions.'

Law enforcement officials 'asked us not to speak with the press about any of the allegations nor the details,' Bloom told the publication.

Vee said on Instagram February 1 that she initially crossed paths with Marciano several years ago, in seeking opportunities with Guess, the label he co-founded.

Inside: Vee included messages she says Hadid sent her before they met

Vee was replying to a message from Kate Upton accusing Guess founder Paul Marciano of sexual harassment, and Vee did the same

The model also included a selfie Hadid allegedly sent her during their exchange

Paul Marciano appears to address Vee's claims in another message. Marciano and Hadid have denied the claims

Vee said that Marciano sexually harassed her - echoing recent claims by supermodel Kate Upton - then he passed 'me on to his friend,' the 69-year-old architect Hadid, who she claims date raped her. Mohamed Hadid has strenuously denied allegations, at one point characterizing Vee as an 'extortionist.'

He said that he met Vee several years ago because she claimed to be a fan, but at no point did anything inappropriate happen.

'When we met it was not a date and not once did I touch her,' he was quoted by TMZ as saying. Hadid, who has been engaged to Shiva Safai since 2014, described Vee's claims - made in a lengthy Instagram post - as 'totally untrue'.

Hadid said that if she wanted to make such serious accusations against him she should have gone to the police instead of using social media. He added he's talked with his attorney with the intention of filing a defamation suit against Vee.

In her Instagram post, Vee said that she met fashion designer Paul Marciano at his Guess headquarters where 'he sexually harassed [her].'

Marciano - like Hadid - has strongly denied all allegations of sexual impropriety.

Vee accused Marciano of 'passing me on to his friend Mohammed [Hadid] who was going to meet me for 'coffee.

'I thought it was a professional meeting but It was just me, him & champagne where he date raped me in an apartment. All to get a test shoot for Guess.'

Vee (pictured) said in her Instagram post: 'Why should we have to stay quiet because they have the power?'

Hadid, who has been engaged to Shiva Safai (above) since 2014, described Vee's claims as 'totally untrue'

Kate Upton (left) publicly accused Guess co-founder Paul Marciano (right) of sexually harassing women in the fashion industry in a series of social media posts last month

She said that when she tried to speak out about the incident last year 'they found out & made me sign a non-disclosure agreement.'

She asked, 'Why should we have to stay quiet because they have the power?'

Upton spoke up on the issue January 31, writing, 'It's disappointing that such an iconic women's brand @GUESS is still empowering Paul Marciano as their creative director,' she said in a tweet using the 'MeToo' hashtag.

'He shouldn't be allowed to use his power in the industry to sexually and emotionally harass women.'

The #MeToo hashtag has been used to highlight allegations of rape, sexual assault and harassment in the wake of the exposure of fallen film producer Harvey Weinstein, who has denied a string of sexual misconduct claims.

Marciano (pictured, March 2016), has also strongly denied sexual misconduct claims, urging Kate Upton to go to the police or take him to court

Marciano has said that he is so confident that Upton's allegations are untrue he has urged her to take him to court to set the record straight. He told TMZ that he cannot figure out what she claims to have against him, and that he won't apologize because he's done nothing wrong.

Marciano insisted he had never touched Upton, and has never even been alone with her. He said: 'If she has a claim, there's one place to tell the truth and that's in court or to the police.'

DailyMail.com has reached out to both Vee and Bloom for further comment on the issue.A drawing by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt which disappeared from a museum collection has been found in the cupboard of a recently deceased former secretary, officials have said.

The woman is reported to have taken the drawing years ago, but left a will describing its location and asking for it to be returned upon her death, Artnet.com reported.

The drawing 'Zwei Liegende' ('Two Reclining Figures') is one of four works by Klimt and fellow pioneer of Viennese Modernism Egon Schiele that have been at the centre of a drawn-out legal battle between the city of Linz and the heirs of artist and collector Olga Jaeger.

Two employees of Sotheby's auction house admire (in June 2015) a portrait of Gertrud Loew (Gertha Felsovanyi) done by Gustav Klimt in 1902 with an estimate of 12-18 million

The missing art work was found in a cupboard at the art museum on Linz (above)

Gustav Klimt was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement - he is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches and other objets d'art

Jaeger had given the works to a museum in Linz on long-term loan in 1951. But when her descendants asked for them back in 2006, they were nowhere to be found.

They took the city to court and after a long legal battle were awarded damages of 8.21 million euros ($10.1m).

Now city authorities say that the Klimt drawing has been tracked down. From next month until May the drawing will be included in of one of the dozens of exhibitions being organised in Austria to commemorate the centenary of the deaths of Klimt and Schiele.

The artwork will then be returned to Jagers descendants on condition they pay back some of the compensation they were awarded for the lost work.

The three works by Schiele - an oil painting, a watercolor, and a drawing - are still missing. A spokesperson for the city of Linz said there are 'no serious indications' that the works were in the possession of the former Lentos Museum secretary.

Austrian police have said they will continue their efforts to locate the three missing works. A police spokesperson told the Austrian press agency APA: 'Whoever may be in possession of a lost artwork should ask themselves if they are handling stolen goods, and do the reasonable thing and come forward.'Britain's former top spook John Sawers (pictured) has warned Britain has lost its global influence - and laid some of the blame on David Cameron for failing to order airstrikes on Syria in 2013.

Britain's former top spook dismissed Theresa May as 'not a natural' on the world stage in a withering intervention on her performance as Prime Minister yesterday.

Sir John Sawers, ex head of MI6, said he doubted Mrs May's ability to boost Britain's global standing in the post-Brexit world.

He said: 'I don't think she's a natural at engaging on these big political issues with foreign leaders.'

Sir John also warned Britain has lost its global influence - and laid some of the blame on David Cameron for failing to order airstrikes on Syria in 2013.

He said the then Prime Minister ducked his responsibility by asking Parliament to vote on whether to militarily intervene in the civil war.

MPs voted narrowly against sending planes in and Bashar al-Assad carried on raining bombs down on his people.

And it left a vacuum which allowed Putin's Russia to intervene to prop up the dictator, while ISIS terrorised vast swathes of the country for years afterward.

Sir John said: 'We have made less impact in the world in the last ten years than we did in the 30 years before that.'

The former intelligence chief said that from the 'period 1980 to 2010, Britain was quite an influential player in the world.

'I don't think since 2010 we've really had a big influence in global affairs.'

He said Mr Cameron's failure to seize the initiative and order airstrikes has contributed to a loss in Britain's influence on the world.

He told Prospect magazine: 'David Cameron's decision to refer the matter to Parliament rather than taking the responsibility on his and his government's shoulders - and then Barack Obama ducking and diving the issue in the US - that led to much greater suffering in Syria as a consequence and it opened the door for the Russian intervention.

Sir John warned Theresa May (file pic) was 'not a natural' on the world stage and said British world influence was waning

'Had David Cameron gone ahead with the original plan he would have had very strong national and parliamentary approval for that.'

Sir John said the chaotic fall-out from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the financial crash of 2007 / 2008, also contributed to the UK's decline.

But he indicated it was Mr Cameron's decision not to send in British forces in 2013 that marked a change in the UK's role in world affairs.

When Russia annexed Crimea and sparked a civil war in East Ukraine it was France and Germany - not Britain - who led the international efforts, he said.

He told the magazine: 'Germany and France were actively involved in dealing with the crisis in Ukraine, and the Russian intervention there. Britain wasn't really in the room.

David Cameron (file pic) let Parliament decide whether to order airstrikes on Syria in 2013. MPs voted narrowly against sending planes in and Bashar al-Assad carried on raining bombs down on his people

'It's another example of us not really being engaged in the biggest issues on the global agenda.'

He was also doubtful that Britain's special relationship with the US would be boosted much by Donald Trump's presidency.

He said: 'Right now we have ended up turning our back on Europe and not having a real welcome mat laid out for us in Washington.

'And we've got to work out which way we want to turn and be prepared to pay a price one way or the other.'

'One thing I don't think we can accept is Britain adrift. A Britain without a major strategic anchor in the western world.'Even if Anthony had a year to analyze and dissect each piece...(he couldn't tell if it would)... stand the harsh light of public exposure.

WUWT insider Willis Eschenbach tells you all you need to know about Anthony Watts and his blog, WattsUpWithThat (WUWT). As part of his scathing commentary , Wondering Willis accuses Anthony Watts of being clueless about the blog articles he posts. To paraphrase: Click here to read more.A First World War class project that was initially believed to be three Molotov cocktails has led to the evacuation of 300 students from a western Michigan school.

A student at CA Frost Middle/High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan, saw bottles in a locker on Thursday around 11am.

The staff called Grand Rapids police after examining the bottles that were thought to contain flammable liquid.

Officers evacuated the school and searched for any explosive devices before determining it was safe for students to return.

CA Frost Middle/High School was evacuated Thursday after staff reported suspicious bottles in a locker that were thought to be Molotov cocktails. Firefighters arrived on the scene and helped officers search the school for any signs of explosives

An estimated 300 students were evacuated from the school, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The suspicious bottles were actually part of a World War I project

The student who was assigned the locker with the three bottles in it was out sick from school on Thursday.

It was later revealed that the three bottles were part of the student's World War I project demonstrating how technology in warfare has changed.

Grand Rapids police Sgt. Cathy Williams told MLive.com that staff called police after removing the bottles that were thought to contain flammable liquid.

Molotov cocktails are incendiary devices filled with liquid that can be ignited and used as a weapon.

Parents were told they could pick up their students during the evacuation after police informed everyone school was cancelled while they searched the property.

Officers closed the school for safety purposes. Parents were encouraged to pick their students up. Buses also arrived at the school to take students to a nearby church

The police department informed parents where they could pick their students up as the building was 'cleared of any danger'. School is expected to resume as normal tomorrow

Buses arrived on the scene and took some students to a nearby church while officers and firefighters continued to check the building.

They determined the three bottles were safe and there were no other suspicious items in the school. No one was injured during this incident.

The Grand Rapids Police Department said in a Facebook statement: 'The building has been cleared of any danger...No students have been injured or are in current danger.'

This scare comes after 17 students were slain at a high school in suburban Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Wednesday.

Classes at CA Frost Middle/High School are expected to resume on Friday.

The White House kept spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders away from the podium for a second day in a row on Thursday as the saga involving Rob Porter continued and the nation grappled with a tragic school shooting.

A briefing with Sanders was pushed back repeatedly the day before and then cancelled altogether as details emerged about the shooting.

An on-camera question and answer session was missing altogether from today's guidance as it was revealed that Sanders wanted the White House chief of staff or counsel to clean up the Porter mess. The White House hastily added a call on immigration reform to the schedule midday.

On the over-the-phone briefing, a reporter angered an official when he asked the White House how it had time for a discussion on immigration but could not appropriate a space for reporters to take questions on gun violence.

'You mean, other than the 10-minute statement on national television the president gave?' an official retorted.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

The White House kept spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders away from the podium for a second day in a row on Thursday as the saga involving Rob Porter continued and the nation grappled with a tragic school shooting

An on-camera question and answer session was missing altogether from today's guidance as it was revealed that Sanders wanted the White House chief of staff, John Kelly (LEFT) or counsel, Don McGhan (RIGHT) to clean up the Porter mess

Questions about the shooting had been slapped down during the call and reporters were directed to discuss their questions about the issue with the White House in private.

'You need to talk to me offline, because that's not necessarially a topic,' the official said the first time the shooting came up.

When a second reporter asked about the shooting - and why the White House will not allow a discussion of that on the record - the official popped off about Trump having addressed it.

'Again, if you want to have a conversation about the inner workings of how we do the briefings, then you can do that offline, on this call this is for a different purpose, so continue on,' the person said.

President Trump had delivered brief remarks lasting about six minutes on the Parkland, Florida, shooting this morning from the White House's diplomatic room. But he left immediately after without taking any questions about his administration's position on gun violence prevention legislation.

In his remarks Trump said he would be meeting with governors and attorney generals later this month and that 'making our schools and our children safer' would be a priority in the discussion.

'It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference. We must actually make that difference,' the president said.

Trump did not make a specific call to action, though, and was criticized by Democrats for failing to mention firearms in his remarks at all aside from a reference to the gunfire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School yesterday afternoon.

On a call on Thursday afternoon, officials hid behind the cloak of anonymity to berate Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham for an immigration reform proposal the president doesn't like.

A question and answer session with reporters on camera on Friday was also uncertain with a presidential trip to Florida up in the air.

The White House cancelled an event in Orlando without calling the entire trip, which could see Trump stop by Parkland, off.

A Politico report on Wednesday evening said that Sanders had pushed for Kelly to face the press or McGhan on Wednesday as questions continued to percolate on another matter - the White House's botched handling of allegations of domestic abuse against former staff secretary Porter.

FBI Director Christopher Wray testified Tuesday that the bureau gave the White House a partial update on Porter's background check in March and three additional updates after that. In January, it closed its case file on Porter and sent its findings to the White House.

Who at the White House knew about Porter's past - and when - has been at the top of reporters' notebooks.

Kelly and McGahn are said to have known about the abuse allegations since November, although the White House has claimed that the chief of staff was not 'fully aware' until DailyMail.com ran a pair of reports that included a court filing and pictures.

It was not until those articles were published that Kelly says he realized the accusations 'were true.'

Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy says that the House Oversight Committee is launching an investigation into the matter.

'How do you have any job if you have credible allegations of domestic abuse?' Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, asked on CNN. 'You dont have to be biased towards the victim to ask how in the hell did this happen?'

Gowdy said he has 'real questions about whether someone like this can be considered for employment' regardless of the conversation taking place about the interim security clearance that Porter was granted to Porter while his background check was conducted.

'Im troubled by almost every aspect of this,' the Republican Congressman said on Wednesday morning.

The White House press briefing for that day was later cancelled.Tackling child abuse was a priority for David Cameron partly because he was a father, a Labour MP said last night.

But Theresa May has not taken as much interest in the issue since she entered Number 10, Sarah Champion said.

In an interview with The House magazine, the MP for Rotherham said it was likely that some MPs were involved in some way or another with child sexual abuse.

And she claimed the British authorities do not take enough action to crack down on female genital mutilation because they are wary of cultural sensitivities.

Miss Champion spoke out six months after she was sacked from Labours front bench for warning that the UK had a problem with Pakistani men targeting vulnerable white girls.

Labour MP Sarah Champion (file pic) said tackling child abuse was a priority for David Cameron partly because he was a father

Jeremy Corbyn forced her out even though she had taken the lead in campaigning against child grooming in her South Yorkshire constituency.

Last night Miss Champion said she did not believe Mrs Mays government were making the tackling of child sexual abuse a priority at all.

David Cameron got it and I think he got it because I went to him as a dad rather than going to him as a politician, she said.

And I got him to meet some of the survivors of Rotherham and one of the mums whose child went through it.

So, we engaged with him on that level, which is why he then crusaded as a dad, wanting it for other peoples children.

Theresa May was great when she was Home Secretary and then as soon as she shifted to PM its dropped off the radar. Its clearly not a priority for them. Its someone elses problem.

Miss Champion said she was not confident that child sex abuse scandal would be dealt with any differently now.

She said one in 20 children will have a sexual assault against them.

And one in four girls and one in eight boys will suffer something inappropriate happening to them short of groping, such as inappropriate language or being made to feel uncomfortable.

So, there is no way that there arent people who are sitting MPs who arent involved in some way or another or a member of their family is, she said.

Sarah Champion said David Cameron (pictured left) made tackling the abuse a prioritty but Theresa May(pictured right) did not

I mean, thats just the reality and I know thats very uncomfortable and no one wants to think about it.

What would be the outcome now? I have to say that I look at the adult sexual harassment that is going on and I would like to be seeing very strong statements from both parties about zero tolerance and its not going anywhere near as far as I want to see.

Miss Champion said abuse was always about power  a hint that MPs could be involved because they have more access to powerful people than constituents.

It doesnt take a big leap of faith or a conspiracy theorist to come up with that you could abuse your power, she said.

She also said ministers were not doing enough to tackle FGM.

Andrea Leadsom pulled out of the race to be Tory leader after suggesting in an interview that she would do a better job than Mrs May because she has children

For me until FGM is viewed as child abuse and not a cultural practice, until we view it as gendered violence, we are never going to get on top of it, she said.

That is the issue and until we start viewing it in terms of child abuse and gendered violence we always give people a get out, or we always find that we turn the other cheek.

Again, its the same as Rotherham. We dont want to be seen as being culturally insensitive.

She said it was crazy that the British aid department was doing more to tackle FGM abroad than the country was doing to tackle it here.

Through DfID we actually do a lot of work particularly with the African nations empowering the women in the communities and working specifically with the heads of communities to have an outcry about the practice going on and saying its so retrospective and we dont want that here, she said.

But we are not doing that with the communities in the UK.

Andrea Leadsom pulled out of the race to be Tory leader after suggesting in an interview that she would do a better job than Mrs May because she has children.Known for their jubilant festivals and colorful parades, Chinese New Year celebrations are set to be held in New York City later in February.

The 2018 Chinese New Year, known as the Year of the Dog, is celebrated by millions of people in China and Chinese expats all throughout the world. The holiday, which commemorates the start of the new year in the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar, features parades, cultural celebrations and traditional Chinese dances in New York and many other cities around the world.

Here's everything you need to know about the Chinese New Year fireworks in New York City, when and where the famous parade is held and events scheduled to take place in Chinatown to commemorate the holiday.

Fireworks were set off on February 14 on the Hudson River in NYC for Chinese New Year 2018

When is Chinese New Year?

Chinese New Year 2018 begins on Friday, February 16.

The holiday's specific date changes every year due to the Chinese lunisolar calendar. The date of the New Year always falls on the new full moon between January 21 and February 20.

Chinese New Year celebrations last until the fifteenth day of the New Year's first calendar month. On that day, the Chinese Lantern Festival is held to commemorate the traditional end of the New Year. The Chinese Lantern Festival for 2018 will take place on Friday, March 2.

Chinese New Year fireworks in NYC

A fireworks display will be held on Friday, February 16 at 11:00 AM EST for the Lunar New Year Firecracker Ceremony and Cultural Festival at Sara D. Roosevelt Park in Lower Manhattan. The festival will feature an impressive fireworks and firecracker display as well as traditional Chinese dancing and food in a boisterous celebration.

Fireworks for Chinese New Year in New York City were also set off in the Hudson River on Wednesday, February 14.

The event was organized by the Chinese Central Academy of Fine Arts and done by Fireworks by Grucci, a fireworks company based in Bellport, New York.

Chinese New Year parade 2018 in NYC

The 19th annual rendition of the New York City Lunar New Year Parade and Festival will take place on Sunday, February 25 starting at 1pm EST.

The famous parade is a visual and audio feast for spectators as lion dancers, colorful floats, drummers and participants wind their way through the Lower East Side and Chinatown as confetti is shot off into the air.

The parade will start at the corner of Canal and Mott Streets and continue to Chatham Square and East Broadway towards the Manhattan Bridge before completing at Forsyth and Eldridge Streets towards Grand Street adjacent to Sara D. Roosevelt Park in Lower Manhattan.

The parade is a visual & audio feast as lion dancers, colorful floats and drummers fill the streets

What time is the Chinese New Year parade 2018?

The parade will start at 1pm EST at the corner of Mott and Canal Streets in Lower Manhattan.

Spectators are encouraged to arrive early due to the large crowds that the popular event draws consistently.

Chinatown events for Chinese New Year in NYC

In addition to the firecracker festival on February 16 and the iconic parade scheduled for February 25, a number of other events will take place in and around New Yorks Chinatown to commemorate the Year of the Dog in 2018.

On Saturday, February 17, the Lunar New Year Family Festival will be held at the Museum of Chinese in America at 215 Centre Street in Manhattan starting at 11am EST. This family-friendly festival will offer arts and crafts classes for children, lion dances and more.

On Saturday, February 24, a free lion dance performance will also be held in Chinatown starting at 11:00 AM EST.A high school student watched her best friend die Wednesday afternoon when the Florida school shooter entered her classroom just moments after the young woman had given her a piece of advice which ultimately saved her life.

Samantha Grady had just pulled out her cell phone to show her best friend something during their Holocaust Class when they heard two shots ring out in the hallway in front of their classroom in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Within minutes the gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, approached their classroom and shot her friend, who was one of at least 17 people killed in the high school massacre.

Grady, who is a junior, said she managed to escape the classroom with just minor wounds in an emotional interview on the Today Show Thursday.

Scroll down for video

Samantha Grady, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, described Wednesday's shooting on the Today Show. She said her best friend was fatally shot just after giving Grady advice which saved her life

She said after they heard the first two shots ring out, her best friend pushed her and said 'Sam' then later told her to hold up a book as she was running out of the school and away from the gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz

This photo provided by the Broward County Jail shows Nikolas Cruz, the teen suspected of killing 17 and injuring more than a dozen in a school shooting on Wednesday in Florida

The teen credited her friend, who she didn't identify, as helping her survive the ordeal.

She said that just after hearing the first shots her friend pushed Grady and said 'Sam.'

'There was a big bookshelf and we all kind of huddled there together,' Grady told Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb.

'We all clamped really close tightly together.'

As the class hid behind the bookshelf, a few reached out to push a cabinet in front of them to attempt to keep the shooter away and block some of the bullets.

But then, she said, Cruz 'came for our classroom.'

She said the door was locked but he shot 'quite a few bullets into the glass,' hitting some of the people standing beside and behind her.

Grady said that, unfortunately, her best friend 'didn't make it'. She said as she was running out of the school she passed some of the bodies of the people who had been killed in the shooting

Once she was out of the school Grady said she ducked behind a truck and called her parents to assure them she was OK - noting that she didn't 'want them to go crazy.' Pictured are two attendees at a vigil on Thursday, a day after the tragedy

Grady's friend was just one of seventeen who have so far been confirmed dead. Of those, 14 are students and three are teachers. Pictured are two attendees at a vigil on Thursday, a day after the tragedy

Then, knowing he could get into the classroom, the students started running - but not before Samantha's friend uttered the words that ultimately saved her best friend's life.

'Grab a book, grab a book,' Grady said her friend told her.

'It was a tiny book, but I took it and held it up.'

Grady was grazed by a few bullets as she sprinted out of the school, passing the bodies of two of the first people shot as she ran through the hallways.

'The book kind of deterred some of the bullets, so they didn't hit me so badly,' she explained.

But as for her friend, 'unfortunately, she didn't make it,' she said, struggling to contain her tears.

'She was the one who gave me the idea. She helped me a lot,' Grady said.

Once she was out of the school Grady said she ducked behind a truck and called her parents to assure them she was OK - noting that she didn't 'want them to go crazy.'

Then she walked over to an ambulance so she could be taken to the hospital for her wounds, where she eventually met her parents.

A cowering Nikolas Cruz (center, in orange) was ordered held without bond during his first court appearance on Thursday, where he was officially charges with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

The gunman, Cruz, appeared in court for the first time at 2pm Thursday to be arraigned on 17 counts of premeditated murder - charges that carry the possibility of the death penalty.

He wore an orange jumpsuit, and had both his hands and ankles shackled. As he took the podium to speak to the judge over livestream video from the Broward County jail, a handful of sheriff's deputies and prison officials gathered around.

Standing next to him was his female attorney, who comforted him by putting a hand around his shoulder.

Prosecutors asked that Cruz be held without bond, and Cruz's attorney did not fight them on it. It's unclear when his next hearing will be, but he has been assigned a judge.

A Broward government official has told DailyMail.com that Cruz is on suicide watch after threatening to kill himself.Donald Trump Jr and his wife Vanessa ditched any plans of a romantic Valentine's Day date night on Wednesday, and instead dined with their children separately.

The couple split up for the holiday, with Vanessa, 40, treating her two oldest sons, Donald III, eight, and Tristan, six, to a low-key sushi restaurant in upper Manhattan.

Meanwhile, Don Jr, 40, doted on the couple's eldest child Kai, 10, taking her on a daddy-daughter date, later posting that she was one of his favorite Valentines.

The separate outings come after the family's scare on Monday, when Vanessa opened up a letter that contained a white powder and had to be hospitalized.

Donald Trump Jr and his wife Vanessa ditched any plans of a romantic Valentine's date night on Wednesday, and instead dined with their children separately. Vanessa, 40, took her sons, Donald III, eight, and Tristan, six, to a low-key sushi restaurant in upper Manhattan (pictured)

The separate outings come after the family's scare on Monday, when Vanessa opened up a letter that contained a white powder and had to be hospitalized

Meanwhile, Don Jr doted on the couple's eldest child Kai, 10, taking her on a daddy-daughter date, posting on Instagram that she was one of his favorite Valentines (pictured)

The mother-of-five wore her long blonde hair down as she walked her sons through the city for an early dinner.

She dressed casually for the night, wearing a long belted grey jacket, light wash jeans and brown ankle boots.

They had a quiet meal at the moderately priced Suzu Sushi on the Upper East Side.

Meanwhile, Don Jr took Kai out for some special father-daughter time.

He captioned the sweet moment: 'Valentines Day selfie with one of my favorite Valentines. Early dinner with my girl Kai. #valentinesday #valentines #daddysgirl #daddydaughter.'

After their respective dinner dates, it's not known if Don Jr and Vanessa went out on their own date for the holiday.

Vanessa was dressed almost identically to when she was spotted on Tuesday, the time she was seen after her hospitalization.

On Tuesday morning, Vanessa wore a black puffy coat and shielded her eyes with aviator sunglasses as she and her husband took their toddlers Spencer, five, and Chloe, three, to school.

The family was accompanied by Secret Service agents as they left their Midtown Manhattan apartment.

The mother-of-five wore her long blonde hair down as she walked her sons through the city for an early dinner

The former model dressed casually for the night, wearing a long belted grey jacket, light wash jeans and brown ankle boots

After their respective dinner dates, it's not known if Don Jr and Vanessa went out on their own date for the romantic holiday

Vanessa and her son had a quiet meal at the moderately priced Suzu Sushi on the Upper East Side (pictured)

The former model was at her parents' apartment on Monday when she opened a letter addressed to her husband and started coughing and feeling nauseous, a source with direct knowledge of the incident told DailyMail.com.

Law enforcement officials revealed that the letter said: 'You're an awful person and now you get what you deserve,' according to the New York Post.

Vanessa's mother Bonnie Haydon had handled the letter before passing it on to her daughter.

Both Vanessa and her mother and another person were decontaminated and taken to New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center as a precaution, New York City Fire Department officials said. They appear to be fine now.

Officials told the Post that the powder turned out to be cornstarch.

Officially though, an NYPD spokesman wouldn't say what the powder was but said it was 'deemed to be non-hazardous' and is being taken to their lab for 'further analysis.'

The NYPD's intelligence division and the Secret Service are investigating the incident.

'The Secret Service and our law enforcement partners in New York City are investigating a suspicious package addressed to one of our protectees received today in New York, New York. This is an active investigation and we cannot comment any further,' the Secret Service said in a statement.

Donald Jr tweeted after the incident saying: 'Thankful that Vanessa & my children are safe and unharmed after the incredibly scary situation that occurred this morning.'

The former model was at her parents' apartment on Monday when she opened a letter addressed to her husband and started coughing and feeling nauseous, a source with direct knowledge of the incident told DailyMail.com

Vanessa was dressed almost identically to when she was spotted on Tuesday, the time she was seen after her hospitalization

On Tuesday, Vanessa was seen wearing a black puffy coat and shielding her eyes with aviator sunglasses as she and Don Jr took their toddlers Spencer, five, and Chloe, three, to school

He continued: 'Truly disgusting that certain individuals choose to express their opposing views with such disturbing behavior.'

President Donald Trump spoke to his daughter-in-law on Monday after she arrived at the hospital.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at around 4pm that the two had talked on the phone 'in the last hour.'

Donald Jr's sister Ivanka also sent her thoughts from Washington, DC.

'Thinking of @MrsVanessaTrump & wishing I was by her side today. No one deserves to be frightened this way. There is no excuse,' she tweeted.

President Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, weighed in with a statement of his own.

'How disturbed must a person be to do what they did to a mother of five young children? This dangerous and reckless act goes beyond political differences,' Cohen said according to the Post.

The incident recalled the scary days after 9/11 when letters containing lethal anthrax spores were sent to the offices of several politicians and media outlets - resulting in five deaths.

Vanessa Trump, who has been married to Don Jr since 2005, was hospitalized on Monday after opening a letter with a white powder inside of it. She's pictured above with her husband in April 2016

Donald Jr and his wife are pictured above with four of their five children voting on election day in 2016

Donald Jr tweeted that he was glad that his wife and children 'are safe and unharmed'

Sister-in-law Ivanka Trump sent her thoughts from Washington, DC after the incident on Monday

The couple finally started a relationship after being introduced a third time at a party by a mutual friend.

Trump Jr, then 26, proposed to her in front of a jewelry store, complete with paparazzi, with a $100,000 engagement ring, which he is said to have wrangled for free in return for publicity.

Don Jr and model Vanessa Hayden married in August 2005 at his father's Mar-a-lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. The pair were actually introduced by the future president when Don Jr attended a fashion show with his father the previous year.

Having met at the beginning of the show, Trump Sr was said to be so smitten with Vanessa that he re-introduced his son to her at intermission.

'Donald comes back up to me again, "I dont think youve met my son Donald Trump Jr," Vanessa told The New York Times in 2006. She responded 'Yeah, we just met, five minutes ago.'

Since his father and sister Ivanka moved to Washington, DC., Donald Jr and his younger brother Eric have taken over control of their family company.

Last year, Eric was sent a threatening letter with a white powder in it to his New York City apartment as well.'Bad mom': Nichole Nespolini, 40, a mom-of-three from Florida, is accused of driving drunk with her baby son in the car and then urinating on an arresting police officer

A Florida mother-of-three has been accused of driving drunk with her baby son in the car, getting into an accident and then urinating on a police officer during her arrest.

Nichole Nespolini, 40, from Melbourne, Florida, was reportedly seen driving erratically and screaming expletives at another driver before rear-ending the other car on Monday evening.

After the fender-bender, Nespolini got out of her car and continued yelling at the other motorist, but also pleading with the woman not to call police.

When officers with the Melbourne Police Department responded to the intersection of Eau Gallie Boulevard and Croton Road at around 5.30pm, Nespoloni allegedly walked into traffic and pushed an officer in the chest, according to an arrest report cited by Orlando Sentinel.

After standing on her tip-toes and screaming into an officer's face, Nespolini was placed under arrest.

Out of control: Police were called after Nespolini (left and right) allegedly rear-ended another car after yelling at the driver

As the cops were putting handcuffs on her, the 40-year-old woman reportedly declared: 'I'm peeing and I hope it gets on you.'

Nespolini quickly made good on her threat and proceeded to relieve herself on an officer's foot. In the report, the officer noted that he observed a stream of liquid flowing from the womans crotch.

Nespolini also allegedly kicked another officer in the groin while being led to the patrol car.

Once she was secured in the back of the police vehicle, officers walked over to inspect Nespolini's car and discovered a baby strapped into a car seat in the rear.

Nespolini has been charged with DUI, DUI with property damage, child neglect, resisting officer and battery on a law enforcement officer.

When police arrived to arrest her, Nespolini (pictured with her baby) allegedly yelled at them, urinated on one and kicked another in the groin

She was ordered held on $18,500 pending her next court appearance scheduled for March 8.

According to her Facebook page, Nespolini gave birth to her youngest son in January 2017.Advertisement

The former Comanchero bikie boss gunned down in a brazen daylight shooting was at war with his exiled successor and bitter rival.

Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi, 37, had a 'blow up' with rival Mark Buddle, 32, who appointed himself president of the outlaw motorcycle club after Hawi's murder arrest in 2009.

Buddle, 32, who left Australia in 2010 after a security guard was fatally shot, clashed with Hawi six weeks ago, leaving tensions high between the two bikie powerbrokers.

The violent execution of Hawi on Thursday has raised fears of an all out bikie war, with police confirming he has many enemies, including Buddle.

Scroll down for videos

The former Comanchero bikie boss gunned down in a brazen daylight shooting was at war with his exiled successor and bitter rival (pictured is Mark Buddle and partner Mel Ter Wisscha)

Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi, 37, had a 'blow up' with rival Mark Buddle (pictured), 32, who appointed himself president of the outlaw motorcycle club after Hawi's murder arrest in 2009

Buddle, 32, who left Australia in 2010 after a security guard was fatally shot, clashed with Hawi (pictured) six weeks ago, leaving tensions high between the two bikie powerbrokers

Underworld sources described the clash between the pair as 'massive' and police confirmed they were aware of the dispute, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting Mark Buddle is involved in any capacity in the shooting death of Mick Hawi.

Infighting which broke out while Buddle was in Europe prompted the national president to text Comanchero members in September.

'I'm the f***ing commander of the world ... no one is to touch another member or set up another chapter without my permission,' he said, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The text followed a series of violent incidents that police feared could lead to an all-out civil war within the Comanchero.

Underworld sources described the clash between the pair as 'massive' and police confirmed they were aware of the dispute (pictured is Mark Buddle and partner Mel Ter Wisscha)

Infighting which broke out while Buddle was in Europe prompted the national president to text Comanchero members in September (pictured are two masked assassins filmed after the shooting of Mick Hawi)

Outlaw motorcycle gang's most notorious leaders Mick Hawi (pictured) and Mark Buddle had a monster 'blow up' weeks before the violent daylight shooting

'I'm the f***ing commander of the world ... no one is to touch another member or set up another chapter without my permission,' Buddle (pictured, left, with Ali Bazzi in Europe) texted to club members in September

The text followed a series of violent incidents that police feared could lead to an all-out civil war within the Comanchero (pictured is the suspected getaway car)

'But in reality Buddle will be just one of many people and avenues of investigation,' a senior police officer said, as Hawi had 'made plenty of enemies'.

Hawi was succeeded as the Comanchero national president after being arrested for his role in a fatal brawl at Sydney Airport in 2009.

The former Punchbowl High School student and married father-of-two was found guilty of murder over the killing but conviction was later overturned.

Police are hunting two masked assassins caught on CCTV after the shooting, and a suspected getaway car was engulfed in flames nearby.

Police are hunting two masked assassins caught on CCTV after the shooting, and a suspected getaway car was engulfed in flames nearby (pictured)

Mick Hawi was believed to have a heated argument with his successor as Comanchero national president Mark Buddle (pictured)

Hawi (pictured) narrowly escaped a similar death years ago when the bullet-proof car he was driving was sprayed with bullets in 2007

Ex-Comanchero bikie president Hawi was fatally shot by a spray of bullets to his face during the brazen assassination at a Sydney gym (pictured)

Hawi was shot a number of times in the face through the window of his Mercedes 4WD while leaving the Fitness First gym in Rockdale at 12.10pm on Thursday.

The 37-year-old was treated by paramedics at the scene and taken to hospital in a critical condition but died hours later.

Hawi narrowly escaped a similar death years ago when the bullet-proof car he was driving was sprayed with bullets in 2007.

Hawi, who became the national leader of the motorcycle group at 28-years-old, was released on parole in 2015.

His bail came with 22 strict conditions, one being he was not allowed to associate with bikie gang members.

Pictured is Hawi's black Mercedes 4WD which was seen peppered with bullet holes after the brazen daylight assassinationA mother has claimed her daughter was acting in self-defense when she choked another girl until she collapsed during a vicious brawl at a Melbourne school.

Shocking footage of the fight shows the two teenage schoolgirls St Helena's Secondary College in Eltham North attacking each other on the school grounds about 1.30pm on Wednesday.

The girls can be seen punching each other and wrestling on the ground before one of the girls placed the other in a choke hold - a martial arts move her mother says she learned to defend herself from bullies.

'There's a lot more information, there's a lot more facts that people are not aware of,' the woman, who wished to remain anonymous, told radio station 3AW.

Scroll down for video

A mother has claimed her daughter was acting in self-defense when she choked another girl until she collapsed during a vicious brawl at a Melbourne school that was captured on camera (pictured)

The mother claimed her daughter has been the victim of bullying and another student recently texted the teen's boyfriend threatening 'to punching her lights out'.

The 14-year-old girl who collapsed was taken to hospital after the fight, but the woman said her daughter was 'black and blue as well.'

'As a parent I'm disgusted, I'm appalled. I'm just horrified to watch that.'

The school has suspended bother girls for five days.

One of the girls was unconscious after the fight, while other students watched on and cheered.

Shocking footage of the fight shows the two teenage schoolgirls St Helena's Secondary College in Eltham North attacking each other on the school grounds about 1.30pm on Wednesday

St Helena Secondary College acting principal Anesti Anestis told the Herald Sun 'appropriate disciplinary action will now follow'.

'There is no place for incidents like this at our school. It is disappointing and does not reflect the behaviour of the overwhelming majority of our students,' he said.

He said neither student was seriously injured in the melee, although one was taken to hospital as a 'precautionary measure and has since been released'.

Both students and their parents were spoken to by police officers on Wednesday.A tender moment captured on video between a 1,400-pound bear and his caretaker caught the internet's attention over the last week.

Jim Kowalczik, who owns the Orphaned Wildlife Center in Otisville, New York, is seen in the clip sweetly cuddling and petting Jimbo, the Kodiak bear.

'Im sure you all do the same for your bears when they have had a hard day,' the caption reads.

The video, titled 'When your bear had a hard day and needs some extra love,' was posted on February 5 and has been viewed more than 1.2 million times as of Thursday afternoon.

A Kodiak moment: Jim Kowalczik, who owns the Orphaned Wildlife Center in Otisville, New York, is seen in a video posted on February 5, cuddling and petting Jimbo, the Kodiak bear

Jimbo, at the age of 24, wasn't feeling his best earlier in February, the organization told ABC News.

Kowalczik is seen hugging the bear around the head, gently rocking to and fro, before extending his gloved hand to rub Jimbo along his neck.

He keeps his hand there as he settles in next to the animal, before sitting down completely and removing his glove.

Then Kowalczik puts his hand into Jimbo's mouth, gazing down at him while he licks his hand.

At this point, Jimbo is resting his head squarely on Kowalczik's though, with his front legs slightly curled, and somewhat underneath the man's left leg.

Hello bear! Kowalczik is seen here extending his gloved hand to rub Jimbo along his neck

Bearly beloved: Kowalczik gives Jimbo a pat on the snout, before he turns away from his buddy

Kowalczik gives the bear a pat on the snout, before Jimbo turns away from his buddy.

The man pets Jimbo a few more times, before the bear bumps him in the leg, prompting him to say, 'Ow!' with a bit of a chuckle.

'What are you doing to me?' the caretaker is heard saying, with a laugh, before wrapping Jimbo's head again in an embrace.

The video comes to an end with more loving pats from Kowalczik, and Jimbo settles in again, resting his humongous head in the caretaker's lap.

The video comes to an end with more loving pats from Kowalczik, and Jimbo settles in again, resting his humongous head in the caretaker's lap

The group explained that Jimbo, who stands 10 feet tall, had recently completed a veterinary examination.

Jimbo had come down with an unknown illness that left him uncomfortable and agitated, the group told ABC.

Kowalczik wanted to show Jimbo 'some extra love' and is seen petting him and talking to him softly.

Jimbo has been at home at the Orphaned Wildlife Center since he was a cub.

The bear suffered injuries early in life, and was never able to resume living in the wild.

Kowalczik is a retired corrections officer who now works in excavating. He owns the Orphaned Wildlife Center with his wife, Susan.One look at the map that marks where the spotted lanternfly has been reported in Pennsylvania and it's obvious that both the state and national departments of agriculture have a big challenge ahead of them.

The initiative to try and contain the insect received a financial push last week, first with Pa. Gov. Tom Wolf's proposal in his budget address Feb. 6 to allocate $1.6 million in dedicated funding. That was followed 24 hours later by word that the feds were providing $17.5 million in emergency funding.

On top of those, Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-16th District, took the lead for the state's House delegation by writing a letter the middle of last month seeking $20 to $40 million from the feds to use against the spotted lanternfly, which was seen for the first time in the United States in 2014 in Berks County, roughly between Reading and Allentown. You can read that letter here.

It has since swarmed areas of eastern Pennsylvania and has been reported in New York, Virginia and Delaware. Currently, the Pennsylvania Agriculture Department has placed a quarantine on 13 counties - including Berks, Schuylkill, Montgomery, Lancaster, Lehigh, Lebanon, Northampton, Chester and Philadelphia - to stop the insect from spreading.

The emergency funding, which was made available through existing Commodity Credit Corporation balances, will allow for a two-pronged approach, with USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) managing the outer perimeter of the infestation and the state's Department of Agriculture focusing on a 3-mile perimeter surrounding the core infested area. The release announcing the funding said that "the goal of this expanded surveillance and control program is to stop the leading edge of the infestation and start pushing it inward while at the same time reducing the density of spotted lanternfly populations in the core-infested area."

READ MORE: Quarantine expanded to 13 counties in battle against invading insect

The map that appears at the top of this story shows why that Pa. quarantine has expanded as far as it has. Shannon Powers, deputy communications director for the state Department of Agriculture, explained that the "green dots are locations that were reported to us, investigated and no insects were found. The red dots are locations where the insect was reported and confirmed. The two blue dots, labelled as regulatory incidents, were locations where a dead insect was found but no presence of eggs or live insects."

Here a link to that map.

That red blob near Philadelphia, signifying the number of reports, has heightened worries about the proximity to the Port of Philadelphia and what that could mean. Powers said the department is working with local and federal authorities, "including PennDot and port officials, to survey for the presence of eggs and insects, spray and eliminate Tree-of-Heaven trees along transportation corridors and in high-risk areas like truck stops."

Tony Wolf, a viticulture extension specialist out of Virginia Tech, wrote in his monthly notes to subscribers that agricultural crops most likely to be impacted are hops, grapes, peaches, and apples; however, there are damage reports from it feeding on basil, cucumber, horseradish, and blueberry as well. "These planthoppers are phloem [vascular tissue in plants] feeders and the feeding can weaken and ultimately kill host trees and grapevines. In addition, the heavy feeding produces a massive amount of honeydew which the insects excrete on a daily basis. The honeydew causes sooty mold to develop on affected surfaces, including fruit, trunks, and ground cover," he wrote.

The bugs also have been found in Pa. to be heavily feeding on walnut, oak, maple and hickory trees, which is causing flagging of shoots and tree dieback, he said.

What's worrisome to many in Pennsylvania, and certainly among those who grow grapes and make wine in the eastern part of the state, is the hitch-hiking aspect of these insects.

Wolf: "This is of particular concern because of the number of Tree-of-Heaven lining railroad tracks and the propensity of females to lay eggs on wood and rusted metal. Egg masses have been found inside apple bins, which may limit the transport of apples out of quarantined areas. They also demonstrate swarming behavior and can hide in clothing and vehicles. Scraping egg masses can be helpful in keeping numbers down, however the masses are often hidden and may go unnoticed."

READ MORE: $17.5M in emergency funding OK'd to battle spotted lanternfly in Pennsylvania

Joe Fiola, who has a similar role in Maryland to Wolf's, said the progression of the insect's threat was on his agenda at the state's annual Grape & Wine Industry conference this past weekend.

While much has the damage has been limited to a group of wineries in Berks County, those on the periphery have reported seeing them and admit the threat worries them. Larry Kennel is the owner and winemaker at The Vineyard at Grandview in Mount Joy, Lancaster County, and the secretary of the Pennsylvania Wine Association (PWA). He has attended at least one agriculture department workshop on the spotted lanternfly representing the PWA.

Kennel said that his worry is the lack of a spray that will work without also killing beneficial bugs in the canopy.

"In a neighboring vineyard we are experimenting with insect netting around the vineyard to try to keep out the instars [early developmental stages which do not fly]," he said. "I am also researching available insecticides that should kill the adult lanternfly without killing the beneficials. I don't yet have a plan. We'll need to see how bad they get in the next couple years. A dead adult was found about five miles from us this past fall. Not good."

As for the funding, it's welcome. But ... "it would have been much more beneficial 2-3 years ago," he said. "I guess I shouldn't complain but I'm afraid it's too late. I think it's only a mater of time before they are spread over the entire country. They like to lay eggs on rusty metal. How about railroad cars?"

Brad Knapp, owner and winemaker at Pinnacle Ridge Winery outside Kutztown, Berks County, said he saw a few spotted lanternflies in his vineyard at the end of last year's harvest and is expecting them to return "in volume" this year. His worry, too, is that while the funding is good news, "frankly I suspect it is too late. These things have spread like wildfire in the last two years. So, at best, I think the researchers will come up with ways to deal with a pest that has found a new home on the East Coast."

Powers said in an email last week that while the U.S. Department of Agriculture hasn't provided any details on the funding, work is "ongoing with officials from USDA and surrounding states, researchers, our staff and representatives of fruit tree, vineyard and hardwood industries. We are planning coordinated control efforts, reviewing research on effective insecticides and other methods like integrated pest management [use of predatory pests to feed on lanternflies and their larvae], and getting necessary contracts and personnel in place using funds already devoted to the effort."Wednesday's mass shooting at a Florida high school which killed 17 people briefly lifted shares of gun manufacturers before coming back down to pre-shooting levels on Thursday.

During trading on Wall Street, the stock prices of Sturm Ruger and Smith and Wesson's parent company, American Outdoor Brands, rose by as much as 2.8 percent and 4.5 percent respectively, according to CNBC.

The share prices of both companies then retreated in trading on Thursday.

Shares of Sturm Ruger & Company ended down 0.10 points to close at 50 dollars a share, a slight fall from its previous close of 50.10.

It began the day on Thursday by trading at $51.80 per share.

People (above) are brought out of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after a shooting at the school left 17 people dead. The shooting spurred a spike in the stock prices of gun manufacturers

During trading on Wall Street, the stock prices of Sturm Ruger and Smith and Wesson's parent company, American Outdoor Brands, rose by as much as 2.8 percent and 4.5 percent respectively

Shares of Sturm Ruger & Company ended down 0.10 points to close at 50 dollars a share, a slight fall from its previous close of 50.10

The share prices of both companies then retreated in trading on Thursday

American Outdoor Brands ended the day on Thursday trading at a slight gain of 0.16 points - a 1.49 percent increase from its previous closing price of $10.74 a share

American Outdoor Brands ended the day on Thursday trading at a slight gain of 0.16 points - a 1.49 percent increase from its previous closing price of $10.74 a share.

It began the day trading at a high of $11.19 per share.

It is normal for the share price of gun makers to spike immediately after a mass shooting.

That is because of speculation that consumers would be more eager to buy up guns in the short term before the government would introduce legislation restricting gun sales, according to Business Insider.

The share price of Vista Outdoor, a company whose subsidiaries produce guns, ammunition, and other accessories, dipped sharply on Thursday but recovered.

It closed at $19.55 per share, down just 7 cents from Wednesday's close.

Vista Outdoor, American Outdoor Brands, and Sturm Ruger are the only three gun manufacturers that are publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

All other gun-makers are privately owned.

Initially, the share price of Vista Outdoor did not appear to be affected by the shooting on Wednesday

The share price of Vista Outdoor, a company whose subsidiaries produce guns, ammunition, and other accessories, dipped sharply on Thursday but recovered

The gun industry in the United States generates $13.5billion in revenue annually, according to IBISWorld.

But with Barack Obama no longer president and a pro-NRA Donald Trump in the Oval Office, gun sales have recently slowed down.

This is due to the fact that there's no sense of urgency among gun owners to buy more firearms with the Republicans firmly in charge in Washington, according to Bloomberg News.

Since the 2016 election, the major gun manufacturers have seen their values drop.

American Outdoor Brands has lost 62 percent of its value.

Vista Outdoor Inc. is down by 50 percent, and Sturm Ruger has lost percent.

Before the election, it was widely believed that Hillary Clinton would be the next president.

So gun shops stocked up on excess inventory in anticipation of another Democrat in the Oval Office for at least the next four years.

After Trump won, however, consumers stayed home and gun shops have been left with too much inventory.

Authorities said an ex-student, Nikolas Cruz, walked into the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, near Miami, on Wednesday and opened fire with an AR-15-style assault rifle in the second-deadliest shooting at a public school in US history.

Wednesday's shooting was the 18th in a US school this year, according to gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety.

It stirred the long-simmering US debate on the right to bear arms, which are protected by the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.

President Donald Trump addressed the shooting in a White House speech that emphasized school safety and mental health while avoiding any mention of gun policy.A senior official made Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham the target of the administration's ire on Thursday, hurling insults at lawmaker in a call that the White House refused to fully put on the record.

Graham was personally and repeatedly chastised as an 'obstacle' to achieving immigration reform in the United States by the official who hails from the same political party as the South Carolina Republican during an afternoon call with reporters.

'I'm not aware of when Lindsey Graham became the chairman of the Democratic conference,' the official seethed.

A senior official made Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham the target of the administration's ire on Thursday, hurling insults at lawmaker in a call that the White House refused to fully put on the record

The official said that an amendment to the immigration legislation the Senate was considering that was backed by a bipartisan group of senators, including, Graham, was 'catastrophically drafted' and the White House would be calling sponsors' offices asking them to reconsider, 'allowing for the possibility they were simply egregiously informed about the bill's outrageous content.'

Progress will only be made when senators realize their 'totally unworkable and 'reckless schemes have no chance of going anywhere,' the official said, blasting the lawmakers' proposals as 'totally and completely unserious.'

'We are not being hyperbolic in describing how massively reckless and dangerous this proposal is, the official said.

Graham said Thursday that he would make a personal appeal to the White House to back off its position and was firmly swatted down on the administration's conference call.

'He has been an obstacle to immigration reform. He has been an obstacle in the way of getting relief for Dreamers,' a White House official said.

'If you look at the history of failed immigration reform bills, at some point you have to ask yourself the question to whether Lindsey Graham's involvement in drafting those bills is that instead of being a solution to the problem, Lindsey Graham's presence on those bills is the problem.'

The official said later in the call that Graham had brought it upon himself because he 'makes statements about DHS which are false.'

Earlier in the day, Graham had said that Trump is 'most days pretty good' on immigration, but the president is 'being led down a path where we wont get a result.'

The senator went after senior policy adviser to the president Stephen Miller and a Department of Homeland Security press secretary, Tyler Houlton, calling them, 'two of the most extreme characters' in Washington when it comes to the topic of immigration.

Miller received an assist from Sen. Tom Cotton, the author of merit-based immigration legislation that President Trump has endorsed, saying on Twitter that it is 'embarrassing for a senator to attack a staffer.'

'No worse example of punching down & bullying someone who can't defend himself,' the Arkansas Republican said.

President Trump jumped into the debate later in the day with tweets that blasted the amendment at the center of the dispute that had been put forward by Sens. Chuck Schumer, Mike Rounds and Susan Collins as a 'total catastrophe.'

Schumer is the Senate Democratic leader. Rounds and Collins are Republicans.

The amendment that needed to win 60 votes for passage was introduced by eight Republicans and eight Democrats. It failed after the White House's full-scale assault on a 54-45 vote.

President Trump jumped into the debate later in the day with tweets that blasted the amendment at the center of the dispute that had been put forward by Sens. Chuck Schumer, Mike Rounds and Susan Collins as a 'total catastrophe'

The legislation would have given Trump the $25 billion in border security funds he asked for and was circulated with the promise that 1.8 million illegal immigrants routinely referred to as Dreamers would have a pathway to citizenship.

A senior official told DailyMail.com that the number of illegal immigrants who would have been protected was actually significantly higher than what was being reported, though. The amendment would have given 3.3 million people amnesty, according to the Migration Policy Institute's assessment, the official stated.

It also lacked two measures Trump is demanding that make dramatic changes to the legal immigration system.

The White House took issue with another section directing DHS to focus their attention on illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes or are a threat to national security.

Illegal immigrants who come to the U.S. after June 30, 2018 should be a priority for deportation, it said as well.

'Preventing enforcement with respect to people who entered our country illegally before a date that is in the future would produce a flood of new illegal immigration in the coming months,' White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.

Trump's spokeswoman said the president would veto any legislation that came to him bearing the bipartisan amendment.

The Department of Homeland Security had also taken an aggressive stance in direct opposition to the bill.

'By halting immigration enforcement for all aliens who will arrive before June 2018, it ignores the lessons of 9/11 and significantly increases the risk of crime and terrorism,' DHS said an early morning press release. 'The changes proposed by Senators Schumer-Rounds-Collins would effectively make the United States a Sanctuary Nation where ignoring the rule of law is encouraged.'

'This vote is proof that President Trumps plan will never become law. If he would stop torpedoing bipartisan efforts, a good bill would pass,' Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, said Thursday after the White House tanked his bill

Echoing DHS, Trump fumed on Twitter that the changes would be 'the end of immigration enforcement in America.'

'It creates a giant amnesty (including for dangerous criminals), doesnt build the wall, expands chain migration, keeps the visa lottery, continues deadly catch-and-release, and bars enforcement even for FUTURE illegal immigrants,' the president said.

'Voting for this amendment would be a vote AGAINST law enforcement, and a vote FOR open borders. If Dems are actually serious about DACA, they should support the Grassley bill!'

The Grassley amendment, named after Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, hands Trump everything he's asking for. But the legislation has not gained traction in the Senate.

'This is the one and only bill that deals with immigration issues with broad bipartisan support,' Collins said of her bill on Thursday.

A White House official said that Grassley's bill is the only one that the White House is willing to get behind in the Senate that has come to the floor during the open debate on immigration, however.

After the amendment failed, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi accused the president of 'sabotaging' a legislative fix to immigration problems he's complained about.

'The Republican Congress must have the courage to pass legislation to protect Dreamers now,' she said.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Senate, indicated Thursday evening that he was running out of patience.

'I think its safe to say this has been a disappointing week. I kept my commitment and set aside the entire week for a broad, productive debate over DACA, border security, and other important immigration issues,' he said. 'Everyone agrees that I have held up my end of the bargain.'

The Kentucky Republican urged legislators to get behind a bill that Trump has said he'd sign after the president came 'more than halfway to meet Democrats on this issue.'

'Now, even though this week has been squandered, this does not have to be the end of our efforts to resolve these matters,' he stated. 'If a solution is developed in the future that can pass both the House and the Senate and be signed into law by the president, it should be considered.'

He added, 'But for that to happen, Democrats will need to take a second look at these core elements of necessary reform.'

Schumer signaled in a statement that a second look at Trump's demands was not likely after the failed legislative maneuvering.

'This vote is proof that President Trumps plan will never become law. If he would stop torpedoing bipartisan efforts, a good bill would pass,' Schumer stated.Julian Manea, 36, has been charged with revenge porn after allegedly showing topless pictures of his former partner to a friend

An ex-boyfriend threatened to use his 'connections' at Google to publish naked pictures of his former partner if she was not 'nice' to him, a court heard.

Julian Manea, 36, allegedly pestered the woman with Facebook posts, texts, WhatsApp messages and even turned up to her address brandishing naked photos to her flatmate.

Prosecutor Edward Cohen said: 'The photographs were on the defendant's phone and he showed two images of the complainant to her friend.

'One was with her breasts exposed and one of her in a pair of knickers from behind.

'It was a threat to disclose them - "If she's nice to me I won't do anything, if she's not I will. I will f**k her up, I have friends in Google so I can have them distributed in Google".

'In May 2017 he posted an image of the complainant and himself kissing on his Facebook - targeting her so her whole family could see and her boyfriend.

Manea, of Wandsworth, south west London, denied the charges during a brief hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court today

'In January 2017 he sent a message talking about her moving and that they should forgive each other - she told him to leave her alone.

'In January 2018 he spoke to her flatmate and was told to leave and not to come back, after asking about her new boyfriend - then there were some further Facebook comments.'

Manea sent some 40 messages this month over Whatsapp after he was told to go away by the woman's flatmate.

Magistrate Alexia Fetherstonhaugh adjourned the case for a trial and told Manea: 'Do not call or text her or contact her on social media.

'You do not get anyone else to contact her for you and if you happen to see her you must walk in the other direction.'

Manea, of Wandsworth, south west London, denies disclosing private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress.

He was released on bail on condition that he does not contact Ms Bisquert or to go to her address.

Manea will be tried at Hendon Magistrates' Court on 17 April.Policy architect: Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Robert Wilkie this week unveiled the Pentagon's new policy tackling the problem of non-deployable service members

The US Department of Defense has adopted a strict new deployment policy that could cost tens of thousands of non-deployable service members their jobs.

This new policy is a 12-month deploy or be removed policy, Robert Wilkie, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, told the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on personnel and readiness on Wednesday.

Wilkie said that on any given day, about 286,000 service members are unable to deploy because of medical concerns. That number equals about to 13-14 per cent of the entire military force of the United States.

According to a memorandum issued by Wilkies office on Wednesday, service members who have been non-deployable or more than 12 consecutive months, for any reason, will be processed for administrative separation,' as Military Times first reported.

There will be some exceptions, including pregnancy. Medical boards also will be able to grant exceptions for wounded soldiers.

The new policy calls for removal of service members who have been non-deployable for 12 consecutive months

There will be some exceptions, including pregnancy. Medical boards also will be able to grant exceptions for wounded soldiers

The crackdown on non-deployable service members comes after Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis in July directed Wilkie to identify changes to military personnel policies 'necessary to provide more ready and lethal forces.'

Mattis' memo highlighted the need 'that everyone who comes into the service and everyone who stays in the service is world-wide deployable.'

Commander's order: Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis in July called for changes to military personnel policies 'necessary to provide more ready and lethal forces'

Service members can become non-deployable for a wide variety of reasons, ranging from medical to administrative.

Command Sgt Major John Troxell, senior enlisted adviser to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joe Dunford, told the Military Times earlier this month that close to 100,000 soldiers are non-deployable because they are not up to date on their vaccinations, or they have failed to undergo medical or dental exams.

Another 160,000 cannot be deployed because of injuries, most of them not related to combat, and the remaining 20,000 are non-deployable because of pregnancy.

Troxell added that having so many non-deployable service members in the ranks puts additional strain on their able-bodied comrades who are being forced to pick up the slack in order to make sure the military's capability is not degraded.

We have to ensure given the climate that this country faces, that everyone who signs up can be deployed to any corner of the world at any given time and that is the reason for the change in policy, Wilkie told the Senate panel this week.Passengers on board a 10-day cruise across the South Pacific have revealed they are too scared to leave their cabins after witnessing violent brawls described as a 'bloodbath'.

Australian guests travelling on the Carnival Legend allege two groups of 30 warring passengers have engaged in multiple violent brawls with threats of stabbing and to throw people overboard.

One horrified holidaymaker told Nine News they are genuinely frightened of the offending guests and are hesitant to leave the safety of their room.

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Australian guests travelling on the Carnival Legend (Pictured) allege two groups of warring passengers have engaged in multiple violent brawls with threats of stabbing and to throw people overboard

George Barkho (pictured) was caught up in the violence and called his father at 1am

'We are so scared after witnessing a traumatic experience with yet again the same offenders. It was a bloodbath,' the anonymous guest said.

'We will not be leaving our cabins and are truly scared for our safety and what could happen in the next 24 hours.'

Some guests have even described their ocean holiday as the 'cruise from hell'.

David Barkho, the father of a 20-year-old man caught up in the violence, told 3AW he received a frantic phone call from his injured son at 1am.

'He said, 'Please Dad, please, call the Federal Police',' Mr Barkho said.

'I could hear a lot of screaming, crying in the background.'

Shocking vision has emerged of a brawl erupting in a common area of the cruise ship which resulted in one passenger being savagely kicked and beaten while lying on the ground.

The footage shows both men and women engaging in a violent clash as cruise security attempted to intervene.

One horrified passenger told Nine News they are genuinely frightened of the offending holidaymakers and are hesitant to leave the safety of their rooms (Pictured one alleged offender)

Pictured is the Carnival Legend arriving at a port in Eden, New South Wales, on Friday morning

Mr Barkho also alleges cruise security staff are attempting to destroy images and footage from the incident.

'He (George) said, 'The security came in and took his phone, and deleted a lot of images',' he added.

Passenger Kellie Petersen told 3AW it was 27 people from one big 'family group' inciting the violence.

'We have been told to watch our backs by this group,' she said.

'They fought in front of my children in the pool... five of them surrounded my husband.'

Carnival Cruise Lines have released a statement saying: 'The vast majority of the guests on board Carnival Legend are enjoying their 10-day cruise holiday to the South Pacific' (Pictured is the Carnival Legend)

The cruise liner has made an unexpected stop at a port in Eden, New South Wales, before it heads to Melbourne tomorrow.

NSW Police confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that a police operation is underway at the port on the NSW south coast.

Police received reports of passengers fighting on board the Carnival Legend and a number of people are expected to be removed from the vessel.

Carnival Cruise Lines have released a statement to Daily Mail Australia saying: 'The vast majority of the guests on board Carnival Legend are enjoying their 10-day cruise holiday to the South Pacific.'

'The ship's highly trained security staff have engaged with a small group of disruptive guests and ensured that they are fully aware of and are compliant with our zero tolerance policy. This strong approach is in line with our commitment to safety as the number one priority.'

Some guests have even described their ocean holiday as the 'cruise from hell' (Carnival Legend pictured)

The Carnival Legend is due to dock in Melbourne, its home port for 2018, tomorrow.

It is not the first time Australian passengers have complained of violence on board cruise ships.

The P&O Explorer was forced to turn back to Sydney after a brawl erupted when a female passenger allegedly 'hit a guy over the head with a bottle of wine' last week.

There was a 30 minute brawl on the ship involving at least 15 passengers, according to witnesses.

Seven people - six men and one 37-year-old Russian woman - were arrested and escorted off the cruise.

Mr Barkho was not on the ship and Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting his son George was involved in the filmed brawl.When Charlie Gilmour, the adopted son of legendary Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, was jailed for his role in the student riots of 2010, he blamed it on his rejection by his natural father.

In a tragic postscript to the story, I can reveal that his biological father, Heathcote Williams, has, in a final act of paternal repudiation, omitted all mention of Charlie from his will.

Drafted on April 27, 2016, and revoking all earlier wills, the Old Etonian poet and enthusiastic environmentalist, who died last summer aged 75, left his entire estate of 239,547 to his daughters China and Lily Williams.

Gilmour shocked the nation when he was photographed swinging from the Cenotaph by a Union Flag in 2010.

The Cambridge University student also leapt onto the bonnet of a Jaguar in a convoy taking the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall to the theatre, and was one of a mob that smashed the windows of a Topshop store.

When Charlie Gilmour (pictured centre with parents David and Polly), the adopted son of legendary Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, was jailed for his role in the student riots of 2010, he blamed it on his rejection by his natural father

Pleading guilty to violent disorder, the then 21-year-old explained his mind had been scrambled by bingeing on drink and drugs after being spurned by his father, who played almost no part in his life.

In 2010, Charlie, hearing that Williams was apparently seriously ill, tracked him down to a house in Oxford where they enjoyed what he believed was a happy reunion.

But, months later, Williams told him he was cutting him out of his life.

The judge was unmoved, sending Gilmour to jail. He served four months of a 16-month sentence.

The maverick Williams had a relationship with Sixties model Jean Shrimpton, accidentally setting himself on fire when demonstrating fire-eating at her front door.

Later, he moved in with Diana Senior, an Oxford historian, by whom he had China and Lily, before becoming enamoured of novelist Polly Samson, by whom he fathered Charlie.

In a tragic postscript to the story, I can reveal that his biological father, Heathcote Williams (pictured), has, in a final act of paternal repudiation, omitted all mention of Charlie from his will, writes Sebastian Shakespeare

While with Polly, Williams arrived for a weekend at Port Eliot, the Cornwall estate owned by Peregrine Eliot, 10th Earl of St Germans, only to stay for eight years.

Polly returned to London long beforehand, explaining to Eliot that Williams had had a breakdown. Not long afterwards, she met David Gilmour, who married her and adopted Charlie as a child.

In an interview 18 months ago, Charlie, 28, recalled his ambivalent feelings about his father.

'The one thing that I did feel very strongly was the hypocrisy of someone wanting to save the otters but not really being able to care for his own child.

Hotelier's son proves fancy dress is his forte

Sober-suited Sir Rocco Forte runs a 340 million hotel chain, but his man-about-town son, Charles, prefers to dress with a little more frivolity.

The 26-year-old, who works in development at dad's company, attended a drag party on Valentine's Day at Mayfair private members club, LouLou's.

His pink lips and matching eye make-up  mimicking the shape of a butterfly  might look out of place in the boardroom.

Model Idina Moncreiffe, 26, who posted this photo online, sported a black curly wig and moustache, while Charles was also joined by his girlfriend, Italian shoe designer Viola Arrivabene, who wore a bubblegum pink wig and sparkly dress.

She is the daughter of Countess Bianca, deputy chairman for Christie's in Italy.

Sober-suited Sir Rocco Forte runs a 340 million hotel chain, but his man-about-town son, Charles, prefers to dress with a little more frivolity, writes Sebastian Shakespeare

The 12th Duke of Beaufort, also known as Harry 'Bunter' Worcester and self-styled 'rock god', announced in December he was to wed his long-term girlfriend Georgia Powell after his divorce from his pig welfare campaigning wife of 30 years, Tracy Worcester.

Now I can disclose that the couple will marry on June 2 this year with the nuptials taking place at Bunter's sprawling 52,000-acre family estate, Badminton.

'It's only a small family affair with 30 people,' the Duke, 65, tells me, though he hasn't got round to choosing a best man. 'I haven't thought about it yet,' he admits.

Georgia, 48, will become Duchess of Beaufort and chatelaine of the estate. Tracy will still be able to use the title Duchess of Beaufort.

The 12th Duke of Beaufort, also known as Harry 'Bunter' Worcester (pictured left on his last wedding day) and self-styled 'rock god', announced in December he was to wed his long-term girlfriend Georgia Powell after his divorce from his pig welfare campaigning wife of 30 years, Tracy Worcester (right)

Marco's secret vegan past

He Is the original bad-boy chef who once made Gordon Ramsay cry.

Now Marco Pierre White, who launched a range of eponymous steak houses, confesses he used to be a vegan.

Marco, having amassed three coveted Michelin stars by the age of 33, says: 'I was a vegan for nine months. I lost five stone in weight.

'I was just curious to see what it was like. If I was a vegan now, I'd go and live in Sri Lanka or India. Delicious food there.'

These days Marco, 56, also turns in early. 'I couldn't imagine anything worse than holding a dinner party. I just want to go to bed.

'I get up really early  I'm often up by 4am. When I used to cook, I'd work late but now I'm sometimes in bed by 9pm. It's nice. It's very solitary. I stay at home and never leave.'President Donald Trump's inauguration may have drawn fewer people than President Obama's, but his parties cost twice as much  including expenses on 'promotional gifts' that topped $500,000.

Trump's inaugural committee released an amended 990 form filed with the feds that reveals new details about the $107 million, multi-day affair funded by some of the nation's biggest corporations.

Including in the filing is information revealing a $26 million payment to a firm created just a month before Trump took the oath of office and was inaugurated.

The firm, WIS Media Partners, is listed as being located in tony Marina del Rey, California, and is headed by Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who recently signed on last year as a senior advisor to first lady Melania Trump.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump address the Freedom Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center January 20, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Trump's inaugural committee raised $107 million, and paid $26 million to a firm created by a current East Wing advisor to the first lady

Winston Wolkoff was Melania Trump's first hire.

Before she took over her inaugural event planning role, she worked as a special events planner for Vogue, helped stage the Met Gala, and was a fashion director for Lincoln Center. The 47-year-old is a longtime friend of Melania's.

The firm in turn spent $24 million on subcontractors, a person familiar with the inaugural planning told DailyMail.com. The source said Winston Wolkoff provided 'the whole look and feel  the creative vision' for 18 or 20 inaugural events.

Her personal take from Trump's inaugural committee was $1.62 million, an inaugural official told the New York Times. It wasn't immediately confirmed if the entire amount went to Winston Wolkoff or got broken down. The official told the paper that Winston Wolkoff's firm paid the team put in place by 'The Apprentice' creator Mark Burnett.

Former Vogue special event planner Stephanie Winston Wolkoff is a senior advisor to Melania Trump. She shaped the look and feel of 18 events,

First lady spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham told the Times Melania Trump had 'no knowledge of how funds were spent' and said Winston Wolkoff does not get paid for her work in the White House as a 'special government employee.'

Trump gave a shout-out to Burnett on Twitter this month in advance of the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.

'Great religious and political leaders, and many friends, including T.V. producer Mark Burnett of our wonderful 14 season Apprentice triumph, will be there,' Trump wrote in advance of the event. 'Looking forward to seeing all!'

The filing, made with the IRS, did not provide further detail on the promotional gifts. VIPs attending the inauguration got gifts purchased from the White House Historical Association.

Melania Trump presented First Lady Michelle Obama with a large blue Tiffany box during the awkward first joint encounter between the outgoing president and first lady and the new ones in 2017.

Inaugural committees have been known to churn out mugs, pens, coins, cuff links, and other gifts as party favors for high rollers who sped thousands on the event and donate millions to fund the party.

The Rockettes perform at the Freedom Inaugural Ball celebrating the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, January 20, 2017, in Washington, DC. Entertainers got full fare from the Trump inaugural committee, at a time when many performers weren't lining up to applaud Trump

Former Vogue special event planner Stephanie Winston Wolkoff stops for a photo in front of the media at Trump Tower in New York on December 2, 2016

REGRETS? HE'S HAD A FEW: U.S. President Donald Trump sings to the song 'My Way' while dancing with first lady Melania Trump during the inaugural Liberty Ball at the Washington Convention Center January 20, 2017 in Washington, DC

The ceremonial gifts for the President and Vice President are displayed in Statuary Hall in the Capitol for the Inaugural Lunch following Donald Trump's inauguration as the 45th President of the United States, in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2017

THESE GIFTS WERE ON THE HOUSE: The ceremonial gifts for the President and Vice President are displayed in Statuary Hall in the Capitol for the Inaugural Lunch following Donald Trump's inauguration as the 45th President of the United States, in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2017

The Trump inaugural spent more than $500,000 on gifts, though precisely which items was not revealed in filings

The Trump inaugural had to contribute to protecting grass on the national mall  although at one point the White House blamed grass coverings for making the crowd appear more sparse than they claimed it was

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff attended The United Nations Women for Peace Association's Annual Awards Luncheon on March 10, 2017 in New York Cit

Producer Mark Burnett attends the premiere of ABC's "Shark Tank" Season 9 at The Paley Center for Media on September 20, 2017 in Beverly Hills, California. Trump had him be involved in inaugural planning

Among the event's biggest donors was gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson, who kicked in $5 million.

Obama's 2009 inauguration raised a record $55 million, an amount Trump's nearly doubled. Obama's was ten days, Trump's was three.

One reason Trump's cost so much more, according to the source familiar with the planning, is that every participant got paid market rate or better to appear.

Some of the nation's top performers were jockeying to join Obama's celebration. Participants included Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Beyonce, U2, Shakira, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, and many more.

Although specific contracts weren't available, Trump's inauguration included Toby Keith and the band Three Doors Down. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir performed at the inauguration. The concert on the mall was estimated to cost $25 million.

President-elect Donald Trump (C),and his wife Melania Trump (L), are greeted by President Barack Obama (R), and his wife first lady Michelle Obama, upon arriving at the White House on January 20, 2017 in Washington, DC

President-elect Donald Trump (L),and his wife Melania Trump (2ndR), are greeted by President Barack Obama and his wife first lady Michelle Obama, upon arriving at the White House on January 20, 2017 in Washington, DC

Even some costs of protecting the grass on the National Mall  revealed in infamous crowd shots that showed empty white space during Trump's swearing in that caused Trump to explode over media coverage  had to be borne in part by Trump's inaugural committee.

Another $2.7 million on the books will yield additional charity contributions unless unanticipated expenses come in, according to the source.

Charity contributions totaling $5 million went to the American Red Cross, Samaritan's Purse, the Salvation Army, the Smithsonian Institution, The White House Historical Association, and a foundation for the vice president's residence.

But reports of the large expenditure to the new company drew immediate condemnation from the Campaign Legal Center, which pushed for the release of earlier information about the inauguration.

'It is uncertain why Trump's inaugural committee paid nearly $26 million to a newly-created firm with close ties to the Trump family, and paid $25 million to the same event planning firm that did the job for $5 million in 2008,' said Brendan Fischer of the Campaign Legal Center.A former prostitute claimed last night that the Oxfam boss at the centre of the sex scandal regularly paid to sleep with her.

She said Roland van Hauwermeiren had sex with her twice a week for six months in Haiti  after the 2010 earthquake had destroyed her home and killed five members of her family.

The mother-of-one said the aid worker paid her between 70 and 140 each time, after initially meeting her on the street near his 1,500-a-month hilltop villa known as the Eagle's Nest.

She claimed she was just 16  under the Haitian age of sexual consent which is 18  when they first had sex.

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A former Haitian prostitute (pictured) said Roland van Hauwermeiren had sex with her twice a week for six months in Haiti when she was 16

Last night Mr van Hauwermeiren said he was 'not perfect' but insisted he never slept with prostitutes in Haiti.

Instead, the 68-year-old said he slept with a 'mature' local woman but did not pay her.

The former sex worker, who asked to remain anonymous, said she 'did not have the means to say no' because she needed money to feed her baby after the earthquake, which left 220,000 dead and 1.5million people homeless.

Now 23, she did not realise Oxfam was supposed to be helping her country because of the way Mr van Hauwermeiren allegedly behaved towards her.

'He took advantage of me and he took advantage of the situation,' she told the Daily Mail. 'I feel like he exploited me. I needed money for food and to feed my baby. He could have helped me without paying to have sex with me.

'Thinking about him now makes me realise he is a sick man. We must have had sex hundreds of times when we were seeing each other.

'He promised me and my cousin that he was going to take us on holiday to the Dominican Republic and that he was going to get us a job in America.

'That never happened. He was supposed to be helping but he made the situation worse.'

Mr van Hauwermeiren (pictured in Haiti) broke his silence and said he was 'not perfect' but insisted he never slept with prostitutes in Haiti

However, last night Mr van Hauwermeiren, who lives near Ostend in Belgium, broke his silence to deny that he had ever slept with prostitutes when he led Oxfam's humanitarian response in Haiti for a year and a half.

Last week, The Times claimed that an Oxfam report said that Mr van Hauwermeiren had admitted using prostitutes at the villa rented by the charity.

In an open letter to Belgian broadcaster VTM, he said: 'I am not perfect, I am not a saint  a man of flesh and blood, and have made mistakes (not easy to admit), and I am deeply ashamed.

'I admitted to investigators that I had intimate contact three times in my house.

'It was, in my opinion, a mature honourable lady, not an earthquake victim and no prostitute, whom I met since I supported her young sister and very young mother with diapers and powdered milk. I never gave them money.

'I have never visited a brothel, nightclub or bar in the city or this country.'

She lives in a poor neighbourhood (above) on the outskirts of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince in a small house

The young woman who spoke to the Mail is one of eight children. She was just 15 when the quake destroyed her family home in January 2010. Desperate and starving, she turned to prostitution as a means of survival. She became pregnant three months after the quake and claims she first met Mr van Hauwermeiren in January 2011 just before she gave birth.

'I was 16 when Roland first met me on the street near his home,' she said. 'He was in an Oxfam truck. He spoke a little French, enough for us to communicate.

'He took a picture of my face and my baby bump and we swapped numbers. A month after the birth of my son in January 2011 he called me up and said he could help me out. He asked me to come over and offered me money for sex.

'It went on for six months. I would go round twice a week and he would pay me 100 to 200 US dollars a time.

'As soon as I went round there he would put on a Playboy DVD. Even if he was watching a show he would turn it off and put the DVD on.'

She added that he also used to give her gifts for herself and for her child. 'He used to bring me clothes for my baby and nappies and he bought me earrings on my birthday.

'He loved girls coming to his house. He would have girls over from Friday to Monday, four girls a day. Sometimes I had arranged to meet but he was too busy with other girls so would not answer my calls.'

The mother-of-one said she met the aid worker on the street near his 1,500-a-month hilltop villa known as the Eagle's Nest (above)

She said that she did not sleep with any other Oxfam staff or aid workers, and never worked as a prostitute again because she was worried about getting a sexually transmitted disease.

The young woman is currently eight months pregnant with her second child. She lives in a poor neighbourhood on the outskirts of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince in a small house.

'In the earthquake I lost five family members,' she said. 'Our house collapsed and we had no home. I cried a lot and didn't feel like we had hope. The worst part is that we could not find the bodies of our family to give them a burial.

'I was a kid. I was in school but after that I didn't go any more. We were hit hard and were poorer than before.'

Asked about her hopes for the future, she said: 'I hope that God blesses my children and that I have enough strength to offer them a better life and a better education than the one I had.

Mr van Hauwermeiren (pictured) resigned from his post in Haiti in mid-2011 and was allowed a 'phased and dignified exit'

'If the earthquake hadn't happened I would have finished high school and become a nurse'.

Mr van Hauwermeiren resigned from his post in Haiti in mid-2011 and was allowed a 'phased and dignified exit'. Oxfam released a statement in August 2011 saying he had voluntarily stepped down because of staff misconduct.

It did not say what the allegations were about, claiming the matter was confidential. Six other men left Oxfam as a result of the investigation.

Mr van Hauwermeiren has also been accused of using prostitutes while working for Oxfam in Chad in 2006 and when he was working for medical charity Merlin in Liberia in 2004.

Last night he insisted that he never slept with prostitutes in Haiti, Chad or Liberia. He admitted he was fired for his job in Liberia after attending a party where two prostitutes were present, although he said he had only 'danced and flirted' with them.

Mr van Hauwermeiren said that rumours of aid workers paying for sex in Chad in 2006 were 'complete nonsense'.

He added: 'These allegations are destroying me and I no longer dare to appear in public or speak to my family and children.'

Mr van Hauwermeiren could not be reached for a direct comment last night. An Oxfam spokesman declined to comment.The man accused of kidnapping a four-year-old girl from her Charleston home is a convicted felon who was released from prison less than two weeks ago, federal charging documents said.

Thomas Lawton Evans, 37, was arrested Wednesday during a police chase in Lauderdale county, after he handed the toddler Heidi Todd over to police in Alabama before speeding off.

Now that she has been rescued, new details about her abduction emerged Thursday after the FBI filed a kidnapping charge against Evans.

After being released from prison on Feb 1 Evans was supposed to be living in Upstate South Carolina, but allegedly traveled down to Charleston to carry out the attack on Heidi and her unsuspecting mother.

Evans apparently attacked Todd's mother Brittany from behind early Tuesday, and potentially tied her up before fleeing with Heidi, the Post and Courier Reported.

Thomas Lawton Evans, 37, was arrested Wednesday during a police chase in Lauderdale county, after he handed the toddler Heidi Todd over to police in Alabama before speeding off

Evans apparently attacked Todd's mother Brittany from behind early Tuesday, and potentially tied her up before fleeing with Heidi, the Post and Courier Reported. Brittany is pictured with another child

Authorities have not said if the Todds were targeted at random, and say there were no missteps in the handling of Evans case that led to this weeks events. Pictured is the Todds' house in a suburb of Charleston

Brittany Todd suffered brain bleeding and was likely inside the Johns Island, South Carolina, house for more than eight hours before police learned of her predicament and Heidi's likely kidnapping.

Authorities have not said if the Todds were targeted at random, and say there were no missteps in the handling of Evans case that led to this weeks events.

A spokesperson for the state agency that was keeping tabs on Evans, Pete O'Boyle, told the Post and Courier that Evans hadn't missed any requirements of his release in the short time he'd been free.

Charleston police said Heidi is safe and in good spirits - describing the little girl as brave and strong

Because of that, services hadn't yet had a chance to check in on him, he said Thursday.

He is now jailed in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, where he was arrested during Wednesday night's police chase.

Charleston police said Heidi is safe and in good spirits - describing the little girl as brave and strong.

She is now back with her family - who have asked for privacy amid the national attention.

Heidi was reported missing on Tuesday after disappearing from her home in Charleston, where her mother was found badly injured.

Brittany was brutally beaten, allegedly by Evans, and Heidi was taken from the home. Two other children were left at the home with Brittany, though. Police think Evans may have followed the mother home from dropping her older children off at school in the morning.

The FBI put out an alert for the toddler, offering a $10,000 award to anyone who knew where she might be. An additional $10,000 was donated to the reward fund by an anonymous donor Wednesday.

On Wednesday evening Riverside, Alabama, Police Chief Rick Oliver said he found Evans sleeping in a car with Heidi in the woods near a railroad track in the town. He said Evans immediately handed over the child.

But when Oliver told Evans he would have to take him to the police station, he bolted in his car, the officer explained.

After she was out of harms way, Heidi stayed at the area fire station until state child welfare officials could get her. At the station some of the firemen gave her some cookies and milk.

A spokesperson for the state agency that was keeping tabs on Evans, Pete O'Boyle, told the Post and Courier that Evans hadn't missed any requirements of his release in the short time he'd been free

The FBI put out an alert for the toddler, offering a $10,000 award to anyone who knew where she might be. An additional $10,000 was donated to the reward fund by an anonymous donor Wednesday

After she was out of harms way, Heidi stayed at the area fire station until state child welfare officials could get her. At the station some of the firemen gave her some cookies and milk

On Thursday afternoon city officials in Riverside posted a picture of Heidi on social media, where she is seen coloring with a purple crayon and looking completely at east.

'We are overjoyed with the safety of the most precious little girl you will ever meet!!,' the post read.

Evans' criminal past spans over the past two decades, according to official court documents.

Evans' criminal past spans over the past two decades, according to official court documents

He was arrested in 2000 and charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor. Police said he assaulted a 15-year-old girl when he was 19.

At the time Evans wasn't required to register as a sex offender because he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

Two years later he and another man were accused of robbery when he and another man grabbed a woman in downtown Charleston and attempted to snatch her purse. They threw her against a wall and took the purse and her bag of groceries. He was convicted of strong armed robbery and served two years probation.

In 2009 he and another person broke into a gas station and stole beer, cigarettes and lottery tickets. One hour later he robbed a second gas station in Charleston, this time at gunpoint. That time he was sentenced to 10 years on armed robbery and burglary charges.

While hebhidn bars he gardnered 14 disciplinary actions, according to South Carolina Department of Corrections paperwork. Eleven were in the past two years.

Some of those actions included threatening prison employees, possessing drugs and cellphoens and having a weapons, the Post and Courier reported.

On December 18 he used 'threat and intimidation' to hold his cellmate against his will.

He was sent to solitary confinement.

His projected release date was February 26, but he was set free at the start of the month due to a South Carolina prison policies.

He was sent to his home in Spartanburg County, which authorities made sure was suitable for his release. He was told he had to tell authorities if he was going to move towards the south of the state.

He did not report that he was going to Charleston ahead of Tuesday's alleged kidnapping.

Evans has not been identified as a community safety threat.A manhunt is underway for two masked men dressed in black seen running from a suspected getaway car.

Police said a man wearing a black balaclava was seen fleeing the scene of the daylight execution of ex-bikie boss Mick Hawi in Sydney's south on Thursday.

The gunman got into a Mercedes station wagon near the West Botany Road and Lindsay Street after shooting Hawi in the face outside Fitness First Rockdale.

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A manhunt is underway for two masked men wearing black seen running from their burning getaway car (pictured is Mick Hawi)

Police said a man wearing a black balaclava was seen fleeing the scene of the daylight execution of ex-bikie boss Mick Hawi in Sydney's south on Thursday (pictured are the two suspects)

The gunman got into a waiting Mercedes station wagon near the West Botany Road and Lindsay Street after shooting Hawi in the face outside Fitness First Rockdale (pictured is the suspected getaway car)

Police from the public order and riot squad (pictured) conducted a line search of Chandler Street, where the car went up in flames, on Friday morning

The grey-coloured getaway car was set alight on nearby Chandler Street in Kogarah a short time later.

Two men, believed to be the gunman and the getaway driver, were caught on CCTV running from the vehicle.

Police from the public order and riot squad conducted a line search of Chandler Street, where the car went up in flames, on Friday morning.

Hawi, former national president of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang, was shot multiple times as he left the gym at 12.10pm.

Hawi (pictured, centre), a 37-year-old father-of-two, was treated at the scene and taken to St George Hospital in a critical condition but later died of his injuries

The grey-coloured getaway car was set alight on nearby Chandler Street in Kogarah a short time later (pictured is one of the suspects)

Two men (pictured), believed to be the gunman and the getaway driver, were caught on CCTV running from the vehicle

Hawi, former national president of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang, was shot multiple times as he left the gym at 12.10pm (pictured is the suspected getaway car)

Police from the public order and riot squad were seen searching the street where the car was set alight

Police fear the shooting could spark an all-out bikie war, due to tensions within the Comanchero and between the gang and other clubs (pictured is the scene of the shooting)

The 37-year-old father-of-two was treated at the scene and taken to St George Hospital in a critical condition but later died of his injuries.

Police fear the shooting could spark an all-out bikie war, due to tensions within the Comanchero and between the gang and other clubs.

Hawi was released on parole in 2015 after spending years in jail for his role in the death of Anthony Zervas during a brawl at Sydney Airport in 2009.

Zervas was killed in a fight between Comanchero and Hells Angels bikies, and Hawi was convicted of murder before having his charge downgraded to manslaughter.Every now and again comes a story that makes you want to weep with despair about policymakers priorities. Like this one out of Detroit: In one of the lowest-performing districts in the nation, students have been using outdated textbooks for nearly a decade.

Michigan adopted the Common Core State Standards in 2010, part of a wave of states that approved the K-12 student expectations. Among other things, the standards require more reading and writing based on texts and math instruction that emphasizes concepts over rote procedures.

But the 48,000-student Detroit district, the states largest, never fully updated its materials to match, according to a recent audit of its curricula. Its reading textbooks, for example, date to 2007, according to the Detroit News . The audit, funded by a Wayne County regional education agency, was conducted by David Liben, a former principal and teacher who helped craft the English/language-arts standards and is now at the nonprofit consulting group Student Achievement Partners.

Think about that for a moment: Detroit students have been taught out of books that are not aligned to state goals or the tests that they have been taking. Nor have teachers had access to materials that support some of the standards goalssuch as using a rich collection of fiction and nonfiction texts to build students background knowledge and vocabulary, which many lack when they first show up in the classroom.

The Detroit school system, as most readers know, has been in a state of administrative dysfunction for years. It only returned to an elected school board in January of 2017, after having experienced a series of emergency managers, as well as the rise and fall of a state-run turnaround school district that included many of its schools. That and the districts near insolvency clearly did not help matters. Yet research has found that improving curriculum is an inexpensive way of boosting learning compared to other reforms, like hiring more teachers.

One board member called the results chilling, according to the Detroit Free Press Lori Higgins, who reported from the Feb. 13 board meeting, where the audit was discussed.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said at the meeting that he will scrap the current books and put out a competitive bid for materials for the 2018-19 school year, with alignment given priority over vendors that give nice presentations or promise a nice price, Higgins reported.

The alignment of materials to standards, as many states have discovered in the common-core era, is much more difficult than it seems. As Education Week reported back in 2012, states had tough decisions to make over whether the new reading series from the major publishing houses were truly aligned to the Common Core.

See Also: Do Retooled Textbooks Capture the Common Core?

The context of this finding is also interesting. In 2016, Michigan recently adopted legislation requiring all districts to screen students reading progress and to retain them in grade 3 if they are not sufficiently skilled.

Whats more, the state was recently sued over its English/language arts instruction. That class-action suit cited Detroit schools low literacy levelsalong with crumbling classrooms and outdated supplies as a violation of their constitutional equal-protection rights . The states response, so far, has been to point fingers at the districts administrationand to claim that there is no right to literacy in the U.S. Constitution.

Photo: Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.FileReverend Rupert Jarvis (pictured) has resigned from his role as chaplain at the 27,000-a-year Denstone College after being caught cheating on his wife of 24 years

A chaplain at a public school has resigned in disgrace after he was caught having an affair.

Reverend Rupert Jarvis dispensed pastoral care at 27,000-a-year Denstone College, Staffordshire but had been cheating on his wife of 24 years, Eliza.

The full-time chaplain, 48, resigned a month after a complaint was made over his conduct. He has now been suspended from clergy duties by his Staffordshire diocese over the inappropriate conduct.

A source claimed the affair had been going on for a number of years.

In an email sent to parents, Denstone headmaster David Derbyshire said Rev Jarvis was profoundly remorseful for his actions and was sticking together with his 47-year-old wife.

It read: He made an error of judgment by embarking upon an extra-marital affair. It was for the Bishop of Lichfield to decide upon the action to be taken as a result of the adultery, which broke the rules of the Church.

As a result of this breach, Rupert Jarvis resigned and was later suspended from the clergy for three years. Rev Jarvis is not proud of his actions and is profoundly remorseful. The family is sticking together.

The Diocese of Lichfield said last week that Rev Jarvis had been handed a three-year prohibition order for conduct unbecoming and inappropriate to the work of a clergy person but said only that it involved a personal matter unrelated to the college.

Mr Derbyshire yesterday said the phrase inappropriate behaviour could have led to people making assumptions about what Rupert had done and the email was sent with the reverends permission to clarify his position.

The headmaster said Rev Jarvis was a very well regarded member of staff and the woman he had been involved with was not connected to the school in any way.

Denstone College headmaster David Derbyshire informed parents of Rev Jarvis' resignation by email and said the chaplain and his family would be 'sticking together'

Rev Jarvis, who has consented to the prohibition order, resigned from his post at the school in July  a month after the Bishop of Lichfield received a formal complaint about his behaviour. His suspension came into force in October.

Fees at the college cost up to 8,900 a term for boarders and 7,000 for day pupils. According to its website, the chaplain offers support for the whole community: pupils, families and staff. Rev Jarvis lives with his wife in a barn conversion outside Uttoxeter, Staffordshire.

She is thought to be a prep-school teacher and the couple have two teenage sons, one of whom attends Denstone.

The reverend was formerly an army chaplain and is believed to have joined Denstone, which is rated excellent by the Independent Schools Inspectorate, around five years ago.

A parent with a child at the school said the chaplain had been regarded as a lovely man. She added: Everyone has always told me how Rev Jarvis would do everything he could and gave years of service to the school. This is really a personal matter for him. Im very happy with the school and the education my child is getting.

A Diocese of Lichfield spokesman confirmed that the complaint concerned a personal matter unrelated to the college.

Rev Jarvis were unavailable for comment last night.A 26-year-old southwest Idaho high school teacher has been arrested on a half-dozen sexual battery counts after police say they found evidence she was having sex with her 17-year-old male student.

Meridian police on Tuesday took Rebecca Mason-Cales into custody and booked her into the Ada County Jail. She is facing six counts of felony sexual battery of a minor child.

West Ada School District officials say they received an anonymous email concerning the relationship between the married Mountain View High School teacher and a student. School officials immediately contacted the Meridian Police Department.

Teacher booked: Rebecca Mason-Cales, 26 (left and right), a German and history teacher from Idaho, has been charged with six counts of sexual battery of a minor child for allegedly having sex with her 17-year-old student last fall

Mason-Cales has worked at Mountain View High School in Idaho for two years

According to a press release from the police, investigators were able to determine that the suspected sexual relationship between Mason-Cales and the teenager began in August 2017.

Prosecutors further revealed during Mason-Cales' arraignment on Wednesday that the German language and history teacher allegedly had sexual encounters with the student at least six times in September and November, and continued sending the boy 'graphic images' until as recently as this Monday.

Idaho Statesman reported that Mason-Cales was ordered held on $20,000 pending her next court appearance scheduled for March 7.

Prosecutors say Mason-Cales had sex with the teen six times, then continued sending him 'graphic images' until the day before she was arrested on February 13

Police do not believe there are any other victims in this case.

Mason-Cales graduated from Boise State University with a Bachelors degree in German and secondary education, with a minor in history. She has been teaching at Mountain View High for two years.

Her Facebook relationship status indicates that she got married in July 2015 after dating her boyfriend for at least seven years.The Labour leader (pictured in 1984) found himself at the centre of a storm yesterday after secret documents revealed that he had met Lieutenant Jan Dymic

A secret agent who Jeremy Corbyn hosted in the House of Commons was part of a spy ring later expelled from Britain by Margaret Thatcher, it emerged last night.

The Labour leader found himself at the centre of a storm yesterday after secret documents revealed that he had met Lieutenant Jan Dymic  who was posing as a Czech diplomat under an alias  on at least three occasions in the Eighties, when he was a new MP.

But while Mr Corbyn denied knowing that he was a spy, it emerged yesterday that Dymic was publicly exposed and expelled by Mrs Thatcher's government just three years after making contact with Mr Corbyn in 1986.

Experts said that Dymic's real name was Jan Sarkocy, a Slovak engineering graduate with 'James Bond good looks' who was known for his cunning espionage tactics.

Sarkocy was expelled by Mrs Thatcher's Government in 1989 amid an ongoing 'spy war' between Britain and the Soviet Bloc, when his supposed role as a diplomat was exposed as a sham.

Documents revealed yesterday that Mr Corbyn was given the codename 'Cob' after meeting the highly-ranked agent, who was actually working for the secret police in Czechoslovakia during his time in the UK. The Labour leader was apparently being used as a contact by Dymic in order to access information from MI5 and MI6.

The Labour leader met the Czech agent at least three times after being vetted by communist handlers in 1986, papers reveal

Last night, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said Mr Corbyn's 'betrayal' showed why he should never be trusted as prime minister.

He said: 'Jeremy Corbyn has never had Britain's interests at heart. Time and time again he has sided with those who want to destroy everything that is great about this country, whether it is sympathising with terrorists, backing rogue regimes  or cosying up to those who want to inflict pain and misery on the British people.

'That he met foreign spies is a betrayal of this country. He cannot be trusted.'

Mr Corbyn met 'Lieutenant Jan Dymic' on three occasions across 1986 and 1987, apparently believing he was a diplomat. In fact, he was working for the Statni Bezpecnost  known as the StB  a notorious Czech secret police force during the Communist era.

At the time of his expulsion there was significant concern that spies from behind the Iron Curtain were focusing their efforts on Labour MPs in London to uncover state secrets.

Mr Corbyn allegedly provided the spies with material about the arrest of an East German, according to the leaked documents

One page of the documents reveals contact was established with Mr Corbyn twice in 1986

Intelligence services described the operation to throw out Sarkocy and thee other alleged spies as a 'highly significant blow against the intelligence networks operated by Czech agents on behalf of Russia'.

Documents seen by the Mail yesterday described how Sarkocy was ordered to infiltrate British contacts to gain information on America's nuclear activity.

He was also tasked with finding out vital information about British industry and science to send back to Prague.

Soviet officials noted how Mr Corbyn was of interest because of his 'active income of information from within the British special services'.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said Mr Corbyn's 'betrayal' showed why he should never be trusted as prime minister

Secret police files reveal that the future Labour leader first met the spy in the Commons in November 1986, as the communist regime in the country was dwindling, after being introduced by Left-wing activists.

They approached Mr Corbyn, who was said to have shown a 'positive' view of the Eastern bloc, because he was 'very well informed' about people with ties to 'anti-communist agencies'.

Notes from the meeting document how Mr Corbyn was 'negative towards [the] USA, as well as the current politics of the Conservative Government'.

'Behaviour is reserved and courteous, however, occasionally explosive (when speaking in defence of human rights), though the performance is calm and collected,' it added.

The record noted his phone number and home address in North London's Finsbury Park and listed his hobbies as owning dogs and fish.

The backbencher is said to have expressed interest in having more meetings with the Czech official.

A senior official from the Czech Interior Ministry signed off the vetting of Mr Corbyn in January 1987 after a 'Top secret' memo marked 'contact established' was sent back to Prague.

Documents seen by the Sun outline a second meeting at Mr Corbyn's constituency office on July 3, 1987, which was also attended by a member of the Czech Communist Party's central committee.

A third meeting lasting 90 minutes took place in the Commons on October 24 in the same year, during which Sarkocy raised concerns about British intelligence operations against Soviet spies.

Mr Corbyn is said to have warned of yet more British measures and handed over a copy of the Sunday People containing a story about an MI5 probe into suspected Stasi spy Ulrich Kempf.

While a note described the conversation as 'limited', the Czech outlined how he would focus on 'issues along foreign counter-intelligence and the so-called high-risk areas in future'.

However, records of the spy's activities in the StB archive in Prague do not note any further encounters between the pair.

Svetlana Ptacnikova, the archive's director, said Sarkocy was known by his bosses as incredibly intuitive and adept in using 'non-traditional' measures to get close to contacts.

'His main job was to uncover preparations by the USA for a nuclear attack against the Soviet Union,' she said.

'He was supposed to search NATO countries to follow the inner situations there, as well as diplomatic controversies between them.'

The spy was also tasked with monitoring Britain's 'technological and scientific successes'. She said that Mr Corbyn was not an 'active informer', but rather somebody who was being utilised for sensitive information.

Sarkocy gained his reputation working in Bratislava before being moved to the StB in the Czech capital Prague.

He was then transferred to the country's foreign ministry where he was prepared for a new mission as a diplomat in the Czech embassy in Kensington, London, working as a second secretary.

Sarkocy was kicked out of the UK in 1989 for his part in an alleged spy ring said to have been masterminded by a Czech diplomat known as 'Sinister Helena'  Dr Helena Krepelkova, noted as an expert in espionage projects.

Mrs Thatcher told the Commons at the time that action had to be taken because of their 'unacceptable activities'.

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: 'During the Cold War, intelligence officers notoriously claimed to their superiors to have recruited people they had merely met.

'The existence of these bogus claims does not make them in any way true, as the Sunday Times found out to its cost when it published fabricated allegations about former Labour leader Michael Foot and the KGB.'The alleged ringleader of teenage gang 'Gucci Gangsters' that has been terrorising Brisbane's north was arrested smiling and saying 'Northside'.

Up to 50 teenagers aged between 14-17 are believed to be part of the youth gang robbing luxury homes, stealing cars, cash and jewellery in Brisbane.

Commissioner Ian Stewart has urged other members to hand themselves in after the arrest of the 17-year-old alleged gang boss on Wednesday.

The alleged teenage leader accused of terrorising luxury homes has been arrested

The teens are accused of terrorising luxury homes and stealing cars to fund their lifestyles

'Just like anyone else, the teenagers are not above the law and the leaders arrest I think will be the first of many,' Mr Stewart told Seven News.

'Hes only 17 and I think its amazing weve got young people out there who have absolutely no respect.'

The alleged ringleader's arrest follows a six-month investigation by Seven News into the gang.

The alleged leader was found cowering under his bed before being arrested by police

Police have previously struggled with the 'Gucci Gangsters' who constantly ignore their court penalties

Police have struggled with the 'Gucci Gangsters' who are constantly ignoring their court penalties and also reoffending while on bail.

Officers raided a Petrie house on Wednesday night, arresting the teen and seizing a firearm and crossbow after finding him hiding under his bed.

The alleged gang leader is also accused of hitting a police officer and 12-year-old girl.

The alleged gang leader is also accused of hitting a police officer and 12-year-old girl

The alleged ringleader was charged with 11 offences adding to the number of offences he already has

'The person arrested on Wednesday has been charged with 11 offences,' Mr Stewart said.

'These offences add to the number of offences he already has which I understand to be being dealt by the courts,' said the Commissioner.Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, 34, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and torture on Thursday

A mother has pleaded guilty to torturing and murdering her eight-year-old son because her boyfriend thought the boy was gay.

Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, 34, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and admitted the special circumstance allegation of intentional murder by torture in Los Angeles on Thursday.

Fernandez and her 37-year-old boyfriend Isauro Aguirre horrendously abused her son, Gabriel Fernandez, for months leading up to the boys death on May 22, 2013.

Aguirre, who was found guilty of murder and torture in November, beat the young boy because he thought he was gay.

Young Gabriel's horrific abuse included being beaten, burned with cigarettes, whipped, shot with a B.B. gun, forced to eat cat litter and feces, and locked in a container for days, according to prosecutors and witness testimony.

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Young Gabriel's horrific abuse included being beaten, burned with cigarettes, whipped, shot with a B.B. gun, forced to eat cat litter and feces, and locked in a container for days

Isauro Aguirre, 37, was found guilty of murder and torture in November. Jurors recommended the death penalty for Aguirre in December and he is scheduled to be sentenced on March 8

These were the extent of eight-year-old Gabriel Fernandez's facial injuries when he was taken to hospital in May 2013 after suffering eight months of abuse. He was brain dead when he arrived and had been placed on life support in this photograph

Fernandez faces life in prison without parole when she is sentenced on June 7.

Jurors recommended the death penalty for Aguirre in December. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 8.

Heartbreaking details of the abuse shocked the courtroom during Aguirre's trial last year.

Registered Nurse Alison Segal witnessed the moment Gabriel Fernandez was rushed into the Antelope Valley Hospital after he was found unresponsive at his mother's home in Palmdale, on the northern outskirts of Los Angeles.

'There were abrasions. There were open wounds. There was bruising. There was swelling. There was marks on the legs. There was skin missing off the top of the neck, so there were multiple injuries on Gabriel... head to toe,' she said, according to ABC 7.

In court, the emotional nurse testified that she was asked to assess Gabriel when he was brought into the hospital, but his condition was so critical she could not do a comprehensive assessment. He was later rushed to Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

She said Gabriel's chart that night said the child had fallen in the shower, but Segal said she knew that wasn't the case.

Segal said Gabriel was on a ventilator and his heart had stopped at least twice.

'They had to resuscitate him with extreme measures,' she said. Segal said Gabriel was only 88 degrees, which is a low temperature for a child.

Registered Nurse Alison Segal (pictured in court) witnessed the moment Gabriel was rushed into the Antelope Valley Hospital on May 22, 2013, after he was found unresponsive

Paramedics found the boy unresponsive in their Los Angeles home in 2013 (above)

Segal testified that Gabriel 'had BB pellets lodged in his groin and lungs, a cracked skull, two missing teeth, burns to his body and three broken ribs' when he died. His autopsy chart is seen

Also in the Aguirre trial, Gabriel's siblings told the court how the pair singled him out and subjected him to sickening abuse because they thought he was gay.

Prosecutors said Fernandez and Aguirre put cigarettes out on his skin, beat him with a bat and shot at him with a BB gun.

The family had been reported to authorities several times by concerned acquaintances who were worried for Gabriel's welfare but the case was overlooked.

His teenage brother and sister wept as they testified against the pair in court.

Ezequiel C, Gabriel's 16-year-old brother, told how Aguirre put a sock over his brother's mouth on occasion and sometimes used a bandana to silence him.

He also said Aguirre kicked Gabriel in the face, stomach and groin and that he used a wooden hanger to beat him sometimes.

When his injuries were visible, he says the pair told him to lie and say Gabriel suffered them when they were playing.

Gabriel's siblings said on Wednesday that their stepfather also used to shoot him with a BB gun

Aguirre used a bat to hit the eight-year-old in the groin and other parts of the body

Pearl Fernandez (left in court previously) pleaded guilty after her boyfriend Isuaro Aguirre (right during his trial) was convicted of murder and torture

The couple also used to taunt Gabriel by calling him gay and would force him to wear girl's clothes to school, he said.

In addition to beatings, they tortured the boy by forcing him to eat spoiled food, the court heard.

His brother described how they once made him eat rotten spinach and even made him eat his own vomit when he threw up onto the table afterwards.

They also forced him to eat cat litter and cat feces. The boy's 14-year-old sister, named only as Virginia, also testified on Wednesday.

She fought back tears as she told how they only ever picked on Gabriel and left her and her brother alone.

On May 22, 2013, the night of Gabriel's death, she said she watched as Aguirre punched him repeatedly in the head.

Gabriel's siblings said he was picked on by the pair because they thought he was gay. They would taunt him by forcing him to wear girl's clothes to school, they said

Gabriel (above before the abuse) was beaten for eight months before his death in May 2013

When he fell to the ground after the fatal blow, Aguirre and the boy's mother panicked, she said.

They placed him in the shower and slapped him continuously to try to revive him but were unsuccessful and eventually called 911.

When paramedics arrived, they claimed he had been playing with his brother in the cabinet, where they made him sleep, when he hit his head.

Gabriel's death shocked the nation in 2013 and triggered a string of internal investigations within Child Protective Services.

Nine different sheriff's deputies investigated the case but none made any arrests before his death.

Caseworkers Patricia Clement and Stefanie Rodriguez and supervisors Kevin Bom and Gregory Merritt ignored evidence of repeated abuse, prosecutors claim.

A judge said last year that their actions amounted to criminal negligence, adding that in the months before Gabriel's death 'red flags were everywhere'. All four have pleaded not guilty.Tomorrow former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney will announce his intentions to run for U.S. Senate in Utah and then give a speech to grassroots Republicans Friday night.

Originally, Romney had planned to jump into the race today, but tweeted last night that he was delaying saying anything out of respect for the victims of Wednesday's school shooting in Florida.

A source close to Romney told Reuters of the ex-nominee's revised plans.

Former Republican nominee and ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will restart his political career tomorrow, announcing on social media that he plans to seek the Utah Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Orrin Hatch

Earlier this month, Mitt Romney sent out this tweet announcing that he planned to make an announcement about his Senate prospects on February 15, but the school shooting in Florida bumped the announcement to the next day

Mitt Romney's tweet linked to his website, MittRomney.com, which in a not-so-subtle way asked interested parties for their information so they could 'Join Team Mitt'

President-elect Trump (left) briefly flirted with making Mitt Romney (right) his secretary of state, inviting him to dinner in November 2016. That never happened, likely because Trump never forgave Romney for his March 2016 speech labeling Trump a 'phony' and a 'fraud'

In hitting back at Mitt Romney (left), then-candidate Donald Trump (right) said at a March 2016 campaign rally that Romney was 'begging for my endorsement. I could have said, "Mitt, drop to your knees." He would have dropped to his knees.' Trump endorsed Romney in February 2012

The Washington Examiner had previously reported that Romney was going to use social media on Thursday to get the message out.

The former Massachusetts governor had dropped a not-so-subtle hint on February 1 that he planned to jump in.

In a tweet, he said he was 'looking forward' to making an announcement about the race on February 15 and linked to MittRomney.com, which asked potential supporters for their information to 'Join Team Mitt.'

He had since posted on Facebook reminding users of the forthcoming announcement.

Romney will address Republican grassroots supporters Friday night at the Utah County Republican Party Lincoln Day dinner.

Romney was always supposed to keynote the event, but will now use it as a platform to start to get his campaign message out.

The 2012 GOP nominee is not expected to field much competition in the race, which is for the seat currently occupied by Sen. Orrin Hatch, an 83-year-old Republican who announced his retirement early last month.

As soon as Hatch signaled he was out, Romney changed his location on his Twitter account to Holladay, Utah, one of the two locales where he owns homes in the state.

Despite his late father being a politician in Michigan and Romney, himself, serving as governor in Massachusetts, he has a deep relationship with the state, especially because of his Mormon faith.

In December, Utah Republicans came to Romney's defense when former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon charged that he 'hid' behind his religion to avoid service in Vietnam.

Bannon went on the attack after Romney criticized the ex-aide's continued support for GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore in Alabama. Moore had been accused by multiple women of preying on them, sexually, as teenagers.

With Bannon still in good graces with President Trump at that time, the episode further exposed the continued rift between Romney and the White House.

Additionally, Trump had encouraged Hatch to stay in the Senate, in hopes of maintaining an ally in the body over Romney, who could replace retiring Sen. Jeff Flake as the president's most vocal thorn in his side from the Republican Party.

While Trump had briefly considered Romney to be his secretary of state, it seems to two men never quite buried the hatchet.

Romney, in what was an unprecedented move from a former presidential nominee, inserted himself into the 2016 primary begging voters to select anybody-but-Trump.

'And let me put it very plainly,' he said in March 2016. 'If we Republicans choose Donald Trump as our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished.'

Romney went on to talk about the now-president's failed businesses.

'A business genius he is not,' Romney said.

The ex-nominee also called out Trump for his 'misogyny,' his lying and his love of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, months before the Russian election meddling was known about.

Romney, most famously, also labeled Trump a 'phony' and a 'fraud.'

Trump hit back at Romney at a rally in Maine the next day.

'I don't know what happened to him,' Trump said, who had previously mocked the ex-nominee for running 'one of the worst races in presidential history.'

'You can see how loyal he is. He was begging for my endorsement. I could have said, "Mitt, drop to your knees." He would have dropped to his knees,' candidate Trump said in classic Trumpian fashion.A vendor waits for buyers beside dogs in cages at a market in Yulin city, southern China. The city has an annual dog meat festival every year on the summer solstice

It's not uncommon to see people eating dishes made with dog meat in southern China, especially in the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi.

The city of Yulin, in Guangxi Province, has an annual dog meat festival every year on the summer solstice.

According to Keith Guo, an animal lover working for PETA Asia and a native of Guangdong, dog stew is common in his home province as well as the neighbouring Guangxi.

Mr Guo, 27, who has a passion for food sociology, explained that meat from dogs smells and tastes gamier compared to other types of meat, so chefs would use spices such as chilli peppers and ginger to cover the odour.

As a result, dog stew is heavy and could warm up the diners' body quickly.

'For traditional Chinese medicine, any food that could warm up the body is considered beneficial,' he told MailOnline. 'That's also why dog meat is thought to be especially nutritious to the human body.'

Mr Guo added that the weather could get humid in southern China during winter, and according to traditional Chinese medicine, humidity could weaken one's health. That's why locals like eating warm dog stew to boost their immune system.

Mr Guo said he lost five pets to dog thieves when he was growing up in Guangdong.

He condemned the thieves' behaviour.

'For dog owners, the stolen dogs are their friends and family, and they shouldn't be the food in someone else's mouth.'Google is finally putting an end to those rage-inducing advertisements that pop-up on your screen.

Starting tomorrow, Google Chrome will be equipped with a built-in ad blocker that's meant to prevent many of the most 'intrusive' ads that users find annoying, the firm said in a blog post.

The ad blocker is coming to both the desktop and mobile version of Google Chrome.

A few kinds of intrusive ads that will no longer run on Chrome include pop-up ads, auto-play video ads with sound, flashing animated ads and 'pre-stitial' ads with a countdown, which are basically ads that take up your entire screen and don't let you exit until a countdown expires.

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Google is rolling out its brand new ad blocker on Thursday that will finally put a stop to auto-play ads with sound, flashing animated ads and other 'intrusive' advertisements

It's part of Google's wider effort to make browsing the internet a more enjoyable experience.

Last month, the firm introduced a new feature that lets users permanently mute any tab that blares noisy, full-page advertisements.

Google first announced the new ad blocker last April, noting that it wouldn't block all advertisements, just ones that it deems bad or intrusive.

The move is in line with Google's membership in the Coalition for Better Ads (of which Facebook is also a member).

The coalition surveyed more than 40,000 internet users in North America and Canada to find out which ads they considered most annoying.

The survey revealed that the most intrusive ads were prestitial ads, or full-page ads that block you from seeing a webpage, and flashing animated ads.

Google will determine which websites are guilty of serving up intrusive ads by sampling certain pages on a specific site and giving them a score of 'passing, warning or failing.'

Google first announced the new ad blocker last April. At the time, they said that the ad-blocking software wouldn't block all advertisements, just ones that it deems bad or intrusive

If a site fails the test, they'll be notified by Google, given multiple warnings and then if the ads are still on the site, they'll be blocked automatically after 30 days.

Google said that as of February 12, roughly 42% of sites that had been identified as failing the Better Ads Standards had resolved the issues.

Hundreds of millions of internet users have already installed ad blockers on their desktop computers, but Google's ad-blocking technology marks a rare instance where tech giants are taking steps to stop the intrusive ads using their own software.

Google Chrome is used by more than 50% of users around the globe that surf the internet in a web browser.

WHAT KINDS OF ADS WILL BE STOPPED IN GOOGLE CHROME'S NEW AD BLOCKER? Google's new ad-blocking technology will be rolled out to both mobile and desktop versions of Chrome starting on Thursday. The software blocks inferior ads outlined in standards developed by the Coalition for Better Ads. In total, the coalition In total, the coalition identified 12 of the most 'intrusive' advertisements. Pictured are the 12 kinds of advertisements that will no longer run in Google Chrome The coalition surveyed more than 40,000 internet users in North America and Canada to find out which ads they deemed most annoying. The survey revealed that the most intrusive ads were prestitial ads, or full-page ads that block you from seeing a webpage, and flashing animated ads. Google Chrome isn't the first popular browser to include its own ad blocker -- Mozilla Firefox introduced software back in 2015. Advertisement

Mozilla FireFox, another web browser, built an ad blocker into their platform several years ago in 2015.

Some critics argue that Google's new ad-blocking technology will serve as just another way to cement its dominance in the digital ad duopoly that exists between it and Facebook.

Google currently controls about 75% of all search traffic on the web and in 2017, it commanded a 42% share of the U.S. digital ad market, according to eMarketer.

Google has launched a new platform for creating bite-sized content for viewing on mobile devices. Amp Stories works in a similar way to rival Snapchat's Discover Stories, providing visually rich full-screen tap-through articles

The move comes as Google has made some other noteworthy changes to the user search experience.

Earlier this week, Google launched a platform for bite-sized 'visually rich' content for viewing on mobile devices, called Amp Stories.

The move is part of Google's push to speed up the Internet for mobile users, the Accelerated Mobile Pages (Amp) project, first announced in 2015.

Amp Stories steps up these efforts, in an attempt to deliver standalone content rich in visuals, video and animation.Cold hands mean a warm heart, as the popular phrase has it.

However women may have colder hands than men at this chilly time of year, according to scientists.

Females and children are thought to need to put their hands in their pockets more because they have less muscle mass, which generates heat to keep the body warm.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge tested this by asking people to plunge their hands into icy water for three minutes.

Those with more muscle saw their hands heat up again more quickly, based on images taken with a thermal imaging camera.

It came as a surprise to experts, who thought fat was more important in warming up people's hands when they get cold.

Females and children are thought to need to put their hands in their pockets more because they have less muscle mass, which generates heat to keep the body warm, according to research at Cambridge University. File image used

The study's lead author, Stephanie Payne, said: 'Being aware of the effects of body composition on how cold your hands get is crucial.

'For example, women and children are less likely to have a high muscle mass so cold-weather gear, such as gloves, should be produced and marketed with that in mind.'

The study by a team of biological anthropologists is the first of its kind and used 114 volunteers willing to plunge their hands into ice-cold water.

Its lead author said: 'Hands have a large surface area-to-volume ratio, which can be a challenge to maintaining thermal balance in cold conditions.

'We wanted to study the influence of body size and body composition on heat loss and rewarming in the hands to determine whether they affect hand temperature and dexterity in cold conditions.'

Participants aged 18 to 50 including university students and local people first had their vital statistics taken and body composition analysed to measure the amount of fat and muscle.

It came as a surprise to experts, who thought fat was more important in warming up people's hands when they get cold. File image used

The rate at which volunteers' hands heated up again was measured and recorded using a thermal imaging camera.

Miss Payne, a PhD student and National Geographic Young Explorer researching human populations across the globe, said: 'We always thought that fat (acting as insulation) was the most crucial factor in thermoregulation, but it's actually muscle playing the vital role.

'The body is this amazing, dynamic system which uses muscle to generate heat to keep the rest of the body warm, including your hands.'

Across the world, some populations have adapted to deal with severe cold, for example by losing blood flow to the hands very quickly to make sure they retain their body heat internally.

Inuit people have periodic pulses of blood to the hands to combat frostbite.

The study is published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.Peruvian elites in the 1100s were easy to spot: they had abnormally elongated skulls.

Important members of the ancient Collagua group in Peru practiced head-shaping, and a stretched, elongated look became a status symbol for elite Collagua.

The Collagua, who lived in the Colca Valley of southeastern Peru, likely modified the heads of babies using bandages or special hats, in order to elongate their heads and create 'alien-shaped' skulls.

According to new research, these head-shaping practices may have provided a symbolic basis for the cooperation of elite groups during an era of intense conflict.

However, the class boundaries formed through head-shaping may have contributed to growing social inequality even before the period of the Incan empire's expansion in South America.

Elites of a South American population in the 1100s were east to spot: they had abnormally elongated skulls. Pictured is a mummified elongated skull found in the city of Andahuaylillas in the southern province of Quispicanchi, Peru, analysed as part of another study in 2011

Matthew Velasco, a bioarchaeologist at Cornell University who conducted the study, told Science News that the 'increasingly uniform head shapes may have encouraged a collective identity and political unity among Collagua elites.'

Velasco says that Collagua leaders may have negotiated ways to live peacefully alongside the invading Incas, as opposed to fighting them.

However, historians are still unsure about what happened to the Collagua people and the neighbouring Cavanas people.

Both groups lived during a time of conflict, after the collapse of two prominent Andean societies in 1100, and before the Incan Empire's expansion at the beginning of the 15th century.

Velasco, who has studied Collagua skull shapes spanning a 300-year period, found that the elongated skulls were increasingly linked with social status.

Velasco studied a total of 211 skulls of mummified humans buried in two Collagua cemeteries, finding evidence of the social status link.

Important members of the ancient Collagua group in Peru practiced head-shaping, and a stretched, elongated look became a status symbol for elite Collagua. The Collagua likely modified the heads of babies using bandages or special hats

The Collagua, who lived in the Colca Valley of southeastern Peru (shown in this map), likely modified the heads of babies using bandages or special hats, in order to elongate their heads

For example, chemical analyses of bones found that women with elongated heads are a wide range of foods.

In addition, Collagua women with stretched skulls were found to have suffered far less skull damage from physical attacks than women who did not have similarly modified skulls.

Until know, most of the knowledge about this practice came from written accounts from Spanish conquistadors in the 1500s.

These documents noted that some Collagua people had tall, thin skulls, while Cavanas had wide, long skulls and may have used wooden planks to do this.

Now, Velasco's study has widened our knowledge on the nuances of these practices.

The skulls and bones were found in burial structures built against a cliff faces, which were likely only for high-status people.

By contrast, burial areas in caves and under nearby rocky overhangs were for common people.

Radiocarbon analyses of some of the samples enabled Velasco to categorise skulls into early or late pre-Inca groups.

A total of 97 skulls (including 76 from commoner burial areas) belonged to the early group (1150-1300), and 38 of these (39 per cent) had been modified.

Some were elongated, whereas others were modified into wide shapes.

Researcher Matthew Velasco says that Collagua leaders may have negotiated ways to live peacefully alongside the invading Incas, as opposed to fighting them. Pictured is Manco Capac, First Inca, 1 of 14 Portraits of Inca Kings.

14 of these skulls were elongated, and of these 14, 13 came from low-ranking people, suggesting that common people first started modifying their skulls to elongate them.

However, because only 21 skulls belonging to elite people were found in the early group, it may lead to an underestimate of the early frequency of stretched heads among elite people.

By contrast, among 114 skulls from elite burial areas in the late period (1300-1450) - 84 (74 per cent) had modified shapes, the majority of which where very elongated.

No evidence was found to determine if common people also had elongated skulls in the late period.This post is by Leah Binkovitz (@leahbink ), senior editor for the Kinder Institute for Urban Research (@RiceKinderInst ), who talked with the Houston Independent School District (@HoustonISD ).

Todays post presents the practitioner perspective on Mondays post: Exercising Choice: English-Language Learners and School Choice .

Exploring The Problem Of Practice Through Research

Almost a third of the Houston Independent School District s (HISD) student body, the largest in Texas, is classified as English language learners. Outcomes for these students vary widely. For example, many of the districts high school valedictorians were once English learners. At the same time, though, there are significant gaps on standardized state tests between students currently classified as English language learners and their peers, particularly in social studies, science, and writing.

As a district of choice, HISD offers a variety of bilingual programming, but meeting the needs of such a diverse group of students remains a challenge. The district wanted to better understand how the school choice system was serving its English language learners, the majority of whom are Latino. In conjunction with the Kinder Institute for Urban Researchs Houston Education Research Consortium , Madeline Mavrogordato and Julie Harris, researchers from Michigan State University, looked at data from the 2012-2013 school year to compare how many former, current, and never English learners enrolled in schools outside their designated school zone.

The district also wanted to learn the reasons behind any discrepancies between the three groups enrollment in non-zoned schools. And indeed, the research found significant variations, including the fact that while roughly a third of elementary students classified as English learners enrolled in schools outside their zone, almost half of both former English learners and students who had never been designated English learners did the same. The gaps were similar in middle school and much larger in high school (see Mondays post for more findings).

The report cited language barriers, cultural differences, and [English learner] students living in neighborhoods with uninformed social networks, as possible reasons, according to the district.

Use Of Research Findings In Practice

In response, the district said it has held recruitment for District School Choice Fairs for the past two years at schools in the neighborhoods in each area of the district in order to be more accessible to parents. It also sent out mailers with information about school choice in both English and Spanish. The district said it also reached out to Spanish-language news outlets to share information about school choice and that it offered support to parents every weekday through its Office of School Choice.

One of the recommendations from the researchers was that outreach could also be supplemented by specific policy changes.

To that end, the district said English language learner students are also given an additional eight points on the District Matrix used for qualification to secondary magnet programs.

Future Work

As the district contemplates the impacts of upcoming budget cuts and considers drastically changing how it funds schools as well as temporarily closing several low-performing schools, questions of equity for all students are more urgent than ever.

Though the data from Mavrogordato and Harris research predates the current conversation, the findings are important to keep in mind as the proposals move forward.

The new recommendations that have not yet been approved by the board would eliminate qualifications in elementary [and] middle school, according to a statement from the district. There would not be any restrictions for any student to qualify [for] an elementary or middle school magnet program. That along with other recommendations on the table would, said the district, make programs more accessible to all families.The search for alien life is being hindered by Bitcoin hunters.

Crypto-miners are hoarding a key computer component needed by scientists to grow their search for ET, a radio astronomer claims.

Scientist say they are now running out of Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) used in telescopes to find aliens.

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Crypto-miners are hoarding a key computer component needed by scientists to grow their search for ET, a radio astronomer claims. Scientist say they are now running out of Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) used in telescopes to find aliens

Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti) is a programme based in California that scans the universe for signs of intelligent life outside of our planet.

Seti scientists are currently trying to improve their capacity for analysing data at two observatories - Green Bank in West Virginia and Parkes in Australia.

They use GPUs to process the vast amounts of data generated but recently, getting hold of the chips has become significantly harder - and more expensive.

Not only are they harder to find, the price of a GPU has doubled in recent months from $500 (350) to $1,000 (700).

Dan Werthimer, chief scientist at the Berkeley SETI Research Center told the BBC: 'We'd like to use the latest GPUs [graphics processing units]... and we can't get 'em.

'This is a new problem, it's only happened on orders we've been trying to make in the last couple of months... That's limiting our search for extraterrestrials, to try to answer the question, "Are we alone? Is there anybody out there?"'

Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) are being used to mine cryptocurrency and the recent surge in popularity has triggered a worldwide shortage. Scientists looking for extraterrestrial life also use the chips and say they can't get hold of any (stock)

WHAT IS A BITCOIN? A LOOK AT THE DIGITAL CURRENCY What is a Bitcoin? Bitcoin is what is referred to as a 'crypto-currency.' It is the internet's version of money - a unique pieces of digital property that can be transferred from one person to another. Bitcoins are generated by using an open-source computer program to solve complex math problems. This process is known as mining. Each Bitcoin has it's own unique fingerprint and is defined by a public address and a private key - or strings of numbers and letters that give each a specific identity. They are also characterized by their position in a public database of all Bitcoin transactions known as the blockchain. The blockchain is maintained by a distributed network of computers around the world. Because Bitcoins allow people to trade money without a third party getting involved, they have become popular with libertarians as well as technophiles, speculators  and criminals. Where do Bitcoins come from? People create Bitcoins through mining. Mining is the process of solving complex math problems using computers running Bitcoin software. These mining puzzles get increasingly harder as more Bitcoins enter circulation. The rewards are cut in half at regular intervals due to a deliberate slowdown in the rate at which new Bitcoins enter circulation. Who's behind the currency? Bitcoin was launched in 2009 by a person or group of people operating under the name Satoshi Nakamoto and then adopted by a small clutch of enthusiasts. Nakamoto dropped off the map as Bitcoin began to attract widespread attention, but proponents say that doesn't matter: the currency obeys its own, internal logic. Dr Craig Wright was suspected as the creator following a report by Wired last year and he has now confirmed his identity as the cryptocurrency's founder.



What's a bitcoin worth? Like any other currency, Bitcoins are only worth as much as you and your counterpart want them to be. Bitcoins are lines of computer code that are digitally signed each time they travel from one owner to the next. Physical coin used as an illustration In its early days, boosters swapped Bitcoins back and forth for minor favours or just as a game. One website even gave them away for free. As the market matured, the value of each Bitcoin grew.



Is the currency widely used? That's debatable. Businesses ranging from blogging platform Wordpress to retailer Overstock have jumped on the Bitcoin bandwagon amid a flurry of media coverage, but it's not clear whether the currency has really taken off. On the one hand, leading Bitcoin payment processor BitPay works with more than 20,000 businesses - roughly five times more than it did last year. On the other, the total number of Bitcoin transactions has stayed roughly constant at between 60,000 and 70,000 per day over the same period, according to Bitcoin wallet site blockchain.info.



Is Bitcoin particularly vulnerable to counterfeiting? The Bitcoin network works by harnessing individuals' greed for the collective good. A network of tech-savvy users called miners keep the system honest by pouring their computing power into a blockchain, a global running tally of every bitcoin transaction. The blockchain prevents rogues from spending the same bitcoin twice, and the miners are rewarded for their efforts by being gifted with the occasional Bitcoin. As long as miners keep the blockchain secure, counterfeiting shouldn't be an issue. Advertisement

To mine Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, users connect to a global network and solve complex mathematical problems.

In doing so, they receive a small payment in the form of cryptocurrency.

Popularity for the high-powered chips has soared in line with the increasing profitability of the various cryptocurrencies.

The processing power required to solve these puzzles is often beyond the capabilities of standard chips and can only be achieved with a GPU.

As a result, Bitcoin-hungry miners have begun bulk-ordering the powerful chips and hoarding them.

Demand for GPUs has spiked and manufacturing companies simply can not keep up with consumer demand.

Manufacturers such as Nvidia have suggested that vendors should restrict large purchases of GPUs from individual buyers to prevent hoarders.

Although the popularity of these processors has escalated recently, their use has been widespread in space exploration for some time.

'At Seti we want to look at as many frequency channels as we possibly can because we don't know what frequency ET will be broadcasting on and we want to look for lots of different signal types - is it AM or FM, what communication are they using?',' said Dr Werthimer.

'That takes a lot of computing power.'

'We've got the money, we've contacted the vendors, and they say, "We just don't have them/"'

Dr Werthimer claims that at some telescopes, Seti has around 100 GPUs processing data at any one time.Nearly 100 new planets orbiting stars outside our solar system have been found by Nasa's Kepler telescope.

Researchers confirmed the presence of the 95 worlds after studying 275 possible candidates from data provided by the probe.

Kepler, which is currently on the K2 mission to discover exoplanets, has found thousands of candidates since it was launched almost a decade ago.

The latest discovery raises hopes that astronomers may soon find a system similar to our own that hosts alien life.

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Danish researchers have located 95 new planets using the Kepler telescope that was launched nearly a decade ago. The telescope has discovered thousands of planets in distant systems

The study was done by an international team led by Andrew Mayo from the National Space Institute at the Technical University of Denmark.

'By increasing the number of planets discovered with K2 by almost 50 percent, this work will help astronomers dive much deeper into analysing and learning about individual planets, particularly smaller exoplanets,' Dr Mayo told Gizmodo.

The Kepler spacecraft was launched in 2009 to hunt for exoplanets in a single patch of sky, but in 2013 a mechanical failure crippled the telescope.

However, astronomers and engineers devised a way to repurpose and save the space telescope by changing its field of view periodically. This solution paved the way for the follow up K2 mission, which is still ongoing as the spacecraft searches for exoplanet transits.

These transits can be found by registering dips in light caused by the shadow of an exoplanet as it crosses in front of its host star.

These dips are indications of exoplanets which must then be examined much closer in order to validate the candidates that are actually exoplanets.

The field of exoplanets is relatively young.

The first planet orbiting a star similar to our own sun was detected only in 1995.

WHAT IS THE KEPLER TELESCOPE? The Kepler mission has spotted thousands of exoplanets since 2014, with 30 planets less than twice the size of Earth now known to orbit within the habitable zones of their stars. Launched from Cape Canaveral on March 7th 2009, the Kepler telescope has helped in the search for planets outside of the solar system. It captured its last ever image on September 25 2018 and ran out of fuel five days later. When it was launched it weighed 2,320 lbs (1,052 kg) and is 15.4 feet long by 8.9 feet wide (4.7 m  2.7 m). The satellite typically looks for 'Earth-like' planets, meaning they are rocky and orbit within the that orbit within the habitable or 'Goldilocks' zone of a star. In total, Kepler has found around 5,000 unconfirmed 'candidate' exoplanets, with a further 2,500 'confirmed' exoplanets that scientists have since shown to be real. Kepler is currently on the 'K2' mission to discover more exoplanets. K2 is the second mission for the spacecraft and was implemented by necessity over desire as two reaction wheels on the spacecraft failed. These wheels control direction and altitude of the spacecraft and help point it in the right direction. The modified mission looks at exoplanets around dim red dwarf stars. While the planet has found thousands of exoplanets during its eight-year mission, five in particular have stuck out. Kepler-452b, dubbed 'Earth 2.0', shares many characteristics with our planet despite sitting 1,400 light years away. It was found by Nasa's Kepler telescope in 2014 1) 'Earth 2.0' In 2014 the telescope made one of its biggest discoveries when it spotted exoplanet Kepler-452b, dubbed 'Earth 2.0'. The object shares many characteristics with our planet despite sitting 1,400 light years away. It has a similar size orbit to Earth, receives roughly the same amount of sun light and has same length of year. Experts still aren't sure whether the planet hosts life, but say if plants were transferred there, they would likely survive. 2) The first planet found to orbit two stars Kepler found a planet that orbits two stars, known as a binary star system, in 2011. The system, known as Kepler-16b, is roughly 200 light years from Earth. Experts compared the system to the famous 'double-sunset' pictured on Luke Skywalker's home planet Tatooine in 'Star Wars: A New Hope'. 3) Finding the first habitable planet outside of the solar system Scientists found Kepler-22b in 2011, the first habitable planet found by astronomers outside of the solar system. The habitable super-Earth appears to be a large, rocky planet with a surface temperature of about 72F (22C), similar to a spring day on Earth. 4) Discovering a 'super-Earth' The telescope found its first 'super-Earth' in April 2017, a huge planet called LHS 1140b. It orbits a red dwarf star around 40 million light years away, and scientists think it holds giant oceans of magma. 5) Finding the 'Trappist-1' star system The Trappist-1 star system, which hosts a record seven Earth-like planets, was one of the biggest discoveries of 2017. Each of the planets, which orbit a dwarf star just 39 million light years, likely holds water at its surface. Three of the planets have such good conditions that scientists say life may have already evolved on them. Kepler spotted the system in 2016, but scientists revealed the discovery in a series of papers released in February this year. Kepler is a telescope that has an incredibly sensitive instrument known as a photometer that detects the slightest changes in light emitted from stars How does Kepler discover planets? The telescope has an incredibly sensitive instrument known as a photometer that detects the slightest changes in light emitted from stars. It tracks 100,000 stars simultaneously, looking for telltale drops in light intensity that indicate an orbiting planet passing between the satellite and its distant target. When a planet passes in front of a star as viewed from Earth, the event is called a 'transit'. Tiny dips in the brightness of a star during a transit can help scientists determine the orbit and size of the planet, as well as the size of the star. Based on these calculations, scientists can determine whether the planet sits in the star's 'habitable zone', and therefore whether it might host the conditions for alien life to grow. Kepler was the first spacecraft to survey the planets in our own galaxy, and over the years its observations confirmed the existence of more than 2,600 exoplanets - many of which could be key targets in the search for alien life Advertisement

Today some 3,600 exoplanets have been found, ranging from rocky Earth-sized planets to large gas giants like Jupiter.

It's difficult work to distinguish which signals are actually coming from exoplanets.

Dr Mayo and his colleagues analysed hundreds of signals of potential exoplanets thoroughly to determine which signals were created by exoplanets and which were caused by other sources.

'We found that some of the signals were caused by multiple star systems or noise from the spacecraft. But we also detected planets that range from sub Earth-sized to the size of Jupiter and larger,' said Dr Mayo.

NASA confirmed for the first time that distant star systems can be home to 'families as large as our own' and it found one planet that was orbiting a very bright star (stock)

One of the planets detected was orbiting a very bright star.

'We validated a planet on a 10 day orbit around a star called HD 212657, which is now the brightest star found by either the Kepler or K2 missions to host a validated planet.

'Planets around bright stars are important because astronomers can learn a lot about them from ground-based observatories,' said Dr Mayo.

'Exoplanets are a very exciting field of space science. As more planets are discovered, astronomers will develop a much better picture of the nature of exoplanets which in turn will allow us to place our own solar system into a galactic context'.

The latest study follows news in December that the Kepler probe had found an eighth planet in a distant star system called Kepler 90.

This was the first time a faraway star had been found to have the same number of planets orbiting it as our own sun.

According to NASA, it confirmed for the first time that distant star systems can be home to 'families as large as our own.'

The new planet, estimated to be about 30 percent larger than Earth, is 'not a place you'd like to visit,' said Andrew Vanderburg, astronomer and NASA Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Texas, Austin.

'It is probably rocky, and doesn't have a thick atmosphere'. And, temperatures at the surface are 'scorching.'

According to Vanderburg, the average surface temperature is likely around 800 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Kepler planet hunting satellite has been searching the stars for distant worlds using Google's AI system, which used machine learning to 'find' planets in the Kepler data with up to 96 percent accuracy.

Neural networks can be trained on huge amounts of data to determine the difference between objects with great accuracy, the team explained in the teleconference.

Much like an AI can learn to spot the difference between cats and dogs, it can spot the difference between patterns associated with planets, and other types of patterns in the cosmos that could be false positives.

The star system sits roughly 2,545 light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco, and of the new planets found, Kepler 90i is the 'smallest of the bunch.'

The new planet orbits its star once every 14.4 days.

But, all of the planets in this system 'tightly' orbit their star, which is thought to be cooler than our own sun, meaning their orbital periods are relatively short.

Before the latest AI-guided results, 'Kepler 90 was tied with Trappist-1, with 7 planets each,' says Jessie Dotson, Kepler project scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley.

'But now, it ties with our own system with the most known number of planets' around a star.Advertisement

One of the firms leading the race to bring Elon Musks plan for high-speed Hyperloop transportation to life has signed its first interstate agreement, in a major step toward building such a system.

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has signed a deal with the North Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency and Illinois Department of Transportation to conduct a feasibility study on a network connecting Cleveland to Chicago.

The plan could theoretically cut the five-hour, 313 mile trip down to just 28 minutes.

With the new agreement, the firm can now investigate a number of potential 'corridors' between the two Great Lakes cities.

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One of the firms leading the race to bring Elon Musks plan for high-speed Hyperloop transportation to life has signed its first interstate agreement, in a major step toward building such a system. An artist's rendering of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies' pod system is pictured

Since Elon Musk first proposed the radical, pod-based transport system, there have been several roadblocks along the way for the firms vying to make it happen.

The biggest of which, HTT says, is all the regulations.

Regulations are the ultimate barrier for Hyperloop implementation, and we are excited to build the first real public-private partnership to bring Hyperloop travel to the US, said Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of HTT.

With this agreement, we welcome innovative and industry-leading partners in both government and industry to our movement.

The firm shared a map tracing a potential Cleveland-Chicago route.

This could eventually be part of a wider high-speed transportation network connecting numerous Great Lakes sites.

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has signed a deal with the North Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency and Illinois Department of Transportation to conduct a feasibility study on a network connecting Cleveland to Chicago. The plan could theoretically cut the five-hour, 313 mile trip down to just 28 minutes

HTT will be holding an event at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland later this month to reveal additional details on the plan.

We came here because places like Cleveland, Chicago, and Pittsburgh have the manufacturing, the raw materials, and the talented, hard working people in order to make it happen, said Andrea La Mendola, Chief Global Operations Officer of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies.

We can source everything from this area. This is a place where you make big things.

Elon Musk is also eyeing Chicago as one of his future Hyperloop hubs.

Last fall, the Boring Company CEO tweeted: 'The Boring Company will compete to fund, build & operate a high-speed Loop connecting Chicago O'Hare Airport to downtown.'

WHAT IS THE HYPERLOOP? Hyperloop is a proposed method of travel that would transport people at roughly 700mph between distant locations. It was unveiled by Elon Musk in 2013, who at the time said it could take passengers the 380 miles (610km) from LA to San Francisco in 30 minutes - half the time it takes a plane. It is essentially a long tube that has had the air removed to create a vacuum. For safety reasons, Hyperloop tunnels need escape hatches in case of fire. The tube is suspended off the ground to protect against weather and earthquakes. There are now a number of firms vying to bring the technology to life, including Elon Musk himself, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, and Virgin Hyperloop One. As several firms vie to create the first operational Hyperloop, Elon Musks vision of a radical transport system that could ferry passengers above land at 760 miles per hour continues to inch closer to reality Advertisement

The project is designed to create a new 'express' option that would take travelers between downtown and O'Hare in '20 minutes or less,' cutting travel times in half.

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) revealed last year theyve begun construction on the first passenger capsule  and it could be available early next year.

According to the firm, their pods will be able to carry a total of 164,000 passengers every day, departing every 40 seconds.

HTT and Spanish firm Carbures have started work on the radical pod that they say will be the first passenger capsule in the world.

Since Elon Musk first proposed the radical, pod-based transport system, there have been several roadblocks along the way for the firms vying to make it happen. The biggest of which, HTT says, is all the regulations. An artist's impression of their Great Lakes transport system is pictured

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies secured deal to study a route connecting Cleveland to Chicago. This could eventually be part of a wider high-speed transportation network connecting numerous Great Lakes sites.

Our dream of creating the next breakthrough in transportation takes a big step forward today, said Dirk Ahlborn, Co-founder & CEO HTT.

A video teasing the construction process shows a glimpse at the inside of a futuristic capsule that could fit 28-40 passengers at a time.

The Hyperloop pod, which will be tested at the company's Toulouse headquarters, will harness passive magnetic levitation and a low pressure tube to hit unprecedented speeds.

The capsule hovers inside a tube with low air pressure, and like a jet plane at high altitude, experiences little air resistance, according to the firm.

The remaining air in front of the capsule is moved to the back using a compressor, allowing for speeds up to 760 mph, with very low energy consumption.

Each pod will be about 100 feet long, and 2.7 meters wide.

An animation of what a passengers experience in one of these pods might be reveals it could have augmented windows that show a realistic perspective of the world outside. The futuristic capsule will fit 28-40 passengers at a time

According to HTT, the worlds first capsule will be ready in early 2018.

An animation of what a passengers experience in one of these pods might be reveals it could have augmented windows that show a realistic perspective of the world outside.

And, they could display the weather conditions, time, and how fast the vehicle is moving.

Elon Musk unveiled the idea of a Hyperloop transport system in 2013, and several firms have since been competing to achieve the first full-scale design.

In March 2017, Hyperloop One revealed photographs of its prototype in the Nevada Desert, showing off the first tube of DevLoop which could become the first full Hyperloop system.

The 1.8 mile (3 km) full-scale and full speed enclosed prototype is taking shape in the desert in North Las Vegas in Nevada  and the company is expected to perform a public trial in the first half of 2017.Iran could be secretly spying on millions of users in the US, UK and around the world who have downloaded covertly state-sponsored applications on Apple and Google's app stores.

That's according to a new report from the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a political group that opposes the Iranian regime, published on Thursday.

The report claims that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has created spyware-enabled apps for 'cyber-surveillance and repression' that are available on the App Store, the Google Play Store and GitHub with the goal of 'monitoring and preventing' new political uprisings.

Specifically, it calls out Mobogram, an instant messenger app available on the App Store and the Google Play Store, as a 'weaponized' application developed and monitored by the Iranian regime.

A new report from the National Council of Resistance of Iran claims that the Iranian regime has created apps enabled with spyware to 'monitor and counter the expansion' of uprisings. Stock image

Mail Online has reached out to Apple and Google for comment.

'The IRGC has weaponized western cyber technology to target its own people as the population is engaged in the uprising to free the country,' said Alireza Jafarzadeh, the deputy director of the NCRI's Washington office, in a statement to Mail Online.

'The Iranian regime is currently hard at work to test the success of these apps on the people of Iran first.'

'If not confronted, its next victims will be the people of other nations,' he added.

Mobogram is ranked 156th on Apple's App Store charts for 'Social Networking Apps' in the US, according to analytics company App Annie.

Mobogram is an 'unofficial Telegram fork,' or an application that's created based on another application's software, NCRI noted.

But Pavel Durov, who founded the Russian end-to-end encryption messenger Telegram, has warned users to stay away from Mobogram, saying it may be insecure.

Mobogram is an outdated and potentially insecure fork of Telegram from Iran. I don't advise to use it.  Pavel Durov (@durov) July 29, 2017

Smartphone users in Iran have turned to apps like Mobogram after Telegram was temporarily blocked inside the country during anti-establishment protests last December.

The majority of users in Iran use Telegram to communicate, instead of apps like Twitter or Facebook.

Telegram has about 40 million monthly users in the country out of Iran's roughly 45 million overall online users, according to Politico.

Pictured are screenshots of Mobogram, which touts itself as the 'best unofficial Telegram app' that lets users send messages and upload files, while claiming to have end-to-end encryption

According to the NCRI, the Iranian regime has developed a Google Play Store-like application marketplace called Cafe Bazaar to develop apps that can spy on users who download them

Durov has also said that Iranian government wanted him to help them use Telegram to spy on users, a request he refused to comply with, Gizmodo noted.

Family members who live outside Iran will often use Mobogram and other Telegram spinoffs as a way to communicate with relatives who still live there.

The NCRI claims those users are likely victims of a mass surveillance project by the Iranian military, wherein state officials are using 'malicious codes embedded in IRGC mobile apps to actively monitor and disrupt the communications of protesters and dissidents.'

WHAT APPS COULD BE VULNERABLE TO IRANIAN SURVEILLANCE? The National Council of Resistance of Iran claims that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has created spyware-enabled apps for 'cyber-surveillance and repression'. Many of these apps are available on Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store, as well as sites like GitHub. Internet users have started using some third-party apps as applications like Telegram and Instagram were temporarily banned . NCRI claims these six apps are embedded with malicious code by the Iranian regime Friends and family members who live outside Iran are also using the apps to communicate with relatives who still live inside the country. 'The Iranian regime is currently hard at work to test the success of these apps on the people of Iran first,' said Alireza Jafarzadeh, the deputy director of the NCRI's Washington office. But it's likely that these apps have been used by people outside Iran, which increases the risk that their activity and personal data is being monitored by the Iranian government. Advertisement

'With the recent uprising, the Iranian regime is now complementing its network surveillance with stateful endpoint (mobile device) monitoring of content, context and contacts to counter the expansion of the uprising and to avert more protests,' the NCRI explained.

What's more the NCRI claims that Mobogram is being distributed by a 'homegrown market place,' called Cafe Bazaar, that's supervised by the IRGC.

Cafe Bazaar is modeled after the Google Play Store and features tens of thousands of apps, according to the company's website.

'It is the IRGC's platform of choice to promote and distribute spyware enabled apps,' the NCRI claims.

Telegram and Instagram were being used by anti-government organizers in 2017 to communicate and spread important information. The Iranian regime temporarily blocked them

Jafarzadeh says the Iranian regime can use the compromised apps to discover users' phone number, address and other sensitive information because they have access to information on users' SIM card.

The Iranian regime has used the spyware to 'threaten, arrest, torture and kill people,' he told the Sun.

In total, the NCRI believes the regime has developed about 100 apps that are embedded with the malicious spyware, including Mobogram, Hotgram, Wispi and other Telegram variations.

Along with Telegram, the Iranian regime also blocked Instagram during the uprising late last year.

The anti-government protests erupted due to citizens' outrage around the government's repressive policies, as well as anxieties tied to the country's economic downturn.Advertisement

The remains of two children ages ten and 12 who were buried 34,000 years ago in Russia have revealed a clue about the way disabled people were treated during ancient times.

Their bodies were found among the Sunghir burials outside of Vladimir, Russia, Live Science reported.

They were placed in a slender, long grave, positioned head to head, and their grave was filled with more than 10,000 ivory beads, more than 300 fox teeth and at least 20 armbands.

Additionally, carved artwork, 16 ivory spears, deer antlers and the likes of two human calf bones, which were placed on the boys' chests, filled the space.

Remains from the Upper Paleolithic period (pictured) have revealed much about the way disabled people were treated at the time, scientists have said. Researchers studied the remains of two boys and determined that even though the children were physically disabled they were cared for and received extravagant burials

Researchers compared their graves to one of a man they guessed was around 40 years old when he died.

The adult's grave was of no comparison to those of the boys, which were packed with riches.

Around 3,000 ivory beads, 12 fox canines, one stone pendant and 25 ivory arm bands were found in the man's grave, which means that he was awarded significantly less than the the children the researchers discovered.

Erik Trinkaus, author of the new report detailing the findings, told Live Science: 'From the point of view of the mortuary behavior, the burial of the adult is, in fact, very different from the burial of the children.'

The Sunghir burials have been examined since their discovery decades ago, and they date back to the Mid Upper Paleolithic period.

The remains of two boys, aged ten and 12 when they died, were placed head to head in the grave, which was filled with riches

The riches in their grave were more spectacular that those of a nearby grave that belonged to a 40-year-old man, which the researchers found curious

The region where the graves are located was enduring a warmer-than-usual period when the remains were buried, researchers have said.

Ice ages occurred both before and after this period.

The higher temperatures during this time at least partially explain how the ancient hunter gatherers who lived during this time were able to break the ground, which otherwise would have been frozen, to bury their community members.

Ten bodies have been found in the Sunghir burials, but the remains of the two young boys are the most spectacular, scientists claimed.

What makes the find curious are the conditions of the children's remains.

Both show signs of having conditions that would have contributed to the fact that they lived such short lives.

Ivory beads, ivory spears, fox teeth and carved artwork were among the riches the boys were buried with. Researchers analyzed the boys' dental records and skeletal remains for the new study

The researchers noted that both had experienced multiple periods during which their bodies were under extreme stress.

They based their finding off an examination of the boys' dental enamel.

Additionally, the younger boy's thighbones were 'exceptionally bowed and short', and the older boy's teeth were hardly used.

A skeletal analysis suggested that the older boy was bedridden.

'To us, [this] doesn't sound like much, but people from this time wore their teeth down quickly,' Trinkaus explained.

This led researchers to speculate that the older boy was fed soft foods.

The remains from the Upper Paleolithic period were found in Russia. A total of ten bodies were found at the archaeological site

WHAT DO SCIENTISTS KNOW ABOUT THE PALEOLITHIC PERIOD? The Paleolithic period, sometimes called the Old Stone Age, is characterized by humans' usage of chipped stone tools. The period's onset has traditionally been linked to the earliest tool construction evidence. Sites from the Lower Paleolithic period have included simple pebble tools, according to Britannica. The hand-ax showed up about 700,000 years ago, and a number of the earliest known have been found in Tanzania. Flint usage has been associated with this period, too. Britannica has reported: 'Alongside the hand-ax tradition there developed a distinct and very different stone tool industry, based on flakes of stone: special tools were made from worked (carefully shaped) flakes of flint. Additionally, the Upper Paleolithic period, which is thought to have begun some 40,000 years ago, has been characterized by stone tool industries that were regional. This specific part of the Paleolithic period is associated with industries that were more complex and specialized. Advertisement

Trinkaus told Live Science: 'It is really bizarre to have an individual who looks like he was bedridden in a group of hunters and gatherers who were extremely mobile.'

Researchers think that other disabled people also received burials around this time.

The study said: 'Indeed, in the Mid Upper Paleolithic, individuals with marked developmental or degenerative abnormalities are relatively common in the burial record, accounting for a third of the sufficiently well-preserved individuals.'

But the boys' ages were unusual, the researchers pointed out, saying that people that young typically did not receive burials that special.

Anthropology Professor Lawrence Straus explained to Live Science that the remains proved that everyone who received an extravagant burial during this time was not necessarily a 'big, adult male hunter'.

'In this case, adolescents - people with disabilities or pathologies that would have limited their full functioning - are getting some amazing treatment,' Straus said.As charged particles streaming from the sun collide with Earths magnetosphere, interactions with different gases create stunning displays of green, red, and purple that appear to dance across the sky.

It's no great mystery what causes these incredible light shows, known as the Northern and Southern Lights, which often spring up over Earths poles.

But, until now, the process behind a particular type of aurora that appears as though it's 'blinking' has never been observed directly.

Using a sensor aboard the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agencys Arase spacecraft, scientists have finally captured a look at the shower of electrons falling to Earth, revealing new insight on the mechanisms behind the auroral phenomenon.

Scroll down for video

Using a specialized sensor aboard the Exploration of energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG) satellite, also known as Arase, the researchers were able to observe the interactions of auroral electrons driven by chorus waves (illustrated)

Among the different types of auroras are pulsating auroral patches, which commonly appear at dawn.

The mechanisms driving the phenomena have long remained elusive  but, with the latest measurements, scientists have pinpointed the interaction between electrons and plasma waves that causes them to appear.

Auroral substorms are caused by global reconfiguration in the magnetosphere, which releases stored solar wind energy, writes Satoshi Kasahara, an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at the Graduate School of Science of the University of Tokyo.

They are characterized by auroral brightening from dusk to midnight, followed by violent motions of distinct auroral arcs that eventually break up, and emerge as diffuse, pulsating auroral patches at dawn.

The new observations were made possible with a specialized sensor developed by the team.

This sensor was aboard the Exploration of energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG) satellite, also known as Arase.

With this, the researchers were able to observe the interactions of auroral electrons driven by chorus waves.

We, for the first time, directly observed scattering of electrons by chorus waves generating particle precipitation into the Earths atmosphere, Kasahara says.

As charged particles streaming from the sun collide with Earths magnetosphere, interactions with different gases create stunning displays of green, red, and purple that appear to dance across the sky

SOLAR STORMS PRESENT A CLEAR DANGER TO ASTRONAUTS AND CAN DAMAGE SATELLITES Solar storms, or solar activity, can be divided into four main components that can have impacts on Earth: Solar flares : A large explosion in the sun's atmosphere. These flares are made of photons that travel out directly from the flare site. Solar flares impact Earth only when they occur on the side of the sun facing Earth.

: A large explosion in the sun's atmosphere. These flares are made of photons that travel out directly from the flare site. Solar flares impact Earth only when they occur on the side of the sun facing Earth. Coronal Mass Ejections (CME's) : Large clouds of plasma and magnetic field that erupt from the sun. These clouds can erupt in any direction, and then continue on in that direction, plowing through solar wind. These clouds only cause impacts to Earth when they're aimed at Earth.

: Large clouds of plasma and magnetic field that erupt from the sun. These clouds can erupt in any direction, and then continue on in that direction, plowing through solar wind. These clouds only cause impacts to Earth when they're aimed at Earth. High-speed solar wind streams : These come from coronal holes on the sun, which form anywhere on the sun and usually only when they are closer to the solar equator do the winds impact Earth.

: These come from coronal holes on the sun, which form anywhere on the sun and usually only when they are closer to the solar equator do the winds impact Earth. Solar energetic particles : High-energy charged particles thought to be released primarily by shocks formed at the front of coronal mass ejections and solar flares. When a CME cloud plows through solar wind, solar energetic particles can be produced and because they are charged, they follow the magnetic field lines between the Sun and Earth. Only charged particles that follow magnetic field lines that intersect Earth will have an impact. While these may seem dangerous, astronauts are not in immediate danger of these phenomena because of the relatively low orbit of manned missions. However, they do have to be concerned about cumulative exposure during space walks. This photo shows the sun's coronal holes in an x-ray image. The outer solar atmosphere, the corona, is structured by strong magnetic fields, which when closed can cause the atmosphere to suddenly and violently release bubbles or tongues of gas and magnetic fields called coronal mass ejections The damage caused by solar storms Solar flares can damage satellites and have an enormous financial cost. The charged particles can also threaten airlines by disturbing Earth's magnetic field. Very large flares can even create currents within electricity grids and knock out energy supplies. When Coronal Mass Ejections strike Earth they cause geomagnetic storms and enhanced aurora. They can disrupt radio waves, GPS coordinates and overload electrical systems. A large influx of energy could flow into high voltage power grids and permanently damage transformers. This could shut off businesses and homes around the world. Source: NASA - Solar Storm and Space Weather Advertisement

The precipitating electron flux was sufficiently intense to generate pulsating aurora.

By analyzing data collected by the ERG spacecraft more comprehensively, we will reveal the variability and further details of plasma physics and resulting atmospheric phenomena, such as auroras, Kasahara says.

A solar storm is expected to make its way to Earth today, with potential to spark stunning auroras in areas of higher latitudes.

According to the NOAA, the forecast suggests the solar storm will be a G-1 or 'minor' storm, which could become a G-2 'moderate storm' depending on how the charged particles hit Earth.Amsterdams hotels arent exactly cheap, and those that are can leave great service wanting. Amsterdams B&Bs on the other hand, are another story. Many of the citys most authentic and affordable bed and breakfasts are in the owners home, so youll benefit from local knowledge, get help with directions and reservations, and really get to know what its like living here. And all with a friendly Dutch welcome and often a homecooked breakfast. Expect to pay from 70 to 130 a night for a good B&B  considerably less than hotels of a similar quality.

B&Bs, like B&B West Violet, offer great service at lower prices than comparable hotels

Willemspark B&B

Willemspark is between Museumplein and Vondelpark, making it a great base for a cultural weekend in Amsterdam. The cosy converted mansion house is charming and bright, and brings together the luxury feel of a hotel with the personality of a bed and breakfast. With just two rooms  each with a private bathroom and breakfast served in your room  make sure you book well ahead of your trip to avoid missing out.

Tram: Van Baerlestraat

Prices from 70 per night

Blaines: A B&B and More

Blaine opens his home to guests at Blaines B&B to give them an authentic taste of Amsterdam, starting out with a hearty breakfast  something different each day  in the dining room. Blaines love of food also moves into the evening, when hell happily serve up a dinner that draws on his knowledge gained over 14 years as a restaurant owner. He loves Indonesian cooking, but its well worth reserving a spot at the table whatevers on the menu. You have keys to come and go as you please, and if you book The Loft, slide back the glass doors and enjoy the roof terrace with picnic table and deck chairs.

Bus: Aalsmeerplein

Prices from 76 per night

B&B West Violet

For Jordaans gallery-chic without the hipster prices, book a stay at West Violet. Its easy to feel relaxed in this fuss-free B&B, which has two big rooms with private en suites and a fully stocked help-yourself communal kitchen, which is open 24/7. Just a five-minute walk from Anne Franks House, its a good place to stay to get a head start on the queue. Or you could just potter around the local bookshops and galleries before heading back to your room for massage arranged by your host.

Tram: Marnixplein

Prices from 93 per night

B&B West Violet offers two spacious rooms each with a seating area, private bathroom and free Wi-Fi

Maes B&B

In the heart of the Herenstraat neighbourhood with all its museums, shops, and restaurants, Maes really does feel like a home away from home. Not only will you have a large comfortable bedroom with crisp sheets and a private bathroom, but youll also have views of the canals and access to a cosy communal living room where you can chill out in between sightseeing and share stories with other guests. Breakfast is served from 09001100, but the kitchen is open all day and is always stocked with coffee, tea, fresh fruit and sweet treats.

Tram/Bus: Nieuwezijds Kolk

Prices from: 102 per night

The Warehouse

Built in 1885, the Warehouse was once used as a bakery. Today, both the two-floor apartment and studio are airy, bright, and modern with beams and wooden floors, and views of the canal. Breakfast isnt included, but theres a fantastic deli, patisserie and coffee shop just around the corner, and plenty of pantry space and crockery at home. Host, Petra, is friendly and always happy to help with transport to and from the airport, and to share local knowledge during your stay. Prinsengracht tram and bus stop is right at the end of the road.

Tram/Bus: Prinsengracht

Prices from 100 per night

The Warehouse has been converted into a stylish studio and apartment, only a stone's throw away from Amsterdam's top attractions

Heerlijck Slaapen

Escape the city  safe in the knowledge its only a 10-minute walk and 20-minute train journey away  at Heerlijck Slaapen, a collection of historic windmills and houses on the grassy banks of the river Zaan. Can you think of a more Dutch setting for your stay? Expect silk-covered headboards, ornate rugs, and dramatic chandeliers juxtaposed with cool Dutch-tiled walls and higgledy-piggledy furniture, and just outside your door, tranquil walks through old peat meadows  its no wonder Claude Monet made 25 paintings here. A locally sourced buffet breakfast is included.

Train: Koog-Zaandijk Station

Prices from 122 per night, though in the low season prices can start from as little as 50

Enjoy a relaxing night's sleep with the peaceful grassy banks of the Zaan as your backdrop, at Heerlijck Slaapen

Between Art and Kitsch

Youll be hard pushed to find a better view from your bedroom than the one at quirky B&B, Between Art and Kitsch. As well as views of the Rijksmuseum and canal, inside theres plenty to see, whether its the Baroque-style sculptures on your dresser or Art Deco breakfast room, where youll find coffee and tea throughout the day and a generous buffet laid out each morning to set you up for a day of exploring the canal area and beyond.

Tram: Albert Cuypstraat

Prices from 100 per nightA luxury resort in the Bahamas is on the hunt for a CFO but instead of 'Finance', the 'F' in this job role stands for 'Flamingo'.

The Baha Mar, which cost 2.48billion to build, announced the new job posting for a Chief Flamingo Officer via social media and those interested can apply via the careers section of the website.

The successful candidate will be put in charge of the hotel's pink flock of birds, which are due to arrive this spring.

A luxury resort in the Bahamas is on the hunt for a CFO but instead of Finance, the 'F' in this job role stands for 'Flamingo'

To be qualified for the role, applicants must have a degree in zoology or a related field.

Day-to-day tasks will include training the flamingos and making sure they have enough food.

The Chief Flamingo Officer must also help develop a breeding program to ensure a healthy population and they must be prepared to incubate eggs, hand-rear young and attend sick animals in case of emergency.

Along with having the right animal skills, the employee must be good with people.

The Baha Mar, which cost 3.5bn to build, announced the new job posting for a Chief Flamingo Officer via social media and those interested can apply via the careers section of the website

To be qualified for the role, applicants must have a degree in zoology or a related field

The job posting stipulates: '[You must be able to] provide dynamic services to ensure guests are "wowed" by Baha Mars animal exhibits.'

Currently the hotel has an array of other animals on site including turtles, sting rays and nurse sharks.

These can be found within an area called 'the sanctuary' where guests can have close-up encounters with the creatures.

The addition of flamingos will no doubt be a hit with holidaymakers.

The eye-catching birds have become a popular feature on the holiday scene.

Tickled pink: Two bikini-clad holidaymakers feed the flamingos at Renaissance Island, Aruba, in the Caribbean. The tourist on the right, travel blogger anna.everywhere, said that the flamingos weren't 'half as excited to see me'

On the island of Aruba, off the coast of Venezuela, guests staying at the five-star Renaissance Resort And Casino on Renaissance Island in May 2017 started a social media frenzy when they posed for selfies with the long-legged waders.

The trend angered many people and one animal campaign group urged tourists not to interact with the animals.

Philip Mansbridge, UK Director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw), said at the time: 'Wildlife selfies are just selfish - especially if the animals in question may not be really living wild and cannot get away.

'While we are not in a position to say whether or not these particular birds are captive or unable to fly, it is best to keep a safe distance from any wildlife.

'Ifaw would suggest making sure your selfies are always safe ones  its fine to take a photo with your friends where wildlife is part of a more distant backdrop, but not a close-up experience which may cause stress or suffering to the bird or animal.'

Baha Mar's job will be open to applicants until February 28 - so if you love birds and sunshine, this might be the dream role for you!Flying from London to Australia is notoriously expensive, but that may be about to change if budget airline Norwegian gets its way.

The low-fare specialist confirmed that 'the door is open' for exploring ways of expanding to Australia.

However, it would need to do a deal with another carrier to succeed.

Flying from Australia to London is notoriously expensive, but that may be about to change if budget airline Norwegian gets its way

The potential move was reported by adelaidenow.com.au and a Norwegian spokesperson told MailOnline Travel: 'As an ambitious airline with a huge aircraft order it's no secret that we have plans to expand globally. We recently launched our first ever route from London to Singapore that offers passengers an affordable springboard to the wider Asia-Pacific.

'Our Singapore-London flights continue to perform well and the door is open to exploring potential ways we can cooperate with other low-cost carriers that would offer passengers onward connections to other parts of Asia, and places as far as Australia.'

This week Norwegian launched the UK's first low-fare route to South America, with a non-stop service from London Gatwick to Buenos Aires.

The new year-round service of four weekly flights from London Gatwick to Buenos Aires Ezeiza International Airport 'breaks the monopoly on direct flights to Argentina' the airline said.

This week Norwegian launched the UK's first low-fare route to South America, with a non-stop service from London Gatwick to Buenos Aires

Fares start from 259.90 (460AUS dollars) one-way, offering passengers 'more choice and lower fares'.

Norwegian CEO Bjorn Kjos said: 'We have marked the start of our new expansion into South America by bringing a taste of Argentina to London Gatwick.

'I am delighted to bring our high quality long-haul flights to another continent as we launch the only direct flight from London Gatwick to Buenos Aires, giving leisure and business passengers affordable access to South America.

'Our first flight to Buenos Aires from the UK marks another milestone for Norwegian. As our first South American route takes off, it is also a first step towards ambitious plans for international and domestic growth in Argentina, ahead of flights to Chicago and Austin from London Gatwick next month.'

In January the airline set the record for the fastest ever transatlantic flight in a subsonic passenger aircraft from New York to London after the journey was completed in just over five hours.

The Norwegian Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner was able to reach a top speed of 776mph as it hurtled across the Atlantic Ocean after being pushed on the 3,458-mile journey by an extra strong jet stream that at times reached 202mph.

This meant that the Norwegian DY7014 service from JFK to London Gatwick only took a total of five hours and 13 minutes, shaving 53 minutes off the expected flight duration.Norwegian has broken its own record for the fastest subsonic transatlantic flight from New York to London, completing the journey in just five hours and nine minutes.

The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, registered as G-CJGI and captained by Gatwick-based Martin Wood, beat the record set in January by four minutes after reaching 799mph on the crossing.

The flight left JFK on Thursday February 8 and was able to touch down at Gatwick airport around an hour ahead of time thanks to a ferocious jet stream.

Norwegian has broken its own record for the fastest subsonic transatlantic flight from New York to London, completing the journey in just five hours and nine minutes. Pictured is the entire crew who operated the flight on February 8. Captain Martin Wood is on the far right

The swift flight left JFK on Thursday February 8 and was able to touch down at Gatwick airport almost an hour ahead of time thanks to a ferocious jet stream

The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, registered as G-CJGI, that broke the record

The number in the top left corner of this image, taken by Captain Wood, shows the incredible ground speed of 695 knots - or approximately 799mph

Captain Wood said: 'This is certainly a monumental coup for Norwegian as weve gone from fast growing to fastest-going. We flew at 33,000ft, right in the core of the jet stream at 193kts (222mph), which was surprisingly smooth and pushed us toward breaking the transatlantic flight record time again on our brand new Boeing 787 Dreamliner.'

In January, a Norwegian Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner was able to reach a top speed of 776mph as it hurtled across the Atlantic Ocean after being pushed on the 3,458-mile journey by an extra strong jet stream that at times reached 202mph.

This meant that its service from JFK to London Gatwick only took a total of five hours and 13 minutes, shaving 53 minutes off the expected flight duration.

This flight broke the record previously set by a British Airways aircraft in January 2015, which was able to fly from JFK to London Heathrow in five hours and 16 minutes.

The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft (G-CKHL) used on the then record-breaking transatlantic flight adorns British tail fin hero Amy Johnson, a pioneering pilot who was the first female to fly solo from England to Australia in 1930.

The previous holder: The Norwegian 787 Dreamliner that set the record in January

The flight stats that show the flight from London to New York in January took eight hours 23 minutes, with the return to Gatwick only lasting five hours 13 minutes

Norwegian, Europe's third largest low-cost carrier, operates double daily flights between London and New York using the state-of-the-art Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

The January 15 departure saw 284 passengers leave JFK at 11.44am local time before arriving in London at 9.57pm GMT.

At the controls was Captain Harold van Dam, who revealed a more impressive record could have been achieved, but turbulence hindered them.

Captain van Dam said at the time: 'The 787 Dreamliner is a pleasure to fly and its a great feeling to know that we have set a new record in this aircraft.

'We were actually in the air for just over five hours and if it had not been for forecasted turbulence at lower altitude, we could have flown even faster.'

Despite the speed achieved being more than the speed of sound, the flight didn't actually go supersonic because the plane was travelling in a body of air that was already fast-moving, which increased the velocity needed to break the sound barrier.

Captain Van Dam told MailOnline Travel: 'When flying we record groundspeed - like a car travelling on the ground - and airspeed due to the varying wind speeds experienced during flight. The highest groundspeed during the flight was 776mph, more than the speed of sound, however, airspeed is actually slower than groundspeed.

'Therefore, our airspeed was at Mach 0.85, below Mach 1.0 needed to go supersonic and break the sound barrier.'

The day before the record breaking flight, fellow Gatwick-based captain Pascal Niewold was in charge of another New York to London flight that had a flight time of just five hours and 20 minutes - just four minutes short of the previous record by BA.

That flight was helped by a maximum tailwind of 224mph and reached an even faster top speed of 779mph.

And Captain Niewold added: 'The passengers and crew were very pleasantly surprised that we were already landing in London.

'It was a very smooth flight with almost no turbulence and as a result of the jet stream we arrived 25 minutes early.'

However, the fastest ever transatlantic crossing by a passenger plane was in February 1996, when a British Airways Concorde flight from New York to London took just two hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds.

The fastest ever transatlantic crossing by a passenger jet was in February 1996, when a British Airways Concorde flew from New York to London in just two hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds

That day, the supersonic jet was able to reach a top speed of 1,350mph as it hurtled across the ocean.

In 1979 a VC-10 passenger plane, now preserved at Duxford Air Museum, completed a journey from JFK to Glasgow Prestwick in an even quicker time than Norwegian's Dreamliners - just five hours and one minute, the captain claimed. Though the journey was 243 miles shorter.

The winter months can often mean that transatlantic flights from the US to Europe become shorter thanks to the jet stream across the ocean intensifying.

This is due to the temperature contrast between the equator and the North Pole being at its greatest, which can lead to wind increases across the Atlantic.

However, the strength of the jet stream only increases in one direction and passengers travelling from Europe to the US may even see their flight times increase.I can still picture clearly the rush of students during class change in my own eighth grade year, and the nervous feeling of invisibility that came with it. Its a look I now recognize in my own middle school students faces, and an enduring and almost universal theme in young adult literature.

It was Mr. Bs last day. He had been a student teacher in our English class for the last few months. Besides the much-discussed problem of his incredibly strong coffee breath, we liked him quite a lot. He brought a fresh enthusiasm to the classroom and he seemed to genuinely like us. He had said good-bye in class earlier that day, telling us it had been a pleasure and honor to be our teacher, and he would miss us. We would miss him too.

In grade school--especially middle and high school--I didnt feel particularly seen or known by my teachers. I wasnt mistreated in any way, but I wasnt understood either. In retrospect, this had a lot to do with the old school teaching style, which had teachers engaging mostly with the whole class, but inviting minimal participation from us. In this scenario, I rarely spoke up. I received grades on my work, but little to no feedback.

When Mr. B expressed his affection for our class, my middle school self didnt know for sure if that included me, even though I had no reason to believe it didnt. But later that day, in the hallway, he said something that changed my life.

The young student teacher had his jacket and shoulder bag on and seemed to be on his way out. I gave a smile and a wave, and he stopped and said, Just a minute, Ariel. I stood curiously by the orange lockers. Listen, Ive been meaning to tell you--your writing is really strong. I dont know if you know that or not, but you could be a writer some day, if you want to. I just wanted you to hear that.

Mr. Bs compliment undoubtedly contradicts the research on effective praise that focuses on specific behaviors not general evaluations; it wasnt perfect pedagogy (he was a student teacher after all), but his brief words meant the world to me. This was the only time I remember hearing anything encouraging about my writing (anything al all, really) until many years later, and I never forgot it.

One sentence from a teacher can make a huge difference in the life of a student.

By contrast, one year in high school, a teacher said something to me that cut in a different direction, and which has also stuck with me. Throughout the year, she enjoyed joking with a classmate, who loved to argue with her, that this classmate would make a great lawyer.

One warm day at the end of the school year, when our work was done, our teacher said she said she would miss us next year and started making predictions about what she imagined each of us doing as adults. Of course she began with the lawyer, and she went on from there with fun and favorable careers for my classmates.

Students were enthused about this and begged her to make a prediction about them next. It did seem like fun, though the teacher in me today cringes big time just thinking about it.

I dont remember if I asked her, What about me? or if she got around to me on her own. She looked perplexed for a moment and then she focused in. Hmm... Ariel, I see you very happy with a big family, she said. And a bunch of kids following you around. I dont remember what happened next, but my face felt hot with a combination of disappointment and shame. It did not seem like she was purposely trying to crush my dreams, but her prediction wasnt even in the ballpark of my dreams--I mean, there was no career at all in that picture, was there?!

Whether or not she intended this, what I heard was, You will be a stay-at-home-mom. And though there is nothing wrong with anyone, male or female, choosing to be a stay-at-home parent, this was not an empowering message to send to a female high school student. Of course, I could look at her prediction as a metaphor for my becoming a teacher, in which case it was kind of accurate. But that was not how I heard it, and how students hear us is what matters most in the classroom.

I told my mother about the incident, and she encouraged me to write a letter to my teacher explaining how I felt, which I did. My teacher wrote back, explaining that being a mother had been the most rewarding experience of her life (I dont disagree with her). She didnt mean any offense, and she had no doubt I could become a professional in whatever area I chose. I considered her explanation, but it just did not change how I felt--which was unseen, and in a way, delegitimized as a serious student.

I share these two stories for the chance they offer to think about the power of our words to students. What sentence will you say to a student--intentionally or not--that will stay with them for the rest of their lives? That might, for better or worse, reframe how they see themselves? How do we show students we see them?

Our relationships with students are a big part of their process of identity formation, and the power dynamic between teachers and students is not equal in that process, because we are already adults with much more fully formed identities. Our students influence and change us, for sure, but not to the extent that we represent, to them, the nature of the adult world. Its a humbling reminder that every day we can change lives for the better, and sometimes all it takes is a few words.

[by Valario Davis on Unsplash ]He's been billed as Married At First Sight's 'millionaire' groom.

But new doubt has been cast on whether or not Justin Fischer really does have it all.

According to a source, the 41-year-old self-described entrepreneur is listed on a couch surfing website and may have RENTED the luxury yacht he traveled on to his decadent wedding to 'wife' Carly Bower.

Not so cashed up? A new source claims Married At First Sight groom Justin Fischer may not have it all, after unearthing his Couchsurfing profile and alleging he may have rented the yacht on which he sailed to his wedding

Justin, who owns three companies according to his LinkedIn profile, is listed on Couchsurfing.com, a popular website that allows its members to stay on one another's sofas.

Although his last log-in was four years ago, the divorced father-of-two wrote that his mission was to 'to meet new people and make new friends!'.

Further raising eyebrows about his status as a 'millionaire' is the claim the star may have rented the luxury Murcielago yacht that he and his groomsmen were seen sailing on around Sydney prior to his wedding.

Rented? Justin and his groomsmen were seen boarding a luxury Murcielago yacht prior to his wedding

A taste for the finer things: During his time on Married At First Sight, the star has been portrayed as a successful businessman with a taste for the finer things in life

The website Sydney Harbour Escapes offers a similar looking Murcielago yacht for hire, at the price of $2000 an hour.

While Justin did not specifically state he was the owner of the yacht, just before boarding the vessel he stated: 'I feel like I've got it all. I'm a successful entrepreneur, I have all the material things I want.'

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Justin regarding his Couchsurfing website and the claim he may have rented the yacht. Daily Mail Australia has also reached out to Channel Nine representatives for comment.

During his time on Married At First Sight, the star has been portrayed as a successful businessman with a taste for the finer things in life.

High-powered: The businessman is the founder and CEO of Brullen, which makes the soft-serve ice cream and frozen yoghurt machines

During his wedding reception, Justin told his new wife Carly that he only flies in first or business class.

The businessman is the founder and CEO of Brullen, which makes the soft-serve ice cream and frozen yoghurt machines.

He established the business in 1998 and works on it with his brother, Scott.

He also owns Ruggito Coffee, a coffee supplier with clients purportedly including McDonald's, and Cafequip, which provides equipment for hospitality businesses.She's the Geordie Shore star who won the UK version of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! in 2015.

And although she's chalked up a number of media appearances worldwide, Vicky Pattinson admits she has 'no talent.'

The 30-year-old told OK! Magazine, 'Let's be real. I'm a reality TV star. I don't have talent. This is where I will peak in life'.

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'I'm a reality TV star. I don't have talent': I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! Australia intruder Vicky Pattison admits she has no acting skills and incidentally 'peaked' in life

Furthermore, she claims she won't be of any use to her campmates in the I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! Australia makeshift kitchen.

'I can't cook, so I won't be bringing that in either. I can't make something exciting out of a possum's arsehole. I just can't,' Vicky said.

Elsewhere in the interview, the reality TV babe revealed that during her 2015 appearance on the UK version of IAC she was the only campmate to put on weight.

'I can't cook, so I won't be bringing that in either. I can't make something exciting out of a possum's a**ehole. I just can't': Furthermore, she claims she won't be of any use to her campmates in the I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! Australia makeshift kitchen.

'I gained weight when I was in the jungle last time...I'm the only person in the history of the show to put weight on. I absolutely cannot have that happen again,' she explained.

Vicky has already hit a few emotional roadblocks on the Australian version of the reality show, as just a few days ago, she broke down in tears as she spoke out about her father's battle with alcoholism.

One in a million: 'I gained weight when I was in the jungle last time...I'm the only person in the history of the show to put weight on. I absolutely cannot have that happen again,' Vicky said

Vicky was speaking to Aussie comedian Fiona O'Loughlin, who revealed to the Brit that she is a recovering alcoholic.

Vicky got emotional as she revealed her own family ties to the disease: 'You hear such horror stories about alcoholism and I see it with my own eyes,' she sobbed.

'You wonder, "Is this person ever going to get any better?" and, "Am I going to end up the same?" or, "Is my dad ever going to turn his life around and be the bloke I used to know he was?"'

Teary: Vicky has already hit a few emotional roadblocks on the Australian version of the reality show, as just a few days ago, she broke down in tears as she spoke out about her father's battle with alcoholism

Vicky went on to admit to Fiona that 'it's me mam I feel sorry for. And him. I want him to have a better life.'

'It feels so good to know there's another side of it possibly for my dad.

'You ask yourself why. As a kid I asked myself, "Was I a bad kid, did I drive him to it, why doesn't he love me enough to stop?"'

Vicky has previously been candid about her desire to curb her own drinking, after shooting to fame on the notoriously wild reality show Geordie Shore.

The star sought help from therapists Nik and Eva Speakman after revealing she was tired of her partying ways, and her inability to just have 'few social drinks' on a night out and instead go for complete blow-outs.

Appearing with the Speakmans on Loose Women, an emotional Vicky explained: 'I sort of want the next phase of my life to be unhindered by sort of I suppose the fact that I don't feel as though I can go out and just have a couple of drinks, I feel like I have to go out and have a massive night.'

'I have to be the life and soul of the party, the centre of attention. I have to be drunk. I can't just have a couple of sociable ones and it hurts.'

The reality star-turned-presenter added: 'It kills us that I can't just be normal in that respect.'

Nik and Eva explained how they helped Vicky to see her favourite drink of gin and tonic differently.

The star has carved out a fresh career as a presenter and I'm A Celeb veteran, having been crowned the Queen of the Jungle on the UK's 2015 series.

She flew to South Africa this month to compete on Aussie version alongside fellow Brit, former Royal butler Paul Burrell.He's known for his comedic sharp-tongue posts about his wife.

And Ryan Reynolds, 41, strikes again, as the actor shared a photo of himself posing with a heart-shaped Valentine's Day cake that he made for wife Blake Lively, 30.

On Wednesday, the Deadpool actor wrote alongside the snap: 'I baked this cake for my wife. The icing is glue, cause Im not a scientist.'

From the heart: Ryan Reynolds, 41, strikes again, as the actor shared a photo of himself posing with a heart-shaped Valentine's Day cake that he made for wife Blake Lively, 30

The Instagram photo showed Ryan holding a pink strawberry-covered cake that featured sprinkles.

The father-of-two appeared proud of his tasty creation while holding up the baked good with polka-dot oven mitts.

Later that day, Ryan's wife Blake also got into the Valentine's Day spirit by sporting a red PVC ensemble while attending New York Fashion Week.

The Gossip Girl actress showed off her outfit in multiple pictures on her social media accounts, before heading off to the Michael Kors show.

Happy couple: Ryan is known for his comedic sharp-tongue posts about his wife; pictured in April of 2017 at the Time 100 Gala in NYC

Blake showed off her luxurious diamond rings and bright coat.

The photos also revealed the actresses injured hand that was wrapped up in white medical gauze.

Just like her husband, the blonde beauty poked fun of herself by captioning her photo: 'If Im this obnoxious at 30, you can only imagine how EXTRA I was on spirit day at school.'

The details: Blake showed off her luxurious diamond rings and bright red PVC coat

Ouch! The photos also revealed the actresses injured hand that was wrapped up in white medical gauze

On display: Blake also posed with Valentine's Day inspired doughnuts, which gave her another excuse to show off her nail art that featured red polished hearts on them

Blake also posed with Valentine's Day inspired doughnuts, which gave her another excuse to show off her nail art that featured red polished hearts on them.

She wrote: 'I spent 10 minutes posing with doughnuts and PVC. What has Instagram done to humanity?'

The happy couple tied the knot back in 2012 and share two daughters: James, three, and Ines, one.

On Monday, the doting mother made headlines as she revealed that she has lost 61lbs. since giving birth back in 2016.Sofia Vergara might have tied the knot to her husband three years ago, but she's still in the honeymoon phase of her marriage.

On Wednesday, the 45-year-old actress wished Joe Manganiello a Happy Valentine's Day with an Instagram photo showing the couple cutting their wedding cake in 2015.

The post also included an image of Manganiello on the beach wearing swim trunks.

True love: Sofia Vergara wished her husband Joe Manganiello a happy Valentine's Day by sharing an Instagram photo of the two cutting their wedding cake on Wednesday

Vergara's touching post was short but said everything it needed to express: 'My Valentines!! U make me happy!!! #ourhoneymoon @joemanganiello.'

The image featured the Latina actress wearing her wedding dress as she cut the cake with Manganiello, who donned his black tuxedo.

The second image didn't include the Colombian beauty, but instead showed her husband sitting on a wooden platform next to the beach water.

Marriage: The Latina also included a photo of her husband enjoying the beach during their honeymoon

The Magic Mike actor also took to social media to express his affection for Vergara.

Manganiello posted a black and white image of the couple all glammed up at a Vanity Fair party.

The starlet's loving husband wrote: 'HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY to the most beautiful woman on earth @sofiavergara .'

Loving husband: The Magic Mike actor also went on Instagram to share a heartwarming Valentine's Day message about Vergara and called her 'the most beautiful woman on earth'

Although the couple tends to be private when it comes to their love life, Vergara opened up to Hola! in 2017 and talked about their wedding, marriage, and life together.

Vergara told the magazine: The wedding was such a beautiful time.

'...This is a really special time for us in our relationship and we enjoy our privacy, but we have the best fans in the world and we know it makes them happy to see us happy and in love.'

Power couple: The Modern Family actress and Manganiello were spotted in 2017 filming Stano together in Queens

The actress revealed that the couple's dynamic together is one that is really silly and fun.

Vergara said: 'He is so funny and ever since we met, that has been really important.

'We even talk to each other all the time in this little voice that we made up, like a couple of dorks. Whoever heard us, would say, "Whats their problem?"'They secretly tied the knot a couple of years ago.

And now former Neighbours star Daniel MacPherson has revealed that despite 'travel' and 'logistics' he and his actress wife Zoe Ventoura are planning on starting a family.

The 37-year old told OK! Magazine, 'It's certainly in the future for us. I can't wait to be a dad!'

'I can't wait to be a dad!': Former Neighbours star Daniel MacPherson reveals he and his actress wife Zoe Ventoura plan to start a family

But the former soap star admitted the couples' routine is non-existent.

'The last thing we have is a routine! There's very few couples I know who deal with the amount of travel and logistics like a pair of married working actors do,' the hunky star explained. 'But it's something we've learnt to deal with very well.'

It's easy to see why the pair can't hold down a routine, as Daniel has been busy travelling the world to film his role in US TV drama series, Strike Back.

Can't wait! The 37-year old told OK! Magazine , 'It's certainly in the future for us. I can't wait to be a dad!'

The British-American military drama reboot has a demanding schedule, and thus far Daniel has travelled to Jordan, Budapest, Croatia and London, to play US Sergeant Samuel Wyatt.

On Thursday, the Aussie star shared a photo to Instagram, hugging a co-star on the set of the show in the Jordan Valley.

'This #ValentinesDay, I hope you are being spoilt by someone who loves you the way Mac loves Wyatt... Have a great day Lovers,' he captioned the snap.

He added the hashtag, 'ZV Approved'.

Meanwhile, his other half, Zoe, 36, has been chalking up her Australian TV appearances, as she recently featured in Love Child and starred in Underbelly Files: Chopper 2018.

Busy: Daniel has been busy travelling the world to film his role in US TV drama series, Strike BackShe's the former Married At First Sight reality star whose boyfriend fell in love with her after watching her on the show.

And on Wednesday, Cheryl Maitland  who admitted to having never had a boyfriend on Valentine's Day before  received a surprise visit from beau Dean Gibbs on the set of Talking Married.

Fellow co-hosts Jayne Azzopardo and Shelly Horton started the episode by apologising for 'dragging [Cheryl] into the studio to film on Valentine's Day'.

Surprise! Former Married At First Sight reality star Cheryl Maitland received a surprise Valentine's Day visit from beau Dean Gibbs on set of Talking Married

Seconds later, Cheryl's boyfriend proceeded to entered the studio while the episode was being filmed, walking over to kiss her on her forehead while handing her a single red rose.

The buxom beauty got teary eyed, before saying: 'Oh my gosh! I did not expect this!'

The hosts were quick to sit Dean down and quiz him on their relationship: 'What do you love about Cheryl?'

Love is (on) the air! The hosts were quick to sit Dean down and quiz him on their relationship: 'What do you love about Cheryl?'

The former Police officer was quick to respond: 'What's not to love about this girl?' Adding: 'I absolutely adore her.'

The two first met through mutual friends in Melbourne but lost touch.

Dean admitted to having reached out to Cheryl with the hopes of rekindling their relationship after watching her feature in a season four Married At First Sight preview clip.

Reality hit! Dean admitted to having reached out to Cheryl with the hopes of rekindling their relationship after watching her feature in a season four Married At First Sight preview clip

The happy couple now reside together on the Gold Coast, with Dean telling co-hosts Shelly and Jayne: 'I moved for love.'

'She's worth it. I love her to bits,' he finished.Former Bachelor 2015 'villain' Emily Simms has surprised her fans by announcing she got engaged to boyfriend Pierre Ghougassian on Valentine's Day.

The 34-year-old took to Instagram on Wednesday to share several romantic photos from the moment real estate agent Pierre proposed on their date.

'He put a ring on it! Were engaged!,' Emily wrote in the caption.

'He put a ring on it!' Former Bachelor 2015 'villain' Emily Simms has surprised her fans by announcing she got engaged to boyfriend Pierre Ghougassian on Valentine's Day

In her post, Emily explained that she was wearing her red Alice McCall dress for the occasion, which happens to be her partner's favourite.

She assumed the couple would just be celebrating Valentine's Day and Pierre's birthday at swanky Melbourne restaurant The George on Collins.

'And the love of my life proposed to me!' Emily wrote. 'I couldn't be happier! Love this silly, funny, thoughtful, caring, loving, handsome man so much!'

'I cant wait to be your wife,' she added.

'I cant wait to be your wife!': The 34-year-old took to Instagram on Wednesday to share several romantic photos from the moment real estate agent Pierre proposed on their date

Well wishers: Emily's social media followers expressed their delight, and even her former Bachelor co-star Zilda Williams commented: 'Your happily ever after... how wonderful!'

Emily's social media followers expressed their delight, and even her former Bachelor co-star Zilda Williams commented: 'Your happily ever after... how wonderful!'

New mother Bec Chin also wrote: 'Can' t stop looking at these pics'.

Sarah Mackay, another contestant from Sam Wood's season of The Bachelor, sent her congratulations too.

Loved up: Emily only publicly debuted her relationship with Pierre in May 2017, in a post shared to Instagram on her birthday

'Oh Em! Congratulations to you and Pierre,' she commented.

Meanwhile, former My Kitchen Rules star Zana Pali wrote: 'Congratulations Emily this is the best news. Maybe a munchkin soon too so happy for you! You deserve this.'

Emily only publicly debuted her relationship with Pierre in May 2017, in a post shared to Instagram on her birthday.

New flame: Pierre appears to be Emily's first boyfriend since her headline-making departure from The Bachelor Australia in 2015

Pierre appears to be Emily's first boyfriend since her headline-making departure from The Bachelor Australia in 2015.

Fans will remember Emily from season three of the Network Ten dating series, where she was one of 21 women vying for the heart of personal trainer Sam Wood.

One of their most steamiest moments involved recreating the steamy pottery scene from the 1990 film Ghost for a photo shoot date.Lauren Brant, 28, has revealed her battle with 'severe anxiety' this week, following a year-long battle with telecommunications company Telstra.

Taking to her Instagram Stories on Thursday, the mother-of-one shared an impassioned essay claiming that her interactions with Telstra customer service staff gave her anxiety during her pregnancy with her first child Miller.

'INSTAFAM- I'm really hoping that I might get some help here? I have been dealing with a issue with Telstra for a year now [sic]. The SAME one... The way they have treated me has been appalling,' she confessed.

Not a happy customer! Lauren Brant, 28, has revealed her secret battle with 'severe anxiety' this week following a year-long battle with telecommunications company Telstra

'It has caused me to have severe anxiety': Taking to her Instagram Stories on Thursday, the mother-of-one shared an impassioned essay claiming that her interactions with Telstra customer service staff gave her anxiety during her pregnancy

Lauren continued: 'It has caused me to have severe anxiety through my pregnancy and with a newborn... The problem is still not fixed a I just need to put an end to it, because it's really upsetting me [sic].'

'I have been escalated twice to the 'highest people' who both resigned and I went back to square one,' she added, before pleading with her followers to help solve the issue once and for all.

'So please, if anyone knows someone who works at Telstra, in their Australian Office in Adelaide... please put me in contact with them? PLEASE!' she concluded.

Help needed! She pleaded with fans to help her get in contact with Telstra so she could solve the issue once and for all

Lauren gave birth to her first child Miller with partner Barry Hall in May last year.

Lauren has been open about her struggles with motherhood, having recently taken to Instagram to revealing she simply 'wasn't coping' with the situation.

She explained that Miller had been 'extremely needy' and wasn't sleeping properly.

Happy family! Lauren gave birth to her first child Miller with partner Barry Hall in May last year

'He is constantly trying to get close to me, hold my face, feel my skin against his and get comfort from breastfeeding,' she said.

'I love that he loves me that much, but I feel drained and so damn exhausted.'

Her candid post was met with support from other mothers on Instagram, who described her honesty as 'damn inspiring'.

Struggles: Lauren has been open about her struggles with motherhood, having recently taken to Instagram to revealing she simply 'wasn't coping' with the situationIt's not often a contestant clashes with a judge on My Kitchen Rules.

And yet on the show on Thursday, Russian villain Olga had a fiery exchange with French judge Manu Feildel.

The pair argued over the presentation of dishes and Olga said Manu changes his mind over the way he likes food presented.

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'I'm sick of the bulls**t that comes out of her mouth!' My Kitchen Rules judge Manu Feildel (pictured) clashes with Russian 'villain' Olga...before Valeria declares 'war' on rival Hadil

At one point, Olga's rival Hadil stepped in and said to camera: 'I'm sick of the bulls**t that comes out of her mouth!'

Olga and Manu's clash came after he told Davide and Marco to perhaps use small dishes to help present their food.

'We're getting mixed messages, Manu. I'm getting mixed messages seriously,' Olga fired up.

Making a fuss: The pair argued over the presentation of dishes in judging, with Olga saying Manu changes his mind over the way he likes food presented

Not having it: At one point, Olga's rival Hadil (R) stepped in and said to camera: 'I'm sick of the bulls**t that comes out of her mouth!'

'On one hand you say, "serve it how you serve it at home" and on the other, "do it individually," it's not how they serve it at home'.

Manu said he only intends to advise contestants, not instruct them: 'It's up to you guys at the end of the day,' he clarified.

Giving Olga an example, Manu suggested that if her team were to cook cabbage in a big pot they could then serve it in ramekins for added presentation.

'We cook them in there but we don't serve it in there, we serve them on a plate and then it's going to look disgusting, c'est la vie,' an infuriated Olga said.

Ouch: About the clash, Georgia added about Olga: 'You need to know when to shut your trap, basically'

Manu hit back, arguing that he's only trying to help the teams.

'I'm just trying to help at the end of the day, I'm not trying to go against you!'

About the clash, Georgia added about Olga: 'You need to know when to shut your trap, basically.'

Hadil then swooped in, saying she agreed with Manu and understood what he was saying.

Valeria was not impressed.

'We're cold blooded Russians. It's a war!'Their love has blossomed for nearly one year.

And Sofia Richie shared a sweet photo of her beau Scott Disick, 34, to her nearly three million followers on Instagram Wednesday afternoon.

The 19-year-old budding model posted the Valentine's Day message just as Scott's ex Kourtney Kardashian, 38, shared a risque selfie perched in her bed wearing bright red lingerie.

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Love! Sofia Richie shared a sweet photo of her beau Scott Disick, 34, to her nearly three million followers on Instagram Wednesday afternoon

Overlooking a picturesque waterfront scene, Scott and Sofia's backs were faced toward the camera.

An ominous, grey Godzilla-like cloudy creature hoovered toward the side of the couple in the image.

She followed up the interesting image with a throwback black-and-white photo of the couple on one of their many adventures.

Stunner: The 19-year-old budding model posted the Valentine's Day message just as Scott's ex Kourtney Kardashian, 38, shared a risque selfie perched in her bed wearing bright red lingerie

Kisses: She followed up the interesting image with a throwback black-and-white photo of the couple on one of their many adventures

Scott seemed to shower his girlfriend on the day of love as she showed off a bright red rose display placed on her countertop.

Kourtney Kardashian was certainly feeling the self-love as she shared a selfie posing in front of a large mirror wearing nothing but black lingerie and a sheer black dress.

Festive display were scattered throughout her home as the eldest Kardashian daughter showed off bright rose gold balloons that spelled out Valentine's Day.

Wow! Kourtney Kardashian was certainly feeling the self-love as she shared a selfie posing in front of a large mirror wearing nothing but black lingerie and a sheer black dress

Pretty: Scott seemed to shower his girlfriend on the day of love as she showed off a bright red rose display placed on her countertop

Fun: Festive display were scattered throughout her home as the eldest Kardashian daughter showed off bright rose gold balloons that spelled out Valentine's Day

Scott and Kourtney dated for nearly a decade before calling it quits on their relationship in October 2015.

While they've both gone on their separate ways romantically, they remain focused on co-parenting their three children- Mason, eight; Penelope, five; and Reign, three.

Kourtney reportedly began dating 24-year-old Algerian model Younes Bendjima in May, which is around the same time Scott and Sofia were rumored to be hooking up before going public with their romance in September.She's arguably the most controversial Married At First Sight contestant to ever appear on the show.

And in the wake of her 'cheating' scandal in this week's episode of the Channel Nine dating show, Davina Rankin has a made a racy confession.

Chatting to NW magazine for a video posted to the publication's social media accounts, the 26-year-old revealed she's kept track of everyone she's had sexual relations with.

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'I have everyone's name that I've ever slept with written down': Married At First Sight's cheating bride Davina Rankin makes a VERY candid confession about her past lovers

Each of the Married At First Sight contestants were questioned whether they remembered the names of everyone they've been involved with sexually.

'I have everyone's name that I've ever slept with written down,' the Instagram model cheekily admitted.

But it seems Davina isn't the only one who had used the method to keep track of sexual encounters.

Making lists: Davina told NW magazine, she had kept track of her sexual encounters

The busty brunette's love rival Tracey Jewel also admitted: 'It's a bit sad that I actually wrote a list at one point.'

Meanwhile, Australia's sweetheart Jo Mcpharlin confessed that she could easily remember the names of everyone she'd been intimate with and could count them on on one hand.

'Pretty sure [I could name them]' she said. 'Four! Not even five - one hander!'

'Four! Not even five - one hander!' Fan favourite Jo admitted she could count the number of people she's slept with on one hand

Controversial: Davina has been secretly meeting up with Dean on Married At First Sight

This week on Married At First Sight, Davina caused controversy when she badmouthed her 'husband' Ryan Gallagher behind his back, before sneaking off to meet with Dean Wells - who was already matched with Tracey Jewel.

Ryan and Tracey have since told multiple media outlets they felt hurt and blindside by Davina and Dean's affair.

'Once the trust is gone it is very hard to come back. And it was an a**sehole of a thing to do,' Ryan told Who! magazine this week.Television presenter Christine Lampard says she feels sorry for Elizabeth Hurley's son Damian after the model reveals he is the photographer behind a number of her bikini shots.

The WAG choked back giggles on the Lorraine programme this morning discussing Miss Hurley's secret photographer.

The 39-year-old said: 'He probably [feels embarrassed] Hes 15 its like "oh mum, not again!"'

She added: 'It's very odd, very odd. Stick with your friends to take those pictures'.

Fun with the son: Damian Hurley's shadow is visible, pictured above left, as the former Gossip Girl actress' frolics on a beach in the Maldives

Shocked: Christine Lampard has sympathised with Elizabeth Hurley's son after the model revealed he takes all her sexy bikini pictures

A representative for Liz Hurley has been contacted for comment.

Mrs Lampard's thoughts were echoed by social media users who described it as cringey and vain that the mother-of-one enlists her teenager to help photograph her in swimwear.

One person said: I cant help but feel cringed about this. I dont think any son should be taking sexy pictures of their mother

While another added: Imagine if it was a 15-year-old girl taking photographs of her dad? Bit weird.

And a woman wrote: Id never make my children take photos of me in a bikini, talk about vein.

But not everyone agreed. Actress and model Lizzie Cundy backed Ms Hurley, posting her own bikini shot to Twitter, writing: 'My son takes my bikini pics too! He always gets the best shots.'

In her shadow: Liz Hurley's social media page is littered with swimwear shots, including this one showing off her toned physique in a photograph taken by Damian (his shadow, bottom right)

Pictured perfect: Elizabeth Hurley, 52, has revealed she makes her son Damian, 15, take the multitude of sexy bikini pictures she posts regularly on Instagram

The comments come after the former Gossip Girl actress revealed the secret photographer behind her seemingly endless stream of bikini Instagram posts.

Damians shadow is even visible in some of the images, where she frolicks on the beach in a two-piece swimsuit.

She made the revelation after uploading a series of sizzling holiday snaps of herself braless and in a bikini for Valentine's Day.

The 52-year-old, who rose to fame at 29 with her Estee Lauder cosmetics campaign, stunned her 833,000 followers with the suggestive images, but some were unsure how to take her confession, with several branding the relationship 'weird'.

Sizzling: Elizabeth Hurley shared a sizzling snapshot of herself in a bright red bikini as she wished her Instagram followers a happy Valentine's Day on Wednesday

Strike a pose: The 52-year-old model and actress has become famous for showing off her incredible and age-defying figure on her Instagram, in scantily-clad swimwear

According to The Sun, Hurley said: '[Damian] definitely takes some, but I do have other friends that I can torture for some too.'

Damian, who was brought up in Gloucester by his mother and her then-partner Arun Nayar, has followed in her footsteps to become an actor.

He has had roles in Australian soap Neighbours and American drama The Royals.

His father is American businessman and film producer Steve Bing, who denied paternity when Damian was born in 2002.

He claimed he and Hurley had a 'brief, non-exclusive' relationship the year before, but a DNA test proved he was the father.

Hugh Grant, a former flame of Hurley's, is Damian's godfather.

Commenting on the unusual mother-son photography set up, 15-year-old George Conroy said: 'I'd be shocked and weirded out if my mum asked me to take a sexy bikini shot of her'

He told the newspaper: 'Do Damian and Liz agree when a shot is sexy enough? How would they even judge that together?

'Even thinking about having that kind of chat with my mum makes me feel awkward.'

The former Gossip Girl actress' social media page is littered with pictures and videos that showcase her honed physique as she frolics about on far-away beaches.

Sultry: Her 823,000 followers are regularly treated to snaps of the fun-loving mother-of-one, who shares Damian with multi-millionaire US tycoon Steve Bing

Click, flash! Now, the world knows who the man behind the lens is - her son Damian Hurley

Racy shots: The star recently shared another racy shot as she went braless under her bathrobe

Of her beach escapades, she added: 'I've been in the business for a really long time so my body is something I have to take care of and think about all the time. I use as much cream as possible on it.'

Elizabeth first shot to fame in the early 1990s, after landing her first modelling campaign with esteemed cosmetics brand Estee Lauder.

And she proved that her allure shows no signs of waning on Wednesday, when she took to Instagram to share a sizzling snapshot of herself posing in a bikini.

The model uploaded the image in celebration of Valentine's Day, and was appropriately dressed in skimpy red swimwear as she proudly flaunted her sensational body while lounging on a hammock in a sun-soaked location.

Summer son: '[Damian] definitely takes some, but I do have other friends that I can torture for some too,' she said

Always careful: Of her beach escapades, she added 'I've been in the business for a really long time so my body is something I have to take care of and think about all the time'

Age defying: Elizabeth has become well known for her stunning beach snaps

Shielding her eyes with a pair of oversized tinted sunglasses, she flashed a smile at the camera as she held a matching red towel over her chest.

'Happy Valentine's Day,' she captioned the photographs, which was give an extra touch of pizzazz with the addition of a series of bright red hearts.

Her eye-catching post comes a day after she attended the launch of the Dinosaurs in the Wild exhibition in Greenwich, south-east London, with her son - who regularly accompanies her on her trips and to events.

Elizabeth joined Damian on the carpet, who matched his mother's stylish appearance in a green velvet blazer and sporty black trainers.

The pair first worked the cameras outside the event, before they were seen heading inside and playfully posing with the dinosaur figurines.James Packer's ex fiancee Tziporah Malkah (formerly known as Kate Fischer) has revealed she's been banned from Facebook for seven days.

The 44-year-old made the announcement by taking to Instagram to share a bizarre topless selfie.

'Facebook ban for 7 days - that includes messenger also. See ya!' she captioned her post.

Is everything OK? Tziporah Malkah posts bizarre topless snap as she reveals she's been banned from Facebook for seven days... after being charged with assault

Followers of Tziporah, who was known as Kate during her modelling days in the 90s, showed their support in the comments section.

One wrote: 'Love your honesty by the way! Sick of seeing fake a**e people pretending their lives are perfect!!!! Go girl xxx'

While another said: 'Enjoy the serenity.'

'I want her to have as happy a chance in life as she can': It comes after her NSW Liberal MP mother Pru Goward recently revealed she hopes her daughter can get her life on track

Shock allegations: Last month Tziporah took to Instagram to reveal bruises on her arms that she claims were caused by police after an incident where she bit her then-boyfriend Guy Vasey

However one follower expressed their skepticism at the former I'm A Celebrity contestant's post, saying: 'I can't help but think you enjoy the controversy. You are so much better than that.'

It is not known whether the ban is self-imposed or sanctioned by the social media company.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Facebook and Tziporah Malkah's representative for comment.

This comes after her NSW Liberal MP mother Pru Goward recently revealed she hopes her daughter can get her life on track.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph's Miranda Live radio show the Member for Goulburn said: 'I love my daughter and I want her to have as happy a chance in life as she can.'

But when asked about how Tziporah was holding up after the recent arrest, she responded: 'I'm not going to answer that question.'

Turbulent story: Tziporah, formerly known as Kate Fischer in her heyday, was one of Australia's most prominent models of the 1990s, she disappeared from the limelight following the end of her five-year relationship to James Packer in 1998

Tziporah made headlines last month when she alleged mistreatment at the hands of South Australia Police.

She accompanied the picture with explosive claims, revealing she had been arrested for assault after biting her on-off boyfriend, Guy Vasey.

South Australia police confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that a '44-year-old woman from Port Elliot was arrested and charged with aggravated assault following a domestic incident at a Port Elliot home last night (26 January).'

Tziporah was one of Australia's most prominent models of the 1990s, she disappeared from the limelight following the end of her five-year relationship to James Packer in 1998.The highly anticipated premiere season is set to hit screens imminently, featuring a handful of Australia's most-loved and most-loathed past contenders from The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.

And while it was previously revealed Bachelor In Paradise will feature a proposal another massive bombshell has been dropped by radio hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson.

On Thursday, KIIS FM's Kyle and Jackie O spilled that rumours are swirling that at least one contestant is involved in a shock pregnancy.

Which rings better: Karrod or Jeira? On Thursday, KIIS FM's Kyle and Jackie O spilled that in addition to an on-screen Bachelor In Paradise proposal, there's an apparent pregnancy too

Live on air, Kyle was quick to inquire: 'Does somebody get pregnant on the show or did they get pregnant after filming?'

Either someone is pregnant now after leaving Paradise and after filming the show in Fiji or it comes out that someone gets pregnant on the actual show  we dont know! Jackie clarified.

On Wednesday, the hotly awaited season premiere released the first trailer, giving teaser insights to the tears, troubles and drama set to hit screens soon.

The two minute-long clip, which aired during The Project, shows a crying Keira Maguire begging to be loved, as the other contestants clash over a love triangle and 'love square'.

'Will you marry me?' Anew preview for Bachelor In Paradise released on Wednesday has revealed the show will feature tantrums, tears, and a proposal. Pictured: Keira Maguire

Featured in the preview are past contestants Apollo Jackson, Lisa Hyde, Jarrod Woodgate, Laurina Fleure, and Florence Alexandra Sophia.

An emotional Keira is shown breaking down in front of the cameras, showing a decidedly softer side than she did as 'villain' in the 2016 season of The Bachelor.

'I am kind of thinking, 'What's wrong with me?' I just want someone to love me for me,' she weeps.

Who's getting hitched? The preview, which aired during Wednesday's episode of The Project, promised a romantic wedding proposal

'I am kind of thinking what's wrong with me I just want someone to love me for me': The preview shows a sobbing Keira breaking down in front of the cameras

Sparks flying! Meanwhile, a female contestant - possibly Tara Pavlovic or Florence Alexandra - is seen getting hot and heavy with The Bachelorette star Jake Ellis under a waterfall

Meanwhile, a female contestant - possibly Tara Pavlovic or Florence Alexandra - is seen getting hot and heavy with The Bachelorette star Jake Ellis under a waterfall.

Magician Apollo also makes an appearance, as he is shown shirtless and twirling fire - much to the excitement of the female contestants.

The Paradise cast are seen enjoying a series of romantic dates including snorkelling, swimming in waterfalls and horseback riding along the beach.

It's getting hot in here! Magician Apollo also makes an appearance, as he is shown shirtless and twirling fire - much to the excitement of the female contestants

Who will hook up? In the two minute preview, Tara says there is a love triangle which has unexpectedly turned into a 'love square'

'There was definitely a spark!' Jarrod Woodgate says in a piece to camera, possibly in reference to his now-girlfriend Keira.

The reality TV lovebirds confirmed their romance last month when they were photographed making out at a beach.

But it isn't all romance, as the trailer offers glimpses of Laurina, Tara and Keira breaking down in tears as contestants are accused of 'cheating'.

Feeling upset: Laurina is shown breaking down in tears

'This love triangle has become a love square': Fan favourite Tara explains the Paradise drama in the trailer

'I feel really bad': A tearful Tara appears to be struggling with her emotions

'This love triangle has become a love square,' Tara explains, before adding: 'I feel really bad.'

But despite the heartbreak, the trailer ends by promising there will be a proposal, with a mystery man asking: 'Will you marry me?'

Bachelor In Paradise will air on Network Ten later in 2018

Hording hands: Michael Turnbull enjoys a romantic horseback ride with a mystery blondeShe joined the show on her quest for true love, but has walked out on a number of dates so far.

And things only went from bad to worse for Gemma Collins on Wednesday, after she ditched yet another suitor on Celebs Go Dating.

The bubbly blonde, 36, decided to leave her date with Ben, after he struggled to pronounce Prosecco, ordered a Tizer as his drink and even admitted his mother does his ironing, during their second meeting.

The date got off to a bad start when Ben struggled to pronounce the name of her beloved glass of fizz, leaving Gemma horrified.

He then proceeded to order a can of fruity Tizer of his own, causing Gemma to declare in disbelief: 'A Tizer? How old are you?'

Discussing their likes and dislikes, the pair soon realised more differences than similarities - with Gemma confessing her love for 'bad boys' and nights out in London, while Ben revealed he preferred nights in, with beans on toast.

'We're going to say our goodbyes': Gemma Collins ditched yet another suitor on Wednesday's episode of Celebs Go Dating

Not impressed: The blonde, 36, decided to leave her date with Ben after he struggled to pronounce Prosecco, ordered a Tizer and even admitted his mother does his ironing

Seeing no future with Ben, Gemma decided to call things off there and then - and walked out of yet another date.

She told him: 'Look, I'm going to make this easy for you. We're going to say our goodbyes.

'Normally I like dessert but I won't have it on this occasion. Darling, take this plant home to your mum. You're a sweetie but... hasta la vista!'

Opposites: Gemma also confessed her love for 'bad boys' and nights out in London, while Ben revealed he preferred nights in, with beans on toast

Farewell: Seeing no future, Gemma said: 'Normally I like dessert but I won't have it on this occasion. Darling, take this plant home to your mum. You're a sweetie but... hasta la vista!'

Speaking after the date, Gemma reflected: 'It's been a bit of a disaster. Surely in the first throes of dating its supposed to be funny, exciting, full of laughter.'

In her usually witty style, she went on: 'I asked him what he'd do if he won the lottery and he said he'd take me to an all you can eat buffet... I mean it's dead cute, but have I really got the time to waste on a third date? Nah.'

Gemma had already walked out of a date last week, when her suitor Tel branded her a 'diva' for arriving late.

Irritated, Gemma swiftly walked out of the dinner, ranting backstage: 'I know I was late but I ain't having it!! Who does he think he's talking to?' (sic)

Not impressed: Gemma had already walked out of a date last week, when her suitor Tel branded her a 'diva' for arriving late

Viewers were divided over the incident - with some slamming the star as rude, while others saw the funny side.

She was also undecided over her date with Lawrence, who offered to take her to Paris and claimed she was a 10/10 but had a 'thin top lip' in her opinion.

The TOWIE star signed up to the show to find love, after a failed attempt at romance with James 'Arg' Argent.

The pair first dated in 2012 and have been on/off ever since, with Gemma developing feelings once again during the mos recent series of TOWIE.

Arg then delighted viewers by finally reciprocating the feelings in the show's Christmas special, but their friendship has struggled to blossom into anything more after he announced he was uprooting and moving to Spain.She recently transformed herself from blonde bombshell to red-haired rockabilly chick.

And now Tara Moss has shown off her beloved pet python, wrapping the snake around her body in an Instagram video on Thursday.

The 44-year-old shared a clip of herself 'bonding' with reptile on it's birthday.

Not your average pet! Model Tara Moss enjoys 'bonding time' with her beloved python after surprising rockabilly transformation

She captioned her post: 'Not for those with Ophidiophobia: Bonding with my python Thing during a writing break.'

'Hes lucky 13 today,' she added, along with the hashtags '#python #writing #snakepal#pythonsofinstagram #blackheadedpython#australianpython #snakelove.'

The Canadian-born model credited the funky music added in the post: 'because writers on deadline dont leave the house.'

Fans of the Festish author loved her post, including one who gushed: 'What a gorgeous baby!'

While another was freaked out by the clip, commenting: 'Eek!!!! Gives me scary shivers watching this.'

A few followers were intrigued by her pet serpent's breed and how long she's owned him for, prompting her to explain: 'Thing is a black-headed python with some albino characteristics. I've had him since he was a tiny thing. x'

From blonde bombshell to rockabilly queen:Tara has slowly been transforming herself into a rockabilly queen since April last year, and has even got herself an elaborate sleeve tattoo

Tara has slowly been transforming herself into a rockabilly queen since April last year, and has even got herself an elaborate sleeve tattoo.

The inking appears to be the word 'Mother' surrounded by flowers and birds, and it takes up most of her upper arm.

In December, Tara marked eight years of marital bliss to photographer Berndt Sellheim, together they share seven-year-old daughter Sapphira Jane Sellheim-Moss.He's been busy promoting his latest blockbuster, The Greatest Showman, in Tokyo.

But Hugh Jackman made sure he headed home to wife Deborra-Lee Furness for a very special occasion on Wednesday.

The 49-year-old Australian actor put on a show for the cameras at the film's press junket, before rushing back to New York to be by his beloved Deb's side on Valentine's Day.

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'Happy to be with my Debs': Hugh Jackman promotes The Greatest Showman in Tokyo before rushing home to see wife Deborra-Lee Furness for Valentine's Day

Hugh looked dapper in a dark tweed suit teamed with a light blue shirt and maroon pocket-square.

The Greatest Showman actor lived up to his character, energetically flashing his spirit fingers to the cameras.

Hugh also enjoyed a giggle with his co-star Keala Settle, 42, who was dressed in a leopard print blouse and elegant black trousers.

Dapper: The 49-year-old Australian actor put on a show for the cameras at the film's press junket, before rushing back to New York to be by his beloved Deb's side on Valentine's Day

Earlier in the day, he shared a cheeky photo to Instagram, poking fun at the film's seating arrangement.

'Its all your fault Keala Settle,' he wrote in the caption.

He accompanied the caption with the hashtag, 'this is me'.

Lots of laughs! Hugh enjoyed a giggle with his co-star Keala Settle, 42, who was dressed in a leopard print blouse and elegant black trousers

'Its all your fault Keala Settle': Earlier in the day, Hugh shared a cheeky photo to Instagram, poking fun at the film's seating arrangement

See ya! After the press junket, Hugh jetted home to his wife of nearly 22 years, Deborra-Lee to celebrate Valentine's Day

After the press junket, Hugh jetted home to his wife of nearly 22 years, Furness, 62 to celebrate Valentine's Day.

He shared a touching video to his 16.5 million followers, capturing him walking alongside the baggage carousel at the John F Kennedy International Airport in New York.

In the video, Hugh threw a kiss to the camera and said, 'Happy to be home, Happy Valentines Day.'

He accompanied the caption with the adorable hashtags 'My Deb' and 'Valentines Day.'

Hugh's other half Deborra-Lee, who will be celebrating 22 years of wedded bliss with the Aussie actor in April, lives with the star in New York.

The everlasting power couple are happier than ever after they tied the knot in a lovely ceremony in April 1996 at St. John's in Victoria, Melbourne.

They are also doting parents to two children: Oscar, 17, and Ava, 12.

Hugh arrived in Japan on Monday and was immediately mobbed by fans as he made his way through Narita International Airport.

The Emmy Award winner looked every inch the movie star after touching down in the country, dressing for the cool temperatures in jeans, a scarf and a long coat.

In love: Hugh's other half Deborra-Lee, who will be celebrating 22 years of wedded bliss with the Aussie actor in April, lives with the star in New YorkShe's the Neighbours actress who recently returned to the show as her villainous character, Izzy Hoyland.

And this week, Rogue Traders star Natalie Bassingthwaighte opened up about trying to crack Hollywood.

The 42-year-old blonde revealed it was 'challenging,' and said there was plenty of competition in auditions.

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'You get put into a room with 100 girls who look identical to you!' Natalie Bassingthwaighte reveals how hard it was to crack Hollywood...as she makes a return to Neighbours

She said she tried to make it in Hollywood 'a few times.'

'I went on a few auditions...You get put into a room with 100 girls who look identical to you, you're all going for the same part, and you have five minutes to shine,' Natalie told News.com.au.

She added: 'You need to decide whether to stay there and slog it out and do that and try and be one of the lucky ones.'

Living her dream: She said she tried to make it in Hollywood 'a few times'

In role! She's just returned to Neighbours, bringing back her villainous character, Izzy Hoyland (seen with co-star Alan Fletcher)

Natalie tried to make it in Hollywood when she first left Neighbours back in 2006, but came back to Australia when she hosted So You Think You Can Dance two years later.

She went back in 2010 before going back to Australia to appear on The X Factor, as a judge.

Natalie - who recently appeared on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! - has just returned to Neighbours and reprised her role as Izzy Hoyland.

Known for being manipulative and a man-eater, Nat's character Izzy had bombshell affairs with both Paul Robinson and Dr Karl Kennedy, creating some of the soap's juiciest story lines.

Saucy! Known for being manipulative and a man-eater, Nat's character Izzy had bombshell affairs with both Paul Robinson and Dr Karl Kennedy, creating some of the soap's juiciest story lines

Izzy was the arch-enemy of Karl's estranged wife Susan, but with Karl and Susan now back together, Izzy's return will no doubt cause more fireworks.

Natalie was the front woman of successful band Rogue Traders, whose songs 'Voodoo Child' and 'Someday Soon' shot up the charts. She also appeared as a judge on The X-Factor for several seasons.

In 2011, Nat married her bandmate Cameron McGlinchey, and is mum to Harper and Hendrix.Kim Kardashian was just one of the celebrities NOT sending thoughts and prayers to Florida on Wednesday.

The 37-year-old took to Twitter to instead demand action from the government, after yet another American gun massacre left at least 17 dead Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

'We owe it to our children and our teachers to keep them safe while at school,' she tweeted. 'Prayers won't do this: action will. Congress, please do your job and protect Americans from senseless gun violence.'

No point: Kim Kardashian was just one of the celebrities NOT sending thoughts and prayers to Florida on Wednesday

Do your job: The 37-year-old took to Twitter to instead demand action from the government, after yet another American gun massacre left at least 17 dead Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland

The reality star retweeted a number of stats that continuously show up in the wake of these tragedies, such as how many were carried our with the infamous AR-15 assault rifle; or how every air passenger must take off the shoes because if one shoe-bombing attempt, yet after 1606 mass shootings gun law remains the same.

She also retweeted a screenshot of an NRA tweet encouraging people to buy guns for their loved ones on Valentine's Day, which was deleted shortly after the murder spree.

Mark Ruffalo agreed: 'Prayers without accordant action are silent lies told to oneself, heard by no God, amounting to nothing. Action is the language of truth, the prayers of the Saints.'

Language of truth: Mark Ruffalo and Mia Farrow also called for action

Chelsea Handler called on Americans to elect candidates who are not funded by the NRA in the November elections.

'We have an opportunity to elect candidates who wont allow kids to go to school and get shot. It is disgusting how many times this has happened and Republicans do nothing,' she tweeted. 'You all have blood on your hands.'

Mia Farrow replied to President Trump's tweet, which offered the usual 'prayers and condolences'.

Vote them out: Chelsea Handler called on Americans to elect candidates who are not funded by the NRA in the November elections, while Piers Morgan asked the President what he was going to do about it

'Sir, we need more than prayers and condolences,' she wrote. 'We need rational gun legislation.'

DailyMail's Editor-At-Large Piers Morgan instead posed him a question: 'Three of the 10 worst mass shootings in American history have happened in your 1st year, Mr President @realDonaldTrump. What are you going to do about it?'

Stephen King predicted 'Blabbermouth Don' would send prayers, but there would be 'no call of any sort' for sane gun regulations.

Patricia Arquette insisted if drug dealers can be blamed for the drug problem, then the NRA is culpable for mass shootings.

Moved: Patricia Arquette, Ellen DeGeneres and Reese Witherspoon all tweeted their messages of shock, outrage, and loveShe's been labelled as this season's Married At First Sight's 'villain' after stringing on 'husband' Ryan Gallagher all while having a secret relationship with 'married' Dean Wells.

Now Davina Rankin is set to break her silence over the backlash during an interview with A Current Affair on Thursday night.

And it appears that the topless model is not taking it very well, as a promo video of the bombshell Q&A shows her looking quite shaken.

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'It is actually quite scary': Married At First Sight's cheating bride Davina Rankin breaks her silence over backlash after starting affair with married Dean Wells

While ACA questions whether Davina is a 'villain' or 'victim', the 26-year-old is seen looking downcast as she walks along the beach.

Speaking to a Channel Nine reporter, she confides 'It is actually quite scary.'

Dressed in a revealing play suit, the busty bombshell is then seen looking up into the sky in dismay.

Not so easy: Speaking to a Channel Nine reporter, she confides 'It is actually quite scary'

Tough day? Dressed in a revealing play suit, the busty bombshell is seen walking along the beach looking pensive

While fans have taken to social media to express their outrage about the cheating pair, one of stars has told Daily Mail Australia that Davina is in no way a 'victim'.

'How is she possibly a victim? She instigated the whole thing,' they said.

The news comes after Wednesday night's episode saw Davina again sneak around with married Dean behind her husband's back.

Hurt: 'It wasn't nice seeing all the negative things she was saying about me. I didn't know anyone could hate someone so much, just for themselves,' Ryan told WHO magazine

Now watching the scenes play out on television, heartbroken Ryan admitted to WHO magazine on Wednesday: 'I felt stupid'.

'It wasn't nice seeing all the negative things she was saying about me. I didn't know anyone could hate someone so much, just for themselves,' he said.

Davina's interview on A Current Affair will air 6:30pm on Thursday.Could not establish database connection.

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The administrator has been notified and will resolve the problem ASAP.Kanye West has 'amicably resolved' his $10 million lawsuit with insurers Lloyd's of London over his cancelled Life Of Pablo tour.

The rapper, 40, who is married to Kim Kardashian, sued Lloyd's after the London-based firm refused to pay out citing drug and drink clauses in its contract.

Kanye's firm, Very Good Touring, sued the insurer and its syndicates claiming they were refusing to pay out by alleging his marijuana use was responsible for his medical condition.

The recording artist scrapped the remaining 21 dates of his Saint Pablo tour and was treated at a psychiatric centre in Los Angeles in November 2016 after falling ill.

Sorted: Kanye West was spotted in LA on Wednesday as it was revealed he has 'amicably resolved' his lawsuit with Lloyd's of London over insurance payouts for his canceled Saint Pablo Tour

A judge in California dismissed the case on Wednesday after being requested to do so by lawyers from both sides.

West's lawyer Howard King and the insurer's attorney Paul Schrieffer both said they were unable to comment, other than to say the matter had been 'amicably resolved'.

The initial lawsuit detailed how the rapper quit while playing in Sacramento, California, because of his 'strained, confused and erratic' behaviour.

He then spent eight days in a neuropsychiatric centre at UCLA where it was decided he could not go on with the tour, it added.

His behaviour also included pledging his support to then US presidential candidate Donald Trump and making controversial statements about Jay-Z and Beyonce.

Issues: The rapper, 40, who is married to Kim Kardashian, scrapped the remaining 21 dates of his tour after falling ill in November 2016 and was treated at a psychiatric center in Los Angeles

Kanye spent 'hundreds of thousands of dollars' on insurance with Lloyd's to cover the costs of a cancellation but was yet to receive a payment when he launched the action in August.

Lawyers for Lloyd's of London denied implying that the rapper's 'use of marijuana provides the sole basis to deny the claim' and said there were 'substantial irregularities' in his medical history.

In dismissing the case, Los Angeles federal court Judge Charles Eick ordered both sides to pay their own fees and costs.Modern Family diva Sofia Vergara rocked a red lip with her mirrored aviator sunglasses at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills on Valentine's Day.

Forgoing her signature skin-tight ensembles, the Colombian 45-year-old looked relaxed in a distressed sweatshirt, roomy ripped blue jeans, and brown-suede mule platforms.

Saks is presenting An Unforgettable Evening on February 27 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel where the four-time SAG Award winner will be honored with the Courage Award for raising cancer awareness.

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Baggy ensemble: Modern Family diva Sofia Vergara rocked a red lip with her mirrored aviator sunglasses at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills on Valentine's Day

Tickets and tables range between $1,500 and $250,000 for the swanky Beverly Hills benefit, hosted by James Corden, which raises money for the Women's Cancer Research Fund.

Later on Wednesday, Sofia - who boasts 32.4M social media followers - shared an Insta-story of her big bouquet of red and white roses from her second husband Joe Manganiello.

The 41-year-old CelebriD&D guest star gushed on Instagram: 'HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY to the most beautiful woman on earth @sofiavergara!'

Forgoing her signature skin-tight ensembles: The Colombian 45-year-old looked relaxed in a distressed sweatshirt, roomy ripped blue jeans, and brown-suede mule platforms

Tickets/tables range $1,500-$250,000: Saks is presenting An Unforgettable Evening on February 27 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel where the four-time SAG Award winner will be honored with the Courage Award for raising cancer awareness

Vergara then replied to the 6ft5in Italian stallion with snaps from their 2015 wedding and Turks & Caicos honeymoon captioned: 'My Valentines!! U make me happy!'

As for the Female Brain actress' son Manolo (with ex-husband Joe Gonzalez), the 25-year-old attorney spent Valentine's Day with his 'main b****.'

The Rooms To Go brand ambassador continues her role as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett in the ninth season of Modern Family, which resumes February 28 on ABC.

Stop and smell them: Later on Wednesday, Sofia shared an Insta-story of her big bouquet of red and white roses from her second husband Joe Manganiello

The 41-year-old CelebriD&D guest star gushed on Instagram: 'HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY to the most beautiful woman on earth @sofiavergara!'

Vergara then replied to the 6ft5in Italian stallion with snaps from their 2015 wedding and Turks & Caicos honeymoon captioned: 'My Valentines!! U make me happy!'

'#LoveIsLove': As for the Female Brain actress' son Manolo (with ex-husband Joe Gonzalez), the 25-year-old attorney spent Valentine's Day with his 'main b****'

Film-wise, Sofia will next play Rebecca, a seductive federal agent, in Bobby Moresco's crime thriller Bent - hitting US theaters/VOD on March 9 - alongside Karl Urban, Andy Garcia, and Grace Byers.

Meanwhile, Joe next portrays private military group leader Burke in Brad Peyton's action flick Rampage - hitting US/UK theaters in April - alongside Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Malin Akerman.

Mockumentary sitcom: The Rooms To Go brand ambassador continues her role as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett in the ninth season of Modern Family, which resumes February 28 on ABCThey're one of the most popular music acts in Australia and boast a large international following.

And this week, DJ duo Nervo enjoyed partying with American heiress Paris Hilton, in Brazil.

Twins Miriam and Olivia Nervo heaped praise on Paris - who also DJs - as they formed a firm friendship with the blonde.

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'If you haven't partied with Paris Hilton then you haven't partied at all!' Australian DJ duo Nervo gush over the the heiress and pose for a happy snap as they enjoy the Carnival of Brazil

'If you haven't partied with Paris Hilton then you haven't partied at all,' they wrote beside a black and white picture of themselves and the hotel heiress.

'Always the best vibes. love you P - let's celebrate our birthdays next week in Vegas!'

They also added the hashtags 'carnival' and 'blondes rule.'

In the snap, Paris - looking edgy in dark sunglasses and a crown - stands in the middle and smiles for the camera.

Familiar faces: Nervo are one of the most popular music acts in Australia and boast a large international following

Ouch! Miriam has just broken her nose

Setback: She recently shared some shocking Instagram videos and photos of her injury - she broke her nose while on tour in Brazil

The girls, both in quirky outfits, beam.

Miriam wore a bandage on her nose after she broke it earlier this week.

She recently shared some shocking Instagram videos and photos of her injury - she broke her nose while on tour in Brazil.

'So, this is where we're at after a few hours,' Miriam said in a clip. 'I am going to go to the doctor's now - hospital, actually - because I think I need to get a stitch or something to stop this bleeding.'

Miriam even asked fans for advice, saying: 'If anyone knows a plastic surgeon in Salvador, please please let me know - we're finding it so hard to find one.'

She and her sister have produced tracks for the likes of Kylie Minogue and Ke$ha, and also co-wrote the single When Love Takes Over by David Guetta and Kelly Rowland.Kate Hudson and her musician beau Danny Fujikawa matched each other in red and black looks for their romantic Valentine's Day dinner date at Italian restaurant Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica.

The 38-year-old Oscar nominee - who relies on stylist Sophie Lopez - took the plunge in a crimson blouse beneath a black tuxedo and studded Oxfords.

The divorced mother-of-two kept her make-up minimal and wore bobby pins in her growing blonde pixie cut.

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In the mood for love: Kate Hudson and her musician beau Danny Fujikawa matched each other in red and black looks for their romantic Valentine's Day dinner date at Italian restaurant Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica

Meanwhile, the founder of Lightwave Records and former guitarist for the band Chief wore a plaid flannel shirt beneath a black jacket and black trousers.

Things are clearly still going strong between Kate and the NYU drop-out, whom she first met in 2002 through his stepsisters Erin & Sara Foster.

Earlier, Hudson - who boasts 8.5M social media followers - posted a PDA-filled ski snap of the couple kissing atop an Aspen mountain captioned: 'My valentine!'

Suited: The 38-year-old Oscar nominee - who relies on stylist Sophie Lopez - took the plunge in a crimson blouse beneath a black tuxedo and studded Oxfords

Natural beauty: The divorced mother-of-two kept her make-up minimal and wore bobby pins in her growing blonde pixie cut

Grunge inspired: Meanwhile, the founder of Lightwave Records and former guitarist for the band Chief wore a plaid flannel shirt beneath a black jacket and black trousers

Behind the wheel: Things are clearly still going strong between Kate and the NYU drop-out, whom she first met in 2002 through his stepsisters Erin & Sara Foster

Their street sighting came a week after the Marshall actress referred to the pair as 'The Fujikawa's' despite calling recent engagement and secret wedding rumors 'nonsense' to WWD on January 24.

The Pretty Fun author has a 14-year-old son Ryder with her ex-husband, Black Crows frontman Chris Robinson; as well as a six-year-old son Bingham with ex-fiance, Muse frontman Matt Bellamy.

Careerwise, Kate wigged out Tuesday on the Rancho Palos Verdes set of her new Fabletics campaign shoot with hairstylist Chris McMillan, make-up artist Debra Ferullo, and her stylist.

Earlier, Hudson - who boasts 8.5M social media followers - posted a PDA-filled ski snap of the couple kissing atop an Aspen mountain captioned: 'My valentine!'

'Portrait of The Fujikawa's': Their street sighting came a week after the Marshall actress referred to the pair as 'The Fujikawa's' despite calling recent engagement and secret wedding rumors 'nonsense' to WWD on January 24

Motherhood: The Pretty Fun author has a 14-year-old son Ryder with her ex-husband, Black Crows frontman Chris Robinson; as well as a six-year-old son Bingham with ex-fiance, Muse frontman Matt Bellamy

Hudson famously shaved her head in July for a mysterious role in Grammy-nominated hitmaker Sia Furler's upcoming directorial debut Sister alongside Dance Mom's Maddie Ziegler.

Murder on the Orient Express' Leslie Odom, Jr. also stars in the big-screen musical about 'a sober drug dealer and their disabled sister.'

'#BoredSetSelfies': Kate wigged out Tuesday on the Rancho Palos Verdes set of her new Fabletics campaign shootShe's the high-class escort who thrust into the spotlight upon announcing she had quit the industry to be with Channel Seven newsreader Ryan Phelan.

Now, in the wake of Samantha X's (Amanda Goff) shock split with Ryan last month, the 43-year-old has admitted to missing 'certain aspects' of the industry.

Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia on Thursday, Samantha then clarified that 'the door was firmly closed' to a return to sex work.

EXCLUSIVE: 'I am someone who never goes back': Samantha X admits she misses 'certain aspects' of escorting but insists 'the door is firmly closed' to a return following her shock split with Seven journalist Ryan Phelan

Her comments were in response to an Instagram post she shared earlier on Thursday, where she appeared to express regret over her decision to quit.

'You can take a girl out of the industry...' she captioned an image of herself and Perth escort Sienna James.

Sienna had just returned from a lavish business trip to the Maldives - a revelation that caused Samantha to conjure fond memories of her time as a sex worker.

'So many memories of how lousy escorting was.......ahem,' Samantha captioned an image of the pair.

Regrets? Her comments were in response to an Instagram post she shared earlier on Thursday, where she appeared to express regret over her decision to quit

The retiree was clearly joking, expressing jealousy over the all-expenses-paid trip Sienna's job afforded her.

'While I miss certain aspects of escorting, the door (to a return to the industry) is firmly closed,' she clarified to Daily Mail Australia.

'Escorting gives you freedom and flexibility, away from the constraints of a "normal job" and while that was exciting and fun, my needs have changed.'

A return? Samantha's friend - Perth escort Sienna - had just returned from a lavish business trip to the Maldives - a revelation that caused Samantha to conjure fond memories of her time as a sex worker

'Im looking for stability now.'

Expanding upon the 'aspects' she missed, Samantha said: 'I miss the friends I made in this colourful industry, particularly the women, and catching up with them for a drink reminds me just how strong and special these women are!'

'I still mentor women in this industry and I still have my escort agency Samantha X Angels, where I employ mostly women over age of 30, who choose to escort as a hobby rather than full time.'

'The door is closed': 'While I miss certain aspects of escorting, the door (to a return to the industry) is firmly closed,' she clarified to Daily Mail Australia

The personality said she was looking forward to the next chapter, having just returned from her first day of University.

Samantha is positively embracing the 'daunting' task of studying a masters in counselling and psychology.

Samantha made headlines late last year, after announcing she'd be leaving the industry to be with Seven journalist Ryan.

'My needs have changed': 'Escorting gives you freedom and flexibility, away from the constraints of a "normal job" and while that was exciting and fun, my needs have changed... I'm looking for stability now'

However, the relationship ended abruptly, with Samantha confirming the split to Daily Mail Australia last month.

Following the break-up, she insisted she would not return to the industry.

Despite admitting to missing the profession on Thursday, she reaffirmed: 'I am someone that never goes back - Im going to keep moving forward.'

Headlines: Samantha made headlines late last year, after announcing she'd be leaving the industry to be with Seven journalist RyanShe's earned herself a loyal legion of fans, dubbed the 'lovers'.

Yet Kylie Minogue's dedicated followers were left bereft as it emerged tickets for a meet and greet at her London show next month would cost a staggering 950, plus a 15 Ticketmaster booking fee.

The 49-year-old songstress, who is the highest-selling Australian artist of all time, is currently launching her upcoming 14th studio album Golden with intimate shows across the UK and Europe.

Pricey: Kylie Minogue's fans were left bereft as it emerged tickets for a meet and greet at her London show month would cost a staggering 950, plus a 15 Ticketmaster booking fee

Her London performance, next month at nightclubCafe De Paris will set fans back 110 for standard tickets.

However, a Meet & Greet ticket to the show, which includes a photo opportunity with Kylie, costs just shy of 1000.

Taking to Twitter after spotting the prices, fans expressed their shock and dismay, as they hit out at Kylie for the steep price.

Singing sensation: The 49-year-old songstress, who is the highest-selling Australian artist of all time, is currently launching her upcoming 14th studio album Golden

Irate followers wrote: '@kylieminogue please tell me your not charging 965 for meet and greet tickets!! #lovers have dreamed of meeting you for years and we can't afford that!!'; 'Damn that's pricey...'; 'God that expensive'.

'@kylieminogue #golden rip off! 1000 for meet and greet? Especially in this day and age... tempting people to get into debt. Disgusting!'; '@kylieminogue I'm really going to try for 2 tickets but disappointed at the pricing for meet and greet. I've saved for 2 years in the hope it was around 500... Can't afford nearly 1000 #disappointed #lovers all over'

'Early entry 265? I have queued for hours for her shows to be front row, I am dedicated but I'm not rich. 110 is more than half a weeks wages for me. I'm gutted. I booked a day off work to see this but I'm not even going to be able to afford to go.

Too expensive: Taking to Twitter after spotting the prices, fans expressed their shock and dismay, as they hit out at Kylie for the steep price

'How much is a standard ticket? 965 for a meet and greet??? what the actual f**k'; '110???? You what?? Oh my god! I swear you can pay 265 for a full three day festival?? Im shocked

'@kylieminogue very disappointed in your meet&greet prices.what a Joke! fans arent rich like you,we made you Rich!!No More Dancing'; '@kylieminogue WTF Kylie ? 965 pounds for meet and greet ? Are you f***ing serious ? What kind of fool would shell that out ? I love you Kylie, only less than I used to. My love for you has become weaker.'

MailOnline has contacted Kylie's representatives for comment.

Breaking records: During her three decades in the music industry, Kylie has notched up seven No.1 singles and 80 million album sales

During her three decades in the music industry, Kylie has notched up seven No.1 singles and 80 million album sales.

Her latest single Dancing is out now while her 14th studio album Golden is released on April 6.

It was recently revealed that Kylie will be returning to The Voice UK as Tom Jones' guest mentor four years after quitting the singing show.He's been absent from Instagram for nine whole months... but Kanye West stunned his fans on Valentine's Day when he went on a bizarre nine hour posting spree.

Wishing his wife Kim Kardashian, 37, a Happy Valentine's Day, the 40-year-old musician posted 54 iconic couples' photos, including some of himself and Kim.

But Sir Mick Jagger's son, Lucas, 18, from his fling with Brazilian model and TV presenter Luciana Gimenez led a bunch of confused fans as he wondered what was going on.

'What the f***?' Mick Jagger's son Lucas, 18, leads confused fans after Kanye West posted 54 couples' photos including this one... and spent NINE HOURS on Instagram following his return to the site

You what? Lucas led the confused fans as he posted to the picture of his father and his ex wife Bianca

Like father, like son: Sir Mick with his son Lucas pictured at a sports game together

His words came after one of the pictures Kanye posted was of Jagger and his former flame Bianca Jagger, who he was married to from 1971-1979.

Lucas wrote: 'What the f***'

He then tagged his famous father in it, writing: '@mickjagger u have new friends?' but the Rolling Stones rocker is yet to reply.

Going for it: Kanye's epic posting spree saw him post a selection of pictures of iconic couples, some of which are no longer with us, or have split up

Kanye shared pictures of Victoria and David Beckham, SJP and Matthew Broderick, Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber.

He also shared pictures of many couples who are no longer together, such as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Kate Moss and Johnny Depp and J-Lo and P Diddy.

But Lucas wasn't the only fan to acknowledge that Kanye's multiple postings were a little intense.

Tasty: Kanye of course posted a picture of himself and wife Kim licking ice creams

Iconic: The late David Bowie and his wife Iman were also included

All over: The late Whitney Houston and her ex husband Bobby Brown appeared in the grid

How much denim? Victoria and David Beckham appeared as a throwback image

No longer an item: Gwyneth Paltrow and her former lover Brad Pitt appeared in all their 90s glory

They wrote: '23michael_bDamn these are almost ALL illuminati sacrifices..is @kanyewest trying to tell us something???'

'my Kan went on a crazy insta-spree of famous couples today, his first day back on instagram with a clean slate. Thought youd like this entry.'

'I want to get away from u posting so much. I wanna flyyyyy awayyyyy yeahhhyeahhhh yeaaaa.'

Something to say: A host of other fans posted their views on Kanye's latest bizarre behaviour

'I do love this couple but i hate the person who post this pict.'

'@jschalls hes had it for like over a year but he started posting today and hes just been posting old school famous couples all day lol.'

'Kanye be out here trying to steal your 80s account thunder.'

'it's all about the A E S T H E T I C bb. He also deleted his other posts i like thinking it happened by accident and now he has to fill up his profile.'

The posts come after Kanye posted an image for his wife, Kim, to wish her a Happy Valentine's Day. The Paranoid hit maker wrote in black Sharpee on a white piece of paper: 'Happy Valentines Day Babe.'

The father-of-three has not been on his account since May 2017 when he deleted all his photos. Kanye first opened his Instagram page in September 2016 before his breakdown.

When he first joined Instagram in 2016, he called his account 'art' and then shared 99 photos.

But his world was turned upside down two months later when he was rushed to the hospital in Los Angeles after he reportedly began hallucinating and lashed out at paramedics during a mental breakdown.

Love: Kim and Kanye have been married since May 2014 - pictured together in August 2016

He went all out! Kanye had earlier shared this photo to Instagram on Wednesday for his wife Kim after returning to Instagram after a nine month silence

According to TMZ, Kanye suffered a 'nervous breakdown triggered in large part by the anniversary of his mother's death.'

In May 2017, the rapper deleted both his Twitter and Instagram accounts and did not give a reason.

It's touching that he chose to return to Instagram to wish his wife of nearly four years well.

In January, they welcomed daughter Chicago via gestational carrier. They already have daughter North, aged four, and son Saint, aged two.

Kim also showed her love on social media.

The siren shared an old photo with husband with the caption: 'I love you to infinity! Happy Valentines Day!!!'

The reality TV diva also shared a photo with a heart. 'Happy Valentines Day @carineroitfeld @crfashionbook.'

Then on her website kimkardashianwest.com the stunner wrote: 'Happy Valentine's Day, babe. I love you so much!'She appeared to confirm her romance with reality star boyfriend Joshua Ritchie last week.

And Charlotte Crosby was keen to show off her Valentine's Day present from her new man as she posted a snap of a huge bunch of red roses on her Instagram page on Wednesday.

The former Geordie Shore star, 27, hinted the blooms could be from the Ex On The Beach hunk, 22, captioning the post with the initials JR.

Surprise! Charlotte Crosby, 27, was keen to show off her Valentine's Day present from Joshua Ritchie, 22, posting a snap of a huge bunch of red roses on Instagram on Wednesday

The TV personality posed with the enormous bouquet of the red roses on the most romantic day of the year, captioning the post: 'My valentine JR.'

Despite her present, Charlotte seemed to be spending the day with some of her gal pals, posting a video on her Instagram stories with the caption: 'Galentines.'

Charlotte appeared to confirm that she and Joshua were in a relationship last week following weeks of speculation, after posting a selfie with the reality star alongside the date '9.2.18.'

The couple were also front and centre in another selfie shared by Charlotte on Tuesday, as she pined to see her Geordie Shore co-star Sophie Kasaei.

Loving it: The former Geordie Shore star hinted that she would be spending V-Day with her gal pals, sharing an Instagram video of her singing with a friend with the caption: 'Galentines'

Together? The TV personality seemed to confirm she and the Ex On The Beach hunk were in a relationship on Friday, sharing a selfie of the couple

Reports of a romance came as the Celebrity Big Brother winner was seen passionately kissing her fellow MTV star, as she celebrated her former Geordie Shore co-star Aaron Chalmers' MMA win in December 2017.

Stepping out for the fight in Newcastle, the star ended her evening by locking lips with Joshua in an overt display - not caring who could see her as they smooched in front of fellow bar-goers.

MailOnline contacted Charlotte and Joshua's representatives for comment at the time.

Charlotte had been single following her split from Just Tattoo of Us star Stephen Bear, 28, last year.

Couple goals: Charlotte also shared a selfie of her and Joshua on Tuesday, as she said they were missing her reality TV star pal Sophie Kasaei

The couple's 11-month romance came to a dramatic end in October, following a slew of 'cheating' claims - which resulted in Charlotte publicly feuding with Bear's family on Twitter.

Charlotte even broke down when talking about her split from Stephen in an interview with Australia's NW magazine, revealing: 'I Normally I can talk about it fine, but..'

Hinting that Bear may have used her for fame, she sobbed: 'I don't know I suppose it was all maybe for attention.'Christine Lampard has sympathised with Elizabeth Hurley's son after the model revealed he takes all her sexy bikini pictures.

Speaking on Thursday's episode of ITV's Lorraine, Christine held back giggles as she discovered Damian, 15, was the photographer behind 52-year-old Elizabeth's saucy snaps.

The 39-year-old WAG reasoned: 'He probably [feels embarrassed] Hes 15 its like "oh mum, not again!"'

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Shocked: Christine Lampard has sympathised with Elizabeth Hurley's son after the model revealed he takes all her sexy bikini pictures

She added: 'It's Very odd, very odd. Stick with your friends to take those pictures'.

Elizabeth revealed her son acted as her photographer after uploading a series of sizzling holiday snaps of herself braless and in a bikini for Valentine's Day.

The model, who rose to fame at 29 with her Estee Lauder cosmetics campaign, stunned her 833,000 followers with the suggestive images, but some were unsure how to take her confession, with several branding the relationship 'weird'.

Snap happy: Christine held back giggles as she discovered Damian, 15, was the photographer behind his 52-year-old mother Elizabeth Hurley's saucy bikini-clad snaps

According to The Sun, Hurley said: '[Damian] definitely takes some, but I do have other friends that I can torture for some too.'

Damian, who was brought up in Gloucester by his mother and her then-partner Arun Nayar, has followed in her footsteps to become an actor.

He has had roles in Australian soap Neighbours and American drama The Royals.

Racy shots: Elizabeth revealed her son acted as her photographer after uploading a series of sizzling holiday snaps of herself braless and in a bikini for Valentine's Day

His father is American businessman and film producer Steve Bing, who denied paternity when Damian was born in 2002.

He claimed he and Hurley had a 'brief, non-exclusive' relationship the year before, but a DNA test proved he was the father.

Hugh Grant, a former flame of Hurley's, is Damian's godfather.

Strike a pose: The 52-year-old model and actress has become famous for showing off her incredible and age-defying figure on her Instagram, in scantily-clad swimwear

Commenting on the unusual mother-son photography set up, 15-year-old George Conroy said: 'I'd be shocked and weirded out if my mum asked me to take a sexy bikini shot of her'

He told the newspaper: 'Do Damian and Liz agree when a shot is sexy enough? How would they even judge that together?

'Even thinking about having that kind of chat with my mum makes me feel awkward.'

Of her beach escapades, she added: 'I've been in the business for a really long time so my body is something I have to take care of and think about all the time. I use as much cream as possible on it.'

Click, flash! Now, the world knows who the man behind the lens is - her son Damian HurleyThey have yet to mark their one-year anniversary.

But Amber Rose and her beau 21 Savage proved they were incredibly loved up as they headed for a romantic meal for Valentine's Day on Wednesday night.

The American model, 34 - who recently underwent a breast reduction - flaunted her envy-inducing curves in a pink satin crop top and skinny jeans as she embarked on the annual celebration of love with her rapper other half, 25.

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Smitten: Amber Rose, 34, and her beau 21 Savage, 25, proved they were incredibly loved up as they headed for a romantic meal for Valentine's Day on Wednesday night

Known for her stylish statements, Amber didn't disappoint as she dressed to accentuate her curvaceous physique in the stylish top.

An extra layer of material flaunted her honed stomach, before the number went on to flare out into a sensational, elongated train which effortlessly billowed in the wind.

The SlutWalk founder balanced out the look with a casual pair of jeans, before boosting her height in a pair of sky-high blush pink stilettos heels which boasted an eye-catching embellishment.

As per usual, Amber's platinum buzz cut enhanced her gorgeous features as she sauntered along with her main man.

Wow: The American model, who recently underwent a breast reduction - flaunted her envy-inducing curves in a pink satin crop top and skinny jeans

Sexy: An extra layer of material flaunted her honed stomach, before the number went on to flare out into a sensational, elongated train which effortlessly billowed in the wind

Savage, real name Shayaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, put on an undeniably trendy display in a colourblock co-ord.

The couple have been dating since July 2017 and theyve been inseparable ever since.

Rose has nine years on 21 Savage - she is 34-years-old and he is 25-years-old.

Amber was previously married to Wiz Khalifa for two years and they now share son Sebastian Taylor Thomaz, age four.

The photogenic star recently spent a lengthy time at home recovering from her breast reduction surgery.

Glamorous: The SlutWalk founder's balanced out the look with a casual pair of jeans, before boosting her height in a pair of sky-high blush pink stilettos heels

Mane attraction: The beauty sported her signature platinum pixie cut as she greeted fans at Nobu

The social media star took to Instagram to give a health update earlier this month where she gave her fans a sneak peak of her new breasts.

The surgery was performed on January 17 by Dr. Garth Fisher in Beverly Hills.

'I dont know if you guys know, but I was a 36 H,' Rose said on her Instagram story. 'I was really really big and I think now I might just be a D cup which is really small for me.'

The ex-girlfriend of Kanye West said she's excited to wear cute little shirts and strapless outfits now that her boobs aren't as large.

'Look how much smaller they are,' she said smiling. 'I really went down a lot.'

Downsized! Amber recently spent a lengthy time at home recovering from her breast reduction surgery

New look: The social media star took to Instagram to give a health update earlier this month where she gave her fans a sneak peak of her new breasts

While Amber is at home recuperating and cuddling with her 21 Savage pillow, she's decided to relax on the glam by letting her hair and eyebrows grow out.

The mom-of-one is also recovering from a cellulite procedure that she had performed by Dr. David Matlock.

'My legs are still really sore and my butt is really sore,' the Philadelphia native said. 'The bruising and the swelling went down a lot and once I feel up to moving around a bit more Ill show you guys my legs and my butt.'

She added: 'Ill keep you guys posted. I love you guys.'

Thanks doc! The surgery was performed on January 17 by Dr. Garth Fisher in Beverly Hills

Two birds, one stone: The SlutWalk founder is also recovering from a cellulite procedure that she had performed by Dr. David Matlock



Posted 2/15/18

Three Skyline students recently placed at the local level in the Patriots Pen writing contest.

Each year the Veterans of Foreign Wars hosts a nationwide writing contest called the Roxy Jacenko has denied claims she and husband Oliver Curtis will compete on I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here!

The Sydney PR queen told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday that she and her husband were not the 'dysfunctional couple' entering the jungle.

Explaining that she and Oliver were far from dysfunctional, Roxy claimed the married pair were Lisa and David Oldfield.

EXCLUSIVE: 'It's Roxy': Jacenko and Oliver Curtis 'WILL fly out on Saturday' to compete on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

'Oli and I are not entering the jungle for channel ten and we are far from dysfunctional in fact quite the contrary,' Roxy told Daily Mail Australia.

'Lisa and David Oldfield are your couple.'

On Thursday's episode, show hosts Dr. Chris Brown and Julia Morris revealed 'Australia's most dysfunctional couple' would be entering the jungle on Sunday.

Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia, an insider claimed: 'It's Roxy. They leave on Saturday I understand'.

At the end of Thursday's episode, hosts Chris and Julia revealed: 'We will be revealing the identities of two new celebrities on Sunday bound for camp.'

Get ready for Roxy! Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia, an insider claimed: 'It's Roxy. They leave on Saturday I understand'

The pair described the contestants as 'Australia's most dysfunctional couple,' adding in jest: 'It is not us!'

Within minutes, the survival reality show's Facebook page had blown up with speculation, with several pin-pointing Roxy and Oliver.

Following Thursday's intruder reveal, fan suggestions on Facebook ranged from intriguing, to impossible.

One wishful thinker quipped: 'Dean (Wells) and Davina (Ranking) from MAFS (Married At First Sight).'

Intriguing: Following Thursday's intruder reveal, fan suggestions on Facebook ranged from intriguing, to impossible, including 'Lisa and David Oldfield,' and 'Kyle Sandilands and Imogen Anthony (pictured)'

Noting his current leave schedule, another offered: 'Barnaby Joyce and his mistress ??'

On the more logical end of the spectrum, viewers speculated: 'Lisa and David Oldfield,' 'Kyle Sandilands and Imogen Anthony' or potentially 'Kyle and radio co-host Jackie O Henderson.'

If true, It's unclear whether Channel Ten opted to fly in the high-profile celebrities as a result of the show's ratings.

On Wednesday, the show attracted 515,000 viewers across the 5 metro cities, far behind rivals Married At First Sight (1.13 million) and My Kitchen Rules (930,000).She frequently treats her legion of fans to eye-popping displays on social media.

So it's no surprise Lauren Pope commanded attention in her latest sultry snap as she sizzled in a skimpy black bikini while snapping a mirror selfie during her Dubai holiday on Thursday.

The former TOWIE star, 35, showcased her envy-inducing frame in the plunging two-piece as she posed up a storm in her hotel room in a shot posted to her Instagram stories.

Eye-popping: Lauren Pope commanded attention in her latest sultry snap as she sizzled in a skimpy black bikini while snapping a mirror selfie during her Dubai holiday on Thursday

Lauren looked every inch the vixen as she wore her tresses in loosely tousled waves and opted for minimal make-up.

It seemed the reality star flew to the United Arab Emirates at some point on Valentine's Day, as her previous social media post was geo-tagged at the Nobu Hotel in London's Shoreditch.

Lauren is no stranger to flashing the flesh in racy snaps.

Last month, the beauty entrepreneur has slipped into racy attire as she posed up a storm while playing an arcade game in Torquay, Devon.

Racy: The former TOWIE star, 35, is no stranger to posting raunchy selfies, and posed up a storm while playing an arcade game in Torquay, Devon, last month

Donning a lace bodysuit with panelled joggers, Lauren flaunted her svelte frame as she reclined on a yellow bench.

The beauty drew further attention to her bronzed decolletage with a series of layered gold necklaces.

With a cheeky nod to her revealing number, she captioned the sultry shot: 'Too much for the arcades?!'

The star rose to fame as a glamour model, and started her career as a DJ over a decade ago, before becoming a series regular on TOWIE when she started dating show original Kirk Norcross back in 2010.

Former profession: The reality star rose to fame as a glamour model (pictured in 2006), and started her career as a DJ over a decade ago

Lauren has since gone on to launch her successful extension line Hair Rehab London.

The DJ recently revealed she had had her E Cup implants - the result of a second boob job - secretly removed last summer.

Speaking to MailOnline in July 2017, she said: 'I'm back to small boobies! I've thought about it for a long time.

'It's really hard to explain but it's not a big dramatic decision. It's just I feel like I am taken seriously now in the world of business.'Lisa Oldfield and Roxy Jacenko are locked in a war of words over who will star on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here with their respective husbands.

On Thursday, Roxy denied an allegation that suggested she would star on Channel Ten's reality show, noting: 'Lisa and David Oldfield are your couple'.

Now, Lisa has told Daily Mail Australia: 'It would be nigh on impossible for David and I to leave our two small boys for a month to spend in the wilds of South Africa'.

Lisa Oldfield sparks a war of words as she claims Roxy Jacenko and Oliver Curtis will appear on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! after PR queen said it would be the Real Housewife

In response to Roxy's allegation, she returned serve, asking: 'Really? Well she knows how to spin PR I guess'.

The Real Housewives Of Sydney star however insists: 'Admittedly, I'd find David and I eminently more watchable'.

The war of words started after I'm A Celeb hosts Dr Chris Brown and Julia Morris claimed 'Australia's most dysfunctional couple' would enter the jungle on Sunday.

It was then alleged to Daily Mail Australia: 'It's Roxy (and husband Oliver Curtis)' who would 'leave on Saturday' to compete on the show.

War of words: Lisa Oldfield and Roxy Jacenko are locked in a war of words over who will star on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here with their respective husbands

When contacted for comment, the PR queen told Daily Mail Australia that she and her husband were not the 'dysfunctional couple' entering the jungle.

Roxy insisted Channel Ten's clue ruled her and Oliver out, as the pair are 'far from dysfunctional'.

'Oli and I are not entering the jungle for channel ten and we are far from dysfunctional in fact quite the contrary,' she said.

'Lisa and David are your couple: On Thursday, Roxy denied an allegation that suggested she would star on Channel Ten's reality show, noting: 'Lisa and David Oldfield are your couple'

'Lisa and David Oldfield are your couple.'

Both Roxy and Lisa remain adamant with their assertions, suggesting only time will tell.

Shade thrown! But THEN Daily Mail Australia contacted Lisa, who returned serve: asking: 'Really? Well she (Roxy) knows how to spin PR I guess'

It's unclear whether Channel Ten has opted to fly in the high-profile celebrities as a result of the show's ratings.

On Wednesday, the show attracted 515,000 viewers across the 5 metro cities, far behind rivals Married At First Sight (1.13 million) and My Kitchen Rules (930,000).

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Channel Ten for comment.

'Impossible':'She claimed 'It would be nigh on impossible for David and I to leave our two small boys for a month to spend in the wilds of South Africa'She has enjoyed sun-soaked trips to the Bahamas and her native Brazil since announcing that she was stepping down from her role as a Victoria's Secret Angel.

And Alessandra Ambrosio showed that she can still effortlessly turn heads, when she stepped out on the shores of Tulum, Mexico, in a flattering orange bandeau bikini on Wednesday as she celebrated Valentine's Day with a group of gal pals.

The 36-year-old beauty, who has been engaged to businessman Jamie Mazur for almost 10 years, looked sensational as she strolled the powdery white sands with her equally-glamorous girlfriends for a day of basking in the glorious sunshine.

Strolling on the beach: Alessandra Ambrosio was spotted spending Valentine's Day on the beach with her gal pals in Tulum, Mexico, on Wednesday

The mother-of-two teamed her bandeau top with matching string bikini bottoms, which she covered with a cream semi-sheer wraparound miniskirt.

With her long chestnut brown tresses tied back in a bun, the Brazilian beauty accessorised with a pair of necklaces, dangling earrings, bracelets and gold-rimmed sunglasses, which rested atop her head as she chatted with her friends.

Keeping her makeup to a minimum, the stunner stepped out prepared for a day in the sunshine, toting a straw bag packed to the brim with items that included skin products, while she carried a cold beverage in another hand.

Itsy bitsy: The retired Victoria's Secret model wowed in a flattering orange bandeau bikini

Glamorous ladies: The Brazilian beauty smiled as she strolled the powdery white sands with her equally-glamorous group of girlfriends

A day before her outing, she turned up the heat on social media, when she took to Instagram to share a shot of herself seductively posing in a white bikini, in which she showed off her washboard abs and perky chest.

The model also treated her followers to a snapshot of herself frolicking in the welcoming azure waters with her daughter Anja, nine, and son Noah, five.

Alessandra retired from walking the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show catwalk in 2017 after nearly two decades on the famous runway.

She explained to Enertainment Tonight why she was ending her nearly 20-year career with the lingerie powerhouse, saying: 'Victorias Secret is my family, but you know its time to move on. Momma is tired.'

White hot! Alessandra took to Instagram to share a shot of herself in a white bikini on Tuesday

Alessandra announced her departure from the brand that propelled her to worldwide super-stardom in late November, after walking in an incredible 17 Victoria's Secret shows - most recently the 2017 presentation in Shanghai, China.

Confirming the rumours via her Instagram page, she wrote: 'Words cannot describe how grateful I am to have been working for this amazing brand that inspires me and women all over the world.

'In my wildest dreams I would have never imagined doing 17 Victorias Secret Fashion Shows. Thank you Ed, and all my Victorias Secret family for making these memories unforgettable.

'Last night was so emotional to say goodbye to my angel sisters but we put on the biggest and best show ever. I could not have done this without all the love and support from my fans.

Family fun! The day earlier, Ambrosio shared a snapshot of herself frolicking around the welcoming azure waters with her daughter Anja, nine, and son Noah, five

'It gives me great pride to be part the Victorias Secret movement! I will always be cheering for you! Love you forever.'

The model kicked off her fashion career at the tender age of 12, and went on to appear in her first show for the lingerie brand in 2000.

In the 2008 edition of the show, the mother-of-two famously returned to the runway just three months after giving birth to her first child, daughter Anja.

She was selected to wear the coveted 'Fantasy Bra' on two occasions; modelling a $2.5 million version in 2012 and joining fellow Brazilian bombshell Adriana Lima, 36, to showcase the Dream Angels Fantasy Bras, worth $2 million apiece, in 2014.

Beach beauty! The top model looked supremely fit donning a multi-color triangle top and cheeky bottoms while tending her children

Pucker up: Alessandra has enjoyed trips to the Bahamas and her native Brazil since retiring

The model raises daughter Anja and son Noah with businessman fiance Jamie Mazur, 36, to whom she has been engaged to since 2008.

Alessandra previously said her body has improved since she gave birth to her two children, because she never used to workout before becoming a mother.

She told The EDIT magazine in 2014: 'Your body will never go back to exactly what it was before pregnancy, whatever people tell you. It can't.

'But I think I have a better body now than before I had kids. It's partly because I work out, whereas before I didn't, but also to do with the shape - it just looks more formed now and I feel better about it than I did.'She is in the midst of a bitter divorce battle with Nick Knowles, 55, who she has accused of 'emotional and physical abuse'.

Yet Jessica Rose Moor, 30, hinted that she has a new man in her life as she shared a sweet Valentine's Day post with her fans.

In a clip, the mother-of-one wished a Happy Valentine's to a selection of her female friends, before going on to mention her 'actual Valentine'.

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Loved-up? She is in the midst of a bitter divorce battle with Nick Knowles,. Yet Jessica Rose Moor, 30, hinted that she has a new man in her life as she shared a sweet Valentine's Day post

In a clip, she teased 'Happy Valentine's Day to my actual Valentine!'

'[My son] Eddie pipped you the post this morning at 7am and asked if I would be his Valentine but you never know... next year.'

MailOnline has contacted Jessica's representative for comment.

Jessica shares son Eddie, three, with estranged husband Nick, who she recently accused of subjecting her to 'years of intimidation, emotional and physical abuse', claims he strongly denied.

Exes: Jessica and Nick had married in Rome in 2012 but announced their separation in January 2016, following almost four years of marriage

Jessica and Nick had married in Rome in 2012 but announced their separation in January 2016, following almost four years of marriage.

Their split was muddied by his fling with Emmerdale star Gemma Oaten and Jessica's shock cervical cancer diagnosis.

Nick insisted at the time they were happily working on their marriage again and the pair were ensuring their son remained their priority, while Jessica had credited Nick for 'saving her life' following her cancer battle.

In June 2016, Jessica had been diagnosed with stage one cervical cancer and had to have her cervix and pelvic lymph nodes removed.

Celebrating: In a clip, the mother-of-one wished a Happy Valentine's to a selection of her female friends, before going on to mention her 'actual Valentine'

The pair are in the midst of a divorce, with Jessica reportedly asking for more than 48,000 a year from him.

According to The Sun, Jessica who is currently receiving 4,000 a month as part of their settlement, is demanding an extra 2,000 a month in order to fund their three-year-old son Eddie's education.

'Nick is distraught that Jessica has made these claims. She already gets 4,000 a month from him and hes funded her life for years,' a source told the publication.

Former flames: Jessica previously credited Nick for 'saving her life' following her cancer battle. In June 2016, Jessica had been diagnosed with stage one cervical cancer

Nick is reportedly refusing to pay Jessica the money and has said that he will pay Eddie's school the required fee directly.

This comes after Jessica retaliated against her ex husband's response to her 'open letter about my divorce' posted on Twitter.

In the long diatribe, she alleged 'years of emotional cruelty, physical abuse' by her husband as well as reportedly withdrawing their son Eddie from private education.

However, sources close to the DIY SOS presenter denied the allegations - saying he 'only wants the best for his son'.Tamara Ecclestone showed off an incredibly slimline physique as she topped up her tan in Dubai on Wednesday.

The socialite slipped into a very skimpy coral bikini which flattered her figure perfectly as she enjoyed a walk on the beach.

Cuddling her daughter Sophia, three, affectionately known as Fifi in her arms, the 33-year-old looked happy and healthy as she enjoyed her time in the sunshine.

Looking amazing: Tamara Ecclestone showed off her incredibly slimline figure in a skimpy coral bikini as she carried daughter Sophia Ecclestone on beach in Dubai on Wednesday

Her long brunette locks fell down past her shoulders in perfectly styled waves and Tamara wore a pair of designer shades.

While Tamara's husband Jay Rutland was not pictured with the girls, he is currently on holiday with them.

Little Fifi wore a pretty Disney fairy dress and sported a temporary tattoo on her leg.

Stunning: Cuddling her daughter Sophia, three, affectionately known as Fifi in her arms, the 33-year-old looked happy and healthy as she enjoyed her time in the sunshine

Later on in the day, they headed to some loungers, where they enjoyed hanging out with one another.

Tamara couldn't stop smiling as she sat with her only child, who she describes as her best friend, before Sophia fell about giggling as her mother tickled her.

She slipped on a cream cover-up which was a crochet number, while her daughter wore a white kaftan with blue embroidery to make sure she didn't get too much sun.

Working her magic: Her long brunette locks fell down past her shoulders in perfectly styled waves and Tamara wore a pair of designer shades

Sweet: Tamara and her tot were clearly relishing their time together on the beach

Afterwards, Tamara could be seen pushing her tot in her pushchair as she headed back to their room, with Sophia fast asleep after it all got too much for her.

The family have recently returned from a holiday to G'Staad in Switzerland, where they regularly visit.

After four days in the mountains, the family boarded their private jet to make the six hour journey to Dubai in order to enjoy some warmer climes.

Sweet: Tamara stayed close to her little one as she played in the sand with her bucket and spade

Doing his own thing: While Tamara's husband Jay Rutland was not pictured with the girls, he is currently on holiday with them

The holidays came after Tamara remained defiant in the face of the backlash she faced for her expensive lifestyle.

Along with admitting Sophia had 'never flown economy', Tamara also spoke candidly of her relationship with husband, Jay confessing she wasn't even 'that into' him ahead of their blind date.

Speaking to Heat about their privileged life, Tamara - who lives in a 70million 57-room home in Kensington with husband of four years Jay and Sophia - appeared unfazed by some of the backlash she has found herself subject to recently.

Of her daughter, she admitted: 'No she hasn't ever traveled economy. Her favourite way to travel is by private jet with a Happy Meal. It's really is a beautiful life.'

Time to rest: Later on in the day, they headed to some loungers, where they enjoyed hanging out with one another

Matching: Tamara had slipped on a cream cover-up which was a crochet number, while her daughter had on a white kaftan with blue embroidery to make sure she didn't get too much sun

Close: Sophia danced around on their little bed as both ladies appeared full of glee

Although the beauty did admit being rich isn't all plain sailing and can come with its difficulties, especially as she likes to give people the benefit of the doubt, with Tamara having her trust broken on multiple occasions in past relationships.

But having found her happily ever after, Tamara, who was at the centre of a blackmail plot in 2013 when her ex Derek Rose tried to extort her of 200,000, revealed: 'I met Jay, but there were tons of bad relationships before that'.

Speaking about her first meeting with Jay, who she married in the South of France in 2013 before they welcomed daughter Sophia in 2014, Tamara admitted that she wasn't 'that into' her beau at first.

Best pals: Tamara couldn't stop smiling as she sat with her only child, who she describes as her best friend, before Sophia fell about giggling as her mother tickled her

Making time for her little one: They took a moment of rest after having lots of funShe became a household name after starring in cult classics like American Pie and The Big Lebowski.

And on Wednesday night, Tara Reid was spotted leaving Madeo restaurant in West Hollywood after a Valentine's Day dinner.

The 42-year-old actress cut a chic figure in a black and red dress featuring a sheer accent, adding bright crimson lipstick.

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Fancy: Tara Reid was spotted leaving Madeo restaurant in West Hollywood after a Valentine's Day dinner on Wednesday

Tara enjoyed dinner with a mystery man, who after opening the car door, presented her with a red rose.

The star chose a loose fitting frock with a draped neckline and a floor-length sheer skirt.

She paired the two-tone look with a loose fitting motorcycle jacket and cream platform heels.

Looking good: The 42-year-old actress cut a chic figure in a black and red dress featuring a sheer accent, adding bright crimson lipstick

Strike a pose: Tara enjoyed dinner with a mystery man, who after opening the car door, gave her a red rose

Wow: The star chose a loose fitting frock with a draped neckline and a floor-length sheer skirt

The golden haired beauty finished off her ensemble with a mini cross body bag slung across her.

Tara styled her platinum blonde tresses loose and center parted, opting for a slight wave.

The movie star painted her pout a bold tone with smokey gray eye shadow and a touch of peachy blush on her cheekbones.

Tara made a heart with her hands over her eyes before getting back in the car.

The actress has starred in a string of hit films including the American Pie and Sharknado franchise, The Big Lebowski and Cruel Intentions.

Here she is: The golden haired beauty finished off her ensemble with a mini cross body bag slung across her

All about love: Tara styled her platinum blonde tresses loose and center parted, opting for a slight wave

What a surprise: Tara posed with a huge floral arrangement she received on Valentine's DayAdvertisement

They have only been dating for a few months but have already tied the knot. On Tuesday, Amy Schumer married farmer-turned-chef Chris Fischer.

Two days later the 36-year-old comedienne shared photos from the nuptials where she looked lovely in a white Monique Lhuillier dress with spaghetti straps as she held hands with her love who was dapper in a dark suit and tie.

They wed at a rented home in Malibu in front of 80 people, including Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jennifer Lawrence, Larry David, Judd Apatow, Chelsea Handler and David Spade.

Soon after news broke there was speculation she could be with child, but the Trainwreck star took to social media to deny she was pregnant.

They did it! They have only been dating for a few months but have already tied the knot. On Tuesday, Amy Schumer married farmer-turned-chef Chris Fischer

The bride and groom: Two days later the comedienne shared a photo from the nuptials where she looked lovely in a white dress

Holding on tight: Amy clutched her new husband's arm as the ocean could be seen behind them

The star pulled her blonde hair back and left stray strands coming down around her shoulders.

The Inside Amy Schumer star wore little to no jewelry and her wedding rings could not be seen.

The Blast reported that the couple wrote their own vows, which were 'hilarious,' and guests were told not to post any photos on social media. The site also claimed Jerry Seinfeld was there too.

UsWeekly was first to break the news.

Close: Later on Thursday the star added even more photos to Instagram such as this one with her father Gordon

Introducing Mr and Mrs Fischer: The bride glowed as she was seen inside the Malibu mansion with her new husband

No baby: Soon after news broke there was speculation she could be with child, but the Trainwreck star took to social media to deny she was pregnant

Amy also shared images of some of her wedding party which included her sister Kim Caramele and her father Gordon.

Lawrence looked lovely in a pink dress with a black belt and choker and her hair back. She was seen kissing Amy on the cheek.

There were also images at her at the altar with Chris as well as their two small black dogs.

And Chris posed with two men as well as Gyllenhaal.

Ruff life: Also at the ceremony were there two little lap dogs

So close to the sea: The bride and groom said their vows just above a rocky beach on the California coast

The full look: There was also an aerial view of her wedding ceremony which was just feet from a rocky coastline

Amy took to Instagram to not only share the wedding photos on Thursday, but also to send a message.

'No I'm not pregnant,' she began. 'And no gifts but than you for asking.'

She then hit a more serious tone: 'Instead please consider s donation to everytown for gun safety. Thought of Mayce and Jillian a lot yesterday and sending love to everyone who has been affected by gun violence.'

On Wednesday Nikolas Cruz, 19, shot 17 people at a Florida high school.

So close: Jennifer Lawrence looked pretty in a pink dress with a black belt and choker and her hair back. She was seen kissing Amy on the cheek

More good friends: The one-liner queen also posed with Chelsea Handler who wore a V-neck black print dress

A dance off: Amy appeared to be wearing a slip as she was seen with Lawrence in a living room with a roaring fireplace

She was also seen inside the wedding with a light cardigan on as she stood next to her new husband while holding a glass of white wine

And there were photos of her not only dancing with Chris, but also her father Gordon to the song Hearts And Thoughts.

Later on Thursday the star added even more photos to Instagram.

Girl power: Schumer looked to be in great spirits as she posed with several of her wedding guests

Ambitious: She put a white veil on one of her pooches

Her caption read: 'Thanks for these pics @marcusrussellprice and thank you @guyoseary for always being there and @bridgeteverett for singing your heart out.'

Guy Oseary is a talent manager who has worked with Madonna and Ashton Kutcher.

The new images included a touching photo with her father, an image of her dog, and Amy with some female friends.

There was also an aerial view of her wedding ceremony which was just feet from a rocky coastline.

Amy and Chris could be seen standing face to face as her guests sat in chairs and a soda.

Amy's wedding comes only days after she was seen kissing the Beetlebung Farm Cookbook author, 37, at Ellen DeGeneres' 60th birthday party over the weekend.

She needs her shades: The HBO regular wore sunglasses as she posed with three friends

The were the flower girls too: These two ladies carried baskets made of grass with roses on the sides; the woman on the left appears to be Amy's sister Kim Caramele

The bridesmaids looked happy: These two ladies in pink held on to Amy's dogs

Message from AS: Amy took to Instagram to not only share these photos on Thursday, but also to send a message. 'No I'm not pregnant,' she began. 'And no gifts but than you for asking.' She then hit a more serious tone

She had his arms around him as they locked lips for the photo booth.

It was the first time they had gone public with their relationship.

Also at the bash were Kim Kardashian with Kanye West and Chrissy Teigen with John Legend.

The groom and his men: Chris posed with his pals, which included Jake Gyllenhaal

Giving credit: The joke teller thanked Rob And Lindsay Weddings as well as Marcus Russell Price and Judd Apatow

On Thursday the lovebirds were spied leaving a building in Beverly Hills side by side.

The funny lady appeared to have just left a workout session when she was seen with the dashing man. She also held on to her black dog.

The stand-up comedienne did not have an engagement ring on.

That same day she was at the dentist, which she wrote about on Instagram.

A toast for the new couple: The movie star held on to a glass of white wine as she stood next to her culinary artist husband

So many laughs: With so many comedians at their wedding - from Aniston to Seinfeld - it's no wonder they laughed it up

Holding each other tight: The newlyweds hugged as a woman in a strapless dress sang for them

Sweet moment: The father/daughter dance took on special meaning when Amy played Hearts And Thoughts

'Just got photographed leaving the dentist. Left side full of Novocain! #ifeelpretty,' she said.

Before that, the movie star and the cook were seen arriving at NBC Studios in New York City to watch Saturday Night Live in January.

They were also there to support friend Jessica Chastain who was on the show.

Amy had a big smile while wearing a vintage Eazy-E T-shirt.

But they arrived and left separately so they could not be photographed with each other.

Another TV star at the splashy event: Larry David of Curb Your Enthusiasm walked with Reverend Vicky

Gracias: She also thanked talent manager Guy Oseary, who has worked with Madonna and Ashton Kutcher

In November the actress was photographed on a romantic date with Fischer, who is reported to be her assistant's brother.

The two sipped glasses of wine and chatted intently, gazing into one another's eyes as they enjoyed a cozy night.

Fischer is the first man Amy has dated since she split from Ben Hanisch in May after 18 months.

The comedienne previously admitted Ben - who she met on a dating app - was the perfect man for her as he wasn't phased by her celebrity status.

That's something that Fischer - a good friend of Jake Gyllenhaal - should also be able to handle.

And like furniture maker Ben, it seems Amy's new man is good with his hands.

Having made a name for himself at Mario Batali's upmarket Babbo in Manhattan and the famed River Cafe in London, Chris gave up his city life to take over the family farm in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Before the big day: Schumer's father could be seen at what appeared to be the rehearsal dinner

Arm in arm: The star took to the microphone with a pretty brunette friend in a blue floral dress

The night before she said 'I do': The hitmaker was seen on top of this 'wedding pyramid'

He wrote his critically acclaimed Beetlebung Farm Cookbook while working at New England farm-to-table restaurant Beach Plum, named as a favorite of Barack and Michelle Obama in 2013.

Chris took over Beetlebung in 2010 from his aunt Marie and his grandmother, who still owns the farm at the age of 102.

Before she walked down the aisle: The Women Who Kill star with a face mask on

According to his website, Ben's grandparents Regina and Ozzie founded the five-acre Beetlebung Farm in 1961.

The two raised their four children there while farming cows, and growing vegetables and flowers they sold on a farm stand.

His Instagram feed shows his idyllic life, featuring plenty of moody shots of the countryside, beautifully plated vegetable-rich meals, and family photos.

And Chris sure seems to be living the good life. In an interview last year he talked of his annual Thanksgiving celebration with friends.

'Its a whole day spent cooking and takes a big effort to clean up the next day, but this work adds seasoning to our appetites,' he said. 'The festivities are always great with friends huddling around the fires to stay warm deep into the night, and as usual, I was too busy hosting and organizing to eat a proper meal on the night of the party.

They went public over the weekend: They kissed in this photo taken at Ellen DeGeneres' 60th birthday party in LA

Still in love: Schumer with Fischer on Thursday; the lovebirds were spied leaving a building in Beverly Hills side by side

The ex: Fischer is the first man Amy has dated since she split from Ben Hanisch in May after 18 months; seen in 2016

'This year, I took home the tender boiled meats and ate them alone in my living room the following night, in front of my fire, having said goodbye to all those who made the trip.'

Also last week the first trailer for Amy's movie I Feel Pretty was released.

The comedy is about an insecure woman who thinks she's a supermodel after falling and hitting her head during a spinning session.

Amy looked fantastic as she danced around on stage, not only twerking but also throwing beer on her chest.

Amy is supposed to be a less attractive girl in the movie, but in this scene she looks to be in great shape.

At one point she shows off abs as she does her moves in a white top and red shorts.

The clip begins with her saying in voice over that only the pretty girls get noticed.Coronation Street star Daniel Brocklebank is still with his boyfriend of three months Stuart Hutton.

The actor posted a series of a cryptic tweets on Valentine's Day hinting he was newly single, but a representative for the 38-year-old has denied this.

They told MailOnline: 'I can confirm that Dan and Stuart are still together. Dans tweets have been taken out of context as hes on holiday with his friend, who is a lesbian.'

'Dan and Stuart are still together!' Coronation Street star Daniel Brocklebank's Valentine's Day tweets were NOT about splitting from Mr Gay World boyfriend of three months

The sexuality of Daniel's holiday companion was pointed out to 'put into context' one tweet which read: 'Mum: Happy Valentines! Did you get much romance today? Me: The most romance I got was when guy walked past me on the beach & farted. Mum: Did you get his number?'

Daniel's tweets left fans confused as they appeared on the most romantic day of the year and told fans to 'know your worth.'

He wrote: 'Happy Valentine's Day! Whoever you are, wherever you are and in whatever form it comes, I hope you are feeling loved. You should never have to fight for someone's attention. If they really cared you wouldn't have to. #KnowYourWorth.'

He then added: 'When the right person comes along, you won't need to do anything to keep them for the simple fact that you will be enough.'

Going strong: The actor posted a series of a cryptic tweets on Valentine's Day hinting he was newly single, but a representative for the 38-year-old has denied this

Daniel is thought to have met Stuart in September last year when he interviewed him on Pride Radio.

Uploading a snap of them together, he captioned it: 'Talking all things LGBT adoption & corrie with @mrgayworld_stuarthattonjr on @prideworldradio.'

The months that followed saw several selfies of the two of them together, at various events, uploaded to Daniel's Instagram page.

Cryptic: Daniel posted a slew of tweets hinting that he was single again, as he told fans to 'know your worth' - but he is in fact still with Stuart

The actor had previously been in a relationship with his Corrie co-star Rob Mallard, who plays Daniel Osbourne on the show.

The pair split in July last year after just a few months of dating, but a source told The Sun they remained friends, saying: 'It was a lot of pressure for both of them to be working on the same show and going outin the end something had to give.

'They decided to part ways a couple of weeks ago but they're still great friends and hope to remain that way.'Survivor: The Amazon winner Jenna Morasca was arrested for DUI and possession of narcotics paraphernalia last month.

A police report states that the 37-year-old was found unconscious in her SUV in Washington, Pennsylvania with the ignition on at an intersection.

Morasca was so out of it - from an apparent drug overdose - that she had to be revived by Narcan, TMZ reports.

Booked: Survivor winner Jenna Morasca (pictured 2012) has been arrested for a DUI and possession of narcotics paraphernalia after being found unconscious in her car on January 25

On January 25 police received a call from a driver in South Strabane Township saying someone was passed out behind the wheel at a stop sign.

When cops arrived they observed a passenger in the car trying to hide several syringes in a large Ziploc bag in Morasca's purse.

The vehicle, a Chevrolet Trax with custom license plate reading 'AMAZON', was still running.

Officers administered Narcan and placed the former reality star into an ambulance.

Narcan (a brand name for naloxone) is a drug that police officers carry and is used to reverse the effects of opioid overdoses.

It comes in three forms; a syringe to be injected into the buttocks or thigh or shoulder, an EpiPen-style shot or nasal spray.

The former reality star - who won Survivor: The Amazon back in 2003 - bit a cop and paramedics while being transported to hospital

Some states now require its police officers to carry naloxone to revive people who have overdosed.

On the way to hospital Morasca allegedly tried to bite paramedics and when a police officer entered the vehicle to try and subdue her she bit the cop on the forearm.

Morasca was arrested for DUI and possession of narcotics paraphernalia and will be charged with assaulting a police officer and paramedics for the incident.

Morasco shot to fame when she won $1 million on Survivor: The Amazon back in 2003.

She later appeared in numerous other reality shows, including Celebrity Apprentice, Fear Factor and The Amazing Race.

Morasca later appeared in numerous other reality shows, including Celebrity Apprentice, Fear Factor and The Amazing Race

In 2004 Morasca quit Survivor: All Stars to be with her mother who was dying from breast cancer. Her mother died eight days after Morasca returned home.

Following stints in numerous reality shows she earned a master's degree in counseling and clinical psychology from Columbia University in 2012.

The following year she split with fellow Survivor star Ethan Zohn after 10 years together and supporting him through his battle with Hodgkins lymphoma, a rare type of cancer.

She was at his side during his grueling treatment and ran the New York Marathon alongside Ethan in 2011, dying her hair pink in support of raising money to highlight the illness.

In 2004 Morasca quit Survivor: All Stars to be with her mother who was dying from breast cancer. Her mother died eight days after Morasca returned home. She is pictured on the show in 2003

Longtime love: In 2013 Morasca split from fellow Survivor star Ethan Zohn (pictured in 2011) who she dated for 10 years and supported through his battle with Hodgkins lymphoma

The couple had starred in The Amazing Race together and also had their own TV show, Everyday Health.

Meanwhile, Zohn, 43, tied the knot with interior designer Lisa Heywood in 2016 after they met at a charity event in September 2013, just months after his split from Morasca.

'This is the reason I survived cancer twice ... to meet Lisa and start a beautiful and healthy new life together.' Zohn told People at the time of his proposal in 2015.

He was first diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2009 and then again in 2012. After stem cell transplants from his brother in 2013 Zohn is currently clear of the disease.Career exploration helps students become successful adults When I was a child, I didnt have a clue that I could be doing the work that I am...

Remember When  The first known writings and paintings on walls were found in the Chauvet cave in France dating back 30,000 BC,...

To mask or not to mask, that is the question. Your answer may be right for you, but not right for me; my answer may be right for me, but...

Random thoughts and observations As I couldnt settle on one particular topic for this column, I decided to just roll with a few things...Frozen star Josh Gad is heartbroken and angry after finding out his friend's son died in Wednesday's school shooting in Florida.

The 36-year-old actor revealed his grief on Twitter while calling for stricter gun laws and slamming Florida republican senator Marco Rubio for taking $3.3million in funding from the National Rifle Association.

'I am so angry tonight. I am so sad. Im putting my phone down because we are debating sensible gun laws again,' he posted on Wednesday night.

'I am so angry tonight': Josh Gad has expressed his anger and grief at learning a family friend's son was killed in the Florida school shooting on Wednesday

'A child of one of our friend's has a bullet in his chest & is critical condition because a 19 year old had access to a military weapon. Pretend its normal. Its not.' he added.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Parkland, Florida on Wednesday and started shooting at students with an AR-15 rifle, killing 17 and injuring countless others.

As new broke on Wednesday the Love & Other Drugs actor tweeted: 'Just learned some horrible and shocking news involving a family friend whos son was shot today at the school. Please put out lots of good vibes and prayers for he and all of the other families navigating this nightmarish day.'

The next day Gad revealed the boy had died.

The 36-year-old actor tweeted after finding out that his friend's son was in critical condition before revealing on Thursday morning that he had died

'My grief knows no bounds': Gad later slammed 'our worthless leaders' after finding out the boy died

'Shocking': When news first broke of yet another school shooting in America, Gad asked his followers for their prayers

'Last night, I received a text while I slept that our friends son passed away from his gun shot wound. My grief for this family and the many others knows no bounds. Im so sorry this happened. Im so sorry our leaders are worthless. Im so sorry we are bound to repeat this again.' he wrote in the heartbreaking tweet.

In an early morning post the Beauty and the Beast star - who was born in Hollywood, Florida - slammed senator Rubio.

He wrote: 'As a Floridian, please let me be among the masses to tell you, you are a spineless coward @marcorubio and I hope your 3.3 million dollars in NRA funding comes with ear plugs that allow you to tune out the mourning cries of children and parents everywhere.'

Angry: Early Wednesday morning the Frozen star called Florida senator Marco Rubio a coward for accepting $3.3 million from the National Rifle Association

Disbelief: Gad revealed his frustration at the number of school shootings taking place across the country

Doting dad: The actor is pictured with his daughter Ava on a recent ski trip

Rubio elicited rage when he tweeted in the wake of the horrific massacre: 'Just finished update from fed authorities on #FloridaSchoolShooting. It is clear attack was designed & executed to maximize loss of life'.

One woman tweeted in response: 'You take millions from the NRA and voted against outlawing the weapon used today,'

Another user wrote: 'How about this time you skip the thoughts and prayers and actually do something to keep our children from being slaughtered in their classrooms. Signed, a Florida voter.'

Gad has two daughters, six-year-old Ava and three-year-old Isabella, with TV producer Ida Darvish who he married in 2008.

Partner: The Love & Other Drugs star has been married to Ida Darvish (pictured in 2015) since 2008La La Anthony looked like an extra from the sc-fi movie Blade Runner when she was seen with friend Kelly Rowland in New York City on Thursday.

The 38-year-old best friend of Kim Kardashian wore black leather slacks and a light blue jacket with oversized sunglasses and black lipstick.

This comes the day after her estranged husband Carmelo Anthony, 33, called her 'mine forever' in a Valentine's Day Instagram post.

All that's missing is Harrison Ford: La La Anthony looked like an extra from the sc-fi movie Blade Runner when she was seen in New York City on Thursday

She likes Kanye's clothes: The looker noted here that she was wearing Yeezy season six

Her inspiration?: Ryan Gosling and three hot chicks from 2017's Blade Runner

La La added pointy white shoes and had her hair pulled back.

Kelly, who used to be in Destiny's Child with Beyonce, looked dazzling in a tight black dress with lace-up heels that showed off a fun white pedicure.

It is not known why La La is in NYC just after Fashion Week.

She had a friend with her: The sire also walked with singer Kelly Rowland

Knockout: Kelly, who used to be in Destiny's Child with Beyonce, looked dazzling in a tight black dress with lace-up heels that showed off a fun white pedicure

La La split from Carmelo in April 2017, but he seems to think they're still an item.

The Oklahoma City Thunder forward posted a photo of the two of them on Instagram.

His V-Day tribute read: '*** MINE FOREVER!!!HAPPY VALENTINES DAY to MY WIFE @lala #STAYMe7O.'

Back on? This comes the day after her estranged husband Carmelo Anthony, 33, called her 'mine forever' in a Valentine's Day Instagram post

She did not share a message for him on the romantic holiday.

Instead, she posted images from New York Fashion Week alongside Zendaya and Rowland.

Last year it was claimed that Carmelo had gotten a stripper pregnant.

Tough times: Last year it was claimed that Carmelo had gotten a stripper pregnant. Seen in April 2016 in NYC

They have a child: They have been seen together for the sake of their son Kiyan, 10. Seen in September 2015 in NYC

They have been seen together for the sake of their son Kiyan, 10.

But it is not know if they will give their marriage another shot.

'Only I know whats going on with my relationship and thats what matters to me, not what everybody else thinks  When its time for the world to know, theyll know,' she told Latina in November.

In July she told E!, 'He's my best friend. When you're with someone for 13 years since they were 19 years old, and you have a 10 year-old child, you'd hope that you guys would be cool.

'We are the best of friends.'Sylvester Stallone knows how to keep the romance alive in his 20 year marriage to Jennifer Flavin.

The action hero was spotted buying jewelry at a high end store in Beverly Hills on Valentine's Day.

The 71-year-old bent over a counter at jewelry designer David Yurman's store and appeared to pick out a chain necklace.

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Making his choice: Sylvester Stallone was spotted out spotted out doing some last minute shopping at jewelry designer David Yurman's store in Beverly Hills on Valentine's Day

The Rocky star vistied a few other stores during his last-minute spree, eventually heading home with a few bags in tow.

Sly and his wife Jennifer, 49, also have three daughters Sophia, 21, Sistine, 19, and Scarlet, 15. He may also have purchased gifts for them.

The action hero was casually dressed for his shopping trip.

Sly wore a black zip-up jacket over a black V-neck T-shirt and black pants plus grey Nike trainers.

That one: The 71-year-old action hero appeared to pick out a chain necklace

On the hunt: The Rocky star prowled around the store before making his choice

The still hunky star slicked his dark hair back, revealing his widow's peak, and wore dark glasses to pretect his eyes from the bright sun.

The very much in demand actor has six projects on the go this year, including two mob boss dramas.

Scarpa is the biopic of former capo and enforcer for the Colombo crime family, Gergory Scarpa, which has yet to set a release date.

Mission accomplished: Sly was spotted carrying a black bag from the store and two white bags so it looks like there were gifts for all the girls in his life

Waving to fans: The action hero was casually dressed for his shopping trip in a black zip-up jacket, a black V-neck T-shirt and black pants plus grey Nike trainers

Director Antoine Fuqua's TV series, Omerta, looks at the life and crimes of American mob boss, Raymonde Aprile.

Escape Plan 2: Hades is due out May 17 in the Netherlands but has yet to set a U.S. date while Escape Plan 3: Devil's Station is already in the works.

In Creed II, Sly reprises his iconic role as Rocky Balboa, who is training Adonis Creed, due out November 21.

Tough As They Come has just been announced.He's known for his comedic routines on stage and screen.

But David Spade was having a swell time as he joked with Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show about her star-studded birthday bash over the weekend.

The 53-year-old comedian admitted he 'was already drunk' before showing up to the party before smoking marijuana with rapper French Montana.

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Fun: David Spade was having a swell time as he joked with Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show about her star-studded birthday bash over the weekend

'I was already drunk... but it was nighttime,' he told DeGeneres on her show. 'So, I already came in a little hot.'

Spade had a previous stand-up engagement in Irvine and joked that he suffers from 'great guy syndrome' so he couldn't skip the event.

The Joe Dirt star jokingly said he was confused about the cover charge, but paid, only to find celebs 'packed like 'stardines'' inside the event.

'They were everywhere and I bothered all of them,' he said. 'I really get in their grill. I never have anything to say. It's a real 'nonversation.' I walk up and it's just, 'Vavavavavava.' They do not know what's going on.'

Good times: The 53-year-old comedian admitted he 'was already drunk' before showing up to the party before smoking marijuana with rapper French Montana

Once he was introduced to Ellen's 'rapper buddies' French Montana, David tried to play it cool when he 'whipped out some medical marijuana - a big, rolled up doobie of it.'

Spade wanted to play it cool with the rapper and took a big hit of the marijuana cigarette before 'coughing for maybe 40 minutes.'

The Tommy Boy actor made matters even more uncomfortable after he handed the joint back to Montana and said, 'Hey! Good batch!'

Laughs: The Joe Dirt star jokingly said he was confused about the cover charge, but paid, only to find celebs 'packed like 'stardines'' inside the event.

'I don't know what to say. I try to be cool,' David laughed. 'I go, 'Is that Hawaiian? Is that Vietnamese Purple-Haired Norslope Hash?' That's the last I had in high school, so I threw that in there; it didn't ring a bell.'

Spade said he started 'to space out a bit, because I was sort of in a half coma,' before a failed attempt to talk to Oprah.

He laughed that he 'didn't really bother anyone else,' as pal Leonardo DiCaprio 'got away with a fist bump.'Tom Hanks has been married to Rita Wilson for almost 30 years now.

And the veteran Hollywood actors seem to be going as strong as ever.

On Valentine's Day the pretty 61-year-old Sleepless In Seattle star shared a touching photo with her Oscar-winning spouse. Her caption read, 'To my one and only.'

Happy: Tom Hanks has been married to Rita Wilson for almost 30 years. On Valentine's Day the Sleepless In Seattle star shared a touching photo with her spouse with the caption, 'To my one and only'

Wilson wore a grey tank top with a blue bandanna as he had on a black polo shirt with a beaded necklace.

Both looked tanned and happy as if they were on their honeymoon.

They appeared to be in a tropical location like Hawaii.

Going strong: On Tuesday, the 2 Dope Queens podcast re-posted a 2017 interview with Hanks in which he called Wilson, 'smokin hot'; the couple pictured in January

This comes after the popular 2 Dope Queens podcast re-posted a 2017 interview with Hanks, 61, in which he revealed that he is still attracted to his wife and thinks she's 'smokin hot.'

Comedians and hosts Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams first said that Wilson was hot.

Hanks addressed the hosts' compliments to his wife and said, 'By the way, she is.'

Veteran actor: The Toy Story star attended the Pentagon Papers premiere in Paris during January

The Forrest Gump actor continued: 'I gotta say, sometimes I look at that lady in the morning looking all tousled and warm from bed in her sweats and her hair all piled up on her head... [sucks on teeth] smokin' hot.'

'Aww, oh my god Tom, that is the sweetest thing,' Robinson replied.

He also revealed that his attraction to Wilson was immediate when they first met: 'Right from the get-go I thought that there was something crazy-great about her.'

With so many favorite Hollywood couples calling it quits nowadays, Hanks and Wilson continue to be the exception.

The couple first met in 1981 on the set of Bosom Buddies, and tied the knot in 1988. They have since shut down every divorce rumor that has come their way.

In an interview with Extra, the producer of My Big Fat Greek Wedding said, 'At a certain point you have to call them out on their lies. Our marriage is really sacred to us.'He asked model Sabrina Dhowre to be his wife live on-stage during a screening of his new movie Yardie last week.

But it was back to work for Idris Elba on Thursday as he was seen on the set of Luther, shooting scenes for the forthcoming fifth season.

Dressed in his typical Luther get-up, wearing a slick suit and a long trench coat, the actor, 45, was seen stepping out from behind an ambulance making a very tense phone call.

Back to the grind! Newly-engaged Idris Elba, 45, shot scenes on the set of crime thriller Luther for the first time since proposing to Sabrina Dhowre, 29, on Thursday afternoon

Smitten: Sabrina was feeling the love as she shared a romantic pre-Valentines Day tribute to new fiance Idris on Tuesday, expressing how lucky she feels to have found him

The cameras pointed at him as he performed in character, clearly part of a dramatic crime scene on what looked like a country road.

He was seen strutting to and from the vehicle looking distressed as he took the phone call, at one point raising his hand to his mouth in shock.

He looked worlds away from the blissfully happy Instagram shot his fiancee Sabrina, 29, posted on Tuesday, which saw him contentedly holding hands with her across a romantic dinner table.

The former Miss Vancouver gushed in the snap: 'Baby! I cant tell you enough how happy you make me and how lucky I feel to have found a love like this, you make my heart feel so full.

He's back: The cameras pointed at him as he performed in character, clearly part of a dramatic crime scene on what looked like a country road

Back to his day job: It was back to work for Idris Elba on Thursday as he was seen on the set of Luther, shooting scenes for the forthcoming fifth season

'I love you. Forever will always feel too short. #imsuchacheeseball @idriselba'.

It was confirmed last summer that he was to resume the role of DCI John Luther in the much-loved BBC One series Luther.

The role has already bagged him a Golden Globe and SAG award.

After battling a cannibal serial killer in the last series - which aired in December 2015 - Luther was last seen walking through his London stomping ground and into an uncertain future.

Many questions were left unanswered including what really happened to his friend/foe, sociopath Alice Morgan.

Drama: At one point the actor was seen raising his hand to his mouth in shock

Looking sharp: Dressed in his typical Luther get-up, wearing a slick suit and a long trench coat, the actor, 45, was seen stepping out from behind an ambulance

Fifth season: It was confirmed last summer that he was to resume the role of DCI John Luther in the much-loved BBC One series Luther

With John having to deal with the murder of his ex-wife Zoe and partner DS Justin Ripley along with the apparent loss of Alice it is unclear what fresh emotional torment the obsessive DCI will have to endure next.

After series four had aired, Idris spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the show without Alice and claimed it was possible for it to continue: 'The truth is, the show is called Luther. It's not called Alice, or The Bad Guys.

'It's about Luther and the people he comes across and the people he tries to bring down. I think that world still remains intact, but it takes on a slightly different spin.'

But he was quick to add that it wasn't necessarily the last time we'd see her: 'I'm not being deceptive or anything, but the truth is, John Luther isn't quite sure that she's dead!'

Bad call? He was seen strutting to and from the vehicle looking distressed as he took the phone call

What's in store? After battling a cannibal serial killer in the last series - which aired in December 2015 - Luther was last seen walking into an uncertain future

Originally, series showrunner Neil Cross and Idris were looking to take the character to the big screen, but in June last year they revealed that they had decided on making a new series instead because there were so many unanswered questions.

Of the new episodes Neil said in a statement: 'It's a question Idris and I get asked a lot. What happened to John Luther after we last saw him striding unbowed through the streets of his city, his blood red London?

'It can't be over, can it? There's so much we don't know. So much unfinished business. The thing is, we've been asking ourselves the same question.

'In the end, we picked up the phone to some old friends and asked if they'd like to find out what happens next. It turns out, they would. So that's what we're going to do.'

Brunette beauty: Posting a snap to Instagram of the smitten pair she gushed - 'Baby! I cant tell you enough how happy you make me and how lucky I feel to have found a love like this'

Idris also seemed keen to return to the character, as he added: 'Neil, the BBC and I have been talking about a further season and I am thrilled that we have been able to bring it all together. I look forward to putting the coat back on.'

He also told Radio Times that the new series is 'classic' before adding that they were 'not reinventing the wheel' when it comes to the story.

The new series will feature a four-episode story, which hasn't happened since series three.

Idris appearance on the Luther set comes just days after he got down on one knee and proposed to Sabrina during the packed screening at the Rio cinema, Dalston, East London.

The cinema announced the news on its Twitter page, writing: "Another @riocinema first! Still 5 days to Valentines Day but @idriselba went down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend live on stage this morning before a preview of his film #Yardie ... She said yes and there was much clapping and cheering. (sic)"

Cute couple: The Dark Tower star, who claimed marriage was off the cards just six months ago after two divorces, couldn't contain his joy for the special moment as his emotional other half said 'yes' (pictured in November 2017)

Getting hitched: The online show of affection came three days after Idris got down on one knee and proposed to Sabrina during the packed screening of his new film Yardie

The Dark Tower star, who claimed marriage was off the cards just six months ago after two divorces, couldn't contain his joy for the special moment as his emotional other half said 'yes'.

He told ESSENCE magazine in July 2017: Am I ever gonna get remarried? I dont think so. Yeah, I dont think so. Marriage is an institution of sorts. And Ive done it. Its not for everybody. Its not my lifes calling.

He was filming The Mountain Between Us alongside Titanic's Kate Winslet in Canada when he found himself smitten with beauty queen Sabrina.

Previously the Thor: Ragnarok actor was married to Kim Norgaard, with whom he shares daughter Isan, 17, and then Sonya Nicole Hamlin, whom he divorced just four months later.

True love: Idris and Sabrina made their red carpet debut as a couple in September 2017 (above) but were said to have been dating for seven months before going public

John Luther: In his professional life, The Wire star's career continues to go from strength to strength, with Idris currently filming the fifth season of gritty crime drama Luther

He welcomed a son, Winston, with ex-girlfriend Naiyana Garth in 2014.

His ex-wife Sonya previously claimed he ended their relationship for his career but said she would be happy if he did decide to tie the knot again.

She had previously claimed he dumped her for the sake of his career but said she would be happy for him if he did want to get married again.

In 2016, she said: 'People were telling him he was going to ruin his career. He was being told it was an important part of his image to be a single sex symbol in Hollywood and being married would damage that.

'I'd be happy for him if he got married again, and he genuinely loved that person. I'm not a jealous person. I want him to be happy, just like I'm sure he wants me to be happy. I don't think he's ever going to have a problem being lonely.'It's landed her an Oscar nomination for her role as disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding.

And star of I, Tonya, Margot Robbie, positively shone as she walked the red carpet for the film's UK premiere at the Curzon Mayfair Cinema in London on Thursday evening.

The blonde actress, 27, looked every inch the movie star as she stepped out in a floor-length gown, dripping in silver, black and white sequins - clearly a nod to her skater character - a role she told MailOnline she'd never have been able to play if she hadn't taken matters into her own hands.

She's got sparkle! Margot Robbie glistened in a floor-length gown of black, white and silver sequins as she attended the London premiere of I, Tonya

The Wolf Of Wall Street star, who produced the movie herself, said: 'I definitely dont think anybody would have given me this role if I hadnt gone after it and I just wasnt prepared to wait another 10 years for someone to happen to offer me a role like this.'

She admitted: 'It was a difficult script to make from a producerial point of view, it had a lot of challenges and you were never going to get a tonne of money for something so unconventional.

'Its the Olympics, it spans over four decades and theres a lot of things that make it expensive, it was a period script. It was a huge undertaking as new producers. It was amazing and I think taking a gamble like that can pay off.

A dramatic look: The Australian blonde looked the epitome of sleek in the dress, which covered her lithe arms and long pins, falling dramatically to the pink floor

Zebra-like: The dress featured stripes, strips and paneling of black, silver and white, which shimmered in the premiere lights

Sleek: She swept her golden tresses into a dead-straight side bob and smiled lightly for the cameras

The Australian blonde looked the epitome of sleek in the dress, which covered her lithe arms and long pins, falling dramatically to the pink floor.

The zebra-like print featured stripes, strips and paneling of black, silver and white, which shimmered in the premiere lights.

Margot offset this with black nail polish and white eye shadow, keeping the rest of her make-up natural and clean.

She swept her golden tresses into a dead-straight side bob and smiled lightly for the cameras.

Margot is nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role while her co-star Allison is nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for I, Tonya at the 90th Annual Academy Awards on March 4.

Ice queen: Margot offset this with black nail polish and white eye shadow, keeping the rest of her make-up natural and clean

Stunning: The blonde actress, 27, looked every inch the movie star as she stepped out in a floor-length gown, dripping in sequins - clearly a nod to her skater character

Shimmer: Allison mirrored Margot's nod to figure-skating chic with her own sequinned gown in midnight blue

Margot enjoyed a glass of champagne with her husband Tom Ackerley, whom she produced I, Tonya with, after the red carpet.

He was seen sharing a moment with his wife before walking the carpet and was seen to talk calmly to her to relax her nerves.

Margot was joined on the red carpet by co-star Allison Janney who appears alongside her in the biopic.

The 58-year-old actress looked spectacular in a floor-length dress, with her chestnut mane loosely falling around her lithe shoulders.

She's had the nod: The film has landed her an Oscar nomination for her role as disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding

In it to win it? Star of I, Tonya, Margot, positively shone as she walked the red carpet for the film's UK premiere at Mayfair's Curzon in London

Animated: Margot forged a bond with real-life Tonya while making the movie - even bringing the former Olympian to the Golden Globes as her date last month

Allison mirrored Margot's nod to figure-skating chic with her own sequinned gown in midnight blue.

The ladies shared a laugh as they entered the premiere together in their sequinned gowns.

She told MailOnline: 'Every time I win something, Im sure Im going to lose the next one. Im very nervous and I feel a lot of pressure, I dont want to disappoint people.

'Its almost as if you want to win for them rather than yourself because it means so much to them, and me too.'

Fancy seeing you here: Margot is nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role while her co-star Allison Janney [pictured] is nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for I, Tonya

Co-stars: The ladies shared a laugh as they entered the premiere together in their sequinned gowns

Big night ahead: Margot and Allison will both be in attendance at the 90th Annual Academy Awards on March 4

The stars of Dancing On Ice were also in attendance. The likes of Brooke Vincent, Jake Quickenden and Candice Brown all walked the red carpet, having tried their own hand at figure-skating lately on the ITV show.

Margot forged a bond with real-life Tonya while making the movie - even bringing the former Olympian to the Golden Globes as her date last month.

The Aussie beauty told James Corden on his chat show recently: 'OMG, she was so much fun to have there.

'Tonya anyway is very unapologetic about who she is and thats kind of liberating sometimes, especially if you are at a fancy event because she just was not afraid to go up to anyone and say hi and get a picture,'

The Suicide Squad star was impressed at how unfazed Tonya was at the star-studded event.

'She was like, "Oh, theres Meryl. Im gonna go say hi."' Margo added.

The Wolf Of Wall Street star, who produced the movie herself, said: 'I just wasnt prepared to wait another 10 years for someone to happen to offer me a role like this'

The Aussie beauty told James Corden on his chat show recently: 'OMG, [Tonya] was so much fun to have [at the Golden Globes]'

Gal pals: 'Tonya anyway is very unapologetic about who she is and thats kind of liberating sometimes, especially if you are at a fancy event,' the actress said

Big fan: The Suicide Squad star was impressed at how unfazed Tonya was at the star-studded event

Chat: Margot recalled that some of the Golden Globes attendees were also eager to be introduced to the 'real' Tonya Harding

'She didnt know who people were at all,' Margot added. 'That was even more hilarious. At one point she was like, "That is the lovely lady who helped me in the photo line at the beginning."

'Shes like, "Hi! Hi!" waving, and I was like, "Thats Sharon Stone. Sharon Stones the lovely lady?"'

Margot recalled that some of the Golden Globes attendees were also eager to be introduced to the 'real' Tonya Harding.

'People were equally excited to meet her, funnily enough.' she said.

Glam: The 58-year-old actress looked spectacular in the floor-length dress, with her chestnut mane loosely falling around her lithe shoulders

Legend: The Hollywood star showed off her lean frame in the floor-length number

Fan fave: Margot happily posed for snaps with her by-standing fans

Sign here...: She delighted onlookers by signing autographs

Skating in: Matej Silecky and Brooke Vincent attended the event, heading up the Dancing On Ice stars on the guest list

The 2018 Oscars are expected to be more explosive than 2017s envelope-gate fiasco, putting a spotlight on the best films and honouring those involved in creating them.

Guillermo del Toros The Shape of Water is up for Best Picture as well as 12 other awards, while Dunkirk follows with eight nods and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, with seven.

The Best Director Oscar could be given to Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird or Steven Spielberg for The Post, but the directors of Call Me By Your Name and Darkest Hour also received nods for this accolade.

Back in the spotlight: Cheryl Baker and Dan Whiston - who have recently gotten the boot from Dancing On Ice - were there to grasp at some attention

Looking sharp: Candice Brown wowed in a fitted black dress and bright red heels

The boys: Jake Quickenden and Kem Cetinay walked the carpet, looking suave

Ice stars: Max Evans and Ale Izquierdo arrived together at the event

Partners: Mark Hanretty and Maria Sergejeva were in attendance

Making an entrance: Tonya Pinkins and Perri Shakes-Drayton came to watch the film

The 2018 Oscars are already expected to be a little different from past Academy Award ceremonies after Hollywood became destabilised by sexual harassment claims, gender pay equality concerns and the role of women in film over the course of the year.

In addition to this, the #OscarsSoWhite social media campaign that began in 2015 and reappeared after subsequent Oscars may make a comeback, despite Mary J Blige being the first person in the history of the Academy Awards to be nominated for a song and acting award in one year.

This controversy and the reemergence of the #MeToo movement in the lead up to the 2018 Oscars has also resulted in Kevin Spacey being replaced by Christopher Plummer, who was then nominated for awards, James Franco being entirely snubbed and Casey Affleck withdrawing from presenting the Best Actress award.She previously revealed she was warned about never being alone in a room with disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein.

And in a new interview Rachel Griffiths admitted she finds it upsetting when people don't call out behaviour they know is wrong if they know it's happening.

Speaking to Friday's Daily Telegraph, the 49-year-old explained her Catholic upbringing made her believe people should always speak up.

'I was really taught that if something is happening that you should say something': Speaking to The Daily Telegraph on Friday, Rachel Griffiths (pictured) urged people to speak up about sexual misconduct if they know it's going on

'I was really taught that if something is happening that you should say something,' Rachel told the publication.

'It upsets me, when any wrongs are done, to anyone, and no one says anything.'

However, Rachel said she thought these days, western society is becoming less willing to turn a blind eye to sexual assault.

'It is a phenomenonal moment to be a woman. I look at my daughters ... and I think there has never been a better time to be a western female in a first-world country.

'It upsets me': The 49-year-old explained her Catholic upbringing made her believe people should always speak up

In November last year, Rachel publicly spoke about her experience dealing with disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

The actress told The Daily Telegraph that she was warned by a 'high-ranking female' at Weinstein's company Miramax not to be in a room alone with him.

The incident took place over two decades ago when Rachel went to Los Angeles and Miramax purchased the U.S. distribution rights to her iconic 1994 comedy Muriel's Wedding.

Disgraced movie mogul: In November last year, Rachel told The Daily Telegraph she was warned by a 'high-ranking female' at Harvey Weinstein's company Miramax not to be in a room alone with him

'When I landed in Hollywood after the acquisition of Muriel's Wedding by Miramax I was pulled aside by a high-ranking female from Miramax and told, 'Don't ever be alone in a room with Harvey, ever',' she told the publication.

The Brothers & Sisters star added: 'I took her advice and never was.'

Harvey is one of several Hollywood stars dealing with sexual assault allegations, after numerous women came forward with complaints of rape and sexual misconduct.She fearlessly showcase her characteristic androgynous style on the red carpet.

And Tilda Swinton, 57, stayed true to her trademark style at the Isle of Dogs premiere at the 68th Berlinale International Film Festival, in Berlin on Thursday.

Out in full force to promote her latest movie, the actress stood out from a whole galaxy of stars in her quirky yet sleek ensemble.

She's out of this world: Tilda Swinton, 57, showed off her trademark androgynous style in a quirky trouser suit and heels as she promoted Isle of Dogs at Berlin film festival on Thursday

The We Need to Talk About Kevin star wore a dapper tuxedo jacket with an elegant pair of wide-legged trousers and a wing-tipped shirt.

Tilda accessorised with two glittering jeweled brooches which she wore on the left side of her blazer to complement the dazzling silver buttons on her shirt.

For a feminine touch, the Doctor Strange beauty added to her height in sky-scraper heels which were adorned with a sparkling beaded bow finish.

Dazzling darling: The We Need to Talk About Kevin star wore a dapper tuxedo jacket with an elegant pair of wide-legged trousers and a wing-tipped shirt

Standing tall: For a feminine touch, the Doctor Strange beauty added to her height in sky-scraper heels which were adorned with a sparkling beaded bow finish

The Scottish born beauty added a burst of colour to her all-black ensemble with a crimson shade of lipstick to accentuate her age-defying beauty.

Tilda is behind one of the voices in the animated film Isle for Dogs which charts a boy's journey to find his dog after pooches have been banished to an island.

Well recognised for her quirky sense of style, Tilda discussed how she shunned fashion trends as they never really caught her eye.

Sparkling sensation: Tilda accessorised with two glittering jeweled brooches which she wore on the left side of her blazer to complement the dazzling silver buttons on her shirt

Youthful looks: The Scottish born beauty added a burst of colour to her all-black ensemble with a crimson shade of lipstick to accentuate her age-defying beauty

Gorgeous company: The actress rubbed shoulders with director Wes Anderson and fellow actress Greta Gerwig

She told W Magazine in September 2017: 'What somebody might think of as unusual is what somebody else thinks of as super comfortable and inspiring and interesting and natural, and I've never truly been that aware of fashion as such.

'I'm really interested in style. Most of the things that I love to see other people rocking or rock myself are things that, you know, aren't for sale this year so it's not really about  I'm not that into trends.'

Often referred to as fearless for her daring fashion sense and her challenging acting roles, Tilda confessed she doesn't scare easy.

She also divulged to the publication: 'I'm not easily scared. I'm wary of being bored. I'm not easily bored, but I think  It's funny you talk about risk taking, 'cause I think risk taking is such a subjective thing. You know, one man's risk is another man's comfort zone I'm not easily scared, to be honest. I'm too lazy to get easily scared, I think.'

Close company: Greta flattered her sensational shape in a billowing embroidery embellished gown brought in at the waist to highlight her slender figureJeffrey Tambor is officially out at Transparent following allegations of sexual harassment by a co-star and former assistant.

While it wasn't confirmed whether the Amazon show will continue without its 73-year-old star, a statement from showrunner Jill Soloway hinted that it will be back for a sixth season.

'We are taking definitive action to ensure our workplace respects the safety and dignity of every individual, and are taking steps to heal as family.' Soloway said Thursday.

In a response, Tambor said he was 'profoundly disappointed in Amazons handling of these false accusations against me.'

Fired: Jeffrey Tambor is officially out at Transparent following allegations of sexual harassment by a former assistant and his co-star

The news, reported by Deadline, comes three months after the accusations by former assistant Van Barnes and co-star Trace Lysette were made public.

The decision to cut Tambor, who plays transgender woman Maura Pfefferman in the Emmy-award winning show, was made in the past week following an internal investigation into the accusations.

The results of the investigation have not been released, however a source told Deadline that Tambors behavior 'could not be justified or excused under scrutiny.'

Soloway's full statement read: 'I have great respect and admiration for Van Barnes and Trace Lysette, whose courage in speaking out about their experience on Transparent is an example of the leadership this moment in our culture requires,

'We are grateful to the many trans people who have supported our vision for Transparent since its inception and remain heartbroken about the pain and mistrust their experience has generated in our community,' she added.

'We are taking definitive action to ensure our workplace respects the safety and dignity of every individual, and are taking steps to heal as a family.'

The decision to cut Tambor, who plays transgender woman Maura Pfefferman, was made in the past week following an internal investigation into the accusations

Tambor said in November he was leaving the show but his rep insisted 'no final decision has been made, either by Jeffrey or Amazon'

Tambor released his own statement in which he pointed the finger at Solway.

'I am even more disappointed in Jill Soloways unfair characterization of me as someone who would ever cause harm to any of my fellow cast mates,' he said, per Variety.

He went on: 'In our four-year history of working together on this incredible show, these accusations have NEVER been revealed or discussed directly with me or anyone at Amazon. Therefore, I can only surmise that the investigation against me was deeply flawed and biased toward the toxic politicized atmosphere that afflicted our set.'

'As I have consistently stated, I deeply regret if any action of mine was ever misinterpreted by anyone and I will continue to vehemently defend myself. I also deeply regret that this ground-breaking show, which changed so many lives, is now in jeopardy. That, to me, is the biggest heartbreak.'

'We are taking definitive action to ensure our workplace respects the safety and dignity of every individual, and are taking steps to heal as family.' Showrunner Jill Soloway said Thursday

Shortly after news of the allegations against him surfaced, a representative for Tambor told the New York Times that the actor did not have any plans to quit the Transparent.

'What he said was that given the toxic atmosphere and the politicization on the set, it's very hard for him to see how he can possibly return. But no final decision for next year has been made, either by Jeffrey or by Amazon,' Allan Mayer, his publicist said.

Tambor starred as transgender matriarch Pfefferman since 2014 and won Emmys for the role in 2015 and 2016.

The show was renewed for a fifth season in August 2017.

He was accused of sexual harassment by his former assistant Van Barnes (right) and his 'Transparent' co-star Trace Lysette (left)

In a private Facebook post in November, Tambor's former assistant, a transgender woman named Van Barnes, accused the actor of inappropriate behavior, including telling her: 'You will love my d**k'.

In a statement, the Emmy-winning actor 'adamantly and vehemently' denied any wrongdoing, and called Barnes 'disgruntled'.

In response, Amazon launched an investigation, speaking to both members of the 'Transparent' production and Tambor personally, per the studio's policy.

Then, Trace Lysette, a transgender actress who plays Shea on 'Transparent', told The Hollywood Reporter that Tambor 'has made many sexual advances and comments at me, but one time it got physical.'

She claimed that the actor cornered her and thrust himself 'back and forth against my body' before she pushed him off.

Lysette claims that when she emerged from wardrobe in a costume of a lingerie top and shorts for a scene with Tambor, he said: 'My God, Trace. I want to attack you sexually' (Pictured, Lysette and Tambor in a scene from 'Transparent' in 2014)

Lysette claims that when she emerged from from wardrobe in a costume of a lingerie top and shorts for a scene with Tambor, he said: 'My God, Trace. I want to attack you sexually.'

'I felt his penis on my hip through his thin pajamas and I pushed him off of me,' she said.

She urged Amazon to 'remove the problem and let the show go on.'

A third woman, makeup artist Tamara Delbridge, came forward at the end of November and said Tambor kissed her without consent on the set of the movie Never Again in 2001.

Tambor said he did not recall the encounter, but that if he did kiss her, it was simply a good-natured goodbye to wrap up filming.- T. S. Eliot

Thoughts After Lambeth

"The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide."Their relationship came to an acrimonious end in October, after 11 months of dating.

And Charlotte Crosby is now reportedly planning to completely cut ties with her ex Stephen Bear, by pulling out of their joint business.

According to The Sun, the 27-year-old is willing to risk thousands of pounds by removing herself from their brand, His And Hers Enterprise Limited, so she can 'move on' once and for all - amid claims she is now dating Joshua Ritchie.

Over for good: Charlotte Crosby is now reportedly planning to completely cut ties with her ex Stephen Bear, by pulling out of their joint business

Charlotte and Bear set up their company in January 2016, which sells a range of personalised merchandise for couples, including jumpers, bags and phone cases.

However, a source told the paper Charlotte is willing to cut ties with the brand altogether, as it reminds her too much of their turbulent romance.

With Bear set to arrive back in the UK from Bali over the next few days, the insider said: 'Charlotte is dreading Stephen's return to England and knows they're going to have to sort this out and meet up.'

New venture: Charlotte and Bear set up their company in January 2016, which sells a range of personalised merchandise for couples, including jumpers, bags and phone cases

'It's just gonna drag everything back up': However, a source claimed Charlotte is willing to cut ties with the brand altogether, as it reminds her too much of their turbulent romance

Acknowledging Charlotte's departure may affect the brand's success, the source added: 'Anything with her name attached to it is a gold mine and he loves making money.

'But it's just gonna drag everything back up from the past and make it harder to move on.'

MailOnline have contacted Charlotte's representatives for comment.

The couple's 11-month romance came to a dramatic end in October, following a slew of 'cheating' claims - which resulted in Charlotte publicly feuding with Bear's family on Twitter.

Raking it in: Acknowledging Charlotte's departure may affect the brand's success, the source added: 'Anything with her name attached to it is a gold mine and he loves making money'

Turbulent: The couple's 11-month romance came to a dramatic end in October, following a slew of 'cheating' claims

Charlotte even broke down when talking about her split from Stephen in an interview with Australia's NW magazine, revealing: 'I Normally I can talk about it fine, but..'

Hinting that Bear may have used her for fame, she sobbed: 'I don't know I suppose it was all maybe for attention.'

However, Charlotte proved to be moving on earlier this week, when she hinted she was now dating Ex On The Beach star Joshua Ritchie.

She even shared a snap of a huge bunch of red roses to her Instagram page on Valentine's Day - and hinted the blooms could be from the hunk, 22, with the caption: 'JR'.

Surprise! Charlotte has since been hinting she is now dating Joshua Ritchie, and shared a snap of a Valentine's bouquet of roses with the caption 'JR' on Wednesday (above)

Loving it: The former Geordie Shore star hinted that she would be spending V-Day with her gal pals, sharing an Instagram video of her singing with a friend with the caption: 'Galentines'

The TV personality posed with the enormous bouquet of the red roses on the most romantic day of the year, captioning the post: 'My valentine JR.'

Despite her present, Charlotte seemed to be spending the day with some of her gal pals, posting a video on her Instagram stories with the caption: 'Galentines.'

Charlotte appeared to confirm that she and Joshua were in a relationship last week following weeks of speculation, after posting a selfie with the reality star alongside the date '9.2.18.'

The couple were also front and centre in another selfie shared by Charlotte on Tuesday, as she pined to see her Geordie Shore co-star Sophie Kasaei.

Together? The TV personality seemed to confirm she and the Ex On The Beach hunk were in a relationship on Friday, sharing a selfie of the couple

Couple goals: Charlotte also shared a selfie of her and Joshua on Tuesday, as she said they were missing her reality TV star pal Sophie Kasaei

Reports of a romance came as the Celebrity Big Brother winner was seen passionately kissing her fellow MTV star, as she celebrated her former Geordie Shore co-star Aaron Chalmers' MMA win in December 2017.

Stepping out for the fight in Newcastle, the star ended her evening by locking lips with Joshua in an overt display - not caring who could see her as they smooched in front of fellow bar-goers.

MailOnline contacted Charlotte and Joshua's representatives for comment at the time.

Charlotte had been single following her split from Just Tattoo of Us star Stephen, 28, last year.Rating:

No fewer than 25 Bafta and Oscar nominations underline the need to see Guillermo del Toro's period fantasy The Shape Of Water, but sometimes films can acquire an awards momentum quite out of proportion to their actual quality.

Not this one. I predicted Academy Awards galore as soon as I saw it at the Venice Film Festival last September, and a more recent viewing has reinforced my conviction that The Shape Of Water is the most deserving contender from this year's notably impressive clutch of Best Picture nominees.

I also think it is the great Mexican director's masterpiece, nudging aside even his 2006 triumph Pan's Labyrinth.

Sally Hawkins is pictured as Elisa Esposito in The Shape of Water alongside co-star Doug Jones

It seems unlikely that its star, Sally Hawkins, will pip Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) to the Best Actress award when the Oscars are dished out next month.

But there should be no argument if she does; it is unequivocally a performance worthy of rhapsodies.

Moreover, if ever three consecutive films showcased an actress's versatility, it is the latest trio on the Londoner's CV: the gloomy Maudie, the delightful Paddington 2 and now this singular, beguiling treat.

In the period drama Maudie she played an artist in mid-20th century Nova Scotia who was blighted by galloping arthritis.

Despite its gloom, the film's humanity, and that of her character, shone from the slow, bright smile that Hawkins seems able to turn on in increments.

In The Shape Of Water, which is set in 1962 at the height of the Cold War, she's at it again.

She plays Elisa, who has been mute since childhood, and communicates not just with sign language but also a raft of wonderfully articulate expressions.

It seems unlikely that Sally Hawkins (pictured centre), will pip Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) to the Best Actress award when the Oscars are dished out next month. But there should be no argument if she does; it is unequivocally a performance worthy of rhapsodies, writes Brian Viner

Lots of things make Elisa happy. She loves the movies, loves copying dance steps from the television, and in a platonic way she loves her neighbour Giles (Richard Jenkins, also marvellous), an ageing commercial artist whose career, it is hinted, has been derailed by his homosexuality.

Elisa herself is single, but del Toro leaves us in no doubt, with a series of shots of her in the bath, that she is a sensual, sexual being.

She works as a cleaner at a government facility in Baltimore, where one day a highly sensitive 'asset' arrives to be housed.

Half-man, half-fish, but wholly monstrous (and played behind layers of fishy prosthetics by Doug Jones), it has been found in the Amazon basin where it was worshipped as a god, and dragged back to the U.S. in the hope that its amphibious powers might be of some use against the Soviets.

It is chained up and kept in a water tank where its captor, a government agent called Strickland (Michael Shannon), treats it brutally. Indeed, it soon becomes clear that the real monster here is Strickland.

He wants the 'asset' to be slaughtered and cut open to reveal its anatomical secrets.

She plays Elisa (pictured right with co-star Richard Jenkins), who has been mute since childhood, and communicates not just with sign language but also a raft of wonderfully articulate expressions

But by now, Elisa has bonded with a creature who, like her, lacks the power of speech. She hatches a plan to steal the fish-man, unaware that there is a Soviet spy in the building, planning to do exactly the same thing.

Del Toro very cleverly keeps all this racing along with the heart-pumping intensity of a Cold War thriller.

But it is also an unconventional yet irresistible love story, as well as a meticulous depiction of the era.

Anyone who saw the TV drama Mad Men, for instance, will see in Strickland, as he goes home each night to his loving, materialistic wife and two carefully-groomed children, more than a glimmer of Jon Hamm's Don Draper.

None of this, however, unfolds at the expense of the story's wildly fantastical elements, stunningly shot by cinematographer Dan Laustsen who, as a Dane, might appreciate the Hans Christian Andersen flourishes.

There are echoes of King Kong, too, and even more obviously, of the 1954 cult classic Creature From The Black Lagoon  to which del Toro, a film nut since boyhood, is unmistakeably paying homage.

At first I wondered whether this strange, powerful creature might also be a metaphor for the atomic bomb, but if anything it represents the notion (always a welcome impulse in Trump's America) that we should not rush to judgment on those who look different from ourselves.

Elisa (pictured right) herself is single, but del Toro leaves us in no doubt, with a series of shots of her in the bath, that she is a sensual, sexual being

When Elisa does finally manage to spirit the creature out of Strickland's dastardly clutches, one of cinema's more unusual couplings ensues.

It really is hard to over-state how good Hawkins is in this role. Speech is an actor's most potent weapon, but she gives a masterclass in how to move and charm an audience without it.

Of course, she also gets superb support. Shannon, such a charismatic performer, is as brilliant as ever as the cruel Strickland.

The always-reliable Octavia Spencer is terrific, too, as Elisa's trusted workmate, Zelda. And Jenkins richly deserves his Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor.

But in the highly unlikely event of The Shape Of Water winning only a brace of Academy Awards, I hope it is for Best Director, and Best Picture.Edgar Ramirez has landed one of the plum roles of 2018: playing Gianni Versace in the American Crime Story saga The Assassination Of Gianni Versace.

The Venezuelan born actor has nailed the role of the sensitive and artistic Italian designer who was gunned down by serial killer Andrew Cunanan in 1997.

And in the February/March issue of Haute Living, the 40-year-old actor said he feels like Versace's influence can still be felt today. 'What Versace did, the impact that he had on the history of fashion and culture, is undeniable,' said the Cesar Award winner.

Haute career: Edgard Ramirez has landed the cover of Haute Living magazine

A look at a tragedy: The 40-year-old actor talked about playing Gianni Versace in The Assassination of Gianni Versace on FX

'He basically changed fashion by marrying sexuality and glamour on an unparalleled scale.'

And he added that Versace's over-the-top style gave way to the flashiness of the Kardashians and the Hadids.

'Right now, we live - for better or worse - in a time that was shaped by Gianni Versace.

Wise: He thinks the key to the popularity of Versace was he 'changed fashion by marrying sexuality and glamour on an unparalleled scale'

Magic maker: And the star added, 'The culture of bling, the exacerbation of fame, the picture between cinema and fashion, and fame and celebrity is something Gianni helped to create.'

Ramirez added: 'The culture of bling, the exacerbation of fame, the picture between cinema and fashion, and fame and celebrity is something Gianni helped to create.'

Edgar has an impressive resume.

His movies have included working with Keira Knightley in Domino, Jennifer Lawrence on Joy and Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty.

In character: The show stars Edgar as well as Ricky Martin as his lover and Penelope Cruz as his sister Donatella

Their meeting: Maureen Orth's book Vulgar Favors claims Gianni met Andrew Cunanan at a gay club in San Francisco

A role of a lifetime: Darren Criss of Glee fame plays the demented serial killer

'I have to do projects for the right reasons,' Ramirez says.

As far as how Versace was discriminated against for being gay, he said it was hard to handle.

He added: '[Discrimination] has never personally happened to me, but its been very close to me - my mom, my sister, my niece, my female friends.

Happy siblings: Gianni and his sister Donatella were very close; seen in the 1990s

'Not even when I decided to become an actor did I feel it.

'To have had the privilege to decide my life and what I am, that obliges you to help other people to have the same privileges,' he added.

Ramirez, who is also a Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) and supports Amnesty International, has always stood up for what he believes in.

'Ive always been an outspoken person since I was a kid,' he reveals.

Not silent: Ramirez, who is also a Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) and supports Amnesty International, has always stood up for what he believes in. 'Ive always been an outspoken person since I was a kid,' he reveals

He has ambition: 'I didnt always know what I wanted to do, but if I wanted something I was determined to get it'

'I didnt always know what I wanted to do, but if I wanted something I was determined to get it.'

In January he told Out magazine: 'His life was fated in a way.

'There is something very classic about this real-life story that was captured by Tom: the characters, the archetypes, their relationships. You have Gianni as an emperor, and then you have his prince, Antonio, and you have his sister, Donatella, who is the empress-to-be. Sometimes there were scenes that really felt like we were doing theater, like Macbeth or Madea.'

They had chemistry: Jennifer Lawrence and Edgar in the film Joy

Versace used stars like Princess Diana, Elton John, Madonna and Cher to get his name out.

'Before Gianni, glamour and sensuality were on two separate planes. Somehow he glamorized sexuality.

' He had a rock n roll approach to couture, and he essentially laid the ground for celebrity culture.'Rating:

Back in 1966, the year that saw the foundation of the Black Panther party of African-American activists and vigilantes in Oakland, California, Marvel Comics gave the same name to their first black superhero.

In this wildly enjoyable, stand-alone film  the 18th in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and more fun than some of the previous 17 combined  the two lineages are fused.

The action kicks off in 1992 in Oakland (which also happens to be the home town of director and co-writer Ryan Coogler), where a pair of men appear to be planning an armed robbery.

Black Panther: Back in 1966, the year that saw the foundation of the Black Panther party of African-American activists and vigilantes in Oakland, California, Marvel Comics gave the same name to their first black superhero (pictured: Matt Kennedy), writes Brian Viner

Pictured: Black Panther stars Lupita Nyong'o as Nakia (left) and Letitia Wright as Shuri (right)

Suddenly, 'two Grace Jones-looking chicks' are at the door. In fact, they are elite female warriors from the secretive but benign African nation of Wakanda, presaging the arrival of King T'Chaka, also known as Black Panther.

He has come to admonish his brother, a rogue Wakandan spy, in a scene that has reverberations later in the movie.

The action shifts to the present day. King T'Chaka has been assassinated, and is succeeded by his son T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman).

The colourful coronation, watched by the new king's mother (Angela Bassett) and presided over by a wise old Merlin-type character (Forest Whitaker in fine form), is alone worth the price of admission.

As king, and Black Panther, T'Challa's job is effectively to protect Wakanda from the outside world.

The action kicks off in 1992 in Oakland (which also happens to be the home town of director and co-writer Ryan Coogler), where a pair of men appear to be planning an armed robbery

The country's wealth depends on enormous deposits of the planet's strongest metal, vibranium.

But T'Challa can't afford to be reclusive. Wakandan defences have been breached by a villainous South African mercenary called Ulysses Klaue  gloriously played by Andy Serkis, stealing scenes just as impudently as his character pinches vibranium.

The Wakandans are intent on capturing Klaue, leading T'Challa and his deadliest female sidekick (Lupita Nyong'o) to South Korea, where the villain is due to meet a CIA agent, played by Martin Freeman, in an underground casino.

It's a treat to see Klaue again, but  spoiler alert  it's his ruthless henchman Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) we really need to keep our eyes on.

By now, incidentally, there has been more than a nod to James Bond films, especially when T'Challa's cheeky sister (Letitia Wright) overtly plays Q to his 007.

By now, incidentally, there has been more than a nod to James Bond films, especially when T'Challa's cheeky sister (Letitia Wright pictured) overtly plays Q to his 007, writes Brian Viner

Yet there is far more going on here than in any Bond film. Long-dead African-American leaders such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X would recognise, in what emerges as the film's main narrative thrust, the challenge to T'Challa's sovereignty.

It is a manifest reference to the ideological clash between those who preached passive resistance to white supremacy, and those who urged violence.

Moreover, Coogler is plainly intent on subverting the idea that Africans are somehow second-class global citizens, which he does with cherish-able style and wit.

Wakanda itself is a beguiling hybrid of traditional African culture and high- tech wizardry.

And there's a stern warning from one of the country's tribal chiefs, played by Daniel Kaluuya (who is among lots of British talent in this film), about the dangers of admitting refugees, that might as well come with a caption saying: 'Thwack! and Pow! to you, President Trump!'Rating:

GIRLS & BOYS

Unless you already have a ticket, there is little chance of getting to see Dennis Kelly's sold-out, one-woman play starring Carey Mulligan.

And since it's meaningless to discuss the show without giving away at least some of how it mugs you with its ending, I must issue a spoiler alert: if you don't want to know what happens, look away now.

For those of you still here, Girls & Boys is the at-first sexually candid and finally brutally violent tale of a gutsy career woman whose life is shattered by an extreme act of domestic violence.

Unless you already have a ticket, there is little chance of getting to see Dennis Kelly's sold-out, one-woman play starring Carey Mulligan

There are clues about this along the way, but for the most part it's a shaggy dog story, throwing us off the scent, with Mulligan giving a graphic account of the woman's early sexual adventures.

Eventually, she meets the man of her dreams and has kids, before his career  selling antiques  tanks and her own, as a BAFTA-winning documentary maker, takes off and poisons their relationship.

We are treated to amusing incidents and observations: about the furious resentments that simmer in airport queues, the nightmare of negotiating with small children and extreme job interview techniques.

There are also some good lines, including one about how 'Paris is Leeds with wider streets'. But, always preoccupied with the dark side of human nature, what Kelly mostly wants to do is shock us.

Mulligan's character denies that she is anti-men, but she has good reason to be. She is quick to deploy stereotypes, noting that her daughter is nurturing, while her mischievous four-year-old son is disengaged.

Kelly ensures that Mulligan's character out-lads the lads (one yarn recalls her vomiting during sex). But the idea that the play is not an indictment of masculinity is thoroughly disingenuous, especially when we are reminded that almost all 'family annihilation' murders are carried out by men.

Apparently, men demand control and can't accept powerful women. Denis Thatcher clearly doesn't count. Even so, there's a mesmerising performance from Mulligan  a wide-eyed, willowy beauty with knitting needle fingers and angular cheekbones.

Despite roughing up somewhat with a slight London accent she is far from everywoman. Oozing wealth and status, she is a go-getting yummy-mummy, her saffron silk blouse and burgundy trousers popping against her bespoke turquoise kitchen in Es Devlin's classy design.

Although Kelly's play, and Lyndsey Turner's slick production, covers its tracks with endless digressions, the overall message is spelt out at the end: 'We didn't create society for men. We created it to stop men.'

Many of those with a Y chromosome won't recognise this description of themselves as being bossed about by their biology.

But women should be equally suspicious of a story that paints them as victims, and disguises it with a seemingly strong character.

All of which makes it hard to give the play a star rating.

Personally, I'd say: one star for the facile homily; two for its prurient tone; three for the sleight of hand; four for the eye-catching design. And five for the emotional and unflinching performance by Ms Mulligan. Which averages out to three.

Rating:

OTHELLO

Othello for children? Interesting idea. More interesting is reframing the play's implicit racism by casting the ostracised Moor as a Nigerian and surrounding him with black and mixed-race modern British actors.

No less interesting is director Ian Nicholson's hip production that strips the play down from three hours to just 75 minutes.

My only concern is that Othello has a big problem for children that's left unresolved: domestic violence against women.

Ayoola Smart and Okorie Chukwu in Othello - Ian Nicholson's hip production strips the play down from three hours to just 75 minutes

But so far, so cool. And many children will identify with our lovebirds when Othello's called away to fight the Turks in Cyprus, only for the Doge to become furious when he learns his daughter has married behind his back. After that the play's themes of jealousy and revenge become too sinister for the semi-comic treatment, and Nicholson's brisk style can't quite hack it.

Okorie Chukwu makes a loveable Othello (until he turns nasty). Ronald Nsubuga and Lawrence Walker, as his factious friends Cassio and Iago, are likeable, too.

And Ayoola Smart is luminous as savvy Desdemona, though her independent modern style doesn't quite go with Shakespeare's dark, submissive ending.

It's a great way of fizzing up the Bard  and so much fun...until the final third. Maybe next time they can tackle a less troublesome play.

Summat for everyone in a tale of Brokeback Yorkshire

Rating:

THE YORK REALIST

Peter Gill's bittersweet Yorkshire love story is about a buff young farmer who falls for a lad from London in the Sixties.

It's an agreeably old-fashioned play, written in 2002 but which could easily be 30 years older. The setting  a cottage on the Moors  is deeply nostalgic, with an old range cooker, low beams, pressed tablecloth and outside lav.

But it's the characters that Gill really makes us love, with Ben Batt and Jonathan Bailey giving touching performances as the two young men who meet while working on a production of mystery plays in York.

Around them, Gill packs a homely set of characters including Lesley Nicol as the clean and brisk Methodist mother fussing over her hunky, but steadfastly single, son.

Katie West also shines as a bookish local girl who turns out to be an emotional catalyst in one of many finely judged moments in Robert Hastie's engrossing production.

A really lovely show that should be received as fondly in Sheffield's Crucible next month as it will be this month in London.On Thursday, Lisa Oldfield vehemently denied claims she was heading into the South African jungle as an intruder on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

And calling into the Kyle and Jackie O Show the following morning, The Real Housewives of Sydney star once again tried to put a stop to the suggestions.

'I haven't even got a valid passport! I've never been camping in my life!' the 43-year-old proclaimed.

Doth protest too much? On Friday, Lisa Oldfield called into to the Kyle and Jackie O Show to once again deny rumours she would be appearing on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!

Lisa's name immediately popped up earlier in the week after it was revealed that 'Australia's most dysfunctional couple' would be appearing on the Channel 10 reality show together.

The outspoken brunette has been married to former politician David Oldfield since 2001, and the pair have a notoriously colourful union, as seen on The Real Housewives of Sydney.

Lisa once called being married to David a 'nightmare', and on a separate occasion said she offered him a 'sympathy shag'.

'Australia's most dysfunctional couple?': Lisa once called being married to David a 'nightmare', and on a separate occasion said she offered him a 'sympathy shag'

Speaking with Kyle and Jackie O on Friday, Lisa claimed she wouldn't star on I'm A Celebrity, because it would mean she'd have to spend time with David without 'the buffer of booze and kids'.

However, the star also claimed she hasn't been drinking since January 1st.

'I've been off the booze for 45 days. I'm more ripped at the moment... I wouldn't mind going in the jungle actually because I'd lose some more weight!'

'Impossible':'She claimed 'It would be nigh on impossible for David and I to leave our two small boys for a month to spend in the wilds of South Africa'

On Thursday, Lisa initially denied I'm A Celebrity rumours, telling Daily Mail Australia: 'It would be nigh on impossible for David and I to leave our two small boys for a month to spend in the wilds of South Africa'.

It came after PR queen Roxy Jacenko suggested the dysfunctional couple set to star on the show were Lisa and David.

In response to Roxy's allegation, bluntly stated: 'Really? Well she knows how to spin PR I guess'.

She cuttingly added: 'Admittedly, I'd find David and I eminently more watchable'.

Ouch! Lisa claimed she wouldn't star on I'm A Celebrity, because it would mean she'd have to spend time with David without 'the buffer of booze and kids

It's unclear whether Channel Ten has opted to fly in the mystery celebrity couple in a bid to boost the show's lagging ratings.

On Wednesday, the show attracted 515,000 viewers across the 5 metro cities, far behind rivals Married At First Sight (1.13 million) and My Kitchen Rules (930,000).

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Channel Ten for comment.On Wednesday night, Georgie Clarke and Georgia Cole were slated on Twitter by Survival Of The Fittest viewers for 'ganging up' on Lottie James, blaming her for the failure of the task.

And now things have gone from bad to worse for Georgie, who has also been voted off the series by the boys in The Lodge.

To add extra drama to proceedings, the brunette from South London took the news incredibly badly, bursting into floods of tears before angrily storming off across the bridge without so much as a goodbye wave for the boys.

Outraged: Georgie Clarke has bitterly STORMED OFF the show without saying goodbye to the boys and has STILL insisted on slamming Lottie James... despite viewers branding her a 'bully'

This left the likes of James Middleton and Ryan Cleary looking crestfallen, given their previous 'love triangle' with her.

Since leaving Georgie has claimed that she would 'do anything' to go back in.

'I feel absolutely gutted that Im out. I would do pretty much anything to go back in and continue fighting,' she declared, after exiting The Lodge.

'Im gutted that Ive been chosen to leave. I saw myself going to the end and fighting to the end to make sure the Girls won.'

Yet Georgie doesn't seem to have learnt from her mistakes. Earlier on Thursday evening's episode, the 'mean girls' mentality carried on, with her and Georgia making Lottie cry for the second day on the trot - this time for not cheering loud enough during the next task (which they won).

'I do think that having Lottie on the team is not the best thing for the Girls,' she ranted. 'Every challenge she goes to, she puts half an effort in, so Im not sure how its going to work for the Girls having a dead weight on their team.

Fuming: Things have gone from bad to worse for Georgie, who has also been voted off the series by the boys in The Lodge

Devo: The brunette from South London took the news incredibly badly, bursting into floods of tears before angrily storming off across the bridge without so much as a goodbye wave

'If I am replaced by someone who performs the way that Lottie did, then the Girls dont have a chance. I feel like if I was in there, they would stand a chance.'

The self-assured tax credit consultant was also sure to assert her new embittered feelings towards James and Ryan.

'My allies originally I felt were Jenny, James and Ryan but I feel after leaving, it was probably just Jenny.

'I feel like James was playing a bit of a game and being a little bit snakey. I think Ryan is a really genuine guy but he is a cloud that goes with the wind, he is not too vocal about his opinions on things.

Dead weight? 'Im not sure how its going to work for the Girls having a dead weight on their team,' Georgie said

Mean girls: The self-assured tax credit consultant was also sure to assert her new embittered feelings towards James and Ryan

Strong opinions: 'I feel like James was playing a bit of a game and being a little bit snakey. I think Ryan is a really genuine guy but he is a cloud that goes with the wind,' she said

'He is a great guy to chat with but it turns out when it came down to it he didnt have my back.

'I dont have any regrets about my time in The Lodge but I do think I wish that I hadnt trusted Ryan and James so much towards the end as it turns out they dont have much loyalty to me.

'So if I could go back, I probably wouldnt have made so much effort with them.'

Her co-star, Georgia, was also slammed for 'using' David Lundy for votes - and she in fact came out on top of the voting results on Thursday's show.

Damned if she does...: Georgie made Lottie cry for the second day on the trot - this time for not cheering loud enough during the next task (which they won)

Games: Her co-star, Georgia, was also slammed for 'using' David Lundy for votes - and she in fact came out on top of the voting results on Thursday's show

Of the girls' tactics, Georgie remarked: 'I was actually really gutted to start seeing some of the girls use that as a technique to stay.

'I would much have preferred for us all to stick together and represent the females in The Lodge as a team but I think that they all went into panic mode. Jenny and I tried really hard to make a point not to do that.'

Asserting her desperation to win, Georgie said: 'Im so competitive so it was really fun whether it was overwhelming or I was angry about losing, it was still amazing to take part in them all. I was willing to do anything to win.'She is best known for playing the fierce and feisty Demelza, in hit BBC drama Poldark.

But Eleanor Tomlinson was worlds away from her 18th-century character on Thursday, as she made a show-stopping arrival at the Newport Beach Film Festival Honours in London.

The actress, 25, was the picture of elegance in a glittering nude strapless dress as she posed for cameras at the Rosewood Hotel.

Stunning: Eleanor Tomlinson was worlds away from her Poldark on Thursday, as she made a show-stopping arrival at the Newport Beach Film Festival Honours in London

Barely there: The actress, 25, was the picture of elegance in a glittering nude strapless dress as she posed for cameras at the Rosewood Hotel

The British beauty looked truly stunning in the strapless mini dress, which pulled straight across the chest to tease at her cleavage.

Cinching in at her slim waist, the frock then cascaded into a soft pleated skirt, embroidered with lines of delicate nude flowers down the front.

Upping the sex appeal however, the pleats were also subtly sheer - giving glimpse of leggy figure underneath as she posed for cameras.

Striking: The British beauty looked truly stunning in the strapless mini dress, which pulled straight across the chest to tease at her cleavage

Chic: Cinching in at her slim waist, the frock then cascaded into a soft pleated skirt, embroidered with lines of nude flowers down the front

Leggy lady: Upping the sex appeal however, the pleats were also subtly sheer - giving glimpse of leggy figure underneath as she posed for cameras

Model material: Sweeping her fiery red locks away from her face, the actress drew attention to her naturally striking features and radiant complexion as she posed at the bash

Keeping all eyes on her striking look, Eleanor accessorised with glittering silver court shoes and a simple but stunning pair of diamond drop earrings.

Sweeping her fiery red locks away from her face, the actress drew attention to her naturally striking features and radiant complexion as she posed at the bash.

First working the cameras on the carpet, Eleanor later beamed with joy inside, as she collected the coveted Breakthrough Artist Award at the event.

Sir Patrick Stewart, Gurinder Chadha, Celia Imrie and Andy Serkis all won the Icon award, while Simon Pegg, Mark Gatiss, Jason Isaacs and Thomas Brodie-Sangster all bagged the Artist of Distinction gong.

Radiant: Keeping all eyes on her striking look, Eleanor accessorised with glittering silver court shoes and a simple but stunning pair of diamond drop earrings

Star of the show: First working the cameras on the carpet, Eleanor later beamed with joy inside, as she collected the coveted Breakout Award at the event

Eleanor is best known for playing Demelza in BBC drama Poldark, alongside Irish lead Aidan Turner.

The popular programme - which is based around Winston Graham's saga - follows Ross Poldark, a redcoat returning to Cornwall after the American Revolutionary War.

The fourth series of the drama is expected to air in summer 2018 and will take in the period up until Christmas 1799.

Say cheese! The actress happily snapped selfies with Gurinder Chadha after the awards

Dynamic duo: Eleanor is best known for playing Demelza in BBC drama Poldark, alongside Irish lead Aidan Turner

Eleanor recently spoke to Harper's Bazaar about the show's success, and credited Ross and Demelza's realistic relationship as the reason.

She explained: 'People can relate to their relationship. It's not all singing and dancing. They argue; there's jealousy. He's proud; she's stubborn.

'Ross doesn't always include her in his feelings. It's a realistic relationship, so people root for them to make it work.'

Star-studded: Tallia Storm also attended the event in a more casual ensemble

Trendy: The young singer was typically trendy at the event in a Gucci vest top, layered underneath a brightly coloured varsity bomber

Quirky: She later draped the jacket over one shoulder, to give a better glimpse of her loose-fitting jeans, embroidered with dragons on each side

Finishing touches: Tallia accessorised with a matching Gucci handbag, embellished with a silver butterfly brooch on the front

Party hopper: Tallia later sported the same look to the Urban Decay Collection Launch at The Curtain

Thrice as nice! Not stopping there, she then moved on to the Katie Eary x The Powerpuff Girls - Skate Park Party - but swapped her chic heels for sporty trainers

Yet, she did admit she would be happy to move on to other projects in the future - having worked on a number of period dramas, including The White Queen adn When Death Comes to Pemberley.

'I'm aware of being pigeonholed in those period drama roles,' she added. 'But, I do love them at the same time. I'll greatly miss Poldark when it finishes. I've gained respect which has opened doors for me.'

However, Aidan no doubt disappointed fans last month when he confirmed the fifth series of Poldark would be the last.

He told the Daily Mail: 'We've covered all the books, and the entire stories. It's a five-year gig, when it's all done.'

Perfection in pink: Sophie Hermann stunned in a floor-length semi-sheer gown by Alessandra Rich, teasing her perfect pins with a daring split

In good company: Hayley McQueen caught up with fashionista Sophie at the prestigious event

Reunion! Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis enjoyed an excitable reunion at the bash

Delighted: The pair could not contain their joy as they greeted each other inside

Suited and booted: Thomas Brodie-Sangster looked slick in a navy suit as he joined a guest at the event

Family affair: Jason Isaacs beamed for cameras beside his wife Emma Hewitt and their daughters Lily and Ruby

Say cheese: Patrick Stewart and Sunny Ozell next posed for cameras at the star-studded eventShe has admitted to being 'scared' by the nationwide backlash to her Married At First Sight antics, where she plotted a secret affair with married co-star Dean Wells.

But at least she has her father to lean on.

Before the outcry, the 26-year-old was seen enjoying some father and daughter time in Brisbane.

Daddy's little devil! MAFS 'villain' Davina Rankin wears scarlet dress as she spends time with her father... as the backlash to her affair with Dean Wells continues

The brunette beauty wore a red mini dress during the outing, which featured delicate spaghetti straps and a wrap-style skirt.

Injecting a dose of sports-luxe cool into her look, the bikini model rocked a pair of fresh white trainers.

Styling her dark tresses in a simple middle-parting, she framed her surgically enhanced features with minimal make-up.

The Brisbane-based reality star seemed to be in low spirits as she chatted to Bobby, who she previously admitted paid for her boob job.

Turning heads: The brunette beauty wore a red mini dress during the outing, which featured delicate spaghetti straps and a wrap-style skirt

Deep in thought: The reality star kept herself busy with a spot of lunch with her dad

Cheeky: Davina admitted to being 'scared' by the nationwide backlash to her Married At First Sight antics, where she plotted a secret romance with married Dean Wells

Speaking to TV Week, the 26-year-old said she was always self-conscious about her 'flat chest' so had the surgery at 18 to boost her self-confidence.

She also revealed her dad is proud of her racy magazine covers and even has her eye-popping Zoo Weekly photos 'framed in the hallway'.

Their outing comes before Davina faced widespread criticism for her harsh treatment of TV 'husband' Ryan Gallagher while initiating a secret romance with married 'alpha male' Dean.

She described the uproar and personal attacks by the public as 'quite scary', while being interviewed on Nine's A Current Affair.

Sporty: Injecting a dose of sports-luxe cool into her look, the bikini model rocked a pair of fresh white trainers

Something on your mind? The Brisbane-based reality star seemed to be in low spirits as she chatted to Bobby, who she previously admitted paid for her boob job

Rankin said the criticism was wide-reaching, explaining: 'Ive really put myself out there for the whole world... Well, the whole of Australia, to really judge me and criticise me.'

Davina revealed she was surprised by fans' trolling her online, adding she had been lambasted by viewers across the nation for her behaviour on the dating show.

The busty social media star is used to mostly positive attention from her adoring 282,000 Instagram followers, and added: 'No-one really gives me any grief... I've always lives happily in my bubble.'

Mane attraction: Styling her dark tresses in a simple middle-parting, she framed her surgically enhanced features with minimal make-up

Having a flirt? The bikini model flashed a smile as she gave her order to a waiter at the terraced restaurant

However, after she was slammed for her debut appearance on the show, she hasn't posted a single image to her followers.

Despite Davina refraining from interviews for the past two weeks, she appeared confident as ever on the Nine program: 'If anyone can deal with it, its going to be me.'

Earlier this month she had reportedly gone into hiding in the wake of the public furor over her harsh criticisms of 'husband' Ryan.

Wine time! Davina enjoyed a glass of red wine with her meal

But first, let me take a selfie: The snap-happy star couldn't resist whipping out her phone to take some shots

'MAFS villain': Their outing comes before Davina faced widespread criticism for her harsh treatment of TV 'husband' Ryan Gallagher while initiating a secret romance with married 'alpha male' Dean

The trolling of the reality star only got worse when she began to flirt, text and agree upon a secret romance with another woman's 'husband' on the show.

On Wednesday night's dinner party episode, unbeknownst to their partners, Davina and Dean discussed their attraction for each other mere meters away from their married spouses.

Davina had asked, "Do you want to pursue this?", to which Dean replied, '100 per cent'.

Saucy: Davina had asked, "Do you want to pursue this?", to which Dean replied, '100 per cent' during Wednesday night's scandalous dinner party

Outrageous: Dean also slammed his wife Tracey Jewel's looks, telling Davina: 'No offence to Tracey but her looks are not her best quality'

Gutted: Meanwhile, Davina is married to tradie Ryan Gallagher, who was oblivious to her antics at the dinner party

During a secret rendezvous at the dinner party Dean also slammed his wife Tracey Jewel's looks.

'No offence to Tracey but her looks are not her best quality,' Dean complained to his new love interest Davina.

The pair snuck away from the dinner party after getting flirty in full view of the other couples.

'I really want to kiss you right now,' Davina told Dean, appearing unconcerned that Tracey could hear her.

Trolled: Rankin said the criticism was wide-reaching, explaining: 'Ive really put myself out there for the whole world... Well, the whole of Australia, to really judge me and criticise me'US President Donald Trump's pick for his ambassador in Australia, Admiral Harry Harris, has described Australia as a crucial US ally and key player in world affairs.

Admiral Harris' glowing words for Australia came during more than two hours of testimony before the US House Armed Services Committee in Washington DC on Wednesday where he called out China for constructing "military bases" on disputed islands in the South China Sea.

The tough-talking 61-year-old head of the US Pacific Command also offered a theory that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was pursuing a nuclear arsenal not just to safeguard his regime, but to blackmail South Korea and other countries into reunifying the Korean peninsula into a single Communist nation.

"Australia is one of the keys to a rules based international order," Admiral Harris, who was repeatedly congratulated by members of the committee on his potential new role in Canberra, said.

"They are a key ally of the United States and they have been with us in every major conflict since World War I."

The US Senate is expected to quickly confirm him as ambassador to Australia in separate proceedings.

The Hawaii-based admiral joked he had come up with a greeting he will use in Canberra combining Australia's g'day and Hawaii's aloha.

"Pending the good will of the Senate, I'm going to coin a new phrase - 'G'doha'," he said to laughs.

Admiral Harris, known for his hawkish stance on China, could heighten tensions between Australia and China.

The admiral told the committee China had built "vertically and dramatically" seven new military bases on the Spratly Islands, where China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines each claim sovereignty.

He said he was encouraging "our friends, allies and partners" to conduct freedom of navigation operations in the area, something Australia will likely regularly hear if he does move to Canberra.

"If they (allies) are operating in the South China Sea that demonstrates to the world the South China Sea is in fact international water space and it is not simply because it has China in its name," Admiral Harris told the committee.

The admiral told the committee he believed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's ultimate nuclear ambitions were to "blackmail the South and other countries" to reunify the Korean peninsula into a single Communist country.

"He is after what his grandfather failed to do and his father failed to do," Admiral Harris testified.

The Admiral talked up the force posture agreements Australia and the US have in the Northern Territory and he offered support for Australia's French submarine deal.

"It's a significant buy over a number of years," Admiral Harris told the committee.

"I believe we should help them as they develop that submarine in the years to come because we want to be able to continue to interoperate with Australian forces in every domain."Focusing on the Value of Chatbots at ITEXPO

Chatbots are rapidly expanding across the business communications landscape, as consumer demand grows for fast and efficient customer service interactions. According to Hubspot, 55 percent of consumers are now interested in interacting with business messaging apps when solving problems.

Many business leaders, however, are still in the dark about this game-changing technology that enables self-service and reduces wait times. So today at ITEXPO, industry analyst Jon Arnold led an informative panel titled Making Chatbots Your Most Valuable Assets to help spread awareness about why businesses should be using them.

Perhaps the most important takeaway from this panel  which featured Chiirp Co-Founder Mallesh Murugesan, RingCentral VP of Platform David Lee and neXt Curve Principal Analyst and Consultant Akshay Sharma  is that there is a great deal of value in chatbots apart from their role in facilitating efficient self-service. They also provide a wealth of data about the customer experience, which most businesses are failing to extract from their voice services. Most calls, in other words, are stored and analyzed for training purposes only. But using chatbots, businesses can easily sort through interactions and use the data to create better experiences.

Many organizations are also using chatbots to sort through large pools of information quickly and easily. A process that used to require setting filters and digging through information can now be expedited using this technology. For instance, you can use a chatbot to rapidly procure information about sales during a specific time period.

Another point that came up during the panel involved consumer perception of chatbots. Do customers actually like using them? Weve all pounded the 0 button to bypass an IVR system, for instance, to bypass an automated attendant and skip to a human operator. Sometimes, you just want to speak to a human. Right now, chatbots still arent sophisticated enough to carry on highly advanced conversations that require empathy and creativity. The thing is, it may not matter all that much. Hubspot found, for instance, that 48 percent of consumers prefer a chatbot that solves issues versus one that has a personality. In most use cases, functionality is more important.

To that point, the panel also explored the role that artificial intelligence (AI) is playing in the chatbot space. Businesses should take note that not all chatbots require AI. At the end of the day, the goal when using chatbots is to enable automation and reduce complex tasks. Some use cases call for AI, while others can be much simpler.

Businesses are encouraged to focus on their core needs, and to think about what it is they want to improve before getting started with chatbots. Then, look for a solution that can help you achieve your specific goal. For some businesses, it may be simply cost reduction in the contact center. For others, it may be a way to increase internal productivity.

One thing is clear: Chatbots are here to stay, and over the next few years you will see more and more organizations use them to improve their operations.

The great part is that its only Wednesday, and discussions like this are just starting to kick into gear. So if youre in South Florida, head to Ft. Lauderdale and learn what your business needs to do to remain on the cutting edge of digital transformation.

To register, click here.

Edited by Mandi NowitzPeter Dutton has warned Labor MP Susan Lamb's citizenship woes are not going away after she vowed to contest the next election without taking further steps to renounce her British ties.

The home affairs minister said despite Ms Lamb's "sad, sorry story" about family breakdown, she was clearly in breach of the law and was testing the patience of people in her Queensland seat of Longman.

"This story hasn't stopped, it's not going away, and I think you want to watch this space over the next few weeks," Mr Dutton told 2GB radio on Thursday.Blue Mountains City Council is facing suspension for the second time in less than three months following claims its independent investigation into asbestos management was plagued by a conflict of interest.

NSW Environment Minister Gabrielle Upton on Thursday issued a notice of intention to suspend the council for three months and appoint an interim administrator after the government discovered there was a "serious conflict of interest" in the council's independent investigation.

The council last year started the investigation following the discovery of asbestos in several council-owned workplaces, including a pre-school, but it has been revealed that one of the investigators had links to a senior council staff member, Ms Upton said.A re-elected state Labor government would pay royalties to South Australian farmers if new mineral deposits are found on their land.

Freehold and perpetual leaseholders would receive 10 per cent of royalties - if a mine is developed on their land - if Labor is returned at the March 17 election, Mineral Resources Minister Tom Koutsantonis said.

"This new royalty-sharing program will support the growth of our mineral resources sector while creating valuable new income streams for South Australian farmers," Mr Koutsantonis said in a statement on Thursday.A national screening program for the National Disability Insurance Scheme will help protect people with disabilities from being harmed by those supposed to be looking after them, the government says.

Various worker screening programs currently exist for the NDIS, but the government wants to bring them all under the one nationwide system, reducing complexity for employers and allowing workers to more easily move between states.

Social Services Minister Dan Tehan says the proposed national program will protect people with disabilities and create transparency for service providers.

Workers engaged by registered NDIS providers to deliver high-risk support and services, or services that involve more than incidental contact with a participant, will be required to undergo the background checks.

It will prevent high-risk workers, or those proven to have harmed vulnerable people, from working in the sector and deter those who pose a high risk of harm from seeking work in it.

"Workers who hold an NDIS worker screening check clearance will be subject to ongoing monitoring at a national level for relevant criminal history or commission records," Mr Tehan told parliament on Thursday.

It's intended the scheme will be rolled out in NSW and South Australia in July, and in Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory 12 months later, with Western Australia following from July 2020.Banks will no longer be able to approach customers offering credit card limit increases after new laws cleared parliament.

Under the changes, banks will also be banned from inviting customers to increase limits and be forced to provide an online option to cancel cards or reduce credit.

"These reforms will provide vital protection to vulnerable Australians and improve competition in the credit card market," cabinet minister Michaelia Cash told parliament.

About $52 billion of debt is spread over 16.7 million Australian credit cards, at an average of $4730 for each card.

The crack down on credit practices is one of the government's financial sector reforms announced before it relented on holding a royal commission into the sector.

Banks won't be able to make unsolicited invitations to increase credit limits in writing, phone or online, even if someone has previously opted to receive them.

Providers will be required to assess the suitability of a credit card contract on the consumer's ability to repay the credit limit.

Labor supported the reforms, but criticised the government for being slow to act in protecting customers.

"This change cannot come soon enough. The royal commission though, will deliver the real change in practice and culture," Labor senator Chris Ketter said.

In addition, banks will no longer be able to charge backdated interest or charge interest on balances which have already been paid.

The new laws also give the banking regulator more powers over non-bank lenders, which Senator Cash said would add to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's "tools on the shelf".

APRA will be able to make rules and directions over non-bank lenders to stop them acting in ways which will jeopardise financial stability.

On Wednesday, separate laws cleared parliament giving APRA beefed up powers to respond during a future financial crisis.Migrants would be made to wait longer to be eligible for welfare payments under new laws proposed by the government.

Significant growth in welfare expenditure means changes are necessary to secure the future of the welfare system, Social Services Minister Dan Tehan says.

The government introduced legislation to parliament on Thursday that would require new migrants to be residents for three years before accessing welfare payments including Newstart and Youth Allowance.

Waiting periods have been two years since 1997.

"Three years is a reasonable period to expect permanent migrants to support themselves, whether through work, existing resources or family support," Mr Tehan told parliament on Thursday.

Migrants would also have to wait three years to access low income and senior concession cards.

It would apply to new migrants from July 1 this year.

New three-year waiting periods would also be applied to bereavement, widow, parenting and carer payments for the first time, providing consistency across the board.

Existing exemptions, including for humanitarian entrants, will remain unchanged.

New Zealanders will be exempt from newly introduced waiting periods.Peter Dutton has signalled he is willing to swing an axe through Australia's migration intake if it is considered in the nation's best interests.

The coalition government has already cut the annual migration program to 190,000 places from more than 300,000 under Labor.

"If we have to bring it back further, if that's what's required and that's what's in our country's best interests, that is what we will do," the Home Affairs Minister told 2GB radio on Thursday.

New Liberal senator Jim Molan has used his first speech in parliament to warn Australia's culture and infrastructure may not be able to handle any more legal migrants.

The retired major general, a co-author of Operation Sovereign Borders, said Australia was definitely approaching its migration limits if it had not already exceeded them.

Mr Dutton said some capital cities had struck the right balance with roads, rail and other public infrastructure to cope with population growth, but others had been a disaster.

He said while the government was willing to tighten migrant intakes, it was also focused on encouraging people out into the regions.

"We do have problems where people are concentrating in and around Sydney, in and around other capital cities including Melbourne, and we need to try and disperse people out," Mr Dutton said.

"You've got some regions where the abattoirs just can't work without that foreign workforce, or people coming in on a temporary basis, or migrants moving into that area."A man has been charged with murder following the death of a woman 10-years ago in a fiery crash on her farm in Western Australia's south.

Police re-opened their investigation into the death of Susi Elizabeth Johnston last year after receiving new information.

The 56-year-old died in Borden in the state's Great Southern region on December 6, 2008.

She was the only passenger in a car which police say smashed into a tree before being engulfed in flames, while the man who was driving escaped without serious injury.

A 61-year old man has been charged with murder and will appear in Albany Magistrates Court later on Thursday.Have we just witnessed the reverse-Bradbury, in future to be known as The Joyce?

Sixteen years ago, speed skater Steven Bradbury won Australia's first ever Winter Olympic gold medal, coming from behind and being the last man standing after all of his opponents were involved in a final corner pile-up.

It became known as 'Doing a Bradbury'.

In comparison, Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce entered 2018 seemingly on the front foot, only to be tripped up in the first parliamentary sitting week of the year over what were initially personal relationship matters, but which eventually snowballed into a train-wreck.

Joyce had ended 2017 on a high after winning the New England by-election with an increased majority - a vote that was brought on by the seemingly never-ending citizenship saga.

The coalition government started the year beating its chest over the record number of new jobs being created in the economy - 403,000 last year.

Until the last cabinet reshuffle days out from Christmas, Joyce's ministerial portfolio of agriculture was overseeing record production last financial year.

There has also been the biggest turnaround in agriculture commodity prices in the "history of our nation", Joyce still boasts.

His new pet project under his new ministry of infrastructure, the $8.4 billion Melbourne-Brisbane inland rail, also received its first steel rails in January.

"This project is a game-changer for our regions, creating thousands of jobs nationwide, and returning $16 billion to the national economy during the delivery phase and the first 50 years of operation," Joyce claims on his website.

But is anyone listening to such achievements and promises?

MPs from both sides of the political divide during the long summer break pledged to bring the focus of parliament back to the issues concerning Australians rather than talking about themselves - something for which the last Labor government was frequently bagged.

Yet the Serjeant-At-Arms had barely placed the ceremonial mace in the House of Representatives on the return of parliament when both major parties were again at each others' throats, trying to get opposing MPs referred to the High Court over their citizenship status.

Since the end of the first week, Joyce's relationship with former staffer Vikki Campion has been front page news and again overshadowing government business, such as arguing for lower company taxes.

It is worth noting while the parliament has been hanging out its dirty laundry, the lower house did pass the legislation that would see all businesses paying a corporate tax rate of 25 per cent by 2026/27.

But now comes the difficult part - convincing the minority-held Senate.

The Nick Xenophon Team and One Nation senators have indicated they will be joining Labor and the Greens in opposing the tax cut for businesses with a turnover of over $50 million, suggesting the bill is doomed.

John Daley, who heads the Grattan Institute think-tank, says while the business tax cuts are a good idea, their benefits should not be over-egged.

"Is it going to lead to the Australian economy suddenly taking off like a rocket next year? On Treasury's numbers, I would be very surprised," he says.

He says it is difficult to get voters on board with such issues when trust in politicians continues to decline to levels not seen since records began 30 years ago.

"If people don't trust governments, it's very hard for governments to make an argument," Mr Daley told Sky News.

At this stage, it would seem unlikely the government can do a Bradbury when it comes to tax.THE TIMELINE

- Media adviser Vikki Campion begins working in Barnaby Joyce's office in August 2016.

- She shifts to Matt Canavan's office in April 2017.

- Campion returns to Joyce's office for several weeks when Canavan is forced to step down over citizenship questions in July.

- Campion moves to Nationals whip Damian Drum's office in August 2017, before going on stress leave.

- Joyce reveals in parliament in December he is separated from his wife of 24 years, Natalie.

- Campion is pregnant with Joyce's child and is due to give birth in April.

THE QUESTIONS

Jobs:

- Joyce says he has not breached the ministerial code of conduct, which says frontbenchers cannot employ close relatives or partners or get them work in other ministerial offices "without the prime minister's express approval".

- He says Campion was not his "partner" when she worked in his or Canavan's ministerial offices.

- They were partners when she moved to Drum's office, but Drum was not a minister.

- Campion provided media advice to Joyce, despite her working in other offices.

Travel:

- Labor wants to see details of the taxpayer-funded flights Joyce and Campion took in 2017 to ensure there was no breach of the rules.

Accommodation:

- Joyce and Campion live rent-free in an Armidale town house.

- Joyce says businessman Greg Maguire called him and offered a place to stay rent-free, while media reports suggest Joyce made first contact.

- Joyce says the townhouse was provided when he was seeking by-election preselection, not an MP or minister, but he declared it on the interests register for completeness.

- Ministerial standards say ministers "must not seek or encourage any form of gift in their personal capacity".

THE FALLOUT

- Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says Joyce's actions weren't illegal, but they were "immoral".

- Nationals deputy leader Bridget McKenzie has "rolled gold" guaranteed Joyce will see out the week as leader.

- Labor leader Bill Shorten says Joyce's position is untenable, especially over the townhouse.

- Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he has confidence in Joyce and he will be acting prime minister next week.CAMEROUN :: Toxic Masculinity, Necropower, Tribalism and Democratic Mis-Education in Cameroon

How to understand the non-stop necropolitical staging of the presidents death, each time, generating a storm of stupidity holding the population hostage, ignoring their own grim reality for a sappy and senseless melodrama dripping in bad taste and fueled by toxic masculinity?

To understand the persuasion of necropower is to understand the power of a toxic combo of a pathological culture drenched in violence, intimidation, the fear of death, and how that fear makes ordinary Cameroonians, without tribal exception, vulnerable and ready to accept the arguments of necropower. The shameless bullshitters who are drowning this culture of violence solely on tribalism is not to understand the legacy of the colonial biopolitical plantation now masquerading as a modern nation state. More criminally, a profound disdain for finding out the truth on these issues of toxic masculinity and necropower because of some greater end promoted by bullshit, and by bullshit alone as the power of Yaounde does.

Therefore, to cry tribalism is to play in the camp of the regime and legitimize the authoritarian power of the president who decides who should live and who must die. It is also to legitimize the argument that the legitimate opposition to power is motivated by the same necropolitical ideology.

Thus, even his more dire critiques must acknowledge that no one stay in power for 35 years alone on violence. During a press conference with then French President Francois Hollande, the Cameroonian president went to brag that no one stays in power for that long just because he wants it, but because he can, as a rebuke to president Barack Obama who called for strong institutions and not strong men on the continent.

To understand this kind of longevity is to pay attention on how power is naturalized in Cameroon. Precisely, not on the presidents anemic record but his ability to manipulate life and death as the colonial master did.

Thus, as with his ability to survive many staged death, with a regular monotony that leave out no time for proper reflection, the president has acquired near divine power. People who are convinced that power is of divine origin tend to agree that this kind of divine power cannot be challenged by mere mortals. More, how divine power comes packaged with the absolute certainty that ones is always right. Thus, trying to challenge this kind of assumption amounts to heresy, crime of lese majesty and outrage. Furthermore, the idea that terror cannot come from the state but always from the opposition and within that context how wanting power is an act of terror.

As a result, the African American intellectual, Carter G. Woodson, claimed that when you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his proper place and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit.

Carter G. Woodson makes the difference between education and indoctrination which lead to the contradiction that people comes to act against their own best interest. Education and democracy goes hands in hands and how one cannot be truly educated in an oppressive system. For instance, how with necropower, the biological cycle of one man has nothing to do with democracy as the propagandist of necropower seek to pretend. Democracy to do with the power of reason and truth to overcome prejudices. More, crucial issues are such as equal rights and better governance are more important than the life of one man be it the president.Single parenting appears to pose the greatest risk to the health of fathers rather than mothers, new research suggests.

An 11-year study of more than 40,000 people in Canada found single fathers were nearly three times more likely to die prematurely compared to single mothers and partnered parents.

The findings, published in medical journal The Lancet Public Health, demonstrated a need for public health policies to help identify and support these men to make healthy lifestyle choices, said lead author Dr Maria Chiu, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and University of Toronto, Canada.

"While our study does not identify the exact cause of this, we did find that single fathers also tend to have unhealthier lifestyles, which could be an important area to address to improve health in this high-risk group," said Dr Chiu.

For the study, researchers tracked the health of 40,490 people who took part in the Canadian Community Health Survey, including 871 single fathers, 4590 single mothers, 16,341 partnered fathers, and 18688 partnered mothers (average age 41-46 years).

The participants completed questionnaires giving details of their lifestyle and socio-economic status, including their fruit and vegetable intake, physical activity, and binge drinking.

This was then linked to their health records to identify medical conditions, how often they used health services, whether they died, and cause of death.

After a median of 11 years follow-up, 693 people had died.

Four per cent (35) of the single fathers had died, compared to two per cent (345) of the partnered fathers.

Partnered mothers were least likely to die over the follow-up period, with just 1.2 per cent dying.

The research also found single fathers ate fewer fruit and vegetables and were more likely to binge drink.

While more research is needed to understand the causes of death behind the increased mortality in single fathers, doctors should invest more time into this vulnerable group of men, said Dr Chiu.

"Doctors' appointments could be an opportunity for doctors to engage with single fathers to help them to improve their health. Research has shown that these conversations can help to motivate patients to adhere to treatment plans, make better decisions about their health, and influence their behaviour and recovery," said Dr Chiu.A rare violin crafted by the great Italian Stradivari about 300 years ago is now in the hands of the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

The 1726 Stradivarius violin was purchased by ACO chairman Guido Belgiorno-Nettis and his wife Michelle before the couple announced this week they would give it to the nation's orchestra for long-term loan.

The violin will make its public debut when ACO principal violinist Satu Vanska plays Beethoven's Romance in F major during the Nicole Car concerts when the show tours nationally in April.

"You have to keep a cool head and you can't fall in love with these sorts of instruments straight away," Ms Vanska told AAP.

Ms Vanska said the violin went through vigorous testing, including in big concert halls, to measure the instrument's ability to carry sound. It was also compared with other fine-string instruments.

"(This Stradivarius) has a very clear, diamond-cutting-like sound, with golden and velvety tones," she said.

"It is a very powerful-sounding violin and you can play it very softly or very loudly or anywhere in between and it always carries."

The ACO wouldn't say what it paid for the violin, stating only that the value of the instrument rests in its artistic history.

But a 1726 violin by Stradivari sold at the prestigious British auction house Christie's fetched STG49,500 ($A97,020) in 1978.

The violin is among only 650 Stradivarius which have survived from what is today known as the Golden Period of violin making.

Antonio Stradivari tinkered in his workshop handcrafting violins, guitars, cellos and violas in the north Italian town of Cremona before his death in 1737.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra now holds the only two Stradivarius violins in the country. The ACO Instrument Fund bought a 1728/9 version for $1.79 million in 2011.A cache of guns, drugs and prohibited weapons - including knuckledusters and Ninja stars - have been seized in police raids targeting the outlawed Hells Angels motorcycle gang on the NSW south coast.

Officers found a loaded 12-gauge shotgun, a rifle with a silencer, ammunition, a stun-gun, knuckledusters, methylamphetamine, cannabis, knives, slingshots, and throwing stars at five homes in the Shoalhaven area on Wednesday morning.

A 24-year-old man has been charged with weapons and drugs related offences, and granted conditional bail to appear at Nowra Local Court on March 5.

A 65-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman will to appear in court on weapon and drug possession offences.ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE WORLD CLUB CHALLENGE:

* Leeds qualified by beating Castleford in the Super League grand final while Melbourne defeated North Queensland in the NRL decider to secure their spot.

* This is Leeds' eighth WCC (the most by any club) and Melbourne's fifth.

* Head to head - Melbourne 2* (2010, 2013) Leeds 1 (2008) - * 2010 was stripped for salary cap cheating.

* WCC titles - Melbourne 2 (2000, 2013), Leeds 3 (2005, 2008, 2012).

* Most WCC titles - Wigan 4 (1987, 1991, 1994, 2017)

* Players to watch: Storm - Heir-apparent Brodie Croft will take over the halfback jersey worn for 14 years by Cooper Cronk who has moved to the Sydney Roosters.

Leeds - England international winger Ryan Hall boasts a remarkable record at Leeds, scoring 221 tries in 306 games.

* Leeds have never played a WCC in Australia.

* This will be the fourth time a WCC has been played in Australia (1976, 1994, 2014) with the local team winning twice.Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says she wants more State of Origin NRL games to be played in Queensland, but hasn't committed any more money to ensure that happens.

The three state KAP MPs and the One Nation MP wore maroon armbands on the first sitting day of State Parliament on Thursday in protest over the NRL's decision to play one Origin game in Adelaide in 2020.

In response to an opposition question, Ms Palaszczuk told parliament she was "angry and shocked" about the decision, but did not outline a plan to get a game held in Townsville, where Labor is building a new rectangular stadium.As the sun set over the vineyards at Jacob's Estate Cottage in South Australia's Barossa Valley, one of the world's biggest movie stars was busily assembling a wooden wine barrel.

Piece by piece, a relaxed Chris Hemsworth listened with interest as two local coopers talked him through their craft, while close by, wife Elsa Pataky mingled with viticulturists and winemakers and took photos among the vines.

The pair were guests at a barbecue held at the cottage, during a visit to the region as part of Hemsworth's role as Jacob's Creek ambassador.

"We've been warmly welcomed in the Barossa by the Jacob's Creek team, who have taken us into their home and shown us what makes this place and its wines world class," the actor said.

Earlier in the day, they visited the winery's heritage vineyard, where Hemsworth christened a block of vines named in his honour, and chief winemaker Ben Bryant explained the growing and picking process.

Upon learning he was the first to have a block named after him, the star of Thor, The Avengers and 12 Strong replied in a particularly Australian drawl: "that's awesome".

It was just the kind of response the brand would have hoped for from its new face.

The latest in a line of world-famous ambassadors - others have included Novak Djokovic, Andre Agassi and Naomi Watts - Hemsworth was selected for his symbolic connection to the story behind Jacob's Creek.

"I think the most amazing thing is he's the quintessential Australian guy," Bryant told AAP.

"He's a gentleman, he's easygoing, laid back, loves a chat, loves wine and I think, from a brand perspective, particularly Jacob's Creek is truly an Australian brand that has that unique Australian expression, and what better person or personality to have than someone like him."

That passion was on display during Hemsworth's visit to the Richmond Grove Barrel Room, where he sampled eight varieties of 2017 Shiraz, while Bryant explained their taste and qualities.

Guests, who included Hemsworth's agent Will Ward and partner Christy McClung, used pipettes to concoct their own blends.

Hemsworth, whose favourite wine is Shiraz, also sampled Jacob's Creek Double Barrel - the brand's new range of wines finished in aged whisky barrels.

"As someone who travels a lot I'm always looking for things that can remind me of home and a glass of Double Barrel does just that," he said.

After signing on as brand ambassador last year, he voiced a commercial released in October to promote the range.

Hemsworth also recently starred in a fake movie trailer for a new Crocodile Dundee film, revealed to be an ad for Tourism Australia when it aired during the American Super Bowl.

IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE AND PLAYING THERE: Qantas and Virgin Australia operate services to Adelaide from Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Perth, Hobart and Darwin among others.

Jacobs Creek winery is on Barossa Valley Way, Rowland Flat, South Australia. The Barossa is around an hour's easy drive northeast of Adelaide.

The writer was a guest of Jacob's Creek.Labor says Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has questions to answer about $5000 of taxpayers' money being paid to a friend's business.

Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus asked Mr Joyce in parliament whether he was aware of a $5000 payment to a hotel owned by Greg Maguire, the same businessman friend who provided Mr Joyce with a rent-free townhouse in Armidale.

"I have to admit I was unaware of that $5000 payment," Mr Joyce told parliament on Thursday, pledging to take the question on notice.

Mr Dreyfus said the deputy prime minister attended the $5000 event hosted by the hotel, but again Mr Joyce rejected any knowledge.

"It would not seem surprising in a multiple-billion-dollar department that I'm not aware of a $5000 payment," Mr Joyce said.QUESTION TIME IN FEDERAL PARLIAMENT

WHAT WE LEARNED

* Barnaby Joyce is taking leave from February 19-25 and won't be able to be acting prime minister while Malcolm Turnbull is overseas. Government Senate leader Mathias Cormann will step up instead.

* It's been 118 days since Labor asked an energy-related question of Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg (though he didn't say whether those were regular days or sitting days).

WHAT THE GOVERNMENT WANTED TO SPIN

* How its economic leadership, confidence and certainty has delivered a record 16 months of jobs growth, the longest uninterrupted run in Australia's history.

WHAT LABOR WANTED TO TALK ABOUT

* What Barnaby Joyce knew about taxpayer money being used to hire an Armidale hotel owned by a friend of his - who has gifted him six months' free rent on an apartment - for an official government event that he attended.

THEY SAID WHAT

"I hesitate to get into a debate here..." - Then what is the parliamentary chamber for, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull?

"Well, perhaps the video (Chris Bowen) is familiar with is Derek Zoolander in the film Zoolander when he looks into a puddle and says, 'Who am I? Who am I? I don't know'." - Treasurer Scott Morrison.

"Is the House meant to believe that it was just an extraordinary coincidence that an agency under (Joyce's) administration chose a venue owned by his close friend, out of all the venues in Armidale?" - Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus.

"McManus-stan, that alternate universe, where the general, the superior leader, Sally McManus, that puppet master and her two favourite marionettes, the member for Gorton and the leader of the opposition, where she is pulling the strings hard every day." - Small Business Minister Craig Laundy goes off the map.

"The members for Chifley and Perth will leave under 94(a). They are preventing me hear the question. I have solved that problem." - Speaker Tony Smith has had enough at the end of a rowdy week.

TWEETED

@TonyHWindsor: Turnbull sin bins Joyce

@NickMcKim: Hansonism is now at the heart of this government and Peter Dutton is the Anti-Immigration Minister.CELEBRATING THE CHINESE NEW YEAR

* The new Chinese year begins on Friday, February 16. Celebrations to mark the event will start with New Year's Eve on February 15 and will stretch to March 2.

* Also known as the Spring Festival, the Chinese New Year marks the start of the Lunar Calendar. The date of the new lunar year changes every year.

* 2018 is the Year of the Dog. Other dog years include 2006, 1994, 1982, 1970 and 1958.

* Those born in the Year of the Dog are loyal, honest and just but tend to also be worried and anxious, according to Chinese astrology.

* According to Chinese tradition, the year of one's zodiac sign is their most unlucky year, so those born in the Year of the Dog should lie low in 2018.

* The new lunar year is celebrated in several Asian countries including China, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.

* Traditionally Chinese families will gather together during the new year for protection from a mythical monster, according to King Fong from the Chinese Historical Society in Sydney. "It's a big family event, they celebrate for normally three weeks," he says.

* Families will sit down to a large banquet of lucky foods, the delicacies chosen by their names which sound similar to lucky Chinese phrases like "good events" and "gaining wealth", according to Mr Fong.

* Senior family members traditionally hand out red envelopes with money inside to younger ones.

* People will often wear new clothes on the first day of the new year "to celebrate the coming of a new year and the expectation it will be very joyous and happy and hopefully financially successful," Mr Fong says.

* "Whenever you meet people you don't talk about sadness or death, talk about the living, new babies, grandchildren studying, the atmosphere should be one of happiness," Mr Fong says.

* Tradition states it is bad luck to clean your home or cut or wash your hair at the start of the new year, according to Mr Fong. You should also avoid using machines, knives and even nail clippers on the first day of the new year.More than 8500 cats were surrendered to Perth's busiest cat shelter last year due to an increase in people parting with their pet due to economic hardship and homelessness.

Cat Haven in Shenton Park says it rescued 1865 more cats last year than in the previous seven years combined.

Cat Haven representative Chandra Woodley said much of the increase was due to "owner surrenders", with 1000 more cats handed in than came from metropolitan council rangers.

She said the key reason given by more than 900 people was economic hardship or moving interstate or overseas.

"The figures have doubled in those who are homeless and can no longer keep a cat," she said.

Cat Haven also saw a jump in people surrendering their pets due to moving to nursing homes or apartments, where pets were not allowed.

It accepted about 1000 animals from regional rescue groups as far north as Karratha and south to Esperance, indicating an increase in dumped cats statewide.

However the shelter managed to find homes for a record 6438 happy felines.

They also managed to keep their euthanasia rate down to a very low 12.5%.

But the shelter said its funding had been stretched to the limit.

"We desperately need more government or corporate assistance or we simply can't carry on," Ms Woodley said.United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Todd RASBERRY, Defendant, Appellant. No. 16-2465 Decided: February 14, 2018

Before Lynch, Circuit Judge, Souter,* Associate Justice, and Selya, Circuit Judge. Joshua L. Gordon, Concord, NH, for appellant. Benjamin M. Block, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Halsey B. Frank, United States Attorney, was on brief, for appellee.

Todd Rasberry found himself in a jam: during a pat-down incident to a Terry stop, see Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 19-20 (1968), an agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) discovered a softball-sized object stashed in Rasberry's undershorts. Believing that the object contained drugs, the agent arrested Rasberry on the spot. A subsequent search of Rasberry's person proved the agent's prescience.

Following his indictment for controlled substance offenses, Rasberry moved to suppress, arguing among other things that the seizure of the contraband violated the plain feel doctrine. See Minnesota v. Dickerson, 508 U.S. 366, 375 (1993). After the district court denied his motion, Rasberry tendered a conditional guilty plea. The court accepted the plea and sentenced Rasberry to serve 138 months' imprisonment.

We reject Rasberry's attempt to pigeon-hole the seizure that occurred within the narrow confines of the plain feel doctrine. Hereas in most Terry stop casesthe reasonableness of the search and seizure is informed by the totality of the circumstances. Applying this metric, we affirm the district court's denial of Rasberry's motion to suppress.

I. BACKGROUND

We rehearse the facts as found by the district court at the suppression hearing, consistent with record support. See United States v. Gonzalez, 609 F.3d 13, 15 (1st Cir. 2010). For some years, Paul Wolf, a DEA agent, had been on the trail of a major drug dealer known to him only as Champagne. Though Champagne proved elusive, Wolf finally got a lead indicating that he was in fact a man named Todd Rasberry. With the help of a cooperating source, Wolf was able to track down one of Rasberry's accomplices while she was making drug deliveries in Portland, Maine. When Wolf confronted the accomplice, she surrendered the heroin she was carrying and told Wolf that he would find Rasberry, along with more drugs, at a motel room she had rented in Scarborough, Maine. The accomplice gave Wolf a key to the room and consented to its search.

Accompanied by other officers (federal and local), Wolf proceeded to the motel where Rasberry was allegedly ensconced. The officers knew that Rasberry had a criminal history including drug and weapons charges, and he had been arrested only a few months earlier at a party where guns were present. As a result, the officers were armed and wore ballistic vests.

When the officers arrived at the motel, Wolf tried the room key that he had been given, but discovered that it did not work. Once he knocked, though, Rasberry opened the door and acknowledged that he was a guest in the motel room (which had been rented by the woman with whom Wolf had spoken). The officers told Rasberry that they were there to search the premises and that, although he was not under arrest, he would be detained while they conducted the search. One officer placed Rasberry's hands behind his back and handcuffed him; he then patted down only the portion of Rasberry's lower back that Rasberry might be able to reach despite being handcuffed. Two other officers, with weapons drawn, conducted a sweep of the premises to make certain that nobody else was present.

For roughly twenty minutes, the officers searched the motel room with great care. They found plastic sandwich bags, needles, and a digital scale, but no drugs. With the search winding down, Rasberry asked if the handcuffs could be removed. Wolf replied that before he could remove the handcuffs, he had to make sure that Rasberry did not have a weapon.

As Wolf performed a pat-down, he felt (in the groin area of Rasberry's shorts) a hard, round object about the size of a softball. Wolf inquired as to the nature of the object, and Rasberry responded that it was part of his anatomy. At that point, Wolfconfident that the object was not part of Rasberry's anatomy but, rather, was contrabandplaced Rasberry under arrest. Reaching into Rasberry's undershorts, Wolf extracted a ball of baggies containing what appeared to be controlled substances. A field test subsequently confirmed that some of the baggies contained heroin and others contained cocaine.

In due course, a federal grand jury sitting in the District of Maine returned a three-count indictment against Rasberry for various controlled substance offenses. Rasberry moved to suppress the drugs seized from his person, arguing that the search and seizure had violated his Fourth Amendment rights. See U.S. Const. amend. IV. The district court held a hearing at which Wolf and his three fellow officers testified. The district court took the matter under advisement and later denied the motion to suppress. In its order, the court held, in substance, that what had transpired constituted a lawful Terry stop; that placing Rasberry in handcuffs was reasonably necessary to ensure the officers' safety; and that the duration of the detention was reasonable because the officers were diligently searching the room during that interval. Finally, the court upheld the seizure of the drugs from Rasberry's undershorts on alternative grounds: first, the court adopted the argument, put forward by the government, that the drugs were lawfully seized under the plain feel doctrine; and second, the court concluded that, in light of the totality of the circumstances, the officers had probable cause to arrest Rasberry, search him incident to his arrest, and seize the drugs.

Rasberry proceeded to enter a conditional guilty plea, see Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(a)(2), to a single count of possession of heroin with intent to distribute, see 21 U.S.C.  841(a)(1). After accepting Rasberry's conditional plea (explicitly preserving Rasberry's right to appeal the denial of his suppression motion), the district court imposed a 138-month term of immurement. The government then dismissed the other two counts of the indictment, and this timely appeal followed.

II. ANALYSIS

Our standard of review is familiar. Ultimate constitutional determinations with respect to issues such as reasonable suspicion and probable cause engender de novo review. See Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 699 (1996); United States v. Espinoza, 490 F.3d 41, 46 (1st Cir. 2007). And while the district court's other conclusions of law are also reviewed de novo, its factual findings must be accepted unless they are clearly erroneous. See United States v. Chhien, 266 F.3d 1, 5 (1st Cir. 2001). Determinations about witness credibility are inherently fact-based and, thus, are peculiarly within the competence of the district court. See United States v. Baldacchino, 762 F.2d 170, 175 (1st Cir. 1985).

As a practical matter, Rasberry's asseverational array can be divided into four parts. First, he asserts that his detention in the motel room exceeded the lawful scope of a Terry stop. Second, he asserts that the pat-down during which the softball-sized object was discovered was conducted without reasonable suspicion. Third, he asserts that the seizure of the softball-sized object was not justified under the plain feel doctrine. Fourth, he asserts that the search of his undershorts was so invasive that it offended both his dignity and his right to privacy under the Fourth Amendment. We examine these assertions one by one.

A. The Scope of the Stop.

The Fourth Amendment guarantees [t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures. U.S. Const. amend. IV. This constitutional protection does not pretermit all searches and seizures, but only those that are unreasonable. See Terry, 392 U.S. at 9. A brief investigatory stop based on a reasonable suspicion that criminal activity may be afoot does not violate the Fourth Amendment, even in the absence of probable cause. United States v. Pontoo, 666 F.3d 20, 27 (1st Cir. 2011) (citing Terry, 392 U.S. at 29-30). Such stops are commonly called Terry stops.

In contrast to a Terry stop, an arrest requires that the detaining officer have probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed. See Hayes v. Florida, 470 U.S. 811, 815-16 (1985); United States v. Chaney, 647 F.3d 401, 408 (1st Cir. 2011). Probable cause is a prerequisite not only for a formal arrest but also for a de facto arrest. See Chaney, 647 F.3d at 408.

Judicial review of a Terry stop involves a two-step appraisal. Pontoo, 666 F.3d at 26. To begin, the stop must be justified at its inception. See United States v. Acosta-Colon, 157 F. 3d 9, 14 (1st Cir. 1998). Then, as the stop proceeds, the officers' actions must be reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference. Id. (quoting United States v. Young, 105 F.3d 1, 6 (1st Cir. 1997) ).

Rasberry does not dispute thatat the moment the motel room was enteredthe officers had reasonable suspicion sufficient to initiate a Terry stop. Instead, Rasberry's challenge to the lawfulness of the stop focuses on the events that subsequently transpired. He submits that the behavior of the officers (such as placing him in handcuffs and brandishing weapons) and the duration of the stop (about twenty minutes) pushed the stop past the boundaries of a lawful Terry stop and combined to transmogrify the stop into a de facto arrest.

In this case, the distinction between a Terry stop and a de facto arrest is of decretory significance. After all, the government concedes that the officers did not have probable cause to arrest Rasberry at the moment they entered the motel room. We turn, then, to the proper characterization of the events.

Because a Terry stop allows an individual to be detained without probable cause, the police actions associated with the stop must be less intrusive than those that are permissible in the course of an arrest. See Pontoo, 666 F.3d at 30. If a stop begins as a Terry stop but becomes too intrusive, it will morph into a de facto arrest. See Hayes, 470 U.S. at 815-16; Acosta-Colon, 157 F.3d at 14. The dispositive question is whether a reasonable person standing in the suspect's shoes would understand his position to be tantamount to being under arrest. United States v. Zapata, 18 F.3d 971, 975 (1st Cir. 1994).

To be sure, there are no scientifically precise benchmarks for distinguishing between temporary detentions and de facto arrests. Morelli v. Webster, 552 F.3d 12, 20 (1st Cir. 2009). In determining the category into which a particular set of events falls, a reviewing court necessarily must consider the totality of the circumstances. See Chhien, 266 F.3d at 6; see also United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 417 (1981) (directing consideration of the whole picture). An inquiry into the totality of the circumstances is informed by the reasonableness of the officers' conduct in light of the situation that they face. See Terry, 392 U.S. at 19-20; Acosta-Colon, 157 F.3d at 15. Typically, such an inquiry involves examining, among other things, the length of the detention, the restrictions placed on an individual's personal movement, the force (if any) that was exerted, the information conveyed to the detainee, and the severity of the intrusion. United States v. Sowers, 136 F.3d 24, 28 (1st Cir. 1998).

Notwithstanding the limitations on Terry stops, officers must be allowed, during the course of such a stop, to take measures that are reasonably calculated to protect themselves or others from harm. See Flowers v. Fiore, 359 F.3d 24, 30 (1st Cir. 2004); Acosta-Colon, 157 F.3d at 18. To pass muster, though, such prophylactic measures must be proportionate to the perils associated with the particular circumstances. See Pontoo, 666 F.3d at 30. Security precautions, such as the use of handcuffs, must be based on the officers' reasonable belief that the use of such restraints was necessary to carry out the legitimate purposes of the stop without exposing law enforcement officers, the public, or the suspect himself to an undue risk of harm. Acosta-Colon, 157 F.3d at 19. The inquiry is case-specific: although often indicative of an arrest, see id. at 18, neither the use of handcuffs nor the drawing of a weapon necessarily transforms a valid Terry stop into a de facto arrest, United States v. Fornia-Castillo, 408 F.3d 52, 64 (1st Cir. 2005).

Concerns for officer safety are heightened in the close confines of a motel room. See Chaney, 647 F.3d at 410. There is a pressing need for officers to safely secure the scene. Id. at 410. Moreover, the motel room in which Rasberry was found had very thin walls, and any gunfire would have posed a grave danger to occupants of adjoining rooms. To cinch matters, Rasberry was a suspected drug trafficker, and [t]he connection between drugs and violence is  legendary. United States v. Arnott, 758 F.3d 40, 45 (1st Cir. 2014). This legendary connection was of particular concern in this case because the officers were entering an unfamiliar space to confront a suspect who they knew had a criminal history involving firearms and who had recently been present in locations where guns were found.

Taking the total mix of facts into account, we agree with the district court that the officers had a reasonable basis to suspect that Rasberry might be armed and dangerous. By entering the premises with guns drawn and immediately handcuffing Rasberry, the officers acted responsibly to ensure their safety and the safety of others as their search of the premises took place. At the same time, the officers made it clear to Rasberry that he was not under arrest but, rather, was simply being detained while they searched the room. We discern no error, clear or otherwise, in the district court's determination that the officers' execution of the stop was within the permissible scope of a Terry stop. See Pontoo, 666 F.3d at 30; Chaney, 647 F.3d at 410.

Nor did the duration of the encounter exceed the parameters of a lawful Terry stop. A twenty-minute detention may be lengthier than the paradigmatic Terry stop, but the length of a Terry stop, taken in a vacuum, does not convert an otherwise lawful Terry stop into a de facto arrest. See United States v. Owens, 167 F.3d 739, 749 (1st Cir. 1999). Whether a Terry stop is of an appropriate duration is gauged by whether the officers were diligently pursu [ing] a means of investigation that was likely to confirm or dispel their suspicions quickly, during which time it was necessary to detain the defendant. United States v. Sharpe, 470 U.S. 675, 686 (1985). Here, the district court supportively found that the officers were assiduously engaged in activities in furtherance of the investigation for the entire time of the detention. Seen in this light, the court did not err in finding that the twenty-minute length of the stop failed to convert it into a de facto arrest. See Owens, 167 F.3d at 750 (finding stop that lasted fifty minutes was not a de facto arrest); United States v. McCarthy 77 F.3d 522, 531 (1st Cir. 1996) (finding seventy-five minute detention remained a Terry stop because officers were not engaged in dilatory tactics and their investigative efforts [were] reasonable under the circumstances).

That ends this aspect of the matter. The stop in this case was proportional to the circumstances and lasted no longer than was reasonably necessary to search the motel room and dispel suspicion that illegal drugs were hidden there. Consequently, the district court did not err in concluding that the stop was a lawful Terry stop.

B. The Pat-Down.

In preparation for removing Rasberry's handcuffs, Wolf undertook a full pat-down of Rasberry's person. Rasberry contends that there was no legal justification for this pat-down because the initial frisk, performed when he was first handcuffed, sufficed to dispel any suspicion that he might be armed. The district court rejected this contention, and so do we.

A police officer may frisk a suspect on reasonable suspicion that the suspect is armed and dangerous. See United States v. Scott, 270 F.3d 30, 41 (1st Cir. 2001); see also Terry, 392 U.S. at 27. In this instance, the full pat-down was preceded by an initial frisk some twenty minutes earlier. The district court found, however, that the initial frisk was confined to the area of Rasberry's lower back. This finding is consistent with the officers' testimony at the suppression hearing, and it is not clearly erroneous. And where, as here, the first frisk is limited, it will not automatically dispel a reasonable suspicion that the suspect may be armed. See United States v. Osbourne, 326 F.3d 274, 278 (1st Cir. 2003). In appropriate circumstances, a second frisk may be justified. See id. This is such a case: because the first frisk was restricted to Rasberry's lower back, we cannot say that the district court erred in finding that Wolf had a reasonable suspicion that Rasberry might be carrying a weapon elsewhere on his person.

C. The Seizure of the Softball-sized Object.

As he was conducting the second pat-down, Wolf felt a softball-sized object hidden in Rasberry's undershorts. After Rasberry dissembled by insisting that the object was part of his anatomy, Wolf arrested him and proceeded to extract the object. Rasberry challenges the constitutionality of this seizure.

The district court upheld the seizure on alternative grounds. The first of these grounds is questionable. The courtfollowing the government's leadinvoked the plain feel doctrine, under which a police officer can seize an object if, by touch, its incriminating character is immediately apparent. United States v. Schiavo, 29 F.3d 6, 9 (1st Cir. 1994) (quoting Dickerson, 508 U.S. at 375). Thus, the doctrine permits an officer who conducts a lawful pat-down of a suspect's outer clothing to seize an object if its incriminating character is immediately apparent by touch alone.

Rasberry argues that, due to the plastic packaging surrounding the drugs, the incriminating nature of the object in his shorts could not have been immediately apparent to Wolf. This argument has a patina of plausibility, but we need not address it: the seizure is fully justified on the alternative ground elaborated by the district court. Consequently, we turn to that alternative ground.

The district court held that the totality of the circumstances known to Wolf at the time of the pat-down gave him probable cause to arrest Rasberry and, thus, allowed him to seize the softball-sized object incident to Rasberry's arrest. This holding finds ample support in the record.

It is common ground that a Terry stop can evolve to a point at which there is probable cause to make an arrest. See Terry, 392 U.S. at 25. At that juncture, the officer can search the suspect for evidence or contraband incident to the arrest. See id. That is precisely what happened here.

Probable cause is a fluid concept that is not readily, or even usefully, reduced to a neat set of legal rules. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 232 (1983). It requires only the kind of fair probability on which reasonable and prudent [people,] not legal technicians, act. Kaley v. United States, 134 S.Ct. 1090, 1103 (2014) (quoting Florida v. Harris, 568 U.S. 237, 244 (2013) ) (internal quotation marks omitted). An objective standard is employed to determine whether an officer has probable cause to effect an arrest. See Cox v. Hainey, 391 F.3d 25, 31 (1st Cir. 2004). An inquiring court must examine the events leading up to the arrest and then determine whether these historical facts, viewed from the standpoint of a reasonable police officer, amount to probable cause. Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 696 (1996).

Here, the totality of the circumstances militates strongly in favor of a finding that probable cause existed to arrest Rasberry. The officers already had recovered some drugs from Rasberry's accomplice (the renter of the motel room). She had told them that Rasberry was in the room and was in possession of additional drugs. When the officers reached the motel, they found Rasberry in the designated roomconfirming to that extent the reliability of the accomplice's account. See Gates, 462 U.S. at 245 (explaining that tip containing information subsequently found to be accurate can be a factor giving rise to probable cause). In the motel room, the officers' search revealed accoutrements of the drug trade (specifically, plastic baggies, needles, and a digital scale), giving rise to a plausible inference that a drug-distribution operation was afoot. See, e.g., United States v. Fermin, 771 F.3d 71, 79 n.6 (1st Cir. 2014).

The officers had been told by Rasberry's accomplice that there were drugs in the motel room and, after scouring the room in vain, the only place that had not yet been searched was Rasberry's person. While patting Rasberry down, Wolf came across a suspicious object in Rasberry's undershortsan object that Wolf reasonably suspected contained drugs. This suspicion was heightened by Wolf's knowledge that drug dealers frequently conceal drugs in their undergarments. See United States v. Cofield, 391 F.3d 334, 337 n.2 (1st Cir. 2004) (discussing how suspects often hide drugs in their underwear). When Rasberry was asked directly about the softball-sized object, he responded with an obvious lie. A suspect's blatant prevarication in response to an officer's queries can support an inference of probable cause. See, e.g., United States v. Brown, 500 F.3d 48, 57 (1st Cir. 2007).

To say more would be to paint the lily. Here, a host of factors pointed unerringly to a reasonable inference that Rasberry was hiding drugs in his skivvies. In the circumstances at hand, the district court did not err in finding that Wolf had probable cause to arrest Rasberry and to seize the softball-sized object incident to his arrest.

D. The Intrusiveness Claim.

Rasberry makes a final argument: that the search of his undershorts was overly invasive and degrading and, thus, abridged his Fourth Amendment rights. Because this argument is raised for the first time on appeal, our review is for plain error. See United States v. Madsen, 809 F.3d 712, 717 (1st Cir. 2016). Plain error is plainly absent here.

The reasonableness of an invasive search depends on whether the totality of the circumstances justifies the degree of the intrusion. See Spencer v. Roche, 659 F.3d 142, 146 (1st Cir. 2011); Cofield, 391 F.3d at 336. To justify a search of a particularly intimate area, an officer must, at a minimum, have reasonable suspicion that the person detained is hiding contraband there. See United States v. Barnes, 506 F.3d 58, 62 (1st Cir. 2007). Wolfhaving just encountered a suspicious object near Rasberry's groinhad excellent reason to think that Rasberry had contraband hidden in his undershorts.

Although extracting the softball-sized object was, in Wolf's phrase, awkward, there is no evidence that the extraction was conducted in a needlessly degrading or humiliating fashion. Cf. Swain v. Spinney, 117 F.3d 1, 6 (1st Cir. 1997) (finding strip search of female detainee in front of male officers unconstitutional). Wolf and Rasberry were of the same gender and Wolf withdrew the softball-sized object in the privacy of a motel room, allowing Rasberry to remain clothed as he did so. It was Rasberry's decision to hide contraband in such an intimate location, and the seizure was performed in a reasonable manner. No more was exigible to keep Rasberry's Fourth Amendment rights inviolate.

III. CONCLUSION

We need go no further. Rasberry's appeal yields only bitter fruit and, therefore, the judgment of the district court is

Affirmed.

SELYA, Circuit Judge.A West Australian couple aged in their 70s have been scammed out of almost $24,000 in iTunes cards, prompting a warning for gift card retailers to better enforce limits on sales and erect warning signs.

Consumer Protection said scammers claiming to be from Telstra gained access to the Bunbury couple's computer and bank account.

They then further tricked the couple into helping to catch scammers by purchasing $23,900 worth of iTunes cards from eight stores over two days.

Following the incident, major stores agreed to set a limit on iTunes purchases of $1000 or $500 per transaction.

But Consumer Protection officers later conducted a "mystery shopper" exercise at four Perth stores and found the limits were only enforced at one.

At the others, staff conducted multiple transactions at the check-out or used a till without limits.

Consumer Protection commissioner David Hillyard said scam payments by iTunes cards had doubled last year to $120,000 and there were fears about the trend continuing.

"It's disappointing that the limits agreed to at the corporate level and incorporated into the check-out system are not being effective at the store level," he said.

"Retailers need to better inform their store staff as to the reasons for the limits and give strict instructions not to over-ride the limits that have been put in place."

Mr Hillyard said the use of warning signs at the point of sale was "hit and miss", with most stores having none.

He pointed to one successful case involving a 75-year-old man who avoided losing $4000 when he saw a scam warning sign, which prompted him to call his family for advice.A federal government minister has fought back tears in parliament during a voluntary assisted dying debate in which she recounted the death of her father.

Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells was speaking against Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm's private bill to restore Northern Territory and ACT laws giving people the right to end their own life.

She said her father had died from dementia.

"When I saw what he went through, particularly as an older person from a culturally and linguistically diverse background, it is very, very difficult," the NSW senator said as she choked up.

"They're really the people in our society that I'm particularly concerned about because often they can't speak English really well."

Senator Fierravanti-Wells said taking a life was wrong legally and morally.

Greens senator Rachel Siewert spoke in favour of the bill, which seeks to repeal a 1997 federal law banning the ACT and NT from legislating to allow assisted suicide.

"This bill is about compassion and the right to end-of-life choices," Senator Siewert said.

"We are talking about terminally ill individuals who are experiencing unbearable suffering from an incurable illness."

Victoria has Australia's only legal voluntary assisted-dying scheme after passing controversial laws in November last year.

The territories have vowed to lobby the federal government to reinstate their euthanasia laws.

Debate on Senator Leyonhjelm's bill - first introduced to parliament in 2015 - was adjourned.ANZ bank will be targeted in a Sydney law firm's class-action after thousands of 7-Eleven convenience store workers were underpaid across Australia.

The convenience chain was forced to pay back millions of dollars to thousands of workers after it was revealed in 2015 that there'd been rampant wage theft across hundreds of stores.

The class action will seek damages from both the company 7-Eleven Stores and ANZ, which loaned many people the money they used to buy their franchise.

In a submission to a federal parliament inquiry, Sydney lawyer Stewart Levitt alleged the chain practised a "de facto ethnic selection of franchisees" in order to select store owners less likely to blow the whistle on employment practices, Fairfax Media reported in early 2016.

The lawyer told AAP on Thursday the class action was, however, broader and based on a sweeping review of 7-Eleven's "entire system and the ANZ funding".The leaders of two of South Australia's three major parties will face off at a debate hosted by the Property Council.

Liberal leader Steven Marshall and SA-BEST leader Nick Xenophon will go head-to-head on Friday on a range of issues before the writs for the March state election are issued the following day.

Premier Jay Weatherill last month declined an invitation to participate because of "other priorities".

He characterised the debate as a contest of conservatives.

"Nick Xenophon has witnessed the capitulation of the Liberals under Steven Marshall and is taking full advantage," he said.

"He wants to be the Liberal Party leader."

Property Council executive director Daniel Gannon said the debate will be attended by business and industry leaders, and expects the focus will be on policies instead of politics.

It will be the leaders' third debate ahead of polling day, after they faced off in front of the Press Club and Women in Media earlier this month.School teachers will be armed with the latest research about how to help their students learn under a federal Labor government.

Opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek announced on Friday Labor will set up an Evidence Institute for Schools at a cost of $280 million over a decade.

The institute, similar to bodies in the UK, US, Denmark, Norway and Canada, will be charged with commissioning new research on educational methods and helping teachers and schools stay up to date with the latest and best practices.

"This is about ensuring we have the right research to inform teachers, and to help them refine and improve what they do together in schools, and individually in the classroom," Ms Plibersek said.

"Just as doctors draw on the best new research when they are deciding how to treat their patients, we want to better support teachers to do the same for their students."

Labor points out the government spends about $20 million a year on grants for educational research compared with about $600 million a year for medical research.

The Productivity Commission found last year there were large gaps in the evaluation of which policies and practices actually worked best in classrooms.

Labor's new institute would be independent of government.

"Politicians shouldn't tell teachers how to do their jobs, or be using schools as an ideological battleground," Ms Plibersek said.

The approach is similar to a recommendation researchers at the Grattan Institute made last weekend for an independent research body.

The think tank warned the federal government needed to resist the temptation to intervene excessively in school education, saying attaching too many strings to funding given to states could actually be counterproductive when trying to lift student achievements.

The federal government has commissioned businessman David Gonski to lead a review of how to get the best bang for buck from its extra funding for schools.

His panel will report in March, but the government is already pushing for states to sign up to a number of measures including new phonics tests for Year One students.The brazen shooting murder of notorious former bikie boss Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi as he sat in the driver's seat of a luxury 4WD is feared to spark a new round of Sydney underworld revenge attacks.

The ex-leader of the Comancheros was shot multiple times outside a Fitness First gym in Rockdale in Sydney's south about midday on Thursday and later died in St George Hospital.

His 4WD was peppered with at least half a dozen bullets in the underworld hit.

Two men in dark clothing were captured on CCTV fleeing the scene after the attack. Witnesses identified a man wearing a balaclava as the gunman.

Shortly afterwards, a Mercedes Benz station wagon was set alight on a nearby street.

Police described the daylight murder of the 37-year-old as a "serious, brutal and callous".

"This was a planned and targeted attack," Assistant Commissioner Mal Lanyon told reporters.

He said detectives are investigating Mr Hawi's underworld links and who may wanted him dead, while full resources are also being deployed to prevent retribution for the murder.

"It's essential, when we believe there could be links to organised crime, that we take action to prevent that," Mr Lanyon said.

Hawi served time in prison for his role in the killing of Hells Angels associate Anthony Zervas who was bashed with a bollard during a brawl between the rival clubs at Sydney Airport in 2009.Barnaby Joyce is under pressure from Malcolm Turnbull to quit as deputy prime minister after his "shocking" decision to have an affair with a staffer.

Mr Turnbull said the Nationals leader should "consider his position" as he takes a week off, before slamming Mr Joyce for having an affair with his now-pregnant partner Vikki Campion.

"The real issue is the terrible hurt and humiliation that Barnaby, by his conduct, has visited on his wife, Natalie and their daughters and indeed, his new partner," Mr Turnbull told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

"Barnaby made a shocking error of judgment in having an affair with a young woman working in his office.

"He has set off a world of woe for those women and appalled all of us."

Mr Turnbull cannot sack his deputy because it is up to the Nationals MPs to choose their leader under the coalition agreement.

"Barnaby is the leader of the National Party, okay? They are our coalition partners. They have a coalition agreement," he said.

But Mr Turnbull said the scandal had prompted him to change the ministerial code of conduct to ban ministers from having sex with staff.

"Ministers, regardless of whether they are married or single, must not engage in sexual relations with their staff," he said.

"Doing so will constitute a breach of the standards."

Mr Joyce is living with Ms Campion and facing questions over her former political jobs, and a rent-free townhouse he was given by a friend while he sorts out his personal life.

But Mr Turnbull refused to order an investigation into the allegations.

"Those who believe he has breached ministerial standards ... should actually make the case for where the breach has occurred," he said.

After insisting all week he had confidence in Mr Joyce and saying he would be acting prime minister next week, Mr Turnbull told parliament on Thursday the Nationals leader will take leave from February 19 to 25.

Mr Turnbull, who is in Washington next week, said Finance Minister Mathias Cormann will be acting prime minister during the period, as the Liberals deputy leader Julie Bishop is overseas.

Mr Joyce's office released a statement saying he was going on leave to support his family and partner "after such intense public focus on personal matters".A man has been charged in relation to an armed robbery at a Brisbane hotel as police continue to investigate a string of robberies over the past three months.

Police allege three men, two armed with a firearm and the other with a machete, entered a hotel at Kedron early on February 8 and threatened staff before making off with a sum of cash.

A 23-year-old Mansfield man has been charged with one count each of armed robbery, attempted arson and unlawful use of a motor vehicle and is due to appear at the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday.Sexual assault counsellors are urging federal parliamentarians to include family members of child abuse victims in a national redress scheme.

"The effect of the abuse on one person in a family extends out to the whole family and to the community," Laurel Sellers from the Yorgum Aboriginal Corporation in Perth told a Senate inquiry on Friday.

Counsellors are also urging parliamentarians to rethink plans to block child abuse survivors who have spent five years or more in prison from accessing redress, and to ensure victims are offered lifelong support.This time last year, few, if any, could have predicted the three-way contest facing South Australia as it heads into the March state election.

But a year is a very long time in politics.

While the Labor and Liberal parties had been steadily preparing themselves for months, even years, the introduction of Nick Xenophon's SA-BEST party into the mix has up-ended state politics and changed the focus of the campaign.

Since Mr Xenophon announced he was quitting the Senate to run in March, his party has nominated candidates in more than 30 of the 47 lower house seats in the South Australian parliament - 14 held by Liberals, 14 by Labor and two by independents.

Perhaps even more surprising has been the transformation of Mr Xenophon himself.

In just four months the Senate powerbroker, known for his publicity-attracting antics, has headed a movement some say could claim government.

Though his possible path to the top of state politics has been unconventional, he is surely qualified for the top job.

Mr Xenophon was born and raised in Adelaide, where he studied law and became principal of his own firm before turning to state politics.

In 1997, he became the first independent elected to the South Australian Legislative Council in 60 years on his No Pokies ticket - a policy he backed down on earlier this month.

He became a key player in state parliament and pushed for a ban on poker machines as well as reforms to consumer rights, tax, environmental policy and politicians' entitlements.

Mr Xenophon was re-elected in 2002, and by his 2006 campaign, he had tapped into the power of publicity that would become his hallmark.

He won a seat in the Senate in 2008, and modelled himself as a champion for the state, endearing him to South Australians the way Jacqui Lambie has in Tasmania and Pauline Hanson in Queensland.

So, his re-immersion into the sphere of state politics is logical - and timely.

As voters become more disillusioned with the major parties, the appeal of a character like Xenophon grows ever stronger: what you see is what you get.

And as South Australians notch their 16th consecutive year of Labor government, the Xenophon alternative will be an easy choice for many.

"Between Labor and the Liberals, the choice is between a government that deserves to lose, and an opposition that doesn't deserve to win," he said during a recent debate at the SA Press Club.

Yet, even riding the wave of populism, he'll have to do more than just show up.

The coming weeks will prove crucial for SA-BEST and its leader, who has come under fire for a lack of policies.

The 2018 election is an opportunity for Nick Xenophon to reboot politics in South Australia.

Or perhaps, such a lofty goal will prove too much for the former stunt master.United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit. DOMINGO ANTONIO ROSA PENA, Petitioner, v. JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS, III, ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. No. 17-1310 Decided: February 14, 2018

Before Howard, Chief Judge, Lynch and Thompson, Circuit Judges. Jeffrey B. Rubin and Rubin Pomerleau P.C. for petitioner. Margot L. Carter, Trial Attorney, Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice, with whom Chad A. Readler, Acting Assistant Attorney General, and Terri J. Scadron, Assistant Director, Office of Immigration Litigation, were on brief, for respondent.

This petition for review presents the question of whether the Board of Immigration Appeals' (BIA) decision is sustainable on the reasoning it used to conclude that a violation of Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 266,  2 (Massachusetts Arson) is categorically a crime involving moral turpitude (CIMT) under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), Pub. L. No. 82-414, 66 Stat. 163 (1952) (codified as amended in scattered sections of 8 U.S.C.). The consequence of this BIA ruling is that petitioner Domingo Antonio Rosa Pena (Rosa) is removable. We remand to the BIA due to its insufficient explanation of why the least culpable conduct prohibited under the statute is morally reprehensible, and why the statute's requirement of malice, as construed by the Massachusetts courts, qualifies the crime as a CIMT.

I.

Rosa, a native and citizen of the Dominican Republic, entered the United States in 1972 as a lawful permanent resident. His wife and four children, all U.S. citizens, reside in the United States. In 2001, Rosa was convicted of the crime of Massachusetts Arson for burning down his grocery store. When Rosa returned from a trip abroad in September 2013 and sought admission to the United States, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) detained him and initiated removal proceedings against him based on that conviction. DHS charged that Rosa was removable under 8 U.S.C.  1182(a)(2)(A)(i)(I) on the basis that his conviction for Massachusetts Arson qualified as a CIMT. In a motion to terminate the removal proceedings, Rosa denied his removability and, in the alternative, requested several forms of relief: cancellation of removal under 8 U.S.C.  1229b(a), adjustment of status with a waiver of inadmissibility under 8 U.S.C.  1182(h), or voluntary departure.

The Immigration Judge (IJ) denied Rosa's motion on November 7, 2013. The IJ found the Massachusetts Arson statute divisible, in that it punishes not only conduct that would fall within the generic definition of arson but also conduct that may not be deemed reprehensible  , such as an owner setting fire to some of the contents in his building. Applying a modified categorical approach, the IJ reviewed Rosa's record of conviction and concluded that his actual crime, willfully and maliciously setting fire to and burning a building, was categorically a CIMT. The IJ also found Rosa ineligible for relief from removal on the basis that he failed to prove that his conviction was not an aggravated felony.

The BIA dismissed Rosa's appeal in an opinion dated March 21, 2014, which replicated the IJ's reasoning. The BIA agreed with the IJ that the Massachusetts Arson statute was divisible in that it also includes conduct that may not be deemed morally reprehensible,  such as an owner setting fire to the contents in his buildings. The BIA also agreed that Rosa's actual crime qualified as a CIMT, rendering Rosa removable, and as an aggravated felony, rendering him ineligible for relief from removal.

Rosa petitioned this court for review; however, the respondent filed an unopposed motion to remand for the BIA to consider what effect (if any) its intervening decision in Matter of Chairez-Castrejon, 26 I. & N. Dec. 349 (B.I.A. 2014) had on its analysis of the Massachusetts Arson statute's divisibility. This court granted the motion. On remand, the BIA examined Rosa's conviction anew in light of its most recent case law, Matter of Chairez-Castrejon, 26 I. & N. Dec. 819 (B.I.A. 2016) and Matter of Silva-Trevino, 26 I. & N. Dec. 826 (B.I.A. 2016). That opinion, dated February 27, 2017, is the subject of this petition.

The BIA did not address the Massachusetts Arson statute's divisibility, but rather concluded, the conviction is categorically a crime involving moral turpitude. The BIA listed the statute's elements -- willfully and maliciously burning a building or structure or contents thereof -- and noted that under Massachusetts law, malice means willfully engag[ing] in an unlawful act, citing Commonwealth v. McLaughlin, 729 N.E.2d 252, 259 (Mass. 2000). It then found controlling its precedent in Matter of S, 3 I. & N. Dec. 617 (B.I.A. 1949), which held that a violation of a Canadian statute that prohibited willfully attempt[ing] to set fire to a building, structure, or certain other combustible materials was categorically a CIMT. Id. at 618. For further support, the BIA also referred to the Eleventh Circuit's non-binding but relevant holding in Vuksanovic v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 439 F.3d 1308 (11th Cir. 2006) that Florida second-degree arson is a CIMT because the willful destruction of a structure by fire or by explosion without a lawful, legitimate purpose  evinces a certain baseness in the private and social duties a man owes to society. Id. at 1311. Finally, the BIA reiterated that Rosa's conviction, in addition to being a CIMT, was an aggravated felony that rendered him ineligible for relief from removal. This petition for review followed. The parties agree here that the Massachusetts Arson statute is indivisible.

II.

The government first argues that we lack jurisdiction over this petition because Rosa is removable as a result of his commission of a CIMT. See 8 U.S.C.  1252(a)(2)(C) ([N]o court shall have jurisdiction to review any final order of removal against an alien who is removable by reason of having committed a criminal offense covered in section 1182(a)(2)). We reject this argument because Rosa's petition presents a legal issue: whether the BIA erred in concluding that Massachusetts Arson is categorically a CIMT. See 8 U.S.C.  1252(a)(2)(D).

Where, as here, 'the BIA has rendered a decision with its own analysis of the question at issue, our review focuses on the BIA's decision, not the IJ's.' Patel v. Holder, 707 F.3d 77, 79 (1st Cir. 2013) (quoting Vasquez v. Holder, 635 F.3d 563, 565 (1st Cir. 2011)). Two standards of review apply. We review the BIA's legal conclusions de novo, but we afford Chevron deference to the BIA's interpretation of the [INA], including its determination that a particular crime qualifies as one of moral turpitude, unless that interpretation is 'arbitrary, capricious, or clearly contrary to law.' Coelho v. Sessions, 864 F.3d 56, 60 (1st Cir. 2017) (quoting Da Silva Neto v. Holder, 680 F.3d 25, 28 (1st Cir. 2012)). In this case, we give deference to the BIA's construction of the term moral turpitude, but not to its reading of the underlying criminal statutes at issue, as to which it has no expertise. Id. at 61 (quoting Patel, 707 F.3d at 79). Generally, our review is limited to the reasoning articulated below. Patel, 707 F.3d at 80 n.1. Neither the government nor this court is at liberty to fill gaps and remedy material deficiencies in the BIA's analysis. See Mejia v. Holder, 756 F.3d 64, 69 (1st Cir. 2014).

The INA does not define moral turpitude. Absent guidance from Congress, we have adopted the BIA's definition:

conduct that shocks the public conscience as being inherently base, vile, or depraved, and contrary to the accepted rules of morality and the duties owed between persons or to society in general, or, in other words, an act which is per se morally reprehensible and intrinsically wrong and is accompanied by a vicious motive or a corrupt mind.

Da Silva Neto, 680 F.3d at 29 (quoting Maghsoudi v. INS, 181 F.3d 8, 14 (1st Cir. 1999)).

Importantly, to ascertain whether a crime categorically involves moral turpitude, the focus must be on the 'least of th[e] acts' criminalized under the statute. Coelho, 864 F.3d at 61 n.1 (quoting Moncrieffe v. Holder, 569 U.S. 184, 191 (2013)). '[T]he particular circumstances of [the petitioner's] acts and convictions' are off-limits. Da Silva Neto, 680 F.3d at 31 (quoting Maghsoudi, 181 F.3d at 14).

In its post-remand opinion, the BIA concluded, relying on Matter of S, that Massachusetts Arson is categorically a CIMT. The BIA's opinion must be remanded because it provides inadequate reasoning on two points. First, both the IJ and the BIA in its pre-remand decision opined that the Massachusetts Arson statute reaches conduct that may not be deemed morally reprehensible,  such as an owner setting fire to the contents in his building. The BIA has not addressed the moral reprehensibility of the least culpable conduct criminalized under the statute, an issue which it had recognized in its first opinion. It does not articulate what it is about the least culpable conduct covered by the statute that is per se morally reprehensible and intrinsically wrong, nor does it explicate why such behavior necessarily evinces a vicious motive or a corrupt mind, as required for a finding of moral turpitude. Da Silva Neto, 680 F.3d at 29.

Second, the BIA has not adequately discussed the specialized meaning of malice under the Massachusetts Arson statute, or why Matter of S is dispositive in light of that term's definition. Matter of S held that attempted arson under a Canadian statute is categorically a CIMT. 3 I. & N. Dec. at 618. The BIA asserts that that Canadian statute describes the same basic elements and the same level of intent as the Massachusetts Arson statute. But the two statutes' scienter requirements differ, as the government correctly conceded at oral argument. The Canadian statute requires acting willfully, defined as not merely  voluntarily but purposely with an evil intention, or, in other words,  deliberately, intentionally, and corruptly, and without any justifiable excuse. Id. at 618 (quoting R. v. Duggan, 4 W.L.R. 481, 490 (1906)). The Massachusetts Arson statute requires acting willfully and maliciously. For that statute's purposes, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has construed willful to mean intentional as opposed to accidental, without requiring evil intent, ill will, or malevolence, see Commonwealth v. Dung Van Tran, 972 N.E.2d 1, 15-16 (Mass. 2012), and it has construed malice to require no more than [t]he wilful doing of an unlawful act without excuse. Id. at 15 (quoting McLaughlin, 729 N.E.2d at 259 n.6); see also Commonwealth v. Lamothe, 179 N.E.2d 245, 246 (Mass. 1961) (The malice which is a necessary element in the crime of arson  need not take the form of malevolence or ill will, but it is sufficient if one deliberately and without justification or excuse sets out to burn the dwelling house of another.).

That the Massachusetts Arson statute requires neither evil intent nor a corrupt mindset may be significant for the CIMT determination. In Da Silva Neto, this court upheld the BIA's conclusion that Massachusetts malicious destruction of property is a CIMT, emphasizing that the statute required an act 'by design hostile to the owner  of the property,' meaning  motivated by 'cruelty, hostility, or revenge' toward an individual, not just an inanimate object. 680 F.3d at 32 (quoting Commonwealth v. Morris M., 876 N.E.2d 462, 466 (Mass. App. Ct. 2007)). Da Silva Neto acknowledged the Ninth Circuit's holding in Rodriguez-Herrera v. INS, 52 F.3d 238 (9th Cir. 1995) that Washington second-degree malicious mischief -- knowingly and maliciously  [c]aus[ing] physical damage to the property of another -- is not a CIMT. Id. at 239-40 (quoting Wash. Rev. Code Ann.  9A.48.080(1)(a)). But Da Silva Neto distinguished Rodriguez-Herrera on the basis that malice under the malicious mischief statute could  'be inferred if the act [was] merely wrongfully done without just cause or excuse,' whereas malice under the malicious destruction of property statute entailed, [i]n addition to the intent to inflict injury to property,  a state of mind infused with cruelty, hostility or revenge. Id. at 30 n.8 (quoting Commonwealth v. Redmond, 757 N.E.2d 249, 252 (Mass. App. Ct. 2001)). Da Silva Neto's reasoning suggests that, absent fraud or a risk of physical harm to another person, ill will is at least relevant, and may perhaps be critical, to a finding of moral turpitude. Id. at 32. For these reasons, we remand this case to the BIA.

III.

We grant the petition for review, vacate the BIA's February 27, 2017 opinion, and remand for further proceedings consistent with our opinion.

FOOTNOTES

. For ease of reference, we use the term Massachusetts Arson to refer specifically to Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 266,  2. There are other Massachusetts arson statutes. See, e.g., Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 266,  1, 5, 7-9. They are not at issue in this petition.

. It appears that Rosa was initially detained at that time and was released from detention after this court granted him a stay of removal when we allowed the government's motion to remand to the BIA, in December 2014.

. In his petition, Rosa does not challenge the BIA's finding that his crime qualifies as an aggravated felony. Nor has the government suggested in its responsive brief that the aggravated felony finding may render moot the CIMT determination. We do not address any such possible issues.

. The government argues in its brief that deliberately burning property unlawfully is intrinsically reprehensible conduct because of its inherent dangerousness and unpredictable consequences: fire can spread to non-targeted property, and, in cases where a burning building is occupied, there is a risk of deadly harm to occupants as well as to firefighters. This argument may be potent, but the BIA did not make it. The BIA's CIMT determination must be upheld, if at all, on the basis articulated in the decision itself. See Mejia, 756 F.3d at 69.

. The other case cited by the BIA, Vuksanovic, does not bind the BIA in this circuit. Moreover, we note that the Eleventh Circuit reached its conclusion -- that arson evinces a certain baseness, Vuksanovic, 439 F.3d at 1311 -- under Florida law, without engaging in the type of analysis that the Massachusetts statute at issue here requires.

. The Canadian arson statute also differs from its Massachusetts counterpart in that, rather than prohibit burning any property, it specifically targets setting fire to combustible substances that one would expect to cause widespread damage. Matter of S, 3 I. & N. Dec. at 617-18.

. The government conceded at oral argument that the Massachusetts Arson statute, unlike its counterpart in Matter of S, does not require the perpetrator to act with a corrupt mind.

LYNCH, Circuit Judge.KEY ISSUES AT THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ELECTION:

--

POWER

Since the statewide blackout in 2016, energy issues have dominated politics in SA. The state government has embraced an ambitious renewable energy plan but the state still suffers from some of the highest energy prices in the country.

--

JOBS

South Australia has been hit hard with business closures and job losses, culminating with the demise of car producer Holden last year. The Labor government says job creation is its top priority and it's managed to cut unemployment. But the Liberals say their strategy to encourage business investment is a better way and those struggling to find work may agree.

--

HEALTH

The opening of the $2.3 billion Royal Adelaide Hospital was significant in Labor's controversial transforming health plan. The government has drawn a line under the reforms and called them a success but Opposition Leader Steven Marshall has promised to reverse some of the measures.

--

USE-BY DATE

Labor is attempting to win a record fifth term in office to extend its hold on the government benches to 20 years. The party has only had two leaders in all that time, Mike Rann and Jay Weatherill. History would suggest many voters will simply be looking for a change on March 17.

--

GOVERNMENT SCANDALS

Premier Jay Weatherill's government has been forced to carefully navigate a number of scandals since the last election. The abuse of children in state care and the poor treatment of nursing home residents are the foremost among them. It remains to be seen if they will still be issues weighing on the minds of voters next month.

--

NICK XENOPHON

He's not just a candidate and leader of his own party, Nick Xenophon also looms over the election as an issue in his own right. How much of the vote will he and his candidates get? How will his presence shape the next government? And what will his performance mean for power-sharing heading into the future?South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill is bidding to do what no South Australian Labor leader has been able to achieve - win a fifth straight term for the ALP and extend the party's rule to 20 years.

It all sounds fairly simple.

But that would be to ignore the rocky road Mr Weatherill has been forced to navigate since he snatched the unwinnable election from Liberal leader Steven Marshall in 2014.

There's been the scandal over the abuse of children in state care, the shocking revelations of poor treatment of residents at the Oakden nursing home, the loss of car manufacturer Holden and the state's struggles to get its jobless rate under control.

Add to that the small matter of a statewide blackout in 2016, which reduced SA to a laughing stock in the eyes of some locals and many interstate, and it would seem almost impossible to fathom a win for Labor on March 17.

But that would be to underestimate both Labor's ability to campaign, almost without peer, and the premier's ability to find smooth footing when all around him are hitting potholes.

Since the infamous blackout, Mr Weatherill has, in fact, managed to turn what could have been his biggest political weakness into a position of strength.

Teaming with American tech billionaire Elon Musk, he has built the world's largest lithium-ion battery, putting the state on a bold push towards renewables.

He's brought in emergency generators and championed a range of other projects, from a solar thermal power plant to a virtual power station, using the rooftops of 50,000 homes.

It's all a long way from his early work life as a labour lawyer though Mr Weatherill was always destined for a leadership position, having joined former Premier Mike Rann's ministry from his first day in the parliament.

Since his election in 2002 Mr Weatherill has held a range of portfolios, from local government to education, and even made himself treasurer for a brief period after deposing Mr Rann in a relatively bloodless coup in 2011.

But it was a number of child abuse scandals across Mr Weatherill's time as families minister and premier that have been one of the biggest sources of pressure.

The opposition called for his resignation in 2016 after a royal commission revealed the mess the state's child protection system was in, forcing Mr Weatherill to personally apologise over the state's failure to protect children in its care.

Since then he's managed to put much of the scandal behind the government, focusing instead on energy and transitioning the South Australian economy from a reliance on traditional manufacturing to one that embraces advanced industries.

Nothing was more emblematic of that shift than the entry of Mr Musk into SA politics in 2017 to build the 100-megawatt Tesla battery.

But will the premier's work to ensure reliable electricity supplies and help put downward pressure on electricity prices be enough?

With a seat redistribution favouring the Liberals and with former senator Nick Xenophon running candidates in up to 30 seats, creating a genuine three-way contest, it's very hard to tell.THE SEATS TO WATCH IN THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ELECTION:

--

HARTLEY

In Adelaide's affluent eastern suburbs the seat is shaping as a genuine three-horse race, with former senator and SA-Best leader Nick Xenophon and former SA Labor minister Grace Portolesi challenging Liberal incumbent Vincent Tarzia. He nominally holds the seat by a 3.3 per cent margin after a recent redistribution.

--

FLOREY

Based in Adelaide's northeast, the seat is held by former Labor MP turned independent Frances Bedford. Labor will run their own candidate Rik Morris, a former government staffer. Ms Bedford's return could boost Labor's chances of retaining office with her support.

--

MORPHETT

The electorate includes the beachside suburbs of Glenelg and West Beach. It is currently held by former Liberal MP Duncan McFetridge, who resigned from the party after losing preselection endorsement for the 2018 election. If he's returned as an independent both Labor and the Liberals will be knocking on his door for support.

--

MAWSON

A redistribution has turned this Labor-held seat into a nominally Liberal one, with a 3.2 per cent margin. That spells trouble for Tourism Minister Leon Bignell but he's stared down defeat in the past.

--

LEE

Held by Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan with a two per cent margin, if this seat falls it will be a big blow to Labor and to his political career. He has been considered a potential future Labor leader.

--

BADCOE

A newly-created seat after boundary changes, it is nominally Labor with a 4.2 per cent margin. Former journalist Jayne Stinson is seeking to enter politics and win the seat for the government but it's one where Nick Xenophon's party is expected to poll strongly.

--

CROYDON

One of Labor's safest seats, but longtime MP, former minister and parliamentary Speaker Michael Atkinson is retiring. Former union boss and current Health Minister Peter Malinauskas is attempting to shift from the upper to the lower house and it should be a walk in the park for the man touted as the next Labor leader.

--

Source: Electoral Districts Boundaries Commission.Malcolm Turnbull has been throwing everything at South Australia in a bid to shore up federal seats and get rid of the 16-year-old Labor state government.

The federal government has sought to head off the political and economic damage from the demise of the car industry by spending billions of dollars on defence projects based in SA.

At the same time, the prime minister's been a harsh critic of the Weatherill government's failure to "keep the lights on" and used SA as the ultimate example of how Labor combines "ideology and idiocy" when it comes to climate and energy policy.

At the launch of the SA Liberals' campaign on February 4, Mr Turnbull sought to weave together his economic plan, including company tax cuts, and the energy issue.

"We want South Australian businesses to have the confidence to invest in this state, knowing that energy is affordable and reliable and the taxes they are paying make them competitive with businesses elsewhere in the nation and around the world."

Federal Labor has been campaigning on similar issues, but from a different angle.

Labor's Nick Champion, who hails from SA, says the shipbuilding workforce is "constantly under pressure" due to redundancies and needs a national authority to co-ordinate the sector's growth.

The closure of the car industry continues to resonate as a symbol of the failure of the coalition government to support manufacturing.

And federal cuts to school funding are finding listening ears in the electorate.

As well, the federal parties have been jousting over GST revenue, as Western Australia pushes the Turnbull government to change the formula for its distribution.

Labor has been bandying about a possible $600 million cut in revenue, while the prime minister insists he is waiting for an independent report later in year before making any decisions.

Both Labor and the Liberals fear the prospect of a hung parliament, which could make future negotiations with the SA government difficult and potentially expensive for the federal budget.

However, former senator and now SA-BEST leader Nick Xenophon's strong support in his home state makes this (or even an SA-BEST win) a likely prospect.

Mr Champion described the worst-case scenario as a "shattered, divided and useless Liberal Party losing so many seats to the Xenophon team that Mr Xenophon, a bit like the dog that chases the car and one day catches it, becomes premier of the state".Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his government remains "stable", on February 14, 2018. a day after police recommended his indictment for corruption, prompting calls for him to resign

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected calls to step down Wednesday after police recommended his indictment for corruption, the biggest challenge yet to the right-wing premier's long tenure in power.

Netanyahu again came out swinging on Wednesday, harshly criticising the police investigation while making clear he has no intention of resigning.

His governing coalition, seen as the most right-wing in Israeli history, appears firm for now, but reactions from key members in the coming days will be watched closely for signs of fissures.

"I can reassure you that the coalition is stable," Netanyahu said at an event in Tel Aviv.

"Neither me nor anyone else has plans for elections. We're going to continue to work together for the good of Israeli citizens until the end of the term" in 2019.

Netanyahu, prime minister for a total of nearly 12 years, also harshly denounced the police recommendations against him as "full of holes, like Swiss cheese".

He said the police report was "contrary to the truth and logic".

Police recommended Tuesday that he be indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of public trust.

The attorney general must now decide how to move forward, a process that could take months.

A prime minister facing such police recommendations or who has been formally charged is not obliged to resign.

As it became clear police were to issue the recommendations on Tuesday night, Netanyahu gave a televised address to the nation, proclaiming his innocence and criticising the police.

Ministers close to him also defended Netanyahu.

- 'Undermine the police' -

Avi Gabbay, leader of the opposition Labour party, said the "Netanyahu era is over" and called on him to step down.

Israelis take part in a demonstration titled the "March of Shame", as they protest against alleged corruption in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in Tel Aviv on December 23, 2017

"He is unworthy to continue to be prime minister of Israel. It's very simple," Gabbay said in a video interview with the Ynet news site.

Tzipi Livni, part of the main opposition Zionist Union alliance that also includes Labour, criticised what she called a campaign to undermine the police.

One of Netanyahu's main rivals also came under the spotlight when it emerged he had spoken to police about one of the allegations against the prime minister.

Yair Lapid, head of the centrist opposition party Yesh Atid, said "there is no choice but to tell the truth when the police ask for explanations in a serious corruption case."

Lapid, who also called on Netanyahu to step down, was finance minister at the time one of the allegations took place.

But at the same time, key coalition ministers signalled they would remain in the government, though at least one also criticised Netanyahu's behaviour.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett said "taking gifts" as Netanyahu is alleged to have done was not up to the "standard" of a prime minister.

But he stressed Netanyahu was innocent until proven guilty and that he would wait for the attorney general's decision.

Bennett, who has ambitions to be prime minister, heads the far-right party Jewish Home, which holds eight seats in parliament.

Netanyahu's coalition controls 66 out of 120 seats in total.

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, whose centre-right Kulanu party controls 10 seats, also signalled he would remain in the government as did Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu party holds five seats.

"Something very, very dramatic happened last night, a kind of earthquake, but as far as changes in the political arena, I don't see that yet," political scientist Abraham Diskin of Hebrew University said in an interview with The Israel Project NGO.

Police have been investigating Netanyahu over suspicions that he and his family received expensive gifts from Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer.

The gifts allegedly included pricey cigars, jewellery and champagne.

The total value of the gifts received between 2007 and 2016 is estimated at around one million shekels (229,000 euros, $283,000), according to police.

They have also been probing allegations Netanyahu sought a secret deal for favourable coverage with the publisher of top-selling newspaper Yediot Aharonot.

Police recommended indicting Milchan and the publisher, Arnon Moses, with bribery as well.

- Quid pro quo? -

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses members of his right-wing Likud party gathered at a mass rally in Tel Aviv on August 9, 2017 to support him against persistent corruption allegations

The 68-year-old premier has been questioned seven times by police and has called the investigation an attempt by political opponents to force him from office.

Police said Netanyahu had been suspected of trying to help Milchan receive tax benefits in Israel, of assisting him in receiving a visa in the United States and of promoting his business interests.

Milchan, who is Israeli, has produced many films, including the blockbuster "Pretty Woman".

While an indictment alone would not legally oblige Netanyahu to resign, he would likely face mounting pressure to do so. He would be legally forced to step down if convicted and all appeals exhausted.

He has already faced a series of large protests in Tel Aviv over the corruption cases.

Netanyahu's time as premier is fast approaching Israel's revered founding father David Ben-Gurion's 13 years. He first held the office from 1996-1999 before returning to power in 2009.A deadly accident involving the motorcade of DR Congo President Joseph Kabila took place 220 kilometres (110 miles) south of Kinshasa

Three soldiers and two civilians were killed and 11 other people injured in an accident involving DR Congo President Joseph Kabila's motorcade, his office said Wednesday.

The accident happened on a road in the southwest of the country, 220 kilometres (110 miles) south of Kinshasa, as Kabila was returning to the capital on Tuesday.

"Last night, a vehicle in the presidential motorcade was hit on the Matadi highway at Kimpese by a truck carrying cement," communications official Yvon Ramazani told AFP on Wednesday.

"Three soldiers in the Republican Guard were killed along with two civilians who were nearby," he said. Seven soldiers and four civilians were also injured, Ramazani said, adding that the accident had been caused by heavy rain.

Kabila "stayed on the site until the emergency services arrived, and personally supervised the ambulance evacuation of dead and injured," he said.

The Republic Guard is an elite force tasked with the protection of the president. Kabila was returning from a stay in the sea port of Matadi.

Roads in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a sprawling, poverty-stricken country, are notorious for accidents. Poor road surfaces, overladen vehicles and excessive speed are often the causes of mishaps.

Kabila on Wednesday was to meet in Kinshasa with the presidents of the neighbouring Republic of Congo and Angola, Denis Sassou Nguesso and Joao Lourenco, for a tripartite meeting.In his opening address as South Africa's new president, Cyril Ramaphosa vowed to fight corruption

Cyril Ramaphosa, a former anti-apartheid activist turned businessman, was named South Africa's president Thursday and immediately vowed to fight corruption in a direct reference to accusations levelled at his predecessor Jacob Zuma.

Tainted by scandal, Zuma resigned on Wednesday following intense pressure from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) that he had dominated for his nine years in power.

"Issues to do with corruption, issues of how we can straighten out our state-owned enterprises and how we deal with 'state capture' are issues that are on our radar," Ramaphosa told lawmakers in parliament.

"State capture" refers to the alleged corruption of government institutions and state-owned businesses by Zuma's associates.

"Tomorrow we will also have an opportunity to outline some of the steps we are going to be taking," he said.

Crowds sang and danced in celebration at the appointment of Cyril Ramaphosa as South Africa's new president

ANC lawmakers celebrated his appointment with songs, dancing and a standing ovation.

Ramaphosa, a hugely wealthy former entrepreneur, will deliver his first State of the Nation address to parliament in Cape Town on Friday evening.

After multiple corruption scandals, economic slowdown and falling popularity among voters, the ANC had threatened to oust Zuma via a no-confidence vote in parliament.

Hours before his resignation, Zuma said he had received "very unfair" treatment from the ANC, which he joined in 1959, spending decades in the party fighting white-minority rule.

He said he was angry over the way in which the decision had been carried out "as there is no evidence of if I have done anything wrong."

Zuma, 75, has been locked in a divisive power struggle with Ramaphosa, his deputy who won control of the ANC in December.

- Markets soar -

Profile of Cyril Ramaphosa

The political turnaround saw benchmark South African stocks scoring their biggest gains since June 2016 following news that the pro-business reformist would be taking the helm.

The FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index rose as much as 2.7 percent, while the rand, already the world's best-performing currency over the past three months, rose 0.4 percent to 11.6667 per dollar.

"Ramaphosa's arrival in the presidency will be met by a surge in investor and consumer confidence over the coming weeks in anticipation of his reform agenda," said the London-based Eurasia consultancy group.

During the apartheid era, Zuma, who had no formal education, spent 10 years in jail on Robben Island alongside Nelson Mandela before rising through the ANC ranks to take power in 2009.

Local media said he had been pushing for a resignation deal that would include his legal fees to fight a series of criminal charges -- but Zuma denied it in his speech.

One case against him relates to 783 payments he allegedly received linked to an arms deal before he came to power.

Other graft allegations have centred on the three Gupta brothers, who are accused of unfairly obtaining lucrative government contracts and even hand-picking Zuma's ministerial appointments.

Not happy: Jacob Zuma said he was angry over the way in which he had been ousted, saying there was "no evidence" he'd done anything wrong

Police on Thursday said an arrest warrant had been issued for one of the brothers, Ajay Gupta.

The political standoff had plunged South Africa -- the continent's most developed economy -- into confusion over who was actually running the country.

- Tricky election looms -

Zuma, a Zulu traditionalist with four wives and a proud singing voice, had been scheduled to stand down next year after serving the maximum of two terms.

In local polls in 2016, the ANC recorded its worst electoral result since coming to power in 1994 under Mandela as white-minority rule fell.

Ramaphosa, 65, must now work to revive the economy and crack down on what he has admitted is rampant government corruption if he is to repair the party's tarnished reputation before a tricky general election next year.

He is a former trade unionist and Mandela ally who led talks to end apartheid in the early 1990s and then became a multi-millionaire businessman before returning to politics.A florist prepares a Valentine's Day bouquet of flowers for a client at a flower shop in Riyadh, despite the stigma around the holiday in Saudi Arabia

A prominent Saudi cleric on Wednesday endorsed Valentine's Day, long forbidden in the ultra-conservative kingdom, calling it a "positive social event" that was not linked to religion.

The comment from Ahmed Qassim al-Ghamdi, former chief of the religious police in the holy city of Mecca, comes as 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pursues a far-reaching liberalisation drive that has upended years of conservative tradition.

"It is a positive social event and congratulating people for it is not against sharia (law)," Ghamdi told Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television.

"It is an act of kindness to share greetings on Western national and social holidays, including Valentine's Day, exchange red roses with others, as long as it is towards peaceful people who do not share animosity or are being at war with Muslims."

Such comments from the Saudi clerical establishment would be inconceivable around two years ago, when the religious police wielded unbridled powers and were notorious for enforcing sex segregation.

In recent years, Saudi Arabia launched a series of reforms, including gradually diminishing the their powers to arrest.

Prince Mohammed, who has vowed to return the country to "moderate Islam", has further cut back the political role of hardline clerics in a historic reordering of the Saudi state.

Florists openly sold red roses and Valentine's Day memorabilia in cities such as Jeddah on Wednesday without any trouble from the religious police, previously notorious for disrupting celebrations.

The declining presence of the religious police has been met with relief from many of the country's young, but it has also sparked concern over a possible backlash from arch-conservatives.

But opposition to the prince's reforms has been muted -- at least publicly -- after his crackdown on dissent, including arrests of prominent clerics with millions of followers on social media.Firearms are easy to come by in Florida, dubbed the "Gunshine State"

Dubbed the "Sunshine State" for its sun-soaked climate, Florida is also ironically branded the "Gunshine State," a place where firearms are easy to come by -- especially for perpetrators of violence.

The state, home to 21 million people, has handed out more gun permits than any other state -- around 1.9 million as of January, according to official statistics.

But this only makes up part of the total number of firearms, an unknown figure that cannot be estimated.

Comparing the number of firearm permits with the number of inhabitants puts Florida at mid-range for gun ownership -- trailing a number of mostly-white rural states.

But the peninsula, located in the southeast of the country, has been the setting of several particularly deadly shootings in recent years.

The worst remains an attack on an Orlando gay nightclub on June 12, 2016, which saw a heavily armed man -- who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group -- kill 49 people.

Six months later, a man opened fire at Fort Lauderdale International Airport, killing five people on January 6, 2017.

On Wednesday, a 19-year-old man expelled from a high school for disciplinary reasons returned to the building in Parkland, Florida and killed 17 people.

But despite the repeated tragedies, Floridians make no secret of their attachment to the right to bear arms.

Florida was the first US state to adopt controversial "Stand Your Ground" legislation in 2005, backed by the gun lobby.

The law allows a person to use lethal force if they believe they are in serious danger -- even if there is a possibility that they could escape or retreat from that threat.

As a result, the concept of self-defense is particularly prominent in Florida, as illustrated in February 2012 with the death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teenager killed by a neighborhood watchman.

The perpetrator, George Zimmerman, pleaded self-defense and was acquitted by a jury.Many people in Chad, where the average age is 18, have only lived under the rule of President Idriss Deby, in power for 27 years

"Fear rules over the city," said Mahamat, a resident of the Chadian capital N'Djamena for more than 40 years who did not dare to reveal his real name.

"Although people are frustrated, they don't want to be arrested, kidnapped or tortured."

In Chad, a large partly-desert nation straddling north and central Africa, taking discontent to the streets is a dangerous game under the stern rule of President Idriss Deby, in power for 27 years.

Early in January, a public sector strike over pay and conditions garnered some backing, but once trade unions, students and the political opposition urged people to demonstrate against "bad governance", security forces were deployed across the capital and few chose to protest.

The regime, which is fighting the violent jihadist group Boko Haram based in neighbouring Nigeria but active across several borders, argues that the risk of attack is too high to allow marches and public gatherings.

"Terrorists, thugs, could infiltrate the march," Security Minister Ahmat Bachir recently warned.

Among those who have risked public protest, several hundred people have been arrested since the end of January.

Most were released after spending several hours in custody, but police on Wednesday said 17 people were sentenced to four months in prison for "disturbing public order, destruction of property, holding an unauthorised gathering and injuring members of the police force".

The prosecutor of Chad, Mahamat Saleh, warned protesters: "There will be zero tolerance for troublemakers."

Last week, the authorities also handed down two month suspensions to ten opposition parties that called for a protest rally in N'Djamena on the grounds that they were "disturbing public order" and "inciting violence".

- 'Illegal' arrests -

In a report released last September, Amnesty international charged that since early 2016, the security forces have stepped up "efforts to repress human rights", with a key role for the feared national intelligence agency (ANS).

The report said the ANS's mandate was expanded in January 2017 "allowing its agents to target and arrest human rights defenders on the grounds of national security".

"The ANS had already been illegally arresting people and detaining them in unofficial detention facilities, without allowing access to families and lawyers," Amnesty reported.

Secret detention and arbitrary arrests marked a return to a dark past, said the human rights NGO, referring to the brutal methods of the infamous Directorate for Documentation and Security under former president Hissene Habre, who was ousted by Deby and sentenced by a special court in Dakar in 2016 to life in jail for crimes against humanity.

"For the past two weeks, we've seen what happened under Habre," including "arrests in bedrooms", Clement Abaifouta, chairman of an organisation representing Habre's many victims, told AFP.

The presence of security forces and suspected government "spies" around N'Djamena has helped fuel rumours that opposition groups are being infiltrated. "We are wary of each other," said a human rights activist who wished to remain anonymous.

Yet in spite of the oppressive climate, Chad has in the past three years witnessed "an increase in strength of social movements and popular protests that breaks with the political opposition and armed rebel groups," observes Chadian sociologist Appolinaire Rititingar.

- 'It's all going to blow' -

With a movement called "Lyina" ("That's Enough"), young Chadians have picked up the example of youths in Senegal and Burkina Faso and their "Fed Up" and "Citizens' Broom" campaigns.

These two movements played a decisive role in the politics of their respective countries to bring down the unpopular presidents Abdoulaye Wade and Blaise Compaore.

But in Chad, apart from repression, "we lack unity in our protests and in calls to demonstrate, for many of our leaders go solo," said a representative of civil society who asked not to be named.

Moreover, political scientist Evariste Ngarlem Tolde at the University of N'Djamena argues that "Chadian civil society has no social roots, since it has not worked on raising awareness as in other countries."

"People often don't even understand the why of what civil society does," Rititingar said, pointing out that almost half of Chad's population of some 13.6 million live beneath the poverty line and survive "hand to mouth".

"One day, it's all going to blow at once," said a city resident using the name Abakar, looking both fearful and joyous.

Chad introduced new austerity measures in January to meet the requirements of international donors in a bid to escape from a latent crisis that has undermined the economy for years.

General discontent with Deby's regime now crosses ethnic divides, according to Ngarlem Tolde, who notes that social movements in Chad tend to emerge spontaneously.

In February 2016, the revelation that a 17-year-old girl had been gang raped by youths close to the family of the head of state triggered widespread protests that lasted several months.United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, PlaintiffAppellee, v. Willie B. HAYNES, DefendantAppellant. No. 17-2044 Decided: February 14, 2018

Before Bauer, Kanne, and Barrett, Circuit Judges. Talia Bucci, Assistant U.S. Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Rockford, IL, for PlaintiffAppellee. Gregory N. Dutch, Attorney, LAW OFFICE OF GREGORY N. DUTCH, Madison, WI, for DefendantAppellant.

Willie Haynes was indicted after sheriff's deputies in Winnebago County executed a search warrant and found drugs and a loaded handgun in his house. Haynes pleaded guilty to possessing heroin and cocaine base with intent to distribute and to possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime; he was sentenced to 108 months' imprisonment. Haynes argues that the items found during the search should have been suppressed because, he says, the affidavit supporting the warrant did not establish probable cause. We affirm the judgment.

I. Background

A confidential informant (CI) contacted Deputy Fred Jones in early April 2015 and told him that he had recently purchased crack cocaine from a larger black male who was selling drugs from his house and that the CI had spoken with the suspect about purchasing more drugs in the future. The CI agreed to participate in a controlled buy. He advised Jones that the suspect would drive from his house and meet the CI in the car to make the sale.

In the days following the CI's tip, Jones periodically surveilled the house at the address the CI had reported. Several times he saw a man fitting the CI's description leave the house, get into a car, drive away, and meet with different individuals in the car for about four to ten minutes. Based on his training and 10 years' experience, Jones believed that these episodes were drug sales.

Members of the County Narcotics Team then set up a controlled purchase of crack cocaine from the suspect. The deputies positioned surveillance on the house and in the surrounding neighborhood. One of them searched the CI and found that he had neither drugs nor money on his person. Deputy Jones then gave the CI $60 for buy money. The CI called the suspect and arranged the purchase; Jones could hear both sides of the conversation. The suspect left the house, got into a car, drove approximately four blocks, and met the CI at an intersection. The CI entered the vehicle, sat in the passenger seat, and exited minutes later. The suspect drove back to the house and went inside. The deputies observed the suspect with an unobstructed view from the time he left the house to the time he reentered.

The CI returned and told Jones that he purchased crack cocaine from the man in the car. He then handed over a bag with 0.7 grams of a white, rocklike substance that later tested positive for cocaine. Police again searched the CI and found him free of cash and drugs.

Jones applied for a warrant to search the house and submitted an affidavit that recounted the facts as we have summarized them. In the affidavit Jones described the CI's participation but said almost nothing about the CI himself. The CI also did not appear before the circuit judge. Based on Jones's affidavit, the judge issued a warrant that gave the sheriff's deputies four days to search the house and seize drugs, drug paraphernalia, cash, and firearms, among other things.

The sheriff's deputies timely executed the warrant. They found approximately 16 grams of mixtures containing heroin; 8.4 grams of mixtures containing crack cocaine; 1.6 grams of marijuana; a loaded pistol; drug paraphernalia including digital scales, plastic baggies, Dormin (a sleep aid used to cut or dilute heroin), and fake soda cans used to conceal drugs; and $1,174 in cash. Haynes was arrested. At the sheriff's department, Haynes admitted that everything seized was his, that he intended to distribute the drugs, and that he kept the gun for protection.

As relevant here, Haynes was charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute heroin and cocaine base, 21 U.S.C.  841(a)(1), and one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, 18 U.S.C.  924(c)(1)(a). Haynes moved to suppress the evidence found during the search, arguing that the warrant was not based on probable cause. The district judge denied the motion. The judge reasoned that the CI's tip, corroborated by surveillance and the controlled buy, provided probable cause; alternatively, he determined that the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule applied.

Haynes pleaded guilty. As part of the plea agreement, Haynes reserved his right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress.

II. Analysis

On appeal Haynes argues that the search warrant was issued without probable cause because, he says, the supporting affidavit did not show that the CI was reliable. The government responds that the affidavit established probable cause even independent from the information proffered by the CI and that, in either case, the evidence should not be suppressed because the officers executed the warrant in good faith.

Probable cause exists when the supporting affidavit presents a total set of circumstances which create a fair probability that a search will uncover evidence of a crime. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238 (1983); United States v. Fifer, 863 F.3d 759, 764 (7th Cir. 2017). We assess whether the issuing judge had a substantial basis for concluding that there was probable cause. Gates, 462 U.S. at 238; United States v. Aljabari, 626 F.3d 940, 944 (7th Cir. 2010). We review a denial of a motion to suppress de novo, but give great deference to the issuing judge's finding of probable cause. Fifer, 863 F.3d at 764.

When the information used to support a finding of probable cause is derived from a CI's tip the legitimacy of a probable cause determination turns on that CI's reliability, veracity and basis of knowledge.  United States v. Olson, 408 F.3d 366, 370 (7th Cir. 2005) (quoting United States v. Johnson, 289 F.3d 1034, 1038 (7th Cir. 2002) ). When assessing an informant's credibility, an issuing judge must consider as a whole (1) the degree of police corroboration; (2) the informant's firsthand knowledge; (3) the detail provided; (4) the time between the reported events and the warrant application; and (5) whether the informant appeared before the judge. United States v. Johnson, 655 F.3d 594, 600 (7th Cir. 2011).

Haynes insists that these factors show that the CI was not reliable enough for his tip to create probable cause. For example, the CI did not name the suspect, describing him only as a larger black male. Indeed, in United States v. Peck, 317 F.3d 754, (7th Cir. 2003), we determined that an informant provided insufficient detail, and thus there was no probable cause, when the informant was able to describe the defendant only as a black male. Id. at 756. The CI in this case also did not appear before the judge. Finally, the CI's failure to say when he last bought drugs from the suspect, Haynes says, brings the recency of the information provided into question.

Although the factors go both ways, on balance they support the CI's reliability. Most significantly, the deputies corroborated the CI's story with their own investigation by conducting surveillance and executing a controlled buy. See Johnson, 655 F.3d at 601 (stating that a controlled buy was the strongest bit of evidence supporting the warrant). And the CI had personal knowledge because he had previously purchased drugs from the suspect and they had discussed future sales (something not in his interest to report). See United States v. Hansmeier, 867 F.3d 807, 812 (7th Cir. 2017). The circumstances thus differ from those in Peck where there was no independent corroboration and the affidavit did not say how the informant had personal knowledge that drugs were present. 317 F.3d at 75657. Taken together, the factors, particularly corroboration, support the CI's reliability and thus the conclusion that there was probable cause.

Even excluding the CI's tip, however, the totality of the circumstances described in the warrant support a finding of probable cause. A properly executed controlled buy can establish probable cause, even when the tip that prompted it might not have been reliable. See United States v. Singleton, 125 F.3d 1097, 1103 (7th Cir. 1997); see also United States v. Sidwell, 440 F.3d 865, 869 (7th Cir. 2006) (Generally, a controlled buy, when executed properly, is a reliable indicator as to the presence of illegal drug activity.). In Fifer, the affidavit at issue described two controlled buys. A confidential informant arranged a drug purchase over the phone while in the presence of police. The officers searched the informant for drugs and money, and finding neither, they gave the informant buy money. The informant met the suspect, returned to the officer minutes later with a substance that tested positive for heroin, and reported that the defendant sold the substance to him. 863 F.3d at 764. We concluded that faced with these facts, a reasonably prudent person could easily conclude that a search of [the defendant's] apartment would reveal contra-band or evidence of a crime. Fifer, 863 F.3d at 764. In this case Jones used the same procedure in conducting a controlled buy that we found reliable in Fifer. The surveillance and the controlled buy thus established a fair probability that the house contained evidence of illegal activity. United States v. Kelly, 772 F.3d 1072, 1080 (7th Cir. 2014).

Because we conclude that there was probable cause, we need not assess whether the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule would apply.

Haynes makes a few additional arguments, but none is availing. First he argues that the affidavit does not explain why drugs would be at the house and not, for example, in the car where the sale took place. But judges may permissibly infer that evidence of drug dealing is likely to be found where the dealer [ ] live[s]. See Kelly, 772 F.3d at 1080 (concluding there was probable cause to search residence where controlled buy took place in the neighborhood); Singleton, 125 F.3d at 110203 (same where controlled buy took place in the vicinity of the residence). Haynes next protests that the affidavit cannot establish probable cause because it does not specifically identify the defendant. But this was a search warrant, not an arrest warrant; the subject is a location, not a person. The affidavit creates a fair probability that a drug dealer lived at the house, and thus that the house contained evidence of crime. See Kelly, 772 F.3d at 1080. Finally Haynes suggests there should have been a hearing to determine if there was probable cause. Because Haynes did not raise a material factual dispute (or any factual dispute for that matter), no hearing was necessary. See United States v. McGaughy, 485 F.3d 965, 969 (7th Cir. 2007).

III. Conclusion

For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.

Per Curiam.An F-18 Hornet fighter jet lands on the deck of the USS Carl Vinson in the South China Sea

With a deafening roar the fighter jets catapulted off the US aircraft carrier and soared above the disputed South China Sea, as its admiral vowed that the mighty ship's presence was proof America still had regional clout.

"US presence matters," Rear Admiral John Fuller told reporters on board the USS Carl Vinson. "I think it's very clear that we are in the South China Sea. We are operating."

The Carl Vinson, one of the US Navy's longest-serving active carriers, is currently conducting what officials say is a routine mission through the hotly contested waters where years of island reclamation and military construction by Beijing has rattled regional nerves.

Following criticism that the Trump administration's commitment to the Asian region has been distracted by North Korea, reporters were flown onto the ship Wednesday as it sailed through the sea.

In a rapid series of take-offs and landings, F18 fighter jets roared off the deck, travelling from zero to 290 kilometres (180 miles) per hour in a dizzying two seconds.

Sailors work next to F-18 Hornet fighter jets on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson

Fuller, commander of the Carl Vinson Strike Group, said the 333-metre- (thousand-foot-) long ship's presence was a way to reassure allies.

"The nations in the Pacific are maritime nations," he said. "They value stability ... That's exactly what we are here for. This is a very visible and tangible presence. The United States is here again."

- China challenged -

But the location of the strike group -- which includes a carrier air wing and a guided-missile cruiser -- is also a very direct message to China, whether US officials admit it or not.

Its voyage comes just a month after the Pentagon's national defence strategy labelled China a "strategic competitor" that bullies its neighbours while militarising features in the South China Sea.

Beijing claims most of the South China Sea -- believed to hold vast oil and gas deposits and through which $5 trillion in trade passes annually -- and has rapidly built reefs into artificial islands capable of hosting military planes.

The Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei also have claims in the sea.

Rear Admiral John Fuller, commander of the USS Carl Vinson strike group, says its presence in the South China Sea sends a clear signal on US regional clout

Compared to the 11 active aircraft carriers in the US Navy, China currently boasts just one carrier.

But the rising Asian superpower has made no secret of its desire to build up its naval forces and become much more regionally assertive.

Last month Beijing said it had dispatched a warship to drive away a US missile destroyer which had "violated" its sovereignty by sailing close to a shoal in the South China Sea.

Major naval nations like the US, Britain and Australia are determined not to let China dictate who can enter the strategic waters.

They have pushed "freedom of navigation" operations in which naval vessels sail close to Chinese-claimed militarised islets in the South China Sea.

"We will follow what international rule says and we will respect (it), even if there are disputes there," Fuller said.

- Alliances shifting -

The nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson -- the ship that took Osama Bin Laden's body for burial at sea -- began a regular deployment in the Western Pacific last month.

The carrier is home to 5,300 sailors, pilots, and other crew members as well as 72 aircraft.

Washington has announced plans for it to dock in Vietnam -- a first for the communist nation which is rattled by China's expansionism in the sea and has forged a growing alliance with its former foe the US.

An F-18 Hornet fighter jet prepares to take off from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson

Britain said on Tuesday it will sail its own warship from Australia through the South China Sea next month to assert freedom of navigation rights in support of the US approach.

But alliances are shifting.

The Philippines, a US treaty ally, was once the strongest critic of Beijing's expansionism in the South China Sea, successfully winning a tribunal case in The Hague over their claims.

But it has changed course under President Rodrigo Duterte in a bid for billions of dollars worth of Chinese investment.

Duterte last week said it was not time to fight China over the row, adding the Philippines should "not meddle" with Washington and Beijing's competition for superpower status.

In Wednesday's trip, the USS Carl Vinson hosted top Duterte aides and key Philippine military officers.

Duterte's communications secretary Martin Andanar described the carrier as "very impressive" and its equipment "massive".

Asked if Manila welcomed US patrols in the disputed area, Andanar told reporters: "The United States has been a big brother of the Philippines, a military ally."Actresses (L to R) Tuva Novotny, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Natalie Portman arrive for the premiere of "Annihilation" in Los Angeles on February 13, 2018

Sci-fi blockbuster "Annihilation" has been praised for its stunning, ethereal look but it is a relatively banal image that marks it out as unusual: its all-female cast, marching into danger together.

While female-led comedies like "Mean Girls," "Bridesmaids" and "Pitch Perfect" are 10 a penny, an ensemble made entirely of capable, brave and smart women in an action movie is pretty much unprecedented.

In "Annihilation," men need not apply as a group of female scientists is recruited for a mission into "Area X," a sinister and mysterious portion of the US coastline surrounding a top-secret alien crash site.

Natalie Portman plays a biologist and former soldier who joins the expedition to find out what happened to her husband, a special forces operative mortally wounded while investigating the phenomenon.

"It's just unheard of -- you never get the opportunity to work with incredible roles for five women," Oscar-winner Portman told reporters on the red carpet at the world premiere in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

"I mean it's rare to find one, and to find five together and to get the opportunity to work alongside my sisters and spend that time together, and watch each other and learn from each other... is just remarkable."

From British writer and director Alex Garland ("Ex Machina," "28 Days Later"), "Annihilation" is based on the acclaimed Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer.

Garland's camera follows the women as they discover a beautiful but deadly world of mutated landscapes and creatures -- dubbed "The Shimmer" -- that threatens their sanity.

- Damsel in distress -

Portman plays a biologist and former soldier who joins the expedition to find out what happened to her husband, a special forces operative mortally wounded

Set in lush, Florida marshland, the production recreated the subtropical environment in Britain with Windsor Great Park, once a private hunting ground for the royal family, as the swampy backdrop.

Joining Portman are Jennifer Jason Leigh ("Single White Female," "The Hateful Eight"), Gina Rodriguez ("Jane the Virgin," "Ferdinand"), Tessa Thompson ("Creed," "Thor: Ragnarok") and Tuva Novotny ("Eat Pray Love").

The 36-year-old Portman ("Black Swan," "Jackie") said one of the aspects of filming she most valued was downtime spent with her co-stars.

"Between takes, we would all sit in the tent together and have fun just talking and telling funny stories. That, to me, will always be the movie -- the five of us in a tent together, just messing around," she said.

Portman's husband is played by Oscar Isaac, 38, who worked with Garland on the acclaimed 2015 sci-fi thriller "Ex Machina."

The actor has seen his stock rise sharply through his starring role in the new "Star Wars" trilogy, but finds himself taking a back seat here, lying unconscious in a hospital bed for much of the movie.

"Usually, you see a group of guys going in somewhere and have one female character, and this time the roles were reversed and I got to be the damsel in distress, and that was fun," he laughed.

Thompson, 34, pointed out that the three top-grossing films in North America last year -- "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," "Beauty and the Beast" and "Wonder Woman" -- were all anchored by female protagonists.

Leaving aside two "Star Wars" movies -- "The Force Awakens" and "Rogue One" -- such movies were few and far between in the preceding years and Thompson welcomed the apparent sign of progress.

- 'New sci-fi classic' -

Rodriguez signs autographs for the "Annihilation" premiere

"I feel tremendously proud, and in the course of it I've gotten to know these four incredible actors who happen to be women, artists, mothers, directors," she said.

"They are just phenomenal people so I'm so proud to get to call them friends now."

In the febrile atmosphere following Hollywood's sexual harassment and gender pay gap scandals, even a movie with an all-female lead cast including an African American and a Latina is not above censure.

Accordingly, "Annihilation" has come under fire for "whitewashing" after it emerged that the roles played by Portman and Leigh were written for women of Asian and Native American heritage in the original books.

The criticism comes despite a support cast that includes Japanese-born British actress Sonoya Mizuno and Britain's Benedict Wong, whose parents are from Hong Kong.

The movie hits US theaters on February 23 but, unusually, Paramount sold the international distribution rights -- save for China and Canada -- to Netflix, a move seen as an admission that the studio doesn't think it will sell overseas.

The decision came after poor test-screening results last summer that indicated the film might be "too intellectual" for the public at large, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Early reactions to the movie fly in the face of this assessment, with critics describing it as "transfixing," "beautiful" and a "new sci-fi classic."

"This is the type of sci-fi we always say we want to see," tweeted Ben Pearson, a senior writer at the Slash Film website.

"Bold, challenging, singular, visually dazzling. Would not be the least bit surprised to see it hailed as a masterpiece (and it might actually be one)."Washington has said Turkey's operation against the YPG militia in Syria risks diverting energy from the fight against IS jihadists

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrives in Turkey on Thursday seeking to ease tensions with its NATO ally that have reached fresh heights over Ankara's ongoing operation inside Syria.

During his two-day trip to the Turkish capital, Tillerson -- who last visited in July 2017 -- will hold talks with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey's operation against a Kurdish militia in Syria has added a potentially insurmountable new problem to the litany of issues clouding the relationship between Washington and Ankara.

Analysts said the level of tension was similar to 2003 when Turkey refused to let US troops operate from its territory for the Iraq war, or even the aftermath of Ankara's invasion of Cyprus in 1974.

Turkey's operation against the People's Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara blacklists as a terror group, has seen troops fighting a militia which is closely allied with the US in the battle against jihadists.

And Erdogan has further upped the ante by warning US troops to steer clear of Manbij, a YPG-held town east of Afrin where the main operation is happening, raising fears of a clash.

"We are going to go to Manbij and if they are there, it's too bad for them," a senior Turkish official told AFP.

When a US commander told the New York Times it would respond "aggressively" to any attack by Turkey, Erdogan didn't mince his words.

"It's very clear that those who make such remarks have never experienced an Ottoman slap," he said, using the term for a backhander which, according to legend, could kill an opponent in one stroke.

- Weakening anti-IS efforts -

For Ankara, the YPG is linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, which is blacklisted as a terror outfit by the US and the EU.

But for Washington, the YPG is an ally.

On Tuesday, Tillerson said Turkey's operation "detracted" from the fight against Islamic State jihadists, saying Kurdish fighters had been "diverted" from where they were really needed in order to fight in Afrin.

A calming influence? US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will seek to ease tensions on his two-day visit to Turkey

Former State Department official Amanda Sloat told AFP Washington did not appear to have "developed a clear way forward on Syria nor determined how its plans address Turkish security concerns".

And if Ankara expected any clarity from US officials on the way forward in Syria, it would be "disappointed", said Sloat, now a senior fellow at the US-based Brookings Institution.

Speaking ahead of the visit, a senior State Department official said "eyes had to be on" the defeat of IS.

"It's complicated enough. Let's not make it more so."

But Cavusoglu warned Washington that ties were at a "critical point" where relations would "be fixed or... completely damaged."

Ties were damaged after the failed coup of 2016 with Turkey stung by a perceived lack of US solidarity and angered by its intransigence over the extradition of Fethullah Gulen, a Pennsylvania-based cleric blamed for ordering the putsch.

There is still no US ambassador to Turkey after the departure of John Bass last year, and it was only in December that the two sides ended a row following tit-for-tat suspensions of visa services.

- 'Inflaming public anger' -

Last month, Ankara reacted furiously to the conviction in New York of Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla on charges of violating sanctions against Iran.

And Washington has expressed concern that several of its citizens, as well as Turkish employees of US missions, have been caught up in the post-coup crackdown.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip has warned Washington it risks getting an "Ottoman slap" if it interferes with its Syrian operation

Last week, NASA scientist Serkan Golge, a dual national, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years for being a member of Gulen's movement, with the State Department saying he had been convicted "without credible evidence".

Another case is that of US pastor Andrew Brunson, who ran a church in Izmir, who has been held on similar charges since October 2016.

Such tensions have affected the Turkish public with 83 percent holding unfavourable views of the US, a Center for American Progress (CAP) poll showed this week.

"The Turkish public has long been sceptical of the US, but Erdogan and the (ruling party) have chosen to inflame the public's anger to score political points," said CAP's associate director Max Hoffman.Nearly 2,300 civilians were killed or wounded in suicide bombings and attacks in Afghanistan in 2017, more than any previous year of the conflict on record, the UN says

More and more Afghan civilians are being deliberately targeted by militant attacks and suicide blasts, new UN figures published Thursday show, as the Taliban and the Islamic State group ramp up their assaults on urban areas.

The number of civilians killed or wounded across the country dipped by a welcome nine percent overall in 2017, the report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) showed, with 10,453 total civilian casualties including 3,438 deaths and 7,015 wounded.

But as the Taliban and the Islamic State group have come under more pressure they have increasingly carried out indiscriminate assaults in cities, with casualties from suicide bombings and attacks jumping by 17 percent.

Nearly 2,300 civilians were killed or wounded in suicide bombings and attacks in Afghanistan last year, more than any previous year of the conflict on record, the report said.

The figures come after US President Donald Trump said last August the American presence in Afghanistan would remain open-ended and Washington stepped up air strikes on rural militant strongholds.

"2017 recorded the highest number of civilian casualties from suicide and complex attacks in a single year in Afghanistan," the report said, with 605 killed and 1,690 wounded from such incidents.

"Afghan civilians have been killed going about their daily lives -- travelling on a bus, praying in a mosque, simply walking past a building that was targeted," Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, UN high commissioner for human rights, was quoted as saying in the report.

"When we see civilians being deliberately targeted, you wonder how long that this (has) to go on," Tadamichi Yamamoto, the UN's special representative in Afghanistan, told a press conference in Kabul Thursday.

Militants claim to represent Afghan interests but are "killing people in the most appalling manner, creating terror and suffering", he said.

The capital remained a top target, with 16 percent of all casualties during the year -- a total of 1,831 people killed and wounded -- occurring in Kabul alone.

Things have not improved so far in 2018, and Yamamoto warned the UN is concerned it will see "greater harm this year".

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 majority of the victims in 2017 were killed or wounded by anti-government insurgents, according to the report.

However pro-government forces, including international troops, were responsible for 20 percent of the civilian casualties -- a seven percent increase from 2016.

The casualties by pro-government forces were partly caused by the increase in aerial bombings by Afghan and foreign forces, the UNAMA said. The US is the only international force known to be carrying out air strikes in Afghanistan.

More than 28,000 civilians have been killed and over 52,000 wounded in Afghanistan since 2009 when officials started documenting the casualties, according to the UN.Aman Abdurrahman is accused of masterminding a deadly 2016 attack in downtown Jakarta

A jailed Indonesian cleric accused of being the mastermind of a deadly 2016 terror attack in Jakarta went on trial Thursday and faces a possible death sentence if convicted.

Aman Abdurrahman is charged with terrorism-related offences over the attack, claimed by the Islamic State group, that killed four bystanders in a busy downtown neighbourhood. Four militants died after they were shot or blew themselves up.

The handcuffed cleric arrived at a Jakarta court in an orange vest worn by criminal suspects, escorted by armed guards.

Prosecutors read out the indictment against Abdurrahman on charges that he "deliberately used violence or threats to create terror among the general public and caused mass casualties... or caused damage" to property, which can carry a penalty ranging from four years in prison to a life sentence or the death penalty.

Abdurrahman showed little emotion, saying he did not recognise the court and would not read the charges against him or hire a lawyer. The court appointed a lawyer to represent the cleric.

The attack -- the first claimed by IS in Southeast Asia -- saw dramatic scenes as a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Starbucks and security forces battled gun-toting militants.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, has long struggled with Islamist militancy and has been hit by a series of attacks in the past 15 years, including the 2002 Bali bombings that left 202 people dead.

A crackdown is believed to have weakened the most dangerous networks, but fears have grown of a resurgence in militancy after hundreds of Indonesians flocked to the Middle East in recent years to join IS.

The country has seen a surge in plots and attacks linked to the jihadists, including an attack last year in which suicide bombers killed three police officers at a bus station in Indonesia's sprawling capital.

Despite being in prison since 2010, Abdurrahman has actively recruited militants to join IS, according to the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis and Conflict.

He is thought to have been in communication with leaders of the jihadist group and is the main translator for IS propaganda in Indonesia, it has said.

The cleric was detained by counter-terrorism police on August 12, five days before he was due for release from the Nusakambangan maximum-security prison where he was serving a sentence for raising funds for a militant training camp in conservative Aceh province.The islands are already semi-autonomous, with their own elected parliament and president.

Separatist campaigners on the East African island of Zanzibar have appealed to a regional court to challenge the legality of its union with mainland Tanzania, they said Thursday.

Rashid Salum Adiy, head of the Zanzibar Rights of Freedom and Autonomy (Zarfa) organisation, a group not recognised by the Tanzanian authorities, claims to have the backing of 40,000 supporters for his appeal.

Adiy, who has organised protests in the past denouncing the union between Zanzibar and Tanzania, argues the independence-era union agreement favours the mainland at the expense of the Indian Ocean archipelago.

He has filed an appeal to the East African Court of Justice to challenge the legality of agreement.

"Based on the evidence we have, we argue that this union has no legal basis," Adiy told AFP. "It is purely political, for it does not take into account the interests of citizens."

The court, in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, will hear the case on March 8.

The court was set up to rule on matters of the East African Community (EAC), the six-member bloc including Tanzania, as well as Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda.

Some Zanzibari opposition parties have long wanted to break ties and return to the independence it briefly enjoyed in early 1964 before merging with Tanganyika.

The islands are already semi-autonomous, with their own elected parliament and president.

Elections in 2015 were repeated the following year after alleged irregularities. The opposition Civic United Front (CUF), which had promised to campaign for full autonomy of the islands, declared themselves the winners of the first poll, which was then annulled.

The long-ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) retained power in Zanzibar, the party of Tanzanian President John Magufuli.The high-end Nirav Modi brand has stores in several of the world's major cities

Indian investigators on Thursday raided the premises of a billionaire jeweller accused of defrauding one of the country's biggest banks amid reports he and his family have left the country.

Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers searched the Mumbai offices of Nirav Modi after he was accused of cheating state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) of 2.8 billion rupees ($43.8 million).

Footage broadcast on Indian television news channels showed officers entering one of Modi's jewellery showrooms in India's financial capital.

Investigators searched four locations in Mumbai, including Modi's home, as well as stores in New Delhi and Surat, India's diamond trading hub, according to an ED directive being shared by journalists on WhatsApp.

A spokesman for the ED refused to comment when contacted by AFP.

Modi is one of India's richest men. He is worth $1.73 billion according to Forbes, placing him 85th on India's rich list.

The 47-year-old is the founder of jewellery giant Firestar Diamond. His high-end Nirav Modi brand has stores in several of the world's major cities.

Thursday's raids came a day after the ED registered a money laundering case against Modi and a few others, including members of his family, a business associate and two employees of PNB.

It followed PNB's complaint last month to India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that it had been defrauded of 2.8 billion rupees.

The bank, India's second-largest state-owned lender, announced on Wednesday that it had also detected fraud of almost $1.8 billion at a single branch in Mumbai, sending its shares plummeting.

It made fresh allegations against Modi to the CBI, according to PTI.

The news agency, citing officials, reported on Thursday that Modi and his family had left India in early January, before the bank detected either of the two fraud cases.

It reported that Modi and his brother left on January 1. The officials added that Modi's wife and Mehul Choksi, his uncle and business partner, left on January 6. All are being investigated by the CBI.

In late January, shortly before the fraud allegations were made, Modi was photographed alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The two are not related.

Cabinet minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said Nirav Modi was not part of the prime minister's delegation at the global gathering in Switzerland.

"He went to Davos on his own. He joined a photograph of Indian businessmen. In no way does it show any connection," Prasad told reporters.

Modi, the third generation of his family to go into the diamond trade, has not commented on the allegations. Firestar Diamond has previously said the earlier case was not connected to the company.

The trouble comes as India's government is trying to reduce the crippling debts of the country's embattled lenders, including PNB.

It recently announced a $32-billion recapitalisation plan for state-owned banks to help them clean up their books.

PNB shares closed down almost 12 percent Thursday.South Africa's parliament will elect Cyril Ramaphosa, seen here on February 11, 2018 in Cape Town, as the country's new president, the ruling ANC party said, after Jacob Zuma resigned in a late-night television address

South African lawmakers on Thursday selected Cyril Ramaphosa as the country's new president after scandal-tainted Jacob Zuma resigned under pressure from his own ANC ruling party.

Ramaphosa was chosen without a vote after being the only candidate nominated, chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng told assembled lawmakers at a special sitting of the parliament in Cape Town.

The announcement brought loud cheers from ANC lawmakers, with Ramaphosa due to address the parliament later during proceedings.

Zuma resigned on Wednesday as the ANC finally turned against him after a nine-year reign dominated by corruption scandals, economic slowdown and plummeting electoral popularity.

Zuma railed against the ANC for "recalling" him from office and -- when he at first refused to resign -- then threatening to oust him via a parliament no-confidence vote.

In an earlier TV interview on Wednesday, Zuma said he had received "very unfair" treatment from the party that he joined in 1959 and in which he had fought for decades against apartheid white-minority rule.

Zuma had been in a power struggle with Ramaphosa, his deputy president.

Zuma's hold over the ANC was broken in December when his chosen successor -- his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma -- narrowly lost to Ramaphosa in a vote to become the new party leader.The Red Cross's Ali Abad orthopedic centre in Kabul receives about 1,500 war-wounded a year -- 80 percent of whom have suffered amputations

"If committing suicide was not a sin I would have already killed myself," says Mohammad Alem. For 20 months, the Afghan father has been largely bedridden, paralysed in a suicide attack in Kabul.

Alem, a Supreme Court employee, was travelling with colleagues in a minibus to neighbouring Wardak province when the bomber appeared. "Among 16 colleagues, two of us were left alive, all the others have been killed," he tells AFP.

"I am not happy to be alive at all, but I bear all this just for my four kids," he adds, pointing to the slender white stockings that grip his skinny, inert calves.

For the fourth consecutive year, more than 10,000 civilians were killed or wounded in 2017 in Afghanistan, a UN report said Thursday, victims of conflicts that have now been dragging on for almost 40 years.

It is no longer the fighting but attacks and bombings, often in crowded urban centres, that kill and maim the most often, with nearly 2,300 casualties -- 22 percent of the total in 2017 -- coming from such assaults.

More than 7,000 civilians were wounded in 2017 in Afghanistan, victims of conflicts that have now been dragging on for almost 40 years

Things have not improved so far in 2018, and UN officials fear Afghanistan will see "greater harm this year".

At Alem's one-room house in the west of Kabul, his four children sit on the red carpet and listen in silence, the youngest climbing on his walker to get closer.

Since his return home, the International Red Cross has ensured Alem has medical equipment and that his family has staple foods.

But last year, the promise of a miracle cure led him to India, where a doctor took $10,000 for an injection that did no good.

- Disability and debts -

Mohammad Alem was paralysed in a suicide attack in Kabul which killed 14 of his colleagues

The result is that he is also in debt, owing $16,000 to his family.

The government paid him $800 after the bombing and continues to pay his monthly salary of $120.

"His wife wanted to sell the house and go back to India for more care, but I told her it was useless. 'You will lose your house and your money, think of your children'," says Mohammad Raz, a Red Cross worker who visits the most affected patients.

He himself lost his right arm in a rocket attack when he was 18, during the civil war in Kabul. "More than 20 years later I still dream of me playing football with my two arms, I struggle to accept my disability," he says, sympathising with Alem.

With unemployment already high, economic difficulties are a huge challenge for the disabled

"I can't act as a father," Alem cries. His wife Nadera admits she often cannot sleep for worrying about their children, all under the age of 12.

Economic difficulties are the biggest challenge for the disabled, says Najumudin Helal, director of the Red Cross's Ali Abad orthopaedic centre in Kabul, which receives about 1,500 war-wounded per year -- 80 percent of whom have suffered amputations.

Unemployment is already so high, he says, and the disabled have to accept not only the loss of a limb but also of ways to support their families.

At the centre, several young men stomp their prostheses on the floor. Wearing a black velvet cap, Hamid, 17, says he lost his right leg -- amputated to the groin -- when he stepped on a roadside mine in Wardak.

With it, he says, went all hope of marrying and being able to support a wife and children.

But the centre itself at least indulges in positive discrimination: some 80 percent of its employees, from reception to the manufacturing of prosthetics, are disabled.United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Steven ZINNEL, Defendant-Appellant. United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Derian Eidson, Defendant-Appellant. No. 14-10141, No. 14-10106 Decided: February 09, 2018

Before: W. FLETCHER and PAEZ, Circuit Judges, and WILKEN, District Judge.* Matthew D. Segal, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Audrey Benison Hemesath, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Kevin Christopher Khasigian, Assistant U.S. Attorney, USSACOffice of the US Attorney, Sacramento, CA, for Plaintiff-Appellee Suzanne Adele Luban, Attorney, Law Offices of Suzanne A. Luban, Oakland, CA, for Defendant-Appellant

MEMORANDUM **

Steven Zinnel appeals his conviction of concealment or transfer of property in anticipation of bankruptcy, 18 U.S.C.  152(7); concealment of property in bankruptcy proceedings, 18 U.S.C.  152(1); money laundering, 18 U.S.C.  1956(a)(1)(B)(i); monetary transactions in criminally-derived property, 18 U.S.C.  1957; and money laundering conspiracy, 18 U.S.C.  1956(h). Derian Eidson appeals her conviction of money laundering conspiracy, 18 U.S.C.  1956(h); and attempted money laundering, 18 U.S.C.  1956(a)(1)(B)(i). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.  1291 and 18 U.S.C.  3742(a). We affirm the convictions and reverse and remand the sentences for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

1. Constructive amendment or prejudicial variance

Constructive amendment occurs when the charging terms of the indictment are altered, either literally or in effect. United States v. Von Stoll, 726 F.2d 584, 586 (9th Cir. 1984) (quoting United States v. Cusmano, 659 F.2d 714, 718 (6th Cir. 1981) ). Variance occurs when the charging terms of the indictment are left unaltered, but the evidence offered at trial proves facts materially different from those alleged in the indictment. Id. (same). Variance requires reversal only if it affects the substantial rights of the parties. Id. at 587. We review this issue de novo. United States v. Ward, 747 F.3d 1184, 118889 (9th Cir. 2014).

a. Zinnel's bankruptcy fraud charges

There was no amendment or variance with respect to Count 1 or 2. Both counts describe the fraudulent concealment of the Corporate Control and Done Deal entities, and so the government properly included both companies in its closing argument. Zinnel's personal bank account, too, was encompassed by Count 2. The indictment alleges that, in the bankruptcy case captioned In re Steven Zinnel, Bankruptcy Case No. 05-28800-C7,  Zinnel falsely stated under oath that he had no property that was not listed on his [bankruptcy] schedules. This was sufficient notice of the government's theory at trial, which was that Zinnel falsely omitted property from his bankruptcy schedules.

We additionally conclude that even if the personal bank account constituted a variance, the variance was nonfatal because it did not affect Zinnel's substantial rights. See United States v. Tsinhnahijinnie, 112 F.3d 988, 991 (9th Cir. 1997). Evidence of the bank account was provided during discovery and marked as a trial exhibit, and Zinnel did not object when it was introduced at trial. Cf. Brulay v. United States, 383 F.2d 345, 351 (9th Cir. 1967) (finding variance nonfatal where at no time did the defendant claim surprise). Moreover, Zinnel was indicted for the act of concealing various items of property. Double jeopardy is not implicated because [t]he fact that several different items of property belonging to the estate of a bankrupt were concealed does not multiply the number of offenses. Edwards v. United States, 265 F.2d 302, 306 (9th Cir. 1959).

b. Eidson's money laundering charges

There was no amendment or variance with respect to Eidson. The government properly charged Eidson under 18 U.S.C.  1956(h) and 1956(a)(1)(B)(i), which require that the defendant conducted or attempted to conduct a financial transaction which in fact involves the proceeds of specified unlawful activity. The trial record shows that the attempted transaction involved actual proceeds of bankruptcy fraud in System 3's bank account.

Eidson's challenge to Count 19 is similarly misguided. Although the indictment stated the wrong date for her meeting with Frank Radoslovich, this typographical error did not prejudice Eidson. The correct date was apparent from reading the rest of the indictment and the court informed the jury of the correct date.

2. Jury instructions

In reviewing jury instructions, the relevant inquiry is whether the instructions as a whole are misleading or inadequate to guide the jury's deliberation. United States v. Lloyd, 807 F.3d 1128, 1164 (9th Cir. 2015) (quoting United States v. Dixon, 201 F.3d 1223, 1230 (9th Cir. 2000) ). We review the formulation of jury instructions for abuse of discretion and their legal sufficiency de novo. See United States v. Hofus, 598 F.3d 1171, 1174 (9th Cir. 2010).

a. Bankruptcy fraud

Zinnel argues that the district court erred in declining to include in the jury instructions a description of the property charged. The parties have not cited, and we are not aware of, any cases supporting this argument. The instructions were adequate to guide the jury's deliberation, especially considering that the government's closing argument advised the jury correctly of the property at issue.

The district court similarly did not err in denying Zinnel's request to use a special verdict form listing all of the property charged. See Bisno v. United States, 299 F.2d 711, 72223 (9th Cir. 1961). The district court's use of a general verdict form here was sufficient because the court instructed the jury to return a guilty verdict only if the jury could unanimously agree that the defendant concealed at least one of the items of property mentioned in the indictment. Id.

b. Money launderingproceeds and profits

Zinnel argues that the money laundering jury instructions should have clarified that proceeds means profits rather than gross receipts, to reflect the law established by United States v. Santos, 553 U.S. 507, 514, 128 S.Ct. 2020, 170 L.Ed.2d 912 (2008). Because Zinnel did not request this instruction in the district court, his argument on this point is reviewed for plain error. United States v. Shields, 844 F.3d 819, 823 (9th Cir. 2016).

A Santos instruction is required only when viewing proceeds as gross receipts would present a merger problem creating a radical increase in the statutory maximum sentence  when nothing in the legislative history suggests that Congress intended such an increase. United States v. Van Alstyne, 584 F.3d 803, 814 (9th Cir. 2009) (quoting United States v. Kratt, 579 F.3d 558, 562 (6th Cir. 2009) ). Zinnel has not shown that a Santos instruction is warranted here. In addition, such an instruction would have made no difference in this case because partnership distributions are shares of profit.

c. Money launderingsimple transfer of cash

The district court did not err when it instructed the jury that the simple transfer of cash from one person to another may constitute a money-laundering offense. See United States v. Otis, 127 F.3d 829, 83233 (9th Cir. 1997). It is unlikely that the jury would have understood this instruction to omit the interstate commerce element because it was immediately preceded by an instruction stating the opposite. Read as a whole, the jury instruction was not erroneous. United States v. Warren, 25 F.3d 890, 898 (9th Cir. 1994).

3. Admission of alleged settlement negotiations

A district court's decision to admit evidence over Rule 408 objections is reviewed for abuse of discretion. Cassino v. Reichhold Chems., Inc., 817 F.2d 1338, 1342 (9th Cir. 1987).

The district court properly admitted evidence of the talks between Zinnel and Wilbert and between Eidson and Radoslovich because the discussions themselves were part of the alleged money laundering. Rule 408 is inapplicable when the claim is based upon some wrong that was committed in the course of the settlement discussions. Uforma/Shelby Bus. Forms, Inc. v. NLRB, 111 F.3d 1284, 1293 (6th Cir. 1997) (quoting 23 Charles Alan Wright & Kenneth W. Graham, Federal Practice and Procedure: Evidence  5314 (1st ed. 1980) ). The email Zinnel sent to his ex-wife was also properly admitted because it was not an offer to compromise under Rule 408.

The district court did not err in denying Eidson's request to admit the entire recording of her meeting with Radoslovich. The rule of completeness applies only if the entire statement is required to correct a misleading impression created by the excerpted statement. United States v. Vallejos, 742 F.3d 902, 905 (9th Cir. 2014); Fed. R. Evid. 106. Eidson contends that the full recording was necessary to show that she was merely trying to avoid litigation, but the portions played at trial already showed this. The excerpted recordings were therefore neither misleading nor taken out of context.

4. Testimony of lawyers

Because Zinnel objected at trial to Radoslovich's testimony, this issue is reviewed for abuse of discretion. United States v. Lloyd, 807 F.3d 1128, 115354 (9th Cir. 2015). Because he did not object to Gee's testimony, we review for plain error. Id. at 1152.

The district court did not err in admitting Radoslovich's testimony about his representation of System 3 with respect to the buyout agreement. Radoslovich properly testified based on his perception of the events. See Fed. R. Evid. 701.

Nor did the district court err in allowing assistant United States trustee Edmund Gee to provide background information about handling bankruptcy petitions. Cf. United States v. Matsumaru, 244 F.3d 1092, 110102 (9th Cir. 2001) (approving use of lay government witnesses to explain mechanics of visa petitions). Zinnel could have called his own bankruptcy expert, but chose not to do so.

Moreover, the district court gave an agreed-upon instruction advising the jury to apply the law as laid out by the court. We presume the jurors followed this instruction. See United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 740, 113 S.Ct. 1770, 123 L.Ed.2d 508 (1993).

5. Sufficiency of the evidence

Eidson challenges her money laundering convictions for lack of sufficient evidence. Zinnel joins her argument on the conspiracy count. We review a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence de novo. United States v. Bennett, 621 F.3d 1131, 1135 (9th Cir. 2010). First, we consider the evidence presented at trial in the light most favorable to the prosecution; second, we determine whether the evidence is adequate to allow any rational trier of fact [to find] the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Nevils, 598 F.3d 1158, 1164 (9th Cir. 2010) (en banc) (quoting Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 (1979) ).

Viewed in the light most favorable to the government, there is sufficient evidence for a rational juror to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Zinnel and Eidson committed their respective money laundering crimes.

The financial transaction element requires an effect on interstate or foreign commerce, or use of a financial institution that is engaged in or affects interstate or foreign commerce. United States v. Jenkins, 633 F.3d 788, 804 (9th Cir. 2011). The government established at trial that System 3 paid distribution checks to Zinnel, who cashed them in Done Deal's bank account with Washington Mutual, an FDIC-insured institution engaged in interstate commerce. A rational jury could infer that the buyout payment would be carried out in the same way.

The financial transaction must involve proceeds of a specified unlawful activity. The government established at trial that Wilbert initiated negotiations with Zinnel to buy out his System 3 interest for roughly $4 million before the government became involved. Wilbert had more than enough cash in the System 3 bank account to pay the required $4 million and had already paid Zinnel's brother $1.5 million for his share.

There was sufficient evidence that Eidson knew that the property involved in the transaction constituted proceeds of unlawful activity. Eidson's conversation with Radoslovich demonstrated that Eidson knew Zinnel had concealed from the bankruptcy court his interest in System 3, which was the basis for the $4 million buyout. Eidson also participated in Zinnel's bankruptcy proceedings and helped him funnel money from System 3 through Done Deal and her client trust accounts.

Similarly, there was sufficient evidence that Eidson knew the transaction was designed  to conceal or disguise the nature, the location, the source, the ownership, or the control of the proceeds of specified unlawful activity. 18 U.S.C.  1956(a)(1)(B)(i). Eidson formed Done Deal, helped Zinnel funnel money through Done Deal, and proposed to Radoslovich that the buyout be disguised as a consulting payment to Done Deal.

The evidence of Eidson's acts was also sufficient to show that Zinnel and Eidson engaged in a conspiracy to launder money. They worked together to hide assets before, during, and after Zinnel's bankruptcy proceedings.

The government presented sufficient evidence to prove that Eidson took the required substantial step towards commission of money laundering. See United States v. Yossunthorn, 167 F.3d 1267, 1271 (9th Cir. 1999). Eidson sent Radoslovich a letter establishing her representation and attended two meetings to persuade Radoslovich to commit to the agreement. The parties had agreed on the key terms of the deal, including price and method of payment. Had Wilbert and Radoslovich been willing to structure the deal as Zinnel and Eidson proposed, then the transaction would have been completed.

6. Sentencing

Both Zinnel and Eidson challenge their sentences. We first consider whether the district court committed a significant procedural error. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51, 128 S.Ct. 586, 169 L.Ed.2d 445 (2007). If the district court committed no procedural error, then we consider the substantive reasonableness of the sentence imposed under an abuse-of-discretion standard. Id.

a. Zinnel's sentence

The district court did not err in calculating Zinnel's Guidelines range when it calculated the loss amount based on the amount of debt scheduled to be discharged. See United States v. Bussell, 504 F.3d 956, 963 (9th Cir. 2007). Nor did the court err when it calculated the number of victims based on the number of creditors who filed claims in Zinnel's bankruptcy case. The district court properly applied the sophisticated money laundering enhancement based on Zinnel's use of fictitious entities and multiple layers of transactions. Additionally, the aggravated role enhancement was appropriate because Zinnel managed and directed Eidson as well as Tom and Julia Wilbert.

The district court did, however, commit procedural error in sentencing Zinnel. Before allocution and counsel's sentencing arguments, the district court announced its intent to sentence [Zinnel] to 212 months of imprisonment. During Zinnel's allocution, in which he talked about his background, love for his children, redeeming qualities, and the difficult circumstances of his divorce at the time of the offense, the district court interrupted him, stating, Mr. Zinnel, I'm going to cut you off right here. Are you almost done? I'm going to give you three more minutes to finish this up. Proceed.

In response, Zinnel repeatedly pleaded for more time. At one point, Zinnel protested, I did want to address the Court today of why I didn't plea  but if I'm getting cut off to three minutes, I don't know how I can possibly do this. At another point, Zinnel asked the court to [p]lease bear with me just for a moment, Your Honor. We're talking 20 years of my life. Here, the government cut in, stating, I think the safest thing under Rule 32 is to just let him go until his breath runs out. The court responded, I'm not going to do that. Although the court allowed Zinnel to continue, it warned him that he would be cut off if he continued to be self-serving.

Zinnel apologized and tried to focus on his redeeming qualities and the justifications for some of his actions, only to be interrupted by the court once more and told to wrap it up. Despite Zinnel's subsequent attempts to take full responsibility for his actions, express remorse, and illustrate his actions helping others in jail, the district court remained unmoved, remarking that Zinnel's comments were self-serving and really didn't mitigate in [the court's] estimation. After discussing several of the  3553(a) factors, the district court imposed 212 months, the sentence it originally announced.

The district court's actions unduly limited Zinnel's right to allocution, which is an essential element of a criminal defense guaranteed by due process. Boardman v. Estelle, 957 F.2d 1523, 1526 (9th Cir. 1992). Zinnel's allocution was relevant to mitigation, focused on his personal qualities, and did not stray into irrelevant philosophical discussions. United States v. Mack, 200 F.3d 653, 657 (9th Cir. 2000). The court's constant interruptions deterred Zinnel's allocution. See United States v. Sarno, 73 F.3d 1470, 1503 (9th Cir. 1995). Because the district court had discretion to impose a shorter sentence, the error was not harmless and resentencing is appropriate. Id. at 150304.

Zinnel further challenges the district court's orders of restitution and criminal forfeiture. Because the district court did not abuse its discretion, we affirm both orders.

b. Eidson's sentence

The district court did not abuse its discretion in calculating the loss amount attributable to Eidson as $4 million, the amount Wilbert offered Zinnel in exchange for his interest in System 3. Nor did the district court err in imposing both the sophisticated money laundering and abuse of position enhancements. The two enhancements serve separate and distinct purposes. United States v. Gallegos, 613 F.3d 1211, 1216 (9th Cir. 2010). The sophisticated money laundering enhancement punishes complex and intricate schemes, and the abuse of position enhancement punishes misuse of a trusted position.

With respect to Eidson, the district court again addressed some, but not all, of the sentencing factors before imposing a sentence of 121 months. As with Zinnel, the court did not explain why the sentence was sufficient, but not greater than necessary to accomplish  3553(a)'s sentencing goals. Ressam, 679 F.3d at 1088. Instead, the court stated that it did not think there was any significant difference between a sentence of, what, 108 months, nine years, versus a sentence of 121 months, which is a year and a month more than that sentence. To the contrary, even a minimal amount of additional time in prison is significant to the defendant and can constitute prejudice. Cf. Glover v. United States, 531 U.S. 198, 203, 121 S.Ct. 696, 148 L.Ed.2d 604 (2001). The court's statements indicate that it did not impose the minimum sentence necessary. Accordingly, resentencing is warranted.

Lastly, Zinnel and Eidson both contend the case should be assigned to a different judge on remand. Reassignment is not warranted, however, because there are no unusual circumstances indicating that the judge would have difficulty in reconsidering his previously expressed views. United States v. Quach, 302 F.3d 1096, 1103 (9th Cir. 2002).

We have considered the remainder of the parties' arguments and find them to be without merit.

AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED IN PART, and REMANDED for resentencing consistent with this disposition.

FOOTNOTES

. This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.

. Accordingly, we need not reach Zinnel's challenge to the substantive reasonableness of his sentence. We note, however, that Zinnel's 212-month sentence is the longest sentence ever imposed for bankruptcy fraud in the Eastern District of California. The district court is not required to compare Zinnel's sentence to the sentence of every criminal defendant who has ever been sentenced before, United States v. Treadwell, 593 F.3d 990, 1012 (9th Cir. 2010), but the disparity here warranted a more detailed discussion of the court's reasoning. The record as a whole should reflect[ ] rational and meaningful consideration of the factors enumerated in 18 U.S.C.  3553(a). United States v. Ressam, 679 F.3d 1069, 1089 (9th Cir. 2012) (en banc) (quoting United States v. Tomko, 562 F.3d 558, 568 (3d Cir. 2009) (en banc) ). The district court's actions limiting Zinnel's allocution, paired with its incomplete discussion of  3553(a), suggest that it may not have considered all of the facts relevant to the sentencing factors. The court should also have explained why Zinnel's sentence was sufficient, but not greater than necessary to accomplish the sentencing goals. Id. at 1088.It's a cracking discovery

A Japanese scientist said Thursday his team has cracked open a method to improve the production of carbon-free energy -- by using proteins taken from egg white.

Yusuke Yamada, a professor at Osaka City University, said his team has managed to use protein from egg white as a "tool" for producing hydrogen, a powerful source of clean electricity.

The new method "brings us closer to our ultimate goal of producing hydrogen from water," Yamada told AFP.

"This lays the groundwork for the clean production of hydrogen in the future," added the scientist.

When it reacts with oxygen, hydrogen produces electricity, releasing only water and heat in the process.

But hydrogen is currently mass-produced using natural gas or fossil fuels, which themselves result in harmful emissions.

It can be produced in labs without fossil fuels and scientists have traditionally done this by creating a special interaction of the molecules in liquid, explained Yamada.

But free-moving and randomly located molecules and particles in the fluid can interfere with the process of producing hydrogen and scientists have long searched for a way to immobilise them.

Yamada's team used a protein found in egg to build crystals with lots of tiny holes to trap these particles.

The change brought a sense of traffic control to the molecular interactions and improved the efficiency of clean, hydrogen production, Yamada said.

"If you use hydrogen as an energy source, it only releases water in the environment. It is extremely environmentally friendly," he told AFP.

"We found protein was a useful tool" to generate hydrogen in a lab without using a fossil fuel, the professor said.

The world's leading companies see hydrogen as the ultimate clean energy to power everything from cars to office buildings in the future, and ditch fossil fuels that cause global warming.

Yamada's method was published in the February edition of the scientific journal "Applied Catalysis B".Nawaf, a detained Islamic State group member from Bahrain, speaks in Rmeilan in northeast Syria on February 13, 2018

Nawaf and Hassan both left their homelands to live under the Islamic State group, but now sitting in a police station in northeast Syria they insist they did nothing wrong.

The two men in clean tracksuits, one from Bahrain and the other from Turkey, are among hundreds from some 40 nationalities who have been captured by a US-backed force of Kurdish and Arab fighters.

They were caught fleeing as the self-declared "caliphate" they once served collapsed in the face of ferocious military onslaughts in both Syria and Iraq.

Nawaf, 22, says he left his home in the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain and travelled via Qatar and Turkey to join IS in the summer of 2015 to "defend Muslims being bombed".

He fought in Iraq but refuses to dwell on what he did there before moving to Raqa, which was the group's Syrian capital.

"It was a normal life," separated from the brutal beheadings and violence for which IS became infamous around the world, he told AFP.

"We only saw them in the media or in propaganda videos."

Nawaf claims he was a "simple employee" under Bahraini Turki al-Binali -- chief religious advisor who was killed in an air strike in 2017.

He married a woman from Kuwait and had a daughter.

A member of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces removes an Islamic State group flag in the town of Tabqa on April 30, 2017

"It is good," he says of the group's severe interpretation of Islam that requires women to cover up.

"Like that they don't attract people sexually."

Sitting nearby Hassan, 49, claims he is a civilian who is still having problems after several back operations.

He says he came to Raqa in 2015 where his Uzbek wife was a doctor and worked only as a "car park attendant" who was in the dark about what IS was doing.

"I did not fight. I knew nothing," says the bald man with blue eyes and a short beard.

- 'Nobody dared challenge it' -

Hassan, a 49-year-old from Turkey suspected of collaborating with the Islamic State group, speaks in Rmeilan in northeast Syria on February 13, 2018

While the two men lived under the rule of IS the group carried out a string of bloody attacks across Europe.

"I don't approve of them," says Nawaf.

"But that is the philosophy of IS and nobody dared to challenge it."

Although both men are adamant they were low-level functionaries who do not have blood on their hands, their stories raise serious doubts.

Hassan reveals that he passed through camps for fighters in both Turkey and Syria and at one time lived with "the Uzbeks" in the tribal region of Pakistan.

Uzbeks living in that region are known as jihadists with brutal reputations who were linked to Al-Qaeda before pledging allegiance to IS.

Meanwhile Nawaf's patron Binali was not only a senior religious official, but also a key recruiter of Gulf nationals who threatened attacks abroad according to the US.

Eventually both Nawaf and Hassan were pushed out of Raqa in summer 2017 by the advance of the US-backed fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces.

Smuggled out by IS ahead of the assault, they went to Mayadeen in eastern Syria where the jihadists were busy settling their bloody scores.

The fear of becoming victims of the group that they once moved abroad to be a part of then spurred them even further, they claim.

In autumn Hassan says he fled north on a motorbike with his wife but they were stopped at a Kurdish checkpoint and detained separately.

Nawaf gave some $4,000 (3,200 euros) to a people smuggler who ended up handing him over to the Kurdish forces as he sought to cross the border with Turkey.

Now the two men have no idea what will happen to them.

Countries that saw citizens leave for the so-called "caliphate" are now reluctant to take detained jihadists back.

As for Hassan and Nawaf, they insist they have turned their backs on IS for good.

"They are just traitors, torturers. There is nothing Muslim about them," says Hassan.

All he wants, he says, is to find "a good place to practise Islam".Andre Chiang is Taiwan's most famous chef

A top chef in Singapore has served up a final dinner at his popular restaurant, months after shocking the city-state's culinary scene by announcing he was closing the eatery and returning his Michelin stars.

The staff's family members were treated to a meal on Valentine's Day at Andre Chiang's two-starred, eponymously named French restaurant, local media reported.

Chiang, Taiwan's most famous chef, is returning to the island to focus on his high-end Taipei restaurant RAW, as well as running several other restaurants he co-owns and manages.

"Taiwan is the place where I was born and I know so little about the place," he said in a video produced ahead of the Singapore restaurant's closure.

"I want to go back to where I started."

His announcement in October that he was closing Restaurant Andre and returning his Michelin stars shocked foodies in the affluent city-state, which has one of Asia's best restaurant scenes.

It was among seven restaurants in Singapore to have two stars in the Michelin Guide to the city-state, which was first released in 2016. Only one restaurant has the top honour of three stars, Joel Robuchon.

Chiang has also said he does not want RAW listed in the new Michelin guide to Taiwan, due out in the first quarter of this year, characterising it instead as a training ground for young chefs.

A handful of French restaurateurs have in the past walked away from the ultra-competitive world of Michelin-starred cooking.

In January, the Michelin guide allowed a three-starred French restaurant -- Le Suquet -- to bow out of the listings after its chef said he no longer wanted to cook under the huge pressure of being judged by the inspectors.

It was the first time Michelin has ever allowed a restaurant to withdraw from its pages.The family home of Omar al-Abed, a Palestinian who has been handed four life sentences for the July murder of three Israelis, was destroyed in August

An Israeli military court on Thursday handed four life sentences to a Palestinian convicted of murdering three Israelis at a West Bank settlement during heightened tensions in July, the defence minister said.

"The despicable terrorist who murdered the Salomon family members in Neve Tsuf was handed four life sentences," Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said.

"No number of life sentences will suffice to punish this beast."

Omar al-Abed, 19 at the time of the murders, had been found guilty by the court at Ofer, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, of the premeditated killing of three members of the Solomon family in their home on July 21, 2017.

Abed had entered a house in the settlement of Neve Tzuf, also known as Halamish, and killed the three civilians -- Yossi Salomon, his son Elad and daughter Haya -- with a knife.

He seriously wounded Tova, Yossi's wife, before being shot by a neighbour, an off-duty soldier who had heard the victims' cries.

Abed was also found guilty of the attempted murder of seven people, all family members in the house at the time of the attack.

His father, mother, an uncle and two brothers were sentenced in August to jail terms of between one month and eight months for not preventing Abed's actions.

On August 16, the Israeli military demolished the Abed family home in the village of Kobar near Ramallah.

In a Facebook post before the attack, Abed expressed his resentment of Israeli actions against the Palestinians and in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in annexed east Jerusalem.

The compound, the third holiest site for Muslims, is also revered by the Jews as the Temple Mount.

Abed's July 21 attack came at a time of high tensions over the sensitive compound.

Following a July 14 attack in which three Israeli Arabs killed two policemen after emerging from the compound, Israeli authorities installed metal detectors at its entrance, sparking widespread unrest.Indian PM Modi's trip to Arunachal Pradesh was quickly criticised by China

Beijing will lodge a "stern" protest with New Delhi over a trip by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a disputed area, an official said Thursday, months after the nuclear-armed neighbours ended a tense border standoff.

Modi paid a low-key visit to the northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday, where he inaugurated a local convention centre, but the trip was quickly criticised by China, which also claims the area.

"The Chinese government has never recognized the so-called Arunachal Pradesh and is firmly opposed to the Indian leader's visit to the disputed area," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang.

"We will lodge stern representations with the Indian side."

Last year, hundreds of Chinese and Indian troops faced off on the Doklam plateau, a small strip close to the intersection between China, India and Bhutan.

The border dispute began in mid-June after Chinese troops started building a road on the Himalayan plateau.

India has an army base nearby and moved soldiers into the flashpoint zone to halt the work, prompting Beijing to accuse it of trespassing on Chinese territory.

The two nations finally pulled back their troops in mid-August, averting a full-blown crisis.

Arunachal Pradesh is a strategically important border district and came briefly under Chinese control during the 1962 war between the neighbours.Geraldine Roman, 50, who became the Catholic-majority nation's first transgender person elected to Congress in 2016, took her oath on Wednesday

The Philippine military has welcomed its first transgender officer, the defence department said Thursday, swearing in a prominent member of Congress as a reservist.

Geraldine Roman, 50, who became the Catholic-majority nation's first transgender person elected to Congress in 2016, took her oath on Wednesday.

"That indeed makes her the first transgender officer in the Armed Forces of the Philippines," defence department spokesman Arsenio Andolong said in a statement.

"Her being part of the (military) underscores the fact that gender is not an issue when it comes to serving the country," he added.

The Philippine military frequently inducts prominent figures like legislators and cabinet members as reserve officers.

Roman was appointed as a lieutenant colonel in the army reserves, alongside two fellow House of Representatives members, the statement added.

"War and disaster do not recognise gender, it affects everybody, and everyone must defend and serve our communities, and our country," the statement quoted her saying during the ceremony.

Born to a politically prominent family based near Manila, Roman changed her gender in the 1990s.

Her political success has been hailed by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) campaigners in a conservative society where divorce and same-sex marriage are both banned.

The Philippine military last year announced it would accept LGBT applicants "as long as they act and move with dignity".US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (R) shakes hands with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the governmental palace in Beirut on February 15, 2018

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held talks with Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Thursday in Beirut where he offered Washington's support for a "free and democratic" Lebanon.

Tillerson's visit, part of a tour of the Middle East, comes at a time of tension between Lebanon and neighbouring Israel, notably over the role of Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.

The Iran-backed group, a member of Hariri's government, is an arch-foe of Israel and branded a "terrorist" organisation by the United States.

It is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has fighters on the ground in the war-torn country supporting the regime.

Hezbollah's influence was at the heart of a political crisis in Lebanon over Hariri's shock resignation announced from Saudi Arabia in November that was later rescinded.

"The United States stands with the Lebanese people for a free and democratic Lebanon," Tillerson, the highest-ranking US official to visit the country in four years, wrote in the visitors' book after talks with President Michel Aoun.

On Wednesday, speaking in Amman, Tillerson conceded that Hezbollah is part of the "political process" in Lebanon, appearing to soften Washington's tone.

"We support a free, democratic Lebanon free of influence of others, and we know that Lebanese Hezbollah is influenced by Iran. This is influence that we think is unhelpful in Lebanon's long-term future," he said.

"We also have to acknowledge the reality that they also are part of the political process in Lebanon."

Later, US Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein said however that Lebanon "would be better off without Hezbollah's terrorism and malign influence".

After his talks in Beirut Tillerson was due to head to Turkey seeking to ease tensions with the NATO ally over Ankara's ongoing operation against a US-backed Kurdish militia inside Syria.The Gaza Strip's power plant at Nuseirat, pictured on June 10, 2017

The sole electricity plant in the Gaza Strip stopped working Thursday because of a lack of fuel, officials said, as concerns grew over worsening humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian enclave.

The closure of the plant, which normally provides around a fifth of Gaza's electricity, will exacerbate an already critical power shortage.

Gaza's two million residents receive only around four hours of mains electricity a day.

Mohammed Thabet, spokesman for Gaza's energy distribution company, said it had been informed by the energy authority the power station stopped functioning at midnight because of the lack of fuel.

Usually the plant provides around 20 megawatts per day using fuel imported from Egypt, but now the only energy is the roughly 120 megawatts of electricity imported from Israel.

"The Gaza Strip needs around 500 megawatts (per day). We have an energy deficit of 380 megawatts," Thabet said.

The distribution company called in a statement for rapid moves to provide fuel to the plant again.

Last week, the United Arab Emirates provided financing for fuel for generators at hospitals and other key facilities. Three hospitals and 16 medical centres had stopped offering key services in recent weeks because of the crippling fuel shortages.

The power station has temporarily shut down a number of times in recent years over energy shortages.

It was hit by Israel in previous wars with Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the Palestinian territory.

Israel has maintained a blockade on the strip for a decade, saying it is necessary to isolate Hamas, and Egypt has also largely closed its border in recent years.

The internationally recognised Palestinian government, based in the West Bank, has also sought to squeeze rivals Hamas.Some 2.5 million Indonesians work in Malaysia, which is a magnet for migrant workers but salaries are low and employees are not protected by labour laws

Two people have been arrested in Indonesia on human trafficking charges in connection with the death of a maid allegedly abused by her employer in Malaysia, police and a lawmaker said Thursday.

Indonesian authorities said the employment recruiters -- an unidentified husband and wife -- used forged documents to send 20-year-old victim Adelina Sau to Malaysia in 2015.

The woman's mother said she disappeared from their village in impoverished East Nusa Tenggara province after her family rebuffed a recruiter's job offer for their daughter.

The domestic helper died at a Malaysian hospital on Sunday, a day after being rescued by a migrant workers' protection group, according to local reports.

Her head and face were swollen and she had raw wounds on her hand and legs, a police document and Malaysian lawmaker said.

"The doctors said the maid died of multiple organ failure," said Steven Sim, a Malaysian politician from the Democratic Action Party.

"She was made to sleep in the car porch near a dog which was on a leash ... It is a senseless loss of a life."

The Indonesian recruiters were taken into custody Wednesday on trafficking charges, while another suspect is being pursued, police said.

A brother and sister, as well as their mother, who employed Adelina, have been arrested in Malaysia.

Some 2.5 million Indonesians work in neighbouring Malaysia, which is a magnet for migrant workers but salaries are low and employees are not protected by labour laws.

In recent years the country has seen a series of cases involving mistreatment of domestic workers including deaths.

In 2014, a Malaysian couple were sentenced to hang for starving their Indonesian maid to death.

The problem of helper abuse was highlighted the same year after photos of a Hong Kong-based Indonesian maid's brutal injuries went viral. Her employer was later jailed.

Adelina's body was scheduled to arrive in the provincial capital Kupang Thursday evening.

Her mother, Yohana Banunaek, said a man she did not identify had come to their remote village about seven hours' drive from Kupang offering her daughter a job in Malaysia, but they refused.

"The man came again with all this fake paperwork and the next day we could not find Adelina. We believe she had gone with the man," Banunaek told AFP.

The mother said the falsified documents made it appear that Adelina was about six years older than she was.

"We urge Malaysia to bring justice to Adelina and for the perpetrators to get heavy punishment," said Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, an official at Indonesia's foreign affairs ministry.

Official Indonesian figures showed some 62 migrant workers from East Nusa Tenggara died last year while working in Malaysia, mostly illegally.

Adelina was the eighth death this year, though most were from accidents or illness, according to the data.

"Such tragic cases keep repeating themselves," said Migrant Care executive director Wahyu Susilo.Zimbabwe opposition veteran Morgan Tsvangirai died on Wednesday after suffering from colon cancer

Zimbabwe was plunged into grief Thursday following the death of veteran opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, roundly praised as a hero, champion of democracy and symbol of resistance who will be hard to replace.

The former trade union stalwart who posed the most formidable challenge to the ruling ZANU-PF partys nearly four-decade hold on power, died on Wednesday in a South African hospital where he was being treated for colon cancer.

He was 65.

Zimbabwe's new President Emmerson Mnangagwa lauded his party's arch-rival as "a strong trade unionist and opposition leader" and vowed free elections in honour of Tsvangirai who was assaulted, jailed and humiliated under Mnangagwa's predecessor Robert Mugabe.

"We remember him for his insistence on free, fair and peaceful elections which we must validate in the forthcoming (elections) in tribute to him and to our democracy," Mnangagwa said.

"This we owe him as political leaders of all contesting parties in our country which deserves unfettered peace and stability," he said, also adding that Tsvangirai's funeral will be state-assisted.

Tsvangirais death firmly places Mnangagwa, the ZANU-PF veteran who took over after ousting long-time ruler Mugabe, on the path to victory in elections to be held before July.

Infighting over Tsvangirai's successor is threatening to tear apart his opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.

- Symbol of resistance -

MDC's acting chairman Morgen Komichi said on Thursday that the party had appointed one of Tsvangirai's three deputies, Nelson Chamisa, as acting leader for 12 months.

"We have lost a doyen of democracy, an icon... a crucial soldier," Chamisa told hundreds of party supporters, speaking from a balcony at the party HQ in downtown Harare.

"We are just four months away from an election and we have lost a commander but what I can tell you is that we do not have a (leadership) crisis... We will win this election," he vowed.

Dressed in the party's trademark red, supporters cheered with some openly weeping as Chamisa addressed them.

The crowd filled the street, bringing traffic to a standstill, chanting songs praising Tsvangirai's bravery and commitment to ending Mugabes stranglehold on power. Others drove around the city playing music in honour of the deceased opposition leader.

"He wanted us to win this election in 2018 and I hope the top leadership is going to unify and beat ZANU-PF. I know that is what he wanted, we do not want to damage his legacy," Lilian Timveos, an MDC senator, told AFP.

"The nation has lost an icon. We have lost our father," said Timveos, battling to hold back tears. "His legacy will live on forever."

Mnangagwa said he will remember Tsvangirai "especially for his readiness to stretch and reach out across the political divide for a government of national unity after the polarising 2008 election".

Hairdresser Batsirai Tambaoga said Tsvangirais death had dealt a blow to the opposition ahead of general elections.

"His death is a shattering blow especially with the elections coming soon," Tambaoga said. "It will be difficult to fill the gap he has left."

- 'Fighting for what's right' -

Bookseller and party supporter Patrick Tasi said: "We have lost a hero. He stood firm and on the side of the people when the dictatorship was at its most dangerous."

Tsvangirai "taught everyone about fighting on and soldiering for what is right," according to Thandi Moyana, 25, an accountant in the city of Bulawayo.

The US State department saluted Tsvangirai's "relentless struggle and great personal sacrifices for the equitable treatment of all Zimbabweans".

Tsvangirai was beaten up by state security agents and incarcerated several times both as a trade union chief and opposition leader.

An image that remains etched in the minds of many is when he appeared in court wearing a torn shirt with a swollen eye and gash on his head after being beaten up for organising a prayer rally in 2007.

The following year he defeated Mugabe in the first round of general elections, barely missing the majority vote required to be declared the ultimate winner.

He was forced to pull out of the run-off election, citing a flare-up in violence which claimed the lives of at least 200 of his supporters.

In 2009 he went into a power-sharing government with Mugabe, serving as prime minister until elections in 2013.

Commenting on the legacy of Tsvangirai and Mugabe, and how their lives intersected, political scientist Takavafira Zhou from Masvingo State University said: "One became a symbol of the people's struggle against oppression and the other came to represent tyranny after initially carrying the hopes of Zimbabwe."United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. VICTOR FLORES, AKA Little Creeper, Defendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ARMANDO ACOSTA, Defendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. BENJAMIN CAMPOS-GONZALEZ, AKA BG, Defendant-Appellant. No. 15-10232, No. 15-10237, No. 15-10240 Decided: February 14, 2018

Before: TALLMAN ** and HURWITZ, Circuit Judges, and KEELEY, *** District Judge.

MEMORANDUM*

Victor Flores, Armando Acosta, and Benjamin Campos-Gonzalez appeal their convictions arising out of their participation in a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) enterprise known as the 500 Block/C Street Gang. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C.  1291, and we affirm.

1. The district court properly found that probable cause supported the issuance of wiretap orders in May 2011 by the San Mateo County Superior Court seeking information related to December 2010 shootings that were suspected to have been perpetrated by members of the RICO enterprise. When the wiretap orders issued, there remained a fair probability that law enforcement would intercept communications relevant to the predicate shootings. See Dawson v. City of Seattle, 435 F.3d 1054, 1062 (9th Cir. 2006) (quoting Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238 (1983)). Because of the ongoing nature of the criminal enterprise, there was sufficient basis to believe that members and associates of the enterprise would discuss the shootings. United States v. Lacy, 119 F.3d 742, 746 (9th Cir. 1997) (citation and quotation omitted). Moreover, one of the principal suspects in the shootings had fled to Mexico where he remained a fugitive. He had been contacted by his parents from target telephones during January and February 2011, and had used a target telephone to discuss one of the shootings as late as March 2011.

2. The district court did not err when, in response to a question during deliberations, it instructed the jury that, under 18 U.S.C.  1962(d), the defendants could knowingly and intentionally join or become a member of a conspiracy without being a member of the enterprise. [A] defendant may be held liable for conspiracy to violate section 1962(c) if he knowingly agrees to facilitate a scheme which includes the operation or management of a RICO enterprise. United States v. Fernandez, 388 F.3d 1199, 1230 (9th Cir. 2004) (quoting Smith v. Berg, 247 F.3d 532, 538 (3d Cir. 2001)); see also Boyle v. United States, 556 U.S. 938, 94950 (2009).

The district court's answer to the jury question did not constructively amend the indictment. Whether the defendants were found by the jury to be classified as members or only mere associates of the RICO enterprise, the district court did not allow them to be convicted on the basis of different behavior than that alleged in the original indictment. United States v. Garcia-Paz, 282 F.3d 1212, 1216 (9th Cir. 2002) (alteration in original). Likewise, the district court's instruction did not create a prejudicial variance from the crimes charged in the indictment, as the indictment charged the same means and methods of the conspiracy for both members and associates. Moreover, the district court properly directed the jury to base its decision on the indictment and jury instructions. At all times, the defendants were aware of what [they were] accused of doing in violation of the criminal law, and thus could prepare [their] defense. United States v. Adamson, 291 F.3d 606, 616 (9th Cir. 2002) (citation omitted).

3. The district court did not abuse its discretion by declining to instruct the jury that it must find as a basis for conviction that the 500 Block/C Street Gang ascribed allegiance to the prison gang Nuestra Familia. The indictment defined the RICO enterprise narrowly as the 500 Block/C Street Gang. The district court also properly declined to apply the doctrine of judicial estoppel; the Government consistently argued only that information concerning Nuestra Familia provided necessary background regarding characteristics of the RICO enterprise. See Hamilton v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 270 F.3d 778, 78286 (9th Cir. 2001) (Judicial estoppel is an equitable doctrine that precludes a party from gaining an advantage by asserting one position, and then later seeking an advantage by taking a clearly inconsistent position.).

4. The district court properly admitted the testimony of California Highway Patrol Officer Roy Ferriera, who transported Flores after he shot three law enforcement officers during a raid. The Government asked Officer Ferriera whether he believed Flores had referenced a prior shooting, and whether he was aware that the suspect had killed four law enforcement officers. These statements were not out of court statements of a non-party, and in any event were offered to prove Flores's state of mind, not the truth of the matter asserted. See Fed. R. Evid. 801(c)(2). For the same reason, the statements were not testimonial hearsay admitted in violation of the Confrontation Clause. Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 51 (2004).

5. Sufficient evidence supported Acosta's convictions for conspiring to obstruct justice, in violation of 18 U.S.C.  371, and obstruction of justice, in violation of 18 U.S.C.  1512(c)(2). The indictment alleged that Acosta obstructed, influenced, and impeded an official proceeding, the federal grand jury investigation into one of the December 2010 shootings. An official proceeding includes federal grand juries. 18 U.S.C.  1515(a)(1)(A). Contrary to Acosta's assertions, a defendant need not be aware that the obstructed proceeding is federal in nature, nor must the proceeding be pending or about to be instituted at the time of the obstructive conduct. 18 U.S.C.  1512(f)(1), (g)(1). It is sufficient that a reasonable jury could conclude that the natural and probable effect of Acosta's obstructive conduct included interference with a federal grand jury. See Arthur Andersen, LLP v. United States, 544 U.S. 696, 70708 (2005); United States v. Aguilar, 515 U.S. 593, 599 (1995).

6. The district court did not plainly err when it instructed the jury about the elements of conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice. The instructions required the jury to find a nexus between Acosta's obstructive conduct and the official proceeding by stating that it is sufficient if the obstruction of the official proceeding was a natural and probable effect of the defendant's obstructive conduct. Although the instructions did not state that an official proceeding excludes state proceedings, the evidence at trial focused on the federal grand jury, and the instructions explained that an official proceeding includes proceedings before a federal grand jury. In addition, the instruction regarding conspiracy to obstruct justice was closely followed by the substantive definition of obstruction of justice, including its elements. Viewing the instructions as a whole, the jury would not have been misled. See United States v. Moore, 109 F.3d 1456, 1465 (9th Cir. 1997).

AFFIRMED.Thailand's lucrative fishing business is heavily dependant on migrant labour from Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos

Thailand is using optical scanning technology to keep track of who is working on its fishing boats, officials said Thursday, as the kingdom tries to curb slave labour and human trafficking that has riddled the low-paid industry.

The lucrative fishing business is the fourth largest in the world and is heavily dependant on migrant labour from Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos, but documented abuses and forced labour have put the trade under pressure to clean up its act or face consequences.

Thailand's junta, which took power in 2014, led the push to overhaul the industry in response to a European Union threat in 2015 to ban all Thai seafood products unless issues were addressed.

But rights groups say abuses have continued despite widely publicised reforms while the US State Department's 2017 Trafficking in Persons report kept Thailand on its Tier 2 Watchlist for a second consecutive year.

At a briefing on Thursday in Bangkok to trumpet reforms in the industry, Labour Minister Adul Sangsingkeo said tens of thousands of workers had been scanned but the roll out was still in the early stages.

"The ministry has done optical scanning to 70,000 people who work on fishing boats so that we can track their identity," he said. "Also we're in the middle of creating a software to read the collected data from the scans."

The program, which captures data from the iris, started in October and is part of an overarching plan to register workers. The government is also adopting measures for facial and fingerprint scanning.

Petcharat Sinauy, deputy permanent secretary at the Ministry of Labour, said the purpose of the stepped up tech was to make sure workers were on the boat they were registered with and not farmed out to another vessel.

"It is to find out whether the fisherman is truly in the list of this ship and has not been sold and rotated to work for many ships all the time," she said.

A report released by Human Rights Watch last month said forced labour and other rights abuses remained "widespread" and that little had been done to rein in worker exploitation.

Thai police say a crackdown has led to the prosecution of some 100 trafficking suspects and the rescue of 160 victims since May 2015, when the EU issued its "yellow card" warning about seafood products.

The government has also reduced the number of fishing fleets and created a hotline that resulted in the prosecution of 53 cases.Hailing from a family of diamond merchants, Nirav Modi is one of India's richest men

Nirav Modi, who is under investigation for fraud, is a billionaire Indian jeweller whose extravagant diamonds have graced many Hollywood celebrities including Kate Winslet and Naomi Watts.

From stores in New York's Madison Avenue and Singapore's Marina Bay to the red carpet at the Oscars, Modi's luxury jewellery has long been popular with the rich and famous.

Hailing from a family of diamond merchants, the 47-year-old is one of India's richest men and is known for his love of Bentley cars and expensive Italian suits.

He is now also associated with serious fraud allegations.

Last month, Punjab National Bank (PNB) -- India's second-biggest state-owned lender -- approached the Central Bureau of Investigation alleging that Modi and members of his family defrauded it of 2.8 billion rupees ($43.8 million).

PNB then said Wednesday it had detected fraud of almost $1.8 billion at a single branch in Mumbai. The Press Trust of India news agency reported that the bank had made fresh allegations against Modi to the CBI.

On Thursday, Enforcement Directorate officers raided Modi's Mumbai home and other premises belonging to the jeweller.

Afterwards, PTI, citing officials, reported that Modi had left India in early January, before the bank detected either of the two fraud cases.

Modi, who was photographed alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, has not commented on the allegations. The two are not related.

Firestar Diamond has previously said the earlier case was not connected to the company.

Modi is the son and grandson of diamond traders. He was raised in Antwerp, Belgium and as a youngster dreamed of becoming a music conductor.

- Rich list -

Kate Winslet wore a Nirav Modi bracelet, ring and earrings at the 2016 Oscars

But after dropping out of Wharton business school aged 19, he moved to India where he would find his calling producing diamond jewellery worth millions of dollars.

It was under the tutelage of his entrepreneurial uncle Mehul Choksi, the head of India's Gitanjali diamonds and now also caught up in the fraud storm, that Modi learned his trade.

In 1999, he founded Firestone -- now called Firestar -- a diamond giant currently boasting revenues of $2.3 billion.

He set up the eponymous Nirav Modi brand in 2010. The high-end chain has showrooms in some of the world's major cities, including London, Beijing and Hong Kong.

Watts was among several celebrities to attend the opening of the New York store in 2015.

The following year, Winslet wore a Nirav Modi bracelet, ring and earrings at the Oscars.

One of Modi's many career highlights was when one of his Golconda diamond necklaces sold for $3 million at a Christie's auction.

According to Forbes, Modi is worth $1.73 billion, placing him 85th on India's rich list.

Industry insiders say Modi's colourful persona belies his meticulous attention to detail. He is said to be involved in every part of the company, from jewellery design to production, to selecting store locations.

In an interview with Indian magazine Business World two years ago, he said he hoped to add around 30 Nirav Modi stores to the 17 that already exist by 2020.

Now his priority would appear to be fighting serious fraud allegations that have rattled India's corporate world.A Huthi fighter at the site of a coalition air strike in Sanaa on November 5, 2017

A Yemeni mother in Huthi rebel custody is waiting to be put to death over allegations she spied for the United Arab Emirates, rights group Amnesty International said on Thursday.

A court in rebel-held capital Sanaa handed down the death penalty to 22-year-old Asmaa al-Omeissy and two men on charges of "aiding an enemy country" after their enforced disappearance and months of torture, Amnesty said.

Yemeni activists and lawyers say they believe this is the first time a woman has been sentenced to death in a "state security" case, according to Amnesty.

The rebel-run Saba News Agency said the Specialised Criminal Court sentenced Omeissy, Saeed al-Ruwaished and Ahmed Bawazeer to death on January 30.

They were found guilty of "communication and aiding the Arab alliance, which resulted in facilitating the targeting and seizure of strategic sites in Yemen".

They were also found guilty of "establishing an espionage network and recruiting agents to work on behalf of the United Arab Emirates", Saba said.

Omeissy's 50-year-old father Matir received a 15-year prison sentence for an "indecent act" -- allowing his daughter to be in the same car as the male defendants.

Asmaa, who has two children, is the only one of the three still in custody.

The men were able to pay bail and flee to parts of Yemen not controlled by the rebels, Amnesty said, accusing the Huthis of engaging in "extortion".

The UAE, for which the defendants are accused of spying, is a pillar of the Arab-led military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 with the aim of rolling back rebel gains and restoring the ousted government.

But the Iran-backed Huthis have consolidated their control of Sanaa in recent months, gunning down one-time ally Ali Abdullah Saleh and cracking down on opponents.

Journalists and activists have previously been sentenced to death by Huthi-run courts on charges of spying for coalition leader Saudi Arabia.

Amnesty said the latest sentencing was "part of a wider pattern of the Huthis using the judiciary to settle political scores".

It said the defendants were subjected to "enforced disappearance, cut off from the outside world, and secretly moved from one facility to the other.

"They were held in squalor in pre-trial detention for months, extorted for money, subjected to continuous humiliation and extreme physical abuse, and denied basic rights including legal counsel and family visits."

Amnesty has called for the sentences to be "quashed without delay".

More than 9,200 people have been killed since the Arab alliance intervened in Yemen, triggering what the United Nations has called the world's largest humanitarian crisis.Mattis said discussions were "very candid" between NATO, which includes European members, and Mogherini.

The transatlantic alliance and the EU agree "the common defence is a NATO mission alone," US Defence Secretary James Mattis said Thursday after talks on Brussels' own new defence pact.

NATO ministers met Wednesday with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to discuss their concerns over duplication after Brussels agreed in December to develop new military equipment and improve cooperation and decision-making.

"There is a clear understanding to include in written EU documents that the common defence is a NATO mission and a NATO mission alone," Mattis told a press conference in Brussels.

Mattis said discussions were "very candid" between NATO, which includes European members, and Mogherini.

"We have sufficient rigour in the political sharing, the political discussions, to keep the EU effort, for example on military mobility," Mattis said.

He said the EU can "enhance NATO common defense capabilities and does not draw from them."

The EU's so-called permanent structured cooperation on defence agreement, known as PESCO, has projects in view already to develop new military equipment and improve cooperation and decision-making.

But on Sunday a senior official working with Mattis said Washington had concerns that some of the proposed initiatives risked "pulling resources or capabilities away from NATO".

NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said the right balance could be struck when he opened talks among the 29-member NATO defence ministers on Wednesday.

"Done in the right way, these efforts can make a contribution to fairer burden-sharing between Europe and North America," Stoltenberg told reporters.

Stoltenberg has warned there was "no way" the EU could replace the transatlantic alliance in guaranteeing European security.

"It will be absolutely without any meaning if NATO and the EU start to compete," the former Norwegian premier told reporters on Tuesday.Jacob Zuma quit the presidency of South Africa under pressure from his ANC party

Jacob Zuma stood down as South African president after nine years in power marked by corruption scandals and court action. Here are some other world leaders forced out of office facing legal charges.

- Latin America -

- BRAZIL: President Fernando Color de Mello, accused of corruption, steps down in December 1992 at the opening of an impeachment hearing.

The case is dropped in 1994. As a senator, he is again put on trial in 2017 over the wide-reaching graft scandal involving oil giant Petrobras.

Dilma Rousseff was forced out as Brazilian president in an impeachment trial

In 2016, Dilma Rousseff is forced out as president in an impeachment trial launched by her rivals in the Senate. She denies accusations of financial wrongdoing in office and has not been tried in court.

- ECUADOR: Vice president Jorge Glas is sentenced to six years in jail in December 2017 for receiving kickbacks from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. He is removed from office the following month.

- GUATEMALA: President Otto Perez, accused of being part of a ring that took bribes over taxes, is stripped of immunity in September 2015. Facing impeachment, he stands down two days later.

The courts order in October 2017 that he should stand trial for racketeering, illicit enrichment and fraud.

- PERU: President Alberto Fujimori is impeached in November 2000 by Congress "for permanent moral incapacity". He leaves the country and resigns by fax.

Hundreds of people gather in Lima in January 2018 to protest at a presidential pardon granted former leader Alberto Fujimori, convicted in 2009 of embezzlement and human rights abuses including murder

Later extradited back to Peru, he is sentenced to 25 years in prison for having ordered the massacre of civilians and for corruption. He is granted a controversial presidential pardon in December 2017.

- VENEZUELA: President Carlos Andres Perez, accused of financial fraud, is suspended from office in 1993 after a unanimous vote in the Senate. He is sentenced in 1996 to two years and four months in prison.

- Europe -

- CROATIA: Prime minister Ivo Sanader resigns in July 2009 amid suspicions of embezzlement. He is jailed from July to December 2011.

In April 2017 he is again sentenced to four and a half years in jail for taking bribes while in power. He is also indicted in three other graft cases involving millions of euros.

German former president Christian Wulff presents his book "Ganz Oben, Ganz Unten" (Way Up, Way Down) in Berlin in June 2014. Wulff stood down in 2012, but was later cleared of wrongdoing

- GERMANY: Facing charges of influence-peddling, federal president Christian Wulff resigns in February 2012 after his immunity is lifted. He is later cleared.

- ROMANIA: Prime minister Victor Ponta is put on trial in July 2015 for fraud, tax evasion and money laundering dating back to before he took office. He hangs on to power but resigns in November 2015 after protests following a deadly fire in the capital.

- Israel -

President Ezer Weizman is forced to stand down to avoid impeachment in July 2000 following a tax evasion and corruption scandal.

In June 2007 president Moshe Katzav quits following a sex scandal. He is convicted and put behind bars in 2011.

The following year, prime minister Ehud Olmert resigns after police recommend he be indicted for graft. He remains in office until March 2009 but is jailed. Olmert is freed in July 2017 after being granted parole from a 27-month sentence.

Israeli protesters in mid-February hold up a cartoon of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara luxuriating in a jacuzzi tub. Another man holds a sign reading "Bibi (go) home!" in Hebrew

Police on February 13, 2018 say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of public trust. He denounces the recommendations and rejects calls to step down.US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speaks in Beirut on February 15, 2018

Hezbollah's involvement in regional conflicts poses a threat to the security of Lebanon and is a destabilising influence in the Middle East, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday.

"Hezbollah is not just a concern for the United States. The people of Lebanon should also be concerned about how Hezbollah's actions, its growing arsenal, bring unwanted and unhelpful scrutiny on Lebanon," Tillerson said in Beirut.

"Hezbollah entanglement in regional conflicts threatens the security of Lebanon and has destabilising effects on the region," he said of the Iran-backed Shiite movement, which is part of the Lebanese government.

Hezbollah, branded a "terrorist" organisation by the United States, is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has fighters on the ground in the war-torn country supporting the regime.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (R) with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in Beirut on February 15, 2018

"Their presence in Syria has perpetuated the bloodshed, increased the displacement of innocent people and propped up the barbaric Assad regime," Tillerson said at a news conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

On Wednesday, speaking in Amman, Tillerson had appearing to soften Washington's tone, conceding that Hezbollah is part of the "political process" in Lebanon.

Hezbollah's influence was at the heart of a political crisis in Lebanon over Hariri's shock resignation announced from Saudi Arabia in November that was later rescinded.

Tillerson's visit comes at a time of tension between Lebanon and Israel -- which fought a devastating war with Hezbollah in 2006 -- over issues such as offshore energy exploration.

Lebanon is upset about Israel's construction of a dividing wall along the border between the two countries, which are still technically at war.

Lebanon says part of the wall follows the UN-demarcated "Blue Line" that was drawn up after Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, and insists some sections will cut into its territory.

"We are engaging with the governments of both Lebanon and Israel to ensure Lebanon's southern border remains calm," Tillerson said.

"And we remain committed to helping Lebanon and the Lebanese people prosper through the development of their natural resources in agreement with all of their neighbours."The flag above the White House flies at half staff on orders of US President Donald Trump as "a mark of solemn respect" for victims massacred at a Florida school

US President Donald Trump will deliver a televised address Thursday in the wake of a deadly rampage at a Florida school.

"The president will address the nation on the tragic shooting in Parkland, FL at 11am," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said.

Trump earlier issued a proclamation ordering flags on US embassies, government buildings and military installations to be flown at half staff "as a mark of solemn respect" for the victims of Wednesday's school massacre in Parkland, Florida.

Seventeen people were killed when Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old former student, entered the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and opened fire with an AR-15 rifle as students cowered in closets and under desks.

Cruz was later arrested without incident.

The massacre has reignited debate about US gun laws and the failure to protect against repeated mass shootings in US schools and elsewhere.

Trump, who has not yet spoken publicly about the latest attack, skirted that debate in an early morning tweet, instead emphasizing the shooter's mental state.

"So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior," Trump tweeted.

"Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!"A picture taken on December 4, 2017 shows a general view of the skyline of the Old City of Jerusalem

A tax dispute between Israeli authorities in Jerusalem and major churches in the Holy Land heated up on Thursday with church officials deciding to boycott a high-profile event.

The dispute follows a surprise decision by Israeli officials in Jerusalem to begin collecting property taxes from Christian institutions.

The churches' decision not to take part in a New Year reception set for Thursday evening and hosted by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat was "unprecedented", according to Father David Grenier, a top Franciscan official for the Holy Land.

Earlier this month, the municipality had announced its intention to enforce tax collection from church-owned commercial property, saying exemptions for religious institutions apply only to places of worship or religious teaching.

The move surprised church leaders, who on Thursday issued a joint statement calling the measure "contrary to the historic position between the churches within the Holy City of Jerusalem and the civil authorities across the centuries".

The 13 heads of the churches, including Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Evangelical and others, said the measure would "jeopardise" their ability to conduct their work, which includes not only religious but also social services to those in need.

Bank accounts for a number of churches had been frozen, church officials said, but no other move had yet been taken by the city.

The city had calculated the debts of the 887 assets belonging to the various churches to be 657,180,520 shekels (over $190 million, 150 million euros).

Wolfgang Schmidt, provost of the German Protestant Holy Land institutions, said the municipality's move was not coordinated with them.

He called the decision to not attend the New Year reception an act of "solidarity with the churches in Jerusalem."

"We cannot do business as usual after that kind of approach," he told AFP in an email, noting church representatives would be meeting with municipality officials next week on the issue.

A spokeswoman for the mayor said that while the municipality will continue to preserve the "full freedom of worship" of Christian institutions, "hotels, halls and businesses cannot be exempt from municipal taxes simply because they are owned by the churches".

"These are not houses of worship, which are exempt from municipal property taxes, but rather assets used for commercial activities," the spokeswoman said in a statement.Smoke is seen billowing from the northern Syrian Kurdish town of Afrin where Turkey launched an offensive against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrives in Turkey on Thursday with several issues souring the relationship between the two NATO allies.

Here is a rundown of the main sticking points.

- Syria, the Kurds -

Turkey in 2015 agreed to allow the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Syria to use a key air base and has been part of the coalition against the jihadists.

But its opposition to Syrian Kurdish militia, who dominate the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) supported by the coalition, has complicated its role.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia is an ally of the United States but Ankara accuses it of being a terror organisation.

Ankara says the YPG is the Syrian offshoot of its outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade rebellion in Turkey's southeast.

The YPG controls key Syrian northern towns and Turkey fears the emergence of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria, which could have implications for its own territory.

In 2016 Turkish troops launched an operation in Syria to drive out Islamic State fighters as well as Kurdish militias.

But Turkey was angered when the US-led coalition said in January it was working to create a 30,000-strong border security force, around half of whom would be retrained members of the SDF.

It launched a new air and ground operation to oust Kurdish militia in northwest Syria, defying US warnings it risked destabilising the area.

- US-based Turkish cleric -

In July 2016 a renegade army faction attempted a coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan which left 249 people dead, not including the plotters.

Erdogan, on vacation at the time, blamed the coup attempt on Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, a former ally who lives in Pennsylvania.

Erdogan has demanded the United States extradite the cleric but to no avail.

Turkey has since carried out major purges of the civil service to remove Gulen supporters.

Turkey says the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen was behind the failed July 2016 coup which left 249 people dead not including the plotters

In 2017 a Turkish employee of the American consulate in Istanbul was arrested on suspicion of links to Gulen. A Turkish staffer at the US consulate in Adana was detained on suspicion of links to the PKK.

Washington rubbished the charges and in response suspended the majority of its visa services for Turkey. Ankara did the same. The restrictions were lifted at the end of 2017.

- Media, detentions -

In 2016 former US president Barack Obama warned that Turkey's approach towards the media was taking it "down a path that would be very troubling."

According to the P24 press freedom group, there are 156 journalists behind bars in Turkey, most of whom were arrested after the failed coup bid.

The United States also criticised the detaining in 2016 of several US citizens for allegedly being part of the Gulen network.

NASA scientist Serkan Golge, a dual national, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years last week for being a member of Gulen's movement, with the State Department saying he had been convicted "without credible evidence".

US pastor Andrew Brunson, who ran a church in Izmir, has been held on similar charges since October 2016.

- Halkbank trial -

In January Ankara reacted furiously to the conviction in New York of the deputy chief executive of Turkish lender Halkbank, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, on charges of violating sanctions against Iran.

A Turkish-Iranian gold trader testifying at a trial in New York implicated President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a multi-billion-dollar gold-for-oil scheme allegedly designed to subvert US sanctions on Iran

The trial implicated former Turkish ministers and even Erdogan in the sanctions-busting scheme.

Erdogan said it was part of a "chain of plots" against Turkey. Atilla is due to be sentenced on April 11 and Halkbank risks a massive fine.

Several of Erdogan's bodyguards have meanwhile been indicted in absentia over a fracas during his visit to the United States last year.Libyan men walk along the seaside promenade near the courthouse of the city of Benghazi where the first demonstrations started against former leader Moamer Kadhafi seven years ago

Seven years since a revolution that ended four decades of dictatorship under Moamer Kadhafi, Libyans see no end in sight to the North African nation's chaotic transition to democracy.

A UN-backed unity government has failed to assert its authority across the oil-rich country, which is still grappling with deadly attacks, a struggling economy and a migration crisis.

Authorities in the capital Tripoli have planned celebrations on Saturday to mark the seventh anniversary of the start of protests on February 17, 2011 that led to the toppling and killing of Kadhafi.

But the festivities come as persistent insecurity and economic woes feed despair, particularly among Libyan youth.

Hamdi al-Beshir, 17, said he has been waiting for democracy for seven years.

"I can't wait 42 years like my father did with Moamer," he said.

"I have no intention of waiting for them to steal away my youth and life," said the teenager who works in a shop selling clothes.

"I'll throw myself into the sea like the migrants, without looking back."

Since 2011, Libya has been a key gateway for migrants trying to reach Europe, with tens of thousands paying people smugglers to cross the Mediterranean illegally, often on unseaworthy boats.

Thousands have drowned attempting to make the journey, while thousands more have been detained in the North African country, drawing criticism from rights groups over alleged mistreatment and abuse.

- Elections? -

Libya descended into chaos after the 2011 NATO-backed revolt, with rival militias and tribes -- but also jihadists -- vying for influence across the country.

A 2015 UN-backed deal to set up the unity government in Tripoli was meant to end the turmoil.

But Libya has remained riven by divisions between that government and a rival administration backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar in the east.

Forces allied with the unity government expelled the Islamic State group from the coastal city of Sirte in 2016, but the jihadists still pose a threat from their desert hideouts.

UN envoy Ghassan Salame said this month he hoped for parliamentary and presidential elections in Libya by the end of 2018, but warned conditions were not yet ready for polling.

Haftar -- whose forces have fought jihadists in the east of the country -- has supported holding elections although it is not clear if he would stand as a candidate.

Opponents of the strongman, who is backed by Egypt and the UAE, accuse him of wanting to establish a military dictatorship, while supporters have called for him to take control by "popular mandate".

Haftar's forces last year expelled jihadists from Libya's second city Benghazi, considered the birthplace of the revolution that ousted Kadhafi, but deadly bombings have since rocked the eastern city.

Some analysts warn that elections could further complicate the situation.

- 'Matter of decades' -

Previous efforts to stem the strife have come up against the opposition of a myriad of factions which switch allegiances according to their interests.

Earlier in February, an armed group blocked hundreds of families from returning to their western hometown of Tawergha despite a deal struck by the unity government and United Nations.

They had been chased from the town after being accused of supporting Kadhafi's regime in 2011.

As pointed out by Federica Saini Fasanotti of the Washington-based Brookings Institute think-tank, democracies are not born overnight.

"Processes of democratisation are -- as history teaches us -- always long, cruel and very difficult," she said.

"Creating a nation can be a matter of decades, centuries in some cases."

For now, Libyans live to the rhythm of electricity cuts and long queues outside banks, as the country struggles with a cash crunch and an unprecedented drop in the value of its currency.

This comes despite an increase in crude sales, which analysts see as key to kickstarting Libya's moribund economy and returning security to the country.

Libya's oil revenues more than tripled in 2017 despite the violence and political instability -- though they are still a fraction of crude sales under Kadhafi.

Since 2014, fighting and protests have regularly shut down oil facilities, a key focus of power struggles in a country with the largest oil reserves in Africa.United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. DAVID WABAKKEN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS AND REHABILITATION; et al., Defendants-Appellees. No. 16-56277 Decided: February 14, 2018

Before: REINHARDT, W. FLETCHER, and OWENS, Circuit Judges.

MEMORANDUM*

Plaintiff David Wabakken (Wabakken) appeals from a judgment following a jury verdict finding that Defendants, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and Correctional Officers Gary Grover, George DiMaggio, Keith Mayfield, and J.W. Morgan (collectively Officer Defendants), did not violate his rights under the California Whistleblower Protection Act (CWPA), nor did J.W. Morgan violate his First Amendment rights. As the parties are familiar with the facts, we do not recount them here. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.  1291, and we affirm.

1. Assuming that the district court erred in denying Wabakken's motion in limine to exclude certain evidence that the CDCR failed to prove in a hearing before the California State Personnel Board (SPB), Wabakken has forfeited his right to appeal the district court's ruling. Wabakken seeks to exclude evidence of his alleged misconduct that supports the CDCR's adverse action against him and thus its affirmative defense to his whistleblower claims under California Government Code  8247.8(e). But because Wabakken's counsel elicited testimony of this misconduct on direct examination, he may not now challenge its introduction on cross examination. See Coursen v. A.H. Robins Co., 764 F.2d 1329, 1340 (9th Cir. 1985) (holding that the party forfeited its right to appeal a motion in limine to exclude certain evidence after the party's counsel elicited such evidence on direct examination); see also Fed. R. Evid. 611(b).

2. Any error by the district court in excluding the SPB findings was harmless. Wabakken argues that the district court erred in granting the CDCR and Officer Defendants' motion in limine to exclude the SPB findings, which found that the CDCR had failed to prove some of Wabakken's alleged misconduct. The jury verdict makes clear, however, that the jury found that neither the CDCR nor the Officer Defendants had taken adverse action against Wabakken. If no adverse action was taken, whether Wabakken engaged in the alleged misconduct that could otherwise support such action is irrelevant. Any error in excluding the SPB findings was therefore harmless. Cf. Cunha v. Ward Foods, Inc., 804 F.2d 1418, 1434 (9th Cir. 1986) (finding harmless error where court refused to instruct jury on promissory estoppel claim because jury, in considering another claim, found no promise was given).

3. The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Wabakken's motion in limine to exclude evidence from a fourth misconduct investigation that did not result in a Notice of Adverse Action (NOAA) against Wabakken. Under Federal Rule of Evidence 403, the district court had discretion to weigh the probative value of this evidence against its danger for unfair prejudice. To reverse the district court's Rule 403 determination, this court must find that the district court ruling more likely than not tainted the jury's verdict. See Beachy v. Boise Cascade Corp., 191 F.3d 1010, 1015 (9th Cir. 1999). Given the substantial evidence of racial discrimination alleged in connection with the second and third NOAAs against Wabakken, it is unlikely that evidence of the fourth investigation, the subject of which was also racial discrimination, tainted the jury's verdict. Id. at 1016.

Wabakken's argument that his procedural due process rights were violated by the introduction of such evidence also fails. He was afforded his constitutional rights in connection with the first three NOAAs, the only ones that resulted in adverse action against him. See Cleveland Bd. of Educ. v. Loudermill, 470 U.S. 532, 542 (1985).

4. The district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding deposition testimony of one of Wabakken's witnesses under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 32(a)(4)(D). This Rule permits a party to use deposition testimony if the court finds  that the party offering the deposition could not procure the witness's attendance by subpoena. Fed. R. Civ. P. 32(a)(4)(D). After Wabakken subpoenaed the witness, he made no effort to have him appear at trial based on his belief that the correctional authorities would refuse to bring the witness to court. The district court did not abuse its discretion in failing to find that perceived futility satisfies Rule 32(a)(4)(D).

5. Any error by the district court in instructing the jury that the CWPA provided the Officer Defendants an affirmative defense if they could prove that they had legitimate, non-retaliatory reasons to take adverse action against Wabakken, see Cal. Gov't Cd.  8547.8(c), was harmless. It is clear from the jury verdict that the jury did not find that any of the Officer Defendants had taken adverse action against Wabakken. The jury therefore neither needed to, nor did, decide whether the Officer Defendants had made out this affirmative defense. Cf. Benigni v. City of Hemet, 879 F.2d 473, 480 (9th Cir. 1988) (finding harmless error where court failed to instruct jury on reasonableness because jury's punitive damages award indicated it found officers' conduct to be more than unreasonable). Any error in the jury instruction as to this affirmative defense was therefore harmless.

6. Wabakken is not entitled to a new trial based on judicial bias. Wabakken's primary contention is that the district court was biased against him because it was reversed in Wabakken v. CDCR, 801 F.3d 1143 (9th Cir. 2015). Wabakken does not point to a single instance in which the trial judge attempted to interfere with his case or assist the defense. See United States v. Laurins, 857 F.2d 529, 537 (9th Cir. 1988) (requiring actual bias or jury perception of advocacy or partiality). Wabakken therefore fails to demonstrate judicial bias.

AFFIRMED.Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi inside the Dome of the Rock during his visit to Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem on February 15, 2018

An Omani minister made a rare visit by an Arab official to a Jerusalem holy site on Thursday after holding talks with Palestinian leaders in the occupied West Bank.

Yusuf bin Alawi, minister in charge of foreign affairs, visited the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, an AFP journalist reported.

His visit comes in the wake of US President Donald Trump's controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital on December 6, a move that angered the Muslim world.

Such a visit would usually require coordination with Israeli officials. An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said he was unaware of the visit and could not immediately comment.

Oman and Israel do not have official diplomatic relations, as is the case with most of the Arab world.

The Al-Aqsa mosque compound is the third-holiest site for Muslims and the scene of regular tensions between Palestinians and Israeli authorities.

Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi at east Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound on February 15, 2018

It is on the hill that Jews refer to as the Temple Mount, the most sacred place in Judaism as the site of the first and second Jewish temples in the biblical era.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken repeatedly of improving ties with Arab nations in recent months, but there was no sign of a link to the minister's visit.

Bin Alawi visited the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque at the compound and said "it is a duty of Arabs to visit the mosque if they can".

Jerusalem's status is perhaps the most sensitive in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel occupied east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community. It sees the entire city as its capital.

The Palestinians want Jerusalem's eastern sector as the capital of their future state.

Bin Alawi met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah earlier in the day.

After the Al-Aqsa compound, Bin Alawi also visited the nearby Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built at the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.Medics on February 15, 2018 check the damage at the Sham Surgical Hospital in the village of Hass in Idlib, Syria's last province beyond government control

Air strikes have hit a hospital in Syria's last province beyond government control, in the seventh such raid on a medical facility there by the regime or its ally Russia in two weeks, a monitor said Thursday.

The strikes, thought to be Russian, hit the hospital in the northwestern province of Idlib late Wednesday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.

The Observatory, which relies on sources inside Syria for its information, says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions used.

Inside the hospital in the village of Hass on Thursday, boxes of medicine lay scattered on the floor while part of a wall had collapsed onto a bed and medical equipment, an AFP correspondent said.

The strikes come after the regime in December last year launched an offensive on Idlib, which is dominated by an alliance led by Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate.

"The hospital was the last functional one in all of southeast Idlib," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

"In two weeks, seven hospitals and medical clinics have been hit in Idlib in strikes by the regime or its Russian ally," he said, adding that a blood bank was also hit.

After another strike on a hospital in Idlib last week, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) expressed alarm at the repeated targeting of healthcare centres.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, says the Sham Surgical Hospital is one of several to have been targeted by regime or Russian air strikes in the last fortnight in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib

"Civilian areas -- specifically healthcare facilities -- are being hit in northwestern Syria," said Omar Ahmed Abenza, MSF head of mission for northwestern Syria, after the strike on the area of Mishmishan.

"The strikes, despite their regularity during the seven years long conflict, are currently at an intensity that should be a landmark, another wake-up call," he said.

The bombardment of medical facilities has a "terrible knock-on effect", he said, with fearful staff at other facilities reducing their services after each strike.

"The result is more people in greater need, with fewer health services open and available."

Jihadists and rebels overran Idlib in 2015, but since then hardliners have expanded their control and the influence of mainstream rebels has shrunk drastically.

Some 2.5 million people, including more than one million displaced Syrians, live in the province.

More than 340,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon has led the country for more than a quarter of a century

A dance teacher in Tajikistan says she was sacked after failing to watch the end-of-year speech of long-reigning autocrat President Emomali Rakhmon.

Rakhmon, who has led the ex-Soviet country for more than a quarter of a century, tolerates little opposition and has presided over a leadership cult that has noticeably strengthened in recent years.

Saida Rustamova, 45, told AFP Thursday that she lost her job after not attending a viewing of the president's speech in December at the state-run music school where she worked in the capital Dushanbe.

"When I went into the hall to attend, there were no empty seats in the room. Some chairs had two or three children sitting on them," Rustamova said, arguing there was "no space" to join other staff and pupils.

A letter from the music school's director, shown to AFP by Rustamova, indicates her dismissal was due to a "categorical refusal" to watch the state broadcast of Rakhmon addressing the country's parliament.

"I am a musician. I don't get involved in politics," she said, while denying that she deliberately skipped the speech.

Tajikistan's culture ministry said a "legal ruling" on Rustamova's case is expected "soon" after she lodged an appeal against her dismissal.

Earlier this month Rakhmon, 65, signed off on an order to mint a golden medal named after himself that will be awarded to citizens in recognition of outstanding services to the majority-Muslim republic.

Rakhmon, whose portrait features on the medal, received "Leader of the Nation" status granting him and members of his family lifelong immunity from prosecution in 2015.

Many analysts expect the strongman to rule Tajikistan for as long as he lives after a virtually uncontested constitutional referendum in 2016 paved the way for him to run for office an unlimited number of times.

But another amendment passed in the same plebiscite lowered the age limit for presidential candidates from 35 to 30, which could indicate that Rakhmon's oldest son Rustam is being prepared to succeed him ahead of schedule.

Rustam Emomali is currently serving as the capital's mayor following lower key stints as head of the state customs and anti-corruption services.

The Central Asian country was placed 151st on anti-graft watchdog Transparency International's most recent corruption perceptions index.US Secretary of Defence James Mattis tells reporters NATO has struck and understanding with the EU on defence ties

NATO has reached an understanding on defence ties with the EU while top allies Washington and Ankara are finding "common ground" in a row over Syria, US defence secretary Jim Mattis said Thursday

A new European Union defence pact and Turkey's offensive against US-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria have put strains on a transatlantic alliance facing a more assertive Russia and threats from the Middle East.

NATO defence ministers met late Wednesday with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to discuss their concerns over duplication after Brussels agreed in December to a new defence pact.

"There is a clear understanding to include in written EU documents that the common defence is a NATO mission and a NATO mission alone," Mattis told a press conference in Brussels.

Mattis said discussions were "very candid" between the 29-nation NATO, which includes European Union members, and Mogherini.

"We have sufficient rigour in the political sharing, the political discussions, to keep the EU effort, for example on military mobility," Mattis said.

He said the EU can "enhance NATO common defense capabilities and does not draw from them."

The EU's so-called permanent structured cooperation on defence agreement, known as PESCO, has projects in view already to develop new military equipment and improve cooperation and decision-making.

But on Sunday a senior official working with Mattis said Washington had concerns that some of the proposed initiatives risked "pulling resources or capabilities away from NATO".

- 'Common ground' -

In the runup to the meeting, NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg warned there was "no way" the EU could replace the transatlantic alliance in guaranteeing European security.

"It will be absolutely without any meaning if NATO and the EU start to compete," the former Norwegian premier told reporters on Tuesday.

A row that is potentially more serious is the one festering between the United States and Turkey over Ankara's "Operation Olive Branch", launched last month against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

Ankara are finding "common ground" in a row over Syria, US defence secretary Jim Mattis said Thursday

While Turkey views the YPG as a "terrorist" group, the United States has been working closely with the militia against the Islamic State group in Syria and giving it weapons, infuriating Ankara.

"We maintain an absolutely honest and open dialogue," Mattis said after meeting his Turkish counterpart Nurettin Canikli on the sidelines of the NATO meeting a day earlier.

"I think we are finding common ground," Mattis told the press conference on Thursday.

During the handshake for the talks on Wednesday, Mattis appeared stony-faced.

He called "for a renewed focus on the campaign to defeat ISIS, and to preventing any vestige of the terrorist organisation from reconstituting in Syria," the Pentagon said in a statement Thursday, referring to the Islamic State group.

- Legitimate threats to Turkey -

But he "acknowledged the legitimate threats posed to Turkeys national security by terrorist organisations," the statement said.

Mattis said NATO allies had made progress toward a goal they set in 2014 of raising defence spending to two percent of GDP over a decade but added much still needs to be done.

Since he took office more than a year ago, US President Donald Trump has warned NATO allies to meet the goal and NATO officials said they will be under close watch in the runup to an alliance summit in June.

NATO has reached an understanding on defence ties with the EU, US defence secretary Jim Mattis say after NATO defence ministers met at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels

Mattis and Stoltenberg said eight NATO members are set to meet the two percent target this year, adding a total 15 are expected to do so by 2024 while others fall short.

The ministers agreed here Wednesday to modernise the NATO command structure with plans to set up an Atlantic command to protect maritime routes between Europe and North America.

They also decided to establish a new support command to improve the movement of troops in Europe and boost troop rapid response while creating a new operations centre to defend against cyber attacks in Mons, Belgium.

Trump's administration has also asked the other 28 NATO member states, mainly European but also Canada, to increase their military capabilities and contribute more to war games.

The ministers agreed Thursday to start planning for a sustained NATO mission to train Iraqi forces, including setting up officer academies, as part of efforts to keep extremist groups at bay.US President Donald Trump faces questions about his muted response to a Florida school shooting that left 17 dead

US President Donald Trump will deliver a major televised address Thursday, as he confronts mounting questions about his handling of a deadly rampage at a Florida school.

After 18 hours of intense internal White House deliberations, Sarah Sanders announced that Trump would "address the nation on the tragic shooting in Parkland, FL at 11am (1600 GMT)."

Trump has not yet spoken publicly about Wednesday's rampage, in which 17 people were shot dead at a school in the southern state of Florida.

Earlier Thursday, Trump issued a largely symbolic proclamation, ordering that flags be flown at half staff at US embassies, government buildings and military installations.

"Our nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones in the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida," he said.

But Trump's muted response to the tragedy has been striking.

In similar situations, previous presidents have appeared before the nation to console or unite.

Barack Obama's tearful appearance after 20 elementary school children were cut down at Sandy Hook in 2012, was a seminal moment of his presidency.

Trump, as ever in his ground-breaking and rule-breaking presidency, has chosen to do things differently.

At exactly the time US authorities confirmed 17 people had been shot dead in a school in Florida Wednesday evening, the White House said Trump would not appear again that evening.

In an unusual scene, reporters who work in what could be the world's busiest newsroom walked out the door toward Valentine's Day appointments they had assumed they would miss.

- A pair of tweets -

Trump's only comments Wednesday were a pair of tweets saying he spoke to Florida Governor Rick Scott and was "working closely with law enforcement on the terrible Florida school shooting."

"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school."

Students react following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, a city about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Miami on February 14, 2018

First Lady, Melania Trump, sent a tweet and so did Vice President Mike Pence.

But with other questions brewing about Trump's position on gun control, his alleged affair with a porn star and a battery of allegations against a top aide, the White House cancelled its already delayed regular daily briefing.

"In light of this tragedy there will not be a regularly scheduled briefing as previously announced," Sanders said, three hours after a briefing had been due to start.

No briefing was scheduled for Thursday either.

Inside any White House, there is a difficult conversation about what to say after a mass shooting and how to say it.

"Somehow this has become routine," Barack Obama said in 2015. By the end of his presidency, he had, he said, felt tapped out, unsure what to say and how it could make a difference.

"The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine." The response is difficult, in part, because Americans' differences over gun laws are so engrained.

This latest mass shooting -- in a country where mass shootings are an almost daily occurrence -- has inevitably reignited questions about America's permissive gun laws.

Trump's hard opposition to any additional gun control makes this White House's response even more difficult.

He is the first president to have addressed the NRA, a powerful gun industry group that has outsized influence over American politics.

Sales of weapons have actually declined since he was elected, with owners feeling less of a need to buy ahead of possible curbs.

- Onus on shooter -

Nikolas Cruz, seen here in a booking photo obtained February 15, 2018 courtesy of the Broward County Sheriff's Office, has been charged with premeditated murder in the shooting deaths of 17 people at a Florida high school

By Thursday morning Trump again took to Twitter to put the onus on the alleged shooter, urging Americans to report neighbors' "erratic" behavior.

"So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior," Trump tweeted.

"Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!"

The suspect used an Colt AR-15, a semi-automatic weapon that was reported to have been legally purchased.

Opponents of gun control have sought to shift the debate to focus on the behavior and motives of those using the weapons.Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is the object of an internal investigation into his handling of a politically sensitive broadcast merger

The top US telecom regulator is the object of an internal watchdog probe into the handling of rule changes that benefitted a politically sensitive merger of two major broadcast operators, a lawmaker said Thursday.

A spokesman for Representative Frank Pallone, a Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the inspector general's probe is on the actions of Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai.

Pallone's spokesman confirmed a report in the New York Times, which first reported the FCC inspector general's probe into Pai's actions on rules affecting the proposed deal in which Sinclair Broadcasting, the largest US broadcast television group, is seeking to buy Tribune Media Co.

"For months I have been trying to get to the bottom of the allegations about Chairman Pai's relationship with Sinclair Broadcasting," Pallone said in a statement.

"I am grateful to the FCC's inspector general that he has decided to take up this important investigation."

The probe, which is expected to examine whether Pai and his aides improperly coordinated rule changes with Sinclair, could create problems for the pending approval of the $3.9 billion transaction.

An FCC spokesman called the notion of favoritism by Pai "absurd," and noted that the agency had proposed a record fine against Sinclair for violating sponsorship identification rules.

"Chairman Pai has for many years called on the FCC to update its media ownership regulations to match the realities of the modern marketplace," the statement said.

"Considering the strong case for modernizing these rules, it's not surprising that those who disagree with him would prefer to do whatever they can to distract from the merits of the reforms that the FCC has adopted."

Critics of the deal have argued the FCC revised its rules -- which prevented a single company from controlling too many broadcast stations and from controlling more than a single broadcaster in the same market -- because of Sinclair's friendly treatment of President Donald Trump.

The deal announced last May would give Sinclair some 233 television stations in 108 markets, adding the 42 operated by Tribune Media including large stations in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

The consumer group Free Press said that in light of the investigation, Pai should recuse himself from all decisions related to the Sinclair-Tribune deal.

Free Press is among several consumer organizations which have complained that FCC approval would enable Sinclair to air "politically biased programming" to more than 70 percent of the US population.

"The publicly available evidence suggests a pattern of abuse where Sinclair forces its local stations to air pro-Trump messages in exchange for policy favors from the Trump administration and its FCC chairman," said Free Press senior counsel Jessica Gonzalez.

"If the deal is allowed to proceed, it would expand the company's longstanding pattern of evading public-interest obligations and abusing its market power to score political points, spread propaganda and serve a right-wing political agenda."Sri Lanka batsman Kusal Mendis (right) plays a shot as the Bangladesh wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim looks on during their first Twenty20 (T20) match in Dhaka on February 15, 2018

Opener Kusal Mendis scored his maiden half century in Twenty20 internationals to lead Sri Lanka's six-wicket rout of Bangladesh in the first of the two matches in Dhaka on Thursday.

Mendis smashed 53 off 27 balls while Dasun Shanaka hit an unbeaten 42 as the visitors eased past Bangladesh's record total of 193-5 with 20 balls to spare.

Shanaka, who hit three fours and three sixes in his 24-ball blitz, shared an unbeaten 65-run stand with Thisara Perera to snap Sri Lanka's eight-match losing streak in T20 matches.

Bangladesh rode on brisk half-centuries by Soumya Sarkar and Mushfiqur Rahim to post their highest-ever T20 total but were undone by an attacking opposition batting.

Sri Lanka responded strongly with Mendis putting on 53 runs with fellow-opener Danushka Gunathilaka, who made 30, to put the Bangladesh bowlers on the back-foot.

Left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam, one of the four debutants in the Bangladeshi line-up, broke the stand when he got Gunathilaka stumped.

Nazmul later picked the wicket of Upul Tharanga, for four, before fellow debutant Afif Hossain removed Mendis with his off spin.

But Shanaka and Perera, who was unbeaten on 39 off just 18 balls, ensured no further hiccups in the Sri Lankan innings.

"We talked before the second innings that it was a good wicket to bat and we just needed to do our basics and if we can do our basics, then we can chase down the target," said Gunathilaka.

Earlier, the home side surpassed their previous highest score of 190-5 against Ireland in Belfast in 2012, thanks to some prolific batting by Mushfiqur and Soumya.

Mushfiqur remained unbeaten on 66 off 44 balls while Soumya hit a 32-ball 51 -- the left-handed opener's maiden T20 fifty -- after the hosts elected to bat first.

Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah Riyad felt they were few runs short despite their record score.

"We could have scored 10-15 runs more on this wicket," Mahmudullah said after the game.

"They bowled well in the middle overs and especially Udana [Isuru] bowled good yorkers in an over. We have to try many things at that time," he added.

Sri Lankan leg-spinner Jeevan Mendis claimed two wickets.

The second match of the series will be held in Sylhet on Sunday.Acting US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and The Pacific Susan Thornton, seen here shaking hands with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last year, confirmed Washington is not considering a pre-emptive "bloody nose" strike on North Korea

The United States is not considering a pre-emptive "bloody nose" strike on North Korea to punish it for its nuclear weapons program, US lawmakers and a senior official said Thursday.

At a hearing to confirm nominees for top State Department roles, senators said they had been told by members of President Donald Trump's national security team that no such idea was even on the table.

Acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific Susan Thornton, who has been nominated for confirmation to take the post permanently, agreed she understood this was the case.

US Senator Jeanne Shaheen told Thornton the unnamed White House official had "made it very clear that there is no bloody nose strategy for a strike against North Korea.

"Is it your understanding as well that there is no bloody nose strategy for North Korea?" the Democratic senator asked. Thornton replied: "That is my understanding senator, yes."

A Republican senator who had also been in the previous closed door meeting, James Risch of Idaho, agreed.

"We were told clearly by administration people -- about as high up as it gets -- that there is no such thing as a bloody nose strategy, that they've never talked about it," he said.

Media reports have suggested that some White House officials would favor such a strike, designed to intimidate Kim Jong-Un's regime but stop short of an all-out war to overthrow him.

But it is also reported that senior military commanders and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis oppose the idea, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has vowed to pursue a diplomatic solution.Nose for victory: Caroline Wozniacki hits balls into the crowd after her feisty win over Monica Niculescu at the Qatar Open

An irritated world number one Caroline Wozniacki progressed to the Qatar Open quarter-finals on Thursday in a feisty match where she complained and apparently mocked her opponent Monica Niculescu's grunting.

The recently crowned Australian Open champion won 7-5, 6-1 against the Romanian -- who had knocked out Maria Sharapova in a previous round -- but was visibly agitated in the ninth game of the first set, complaining her opponent was making noises as the Dane was about to hit the ball.

Wozniacki was so upset about the sounds coming from the other side of the net that she complained to French umpire Emmanuel Joseph.

"It isn't in the rule book that you are not allowed to grunt when the opposing player hits?" courtside microphones caught her asking Joseph.

The umpire said he thought everything was "regular", but Wozniacki added: "It's the only way she can win."

She then mimicked the grunts.

Afterwards she complained that her opponent was "a player that tries to get into your head".

She also told Danish TV that her opponent had used "unfair methods".

"(I) just tried to let him know to pay attention to her grunting because she'll hit the ball and two seconds later when the ball is on my side and I'm right about to hit, she'll start grunting and make a noise," the Dane told reporters.

"And she will change the grunt according to what she feels like."

Asked if she thought her opponent was grunting deliberately, Wozniacki responded: "I think that she didn't do it in the second set, so..."

The spat overshadowed a relatively routine victory for the 27-year-old, which ensured she retained her number one ranking after Simona Halep also advanced to the final eight.

Ice creams and kisses: Catherine Bellis defeats Karolina Pliskova in Qatar

By reaching the quarter-finals, Halep now has a chance of reclaiming the world's top spot if she goes one round further than the Dane.

The tournament could also see a rematch of the Australian Open final, as the pair are seeded one and two in Doha.

Halep beat Anastasija Sevastova 6-4, 6-3, hitting 29 winners on her way to victory.

She also shrugged off injury concerns coming into the match about an ankle injury which had kept her out of action since Melbourne.

But she seemed relatively untroubled breaking her opponent's serve late in each set to advance to the last eight.

"I'm really glad that I could finish it in two sets and play like I played," said Halep.

The world number two will play 18-year-old American qualifier Catherine Bellis in the last eight, who beat defending champion and world number five Karolina Pliskova 7-6 (7/4), 6-3.

It is the first time the teenager has beaten anyone ranked in the top five.

"I think it's definitely a milestone. It's great," she said.

Bellis put part of her success down to eating ice cream every night in Doha, which "gives me a bit of energy".

World number three Elina Svitolina is out, beaten 6-4, 7-5 by a resurgent Petra Kvitova.

And Garbine Muguruza, world number four, breezed through beating Sorana Cirstea 6-0, 6-4.Map of Deir Ezzor, Syria, locating an attack against the Syrian Democratic Forces and a counterstrike by the US-led coalition that backs the group

Five Russian citizens were likely killed in a US-led coalition bombing on pro-regime Syrian fighters last week, Moscow said Thursday, acknowledging non-military casualties in the attack for the first time.

"We are possibly talking about the deaths of five people, supposedly citizens of the Russian Federation. Others are injured. But this all requires verification, in particular their citizenship. We are not talking about Russian soldiers," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

At the time of the attack in Deir Ezzor last Wednesday, the Russian defence ministry insisted it had no servicemen in the eastern province of Syria.

However, many Russian citizens are fighting in Syria as mercenaries working for a private military company called Wagner, according to numerous reports.

Some media reports said dozens or even hundreds of Russian mercenaries were killed in the attack but Zakharova dismissed these claims as "classic disinformation" spread by anti-regime militants.

The Kremlin has declined to comment on the attack, saying only that Russian civilians could be in Syria but it did not have detailed information.

The US-led coalition said it killed at least 100 regime and allied fighters in Deir Ezzor province in the February 7 attack after pro-regime combatants attacked positions held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

"In the conflict zones there are many citizens from all parts of the world, including Russia... it is extremely difficult to monitor them and to check what they are doing," Zakharova said.

- 15 killed in explosion -

According to some Russian media, the US strike was in response to an attack by a pro-Assad militia supported by Russian mercenaries on a gas field controlled by Arab and Kurdish forces allied with Washington.

The Russian defence ministry, which did not mention the presence of Russian mercenaries, said the incident had been provoked by a "lack of co-ordination" on the part of the pro-Assad group with Russian command.

The pro-regime combattants were searching for a cell of the Islamic State group when they were targeted by coalition aircraft, the ministry said.

The US response showed that Washington "was taking under its control economic assets belonging to Syria", Moscow said.

Fifteen Russians employed in Syria by a private security company were killed in a separate explosion several days ago, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday.

The incident happened at a weapons storage facility at Tabiya Jazira run by a company that protects "the oil and gas fields controlled by the Syrian regime", Observatory directory Rami Abdel Rahman said.

The Russian military campaign, launched in September 2015 in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, helping to turn around the multi-front war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in December that Moscow's military brief in the Syrian conflict has been largely completed and ordered a partial pullout of the country's troops.Washington has said Turkey's operation against the YPG militia in Syria risks diverting energy from the fight against IS jihadists

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday held talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, seeking to ease tensions between the NATO allies that reached new heights over Ankara's ongoing operation inside Syria.

A prime task of President Donald Trump's top diplomat is to allay Turkish anger over US policy in Syria, a dispute which has ignited the biggest crisis in bilateral ties since the 2003 Iraq war.

But Turkish presidential sources said Erdogan made no secret of Turkey's concerns during the over three-hour meeting with the former chief of energy giant Exxon Mobil.

"In the talks, Turkey's priorities and expectations on all these topics were clearly conveyed to the US secretary of state," said a source, asking not to be named.

Tillerson will meet on Friday morning Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu who was the only other official present at the meeting and acted as translator, US sources said.

A State Department official said Tillerson and Erdogan had a "productive and open" conversation about a "mutually beneficial way forward" for US-Turkey ties.

Turkey's operation against the People's Protection Units (YPG) Kurdish militia in the Afrin region of Syria has added a potentially insurmountable new problem to an increasingly rough bilateral relationship.

Analysts said the level of tension was similar to 2003 when Turkey refused to let US troops operate from its territory for the Iraq war, or even the aftermath of Ankara's invasion of Cyprus in 1974.

Turkey's operation against the YPG, which Ankara blacklists as a terror group, has seen Turkish troops fighting a militia which is closely allied with the US in the battle against Islamic State (IS) group jihadists.

Speaking in Beirut before his meeting with Erdogan, Tillerson denied Washington ever gave heavy weaponry to the YPG and thus could not gather up such arms, as desired by Ankara.

"We have never given heavy arms to the YPG so there is none to take back," Tillerson said.

- Weakening anti-IS efforts -

Erdogan earlier this month accused Washington of sending in thousands of truckloads and planeloads of weapons to the YPG in Syria, asking why the US still had a presence there if the jihadists had been defeated.

And he further upped the ante by warning US troops to leave Manbij, a YPG-held town east of Afrin, raising fears of a clash between the allies.

He also warned that the US risked being dealt an "Ottoman slap" in Syria -- a backhand thwack which, according to legend, could kill an opponent at a stroke.

A State Department official said US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had a "productive and open" conversation about a "mutually beneficial way forward" for US-Turkey ties

For Ankara, the YPG is a branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is blacklisted as a terror outfit by the US and the EU.

But for Washington, the YPG is an ally against IS jihadists and Turkey's operation is a distraction from efforts to ensure the extremists are permanently defeated.

But Cavusoglu this week warned Washington that ties were at a "critical point" at which relations would "be fixed or... completely damaged."

It was unclear whether Tillerson's visit could achieve any kind of breakthrough.

Following a meeting with US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in Brussels, Turkish Defence Minister Nurettin Canikli said Ankara wanted to see the YPG pulled out of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) umbrella group.

He said Mattis had promised greater support in Turkey's fight against the PKK in their rear bases in northern Iraq.

- Litany of problems -

The squabble over Syria is, however, just one of a litany of issues burdening Turkey-US relations.

Ties were damaged after the failed coup of 2016 with Turkey stung by a perceived lack of US solidarity and angered by Washington's refusal to extradite Fethullah Gulen, a Pennsylvania-based cleric blamed for ordering the putsch.

And Washington has expressed concern that several of its citizens -- as well as at least two Turkish employees of US missions -- have been caught up in the post-coup crackdown.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip has warned Washington it risks getting an "Ottoman slap" if it interferes with its Syrian operation

Last week, NASA scientist Serkan Golge, a dual national, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years for being a member of Gulen's movement, while US pastor Andrew Brunson, who ran a church in Izmir, who has been held on similar charges since October 2016.

Turkey also has a key lever in its hosting of US airbase at its southern military airport of Incirlik close to Syria, which houses dozens of American tactical nuclear weapons and which the conservative Turkish press has repeatedly said should be shut.Lome's former archbishop Phillipe Kpodzro, seen here meeting Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe in 2006, has described the stubborn refusal to relinquish power as "diabolical"

Rights groups on Thursday raised the alarm over Togo's "campaign of intimidation" against activists responsible for encouraging people to join a months-long protest against the rule of embattled President Faure Gnassingbe.

"The Togolese authorities must stop harassing pro-democracy activists and human rights defenders in relation to the widespread protests that have been taking place across the country," said Amnesty International, Front Line Defenders and Africans Rising in a joint statement.

"The human rights situation in the country has been deteriorating rapidly since the eruption of pro-democracy protests in August 2017," they said, expressing "deep concern at the recent campaign of intimidation employed against pro-democracy activists who have been active in mobilising citizens and taking part in the protests."

They also took aim at the "repressive response of the security forces" accusing them of using live bullets, tear gas and batons against peaceful protesters and bystanders.

A rolling series of anti-government demonstrations have been held across the country nearly every week since August demanding the exit of Gnassingbe after he proposed changes to the constitution that would allow him to stay in power longer.

The three organisations rapped the government for the continued detention of several local leaders who are due to go on trial for a raft of charges including defamation, inciting a riot, violence, arson and threats against public officials.

The statement was issued as mediators were preparing for a round of talks between the government and the opposition in Lome on the controversial reforms, that will be mediated by Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo.

The opposition wants to restrict the presidential term to a maximum of two, five-year stints in office, and introduce a two-round voting system.

On Wednesday, the former archbishop of Lome Philippe Fanoko Kpodzro urged Gnassingbe to step down at the end of his term in 2020, deploring the stubborn refusal to relinquish power as "diabolical".

And on Thursday, the Togolese armed forces issued a statement renewing their support for the embattled leader, expressing their "unwavering support for (Gnassingbe's) policy of reconciliation, dialogue and sustainable development."

Gnassingbe has been in power since 2005. He took over from his father, who ruled the country for 38 years.Hypersonic missiles that can fly at many times the speed of sound are leading to an arms race between the world's three greatest super-powers.

The weapons, currently being tested by the US, China and Russia, are designed to beat regular anti-missile defence systems and can strike anywhere in the world.

They can switch direction in flight and do not follow a predictable arc like conventional missiles.

Now, the Pentagon has applied for $120 million (85m) in funding to develop technologies to intercept the next generation munitions.

Scroll down for video

Hypersonic missiles that can fly at many times the speed of sound are leading to an arms race between the world's three greatest super-powers. This artist's impression, courtesy of the US Air Force, shows the hypersonic X-51A Waverider cruise missile currently under development

The Pentagon's plans were outlined In the latest proposed US budget released by the Office Of Management And Budget In Washington, DC.

Even as the Pentagon works to ensure that its defenses keep pace with North Korea's fast-growing rocket program, US officials are increasingly turning their attention to the new missile threat.

In its proposed $9.9 billion (7bn) requested budget for 2019, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is asking the additional money to develop hypersonic missile defences, a big increase from the $75 million (53) in fiscal 2018.

'China's hypersonic weapons development outpaces ours, we're falling behind,' said Admiral Harry Harris, who heads the US military's Pacific Command.

'We need to continue to pursue that and in a most aggressive way in order to ensure that we have the capabilities to both defend against China's hypersonic weapons and to develop our own offensive hypersonic weapons,' he added.

MDA Director of Operations Gary Pennett told Pentagon reporters this week that the potential deployment by America's rivals of hypersonic weapons would create a 'significant' gap in US sensor and missile interceptor capabilities.

These weapons could be launched from planes, ships or submarines and carry either nuclear or conventional payloads.

'The key challenge to US national security and the security of US friends and allies is the emergence of new threats designed to defeat the existing' ballistic missile defense system,' Mr Pennett said.

According to reports, China has developed and last year tested a new type of hypersonic missile called the DF-17.

The DF-17 is a ballistic missile equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), which is said to be capable of achieving speeds of up to 7,680 miles per hour (12,360 kph)  or 10 times the speed of sound.

In tests conducted in November 2017, the missiles payload flew roughly 870 miles (1,400km) in about 11 minutes with the HGV, though intelligence experts suspect it could one day achieve over 1,500 miles (2,500 km).

According to reports, China has developed and last year tested a new type of hypersonic missile called the DF-17. Since 2013, China has conducted seven successful test flights of its hypersonic craft (model pictured in a state-TV documentary)

Pictured is an official artist's impression of China's DF-17 hypersonic craft. Hypersonic vehicles travel so rapidly and unpredictably they could provide an almost-immediate threat to nations across the globe

WHAT ARE HYPERSONIC MISSILES AND HOW DO THEY WORK? Aircraft and missiles are said to be hypersonic once they exceed speeds of Mach 5 and above, or five times the speed of sound. This occurs at 1,715 metres per second (3,836mph / 6,174kmh). The latest class of hypersonic missiles would be smaller, guided and designed to carry conventional explosives for time-sensitive, rapid response in theatre operations. There are two kinds of approaches to solving the hypersonic challenge in missiles: 'scramjet' and 'boost glide.' The air-breathing scramjet relies on high speed for its power. As it accelerates, more air and fuel is pushed into the engine, allowing it to accelerate even more - to hypersonic speeds. The boost glide model rides a reentry vehicle to extremely high altitudes, where it skips across the Earth's upper atmosphere. Traditional ballistic missiles already travel at hypersonic speeds. Built to carry nuclear and conventional warheads, these weapons are capable of reaching outer space in the course of their flights, but they can't manoeuvre. Advertisement

The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence this week stated China 'has tested a hypersonic glide vehicle.'

Russia too is believed to be developing its own hypersonic weapon called the Zircon.

The Zircon cruise missile travels between 3,800mph (6,115kph) and 4,600mph (7,400kph) - five to six times the speed of sound - and puts Russia 'half a decade' ahead of the US'.

This makes it faster than any anti-missile system, including those that are expected to appear in the next two decades.

According to Russian news agency Tass, it is to go into serial production this year.

Though the Pentagon is warning about hypersonics, the United States has been developing the technology for years.

The Air Force says its X-51A Waverider cruise missile, tested in 2012, could travel at speeds faster than Mach 6 (4,603mph / 7,408kph).

That's more than one mile a second, and future iterations are expected to go much faster.

Russia's Zircon missile is capable of travelling twice as fast as the Royal Navy's Sea Ceptor missile (pictured), which would be responsible for shooting it down were it to attack British troops or mainland UK

It would also be more than capable of evading US defences. This image shows a ground-based interceptor missile taking off from Vandenberg Air Force base, California last year in a test against an ICBM

Part of the reason China has been able to advance its hypersonic missile programs is that it is not subject to anti-missile treaties signed between the United States and Russia.

The 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty banned short- and intermediate-range ground-launched missiles.

'Over 90 per cent of China's ground-based missiles would be excluded by INF if they were now in it,' Mr Harris said.

Still, by far the lion's share of the MDA's budget continues to go towards improving existing missile-defense systems.

Various sensors and radars can track an incoming missile hurtling towards a target, then blast interceptor rockets toward it to pulverize it with kinetic energy.Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh, pictured in 2012, was arrested after he joined a call for a boycott of a presidential election

Egypt's prosecutor Thursday remanded a leading government critic Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh in custody for 15 days over alleged links to exiled members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, officials said.

His arrest Wednesday came after he joined a call for a boycott of a presidential election next month that the incumbent, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, is expected to win easily after most rivals were sidelined or withdrew.

The interior ministry said Abul Fotouh, a former leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood and candidate in the 2012 presidential election, had contacts with the group's members in exile "to sow trouble and instability".

Abul Fotouh was detained shortly after he arrived from London where he gave interviews in which he was critical of the Egyptian government.

A member of his Strong Egypt party said he was transferred to the prison hospital on Thursday, without giving more details.

In response to the arrest, Abul Fotouh's party announced a "temporary cessation" of its activities and condemned what it called an "atmosphere of oppression and tyranny".

Sisi was elected in 2014, a year after the former army chief ousted his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi.

Abul Fotouh, once a leading member of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, had supported mass protests against the Islamist that prompted the military to topple him.

He has since been critical of Sisi who has been accused of clamping down on dissent.Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, shown here as he is being extradited from Mexico to the United States in January 2017, has been held in solitary confinement since arriving in New York to face trial on drug charges

Accused Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is struggling to pay his legal fees, his lawyer said Thursday as a US judge set his trial for September 5.

"I have received a partial payment of my fees," lawyer Eduardo Balarezo told a pre-trial hearing at a US federal court in Brooklyn.

"The issue is that friends helped him pay that first partial payment but they are not in a position to pay the remainder."

The problem stems from rules that govern what Guzman can talk about in limited telephone contact with his family.

The rules prevent him from issuing a requests or order, and "the rules prohibit me from telling somebody else to do something, so we're on a Catch-22," the lawyer said.

Balarezo told the court that he needs funds to travel to investigate scores of government witnesses.

"There are things that need to be done that we can't do now because of the lack of funds," he complained.

The 60-year-old Guzman, who twice escaped prison in Mexico, wanted to read out a letter during Thursday's hearing but Judge Brian Cogan forbade him.

The defendant then turned to his lawyer. "Tell him that I'm sick because of this whole situation," he griped.

His much younger beauty queen wife Emma Coronel and the couple's six-year-old twin girls attended the hearing. Guzman waved to them.

Cogan, who had already delayed the trial to September, ruled Thursday that proceedings would begin on September 5 with jury selection.

He ordered lawyers for both sides by March 23 to submit questions for potential jurors, who are to remain anonymous for their safety.

Guzman has been held in solitary confinement in New York since being extradited last year, and has complained repeatedly about his health and conditions of confinement.

Accused of running the Sinaloa Cartel, a powerful criminal syndicate, Guzman is facing 17 charges. If convicted he is likely to spend the rest of his life in a maximum security US prison.

Guzman "has constant headaches" and "vomits regularly, almost everyday," his lawyer told reporters after the hearing.

"His psychological state has suffered, not to the point where a court would find him to be incompetent but it is affecting his ability both to study his case, to review his evidence and also assist us in helping him."Nikolas Cruz, the 19 year old police say shot dead 17 students and adults Wednesday at his former high school in Parkland, Florida

Nikolas Cruz was expelled from school, threatened fellow students and posted "very disturbing" messages on social media, along with pictures of his favorite guns.

But despite broad signs suggesting he was a deeply troubled young man, Cruz was able to return to his Parkland, Florida high school Wednesday with an assault rifle and open fire, killing 17 students and adults.

A mugshot of Cruz, released after his arrest, depicts a young man seemingly little different from any other 19-year-old -- cleanly-cut chestnut hair, hazel eyes, his face speckled with freckles.

But the information emerging since his attack suggests there were red flags that should have set off danger alerts.

Fellow students knew he posted violent messages on line. And someone using the same name had published a comment on YouTube last year saying: "I'm going to be a professional school shooter."

That was reported to the FBI, but they never traced it back to Cruz.

Cruz had also joined the white supremacist group Republic of Florida, participating in their paramilitary training exercises, a member of the group told US media.

And Broward County Mayor Beam Furr said he had been treated for a time at a mental health clinic, though he had not been back for over a year.

- 'A lot of problems' -

Cruz arrived Wednesday afternoon at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in a sprawling Florida suburb north of Miami just before school let out, opening fire with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle originally designed for combat.

Before he was expelled last year, he had a reputation among the 3,000-strong student body as "weird" and "threatening," according to students and teachers.

"I met him last year, he was in my class at the beginning of the year and when I first met him I knew that something was off about him and he was kind of weird," Manolo Alvarez, 17, told AFP.

"People would bully him once in a while and spread rumors about him, like he was planning a school shooting, and nobody believed it. We thought it was just rumors until sadly it actually happened," Alvarez said.

Dakota Mutchler, 17, told the Washington Post he began selling knives in school out of his lunchbox, and posted on Instagram about his guns and about killing animals.

His interest in guns wouldn't have been extraordinary. He had been a member of the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, a government high school program that provides preparatory training for the military, including marksmanship.

But his behavior eventually gave rise to strong concerns from the school administration.

According to another pupil, Nicholas Coke, Cruz had "a lot of problems," recalling an incident during middle school when Cruz kicked out a window.

- 'They didn't see this coming ' -

Jim Gard, a math teacher who had taught Cruz for a semester in 2016, told the Miami Herald that teachers were notified he had been expelled, and could not be permitted back on school grounds with a backpack.

"There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus."

He clearly had a difficult childhood. Cruz was given up for adoption at birth in September 1998, along with a brother. The adoptive parents were a couple in their 50s, according to the Sun Sentinel, the local newspaper.

His father died when he was still young, while his mother passed away last November, leaving the boys in the care of a family friend, according to the Sentinel.

Neighbors said he got in trouble repeatedly for minor incidents as he grew up, and that police were called a number of times, the Sentinel reported. One said he was seen shooting another neighbor's chickens.

When he moved in with another family after his mother died, they kept his legally owned AR-15 locked in a cabinet, though Cruz had a key, according to Jim Lewis, the family's attorney.

"The family is devastated, they didn't see this coming," Lewis said, according to the Sentinel. "He was a little quirky and he was depressed about his mom's death, but who wouldn't be?"US President Donald Trump addressed the nation a day after the Florida school shooting, the worst to rock the nation since the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012

President Donald Trump acted as consoler-in-chief Thursday to a nation despondent over the latest mass shooting of school kids, with an address that aimed to assuage -- and steer debate away from the fraught question of gun control.

After a day and night of intense debate inside the White House, the 45th president walked into the Diplomatic Reception Room and spoke to a nation grieving "with one heavy heart."

"We are here for you -- whatever you need, whatever we can do, to ease your pain," Trump said, addressing the families shattered by a gun rampage that killed 17 children and adults.

Trump had agreed to make the address only reluctantly, at the urging of senior aides.

The morning after the shooting, he issued a largely symbolic proclamation, ordering flags to be flown at half-staff at government buildings, military installations and at US embassies overseas.

But in the immediate aftermath on Wednesday, Trump's absence had been conspicuous.

At almost exactly the time US authorities first confirmed the toll, in the early evening, the White House sent out a message saying the president would not appear again publicly that day.

In an unusual scene, reporters working in the usually heaving White House briefing room walked out the door toward Valentine's Day appointments they had assumed they would miss.

In similar situations, previous presidents have quickly, within hours, appeared in the room, eager to console or unite.

Barack Obama's tearful appearance there after 20 elementary school children were murdered at Sandy Hook in 2012, was a seminal moment of his presidency.

"Everyone understood, when something of that magnitude happened that the Americans people expect to hear from the president," said Obama speechwriter Terry Szuplat, who recalls the 44th president carrying out that duty at least 15 times.

"No one needed to come and tell us to start working, we understood the magnitude of these situations. We knew that at some point, somewhere he would have to come out and speak. It was expected, required and necessary."

Trump -- as ever in his ground-breaking and rule-breaking presidency -- initially chose to do things differently.

- A pair of tweets -

His only comments Wednesday were a pair of tweets offering "prayers and condolences" and saying he spoke to Florida Governor Rick Scott and was "working closely with law enforcement on the terrible Florida school shooting."

Students react following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, a city about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Miami on February 14, 2018

With other questions brewing about Trump's position on gun control, his alleged affair with a porn star and battery of allegations against a top aide, the White House cancelled its already delayed regular daily briefing.

Inside any White House, there is a delicate conversation about what to say after a mass shooting and how to say it.

"Somehow this has become routine," Obama admitted in 2015. By the end of his presidency, he had, he said, felt tapped out, unsure what to say and how it could make a difference.

"The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine."

But according to Szuplat, "there is really only one person who can channel that grief and speak to that grief, and there is only one person who can truly speak for the nation."

Part of the task is to help bring clarity to a confusing situation, but often the audience is the people directly involved.

"I know from feedback we received on the scene and in the days and months that followed how much it means to these communities to hear directly from the president, to hear that 'you are not alone,'" Szuplat said.

"They need to know that the entire country stands with them."

Trump did just that, vowing to visit Florida in the coming days, quoting scripture and declaring "we hold fast to our fellow Americans in their time of sorrow."

But in the wake of any shooting or terror attack, Americans also expect solutions, a task complicated entirely by the country's ingrained differences over gun laws.

- Focus on mental health -

This latest mass shooting -- in a country where they are an almost daily occurrence -- has inevitably reignited questions about permissive rules that allow the purchase of assault rifles.

But Trump's hard opposition to any additional gun control makes it more difficult for him to offer solutions.

He is the first president to have addressed the NRA, a powerful gun industry group that has outsized influence over American politics.

Opponents of gun curbs have sought to steer public debate onto the motives, and mental health, of people using the weapons, and Trump's response was in step with that strategy.

On Thursday morning the president again took to Twitter to call out the "erratic" behavior of the Florida gunman, 19-year-old Nicolaz Cruz, saying neighbors should have reported him to the authorities.

During his speech he went one step further, promising to make the issue of mental health a priority, and to work with states and local authorities to make schools safer.

But not a word about guns.Martin Griffiths (L), seen here escorting the then Indonesian government chief negotiator Sastro Handoyo Wiryono in 2003, is the new United Nations envoy to war-wracked Yemen

The UN Security Council on Thursday approved the appointment of Martin Griffiths of Britain as the new envoy for Yemen, the third mediator to take on the mission over the past seven years.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday informed the council of his intention to appoint Griffiths and no council member raised objections to the decision by a deadline set for Thursday, diplomats said.

Griffiths, who is executive director of the Brussels-based European Institute of Peace, "brings extensive experience in conflict resolution, negotiation, mediation and humanitarian affairs," Guterres wrote in the letter.

War-wracked Yemen is the world's worst humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations, with 60 percent of the population -- 17 million people -- in need of food, seven million of whom are at risk of famine.

Griffiths will replace Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed of Mauritania, who last month said he would not stay on as Yemen envoy beyond the end of his contract at the end of this month.

As UN envoy since April 2015, Cheikh Ahmed failed to make progress in diplomatic efforts to end the war between the Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen's government and Huthi rebels

His predecessor, Jamal Benomar, also quit after four years of efforts to establish a political transition fell apart, and the Saudi-led coalition began an air campaign in Yemen.

Griffiths will be taking on one of the world's most challenging peace missions, with no end to the violence within sight.

More than 9,200 people have been killed since the Saudi-led alliance joined the Yemen war, according to the World Health Organization.

A severe cholera outbreak has also killed 2,000 people and infected one million, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

Born in 1951, Griffiths was the founding director of the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva, which specializes in political dialogue. He held that position from 1999 to 2010.

He has also worked in the British diplomatic service and for international agencies, such as UNICEF and the non-governmental organization Save the Children.

In 1994 he was appointed director of UN humanitarian affairs in Geneva, and in 1998 became deputy to the UN emergency relief coordinator in New York.BERLIN (AP) - German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel called for a fair and speedy trial for a German-Turkish journalist, who marks one year in a Turkish prison on Wednesday.

Gabriel's call comes amid indications by Turkey's prime minister that there may soon be movement in the high-profile case that has become a major irritant in the two countries' relations.

Deniz Yucel, a 44-year-old correspondent for the daily Die Welt newspaper, still has not been formally charged since his arrest last year in Istanbul on terror allegations and espionage. Yucel, who has both German and Turkish citizenship, is one of six German citizens imprisoned in Turkey for what Germany considers political reasons.

FILE - In this July 21, 2016 file photo German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel is pictured during a talkshow in Berlin, Germany. Yucel was imprisoned in Turkey on espionage charges on Feb. 14, 2017. (Karlheinz Schindler/dpa via AP, file)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has in the past alleged that the reporter was a German spy and a "representative" of the Kurdish PKK rebel group - all of which the newspaper denies.

Vigils were held Wednesday in Yucel's hometown of Floersheim, in central Germany, and many papers marked the one-year anniversary of Yucel's imprisonment with big pictures and stories about him on their front pages.

In Berlin, supporters drove dozens of cars decorated with "Free Deniz" posters in a long procession through the capital, honking and slowing down traffic to call for Yucel's release.

Gabriel said Wednesday during a trip to Serbia that in several recent conversations with his Turkish counterparts he asked that "the Turkish judiciary speeds up the trial."

He also said in a statement late Tuesday that Germany thinks that a fair trial can only end in the release of Yucel - a stance that the German government has made clear many times in the past year.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, who will meet Merkel in Berlin on Thursday, said on German ARD Television late Tuesday: "I hope that he will be released soon. I think there will be a development shortly."

"At least he will appear in court and every trial is a chance for him to be released," Yildirim added, according to the German news agency dpa.

Yucel's case is certain to be part of talks Merkel and Yildirim will hold at the Chancellery Thursday.

A protestor fixes balloons at a car prior to a motorcade for Turkish-German journalist Deniz Yucel, a correspondent in Turkey for the German daily newspaper 'Welt' as part of the #FreeDeniz campaign in Berlin, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. The journalist Deniz Yucel was imprisoned on espionage charges on Feb. 14, 2017. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)PARIS (AP) - A French court acquitted a man charged with harboring Islamic extremists after they carried out the 2015 Paris attacks, bringing a surprising end Wednesday to the first criminal trial from the country's deadliest extremist violence since World War II.

The presiding judge said the Paris court found Jawad Bendaoud, 31, a confirmed street criminal, not guilty of providing lodging to two of the attackers and helping them hide from police when they were the most-wanted criminals in France.

Addressing Bendaoud at a verdict hearing, Judge Isabelle Prevost-Desprez said the evidence was "insufficient to prove your guilt."

FILE - In this Nov.19, 2015 file photo, the building of the police raid on an apartment is pictured in Paris suburb Saint-Denis. A French court is expected to hand down Wednesday Feb.14, 2018 a verdict for a man accused of harboring killers who carried out the 2015 Paris attacks. Jawad Bendaoud, a 31-year-old street criminal, faces up to six years in prison if convicted of providing lodging to two of the attackers and helping them hide from police when they were the most-wanted criminals in France. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, Fie)

Bendaoud, who was standing behind a glass-enclosed dock, blew kisses to the public and his lawyers upon hearing of his acquittal. He faced up to six years in prison if he was convicted of harboring terrorists.

Bendaoud denied knowing the identity of the men to whom he rented a small flat in Saint-Denis. One of the two men he sheltered was Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks.

The court also convicted and sentenced two co-defendants Wednesday.

Mohamed Soumah, who was accused of acting as an intermediary with Bendaoud to secure lodging for the two fugitives, received a 5-year prison sentence. Youssef Ait-Boulahcen, who was accused of knowing the extremist's whereabouts and not informing authorities, was sentenced to three years plus another year that was suspended.

Both had denied the accusations.

Bendaoud has been imprisoned for 27 months pending his trial. It's unclear when he will be released.

The Nov. 13, 2015, attacks on Paris cafes, the national stadium and the Bataclan concert hall left 130 people dead. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

The prosecutor had requested a 4-year term for Bendaoud, saying he knew he was giving refuge to criminals but evidence to prove he knew the renters took part in the Paris attacks

Of the nine men who directly carried out the 2015 Paris attacks, seven died at the scene. The two surviving killers fled and were killed on Nov. 18, 2015 during an hours-long police siege at the Saint-Denis apartment.

During the trial, Bendaoud said he rented the apartment to the two men only to make money. He claimed he thought at the time that all the extremists had died in the attacks.

Bendaoud also insisted he had nothing to do with terrorists or jihadist ideology because "I love life, women, my son and my mother too much."

Investigators found no extremist files or traces of jihadist sites in computers and phones used by Bendaoud, and nothing showing his possible religious "radicalization."

Bendaoud won immediate fame all over France when he gave a surprising TV interview during the police raid on the apartment. He approached the security perimeter around the besieged building and spoke to journalists to clumsily proclaim his innocence.

"I wasn't aware they were terrorists," he told a reporter from BFMTV channel.

"I was told to put up two people for three days, I helped out normally," he continued before a police officer arrested him live on camera.

While the trial didn't directly deal with the attacks, it was important for survivors and families of victims who are seeking justice. About 500 victims of the attacks and their relatives joined the legal action as civil parties in the case, or applied to be registered as plaintiffs.DETROIT (AP) - A Detroit man will continue to get mental health treatment after being found incompetent to stand trial in the slaying of a university police officer.

Detroit 36th District Court Judge Kenneth King made the ruling Wednesday following an independent evaluation for 61-year-old Raymond Durham that was requested by prosecutors. Durham's lawyer had said she wasn't able to effectively communicate with her client.

The most recent evaluation came after Durham was found incompetent to stand trial in November for the 2016 slaying of 29-year-old Wayne State University Sgt. Collin Rose and a separate shooting of two Detroit officers in March 2017. A competency review hearing is May 14.

Durham is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Rose and attempted murder in the other shooting.JERUSALEM (AP) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, fighting for his political life after being accused of taking bribes from billionaire supporters, is no stranger to scandal.

Over a three-decade political career, Netanyahu has been accused of everything from accepting improper gifts to spending too much public money on ice cream to wasting tens of thousands of dollars on a custom-fitted bed for a five-hour flight to London. Close confidants and even family members have also come under suspicion.

With cat-like deftness, Netanyahu has always managed to escape prosecution. But the latest scandal may be the most serious threat yet to his lengthy rule.

FILE - In this file photo taken on Oct. 26, 2015, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the official memorial ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the assassination of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the Mt. Herzl Cemetery in Jerusalem. (Debbie Hill/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Police announced late Tuesday that there was sufficient evidence to indict Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in a pair of cases.

In the first, he is suspected of accepting nearly $300,000 in gifts, including champagne and fancy cigars, from Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer. In exchange, Netanyahu allegedly lobbied U.S. officials on Milchan's behalf in a visa matter and helped promote his business affairs in Israel.

In the second case, he is suspected of offering preferential treatment to a newspaper publisher in exchange for favorable coverage.

Netanyahu has angrily rejected the accusations and denounced what he describes as an overzealous police investigation.

In a televised address Tuesday night, he said he had faced 15 investigations over the years, all of which, he claimed, amounted to "nothing." He similarly predicted the latest uproar would pass.

For the time being, Netanyahu's job remains secure, with his coalition lining up behind him as opponents urge him to step aside. His attorney general, Avihai Mandelblit, will now review the evidence and make the final decision on whether to press charges - a process that is expected to take months. That means Netanyahu faces a difficult period ahead as his every move will be clouded by the looming investigation.

Here is a look at some of the scandals that have plagued Netanyahu, his family and his confidants over the years.

___

INFLUENCE PEDDLING

During his first term in office in the 1990s, Netanyahu was suspected of engineering the short-lived appointment of a crony as attorney general in exchange for political support from the Shas party. Prosecutors called Netanyahu's conduct "puzzling," but stopped short of filing charges.

___

GIFTS AFFAIR

During that same stint as prime minister, Netanyahu and his wife Sara were suspected of taking gifts he received from world leaders - items considered state property. The Netanyahus also were suspected of accepting favors from a contractor. Both cases were closed without charges.

___

TRAVEL EXPENSES

Netanyahu was suspected of double billing travel expenses and using state funds to cover travel for his family in the 2000s, while he was finance minister and opposition leader. After a lengthy investigation, the attorney general dismissed the case.

___

HOUSEHOLD HELP

Sara Netanyahu has faced repeated allegations of mistreating household help. During their first term in office, the family's nanny said she was fired by Netanyahu's wife for burning a pot of vegetable soup. The young woman said she was thrown out of the family's home without her clothes or passport, and later was ordered to pick up her belongings dumped outside the front gate. Netanyahu's office said the woman was fired because she was prone to violent outbursts.

More recently, a Jerusalem labor court awarded $30,000 in damages to a former employee of the first lady who claimed he faced yelling and unreasonable demands. Last month, a recording emerged of Sara Netanyahu screaming at an aide as she complained that a gossip column about her did not mention her educational credentials.

___

HEY, BIG SPENDER

In 2016, an official expense report found that Netanyahu spent more than $600,000 of public funds on a six-day trip to New York, including $1,600 on a personal hairdresser. Three years earlier, he was chided for spending $127,000 in public funds for a special sleeping cabin on a flight to London. Netanyahu said he was unaware of the cost and halted the practice. He also halted purchases at his favorite Jerusalem ice cream parlor that year after a newspaper reported his office ran up a $2,700 bill, mostly for vanilla and pistachio.

___

QUESTIONABLE SPENDING

Israel's attorney general announced last fall that he is considering charging Sara Netanyahu with graft, fraud and breach of trust for alleged overspending of over $100,000 in public funds on private meals at the prime minister's official residence. At the same time, the attorney general dismissed allegations that the Netanyahus used government money to buy furniture for their private beach house and used state funds to pay for medical care for Sara Netanyahu's late father.

___

NETANYAHU'S SON

Last month a recording surfaced of Netanyahu's eldest son, Yair, joyriding with his wealthy buddies to Tel Aviv strip clubs in a drunken night out in a taxpayer-funded government vehicle. The 26-year-old Netanyahu has drawn criticism over the years for living a life of privilege at taxpayers' expense, hobnobbing with ultra-rich donors and making crude social media posts, all while never holding down a job.

___

CABINET MINISTER

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, a Netanyahu confidant, was suspected in a long-running corruption case of illicitly receiving money and laundering it through shell companies in eastern Europe. In 2012, Israel's attorney general dismissed the most serious charges, saying the case would be virtually impossible to prove. A report at the time said he noted that key witnesses lived outside the country, that Lieberman's lawyer had invoked the right to remain silent, and that two key witnesses had died while a third had disappeared. Lieberman was indicted on lesser graft charges. That case forced him to step down as foreign minister, but he was ultimately cleared and returned to the post a year later.

___

NETANYAHU'S WHIP

David Bitan, one of Netanyahu's closest allies, resigned as coalition whip in December due to suspicions that he accepted bribes as a municipal politician. Bitan has invoked his right to remain silent during repeated police interrogations.WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration is expected to name John Hannah, a onetime aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, as its next special representative for Syria, two people familiar with the decision said Wednesday.

Hannah, who was Cheney's national security adviser, also worked in the State Department during the Clinton and first Bush administrations. He is likely to be named to the post in the coming weeks, according to the two individuals, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly discuss the appointment.

Most recently, Hannah has worked as a senior counselor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. The Washington-based think tank is close to the Trump administration and advocates hawkish policies on national security, and especially on Iran, whose growing influence in Syria has been a major concern for the United States and Israel.

Hannah's appointment comes as the U.S. and other countries struggle to advance U.N.-led efforts to secure a political solution to Syria's long civil war. The U.N. envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said Wednesday that the current situation is "as "violent and worrying and dangerous" a moment as he has seen in four years. He pointed to escalating violence that he said was undermining peace prospects and threatening the region's stability.

Until recently, U.S. efforts in Syria were largely focused on fighting the Islamic State group, which is still active in certain pockets of the country but no longer controls vast swaths of territory. The Trump administration has cautioned against letting up until the extremist group is totally defeated. Meanwhile, a small number of State Department officials are also in Syria helping to coordinate humanitarian aid and restore stability to areas liberated from IS.

Hannah's selection was first reported by the newspaper Al-Monitor. Hannah didn't respond to a request for comment.DALLAS (AP) - A Texas elementary school teacher who died almost a week after getting sick from the flu became a talking point online after her husband said she didn't immediately fill her prescription for an antiviral drug after deeming the $116 insurance co-pay too high.

While her husband told the Wall Street Journal that he picked up the prescription the day after she refused it and she then started taking the medication, Heather Holland, 38, died three days later on Feb. 4.

Doctors told The Associated Press that while it's ideal to start taking antiviral medication as quickly as possible, it's no guarantee that one's condition will not drastically worsen.

Antivirals make it "not zero, but less likely" that complications will develop, said Dr. William Schaffner, infectious diseases specialist at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, who added, "antivirals are not a magic potion."

Frank Holland of Willow Park, just west of Fort Worth, told the newspaper that his wife, a second-grade teacher, came home feeling a bit sick Jan. 29. The mother of two went to work in nearby Weatherford on Jan. 30 but by evening had a fever.

She went to the doctor on Jan. 31. Frank Holland said a rapid flu test was positive for influenza B. The doctor wrote her a prescription for oseltamivir phosphate, a generic form of the antiviral medication Tamiflu.

Frank Holland told the Wall Street Journal that they had the money, but she was frugal and didn't want to fill it.

She went to a Fort Worth hospital on Feb. 2. The following day, blood tests showed she had sepsis, a complication of infections, he said.

Antiviral drugs - when taken within 48 hours after becoming sick - can lessen symptoms, shorten the time one is sick by about one day and reduce complications.

"There are people who are going to do very well, regardless of getting Tamiflu or not. There are people that are going to do very poorly, regardless of getting Tamiflu or not. And then there's kind of the middle segment of the population where Tamiflu really may push them to the right outcome," said Dr. Luis Ostrosky, an infectious disease expert with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth and Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston.

Dr. Trish Perl, chief of infectious diseases at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said that "in some cases it may be useful" to give patients an antiviral even after the 48-hour onset.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the flu shot is the best way to prevent seasonal flu. Frank Holland said he couldn't remember whether she got a flu shot this season. Generally, he said, they've both been "pretty healthy."HOUSTON (AP) - An appeals court on Wednesday upheld most of a federal judge's ruling that the bail system in Texas' most populous county was unconstitutional for people arrested for lesser offenses.

In its ruling, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal's conclusion that Harris County's bail system violated due process and equal protection measures of the U.S. Constitution. Harris County is home to Houston, the nation's fourth largest city.

Last year, Rosenthal ruled as part of a lawsuit that the county's policy of detaining indigent misdemeanor defendants before trial violated equal protection rights against wealth-based discrimination.

In its 26-page ruling, the New Orleans-based appeals court found that if you took two misdemeanor defendants in Harris County who were identical in every way, except that one is wealthy and one indigent, they would have different experiences as one would be able to post bond and the other not.

"As a result, the wealthy arrestee is less likely to plead guilty, more likely to receive a shorter sentence or be acquitted, and less likely to bear the social coast of incarceration," the three-judge panel wrote. "The poor arrestee, by contrast, must bear the brunt of all of these, simply because he has less money than his wealthy counterpart. The district court held that this state of affairs violates the equal protection clause, and we agree."

However, the appeals court ordered Rosenthal to revise a preliminary injunction she had issued that ordered the county to release indigent inmates without posting cash bail while they await trial on misdemeanor offenses.

The appeals court said the injunction was overbroad and Rosenthal's requirement that indigent defendants be released within 24 hours of their arrest was too strict.

The appeals court also ordered that the sheriff in Harris County be released as a defendant in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed by two civil rights groups and a Houston law firm on behalf of several misdemeanor defendants, including a woman who was jailed for two days for driving without a valid license because she couldn't afford her $2,500 bail. The lawsuit, which is similar to others filed across the country, is a part of a broader push in the U.S. for bail-reform measures.

Alec Karakatsanis, executive director of Civil Rights Corps, one of the civil rights groups that filed the lawsuit, said the ruling "strongly reaffirmed" that the county's bail system is unconstitutional.

"We will evaluate the next steps for helping Harris County craft a system that does not violate the Constitution and devastate tens of thousands of human beings and their families every year," Karakatsanis said in a statement.

First Assistant County Attorney Robert Soard said the county was pleased with how the appeals court's ruling reaffirmed that it's the responsibility of county judicial officers to determine the terms and conditions of release of misdemeanor defendants.

County officials had expressed concerns that they were being forced to release potentially dangerous people from jail under Rosenthal's injunction.

"Now, instead of immediate release after 24 hours without regard for risk to the community, Harris County ... judges retain discretion regarding release provided a hearing for the defendant occurs within 48 hours after arrest," Soard said in a statement.

Soard said the county has been "working diligently to improve the criminal justice system" and the county remains committed to settling the lawsuit.

While the county has spent more than $5 million fighting the lawsuit, some of its top officials, including the district attorney and the sheriff, are in support of bail reform efforts.

"The ruling is a significant victory for justice and offers further proof that it is time for Harris County to settle this lawsuit and enact meaningful reforms that treat all people equally and fairly under the law," Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis said in a statement.

___

Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter at www.twitter.com/juanlozano70CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro says he's reopening the country's consulate in Miami, citing requests from fellow citizens who want to vote in the upcoming presidential election.

Maduro announced the decision Wednesday at the opening session of Venezuela's Supreme Court. The presidential election is set for April 22.

Miami is home to the largest Venezuelan exile community in the U.S., largely made up of citizens who oppose Maduro's socialist administration.

Venezuelans living in Florida have had to travel to other consulates in the U.S. to vote since the Miami office was closed in 2012 by the late President Hugo Chavez.

Pro-government election officials recently announced the early election, drawing condemnation from the United States and several Latin American countries.

Maduro is the only candidate so far to announce he's running.CHICAGO (AP) - The Latest on the fatal shooting of a Chicago police commander (all times local):

9:50 p.m.

Funeral services have been set for a Chicago police commander who was shot to death helping other officers pursue a suspect.

Chicago police officers gather for a candlelight vigil for police Cmdr. Paul Bauer outside the Near North District headquarters Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, in Chicago. The 53-year-old Bauer, who had been with the department 31 years, was fatally shot as he went to assist other officers who were pursuing the suspect, Shomari Legghette, in downtown Chicago on Tuesday. Legghette is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of Bauer. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

The Chicago Police Department announced late Wednesday that Cmdr. Paul Bauer's wake will be held Friday, with a funeral on Saturday.

Shomari Legghette has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting that occurred Tuesday in the city's downtown. Legghette has also been charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, armed violence and possession of narcotics.

Both the wake and funeral for Bauer will be held at Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church in Chicago.

___

2:50 p.m.

Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says charges will be filed Wednesday in the fatal shooting of a police commander.

Guglielmi tells The Associated Press the suspect, Shomari Legghette of Chicago, will be charged with first-degree murder, possession of narcotics and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

According to court records, the 44-year-old Legghette has number of convictions, mainly drug-related. He's also been convicted of possessing a firearm with a defaced serial number. Legghette previously served time in prison for armed robbery.

Cmdr. Paul Bauer was shot Tuesday after spotting a man matching the radio description of an armed suspect.

A Chicago police official says Bauer identified himself as a police officer and was trying to detain the suspect when they got into a physical fight and fell down a stairwell. The official says the suspect shot Bauer in the head multiple times.

___

9:10 a.m.

A Chicago police official says the suspect in the fatal shooting of a police commander was carrying a semi-automatic handgun with an extended clip of ammunition when he fatally shot the officer in the head.

The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the person wasn't authorized to provide details about the weapon until the suspect is charged.

Cmdr. Paul Bauer was shot Tuesday after spotting a man matching the radio description of an armed suspect.

The official says Bauer identified himself as a police officer and was trying to detain the suspect when they got into a physical fight and fell down a stairwell. The official says the suspect shot Bauer in the head multiple times.

Department spokesman Frank Giancamilli wouldn't comment on the weapon but says the suspect was also wearing a bulletproof vest under a coat.

Police expect the suspect to be charged either Wednesday or Thursday.

- Associated Press writer Don Babwin

___

6:15 a.m.

The shooting death of a police commander near a state government office building gripped parts of downtown Chicago as emergency workers tried to save the department veteran at the scene and officers shackled the suspect.

Cmdr. Paul Bauer was shot multiple times Tuesday afternoon after he spotted a man matching the radio description of an armed suspect. Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Bauer "saw the offender and engaged in an armed physical confrontation." Officers had been chasing the man on foot.

The 53-year-old Bauer was pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He had been on the Chicago police force 31 years.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi (goo-lee-EHL'-mee) said on Twitter late Tuesday that Bauer was on-duty, not off-duty as previously reported.

Johnson said officers initially confronted the suspect because he was acting suspiciously. He didn't provide further details.

___

This story has been corrected to indicate that the commander was on duty, not off duty, based on updated information from police.

Chicago police officers pass a memorial portrait of Cmdr. Paul Bauer for a candlelight vigil for Bauer outside the Near North District headquarters Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, in Chicago. The 53-year-old Bauer, who had been with the department 31 years, was fatally shot as he went to assist other officers who were pursuing the suspect, Shomari Legghette, in downtown Chicago on Tuesday. Legghette is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of Bauer. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

In this Feb. 23, 2016 photo, then Chicago police Capt. Paul Bauer takes part in the arrest of a protester outside an Apple store on Magnificent Mile in Chicago. Promoted to commander, Bauer, 53, a 31-year veteran of the department, was fatally shot Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018, in downtown Chicago after he spotted a man matching the radio description of an armed suspect officers were chasing on foot, the city's police superintendent said. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

This 2015 photo provided by the Cook County Sheriff's Office shows Shomari Legghette. Legghette, with a long criminal history that includes a conviction for armed robbery, has been charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Chicago Police Cmdr. Paul Bauer, authorities announced Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (Cook County Sheriff's Office via AP)

Chicago Fire Department members put up a U.S. flag to fly above Harrison Street before the body of Chicago police Cmdr. Paul Bauer is transported to the Cook County Medical Examiner in Chicago on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018. The off-duty police commander was shot and killed Tuesday afternoon in downtown Chicago after he spotted a man matching the radio description of an armed suspect officers were chasing on foot, the city's police superintendent said. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune via AP)GANGNEUNG, South Korea (AP) - Eric Radford was fortunate his arm wasn't bruised from all the times Meagan Duhamel was hitting it.

Bruno Massot barely could sit still watching the television. Partner Aliona Savchenko couldn't watch at all.

They call it the green room, where figure skaters wait after they are done performing and while others finish. It can be more like a courtroom awaiting the jury's verdict.

Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot of Germany react as their scores are posted following their performance in the pairs free skate figure skating final in the Gangneung Ice Arena at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

"Waiting in the green room was more stressful than even before we skated our program," said Massot, who combined with Savchenko to surge from fourth place to the gold medal Thursday. "You watch and you wait to see how the other couples do, and you wait some more."

Of course, the nervous idle time was worth it.

"During the last program, when we saw it," Massot said, referring to mistakes by a Russian pair that could have grabbed the gold from the Germans, "I turned to Aliona and said: 'Be ready. Something will happen.'"

What happened was golden. And both Savchenko and Massot broke down in tears.

"I couldn't," Massot said of keeping his composure. "It's just that I keep my tears for the right moment."

The final moments were just as difficult for Canada's Duhamel and Radford. At least they already had a medal in their pockets, gold from the team event.

Still, they said they were "nervous wrecks" when they headed from the kiss-and-cry area to the green room. Two more couples would skate, and while the Canadians were behind the Germans, they had a shot at silver or bronze.

"It was a long time to wait," Radford said. "You do all you can, you have done your job, and then it is out of your control. You tell yourself you can't control it anymore, but that doesn't change how difficult it is to watch."

Making it tougher: Duhamel kept tapping her partner's arm.

"I was telling Eric, 'I think we can do it,'" she said.

"And I said I have no expectation until I see the scores," he added.

But Duhamel kept telling him, "Give me hope, give me hope."

"I tried," Radford said with a shrug. "I had hope, but it's more nerve-wracking than any other time."

When Sui Wenjing and Han Cong completed their program and moved ahead of the Canadians, it got even more dicey for them to make the podium. The Chinese fell short of the Germans' Olympic record of 235.90, however, assuring Savchenko and Massot at least silver.

Russians Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov, who came into the free skate barely behind the Chinese, struggled mightily in the free skate.

As soon as their scores were posted and they had sunk to fourth, the celebrations began for the four green roomers.

Gold to Savchenko-Massot; bronze to Duhamel-Radford in their final competition.

"We were in an environment where we were comfortable, feeling like we were home," Duhamel said, referring to the arena, the ice itself, perhaps everything about these Olympics.

Except the green room.

___

More AP Olympic coverage: https://wintergames.ap.org

Aljona Savchenko, second left, and Bruno Massot, second right, of Germany react as they receive their scores following their performance in the pairs free skate figure skating final in the Gangneung Ice Arena at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Tim Donnelly)

Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford of Canada react after their performance in the pairs free skate figure skating final in the Gangneung Ice Arena at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The number of civilians killed and wounded in the war in Afghanistan declined last year, but the number of deaths from airstrikes was on the rise, according to a new United Nations report released on Thursday.

The total number of civilian casualties decreased by 9 percent in 2017, compared to 2016, the U.N. mission said in its annual report on the subject.

"The chilling statistics in this report provide credible data about the war's impact, but the figures alone cannot capture the appalling human suffering inflicted on ordinary people, especially women and children," said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the U.N. special representative for Afghanistan.

Tadamichi Yamamoto, the U.N. special representative for Afghanistan, left, and Danielle Bell, director of human rights of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, speaks during a press conference in Kabul, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. The number of civilians killed and wounded in the war in Afghanistan declined last year, but the number of deaths from airstrikes was on the rise, according to a new United Nations report released on Thursday. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

The 2017 Annual Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Afghanistan found that between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2017, there were 10,453 civilian casualties - 3,438 deaths and 7,015 wounded.

That compares to a total 11,434 casualties for the same period in 2016, when there were 3,510 deaths and 7,924 wounded.

But the decline in total deaths was tempered by the report's finding that the number of airstrikes conducted by international military forces and Afghan air forces increased significantly - and with it the number of airstrike-related deaths.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan documented 631 civilian casualties - 295 deaths and 336 wounded - from aerial operations conducted by pro-government forces. That's a 7 percent increase from 2016, and the highest number from airstrikes in a single year since 2009. Aerial operations accounted for 6 percent of all civilian casualties in Afghanistan in 2017.

Danielle Bell, a U.N. official for human rights in Afghanistan, said the reduction "is an important step" but cautioned that 2017 was the "fourth consecutive year, where the emission recorded more than 10,000 civilian causalities."

Afghanistan has been mired in conflict since 2001 when the United States invaded after 9/11. The U.S. and NATO forces formally concluded their combat mission at the end of 2014 and shifted to a training role, but a resurgent Taliban stepped up their attacks and an affiliate of the Islamic State group has also emerged. Between Jan. 1, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2017, the conflict in Afghanistan has claimed the lives of 28,291 civilians and wounded 52,366 others, according to the report.

Suicide and complex attacks - when assailants combine two or more modes of attack on one target at the same time - caused 22 percent of all civilian casualties in Afghanistan in 2017, with 16 percent of all civilian casualties occurring from such attacks in the capital of Kabul.

The report attributes close to two thirds of all casualties to militant groups fighting the government, mainly the Taliban, but also IS and other, undetermined anti-government elements.

Less than 5 percent of the civilian casualties were caused by Afghan government forces and their allies, the international troops, while 11 percent of the casualties were caused by unattributed cross-fire during fighting between Afghan forces and anti-government elements, the report said.

Yamamoto, who also heads UNAMA, expressed deep concern at the increased harm to civilians caused by suicide attacks.

"I am particularly appalled by the continued indiscriminate and unlawful use of (improvised explosive devices) such as suicide bombs and pressure-plate devices in civilian populated areas," he said. "This is shameful."

UNAMA also documented an increase in attacks against places of worship, religious leaders and worshippers, recording 499 civilian casualties with 202 deaths and 297 injured, during 38 such attacks in 2017. This amounted to three times as many attacks as in 2016, double the number of deaths and 30 percent more total civilian casualties.

In 2017, women continued to suffer at levels comparable to 2016. Contrary to the overall decrease in civilian casualties, women casualties increased by less than one percent, and women deaths increased by 5 percent. Ground engagements remained the leading cause of harm to women, though UNAMA documented a decrease of 11 percent in women casualties from ground fighting. The next leading cause, suicide bombings and complex attacks, caused more than double the number of women casualties in 2017 than in 2016.

In line with the overall reduction in civilian casualties in 2017, child casualties decreased by 10 percent, compared to 2016. UNAMA documented 3,179 child casualties in 2017, of which 861 were deaths and 2,318 were wounded.

"When we document these appalling civilian causality figures, it hurts, because it counters the best interest of this country," Yamamoto told reporters in Kabul on Thursday.

"Each of these figures represents a hope crushed for a better future," he added.

Tadamichi Yamamoto, the U.N. special representative for Afghanistan, speaks during a joint press conference in Kabul, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. The number of civilians killed and wounded in the war in Afghanistan declined last year, but the number of deaths from airstrikes was on the rise, according to a new United Nations report released on Thursday. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Danielle Bell, director of human rights of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, holds a copy of the U.N. 2017 Annual Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Afghanistan, during a joint press conference in Kabul, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. The number of civilians killed and wounded in the war in Afghanistan declined last year, but the number of deaths from airstrikes was on the rise, according to a new United Nations report released on Thursday. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Tadamichi Yamamoto, the U.N. special representative for Afghanistan, speaks during a joint press conference in Kabul, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. The number of civilians killed and wounded in the war in Afghanistan declined last year, but the number of deaths from airstrikes was on the rise, according to a new United Nations report released on Thursday. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) - The governor of Tunisia's central bank has resigned after Prime Minister Youssef Chahed set in motion a process to remove him from his post.

Chedli Ayari tendered his resignation Wednesday night, a week after the European Parliament put the North African country on a list of non-EU nations believed to pose a risk of money laundering and terrorist financing.

Tunisian media accused the Central Bank of Tunisia, under Ayari's direction since 2012, of turning a blind eye to "obscure transfers" received from non-governmental organizations and political parties.

Ayari's critics also hold him responsible for the fall in the value of the Tunisian dinar and the decline in the central bank's foreign reserves, which have reached their lowest level in over 20 years.NEW DELHI (AP) - Indian investigators are probing a $1.8 billion bank fraud, an official said Thursday, with a wealthy jeweler reportedly using fake bank documents to obtain overseas loans.

State-owned Punjab National Bank said in a Wednesday statement that the "fraudulent and unauthorized transactions" had been discovered in January in a single Mumbai bank branch "for the benefit of a few select account holders with their apparent connivance."

India's Central Bureau of Investigation began its probe soon after the bank made the discovery, said Abhishek Dayal, an agency spokesman.

Pedestrians walk past a sign board of Punjab National Bank in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. State-owned Punjab National Bank has said in a statement that fraudulent transactions totaling $1.8 billion had been discovered in a Mumbai bank branch. Indian media outlets have linked the scam to jeweler Nirav Modi. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Numerous Indian media outlets have linked the scam to billionaire jeweler Nirav Modi.

Authorities have not publicly accused Modi in the $1.8 billion fraud but say he is under investigation for allegedly cheating Punjab National Bank of $43 million by using fake bank "letters of understanding" to get loans. The official complaint says Modi, along with his wife, brother and business partner, worked with a pair of bank employees to get the letters.

None could be reached for comment Thursday.

Indian news reports say the alleged $43 million scam is a part of the larger fraud.

All left the country in early January, before the alleged fraud was uncovered, the Press Trust of India news agency reported, quoting unidentified officials.

Bank officials say the $1.8 billion scam appears to have gone on since 2011, but was only discovered in January. Most involved letters of understanding sent to overseas offices of Indian banks, which made the actual loans, said Sunil Mehta, Punjab National Bank's managing director.

Mehta said the fraud remained under investigation, but the bank would take responsibility where it should.

"The bank will honor all its bona fide commitments," Mehta said.

Security guards, left and media personnel, right, sit outside a Nirav Modi jewelry boutique whose shutters have been pulled down in Mumbai, India, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. India is investigating an alleged $1.8 billion bank fraud, with the wealthy jeweler reportedly using fake bank documents to obtain overseas loans. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

A security guard drinks water outside a Nirav Modi jewelry boutique, in Mumbai, India, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. India is investigating an alleged $1.8 billion bank fraud, with the wealthy jeweler reportedly using fake bank documents to obtain overseas loans. Hindi on top right reads, "Nirav Modi". (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

A man walks in front of a Nirav Modi jewelry boutique, that displays a black and white photograph of Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra in Mumbai, India, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. India is investigating an alleged $1.8 billion bank fraud, with the wealthy jeweler reportedly using fake bank documents to obtain overseas loans. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)PARIS (AP) - France's National Union of Journalists has called on President Emmanuel Macron to reconsider a controversial decision to move the press room from inside the presidential palace to a nearby site.

In a statement late Wednesday, the SNJ union said the plan will see journalists "banished" from the Elysee Palace, adding it could put a "stain" on the French president's five-year term.

Macron's advisers announced Wednesday the press room will be moved outside the presidential courtyard for "operational" reasons.

In the 1980s, the SNJ says President Francois Mitterrand located it there in a "willingness to be transparent." Groups including the judicial press association say Macron's move might infringe press freedoms.

The decision comes amid broader efforts by Macron to control his public image.ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - The specter of a U.S.-Turkish clash in Syria loomed over Thursday's meeting between the top American diplomat and Turkey's leader as the two NATO allies scrambled to ease some of their worst tensions in years.

Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is fuming over U.S. assistance to Kurdish fighters near his country's border. The talks with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson were to focus on Washington's plan to continue providing the Kurdish militants assistance and Turkey's military operations in Kurdish areas of northern Syria.

The discussions were expected to cover several proposals for improving cooperation along the border area. It's been a flashpoint over the years for Turkish-Kurdish tensions, al-Qaida and Islamic State fighters traveling back and forth, and incidents involving major powers including Russia.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson shake hands before their talks at the presidential palace in Ankara, Turkey, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. Tillerson started a two-day trip to Turkey amid growing tensions between the two NATO allies.(Pool Photo via AP)

Reflecting the sensitivity of the talks between Tillerson and Erdogan, only Turkish Foreign Minister Melvut Cavusoglu, serving as translator, also was included in the meeting, which lasted more than three hours. Neither side would discuss the session afterward.

When Tillerson returned to his hotel, he was asked by reporters whether he could provide some detail. "Not tonight, we're still working," he said. Tillerson and Cavusoglu planned a news conference Friday after their meeting.

Tillerson, finishing a five-nation Middle East trip, said earlier in the day in Lebanon that U.S. and Turkey share common goals in Syria.

"There's no gap between them," he told reporters in Beirut. "We have some differences about tactically how to achieve that endpoint objective, but our objectives are to defeat ISIS, to defeat terrorism, to reduce the violence, protect people and support a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Syria."

In Brussels, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the United States and Turkey are in open dialogue about their differences. Turkey's defense minister was among those he met at NATO.

"I believe we are finding common ground and there are areas of uncommon ground where sometimes war just gives you bad alternatives to choose from," Mattis said.

Turkey is livid over America's military support for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The U.S. considers them the most effective fighting force in the battle to defeat IS in Syria, and this week offered a budget plan that would send them the bulk of $550 million in new assistance.

Turkey considers the fighters a terrorist group and an extension of a Kurdish insurgency in Turkey and views the U.S. military support for the Kurds in Syria as a top security threat. Turkey's military campaign against Kurds in northern Syria has alarmed the U.S. leaders who have watched as the fighting has sapped energy from the fight against remaining IS strongholds.

Turkey's defense minister, Nurettin Canikli, said in Brussels he has asked that the U.S. end its assistance to Kurdish fighters and remove them from the SDF.

Canikli said he told Mattis that U.S. support for such militants has enabled Kurdish rebels in Turkey "to grow and strengthen," posing an increasingly "existential" danger to Turkey. Canikli said he presented documents to Mattis proving "organic" links between the Kurdish fighters in Syria and Kurdish rebels in Turkey.

It was an "absolutely open and honest dialogue," Mattis said, describing the two countries as "coming together on what we can do together."

According to Canikli, Mattis said the U.S. believes it is possible to ensure that the Kurdish forces in Syria turn against Kurdish rebels fighting in Turkey. Canikli said he rejected this assumption, insisting it was "impossible and unrealistic" for the two entities to go against each other.

The Turkish minister also reported Mattis as saying the U.S. was developing plans to take back weapons supplied to the Syrian Kurds.

Turkey has been attacking the Kurds in northern Syria for the past three weeks, despite American calls for restraint. The standoff has fueled increasingly angry rhetoric, including Erdogan's warning that Turkey's foes may feel "the Ottoman slap," a reference to the Ottoman Empire's onetime might.

___

Baldor reported from Brussels. Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser contributed to this report.ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - Ethiopia's prime minister announced Thursday he has submitted a resignation letter after the worst anti-government protests in a quarter-century, saying he hoped the surprise decision would help planned reforms succeed and create a "lasting peace."

"I want to be part of the solution," Hailemariam Desalegn said in remarks carried by the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation. "I believe that the public's demands and questions should be met and answered." It was not immediately clear whether lawmakers had accepted the resignation.

Ethiopia, one of Africa's fastest-growing economies and a close security ally of the United States, has been rocked by months of protests demanding wider freedoms that have left hundreds dead and tens of thousands detained. The government in recent weeks released more than 6,500 detained opposition figures, journalists and others after the prime minister in an unexpected announcement in January said he wanted to "widen the democratic space for all."

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, during press conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. Desalegn announced that he has submitted a resignation letter after the worst anti-government protests in a quarter-century, saying he hoped the surprise decision would help planned reforms succeed and create a "lasting peace." (AP Photo)

The 53-year-old prime minister said he will continue in his role until the "power transition is completed." He also seeks to unseat himself from the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front.

The ruling party, which controls all seats in parliament, accepted the resignation and lawmakers on Friday were expected to do the same. The ruling party's council is then expected to put forward Desalegn's successor as prime minister.

Ethiopia's demonstrations demanding wider freedoms began in late 2015 and engulfed much of the restive Oromia and Amhara regions before spreading into other parts of the country, leading to a months-long state of emergency that has since been lifted.

"Political infighting between members of the ruling party has caused a serious fracture to the political establishment here," Yilikal Getnet, an opposition politician, told The Associated Press, saying the fact that the prime minister hails from a minority ethnic group might have played a role in his resignation.

"There is no unity within the government. Plus the mass movement of people has rendered the party powerless and was pitting one official against the other," Yilikal said.

Ethiopia's government has long been accused of arresting critical journalists and opposition leaders. Rights organizations and opposition groups have called for their release, saying they were arrested on trumped-up charges and punished for their points of view.

A favorite to replace the prime minister is the head of Ethiopia's Oromia region, Lemma Megerssa. Many see Lemma, the president of the largest federal state, as politically assertive and having the acceptance of many in the younger generation.

But a legal scholar at Mekelle Universtiy, Meressa Tsehaye, said the deputy prime minister is widely expected to succeed Hailemariam. Another option is that the four core parties of the ruling coalition will elect a new party leader who then will lead the country.

"If both these don't happen, then a caretaker or transitional government will be set up. I don't see that a snap election will be needed here," he said.

Hailemariam, an academician-turned-politician, has led Ethiopia since 2012 after the death of former strongman Meles Zenawi. He also served as deputy prime minister and foreign minister under the former leader before assuming power. He also was elected chairman of the African Union in 2013.

___

Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, during press conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. Desalegn announced that he has submitted a resignation letter after the worst anti-government protests in a quarter-century, saying he hoped the surprise decision would help planned reforms succeed and create a "lasting peace." (AP Photo)

FILE - In this Thursday, March 17, 2016 file photo, Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn speaks to The Associated Press at his office in the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Prime Minister since 2012, Desalegn has submitted a resignation letter amid nationwide anti-government protests, the state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate said Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Tewelde, File)

FILE - In this Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018 file photo, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta, center-right, laughs with Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, center-left, at the opening ceremony of the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Prime Minister since 2012, Desalegn has submitted a resignation letter amid nationwide anti-government protests, the state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate said Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, March 17, 2016 file photo, Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn speaks to The Associated Press at his office in the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Prime Minister since 2012, Desalegn has submitted a resignation letter amid nationwide anti-government protests, the state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate said Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Tewelde, File)GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Hamas is condemning a U.S. bill that sanctions the Islamic militant group for using civilians in Gaza as "human shields."

The House unanimously passed the Hamas Human Shields Prevention Act on Wednesday. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum says Thursday that the bill sides with "the Israeli narrative."

The bill steps up U.S. pressure against Hamas, which Washington and much of the West already considers a terrorist organization. As such the bill would not add any additional sanctions on the group.

Echoing Israeli complaints, the bill says Hamas routinely instructs Palestinians not to flee from Israeli airstrikes, forcing them to act as "human shields."

Hamas wrested control of Gaza from Western-backed Palestinian Authority in 2007. Last month, the U.S. designated Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh as a "global terrorist."SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) - El Salvador's Supreme Court has commuted the sentence of a woman serving 30 years in prison for what she says was a stillbirth.

The court ruled Thursday that evidence in the case did not prove she took any specific action to abort the pregnancy, which is illegal in El Salvador.

Teodora del Carmen Vasquez said she was working in 2007 when she began to experience intense pain, then bleeding. She called for help before fainting. When she regained consciousness she had lost her nearly full-term baby.

Authorities charged Vasquez with aggravated murder and she was convicted in 2008.

In December, a court rejected her appeal of the sentence.

El Salvador is one of four Latin American countries with total bans on abortion.HYDERABAD, India (AP) - Iran's president said on Thursday that his country was ready to help promote dialogue as a way to end bloodshed in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Hassan Rouhani made the comments to a group of Muslim religious scholars in the in southern Indian city of Hyderabad shortly after his arrival for a three-day India visit.

Rouhani will meet Saturday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, center,meets with Muslims leaders and scholars in Hyderabad, India, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. Rouhani arrived in the city Thursday to begin his official visit to India. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

Rouhani accused western countries of sowing discord among different sects of Muslims.

He called for unity between the Sunni and Shia sects of Muslims.

"The Shias, Sunnis and people of other ethnicities coexisted peacefully in Iraq and Syria for centuries until the West created a discord there," Rouhani said.

Rouhani's visit comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to scuttle an international deal reached with Iran in 2015 over its nuclear program that ended economic sanctions imposed on the country.

This poses a challenge for India, which is helping Iran develop the Chabahar Port for trade with Afghanistan.

In 2016, India, Afghanistan, and Iran decided to establish a trade route for land-locked Afghanistan and Central Asian countries. India committed up to $500 million for the development of the Chahabar Port along with associated roads and rail lines.

India shipped its first consignment of wheat to Afghanistan by sea through the Chahbahar Port in October last year.

India's bilateral trade with Iran in 2017-18 was around $12.89 billion, with India importing mainly crude oil and exporting commodities.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, right, with Iran Foreign Affairs Minister Mahamad Javad Zarief, arrive during a meeting with Muslim leaders and scholars in Hyderabad, India, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. Rouhani arrived in the city Thursday beginning his official visit to India. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a meeting with Muslims leaders and scholars in Hyderabad, India, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. Rouhani arrived in the city Thursday to begin his official visit to India. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a meeting with Muslims leaders and scholars n Hyderabad, India, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. Rouhani arrived in the city Thursday to begin his official visit to India. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani waves from a car after his arrival at the Begumpet airport in Hyderabad, India, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. Rouhani arrived in the city Thursday beginning his official visit to India. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)MEXICO CITY (AP) - The Roman Catholic diocese where two priests were killed earlier this month has withdrawn all nuns from the hyper-violent city of Chilapa in southern Mexico.

The diocese said in a statement that the parents of one of the nuns had been killed and that their school had to close for several months last year due to threats from drug gangs that operate in the area.

The nuns ran one of the oldest and most respected schools in Chilapa. The church did not specify how many nuns were involved, but local media said there were four. Local media also reported the nun's parents had been hacked up.

The diocese openly called on the gangs not to hurt children's education, and said it hoped other could be found others to run the school.

"We call on the criminal gangs not to affect or destroy, one of the sacred things we have: the education of our children and youths," the diocese said, noting that is the school closed permanently, many would be left without quality education.

Two priests were shot to death on Feb. 5 along with four other people when gunmen attacked their truck as they returned home from a concert in another town in the diocese.

One of the priests had been photographed earlier holding an assault rifle in the company of armed, masked men. Bishop Salvador Rangel said the priest worked in an area where mines controlled by drug gangs abound. He said the priest "had to greet them" in order to enter the area.

And on Thursday, the federal Attorney General's Office said it had found two bodies in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit that may be those of two prosecution agents kidnapped earlier this month and later forced to appear on a video by a drug gang.

The office said the remains were found in the Nayarit town of Xalisco, which has long been linked to heroin trafficking to the United States. The office said DNA testing would be carried out to confirm their identities.

The agents of the Criminal Investigation Agency, a sort of federal detectives' bureau, disappeared Feb. 5.

A few days a video was posted showing them bound and kneeling, confessing supposed rights violations while surrounded by five masked gunmen pointing machine pistols and assault rifles at them.

The gunmen apparently thought they were undercover intelligence agents, but the Attorney General's Office said the two had been off duty and attending a family event in Nayarit when they disappeared.

And in the southern state of Tabasco, the office said Thursday it had detained two American men for carrying three assault rifles and a pistol in their car. The U.S. Embassy was not immediately available to confirm their nationalities or identities.

The two are being held on weapons charges; possession of most higher-caliber firearms is illegal in Mexico.HAMILTON, Ohio (AP) - Police say a 14-year-old student at an Ohio high school referenced the deadly Florida school shooting in a social media post.

Ross Township police in southwestern Ohio say the teen was arrested early Thursday and charged with inducing panic, a second-degree felony. They did not specify what the post said.

Ross High School Principal Brian Martin commended other students and community members who alerted the school to the post. The school has an increased police presence as a precaution.

Authorities say a former student opened fire Wednesday with a semi-automatic rifle at a high school in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people."We make war that we may live in peace."

--Aristotle

"I exhort you never to debase the moral currency or to lower the

standard of rectitude, but to try others by the final maxim that

governs your own lives, and to suffer no man and no cause to escape

the undying penalty which history has the power to inflict on wrong."

--Lord Acton

"Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the

highest political end...liberty is the only object which benefits all

alike, and provokes no sincere opposition...The danger is not that a

particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern...

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

--Lord Acton

"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry,

Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from

the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the

field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life

so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it,

Almighty God! I know not what course others may take;

but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

--Patrick Henry

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine

patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now,

deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we

have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

--Thomas Paine

"The way to secure liberty is to place it in the people's hands, that is,

to give them the power at all times to defend it in the legislature and

in the courts of justice"

--John Adams

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will

within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I

do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often

but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights

of the individual."

--Thomas Jefferson

"No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of

another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain hima?the idea

is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural rights."

--Thomas Jefferson

"An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his

fellow citizens."

--Thomas Jefferson

"The protection of our citizens, the spirit and honor of our country, require

that force should be interposed to a certain degree."

--Thomas Jefferson

"To draw around the whole nation the strength of the General Government

as a barrier against foreign foes... is [one of the] functions of the General Government on which [our citizens] have a right to call."

--Thomas Jefferson

"It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually

take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without

inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it."

--Thomas Jefferson

"I am ever unwilling that [peace] should be disturbed as long as

the rights and interests of the nations can be preserved. But whensoever hostile aggressions on these

require a resort to war, we must meet our duty and convince the world that we are

just friends and brave enemies."

--Thomas Jefferson

"By nature's law, man is at peace with man till some aggression is

committed, which, by the same law, authorizes one to destroy another as

his enemy."

--Thomas Jefferson

"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against

every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

--Thomas Jefferson

"Our duty to ourselves, to posterity, and to mankind, call on us

by every motive which is sacred or honorable, to watch over the safety of our beloved country

during the troubles which agitate and convulse the residue of the world, and to sacrifice to

that all personal and local considerations."

--Thomas Jefferson

"It is an essential attribute of the jurisdiction of every country

to preserve peace, to punish acts in breach of it, and to restore property taken by force within

its limits."

--Thomas Jefferson

"By nature's law, man is at peace with man till some aggression

is committed, which, by the same law, authorizes one to destroy another

as his enemy."

--Thomas Jefferson

"Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy,

and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it. But the temper and folly of our enemies may

not leave this in our choice."

--Thomas Jefferson

"We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly,

we shall all hang separately."

--Benjamin Franklin

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people

by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent

and sudden usurpations."

--James Madison

"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without

it nothing can succeed."

--Abraham Lincoln

"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we

fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a

blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted)

in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a

track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected?

I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot,

we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time,

or die by suicide."

--Abraham Lincoln

"The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the

support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me."

--Abraham Lincoln

"Property is the fruit of labor...property is desirable...is a positive

good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement

to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor

diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall

be safe from violence when built."

--Abraham Lincoln

"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean

the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and

the product of his labor; while with others, the same word many mean for some men to do as they please

with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible

things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective

parties, called by two different and incompatible names -

liberty and tyranny."

--Abraham Lincoln

"If all do not join now to save the good old ship of the Union this voyage

nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage."

--Abraham Lincoln

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points

out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust

and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again;

who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause;

who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at worst,

if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with

those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

--Theodore Roosevelt

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs,

even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy

much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that

knows not victory nor defeat."

--Theodore Roosevelt

"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth

of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic

state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by

an individual, by a group."

--Franklin D. Roosevelt

"War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder.

This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the

timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour,

of our choosing."

--George W. Bush

"When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and true maxim that 'a drop of honey catches more flies

than a gallon of gall.' So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him

that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say

what he will, is the great highroad to his reason, and which, once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing him of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause is really

a good one."

--Abraham Lincoln

"To arrive at a just estimate of a renowned man's character one must judge

it by the standards of his time, not ours."

--Mark Twain

"It is with trifles and when he is off guard that a man best

reveals his character."

--Arthur Schopenhauer

"When men speak ill of thee, live

so as nobody may believe them."

--Plato

"He that has light within his own clear breast may sit in the center,

and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts benighted walks under the

mid-day sun."

--John Milton

"Character consists of what you do on the third

and fourth tries."

--James A. Michener

"We should be too big to take offense and too noble to

give it."

--Abraham Lincoln

"I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the

content of their character."

--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"A man's character is his guardian divinity."

--Heraclitus

"Character develops itself in the stream of life."

--Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

"Do what you know and perception is converted into character."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so

highly prized as that of character."

--Henry ClaySEATTLE (AP) - The Latest on the former chief counsel for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Seattle pleading guilty to federal charges (all times local):

10:45 a.m.

The former chief counsel for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Seattle has pleaded guilty to federal charges that he stole immigrants' identities.

Raphael Sanchez resigned Monday, the same day prosecutors filed charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He pleaded guilty Thursday at U.S. District Court in Seattle, acknowledging to the judge that his victims were vulnerable due to their immigration status.

Prosecutors say that beginning in 2013, the 44-year-old Sanchez stole the identities of seven people in various stages of immigration proceedings to defraud credit card companies to the tune of $190,000.

Prosecutors and Sanchez's attorney have agreed to recommend a sentence of four years in prison, though that is not binding on the court.

___

7:47 a.m.

The former chief counsel for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Seattle is due in court to face charges that he stole immigrants' identities.

Raphael Sanchez resigned Monday, the same day prosecutors filed charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He's expected to enter a plea Thursday morning at federal court in Seattle.

Prosecutors say that since 2013, Sanchez stole the identities of seven people in various stages of immigration proceedings to defraud credit card companies.

Sanchez's lawyer, Cassandra Stamm, has declined to comment about the case.

Sanchez is the second lawyer in ICE's Seattle office to run into legal trouble in recent years. Jonathan Love pleaded guilty in 2016 to a charge that he forged documents in an effort to deprive an immigrant of the legal permanent resident status to which he was entitled.CHICAGO (AP) - A judge has denied bond for a man with a long criminal history who is charged in the fatal shooting of a Chicago police commander.

A Cook County courtroom was filled with police officers at 44-year-old Shomari Legghette's hearing Thursday, including Superintendent Eddie Johnson. Legghette wore sweatpants and a Chicago Bears shirt along with shackles around his wrist and ankles. Legghette is charged with first-degree murder, felon in possession of a firearm and possession of narcotics in the death of Cmdr. Paul Bauer.

Police say Legghette was in downtown Chicago on Tuesday afternoon when he ran away as officers investigating drug dealing approached him. Bauer attempted to hold Legghette until other officers arrived but the two struggled and fell down a stairwell before Legghette allegedly shot him.

This undated photo provided by the Chicago Police Department shows Shomari Legghette. Legghette has been charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Chicago Police Commander Paul Bauer. Bauer was killed after a foot chase Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018, in downtown Chicago. He was shot in the head by a suspect carrying a semi-automatic handgun equipped with an extended clip of ammunition, a police official told The Associated Press. Bauer had been on the police force for 31 years. (Chicago Police Department via AP)

This Oct. 19, 2016 photo provided by the Chicago Police Department shows Chicago Police Commander Paul Bauer. Cmdr. Bauer was killed after a foot chase Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018 in downtown Chicago. He was shot in the head by a suspect carrying a semi-automatic handgun equipped with an extended clip of ammunition, a police official told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Bauer had been on the police force for 31 years. (Chicago Police Department via AP)

Chicago police officers gather for a candlelight vigil for police Cmdr. Paul Bauer outside the Near North District headquarters Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, in Chicago. Bauer, 53, a 31 year veteran of the department was allegedly fatally shot by Shomari Legghette as Bauer went to assist tactical officers pursuing Legghette in downtown Chicago Tuesday. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

James Poole holds a police memorial American flag as he attends a candlelight vigil for Chicago Police Cmdr. Paul Bauer outside the Near North District headquarters Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, in Chicago. The 53-year-old Bauer, who had been with the department 31 years, was fatally shot as he went to assist other officers who were pursuing the suspect, Shomari Legghette, in downtown Chicago on Tuesday. Legghette is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of Bauer. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

A Chicago police officer shields their candle from the wind as they attend a candlelight vigil for police Cmdr. Paul Bauer outside the Near North District headquarters Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, in Chicago. The 53-year-old Bauer, who had been with the department 31 years, was fatally shot as he went to assist other officers who were pursuing the suspect, Shomari Legghette, in downtown Chicago on Tuesday. Legghette is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of Bauer. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Chicago police officers gather for a candlelight vigil for police Cmdr. Paul Bauer outside the Near North District headquarters Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, in Chicago. The 53-year-old Bauer, who had been with the department 31 years, was fatally shot as he went to assist other officers who were pursuing the suspect, Shomari Legghette, in downtown Chicago on Tuesday. Legghette is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of Bauer. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Chicago police officers gather for a candlelight vigil for police Cmdr. Paul Bauer outside the Near North District headquarters Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, in Chicago. The 53-year-old Bauer, who had been with the department 31 years, was fatally shot as he went to assist other officers who were pursuing the suspect, Shomari Legghette, in downtown Chicago on Tuesday. Legghette is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of Bauer. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

A Chicago police officer shields their candle from the wind as they attend a candlelight vigil for police Cmdr. Paul Bauer outside the Near North District headquarters Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, in Chicago. The 53-year-old Bauer, who had been with the department 31 years, was fatally shot as he went to assist other officers who were pursuing the suspect, Shomari Legghette, in downtown Chicago on Tuesday. Legghette is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of Bauer. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's attorney general on Thursday praised a police investigation into the prime minister over corruption allegations, saying it was conducted "thoroughly" and "by the book" even as the Israeli leader has shrugged off its conclusions.

In a speech at Tel Aviv University, Avihai Mandelblit lauded the more-than-yearlong probe into a pair of corruption scandals that have engulfed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, culminating this week when police recommended that he be indicted on bribery and breach of trust charges in both cases.

The recommendations now go to Mandelblit, who will review the material before deciding whether to file charges.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends an inauguration of a new gate at the Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

"The investigations were carried out by the book, exactly as is expected by law enforcement authorities to deal with cases like these: professionally, thoroughly, creatively and with sophistication, with the aim to get to the truth," he said.

Netanyahu has denied wrongdoing and has called the police recommendations - which said he accepted nearly $300,000 in gifts from two billionaires, among other allegations - "biased, extreme, full of holes, like Swiss cheese." Netanyahu has accused the police of being overly aggressive in their probe and his supporters in parliament have bashed the police, claiming they were orchestrating a coup d'etat.

Mandelblit said he intends to ignore the noise and plans to make a decision based on the evidence.

The police recommendations dealt an embarrassing blow to the Israeli leader but they do not yet threaten his lengthy rule. Immediate reaction fell along partisan lines, an indication that his coalition will stand behind him for now. He can remain in office while Mandelblit makes his decision, a process which could take months. Netanyahu has vowed to remain office and even seek re-election.

Mandelblit, a Netanyahu appointee, did not say when he expects to make his decision. However, noting the significance of the case, he said he plans to conduct the process without "unnecessary delays."

Netanyahu is accused of receiving lavish gifts from Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer. In return, police say Netanyahu had operated on Milchan's behalf on U.S. visa matters, legislated a tax break and connected him with an Indian businessman.

In the second case, Netanyahu is accused of offering to give preferential treatment to a newspaper publisher in exchange for favorable coverage.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends an inauguration of a new gate at the Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the inauguration of a new gate at the Ben Gurion Airport, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at Ben Gurion Airport during the inauguration of a new gate, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)ROME (AP) - Prosecutors have opened an investigation into a 10-meter (30-foot) -wide sinkhole that swallowed up a half-dozen cars on a residential street in Rome.

No one was injured in Wednesday evening's collapse in the Balduina neighborhood, but families in nearby buildings were evacuated as a precaution.

The ANSA news agency said prosecutors had placed a property owner and the company handling construction along the road under investigation Thursday.

A view of a large sinkhole that opened in a street of a residential area in Rome, Wednesday Feb. 14, 2018. Various cars fell in the chasm and two buildings were temporarily evacuated as a precautionary measure after the collapse. (Massimo Percossi/ANSA via AP)

Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi visited the site and stressed that the sinkhole, which appeared to shave off the entire side of the road, occurred at an active construction site, and that the situation is under control.

A view of a large sinkhole that opened in a street of a residential area in Rome, Wednesday Feb. 14, 2018. Various cars fell in the chasm and two buildings were temporarily evacuated as a precautionary measure after the collapse. (Giuseppe Lami/ANSA via AP)BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Romania's president has offered his support to the besieged chief anti-corruption prosecutor, suggesting politicians indicted for corruption are trying to undermine the anti-graft fight.

President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday hit out at "offenders who are making a desperate attempt" to try to discredit the anti-corruption prosecutors' agency, efforts he called "deplorable and unconvincing."

Former lawmaker Vlad Cosma this week claimed that four prosecutors wanted him to provide fake evidence and had planted unspecified false evidence on him.

Chief anti-corruption prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi rejected the allegations and claimed Cosma, who is on trial for influence-peddling, had "tried to intimidate prosecutors" by threatening to broadcast doctored recordings.

Justice Minister Tudorel Toader, who returned to Bucharest from Japan to deal with the crisis, will present a report about the situation to Parliament next week.Amtrak is considering suspending service on tracks that don't have sophisticated speed controls by a Dec. 31 deadline, the railroad's top executive said Thursday, threatening to disrupt operations across the U.S. in a push to strengthen safety after a series of deadly wrecks.

President and CEO Richard Anderson told a House subcommittee that Amtrak is worried passengers are being put at risk by delays in installing Positive Train Control systems on tracks it uses but doesn't own. Those tracks make up a majority of Amtrak's network.

Railroads face a year-end deadline mandated by Congress for installing the GPS-based system, known as PTC, but some are asking regulators for an extension until 2020. That's on top of a three-year delay granted in 2015. They've cited challenges including equipment problems and delays in testing to ensure it's compatible with other railroads' systems.

FILE - In a Feb. 20, 2014 file photo, Metrolink Director of Operations, R.T. McCarthy, demonstrates Metrolink's implementation of Positive Train Control, (PTC) at the Metrolink Locomotive and Cab Car Simulators training facility in Los Angeles' Union Station. Amtrak is considering suspending service on tracks that don't have sophisticated speed controls by a Dec. 31, 2018 deadline, Amtrak president and CEO Richard Anderson said Feb. 15, 2018, threatening to disrupt operations across the U.S. as it pushes to strengthen safety after a series of deadly wrecks. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., has proposed to ban further extensions. DeFazio's bill would offer more than $2.5 billion in grants to speed railroads' progress. Industry groups estimate railroads will spend about $10 billion in total to install and implement the systems.

Amtrak already has PTC in place on about 700 miles of tracks it owns on the Northeast Corridor from Boston to Washington, D.C., and in Michigan. Elsewhere, the government-owned railroad operates on track owned by freight carriers and other entities.

Anderson said Amtrak is evaluating whether it will continue running trains on third-party tracks where the PTC deadline is extended. He said the railroad won't operate on tracks whose owners haven't made enough progress to warrant a delay and is unlikely to operate on stretches that regulators have excluded from PTC requirements.

Amtrak's stance could also affect commuters. Anderson said the railroad would be unlikely to let regional carriers such as MARC and NJ Transit run trains lacking PTC on Amtrak-owned tracks after the deadline.

PTC is designed to slow or stop trains that are going too fast, take control when an engineer is distracted or incapacitated and prevent collisions with other trains.

"We believe that PTC should ultimately be in place for all Amtrak routes and, as a matter of U.S. policy, PTC should be required for all passenger rail trips in America," Anderson told the House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials.

Amtrak's warning came after two of its trains were involved in fatal crashes on third-party tracks in the past two months - the latest of about 150 crashes killing more than 300 people over the last five decades that investigators said were preventable by PTC.

On Dec. 18, a train entered a curve at nearly 50 mph (80 kph) over the speed limit and derailed on tracks south of Seattle owned by a regional authority, killing three people. On Feb. 4, a train was switched to the wrong track and slammed into a CSX train on tracks owned by the freight carrier in Cayce, South Carolina, killing two people.

"Without PTC, the system is too vulnerable to single points of failure many of which are dependent upon the memory of a single human being interacting with a big, complicated system," Anderson said. "When an engineer loses situational awareness or forgets a rule, we have no systems to assist them and help them prevent that error."

Signals on the South Carolina tracks were down for PTC installation, leaving dispatchers to manage train movements on their own. The NTSB on Thursday called for an emergency order requiring trains to slow down in such areas and report back if switches are misaligned.

Duy Nguyen, a Columbia University social work professor who survived the deadly May 2015 Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia, said he was frustrated by the lack of progress on PTC.

Eight people were killed and about 200 people were hurt when the Washington-to-New York train rounded a curve at more than twice the 50 mph speed limit and hurtled off the tracks.

"It's infuriating that so many of the rail lines have been dragging their feet," said Nguyen, 42, of Teaneck, N.J. "There are people's lives at risk every day."

__

Follow Mike Sisak at twitter.com/mikesisakFalse reports of a second shooter at a Florida high school included a tweet from an account attempting to pass itself off as that of former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly.

Broward County School Superintendent Robert Runcie told ABC News that authorities believe suspect Nikolas Cruz acted alone Wednesday.

That didn't stop people from circulating online stories of another suspect, Sam Hyde, whose name has been publicized in other mass shootings dating to at least 2015, including shootings last year in Las Vegas and Texas. In the false O'Reilly tweet, Hyde was also described as a fellow former student at the school.

Medical personnel tend to a victim following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

The recycled hoax names a real person, comedian Sam Hyde, who has performed on television and online. Photos of him sometimes accompany the postings.Bimla Nayyar, 81, from Belleville, Michigan, died in 2012 two months after receiving brain surgery by mistake due to a hospital mix up

The family of an elderly Michigan woman who died after she was given the wrong surgery won $21million in court, but her family won't see a dime.

Bimla Nayyar, 81, from Belleville, went to the hospital to 'pop' her sore jaw bone back into place.

Instead she was given a brain surgery due to a records mix up. She died two months later in January 2012.

Although a jury awarded $21million to her estate, the verdict was made void because the lawyer's appeal was made as a case of negligence, instead of medical malpractice.

The horror took place at Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn (now called Beaumont Hospital  Dearborn).

Nayyar was admitted for a procedure to realign her dislocated jaw.

Her family lost an initial $21million verdict after the Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn lawyers argued the case was should have been based on medical malpractice instead of negligence

Instead she was mistakenly rushed into an operating room where five holes were drilled into her head and the right side of her skull was sawed off in a craniotomy procedure.

A bone flap in her brain was also temporarily removed, according to CBS.

It was only after the procedure that hospital staff realized the Belleville woman didn't need brain surgery and that her name was on the wrong medical record.

But the hospital allegedly did not inform the family that they had operated on the wrong patient.

Her health declined soon afterwards and she was put on was life support for 60 days.

She died just two months after the brain surgery.

A jury in 2015 said the surgery was the proximate cause of her death and so her estate was awarded the $21million that year.



However, the Michigan Court of Appeals overturned the award, saying Nayyar's death was presented as a case of negligence when it should have been argued as medical malpractice with a cap on any financial award.

The court noted that the first of two judges overseeing the litigation had ruled out a negligence claim.

Nayyar's lawyers pleaded with the state Supreme Court to reverse the decision saying that the hospital already admitted the surgery was a devastating error.

'This court would have to suspend all concepts of fair play, justice and truth to ignore the gross injustice that has occurred here. For God's sake, do something about it,' Nayyar's law firm Geoffrey Fieger said in a filing.

The hospital's lawyers, however, said Fieger made errors with an 'all or nothing ... bad bet' on a negligence claim.

On February 7 the Michigan Supreme Court declined for the second time to intervene the case.

The hospital's lawyers fought against the $21million verdict saying it won by improper protocol and the case should have been based on medical malpractice

The vote by six justices was unanimous. Justice Kurtis Wilder didn't participate.

Chief Justice Stephen Markman said last week that the crucial appeals court decision should stand, but still called the case a 'medical and legal dereliction, resulting in an extraordinary miscarriage of justice.'

The Michigan Supreme Court said they rejected the case because Nayyar's family no longer had any negligence claim nor medical malpractice claim.

Chief Justin Markman said Nayyar's estate 'now has no negligence claim and no medical malpractice claim all...all despite the fact that (a) defendant-hospital openly admitted negligence, (b) a jury determined that this negligence constituted the proximate cause of plaintiff's death, and (c) a jury awarded plaintiff a $20million verdict.'

Fieger, known as one of Michigan's best personal injury lawyers, did not respond to The Associated Press' request for comment.

If the claim was made under a medical malpractice claim, Nayyar's estate could have won at least $800,000, according to Nelson Miller, associate dean at WMU-Cooley Law School.

Miller described Fieger as a 'remarkable advocate'

'I'm not surprised he was the one who won such a large verdict. But the risks should have been readily apparent,' Miller added.AMARILLO, Texas (AP) - A Texas Panhandle shelter worker who wrestled a gun away from a man holding hostages was then shot by a police officer who mistook him as the suspect.

Amarillo police say they received a report Wednesday of a man holding dozens hostage in the chapel of Faith City Mission, a shelter serving the indigent and others.

An officer confronted a man inside holding a gun and shot him. Police say the investigation revealed the man who was mistakenly shot had moments earlier fought with the gunman and took away his weapon.

Police say the worker remained hospitalized Thursday with injuries not considered life-threatening.

Authorities say 35-year-old Joshua Len Jones is being held at the Potter County jail on multiple counts of aggravated kidnapping.

Online jail records don't indicate an attorney who's representing him.WESTFIELD, Mass. (AP) - A Massachusetts city is suing the makers of firefighting foam blamed for water contamination.

Westfield's Democratic Mayor Brian Sullivan announced the federal lawsuit against the 3M Co., Chemguard Inc. and Tyco Fire Protection Products on Thursday.

The manufacturers produce foam used for years at the Barnes Air National Guard Base and the Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport for firefighter training.

The city argues the manufacturers knew or should've known the foam chemicals are "persistent when released into the environment and harmful."

The lawsuit doesn't specify how much in damages Westfield seeks, but city solicitor Sue Phillips tells the Westfield News it's "looking to be made whole."

St. Paul, Minnesota-based 3M, Marinette, Wisconsin-based Chemguard and Lansdale, Pennsylvania-based Tyco Fire Protection Products haven't commented.

Westfield is installing filters to treat the contamination. Two public wells have been closed since 2015.Hamilton County Emergency Medical Services (HCEMS) honored HCEMS Captain Darlene Poole recently at a retirement celebration for 30 years of service to the community.

Captain Poole was one of the first employees hired to serve in the Hamilton County Emergency Medical Services. She began her career in 1988 as a paramedic with HCEMS which began with two ambulances. The county now has 14 ambulances strategically placed throughout Hamilton County.

Captain Poole retired as captain of the Training Division of HCEMS. She has led training for countless individuals in HCEMS, local and area fire departments and the Hamilton County Sheriffs Department among other agencies requiring certification training.

She has served on the Southeast Emergency Medical Services Directors Association (SEEMSDA) committee for several years and was instrumental in organizing the annual HCEMS Pink T-shirt campaign, bringing breast cancer awareness to the fore font in the community. She has been responsible for coordinating all re-certifications for HCEMS personnel and serves as an instructor for Advanced EMT and Paramedic courses at Chattanooga State Community College for both state and national certification and licensing.

HCEM Director Ken Wilkerson said, Captain Poole has been a vital asset to our medical service, serving our community with dedication and leadership. I congratulate her both personally and professionally on her retirement, leaving behind a legacy of excellent service with EMS with for the past 30 years.

HCEMS Deputy Director John Combes said, I have had the privilege of working with Captain Poole for over 15 years. I congratulate her on a job well done for HCEMS and the citizens of Hamilton County.

For more information about HCEMS, visit www.hamiltontnems.org.HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - President Donald Trump on Thursday postponed a campaign rally scheduled for next week in the Pittsburgh area, the early political hotspot of 2018's congressional elections.

Trump's campaign said the decision was out of respect and sympathy for the victims and survivors of the Florida high school shooting that left 17 dead. It said another rally would be scheduled soon.

The rally would be Trump's second visit to Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district, where a new Monmouth University poll shows a close race. Trump, Ivanka Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have visited the district in recent weeks, ahead of March 13's special election in a contest widely seen as a test of whether Trump's party can stave off Democratic gains in the fall elections.

The Monmouth University poll, released Thursday, shows Republican Rick Saccone at 49 percent and Democrat Conor Lamb at 46 percent in a district won handily by former Republican Rep. Tim Murphy eight times over 16 years.

Trump trounced Democrat Hillary Clinton in the district in 2016 by almost 20 percentage points.

Pollsters interviewed 320 likely voters by telephone from Feb. 12-14. The sampling margin of error was plus or minus 5.5 percentage points.

The special election is to pick a successor to Murphy, an abortion rights opponent who resigned in October after his hometown newspaper reported he suggested a mistress get an abortion when they thought she might be pregnant.

Millions of super PAC dollars are flowing into the race for the seat, practically all of it to support Saccone, 60, a four-term state representative and retired Air Force intelligence officer.

Lamb, a 33-year-old former federal prosecutor and ex-Marine, reported entering 2018 with more than twice the cash in his campaign account as Saccone, $412,000 to $200,000.

Outside groups have spent more than $5 million on the race, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

That includes about $2 million spent on TV ads by the Congressional Leadership Fund, a political action committee aligned with House Speaker Paul Ryan, and another $1 million spent almost entirely on TV ads by two groups - Ending Spending and 45 Committee - supported by Joe Ricketts, a Wyoming billionaire and TD Ameritrade founder. The National Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican National Committee have spent another $1.5 million combined.

___

This story has been corrected to show that Rick Saccone is 60 years old, not 59.Boris Johnson has warned it would be mad to end up with a Brexit settlement that does not allow the UK to enjoy the economic freedoms of leaving the European Union.

Signalling the need to diverge from EU rules after leaving the bloc, Mr Johnson insisted that the UK should not remain locked into alignment with Brussels.

In the latest salvo in a Cabinet battle over how closely the UK should remain tied to the EU after leaving, Mr Johnson said Britain should not be lashed to the minute prescriptions of a bloc comprising just 6% of the worlds population.

Mr Johnsons comments at a speech in London are in stark contrast to Chancellor Philip Hammonds hope that the UK would only diverge very modestly from the EU.

With the Cabinet set to make a final decision on its approach, Mr Johnson refused to guarantee he would not quit this year if there was a plan for close alignment.

We are all very lucky to serve and Im certainly one of those, he said.

(PA graphic)

The UK has committed to leave the single market and customs union, but the EU could impose conditions to closely follow rules as part of the comprehensive deal sought by Theresa May.

Setting out his approach, Mr Johnson said: We would be mad to go through this process of extrication from the EU and not to take advantage of the economic freedoms it will bring.

By leaving the EU we will be able, if we so choose, to fish our own fish, to ban the traffic in live animals and payments to some of the richest landowners in Britain.

There would be freedom to cut VAT on fuel, simplify planning and speed up public procurement.

In a sign that there could be changes to environmental protections, Mr Johnson said we might decide that it was indeed absolutely necessary for every environmental impact assessment to monitor two life cycles of the snail and build special swimming pools for newts but it would at least be our decision.

Former Lib Dem MP Sarah Olney joins protesters on the second floor balcony at Lib Dem headquarters next door to the Policy Exchange in London ahead of Mr Johnsons speech (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Mr Johnson said the issue was about who decides and it may very well make sense to remain in alignment with EU standards on some products  but that commitment should not be written in to the Brexit deal.

I dont think we should necessarily commit, as a matter of treaty, that forever and a day we are going to remain locked into permanent congruence with the EU, he said.

In an effort to address concerns about the potential hit to trade, Mr Johnson said: To those who worry about coming out of the customs union or the single market  please bear in mind that the economic benefits of membership are nothing like as conspicuous or irrefutable as is sometimes claimed.

Outside the EU the UK will be able to do serious free trade deals with growing economies around the world.

Mr Johnson rejected arguments for a second referendum and warned that it would be a disastrous mistake to seek to thwart Brexit.

In a message to Remain supporters, the Brexit-backing minister said leaving the EU could be grounds for much more hope than fear.

(PA Graphics)

He insisted that Brexit would not make the UK more insular and Britain would remain a magnet for talented migrants.

But stressing the ability to control the UKs borders, he said we need to ask ourselves some hard questions about the impact of 20 years of uncontrolled immigration by low-skilled, low-wage workers.

Mr Johnsons speech, aimed at reaching out to Remain supporters, did little to win over Tory critics.

Sarah Wollaston said Mr Johnsons upbeat speech did not address the serious practical difficulties posed by Brexit.

#Boris presenting an optimistic vision of global Britain. I hope he is right. But his speech did not address any of the serious practical difficulties that will affect real peoples lives with a hard #Brexit  Sarah Wollaston (@sarahwollaston) February 14, 2018

Former minister Anna Soubry said he fails to understand the very real concerns of British business.

.@BorisJohnson fails to understand the very real concerns of British business far from reaching out it will drive many to deeper despair  Anna Soubry (@Anna_Soubry) February 14, 2018

The speech is the first of six being made by the Prime Minister and senior Cabinet figures to set out the Governments road map for Brexit.

Brexit Secretary David Davis, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox and Mrs Mays deputy David Lidington are expected to speak in the coming weeks.

It follows criticism of the Prime Minister for failing to spell out Britains Brexit aims.

The Chancellor, a prominent Remainer who is not on the list of set piece speeches, is on a tour of European capitals aimed at building business and political ties.

Philip Hammond is on a tour of European capitals (Toby Melville/PA)

The Chancellor used a piece in Swedish newspaper Dagens Industri to call for continued close connections with the EU and a deal that covers financial services.

But he also urged the EU27 states to be clearer about their approach to the talks.

We will leave the EU in March 2019, but we are not leaving Europe.



My piece today for Swedish newspaper @dagensindustri on the UK's relationship with Sweden and the rest of the EU.https://t.co/bkhq2Q7qcd  Philip Hammond (@PhilipHammondUK) February 13, 2018

He said: The complaint from Brussels has been that the UK hasnt made up its mind what type of relationship it wants, but in London, many feel that we have little signal of what future relationship the EU27 would like to have with a post-Brexit Britain.

I dont believe this can be a question only for British politicians and British voters to resolve.

In a sign of the EU27s frustrations, a spokesman for German chancellor Angela Merkel said: Its important for us that Britain concretise its plans  time is running out.Revelations around the handling of sex allegations at Oxfam should be a wake-up call to the charity sector, the International Development Secretary said.

Penny Mordaunt said the charity failed to show moral leadership and had not properly informed donors, regulators and prosecutors about the actions of its workers.

Hollywood star Minnie Driver has become the first celebrity to quit as an Oxfam ambassador following allegations that senior staff working in crisis zones paid for sex with vulnerable locals.

The charity also faces a challenge to hang on to major corporate partners, and the Duke of Edinburghs Award has confirmed it is reviewing its association with the organisation.

(PA Graphics)

In a speech to an aid conference in Stockholm, Ms Mordaunt tore into Oxfam over its response to the revelations about aid workers in Haiti in 2011.

She said: The recent revelations about Oxfam  not solely the actions perpetrated by a number of those staff  but the way the organisation responded to those events, should be a wake-up call to the sector.

They let perpetrators go. They did not inform donors, their regulator or prosecuting authorities.

It was not just the processes and procedures of that organisation that were lacking but moral leadership.

Oxfam received 31.7 million in taxpayer funding in 2016/17.

But Ms Mordaunt indicated millions in taxpayer funding could be cut off in the wake of the scandal.

She said: No organisation is too big, or our work with them too complex, for me to hesitate to remove funding from them if we cannot trust them to put the beneficiaries of aid first, she said.

Oxfam officials were meeting the Charity Commission on Wednesday after the regulator launched a statutory inquiry.

Ms Morduant, who said a culture change is needed, is due to meet the National Crime Agency on Thursday after talks with charity bosses, regulators and experts in recent days.

Big-name supporters including Marks & Spencer, Visa and Heathrow Airport said they are monitoring the situation closely.

A spokeswoman for the Duke of Edinburghs Award (DofE) said it had not been notified of any safeguarding incidents involving scheme participants volunteering in Oxfam stores or other charity shops.

She added: In light of these allegations, we will be reviewing our association with Oxfam as a participant volunteering provider.

Good Will Hunting star Driver quit her Oxfam role after 20 years with the charity, saying she was devastated by the scandal.

The 48-year-old tweeted: All I can tell you about this awful revelation about Oxfam is that I am devastated. Devastated for the women who were used by people sent there to help them, devastated by the response of an organisation that I have been raising awareness for since I was 9 years old #oxfamscandal.

The scandal led to the resignation of Oxfams deputy chief executive Penny Lawrence, who said she took full responsibility for what had happened on her watch.

All I can tell you about this awful revelation about Oxfam is that I am devastated.Devastated for the women who were used by people sent there to help them, devastated by the response of an organization that I have been raising awareness for since I was 9 years old #oxfamscandal  Minnie Driver (@driverminnie) February 13, 2018

Oxfam has issued an unreserved apology to the Government, donors, supporters and the people of Haiti over its handling of incidents including the alleged use of prostitutes by workers, in the earthquake-hit country.

Four members of Oxfam staff were dismissed and three, including the country director Roland van Hauwermeiren, resigned before the end of the 2011 investigation.

According to the Times, Oxfam knew about concerns over the conduct of Mr van Hauwermeiren and another man when they worked in Chad before they were given senior roles in Haiti.

The charity has said it is also working hard on corroborating the information from Chad, related to further allegations about the use of sex workers by staff there in 2006.

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt (Nick Ansell/ PA)

Ms Mordaunt said her department had created a new safeguarding unit which would urgently look into how we can stop sexual abusers and predators being reemployed by charities including the possibility of a global register of aid workers.

Meanwhile Oxfam International said chairman Dr Juan Alberto Fuentes Knight has stepped down in the face of charges in Guatemala in relation to a corruption case involving a bus concession.An ex-British soldier, believed to have fought with Kurdish militia forces against Islamic State, is thought to be the first person prosecuted under terrorism legislation for assisting a group helped by the UK government.

It is alleged that on or before February 15, 2016, James Matthews attended a place or places in Iraq and Syria where instruction or training was provided for purposes connected to the commission or preparation of terrorism.

The camps are thought to have been run by Kurdish militia.

James Matthews is greeted by supporters as he arrives at the court (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

The 43-year-old appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court on Wednesday and indicated a not guilty plea.

Speaking after the hearing, 39-year-old June Ayteen from London, who knows Matthews personally, said: It is very unprincipled of the British government to be taking this stance. It is unjust.

Another supporter, Red Rosa, 30, also from London, said: I am here to support James because I think it is really inspirational when people put their life on the line to fight for this common struggle, which is really an international struggle.

He has left his comfort in London to fight for his principles and fight for freedom.

Supporters of James Matthews wear masks with his face on outside Westminster Magistrates Court (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Salar Hamarash, 55, added: I just came to support James. He is a decent person who helped fight on the side of the underdog.

I am very surprised to hear the British government are allowing families of known Isis fighters back into the UK and not prosecuting them, but then put someone like James on trial.

Represented by Joel Bennathan QC, Matthews, wearing black jeans and a brown leather jacket, spoke only to confirm his identity.

Matthews, from Dalston, east London, is due to next appear at the Old Bailey on March 1.

As he arrived at court, he warmly greeted supporters outside the building, who then filled the public gallery for the hearing.

Matthews case is believed this is the first time terrorism legislation has been used to prosecute someone who is assisting a group who are also being assisted by the UK government.A gunman opened fire at a Florida high school killing 17 people.

Sheriff Scott Israel of Broward County said the 19-year-old suspect is in custody.

The suspect, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland was previously expelled for disciplinary reasons.

Swat teams swarmed the school, and the gunman was arrested without incident off campus.

Television footage showed police putting a person in the back of a police car outside the high school.

The sheriff said the gunman had at least one rifle and multiple magazines, and most of the fatalities were inside the building though some were found outside.

The suspect was later identified as Nikolas Cruz.

There were scenes of students frantically running from the building and ambulance crews treating people outside the school on Wednesday afternoon.

Broward County Superintendent Robert Runcie said: There are numerous fatalities. It is a horrific situation.

He added: It is a horrible day for us.

The White House cancelled its daily press briefing following the news and President Donald Trump has spoken with Florida governor Rick Scott.

The president tweeted: My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting.

No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.

Parent John Obin said his son, a student at the school, was in class when he heard several shots.

The father said his son advised that teachers quickly rushed students out of the school.

This is a really good school, and now its like a war zone, Mr Obin said.

Anxious family members wait for news (Wilfredo Lee/AP)

Coral Springs Police said earlier on Twitter that the school had been locked down and that students and teachers inside should remain barricaded until police reached them.

Outside, television footage showed two people on stretchers and another person being treated on the ground near the school.

Students evacuate the school (WPLG-TV/AP)

Paramedics were treating those who appeared to be students with injuries.

Len Murray, whose 17-year-old son attends the school, was stopped by authorities within view of the building.

He said: Im scared for the other parents here. You can see the concern in everybodys faces.

Everybody is asking: Have you heard from your child yet?'Britain has publicly blamed the Russian government for a cyber attack which targeted Ukraine and spread across Europe last year.

The NotPetya attacks primary targets were the Ukrainian financial, energy, and government sectors but it was designed to spread further and affected other European and Russian firms in June 2017.

Ukraine has been locked in a simmering conflict with Russian-backed separatists since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014.

Foreign minister for cyber security Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon said the UKs decision to identify the Kremlin as responsible to the attack underlines the fact the Government will not tolerate malicious cyber activity.

Foreign minister for cyber security Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon called on Russia to be more responsible. (Andrew Milligan/PA)

He said: The UK Government judges that the Russian government, specifically the Russian military, was responsible for the destructive NotPetya cyber attack of June 2017.

The attack showed a continued disregard for Ukrainian sovereignty. Its reckless release disrupted organisations across Europe costing hundreds of millions of pounds.

The Kremlin has positioned Russia in direct opposition to the West yet it doesnt have to be that way.

We call upon Russia to be the responsible member of the international community it claims to be rather then secretly trying to undermine it.

The United Kingdom is identifying, pursuing and responding to malicious cyber activity regardless of where it originates, imposing costs on those who would seek to do us harm.

We are committed to strengthening co-ordinated international efforts to uphold a free, open, peaceful and secure cyberspace.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson added: We have entered a new era of warfare, witnessing a destructive and deadly mix of conventional military might and malicious cyber attacks.

Russia is ripping up the rule book by undermining democracy, wrecking livelihoods by targeting critical infrastructure, and weaponising information.

We must be primed and ready to tackle these stark and intensifying threats.A major pensions mis-selling scandal is erupting according to MPs, who said British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS) members had been shamelessly bamboozled.

The Work and Pensions Committee said it had received worrying evidence about financial advice provided to members of the BSPS.

BSPS members had, over the past year, been exploited for cynical personal gain by dubious financial advisers in tandem with parasitical so-called introducers', it said.

Steelworkers yet to reach pension age were encouraged to transfer their defined benefit pension rights into a defined contribution pension, known as making a DB transfer.

Frank Field said the Pensions Regulator `should have seen this rip-off coming (Anthony Devlin/PA)

DB transfers may offer people readier access to cash and can be in the interests of people with a low life expectancy.

But transferring away from a DB pension or a final salary scheme is not usually in someones interests, the committee said  as it means giving up generous and stable benefits in favour of a riskier investment.

The report said: The circumstances surrounding the BSPS created perfect conditions for vultures to take advantage.

Unsuitable advice on DB transfers is not only confined to BSPS members, the report warned.

It continued: Research by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which regulates advisers, shows that only half of such advice nationwide meets its standards.

Yet over 100,000 people a year are taking DB transfers on the back of this advice.

The report said: Another major mis-selling scandal is already erupting and we therefore call on the relevant bodies to treat this as such and take urgent action.

The report said the outlines of a deal to save the sponsoring employer of the BSPS, Tata Steel UK, had been in place since May.

Members were asked to choose between two pension schemes which offered inferior benefits to the BSPS  the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) or a new scheme, BSPS2, it said.

But many scheme members had lost trust and a member communication plan proved woefully inadequate.

The Pensions Regulator was responsible for ensuring members were not left in the dark.

But the report continued: All this failed. Instead, faced with making a life-changing choice in a hurry, many members were attracted to a third option of a DB transfer.

This was seemingly unforeseen by all those bodies with a duty to watch and act.

The report said many BSPS members were shamelessly bamboozled into signing up to ongoing adviser fees and unsuitable funds with high investment risks, high management charges and punitive exit fees.

The Pensions Regulator visited Port Talbot for talks with British Steel Pension Scheme members (Ben Wright/PA)

Since March 2017, the scheme has processed 2,600 pension transfers equating to a total value of 1.1 billion, according to data revealed on February 8 by the scheme trustees.

The average value of BSPS pension benefits transferred out was 400,000. In around 20 cases the transfer value exceeded 1 million.

The committee heard of advice fees typically around 2% of the transfer value and punitive exit penalties ranging from 5% to as high as 10%.

Among its recommendations, the committee said the Pensions Regulator should conduct a review to learn lessons.

An online register of advisers and their current status should also be created by the FCA, it said.

Frank Field, chairman of the committee, said: Once again we find the Pensions Regulator fiddling while Rome burns, when it should have seen this rip-off coming.

He continued: All the responsible authorities must act, now, to stop more people being cheated.

A spokesman for the Pensions Regulator said it is working more closely with other regulators to protect pension savers.

He said: We fulfilled our primary role by evaluating and approving this complex restructuring of the BSPS including obtaining 550 million for the scheme.

Sir Steve Webb said it was important to clamp down on those who were seeking to exploit people (Danny Lawson/PA)

As part of this rare restructuring, which prevented the company becoming insolvent, a new pension scheme was offered to members as an alternative to entry to the PPF.

We believe this was the best possible outcome for everyone involved in what was a very challenging situation, bringing greater certainty for thousands of scheme members.

We also helped tackle unscrupulous financial advisers who were exploiting the situation and the current high transfer values available by working closely with the scheme trustees, the FCA and the Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS).

We went to Port Talbot and took part in a discussion forum with scheme members and others.

We reviewed communications sent to members and were satisfied they adequately warned of the dangers of transferring out of a DB scheme.

And, while TPR does not regulate financial advice, we wrote jointly with the FCA and TPAS to members to flag potential risks.

The regulator plans to publish a joint strategy later this year tackling key risks facing the pensions sector.

Sir Steve Webb, a former pensions minister who is now director of policy at Royal London, said: It is important not to throw the baby out with the bath water in this case.

The right lesson is to clamp down on those who seek to exploit people and scam them out of their pension savings, not to deny workers the chance to reshape their retirement plans if they wish to do so on the basis of impartial expert advice.

An FCA spokeswoman said it had taken detailed, extensive and robust action on the BSPS to help steelworkers and it has been carrying out considerable work within its remit on DB transfer advice.

The spokeswoman said the FCA is also reviewing rules applying to firms advising on pension transfers, adding: The FCA remains focused on ensuring consumers are protected.Forecasters have warned of freezing conditions throughout the day after issuing a weather warning for almost 24 hours.

Scotland is worst affected by the snow and ice alert which kicked in just after midnight on Thursday.

(PA Graphics)

It affects Central, Tayside and Fife, the Highlands and the former Strathclyde area and is schedule to last the whole day until 11.55pm.

Met Office forecasters predict frequent showers will push across north west Scotland falling as snow above 200m.

They also say 10-20cm of snow could be possible over the highest routes in parts of northern Argyll, Lochaber, Wester Ross and Easter Ross.

Yellow warnings in place for #snow & #ice across the NW from midnight tonight until midnight on Thursday - we'll have 37 gritters out overnight & two tractors working throughout the night to keep roads clear. Read more here: https://t.co/nhj5DHhasB pic.twitter.com/C18loo1c1W  BEAR NW Trunk Roads (@NWTrunkRoads) February 14, 2018

Forecaster Marco Petagna said: There will be wintry showers throughout the day on Thursday and pretty strong winds.

They will fall as snow above 200m.

Strong winds are also forecast which forecasters say could lead to some drifting and temporary blizzard conditions.

At lower levels showers are more likely to fall as a mixture of rain, sleet and hail potentially washing off any treatment with surfaces turning icy, particularly overnight.

Good evening, Dan here this evening to answer your queries regarding the weather. Rain & strong winds will clear this evening, leaving a cold & breezy night. Showers will affect western areas with gales & wintry showers continuing in the far Northwest .https://t.co/cQSfu1VDbo pic.twitter.com/YGdfBGHEXe  Met Office (@metoffice) February 14, 2018

An ice warning is also in place for Northern Ireland which kicks in at the same time and lasts until 10am.

Experts predict the areas affected will be Antrim, Londonderry, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Armagh and County Down.

Mr Petagna added: There will certainly be some wintry showers in the province, although its an ice warning that is in place for Northern Ireland.

Even into Friday theres a few showers to come. its wintry turning to sleet in western areas.

Theres quite a split between west and east.Most university bosses sit on, or attend, the pay committees that set the salaries of their institutions senior staff, figures indicate.

Nearly half of vice-chancellors are members of their universitys remuneration bodies, according to data collected by the University and College Union (UCU), while others are able to attend meetings.

It warned that there needs to be full transparency of senior pay and perks at UK universities.

Most university bosses sit on, or attend, the pay committees that decide senior staff salaries, figures indicate (Chris Radburn/PA)

The data, obtained through freedom of information requests, comes amid growing concerns over spiralling salary hikes for university chiefs, with several high-profile figures, including ministers, calling for restraint.

UCUs figures show that of the 143 institutions that provided responses, around 47% (67 universities) said their vice-chancellor is a member of the universitys remuneration committee.

Of those that said their leader was not a member of the pay committee, just seven said the vice-chancellor was not allowed to attend committee meetings.

One university said it did not have a remuneration committee.

In some universities, it may be the case that a vice-chancellor excuses themselves from the committee if they are a member, or from the meeting they are attending, when their own pay is discussed and set.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: It is quite staggering that just seven universities say their vice-chancellor was neither a member of the committee that sets their pay, nor allowed to attend the meetings.

For too long universities have got away with painting remuneration committees as independent bodies to deflect attention over senior pay.

The time has come for proper transparency of senior pay and perks in our universities and that starts with full disclosure of the shadowy remuneration committee.

A spokesman for vice-chancellors group Universities UK said: It is right to expect that the process for determining senior university staff pay is rigorous and transparent.

The Committee of University Chairs (CUC) new remuneration code, currently being consulted upon, will provide important guidance for university remuneration committees to ensure senior pay decisions are fair, accountable and justified, while recognising that competitive pay is necessary to attract first rate leaders.

The draft code, published last month, says the process for setting pay must be transparent.

Society has a right to know that taxpayers funds are being properly used and that the institution is being managed in the interest of students, the economy and society, it says.

Pay for university chiefs has risen significantly in recent years, and in 2015/16 the typical salary of a UK vice-chancellor was 6.4 times that of the average university worker, according to a government consultation published in October.

Average pay last year including pensions and benefits was more than 280,000.

Under new proposals, universities will have to publish the pay of anyone earning more than 100,000 and give an explanation if someone is earning in excess of 150,000, equivalent to the Prime Ministers salary.A butterfly whose numbers have seen dramatic declines in recent years is breeding in Scotland for the first time in 130 years, experts said.

The white-letter hairstreak butterfly, which has a distinctive W marking on the underside of its wing, is widespread in England and Wales, but has seen populations drop by almost three-quarters (72%) in the last decade.

The recent falls have come after major declines in the 1970s as a result of Dutch Elm disease, as the species caterpillars feed on elm.

For a decade, volunteers for wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation have been monitoring the species and its gradual spread northwards  thought to be the result of a warming climate.

Now a handful of eggs of the hairstreak have been found on wych Elm trees  a more resilient variety of elm  at Lennel, near Coldstream, Berwickshire, by amateur naturalists.

The discovery of eggs comes after a single adult white-letter hairstreak butterfly was seen around 10 miles further north last summer by Borders butterfly recorder Iain Cowe.

White-letter hairstreak butterfly eggs have been found for the first time in Scotland for more than 130 years (Iain Cowe/Butterfly Conservation/PA)

He said: The discovery of these eggs is hugely significant as it not only confirms the white-letter hairstreak is breeding here, but one of the eggs was an old, hatched shell  so it looks like the butterfly could have been breeding here since at least 2016.

Last year was an impossible find, but this years egg discovery is beyond anything we thought possible.

Volunteer Ken Haydock, from Bolton, Greater Manchester, who made the discovery with Jill Mills, said: It was a lovely sunny morning and we were searching the elm trees by the River Tweed at Lennel when Jill called me over.

I could see by the look on her face that she had found something.

We were both beaming with disbelief and delight when we realised what Jill had found and within seconds I was fumbling in my pack for the camera  my hands were shaking.

They had been asked to check the elm trees in the surrounding area and along the River Tweed following last years sighting of the butterfly.

Before the discovery, the most northern location for white-letter hairstreak eggs was at Rothbury in Northumberland, about an hour south of Paxton.

Director of Butterfly Conservation Scotland Paul Kirkland said: We will need to have a few more years of confirmed sightings before we can officially class this butterfly as a resident species in Scotland.

If this happens, it would take the total number of butterflies found in Scotland to 34, which really would be something to celebrate.Zinedine Zidane lauded Real Madrid for displaying their Champions League pedigree as the holders scored twice late on to claim a first-leg lead against Paris St Germain.

PSG had gone ahead in their round-of-16 tie through Adrien Rabiots strike and even though Cristiano Ronaldos penalty levelled matters before the break, the Ligue 1 leaders arguably shaded the contest until the final seven minutes.

That was when Ronaldo fortuitously put Real ahead as a Marco Asensio cross was diverted on to his knee, with Marcelo then adding a third for the hosts three minutes later to give Zidanes men a 3-1 victory.

Zinedine Zidane has had a difficult season with Real Madrid (Adam Davy/PA)

In what has been a comparatively difficult season for Zidane, Ronaldo and Real, the reigning champions possessed the necessary nous and big-game experience to secure the victory.

This club has 12 European Cups and that means a lot, Zidane said in his post-match press conference.

This is such a prominent competition and we want to prove time and time again that this club values this.

We showed it for the full 90 minutes. We coped well, both with and without the ball. We defended well, with aggression and rhythm.

The Champions League really has a place in this clubs heart. We played 90 stunning minutes against a top rival. Thats all that were concerned with.

We have to turn our attentions now to the return leg, that will be entirely different.

It was a particularly crushing defeat for PSG given they had looked the more likely side to claim victory before Zidane introduced Asensio from the bench late on.

Real defender Sergio Ramos believes the manner of his teams success in coming from behind is crucial ahead of the return fixture in Paris.

Vital win, he told realmadrid.com.

This was one of the Champions League (wins) which Ill remember throughout my career and the way we won is important for the return leg.

We must continue on in this way and defend our Champions League title. We did brilliantly.

This is no time to dwell on things and this team, despite conceding a goal, looked for that win with real integrity against a focused side.

Despite what we all say, Real Madrid can never be written off.

PSG had hoped the major summer acquisitions of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe could help them to a first Champions League title having been eliminated in stunning fashion by Barcelona last year.

However, they are still finding it difficult to translate their domestic dominance on to the continental stage and goalscorer Rabiot pulled no punches in his assessment.

Its annoying because I think we did the right things, he said in his interview with beIN Sports.

The problem is that its easy to put eight past Dijon. Its in these matches that you have to be decisive.Elise Christie has vowed to remain fearless as she seeks to end her Olympics torment after taking inspiration from messages of support from Dame Kelly Holmes and Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill.

The 27-year-old, who was disqualified three times at the Sochi 2014 Games, saw her dream of reaching the podium in her first event in Pyeongchang dashed on Tuesday when she crashed out of the womens 500metres final.

Christie has taken a vow of social media silence as she prepares to renew her bid for an elusive first Olympic medal at the Gangneung Ice Arena on Saturday in the 1500m.

Her Twitter shutdown follows the receipt of messages of support from two-time Olympic champion Holmes and Ennis-Hill, the London 2012 heptathlon champion.

Hey guys im going to be a bit quieter over the next few days so I can focus on my preparation! Especially for the 1000m coming up! Thanks so much for all the support its overwhelming! I promise to do my best! Sending you guys all my love  pic.twitter.com/jocAyFeUok  Elise christie (@Elise_Christie) February 15, 2018

I picked myself up the next day, I even felt better that night. Ive had so much support from back home, which is incredible, Christie told Eurosport on Thursday.

Ive heard from Jessica Ennis and Kelly Holmes and they are my two biggest heroes and its overwhelming theyve messaged me.

This is a total opposite feeling to Sochi and I feel ready to go again.

Elise Christie was distraught after crashing out of the 500m final (Mike Egerton/PA Images)

Im super focused for the 1000m, which is my last event, because thats my favourite and best distance.

Im just getting back on track for that and Ill still be racing fearless.

Im trying to enjoy the moment Im in and not focus on everything that has gone wrong.

Sport is so cruel sometimes and I know you must be devastated. But youve absolutely got the strength and talent to come back so much stronger, its not over by any means and we are all rooting for you. Jess x  Dame Jess Ennis-Hill (@J_Ennis) February 14, 2018

In contrast to four years ago when she was faced with death threats after being disqualified for tangling with a South Korean skater, Christie has been inundated with messages of support, most notably from two of her heroes.

Ennis-Hill wrote: Sport is so cruel sometimes and I know you must be devastated. But youve absolutely got the strength and talent to come back much stronger. Its not over by any means and we are all rooting for you.

And Dame Kelly Holmes also tweeted: Down but not over. You will bounce back even stronger. You know what focus and perseverance is and how you can keep your head up high, fighting for what you believe in!! Its there! You have got it! Its just that the other achievements are maybe coming first.

Down but not over. You will bounce back even stronger. You know what focus and perseverance is and how you can keep your head up high, fighting for what you believe it!! Its there! You have got it! Its just that the other achievements are maybe coming first.   Dame Kelly Holmes (@damekellyholmes) February 14, 2018

Christie is due to go in the 1500m this weekend and the 1000m, her favoured distance, early next week  both distances in which she is the current world champion.

The Scot added: I know I can do well in the 1500m but its never a distance that I focus on. Its about having a race and getting ready for the 1000m.

However, I know Im capable of medalling in it because Im the world champion at 1500m too. Its nice to finish with my best event but Ill be looking to get that medal this weekend too.US police were trying to piece together how a 49-year-old skier whose disappearance sparked a massive search on a snowy New York mountainside ended up six days later in California, confused and still in ski clothes.

Toronto firefighter Constantinos Danny Filippidis told investigators he does not know what happened after he was reported missing on Wednesday February 7 from Whiteface Mountain during an annual ski trip with colleagues.

The search ended on Tuesday when Mr Filippidis turned up in Sacramento, California, some 2,500 miles west of the Adirondacks.

A skier turned up in California after sloping off from New York (David Cheskin/PA)

At this point, we want to assist Danny in getting back the last six days of his life, said New York State Police Major John Tibbitts.

Mr Filippidis was heading back to the Lake Placid, New York, area on Wednesday. Mr Tibbitts said the firefighter had agreed to be interviewed by state police but that he is not aware that Mr Filippidis broke any laws.

Frank Ramagnano, president of the Toronto Professional Firefighters Association, told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday evening that Mr Filippidis appeared to be confused and was unable to give direct answers.

He had phoned (his wife) and called her by a nickname. She quickly recognised the voice and that it was him, Mr Ramagnano said. Then they lost contact and he contacted her again and they kept him on the phone and asked him to call 911 to get him help as soon as possible.

Mr Filippidis told deputies he remembered little, but thought he had suffered a head injury, rode in a big rig-style truck and slept a lot, Sergeant Shaun Hampton of the Sacramento County Sheriffs Department told the Post-Standard of Syracuse.

Mr Filippidis said he bought an iPhone to call his wife and told officers a lorry dropped him off in Sacramento, where he got a haircut, Mr Hampton said.

Missing Skiier: Attention skiers/snowboarders at Whiteface Mountain: If you were skiing the mountain Wednesday, February 7, and saw this man, Constantinos Danny Filippidis, between the hours of 2:30-4:30 p.m, please call State Police at 518-873-2750. https://t.co/pyLNUIG6aC pic.twitter.com/P2WIyLzBNV  NewYorkStatePolice (@nyspolice) February 9, 2018

Mr Tibbitts said it was too early in the missing person investigation to comment on details provided from others. He also declined to estimate the cost of the six-day search, which involved a helicopter and up to 140 people a day, some combing the snow with hands.

Police distributed a picture of Mr Filippidis taken in California on Tuesday, hoping people who recognise him can help solve the mystery.

He wants to find out where he was as badly as we want to find out where he was, Mr Tibbitts said.Photographs of the secret and labyrinthine world where the National Gallery hid its paintings during the Second World War are going on display.

The gallery, in Trafalgar Square, will be showing photographs of the disused slate mine, in Snowdonia, where it stored its collection for safe-keeping.

Archival photographs will document the dispersal of paintings to the mine, while the gallery will also show five photographs, by Robin Friend, of the quarry as it appears today.

A plan was made to protect the national art collection in the summer of 1940, when the invasion of Britain looked imminent.

Manod today (Robin Friend)

Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill had vetoed one proposal for the paintings to be evacuated by ship to Canada.

Hide them in caves and cellars, but not one picture shall leave this island, he said.

The entrance of the Manod mine was enlarged using explosives to fit the largest paintings and several small brick bungalows were built within the caverns to protect the works from variations in humidity and temperature.

Special elephant cases were constructed to transport the valuables on trucks to Wales.

By the summer of 1941, the whole collection had been reunited in its new subterranean home, where it was to remain for four years.

Experts made valuable discoveries which influenced the way the collection was displayed and cared for when it returned to London after the war ended.

It had never been possible to monitor a whole collection in such controlled circumstances before.

Air conditioning was included in the plans for the major renovations needed for the west wing of the National Gallery, which had been badly damaged during bombing raids.

The display will also feature a 30-minute film, filmed in a slate mine in Snowdonia and in the National Gallery, about a painting that has taken human form.

Photographs of the disused slate mine last went on display at the National Gallery more than 20 years ago.

National Gallery curator Dr Minna Moore Ede said: Hundreds of feet underground, the Manod slate mine is an extraordinary subterranean space in North Wales.

Robin Friends photographs convey the wonder of this secret and labyrinthine world, where for four years during the Second World War, the National Gallery hid their collection for safe-keeping.

Manod: The Nations Treasure Caves runs from March 5 to April 8 at the National Gallerys Annenberg Court.Labour MSP Anas Sarwar has written to the First Minister outlining a series of proposals to tackle everyday racism and Islamophobia across Scotland.

Mr Sarwar wants the Scottish Government to take action on black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) representation in the public sector workforce.

He also called for a review of the legal framework surrounding racist and Islamophobic abuse on social media.

Anas Sarwar recently launched the Cross Party Group on Tackling Islamophobia (Andrew Milligan/PA)

New on @LabourHame:

Full text of @AnasSarwar's letter to @NicolaSturgeon outlining steps he believes the Scottish Government should take to challenge everyday racism and Islamophobia. https://t.co/I6PP17Oboy  LabourHame (@LabourHame) February 15, 2018

The MSP spoke out last month about being subjected to racist comments during the Scottish Labour leadership contest.

He recently launched the Cross Party Group (CPG) on Tackling Islamophobia, supported by MSPs from every political party and over 50 organisations.

In his letter to Nicola Sturgeon, Mr Sarwar said his proposals were about challenging a culture that impacts on workplaces, colleges, university campuses and playgrounds across the country.

He called on the government to put in place a requirement for at least one BAME candidate  where at least one has applied  to be shortlisted for an interview for a public sector job.

His proposals also include a regular audit of the diversity of Scotlands workforce, the ability for public sector workers to report abuse anonymously, and a programme of equality and diversity training to be rolled out across the public sector.

On social media, he called for a review to ensure that the correct legal framework exists for the police to take action and that the appropriate legal framework is then enforced appropriately and correctly.

Police Scotland should also establish a formal relationship with the organisation Tell MAMA, which works on tackling anti-Muslim hatred, he said.

The launch of the CPG on Tackling Islamophobia @ScotParl, chaired by @AnasSarwar with contributions from @hopkinspeter1 and @TellMamaUK. Lots of important issues to take forward with a focus on solutions. pic.twitter.com/9BPFAPIW9P  Cross Party Group on Tackling Islamophobia (@CPGIslamophobia) January 30, 2018

Mr Sarwar, one of only four BAME MSPs to have ever sat at Holyrood, said: I want to repeat what I have said in every conversation, in every piece of communication, and in every media comment  this isnt about one individual or one party or organisation.

Its about challenging a culture that impacts on workplaces, colleges, university campuses and playgrounds across the country.

What I have set out are steps that I believe the Scottish Government should take to challenge the consequences of everyday racism and Islamophobia.

This would demonstrate to the public how seriously we  as a Parliament and a country  take this issue and help us to tackle this culture head-on.

Great turnout at Cross Party Group on Tackling Islamophobia launch. 50+ orgs, representing all faiths & none.



This is bigger than any 1 individual or organisation. Its about challenging everyday racism & Islamophobia that impacts on workplaces, campuses & classrooms. pic.twitter.com/YzIcUKZu4f  Anas Sarwar (@AnasSarwar) January 30, 2018

A Scottish Government spokesman said: As stated in Parliament, the First Minister is committed to working constructively with the proposed cross-party group on tackling Islamophobia.

We will consider the points raised by Mr Sarwar when we receive the letter and reply to him in due course.

Everyday racism, Islamophobia or any form of prejudice and bigotry is completely unacceptable, and it is wrong for MSPs, or anyone in our society, to be the subject or victim of it.

We are resolved to do everything that it takes to ensure that Scotland is a place where there is zero tolerance of racism in any form.An orphaned 19-year-old with a troubled past and an AR-15 rifle was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday morning after being questioned for hours by state and US federal authorities following the deadliest school shooting in the country in five years.

Fifteen wounded survivors were taken to hospital as bodies were recovered from inside and around Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Just before the shooting broke out, some students thought they were having another fire drill.

Such an exercise had forced them to leave their classrooms hours earlier. So when the alarm went off Wednesday afternoon shortly before they were to be dismissed, they once again filed out into the hallways.

That was when police say Nikolas Cruz, equipped with a gas mask, smoke grenades and multiple magazines of ammunition, opened fire with a semi-automatic weapon, killing 17 people and sending hundreds of students fleeing into the streets. It was the nations deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, more than five years ago.

Our district is in a tremendous state of grief and sorrow, said Robert Runcie, superintendent of the school district in Parkland, about an hours drive north of Miami. It is a horrible day for us.

Authorities offered no immediate details about Cruz or his possible motive, except to say that he had been kicked out of the high school, which has about 3,000 students. Students who knew him described a volatile teenager whose strange behaviour had caused others to end friendships with him.

School shootings in the United States, 12 months to February 2018 (PA Graphics)

Cruzs mother Lynda Cruz died of pneumonia on November 1, neighbours, friends and family members said, according to the Sun Sentinel. Ms Cruz and her husband, who died of a heart attack several years ago, adopted Nikolas and his biological brother, Zachary, after the couple moved from Long Island in New York to Broward County.

The boys were left in the care of a family friend after their mother died, family member Barbara Kumbatovich, of Long Island, said.

Unhappy there, Nikolas Cruz asked to move in with a friends family in northwest Broward. The family agreed and Cruz moved in around Thanksgiving. According to the familys lawyer, who did not identify them, they knew that Cruz owned the AR-15 but made him keep it locked up in a cabinet. He did have the key, however.

A news release regarding the Parkland school shooting is available on our website https://t.co/vGgPigYeLA.  Broward Sheriff (@browardsheriff) February 15, 2018

Jim Lewis said the family is devastated and did not see this coming. They are cooperating with authorities, he said.

Victoria Olvera, a 17-year-old junior at the school, said Cruz was expelled last school year because he got into a fight with his ex-girlfriends new boyfriend. She said he had been abusive to his girlfriend.

I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him, she said.

Cruz was taken into custody without a fight about an hour after the shooting in a residential neighborhood about a mile away. He had multiple magazines of ammunition, authorities said.

Its catastrophic. There really are no words, said Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel.

Frantic parents rushed to the school to find Swat team members and ambulances surrounding the huge campus and emergency workers who appeared to be treating the wounded on pavements. Students who had not run began leaving in a single-file line with their hands over their heads as officers urged them to evacuate quickly.

Hearing loud bangs as the gunman fired, many of the students inside hid under desks or in closets, and barricaded doors.

We were in the corner, away from the windows, said fresher Max Charles, who said he heard five gunshots. The teacher locked the door and turned off the light. I thought maybe I could die or something.

As he was leaving the building, he saw four dead students and one dead teacher. He said he was relieved when he finally found his mother.

Deadliest mass shootings in modern US history (PA Graphics)

I was happy that I was alive, Max said. She was crying when she saw me.

Noah Parness, a 17-year-old junior, said he and the other students calmly went outside to their fire-drill areas when he suddenly heard popping sounds.

We saw a bunch of teachers running down the stairway, and then everybody shifted and broke into a sprint, Mr Parness said. I hopped a fence.

Most of the fatalities were inside the building, though some victims were found fatally shot outside, the sheriff said.

Senator Bill Nelson told CNN that Cruz had pulled the fire alarm so the kids would come pouring out of the classrooms into the hall.

Students are released from lockdown (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel/AP)

And there the carnage began, said Mr Nelson, who said he was briefed by the FBI.

The scene was reminiscent of the Newtown attack, which shocked even a country numbed by the regularity of school shootings. The December 14 2012, assault at Sandy Hook Elementary School killed 26 people: 20 first-graders and six staff members. The 20-year-old gunman, who also fatally shot his mother in her bed, then killed himself.

Not long after Wednesdays attack in Florida, Michael Nembhard was sitting in his garage on a cul-de-sac when he saw a young man in a burgundy shirt walking down the street. In an instant, a police cruiser pulled up, and officers jumped out with guns drawn.

All I heard was Get on the ground! Get on the ground!' Mr Nembhard said. He said Cruz did as he was told.

The school was to be closed for the rest of the week.

A law enforcement official said the former student legally purchased his AR-15 rifle about a year ago.

Federal law allows people 18 and over to legally purchase long guns. At 21, people can legally buy handguns from a legitimate dealer.A father attacked his three young children and stepdaughter with a hammer during a cocaine-induced psychotic episode and then drove them into a wall at 92mph, a court has heard.

A judge heard the four children were left with life-changing injuries by Owen Scotts actions, with his seven-year-old daughter losing a large part of her skull, leaving her partially paralysed and needing to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

Scott, who claims to have no memory of the incident, was arrested after his car crashed into the Travellers Inn at a remote location near Penistone, South Yorkshire, in August.

He was jailed for life at Sheffield Crown Court on Thursday after admitting four counts of attempted murder and dangerous driving at an earlier hearing.

The judge, Mrs Justice OFarrell, ordered him to serve a minimum of 14 years before he can apply to be released.

She heard how Scott had been a loving father to his children, aged seven, 21 months and nine months, and his stepdaughter, eight, even after the breakdown of his relationship with his former partner.

But in the weeks before the incident, he developed paranoia, put down to a temporary psychosis caused by his long-term recreational cocaine and cannabis use.

Prosecutor Simon Keeley QC said Scott became convinced he was being chased by a gang who meant him and his children harm.

The Travellers Inn near Oxspring (Dave Higgens/PA)

Scott picked up the children  who lived with his ex-partner Sheryl Rogers in the Southampton area  and went on a two-day trip around the country, crashing into the pub 230 miles from their home in the early hours of August 23.

Mr Keeley said police had only traced part of Scotts route but he first went to the Isle of Wight before travelling to Liverpool.

He bought a satnav in Colne, Lancashire, and visited a Burger King in Bury, Greater Manchester, before heading to the Huddersfield area and then into South Yorkshire, where the crash happened on the A629.

A police sergeant who witnessed the collision said uninjured Scott clambered over the seriously injured children after the crash.

Two girls were found on top of each other on the central console of the car, a 21-month-old boy was found in a footwell and his little brother was in a carry-cot, also in a footwell, the judge heard.

You made no attempt to comfort or assist them or check whether they were injured, the judge said.

The judge spent 10 minutes listing the life-threatening and life-changing injuries suffered by each child, including multiple blows to the head consistent with a hammer found in the car.

As well as the seven-year-old girl losing part of her skull, having to have a shunt fitted which will drain fluid from her head for the rest of her life and undergoing 13 operations, the 21-month-old still has a hole in his skull which will require further surgery, the judge said.

Both the boys have to wear protective helmets.

Scott was jailed for life at Sheffield Crown Court (Dave Higgens/PA)

Michelle Colborne QC, defending, said her client was a recreational drug user who had been taking cannabis since he was 13 and spent 100 on cocaine at weekends.

She said doctors believe he was suffering a temporary psychotic episode caused by his drug use.

Miss Colborne said Scott was convinced a Southampton-based gang was after him and his children and he tried to kill the children to save them from a worse fate.

The judge told him: You, their father, on whom they were entitled to rely for love, affection and comfort and, in particular, on whom they did rely to keep them safe, inflicted shocking injuries that will have long-term limiting implications for them.

You will have to live for the rest of your life knowing that you have damaged, in some cases irrecoverably, the health, both physically and psychologically, of your children.

Ms Rogers is haunted by the screams of her children that she heard when she first saw them in hospital.

Scott, of Heather Road, Fawley, Hampshire, sat in the dock wearing a grey shirt and tie and flanked by a security guard.

He showed no apparent emotion at any point during the hearing.

Detective Chief Inspector David Stopford, of South Yorkshire Police, said: The scene, when officers first attended, was so horrific that they were astounded to find the children were alive.

This has been, without doubt, one of the most harrowing cases Ive worked on. The ordeal those young children were subjected to was utterly horrendous and Im pleased that Scott has today been jailed for a significant length of time.

Three of the four children are now recovering at home with their family. A seven-year-old girl is still receiving treatment in hospital today but we are hopeful she will soon be able to be at home with her family and her siblings.

Peter Mann from the CPS said: This was a serious and determined effort to kill four young children. Each of them has suffered traumatic and life-changing injuries as a result of this incident, and one child remains in hospital.

Medical specialists concluded that Scott inflicted multiple, deliberate blows upon them consistent with a hammer attack. The sheer ferocity of the attack and the appalling nature of the childrens injuries is utterly shocking.

Our thoughts remain with them along with their family and friends.Prison guards were deployed to understaffed jails more than 1,700 times last year  at a cost of 2.4 million.

Shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon told the Press Association that the figures revealed the chaos at the heart of the Governments prisons strategy.

In all, guards were dispatched to plug gaps 1,787 times in 2017, according to Government figures.

Hotel stays and travel expenses from January to November last year came to 2,488,180  a sum that could employ 108 full-time prison officers on 23,000 a year.

The Ministry of Justice described the ability to deploy staff, on what is known as detached duty, as a sensible and proportionate response to resource pressures.

However Mr Burgon said it was a case of papering over the cracks.

Shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon

He said: With the Justice Ministry facing the deepest cuts of any department, spending vast sums moving prison officers around the country to plug staffing gaps underlines the chaos at the heart of this Governments prisons strategy.

Shifting staff to one prison only takes them away from another.

This is a costly policy that is simply papering over the cracks.

It fails to address the root cause of the crisis in our prisons which is the disastrous Tory decision to axe thousands of prison officers which has left our prisons more dangerous than ever.

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform charity which campaigns for change in prisons, said the policy was a gross waste of public money.

She added: Staff do not like to be dislocated from their workplace and families, and they are not able to offer consistent and stable support in prisons that are already struggling.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: Prison officers do a challenging and vital job to help protect the public and we are committed to making sure we have enough staff to deliver safe regimes in our prisons.

Detached duty is one of the sensible and proportionate measures we take to cover resourcing pressures and ensure we run safe and decent regimes in prisons as well as being able to respond appropriately to any operational issues that arise.

When there is a need to accommodate staff in hotels, we work hard to ensure the best possible value for money for the taxpayer and have restrictions in place to help keep costs to a minimum.Chelseas press conference to preview Fridays FA Cup fixture with Hull was gatecrashed by an Italian comedian attempting to give Antonio Conte a Manchester United shirt signed by Jose Mourinho.

Conte had already spoken of plans to rotate his team ahead of a demanding schedule in which they next play Barcelona, Manchester United and Manchester City when the comedian from Italia 1 satire Le Iene rose from his seat.

He spoke to Conte in Italian, showed him a video on a tablet  his bitter rival Mourinhos name could be heard via the video  and then presented the shirt to him before it was refused and he was asked to leave.

Best quality available. Chelseas press conference to preview Fridays FA Cup fixture with Hull was gatecrashed by an Italian comedian (left) attempting to give Antonio Conte a Manchester United shirt signed by Jose Mourinho.

It was when Conte saw the shirt that he stopped smiling; the Manchester United manager had last month signed it, unaware it featured Contes name, when approached by comedians from the same programme in Manchester.

The Italian concluded the broadcast section of Thursday afternoons press conference before the individual was then asked to go by the clubs press officer.

Conte remains without the injured Tiemoue Bakayoko, David Luiz and Ross Barkley for Fridays visit of Hull, and asked if he was preparing to change his team, he responded: For sure, we have in front of us two weeks that are very tough.

Antonio Conte says David Luiz, Ross Barkley and Tiemoue Bakayoko are all out of tomorrow's game. There are a couple of other situations he needs to check on. #CHEHUL  Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) February 15, 2018

For this reason, its right to have a programme, to have a plan, to face these two tough weeks in the right way. But, at the same time, we want to try to go through to the next round in the FA Cup.

Bakayoko is out. Luiz is out. Barkley is out. Then I have a couple of situations that I have to check.

When you start a season, every competition is a priority. We tried to do the same in the Carabao Cup and reached the semi-final. We want to fight for every competition. There is not one priority. There are three priorities for the rest of this season.

On Ryan Mason's retirement, Conte says: 'We are very sad for this bad news. He showed great strength to try to play again. It's a pity to finish your career at a young age. It's bad news, we are sad and we wish him and his family the very best.' #CHEHUL  Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) February 15, 2018

In response to Roy Keane, a one-time opponent with United while Conte played for Juventus, labelling his players unprofessional, Conte said: In every moment I have underlined the commitment of the players. In this 18 months, we built a great mentality. In every training session I see great commitment and great behaviour. Under this aspect, Im very happy.

Fridays fixture represents Hulls first since their midfielder Ryan Mason, 26, announced his retirement because of the fractured skull suffered in a challenge with Chelseas Gary Cahill last year.

We are very sad for this bad news, added Conte, 48. He showed great strength to recover, to try to play again. Its a pity because to stop your career at such a young age: its a pity.

This news is bad news for us. We are very sad. The players and the club wish him and his family the best for the present, the best for the future.The fight against terrorism has blurred the traditional lines of war and peace, the chief of Nato has said, stressing that there is a constant threat of attack.

In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with the Press Association, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also said it was very difficult to predict when the fight against Islamic State will be over.

His comments come following a two-day defence ministers meeting in Brussels where it was announced Nato plans to expand its military training mission in Iraq following the fall of IS.

Natos Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said there is a `constant threat of terrorist attacks (Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA)

Pressed on how vulnerable Europe is to the threat of Islamic militancy and returning fighters from Iraq and Syria, he said significant achievements have been made in the fight against terrorism.

There is a constant threat of terrorist attacks, we have seen that that has happened again and again against Nato allies, he added.

And the threat is present, that is the reason why we have to step up our efforts to fight terrorism and we need many different tools.

He said the neighbourhoods where people are recruited need to be addressed, and that social workers, schools, police, intelligence services, border controls and military means were also important.

Mr Stoltenberg highlighted how 98% of the territory once controlled by the murderous group in Iraq and Syria when they seized vast swathes of the countries, has been liberated.

These are significant achievements in the fight against terrorism, he added, stating that due to intelligence sharing many terrorist attacks have been prevented.

There is still a threat, there is still a danger and this is a generational fight. It also illustrates that the concept of peace and war has changed, Mr Stoltenberg said.

Historically he said it has been easier to define periods of conflict, but added: The fight against Daesh or Isil  it is impossible to say exactly when it started.

It has taken place in Iraq and Syria but also in Afghanistan, North Africa and Asia, in cyber space, and I think it will be very hard to provide an exact date of when that war or that fight ends.

The fight against terrorism illustrates that it is a much more blurred line between war, conflict and non-conflict than how it was before.

That just makes it important that we continue the efforts.

Drawing attention to the rise of the extreme right in his home country of Norway, as well as the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, he said it illustrates how it is not about a fight against religion.

This is a fight against terrorist acts, acts of violence or acts or crimes, regardless of what kind of ideology or religion they try to use as an excuse for totally unacceptable actions, he added.

His comments come amid concerns of a diplomatic row between the US and the UK over the fate of two British men suspected of being members of an IS group dubbed the Beatles.

Washington is keen for militants captured by the coalition-backed Syrian Democratic Forces to be turned over to face justice in their home countries.

But Britains Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said he does not want Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh to ever step foot in the UK again.

Quizzed on what he thinks should happen, Mr Stoltenberg said it is up to individual Nato allies to decide the fate of accused extremists.

We are concerned about foreign fighters, they have been responsible for brutal violent crimes and the return of foreign fighters can pose a threat to Nato allies, he said.

Therefore we have to deal with that in a good way.

But it is for individual Nato allies to decide. Nato will not develop a common policy for the 29 allies, it will be up to each ally to decide  including Britain.The senior vice president of VaynerMedia, Mickey Cloud, is the guest speaker for the Public Relations Society of America Lookout Chapters professional development luncheon on March 7, at 11:30 a.m. at the Mountain City Club. VaynerMedia is a full-service digital agency with offices in Chattanooga, New York City and Denver, among others.Titled The Attention Framework, Mr. Clouds presentation will share the principles that VaynerMedia adheres to as they guide their clients through the changes brought by mobile devices and technology.After starting his career in account management and strategy at three different advertising agencies, Mr. Cloud joined VaynerMedia in 2011, when the company had 35 employees.From there, he has had a hand in its growth from small social media start-up to recognized leader in the advertising industry at large, officials said.In addition to running VaynerMedias Chattanooga branch, Mr. Cloud has been an invited keynote speaker and panelist at a number of marketing, innovation and entrepreneurship conferences, including Social Media Week (NYC) and the Inside / Outside Innovation Summit. He currently serves as an executive board member of the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce and the Enterprise Center.The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is the trade association for public relations professionals. The Lookout Chapter presents a luncheon once a month where members and non-members can network and learn from guest speakers. The meetings are open to non-members and are for not only to public relations specialists but also to all communication, advertising, marketing, media and business professionals interested in learning how to maintain their brand in the evolving marketing and communications landscape.The luncheon will take place on March 7 at 11:30 a.m. at the Mountain City Club, and lunch will be served. Membership in PRSA Lookout Chapter is not required to attend, but tickets are limited. Reserve online hereThefts of parking permits for disabled motorists have quadrupled in the past four years, new figures show.

Some 2,921 blue badges were reported stolen in England in 2016/17, compared with 656 in 2012/13, according to the Department for Transport (DfT).

The latest annual figure represents a year-on-year rise of 14%.

Blue badge thefts are on the rise (Lauren Hurley/PA)

Around 2.4 million disabled people in England have a blue badge.

The badges allow holders to park free of charge in pay and display bays and for up to three hours on yellow lines, while in London they exempt holders from having to pay the congestion charge.

Martin Tett, transport spokesman for the Local Government Association, representing councils, described the increase in thefts as alarming.

He said: For disabled people, blue badges are a vital lifeline that helps them get out and about to visit shops or family and friends.

Callous thieves and unscrupulous fraudsters using them illegally are robbing disabled people of this independence.

Councils in England took legal action against 1,131 motorists for blue badge misuse in 2016/17, up by a quarter on the previous 12 months.

Almost all cases (98%) involved drivers using someone elses blue badge.

But the actual number of people misusing the scheme could be much higher as two out of five councils (44%) said they do not have a policy of launching prosecutions in relation to the issue.

Richard Lane, head of communications at disability charity Scope, said: Its appalling that people are stealing blue badges, which are a vital lifeline for those who genuinely need them.

Many disabled people rely on their blue badge to live independently, be part of the local community and contribute to their local economy.

The police and councils need to ensure they are serving their disabled residents by cracking down on this abuse.

Mr Tett said: Despite limited resources, councils continue to work hard to crackdown on this growing crime.

More blue badge fraudsters than ever are being brought to justice by councils who will come down hard on drivers illegally using them.

To help councils win the fight against blue badge fraud, residents must keep tipping us off about people they suspect are illegally using a badge, bearing in mind peoples need for a badge might not be obvious.

Last month the DfT announced plans to make people with hidden disabilities entitled to blue badges.

The Government said the move would help create parity in the treatment of physical and mental health.

The DfT said councils have different interpretations of existing rules with only some recognising hidden disabilities.

The new policy is designed to provide clear and consistent guidelines.

The changes being put to an eight-week public consultation also include blue badge assessments being carried out by a greater variety of healthcare professionals who can spot if mental health is causing mobility issues.Snowboarder Katie Ormerod has refocused on the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics after her first Games ended before it had begun.

The 20-year-old Brighouse athlete is flying flying home on Friday, a week after undergoing surgery to insert two pins into a heel she fractured into two pieces on the second day of snowboard slopestyle training.

That injury followed a fractured wrist a day earlier and her Olympics-ending heel injury came on the same rail obstacle.

Katie Ormerod will fly home from the Winter Olympics on Friday after her Games was ended by a fractured heel (Mike Egerton/PA Images)

Ormerod, who faces six weeks on crutches followed by three months of rehabilitation, said: Ive been dreaming of competing at the Olympics since I can remember.

I just cant believe how much bad luck Ive had here. It just sucks.

At these Games I really wanted to come here and do my best and hopefully bring back a medal.

Once I start my rehab and get back on my board I just want to keep progressing as much as I can.

After dreaming of competing at the Olympics for years, I got there and received the most bad luck Ive ever had! Broke my wrist but was determined to compete, but then I severely broke my heel into 2 pieces and having surgery in a couple of hours. Absolutely gutted! pic.twitter.com/6XuXmD7au3  Katie Ormerod (@OrmerodKatie) February 8, 2018

If I carry on as I have done I should be fine qualifying for Beijing and hopefully I can still be up there in medal contention.

Ormerod knew the moment she fell that the injury was serious and medics told her it was rare.

She added: Ive done that trick (a 50/50) probably thousands of times.

(And) the heel is one of the hardest bones to break in the body.

No-one could believe I broke it that badly. Theyve never seen an injury like that before in snowboarding.

Happy Valentines Day from a hospital in Seoul!!  My heel is slowly getting better every day and I found out I can finally fly home on Friday!  pic.twitter.com/LbtAvbtnau  Katie Ormerod (@OrmerodKatie) February 14, 2018

Ormerods parents, Mark and Claire, had been due to travel to South Korea to watch her.

She told them to amend their travel plans and stay at home, not expecting the week-long hospital stay. Now she is keen to see them.

Unlucky to @OrmerodKatie keep your head up  Rudimental (@Rudimental) February 9, 2018

She has received plenty of messages of support, including from a rapper.

I had a tweet from Rudimental saying get well soon so that was pretty cool, she added.Authorities in Rome have launched an investigation after a 30ft-wide sinkhole swallowed half a dozen cars on a residential street.

No one was injured in Wednesday evenings collapse in the Balduina neighbourhood, but families in nearby buildings were evacuated as a precaution.

The scene after the sinkhole opened in Rome (Massimo Percossi/ANSA via AP)

The ANSA news agency said prosecutors had placed a property owner and the company handling construction along the road under investigation.

Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi visited the site and stressed that the sinkhole, which appeared to shave off the entire side of the road, occurred at an active construction site, and that the situation is under control.The US Senate has rejected both a bipartisan immigration plan and a more restrictive proposal by President Donald Trump.

Facing a veto threat from the White House and opposition from the Senates Republican leaders, the chamber derailed a plan by senators that would have helped 1.8 million young immigrant Dreamers achieve citizenship.

It also would have doled out $25 billion for Mr Trumps proposed wall with Mexico and other border security measures.

US Senate rejects immigration bills (J.Scott Applewhite/AP)

The proposals were six short of the 60 votes needed for passage, while Mr Trumps own plan was 21 votes shy.

Im extremely disappointed that our reasonable, bipartisan compromise failed to garner the 60 votes needed to move forward. I will continue to work with my colleagues to #ProtectDREAMers, who know no other home but America.  Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) February 15, 2018

The president had proposed creating a 10 to 12-year path to citizenship for so-called Dreamers in a concession to Democrats.

In exchange, he sought a quick infusion of $25 billion to build the wall and other border security steps.

Mr Trumps bill would have prevented legal immigrants from sponsoring parents and siblings for citizenship and would have ended a visa lottery aimed at allowing more diverse immigrants into the US.

Democrats and many Republicans opposed Mr Trumps wall spending and curbs on immigrants relatives.

Senior Democrats had hoped the bipartisan package would prevail or at least force the president to negotiate further.

But he proved unwilling to fold on his demands for a tougher bill.

In a written statement earlier on Thursday, the White House labelled the proposal dangerous policy that will harm the nation.

Dreamers are immigrants brought to the US illegally as children who risk deportation because they lack permanent authorisation to stay.

Mr Trump annulled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) created by his predecessor Barack Obama to protected them.

He has given Congress until March 5 to restore the programme, though federal courts have blocked him temporarily from dismantling it.

#Senate Democrats say they want resolution for illegal immigrants who were brought to this country as children. @POTUS' framework would do just that and more by offering a more than generous resolution to 1.8 million such individuals.  Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) February 15, 2018

At the start of the debate Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said Democrats had failed to offer a single proposal that gives us a realistic chance to make law.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said Mr Trump has stood in the way of every single proposal that has had a chance of becoming law.

He added: The American people will blame President Trump and no one else for the failure to protect Dreamers.Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa today rejected Cabinet Spokesman Rajitha Seneratne's claim that he had requested Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe not to step down from the Premiership.

"It is a deliberate lie; this is another lie of Rajitha. As a senior minister he should now stop uttering these kinds of lies and making irresponsible statements," former President Rajapaksa told the media at the Narahenpita Abhayarama Temple.

Video by SusanthaVen. Bhikkhuni Visuddhi Theri practices and teaches Dhamma and meditation in the West

Sri Lanka is a place, where the Dhamma teaching of the Buddha still prevails I sometimes face animosity while walking on the street My first Dhamma teacher was able to visit our country because we broke away from communism It is more common that nuns are devoted to social services in the community

Born in Czech Republic and ordained in Sri Lanka Ven. Bhikkhuni Visuddhi is the abbess of Arama Karuna in Prostejov, the Czech Republic. Daily Mirror interviewed this pioneering Bhikkhuni at Sumathipala Na Himi Meditation centre in Kanduboda. This meditation centre is headed by her teacher Ven. Mahanayaka Pemasiri Gampaha Hamuduruwo who is one of the most respected modern meditation teachers in Sri Lanka. Bhikkhuni Visuddhi who was in Sri Lanka for a short visit is a devoted practitioner of metta and satipatthana meditation. She has lived in Sri Lanka for many years and regularly visits the island. She spends most of the time in the Czech Republic in her monastery teaching meditation to adults and children. The following are excerpts of an interview done with Bhikkhuni Visuddhi.

You were born in the Czech Republic which is a former communist state where one would hardly practice Buddhism. Could you tell us how you first got to know about Buddhism being a Czech citizen?

I started practicing when I was fifteen years old. Then Czechoslovakia was still a communist country and it was very hard to find spiritual activities. There was only yoga, which was regarded as a physical exercise, but spirituality was absent. My country has one of the least religious populations in the world. Our people have been historically characterized as tolerant and even indifferent towards religion. Roman Catholicism is the major religion and about 10% of the population practice it.

I was seeking spirituality and after starting with yoga I studied a little bit of Buddhism. Back then there were not many Buddhist books. I was very impressed with and inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi, Italian Roman Catholic friar, a deacon and a preacher. He stayed in a forest and associated with animals and preferred the natural environment. I wanted to live the same way. I first took to practicing Buddhism when I was twenty years old. My first Dhamma teacher was able to visit our country because we broke away from communism and were making a transition to democracy.

Are you talking about the Burmese Ven. Rewata Dhamma Sayado?

Yes, Ven. Rewata Dhamma Sayado was, at the time, the head of a Buddhist Centre in Birmingham, England. He was a prominent Theravada Buddhist monk and Abhidhamma scholar from Myanmar. He obtained his PhD in 1967 in Varanasi and became a university lecturer and published works in Pali and Hindi. He travelled around Europe to spread the Dhamma and lectured at several universities. He taught Buddhist subjects. The Czech Buddhist Association invited him to the Czech Republic to lead a meditation retreat. I came to the seclusion to practice and learn Dhamma from him. But first, I met him in a public Dhamma talk and I was very impressed with the teaching of the Dhamma. I really understood that this is my path and I found Buddhism through him. He inspired me by his clarity in understanding the Buddhas teaching (Dhamma), by simple and direct speech, compassion, equanimity and non-attachment. To be in his presence and to learn from him was like meeting a true student of the Buddha, who fully accomplished and realized the ultimate truth and became enlightened.

"I am focusing on educating children to be good human beings, to follow good ethics, have morals, so that they understand what is wholesome (kusala) and what is unwholesome (akusala). By using the Dhamma wisely they get to know what is right and what is wrong through their action"

What kind of Dhamma training did you receive under Ven. Rewata Thera?

After I met him, I immediately asked him if I could join his meditation retreat? He spoke a lot about practice and focused mainly on meditation, mostly on Satipatthana and the practice of Metta. It was very easy to understand his teachings. Ven. Rewata Thera spoke directly to my heart; very clearly and simply. It was a very big step for me to have such a great teacher and learn Dhamma through him.

When did you know that you wanted to become a nuniand why did you choose Sri Lanka for that purpose?

Ven. Rewata Thera behaved with such ease. I was inspired by how pure he was in his mind and I had never seen anyone with so much compassion before. I came to a conclusion that I wanted to be like him, live the holy life, go this far, become a nun, follow the Buddhas teachings and study. However, it was not possible, at the time, to ordain in my country, since there was no Buddhist monastery. I started a search in other countries and found a nunnery in Germany led by Ayya Khema. I made an appointment and came to her monastery, but there were visa issues that prevented me from staying. I searched more and came to know of another Theravada monastery which was in Switzerland. Since I started living and working in Germany I went to visit the Swiss monastery when I had a free time. This is about the time I entered deeper into my practice. After that I waited another 7 years to ordain. I was 33 then. All this wait was because I took care of my very old grandmother in the Czech Republic. I read about Bhikkhunis in the Tripitaka and wanted to be a part of the bhikkhuni lineage and follow the vinaya. Sri Lanka is a place, where the Dhamma teaching of the Buddha still prevails and I think that my past kamma was in Sri Lanka. I decided to ordain here.

Before that had you ever visited Sri Lanka?

I have not been to Sri Lanka before. I read about the history and knew that Sri Lanka has a bhikkhunisangha with nuns living in the community. The system allowed me to feel connected and I wanted to meet them and learn. I was excited about seeing the country where Buddhism is alive. I was young and I had just decided to go and see if I can practice Buddhism there.

When did you start practicing here?

After I arrived in 2003, I went to Horana, Olaboduwa where I met several Sinhalese senior bhhikkhunis: Ven. Bhikkhuni Vijitha and Ven. Bhikkhuni Dharshika. Ven. Bhikkhuni Kusuma also lived close by. I was very lucky because my achariya (teacher) Bhikkhuni Vijitha is a teacher of Abhidhamma, Pali and Sanskrit and also a mentor in Pirivena school for young nuns. I received very good guidance and training, which are given to samaneris. I felt very comfortable with her, so I remained in Olaboduwa under her guidance from 2003 until 2009 and practiced the Dhamma-vinaya. I learned from her how to be a ideal nun, how to wear the robe or how to live peacefully in the community. I received the same education as any local Sri Lankan nun and was trained in; pronunciation (which is important when chanting) and doing Amisa Puja. I also learned the Sinhalese language which was really important to me.

"I give opportunities to mothers in my arama. Mothers are often omitted and dont have a chance to come for a seclusion and practice as they are busy all the time, so I tell them bring your kids with you"

What kind of work did you engage in after your ordination here? (social work etc?)

There is a difference in the practice of monks and nuns and also in the expectations of Buddhist laymen in Sri Lanka. The ;ocal people, men and women, come and listen to the Dhamma dana from the monks and raise Dhamma questions. It is more common that nuns are devoted to social services in the community. And it is given due to natural reasons because women are more open to talk about their private and intimate problems with us, nuns. And they come and ask for help for themselves and their families. Therefore at the beginning my monastic life was more focused on helping people from the villages, the poor, sick and those who were suffering. I ordained one year before the Tsunami, and there was also a war going on.

After the Tsunami you helped a lot of children who were displaced, didnt you?

Yes I did. After the Tsunami we were very involved in helping people rebuild their lives and also busy with poor children and the children from an orphanage who had lost their parents. Ven. Bhikkhuni Vijitha determined that I was very natural with kids, so I started giving Dhamma classes and taught in Daham Pasal (Sunday School). While I was living in Sri Lanka, even during the war and Tsunami, I did not have a problem to adapt to the same lifestyle as the other local nuns: they slept on the floor, I slept on the floor, they ate once a day, I did the same. When we had enough rice, we ate more, when we had less rice, we ate less. I never tried to get something from the West, just for me because I have roots there. I was living in the same way and accepted the life of the Sangha. I did not keep any back door open thinking I would return to Europe or elsewhere. That was out of question. It was important for me to be a part of the Bhikkhunisangha and Sanghas problems were also mine, there was no difference between us. We were one community. My Bhikkhunis treated me the same way.

Currently you are the only Bhikkhuni to run a Buddhist monastery in Czech Republic. How is the situation in other European countries?

There is a bhikkhuni monastery in Germany. Just recently they started a bhikkhunisangha in Belgium and there is a bhikkhuni monastery in England. There are four maybe five bhikkhunis. We are few. And there are not many senior Theravadabhikkhunis in the world in general, since bhikkhunisangha is still very young since its revival.

How did you find the response of your countrys people to your temple? Do you have many followers?

Buddhism is not historically common in the Czech Republic. Many local people dont understand the concept of the monastic, how to support them, take care of them and give respect; a behavior that is normally common in Sri Lanka. I sometimes face animosity while walking on the street or misunderstanding in general and therefore there is lack of support.

"Ven. Rewata Thera behaved with such ease. I was inspired by how pure he was in his mind and I had never seen anyone with so much compassion before. I came to a conclusion that I wanted to be like him, live the holy life, go this far, become a nun, follow the Buddhas teachings and study"

Has it in any way helped even a few women in your country?

That is the most important part. Thats why I continue to be in the Czech Republic. There is a handful of very loyal yogis; men, women, mothers who have kids, and are very appreciative of having a Dhamma teacher, someone who lives by the Buddha example. With their help we managed to build a new monastery and it took a really long time and it was very hard. We really struggled often to recieve continuous support. Nothing works the same way as in Asia. The positive part is to be surrounded by people who are interested in the Dhamma and really want to practice. I give opportunities to mothers in my arama. Mothers are often omitted and dont have a chance to come for a seclusion and practice as they are busy all the time, so I tell them bring your kids with you and I teach them about the Buddha, both at the same time. Mothers have great potential for progress in Dhamma as they have to learn to let go on a daily basis. But the arama is open to anybody. QLooking at you, they might think they need to be a nun or a Buddhist monk to follow your path, but you should let them know that thats not how it is, its up to you whether you want to join, but to live your day to day life without stress, there are paths to follow. Your comments.



That is also my point. One does not need to choose the path to be a monastic. The Buddha said, if you like the worldly things and if you like the Samsara you should be there; have a family, kids. Its only if you dislike Samsara, if you are not attached to family, if you dont want to marry, then you can be a monastic and practice in the monastic way.

Because ultimately what I think is people at some stage will start realising that this is not the real thing, despite you have a family and everything. You can still be unhappy and at the end of it they start following this path. At first they will not realize that this is the way to go, so maybe by addressing that you could probably make progress?

This is why we Buddhist monks and nuns teach the Dhamma, not the religion. Religion is something personal. In many cases, one has no choice as to which spiritual path one wants to take. Since you may be born in a religious family you automatically need to follow the same religion. Dhamma is not a religion. Its a philosophy. Its essential to practice at least the five precepts and practice the Dhamma teaching to develop your mind. If the Dhamma can help you to be a better Muslim, Christian, mother or a father then use the Dhamma. Gautama Buddha compared the Dhamma to a medicine for any sickness. If we use the Dhamma as a daily medicine, we can be healed of diseases. One does not need to become a Buddhist, just to take the medicine to be healthy. To become a better human being understand the mind through meditation and Dhamma study. Then one will move away from sorrow and suffering because all these problems, which we have, are because we dont understand the law of kammaand the nature of things. If we understand this, our problems will reduce. By reducing problems we will also be more encouraged to practice. Whether someone wants to ordain or not is a personal decision. When you have a family you cannot ordain and so cant you if you have children and duties. You cannot just run away from them. You need to first fulfill your responsibilities before you can become a monastic. My interest is to bring those people who are interested in the Dhamma and teach them meditation and show them how to lead a happy life.

You are known for your efforts to introduce meditation among children in your country. Do you think that is important and why?

As I said, this is also something I was focusing on in Sri Lanka. I used to teach children in a Buddhist Sambodhivihara in Colombo and in my arama in Olaboduwa. I was thinking about how to teach the children in Europe. After I returned to my country the first set who came to me comprised mothers and their kids. They were very interested in the practice of meditation. If you have children, you dont have many chances to go and join meditation courses or visit monasteries in the western countries. They asked me: How long do I need to wait? I have another child, so now I need to wait fifteen years until I am able to practice? In Sri Lanka I see that in every temple there are children, mothers and other practitioners together. Nobody says that you cannot enter the temple if you have children.

So I was thinking about bringing this practice to Europe and allowing the kids and moms to come to my place and study the Dhamma with me. I started teaching them the way I was used to in Sri Lanka; religious rituals; how to make flowers, how to make offering to the Buddha, how to do chanting and started teaching them the Dhamma and meditation. When I deliver public lectures in the elementary schools, I understand that what is now missing in Czech education is the morality (sila). Most teachers I visited were happy that I am bringing such topic because these days it is not easy for them. Since the children lack morality and dont respect them, they may be rude to the teachers. It is not easy to teach them. Here in Sri Lanka everybody knows the Sigalovadasutta, the children understand how to respect mother and father, how to respect the teacher and how to respect elders. However this is missing today in the western society. And it is a big problem.



I am focusing on educating children to be good human beings, to follow good ethics, have morals, so that they understand what is wholesome (kusala) and what is unwholesome (akusala). By using the Dhamma wisely they get to know what is right and what is wrong through their action. They also develop the perfections (parami). The little ones are our future, they form the generation which will take over after us. Its very difficult to change minds of adults, but its very easy to correct the mind of a child. If I can make these small kids become better human beings, and make their lives better then it will help change the next generation. Thats why I think it is really important to educate children.

I heard that you have plans to translate and edit the Majjhima Nikaya into the Czech language. How are you planning to do this?

There were already previous translations of suttas of MajjhimaNikaya into Czech language. I started collecting them, doing corrections and editing. We have already published a book which comprises the first fifty Suttas from the MajjhimaNikaya and they are now published in the Czech Republic. I also started doing sutta classes in the Czech language because the older generation does not know perfect English and it is not possible for them to study Tipitaka in other languages than in Czech.

"If I can make these small kids become better human beings, and make their lives better then it will help change the next generation. Thats why I think it is really important to educate children"

What is your message to the Sri Lankan Buddhists and Sri Lankan women, who want to practice more of the Dhamma?

I have been able to see because I travel a lot. I noticed that there are these two extremes. In the Western countries people come to Dhamma through meditation courses and Dhamma study classes. So they are well educated in it and are also well developed in the meditation practice. But there is a lack of understanding of the morality, generosity and devotion. It is reflected in the lack of support of monasteries because people dont understand how to take care properly of the monastics. And here in Sri Lanka you can see the opposite: there is a lot of religious faith, a lot of Pujas, people take very good care of monastics and monasteries, they are very kind and generous, but they dont practice much meditation. Their daily lives is more focused on the religious details and one can see that Dhamma here has became more religious than the true Path to attain nibbana (Enlightenment).



I would encourage the people here to practice more meditation. If you live in another country in the West, there is almost no Dhamma. You see how it is empty, how something is missing. They are missing the spiritual life. Here the Dhamma is prevalent, you can feel it. Tere is a very strong Dhamma culture, but if people dont use what they have theyll lose it.



My message for the beautiful people in Sri Lanka is, please appreciate The Triple Gem which you have because this is something very rare. This country is very special. I consider Sri Lanka as my home and Ill be very sad if Dhamma disappears from here. We need to protect what we have. This is a real treasure. My message to the people and women in Sri Lanka is to use the Dhamma for the real purpose and learn more about how to practice meditation and implement it into your lives, to attain nibbana and to be free from all suffering. This is what the Buddha taught us. Use Dhamma as a medicine, you will be cured of all illnesses. you cannot just expect to heal your sorrow by offering flowers to Buddha!

So what you are basically saying is, as the Buddha has preached more than the Amisa Pooja, the Prathipaththi Pooja is more valuable, and one must practice the Dhamma with more Prathipaththi Pooja to be really happy?

Prathipaththipuja is very important, but we need to know how to practice it wisely according to the Buddhas teaching.



In brief, before giving, have a mind that is bright and clear during the offering and be pleased with it once you have made it. This is the best way to make the donation: to be endowed with the three factors you have control over. In Dana Sutta in AnguttaraNikaya the Buddha once taught that there are six factors that affect the merit of an offering, three of which are determined by the givers mind: Monks, the lay woman Velukandaki and Nandas mother, have established a donation endowed with six factors for the community of monks headed by Sariputta and Moggallana.

And how is a donation endowed with six factors? There is the case where there are the three factors of the donor, the three factors of the recipients.



And which are the three factors of the donor? There is the case where the donor, before giving, is glad; while giving, his/her mind is bright and clear; and after giving is gratified. These are the three factors of the donor.



And which are the three factors of the recipients? There is the case where the recipients are free of passion or are practicing for the subduing of passion; free of aversion or practicing for the subduing of aversion; and free of delusion or practicing for the subduing of delusion. These are the three factors of the recipients.



Such are the three factors of the donor and the three factors of the recipients. And this is how a donation is endowed with six factors.



Venerable Bhikkhuni Visuddhi can be contacted at karuna.sevena.cz@gmail.come have stressed repeatedly that the February 10 local council election results were largely a shattering protest vote against the National Government for what most of the people see as its failure or slowness to fulfil most of its pledges as well as its inability to deliver all-important development or reduce the cost of living.

But it is also important that the countrys stability be maintained so that the vital, large-scale foreign investments will come in and the sustainable economic development plan with its eco-friendly and all-inclusive strategy could be effectively implemented. In this context the United National Party (UNP) -- which has a majority of seats in Parliament -- yesterday announced that the party had decided to continue with the yahapalanaya government but also introduce important reforms.



The UNPs General Secretary and Senior Minister Kabir Hashim told a news conference that following a meeting with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the UNP parliamentary group had decided to continue with the unity government and carry out party reforms. This was the second meeting in two days between UNP MPs and the Prime Minister in the aftermath of the local council elections where former President Mahinda Rajapaksas new Sri Lanka Podu Jana Peramuna (SLPP) recorded a sensational victory in almost 70 per cent of the councils.



The UNP General Secretary claimed that all the party MPs had agreed with the decision to continue the unity government with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United Peoples Freedom Alliance led by President Maithripala Sirisena. Yesterdays UNP parliamentary group decision was in marked contrast to widespread views expressed by leading party members earlier this week that the UNP should go it alone and form its own government without the SLFP.

Responding to reporters questions, Mr. Hashim said the unity government -- which the UNP and the SLFP formed after the parliamentary election in August 2015 -- would continue as it was and its two-thirds majority in parliament had not changed. He said if any other party wanted to take over the government then it had to show a majority.



We will strengthen the government while listening to the message delivered by the people and carry out a new process. That is what we decided. We will make sweeping reforms in the party. Government policies and the partys structure will be changed so that more benefits will go to the people and the battle against corruption intensified while urgent and effective steps will be taken to bring about poverty alleviation and step up the battle against global warming, he said.

Meanwhile, Joint Cabinet Spokesman and Senior Minister Rajitha Senaratne -- known to be playing a major role in maintaining the unity government -- told reporters yesterday, a cabinet re-shuffle was likely soon.



Addressing the weekly Cabinet news conference, Dr. Senaratne also said the good governance administration would continue for the next two and half years. Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayake said on his official Facebook yesterday, he was ready to resign from his ministerial portfolio for the benefit of the UNP.

Senior UNP and SLFP ministers have said President Sirisena, officially silent up to now, is likely to make a media statement today amid conflicting and confusing reports about where Sri Lanka will go from here. Whatever decision or political division, priority needs to be given to the welfare and the well-being of the people.Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) leader MP Arumugam Thondaman met with President Maithripala Sirisena along with a delegation from his party and pledged his partys support to him, it is learnt.

A CWC source said the party had said it would cooperate with the President. However, in the administration of several local bodies it was noted that the CWC would work in consultation with the Mahinda Rajapaksa led Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP).

The CWC won the right to occupy two parliamentary seats at the recently concluded LG polls.(Kelum Bandara)The gap between global infrastructure needs and global infrastructure investment is widening. Inadequate investment in transport, communications and energy networks is estimated to be US $ 26 trillion in Asia alone.



The recent initiatives to improve connectivity by investing in infrastructure are welcome. But none of these initiatives is paying sufficient attention to the policy development and policy coordination efforts that will be needed to maintain financing in the long term.



The ongoing drive towards an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) reflects an understanding that deep integration needs more than traditional trade policy. The Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity (MPAC) outlines a web of mutually reinforcing connectivity dimensions: in addition to efficient physical infrastructure networks, the web includes policy coordination, people-to-people bonds as well as financial integration. Under the MPAC model, these all work separately and together to reduce impediments to international commerce. Implementation of this strategy has proved harder than expected, due to the ASEAN countries having inadequate skills and institutional capacity as well to shortages of financing.



The aims of the China-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) are quite similar to those of the AEC. Both emphasise mutual trust and respect and both rely on voluntary cooperation to achieve mutual benefits. The Chinese government has earmarked up to US $ 1 trillion for investments in infrastructure. Many early investments that build on and improve existing infrastructure are already underway.



This vigorous start is welcome, but the BRI needs to address several long-term challenges. China and other BRI members understand well the need to work on all of the five dimensions of especially on policy coordination. In spite of this, early emphasis has been almost exclusively on physical connectivity: BRI states have paid insufficient attention to sustaining the pace of investments or to efficiently maintaining and operating new assets.



The announcement of the BRI in 2013, backed by the creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), has spurred others to pay more attention to investment in infrastructure. Multilateral development banks, including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, have pledged to mobilise more resources. Japan launched its Partnership for Quality Infrastructure (PQI) in 2015 and more recently started pursuing a joint initiative with India to create an Asia Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC).



All of these initiatives to accelerate investment in infrastructure are timely since that the need is so great: even the US $ 1 trillion committed to the BRI is well short of what the region should be investing in infrastructure each year. But these investments will not be financially viable unless they are operated efficiently. In a similar vein to MPACs difficult implementation, infrastructure investments in the order of trillions of dollars need to be backed up by human capital investments in the order of billions of dollars. Who will pay for this?



Governments with support from multilateral development banks can afford to make the necessary secondary investments in human resource development and upgrading institutions. But this is not enough  governments also need to lead investment in economic infrastructure since much of the investment needed is in public goods. Neither governments nor development banks have the resources to finance the construction phase of economic infrastructure projects, so it will be essential that governments attract large-scale private sector investment.



Private-sector savings are available and institutional investors would like to invest their trillions to earn predictable long-term returns. But investors currently see the risks in infrastructure investment as too high, so only a tiny proportion of their savings are currently invested therein. Publicprivate partnerships to encourage private sector investment have proven disappointing: the risks to investors are not reduced and the additional costs resulting from this are either passed on to governments or lead to inflated financing costs and unaffordable user charges. Governments cannot expect cost-effective private investment in economic infrastructure until the existing projects are running efficiently and project risks are lowered.



A financing strategy that relies on professional experience, a sound understanding of project development cycles and successful precedents will be more likely to succeed. Teams of highly qualified professionals can be set up to take good ideas through each phase of the project development cycle. Motivated by well-designed incentives, these teams can work with public authorities during the low-cost but high-risk origination and structuring phases and then partner with other stakeholders to finance and execute the construction phases. These teams can then exit after projects are up and running with the option to re-finance projects using private capital (at an affordable cost) once the risks have been reduced.



Such a project catalysis strategy has been implemented successfully by Infraco (Asia). Infraco is an independent private-sector enterprise funded by the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG)  a multi-donor organisation with members from seven countries and the World Bank Group. Infraco operations have leveraged US $ 1.2 billion of PIDG capital to attract US $ 21 billion of private and international financial institution capital into infrastructure projects. All governments could support initiatives along these lines to raise private sector investment on a scale that is large enough to narrow the currently widening gaps in economic infrastructure.



(Andrew Elek is Research Associate at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University)The Hirdaramani team is pictured here at the official launch of its CSR initiative, to plant 2,000 trees to aid the Hiniduma Bio-Link Project in the south-west of Sri Lanka. A team from Carbon Consulting Company was also present

As part of its sustainable approach to business, Sri Lankan apparel manufacturer Hirdaramani Group partnered with US retailer, Patagonia, to plant 4,000 trees to aid the Hiniduma Bio-Link Project in the south-west of Sri Lanka. Led by the Carbon Consulting Company, Hirdaramani Group and Patagonia have pledged to match 2,000 trees each in a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) effort to improve the biodiversity of the region and the lives of rural farmers in local communities. Hiniduma is a mixed agricultural community surrounded by one of Sri Lankas last remaining rainforest ecosystems. Hirdaramani's sustainability team travelled to the Hiniduma Bio-Link location for the official launch of the project.

Commenting on this initiative, Nikhil Hirdaramani - Group Director, Hirdaramani, said: Hirdaramani sees projects like the Hiniduma Bio-Link Project as an opportunity to use our influence in the region for good. Sustainability is an important goal at the Hirdaramani Group, and for us sustainability is about corporate responsibility.

Much of the Sri Lankan rainforest is under threat and has suffered a long history of deforestation and environmental degradation. The Sinharaja Rainforest (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and the Kanneliya Rainforest (an international man and biosphere reserve) are the focus of this project.

Members of Hirdaramanis sustainability team participated with enthusiasm in the tree-planting initiative

Hirdaramanis commitment to projects such as the Hiniduma Bio-Link Project is a part of the companys larger sustainability strategy, aimed at promoting sustainable practices both in their facilities and in local communities and the surrounding environment.What a breath of music freshness as Charlsey Etheridge from Dalton takes the Pucketts Chattanooga stage to a large dinner crowd as she introduced many of her original content and some favorite cover songs. She shares a very impressive bio, song writing and a debut record album.

One of many original song performed was Heaven.

With her debut album, Memories of Mine, Charlsey Etheridge, soulfully delivers an exquisite compilation of largely acoustic tunes that blend gospel, folk, bluegrass, and a touch of swing and jazz. Co-produced by Grammy-award winner, Randy Kohrs, the album pays homage to traditional roots music.

It was such a great experience recording with Randy Kohrs, as well as the long list of amazing musicians who shared their talent in the making of this record  Shad Cobb (John Cowan), Jeremy Abshire (The Grascals), Tim Crouch (Alan Jackson), Aaron Till (Mark Chestnut), Charlie Chadwick (Suzie Boguss), Buddy Greene, Richard Smith, Rory Hoffman, and Cody Kilby (Ricky Skaggs), just to name a few. I feel extremely humbled and blessed.

Almost immediately upon relocating to Nashville from her home in Georgia, Etheridge had the opportunity to work with Grammy-Award winner Harley Allen, as well as Grand Ole Opry member, Steve Wariner. In a town where relationships mean everything, Charlsey found herself casually jamming with the likes of Vince Gill, Dierks Bently, Del McCoury, Brian Sutton, Ronnie Bowman, and John Paul Jones of Led Zepplin. Soon, she was sharing an opening stage for Little Big Town and also performing at the world-famous Bluebird Cafe. She studied resonator guitar with Jack Pearson, formerly of the Allman Brothers Band, which led to a great musical friendship and the beginnings of a Christmas album.

Although Memories of Mine contains covers and traditional tunes, Etheridge is an accomplished songwriter. Her original tunes are penned with simplicity and honesty. Music is in her roots and the spirit of the South runs through her veins. Her parents and grandparents were among the powerful influences of her youth.

"My first concert was Emmylou Harris in 1985. I was mesmerized," Charlsey recalls. "With a guitar my dad bought for me, I learned to play chords from an Emmylou Harris songbook my mother had."

A devoutly Christian grandmother shared stories and both gospel and old war songs. A great-grandfather known as 'General' was a moonshiner. The varied and colorful stories from her own roots continue to influence Charlsey. "Filipino Baby" was a childhood favorite, learned at her grandmother's knee, which landed on the debut album.

With a strength of spirit instilled by a loving family, and an appreciation for Southern culture and story-telling, Charlsey Etheridge is a refreshing voice on the music scene.

Memories of Mine is available now. Charlsey booking email is charlseyetheridge@yahoo.com

Information provided from Charlsey social media and web site at https://www.charlseyetheridge.com/

Chattanooga Live Music, Mark A Herndon, certified professional geologist and professional photographer grew up in Chattanooga area, graduated from the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga. Media affiliation www.chattanoogan.com Check out more at www.facebook.com/chattanoogalivemusic Email at; MAHerndon@ChattanoogaLiveMusic.com





The just ended local council elections remind students of politics of an age-old adage: Politics is a continuous and ruthless struggle for power. Those who understand this often grab political power and stay on in power. Even if they lose, they continue their struggle to undermine the government with the intention of overthrowing it as fast as possible.

Politics is not for gentlemen or gentlewomen. Nor is it divine, for moral principles to govern it. It is simply dirty and therefore, one has to be animalistic to survive in politics, which is characterised by eternal vigilance, mutual suspicion, perpetual competitions, cold blooded conflicts, skullduggery, backstabbing, intimidation, assassinations and countermoves.



Mans pursuit for power only ceases at death, Thomas Hobbes, one of the early proponents of a political power theory, said, echoing what Niccolo Machiavelli said in the medieval era and Kautilya said in ancient India. In Prince, Machiavelli says that with so many people in politics immorally disposed, good men in politics often bring down upon themselves their own destruction. In other words, a ruler who wishes to maintain power should not always be good.

In Sri Lankas political laboratory, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna de facto leader Mahinda Rajapaksa is an example of a politician in pursuit of endless power, while United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe appears as a politician being pulled by his commitment to democratic aspirations on the one hand and the requirements of power politics, on the other. In this confusion, he seems to give more weight to political idealism than to political realism. This explains why Wickremesinghe is often caught by surprise in many an election defeat. If only he had been a political animal in the caliber of his opponent, he could have prevented the dissolution of his government of 2001-2003 and would not have lost the all-important presidential race in 2005.

Ranil Wickremesinghe: Missed opportunities

Mahinda Rajapaksa: Understands power politics

Premier Wickremesinghe has proved his capability as an abled party leader. But if he can extend similar skills and strategies, with which he protects his party leadership, to the national level politics, he can certainly emerge as a winning candidate.

In 2005, when Wickremesinghe lost the presidential race to Rajapaksa, a disappointed journalistic colleague, who voted for the UNP, said of the UNP leader: A man who had power and did not know how to protect that power, does not deserve to be returned to power. There is much wisdom in his quotable quote. Political power is just like beauty. Those who are not beautiful try to become beautiful, while those who are beautiful protect it and enhance it. They become alarmed even when a negligible black spot or a tiny wart appears on the skin. Similarly those who wield power must go to any extent to retain, protect and enhance that power, while those who are not in power must resort to every trick in the book to capture power.

In this game of throne, the one who is more adept at deception prevails.



Politics is also a game of eternal vigilance. In the movie Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee advises his young student that even when you bow to your opponent before the contest, do not take your eyes off him. Power politics requires politicians to spy on their opponents and know their next move.

The behind-the-scenes efforts of the Democratic Party in the United States to link President Donald Trump with a porn star and Russia show that even in the so-called full-fledged democracies, politicians make use of every opportunity to undermine their rivals. Compare this with the UNPs missed opportunities such as the allegation that the Rajapaksa team paid the LTTE millions to win the 2005 elections. Even now the cases pertaining to the killings of Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickremetunga and Sri Lanka rugby player Wasim Thajudeen, the disappearance of cartoonist Pradeep Ekneligoda and the MiG deal could break the spine of the opposition if they could be expedited. The unusually slow progress of these cases gives the impression that Wickremesinghe is protecting his very opponents. This is against real politics rules. On the contrary, his political opponents, if given a half chance, will stab him in the back. This is real politics. Politics is not for crybabies to complain after the defeat that they lost because their opponents resorted to a game of deception.



Not only has the UNP failed to expose the previous regimes alleged misdeeds, but it has also allowed its opponents to define and defame its leader in whatever way and harmful manner. As a result of this failure on the part of the UNP, the Rajapaksa camp plays victim, with politicians corrupt to the core making statements about corruption, as though they are the paragons of virtue. After all, political charlatans want ordinary people to believe that they have become victims of a witch-hunt.

Power, like beauty, needs to be displayed, too. The ordinary people, who vote politicians into power, usually would like to see power in play. Power is associated with machismo. Britains Margaret Thatcher declared war against Argentina. The United States former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bombed Libya. Barack Obama, though portrayed as anti-war, continued the war in Iraq and Afghanistan to send the message to the ordinary Americans that the leader they have elected will not hesitate to use all measures necessary to defend them. This was why Trump dropped the mother of all bombs on Afghanistan. This was why French President Emmanuel Macron this week issued a warning that France would attack Syrian forces if he found proof that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons.

Sri Lankas separatist war provided ample opportunity for Rajapaksa to show his machismo. On the contrary, Wickremesinghe came to power in 2001 on the platform of peace and tried to appease the international community rather than his own voter base where any concession to the separatists was seen as treachery.



If he and his party are keen to capture power in 2020, they need to realize that there are votes in rhetoric pregnant with political machismo in defence of the countrys territorial integrity, the Sinhala race and Buddhism. Such machismo also needs to be displayed against politically motivated strikes by state-sector doctors and public servants. Disinclination towards using state power is a sign of weakness that does not win votes. After all, democracy does not mean passivity.

The ugly media also play a dirty role in this whole dirty game of power politics. Although media freedom is expected to be exercised with responsibility, we saw media groups bashing the politicians whom they love to hate; this is not media freedom. Some journalists under the guise of exercising media freedom or carrying out investigative journalism lie for their masters. These media proved they could portray a good candidate as bad and vice versa. If a media group is taking sides, it has the duty to tell its readers, viewers or listeners that it is partial towards a particular candidate.

Power politics is not a holy affair. It involves manipulations, planning, deception, lies and all sorts of sordid things. In a level political field where everyone lies and resorts to deception, the one who has mastered the art of deception wins. The bottom line is the masses are gullible.

But remember real politics also promotes the judicious use of idealistic goals, provided it can win votes to capture or retain power.A Sri Lankan family who won the support of the Queenstown community in their fight against deportation have been given a reprieve and they will be allowed to stay in New Zealand for another year, the New Zealand Herald reported today.

Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker has been supporting the family, Dinesha Amarasinghe, Sam Wijerathne and their three boys Senath, Subath and Binath.

He said the Immigration and Protection Tribunal (IPT) ruled they could stay in New Zealand for the next year on humanitarian grounds, while their residence application was assessed.

"I called Dinesha and Sam this morning  they were both very emotional and so was I. Dinesha and Sam have worked incredibly hard to support their children and give them a bright future in New Zealand and this is the outcome they deserve," Walker said.

The family have lived in New Zealand for eight years but faced deportation after Dinesha's application for a work visa renewal was declined due to health issues. Their residency application, submitted in 2013, is on hold.

More than 400 people in the Queenstown community marched in November to support the family.

"It was incredibly humbling to see the way people came together to show compassion and an outpouring of love for a family that they respect and we want as part of the Queenstown community,"

The Wijerathne family are respected members of the Queenstown community and an example of how migrant workers living, working, and contributing to our communities in positive ways are so valuable to New Zealand, and especially communities like Queenstown and Te Anau,"

"There was still a lot to do however. While today's result is absolutely fantastic, the solution is only temporary and the family still need to seek residency. We have won a battle, but not the war and I'll continue to support them through this process and keep the pressure on the Minister," Walker said.Whenever I failed to secure the grade or mark I wanted at school, at a term or a monthly test, I used to brood over it for a long, long time, often for hours, sometimes for days. I would first console myself with the fact that there would always be a tomorrow and another chance.

When that wasnt enough, Id try to rationalise my failure by dishing the blame on someone else. The teacher wasnt good enough; that particular chapter was too hard; compared with those who got the lowest marks I was much better off; my handwriting was probably not legible enough for the teacher; my concentration during the exam was disturbed by a friend laughing. It didnt take long for me to realise that these excuses absolved the only real person who could be blamed. Me.

Its probably not uncharitable of me to note that most of our politicians remind me of my juvenile years. Thats why I cant help but smirk when the recent local government election results, profoundly unsettling as they are, compel enough hysterics from those who thought they would win (when they did not and could not) that they contort those results so as to tide over their failures. Mangala Samaraweera, for instance, suggests that the percentage of those who voted against Mahinda Rajapaksa rose from 51.28% in 2015 to 55.35% in 2018. Anura Kumara Dissanayake argues that the final results justify neither the government (the UNP and the SLFP) nor the joint opposition (which begs the question: does it justify him?). And Rajitha Senaratne, whose seat (Beruwela), like Samaraweeras seat (Matara), his party unexpectedly lost, says that while the election was a setback, the majority of Sri Lanka is still anti-Rajapaksa (can he get any more obscurantist there?).

The premise for any commentator when arguing on the post-2015 political scenario was that Mahinda Rajapaksa lost to Maithripala Sirisena. If those who shouted for the government used this as their rationale, its only fair to say that the premise for any comment on LG elections is that the Pohottuwa (the Sri Lanka Podu Jana Peramuna) not only won hands-down, but also won so decisively that it created history by being the second outside-the-mainstream party to defeat the mainstream (the first, of course, being the SLFP, which has now been relegated to the dustbin of history). This was a protest vote. The people werent necessarily voting out of love for Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brand of expedient populism: they were fed up of the UNP and the UPFA. The anger of the people has spoken, in other words.



The voting patterns bear this out. Even in areas inhabited and overseen by parliamentarians and MPs, whose monopoly over their regions were virtually unassailable  the UPFA in Polonnaruwa, the UNP in many areas in Kandy and Beruwela and Kalutara  the Pohottuwa won. The numbers are so overwhelming that they simply transcend any attempt made by naysayers and disbelievers to contort them. Mr. Samaraweeras view, to give just one example, can be countered by the fact that unlike in 2015 the SLFP, the UNP and the other coalition parties including the TNA, and to a certain extent the JVP, were not canvassing for votes as a single entity. In August 2015, the situation was different: the bitter memories that Rajapaksa evoked in the minds of his critics at the grassroots were enough for them to cast him aside. Last week, on the other hand, was surely not a case of the hansaya fighting against the kesara Sinhaya. It was a one-man party, led by his cohorts and loyalists, against the two oldest political parties in the country. As far as electoral battles go, that one-man party, and that man, won decisively.

Dayan Jayatilleka contends, in three separate analyses written days after the LG polls, that the United National Party should take note of the election results and reform itself gracefully, because, in his own words, the February 10th shrinkage of the UNP is the consequence, not the cause, of the UNP crisis. But I rather think that the vacuum at the centre of that party  despite arguments to the contrary made by the likes of Dr. Jayatilleka I cant think of a plausible alternative for Ranil Wickremesinghe, never mind the last-minute attempts (alleged as they are) at trying to replace him with Karu Jayasuriya  will continue for some time, which logically leads me to surmise that LG elections were less about the UNP, less about the centre-right economic and political agenda of Ranil Wickremesinghe and his loyalists (EconomyNext, which Dr. Jayatilleka notes as well established and UNP and West-friendly, describes those loyalists as members of the FRCS or Former Royal College Student, Cabal), that about the wildly oscillating behaviour of the UPFA and the SLFP. True, voters were tired of the UNPs involvement with the Bond scandal (most if not all of those MPs tarnished by the scam  Sujeewa Senasinghe and Ajith Perera included  had to concede defeat in their seats), but they were even more tired of the man at the top and his party.

"The premise for any commentator when arguing on the post-2015 political scenario was that Mahinda Rajapaksa lost to Maithripala Sirisena

The voting patterns bear this out. Even in areas inhabited and overseen by parliamentarians and MPs, whose monopoly over their regions were virtually unassailable  the UPFA in Polonnaruwa, the UNP in many areas in Kandy and Beruwela and Kalutara  the Pohottuwa won

The SLFP, for all intents and purposes, is dead. It will be a natural, though temporary, death, because the principles it claimed to stand for were denied by the family members of its own founder and later by men who clinched power by chasing the Rajapaksas away"



The first mistake Maithripala Sirisena committed was to take over the reins of the SLFP. This move, expedient and clearly necessary though it was at the time (the only way you could chase the Rajapaksas was by purging the party hed led of his loyalists), soon grew to besmirch the Presidents image as a non-partisan leader. He would have done better, I thought at the time, had he handed over the party leadership to another, obviously a loyalist, and then gone back to the parliament to become the benign Asokian leader he got us to idealise him as. Instead what we got was a foggy, dense presidency, where the president would speak of reconciliation and the need for interethnic harmony on one day and rant against the Army being tried at a court for crimes against humanity on the very next. What this necessitated was a tussle, apparent in all but name, between the two arms of the unitary government, and what that tussle compelled was the rise and empowerment of the cast aside predecessor. That cast aside loser had to win again, magnificently so.

Had he and his cohorts not won that magnificently, though, even if they came first, the SLPP would not have the numbers to turn victory into celebratory rhetoric. Neither Dulles Alahapperuma nor G.L. Peiris nor Gamini Lokuge nor Dinesh Gunawardena would have been able to hold press conferences and smile at journalists and make flippant jokes about not joining the government (Gotabaya Rajapaksa to a journalist at the Airport: Whod want to be Prime Minister in this mess?) if they had got even two or three or four points below what they expected. My own prediction, with the UNP coming first and the Pohottuwa a close second, would not have been adequate, and if it had not been adequate, the government would have moved on. Everything clicked in one place, to the advantage of the Pohottuwa and the UNP, the latter of which now has the numbers to run a government of its own.



The SLFP, for all intents and purposes, is dead. It will be a natural, though temporary, death, because the principles it claimed to stand for were denied by the family members of its own founder and later by men who clinched power by chasing the Rajapaksas away. Those who were associated with it from 2015 to 2018  including Duminda Dissanayake and Wijith Wijayamuni Zoysa and Mahinda Samarasinghe  cannot survive politically unless they get out of the SLFP, and even if they do, it will take a long, long time for the people to forgive them. The SLFP, for a still longer time, I suspect, will be laid to rest, unless a more convincing leader  not the President, not Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and not Mahinda Rajapaksa  takes over its reins. Gunadasa Amarasekara said something to the effect that the SLFP, despite its many self-contradictions, has the ability to throw up a Mahinda Rajapaksa. I rather think that Mahinda will stay for some time in the SLPP, until a resilient, nationalistic and able person decides to lead the SLFP.Oops....! We couldn't find that...

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Check the URL you entered for any mistakes and try again. Alternatively, search for whatever is missing or take a look around the rest of our site.Lee Universitys Voices of Lee has made it to the final round of voting for the 2018 A Cappella Music Awards.

Voices is in the running for the Collegiate Group of the Year, Religious Group of the Year, and Video of the Year for their music video of What a Beautiful Name by Hillsong.

We feel so honored to be nominated in these three categories by the public, and we are very thankful that our music is appreciated, said Danny Murray, Voices of Lee director.

The group has made it to the final round of voting and was the only group to be nominated in three different categories. Voting will close on Feb. 25. Voting is one time only.

The A Cappella Music Awards is a worldwide red carpet event focused on all major independent music groups. This years award ceremony will take place on May 19 in Nashville. The evening will highlight live performances and include a red carpet for all participants to walk on.

There are 21 award categories, of which 19 are voted on by the public while two categories will be judged the day of the event at the awards ceremony.

Voices of Lee was founded in 1994 and later propelled into the spotlight on NBCs season one of the Sing-Off. Since then, the ensemble has been invited to sing at various festivals, including the Shang Hai International Music Festival. They have performed at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, have been featured performers for Christmas at the White House, appeared on the 2016 CMA Christmas Celebration, and will appear at Carnegie Hall in New York City this May.

To vote and for more information about the A Cappella Music Awards, visit https://acappellamusicawards.com/.

For more information about Voices of Lee, visit http://www.voicesoflee.com/ or follow their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/VoicesofLeeOfficial/.Voice of the People I find it hard to believe that the majority of Town employees will put their self-interest over the GREATER GOOD which is, the viability of the Town of Chesterton by not getting vaccinated. Our town tried to save money by self-insuring itself. We could be...

Guest Commentary Local coalition aspires to achieve smokefree air for all More than 1 in 5 Indiana adults smoke cigarettes (21.5%), one of the highest rates in the nation, while the number of youths using vaping products remains a concern for anti-smoking advocates. Secondhand smoke is estimated...

Voice of the People Well so much for the Tribune allowing only letters focusing on local issues. Tuesdays letter giving Biden a pass on his totally irrational screw-up of the Afghanistan withdrawal, ends if under the circumstances  if they could do better. The answer is  absolutely. The...

Voice of the People Recently four members of Porter County Board of Zoning Appeals approved to give an Iowa company special exceptions and variances to build a THIRD gas station at U.S. 6 and Indiana 149, on the northwest corner adjacent to Liberty Township. In this growing age of...When we see others as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others.  Desmond Tutu

Since the dawn of the human era  when the first son born into this world murdered the second son born into this world  we have found hatred an easy weapon to pick up and brandish. We use it without a second thought and with far too much precision and skill.

But, did you know that our brains are neurologically wired for empathy? Do you realize that when we see anothers state of being, deep inside we automatically resonate with it or get it? Our souls are hardwired to empathize, but only as far as our beliefs will let us. When our personal values are not matched by another, our belief that we are right corrupts our natural desire to care.

Hate one another as I have hated you

said Jesus never.

Hate is a very strong word. It encapsulates intense feelings and actions of dislike, resentment, hostility and so on. But what causes such depths of vitriol in our otherwise kind souls? What drives us to ostracize, bad-mouth or openly attack another human being?

Much of the time, hate seems to stem from a ridiculously pointless and irrelevant fact: we are different. And we cannot both be right.

Hate those who are different to you

said Jesus never.

Time and again, a vicious family feud, an obscene cultural attack, or an outright shunning all stem from this basic truth. You are not like me. Therefore, I shall not like you.

Of course, some differences are exciting or inspiring or even celebratory. We take delight in who can be the most different and unbelievable and exceptional. But only if it makes us laugh or feel good or feel Christian.

Everyone is unique and special, but everyone should think and be like me.

Go figure.

The minute someone comes along whose differentness makes us feel confused or  God forbid  uncomfortable, we kick them out of the herd. Often rudely. Often publicly.

Hate those who are hated by others

said Jesus never.

But the hating disease somehow intensifies when we find ourselves standing next to someone who feels the same way. Suddenly, our neighbour who, in the past, seemed obnoxious or unkind or just full of bull is now our hating ally against another. Now we have found someone else that we can hate in unison. Together. As a team.

Either youre with me, or youre against us.

Communal hatred breeds problems of its own (crowd brutality, group exclusion, even suicide), but the key point which we hang onto is that strength is found in numbers. It is no longer just one person standing alone and hating what is different. Now there is a whole team of qualified-to-be-judgmental sleuths, ready to sniff out anyone who is different to us, hold them up to the light, and then accept or reject them according to how well (or not) they slot into our carefully pre-fabricated mold of acceptableness.

Dont believe me? Get on Facebook and watch how we band together to hate on Barack Obama or Donald Trump  depending on which different works for you.

Were hating and fighting and tweeting as many upper-right crosses as we can, because your opinion is always wrong and my opinion is always right.

Hate those who are not walking the same path

said Jesus never.

Here it comes. The worst result of hate which plays out over and over in churches and communities and sometimes even in our homes:

Rejection.

Were all about love and forgiveness, but only after the dirty rotten sinner has realized their waywardness and run back to our caring circle of peace and love.

Perhaps we have forgotten our old buddy Jesus (remember Him?), who dined with the losers and chatted with the sinners and hung out on the fringes, while the acceptable members of society spoke out against such open-minded non-hating.

Why is it so hard for us to see the human behind the skin colour? The belief? The lifestyle?

It should bother us when a staunch church-goer refuses to sit next to a practicing drug addict. It should shock us when a community leader spurns his only child for not living up to his standards of life, the universe and everything. It should sadden us when a religious community cuts all ties to a member who dared to question their tried and true.

Hate your family until they find the light

said Jesus never.

We should be weeping in agony over the shunnings and blackmailings and outbursts and ostracizations that occur in our towns and cities and home Bible study groups. Instead, were too busy checking our own back yards, making sure great aunty Jo is walking the straight and narrow line which weve drawn in our heads. And if not? Well, she can say goodbye to her place at the Thanksgiving table until shes ready to comply again with our personal definition of the way or the truth or the light.

Sometimes hate doesnt come across as vitriolic speech or violent actions or downright murder. Sometimes it drifts in, soft and subtle and sweet, and we wear it gently and hold it with humble pride and use it to keep at a distance anyone who is too different or downtrodden.

Hate? Never.

said Jesus.

Apparently, there is a Great Golden Rule of Life. It is written down in many religions, quoted by many parents, even preached in school playgrounds as, well, the golden rule. And it goes like this:

Do to others as you would have them do unto you. (Jesus Christ. Direct quote. Check out Matthew chapter 7, verse 12.)

Feel like being hated on? Keen to be judged by your family and friends? Just asking to be kicked out of society and community life? Didnt think so

If theres one thing Jesus taught us about love and hate, its that He was only ever about the first, even if all we deserve is the latter.

Could it really be this simple? Could being a believer, a person of faith, even just a decent human being, come down to nothing more than choosing love over hate?

Id like to think so. Id like to believe so. In fact, Id like to live so. And maybe you would too.

If were honest, this is just what Jesus did do. And we should want nothing less than to make like a real follower of Christ and do just that  follow Him.

Forgive those who hurt you. Love those who are different to you. Accept those who walk a path not of your choosing. Love against the flow. Bless despite the darkness.

And hate like Jesus: never.

Emma is an Italian-South African with a New Zealand passport, living in Papua New Guinea. As well as years of running a puppet ministry and directing student choirs, she has served with Mission Aviation Fellowship since 2007, currently based in PNG. Emma's deep joy is in writing, music, playing with her ginger cats and finding God in unexpected places.

Read Emma's creative expressions at www.girlkaleidoscope.wordpress.com or follow her PNG adventures at www.pngponderings.wordpress.com

Emma McGeorges previous articles may be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/emma-mcgeorge.htmlAmazon and Whole Foods Market have introduced free two-hour delivery of groceries from Whole Foods Market through Prime Now, with plans to expand across the U.S.in 2018. One- and two-hour delivery is blazingly quick for grocery delivery, which may convince consumers to give Whole Foods through Prime Now a shot. Prime Now has previously been used to deliver Whole Foods' 365 Everyday Value private-label items, and Amazon sold an estimated $10 million worth of the private label's products in its first four months on its site.

Instacart has a five-year deal (expiring in 2021) to deliver groceries from Whole Foods and it's not clear how Amazon's announcement is going to affect that. Prime Now is available in some 30 major cities and Amazon will start to chip away at the estimated US$1.3 trillion (RM5.15 trillion) grocery market in the USA as its delivery capacity grows, Cowen said.

Groceries and related consumable items have been popular purchases in the three years Amazon has operated Prime Now, Landry said, saying items like bananas, bottled water and paper towels are regularly among its best sellers.

Existing relationships between Whole Foods and other delivery services, and Prime Now and other grocers, aren't affected by the new delivery offering, Amazon said.

Regardless of a lot of vulnerability whirling around Instacart and its mind boggling association with Whole Foods - now claimed by Amazon - speculators still appear to not be excessively stressed, and are pouring a new huge round of financing into the startup that esteems it at $4.2 billion. The acquisition, which bridges Unata's digital grocery platform with Instacart's technology and scale, will create a one-stop shop for brick-and-mortar retailers to compete in an increasingly online world.New Delhi: PNB chairman and MD Sunil Mehta on Thursday said that Nirav Modi has not come out with any concrete plan to repay Rs 11,400 crore which bank has suffered from the fraud.

But theyre coming out with some vague offers, which are under examination, Mr Mehta said. He said Mr Modi has not come to the bank personally and we have requested to him to come and give us a written plan and how he is going to make a repayment. He said Mr Modi had he sent a formal message last week.

On the amount of provisioning that the bank would require to make, he said it was difficult to give any technical number right now as the matter was under investigation.

He, however, said that the bank will honour all its bonafide commitments. We want to convey to all our stakeholders that PNB is pursuing clean banking agenda.

He said that bank will take all possible action against the wrong doers in the fraud case. In the last 123 years, we have seen many ups and down. The bank in its full capacity will take every action to book wrongdoers. This fraud had started in 2011. Our own bank detected first and told the law enforcement agencies about this. PNB is fully committed to its clean banking policy. That is why we are the first one to detect and report this to the various law enforcement agencies, he said.

The PNB CMD further said the bank has informed all the lenders about the case. We have issued advisory to them. We were the first to inform Sebi about this.Mumbai: News reports on Wednesday suggested that Sidharth Malhotra will star in the Hindi remake of hit Kannada film Kirik Party. Now DNA reports that the actor has been roped in for Ekta Kapoors next, which happens to be a romantic film.

Reveals a source from the team to the daily, Sidharth and Ekta are reuniting for a romantic film after four years. They had delivered a hit Ek Villain in 2014 and now, the two are in talks for another film in the same space.

Another source close to the actor says, Sidharth and Ekta have met a couple of times to discuss the movie, which is still in the scripting stage. But the idea has been bounced to Sidharth and he has liked it.

Sidharth and Ekta Kapoor had earlier collaborated for Ek Villain, which was a blockbuster 4 years back. Currently, Sidharth Malhotra is awaiting the release of his film 'Aiyaary'.For his upcoming film Saaho too, he has got a makeover, but the actor seems to be nonchalant about it.

Prabhas is one actor who has undergone a dramatic physical transformation like no other Telugu actor before. For his upcoming film Saaho too, he has got a makeover, but the actor seems to be nonchalant about it.

Makeovers are part of an actors job, but the challenge lies in dealing with the aftermath. If an actor wants to be constantly challenged, he needs to pick up scripts that are exciting. Its only then that you can raise the acting proficiency and give his best, so planning is the key to a makeover, he says.

While he doesnt talk about his look in Saaho, Prabhas says, I always like to try different roles, which automatically prompts a makeover. But unless I am confident of pulling off the role, I do not green light any project. I want to go to the sets smiling and cheerful because I spend most of my time shooting.The drink Milo gained a bad rap online after a video revealed some unhealthy truths about the beverage. (Photo: Pixabay)

Kuala Lumpur: Nestle Malaysia on Wednesday released a statement defending its chocolate and malt powder product, Milo, following public criticism, over its drink.

Malaysian entrepreneur Vishen Lakhiani had earlier posted a video on YouTube, titled The food industry is lying to you about health & nutrition - here's why'. Lakhiani criticised Nestle for marketing Milo as healthy, claiming that the product is made up of 40 percent sugar.

"The facts in this video are clearly misleading. We take our responsibility to produce great tasting, nutritious products very seriously," FOOD navigator-asia.com quoted Nestle Malaysia as saying.

The company further clarified that Milo was made with milk, malt (barley), and cocoa powder and contains vitamins, minerals including Vitamins B2, B3, B6, and C.

"Over 50 percent of the total sugars in Milo naturally come from milk and malt. We keep the amount of sugar we add to a minimum, adding only six grams of sugar for every 200 ml serving, which is about one teaspoon of sugar," the company added.

However, Lakhiani responded to the above claims with a second video, further breaking down the ingredients found in several Nestle products.

"Behind each Milo tin, it states add three teaspoons of Milo. Three teaspoons of Milo is roughly 9g of sugar," the entrepreneur said in his second video.

He also claimed that the amount of sugar in a glass of Milo was about 20g, which was close to the World Health Organisation's (WHO) daily recommended amount of 25g.

The company then released another statement, where nutritionist Nurul Iliani Ahmad claimed, "Milo contains only six percent of sugar, out of which three percent is natural sugar from milk and malt, per recommended serving of five teaspoons of Milo with 200 ml of hot water."

Previously, Nestle Lanka had to defend itself after the President Maithripala Sirisena had claimed that the company had increased its sugar content from 15 percent in 2012 to 16.5 percent in 2017.It is estimated that 70 million patients in India suffer from a rare disease, an alarming statistic of 1 in every 20 Indians.

Mumbai: The Organization for Rare Diseases India (ORDI), a non-profit organization with a mission to highlight and address the needs of the rare disease community in India, on Thursday announced the 2018 edition of Race for 7.

This marks the first time that Race for 7 will be conducted in Mumbai.

Race for 7 is a 7000 meter walk/run to raise awareness for the 7000 documented rare diseases. What started as an awareness walk in 2016 to commemorate World Rare Disease Day in February has now grown into a significant campaign, conducted simultaneously in three cities and two countries - Bangalore, Mumbai and Washington DC. This year the walk will be conducted on Sunday, February 25.

Speaking about the event, Prasanna Shirol, Founder Director, ORDI, and father of a rare disease patient said, It is estimated that 70 million patients in India suffer from a rare disease, an alarming statistic of 1 in every 20 Indians. These diseases are serious, often life-threatening, and approximately half of those affected are children. That is why Race for 7 is significant.

He went on to add, Through this event, we aim to create greater awareness about the many challenges faced by patients living with rare diseases and their caregivers. The larger public needs to know that the rare disease community is not as rare as the name suggests and that they need our support and encouragement.

Speaking on the occasion, Sangeeta Barde, Co Founder ORDI said Its terrifying to think that you are alone in this fight of managing your rare disease and that you will probably not meet another patient like you.

She added, Through Race for 7 we hope to bring awareness for rare diseases and address some of the challenges faced by them. This is the first time we will host the event in Mumbai and we hope that Mumbaikars come out in force to champion this cause. 

Dr Chetan Desai, Chief Medical Officer, IQVIA India announced that they would be the title sponsor of Race for 7 for the third year running.

Prasanna Shirol of ORDI said that there is now a national policy for rare diseases that has been announced by the central government. It is very important that state governments follow suit and put in place regional policies on priority so that the benefits can be passed onto patients.

This year, Race for 7 will focus on government policies for rare disease patients.The public killing sent shock waves across the woman's village in Uttar Pradeshs Modinagar. (Photo: Twitter/@ANINewsUP)

Ghaziabad: A 22-year-old woman was hacked to death on Wednesday by her stalker with an axe in Ghaziabad near Delhi.

The man, who was arrested a week ago for harassing and stalking the woman and later released by police on bail, went to the police station and surrendered.

The public killing sent shock waves across the woman's village in Uttar Pradeshs Modinagar.

According to NDTV, police said that the accused, Sachin Sharma, had known the woman for some time.

The woman got married in 2017 and Sharma had been upset since then.

On Wednesday, at around 5 pm, when the woman was returning home from the market, Sharma attacked her near a railway crossing and inflicted multiple blows on her with an axe. Wounded in the neck, chest and stomach, she died on the spot.

The woman, who lived in Loni with her husband, was on a visit to her parents' home in Modinagar.

The accused had allegedly harassed her and followed her last week, after which her family called the police.Nithin Reddy, the accused, was working as a ticket maintainance operator at the Ameerpet Metro Station.

Hyderabad: The SR Nagar Police arrested an employee of the Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) for sexually harassing a 22-year-old-student on Thursday.

According to the police, the student wanted to travel from Ameerpet to Secunderabad. When she asked an HMR employee to guide her to the correct platform, he got into an elevator with her and began touching her inappropriately.

Nithin Reddy, the accused, was working as a ticket maintainance operator at the Ameerpet Metro Station.

On Thursday morning, the student approached him and asked for help to get to the platform to go to Secunderabad. He offered to guide her and got into the elevator with her. Though there were others in the elevator, he touched her inappropriately from behind, said G. Ajay Kumar, the administration subinspector of SR Nagar.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. (Photo: File)

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 gender-neutral offence to punish both man and woman.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud dismissed the petition 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.

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 CrPC.

Refusing to accept the submissions, Justice Chandrachud told Malhotra that even otherwise amending legislation was the job of the Parliament.

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 the 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 Article 14 and 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. There are several statistics to suggest that men are raped and the prevalence of men rape is wider than is generally presumed.

Hence, Malhotra wanted the law to be gender neutral to punish both man and woman.Shiv Sena slammed Karnataka BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa over his remarks that Congress president Rahul Gandhi had consumed meat before visiting a temple. (Photo: File)

Mumbai: Slamming Karnataka BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa over his remarks that Congress president Rahul Gandhi had consumed meat before visiting a temple Shiv Sena on Thursday said discussing such issues during poll campaign shows the "sick mentality" of the "nervous" BJP.

Three days back, Yeddyurappa had hit out at Rahul Gandhi for reportedly visiting a temple after eating "Javari chicken" during his tour of northern parts of the poll-bound state.

Also Read: Not Samajwad but Majawad: Yeddyurappa on Rahul for eating meat before temple visit

"Congress president Rahul Gandhi gave the BJP family sleepless nights in Gujarat. It looks as if the same is going to be repeated in the Karnataka (Assembly elections). Rahul Gandhi visited a number of temples in Gujarat and offered prayers there. That time, the BJP criticised him severely, as it was worried about its own existence thinking what will happen if the Congress leader adopted Hindutva," the Sena, in an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana said.

Gandhi, during his election, had stopped at Kanakagiri in Koppal district and visited the Kanakachala Laxmi-Narasimha temple.

The write-up also claimed that the Congress will corner the BJP in the upcoming Karnataka elections, similar to what they did last year ahead of the Gujarat polls by adopting "soft Hindutva".

"Now, election rallies are being held in Karnataka and there is an exchange of allegations between the BJP and the Congress. Like in Gujarat, Rahul Gandhi has been visiting mosques as well as temples in that state. This has angered the BJP's chief ministerial face, BS Yeddyurappa, who accused Gandhi of visiting a temple after consuming meat," the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said.

And though the Congress immediately issued a clarification saying that Rahul Gandhi had a vegetarian meal before visiting the temple, according to Shiv Sena, the whole incident only shows the new "low" that this election campaign has touched.

"Discussing such issues during the election campaign is a sign of sick mentality," the Sena noted.

The piece further read that one should not hurt people's religious sentiments, and also should not see what others were eating.

"Every religious place has its own customs and traditions. There are temples in Maharashtra where meat is offered to the deity...Raking up such issues in election campaigns displays a sick mentality.

Only they know what was there in Rahul Gandhi's plate. But we are sure that it has turned the BJP nervous," the party added.

The Sena said that instead of thinking about whether former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was a vegetarian or not, it was important to note that she divided Pakistan.

The Sena, in his mouth-piece, also hit out at Yeddyurappa over the violence at Karnataka border during his tenure as Karnataka chief minister.

"During 'vegetarian' Yedyurappa's tenure as the chief minister, the blood of Marathi speaking people living in Karnataka's border areas was shed after they were hit by violence. This violence is also a kind of non vegetarianism!" the Sena said.PM Narendra at the inauguration of Dorjee Khandu State Convention Centre in Itanagar. (Photo: PIB/Twitter)

Beijing/New Delhi: China voiced its firm opposition on Thursday to the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Arunachal Pradesh, which it claims as part of South Tibet and said it would lodge a diplomatic protest with India.

Chinas position on the China-India boundary question is consistent and clear-cut, said Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang.

The Chinese government has never recognised the so-called Arunachal Pradesh and is firmly opposed to the Indian leaders visit to the disputed area, Geng was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua news agency.

We will lodge stern representations with the Indian side, he said.

Geng said that China and India had reached important consensus on properly managing disputes, and the two sides were working to resolve the territorial disputes through negotiation and consultation.

The Chinese side urges the Indian side to honour its commitment and abide by the relevant consensus, and refrain from taking any action that may complicate the boundary question, Geng said.

He urged India to cherish the hard-won momentum of improvements in bilateral relations and create enabling conditions for the boundary talks and the development of bilateral relations.

China routinely protest visits of Indian leaders to Arunachal Pradesh and reiterates its claims over it.In the last hearing of the matter on December 12, 2017, the states informed the Supreme Court that discussions were going on between the chief ministers concerned to try and resolve the issues. (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh to file an affidavit stating the 1980 Godavari River Water Tribunal Award, which governs the Polavaram project, binds them.

A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta gave this direction following submissions on behalf of these states that the award binds them. The Indira Sagar (Polavaram) Dam also known as Polavaram project is being undertaken as per the award.

The court also asked the Secretary of the Union Water Resources Ministry to file an affidavit reaffirming the position that under the Inter State Water Dispute Act all were bound to accept the Justice Bachawat Godavari River Water Tribunal Award.

Asking the chief secretaries to file the affidavit, Justice Lokur said in that case they were only left with the interpretation whether the dam under construction was conforming to the award or not.

When it was submitted that it was difficult to find a political solution of the issue, Justice Lokur said, If you want to have a meeting of chief ministers, you have it. If you dont want to have a meeting, then you dont have it. From the instructions to the counsel, it is obvious that no solution is possible.

The court observation came as it pursued a letter written by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 28, 2017, urging him not to allow the construction of the Polavaram dam until all the issues being adjudicated by the top court are settled.

Patnaik had expressed concern over the Polavaram project saying it was being pushed without addressing its legitimate concerns and sacrificing the interest of the state.

In the last hearing of the matter on December 12, 2017, the states informed the court that discussions were going on between the chief ministers concerned to try and resolve the issues.

Odisha contended that the Polavaram Dam should be as per the award as any deviation would result in submergence of the tribal villages in Malkangiri district of the state. On the other hand, Andhra Pradesh is pressing for the project saying that it was essential for its irrigation needs.

However, the court said that the proceedings before it would not preclude the chief ministers of the six states from amicably resolving the issue.

It directed the matter to be listed for further hearing on April 17.HYDERABAD: Iranian security agencies are worried about the presence of pigeons at the Macca Masjid. Iranian President Dr Hassan Rouhani will visit the historic mosque, along with his delegation, and address a gathering of namazis on Friday.

The police have deployed sharpshooters and armed guards as part of the security arrangements for his visit. But, security personnel are worried about pigeon droppings.

Iranian security agents who visited the mosque to oversee the security arrangements noticed that there were bird droppings and twigs on the first row, where Dr Rouhani is likely to sit while he offers prayers. The agents pointed it out to the mosque authorities, who assured them that they would look into the issue.

The Macca Masjid, a symbol of Iranian architecture, is home to a thousand pigeons. The birds have been living in the mosques minarets and lintels for years. There are pigeonholes on the roof as well.

A 70-member group consisting of the Iranian delegation, local public representatives and officials will offer prayers at the mosque on Friday.

Officials have requested the minorities welfare department and the Macca Masjid authorities to arrange for a shamiana (tent) outside the mosque.

Inside the mosque, we will tie a cloth to cover the first two rows.

We have been told that the President of Iran will be addressing a small gathering, said an official from the minorities welfare department.New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday announced that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani  who will be beginning a three-day visit to India starting Thursday evening---will start his visit from Hyderabad where he is expected to visit either the Salar Jung Museum, Golconda fort or Qutab Shahi tomb there on Friday morning besides visiting the famous Makkah Masjid in the city around noon that day. The Iranian President will hold delegation-level talks with PM Modi in New Delhi subsequently on Saturday. But one of the most interesting engagements during the visit will be on Saturday evening in New Delhi when the Iranian President will participate in an event of the Indian Parsi community. The Indian Parsis follow the Zoroastrianism faith and their forefathers---who hailed from Iran---had migrated to India from there several centuries ago. The Iranian President will also deliver a lecture at a thinktank in New Delhi on Saturday.

Development and operationalisation of the Chabahar port in Iran is expected to figure prominently in talks between the two leaders. India, Afghanistan and Iran have been engaged in trilateral cooperation on Chabahar which will lead to establishment of an "International Transport and Transit corridor between India, Afghanistan and Iran".New Delhi: Punjab National Bank Managing Director Sunil Mehta was asked by media on Thursday on why it took so long for his bank to detect a fraud of such magnitude -- Rs 11,400 crores -- looted by jewellers, including billionaire Nirav Nodi, since 2011.

Mehta said the transactions were not entered into the system and that it was detected only in the third week of January. If probe agencies say it is our fault, we will accept it, he said.

Mehta also said the government was monitoring the situation and was fully supportive of its attempts to nab the culprits.

Mehta told the media the bank was confident and committed in resolving this. We will honour all our bona fide commitments to bankers, clients etc, Mehta said. PNB has the capability and capacity to come out of this.

The PNB chief also said there were no solid proposals by Nirav Modi on repayment of this amount. He said, They have submitted some vague plans which are under consideration.

Also Read: PNB fraud case: ED conducts multi-city raids on Nirav Modi showrooms

Mehta said two employees in connivance with the borrowing companies undertook the fraudulent transactions. We complained to the CBI on January 29 and CBI registered the case on January 31.

Mehta added: We detected the fraud on January 3. We will not spare anyone within the bank, whether junior or senior, and will take him to task for misconduct in this fraud. Hum kisi bhi galat kaam ko badhava nahi dengey, Mehta said.

It is learnt Nirav Modi left the country on January 1. Official sources said Modis wife Ami, an American citizen, left India on January 6, his associate Mehul Choksi on January 4, his brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, on January 1. The CBI issued lookout notices against them on January 31.

Mehta said this was a standalone incident  a $1.8 billion fraud  and that it has taken place in only one of our branches.

Also Read: PNB says USD 1.8 bn fraud; Nirav Modi, 3 more jewellers under probe

He said: "PNB is a 123-year-old institution. We have gone through many ups and down but came out with flying colours. We have even faced the 1947 crisis. We want the media's help in spreading the work that the bank is doing all it can to stop these frauds. We were the first ones to detect and report these frauds which started in 2011. We are following our clean banking agenda.

"The bank has the capability and capacity to come out of the situation. We don't wish to speak much on the issue to not become a hurdle to investigations. We request you all to give us some breathing time and space. We will honour all our bonafide commitments.

"We do not encourage any wrong or fraud practices, we will take this up as a cancer cleansing process. We are committed to clean banking and we have told all our bankers informed of the issue. Out complaint has been lodged in the FIR, which is leading to raids on the culprits," says Sunil Mehta, Managing Director of PNB.

PNB, the second largest public sector bank in the country, filed a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation against Nirav Modi and companies linked to him for defrauding the bank in connivance with bank officials in a Mumbai branch.

It is alleged Modi and his associate companies fraudulently acquired PNB guarantees worth USD 1.7 billion that they later used to obtain overseas loans. The bank alleged Modi worked with some junior PNB officials to get the letters.

The Enforcement Director on Thursday raided Nirav Modis homes, offices and showrooms in several cities.Sensing trouble, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has already distanced himself from the proposed celebrations, claiming his government has not organised them and he has nothing to do with them.

Bengaluru: After locking horns over the Tipu Jayanthi celebrations, the ruling Congress and the BJP now seem to be readying for a fresh bout over the Bahmani Utsav in Kalaburgi district, which will highlight the rich contributions of the Bahmani rulers to Karnataka's art, architecture and culture.

Sensing trouble, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has already distanced himself from the proposed celebrations, claiming his government has not organised them and he has nothing to do with them. "You ask the minister concerned, who has made an announcement about the festival,"he told reporters here.

But not convinced, BJP MP, Shobha Karandlaje warned the government would be responsible for any trouble that broke out during the celebrations and indicated her party would agitate against them as it had done during Tipu Jayanthi. When contacted, Medical Education Minister ,Dr Sharan Prakash Patil, who is also in-charge of Kalaburgi district, said the March 6 utsav in Kalaburgi was a literary meet to inform the current generation about the rich contributions of Bahmani rulers.

He explained that as the district administration of Kalaburgi was celebrating 'Rashtrakoota Utsav' on March 4 and 5 in honour of the Rashtrakoota rulers , some individuals and organisations had come up with the suggestion to hold a 'Bahmani Utsav'.

"Accordingly, a literary meet has been organised by the Central University and Gulbarga University on March 6. Research scholars from both India and abroad have been invited to present papers on the Bahmani rulers," he explained, adding that the Chief Minister and Kannada and Culture Minister were not aware of it as the decision had been taken locally.

Taking a dig at BJP leaders, Dr Patil claimed they were ignorant of history and opposing the celebrations for their political ends. "What do they know about the Bahmani rulers? Have they studied their history? Our government cannot be cowed down by such threats. We are going ahead," he asserted.The incident took place on Saturday at the Guntur Government Hospital inside an operation theatre that has two tables. (Photo: SCreengrab | YouTube)

Guntur: Its not only shocking but also bizarre. Doctors are known as life savers and a little mistake while performing a surgery can cost a patient his or her life. A doctor in one of the largest government hospitals in Andhra Pradesh had to conduct a delicate plastic surgery in mobile light as the lights over the operation table went off. A video of the surgery is doing the rounds in the state.

The incident took place on Saturday at the Guntur Government Hospital inside an operation theatre that has two tables.

Suddenly in the middle of the operation, the lights on one of the tables went off. In the video, a doctor can been seen at work, assisted by two nurses as another person holds a mobile phone torch.

According to an NDTV report, hospital superintendent Dr DS Rajanayak said that a fuse had blown off during routine maintenance work. The operation theatre has full power back-up and it was not known why the lights failed to come on immediately. It took four to five minutes to restore the lights.

Several videos of surgeons working under flashlights have surfaced from various parts of the country.

In 2016, doctors at one of Hyderabad's biggest hospitals - the Gandhi Hospital -- admitted that they had to work in the light of mobile phones in the middle of a critical operation that involved the removal of an infected part of one's intestine.

Dr Rajanayak said such power failures are not usual at the Guntur hospital. "The surgeon Dr Sunitha, who is an assistant professor of plastic surgery, did the best she could under the circumstances,'' he added.

The patient, who needed a nose reconstruction surgery after a dog bite, is doing well, Dr Rajanayak said.

Click here to watch video.Appreciating Arunachal CM Pema Khandu on the work that he has done for the state, PM said that Khandu had prepared a 'top quality roadmap' on how Arunachal Pradesh should be in 2027. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Itanagar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday inaugurated various projects including Dorjee Khandu State Convention Centre in Arunachal Pradesh's capital Itanagar.

While addressing a public meeting at IG Park in Itanagar, Modi said that development will originate in Arunachal Pradesh in the coming days. He said that this development will illuminate India.

Appreciating Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on the work that he has done for the state, PM said that Khandu had prepared a "top quality roadmap" on how Arunachal Pradesh should be in 2027.

Speaking on the health sector, Modi said the healthcare should be affordable. He also said that the government had brought down prices for the benefit of the poor and middle class families.

PM Modi also spoke about the Naharlagun-New Delhi express, saying that it will run twice a week and that it would now be called the Arunachal Pradesh Express.

PM Modi will also be visiting poll-bound Tripura to address two rallies, where the BJP is looking to overthrow the Manik Sarkar-led government.Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surejewala said, 'We want to issue a lookout notice against the following people so that these people can't leave the country. There was no risk-management system within the bank.' (Photo: Twitter | ANI)

New Delhi: Lashing out at the Prime Minister and NDA government over jeweller Nirav Modi's Rs 11,400 crore bank scam, Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surejwala, on Thursday, said this was the biggest scam since Independence.

The Congress said a whistleblower had alerted the government and handed over all the papers regarding Nirav Modi and one of his relatives on July 26, 2016 but the Prime Minister and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley ignored the tip.

Surjewala said whistleblower Hari Prasad had written to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in 2016, alerting the government about the "biggest bank loot scam in 70 years" in independent India.

"On July 26, 2016, Narendra Modi was handed with all papers regarding Nirav Modi and one of his relative. It was said that complaint had 42 FIRs. PMO acknowledged the complaint, they also sent registrar of companies to take some action. But in the end the government couldn't do anything," said Surjewala at a press conference in New Delhi.

"What does the Prime Minister do? Nothing. What does the finance ministry do? Nothing. What does the corporate affairs ministry do? Nothing. What does the financial intelligence unit of the finance ministry do? Nothing," Surjewala told the media.

Surjewala said, ''We want to issue a lookout notice against the following people so that these people can't leave the country. There was no risk-management system within the bank.''

The Congress also alleged that the NDA government was looking the other way when billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi used his clout with the Prime Minister to slip out of the country and steal Rs 12,000 crore, drawing comparison with the case of liquor baron Vijay Mallya.

Raising questions on Nirav Modi leaving the country, Congress said, "Who is responsible for Nirav Modi leaving the country? A person in a high power was supporting Nirav Modi This is classic BJP of diverting the truth. Silence of Modi (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) says a lot.''

Surjewala added, "How can Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi dupe the entire banking system through forged Letters of Understanding (LoU) under the nose of Modi govt? Who is responsible for biggest bank loot scam unleashed by chhota Modi?"

The Congress also asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP-led NDA government in the Centre to face the truth and answer questions.

Surjewala also asked the Prime Minister what "chhota Modi" (Nirav Modi) was doing with Narendra Modi at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos in January, 2018.

(Photo: Twitter | @MEAIndia)

With hashtag #ModiScam, Surjewala in his twitter asked, "Who is Nirav Modi? The new Modi Scam? Was he tipped off like Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya to escape by someone within the government."

"Has it become the norm for letting people run away with public money? Who is responsible," Surjewala asked in his tweet.

Who is Nirav Modi? The new #ModiScam?



Was he tipped off like Lalit Modi & Vijay Mallya to escape by someone within the Govt?



Has it become the norm for letting people run away with public money?



Who is responsible?



Pl wait for AICC PC at 2 PM today.  Randeep S Surjewala (@rssurjewala) February 15, 2018

Congress President Rahul Gandhi also attacked the Narendra Modi government and tweeted: "Guide to looting India by Nirav Modi -- 1. Hug PM Modi 2. Be seen with him in DAVOS. Use that clout to: A. Steal 12,000 crore B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the government looks the other way."

Guide to Looting India

by Nirav MODI



1. Hug PM Modi

2. Be seen with him in DAVOS



Use that clout to:



A. Steal 12,000Cr

B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the Govt looks the other way.



#From1MODI2another  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 15, 2018

In a major jolt to the Indian banking sector, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on Wednesday, received two complaints from state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) against Nirav Modi. The bank said it had detected a USD 1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400 crore) scam where Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from a branch in Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

These two complaints come just a few weeks after an alleged fraud of Rs 280 crore was reported against Nirav Modi and others in January. The CBI had registered an FIR in the case on January 31.

AICC Press Release on the escape of Nirav Modi. (Photo: Twitter | @INCIndia)

AICC Press Release on the escape of Nirav Modi. (Photo: Twitter | @INCIndia)Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said many in the country share the surname Modi and attributed the Cong's attack on the PM to the opposition party's 'anger at its defeat' in multiple elections. (Photo: ANI | Twitter)

New Delhi: Giving out a stern warning to those involved in the Rs 11,400-crore fraud at one of Punjab National Bank's (PNB) Mumbai branches, the Centre on Thursday, said "nobody, irrespective of their status or stature, shall be spared".

Briefing media on behalf of the government, Law and Information Technology (I-T) Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "I wish to make it very clear and this I can also convey on the behalf of the govt that no shall be spared in the banking system who has sought to derail ordinary banking system to help Nirav Modi. This is regardless of stature and status of concerned official."

The Union minister added the government will not allow loss of taxpayers' money.

Stressing that the Enforcement Directorate and other investigation agencies have taken action with alacrity, Ravi Shankar Prasad said properties assets worth Rs 1,300 crore have already been seized and the passports have been revoked, along with circulating a look-out-notice for Nirav Modi.

He said that besides ED and CBI, the I-T department is also keeping a close watch on billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi.

Terming the Congress calling Nirav Modi 'Chhota Modi' as "derogatory, shameful, scandalous and demeaning" to the Prime Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Congress using words like 'Chotta Modi' is not acceptable. BJP takes strong offence to the language used. It is derogatory."

Ravi Shankar Prasad said many in the country share the surname Modi and attributed the Congress' attack on the Prime Minister to the opposition party's "anger at its defeat" in multiple elections.

Congress leader Randeep Surjewla had at a press conference earlier on Thursday held up a photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with leading Indian industrialists at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland's Davos, asking how Nirav Modi was allowed to leave the country days before a first information report was filed accusing him of the massive bank fraud.

Also Read: Who is responsible for biggest bank scam by chhota Modi: Cong asks PM

Replying to the Congress allegation on BJP on why Nirav Modi was a part of the delegation that went to Davos with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the World Economic Forum in January 2018, Ravi Shankar said, "Nirav Modi reached Davos on his own. There was no meeting with PM."

He added that Nirav Modi did not meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Davos.

Ravi Shankar Prasad also claimed that no loans given by banks under the present government have turned into NPA (Non-Performing Asset) and blamed the previous UPA-government for the bad loan menace.

The Union minister also stressed that the Narendra Modi-government has given autonomy to the banking sector.'Owaisi can count Muslims Army men killed. But can he also count how many Muslims are in terrorists organisation attacking the Army?,' BJP leader Subramanian Swamy tweeted. (Photo: File/PTI)

New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramaian Swamy on Thursday slammed the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi over his statement aiming to attest to the patriotism of the Indian Muslims.

"Owaisi can count Muslims Army men killed. But can he also count how many Muslims are in terrorists organisation attacking the Army?," Swamy tweeted.

Owaisi can count Muslims army men killed. But can he also count how many Muslims are in terrorists organisation attacking the army?  Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) February 15, 2018

On Tuesday, Owaisi had slammed those questioning the patriotism of Muslims, while making a reference to the fact that five out of seven army soldiers killed by terrorists at the Sunjuwan army camp attack were Kashmiri Muslims.

While the Congress Party supported Owaisi's stand, the Indian Army rejected claims by saying the Army does "not communalise martyrs."The officer said that there was considerable reduction in infiltration, but the number of attempts almost doubled in 2007 compared to the previous year. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Udhampur: The "pro-active" strategy in the aftermath of the 2016 Uri terror attack will continue as the Indian Army has dominated Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, a top commander of the force said on Wednesday.

General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command, Lt Gen D Anbu also said that over three times more casualties had been inflicted on the adversary last year.

"Pakistan and its ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) is directly involved in terrorism not only in Jammu and Kashmir but also in neighbouring countries, as without its support, training and strategy, terrorism would not have lasted so long," he said after presenting gallantry awards at an Investiture Ceremony here.

The officer presented 39 Sena Medals and the 'Unit Appreciation' to 26 units for their outstanding performance in 2017.

On the Sunjuwan terror strike in the state on Saturday, he said, "It is the frustrated enemy (Pakistan) which does involve itself in such activities when it is not able to face us on the borders."

"It is but natural that the enemy is on the receiving end and looks for the easier alternative. While immediately behind the borders we have strengthened ourselves and we are very well prepared, it picked up soft targets," he said.

The officer said that you cannot have the same security like in borders at areas which are peaceful.

"I will not accept a single lapse on the border because it is supported to be protected. The Army spent almost Rs. 364 crore on different things to build up the security of the soft elements on the LoC," the officer said.

"We got our acts together as far as surveillance, sentry duty and drills and other things are concerned besides the intelligence," he said.

The operations and the management of the LoC was quite complex, challenging and dynamic, and that over the past one year, things evolved continuously, Anbu said.

"We are working as per our strategy and will continue to do so. I want to assure you that we are not going to be cowed down by small incidents, 'fidayeen' (suicide) attacks or other things. We are not going to derail from our main course of action," the officer told reporters.

"We have adapted to it very well and in the whole year, we have dominated the adversary. It has been a pro-active action after the Uri incident and we have not looked back," Anbu said.

Terrorists on September 18, 2016, had stormed a battalion headquarters of the Army in North Kashmir's Uri town in the early hours, killing 17 jawans and injuring 20 other personnel.

On the casualties suffered by Pakistan in the retaliatory action to ceasefire violations, the officer said, "You do not come to know what is the damage caused across the border because our adversary does not believe in accepting the casualties. We are in a very dominating position."

Though some media reports suggest 192 fatal casualties were suffered by Pakistan along the LoC, the Army is not going to put a figure because of the simple reason that Pakistan has only admitted to 13 casualties, he said.

"However, through various sources, reports and assessments, it is three times more than what we have suffered. These are conservative estimates on our part, but it is much more," Anbu said.

The officer said that the Army was prioritising security of small camps in vulnerable areas and those which need immediate attention.

"The government has also came up with certain funds and I am sure we will be able not only to have a physical fence but also technology assist it," he said.

The officer the Army's endeavour was to ensure "zero infiltration".

"Infiltration does take place. We endeavour to ensure zero infiltration that is our job and we put our best effort," he said.

The officer said that there was considerable reduction in infiltration, but the number of attempts almost doubled in 2007 compared to the previous year.

"This was the reason we were able to eliminate more (terrorists) last year. Their attempt is to keep the pot boiling," he said.

The terrorists present at training camps and launching pads are being pushed into this side. If we take south and north of Pir Panjal, 185 to 220 are always present in south and 195-220 continue to remain in north, Anbu said.The Supreme Court expressed anger as none of the states and Union Territories, except Sikkim, filed affidavits specifying the amount they received under the Nirbhaya Fund towards victim compensation. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday pulled up all the States, in particular Madhya Pradesh for not showing enough concern to rape victims by specifying the amount of compensation payable to each rape victim under the Nirbhaya Fund.

A bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta expressed anger as none of the states and Union Territories, except Sikkim, filed affidavits specifying the amount they received under the Nirbhaya Fund towards victim compensation and details of how much of that amount has disbursed to victims of sexual assault.

The Nirbhaya Fund scheme was announced by the Centre in 2013 after the sensational December 16, 2012 gangrape and murder case in Delhi to support the initiatives of governments and the NGOs working for women's safety.

Referring to Madhya Pradeshs earlier affidavit, Justice Lokur said, For Madhya Pradesh, the figures are fantastic. There are 1,951 rape victims in Madhya Pradesh and you are giving them Rs 6,000 to Rs 6,500 each. Is that good, commendable? What is this? This is total insensitiveness. Are you doing a charity? How can you do so you value a rape at Rs 6000 to Rs 6,500.

The bench further observed We had given a specific order on January 9 asking you to file affidavits. Are the states not interested in paying compensation? If you dont file affidavit then there is the presumption that you are not interested in safety and protection of women.

As a last chance, the court directed all the State Governments and Union Territories to file an affidavit within four weeks indicating the amount received by each state government and Union Territory under the Nirbhaya Fund and even otherwise and to the number of victims of sexual assault.

The bench directed the matter to be listed after four weeks.ADILABAD: The SC and ST Additional District Court and Sessions judge G.V.N. Bharatha Laxmi on Thursday issued orders to the Munsif Magistrates Court to take cognizance of, and initiate further proceedings in, the Azad encounter case by issuing summons to 29 accused policemen involved in the case to appear before it. Judge Bharatha Laxmi gave these directions by setting aside the previous orders of the magistrates court closing the Azad case. The encounter took place in the Sarikepalli forest area in Wankidi mandal, Old Adilabad district, in 2010.

K. Padma, the wife of slain Maoist Azad, told mediapersons here that she was satisfied with the courts directions, which boosted morale in the fight against encounter killings  a euphemism for deliberate killing by the police. She said the orders reinforced her faith in the judiciary. Ms Padmas counsel, Suresh also welcomed the orders and said they will fight a legal battle against the policemen involved in Azads killing.

According to sources, the court issuing orders and asking the police to appear before it in encounter incidents was latest one in the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states. Earlier, the Hyderabad High Court had taken a telegram by a person as suo motu in the killing of the Sikasa leader Ramakanth by burning him alive after pouring kerosene on him when he was hiding in a house in Srirampur in 1996.

The courts also took up the encounter killings of Madhusudan Raj in 1995 and Suryam in 1994 in the united AP. As many as 29 policem-en, including C.I. Raghu-nandan, were accused in the encounter with Azad and journalist He-ma Chandra Pande. Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad was then central committee member of the Maoist party. Azad as a representative of the Maoists has initiating peace talks with the Government of India through social activist Swamy Agnivesh when he was killed.New Delhi: Putting another spanner into the Congress dreams of a unified Opposition and forming a grand alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, a section of regional satraps and the Left parties have begun parleys to cobble up a third front. The parties which have begun talks include the Bahujan Samaj Party, Janata Dal (Secular), Rashtriya Lok Dal, Biju Janata Dal, the Left parties and Trinamul. The first such experiment is likely to be tried out in the coming crucial Lok Sabha bypolls in three Uttar Pradesh seats  Kairana, Phulpur and Gorakhpur.

It is learnt either RLD chief Ajit Singh or his son Jayant Chowdhary will be made the fronts candidate from Kairana, with the BSPs help. The seeds for this alliance were sown with the coming together of the BSP and Janata Dal (Secular), led by former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, in Karnataka. Asked about this, CPI general secretary Sudhakar Reddy came out into the open on Thursday and made it clear the Communists were open to the idea. Sources said Mr Deve Gowda may issue a statement in the next few days assuring his party will have nothing to do with the BJP in order to assuage the doubts of the Left parties.

However, while these parties are unlikely to go with the BJP, their reluctance to come under the Congress umbrella could end up helping BJP as it will lead to a division in the secular as well as anti-incumbency votes. At the heart of the explorations for a third front was the quest for dalit votes. The dalit identity has reared its head across the country since incidents like the suicide of Rohith Vemula and the Una flogging and is likely to emerge as a major factor in the 2019 power game. It is this opportunity that Ms Mayawati is trying to exploit to gain back her relevance in the political scene.

One of the main reasons behind the explorations for a third front was that most regional satraps have issues about accepting Rahul Gandhi as the leader of any anti-BJP front, a senior Opposition leader said. Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has already made a list of desirable attributes in a leader of such an alliance, and it does not fit Mr Gandhis bill.

Ms Mayawati also played ghost at all major Opposition meetings in recent times, making it clear that she was not ready to accept the leadership role of the Congress. However, the Congress Party is adamant that Mr Gandhi should be accepted as the leader of any such front. Former Congress president and UPA chief Sonia Gandhi had recently said that Rahul is my boss too. Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot has also said that only Mr Gandhi could be the leader for any such alliance.

A senior Congress leader said: Any vote against Rahul Gandhi is likely to benefit the BJP. Sources in the proposed third front, however, say that the Congress will have no option but to support them after the 2019 general election to keep the BJP out of power if the situation so demands. They added that after the 2019 polls, if the BJP fails to get a clear majority, many others like the Biju Janata Dal, Akali Dal and Telugu Desam Party might joint the alliance.Bhopal: A khap panchayat in Madhya Pradesh has issued a diktat prohibiting women and girls of its community from using cellphones. The Mahapanchayat representing Shaharia tribal community residing in 27 villages in Sheopur district has announced to impose fine on the women and girls of the caste if they violated the order.

The Mahapanchayat in Sheopur district earlier took a series of decisions including ban on use of cell phones by women and girls of the community. The move was aimed at reforming the community, the sarpanch said.Chennai: Four days before his wedding, a 29-year-old management accountant jumped to death from the third floor of his apartment complex in suburban Adambakkam on Thursday morning. The deceased was identified as P. Santosh Kumar (29), a native of Madurai. Hours earlier, he had attempted to kill himself by slashing his wrists with a sharp object, police said.

A management accountant by profession, he was living in an apartment in Shanthi Nagar, Adambakkam for the past three years and was working at a private consulting firm in Vadapalani.

He was due to get married on February 19, a police officer said. On Thursday morning, around 6:30 am, he jumped from the third floor terrace of his apartment coplex. Morning walkers at a corporation park nearby rushed hearing the loud thud and alerted the police.

A police team moved Santosh to a hospital. However, he succumbed to his injuries around 10 45 am. Police said that Santosh had attempted suicide on Wednesday night too by slashing his wrists with a sharp object.

Adambakkam police retrieved four suicide notes from his apartment- add

ressed to his father, his brother, his girlfriend and the police. In the letter to his father, Santosh had written that he didnt deserve to be his son whi

le in that to his elder brother, he apologised for not being like him.

In a letter to his girlfriend, Santosh sought forgiveness, writing to her that she was his beloved. Further, he also apologised to the police for wasting their time and asked them to not investigate on the reasons for his death and hand over his body to the family after the formalities, according to a police officer. Santoshs parents were informed and they reached the city by Thursday evening.New Delhi: As billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi came under the lens following a fraud of Rs 11,400 crore with PNB, a political slugfest between the ruling BJP and Congress broke out on Thursday while the ED carried out simultaneous raids on the diamond kings offices, showrooms and diamond workshops in Mumbai, Surat and New Delhi and seized Rs 5,100 crore worth gold and diamond jewellery. The BJP seethed as the Congress not only described the fraudster Chota Modi number 2 but also released a group photograph of Nirav Modi with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other business honchos during last months Davos meet.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi, in a tweet, said, Guide to looting India by Nirav Modi - 1. Hug PM Modi 2. Be seen with him in DAVOS. Use that clout to: A. Steal 12,000 crore B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the government looks the other way. Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, fielded by the saffron camp to counter the Congress, said, What is this word Chota Modi? BJP takes strong offence to the kind of language being used by describing someone like that. It is derogatory, scandalous and demeaning.

On the photograph controversy, Mr Prasad claimed that it was only a photo opportunity. Nirav Modi was not part of the Prime Minister Modis delegation at the World Economic Forum in Davos. He was part of the CII delegation, he asserted. Mr Prasad claimed that the government will not spare anyone who has sought to derail ordinary banking system and said that Nirav Modis passport has been revoked and a look out circular (LOC) issued against him.

As the Opposition blamed the government for allowing Nirav Modi to escape, the CBI claimed that he left the country on January 1, much before the first complaint against him reached the agency. The probe agency said that it had sought revocation of the passports of Nirav Modi and his business partner Mehul Choksi.

Dubbing Nirav Modi Chota Modi two and Lalit Modi Chhota Modi one, Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala asked if the billionaire jewellery designer had a tip-off that prompted him to leave the country. The entire system was bypassed. All regulatory mechanisms broke down. Everything escaped the eyes of auditors and investigators, he said. Risk management and fraud detection ability came to a naught. Yet, the Modi government would have us believe that this entire fraud was being perpetrated by two employees Has it become the norm for letting people run away with public money? Who is responsible? asked the Congress spokesperson.

The Congress alleged that in July 2016 a private complaint along with proofs against Nirav Modi was sent to the PMO but no action was taken. Targeting the Modi government, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal asked if the diamond businessman had left the country with the backing of the government. Is it possible to believe that he or (businessman) Vijay Mallya left the country without the active connivance of BJP government? Kejriwal tweeted.While it took nearly two decades for the Tribunal to render its final decision in 2007, it has taken a decade for the case to conclude in the cross appeals against the award filed by the States of Tamil nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will pronounce its verdict on Friday on a batch of appeals relating to the three decades old Cauvery water dispute among the States of Tamil nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and union territory of Puducherry.

A three-judge Bench of Chief Justices Dipak Misra and Justices Amitav Roy and DY Chandrachud had reserved judgment on September 20, 2017 on appeals against the Cauvery Disputes Tribunal's final award of February 2007 on allocation of water for Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala and Union Territory of Puducherry.

Out of 740 tmcft of water available in the Cauvery basin, the Tribunal directed Karnataka to release 192 tmcft of water to Tamil Nadu, and apportioned 270 tmcft to Karnataka; 30 tmcft to Kerala and seven tmcft to Puducherry.

Besides adjudicating the share of water of each State, the court is expected to frame a scheme and mechanism for implementation of the water sharing arrangement to resolve the tussle between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka on water release every month.

While it took nearly two decades for the Tribunal to render its final decision in 2007, it has taken a decade for the case to conclude in the cross appeals against the award filed by the States of Tamil nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

The arguments which commenced on July 11, 2017 were advanced for 28 days by senior counsel Fali Nariman, Shyam Divan, Mohan Katarki for Karnataka; Shekar Naphade, G. Umapathy and Rakesh Diwedi for Tamil Nadu; Jaideep Gupta for Kerala and Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar for the Centre.

Tamil Nadu was of the view that the issue of framing a scheme for setting up of the Cauvery Management Board should not be left to the wisdom of Parliament.

It suggested that the court should exercise its inherent powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to frame a scheme for effective implementation of the judgment to allay the apprehensions of the States that Parliament might tinker with the scheme as it had been claiming that it had a right to modify, approve or

annual the decree.

It was argued that Tamil nadu which was dependent on Cauvery waters was always at the receiving end as Karnataka had never implemented in full any of the orders passed by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal or by the court. Tamil Nadu maintained that it was easy to talk of co-operative federalism but Karnataka never adhered to this principle all these years.

Tamil Nadu rejected the Karnatakas stand that allocation of water could be determined only at the end of crop season or at the end of the water year and Tamil Nadu was entitled to receive only 132 tmcft as against 192 tmcft ordered by the Tribunal.

Tamil Nadu said kuruvai crop was the main crop for Tamil Nadu and for this it was dependent on water from Karnataka during the southwest monsoon.

The other two crops of Samba and Thaladi,cultivated during the northeast monsoon were not dependable. Therefore the court should ensure that the monthly release of water by Karnataka as directed by the Tribunal should be strictly adhered to. Continuing its tirade against the findings of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, Karnataka on Thursday questioned the methodology adopted by the Tribunal in apportioning 192 tmcft of water to Tamil Nadu in the final award of February 2007 to the prejudice of Karnataka's interest.

Timeline

1892: First agreement between the Composite Madras Presidency and the princely State of Mysore on allocation of water.

1924: The agreement was renewed for 50 years

1974: The agreement signed between Madras Presidency and the princely State of Mysore in 1924 lapsed in 1974.

May 1990: Supreme Court accepts TN's plea and directs Centre to constitute Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal.

June 2, 1990: Centrenotifies Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT).

January 1991: The CWDT rejects Tamil Nadu government's plea for interim relief. TN appeals in apex Court.

April 1991: Supreme Court directs the CWDT to entertain TN's petition for interim relief.

June 1991: The CWDT announces interim award: Karnataka ordered to release 205 tmcft.

Karnataka promulgates an Ordinance. Supreme Court intervenes, strikes down Karnataka's ordinance and upholds the interim award of the CWDT. Karnataka refuses to implement order.

December 11, 1991: The Interim award is published in the Government of India Gazette.

July 1993: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa goes on a sudden fast at the MGR memorial in Chennai demanding the Tamil Nadu's share of water as stipulated by the interim order.

August 1998: Centre forms Cauvery River Authority to ensure the implementation of the interim award of CWDT.

After 16 years, Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal gives final award. Tribunal holds as valid the two agreements of 1892 and 1924 executed between the Governments of Madras and Mysore on the apportionment of water to Tamil Nadu.

May 10, 2013: Supreme Court directs Centre to set up a panel to supervise Cauvery water release.

May 24, 2013: Centre notified temporary Cauvery Water (Implementation of the order of 2007) Scheme.

July 2017: Final hearing of appeals begins in apex court. September 20, 2017 Verdict reserved.

February 16: Final verdict on appealsALAPPUZHA: The Sreedevi Vilasam Hindumatha Convention, a devotee outfit at Chettikulangara temple, has banned two Kuttiyotta samithis, including that run by Vijayaraghava Kurup, a prominent Kuttiyottam artiste.

Convention secretary R. Rajeshkumar said in a statement that they had found Kalakshetra Kuttiyotta Samithi run by Vijayaraghava Kurup had breached tradition by including a woman in the Kuttiyottam.

The Shailanandhini Kuttiyotta Samithi run by brothers Pradeep and Pramod was banned on the charges of breaching customs and traditions.

The statement says these asans (masters) carried out Kuttiyottam breaching its basic principle and that their act had defamed all 13 karas (constituency) under the convention and hurt the sentiments of devotees. So these asans and Kuttiyotta Samithis have been banned from February 23 to 2020 Kumba Bharani festival. They will not be allowed to carry out any form of Kuttiyottams during the ban period, it says.

Kurup, 60 has been practising Kuttiyottams for over four decades, including in the Gulf countries. He gave a modern touch to Kuttiyottam with Kummi pattu and was felicitated by Kerala Folklore Academy in 2004.

Kurup told DC that he was saddened by the ban. The recent provocation was a programme held in Dubai where one girl came to the stage and shook her leg following our steps. They say Kuttiyottam is male-centric folk art from which is deplorable. This is violation of the freedom of expression and right to live. I will move the court after February 22, Kurup said.The three kinds of war are open war, secret war and undeclared war

 Chanakya, in his Arthashastra

India is in a state of external and internal siege. No other phrase can adequately describe the vitriolic, bitterly divisive clash of civilisations being played out across the entire country at present. Political violence is rising on an unprecedented scale. Internecine skirmishes between well-armed private militias of various political factions are endangering society and have placed the countrys police and security forces under a severe strain. In the absence of any punishing response for its transgressions, Pakistan continues with an unchanged Kashmir policy of a thousand-year jihad against India. At the centrestage, in mortal combat at all levels of governance, is a conservative right-wing government and a disparate Opposition attempting to rally around the rump of a (once) grand old party, which largely remains a family fief even though several changes of guard have taken place within the organisation. In Uttar Pradesh, communal tensions and riots sparked by a long-running dispute over the ownership of the dilapidated and destroyed Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, said to have been built by a commander in Mughal emperor Babars army over the ruins of a destroyed Hindu temple, have nudged awake slumbering demons from the past, which the Supreme Court is now attempting to exorcise by the due process of law, encouraging mutual accommodation and consent between the saner elements in both communities. But its efforts have hit a wall of mulish obduracy from obtuse religious fanatics and hardliners on both sides of an emerging communal divide that does not augur well for the future. The divide has to be bridged, and the earlier it is the better.

In Maharashtra, caste tensions between dalits of the Mahar community and upper caste Marathas have been reignited by political activists on both sides around the battle of Koregaon Bhima (fought on New Years Day in 1818) during the Third Maratha War, where the forces of the British East India Company, based on a small detachment of 800 men of the Second Battalion of First Bombay Native Infantry, largely of the Mahar class, led by British officer Capt. Staunton held their own against a much larger Maratha army of 28,000 men under Peshwa Baji Rao II. The Defence of Corygaum, was a prominent battle honour emblazoned on the regimental colours of the Regiment of Grenadiers of the Indian Army, which claims descent from the old Bombay Native Infantry. The site of the Battle of Koregaon had been marked by the British with an engraved stone obelisk on the banks of the River Bhima at Sirur, near Pune, as a memorial to a British victory against an Indian power. The Koregaon monument was a quiet, shady roadside spot, a little away from the sustained roar of heavy traffic thundering along the Pune-Ahmednagar road. But the cross-currents and compulsions of post-Independence caste politics have recast the narrative of Koregaon as a victory of the dalit Mahars against their higher caste oppressors, the Marathas. Militant dalit political organisers in the ostentatious yellow robes of the Buddha have converted the Koregaon memorial into a monument to Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar and the victory of Mahar soldiers of the Bombay Native Infantry over their caste enemies, the Marathas. The irony could not be greater  a downtrodden indigenous community was so harassed and oppressed by the higher castes of its own society that military service with a foreign power was a perfectly agreeable option if it allowed an opportunity to hit back at the oppressor. The obelisk, which is officially a historical monument preserved by the Archaeological Survey of India, has now been de facto appropriated by dalit political activists. They have transformed the erstwhile quiet shady spot into an almost quasi-religious place of worship bedecked in garlands, daubed vermilion and sandalwood and the votaries of Babasaheb Ambedkar come here in busloads, shepherded by young activists from dalit organisations. Ironically, both these communities are heavily recruited into the Indian Army where they constitute the Mahar Regiment and the Maratha Light Infantry, illustrious entities laden with battle honours, who have served the nation in an exemplary fashion in all of Indias wars since Independence.

Meanwhile, in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan continues unabated its policy of a thousand cuts against India employing Battalion Action Teams (BAT) of the Pakistan Army in conjunction with trans-border shelling by artillery, mortars and, in at least one instance, anti-tank guided missiles from across the Line of Control, and increasingly, the international India-Pakistan border region between Pathankot and Jammu. The situation is intolerable. India cannot and will not suffer in silence, as its citizens are killed and property destroyed with impunity by jihadi intruders launched from bases in Pakistan. This country has consistently been restricting itself to a retaliatory strategy of playing on the backfoot, but the responses have not deterred Pakistan. Whatever limited military counter-action is possible from the home side of the international border in Jammu or the Line of Control in Kashmir is obviously inadequate.

So India has to seriously consider  is it time for a change? Is it time to think of a front foot trans-border response to Pakistan? Is it not the time to return with interest the sorrow misery, hurt, pain, damage and destruction at Hira Nagar, Kathua, Pathankot, Samba, Kalu Chak, Sunjuwan Jammu and Nagrota to Pakistani locations and addresses at Sialkot, Shakargarh, Zafarwal, Pasrur and elsewhere? Coffins going home wrapped in Pakistani flags rather than the Indian tricolour? Can India devise and invoke a Chanakya doctrine of secret and undeclared wars instead of open war against a treacherous enemy? Also a correlated moral dilemma  can any country fight a dirty war with clean hands? A perusal of Chanakya seems to indicate that such a contradiction in terms is possible. Any takers?Banks grappling with the evils of bad loans and non-performing assets have now been hit with the massive Rs 11,346-crore fraud at Punjab National Bank. Its still not known how many banks are affected, though there are some indications that six other banks may be hit. This isnt the first time a state-owned bank was hit by fraud. According to an IIM Bangalore study, in 2012-16 PSU banks have taken a hit of Rs 22,743 crores due to fraud, and in all cases hundreds of bank employees were involved. Its like the fence eating the grass its supposed to protect. This is disturbing as it means in six years no one took these frauds seriously or finetuned the existing risk management systems and plugged loopholes. Frauds along with non-performing assets of Rs 6,98,668 crores indicate that over Rs 7 lakh crores of peoples hard-earned money have been lost in a short time. Can this betrayal by the custodians of the peoples money be taken lightly? A few bank employees have been arrested, but is this enough of a deterrent for other scoundrels?

Incidentally, depositors money in banks are insured only upto `1 lakh, which means that if you lose an amount above this you have to fend for yourself, and its not the responsibility of the government or the RBI to ensure that you get compensation. The question thats even more perplexing is whether theres something really rotten in the banking system, or this is a one-off. The latter can be discounted as fraudster Nirav Modi appears to have used the same methods as Harshad Mehta did in the early 1990s. Harshad Mehta used fraudulent bank receipts to cheat banks of `4,999 crores, while Nirav Modi used fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoU) to dupe banks. These frauds vindicate RBI deputy governor N.S. Vishwanathan, who recently chided banks for lack of effective risk management practices. He had said this in relation to non-performing assets, but its equally applicable in case of bank frauds, which occur due to a lack of management oversight. Globally, bank frauds are big business and are on the rise. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, frauds cost the banking industry $67 billion per annum in 2015-16. In most cases it were the banks employees who were involved.

The Reserve Bank, which does a regular inspection of banks in this country, could possibly examine the risk management lapses more closely. This would in no way impinge on banks autonomy. The collusion between bank employees and managements is well known. The former RBI governor was well aware of this, and tried to correct it by asking banks to clean up their balance sheets within a set timeframe. A powerful lobby acted to ensure he didnt get a fresh term, becoming the only central bank governor not asked to stay on.In a harrowing shooting spree that saw terrified students hiding in closets and under desks as they texted for help. (Photo: Twitter)

Parkland: A former student armed with an AR-15 rifle opened fire at a Florida high school on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people, officials said, in a harrowing shooting spree that saw terrified students hiding in closets and under desks as they texted for help.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel identified the gunman as Nikolaus Cruz, 19, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland who had been expelled for "disciplinary reasons."

Cruz was arrested without incident in the nearby town of Coral Springs after the Valentine's Day rampage and taken to hospital with minor injuries, the sheriff said.

"We have already begun to dissect his websites and things on social media that he was on and some of the things... are very, very disturbing," Israel said. "He had countless magazines, multiple magazines, and at this point, we believe he had one AR-15 rifle," the sheriff added.

Israel said he was uncertain about the exact number of people injured, but at least 14 were taken to hospital and two had died there of their wounds.

The shooting, one of nearly 20 since the start of the year, will once again throw the spotlight on the epidemic of gun violence in the United States and the ready accessibility of weapons in a country with 33,000 gun-related deaths annually.

Also Read: Very disturbing: Teen school shooter had been expelled for 'disciplinary reasons'

"This is a terrible day for Parkland," Israel said, speaking of the city of about 30,000 people, located 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Miami.

"My very own triplets went to that school." A teacher at the school told the Miami Herald that Cruz had been identified previously as a potential threat to his classmates. "We were told last year that he wasn't allowed on campus with a backpack on him," math teacher Jim Gard said. "There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus."

A law enforcement source told CBS News that the gunman pulled a fire alarm before opening fire, but Israel said he could not confirm that report.The Punjab National Bank (PNB) has detected a fraud of Rs 11,344.40 crore in one of its Mumbai branches.



The transactions are supposed to be linked to billionaire diamond merchant Nirav Modi and a jewellery company.

PNB has registered two complaints with the CBI against these transactions.

The fresh complaints could add further trouble to Modi and his associates, who are already named in a CBI FIR registered on January 31 on a complaint by the PNB.

The bank had said it was cheated of Rs 280.70 crore through fraudulent transactions.

It is not clear whether the jewellery company mentioned in the complaint is linked to Modi.

Modi could not be contacted for his version of the developments.

While CBI sources confirmed receipt of the complaints, it has not provided details about the contents of the complaint.

PNB filed the complaints late on Tuesday night after its officers detected the fraudulent transactions in the Mumbai branch.

The PNB informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Wednesday morning that it has "detected some fraudulent and unauthorised transactions (messages) in one of its branch in Mumbai for the benefit of a few select account holders with their apparent connivance".

"Based on these transactions, other banks appear to have advanced money to these customers abroad. In the Bank, these transactions are contingent in nature and liability arising out of these on the Bank shall be decided based on the law and genuineness of underlying transactions," it said.

The PNB said the quantum of such transactions is $1771.69 million and that it has already referred the matter to law enforcement agencies to examine and book the culprits as per law of the land.

The bank has not provided details of the persons involved in fraudulent activities in the BSE filing.

The PNB declaration resulted in its shares plunging around 8% - the stock opened at Rs 160 on the BSE and soon fell as much as 7.82% to hit the day's low of Rs 149. In National Stock Exchange, it plunged 8% to touch an intra-day low of Rs 148.80.

According to an earlier complaint on which the CBI filed an FIR, Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal and business partner Chinubhai Choksi had conspired with officials of the PNB for fraudulent issuance of Letters of Undertakings.

All partners of Diamon R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds and PNB employees Gokulnath Shetty and M H Kharat were also named in the FIR.An expelled former student armed with a powerful assault rifle unleashed a hail of gunfire in a Florida high school, killing at least 17 people and injuring over a dozen others, including an Indian-American student, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in the US.



The 19-year-old suspect identified as Nikolas Cruz, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland who was expelled for disciplinary reasons, was arrested shortly after the deadly rampage yesterday.



The school has a large number of Indian-American students and at least one student from the community sustained minor injures after he was hit by splinters.



The ninth grader is being treated at a hospital.



Cruz was a troubled teenager who posted disturbing material on social media before the shooting spree, officials said.



"This is a terrible day for Parkland," Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said, speaking of the city of about 30,000 people, located 80 kilometers north of Miami.



"Nicolas Cruz was the killer. He is in custody. We already began to dissect his websites and social media that he was on ... some of the things that come to mind are very, very disturbing," he told reporters at a news conference in Florida.



"He had countless magazines, multiple magazines, and at this point, we believe he had one AR-15 rifle," he said. Reports said he was also equipped with a gas mask and smoke grenades.



According to investigators, Cruz pulled the fire alarm to draw people out of classrooms and increase the number of casualties, the CNN reported. But the school already had a fire drill earlier in the day, leading some to think it was a false alarm.



Israel said Cruz was expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons.



"I don't know the specifics," the sheriff said. However, according to media reports, Cruz was expelled last year after a fight with his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend.



The gunfire began outside the school and continued inside, where 12 of the victims were killed, Israel said. All of those victims have been identified, he said, but no identities will be made public until the families of all of those affected have been notified.



Israel, however, could not confirm the number of victim students.



Authorities said several victims were being treated in the hospital. Three of them are in critical condition.



"This is a sad day for the country and the community. We all Indian-Americans are praying for the victims," Shekar Reddy, whose friend's son was among those injured in the mass shooting, told PTI.



Parkland, with a population of 31,000 in 2016, was named Florida's safest city last year, according to one analysis.



It is the deadliest school shooting since 26 people were killed at Connecticut school Sandy Hook in 2012.



The FBI is assisting local officials in the probe. Federal and local authorities told NBC News that there was no indication that the gunman had an accomplice or accomplices.



President Donald Trump offered his "prayers and condolences to the families of the victims.



"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school," Trump tweeted.



The mass shooting incident revived debate over gun control in the US.



Florida Senator Chris Murphy termed it as "a horrific scene" playing out at a high school in South Florida.



"Turn on your television right now, you're going to see scenes of children running for their lives. It's what looks to be the [18]th school shooting in this country, and we have not even hit March," he said on the Senate floor.



The mass shooting, said to be 18th school shooting of the year, have rekindled the debate on the controversial gun control legislation in the US.



Murphy rued at the incident, claiming it was a fallout of "our inaction".



Every day in this country, 46 children are shot, said Congressman Donald M Payne.



"Every day in this country, seven children die from gun violence. Those statistics do not occur in any other high-income country on this planet," he said, urging the members of the US Congress to use their "power to make the world safer for all children."



Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said another American community is reeling from the horror of gun violence, perpetrated against innocent school children.



"Too many families have lost someone to the senseless epidemic of gun violence. Congress has a moral responsibility to take common-sense action to prevent the daily tragedy of gun violence in communities across America. Enough is enough," Pelosi said.Nearly 2,300 civilians were killed or wounded in suicide bombings and attacks in Afghanistan in 2017, more than any previous year of the conflict on record, a UN report said Thursday.



The figures come as militants ramp up their assaults on urban areas following US President Donald Trump's announcement last August that the American presence in Afghanistan will remain open-ended, with Washington upping attacks on insurgents and deploying more troops and aircraft.



"The figures alone cannot capture the appalling human suffering inflicted on ordinary people, especially women and children," said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the UN envoy for Afghanistan.



The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) reported that civilian deaths across the country dipped by nine percent in 2017, with 10,453 total civilian casualties including 3,438 deaths and 7,015 wounded.



But as militants come under pressure from more airstrikes and commando raids, they have increased their focus on urban centres. As a result, casualties from suicide bombings and attacks jumped by 17 percent.



"2017 recorded the highest number of civilian casualties from suicide and complex attacks in a single year in Afghanistan," the report said, with 605 killed and 1,690 wounded from such incidents.



Indiscriminate assaults by Taliban and the Islamic State group in populated areas caused "the higest levels of civilian casualties," the study added, with a total of 1,831 people killed and wounded in Kabul in 2017 alone.



Things have not improved in 2018.



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 majority of the victims in 2017 were killed or wounded by anti-government insurgents, according to the report.



However pro-government forces, including international troops, were responsible for 20 percent of the civilian casualties -- a seven percent increase from 2016.



The casualties by pro-government forces were mainly caused by an increase in aerial bombings by Afghan and foreign forces, the UNAMA said. The US is the only international force known to be carrying out airstrikes in Afghanistan.



More than 28,000 civilians have been killed and over 52,000 wounded in Afghanistan since 2009 when officials started documenting the casualties, according to the UN.Investigators seized diamonds and gold worth Rs 5,100 crore from Nirav Modi's premises on Thursday when it emerged that the billionaire diamond merchant, his wife, brother and uncle flew out of India before the CBI named them in the Rs 11,344.40-crore bank fraud.

CBI investigators, who have already issued a lookout circular, suspect that the exit of the Modis from the country separately in the first week of January was "pre-planned", as they anticipated action even before Punjab National Bank (PNB) approached the agency in January-end.

Nirav and brother Nishal, who is a Belgian national, left on January 1 while wife Ami, an American national, flew out six days later. Mehul Choksi, who was also named in the CBI FIR registered on January 31 two days after PNB filed a complaint, took a flight out on January 4.

The exit of the Modis triggered a political slugfest with the Opposition accusing the NDA government of helping them flee while the Narendra Modi dispensation countered it, saying the scam happened during the previous UPA regime and the assets of the accused would be recovered and no one will be spared.

Nirav was also spotted in Davos during the World Economic Forum in the third week of January and his presence in a group photograph with Prime Minister Narendra Modi there was also used by the Opposition to allege connivance.

However, Union Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad made it clear that Nirav was neither part of the Prime Minister's delegation nor did the disgraced businessman have any interaction with the PM.

PNB chairman and managing director Sunil Mehta said Nirav gave "some vague offers" to repay the amount but there was "nothing concrete".

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which registered a case of money laundering on Wednesday on the basis of the CBI FIR, conducted searches in seventeen locations in Mumbai, Delhi, Surat and Hyderabad from where diamonds, gold and jewellery worth Rs 5,100 crore were seized.

Authorities also froze bank balance of Rs 3.9 crore. Sensitive documents were recovered and six properties were also sealed.

The news of the accused leaving the country emerged as the ED conducted the raids.

The scope of the scam enlarged on Tuesday after PNB detected further fraudulent transactions, apart from the Rs 280.70 crore it initially detected in January, and approached the CBI with fresh information.

While around 95 sensitive documents were seized from Ami's residence, the CBI team got a boost as PNB detected over 150 Letters of Understandings (LoUs) fraudulently issued to transfer money to firms associated with Nirav and handed it over to the investigators.

The CBI investigators have also completed the imaging of computers seized during searches on February 3-4.The army has foiled an infiltration attempt by a group of militants along the Line of Control in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, a senior army officer said on Thursday.



"Suspicious movements by a group of four to five militants were noticed along LoC in Mendhar sector of Poonch during the night," the officer said.

Alert troops engaged the suspected militants and fired on them, he said adding that the troops foiled their attempt to cross over the LoC.

A search operation is under way in the area. Further details were awaited, he said.

The incident happened as the security forces battle increased attempts by terrorist groups to target them in Jammu and Kashmir.

Last week, Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists targeted an army camp in Sunjuwan in Jammu in which six soldiers and a civilian were killed.

On Monday, two Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists attacked a Central Reserve Police Force camp in Karan Nagar area in Srinagar.

After a 32-hour gunbattle, security forces killed the attackers.Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the Centre is taking up the Ayushman Bharat Yojana on a mission mode to provide quality and affordable health care to nearly 50 crore people across the country.



He said the scheme, billed as the world's largest government-funded health care programme, is a path-breaking initiative and would bring a "paradigm shift" in the health sector.

Modi was addressing a public rally at the Indira Gandhi Park in this Arunachal Pradesh capital after laying the foundation stone of the Tomo Riba Institute of Health & Medical Science.

"The scale of this scheme is un-parallelled and it will bring a paradigm shift in our health sector. It is time to give India a health care system that makes quality treatment affordable within a limit of Rs 5 lakh per family," he said.

Modi asked the state government to frame a new health policy and work to attract private investments in the sector.

The healthcare programme was announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget for 2018-19.

Clad in traditional tribal attire, Modi also announced that the New Delhi-Naharlagun Express would now be called "Arunachal Express". The frequency of the train, connecting the national capital to the state, would also be increased from one to two days a week.

The train, he said, will connect the "people of the state with mainland India".

Referring to the BJP-led NDA government's crusade against corruption, Modi said the government has been able to curb corruption through the direct bank transfer (DBT) scheme.

"The Centre has saved Rs 54,000 crore through Aadhaar-enabled direct benefit transfer of about 400 government schemes," he added.

The prime minister also dedicated the state civil secretariat to the people of the state and unveiled the plaque of the Dorjee Khandu State Convention Centre before leaving for poll-bound Tripura, where he will address campaign rallies.Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, on Thursday appeared before the ED for the second time in connection with the INX Media money laundering case, official sources said.



They said Karti Chidambaram deposed before the investigating officer (IO) of the case as per the scheduled summons for Thursday.

This was the second time he appeared before the ED in this case after he was first grilled by the agency on January 18.

The central probe agency had earlier summoned Karti Chidambaram on February 2 after which he informed them that he would be unable to depose as he had an interlocutory application pending in the Supreme Court in this case.

The ED then summoned him for Thursday.

It is understood that he today told the IO that he was appearing before the agency "under protest".

Talking to reporters on January 18, Karti Chidambaram had said that he told the investigators what he had earlier "clearly stated in his petitions in the court" (in the case).

The former Union minister's son was referring to his moving of various courts, including the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court, in response to the ED's action against him.

The central probe agency had registered the case against him and others in May last year.

It had registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the ED's equivalent of a police FIR, against the accused named in a CBI complaint, including Karti Chidambaram, INX Media and its directors - Peter and Indrani Mukerjea.

The ECIR was lodged under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The sources said the ED was probing the "proceeds of crime" generated in this case.

It was the Enforcement Directorate which had provided information about the alleged illegal payments made by INX Media, based on which the CBI had filed its FIR.

The CBI had also carried out searches at the houses and offices of Karti Chidambaram across four cities for allegedly receiving money from the media firm owned by the Mukerjeas to scuttle a tax probe.

The Chidambarams, however, have denied all the charges made against them.

The CBI had filed the FIR against Karti Chidambaram and the Mukerjeas on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, receiving illegal gratification, influencing public servants and criminal misconduct.

The agency has claimed that Karti Chidamabaram received money from INX Media for using his influence to manipulate a tax probe against it in a case of violation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) conditions to receive investment from Mauritius.

The CBI has said that it also seized vouchers of Rs 10 lakh which were allegedly paid for the services.

The vouchers were issued in favour of the Advantage Strategic Consulting (P) Limited, a firm "indirectly" owned by Chidambaram's son.

The former finance minister, after the CBI searches on May 16 last year, had issued a strong statement against the raids, saying the government was using the CBI and other agencies to target his son.

"The FIPB approval was granted in hundreds of cases," the senior Congress leader had said.

The CBI FIR was made out against Karti Chidambaram, his company Chess Management Services, the Mukerjeas (currently in jail on charges of murder of their daughter Sheena Bora), INX Media, Advantage Strategic Consulting Services and its director Padma Vishwanathan.China on Thursday voiced its "firm opposition" to the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Arunachal Pradesh which it claims as part of South Tibet and said it would lodge a diplomatic protest with India.



"China's position on the China-India boundary question is consistent and clear-cut," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang in response to reports that Modi visited Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday.

"The Chinese government has never recognised the so-called Arunachal Pradesh and is firmly opposed to the Indian leader's visit to the disputed area," Geng was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua news agency.

"We will lodge stern representations with the Indian side," he said.

Geng said that China and India had reached important consensus on properly managing disputes, and the two sides were working to resolve the territorial disputes through negotiation and consultation.

"The Chinese side urges the Indian side to honour its commitment and abide by the relevant consensus, and refrain from taking any action that may complicate the boundary question," Geng said.

He urged India to cherish the hard-won momentum of improvements in bilateral relations and create enabling conditions for the boundary talks and the development of bilateral relations.

China routinely protest visits of Indian leaders to Arunachal Pradesh and reiterates its claims over it.In another case of embarrassment for the BJP, a series of photographs of Rajasthan Health Minister Kalicharan Saraf, urinating on a wall in Jaipur city has gone viral on internet.

In the photograph, the minister is seen urinating in the heart of the city behind the Rajasthan College (his own constituency) on a wall.

Kalicharan Saraf is an MLA from Jaipur city.

Ironically, this come at a time when the Jaipur Municipal Corporation is working hard to bring the city top on the charts under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

Interestingly, the picture became popular a day after new rule was formed by the Rajasthan government declaring urination on roads as illegal.

The new rule also proposes a fine of Rs 200 for violation of the order.

When asked about if the minister will be fined, Jaipur Municipal Corporation Deputy Commissioner Ashok Yogi said, "We have not taken anything on this issue. Our team is is yet to get any complaint in written and we will have to check the authenticity of photos. However, the quantum of punishment is equal for everyone".

Saraf refused to comment on the isssue.

However, the Congress has called the minister's act shameful and sought a public apology.

Congress spokesperson Archana Sharma told DH, "How can a health minister be insensitive. On one hand the BJP government is claiming to make Rajasthan ODF by 2018 but at the sametime their ministers are caught urinating in the open".

Jaipur was declared open defecation free in January 2018. Rajasthan has, so far, declared 18 of the 33 districts as open defecation free (ODF).The National Green Tribunal today cleared the decks for holding of the AYuva HunkarA rally by BJP chief Amit Shah in Haryana by disposing of a plea seeking reduction in the number of bikes in the rally on pollution grounds.



The mega bike rally is scheduled today in Jind where over one lakh youth bikers are participating along with the BJP President.

A bench headed by Justice Raghuvendra S Rathore passed the order after noting the Haryana state pollution control board's submission that the motorcycles which have valid pollution under control (PUC) certificates would be allowed to participate in rally.

The pollution control board had said that preventive measures including deployment of volunteers have been advised to tackle noise and air pollution in Jind and motorcycles would not to be allowed to enter the rally site and parked at a sufficient distance.

The green panel said that "nothing survives" in the plea after the state pollution control board's assurance but it gave liberty to the petitioner to approach it in future.

"We have heard the parties appearing for the parties and have gone through the documents placed on record. After going through the papers, we are of the opinion that nothing survives in this application for adjudication.

"Therefore, we dispose of this application with liberty to the applicant to take steps in accordance with law if the need arises," the bench said.

The NGT was hearing a plea filed by advocate Victor Dhissa who has sought screening and reduction in the number of bikes which were likely to participate in the rally.

Advocate Sumeer Sodhi, appearing for the petitioner, had said that at a time when the entire Delhi-NCR was facing severe health problems due to poor ambient air, the motorbike rally would have an adverse impact on the environment.

The plea had contended that instead of motorcycles, the state government should opt for bicycles or other environment friendly modes of transport for the rally. It would also be beneficial for the health of those riding bicycles, the petition read.

ADirect the respondents (authorities) to either reduce the number of motorbikes proposed to be mobilised or use more environment friendly modes and methods, such as bicycles, by foot or e-rickshaws. And constitute a committee to assess the adverse impact that may be caused with regard to air pollution and noise pollution if the proposed rally is taken out,A the plea had said.The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday took the custody of five accused arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police in connection with the escape of Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist Mohammed Naveed Jhatt from the SMHS hospital, an official spokesman said here.



The NIA spokesman said the court of chief judicial magistrate here granted a two-day transit remand of the five accused who had been nabbed by the police on February 8, two days after the escape of 22-year-old Jhatt alias Abu Hanzalla from the busy hospital in the city.

The five accused - Shakeel Ahmed Bhat, Tika Khan, Syed Tajamul Islam, Mohammed Shafi Wani and Jan Mohammed Ganai - were arrested by the police for reportedly conspiring in the escape of Jhatt. All the five accused are residents of Pulwama.

The NIA re-registered the case pertaining to the escape from custody of Jhatt from the SMHS hospital where he was brought in for treatment on February 6.

The accused will be produced before the NIA special court at Jammu on Friday for seeking police custody, the spokesman said.

The designated court for the NIA is in Jammu, the winter capital of the state.

Two policemen - head constable Mushtaq Ahmed and constable Babar Ahmed - of the Jammu and Kashmir Police were killed by Jhatt and his accomplice on the fateful day.

Bhat is believed to be one of the masterminds of the escape of Jhatt and his motorcycle had been used in the escape of the terrorist, police said.

Khan, a resident of Pulwama, is claimed to have provided his car for further transportation of Jhatt out of the city, police said.

Jhatt is at present believed to be in the Pulwama area of South Kashmir, they said.

Shafi, who is from Narbal on the outskirts of Srinagar city, had posed as a patient to provide cover for the terrorists escape.

Jhatt had managed to escape on February 6 after at least two other militants attacked the police escort team at the SMHS Hospital here, killing two cops.Three workers were killed and 12 injured after a five-storey building, half of it under construction, collapsed at Jayaramareddy Layout in Kasuvanahalli on Sarjapur Road in Bengaluru on Thursday evening. Over 15 others are yet to be traced.

Two of the deceased have been identified as Sheikh Mohmad and Anwar Ansari from Gorakhpur, UP, while the identity of the third victim is yet to be established.

The 12 injured were admitted to hospitals nearby. At least 15 others are suspected to be still stuck under the debris.

Rescue work by about 150 personnel from NDRF, police and fire brigade continued late into night.

Officials present at the site believe that 20 people, including five families, all construction workers from Raichur, Kalaburagi and places in north India were inside the building when it collapsed.

Locals rushed to the spot and rescured some workers from the debris.

Police commissioner T Suneel Kumar said the owner of the building, Rafeek, is absconding.

They have arrested his wife, Sameera, and are questioning her. "We have registered a case under IPC 304 (death due to negligence) and formed a special team to find Rafeek," he said.

BBMP commissioner Manjunath Prasad who visited the spot and supervised the rescue operations said, "Currently the focus is on rescuing the people trapped inside. We will initiate action against the site engineer, architect, contractor and the structural engineer for the lapse."

"My husband I and have been working on the building for the last four months. At about 4 pm, when we were on the fourth floor, my husband said he wanted to have tea and started climbing down the stairs. Suddenly, the building started tilting. Within no time, it fell on its side on the shops. I escaped without any harm but my husband got stuck inside," said Hasina, a worker.

Officials said that Rafeek built a two-storey structure six years ago to start a paying guest accommodation.

"Construction of three more floors on top of it began over six months ago," Whitefield Division DCP Abdul Ahad said.

Bengaluru Development Minister K J George told reporters that compensation of Rs 5 lakh will be given to the family of the deceased and the treatment cost of all the people injured in the tragedy will be borne by the government.

"We will take this issue seriously and action will be initiated against those responsible for this tragedy after a thorough investigation," he said.

Prem Prakash, who was on the site, said that he received a call on his mobile from a friend who screamed for help.

"It was 5.07 pm when my friend Sadanand called and said he is stuck under the debris and sought help. I rushed to the spot immediately. By then, firefighters were already at work. I called my friend time and again to instil courage. But he has not answered my calls after 5.50 pm," he said.

Prakash said Sadanand was to get married on May 3. "All preparations are on with the wedding cards already printed. He had come to the city just four days ago," he added.

Arjun, a gym trainer, said he was in front of the building talking to friends when the structure fell. "We ran from the spot and saved ourselves in the nick of time," he said.Union Minister Ramesh Jigajinagi on Thursday hit back at Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge over his remarks on whether Dalits were sinners in response to the hue and cry over BJP leaders staying in houses in slum areas.

Instead, the minister described Dalit leaders in the Congress as sinners. Addressing a press conference, Jigajinagi said, "Dalits are not sinners, but those Dalits in the Congress are sinners".

"Which party fielded a peon against Ambedkar to defeat him in the election? Who denied land for Ambedkar's last rites? Why has anyone in the Congress not raised their voice against the injustice meted out to the architect of the Constitution?," he asked Kharge.A Jabalpur-based Lt Col has been detained and being questioned by the army intelligence officials on the suspicion of data leak.



The officer posted at 506 army base workshop was quizzed by the Military Intelligence after the alert by the Intelligence Bureau.

"The officer continues with his routine duties in the unit because it is yet to be ascertained whether the data leak was deliberate or an inadvertent mistake," army officials said here.

Senior officials said the reports of the Lt Col being honey-trapped or receiving a large amount of cash were "pure speculation and neither accurate nor substantiated."

"Details on the outcome of the enquiry will be intimated in due course as per progress. It is yet to be established whether the data leak happened inadvertently or deliberately as reported," they noted.

Army ordered a preliminary enquiry on Monday following its own internal probe on the basis of an alert from the IB that got suspicious after discovering a big recent transaction in his bank account. The Lt Col belongs to the EME (Electronic and Mechanical Engineers) corps of the army.

Officials at the Army headquarters ruled out any information breach. "Inimical intelligence agencies make no inroads, own information security is always robust and defaulters are taken to task," said an officer.

The case comes to limelight days after an Indian Air Force officer Arun Marwaha was arrested by Delhi Police for sharing sensitive information to a woman, who later turned out to be an ISI agent. Allegedly the woman honey-trapped the IAF officer in exchange of the information.

Espionage in the armed forces is not something new. Three cases of spying were reported between 2012 to 2014. Nine army personnel were arrested in these cases. In December 2015, one personnel each from army and IAF were arrested for espionage activities.

In the armed forces, regular counterintelligence checks are being carried out in all units in coordination with other central agencies to defeat subversion and espionage attempts of foreign intelligence agents.

Further, service personnel are regularly educated on the modus operandi of foreign intelligence operatives including awareness drive on threats from social media, sources said.A local court on Thursday granted transit remand of five accused to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the escape of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant Naveed Jatt, alias Abu Hanzulla from police custody on February 6.





The Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Srinagar granted two days transit remand of the accused, who were arrested by the J&K police last week, to the NIA. "The five accused will be produced before the NIA Special Court in Jammu tomorrow (Friday) for seeking police custody," inspector general (IG) NIA Alok Mittal told reporters.



The NIA team, headed by Mittal, after registering a case in the incident had reached Srinagar on Tuesday to probe Hanzulla escape case. "Now the NIA will grill the accused at its Delhi Headquarter. The probe agency wants to investigate whether any police official was involved in Hanzulla's escape," sources said.



On February 6, two policemen were killed in the attack staged by militants to free Hanzulla, who had come to the SHMS hospital for a medical check-up from central jail, Srinagar. "The NIA will ascertain as to how the weapon was handed over to Hanzulla and whether it was provided to him in the jail or somewhere else. The NIA will have a detailed analysis of phone call data and conversation on WhatsApp between the accused and their handlers across the border," they revealed.



Security agencies suspect insiders role in the audacious attack and subsequent escape of Hanzulla. Even State police chief Shesh Pal Vaid had admitted that the attack was not possible without connivance at the Srinagar Central Jail, where Hanzulla was lodged.



The state government has already placed superintendent of Central Jail Srinagar under suspension and ordered an enquiry into the incident.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc. (HARI), the exclusive distributor of Hyundai cars in the Philippines, said the complaint filed by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) against the company was "pure and simple harassment."

This came after the VACC accused HARI, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez and 10 others of committing plunder, technical smuggling and estafa.

Read: VACC files plunder raps vs. Trade Sec. Lopez, 10 others

The group alleged that Lopez, as Board of Investments (BOI) chair, unjustly favored HARI by approving the company's application to join the motor vehicle development program (MVDP), even if the company had yet to fully comply with requirements.

The MVDP aims to enhance the country's capability to produce completely built-up units for local and foreign markets.

The program also allows companies to pay 1 percent preferential tariff rate, instead of the standard 20 percent, for the import of completely knocked-down units to be assembled in the country.

However, HARI was bringing in semi-knocked down units, which only needed to be fitted with wheels and batteries once they were in the Philippines.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) estimated violations began in October 2016 and went on until the company was caught in July 2017.

Read: DTI: No favors for Hyundai

During that period, the South Korean carmaker brought in 600 units of its H350 van and 4,000 units of its popular Eon hatchback.

The DTI has since suspended Hyundai's MVDP membership until it pays back the 1 billion it estimates the company should have paid with the regular 20 percent tariff.

HARI President and CEO Maria Perez Agudo said in a Wednesday statement that there was nothing irregular with the BOI's decision.

"We sought reconsideration of BOI's original decision to cancel our MVDP license as matter of right and as allowed by BOI rules," she said. "Whatever the final decision of BOI was based on lawful deliberations even if we believe we are the victim, not a conspirator as VACC alleges."

Agudo added that although HARI planned to appeal the BOI's decision to the Court of Appeals, the company abided by the ruling "for practical and long term business considerations."

"As proof of good faith, HARI has been introducing additional painting and welding activities and would refund the VAT (value added tax) and duty differential being computed by BOC (Bureau of Customs), as preconditions for the lifting of its MVDP suspension," HARI said.

Unfazed by VACC's complaint, Agudo said the company and its executives are ready to answer all charges at the proper time and forum.

CNN Philippines Correspondents Claire Jiao and Anjo Alimario contributed to this report.US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday Washington has never supplied heavy weaponry in Syria to the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara blacklists as a terror group.



"We have never given heavy arms to the YPG so there is none to take back," Tillerson said in response to a question at a press conference in the Lebanese capital Beirut before heading for Ankara.Unfazed by the criticism over the rising number of police encounters in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday said that they would continue.

Speaking in the state legislative council, Adityanath said that as many as 1,200 encounters had taken place in the state so far. "The campaign against the criminals will not stop.....the police encounters will continue," he said.

The chief minister slammed the opposition parties for questioning the encounters and for sympathising with criminals. "It is unfortunate that some people are expressing sympathies with the criminals...it is dangerous for democracy," he added.

Referring to a directive by the council chairman for a CBI probe into the recent encounter at Noida, Adityanath asked the chair not to issue any directive that was beyond its authority. Council Chairman Ramesh Yadav had on February 13 asked the govt to get CBI probe into an encounter where a cop had purportedly shot and seriously wounded two youths over personal enmity and claimed that they were criminals and were injured during an armed encounter.

The opposition parties have questioned the encounters by the police and alleged that innocents were also being targeted by the cops. They have also demanded a CBI probe into some recent encounters.

The state police have been on an encounter spree since the Yogi Adityanath government launched "Operation Clean" after coming to power last year. More than 40 criminals were gunned down while over 100 were injured in the police encounters. Four cops were also killed in these encounters.

The National Human Rights Commission has also sought a report from the state police on some of the encounters.

The opposition parties alleged that the cops were resorting to "fake encounters" to get bravery medals.The week-long standoff between allies Congress and RJD ended on Thursday with the latter agreeing to leave one seat for the grand old party in the upcoming bypolls.



The by-elections for one Lok Sabha seat and two Assembly constituencies in Bihar are slated to be held on March 11. The counting of votes will take place on March 14.



This will be the first electoral test for both the ruling combine and the Opposition since Chief Minister Nitish Kumar dumped the Grand Alliance (formerly comprising JD(U), Congress and the RJD) and joined the BJP-led NDA in July last year.



While the RJD had earlier announced that it would contest on all the three seats, a miffed Congress said that being a national party, it would like to give the other national party in the competition, the BJP, a tough fight.



After days of internecine strife, the RJD relented after party president Lalu Prasad's son Tejashwi Yadav met Bihar Congress working president Kaukab Qadri.



As per the agreement, the Congress would contest Bhabua Assembly seat.



The RJD would contest from Araria Lok Sabha seat, a seat fallen vacant due to the death of its veteran parliamentarian Mohammad Taslimuddin, who had served as Union Minister in Deve Gowda-led United Front Government.



Taslimuddin's son Sarfaraz Alam, who quit as JD (U) MLA and joined the RJD last week, has been made the RJD nominee from the Muslim-dominated constituency.



Tejashwi decided to field Krishna Kumar Suday from the Jehanabad Assembly seat. Krishna is the son of the late Mundrika Singh Yadav, who won as the RJD MLA from Jehanabad in the 2015 Assembly poll.



Mundrika's untimely death has led to the bypoll in the naxal-dominated constituency.



"The Congress will decide the candidate for Bhabua," Tejashwi said on Thursday.



Meanwhile, all is not well within the NDA as its two constituents, the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, headed by Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha, and the Hindustan Awam Morcha, headed by former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, have staked claim to contest the Jehanabad seat, leaving the BJP in a fix.



The JD (U) has decided it won't contest in any of the three seats.The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Punjab and Haryana High Court to decide within five months the appeals filed by three former law students of O P Jindal Global University against their conviction in the 2015 gang-rape and blackmail of an MBA scholar.



A bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao declined to modify its previous order of November 6, 2017, staying the HC's order of September 13 last.

The HC had suspended the order on varying jail terms awarded to the three accused. The HC had also observed that the girl's testimony offered an "alternate casual relationship with her friends, acquaintances, adventurism and experimentation in sexual encounters."

After hearing senior counsel Colin Gonsalves on behalf of the victim against the HC's order, the bench said, "We direct the interim orders made earlier would remain in force. We request the HC to decide the appeal as early as possible but not later than five months."

The court directed the counsel of the three accused a Hardik Sikri, Karan Chhabra and Vikas Garg a to be present before the High Court on March 5. The counsel for the accused wanted to argue against incarceration but the bench warned that they would invite adverse observations on merit that might affect their case before the HC.

Blackmail fears

Of the three accused, Garg was granted protection from arrest on January 11. On a plea by his counsel, senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, that the accused was earlier granted bail during the trial as well, and that he has been sentenced to a seven-year prison term only, the court continued to maintain the relief granted to him till the pendency of the appeal. The two other accused were sentenced to 20-year imprisonment by a trial court in Sonepat.

Responding to the court's query earlier on sharing the iCloud password with the victim, senior advocate Shanti Bhushan, representing accused Sikri, submitted that he did not remember it now as he was in jail for over two years and never used the account in iphone, seized by the investigating agency. The 20-year-old girl had expressed apprehension that the accused could continue to blackmail her using objectionable photographs.A Hyderabad-based Islamic seminary on Thursday issued a fatwa seeking the removal of a controversial song titled "Manikya Malaraya Poovi" from Malayalam film Oru Adaar Love.



Darul Ifta Jamia Nizamia from Shibli Gunj in its fatwa released on Thursday took strong objection to the "objectionable references" in the song. "Our objection is not for the film, but a song that references the Prophet and his wife. The director should have used Laila Majnu or Shirin and Farhad to depict the love. Why should he take the name of the Prophet? That is why we issued this fatwa seeking that the song be dropped from the film," Jamia Nizamia secretary Ahmed Ali told media.

The seminary urged the Telangana government and the police to make sure that the Malayalam film doesn't get released with the song and that the footage of the song be removed from YouTube. The song, Manikya Malaraya Poovi, featuring Priya Prakash Varrier, has become a social media sensation in no time. The song has Varrier winking at co-actor which made her a heartthrob of millions.

The fatwa was issued against the backdrop of some Muslim youths from old city lodging a complaint with the Falaknuma police on Wednesday stating that the song had hurt their religious sentiments. The police had registered an FIR against the filmmakers under Section 295 A of Indian Penal Code (deliberately hurting the religious sentiments of a class).Iran President Hassan Rouhani arrived here on a three-day visit on Thursday.

Union Minister of State for Power R K Singh, Governor ESL Narasimhan and Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mohammad Ali welcomed Rouhani, who is accompanied by 21 delegates, at the Begumpet Airport.

During his two-day stay, Rouhani will visit the Mecca Masjid in the old city to offer Friday prayers and address the weekly gathering at the historic mosque. He will be the first ever Iranian President to address the Jummah.

He will also visit Salarjung Museum, Golconda Fort and the Qutub Shahi tombs. Rouhani will interact with intellectuals from different religious sects and the Iranians settled in Hyderabad.

Telangana chief secretary Shailendra Kumar Joshi has said that security arrangements have been completed and a team of Iranian security personnel are also supervising Rouhani's security.

A large number of Shia Muslims residing in Hyderabad are eager to meet the Iranian president, who is visiting the city for the second time.The Congress on Thursday turned up the heat on the Modi government with Rahul Gandhi suggesting that the proximity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi helped billionaire diamond merchant Nirav Modi escape the country when the PNB banking scam unraveled.



In a stinging attack, Congress dubbed Nirav Modi as the "Chhota Modi' and flashed a group photograph of him and other Indian businessmen with the prime minister during the recent World Economic Forum meeting in Davos in January.

Even as the government said that the Nirav Modi loans dated back to 2011 when the UPA was in power, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala wanted to know what steps the prime minister had taken to stop India's "biggest banking scam".

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury also wanted the prime minister to spell out the action he had taken after his office was informed of the scam.

"The prime minister's refusal to come clean only points the needle of suspicion towards complicity in the loot of public money," Yechury said.

Congress leaders claimed that the Prime Minister's Office had been informed by a Bengaluru-based whistle-blower S V Hari Prasad about the dealings of Mehul Choksi, who runs a partnership firm with Nirav Modi, in July 26, 2016.

"Loot-and-escape has become the hallmark of this government," Surjewala said, drawing parallels between the Nirav Modi issue and the cases involving liquor baron Vijay Mallya and former IPL chief Lalit Modi, who had left the country after allegedly committing frauds worth crores.

"Everything escaped the eyes of auditors and investigators. 'Risk management' and 'fraud detection ability' came to naught. Yet, the Modi government would have us believe that this entire fraud was being perpetrated by two employees," he said.At least 150 Letters of Understanding were issued in favour of Nirav Modi to enable fraudulent withdrawal of money and they have been handed over to the CBI by the PNB.



Sources said the PNB initially gave eight LoUs but later they were supplied with another 142.

The CBI has also seized at least 95 documents, which includes input bills and applications, from the Worli residence of Nirav Modi's wife Ami, an American citizen who flew out of the country on January 4.

The agency had conducted searches on February 3 and 4 and now has sealed the premises.

Besides Ami's residence, the CBI had also conducted searches at 20 places, including the residence of Nirav's brother Nishal and the office premises of Stellar Diamonds in Surat.

CBI sources said the bank had mentioned only seven addresses in its complaint but its investigations revealed details of other locations.

The CBI has also conducted imaging of laptops and hard disks seized during the raids and investigators expect that this would give them a trove of information about the dealings of Nirav and others.

Investigators believe that Nirav and others had got a wind of what is coming in as they left the country separately. While Nirav and his brother left on January 1, his uncle Mehsul Choksi left on January 6.

"This appears to be a pre-planned departure. They did not want to raise any red flags. One by one they left the country to ensure that there is no suspicion and we suspect that it was pre-planned," a senior official said.

CBI sources also said PNB flagged concerns about the way the Hong Kong branches of Allahabad Bank and Axis dealt with the LoUs.

PNB claimed laxity in their dealings, sources said.

CBI officials also found fault with the PNB and raised doubts about its efforts to nail the culprits. While the PNB said ten officials were suspended, sources said CBI has got details of only two.The severed head of an infant found on the terrace of a house after lunar eclipse, at Chilkanagar area of Uppal here, belonged to a girl child who was stolen from her parents sleeping on a pavement near Secunderabad railway station.



The accused couple sacrificed the infant to appease evil forces through black magic.

The Rachakonda police here, who cracked the case, arrested Kerukonda Rajasekhar (40), a cab driver and owner of the house, and his wife K Srilatha (35). The couple allegedly stole the infant from her parents at Bhoiguda area in Secunderabad and sacrificed her on January 31.

Briefing the media, Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagawat said, Rajasekhar, a superstitious man, was looking for a cure for his sick wife. He was advised by a tribal fortune teller at the Medaram Jatara that human sacrifice, that too of a girl child, would rid the evil forces troubling his wife. He was advised to perform the sacrifice on lunar eclipse day, with the couple being in the nude and holding the head of the child in their hands.

Black magic

After returning from the tribal festival, the cab driver tried to find people who could perform black magic but in vain. On the night of January 31, Rajasekhar was scouting for a suitable subject for sacrifice and found the 3-month-old infant sleeping next to her parents near Bhoiguda side of the railway station. He stole the infant and went to the Musi river near Pratapa Singaram village on the city's outskirts. He severed the head of the infant around 2 pm with a knife and threw the torso into the river. He waited for the bleeding to stop, packed the head in a polythene bag and returned home.

Later, he, along with Srilatha, performed black magic in their living room, keeping the severed head at the altar. After the ritual, he took the severed head of the infant to the terrace and kept in the south-west corner to ensure that the moonlight and early morning sun rays fall on it, Bhagawat said. However, Rajasekhar's mother-in-law, Bala Lakshmi, saw the severed head the next morning and raised an alarm, alerting neighbours, who called the police.

The police matched the blood found in the drawing room and on the terrace and found Rajasekhar guilty of the crime. Police arrested the couple.(CNN Money)  Press officials with U.S. Ski and Snowboard are denying allegations that they deliberately avoided calling on female reporters at a gold medal press conference for snowboarder Shaun White.

White, who won his third gold medal Tuesday night, settled a sexual misconduct case in April 2017 and has largely avoided questions about it.

None of the female journalists in attendance were called upon. Several female reporters said they had their hands raised at every opportunity to ask questions, according to comments made to CNNMoney and messages posted to social media.

U.S. Ski and Snowboarding, which facilitated the press conference, repeatedly denied any intentional plans to ignore questions from female journalists.

Christine Brennan, a USA Today reporter and CNN contributor, told CNNMoney that she tried to get her question in but was never called upon. She said she was approached by ESPN reporter Julie Foudy after the press conference. Foudy told her ABC reporter Amy Robach had also been overlooked for the duration of the event.

Foudy also tweeted about the incident, confirming what Brennan told CNNMoney.

Related: ESPN drops Donovan McNabb, Eric Davis after harassment investigation

Hours before the press conference, Brennan had published an article about sexual harassment allegations that had been brought against White in 2016.

The former drummer for White's band Bad Things, Lena Zawaideh, accused White of sending her lewd text messages. White later admitted to sending the messages and the two eventually reached an undisclosed settlement.

While Brennan was unable to ask a question about the allegations, a male reporter from ABC, Matt Gutman, was able to ask about the case.

He asked whether the sexual harassment allegations against him would "tarnish" White's legacy.

"You know honestly I'm here to talk about the Olympics not, you know, gossip, but I don't think so," White said. "I am who I am, and I'm proud of who I am and my friends, you know, love me and vouch for me and I think that stands on its own."

At that point, a U.S. Ski and Snowboard communications official, who was calling on reporters with questions, could be heard saying "Absolutely."

When Gutman attempted to push White on his answer, the PR person stepped in to move to another question. White added that he felt he'd addressed Gutman's question.

White later appeared on the "Today" show and said he was "truly sorry" for using the word gossip, saying it was a "poor choice of words to describe such a sensitive subject in the world today."

He said he "was so over-whelmed with just wanting to talk about how amazing today was and share my experience."

"I've grown as a person over the years," he said, "It's amazing how life works and twists and turns and lessons learned. Every experience in my life I feel like it's taught me a lesson. I definitely feel like I am a much more changed person than I was when I was younger. I am proud of who I am today."

Communications Vice President Tom Kelly, who was at the conference but not the one calling on reporters, said that he had personally made contact with Robach and was reaching out to Brennan to make sure they understood they were not deliberately passed over.

Shaun White did not directly respond to requests for comment.

This story was first published on CNN.com, Were female reporters shut down during Shaun White press conference?"Days after 10 Indian soldiers were killed in two separate strikes from the Pakistan Army and Pak-backed terrorists, the Indian Army is understood to have launched a massive fire-assault on Pakistani posts and terror camps across the disputed boundary between the two countries.



While there is no official word from the Indian side on the offensive, the Pakistan Foreign Office in Islamabad issued a press statement condemning India for "unprovoked ceasefire violations" on Thursday in the Battal sector and "targeting the civilians".

According to sources, the army used its posts at Balnoi, Sarla, Mendhar, Laleali, Doda, Banwat, Kalal and Karen to launch the fire assaults, predominantly targeting the terrorists hiding in those camps.

"Indian Army has been doing pro-active operations along the LoC due to ongoing ceasefire violations and due to reports of 180 to 200 terrorists waiting to cross to the south of the Pir Panjal ranges, which includes areas of Poonch, Rajouri, Mendhar," army sources said.

"A similar number of terrorists (180-200) are ready to cross the LoC to the north of Pir Panjal ranges. In the action by the army, Pakistan has suffered 20 casualties and seven more were injured in 2018. This number was 138 casualties in 2017, with 156 people getting injured," they said.

The fire assault comes nearly 10 days after Vice Chief Lt Gen Sarath Chand said that the army would give a "befitting reply" to the unprovoked ceasefire violations that killed Captain Kapil Kundu and three other soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district on February 5.

"That (retaliation) goes without saying, I think I don't have to say that. (Our) action will speak for itself," Chand had said.

Subsequently, there was another terror attack on the Sunjuwan military camp in Jammu that led to killing of six armymen and a civilian, after which Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Pakistan would pay the price for it.

Pakistan Foreign Office claimed there were 335 ceasefire violations from the Indian side since January 2018.

On February 7, the defence ministry informed the Parliament that there were 192 ceasefire violations (till January 29) from the Pakistani side along the Line of Control.The Karnataka state police have made heightened the security arrangements in many parts of the state as the Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce the final orders on Cauvery river water sharing dispute, on Friday.



Senior police officials have been deployed at sensitive places in the state to maintain public order.

Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy told DH that preventive measures will be taken in view of the judgement. "I spoke to senior officials the moment it was known that the verdict will be out on Friday morning. Our police are all set to avert any possible law and order troubles. Besides, our police department has the previous experience and they know exactly the places they need to concentrate on,'' he said.

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Kamal Pant said that additional forces have already been deployed at sensitive places. "After the last hearing in the Supreme Court, we knew that the final order would come soon. Police officials in vulnerable districts were asked to hold meetings with farmer leaders. We have been requesting them to maintain peace and order, stating it is completion of a legal process which has to be respected,'' he said.

Pant said that besides persuading farmers to respect the Supreme Court order, adequate security arrangements has been put in place. "Our priority will be providing additional security cover to reservoirs, mainly the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) and the Kabini in Mandya and Mysuru districts respectively. The other priority is deployment of forces on Bengaluru-Mysuru highway and certain sensitive areas in Mandya, Mysuru and other places,'' Pant said.

A senior police official from the Bengaluru Police Commissionerate said that platoons from Karnataka State Reserve Police and Rapid Action Force have been pooled in to provide security in the city.The JD(S) is all set to forge an alliance with the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ahead of the Assembly polls.



Pawar, who was in the Bengaluru on Thursday for the working committee meeting of the NCP, met JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy and had a telephonic conversation with JD(S) supremo and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda.

"We did not go into the details of the alliance, but the observation is that the JD(S) leadership is sympathetic to coming together. I don't see why this alliance should not work out," Pawar said.

The Maratha strongman has been reaching out to like-minded parties across the country to form an united alliance against the BJP. "In Karnataka, the NCP's target is to defeat the BJP." He pointed out that the NCP was part of an alliance comprising the JD(S) and the Left parties in Kerala.

Pawar, 77, a veteran who was once a prime ministerial candidate, said the NCP had "limited strength" in Karnataka. "But, we have dedicated workers in some districts and Assembly constituencies. The NCP will contest limited seats," he said. Sources in the JD(S) said the NCP will fight 5-7 seats.

The former Maharashtra chief minister said he will spend about a week campaigning in the north Karnataka districts. "Farmers, dalits and minority welfare will be our focus."

Pawar's rider

The alliance with the JD(S) comes with a rider. "I put a condition that the JD(S) will not truck with the BJP in the event of a hung Assembly and Kumaraswamy accepted this condition," he said.

The JD(S) alliance with the NCP comes days after it announced a tie-up with the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which could split Dalit votes that traditionally go to the Congress.

Pawar is hopeful that a UPA-like alliance will be in place to take on the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. "Let's not forget, in 2004, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a popular prime minister. But, we never thought we'd form a government under Manmohan Singh.

The NCP chief said he has revised his assessment of the Congress president Rahul Gandhi, whom he once called "immature." He said Rahul now has stature. "Anybody heading a political party, however big or small, has some stature."



Mahadayi: Pawar backs K'taka

Former Maharashatra Chief Minister Sharad Pawar said Karnataka should get the benefit in the ensuing row over sharing of the Mahadayi river water. "Goa depends on tourism, whereas Karnataka is a farming state. And water is important for farmers. So, Karnataka must benefit," he said. Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra are riparian states of the Mahadayi.Congress president Rahul Gandhi will tour six districts in the Mumbai-Karnataka region during his second leg of the Janaarshivada Yatra starting February 24.



The four-day tour will cover Belagavi, Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Dharwad, Gadag and Haveri districts, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president G Parameshwara said here on Thursday.

From February 10 to 13, Rahul concluded the first leg of his tour of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, in which he toured Ballari, Koppal, Raichur, Yadgir, Kalaburgi and Bidar districts in a specially-designed bus that he had used for campaigning in Gujarat as well. "The first leg of the Janaarshivada Yatra was successful. The route map for the second leg is yet to be finalised," Parameshwara said.

Minister hits out at BJP

In a tirade against the BJP, Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda accused the saffron party of misleading the public on the budgetary allocation for the Bengaluru suburban rail project. "The BJP tried to project the announcement of the project in the Union Budget as though they have given Rs 17,000 crore. But according to budget documents, there is an outlay of just Rs 1 crore," Gowda said, adding that the state government had about Rs 700 crore ready for spending on the project.

Gowda also said that the Centre had "rejected" the state's request to release its share of funds under the National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems (NPCA) to improvement the Bellandur and Varthur lakes.

On corruption charges levelled by the BJP against Congress leader of in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Gowda dismissed them as "baseless." He said Kharge has not had a single black mark in his five decades of public life.Members of the BBMP Employees Welfare Association protested against the arrest of two of their officials in connection with the death of two manual scavengers.



Kalpana and Devaraj, two senior health officers, were arrested on Wednesday.

They were arrested under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) in connection with the deaths at YumLok restaurant in AECS Layout on Tuesday.

The members protested at the BBMP head office, stating that the police have intruded into the issue and have arrested them without investigating the case thoroughly.

"There are a lot of issues pertaining to the case. The families of the deceased pourakarmikas should be given compensation. Since the underground drains come under the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, its officials should be held responsible," said Amrut Raj, chairman of the association. He said the arrest shows the negligence in investigating the issue. The members submitted a letter to Mayor R Sampath Raj, his deputy Padmavathi Narasimhamurthy and BBMP Commissioner

N Manjunath Prasad.A mentally ill woman killed her two children and committed suicide in Sanjaynagar near Marathahalli on Thursday morning.



The deceased have been identified as Ramalakshmi (28) and her daughter Haasini (4) and son Yashavanth (2).

Ramalakshmi poured kerosene on her children and set them ablaze. Later, she also set herself on fire and embraced her children. She was living with her husband Magendra and in-laws, Rathnappa and Rabemma. The incident occurred around 8.30 am when her husband and in-laws left for work. The family is from Andhra Pradesh.

According to the HAL police, after hearing their screams, the neighbours rushed to their help, but could not save them.

Rabemma and Rathnappa were working as construction labourers and staying in the house for the past five years. Magendra and Ramalakshmi were living in Andhra Pradesh with their children and had come to Bengaluru on Sunday to consult doctors at Nimhans for Ramalakshmi's mental

illness.

After a checkup, doctors at Nimhans prescribed some drugs and asked the couple to see them again on Monday, said the police.A special team will be formed to investigate the violations in the construction of the building that collapsed at Kasavanahalli on Sarjapur Road on Thursday.



Bengaluru Development and Town Planning Minister K J George said that the town planning department of the BBMP will be involved in the special team to identify the officer who had given the approval for the construction of the extra floors.



"It is still not decided as to who will lead the team. We are waiting for the rescue operation to conclude," Mayor R Sampath Raj told DH.



Mayor has also announced Rs 5 lakh as compensation for each of the kin of the deceased. All medical expenses of the injured will be borne by the civic body.



New to city



Moharam Ansari, the brother of Anwar Ansari (30), one of the deceased, said they had come from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh five days ago and were painting the building. Ansari is among the injured. Another victim, Sheikh Mohmad (32), is also from Gorakhpur.



Babu, a carpenter who suffered minor injuries, said there were two huge sumps under the building and the pillars became weak due to waterlogging and collapsed after they built additional floors.



Ramesh K, who lives opposite the building, said six months ago, a person was electrocuted while he was removing poles supporting the ceiling. But no case was registered, Ramesh added.



Officials have collected CCTV footage which shows two motorists being trapped under the building.Faced with ballooning expenditure on the one hand and sluggish economic growth on the other, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will have to walk a tightrope as he presents the 2018-19 state budget at 11.30 am on Friday.

He must ensure a feel-good factor and maintain fiscal discipline ahead of the crucial Assembly elections.

Siddaramaiah, who will lead the Congress in the coming polls, is expected to woo all sections - farmers, Ahinda communities (Kannada acronym for minorities, Dalits and backward classes), state government employees, traders, women and youth - through his budget, which is the last one of his government.

The total outlay of the 2018-19 budget is expected to cross Rs 2 lakh crore. He is likely to dole out freebies like free laptops and bus passes to students and introduce more Bhagya schemes (subsidy schemes) such a Vastra Bhagya, besides announcing big-ticket infrastructure projects in major cities and towns, especially Bengaluru, in order please urban voters.

An announcement on the 6th Pay Commission recommendations, that benefits 5.2 lakh state government employees and 5.73 lakh pensioners, is also likely.

And the biggest challenge for the Chief Minister, who also holds the finance portfolio, is that he has to ensure all these without resorting to any new taxation measures, lest he antagonises the voters.

Revenue mobilisation will be a herculean task. With the economy going through a sluggish phase, there may not be any significant jump in revenue collection in the coming fiscal year.

In the current financial year, the government will barely reach its targets under four major revenue (own tax) sources - Commercial taxes, State Excise, Stamps and Registration and Motor Vehicle taxes.

On the non-tax front, it is unlikely to meet the target - it had collected just Rs 2,601 crore till September last year against the annual target of Rs 6,945 crore.

Moreover, the revenue surplus position is expected to hit rock bottom; a mere Rs 137 crores as estimated in the current year's budget, leaving very little elbow room for taking up new developmental programmes in the coming fiscal.

The tax efficiency or the tax to Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) ratio, too, has seen a decline in the past few years.

Due to an alarming increase in expenditure in the current year, mainly on account of subsidy schemes and crop loan waiver, the government resorted to cutting down on budgetary allocations to various departments.

The fund-starved government even used cash reserves of its public sector enterprise - Mysore Minerals Ltd (MML) - to meet the additional expenditure commitments.

The Chief Secretary-headed Fiscal Management Review Committee (FMRC), which reviewed the mid-year fiscal and debt position, had recently cautioned against the mounting expenditure and advised the Chief Minister it to re-prioritise the expenditure, prune non-essential spending and revise rates of non-tax revenue sources.

If Siddaramaiah continues with his splurging spree in the coming financial year, then it is likely to affect key sectors such education, health, rural and urban development in the coming fiscal, a Finance department official, who refused to be quoted, warned.In order to attract Indian tourist, the South African tourism department took out a roadshow on MG Road on Thursday. Various accommodation establishments, destination management companies, airlines and tourism associates took part in the roadshow.



Speaking to media persons here, Hanneli Slabber, regional general manager, Asia, Middle East, South African tourism said: "We want to offer an affordable, value for money destinations in our country so that we can get more visitors. We have some interesting offers, which includes no extra pay for the internal travel in South Africa. Even the ATM machines do not charge extra. If at all there is an extra charge, it must be from the banks here."

As over 70 international airlines fly to South Africa now, efforts are on to increase the seating capacity from popular routes which includes Bangalore, he said.

India is the eighth largest international source market for the South African tourism. About 7% of the Indian tourists in South Africa are from Bangalore, Slabber added.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 14)  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday filed administrative and criminal charges against the Belo Medical Group (BMG) for allegedly selling unregistered skin care products.

In a statement, the FDA said it ordered the dermatology and surgical center to stop the sale of some of its unregistered products following surveillance and test-buy operations in its Alabang clinic on Friday.

Retired Police Gen. Allen Bantolo, chief of the FDA's Regulatory Enforcement Unit, identified the following cosmetic and drug products prohibited by the FDA to be sold:

ZO Medical by Zein Obagi

MD Glycogent Exfoliation Accelerator 10% concentration

ZO Medical by Zein Obagi Foamacleanse Gentle Foaming Cleanser for all types

ZO Medical by Zein Obagi Oclipse Sunscreen/Primer SPF 30 Protection

Belo Illuminating Cream Alpha Arbutin+Liquorice

Belo Prescriptives Keralyt 2 Cream

ZO Medical by Zein ObagiMD Melamix Skin Lightener & Blending Creme Hydroquinone USP 4%

ZO Medical by Zein Obagi MD Melanin Skin Bleaching & Correcting Creme Hydroquinone USP 4%

Belo Prescriptives Acne Astringent

Belo Prescriptives Belo White

Belo Prescriptives DLC Peeling Creme

ZO Medical by Zein Obagi MD Cebatrol

"The Belo Medical Group, or any drug or cosmetic company for that matter, may claim that their products are safe and their efficacy are proven. But they cannot sell them to the public unless they have undergone product evaluation and certification from the FDA, a measure that the government undertakes to ensure their safety and efficacy," Bantolo said.

The BMG, in a statement, said the ZO products tagged as unregistered by the FDA have been long available in the United States and have been "carefully studied" and "proven safe and effective."

"The locally sold ZO products have previously been registered, with applications for renewal of the registration already filed and pending with FDA. Should there be a need, we will pull out the products with pending registration renewal applications while we sort out all documentary requirements with FDA," it added.

The cosmetic center also said it will cooperate with the FDA to safeguard its consumers from harmful products.

FDA Director General Nela Charade Puno, meanwhile, said the FDA's stamp of approval ensures that all food, drugs, and cosmetic products sold in the market are safe for public use or consumption.

She added the manufacture, importation, selling, or offering for sale of cosmetic products without FDA approval is a violation of the Republic Act No. 9711 or the FDA Act of 2009, and of Republic Act No. 7394, or the Consumer Act of the Philippines.

Violators may face imprisonment of up to 10 years, and a fine of up to P500,000. The FDA may also cancel any authorization it previously granted to the violator.

Puno added some of BMG's employees face contempt or obstruction of justice for refusing to allow FDA operatives to inspect the clinic and pharmacy in Alabang.

"The Belo Medical Group's pharmacy is under DFA's jurisdiction and we have legal authority to enter and inspect it, in reasonable hours and manner, by our inspectors. They can be cited for contempt or obstruction of justice for their refusal," Puno said.

The BMG stated the manner of the FDA surveillance "confused and scared" their personnel, as police also showed up and some refused to show their valid IDs upon request.

"Also, our lawyer attempted to speak with the leader of the policemen through the phone to clarify matters. However, the head of the policemen refused to speak with our lawyer on the phone," the statement added.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 14)  Fifty-one Boracay establishments may face closure after the Department Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) served them notices of violation (NOV) for failing to comply with the country's water treatment laws.

In a press release on Wednesday, DENR said it had given notices to 51 unnamed establishments found violating Chapter 5, Section 27 of the Clean Water Act of 2004's implementing rules.

"Let this Boracay issue serve notice to local governments, businesses and residents of other tourism destinations to strictly follow all our laws. Let us not allow the other beautiful and pristine islands in the country to suffer the fate of Boracay," Cimatu said.

Earlier Cimatu said only 50 to 60 percent of Boracay establishments are compliant with the Clean Water Act, which mandates all commercial and residential establishments dispose septic waste through a treatment facility.

He said violating companies will be given two months to either install their own wastewater treatment facilities or connect to island's sewage treatment plant, or they would be closed.

The move comes after President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday instructed Cimatu to fix the island's problems within six months.

Duterte had likened the island to a "cesspool," and warned he would shut the island down due to pollution.

Following the President's directive, Cimatu has ordered DENR's regional office to evaluate 300 establishments on the island.

Cimatu to Malay gov't: Enforcing environmental laws 'shared responsibility'

Cimatu also issued a reminder to the municipal government of Malay, which has direct supervision over the tourist destination.

The Environment Secretary said it is the "primary government unit" responsible for ensuring all laws are followed in the municipality.

"Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu is reminding the municipal government of Malay in Aklan province of its responsibility to protect and preserve the world-famous Boracay Island through strict implementation of pertinent environmental laws and regulations," DENR said in a press release.

It added, Cimatu expects the Aklan government to give its "all-out support" as government agencies work to meet Duterte's six-month deadline for Boracay.

DOT supports crackdown on erring Boracay establishments

The Tourism Department, meanwhile, expressed support for the government's crack down on Boracay establishments violating environmental laws.

In a statement issued Wednesday, DOT said it "fully supports" President Rodrigo Duterte's six-month deadline for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Department of Interior and Local Government to fix problems plaguing the popular tourist destination.

"[It's] high time to order the closure of some 200 tourism establishments in Boracay found violating environmental laws and regulations," Tourism Sec. Wanda Teo said in a statement.

Teo had made a cabinet presentation on Boracay's problems last week, before Duterte publicly directed Cimatu to solve the island's issues.

"The massive clean-up of Boracay is a bitter pill that we have to swallow if we were to collectively save and sustain Boracay," she added.

Teo said she will also invite Cimatu and Interior Officer-in-Charge Eduardo Ano for another visit to the island soon.

The DOT's Western Visayas office will also open a compliance monitoring office on the island to ensure tourism establishments are operating within the department's standards.

This, in addition to having the Tourism Department's infrastructure arm, the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Authority (TIEZA) oversee the "swift completion" of the P716 million draining project to address flooding in the island.

Boracay has consistently been named one of the best islands in the world. The Department of Tourism said it generates around P50 billion in annual receipts.

Last year, more than two million tourists visited the island, according to Malay Municipal Tourism office records.Over the objections of environmentalists and state planners, the Del Mar Planning Commission this week signed off on a package of strategies for adapting to sea-level rise that does not include managed retreat as an option.

The 4-1 decision on Feb. 13 sets the stage for a city council hearing on March 19. From there, the adaptation plan will go to the California Coastal Commission for final approval.

Last month, Del Mars Sea-Level Rise Stakeholder-Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) wrapped up 30 months of work that arrived at the 70-page plan for how Del Mar should respond to the pressures expected to come with rising seas, increasingly frequent flooding and coastal erosion.

Several STAC members spoke at the planning commissions hearing, all of them depicting managed retreat as premature and ill-suited to Del Mars topology. A cost-benefit study expects the highest return on investment to come from programs to replenish and retain beach sand. The study also says that the only strategy more expensive than managed retreat would be to do nothing at all.

Nonetheless, the California Coastal Commission warned Del Mar in a Feb. 5 letter that removing retreat creates significant deficiencies in the adaptation plan, in large part because the plan is unclear as to how the sand-management options would achieve the citys goals of a walkable beach.

After extensive revisions over the past six months, the adaptation plan instead prioritizes strategies of sand replenishment and sand retention. With those options available, the planning commission deemed managed retreat to be premature and ill-defined.

I find the idea that a homeowner cannot protect their property fundamentally inappropriate, said Commissioner Nathan McCay, drawing a round of applause.

Rather than sea-level rise, Planning Commission Chairman Ted Bakker argued that Del Mars narrowing beaches are the result from man-made action such as the Oceanside jetty and the dam at Lake Hodges.

I just dont see managed retreat as alternative at this time at all, and I dont think it should be discussed at all, he said, before referring to the sand engine project in the Netherlands, which like Del Mar, has areas that are below sea level.

I think theres technology out there thats going to become available to us thats going to solve these problems, he said.By Hayley Dunning

6 February 2018

(Imperial College London)  The ozone layer is recovering at the poles, but unexpected decreases in part of the atmosphere may be preventing recovery at lower latitudes.

Global ozone has been declining since the 1970s owing to certain man-made chemicals. Since these were banned, parts of the layer have been recovering, particularly at the poles.However, the new result, published today in the European Geosciences Union journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, finds that the bottom part of the ozone layer at more populated latitudes is not recovering. The cause is currently unknown.Ozone is a substance that forms in the stratosphere  the region of the atmosphere between about 10 and 50 km altitude, above the troposphere that we live in. It is produced in tropical latitudes and distributed around the globe.A large portion of the resulting ozone layer resides in the lower part of the stratosphere. The ozone layer absorbs much of the UV radiation from the Sun, which, if it reaches the Earths surface, can cause damage to DNA in plants, animals and humans.

Not recovering

In the 1970s, it was recognised that chemicals called CFCs, used for example in refrigeration and aerosols, were destroying ozone in the stratosphere. The effect was worst in the Antarctic, where an ozone hole formed.In 1987, the Montreal Protocol was agreed, which led to the phase-out of CFCs and, recently, the first signs of recovery of the Antarctic ozone layer. The upper stratosphere at lower latitudes is also showing clear signs of recovery, proving the Montreal Protocol is working well.However, despite this success, scientists have today revealed that stratospheric ozone is likely not recovering at lower latitudes, between 60N and 60S (London is at 51N), due to unexpected decreases in ozone in the lower part of the stratosphere.Study co-author Professor Joanna Haigh, Co-Director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London, said: Ozone has been seriously declining globally since the 1980s, but while the banning of CFCs is leading to a recovery at the poles, the same does not appear to be true for the lower latitudes.The potential for harm in lower latitudes may actually be worse than at the poles. The decreases in ozone are less than we saw at the poles before the Montreal Protocol was enacted, but UV radiation is more intense in these regions and more people live there.

Cause unknown

The cause of this decline is not certain, although the authors suggest a couple of possibilities. One is that climate change is altering the pattern of atmospheric circulation, causing more ozone to be carried away from the tropics.The other possibility is that very short-lived substances (VSLSs), which contain chlorine and bromine, could be destroying ozone in the lower stratosphere. VSLSs include chemicals used as solvents, paint strippers, and as degreasing agents. One is even used in the production of an ozone-friendly replacement for CFCs.Dr William Ball from ETH Zurich and PMOD/WRC Davos, who led the analysis, said: The finding of declining low-latitude ozone is surprising, since our current best atmospheric circulation models do not predict this effect. Very short-lived substances could be the missing factor in these models.It was thought that very short-lived substances would not persist long enough in the atmosphere to reach the height of the stratosphere and affect ozone, but more research may be needed.

Combining complex datasets

To conduct the analysis, the team developed new algorithms to combine the efforts of multiple international teams that have worked to connect data from different satellite missions since 1985 and create a robust, long time series.Dr Ball said: The study is an example of the concerted international effort to monitor and understand what is happening with the ozone layer; many people and organisations prepared the underlying data, without which the analysis would not have been possible.Although individual datasets had previously hinted at a decline, the application of advanced merging techniques and time series analysis has revealed a longer term trend of ozone decrease in the stratosphere at lower altitudes and latitudes.The researchers say the focus now should be on getting more precise data on the ozone decline, and determining what the cause most likely is, for example by looking for the presence of VSLSs in the stratosphere.Dr Justin Alsing from the Flatiron Institute in New York, who took on a major role in developing and implementing the statistical technique used to combine the data, said: This research was only possible because of a great deal of cross-disciplinary collaboration. My field is normally cosmology, but the technique we developed can be used in any science looking at complex datasets.The study was conducted by researchers from institutions in Switzerland, the UK, the USA, Sweden, Canada and Finland, and included data gathered by satellite missions including those by NASA.Hong Kong, 9 February 2018 (TRAFFIC)  A new TRAFFIC report reveals a thriving trade in poached South African abalone Haliotis midae in Hong Kong, where the marine mollusc is considered a delicacy in Cantonese cuisine. Over the last 20 years, the illegal harvest of abalone in South Africa has exceeded the legal quotas, with criminal networks poaching and smuggling wild abalone to Hong Kong, which imports about 90% of all dried South African abalone.The report, An assessment of South African dried abalone Haliotis midae consumption and trade in Hong Kong, produced by TRAFFIC as part of the USAID-funded Wildlife TRAPS Project, shows that South African abalone imports to Hong Kong have increased in recent years, despite severe restrictions on wild harvest. It estimates that of South African abalone imports to Hong Kong in 2015, 65% was illegally sourced and trafficked compared to the 35% that was legally wild-caught or produced through aquaculture operations.Abalone is one of the most prized items in Cantonese cuisinea must-have on celebratory banquet menus, said TRAFFICs Wilson Lau, author of the assessment. Right now, in preparation for the upcoming Chinese New Year, thousands of people are buying abalone in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, if its dried abalone from South Africa, it may have been poached and trafficked, meaning consumers run the risk of unwittingly supporting organized crime.In the past decade, efforts to protect the legal abalone fishery have been undermined by international underground criminal networks. After South Africa took a number of regulatory measures in 2007 and 2008 to protect crashing abalone populations, the new report reveals that illicit trade routes shifted. Instead of mainly exporting poached abalone directly to Hong Kong, traffickers increasingly smuggled abalone to nearby African countries, such as Mozambique and Zimbabwe, before re-exporting the product. Between 20082015, 61% of South African abalone exports to Hong Kong came from African countries outside South Africa, a significant increase from the 36% that was exported from outside South Africa between 20002007. Aside from one small farm in Namibia, no other African country legally exports the marine mollusk.This highly profitable trade is managed by organised criminal syndicates that reach sellers and buyers in Hong Kong who may or may not realise their involvement is bankrolling illegal activities. Once poached abalone arrives in Hong Kong, under the current legislation, it can be openly traded and sold in markets alongside legally sourced abalone.South African abalone is not protected in Hong Kong law, meaning that there is no course of legal or enforcement action available to block the sale of poached abalone once the product reaches the market. This could be easily resolved with a CITES listing, says Markus Burgener, Senior Programme Officer for TRAFFIC.The report shows that the majority of abalone traders, about 80%, are aware of some form of illegal activity surrounding South African abalone, but less than half of consumers had any knowledge of abalone poaching in South Africa.Conventional wisdom would suggest that the more a food item is consumed, the more the consumer would be knowledgeable about what they are eating, but such a link does not appear to exist with South African abalone in Hong Kong, says Lau.Current levels of abalone poaching have serious implications for the sustainability of the South African fishery, which in turn, could have rippling impacts on the market. One-third of all abalone imported by Hong Kong is of South African origin, and the reports findings indicate that the availability of this abalone, along with its quality and reasonable price (compared to other more expensive abalone varieties), helps boost South African abalones popularity among consumers. Any reduction in South African abalones availability could affect Hong Kong buyers strong preference for the productcreating a strong incentive for legal producers to support measures that ensure the sustainability of supplies.To reduce the threat of poaching and trafficking, the report offers nine recommendations for governments, legal producers, conservation groups and the donor community to take action. They include listing and enforcing regulations for dried Haliotis midae trade under CITES, working with industry to support the trade in legally sourced South African abalone, and implementing methods for strengthening law enforcement, improving traceability, and raising public awareness about the species and illegal trade.By Yvette Sierra Praeli; Translated By Romina Castagnino

13 February 2018

LIMA, Peru (Mongabay)  More than two years after a massive seizure of illegal timber sent from Peru to international markets in the Dominican Republic, Mexico and the United States, much of Perus exported wood is still illegal according to a new report. The so-called Operation Amazonas seizure from the vessel the Yacu Kallpa in 2015 was found to be more than 90 percent illegal. An investigation by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) study released in February 2018 shows that a high percentage of the wood that leaves Peru continues to be illegal.The documentation reviewed by the EIA  whose research was carried out in partnership with the Center for International Environmental Law  corresponds to the inspections carried out in 2015, done at random, by the Administration for Forestry and Wildlife of Lima, an office of the National Forestry and Wildlife Authority (or Serfor in Spanish) that has a control post in Callao, a key Peruvian port.Data provided by the Serfor office in Callao and reviewed by the EIA reveals that only 16 percent of the shipments wood  which was part of a sample selected by the forest authority for verification  was of legal origin.Another 17 percent corresponds to illegal logging and/or laundering of illegal timber, according to the EIAs verification process of the origin sites carried out by the Agency for Supervision of Forest Resources (or Osinfor in Spanish).Regarding the remaining 67 percent, it was not possible to determine the origin, either because the sites have not yet been verified by Osinfor or because sufficient information was not provided to verify the legality of the extraction site.In essence, the origin of most of the wood that leaves Peru is unknown.Julia Urrunaga, director of programs in Peru at the EIA, told Mongabay that the information analyzed demonstrates there is a problem.[It] clearly shows that there is a status quo that does not care about the legal status of the exported wood, Urrunaga said. It is a serious problem, especially since information about the high risk of the illegality of Peruvian timber has been available for a decade. Exporters, instead of taking concrete actions, continue to argue that the purchase of their wood is done in good faith. It is not a reasonable response from a sector that is expected to act responsibly. []14 February 2018 (UN News)  This is an urgent signal for action, and the report recommends the directions to follow, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the Executive Director of UN Women, said on the launch of the new report, Turning promises into action: Gender Equality in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.Speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters in New York, she said: As a world, we committed through the SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals] to leave no one behind, but the report reveals many areas where progress remains slow to achieve the Goals by 2030.Even where progress is made, it may not reach the women and girls who need it most and the ones that are being left furthest behind, explained Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka.

Turning promises into action makes in-depth case studies in the Colombia, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, United States, and Uruguay, looking at what is necessary to achieve the 2030 Agenda.Focusing on unpaid care work and ending violence against women, the comprehensive report examines all 17 SDGs and how deeply intertwined the different dimensions of well-being and deprivation are in impacting the lives of women and girls.As one example, it points out that a girl born into poverty and forced into early marriage is more likely to drop out of school, give birth at an early age, suffer childbirth complications and experience violence  a scenario that encompasses all the SDGs.Moreover, new data in 89 countries reveals that there are 4.4 million more women than men living on less than $1.90 a day  much of which is explained by the disproportionate burden of unpaid care work women face, especially during their reproductive years.

Looking beyond national averages, glaring gaps are uncovered between women and girls who, even within the same country, are living in worlds apart because of income status, race, ethnicity or location.While the report addresses how to tackle existing structural inequalities and what is needed to move from promises to action, progress remains slow.Its a problem in all countries, developed, developing, north, south, east west, Shahrashoub Razavi, UN Womens Chief of Research and Data, told UN News.We have a long way to go to achieve gender equality universally, she added, calling it a problem that stymies the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Without firm action on gender equality, womens empowerment, world may miss development targetsMetro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  The government will give Philippine names to undersea features in Benham Rise which now bear Chinese names, officials said.

"Bahala kayo kung ano binigay niyo diyan basta kami magtatalaga kami ng Pilipinong pangalan (You can name it whatever you want, we will assign a Philippine name)," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a media briefing on Thursday.

The idea was first raised by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Wednesday.

"As for me I would also give these features Philippine names," he said in a text message sent to reporters. He said he will meet with National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. and other Cabinet members on how to deal with China's move.

When asked about Lorenzana's statement, Roque said assigning a Philippine name is a "sure" next step as the government objects to China's naming of four seamounts and a hill in Benham Rise, an undersea plateau 135 miles off the coast of Aurora province which is part of the country's extended continental shelf - giving it sovereign rights over the area.

He told CNN Philippines this is part of what the government plans to raise with the international organization that approved the Chinese names  the Sub-Committee on Undersea Feature Names (SCUFN) of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO  of which the Philippines is not a member.

Roque earlier said the Philippine Embassy in Beijing had "already raised our concern to China."

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang in a media briefing reiterated the Chinese government's respect for the "relevant rights enjoyed by the Philippines concerning the Benham Rise."

But when asked about the Philippines' objection to China's naming of Benham Rise features, he said he is "not aware" of such.

Esperon reiterated the government does not recognize the decision giving Chinese names to areas in Benham Rise because it "was made without due consultation with the Philippine Government."

The names were approved in 2016 and 2017. These are the Jinghao and Tianbao Seamounts located 70 nautical miles east of Cagayan province, the Haidonquing Seamount further east, and the Jujiu Seamount and Cuiqiao Hill in the northern part of the Luzon plateau.

Except for Haidonquing, the names are already included in the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO), an internationally-recognized seafloor map of the world's waters.

As far as the SCUFN is concerned, decisions "are deemed as final and non-appealable," Esperon said.

Is it too late now?

Jay Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines' Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, said any name given by the Philippines will just be a domestic name without the IHO approval.

"Parang yung case nung (Like the case of) West Philippine Sea and Philippine Rise, naming by us through an executive order, for example, will bind only the Philippines," he said.

The government calls Benham Rise, Philippine Rise. President Rodrigo Duterte named it through an executive order in May 2017 after Chinese survey ships were spotted there in March.

In 2012, former President Benigno Aquino III signed an administrative order naming the country's exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea as West Philippine Sea.

Batongbacal said the government could have named all undersea features in Benham Rise as early as 2008, when the Philippines filed its claim for Benham Rise. The United Nations in 2012 ruled the Philippines had sovereign rights over Benham Rise as part of its extended continental shelf.

Senior Associate Justice Carpio pointed out the Philippines "has the preferential right to name undersea features" within its exclusive economic zone and extended continental shelf.

Diplomatic protest

Some senators believe the country should file a diplomatic protest against China, before the Asian giant can lay claim to Benham Rise.

"This time it warrants at the very least a diplomatic protest dahil hindi pwedeng hahayaan na lang yan (because we can't just let it be)," Senator Antonio Trillanes IV said in a statement.

He said the Philippines was "deceived" into allowing China to conduct a research in Philippine waters.

Senator Ping Lacson said this could just be the beginning of China's plans.

"Kung pinangalanan nila ng mga Chinese names yung mga seamounts hindi far-fetched na balang araw sabihin nila kanila na naman yun and mag construct na naman ng structures and create artificial islands," he said.

Translation: "If they were able to give Chinese names to the seamounts it's not far-fetched they will lay claims and construct structures and create artificial islands."

Senate President Koko Pimentel however said he sees nothing wrong with China's naming of Benham Rise features.

"Bakit tayo allergic dahil Chinese ang nagbigay ng pangalan? Kung Amerikano ang nagbigay ng pangalan, okay lang (Why are we allergic when it's the Chinese who gave names? When it's the Americans who do so, it's okay for us)?" Pimentel said.

"I don't see the problem. And I am sure even without reading the Convention, hindi ko pa nababasa, I'm sure no country has the exclusive power or right to name features, but sovereign rights, iba yun," he said.

Benham Rise, named after U.S. geologist Andrew Benham who first discovered it in 1933, spans 13 million hectares and is believed to be rich in marine resources, natural gas, oil, and minerals.Subscriber content preview

PITTSBURGH (AP)  The former chief executive of a Pennsylvania health services company has been indicted on tax fraud charges in claiming his 39,000-square-foot mansion near Pittsburgh and luxury cars as business expenses.

Federal authorities on Wednesday announced conspiracy and tax fraud charges against Joseph W. Nocito.





. . .Land Advisors promotes Swanson

Swanson

Land Advisors Organization-Washington promoted Morgan Swanson to a full-time broker specializing in urban redevelopment. She joined the firm in 2014 after a stint with Gallo Wine Co. LAO is based in Scottsdale and says it is the largest land brokerage company in the nation, with a regional office in Bellevue. Nationwide, it has 22 offices with 65 brokers. LAO has capital investment, resorts and property tax divisions.



Excited students heading to Hong Kong next month have shared their plans to make the most of the latest mass #DMUglobal trip.Around 350 second-year students are taking part in 16 academic trips across all four faculties, deepening their subject knowledge and experiencing new cultures in this incredible city.This week all the students were invited to a pre-departure briefing from the team at #DMUglobal to run through how to best prepare for the experience as well as being presented with cute gift boxes filled with treats and fortune cookies.Film students are visiting the Hong Kong Film Archive, home to thousands of films which include some of the earliest Chinese films ever made while law students will get to engage with major international firms and barristers, as well as visit the regions High Court.Architecture students will get to meet the staff of one of the leading emerging practices in Hong Kong while health studies students will discover more about traditional Chinese medicine.Alongside the academic experiences, there are plenty of cultural activities on offer including boat tours of Hong Kongs harbour, a visit to the Temple Street Night Market and the giant Tian Tian Buddha on Lantau Island.A big part of the visit will be DMUs role in the UK Governments GREAT Festival of Innovation, a four-day showcase of products, ideas, designs and plans to improve our lives in the future.DMU is the only higher education partner for the GREAT Festival, which is led by the Department for International Trade. It aims to deepen trade and business relationships between China and the UK, and present opportunities for making new connections.The event will show how new technology could change the way we work, learn and play in the future. DMU will be helping to bring each of those areas to life using virtual reality, interactive pop-up fashion salons and a special showcase of our pioneering #DMUglobal programme which has transformed educational experiences for thousands of students.Business and Management student Rhianna Bailey said: Im really looking forward to going to Hong Kong to experience the culture and all the sightseeing.Summer Davidson, who studies Adult Nursing, is part of a visit which includes a day at the Po Lin Monastery, which provides a wide range of health care, medical and respite services for the elderly.She said: Im most looking forward to going to see the temple, we have planned out our whole trip, we are so excited  I cant wait!Shania Nadurata who studies Biomedical Science was busy going through her #DMUglobal departure pack which included advice and tips for the visit. She said: Im looking forward to seeing the different culture, and Victoria Peak, the sunset, Im excited for everything!A day after military personnel in Maldives blocked opposition members of parliament from entering the parliament, it threw all members of the opposition out of parliament on Wednesday, deepening the political crisis in the Indian Ocean nation.

"Parliament under military siege in #Maldives parliament today members were thrown out of the parliament building compound," tweeted Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) leader Thilafaiy.

Thilafaiy further wrote, "Opposition Parliamentarians thrown out over the gates of the Parliament House by the military."

"Security forces literally throws an MP out of the Majlis premises! The Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed was telling the truth when he said he was forcefully dragged on the floor from his chambers," tweeted MDP secretary general Anas Abdul Sattar

Massive protests had erupted after President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom refused to follow the Supreme Court's ruling to release key political prisoners and reinstate the 12 MPs.

President Gayoom also declared a state of emergency in Maldives for a period of 15 days after defying the Supreme Court order.

Earlier this month, the Maldivian Supreme Court had acquitted former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed, former Maldivian vice president Ahmed Adeeb and ordered the release of all political prisoners wrongly detained.

The Supreme Court had had further said that their trials were "politically influenced".

The government has so far refused to implement the order, saying it had concerns about releasing those who were 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.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  A Senate hearing on the alleged anomalies surrounding the purchase of warships will happen on Monday.

Slated to attend are Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque and Bong Go, Special Assistant to the President.

This was confirmed by Roque during Thursday's briefing with members of the Malacanang Press Corps.

When asked if President Rodrigo Duterte would be interested on how that hearing would take place, Roque said Duterte "would be very curious as to what will happen."

Opposition senators Kiko Pangilinan, Franklin Drilon, Antonio Trillanes, Bam Aquino, Risa Hontiveros, and Leila de Lima filed a resolution calling for two committees to conduct an inquiry on the acquisition of two missile-capable frigates as part of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)'s modernization program.

The probe seeks "to determine whether or not such acquisition promotes the goals of the modernization program and complies with pertinent laws," according to the resolution dated January 16.

READ: Senate to probe controversial frigate deal

Go said he would be willing to attend the hearing.

RELATED: Officials deny Bong Go's involvement in frigate acquisition project

Go was alleged to have been involved in the acquisition of P15.74 billion worth of frigates for the Philippine Navy  but this was denied by Go, saying he was "unfairly dragged" into the issue.

His denial was backed by former Navy Flag-Officer-In-Command (FOIC) Vice Admiral Ronald Joseph Mercado and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.

An investigation by Malacanang also cleared Duterte's right-hand man of any misdeeds concerning the frigate deal.

"An investigation has been conducted, and it has been found that the allegations of Rappler are untrue and unfounded," said Roque.

RELATED: Roque: Palace done 'investigating' SAP Bong Go, no evidence seen in 24 hours

CNN Philippines senior correspondent David Santos, and digital producers Pia Garcia and Eimor Santos contributed to this report.When Fleet launched in 2015, its three founders faced an uphill battle. They had created an IoT nanosatellite technology startup in Adelaide at a time when Australias commercial space sector was practically non-existent and  in the absence of a national space agency  they were told the venture would likely fail.

Fast-forward to today and Fleet is in the midst of a hot streak that has helped give life to Australias once-static space startup ecosystem. In less than 12 months, the startup has completed a $5 million Series A capital raise, partnered with French space agency CNES, opened offices in LA and the Netherlands and seen its workforce balloon to more than 20 employees. Most recently, Fleet secured a $500,000 Future Jobs Fund grant from the South Australian Government, giving it the means to create a mission control centre in Adelaide as well as 17 ongoing jobs in IT and advanced manufacturing.

According to Fleets CEO, Flavia Tata Nardini, she and her team arent just getting started, they have long-term plans to become a unicorn. The Italian-born entrepreneur spoke to Dynamic Business about the startup she co-founded with Matthew Pearson (COO) and Matthew Tetlow (ex-CTO), including the ins-and-outs of Fleets core technology, its major wins and the influence its success has had on Australias commercial space sector.

DB: What is the elevator pitch for Fleet?

Nardini: Determined to transform the future of industries from space, were launching a world-first constellation of 100 nanosatellites to ubiquitously connect the worlds IoT devices, which are predicted to number 75 billion by 2025. Once live, our network will create a digital nervous system that covers the planet, creating a world more connected than ever before.

Our world is facing some huge challenges  we live in an era of exponential population growth, increasing environmental challenges and rapid resource depletion. The constellation of nanosatellites will power the next industrial revolution, giving businesses new access to data and connectivity, so that many of these issues can be solved.

Using our patented IoT nanosatellite technology (i.e. the software payload within the satellites), were able to gather data for our customers and provide them with insights necessary to operate more efficiently. From equipping the Defence Force with instantaneous data for maritime safety exercises, to providing the digital infrastructure to create vertical fences for precision agriculture, and even monitoring tree regeneration in the Amazon rainforest  there are endless possibilities.

DB: What circumstances led to the creation of Fleet?

Nardini: Due to a life-long passion for rockets and engines, I studied to become an aerospace engineer. Then, ten years ago, my career took off when I started working as a propulsion engineer for the European Space Agency (ESA) in the Netherlands. During my three years with ESA, I began exploring ways to put miniature engines into nanosatellites known as CubeSats. At that time, they were still being used for research purposes, not commercial.

After meeting my husband (hes an Aussie) four years ago, I moved to Adelaide to be with him. There was only one space startup in the country (Saber Astronautics), so it was tough finding a job that truly interested me especially without an Australian passport. It made me realise that entrepreneurship was the right path for me.

Fortunately, it wasnt long before I connected with fellow aerospace engineer Matthew Tetlow and serial entrepreneur Matthew Pearson (Co-founder & CEO, Honcho). Like me, both wanted to see the Australian space industry thrive. In early 2014, we co-founded LaunchBox, determined to affect real change by improving engagement with STEM and inspire school students to look to the stars for their futures. We did so by supplying a kit that enabled students to build a miniature CubeSat satellite using 3D printed components.

The following year, the three of us co-founded Fleet. We saw a massive opportunity to solve some of the worlds big issues from space using our patented IoT nanosatellite technology.

DB: What are the advantages of nanosatellites over traditional ones?

Nardini: Nanotechnology is transforming the space industry. The miniaturisation of electronics and the use of lightweight materials to build components has seen the rise of cost-efficient and lean manufactured nanosatellites. Instead of spending billions launching very large satellites 36,000km from earth, which is a complex exercise, we will piggyback on rocket launches scheduled across the world to deploy a swarm of little satellites (roughly the size of a shoebox) into low orbit  at a fraction of the cost. Were gearing up to launch our first two nanosatellites this year but were in a positon to launch the entire constellation within the next three to four years.

DB: What sort of capital will be required to launch the constellation?

Nardini: Let me tell you, rocket science is no easy feat! Unlike a software company, which you can bootstrap, a space company such as Fleet is very capital intensive due to infrastructure requirements, including the nanosatellites and ground stations. We couldnt survive without VCs and private investment, which is why capital raising is part of our daily job at Fleet. Securing $5m in Series A capital from Blackbird Ventures, Mike Cannon-Brookes and Silicon Valleys Horizon Ventures last year was a huge win for us. It also made us one of the first companies in the world to raise capital for nanosatellite IoT.

DB: Youre also the first space startup in Cannon-Brookes portfolio

Nardini: Yes, Its very flattering! Being the co-founder of Atlassian, his name affords us a great deal of credibility and were also benefitting from his passion, advice, encouragement and support.

DB: How significant is your partnership with French space agency CNES?

Nardini: When we announced our partnership with CNES, last year, it was especially significant because the Australian Government hadnt yet announced its plans to launch a national space agency. CNES is the second biggest space agency in the world after NASA but theyre the first to have a program which deploys satellite in IoT. Having them partner wth us means weve not only been validated by the VC community, weve also been validated by the space community! CNES is providing us with access to not only fifty years of industry knowledge but also vital infrastructure. For instance, the agency will be using their network of ground communications antennas to track our first two nanosatellites once they launch. Our mission control centre in Adelaide will also be critical for the operational support of our nanosatellites and will ultimately safeguard the connection of our network of billions of online devices.

DB: What will the creation of a national space agency mean for Fleet?

Nardini: It will be a huge turning point for Australias space industry in terms of legislative support, funding opportunities and promoting STEM education. For Fleet specifically, the agency will provide opportunities for us to apply for greater government grants, attract more world-class talent and keep Fleets headquarters on Australian soil.

DB: What has been a major barrier to realising your vision for Fleet?

Nardini: It hasnt been easy creating a space startup from this side of the planet but were proving it can be done. If Fleet had been a Silicon Valley startup, wed be very rich; instead, we decided to create a space startup in Australia at a time when a commercial space industry didnt really exist and there wasnt even a national space agency. Maybe we were being a bit naive but Matt (Pearson) and I didnt listen to the environment if we had, Fleet would never had succeeded. In the very beginning, we had people tell us, it will fail, theres no money. We chose to ignore them and just do it. To get to where we are, weve had to have a great story, a customer focus, a global mindset and be very bold.

DB: How is the overall health of Australias space industry today?

Nardini: In the past year, Australia has gone from a couple of space startups to more than two sixty. So, the commercial space sector is booming. Part of the reason is that Australia offers many geographical benefits for space activities including minimal light pollution, expansive land areas to test on and highly educated workers. Also, ambitious space startups are thriving due to state government support and interest from private investors and global VCs. As one of Australias first successful space startups, weve helped validate the market, paving the way for others to create their own success.

DB: Looking ahead, what growth plans do you have for Fleet?

Nardini: This year is gearing up to be incredible one for Fleet. In addition to launching our first two nanosatellites, creating the mission control centre in Adelaide, undertaking a variety of pilot projects and working on our product pipeline, we will be launching a Series B funding round.

We also have plans to build our first ground station in South Australia to support the telecommand of our first nanosatellites and the customer data collected. This ground station will be the first of many that were looking to create around the world to support our constellation of nanosatellites.

Im also really focused on showing industries address pressing issues, such as food and water wastage, with the aid of low-cost IoT nanosatellite technology. Ultimately, we want to grow Fleet to become unicorn company. A lot of work to do but weve got the team to do it, so were quite positive.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  Domestic worker Joanna Demafelis suffered severe physical abuse before she died, her body found inside a freezer in her employer's home in Kuwait possibly more than a year later, a foreign affairs official said Thursday.

Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Renato Villa said results of the autopsy on Demafelis would be released next week, but initial finding showed she was beaten several times before she died.

"Nabanggit ng forensic doctor na Kuwaiti na ang sanhi ng kanyang pagkamatay ay broken ribs, internal bleeding, at contusions at trauma sa kaniyang katawan, kabilang ang pelvis at kidneys," Villa said in a Viber video call from Kuwait with CNN Philippines .

[Translation: The Kuwaiti forensic doctor said she died due to broken ribs, internal bleeding, contusions and trauma in her body, including her pelvis and kidneys.]

He said forensic doctor revealed the 29-year-old domestic worker was continuously maltreated.

"Ang pambubugbog sa kanya ay hindi raw nangyari ng isang beses lamang. Continous daw ang pagmaltrato sa kanya, ayon sa kanilang findings," Villa said.

Authorities said Demafelis' body may have been kept inside the freezer since November 2016, when her employers left Kuwait. Her body was found after a Kuwaiti court ordered authorities to open the apartment because the Lebanese employer, Nader Essam Assaf, was wanted for cases related to falsified checks.

'Employers covered up her death'

The Philippine envoy said Demafelis' employers reported to Kuwaiti Immigration in 2016 that she had left their apartment.

'Yun siguro ay kanilang ginawa para pagtakpan ang kanilang ginawang krimen," he said.

[Translation: Maybe they did that to conceal their crime.]

Villa said it would be easier to find the Lebanese employer and his Syrian wife if they were in Lebanon. The search would be difficult, however, if the couple went Syria because of the ongoing civil war in that country, he noted.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano was meeting with the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the Philippines on Thursday afternoon.

He explained that under international law, the Kuwaiti government is obliged to provide justice to Filipino workers in that country who are abused by their employers.

The death of Demafelis and seven other overseas Fililpino workers prompted the government to ban the deployment of workers to Kuwait.

Demafelis' remains will arrive in the Philippines on Friday.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III won't accept excuses for the oversight on the case of the slain OFW in Kuwait.

Overseas worker welfare officer Maria Sarah Concepcion explained in a letter that it is impossible for her to accommodate all requests for assistance from Filipinos working in Kuwait or their families. She said they receive an average of 15 requests for assistance daily.

"No matter how hardworking and efficient a person can be, under the present system, it is humanly impossible for one person to be able to manage all the emails received at post especially when one needs to multitask," her explanation letter read.

She said this is why she failed to act promptly on the case of 29-year-old Joanna Demafelis, the overseas Filipino worker who was found dead in a freezer in Kuwait.

Despite Concepcion's explanation, Bello has ordered her removal from her post.

"Masyado raw maraming trabaho. Eh palagay ko that's not a good explanation. Kung hindi mo kaya, umalis ka," he said on Thursday.

The Labor Secretary earlier demanded an explanation from Concepcion and Labor Attache in Kuwait Alejandro Padaen following claims of the Demafelis family that their case was ignored by Philippine authorities.

Padaen, in his response, explained he assumed his post three weeks after his office received the Demafelis case in February 7, 2017. He added the case had been referred to Concepcion by his predecessor.

Bello said he has to find out whether his explanation is reasonable or not because he was new in his post.

Prior to the Demafelis case, seven other Filipino housemaids were reported dead in Kuwait.

President Rodrigo Duterte has lashed out at Kuwait and ordered the issuance of a ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to the gulf state.

Kuwait's foreign affairs minister condemned the move and said this could damage ties between the two countries.

But Bello said the welfare of Filipino workers is their priority.

"Lagay niya sarili niya dun kay presidente natin makita mo ang isang national mo pina-plantsa o kaya ginagawang ice cream. I think he would also react same way our president acted," he said.

Bello said he met with Kuwait's Ambassador to the Philippines who expressed a sense of urgency in pushing through with the signing of a memorandum of agreement that will give Filipino workers greater protection in Kuwait. He is hopeful the deal will be signed sooner than later. There are 136,000 documented overseas Filipinos working in Kuwait.

He added the signing of the deal could lead to the lifting of the ban on workers deployment to Kuwait.Rencontres du Club SEPA

Speech by Yves Mersch, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, Paris, 15 February 2018

With the launch of instant payments in euro in November 2017, the European retail payments market entered a new era. We are moving from a world where it is considered normal to wait a day or more for a payment to arrive to a world where payments are delivered in real time. This is overdue as I consider it anachronistic that services in an e-commerce transaction are delivered in real time and even goods sometimes only take a few hours  while the settlement of payments to release such goods and services would take a full business day. Now, payments will be delivered as fast as emails, instant messages and streamed content. I believe that  as was the case in these other industries  end-users, at least the younger and technology-proficient generation, will soon start to expect instant payments. Instant has the potential to become the new normal, and we will wonder how we were ever satisfied with payments arriving only on the next business day.

In order to support these demands and enhance customer experience, it is not sufficient to have the infrastructures in place to process payments instantly; payment solutions that are tailored to the specific needs of consumers and businesses are also required. In order to foster a dialogue on such needs, the ECB hosted an event last week at which providers demonstrated the apps they have created to support instant payments and exchanged views about the extent to which they would meet customer needs.

This event reinforced my firm belief that instant payments will be the basis for innovative payment solutions, but at the same time, it is only in combination with these solutions that instant payments will live up to their potential to become the new normal. This is why today I call on the industry to take the next step and develop end-user solutions that will allow consumers and businesses to enjoy the benefits of instant electronic payments in any payment situation, in addition to cash, which is still popular.

Instant payments  a tool for innovation in payments

Until now, the focus has mainly been on the three basic layers of the instant payments pyramid: the scheme, clearing and settlement layers. Great progress has been made in all three of these:

At the request of the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB), the European Payments Council launched the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme in November 2017, which over 1,000 payment service providers have already joined, with many more set to follow.

Several automated clearing houses in Europe have started clearing SCT Inst transactions, supported by an enhanced settlement module provided by the Eurosystem.

The TARGET instant payment settlement (TIPS) service is scheduled to go live in November 2018, ensuring the pan-European reach of instant payments  which has been one of the main objectives of the ERPB in that context.

These layers form the basis on which new, user-friendly services could be built. However, for instant payments to reach their full potential, a fourth layer is needed: the end-user solution layer. Without efficient, user-friendly end-user solutions, instant payments only make ordinary credit transfers faster  but instant payments can be much more than that: they can be a basis for innovation.

We have recognised the importance of end-user solutions from the beginning. That is why person-to-person (P2P) mobile payments have been a priority for the Eurosystem and the ERPB. A service that will allow people all around Europe to make mobile payments to others, using their mobile phone number as an identifier, is expected to be available by October this year. When people can easily send and receive payments instantly via their mobile phone, the advantages of instant payments will become evident. This makes P2P payments an important first use case  but it should not remain the only one.

If you can instantly send money to a friend, then why not also to a business? Why should merchants have to wait days for funds to arrive, when the infrastructure to process payments instantly is available?

Point of sale

Instant point-of-sale payments would provide merchants with immediate and final payment  not a claim against the customer or a guarantee from a credit card company, but funds credited to the merchants account with finality, like cash. This will improve merchants cash flow and allow them to use the received funds immediately, for example to pay their suppliers. It is essential that the instant at the point of sale solutions that need to be developed are pan-European in nature, convenient for consumers and technically not too complex for merchants. I call on the payments industry to start working in this direction.

E-commerce

In e-commerce, too, instant payments can be an enabler for innovation. Building on what I mentioned earlier, customers must be able to easily initiate an instant payment from an online shopping environment and the merchant must instantly receive confirmation that the payment has been executed. The revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) provides a stable legislative framework for such services and aims to foster innovation and competition in this field. The ERPB, taking the revised PSD2 and the close-to-final regulatory technical standards as a basis, has supported the industry in its endeavours to reach agreement on the necessary technical, operational and business elements to ensure the pan-European provision of innovative and competitive payment initiation services. This work is well under way and will be concluded by June this year. In parallel, the European Commission has encouraged a group of market actors to evaluate Application Programming Interface (API) technical specifications to ensure that they will meet market needs and will be fit for purpose when accessing customer accounts to initiate payments.

Security

The PSD2 provides many opportunities for innovative services, including, but not limited to, e-commerce payment solutions. Such solutions require standardised access to accounts, but also security throughout the payment chain. The PSD2 regulatory technical standards on strong customer authentication and common and secure communication strike a good balance between the needs of consumers, third-party providers and banks. They will probably not be applicable until September 2019 at the earliest. Since the main provisions of the PSD2 have been in effect since last month, I call on payment service providers to fulfil the requirements of the regulatory technical standards, even if they are not yet legally required to do so, during the transition period until these standards enter into force. It is in their own interests to do so, as this will guarantee the high security levels that are necessary to retain public trust in the payment system and payment services.

Instant payments versus virtual currencies

Smart, pan-European instant payment solutions meet the needs of end-users in the digital age, being fast and easy to use as well as safe and reliable. The SCT Inst scheme and the underlying market infrastructure are subject to Eurosystem oversight, and settlement takes place in central bank money. By contrast, so-called virtual currency schemes such as bitcoin, which have been touted by some as the payment method of the future, cannot achieve that. First, bitcoin is not a currency but simply a speculative digital asset. It tends to be processed inefficiently and  by comparison with instant payments  30 times more slowly, and is about 10,000 times more expensive. The inefficient processing makes transactions costly not just from a financial perspective, but also in terms of the environmental impact. Bitcoin in particular has a large carbon footprint due to the electricity consumption required for its creation and transfer. In addition, because virtual currencies do not have a trusted issuer behind them, they may become worthless at any time. It is not surprising, then, that virtual currencies are not widely accepted as a means of payment.

Conclusion

The future of payments is instant and most countries in the euro area are moving with the times. This is a natural development, following the rise of real-time services in other industries. The industry (with the support of the Eurosystem) has stepped up to the challenge and developed a scheme and an infrastructure that enable such services to become the new normal for euro payments. Now it is time to go one step further and provide efficient and innovative end-user solutions that allow consumers and businesses across Europe to make instant payments in any payment situation, especially at the point of sale, where the majority of retail payments are made. I encourage new and existing service providers to take the opportunity to develop pan-European point-of-sale solutions based on instant payments. These solutions should be efficient, user-friendly and secure. As you are all aware, high security standards are essential to retain public trust. I therefore reiterate my call to payment service providers to adhere to the PSD2 regulatory technical standards on strong customer authentication and common and secure communication as soon as possible, even before they are legally required to do so. By providing services that are safe, as well as fast and convenient, the payments industry will succeed in meeting the needs of a digitalised society.Blog Archive June 2021 (1) May 2021 (77) April 2021 (77) March 2021 (82) February 2021 (68) January 2021 (64) December 2020 (67) November 2020 (66) October 2020 (66) September 2020 (67) August 2020 (74) July 2020 (83) June 2020 (92) May 2020 (86) April 2020 (104) March 2020 (105) February 2020 (74) January 2020 (75) December 2019 (75) November 2019 (70) October 2019 (89) September 2019 (69) August 2019 (81) July 2019 (77) June 2019 (73) May 2019 (110) April 2019 (110) March 2019 (102) February 2019 (85) January 2019 (123) December 2018 (116) November 2018 (112) October 2018 (121) September 2018 (107) August 2018 (150) July 2018 (163) June 2018 (190) May 2018 (145) April 2018 (112) March 2018 (124) February 2018 (113) January 2018 (164) December 2017 (150) November 2017 (144) October 2017 (169) September 2017 (171) August 2017 (135) July 2017 (131) June 2017 (147) May 2017 (160) April 2017 (138) March 2017 (156) February 2017 (143) January 2017 (203) December 2016 (208) November 2016 (185) October 2016 (173) September 2016 (194) August 2016 (232) July 2016 (225) June 2016 (238) May 2016 (231) April 2016 (215) March 2016 (246) February 2016 (226) January 2016 (252) December 2015 (230) November 2015 (250) October 2015 (234) September 2015 (222) August 2015 (253) July 2015 (275) June 2015 (279) May 2015 (223) April 2015 (226) March 2015 (243) February 2015 (258) January 2015 (281) December 2014 (292) November 2014 (296) October 2014 (413) September 2014 (472) August 2014 (506) July 2014 (483) June 2014 (488) May 2014 (512) April 2014 (497) March 2014 (531) February 2014 (482) January 2014 (535) December 2013 (482) November 2013 (441) October 2013 (416) September 2013 (491) August 2013 (521) July 2013 (491) June 2013 (470) May 2013 (457) April 2013 (426) March 2013 (420) February 2013 (414) January 2013 (489) December 2012 (433) November 2012 (504) October 2012 (469) September 2012 (430) August 2012 (427) July 2012 (360) June 2012 (336) May 2012 (362) April 2012 (322) March 2012 (263) February 2012 (224) January 2012 (291) December 2011 (295) November 2011 (325) October 2011 (330) September 2011 (319) August 2011 (333) July 2011 (318) June 2011 (387) May 2011 (373) April 2011 (389) March 2011 (375) February 2011 (335) January 2011 (400) December 2010 (445) November 2010 (395) October 2010 (312) September 2010 (262) August 2010 (277) July 2010 (323) June 2010 (386) May 2010 (360) April 2010 (333) March 2010 (351) February 2010 (336) January 2010 (384) December 2009 (353) November 2009 (300) October 2009 (308) September 2009 (350) August 2009 (298) July 2009 (255) June 2009 (203) May 2009 (193) April 2009 (186) March 2009 (197) February 2009 (173) January 2009 (148) December 2008 (181) November 2008 (197) October 2008 (236) September 2008 (304) August 2008 (314) July 2008 (273) June 2008 (27) May 2008 (1) April 2008 (6) October 2007 (1) May 2007 (1) April 2007 (6) March 2007 (2) February 2007 (1) October 2006 (1) September 2006 (1) August 2006 (4) July 2006 (4) June 2006 (1) July 2005 (1) May 2005 (2) March 2005 (1) June 2004 (2) May 2004 (1) April 2004 (4) March 2004 (2) February 2004 (2) July 2003 (2) June 2003 (5)Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  Close to 54,000 new jobs are at stake with the government's deployment ban to Kuwait, according to data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).

Kuwait placed 53,932 job orders with the POEA this year.

As of the first three weeks of January, 3,554 of those posts have been filled  but the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) were barred from leaving because of the ban, POEA Administrator Bernard Olalia said in an interview on Wednesday.

The government suspended deployment to Kuwait in January 19 after it discovered the deaths of seven OFWs, allegedly at the hands of their employers.

A total ban was announced on Monday after the body of domestic helper Joanna Demafelis was found stuffed in a freezer in Kuwait. Police believe she was tortured to death by the couple she worked for.

The POEA is advising OFWs hit by the deployment ban to ask their recruiters for new job placements.

Kuwait is the second largest employer of Filipino domestic helpers, but Olalia said demand was also high in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Cyprus and Brunei.

"In Singapore alone, we have almost 150 thousand job orders there. In Malaysia, there is an opening of around 30,000. These are markets where they could redeploy our HSWs (household service workers)," Olalia said.

However, migration consultant Emmanuel Geslani said changing jobs would be easier said than done  especially for OFWs already keen to leave and make money abroad.

Workers would have to start the job application process all over again since their Kuwaiti contract will not be transferable to other countries.

"It takes almost two months to process a new contract worker," Geslani said in an interview on Thursday.

"You have to send the resume abroad, and then you need to have the contract signed there, submitted together with all the passport details. And then it comes back here to be approved by the POEA. You need to apply for the work visa, and only then can the overseas employment certificate be signed."

Even though household service workers are exempted from placement fees, the deployment ban still comes at a huge cost for OFWs.

"Certainly, there's the emotional stress that they would like to start earning money and they would like to fly to Kuwait," Geslani said.

"The family is waiting. Obviously if they were working by now, they would have salaries by next month to feed their family."

Geslani criticized the Duterte administration's "knee-jerk" reaction to the OFW deaths, saying it could have first reached out to the Kuwaiti government for negotiations.

While Kuwaiti jobs make a marginal contribution to the Philippine economy, the income OFWs earn from there is often the lifeline of their families, he said.

The POEA remains hopeful, though, that the deployment ban will be lifted in the near future. However, Olalia stressed the government would not rush until it could guarantee the safety of its workers abroad.

The Philippines wants Kuwait to sign a memorandum of agreement granting greater protection for OFWs working in the Arab country.

The POEA is also considering a new "live-out" scheme for domestic helpers in Kuwait. Workers will be housed in separate accommodations to lessen the risk of physical and sexual abuse when they live with their employers.

"If the President pushes through with his trip to Kuwait, it could speed up the progress of negotiations," Geslani said.

Olalia added that the Kuwaiti government has been "very apologetic" since the OFW deaths were reported.

"They reacted immediately, offering amnesty for our undocumented workers. We've long been working for that," he said.

An estimated 10,000 undocumented OFWs are expected to return home in the coming days.

Under the amnesty program, workers will be allowed to leave Kuwait without applying for an exit visa and paying penalties for staying in the country illegally.(Photo courtesy: International Justice Mission)Rev. Seth Wispelwey in 2013.

Charlottesville in Virginia hit world headlines in 2017 during clashes between white supremacists and neo-Nazis who attacked protestors, including clergy, calling for the removal of a controversial statue.

The attack by the extremists in the small U.S. city led to the deaths of three people.

One of the American founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, once had his home there, but one of its parks also has a statue of General Robert E. Lee.

Lee led the side fighting to retain slavery during the 19th century Civil War, and Rev. Seth Wispelwey was one of a group of clergy and laypeople among those calling for his statue's removal.

Wispelwey, a United Church of Christ (UCC), minister grew up in Charlottesville and moved back there several years ago with his wife and daughter, the World Council of Churches reports.

Shortly after moving back, walking with her father one day, his daughter asked about a prominent statue in the park.

"I explained that statue was a general from the Civil War, the war related to the freeing of the slaves," Wispelwey recalls.

"Using perfect kid logic, she said that of course he fought for freeing the slaves. I had to say, no, that he fought to maintain slavery."

His daughter asked: "So why is there a statue of him?"

Wispelwey, directing minister of Restoration Village Arts in Charlottesville, didn't have an answer at the time.

But from that encounter, and from others, he came to realize that a good part of the combatting racism is having the guts - both spiritual and physical - to show up.

To say something. To refuse silence. To come up with an answer.

"We have to name these things and claim these things," says Wispelwey, recalling the way events unfolded on 12 August 2017.

He is proud and grateful for the few hundred clergy and laypeople who joined together to counter the white supremacists who marched in the usually quiet college town

But he also thinks about those who didn't attend.

'SUMMER OF HATE'

"I wanted to impress on them the urgency of showing up," says Wispelwey. With other clergy, he felt called to mobilize when their town needed them, publicly bearing witness during what they later called the "Summer of Hate."

Speaking bluntly, Wispelwey says that in some ways, the haters - that is, the 500 Nazis and white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville  displayed more honesty than their supposed opposition.

"They grew up in a country where, from the age of birth, you just absorb it." It says you're king, "by simple virtue that you're born a white man in the USA. You're top of the heap."

U.S. public institutions have failed, Wispelwey says, "for not taking the systemic evil of white supremacy seriously enough. It's sort of the fabric that knits our society together - a fabric purposely structured to maintain white supremacy."

Now, six months later, Wispelwey terms it "a weird journey."

CONGREGATE CHARLOTTESVILLE

Congregate Charlottesville started as a group of pastors willing to "show up" and stand up against white supremacists. It has grown into a standalone nonprofit, and Wispelwey remains on its advisory board.

Congregate Charlottesville's genesis came to Wispelwey and his friend, Rev. Brittany Caine-Conley, more than a year ago, long before the unrest on 12 August.

"We needed a mechanism for faith leaders," he says. "I asked: what if we had a mechanism where we train people up?"

(Photo: Heather Wilson) Rev. Seth Wispelwey.

Train people to stand for peace; protest nonviolently; show up for justice.

Starting in mid-July, Congregate Charlottesville hosted training. People wanted to be ready for what was to come to their town. They knew the potential severity, and Wispelwey had trained and participated in nonviolent civil disobedience in troubled zones before.

Still, the Summer of Hate was unprecedented in Charlottesville, and preparing was shown to have been vital.

Around 70 people showed up for training each week, most of them laypeople.

"At the training, we'd do everything from singing to practical simulations," explains Wispelwey. They also trained in how to prepare to be arrested.

Often Wispelwey is asked: did you know it was going to be so bad? "The truth is we were preparing people for violence and death. This was such a raw trust episode."

Since that day, Charlottesville has become - for better or worse - known as "ground zero" for a fight against racism that has spread across the USA.

CONGREGATE THE NATION

Wispelwey hopes to see Congregate Charlottesville's model replicated across the country. At the same time, he acknowledges there is still significant healing needed in Charlottesville.

"We've all been so shocked and traumatized," he says, "and we were in the position of building the airplane while flying."

Requests for more information have swamped Wispelwey and his colleagues on how to create anti-racism groups for churches. "It doesn't just have to be for urgent situations - racism is both urgent and systemic."

As Congregate Charlottesville progresses, Wispelwey can return his attention to Restoration Village Arts, a retreat, learning and action community for artists and ministers creating resources within today's liberation movements.

"I want to show that transformational work is possible, and already happening."

And that is what Wispelwey and his peers created on 12 August. "We stood together to say that God is not okay with this."

CAN WE OVERCOME SYSTEMIC SIN?

Every U.S. community needs to be involved in the long, hard work of overcoming the systemic sin and evil of white supremacy, Wispelwey says.

"How do we get churches mobilized in an urgent yet long-term way?"

And what does one do with the anger at white supremacists and other racists?

"I think anger is a natural and good human emotion," says Wispelwey. "At times, I still have rage and my anger is connected to my mourning."

Wispelwey is angry with those who hid behind insufficient excuses and did not stand up against racism.

"I heard many prominent reasons and excuses that allow for the belief that we can opt out. I was told in these long exchanges over email and through conversations that we were inciting violence by showing up."

WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR THE USA TO CHANGE?

"It is going to take hard honesty and divestment from the lie of white supremacy and patriarchy," says Wispelwey.

How can you help? Bring your body and risk it, Wispelwey says. "White people need to be much more honest and blunt with each other. Show up.""I would say what I'm doing is hacking," says Kyle Schwarting who, is a farmer by profession and a hacker by need signalling to a Windows laptop and a USB-to-tractor link he made himself.





As of late Schwarting found a hacked version of John Deere's Service Advisor software on a torrent site, which he makes use of to diagnose problems with the agricultural equipment and ultimately repair it. Without this product, even minor repairs will cost him thousands of dollars from an authorized John Deere repair person, along with more importantly, time.





John Deere, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, AT&T, Tesla, and most by far of enormous tech firms have spent the last decade controlling repair, these organizations themselves are the main ones who have access to new parts, apparatuses, and service manuals to settle broken machines; the main ones who have software that can evade encryption bolts that misleadingly keeps individuals like Schwarting from working on equipment.









Therefore clearly, individuals like Schwarting find industrious and intrepid courses around these locks by finding unapproved versions of the software or by hacking through firmware en masse.

Schwarting and different farmers across the nation over have wound up on the front line of the right to repair movement, the biggest people-versus-big-tech revolt in in recent times. So what began as hacking out of need has immediately changed into a bon fide political development.





The objective of this development is to eventually get a law passed that will permit agriculturists (farmers), autonomous repair individuals, and normal customers to reclaim responsibility for tractors, their tablets, their mobile phones, and their air conditioners.





A couple of farmers Nebraska who are leading this movement trust that there are currently 18 states which are considering their options on the "fair repair" bills. Which would require the makers to offer the repair parts and devices to the majority, and make repair manuals accessible to the general public, and furthermore to give circumvention instruments for software locks that are particularly intended to avoid any kind of outsider repair.









The Fair Repair act gives an individual the abilityyouve always had the rightto purchase the diagnostic tools or to take their equipment somewhere local, or to try and repair the equipment yourself, says Lydia Brasch, a state senator who is sponsoring the bill in Nebraska.





An exception to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act particularly makes it lawful to hack tractors for the purpose of repair. In any case, John Deere takes the farmers consent to permitting arrangements i.e. licensing agreements that limit the amount of repairing they are supposed to do on their equipment; as violating it could be thought as a breach of contract and farmers who do, are obligated to be sued.





In Nebraska, the legislation is borne out of sheer frustration and a sentiment of loss of agency from farmers whose families have invested decades repairing their own particular gear.





As tractors have become more high-tech, we do not have the ability to hook up a tractor to diagnose it, to repair it, or even to activate parts that weve already bought. There are used parts that are available, but if I put them on, the tractor wont run, Tom Schwarz, a fifth-generation farmer.





Prior to this month the Association of Equipment Manufacturers and the Equipment Dealers Associationtwo farming industry trade groups that represent John Deere and the other giants reported that its producers and merchants bolster "common sense repair solutions" and will deliberately give a portion of the prerequisites delineated in the fair repair legislation.

The groups say that the manufacturers will provide or offer manuals and product guides and diagnostic software by model year 2021: (an extract from the model is given below)

RIGHT TO MODIFY This commitment ensures that farmers and ranchers have the tools they need and have asked for to perform basic service, maintenance and repairs. Overly-broad Right to Repair IeislaUon is not only unnecessary it would risk the safety, durability and environmental sustainability of equipment.



Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  The Office of the Ombudsman said it closed its investigation on President Rodrigo Duterte's alleged unexplained wealth due to lack of evidence.

In a statement on Thursday, the Ombudsman said the probe was "closed and terminated" on November 29, 2017, "after the Anti-Money Laundering Council declined to provide a report or confirmation on the requested vital data."

Overall Deputy Ombudsman Arthur Carandang previously said they have Duterte's bank records from the AMLC, amounting to over 1 billion. But the council denied providing such documents. It said in September 2017 it was still evaluating Carandang's request.

In January 2018, Malacanang said it is suspending Carandang for supposedly spreading false information on Duterte's bank records, but Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales refused to enforce the suspension order as it was unconstitutional.

The Office of the Ombudsman on Thursday said Solicitor General Jose Calida's letter to Carandang, referring to him as Overall Deputy Ombudsman is an admission of the suspension order's unconstitutionality. The letter was written on February 8, as Calida asked the status of Duterte's plunder case. At the time, Carandang was under Malacanang's 90-day suspension, the Ombudsman said.

In May 2016, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV filed a plunder complaint against Duterte, then Davao City mayor and presidential candidate.

Trillanes, one the President's staunchest critics, alleged Duterte amassed at least 211 million in ill-gotten wealth. He also accused Duterte of having ghost employees with a budget of P708 million when he was mayor.

In February 2017, Trillanes said Duterte and his family had 2 billion in undeclared wealth in their bank accounts from 2006 to 2015.

Duterte has refused to sign a waiver to allow probe of his bank accounts but denied Trillanes' allegations, throwing back accusations that the senator has offshore bank accounts.

Calida first disclosed the termination of the Ombudsman probe on Duterte during a February 13 media briefing.

He said he asked the Ombudsman for an update on Duterte's case, and that he has no clue as to why the Ombudsman did not disclose the development to the public.

The Office of the Ombudsman on Thursday said it was because fact-finding investigations are "generally confidential in nature."

"The Office is not obliged to inform the subject of the fact-finding investigation about its outcome," the statement read.

It also said Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales could not have announced the matter since she had inhibited herself from the investigation.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 15)  Refusing to see workers as human beings leads to abuse.

That was what Toots Ople, the Head of the Blas Ople Policy Center, told CNN Philippines Thursday when she was asked about how a tragedy like that of Joanna Demafelis happens.

Demafelis worked as a domestic helper in Kuwait. Her body was found stored in a freezer in an apartment in Kuwait, where it may have been kept for over a year. Authorities said it had torture marks and there were indications she was strangled to death.

RELATED: Family of slain OFW in Kuwait had no idea she was maltreated

"These things happen when people, regardless of nationality, they don't see the mother in that person...They just see a slave, a commodity. Someone that they bought," Ople said.

Whether the abuse is physical or emotional, the trauma leaves permanent scars. What happened to Demafelis, Ople said, is a "recurring nightmare."

Ople added employers pay a premium for Filipina domestic workers.

"A lot of Arab employers prefer Filipino domestic helpers because alam nila, yung children nila maaalagaan ng husto," she said

[Translation: A lot of Arab employers prefer Filipino domestic helpers because they know their children will be well cared for.]

While not all Filipina domestic workers end up abused, Ople recognized their situation is a lot like Russian roulette.

"The challenge before us is reducing the prevalence of Filipina domestic workers being employed by the worst of the worst in terms of labor standards," she added.

Ople said she did not want to use the word "amo" (master) when describing the employers, as its counterpart would be slave.

'Robotized in a way'

Ople said Filipina domestic workers are made helpless by their employers because their passports, means of communications like mobile phones, and the right to rest are often taken away from them.

"They are being 'robotized' in a way," she said, adding there is mental and emotional anguish in having to ask the "madam"  the female head of household  for permission to contact family and loved ones by borrowing their mobile phones.

RELATED: A long way home: The plight of workers in Kuwait

She also explained that current situations make it more complicated to keep track of abuses.

"Ngayon kasi may recruitment agency ka, government of course, the worker, minsan may sub-agent pa, bago makarating sa worker, and then meron kang counterpart agency, tapos yung counterpart agency, yun ang may kakilala sa employer," she explained.

In the case of Demafelis specifically, when her agency was cancelled, it became nearly impossible to find out where she was.

A "dead end" was how Ople described it.

RELATED: OWWA administrator: Slain Filipino domestic worker could not be found after Kuwaiti agency closed

Raul Dado, executive director for the Office for Mighrant Worker Affairs of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), said there was no formal notice to the Philippine Embassy regarding Demafelis.

Better treatment for OFWs sought

Meanwhile, Dado said President Rodrigo Duterte's tough stance against foreign employers who abuse Filipino workers is a welcome development.

"He (President Duterte) actually showed us the leverage with which we could negotiate for better treatment of our workers.

If the Philippines were to pull out workers from Arab countries, Dado said the effect would be so widespread that even prominent families would be affected.

Overseas Workers Welfare Association Deputy Administrator Arnell Ignacio said Duterte's reaction  calling out Kuwait for the maltreatment of overseas Filipino workers (OFW)  was a natural response.

"What do we want? You see a President na nagde-declare ng ban. Why? Do we want him to be chunny-chummy with a situation like this? Sinaktan, binugbog, duguan, bali ang paa  what do we do? It's a natural reaction of a father of a nation. His children are being slaughtered. It's just but natural na ganoon ang sasabihin ng Presidente," he said.

[Translation: What do we want? You see a President who declared a ban. Why? Do you want him to be chummy-chummy with a situation like this? Someone was hurt, beaten, bloodied, with a broken leg  what do we do? it's a natural reaction of a father of a nation. His children are being slaughtered. It's just but natural that the President would say that.]

RELATED: OFW found dead in freezer in Kuwait suffered grave physical abuse - PH envoy

The country's usual diplomatic response would not work in this case, Ignacio said because "hindi na pangkaraniwang maltreatment na ang nangyayari."

[Translation: The usual case of maltreatment is not happeneing here.]

Ignacio said he receives around 30 reports of OFWs being maltreated in Kuwait  some of them with video.

When asked if this was the exception rather than the rule, Ignacio said in the case of Kuwait, it was not about percentages. The maltreatment of OFWs did not sit well with him.

"We cannot take treatment like that from anybody," he said.

Ople said the government can say which countries workers can go to.

"It is part of our sovereign rights as a nation to decide which job markets are the best for our own citizens.Palo Alto County Economic Development Executive Director Maureen Elbert and Ruthven Mayor David Kirk, who serves as Co-Chairman on the Highway (Hwy) 18 Super Two Coalition.

This project was started by Lynn Kueck, Mayor of Algona is the Chairman, Kirk began. He brought up the idea to the mayors and the Board of Supervisors along the Highway 18 corridor between Spencer and Mason City about essentially forming a coalition to lobby the Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT) to designate funds to make that stretch of Highway 18 a Super Two. Essentially the Coalitions plan is to work with IDOT and the Commission in future budget plannings to increase the budget for stretches of Highway 18, such as the stretch from Spencer to Ruthven. They already have a plan allocated for that, so since they are already going to be working on that stretch, spend additional money to make parts of it a Super Two. For example, out in front of Ruthven, you have the turn lane that is divided by medians and it is kind of a hassle. You really have no place to go except for the ditch or you can hit the median. The turn off to Ayrshire on Hwy 18 and 4 are just some example of how the road can be changed in Palo Alto County.

Kirk continued stating that the Coalition is asking that all governmental bodies along Hwy 18 to give a Resolution of Support to present to the Iowa Road Commissions meeting in April. The Coalition is also getting the important businesses in the County to provide support also.

Kirk explained that the Resolutions of Support are mainly to show that all the entities along the corridor are supportive of this type of project and are behind the Coalition.

Will there be County funding involved? Supervisor Roger Faulstick asked.

Not at this time, Kirk replied. Right now, Maureen and I are just doing the ground work within the County. In the future, you never know.

There are some sections planned along Hwy 18 that stretch out until 2045, Elbert stated. We are going to try and see if we can get them to move it up a little bit instead of having it stretched out until 2045.

Right now, the IDOT said, if you are going to come and request a four-lane highway, forget it. Dont come to us, Elbert continued. If you wed be interested and encouraged us.

The Regional meeting will be in Orange City on April 9 and 10. According to Elbert, the Coalition will present the Resolutions of Support on April 10.

With some further discussion, unanimous approval was given in a roll call vote.

In other business, unanimous approval was given on the final plat of Frinks Second Addition. Changes that were made took the double lots and divided them into single lots.

In other County news, as of 2017, 20 county employees have reached milestones for years of service in their departments. They are as follows:

Five Years: Kent Malm, IRVM; Linus Solberg, Supervisors; Troy Hall, Mike Vaughan and Wyatt Wirtz, Engineer/Secondary Roads; Crystal Sawvell (part-time) and Jessica Sinning, Communications Dept. and Kay Frerk, Treasurer.

Ten Years: Stephanie Hudson, Attorney; Therese Geelan, Auditor; Melanie Rouse, Sheriffs Office and Justin Williams, Engineer/Secondary Roads.

Fifteen Year: Robin Jamison, Treasurer:

Twenty Years: Steve Malm, Solid Waste; Nancy Stegge and Pat Joynt, Engineer/Secondary Roads; Joy Currans, Jail and Robin Thomsen, Treasurer.

Thirty Years: Lois Naig, Assessor

Thirty-Five Years: Patrick Corley, Engineer/Secondary Roads.The visitation for Margie Brown will be on Friday, Feb. 16, 2018 from 4 p.m.- 7p.m. at Martin-Mattice Funeral Home in Emmetsburg. The Mass of Christian Burial will be on Saturday, Feb. 17 at 10:30 a.m. at Holy Family Catholic Church in Emmetsburg. Reverend Clem Currans will officiate.

Interment will be in Calvary Cemetery in Ruthven. Martin-Mattice Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Margie Leona Thomson was born March 25, 1917, to William H. Thomson & Margaret (Colburn) Thomson at their farm near Rodman. She graduated from Rodman High School and attended Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls and taught in a one- room school house near Depew where she lived with the family of some of her students and learned some Norwegian phrases. The following year she was able to get a teaching position in a one-room school house just north of her parents home where she could live at home and help her father with the farming in the summer.

Margie married W.J. Bill Brown in Emmetsburg Catholic Church June 1, 1940, and lived with him on the farm southeast of Ruthven where she and Bill farmed and raised their four children. When the Ruthven School burned down and teachers were needed for the country school houses, she again returned to teaching grades 1 through 8 in the country school houses four miles west of their farm. Margie was an active partner in Bills farming operation-working in the fields, in the barns, and in the bookkeeping area to create a farming enterprise of which they both were proud. In addition to her farming and teaching and maintaining a spotless home, Margie was also active in her church and volunteered at Lakeside Lutheran Home. She was a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church and was a tireless worker in the Guild and a long time member of Catholic Daughters of America.

Margie and Bill lived together for 68 years until his death in 2008. They enjoyed traveling, wintering in Texas, and enjoying time with family and friends. Following Bills death in 2008, Margie moved to Willow Ridge, and in Oct. of 2016 she moved to Emerald Oaks assisted living until February of 2017. In March of 2017 she celebrated her 100th Birthday while living in Parc Hall where she resided until her death on Feb. 11, 2018 at Spencer Hospital after having suffered a fall.

Left to mourn her are her daughter Colleen Coke Anderson (Ken Bertness); son Bill (Connie) Brown; daughter Mary (John) Hoefner; son-in-law Dennis Finnegan; 11 grandchildren, and 20 great grandchildren.

Condolences can be left at

www.martinmatticefuneralhome.com(CNN)  The confidante of South Korea's ousted president has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for her role in a corruption scandal that brought down the country's leader in 2017.

Seoul's District Court sentenced Choi Soon-sil on Tuesday on 18 charges including abuse of power, coercion, fraud and bribe, and ordered her to pay 18 billion won ($16.6 million).

In June last year, Choi was sentenced to three years in jail for using her ties to impeached President Park Geun-hye to "solicit academic favors" for her daughter from a South Korean university.

Park is also on trial on charges of corruption, coercion and leaking confidential information, which she has denied.

The trials of the country's ex president and her close associate have gripped South Korea and roiled the country's political and business elite. Also on Tuesday, billionaire businessman Shin Dong-bin, chairman of conglomerate Lotte, was sentenced to 2.5 years in jail on related bribery charges.

Park was arrested in March last year shortly after she was ousted as President by the country's Constitutional Court, which upheld a decision by the country's parliament to impeach her.

Her removal from office followed months of public outcry over a wave of corruption allegations.

She was accused of being unduly influenced by Choi. The court that upheld her impeachment agreed with accusations that Park had abused her authority in helping Choi raise donations from companies for foundations she had set up.

This story was first published on CNN.com, Friend of ousted South Korean president gets 20 years in jail."Fans will be delighted as AMC will air free screenings of critically-acclaimed Get Out on President's Day. Creator Jordan Peele said in a Twitter post that the free passes will come "as a small thank you to the fans" for the success of the film.

Free movie passes will be given on a first-come, first-served basis when the film opens on Monday, Feb. 19. One ticket will be reserved per person, so it is important that viewers arrive personally. Those who cannot make it to the first-day screening can catch a live streaming on HBO.

#GetOutOneYearLater

Get Out will be shown in a total of 55 locations in major cities across the country including San Francisco, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Dallas, Chicago, Kansas, Indianapolis, Oklahoma, Leawood, Newport, West Homestead, Houston, Baltimore, Columbus, and New York among many others.

In New York, for example, #GetOutOneYearLater will be shown on AMC Empire 25 and AMC Village 7 theaters. The movie will start at 7 p.m.

Last year, Get Out hit a record-breaking $250 million gross sales worldwide, which is considered phenomenal in that time of the year. The film is also rated 99 percent on Rotten Tomatoes tabulated from 300 reviews. Producers are hopeful audience will give the same warm welcome as more horror scenes are expected in the second movie release.

Get Out tells the story of a young African-American, Chris, played by Daniel Kaluuya, who visited his girlfriend's family. What could have been a memorable vacation unfolded into a series of horrific events beyond imagination.

Award-Winning 'Get Out'

Get Out is nominated in the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best in Original Screenplay, and Best Actor. Peele is able to use the traditional horror story framework to fit in racial conflicts while highlighting psychological terror all at the same time.

In an interview, Peele said he wanted to lead the film through thriller conversations about racism, diversity, and other social issues. "I'm a true believer in story," he said, igniting interests among storytelling enthusiasts. "I think when you just tell people to think, people tend to get resistant and defensive, and feel like you're accusing them of not thinking."

This year, Get Out is echoed with the same success from the 2017 installment. Peele slightly teased on the details of the sequel, but he said there are plans to do more social thrillers with Universal Pictures.Prince Henrik of Denmark, the French-born husband of Queen Margrethe II, has sadly passed away. Prince Henrik was 83 at the time of his death.

Struggling To Fit In

Prince Henrik had struggled over the past 50-odd years to win the hearts of Danes who were turned off by his French heritage and seemingly outlandish behavior. He only managed to do so in his later years.

The palace confirmed Henrik had passed away Tuesday night, with his wife and two sons by his side. He was hospitalized for a lung infection and benign lung tumor late last month, before returning to Fredensbourg Castle Tuesday to spend his final days with family.

Prince Henrik had an eccentric personality, by Danish standards, which angered and confused the infamously low-key citizens. It was seen to be in stark contrast to the strictly-held royal traditions of the palace.

Henrik originally moved to Denmark in 1967, ahead of his June wedding to the then-crown princess. The Frenchman reportedly found it difficult to adjust to playing second fiddle to Margrethe and was frustrated to learn his title would remain as Prince, rather than being elevated to King.

Henrik often aired these grievances in the press, which contributed to his negative public image. Danes reportedly found him arrogant and hungry for unearned recognition as a result.

In 2016, Henrik retired from public service and renounced his title as the "Prince Consort." He requested to be known only as "Prince Henrik."

The following year, he announced he did not wish to be buried next to the Queen as he'd never been made her equal in life. This broke with tradition, but Margrethe had no issue with the request.

A Colorful Life

Born Henri Marie Jean Andre de Laborde de Monpezat, in Talence, near Bordeaux, Prince Henrik spent much of his childhood in Vietnam. He met Margrethe while stationed in London as a diplomat.

In order to marry her, he changed his name to Henrik, renounced his French citizenship to become Danish, and converted to Protestantism. The couple had two young children, both sons, by the time Margrethe ascended to the throne in 1972.

Henrik had considerable trouble fitting in with the Danes, expressing to the media that he was looking to prove himself to them.

"A lot of people think I'm a loser until I prove them wrong," he said.

The Prince's fortunes changed immensely following a public engagement, where he stood in for his wife for the first time.

However, after his son was subsequently chosen to represent the Queen instead of him, Henrik fled to his chateau in France. Although the media and many commentators made fun of him for this reaction, the Danish people warmed to the new, vulnerable side of their Prince.

He later became a hit with young people, after playing piano on a song with Danish pop group Michael Learns To Rock, appearing at a popular hippie commune, and wearing a panda costume to a public event.

"Words cannot describe how much I love Henrik!" wrote a popular radio show host on Twitter.

Danes flocked in droves to write warm messages of condolence on the royal household's Facebook page following news of the Prince's passing.In response to the live press conference held on Feb. 14 by Charles in Charge actors, Alexander Polinksy and Nicole Eggert, Scott Baio also held a press conference to once again proclaim his innocence.

Baio was not physically at the conference due to a prior commitment with his daughter. His spokesman, Brian Glicklich, and his civil attorney, Jennifer McGrath, represented the actor and answered all questions regarding the current allegations against the actor.

Baio Will Be Cleared

Glicklich began the press conference by flat-out denying all the allegations against the actor and reading a direct statement against Baio. In the statement, Baio could not understand why he was the target of the "false" claims and that he was "hurt" and "angry" because this attack now affects his family as well.

"Scott denies every single claim of inappropriate behavior and there is absolutely nothing when you examine the facts and the evidence and the claims that have been made -- almost every one of them can be refuted with evidence," Glicklich stated.

Baio also stated that Polinksy attended Baio's 50th birthday celebration seven years ago and had no qualms nor issues with the actor or any of the co-stars from the sitcom.

McGrath then took over and began with her opening remarks where she questioned the intentions of Eggert, Polinsky, and their attorney Lisa Bloom. McGrath continued that while Baio would have not preferred to go "back and forth" in the media, he was left with "no choice" as Eggert and Polinsky have created a "media witch hunt" against him.

"When this police investigation concludes and Scott is cleared of any wrongdoing, he will pursue any and all legal options available to him to anyone who has knowingly made false claims about him," Glicklich continued.

Both of Baio's reps stated that Eggert's allegations have changed drastically over the years as they also presented evidence of previous remarks made by Eggert where she admitted she was friends with Baio and his wife, and that she felt "lucky" to have worked with him.

Eggert made her allegations against Baio in public in January after posting several tweets where she accused the actor of molesting her from the ages of 14 to 17. Polinsky recently came forward with his allegations against Baio and claimed that the actor mentally, physically, and sexually abused him when he was 11 years old.

After the statements were concluded, a reporter asked if Baio would ever apologize for what he did wrong.

"You can't apologize from something you didn't do," Glicklich stated.As the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics is on full swing, athletes from around the world are chasing Olympic glory. One athlete that knows that euphoric feeling is Michael Phelps, but this time in another way.

Enter Beckett Richard

The 23-time gold medal Olympic swimmer and his wife, Nicole Johnson, took to Instagram to introduce to the world the latest member of their family.

"Nicole and I would like to introduce Beckett Richard Phelps to the world! We had a healthy baby boy and a healthy mama," Phelps wrote on his Instagram page.

Phelps stated that he was overjoyed by the news of Beckett's arrival.

Sitting with Johnson was Beckett's big brother, Boomer Robert, who adorably held his new baby brother. The family also has two dogs. Both Johnson and Boomer shared the announcement on their respective Instagram pages.

The Instagram Reaction

Several of Phelps's 3.3 million Instagram followers commented on the gorgeous family photo.

"Congratulations on your new baby boy!! So happy for your new family of 4. Exhausting but fun days ahead of you and your wife. Exhausting but fun days ahead for you and your wife," wrote one Instagram fan.

While fans wished simple congratulations, Huggies decided to post a sweet note on his Instagram page.

"There's nothing like seeing the first hugs between siblings! Congratulations to Boomer and the rest of the Phelps family on Beckett's arrival," wrote a Huggies representative.

Phelps's Family Memories

Several years before Beckett was born, Phelps and Johnson had a public wedding ceremony at Cabo San Lucas in Mexico on Oct. 29, 2016. A few of Phelps's Team USA athletes joined the crowd as Phelps and Johnson became husband and wife. However, Phelps surprised his fans when he announced that the couple had a private ceremony in Paradise Valley, Arizona, on June 13, 2016.

In addition, Phelps showcased his superstar skills after he lip-synced Eminem's "Lose Yourself" for Lip Sync Battle: All-Stars Live.

He also officially retired from competing in the Olympics following the conclusion of the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Celebrity Births

Phelps and Johnson are the not the only celebrity couples celebrating a baby.

Good Morning America's Ginger Zee delivered a second son with her husband, Ben Aaron, on Friday, Feb. 9.

Breaking Bad actor Aaron Paul and his wife, Lauren, welcomed a beautiful baby girl on Feb. 6. The actor shared the good news with his fans on social media.

Kylie Jenner and rapper boyfriend Travis Scott became the proud parents of Stormi Webster on Feb.1.A spotlight shines directly on someone who becomes president of the United States. However, what happens if you had an affair with the president?

Stormy Breaks Free

There has been a new development in the Stormy Daniels-U.S. President Trump affair.

According to CBS, Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is now free to talk about her alleged affair with the president of the United States.

The Associated Press stated that Clifford's manager, Gina Rodriguez, has reported that Clifford is ready to tell the world about her encounter with the President Trump.

"Everything is off now, and Stormy is going to tell her story," said Rodriguez to the Associated Press.

Michael D. Cohen's Downfall

People who were interested in hearing about how Daniels allegedly met U.S. President Trump can personally thank U.S. President Trump's attorney, Michael D. Cohen, for spilling the beans.

On Tuesday, Feb. 13, the U.S. president's attorney, Cohen, revealed that he paid the adult film star with his own money.

"Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly. The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone," Cohen told The New York Times.

Rodriguez stated that in addition to Cohen's statement to The New York Times, the lawyer also hoped to use Daniels' experiences with the president in a proposed tell-all novel about the Trump presidency.

Seven Years Later

According to the Associated Press, Daniels' story about an alleged affair with the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was supposed to be published in 2011 on a website called The Dirty. However, The Dirty was forced to remove the story about Trump's alleged encounter with Daniels when they were faced with potential legal action.

Stormy Daniels Visits 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'

While Daniels and Rodriguez prepare to talk about the alleged affair, the adult film star broke her silence on ABC late-night show, Jimmy Kimmel Live. Daniels sat down with the host on Jan. 30, the same night that President Trump gave his first State of the Union.

Kimmel and Daniels made fun of the sitting U.S. president's genitalia and even asked her to identify the size by using three different sizes of vegetables.

Late-Night Jabs

Kimmel was not the only late-night host who used Daniels to jab the U.S. President. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert host Stephen Colbert compared The Shape of Water's love story to U.S. President Trump and Daniels' alleged affair.

Daniels is not the only woman that allegedly caught the U.S. president's eye. Christie Brinkley stated that the U.S. President hit on her while he was still married to his first wife, Ivana.Meghan Markle broke royal protocol and caught the attention of bystanders during a visit to Edinburgh on Tuesday when she unexpectedly hugged a member of the general public.

Social Bite Visit

One of Markle and Prince Harry's stops for their royal engagement ahead of their May 19 wedding was a visit to Social Bite, a cafe in Edinburgh that helps feed and employ the homeless. During their visit, the couple met staff and talked about the cafe's homelessness initiative.

It was while they were preparing to leave that Alice Thompson, one of the cafe's founders, talked to the future royal about the UN Women's conference in 2015. She told Markle that her speech about feminism and female empowerment inspired her. Their conversation ended with a hug outside the cafe.

Royal Protocol

Naturally, the gesture caught onlookers off-guard mainly because British royalty rarely shows affection in public. Likewise, according to royal protocol, members of the general public are not supposed to touch royals beyond a pleasant handshake.

Many may have observed how the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Prince William and Kate Middleton act around each other and to their supporters during royal engagements. They do not hold hands with each other and usually only shake hands with the people they meet.

Contrary to Markle and Prince Harry, they have not shied away from showing their affection for each other in public. The cameras often capture the couple holding hands and even smiling sweetly at each other. Although the Suits star is about to become a member of British royalty, it seems she still holds American traditions close to her heart.

This is the second time that Markle broke royal protocol. The first happened during the couple's third public engagement. The 36-year-old actress received hugs and kisses from school kids during a visit to Star Hub in Tremorfa, Cardiff. Prince Harry also welcomed a group hug from the kids.

Markle also broke one wardrobe protocol among British royals. She forgot to wear pantyhose during her engagement photoshoot.

Princess Diana

Markle's demeanor toward other people reminds royal fans of Princess Diana, Prince Harry and Prince William's mother. She was known as a royal tradition-shaker. The late princess was known to have been very accommodating when it came to handing out hugs to people she met. She would hug children, patients, and workers at hospitals, organizations, and charities she visited. Prince Harry has been observed to take after his mother's practice when it comes to public interaction. It is no wonder he and Markle complement each other.Alex Garland's highly anticipated follow-up to Ex Machina is just days away from release. However, sci-fi feature Annihilation is already drawing controversy.

The movie starsNatalie Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh as an ex-military biologist and government psychologist respectively. As part of a top-secret mission to explore a previously uncharted area where strange and possibly supernatural phenomena have occurred, they stumble upon something truly monstrous.

Whitewashed Casting

Annihilation's high-caliber female-fronted cast should be something to celebrate, but the inclusion of Portman and Leigh has drawn criticism from certain quarters. The sequel to the novel, upon which the movie is based, finds the two characters identified as women of color. More specifically, Portman's character is described as being of Asian descent while Leigh's is half Native American.

"Well, that does sound problematic. But I'm hearing it here first," admitted Portman when pressed in an interview.

Earlier this week, the Media Action Network for Asian Americans released a statement claiming that Garland was misrepresenting key characters in the book by casting white actresses rather than Asian or Native American. Likewise, the founder of American Indians in Film and Television described the matter as disappointing, but nothing new.

Although Hollywood has a long and checkered history of so-called whitewashing of popular characters, when it comes to Annihilation, it isn't as simple as blindly casting white actors regardless.

A Different Approach

The 2014 novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer doesn't contain physical descriptions of its characters  a deliberate choice by the writer himself. They're referred to only by their jobs such as the psychologist and the like.

Writer-director Garland argued that he hadn't even read Authority, the sequel to Annihilation when he wrote the screenplay for his movie. In fact, Garland quite deliberately took a different approach, rather than looking to the subsequent novels for inspiration.

"I took a really weird approach to the adaptation. I thought... I'm going to adapt it like a dream of the book," admitted Garland.

On her part, Portman acknowledged that the industry needs to try harder to be more diverse when it comes to casting in general.

"We need more representation of Asians on film, of Hispanics on film, of blacks on film, women and particularly women of color, Native Americans  I mean, we just don't have enough representation," she said.

The cast for Annihilation boasts the likes of Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, Benedict Wong, and Oscar Isaac in main roles, so it's certainly more diverse than many of its contemporaries.

Early reviews of the movie are also positive across the board, but its path to release has not run entirely smoothly after issues with producers and studio Paramount making the decision to dump the flick on Netflix for its international release.

Annihilation hits theaters on Feb. 23. The trailer for the movie has racked up over seven million views on YouTube to date.Sofia Richie made it official with Scott Disick via Instagram. The move follows a big reveal on Keeping up with the Kardashians.

Making It Instagram Official

The latest episode of the hit reality show saw 34-year-old Disick admitting, under serious pressure, to momager Kris Jenner that he's seeing 19-year-old Richie. The two were rumored to have been seeing each other for months.

Now, Richie has gone public about their relationship on the biggest social media stage of all. The model shared a sweet black-and-white shot of her and Disick on Instagram, both wearing sunglasses, arms wrapped around each other.

"Happy Valentines babe," read the caption.

Disick did not respond to his beau's Valentine's Day greeting, but he may be considering his admission on KUWTK as a grand romantic gesture that a public declaration wasn't necessary.

A Kardashian Komeback

Disick's ex, and the mother of his three kids, Kourtney Kardashian, is reportedly none too pleased about his new relationship. This is due, in large part, to the significant age gap between the two, something Kardashian's sister, Kendall Jenner, poked fun at on Instagram recently.

"Awww Scott and his kids," commented Jenner under a photo of Disick in the car with his children and Richie.

New mother Kim Kardashian West, who gave birth to daughter Chicago West by surrogate last month, has been the only one to defend the new relationship.

Things are clearly progressing between Disick and Richie, as the 19-year-old model has been spending time with his kids Reign Aston, 3, Mason Dash, 8, and Penelope Scotland, 5, lately. Allegedly, they haven't taken to Richie just yet.

"You could tell that the kids don't know Sofia well because they weren't holding her hand. Instead, they all stayed close to Scott. The kids seemed fine with her, but all sat close to Scott. He helped them at dinner and with potty breaks," a source told PEOPLE.

"Sofia acted like Scott's friend and you could tell she was trying a gentle approach to get his kids' approval," the source added.

Moving On?

Another recent episode of KUWTK saw Kourtney Kardashian detail to mother Kris how Disick still calls her in the middle of the night, complaining about his lot in life, and that he has a real issue with her having a new boyfriend.

Disick and Richie were first spotted together at Cannes in 2017 but made their first official appearance as a couple the following December, in Miami.

Since that trip, they've vacationed in Venice, Mexico, and Aspen. The couple was most recently spotted enjoying dinner together in Nobu on Feb. 8.

Disick and Kardashian ended their 10-year relationship in 2015. She coupled up with 24-year-old Younes Bendjima in 2016.One of the major policy initiatives of the National Democratic Alliance government in the agricultural sector is that of doubling farmers incomes by 2022. This is a laudable objective and, therefore, has generated a lot of academic and popular interest. The need to focus on farmers incomes instead of production or the growth rate in agriculture stems from the fact that there has been agrarian distress in the sector for the last two decades. Official recognition of the distress and the agrarian crisis came in the form of a NSSO (National Sample Survey Office) survey in 2003, which reported that 40% of Indian farmers disliked farming as a profession due to its low profits, high risk, and the lack of social status and, therefore, would like to leave it at the first opportunity (Agarwal and Agrawal 2017). They were continuing to farm in the absence of opportunities outside agriculture. Further, there are caste-wise differences among farmers in terms of their interest in farming; the higher castes seem to be more disenchanted with farming than Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) farmers. Among the SCs and STs, the dislike for farming diminishes with increase in landholding size and increases in the case of other castes (Birthal et al 2015).

The need to focus on farmers incomes also stems from the fact that a very large proportion of farming households in most of the central and eastern states (23%45%) live below the poverty line (BPL), higher than the national average (22.5%). The proportion of BPL farming households (17.5%22.5%), even in some of the so-called agriculturally progressive states, such as Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu, is close to the national average. Further, the gap between farm and non-farm incomes has grown over the decades, from a ratio of 1:3 in the mid-1980s to 1:4.08 in the middle of last decade, and 1:3.12 in 201112 (Chand 2017).

Setting the Context

There has been much debate in the press over the last few months about the definition of farmers income and the time frame for doubling it. If it is a doubling of the real incomes of farmers, then it is an important and challenging goal to achieve in five to seven years. Those who argue that it is not possible to double farmers incomes in six years cite low and unrealisable minimum support prices (MSPs), non-remunerative prices in the market, the low share of farmers in the consumer rupee, poor penetration of crop insurance, high and increasing input costs, and the absence of market infrastructure. They also cite modest growth in the past compared to the 12% annual figure needed for doubling incomes in nominal terms, which works out to an annual growth rate of 20%30% to double them in real terms. It is estimated that doubling incomes in nominal terms requires six years and, in real terms, 13 years, and it is going to need longer time frames in both respects for marginal and small farmers. Further, it would need varied time frames across different states depending on the state-level growth rates of farming household incomeswhich vary from 6.7% in West Bengal to 17.5% in Haryana in nominal terms, with the average for India being 11.8%and on the absolute levels of farmer household income (Satyasai and Mehrotra 2016). Chand (2017) estimates that farmers incomes can be increased by 75% in seven years, and that it would take 10 years for it to double.

Annual income per cultivator increased from 12,365 in 199394 to 1,20,193 by 201516, at current prices. However, at real prices, the increase has been from 21,110 to 44,027 during this period. This shows that farmers average real incomes doubled only over a period of 22 years. Even the total farm income of all farmers at real prices just about doubled during this period, from 3 lakh crore (3 trillion) to 6 lakh crore (6 trillion). This works out to a growth rate of 3.4% a year per cultivator and 3.13% for total farmer income over the period (Chand 2017).

Two Road Maps by States

Some states have already designed road maps for doubling farmers incomes. For example, Madhya Pradesh did it in 2016 and has also estimated the contributions of various sources of increase in incomes: increase in yields would contribute 30%, agricultural diversification 20%, reduction in input costs and better prices 15% each, with the rest coming from an expansion in area under cultivation (14%) and a reduction in post-harvest losses (6%) (Government of Madhya Pradesh 2016; Satyasai and Mehrotra 2016). Regarding increases in yields, the gap between present and attainable yields was found to be as high as 43%131% across different crops (coarse grains, pulses, and oil seeds) in Madhya Pradesh.

The state government has set up a task force on the issue of doubling farmers incomes and has appointed an advisory committee of 51 progressive farmers under the chairmanship of the minister of agriculture. Fifty-one districts have prepared their own road maps for this purpose and 55,000 villages are also working towards preparing such road maps, which would be presented to the village panchayats especially set up for agriculture at the time of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Mahotsav. District irrigation plans have been prepared under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY). Half a million temporary agricultural pumps are also being made permanent with an allocation of 5,000 crore. The Government of Madhya Pradesh identified 19 pillars in order to double farmers incomes. These include: increased irrigation from public sources, additional electricity supply for agriculture, interest-free crop loans, expansion of agricultural area, encouraging mechanisation, agricultural diversification, expansion of modern seeds, soil health management, new channels of agricultural technology extension, farmerproducer company organisation, expansion of the food processing sector, encouragement to organic farming, management of natural risk in agriculture, expansion of agricultural storage capacity, better organisation of agricultural markets, animal husbandry, fisheries, silk, bamboo and agroforestry production, and institutional structures for achieving the objective.

So far, 142 farmerproducer companies have been set up and 300 more such companies are planned by 2021. The institutional structures include an agricultural cabinet, a separate agricultural budget, a task force for the agricultural sector, a farmers commission for agricultural development and farmer well-being, and micro irrigation and agroforestry missions. It is estimated that yield- and production-related efforts would lead to 70% of additional farmer income with the remaining 30% coming equally from cost reduction, higher prices, and reduced economic losses (Government of Madhya Pradesh 2016).

Similarly, the Government of Chhattisgarh has decided to focus on seven points to increase farmers incomes: agricultural development of Adivasi farmers, reducing the cost of cultivation, increase in yields, improving the marketing infrastructure, storage and processing facilities, development of irrigation, agricultural diversification, and a better agricultural extension system. It estimates that the union governments soil health card scheme would lead to a saving of 10% on fertilisers and contribute to a 5% increase in yields. It also plans to use Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to recharge 4,50,000 irrigation wells and raise the yields of rice, maize, pulses, and oilseeds. It proposes to set up at least 20 farmerproducer companies in each district and bring half the number of farmers under a crop insurance scheme. The expected reduction in the cost of production through various means is estimated to be 5%25%. Production would increase 15%30%, price realisation 10%20%, cropping intensity 15%30%, and off-farm sources 5%30%, with extension contributing 5%20%. Thus, incomes can increase between 55% and 155% over the next seven years.

It further details crop-specific increases in income, which vary from 5%35% across crops due to seed replacement, 10% due to bio-fertilisers, and 5%10% due to mechanical sowing. It is also expected that a 15% increase in incomes will come from the use of check dams and small irrigation ponds each. The area under horticulture has been targeted to increase by more than 60%, and the number of onion storage structures to rise to 100 from 12 at present. The area under protected cultivation is expected to more than double during this period. Similar increases in income from animal husbandry are estimated, with 30% due to a rise in yields, and 10% each from reduced costs of production, price increases, better risk management, and the expansion of government schemes. The major activities for achieving higher income targets include: an increase in the seed replacement rate of maize and lentils, expansion in issuing soil health cards, the promotion of the system of rice intensification, drip and sprinkler irrigation, and enhancement of short-term crop loans. The other major steps include linking up of markets with the national agricultural market, e-NAM, expanding cold storage infrastructure and storage capacity, building green/shed net houses, organising new dairy cooperative societies, expanding bulk milk cooler and milk-chilling centre capacities, cage culture in fisheries, and agri-clinics and agricultural business centres, and doubling the production of lac (Department of Agriculture and Food Processing 2017).

Raising Farmers Incomes

There could be various mechanisms to achieve growth in farmers incomes within as well as outside the farm sector. Within the farm sector, the increase in incomes can come from greater production per unit area as a result of higher yields, as there are yield gaps of the order of 25%100% across various crops especially in dryland regions, and in some high-value crops even in irrigated areas. Indias average yields in most crops are only half that of Chinas. The increase can also come from higher cropping intensity, lower costs of production, higher prices, or a combination thereof. But yields are not amenable to sudden change as they depend on the type of technology deployed, which cannot be altered in a very short period of time. Also, high-yielding varieties need irrigation facilities, which cannot be expanded quickly.

The other mechanism to achieving higher volumes of production, without increases in yield, is higher cropping intensity, which would happen only if there is an increase in the area under irrigation or a greater access to water. This again is not achievable in the short-term despite the fact that there is plenty of focus on the expansion of irrigation through schemes such as the PMKSY, and the promotion of micro-irrigation. The latter is particularly stuck in the face of the widespread political practice of extending free power to farmers to extract groundwater, barring a few states like Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, where there are dedicated efforts to popularise micro-irrigation among farmers. It is also important to remember that higher production (from better yields or increases in cropping intensity) would not by themselves lead to higher incomes in the absence of any price support mechanism or well lined-up markets for the produce, as witnessed recently in the case of pulses.

Reducing the cost of production (of which 11% comprises machinery costs) is most doable, as this requires extension education to the farmers and providing access to low-cost mechanical services to small and marginal farmers, who cannot afford to buy and own costly machines and equipment. This is happening across states with the opening up of custom hiring service centres by cooperatives, producer companies, self-help groups, and private individual operators, as well as large agri-machinery companies and agricultural start-ups, with and without state support. Similarly, despite the fact that public extension services are more or less dysfunctional due to various reasons, there are many new players like agricultural start-ups working closely with farmers to provide extension services as part of a package.

Another mechanism of increasing farmers incomesthrough higher or more stable pricesis unlikely to fructify, given the inability of the state to implement the MSP mechanism for two dozen crops with effective procurement across various states, with state agencies restricting themselves to a few states and a few crops to meet the public foodgrain procurement quotas. Only 25% of the farmers were aware of MSP at the all-India level in 201213 with only 8% aware of it in Maharashtra and 11% in Gujarat, and going up only to a maximum of 50% even in Punjab. It was the highest (23%25%) in the case of cash cropssuch as sugar cane, jute and cottonand cereals, and was only 9% in the case of pulses and 17% for oilseeds. Only about 19% farmers knew of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and 75% did not sell to procurement agencies (Aditya et al 2017). Further, the government may not be inclined to increase the MSP or set up a price stabilisation fund as evident in the fact that the government has expressed its inability to implement the Swaminathan Committee recommendation of the MSP being pegged at 50% above the cost of production.

Diversification towards high-value crops can help raise incomes, and are also desirable for social and environmental reasons, as these crops account for a large proportion of the value of output but cover a relatively lower area. Cereal crops cover 77% of the gross cropped area (GCA), but account for 41% of the value of agricultural output. Fruits and vegetables, on the other hand, cover 7.7% of the GCA and contribute 26% of the value of output; all high-value crops cover 19% of the GCA and account for 41% of the value of output. But, there are many policy distortions that undermine diversification, although the markets encourage it. And, success in this sector depends highly on reforming agricultural markets and improving their performance from the farmers perspective. Further, new channels of procurementthat is, contract farming, direct purchase, and private wholesale markets in these crops, which are much neededare either missing or not adequately available due to a lack of policy direction and the political economy of such new market arrangements at the local level.

Another important measure that can help farmers protect their incomes from production risk is crop insurance, which still has not been effectively implemented despite the relaunch of crop insurance schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. In fact, this now also covers a part of the market risk as it also provides for compensation for post-harvest losses. However, the schemes coverage remains at only 30% of the GCA. There have also been many issues regarding claims settlements, in addition to the lack of awareness about the scheme, and the exclusion of small and marginal farmers.

The mechanisms for increasing farmers incomes outside the farm sector include access to off-farm and non-farm employment and occupationssuch as dairy farming or handicraftsas well as moving people out of the farming sector altogether. Whereas the first measure can help provide additional and more regular incomes, the second one can increase incomes of those left behind in farming as there will be fewer people to share the same income. Having said that, moving people out of the farming sector is highly unlikely to happen as there are hardly any opportunities for unskilled or semi-skilled farm hands outside the sector.

Growth Targets

Chand (2017) examined the prospects of doubling farmers incomes by adding up various sources of income growth like yield, livestock income, resource-use efficiency, cropping intensity, crop diversification, better price realisation, and shifting to non-farm occupations, and found that it is mainly price realisation that can give the maximum push to income (growing at 13%). It also estimated the required growth rate in the different components of sources of income, in order to double farm income, as against those achieved in the past. The growth rates required are at least 1% higher than those achieved in most components in the past, except in resource use efficiency, cropping intensity, and shift to non-farm occupations. In fact, the required growth rate in the price of crop output is 4% higher than that achieved in the past in Karnataka even with the help of the electronic integration of markets within the state. It also provided growth targets to be achieved in various development initiatives like quality seeds, fertilisers, irrigation expansion, supply of electricity, cropping intensity, area under high-value crops, and area under high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds.

The targets for 202223 are more than double in the case of quality seed supply, electricity supply, and very high for fertilisers, irrigation, cropping intensity, and HYV coverage. In fact, the area under fruits and vegetables is targeted to reach 26 million hectares (ha) from less than 17 million ha in 201314, which is a tall order, as is the higher target for cropping intensity, from 40% to 53% in 10 years. Some of the policy reforms suggested towards doubling farmers incomes like the liberalisation of leasing land, as proposed by Niti Aayog (2016), are likely to have certain other adverse impacts on small and marginal farmers unless there are mechanisms in place to ensure that they are not bypassed by various initiatives from the state and the corporate sector.

Beyond Business as Usual

It is important to realise that small farmers in India are highly differentiated in terms of their market participation. In terms of marketable and marketed surplus as a proportion of foodgrains production, they range from highly commercial, and a mix of subsistence and commercial, to those who are mainly subsistence farmers. The marketable surplus varies from a high of 61% mainly in commercial regions to a low of 45% in mainly subsistence regions, and the same goes for marketed surplus. The latter is, in fact, slightly higher than marketable surplus for the subsistence plus commercial and the mainly substance categories of farmers; they end up selling more than they are supposed to sell, and the gap between marketed and marketable surplus is 0.6%4% for the two categories respectively (Agarwal and Agrawal 2017).

Interestingly, it is also proposed by some scholars, rightly, that perhaps one of the ways to achieve the target of enhancing farmers incomes would be to focus on rainfed areas, the eastern region, and small farmers instead of an undifferentiated approach (Satyasai and Mehrotra 2016). This makes sense, as 43% of the population and more than 60% of the agricultural area in India is in dry or rainfed regions.

For raising farm incomes, there is a need to reorganise agriculture in terms of institutions at the local level, with farmers becoming part of collectives like cooperatives and producer companies. This will enable them to get involved in domestic and global value chains, which can help them lower the costs of production and marketing, and achieve scale to realise higher prices and surpluses. This requires investment in agriculture and agribusinesses by converting subsidies into investments.

Livestock and agricultural wages are significant sources of income for farming households in India, especially for marginal and small farmers. For example, in Bihar, on average, a farming household earns only 47% of its income from farming, 29% from livestock, and 13% from casual labour. It is hence important to focus on livestock sector development and public employment programmes like the MGNREGS, to create income sources other than farming.

Even the residue of major crops like paddy and cotton, which is burnt in many states and has become a policy and social issue, can be utilised to create a new source of income for landless and marginal farmers and other rural workers, as part of the agro-industrialisation process which is a logical corollary of agricultural growth and development. A more proactive and creative involvement of workers in agricultural mechanisation, and of small farmers in the agro-industrialisation process, is crucial for the overall positive results of this intervention.

It is also important to recognise that India is not the only country to set this kind of target regarding farmers incomes. China set this objective of doubling farmers incomes in 2008, but it plans to meet it over 12 years (200820), and not five to seven years despite the fact that China has better functioning institutions and infrastructure in place. China, though, has a limit to what it can achieve on the yields front, as its average yields are double that of India. The Chinese strategy of doubling the income of farmers involves expanding channels for the generation of income, expanding the non-agricultural sector to shift surplus labour out of agriculture and into medium and large cities, and building an integrated labour market. This is a part of a larger agricultural development model, which focuses on stable grain production, building and strengthening farmer cooperatives, expanding agribusinesses, food quality and safety, agricultural science and technology, creating a new social service system for agriculture for the supply of inputs, finance, insurance and extension by non-governmental organisations, and public and large private agencies. It also includes subsidies for grain production and farm inputs, a minimum grain procurement price, reform of agricultural laws and regulations, and opening the agricultural sector to the world (Schneider 2016). It is good to be ambitious but can India run faster than China, that too in the agricultural sector, given that our federal structure and democracy has its own dynamic in terms of policy space for the central government and the states?

Finally, leaving the objectives of doubling farmers incomes to states is good step as agriculture is a state subject. But then how do the sources of the idea and its promotion (Niti Aayog and the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare [MoAFW]) make sure that it is tried even if it does not eventually happen? Going by the experience of agricultural market reforms at the state level so far, despite the model Agricultural Produce Market Committee Act and many other recipes being handed out by Niti Aayog and the MoAFW, it is unlikely that various states would come on board for this mission of doubling farmers incomes even though it is an important objective for all states politically. But they may like to do it in their own ways given the diversity in agriculture across states, and their understanding of mechanisms to achieve it. As is clear from the example of the two states given above, different states would need varied strategies as they are at different levels of agricultural development in terms of growth rates and the level of farmer incomes.

References

Aditya, K S et al (2017): Awareness of Minimum Support Price and Its Impact on Diversification Decision of Farmers in India, Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Vol 4, No 3, pp 51426.

Agarwal, B and A Agrawal (2017): Do Farmers Really Like Farming? Indian Farmers in Transition, Oxford Development Studies, Vol 45, No 4, pp 46078, doi:10.1080/13600818.2017.1283010.

Birthal, P S et al (2015): Farmers Preference for Farming: Evidence from a Nationally Representative Farm Survey in India, Developing Economies, Vol 53, No 2, pp 12234.

Chand, R (2017): Doubling Farmers IncomeRationale, Strategy, Prospects and Action Plan, NITI Policy Paper No 1, 2017, Niti Aayog, Government of India, New Delhi.

Department of Agriculture and Food Processing (2017): Roadmap For Doubling of Farmers Income in Chhattisgarh by 2022, Government of Chhattisgarh, Raipur.

Government of Madhya Pradesh (2016): Roadmap for Doubling M P Farmers Income in 5 Years, Government of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal.

Niti Aayog (2016): Report of the Expert Committee on Land Leasing, 31 March, Government of India, New Delhi.

Satyasai, K J S and N Mehrotra (2016): Enhancing Farmers Income, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, New Delhi, 12 July, http://www.agricoop.nic.in/sites/default/files/12%20July%202016%20Sat%20....

Schneider, M (2016): Dragon Head Enterprises and the State of Agribusiness in China, Journal of Agrarian Change, Vol 17, No 1, pp 321, doi:10.1111/joac.12151.The European Unions trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said that the United States was shooting itself in the foot by withdrawing from its leadership role in international trade. The 49-year old Swede said that she had no idea what Donald Trump was going to tell his audience at the upcoming World Economic Forum in Davos. Since coming into office a year ago, President Trump has withdrawn the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), threatened to get rid of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and introduced steel tariffs that could hit China as well as Europe.

In contrast to America, Europe has been busy clinching trade deals recently with a preliminary agreement with Japan concluded at the end of last year. Early this year, Brussels hopes to seal deals with Mexico and the Latin American Mercosur. Ms. Malmstrom explained that this activity was partly pushed by Donald Trumps retreat, as countries around the world are keen on building new trade relationships. The EU is confident again that following years of economic crisis and Britains 2016 Brexit vote, there is energy for new trade deals

We have shown that we have overcome that acute crisis, so many countries are turning to Europe for leadership and for partnership, said Ms. Malmstrom, who will also be attending the high-profile Davos event. With other countries, we are now setting the standards and that is also why it is bad for the US to withdraw because there are standards set now and they will be global.

Ms. Malmstrom said that Europe does not like to see Americas disengagement. We want American leadership in the world. They shouldnt disengage, she said. She added that the EU was also disappointed at the US actions at the World Trade Organization (WTO) where the US administration blocked the appointment of judges, thus jeopardizing the very functioning of the organization. She also described a WTO ministerial meeting in Buenos Aires in December a disgrace after it has failed to reach any agreements.The new EU budget should dedicate at least 25 billion euros to Eurozone countries only in the next long-term budget, the Commission proposed. The Eurozone budget line would finance national structural reforms and help countries still outside the single currency area to bring their economies closer to the Eurozone.vThe EUs Budget Commissioner Guenther Oettinger also said that the EUs next budget should be bigger than the current one despite the departure of Great Britain.

Mr. Oettinger also added that the next budget  for 2021 to 2027  should be between 1.1 and 1.2 percent of EU gross national income, compared to the current 1.0 percent. The reform delivery tool and the convergence facility will need to be able to provide strong support and incentives for a broad range of reforms across Member States, the Commission said. A budget line in the order of at least 25 billion euros over a seven-year period would provide critical mass and help avoid a concentration of funding on a few member states only, it said.

Following Brexit, Denmark will be the only EU member states that has a formal opt-out from ever joining the euro and all others are legally obliged to adopt the single currency once they meet the Maastricht criteria  the euro convergence criteria. The EU executive also proposed that there should be money available as a stabilization function for the Eurozone to help protect its members from crises. The stabilization function is to be built progressively over time, relying on back-to-back loans guaranteed by the EU budget, loans from the European Monetary Fund, a voluntary insurance mechanism based on national contributions as well as a grant component from the European budget, the Commission said.Members of the European Parliament are lobbying for intensified efforts to address the Rohingya crisis after learning about the appalling conditions in Bangladeshi refugee camps. Since late August 2017, more than 688,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Burmas Rakhine State to escape the militarys ethnic cleansing. The Rohingya are fleeing from atrocities allegedly committed by Burmese security forces, such as mass killings, rape, and widespread arson. The Rohingya are effectively denied citizenship under Burmese law and they have faced decades of repression and discrimination.

Its a huge challenge for Bangladesh and also for international organizations. We must strengthen our efforts to give support, especially to the organizations involved here, German MEP Joachim Zeller (EPP) commented. A few MEPs visited Myanmar this week and met with the local authorities. Jean Lambert, the leader of the EU Delegation for Relations with the countries of South Asia, said following his visit of the camps that this was a very difficult situation to manage. Bangladesh has already hosted many thousands of people, who have been expelled from Myanmar, we understand that in addition to over the million people already here, there are still people arriving, there are still some stuck on the border who cannot leave, he said.

The Chairman of the Subcommittee on Human Rights, Italys Pier Antonio Panzeri, commented that he was disappointed with how the Burmese de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, failed to address the crisis. Ms. San Suu Kyi is a Novel Peace Price laureate and was also awarded EUs human rights award, Sakharov Prize in 1990. The MEPs also used their visit to Myanmar to raise important questions to the countrys authorities and to make sure that a deal signed with Bangladesh in November to return the Rohingyas was implemented with all guarantees in terms of human rights.Germany installed more than 40% of the European Unions wind power capacity in 2017, a year in which the sector installed more supplies than any other form of energy across the bloc. 15.7 GW of new power capacity was added last year, representing more than half of the total new power capacity  an increase by 20% over 2016. Germany itself installed 6.6 GW new wind power capacity or 42% of the EUs total. The country also logged the highest annual increase of wind energy in electricity demand  from 16% to 20%.

Overall, Germany is the leader in the industry with the largest total installed power capacity, followed by the UK, France and Spain. In contrast, Denmark, meanwhile, is the country with the largest share of wind in its power mix, reaching 44% of the countrys electricity demand. More generally, renewable energies  wind and solar  accounted for an overwhelming majority of the new capacity added, accounting for about 85% of the total installed last year.

Thus, wind energy now accounts for 18% of the blocs total installed power generation capacity. At the same time, power production from fuel oil and coal-fired power plants declined as electricity firms continued to decommission more capacity than they installed. Supplies of gas-fired power were unchanged given the amount of decommissioned capacity almost equaling newly commissioned gas-fired generation capacity.

Giles Dickson, the CEO of WindEurope  a nonprofit organization promoting wind energy, said that the record 2017 performance was yet another proof that wind power is now mainstream and delivers bang for your buck. Yet, he also warned that the record was possible due to the fact that a lot of the new projects were pushed through the gates to benefit from feed-in-tariffs and other old support schemes while they still applied.Energia

La electricas tendran que devolver 2.600 millones de euros hasta marzo para abaratar el recibo de la luzThis Page Is Under Construction - Coming Soon!

Why am I seeing this 'Under Construction' page?Hi Chris



I don't wish to pour cold water on your plans, but you may have difficulties finding a suitable apartment for yourself and your little dog as dogs are not always welcome. You'll need the permission of the Management Committee.



The regulations governing apartments contains a clause:



No owner or occupier shall, without the prior consent of the Management Committee and in contravention of the provisions of any relevant Law (or) Regulations 



(k) keep any animal in any unit;

Provided that one may keep a domestic animal which does not cause any disturbance or contravention of any Law or Regulation which is in force;



I hope you manage to find something.



Regards,Hi all



I am looking for squash playing partner, I am average player and played often in last 3 years, but now out of circle. Someone is willing I can drive in his/her area too.



MohsinJust went to the Carcassonne Prefecture to start the process of exchanging our Texas drivers licenses for French ones. This is the list they gave us:



1. CERFA form 14948*01 (she gave me these)

2. Original license

3 Translation of license (We also got International drivers licenses before we left - she said this was acceptable, as already translated) - we'll see.

4. Copy of passport

5. Justicatif of domicile, dated less than 3 months

6. Copy of French Visa (with OFII vignette)

7. Driving record from Texas, dated less than 3 months (translated)

8. 4 photographs



No appointment needed when we have all the paperwork - just bring it in. We got a quote for 50 euros each for translation on driving records, which we were able to get online from Texas DPS for $12.00 US each.



Of course previously, the OFII said we didn't need a stamp or medical and we have that letter, which they said to bring a copy, which they read and said they never heard of, but if it says we don't need it - they said OK. We'll see.



Translations should be here next week - so I'll update when we go in. Wish us luck!



KarenI am going through all this paper work now on the tax/vat stuff. We will be exempt since we are just now moving and bringing our stuff. In order to get the exemption you need a letter called something like a change of residency letter from the consulate where you are a resident. In order to get said letter you need to either go to or email the consulate where you are a resident (in the US) and you need to provide them with the past 12 months of utility bills for your residence in the US and a few other documents to prove residency as well as your French passport and/or your husband's Visa which would have been issued by them. If you are French they are going to request that you have registered with them as living in their jurisdiction at least a year ago and provide proof of that. If you do not have that you will need to provide them with yet more documentation.



Further, the documents I received with my Visa/CDS are VERY clear about the 1 year limitation for tax/duty free import.



From what I've seen it is really doubtful that you will get a French consulate to issue the change of residency letter, which will be absolutely required by any shipper who is going to attempt to import your items tax/duty free. Tax and duty are about 31%. When you do your shipment you will need to give an itemized list of everything and assign a value, said value is whatever you think you could sell the item for. You can certainly minimize the value but I doubt these customs guys are dummy, claiming that a camera is worth only $5 or that a sofa is worth $10 is probably not going to fly. Presumably if you are going to the expense of shipping the stuff you stuff is likely going to be more than your shipping expense. Your shipping expense will likely be $3,000 to $5,000. So unless you are shipping nothing more than a 1/3 container full of personal photographs expect to pay at least 30% of that on the duty.



As for the car.. Don't totally believe all the negativity. It can be done, but for an 8 year old car it may not be worth it.Marriage to Filipina



I am ex UK Imm retire 15 years ago I say Tell the truth Dadman 63, I travelled to Philippines twice year (Cebu) and have done so for the last 15 years, never had any problems with immigration from my first trip and have only obtained "vacation" visa for 3 of these years and would near the end of visa date (say 25 day) I just pop into local immigration office and they stamp my passport with extension As I am now married to a Filipina and she came to UK on Spouse visa, if you are getting married in Philippines then you will have to remain in the Philippines for 21 days before you can get married. If you get or thinking married then it situation changes which visa you need I suggest you check out both the Philippine and the British rules for info follow both the Philippine and British rules and you cannot go wrong.



However the rules change Jan 2018 which you must follow out, when it comes down to bringing your spouse to live in the UK, if you are British subject and you intend bringing you wife to UK to live the get in contact with UK Immigration and check out the rules first, one word of warning do not use people who offer to sort everything out for you for a sum of money. I brought my now wife to live in UK you would not believe the amount of time and paperwork is required and the number of trips to the British Embassy in Manila. Just to let you know you will not be able to become a Filipino subject, My wife and 2 two sons have duel passports eg British and Filipino but I cannot obtain a Filipino passport but you can get a years visa and extend if required.

Hope all goes well for you, the amount UK bureaucracy now is unbelievable but if you do not follow the rules you are asking for trouble. Lastly do not think once your wife is in the UK only 1 visa is required hence this is why you read the new UK Immigration rulesThe disease outbreak resulted in the culling of more than 11,000 animals

By Diego Flammini

News Reporter

Farms.com

The investigation into the 2016 bovine tuberculosis (TB) outbreak that impacted Western Canadas beef industry is one step closer to completion.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agnecy (CFIA) lifted All quarantines in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which includes about 30,000 animals, the agency announced on Monday.

Since a cow from an Alberta ranch tested positive for the disease in September 2016, more than 22,000 cattle in Alberta and Saskatchewan were under quarantine.

Officials ordered approximately 11,500 animals to be destroyed and producers have received about $39 million in compensation.

The CFIA will complete more testing before the investigation can officially close. But the agencys ruling on the quarantines is a great piece of news, said Karin Schmid, beef production specialist with Alberta Beef Producers.

Were really pleased and its a big milestone in the investigation to have these quarantines lifted, she told Farms.com today. We still need to wait for the final cultures to be released in the spring but its a huge weight off producers shoulders. Everybody is really happy about it.

This milestone in the investigation also allows the industry to reflect on the lessons learned from the bovine TB outbreak.

Communication between the cattle industry and CFIA are crucial, as are biosecurity practices. Developing a plan is also important, Schmid said.

Lawrence MacAulay, the federal agriculture minister, applauded the CFIAs efforts during the investigation process.

I am pleased that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has now removed all quarantines from farms with cattle in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba and that no additional cases of bovine tuberculosis have been detected, he said in a statement Monday. The cooperation of individual producers and their industry associations played a key role in the progress of the investigation and this has allowed Canada to retain its bovine TB free status with no disruption to international markets.Kennebunk Post

Extensive work on the steeple, the Aaron Willard Jr. clock and the weathervane of the 1824 building is complete.The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike.

We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve.The following summarizes the FCPA Docket for individuals, which includes all known FCPA-related ongoing prosecutions, fugitives, sentencings, and pending appeals.

This information is current as of February 13, 2018.

FCPA-Related Ongoing Prosecutions

Uriel Sharef, Herbert Steffen, Ulrich Bock, Stephan Signer and Eberhard Reichert, Carlos Sergi and Miguel Czysch (DOJ | SDNY 11-1056): The DOJ charged the defendants, all former senior executives with or agents of Siemens AG or one of its subsidiaries, on December 13, 2011. Reichert, a former executive of Siemens Business Services, agreed to be extradited to the United States after his September 2017 arrest in Croatia. He pleaded not guilty on December 22, 2017, and is scheduled to stand trial on July 16, 2018. No trial date has been scheduled for the other defendants, who remain at large. As non-U.S. nationals currently living abroad, these defendants will likely require extradition to be tried. Andres Truppel, an additional executive charged alongside these defendants, pleaded guilty on September 30, 2015, and is still awaiting sentencing (see Pending Sentencings below).

Jald Jensen (DOJ | NDOK 12-06): The DOJ charged Jensen, a former Sales Manager for Bizjet International, along with Bernd Kowalewski, the former CEO of Bizjet, on April 5, 2013. Kowalewski, who pleaded guilty in July 2014, was sentenced to time served on November 18, 2014. No trial date is currently scheduled for Jensen, who appears to be living outside of the United States.

Dmitry Firtash, Andras Knopp, Suren Gevorgyan, Gajebdra Lal, Periyasamy Sunderalingam, and KVP Ramachandra Rao (DOJ | NDIL 13-515): The DOJ charged the defendants, all non-U.S. nationals, under seal on June 20, 2013, and unsealed the charges on April 2, 2014. Firtash, a Ukrainian national, was arrested in March 2014 and released after posting $174 million in bail. According to the indictment, Firtash controls Group DF, a company named, but not charged, along with several other companies reportedly associated with Firtash. The United States sought to extradite Firtash, but had its request rejected by an Austrian court on April 30, 2015. This ruling was overturned on appeal on February 21, 2017, but on December 12, 2017, the Austrian Supreme Court stayed Firtashs extradition pending its review of the appellate court decision. The other five defendants are at large, and no trial dates are currently scheduled. As non-U.S. nationals currently living abroad, these defendants will likely require extradition to be tried. (Note: Rao, a Member of Parliament in India, has only been charged non-FCPA offenses).

Lawrence Hoskins (DOJ | DCCN 12-238): The DOJ charged Hoskins, the former Senior Vice-President of Alstom Asia, in a superseding indictment against William Pomponi, the former Vice-President of Regional Sales for Alstom SAs U.S.-subsidiary, on July 30, 2013. Pomponi pleaded guilty on July 17, 2014, but passed away in 2016 while awaiting sentencing. By contrast, Hoskins has sought to have the charges against him dismissed. Although on December 30, 2014, the Court denied Hoskins initial motion to dismiss, on August 14, 2015, the Court agreed to strike the conspiracy count against him on the grounds that Hoskins, a non-U.S. citizen/domestic concern, was not Alstoms agent and so could not be prosecuted under the FCPA for conduct occurring outside the territory of the United States. On March 16, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut affirmed its earlier ruling that a non-resident foreign national cannot be charged with conspiracy to violate the FCPA (or with aiding and abetting a violation of the FCPA) unless the government can show that he acted either as an agent of a domestic concern or while physically present in the United States. DOJ appealed to the 2nd Circuit on April 4, 2016 (2d Cir. 16-01010). Oral arguments in the case were held on March 2, 2017, but the court has yet to issue a ruling in the matter. The sentencing for the other defendants convicted in connection with this matter has been suspended until the appeal is concluded (see Pending Sentencings below).

Alain Riedo (DOJ | SDCA 13-3789): The DOJ charged Riedo, the former Vice-President and General Manager of Maxwell Technologies wholly owned Swiss subsidiary, on October 15, 2013, and an arrest warrant was issued the same day. No trial date is currently scheduled, with Reido still at large. As a non-U.S. national living abroad, Riedo will likely require extradition to be tried.

Ban Ki Sang (DOJ | SDNY 16-cr-0831), Sang Woo (DOJ | SDNY 17-0139) and Andrew Simon (DOJ | SDNY 17-7717): The DOJ charged Ban, a South Korean construction executive, along with his son Joo Hyun Bahn, a New York commercial real estate broker, and Malcolm Harris, an arts and fashion consultant and blogger, under seal in an indictment on December 15, 2016 (unsealing the charges on January 10, 2017). The DOJ charged Woo and Simon, Manhattan-based commercial real estate brokers, in separate criminal complaints on January 10, 2017, and October 17, 2017, respectively. Woo and Bahn, both South Korean nationals and U.S. permanent residents, were arrested on January 10, 2017, while Harris was arrested on January 13, 2017. It is not clear when Simon was arrested. Bahn pleaded guilty on January 5, 2018, and his sentencing is set for June 29, 2018 (see Pending Sentencings below). Harris pleaded guilty to a non-FCPA offense on June 21, 2017, and was sentenced on October 13, 2017 (see Recent Dismissals, Sentencings and Denials below). Woo, whose case had been continued until May 12, 2017, is reportedly in the midst of negotiating a potential plea. Simon appeared in court on October 31, 2017, but did not enter a plea and was released on bond. No trial date is currently scheduled in his case. Finally, Ban, a South Korean national, remains at large. As a non-U.S. national living abroad, Ban will likely require extradition to be tried.

Michael L. Cohen and Vanja Baros (SEC | EDNY 17-00430) and (DOJ | EDNY 17-00544): The SEC charged Cohen and Baros, two former Och-Ziff executives, on January 26, 2017. Cohen is a dual U.S. and U.K. national, while Baros is an Australian national living in the United Kingdom. On January 3, 2018, the DOJ then indicted Cohen. No trial dates are currently scheduled on the civil or criminal side.

Joseph Baptiste (DOJ | D Mass 17-10305): The DOJ charged Baptiste, a retired U.S. Army Colonel, under seal on August 28, 2017, and unsealed the complaint on August 29, 2017, the same day Baptiste was arrested. On October 5, 2017, the DOJ issued an indictment against Baptiste that included an additional charge. No trial date is currently scheduled for Baptiste.

Mark Lambert (DOJ | D. Md. 18-0002): The DOJ charged Lambert, the former co-president of a Maryland-based company that transports nuclear materials, under seal on January 10, 2018, and unsealed the 11-count indictment on January 16, 2018. No trial date is currently scheduled for Lambert.

Petros Contoguris (DOJ | SDOH 17-233): On October 12, 2017, the DOJ indicted Contoguris, the founder and chief executive officer of Gravitas & CIE. International Ltd., for activities related to the Rolls Royce enforcement action. Contoguris is believed to be outside of the United States. Several other individuals, including James Finley, Keith Barnett, Aloysius Johannes Jozef Zuurhout, and Andreas Kohler, were indicted on related charges and have pleaded guilty (see Pending Sentences section).

Cheikh Gadio (DOJ | SDNY 17-8611) and Chi Ping Patrick Ho (DOJ | SDNY 17-779): The DOJ charged the Ho, the head of a Hong Kong-based NGO, and Gadio, the former foreign minister of Senegal, under seal on November 16, 2017, and unsealed the complaint on November 20, 2017. Both men were arrested the weekend before the complaint was unsealed. Ho pleaded not guilty on January 8, 2018, while Gadio has not yet entered a plea. No trial date has been set for either man.

Luis Carlos De Leon Perez and Nervis Gerardo Villalobos Cardenas (DOJ | SDTX 17-514): The DOJ indicted De Leon and Villalobos, both former employees of Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), on August 23, 2017, and unsealed the indictment on February 12, 2018. De Leon and Villalobos were arrested in Spain and are currently awaiting extradition to the United States. Co-defendants Cesar David Rincon Godoy, Rafael Ernesto Reiter Munoz, and Alejandro Isturiz Chiesa were all charged with non-FCPA offenses.

FCPA-Related Fugitives

Han Yong Kim (DOJ | CDCA 09-77): The DOJ charged Kim, the former president of CCIs Korean office, on April 8, 2009. Kim, a non-U.S. national, has been challenging his fugitive status in an attempt to contest his indictment without surrendering to U.S. authorities. The Ninth Circuit rejected his challenge in April 2014. The South Korean government has reportedly refused requests to extradite Kim because it does not consider the individuals Kim is accused of bribing to be public officials.

Washington Vasconez Cruz, and Cecilia Zurita, (DOJ | SDFL 09-21010): The DOJ initially charged Cruz, and Zurita, executives with the telecommunications companies Uniplex Telecom Technologies and Cinergy Telecommunications, in 2011, and issued a superseding indictment in 2012. Cruz and Zurita were declared fugitives on March 7, 2013, along with a third defendant, Amadeus Richers, who was arrested on February 23, 2017 (see Recent Dismissals, Sentencings and Denials below). Numerous other individuals have been convicted in connection with this matter, including former co-defendants Joel Esquenazi and Carlos Rodriguez, who unsuccessfully appealed their 2011 convictions to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (see Pending Appeals below).

Enrique Faustino Aguilar Noriega (DOJ | CDCA 10-1031): Noriega was the Director of Grupo Internacional de Asesores SA, a sales agent hired by Lindsay Manufacturing. The DOJ charged Noriega in 2010, along with Linsday Manufacturing and several other defendants. While Linsday Manufacturing and all the other individuals charged in connection with this case have had the charges against them dropped, Noreigas case is still listed as open. While the United States has reportedly ended its efforts to extradite Noriega, he remains a fugitive.

James Tillery (DOJ | SDTX 08-22): The DOJ charged Tillery, a former executive for Willbros International, in 2008. Tillery was reportedly arrested in Nigeria in 2010, but immigration officials prevented the FBI from extraditing him without proper documentation. A Nigerian court later found the initial arrest of Tillery to be illegal and ordered him released. Nigerian police, however, reportedly refused to comply with this request. The status of U.S. efforts to extradite Tillery is unclear. Tillery remains a fugitive.

Edgar Valverde Acosta (DOJ | SDFL 06-20797): The DOJ charged Acosta, the President of Alcatel de Costa Rica and Senior Country Officer for Alcatel Lucent SA in Central America, in 2006. Acosta is considered a fugitive.

Victor Kozeny (DOJ | SDNY 05-518): The DOJ charged Kozeny, a Czech-born investor, in 2005. The United States attempted to extradite Kozeny from the Bahamas for years; however, the Bahamas court of last resort, the U.K. Privy Council, rejected the extradition request on March 28, 2012. Kozeny remains a fugitive.

Pablo Barquero Hernandez (DOJ | WDMO 01-190): The DOJ charged Hernandez, a former employee of Owl Securities and Investment, in 2001. Hernandez is considered a fugitive.

Joaquin Pou (DOJ | SDFL 89-802): The DOJ charged Pou, a former agent for AEA Aircraft Recovery, in 1989. Pou is considered a fugitive.

Ricardo Beltran and Mario Gonzalez (DOJ | SDTX 82-224): The DOJ charged Beltran and Gonzalez, both associated with Grupo Delta, in 1982. Beltran and Gonzalez are considered fugitives.

FCPA-Related Pending Sentencings

Andres Truppel (DOJ | SDNY 11-1056): The DOJ charged Truppel, the former Chief Financial Officer of Siemens Argentina , on December 13, 2011, alongside several other former senior executives with or agents of Siemens AG or one of its subsidiaries (see Ongoing Prosecutions above). After initially challenging the DOJs attempts to extradite him, Truppel pleaded guilty on September 30, 2015. His sentencing date, previously set for April 14, 2017, was delayed, reportedly due to Truppels ill health, and does not appear to have been re-scheduled.

Daren Condrey (DOJ | DCMD 15-336): The DOJ charged Condrey, the Principal of Transport Logistics International, on June 16, 2015. Condrey pleaded guilty to the FCPA-related charges on June 17, 2015. Two of Condreys co-conspirators, Vadim Mikerin (the former director of Tenex, a subsidiary of Russias State Atomic Energy Corporations) and Boris Rubizhevsky (a consultant to Mikerin) also pleaded guilty to related money-laundering counts last year, though neither was charged under the FCPA. Condreys sentencing was set for June 1, 2017. Numerous documents have been filed under seal since that date.

Ng Lap Seng and Jeff C. Yin (DOJ | SDNY 15-706): The DOJ charged Macau billionaire Ng and his assistant Yin with FCPA counts in a second superseding indictment on November 22, 2016. The original indictment charged Ng and Yin, alongside two other defendants, with domestic bribery, money laundering, and tax offenses on October 20, 2015. A superseding indictment then charged Ng and Yin with an additional conspiracy count on June 30, 2016, before the filing of the second superseding indictment. Yin pleaded guilty on April 7, 2017, and his sentencing is set for February 28, 2018. Ng was convicted on July 27, 2017, and his sentencing is set for March 23, 2018. One alleged recipient of bribes, the former president of the United Nations General Assembly John W. Ashe, passed away in 2016, resulting in the dismissal of the related non-FCPA charges against him. Another alleged recipient of the bribes, former deputy U.N. ambassador to the Dominican Republic Francis Lorenzo, pleaded guilty to non-FCPA charges in March 2016, and he is set to be sentenced on September 13, 2018.

Anthony Mace and Robert Zubiate (DOJ | SDTX 17-618 and 17-591): The DOJ filed criminal informations against Zubiate and Mace on October 6, 2017, and October 19, 2017, respectively. Zubiate, Sales and Marketing Director for SBMs Houston units, pleaded guilty on November 6, 2017, while Mace, SBMs Chief Executive Officer, pleaded guilty on November 9, 2017. Both men are scheduled to be sentenced on April 12, 2018.

Jeffrey Chow (DOJ | EDNY 17-466): The DOJ unsealed charges against Chow, a former lawyer for Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd, on December 21, 2017. Chow pleaded guilty on August 29, 2017, and agreed to cooperate in the DOJs efforts to prosecute Keppel Offshore and certain former company executives. Chows sentencing is set for May 2, 2018.

Colin Steven (DOJ | SDNY 17-788): The DOJ filed a criminal information against Steven, a former Embraer sales vice-president, on December 21, 2017. Steven pleaded guilty the same day, and his sentencing is scheduled for June 21, 2018.

Joo Hyun Bahn (DOJ | SDNY 16-0831): The DOJ charged Bahn, a New York commercial real estate broker, under seal in an indictment on December 15, 2016 (unsealing the charges on January 10, 2017). He was charged alongside several other individuals in connection with an effort to bribe officials in Vietnam, including Malcolm Harris, an arts and fashion consultant and blogger (see Recent Dismissals, Sentencings and Denials below), Ban ki Sang, a South Korean construction executive and Bahns father, and Sang Woo and Andrew Simon, Manhattan real estate brokers who were each charged in separate criminal complaints (see Ongoing Prosecutions above). Bahn, a South Korean national and U.S. permanent resident, was arrested on January 10, 2017. He pleaded guilty on January 5, 2018, and his sentencing is set for June 29, 2018.

Roberto Enrique Rincon-Fernandez and Abraham Jose Shiera Bastidas (DOJ | SDTX 15-654): The DOJ charged Rincon and Bastidas, each the owner (together with others) of several closely held oil-related companies, on December 10, 2015. The defendants are among numerous individuals charged in connection with a scheme to scheme to corruptly secure contracts from Venezuelas state-owned and state-controlled energy company, PDVSA (see several other listings both in Ongoing Prosecutions and in Pending Sentencings). Rincon pleaded guilty to both FCPA-related and non-FCPA charges on June 16, 2016. Bastidas pleaded guilty to FCPA-related and non-FCPA charges on March 22, 2016. Sentencing for both defendants is set for August 23, 2018. Charles Quintard Beech (DOJ | SDTX 17-00006) and Juan Jose Hernandez-Comerma (SDTX 17-00005): The DOJ charged Beech and Hernandez-Comerma, two executives from U.S.-based energy companies on January 4, 2017, in connection with the PDVSA-related bribery scheme (see several other listings both in Ongoing Prosecutions and in Pending Sentencings). Beech and Hernandez-Comerma pleaded guilty on January 10, 2017. Sentencing for both men is set for August 23, 2018.

Moises Abraham Millan Escobar (DOJ |SDTX 16-009): The DOJ filed a criminal information against Escobar, an employee of Abraham Jose Shiera Bastidas, on January 7, 2016, in connection with the PDVSA-related bribery scheme (see several other listings both in Ongoing Prosecutions and in Pending Sentencings). Escobar pleaded guilty on January 19, 2016, but the plea agreement remains under seal. On August 30, 2016, the Court entered a $533,578 monetary judgment against Escobar, while sentencing in the case is scheduled for August 23, 2018.

Fernando Ardila Rueda (DOJ | SDTX 17-515): The DOJ filed a criminal information against Rueda, part owner of several Florida-based businesses, on August 24, 2017, in connection with the PDVSA bribery scheme (see several other listings both in Ongoing Prosecutions and in Pending Sentencings). Rueda pleaded guilty on October 11, 2017, and his sentencing is scheduled for August 23, 2018.

David Rothschild (DOJ | DCCN 12-223): The DOJ charged Rothschild, the former Vice President of Sales of Alstom USA, on November 2, 2012. Rothschild pleaded guilty to the FCPA-related charges on that same day, but his settlement was not unsealed until April 15, 2013. His sentencing has not yet been scheduled, presumably pending the outcome in the Hoskins prosecution (see Ongoing Prosecutions above).

James Finley, Aloysius Johannes Jozef Zuurhout, Keith Barnett, and Andreas Kohler (DOJ | SDOH 17-160, 17-122, 16-248, and 17-113): The DOJ charged the defendants, three of which are former Rolls-Royce employees, under seal on July 21, 2017, June 9, 2017, December 20, 2016, and June 6, 2017, respectively, and unsealed the charges on November 7, 2017. Finley, a former senior executive in energy at Rolls-Royce, pleaded guilty on July 28, 2017. Zuurhout, a former energy sales employee at Rolls-Royce, pleaded guilty on June 13, 2017. Barnett, a former regional director in energy at Rolls-Royce, pleaded guilty on December 20, 2016. And Kohler, a managing director at an unnamed international engineering and consulting firm, pleaded guilty on July 20, 2017. Sentencing dates for these four defendants have not been set. Another individual, Petros Contoguris, was also indicted but has not entered a plea (see Ongoing Prosecutions above).

FCPA- Related Pending Appeals

Dmitrij Harder (DOJ | EDPA 15-1; 3rd Cir. 17-2698): The DOJ charged Harder, the former owner and president of the Chestnut Group, on January 6, 2015, and then filed a superseding indictment on December 15, 2015. Harder pleaded guilty to FCPA-related charges on April 18, 2016. On July 18, 2017, Harder was sentenced to 5 years in prison. Despite waiving part of his right to appeal, Harder appealed to the Third Circuit on August 7, 2017. In September, the DOJ filed a motion requesting enforcement of the waiver.

Recent FCPA-Related Dismissals, Sentencings and Denials

Victor Hugo Valdez Pinon and Douglas Ray (DOJ | SDTX 16-409), and Daniel Perez and Kamta Ramnarine (DOJ | SDTX 16-1164): The DOJ filed a criminal complaint against Pinon, an agent of Aviation Corporation A, on August 16, 2016 and a criminal information against Ray, President of Aviation Corporation A, on September 15, 2016. The DOJ filed criminal informations against Perez, the Director of Maintenance for Hunt Pan Am Aviation, and Ramnarine, an employee of Hunt Pan Am Aviation, on August 15, 2016. Thereafter, the DOJ filed a criminal information against Pinon on October 17, 2016. Pinon pleaded guilty on October 26, 2016, and was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and restitution of $90,783.50 on February 23, 2017. Ray pleaded guilty on October 28, 2016, and was sentenced to eighteen months and restitution in the amount of $589,698.87 on March 30, 2017. Perez and Ramnarine pleaded guilty on November 2, 2016, and each was sentenced to three years probation on February 2, 2017.

Elek Straub, Andras Balogh, and Tamas Morvai (SEC | SDNY 11-9645): The SEC charged Straub, Balogh and Morvai, all former executives of Magyar Telekom, on December 29, 2011. The three defendants lost an initial motion to dismiss the charges against them in February 2013. Following discovery by the parties, the Court considered and rejected a variety of additional motions for summary judgment filed by the defendants on grounds relating to personal jurisdiction and the statute of limitations. Morvai eventually settled with the SEC on February 15, 2017, agreeing to pay a $60,000 penalty without admitting or denying the charges. On April 24, 2017, Straub and Balogh agreed to pay civil penalties in the amount of $250,000 and $150,000, respectively, also without admitting or denying the charges. Both men are also barred for 5 years from serving as an officer or director of any SEC-registered public company.

Samuel Mebiame (DOJ | EDNY 16-627): The DOJ charged Mebiame, the son of a former Prime Minister of Gabon, on August 12, 2016. Mebiame pleaded guilty on December 9, 2016. He was sentenced to 24 months in prison on May 31, 2017.

Jeannot Lorenz (SEC | Admin. File No. 3-18080): On July 27, 2017, the SEC announced that oilfield services company Halliburton Company agreed to pay more than $29.2 million to settle allegations that it violated the FCPAs books-and-records and internal-accounting-controls provisions in connection with its operations in Angola. In connection with the settlement, former company vice president Lorenz consented to a civil penalty of $75,000 for his alleged role in the misconduct.

Frederic Pierucci (DOJ | DCCN 12-238): The DOJ charged Pierucci, the former Vice-President of Global Sales for Alstom USA, on November 27, 2012. Pierucci pleaded guilty on July 29, 2013, and he was sentenced to 30 months in prison on September 25, 2017.

Amadeus Richers (DOJ | SDFL 09-21010): The DOJ initially charged Richers, an executive with the telecommunications companies Uniplex Telecom Technologies and Cinergy Telecommunications, on July 12, 2011, and issued a superseding indictment on January 19, 2012. Richers was arrested on February 23, 2017, pleaded guilty on July 19, 2017, and was sentenced to time served on September 27, 2017, and ordered to pay $100. Richers was originally indicted alongside Washington Vasconez Cruz and Cecilia Zurita, both of whom were declared fugitives on March 7, 2013 (see FCPA-Related Fugitives above).

Malcolm Harris (DOJ | SDNY 16-cr-0831): The DOJ charged Harris, an arts and fashion consultant and blogger, under seal in an indictment on December 15, 2016 (unsealing the charges on January 10, 2017). He was charged along with Joo Hyun Bahn, a New York commercial real estate broker (see Pending Sentencings above), Ban ki Sang, a South Korean construction executive, and Sang Woo and Andrew Simon, Manhattan real estate brokers who were each charged in separate criminal complaints (see Ongoing Prosecutions above). Harris was arrested on January 13, 2017, pleaded guilty to a non-FCPA offense on June 21, 2017, and was sentenced on October 5, 2017 to 42 months.

____

Marc Alain Bohn is a contributing editor of the FCPA Blog and an editor of Miller & Chevaliers FCPA Winter Review 2018. Christine Ciambella is a Librarian at Miller & Chevalier.From the summit of Mount Olympus, the world is rock and sea and sky. A blistering blue day quickly darkens to slate as thick clouds roll in. Not overheadbut at your feet. A thunderclap chases you from the peak. You scramble down a treacherously steep path to a long, sloping plateau of skittering gravel. Another crash of thunder. Zeus is angry. Then, not rain: hail.

Jordanna Max Brodsky by Ben Arons

My hike was part of a research trip to Greece and Turkey in preparation for writing Olympus Bound, the last installment of my trilogy of the same name. Starting with The Immortals, Ive traced the adventures Selene DiSilvaaka Artemis, Goddess of the Huntas she lives a faded existence stalking the streets of modern Manhattan and defending its inhabitants from enemies both ancient and modern. Now, at the end of her story, I wanted her to return to her first home, and Id traveled from New York to the highest peak in Greece to get the details right.

I had considered writing a longer series. After all, there are plenty of myths to explore, plenty of gods to meet. But open-ended series run the risk of complacencytheres always another book that can make up for the previous ones failings. To keep my story urgent, intense, and fulfilling, I felt I had to cut myself off.

Ending a series is, in some ways, profoundly liberating. Olympus Bound takes place over the course of two weeks. Whether or not Selene survives until the end (no spoilers here), she has just those fourteen days left on earth. Or at least, on the page. After that, she is out of my hands. So I decided to let her live her last days to the fullest. For once, I didnt have to worry about setting up the plot for the next book or saving some good ideas for later. This was Selenes last chance to do everything sheand Ihad ever dreamed. She journeys back to her ancient homeland; she reunites with the rest of the Olympic pantheon; she fights her greatest enemy and confronts her greatest love.

At the same time, the final book in a trilogy presents a terrifying responsibility. I find that a books ending not only determines if a reader is satisfied with the book as a whole, it actually dictates whether or not theyll remember it at all. Thats doubly true for the ending of an entire series. Its as if the process of reading is like knitting a long scarf: the author takes you from stitch to stitch as the story takes shape before your eyes. But if she doesnt bind it off correctly at the endwhoosh! The entire thing unravels as if it never existed.

Regardless of Selene DiSilvas fate at the end of Olympus Bound, the goddess Artemis is an Athanatos. One Who Does Not Die. Myth has made her immortal, but I was determined to add to that legacy by creating a satisfying ending that left her embedded in the memories of my readers.

That day on Olympus, I paid my own sort of homage to the goddesses and gods. I sang their hymns, dreamed their stories, and offered sacrifices in the form of blistered feet and a hail-bruised skull. By the time I made my way down to the dubious pleasures of the small mountain shelter and its warmed-over spaghetti, the sky had cleared once more to a crystalline blue. But Id learned my lesson: Dont overstay your welcome on the summit of Olympus. Enjoy the climb, relish the view, then get the hell off.

The same might be said of finishing a trilogy.Britney Spears reportedly feels confident enough to regain full control of her life and finances.

Britney Spears

The 'Piece of Me' hitmaker - who recently completed a 248 show residency at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas - is said to have made "tremendous" progress over the last few years in getting to a position where she is ready to take charge.

An insider told Us Weekly: "She is feeling confident enough to take control of her life again. The progress Britney has made just in the last several years has been tremendous."

Indeed, it's reported that Britney is in such a strong mental state that she could ask for her father Jamie's conservatorship over her to be removed.

The source added: "Britney has been told by her advisors that the best chance of it being lifted is if her co-conservators and doctors believe it's in her best interest."

It's said that the proud mum of 12-year-old Sean and 11-year-old Jayden is hoping her 28-date world tour - which kicks off in July this year - will be another moment of proof that she is in a much healthier place.

The insider said: "It's Britney's hope that after the tour, Jamie will agree to have a discussion about ending the conservatorship of her as a person."

It comes after the star added two new dates to her final 'Piece of Me Tour' due to phenomenal demand.

The 'Oops... I Did It Again' hitmaker will now perform extra shows in Atlantic City, NJ Borgata and a second London gig at The O2 arena after tickets sold out in seconds.

The pop megastar has been performing the same concert since it opened at The AXIS at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas in December 2013 to rave reviews, and will give fans around the world one last chance to see her entertain the same set list and production.

by Charlotte Hough for www.femalefirst.co.uk

Domhnall Gleeson sprained his ankle and back while filming the 'Peter Rabbit' movie.

Domhnall Gleeson

The 34-year-old actor stars as Thomas McGregor in the new live action/CGI comedy directed by Will Gluck, but Gleeson has admitted filming the adaptation of the beloved Beatrix Potter character was more painful then he anticipated.

He told the Daily Star: "I sprained my ankle, and then I did my back and my ribs and stuff, so it just kept spreading up my body."

'Peter Rabbit' stars James Corden as the voice of the mischievous bunny created by British children's author.

However, the film has been forced to apologise for offending allergy sufferers.

A scene in the new big screen adaptation shows a character called McGregor, who has a blackberry allergy, being pelted with the fruit by Peter Rabbit and a gang of bunnies, before he is eventually forced to use an EpiPen to recover from the attack.

Sony Pictures released a joint statement saying the film "should not have made light" of a character being allergic to blackberries "even in a cartoonish, slapstick way".

They added: "We sincerely regret not being more aware and sensitive to this issue, and we truly apologise."

The apology was prompted after charity Kids with Food Allergies Foundation published a statement on Facebook saying "food allergy jokes are harmful to our community", sparking the hashtag #boycottpeterrabbit to trend on Twitter.

The charity's post read: "The very real fear and anxiety that people experience during an allergic reaction (often referred to as an impending sense of doom) is a serious matter.

"Making light of this condition hurts our members because it encourages the public not to take the risk of allergic reactions seriously, and this cavalier attitude may make them act in ways that could put an allergic person in danger."

A petition calling for Sony Pictures to apologise quickly attracted more than 9,000 signatures.Prince Harry is "excited" to tie the knot with Meghan Markle.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

The 33-year-old royal and the American actress will start life as a married couple on May 19 when they complete their nuptials at St George's Chapel inside Windsor Castle, and whilst people around the globe are waiting with baited breath, no-one is more excited than the happy couple themselves.

During a visit to Edinburgh this week, well-wisher Maria Jordan got the chance to ask Prince Harry if he was looking forward to marrying the 36-year-old beauty, and told the Edinburgh Evening News afterwards: "I asked if he was excited for the wedding and Harry said 'I've been excited since the day I met her.' It was really nice."

The upcoming nuptials are less than 100 days away, and earlier this week, the happy couple revealed more details about the ceremony, including its start time.

In tweets posted to Kensington Palace's Twitter account, they said: "Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle are hugely grateful for the many good wishes they have received since announcing their engagement.

"They are looking forward to the day and to being able to share their celebrations with the public and wanted to share the following details about their wedding on May 19th with you: "The wedding service will begin at 12noon at St George's Chapel. The Dean of Windsor will conduct the service and The Archbishop of Canterbury will officiate as the couple make their vows.

"At 1pm the couple, now married, will undertake a Carriage Procession from St George's Chapel through Windsor Town returning to Windsor Castle along the Long Walk.

"They hope this short journey will provide an opportunity for more people to come together around Windsor and to enjoy the atmosphere of this special day. (sic)"

And in two further tweets, it was revealed the couple will then travel to St George's Hall for a reception, before Harry's father Prince Charles hosts a "private evening reception" for special guests.

The tweets read: "Following the service, there will be a reception at St George's Hall for the couple and the guests from the congregation.

"Later that evening, The Prince of Wales will give a private evening reception for the couple and their close friends and family."Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release

SubCategory Select Sub-CategoryBUFFALO, NY and PERTH, AU, Feb 15, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - Holista CollTech Ltd (Holista; ASX: HCT) is pleased to announce that group company Holista Foods Inc. (Holista Foods) has signed a 3-year MoU to supply its patented low glycemic index (GI) mix to Ontario-based Wing's, North America's leading noodle supplier.The MoU marks Holista's entry into the noodle market, and is expected to have a significant impact on revenue from the present fical year. Pursuant to the MoU, sales of US$6 million are expected for fiscal 2018, projected to increase to US$12 million in 2019 and to US$25 million in 2020.Buffalo, NY-based Holista Foods' patented formula recorded a GI reading of 38 in tests by Glycemic Index Laboratories, Inc., well below the global average of 60. The noodles are now endorsed by the Glycemic Index Foundation and recommended by Diabetes Canada.An 85-gram serving contains 11 grams of protein, 3 grams of fibre and no sugar while being low sodium and cholesterol and providing sustained energy. The formula comprises extracts of okra, lentils, barley and fenugreek - clean label ingredients with no artificial ingredients or preservatives.Neal Lee, President of Wing's, said: "Diabetes is becoming a global pandemic that threatens lives and increases healthcare costs. Wing's is proud to be the first major noodle manufacturer in the world to launch a dedicated low-GI noodle. We are confident that our partnership with Holista will be well-received in North America, if not globally."Nadja Piatka, CEO of Holista Foods, said: "The North American noodle market is sizeable and significant, and we believe this collaboration with Wing's can set the trend for global acceptance of a healthy version of instant noodles without compromising taste or texture. We are grateful to Wing's for this partnership."Dr Rajen Manicka, Chairman and CEO of Holista, said: "Our MoU with Wing's is significant as it marks our entry into the global noodle market with a low-GI product that is both healthy and affordable. We are confident that this market validation will also enable us to gain greater acceptance in Asia, especially the leading noodle markets of China and Indonesia, and in the lucrative instant noodle market."About Holista CollTech LtdHolista CollTech Ltd (Holista), a research-driven biotech company, comes of a merger of Holista Biotech Sdn Bhd and CollTech Australia Ltd. Headquartered in Perth with extensive operations in Malaysia, Holista is dedicated to delivering first-class natural ingredients and wellness products and leads in research on herbs and food ingredients. Please visit www.holistaco.com.About Holista Foods IncHolista Foods is an American joint venture between Holista Colltech and Nadja Foods, aimed at commercializing all its patents in North America. To learn more, visit: www.holistafoods.comAbout Wing's Food ProductsWing's Food Products (Wing's), a family business founded in 1953, and has grown to become a major Canadian manufacturer of noodles, wraps and cookies. Serving retail, food service and B2B Wing's has operations in Toronto and Edmonton, Alberta. For more information, please visit www.wings.ca.For further information, please contact:Business OpportunitiesDr Rajen ManickaE: rajen.m@holistaco.comE: enquiries@holistaco.comAustralia283 Rokeby RoadSubiaco, W.AustraliaT: +61 8 6141 3500F: +61 8 6141 3599MalaysiaAmcorp Trade CentrePetaling Jaya, MalaysiaT: +603 7965 2828F: +603 7965 2777Media and Investor RelationsWeR1 Consultants Pte LtdAsha DeviE: ashadevi@wer1.net; +603 2731 9244Roshan SinghE: roshansingh@wer1.net; +65 6737 4844Source: Holista CollTech LtdHolista Foods Inc.Copyright 2018 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 14, 2018) - Mesa Exploration Corp. (TSXV: MSA) (OTC: MSAJF) (the "Company" or "Mesa") is pleased to announce that it has signed a non-binding Letter of Intent ("LOI") with THOR Pharma ("THOR") to acquire all of the issued and outstanding Common shares of THOR, an applicant under Health Canada's "Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations" ("ACMPR").

Acquisition Terms

Subject to Exchange approval, as well as applicable director and shareholder approvals, THOR shall sell and Mesa shall acquire, on an arm's-length basis, all of the issued and outstanding Common voting shares of THOR (the "THOR Shares") from the current holders of the THOR Shares ("THOR Shareholders"). The total purchase price shall be satisfied by Mesa issuing 400,000,000 of its Common shares ("Mesa Shares") to the THOR Shareholders. The price was determined using a $0.05 share price for Mesa and an enterprise value for Thor of $20 million. The consideration for the Acquisition was determined through arm's-length negotiation by the parties.

The proposed arm's-length acquisition (the "Acquisition") is subject to customary conditions, including satisfaction with diligence investigations, entering into applicable definitive agreements, necessary corporate and shareholder approvals and applicable exchange acceptance. Upon completion of the Acquisition the issuer will be involved in the Life Sciences industry sector. This will constitute a Change of Business ("COB") and a Reverse Takeover ("RTO") as defined by TSXV Policy 5.2.

Under the Letter of Intent, dated February 12, 2018, THOR and Mesa also agree to seek to raise up to $2,000,000 pursuant to a contemplated issuance of Common shares of Mesa, via a private placement, with terms which are to be determined. Proceeds of this financing are to be used: (1) for costs relating to the acquisition and retrofitting of a greenhouse; (2) for the pursuit of the final licensing of THOR to produce and sell medical marijuana under the ACMPR; and (3) for working capital and general corporate purposes. Additional funding or share issuance will be required to complete the acquisition and retrofitting of a greenhouse.

Prior to closing the Acquisition, it is anticipated that the Company will apply to list its common shares for trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE") and voluntarily delist its common shares from the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV"). It is expected that the Company will delist from the TSXV concurrently with the listing on the CSE immediately following the completion of the Acquisition.

The closing date for the proposed Acquisition is expected to be on or around April 15, 2018. Trading of the common shares of the Company has been halted by the TSXV and will remain halted pending completion or termination of the proposed Acquisition, pursuant to TSXV Policy 5.2.

At Mesa's option, prior to the closing of the Acquisition, Mesa may complete a spin-out transaction, pursuant to which it will directly or indirectly transfer its existing mineral and royalty assets to a wholly-owned subsidiary ("Mesa Subco"), and distribute the securities of Mesa Subco to Mesa's existing shareholders on a pro rata basis as a return of capital, a dividend, or pursuant to the terms of a plan of arrangement.

Upon completion of the Acquisition, the names, backgrounds, and jurisdictions of all Persons who will constitute Principals or Insiders of the Resulting Issuer as known as of this date is as follows:

Don Shaxon, Chief Executive Officer, Burlington, Ontario, Canada

Mr. Shaxon is a capital markets professional with over 20 year experience leading corporate development and finance initiatives in the natural resource, technology and life sciences sectors. Mr. Shaxon was an early pioneer in the legal cannabis market place under the old MMAR as well as 10 years of consulting experience with the top tier of MMJ public companies in Canada and the USA, such as Cannabis Science, Aurora, THC Biomed, Redecan, and Lexaria. Mr. Shaxon is founder and partner of AAA Heidelberg, and is the largest shareholder of THOR Pharma.

W. Clark Kent, President Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Mr. Kent is a capital markets professional with extensive experience leading corporate development and finance initiatives in the natural resources, technology and life science industries. For over a decade he has advised emerging companies on strategic planning, finance and recruitment in the North American and international marketplace. Clark began his career with a boutique investment firm where he focused on client relations and marketing.

Jason Springett, Chief Operating Officer, London, Ontario, Canada

Mr. Springett has spent the last 8 years working in the cannabis industry. He began with Cannabis Science, which is the first publicly traded marijuana company in North America. He has worked with several businesses including Enertopia, Lexaria and AAA Heidelberg, as a grower on application. He was promoted to the position of director with AAA Heidelberg in 2014. Jason was also a grower, assisted with the application process and building design/layout, for PUF Ventures. He was on application as the alternate person in charge with Thor Pharma. He was instrumental in raising funds for Aurora Cannabis Inc. Jason's most recent position was President /CEO/Director of Global UAV Tech, where he contributed greatly to the growth and rebranding of the company.

The current directors of THOR are Don Shaxon and Jason Springett. THOR will be reconstituting its Board prior to the closing of the contemplated transaction. It is expected that Foster Wilson will continue with the Company in the capacity of Director but that, effective the closing of the contemplated transaction, all other current directors and officers of Mesa will resign.

Further information regarding the Acquisition will be provided in future press releases at such time the information becomes available.

About THOR Pharma

THOR Pharma Inc. was incorporated under the Canada Business Corporations Act on April 4, 2014 and is headquartered in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. The Company has applied to produce and sell medical cannabis under the ACMPR. THOR is in Active Review Phase of the ACMPR. This advanced stage license application is the only material asset of the Company. THOR has no revenues and no current liabilities but has long term contingent liabilities of approximately $1.5 million that will become payable upon certain performance milestones of the company.

For further information please visit our website at www.shaxon.ca.

About Mesa Exploration Corp.

Mesa is exploring a portfolio of mineral properties in the United States where it controls land holdings in proven mining districts with excellent access and infrastructure. Mesa currently has 17.5 million shares issued and outstanding.

For further information please visit our website at www.MesaExploration.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

MESA EXPLORATION CORP.

(signed) Foster Wilson, President and CEO

For further information call:

Corporate Communications Mesa 1-775-771-5219

THOR Pharma 1-289-697-8625

Completion of the transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including but not limited to, Exchange acceptance and if applicable, disinterested shareholder approval. Where applicable, the transaction cannot close until the required shareholder approval is obtained. There can be no assurance that the transaction will be completed as proposed or at all.

Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the management information circular or filing statement to be prepared in connection with the transaction, any information released or received with respect to the transaction may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of Mesa Exploration Corp. should be considered highly speculative.

The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.

This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include unsuccessful exploration results, changes in metals prices, changes in the availability of funding for mineral exploration, unanticipated changes in key management personnel, a failure by THOR to complete the licensing process under the ACMPR within a reasonable timeframe, lower demand for cannabis products than expected, higher production costs of cannabis products than anticipated, and an inability to obtain further funding to finance cannabis operations, and general economic conditions. Mining is an inherently risky business, as is the production and sale of cannabis. Accordingly, actual events may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on the Company and the risks and challenges of its business, investors should review the Company's annual filings that are available at www.sedar.com.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, February 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Capstone Mining Corp. ("Capstone" or the "Company") (TSX: CS) has entered into a definitive share purchase agreement (the "Agreement") pursuant to which it has agreed to sell its Minto Mine to Pembridge Resources plc ("Pembridge") (LON: PERE) (the "Transaction"). Under the terms of the Agreement, Capstone will receive US$37.5 million in cash, plus working capital adjustments, and common shares representing 9.9% of the issued and outstanding shares of Pembridge upon completion of the Transaction.

"The divestiture of Minto will allow us to focus our resources on opportunities that will have a more meaningful impact on the long-term growth of the company," said Darren Pylot, President and Chief Executive Officer of Capstone. "This agreement is consistent with our continuing efforts to deliver shareholder value by focusing on our core assets and allows us to further strengthen our balance sheet. Minto has been an important part of the development of Capstone and we are optimistic for the future of Minto under Pembridge's stewardship."

The Transaction is subject to closing conditions, including the requirement for Pembridge to post the required financial security with respect to the closure bonding requirements at Minto. Capstone has agreed, for a period of one year post-closing, to retain one-third (approximately Cdn$24 million) of the existing surety bond if requested by Pembridge, after which time Capstone will have no further obligation with respect to the closure of the Minto Mine.

The Transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2018. Capstone intends to use net proceeds from the sale primarily to reduce outstanding borrowings under its revolving credit facility.

About Capstone Mining Corp.

Capstone Mining Corp. is a Canadian base metals mining company, focused on copper. We are committed to the responsible development of our assets and the environments in which we operate. Our three producing mines are the Pinto Valley copper mine located in Arizona, US, the Cozamin polymetallic mine in Zacatecas State, Mexico and the Minto copper mine in Yukon, Canada. In addition, Capstone has the large scale 70% owned copper-iron Santo Domingo development project in Region III, Chile, in partnership with Korea Resources Corporation, as well as exploration properties in Chile. Capstone's strategy is to focus on the optimization of operations and assets in politically stable, mining-friendly regions, centred in the Americas. Our headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada and we are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). Further information is available at http://www.capstonemining.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This document may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this document and Capstone does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable securities legislation.

Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect our expectations or beliefs regarding future events. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the ability of Pembridge to raise the necessary financing to complete the Transaction, the completion of the closing conditions, the Company's use of proceeds for the sale and Capstone's ability to find and transact on alternate opportunities. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes" or variations of such words and phrases, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative of these terms or comparable terminology. In this document certain forward-looking statements are identified by words including "subject", "expected" and "intend". By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, amongst others, risks related to inherent hazards associated with mining projects, future prices of copper and other metals, changes in general economic conditions, and other risks of the mining industry as well as those factors detailed from time to time in the Company's interim and annual financial statements and management's discussion and analysis of those statements, all of which are filed and available for review under the Company's profile on SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com . Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those described in our forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause our results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that our forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as our actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements.

Cindy Burnett, VP, Investor Relations and Communications, 604-637-8157, cburnett@capstonemining.comVANCOUVER, British Columbia, February 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

(All amounts in US$ unless otherwise specified)

Capstone Mining Corp. ("Capstone" or the "Company") (TSX: CS) today announced its financial results for the three months and year ended December 31, 2017. For the three months ended December 31, 2017, operating cash flow before changes in working capital[1] was $38.2 million or $0.10 per share, with net income of $29.5 million and adjusted net income of $4.4 million or $0.01 per share after adjusting for certain non-cash and non-recurring charges. Copper production totalled 23,417 tonnes (22,600 tonnes of payable copper) at a C1 cash cost[1] of $1.98 per payable pound produced.

For the full year ended December 31, 2017, operating cash flow before changes in working capital[1] was $129.7 million or $0.34 per share, with net income of $55.1 million and adjusted net loss of $8.5 million or $0.02 per share after adjusting for certain non-cash and non-recurring charges. Copper production totalled 90,395 tonnes (87,268 tonnes of payable copper) at a C1 cash cost[1] of $1.92 per payable pound produced.

"We generated positive net income and strong cash flow for the year," said Darren Pylot, President and CEO of Capstone. "Increased cash flow, combined with the monetization of our non-core Kutcho asset, allowed us to pay down $54 million in debt in 2017, reducing debt by a total of $74 million over the past two years."

"We are extremely well positioned entering 2018, with operations running well and potential organic growth opportunities," continued Mr. Pylot. "We are now set to take full advantage of strong copper prices in 2018 after completing our entire copper hedge program at the end of 2017."

Financial and Operational Overview Q4 2017 Q4 2016 2017 2016 Revenue ($ millions) 152.8 163.0 541.9 529.4 Copper produced (tonnes) 23,417 29,853 90,395 114,583 Payable copper produced (tonnes) 22,600 28,828 87,268 110,663 C1 cash cost per payable pound produced (1) ($/lb) 1.98 1.26 1.92 1.44 All-in cost per payable pound produced (1) ($/lb) 2.65 1.77 2.49 1.88 Fully-loaded all-in cost per payable pound produced (1) ($/lb) 2.82 1.85 2.72 1.98 Net income (loss) ($ millions) 29.5 (182.4) 55.1 (197.4) Net income (loss) attributable to shareholders ($ millions) 29.6 (125.4) 55.2 (140.0) Net income (loss) attributable to shareholders per common share ($) 0.08 (0.33) 0.14 (0.37) Adjusted net income (loss) (1) ($ millions) 4.4 30.7 (8.5) 29.4 Adjusted net income (loss) attributable to shareholders(1) ($ millions) 4.5 30.9 (8.4) 30.0 Adjusted net income (loss) attributable to shareholders per common share (1)($) 0.01 0.08 (0.02) 0.08 Cash flow from operating activities ($ millions) 44.8 50.9 112.5 125.3 Cash flow from operating activities per common share (1) ($) 0.12 0.14 0.29 0.33 Operating cash flow before changes in working capital (1) ($ millions) 38.2 75.0 129.7 156.9 Operating cash flow before changes in working capital per common share (1) ($) 0.10 0.20 0.34 0.41 Cash and cash equivalents ($ millions) 116.2 130.4 116.2 130.4 Net debt (1) ($ millions) 158.7 198.6 158.7 198.6 1. This is an alternative performance measure; please see "Alternative Performance Measures" at the end of this release. * Q4 2017 includes a negative provisional pricing adjustment of $(2.4) million (2016 - $(0.1) million) related to prior shipments, equivalent to $(0.05) per pound (2016 - $(0.00)) per pound) of copper sold during the quarter. YTD includes a negative provisional pricing adjustment of $(5.7) million (2016 - $(12.7) million) related to prior shipments, equivalent to $(0.03) per pound (2016 - $(0.05) per pound) of copper sold during the year. ** Q4 2017 adjusted realized copper price includes the provisional pricing adjustments noted above and realized loss of $(14.7) million (2016 - $(8.5) million) equivalent to $(0.29) per pound (2016 - $(0.13) per pound) related to copper derivative contracts exercised during the quarter. YTD includes a realized loss of $(45.6) million (2016 - gain of $3.3 million) equivalent to $(0.24) per pound (2016 - $0.01 per pound) related to copper derivative contracts exercised during the year.

Capstone will hold a conference call and webcast on Thursday, February 15, 2018 at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time (8:30 a.m. Pacific time) to discuss these results; call-in details and information on associated slides are provided at the end of this release. This release is not suitable on a standalone basis for readers unfamiliar with Capstone and should be read in conjunction with Capstone's consolidated financial statements and management's discussion and analysis ("MD&A") for the year ended December 31, 2017, which are available on Capstone's website at http://capstonemining.com/investors/financial-reporting/default.aspx and on SEDAR, all of which have been reviewed and approved by Capstone's Board of Directors. An updated corporate presentation, including results to December 31, 2017, and 2017 year-end webcast slides will also be available at http://capstonemining.com/investors/events-and-presentations/default.aspx.

Financial and Production Highlights for the Quarter Ended December 31, 2017

Net income of $29.5 million included: Earnings from mining operations of $39.6 million . Realized copper price of $3.17 per pound A $17.0 million gain on the sale of the Kutcho mineral property. A commodity derivative loss of $4.1 million , comprising realized losses of $14.7 million and the reversal of unrealized losses recorded in a prior period of $10.6 million . The zero-cost collar and copper forwards expired in 2017. A derivative loss of $3.8 million primarily related to unrealized losses on the embedded derivative asset.

included: Cash flow from operating activities of $44.8 million or $0.12 per common share.

or per common share. Working capital increased $11.2 million to $189.4 million at December 31, 2017 (which included $116.2 million of cash and cash equivalents) from $178.2 million at September 30, 2017 .

to at (which included of cash and cash equivalents) from at . Operating cash flow before changes in working capital [ 1] was $38.2 million or $0.10 per share.

was or per share. Produced a total of 22,600 tonnes of payable copper at a C1 cash cost [ 1] of $1.98 per pound of payable copper produced and fully-loaded all-in cost [ 1] of $2.82 per pound of payable pound copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced and fully-loaded all-in cost of per pound of payable pound copper produced. Revenue of $152.8 million generated primarily from the sale of 22,575 tonnes of copper.

Financial and Production Highlights for the Year Ended December 31, 2017

Net income of $55.1 million included: Earnings from mining operations of $117.5 million . Realized copper price of $2.86 per pound A non-cash impairment reversal of $20.6 million related to Minto mineral property, plant and equipment. A $17.0 million gain on the sale of the Kutcho mineral property. A commodity derivative loss of $24.8 million , comprising realized losses of $45.6 million and the reversal of unrealized gains recorded in a previous period of $20.8 million . The zero-cost collar and copper forwards expired in 2017 and Capstone has no commodity derivatives in place effective January 1, 2018 . An income tax expense of $28.9 million .

included: Cash flow from operating activities of $112.5 million or $0.29 per common share.

or per common share. Working capital increased $18.3 million to $189.4 million at December 31, 2017 (which included $116.2 million of cash and cash equivalents) from $171.1 million at December 31, 2016 .

to at (which included of cash and cash equivalents) from at . Operating cash flow before changes in working capital [ 1] was $129.7 million or $0.34 per common share.

was or per common share. Production of 87,268 tonnes of payable copper at a C1 cash cost [ 1] of $1.92 per pound of payable copper produced and fully-loaded all-in cost [ 1] of $2.72 per pound of payable pound copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced and fully-loaded all-in cost of per pound of payable pound copper produced. Revenue of $541.9 million generated primarily from the sale of 87,918 tonnes of copper.

Production, Costs and Additional Highlights

Pinto Valley Mine:

Produced 16,160 tonnes of copper during Q4 2017 at a C1 cash cost [ 1] of $1.79 per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost [ 1] of $2.17 per pound of payable copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost of per pound of payable copper produced. Produced 57,332 tonnes of copper during 2017 at a C1 cash cost [ 1] of $1.95 per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost [ 1] of $2.34 per pound of payable copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost of per pound of payable copper produced. Pinto Valley had a strong fourth quarter, with production exceeding expectations on higher grade and recoveries. Work in the later part of the year focused on overall operation optimization. 2017 C1 cash cost[1] and all-in cost[1] per pound of payable copper produced were in line with revised 2017 cost guidance.

Cozamin Mine:

Produced 4,254 tonnes of copper during Q4 2017 at a C1 cash cost [ 1] of $1.04 per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost [ 1] of $2.08 per pound of payable copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost of per pound of payable copper produced. Produced 16,732 tonnes of copper during 2017 at a C1 cash cost [ 1] of $1.16 per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost [ 1] of $1.90 per pound of payable copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost of per pound of payable copper produced. At Cozamin, production for the fourth quarter and full year exceeded expectations, largely on higher mining and processing rates as the mine achieved development rates that allowed for increased flexibility. 2017 C1 cash cost[1] and all-in cost[1] per pound of payable copper produced were in line with 2017 guidance.

Minto Mine:

At the start of 2017, it was Capstone's intention to place the Minto Mine on care and maintenance at the end of 2017. As a result of rising copper prices and the downside protection provided by the renegotiation of the precious metals stream in 2017, Capstone made the decision to continue operations until at least mid-2021. Significant development and stripping costs were expensed in the second half of 2017 as part of the mine life extension that will benefit future periods. These additional costs, combined with lower than planned production for the fourth quarter, impacted C1 cash cost [ 1] per pound of payable copper produced.

per pound of payable copper produced. Produced 3,003 tonnes of copper during Q4 2017 at a C1 cash cost [ 1] of $4.29 per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost [ 1] of $4.80 per payable pound of copper.

of per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost of per payable pound of copper. Produced 16,332 tonnes of copper during 2017 at a C1 cash cost [ 1] of $2.60 per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost [ 1] of $2.75 per payable pound of copper produced.

of per pound of payable copper produced and all-in cost of per payable pound of copper produced. At Minto , underground production continued to lag planned rates, resulting in higher utilization of partially oxidized and low-grade sulphide ore stockpiles. The lower proportion of sulfide ore in the mill feed negatively impacted grade and recovery. As a result, 2017 C1 cash cost[1] and all-in cost[1] per pound of payable copper produced were higher than revised 2017 guidance.

Additional Highlights:

On December 15, 2017 , Capstone completed the sale of its Kutcho development project to Kutcho Copper Corp. (formerly Desert Star Resources Ltd.). Under the terms of the agreement, Capstone received C$28.8 million in cash and 4,646,892 common shares of the newly named Kutcho Copper Corp. Concurrent with the closing of the transaction, Capstone acquired an additional 3,076,923 shares and 1,538,461 share purchase warrants through a private placement, resulting in Capstone owning and controlling at December 31, 2017 , directly or indirectly, approximately 16.5% of the current issued and outstanding shares of Kutcho Copper on a non-diluted basis. As a result, Capstone recorded a gain on the sale of the Kutcho development project of $17.0 million .

, Capstone completed the sale of its Kutcho development project to Kutcho Copper Corp. (formerly Desert Star Resources Ltd.). Under the terms of the agreement, Capstone received in cash and 4,646,892 common shares of the newly named Kutcho Copper Corp. Concurrent with the closing of the transaction, Capstone acquired an additional 3,076,923 shares and 1,538,461 share purchase warrants through a private placement, resulting in Capstone owning and controlling at , directly or indirectly, approximately 16.5% of the current issued and outstanding shares of Kutcho Copper on a non-diluted basis. As a result, Capstone recorded a gain on the sale of the Kutcho development project of . Debt repayments totalling $24.0 million were made on the senior secured corporate revolving credit facility ("RCF") during Q4 2017, with total repayments of $54.0 for the full year 2017, reducing the outstanding balance to $274.9 million at December 31, 2017 .

were made on the senior secured corporate revolving credit facility ("RCF") during Q4 2017, with total repayments of for the full year 2017, reducing the outstanding balance to at . The zero-cost collar and copper forward contracts matured during 2017. The Company has no commodity derivatives on any copper sales in 2018 and beyond.

Subsequent Event:

On February 14, 2018 , Capstone entered into a definitive share purchase agreement (the "Agreement") pursuant to which it has agreed to sell its Minto Mine to Pembridge Resources plc ("Pembridge") (the "Transaction"). Under the terms of the Agreement, Capstone will receive US$37.5 million in cash, plus working capital adjustments, and common shares representing 9.9% of the issued and outstanding shares of Pembridge upon completion of the Transaction.

, Capstone entered into a definitive share purchase agreement (the "Agreement") pursuant to which it has agreed to sell its Minto Mine to Pembridge Resources plc ("Pembridge") (the "Transaction"). Under the terms of the Agreement, Capstone will receive in cash, plus working capital adjustments, and common shares representing 9.9% of the issued and outstanding shares of Pembridge upon completion of the Transaction. The Transaction is subject to closing conditions, including the requirement for Pembridge to post the required financial security with respect to the closure bonding requirements at Minto . Capstone has agreed, for a period of one year post-closing, to retain one-third (approximately Cdn$24 million ) of the existing surety bond if requested by Pembridge, after which time Capstone will have no further obligation with respect to the closure of the Minto Mine.

. Capstone has agreed, for a period of one year post-closing, to retain one-third (approximately ) of the existing surety bond if requested by Pembridge, after which time Capstone will have no further obligation with respect to the closure of the Minto Mine. The Transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2018. Capstone intends to use net proceeds from the sale primarily to reduce outstanding borrowings under its revolving credit facility.

2018 Operating and Capital Guidance

In 2018, Capstone expects to produce 90,000 tonnes (5%) of copper at a C1 cash cost[1] of $1.85 to $1.95 per pound of payable copper produced. Capital expenditures for 2018, including $24 million of capitalized stripping and $7 million of brownfield exploration, are expected to be $100 million or $0.50 per pound of payable copper produced. Consolidated all-in sustaining cost[1] guidance is $2.50 to $2.60 per pound of payable copper produced.

Conference Call and Webcast Details Date: Thursday, February 15, 2018 Time: 11:30 am Eastern Time (8:30 am Pacific Time) Dial in: North America: 1-888-390-0546, International: +416-764-8688 Webcast: http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=1559280&s=1&k=9E417F05C934E98FC1A5B362C357B8ED Replay: North America: 1-888-390-0541, International: +416-764-8677 Replay Passcode: 894303#

The conference call replay will be available until Thursday, February 22, 2018. The conference call audio and transcript will be available on Capstone's website within 48 hours of the call at http://capstonemining.com/investors/events-and-presentations/default.aspx.

About Capstone Mining Corp.

Capstone Mining Corp. is a Canadian base metals mining company, focused on copper. We are committed to the responsible development of our assets and the environments in which we operate. Our three producing mines are the Pinto Valley copper mine located in Arizona, US, the Cozamin polymetallic mine in Zacatecas State, Mexico and the Minto copper mine in Yukon, Canada. In addition, Capstone has the large scale 70% owned copper-iron Santo Domingo development project in Region III, Chile, in partnership with Korea Resources Corporation as well as exploration properties in Chile. Capstone's strategy is to focus on the optimization of operations and assets in politically stable, mining-friendly regions, centred in the Americas. Our headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada and we are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). Further information is available at http://www.capstonemining.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This document may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this document and Capstone does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable securities legislation.

Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect our expectations or beliefs regarding future events. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the estimation of mineral resources and mineral reserves, the realization of mineral reserve estimates, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production and capital expenditures, the success of our mining operations, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses and title disputes. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "expected", "potentially", "guidance" or variations of such words and phrases, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative of these terms or comparable terminology. In this document, certain forward-looking statements are identified by words including "guidance", "planned" and "expects". By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, amongst others, risks related to inherent hazards associated with mining operations, assumptions related to geotechnical condition of tailings facilities, future prices of copper and other metals, compliance with financial covenants, surety bonding, our ability to raise capital, counterparty risks associated with sales of our metals, use of financial derivative instruments and associated counterparty risks, foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, changes in general economic conditions, accuracy of mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates, operating in foreign jurisdictions with risk of changes to governmental regulation, compliance with governmental regulations, compliance with environmental laws and regulations, reliance on approvals, licences and permits from governmental authorities, impact of climatic conditions on our Pinto Valley, Cozamin and Minto operations, aboriginal title claims and rights to consultation and accommodation, land reclamation and mine closure obligations, uncertainties and risks related to the potential development of the Santo Domingo Project, increased operating and capital costs, challenges to title to our mineral properties, dependence on key management personnel, potential conflicts of interest involving our directors and officers, corruption and bribery, limitations inherent in our insurance coverage, labour relations, increasing energy prices, competition in the mining industry, risks associated with joint venture partners, our ability to integrate new acquisitions into our operations, cybersecurity threats and other risks of the mining industry as well as those factors detailed from time to time in the Company's interim and annual financial statements and management's discussion and analysis of those statements, all of which are filed and available for review under the Company's profile on SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com . Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those described in our forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause our results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that our forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as our actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements.

National Instrument 43-101 Compliance

Unless otherwise indicated, Capstone has prepared the technical information in this news release ("Technical Information") based on information contained in the technical reports, news releases and MD&A's (collectively the "Disclosure Documents") available under Capstone Mining Corp.'s company profile on SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com. Each Disclosure Document was prepared by, or under the supervision of, a qualified person (a "Qualified Person") as defined in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI 43-101"). Readers are encouraged to review the full text of the Disclosure Documents which qualifies the Technical Information. Readers are advised that mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Disclosure Documents are each intended to be read as a whole, and sections should not be read or relied upon out of context. The Technical Information is subject to the assumptions and qualifications contained in the Disclosure Documents.

The technical information in this news release ("Technical Information") was prepared by, or under the supervision of, a qualified person (a "Qualified Person") as defined in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI 43-101"). The disclosure of the Technical Information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Gregg Bush, P. Eng., Capstone Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, a Qualified Person under NI 43-101.

Alternative Performance Measures

The items marked with a ["1"] are alternative performance measures and readers should refer to Alternative Performance Measures in the Company's Consolidated Interim Management's Discussion and Analysis for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2017 as filed on SEDAR and as available on the Company's website.

Cautionary Note to United States Investors

This news release contains disclosure that has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of Canadian securities laws, which differ from the requirements of US securities laws. Without limiting the foregoing, this news release may refer to technical reports that use the terms "indicated" and "inferred" resources. US investors are cautioned that, while such terms are recognized and required by Canadian securities laws, the SEC does not recognize them. Under US standards, mineralization may not be classified as a "reserve" unless the determination has been made that the mineralization could be economically and legally produced or extracted at the time the reserve determination is made. US investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of indicated resources will ever be converted into reserves. US investors should also understand that "inferred resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and as to whether they can be mined legally or economically. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of "inferred resources" will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Therefore, US investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of inferred resources exist, or that they can be mined legally or economically. Accordingly, information concerning descriptions of mineralization and resources contained in this news release may not be comparable to information made public by US companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of the SEC.

Cindy Burnett, VP, Investor Relations and Communications, 604-637-8157, cburnett@capstonemining.comRegulatory News:

United Company RUSAL Plc (Paris:RUSAL) (Paris:RUAL):

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited take no responsibility for the contents of this announcement, make no representation as to its accuracy or completeness and expressly disclaim any liability whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from or in reliance upon the whole or any part of the contents of this announcement.

UNITED COMPANY RUSAL PLC

(Incorporated under the laws of Jersey with limited liability)

(Stock Code: 486)

CONTINUING CONNECTED TRANSACTIONS

REPAIR SERVICES

AND

SALE OF RAW MATERIALS

Reference is made to the announcements of the Company dated 30 October 2017, 11 December 2017, 11 January 2018 and 29 January 2018 in relation to the Previously Disclosed Repair Services Contracts; and to the announcements of the Company dated 29 December 2017 and 29 January 2018 in relation to the Previously Disclosed Raw Materials Supply Contracts.

The Company announces that a member of the Group entered into a contract with an associate of En+, pursuant to which the associate of En+ agreed to provide repair services to the member of the Group.

The Company further announces that a member of the Group, as the seller, entered into a raw materials supply contract with an associate of Mr. Deripaska, as the buyer.

THE NEW REPAIR SERVICES CONTRACT

Reference is made to the announcements of the Company dated 30 October 2017, 11 December 2017, 11 January 2018 and 29 January 2018 in relation to the Previously Disclosed Repair Services Contracts.

The Company announces that a member of the Group entered into a contract with an associate of En+, pursuant to which the associate of En+ agreed to provide repair services to the member of the Group (the "New Repair Services Contract"), details of which are set out below.

Date of the

contract Customer

(member of

the Group) Contractor

(associate of

En+) Term of

contract Repair services Estimated consideration

payable for

the years ending

31 December

2018 and

31 December

2019 excluding

VAT (USD) Payment terms 1 14 February 2018 PJSC

"RUSAL

Bratsk" JSC "IENC" Up to 31

December

2019 Maintenance of

equipment 2018: 622,500

2019: 653,325

(Note 1) Within 5 calendar days

from the receipt of the

invoice for the current

month. Total estimated

consideration 2018: 622,500

2019: 653,325

Note:

1. The consideration is based on the estimated costs of operation and maintenance of electric networks as required by the Group.

The consideration under the New Repair Services Contract is to be paid in cash via bank transfer.

THE ANNUAL AGGREGATE TRANSACTION AMOUNT

The contract price payable under the New Repair Services Contract has been determined with reference to the market price and on terms no less favourable than those prevailing in the Russian market for repair services of the same type and quality and those offered by the associates of En+ to independent third parties. The basis of calculation of payments under the New Repair Services Contract is the price of contract offered by the associate of En+ which is based on the estimated costs (including labour costs and the necessary materials) for the relevant repair works. Only the employees of JSC "IENC" have the qualification and access to service overhead lines within the territory of the Irkutsk region. The Company's procurement managers, in line with the best-in-class experience and know-how of the Company's procurement policies, with approval from the Company's bidding committee chose the contractor offering the best terms and conditions (taking into account the price, the fact that the contractor performed similar works for the Group successfully previously and the availability of professionals with the required skill and experience) and then entered into the contract with the chosen contractor.

Based on the terms of the New Repair Services Contract and the Previously Disclosed Repair Services Contracts, the annual aggregate transaction amount that is payable by the Group to the associates of En+ for the financial year ending 31 December 2018 is estimated to be approximately USD10.932 million and for the financial year ending 31 December 2019 is estimated to be approximately USD685,514.

The annual aggregate transaction amount is estimated by the Directors based on the amount of repair services expected to be received by the Group and the agreed prices for the services pursuant to the relevant contract.

THE AGGREGATION APPROACH

Pursuant to Rule 14A.81 of the Listing Rules, the continuing connected transactions contemplated under the New Repair Services Contract and the Previously Disclosed Repair Services Contracts should be aggregated, as they were entered into by the Group with the associates of the same group of connected persons who are parties connected or otherwise associated with one another, and the subject matter of each of the contracts relates to the receipt of repair and maintenance services by members of the Group.

REASONS FOR AND BENEFITS OF THE TRANSACTIONS

The Directors consider that the New Repair Services Contract is for the benefit of the Company, as JSC "IENC" offered a competitive price.

The Directors (including the independent non-executive Directors) consider that the New Repair Services Contract has been negotiated on an arm's length basis and on normal commercial terms which are fair and reasonable and the transactions contemplated under the New Repair Services Contract are in the ordinary and usual course of business of the Group and in the interests of the Company and its shareholders as a whole.

None of the Directors has a material interest in the transactions contemplated under the New Repair Services Contract, save for Mr. Deripaska, Mr. Vladislav Soloviev, Mr. Maxim Sokov, Ms. Olga Mashkovskaya and Ms. Gulzhan Moldazhanova who are directors of En+, being the holding company of JSC "IENC". Mr. Deripaska is also indirectly interested in more than 50% of the issued share capital of En+. Accordingly, Mr. Deripaska, Mr. Vladislav Soloviev, Mr. Maxim Sokov, Ms. Olga Mashkovskaya and Ms. Gulzhan Moldazhanova did not vote on the Board resolution approving the New Repair Services Contract.

LISTING RULES IMPLICATIONS

JSC "IENC" is held by En+ as to more than 30% of the issued share capital and are therefore associates of En+ which is a substantial shareholder of the Company and thus is a connected person of the Company under the Listing Rules.

The estimated annual aggregate transaction amount of the continuing connected transactions under the New Repair Services Contract and the Previously Disclosed Repair Services Contracts for the financial year ending 31 December 2018 is more than 0.1% but less than 5% under the applicable percentage ratios. Accordingly, pursuant to Rule 14A.76 of the Listing Rules, the transactions contemplated under these contracts are only subject to the announcement requirements set out in Rules 14A.35 and 14A.68, the annual review requirements set out in Rules 14A.49, 14A.55 to 14A.59, 14A.71 and 14A.72 and the requirements set out in Rules 14A.34 and 14A.50 to 14A.54 of the Listing Rules. These transactions are exempt from the circular and the independent shareholders' approval requirements under Chapter 14A of the Listing Rules.

Details of the New Repair Services Contract and the Previously Disclosed Repair Services Contracts will be included in the next annual report and accounts of the Company in accordance with Rule 14A.71 of the Listing Rules where appropriate.

SALE OF RAW MATERIALS

NEW RAW MATERIALS SUPPLY CONTRACT

The Company announces that a member of the Group, as the seller, entered into raw materials supply contract with an associate of Mr. Deripaska, as the buyer, with major terms set out below (the "New Raw Materials Supply Contract

Date of contract Seller (member of the Group) Buyer (associate

of Mr.

Deripaska) Raw materials

to be supplied Estimated

delivery

volume for the

year ending

31 December

2018 Estimated

consideration

payable for

the year ending

31 December

2018 excluding

VAT (USD) Scheduled termination

date Payment terms 1 14 February 2018 JSC "UC RUSAL

TH" LLC "GAZ Group

Autocomponents" Silicon 80 tons 175,200

(Note 1) 31 December 2018, may

be extended

automatically for next

calendar year if neither

party declare its

intention to terminate it

not less than 20 calendar

days before expiry 100% advance payment Total estimated

consideration payable

for

the year 175,200

Note:

1. The approximate contract price is agreed between the parties and based on per unit price: 2,190 USD/ton. Prices are set based on global prices. The calculation is based on the prices existing during the contracting period for the standard silicon grade on free on board main China ports basis, plus the average price of transportation to the Russian customer, import duty, plus the adjustment based on latest market updates and discount/premium for impurity content. The price increase is limited by the regulations of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (a Russian governmental authority) which requires the Group not to increase silicon prices by more than 20% per year, and by possibility of replacement with imported products. In addition, the requirement of the Federal Antimonopoly Service requires the Group to meet the needs of Russian buyers and maintain prices for all customers at the same level.

The consideration under the New Raw Materials Supply Contract is to be paid in cash via bank transfer or the offsetting of reciprocal obligations.

THE ANNUAL AGGREGATE TRANSACTION AMOUNT

Pursuant to Rule 14A.81 of the Listing Rules, the continuing connected transactions contemplated under the New Raw Materials Supply Contract and the Previously Disclosed Raw Materials Supply Contracts should be aggregated, as they were entered into by members of the Group with the associates of En+/Mr. Deripaska, and the subject matter of each contract relates to the supply of raw materials by the Group to the associates of En+/Mr. Deripaska.

The annual aggregate transaction amount that is payable by the associates of En+/Mr. Deripaska to the Group under the New Raw Materials Supply Contract and the Previously Disclosed Raw Materials Supply Contracts for the financial year ending 31 December 2018 is estimated to be approximately USD16.4 million.

The consideration payable under the New Raw Materials Supply Contracts is calculated by multiplying the unit price by the volume. The unit price is set out in the note to the table above.

The consideration payable under the New Raw Materials Supply Contract has been arrived at after arm's length negotiation with reference to the market price and on terms no less favourable than those prevailing in the Russian market for raw materials of the same type and quality and those offered by members of the Group to independent third parties customers. The price list for the New Raw Materials Supply Contract is applicable to all buyers of similar products. The selling price is based upon the purchase price ordering costs 0.1% general expenses 2% efficiency. The annual aggregate amount is the maximum amount of consideration payable under the terms of the New Raw Materials Supply Contract based on the delivery volume estimated by Directors and the demand from the buyer.

REASONS FOR AND BENEFITS OF THE TRANSACTIONS

The Directors consider that the entering into of the New Raw Materials Supply Contract is for the benefit of the Company as the sale is profitable and the Group is assured of payment on a timely basis and there are fewer financial risks.

The Directors (including the independent non-executive Directors) consider that the New Raw Materials Supply Contract is on normal commercial terms which are fair and reasonable and the transactions contemplated under the New Raw Materials Supply Contract are in the ordinary and usual course of business of the Group and in the interests of the Company and its shareholders as a whole.

None of the Directors has a material interest in the transactions, save for (a) Mr. Deripaska, who is a director of Basic Element and is interested in more than 50% of the issued share capital of Basic Element; (b) Ms. Gulzhan Moldazhanova, who is a director of Basic Element; and (c) Ms. Olga Mashkovskaya, who is a deputy chief executive officer for finance of Basic Element. Basic Element is the holding company of LLC "GAZ Group Autocomponents". Accordingly, Mr. Deripaska, Ms. Gulzhan Moldazhanova and Ms. Olga Mashkovskaya did not vote on the Board resolution approving the relevant New Raw Materials Supply Contract.

LISTING RULES IMPLICATIONS

LLC "GAZ Group Autocomponents" is held by Basic Element as to more than 30% of the issued share capital. Basic Element is in turn held by Mr. Deripaska (an executive Director) as to more than 50% of the issued share capital. LLC "GAZ Group Autocomponents" is therefore an associate of Mr. Deripaska and is thus a connected person of the Company. Accordingly, the transactions contemplated under the New Raw Materials Supply Contract constitute continuing connected transactions of the Company.

The estimated annual aggregate transaction amount of the continuing connected transactions under the New Raw Materials Supply Contract and the Previously Disclosed Raw Materials Supply Contracts for the financial year ending 31 December 2018 is more than 0.1% but less than 5% under the applicable percentage ratios. Accordingly, pursuant to Rule 14A.76 of the Listing Rules, the transactions contemplated under these contracts are only subject to the announcement requirements set out in Rules 14A.35 and 14A.68, the annual review requirements set out in Rules 14A.49, 14A.55 to 14A.59, 14A.71 and 14A.72 and the requirements set out in Rules 14A.34 and 14A.50 to 14A.54 of the Listing Rules. These transactions are exempt from the circular and shareholders' approval requirements under Chapter 14A of the Listing Rules.

Details of the New Raw Materials Supply Contract will be included in the relevant annual report and accounts of the Company in accordance with Rule 14A.71 of the Listing Rules where appropriate.

PRINCIPAL BUSINESS ACTIVITIES

The Company is principally engaged in the production and sale of aluminium, including alloys and value-added products, and alumina.

JSC "IENC" is principally engaged in transfer and electric power distribution, transit transfer of the electric power, ensuring operation and service of the power equipment, modernization and reconstruction of power objects, technical diagnostics of electric equipment.

LLC "GAZ Group Autocomponents" is principally engaged in production and sales of auto components.

DEFINITIONS

In this announcement, the following expressions have the following meanings, unless the context otherwise requires:

"associate(s)" has the same meaning ascribed thereto under the Listing Rules. "Basic Element" Basic Element Limited, a company incorporated in Jersey. "Board" the board of Directors. "Company" United Company RUSAL Plc, a limited liability company incorporated in Jersey, the shares of which are listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited. "connected person(s)" has the same meaning ascribed thereto under the Listing Rules. "continuing connected transactions" has the same meaning ascribed thereto under the Listing Rules. "Director(s)" the director(s) of the Company. "En+" En+ Group Plc, formerly En+ Group Limited, a company incorporated in Jersey, a substantial shareholder of the Company. "Group" the Company and its subsidiaries. "Listing Rules" the Rules Governing the Listing of Securities on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited. "Mr. Deripaska" Mr. Oleg Deripaska, an executive Director. "percentage ratios" the percentage ratios under Rule 14.07 of the Listing Rules. "Previously Disclosed Repair Services Contracts" the repair services contracts between members of the Group and associates of En+, pursuant to which the associates of En+ agreed to provide repair services to the members of the Group during the year 2018, as disclosed in the announcements of the Company dated 30 October 2017, 11 December 2017, 11 January 2018 and 29 January 2018. "Previously Disclosed Raw Materials Supply Contracts" the raw materials supply contracts between members of the Group, as sellers, and associates of En+/Mr. Deripaska, as buyers, as disclosed in the announcements of the Company dated 29 December 2017 and 29 January 2018. "substantial shareholder" has the same meaning ascribed thereto under the Listing Rules. "USD" United States dollars, the lawful currency of the United States of America. "VAT" value added tax.

By Order of the Board of Directors of

United Company RUSAL Plc

Aby Wong Po Ying

Company Secretary

15 February 2018

As at the date of this announcement, the executive Directors are Mr. Oleg Deripaska, Mr. Vladislav Soloviev and Mr. Siegfried Wolf, the non-executive Directors are Mr. Maxim Sokov, Mr. Dmitry Afanasiev, Mr. Ivan Glasenberg, Mr. Maksim Goldman, Ms. Gulzhan Moldazhanova, Mr. Daniel Lesin Wolfe, Ms. Olga Mashkovskaya, Ms. Ekaterina Nikitina and Mr. Marco Musetti, and the independent non-executive Directors are Mr. Matthias Warnig (Chairman), Mr. Philip Lader, Dr. Elsie Leung Oi-sie, Mr. Mark Garber, Mr. Dmitry Vasiliev and Mr. Bernard Zonneveld.

All announcements and press releases published by the Company are available on its website under the links http://www.rusal.ru/en/investors/info.aspxhttp://rusal.ru/investors/info/moex/ and http://www.rusal.ru/en/press-center/press-releases.aspx, respectively.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180214005975/en/

Contacts:

United Company RUSAL PlcDGAP-Ad-hoc: Airbus SE / Key word(s): Change of Personnel Airbus SE: Bruno Even Appointed CEO of Airbus Helicopters 14-Feb-2018 / 18:30 CET/CEST Disclosure of an inside information acc. to Article 17 MAR, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. *Ad-hoc release, 14 February 2018* *Bruno Even Appointed CEO of Airbus Helicopters * Airbus SE (stock exchange symbol: AIR) has appointed Bruno Even, 49, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Airbus Helicopters, effective 1 April 2018. He will report to Airbus CEO Tom Enders and join the company's Executive Committee. Bruno Even comes to Airbus from Safran where he was CEO of the Helicopter Engines business since 2015. He succeeds Guillaume Faury who will assume his duties as President Airbus Commercial Aircraft next week. "I am very pleased that we could attract an experienced executive with Bruno Even to join Airbus," said Airbus CEO Tom Enders. "Bruno has climbed the management ranks at Safran at a very young age. His broad background of the Helicopter business and his strong customer focus combined with Program and Engineering expertise, make Bruno the ideal candidate to succeed Guillaume Faury and to continue our successful improvement journey in a very demanding business environment." A graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique, Bruno Even joined the French Ministry of Defence in 1992 where he was in charge of the space component's development for the Helios II satellite. In 1997, he transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to become technical advisor for the Director of Strategic Affairs, Security and Disarmament. In 1999, he joined Safran Helicopter Engines (ex-Turbomeca) where he held a number of management posts up to Executive Vice President Support and Services. From 2013 to 2015, he was CEO of Safran Electronics & Defense (ex-Sagem). *About Airbus* Airbus is a global leader in aeronautics, space and related services. In 2016 it generated revenues of EUR67 billion and employed a workforce of around 134,000. Airbus offers the most comprehensive range of passenger airliners from 100 to more than 600 seats and business aviation products. Airbus is also a European leader providing tanker, combat, transport and mission aircraft, as well as one of the world's leading space companies. In helicopters, Airbus provides the most efficient civil and military rotorcraft solutions worldwide. *Media contact:* Guillaume Steuer +33 673 821 168 guillaume.steuer@airbus.com 14-Feb-2018 CET/CEST The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Archive at www.dgap.de Language: English Company: Airbus SE P.O. Box 32008 2303 DA Leiden Netherlands Phone: 00 800 00 02 2002 Fax: +49 (0)89 607 - 26481 Internet: www.airbusgroup.com ISIN: NL0000235190 WKN: 938914 Indices: MDAX Listed: Regulated Market in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Regulated Unofficial Market in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Hanover, Munich, Stuttgart, Tradegate Exchange End of Announcement DGAP News Service 654319 14-Feb-2018 CET/CEST

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 14, 2018 12:30 ET (17:30 GMT)DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

VFS Global now services Croatia and Lithuania visas in 27 and 9 countries respectively

VFS Global announced that in December 2017, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania and The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia have extended their contracts with VFS Global. Under the renewed agreements, VFS Global will service Croatia visas in 27 countries, and Lithuania visas in 9 countries.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/624234/VFS_Global_Logo.jpg )



The agreement extends Croatia visa services through VFS Global for a further five years in Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, China, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, Ukraine and Vietnam.

The contract signed with Lithuania extends VFS Global's visa services for the period of one year in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. Under the contract, VFS Global will now also serve Lithuania in Kosovo, through a new Visa Application Centre in Pristina.

Chris Dix, Head - Business Development, VFS Global, remarked, "VFS Global's relationship with Croatia and Lithuania has grown from strength to strength through the years. We have been associated with the two Ministries since 2013, and are delighted to have been given the opportunity to continue offering them our visa services through these contract extensions. Not only does the agreement renewal reinforce the two governments' faith in VFS Global's service standards, but also strengthens our company's position as the leading visa services partner to EU member states."

For VFS Global, 2017 was an eventful year, with seven new client governments signed on: namely, Bahrain, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Georgia, Nigeria, Slovakia and Ukraine. VFS Global is the trusted partner to 58 client governments worldwide, offering a range of visa, permit, passport, and consular services.

About VFS Global

VFS Globalis the world's largest outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions worldwide. With2469 Application Centres, operations in129 countriesacrossfive continents and over 161 million applications processedas on 31 December 2017, VFS Global is the trusted partner of58 client governments.VFS Global's worldwide operations are certifiedISO 9001:2008for Quality Management System,ISO 27001:2013for Information Security Management SystemandISO 14001:2004for Environmental Management System. For more information, please visithttp://www.vfsglobal.com

Media Contact:

Shaily Vaswani

ShailyV@vfsglobal.com

VFS Global

The Annual General Meeting of Pandora A/S (the "Company") is hereby convened to be held on Wednesday 14 March 2018 at 10:00 a.m. CET (doors will open at 9:00) The Annual General Meeting will be held at Tivoli Hotel & Congress Center, Arni Magnussons Gade 2, 1577 Copenhagen V, Denmark with the following agenda: 1. The Board of Directors' report on the Company's activities during the past financial year. 2. Adoption of the audited Annual Report 2017. 3. Resolution proposed by the Board of Directors on remuneration to the Board of Directors for 2017 and 2018. 3.1 Approval of remuneration for 2017. 3.2 Approval of remuneration for 2018. 4. Proposed distribution of profit as recorded in the adopted Annual Report, including the proposed amount of any dividend to be distributed or proposal to cover any loss. 5. Election of members to the Board of Directors. 6. Election of auditor. 7. Resolution on the discharge from liability of the Board of Directors and the Executive Management. 8. Any proposal by the shareholders and/or Board of Directors. The Board of Directors has submitted the following proposals: 8.1 Reduction of the Company's share capital. 8.2 Amendment of article 5.5 of the Articles of Association. 8.3 Amendment of article 8.2 of the Articles of Association. 8.4 Annulment of article 11.4 of the Articles of Association. 8.5 Amendment of the Company's Guidelines on incentive payments. 8.6 Authority to the Board of Directors to let the Company buy back treasury shares. 8.7 Authority to the Board of Directors to distribute extraordinary dividend. 8.8 Authority to the chairman of the Annual General Meeting. 9. Any other business. Attachment: https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=663830LONDON, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Infosys (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in consulting, technology and next-generation services, today announced that UCAS, the admissions service for UK higher education, has extended its existing partnership with the company to support its business strategy up to 2021.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130122/589162 )



UCAS delivers critical admissions and information services to students, schools and higher education providers. Every year it supports more than a million applicants from over 100 countries; 6,000 registered centres; 1,200 schools; and 388 universities and colleges.

Every summer UCAS runs and delivers the single biggest infrastructure event within the UK education sector.Its systems manage millions of applications; process over 10 million exam results; answer 35,000 customer calls on A level results days; and respond to 15,000 social media enquiries.Not only is this period critical for the life chances of individuals, it has huge implications for the future prosperity of the UK society, economy and beyond. During the five critical days, including SQA Results Day and leading up to A Level Results Day, UCAS supports the placement of students equating to around 6 billion (around $8 billion) in tuition fees alone.

In the last three years, UCAS' partnership with Infosys has reaped immediate dividends, with system outage times slashed by 90 per cent, while UCAS customer satisfaction scores with UCAS peak periods of confirmation and clearing, have jumped from 60 to 94 per cent.

As part of the renewed engagement, Infosys will provide a wide range of digital services that will enable UCAS to continue to develop technology capabilities that connect learners to multiple destinations, such as universities, awarding bodies, schools and other organisations, using a dynamic digital suite of systems that responds to a rapidly changing higher education sector in the UK. Infosys will now concentrate on helping UCAS achieve its ambitious targets on lowering costs, optimising and enhancing services for students, delivering more robust security, and providing business-as-usual (BAU) services between legacy and new digital systems.

UB Pravin Rao, Chief Operating Officer, Infosys, said, "The renewed engagement with UCAS bears testament to the success we have helped the organisation achieve to date. We're very enthusiastic about the journey ahead and welcome the opportunity to power UCAS' vision for the future of Education, by developing a truly agile digital enterprise, that is able to cater to the requirements of increasingly demanding students. We look forward to working with UCAS and helping the organisation deliver its 2020 strategy and vision."

Clare Marchant, UCAS Chief Executive, said, "This is a significant milestone for UCAS. On joining in 2017, one of my first impressions was the strength and professionalism of the partnership with Infosys. This has enabled substantial service improvements and stability around key business events, particularly for confirmation and clearing when hundreds of thousands of students are using our services simultaneously to find out if they have a university or college place."

Fatuma Mahad, Director of Technology and Operations and UCAS, said, "This is absolutely right for UCAS. Our ways of working together have cemented a partnership which I feel helped us create a model for future success."

Infosys has managed UCAS' core application and IT infrastructure since 2014, enabling the delivery of technology services to customers and the business, including three successful confirmations and clearing periods and other high-volume, time-critical events.

About UCAS

UCAS is a charity, and is the UK's shared admissions service for higher education. We manage applications from around 700,000 applicants each year for full time undergraduate courses, at more than 395 universities and colleges across the UK.

For further information please contact Felicity Cowie, Head of Media and Corporate Communications at UCAS at f.cowie@ucas.ac.uk or 01242-545469.

About Infosys

Infosys is a global leader in technology services and consulting. We enable clients in 45 countries to create and execute strategies for their digital transformation. From engineering to application development, knowledge management and business process management, we help our clients find the right problems to solve, and to solve those effectively.Our team of 200,000+ innovators, across the globe is differentiated by the imagination, knowledge and experience across industries and technologies that we bring to every project we undertake.

Visit http://www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise thrive in the digital age.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this press release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectations intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017. These filings are available athttp://www.sec.gov Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. In addition, please note that any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of the date of this press release. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law.



NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2018 / Petro River Oil Corp. (OTC PINK: PTRC) ("Petro River" or the "Company") an independent oil and gas exploration company utilizing the latest 3-D seismic technology, announced today that it has acquired additional prospects in Kay County, Oklahoma that have a combined potential recoverable resource of 5.8 million barrels of oil.

The Kay County acquisition is pursuant to a purchase and exchange agreement under which Petro River assigned 100% of its 13.75% working interest in the Mountain View Project in Kern County, California for the 64.70% of Red Fork Resources, LLC ("Red Fork") 85.00% working interest in Kay County, Oklahoma, resulting in the Company owning a 55% working interest in Kay County. Each of Red Fork and Petro River will retain a 2% overriding royalty on their respective assigned projects.

Kay County Prospects:

The Kay County, Oklahoma acquisition adds additional prospect locations adjacent to Petro River's 106,000 acre concession in Osage County, Oklahoma. The similarity of the prospects in Kay County allows for the leverage of assets, infrastructure and technical expertise. Recent seismic reprocessing and interpretation of over 50 square miles of 3D data has revealed multiple Mississippian Chat structures and Red Fork channel prospects. Three Mississippian Chat structures and eight Red Fork channel prospects have been identified.

Osage County, OK Drilling Program Update:

The Company is currently executing on its development plans in Osage County, OK. The development wells are located in the West Blackland and South Blackland oil fields discovered by the West Blackland 1-3 and South Blackland 2-11 exploration wells drilled by the Company in 2017. Based on results of the 30-day oil flow tests from these exploration wells, the Company's estimated ultimate recovery ("EUR") per well is approximately 105,000 barrels of oil equivalent ("BOE") in the West Blackland field and 63,000 BOE in the South Blackland field. To date, four additional wells have been drilled and completed in the West Blackland (wells 2-3, 5-3, 6-3 and 9-3), with the remaining wells, to follow. Management is pleased with the early results which are in line with expectations and validates the 3-D seismic methodology.

Below are the anticipated single well economics from our development plan in the West Blackland and South Blackland fields:

W. Blackland Single Well Economics Cashflow Cap Ex 1 Yr 3 YR 5 YR Life of Well IRR 100% WI (250,000) $511,725 $986,126 $1,270,373 $3,068,889 163%

IP Rate: 71 BOE; EUR: 105,000 BOE

S. Blackland Single Well Economics Cashflow Cap Ex 1 YR 3 YR 5 YR Life of Well IRR 100% WI (250,000) $266,490 $540,712 $708,481 $1,600,096 73%

IP Rate: 35 BOE; EUR: 63,000 BOE

The single well economics above are estimates only, and are based on a net revenue interest of 76%, a flat rate of $50 oil and $2.10 gas prices. Our lease operating expenses are $1,000 fixed per well plus $1.25 variable per barrel of oil. No assurances can be given that we will realize the returns estimated, and actual returns may be different, and such differences may be material.

Management's Comments:

Stephen Brunner, President of Petro River stated, "The property exchange in Kay County, OK compliments our Osage Project and positions the Company to execute on our exploration and development plans in the region. Refocusing our efforts in Oklahoma, based on our recent success, reaffirms our belief that applying modern technology to historically productive fields in this region will result in attractive well economics. Additionally, we believe the execution of a successful West Blackland development program will provide significant cash flow to the Company."

About: Petro River Oil Corp.

Petro River Oil Corp. (OTC PINK: PTRC) is an independent energy company with its core holdings in Osage County, Oklahoma, and Kern County, California. Petro River's strategy is to apply modern technology, such as 3-D Seismic analysis to exploit hydrocarbon-prone resources in historically prolific plays and underexplored prospective basins to build reserves and to create value for the Company and its shareholders. Petro River owns a 20% equity interest in Horizon Energy Partners, LLC and its' president, Stephen Brunner, is also a member of the Board of Managers of Horizon Energy Partners, LLC. For more information, please visit our website at www.petroriveroil.com.

Forward-Looking Statements.

This news release contains forward-looking and other statements that are not historical facts. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur, which may cause actual performance and results in future periods to differ materially from any estimates or projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements, projections and statements are subject to change and could differ materially from final reported results. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the dates on which they are made. Petro River assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities law. Additionally, Petro River undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made by, third parties in respect to the matters discussed above. Readers should also carefully review the "Risk Factors" in Petro River's annual report on Form 10-K, its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.

For additional information about Petro River Oil, please visit http://petroriveroil.com/ or contact:

Investor Relations

ir@petroriveroil.com

telephone: (469) 828-3900

SOURCE: Petro River Oil Corp.



GURUGRAM, India, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Majority of the dispatcher service business will be converted into app based cab booking service.

Yandex taxi (along with Uber post merger) was the largest player in Russia online cab aggregator market

online cab aggregator market Revenue from online booking including direct and third party booking in self drive car rental market is on a constant rise.

Hertz was the largest self drive international car rental company in Russia in 2017.

Car rental market in Russia is still in the development stage making a steady progress towards a regularized and organized industry. Growth is mainly driven by transparent and economical pricing along with support from technological advancements in field of navigation and better communication system between driver and customer.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130909/638322 )



In 2011 about 12,000 taxi licenses were granted in Moscow which increased to over 82,000 in 2017. Among the Moscow's taxi operators, there are over 1,000 legal entities and over 6,400 self-employed entrepreneurs. Similar rise was recorded in many other major Russian cities. Taxi business in Russia is moving towards the organized sector with increasing participation of drivers opting for registered taxis and permits. New regulations coming into force and competition with existing players further make the working of illegal taxis more difficult. Post 2014, using a taxi in Moscow has become 30% cheaper and the estimated average waiting time is reduced to seven minutes in 2017.

Changing business dynamics made taxi and other car rental services competitive to attract customers to their service. The number of people using taxi services increased significantly especially in large cities. Yandex taxi, Gett, Vezyot, Maxim and Hertz emerged as some key car rental companies operating in Russia.

Citymobil and Vezyot were leading dispatcher taxi service providers in the country. Short term rental hiring by tourists was the major segment contributing to the business. It is the most premium segment in chauffer driven rental market, as per km charges it is amongst the highest.

Tour operator services generally cater to the domestic and international tourists. Most of the bookings in this segment are for short term with average duration varying from a day to a week. Large Corporation especially those associated with manufacturing, surveying and project based work engage the services of transport companies to provide long term rental. Almost all taxi companies were found willing to provide a taxi for long term rental if competitive price and tenure is provided.

According to the report by Ken Research titled Russia Car Rental Market by Type (App Based Taxi Aggregator, Self Drive Rental Car, Chauffer Driven Rental and Taxi Services), and by Off-Airport On-Airport Outlook To 2022, market for overall car rental in Russia is expected to reach USD 13.2 billion in 2022 registering a CAGR of 8.9%.

Key Topics Covered in the Report:

- Russia Car Rental and Taxi Services Market

Market Size

Russia Taxi Service Market Segmentation by On-Airport and Off-Airport Transfers

Future Outlook

- Russia Chauffer Driven Car Rental and Taxi Services Market

Market Size

By Type of Dispatcher Taxi and Chauffer Driven Car Rental Tour Operators Long Term Rental Companies Dispatcher Services Ride Sharing Services

Future Outlook

- Snapshot on Car Rental and Taxi Service Companies (Lingo Taxi, Moscow Taxi, Business Service LLC, Meetmetaxi, Kiwi Taxi, LogiTaxi, Angel Taxi, Maxim Taxi, Rutaxi, Fasten, and BlaBla Car)

- Russia Cab Aggregator Market (Online Apps)

Market Size

Market Segmentation by Type of Car Booking (Economy, Comfort, and Executive)

Market Share of Major Players, (Yandex Taxi, Gett, Altocar, Wheely and Indrive)

Future Outlook

- Russia Self Drive Car Rental Market

Market Size

By Type of Booking (Online and Offline)

By Type of Use (Business, Leisure, and Insurance Replacement)

Market Share of Major Players in Self Drive Car Rental Market Sixt Avis

Future Outlook

For more information on the research report, refer to below link:

https://www.kenresearch.com/automotive-transportation-and-warehousing/automotive-and-automotive-components/russia-car-rental-market/142799-100.html

Related Reports by Ken Research

Vietnam Car Rental Market Outlook to 2021 - Rising Tourism and Trend of Mobile Booking for Rental Cars to Drive Market

Thailand Car Rental Market Outlook to 2021 - Increasing Traffic Congestion and Rising Number of Corporate Clients to Amplify the Market Growth

Indonesia Car Rental Market Outlook to 2021 - Rising Tourism and Growing Middle Class Population to Foster Future Growth

Brazil Car Rental Industry and Toll Application Market Outlook To 2020 - Increasing Sporting and Cultural activities and Robust Tourism to Foster Future Growth

Middle East Car Rental and Leasing Market Forecast to 2020 - Augmentation in Qatar and Oman along with Rise in Car Leasing to Stimulate Growth



Contact Us:

Ken Research

Ankur Gupta, Head Marketing

Sales@kenresearch.com

+91-1244230204 ext. 26

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.Mr. Zekhout was most recently CFO of Global Grooming at Procter Gamble

Nomad Foods Limited (NYSE: NOMD), today announced the appointment of Samy Zekhout as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective April 2018. Upon joining the Company, Mr. Zekhout will also be appointed to the Company's Board of Directors.

Mr. Zekhout joins Nomad Foods with more than 30 years of global consumer products experience at Procter Gamble, most recently as CFO and Vice President of Global Grooming over the past 11 years. During his tenure at Procter Gamble, Mr. Zekhout was instrumental in driving increased profitability and cash flow performance, step-change revenue growth across the portfolio and the successful execution and integration of several acquisitions. Throughout the course of his career, Mr. Zekhout has held various finance roles at Procter Gamble while residing in several countries including France, Belgium, Czech Republic, Switzerland and the United States.

"We are pleased to welcome Samy to Nomad Foods," said Stefan Descheemaeker, CEO of Nomad Foods. "Samy is a talented finance executive with global experience and a proven track record of unlocking value and integrating acquisitions within large consumer product portfolios. We look forward to his contributions as we enter the next phase of our growth strategy."

"I am very excited to join Nomad Foods," said Mr. Zekhout. "The business has made significant strides under Stefan's leadership and has a bright future ahead. I look forward to leveraging my experience and creating additional value for all of our stakeholders in the years to come."

About Nomad Foods Limited

Nomad Foods (NYSE: NOMD) is a leading frozen foods company building a global portfolio of best-in-class food companies and brands within the frozen category and across the broader food sector. Nomad Foods produces, markets and distributes brands in 17 countries and has the leading market share in Western Europe. The Company's portfolio of leading frozen food brands includes Birds Eye, Iglo and Findus. More information on Nomad Foods Limited is available at http://www.nomadfoods.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180215005025/en/

Contacts:

Investor Relations Contacts

Nomad Foods Limited

Taposh Bari, +1-718-290-7950

CFA

or

ICR

John Mills, +1-646-277-1254

Partner

or

Media Contact

Weber Shandwick

Liz Cohen, +1-212-445-8044

liz.cohen@webershandwick.com

http://www.nomadfoods.comWASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Wyndham Worldwide Corp. (WYN) said that it agreed to sell its European vacation rental business to Platinum Equity for approximately $1.3 billion. In conjunction with the sale, the European vacation rental business has entered into a 20-year agreement under which it will pay a royalty fee of 1% of net revenue to Wyndham's hotel business for the right to use the by Wyndham Vacation Rentals endorser brand. The European vacation rentals operations will also participate as a redemption partner in the award-winning Wyndham Rewards loyalty program. Wyndham Worldwide estimates that the tax obligations associated with the sale of the European Rental brands will be less than 15% of the proceeds. The Company expects to use the net proceeds from the sale for general corporate purposes, which may include debt repayment and/or funding of its recently announced acquisition of La Quinta Holdings' hotel franchising and management businesses. Wyndham Worldwide's planned spin-off of Wyndham Hotel Group remains on track for an expected distribution in the second quarter of 2018. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.LONGUEUIL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 02/15/18 -- Heroux-Devtek Inc. (TSX: HRX), ("Heroux-Devtek" or the "Corporation"), a leading international manufacturer of aerospace products, announced the appointment of Mr. Pierre Fitzgibbon as Director of the Corporation. Mr. Fitzgibbon is also appointed to the Audit Committee of the Corporation.

Mr. Fitzgibbon is currently Managing Partner at Walter Capital Partners, a private equity firm headquartered in Montreal. He previously served seven years as President and Chief Executive Officer of Atrium Innovations, which had operations in eight countries. Prior to joining Atrium, he was at National Bank of Canada for five years where he held senior executive positions with responsibilities for corporate development, finance, mergers & acquisitions and strategic planning. Before joining National Bank of Canada, he was President and Managing Director of New World Mobility, a wireless provider in Hong Kong. He also held various senior executive positions in finance, corporate and business development at Telesystem International Wireless in Canada and Asia, Domtar and Peerless Carpet Corporation.

Mr. Fitzgibbon holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from HEC Montreal, is a member of the Ordre des comptables professionnels agrees du Quebec and holds a certificate in general management from Harvard Business School. He is currently serving on the Board of Directors of WSP Group and has served on numerous other boards over the years, including Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, Transcontinental Inc., Lumenpulse, Arianne Phosphate, Acasti Pharma and Neptune Bioresources.

"We are honoured to welcome Mr. Fitzgibbon to our Board of Directors. He brings a wealth of experience, having held strategic positions in diverse industries both in Canada and abroad. We look forward to working with him," said Mr. Brian A. Robbins, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Heroux-Devtek.

PROFILE

Heroux-Devtek Inc. (TSX: HRX) is an international company specializing in the design, development, manufacture and repair and overhaul of landing gear and actuation systems and components for the Aerospace market. The Corporation is the third largest landing gear company worldwide, supplying both the commercial and defence sectors of the Aerospace market with new landing gear systems and components, as well as aftermarket products and services. The Corporation also manufactures hydraulic systems, fluid filtration systems and electronic enclosures. Approximately 90% of the Corporation's sales are outside Canada, including about 65% in the United States. The Corporation's head office is located in Longueuil, Quebec with facilities in the Greater Montreal area (Longueuil, Laval and St-Hubert); Kitchener, Cambridge and Toronto, Ontario; Springfield and Strongsville, Ohio; Wichita, Kansas; Everett, Washington; and Runcorn, Nottingham and Bolton, United Kingdom.

Contacts:

From:

Heroux-Devtek Inc.

Gilles Labbe

President and Chief Executive Officer

Tel.: (450) 679-3330



Contact:

Heroux-Devtek Inc.

Stephane Arsenault

Chief Financial Officer

Tel.: (450) 679-3330



MaisonBrison

Pierre Boucher

Tel.: (514) 731-0000



Following are the latest Corporate Social Responsibility news releases and story ideas available from Business Wire. These recaps, curated by Business Wire, provide reporters and bloggers around the globe instant access to the latest news releases, providing relevant and trending content to share with their audiences. Discover more news via Business Wire's Hot Topic recaps or create a custom news feed specific to your needs here. This service is provided at no charge to members of the media and financial communities.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180215005301/en/

DANBURY, Conn. -- Praxair Included in Inaugural 2018 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index Source: Praxair, Inc.

PITTSBURGH -- PPG and the PPG Foundation Invested $10.5 Million in Communities Across the Globe in 2017 Source: PPG

SAN ANTONIO -- Travelers Institute Selects San Antonio to Launch 2018 Small Business Big Opportunity series Source: The Travelers Companies, Inc.

ZURICH -- RepRisk Releases the Most Controversial Companies 2017 Report Eight of Ten Companies Included Were Exposed to Severe Governance Issues, in Particular Bribery and Corruption Source: RepRisk

GREENVILLE, N.C. -- UnitedHealthcare Donates $25,000 to Support East Carolina University College of Nursing Scholarships Source: UnitedHealthcare

SALISBURY, N.C. -- Local Soup Kitchens to be Honored by Food Lion Feeds Source: Food Lion

NEW YORK -- Voya Named One of the 2018 World's Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute for the Fifth Consecutive Year Source: Voya Financial, Inc.

PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- Hasbro Recognized as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute for Seventh Consecutive Year Source: Hasbro, Inc.

SAN ANTONIO -- Travelers Institute to Launch 2018 Every Second Matters? Series in San Antonio, Focusing on the Dangers of Distracted Driving Source: The Travelers Companies, Inc.

RYE BROOK, N.Y. -- Xylem named to Barron's 100 Most Sustainable Companies Source: Xylem Inc.

OSAKA, Japan -- Panasonic Fulfills 100 Thousand Solar Lanterns Project in Its 100th Anniversary, Bringing Light to Off-grid Communities Globally Source: Panasonic Corporation

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Business Wire

Matt VanTassel, +1 212-752-9600MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 02/15/18 -- HPQ Silicon Resources Inc ("HPQ") (TSX VENTURE: HPQ)(FRANKFURT: UGE)(OTC PINK: URAGF) is pleased to inform shareholders that PyroGenesis Canada Inc (PyroGenesis) has submitted an updated progress report on the ongoing Gen2 PUREVAP(TM ) Quartz Reduction Reactor ("QRR") test work. The Gen2 PUREVAP? process improvements and design modifications continue to produce very encouraging results.

GEN2 AN INVALUABLE BENCH TEST PLATFORM TO COMMERCIAL SCALABILITY OF PUREVAP? QRR

Increasing yield (Si quantity) and Production Yield of Gen2 PUREVAP? are key objectives of the ongoing program. The results include the latest tests completed, which attained the following key milestones:

-- Total mass of Si produced during Gen2 test #007 was 28.1 grams; 20 times greater than the baseline Gen1 test #63 result of 1.4 grams and 1.4 times greater than Gen2 test # 003 result of 19.9 grams(1); -- Gen2 test #007 28.1 grams is the highest quantity of Si produced to date: 3.2 times greater than the best results of 8.8 grams from Gen1 test #32(2); -- Gen2 test #007 achieved a Production Yield(3) of 13.4%, the highest to date: ten times greater than baseline Gen1 test #63 Production Yield of 1.3% and 1.8 times greater than Gen2 test # 003 Production Yield of 7.4%;

PRODUCTION YIELD A KEY CONTRIBUTING FACTOR THE FINAL PURITY

Gen1 testing confirmed the key relationship between production yield and purity (November 1 2017 release) and from these results and ongoing tests PyroGenesis extrapolated as follows:

A. These results support the expectation that under a semi-continuous PUREVAP(TM ) process, assuming standard production yield of 90%, it would be possible to transform Quartz (SiO2) into Silicon Metal (Si) with purity levels acceptable to the solar industry (4N+ or 99.998% Si)(4); B. The positive correlation between production yield, purity, and PUREVAP(TM ) QRR reactor size is optimized with a 50 Tonne per year reactor; C. The Gen2 PUREVAP? reactor capacity has limited achievable production yield at 15% (+/- 3%).

IMPLEMENTING ADDITIONAL METHODS TO INCREASE PURITY BECOMES KEY FOCUS

With the Gen2 reactor now operating within the 90th percentile of its achievable production yield, test work in the current phase will concentrate on establishing a repeatable process at maximum yield prior to moving on to implementing and testing additional pathways to increase the final purity of the Si produced.

Purity of Gen 2 test #007 material was analyzed at (CM)(2) (Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal) using the SEM-EDS method(5) and result confirmed, as expected, the production of 99.9+% pure Si, using low purity feedstock, 98.84% SiO2.

Subsequent Si produced will be sent to outside laboratories for bulk purity analysis using ICP-OES (inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry). In this area, the expertise of Apollon Solar will be a great advantage given their long track record of conducting these types of tests for material very similar to the one currently being produced by the Company.

Bernard J. Tourillon, Chairman and CEO of HPQ Silicon stated, "Our methodical approach is yielding exciting results and the Gen2 is proving to be an invaluable bench test platform for testing new design and process improvements prior to the final design and assembly of the pilot plant equipment later this year. Our objective for 2018 continue to be building on our technical successes as we get ready to commence the Pilot Plant phase with our 'Solar Silicon Team' of Pyrogenesis and Apollon Solar, as well as, building market awareness of our progress and plans. With every successful milestone, we are de-risking our project, while our ongoing tests are providing valuable information to implement the adjustments needed to produce the Solar Grade Silicon Metal necessary for the manufacture of multi and monocrystalline solar cells for high performance photovoltaic conversion."

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1107173_HPQ_L.jpg

KEY MILESTONES MOVING FORWARD

Milestones of the GEN2 PUREVAP? program in 2018 are:

-- Tapping Silicon Metal from the Gen 2 PUREVAP?; -- Increasing Production Yield of Gen 2 PUREVAP? over multiple test cycles from high grade feedstock; -- Testing the Purity of the Si produced and implementing additional methods to increase the final purity of the Si produced; -- Testing electrical parameters of the High Purity Si; -- Provide additional data to calculate the economics of PUREVAP? QRR. -- Adapt the methods and processes developed in GEN2 PUREVAP(TM ) to the final design and assembly of the Pilot Plant equipment.

Pierre Carabin, Eng., M. Eng., has reviewed and approved the technical content of this press release.

This Press Release Is Available On The Company's CEO Verified Discussion Forum, A Moderated Social Media Platform That Enables Civilized Discussion and Q&A Between Management and Shareholders.

https://agoracom.com/ir/HPQ-SiliconResources/forums/discussion

La version francaise du communique de presse est disponible sur http://www.hpqsilicon.com

About HPQ Silicon

HPQ Silicon Resources Inc. is a TSX-V listed resource company planning to become a vertically integrated and diversified High Purity, Solar Grade Silicon Metal (SoG Si) producer and a manufacturer of multi and monocrystalline solar cells of the P and N types, required for production of high performance photovoltaic conversion.

HPQ goal is to develop, in collaboration with industry leaders that are experts in their fields of interest, the innovative metallurgical PUREVAP? "Quartz Reduction Reactors (QRR)" process (patent pending), which will permit production of the highest efficiency SoG Si. The pilot plant equipment that will validate the commercial potential of the process is on schedule for 2018.

Disclaimers:

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements containing the words "may", "plan", "will", "estimate", "continue", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "in the process" and other similar expressions which constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements reflect the Company's current expectation and assumptions, and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, our expectations regarding the acceptance of our products by the market, our strategy to develop new products and enhance the capabilities of existing products, our strategy with respect to research and development, the impact of competitive products and pricing, new product development, and uncertainties related to the regulatory approval process. Such statements reflect the current views of the Company with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties and other risks detailed from time-to-time in the Company's on-going filings with the securities regulatory authorities, which filings can be found at www.sedar.com. Actual results, events, and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements either as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

(1) Evaluating the progression of the Gen2 PUREVAP? reactor requires a baseline Gen1 result and similar testing conditions for the Gen 2 tests.

(2) Since the tests were done under different reactor operating conditions, the results are nice to know, but not material for the program

(3) Production Yield is the conversion efficiency of Quartz into Silicon Metal of the process

(4) Pyrogenesis Canada Inc. Technical Memo: "TM-2017-830 REV 00, - Final Report-Silicon Metal Purity Enhancement"

(5) Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy Detection limit 1000 ppm, a 100% Si = Purity of 3N+ (99.9+%)

Contacts:

HPQ Silicon Resources Inc.

Bernard J. Tourillon

Chairman and CEO

(514) 907-1011



HPQ Silicon Resources Inc.

Patrick Levasseur

President and COO

(514) 262-9239

www.HPQSilicon.com



KODAKCoin along with the KODAKOne platform to have its own regulatory compliant community channel on ICOxConnect.com

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 15, 2018) - GLOBAL BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGIES CORP. (CSE: BLOC) (FSE: BWSP) (OTC Pink: BLKCF) ("GBT" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that KODAKOne (a product of WENN Digital) a fully- registered Initial Coin Offering ("ICO") in which GBT is a lead investor, will host and manage its community development & activities from the ICOxConnect.com community platform. ICOx Connect.com is a product of ICOx Innovations, Inc. ("ICOx Innovations").

ICOx Innovations is a Company that provides support for designers and builders of cryptoeconomies who may sell their tokens in compliance with applicable laws. These are commonly refered to as Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). ICOx Innovations is pleased to announce that it's first client token, KodakCoin will host and manage its community development and activities from the ICOxConnect.com community platform. KODAKCoin, a product of WENN Digtal was announced at the 2018 Consumer Electronic Show, ICOxConnect.com is the blockchain industry's first compliance-driven tokenholder social and information platform for connecting tokenholders and participants to the executive management team of token issuing corporations.

ICOxConnect.com is the first, and, to date only community development platform that purposefully restricts its listings to ICOs that comply with applicable laws. The ICOxConnect.com platform aims to provide a forum for the communities that support coins that are in compliance with applicable laws.

Shidan Gouran, the President of GBT commented, "The KODAKCoin ICO continues on schedule and we are very excited that the KODAKOne community will have a secure and regulated platform in ICOxConnect.com upon which the community can ask questions and receive answers in accordance with the regulated ICO."

Bruce Elliott, the President of ICOx Innovations said, "Leveraging the ICOx Innovations platform and our strategic, regulatory, operational, blockchain and cryptocurrency development services, we were able to help develop the KODAKCoin and have consulted to ensure that the ICO and ongoing operations of KodakCoin by WENN Digital are managed in a fair, transparent and regulatory compliant manner in compliance with applicable laws."

Cameron Chell, the Chairman of ICOx Innovations said, "We have a number of additional large organizations looking to launch their crypto economies with operational insights from ICOx Innovations and knowing that ICOxConnect offers a community development channel that is in compliance with applicable laws has been a key differentiator in their choice to partner with ICOx Innovations."

Utilizing blockchain technology, the KODAKOne platform creates an encrypted, digital ledger of rights ownership for photographic archives as well as for photographers to register both new and archive work that they can then license within the platform. With Kodak Coins, participating archives and photographers can take part in a new economy for photography, receive payment for licensing their work immediately upon sale, receive a share of overall platform revenue, and for both professional and amateur photographers, sell their work confidently on a secure blockchain platform.

For more information, please contact info@globalblockchain.io

On behalf of the Company:

Shidan Gouran, President

(416) 854-3017

About Global Blockchain Technologies Corp.

The Company provides investors access to a basket of direct and indirect holdings within the blockchain space, managed by a team of industry pioneers and early adopters of all major cryptocurrencies.

GBT is listed on the Canandian Securiteies Exchange ("CSE") and its common shares trade under the ticker symbol "BLOC." Additional information relating to GBT is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, the CSE at www.theCSE.com, as well as on the Company's website at www.globalblockchain.io.

About ICOxConnect

ICOXConnect is a compliance-driven tokenholder social and information platform driven to promote credibility and protect tokenholders, interested participants and corporate token issuers from the misinformation and malicious phishing shcemes in today's digital world. ICOxConnect provides a leading edge compliant driven social platform to allow corporate token issuers to credibly reach out to their tokenholder community in a compliant manner.

For additional information, please visit www.iconxconnect.com

About ICOX Innovations, Inc.

ICOx Innovations provides a platform for the design and creation of crypto economies that solve real-world problems with established organizations that can benefit and grow their businesses through the use of blockchain technology and crypto-currencies. The ICOx Innovations ICO platform is compliance driven and combines rigorous strategic planning, capital structure, technical integration and token-economics model developement designed to create sustainable economies for its ICO clients.

For additional information, please visit www.icoxinnovations.com

About WENN Digital

WENN Digital, in partnership with Kodak, is the creator of the KODAKOne platform and the KODAKCoin cryptocurrency. WENN Digital is an experienced development and operations team with deep expertise in proprietary blockchain development, big data, copyright laws, AI-enabled image recognition and post licensing monetization systems. WENN Digital has a strategic relationship with the Deloitte Analytics Institute in Berlin and the Deloitte Blockchain Institute in Munich. Further, WENN Digital leverages the market position of its 30-year old subsidiary WENN Media, which works with approximately 2,500 professional photographers. WENN Digital's live operational copyright infringement management system is delivering revenues to photographers worldwide today and will form Phase 1 of the KODAKOne platform.

For additional information, please visit www.kodakcoin.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities lawss. Generally, any statements that are not historical facts may contain forward-looking information, and forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or indicates that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be" taken, "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to the Company's goal of streamlining the current arduous, lengthy and complicated process that interested investors need to undergo in order to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency space with a view to becoming the first vertically integrated originator and manager of top-tier blockchains and digital currencies. The Company has no assets and its business plan is purely conceptual in nature and there is no assurance that it will be implemented as set out herein, or at all. Forward-looking information is based on certain factors and assumptions the Company believes to be reasonable at the time such statements are made, including but not limited to: statements and expectations regarding the ability of the Company to (i) successfully engage senior management with appropriate industry experience and expertise, (ii) gain access to and acquire a basket of cryptocurrency assets and pre-ICO and ICO financings on favourable terms or at all, (iii) successfully create its own tokens and ICO's, and (iv) execute on future M&A opportunities in the cryptocurrency space; receipt of required regulatory approvals; the availability of necessary financing; permitting and such other assumptions and factors as set out herein. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: risks related to changes in cryptocurrency prices; the estimation of personnel and operating costs; general global markets and economic conditions; risks associated with uninsurable risks; risks associated with currency fluctuations; competition faced in securing experienced personnel with appropriate industry experience and expertise; risks associated with changes in the financial auditing and corporate governance standards applicable to cryptocurrencies and ICO's; risks related to potential conflicts of interest; the reliance on key personnel; financing, capitalization and liquidity risks including the risk that the financing necessary to fund continued development of the Company's business plan may not be available on satisfactory terms, or at all; the risk of potential dilution through the issuance of additional common shares of the Company; the risk of litigation. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information set out in this presentation, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as required by laws. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.

Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 15, 2018) - RT Minerals Corp. (TSXV: RTM) (OTC Pink: RTMFF) (the "Company") announces that it has entered into a purchase and sale agreement to acquire 100% interest in the South Wawa gold property (the "Property") from Argo Gold Inc. ("Argo") for consideration of 350,000 common shares of the Company.

The South Wawa gold property consists of two mineral claims totalling 16 units or 256 hectares located approximately 10 kilometres south of the Town of Wawa, Ontario in Naveau Township. The Property is bordered to the north by Red Pine Exploration Inc.

Argo completed an MMI orientation survey, channel sampling, prospecting, mapping and grab sampling on the Property during the 2017 field season. The results of the channel sampling confirmed historic results. Prospecting delineated mineralized zones around an area termed the Camouflage vein. The highest gold grades obtained from prospecting samples are 11.6 g/t Au and 10.1 g/t Au (Argo Gold Press Release October 24, 2017 and Assessment Report dated December 22, 2017 prepared for Argo by Ronacher McKenzie Geoscience).

This transaction is subject to the acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange.

STOCK OPTIONS

The Company has allocated 750,000 stock options to consultants of the Company that are exercisable at $0.05 per share until two years from the date of grant.

The Company has also canceled 390,000 consultant stock options with an exercise price of $0.10 per share and 1,420,000 consultant stock options with an exercise price of $0.11 per share and granted/repriced 920,000 stock options to consultants of the Company that are exercisable at $0.05 per share until two years from the date of grant.

The stock options are subject to acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange.

ABOUT RT MINERALS CORP.

RT Minerals Corp. is a junior resource company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and evaluation of primarily gold and diamond properties in Canada. The Company's principal mineral properties include the 100% optioned Norwalk and Dill River gold properties that are respectively contiguous to the southern and eastern borders of Red Pine Exploration Inc.'s Wawa Gold Project near Wawa, Ontario; the 100% owned Golden Reed Mine gold property that is staked within Red Pine's Wawa Gold Project; the 100% owned Ballard Lake diamond and gold property located ~50 km ENE of Wawa, Ontario; and the 100% owned Dog Lake gold property located ~59 km NE of Wawa, Ontario.

The Company's common shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "RTM" and on the OTC Pink Market under the symbol "RTMFF" with DTC eligibility for trading in the United States.

For more information on the Company and its properties, please visit the Company's website at www.rtmcorp.com.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Paul Antoniazzi

President and Chief Executive Officer

RT Minerals Corp.

Toll Free: 877-581-3170

Telephone: 604-681-3170

Fax: 604-681-3552

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as the term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of accuracy of this news release.Pharmaceutical service provider convinces jury with its innovative cleanroom technology V-CRT

Vetter comes in 3rd at CLEAN! 2018

Fraunhofer IPA honors innovative groundbreaking developments in clean technology

The holistic and innovative manufacturing technology V-CRT from Vetter convinces an expert jury with its aseptic safety.

Vetter is one of the winners of the clean manufacturing award CLEAN! 2018. The pharmaceutical service provider was able to convince the independent expert jury of the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA) with its innovative Vetter CleanRoom Technology V-CRT. The prize was awarded as part of the LOUNGES 2018, an associated trade event in the clean manufacturing sector.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180215005592/en/

Dr.-Ing. Udo Gommel (left), Head of Department Fraunhofer IPA hands over the clean manufacturing award CLEAN! 2018 to Dr. Ute Schleyer, Project Manager Plant and Site Development at Vetter. (Photo: Business Wire)

With the CLEAN! award, the Fraunhofer IPA honors groundbreaking developments in clean technology. "The production of active pharmaceutical ingredients, microchips or nanoproducts would be unthinkable without a high-purity manufacturing environment," says Dr.-Ing. Udo Gommel, Head of Department Fraunhofer IPA. "Vetter drives innovations in aseptic production and thereby increases the competitiveness of its customers. This achievement is honored by the Fraunhofer clean manufacturing award CLEAN! 2018." Important award and evaluation criteria included innovation leap, sustainability and industrial feasibility of the application concept. The Fraunhofer IPA is an institution of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Munich, that promotes applied research. It is particularly concerned with the development of sustainable and pioneering products.

Bernd Stauss, Senior Vice President Production/Engineering at Vetter, is proud to say: "We continue to develop our technologies to meet the complex and ever-increasing demands for quality and flexibility in pharmaceutical manufacturing. We are very pleased that this has now been honored with the Fraunhofer clean manufacturing award CLEAN! 2018 for our cleanroom concept V-CRT

V-CRT is a holistic manufacturing technology developed by Vetter for the safe aseptic filling of injection systems. The innovative approach combines the advantages of isolators with Restricted Access Barrier Systems (RABS) and is based on the idea of fully automated decontamination of the entire cleanroom with hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ). The result is the highest possible safety in the prevention of contamination as well as a flexible production process. Following the successful commercial implementation and validation of V-CRT in 2017, the technology will be used in all cleanrooms at Vetter by 2025.

Dr.-Ing. Udo Gommel (left), Head of Department Fraunhofer IPA hands over the clean manufacturing award CLEAN! 2018 to Dr. Ute Schleyer, Project Manager Plant and Site Development at Vetter.

Find the Vetter press kit, additional press releases, high-resolution pictures and more background information in our Download Center

About Vetter

Headquartered in Ravensburg, Germany, Vetter is a global leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) with production facilities in Germany and the United States. The company has long-term experience offering services ranging from early development support including clinical manufacturing, to commercial supply and various packaging solutions for vials, syringes and cartridges. Vetter's customers range from small and midsize to the world's top 20 pharmaceutical and biotech companies. As a leading solution provider, the CDMO recognizes its responsibility in supporting the needs of its customers in developing devices that contribute to increased patient safety, convenience, and enhanced compliance. Learn more about Vetter at www.vetter-pharma.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180215005592/en/

Contacts:

Vetter Pharma International GmbH

Markus Kirchner

Corporate Spokesperson Media Relations

Phone: +49 (0)751-3700-3729

E-mail: PRnews@vetter-pharma.comVancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 15, 2018) - Forum Uranium Corp. (TSXV: FDC) ("Forum") and Transition Metals Corp. (TSXV: XTM) ("Transition"), collectively ("the Parties") are pleased to announce that the Parties have successfully staked an additional 15,331 hectares of claims to cover over 30 km of the prospective copper trend in the Janice Lake area located 55 km southeast of the Key Lake uranium processing facility. The property now consists of 18 mining claims for a total of 19,289 hectares (Figure 1). Numerous surface copper showings were discovered by historical prospecting over a 10 km trend and the remaining 20 km trend remains under prospected or covered by thin overburden.

Rick Mazur, President & CEO of Forum stated, "The style of mineralization at Janice Lake is similar to other large sedimentary hosted copper deposits around the world. The new staking of this copper belt for over 30km adds a district scale dimension to the project."

In 1993, 20 of 35 holes totaling 5,500m drilled by Noranda intersected near surface chalcocite copper mineralization. The best result at the JS showing near Janice Lake intersected 0.77% Cu over 33.0 m including 1.6% Cu over 6 m, within 35 m of surface. In 2003, Phelps Dodge reprocessed the magnetic and induced polarization (IP) geophysical data and completed 6 diamond drill holes to target mineralization under cover. By targeting modelled IP/Resistivity anomalies, Phelps Dodge discovered new copper mineralization 2 kilometers to the south of JS, named the Phelps-Jansem zone. Two holes drilled 100 m apart returned 0.72% Cu over 20.8m, including 1.3% Cu over 4.8m (JL-03-38) and 0.49% Cu over 19m, including 0.91% Cu over 6m (JL-03-41).

Transition acquired the property in 2012 and completed 700 line km of VTEM airborne magnetic/electromagnetic survey, field mapping and rock/soil sampling. Forum is currently reviewing all historical data to prepare for a summer prospecting, geological, geochemical and geophysical program to identify targets for drilling.

The Janice Lake copper occurrences are comparable to the Rock Creek and Montanore deposits in the Proterozoic Revett Formation in Montana, now in the final stages of permitting. Hecla Mining reports that the Rock Creek and Montanore deposits contain 2.8 billion pounds copper and 331.5 million ounces of silver with a potential mine life of 20 to 30 years. Hecla reports a 43-101 compliant Inferred Resources of 112 million tonnes grading 0.7% copper, 1.6 oz/t silver for its Montanore deposit and 97.6 million tonnes grading 0.7% copper and 1.5 oz/t silver for its Rock Creek deposit in Montana (as reported in the Corporate Update dated December 2017 on the Hecla website).

A video prepared by Transition Metals highlighting the opportunity at Janice Lake can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLDNeIPlQQc

The Parties also announce that the initial cash and share payments have been made as per the definitive agreement whereby Forum optioned a 100% interest in the Janice Lake Sedimentary Copper Property in north-central Saskatchewan from Transition. (For further details see news release dated February 6,, 2018 at https://forumuranium.com/news/2018/forum-options-100-interest-in-the-janice-lake-sedimentary-copper-project-saskatchewan-from-transition-metals/





Figure 1: Janice Lake Copper Project, Claim Map

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4908/32829_a1518660534888_63.jpg

Qualified Person / Quality Control Procedures

This press release has been reviewed by Richard Mazur, P.Geo., President & CEO of Forum Uranium, a Qualified Person under the National Instrument 43-101 guidelines.



About Forum Uranium

Forum Uranium Corp. is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company with a focus on the acquisition, exploration and development of Canadian uranium and energy metal projects. Forum has assembled a highly experienced team of exploration professionals with a track record of mine discoveries for unconformity-style uranium deposits in Canada. The Company has a strategy to discover near surface uranium deposits in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan by exploring on its 100% owned properties and through strategic partnerships and joint ventures with Cameco, AREVA, Rio Tinto Exploration, NexGen and Uracan. In addition, Forum has entered into an option agreement with Transition Metals Corp. to explore the Janice Lake sedimentary copper deposit in Saskatchewan.

About Transition Metals Corp.

Transition Metals Corp (TSXV: XTM) is a Canadian-based, multi-commodity project generator that specializes in converting new exploration ideas into Canadian discoveries. The award-winning team of geoscientists has extensive exploration experience in established, emerging and historic mining camps, and actively develops and tests new ideas for discovering mineralization in places that others have not looked, which often allows the company to acquire properties inexpensively. The team is rigorous in its fieldwork and combines traditional techniques with newer ones to help unearth compelling prospects and drill targets. Transition uses the project generator business model to acquire and advance multiple exploration projects simultaneously, thereby maximizing shareholder exposure to discovery and capital gain. Joint venture partners earn an interest in the projects by funding a portion of higher-risk drilling and exploration, allowing Transition to conserve capital and minimize shareholder's equity dilution. The company, which went public in 2011, has an expanding portfolio that currently includes 25 gold, copper, nickel and platinum projects primarily in Ontario, Nunavut and Saskatchewan.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Richard J. Mazur, P.Geo.

President & CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For further information contact:

Rick Mazur, President & CEO

Tel: 604-630-1585

Email: mazur@forumuranium.com

Craig Christy, VP Corporate Development

Tel: 250-863-0561

Email: CChristy@forumuranium.comALBANY, New York, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to the estimation of TMR, the global basal cell carcinoma treatment market was worth US$4.66 bn in 2016. The opportunity in this market is projected to expand at a CAGR of 9.20% during the period from 2017 to 2025 and reach US$10.14 bn by the end of the period of the forecast. Among all the treatment types, the demand for surgeries is higher, thanks to their efficiency. Analysts predict this trend to remain so over the next few years, establishing the dominance of the surgical basal cell carcinoma treatment segment. Among end users, basal cell carcinoma treatments find most significant usage in hospitals and specialty clinics. Geographically, North America is projected to continue on the top in the near future, thanks to the presence of an advanced medical and healthcare infrastructure and the rising expenditure on healthcare in this region, states the market report.

Rising Prevalence of Cutaneous Malignancies to Boost Demand

"The market for basal cell carcinoma treatment is benefiting significantly from the increasing prevalence of basal cell carcinoma, rising consciousness among consumers about the disease, and the presence of favorable reimbursement scenario in high prevalence regions," says a TMR analyst. The rising prevalence of various cutaneous malignancies, specifically non-melanoma skin cancer, such as basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, is influencing the demand for basal cell carcinoma treatment tremendously across the world.

Get PDF Brochure for Research Insights athttps://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=40139

The increase in geriatric population, who are highly susceptible to several types of skin diseases, such as actinic keratosis and various other non-melanoma skin malignancies, is also boosting the growth of the global basal cell carcinoma treatment market, reports the research study.

Higher Propensity of Basal Cell Carcinoma to Remain Underdiagnosed to Obstruct Market's Growth

On the other hand, the high propensity of basal cell carcinoma remaining underdiagnosed may obstruct the growth trajectory of the worldwide market for basal cell carcinoma treatment over the next few years. The high treatment cost and the lack of awareness in emerging economies can also restrain the market's growth in the years to come. However, the rising demand for better disease treatments in emerging economies, as a result of escalating disposable income, is expected to provide lucrative growth opportunities for market players in the near future, states the report.

Request a Custom Report at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=CR&rep_id=40139

The rivalry between Sun Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., Mylan N.V., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., and Merck & Co. Inc. characterizes the competitive landscape present in the global basal cell carcinoma treatment market, states a new research study by Transparency Market Research (TMR). Currently, the leading players are focusing on increasing the efficiency of their products by inculcating the latest technologies, in order to gain a competitive edge over the peers. Over the coming years, these participants are expected to involve more in partnerships with regional players in a bid to strengthen their regional presence, notes the research study.

Purchase your own copy of Report at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/checkout.php?rep_id=40139<ype=S

The review is based on a report by Transparency Market Research (TMR), titled "Basal Cell Carcinoma Treatment Market (Treatment type - Surgical (Surgical Excision, Electrodessication & Cutterage, Moh's Surgery, and Cryosurgery), Drugs (Topical Treatment, Advanced Medication, and Other), and Others (Radiation Therapy, Photodynamic Therapy, and Laser Therapy); End-users- Hospitals, Specialty Clinics, and Others: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2017-2025."

Key Takeaways

Among all the treatment types, the demand for surgeries is higher, thanks to their efficiency.

North America is projected to continue on the top in the near future.

The global basal cell carcinoma treatment market has been segmented as follows:

By Treatment Type

Surgical Surgical Excision Electrodessication & Cutterage (ED&C) Moh's Surgery Cryosurgery

Drugs Topical Treatment Advanced Medication Other

Others Radiation Therapy Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) Laser Therapy



By End User

Hospitals

Specialty Clinics

Others

By Geography

North America U.S. Canada

Europe U.K. Germany France Spain Italy Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific Australia & New Zealand Japan China Rest of Asia Pacific

Latin America Brazil Mexico Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa South Africa GCC Rest of Middle East & Africa

&

Popular Research Reports by TMR:

Blood Cell Analyzer Market:

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/global-blood-cell-analyzer-market.html

Cell Based Assays Market:

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/cell-based-assays.html

About Us

Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The company's exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.

TMR's data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.

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Research Blog: https://theglobalhealthnews.com/DARMSTADT, Germany and NEW YORK, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Not intended for UK-based media

Merck and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) today announced results from the Phase III JAVELIN Lung 200 trial comparing avelumab* to docetaxel in patients with unresectable, recurrent or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease progressed after treatment with a platinum-containing doublet therapy. While the trial did not meet its prespecified endpoint of improving overall survival (OS) in patients with programmed death ligand-1-positive (PD-L1+) (1% or higher) tumors (HR: 0.90 [96% CI: 0.72-1.12], p-value 0.1627, one-sided), the proportion of patients in the chemotherapy arm crossing over to immune checkpoint inhibitors outside the study was higher than previously reported in post-platinum immunotherapy clinical trials, and this may have confounded this trial outcome (percentage of patients receiving subsequent checkpoint inhibitor therapy: docetaxel arm 26.4%; avelumab arm 5.7%).

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/611425/Merck_Pfizer_Logo.jpg )



However, improvements in OS versus the control arm were observed in the moderate-to-high PD-L1+ expression (50% or greater, which represented approximately 40% of the study population) and high PD-L1+ expression population (PD-L1+ expression 80% or greater, which represented approximately 30% of the study population) (HR: 0.67 [95% CI: 0.51-0.89], p-value 0.0052, two-sided; and HR 0.59 [95% CI: 0.42-0.83], p-value 0.0022, two-sided, respectively' ). The safety profile for avelumab in this trial was consistent with that observed in the overall JAVELIN clinical development program; no new safety signals were identified.

"Avelumab performed in line with expectations in the trial from both an efficacy and safety perspective," said primary investigator Fabrice Barlesi, M.D., Ph.D., Head of Multidisciplinary Oncology and Therapeutic Innovations Department at Aix-Marseille University and the Assistance Publique Hopitaux de Marseille, France. "With immune checkpoint inhibitors approved for patients with previously treated, advanced non-small cell lung cancer, higher percentages of immunotherapy-naive patients are receiving subsequent checkpoint inhibitors in their progressive treatments. This was observed in the JAVELIN Lung 200 control arm and may have confounded the primary outcome of the study."

"Avelumab's overall clinical activity in this study supports its profile with expected efficacy across several endpoints and subgroups," said Luciano Rossetti, M.D., Executive Vice President, Global Head of Research & Development at the Biopharma business of Merck. "However, the chemotherapy group displayed improved overall survival compared with previous PDx trials, most likely due to the impact of crossover to other checkpoint inhibitors."

"We are committed to understanding the data in the context of the subpopulations and the impact of access to other immune checkpoint inhibitors," said Chris Boshoff, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Head of Immuno-Oncology, Early Development and Translational Oncology, Pfizer Global Product Development. "We will continue to progress the broad avelumab program, exploring various indications."

Detailed results from the JAVELIN Lung 200 trial will be submitted for presentation at an upcoming medical congress, and the companies aim to share the data with regulatory agencies.

In 2017, avelumab first received accelerated approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (mMCC) and for previously treated patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC), followed by the European Commission (EC) approval for mMCC later that year.

The clinical development program for avelumab, known as JAVELIN, involves at least 30 clinical programs and over 7,000 patients evaluated across more than 15 different tumor types. In addition to NSCLC, these cancers include breast, gastric/gastro-esophageal junction, head and neck, Hodgkin's lymphoma, melanoma, mesothelioma, Merkel cell carcinoma, ovarian, renal cell carcinoma and urothelial carcinoma.

In December 2017, the FDA granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation for avelumab as a combination therapy for treatment-naive patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

*Avelumab is under clinical investigation for treatment of NSCLC and has not been demonstrated to be safe and effective for this indication. There is no guarantee that avelumab will be approved for NSCLC by any health authority worldwide.

' When the primary endpoint is not met, statistical significance cannot be formally claimed with the predefined statistical significance level (i.e., 0.05 two-sided). In this circumstance, the Type I error is not strictly controlled and the p-value should be interpreted cautiously.

About JAVELIN Lung 200

JAVELIN Lung 200 is a Phase III, randomized, open-label, multicenter trial investigating avelumab versus docetaxel in patients with locally advanced unresectable, metastatic or recurrent NSCLC whose disease has progressed after a platinum-containing doublet chemotherapy. The trial included 792 patients from approximately 260 sites in North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Australia and Europe. The primary objective was to demonstrate superior OS compared with docetaxel in patients with PD-L1+ unresectable, recurrent or metastatic NSCLC whose disease progressed after treatment with a platinum-containing doublet therapy.

About JAVELIN Lung Program

In addition to JAVELIN Lung 200, avelumab's lung cancer clinical development program includes several other ongoing clinical trials investigating avelumab alone and in combination. JAVELIN Lung 100 is a Phase III randomized open-label, multicenter trial to assess the safety and efficacy of avelumab, compared with platinum-based doublet chemotherapy, in patients with metastatic NSCLC who have not previously received any systemic treatment for their NSCLC. JAVELIN Lung 101 is a Phase Ib/II multicenter, international, dose-finding trial designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of avelumab in combination with either Pfizer's crizotinib or lorlatinib in patients with advanced or metastatic NSCLC. JAVELIN Medley is a Phase Ib/II randomized open-label, multicenter dose-finding trial of avelumab in combination with other immune modulators in patients with selected locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors, including NSCLC.

About Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Globally, lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in men and the second most common in women,1 responsible for more deaths than colon, breast and prostate cancer combined.2 NSCLC is the most common type of lung cancer, accounting for 80 to 85% of all lung cancers.3 The five-year survival rate for people diagnosed with lung cancer that has spread (metastasized) to other areas of the body is 1%.4

About Avelumab

Avelumab is a human anti-programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) antibody. Avelumab has been shown in preclinical models to engage both the adaptive and innate immune functions. By blocking the interaction of PD-L1 with PD-1 receptors, avelumab has been shown to release the suppression of the T cell-mediated antitumor immune response in preclinical models.5-7 Avelumab has also been shown to induce NK cell-mediated direct tumor cell lysis via antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) in vitro.7-9 In November 2014, Merck and Pfizer announced a strategic alliance to co-develop and co-commercialize avelumab.

Approved Indications in the US

The FDA granted accelerated approval for avelumab (BAVENCIO) for the treatment of (i) adults and pediatric patients 12 years and older with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (mMCC) and (ii) patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC) who have disease progression during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy, or have disease progression within 12months of neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatment with platinum-containing chemotherapy. These indications are approved under accelerated approval based on tumor response rate and duration of response. Continued approval for these indications may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in confirmatory trials.

Important Safety Information from the US FDA Approved Label

The warnings and precautions for BAVENCIO include immune-mediated adverse reactions (such as pneumonitis, hepatitis, colitis, endocrinopathies, nephritis and renal dysfunction, and other adverse reactions), infusion-related reactions and embryo-fetal toxicity.

Common adverse reactions (reported in at least 20% of patients) in patients treated with BAVENCIO for mMCC and patients with locally advanced or mUC include fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, diarrhea, nausea, infusion-related reaction, peripheral edema, decreased appetite/hypophagia, urinary tract infection and rash.

About Merck-Pfizer Alliance

Immuno-oncology is a top priority for Merck and Pfizer. The global strategic alliance between Merck and Pfizer enables the companies to benefit from each other's strengths and capabilities and further explore the therapeutic potential of avelumab, an anti-PD-L1 antibody initially discovered and developed by Merck. The immuno-oncology alliance is jointly developing and commercializing avelumab and advancing Pfizer's PD-1 antibody. The alliance is focused on developing high-priority international clinical programs to investigate avelumab as a monotherapy as well as in combination regimens, and is striving to find new ways to treat cancer.

All Merck Press Releases are distributed by e-mail at the same time they become available on the Merck Website. Please go to http://www.merckgroup.com/subscribe to register online, change your selection or discontinue this service.

About Merck

Merck is a leading science and technology company in healthcare, life science and performance materials. Around 50,000 employees work to further develop technologies that improve and enhance life - from biopharmaceutical therapies to treat cancer or multiple sclerosis, cutting-edge systems for scientific research and production, to liquid crystals for smartphones and LCD televisions. In 2016, Merck generated sales of  15.0 billion in 66 countries.

Founded in 1668, Merck is the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company. The founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed corporate group. Merck, Darmstadt, Germany holds the global rights to the "Merck" name and brand except in the United States and Canada, where the company operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD Performance Materials.



Pfizer Inc.: Working together for a healthier world

At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to bring therapies to people that extend and significantly improve their lives. We strive to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery, development and manufacture of health care products. Our global portfolio includes medicines and vaccines as well as many of the world's best-known consumer health care products. Every day, Pfizer colleagues work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time. Consistent with our responsibility as one of the world's premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, we collaborate with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. For more than 150 years, we have worked to make a difference for all who rely on us. We routinely post information that may be important to investors on our website athttp://www.pfizer.com. In addition, to learn more, please visit us onhttp://www.pfizer.comand follow us on Twitter at @Pfizer and @Pfizer_News, LinkedIn, YouTube and like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Pfizer

Pfizer Disclosure Notice

The information contained in this release is as of February 15, 2018. Pfizer assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this release as the result of new information or future events or developments.

This release contains forward-looking information about avelumab, the Merck-Pfizer Alliance involving anti-PD-L1 and anti-PD-1 therapies, and clinical development plans, including their potential benefits, that involves substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Risks and uncertainties include, among other things, uncertainties regarding the commercial success of avelumab; the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including the ability to meet anticipated clinical study commencement and completion dates and regulatory submission dates, as well as the possibility of unfavorable study results, including unfavorable new clinical data and additional analyses of existing clinical data; risks associated with interim data; the risk that clinical trial data are subject to differing interpretations, and, even when we view data as sufficient to support the safety and/or effectiveness of a product candidate, regulatory authorities may not share our views and may require additional data or may deny approval altogether; whether regulatory authorities will be satisfied with the design of and results from our clinical studies; whether and when any drug applications may be filed in any jurisdictions for potential indications for avelumab, combination therapies or other product candidates; whether and when regulatory authorities in any jurisdictions where applications are pending or may be submitted for avelumab, combination therapies or other product candidates may approve any such applications, which will depend on the assessment by such regulatory authorities of the benefit-risk profile suggested by the totality of the efficacy and safety information submitted; decisions by regulatory authorities regarding labeling and other matters that could affect the availability or commercial potential of avelumab, combination therapies or other product candidates; and competitive developments.

A further description of risks and uncertainties can be found in Pfizer's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016, and in its subsequent reports on Form 10-Q, including in the sections thereof captioned "Risk Factors" and "Forward-Looking Information and Factors That May Affect Future Results", as well as in its subsequent reports on Form 8-K, all of which are filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and available at http://www.sec.gov and http://www.pfizer.com.

References

American Cancer Society (2015) Global facts & figures third edition. Available from: http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@research/documents/document/acspc-044738.pdf Accessed February 2018 . American Cancer Society (2017) Key statistics for lung cancer. Available from: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/non-small-cell-lung-cancer/about/key-statistics.html Accessed February 2018 . American Cancer Society (2016) What is non-small cell lung cancer? Available from: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/non-small-cell-lung-cancer/about/what-is-non-small-cell-lung-cancer.html Accessed February 2018 . Cancer.net. Lung cancer - non-small cell: statistics. Available from: http://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/lung-cancer-non-small-cell/statistics Accessed February 2018 . Dolan DE, Gupta S. PD-1 pathway inhibitors: changing the landscape of cancer immunotherapy.Cancer Control 2014;21(3):231-7. Dahan R, Sega E, Engelhardt J, et al. FcyRs modulate the anti-tumor activity of antibodies targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis. Cancer Cell 2015;28(3):285-95. Boyerinas B, Jochems C, Fantini M, et al. Antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity activity of a novel anti-PD-L1 antibody avelumab (MSB0010718C) on human tumor cells.Cancer Immunol Res 2015;3(10):1148-57. Kohrt HE, Houot R, Marabelle A, et al. Combination strategies to enhance antitumor ADCC.Immunotherapy 2012;4(5):511-27. Hamilton G, Rath B. Avelumab: combining immune checkpoint inhibition and antibody-dependent cytotoxicity.Expert Opin Biol Ther 2017;17(4):515-23.

Your Contacts

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Media

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+49-6151-72-6328

Investor Relations

+49-6151-72-3321

Pfizer

Media (US)

Sally Beatty

+1-212-733-6566

Investor Relations

Ryan Crowe

+1-212-733-8160WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The South African Rand spiked up against the U.S. dollar in the European session on Thursday, as investors cheered resignation of President Jacob Zuma overnight, following the ANC's ultimatium to leave office. Zuma's resignation came ahead of a motion of no confidence in the National Assembly on Thursday, at which he would have been unable to survive. The embattled leader, who had been accused of corruption, tendered resignation three days after the ANC's national leadership decided at a meeting to ask him to quit. The South African Rand advanced to near a 3-year high of 11.5994 versus the greenback, compared to Wednesday's closing value of 11.7077. If the Rand extends rise, 11.00 is likely seen as its next resistance level. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THIS CIRCULAR IS IMPORTANT AND REQUIRES YOUR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you are in doubt as to any aspect of this circular or as to the action to be taken, you should consult your stockbroker or other registered dealer in securities, bank manager, solicitor, professional accountants or other professional adviser.

If you have sold or transferred all your shares in Zhejiang Expressway Co., Ltd., you should at once hand this circular with the accompanying form of proxy to the purchaser or the transferee or to the bank, stockbroker or other agent through whom the sale or transfer was effected for transmission to the purchaser or the transferee.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited take no responsibility for the contents of this circular, make no representation as to its accuracy or completeness and expressly disclaim any liability whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from or in reliance upon the whole or any part of the contents of this circular.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ZHEJIANG EXPRESSWAY CO., LTD.

(A joint stock limited company incorporated in the People's Republic of China with limited liability)

(Stock code: 0576)

(1) PROPOSED CHANGES IN DIRECTORS

AND

(2) NOTICE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENERALMEETING

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anotice for convening the extraordinary general meeting (the "EGM") of the Company to be held at 10 a.m. on Monday, 2 April 2018 at 5/F, No. 2 Mingzhu International Business Center, 199 Wuxing Road, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, the People's Republic of China is set out on pages 8 to 10 of this circular.

A form of proxy for use at the EGM is enclosed. Whether or not you are abletoattend the meeting in person, you are requested to complete and return the accompanying form of proxy in accordance with the instructions printed thereon. In case of H Shares, the proxy form shall be lodged with the Company's H Shares Registrar, Hong Kong Registrars Limited, at 17M Floor, Hopewell Centre, 183 Queen's Road East, Wanchai, Hong Kong, not less than 24 hours before the time for holding the EGM (i.e. by no later than 10 a.m. on 1 April 2018) (or any adjournment thereof). Completion and delivery of the form of proxy will not preclude you from attending and voting in person at the EGM or any adjournment thereof should you so wish.

15 February 2018

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CONTENT

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Definitions

LetterfromtheBoard

AppendixI- Profiles of the Directors proposed to be appointed

NoticeofEGM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DEFINITIONS

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In this circular, unless the context specifies otherwise, the following expressions shall have the meanings statedbelow:

"Articles of Association" the articles of association of the Company "Audit Committee" the audit committee of the Company "Board" the board of Directors "Circular" this circular to the Shareholders "Company Zhejiang Expressway Co., Ltd., a joint stock limited company incorporated in the PRC with limited liability "Director(s)" the director(s) of the Company "EGM" the extraordinary general meeting of the Shareholders to be held at 10 a.m. on Monday, 2 April 2018 at 5/F, No. 2 Mingzhu International Business Center, 199 Wuxing Road, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, the PRC, the notice of which is set out on pages 8 to 10 of this Circular "Group" the Company and its subsidiaries "H Shares" overseas listed foreign shares in the share capital of the Company with a nominal value of RMB1 per share, which are listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange "Hong Kong" the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the PRC "Latest Practicable Date" 9 February 2018, being the latest practicable date for ascertaining certain information in this Circular "Listing Rules" Rules Governing the Listing of Securities on the Stock Exchange "Mr. Chen" Mr. CHEN Bin "Mr. Wang" Mr. WANG Dongjie "Mr. Zhan" Mr. ZHAN Xiaozhang "Mr. Zhou" Mr. ZHOU Jun "Nomination Committee" the nomination committee of the Company "PRC" the People's Republic of China (for the purpose of this Circular, excludes Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) "Remuneration Committee" the remuneration committee of the Company "RMB" Renminbi, the lawful currency of the PRC "SFO" Securities and Futures Ordinance (Chapter 571 of the Laws of Hong Kong) "Shareholder(s)" holder(s) of the share(s) of the Company "Stock Exchange" The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited "Strategic Committee" the strategic committee of the Company

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LETTER FROM THE BOARD

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ZHEJIANG EXPRESSWAY CO., LTD.

(A joint stock limited company incorporated in the People's Republic of China with limited liability)

(Stock code: 0576)

Executive Directors:

Mr. Zhan Xiaozhang(Chairman)

Mr. Cheng Tao

Ms. Luo Jianhu Registered office in the PRC:

12th Floor, Block A

Dragon Century Plaza

1 Hangda Road

Hangzhou

Zhejiang Province 310007

The People's Republic of China Non-executive Directors:

Mr. Wang Dongjie

Mr. Dai Benmeng Independent Non-executive Directors:

Mr. Zhou Jun

Mr. Pei Ker-Wei

Ms. Lee Wai Tsang, Rosa

15 February 2018

To the Shareholders

Dear Sir or Madam,

(1) PROPOSED CHANGES IN DIRECTORS

AND

(2) NOTICE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENERALMEETING

1.INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this Circular is, among other things, to give you notice of the EGM and to provide you with information in relation to resolutions to be proposed at the EGM to enable you to make an informed decision on whether to vote for or against the resolutions at the EGM.

2.PROPOSED CHANGES IN DIRECTORS

Reference is made to the announcement of the Company dated December 22, 2017, in relation to the resignation of Mr. Zhou Jianping as a non-executive director, a member of the Audit Committee and Remuneration Committee of the Company. Reference is also made to the announcement of the Company dated February 14, 2018, in relation to the resignation of Mr. Zhan, Mr. Wang and Mr. Zhou as an executive director, non-executive director and independent non-executive director of the Company, respectively.

According to the Articles of Association, new Directors need to be elected at a Shareholders' meeting. Before new Directors are considered and approved by the Shareholders, Mr. Zhan, Mr. Wang and Mr. Zhou will continue to be Directors and perform their duties. Mr. Zhan, Mr. Wang and Mr. Zhou have confirmed that they have no disagreement with the Boardand there is no other matter in relation to their resignation applications that needs to be broughtto the attention of the Stock Exchange, the Shareholders and the creditors of the Company.

The Company has selected suitable candidates to fill the vacancies according to relevant requirements. The Board has resolved to propose Mr. Yu Zhihong, Mr. Yu Ji and Mr. Yu Qunlito be appointed as non-executive Directors and Mr. Chen to be appointed as an independent non-executive Director. The proposed appointments will be submitted to the EGM for the election of the proposed new Directors. Such proposed appointments shall become effective subject to Shareholders' approval at the EGM and the term of the office of the proposed new Directors will end on the date of expiry of the term of the seventh session of the Board, being30 June 2018.

Details of changes in the membership of the Board committees will be reflected in the list of directors announcement of the Company after the EGM.

Biographical details of each of the candidates proposed to be appointed as Directors at the EGM are set out in Appendix I to this Circular.

3.DIRECTORS' EMOLUMENT AND SERVICE CONTRACTS

Non-executive Directors and independent non-executive Directors do not receive any fixed remunerations from the Company, though all non-executive Directors and independent non-executive Directors are provided with allowances that are subject to their levels of participation in the Company's meetings as determined by the Board attheir discretion and there are no applicable scale for determining such remuneration.

If Mr. Yu Zhihong, Mr. Yu Ji, Mr. Yu Qunli and Mr. Chen are appointed as Directors atthe EGM, each of them will enter into a service contract with the Company upon their appointment.

4.CLOSURE OF REGISTER OF MEMBERS

For the purpose of determining the Shareholders' entitlement to attend and vote at the EGM, the register of members holding H Shares of the Company will be closed from 3 March 2018 to 1 April 2018 (both days inclusive). Holders of H Shares who intend to attend and vote at the EGM must deliver all transfer instruments and the relevant share certificates to Hong Kong Registrars Limited at Rooms 1712-1716, 17/F, Hopewell Center, 183 Queen's Road East, Wanchai, Hong Kong, at or before 4:30 p.m. on 2 March 2018. For the purpose of the EGM, the record date is 13 March 2018.

5.EGM

You will find on pages 8 to 10 of this circular a notice of the EGM to be held at 10 a.m. on Monday, 2 April 2018 at 5/F, No. 2 Mingzhu International Business Center, 199 Wuxing Road, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, the People's Republic of China.

A form of proxy for use at the EGM is enclosed. Whether or not you are able to attend the meeting in person, you are requested to complete and return the accompanying form of proxy in accordance with the instructions printed thereon. In case of H Shares, the proxy form shall be lodged with the Company's H Shares Registrar, Hong Kong Registrars Limited, at 17M Floor, Hopewell Centre, 183 Queen's Road East, Wanchai, Hong Kong, not less than 24 hours before the time for holding the EGM (i.e. by no later than 10 a.m. on 1 April 2018) (or any adjournment thereof). Completion and delivery of the form of proxy will not preclude you from attending and voting in person at the EGM or any adjournment thereof should you so wish.

6.RESPONSIBILITY STATEMENT

This Circular, for which the Directors collectively and individually accept full responsibility, includes particulars given in compliance with the Listing Rules for the purpose of giving information with regard to the Company. The Directors, having made all reasonable enquiries, confirm that to the best of their knowledge and belief the information contained in this Circular is accurate and complete in all material respects and not misleading or deceptive, and there are no other matters the omission of which would make any statement herein or this Circular misleading.

7.RECOMMENDATION

The Directors (including the independent non-executive Directors) consider that the proposed resolutions set out above are in the interests of the Company and the Shareholders as a whole. Accordingly, the Directors (including the independent non-executive Directors) recommend the Shareholders to vote in favour of all the relevant resolutions to be proposed atthe EGM.

Yours faithfully,

For and on behalf of

Zhejiang Expressway Co., Ltd.

Zhan Xiaozhang

Chairman

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APPENDIX I - PROFILES OF THE DIRECTORS PROPOSED TO BE APPOINTED

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The proposed candidates to be appointed as Directors at the EGM are nominated by the Nomination Committee. The profiles of the candidates nominated are as follows:

Candidates of Non-executive Directors

Mr. Yu Zhihong, born in April 1964, is a graduate from the Department of Electro-mechanic Engineering, Zhejiang University, and holds a Master's Degree in management from the Management Institute of Zhejiang University. Starting from 1985, Mr. Yu Zhihong worked at Xiushui Town of Jiaxing City as Deputy Manager of Township Industrial Company and Deputy Head of Township, from 1987 at Central District of Jiaxing City as Secretary to District Office, Secretary of the Youth League, Deputy Party Secretary and Party Secretary of Tanghui Town, from 1995 working as Deputy Director, Deputy Party Secretary, Director and then Party Secretary of Management Committee for the Economic Development Zone of Jiaxing City, from 2005 as Party Secretary of Haining City and as Member of Party Standing Committee of Jiaxing City, from 2010 as Deputy Mayor of Hangzhou City, Party Secretary of Qianjiang New Development Zone's Construction Committee, and then Party Secretary of Xiaoshan District, Member of Party Standing Committee of Hangzhou City, before he became the Deputy Party Secretary and then Mayor of Shaoxing City in 2013. Mr. Yu Zhihong assumed the position of Chairman and Party Secretary of Zhejiang Communications Investment Group Co., Ltd. since 2016, and became Member of Provincial Party Committee since June 2017.

Mr. Yu Ji, born in December 1975, is an engineer. He graduated from Zhejiang University with a Master's Degree in Structure Engineering. Mr. Yu Ji began his career at Jinwen Railroad Engineering Construction Project Management Division (Qingtian County Lianggang section) and General Headquarter from 1996, worked at Zhejiang Local Railroad Survey and Design Bureau and Zhejiang Tiezi Engineering Co., Ltd. from 1998, and became a Structure Design Engineer at Zhejiang Urban Construction Design and Research Institute from 2005. Starting from 2007, Mr. Yu Ji worked as staff, Deputy Manager and then Manager at Project Management Department of Zhejiang Railroad Investment Group Co., Ltd., and became General Manager of Railroad Project Department in 2015, Manager of Communications Investment Department of Zhejiang Communications Investment Group Co., Ltd. in 2016. Since 2018, Mr. Yu Ji became General Manager of Strategic Development and Legal Affairs Department of Zhejiang Communications Investment Group Co., Ltd.

Mr. Yu Qunli, born in April 1968, graduated from Xi'an Roadway Institute with a Bachelor's Degree in Roads and Bridges Engineering. Mr. Yu Qunli also holds a Master's Degree in Structure Engineering and a MBA Degree in Business Administration, both from Zhejiang University. Mr. Yu Qunli started his career in 1990 at Zhejiang Provincial Roads and Bridges Bureau and Zhejiang Communications Engineering Construction Group Co., moved to Zhejiang Communications Engineering Group Co., Ltd. in 2000, and to Zhejiang Communications Investment Group Co., Ltd. in 2002. Starting from 2005, Mr. Yu Qunli served as Deputy General Manager at Zhejiang Zhoushan Continent to Island Construction Expressway Co., Ltd., and from 2006, as Deputy General Manager at Zhejiang Ningbo Yongtaiwen Expressway Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Zhoushan Bay Bridge Co., Ltd. Beginning from 2010, Mr. Yu Qunli served as Deputy Manager of Safety Management Department and Manager of Safety Monitoring Management Department at Zhejiang Communications Investment Group Co., Ltd. He served as General Manager at Zhejiang Ningbo Yongtaiwen Expressway Co., Ltd. in 2013, and as General Manager at Zhejiang Taizhou Expressway Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Zhoushan Bay Bridge Co., Ltd. Since 2015, Mr. Yu Qunli served as General Manager of Expressway Operations Management Department at Zhejiang Communications Investment Group Co., Ltd., and as General Manager at Communications Operations Management Department since 2016.

Candidate of Independent Non-executive Director

Mr. Chen Bin, born in August 1967, is a graduate from University of South China in computer science. He also holds a second Bachelor's degree from Chongqing University in management engineering. Mr. Chen worked at Tianshi Network Company of TCL Group as Deputy General Manager from 1998 to 2004, at Webex Group as General Manager of China Investment from 2005 to 2006, and at Cybernaut China Investment Fund as Senior Partner from 2007 to 2008. Mr. Chen became Chief Executive and Funding Partner of Zhejiang Cybernaut Investment Management Co., Ltd. since 2008. Mr. Chen also serves as Director at Sundy Land Investment Co., Ltd., (a company listed on Shanghai Stock Exchange, SH Stock Code: 600077) and Shenzhen Fountain Corporation (a company listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange, SZ Stock Code: 000005).

Other information

The term of office of the proposed new Directors will end on the date of expiry of theterm of the seventh session of the Board, being 30 June 2018.

Save as disclosed in the above, as at the Latest Practicable Date, the proposed candidates to be appointed as Directors at the EGM had not held any other directorships in any listed public companies in Hong Kong or overseas, in the last three years nor any other positions with the Group. Furthermore, as at the Latest Practicable Date, none of the proposed candidates to be appointed as Directors at the EGM has any relationships with any Directors, senior management or substantial or controlling shareholders of the Company. None of the proposed candidates to be appointed as Directors at the EGM has any interest in the shares of the Company or its associated corporation within the meaning of Part XV of the SFO.

Save as disclosed herein, as at the Latest Practicable Date, there were no other matters relating to the proposed candidates to be appointed as Directors at the EGM that need to be brought to the attention of the Shareholders nor was there any information to be disclosed pursuant to any of the requirements of Rule 13.51(2)(h) to (v) of the Listing Rules.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTICE OF EGM

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ZHEJIANG EXPRESSWAY CO., LTD.

(A joint stock limited company incorporated in the People's Republic of China with limited liability)

(Stock code: 0576)

NOTICE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the extraordinary general meeting (the "EGM") of Zhejiang Expressway Co., Ltd. (the "Company") will be held at 10 a.m. on Monday, 2 April 2018 at 5/F, No. 2 Mingzhu International Business Center, 199 Wuxing Road, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, the People's Republic of China (the "PRC"), for the purpose of considering and, if thought fit, passing with or without modification or amendment the following resolutions:

AS ORDINARY RESOLUTIONS

1. to elect Mr. Yu Zhihong as a non-executive director of the Company, and to consider and approve his allowance package;

2.to elect Mr. Yu Ji as a non-executive director of the Company, and to consider and approve his allowance package;

3.to elect Mr. Yu Qunli as a non-executive director of the Company, and to consider and approve his allowance package;

4. to elect Mr. Chen Bin as an independent non-executive director of theCompany, and to consider and approve his allowance package; and

5.to authorise the board of directors of the Company to approve the proposed directors' service contracts and all other relevant documents and to authorise any one executive director of the Company to sign such contracts and other relevant documents for and on behalf of the Company and to take all necessary actions in connection therewith.

By order of the Board

Zhejiang Expressway Co., Ltd.

Tony Zheng

Company Secretary

Hangzhou, PRC

15 February 2018

Notes:

1. Registration procedures for attending the EGM

(a)Holders of H shares of the Company ("H Shares") and domestic shares of the Company ("Domestic Shares") intending to attend the EGM should return the reply slip for attending the EGM to the Company by post or by facsimile (address and facsimile numbers are shown in paragraph 5(b) below) such that the same shall be received by the Company on or before 12 March 2018.

(b) A shareholder or his/her/its proxy should produce proof of identity when attending the EGM. If a corporate shareholder appoints its legal representative to attend the meeting, such legal representative shall produce proof of identity and a copy of the resolution of the board of directors or other governing body of such shareholder appointing such legal representative to attend the meeting.

2. Proxy

(a) A shareholder eligible to attend and vote at the EGM is entitled to appoint, in written form, one or more proxies to attend and vote at the EGM on behalf of him/her/it. A proxy need not be a shareholder of the Company.

(b)A proxy shall be appointed by a written instrument signed by the appointor or an attorney authorized by him/her/it for such purpose. If the appointor is a corporation, the same shall be affixed with the seal of such corporation, or signed by its director(s) or duly authorized representative(s). If the instrument appointing a proxy is signed by a person authorized by the appointor, the power of attorney or other authorization document(s) shall be notarized.

(c)To be valid, the power of attorney or other authorization document(s) (which have been notarized) together with the completed form of proxy must be delivered, in the case of holders of Domestic Shares, to the Company at the address shown in paragraph 5(b) below and, in the case of holders of H Shares, to Hong Kong Registrars Limited at 17M Floor, Hopewell Center, 183 Queen's Road East, Wanchai, Hong Kong, at least 24 hours before the time designated for holding of the EGM (i.e. by no later than 10 a.m. on 1 April 2018).

(d)Any vote of the shareholders of the Company present in person or by proxy at the EGM must be taken by poll.

3. Book closingperiod

For the purpose of the EGM, the register of members holding H Shares will be closed from 3 March 2018 to 1 April 2018 (both days inclusive).

4. Last Day of Transfer and Record Date

Holders of H Shares who intend to attend the EGM must deliver all transfer instruments and the relevant shares certificates to Hong Kong Registrars Limited at Rooms 1712-1716, 17/F, Hopewell Center, 183 Queen's Road East, Hong Kong, at or before 4:30 p.m. on 2 March 2018.

For the purpose of the EGM, the record date will be 13 March 2018.

5. Miscellaneous

(a)The EGM will not last for more than one day. Shareholders who attend shall bear their own traveling and accommodation expenses.

(b) The principal place of business of the Company in the PRC is:

5/F, No. 2 Mingzhu International Business Center

199 Wuxing Road

Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province People's Republic of China 310020

Telephone No.: (+86)-571-8798 7700

Facsimile No.: (+86)-571-8795 0329

As at the date of this notice, the executive directors of the Company are: Mr. ZHAN Xiaozhang, Mr. CHENG Tao and Ms. LUO Jianhu; the non-executive directors of the Company are: Mr. WANG Dongjie and Mr. DAI Benmeng; and the independent non-executive directors of the Company are: Mr. ZHOU Jun, Mr. PEI Ker-Wei and Ms. LEE Wai Tsang, Rosa.

ZHEJIANG EXPRESSWAY CO., LTD.

(A joint stock limited company incorporated in the People's Republic of China with limited liability)

(Stock code: 0576)

PROXY FORM FOR EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING

Number of Shares related to this proxy form(Note 1) H Shares/Domestic Shares*

I/We _______________________(Note 2) of_____________________ being the holder(s) of(Note 1)_______________ H Share(s)/Domestic Share(s)* of Zhejiang Expressway Co., Ltd. (the "Company"), now appoint (Note 3) ________________ (I.D. No.: _________________ of___________________/ the Chairman of the meeting as my (our) proxy, to attend and vote on my (our) behalf in respect of the resolution in accordance with the instruction(s) below at the extraordinary general meeting of the Company (the "EGM") tobeheld at 10 a.m. on Monday, 2 April 2018 at 5/F, No. 2 Mingzhu International Business Center, 199 Wuxing Road, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, thePeople's Republic ofChina (the "PRC"), for thepurpose ofconsidering and,if thought fit, passing the resolution as set out in the notice convening the EGM. In the absence of any indication, theproxy may vote for or against the resolution at his own discretion(note 4).

Ordinary Resolutions For (Note 4) Against (Note 4) to elect Mr. Yu Zhihong as a non-executive director of the Company, and to consider and approve his allowance package; to elect Mr. Yu Ji as a non-executive director of the Company, and to consider and approve his allowance package; to elect Mr. Yu Qunli as a non-executive director of the Company, and to consider and approve his allowance package; to elect Mr. Chen Bin as an independent non-executive director of the Company, and to consider and approve his allowance package; and to authorise the board of directors of the Company to approve the proposed directors' service contracts and all other relevant documents and to authorise any one executive director of the Company to sign such contracts and other relevant documents for and on behalf of the Company and to take all necessary actions in connection therewith.

Date: ______________________, 2018 Signature(Note 5): ________________________

Notes:

1.Please insert the number of share(s) registered in your name(s) relating to this form of proxy. If no number is inserted, this proxy form will be deemed to relate to all of the shares in the capital of the Company registered in your name(s).

2.Please insert full name(s) and address(es) inBLOCKLETTERS.

3.Please insert the name and address of your proxy. If this is left blank, thechairman oftheEGMwill act as your proxy. Proxies may not be member(s) of the Company and may be appointed to attend and vote intheEGM provided that such proxies must attend the EGM in person on your behalf. Any alteration made to this proxy form must be signed by the signatory.

4.Please insert the number of share(s) you wish to vote for or against the resolution in the appropriate boxes. In the absence of any such indication, the proxy may vote or abstain from voting at his discretion.

5.This form of proxy must be signed under hand by you or your attorney duly authorized in that behalf. If the appointor is a corporation, this form must be affixed with its common seal or signed by its director(s) or duly authorized representative(s).

6.This form of proxy together with the power of attorney or any other authorization document(s) which have been notarized, must be delivered, in the case of a holder of domestic share(s), to the Company at 5/F, No. 2 Mingzhu International Business Center, 199 Wuxing Road, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, 310020, the PRC, and in the case of a holder of H share(s), to Hong Kong Registrars Limited at 17M Floor, Hopewell Center, 183 Queen's Road East, Wanchai, Hong Kong,at least 24 hours before the time designated for the holding of the EGM (i.e. by no later than 10 a.m. on 1 April 2018).

*Please delete as appropriate.

ZHEJIANG EXPRESSWAY CO., LTD.

(A joint stock limited company incorporated in the People's Republic of China with limited liability)

(Stock code: 0576)

Reply Slip for Extraordinary General Meeting

I (We)________________ of __________________, telephone number:______________and fax number: ___________________, being the holder(s) of ___________________ H Share(s)/Domestic Share(s)* of Zhejiang Expressway Co., Ltd. (the "Company"), hereby confirm that I (we) wish to attend or appoint a proxy toattend on my (our) behalf the extraordinary general meeting of the Company (the "EGM") to be held at 10 a.m. on Monday, 2 April 2018 at 5/F, No. 2 Mingzhu International Business Center, 199 Wuxing Road, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, the People's Republic of China (the "PRC").

Signature: _____________________ Date:________________ , 2018

Note:Eligible shareholders who wish to attend the EGM are advised to complete and return this reply slip to the Company at 5/F, No. 2 Mingzhu International Business Center, 199 Wuxing Road, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, the People's Republic of China by post or by facsimile (facsimile no.: (+86) -571-8795 0329) such that the same shall be received by the Company on or before 12 March 2018. Failure to sign and return this slip, however, will not preclude an eligible shareholder from attending the EGM.

* Please delete as appropriate.

WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - At least 17 people, including students, were killed and 15 others wounded in a South Florida high school Wednesday afternoon after an expelled teenager returned to campus and opened fire with an assault rifle. Police said they arrested the shooting suspect, identified as Nicolas Cruz.



Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters that the content that the police saw on his websites and social media networks are 'very, very disturbing.'



Cruz, 19, was expelled from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, for disciplinary reasons.



The school was about to close for the day when the killer emerged.



Police said Cruz killed three people before entering the school building, and then walked the halls wielding an AR-15 and multiple magazines. Senator Bill Nelson was quoted as saying that Cruz pulled a fire alarm and then, wearing a gas mask, began tossing smoke bombs and shooting people as they ran through the haze.



Police subdued the attacker as he was trying to escape with fleeing students.



It was the worst school shooting in Florida history, and the deadliest in the United States since 26 people were killed at Connecticut school Sandy Hook in 2012.



This is the sixth school shooting incident in the country in just seven weeks into the year.



President Donald Trump offered prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the shooting.



'No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school' he said on Twitter.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.deHeadset gaming meets high seas in a tale of perilous plunder from the masters of mobile VR

STOCKHOLM, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Virtual reality (VR) gamers can chart a course for swashbuckling action and fortune-making treasures in Narrows, the roguelike pirate adventure released today by Resolution Games on Daydream. Best known for their 2 million plus downloaded VR fishing game Bait! and highly-rated mini-game collection Wonderglade, Narrows is Resolution Games' first strategy adventure - and their most ambitious title to date.

Narrows combines real-time crew-management with ship-to-ship combat, plenty of customization, and rogue-like replayability. Players will experience the Caribbean during the golden age of piracy as they set out to make their fortune on the high seas. Gameplay has been honed to make players feel like the captain of their own sea roving vessel, with experiences including swashbuckling sword fights, ship-to-ship battles, charting your own course, and managing a crew of misfits. And, every new game comes with a fresh set of maps and choices so players will never have the same adventure twice.

"We've been incredibly proud of what we've accomplished with our previous game releases," said Resolution Games CEO and co-founder Tommy Palm, "and with Narrows, we're continuing to push the boundaries of what's possible with VR on mobile devices. With an assortment of ships to unlock, islands to explore and plunder to pillage, there are countless ways you can approach your own personal pirate adventure. Narrows is the most content-heavy game we've ever made, and one of the most engaging and visually stunning games available on mobile VR to date. It's a shiny doubloon that you'll want to keep in your treasure chest of great VR games."

Narrows mixes a character-driven narrative with roguelike survival elements and strategy gameplay to create a deeply immersive VR experience with plenty of replayability and charm. Narrows is available starting today on Daydream, Google's platform for high quality, mobile VR for $9.99 and can be downloaded here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.resolutiongames.narrows.

For more information on Narrows, be sure to follow Resolution Games on Twitter and Facebook, and visit www.resolutiongames.com.

About Resolution Games:

Resolution Games is a VR and AR games studio creating accessible, fun games that everyone can enjoy - pushing the limits of the emerging visual computing space. Their mobile VR fishing game, Bait!, is known as one of the most popular VR titles to date with more than 2 million downloads, while their carnival-themed game, Wonderglade, is one of the highest rated games on Daydream. Resolution Games has titles available across Gear VR (powered by Oculus), Daydream and Facebook Spaces. The studio is composed of game industry veterans, serial entrepreneurs and thought leaders with a proven track record of widely acclaimed success spanning across mass market and AAA games, free-to-play games, hardware and more. Resolution Games is privately held and based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Follow the company at www.resolutiongames.com and on Twitter and Facebook.

Press Contact:

Paul Brady

Tel. 646-491-2777

paul@resolutiongames.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/642182/Resolution.jpgVancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 15, 2018) - ePower Metals Inc. (the "Company" or "ePower") (TSXV: EPWR) announces the appointments of Bruce Kienlen, P.Geo., to the position of VP Exploration and Nancy Curry to the position of VP Corporate Development.

Mr. Kienlen is a professional geologist with more than twenty years experience working with junior and major exploration companies. He has served as senior geologist with Canterra Minerals and Independence Gold, VP Exploration for Diamonds North Resources and project geologist for BHP Billiton. Bruce has been responsible for project generation, new project assessments, and regional and brown fields exploration programs on many early stage exploration projects in a variety of commodities. Bruce has extensive operational and logistical experience and technical expertise in geochemical evaluation. He played a key role in the discovery of the diamondiferous Repulse Bay (Qilalugaq) and Amaruk kimberlite fields.

Nancy Curry brings over 25 years of financial market, strategic planning, marketing & communications and management of public company experience to ePower Metals Inc. Nancy began her career working in the investment industry and has worked for several national investment dealers specializing in futures trading. Her public company experience began in 1995, Nancy has worked with several resource and technology companies leading and implementing multifaceted stakeholder communications, before starting her own communications firm in 2014. One of her firm's clients was eCobalt Solutions Inc. for a period in 2015 & 2016, where she focused on strategic planning and corporate rebranding. Nancy was VP Corporate Communications for Diamonds North Resources Ltd. (2002 - 2010), where the company was nominated twice for Best Investor Relations by a TSX Venture Company by IR Magazine.

Michael Collins, President & CEO stated "I am very pleased to welcome Nancy and Bruce to the ePower Metals team. Their respective experience and expertise will be a huge asset to the Company and our stakeholders as we execute on our commitment to creating significant shareholder value by advancing a high-quality portfolio of Metals for the Future that the company believes are undervalued, strategically positioned and have significant potential to provide future supply to the growing rechargeable battery industry".

About ePower Metals

ePower Metals Inc. is committed to creating significant shareholder value by advancing a high-quality portfolio of Metals for the Future - cobalt, copper, and manganese that the company believes are undervalued, strategically positioned and have significant potential to provide future supply to the growing rechargeable battery industry.

ePower Metals' mission is to focus on developing resources in new districts and uncovering undervalued properties in known districts. Our objective is to advance these projects using the latest technologies to build critical resources that the public market can value with confidence.

The Panther Creek cobalt project in Idaho, USA, meets all these criteria and is the first project in ePower Metals' portfolio. Panther Creek demonstrates cobalt grades and widths that are comparable to the nearby eCobalt Solutions Inc.'s permitted Ram mine. ePower Metals has identified and is pursing several other district scale cobalt opportunities.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Michael Collins

President and CEO

For further information, please contact:

ePower Metals Inc.

Suite 501 - 525 Seymour Street

Vancouver, BC, Canada V6B 3H7

Telephone: (604) 764-7094

Website: www.epowermetals.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

We seek safe harbor.Global Business in Practice, the highly-successful massive open online course (MOOC) offered by Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, is now open for enrollment.

Global Business in Practice is the only MOOC offered by a top business school to combine academic lessons on global business with the insights of global leaders across several industries. The self-paced, seven-week course is a partnership among the school's Global Business Initiative, Georgetown's Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship, and edX. New to the second iteration is a module on global branding.

Participants learn from Georgetown professors, as well as through interviews with prominent global business leaders, including Joe Baratta, global head of private equity for Blackstone; Mark del Rosso, president and CEO of Bentley Motors, Inc.; Fabrizio Freda, president and CEO of Estee Lauder Companies; Alvaro Fernandez Garza, CEO of ALFA; Franck Moison, vice chairman at Colgate-Palmolive Company; Stephanie von Friedeburg, chief operating officer at International Finance Corporation; and Manuel Puig, vice chairman of Puig; among others.

"Only at Georgetown McDonough can you find a course that combines rigorous academic lessons in global business and how they apply to the real world, as seen through the eyes of c-suite executives," said Ricardo Ernst, professor of operations and director of the Global Business Initiative. "Our MOOC provides access to these lessons and insights to participants from around the world who can complete the course at their convenience."

The inaugural offering of the course attracted more than 5,000 participants from 160 countries, with over 500 entries posted to the discussion boards and approximately 1,300 assessments taken.

From seasoned business professionals to those just starting their careers, Global Business in Practice helps participants understand the latest issues facing today's fast-paced global business environment. The MOOC includes high-quality lecture videos, poll questions, discussions, peer assessment exercises, and sources for further learning. Additionally, as a companion to the course, Ernst shares weekly posts on a dedicated website highlighting current global business issues that complement the MOOC sessions.

Learn more or sign up here.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180215005824/en/

Contacts:

Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business

Teresa Mannix, 202-687-4080

tmm53@georgetown.eduZHUHAI, China, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Families gathering to have the reunion dinner on each Chinese New Year's Eve is the most valued ritual for Chinese people. An indispensable "feast" at that time is watching the Spring Festival Gala. On February 15th, Zhuhai, the window of reform and opening-up in southern China, held a parallel session of the Gala for the first time.

An incredible formation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), driverless cars and unmanned surface vessels (USV) was staged at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, one of Zhuhai's landmarks. An aerobatic flight team and the UAV formation embodying the scientific and technological strength of Guangdong and braveness, formed varied and amazing shapes, dazzling 7 million global viewers of the program at the beginning of the Gala.



The Bridge, which has just been completed and is the longest sea-crossing bridge in the world, connects Zhuhai to Hong Kong and Macao. Thus, Zhuhai has become an important juncture in the development strategy within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. This night, the Bridge became the most spectacular background and stage for the show of technological innovative equipment on land, sea and air.



"The parallel session in Zhuhai was shoot at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, which demonstrates the openness and innovative spirit of the city," said one of the producers of the Gala.



"Zhuhai is striving to build itself into an innovation high ground within the Bay Area, with increasingly modernized and internationalized platforms for innovation," said Yao Yisheng, Mayor of Zhuhai. "The main bodies for innovation in Zhuhai are thriving with more than 1,400 newhigh technology enterprises featuring high-precision, advanced and specialized industries."



The unmanned surface vehicles shown on the Gala are manufactured in Zhuhai by Yunzhou Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (also known as Oceanalpha). Zhuhai has been focusing on advanced equipment manufacturing industries such as shipbuilding and ocean engineering, aerospace and rail transit.



Statistics from Zhuhai's Publicity Department show that the total value added in Zhuhai's high-tech industries reached 30.687 billion yuan in 2017, 27.8 percent of the value added inindustries above the designated scale. The city will become a national manufacturing base for general aviation, and lead the world in producing the ocean engineering equipment by 2025.



Thanks to China's technological innovation, particularly in the fields of major equipment manufacturing and engineering construction, the world has a deeper understanding of China.It has also seen an influx of Zhuhai's innovations, including the Zhuhai-1 remote sensing micro-nano satellite constellation, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and China's homegrown AG600 (codenamed Kunlong), the world's largest amphibious aircraft.



While counting down for the new year, a lively "Lion Dance in Spring" program from Zhuhai's parallel session was again on live broadcast. The drums and gongs at the Chimelong International Ocean Resort sounded jolly, and bursts of vibrant fireworks lit the skies above the Bridge when the Chinese New Year bell rang, extending new year greetings to Chinese people all over the world. Zhuhai becomes China's innovation "show floor" through the parallel session of the Gala and sends out its invitation to the whole world.



Image Attachments Links:

http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=306834VANCOUVER, British Columbia, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

MYM Nutraceuticals Inc., (CSE: MYM.CN) (MYM.CN) in response to an advanced Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations ("ACMPR") license applicant and its strategic partners PUF Ventures Inc. (CSE: PUF) are pleased to announce the Australia based Solaris Nutraceuticals Pty Ltd, which is building the largest medical cannabis greenhouse southern hemisphere, has been awarded a $AUD2,500,000 Regional Jobs Investment Program (RJIP) grant, through Federal Department of Innovation, Industry & Science.

"We are co-investing with Solaris Nutraceuticals to make sure it (the medicinal cannabis facility) happens," said Kevin Hogan, Australian Member of Parliament. "Up to 280 jobs will be there one day providing this great new product that is needed by our community. We look forward to having the largest medicinal cannabis facility in the Southern Hemisphere soon in Casino."

"We are very honoured to be awarded this Federal Grant towards the construction of our 1,200,000 sq. f.t greenhouse," said Michael Horsfall, Co-founder and CEO of Solaris Nutraceuticals. "We have been overwhelmed with the generous support we have received from all levels of Government. We are working hard to deliver this project. We expect to create upwards of 300 to 500 direct and indirect jobs in the Northern Rivers Region from our greenhouse project. This will provide a significant boost to the local economy."

The new facility will be Australia's largest growing, manufacturing, processing and research facility in Australia. This is an innovative project which will help patients, create new jobs, complete further research and develop new products in the medical cannabis field.

The company is currently in the assessment stage for three licenses with the Office of Drug Control in Canberra.



Kevin Hogan, Member of Parliament: https://m.facebook.com/story.php'story_fbid=1694316460660111&id=356113427813761&refsrc=http%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2F4LMgCG1HkD&_rdr

"Getting financial support from the local government at this scale is unprecedented," said Rob Gietl, CEO of MYM. "We are very excited about the Northern rivers project and the economic impact it can have for the area and Solaris Nutraceuticals Inc."

The project is scheduled to break ground this Summer with phase one completed by the end of 2018. Project completion is scheduled for Q4 2019.

About Solaris Nutraceuticals (MYM owns 35%)

Solaris Nutraceuticals is an innovative medical technology company with headquarters in Sydney, Australia. It has proposed plans and applications with Office of Drug Control in Australia to build a 1.2 Million square foot glass house with a medical research center and manufacturing facility in the Northern Rivers Region of New South Wales Australia.Our corporate mission is to deliver an environmentally friendly, sun grown medicinal grade cannabis and on developing medicines and treatments for pain management along with a number of other medical conditions and specific plant based nutraceuticals. Our focus is on innovations that promote, support and deliver improvements in the quality, consistency and cost of medicines to our clients.

About MYM Nutraceuticals Inc.

MYM Nutraceuticals Inc. is an innovative company focused on acquiring Health Canada licenses to produce and sell high-end organic medicinal cannabis supplements and topical products. MYM has two production projects in Quebec that when completed will have over 1.5 million sf of production space. MYM is also a partner in a 1.2 million sf production project (Northern Rivers Project) in New South Wales, Australia. Australia is an exciting new market that has recently legalized medicinal cannabis. To ensure a strong presence and growth potential within the industry, MYM is actively looking to acquire complementary businesses and assets in the technology, nutraceuticals and CBD sectors. MYM shares trade in Canada, Germany and the USA under the following symbols: (CSE: MYM) (OTC:MYMMF) (FRA:0MY) (DEU:0MY) (MUN:0MY) (STU:0MY).

Here's to our Future Growth and Prosperity Together.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Rob Gietl, CEO

MYM Nutraceuticals Inc.

http://www.mymarijuana.ca

Keep up to date with MYM on our social media channels:

Twitter: @MYM_Nutra

Facebook: @mymcanada

Instagram: @MYM_Nutra

This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on assumptions and judgments of management regarding future events or results. Such statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to revise or update such statements. For a description of the risks and uncertainties facing the Company and its business and affairs, readers should refer to the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis and other disclosure filings with Canadian securities regulators, which are posted on http://www.sedar.com .

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE or CNSX Markets), nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the CSE), accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein in the United States. The securities described herein have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities law and may not be offered or sold in the "United States", as such term is defined in Regulation S promulgated under the U.S. Securities Act, unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration requirements is available.

Investor Relations

Terry Brown

+1-855-696-2261

terry@mymarijuana.caMONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 02/15/18 -- On Thursday, March 1st, 2018, Transcontinental Inc. (TSX: TCL.A)(TSX: TCL.B) will hold its Annual General Meeting of shareholders at 2:00 p.m. at the Saint James's Club, 1145 Union Avenue, in Montreal. For those who are unable to attend in person, a webcast of the meeting (audio only) will be accessible as of March 2 in the "Presentations and events" page of the Investors section of the Corporation's website at www.tc.tc

In addition, Transcontinental Inc. will release its first quarter 2018 results and host a conference call for the financial community at 4:15 p.m. The conference call will be broadcast live (audio only) on the Investors homepage of the Corporation's website at www.tc.tc, and will be archived for 30 days. The financial results will be made public in a press release that will be issued on the newswire prior to the conference call as well as in the Management's Discussion and Analysis that will be posted on the Corporation's website.

Q1'2018 Results Conference Call Date: Thursday, March 1st, 2018 Time: 4:15 p.m. Dial-in numbers: 1 647 788-4922 or 1 877 223-4471 Live audio webcast: www.tc.tc/investors Conference Recording Playback March 1st (7:15 p.m.) to March 9 (11:59 Availability dates: p.m.) Access telephone numbers: 1 416 621-4642 or 1 800 585-8367 Access code: 8059175 The following is the conference call calendar for the 2018 fiscal year, for your information: 2018 Calendar 2nd quarter: Thursday, June 7 3rd quarter: Thursday, September 6 4th quarter: Thursday, December 13

Contacts:

Shirley Chenny

Advisor, Investor Relations

514 954-4000

shirley.chenny@tc.tc



This "Year of the Dog" Bullion is Struck by the Royal Canadian Mint

ADDISON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2018 / Dillon Gage Metals, one of the world's largest precious metals wholesaler firms, is once again the exclusive source for the Royal Canadian Mint's Silver Lunar Privy bullion coin. For the past five years, Dillon Gage Metals has had the sole distribution of this unique RCM Silver Maple Leaf. The "Year of the Dog" in the Chinese Lunar Calendar officially kicks off this Friday, February 16, 2018. To honor this loyal Lunar symbol, this year's coin features an intricately engraved Labrador Retriever for the privy seal (the standard Canadian Maple Leaf privy is a smaller leaf with the year number inside).

In the most recent decades, the dog represents those born in 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, and now 2018. Individuals born in the Year of the Dog are honest and loyal, much like their canine counterparts. In Chinese culture, if a dog happens to come to a house, it symbolizes the coming of good fortune and prosperity. This year's Lunar Privy bullion coin is the perfect gift or keepsake for those born under the Year of the Dog sign.

"The Chinese Zodiac Calendar is a very important part of traditional Chinese culture," stated Terry Hanlon, president of Dillon Gage Metals. "This exceptional limited mintage Royal Canadian Mint Silver Maple Leaf that bears a Lunar Year privy mark celebrates that heritage. This unique coin is a great gift for those who participate in Lunar New Year festivities, and it's also great for any coin collectors in your life who happen to love dogs."

The coin is crafted in the Royal Canadian Mint's exceptional 99.99 percent pure silver. It features a serrated edge and a unique reverse-proof finish. This coin is the highest denomination made available on a 1-ounce silver bullion coin - $5 CAN. Along with Canada's beloved monarch, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, on the obverse and the iconic Canadian Maple leaf on the reverse. The coin is 38 millimeters in diameter and weighs 31.110 grams.

This limited-mintage special release will be available to authorized dealers from Dillon Gage. For information and pricing, call 800-375-4653 or go to www.dillongage.com to purchase on the electronic trading platform, FizTrade.com.

About Dillon Gage Metals

Dillon Gage Inc. of Dallas (DillonGage.com), founded in 1976, companies include:

Dillon Gage Metals (www.DillonGage.com) is one of the world's largest precious metals wholesale trading firms. The firm is an authorized purchaser for all major world mints and maintains inventory in over 20 countries around the world. Additionally, the company provides advanced tools and technologies that enable market participants to be more successful in their businesses, allowing electronic trading and offering cloud-based solutions for the physical precious metals marketplace. 800-375-4653

FizTrade Online Trading (www.FizTrade.com) offers a real-time bid/ask trading platform for gold, silver, platinum and palladium. 800-375-4653

Dillon Gage Refining (www.dillongage.com/refining/why-dg), professional assayers and refiners of precious metal scrap, from low grade to karat scrap. Stone removal services and diamond experts on staff. 888-436-3489

International Depository Services Group with locations in Delaware, USA (www.ids-delaware.com; 888-322-6150), Texas (www.idsoftexas.com; 888-322-6150) and Ontario, Canada (www.idsofcanada.com; 855-362-2431), offers secure, efficient and insured precious metals and certified coin depositories that focus on custom business logistics solutions including storage, fulfillment, inventory management, and many other value-added services.

Contact:

Jeffrey Cheatham

Senior Account Supervisor

TrizCom PR

(972) 247-1369

jeffc@trizcom.com

SOURCE: Dillon Gage MetalsTlou Energy's shares fell over 20% on Thursday after the company reported that the Botswanan government cancelled their tender for coalbed methane-fueled (CBM) power plants due to non-compliance. The company has met with the Ministry of Mineral Resources Green Technology and Energy Security to discuss the cancellation of Tlou's plans, which had included an outlined development commencing with power generation of up to 10MW. In a statement, Tlou Energy said: "The Ministry outlined that neither ...

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2017 / The Schall Law Firm, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit against Credit Suisse Group AG ("Credit Suisse" or the "Company") (NYSE: CS) 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 March 20, 2015 and February 3, 2016, inclusive (the "Class Period"), are encouraged to contact the firm before February 20, 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 complaint, the Company issued materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Credit Suisse's risk protocols and control systems were routinely disregarded; (2) Credit Suisse was amassing billions of dollars of risky, highly illiquid securities, in violation of those risk protocols; and (3) as a result, defendants' statements about Credit Suisse's business, operations, and risk controls were false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.

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LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 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NORTHBROOK, IL / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2018 / Periodontitis affects approximately 65 million people in the U.S. and is the leading cause of tooth loss in the country. As a result, Dr. Steven Kacel of Northbrook Dentist Office recently posted a blog educating his readers on how to prevent periodontitis.

The blog further explains that periodontitis is the advanced stage of gum disease that can cause permanent damage to your gums and mouth. This disease also has been linked to other serious ailments including cardiac disease, strokes, diabetes, and more.

The dentist regularly uses his blog posts to inform his readers about aspects of dentistry which they may not otherwise know. He says that although many want to improve their smile, they are not aware of all the different ways they can go about doing so.

Further information regarding bonding and veneers can be found in Dr. Kacel's latest blog post at www.northbrookdentistoffice.com. The dentist's blog aims to create more informed patients who have less problems to deal with the next time they come into Dr. Kacel's office.

For answers to other questions about how to properly care for one's teeth or about oral hygiene in general, reach out to Highland Park, IL dentist Steven Kacel, D.D.S., M.A.G.D., F.A.D.I. and his friendly staff at his Northbrook dental office who will happily answer any and all questions.

ABOUT NORTHBROOK DENTIST OFFICE:

Steven N. Kacel, D.D.S., M.A.G.D., F.A.D.I. has been providing high quality dental care to people in Northbrook, Illinois and the surrounding area for 33 years. He is a graduate of the Northwestern University Dental School and an Attending Dental Consultant at NorthShore University Health System. He is a proud member of the American Dental Association, the Master of the Academy of General Dentistry, the Illinois State Dental Association, the American Academy of Implant Dentistry, the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, and the Fellow of the Academy of Dentistry International.

Contact Northbrook Dentist Office:

Dr. Steven Kacel

(847) 457-0400

northbrookdentist@gmail.com

1535 Lake Cook Rd Suite 107 Northbrook, IL 60062

SOURCE: Northbrook Dentist OfficeWASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Following another deadly mass shooting, President Donald Trump avoided the topic of gun control in remarks about the tragic incident in Parkland, Florida. Trump said Thursday his administration is working closely with local authorities to investigate the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which left 17 people dead. 'We are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools, and tackle the difficult issue of mental health,' Trump said. The president said he will meet with the nation's governors and attorney generals later this month to discuss ways to make schools safer. 'It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference,' Trump said. 'We must actually make that difference.' Trump also focused on the issue of mental health in a Twitter post about the suspected shooter earlier in the day. 'So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior,' Trump tweeted. 'Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem,' he added. 'Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!' The shooting has led to renewed calls among some lawmakers for new gun control laws, although Republicans generally argue that the immediate aftermath of such incidents is not the time for that debate. Following a church shooting in Texas last November, Trump also emphasized mental health, arguing the attack was not a 'guns situation.' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.Local Developer Advocates for Sustainable Downtown Growth as City Center Flourishes

BOCA RATON, FL / ACCESSWIRE / February 15, 2018 / Group P6, the family-owned residential developer behind luxury condominium project 327 Royal Palm, announced it is planning to relocate its headquarters to Downtown Boca Raton. The developer plans to relocate from Deerfield Beach, Fla. by fall 2018.

Group P6 Operating Manager and Boca Raton resident Ignacio Diaz said the move shows the company's commitment to sustainable growth in the Downtown area. "As it attracts new residents, downtown development must be handled responsibly," said Diaz.

"Growth is guaranteed but it must be sustainable, high-quality and financially responsible and it must include young families and professionals who help build the city's economy and want to see Boca Raton as a home for the long run."

The relocation of Group P6's corporate headquarters to Boca Raton brings more jobs and tax revenues to the city, Diaz noted.

The developer's commitment to responsible development is reflected in its portfolio. In addition to 327 Royal Palm, Group P6 recently proposed a second low-density downtown project, 475 Royal Palm, developed within the strict guidelines of Boca Raton's Downtown Ordinance for land use. The contemporary Mizner-style design will include improved sidewalks, lush landscaping and green spaces and increased parking for the adjacent office building. Visible from the street will be two significant pieces of artwork: a pineapple, the symbol of hospitality and a sign of welcoming, and Palmetto leaves, which is synonymous with Boca Raton.

If approved, 475 Boca Raton will be one of the lowest density projects in Downtown Boca, with a lesser concentration of new residents and activity compared to what the land could be used for.

"We have a personal stake in how Downtown Boca is developed because we live here, too - our children go to school here and we continue to support public officials and organizations that understand and advocate for high-quality, low-density growth," said Diaz. "We want to make sure Boca remains as beautiful as ever."

About Group P6

Family owned developer Group P6 focuses its portfolio on quality, exclusivity, and location. Rooted in strong family and business values, its team brings more than 55 years of real estate development experience. Group P6 currently is developing three South Florida condominium projects, including The Elysian and The Fordham, both boutique projects in Deerfield Beach, and 327 Royal Palm in Downtown Boca Raton.

For more information, visit www.GroupP6.com.

SOURCE: Group P6Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - February 15, 2018) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Karen Garnett, an Associate Director in the Division of Corporation Finance, will leave the agency in February.

As an Associate Director overseeing the Division's disclosure review program, Ms. Garnett led the Division's selective review of transactional and periodic filings by issuers in a range of industries, including real estate, commodities, insurance and life sciences. As part of this work, she led the evaluation of a broad range of transactions that included novel governance structures and financial products including cryptocurrencies. Ms. Garnett also guided the Division's implementation of significant rule changes, including those related to loan-level asset disclosure and credit risk retention applicable to asset-backed issuers. In addition, Ms. Garnett led the review of the Commission's business and financial disclosure requirements in Regulation S-K, resulting in the issuance of a concept release by the Commission.

"Investors in our markets have been well served by Karen's thoughtful approach to protecting investors and facilitating capital formation," said Bill Hinman, Director of the Division of Corporation Finance. "Her contributions, including her work to develop how our staff evaluates company disclosures, will have a lasting impact."

Ms. Garnett said, "It has been an honor to serve with the dedicated staff in the Division of Corporation Finance and across the agency as we have worked together to protect investors and facilitate capital formation. I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished together."

Prior to her role as Associate Director, Ms. Garnett served as the Assistant Director of the Division's Office of Real Estate and Business Services. She previously served as Special Counsel and Attorney Advisor in the Divisions of Corporation Finance and Investment Management. Prior to joining the SEC, Ms. Garnett was an associate at the law firm of Wright, Lindsey & Jennings. She earned her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and her law degree from the University of Texas. In 2005, Ms. Garnett received the agency's Byron Woodside Award in recognition of her contributions to the SEC's full disclosure program, and in 2016, she received the Chair's Award for Meritorious Impact in recognition of her leadership of the disclosure effectiveness initiative.Boost.ai, a Stavanger, Norway-based provider of chatbots and virtual assistants, closed an up to $5m funding round.

Alliance Venture made the investment.

Following the deal, the company ownership will remain firmly in the hands of the founders and employees, who still retain more than two thirds of the company.

The financing will be used to strengthen the technical and commercial teams and to support expansion beyond Scandinavia.

Founded in 2016 by Lars Ropeid Selsas, Henry Vaage Iversen and Hadle Ropeid Selsas, Boost.ai specializes in artificial intelligence (AI) and building virtual assistants for enterprise.

Incorporated in May 2016, the company has secured deals with more than 40 major organizations, including leading Scandinavian companies such as Telenor, Nordea, Sparebank 1, Santander and Storebrand. Additionally, boost.ai has become the prime supplier of chatbots for local governments, with over 20 Scandinavian municipalities signing up to provide their citizens with digital guidance through virtual assistants. The team includes over 50 members.

FinSMEs

15/02/2018Norwest Venture Partners, a premier multi-stage investment firm, promoted Lisa Wu to partner on the venture capital team.

Wu joined the firm in 2012, and focuses on consumer Internet, digital commerce, and next generation marketplace opportunities.

She spent the first part of her career at Norwest spearheading investments in the New York area, where she sourced Jet.com (acquired by Walmart.com for $3.3 billion). Wu led Norwests investment in Ritual, a womens health brand, and she was a major contributor to Norwests investments in Opendoor and Grove Collaborative.

She has played an active role in creating and driving Norwests CEO Impact Initiatives working with portfolio company CEOs and has also been active in hiring and mentoring associates and interns at Norwest.

Previously, Wu worked in Amazon.coms Worldwide Corporate Development team. In this role, she identified and evaluated acquisition targets and strategic investments for Amazon and provided strategies for potential expansion. Prior to Amazon, Wu worked at Bessemer Venture Partners, where she focused on consumer and SaaS investments.

Earlier, she founded BANZAI! Fresh, a small business providing high-quality, nutritious foods to schools and hospitals in Northern California. Wu began her career in the investment banking group at Merrill Lynch.

FinSMEs

15/02/2018Shoreline Biome, a Farmington-based biotech startup, secured $1.1M in equity funding.

Backers included Connecticut Innovations and independent investors.

The company intends to use the funds to continue development of their novel kits, protocols, and software.

Founded in June 2015 by Tom Jarvie, CEO and Mark Driscoll, CSO, Shoreline Biome novel kits, protocols, and software used to identify and quantify the bacteria in the human microbiome. Its kits feature comprehensive lysis of even hard to crack microbes, simple workflow, and the ability to identify organisms down to the strain-level. The initial kits can be used on the Illumina and PacBio sequencing platforms.

The company, which is located at the UConn Technology Incubation Program on the UConn Health campus in Farmington, collaborates closely with faculty from The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, Yale University, and UConn.

The financing follows several other achievements including winning a UConn Innovation Fund investment for the development of spore and cell lysis technology and a Phase I SBIR grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the NIH. The SBIR grant was funded to develop kits, methods, and software for high-resolution amplicon microbiome profiling. The project is a collaboration between Shoreline Biome, George Weinstock, PhD, Professor, and Evnin Family Chair and Director of Microbial Genomics at The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine and Dr. David Hafler, William S. and Lois Stiles Edgerly Professor of Neurology and Professor of Immunobiology; Chair, Department of Neurology of the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Hafler is also the Neurologist-in-Chief, Yale New Haven Hospital.

FinSMEs

14/02/2018Under the new process, the RBI requires banks to figure out plans to resolve debts of defaulters with 20 billion rupees ($311 million) or more in outstanding debt by 1 September, or take them to bankruptcy court.

Mumbai: Just when many Indian banks thought the worst of their bad debt woes were behind them, new central bank rules are stoking fears that the worst of the soured-loans buildup is yet to come.

The central bank surprised the financial sector this week by halting all of its existing loan-restructuring mechanisms with immediate effect, and rolling out new rules that will push more debt defaulters into bankruptcy courts.

To force its point home, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) set strict timelines for lenders to take action against defaulters, threatening penalties if banks failed to act in a timely manner.

Soured loans, which include non-performing, restructured or rolled-over loans, reached a record high of 9.5 trillion rupees ($148 billion) in the middle of last year before dipping slightly and prompting some relief among bankers that the worst was over. State-run lenders account for the bulk of these loans.

Bad loans have nearly doubled in the past four years following an economic slow down and years of profligate lending - the combination has choked new lending and dragged on the economy.

Analysts say the actual level of bad loans is higher than the official figures suggest, pointing to central bank audits of banks, including State Bank of India, that showed non-performing loans were higher than reported for the financial year ended March 2017. Banks have also been blamed for perpetually renewing loans on soured assets.

Most of the loan-restructuring schemes that the central bank is withdrawing have seen little success.

Analysts say banks will soon have to declare the loans in those schemes as non-performing loans, which will trigger the timeline for banks to take debtors to court.

That means the banking sector will have to recognise the new status of the loans and make provisions for them, said Rajkiran Rai, chief executive at state-run Union Bank of India.

When you look at the short term, yes, we will have issues with the existing accounts, Rai said.

Longer term, the RBIs measure will benefit banks, he said.

Indeed, the new rules would bring discipline to the banking sector, although provisioning costs will shoot up as more borrowers are taken to court, said R. Subramaniakumar, chief executive at Indian Overseas Bank, a state-run lender with the second-highest bad loan ratio among all banks.

Of course its going to put pressure on banks balance sheets, he said, adding capital injections announced by the government will help cushion the impact.

The RBIs decision to force more struggling borrowers into bankruptcy proceedings was its latest move to try to clean up the country's bad loans mess.

Last year, it ordered about 40 of the countrys largest debt defaulters into bankruptcy courts, demanding creditors put aside at least 50 percent of loan amounts in provisioning.

Under the new process, the RBI requires banks to figure out plans to resolve debts of defaulters with 20 billion rupees ($311 million) or more in outstanding debt by 1 September, or take them to bankruptcy court.

Since 50 percent provisioning will be required for these bankruptcy cases as well, the total funds that banks will have to set aside will shoot up, pressuring profits, analysts said.

Moodys Indian affiliate ICRA estimates the criteria would net 50 defaulting companies with combined outstanding debt of 2.46 trillion rupees ($38 billion), so banks credit provisions will spike.

India Ratings and Research, the local affiliate of Fitch, said banks non-performing loans and provisions will shoot up in coming months, said analyst Udit Kariwala.

Rajeev Kumar, the top government bureaucrat overseeing the banking sector, said the new rules will impact 2-3 percent of banks loan books, while provisions could rise a little, financial news service NewsRise reported.

Bank shares slid on Wednesday, with the sector index falling 1.4 percent compared with a 0.4 percent fall in the broader market.Donald Trump was not satisfied with the the Indian government's decision to reduce custom duty and asked that it should be reciprocal

US president Donald Trump on Tuesday lashed out at India for imposing high import tariff on Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Trump called it an unfair trade practice and even threatened to increase the tariff on Indian motorcycles exported to the US.

We have so many countries where we made a product, they make a product, ..We pay a tremendous tax to get into their countries  motorcycles, Harley Davidson  it goes into a certain country. I wont mention the fact that it happens to be India, in this case, the president said amidst laughter from the audience during a discussion with members of the Congress over steel industry.

Trump's barb came a day after the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), through a notification on 12 February, slashed the duty on imported motorcycles from high-end brands to 50 percent.

Earlier, import of motorcycles with engine capacity of 800cc or less used to attract 60 percent duty, while those with the capacity of 800cc or more attracted 75 percent duty.

CBEC also reduced import duty on engine, gearbox, or transmission mechanism as a completely knocked down (CKD) kit in the pre-assembled form of motorcycles, not mounted on a body assembly to 25 percent. These pre-assembled parts earlier attracted customs duty of 30 percent.

However, Trump was not satisfied with the Indian government's decision to reduce the tariff and asked that it should be reciprocal, as the US imposes zero tax on the import of motorcycles.

Here are some statistics on how India imposes custom duty on automobiles and bikes:

Statistics courtesy: Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers

With inputs from agenciesThe PNB chief also said that his bank will never back any wrongdoing and it was PNB that has exposed the scam

News agency ANI on Thursday reported that diamond tycoon Nirav Modi left the country on 1 January 2018 and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was informed of the incident on 29 January, which was 28 days after Modi left country. The investigating agency CBI registered the case on 31 January. Besides, a lookout notice has also been issued against Nirav Modi, ANI quoted official sources as saying.

A day after the Rs 11,000 crore banking fraud was detected, the Punjab National Bank held a press conference in New Delhi. The PNB in the presser claimed the scam had started back in 2011 and the bank could detect it in January this year. "We had reported it to the agencies concerned," Punjab National Bank (PNB) MD Sunil Mehta said in the media briefing.

The Rs 11,000 crore Punjab National Bank fraud came to light on 14 February when the state run bank approached the stock exchanges informing them that there was a big banking scam at its Mumbai branch. The ANI quoted official sources as saying that Nirav Modi's wife, an American citizen, left India on 6 January, Mehul Choksi on 4 January, Modi's brother Nishal Modi, a Belgian citizen, on 1 January, 2018. The central agency CBI which holds a branch of Interpol in India had issued look out circulars against all the accused on 31 January, the official was quoted as saying.

#WATCH Live: Punjab National Bank (PNB) addressing media in #Delhi over Nirav Modi case https://t.co/7vZc879qOo  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

The PNB chief also said that his bank will never back any wrongdoing and it was PNB that has exposed the scam. "We detected the fraud on 3 January. We got to know that 2 of our employees did some un-authorised transactions. The bank initiated criminal action against our staff members," informed Sunil Mehta. According to reports, the Central Bureau of Investigation conducted raids in Mumbai at places belonging to Nirav Modi. The CBI sealed residence of Ami Modi, wife of Nirav Modi, in Mumbai's Worli district, a posh office locality. The searches were conducted on 3 and 4 February, reports said.

Hum kisi bhi galat kaam ko badhaava nahi denge. Hum log iss (#PNBScam) cheez ko surface pe lekar aaye: Sunil Mehta, MD PNB pic.twitter.com/miWOwaWSO0  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

Mehta also informed the media that the Narendra Modi government was closely monitoring the situation and the bank was getting every possible help and full support in nabbing the culprits

This is a standalone incident. It has taken place only in one of our branches: Sunil Mehta, MD PNB. pic.twitter.com/96D8KFgdna  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

The Opposition Congress part used the Rs 11,000 crore Punjab National Bank fraud for attacking the Narendra Modi government which has vowed to eliminate balck money since its its inception in May 2014. Congress leader Randeep Surjewala posed a number of questions before the Narendra Modi government asking why a person like Nirav Modi was able to dodge India's elite law enforcement agencies mainly the Financial Intelligence Unit.

How can #NiravModi and Mehul Choksi dupe the entire banking system through forged Letters of Understanding under the nose of Modi govt? Who is responsible for biggest bank loot scam unleashed by chhota Modi?: Randeep Surjewala, Congress pic.twitter.com/ECW6auBk63  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its counter attack on the Congress party said that it was not in power when the fraud happened in 2011 asking what the Congress government was doing between 2011 and 2014?

We were not in govt in 2011, if Congress is making allegations, were they sleeping from 2011-14? They should've probed it. This govt is taking cognizance of matters & probing them. Congress' was a govt of scams & they established these scamsters: MoS Finance SP Shukla #PNBScam pic.twitter.com/HfubZ01WaT  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

Click here for LIVE updates on Punjab National Bank fraud casePNB said companies were maintaining only current accounts with the branch and none of the transactions were routed though the Centralised Banking System

New Delhi: Hit by a Rs 11,400 crore fraud, state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) has cautioned other banks about the modus operandi of the scam.

"It has been reported through a preliminary investigation that the suspected fraud has been carried out by the perpetrators in collusion with the staff of one of the our branches in Mumbai," PNB said in a letter sent to various banks, including those from the private and public sector as also to foreign lenders.

The letter said it was found through the SWIFT trail that one junior level official unauthorisedly and fraudulently issued Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) on behalf of some companies belonging to Nirav Modi Group.

The companies were maintaining only current accounts with the branch and none of the transactions were routed though the Centralised Banking System, it said.

Similar modus operandi was used by the same official for companies belonging to Gitanjali Gems promoted by Mehul Choksi.

PNB said that RBI norms were overlooked by overseas branches of other Indian banks and alleged connivance of group companies of Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Gems with its own official and also apparently of others working in foreign branches of Indian banks.

The fraudulent act was found out when subsequent to superannuation of the concerned official, the same companies again approached the branch for availing Letter of Undertakings (LoUs).While PNB did not name the other lenders, Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank are said to have offered credit based on LoUs issued by PNB.

New Delhi: The Reserve Bank and the Sebi are likely to approach their counterparts in Hong Kong for cooperation in the matter relating to the whopping over Rs 11,400 crore fraud at public sector lender PNB where several entities have come under the scanner, officials said on Wednesday.

The regulators are set to spread their net overseas as it has been found that credit was availed from various bank branches in Hong Kong on the basis of Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) issued by Punjab National Bank.

Officials said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would be approaching its counterpart Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) to gather more details in the PNB matter.

Similarly, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) would be getting in touch with the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).

According to the officials, the LoUs were mostly used for availing credit at Hong Kong-based branches of some other Indian banks. An LoU is a letter of comfort issued by one bank to branches of other banks, based on which foreign branches offer credit to buyers. Several other entities which are in the diamond trade, including from South Africa, are also under the lens, they added.

Further, the officials noted that another public sector bank, which is currently under the scanner for business dealings with a South African group, is also being probed as the two cases might be linked.

Punjab National Bank on Wednesday said it has detected a $1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400 crore) scam where billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from a branch in Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

While PNB did not name the other lenders, Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank are said to have offered credit based on LoUs issued by PNB.

Three other jewellers, Gitanjali, Ginni and Nakshatra are under the scanner with CBI and ED looking at their arrangements with various banks and end use of money, a senior official of a public sector bank said.

Click here for LIVE updates on Punjab National Bank fraud caseNirav Modi wrote to bankers informing them he was looking for suitors or possible buyers for his company Firestar Diamond and will use proceeds to repay dues

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In the complaint, PNB had named three diamond firms -- Diamonds R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds -- saying they had approached it on January 16 with a request for buyers' credit for making payment to overseas suppliers...

Last week, PNB had lodged an FIR with CBI stating that fraudulent LoUs worth Rs 280.7 crore were first issued on 16 January. At the time, PNB had said it was digging into records to examine the magnitude of the fraud.

A look back at how the scam was carried out

A retired PNB officer and a clerk have been booked by the CBI for helping Nirav Modi, his wife and relatives, a Times of India report said. PNB's retired deputy manager Gokulnath Setty and single window operator Manoj Kharat had issued eight letters of understanding (LoU) worth over Rs 280 crore to Niravs company just three months before the formers retirement, the report said.

At the bourses, Gitanjali Gems plunged nearly 19 percent on reports over its involvement in the PNB fraud case in morning trade after the company came under scanner of various investigating agencies following the Punjab National Bank's declaration of nearly Rs 11,400-crore fraud. The stock today opened on a bearish note at Rs 48, then lost further ground to touch a low of Rs 47.50, down 18.94 per cent over its previous closing price.

The regulators are set to spread their net overseas as it has been found that credit was availed from various bank branches in Hong Kong on the basis of Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) issued by Punjab National Bank.

The Reserve Bank and the Sebi are likely to approach their counterparts in Hong Kong for cooperation in the matter relating to the whopping over Rs 11,400 crore fraud at public sector lender PNB where several entities have come under the scanner, officials said on Wednesday.

This is the second consecutive day of decline for the stock. It had slumped 10 percent yesterday. The state-owned bank said it had detected a USD 1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400 crore) fraud in which billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) from one of its branches for overseas credit from other Indian lenders.  PTI

Shares of Punjab National Bank today extended its fall for the second straight session, falling as much as 9 percent in morning trade after the lender said it has detected a USD 1.77 billion fraud. The stock opened at Rs 137, then hit a low of Rs 133.45, down 8.47 per cent over its previous closing price. On the NSE, the stock opened at Rs 137.60, then fell 8.57 per cent to Rs 133.35.

Times Now reported that Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra said that she never got paid for a diamond advertisement.

Quoting sources, India Today reported that ED will also issue a lookout notice in the coming days.

What was Nirav Modi doing at WEF 2018 with Narendra Modi, asks Congress

The CBI FIR itself lists out the details of the accused. The primary name is that of Nirav Modi who is listed as a partner in M/s Diamond R US, M/s Solar Exports and M/s Stellar Diamonds.

The CBI FIR dated 31 January, 2018 was based on a complaint filed by Avneesh Nepalia, the Deputy General Manager at Punjab National Bank. It alleged that the partnership firms mentioned in the complaint had gained an amount of Rs 280.70 crore rupees while the bank suffered a wrongful loss of the same magnitude.

He addressed the row on Nirav Modi's photograph with Narendra Modi at the World Economic Forum 2018 in Davos, asking how there was no background check done on those posing with the prime minister.

Speaking to India Today, Congress leader Sanjay Jha said that the alleged fraud involving jeweller Nirav Modi "is a serious scam of epic proportions".

This is a serious scam of epic proportions, says Congress' Sanjay Jha

The AAP then asked why Nirav Modi was "part of a delegation" that accompanied the prime minister and sought response from the saffron party on the row. "We think he(Narendra Modi) is busier with speeches and speaking his 'Mann ki Baat'," one of the AAP leaders said.

Speaking at a press conference, members of the Aam Aadmi Party mentioned Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, and claimed that before any such businessman becomes a fugitive, he is "seen hanging around the BJP office".

India Today reported that among the 40 properties raided by CBI in connection with the alleged fraud involving Nirav Modi, 9 properties belonged to the jeweller.

He said, "I want to say one thing clearly. No one will be spared. This will be regardless of the status and the status of the accused,"

"Till now, both the CBI and ED has taken speedy action in the wake of complaint made to the CBI. Till now, CBI has raided nine properties belonging to Nirav Modi: 3 in Surat, 4 in Mumbai and 2 in Delhi. Assets worth 13,000 has been seized and action has been taken to revoke his passport. Look out notice has been issued," Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Wednesday.

No one will be spared, says Ravi Shankar Prasad

He further said that "very good photographs of the Congress leaders with Mehul Choksi is available with us." "But we don't want to stoop to that level," he added.

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad hit out at the Congress for linking Nirav Modi's fraud case to Narendra Modi. He said, "The BJP takes strong offence by calling someone 'chota Modi'. It is derogatory and scandalous. Nirav Modi was not the part of the delegation at Davos. He reached there on his own."

"Jinke ghar aise sheeshe ke ho jo tukde tukde hochuke hai, woh dusre ke ghar pathar na feke(Those who live in house made of broken glass should not throw stones at others' residences," Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a press conference.

"Narendra Modi's shadow will not be harmed because of Randeep Surjewala or Congress. He is loved by the people. And what kind of language is Congress using? 'Chota Modi' jibe is shameful, condemnable and utterly irresponsible," Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Wednesday.

PNB gives CBI a list of 150 Letters of Undertaking which were fraudulently issued to transfer money to firms associated with Nirav Modi, PTI quotes officials as saying.

The agency issued a look out circular against all the four after registering the first FIR against them, they said.

His brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, also left the country on 1 January, while wife Ami, a US citizen, and business partner Mehul Choksi, who is the Indian promoter of Gitanjali jewellery chain, departed on 6 January, the officials said.

Billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi had left the country on 1 January much before the CBI received a complaint from Punjab National Bank on 29 January about a Rs 280-crore fraud, officials said.

The bank has sent two more complaints to the CBI on Tuesday, saying the scam was worth more than Rs 11,400 crore.

Nirav Modi, a regular feature on the lists of rich and famous Indians since 2013, was booked by the CBI, along with wife, brother and business partner Choksi on 31 January, for allegedly cheating the state-run Punjab National Bank to the tune of Rs 280 crore.

The diamantaire is an India citizen but his brother Nishal and wife Ami are not Indian nationals, the officials said.

Nirav Modi, who is believed to be in Switzerland, was also present in a group photo of Indian CEOs with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, issued by the Press Information Bureau, in World Economic Forum on 23 January, six days before the bank sent its first complaint against him to the CBI, according to the officials.

Nirav Modi is an Indian citizen by his brother and wife are not, say officials

The CBI has sought revocation of the passports of billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi and his partner Mehul Choksi who are the main accused in alleged fraudulent transactions, officials told PTI. Nirav Modi, who holds an Indian passport, left India on 1 January, while his brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, departed from the country on same day.

NDTV reported that Nirav Modi is staying in a suite at the JW Marriott's Essex House in Manhattan, New York, a short walk away from his luxurious Madison Avenue jewelry retail store.

"This (diffusion) is less formal than a notice but is also used to request the arrest or location of an individual or additional information in relation to a police investigation. A diffusion is circulated directly by an NCB (CBI in this case) to the member countries of their choice, or to the entire INTERPOL membership and is simultaneously recorded in Interpols Information System," the website of Interpol says.

The ED on Friday issued summons for appearance to billionaire diamond merchant Nirav Modi and his business partner Mehul Choksi in connection with its money laundering probe, officials said. They said both Modi and Choksi were summoned under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and asked to depose within a week's time. The notices were handed over to the directors of the firms of the two businessmen as they were not in the country.

Secondly, ED investigators want to know whether these LoUs were even once  at any point of time over the past seven years  returned to the originating bank branch for verification, and if so, whether or not these transactions were flagged in the annual audit report of the banks foreign exchange department.

Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials said they were baffled when the top boss of Punjab Nationa Bank claimed that the bank was both whistle-blower and victim. The ED has sought documents related to SWIFT payments as such transactions are verified to ascertain FEMA provisions. The verification sometimes takes a week before the final clearance is granted

Eight employees of Punjab National Bank suspended; total number of suspended employees now stands at 18

"When I opposed the Gitanjali Gems loan proposal, my fight with Allahabad Bank board got really intense and dirty. They tried to persuade, mollify and even threaten me but I said such loans to the corporates without recovery will only add to more non-performing assets. I also wrote to the Reserve Bank of India and secretary, financial services in the Ministry of Finance in my effort to warn them of a massive scam looming large. My request was to take immediate preventive action and keep a watch on all the companies linked to Choksi's firm, as they were accumulating loans without making payments to the bank," Dubey said.

Dinesh Dubey, a journalist by profession, exclusively spoke to Firstpost exposing the deep-rooted corruption in the banking system and how the UPA government turned a blind eye to illegitimate loan sanctions.

Although Firstpost could not independently verify the news, there have been several reports suggesting that Priyanka's management had alleged that she wasn't paid the amount the two parties had agreed on.

A spokesperson for Priyanka Chopra said: "There are speculative reports that Priyanka Chopra has sued Nirav Modi. This is not true. However, she is currently seeking legal opinion with respect to terminating her contract with the brand in light of allegations of financial fraud against Nirav Modi."

Sources in the Finance Ministry are saying that the recapitalisation of the Punjab National Bank will not be impacted by the fraud case

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) must feel like Cassandra gifted with the ability to tell the future, but cursed that her prophecies would never be believed (she is a character in the Greek myth The Iliad, and sister of one of the main protagonists, Hector, Prince of Troy). The latest example is the Rs 11,000 crore plus fraud perpetrated in a Mumbai branch of Punjab National Bank.

Banks will have to be equipped with better risk management as NPAs pile-up

It also said none of the overseas branches of India-based banks had shared with PNB any documents or information at the time of extending buyers credit to the companies. PNB said Nirav Modi had written to the bank but had yet to offer any formal proposal for a repayment.

Banking sources have said several other banks who have extended loans based on the PNB LoUs that were later found to be fraudulent are at risk of losing money. Some of the banks say PNB is liable to pay since it issued the LoUs, although PNB, in a 12 February caution notice addressed to chief executives of 30 banks, including two foreign banks, said the other banks also have a share in the blame as they overlooked certain Indian central bank rules.

PNB has said the transactions are contingent in nature, and it will decide on the liability based on the law and the genuineness of underlying transactions, reported Reuters.

CBI has registered an FIR against Gitanjali Group of companies of Mehul Choksi (Nirav Modi's uncle and alleged partner) based on complaint of PNB

Validity of passports belonging to Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi suspended, both given a week's time to respond

"If they fail to respond within the stipulated time it will be assumed that they have no response to offer and the MEA will go ahead with the revocation," the ministry said in a statement.

The external affairs ministry suspended with immediate effect the passports of diamantaire Nirav Modi and his business partner Mehul Choksi for four weeks. The ministry gave them one week to respond why their passports should not be revoked.

"The PNB management is blaming other banks for not sharing details of their due diligence done on Modi's business. The $1.8 billion fraud is done on non-fund based transaction. The PNB management has to clarify what kind of due diligence it had done while lending to Modi's firms a sum of Rs 1,700 crore," CH Venkatachalam, General Secretary at All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) said.

He also asked the PNB management to reveal what kind of due diligence was done on diamond trader Nirav Modi and his companies before extending a loan of Rs 1,700 crore.

Only the naive would believe that just two officials were involved in the $1.8 billion fraud in Punjab National Bank (PNB) and that the whole bank was in the dark for the past seven years, said a top leader of a major bank union.

The Sebi and stock exchanges have begun analysing the stock market trade details of all entities associated with Modi including Choksi, who has already been under scanner for various cases including a brokerage default incident.

Incidentally, in July 2013, NSE in consultation with Sebi had debarred Gitanjali Gems chief and main promoter Mehul Choksi among others from trading, for securities market violations relating to trading in his company.

Sebi accords utmost importance to market conduct and integrity. Anyone found violating the securities laws will be dealt with firmly, a regulatory official said.

Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has launched a probe into trading and disclosure related issues in the matter of Punjab National Bank and Gitanjali Gems in connection with over Rs 11,000 crore banking fraud allegedly perpetrated by absconding Nirav Modi.

Bank loan frauds have steadily increased as well, reaching Rs 176.34 billion in the latest financial year from Rs 63.57 billion in 2012-13, according to the data, which doesnt include the PNB case.

The figures expose the magnitude of the problem in a banking sector already under pressure after years of poor lending practices. Bad loans surged to a record peak of nearly $149 billion in 2017.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, obtained through an RTI request, shows state-run banks have reported 8,670 loan fraud cases totalling Rs 612.6 billion over the last five financial years up to March 31, 2017.

Investors may have been shocked when one of Indias biggest banks disclosed a $1.77 billion fraud by a billionaire jeweller, but the central bank has recorded data that shows the problem runs far deeper and wider.

"UDAAN word is Narendra Modi's buzzword, Any scamster can flee and fly," said Surjewala said.

At a press conference, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that in the past 24 hours, the biggest fraud in India has been exposed. He added that the scam is worth Rs 21,306 crore

The Congress then played a video of one of Narendra Modi's 2015 address as evidence that he is familiar with Choksi. "Why is the Centre denying it?" asked Surjewala.

"From 7 May 2015 to May 2017, everybody knew about the fraud. They were even informed that this fraudster will flee. It is likely that Prime Minister Narendra Modi knows Mehul Choksi," Randeep Surjewala said on Thursday.

Ex-CBI director says it could take months or even years to track Nirav Modi's overseas money trail

Whistleblower Dinesh Dubey says he had sent dissent note against Gitanjali Gems to Centre, RBI in 2013

Everyone in Modi government was aware of the fraud being committed

"Rahul Gandhi was at Nirav Modi's 2013 exhibition and immediately Allahabad Bank gets notified about the fraud. Dubey wrote to all the important ministries in the Centre at that time. Finance secretary instead suggested Dubey to resign. This is the story. We want to ask, who pressurised the finance secretary? This is a UPA 'ghotala'," Prakash Javadekar said at a press briefing.

"All the wrong loans were sanctioned under the UPA government and it was passed on to us. We have not stopped any of the investigating agencies. This is one of the scams under the UPA. There is a difference between government scams and bank scams. They even have a party scam. It has come to light because of our alertness and our efforts to make banking systems transparent," Union minister Prakash Javadekar said at a press conference.

Nirav Modi scam has come to light because of our efforts: Centre

Asserting that the Centre is "making sure" that the money will be recovered, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said, "What UPA did was destroy the banking system. Coal scam, 2G, CWG are all government scams and they are not comparable with Nirav Modi scam(which allegedly began at a bank)."

Ex-CBI director says not necessary Nirav Modi will be extradited because of Interpol notice

Revenue secretary says Dinesh Dubey resigned in 2013 saying he was 'unhappy over something'

CBI carries out searches in 26 places across India after naming 3 companies in fresh FIR registered in PNB fraud case, reports PTI

At a press briefing, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that Nirav Modi and other Indian CEOs were at Davos on their own. He further added that the Narendra Modi's impromptu meeting was not in any way an endorsement of Nirav Modi or his business.

MEA says Nirav Modi cannot move out of the country after suspension of passport

"The fact that an officer of the level of deputy manager, as is being reported in the media, could single-handedly wreck not only the country's second largest PSU bank but also several other lenders, shows how the risk management system is lacking in these entities and how a chain of command system was not there or was not followed, said the chamber.

The alleged fraudulent transactions from a single branch of the bank show how vulnerable Indian banks, especially PSBs, have become, with a dangerous potential contagion in the country's financial system, Assocham said.

India Inc on Friday called for swift and strict action against the companies who have allegedly defrauded Punjab National Bank, while expressing concern over the vulnerability of lenders.

During the investors' conference call, the bank chief reiterated that the incident was a standalone case. "We are looking at gaps in our existing controls, systems and trying to control them," he added.

He said the bank was going through some problems but "we will fix it", adding that the bank "will not spare anyone" involved in the crime.

"We will get back to normalcy within six months. Bank has the size and capacity to come out of the problem," Sunil Mehta, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Punjab National Bank. told a investors' conference call on Friday.

Despite the huge blow of $1.8 billion fraud, India's second largest public sector bank is hopeful of coming out of the problem in the next six months, according to its top official.

We will get back to normal within six months: PNB chief

"Some ripple effects are bound to happen and it (the fraud) will have some psychological impact on the mind of loan advancers. Whenever a banker is financing someone, he will be more cautious to check out whether there is any possibility of fraud or not. This could impact credit flow to the industry or lead to delay in extending advances," Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) Regional Chairman (Eastern Region) Prakash Chandra Pincha said.

However, they also said that in the wake of the fraud, the entire gems and jewellery industry should not be blamed or branded as "risky" industry.

Jewellery traders and exporters are apprehending that "ripple effects" of the $1.8 billion fraud involving billionaire diamond trader Nirav Modi's companies could make lenders more cautious and impact credit flow to the industry to some extent, officials said here on Friday.

"But with developments in the company going off-track, how much will it hold is something that time will decide," he added.

"Price-wise, the way the stock of Gitanjali Gems has slipped and the kind of circuit that we are seeing, probably the sequence may continue for some days. From a support perspective, Rs 29-30 is a support," Sacchitanand Uttekar, Assistant Vice-President at Research for Tradebulls, said.

Stocks of Gitanjali Gems, the luxury jewellery brand promoted by the main accused Nirav Modi's maternal uncle and business partner Mehul Choksi, plunged 19.94 percent to close at Rs 37.55 per share.

Following the $1.8 billion fraud detected by the Punjab National Bank (PNB), stocks of jewellery company Gitanjali Gems on Friday plunged almost 20 percent  hitting its lower circuit  while PNB's shares closed over 2 percent lower.

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has summoned senior officials from the Reserve Bank of India, the finance ministry and the Chief Vigilance Officer of Punjab National Bank (PNB), next week to assess how the fraud reported slipped past all the checks and balances in the system, The Hindu reported.

The Income Tax Department on Saturday provisionally attached 29 properties and 105 bank accounts of the diamond merchant Nirav Modi, his family and firms as part of its tax evasion probe

Nirav Modi may be holding dual citizenship, according to The Tribune report. Modi and his brother Nishal grew up in Belgium. According to intelligence sources Nishal had surrendered his Indian passport and acquired Belgian citizenship, added the report.

CBI on Saturday arrested Gokulnath Shetty former deputy manager of Punjab National Bank, Manoj Kharat, single window operator at PNB and Hemant Bhat, Authorised Signatory of the Nirav Modi Group of Firms, said media reports.

Congress leader Kapil Sibal, while taking dig at Prime Minister Narendrs Modi, said that the Chaukidar of the coutry is busy these days. "The situation which has arose today is because Chaukidar is sleeping. How can one say that the prime minister, finance minister did not know about the PNB fraud."

Sibal said that banks gave loan even though there was no collateral. He asked the government why action was not being taken against loan defaulters. "If India's economic situations worsens, investors will lose trust. Nivar Modi scam can be called ease of doing business. We don't want this kind of ease of doing business," said the congress leader.

Finance ministry knew that the country was being looted, says Kapil Sibal

PM should disclose who travells with him on official tours: Sibal

He alleged that in 2015 there was a complaint file regarding the PNB issue but PMO replied that this had been 'dealt with'. "How was it dealt it? This proves that they were aware of all this," asked Sibal

Sibal said that with ill-intentions, the BJP brought India's economy to its knees. "I challenge BJP to come and talk about UPA's governance and their governance," said the congress leader.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday conducted raids at Nirav Modi's franchise Gitanjali Gems Store in Durgapur, West Bengal. The ED also seized diamond and jewellery worth Rs 3 crore in raids at Gitanjali and Nakshatra Jewellers in Jaipur.

The agency said that many old LoUs too were renewed in 2017. Nirav Modi and his relatives were rolling over the LoU money by getting them renewed, added the report.

The CBI has said that a majority of the Letters of Understanding (LoUs) in the Punjab National Bank fraud were either issued or were renewed in the bank in 2017-18, The Indian Express reported.

"Original sin in Nirav Modi fraud was committed in 2011. The Letters of Understand (LoU) hold good only for 90 days. But the accused PNB officer kept rolling the LoUs till he got retired. He didn't put details in banking system which lead to no one detecting the scam," Sitharaman said.

BJP leader and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday, in a press conference, said that Congress' allegations against the Centre are misleading people. She said that repeating lies is a strategy being adopted by Congress.

Nirmala Sitharaman said that the entire might of the government has been invoked to nab Nirav Modi. She said that Centre put all concerned authorities in action immediately after the PNB fraud came to light.

"Adwait Holding owns a commercial property at Lower Parel, as it does elsewhere, which was rented by Firestone many years ago. Neither Adwait nor my family has any interest with Nirav Modi or Firestone. Firestone vacated Parel's Kamala Mills premises in December 2017," Singhvi further explained.

"Nirmala Sitharaman and her colleagues are liable to civil and criminal defamation for making ignorant and patently false allegations," Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said according to ANI. "Neither my wife, sons nor me have anything whatsoever to do with Gitanjali or Nirav Modi's companies. The company was a tenant of a Kamala Mills properties owned by Adwait Holdings in which my wife and sons are directors," he added.

Neither my wife, sons nor me have anything whatsoever to do with Gitanjali or Nirav Modi companies, says Abhishek Manu Singhvi

"NDA's cheap sense of politics has reached ludicrous and ridiculous proportions," Abhishek Singhvi says on Twitter in retaliation to Nirmala Sitharaman's charges against him

"When will the finance minister and the prime minister come clean on the Nirav Modi scam?" Congress asks on Twitter

ANI reports that the three accused are Gokulnath Shetty, then deputy manager of Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Manoj Kharat, SWO (single window operator) of PNB and Hemant Bhat, Authorised Signatory of the Nirav Modi Group of Firms.

"Nirav Modi took away Rs 22,000 crores. The prime minister can teach kids how to take an exam for one and a half hours but he can't tell the country who is responsible for the money Nirav Modi took away. The prime minister must answer what is he going to do about it," Congress president Rahul Gandhi said after the Congress steering committee on Saturday. Rahul also rejected the BJP's charge that he has personal ties with Nirav Modi, saying they are trying to divert the issue.

Enforcement Directorate conducted further searches at 21 locations across India in Nirav Modi case and seized diamonds, gold, precious stones, metals and jewellery worth Rs 25 crore, reports ANI. Total seizure now stands at Rs 5,674 crore, ED added.

Speaking to CNN-News18, former executive of Gitanjali Gems, Santosh Srivastava slammed Mehul Choksi, who is now at the eye of the storm for siphoning off Rs 11,400 crore from Punjab National Bank. "Choksi created an unprofessional institution. It was an one man show at Gitanjali. He threatened me when I decided to tell the truth," Srivastava said.

WATCH: Srivastava says he has been writing to authorities since 2015 but with no success

News18 reported that CVC was not satisfied with the information given by top brass of the Punjab National Bank. According to the report, it wants vigilance officer of PNB to step in and report back on lapses. The CVC will also issue fresh guidelines to all banks.

According to News18, at least six to seven employees are being questioned inside the branch by the Central Bureau of Investigation. According to the report, the CBI is investigating whether there are more people involved in the scam.

FICCI, the representative body of Indian private companies has pushed for privatisation of public sector banks. Claiming that the recapitalisation of banks have had little impact on the health of public sector banking, FICCI believed that financial irregularities have been affecting India's image as a business friendly nation.

Celebrity jeweller and prime accused in the alleged Rs 11,400-crore Punjab National Bank fraud Nirav Modi will be represented by advocate Vijay Aggarwal in the courts, said media reports on Monday. Aggarwal has previously represented a number of accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case.

The Shiv Sena on Sunday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the multi-crore-rupee Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam and alleged that diamond czar Nirav Modi, who is at the centre of the scandal, had been a "partner" of the BJP and helped it collect funds for elections.

Investigation agencies believe billionaire businessman may be in Dubai. According to India Today, the CBI may have got a tip-off from undisclosed sources and is currently seeking Interpol's help to nab Modi.

According to News18, the government has written to RBI asking if lapses have been noticed on five counts. The report added that RBI's response is expected after due diligence with banks.

The CBI is questioning Vipul Ambani, the Chief Financial Officer of diamantaire Nirav Modi's Fire Star diamond company, officials said on Monday. They said Vipul Ambani was holding the position for last three to four years. He is understood to be a relative of late Dhirubhai Ambani, reported PTI.

According to a News18 investigation, the FIR filed by the CBI stated that eight LoUs were issued. However, the investigation claims that 150 LoUs were issued to Nirav Modi, the alleged mastermind of the 11,000 crore scam.

According to CNN-News18, the Rs.11,000 crore scam is just the tip of the iceberg. One-hundred fifty LoUs (Letters of Understanding) and 233 foreign letters of credit were issued to Nirav Modi, the report said.

In its latest complaint to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), an exclusive copy of which is with Firstpost, the PNB gave vague responses to the investigators' questions and directed them to the in-house probe.

The PNB has also contradicted itself by admitting that there are several loopholes in Letters of Undertaking (LoUs), which could have been easily detected.

Even before the investigating agencies begin their probe, an in-house inquiry by state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB), which was allegedly defrauded of Rs 11,360 crore by diamond merchant Nirav Modi and his maternal uncle Mehul Choksi, has given a clean chit to its auditors and blamed foreign branches of Indian banks.

The bank's Sethia to Modi-Choksi story spans almost 30 years. But, nothing about the PNB seems to have changed. It is still a ripe, rotten mango waiting to be plucked by those with smart brains and right connections.

Much, much before our Mehul (Choksi) Bhai and his nephew Nirav Modi unburdened the bank of nearly Rs 11,000 crore and counting, the PNB had found itself in a similar soup because of another high-flying businessman, the suave Rajendra Sethia.

Nirav Modi's fraud case not a first for Punjab National Bank, it has been a sitting duck for decades

Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths are examining details of over 250 shell firms linked to Nirav Modi, his brother and Mehul Choksi, which they suspect were used to move ill-gotten financial assets after they defrauded state-owned Punjab National Bank of Rs 11,360 crore. These ghost entities, sources said, allegedly acted like a sleeper cell to launder money in India and abroad.

ED begins attachment of various properties of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi in Mumbai, reports News18. The total assets seized as of now stands at Rs 5716 crores.

Firstpost takes a look at the events that unfolded since 16 January when the Punjab National Bank first found out about the fraudulent transactions in what has now become the largest banking scam in Indian history.

ED Director Karnal Singh has reached Mumbai to take over the probe into the Punjab National Bank fraud case, reports Moneycontrol . The report adds that the Enforcement Directorate might also issue Letters of Rogatory to Hong Kong and other nations where they suspect that funds were diverted

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has asked Punjab National Bank and finance ministry officials to submit a report on how the scam took place despite monetary regulations to avoid the same being in place. ANI reports that the commission has given the bank 10 days to formulate the report.

Corporate frauds like the Nirav Modi scam, phenomenal rise in non-performing assets (NPAs), new provisions like bail-in under Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) regime are a multi-pronged conspiracy aimed at weakening India's predominantly public-owned banking system. This would result in corporate appropriation of public savings besides diverting household savings into speculative investment to fuel market bubbles. Thus, the Nirav Modi scam is not an aberration.

A tiny, decrepit room in Kalbadevi, a chawl in Kalyan, a run-down accommodation in Dahisar, and an old Amboli flat with barely any amenities are the registered residential addresses of directors appointed by the companies of wanted billionaire jeweller Mehul Choksi, reported Bombay Mirror . These people are actually ordinary employees and small-time retail investors who were persuaded by the companies to serve as top company members on paper.

Chawl residents and people living in one-room tenements listed as directors of Nakshatra Brand Limited and Gili India Limited

I-T department serves notice to Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi for unaccounted payment to the tune of Rs 4.5 crore out of which only Rs 1.5 crores was paid in cheque.The notice was sent after transactions showed Singhvi had bought diamonds worth Rs 6 crores.- CNN-News 18

It is inappropriate to assume that Congress is involved in this matter: NCP leader Majeed Memon

Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi denies charges, says,"We must have purchased jewellery from various stores. But, there is no cash transaction with Nirav Modi."

International rating agencies Moody's Investor Service and Fitch Ratings today warned the scam-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) of rating downgrades, citing likely net worth erosion and widening losses at the second largest state-run lender. The Rs 11,400-crore fraudthe biggest in the country's banking historyhas raised questions on both internal and external risk controls at PNB as well as the quality of management supervision at the regulatory level considering that the fraud went undetected for several years, the agencies said.- PTI

In a letter written to Punjab National Bank, Nirav Modi has accused the bank of destroying his brand and says the move has jeopardised his ability to repay banks, media reports said.

"We want a discussion on the PNB fraud case in the ongoing session of the state assembly. We hope the ruling party won't have any objection. We will submit it very soon," Leader of Opposition and Congress MLA Abdul Mannan said.- PTI

The Opposition Congress and CPM on Tuesday demanded a discussion on the Punjab National Bank fraud case in the ongoing session of the state Assembly. The ruling Trinamool Congress is yet to take a call on the issue and mocked Congress and CPM for staging walkout from the house during most of the discussions.

Singhvi asks why no one else received a notice in this regard first

Meanwhile, Congress leader spokesperson Manish Tewari said question does not stop at Nirav Modi and Vikram Kothari but extends to the credibility of entire banking sector.

Congress leader Manish Tewari defends Manu Singhvi, says the question is whether the Centre wants to remain 'helpless' in the PNB scam or not. - CNN-News 18

Congress defends Manu Singhvi, says question is whether Indian govt wants to remain 'helpless' in case or not

Gitanjali employees were handed over relieving letters and were refused gratuity. The employees soon took to the roads and decided to protest demanding February salary.

Punjab National Bank's market valuation has slumped by Rs 10,939 crore in five days, which is nearly equal to the massive Rs 11,384-crore fraud at the company, even as the stock made a marginal recovery today The stock had dropped in the previous four trading sessions. In the past one week, the stock has lost nearly 28 percent PNB's market valuation fell by Rs 10,938.78 crore to Rs 28,270.22 crore on Tuesday from Rs 39,209 crore on 12 February. The company's scrip meanwhile staged a marginal recovery today ending 0.13 per cent higher at Rs 116.55 on BSE. - PTI

As the owner of Gitanjali, Mehul Choksi continues to abscond, the employees have been given relieving letters.

Centre has taken case seriously and already seized more than 5,000 crore assets: Amit Shah

I would like to request Modiji to bring back the other Modiji (Nirav Modi): Rahul Gandhi

It is incumbent upon the state to chase those who cheat the banking system: Arun Jaitley

On Tuesday night, the CBI made its first high-profile arrest in the Rs 11,400 crore alleged Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam on Tuesday, taking into custody Vipul Ambani, the head of finance of Nirav Modi's Firestar Diamond.

The Supreme Court will hear a plea seeking the deportation of diamond merchant Nirav Modi, the main accused in the alleged Rs 11,300 crore scam, Times Now reported.

It is alleged that the issuance of Letters of Undertaking (LOUs) to Nirav Modi group firms without sanctioned limits started during his tenure. Jindal is presently posted as general manager, credit, at PNB's head office in New Delhi. It is alleged that Rs 11,400 crore of LoUs were fraudulently issued to the firms of Nirav Modi and Choksi.

The CBI has arrested a general manager-rank officer of the Punjab National Bank posted at the bank's head office in New Delhi connection with the alleged Rs 11,400 crore fraud involving billionaire jewellers Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, officials said. The arrested accused, identified as Rajesh Jindal, was the head of the bank's Brady House branch in Mumbai during 2009-11.

A Firstpost investigation into the Punjab National Bank-Nirav Modi fraud case shows that corruption has gone into the very bone and marrow of state-owned banks and this is not just a 'one-off' for several banks, including PNB and others like UCO and Canara, which have encountered exposure in the Modi-Mehul Choksi scam.

Late night parties at plush farmhouses and hefty kickbacks to top bank officials are two 'compulsory' requirements for scamsters to access the loans from public sector banks that they fully know would turn into Non-Performing Assets (NPAs).

In a statement, PHD Chamber said it is surprised how the bank's internal audit system failed to detect anomalies in transactions leading to the alleged fraudulent loans given out to the borrowers.

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday expressed concern over what it termed as the "crisis" triggered in the banking industry following the fraud detected in state-run Punjab National Bank.

A special CBI court on Tuesday remanded three officials of Punjab National Bank in police custody till 3 March. These three were arrested on Monday in connection with alleged fraud of Rs 11,384 crore, while observing that there is a possibility of their involvement in diverting the bank money. During the arguments over the custody of the trio, the CBI told the court that key accused Gokulnath Shetty, then deputy manager (now retired) of PNB, had told them that issuing of the Letter of Undertakings (LoUs) had been going on since 2008.

Nirav Modi, the alleged kingpin of the Rs 11,400 crore Punjab National Bank scam, is not absconding but is out on business, the diamond merchant's lawyer has told the media. "He has a global business and he went out of India for business purpose. Now his passport has been revoked. His family members, some of them are foreign nationals, also stay abroad most of the time," the lawyer, Vijay Aggarwal, was quoted as saying by DNA .

This apart, there are RBI and government representatives on the boards of large banks who are supposed to keep an eye on all transactions and ensure that nothing goes amiss. "But it appears that all of them were sleeping when a fraud was developing," the banker added.

Looking at PNB-like frauds, if someone thinks that there are no checks in place in the system, they are wrong. "There are checks but no one really cares," said a banker. "Besides daily checks, the bank also does concurrent audits, which happen concurrently throughout the year. Such fraud should have reflected there," the official said.

Nirav Modi not the first the first; Indias banks have long been beaten by frauds

Refusing to entertain a PIL filed by a lawyer seeking a probe by the apex court into the Punjab National Bank fraud case, the Supreme Court said it was "becoming fashionable" to run to the courts and it was only right to let the government complete its investigation. It also called such PILs "publicity interest litigations".

Attorney General KK Venugopal has told the Supreme Court that the investigation is ongoing and an FIR has been registered. The court has fixed the next date of hearing for 16 March.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on quick action mode, has rolled out some strict measures in the aftermath of the Rs 11,400 crore Punjab National Bank scam. An expert committee will be formed, while the central bank has also issued guidelines and safeguards that banks are meant to implement.

The plea has asked for a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the banking fraud, allegedly involving billionaire jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. It has also sought a probe into the role of the top management of the Punjab National Bank (PNB).

The PIL has made Punjab National Bank, Reserve Bank of India and the ministries of finance and law and justice as parties. It has sought a direction for initiation of deportation proceedings against Nirav Modi and others allegedly involved in the banking fraud, preferably within two months.

Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, said he was opposing the PIL on various grounds, including that an inquiry has started after the FIR was registered.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said it would not say anything on the matter now and listed the PIL filed by lawyer Vineet Dhanda for further hearing on 16 March.

The Centre on Wednesday opposed in the Supreme Court a PIL seeking an independent probe and deportation of billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi in the over Rs 11,000 crore PNB fraud case, saying an FIR has been lodged and a probe was on.

In response to the prime minister's suggestion for ideas for his 28 January 'Mann ki Baat' programme, Rahul had urged him to tell the country about India's plans on stopping rapes, getting the Chinese out of Doklam and jobs for the youth.

Rahul also labelled the prime minister's programme aired on All India Radio a monologue and said the country wants to hear him speak on billionaire diamond jeweller Nirav Modi and the Rafale "scam".

Congress president Rahul Gandhi attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his silence on the PNB bank fraud and the Rafale deal, saying sarcastically that he looked forward to his "sermon" on the issues in his "Mann ki Baat" programme.

"We have adequate capital coupled with strong non core asset base," said the PNB tweet as multi-agency probe widened into the fraud. PNB also said that it has the capacity and capability to "handle the situation" and protect the interest of the institution.

Earlier in February, the bank said that it has been hit by a fraud amounting to about $1.77 billion. The alleged fraud was affected by fraudulent Letter of Undertakings (LOUs) issued to firms of diamantaire Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.

"Be rest assured we have a strong sovereign backing. The core strengths of the bank is the brand image with rich 123 years of existence, strong CASA base, stable asset quality and increased pace of digitisation," PNB said.

The country's second largest lender has also dismissed media reports that it has imposed restrictions on withdrawals.

Scam-hit PNB has assured investors and customers that it has a strong sovereign backing and adequate capital to deal with the situation in the aftermath of the Rs 11,400 crore fraud. "We assure you that in your bank, it is business as usual," state-owned Punjab National Bank said in a tweet.

"But, it appears that all of them were sleeping when a fraud was developing," said the banker. That apart, given the tremendous pressure on bankers to generate business, top-level officers often turn a blind eye to illegal business activities.

This apart, there are RBI and government representatives on the boards of large banks who are supposed to keep an eye on all transactions and ensure that nothing goes amiss.

For instance, the SWIFT messaging platform that was used by the perpetrators in the PNB case is subjected to a daily check by the branch manager, which is compulsory in any bank. Even if one imagines that this part failed, the branch manager has to do a daily tally of income and expenditure in the branch while one of the officers (not involved in the transactions) combs through the books to look for suspicious transactions, the official said.

Looking at PNB-like frauds, if someone thinks that there are no checks in place in the system, they are wrong. "There are checks but no one really cares," said a banker who requested anonymity. He takes the example of the LoU (Letters of Undertakings) fraud in PNB. If a branch-level official does a transaction of this manner for a period of seven years, it can get caught at different levels if any of the checks in place triggered this illegal activity.

The six were arrested on Tuesday in connection with two FIRs registered by the CBI involving Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, the owner of Gitanjali Gems.

A special court in Mumbai on Wednesday remanded Vipul Ambani, the president (finance) of Nirav Modi's Fire Star Diamond, and five others in CBI custody till 5 March in connection with the Rs 11,400 crore alleged fraud in Punjab National Bank (PNB).

The 1.5 acre farm house in the uber rich neighbourhood at a stone's throw distance from Arabian sea was purchased by Modi in 2004 for Rs 32 crore for hosting special parties for his clientele to show case his precious jewellery collection, they said.

The CBI on Wednesday sealed a luxury property of billionaire Nirav Modi in Alibaug area near Mumbai, officials said.

The official also said that they have seized documents during searches at the office of Firestar at Peninsula Business Park in Mumbai's Lower Parel that "prove" that Ambani knew what was being done.

The CBI official said the agency during its probe found that Ambani not only visited and met PNB's officials at the Brady House branch but also met other bank officials in Mumbai and New Delhi.

"Ambani was fully aware of the fraudulent and illegal LoUs issued by Shetty who was a deputy manager at PNB's Brady House branch in Mumbai. (This was being done) in conspiracy and (under the) guidance of Nirav Modi and other employees of his firm," a senior CBI official told IANS in New Delhi.

Ambani was arrested on Tuesday and is being continuously grilled by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials in Mumbai.

Vipul Ambani, an arrested aide of fugitive billionaire Nirav Modi, knew about the fraudulent and illegal Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) issued by the Punjab National Bank in the Rs 11,400 crore fraud, CBI officials said on Wednesday.

The ED, in the past few days, has raided showrooms of the Gitanjali Group at a number of locations in Patna, Muzaffarpur and Kishanganj and seized valuables worth crores of rupees.

The jewellers, spread across towns like Patna, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur and Gaya, have been asked to surrender their stocks at the agency's zonal office in Patna, failing which they may have to face legal action, an ED official said.

The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday said it has identified 50 jewellers across Bihar with suspected stocks of the Geetanjali Group, which is under the scanner in the aftermath of the Punjab National Bank scam.

The note sent by the banks head office in New Delhi to all regional offices on 17 February also stated any SWIFT message will have to be created, verified and authorised by three different officers, starting Thursday. Previously only two individuals were needed for the process.

The new measures mean only PNB officers will be able to initiate messages on SWIFT, taking away the authority of clerks to do so. Several new limits have been placed on the amount that officers can generate depending on their seniority in the bank hierarchy.

Indias state-run Punjab National Bank has stepped up its controls on the use of global payments network SWIFT following an alleged $1.77 billion fraud, according to memos issued this month and seen by Reuters.

The I-T department issued notices to several clients, including Congress leader Singhvi, of Nirav Modi for making large payments to him in cash, reports CNN-News18.

Looking at PNB-like frauds, if someone thinks that there are no checks in place in the system, they are wrong. "There are checks but no one really cares," said another banker who too requested anonymity. He takes the example of the LoU (Letters of Undertakings) fraud in PNB. If a branch-level official does a transaction of this manner for a period of seven years, it can get caught at different levels if any of the checks in place triggered this illegal activity.

The instances of fraudulent transactions and loan scams involving bank officials continued. This included both and big and small frauds  Citibank fraud, Bank of Baroda forex scam, Syndicate Bank fraud and several other lesser-known scams. In most instances, the victims were public sector banks and culprits their own officials. Most cash-for-loan scams happened through middlemen.

PNB, Nirav Modi, arent the first; Indias PSBs have long been beaten by frauds

With Wednesday's seizure, the total value of gems and gold jewellery seized by the ED stands at Rs 5,736 crore. The agency has said it is carrying out an "independent valuation" of these seized assets.

While the ED seized assets worth Rs 10 crore on Wenesday, the tax department said it has attached a total of 141 bank accounts and fixed deposits worth Rs 145.74 crore of the Nirav Modi group. The department said it has attached these assets to realise outstanding tax demands.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday continued raids for the seventh day as it visited 17 locations across the country, including four shell companies in Mumbai, even as the I-T department attached assets worth Rs 145 crore in the alleged Rs 11,400-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud.

It fell for sixth consecutive session on Wednesday. The stocks of the jewellery company plunged by 9.85 percent to close at the lower circuit of Rs 27.45 per share on Wednesday. Market capitalisation of the company stood at Rs 325.60 crore, down from Rs 695.08 crore.

Within a week of surfacing of Rs 11,400 Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, Gitanjali Gems' stock has nosedived over 56 percent.

According to CNN-News18, jeweller Nirav Modi is holed up at friend Rashmi Mehta's house 27, Berkenlaan, in Antwerp, Belgium, reported CNN-News18.

According to CNN-News18, investigative agencies could not trace absconding billionnaire Nirav Modi as he used his Belgian passport to fly out of Davos.

On the other hand, Bipasha Basu, who endorsed Gili, accused the Gitanjali Gems group of using her photographs even after her contract expired.

According to News18 , the actresses have accused Mehul Choksi-owned Gitanjali Gems of non payment of dues and breach of contract. A spokesperson for Ranaut said, "There are outstandings due on Kanganas Nakshatra endorsement, beyond the stipulated contract." She was the company's brand ambassador since 2016 and claims she has not been paid her dues fully for endorsing the jewellery brand.

Laws which govern the functioning of RBI need to be changed to bring about transparency and accountability. This has to then be supported by scrutiny into the functioning of the institution. A tragedy is a terrible thing to waste. The legislature should take a relook at the legislative framework of transparency, accountability and governance of RBI. The Draft Indian Financial Code addresses many of these concerns and there is need to incorporate its principles in primary legislation.

Various process failures of public sector banks in India are not new. What is new in the PNB fraud is that, for the first time, questions are being raised about the supervisory capacity and systems in Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The government has written to the RBI asking for why the scam was not detected in its systems. Concerned citizens have asked for similar information in the past and disclosures by RBI have not been adequate.

The ED on Thursday said it has frozen mutual funds and shares worth Rs 94.52 crore of the Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi groups in connection with a money laundering probe against them in the Rs 11,400-crore alleged fraud at the Punjab National Bank (PNB).

In its note, the agency has made a startling revelation that even top officials of the PNB beginning with the zonal to head office was aware of the business dealing with Nirav Modi's companies and the assertion that top officials were ignorant has been neutralised by the probe agency.

For hours on Wednesday, sleuths from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) were frustrated as they were trying to find out how fake Letter of Undertakings (LoUs) and Foreign Letter of Credits (FLCs) running into thousands of crores was drafted and subsequently sanctioned by the Punjab National Bank (PNB) officials. The two executives of Nirav Modi admitted to preparing and signing the applications made to PNB but they refused to disclose details how and where such applications were finalised.

A special CBI court in Mumbai on Wednesday sent to police custody, till 5 March, five senior executives of the Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi Group of Companies, including Vipul Ambani, who were arrested on Tuesday in conection with the Rs 11,400 crore Punjab National Bank fraud.

Vipul Ambani, Firestar International's president (Finance), was director of eight shell companies, India Today TV reported quoting unnamed sources. It also added that Ambani is singing while in CBI custody.

Have followed lawful avenues available to recover dues from Nirav Modi, says PNB

On the other hand, Bipasha Basu, who endorsed Gili, accused the Gitanjali Gems group of using her photographs even after her contract expired.

According to News18 , the actresses have accused Mehul Choksi-owned Gitanjali Gems of non payment of dues and breach of contract. A spokesperson for Ranaut said, "There are outstandings due on Kanganas Nakshatra endorsement, beyond the stipulated contract." She was the company's brand ambassador since 2016 and claims she has not been paid her dues fully for endorsing the jewellery brand.

#PNBScam : ED seized 9 cars belonging to #NiravModi and his companies. These cars include one Rolls Royce Ghost, two Mercedes Benz GL 350 CDIs, one Porsche Panamera, 3 Honda cars, one Toyota Fortuner and one Toyota Innova.

ED also froze mutual funds and shares worth Rs 7.80 Crore of #NiravModi and worth Rs 86.72 crore of those belonging to #MehulChoksi Group.

ED seized 9 cars belonging to #NiravMod and his companies. These cars include one Rolls Royce Ghost, two Mercedes Benz GL 350 CDIs, one Porsche Panamera, 3 Honda cars, one Toyota Fortuner and one Toyota Innova. pic.twitter.com/Kfx0rkPrIW

Laws which govern the functioning of RBI need to be changed to bring about transparency and accountability. This has to then be supported by scrutiny into the functioning of the institution. A tragedy is a terrible thing to waste. The legislature should take a relook at the legislative framework of transparency, accountability and governance of RBI. The Draft Indian Financial Code addresses many of these concerns and there is need to incorporate its principles in primary legislation.

Various process failures of public sector banks in India are not new. What is new in the PNB fraud is that, for the first time, questions are being raised about the supervisory capacity and systems in Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The government has written to the RBI asking for why the scam was not detected in its systems. Concerned citizens have asked for similar information in the past and disclosures by RBI have not been adequate.

The ED on Thursday said it has frozen mutual funds and shares worth Rs 94.52 crore of the Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi groups in connection with a money laundering probe against them in the Rs 11,400-crore alleged fraud at the Punjab National Bank (PNB).

According to Moneycontrol , a finance ministry official told CNBC-TV18 that the ministry was planning to seek Banks Board Bureau's (BBB) inputs on whether a PNB top management reshuffle is possible.

Finance ministry to seek BBB's input to see if PNB top management reshuffle is possible

In its note, the agency has made a startling revelation that even top officials of the PNB beginning with the zonal to head office was aware of the business dealing with Nirav Modi's companies and the assertion that top officials were ignorant has been neutralised by the probe agency.

For hours on Wednesday, sleuths from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) were frustrated as they were trying to find out how fake Letter of Undertakings (LoUs) and Foreign Letter of Credits (FLCs) running into thousands of crores was drafted and subsequently sanctioned by the Punjab National Bank (PNB) officials. The two executives of Nirav Modi admitted to preparing and signing the applications made to PNB but they refused to disclose details how and where such applications were finalised.

A special CBI court in Mumbai on Wednesday sent to police custody, till 5 March, five senior executives of the Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi Group of Companies, including Vipul Ambani, who were arrested on Tuesday in conection with the Rs 11,400 crore Punjab National Bank fraud.

Vipul Ambani, Firestar International's president (Finance), was director of eight shell companies, India Today TV reported quoting unnamed sources. It also added that Ambani is singing while in CBI custody.

#BREAKING -- Have followed lawful avenues available to recover our dues from Nirav Modi. Disciplinary authority's reply awaited on arrest of bank officials: PNB #BigBankScam pic.twitter.com/cpo4UUtiJf

Have followed lawful avenues available to recover dues from Nirav Modi, says PNB

Latest updates: Speaking at a press conference, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad assured that the Centre would spare no one irrespective of their stature or status in the alleged fraud involving Nirav Modi.

Nirav Modi, billionaire jewellery designer, who has been under fire for allegedly duping Punjab National Bank (PNB) of thousands of crores, has said he is ready to repay all the dues.

On Wednesday Modi wrote to bankers informing them he was looking for suitors or possible buyers for his company Firestar Diamond and will use the proceeds to repay dues.

According to CNBC-TV18, the diamond firm has been valued at Rs 6,435 crore which Modi was looking to put up for grabs.

Modi also informed the lenders that the whole process of selling Firestar Diamond will take three to six months after which he will be able to clear the dues.

He has also written in the missive to banks that he will appoint an investment banker and give them the mandate to look out for suitors for the company, CNBC-TV18 reported on Wednesday.

The Punjab National Bank on Wednesday rocked the Indian stock market and sent shockwaves across banking system informing that fraudulent transactions worth over Rs 11,000 crore had taken place at its Mumbai branch. As a result the share prices of the Punjab National Bank crashed over 10 percent to Rs 144 apiece with its investors losing Rs 4,000 crore at the market close.A Delhi court has sent an alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorist Ariz Khan, who had escaped during the 2008 Batla House encounter, to 25 days police custody.

New Delhi: A Delhi court has sent an alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorist, who had escaped during the 2008 Batla House encounter and was wanted in connection with several blasts, to 25 days police custody.

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma gave Delhi Police 25 days to conduct Ariz Khan's custodial interrogation.

Khan, who was arrested on 13 February, was produced before the court on Wednesday evening.

Seeking his remand, the special cell of the police told the court that he was required to be quizzed in relation to the Batla House case and in various other serial blasts in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Delhi.

A team of Delhi Police's special cell had arrested the 32-year-old suspected terrorist from Banwasa along the India-Nepal border, on 13 February.

Khan was an alleged member of IM's Azamgarh (Sanjarmur) module and was based in Nepal where he was teaching at a school. His associate, Tauqueer, was arrested earlier by the Delhi Police in January this year, police said.

He was wanted by the Delhi Police in connection with serial blasts in September 2008 in the national capital in which about 30 people were killed and over 100 injured. He was also wanted in the Batla House encounter in the same year in which Delhi Police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma was killed.

He was linked with deadly terror strikes in which about 165 people were killed and over 535 were injured, police said. Interpol had issued a red corner notice against him.A five-storey under construction building has collapsed in Bengaluru's Kasavanahalli area on Sarjapur road with one dead and several others are feared trapped in the debris, media reports said

A five-storey under construction building collapsed on Sarjapur road in Bengaluru's Kasavanahalli area leaving three people dead and many trapped in the debris, media reports said.

A News Minute report said that thre people have lost their lives so far and at least 15 others are trapped. The report further said that so far eight workers have been evacuated.

#Karnataka: Building on Kasuvanahalli's Sarjapur road collapses. People suspected to be trapped. More details awaited. pic.twitter.com/AsRGA9YC9e  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

"Rescue operations are underway," a Deccan Chronicle report quoted Mayor Sampath Raj as saying. The mayor also said that the under-construction building had five floors while only three were sanctioned officially. The city police and National Disaster Relief Force personnel have rushed to the site for rescue operations, Karnataka State Emergency Operation Centre tweeted.

Kasavanahalli Building collapse, Bengaluru, #NDRF team with equipment rushing to the spot to assist @KarFireDept in search and rescue operation @KarnatakaVarthe @DDChandanaNews @DDChandanaNews  Revenue Secretary-DM (@SEOC_Karnataka) February 15, 2018

The Hindu reported that the Bellandur Police reported to the call and is currently aiding and supervising rescue operations. Eight fire tenders rushed to the spot, it said.

Kasavanahalli building collapse: @dcpwhitefield says that the building owners - Kunni Ahmed and Rafiq are from Kerala and are not in town. Six rescued persons have been admitted to a private hospital. @thenewsminute pic.twitter.com/xXtJmmYrQp  Theja Ram (@thejaram92) February 15, 2018



According to a Fire and Emergency Response Team official, a first responder vehicle had left the station at 4.25 pm, The News Minute reported. The report further said that the building had been under construction for six years, however, the work was halted for the last two years for unknown reasons.

Further details on the number of casualties and an official confirmation on number of people trapped is still awaited.Hours after his name figured in recommendations seeking to indict Benjamin Netanyahu for corruption, Ratan Tata termed the reports as factually incorrect.

Mumbai: Hours after his name figured in the Israeli Police recommendations seeking to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for corruption, Indian businessman Ratan N Tata on Thursday termed the reports factually incorrect and apparently motivated.

Hollywood producer Arnon Milvhan reportedly attempted to promote a free trade zone on the Israel-Jordan border as part of his partnership with Tata according to reports appearing in an Israeli news media outlet, Ynetnews.

"According to the police, the most glaring example of Netanyahu working against Israel's interests to benefit Milchan was his efforts (to) promote a free trade zone on the Israel-Jordan border, a project the Hollywood producer sought to promote as part of his partnership with Indian industrialist Tata," Ynetnews reported.

Tata, 80, has contested the allegations in a statement: "The reports in the media of a 'partnership with Arnon Milchan' and the claim of a huge profit' are both factually incorrect and appear to be motivated."

The former Chairman of Tata Sons, the salt-to-software conglomerate, added that the Tata project' being referred to in the Israeli media was a proposal received by Tata in 2009 from the Israeli establishment.

It sought the assistance of Tata organisation in preparing a concept plan, as part of a broader peace initiative with Palestine, for a low volume automotive assembly plant on the banks of the Jordan River, said the Tata statement.

The intention was to provide skilled employment to Palestinians. To be viable, the plan envisaged the establishment of a free trade corridor to Haifa to facilitate exports and offset higher logistics costs in Israel.

"These discussions on the project were directly held between a Tata team and the Israeli authorities and not with Arnon Milchan as stated by the Israeli media. Tata wishes to clarify once again that there has never been any partnership in any such project with Milchan," it said.

A broad concept plan for a low output automobile assembly plant was prepared by Tata Motors. It never reached the stage of detailed planning or costing as the peace initiative itself was not put in place. The car project died a natural death.

During Tata's visit to Tel Aviv on 1 November, 2017, to address a conference on Mobility, he met a team of Israeli investigators at their request and enunciated these facts to them.The organisations working for the cause of the Bhopal gas tragedy victims on Thursday said they will campaign against the BJP in the upcoming bypolls to two Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh.

Bhopal: The organisations working for the cause of the Bhopal gas tragedy victims on Thursday said they will campaign against the BJP in the upcoming bypolls to two Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh.

They alleged that the ruling party has failed to resolve the issue of compensation to those who suffered in the world's worst industrial disaster.

The five organisations fighting for the rights of the gas victims told reporters that they will raise their issues during the campaign for the Mungaoli and Kolaras Assembly seats bypolls slated this month, and also during the state elections due later this year.

Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh president Rashida Bee said they would highlight the alleged false promises made by BJP leaders regarding compensation to the industrial disaster victims in their voter education programme ahead of the bypolls.

"We plan to share copies of official documents with the electorate in the two areas to substantiate our allegations of betrayal by the BJP leaders," she said.

"The by-elections will be our first step in making the long pending issues of the gas disaster a part of the state polls later this year and the general elections next year," she further said.

"We hope to provide a critical edge to ensure the defeat of BJP in Mungaoli and Kolaras," Rashida Bee added.

Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pensionbhogee Sangharsh Morcha's Balkrishna Namdeo said the BJP's campaign in the by-election mostly rests on the promises made by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

"Our strategy is to present facts on the government's betrayal of the promises on compensation to the six lakh victims of the disaster," he said.

Bhopal Group for Information and Action's Satinath Sarangi said they will not align with any political party and seek public support for their campaign resources.

The bypolls in Mungaoli and Kolaras Assembly seats will be held on 24 February, and the counting of votes would take place on 28 February.

The byelections were necessitated following the death of the sitting Congress MLAs Mahendra Singh Kalukheda (from Mungaoli) and Ram Singh Yadav (Kolaras).

Thirty-three years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, the survivors are still fighting for adequate compensation and proper medical treatment for ailments caused by the toxic leak.The Cauvery dispute has seen violent flare-ups in the past. The Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments will have to take care not to arouse regional passions.

"Where is the Cauvery?'' asks P Ayyakannu, president of the Tamil Nadu unit of the South Indian Rivers Interlinking Farmers Association. "I see the standing crops drying in 8 lakh of the 10 lakh acres in the Cauvery delta in Tamil Nadu in front of my own eyes.''

Ayyakannu and fellow farmers sat in protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi for 41 days last year. They sat with skulls and bones of farmers who had died a natural death or committed suicide after being unable to clear their debts, they stripped to mere loincloth to highlight their plight and some of them even ran naked in front of the prime minister's residence. Nothing worked and worse, in the elitist corridors of power in Lutyen's Delhi, it was dismissed as gimmickry. It is no surprise then, that hours before the crucial Cauvery river water verdict is to be delivered by the Supreme Court, Ayyakannu is not very optimistic.

"Our prime minister met the leaders of the two AIADMK factions, Edappadi Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam, to ensure a patch-up. But he had no time or interest in listening to our woes,'' points out Ayyakannu. It is obvious there is a lot of bitterness arising out of the manner in which the farmer in Tamil Nadu has been treated, both by regimes in New Delhi and Chennai.

Karnataka wants an upward revision from the 270 TMC ft allotted to the state (of the total 740 TMC ft in the river basin) by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal in 2007 and farmers in the state are equally anxious about the verdict. Their contention is that they too have had to cut down on the area under agriculture in the Cauvery delta districts so that the meagre water is first made available for Bengaluru's drinking water needs.

"If they give a good report, which gives more water to Karnataka, we will welcome it. If it is partial to Tamil Nadu, we won't be happy,'' says Kurubur Shanthakumar, the president of the Karnataka Sugarcane Growers Association.

Shanthakumar is clear that the farmers in Karnataka won't be happy if the apex court orders the setting up of Cauvery River Water Management Board. In fact, Karnataka has maintained that it is against the formation of the Board. In 2013, the then Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa had approached the Supreme Court asking for the formation of the Board.

"We do not want a Management Board,'' says Shanthakumar. "If there are no rains and we see a situation in which our farmers are committing suicide, the Cauvery Board will still insist on Karnataka releasing water downstream to Tamil Nadu. That won't be fair to us.''

What this will mean is that the release of water will depend on Karnataka's benevolence. Shanthakumaran justifies his hardline position by pointing to farmer suicide data. Karnataka is in the top three states in India in terms of farmer suicides. In 2015-16, 1,560 farmers committed suicide, of which 258 killed themselves just in the two Cauvery districts of Mandya and Mysuru.

So, in view of such a position on the ground, is the Supreme court verdict likely to result in a permanent solution that will be acceptable to both sides?

"It is impossible to find a water-sharing formula that both states will be happy with. One side will be left high and dry, literally,'' says PR Pandian, president, Tamil Nadu farmers committee. Tamil Nadu was awarded 419 TMC feet by the Tribunal and is expecting an upward revision as well.

But farmers in Tamil Nadu are already apprehensive about the verdict after what Union minister of state for finance and shipping, Pon Radhakrishnan said on Wednesday. The trust deficit is so huge that even though it is the Supreme Court that is delivering the verdict, the Tamil Nadu farmers suspect the Centre's intentions.

"Tamil Nadu is no longer a peaceful state. Naxalites, Maoists, Tamil extremists and Islamic terrorists have joined hands against the administration, which was evident during the Jallikattu agitation last year,'' Radhakrishnan had alleged. Farmers point out that the Jallikattu agitation in Madurai and Chennai in January 2017 was led by students and farmers, and to label them as extremists, they fear, is a pointer to things to come if they protest against the Cauvery verdict.

The election in Karnataka in May is another reason for Tamil Nadu's apprehension that the upper riparian state, irrespective of the verdict, will not abide by it. It will give the Congress government a chance to show that its heart beats for the Kannadigas by hardening its position over the Cauvery. Given that the Cauvery basin is the political arena where the Congress will lock horns with the JD(S), one can expect the ruling party to exploit the post-verdict situation to its advantage. The BJP, which is hoping to come to power in Karnataka and has little political stake in Tamil Nadu, is likely to follow suit.

"It will 100 percent be a political issue,'' says Shanthakumaran. "We are clear that we first want more water for Bengaluru and want restrictions on area under cultivation farming in the Cauvery delta to go.''

The emotional issue of the 765 km-long Cauvery river has seen violent flare-ups in the past, the most recent being in September 2016 when Tamilians were assaulted in Bengaluru and Kannadigas bore the brunt of Tamil fury in Tamil Nadu. The two states will have to articulate their reaction to the verdict, while taking care they do not arouse regional passions on both sides of the border.China on Thursday voiced its 'firm opposition' to the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Arunachal Pradesh which it claims as part of South Tibet and said it would lodge a diplomatic protest with India.

Beijing: China on Thursday voiced its "firm opposition" to the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Arunachal Pradesh which it claims as part of South Tibet and said it would lodge a diplomatic protest with India.

"China's position on the China-India boundary question is consistent and clear-cut," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang in response to reports that Modi visited Arunachal Pradesh today.

"The Chinese government has never recognised the so-called Arunachal Pradesh and is firmly opposed to the Indian leader's visit to the disputed area," Geng was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua news agency.

"We will lodge stern representations with the Indian side," he said.

Geng said that China and India had reached important consensus on properly managing disputes, and the two sides were working to resolve the territorial disputes through negotiation and consultation.

"The Chinese side urges the Indian side to honour its commitment and abide by the relevant consensus, and refrain from taking any action that may complicate the boundary question," Geng said.

"(These three areas) located between the illegal 'McMahon Line' and the traditional customary boundary between China and India, have always been Chinese territory," he said in the Xinhua report, adding that the 'McMahon Line' drawn by Britain in 1914 was an attempt to incorporate the areas into Indian territory.

He urged India to cherish the hard-won momentum of improvements in bilateral relations and create enabling conditions for the boundary talks and the development of bilateral relations.

China routinely protests visits by Indian leaders to Arunachal Pradesh and reiterates its claims over the state.

The India-China border dispute stretches across 3,488 kilometres. Both sides have held 20 rounds of talks so far through their special representatives to resolve the issue.A Class 12 student was allegedly raped and seriously injured by four of her friends at a birthday party at Rathtala in South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal.

Sonarpur: A Class 12 student was allegedly raped and seriously injured by four of her friends at a birthday party at Rathtala in South 24 Parganas district, police said on Wednesday.

Three persons were arrested for their alleged involvement in the incident, a senior officer said, adding that search is on for the fourth accused.

The accused also allegedly tried to kill the girl after raping her, the officer said.

The victim is being treated at a city hospital, he said.

The incident happened on Tuesday night when the victim's boyfriend called her at his uncle's house, the officer said.

The house was empty since all the members of the house had gone to attend a family gathering, the officer added.

"Her boyfriend was drinking with three of his friends at his uncle's residence. They tricked the girl into drinking liquor laced with drugs, following which she fell unconscious. They then took turns to rape the girl," the officer said.

When the members of the house returned, they found that the girl was bleeding profusely, he said.

"They informed the girl's family saying that there was an accident," the police officer said.

But the girl's family was not convinced with the version of the boy's uncle's family, and so they lodged a complaint with the Sonarpur police station, he added.

A probe has been initiated, the officer said.It is high time that rather than showing their elitist narrow pride in JNU culture, these students leaders try to form a pan-Indian public opinion against compulsory attendance

In over four years at Jawaharlal Nehru University, the present crisis regarding compulsory attendance is the first instance I have seen when students cutting across party affiliations  have come together as one. Students have normally always been divided between the binary of Left and Right even on relatively neutral issues like hostel availability, fellowships and seat cuts. This is the first time that the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), All India Students Association (AISA), Students Federation of India (SFI), Democratic Students Front (DSF), National Students Union of India (NSUI) and other groups have come together to oppose the administration.

What is at stake can be gauged from the fact that JNU Teachers Association (JNUTA), JNU Students Union (JNUSU) and all other organisations on campus are unanimous in opposing the decision of the administration to make attendance compulsory. For someone who has never been to JNU, all this fuss will certainly be somewhat strange. Regular academic courses are supposed to be taught through classrooms and hence, mandatory attendance is a logical consequence. Also guidelines provided to the universities by the UGC clearly lay down a minimum requirement of 75 percent attendance in classroom programs. At a first glance, it seems bizarre to even oppose the JNU administration.

Here, one should understand that attendance registers were never used at JNU. Since its inception and until this year, there has been no system of marking the attendance of a student in any course. That said, during my stay at the university, I have never met any student missing class without any reason. Students attend class not out of fear, but for the high quality of lectures on offer and the interesting structure of courses. It is a pity for the Indian education system that rather than following the successful model of JNU, which kept its high ranking over the years, UGC has always had to force attendance on students. This, even though forced attendance has given us nothing but a deteriorating higher education system. For instance, Aligarh Muslim University, Banaras Hindu University, Allahabad University and others have seen a steady decline in academic quality after this attendance system came into place.

The news caught the attention of the national media last week when students marched to the administrative block and held a protest rally. The administrative block or 'Freedom Square' has been the site of many protests before the administration banned any protests within a 100-metre radius of the block. Even though the JNUSU, JNUTA and other outfits called this ban an attack on political freedom on campus, for over a year, nobody dared to violate the order.

It was the almost non-existent NSUI that held a 'Pakoda Protest' last week within the 100-metre radius, to protest against the Narendra Modi government's policies and the attendance issue. The Left-led students union as well as the ABVP went into a crisis of legitimacy. NSUI with a handful of cadres dared to challenge the administration, while the bigger outfits paid lip service. As four members of the NSUI were slapped with huge fines, all the parties decided to launch a civil disobedience movement to show that they too could challenge the administration.

This internal political battle of JNU has again made it a hot topic of debate in the country, but it took us away from the real issue.

While debate should be around the legitimacy of forcing adult students in general, JNUSU and JNUTA are making it a battle between the BJP/RSS and JNU. Slogans that are being raised in the campus and the articles being produced in the media reek of elitism. JNU students and teachers seem to believe that their university deserves special treatment. Compulsory attendance is a feature of UGC guidelines to the universities. It should have been pointed out by national outfits like ABVP, NSUI, AISA, SFI etc that forcing students to attend the classes serves no purpose.

A working model of JNU shows that interesting course structure and good teachers can attract 100 percent attendance to classes. What is happening is that in various articles, pamphlets and slogans, they are pointing out that JNU is different from other universities and students here are special. It is another way of imposing a Brahminical class system. They want to keep their privilege of free environment to themselves, while being silent on the lack of freedom in other universities. Hence, maintaining inequality at the institutional level among the various institutions.

Many professors from JNU have rightly pointed out that research through field work surveys will suffer if student has to visit the centre everyday to sign the attendance sheet. Their movement would have been more credible had they raised the issue at the pan-India level. Why do they think students at Jamia Millia Islamia, AMU, BHU etc do not face these problems? Why do they think they are special? They are special because the model they are trying to save for themselves is not being implemented in other institutions.

Moreover, JNUSU leaders are equating this diktat as a Hindutva attack on a 'secular liberal institution'. They are calling classroom with forced attendance a shakha. For the sake of general knowledge, compulsory attendance is a feature of UGC guidelines that has never been opposed by any government. Taking shot at the past of the vice-chancellor Jagadesh Kumar (particularly, his stint at IIT-Delhi), students can be heard raising the slogans "JNU ko IIT nahi banne denge (We won't let JNU turn into IIT)". Any person with a basic reading of mass movements knows the importance of language to form public opinion. Do these students leaders really believe that Indian public will support them for not transforming into an IIT? Not going into the details, IIT remains an epitome of quality education in India.

It is high time that rather than showing their elitist narrow pride in JNU culture, these students leaders try to form a pan-Indian public opinion against compulsory attendance. After all, the people who are eligible to elect their government are responsible enough to decide on if they want to attend a class or not.

The author is an independent socio-economic commentatorThe Supreme Court on Thursday refused to vacate its stay on the suspension of a 20-year sentence awarded to two convicts in a case of gangrape at a Haryana private university and directed the high court to decide their appeals in five months.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to vacate its stay on the suspension of a 20-year sentence awarded to two convicts in a case of gangrape at a Haryana private university and directed the high court to decide their appeals in five months.

The top court observed that peculiarity of this gangrape case was that the accused had remained in jail throughout the trial, and once they were convicted by the trial court, they were released by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

A bench of Justices SA Bobde and L Nageswara Rao said its interim order of stay on the suspension of the sentence will continue till the convicts' appeals are decided.

In the interest of justice, we do not propose to discuss the merits of the case as the appeals are pending in the high court. We find it appropriate that two interim orders passed by this court will remain in force till pending of the appeals. We request the high court to hear and decide the appeal not later than five months. Parties are directed to appear before the high court on 6 March, the bench said.

However, the top court granted relief to the third convict, who was awarded seven-year jail term and said that his bail order will continue till the appeals are decided in five months.

The bench's order came on a plea of the victim challenging the high court order suspending the sentence awarded to the convicts in the case by the trial court.

During the hearing, senior advocate Shanti Bhushan, appearing for one of the accused, said the victim during the trial was given an iCloud password and she had deleted the photographs and no obscene pictures were found.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the victim, said there was a hard disk in which the pictures were stored and also a Whatsapp group through which the photographs were circulated.

"The substance of the matter before us is not the guilt but it is the suspension of the sentence. You have argued earlier that they (convicts) have threatened you (victim)," the bench said.

The top court told Bhushan that it is considering directing the high court to decide the matter in three to six months and would not allow the high court order of suspending the sentences of convicts to continue, till the disposal of appeals.

Bhushan said the courts can take any step in this regard.

The court asked Bhushan to cite any precedent in which the accused were in jail during trial and released on being convicted for an offence.

The bench then directed the high court to decide the appeals in five months.

The trial court had awarded 20-year imprisonment to the two convicts for various offences under the Indian Penal Code, including gang rape and criminal conspiracy, and the provisions of the Information Technology Act. The third accused was awarded a seven-year jail term after being convicted in the case.

However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had suspended their sentences on the pleas filed by them and granted them bail.

The apex court had on 7 February said it cannot tolerate "continuous blackmail" and asked the convicts to share the password of iCloud, where they had allegedly stored the obscene photographs of the woman.

'iCloud' is a mobile application used for storing data, including photographs, videos, documents and music, and it is tough to hack it without a password.

The woman had claimed in the FIR that she had taken admission in the private university in Sonepat in August 2013 and got acquainted with one of them. She had alleged that the convicts, who became good friends, raped and forced her to send her obscene pictures and blackmailed her.

The woman claimed that the two others also raped her at the university campus after which she lodged an FIR in April 2015.A microlight helicopter of the Indian Air Force with two pilots on board crashed on Thursday in Assam's Majuli island, killing both. Police in the island district confirmed the incident and the deaths.

A microlight helicopter of the Indian Air Force with two pilots on board crashed on Thursday in Assam's Majuli island, killing both.Police in the island district confirmed the incident and the deaths. The wreckage of the plane has been sighted and a court of inquiry ordered, the officials said.

The microlight aircraft crashed near Jorhat after taking off on a routine sortie and a court of inquiry has been ordered, official sources said. "An Indian Air Force Microlight Virus SW-80 crashed around 1200 hrs on Thursday, after getting airborne from Air Force Station Jorhat, for a routine sortie," the defence ministry said in a statement in New Delhi.

The incident took place at Sumoimari Chapori, a police officer said, adding that defence and IAF personnel were on their way to Majuli.

Tezpur-based defence spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Harshvardhan Pande told PTI that the two pilots killed in the crash were identified as Wing Commander Jai Paul James and Wing Commander D Vats. The pilots attempted an emergency landing but the aircraft crashed at a sand bar in the northern part of the district and went up in flames, the official said.

The crash took place at Darbar Chapori, a sand bar in the Brahmaputra, where there is no human habitation. People from other villages of the district spotted the aircraft going up in flames and informed the district authorities.

IAF personnel from the 10 Wing Air Force Station in Jorhat have rushed to the spot while police and senior officials of the district have also set out for the crash site which has to be reached by boat.

It is suspected that the crash took place due to technical reasons, the officer added. The IAF had procured around 80 Slovenian-origin microlight aircraft about three years ago. They are usually deployed for environmental and bird recce missions, an IAF official said.

Earlier on 14 January, a Pawan Hans chopper had crashed into the Arabian Sea. Six bodies including that of all the five ONGC officers and one of the two pilots of ill-fated Pawan Hans chopper, were recovered.

With inputs from agenciesAriz Khan, an alleged IM terrorist arrested from the Indo-Nepal border, was nabbed after police got leads from the interrogation of suspected terrorists.

New Delhi: Ariz Khan, an alleged Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorist arrested by the Delhi Police from the India-Nepal border, was nabbed after police got leads from the interrogation of suspected terrorists.

Khan, who was linked to serial blasts in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Delhi and had escaped during the Batla House encounter, was on the run for a decade. He was on the radar of various state police forces and the NIA.

The Special Cell was working on the leads gathered from interrogation of arrested terrorists with links to the Indian Mujahideen (IM) and other terror outfits that led to arrest of Khan from Indo-Nepal border on Wednesday evening, said PS Kushwah, DCP (Special Cell).

"During the past few months, inputs were received through different sources that absconded terrorists of IM and SIMI have set up their base in Nepal and are frequently visiting India to indoctrinate unemployed youth," he said. It was learnt that the outfits were sourcing new recruits as many of their top leaders were already arrested by police. "They have been planning the revival of the weak and scattered network of Indian Mujahideen," he said.

In the meantime, the Special Cell team headed by ACP Govind Sharma arrested SIMI ideologue Abdul Subhan alias Abdus Subhan alias Tauqeer in January 2018. Tauqeer was teaching in Nepal along with Khan and he provided valuable inputs to Special Cell about his movements.

A few days ago, a specific information was received that Khan will be coming to UP from Banbasa, Indo-Nepal border, to meet an associate, the officer said. A team of Special Cell including inspectors Chandrika Prasad, Amul Tyagi, Ravinder Joshi and Satish Rana, moved to the area near Banbasa Indo-Nepal border and laid a trap.

Khan was apprehended at about 5.20 pm on 13 February, near Sharda Inter College, Banbasa, Nepal Road, after a sustained surveillance near the border area, police said.

He was wanted by the NIA in a case for conspiring with other members of IM to commit terrorist acts in India. He was also wanted by police in Delhi, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan for serial blasts in 2007-2008.Even after 54 years of statehood and 12 assembly elections, Nagaland is yet to see a woman representative in the Assembly.

Kohima: Even after 54 years of statehood and 12 assembly elections, Nagaland is yet to see a woman representative in the Assembly.

The state is set to go to polls on 27 February and the results will be announced on 3 March. Of the 195 candidates vying for a seat in the 60-member Assembly this time, five are women.

While Wedie-u Kronu and Mangyangpula are contesting the polls on National People's Party (NPP) tickets from Dimapur-III and Noksen Assembly constituencies, Rakhila is a BJP nominee from Tuensang Sadar-II seat. Awan Konyak of the newly-formed Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) is fighting the election from Aboi seat and Rekha Rose Dukru is an Independent candidate from Chizami constituency.

The ruling Naga People's Front (NPF), however, has not fielded any women candidate this time. NPF president Shurhozelie Liezietsu, during a recent media interaction, said: "No woman in the party has shown interest in contesting the polls."

Barring Rakhila, the four other women candidates are first timers. The BJP nominee is wife of former minister and four-time legislator Lakiumong, who died in 2006 after a prolonged illness. Rakhila lost the last election from the same Tuensang Sadar-II seat by around 800 votes. "Men in power do not perform. I will do what they haven't done so far," said Rakhila.

NDPP candidate Awan Konyak is daughter of four-time former MLA Nyeiwang Konyak, who passed away earlier in February. "Women make significant contributions to the society every day. Their problems, however, are often ignored. I want to focus on gender equality and women empowerment," she said.

Mangyangpula, an alternative medicine practitioner, said Noksen is 100 percent ready for a woman leader. "The ground reality in this constituency is horrible even after 50 years of the states formation," she said.

Men and women together in the 60-member House will make a lot of difference, Rekha Rose Dukru, an entrepreneur-turned-politician, opined.

Wedie-U Kronu, a social worker, feels women can bring positive changes in the society. "It is difficult to clean the system of corruption. I entered politics to bring about a change in the system," she said.

All five of them have been campaigning on social media for a few weeks.

Welcoming the women candidates, Nagaland Chief Electoral Officer, Abhijit Sinha, said the number has increased from two in last elections to five this time.

The adviser of Naga Mothers Association (NMA), an apex women's body in the state, Rosemary Dzuvichu, said, "We are happy to see these women step into the fray. All women voters in these constituencies must support and vote for them."

Women participation is equally important as that of men, said social activist and entrepreneur Elu Ndang. "We should encourage Naga women to participate in the decision-making bodies," she said.

Rano Shaiza, a member of United Democratic Party, was the first and only woman in this state who was elected to Lok Sabha in 1977. She died of age-related ailments in 2015.Last week's attack on the Sunjuwan army camp in Jammu appears to have jolted the defence ministry out of its slumber, getting it to approve a Rs 1,487 fund to boost security and fortify its bases

A spate of terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, including last week's attack on the Sunjuwan army camp in Jammu, appears to have jolted the defence ministry out of its slumber. The ministry approved a Rs 1,487 fund to boost security and fortify its bases, to plug the gaps and and protect them from terror attacks.

Some media outlets have said approval from the ministry came even before the attack on the Sunjuwan camp, but that's unlikely given that such news gets flashed forthwith. For instance, after the terrorist attack on the Patahnkot air base in January 2016, the defence ministry had appointed a committee headed by lieutenant general Phillip Campose, the then vice chief of army staff, to review the security set-up at the military bases and suggest ways of improving it.

The committee found gaping holes in the security set up at many installations, and submitted its report to the then defence minister in May 2016, which should have been given top priority. On 18 September, 2016, terrorists attacked an army post in Uri, and 17 army personnel were killed and 19 others were injured.

It took yet another terror attack, this time at the Sunjuwan army camp in Jammu on 10 February, for the Rs 1,487 crore fund to finally be released. It's likely that in the immediate aftermath of the Sunjuwan attack, the defence minister and prime minister were briefed about the security issue, following which the funds were sanctioned. In case the attack hadn't taken place, it's possible that the funds to strengthen "perimeter security" may not have been sanctioned for another few months.

According to media reports, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 13 February, 2018, has also accorded "initial approval" for procurement of 7.4 lakh new assault rifles and 16,500 light machine guns (LMGs), collectively worth an estimated Rs 15,934 crore.

However, it needs to be pointed out that what has been approved is the acceptance of necessity (AON) to the proposals. The army, navy and the air force require 43,732 new LMGs. The initial acquisition of 16,500 will meet the operational requirements of troops deployed on the borders with Pakistan and China. Media reports quoting MoD sources also say that a concurrent proposal is "being processed" for the remaining LMGs under the 'Buy and Make (Indian)' categorisation through a tie-up between an Indian vendor and a foreign armament company.

The 7.4 lakh 7.62 x 51mm assault rifles for all three services are to be made under the 'Buy and Make (Indian)' categorisation, through both the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and private companies at an estimated cost of Rs 12,280 crore. Significantly, the army had projected for new assault rifles and CQB carbines 12 years ago to replace the 5.56mm INSAS rifles, which face multiple faults, and the obsolete 9mm carbines. The shortfall in the overall requirement of 3.76 lakh 5.56 x 45mm CQB carbines are to be made under the Make in India project "at a later stage", as per MoD sources.

In addition, the DAC has also approved the procurement of 5,719 sniper rifles for the army and air force at an estimated cost of Rs 982 crore from the global market under the 'Buy Global' categorisation, the ammunition for which will be initially procured and subsequently manufactured in India. The new 8.6mm sniper rifles, with an effective kill range of 1,200m, will replace the vintage 7.62mm Dragunov sniper rifles with 800m range that were acquired from Russia in 1990.

For the procurement of 16,500 LMGs, the DAC has approved the fast track procedure (FTP) to be acquired from the global market at a cost of Rs 1,819 crore, to ensure the project is wrapped up within a year. This appears to be highly ambitious considering that FTP will require floating of request for proposal globally, processing the responses, extensive trials, selections, etc.

And besides, procurement of small arms in the past has been nixed because of single vendor situations despite global tenders having been floated. No government wants to go ahead in a single vendor situation  despite mounting deficiency and obsolescence of weapons held by the forces over fears of Opposition's allegations. What is meant by wrapping up of the project within one year is unclear, but the defence minister will need a magic wand if these 16,500 LMGs are indeed in the hands of the forces within one year.

It's also ironic that while DAC has approved the procurement of 16,500 LMGs on FTP for acquisition from the global market, as also of 5,719 sniper rifles under the 'Buy Global' categorisation, it has not considered the same for the new 7.62x51 mm assault rifles. This is a failure to appreciate that modern assault rifles are equally, if not more, essential for infantry soldiers considering that the number of LMGs are limited in infantry, where by and large troops carry assault rifles.

It should have procured at least part of the 7.4 lakh inventory of 7.62x51 mm assault rifles (ideally about 2-3 lakh) through FTP from the global market under 'Buy Global', and make up the balance requirement through 'Make in India' instead of getting the entire requirement from 'Buy and Make (Indian)' categorisation, through both the OFB and the private industry, which will take a considerable number of years.

This has presumably been done to bring in OFB from the back door despite its pathetic record in not meeting the small arms requirement of the forces; in spite of being in existence since 1908, brought under the DRDO in 1958, and currently employing some 1,64,000 personnel.

The public may get the impression that woes of the infantry are over with these announcements, but only the LMGs may materialise in a year or so. The new assault rifles could take another 8-10 years going by past experience, while the follow up process includes issuing of request for proposal (RFP), formal tenders for technical and commercial bids, in-house technical studies, selection of developing agencies (DAs) to develop prototypes, extensive field trials, production and fielding.

If the hiccups in procurement of small arms is any indication, red-tape and allegations by those who have not been selected as DAs and the constituency that works to keep the forces under-equipped, will mean it's anybody's guess about when will these weapons be used on the ground.

How many defence ministers change during this time period isn't something that can be predicted. But the minister in charge will have to really press the system to ensure the projects fructify in 5-6 years. It's ironic that the project for making up the void of 3.76 lakh 5.56 x 45mm CQB carbines is still being waived off as "at a later stage".

There is need for a holistic review of equipping infantry soldiers and going in for packaged provisions, not piecemeal. The need is not only small arms but a look into the whole gamut of surveillance (both day and night), communications, protection and survivability. The Rs 1,487 crore to boost security of army camps does include night vision, radars etc but does not cover all infantry.

Besides, the 10 months given to complete the security of army camps may be difficult considering the acquisition process. The ammunition for the sniper rifles to be imported is planned to be imported initially and subsequently manufactured in India. Strict quality assurance will be needed for such indigenous ammunition, considering that the silent Uzi carbines imported a decade and a half ago with initial imports of ammunition, didn't remain silent once indigenous ammunition was used.

The defence minister has certainly given a push to the arming of soldiers at the frontline, and to fill the voids in perimeter security of the army camps. The need is to pressure the system to complete these projects expeditiously.An infiltration bid was foiled by the army on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Thursday,

Jammu: An infiltration bid was foiled by the army on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Thursday, defence sources said.

Alert troops of the army noticed suspicious movements in Balakote area of the LoC early on Thursday.

"Troops fired and the group of intruding terrorists was forced to withdraw back into the Pakistani side. A search operation is now going on in the area," the sources added.

The Pakistani Army on Wednesday also violated ceasefire in Nowshera sector of the LoC in Rajouri district.

"At around 7 pm using small arms, automatics and mortars they violated ceasefire. But our positions retaliated effectively and strongly," the sources added.

No casualty or damage was reported on the Indian side.By: Erin Shea, @BH_EShea





Ten Tequilas is just the kind of horse Barbara Luna has a soft spot for.

The former program administrator for Turning for Homea program at Parx Racing that helps retiring horses find a place to land off the trackfounded War Horses at Rose Bower in 2013 to assist retiring "war horses." Luna specifically looks to help horses that are 7 years old and up with at least 70 starts. While he doesn't exactly fit those specifications, Ten Tequilas is another kind of war horse that piqued her interest.

The 8-year-old son of Ten Most Wanted ran 66 times, but earned only $52,693. Bred in California, he started his racing career in the Golden State and then moved east to Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack & Resort and Mahoning Valley Race Course before ending up in Puerto Rico in 2016. The gelding made 25 starts in claiming races at Hipodromo Camarero in 2016 and 2017. He never won in Puerto Rico, but he placed 11 times.

Camarero and its equine population was especially affected after Hurricane Maria made landfall on the U.S. territory Sept. 20. The non-profit group Caribbean Thoroughbred Aftercare stepped in to help the horses at the track, including Ten Tequilas.

Looking for a safe spot in the U.S. mainland for some of the retiring Thoroughbreds at Camarero, the CTA sought out a few farm owners, former connections, and Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance-accredited organizations to help.

"I read about the plight of the horses in Puerto Rico as it happened," Luna said. "And Shelley (Blodgett of the CTA) got a hold of me and said they were looking for an accredited program to take this horse.

"When they asked if I would take him, I said I would help any way that I could."

So Ten Tequilas made one more long-distance journey, going from Puerto Rico to Florida and then arriving at Luna's facility near Appomattox, Va. in January.

"I love his personality," Luna said of the gelding. "I feel no insecurity about going in the stall with him, walking behind him, attaching the buckles off his blankets. I think what you see is what you get and he's just a really, really nice horse."



Ten Tequilas in a paddock at War Horses at Rose Bower



Luna's original plan was to get Ten Tequilas ready to compete at the 2018 Thoroughbred Makeover. But that was derailed when Ten Tequilas' old suspensory injury started to flare up after he arrived in Virginia.

"This is what you get for planning something with a horse, because when you plan stuff with horses (they do) the opposite of what you want to do. But he's going to be fine," she said.

"The right thing to do is to wait. If they have the same kind of eligibility rules that they have in 2019 that they had this year, he's still eligible. My vet said his bones were clean, no arthritis, his joints were clean. It was just body soreness and he was lame in his suspensory. He has gained a lot of weight (since he arrived). He looks good."

While Luna knows Ten Tequilas will never be an upper-level competition horse, she thinks there are many options for a new career for him.

"The good thing about RRP is that they have divisions for everything," she said. "He doesn't have to be a jumper, he could do low-level dressage, trail. We don't have to go there and say he's this, that, or the otherthey have something for everybody. I think we're going to wait and see what he tells us. We don't want to push him."

In the meantime, Ten Tequilas will still play an important role in horse-human therapy programs at War Horses at Rose Bower.

"I'm going to try to use him as much as I can with my women's group that comes in and works with the horses," Luna said. "And keep taking pictures of him, because I don't want people to lose track of him."

----

According to the CTA, After The Finish line financed Ten Tequilas quarantine and flight to the United States, while Randy and Karen Hickman housed the gelding at their Stone Ridge Farm near Ocala, Fla. before he shipped to Virginia.Intelligence sources confirmed that Pakistan's ISI has been able to bring Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen on the same table for terror activities in Kashmir

New Delhi: A Colonel in Pakistan Army, Sajid Shahzad had admitted in its top-secret publication Green Book about Pakistans support to terror outfits. His analysis, meant for Pakistan's top security decision makers, reviewed by the Firstpost, clearly shows that the neighbouring country is determined to extend support to militants and separatists to create unrest in the Kashmir Valley.

The Pakistani officer, who visited the US for a course on Terrorist Device Threat and Response, wrote: In view of the international climate, it has become necessary to shift emphasis gradually from armed struggle for the liberation of Kashmir to pursuit of the same objective by Kashmiri struggle."

Back home, during a meeting of top security and intelligence brass, immediately after the Sunjuwan Military Station in Jammu was attacked by a group of Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists, the directive was clear: "Go for headhunting, target the top terrorist commanders and neutralise the local support."

Intelligence sources told Firstpost that the recent attacks on security forces and the shift in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) strategy in Jammu and Kashmir were on top of the agenda of the emergency meeting that examined terrorists strongholds and hideouts in the Valley.

"The chatters intercepted from across the border indicate the level of attacks against security forces may increase in the coming months, and the presence of local modules in terror strongholds is a point of concern. We need to improve our intelligence network and must focus across district boundaries for specific operations, sources privy to the closed-door meeting said.

In the last two years  2016 to 2017  around 2,778 incidents related to attacks against security forces pickets and deployments were recorded by the agencies. The number of terrorist attacks also gone up from 299 in 2016 to 365 in 2017.

"The meeting also discussed close cooperation among agencies operating in the state  Indian Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police and the paramilitary forces  and their redeployment to launch an intelligence-based operation in terrorist hideouts, sources said.

Terror incidents in Kashmir (2016 and 2017) Terrorist attacks 664 Stone pelting incidents 4,865 Security personnel injured 3,884 Security personnel killed 171 Vehicles damaged 903 Security forces pickets / deployment attacked: 2,778 Source: CRPF Srinagar

Jaish-e-Mohammed, which has been involved in recent attacks against security forces, has been maintaining various hideouts in Awantipora, South Kashmir, with active local support. Pakistan's ISI has tasked the Jaish-e-Mohammed to carry out terror attacks due to international factors against Lashkar-e-Taiba. Pakistan's ISI has also been breeding and nurturing what its former bosses had described as 'good terrorists' to launch a proxy war against India.

Intelligence sources confirmed that ISI has been able to bring three active terrorist groups  Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen  on the same table for terror activities in Kashmir. Sources pointed out that Jaish-e-Mohammed has been able to establish hideouts in Lurgam, Aripal, Ponzu, Ladhu, Satoora, and Noorpora (Tral) of Awantipora with the help of local modules of Hizbul Mujahideen.

Some mobile phones, which were intercepted and located in places like Beighpora, Panzgam, and Brabandina in Awantipora, and Rampora and Vissu Qazikund in Kulgam clearly show the extent of the well-organised close ties between the three terror outfits launched by ISI to create chaos in the Valley.

"It is clear that despite the international pressure, Pakistan has decided not to cease ties with terror groups and has, in fact, increased the covert support to terrorists in a systematic manner and setting up an umbrella network of active terror groups, added sources.

It is learned that security and intelligence establishment has recently intercepted three calls from Heff Shirmal of Shopian, and Pampore and Banderpora of Pulwama, that were made to an ISI handler in Pakistan. The details shared with security agencies reveal that Pakistan is continuing its support to terror proxies while using them as cannon fodder in furthering its plan to provoke local sentiments to incite violence against security forces.Karti Chidambaram, the son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, on Thursday appeared before the ED in connection with its probe into the INX Media money laundering case

New Delhi: Karti Chidambaram, the son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, on Thursday appeared before the ED in connection with its probe into the INX Media money laundering case.

Karti was summoned by the agency to appear before the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case. His authorised representative had met the IO on the last two occasions and the central probe agency had subsequently asked him to appear himself.

It is understood that the agency wants to put questions directly to Karti and hence wanted him to depose in person. The central probe agency had registered a case against him and others in May last year.

It had registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the EDs equivalent of a police FIR, against the accused named in a CBI complaint, including Karti, INX Media and its directors, Peter and Indrani Mukerjea.

The ECIR was lodged under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The sources said that the ED is probing the alleged proceeds of crime generated in this case. It was the ED which had provided information about the alleged illegal payments made by INX Media, based on which the Central Bureau of Investigation had filed its FIR.

The CBI had also carried out searches at the homes and offices of Karti across four cities for allegedly receiving money from the media firm owned by the Mukerjeas to scuttle a tax probe.

The Chidambarams have denied all the charges made against them. The CBI had filed the FIR against Karti Chidambaram and the Mukerjeas on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, receiving illegal gratification, influencing public servants and criminal misconduct.

Last week, the ED had also searched the premises of Karti and those associated with him in a separate money laundering case pertaining to the Aircel-Maxis deal.Iran president Hassan Rouhani arrived in Hyderabad today on a three-day India visit during which the two countries will discuss regional and international issues of mutual interest. Union Minister of State for Power R K Singh and Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan received him at the Begumpet airport.

Hyderabad: Iran president Hassan Rouhani arrived in Hyderabad on a three-day India visit during which the two countries will discuss regional and international issues of mutual interest. Union Minister of State for Power RK Singh and Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governor ESL Narasimhan received him at the Begumpet airport.

"He is scheduled to address Muslim intellectuals, scholars and clerics in the city at 6.30 pm today," an official said. During his two-day visit to the city, President Rouhani, who is accompanied by a 21-member delegation, will also meet people of Iranian-origin living in Hyderabad.

He will address a congregation at the historic Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad Friday after offering Friday prayers, the official said, adding that religious scholars will also participate in the session.

Rouhani is also expected to visit historic sites, including the Qutub Shahi tombs at Golconda. This is Rouhani's second visit to Hyderabad and the first after becoming president. He would stay at the Taj Krishna hotel tonight, and leave for New Delhi Friday evening.Hassan Rouhani arrived in Hyderabad on Thursday for a three-day India trip, during which he will hold talks with Narendra Modi on trade, security and connectivity.

Hyderabad: On his first visit after assuming office in 2013, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived in Hyderabad for a three-day India trip, during which he will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on trade, security and connectivity, including the strategically-important Chabahar port.

Rouhani was received by Union Minister of State for Power RK Singh and Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan at the Begumpet airport.

The two sides are also looking at inking a number of pacts in several key areas apart from exploring the scope of cooperation in fields such as health and traditional medicine during the visit, which is part of India's continued regional engagement, official sources said.

They also referred to Modi's recent visit to the UAE and other countries in the Gulf and West Asia, to highlight India's growing cooperation with countries in the region.

Iran and India have already operationalised a mechanism under which Indian businessmen can invest in projects in Iran in Indian rupees, the sources said. The move is expected to boost Indo-Iran trade ties tremendously.

While there was no pact expected to be signed on security cooperation, the joint statement will talk about the engagement between the two countries in that area, including the interactions between their national security councils, the sources said.

Asked if cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan will be raised, the sources said terrorism is a shared concern but whether any specific country will be mentioned, could not be stated.

Also, whether India will seek Iran's help in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case given that it maintains that the retired Indian naval officer was kidnapped from Iran, the sources said Jadhav is not a bilateral issue between India and Iran.

Asked if India would raise the issue of its investment in Iran's Farzad-B gas field, the sources said there were commercial discussions on to find a "win-win" solution. Asserting that connectivity is among the key themes, they said efforts would be to take forward the operational part of the strategically-important Chabahar port.

During Modi's bilateral visit to Iran in 2016, nearly a dozen pacts were signed between the two countries.

The Trilateral Transit Agreement (Chabahar Agreement) was also signed by transport ministers of India, Iran and Afghanistan in the presence of Modi, Rouhani and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

The contract entails capital investment of USD 85 million by India for equipping Chabahar port in southeastern Iran. The strategically important port will open up the transit route for India to Iran and Afghanistan, bypassing Pakistan.

India and Iran have robust economic and commercial ties covering many sectors though it has traditionally been dominated by the import of Iranian crude oil by India, which continued to engage with Iran at the time of sanctions.

According to the external affairs ministry, India-Iran bilateral trade during the fiscal year 2016-17 was USD 12.89 billion. India imported USD 10.5 billion worth of goods, mainly crude oil, and exported commodities worth USD 2.4 billion.

India is hosting Rouhani nearly a month after the visit of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Other issues which are expected to be discussed will include visa liberalisation for greater people-to-people contact.

In New Delhi, apart from holding extensive talks with Modi and other Indian leaders, the Iranian leader is also scheduled to deliver a special address at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) on Saturday.

On Rouhani addressing a congregation at the historic Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad after offering Friday prayers, the sources said, the Iranian side showed interest in offering prayers and India had no problem in accepting it.JNU students 'gheraoed' the administration block demanding a meeting with the vice chancellor on the issue of compulsory attendance, and stopped Chief Proctor Kaushal Kumar and Rector-1 Chintamani Mahapatra from leaving the building.

Delhi: JNU students "gheraoed" the administration block demanding a meeting with the vice chancellor on the issue of compulsory attendance, and stopped Chief Proctor Kaushal Kumar and Rector-1 Chintamani Mahapatra from leaving the building.

Hundreds of students, led by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU), picketed outside all the gates of the building and confronted and stopped senior university officials who tried to go out. Vice chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar was in his office.

The students demanded that the administration revoke the compulsory 75 percent attendance required in an academic year for availing scholarships and fellowships, and convene a meeting of the Academic Council which was postponed indefinitely.

Since 11 am, a group of students performed skits and mimes and sang songs near the main entrance of the administration block. Security guards were deployed to block the entry of students into the building. A human chain was also formed around the building.

In a letter written to the administration in morning, the JNUSU said, "Students of this university are waiting for the vice chancellor to have a dialogue with JNUSU representatives."

"There has been no call to lay siege to the administration building. All administrative works have been going on without any obstruction," JNUSU joint secretary Shubhanshu Singh said, adding that the gherao would continue till the vice chancellor met the students.

Rector-1 Mahapatra, when he was stopped by the students from going out, said he could not take a decision on the matters in individual capacity and that there would be dialogue with the students.Private bus operators in Kerala has decided to go on an indefinite strike from Friday demanding further increase in bus fares, saying the hike announced by the state government was 'insufficient'

Kochi: Private bus operators in Kerala has decided to go on an indefinite strike from Friday demanding further increase in bus fares, saying the hike announced by the state government was "insufficient".

The Kerala government had announced the hike in government and private bus fares on Wednesday . It will come into effect from 1 March. Representatives of the private bus associations in the state met in Kochi on Thursday and said that private buses across the Kerala will keep off the road from Friday as part of an indefinite strike seeking further increase in fares.

"We are disappointed with the announcement on the fare hike. It is insufficient to meet even our daily needs," a private bus operator said. The decision to go on a strike was taken in view of the spiralling fuel prices and operational costs, leaders of private bus operators' federation said.

They also alleged that many of the demands made by the bus operators, including a hike in minimum charge of students' concession, bring petrol and diesel under the GST, withdrawal of increased road tax and constitution a regulatory committee, were not addressed by the state government.

The minimum charge should be increased to Rs 10 and there should be a 50 percent hike in students concession, the federation said.

According to the charges announced by the government, the minimum fare for an ordinary bus service will be Rs 8, up from Rs 7, and for fast passenger services, the fare will be Rs 11 instead of Rs 10. Along with the minimum fare, charges per kilometre for all category of services have also been raised. The hike ranges between eight paise and Rs 6.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan took the decision at a Cabinet meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday .

Meanwhile, Transport Minister AK Saseendran appealed to the private operators to withdraw their decision to go on a strike. He said the announcement was made on the basis of the recommendations of Justice C Ramachandran panel that went into the problems faced by the transport industry. Private bus operators are very well aware of it, Saseendran said in Kottayam.

The Congress-led UDF Opposition had slammed the LDF government's move to increase the fare, saying the state government was putting more burden on the people who were already suffering due to steep raise in price of essential commodities. The operators also decided to hold an indefinite hunger strike in front of the Secretariat in the state capital from 19 February to press for their demands.The Congress party in Kerala has decided to approach the High Court with a petition to seek a CBI probe into the killing of Youth Congress worker Shoaib in Kannur district

Kannur (Kerala): The Congress party in Kerala has decided to approach the High Court with a petition to seek a CBI probe into the killing of Youth Congress worker Shoaib in Kannur district, a party member said on Thursday.

Former Congress MP and state minister K Sudhakaran, who is leading the protest, said nothing was going to come out if the Kerala Police probed this murder, and hence "only a CBI probe would bring out the truth, for which we will go forward".

"I had intervened when Shoaib was jailed in a false case and we came to know that CPM had planned to eliminate him when he was in jail.

"I called a top jail officer and since he promptly acted, the plan was foiled. He was a target for the CPM and they eliminated him," said Sudhakaran.

Three days after the murder of Shoaib, the police continue to remain clueless. Though more than two dozen people have been questioned, no arrest has been made so far.

Thirty-year-old Shoaib was murdered on Monday night. The Kannur Congress unit blamed CPM activists, but they have denied the allegations.

Shoaib, along with a few others, was waiting in front of an eatery near Mattanur around 10.45 pm on Monday when four persons in a car threw bombs to create a scare.

Shoaib's friend, who was injured during the attack, told the media that Shoaib was slashed with a sword and "butchered".

"After Shoaib fell down, one of the attackers sat near him and butchered him, as if he (attacker) was a butcher engaged in cutting meat. I got injured when I tried to prevent the attack," said his friend.

Youth Congress president Dean Kuriakose who has reached Kannur said that the entire conspiracy in the murder would be revealed if the police arrested the former Secretary of senior CPM legislator EP Jayarajan, who belongs to the same place where the incident happened.

The Indian Union Muslim League on Thursday passed a resolution condemning the brutal act.

"The Left government's approach to this murder is not fair. What has surfaced now is that in each and every similar attack, the CPM is a party and this is a very serious issue.

"Speculations are that the real culprits are being allowed to escape," the IUML resolution read.

The Congress party has also decided to continue its dharna (protest) in Kannur till justice is served.A city court on Thursday remanded four activists of a right-wing group to two days' police custody in a case of assaulting media persons during a programme held on Wednesday.

Kolkata: A city court on Thursday remanded four activists of a right-wing group to two days' police custody in a case of assaulting media persons during a programme held on Wednesday.

Hindu Samhati Mancha president Tapan Ghosh and three others were booked on charges of attempt to murder, causing grievous injury with weapons among others, a Kolkata Police officer said.

The journalists were attacked when they tried to talk to a family of 14 members that had apparently converted to Hinduism at the programme organised by the Mancha.

Political parties including the BJP condemned the attack on media persons.One person was injured after a low-intensity blast hit a dharamshala (rest house) in Bihar's Arrah on Thursday

One person was injured after a low-intensity blast hit a dharmshala (rest house) in Bihar's Arrah on Thursday, media reports said.

Explosion at Harkhen Kumar Jain Dharmshala in Bihar's Arrah. 1 injured. pic.twitter.com/lT8wonHMvA  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

The blast took place at the Harkhen Kumar Jain Dharmshala. India Today reported that police arrested the injured man after coming to know of a possible terror plot.

Explosion at Harkhen Kumar Jain Dharmshala in Bihar's Arrah. 1 injured. pic.twitter.com/lT8wonHMvA  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

According to India TV, five men had come to Arrah on Thursday morning with the intention to plot a major terror attack. The report, however, added that the plan had met an unexpected end when the bomb exploded in the dharamshala itself.

India Today reported that four out of the five occupants managed to flee.

ANI reported that one Aadhaar Card and a pistol has been recovered from the room.During the 'Make In India' cultural programme held that night at Girgaum Chowpatty, a massive blaze engulfed the stage in front of such diginitaries as the governor, chief minister, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and a foreign delegation

Magnetic Maharashtra  a pet project of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Industries Minister Subhash Desai to boost investment in Maharashtra  is to be held from 18 to 20 February in Mumbai, hosted by the state government's industry department MIDC with the CII as a national partner. Interestingly, the contract for organising the event has been handed to Wizcraft International in spite of the BMC and Mumbai Police filing an FIR against the event management company two years ago after the ill-fated events of 14 February, 2016.

During the 'Make In India' cultural programme held that night at Girgaum Chowpatty, a massive blaze engulfed the stage in front of such diginitaries as the governor, chief minister, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and a foreign delegation. Now two years on, Wizcraft has bagged the contract for Magnetic Maharashtra from CII. Another shocking detail is that the contracts for both the Make in India programme and the Magnetic Maharashtra one were, without tendering, handed to CII. And the reason being given by the industries ministry is that there wasn't enough time to hold a tendering process and that CII is well-known organisation with integrity.

The inquiry conducted by the Fire Department shortly after the incident and submitted to the government on 18 February, 2016 found that LPG cylinders were brought to Girgaum Chowpatty by Wizcraft without permission. The firm also neglected the safety instructions given in writing two weeks prior. According to the probe report, this act by Wizcraft demonstrated "negligence and flouting of fire safety instructions". By 15 February, 2016, the DB Marg Police had registered an FIR against Wizcraft, but as of now, there have been no arrests and the charge sheet filed by the police has yet to come up in court. The FIR was lodged against Wizcraft under Section 366 (an act endangering life or personal safety of others) and Section 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter) of the IPC.

Also, during 'Make in India Week' in 2016, CII got the contract from the Centre without tender and in turn, appointed Wizcraft for local arrangements, event and ground work responsibilities. Two years on, it's the same modus operandi: Magnetic Maharashtra was handed to CII without a tender and CII subcontracted the work to Wizcraft, said a senior MIDC official working closely with this year's Magnetic Maharashtra event. "Wizcraft firm was held responsible for the fire. BMC and police officials had filed an FIR after the incident and the payment to the company was held up. But no action has been taken yet," he added.

It is learnt that the contract for the Make in India event was worth Rs 13 crore 62 lakh, of which Rs five crore had already been paid to Wizcraft. But after the fire, the government stopped the pending payment. However, later, the Fadnavis government released the remaining sum of money, causing huge embarrassment to his government.

Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant told Firstpost, "How has the state government taken the decision to hand the contract for the even to the same company? What happened to that FIR and was any action taken? Why did the state government not call for tenders and where is the condition of tender? It's a violation of the 'transparent government' ideology."

Wizcraft's founder-director Sabbas Joseph said, "Yes, it's true that an FIR been filed against us in connection with the Make in India programme fire incident two years ago. It was short-circuit, but the law will take its own course. For Magnetic Maharashtra, Wizcraft was the lowest bidder, that's why we have been given the contract."

Speaking with Firstpost, Desai said, "For Magnetic Maharashtra, CII is our main national partner. Two years ago, CII was also our national partner. It is a well-known industry body and we do not interfere with whom they appoint as contractors and for event management in terms of local coordination and ground work. As the Maharashtra government duly signed an agreement with CII for Magnetic Maharashtra and not its subcontractors, we have no idea about Wizcraft's role. Due to the shortage of time we could not invite tenders."

While Additional Chief Secretary Sunil Porwal declined to comment on the issue, a senior officer from the MIDC told Firstpost on condition of anonymity, "It's wrong to appoint Wizcraft for Magnetic Maharashtra. How can we appoint the same company against which the BMC and police have filed FIRs for negligence of work."

A senior IPS official from South Mumbai said that a charge sheet has been filed, but the case has yet to come up in court. When asked if any arrests had been made, he confirmed that no one from Wizcraft had been arrested.Maharashtra's farmers may be faced with another year of distress, with unseasonal hailstorms earlier this week causing extensive damage to crops.

Maharashtra's farmers may be faced with another year of distress, with unseasonal hailstorms earlier this week causing extensive damage to crops in the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions. The hailstorms have struck farmers even as they are struggling due to delays in the implementation of the loan waiver and pest attacks such as the pink bollworm.

While the Maharashtra government has demanded Rs 200 crore from the Centre for providing aid to farmers, preliminary reports suggest that there may have been extensive damage.

Earlier, state agriculture minister Pandurang Fundkar had said that hailstorms have affected crops over two lakh hectares. "Most of the panchnama (inspection) reports of affected crops have been done on 11 and 12 February. So far we have ascertained that crops on about two lakh hectares across 1,900 villages have been affected," the minister said.

However, only the 16 districts which were hit by the rains and hailstorm on 10 and 11 February were part of the preliminary report that Fundkar mentioned and that the final surveys are likely to reveal more extensive damage to the crops.

"Another five districts in Vidarbha came under the impact of the hailstorm on 12 February and the final surveys would cover these districts," LiveMint had quoted the state agriculture minister as saying.

According to The Indian Express, fresh incidents were reported from Gondia, Nagpur, Bhandara, Wardha and Gadchiroli as well. PTI said that financial loss caused by the hailstorms would be known by 15 February.

Maximum damage

Based on the preliminary assessment, Buldhana, Amaravati, and Jalna have suffered the maximum damage.

According to LiveMint, Buldhana in Vidarbha is the worst-hit with the unseasonal hailstorms ruining standing crops over 32,700 hectares, followed by Jalna in Marathwada and Amaravati in Vidarbha which suffered damages to crops over 32,000 hectares and 26,598 hectares respectively.

Among other districts, which initial reports claimed were affected by the unseasonal rains and hailstorm included Buldhana, Amravati, Akola, Washim, Nagpur, Chandrapur and Wardha. In Marathwada, the calamity affected the districts of Nanded, Latur, Hingoli, Osmanabad, Jalna, Parbhani, and Beed were impacted whereas in north Maharashtra, it hit Jalgaon.

"Wheat, green gram (chana), sweet sorghum (jowar) and onion are the rabi crops that have been damaged," Fundkar had said, adding that banana plantations and vegetables were destroyed in Jalgaon district.

"Chana is the main crop that stands to be affected most as it was almost ready for harvesting. The crop was planted in October-November. Depending on date of sowing, the crop is either ready for harvest or already harvested and stored," it said.

Quoting a revenue official from Aurangabad divisional commissionerate, PTI had said the hailstorm severely damaged crops including grapes, cotton, green gram and wheat among others. "A sizeable loss of cattle and poultry have been reported, the official had said.

Preliminary reports of the agriculture department showed that till 13 February, data about crop losses due to hailstorm were being received from 16 districts. Barring Jalgaon, almost all the affected districts are from Marathwada and Vidarbha.

Compensation for farmers

Ravikant Tupkar, a senior leader of the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghtana, on Thursday demanded that those affected by the hailstorm should be granted Rs 50,000 per hectare as compensation, failing which the party would launch an agitation.

However, The Indian Express said that "compensation for horticulture farmers would range from Rs 40,000 per hectare for banana, Rs 36,700 for mango, Rs 23,300 for orange and sweet lemon, and Rs 20,000 for bitter lemon".

However, for farmers in Vidarbha and Marathwada, the compensation would range from Rs 13,500 to Rs 6,800 per hectare for the crops of jowar, maize, pulse, chana, wheat, and sunflower.

The Winter session of the Maharashtra Assembly was marked by vociferous protests over the implementation of the loan waiver scheme. The crop losses due to the hailstorms are likely to echo in the state's Budget session, which is scheduled to begin on 26 February.

With inputs from PTILieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, turned hostile on Wednesday when he was asked to appear before the fourth additional metropolitan sessions judge-cum-special court for National Investigative Agencies (NIA).

Lieutenant Colonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, turned hostile on Wednesday when he was asked to appear before the fourth additional metropolitan sessions judge-cum-special court for the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Purohit, who is also the prime NIA witness in the 2007 Hyderabad Mecca Masjid blast case, denied having any knowledge of the incident. He also denied meeting Swami Aseemanand, the prime accused in the two incidents, a report in The Times of India said. However, Purohit admitted that he had spoken to Ajmer Dargah blast accused Sunil Joshi.

According to the report, the officer also said he never started the Abhinav Bharat Trust, although he acknowledged knowing Ajay Rahirkar and Kulkarni, two other accused in the Malegaon bomb blast case.

On 18 January, Purohit had moved the Supreme Court challenging a Bombay High Court order dismissing his plea against the sanction for prosecution granted by the Maharashtra government under the 'Unlawful Activities Prevention Act'.

The high court had on 18 December last year dismissed Purohit's plea along with that of Sameer Kulkarni's, a fellow accused in the Malegaon blast case.

Earlier on 29 January, the Supreme Court had sought the Maharashtra government's response on Purhohit's plea, whereby he challenged proceedings against him under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act by the NIA court in the absence of valid sanction from a competent authority, IANS said.

The special NIA court, however, said that a conclusion cannot be drawn that Purohit had attended the alleged conspiracy meetings related to the blast in the discharge of his duty as a military intelligence officer. In its detailed order, the court said that the incriminating circumstances against Purohit are "not only about his presence in the meetings but also the manner in which he participated and the actual discussion and utterances made by him".

On 27 December, 2017, a special NIA court had dropped charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, Ramesh Upadhyay and Ajay Rahikar in the 2008 Malegaon blast case. While the court dropped all charges under sections 17, 20 and 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Arms Act, it decided that Sadhvi Pragya and Purohit will be tried under Section 18 of the former act as well as sections 120B, 302, 307, 304, 326, 427 and 153 A of the Indian Penal Code.

A powerful bomb exploded near the crowded Nooraji Mosque in Malegaon on the evening of 29 September, 2008, killing six and injuring 100 others.

Nine people were killed and 58 were wounded when a bomb exploded on 18 May, 2007, at Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid premises during Friday prayers.

With inputs from agenciesThe godown, located on the sprawling premises of Mittal Industrial Estate on Andheri-Kurla Road in Mumbai, caught fire around 1.15 am

Mumbai: A 30-year-old man was killed in a fire at a godown in suburban Andheri early on Thursday, a fire brigade official said.

The godown, located on the sprawling premises of Mittal Industrial Estate on Andheri-Kurla Road, caught fire around 1.15 am, the official said.

Four fire engines and water tankers were pressed into service. The fire was doused after two hours and fire brigade personnel recovered the body of a man, the official said.

"The victim, later identified as Pradeep Vishwakarma, was sleeping inside the godown when it caught fire," he added.

An investigation is on to know what started the fire, the official said.The Supreme Court asked the Centre and six states to file 'specific affidavits' stating they were bound by the 1980 award of Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre and six states, including Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, to file "specific affidavits" stating they were bound by the 1980 award of Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal, which had adjudicated the river water utilisation disputes among the basin states of Godavari and Krishna.

Besides the Centre, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, the apex court asked Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Karnataka to file affidavits in this regard within four weeks.

A bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said this while hearing a matter related to the Indira Sagar Polavaram Project on river Godavari in Andhra Pradesh.

The Polavaram project on Godavari in Andhra Pradesh is a multi-purpose irrigation project which has been accorded the status of a national project.

During the hearing, counsel appearing for Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and other states told the bench that they were bound by the terms of Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal award of 1980. The Centre had in 1980 accepted the verdict of Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal and made it binding on the concerned river basin states. According to the tribunal's verdict, the agreements arrived between the riparian states at the sub-basin level were vetted by the states of the entire Godavari basin and no state could back out of the total tribunal award.

Odisha's counsel told the apex court that they were not pressing their plea seeking blanket injunction for Andhra Pradesh from proceeding with construction of the Polavaram project, but that it should be done in accordance with the 1980 tribunal award and other laws.

"The chief secretaries of Odisha and defendant states Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka and secretary of water resource department of the Union of India should file specific affidavits in this regard within four weeks stating that their respective governments are bound by the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal award," the bench said and posted the matter for hearing on 17 April.

When the Centre's counsel told the court that chief ministers of these states should meet and discuss the issue, the bench said, "that is for you to decide. If you want to have meeting, you can have it".

The bench clarified that the pendency of the matter in the apex court does not preclude the chief ministers of these states to meet and discuss the issue.

Odisha's counsel raised the issue of submergence of a number of villages in their state due to the construction of Polavaram project.

The project is under construction in West and East Godavari Districts of Andhra Pradesh and its reservoir spreads to parts of Chhattisgarh and Odisha. The apex court had earlier sought the Centre's response on a separate plea alleging violation of rights of Scheduled Tribes and forest dwellers due to the Polavaram Project.

The petition has claimed that the project will submerge about 600 habitations in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Telangana and also about 8,000 acres of forest and 500 acres of the wild life sanctuary.

The environment clearance of the project was cancelled by the National Environment Appellate Authority in 2007 but the Andhra Pradesh High Court had stayed it as an interim measure.

The Ministry of Environment and Forest had given a direction to stop the construction work of the project on 8 February, 2011, but had later kept its own order in abeyance.Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan claimed that Tamil Nadu no longer remained a peaceful state, but turning out to be a training centre for extremists.

Coimbatore: Union Minister and senior BJP leader Pon Radhakrishnan on Wednesday claimed that Tamil Nadu no longer remained a peaceful state, but turning out to be a training centre for extremists.

Addressing a meeting organised by various Hindu outfits and BJP to pay homage to those killed in the serial bomb blasts here on 14 February, 1998, he alleged Tamil Nadu, of late, was "becoming the camp and training centre" for such forces.

"Tamil Nadu is no longer the peaceful state ("amaidhi poonga")... Naxalites, Maoists, Tamil extremists and Islamic terrorists have joined hands against the administration, which was evident during the jallikkattu agitation last year, the Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping alleged.

Stating that these forces were engaged in long term planning for next 10 to 20 years, Radhakrishnan said it was not known whether this had been brought to the notice of the rulers and the police department.

The massive agitation in support of jallikattu at the Marina Beach in Chennai and elsehwere in the state turned violent on 23 January, 2017 when police dispersed the agitators continued the protest despite promulgation of an ordinance for allowing the bull taming sport.

The Minister accused the state government of not allowing to pay homage to those who were killed in the serial blasts that rocked the city 20 years ago claiming 52 lives and leaving scores injured during an election rally to be addressed by BJP veteran LK Advani. He also said the government did not allow erecting a memorial pillar.

Later, police briefly detained around 900 activists of various Hindu outfits and BJP when they gathered at a little distance away from the meeting venue and attempted to pay homage to those killed in the blasts.

Meanwhile, a group of Vishwa Hindu Parishad workers performed annual rituals at Perur near here for the those killed in the blasts, police said.

In all, ninteen bombs exploded in various parts of the city shortly before Advani was to address a public meeting at RS Puram locality.Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday hit out at those suggesting a dialogue with Pakistan, saying talks with countries who train guns at India are not possible.

New Delhi: Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday hit out at those suggesting a dialogue with Pakistan, saying talks with countries who train guns at India are not possible.

His remarks came days after Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti had suggested that talks with Pakistan are necessary to end the bloodshed in the state.

"It is baffling that some educated leaders are suggesting that we have to engage in a dialogue with one of our neighbours who is by all accounts fomenting trouble and encouraging cross-border terrorism...we cant have talks with countries that have trained their guns at us," Naidu said without naming Pakistan.

He was addressing a gathering at the Indian Council of World Affairs.

Naidu said Indias love for peace is more out of a concern for the welfare of humanity and not because it is weak and incapable of fighting.

"So, our diplomacy relies on building bridges across the world with dialogue as the sole sustainable method to resolve disputes. "We are open to conflicting views but we are not so open to senseless violence and irrational terrorism...we have been the pioneers in the non-aligned movement. Our alignment is with the forces of peace and non-violence," he said. The vice-president said the present government has recognised the importance of states in its foreign policy as well as security, trade and economic relations with the neighbouring countries.Accusing the Opposition of sympathising with criminals, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath declared in the state Legislative Council that police encounters in the state would not stop.

Lucknow: Accusing the Opposition of sympathising with criminals, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath declared in the state Legislative Council that police encounters in the state would not stop. Speaking in the House during the Zero Hour, Adityanath pointed toward the Opposition and said everybody knew who gave patronage to criminals.

A total of 40 dreaded criminals have been gunned down in 1,200 encounters, and this will continue, the chief minister said. He was replying to Devendra Pratap Singh's (BJP) question on propriety pertaining to the 13 February directive of Chairman Ramesh Yadav asking the Yogi Adityanath government to get a CBI probe conducted into three cases, including of two police encounters.

"It is unfortunate that some people are showing sympathy toward criminals. This is dangerous for democracy. The Noida incident which took place on 3 February, in which Jitendra Yadav was hit by a bullet was not a police encounter, and police does not count it as an encounter. Even the person affected had endorsed it," Adityanath said.

The chief minister urged the Chair to consider the questions raised by Devendra Pratap Singh. To this, Leader of Opposition Ahmed Hasan (SP) said the Chair had already directed the government to get a CBI probe conducted. "Now it can either recommend a CBI probe or may not do so. What is the relevance of the objection," Hasan asked.

Later, Chairman Ramesh Yadav said he would reserve his decision on the question of propriety raised by Singh.Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari on Wednesday said the AAP government has turned into a 'synonym for corruption' and pushed back Delhi by 30 years.

New Delhi: Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari on Wednesday said the AAP government has turned into a "synonym for corruption" and pushed back Delhi by 30 years.

Scores of Delhi BJP workers on Wednesday staged a protest led by Tiwari near Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence against alleged corruption by the AAP government on the completion of its three years in office.

The party workers marched towards the chief minister's residence and police had to use water cannons to disperse the crowd.

Attacking the AAP government, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said its governance has turned synonymous with corruption, anarchy and grimy politics.

He accused the Kejriwal government of pushing back Delhi by 30 years in the last three years with all development works having stalled.

"Everywhere, corruption could be seen. Development works have been stalled and today, Delhi is surprised to see that in spite of its neglectful attitude during the last three years, Arvind Kejriwal is celebrating the anniversary of the government sitting in a hall," Tiwari said.

He alleged that Kejriwal has been teaching lessons of honesty to all political parties but his partys 20 MLAs violated the constitution and were later on disqualified by the president on the recommendations of the Election Commission.

Tiwari also said that three years ago, Kejriwal came to power by promising free wi-fi, opening 500 new schools, appointing marshals in buses for women's security, installing CCTV cameras and providing corruption-free administration but failed to fulfil them.Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Wednesday told the Madras High Court that the AIADMK had issued a whip for the trust vote sought by Chief Minister E Palaniswamy last year only to the 122 MLAs, who were staying in a resort and not to his erstwhile group.

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Wednesday told the Madras High Court that the AIADMK had issued a whip for the trust vote sought by Chief Minister E Palaniswamy last year only to the 122 MLAs, who were staying in a resort and not to his erstwhile group.

Senior counsel CS Vaidyanathan made the submission before the first bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quoddhose during the hearing of DMK's petition seeking disqualification of Panneerselvam, then a rebel leader, and 10 other MLAs for voting against Palaniswamy.

Besides DMK, four disqualified MLAs loyal to rebel leader TTV Dhinakaran have also moved the court aggrieved over the speaker not acting on their plea filed earlier for action against Panneerselvam and others.

The four had earlier filed the petition before the speaker before he disqualified 18 pro-Dhinakaran MLAs, including them. Vaidyanathan was countering the submission by DMKs senior counsel yesterday that Panneerselvam and AIADMK had committed contempt of court by saying no whip was issued during the vote of confidence while an affidavit contrary to this had been filed before the Election Commission by the then rebel group.

We are not denying the fact that there was a whip. But the whip was issued to the 122 MLAs who were in Koovathur. We were not in Koovathur and directions were not issued to 11 of us by the party whip, he argued.

At the height of the rebellion by Panneerselvam, the AIADMK had kept its 122 MLAs at the resort near here and they were brought to the Assembly on 18 February for the trust vote which was eventually won by Palaniswamy by a margin of 122-11. The groups led by Panneerselvam and Palaniswamy later merged and the EC allotted the party symbol to them, ignoring the claim of the faction led by Dhinakaran.

The DMK on Tuesday furnished a copy of the affidavit filed by Panneerselvam group during the pendency of the dispute between two factions of the party.

Vaidyanathan claimed the petitions were not maintainable either on facts or on law since the Assembly speaker was yet to take a decision on the plea made by then MLAs. "In such circumstances, the relief sought for in the petition is not maintainable," he argued.

Also, Palaniswamy was elected as the leader of the AIADMK legislative party at a meeting held on February 14, 2017 in a resort at Koovathur. Panneerselvam and the 10 other MLAs were not present in the meeting, he submitted.

Palaniswamy sought to form the government with the support of 122 MLAs only. In fact even while a whip was allegedly issued to each MLA independently, there was no direction or whip that was received by the 11 MLAs, he said.

Countering the arguments, Senior counsel PS Raman, appearing for the disqualified four MLAs, said the present submission by Panneerselvam was "a clear after thought" as the affidavit filed before the Election Commission was brought to light. "In the counter affidavit to DMKs petition, they claimed that they have not deified whip. But now they claim that the whip was issued only to 122 MLAs of AIADMK and not to them. The present submission is a clear after thought, after the affidavit filed with the ECI was brought to light," he argued.

Besides, when a chief minister was facing a floor test, it becomes mandatory for the party MLAs to vote in favour of his confidence motion. A whip under party seal was not required in such circumstance, he added. Recording the submissions, the bench adjourned the hearing to 22 February.11:33 (ist)

Amit Shah on his way to Jind to participate in Yuva Hunkar rally

BJP chief Amit Shah is in Jind for his Yuva Hunkar rally which is going to see the participation of more than one lakh motorcycle riders today. The rally is being seen as an attempt by BJP to consolidate its hold in Jind which is considered to be the nerve centre of Haryana politics.

The Party has made it mandatory for its MLAs from all 90 constituencies and local leaders to reach on bikes in full strength. Shah will reach Jind from Delhi while Haryana CM Khattar will arrive from Karnal. Both the BJP leaders will arrive in a chopper and later on bikes till rally ground at Pandu Pindara village of Jind district. Hundreds of bikers wearing saffron colour helmets, clothes are on bikes on the way to Jind.Noted social activist Anna Hazare on Thursday said he had high hopes from Prime Minister Narendra Modi but was disappointed with his govt.

Dehradun: Noted social activist Anna Hazare on Thursday said he had high hopes from Prime Minister Narendra Modi but was disappointed after his three-and-a-half-years in office.

Addressing a public rally at Chamba in Tehri Garhwal district, Hazare blamed the central government for the pitiable condition of farmers across the country.

"When Modi became the prime minister, I harboured a lot of hope. I thought good days were ahead, but now I am disappointed," he said.

For this reason, he said, I would soon begin an agitation against the Union government and seek the support of Uttarakhand.

The Gandhian also said that so far he had remained quiet as he wanted the central government to get time for bringing a turnaround in the fortunes of the people.

But now, he rued, almost three-fourths of the tenure of Modi had passed and he had been forced to start the agitation out of disappointment.

He also demanded Rs 5,000 pension for the farmers on the lines of retired government servants and officials.

For all such issues, I will start an agitation on 23 March at Ramlila Ground in Delhi, the octogenarian announced at the rally held in VC Gabbar Singh Negi Square.Senior party leader and AIADMK spokesperson, B Valarmathi, said Palaniswamy has 'learnt' from former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, the nuances of troubleshooting especially that of 'fighting against all odds.'

Chennai: Assuming the mantle of responsibility amid a power struggle in the AIADMK, Chief Minister K Palaniswamy seems to have proved his mettle in his one-year-rule by overcoming challenges and effectively implementing the 'Amma' government policies.

The former MP hailing from Edapadi in Salem, who will be completing one year in office on Friday, has been credited with deftly handling crisis after crisis that threatened the survival of the AIADMK government in its post Jayalalithaa era.

Senior party leader and AIADMK spokesperson, B Valarmathi, said Palaniswamy has "learnt" from former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, the nuances of troubleshooting especially that of "fighting against all odds."

"He has done really well in the past one year, leading the party and government well as per the wishes of supporters and people. He has been fighting against all odds, in true Amma (Jayalalithaa) style," she told PTI on Thursday.

Jayalalithaa was often lauded for her determination in facing political and governance-related challenges and issues. Valarmathi, a former minister, said Palaniswamy has been "bravely facing so many problems," apparently referring to Palaniswamy's tussle with sidelined party leader TTV Dhinakaran.

Political observers feel Palaniswamy has delivered "effective governance" in the past one year even as AIADMK accuses the opposition of launching a "campaign of falsehoods" against the ruling dispensation.

Another party spokesperson, RM Babu Murugavel, said Palaniswamy, along with his deputy O Panneerselvam, has ensured effective rule in the state.

Tamil Nadu was leading in many social and economic parameters including women's safety, education and law and order, he said, adding, this was proof of the chief minister's good governance.

Following the Panneerselvam storm last year owing to his differences with deposed and jailed party leader VK Sasikala and his subsequent revolt against her, the latter had nominated Palaniswamy for the chief ministerial post.

Touted to be a Sasikala loyalist then, Palaniswamy won a crucial confidence vote days after taking over as chief minister even as Panneerselvam continued his tirade against the government. However, a twist in the script came in August last year when hectic backroom parleys led Palaniswamy and Panneerselvam to bury the hatchet and merge their respective factions.

A key demand of the Panneeerselvam faction to order a probe into Jayalalithaa's death as a condition for merger was also met by Palaniswamy. The merger and subsequent elevation of Panneerselvam as deputy chief minister had angered Dhinakaran whom the chief minister-led cabinet had earlier sidelined.

During the year gone by, Palaniswamy also faced a revolt by 18 AIADMK MLAs owing allegiance to Dhinakaran that threatened the government though they were subsequently disqualified by assembly speaker P Dhanapal.

Many political pundits initially gave little chance to Palaniswamy in the wake of the Panneerselvam episode and later during his tussle with Dhinakaran.

However, they now seem to acknowledge that the leader, known for his calm demeanour, is a hard nut to crack, thanks to his political experience of nearly four decades.

State ministers, including D Jayakumar, now firmly assert that the government will not only live through its term ending 2021, but also continue in power thereafter.

In line with the AIADMK's 2016 poll manifesto, the government has commenced the process of shut down of state-run liquor shops. Palaniswamy's initial orders as chief minister was to close down 500 such outlets.

The government also recently unveiled the subsidised two-wheeler scheme for working women with an annual income of Rs 2.5 lakh which has elicited a huge response.RJD-Congress alliance in Bihar has reached an agreement over seat sharing in the bypolls for two Assembly segments and one Lok Sabha constituency

Patna: The RJD-Congress alliance in Bihar has reached an agreement over seat sharing in the bypolls for two Assembly segments and one Lok Sabha constituency and will announce the candidates on Thursday, a top Congress leader in the state said on Wednesday.

"I met senior RJD leaders Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav this evening. The alliance between both parties is intact. We will fight the bypolls together and announce our

candidates for the same on Thursday," acting president of the Bihar Congress Kaukab Qadri told PTI.

The bypolls in all the three seats will be held on 11 March.

"Our detractors would be hugely disappointed to learn that their hopes of strains in the alliance, speculations about which arose after some statements by some leaders, are dashed," Qadri claimed.

The Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee chief was referring to statements made by Congress leaders Sadanand Singh and Ashok Choudhary on Tuesday.

Singh had said that the Congress should fight Bhabhua Assembly seat "even if" RJD insisted on fielding its candidate there.

Choudhary had suggested that the party should stake its claim over Araria Lok Sabha seat which has fallen vacant following the death of sitting MP Mohd Taslimuddin.

RJD general secretary Bhola Yadav said "all is well with the alliance. Whatever has been decided, will be made public jointly by leaders of both parties tomorrow".

Meanwhile, sources in both parties confirmed that the Congress was likely to contest Bhabhua where by-poll has been necessitated by the death of BJP MLA Anand Bhushan Pandey.

The RJD is likely to field its candidates in Araria as well as Jahanabad Assembly seat which has fallen vacant due to the demise of MLA Mundrika Yadav.

Taslimuddin's son Sarfaraz Alam had quit the JD(U) last week to join the RJD. He shared the stage with Tejashwi Yadav at a public meeting in Araria early this week leading to speculations that he might be fielded from the seat which was represented by his father.Amit Shah said the party had provided a corruption-free and stable government in Haryana and the country and promised it would ensure 'sabka vikas'.

Chandigarh: BJP president Amit Shah on Thursday said the party had provided a corruption-free and stable government in Haryana and the country, and promised it would ensure 'sabka vikas' (development for all).

Addressing the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) 'Yuva Hunkar Rally' at Pandu Pindara village in Jind district, Shah said the BJP's governance model was to ensure equal development for all.

Shah pointed out that Haryana was infamous for rampant corruption and mal-administration in the tenure of previous governments but the BJP regime, headed by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, provided a corruption-free and transparent government.

He said the welfare schemes initiated by the Central and the Haryana governments were aimed at helping the farmers and the downtrodden.

Thousands of security personnel, including Haryana Police and paramilitary forces, kept a strict watch at the rally venue, areas surrounding it and Jind district.

BJP ministers and legislators arrived at the venue on motorcycles. The state BJP had asked workers to come to the rally on bikes.

The opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) had threatened to show black flags to the BJP president over the issue of non-construction of the SYL (Sutlej-Yamuna Link) canal and failure of the BJP to fulfil the promises made to the people of Haryana.

The police detained INLD leaders and workers in some districts to prevent them from reaching the rally venue, about 200 kilometres from Chandigarh.

Haryana Congress president Ashok Tanwar was also detained in Jind town as he was planning to hold a protest.Actor Kamal Haasan, who is all set to start his political innings on 21 February, on Thursday said caste was the 'biggest enemy' for students and farmers.

Chennai: Actor Kamal Haasan, who is all set to start his political innings on 21 February, on Thursday said caste was the "biggest enemy" for students and farmers.

It is being "protected" for electoral gains, he said.

Though the actor did not blame anybody for such a scenario, he said "they (an indication of the political class) are trying to create diversity in our unity."

Haasan said schemes for the uplift of villages and farm sector were being "conveniently forgotten" to be implemented by those in power.

The 63-year-old actor, who has been targeting the ruling AIADMK following the death of J Jayalalithaa, said he will not stop with merely asking questions.

Writing in his weekly column in Tamil magazine "Ananda Vikatan," Haasan said his US tour and address at the Harvard Business School were all oriented towards the development of villages by collaborating with the Indian diaspora to invest their knowledge and technology in Tamil Nadu.

His friends abroad have pledged their support for his idea of sustainable and viable agriculture which includes adopting a village in each district, Haasan said.

The actor said his team is fully committed to "honour farming" and it is all set to take off.

He said several factors had made agriculture unviable for farmers and added that growth was possible by a fusion of tradition and technology.

Such an initiative would transform a village into a heaven on earth, he said.

Haasan has christened his political tour (through districts including Madurai in first phase) as 'Nalai Namathey,' (Tomorrow is ours).

He has said he would unveil his party name and embark on his political tour on 21 February from the residence of former president APJ Abdul Kalam at Rameswaram in Ramanathapuram district.Accusing the Centre of trying to take away the people's money deposited in the banks with its FRDI Bill, Banerjee said she has written two 'strong letters' to the Finance Ministry demanding the withdrawal of the bill.

Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday demanded a thorough investigation into the fraudulent transactions worth $1.8 billion in Punjab National Bank and said she would not let the Central government off the hook until the people's money is secured.

Banerjee said she has written to the finance ministry to scrap the proposed Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill.

"Today people are shocked to see what has happened in the Punjab National Bank in Mumbai. There has been a scam of Rs 11,000 crore. This is the money of common people. Who took away the money? Who ate it up?" she asked during a public meeting in Jhargram district.

"Offenders will run away after stealing the money but what will happen to the common man? Scams like this must be investigated. The security of people's money must be ensured. We will not let them (the Central government) off the hook until that happens," she said.

PNB, the second largest public sector bank in India, detected some fraudulent and unauthorised transactions (messages) at $1,771.69 million (around Rs 11,515 crore) in one of its branches in Mumbai for the benefit of a few select account holders.

The fraud was detected on Wednesday in the PNB's Brady House Branch in south Mumbai, which is its second-biggest lending branch in the country. A CBI probe has been initiated into the matter and 10 employees of the bank have been placed under suspension.

Accusing the Centre of trying to take away the people's money deposited in the banks with its FRDI Bill, Banerjee said she has written two "strong letters" to the Finance Ministry demanding the withdrawal of the bill.

"We asked the government to withdraw the bill as they are trying take away the money of the common people. This must not happen. The finance minister acknowledged my letter but then sent a reply through a state minister saying the bill would not impact anything," the Trinamool Congress supremo said.

"Today I have written one more strong letter before coming here demanding the withdrawal of FRDI bill. Eating up the money of common man will not be allowed."Congress has been in power for 15 years in Meghalaya, and the BJP, Gogoi claimed, has had 'no role in the North East', but now wants to enter North East on the back of local parties'

Shillong: The mood inside the Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) head office in Shillong on Wednesday was almost festive. Gaurav Gogoi, a Congress member of Parliament and spokesperson of the AICC, was in town and was scheduled to address a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.

Although Gogoi is from neighbouring Assam, he is one of the only Congress leaders with a national presence to visit poll-bound Meghalaya in recent weeks, after Congress president Rahul Gandhi's brief appearance at a party-organised music concert in January.

But as top party officials rushed around finalising details ahead of Gogoi's press conference, one could overhear murmurs expressing concerns over Congress' fate in Tripura and Nagaland  the two other states that will hold elections in February. "In Nagaland, we could only put up candidates for 23 of the 60 seats. And out of the 23, five have now withdrawn, leaving us with only 18 candidates," a prominent Congress politician was heard saying.

However, MPCC working president James Lyngdoh said it helps when national leaders come to the state to campaign. "We are here to serve the people of the entire nation, not Meghalaya alone. Go anywhere in the country, you will find Congress. So when leaders from outside come here to campaign, it encourages us, gives us ideas and helps the objectives of the local chapters," he said.

When asked if he was satisfied with the number of Congress leaders coming to Meghalaya, Lyngdoh said, "Yes, we are happy with the ones who have showed up."

The press conference began as scheduled, with Rahul Gandhi's photograph occupying most of the space on the poster behind the podium. However, only one theme dominated the entire session: Bharatiya Janata Party. "On jobs and employment, the BJP has had a dismal performance since 2014. It has betrayed the youth of India," Gogoi began, disclosing statistics that showed the Centre's failures in implementing schemes such as 'Start-Up India' and 'Skill India Mission'. "Even in 2009 under harsh economic conditions, Congress fared much better than the BJP has done in better times."

One thing the BJP is very serious about, Gogoi said, was to tell young people "what to wear, whom to marry, what to eat, what to listen to, and how to display patriotism". "BJP wants to give certificates of what is appropriate," he alleged.

"But Meghalaya is a diverse society, where a lot of different communities coexist peacefully. Here people have their own customs, and expression of faith and culture, which the BJP does not respect," he said.

Congress has been in power for 15 years in Meghalaya, and the BJP, Gogoi claimed, has had "no role in the North East", but now wants to enter North East on the back of local parties".

Why then is the Congress behaving like the Opposition party in its own state, having dedicated a press conference to the failures of another party? "In an election campaign, parties explain their achievements and what they want to do through their manifesto, and point out shortcomings of their political rivals. Here the shortcoming of the BJP is that the people of Meghalaya wanted jobs. A lot of jobs have come to the North East through special investment policies managed by the Centre. And they (BJP) have failed to live up to their promise of two crore jobs," Gogoi told Firstpost in a separate interview after the event.

When asked if this means that the Congress considers the BJP a strong rival in Meghalaya, Gogoi only said, "The BJP is using all its money and muscle power, and asking its ministers to leave their government responsibilities and campaign here. But all of this will have absolutely no result. I see Congress doing exceptionally well in these Assembly polls, because people have now been able to assess that over the last four years, the BJP has failed to live up to any of its promises."

The Congress also had strong words for regional parties "who serve as a back door for the BJP to join the government". Gogoi said, "People have to realise that voting for a regional party, whether it's the UDP or the NPP, is the same as voting for the BJP."

So, will the Congress not try to align with these local parties if it does not manage to win a simple majority? "First of all, it's a hypothetical scenario. And secondly, as representatives of regional parties start canvassing at the grassroot levels, they will see the people's resentment against the BJP," Gogoi told Firstpost, again introducing the saffron party into his argument.

Meghalaya is a Christian-majority state, and election campaigns seldom conclude without mentioning issues that Christianity faces in the region. Citing instances of violence against Christians in BJP-ruled states, Gogoi stressed on the fact that Rastrapati Bhavan too did not follow its tradition of celebrating Christmas this year for the first time. "You are renaming Christmas as 'Good Governance Day', and Good Friday as 'Digital India Day'. Is this how you show respect? Today it is Ash Wednesday, tomorrow they'll make it 'Deendayal Day', Gogoi alleged.

"Today, in the name of Love Jihad, they are against people of different faiths marrying each other. Tomorrow they may extend this definition, and have an issue with people of different tribes marring in Meghalaya," Gogoi warned.

Lyngdoh echoed Gogoi's concerns. "See, the BJP is not acceptable here. The main reason is that we are a Christian-majority state. You have seen how Christians and churches are attacked across the country. We don't need people who order us what to eat and what to wear. We in Meghalaya are okay with the system of the Congress," the Congress leader told Firstpost.

On Wednesday, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled visit Meghalaya and release 'Vision Document' for the BJP. When asked why the Congress is also not sending more leaders from Delhi to the northeastern states, Gogoi said, "My counter question is, why is the BJP sending so many outsiders to campaign in these states? Have they not groomed local leaders? Does everything depend on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah?"

That's not the Congress model, he said. "Our philosophy is that our leadership should represent the regional diversity of India, as opposed to the two-man show by the BJP."The BJP on Thursday demanded removal of Meghalaya Director General of Police SB Singh for allegedly helping Chief Minister Mukul Sangma in the election

Shillong: The BJP on Thursday demanded removal of Meghalaya Director General of Police SB Singh for allegedly helping Chief Minister Mukul Sangma in the election.

The complaint against the DGP was lodged with Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat by a BJP delegation led by its national spokesman Nalin Kohli here.

We request the Election Commission to consider immediate removal of the DGP and appointment of a neutral state police chief, the BJP said, in a written complaint to the CEC, who is here to review the poll-preparedness of the poll-bound state.

The party alleged that the police chief along with some other police officers have been openly campaigning on behalf of the chief minister.

The BJP team also drew attention of the CEC towards hate speeches on social media and sought legal action against hate mongers.

BJP which is contesting on 47 seats out of a total 60 assembly constituencies in Meghalaya is trying to dislodge the Congress from power.

The party has also accused the chief minister of rigging the elections in his constituency using militants.

Militancy has raised its head again in the Garo Hills region where the Chief Minister is contesting. Revival of militancy before elections is a ruse by the chief minister to rig elections in his constituency, the party stated, demanding that deployment of CAPFs be rested with the police observers.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday accused the Congress and Left parties of having a 'secret understanding' for the 18 February Tripura Assembly polls.

Agartala/Santir Bazar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday accused the Congress and Left parties of having a "secret understanding" for the 18 February Tripura Assembly polls.

"Congress and Left parties like in Kerala and West Bengal have a secret deal for the Tripura polls. To change the future of Tripura, reject the two parties and vote for BJP," Modi said while addressing two election rallies.

"Both parties destroyed Tripura. Do not trust them. By putting up candidates in the elections, Congress is doing drama in Tripura though both the Congress and Left parties have 'dosti' (friendship) in Delhi," he said.

"No big Congress leader came to Tripura for election campaign because they (Congress and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) have a clandestine pact."

Terming the Congress as "vote cutting party", the Prime Minister said the Congress is "helping" CPM to win Sunday's polls.

Modi asked the people to "uproot" the Left parties from Tripura and throw them to "some corner of the earth".

The Prime Minister said the Rose valley chit fund organisation (a Kolkata based company) had pilfered several thousand crore of rupees of 14 lakh Tripura people and accused the Left Front government of not having properly probed the scam.

"After assuming power (in Tripura), the BJP government will inquire into the robbing of huge sums of poor people's money," Modi told the gathering.

In his second phase of election campaigning in Left-ruled Tripura, Modi on Thursday addressed two election rallies with almost the same issues and topics. He came to Tripura from Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanagar and addressed a mammoth rally at Santir Bazar in southern Tripura and gave a speech at another public gathering in Agartala before leaving for Delhi.

Earlier on 8 February, the prime minister addressed two election rallies in northern Tripura and western Tripura.

Attacking the CPM-led government, the Prime Minister said that of every Rs 100 spent, the central government is providing Rs 80 but there is no sign of spending the central fund properly.

The prime minister said the central government long back had given Rs 988 crore for implementation of the Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojana in Tripura but the works valued at Rs 650 crore were started recently.

"Under the non-lapsable pool of resources scheme Rs 242 crore had been given to Tripura in four years but Rs 60 crore still remained unspent."

"The Left parties have been misleading the people and encashing the poverty of the people," he said.

He said the Left government has been providing salaries and allowances to state government employees according to what should have been given to government employees 25 to 30 years ago.

He promised that a BJP government would provide higher scale of salaries and allowances to state government employees at par with the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations.

Modi said the central government has invested thousands of crores to expand the rail and road network in Tripura. "The Agartala airport is being developed and digital network is also being upgraded in Tripura."

"To improve the livelihood of the people, the central government has made easy accessible of bamboo. The government would provide houses to all and electricity to each household across the country."

He said that democracy "is in danger" under the rule of Left Front in Tripura.

Modi said the CPM during its 25-years rule "destroyed both democracy and the future of Tripura".

He accused the CPM party cadres of killing 10 BJP functionaries and two young journalists and promised that a high level inquiry would be held and the perpetrators punished when a BJP led government comes to power.

He said he would attend the swearing-in ceremony of the BJP ministers after 3 March.

BJP's national general secretary Ram Madhav, Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is the party's Tripura election in-charge, and state president Biplab Kumar Deb among others also spoke at the rallies.Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Arunachal Pradesh and poll-bound Tripura on Thursday, officials said.

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"We have started a new culture in India that you should not wait for a leader for any infrastructure project. If it has been completed, please start using it. We will come someday to inaugurate it," said Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

We have brought new culture in India, says Modi

"Government cannot work in different direction, All have to work together for the country. If there is good co-ordination then work goes on well. Decision-making process as well as delivery system will be easier. The new secretariat will help the people of Arunachal Pradesh," Modi said.

We need to work together for better India, says Modi

"We want to improve tourism in Arunachal. I will tell people to come to Arunachal Pradesh for their meetings and conferences. Lot of people do it in Delhi and Mumbai. I will tell them to explore the land of Arunachal Pradesh," said Modi.

Want to develop tourism in Arunachal Pradesh, says Modi

"I have come for you. I have come to serve you and for the sake of Arunachal Pradesh. We had the North East Development Council meeting in the North East. I have made sure that every Union Minister is in the North East for at least for some time in a week. We have brough transperancy and accountability in the workings of DoNER, " said Modi.

"We are making sure that there is at least one hospital and a medical college in at least every two to three constituency. A student can study medicine in their own state which will help bring the local touch in the field. We want to bring medical facilities in the interiors of India," said Modi.

My fourth big decision is that there will be a new Express train between New Delhi and Naharlagun. This will run twice a week and it will be called Arunachal Express, said Modi.

Since Pema Khandu is not a CM of a state near Delhi, he is not given much TV space. But it is Khandu who is making a blue print for developing Arunachal Pradesh by 2027.

We began using Aadhaar card for DBT. We had widows whom we used to send money. There were lot of loopholes. With Direct Benefit Transfer, we have stopped all this. This money used to go into the pockets of somebody. This is good governance for me, said Modi.

PM Modi ends his speech at Itanagar with chants of Jai Hind

"Ayushman Bharat scheme will take the lead in providing quality and affordable healthcare. The health sector needs special attention. Healthcare has to be of good quality and it must be affordable," said Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Itanagar.

I can tell you with great pride that ministers and officials from the Centre are visiting the Northeast very regularly. Morarji Desai was the last PM to attend the North East Council meeting, no PM got the time to attend it after that. They became very busy," Modi said while taunting the previous government for neglecting the region.

Earlier in the day, Modi was welcomes by Khandu

The election in Tripura's Charilam Assembly seat, which was postponed following the death of CPI(M) candidate, will be held on March 12, Chief Electoral Officer Sriram Taranikanti said.

"We will lodge stern representations with the Indian side," he said.

"The Chinese government has never recognised the so-called Arunachal Pradesh and is firmly opposed to the Indian leader's visit to the disputed area," said Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang.

China on Thursday voiced its "firm opposition" to the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Arunachal Pradesh which it claims as part of South Tibet and said it would lodge a diplomatic protest with India.

Bringing up the alleged killings of BJP workers, Modi said, "Left leaders are under a lot of pressure sensing defeat. They have only enjoyed the perks of power for 20 years, now it is time to give answers.

Dismissing Congress in the election Modi told paid that Congress and Left parties are the two faces of same coin. "They are only a vote katau party. What is this that they are friends in Delhi but faking a combat in Tripura," Modi said.

Congress is a vote katau party in Tripura: Friendship in Delhi, combat in Tripura pure drama

"With 20 years in power, Left leaders assumed that nobody will question them, no one can defeat them, and no one in Delhi press will report about the dark rule in Tripura," Modi said. He said that the party assumed that they would never be answerable to anyone.

"They took power for granted, assumed not answerable anyone," PM Modi's blistering attack on Left govt

"People of Tripura have suffered for 25 years due to the misrule of Left party. I urge people of the state to remove them from power," Modi said. "What is the reason that Left government in Tripura is neither ensuring the minimum wages and nor implementing the recommendations of seventh pay commission," Modi asked.

PM Modi ends speech at Shanti Bazar. He will now head to Asthabal Maidan.

The final electoral rolls of Tripura, published on 5 January, shows a record increase in the gender ratio among voters in the state  at 971 females to 1,000 males. In last year's electoral rolls in Tripura, there were 965 female voters for every 1,000 males.

The Assembly polls in Tripura on Sunday will see 23 women contesting, including two pitted against Chief Minister Manik Sarkar. The northeastern state has also seen a marked rise in the percentage of women voters  touted as the highest in the country so far.

In a mock tone, Modi asked he has heard that the Tripura government was installing traffic signals these days. "Is this is a big work," he asked. He then went on draw and analogy between a red traffic signal and the symboic red colour of Left-wing parties: "The development of the state is halted at a red signal, unless you uproot this red flag party, there could be no development."

Urging people to bring a BJP government with heavy majority, Modi said that the Congress cntending polls was a mere drama. He said that the fact that none of the party's top leaders are coming to campaign proves that the party is not serious about contending polls and is in a covert agreement with the Left Front.

Speaking in Hindi, Modi used rhyming words to hit out at manik Sarkar government. "Left parties do not believe in democracy (ganatantra) they believe in gun-tantra," Modi said.

Narendra Modi said that as 18 March draws nearer, he suspects that Left government's MP's and ministers will be seen hiding files. "Take there pictures if yousee anything fishy happening after 18 March," Modi said.

'This is a government of scams,' says Narendra Modi

"Your 25 years have been wasted under the Left rule. Even after two years of providing around Rs 1,000 crore for Gram Sadak Yojana, around Rs 150 crore have not been spent for rural roads," Modi said.

"The total area of ponds and pits claimed to be dug under MGNREGA in Tripura comes out to be more than the total area of the state. This is the extent of daylight loot under Manik Sarkar government here," Modi said.

"New BJP government in Tripura will be the youngest in the country. Almost all BJP candidates are young. The state will benefit from exuberance and energy of the youth," Modi said.

In a mock tone, Modi asked he has heard that the Tripura government was installing traffic signals these days. "Is this is a big work," he asked. He then went on draw and analogy between a red traffic signal and the symboic red colour of Left-wing parties: "The development of the state is halted at a red signal, unless you uproot this red flag party, there could be no development."

We have to stop in traffic when there is 'Red light'. In the same manner Tripura will move on the path of progress when the 'Reds' (Left government) are removed from power: PM @narendramodi #TripuraTrustsModi pic.twitter.com/APECsvuj1M

Urging people to bring a BJP government with heavy majority, Modi said that the Congress cntending polls was a mere drama. He said that the fact that none of the party's top leaders are coming to campaign proves that the party is not serious about contending polls and is in a covert agreement with the Left Front.

Speaking in Hindi, Modi used rhyming words to hit out at manik Sarkar government. "Left parties do not believe in democracy (ganatantra) they believe in gun-tantra," Modi said.

Once we form the govt here we will conduct a high level probe into all the political killings & killings of journalists: PM Modi in Agartala #Tripura pic.twitter.com/sopfhIdIrm

Narendra Modi said that as 18 March draws nearer, he suspects that Left government's MP's and ministers will be seen hiding files. "Take there pictures if yousee anything fishy happening after 18 March," Modi said.

'This is a government of scams,' says Narendra Modi

"Your 25 years have been wasted under the Left rule. Even after two years of providing around Rs 1,000 crore for Gram Sadak Yojana, around Rs 150 crore have not been spent for rural roads," Modi said.

"The total area of ponds and pits claimed to be dug under MGNREGA in Tripura comes out to be more than the total area of the state. This is the extent of daylight loot under Manik Sarkar government here," Modi said.

"New BJP government in Tripura will be the youngest in the country. Almost all BJP candidates are young. The state will benefit from exuberance and energy of the youth," Modi said.

Latest updates: In a mock tone, Modi asked he has heard that the Tripura government was installing traffic signals these days. "Is this is a big work," he asked.

Speaking in Agartala, he then went on draw and analogy between a red traffic signal and the symbolic red colour of Left-wing parties: "The development of the state is halted at a red signal, unless you uproot this red flag party, there could be no development."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Arunachal Pradesh and poll-bound Tripura on Thursday.

In Arunachal Pradesh, he will participate in three programmes, including the inauguration of the Dorjee Khandu state convention centre in Itanagar.

He will also dedicate the state civil secretariat building and lay the foundation stone of the academic block of the Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Science.

From Arunachal Pradesh, Modi will proceed to Tripura where he will address two election rallies in Shanti Bazaar and Agartala.

On Wednesday, Tripura BJP chief Biplab Deb said the Modi government will act like a "father figure" to help the poor state stand on its feet and fulfil the partys campaign promises, if the party comes to power.

He accused the Left Front of running a "Sarkar's sarkar"  a reference to Chief Minister Manik Sarkar  and not people's sarkar (government), leading to high unemployment rate and lack of development.

Expressing confidence that his party would win the election, Deb told PTI that a BJP government would make the state self-reliant in five years.

Though the BJP has not announced a chief ministerial candidate, the youthful Deb (46) is seen by many as its likely choice for the top post if it gets better of the CPM, which has been in power in the tiny northeastern state for 25 years, in the elections scheduled for 18 February.The prime minister also said that if BJP comes to power, Tripura would boast of the youngest government in the country.

Agartala: With Tripura set to vote on Sunday in the first-ever straight contest between the Left and the Right in an Assembly election, Agartala witnessed a last minute poll pitch by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. From targeting the incumbent CPM-led government and the Opposition Congress to promising post-poll sops and better implementation of welfare schemes in the state, the prime minister made an all-round pitch for his party in the Left bastion.

Tripura will go to polls on 18 February with 59 of the 60 seats in fray. The election for Charilam constituency in Sepahijala district, however, will be held on 12 March due to the death of CPM candidate Ramendra Narayan Debbarma on 11 February, the Election Commission announced on Thursday.

With BJP supporters trickling in the capital since Thursday morning, both the venues were tinged saffron by the time Modi started speaking. While the party cadres expected roughly two lakh people to turn up, a crowd of almost six lakh turned up for the two rallies, a senior official of the RAF said. The loud cheers to Modi's speech explained why BJP still depends on the prime minister to give the final push during election campaigns.

Romesh Chandra Sarkar, who was a CPM supporter till May 2017 is now president of SC morcha, the saffron party's Scheduled Caste wing in Town Bordowali constituency.

"Under Prime Minister Modi, India has grown in stature," Sarkar said, adding that before Modi became the prime minister, global leaders used to look down upon Indian leaders, "but now they treat him as their equal".

Meanwhile, security remained tight through out Thursday in Agartala. Superintendent of Police (Control Room) Pradip Dey said the security arrangements for Modi's rally were supervised by the SPG from New Delhi and he was not authorised to divulge details. Several companies of central armed police forces such as BSF, CRPF, SSB and ITBP were deployed. Five companies from the Rajasthan Police were also deployed to assist the state police in the security arrangements apart from several companies of the Punjab Armed Police.

Before landing in Agartala to address two consecutive rallies in Shanti Bazaar and Asthabal Maidan on Thursday, the prime minister also visited Arunachal Pradesh to participate in three events, including the inauguration of the Dorjee Khandu state convention centre in Itanagar, where he also announced to start a biweekly express train between New Delhi and Naharlagun.

'Left believes in gun-tantra'

The prime minister invoked the recent deaths of BJP workers, claiming that the Left government was resorting to bloodshed, sensing that its end is near. Modi claimed that the murders of 10 BJP workers and a journalist was carried out by the ruling party's supporters ahead of the polls.

Speaking in Hindi, Modi used rhyming words to hit out at Manik Sarkar government and make his point: "Left parties do not believe in democracy (ganatantra) they believe in gun-tantra," Modi said. "They murdered our 10 BJP workers. They killed journalists," he alleged.

However, it is noteworthy that the autopsy report of Madhusudhan Deb, a booth president of BJP in the Ramnagar Assembly constituency who the prime minister claimed was killed, stated the death as "suicidal in nature". Deb's body was found was found hanging in Barjala on Sunday and the BJP has been crying foul over the death, accusing the CPM of killing its cadres.

The prime minister also said that if BJP comes to power, Tripura would boast of the youngest government in the country. "Almost all BJP candidates are young. The state will benefit from exuberance and energy of the youth," Modi said.

'Will implement 7th pay commission'

Arguing that the Left government's arrogance has become a barrier to development and welfare of the people, Modi asked why the state government employees in Tripura are still being paid as per the Fourth Pay Commission and not the seventh. Drawing an analogy between a red traffic signal, and the traditional symbolic red colour of the Left parties, Modi said that development was halted under the Reds' rule, just like a traffic signal.

He promised the people that the Seventh Pay Commission will be implemented in the state and minimum wages will be provided to all workers if BJP comes to power.

"Why dont Tripuras labourers get minimum wage? You protest in Delhi and shut down factories in Mumbai, but force people to die of starvation in Tripura," Modi said.

For some, however, it is the resentment with the Left that is pulling them towards the BJP, and not just the popularity of the prime minister.

Dilip Kumar Dev, 66, who came from Town Bordowali Assembly constituency, said he would support the saffron party even without Modi's pitch because the Left Front government only works for the party and exploits government employees by not giving them proper salaries.

Meera Saha, 35, a housewife from Town Bordowali in Agartala, said the BJP is most likely to come to power in her constituency as the sitting MLA Ashish Saha, who has switched to BJP from Congress, has performed well. Her opinion was shared by Manisha Bhil, 24, of Bamutia (SC) Assembly constituency, who was "more than 100 percent sure of the BJP coming into power."

Exuding confidence that Krishna Dhan Das, the BJP candidate from her constituency will win the election, Bhil said the BJP candidates in the fray are all promising and should be given a chance.

Sanjay Chowdhary, 52, a shopkeeper attending the prime minister's rally said that Left Front being in power for 25 years should be enough of a reason for people to vote for change. Rajesh Bhil, a 29 year old farmer, said he used to support the CPM until he got fed up with their politics. They want the poor to remain poor, he said.

Armstrong Chanambam is an Imphal-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.

The Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday mounted an attack on the Centre over an alleged multi-million dollar scam involving diamantaire Nirav Modi.

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday mounted an attack on the Centre over an alleged multi-million dollar scam involving diamantaire Nirav Modi, alleging that he could flee the country because he had access to the Prime Minister's Office.

The billionaire jewellery designer and businessman, against whom a complaint was lodged with the CBI by the Punjab National Bank on 29 January for his alleged involvement in the scam, had flown out of India on 1 January.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal asked if he had left the country with the backing of the government.

"Is it possible to believe that he or (businessman) Vijay Mallya left the country without the active connivance of BJP government?" Kejriwal tweeted.

In another tweet, senior AAP leader Ashutosh said 42 FIRs against Modi had been sent to the PMO since 26 July, 2016. Yet, he was seen with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Davos at the World Economic Forum last month.

"42 FIRs sent to PMO on 26 July, 2016, PMO acknowledged too. But no action," he tweeted, adding that Modi was seen with the prime minister in Davos.

"And now he has fled. Why PMO did not take action," he asked. "Why he was allowed to flee India (sic)?".

Ashutosh was referring to a photograph in which the prime minister is seen with some of the country's business honchos at the WEF. The photograph was also tweeted by Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha.

"Nirav can't be seen photographed with the prime minister unless everyone present in the pic is scanned and approved by PMO (sic)," Ashutosh tweeted.

"If PMO knew about the FIRs against Nirav then why he was allowed to be in picture! Its clear man has access to the top! (sic)," Ashutosh said in another tweet.Reiterating its opposition to the proposed Rs 1.45 lakh crore oil refinery in coastal Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena on Thursday said the project won't be allowed to be 'thrust' on the locals there.

Mumbai: Reiterating its opposition to the proposed Rs 1.45 lakh crore oil refinery in coastal Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena on Thursday said the project won't be allowed to be "thrust" on the locals there.

"No memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the project has been signed yet. My stand is clear. The project will not be imposed on the locals in any circumstances," Industries Minister Subhash Desai told reporters here.

"Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray will hold talks later today to sort out differences (between Sena and BJP) on the proposed project," the Shiv Sena leader said.

Snubbing the Sena, Fadnavis has given the go-ahead for the mega refinery that is proposed to be set up at Nanar in Ratnagiri district.

The state government is expected to sign a MoU with a consortium of state-owned refineries to set up the mega refinery, at the Magnetic Maharashtra global investors summit starting February 18.

The Industries Department, headed by Desai, has included the project in the list of MoUs to be signed at the summit, which would go a long way in meeting the state government's target of attracting Rs 10 lakh crore investment commitments in the three-day summit.

The project involves setting up one of the world's largest refinery complexes in over two phases.

The state government estimates that the construction of the refinery and allied industries would bring in investments to the tune of Rs 1.45 lakh crore and provide direct and indirect employment to lakhs of people.

The Sena has been rallying the villagers of Nanar and surrounding areas where the refinery is proposed to be set up. Thackeray had asked his party cadres to prevent the project at any cost on the grounds that it would destroy the environment of the Konkan region.

A local body called the Konkan Vinashkari Prakalp Virodhi Samiti (Committee for Opposing Destructive Projects in Konkan), which is spearheading the project, claims that residents of 16 villages have opposed the project.

The government has notified 16,000 acres of land in the area as an industrial area and land acquistion by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation has already begun.

Former Sena leader Narayan Rane, who hails from Konkan and is now a part of NDA, is also opposing the project.

Asked if Thackeray would attend the summit, to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Desai said an invitation has been extended to the Sena president.Slamming Karnataka BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa over his remarks that Congress president Rahul Gandhi had consumed meat before visiting a temple Shiv Sena on Thursday said that discussing such issues during poll campaign shows the 'sick mentality' of the 'nervous' BJP.

Mumbai: Slamming Karnataka BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa over his remarks that Congress president Rahul Gandhi had consumed meat before visiting a temple, Shiv Sena on Thursday said that discussing such issues during poll campaign shows the "sick mentality" of the "nervous" BJP.

Three days back, Yeddyurappa had hit out at Rahul Gandhi for reportedly visiting a temple after eating "Javari chicken" during his tour of northern parts of the poll-bound state.

"Congress president Rahul Gandhi gave the BJP family sleepless nights in Gujarat. It looks as if the same is going to be repeated in the Karnataka (Assembly elections). Rahul Gandhi visited a number of temples in Gujarat and offered prayers there.

That time, the BJP criticised him severely, as it was worried about its own existence thinking what will happen if the Congress leader adopted Hindutva," the Sena, in an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana said.

Gandhi, during his election, had stopped at Kanakagiri in Koppal district and visited the Kanakachala Laxmi-Narasimha temple.

The write-up also claimed that the Congress will corner the BJP in the upcoming Karnataka elections, similar to what they did last year ahead of the Gujarat polls by adopting "soft Hindutva".

"Now, election rallies are being held in Karnataka and there is an exchange of allegations between the BJP and the Congress.

Like in Gujarat, Rahul Gandhi has been visiting mosques as well as temples in that state. This has angered the BJP's chief ministerial face, B S Yeddyurappa, who accused Gandhi of visiting a temple after consuming meat," the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said.

And though the Congress immediately issued a clarification saying that Rahul Gandhi had a vegetarian meal before visiting the temple, according to Shiv Sena, the whole incident only shows the new "low" that this election campaign has touched.

"Discussing such issues during the election campaign is a sign of sick mentality," the Sena noted.

The piece further read that one should not hurt people's religious sentiments, and also should not see what others were eating.

"Every religious place has its own customs and traditions. There are temples in Maharashtra where meat is offered to the deity...Raking up such issues in election campaigns displays a sick mentality.

Only they know what was there in Rahul Gandhi's plate. But we are sure that it has turned the BJP nervous," the party added.

The Sena said that instead of thinking about whether former prime minister Indira Gandhi was a vegetarian or not, it was important to note that she divided Pakistan.

The Sena, in his mouth-piece, also hit out at Yeddyurappa over the violence at Karnataka border during his tenure as Karnataka chief minister.

"During 'vegetarian' Yedyurappa's tenure as the chief minister, the blood of Marathi speaking people living in Karnataka's border areas was shed after they were hit by violence. This violence is also a kind of non-vegetarianism!" the Sena said.Kamal Haasan hit out at Tamil Nadu govts  current and earlier ones  for neglecting villages, farm sector and putting the farming community in a crisis.

Chennai: Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan hit out at Tamil Nadu governments  current and earlier ones  for neglecting villages, the farm sector and putting the farming community in a crisis.

Haasan, who earlier said he would adopt a village and make it into a "model village", revealed that his recent visit to the US was to achieve "his goal" to tap the technology and knowledge of Indians who have migrated there.

In his latest weekly column in Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan Haasan, the superstar said he met KR Sridhar, founder of Bloom Energy that makes the Bloom Box  a generator of clean power based on fuel cell technology.

Haasan said he discussed with Sridhar the possibility of Bloom Box being used in Tamil Nadu villages, adding that Sridhar foresees the days when the state would become a major consumer of such technology.

According to the actor, his political journey was to adopt a village, turn agriculture into a profitable activity and (promote) industrialisation in nearby areas without polluting the environment.

Haasan said one person in the US mentioned that 'Ulaga Nayagan' (global hero) was now becoming an 'Ulloor Nayagan' (local hero).Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said the 'lotus' (BJP's poll symbol) will bloom in Tripura

Gorakhpur: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said the "lotus" (BJP's poll symbol) will bloom in Tripura as the people of the north-eastern state were fed up with the CPM-led Left Front government.

"The lotus will bloom in Tripura this year. The people of the state are angry with the government and the BJP is getting a massive support. Only the CPM workers get the benefits of government policies in Tripura. In this condition, development is very difficult," he told reporters in Gorakhpur.

According to the chief minister, since 80 percent of Tripura is surrounded by Bangladesh, a "poor country", the people of the state think that their condition is fine. "But now, they also want development," he said.

Asked about the possible BJP candidate for the Gorakhpur bypoll, Adityanath said, "I am from this place. I am directly connected to each person here. Since the party has given me the responsibility of the chief minister, my workplace has expanded. But my Lok Sabha seat cannot remain vacant and someone will come in that place."

Adityanath had been a five-time MP from Gorakhpur.

On the upcoming investors' summit in the state, the chief minister said, "The prime minister and president will participate, along with several industrialists. The one district, one product policy will be really beneficial for the state in terms of self-employment and jobs. In the next three years, 20 lakh youth will benefit from it."

After the investors' summit, his government would organise a global summit, in which industrialists from abroad would be invited, and a conducive environment for industry and business would "certainly be created" in the state, Adityanath said.

"In Gorakhpur, efforts are being made to establish a Rs 1,200-crore ethanol plant and promote tourism. The places related to the freedom movement will be developed," he added.

During his visit to the district, the chief minister performed a "Mahabhishek" of Lord Shiva on the occasion of "Mahashivratri" and performed a two-and-a-half-hour-long puja at the Shakti temple at the Gorakhnath Mutt. He also went to the Mapitheshwar Nath Shiva temple at Bharoiya in Pipiganj and performed a puja.

Mahashivratri is a major festival of the Nath sect as Guru Gorakshnath is known to be the incarnation of Lord Shiva.

A "Shiv baraat" was also taken out from the Sheetla Mata temple, in which Mayor Sita Ram Jaiswal and former mayor Satya Pandey also took part, along with other dignitaries.tech2 News Staff

After Xiaomi's poll debacle on Twitter, Chinese rival OnePlus also jumped on the boat with its own poll to find out which OS users prefer. The two options in the poll were Oxygen OS and Pure Android. The poll was being conducted by Szymon Kopec, the product manager at OnePlus.

Now at one point of the poll, we could see that users were in favour of Oxygen OS over Android. At this point, co-founder of OnePlus Carl Pei tweeted out "Don't delete this poll". This could partially have been to avoid a Xiaomi-like situation and partially due to the belief that Oxygen OS would triumph over Pure Android in the poll.

Alas, for OnePlus, at the very end we saw that, as in the case of the Xiaomi poll, Pure Android snatched another victory with 58 percent out of the 10,349 voters voting for it. OnePlus took the noble route (For the first time in its life?), posted the results, and Szymon Kopec said that all the negative reviews received on Oxygen OS would help OnePlus improve the product for their customers.

What do you prefer?  Szymon Kopec  (@szymonkopec) February 13, 2018

Our own poll, which is still running by the way, indicates that pure Android is still the people's choice of OS. The writing's on the wall, Xiaomi and OnePlus. We want more pure Android smartphones!tech2 News Staff

Amazon India has today announced that it has signed a deal with Warner Music Group for bringing in more music to its upcoming streaming service, Prime Music. It would seem that this deal has been made to compete with industry heavyweights such as Apple Music and Spotify, wherein the latter has still not officially launched in India.

Having already signed deals with the likes of Sony Music and Zee Music, this is the sixth new deal that has been penned down by the e-commerce giant. "We are thrilled to bring Warner Music's vast and eclectic international catalogue exclusively for Prime members in India. Our customers will enjoy listening to their favourite artists from around the world," said Sahas Malhotra, Director, Amazon Music, India in an interview with The Economic Times.

Earlier when Amazon signed a deal with Sony, it included songs from global performers such as Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Camila Cabello, The Chainsmokers, Martin Garrix, Pharrell Williams and more. In the Indian sphere, this includes artists such as A R Rahman, Jagjit Singh, Gulzar (Marasim & Koi Baat Chale), Lucky Ali, Colonial Cousins, Instant Karma, Darshan Raval, Arjun Kanungo, Hardy Sandhu, and Badshah, to name a few.tech2 News Staff

Lenovo is all geared up to launch its premium flagship smartphone called the Moto Z2 Force. The Z2 Force brings a shatterproof display, dual cameras and the latest Snapdragon SoC.

Set to launch at 12 PM on 15 February in India, Motorola India will announce the smartphone online. This makes it even easier for fans and interested buyers to check out the online live stream to keep up with the updates. The event will be live stream will be displayed on Motorola India's official YouTube channel. Else you can simply pin this article and view it from the embedded video after the break.

As for the smartphone, the Z2 Force is Motorola's second attempt at a shatterproof smartphone. The device was first announced as the Moto Z2 Force Edition at an event in New York in July 2017. The idea here is to reintroduce its ShatterShield display technology, that well... prevents the Z2's display from falling apart when dropped to the ground.

Apart from this, the Motorola Moto Z2 Force looks identical to the recently launched Moto Z2 Play. The copy paste design could be a deal breaker for buyers interested in a fancy looking premium smartphone that is expected to be priced around Rs 40,000-50,000.

The display is a QHD 5.5-inch P-OLED unit showcasing up to 16 million colours and sporting a resolution of 1,440x2,560 pixels, which sadly does not sport the 18:9 aspect ratio, a current trend among smartphone makers.

Inside, is where the Moto Z2 Force distinguishes itself from the Z2 Play. You get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 clocked at 2.35 GHz with an octa-core setup and an Adreno 540 GPU. The same is paired with 6 GB RAM and 64 GB internal storage.

Motorola keeps up with expectations on the camera front delivering a dual 12 MP camera setup, offering PDAF and a dual tone flash. On the front, there's a 5 MP unit with another dual LED dual tone flash unit.

Since this is not a bezel-less smartphone (or anything remotely close to it) the fingerprint reader sits below the display on the front. At the bottom end sits a USB Type C 1.0 port.

Connectivity options include a Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/ac, GPS and NFC.

Indeed, the second highlight of the device is the battery. While the Moto Z2 Force packs in a smaller than usual 2,730 mAh battery, Lenovo will also launch a slim battery pack with a 3,490 mAh capacity which you can slap on to the back since the smartphone supports Moto Mods. The bundled battery is much lower than what one could expect from other flagships, as well as the 3,510 mAh battery that was seen on the Moto Z2 Play.

Launched mid-way last year, the phone does come with its share of problems. Recently, reports sprung up online with many owners complaining of the ShatterShield protective layer peeling off.tech2 News Staff

Known leakster Evan Blass has posted renders of two upcoming Nokia-branded devices, the Nokia 1 and Nokia 7 Plus.

As usual, he took to his Twitter handle to post these new images, giving us a clear idea about what we can expect in terms of the design. Both these devices were the focal point of a number of leaks, rumours and tips in the last two months. Obviously, the frequency of leaks only increases as Mobile World Congress 2018 (MWC) approaches.

Blass also pointed out that the Nokia 7 Plus will be the first Android One device by HMD Global. These leaks hint at the fact that HMD Global may launch both these devices during MWC 2018. The company has not issued any official statement in this regard.

Nokia 7+, with Android One in tow pic.twitter.com/r5sbFUxsyx  Evan Blass (@evleaks) February 15, 2018

According to the screenshots, the Nokia 7 Plus comes with a vertical dual camera setup and a fingerprint scanner along with a white finish on the back. The company has also added copper highlights on the camera module, fingerprint scanner and buttons on the sides of the device. It also comes with an LED flash module on the right of the camera module and Android One branding on the lower half of the device. Users can find an 18:9 aspect ratio display on the front of the device.

As reported previously, Nokia 7 Plus is likely to pack in a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 with 4 GB RAM and 64 GB internal storage. Moving to the Nokia 1, the screenshots indicated a more compact form with a similar design when compared to 7 Plus. As reported previously, Nokia 1 is likely to pack in Android Go. This leak comes days after it was revealed that Nokia-branded smartphones outsold Google, Lenovo, HTC and others during holiday quarter last year.Reuters

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday Russia categorically denies allegations from a British official that Russia was responsible for the NotPetya cyber-attack last year.

Peskov, on a conference call with reporters, said the allegations were groundless and part of a Russophobic campaign being conducted in some Western countries.

Britain blamed Russia on Thursday for a cyber-attack last year, publicly pointing the finger at Moscow for spreading a virus which disrupted companies across Europe.

Not to long ago Russian hacker group 'Fancy Bears' hacked and published emails regarding the 2018 Winter Olympics.

According to cybersecurity firm ThreatConnect, a group with the same name "Fancy Bear" had used the same website and the same format to publish documents in 2016 that had been hacked from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in response to that agency's finding that hundreds of Russian athletes had taken banned substances.tech2 News Staff

While there have been plenty of leaks about Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S9 and S9 plus smartphones all of this information is based on leaked data from various sources.

But as the launch date for the Galaxy Unpacked event at the upcoming Mobile World Congress nears, the dust has now settled and the finer details about Samsung's upcoming flagship have now begun to emerge, this time from Samsung.

Samsung Mobile Korea, the manufacturer's official YouTube channel for its home market have released three new teasers for the Galaxy S9 smartphone.

The first teaser focuses on the how hard it is capture and track high-speed movement, be its sports, actions, moving vehicles, lightning and other things you would normally want to capture on your smartphone.

The teaser plays all of these activities at normal speed (which is pretty fast) and finally slows things down hinting at the Galaxy S9's super slow motion video capture capabilities.

The second teaser again hints at the camera explaining how hard it is to capture low light imagery and how frequently we come across such scenarios. According to the teaser, the Galaxy S9 should have impressive low-light shooting capabilities, which should hopefully offer brighter photos than the Note 8 and the Pixel 2.

The third trailer reveals a 3D emoji-like feature that is expected to debut on Android with the Galaxy S9. The feature according to 9to5Google seems to be similar to Apple's Animoji, but with advanced customisations. Samsung is expected add a body to the emoji, with ability to customise the characters' hairstyle clothing and more.

The Samsung Galaxy S9 according to previously leaked details is expected to launch with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset paired with 6 GB RAM and 64 GB of internal storage. Past leaks have also pointed out the possibility of a camera with a dual aperture system, which is non-existent in current day smartphones save for the recently launched Samsung W2018.tech2 News Staff

Uber lost an average of $1.1 billion a quarter in 2017, with total losses for the year amounting to $4.46 billion.

These figures have been gleaned from a privately held financial statement, reports ArsTechnica. The good news for Uber, according to Bloomberg, is that its business actually grew last year. According to Bloomberg, the growth in revenue is a good sign, as is the fact that the company is continuing to cut expenses.

A significant chunk of the losses in 2017 come from the Uber-Waymo trial, which was abruptly cut short when both companies reached a settlement wherein Uber handed over $245 million in stock to Waymo.

The ride-hailing company is privately funded. With its $9.3 billion stake, Japanese firm SoftBank is the largest investor.

Bloomberg notes that Uber only claims $2.2 billion in losses for 2017 as the company is choosing to ignore legal costs, taxes, interest, and several other expenses.

Uber also told Bloomberg that UberEats contributes to 10 percent of Ubers revenue. The report also speculates that Uber will be taken public next year.Reuters

The US Department of Energy (DOE) said on 14 February it is establishing an office to protect the nations power grid and other infrastructure against cyber attacks and natural disasters.

President Donald Trumps budget proposal unveiled this week included $96 million in funding for the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry said the DOE plays a vital role in protecting our nations energy infrastructure from cyber threats, physical attack and natural disaster, and as secretary, I have no higher priority.

Last July, the DOE helped US firms defend against a hacking campaign that targeted power companies including at least one nuclear plant. The agency said that the attacks did not have an impact on electricity generation or the grid, and that any impact appeared to be limited to administrative and business networks.

The previous month, the US Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had issued an alert to industrial companies, warning that for months hackers had targeted nuclear reactors and other power industry infrastructure, using tainted emails to harvest credentials and gain access to networks.

In some cases hackers succeeded in compromising the networks of their targets, but the report did not identify specific victims.

Nuclear power experts, such as Dave Lochbaum at the Union of Concerned Scientists nonprofit group, have said reactors have a certain amount of immunity from cyber attacks because their operation systems are separate from digital business networks. But over time it would not be impossible for hackers to potentially do harm, he said.In 2017, Motorola did not announce any flagship device in India, which was an anomaly in its product cycle. But the Lenovo owned brand is starting 2018 with the announcement of the Moto Z2 Force, which is its Snapdragon 835 and 6 GB RAM housing, ShatterShield display sporting smartphone.

Considering the launch prices of flagships are reaching stratospheric levels (hello Apple!) and even Android flagships crossing the Rs 60k barrier, there is immense space between the affordable flagship such as the OnePlus 5/5T and the 60k plus priced flagships. Motorola hopes to fill in that gap with the Z2 Force. And with a price of Rs 34,999, Moto has made it clear that it is gunning for the OnePlus 5/5T buyers. It sweetens the deal by adding the TurboPower Pack mod, which is retailing at Rs 5,999, for free along with every Moto Z2 Force purchase. With this Moto Z2 Force has taken care of its onboard 2,730 mAh battery which is quite a low capacity for a flagship phone.

When the Moto X first launched, I was quite impressed with the shattershield tech on the glass, which prevented any damage to the display. But it was launched at a ridiculously high price point at the time. With Moto Z2 Force that is certainly not the case. Fresh from the success of the Moto Z2 Play, even though the Moto Z2 Force looks more 2017 than 2018 (well, it was launched internationally in July 2017) especially considering how flagships and even lower priced devices have now embraced the 18:9 aspect ratio display, it is still a phone worth considering. Let us explain.

Build and Design: 8.5/10

Moto Z2 Force offers an excellent build quality. Crafted out of series 7000 aluminum, the Z2 Force comes with a unibody metal design. The phone is quite sleek, measuring just 6.1mm thick and I liked how light the device is, weighing in at 143 grams.

The corners are neatly rounded and the edges taper nicely along the display. Despite the metal build, the phone did not come across as slippery. The rear side has a nice hairline finish, and all around the edges there is a groove which houses the antenna band elegantly. The circular camera module protrudes out by quite a bit and has dual camera sensors along with the dual LED flash unit below them. Towards the lower half on the rear side, you have the connector to snap on the Moto Mods. Once you snap the Moto mods, the camera tends to be in line with most Mods.

On the front, you have the fingerprint sensor at the base, a 5.5-inch display protected by shatterproof glass, which I will talk about in the Display section. The front camera, proximity sensors, earpiece speaker (which is also the only speaker module) and the dual LED flash units are placed after each other. One thing I did not like was that the place where the glass meets the metal edge, you can feel a sharpness of the top layer of the display. This is the slightly bendable element which tends to spread out the force after the point of impact. But it could certainly have been merged more smoothly with the edge. It also raises fears of that layer coming off, as has been observed by some users.

One thing that is lacking though is the presence of waterproof and dustproof IP certification. Yes, the phone can take splashes of water, but it is not a phone you would want to submerge in water. On the right-hand edge, you have the volume rocker buttons and the power/standby buttons, which have a good amount of feedback. The left edge is clear. At the base, you have the USB Type C port and on the top, there is a hybrid dual SIM card tray.

A favourite passtime with this phone was dropping it randomly and being amused at the shocked expressions of the people around me. Whether it was granite, marble, mud or even tar roads, the Moto Z2 Force took drops on every surface with no signs of cracking. Yes, it did pick up some scratches on the surface though.

Features: 8/10

As the Z2 Force is the flagship phone from the Moto stable, Moto has gone all out on the feature set. For starters, you get the 5.5-inch AMOLED panel display which has a layer of plastic which is shatterproof. The Z2 Force houses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset which has 8x Kryo 280 processors with one quad-core cluster clocked at 2.35 GHz and the other quad-core cluster clocked at 1.9 GHz. This is paired with Adreno 540 GPU.

It comes with 6 GB RAM and 64 GB storage which is expandable to up to 2 TB (Id really love to know who purchases that kind of storage). Theres Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box with 1 December 2017 patch. There's dual 12 MP cameras on the back and a 5 MP camera in the front, and there is LED flash unit on both sides.

In terms of connectivity, you have a hybrid dual SIM card slot on the top edge, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS with A-GPS, NFC, USB Type C port for data transfer and charging. It has a fingerprint scanner on the front and the rear side has the golden connectors for the Moto Mods.

Display: 8/10

You get a 5.5-inch AMOLED display with a QHD resolution with 2560 x 1440 pixels which gives it a pixel density of 535 PPI. This ensures that everything is tack sharp and there is absolutely no pixellation visible, even when viewed up close. Thanks to the AMOLED display, you get excellent blacks, vivid colours and a great overall contrast ratio. If you find the display a bit too vivid for your liking, you can head over to the display settings and change to Standard mode to get a neutral colour profile.

Consuming hours of Netflix and gaming on the device was a joy. Viewing angles are great too. There was a bit of problem with reading text under bright sunlight, but adjusting the brightness levels sorts out the issue. The adaptive display isnt that quick. Also in a lot of instances, I noticed that while shooting images, the scene appeared a bit under a shadow, but the final output was quite bright.

The USP and the reason this phone exists is the shatterproof display. The Z2 Forces display is made up five layers with the display being the bottom-most layer and then there are protective layers on top. The topmost layer is made up of plastic, which tends to diverge the force across the panel in case the phone is dropped in a way that the display makes the first contact with the ground surface.

Yes, among the current crop of 18:9 aspect ratio sporting flagships, the Moto Z2 Force display sticks out like a sore thumb, but then none of the other smartphones offers a shatterproof display. Speaking to Moto representatives I learned that the 18:9 display was not possible due to the presence of the plastic protective display layer on top. The body to screen ratio on the Moto Z2 Force isn't that great. The only issue is that because of the protective plastic layer on the top of the display, there is no protection against scratches. And when the phone is in sleep mode, the scratches are visible. The only way out of that is to add a screen protector atop it.

Software: 8/10

Motorola was one of the first handset makers who had stuck to a pure Android experience right from the Moto G days when every other player was offering their own skinned take on Android. Even after being acquired by Lenovo, the pure Android experience has remained. Of course, there are some custom Moto apps, but they do add a lot of value.

The Moto Z2 Force comes with Android 8.0 Oreo with barely any skinning on it. The only bloatware if you will (I wont call it that) is in the form of Moto experience. This certainly adds a lot of value to the overall experience.

Under Moto Actions, you get one-button navigation, twisting hand gesture to turn on the camera, double chop gesture to activate the light, swiping to shrink the screen, pick up to stop ringing, among other things. I really love the one-button navigation, which eschews the need for on-screen navigation buttons. As it is the display real-estate isnt much and to add on the nav buttons does not make sense when you have an option to reduce that.

Moto Display lets you set the Night mode timings according to your convenience. It also lets you glance at your notifications even when the phone is sleeping. This is a convenient way to stay connected without having to interact much with the device. You also get the option to respond to messages or send voice messages.

Moto Voice may initially seem like bloat, as you already have Google Assistant onboard for voice assistance. But as you use it, you can use Moto Voice to switch between apps, open apps, set alarms, call contacts and more. And of course, theres the Moto Mods app as well to interface with the mods.

The user experience thanks to the clean OS is wonderful. There was barely any noticeable lag or slow animations. The settings menu still seems a bit dated, but during the day to day usage, things are pretty intuitive.

Performance: 8.5/10

This section is handled pretty well by the Moto Z2 Force. The Snapdragon 835 chipset paired with 6 GB RAM ensures that it runs everything you throw at it. There was barely any instance when I noticed any slowdown. Also, thanks to the clean Android interface, there were no screen freezes or glitches during the animation.

I did notice the one-button navigation acting clunky at times. On a couple of instances, despite just waking the phone from sleep mode, it would force me to enter the PIN despite the registered fingerprint login.

Gaming is a joy on this display and yes, you will feel like the screen to body ratio could have been better for an immersive gaming experience that you can now experience on other taller displays. But hey, you can add in a Gaming Controller Moto Mod and have physical buttons to control your games. Minor heating was noticed when I played Asphalt 8: Airborne for an extended duration. The metal on the rear would warm up, but temperatures never crossed 38 degrees Celcius. Heating never ever led to app shutdown. Call quality is excellent, and since the earpiece speaker is the only speaker, it can get sufficiently loud on call. But the single speaker made listening to audio while watching a video in landscape mode quite awkward. It always felt lopsided and as if something was missing. Thankfully, Moto bundles a USB Type C to 3.5 mm jack adapter. Benchmark scores are in line with other Snapdragon 835 SoC sporting devices. Nothing extraordinary there. Camera: 7.5/10 Moto Z2 Force houses a dual camera module which tends to protrude out from the plane of the rear side. The camera module is pleasant to look at and the dual LED flashlights almost make the module have a smiley face. In terms of specifications, you get two 12 MP Sony IMX 386 sensors with f/2.0 aperture and a 5 MP front-facing camera with f/2.2 aperture. The two cameras do not let you activate optical zoom right off the bat, as one of the sensors is an RGB colour one and the other is a black and white sensor. This is done to help with getting sharper contrasty images, and it also helps with depth modes which give a good shallow depth of field to your photos. On the video front, it can shoot up to 4K at 30 fps.

The camera interface is pretty straightforward if you have used older Moto devices. On the base, you have the shooting modes with the settings menu represented by three vertical dots and on the top bar, you have HDR switcher, flash switcher and timer mode. The Settings menu offers Professional mode (the user interface of which looks ripped off from older Nokia Lumia devices), True B&W mode (which only activates the B&W sensor to capture true monochrome images), Depth Enabled (which helps with getting that bokeh effect) and Panorama mode. In the video section, you get the Slow motion and True B&W modes.

Daylight image quality was excellent. The Moto Z2 Force handled lighting situations pretty well, and even with areas which had tricky lighting, the Auto HDR mode managed to get a lot of shadow detail. Thanks to the fast phase-detect AF, it was a joy shooting in the streets during daytime and evening. Colours do pop out on occasion, and this may not be to everyones liking.

But there is a way to tone down the overall vivid display from the settings menu. I liked the True B&W mode which appeared better than just taking a colour photograph and editing it to the B&W setting. Daylight video is also usable but as there is no OIS, if you are walking and shooting, you will notice a lot of wobbles.

Things slide south when shooting in low light situations. The shutter lag is immediately noticeable if using in HDR mode and ensure you have a steady hand or are using a tripod when shooting in HDR at night. Noise is visible in low light photographs, but as long as there is ambient light around, images are still usable. It is nowhere close to the clarity one gets with say a Pixel 2 or a Note 8 in low light situations.

Battery: 7.5/10

Well, the Moto Z2 Force has a battery capacity of 2,730 mAh and when you compare that with flagship phones, that does not really fill you up with much confidence. The slim form factor of the Moto Z2 Force may have forced it to take that decision. Surely, no smartphone maker wants to repeat the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 fiasco. Just with the onboard battery, I could get around 12-14 hours of usage, with around 3-4 hours of screen on time, before I had to start charging it again. That is a little over my regular workday.

But Motorola is bundling in its TurboPower Pack battery mod along with the Moto Z2 Force. This snap-on battery module has a capacity of 3,940 mAh, which is more than enough to give you over a day and half of battery life. It snaps on easily thanks to the magnetic connectors on the Moto Z2 Forces rear side. Of course, it adds some fat to the slim form factor, it just adds around 7mm thickness and around 95 grams - small compromises for what you are getting in return.

You are getting a combined battery pack of 6,220 mAh battery. This ensures that your phone will run well over two days. And as soon as the battery on the Turbo battery mod starts depleting, you can use the on-board battery of the phone. In that meantime, you can charge your mod, which supports fast charging so goes to 100 percent in under two hours. And the best part is that you can charge the TurboPower pack mod independent of the phone, thanks to its dedicated USB Type C port. Snap that back on and you have a phone whose battery will never go out. I loved the convenience this mod provides and I see myself using the Z2 Force over a weekend trip without bothering about running out of battery.

The battery mode has a sturdy build with slanted pattern design which provides a good grip. There is a round button at the base beside which has four LED indicators for the charge level indication.

Verdict and Price in India

Moto Z2 Force has a lot going for it  clean Android experience, value-adding Moto software features, shatterproof display, sleek form factor and the bundled TurboPower Pack mod ensures that battery woes are kept at bay. Unlike other flagship phones out there, with the shatterproof display on the Moto Z2 Force you will never need to bother about the display cracking any time soon. For Moto fans who are still on a couple of generations old Moto X devices, this is a great upgrade path.

But you will have to be ready to accept the compromises that come along with the Moto Z2 Force, such as lack of scratchproof display, lack of OIS, lack of water and dust proofing and low light photographs which leave a lot to be desired. Of course, it also looks like a 2017 flagship, and for those who are enamoured by the 18:9 aspect ratio displays the Moto Z2 Force may not appeal. The only other alternative in that price range is the OnePlus 5T, which still offers a good value proposition.

If you want a road warrior, which you can rely on, get the Moto Z2 Force already.

Find latest and upcoming tech gadgets online on Tech2 Gadgets. Get technology news, gadgets reviews & ratings. Popular gadgets including laptop, tablet and mobile specifications, features, prices, comparison.The Syrian government on Wednesday denied it possessed chemical weapons and branded the use of such arms 'immoral and unacceptable'.

Damascus: The Syrian government on Wednesday denied it possessed chemical weapons and branded the use of such arms "immoral and unacceptable", following a French warning of punitive strikes.

As Damascus dismissed suspicions of chlorine attacks on rebel-held areas including besieged Eastern Ghouta, the first aid convoy since November entered the battered enclave near the capital.

"Syria's government categorically denies possessing... chemical weapons," said Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, quoted by state news agency SANA. "We consider the use of such arms as immoral and unacceptable, whatever the context."

On Tuesday, Frances President Emmanuel Macron warned his country would launch strikes if proof emerged that the Syrian regime had used banned chemical weapons against its civilians.

According to Washington, at least six chlorine attacks have been reported since early January in rebel-held areas, resulting in dozens of injuries. Damascus in March also denied carrying out chemical attacks and its ally Moscow denounced such charges as a "propaganda campaign", stressing the perpetrators had not been identified.

France, like the United States, suspects the Syrian regime but says it does not yet have concrete evidence on the nature and origin of the attacks. Damascus has repeatedly been accused of using chemical weapons, despite a 2013 deal between the United States and Russia for Syria to destroy its stockpiles. The United Nations was among those who blamed government forces for an April 2017 sarin gas attack on the opposition-held village of Khan Sheikhun that left scores dead.

In retaliation for that alleged attack, the United States carried out cruise missile strikes on a Syrian regime airbase.

As Assad's opponents ratcheted up pressure, there was some respite with the arrival of the first aid convoy in months in rebel Eastern Ghouta after intensive bombardments last week killed 250 civilians.

"First UN and Syrian Red Crescent inter-agency convoy this year crossed conflict lines to Nashabieh in Eastern Ghouta to deliver food, health and nutrition supplies for 7,200 people in the besieged enclave," the UN humanitarian affairs office said.

Some 400,000 people live in the enclave outside Damascus where they have been under siege by the army since 2013, facing severe food and medicine shortages. The UN Security Council is considering a draft resolution demanding a 30-day ceasefire in Syria to allow for urgent deliveries of humanitarian aid. Sweden and Kuwait presented the draft, which would also demands an immediate end to sieges, including on Eastern Ghouta, after regime ally Russia last week rejected as "not realistic" a similar appeal by UN aid officials.

The United Nations has said that violence in Syria has only worsened since it first called for a truce last week, with "some of the worst fighting of the entire conflict" being witnessed.

President Bashar al-Assad's forces have bludgeoned their way ahead with the help of Russian air power in the war that has claimed more than 340,000 lives since 2011.

Beyond pounding Eastern Ghouta, the regime is conducting an offensive in the northwestern Idlib province, the only one that had remained completely out of its grip.

Further to the north, Turkey is also carrying out a major operation in the Afrin region against Kurdish miiltia that have received backing from the US.Barnaby Joyce, 50, has been under immense pressure since his affair with former media advisory Vikki Campion, 33, who is now pregnant with their child, became public last week.

Sydney (Australia): Australia's prime minister imposed a formal ban on sex between ministers and their staff on Thursday after his deputy made "a shocking error of judgement" by having an affair that left an aide pregnant and the government reeling.

Malcolm Turnbull announced the amendment to the ministerial code of conduct at an extraordinary press conference during which he slammed deputy Barnaby Joyce for causing "terrible hurt and humiliation" to his wife and four children.

"Barnaby made a shocking error of judgement in having an affair with a young woman working in his office," he said.

"In doing so, he has set off a world of woe for those women and appalled all of us.

"Our hearts go out to them. It has been a dreadful thing for them to go through in the glare of publicity."

Joyce, 50, has been under immense pressure since his affair with former media advisory Vikki Campion, 33, who is now pregnant with their child, became public last week.

It has led to allegations that he breached ministerial rules, with the crisis dominating the front pages and parliament question time, with calls mounting for him to resign.

Joyce, whose National Party is in a coalition with the prime minister's Liberals, will take leave next week, allowing him to side-step the role of acting leader while Turnbull is on a visit to the United States.

Turnbull departs for Washington next Wednesday for meetings with US president Donald Trump and is scheduled to be overseas for four days.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, as deputy Liberal leader, would normally step in if Joyce was unavailable. But she will also be travelling, which means Senate leader Mathias Cormann will take the position.

Turnbull said the break would allow Joyce to "consider his own position".

The prime minister could sack him, but that risks fracturing the ruling coalition and could cause a rift between the Liberal and National parties.

'No good comes of it'

Joyce admitted to the affair after a picture of his pregnant lover was splashed across the front page of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, and has publicly apologised to his shattered wife of 24 years Natalie and their daughters.

Turnbull said times had changed and people expected politicians to set an example.

"I am not here to moralise. But we must recognise that whatever may have been acceptable or to which a blind eye was turned in the past, today, in 2018, it is not acceptable for a minister to have a sexual relationship with somebody who works for them," he said.

"It is a very bad workplace practice. And everybody knows that no good comes of it."

As such, he amended the code of conduct to make unequivocally clear that "ministers, regardless of whether they are married or single, must not engage in sexual relations with staff".

Joyce  best known internationally for threatening to euthanise Hollywood star Johnny Depp's dogs over a quarantine violation  denies he breached any rules, which could be grounds for him to be removed from office.

He has defended the two jobs, one for a minister, that Campion was given after she stopped working for him last year.

The code stipulates that "partners" of ministers cannot be given jobs in ministerial offices without the express approval of the prime minister.

Joyce is also under fire over revelations that he accepted a rent-free apartment from a millionaire friend after his marriage collapsed.

Labor accused him of breaching ministerial standards by asking for a place to live, and in effect receiving a gift of not paying rent for six months. Joyce insists it was offered and he did not ask for it.

Joyce was re-elected in his rural constituency in New South Wales late last year after being forced to stand down over a once-obscure rule barring dual citizens from federal office.

He campaigned on a platform of being a pillar of the community who upheld conservative values, including marriage.All global chokepoints are currently under pressure from China's OBOR initiative through which Beijing intends to displace the US, Harry Harris said.

Washington: All global chokepoints are currently under pressure from China's One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative through which Beijing intends to displace the US and its allies from the Indo-Pacific region, a top American commander told lawmakers on Thursday.

"One Belt One Road is, in fact, much more than just an economic engine that China is undertaking," Admiral Harry Harris, commander of the US Pacific Command told members of the House Armed Services Committee during a Congressional hearing on Indo-Pacific region.

Harris said it is a good thing as long as it seeks to link economically the population of China with markets and resources in Europe, and Africa, and Central Asia.

"Anything you put to improve the quality of life for folks through trade is a positive. But I think also that OBOR seeks to displace the United States and our friends and allies in the region, in the Indo-Pacific region by China," Harris said.

"It is a concerted, strategic endeavour by China to gain a foothold and displace the United States and our allies and partners in the region," he said.

One needs to look at the bases and places where China is putting its emphasis to see the realisation of this, he said. "They are in a position today to influence the shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz, in the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea which means the Suez Canal, and also in our hemisphere in the Panama Canal," he said.

"Also, finally in the Strait of Malacca, all those global chokepoints are under pressure from China's One Belt One Road initiative," Harris said.

Notably, India was the first country to object to OBOR, part of which passes through the Pak-Occupied Kashmir. India has said that the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) violates India's sovereignty. Last year India had skipped China's OBOR summit.

Following India's objections, many countries including the United States have come out openly against China's OBOR.

Touted as Chinese President Xi Jinping's ambitious project, the One Belt One Road initiative focuses on improving connectivity and cooperation among Asian countries, Africa, China and Europe.Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai has said that it would be dangerous to advocate confrontation against Beijing.

Washington: Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai has said that it would be dangerous to advocate confrontation and instead expressed confidence that common interest and dialogue would outgrow any friction between the two nations.

"It's certainly paranoid to fear that a China that follows its own path of development would be confrontational to the US,"

"And it's dangerous to advocate any strategy for confrontation (against China)," Xinhua quoted Cui as saying at the Spring Festival reception in the Chinese Embassy on Tuesday.

"It would be wishful thinking to believe that some political or cultural genetic engineering could be done to change China's DNA," he said.

The China-US relationship "should be characterised by overall cooperation. Friendly competition... but no confrontation," Cui said.

"We will continue to have differences between us, but our growing common interests are far more important... The need for cooperation will far outweigh any differences... Dialogues will lead us to solutions," Cui said.

Noting that the Chinese new year will be the Year of the Dog, Cui said "dogs are seen as loyal, sincere, and trusting companions in both Chinese and the western cultures. I believe such virtues are equally essential for relations between countries."

US senator Shelley Capito of West Virginia, who attended the event, said: "Our state is really excited about the investment that's going to come from China and we think it's going to be a game changer..."

She was referring to the $83.7 billion investment pledge China has made during Trump's state visit to Beijing in 2017.

More than 700 people attended the event, including US secretary of commerce Wilbur Ross.Donald Trump's statement came amidst a debate in Congress where several immigration bills have been tabled. But the president has thrown his weight behind the Grassley bill.

Washington: US president Donald Trump on Wednesday came out in support of an immigration bill introduced by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, saying the draft supports the four pillars of his immigration framework.

Trump's statement came amidst a debate in Congress where several immigration bills have been tabled. But the president has thrown his weight behind the Grassley bill.

However, the opposition Democrats described it as extreme on legal immigration.

"The Grassley bill accomplishes the four pillars of the White House Framework: a lasting solution on DACA (Deferred Action for Children Arrival), ending chain migration, cancelling the visa lottery, and securing the border through building the wall and closing legal loopholes," Trump said in a statement after Grassley, along with nearly half a dozen Senators, introduced the bill in the Senate.

"I am asking all senators, in both parties, to support the Grassley bill and to oppose any legislation that fails to fulfil these four pillars  that includes opposing any short-term 'Band-Aid' approach.

"The overwhelming majority of American voters supports a plan that fulfils the Framework's four pillars, which move us towards the safe, modern, and lawful immigration system our people deserve," he said.

The White House, on the other hand, opposed the McCain-Coons immigration proposal, which it said would increase illegal immigration, surge chain migration, continue catch and release, and give a pathway to citizenship to convicted alien felons.

Another bipartisan group of Senators including Senator Tim Kaine said that they have reached a deal on immigration and they plan to introduce a legislation soon.

Speaking on the Senate floor, Democratic Senator and Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer was critical of the Republican moves.

"President Trump somehow thinks that Democrats will be blamed for not getting a deal on DACA because we didn't go blindly along with his partisan plan  extreme as it is, with no input from Democrats. That will not happen," he said.

The Democrats, Schumer said, are focused like a laser on finding a bipartisan bill that can pass the Senate to protect the 'Dreamers'.

Several moderate Republicans are working towards that as well. The one person who seems most intent on not getting a deal is President Trump, he said.

"Trump's contribution to this debate has been to put forward a proposal that contains a vast curtailment of legal immigration, far outside the scope of DACA for border security, and demanded that Democrats support it," he said.

"Instead of making a proposal in good faith or working with Democrats on a compromise, President Trump is trying to force his unpopular, hardline immigration agenda down the throats of the American people by calling it a DACA bill," said Schumer.

"The President's proposal, now the Grassley bill, is so extreme on legal immigration that several Republicans have been critical of it, including my Republican friends from South Carolina and Arizona," Schumer added.At least 17 people, including students, were killed after a former student opened fire at a Florida high school, law enforcement officials said on Wednesday.

At least 17 people, including students, were killed after a former student opened fire at a Florida high school, law enforcement officials said on Wednesday. The shooting suspect, identified as Nikolas Cruz, has been taken into custody. The FBI is assisting local officials in the investigation.

"Nikolas Cruz was the killer. He is in custody. We already began to dissect his websites and social media that he was on ... some of the things that come to mind are very, very disturbing," Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters at a news conference in Florida. Cruz, 19, was a former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where the shooting took place. Israel said Cruz got expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons. The suspect had countless magazines, he added.

"At this point, we believe he had one AR-15 rifle. I don't know if he had a second one," the sheriff said in response to a question. The suspect was treated and released to the police. Of the 17 dead, 12 were inside the building, two were shot dead just outside the building, one was on a street outside the school, and two people lost their lives at a hospital. Israel, however, could not confirm the number of victim students.

The school has quite a number of Indian-American students and at least one student from the community was injured in the incident. The student, a ninth grader, sustained minor injures as he was hit by splinters. He is being treated at a hospital. "This is a sad day for the country and the community. We all Indian-Americans are praying for the victims," Shekar Reddy, whose friend's son was among those injured in the mass shooting, told PTI.

Authorities said several victims were being treated in the hospital. Three of them are in critical conditions and another three in stable condition.

President Donald Trump tweeted his condolences and also called up Florida governor for :

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018

Just spoke to Governor Rick Scott. We are working closely with law enforcement on the terrible Florida school shooting.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018

Florida Senator Chris Murphy termed it as "a horrific scene" playing out at a high school in South Florida. "Turn on your television right now, you're going to see scenes of children running for their lives. It's what looks to be the [18]th school shooting in this country, and we have not even hit March," he said on the Senate floor on Wednesday.

Murphy rued at the incident, claiming it was a fallout of "our inaction".

"This happens nowhere else other than the United States of America...It only happens here not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction. We are responsible for a level of mass atrocity that happens in this country with zero parallel anywhere else," Murphy said.

Every day in this country, 46 children are shot, said Congressman Donald M Payne. "Every day in this country, seven children die from gun violence. Those statistics do not occur in any other high-income country on this planet," he said, urging the members of the US Congress to use their "power to make the world safer for all children."

"The motives behind the tragic shooting today remain a mystery, but one thing is certain -- the loss of innocent life at the hands of a merciless gunman is heinous and despicable," said Congressman Peter Roskam.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said another American community is reeling from the horror of gun violence, perpetrated against innocent school children. "Too many families have lost someone to the senseless epidemic of gun violence. Congress has a moral responsibility to take common-sense action to prevent the daily tragedy of gun violence in communities across America. Enough is enough," Pelosi said.

The mass shooting, which is said to be 18th school shooting of the year, seems to have rekindled a debate on the controversial gun control legislation in the US.

Since January 2013, there have been at least 291 school shootings across the country  an average of about one school shooting a week, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit group that advocates for gun control.

Since the 2012 massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were shot dead, warning procedures and emergency drills have multiplied at US schools.

The goal is to teach school children how to react to a shooter who opens fire at random. "It is pretty clear that we're failing our kids here," said Falkowski, the teacher who helped shield her students from harm in a closet. "I'm not saying the solution is one thing or another, but this does not happen in other countries the way it happens here."

With inputs from agenciesIn 2012, the Sandy Hook shooting rattled the education and law enforcement community. School authorities across the country began employing additional security measures to safeguard their students

Over five years after the gruesome Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting on 14 December, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut that killed 20 children and six educators, 17 people, including students, were killed on Wednesday after a former student opened fire at a Florida high school.

The shooting, 18th at a school since the start of the year, will once again throw the spotlight on the epidemic of gun violence in the United States, where there are 33,000 gun-related deaths annually.

The tragedy in Florida once again flags the issue of how safe US schools are for their students. In 2012, the Sandy Hook shooting rattled the education and law enforcement community. School authorities across the country began employing additional security measures to safeguard their students. The reason Sandy Hook was a turning point is because people realised that even children in elementary schools were no safe anymore. The incident triggered a wave of changes to school buildings.

Buzzers. Security cameras. Bulletproof glass.

One of the important features employed was using buzzers in school buildings to allow visitors inside, which helped add an extra layer of control over who could access the school, according to NBC News. The new Sandy Hook building had bullet-resistant windows and security cameras installed inconspicuously.

In 2013, school authorities in Marlboro, New Jersey, set aside $1.8 million for security measures, "including construction of 'man trap' vestibules at entrances", reported USA Today. In New York and Pennsylvania, school officials asked election officials to not use school campuses as polling booths.

Lockdown drills, active-shooter training, presence of police officials on school campuses and teachers asked to bear arms are some of the other measures that were implemented after the Sandy Hook school shooting.

According to The Guardian, US schools also began to stage fake mass shootings, with replica guns, to prepare students how to respond in case such situations arose. In 2013, the federal government also spent $45 million of the taxpayers money to place police officials in schools. The report further quotes analyst firm IHS Markit that the market for security equipment in the education sector stood at $2.68 billion in 2017.

The idea of bulletproof whiteboards and backpacks was also floated. As part of its security plan, the Ricori school district in Minnesota in 2003 installed 170 bulletproof whiteboards. The Florida Christian School in Miami offered on sale "ballistic panels" in backpacks as a way for school children to protect themselves in the event of an active shooting, reported CNN. However, these backpacks are known to be expensive and not well-tested, reported Huffington Post.

In several states, a limited number of teachers and staff were also allowed to carry concealed weapons in the school. According to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, at least eight states allow concealed-carry permit holders to have a firearm at a K-12 school. After hearing about the Sandy Hook shooting, a rural school in Colorado directed staff members to carry concealed weapons and trained them to act as security guards if the need arose, reported The Washington Post.

The era of school lockdowns actually dates back to 1999 when two students killed 13 people and then themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. After Sandy Hook, lockdown drills became a normal part of school life.

Despite measures, Florida not spared

The new security measures did mitigate the damage to a certain extent. For example, in November 2017, countless lives were saved at Rancho Tehama Elementary School after a shooter attempted to enter a school compound but couldn't when the school secretary initiated lockdown in 47 seconds. The only injury was to a boy who was wounded when the shooter shot through a wall.

But these measure do not guarantee student safety in schools. In case of the Florida shooting, students appear to have been taking part in a fire frill when the shootout occurred. Student Jeiella Dodoo told CBS News that she and her schoolmates evacuated calmly after hearing what they thought was a routine fire alarm.

"The alarm went off so we had to evacuate from our classes," she said. "Then we heard gunshots.

"I heard about six gunshots," she said, "and then some people started running and then everyone started running because we were like 'If it's real, then just run.'"

The major problem here is that instead of curbing gun ownership, there is an uptick in increasing ways to defend oneself from a shooter. Within two months after the Sandy Hook shooting, the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013 and the Manchin-Toomey Amendment, which would have made universal background checks mandatory for firearm sales, failed to pass in the Senate, according to ABC News.

In fact, President Donald Trump's new budget for fiscal year 2019 proposed to cut millions of dollars from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, "which gun dealers use to verify if someone is banned from buying a gun before selling it to them", reported Huffington Post.

Another concern mental health officials flag is that in conducting lockdown drills and fake mass shootings, it could traumatise students and staff. The National Association of School Psychologists spokesperson Katherine C Cowan told The Guardian, That can be extremely traumatising, particularly for kids, but it can also be traumatising for staff."

With inputs from AFPPresident Jacob Zuma resigned on Wednesday as the ruling ANC party finally turned against him. Soon after Zuma's resignation, the ANC released a statement.

South African President Jacob Zuma resigned on Wednesday as the ruling ANC party finally turned against him after nine years of corruption scandals, economic slowdown and falling popularity.

Zuma railed against the African National Congress (ANC) for "recalling" him from office and threatening to oust him via a parliament no-confidence vote due on Thursday. In a 30-minute national television address, Zuma said he had "come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect". Zuma has been in a power struggle with multi-millionaire former businessman Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy president who now becomes interim president.

Ramaphosa, who won control of the ANC when he was elected as its head in December, is set to be voted in by lawmakers as South Africa's new president on Thursday or Friday.

Zuma, whose reputation has been stained by years-long allegations of graft, complained that the ANC party had never explained to him why he had to leave office.

In an earlier TV interview on Wednesday he said he had received "very unfair" treatment from the party he joined in 1959 and in which he had fought for decades against apartheid white-minority rule. He said he was angered over "the manner in which the decision is being implemented... I don't agree as there is no evidence of if I have done anything wrong."

Soon after Zuma's resignation, the ANC released a statement. The following is the full text of that statement:

***

STATEMENT OF THE AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS FOLLOWING THE RESIGNATION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, COMRADE JACOB ZUMA

14 February 2018, Johannesburg

A few minutes ago, Comrade Jacob Zuma announced to the nation that he is resigning as the President of the Republic of South Africa. This decision by President Zuma is consistent with what he had said earlier today that he has never and will never defy his organisation, the African National Congress President Zuma remains a disciplined member of the ANC. In giving effect to the decision of the ANC National Executive Committee to recall him, President Zuma has reaffirmed his commitment to the principles, practices and character of the movement to which he has dedicated his life.

Having taken the difficult decision to recall Comrade Jacob Zuma, the African National Congress nonetheless wants to salute the outstanding contribution he has made and express its profound gratitude to him for the role he has played in the African National Congress spanning over sixty years of loyal service.

Whilst this may mark an end of his term of office as President of the Republic, we hope and believe Comrade Jacob Zuma will continue to work with the ANC as we undertake our program of fundamental organizational renewal and uniting all South Africans behind a shared vision of transformation and economic recovery. Comrade Zuma is the last in our line of Presidents to have worked closely with the longest serving President of the ANC, Comrade Oliver Tambo. He was trusted by Comrade OR and the ANC to set up underground structures of the movement. He also played a pivotal role in the peaceful negotiation of our transition from apartheid to democracy.

In our democratic dispensation, President Zuma rose through the ranks, first serving government as a Provincial Member of the Executive Council (MEC) in KwaZulu-Natal before assuming his role as Deputy President and ultimately, President of the Republic. While we acknowledge errors and mistakes that were committed, President Zuma leaves a legacy of delivery in many critical areas. Amongst them being the conceptualization and delivery of the National Development Plan (NDP), a long term plan towards our common prosperity and a first in our country. President Zuma's passion for rural development saw his administration establish a dedicated ministry on rural development to further advance the ANC's program of land and agrarian reform.

South Africa's mass rollout of an anti-retroviral programme, which remains the largest and most comprehensive in the world, as well as initial steps to roll out the National Health Insurance (NHI) to create an equitable health system was undertaken during his tenure. These efforts have contributed significantly to an increase in the life expectancy of South Africans.

It was also under his stewardship that our country witnessed significant success recorded in education, with the expansion of access to basic and higher education for the poorest of the poor; year-on-year increases on the matric pass rate and the progressive implementation of fee free higher education for the poor and working class. President Zuma's led government has also rolled out a massive infrastructure investment programme, which helped sustain growth during an economic downturn, providing vital economic and social infrastructure. These are but some of the many achievements and strides made under the leadership of President Zuma.

The ANC extends its gratitude to President Zuma for having served the country in this capacity for the last nine years, particularly for the contribution he has made to progress in improving the lives of ordinary South Africans.

While we accept the resignation of President Zuma, we reiterate that our decision to impose a recall was taken only after exhaustive discussions on the impact such a recall would have on the country, the ANC and the functioning of government.

This decision provides certainty to the people of South Africa at a time when the economic and social challenges facing the country require urgent and resolute response by all sections of society.

The ANC now expects all our deployed members of parliament to cast their vote for the ANC President Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa, as the candidate the ANC will nominate for President, when Parliament convenes to elect a President of the Republic.

It is critical that South Africans are now united around the task of growth, job creation and economic transformation.

Finally, the African National Congress has received news of the passing of the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) of Zimbabwe, Mr Morgan Tsvangiria. The ANC expresses its

condolences to the family of Morgan Tsvangiria and all supporters of the MDC.

Issued by

Jessie Duarte

Deputy Secretary General

African National Congress

***

The text is exactly as has been provided by the ANC and has not been edited by Firstpost.Hafiz Saeed has said he will challenge the government's 'illegal' action in the court of law after Pakistan launched a crackdown on entities linked to him.

Lahore: Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed has said he will challenge the government's "illegal" action in the court of law after Pakistan launched a crackdown on seminaries and health facilities run by him.

Under pressure to act against banned groups, Pakistan took control of a seminary and four dispensaries run by Saeed-linked Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF).

"After detaining me for 10 months without any legal ground, the government has now issued a notification regarding taking over our schools, dispensaries, ambulances and other assets. It will hamper our relief operations in Punjab, Balochistan, Sindh, Azad Kashmir and northern areas," Saeed said after the government's action.

According to the interior ministry notification, a copy of which available with PTI, "the federal government is pleased to direct that requisite actions with regard to freezing and taking over of assets (movable, immovable and human resource) associated with JuD and FIF shall be taken in pursuance of Ordinance No II of 2018."

The notification issuance date is 10 February.

Punjab Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has also said that on the interior ministry's directions, Hafiz Saeed and his charities have been banned to operate in Pakistan and the government have already started taking over all the facilities, offices, schools, dispensaries and seminaries that belong to the JuD and FIF.

In a message to his workers, Saeed appealed for calm and asked them not give any violent reaction to the government action against their charities.

"This is the most difficult time but the workers must remain peaceful. The rulers are acting like more loyal than a king. India never bothered to implement UN resolutions on Kashmir but our rulers have got passed the president ordinance to take action against patriotic organisations like JuD and FIF," he said.

Saeed said the Pakistani government is "taking extreme action against us" to please America and India.

"We will fight our case in court against this illegal action," said Saeed, who heads the charity JuD, believed to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group.

Pakistan has come under intense pressure to rein in terror groups after US president Donald Trump accused the country of harbouring terrorists and suspended nearly USD 2 billion in security assistance to it.China's regional behavior coupled with its massive military buildup could soon challenge the United States across almost every domain, a top American commander has said, warning that ignoring it could be risky

Washington: China's regional behaviour coupled with its massive military buildup could soon challenge the United States across almost every domain, a top American commander has said, warning that ignoring it could be risky.

During a Congressional hearing on Indo-Pacific region organised by the House Armed Services Committee, Commander of the US Pacific Command (PACOM) Admiral Harry Harris told lawmakers that China is attempting to assert de facto sovereignty over disputed maritime features by further militarising its man-made bases to this very day.

He said that China's key advancements include fielding significant improvements in missile systems, developing fifth-generation fighter aircraft capabilities and growing the size and capability of the Chinese navy to include their first overseas base in the port of Djibouti.

"They are also heavily investing in the next wave of military technologies, including hypersonic missiles, advanced space and cyber capabilities, and artificial intelligence," he said.

"If the US does not keep pace," he warned, "PACOM will struggle to compete with the (China's) People's Liberation Army on future battlefields."

Admiral Harris said that China's ongoing military buildup, advancement and modernisation are core elements of their strategy to supplant the US as a security partner of choice for countries in the India-Pacific. "But China also holds clear global ambitions," he added.

"Don't take my word for it. Just listen what China itself says. At the 19th Party Congress, President Xi Jinping stated he wanted China to develop as a world-class military and become a global leader in terms of composite national strength and international influence.

"Ladies and gentlemen, China's intent is crystal clear. We ignore it at our peril," the top American commander warned. Admiral Harris said that these types of aspirational goals could be appropriate for a nation of China's stature, but "judging by China's regional behaviour I am concerned that China will now work to undermine the rules-based international order, not just in the Indo-Pacific, but on a global scale as China expands its presence in Central Asia, the Arctic, Africa, South America, and Europe".

This increasingly complex environment necessitates continued dialogue between the US and Chinese militaries to improve understanding and reduce risk. Several lawmakers joined Harris in expressing concern over the Chinese motives in the region and other parts of the globe.

"The challenge posed by China has also not lessened. China is rapidly transforming its military, continuing to militarise artificial islands in the South China Sea, and expanding its presence through political influence campaigns and economic coercion," said Congressman Mac Thornberry, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

According to the National Defense Strategy, "China is leveraging military modernisation, influence operations and predatory economics to coerce neighbouring countries to reorder the Indo-Pacific region to their advantage," he said.

"I think they use everything that the international order has given them up to this point, which is enabled them to become very strong economic power and they are using that power to increase their military capability, nothing wrong with that on its surface. Strong countries ought to have the militaries that they want and can afford," Harris said. "But I think it's how they're going about it and their stated ambitions for the remainder of this century that cause me to be concerned about China. What President Xi said during the 19th Party Congress, was an affirmation of where China has been," the US PACOM Commander said, adding that China is the longest-term challenge that the US faces.

"I think it's essential that we view these threats from a whole-of-government perspective. And by that I mean, that it's not enough that the State Department or the Defense Department view China as a rival. I think we need to view China, for example, as a rival across all of government. The same for North Korea," he said.An Indian national faces life or 20 years in prison with possible caning for attempted murder of a student nurse who had spurned his advances, according to a media report.

Singapore: An Indian national faces life or 20 years in prison with possible caning for attempted murder of a student nurse who had spurned his advances, according to a media report.

The 34-year-old man, whose name has been redacted from court documents, denied he had any intention to kill her in December 2013 but claimed he had taken a knife with him to meet her as he intended to commit suicide in front of her, The Straits Times reported on Wednesday.

But he could not recall what had happened when he stabbed her at the void deck of an apartment block where the student nurse lived.

Justice Woo Bih Li found that the accused had intended to kill the victim, who was 20 at the time, pointing to her testimony, the accused's statements to the police, and the way he had "repeatedly, relentlessly and forcefully" attacked her. He will be sentenced a later date. He faces life imprisonment or up to 20 years in prison, and possible caning or a fine.

The man got to know the student nurse in February 2013, while she was attached to the hospital where he worked as a healthcare assistant.

He wooed her even though she had a boyfriend. She initially played along but later apologised, telling him "it was a joke all along". He refused to accept the rejection and even turned up outside her flat to ask for her hand in marriage.

On 19 December, 2013, he again went to her home to propose marriage. He behaved aggressively on being rebuffed but left after the police were called. He went home, hid a knife in his sock and returned, sleeping at the void deck to wait for her. At about 8.30am the next day, he confronted her and demanded she go with him to talk. When she refused, he stabbed her in the lower back. She tried to push him away but he stabbed her in the abdomen.

After she fell to the floor, he continued stabbing and slashing her on her head, neck, body and arms. The woman's parents rushed down upon hearing her screams. When her father saw the accused with a knife in his hand on top of his daughter, he pushed the assailant away. The knife dropped and the accused fled after a brief struggle. He was detained by two passers-by and arrested by the police.

Justice Woo accepted the victim's account, who said that as the accused was stabbing her, he shouted "saavudi" in Tamil, which meant "die". He also told her: "If I can't have you, no man should have you." The judge noted the accused had told the police after his arrest that he wanted to kill the victim because she cheated on him.

The number and nature of the injuries, as well as the way the accused had attacked the victim, reinforced his view that the man had intended to kill her, the judge said.International donors pledged $30 billion to help rebuild Iraq after the war against the Islamic State group, Kuwait announced on Wednesday, overcoming Western doubts and donor fatigue over Mideast crises to help the battle-ravaged nation.

Kuwait City: International donors pledged $30 billion to help rebuild Iraq after the war against the Islamic State group, Kuwait announced on Wednesday, overcoming Western doubts and donor fatigue over Mideast crises to help the battle-ravaged nation.

While falling short of an estimated $88.2 billion needed to rebuild Iraq, it easily surpassed the $20 billion Iraqi officials initially said they needed to begin their difficult work.

While much of the larger donations came in the form of loans, Iraq remains an oil-rich nation and such debts can be forgiven by the countries and institutions offering them. The pledges, if followed through with funding, could give Iraq a chance to dig itself out of the rubble left by the Islamic State group and the chaos that followed the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

Still, much remains uncertain for Iraq and the greater Middle East.

The Islamic State group, while dislodged from the third of Iraq it once held, remains a threat. Meanwhile, regional tensions could even be seen at a conference heralded by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as an "enormous success." "Iraq has known too many hardships and we hope these hardships are now behind us," Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said.

"Investments are the only way for us to move forward. We must learn from the past and move forward." Officials offered no breakdown of the pledges, though some countries announced them on the floor of a meeting held Thursday at Kuwait Citys Bayan Palace.

The biggest single pledge came from Turkey, which announced $ 5 billion in credit to Iraq, while Kuwait's ruling emir said his oil-rich nation will give $1 billion in loans and $1 billion in direct investments.

The donation by Kuwait's emir, the 88-year-old Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, showed the deep interest his nation has in making sure Iraq becomes a peaceful, stable country. Iraq also still owes Kuwait reparations from Saddam's 1990 invasion that sparked the 1991 US-led Gulf War.

"This large assembly of international communities that are here today is reflective of the large loss that Iraq withstood in facing terrorism," Sheikh Sabah said. "Iraq cannot commence the mission of rebuilding itself without support, which is why we are all here today from all around the world, to stand by Iraq's side."

Other major donations included both Saudi Arabia and the Kuwait-based Arab Fund each pledging $1.5 billion. Qatar pledged $1 billion in financing and donations, while Britain pledged $1 billion in export credits over 10 years.

The United Arab Emirates pledged $500 million, as did the Islamic Development Bank. The UAEs Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash also tweeted there would be $5.5 billion in private investments from his country home to Dubai and oil-rich Abu Dhabi, without elaborating.

The European Union also pledged 400 million euros ($494 million).

The US, while not offering direct donations, did agree to providing over $3 billion in loans and financing to American firms wanting to invest in Iraq. Officials acknowledged a feeling of fatigue from international donors, especially after the wars in Iraq and Syria sparked the biggest mass migration since World War II. Even in Kuwait, some questioned donating cash while its own country needs investment.

Iraq is OPECs second-largest crude producer and home to the worlds fifth-largest known reserves, though It has struggled to pay international firms running them. That's even after the US alone spent $ 60 billion over nine years, some $15 million a day, to rebuild Iraq after overthrowing Saddam in 2003.

Around $25 billion went to Iraqs military, which disintegrated during the lightning 2014 offensive of the Islamic State group, an outgrowth of al-Qaida in Iraq. US government auditors also found massive waste and corruption, fueling suspicions of Western politicians like President Donald Trump who want to scale back foreign aid.US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday that work on a new plan for achieving peace in the Middle East peace is 'fairly well advanced.'

Amman: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday that work on a new plan for achieving peace in the Middle East peace is "fairly well advanced."

The US official made the remarks in a press conference with Jordanian minister of foreign affairs Ayman Safadi, where he stressed that the US was committed to making peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

He said the decision taken on Jerusalem was "about the US and our recognition of Jerusalem and where we choose to place our embassy", reports Xinhua.

He added that the decision "does not preclude a two-state solution if that is the solution the parties seek."

The US official also stressed on Jordan's key role in achieving Mideast peace.

The Jordanian minister said Jordan differed with the US on Jerusalem.

"We believe that the two-state solution that ensures the creation of an independent Palestinian state at the borders of 1967 with east Jerusalem as its capital is the sole way for peace," Safadi was quoted as saying.

"Our views are different via Jerusalem, but the challenge now is how to move forward and how to make sure a difficult situation does not get worse," Safadi added.

He added that Jordan was looking forward to continuing working with the US and the international community to achieve the desired lasting peace.Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba resigned on Thursday opening the door for the Left alliance to form the next government, over two months after his party faced a debacle in the country's historic parliamentary and local polls.

Kathmandu: Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba resigned on Thursday opening the door for the Left alliance to form the next government, over two months after his party faced a debacle in the country's historic parliamentary and local polls.

Deuba was elected as the 40th Prime Minister on 6 June with the support from CPN (Maoist Centre) which is now a part of Left alliance and opting for merger with CPN-UML.

"The elections of three tiers of government have been successfully held under my leadership setting the foundation to long transition, Deuba told in the television address. Deuba will officially present his resignation to President Bhandari shortly, the Kathmandu Post reported.

The Left alliance has already presented its claim for the new government to the President presenting UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli as the new Prime Minister.

The Left alliance of the CPN-UML, led by Oli and CPN-Maoist Centre, led by Prachanda, had in December secured 174 seats in the 275-member Parliament in the historic provincial and parliamentary polls that many hope will bring much-needed political stability to the Himalayan nation.

It had also secured an overwhelming majority in the upper house of Parliament with 39 seats. Oli, 65, had earlier served as the country's prime minister from 11 October, 2015 to 3 August, 2016..     .                      .      .      26  31.          .     ""  , ...Treading lightly on Tanna We go on a new ecotourism adventure tour in North TannaBillionaire investor Peter Thiel, one of the few tech executives who supports Donald Trump, is packing his bags and leaving Silicon Valley. He is reportedly fed up with one-sided politics.

Thiel is relocating his home and personal investment firms to Los Angeles from San Francisco, while also dialing back association with the tech industry, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with his thinking.

Silicon Valley is a one-party state, Thiel said during a debate over politics and technology at Stanford University, his alma mater. The other side doesnt care for you, and your side doesnt care for you because they dont need to.

A rare, but prominent conservative within Silicon Valley, Thiels relationship with the tech industry has soured, particularly at Facebook (NASDAQ:FB). The venture capitalist, who has served on the company's board of directors since 2005, was involved in a dispute with a fellow director due to his support for Donald Trumps presidential campaign, according to the Journals sources, who also said a related confrontation over boardroom leaks with the social media firms founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg last summer contributed to the strain.

The New York Times reported in August that Thiel was told he would receive a negative review of his board performance by Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and a member of Facebooks board.

Thiel, who co-founded payment service PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) and invested $500,000 in Facebook in 2004the year the social media giant was foundedsold three-quarters of his remaining stake in the company last November, part of a previously established plan. He had already sold more than $1 billion worth of stock before the filing, according to Reuters. Thiel sold 16.8 million shares at the companys IPO in 2012 for about $640 million, and 20 million of his remaining 26 million shares for $400 million after a lockup expired. He sold just shy of 1 million shares for approximately $100 million in 2016.

Facebook shares are little changed this year.

Trump wasn't the first underdog Thiel supported. He took on media site Gawker, now defunct, by privately funding former pro-wrestler Hulk Hogans [whose real name is Terry Bollea] privacy suit over the publication of a sex tape in 2012. In 2016, a jury awarded Bollea a total of $140 million in damages, but the two sides eventually reached a settlement of around $30 million. As a result, Gawker is no more. The suit followed Gawkers outing of Thiel, who is gay. In a New York Times Opinion piece, Thiel discussed the need for moral limits.

The 50-year-old Thiel plans to move into a 7,000 square-foot home that he bought six years ago, which overlooks the Sunset Strip, and will move the headquarters of Thiel Capital and Thiel Foundation to Los Angeles, a personal familiar with the matter told the Journal.The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a warning to taxpayers this week to beware of erroneous refunds.

According to the agency, there is an emerging scam where refunds are wrongly being deposited into taxpayers accounts. Thieves use victims real information to file a fake return, have the refund deposited into the taxpayers real bank accounts and then use various tactics to steal the cash.

The number of victims has jumped from a few hundred to several thousand in just days, according to the agency.

The increase in activity comes shortly after the IRS discovered that a larger number of client data was stolen from tax professionals computer files.

How to detect the scam

There are two versions of the scam thieves are using to collect the fraudulent refund from taxpayers. One involves criminals calling taxpayers acting as IRS-sanctioned debt collection agency officials to tell them the refund was mistakenly deposited and asking them to forward the money to their collection agency.

The other features an automated call saying the taxpayer is in danger of being charged with criminal fraud unless she returns the refund.

You are at risk of fraud if, when you file, you receive a bounce back notification from the IRS that your Social Security number is already associated with a return. This indicates someone else has filed using your information.

What to do

The IRS is advising taxpayers to follow its established protocol for returning erroneous refunds instead of taking any other instruction. The agency says individuals should also contact their tax professionals and financial institutions, because bank accounts could be impacted.Last October, Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) announced that it would start selling tickets for flights to Hawaii during 2018. This came after years of rumors that the U.S. airline giant would expand to this popular tourist market, potentially bringing lower fares.

However, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association -- the union representing Southwest's mechanics -- has threatened legal action to halt the carrier's plans to fly to Hawaii. Southwest Airlines wants to use outside contractors to do necessary maintenance work in Hawaii. The union claims that this would violate its contract, although the company disagrees.

The main barrier to Southwest's Hawaii flights

Flying from the West Coast to Hawaii involves traveling more than 2,000 miles over the Pacific Ocean, with no diversion airports in between. The FAA has strict "ETOPS" rules for operating routes that involve flying more than an hour from the nearest diversion airport. These include special certifications for the airline as a whole and the specific airplanes operating those routes.

Maintenance procedures are particularly important for airlines operating ETOPS routes. Given the importance of avoiding aircraft problems in the middle of the ocean, the FAA has special rules beyond what is normally required for commercial airlines.

The ETOPS certification process is currently the primary sticking point preventing Southwest Airlines from beginning flights to Hawaii. Depending on how quickly it can complete the approval process, Southwest may be able to launch its first flights to Hawaii in late 2018 or it may have to wait until 2019.

Why maintenance is a challenge for Hawaii flights

For Southwest Airlines, flying to Hawaii introduces some complications from a maintenance perspective. Most flights from the West Coast to Hawaii leave in the morning and arrive in the early afternoon, in time for hotel check-in. Return flights typically leave in the afternoon and arrive back on the West Coast in the late evening.

Southwest hasn't released any flight schedules for Hawaii, but it isn't likely to deviate from this general pattern. One of the main alternatives would be an evening departure from the West Coast and a red-eye return flight. However, Southwest has never operated red-eyes -- although it could change that policy.

As a result, it's entirely possible that there would never be Southwest Airlines planes on the ground in Hawaii outside of the hours of noon to 4 p.m. HST (roughly speaking). That would make it extremely inefficient to hire local staff to carry out ETOPS maintenance inspections in Hawaii, as there would only be a few hours of work each day.

The solution gets caught up in bargaining

Rather than hiring local maintenance staff in Hawaii, Southwest Airlines wants to use outside contractors to perform ETOPS checks on its aircraft there. On the West Coast, it would use its own staff.

This plan doesn't sound unreasonable on its face. However, Southwest's mechanics are still working under a contract that became amendable more than five years ago. (Airline labor contracts never formally expire.) The mechanics are seeking raises and job protections, and they aren't inclined to do any favors for management until a new contract is implemented.

Ideally, Southwest Airlines and the mechanics would sign a new contract during 2018 that would directly address the issue of outsourcing maintenance in Hawaii. However, if they don't reach an agreement, the courts may have to decide whether Southwest's plan violates the existing contract. That would raise a risk of the carrier having to postpone its Hawaii service.

Not much reason to worry -- yet

Despite all of the tough talk from the mechanics union, management and the union aren't very far from one another on most contract issues. The differences in the two sides' pay proposals are extremely small in comparison to Southwest Airlines' annual earnings. Instead, the main issue of contention appears to be the "scope" section that determines what work must be performed by Southwest's in-house maintenance staff.

Reaching an agreement on this issue won't be easy, but there's still time to make a deal. It should be possible for Southwest Airlines to trade some combination of job protections and pay raises for the flexibility to outsource maintenance at far-flung airports where it would be prohibitively expensive to rely on full-time staff.

Given Southwest's history of relatively peaceful labor relations, investors shouldn't worry too much about this contract dispute derailing the carrier's Hawaii plans.

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Adam Levine-Weinberg 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.A Greek former prime minister accused of involvement in a pharmaceutical bribery scandal filed a criminal complaint Thursday against current Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and six other people, including the deputy justice minister and three prosecutors.

Antonis Samaras, the conservative prime minister from 2012-15, filed the suit alleging a series of crimes, including abuse of power, defamation, violation of duty and perjury.

His move comes after Greece's left-led government requested parliament investigate accusations that 10 senior former officials, including Samaras, were involved in bribes allegedly paid by Swiss drug-maker Novartis to boost drug sales and prices. Samaras and the other officials have all denied the allegations. Novartis has said it is cooperating with Greek authorities.

That request, which targeted several top opposition figures, came amid an increasingly acrimonious face-off between the government and leading opposition parties, which accuse it of using the judiciary to further political ends.

Samaras' criminal lawsuit was filed against Tsipras, Deputy Justice Minister Dimitris Papaggelopoulos, three prosecutors and two secret witnesses who have been identified in court documents only by code names.

He accuses the prosecutors of abuse of power, violation of duty and violation of confidentiality, the two witnesses of perjury and defamation, and Tsipras and Papaggelopoulos of instigating the others to commit those crimes.

Samaras asks the court for "judicial protection from an unprecedented vulgar political-judicial plot that was created and executed against me."

In response to the lawsuit, Papaggelopoulos accused Samaras of trying to create a diversion and intimidate court officials and witnesses.

"I thank Mr. Samaras for the supernatural abilities he attributes to me, which allow me in an international scandal to provoke and manipulate investigations on a global level," Papaggelopoulos said in a statement issued by his ministry.

Tsipras' office also issued a statement responding to the lawsuit.

"We look forward to reading the new conspiratorial theory of Mr. Samaras, who is permanently under a persecution complex," the prime minister's office said. "However the only one who is persecuting him is his past. We recommend he sues that, too."

The officials allegedly involved in the scandal with Samaras include Bank of Greece governor Yannis Stournaras, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, who has served as health, foreign and defense minister in previous conservative governments, and Panagiotos Pikramenos, who served as caretaker prime minister for one month in 2012.

Tsipras' Syriza party cited testimonies from anonymous, protected witnesses who claimed Novartis set aside more than 1 million euros to bribe Greek officials. It quoted allegations from one of the witnesses that a senior Novartis official in Greece delivered a suitcase of cash to the prime minister's office in 2013.

Under Greek law, Parliament must review allegations against politicians before prosecutions can be authorized.A federal law passed in 2005 largely limits liability for gun manufacturers whose weapons are used in a crime such as Wednesdays slaying of 17 people at a Florida high school.

Police said Nikolas Cruz, an expelled student, used a version of the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and multiple magazines when he killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Fla.

Under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, manufacturers, dealers and sellers of firearms and ammunition are generally protected from civil lawsuits related to criminal use of their products. The rule does include six exceptions under which civil suits may go forward.

President George W. Bush signed the legislation into law in 2005, with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and then-Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., voting in favor and then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., voting against the shield for gun makers. Wayne LaPierre, now CEO of the National Rifle Association, called it the most significant piece of pro-gun legislation in 20 years.

A Connecticut judge dismissed a 2016 lawsuit filed against Remington Outdoor by the families of victims in the shooting that left 27 people dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The company manufactured the AR-15-style semiautomatic weapon that Adam Lanza used in the 2012 massacre. In November 2017, the Connecticut Supreme Court heard arguments from the victims families.

Ticker Security Last Change Change % AOBC n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. RGR STURM, RUGER & CO., INC. 72.65 -1.63 -2.19%

Remington, operated by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, said this week it planned to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid declining sales. Stephen Feinberg, the CEO of Cerberus, supported Donald Trump in his successful 2016 presidential campaign.

Gun companies, including Sturm Ruger (NYSE:RGR) and American Outdoor Brands (NASDAQ:AOBC), briefly rallied a day after the Florida shooting on speculation that short-term sales would rise in anticipation of a potential tightening of gun regulations.Former Gov. Mitt Romney announced his candidacy for Utahs Senate seat on Friday and he's put together a small, yet experienced campaign staff with deep ties to the hedge fund world to help him navigate the states complex landscape.

I am running for United States Senate to serve the people of Utah and bring Utah's values to Washington. pic.twitter.com/TDkas6gD2p  Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) February 16, 2018

The Romney campaign teams leadership starts with two of his closest confidants from his hedge fund, Solamere Capital, Matt Waldrip, the head of business development at the firm, and Spencer Zwick, the cofounder of the company. Both have links to Romneys previous political ambitions, with Zwick serving as finance chairman for Romneys 2012 run for president and Waldrip working as his deputy finance director.

This time around Waldrip is expected to be the campaign manager while Zwick will take on a senior advisory role, according to sources familiar with the matter.

As FOX Business first reported in January, Zwick held a meeting with Romney and a previous chief of staff to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Boyd Matheson, at the former presidential nominees mansion in Holladay, Utah, to discuss policy initiatives for the upcoming campaign.

Waldrip and Zwick did not return requests for comment. Matheson declined to comment.

Beyond turning to two members of his old guard, the former Massachusetts governor has also received outside counsel from former congressional lawmaker and current Fox News Contributor Jason Chaffetz, an eight-year Republican veteran of the House of Representatives. Chaffetz had advised him to, among other things, not turn on President Donald Trump during the GOP primary race.

I dont think its going to bode well in Utah if hes anti-Trump, Chaffetz, once a representative of Utahs 3rd Congressional District, told FOX Business. I also dont think thats what hes going to do because I think he cares deeply about the states issues and he wants to use his presence to move those issues forward, Chaffetz added.

The feud between Romney and Trump ignited during the 2016 presidential election when the former presidential nominee took on Trump, calling him a phony and a fraud. Trump, then a nominee for president himself, responded at one of his campaign rallies, claiming Romney came begging for his endorsement four years earlier. Still, both leaders seemed to make amends after Trump was elected president when he considered Romney to be his secretary of state.

Chaffetz recommended to Romney two members of his former Capitol Hill staff, M.J. Henshaw, former communications director for Chaffetz when he was chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and Kelsey Berg, a special projects coordinator for the congressman and currently running her own campaign consulting firm based out of Utah, SugarBar Strategies LLC.

Henshaw and Berg did not return requests for comments.

Romney has also reached out to longtime Senate ally Mike Lee (R-Utah), to keep him up to date with his future campaign endeavors and receive his recommendation on issues he should focus on if he chose to run for office.

Governor Romney reached out very early in the process and has kept in regular and friendly contact with Senator Lee about his plans, Conn Carroll, spokesman for Lee, told FOX Business in a statement.

Romney began his foray into the national spotlight in 1999 as the president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics, successfully capturing for Utah the coveted games for the first time. Zwick was hired to assist Romney with running the committee and was instrumental in erasing the Olympic organizers debt, which had added up to $379 million.

One year later, Romney became the governor of Massachusetts, following it five years later with his first unsuccessful presidential campaign. He lost the Republican nomination that year to Sen. John McCain of Arizona. He ran for a second time in 2012 against Barack Obama and eventually lost in the general election.

The timing of Romneys announcement continues to be in flux. He was expected to make his first campaign declaration through social media on Thursday and then address a group of grassroots Republicans at the Utah County Lincoln Day dinner on Friday. Those plans changed, however, after the horrific school shooting in Florida on Wednesday, with Romney tweeting out his condolences later that day while also noting he will be delaying his announcement in response to the tragedy.

He could make his first public speech as a candidate for Senate at the state dinner Friday. The Utah Republican Party website continues to show Romney as the keynote speaker.Puerto Rico, still facing a daunting recovery after two destructive hurricanes swept through the island last summer, was recently dealt another blow in the form of the GOP Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

We feel that the federal tax reform did hinder Puerto Rico, Gov. Ricardo Rossello said during a conference in New York on Thursday.

Specifically, a 12.5% tax on profits derived from intellectual property held by foreign companies could damage Puerto Ricos robust pharmaceutical industry. The intent of this provision, in line with most of the changes to the corporate tax code, is to drive businesses and jobs back into the U.S. by raising the cost of conducting operations offshore.

As a U.S. territory, Puerto Rico is not treated like a U.S. state under the federal tax code despite enjoying state-afforded protections under most other areas of the law. The commonwealth has a solid manufacturing sector, driven in large part by flourishing pharmaceutical operations.

Twelve of the top 20 medical device companies, and the same share of top biotech and pharmaceutical companies, have operations on the island, according to government officials. Those companies include AbbVie, Merck, Amgen and Medtronic.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which President Donald Trump signed in December, could make it more costly for these manufacturers to continue operating in Puerto Rico. Forty percent of manufacturers on the island are employed within the drug industry, which amounts to about 75,000 people, according to Armando Valdes-Prieto, former director of Puerto Rico's Office of Management and Budget.

Rossello called Puerto Ricos status and treatment by the U.S. government the elephant in the room on Thursday, claiming the relationship is a remnant of a colonial world.

How can you preach democracy if its not being practiced in your  backyard Rossello asked on Monday, adding that before recent hurricanes brought the territory into front-page headlines, many in the U.S. were unaware that Puerto Ricans are American citizens.

Puerto Rico was mired in financial trouble before Hurricanes Irma and Maria made landfall. The entire commonwealth was in bankruptcy, in the midst of an 11-year recession. Its state-owned power authority, known as PREPA, was in default on $9 billion worth of debt. Rossello said on Thursday that about 20% of Puerto Ricos residents are still without power, five months after Maria ravaged the island.

Gov. Rossello and his administration are currently promoting efforts to draw business investment into Puerto Rico, including its energy sector, after recently deciding to privatize its power authority.

Other reforms are under way in the healthcare, labor and education sectors, as well as a pending infrastructure effort. Rossello said he is working on a mixed strategy to provide incentives for multinationals to invest in Puerto Rico.

Rossellos new fiscal plan for Puerto Rico assumes the island will receive $49 billion worth of disaster aid from the federal government.A man accused of driving under the influence at an off-road park in Tennessee has been blamed for the death of a 12-year-old girl.

WTVF-TV reports Arika Long was 50-year-old Thomas Ruggeri's passenger at Wheelin' in the Country late Friday night. Lawrence County Sheriff's Capt. Adam Brewer says she was killed when their modified Jeep hit a rock and flipped over. She was trapped for 30 minutes before first responders reached the park's remote location.

Ruggeri's14-year-old child also was a passenger and suffered minor injuries. Brewer said no one was wearing a seatbelt.

Ruggeri is charged with vehicular homicide, operating a vehicle under influence and possession of drug paraphernalia in connection with marijuana pipes found. It's unclear whether he has a lawyer.

___

Information from: WTVF-TV, http://www.newschannel5.comMarion Ross is still grieving over the loss of her beloved on-screen daughter Erin Moran.

The former child star, who enchanted audiences as Joanie on Happy Days and Joanie Loves Chachi, died in 2017 at age 56 from cancer.

Before her untimely passing, Moran described the pressures she endured growing up under the Hollywood spotlight, especially when she turned 15. According to the New York Times, Moran claimed in a 1983 interview that Happy Days producers asked her to wear more revealing outfits.

They suddenly wanted me to lose weight and become this sexy thing, she said, as reported by the New York Times.

Happy Days aired from 1974 until 1984. Its spinoff, Joanie Loves Chachi, ran from 1982 until 1983.

Its a sad thing, and I dont advise families putting their children into show business unless they can handle it as well as Ron Howards family did, Ross told Closer Weekly Tuesday.

The 89-year-old stressed the Happy Days cast continues to keep Morans memory alive.

We all talk about it as much as we want to, she said.

Ross also told Country Living, I was very close to her and she was a very dear, precious girl My warning would be for parents who put their kids in show business  be very careful of that.

"Ron Howards parents just took him off the set and [took him] straight home. I think sometimes its the parents that break, not the child. She was such a smart little girl and to see her end up this way was tragic for everyone.

The New York Times noted Moran had left behind Hollywood by the mid-1980s. Moran told The Toronto Star in 1988 she had suffered from depression after the shows ended and struggled to find work as an actress.

I wanted time off to reassess my life and my career, she admitted. I had to ask myself, Do I really want to keep doing this, or do I want to sit back and take it easy for five years, 10 years?

As for Ross, shes been enjoying her life after Happy Days. She recently participated in the annual Macys Go Red for Women fashion show in New York City, which raises awareness on heart disease. Shes also gearing up to publish a memoir later this year, titled My Days: Happy and Otherwise.

Heart disease is in my family, said Ross. My mother, my father, my husband, all died from it  and now, Im 89, and so I take the good appeals from my heart and you can be heart healthy if you work on it and become aware. Were all so aware now, and Im very grateful to Macys for putting on this show.Former Charles in Charge actor Alexander Polinsky has pushed his allegations against Scott Baio even further. After previously claiming physical abuse, the actor made allegations of sexual harassment as well.

Polinsky says Baio previously exposed himself, talked about gay sex acts with the young actor and once threw a hot cup of tea in his face during a press conference in Los Angeles Wednesday. Polinsky appeared with co-star Nicole Eggert, who came forward last month with claims that Baio sexually assaulted her when she was a minor on the set of the hit sitcom.

A spokesman for Scott Baio says the actor denies "each and every one" of the allegations of sexual misconduct made against him by two of his former co-stars. Spokesman Brian Glicklich read a statement from the actor at a news conference held Wednesday. Baio did not attend the news conference in person. He was reportedly at a school party with his daughter.

An attorney for Baio, Jennifer McGrath, characterized the claims made by Polinsky and actress Nicole Eggert as "ever-changing" and evidence of a "hunger for publicity."

As previously reported, Polinsky first detailed allegations against Baio by way of his friend, Sara Gilbert on The Talk. The Roseanne actress read a statement from Polinsky on air in which he detailed the pain and anxiety he allegedly experienced working with Baio.

Growing up on the show I received regular verbal attacks, mental abuse and I also suffered a physical assault at the hands of Scott Baio. There is no excuse for his behavior. It is abhorrent.

Polinsky concluded his statement and said, For the sake of the next generation of young artists we must empower parents and social workers to heed the signals, ask the proper questions and protect children from monsters in the workplace. The cycle of abuse must stop. Even 30 years after the acts, they still matter.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Chelsea Handler is undoubtedly one of the most outspoken celebrities in Hollywood. Her silver-tongued social media posts draw a lot of attention to the comedian but they also usher in a slew of controversy. Here are some of the most outrageous, cringe-worthy moments of the former Netflix talk show host.



Chelsea jokes about Oprah sending Trump to jail

Depsite Oprah Winfrey promising she has no plans to run for POTUS, Chelsea Handler sent out an inflammatory tweet about the possiblity of an Oprah administration.

Handler tweeted on Feb. 20, "I hope Oprah shows up at White House the day Donald is impeached and reads him and his administration their jail sentences. You get 25 years in jail, and you get 25 years in jail, and you get 25 years in jail everyone gets 25 years in jail!"

Chelsea slams Trump after deadly shooting

Following a deadly shooting at Florida high school, Handler was quick to politicize the tragedy with a tweet about President Trump, calling him "mentally disturbed."

After Trump tweeted that there were "so many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed," Handler replied, "We will always have mentally disturbed people, especially now that one sits in the Oval Office. Better not to have guns for them to use, since you are also cutting funds for the mentally disabled. Do something decent while you are in office. Anything."

She also took to Twitter to capitalize on the tragic incident and blamed Republicans, saying that they now have blood on their hands.

Handler posted a tweet about midterm elections, urging voters to elect candidates that are not funded by the NRA and who wont allow kids to go to school and get shot.

Handler tweets homophobic remark about Lindsey Graham

Most recently, Handler ruffled feathers in January when she posted a tweet questioning Lindsey Grahams sexuality. Handler wrote, Holy, f--- f---. I just [saw] the video of trumps bipartisan meeting yesterday. Hey, @LindseyGrahamSC what kind of d--k sucking video do they have on you for you 2 be acting like this? Wouldnt coming out be more honorable?

Immediately, the social media universe pushed back on Handlers crude comments.

One Twitter user replied, Keep being a voice for the Democrats while you use homosexuality as an insult. Another chimed in, So being gay is an insult now? Well done Chelsea Handler. At least you removed all doubt.

Despite the onslaught of criticism, Handler never deleted the mean-spirited tweet, which as of now has over 5,500 retweets.

The TV personality calls Sarah Sanders a trollop

During the episode Dinner Party: Scandalous of her since-cancelled Netflix talk show, Handler went off on a tirade about White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.

That Harlot that theyre dressing up and trolloping out every day? I mean, one day she has no makeup on at all, the next she has 6-foot long eyelashes, shes got cleavage and summer whore lipstick all over her face. Can you believe what they turned her into? A proper trollop, Handler snidely said on Dec. 5, 2017.

Viewers who did not take kindly to Handlers remarks voiced their dismay on social media. One person wrote, Showing your true colors of lifting up women. Huckabee-Sanders is more of a lady than you can ever fathom being.

Handler sends a message to white people on MLK Day

The former E! host voiced a strange message on MLK Day, Happy Martin Luther King day to a true hero. This day means more today than it ever has. We all must honor the spirit of his fairness and equality and tireless search for justice. It is up to white people to honor Dr King, and to think about what it must be like to not be white.

Then the 42-year-old followed up retweeting a meme featuring a cartoon image of Martin Luther King Jr. covering President Trumps mouth. Handler wrote the caption for the picture, Yeah, seriously. Dont speak today.

Handler blames POTUS for California wildfires

In the wake of tragedy, Handler told the world via Twitter that President Trump was responsible for the wave of wildfires in California a couple of months back. Just evacuated my house. Its like Donald Trump is setting the world on fire. Literally and figuratively. Stay safe everyone. Dark times, Handler wrote on Dec. 6, 2017.

Within moments, she received enormous backlash, with one person saying, 1st thought: These fires are absolutely tragic. God bless all. 2nd thought: Wow. If Chelsea Handler is tweeting about her hatred of @POTUS during this critical time, shes sicker than I thought. Sad.

Chelsea host blames Republicans for Texas church shooting

On the heels of the deadly mass shooting in Texas in November, Handler expressed her feelings on Twitter only moments after the heart-wrenching news broke. She penned, Innocent people go to church on Sunday to honor their God, and while doing so, get shot in killed. What country? America. Why? Republicans.

A flood of responses came in. A man responded, The bodies arent even cold yet and you are politicizing them. You really have a dark heart. #NastyWoman While another simply said, You are a terrible woman.

Comic calls for military coup

Handler caused social media chaos during the summer of 2017 with her post calling for military generals to take POTUS out of office.

To all the generals surrounding our idiot-in-chief...the longer U wait to remove him, the longer UR name will appear negatively in history, she wrote on Aug. 17.

Twitter users warned Handler that her request was a dangerous one.

So you are openly calling for a military coup? You are a dangerous thinker and hope no fans follow your thinking.

Another said, "Man, Chelsea. Do you think before you tweet? You really want the military to overthrow the President? Think about that for a moment."

Handler slams the first lady

The opioid crisis in the United States is a harrowing issue, but the comedian decided to make light of it at first lady Melania Trumps expense. She wrote on Twitter in September, Melania to host a discussion on opioid abuse. She says unless you have to have sex with Donald Trump, you have no excuse to be on drugs.

Many people did not find humor in her off-color joke. A social media user wrote, Opiods are killing people and decimating towns in record numbers. Not funny. While another simply called Handler, tacky.

Handler vs. Donald Trump Jr.

Donald Trump Jr. defended his brother, Eric, and his sister-in-law, Lara, after they announced they were expecting a baby boy. Handler wrote a snide post which read, "I guess one of @realDonaldTrump's sons is expecting a new baby. Just what we need. Another person with those jeans [sic]. Let's hope for a girl." Trump Jr. called out Handler for her grammatical error, "Genes #ItIsaBoy.

Comedian suggested dictator replace US president

Its no secret that Handler is no fan of President Trump but perhaps suggesting we trade in dictator Kim Jong Un to run the United States is a step too far.

In September 2017 she wrote, Uhhhh. Kim Jung's letter to @realDonaldTrump is a little bit more sane than @realDonaldTrump. Maybe we trade?

Handler goes off on white female Trump voters

In an essay for Thrive Global in December 2016, Handler singled out white female voters who backed President Trump. One of the saddest things about November 8," she wrote, "were the women of America who somehow managed to vote for Donald Trump, specifically the 53 percent of all white female voters who chose Mr. Trump.

She added, America "is a free country, and we are free to differ on public policy" but "what kind of a woman votes for a white, entitled rich guy who has spent his entire life working the system for excess personal profit while insatiably groping strange women for personal pleasure?

Chelsea calls President Trump a loser

Handler kept up her pattern of publicly dissing the commander in chief. In April, while attending a Young Literati Toast, she took the opportunity to lash out saying, I think the way we have come together is so inspiring. I would have hoped that would have happened before the election, but Ill f---ing take it because its so much better to be friends with people you would never talk to before just because we all know that Donald Trump is a f---ing loser.

Handler goes topless to mock Putin

The blonde comedian recreated a famous snap of Russian President Vladimir Putin riding horseback shirtless in October 2014. Handler kept the authenticity of the photo leaving her shirt off, but when she posted it on Instagram it was swiftly removed as it broke the social media apps guidelines.

She shot back a response, If Instagram takes this down again, you're saying Vladimir Putin has more 1st amendment rights than me. Talk to your bosses."

It was removed for a second time, leading Handler to say she was exiting Instagram and opting for Twitter instead. However, Handler did not keep her promise remaining on Instagram to this day.Chris Rock has returned to the small screen with a new Netflix stand-up special, "Tamborine," in which the comedian talks about his porn addiction, cheating on his wife and pokes fun at President Trump and police violence.

In the special that debuted on Wednesday, Rock begins his 64-minute set by taking a stab at police brutality.

"You would think that cops would occasionally shoot a white kid just to make it look good, Rock starts. Youd think every couple of months theyd look at their dead n---a calendar and go Oh my God, were up to 16! We gotta shoot a white kid quick!"

On the stage at the Brooklyn Academy of music, Rock jokes that as an African-American he feels obligated to hate the cops, but then admits that sometimes he needs the security of law enforcement.

On one hand, Im a black man whos like, F--- the police. On the other hand, I own property, so when my house gets broken into Im not calling the Crips," he jokes.

Midway through his set, Rock says bullies are needed.

"Thats how Trump became president, Rock says. We got rid of bullies. A real bully showed up and nobody knew how to handle him.

The comedian then jokes that in the end, Trump's time in office will ultimately work out because it will lead to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Bush was so bad he gave us Obama. You forget that s---, dont you? Bush was so bad that people said, Hey maybe this black guy has the answers. I think people forget George Bushs contributions to black history  Trump is so bad hes going to give us Jesus.

Rock then continues on the topic of religion and slams Islamic extremists who extremely believe in God and occasionally blow s--- up.

The comedian goes on to then list some of God's "mistakes," naming porcupines, quicksand and the state of Mississippi as some of His worst.

After tackling politics and religion, the "Saturday Night Live" alum gets personal and talks about a time when he was 15 minutes late everywhere because he was addicted to porn.

When you watch too much porn, you know what happens? You become, like, sexually autistic. You develop sexual autism. You have a hard time with eye contact and verbal cues  You get desensitized...



The comedian blames himself for his divorce from Malaak Compton-Rock.

Its my fault because Im a f---ing a--hole, he says. I didnt listen. I wasnt kind. I had an attitude, I thought, I pay for everything, I can do what I want. That s--- dont f---ing work. I just thought I was the s---.

Rock's new special drew mixed reactions from fans on Twitter. Some praised the veteran comedian for his stand-up comeback.

Others thought there was nothing special about the Netflix show and criticized the comedian for complaining on stage.

The name of the special, "Tamborine," comes from the comedian's comparison joke that being in a band is the same thing as being in a relationship.

Sometimes you sing lead, and sometimes youre on tambourine...James Bond, also known as Pierce Brosnan, has been threatened with jail time after appearing in an ad for an Indian mouth freshener which can contain an addictive type of chewing tobacco.

Though the specific product that Brosnan promoted in his campaign did not contain tobacco, other types of the pan masala product contain tobacco, and it is illegal to advertise tobacco products in India.

View more photos of Pierce Brosnan here

On Monday, Indian law enforcement asked the Irish-born actor to explain why he made the decision to appear in an advertisement after his campaign for the pan masala product was featured on TV and in newspapers within the country.

Brosnan served as the face for the campaign, but the ad was quickly suspended after backlash emerged. According to The Guardian, Brosnan said he was deeply shocked and saddened that his image was used to promote a potentially dangerous product.

The actor was issued a show-cause notice and asked to explain why he chose to promote a company that sells tobacco-based products.

"We have issued the notice to Pierce Brosnan through the company, and also reached out to him via social media platforms," officials told the Indian Express newspaper.

If Brosnan does not respond to the notice in 10 days, the actor could be fined up to 5,000 rupees -- roughly 78 dollars -- or face up to two years in jail.

The "007" actor reportedly believed that he was promoting a breath freshener/tooth whitener [and] all-natural, containing neither tobacco, supari nor any other harmful ingredient." He said he felt grossly manipulated by the Pan Bahar company when it came to his involvement.

Brosnan did not respond to Fox News request for comment.An internal conversation among New York Times employees has been leaked, peeling back the curtain to reveal there's no end to the hypersensitivities of triggered employees at the Old Gray Lady.

Liberal staffers are outraged because their colleague, conservative columnist Bari Weiss, quoted the Broadway sensation Hamilton and tweeted, Immigrants: They get the job done, in response to figure skater Mirai Nagasu  whose parents are Japanese immigrants -- landing a historic triple axel at the Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Many people were upset with the tweet, with some critics pointing out that Nagasu is an American and others simply not understanding the Hamilton reference. However, HuffPost reporter Ashley Feinberg obtained a New York Times internal Slack conversation suggesting that significant outrage comes from Weiss colleagues at the paper, and that the sensitivity stretches well beyond the Weiss tweet.

The conversation is a microcosm of the way many people feel about the media elite in the current landscape. Free Beacon reporter Alex Griswold said Weiss critics come off as parodies of hypersensitive liberal journalists.

One staffer claimed Asians dont matter, while numerous employees said they were offended by the tweet.

I will no longer remain silent about our hostile work environment just so that it will be pleasant for others, one apparently disgruntled employee wrote. Frankly micro aggressions and people being obtuse cut the deepest  and this is DAILY.

The internal conversation exposes that a significant number of Times staffers are angry and dont enjoy working at the paper for a variety of reasons. Some complained that the paper doesnt have a public editor these days, while others bemoaned the lack of anyone to field a formal complaint. Some of the discontented staffers seem to think the paper has a diversity issue.

The diversity efforts here are nothing but lip service, an employee wrote. Lets hire more tokens we can put in their place!!!!!

At one point, a Times employee mentions that implicit bias training would be helpful, but not everyone agrees.

I dont know how its helpful if we are obsessed with poaching stars and nepotism, an employee said.

Names and identifying details were removed from the leaked conversation, but the HuffPost noted that an editor on the masthead notified the irritated employees that he was following along and said it was definitely worth more discussion.

One Times wage earner complained, I think we are supposed to just read and weep for fear of reprisals such as being blacklisted for promotions or being targeted for the next round of buyouts/layoffs.

People on both sides of the political aisle took to Twitter for some mockery. Bloombergs Eli Lake wrote that pathetic is too kind a word for The Times journalists leaking slime about a colleague to a rival publication.

TheWraps Jon Levine said the papers employees seem insufferable, while Herald Sun reporter Rita Panahi called them a pack of pitiful morons.

Perhaps one user summed it up best by tweeting, This is what a millennial press looks like.

Meanwhile, the HuffPost reporter who obtained the leaked information sent a racially charged tweet mocking Weiss supporters. Probably just a coincidence that everyone coming to bari weisss defense is white, Feinberg wrote.

The New York Times did not respond to Fox News request for comment.

However, the HuffPost story was eventually updated with the following statement from a Times spokesperson: The Times is deeply committed to a workplace that is reflective of the audience we serve. We view diversity -- of gender, ethnicity, origin, thought and opinion, as critical to our work. And, we want The Times to be a safe and comfortable place to work for all. For that reason, weve prioritized training programs and forums to facilitate a constructive conversation around this very important issue.Over three months after first being accused of sexual harassment on the set of "Transparent," Jeffrey Tambor is now officially off the Amazon series. While it is still unclear if the upcoming fifth season of the Emmy winning Jill Soloway-created show will be its last, it is very clear that Tambor will not be part of the new season at all, Deadline reports.

With the investigation by Amazon into multiple allegations of misconduct by the Golden Globe and Emmy winner recently completed, the decision to cut the Maura Pfefferman-portraying Tambor from "Transparent" was made in the past week. This, of course, comes after Tambor said on Nov. 19, I dont see how I can return to 'Transparent,' citing the growing claims against him and the politicized atmosphere that seems to have afflicted our set.

The actor and his reps then tried to walk back that declaration after it was widely viewed as an exit from the series.

Today, Amazon confirmed to Deadline that Tambor is not coming back and that the harassment investigation was recently concluded. No details of the investigation were unveiled but sources tell Deadline that Tambors behavior could not be justified or excused under scrutiny.

I have great respect and admiration for Van Barnes and Trace Lysette, whose courage in speaking out about their experience on 'Transparent' is an example of the leadership this moment in our culture requires, Soloway said Thursday. We are grateful to the many trans people who have supported our vision for 'Transparent' since its inception and remain heartbroken about the pain and mistrust their experience has generated in our community, she added. We are taking definitive action to ensure our workplace respects the safety and dignity of every individual, and are taking steps to heal as a family.

Reps for Tambor did not respond to request for comment by Deadline on Thursday about this matter.

Click here for more on this story from Deadline.German police are investigating a case of severe pizza-stalking in the western town of Dortmund.

Police are looking for someone who's bombarded a lawyer by sending scores of pizzas to his office.

WATCH: PIZZA SHOP CUSTOMERS BRAWL OVER MISSING PHONE THAT WASN'T REALLY MISSING

They said Wednesday the annoyed lawyer pressed charges in January, but told them he had no idea who was behind the unwanted food deliveries.

Local newspaper Ruhr Nachrichten named the lawyer as Guido Grolle, who told them he had already received over 100 pizzas. Grolle says "it's so irritating, I don't even get my work done anymore." The lawyer added that, sometimes, notices about the first deliveries of the day pop up on his phone during his morning shower.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

Lately, however, the anonymous buyer's tastes have changed: There have also been deliveries for sushi, sausage and Greek food.A meal of undercooked pork nearly cost one Florida man his vision after he contracted a brain-eating parasitic tapeworm that traveled to his eye.

Sam Cordero blamed his Christmas ham feast for the dangerous parasite Taenia solium, better known as a pork tapeworm, which can be passed to humans through consumption of raw pork or contact with fecal matter.

I believe and suspect it came from undercooked pork we ordered around Christmas holidays and thats how I believe I got it, Cordero told ABC Action News. I see a little black dot and its only on the left eye. I see something moving from left to right. When the sun comes out it bothers me a lot.

FIVE-FOOT LONG TAPEWORM CAME 'WIGGLING OUT' OF MAN'S BODY AFTER HE ATE SUSHI

If contracted, the parasite typically will attach to the small intestine where it usually grows up to seven meters. However, in rare cases, the worm can travel into the bloodstream and embed itself in the brain or eyeball.

For Cordero, the tapeworm attached to the vitreous chamber of his eye  the fluid-filled area behind the lens and between the cornea, ABC Action News reported.

Though rare  there have only been 20 worldwide cases diagnosed as the pork tapeworm since researchers began tracking it  Cordero was optimistic his doctor, who had treated a patient with the pork tapeworm before, could help him.

"Hes got a window of opportunity where he can end up with 20/20 vision and parasite free."  Dr. Don Perez

"I know I am in good hands and he treated it before, Cordero said to ABC.

Hes got a window of opportunity where he can end up with 20/20 vision and parasite free, Dr. Don Perez of the Perez Eye Center said.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

The concern, the doctor said, was in removing the parasite before it dies. If it died in the eye, the inflammation could cause Cordero to go blind. However, if it stayed alive, it could potentially release more larvae and travel to the brain.

Fortunately, the tapeworm had not gravitated to Corderos brain, yet.

If he was in the brain he would present seizures, Perez said explaining that the worm eats the brain making tiny holes that make the brain look like Swiss cheese, ABC Action News reported.

Perez conducted the delicate procedure and was able to remove 3 mm of the worm, which was fertilized with thousands of eggs.

According to the World Health Organization, the pork tapeworm is responsible for 30 percent of epilepsy cases where humans live near roaming pigs. Proper hygiene and cooking eradicate the parasite.Brain plaque connected to Alzheimer's disease actually goes away in mice when researchers removed the enzyme BACE1, which is linked to the development of the disease, according to a new study published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

"To our knowledge, this is the first observation of such a dramatic reversal of amyloid deposition in any study of Alzheimer's disease mouse models," senior researcher Riqiang Yan said in a press release.

ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE WARNING SIGNS AND PREVENTION

Scientists are not absolutely sure what causes Alzheimers, but buildups of plaque are prime suspects in cell death and tissue loss in patients, according to the Alzheimers Foundation.

The study found that when scientists removed the BACE1 enzyme, it not only slowed the formation of amyloid plaque, but they were surprised it also caused existing plaque to disintegrate, Yan told the Chicago Tribune.

"When we looked at the mice later  at six-months and 10-months-old  all those pre-existing plaques were gone," Yan said. He also pointed out that the removal of the enzyme improved learning and memory of the mice with Alzheimer's disease.

ALZHEIMER'S: DOES FAMILY HISTORY GUARANTEE YOU'LL GET IT?

The senior researcher said that five BACE1-inhibitor drugs are in the process of clinical trials as a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

"Our findings should assure the pharmaceutical companies that if you treat people early enough, it not only can stop the growth of those plaques, but will likely help to even remove the existing plaque," Yan said.There is an urgent need to replenish the blood supply in Florida following Wednesdays school shooting. The area hospitals were prepared with blood on-hand at the time of the massacre, but now there is an effort to replenish blood type O negative, the kind most commonly used in trauma situations.

OneBlood, a Florida-based blood center, rushed several hundred additional units to Broward Health North Hospital and Broward Health Medical Center immediately after they were notified of the mass casualties.

OneBlood's vice president of marketing and communications, Susan Forbes, told Fox News they are urging people to donate more O negative to replenish the supply that was dispatched.

Seven percent of the population has O negative blood," Forbes explained. "However, it is the type in the most demand because it is the universal blood type, meaning it can be given to anyone regardless of the patient's blood type, she said, adding that during emergencies doctors don't have time to check blood type.

NIKOLAS CRUZ: A PORTRAIT OF SUSPECTED FLORIDA HIGH SCHOOL GUNMAN WHO SHOT AND KILLED 17 PEOPLE

Forbes explained blood can take a few days to process. The additional units sent following the shooting were donated just a few days ago, so the people who donated blood when there was no tragedy are really the first responders who do their part to save lives.

According to the American Red Cross, every two seconds someone is in need of a blood transfusion in this country.

People cannot take blood supply for granted, yesterdays shooting shows why a ready blood supply is imperative 365 days a year, dont wait for the tragedy!

OneBlood collected 28,500 units of blood within seven days following the 2016 nightclub shooting in Orlando, replenishing 85 percent of the supply that was used on the victims.

ONEBLOOD: NEED TO REPLENISH BLOOD SUPPLY AFTER DEADLY

SHOOTING IN PARKLAND

OneBlood is urging people who have O-negative blood type to visit a donor center or Big Red Bus to help replenish the supply. People age 16 or older who weigh at least 110 pounds are eligible to give.

Forbes said people Thursday morning are starting to come to their centers to do their part, Its a heartwarming to see people come back and help replenish blood supply.When it comes to Valentines Day, most husbands choose to go the traditional route  chocolates, flowers, maybe some jewelry, a sappy greeting card.

But not Tyler Arnet.

The stay-at-home dad decided to do something extra special for his wife this year after she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.

Armed with a pair of boxer briefs, some flour and a Christopher Walken pillow, Arnet managed to come up with the perfect way to cheer up the missus: a dudeoir photoshoot.

I needed to do something to help her out, to make her feel good, Arnet explained.

Shes been very stressed out and I knew shed find [the pictures] hilarious, he told The Post.

Arnet, who is currently living in Vancouver, Washington, arranged to take the steamy shots after spotting a local photographers Facebook ad.

He surprised his wife, Stephanie, with a photo spread on Feb. 9  right before she went into surgery.

He showed them to me about an hour before I went in, Stephanie recalled. He was like, I got something to show you. When I saw [the pics}, I died laughing. It definitely wasnt anything I was expecting.

Sporting a sultry-but-chic look, Arnet, 28, took dozens of pics for the dudeoir shoot with photographer Jill Steenson, of Lillian Lane Photography.

He can be seen posing in front of a fireplace, on a kitchen counter-top and with the Walken pillow  which is positioned oh-so-perfectly.

While we were in [Steensons] living room, in front of fireplace I just so happened to see the pillow and my exact words were, Is that a Christopher Walken pillow?' Arnet remembered. I asked if we could use it, and she said, absolutely.'

Describing his modeling skills, Arnet said: I didnt want to be funny, I wanted to be fierce.

[Steenson] and [her husband] kept telling me, Youre magnificent! Youre beautiful!' he told The Post.

I was definitely in the zone. There was nothing stopping me. At one point I straight up said, Watch out, Tyra Banks  Im coming.'

Once Stephanie got the pics, she asked Arnet if she could post some to Facebook, and he happily obliged.

Hes never been the type to care, she said. And I mean, were just two regular people. We get maybe 20 likes apiece, at most. So I didnt expect it to go viral or anything.

Within the first 10 minutes, Stephanie received more than 100 shares.

Now were at more than 45,000, she said Tuesday.

Hundreds of Facebook users have reached out and commented on the dudeoir photos, with many applauding Tyler for his bravery and eyeopening show of support following Stephanies cancer diagnosis.

So many people have been reaching out, not just because of the pics, but because of why he took them, Stephanie said, noting how its brought laughter back into their lives.

I had one lady reach out whose husband was diagnosed recently with a stage 4 illness, and he rarely smiles and laughs, the 30-year-old explained. She said they havent stopped laughing. So, weve really been enjoying the positivity its bringing.

The photos have also helped Stephanie stay positive, as well.

To be a mother of three and an Army vet  deployed to Afghanistan  who did all this stuff, and then to find out you have cancer, was tough, Arnet said.

Stephanie got her cancer diagnosis back in November after paying a visit to an optometrist.

I walked into the Optometry clinic due to vision issues in my right eye, and walked out having been told I have a very rare form of cancer called Ocular Melanoma, she wrote on Facebook at the time. This type of cancer is only diagnosed to an average of 2,000 people a year, and is so rare in fact, that there are only about 10 doctors who specialize in its treatment.

The Army recruiter praised her husband for his support in recent months, saying: Hes really the best.

Good luck to anyone who tries to top him, she said of his Valentines Day gift.

Arnett added, Hopefully my wife doesnt ever forget this.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post.LOVE is never as simple or as straight forward as it seems and nor is Valentines Day.

The day of lovers is a date steeped in blood and misery and one championed by the worlds most famous writer into the celebration of romance it has become.

BLOODY ORIGINS OF LOVE

Historians are divided over the exact origins of Valentines Day but either way its bloody and brutal early days are a far cry from the romance it is associated with now.

Much love, and credit, is given to the Romans for the birth of Valentines Day. According to one theory, the Romans celebrated the Feast of Lupercalia from February 13 to 15. During this festival animals were sacrificed and women were then whipped with the hides of the slain animals in the belief it would make them fertile.

Yale historian Noel Lenski told NPR the Roman romantics were drunk and naked during the outrageous celebration.

Another theory says our worldwide day of love is owed to martyred St. Valentine or Valentinus. St. Valentine defied Roman Emperor Cladius IIs decree that no soldiers were permitted to marry because single men made better fighters. When St. Valentine was discovered marrying young lovers in secret, Cladius ordered that he be executed. The order was said to be have been carried through on February 14.

BIRDS MATING SEASON BEGINS

During the Middle Ages in both England and France it was commonly accepted that February 14 was the beginning of the birds' mating season and as a result the date became associated with one of love and coupling.

LOVE LASTS THROUGH JAIL WALLS

The oldest known Valentine in existence was written by Charles, The Duke of New Orleans, way back in 1415. The Duke is credited with coining the phrase "My Valentine."

The revered medieval poet penned a love letter, titled Farewell to Love, to his wife when he was imprisoned in the Tower of London after being captured at the Battle of Agincourt.

The poem was written in French and English and is now part of a collection at the British Library in London.

It ends with the words:

I am already sick of love

My very gentle Valentine

CHAUCER AND SHAKESPEARE CHAMPION LOVE

Literature giants Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare contributed significantly to the growth in popularity of February 14 as a day for the lovers during the Middle Ages.

The famous pair romanticized the day in much of their work and as a result it gained tremendous popularity in Britain and throughout the rest of Europe.

The widespread use of handmade paper cards became a part of popular culture during this time on the back of their writings.

The first recorded mention of Valentines Day association with romance is said to be in Chaucers "Parliament of Fowls" (1382) in which he wrote: For this was on St. Valentines Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.

The poem was written as a tribute to the marriage of Englands King Richard II to Anne of Bohemia. It could also have been a reference to the start of the birds' mating season.

Two of Shakespeares most popular quotes referred to on Valentines Day are: They do not love that do not show their love and the course of true love never did run smooth.

The famous Roses are red verse is traced by to Edmund Spensers "The Faerie Queene."

CHOCOLATE CAN CURE A BROKEN HEART

In the 1800s doctors began to prescribe chocolate for matters of love. In some quarters it was believed a dose of chocolate would cure a broken heart.

More recently doctors have confirmed chocolate can lift mood and that it has antidepressant qualities.

COURT OF LOVE

A Court of Love existed during Medieval Times in France to decide on questions of love. It was the Courts role to rule on queries regarding love, to settle disputes between couples, and to pass sentences on a lover who was found to be in the wrong.

It was established in 15th Century Parios by Princess Isabel of Bavaria and was said to be exceptionally busy on and around St Valentines Day.

SINGLES AWARNESS DAY

Singles Awareness Day or S.A.D. has been coined as a mainly humorous anti-Valentines Day for singles or even for those who oppose February 14 as a "Hallmark Holiday.

Singles Awarness (or Appreciation) Day is celebrated on February 15 and according to the Singles Awareness website it is a day for people to proudly stand up and show that it is OK to be single.

This article originally appeared at news.com.au.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

John Fredericks, host of a widely followed conservative radio show, did something brave Thursday. He questioned, on air, whether people should have access to rapid-fire guns.

Fredericks acknowledged that his call for increased regulation was bound to anger many of his listeners. He described himself as a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment to the Constitution and of the National Rifle Association, but voiced his concerns about high-powered weapons in the wake of the horrific shootings at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

He also described himself as a parent, who does not want to see more tragedies take place in our countrys schools.

We are approaching the 20th anniversary of the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado  in which 13 people were killed and 20 were wounded  followed by other horrific mass shootings.

Will others now follow Fredericks in advocating commonsense restrictions on the availability of the kinds of guns that facilitate mass murder?

Or will everyone on the left and right scurry to their respective corners, paralyzing debate and reforms that might reduce the number of senseless tragedies this nation endures?

We all know the post-slaughter playbook. Sadly, weve had plenty of occasions to etch the template.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., or Hillary Clinton, or some other predictable voice will blame Republicans for easing the path to gun ownership and blocking any and all restrictions on weapons purchases. Republicans will point out that people kill people  not guns.

Many will say we need more mental health services. Others will say it is the breakdown of the family unit that has caused so many untethered young people to resort to violence.

There is truth in all these positions, but reiterating the same talking points doesnt lead to progress. Congress will debate various improvements to school safety, or minor changes to weapons laws, like banning bump stocks. Nothing will get done.

It is time for an honest conversation about gun control. We all know that if rapid-fire weapons had not been involved in the shootings in Las Vegas (58 dead), or Orlando (49 dead), or Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland (17 dead), fewer people would have died. That is a fact.

That fact gets obscured by quibbling over definitions. Fully automatic weapons are illegal, but semi-automatic guns are available. They can fire almost as quickly, use similar ammunition and do just as much damage.

Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people in an Orlando nightclub, used a Sig Sauer MCX semiautomatic rifle, not technically an automatic weapon, but one that was just as lethal. The families of those killed are probably indifferent to the distinctions.

For 10 years, it was illegal to buy new guns like the one used by Mateen and there was a limit on high-capacity magazines. Congress allowed the ban to expire in 2004.

Furious lobbying by the NRA has prohibited a renewal of the ban. Today, Americans can buy semi-automatic weapons that are described by numerous law enforcement agencies as assault weapons.

One argument against restricting such sales stems from concerns that prohibiting any type of weapon is a violation of the Second Amendment. But that is patently false. Machine gun sales are illegal, so the precedent exists for restrictions.

Others worry that restricting ownership of some types of guns is a slippery slope. They say further limitations will follow, which is why gun sales typically surge after a mass shooting.

That is no excuse to allow easy access to weapons that have no conceivable role in everyday life and that facilitate wanton bloodbaths.

Hunters or those who enjoy shooting clay pigeons dont use semi-automatic weapons.

It is time for conservatives to embrace our new reality: todays violence-prone society makes ownership of high-powered rapid-fire guns too dangerous.

At the same time, liberals need to address why our culture has become so tolerant of violence. Hollywood needs to be held to account for the savage imagery and realistic slaughter that makes its video games and movies so lucrative.

There is no question that young people who grow up engaging in ever-gorier and more violent games can become inured and desensitized to death and destruction.

The NRA wields undue influence on our gun laws via large campaign donations to politicians. Similarly, Hollywood undermines our cultural values because of greed. Commonsense Americans should demand that our politicians seek concessions from both groups.

There is no quick fix to prevent the next Columbine or Parkland killings. But we can make a start. Better follow-up on young people who are known to be violent, public service messages that encourage anyone to come forward if they spot ominous social media posts (as indeed happened in Parkland), greater availability of mental health services  all these might help.

But it is also clear that the loose regulations of high-powered rapid-fire weapons in the U.S. makes these tragedies likely to happen again and again.

President Trump, who has broken with traditional Republican orthodoxy on a number of occasions, could lead a conversation about adopting some commonsense reforms.

Though such a move it would anger some of the presidents his conservative followers, he would pick up a lot of support among independents and moderate Republicans. More importantly, it would be the right thing to do. Something has to change.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Dont let up, a friend living abroad wrote a few weeks ago about corruption at the FBI. Trump has them all on the run.

The note came to mind when I saw the weird e-mail Susan Rice wrote to herself on Inauguration Day last year.

At first glance, the e-mail, which purports to recount remarks President Obama made two weeks earlier to Rice, FBI head James Comey and others about the Russia probe, makes no sense. But ask yourself why Rice repeated that Obama wanted everything done by the book, and it smells as if shes preparing a last-minute defense for Obama, and maybe herself.

Senators Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham, pit bulls on government misbehavior, wrote to Rice about the e-mail while noting that there were lots of doubts about whether the FBI actually did proceed by the book.

Hopefully, shell have to give her answer under oath, as should Comey and anybody else in the room.

As for Obama, I always assumed the corruption hunt would end up on his doorstep. I didnt assume it would get there so quickly.

To continue reading Michael Goodwin's column from the New York Post, click here.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Let me offer hope to those who believe a balanced federal budget is important.

It is possible to balance the budget in the next decade  if we have the intelligence to focus on things that will work and avoid things that are impossible.

I should know. The only four balanced federal budgets since 1969 came from a project House Republicans insisted on when I was speaker.

We set out in the spring of 1995 to balance the budget as an act of policy. We had passed a constitutional amendment to require a balanced budget in the House with a vote of 300-132 and we came within three votes of passing it in the Senate with a final vote of 64-35.

Clearly, there was a solid majority in favor of a balanced budget in both the House and Senate. However, amending the Constitution requires a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress.

At a working dinner in the Capitol a few days later, the House Republican leadership discussed simply pretending that the amendment had passed and working to balance the budget anyway.

Our most senior member, Bill Archer, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, had campaigned on balancing the federal budget when he replaced George H.W. Bush as the representative for the 7th Congressional District of Texas in 1971. At this dinner, 24 years later, we set out to implement his promise.

Budget Chairman John Kasich of Ohio played a key role in developing and implementing the first balanced budget in a generation. He had strong support from House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas, Appropriations Chairman Bob Livingston of Louisiana, and Energy and Commerce Chairman Tom Bliley of Virginia.

As we prepared for that extraordinary project, we were helped by business leaders who had led their companies through large-scale changes. Every Wednesday evening, we would have 15 business leaders come in for dinner to brief us on what big changes require.

Of course, balancing the federal budget required changes on a scale that dwarfed virtually all the companies advising us. After all, President Clintons proposed federal budget for the previous year aimed to increase spending from $1.468 trillion to $1.78 trillion over five years.

Nonetheless, the Republican leadership in 1995 had three principles which came up over and over:

? Define large goals with incredibly short deadlines

? Delegate like crazy and hold people accountable (you get what you inspect, not what you expect)

? Throw all the experts out of the room. They will waste your time with what cant be done and reject the changes you need.

We applied these principles over and over. We also listened to our members  to learn about good ideas and to learn what we could and could not pass.

We had a deliberate strategy of educating the country and appealing to the American people so that we could sustain the effort to balance the budget, despite the best efforts of the news media and the Clinton administration to stop us.

Some of what we did was very popular. Reforming welfare and requiring able-bodied adults to go to work in exchange for benefits had 95 percent approval in a 1995 Hart/Teeter poll for NBC and the Wall Street Journal.

Our greatest challenge was to modernize Medicare, so we could save money while improving choices for senior citizens. We knew this was very dangerous in a presidential election year.

We spent a year earning the trust of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)  the one organization that could have destroyed our effort. We spent that same year training our members, so they could hold town hall meetings on Medicare reform and win the support of their constituents.

We also made deep cuts to the capital gains tax in order to accelerate economic growth and increase government revenue through higher incomes rather than higher taxes.

All this effort paid off both in balancing the budget and in helping House Republicans keep our newly made House majority.

This experience suggests the following principles for getting back to a balanced budget:

First, we must maximize economic growth. This is the key to balancing the budget in a free society. It is virtually impossible to sustain an austerity budget filled with economic pain.

Maximizing economic growth leads to a happier population as jobs, take-home pay and retirement benefits increase. It also increases the flow of revenue to the government so the budget becomes easier to balance.

The increased profitability and wealth from economic growth make it possible for new ideas and new entrepreneurs to grow rapidly. The rise of companies such as Amazon, Wal-Mart, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Blue Origin, SpaceX and others happen more easily and faster in a growing economy.



Second, we must identify extremely large cost centers that can be fixed to really change long-term spending. Welfare reform was an example from our balanced budget effort in the 1990s. Moving people from welfare to work saved an enormous amount of money for the federal government and states. It was one of the keys to balancing the budget.

Some cost centers to look at today include:

1. Higher education, which has grown more expensive more quickly than health care. The work of Mitch Daniels at Purdue University, Dr. Jerry Davis at College of the Ozarks, Brandon Busteed at Gallup and Sebastian Thrun at Udacity are all examples of better learning at much lower costs.

2. Alzheimers is the costliest disease in America. From now to 2050 it will cost an estimated $20 trillion (about the size of the entire national debt). A crash program in brain science would probably do more to balance the budget than any other effort.

3. The Defense Department, NASA and other purchasing agencies should study Wal-Mart, Amazon, and other smart purchasers. Defense and space have to move at the speed of technology  not the speed of bureaucracy. When for the same price you can buy 10 flights with the private sectors Falcon Heavy or John Glenn versus one flight with the governments Space Launch System (which has yet to fly), you know there are huge savings.

4. The bureaucracies must be modernized to meet the age of the tablet and the smartphone. The 1943 Pentagon that was designed for manual typewriters and carbon paper ought to be turned into a triangle. Modern information systems can provide a huge difference in speed and capability.

5. The health-care system is the largest single driver of costs in America. A single giant solution  whether conservative or socialist  simply wont work. No one is smart enough to replace 18 percent of the economy in one giant move. We need 1,000 steps of specific reforms all aimed toward lower costs, better access and more modern solutions.

Third, we must distinguish between true entitlements and transfer programs. There are three genuine earned entitlements: Social Security, Medicare and veterans benefits. In all three, people have done things to deserve support.

You can modernize and improve the entitlements, but you cant cut them. Public reaction to entitlement cuts would be too explosive and would destroy the entire balanced budget effort. However, various transfer programs, such as welfare and food stamps, can all be rethought and reformed  starting with work requirements.

Fourth, fraud is rampant throughout government. More than $100 billion a year is stolen in Medicare and Medicaid alone. Applying modern anti-fraud techniques developed by the major credit card companies could save the federal government $100 billion to $200 billion a year ($1 trillion to $2 trillion over a decade).

These initial steps should give you confidence that a systematic effort can in fact balance the federal budget within a decade.

We have done it before. We can do it again.A Virginia-based federal appeals court on Thursday ruled against the latest version of President Trumps travel ban affecting residents of six majority-Muslim countries ahead of the U.S. Supreme Courts expected decision in the case this year.

In a 9-4 vote, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond said it examined statements made by Trump and other administration officials, as well as the ban itself, and concluded that it is "unconstitutionally tainted with animus toward Islam." It follows the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco issuing a similar ruling late last year.

The U.S. Supreme Court has already said it will consider the issue of the ban in April, with a ruling expected by late June.

Trump's third version of an executive order  sometimes referred to as "travel ban 3.0"-- restricts entry into the United States from six mostly Muslim nations but also includes North Korea and certain Venezuelan government officials.

The issue pits an administration that considers the restrictions necessary for Americans' security against challengers who claim it is illegally aimed at Muslims and stems from Trump's campaign call for a "complete shutdown of Muslims" entering the U.S.

The announcement was celebrated by opponents of the ban.

President Trumps third illegal attempt to denigrate and discriminate against Muslims through an immigration ban has failed in court yet again, the ACLU, which is representing the plaintiffs in the 4th Circuit appeal, said in a Thursday statement. Its no surprise. The Constitution prohibits government actions hostile to a religion.

SUPREME COURT ANNOUNCES IT WILL RULE ON TRUMPS TRAVEL BAN



The ban is currently being enforced at the Justice Departments request  at least until the case is fully litigated in the courts.

At issue is whether the temporary ban violates the religion clauses of the First Amendment, the due process clause of the Fifth and 14th Amendments, as well as the ban on nationality discrimination in the issuance of immigrant visas contained in a 65-year-old congressional law.

Trump's first travel ban was issued almost a year ago, almost immediately after he took office, and was aimed at seven countries. It triggered chaos and protests across the U.S. as travelers were stopped from boarding international flights and detained at airports for hours. Trump tweaked the order after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit refused to reinstate the ban.

The next version, unveiled in March, dropped Iraq from the list of covered countries and made it clear the 90-day ban covering Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen didn't apply to those travelers who already had valid visas. It also got rid of language that would give priority to religious minorities. Critics said the changes didn't erase the legal problems with the ban.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Jonas Cullwick, a former General Manager of VBTC is now a Senior Journalist with the Daily Post. Contact: jonas@dailypost.vu. Cell # 678 5460922Will the changing political climate sideline Bill Clinton?

Less than two years ago, he stood on a Philadelphia stage and heaped praise on his wife as the Democratic nominee for his old job. And he was a constant presence on the trail in a campaign that they, and nearly all journalists, thought would defeat Donald Trump.

As the 2018 midterms heat up, you might expect that a former presidentone who left office with a high approval rating, despite the inconvenient fact of having been impeachedwould be much in demand. But apparently, not so much.

That's the thesis of a Politico piece on the party running away from Clinton:

"Democrats are looking to embrace the #MeToo moment and rally women to push back on President Donald Trump in the midtermsand they dont want Bill Clinton anywhere near it."

Clinton's historyMonica Lewinsky, Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers, Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddricklooks far different to many Democrats in 2018 than it did in 1998, when the Senate acquitted him, or even 2016. His presence would detract from the Democrats' ability to make the midterms about Donald Trump, Rob Porter and Roy Moore.

There's another factor, I believe, not mentioned by Politico: Bill's presence also reminds voters of Hillary. It's not his fault that she ran a terrible campaign and lacked his ability to spin stories and connect with voters. But ever since he ran on a 2-for-1 deal back in 1992, allowed her to make policy as first lady and backed her two White House runs, they have been politically joined at the hip.

And most Democrats want to move on from the Hillary debacle.

The piece says of Bill that "an array of Democrats told Politico they're keeping him on the bench. They dont want to be seen anywhere near a man with a history of harassment allegations, as guilty as their party loyalty to him makes them feel about it ...

"Privately, many Democratic politicians and strategists are harsher and firmer: Don't come to their states, and don't say anything about their campaigns. They are still worried about saying it out loud, but they don't want him now, or maybe ever. They know Republicans would react by calling them  with good reason  hypocrites."

This is hardly the first time the issue of Clintons womanizing has come up. Twenty years ago, Democrats feared that he would be an albatross in the midst of the Ken Starr investigation and impeachment drive; the Republicans lost five seats and Newt Gingrich resigned as speaker.

In 2000, Al Gore barely deployed Clinton as a surrogate as he tried to turn the page, and that may have cost him the presidency in the razor-thin recount election.

Trump didn't let Clintons sexual misconduct fade into the history books. He alluded to it at times, and after the "Access Hollywood" tape, he brought some of Clinton's accusers to the second debate. His surrogates weren't shy about using Bill's past to blunt Hillary's attacks on Trumps treatment of women.

But now it's Clintons own party that apparently wants to turn the page. Kirsten Gillibrand, elected to the Senate with Clinton's backing but eyeing the White House in 2020, recently said he should have resigned after the Monica Lewinsky affair. If most other Democrats follow suit, Clinton may have to spend more time with his family and his foundation.A group of senators on Wednesday came up with a bipartisan immigration deal that would increase border security and give legal status to the so-called Dreamers, but fall short of President Trumps four pillars, and if passed would likely be vetoed.

The so-called Common Sense Coalition is comprised of eight Democrats, eight Republicans and one Independent.

The compromise calls for $25 billion for border security, including the construction of the border wall over a 10-year period. The compromise falls short of Trumps demand for immediate funding, The New York Times reported.

Nearly two million illegal immigrants, many of who came to the country as children, would be offered an eventual path to citizenship as part of the plan. The new citizens would not be allowed to sponsor their parents. The bipartisan deal leaves the diversity visa lottery in place, an immigration program Trump wants to ax.

Trump on Wednesday reiterated the need to pass the bill proposed by Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, that takes a more hardline approach to immigration.

I am asking all senators, in both parties, to support the Grassley bill and to oppose any legislation that fails to fulfill these four pillars, Trump said in the statement. He added that the overwhelming majority of American voters support a plan that fulfills the frameworks four pillars, which move us towards the safe, modern and lawful immigration system our people deserve.

The president said he would oppose any Band-Aid measure that gives legal status to Dreamers in exchange for a minimal increase in border security.

Republican leadership came out in support for Trump.

Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday that the president has made clear what principles must be addressed if we are going to make a law instead of merely making political points.

The Grassley bill would give a path to citizenship for young immigrants but it would also limit chain migration, beef up border security. It remains unclear whether the bill, which is favored by the White House, has a chance in Congress. Democrats oppose any plan to severely limit chain migration, a process when someone can sponsor a visa for a family member. Democrats are also opposed to ending the diversity visa lottery.

But it remains unclear whether the bipartisan agreement would reach the required 60 votes in the Senate to break the filibuster if brought up for the vote.

The presidents going to have a vote on his concept. I dont think it will get 60 votes, said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., according to the Times. The bottom line then is: What do you do next? You can do what weve done for the last 35 years  blame each other. Or you can actually start fixing the broken immigration system. If you came out of this with strong border security  the president getting his wall and the Dream Act population being taken care of  most Americans would applaud.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the bipartisan bill does not have the required votes yet, adding that he is encouraging the liberal wing of his party, who oppose compromises with Republicans, to support the bill. There are plenty who dont like this, he said.

Fox News Chad Pergram contributed to this report.North Dakota Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer plans to announce Friday that he will run for Senate against Democratic incumbent Heidi Heitkamp, reversing an earlier decision to seek re-election in the House, Fox News has learned.

A Facebook invitation went out Thursday for a Cramer for Senate Announcement & Rally in Bismarck, N.D.

A high-level campaign official confirmed to Fox News that he will announce a Senate run.

The decision is sure to come as a relief to Washington Republicans who had been pressuring him to reconsider his decision last month to stay put in the House.

With Democrats fighting hard to seize control of the House this fall, Republicans are determined to hold onto their narrow majority in the Senate, now at 51-49. Heitkamp, a Democrat in a deep-red state that went overwhelmingly for President Trump in 2016, is thought to be one of the most-vulnerable senators this cycle. But until now, Republicans had failed to recruit Cramer to run against her.

Cramer, a staunch Trump ally, acknowledged earlier this week that he was being pushed to reconsider by forces both in Washington and in North Dakota. Trump reportedly was among those applying pressure.

The congressman said at the time he was taking the calls under consideration.

The Hill reported earlier this week that former state GOP chairman and candidate Gary Emineth cited Cramers expected entry into the Senate race in his decision to drop out of the contest.

Party officials are likely to close ranks behind Cramer. A Heitkamp-Cramer matchup in the general election could be one of the fiercest of the 2018 midterms, as they both represent the same constituency; Cramer represents the entire state in the House.

Democrats, however, made clear Thursday they're ready to take on Cramer, drawing attention to a recent controversy over his use of campaign funds and claiming he does "what's best for his own interests."

"Voters will see right through Congressman Cramer and hold him accountable for a self-serving record that has hurt North Dakotans," Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman David Bergstein said in a statement.

Cramer's change of heart comes as Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., also is said to be reconsidering his decision to leave Congress at the end of his current term.

Fox News Chad Pergram contributed to this report.Senators on Thursday blocked all four plans dealing with immigration as President Trump torpedoed one proposal as a total catastrophe and his Department of Homeland Security lambasted it as the end of immigration enforcement in America.

During a series of afternoon procedural votes, no immigration amendments crossed the 60 vote threshold that would have cut off debate and paved the way for final votes.

The effort to pass immigration legislation comes as Democrats insist on protecting young illegal immigrants brought to the country as children and Trump demands funding for a border wall.

Ahead of the votes, the Trump administration focused on the bipartisan agreement drawn up by a Gang of 22 that would grant a 10-12 year path to the young illegal immigrants or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.

The amendment failed by only getting 54 votes. Forty five senators voted against it.

WHITE HOUSE THREATENS VETO FOR IMMIGRATION PLAN

The administration objected to the bills failure to address so-called chain migration -- by which immigrants can sponsor a broad number of relatives to come join them in the U.S. Trump has said that he wants to limit sponsorship to children and spouses.

The bill also would not end the visa lottery system, which allows 55,000 immigrants into the country each year and has been dogged by accusations of fraud and abuse.

Ahead of the vote, the DHS warned the plan would mean the end of immigration enforcement in America.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., meanwhile, accused Trump on the Senate floor of trying to spike the deal.

Why? Because it isnt 100 percent of what the president wants on immigration? Thats not how our democracy works  you dont get 100 percent of what you want in a democracy, he said. Maybe in a dictatorship.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C, who supported the amendment, said "our proposal would represent the most significant change to immigration law in the past thirty-five years." Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., called it the best chance to protect Dreamers against deportation from the only country they know as home."

In two tweets, Trump said the Schumer-Rounds-Collins immigration bill would be a total catastrophe.

It creates a giant amnesty (including for dangerous criminals), doesnt build the wall, expands chain migration, keeps the visa lottery, continues deadly catch-and-release, and bars enforcement even for FUTURE illegal immigrants, Trump said. Voting for this amendment would be a vote AGAINST law enforcement, and a vote FOR open borders.

Trump added: If Dems are actually serious about DACA, they should support the Grassley bill!

That proposal, authored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, was also rejected.

Senators also blocked a plan by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., which would allow DACA recipients to qualify for permanent residency while directing agencies to control the border by 2020.

And another plan offered by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., that would block federal grants to sanctuary cities that do not cooperate with federal authorities on illegal immigration also failed to pass a test vote.

Fox News Adam Shaw, Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Reince Priebus, the former White House chief of staff who has kept a low profile since his ouster last summer, is speaking out on the chaos he witnessed in the West Wing in those early months  detailing the fiery infighting that consumed the Trump team after James Comeys removal, and the scramble to avert Attorney General Jeff Sessions resignation.

"Take everything you've heard and multiply it by 50," Priebus said.

The former Republican National Committee boss spoke to writer Chris Whipple for an updated version of his book, "The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency.

In an adapted passage in Vanity Fair, Priebus and other sources gave new details about what was happening behind the scenes after Trump ousted his FBI director, apparently against the wishes of Priebus and White House Counsel Don McGahn.

The account says in the immediate aftermath, chief strategist Steve Bannon blew up at Trump son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, who supported Trumps decision to fire Comey and supposedly was angry the communications team was struggling to defend it.

Theres not a f---ing thing you can do to sell this! Bannon reportedly shouted at Kushner. Nobody can sell this! P. T. Barnum couldnt sell this! People arent stupid! This is a terrible, stupid decision thats going to have massive implications. It may have shortened Trumps presidencyand its because of you, Jared Kushner!

As a special counsel subsequently was named to take over the Russia meddling case, Priebus described the crisis that unfolded soon afterward on the sidelines with Sessions:

Don McGahn came in my office pretty hot, red, out of breath, and said, Weve got a problem. I responded, What? And he said, Well, we just got a special counsel, and Sessions just resigned. I said, What!? What the hell are you talking about? 

Priebus detailed a scramble from that point on to dissuade Sessions from leaving. He apparently ran to the West Wing parking lot and jumped into Sessions sedan, telling him, You cannot resign. This led to a meeting with Bannon and Vice President Pence, and we started talking to him to the point where he decided that he would not resign right then and he would instead think about it.

According to Whipple, Sessions delivered a resignation letter, but Priebus said he convinced Trump to return it.

Sessions resignation threat, which apparently followed a humiliating dressing-down by the president, has emerged in published reports before, though not in this level of detail.

The book adaption goes on to describe another clash. Whipple writes that Priebus was told over the summer to get Sessions resignation, but Priebus convinced Trump otherwise.

Whipple also details what led to then-Press Secretary Sean Spicers infamous January 2017 briefing appearance where he attacked the media for coverage of the inauguration crowd size.

He writes that Priebus got a call from a livid Trump just after 6 in the morning after the inauguration complaining about news reports that showed his inaugural crowds didn't measure up to those of his predecessor. Priebus said Trump insisted, "There's more people there. There are people who couldn't get in the gates. ... There's all kind of things that were going on that made it impossible for these people to get there."

Whipple writes that Priebus thought arguing about crowd size was not a good fight to pick on the day after the inauguration, but the chief of staff knew he had to decide: "Am I going to go to war over this with the president of the United States?"

Priebus was ousted by Trump last July and replaced by John Kelly, whose own job security is now in doubt as Trump complains about Kelly's handling of allegations of domestic abuse by top aide Rob Porter. Porter resigned last week.

For all of the drama and tumult of his days with Trump, Priebus told Whipple, "I still love the guy."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.House Democrats said Thursday they are looking at initiating contempt proceedings against former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, complaining that he cited "executive privilege" to brush off a host of questions during a tense closed-door interview with the House Intelligence Committee.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told reporters that Bannon stonewalled almost all of the questions, with the exception of a series of 25 scripted questions from the White House -- all of which he answered "no." Schiff added that Bannon said he had been instructed to invoke executive privilege by the White House.

"That claim of executive privilege is breathtaking and insupportable and, indeed at times, it was laughable," Schiff said.

Schiff said that Democrats will push for initiating contempt charges against Bannon, a move that would require support from Republicans on the committee. Schiff said Republicans appeared supportive and will confer with their leadership on the next step.

Hes brought our committee together, he said.

Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., said the environment in the room was "surreal" and agreed with Schiff that Bannon should be held in contempt.

Republican Mike Conaway, of Texas, described that step as a "big deal," but said the meeting was frustrating.

Bannon arrived on Capitol Hill for the session after being subpoenaed last month upon refusing to answer questions about alleged meddling by Russia in the 2016 election.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, a senior Republican on the panel and one of the Republicans who supported the subpoena, said before the meeting that he wouldn't be satisfied with yes or no answers. But Gowdy wouldn't say whether Republicans would move to hold Bannon in contempt, saying that was a question for House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

The dispute surrounded whether Bannon could talk about the presidential transition and also communications with President Trump since he departed the White House in the summer.

SCHIFF: INTEL COMMITTEE TO 'ENFORCE' BANNON SUBPOENA, 'COMPEL' LEWANDOWSKI TO TESTIFY

In January, Bannon sat for an hourslong interview with investigators at the committee. At the meeting, Bannons attorney told lawmakers that the White House had directed his client not to answer questions about his time in the White House or during the transition.

Bannon also was interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller this week as part of the FBI's probe into alleged Russian interference, a source close to the matter told Fox News. NBC News reported multiple interviews took place.

Fox News' Catherine Herridge and The Associated Press contributed to this report.President Trump on Thursday condemned the school shooting massacre in Florida as a scene of terrible violence, hatred, and evil, while vowing to address mental health issues amid a renewed debate in Washington over how to stop these recurring attacks.

No child, no teacher should ever be in danger in an American school, Trump said in the Diplomatic Room of the White House. No parent should ever have to fear for their sons and daughters when they kiss them goodbye in the morning.

Later in the day, the president issued a proclamation ordering all flags to be flown at half-staff in public areas and military posts until Monday, to honor the victims.

As the president focused in the aftermath of the tragedy on mental health, Democrats largely renewed their push for gun control measures -- pointing to reports the suspect had an AR-15.

The president said Thursday hes committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of mental health. Trump didnt explicitly discuss gun control, but suggested hes not supportive of reflexive measures.

It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference, Trump said. We must actually make that difference.

"No child, no teacher should ever be in danger in an American school"  President Trump

Trump said he is making plans to visit Parkland, Fla., in the coming days to meet with families and local officials and to continue coordinating the federal response.

We must also work together to create a culture in our country that embraces the dignity of life that creates deep and meaningful human connections and that turns classmates and colleagues into friends and neighbors, he said.

At one point during his speech, the president directed his remarks toward America's children, especially those who feel lost, alone, confused, or even scared.

I want you to know that you are never alone and you never will be, he said. You have people who care about you, who love you, and who will do anything at all to protect you. If you need help, turn to a teacher, a family member, a local police officer, or a faith leader. Answer hate with love. Answer cruelty with kindness.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, was charged with multiple counts of premeditated murder after authorities said he went on the shooting spree Wednesday afternoon and killed 17 faculty and students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Cruz is a former student of the school, police said.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, speaking before a gathering of sheriffs in Washington on Thursday, said he has directed his office of legal policy to work with cabinet agencies to study the intersection of mental health and criminality and identify how we can stop people capable of such heinous crimes.

We must confront this problem, Sessions said.

Earlier Thursday, Trump tweeted there were so many signs the Florida suspect was mentally disturbed  suggesting more could have been done to report him to authorities.

So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again! Trump tweeted.

Cruz was taken into custody without incident Wednesday by Coconut Creek police in a Coral Springs neighborhood, located just a few miles from the high school itself. He allegedly had an AR-15 rifle and countless magazines.

Cruz had been expelled from the high school for disciplinary reasons, and math teacher Jim Gard told the Miami Herald that before Wednesday's fatal shooting, Cruz may have been identified as a potential threat.

In the aftermath of the shooting, Democrats immediately called on Congress to take up new gun legislation. Republican lawmakers are likely to push back on such calls, as they have after past shootings, focusing  as Trump did in Thursdays tweet  on issues like mental illness.

"We are grieving with Parkland. But we are not powerless. Caring for our kids is our first job," tweeted former President Barack Obama. "And until we can honestly say that we're doing enough to keep them safe from harm, including long overdue, common-sense gun safety laws that most Americans want, then we have to change."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a prominent gun control advocate, tweeted, Another mass shooting. Reportedly another AR-15. My bill to ban assault weapons is ready for a vote. How long will we accept weapons of war being used to slaughter our children.

Full details of Cruzs mental condition are not publicly known. Broward County Mayor Beam Furr told CNN he was getting treatment at a mental health clinic for a while, but hadn't been there for more than a year.

Fox News Judson Berger, Elizabeth Zwirz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.President Trump, in the wake of the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook, said Thursday there were so many signs the Florida suspect was mentally disturbed  suggesting more could have been done to report him to authorities.

So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again! Trump tweeted.

The president plans to address the nation about the shooting at 11 a.m. ET on Thursday, the White House says. The flag was lowered to half-staff at the White House in honor of the victims.

Suspect Nikolas Cruz, 19, arrived at the Broward County Jail early Thursday morning after investigators questioned him for hours. The 19-year-old, who was a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was taken into custody without incident Wednesday by Coconut Creek police in a Coral Springs neighborhood, located just a few miles from the high school itself.

Seventeen people were killed Wednesday when the gunman opened fire at the Florida high school as panicked students fled the bloodbath. Cruz was charged Thursday with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Cruz allegedly had an AR-15 rifle and countless magazines.

The school massacre immediately touched off another debate in Washington over whether gun control measures could have prevented the slaughter and should be considered anew in Congress.

Republican lawmakers are likely to push back on such calls, as they have after past shootings, focusing  as Trump did in Thursdays tweet  on issues like mental illness.

The president tweeted on Wednesday that he had spoken with Florida Gov. Rick Scott and was working with law enforcement.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school, he tweeted.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a prominent gun control advocate, tweeted, Another mass shooting. Reportedly another AR-15. My bill to ban assault weapons is ready for a vote. How long will we accept weapons of war being used to slaughter our children.

Full details of Cruzs mental condition are not publicly known. Broward County Mayor Beam Furr told CNN he was getting treatment at a mental health clinic for a while, but hadn't been there for more than a year.

Meanwhile, while Trump suggested the suspect should have been reported, police reportedly had been to his house before for various complaints.

Cruz had been expelled from the high school for disciplinary reasons, and math teacher Jim Gard told the Miami Herald that before Wednesday's fatal shooting, Cruz may have been identified as a potential threat.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.President Trump on Wednesday expressed support for a 25-cent fuel tax increase to fund his sweeping infrastructure plan, lawmakers said.

Lawmakers who attended a meeting with the president said Trump endorsed the idea of raising the gas tax and promised to provide leadership on the issue.

"To my surprise, President Trump, today in our meeting, offered his support for raising the gas and diesel tax by 25 cents a gallon and dedicating that money to improve our roads, highways, and bridges," Democratic Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware said in a statement.

The senator added that Trump came back to the idea of a 25 cent increase several times throughout the meeting.

The president reportedly said during the meeting he believes both sides can find common ground on infrastructure. "We'll see how it all turns out, he said.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., the top Democrat on the House Transportation Committee who has long called for a gas tax hike, also said Trump discussed the potential tax increase. According to Politico, he told Trump at the meeting that Congress needs really strong support from the White House to push for a gas tax increase as House Speaker Paul Ryan is not interested in it.

Trump has long championed the issue of improving the nations crumbling infrastructure, unveiling a $1.5 trillion plan on Monday that would use a $200 billion federal investment to leverage more than $1 trillion in public and private funding to pay for the upgrades.

TRUMP WANTS $1.5T INFRASTRUCTURE SPENDING BOOST, CUTS TO RED TAPE

The plan would also cut the permitting process for new projects from 10 years to two years and ramp up investment for projects in rural America, including transportation, broadband, water, waste, power, flood management and ports.

The $200 billion of federal investment would be offset by reductions in other areas of the budget and half of the amount would go to grants for transportation, water, flood control, cleanup at some of the country's most polluted sites and other projects.

But the call to hike the gas tax, which has not been raised since 1993, drew the ire of conservatives who oppose any increases in taxation.

"I'd hate to see a new tax siphon off 20 percent of the $1,000 tax reform bonuses back to the swamp this year," said FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon in a statement.

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, claims gas tax revenue is often used to fund projects unrelated to infrastructure. "President Trump will not be fooled into following the Democrat play book," Norquist said in a statement.

The White House declined to confirm the presidents discussions on Wednesday, with a White House spokeswoman saying said "everything is on the table" in the infrastructure plan and the gas tax has "pros and cons."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.The Trump administration joined the British government Thursday in publicly blaming the Russian government for the "reckless and indiscriminate" NotPetya cyberattack that hit businesses across Europe last year, with London accusing Moscow of "weaponizing information" in a new kind of warfare.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the Russian military had "launched the most destructive and costly cyber-attack in history." She added that the move was part of the Kremlin's attempt "to destabilize Ukraine and demonstrates ever more clearly Russia's involvement in the ongoing conflict.

"This was also a reckless and indiscriminate cyberattack that will be met with international consequences," Sanders' statement concluded.

The fast-spreading outbreak of data-scrambling software centered on Ukraine, which is embroiled in a conflict with Moscow-backed separatists in the country's east. It spread to companies that do business with Ukraine, including U.S. pharmaceutical company Merck, Danish shipping firm A.P. Moller-Maersk and FedEx subsidiary TNT.

Tariq Ahmad, a British Foreign Office minister, said the "reckless" attack cost organizations hundreds of millions of dollars.

British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson accused Russia of "undermining democracy, wrecking livelihoods by targeting critical infrastructure, and weaponizing information" with malicious cyberattacks.

"We must be primed and ready to tackle these stark and intensifying threats," Williamson said.

Danish defense minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen said intelligence agencies in Britain, Denmark and elsewhere had uncovered the Russian responsibility.

Speaking at a NATO defense ministers' meeting in Brussels, he said the hack was meant to cause damage and should "be compared with a military attack."

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, denied Russia's involvement.

"We categorically deny the accusations. We consider them unfounded and baseless and see them as continuation of groundless Russophobic campaign," he told reporters.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.The Trump administration is fighting to torpedo a bipartisan immigration plan that Homeland Security officials say would create a sanctuary nation, threatening a veto ahead of a Senate showdown where dueling plans could soon get a vote.

On Twitter Thursday afternoon, President Trump called the plan a total catastrophe, urging lawmakers to back another proposal authored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

A blistering statement from DHS warned the plan would mean the end of immigration enforcement in America.

The changes proposed by Senators Schumer-Rounds-Collins would effectively make the United States a Sanctuary Nation where ignoring the rule of law is encouraged, the department said in a statement late Wednesday.



That statement was in response to the bipartisan agreement, drawn up by a Gang of 22 led by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, which would grant a 10-12 year path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who arrived in the country as children, some of whom were protected by the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program . That program is poised to expire in March -- though court battles could delay that -- after action by Trump.

The president says he wants to help DACA recipients but expects other border security and reform measures to be included.

The bill in question looks to assuage conservative concerns by preventing those illegal immigrants from sponsoring their parents for citizenship, though they could gain it via other pathways. The legislation also would provide $25 billion for a border wall and other border security measures.

However, it would dole the money out over 10 years and lacks most of the limits Trump is seeking on legal immigration.

It is one of several plans that soon could be considered in the Senate as senators look to strike a deal. Procedural votes could be held as early as Thursday afternoon.



"Our proposal would represent the most significant change to immigration law in the past thirty-five years," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C, who has supported a number of doomed immigration proposals, said Thursday.



"We've reached a deal that gives us the best chance to protect Dreamers against deportation from the only country they know as home," Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said.



But the White House said ahead of the votes that it would veto the legislation, claiming it would weaken border security and undercut existing law -- naming specifically a measure protecting illegal immigrants who arrived before January.



The Administration is committed to finding a permanent, fair, and legal solution for DACA, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. But this Amendment would only compound the problem by encouraging millions of additional minors to be smuggled into the United States. We need to solve the problem, not perpetuate it indefinitely.



The DHS, in its statement, said the bill would mark the end of immigration enforcement in America and only serve to draw millions more illegal aliens with no way to remove them.



While the legislation would fulfill some of Trumps demands, such as the $25 billion for border security, it falls short of the four pillars that Trump said needed to be fulfilled for him to sign immigration legislation.



The statement claims that the amendment would limit DHS to only removing criminal aliens and national security threats who have arrived after June 2018 (Collins later clarified that that date would be pushed back to January as it has "caused confusion"), and fails to address loopholes that prevent deportation and removal -- perpetuating so-called catch and release.



On the subject of DACA, DHS claims that it would in fact give citizenship to 3 million illegal immigrants, with many eligibility requirements able to be waived, as well as expand the pool to immigrants who came to the U.S. recently or are decidedly not children.

The administration also objected to the bills failure to address so-called chain migration -- by which immigrants can sponsor a broad number of relatives to come join them in the U.S. Trump has said that he wants to limit sponsorship to children and spouses. It claimed that by leaving such a system in place, it could increase the number legalized to as many as 10 million.



The bill also would not end the visa lottery system, which allows 55,000 immigrants into the country each year and has been dogged by accusations of fraud and abuse.



Graham reacted angrily to the statement, calling it politically poisonous and telling reporters that DHS should be more grateful and say thank you.



Every time someone comes up with idea to give you $25 billion, you should say thank you. The DHS press release is over the top. Its politically poisonous. Its ridiculous and Ive long since stopped paying attention to them, he said.



Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., meanwhile, accused Trump on the Senate floor of trying to spike the deal.



Why? Because it isnt 100 percent of what the president wants on immigration? Thats not how our democracy works  you dont get 100% of what you want in a democracy, he said. Maybe in a dictatorship.



Trump, however, appeared to be pushing lawmakers to find an alternative compromise -- urging them to consider a system of Merit Based Immigration.



The bipartisan amendment is one of four likely to be considered in the coming hours. A more conservative plan, authored by Grassley and backed by the president, is likely to be last in the line of votes. This could give Republicans the advantage by forcing Republicans and moderate Democrats facing tough re-elections to get behind it after all the other plans have failed.



Also on the table is a plan by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., also opposed by the White House, which would allow DACA recipients to qualify for permanent residency while directing agencies to control the border by 2020. But it does not offer a pathway to citizenship or more money for border security or make significant changes to immigration rules.



Another vote is likely on a proposal by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., that would block federal grants to sanctuary cities that do not cooperate with federal authorities on illegal immigration.



Fox News Griff Jenkins, Chad Pergram, Jenny Buchholz and the Associated Press contributed to this report.A million-years-old rock is flying home.

The ancient rock, named Sayh al Uhaymir 008, or SaU008, was once part of one of a meteorite that landed on Earth after blowing off from Mars millions of years ago.

SaU008 was discovered in Oman in 1999 and is the only one of 200 similar rocks thats strong enough to withstand the journey back home, according to NASA.

Every year, we provide hundreds of meteorite specimens to scientists all over the world to for study, Caroline Smith, the principal curator of meteorites at Londons Natural History Museum  which provided the rock, said in the press release. This is a first for us: sending one of our samples back home for the benefit of science.

The meteorite piece will head back to Mars as part of NASAs Mars 2020 rover mission. Once it arrives, SaU008 will be blown to bits in order to calibrate a high-precision laser named SHERLOC that will be positioned on the rovers robotic arm.

SHERLOC is being designed to examine rock and chemical features as fine as human hair and will need something to help it get its bearings on the alien planet. In the past, NASA has used rocks, metals and pieces of glass to help adjust similar technology to its new martian surroundings.

But this time around, NASA thought it might be more effective to use something that already has the same composition as the planet SHERLOC is being designed to explore.

Were studying thing on such a fine scale that slight misalignments, caused by changes in temperature or even the rover settling into sand, can require us to correct our aim, Luther Beegle, NASAs principal investigator, said. By studying how the instrument sees a fixed target, we can understand how it will see a piece of the Martian surface.

Once the laser is adjusted, it will photograph rocks on Mars and use a UV light to analyze and search for signs of life.

This story originally appeared in the New York Post.The "Boogie Man Nebula" haunts the cosmos in this deep-space image by astrophotographer Jeff Johnson.

Also known as Lynds Dark Nebula (LDN) 1622, this dark cloud of interstellar dust and gas lies about 500 light-years away in the constellation of Orion.

Johnson captured this splendid image of the Boogie Man Nebula from his backyard in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Creating this image took three attempts, as clouds and light pollution kept ruining his data, Johnson told Space.com. But he managed to make the most out of the data he had by combining the usable parts into one stellar portrait of this celestial Boogie Man. [Haunting Photos: The Spookiest Nebulas in Space]

Over this trio of attempts, Johnson collected a total of 5.3 hours of exposure. The resulting image combines H-alpha data (a wavelength of light emitted by glowing hydrogen) collected during his most recent imaging session on Nov. 24, and RGB (color) data from his first shot of the nebula taken on Feb. 11, 2016, Johnson said.

More From Space.com Haunting Photos: The Spookiest Nebulas in Space

About a year after he took that first image, Johnson revisited the Boogie Man Nebula with a new telescope. But the image came out blurry, and too much light pollution made the color data unusable. When he tried again last November, the light pollution ruined his color data again, but the image came out sharper. "As luck would have it  clouds rolled in through part of the data session," Johnson said.

"Each attempt  takes me one hour of setup time, since I use a portable setup that I take down the next morning after every session," Johnson said. His setup includes a Takahashi TOA-130F refractor telescope and a QSI 540wsg cooled CCD camera equipped with a H-alpha filter and LRGB filter. For his first image in 2016, Johnson used a Takahashi FS-60C to capture a wider shot of the nebula.

Original article on Space.com.Amazon has become known as "the everything store," selling everything from pots and pans to books and furniture. It's racked up hundreds of billions in revenue and is now worth over $700 billion, making it the third-largest company in the S&P 500 by market cap, behind only Apple and Google.

But when its customers are repeatedly getting sent sex toys on an unwanted basis and it has not yet figured out how to solve the issue, its reputation for unrelenting customer service may be at stake.

The Daily Beast has reported that customers, including one by the name of Nikki, are being sent items they did not purchase, such as Bluetooth speakers, LED lights and sex toys.

AMAZON REVIEWS SCAM? COUPLE WHO KEEP GETTING MYSTERY PACKAGES FEAR THEY ARE NEXT VICTIMS

The weird part about it is if this were a prank or a hacker sending things to women on the internet, itd be expensive. I looked [the sex toy] up, and its $25, which is sort of substantial, Nikki told the website. It seems so personal.

Another Amazon user, who did not wish to be named, told Fox News that they also received several unwanted packages over the past six weeks and opened up an investigation with the local police as a result. "After speaking with several Amazon supervisors about my situation, they sent an email and requested my local police to open an investigation, as it seems to be a safety issue, which they did," the user told Fox News via email. "Amazon was able to give me some information about the sender and his purchasing activities, but that is as far as I have gotten."

The user added that they have not received any additional packages.

"We are investigating inquiries from consumers who have received unsolicited packages as this would violate our policies," an Amazon spokesperson told Fox News. "We have confirmed the sellers involved did not receive names or shipping addresses from Amazon. We remove sellers in violation of our policies, withhold payments, and work with law enforcement to take appropriate action."

Nikki, who ordered mascara, originally thought the shipment was a mistake. She spoke with Amazon's customer service in an effort to identify who had sent the item, but got nowhere after repeated calls.

Finally, she was asked to send in a subpoena with a host of information she did not possess, including the name, credit card and bank number of the person who mailed the sex toy.

Customer service obsession?

The Jeff Bezos-led company also did not address with Fox News why Nikki had difficulties getting Amazon's customer service teams to take her requests seriously.

[They were] under the impression that I was simply calling to find out who sent me a fun gift to satisfy my own curiosity, she added in the interview with The Daily Beast.

Amazon has repeatedly stated that it is guided by four principles: "customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking." As such, it is unclear why a company, whose first guiding light is customer obsession, gave Nikki a difficult time and did not immediately take her repeated requests seriously.

A source close to the matter said that Amazon invests heavily in making sure the customer review system is one customers can trust. The source added that all reviewers in the U.S. need to have an Amazon account that has purchased at least $50 worth of goods with a valid debit or credit card before they can review products.



The Amazon spokesperson added that in its investigations so far, it has not found customer review abuse to be the motivation. "We have found very few reviews written on these shipments and we remove any reviews that we do find immediately," the spokesperson told Fox News.

According to a February 2018 report from Brand Finance, a consultancy firm, Amazon has become the most valuable brand in the world, supplanting Google.



Its brand is now worth $150.8 billion, up from $107.1 billion in 2017 on the strength of its cloud infrastructure and content streaming businesses, as well as its online retailing business.

"The strength and value of the Amazon brand gives it stakeholder permission to extend relentlessly into new sectors and geographies," Brand Finance CEO, David Haigh, said in the report. "All evidence suggests that the amazing Amazon brand is going to continue growing indefinitely and exponentially," he added.

Part of a larger trend?

Earlier this month, a Massachusetts couple told The Boston Globe they are receiving mystery packages that may be part of an elaborate fake reviews scam.

Mike and Kelly Gallivan, of Acton, said the first package arrived in October. They have continued to arrive at a rate of one or two a week, about 25 in all. The cheap items inside the boxes range from USB-powered humidifiers to rechargeable dog collars.

Were just plain, ordinary people, Kelly Gallivan told the newspaper. We dont want any part of this. But the packages just keep coming.

Heres how the scam works: a seller trying to boost the ratings of their own merchandise sets up a fake email account to create an Amazon profile, then purchases the items with a gift card and ships them to the address of a random person. Once the package is delivered, the owner of the Amazon account is then listed as a verified buyer of the product and can write a positive review of it that gets higher placement on product pages because of their status, James Thomson, a former business consultant for Amazon, told the Boston Globe.

Scammers may be taking advantage of Amazon's platform, which provides everything from shipping to storage for third-party vendors, a service known as Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), a huge growth driver for the company. In the company's most recent quarter, revenue from third-party seller services was $10.5 billion, up 41 percent year-over-year.

In addition to U.S.-based customers being affected, the scam is making its way across North America, impacting universities across Canada.

AMAZON'S NEW GROCERY STORE THREATENS TO OBLIERATE CASHIER JOBS

Student union centers at seven universities across Canada also have been receiving mystery packages since the fall, according to the CBC.

Shawn Wiskar, University of Regina Students' Union vice-president of student affairs, says his facility has received at least 15 random packages with products ranging from iPad cases to male sex toys. He said his staff very discreetly went door to door in their offices and in other student centers to see if anyone had ordered the items.

A student union president at Ryerson University in Toronto  another recipient of the mystery packages  told the CBC that Amazon would not say who is sending the items, citing privacy reasons.

This story has been updated to include Amazon's statements to Fox News. Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_CiacciaA Tampa woman was traveling to Chicago from Florida with her husband when she discovered she was pregnant. Instead of telling him right then, she enlisted the help of the flight crew to help her surprise him.

Audrey Rose was boarding her flight at the Tampa International Airport with her husband, David. Once she boarded, Audrey slipped the flight attendant a note asking them to help surprise her husband with her pregnancy news.

JENNIFER LAWRENCE SHUT DOWN BY DELTA CREW AFTER GRABBING LOUDSPEAKER

"I have a big favor to ask. I just found out that I'm pregnant and I really want to surprise my husband. I was hoping you could announce it before takeoff. His name is David Rose and he is sitting in 28E. If you can give me a quick cue that you are about to announce it, I will get my video camera ready, ABC 13 reported.

Audrey said the flight attendant flashed her a thumbs-up once they were seated and right after that, the pilot came over the intercom to break the news.

"David and Audrey Rose have apparently smuggled an extra passenger on today," the pilot says in the video.

Audrey made sure to have her camera going, recording her husbands very confused reaction.

"What?" David asks.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

The pilot goes on to reveal that "Audrey has recently discovered that she is with child." However, Davids shock keeps him asking what? throughout the video.

Passengers on the plane started applauding for the couple, and one even tried to comfort the expectant father by telling him, Itll be ok.

The pair already have one daughter together, and are expecting this newest bundle in May, FOX 10 reports.As students at a Florida high school huddled together in classrooms and auditoriums while a gunman stalked the hallway Wednesday, they reached out to their parents and loved ones to let them know what was happening -- and in at least one case, to let them know how much they were appreciated.

If I dont make it I love you and I appreciated everything you did for me one 14-year-old student, who survived the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, texted to a parent.

James Harrison, a sophomore at the school, dashed off a series of messages to his stepfather Joe.

Joe there is gunshots here at my school, the first message read, followed by, Im super scared, I love you, and Im really scared.

The next message from James was the admonishment, Dont call, then Joe, Im really scared. Call the police if you can.

Harrison also survived the shooting and recounted his experience on Fox News The Story.

Im still shaking a little bit, my hearts still pounding, I still have a bunch of adrenaline because it was right outside my door, right outside the class door, he told host Martha MacCallum. I heard the shells of the bullets from the gun on the floor.

One female student exchanged messages with a local CBS reporter while she hid in a classroom closet before police arrived to escort her class to safety.

All of a sudden there was a really loud noise, she wrote, adding, People are crying [in] the closet.

At least 17 people were killed when the gunman, identified by authorities as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, opened fire with an AR-15 rifle, after he apparently pulled a fire alarm to draw his classmates out of their classes, and into the open.After each massacre, survivors and witnesses have echoed the words no more  yet mass shootings have continued to plague the U.S.

In fact, shootings only have continued to increase over the past few years.

Wednesdays shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is the third deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history to take place within the past five months.

Its also the 25th fatal shooting at a U.S. elementary, middle or high school since  and including  Columbine in 1999.

Heres a look back at the 10 deadliest shootings that the country ever has seen as the nation mourns yet another tragedy.

Las Vegas, Nev.  Route 91 Festival, 58 killed

Authorities say gunman Stephen Paddock fired at the Route 91 Harvest Festival concert on the Las Vegas Strip from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino on Oct. 1, 2017, killing 58 people and wounding more than 520 others.

It was the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history, police said. Twenty-one victims were shot in the head, 36 died with chest and back wounds and one died of a gunshot to a leg, according to a coroners report.

SWAT teams who stormed Paddocks room discovered the 64-year-old dead of a self-inflicted gunshot to the mouth, the report adds.

Orlando, Fla.  Pulse nightclub, 49 killed

Omar Seddique Mateen killed at least 49 people and wounded more than 50 others when he opened fire in Pulse, a gay Orlando nightclub, on June 12, 2016. Mateen eventually was killed by police after a standoff.

That was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history prior to the Las Vegas attack.

Blacksburg, Va.  Virginia Tech, 32 killed

Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho fatally shot 32 people in two locations of the schools Blacksburg, Va., campus in April 2007, before killing himself with a bullet to the head.

Many of the victims had defensive wounds, indicating they tried to shield themselves from the gunfire, but there was no evidence that Cho struggled with any of the people he killed.

Virginia Techs response to the shootings by the mentally ill student caused schools nationwide to review security protocols.

Newtown, Conn.  Sandy Hook, 26 killed

On Dec. 14, 2012, Adam Lanza, 20, shot his mother dead in her home, then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School and fatally shot 20 children, between the ages of 6 and 7.

Lanza also murdered school personnel, killing a total of 26 people, before committing suicide.

In fewer than 11 minutes, twenty first-grade pupils and six adults had lost their lives, a police report released after the massacre reads.

Sutherland Springs, Texas  First Baptist Church, 26 killed

On Nov. 5, 2017, gunman Devin Patrick Kelley opened fire at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

He killed 26 people, including an unborn baby, and injured another 20.

Kelley, 26, died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after he was shot and chased by two men who heard the gunfire at the church and chased after him in a vehicle.

Investigators said the attack appeared to stem from a domestic dispute involving Kelley and his mother-in-law, Michelle Shields, who sometimes attended services at the church. Kelly sent several disturbing text messages to Shields prior to the shooting.

I suggest you dont test my resolve, read one of several texts.

That wasnt the first time Kelley became violent.

In New Mexico, he was kicked out of the Air Force following a court-martial in 2012 for abusing his first wife and reportedly hitting her child hard enough to fracture his skull. In Colorado, he was charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty after someone saw him punch a dog several times.

And in Texas, sheriffs deputies were called to his parents house after his girlfriend told a friend he was abusing her.

You had to walk on eggshells around him all the time because youre afraid of saying something to upset him, Shields told the San Antonio Express-News months after the attack.

Killeen, Texas  Lubys Cafeteria shooting, 23 killed

George Jo-Jo Hennard, an unemployed merchant seaman, shot and killed 23 people and wounded 27 others during the lunchtime rush at Lubys Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, on Oct. 16, 1991.

Hennard killed himself shortly after the rampage.

During the attack, Hennard reportedly targeted women, whom he called vipers.

San Ysidro, Calif.  McDonalds, 21 killed

On July 18, 1984, James Huberty, 41, fatally shot 21 people and injured 19 others in and around a McDonalds restaurant in San Ysidro, Calif. Among the dead were children and teenagers.

Huberty later was killed by a SWAT sniper.

Parkland, Fla.  Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, 17 killed

A shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, left at least 17 people dead and 15 wounded on Feb. 14, officials said.

The shooting suspect, who was identified as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, had been expelled for disciplinary reasons.

The alleged gunman carried an AR-15 rifle and had countless magazines, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel said.

An Instagram page apparently belonging to Cruz showed pictures of guns and knives.

One student told WJXT that everyone predicted the shooting and some teachers acknowledged there were warning signs. However, Superintendent Robert Runcie said he was not aware of any specific warnings the school district had received regarding the shooter.

San Bernardino, Calif., 14 killed

On Dec. 2, 2015, husband and wife Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik opened fire at a holiday party in San Bernardino, Calif., killing 14 people and wounding 22 others.

After the shooting, the couple was shot by more than two dozen police officers more than 40 times combined, and killed.

Autopsies found that Farook was shot 27 times, and Malik was shot at least 15 times.

Austin, Texas  University of Texas, 14 killed

On Aug. 1, 1966, University of Texas engineering student Charles Whitman climbed to the schools iconic clock tower and opened fire.

Whitman, a former Marine who had earlier murdered his mother and wife, killed 14 and wounded 31 before he was gunned down by police.

Whitman fired at people from his perch on the tower for more than an hour.



The Associated Press contributed to this report.The man police say kidnapped a 4-year-old girl in South Carolina was arrested late Wednesday in Mississippi, authorities said.

Thomas Lawson Evans, 37, was arrested after a police chase, Rick Oliver, the Riverside, Ala., police chief, said.

Oliver said a railroad crew alerted police after finding a vehicle parked deep into the woods Wednesday near a railroad track on Interstate 20, about 35 miles east of Birmingham.

Police said they found Evans asleep in a car with the 4-year-old, Heidi Renae Todd. When approached by police, Evans handed over the girl and sped off, Oliver said.

Evans was charged with kidnapping. More charges were expected to be filed later, authorities said. There have been no clear connections between Evans and the girl's family and authorities have not found a motive.

Heidi Todd was reported missing around 6 p.m. Tuesday after she was taken from her home in Charleston, S.C. Her mother was badly beaten during the attack and had to be hospitalized, investigators said.

Two other children were found in the home unharmed. The girl's mother remains in the hospital and underwent surgery.

Renae Todd appeared to be unharmed and was waiting at a hospital to be reunited with her father, who was being flown from Charleston, Oliver said.

"This is a blessing"  Riverside, Ala. Police Chief Rich Oliver

"She was coloring and eating snacks and drinking chocolate milk. We're just tickled to death she is OK," Oliver said. "Once we got her here and watching some cartoons, she was good."

Oliver said this was one of his proudest days hes had in law enforcement.

"This is a blessing," Oliver said "It is nothing to do with luck. The good Lord put me in that place."

Fox News Lucia I. Suarez Sang and the Associated Press contributed to this report.Once again, another brilliant plan hatched by Putin... good thing Schiff caught on to it and can now begin seizing Americans guns so as to thwart Russias evil plan.



On Thursday Democrat Schiff spoke to a crowd at the University of Pennsylvania, where the TDS  Russia hysteria virus infected Schiff told the crowd Russian ads promoted the Second Amendment during the 2016 election so we will kill each other.



*



Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Thursday that Russia promoted content that supported the Second Amendment on social media during the 2016 election because they wanted Americans to kill one another.



You had the content that was clearly anti-Hillary, and you had the content that was very pro-Trump. But even the bigger quantity of content that was being pushed through social media was just content designed to pit us against each other, Schiff said while speaking at the University of Pennsylvania



And then Schiff exclaimed:



They also trumpeted the Second Amendment. Apparently Russians are very big fans of our Second Amendment. They dont particularly want a Second Amendment of their own, but theyre really glad that we have one."



The Russians would be thrilled if we were doing nothing but killing each other every day, and sadly we are.Nikolas Cruz, the suspected gunman in Wednesdays shooting at a Florida high school that left at least 17 people dead, was living in a mobile home with a student for the last three months, his attorney said.

A portrait of the suspected gunman, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where the massacre occurred, began to emerge in the hours following the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook in 2012.

Cruz was arrested without incident just over a mile from where he was suspected of killing more than a dozen people, the Broward County Sheriffs Office said.

Police said Cruz used an AR-15 and had multiple magazines on him during the shooting. Cruzs attorney, Jim Lewis, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that the firearm was legally bought and Cruz already owned the gun when he moved in with a friend, a junior at the Parkland high school, three months ago.

It was his gun, Lewis told the newspaper. The family made him keep it in a locked gun cabinet in the house but he had a key.

The mobile home in Lantana, about 30 miles north of Parkland, where Cruz lived with the friend, drew a police presence late Wednesday, according to WPEC-TV.

The Broward County Sheriffs Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI were investigating the mobile home, the Palm Beach Post reported. Authorities were reportedly notified of a possible explosive device at the property.

Cruz was adopted, along with his younger brother Zachary, by Lynda and Roger Cruz after the couple moved from Long Island, N.Y., to Broward County.

Lynda Cruz died Nov. 1 of pneumonia and Roger had died earlier in Nikolas life, according to the Sun Sentinel.

Barbara Kumbatovich, a family friend who lives on Long Island, told the Sun Sentinel she didnt think there was a major issue with Cruz and was shocked to find out he was the suspected gunman.

I know she had been having some issues with them, especially the older one. He was being a problem. I know he did have some issues and he may have been taking medication. (He) did have some kind of emotional or difficulties, Kumbatovich told the newspaper. (Lynda) kept a really close handle on both boys. They were not major issues, as far as I know, just things teenagers do like not coming home on time, maybe being disrespectful.

Lewis told the Sun Sentinel that Cruz and his brother were living with a family in Palm Beach County, but Cruz was not happy and asked a friend from the Parkland high school if he could move in.

Lewis said Cruz was allowed to move in after Thanksgiving and was encouraged to take adult education classes. Cruz also got a job at a dollar store.

The family is devastated, they didnt see this coming. They took him in and its a classic case of no good deed goes unpunished, he said. He was a little quirky and he was depressed about his moms death, but who wouldnt be?

Cruz was described by former classmates as weird, a little off, and a loner. He had been expelled from the high school for disciplinary reasons and was also told he couldnt bring a backpack on campus. School officials said he had been attending another school in Broward County after his expulsion.

Dakota Mutchler, 17, said he used to be close friends with Cruz but hadnt seen him since Cruz was expelled from school. He recalled Cruz posting on Instagram about killing animals and said he had talked to him about doing target practice in his backyard with a pellet gun.

The family is devastated, they didnt see this coming."  Cruz's attorney Jim Lewis

"He started going after one of my friends, threatening her, and I cut him off from there," Mutchler said. "I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him.

One student told WJXT-TV that everyone predicted the shooting.

"Everyone predicted it," a student said about the #Parkland shooting. pic.twitter.com/mbzBIw8iUa  Vic Micolucci WJXT (@WJXTvic) February 14, 2018

Honestly, a lot of people were saying it was gonna be him, the unnamed student told the news station. He said kids joked around that the student would be the one to shoot up the school.

Another student told WSVN that the suspect is a "troubled kid" who has "always had a certain amount of issues going on."

Mike Watford, who graduated from the high school in 2016, told BuzzFeed News that "something definitely pushed [the suspect]" before he allegedly opened fire at the school on Wednesday.

Cruz, according to Watford, often said "how tired he was of everyone picking on him and the staff doing nothing about it."

Watford's brother, Giovanni, described Cruz to the news outlet as "a sketchy kid," who was "off" and "super stressed-out all the time and talked about guns a lot and tried to hide his face."

Wednesday's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was the 25th deadly shooting at a U.S. elementary, middle or high school since  and including  Columbine in 1999. There have been a combined 98 deaths as a result.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A Delaware airman has been accused of raping and impregnating a teen.

The News Journal of Wilmington reports 34-year-old Staff Sgt. Byron White is the fourth airman to be accused of such a crime in the past year. He was arrested Wednesday and charged with nine counts of third-degree rape and continuous sexual abuse of a child. Court documents say the teen told police she was 13 when the abuse started. In the documents, the teen says she met White on Facebook and the relationship gradually became sexual.

They say the teen became pregnant last May and she says White, a reserve loadmaster assigned to an Air Force Reserve Command unit at Dover Air Force Base, knew.

White is being held at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center on $200,000 bond.A Roman Catholic priest accused of molesting two boys in North Dakota in the 1990s has pleaded not guilty.

Fernando Sayasaya was recently returned to the United States from the Philippines, where he had been since 1998. He entered his pleas Thursday to two counts of felony gross sexual imposition.

Prosecutors allege that Sayasaya abused two underage siblings from 1995 to 1998, while he was assigned to the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and St. Mary's Cathedral in the Fargo area.

A Philippines court ordered his extradition in 2010. He appealed, lost and was ultimately arrested in November. He remains jailed on $5 million bond. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.A prominent California dentist plead not guilty to murder Wednesday after prosecutors say he strangled his mother to death last October for financial gain.

Daniel Simon Yacobi, 36, was charged with strangling his mother, 67-year-old Violet Yacobi, who was found dead in her Beverly Hills home on October 10. Her daughter made a 911 call after finding her mother unconscious and not breathing.

The Coroners office determined she has been strangled and ruled her death a homicide. Despite being pronounced dead on the scene, prosecutors say she was killed the day before.

The Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office said that the case against Yacobi includes a special circumstance allegation of murder for financial gain.

Authorities have not yet revealed a motive.

In an eerie turn of events, Yacobi took to Facebook last month to remember his mothers unrelenting and everlasting love.

He also shared a post of her days after she was found dead.

If found guilty, prosecutors say Yacobi could face death or life without the possibility of parole, although they have not said yet if they will seek the death penalty.

Yacobi owns several dental offices in the Los Angeles area.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.The founder of a Kentucky creationism museum will appear at an Oklahoma university, after all, after the student body president initially canceled the event over objections of female and LGBTQ students and their supporters.

Creation Museum founder Ken Ham and the University of Central Oklahoma announced Thursday that the event will happen March 5, as planned.

Australia-born Ham had criticized the cancellation of his appearance, saying it was a denial of his right to free speech.

UCO's student body president said he had felt "bullied" during a meeting with female and LGBTQ students and supporters who object to Ham's appearance because of things he has said about women and gay people. One of those students said no one was bullied and that the group objected to student fees paying for the event.

UCO is in Edmond, about 15 miles north of Oklahoma City.A student in Washington state was arrested Tuesday after his grandmother called authorities to report "upcoming and credible threats" of a plot in his journal to attack a high school after flipping a coin, officials said.

The Everett Police Department said in a news release the grandmother contacted authorities around 9:30 a.m. and showed police excerpts of the journal, which "detailed plans to shoot students and use homemade explosive devices at ACES High School." Officers were also told by the grandmother that 18-year-old Joshua Alexander O'Connor had a rifle stored in a guitar case, which she discovered after reading the journal.

"That would have probably been one of the hardest calls she has probably ever made, but I think that the content of the journal and some of the other evidence in the house was enough that she was alarmed enough," Everett Police Officer Aaron Snell told Q13 News.

Authorities arrested O'Connor at the school, where he was found carrying marijuana and a knife. During his arrest, the student managed to slip one of his hands out of the handcuffs and tried to run from police, kicking an officer during the attempted escape.

Detectives later executed a search warrant on the grandmothers house, where he lived and where they seized the journal, a rifle, "military styled inert grenades and other evidentiary items," according to the release.

According to court documents obtained by Q13 News, O'Connor wrote about which high school he would target after flipping a coin. He then wrote that the school, ACES High School located about 30 miles north of Seattle, "won" the toss.

"The best defense against this kind of thing, the school shooting is, that if you hear something or see something is tell authorities. And thats exactly what she did."  Mukilteo School District spokesperson Andy Muntz

"I'm preparing myself for the school shooting. I can't wait. My aim has gotten much more accurate... I can't wait to walk into that class and blow all those f_____ away," an entry in the journal read, according to the court documents.

RECENT SCHOOL SHOOTINGS IN THE US

The 18-year-old also wrote he wanted the death count to be as high as possible so that the shooting would be infamous, according to court papers obtained by The Daily Herald. His journal entries included details about making pressure-cooker bombs, activating inert grenades and deploying explosives for maximum casualties, court papers said.

"I need to make this count," O'Connor wrote. "I've been reviewing many mass shootings/bombings (and attempted bombings) I'm learning from past shooters/bombers mistakes."

Another entry in the journal described an armed robbery of a convenience store that police believe O'Connor participated in Monday night. Police said O'Connor admitted to the robbery, telling them he felt powerful during the course of the crime, according to Q13 News. The rifle from the store robbery was the same found in the guitar case at the grandmother's house.

Cash from the robbery was supposed to help fund the school shooting, deputy prosecutor Andrew Alsdorf said in court. The 18-year-old has been booked into the Snohomish County Jail on charges of attempted murder, robbery and assault on an officer, according to jail records.

NIKOLAS CRUZ CHARGED IN FLORIDA HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING

During a court hearing on Wednesday, public defender Rachel Forde noted the gun and the grenade shells were legal to possess, adding that "musings and ventings" in O'Connor's journal weren't enough evidence to support a charge of attempted murder.

A judge still found probable cause to hold OConnor in jail on the three felony counts, with bail set at $5 million.

School officials on Wednesday said the grandmother set the perfect example for preventing a possible tragedy, the same day a former student killed 17 people at a high school in South Florida.

"The best defense against this kind of thing, the school shooting is, that if you hear something or see something is tell authorities. And thats exactly what she did," Mukilteo School District spokesperson Andy Muntz told Q13 News. "I know it had to have been really hard for her to do that, to turn in her grandson like that. But she quite honestly probably saved a lot of lives including her grandson."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A wheelchair-bound 75-year-old woman nicknamed Kingpin Granny is accused of illegally selling opioids and other prescription pills from her Tennessee home, police said.

Betty Jean Jordan, 75, was arrested last week following a lengthy investigation into the illegal sale of prescription drugs in the Decatur County area, Fox 17 reported.

The Decatur County Sheriffs Office said it found more than 1,000 prescription pills, including morphine, oxycodone, and Xanex, inside Jordans home. Investigators also seized more than $12,000 in cash and assets.

The alleged septuagenarian drug pusher was charged with six felony narcotics counts, including possession of a legend drug, and evading arrest.

Jordan was booked into Decatur County jail on Feb. 6 and has since been released on a $50,000 bond.

The investigation is ongoing.Notorious Mexican drug lord and escape artist Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is eager to go to trial but complained in a letter filed Thursday that his jail conditions are so harsh he can't fairly defend himself in a U.S. drug-trafficking case.

Defense attorney Eduardo Balarezo told reporters that Guzman wanted to knock down any speculation he might plead guilty and cooperate with American authorities. The remarks came after a hearing where a judge set Sept. 5 for the start of jury selection at Guzman's trial.

Guzman "wants to go to trial," Balarezo said outside federal court in Brooklyn. "He's not interested in cooperating. He's not interested in cutting a deal."

The lawyer also renewed complaints about conditions at a Manhattan jail where Guzman is being held in solitary confinement. In Mexico, Guzman twice escaped from prison, the second time via a mile-long (1.6 kilometer-long) tunnel dug to the shower in his cell.

The Manhattan cell where Guzman spends 23 hours a day "is either too hot or too cold" and he suffers "constant headaches," Balarezo said. He also is mostly cut off from contact with his family and even his defense team, the lawyer added.

In a letter filed with the court later in the day on Thursday, Guzman said he's being treated unfairly.

"I thought that the American justice system was at least going to give me the opportunity to defend myself," he wrote. "But now I see that that is not the truth. All I ask for is a fair trial."

At the hearing, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan denied Guzman's request to speak in open court about the case after prosecutors expressed concerns he could be trying to send messages to his cohorts. The judge said that in the future he would need to be notified in advance on what Guzman wanted to talk about before he could speak.

Guzman was sent to the United States in 2017 to face charges that his Sinaloa cartel laundered billions of dollars and oversaw a ruthless campaign of murders and kidnappings.

Earlier this month, the judge agreed to withhold the names of jurors at the trial to address any fears that they could be harassed or intimidated. Jurors also will be escorted to and from the courthouse by deputy U.S. marshals and sequestered from the public while inside.

Prosecutors offered "strong and credible reasons" why the jury needs protection, including Guzman's use of sicarios, or hitmen, to carry out thousands of acts of violence over more than two decades, the judge wrote in an order.

In the past, Guzman used his connections to continue to run his drug empire from behind bars, prosecutors said. They also claim that in the United States, Guzman had the support of criminals who are not under his direct control.

If convicted, Guzman could face life in prison.Right now, Texas. It used to be Canada but with the boom in fracking, it's mostly Permian basin production now.



The US is a major exporter of crude now, silly person.



Do you know anything about anything except for the stupid shit in the bible?The mother of an 8-year-old California boy who was routinely beaten, starved and tortured until he died has pleaded guilty to a murder charge.

City News Service reported Thursday that, under the terms of a plea agreement, Pearl Fernandez is expected to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2013 death of Gabriel Fernandez.

The 34-year-old Fernandez pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and admitted a special-circumstance allegation of murder involving torture. Sentencing is set for June 7.

Fernandezs boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, was convicted last year of the same charge. Jurors recommended the death penalty for when he is sentenced on March 8.

During Aguirres trial, according to Fox 11, prosecutors told jurors that Gabriel was beaten, shot with a BB gun, forced to eat cat feces and sleep while gagged and bound inside a small cabinet. Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami called Aguirre an evil man who liked torturing the boy, according to Fox 11, and did so methodically for months before the childs death.

Aguirre hated Gabriel because he thought the boy was queer, according to the prosecutor. What type of man would do that? Hatami asked, as Fox News previously reported. Not a man with any goodness in him.

Aguirres public defender, John Alan, said during his clients trial that Aguirres violent actions were at least, in part, intersected with Pearls.

She was "violent, abusive and neglected her children even before she met Isauro. Even her own family considered her a danger to her children, Alan said.

Prosecutors also allege that two former Los Angeles County social workers  Stephanie Rodriguez and Patricia Clement  and supervisors Kevin Bom and Gregory Merritt were negligent in the boys case, and charges of child abuse and records falsification have been filed against them.

It was not immediately known when those trials would begin, according to KTLA.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.The gunman accused of killing 17 people at a Florida high school Wednesday had previously attended the school, where he was known as a "weird kid" and "loner" who was expelled for getting into a fight with his ex-girlfriend's new beau, a current student said.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, made his first court appearance Thursday afternoon after being charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Cruz only said "Yes, ma'am" and "Yes, your honor" during his brief court appearance.

He was ordered held without bond.

Cruz's attorney described him as sad and remorseful to reporters after court. Melisa McNeill said her client was fully aware of what's going on but he's also just a "broken human being."

According to his arrest affidavit, Cruz confessed to arriving at the high school with an AR-15 rifle and a back pack of "additional loaded magazines" and said he shot "students that he saw in the hallways and on school grounds."

Cruz also said he eventually ditched the weapons and ammunition in an attempt to "blend into the crowd," the affidavit said.

The leader of a white nationalist militia said Cruz was a member of his group and participated in paramilitary drills in Tallahassee. Jordan Jereb of the Republic of Florida told The Associated Press he didn't know Cruz personally and that "he acted on his own behalf of what he just did and he's solely responsible for what he just did." It was not immediately clear if Jereb's claims could be verified.

Fox News confirmed that Cruz took an Uber prior to the deadly shooting on Wednesday. The ride-sharing company is working to assist authorities in their investigation. When speaking to The AP, Uber wouldn't say whether Cruz's driver noticed anything out of place about the suspect's behavior or if he had his weapon or a large case with him.

Cruz was taken into custody without incident by Coconut Creek police in a Coral Springs neighborhood just a few miles from the high school itself. The 19-year-old was booked into Broward County Jail Thursday morning after federal and local law enforcement officials questioned him for hours.

"All he would talk about is guns, knives and hunting, Joshua Charo, 16, a former classmate, told the Miami Herald. I cant say I was shocked. From past experiences, he seemed like the kind of kid who would do something like this.

Police said Cruz, who was identified as the only possible gunman, had been taken to the hospital for a period of time after his arrest because he exhibited labored breathing.

Today is a day of healing. Today is a day of mourning," Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said.

Aaron Feis, a beloved football coach at the high school, was the first victim identified. The school's football team tweeted Feis shielded students from the shooter when he was struck with a bullet.

He was our Assistant Football Coach and security guard. He selflessly shielded students from the shooter when he was shot. He died a hero and he will forever be in our hearts and memories, the tweet said.

Another 15 people were taken to the hospital. At least five people remain hospitalized as of Thursday. Two are in critical condition, hospital officials said.

The motive behind the massacre was not immediately clear. Israel said the FBI is focused on the "successful prosecution of this killer."

"Everyone was kind of just standing there calm, and then we saw a bunch of teachers running down the stairway, and then everybody shifted and broke into a sprint."  Noah Parness to AP

FLORIDA HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL COACH WHO WAS SEEN SHIELDING STUDENTS FROM GUNFIRE DIES

Students at the high school in Parkland reportedly thought they were having another fire drill when they heard shots fired. Cruz  equipped with a gas mask, smoke grenades and multiple magazines of ammunition  came on the campus during school dismissal and fired his AR-15 rifle as students and faculty barricaded themselves in classrooms, officials said.

Other people ran into the streets as they heard pop, pop, pop in the background.

Israel said Thursday that there was an armed school resource deputy on campus at the time of the shooting, but never encountered Cruz.

Noah Parness, 17, told the Associated Press the fire alarm went off for the second time in the day at around 2:30 p.m. Parness said students were calmly filing out of the school when he suddenly heard several gunshots.

"Everyone was kind of just standing there calm, and then we saw a bunch of teachers running down the stairway, and then everybody shifted and broke into a sprint," Parness said. "I hopped a fence."

An unidentified student described the gruesome scene in an interview with Fox News.

"The police came through the hallway to get us and in the hallway, I saw a big pile of blood, like, kind of smeared as if they were dragged away, and I saw two girls probably dead in the hallway," she said. "And then, coming down the stairs, there was some more blood and outside the building there was another guy  I think it was a teacher  who was, [Im] pretty sure was dead."

Just before 2:30 p.m., multiple 911 calls reporting a shooting came in and authorities were dispatched to the high school, according to Cruz's probable cause affidavit. The suspect's description was blasted over police radios.

"As a result of the chaos, multiple persons were fleeing the school," the affidavit said. "After the shooting, the shooter blended in with fleeing students and was able to elude arriving officers."

He was soon taken into custody without a fight.

The affidavit confirmed that an assault rifle, which authorities traced back to Cruz, "was abandoned on scene."

"It's catastrophic. There really are no words," Israel said in a news conference Wednesday evening.

TRUMP: 'SO MANY SIGNS' FLORIDA SHOOTING SUSPECT WAS 'MENTALLY DISTURBED'

Details about Cruzs troubled past began to emerge in the hours after the massacre. His classmates described him as a loner and that weird kid that you see at school. Cruzs adoptive mother Lynda Cruz died of pneumonia on Nov. 1, family and friends told the Sun Sentinel. Cruzs adoptive father also died of a heart attack years ago.

Cruz had been expelled from the high school. Victoria Olvera, a 17-year-old junior at the school, said Cruz was expelled last school year because he got into a fight with his ex-girlfriends new boyfriend. Olvera said he had been abusive to his girlfriend.

Cruz was also described as having an obsessive interest in weapons, according to the Miami Herald. One teacher said Cruz was banned from entering campus with a backpack, the newspaper reported.

SUSPECTED GUNMAN NIKOLAS CRUZ WAS LIVING WITH FLORIDA HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT IN MONTHS LEADING UP TO MASSACRE, ATTORNEY SAYS

An Instagram page apparently belonging to Cruz showed pictures of guns and knives. Israel said some of Cruz's social media posts were "very, very disturbing."

President Trump tweeted on Thursday about the alleged gunman: So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School will be closed on Thursday and Friday.

Fox News' Elizabeth Zwirz, Shira Bush and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Nikolas Cruz, who is accused of murdering 17 people in Wednesdays Florida high school shooting, lived with two different families since his mother's death in November, had been expelled from the school he allegedly attacked and reportedly killed chickens and frogs -- sometimes posting the gruesome pictures of the dead animals on social media.

Cruz, who was adopted at birth along with his biological brother, appeared to have a tough time after his mother died a few months ago due to pneumonia, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. Cruz's father died when he was younger.

The 19-year-old man, who was described as weird and a loner, was expelled from the same school he allegedly opened fire on Wednesday. The Sun-Sentinel reported Cruz was expelled for disciplinary problems.

"I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him," said Victoria Olvera, a 17-year-old junior at the school.

Olvera said Cruz was expelled last school year because he got into a fight with his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. She said he had been abusive to his girlfriend.

"I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him."  Victoria Olvera

The leader of a white nationalist militia said Cruz was a member of his group and participated in paramilitary drills in Tallahassee. Jordan Jereb of the Republic of Florida told The Associated Press he knew Cruz personally and that "he acted on his own behalf of what he just did and he's solely responsible for what he just did." It was not immediately clear if Jereb's claims could be verified.

Police said Cruz used an AR-15 and had multiple magazines on him during the shooting. Cruzs attorney Jim Lewis said the firearm was legally purchased.

Cruz and his brother were left in the care of a family friend after their mother died in November, but he was reportedly unhappy at the new location and asked to move in with a friends family in northwest Broward.

The teen moved in with that family after his mothers Nov. 1 death and was allowed to keep the AR-15 as long as it was locked in a safe, Lewis said.

GUNMAN WHO KILLED 17 RAN OUT OF HS WITH PANICKED STUDENTS, COPS SAY

It was his gun, Lewis said. The family made him keep it in a locked gun cabinet in the house, but he had a key.

The family said they never witnessed Lewis shooting the gun, but did see him with pellet guns.

Barbara Kumbatovich, the sister of Cruzs mother, Lynda, said she heard the news at her home in Long Island, N.Y., and could not believe she knew the suspect. She told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel she only met Cruz once at a funeral when he was young.

I know she had been having some issues with them, especially the older one. He was being a problem. I know he did have some issues and he may have been taking medication. [He] did have some kind of emotional or difficulties, Kumbatovich said. [Lynda] kept a really close handle on both boys. They were not major issues, as far as I know, just things teenagers do, like not coming home on time, maybe being disrespectful.

Kumbatovich told The Washington Post her sister was close with the boys who "put a lot of time and effort into those boys, trying to give them a good life and upbringing."

She said she does not believe Cruz allegedly opened fire at the school due to his upbringing but maybe because of the recent passing of his mother.

I dont think it had anything to do with his upbringing, she said. It could have been the loss of his mom. I dont know.

After he moved in with the family friend in Palm Beach County, he was urged to get a job and attend adult education classes.

Janine Kartiganer, a former neighbor of Cruz, said the teen looked very troubled.

He wore a hoodie and always had his head down, she said. He looked depressed.

Emily Sucher, a junior at the high school, said she remembered Cruz as an off kid who would smile weirdly, make weird comments.

Another student, Trevor Hart, said Cruz seemed like he really didnt like school. He also said the teen, who was enrolled in the Army ROTC at the school, had a bunch of weapons and often spoke about killing small animals.

Joshua Charo, 16, told The Washington Post that Cruz spoke about "guns, knives and hunting" often and "was into some weird stuff, such as shooting rats with a BB gun."

Charo said Cruz was suspended from the school for fighting and having bullets discovered in his backpack.

Drew Fairchild, another classmate, called Cruz "a troubled kid" who cursed at teachers often.

Mike Watford, who graduated from the high school in 2016, told BuzzFeed News that "something definitely pushed [the suspect]" before Wednesday's shooting.

Cruz often said "how tired he was of everyone picking on him and the staff doing nothing about it," Watford said.

A math teacher, Jim Gard, said Cruz was infatuated with a female student at the school to the point of stalking her. Gard also said he believed the school had sent out an email warning teachers that Cruz shouldnt be allowed on school grounds with a backpack.

FLORIDA HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL COACH WHO WAS SEEN SHIELDING STUDENTS FROM GUNFIRE DIES

Officials did not immediately say why Cruz was expelled from the high school.

Shelby Speno, a former neighbor, said Cruz would shoot at their neighbors chickens and threw eggs at her husbands car. She said Cruzs mother had her hands full.

I told my husband I was so glad they moved. Im afraid he was the kind of kid who would do something crazy, Shelby said. The older he gets, the worse kind of trouble he got into.

Other neighbors said police were called to Cruzs house multiple times and the teen attempted to steal a bike from a neighbors garage.

Stephanie Bell, the senior director of cruelty casework at PETA, told Fox News it was "no surprise" to the organization that Cruz was cruel to animals.

"It is no surprise to PETA that before he allegedly massacred 17 people at a school in Parkland, Florida, Nikolas Cruz is said to have talked about shooting small animals, including lizards, squirrels, frogs, and a neighbor's chickens, and reportedly sent his dog to a neighbor's house to attack the pigs there. The FBI has identified cruelty to animals as a warning sign of more violence to come, and many school shooters and serial killers have a history of abusing animals. While the issues of gun control and mental health rage on, one simple way to prevent future acts of violence is for local law-enforcement officials to pursue the strongest penalties possible in cruelty-to-animals casesfor everyone's sakeand for those who hear about or witness animal abuse to report it," Bell said in a statement.

Authorities are looking into the suspects disturbing social media posts, which appeared to include Cruz posing with guns.

And some of the things that have come to mind are very, very disturbing, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said of the social media posts.

Israel said authorities have not determined a motive for the shooting.

Buzzfeed News reported a YouTube vlogger flagged a comment on one of his videos from a person named Nikolas Cruz that said: Im going to be a professional school shooter. The vlogger, Ben Bennight, said he alerted the FBI to the comment last fall.

On Thursday, Cruz made his first court appearance after being charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Cruz only said, "Yes, ma'am" and "Yes, your honor" during his brief court appearance.

He was ordered held without bond.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.An FBI official acknowledged on Thursday the bureau received a tip months before the Florida high school massacre about a social media comment by a Nikolas Cruz, who aspired to be a professional school shooter."



Special Agent Rob Lasky, in charge of the FBIs Miami division, confirmed during a Thursday morning news conference the agency investigated a comment made on a YouTube video in September that matched the remark reported by vlogger Ben Bennight. After conducting database reviews, however, the FBI said it could not identify the user who made the comment.

"No other information was included in the comment which would indicate a particular time, location or the true identity of the person who posted the comment," the FBI said in a subsequent statement.

The comment, made by user Nikolas Cruz, stated: Im going to be a professional school shooter.

Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, is accused of a bloody rampage that killed 17 people at the school.

Bennight, a Mississippi bail bondsman who goes by the name Ben The Bondsman on YouTube and social media, said in a new video posted Wednesday he immediately reported the threatening comment to YouTube and contacted the FBI. Bennight also included a screenshot of the comment.

NIKOLAS CRUZ CHARGED IN FLORIDA HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING

Well, the next day I had two FBI agents standing in my office, taking down the information, taking copies of the screenshots and asking me questions that, of course, I couldnt answer. All it was on my channel was a comment, Bennight said.

Bennight said he reported the disturbing comment because he just couldnt ignore it.

Bennight said Wednesday he was again contacted by FBI agents from the Mississippi and Miami field offices  after alleged gunman Cruz shot and killed at least 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

I would like to think that they were already investigating this guy and they had him on the top of their radar and thats how they ended up contacting me so quickly, the vlogger said. I wish I could have given them more information.

Bennight told BuzzFeed News that Special Agent Ryan Furr from the FBIs Miami field office contacted him and left a voicemail.

FLORIDA HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL COACH WHO WAS SEEN SHIELDING STUDENTS FROM GUNFIRE DIES

"I think we spoke with you in the past about a complaint that you made about someone making a comment on your YouTube channel," Furr said in the message that was detailed in a transcription Bennight posted. "I just wanted to follow up with you on that and ask you a question with something that's come up, if you wouldn't mind giving me a ring.

The FBI did not immediately comment when reached by Fox News asking about Cruz's YouTube account, which has since been taken down. Bennight also did not immediately return Fox News' request for comment.

Cruz was charged Thursday with 17 counts of premeditated murder. He was booked into Broward County Jail after federal and local investigators questioned him. Cruz allegedly walked into the school with a gas mask, smoke grenades and multiple magazines of ammunition before firing an AR-15 at students and faculty members.

Details about Cruzs troubled past have emerged hours after the deadly shooting. The 19-year-old was a former student at the high school, but was expelled in the last school year after getting into a fight with the boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend, a student told The Associated Press.During the last year, multiple schools across the U.S. have been impacted by shootings, which have resulted in the deaths of both students and faculty members.

Read on for a look at school shootings that have taken place within the last year.

Noblesville West Middle School, Indiana

A male student fired shots at Noblesville West Middle School in Indiana on May 25, critically injuring another student and a teacher at the school.

The alleged shooter, who has not yet been identified, was taken into custody shortly after the incident occurred at roughly 9 a.m.

Sources told FOX 59 the suspect walked into a science classroom with a gun and opened fire, hitting a female. A science teacher was able to tackle the student who fired shots inside the classroom, student Ethan Stonebraker told The Associated Press.

The victims were taken to a local hospital. The extent of their injuries is unclear.

Santa Fe High School, Texas

At least eight people were killed and several others were injured following reports of an active shooter at a Texas high school on May 18, local affiliate KTRK reported. The suspected shooter was taken into custody.

"Personnel treating the injured. Info is still preliminary, but there are multiple casualties," Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez confirmed.

Police officers responded to Santa Fe High School around 8 a.m. CDT after reports that a shooter opened fire inside a first-period art class. Details of the incident were not immediately available.

"Details will be released as we receive updated information. Law enforcement will continue to secure the building and initiate all emergency management protocols to release and move students to another location," the school district said in a statement.

Highland High School, California

A 14-year-old student was taken into custody after allegedly shooting a classmate at Highland High School in Palmdale, California on May 11.

The suspected gunman shot a fellow student in the arm, police said. The shooting stemmed from a dispute between the shooter and the victim, according to authorities.

The injured student is expected to make a full recovery.



Forest High School, Florida

A suspected gunman, later identified as 19-year-old Sky Bouche, allegedly opened fire at Forest High School in Ocala, Florida, on April 20. The shooting occured on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting.

At least one student was injured after the gunman shot through a classroom door, hitting a 17-year-old student in the ankle, authorities said. The student was later taken to a local hospital with a non-life-threatening injury.

A school resource officer, James Long, was hailed a hero after arresting Bouche just three minutes after he opened fire.

Bouche, a former student at the school, allegedly carried the weapon in a guitar case inside the school, authorities said.

Great Mills High School, Maryland

On March 20, a gunman, identified as 17-year-old Austin Rollins, shot 16-year-old sophomore Jaelynn Willey at Great Mills High School in Lexington Park, Maryland, authorities said. Willey died days later from her injuries.

Investigators believe the shooting was not random as the gunman and Willey had recently ended their relationship.

Rollins was fatally wounded during a confrontation with Deputy Blaine Gaskill, an armed school resource officer who doubles as a SWAT team member.

"Our school resource officer...pursued the shooter, engaged the shooter, fired a round at the shooter," St. Mary's County Sheriff Tim Cameron said. "The shooter fired a round as well. In the hours and days to come, we'll be able to determine if our school resource officer's round struck the shooter."

Gaskill was praised because he reportedly contained the situation in under a minute, Cameron said.

Willey's parents announced on March 22 that their daughter was brain dead and that they would be taking her off of life support. She died later that night.

Jaelynn's mother, Melissa, told reporters her daughter had "no life left in her."

"On Tuesday ... our lives changed completely and totally forever. My daughter was hurt by a boy who shot her in the head and took everything from our lives," she said.

A 14-year-old boy, later identified as Desmond Barnes, was also injured in the shooting. Authorities said he was shot in the thigh but was later released from a local hospital.

Police are still investigating if the boy was shot by Rollins or Gaskill while the two exchanged gunfire.

Huffman High School, Alabama

A 17-year old girl is dead and one other person was left injured from a March 7 shooting at Huffman High School in Birmingham, Alabama.

Courtlin Arrington, 17, was killed when shots were fired in a classroom, Birmingham Police Chief Orlando Wilson told WBRC. A 17-year-old male student was wounded. He was taken to the hospital and released.

Birmingham Police Department announced March 8 that a student was taken into custody in the investigation into the deadly shooting. Police said evidence, surveillance video and statements were reviewed throughout the night.

Police initially called the shooting accidental, but later reviewed a video that captured the deadly incident.

"We're not saying he shot her, we're not saying he didn't shoot her," the chief said. "We're asking those questions ourselves so we can determine exactly what happened."

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Florida

Police responded to reports of shots fired at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., around 3 p.m. on Feb. 14. Seventeen people lost their lives and 17 others were injured.

The day after the shooting, the suspected gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, told authorities he arrived at the school with an AR-15 rifle, adding that he shot "students that he saw in the hallways and on school grounds," according to an arrest affidavit.

Cruz may plead guilty to avoid the death penalty, his lawyer reportedly said Feb. 16.

Cruz was formally charged March 7 with 17 counts each of premeditated murder and attempted murder.

A 12-year-old girl was taken into custody after police said the loaded gun she brought to Salvador B. Castro Middle School in Los Angeles accidentally discharged on Feb. 1, shooting a 15-year-old boy in the head and a 15-year-old girl in the wrist.

Police interviewed the 12-year-old student and agreed the shooting was accidental. She was booked in a juvenile detention center on suspicion of negligently discharging a firearm on school grounds.

It is unclear where the girl got the gun or why she decided to bring it to her school.

Doctors said both students who were shot are expected to recover.

Additionally, an 11-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl were treated at the hospital and released while a 30-year-old woman, who is a school staff member, had only minor injuries, Los Angeles city police said in a statement.

Marshall County High School, Kentucky

A shooter opened fire at Marshall County High School in Benton, Ky., on Jan. 23, killing two people.

Students Bailey Nicole Holt and Preston Ryan Cope, both 15 years old, died.

Suspected shooter Gabriel Ross Parker, 15, was arraigned on Feb. 16, according to Kentucky State Police.

"A Marshall County Grand Jury returned an indictment on Tuesday, charging Parker with two counts of Murder and fourteen counts of First Degree Assault," KSP said.

Marshall County Circuit Clerk Tiffany Griffith told Reuters a judge entered a not guilty plea on the teen's behalf.

Italy High School, Texas

A 15-year-old girl was hurt in a Jan. 22 shooting at Italy High School in Italy, Texas. A 16-year-old male student was taken into custody, Ellis County police told Fox News.

In the school's cafeteria, the suspect "engaged the victim" and fired several shots with a semi-automatic handgun, Ellis County Sheriff Chuck Edge said during a press briefing.

The suspect was confronted by an Italy Independent School District staffer in the school cafeteria and took off, Edge said. Law enforcement later apprehended the suspect on school grounds.

The suspect was charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, the Ellis County district attorney's office announced.

Aztec High School, New Mexico

Gunman William Atchison, 21, disguised himself as a student to get inside Aztec High School in Aztec, N.M., on Dec. 7, 2017, according to authorities. Atchison was also a former student.

State police said that Atchison killed students Francisco I. Fernandez and Casey J. Marquez.

Officials said Atchison eventually shot himself, adding that the students killed were not targeted, but were at the "wrong place at the wrong time."

Rancho Tehama Elementary School, California

A man in Northern California went on a random shooting rampage on Nov. 14, 2017, killing five people and wounding at least a dozen adults and children before authorities shot and killed him.

The gunman, who was later identified as Kevin Neal, 44, rammed a car into the gates of Rancho Tehama Elementary School and shot at its portable classrooms. He repeatedly tried to get into a kindergarten classroom but quick-thinking staff locked the school down, and he eventually stormed off.

Neal reportedly targeted the elementary school as part of a long-running feud with neighbors.

Mattoon High School, Illinois

A male student shot and injured a fellow student at a central Illinois high school on Sept. 20, 2017. The shooting unfolded in Mattoon High Schools cafeteria around 11:30 a.m., officials said at the time.

One female teacher intervened and successfully subdued and disarmed the gunman -- a move Mattoon Police Chief Jeff Branson said at the time was pivotal.

The gunman was taken into custody shortly after the incident.

Freeman High School, Washington

A 15-year-old student opened fire on fellow classmates at a Washington state high school on Sept. 13, 2017, killing one, investigators said. Caleb Sharpe, the suspected gunman, said the student who died had bullied him.

The slain student tried to stop the teen's rampage when the gun jammed, according to The Associated Press. A school janitor was hailed a hero after he was able to subdue the alleged shooter.

Three other students were wounded in the attack. According to court documents, Sharpe told officials that he brought the two guns to school to teach everyone a lesson about what happens when you bully others.

North Park Elementary School, California

A special needs teacher and a child, 8, were killed in what police said was a murder-suicide at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, California.

Police said Cedric Anderson walked into the school on April 10, 2017, and shot his estranged wife, Karen Elaine Smith. Two other students were also struck before Anderson killed himself, although law enforcement officials said they do not believe they were intended targets.

Jonathan Martinez was identified as the 8-year-old killed at the elementary school. A 9-year-old was injured.

Liberty-Salem High School, Ohio

Two high school students were injured after a fellow student allegedly fired a shotgun inside Liberty-Salem High School in Ohio on Jan. 20, 2017.

Logan Cole, who was 16 at the time, was shot twice but survived. Another student was grazed by a bullet. Champaign County Sheriff Matthew Melvin said the gunman intended to harm more students than he did.

Ely Serna, the accused gunman, was 17 at the time of the shooting but is being tried as an adult in Champaign County court. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Fox News' Nicole Darrah, Kaitlyn Schallhorn, Elizabeth Zwirz, Katherine Lam, Lucia I. Suarez Sang, Samuel Chamberlain, Kathleen Joyce, Shira Bush and The Associated Press contributed to this report.A lawyer for Stormy Daniels has corroborated Trump attorney Michael Cohen's claim that he paid the porn star $130,000 out of his own funds, saying in a statement the account is in "complete harmony" with what Cohen told him at the time of the 2016 transaction, The New York Times reported.

The source of the money is a subject of fevered interest by transparency groups, who have raised concerns that disclosure requirements or individual campaign contribution laws may have been violated.

The Wall Street Journal first reported in January that Cohen, a longtime Trump Organization attorney, had arranged the payment before Election Day as part of an agreement that would preclude Daniels -- whose real name is Stephanie Clifford -- from discussing a supposed sexual encounter with President Trump.

"I represented Stephanie Clifford in the Michael Cohen/Stephanie Clifford transaction," Los Angeles-based attorney Keith Davidson said in a statement. "I read today that Michael Cohen reports that the source of the $130,000 paid to Ms. Clifford was from his own personal funds. That assertion is in complete harmony with what he informed me of at the time of the transaction."

"Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly."  Trump attorney Michael Cohen

If true, some liberal-leaning watchdog groups say, that might mean Cohen effectively made an illegally oversized, undisclosed in-kind campaign contribution to the Trump campaign.

Common Cause, one of those groups, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission concerning Cohen's payment.

The organization's litigation and policy vice president has said that even if the money did not come from Cohen's personal funds, an investigation is warranted to figure out who made the payment possible, the New York Times reported.

Cohen, for his part, called the allegations he had violated the law "without merit."

Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly, Cohen said in a statement obtained by Fox News.

Clifford, meanwhile, believes that Cohen has violated the nondisclosure agreement the parties reportedly signed, and now she's looking into selling her story to media outlets, the New York Times reported, citing her manager.One of the two suspects arrested in the brutal killing of a 19-year-old woman left for dead near a rural road outside San Francisco reportedly said in a jailhouse interview that he is not mad at her and did not mean to kill her.

Daniel Gross, 19, told KTVU in an exclusive jailhouse interview that he did not plan to do this at all and that he "snapped."

I feel like s---, he reportedly said, sitting inside Santa Rita Jail in the town of Dublin, Calif. I f---ing hate myself, you know? I wish I could go back in time and that this never happened.

Lizette Cuesta, 19, was found early Monday with multiple stab wounds and laying in the middle of Tesla Road in Livermore, which is outside San Francisco.

The scene was gruesome. There was nearly a 100-yard trail of blood leading to the road. One of the men who first spotted her said he could not determine her hair color due to the amount of blood.

Cuesta was credited by the men who found her and authorities for her determination to survive. Gross was reportedly asked how Cuesta ended up in that condition, and he replied, Id rather not get into that.

Gross told the station that he acted in self-defense. He said Cuesta elbowed him in the ribs and she was armed with a knife. He said she did not use the weapon on him.

Cuesta was eventually airlifted to Eden Hospital where authorities said she made a dying declaration, and ID'd two suspects in her killing.

The declaration led to a tremendous amount of evidence and the arrests of Daniel Gross, 19, and Melissa Leonardo, 25, at their south Modesto home, The Modesto Bee reported.

Ive been around a long time, and I can only think of two to three times that Im aware of in our agency that weve been able to get a dying declaration like that, Sgt. Ray Kelly of the Alameda County Sheriffs Office said. A dying declaration is a very compelling piece of evidence thats recognized in the court to be very credible and reliable information.

Kelly did not give a suspected motive in the crime. Gross told KTVU that the two met at their jobs a Carls Jr. and their relationship became sexual. He said the two smoked marijuana and had sex the night she was killed.

Leonardo, who has been identified as his girlfriend in earlier reports, knew about his relationship with Cuesta and was OK with it, he told the station.

He told the station that Leonardo played no role in the killing, other than driving the car to Livermore.A school in the nation's fourth-largest city was placed on lockdown Thursday after a student was caught with a gun in his hoodie, according to police.

The Houston Police Department said in a series of tweets a security officer at the Houston Can Academy's Hobby campus found a revolver in the male student's hoodie as he was screened before entering the school. It was not immediately known if the gun was loaded.

The student then ran from the scene, causing school officials to place the building on lockdown.

"As a precaution, the school was placed on lockdown," Houston Police said. "Our officers searched the area for the student."

Authorities were able to eventually detain a suspect, who is being questioned. No injuries were reported as a result of the incident, police added.

RECENT SCHOOL SHOOTINGS IN THE US

Students who were in the school at the time were quickly ushered into classrooms as an announcement was made over the facility's loudspeakers.

"As soon as I was walking into my first period, they just rushed us into a classroom. They didn't tell us what was going on or anything," Alejandra Mosso told ABC 13.

School officials told FOX 26 Houston in a statement the student was enrolled in the school two weeks ago, and the incident is "now in the hands of Houston Police Department."

"During the daily routine for entering students onto the campus, our campus security officer discovered and confiscated the weapon," the statement said. "Due to the swift response of our security staff, students and staff were not in any immediate danger."

School officials said the facility's security process "worked this morning, keeping all students and staff safe," adding that the "safety of the students is always our top priority."x

The incident happened one day after a former student killed 17 people at a high school in South Florida.A Vermont man has finally admitted to hosing down a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers car with stinky manure last summer following an argument about illegal immigrants being allowed to work at local farms.

Mark Johnson, of Alburgh, who struck a plea deal Tuesday on charges of simple assault on a law enforcement officer with fluids and disorderly conduct, will be forced to do 24 hours of community service and write an apology to the officer, WCAX reported.

Johnson said last summer that his livelihood in agriculture has been nearly ruined by illegal immigrants working on local farms, and had been accused of spraying a border patrol vehicle with manure during an encounter on Aug. 3 at the edge of a farm field about two miles south of the Canadian border.

The 53-year-old man, who does custom manure spreading in northern Vermont, had told the Lake Champlain Islander, a weekly newspaper, he was unhappy with the lack of serious efforts by the immigration agency when it comes to illegal immigrants being allowed to work on local farms.

The Border Patrol, the sheriffs, state police, game wardens cant go onto the farms, Johnson said.

Many Vermont farms rely on immigrant workers, some of whom are believed to be in the country illegally.

Johnson said he struggles to keep his business going and farmers with illegal immigrants are able to do better because they dont have to pay a proper wage.

I have lost everything because of illegals, he said. Im not the only one that feels this. It is very, very sad.

Johnson told the Associated Press that he asked the Border Patrol agent why authorities were not doing more -- and he didnt like the answer.

"I used to go to all these farms, spread liquid manure and help them with chopping and everything else," he said. "Then the illegals started coming in, more and more and more, and every time I see the border patrol I stop and ask them, 'Can you please do something about it?'"

The Islander reported the border patrol agent said Johnson became very agitated and he figured he would get out of the way so Johnson could resume spreading manure on a field he was working at for the day.

The officer said in police documents he thinks Johnson tried to spray the cruiser twice, but missed the first time. The second time, the entire right side of the vehicle was covered with manure.

Johnson initially said he didnt know the car was near him when he fired up the manure spreader, but then came clean this week, WCAX reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.For nearly six decades, Andy Carver, an Army veteran, bought his wife a bouquet of flowers every week.

He picked up fresh flowers for her every Friday. Sometimes it would be white carnations  her favorite  or it would be roses, which were his.

I mixed it quite a bit, he said. She just loved it, and I just loved to see her smile. I loved to make her happy.

It was a long tradition that ended last March, when his wife, Brigitte, died at a hospice due to complications from a stroke.

But Carver, 84, figured out a new way to continue his tradition  by buying flowers, each week, for people at his retirement community in Texas.

He said his new tradition began when one of his neighbors at Lakeline Oaks Retirement Resort in Cedar Park was ill and he decided to take the neighbor a bouquet of roses. It cheered up the neighbor.

(I told my daughters), I think it would make me feel good if I would do that every week for someone, Carver said.

ARMY VETERAN THWARTS ARMED 'BATMAN' ROBBER IN CASINO

Carver met his future wife at a restaurant in Rudesheim, Germany more than 50 years ago. He was stationed with the Army in a neighboring town and she was a German native working as a nurse in Frankfurt.

I was finishing dinner, and I saw this beautiful blonde, he told the Austin American-Statesman. I kept looking at her. (I told my friend), Im going to marry that girl. I knew she was the right person. I just knew it.

He didnt approach her at the restaurant, but luckily bumped into her at a pub a little later. He was not going to pass on the chance and asked her to dance.

We went out on the dance floor, and I started with my limited vocabulary of spoken German, he recalled. She laughed, and we hit it off.

He said she was the prettiest girl in Germany.

NURSING HOME'S FAREWELL FOR VETERAN GOES VIRAL

On their first date, he brought her a bouquet of flowers. He continued that tradition throughout their 59-year marriage.

Now, every Friday, he buys a bouquet for one his neighbors during happy hour. He has given out 35 bouquets.

Theyre beautiful. Theyre gorgeous. Its nice to be remembered, said resident Billie Tips, 93, who recently received a bouquet for her upcoming birthday. This put a smile on my face.A former high-ranking official in the North Korean regime said Wednesday that dictator Kim Jong Un's recent overtures to South Korea have come out of fear that the U.S. will launch a preventative strike against him.

According to Yonhap News, Ri Jong Ho -- who defected to South Korea in 2014 and moved to the U.S. in 2016 -- told a forum at the Wilson Center in Washington that Kim is "trying to buy time to complete his nuclear and missile programs."

Before his defection, Ri worked for Office 39 of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea. Despite the shadowy-sounding name, the outfit had a very clear mission: to raise money for the North Korean regime, even in defiance of United Nations sanctions.

Ri spoke Wednesday in the wake of a three-day visit to South Korea by Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un's sister, during which she sat among world dignitaries -- including Vice President Mike Pence -- for the opening ceremonies at the Winter Olympics.

"Kim Jong Un is struggling under the strongest-yet sanctions and military and diplomatic pressure, so he is trying to improve the situation by putting on a false front," said Ri, who also praised the Trump administration's push to highlight human rights abuses by the Pyongyang government.

Ri's comments on sanctions appeared to strike a different tone from one he set in a Washington Post article published this past July. At that time, he described sanctions against North Korea as "perfunctory."

"We were never in pain or hurting in our trade business because of the sanctions," he told the Post at the time. "Instead, we conducted our first nuclear test in 2006."

Ri also told the paper that "unless China, Russia and the United States cooperate fully to sanction North Korea, it will be impossible to hurt [the Kim dynasty]."

On the same day that Ri spoke, U.S. Navy Adm. Harry Harris --the senior officer overseeing military operations in the Pacific -- told lawmakers that Kim's ultimate goal was to reunify the Korean Peninsula under his rule.

"I do think that he is after reunification under a single communist system," Harris told the House Armed Services Committee. "So he's after what his grandfather failed to do and his father failed to do and he's on a path to achieve what he feels is his natural place."

Click for more from Yonhap News.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A major corruption scandal, possibly involving millions of dollars intended for the worlds most desperate people, is brewing amid some 1.3 million refugees in Uganda, the biggest single host nation for refugees in Africa and a poster-child for United Nations-sponsored humanitarian efforts in a region horrifically stricken by drought and civil war.

Ugandan and U.N. officials are close-mouthed about the magnitude and extent of the wrongdoing, which is now under investigation by Ugandan authorities. A press statement from U.N. officials in Uganda, however, declares that the scandal involves gross mismanagement, malpractices in the registration of refugees, fraud, corruption, trafficking of girls and women, and threats to U.N. staff.

Another release from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the U.N.s refugee relief agency, refers to faking documents on delivery of food assistance as well as demanding refugees pay bribes to access various services that should be free of cost. Food assistance in Uganda involves not only food supplies but according to the website of the U.N.s World Food Program, cash assistance for refugees.

Along with faking documents, the scandal appears to have involved significant falsehoods about the number of refugees receiving aidand perhaps of the number of refugees in Uganda overall.

Among other things, a spokesperson for U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres told Fox News that the Ugandan government has asked UNHCR to implement a verification of the refugee population very rapidly, meaning within two to three months. UNHCR is mobilizing significant human and financial resources to do this, the spokesperson added, using UNHCR tools including a reliable biometric system.

A subsequent statement from the European Union, a major U.N. aid donor in Uganda, indicates that the EUs own fraud investigators may be getting involved.

In Washington, a USAID spokesperson told Fox News that we join our partners in calling for a swift and thorough review of refugee operations in Uganda to ensure services effectively assist those in need. The USAID Office of Inspector General is monitoring these reports, and the United States supports the ongoing investigations into these allegations.

According to the U.N.s Financial Tracking Service (FTS), the world organization spent some $333 million on humanitarian aid in Uganda last year, largely for the torrent of refugees from South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Burundi and other countries. Of that total, nearly a third--$102 millioncame from the U.S.

The Uganda relief budget for 2018 is about $470 million, of which only about 10 per cent has so far been funded, again according to FTS.

Reuters has reported that five Ugandan officials, including a commissioner in the office of Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda who is responsible for refugees, have been suspended pending the probe.

Unverified local press accounts have alleged that in addition to officials in Rugundas officewhich is responsible for the overall refugee aid program and now, it appears, for the scandal investigation-- officials associated with UNHCR itself are involved.

For its part, the U.N. says it uncovered the scandal itself, brought it to Rugundas attention, and called for the government to investigate, initially through a letter from the U.N.s top official in Uganda, Rosa Malango.

One source of the U.N. suspicion about the scandal was apparently a series of spot checks carried out during 2016 and 2017 on the number of refugees actually receiving aid.

According to the Guterres spokesperson, the results in some cases was a drop of between 15 to 25 percent in the actual vs. reported numbers of refugees at various locationseven without the biometric technologies UNHCR is now going to bring to the verification effort. Unverified local press accounts have put the discrepancies even higherin one case, more like 70 percent.

The spokesperson for Guterres did not respond to direct questions from Fox News about possible involvement by UNHCR or government officials.

What is clear, however, is that much more is at stake in the Uganda scandal than even large-scale theft, intimidation and sexual abuse among some of the worlds most vulnerable and already-abused people, who are desperately in need of support.

Among other things, skepticism about foreign aid donations, especially within the Trump administration, is at an all-time high, even as the unprecedented global refugee crisis shows no sign of abating.

President Trumps proposed foreign aid budget for 2019 already calls for steep cuts in funding for USAID and the State Department, though the proposed cuts are likely to be ignored by Congress. In its statement regarding the Ugandan scandal, the European Union says it is indeed of utmost importance to address swiftly and thoroughly any allegations of malfeasance in order not to impairthe public support from the European taxpayers.

Uganda itself has long been hailed in the international aid community as a model for other nations to follow as the U.N. seeks to orchestrate a new Global Compact on Refugees, aiming to broaden international support for dealing with the refugee crisis. (The Trump Administration, which bowed out of U.N.-sponsored negotiations on a global compact on migration, supports the refugee compact, which will be chewed over during international meetings this year.)

Uganda has offered an open-door policy toward refugees flooding across its borders, and it has also handed over plots of land and opportunities for refugees to integrate themselves into the local economy. This has come at great cost to the countrys overstretched social services, and it has not prevented the countrys biggest refugee camp, Bidi Bidi (population, about 270,000), from becoming the biggest in Africa.

Any failure of Ugandas risky refugee experiment could deal a major blow to the entire U.N.-sponsored orchestration of a global refugee effort.

The suddenly improved verification effort for refugees points to another problem for the U.N.how good are its humanitarian numbers at all under the circumstances?

While Guterres spokesperson says that the U.N.s face-to-face biometric registration techniques are used all over the world, including by some governments directly, the truth of the matter in Uganda is that U.N. relief agencies were apparently taking the governments word for itat least until the spot checks gave anyone pause.

A number of major non-government humanitarian agencies consulted by Fox News said that biometric verification of refugees have long been a fundamental part of their operating procedure, precisely to guarantee fair distribution of aid and also to prevent diversion.

The apparent reliance on government say-so is in keeping with a general U.N. emphasis on national execution of as many aid policies as possible, meaning that governments and their designates actually carry out U.N. policies, with the international organization operating as a funding pass-through and ostensible monitor.

There have also been public warnings of the looming possibilities for scandal.

In March 2017, the non-profit humanitarian organization Refugees International, or RI, which says it does not take money either from governments or the U.N., issued a lengthy field report on Uganda, with a section devoted to such warning signs.

The report noted that the Ugandan Prime Ministers office (OPM) was exercising tight control over where non-government organizations could conduct relief work, and making them seek permission to work in refugee settlements.

Refugee International field workers were told by aid workers that even though the government was not supposed to have any say in choosing contractors who would work with humanitarian NGOs on aid distribution, aid organizations were allegedly denied access to settlements after rejecting a contractor that OPM suggesteda warning sign of possible collusion.

They also heard that OPM allegedly delayed approving projects for months because of disagreements over the choice of a contractor. The field report also says that U.N. officials did not deny the governments involvement in these decisions.

Aid donors also knew of the untoward pressures, Refugees International reported, but their response was tepid at best, at least until RI brought the matter to their attention.

In fact, the uncovering of the Uganda scandal may actually point in a novel directionof the U.N. beginning to move against its longstanding habitual passivity in the face of similar aid scandals, which was outlined in a scathing report by the U.N.s own watchdog Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) in mid-2016.

The 133-page report summarized a nine-month investigation that covered fraud detection, prevention and response across 28 U.N. organizations and discovered that the world body was only marginally engaged on all three topics.

Among other things, the JIU inspectors pointed to anemic levels of fraud detection that were likely not signs of U.N. virtue but a lack of effort in pursuing the topic.

The watchdogs noted that the sprawling array of U.N. organizations did not even have a common definition of fraud, and workers at a large array of U.N. organizations did not perceive a clear commitment on the part of the senior management to tackle fraud in their organizations.

As it happens, the head of UNCHR at the time was Antonio Guterres, who left the job to become U.N. Secretary General in 2017.

Whether the U.N. is truly now bestirring itself to stop the theft and diversion of money intended for the people who most desperately need it of course, remains to be seennot least, in the discreet investigations now supposedly underway in Uganda.next Image 1 of 2

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Australia's prime minister has banned government ministers from having sex with staff as his deputy battles for his political survival over revelations that he is expecting a baby with a former press secretary.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Thursday accused Barnaby Joyce of making a "shocking error of judgment" by having an office affair which had hurt his wife, his four daughters and his new partner who is due to give birth in April.

Since news of the impending birth broke last week, Turnbull has supported Joyce and declined to comment on his personal circumstances out of respect for his estranged wife of 24 years and children.

Turnbull said Joyce will not serve as acting prime minister when Turnbull visits the United States next week.A man convicted in the killing of yachtsman Sir Peter Blake has been caught in Brazil after being on the run for more than 15 years.

Civil police spokesman Walrimar Santos told The Associated Press Thursday that Jose Irandir Cardoso was picked up during a routine patrol on the river island of Marajo in the northeastern state of Para. Cardoso was detained Wednesday and was carrying his brother's identification. Police discovered his true identity after running his fingerprints through their database.

Blake, an internationally famous sailor from New Zealand, was fatally shot by pirates during a visit to Brazil in 2001.

He was on a boat monitoring pollution in the Amazon as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. when his boat was attacked. Cardoso was convicted of armed robbery and later escaped.Israel's attorney general has praised a police investigation into the prime minister, saying it was done "by the book."

In a speech at Tel Aviv University on Thursday, Avihai Mandelblit says the investigation was carried out "professionally and "thoroughly."

Police this week recommended that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted on bribery and breach of trust charges in two corruption cases. Netanyahu has denied wrongdoing and has accused the police of being overly aggressive in their probe.

The recommendations now go to Mandelblit, who will review the material before deciding whether to file charges. Netanyahu can remain in office during that process, which could take months.

Mandelblit did not say when he expects to make his decision but he said he plans to conduct the process without "unnecessary delays."Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee says a special forces officer has been killed in a shootout with a militant that also left the fighter dead.

The clash occurred Thursday in a rural area of Dagestan, a republic in the Russian Caucasus where insurgent violence is frequent.

The committee said in a statement that the militant was cornered by law-enforcement officers and opened fire after being ordered to lay down his arms. The statement did not say what branch of service the dead officer was from.

Dagestan is a predominantly Muslim region between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea. Following two separatist wars in neighboring Chechnya, an Islamist insurgency spread to Dagestan where shootouts between the militants and police are common.South Korea on Wednesday approved a plan to pay North Korea's Olympic expenses to the tune of approximately $2.6 million, the Korea Herald reported.

Officials in South Korea suggested the move, which will cover the costs of hundreds of performers who arrived in PyeongChang as part of the North's delegation, is another sign that tensions in the region have cooled.

"The North Korean delegation's participation in various forms is serving as a pretty good opportunity to achieve Seoul's goal to hold an Olympics of peace and becoming an important chance for harmony that improves the inter-Korean relationship and opens up the door for peace on the Korean Peninsula," Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said, according to the Korea Herald.

"With the dispatch of a high-level delegation, an art troupe and a cheering squad, the Olympics have become a chance for the North to communicate with the international community," Cho added. "This could further pave the way for (inter-Korean) discussion to build and sustain peace on the peninsula."

The funding does not cover all North Koreans who have arrived in the South. The International Olympics Committee is paying the expenses of 22 of North Korea's athletes, the USA Today reported.

Expenses incurred by Kim Jong Un's sister during her unprecedented visit to South Korea, as well as other high-level North Korean officials, will come from another source, a Unificiation Ministry spokesman said, the paper reported. The exact source was unclear.

The Ministry of Unification said it has not yet decided whether to pay North Korea's expenses in the upcoming Paralympics, set to begin in in PyeongChang in March.The head of a leading Turkish immigrant group in Germany says he's pressing charges against a politician from Germany's nationalist party for insulting Turks as "camel drivers" and immigrants with dual passports as a "homeless mob we no longer want to have here."

Gokay Sofuoglu told The Associated Press Thursday that the Turkish Community in Germany is preparing charges based on discrimination and incitement. Sofuoglu said: "It's high time Germans realize the danger coming from the far-right."

Andre Poggenburg,a regional leader of the anti-Muslim Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, made the comments in a speech Wednesday in Nentmannsdorf in Saxony. Supporters shouted "deportation, deportation" as Poggenburg used vulgar expressions about Germany's four-million-strong Turkish immigrant community.

The AfD was elected to Germany's parliament for the first time in September.A U.S. strike in Syria earlier this month may have killed five Russians, the countrys foreign ministry said Thursday - marking the first time Russians have died at U.S. hands in the Middle Eastern conflict.

The ministrys spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said the five Russians killed in the Feb. 7 clash in the eastern Deir el-Zour province were not military personnel.

"According to preliminary information, five people, presumably Russian citizens, may have been killed in combat, the circumstances of which are being clarified," Zakharova said in a briefing. "Some others have been injured, and it's still necessary to check whether they are citizens of Russia or other nations."

It was the first official recognition of Russian deaths in the incident that could further strain Russia-U.S. ties.

Until Thursday, officials for both countries said they had no information on Russian losses in the clash, which came when pro-government forces attacked positions of the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters and faced a ferocious U.S. counterattack.

Zakharova wouldn't describe how the Russians died, saying the circumstances of the clash are still being clarified, but her statement amounted to official recognition that the victims were part of the force that advanced on positions of the U.S.-backed fighters.

The Pentagon said the incident was in response to a barrage of artillery and tank fire from several hundred "pro-regime" fighters in Deir el-Zour province, an area in eastern Syria where the last ISIS fighters have converged among oil fields.

Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, commander of U.S. air forces in the Middle East, told reporters a broad range of U.S. air power was unleashed.

For more than three hours, American F-15E attack planes, B-52 strategic bombers, AC-130 gunships, Apache attack helicopters and Reaper drones fired on the attacking ground force, which Harrigian said was advancing under covering fire from artillery, mortars, rockets and tank rounds.

Whether by accident or intention, such clashes risk plunging Washington and Moscow into a situation they studiously avoided even during some of the darkest hours of their relationship: their forces directly warring with each other.

The U.S. military has said it maintained contact with the Russian military in Syria before, during and after the Feb. 7 clash. The Russian Defense Ministry insisted its troops weren't involved in the incident, saying 25 Syrian volunteers were wounded in the U.S. strike.

But Russian news media and social networks swirled with reports of the combat, describing how U.S. aircraft decimated Russian private military contractors who sought to take control of an oil factory near Khusham.

Ahead of Thursdays announcement, Russian media cited unconfirmed claims that overall casualties could have been as high as 200 and Russians could have accounted for the bulk of them. Those claims could not be verified.

Earlier this week, U.S. officials said the Russian government had lodged no complaint about its citizens being killed.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, speaking to reporters Tuesday while traveling in Europe, was adamant he knew of no Russian contractors killed in the fighting. He has not commented on the Russian foreign ministrys remarks Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due in Ankara later Thursday to discuss growing tensions between the two NATO allies.

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has said that some Russian citizens could be in Syria but the Kremlin doesn't have any information about them. Pressed by reporters in Thursday's conference call as to whether Putin ordered information about Russian casualties kept from the public, Peskov denied it.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.The award comes with $100,000 in research funding that is meant to be used as a bridge between a postdoctoral fellowship and launching an independent lab, Miller said. He studies how cells correctly partition the right number of chromosomes to each daughter cell during cell division, a process that can go awry in cancer and is the leading cause of miscarriages.

Specifically, Miller studies components of the kinetochore. It's a large protein complex that attaches each chromosome to molecular strings, known as microtubules, which pull the chromosomes to each daughter cell. The entire process is intricately timed and controlled by physical tension. Miller and Biggins found that in brewers yeast, a protein known as Stu2 is responsible for sensing that tension.

Its not clear how Stu2 does that job, Miller said  that will be the next phase of his work, which could continue into the new laboratory he plans to establish in the next few years. But the human version of Stu2, ch-TOG, has been implicated in several different cancers. Miller also wants to study the mutations in that gene that crop up in cancer to see if they affect the proteins tension-sensing function.

The new award is especially meaningful to Miller because the Damon Runyon Foundation is committed to funding basic research by early-stage investigators.

Thats pretty amazing, because I completely agree that these big breakthroughs that are more directly connected to cancer would not happen without the foundational research that all those studies stand on, Miller said. I feel very fortunate to have been funded by them and to continue to be.Free Freightnet Membership

List your company in the Freightnet directory. It's Free, it's Easy and your company can be displayed in front of potential freight buyers within 24 hours.Raiders broke into a farm shed and brutally slaughtered a young calf and sheep, possibly to sell on their meat.

West Mercia Police is appealing for information on the attack, which happened sometime between 9pm on Saturday 11 February and 8am on Tuesday 13 February.

Officers said the burglary took place at a farm in Redhill Lane, Rubery, on the outskirts of Birmingham.

See also: 9 tips to combat farm thefts during darker nights

A Hereford heifer calf was taken away from its mother and five other cows and had its throat slit, while a ewe was dragged from a field from a neighbouring farm and slaughtered.

Killed for their meat

A police spokesman said: This was a sickening incident that would have undoubtedly caused a lot of suffering to the two animals.

It is likely the animals have been killed for their meat.

Officers are keen to speak to anyone with information or CCTV, or who saw anything suspicious in the area around the time of the attack.

Anyone who is being offered cheap meat locally is also being asked to contact police.

If you have information contact West Mercia Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, quoting incident number 0130S 130218.Reporter

Before coming to work for The Daily News as a staff reporter, Connor worked for us as a freelance correspondent throughout 2017. He has written for other publications such as the Washington Post.Emil Kjaer of the Royal Danish Yacht Club, and Americans Jeffrey Petersen and David Wood secured the final three spots after coming in first, second and third respectively in the 2021 Ficker Cup, which was this past weekend in Long...February 15, 2018 Carnegie Mellon University and Portugal renew and celebrate partnership Carnegie Mellon University will sign a cooperation agreement with the Government of Portugal to renew the CMU Portugal Program on February 15th, 2018 in Matosinhos, Portugal. This public signing ceremony will initiate Phase III of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program, a new 10-year commitment to launch information and communications technology (ICT) ventures and establish industrial partnerships through research. For the last decade, CMU has partnered with Portuguese universities and research institutions to pursue high-caliber research which has made a significant impact on the scientific culture and the entrepreneurial capability of the ICT sector in Portugal. The renewed Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program will build on Carnegie Mellons experience as a dynamic economic engine in the Pittsburgh region and foster industry-science relationships as agents of change for social and economic impact. CMU Interim President Farnam Jahanian will attend the ceremony along with senior Portuguese government officials and top-ranking academic leaders.A member of vigilante group in Obadolovbiyeyi community in Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area of Edo State, Efe Igbnovia, has been shot dead by soldiers. a vigilante group which the deceased was a member, arrested some herdsmen for armed robbery along the Benin-Abraka expressway. He was asked to watch over the arrested herdsmen while the other members of the group went in search of the other fleeing herdsmen.

Henry Osenwengie who witnessed the incident, said shortly after the other members of the vigilante group left, some armed men in military uniform arrived in a Honda car marked AP 641 KTN and fired at Igbinovia after which they set the arrested suspects free.

Quote

Two of the herdsmen were caught. Igbinovia was asked to stay. Before then, the police had been called to come and pick them (herdsmen) because that is what we normally do. Suddenly, a red Honda car with about four of them putting on military uniforms carrying AK47 rifles came and started shooting. Igbinovia shouted that he had been shot. When the other people (vigilantes) came back, they discovered that Igbinovia was already down. They (armed men) killed him and went away with two robbers. Robbers, most of whom are Hausa, usually operate there. They keep their cows by the side, block the road and start robbing.



A family member of the deceased, Onaghise Willson, said after killing his cousin, the soldiers took the herdsmen to the hospital for treatment.



Confirming the incident, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Johnson Kokumo, said, The herdsmen were alleged to have blocked the expressway. Two of them are with the police undergoing interrogation.



On the alleged killing of the vigilante by armed men in military uniforms, Kokumo said, That is an allegation we are investigating. Actually, one of the vigilance members died in the course of duty.



Meanwhile the Nigerian Army has reacted to claims that the deceased was killed by the army. According to the spokesperson for the 4 Brigade Command of the Nigerian Army, Capt. Mohammed Maidawa, troop deplored to Ologbo for pipeline protection received a tip off from locals closed to their location of suspected armed robbery activities. He said the troop mobilised to the scene and engaged armed men at the scene but unfortunately one person who was later identified as member of the vigilante was killed.



Preliminary investigation revealed that the vigilante group also responded to a distress call on the robbery operation. The vigilante started demonstration but the situation has been brought under control,

The remains of the deceased has since been deposited in the morgue.-R: Chans Standing, Ronald Round Face and Bryce Even take in the Art Mobile at Frazer School on Feb. 8.

Glasgow's Tess Fahlgren brought the Art Mobile of Montana to Valley County students recently, beginning with a stop at the Frazer School on Feb. 8. Fahlgren spoke to more than a dozen children, sharing works of art from around the state with a presentation that is part show-and-tell, part how-to, part art appreciation. The kids were clearly engaged as Fahlgren invited them to guess at the materials used to make different artworks and told them a bit about the processes used to create them. They were even allowed to touch a few of the pieces.

Fahlgren also spoke to around 12 homeschool students in Glasgow at Wheatgrass Arts & Gallery on Feb. 9.

The Art Mobile circuit begins with the school year in September and continues until springtime. I spoke to Fahlgren via telephone on Feb. 12 from St. Labre Indian Catholic High School in Ashland, Mont. Asked how many schools she's visited thus far in her annual Odyssey, Fahlgren was at a loss, estimating more than 20 stops. Last year, she visited over 65 schools.

To contact the Art Mobile of Montana, write to Tess Fahlgren at [email protected], or call 406-217-4418.Speaker of the Montana State House, Austin Knudsen, will be unable to run for his current seat in 2018 do to eight year term limits. In his place, Rhonda Knudsen, his mother, has become Montana House District 34s next Republican hopeful. At press time, Knudsen was the only candidate filed to run in the district.

The Courier reached Rhonda Knudsen to talk about her motivation for running, her policy priorities, and her experiences. A lifelong resident of Roosevelt County, Knudsen graduated from Culbertson High School, became a civil engineer, and worked as a federal employee. Since retiring, she has worked with her husband on their Ranch outside Culbertson.

Knudsen described her motivation for running in few words. I want to keep our taxes low, she said adding that, I want to see the state maintain a smaller budget. Knudsen also stated she wanted to keep a good job force and bring jobs into Montana.

Knudsens desire to further reduce taxes comes on the heels of an almost $230 million dollar budget shortfall last year that required a special session of the legislature to fix. When asked what her view of those blanket cuts were. Knudsen responded that a lot of the cuts were discretionary, and made by the Governor. When pressed on whether the cuts were good thing for rural Montana Knudsen was non-committal reiterating, a lot were discretionary.Representatives from Valley County schools, Roosevelt County schools, Daniels County schools, FMDH, Glasgow Police Department, Valley County Sheriffs Office, Youth Dynamics and the Glasgow Clinic attended the Northeast Montana Suicide Prevention presentation on Jan. 29, at the Cottonwood Inn.

The presentation featured guest speaker Karl Rosston, the suicide prevention coordinator from the Montana Department of Public Health and Services and MaryAnn Benz, the student assistance coordinator for the Bozeman School District. Rosston discussed facts and features of suicide in Montana as well as provided information on the Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) method in order to offer hope through positive action. The QPR method teaches warning signs, clues the suicidal communications of people in trouble and allows the ability to gain the skills to act in an appropriate manner to prevent a possible tragedy.

Benz discussed and provided information on the Signs of Suicide program to those in attendance. She has hit the ground running in implementing this program to middle and high school students in the Bozeman School District. This program is a school-based depression awareness and suicide prevention program to decrease suicide and suicide attempts by increasing student knowledge and adaptive attitudes about depression. The school representatives in attendance were able to gain invaluable insight on how to implement the program in their classrooms.

The goal of the entire presentation was to bring the topic of suicide forward and to allow those integral to the community be on the same page in terms of policies and procedures when someone is suicidal. According to Valley County Health Departments Connie Boreson, the presentation provided everyone to have the same voice and the same plan, establishing a foundation to help students in need.

The presentation was coordinated by the Valley County Health Department as a result of the Community Health Assessment that occurred in 2016. After residents answered questions regarding their health, the top three areas of improvement that were prevalent were mental health, substance abuse and physical activity and nutrition. In order to improve these three areas for all Valley County community members, the Health Department applied for grant funds and was awarded one grant in the amount of $20,000 in order to split between the three health areas that could be improved upon in Valley County.

The funds used for the area of mental health helped fund the presentation for Valley County members.

Roosevelt and Daniels county members present was able to participate as a result of the funds provided by the state of Montana.

If you or who someone you know has suicidal thoughts, contact the National Sucidie Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).Deborah Jo (Spilllum) Fogle, age 54, of Wolf Point, Mont., passed away Saturday, Feb. 10, 2018, at the Billings Clinic Hospital after a courageous and hard-fought battle against gastric cancer.

A visitation will be held on Thursday, Feb. 15, with family receiving friends from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., at the Bell Mortuary in Glasgow. A prayer service will be held at 6:30 p.m., and will be followed by an open sharing time of our stories with Debbie.

Friday, Feb. 16, a visitation with family receiving friends will be from 11 a.m. until 12 p.m. at Stevenson & Son's Funeral Home in Jordan, Mont. Burial will follow at Hearts of Peace Cemetery in Brusett, Mont. Please join Debbie's family at The Summit Corral in Jordan following the graveside service.

Debbie was born on April 5, 1963, to Bayard and Agnes Spillum in Jordan, Mont. She joined brothers Jack and Tom at home and Loren followed not long after.

Her mother, Agnes, married William "Bill" Stanton in 1971, and little brother Ebert joined the family, too. Although Bill was her stepfather, Debbie always saw him as her father and loved him dearly.

She loved Brusett and living on the ranch. She was known to jump on a dirt bike and take off into the pine trees. She went to the country school until 1977, then moved into the dorm in Jordan, to attend high school. She was an excellent student and finished her junior and senior years in one to graduate early in 1980. After high school, she moved to Billings, briefly, to attend college, but Jordan called her home.

She married Monte Billing in 1984 and their son, Lane, was born in 1987. She married Keith Fogle in 1989 and their daughter, Loni, joined the family in 1990. The family moved to Glasgow in 1992. Keith went to work at the Post Office and Debbie worked part-time at Dairy Queen, but she spent most of her time at home with her children. When both kids were in school, she found joy working at the Irle School as a librarian and loved having the same schedule as Lane and Loni. She never missed a play, recital, or sporting event.

Camping and boating at Hell Creek were some of her favorite things to do in the summer. She loved music and could be seen on the dance floor jitterbugging her heart out. She loved to play darts, shoot pool, throw horseshoes and drink a cold beer. One thing that can be said about her is that she loved to be the boss.

She went to work at Valley Bank for several years before moving to Wolf Point. She worked at Peavey Grain Elevator for several years, eventually settling into a job that she really enjoyed at Medical Records at Northeast Montana Health Services. She dearly loved all of her work colleagues throughout the years.

She was preceded in death by her father, Bayard Spillum in 1989; her beloved brother, Jack, in 1997; her step-father, Bill Stanton, in 2013; and her grandparents.

Survivors include a son, Lane Billing; a daughter, Loni Fogle and (Tony Gundermann); her mother, Agnes Stanton; three brothers Tom Spillum, Loren Spillum and his wife, Tamara, and Ebert Stanton and his wife, Karen; grandkids Alice, Charlie and baby Gundermann due in July; several nieces and nephews; special companion Dana Schumacher; daughter-in-law Whitney Swanson; and many more special relatives and friends.After a long, fearless fight battling ovarian, uterus, blood and bone cancer, Josephine "Jo" Marie (Lauckner) Dorsey, age 54, passed away peacefully in her home at Morning Star Senior Living on Saturday, Feb. 10, 2018, at 6:45 p.m., surrounded by her family's love. She was blessed by many incredible medical caregivers who walked with her providing support and overall care during this time. Although we will miss her dearly, we know her cheerful spirit will always walk among us.

Visitation will be held Friday, Feb. 16, from 4 to 8 p.m. at Bell Mortuary in Glasgow. The funeral service will be Saturday, Feb. 17, at 2 p.m. at the Glasgow Evangelical Church. Luncheon will be provided directly after and then burial at the Nashua Cemetery.

She knew how to work hard, in fact, she was most happy when busily working and serving others. Growing up in Montana, Jo began working on the family farm at a young age. Her first job was at Farmers Union Market. She was also employed at First National Bank of Glasgow, Farmer's Stock Growers Bank of Glasgow, First Security Bank of Montana, and Norwest Bank. She finished her 35-year banking career at Wells Fargo Bank of Glasgow, retiring on March 31, 2000.

Although the majority of Jo's life was spent living on the Hi-line in Nashua, she also resided in Missoula for two years and in Gary, Ind., for three years. She moved to Billings, Mont., in August of 2015 to be closer to medical care.

Throughout her life, she was surrounded with a special love from her brother, Andy's family. She shared laughter amid many adventures and fun times enjoying a special closeness with her sister-in-law, best friend and caregiver, Jamie Lauckner, brother Andy, niece Katrina (and Lance) and her best buddy, Brexton. While she lived in Billings, she also enjoyed many family gatherings with her niece, Gayle, nephews Bradley and Andrew, and their families.

A strong Christian, she will be remembered for her kindness and quiet strength. As a long-time member of the Lutheran Church, she assisted with numerous church and community functions. At the Nashua Senior Citizens Center, she was an assistant cook for senior meals where she served alongside her good friend, Pat Neulieb. She also aided in the distribution of commodities for many years.

She belonged to the American Legion Auxiliary of Montana. One of her most loved ventures involved joining P.D.Q.s in Nashua where she was honored to sew memory quilts for families.

She enjoyed cooking, baking and canning. An important tradition she passed on to her brother, Andy and niece Katrina is the making of kapusta and padiasauce. Some of her other favorite pastimes included Bingo, Mexican Train, puzzles, hunting and fishing and traveling to rendezvous as a "Mountain Woman" with her husband, John.

She enjoyed spending time with her large extended family and former co-workers as well as many of the public she knew from working in Glasgow. When visiting her Arizona family, she could often be found in the backyard near the grapefruit or lemon tree enjoying a fresh snack while throwing the ball for Aussie (the family dog) or cheering at one of her grandkids' sporting events. A fun-loving, proud grandmother, she enjoyed hearing about the kids' activities and achievements when away from them.

Survivors include her son, William Lawrence "Larry" Dorsey; a daughter-in-law, Tracy Dorsey, and three grandchildren, Alexis (22), Kohl (20) and Regan (16), who currently reside in Arizona. Her Montana family includes her sister, Helen Lauckner Heikens and her husband, Bob; two brothers, Andy Lauckner and his wife, Jamie, and Bill Lauckner and his wife, Myrna; along with numerous treasured nieces and nephews.

Condolences can be sent to Bell Mortuary at 701 2nd Avenue South, Glasgow, MT 59230, phone 406-228-2112. Bell Mortuary of Glasgow was in charge of arrangements.Montanas farmers and ranchers can look forward to better roads, bridges and other essential infrastructure thanks to President Trumps "Building Stronger America" plan. Montana Farm Bureau President Hans McPherson said the proposed $50 billio...And so it seemed that Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan forgot the platform that an entire Caucus of Republicans ran on platforms of fiscal responsibility, and as such with the passage of tax cuts and a federal spending deal that will cost $300 billio...English Finnish

Central Bank of Savings Banks Finland Plc's IFRS financial statements and Board of Directors' report for 2017 have been published.

Stock Exchange Release

15.2.2018 at 8.45

Central Bank of Savings Banks Finland Plc's IFRS financial statements and Board of Directors' report for 2017 have been published.

The IFRS financial statements and Board of Directors' report for 2017 in pdf format is attached to this release and also available at https://www.spkeskuspankki.fi/.

Additional information:

Kirsi Autiosalo, Managing Director

Central Bank of Savings Banks Finland Plc

+358 50 4200 867

kirsi.autiosalo@saastopankki.fi

Central Bank of Savings Banks Finland Plc belongs to the Savings Banks Amalgamation and Savings Banks Group and acts as Group's central credit institution. Central Bank of Savings Banks Finland Plc's role is to ensure liquidity and wholesale funding of the Savings Banks Group via operating in the money and capital markets, to operate payment transfers and issuance of payment cards.English French

MONTREAL, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Delmar International Inc. (www.delmar.ca), a Canadian owned global logistics leader, announces the purchase of a majority stake in Cobrac Brazil.



This acquisition strengthens the company's South American presence under the newly branded Delmar International Logistica S.A, headquartered in Sao Paulo and servicing all of Brazil.

Delmars continuous strategy for rigorous expansion is aimed at strengthening the companys global footprint and product portfolio to accommodate its customers' growing need for global end-to-end solution with a heavy focus on e-commerce.

We are extremely pleased to expand our footprint in the worlds most populous South American country, stated Robert H Cutler, CEO of the Delmar Group. Cobrac has a robust track record in the region and our newest Managing Director and Partner, Mr. Wagner Brito, will be a great addition to the Delmar family."

Mr. Brito, who started the Brazilian company in 1978, will stay on with Delmar International Logistica S.A. as Managing Director. Over the last four decades, Mr. Brito established a reputation for excellence and built a robust client base with a pedigree in 3PL and global supply chain management.

When asked about the merger, Mr. Brito stated: "I was searching for strong new partners and to me Delmar was truly unique - these guys look at everything from every angle and heavily embrace and invest in technology. Delmar cultivates young dynamic talent more quickly than any other logistics company I have ever seen and their global network will undoubtedly facilitate our growth quickly and safely, allowing us to expand many of our commercial agreements throughout South & Central America. I am very excited for myself, my son Vitor and the entire Cobrac team to be joining the Delmar family.

Paul Cutler, Executive Vice-President of the Delmar Group expanded on the strategic decision: "Just three years ago the Delmar Group opened a new joint venture (JV) in Mexico City and today we are Mexicos largest freight forwarder in sea exports - with more charters and containers shipped than our largest competitors. Our goal is to have a similar impact in Brazil and to continue our expansion into other Latin American countries using the same successful and strategic model.

It is a very interesting time for Delmar, added Chief Operating Officer Michael Wagen. "We continue to grow geographically and vertically. Most recently in asset-light based verticals and by investing in third party technologies with strategic synergy. Our industry is ever changing - one of our strengths is our ability to identify market disruptors proactively and to engage and embrace them using Delmar creativity and innovation."

About Delmar International Inc.

Established in 1965 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Delmar International Inc. (www.delmarcargo.com) has evolved into a global player and industry leader, offering customs brokerage, freight forwarding warehousing, distribution, and supply chain management solutions to thousands of clients worldwide. Delmar has strategically positioned facilities at almost every major gateway in North America and its diverse client base features some of the most well-known brands and companies in business today. Diversification of its service offerings and vigorous expansion, including many acquisitions, has led to significant growth for the Delmar Group in recent years. Today, they operate 16 companies globally and employ roughly 1,500 people in 50 cities. Delmar International Inc.'s corporate headquarters are located in Lachine, Quebec, Canada.

Contacts:

Robert H. Cutler, CEO

The Delmar Group

514-636-8800

ceo@delmar.ca



or

Mathieu Darche, VP Sales & Marketing,

Delmar International Inc. (Canada)

514-636-8800

darchem@delmar.caFewer Resources

Cutting Voting Lines

Closing the Gap

On the day of Arizonas 2016 presidential primary, the line outside the Maryvale Church of the Nazarene, the Maricopa County polling place for 213,000 mostly Latino, low-income people, extended through the parking lot, down busy North 51st Avenue, and into a neighborhood lined with palm and eucalyptus trees on the western edge of Phoenix.Some voters waited for four hours or more in the 80-degree heat to cast their ballots, according to Martin Quezada, a Democrat who represents the area in the Arizona Senate. Quezada said the long wait time was more than an inconvenience.Latino voters dont trust the system, Quezada said. If they dont have a good experience on Election Day when they are casting their ballot, their likelihood of participating in a system they dont trust again in the future becomes that much harder.Across the country, elections officials are marshaling data on registered voters, historic turnout, parking spaces and other information to reduce wait times at polling places. Also helping to decrease wait times is voting by mail, which is available in 22 states, and early voting, which is now offered in 37 states  though a couple of states have rolled back their early voting.But white voters are benefiting far more from such innovations than Hispanic or black voters are. As the nation gears up for what is shaping up to be a high-energy midterm election this November, the disparity is likely to loom large.In the 2016 presidential election, black voters, on average, waited 16 minutes to vote, while Latino voters waited 13 minutes, according to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology survey of voters. In the same election, white voters waited 10 minutes. In 2012, black and Latino voters stood in line for more than 20 minutes to cast their ballot, nearly twice as long as white voters.Stephen Pettigrew, a political scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, has found if there are two neighborhoods in the same city, and one is majority-white and the other has more blacks and Hispanics, voters in the white neighborhood have a shorter wait.Voting rights advocates call the disparity a time tax. They argue that it violates the fundamental right to vote  and that it is often intentional.We are in a state of threat to voting rights, said Denise Lieberman, co-director of the Power and Democracy program at the Washington, D.C.-based Advancement Project, a civil rights organization. Some actions, like changing polling places, may seem benign on its face, but they are creating havoc.In poorer counties and cities, long lines may stem from a lack of resources. But even in wealthier counties, minority communities tend to get fewer polling places, voting machines and poll workers than white neighborhoods in the same county, according to a 2014 study from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York Universitys School of Law. Minority precincts have tended to get the short end of the resource allocation stick, the study concluded.Lieberman argues that in many counties, election officials are less inclined to provide minority communities with the resources that can shorten lines.Its one of many policies that are creating a climate of discrimination, Lieberman said, in the same vein as restrictive voter ID laws, the slashing of early voting in states like Florida and North Carolina, and the consolidation of polling places, all of which adversely affect communities of color. Local officials and state lawmakers are trying to suppress the minority vote, Lieberman said.None of this is a coincidence, Lieberman said. The folks who pass these laws know their impact.  Communities of color bear the brunt of a lack of legal protection.In North Carolina, a federal court agreed in 2016, saying many of the states restrictive voting laws, including strict voter ID requirements and a rollback of early voting, target African-Americans with almost surgical precision. North Carolina lawmakers said the laws were passed to protect state elections against fraud and to save counties money.Local election officials know how to keep voting lines short, which makes this time gap so frustrating for voting scholars such as Charles Stewart III, the director of MITs Voting Technology Project.U.S. voters wait time shrank to 11 minutes in the 2016 presidential election, down from 14 minutes in 2012, according to MITs quadrennial survey. Further, the survey found, fewer voters waited more than an hour to cast their ballot than in the previous election. County officials should be using best-practice tools to decrease wait times in all precincts regardless of their racial makeup, Stewart said.Many of those tools were implemented after the 2012 presidential election, where hellish voting lines in states such as Florida made national news. (On average, according to MITs survey, it took Florida voters 46 minutes to cast their ballots that year.) President Barack Obama took notice, and in 2013 he appointed a bipartisan commission, led by the chief lawyers from his campaign and Republican nominee Mitt Romneys campaign, to solve the issues that plagued the countrys electoral system.One of the commissions primary recommendations was to use data, such as voter registration numbers and parking availability near polling places, to better manage polling places, which would in turn decrease the size of lines. The commissions goal was to make sure no American ever waits more than a half-hour to vote.Tammy Patrick, a senior adviser at the nonprofit Democracy Fund and a member of the commission, said that because election officials are following its recommendations, the preponderance of lines is going down.Stewart, for his part, launched an online toolkit, which he said is now used by a quarter of the countrys local election officials to help them deploy enough poll booths, poll workers and ballot scanners to handle Election Day voting.If youre not gathering that data, Stewart said, youre running blind.Michael Scarpello, the registrar of voters in San Bernardino County, California, has embraced that lesson.To serve the largest geographic county in the contiguous 48 states, Scarpello and his analytics department take a large swath of data  registered voters, historic turnout, parking spaces, voter behavior, capacity of polling places  to assign poll workers, distribute supplies and assign voters to specific polling locations, freeing up busy locations and utilizing underused places. Using this data, Scarpello is able to update polling place capacity by the hour in a county of nearly 900,000 registered voters.If there are lines, they are short, Scarpello said. At most, voters wait five minutes.The countys immediate response to Election Day voter behavior lowers the length of lines, the cost of elections, and the time it takes to count ballots. Between 2008 and 2016, the county cut its ballot-counting time nearly in half, from 16 hours to nine, Scarpello said.Our job is to make voting as convenient as possible for voters, Scarpello said. If voters are motivated, we dont want to put any barriers in their way.Voting lines in Orange County, California, never surpass nine minutes, said Neal Kelley, the countys registrar of voters. Thats significant because the county is the fifth-largest voting jurisdiction in the country and because a third of the electorate is Latino.There is no difference in wait times between Orange Countys majority-white Newport Beach and majority-Latino Santa Ana, Kelley said. Countywide, the average wait time for voters dropped drastically in recent years after Kelley began using sophisticated data techniques to change how they allocate the countys 11,000 voting booths and 9,000 poll workers among 1,300 polling places.As the county prepares for a potentially competitive congressional election for 15-term Republican U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabachers seat this November, Kelley said hes relying on data from 2010, the last hotly contested midterm election, to estimate turnout for this one.Kelley said he will monitor precincts closely on Election Day. One booth could make all the difference in the world.In Maricopa County, where Quezada and his neighbors waited so long to vote in 2016, the official in charge of that election has paid a price.Helen Purcell, then Maricopa Countys recorder since 1989, had reduced the number of polling places for the 2016 primary, recommending 60 polling places in the fourth-largest county in the United States, down from 200 in 2012.In the aftermath of the election, The Arizona Republic found that low-income, Latino neighborhoods bore the brunt of the decrease. Purcell, a Republican, denied that race was a motivating factor, but she faced widespread criticism and lost her reelection bid to Democrat Adrian Fontes, who became the first Latino elected as Maricopa County recorder.After he won, Fontes promised that actions that might limit the Latino vote in future elections will be very vigilantly avoided.Amanda Renteria, a top aide to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, is stepping down from her post at the California attorney general's office to run for governor, according to Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra."I wish her a great deal of luck. I obviously because I knew she was pretty capable," Becerra told The Times on Wednesday.Renteria filed a statement of intent to run for governor with the California secretary of state's office. Attempts to reach her were unsuccessful.The timing and seemingly hasty rollout of Renteria's bid -- without a statement by the candidate, a campaign website or any apparent staff -- befuddled political observers in the state."I just don't get it," said Rose Kapolczynski, a Democratic strategist and top advisor to former Sen. Barbara Boxer. "You can't enter the governor's race in a state the size of California four months before the election and expect to win, unless she has a secret bank account with $100 million in it."Renteria joins a race to replace termed-out Gov. Jerry Brown that has been underway for three years. The Central Valley native, who is best known in California and national political circles, will face challenges as a latecomer to the campaign.Renteria, 43, is not a familiar face to the state's voters, something that could be overcome if she's able to raise significant sums of money. But many donors have already committed to a candidate. The top three Democrats in the race have been campaigning, lining up endorsements and raising money for more than a year and have millions of dollars in the bank. Renteria also missed the deadline to seek the endorsement of the state Democratic Party, or to speak at its convention next week, according to party Chairman Eric Bauman.It's unclear who will work on Renteria's bid -- many of the strategists who helped with her unsuccessful 2014 congressional run are working for other campaigns.She does have ties to prominent donors and politicians -- during that run, President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden spoke at fundraisers for Renteria, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) hosted another fundraiser for her.Renteria was defeated in that race by incumbent Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford), who painted her as a carpetbagger. He won 58% to 42%.Dean Florez, a former state Senate majority leader from Shafter who advised Renteria on her congressional bid, labeled her a "spoiler" on Twitter after seeing the news about her run for governor."Completely saddened by this development. If you are running for Governor, announce 6 months ago, attend the debates, hold a press conference with your supporters & speak directly to the press #spoiler #platformIs #badpolitics," he tweeted.Florez said Renteria failed to learn from her run for Congress."I get that she completely loves politics, but her issue then and her issue now is kind of dropping in at the last moment," he said. "In the [Central] Valley she didn't get any traction because voters were trying to figure out who she was. Now, getting into a race with popular politicians in California, all executive elected officials with long track records and histories -- I'm just kind of scratching my head."After the congressional race, Renteria was Clinton's political director during the 2016 presidential campaign. Since then, she has served as Becerra's chief of operations. Becerra did not say when she was stepping down from the post.If Renteria is able to mount a strong campaign that draws support from her native Central Valley and among Latino voters, that would create a challenge for former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is counting on the two groups in his gubernatorial bid. Recent polling shows the gap between Villaraigosa and front-runner Gavin Newsom has narrowed.When asked if Renteria could cut into Villaraigosa's base, Becerra sidestepped the question."I think it's still very early in the race," said the attorney general, who has not endorsed anyone in the race.Villaraigosa's campaign declined to comment, though an ally questioned the timing of Renteria's decision."This late in the race it seems very difficult to mount a new serious campaign for governor," said Bill Burton, a former Obama administration official who is advising a super PAC backing Villaraigosa's campaign.Florez argued that Renteria's bid could pose a greater challenge for former state schools chief Delaine Eastin, the lone woman running among the top Democrats in the race. Eastin's campaign coincides with increasingly vocal calls for more women in elected office and with allegations of sexual misconduct brought forward by women in Sacramento. But Eastin has not been able to seize on that momentum, and she lags in the polls and in fundraising.According to the state filing, Renteria agreed to voluntary spending limits, which means she can spend no more than $8,753,000 in the primary election and $14,588,000 in the general election. Of the Democratic gubernatorial candidates, Eastin has also agreed to such limits, while Villaraigosa, state Treasurer John Chiang and Newsom have not. Republicans John Cox and Assemblyman Travis Allen of Huntington Beach also have accepted voluntary limits on their spending.Richard Cordray's quest for the Democratic nomination for governor continued to gather momentum Wednesday, with former state Rep. Connie Pillich leaving the race as expected and throwing her support to her former rival.She joined Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley in leaving the race and endorsing Cordray. In addition, former U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton shut down her run for governor to join Cordray's ticket.Pillich, of suburban Cincinnati, had been in the campaign for months longer than Cordray, but she concluded that Cordray had in a short amount of time put together a campaign that had a good chance of winning in November."This has never been about me," Pillich said after making her announcement at Cordray headquarters in Columbus.Cordray, of Grove City, still faces Ohio Sen. Joe Schiavoni, D-Boardman, former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Bill O'Neill of Chagrin Falls, former U.S. Rep. and Cleveland Mayor Dennis Kucinich and Cleveland physician Jon Heavey in the May 8 primary.But Pillich's exit means that Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, a Republican, is the only major-party woman left in the governor's race. Cordray said, however, that the Ohio Republican Party's overwhelming endorsement of Attorney General Mike DeWine and Secretary of State Jon Husted -- plus its endorsements in down-ballot races -- shows where the party's preference lies."It looks like the Ohio Republican Party as an organized matter intends to put a ticket in front of the voters that includes all white males," Cordray said. "They have endorsed against the two women who were running for office on their side and I think that speaks for itself."Cordray said that Sutton and other women would play an important role in his administration.Pillich and her running mate, Marion Mayor Scott Schertzer, said they would campaign for the Cordray/Sutton ticket, but Pillich said she hadn't discussed any role in a possible Cordray administration.An appeals court Wednesday upheld most of a federal district judge's historic ruling that changed Harris County's bail practices, agreeing the previous bail system was unconstitutional and unfair to low-level indigent defendants.The circuit court, however, ordered her to reconsider her ruling on several matters and revise an injunction it found overly broad.The opinion by the three-judge panel affirmed the Houston lower court's conclusion in April that the county's bail process did not protect poor detainees from bail being imposed as "an instrument of oppression."The appeals court concluded that indigent people in Harris County "sustain an absolute deprivation of their most basic liberty interests -- freedom from incarceration."The ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes after the county mounted a $5.2 million challenge to a 2016 class action lawsuit brought by indigent defendants, whose lawyers argued their clients ended up in "wealth-based detention," often entering guilty pleas to get out of jail, while those with money could post cash bail and resume their lives pending trial."It's a huge deal that the 5th Circuit, one of the most conservative courts which is often the ultimate decider for this region, supports the finding of the district court," said state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, an longtime proponent of bail reform. "I just plead with Harris County officials to quit wasting taxpayer money fighting the district court and just do what's right."The 26-page opinion by Judge Edith Brown Clement affirms the majority of Chief U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal's landmark ruling, including her finding that the county's bail policies violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution.However, Clement and fellow judges Edward C. Prado and Catarina Haynes disagreed with Rosenthal's analysis on three matters and sent the case back for her to reconsider those elements.They concluded Rosenthal was overly broad in her analysis of the due process violation and in extending no-cash bail to all indigent defendants. They found her demand that qualified defendants be released within 24 hours was "too onerous," opting instead for a 48-hour window.They also ordered Rosenthal to fine tune how officials assess a defendant's ability to pay bond.County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, a supporter of the lawsuit who traveled to New Orleans to hear the oral arguments in the case, called it "a significant victory for justice.""With this decision, the conservative 5th Circuit is telling Harris County that it's unconstitutional to have two justice systems: one for the rich and one for the poor," Ellis said. "Yet Harris County has already spent more than $5 million defending a morally and legally indefensible bail system that violates the Constitution and punishes people simply because they are poor."The former state senator said the court's finding provided a strong argument that Harris County should promptly settle the lawsuit and enact meaningful reforms.Robert Soard, first assistant to Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan, said the ruling affirmed the county's concerns that Rosenthal's order diminished public safety and let judicial officers determine the terms and conditions of release of misdemeanor defendants."Now, instead of immediate release after 24 hours without regard for risk to the community, (misdemeanor judges) retain discretion regarding release provided a hearing for the defendant occurs within 48 hours after arrest," Soard said.The county is working to improve its criminal justice system and reach a settlement that maximizes the number of misdemeanor detainees eligible for release from jail without posting cash bail, but also ensures the rights of victims, community safety and the independence of the judiciary, he said.Tom Berg, first assistant at the Harris County District Attorney's Office, said the office is "substantially in agreement with everything the appeals court said in support of bail reform as we envision it for Harris County.""It favorably resolves some concerns we had about implementation of the original order and we look forward to assisting the parties in making the additional refinements suggested by the court," Berg said. "We hold out hope that with this additional decision, the parties can finally reach resolution in this prolonged and costly case."Alec Karakatsanis, an attorney with Civil Rights Corps, one of two justice reform groups that brought the lawsuit along with a Houston law firm, said the court's finding is a victory for the indigent defendants who sued the county after being held for days because they couldn't afford bail.The suit was filed by Maranda ODonnell, a single mother who spent two days in jail because she couldn't post $2,500 bail after being arrested for driving with an invalid license."The 5th Circuit has strongly reaffirmed the central point of this case: Harris County's cash bail system is unconstitutional," Karakatsanis said. "We are reading the opinion and will evaluate the next steps for helping Harris County craft a system that does not violate the Constitution and devastate tens of thousands of human beings and their families every year."Attorney Neal Manne, whose firm, Susman Godfrey, joined in filing the lawsuit, praised the decision."I am absolutely thrilled by the ruling, which is a huge and historic victory for our clients," he said.The appeals judges found that the county had acted mechanically in reviewing bond decisions, failing to take the time to consider economic factors. The ruling summarized Rosenthal's equal protection findings by imagining the outcomes for two hypothetical misdemeanor defendants, identical in every way -- facing the same charge, from the same criminal backgrounds, living in the same circumstances -- except that one was wealthy and the other indigent.While the wealthy arrestee was less likely to plead guilty and get a shorter sentence or be acquitted, and less likely to pay the social costs of incarceration, it found, the poor arrestee, "must bear the brunt of all of these, simply because he has less money than his wealthy counterpart," they wrote.But the appeals court judges determined that Rosenthal erred in concluding that the county sheriff should be a defendant in the case. They found the top law enforcement official in the county should not be subject to the lawsuit because the sheriff does not have the same policy making authority as judges who are defendants in the case.Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, who took office after the lawsuit was filed and formally supported the indigent defendants' claims, said he was glad to be dismissed as a defendant."I am encouraged by today's ruling ... upholding the trial court's finding that Harris County's old bail system is in need of change," Gonzalez said. "I am committed to continuing to work with all involved parties to ensure that Harris County's criminal justice system honors the rights of all defendants who have yet to be convicted of a crime, while also keeping all residents safe."Another defendant in the suit, Criminal Court at Law Judge Darrell Jordan, who also supported the indigent defendants and also traveled to New Orleans to watch arguments in the October hearing, said it is time for the county to move forward."The most conservative court in America has found the discriminatory bail bond practices of Harris County to be unconstitutional," the judge said. "I'm calling for funding to be cut from these lawyers and this case to be settled immediately. Let's not go down in history as the county that fought for discrimination in 2018."The Governors Official Program is comprised of a wide range of constitutional and legal duties and ceremonial and community engagements. Each year, the Governor hosts thousands of visitors to Government House to take part in investiture and award ceremonies, Open Days, receptions and meetings, and travels widely throughout Queensland to support the activities of Patron groups. View a chronological record of the Governors daily program below.

On Wednesday, in the morning, at Wacol Military Barracks in Richlands, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC and Mrs Kaye de Jersey laid a wreath at the National Servicemen's Remembrance Day Ceremony and the Governor addressed those assembled.

In the afternoon, at Parliament House, the Governor and Mrs de Jersey attended the opening of the 56th Parliament of Queensland, where the Governor received the Royal Salute from the 8th/9th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, Brisbanes Own and a 19-gun salute, reviewed the Royal Guard of Honour, the Australian Army Band Brisbane and the Queensland Police Service Mounted Unit, before delivering the Governors speech for the opening of the first session of the 56th Parliament.Description

GIS  15 February, 2018: The State Bank of Mauritius (SBM) and the Mauritius Housing Company (MHC) Ltd donated Rs 1 Million each to the Prime Ministers Cyclone Relief Fund. The fund aims at providing assistance to the victims affected by recent cyclone Berguitta.

In this context, the Chairman of SBM Holdings Ltd, Mr Kee Chong Li Kwong Wing, and the Chairman of the MHC Ltd, Mr Deepak Balgobin, as well as other representatives of the companies, met the Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, on Wednesday 14 February 2018 at the New Treasury Building, Port Louis, to present the cheques.

In a statement, Mr Balgobin underlined that as a responsible company, the MHC is contributing to help the Government in its mission of assisting those afflicted by the natural calamity. He emphasised that the money could also help in repairing infrastructures damaged by flooding.Government websites are not like other websites. Except for a very small group, most people visiting a citys website are there for a very specific purpose. So how, then, does a city build a website to serve those specific purposes?Thats the central question behind Granicus acquiring the website-building company Vision Internet in a deal announced Feb. 14.The move brings visionLive, a cloud-based content management solution (CMS) built with the public sector in mind, into a growing suite of functionality under the Granicus umbrella. The company already offered federal, state and local governments the ability to send messages to constituents through multiple channels, to livestream meetings and manage agendas, to manage record-keeping duties, and more.The Vision acquisition effectively creates a path toward connecting those things together through websites. Mark Hynes, Granicus CEO, pointed specifically to the companys existing database of more than 150 million users subscribed to customer messaging channels. From that database, Granicus already knows what its end users interests are.When websites are released, we have the ability to reach them and tell them about what they care about, Hynes said.Theres a lot of overlap between the two companies customer bases. Granicus has about 3,000 customers while Vision has about 800; some 300 already use both.The type of customers we both target and serve are very similar, he said.Vision does more than just CMS  the company provides primary and backup hosting, designs desktop and mobile versions of the website front ends, works in cybersecurity measures, and offers digital service integration. It also does a lot of user experience work.When building websites, Vision likes to gather input from government stakeholders, survey citizens about what they want and collect data on how people have been using the current website. A user experience team brings all that information together and gives recommendations to guide the design process.That ties back to Visions thesis that the bulk of government website visitors are there for a specific purpose, according to the companys CEO David Nachman. It also helps avoid bringing too many cooks into the kitchen.If you find yourself in a position where you dont have good data, a lot of times what you end up with is a website thats a series of compromises, Nachman said.The company also has a customer working group where it brings together clients to discuss functionality it wants to add to its platform, gather feedback, rapidly prototype, user-test and then iteratively improve the new features before it rolls them out.The move is the latest in a string of big deals for Granicus since late 2016. Thats when Vista Equity Partners acquired Granicus and GovDelivery and quickly merged them together . Soon after, Granicus brought in Hynes as CEO and then acquired the legislation management firm Novusolutions.There are almost certainly more deals on the horizon for Granicus as Vista looks to grow the companys value and ultimately exit the investment. For Hynes part, he said the company is still marching down the path of seamless, end-to-end citizen engagement as state and local governments look more and more toward the cloud.Were seeing that trend grow in momentum and we want to be the leading vendor that delivers  on that digital promise, Hynes said.None of the parties involved have announced the price tag on the deal.Search All categories Advertising General Aerospace General Agriculture General Airlines General America - Post 9/11 General Apparel General Apple Products General Architectural General Architecture Architecture Art & Entertainments Books Celebrities Country Music Dance Magazines Movies Museums Music Music Downloads News & Talk Shows Performing Arts Photography Television Web Sites Arts/Culture General Auction General Automotive Aftermarket Classic Autos Consumer Publications General Motorcycle & Bike Racing Recreational Vehicle Repair & Service Trade Publications Blogging & Social Media Blogging & Social Media 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Telecommunications Webmasters Telecom General Wireless Television General Tobacco General Trade General Transportation General Travel General Utilities General Volunteer Volunteer Weather WeatherConnecticut Chief Data Officer Tyler Kleykamp has previously contemplated how nice it would be for state CDOs to have a professional network similar to the Civic Analytics Network, which consists of data officers at the municipal level.

In a recent medium post , Kleykamp and his peers have gone past contemplating the benefits and have begun working to establish a state CDO network, one they describe as currently a voluntary, self-organized network of state chief data officers or equivalent positions in state government.

And the effort seems to be off to a good start, as Kleykamp notes that this nascent network includes himself, as well as peers from Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Utah and Vermont. In the post, Kleykamp also lays out a set of operating principles the group has adopted.

These operating principles include purpose, benefits and objectives, voluntary membership, consensus decision-making, prohibition of vendor participation and keeping the group strictly the domain of those who serve the public. The principles include more elaborate and nuanced details about each of the five broader categories.

The network, the post notes, is currently open to proposals from other groups that would seek to partner with it in order to advance its work. A conference call for membership is slated to take place on March 2.

Leaders from 10 cities launch Mayors for Smart on Crime initiative

In the earlier post discussing the benefits of this network, Kleykamp noted that his initial inspiration came from attending the Civic Analytics Networks first Summit on Data-Smart Government in November and noting how beneficial working together had been for CDOs at the city level.Mayors from 10 cities have joined with the Center for American Progress, a progressive public policy research and advocacy group, to launch a national platform to highlight cities smart approaches to public safety.

The group has dubbed this effort Mayors for Smart on Crime , and so far it includes leaders from the following cities: New York City; Seattle; Denver; Boston; Philadelphia; Gary, Ind.; Stockton, Calif.; Baton Rouge, La.; Dayton, Ohio; and Birmingham, Ala. In a press release announcing the initiative, organizers note they expect more mayors to eventually join. One of the main goals of this program is to allow mayors to share ideas and lessons learned.

The program will center on strategies rooted in four principals, with those being fair enforcement of the law, just and proportional responses to crime, comprehensive investments, and strategies that are driven by evidence and data.

18F warns public agencies against building native mobile apps

Issue areas that the group expects to focus on range from violence reduction, to bail reform, to public health investments. An increasing number of police departments in major cities are turning to gov tech to fight crime, with one notable example being Chicago . The city, which has long struggled with gun violence, saw a 21 percent drop in shootings last year after deploying six Strategic Decision Support Centers. Essentially, Chicago used upgrades to analytics and field technology to reduce crime, which is the sort of work the Mayors for Smart on Crime program seems poised to tackle.The federal tech consultancy 18F has advised public agencies to focus on building highly-optimized, mobile-friendly websites and to leave native mobile apps by the wayside.

In a blog on its website , 18F noted this week that building products for the public requires a lot of listening and finding the right balance of value, cost and user needs to build the best product. While the group said there are times when it is appropriate to build a mobile app, a website will almost always be more cost- and time-efficient for governmental departments  especially given the amount of effort it takes to spread awareness and engage app users.

Native apps also have a huge user acquisition and engagement challenge, 18F wrote in its blog. The process of raising audience awareness, getting them to their respective app store, getting them to download and install, getting them to open the app and getting them to regularly use it is a very steep conversion hill to climb. Whereas on the mobile web, theres no installation needed.

Detroit seeks to hire director of emerging technology

Essentially, it boils down to this: the vast majority of public agencies aim to serve the most people possible. Given the usual restraints of governmental budgets, this is almost always better accomplished through investments in existing Web presences with an eye toward mobile optimization, rather than by building separate mobile apps.Detroit is seeking to hire a director of emerging technology to work under the direction of its CIO and lead its Innovation and Emerging Technology (IET) team.

The city has listed the posting online , emphasizing that the IET team manages its open data program in addition to a portfolio of open-source projects , ranging from mapping tools to text and voice applications. Our work aims to simplify internal workflows, make data more accessible to residents and help our city government be more responsive and connected.

Those interested in applying are asked to email a resume and a statement of interest to DoITFuture@detroitmi.govPhase I: Solicitation

II. Scoping

III. Execution

The names of the offices vary: Office of Innovation, Department of Performance and Accountability, Office of the Chief Technology Officer. But these citywide teams have plenty in common. Made up of data scientists, technologists, and engineers, the departments tasked with pioneering interventions in data analysis, predictive analytics, and other initiatives that fall under the innovation umbrella of smart cities are new, lean, and very, very busy.As cities across the country have embraced the power of data analytics to optimize services and anticipate emerging problems, governments have recognized the need to invest in teams with the expertise to deliver the technically demanding projects. According to a group of chief data officers and other leading technical advisors from cities across the U.S. gathered at the Summit on Data-Smart Government, the greatest challenges, however, are rarely technical. With a small staff and a limited budget, the most significant challenges for these variously named offices are prioritizing, scoping, and managing projects in collaboration with other departments. Leaders from Chicago, New Orleans, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle shared their best practices for engaging with departments.Oliver Wise, former Director of Performance and Accountability for the City of New Orleans, articulated a somewhat counter-intuitive approach to soliciting potential data analytics projects from other departments: solicit more projects than you can deliver.Without overpromising completion of any, broad project solicitation puts the power of prioritization into the hands of Wises team, enabling them to select the projects that are feasible, impactful, and strengthen relationships between departments or with key external stakeholders. With a lean and adaptive team, Wises office prioritizes projects with the most spillover effect, meaning that they generate outcomes that extend beyond the confines of the project itself  be it political will, technical capacity, or interdepartmental relationships.According to Wise, identifying the key data science ambassadors is also paramount. For Joy Bonaguro, Chief Data Officer of San Francisco, that begins by articulating the teams story or value add early on, and sharing examples of successful projects that launched other departments to new heights in service delivery and constituent satisfaction. Across the board, the team leads emphasized the importance of building trust with departments. Wise articulated his teams role as innovation matchmakers, who recruit internal ambassadors by curating projects that carefully manage resources and offer critical impact in areas of need  key for exponential growth with minimal resources. Seattles strategic advisor Richard Todd noted that investing in trust-building with internal champions of data analytics projects builds the foundation for cross-agency collaboration  a notoriously tricky deliverable due to often conflicting timelines and priorities. Successful projects depend on more than a single evangelist, however, and more upon a department that exhibits genuine willingness to change its practices and means of service delivery.While acknowledging the necessity of using data science as a buzzword to get internal stakeholders interested in solving problems, San Diegos Chief Data Officer Maksim Pecherskiy discouraged falling into the trap of thinking that every analytics project has to be huge. Solving for specific problems can demonstrate value to hesitant departments without stretching the teams resources or risking overpromising. Starting small, in other words, can have a big impact  in terms of both future collaboration and strategic problem-solving.The wide range of processes implemented by various city innovation teams illustrates that scoping is a spectrum. It also takes time. Whereas smaller cities engage in more informal exploration across departments, assessing the potential impact of each project and the data readiness of each department, others employ more structured scoping processes.San Francisco, for example, employs a formal application process involving collaborative scoping. Departments have to make their own case for the scope of desired projects, with Bonaguros team providing feedback as the selection process narrows. Smaller cities like New Orleans and South Bend employ a more informal and collaborative process, working with strong ambassadors from departments to understand the problem theyre trying to solve, and designing the most feasible intervention. Key to identifying and scoping projects, particularly among lean teams, is the issue of scale, with data leaders constantly looking to how a particular project might be replicated for other departments or in a different issue area.In both solicitation and scoping, the buy-in of executives is key, even if they are not involved in the more detailed negotiations. Without the support from leadership, departments are less likely to take risks and consider more experimental solutions.The CDOs also warned of the temptation of overpromising, at both the mayoral and department level, since initial analysis and iteration can shift the trajectory of a project in both scoping and execution phases. Managing relationships and expectations is paramount, even with mayors who are highly supportive of data-driven solutions. Several in the group had experienced a zealous city leader brandishing a new technology, driven by good intentions but more awed by technical functionality than value for a particular use case. A foundation of trust and proven results enabled CDOs to push back, redirect, or engage in deeper inquiry around the key problems behind the desire to employ a novel technology.The most effective strategy for avoiding surprises in project execution, Bonaguro noted, is normalizing feedback loops, which demands a culture of continuous and open communication  and the processes or structures necessary to reinforce it. Going into the mysterious data cave, admonished Bonaguro, is never advisable. Rather, teams should communicate their findings, decision-making, and strategies at every major juncture of a project in order to both educate and engage other departments.In contrast to teams in New Orleans, San Diego and Chicago, which operate under a more traditional client/consultant relationship in scoping and implementing discrete projects, San Francisco uses a cohort model among departments. In addition to cultivating a sense of collective ownership and creating the container for interdepartmental relationship-building, this framework realizes the efficiencies of standardized timelines for project assessment and, when necessary, redirection.San Francisco operates as a data literacy academy in project execution, in effect training data-smart leaders across departments. Even after scoping and strategy are set in place, ongoing user research and iteration were universal themes in ensuring the maximal impact of projects, and must be included in the scope and budget of each project. Of necessity, too, noted Bonaguro, are off-ramps when projects have derailed beyond the limits of feasibility or failed to deliver value to constituents.When youre as busy as these teams are, regardless of city size or the nature of the given project, your greatest asset is knowing when to jump in  and when to take a step back.(TNS) - An American nightmare unfolded Wednesday afternoon at a North Broward high school when a former student came onto campus and opened fire, killing and injuring multiple people.Details remain cloudy amid a flurry of police activity at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland off the Sawgrass Expressway. Students, who heard a fire alarm go off just before dismissal, followed by guns shots, fled off campus and hid under desks as police sped to the scene. Parents, blocked from getting onto campus, stood by helpless.The Broward Sheriffs Office is reporting at least 14 victims.The shooter, a former student identified by law enforcement sources as Nicolas de Jesus Cruz, managed to make it off campus. He was cornered and taken into custody in a townhouse at Pelican Pointe at Wyndham Lakes in Coral Springs.Robert Runcie, superintendent of Broward Schools, is reporting numerous fatalities in the terrifying attack, the latest in Americas troubled history with guns. Many victims have been transported to Broward Health North, as has Cruz. Four others have been taken to Broward Medical Center.Its a day that you pray every day when you get up that you will never have to see. It is in front of us. I ask the community for prayers and their support for the children and their families, Runcie, appearing at a media staging area near the school, told WSVN Channel 7. We received no warning  Potentially there could have been signs out there. But we didnt have any warning or phone calls or threats that were made.A teacher at the school, however, told The Miami Herald that Cruz, 19, had been identified as a potential threat to fellow students in the past. Gard says he believes the school administration had sent out an email warning teachers that the student had made threats against others in the past and that he should not be allowed on the campus with a backpack. Another student interviewed on the scene by Channel 7 said the student had guns at home.We were told last year that he wasnt allowed on campus with a backpack on him, said math teacher Jim Gard, who said the former student suspected in the shootings had been in his class last year. There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.A Broward schools spokesperson could not confirm any information about the shooter, and said Runcie was currently meeting with the Broward Sheriffs Office.The shooting began just before dismissal, after someone pulled the fire alarm. Students and teachers were puzzled because the school had already held a fire drill that day.Then a code red, school lingo for a lockdown, was read over the loud speaker.Six kids ran back into my room, and I locked the door, turned out the lights and had the kids go to the back of the room, Gard said. I told the kids to hang in there, it may still be a drill.On the first floor, freshman Geovanni Vilsant, 15, said he was in a Spanish classroom when a fire alarm went off, urging all the students out of their classrooms. Then, two minutes later, gun shots rang out enveloping the three-floor building in explosions.Geovanni Vilsant said he saw three bloody bodies on the floor as he was fleeing the school.There was blood everywhere, he said. They werent moving.His older brother, who jumped a fence and sought refuge in a nearby neighborhood, ran back around to try to find his brother.I had to go back for him, Bradley Vilsant said from a nearby Wal-Mart where the brothers fled with about 100 other students.Most of the students remained calm. One high school senior elsewhere at the school told The Miami Herald that there were SWAT teams everywhere with big guns, cops everywhere, helicopters. She said parents trying to reach their children have been unable to make it to the school because the streets are closed off.But by 2:40, Gard says, they knew it wasnt a drill. Elsewhere, bullets flew. Miami Herald news partner CBS-WFOR, citing law enforcement sources, is reporting that as many as seven have been killed. Margates Fire Chief, whose department responded immediately to the scene, told The Miami Herald that more than 20 were injured.Initially, the Coral Springs Police Department urged teachers and students to remain barricaded inside until police reach them. Students posted pictures to social media taken from under their desks.Police, who flooded the school, began clearing buildings one at a time. Students streamed out in a line with their hands up. Others frantically ran, book bags strapped to their backs. The evacuation started under the direction of police officers, and the students were guided to nearby parking lots by officers as well.Police have remained tight with information. Law enforcement and the districts Special Investigative Unit are on site, as is the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Federal authorities said they dont believe the high school shootings are related to terrorism.The FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force, consisting of local, state and federal agents, sent a squad to the school to assist the Broward Sheriffs Office and other law enforcement.My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting, President Donald Trump tweeted. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.Worried parents trying to find their children stood by helpless. Authorities have designated pick up for students at North Heron Bay Marriott, South at Betty Stradling Park. Many students were being cleared by police and teachers by a Walmart near the school.Parents stood about a mile away as police blocked them from getting closer to their children. Many spoke on their cellphones trying to calm their children down.Denise Perez paced as she spoke to her daughter Marsiel Baluja. Her daughter told her that she was sitting between Publix and Wal-Mart with a bunch of other students. They were surrounded by armed marshals.Just stay calm, baby, she said.Perez just wanted to get closer to her daughter.This is really hard, she said as she cried.Victoria Olvera, 17, a junior, was able to walk out after getting clearance by police officers. She said she was in history when she heard shots.Everyone started running, she said.(Miami Herald reporters Douglas Hanks, Alex Harris, Chabeli Herrera, Nicholas Nehamas, Charles Rabin, Carli Teproff, Martin Vassolo and Jay Weaver contributed to this report. Washington correspondent Alex Daugherty contributed as well.)2018 Miami HeraldVisit Miami Herald at www.miamiherald.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.(TNS)  Transportation-related workplace injuries might be slashed over time as autonomous vehicles become more common, state leaders said at a workshop in Springfield on Tuesday.But the changing technology also means industries like insurance and transportation companies are rethinking what their futures might look like, said Kendra DePaul, state coverage manager for the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation. Transportation-related injuries are a leading cause of workplace deaths, she said.More than 4,800 fatalities occurred in the workplace in 2015 nationwide and about 5,200 fatalities in 2016, she said. Of those, she said about 40 percent were transportation-related. Nationally more than 37,460 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2016, according to information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.Its really evident what sort of safety improvements are on the horizon, DePaul said, addressing a crowd at the Safety Council of Springfield and Clark County, sponsored by the Chamber of Greater Springfield.Fully autonomous vehicles are likely more than a decade away, DePaul said. But some safety features in newer vehicles, including lane-keeping assistance and adaptive cruise control, show what direction the industry might take moving forward, she said.Six levels of automation exist, from zero autonomy to level five, in which humans are just passengers and never need to drive, according to the traffic safety administration. Most of the technology available now is considered level one, in which drivers control the vehicle but the cars include some features to assist the driver.Hondas newest Accord model, which is assembled in Marysville, includes the Honda Sensing technology that provides safety features like lane departure warnings, adaptive cruise control and traffic sign recognition that allows the car to detect and read road signs like speed limits.As the technology continues to improve, DePaul said insurance, trucking and other industries are trying to think ahead to determine how their business is changing. One example, she said, is determining liability in case of a crash. Insurance companies might need to determine whether a vehicles owner or the manufacturer is responsible in case of an accident, she said.Its also possible insurance companies could offer discounts for vehicles that include specific features if theyre proven to reduce crashes, for example.Agencies like the BWC also need to think about how the new technologies might change worker health in industries like trucking, DePaul said. Its unclear what impact autonomous technology will have on the number of truck driving jobs.Its possible drivers may still be needed in a vehicle but do less of the driving. If drivers are sitting for longer stretches, she said it might lead to different injuries or health issues that arent as common now.Businesses might even have to rethink existing safety features like airbags, which are designed to protect drivers and passengers who are sitting upright in a vehicle. As people become more comfortable in a self-driving vehicle, they may move around in a car or become focused on other tasks, which could lead to injury in an accident.As people learn they dont have to drive the car, its always a question of what are they going to be doing, DePaul said.What sparked the creation of this group?

So what were some of the issues you wanted to address?

There have been other, similar pushes to intervene in the landscape in these creative, community-driven ways here but Houston is not thought of as a hotbed of tactical urbanism. Why do you think it works here?

You saw it in action with the first event, how did that go, what was the impact?

So you had the official blessing? It wasnt off the books to speak?

Is there any frustration that some of the issues the neighborhood is facing arguably stem from neglect from some of those institutions, like the concerns about crime?

Any lessons learned from the first event?

By design, some of that was temporary and disappeared the next day. Was it sad to see it go away?

Speaking of, whats next?

On January 15, a team of Near Northside residents and community leaders gathered together at the intersection of Lorraine and Elysian streets, fed up with drivers speeding through. Several years ago, a woman driving an armored van hit a young boy and his mother walking across the street there, killing the boy and knocking his mother unconscious. And conditions there were still unsafe for pedestrians and bicyclists, according to community members. So dressed in orange and yellow vests and armed with shovels, spray cans and brooms, the team of volunteers and concerned residents decided to change that with cleaned up sidewalks, more visible cross walks and a pop-up bike lane separated from car traffic.It was the work of the Houston Department of Transformation , an eight-person team of residents and community organizers tied to the Near Northside, in collaboration with other community partners. The event was the groups first but they have plans to target two other nearby intersections with similar tactical urbanism interventions and hope to inspire more efforts aimed at empowering communities to create the spaces they want across Houston.Thesat down with Houston Department of Transformation team member and longtime community organizer Shirley Ronquillo to discuss how the group came about, tactical urbanism in Houston and whats next.Avenue Community Development Corporation in the Near Northside invited eight people to a community leadership institute in Los Angeles in October of 2017. [It] was an opportunity to create a community project and [compete] for a community grant. The eight of us sat down and brainstormed to determine what are some of the problems in the Near Northside and what kind of solutions can we bring to to the table.Some of the people knew each other and some didnt.Jorge Bustamante is an engineer but he is currently working for the Greater Northside Management District. He created our logo. Susan Graham is a community leader in the Northside and a nurse. Bennie Gallardo is a PTO president. Joel Cisneros is a volunteer and leader in the community. Stella Mireles is the founder of Safe Walk Home and Cynthia Reyes-Revilla is a resident of the Near Northside but shes also the community coordinator for Avenue CDC. And Gwyn Guidy is a community leader and part of the Lindale Park Civic Club.We identified safety concerns for pedestrians, bike safety concerns. Crime was a concern. Prostitution, drug use, homelessness were issues that were identified. Speeding.We wanted an immediate success, a small project we could undertake understanding we all had other responsibilities. We could focus on street intersections, the pedestrian safety and bike safety, [and] in doing so we would hopefully help reduce the speed in certain areas. We identified three intersections that we wanted to focus on; Elysian and Lorraine, an intersection where cars speed, children walk to school and cross that intersection every day and where a young child was run over and killed. They have a crossing guard there but the crossing guard isnt respected.Thats an area thats historically neglected by all groups. Its almost on the outskirts of the Near Northside area and there arent any businesses and its really residential but its also two blocks from the elementary school. We saw the sidewalks werent walkable, they were under grass and dirt and trash. So the other piece we added was that we wanted to clean that up.The second intersection is Hardy and Harrington, another area that is historically neglected, an area where there are a lot of accidents and theyre not always reported. There wasnt a stop sign before, now there is but people are still speeding. There was a lot of drug sales going on, crime and there was some prostitution. They dont even have the crossing lines to walk so we wanted to bring attention to some of the issues.Our third one is Fulton at Quitman, thats an intersection thats highly used. Theres a middle and high school in that area, several businesses and its a few feet from a Metro stop so theres a lot of pedestrian traffic. We felt we could make it safer for students walking home, we could help reduce car speeds and we wanted to beautify it. Other neighborhoods have colorful planters, signs or benches. We dont have any of that in the Near Northside.So the focus was on a smaller scale; how can we change the culture so people can become engaged enough to bring change to the community? We know theres a lot of issues, were calling the authorities, but they dont get attention and so they feel disenfranchised so how can we, as community leaders, engage the community? We thought these small projects would be a start.A pop-up bike lane was part of the event thanks to BikeHouston. Photo: Houston Department of Transformation.One of the workshops in the conference was on tactical urbanism. It allowed us to see how things were done differently. It gave us hope. The idea was we could bring attention and start bringing change and engage the community at the same time. We need success, we need immediate results. We dont have a budget. When we applied for the grant, we thought how can we make things happen really quickly. We realized the ideas that have worked elsewhere, we can actually do this on our own whether we got the grant or not.It works in the Near Northside because there is a desire for something better, to make it safer. I think we just needed to bring ideas that could be easily implemented. There is a lot of pedestrian traffic and bike traffic here and all these issues are things that can be addressed if we bring more attention to them.We had mothers, we had children, we had students, community leaders, community support. I think it showed us that we can start bringing change to the community, we can address issues that historically felt so big and neglected. I think people were able to see that everyones effort made a huge impact.We actually found sidewalks where there werent sidewalks for years, clearing away the dirt and grass. One of our memebers lives on that street, she was the one who helped guide us.The pop-up bike lane was in partnership with BikeHouston, they led that component. The children got to draw pictures with spray paint and make it lively. Commissioner Rodney Ellis brought out a group of riders who came out to see the lanes.Photo: Houston Department of Transformation.We pulled a city permit to do the bike lane. We partnered with the Houston Police Department, they helped us by providing traffic control. We have a great partnership with the police department, theyve been very receptive with our requests for increased safety and increased traffic control. Theyre getting someone to patrol the area a bit more even though theyre short-staffed. Everyone wants positive change for the area.The bigger picture is that the Near Northside has a lot of concerns, HPD is short-staffed and we understand that. Through our community meetings and their positive interaction meetings, we were able to voice our concerns and they shared the desire to work together with the community. They offered the partnership before we were even formed. So when we did form it was easy to say, Hey remember when you said you wanted to work with residents? Well here we are.Theres always lessons learned. The Salvation Army Harbor Light Shelter provided great volunteer support and that was fantastic because without them we couldnt have done the heavier work. We needed man power because it was a lot of trash, a lot of debris and the grass and dirt is heavy. They supported us by bringing trash bags, some of the tools we needed.Without our community partners we wouldnt have been able to do that, so we understand that importance of partnering. Asakura Robinson helped with the design. Were looking forward to partnering with other orgnazaitions and we have the support from the community. Council member Karla Cisneros offered support. The Greater Northside Management District is also a great support.The sidewalk cleanup part was the most labor intensive piece of our project and then we had another fun part. We had chalk and spray paint so we were able to draw stars in the crosswalks to bring attention. It was one of the tactics we used to slow down traffic. We wanted to encourage children to write positive messages or draw something cute so as they walk to school they would see it along their path.Photo: Houston Department of Transformation.Its not sad. It gave me hope that we can continue to do this and maybe in the long run we can create something permanent.As we grow, our goal is to become a resource to the Houston area. We want to be able to share our experience, share our tactics and best practices, which will slowly develop. That is the bigger picture. Right now were just starting. One of the lessons learned was that we do need structure. Its awesome that were a community of volunteers but we do need some kind of structure so were working on that piece and really want to define our region and mission.Its in progess but the goal is to empower the community to take action through community service projects.Even if tactical urbanism is still sort of gaining momentum in Houston, that community-led narrative is strong here, especially after Harvey, all the attention was on citizens acting.(TNS)  HARTFORD, Conn.  In this age of cyber theft and Russian hackers breaking down digital firewalls from the other side of the globe, Secretary of the State Denise Merrill wants to make it harder to steal Connecticut voter identities.Merrill this year will ask the General Assembly to scrub voter birth dates from registration records, while giving people the option of requesting that their information be kept from public scrutiny.Speaking to reporters on Wednesday in her Capitol office, Merrill said that some hackers can glean enough information to threaten peoples identities, while others can sell voter lists - available for $300 - to marketers.She said that the proposals, which she expects will be raised for public hearings in the legislative Government Administration & Elections Committee, are the result of requests for more safety from voters.But the state leader of a national voter watchdog organization is skeptical about the proposal, since the vast majority of personal data is already available elsewhere.Its really about the privacy, or openness of the voter file, said Merrill, who last summer declined to release state voter records to the controversial now-defunct Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. She said that as many as 2,500 voters emailed her to voice concerns on the potential release of their registration information.I think my concern is that when people register to vote, they should only be concerned with their voting, and which candidates they are going to choose and how they are going to vote, and they shouldnt have to worry that their personal information is being compromised, and thats what they are worried about, Merrill said.Currently, names, addresses, dates of birth and phone numbers are public information, while driver-license numbers, Social Security information and email addresses are exempt from disclosure. Under her proposal, the birth year would be listed for public consumption.Now people are aware that the voter file is another one of those databases open to the public, Merrill said. I dont think we should be purveyors of data. She also wants to limit the purposes for which the voter list can be used, prohibiting its use for commercial purposes.Thats another impetus for all this is the cybersecurity issues that are now front and center, she said. Just yesterday we had the testimony in Congress about the cybersecurity of elections and the Russian hacking and the Russian interference with elections. That was actually another reason I felt very strongly that centralizing the voter file of the entire United States in Washington, was a very bad idea.But Cheri Quickmire, executive director of Common Cause in Connecticut, the election advocacy organization, said Merrills proposals are troubling.I understand she is very concerned with voter privacy, Quickmire said of the secretary of the state. But there is the recognition that the information she is concerned about is readily accessible through the Internet. It does concern me that information that has been public heretofore might be withheld. I dont think a new law would prevent might prevent bad actors from getting access to the voter-registration data.In recent decades the General Assembly has tightened its grip on public disclosure, exemption motor vehicle data from disclosure and shielding personal information about state judges, law enforcement officials and even prison guards.(TNS)  A coalition of activists has sued the city of Los Angeles alleging officials have failed to comply with a public records request seeking information about a controversial predictive policing strategy in use for years.The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, seeks details about LAPDs Los Angeles Strategic Extraction and Restoration or LASER  program. Operation LASER tells patrol officers where crime is most likely to occur and keeps track of ex-convicts and others they believe are most likely to commit them through technology such as license plate scanners and cellphone trackers. Hailed by LAPD brass as a smart way to reduce violent crime, it uses CIA-created technology while fusing data collection and street-level intelligence with the aid of the super-fast computer platform Palantir.You have a department that has a budget over a billion dollars and over 14,000 personnel, yet they cant manage to comply with these pretty basic state statutes regarding their obligations to be transparent with the public about their programs, Colleen Flynn, one of two attorneys representing the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition in the case, said Tuesday.The lawsuit stems from a May 10, 2017, California Public Records Act request the group says never yielded the information it sought. Flynn said Operation Laser has been in use since 2011.LAPD spokesman Josh Rubenstein said Tuesday the department had no comment.According to the lawsuit, individuals are identified as Operation LASER targets through secretive, pre-determined criteria. They are not notified they have been targeted and theres no known mechanism to request removal from the system.What the activists are seeking, in part, is how the program has been implemented so far and the demographics of those who have been targeted, including race, age, ethnicity, gender and national origin, according to Jamie Garcia, an organizer of the Coalition. They also want to know what criteria the department is using to target individuals.The Coalition is also seeking the names of all databases that the computer platform, Palantir, searches through in the creation of a chronic offender bulletin, which is opened up on targeted individuals.These people are not actively committing crimes, Garcia argued. The intense amount of surveillance they are under in the community could lead to a deadly situation.Flynn noted that she represented the Coalition and the National Lawyers Guild in a lawsuit settled last year, which was filed after requests for information about LAPDs Suspicious Activity Reporting program went unheeded. The city was ultimately forced to turn over hundreds of records and ended up having to pay some $30,000 in attorney fees, she said.The Associated Press contributed to this report.The autonomous big rig completed the journey with a bare minimum of human interaction, according to Embark , the company behind the truck. The trip was broken up over five days and covered a distance of 2,400 miles. Embark s self-driving technology was only used while the truck was on the freeway, and there was a human driver present for safety reasons. The company believes that human drivers will still be necessary to get the trucks from the pickup and drop-off locations to the freeway.The company is already operating its autonomous trucks on a Texas-California freight route, transporting items like refrigerators. According to Embark, this was the first time an automated truck has driven coast to coast.(TNS)  WASHINGTON  Even as it is consumed by political fallout from Russias meddling in the 2016 election, Washington is still struggling to respond to what many officials see as an imminent national security threat: a network of voting systems alarmingly vulnerable to foreign attack.As hackers abroad plot increasingly brazen and sophisticated assaults, the United States creaky polling stations and outdated voter registration technology are not up to the task of fighting them off, according to elections officials and independent experts.Senior national security officials have repeatedly said that the U.S. should prepare for more foreign efforts to interfere with elections. On Tuesday, President Donald Trumps top intelligence adviser warned a Senate committee that Russia is moving to build on its earlier efforts to interfere with U.S. elections, which included a sustained campaign of propaganda and the unleashing of cyberoperatives.There should be no doubt that Russia perceives its past efforts as successful and views the 2018 U.S. midterm elections as a potential target, said Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence. The administrations top national security officials have all warned about the Russian threat, although Trump, himself, continues to minimize it.Elections officials are daunted by the challenge of fortifying their defenses. Many still use outdated software that has fewer security protections than a decade-old cellphone. Millions of Americans vote on easily corruptible machines that provide no paper trail  an essential component for auditors to verify that tampering did not take place, experts say.Although no evidence has surfaced to indicate that Russian hackers succeeded in directly tinkering with votes in 2016  as opposed to propaganda efforts aimed at swaying public opinion  experts warn that the U.S. cant count on that holding true next time.Are we going to be prepared to prevent something more egregious from happening? said David Salvo, a resident fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a bipartisan initiative guided by some of the nations top national security experts. Were all a little skeptical.Congress has so far balked at providing resources to upgrade voting systems, despite the urging of some of the nations most influential national security voices. Many states are too broke to take up the slack. The lumbering bureaucracies charged with inoculating elections against attack dont always talk to one another. Department of Homeland Security officials remain reluctant to share intelligence tips with the espionage neophytes on local elections boards.They will say, We may have information, but if you dont have proper clearance, we cant share it, said California Secretary of State Alex Padilla. Well, lets do something about it.I wish the federal government would realize the magnitude and scope of these threats and act on them, he said.Anxiety about the risk is shared at the highest levels of government. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently expressed doubt that the U.S. is any better prepared to deal with foreign election meddling now than it was two years ago. A bipartisan letter signed by a former Homeland Security secretary, CIA director and House Intelligence Committee chair warned that failure to help local elections boards upgrade their equipment could have catastrophic consequences.The warnings come as 500 elections officials in 41 states reported in a new survey by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School that the voting systems they use are more than a decade old. Many of them agree that the machines need replacing, but reported they dont have the money to do it.Were cannibalizing (voting) booths that no longer function to pull parts, said Neal Kelley, the Orange County, Calif., registrar of voters. Kelley said he never imagined when he took the job 14 years ago that fighting off Russian hackers would become a central part of his duties.This is absolutely top of mind for us, he said. At least Orange County, like all other jurisdictions in California, keeps a paper trail of votes that can be audited. Cybersecurity experts say paper  if audited properly  is ultimately the best defense against hackers. Roughly one in five voters in the U.S. casts a ballot with no such backup.How vulnerable our elections are to tampering is a matter of dispute. Elections officials tell a concerning story. Cybersecurity experts and white glove hackers who have probed the machines offer an even more worrisome account.When hackers were unleashed on 30 different voting systems at the DEF CON 25 conference in Las Vegas over the summer, every single one was penetrated. Some within minutes. In one case, a 16-year-old acting alone was able to hack into a machine in less than an hour. Some machines were compromised without a trace of evidence left behind.These systems are uniformly vulnerable, said Jeremy Epstein, deputy division director for computer and network systems research at the National Science Foundation. Any cybersecurity expert would come to that conclusion, he said in an interview, offering his personal view, not speaking for the agency.While Homeland Security has taken encouraging steps to confront the risk  sending teams to election districts to conduct security scans and sharing more intelligence information with the states  anyone who thinks that is enough is not looking close enough, he said.Imagine hiring someone to see how resistant your house was to burglars, and they just twisted the front doorknob to make sure it was locked, he added, offering an analogy for the lack of thoroughness of the security tests currently being done.Homeland Security officials take issue with such characterizations. The security training sessions and assessments they conduct are having a big impact, and new channels of communication have been opened to share threat alerts with local elections supervisors, department officials said.There is no question we are making real and meaningful progress, said a statement from Jeanette Manfra, assistant secretary for the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications at the DHS.The governments Elections Assistance Commission has been moving aggressively to make local officials aware of the severity of the threat, prepare them to confront it and increase their access to federal intelligence. It has encouraged local officials to take part in election war games run by Harvards Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, which simulate a foreign cyberattack and require officials to figure out how to keep Election Day from melting down.Its a stressful exercise. Participants are confronted with the prospect of their decisions leading to mass protest, aggravated by a concurrent social-media propaganda campaign launched by the hackers.Elections officials increasingly find themselves in a job they never signed up for: information technology managers tasked with protecting some of the most sensitive computer systems in the world. Yet they dont have the defenses of a major retailer like Target or a financial institution like Citigroup  and even those operations are getting breached.The state of Virginia got so spooked by what happened at DEF CON that, just nine weeks before its statewide elections in November, it directed all 22 voting districts to abandon the paperless electronic voting machines they had secured for the election and immediately shift to other systems. Pennsylvania announced this month it is also moving in that direction.The pushback that some local voting officials gave to the Department of Elections in Virginia confirmed for computer scientists that too many still dont understand the degree of risk they face. Local officials insisted their systems were safe because they were not connected to the internet, or that they could be protected from intruders by wrapping them with tamper-proof tape. Hackers have shown repeatedly that such defenses are easy to penetrate.A seasoned actor that can do this is not even touching the machine, said James Scott, a senior fellow at the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology, a Washington nonprofit that is advising lawmakers on the cyberthreat. The vulnerabilities are there to manipulate these machines.A fix does exist, Scott said: Congress could provide money for new voting machines and mandate they produce a paper trail that is randomly audited, steps called for in several bipartisan measures that have been introduced, but not acted on. All such proposals come with a price tag of hundreds of millions of dollars and neither the administration nor Congress has made that a priority.Even national security experts who are skeptical that foreign operatives could stealthily change vote counts express deep concern.I dont know if they are aiming to change outcomes, but they dont need to, said David Becker executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research. Merely poking around an election system is enough to shake the faith of voters, he said.Election Officials on the Defense

The Paper Solution

Funding Elections IT

There's a Catch-22 when it comes to whether Congress will address the issue of voting security in time for this year's elections.On the one hand, the threat posed by Russian hackers has brought significant attention to the issue, leading to the introduction of several pieces of bipartisan legislation to boost the nation's cybersecurity.But some congressional Republicans worry that raising the Russian threat could call into question the legitimacy of President Trump's election, so they don't want to touch it.That means that, despite repeated warnings from federal intelligence officials that Russian hackers will try early and often to tamper with elections again, state and local election officials will likely be on their own when it comes to finding the money to upgrade their equipment and software."I'm really worried we're too late for 2018," says Jamil Jaffer, founder of the National Security Institute at George Mason University Law School.New reports warn of the problems facing states.The Center for American Progress (CAP) released a study this week that found most states are deficient when it comes to election security. By CAP's reckoning, no state deserves an A grade. Eleven states received a B, while 17 states got either a D or an F."States aren't all secure," says Michael Sozan, a senior fellow at CAP and co-author of the study. "Some states are very far from secure."Last week, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School released a survey of 500 election officials in 41 states. It found that two-thirds of them will need to replace voting machines by 2020 but lack the funding to do so."I don't think Russian hacking is as big a problem as that voting machines are old in most of the country and therefore more likely to break down," says David Kimball, a voting expert at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.Kimball emphasizes, though, that while there are certainly challenges, the sky is not falling.State and federal officials are trying to counter the growing narrative that the American voting system is not secure. They fear that the public will not believe in the integrity of the election process -- and perhaps many will not even vote as a result, as at least one poll conducted last year suggested.After a federal official in charge of cybersecurity told NBC News last week that Russian hackers had "successfully penetrated" voter registration systems in several states, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) pushed back."They were not successful. Our systems held," says Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson, the president of NASS.DHS has said in the past that hackers -- likely Russian -- attacked the systems of 21 states, but they said they only penetrated one state, Illinois, and even there failed to make discernible changes to files.Lawson also criticizes the Center for American Progress report for failing to acknowledge the steps states have taken to address security concerns."I don't know of one state that hasn't taken steps to heighten security on their systems," she says.Secretaries of state are seeking security clearances to work more closely with DHS, which already has an intergovernmental council on voting in place. Seven states are participating in a pilot program to share information collectively on internet traffic and hacking.The National Association of Secretaries of State is meeting in Washington, D.C., this weekend. It's clear that cybersecurity will be their top concern. Since voter registration systems are connected to the internet (and actual vote-tallying machines are not), that's generally the greatest point of vulnerability.There are other problems as well.Eighteen states do not legally require a post-election audit, according to the CAP study. Audits in 33 states "are unsatisfactory from an election security standpoint," according to the report."Without those audits, states really can't know whether their elections were tampered with or vote totals were changed," says Sozan, co-author of that study.Academic researchers and hackers at last year's DefCon hacking conference showed that voting machines can be penetrated easily, often within minutes. The exercise drew considerable attention, but Lawson emphasizes that the experiment's results wouldn't be replicated in real-world conditions. Most of the machines at the conference weren't certified for use in the U.S., she says, while poll workers would have to be napping for hackers to open them up."Voting machines are not connected to the internet," Judd Choate, director of elections for Colorado, said at a Center for American Progress event on Monday. "You would have to be present, hacking in with a screwdriver."In response to the DefCon exercise, however, Virginia required local officials to switch to paper ballots and electronic scanners, just weeks ahead of elections there last fall."We had quite a number of recounts in November, which really would not have been possible if we had not been using those machines," Edgardo Cortes, the former commissioner of elections for Virginia, said at the CAP event.The seemingly anachronistic technology of paper has become perhaps the top priority for election officials worried about cyberattacks. Last Friday, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf ordered counties replacing their voting machines to buy ones that can create a paper trail. Last year, Iowa and Rhode Island passed laws requiring election officials to check machine counts against paper ballots.But states are not always providing funds to counties or other localities to pay for the new machines that are required. Around the country, voting machines date from the flip-phone era and have weaker security software than new smartphones."Elections officials increasingly find themselves in a job they never signed up for: information technology managers tasked with protecting some of the most sensitive computer systems in the world," the reported Tuesday. "Yet they don't have the defenses of a major retailer such as Target or a financial institution such as Citigroup -- and even those operations are getting breached."Nearly every state has depleted funding from the $4 billion federal Help America Vote Act of 2002. Pushing down responsibility for election security to the local level, aside from placing a burden on counties, means there are huge disparities between large counties with sizable budgets and smaller jurisdictions that are lucky to get IT help on a part-time basis.State and local officials are asking Congress for renewed help. Congress has never allocated $396 million to the states that was authorized by the 2002 law. That money would certainly be welcome now."Election officials really need to have the federal government's help to fund their systems and machines, and also to make sure that DHS and other entities are as robustly engaged as possible," says Sozan.Waiting on Congress, however, is often fruitless for states and localities. If there are more serious problems from election hacking this year, state and local officials can't say they weren't warned."The good news is that everyone knows they tried it once and they're going to try it again," says Kimball, the voting expert. "Hopefully, that means state and local election officials are being more careful and checking the vulnerability of their voter registration databases. That's the main vulnerability."Ucom employees received recognition for their services to the homeland

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With Ucom's level up tariff plans subscribers have unlimited access to Tiktok, Spotify and Coursera'Evolution not revolution' appears to be a catchcry as the F1 teams begin to reveal their 2018 cars.

Haas is first out of the gates this year with images of its new single seater, as boss Gunther Steiner said the biggest challenge was incorporating the mandatory Halo feature.

"The regulations are pretty stable so the VF-18 is an evolution from last year," he admitted.

"You see elements we had from last year on the car this year."

Force India is making similar noises, with technical boss Andy Green agreeing that the complexity of adding Halo to the package means teams need a stable base for the winter tests.

"The Halo means you need to make quite big changes," he told Auto Motor und Sport.

"So we will try to be in a similar condition that we had with our old car for the start of the testing," Green added.

"The (2018) car is a bit more elegant but visually very similar to last year. We want to go to Barcelona with a car that we know works. It should be a good foundation that we can then start to develop with quite big steps."

Without the luxury of evolution, however, is Toro Rosso, the small Red Bull-owned team that has suddenly become the Honda works team.

A new McLaren documentary, Grand Prix Driver, depicts how when the 2017 Honda was 'fired up' for the first time in the factory, it was far from a straightforward process.

So when asked if the Toro Rosso factory caught fire when the 2018 power unit barked into life for the first time, the team answered: "Our factory is perfectly fine -- thanks for the concern."

(GMM)Knesset rejects bill concerning Armenian Genocide

Today during the plenary session of Israels Knesset, a project about commemorating the day of the Armenian Genocide was discussed. It was rejected with 41 votes against, and 28 votes for. The author of the project was the head of the parliamentary group of Yesh Ashid party. He delivered only 3-minute speech during which he recalled the words of the organizer of the Holocaust Adolph Hitler: Who speaks today of the extermination of the Armenians? And as we dont speak about genocides, they are repeating  said the head of Yesh Ashids group. Many of the MPs asked why that project was being presented. To this question the head of Yesh Ashids group Lapid answered, that it wasnt a simple problem and is not a subject for debates, but a simple moral question: can Jews deny the Armenian Genocide? The voting took place after the speech of deputy prime minister of Israel, during which he suggested to vote against the project.The LEZ plan is divided into two parts: The first stage, which began 2 February, includes only diesel vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tons. About 22,000 owners of polluting diesel vehicles have received letters that explained the restriction and gave them the option of installing a particulate filter in their heavy vehicles at a subsidized price. In addition, there was extensive publicity about the LEZ and road signs have been put up throughout Haifa.

Israels Ministry of Environmental Protection (MoEP) and Haifa Municipality have begun operating a low-emission zone (LEZ). As of 2 February 2018, polluting heavy diesel vehicles were no longer allowed in downtown Haifa. These buses and trucks must install a particulate filter in order to enter the restricted area. The creation of a low-emission zone (LEZ) is part of a larger plan to reduce air pollution from transportation in Haifa.

During this the first stage, the Haifa municipality will issue warnings to owners of polluting vehicles that enter the restricted areas, explaining that if they do not install a particulate filter in their vehicle, they will be fined if they enter the LEZ. Enforcement during this stage will be carried out by city inspectors and the Israel Police. Then cameras will be installed at entrances to the city and enforcement will be carried out automatically.

In the second stage, to begin in early 2019, all diesel fuel vehicles (including vans and commercial vehicles under 3.5 tons, but excluding private cars) that do not meet Euro 4 standards for air pollution will be restricted from the LEZ. These vehicles will only be allowed to enter the LEZ if a particulate filter that reduces air pollution is installed in them.

Haifa is the first [city we are taking on] in the revolution that were leading in Israel to reduce vehicular air pollution. Some 1,100 people die every year as a result from air pollution from transportation, and a low-emission zone has proven to be one of the most efficient tools in the significant reduction of vehicular air pollution in large cities. We hope that Haifa is only the beginning of a change. In the near future, this model will expand into the Krayot and Jerusalem, and I call upon other mayors to take part in this struggle, which is important to our health and our childrens health. We will no longer be indifferent to vehicular air pollution. Environmental Protection Minister Zeev Elkin

The LEZ plan is a significant component of a range of additional actions promoted by the municipality and the government to reduce air pollution in Haifa Bay and Israel. Among the actions taken by the national government are subsidies for hybrid taxis; incentives to purchase electric buses; and support for electric car-sharing programs.

The Haifa Bay industrial zone is one of the most sensitive areas in Israel in terms of air pollution due to its large concentration of industrial facilities, port, petrochemical complex, physical proximity to concentrations of population, and topographical and climatic factors that affect the dispersion of pollutants.



NO x emissions from the transportation sector in Haifa have remained fairly stable, while those from the power-generation sector and industry have dropped. Source: MOEP. Click to enlarge.

In 2008, a task force was created to create and implement a Haifa Bay Action Plan to reduce these emissions. The plan focused on NMVOCs and on about 15 facilities and installations with high pollution potential.

In September 2015, the Israeli government approved an updated, ILS 330-million (US$93-milion) Action Plan to Reduce Air Pollution and Environmental Risks in Haifa Bay. The new Haifa LEZ is a result of this updated plan.The Sweetwater County Sheriffs Office had a busy week, headlined by two arrests.

According to Dick Blust, public information officer for the sheriffs office, the sheriffs office helped arrest an armed fugitive Friday afternoon in Rock Springs.

Jerry Joseph Romero, 41, of Salt Lake City, was arrested for an alleged probation violation on an original charge of felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, after he was tracked to a residence at Gateway Village in Rock Springs. A release Blust sent out states Det. Matt Wharton found Romero hiding in the residences backyard, atte...William Lytle, 84, passed away Feb. 4, 2018, at Sage View Care Center in Rock Springs. He was a lifelong resident of Wyoming.

He was born March 28, 1933, in Sinclair, he was born William Solheim and was later adopted at age five by Fred W. Lytle and Marie Thorsen.

Lytle attended schools in Casper and Riverton and received his GED after enlisting in the United States Army.

He married Shirley McCannon June 9, 1956, in Rawlins.

Lytle served in the United States Army for two years and later served in the Wyoming National Guard, OCS, where he earned the title Second Lieutenant.

He worked as a self-employed truck driver for more than 50 years. He was also the owner of BL Contractors and Chances R until he later retired in 2012.

Lytle enjoyed spending time with his grandchildren, boating, working, woodworking, hunting, watching the Utah Jazz and the Denver Broncos.

Survivors include his wife, Shirley Lytle; two sons, Jeff Lytle and Scott Lytle; nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents; one sister, Margaret Holder; two sons, David Lytle and Donald Lytle.

Following cremation a celebration of life will be conducted at a later date.Diagnosis of childrens cancer delayed in polycnynics

According to World health organization data, 250000 children get malignant tumor in a year and 90000 die because of cancer. In the struggle for childrens cancer, the weakest point in Armenia are pediatricians. The head of childrens department of National oncological center Grigor Badalyan notes that they dont diagnose the cancer at its first stages therefore they dont send them to the oncologist on time. "Surgeries are being done in high level in Armenia, leading specialists work here, only there are developed apparatus abroad, there are some complicated pathologic cases which require specified apparatus, in that aspect we are yielding to developed countries," says Grigor Badalyan. According to oncologist the cases of cancer did not increase. "Media is very active, every case gets a lot of reactions, we always have 8 to 10 children getting treatment here, and most of the cases are connected with the puberty." The deputy director of Therapeutic department of the Institute of Hematology after R. Yolyan Nata Melqikyan says that there is a lack of marrow donors. "We have registration of donors, but the number is not enough,thats why we are forced to find donors from abroad, in some cases the transplantation is being conducted from parents, during which the match is 50 percent." Today is the national children's cancer prevention day. According to statistics, oncological diseases (cancer) is the second death cause in the age group of 1-16 children in developed countries. According to specialists of WHO, if the cancer is detected in its early stages and is treated properly, then the 70 percent of such cancers is cured. During the last decade, improvements are registered thanks to the developments of medical science.Ucom employees received recognition for their services to the homeland

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With Ucom's level up tariff plans subscribers have unlimited access to Tiktok, Spotify and CourseraHo Foods beef noodle soup. Photo: Bobby Doherty/New York Magazine

If youre up on your Asian noodle soups, you know that New York has entered its niu rou mian phase. If not, and you require proof, you need only toddle down 7th Street in the East Village any Wednesday through Sunday between the hours of 6 and 10 p.m. That is when Ho Foods is open for business, and that is where, outside the tiny canteen, youll find a horde of noodle-soup aficionados hoping for the best. Theyre all waiting (up to two hours one recent, practically Siberian night) for a chance to sample the only entree on the shops four-item menu, a noodle soup some consider the national dish of Taiwan: deeply flavored beef-bone broth with an undercurrent of spice and heat, plus slabs of red-cooked beef, springy wheat noodles, and zingy pickled mustard greens.

Neither beef noodle soup nor Taiwanese food is new to New York; restaurants have been serving the island states eclectic fare in the citys Chinatowns for years. What is new is the influx of businesses opened by a generation of Taiwanese-American entrepreneurs bred on culinary pop-ups and social media, angling to introduce their ancestral cuisine to the widest possible audience. Ho Foods Richard Ho is one of these culinary ambassadors  a former restaurant manager and self-taught cook from Californias San Gabriel Valley (a hotbed of niu rou mian, incidentally) who offers a choice of noodle and spice level with his hearty soup bowls.

Niu rou mian can also now be found at Turnstyle, the hectic subway-station food court below Columbus Circle, where Mission Chinese Food alum Edward Huang runs a Taiwanese stand called Zai Lai. His version is relatively light but utterly satisfying, made with beef from well-contented, locally raised cows and informed by some notes he took on reconnaissance missions to Taipei with a soup-guru cousin.

A beef-noodle-soup crawl could extend to Chelsea Markets Very Fresh Noodles, whose rib-sticking rendition spotlights the kitchens rustic hand-pulled noodles, and then to Mimi Chengs, where the Taiwanese-American Cheng sisters have added it to their dumpling-centric menu. The citys latest version has landed in Bushwick, where Faro chef Kevin Adey has put it on the menu of his new Sichuan restaurant, General Debs. This isnt a case of mistaken culinary identity but an edible history lesson: The iconic Taiwanese dish is said to have originated in the military villages that housed mainlanders after Chinas civil war, many of them from Sichuan province (hence the soups chile-bean paste and Sichuan peppercorns).

But Taiwainese beef noodle soup is not found in Sichuan province, or anywhere else in China, writes Cathy Erway in The Food of Taiwan. Happily, you cant say the same about New York.

*A version of this article appears in the February 19, 2018, issue of New York Magazine.Maison Marques et Domaines Ltd: Business Development Manager, London

Maison Marques et Domaines Ltd is looking for a Business Development Executive to grow the distribution of its premium portfolio in the London on-trade.

Maisons Marques et Domaines UK Ltd is the wholly owned subsidiary of Champagne Louis Roederer, responsible for the sales and marketing, to all sectors of the UK market, of the groups family of brands and a wider portfolio of well-known and established premium wine agencies from the Old and New Worlds.

Key Responsibilities:

Work closely with key London wholesaler sales teams to identify and develop new business opportunities in indirect supplied accounts across all appropriate on-trade channels, support existing listings, deliver staff training and oversee the implementation of agreed promotional activity.

Identify, research and recommend new business opportunities on a direct supply basis.

Work with the MMD UK London sales team to support the portfolio presence and sales in the direct supplied prestige London-on-trade through staff training and oversight of agreed promotional activity.

Work with the MMD UK marketing team to deliver, support and evaluate customer and sector-specific initiatives in line with brand and agency strategies.

Monitor and regularly report on the market and key competitor activities.

Candidate Profile:

Ideally degree educated, with a minimum of 2 years commercial experience in the alcoholic drinks industry, preferably in the London on-trade or wholesale sectors.

Extremely passionate and enthusiastic about the drinks industry as well as being articulate, well presented and able to act as a suitable ambassador for the premium portfolio of brands which the company represents.

The role requires a London-based energetic, results-driven self-starter, who is a natural networker, comfortable with a full and flexi-time working arrangement and who is keen for new experience, responsibility and accountability in a prestige environment.

A competitive salary with bonus and full benefits are offered for this role.

Please could applicants email Simon Hadden at Simon.Hadden@mmdltd.co.uk with a cover letter and CV to apply before the 14th March.Sparkling wine, Chile and premium spirits forecast to continue to buck UK downward consumption trend

By Andrew Catchpole

The growth in sparkling wine, along with premium gin, rum and whisky, is set to continue beyond 2021, helping offset the impart on value sales of a 10-year decline in consumption.

These forecasts, drawn from the latest Vinexpo/IWSR International Wine and Spirit Trends report, also suggest that Chile will overtake France in terms of volume supplied to the UK by 2021, edging its way up from sixth largest supplier to second as all the top five volume players continue to decline.

At a presentation in London ahead of Vinexpo Hong Kong, CEO Guillaume Deglise highlighted the that sparkling wine sales in the UK have risen by 8.7 million 9Lcases in 2011 to 14.1 million 9L cases in 2016, predicting a further rise to 16.15 million 9L cases by 2021, representing +84.4% growth over that decade.

The Prosecco boom is set to continue, with the forecast predicting that (all) Italian sparkling will grow by +5.4% between 2016 and 2021, with France, Spain and Australia declining (by -1.4%, -1.9% and -9.3% respectively), with both Cava and Champagne predicted to continue to lose ground, going against the current signs in the UK that non-Prosecco sparkling wines are in growth.

Chile also presents a positive category for the trade, with growth to 2021 predicted to be +2.4%, set against an ongoing volume decline of the top five (Australia, -1.8%; USA, -3.4%; France, -4.3%; Italy, -5.8%; and Spain, -4.8%), elevating it ahead of France and USA by 2021 to second position.

New Zealand, at +8%, and Argentina, at +9.4%, are also forecast to grow fast, albeit from smaller bases.

Meanwhile, the Gin-naissance shows no sign of slowing, with volume sales predicted to rise by +10.5% by 2016, with Rum and premium/malt whisky also continuing to rise.

All of this is set against continued UK and global trends towards more premium wines and spirits sales, with a slight upturn in global wine consumption in 2017 (after a five year slight dip) predicted to continue, leading to a new world high in terms of value, at $224 Billion by 2021.

China, followed by the USA, will remain the strongest drivers of this growth.

With regard to the UK market, Vinexpos Deglise said: The increased volume of sparkling wine and a trend to premium still wines will offset the overall decrease in wine value.





HAWAII JOINS COALITION OF 19 AGS OPPOSING CITIZENSHIP QUESTION ON 2020 CENSUS

News Release from Office of the Attorney General, February 12, 2018

HONOLULU  Acting Attorney General Russell Suzuki, part of a coalition of 19 Attorneys General and the State of Colorado, today urged the U.S. Department of Commerce to reject the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 decennial Census, which would directly threaten states fair representation in Congress and the Electoral College, as well as billions of dollars in critical federal funds for programs like Medicaid.

Under the Constitution, the Census Bureau has an obligation to determine the whole number of persons in each state. Yet the addition of a citizenship question to the Census is expected to depress participation among immigrants, causing a population undercount that would disproportionately harm states and cities with large immigrant communities. Non-citizens are counted in the Census for the purposes of federal funds, apportioning of congressional seats and Electoral College votes, and the drawing of state and local districts.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: In 2012 the Hawaii AG's Office argued against the counting of military personnel for purposes of legislatie apportionment. See links below.)

On December 12, 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice requested that the Census Bureau include a citizenship question on the 2020 census form sent to every household in the United States, even though the Census is supposed to count all personscitizens and non-citizens alike. The Department of Justice argued that the collection of such information was necessary to ensure proper enforcement of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Yet as the Attorneys General explain in todays letter, the Justice Departments proposal would have precisely the opposite effect by driving down participation in immigrant communitiesa concern that is even more acute in todays political climate. The resulting undercount would deprive immigrant communities of fair representation when legislative seats are apportioned and district lines are drawn.

To the extent that the Voting Rights Act requires a calculation of the number of eligible voters in a given jurisdiction, the Census Bureau provides an adequateand far less intrusivesource of citizenship information based on sampling, including the American Community Survey. The letter emphasizes the irreparable harm that will result from inaccuracies in the 2020 Census caused by the inclusion of a citizenship question. The decennial census is used to apportion seats in the House of Representatives, and to determine the total number of delegates each state receives in the Electoral College. As a result, an undercount of population in states that are home to large immigrant communities will impair fair representation, a principle fundamental to the fabric of our democracy. In addition, hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funds are directly tied to demographic information obtained through the census, including Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program and Title I funding for local educational agencies. Consequently, inaccurate counts can potentially deprive states of much-needed funds designed to protect low-income and vulnerable communities.

The letter also explains that the threat to the accuracy of the 2020 Census is magnified by the extreme lateness of the Justice Departments proposal. The Census Bureau is considering the addition of a citizenship question only three months before it is required to send a list of final questions to Congress. This short timeframe is not nearly enough to adequately test the full impact of the citizenship question, as required by the Census Bureaus standards on data collection. These concerns are heightened by the Bureaus already precarious fiscal position. The Bureau is dramatically underfunded, and the addition of a citizenship question would significantly increase the overall cost of completing the Census.

The letter was led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, and signed by the Attorneys General of New York, Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, and the Governor of the State of Colorado.

PDF: A copy of the letter is attached.

CN: 20 States Fight Addition of Citizenship Question to CensusSHOPPERS in Henley are continuing to support the towns Oxfam shops despite the charitys sex scandal.

The shop in Market Place and bookshop in Duke Street both say that customers have not stopped visiting despite revelations that senior aid workers had paid local women for sex in Haiti.

Oxfam is accused of concealing the findings of an investigation into the claims that Roland van Hauwermeiren used prostitutes at a villa rented for him by the charity after the countrys 2010 earthquake.

This has led to further accusations that teenage volunteers at UK Oxfam shops have been abused.

Penny Lawrence, the charitys deputy chief executive, has since resigned, the Charity Commission has launched a statutory inquiry and the Government has threatened to withdraw its 30 million funding.

Sabine Adams, manager of the bookshop, said the number of customers had not dropped and many had pledged their support.

She said: Weve all been very upset by the news and hope it will get sorted but the general feedback from customers has been supportive. They still believe in what Oxfam does despite the actions of a few individuals who have misbehaved.

Ive had text messages and customers coming in being really touching. I was in Oxford on Tuesday and the stores there had had the same reaction.

Its upsetting because Ive got more than 50 volunteers here working very hard every day of the week.

We have nothing to do with it but we do represent Oxfam and are the face of it on the high street.

Volunteer Veronica Treacher, from Rotherfield Peppard, said the mood in the shop had been affected.

Those of us who work there try so hard to make money for Oxfam so its the most unfortunate blow, she said.

Its inevitable that people will feel uncomfortable but whether there will be a fall-off in volunteers in our shop I cant tell. So many people have worked there for so long but Im sure some are considering their positions.

Mrs Treacher, a Peppard parish councillor, agreed that customers were still visiting as normal.

Only one spoke of the news to me and that was a fairly casual reference, she said. We have a very loyal clientele at the shop, perhaps rather than Oxfam as a whole, and weve had a lot of donations this week, which are what we thought might be affected.

Eszter Csibine, who manages the Oxfam shop in Market Place, said: It was upsetting to hear this news. We were shocked.

I hope the truth comes out and that Oxfam can clear out what needs to be cleared out from the system.

We really are here to help people who are struggling. Shopper Wendy Peters, 60, a civil servant of Greys Road, Henley, called the scandal shocking.

Government funding should stop immediately, she said. But I wouldnt like to see the reputation of the charity tarnished  its always the minority that causes the biggest problem.

Linda Walker, 63, from Hurley, said: Id hope that the collective intelligence of the people who live in Henley would appreciate the people who work in these shops do it for nothing and shouldnt be targeted.

The world is in such a crisis that it would be a shame to see Oxfam go. Ive worked for Oxfam at music festivals 10 or 15 years ago and found everyone to be fine.

Denise Hackett, 57, a carer of Tanners Lane, Chalkhouse Green, said: Lets be honest, its not all of Oxfam is it? I dont condone it but the charity does good work and it would be an awful shame if that stopped or if people let that influence their donations. This needs to be investigated and it needs to be more transparent but it wont affect me donating.

Geraldine Capps, 77, a retired nurse of St Marys Close, Henley, added: I feel very strongly about using charity shops. I feel sorry for some of the people who work there because they are doing their best.

Bev Jackson, 65, a carer, of Bell Street, Henley, said: I just think its very sad. It definitely shouldnt tarnish the whole of the charity for the work of a few.

Jack Ogden, of New Street, Henley, said: It would be unfortunate if there was a local blowback.

The Government and the Charity Commission have to look much more closely at the organisations providing foreign aid to make sure the best practices are in place. There are always going to be some bad apples. It would be a great shame if this impacts on the good things Oxfam does.

An Oxfam spokeswoman said: The behaviour of some members of Oxfam staff uncovered in Haiti in 2011 was totally unacceptable, contrary to our values and the high standards we expect of our staff.

As soon as we became aware of the allegations we launched an internal investigation. Four members of staff were dismissed as a result and three, including the country director, resigned before the end of the investigation. Allegations that underage girls may have been involved were not proven.

We carried out a thorough review of the case which resulted in the creation of our dedicated safeguarding team and a confidential whistleblowing hotline as part of a package of measures to ensure that we do all we can to protect our staff and prevent sexual abuse and misconduct.FILLMORE  Bureau of Land Management Fillmore Field Office will reopen the Little Sahara Recreation Area (LSRA) visitor center Feb. 18, just in time for those planning to visit during Presidents Day weekend.

The BLM is committed to connecting with nearby communities and providing access to premiere OHV and camping opportunities in Utahs Largest Sandbox.

When visiting LSRA, keep in mind:

 The one-night permit fee is $18.00 per vehicle. This fee includes use of the area for two days and one night. Discounts are available for veterans and seniors.

 LSRA season passes are available at the BLM-Utah Fillmore Field Office, (435) 743-3100 and the BLM-Utah Salt Lake Field Office, (801)977-4300.

 All four campgrounds will be open and provide access to vault toilets.

 Safety flags are required for all OHV/UTVs. Flags will be available for sale at the Visitor Center.

 Children under the age 8 are not allowed to operate any OHV/UTV on public lands, roads or trails in Utah. Children ages 8 through 15 may operate an OHV/UTV provided they possess an Education Certificate issued by Utah State Parks and Recreations or equivalent from their home state.

Resident operators 16 years of age or older may operate an OHV/UTV if they possess either a valid drivers license or an approved OHV education certificate.

 Remember, tunneling in the sand can be dangerous.

Although LSRA does not provide all services, the surrounding cities of Nephi and Delta are full-service communities. These nearby communities offer a full complement of fuel, groceries, hotels, medical facilities, OHV supplies, and other amenities.

For more information about recreation opportunities at Little Sahara Recreation Area, contact the BLM-Utah Fillmore Field Office at (435) 743-3100, Monday through Friday, or by viewing our brochure: http://bit.ly/LSRAbrochure. Utah OHV rules can be found at: http://goo.gl/35sLK6.

Persons who use a telecommunications device for the deaf (DD) may call the Federal Relay Service (FRS) at 1-800-877-8339 to leave a message or question. The FRS is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Replies are provided during normal business hours.

The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation.

The agencys mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of Americas public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.

Diverse activities authorized on these lands generated $75 billion in sales of goods and services throughout the American economy in fiscal year 2016more than any other agency in the Department of the Interior. These activities supported more than 372,000 jobs.Kim Kardashian leads celebs on Twitter demanding action from Congress after yet another shooting in America, leaving 17 dead.

17 people have been killed in the 18th shooting in 45 days of 2018 in the United States of America. A former student at Majory Stonemason Douglas High School in Parkland Florida, 48 kilometres north of Fort Lauderdale. The 19 year old alleged gunman, named as Nikolas Cruz, was expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons earlier in the year, returned to his campus on February 14th with an AR-15 assault rifle. Wearing a gas mask, the gunman entered school grounds carrying the rifle, ammunition cartridges and smoke grenade, and proceeded to pull the fire alarm, prompting students and staff to pour from their classrooms into the hallway of the school where he began shooting.

The death toll which reached 17 has made it the third-worst school shooting in recent US history after the Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook attacks. Authorities at two nearby hospitals said they were treating 13 survivors for bullet wounds and other injuries, five of whom were listen in critical condition.

Kim Kardashian was just one of the celebrities not sending thoughts and prayers to Florida, instead she is calling on Congress to 'do your job.'

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Other celebrities to call on the US government to put an end to gun violence included Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Farrow, Britney Spears, Ellen De Generes, Stephen King and Elizabeth Banks.

Kardashian also retweeted a screenshot of an NRA tweet encouraging people to buy guns for their loved ones on Valentines Day, which was deleted shortly after the murder spree.

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Stephen King put blame on President Donald Trump for ignoring the realities of the situation.

_image10_The legendary band has taken to Twitter to announce that they'll be donating their prize fund to charity for the Polar Music Prize, which is often described as Sweden's music version of the Nobel Prize.

As we reported yesterday, the band will receive the prestigious award on 14 June.

It comes with one million SEK prize fund and Metallica will donate it to their charity All Within My Hands.

The said: "On June 14th we will receive Swedens @PolarMusicPrize which awards two laureates in celebration of music in all its various genres.

"Honorees receive one million SEK which we will donate to @AWMHFoundation.

"We are truly humbled & inspired to be recognized in this manner!'"

On June 14th we will receive Swedens @PolarMusicPrize which awards two laureates in celebration of music in all its various genres. Honorees receive one million SEK which we will donate to @AWMHFoundation. We are truly humbled & inspired to be recognized in this manner! pic.twitter.com/oXkHySzah1  Metallica (@Metallica) February 14, 2018

AdvertisementLogan Paul, a successful YouTube vlogger, made headlines recently when he posted a vlog of his trip to the Aokigahara Suicide forest in Japan. The forest is infamous for being the site of hundreds of annual suicides, with mouldering human remains being a common sight among the trees.

In the forest, Paul comes across what seems to be the body of a recently deceased man hanging by his neck from a tree. Paul recoils in horror at the sight of the body, calling out, Yo, are you alive, are you foolin us? He then spends several minutes capering around the corpse and exclaiming how he had never seen a dead body before.

The backlash was immediate, Paul was the target of widespread condemnation for what was deemed by many a grimly voyeuristic video. He has since deleted it from his channel.Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print.

Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition.

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.As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content.

When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to.

After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS!

OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK

The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those.CHIHUAHUAHumane Society International welcomes the passage of a bill to penalize a host of activities related to dogfighting in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico. Congresswoman Nadia Xochitl Siqueiros Loera introduced the bill during a ceremony attended by HSI in August.

Dogfighting became a federal offense last June, thanks in part to HSIs efforts to convince legislators that the activity is cruel, unpopular and harmful for society. The federal legislation adopted in June approved penalties for dogfighting and the activities surrounding it, including organizing fights, owning or trading a fighting dog, possessing property used to hold fights or attending a fight as a spectator. This was the first time any form of animal abuse has been penalized at the federal level in Mexico.

Give now to help dogs and other animals.

Dogfighters tend to have strong ties to organized crime. While the countrys federal criminal code now includes dogfighting, it is also important that each state penalize it in their respective criminal codes, since they will have jurisdiction in some cases (for instance, when dogfighting occurs outside federal facilities or when foreigners or officials are not involved).

Claudia Edwards, DVM, program director of HSI/Mexico, said: We applaud the Chihuahua Congress for passing these much-needed reforms to the State Criminal Code to impose strong penalties on any dogfighting-related activity. Dogfighting is a criminal act that needs to be punished because of the immense suffering it causes to dogs as well as the violence that surrounds these illegal and underground activities. With this vote, Chihuahua legislators are sending a clear signal, and echoing what the Mexican public demands, that its time to root out animal cruelty and violence from Mexico.

Legislators from other state congresses have presented similar initiatives to punish dogfighting in Mexico City and Sonora. A recent Parametria poll shows that 99 percent of Mexicans oppose dogfights and 85 percent support strong penalties for those involved in the business. Donate to support our efforts.

Media contacts: Mexico: Magaly Garibay, mgaribay@ideeconsulting.com, (55) 5211 8731 ext. 104/About the magazine

All Animals, our award-winning magazine, is packed with stories about how your donations are changing the world for animals. Inside each issue, we give you the latest on how you're helping us fight for all animals, as well as profiles of people on the front lines, tips for caring for your pets and protecting wildlife, heartwarming tales of rescue and rehab, actions you can take and more. Beautifully illustrated and thoroughly researched, All Animals will inspire you and keep you informed on the issues you care about.With the help of The HSUS and private donors, Fleet of Angels and partners raised funds to pay off the lien on the horses and cover their costs going forwardwith the caveat that they had to take possession of them. As of December 2016, Fleet of Angels was on the hook to find homes for 907 horses in total. They had a name: the Hallelujah Horses. The general public cheer was, Well, hallelujah! We saved the horses from the auction, says Nash.

A small team convened in South Dakota, braving frigid weather. Wind chills were down to 50 below zero; wind was up to 40 miles per hour. It snowed all day every day, hard blowing snow, for weeks, says Nash. Many of the horses were ungelded stallions or wild mustangs who didnt respect pens, and Nashs team worked on foot to sort and ready them for adoption. We didnt have helicopters or horseback or four-wheelers, she says. It was all done just luring horses into pens with feed and getting little groups in at a time and trying to move them in the ice and the snow and the cold and the wind.

The team could remain on the South Dakota property for 60 days before they needed to leavealong with any unadopted horses. Nash put the call out to a nationwide network of sanctuaries and individuals and began placing the horses. The team tried to honor the bonds between horses who were family or friends, requiring adopters to take at least two horses so theyd be more comfortable in their new homes.

In March, the 60 days were up. Ten semi-trucks ferried the remaining 312 horses from South Dakota to a property in Fort Collins, Colorado. Nash installed herself in a Days Inn about six miles from the property, recruited a local veterinarian to geld the stallions and set up a makeshift adoption operation. The work went on.

Eight months later, Nash still called the Days Inn homebut she and a tiny team had placed a majority of the horses. Theyd simultaneously carried on with Fleet of Angels core work and provided disaster relief during hurricane season. We evacuated hundreds of horses per day out of Florida in advance of Hurricane Irma, says Nash. She and a volunteer even built an online directory that connected horses at risk during the hurricanes with folks who could offer hay, supplies, stables and more.The Humane Society of the United States is commending a commitment to protect animals outlined by New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu in his State of the State address.

Gov. Sununu endorsed Senate Bill 569-FN, legislation that will strengthen regulations for commercial dog breeders and enhance felony penalties for extreme cruelty that results in the death of an animal. The bill, sponsored by Republican Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley, will also pass a cost-of-animal-care law to address the enormous financial burden on New Hampshire taxpayers and nonprofit humane organizations to care for animals legally seized in animal cruelty cases.

In 2017, the Humane Society of the United States assisted the Wolfeboro Police Department in the rescue of 84 Great Danes from an unlicensed breeder in New Hampshire. The HSUS has provided close to $1,000,000 for the care of the Great Danes.

"We are working to ensure that the horrendous Great Dane situation in Wolfeboro never happens again by strengthening our animal cruelty laws. Senate Bill 569 is a critical piece of legislation, and you (legislators) need to get it on my desk," said Sununu.

Gov. Sununu also revamped the Governor's Commission on the Humane Treatment of Animals to ensure a focused effort to reform state animal cruelty laws. The Commission joins a long list of supporters of Senate Bill 569-FN including animal protection organizations like the HSUS and the New Hampshire Federation of Humane Organizations, the New Hampshire Municipal Association and town selectboards from across the state as well as the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police and law enforcement agencies.

Given the number of high profile animal cruelty cases, it is time that we strengthen our laws to better prevent the neglect of animals. I thank Governor Sununu and all of the organizations that have supported this initiative for their leadership in solving the problems that have occurred in New Hampshire over the past few years, said Bradley.Discs To Digital: The Strange History Of Music Formats

While streaming has become the dominant form of music consumption, the road to get here was a complex and varied one. Here we look at the history of the physical music formats, dating back as far as the 1870s, and how it led us to where we are now.

__________________________

Guest post by Jaclyn Kendall of Soundfly's Flypaper

This article originally appeared on the Landr Blog

Physical formats have only been around since the 1870s  but in that relatively short amount of time, weve managed to come up with some pretty bizarre ways to release music. Each format on this list had its moment of usefulness. But looking back might make you ask what were we thinking?

Regardless of how obsolete certain formats might be, they all led us to where we are today: streaming.

Most music fans choose to purchase their music digitally  either via download or streaming. Smart artists are following suit as well. Many musicians are skipping out entirely on the cost of releasing physical formats  opting instead for digital music distribution that fits todays music landscape.

Well, how did we get here?

Regardless of their popularity today, every format on this list played its part in the march towards digital domination. We strolled through the odd history of music formats to explore where that journey has taken us  and where it might lead

Heres the music format timeline  from vinyl to digital and everything in between.

1948: The Record

Records, or discs, of varying speeds and materials have actually been around since the early 1900s  early versions rotated at 78 RPM (vroom, vroom!) and were made of shellac, which made them noisy (the bad kind of noisy, not the good kind) and fragile. In 1948, Columbia Records produced a 33 RPM 12-inch long play format, which we know, love, and donate to thrift stores today as the LP.

The first LP ever pressed was titled Columbia ML4001, and was a Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor by violinist Nathan Milstein with the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Bruno Walter.

Shortly after, RCA Records developed a 45 RPM 7-inch extended-play single format, or the EP for short.

Because of the fragility of shellac, which was frequently broken during transport, both Columbia and RCA Records eventually began producing their LP and EPs on vinyl. Size and portability were the biggest strikes against vinyl. Eventually the music industry sought to find a solution and developed new formats that people could easily bring with them to work, parties, etc.

Despite the numerous physical formats that have been created since vinyl records, the market for them is still strong: according to the mid-year 2017 Discogs report the most popular physical music format sold so far this year is vinyl, with a year-to-year increase in sales of 13.92%.

But despite vinyls sustained popularity over time, vinyl was set aside as the go-to format as listeners looked for the next best thing.

1963: Compact Cassette

Compact Cassettes, or tapes, were invented by the Philips company and introduced to Europe at the Berlin Radio Show  Europes oldest tech convention with a rich history of its own.

Early cassettes featured reverse housing with a max play time of 45 minutes of stereo audio per side  significantly longer than a vinyl LPs playtime. Tapes also fit in a more affordable, compact package. The small size of tapes gave rise to portable players, making them a convenient development in the history of how and where we listen.

The cassette also fit perfectly into the post-war era. A boom in population and suburban expansion meant cars lots of cars. So the need for mobile playback systems and formats was a hot concept.

The invention of tapes also introduced a volatile new concept into recorded music: piracy.

The advent of cassettes and cassette recorders caused record companies to predict devastating effects on the music industry. After unsuccessful attempts to tax blank tapes, the DAT (digital audio tape) Bill was introduced in 1989, which restricted the amount of tapes consumers could buy and prevented them from making copies of copies (a.k.a., the SCMS system).

However, it didnt help record labels, who believed that a tax should be paid to them. In 1991 the Audio Home Recording Act was introduced, which collected tax from media and record makers and distributed it back to labels.

But it wasnt all suitcases, court cases, and taxes on tapes. Cassettes also birthed Mixtape culture, giving amateur compilation creators a way to record audio off of multiple records and compile a single playlist  a concept that runs the music industry as we know it today.

These days tapes certainly arent our main mode of listening, but the industry is still active. In 2016, cassette sales grew by 74% from the previous year.

1964: 8-Track Tape

The 8-track tape was a collaborative invention between the unlikely trio of RCA Records, Lear Jet Company, and Ampex Magnetic Tape Company. This may seem like somewhat of an odd group, but Bill Lear of Lear Jet Corporation, along with his employee Richard Kraus, were responsible for designing the cartridge for 8-track tapes.

Lear, who manufactured private, luxury aircrafts, had an interest in audio and previously tried to create an endless-loop wire recorder in the 1940s.

The benefit of 8-track tapes over the compact cassette was their ability to house 8-parallel soundtracks with four corresponding stereo programs  they could play a lot of music in a relatively small package.

Much of the 8-tracks success is thanks to the booming automobile industry of the time. By 1966, Ford Motors offered 8-track players as an option in their complete line of automobiles produced that year. At-home players were introduced the following year, and many saw the 8-track as a solution to the portability issue of records and record players.

Despite their popularity in the 60s and 70s, the compact cassette took over as the more popular choice for artists and consumers due to its favourable size and price-tag. As a result the 8-track became largely obsolete then, and today.

Its argued that the last 8-track tape ever released by a major label was Fleetwood Macs Greatest Hits, released in November of 1988 by Warner Bros. Records  perhaps a sign that wed never be going back to 8-tracks again?

1972: Floppy Disk

Floppy disks are normally associated with data storage for desktop computers, but during the 80s and 90s a select-few artists began releasing albums on this somewhat unconventional format. IBM introduced the 8-inch floppy disk to the tech world in 1972, which was followed with a 5-inch model in 1976, and finally replaced with a conveniently-sized 3-inch format in 1982.

The floppy release remained fairly niche and never truly hit the mainstream. Diskettes most notable release was Brian Enos 1996 album, Generative Music I, released through Opal Music.

There were also a handful of major releases on diskette that tried to bring a multimedia angle to albums, but the format simply never caught on. Regardless of diskettes ill-fated moment in music, the floppy represents an important foreshadowing of musics digital future  a trend that would soon be taken up by the CD explosion

1982: Compact Disc

In 1974, Philips (yes, the same Philips of tape fame) had the initial idea for CDs as a replacement for records and cassettes. During the same time, Sony was also working on their own prototype (CD wars!). Sonys offering was first demoed in 1976.

Eventually the two companies came together and CDs were officially launched as a viable format in 1982. Sony also introduced the first ever CD player that year, the CDP-101 Compact Disc Player, which cost $1000!

With CDs also came portable CD players, CD-ROM drives, writable CDs and the 16-bit/44.1kHz benchmark for audio formats, which all had their own effect on how we listen to music. CDs also brought together the best of every format that came before it: high-quality audio, compact, portable, writable and inexpensive.

Overall the CD was an extremely important development for the music industry, becoming the de facto release format for decades. But in many ways the CD was the beginning of the end for physical formats. Computers and the MP3 (more on this in a minute) quickly took over our listening habits. With the invention of the internet and as computers became more sophisticated, so did the constant demand for convenience. It was a need the CD and Discman could only fill for so long.

As soon as it became possible to access music through your computer or MP3 player, most people no longer wanted to have physical copies of music when they could store everything in a folder on their desktop.

Of course CDs didnt just evaporate overnight. There are still some Discpeople out there. Even though Discogs 2017 mid-year report cites vinyl as the physical format showing the biggest growth, CDs have seen their own growth in sales with an increase of 23.23% on the used market.

1992: MP3

The MP3 was originally developed in the the early 80s by researcher Karlheinz Brandenburg. His post-doctoral work at the AT&T Bell Labs expanded on pre-existing codecs for compressing audio. In a strange twist, Brandenburg chose Suzanne Vegas1987 hit, Toms Diner as a test song to perfect the MP3.

But it wasnt until 1992 that the MP3 went mainstream, and not until 1999  with the creation of Napster  that the format really caught fire. Napster allowed for free peer-to-peer file sharing of the MP3 audio file that resulted in widespread copyright infringement and understandable outrage from the music industry.

Despite its brief three-year run in its initial form, Napster eventually paved the way for platforms like the iTunes store  allowing users to search, purchase, and instantly play music all with a few clicks. The effects from the shockwave that the MP3, piracy, and pure digital formats created are still being felt today. In many ways, the music industry is just now starting to recover from its own digital dawn.

2002: Streaming

With 24/7 internet accessibility expanding thanks to mobile, developers and entrepreneurs saw the opportunity for something big: the possibility of listening to, and discovering, new music without having to actually download files or purchase songs.

Additionally, streaming platforms aimed to (hopefully) make digital music a sustainable business model for everyone involved. In many ways it has, but theres still a long way to go.

The release of the iPhone in 2007 is what really caused streaming and internet radios popularity to skyrocket. Apps that were previously desktop only, were now available at the palm of your hand.

The following year Spotify launched, which runs off of paid advertisements. Users have two choices: listen for free with ads, or pay a monthly fee for unlimited, uninterrupted streaming. Streaming apps filled the creeping demand for non-physical access to music and ushered in our current chapter of formats: dematerialized music.

For better or worse, every music format played its roll in the march towards streaming. While streaming hasnt made every other format obsolete, theres no denying that its the format thats leading how we access music. For now at least

What Now?

If this list proves anything, its that nothing is forever  especially in music. So whats next on the horizon? Maybe well all listen to music while our autonomous cars drive us around? Or is there a renaissance for videos role in music on the horizon (Im looking at you, Hype)?

No matter what the future holds, the format that matters most is the one that your favourite artist is releasing on. If youre a fan, support the artist and buy their music on the formats they distribute music with. Do your research and find the format that fits you, and them, the best!

We can all do our part to help the music industry by paying for music  and the formats its released on. Support independent musicians, support small labels and support your local record store!

Share on:Philips Lighting, a leader in lighting, has today published a new report together with SmartCitiesWorld that highlights the drivers and hurdles faced by local authorities considering implementing a smart city program .

The report draws on in-depth research with 150 key influencers on city planning from around the world. Naming Singapore, London and Barcelona as the worlds best smart cities, it reveals that visionary leadership is the factor that would make the biggest difference to the success of smart city programs, cited by 56% of respondents.

The report highlighted the impact of enlightened leaders inspired by long-term visions, which are inclusive and encourage collaboration between agencies and across departments.

The potential rewards are high, according to the study, which cites Barcelona as a prime example, having created an estimated 47,000 jobs through the implementation of Internet of Things (IoT) systems, saved 42.5 million on water and generated an extra 36.5 million a year through smart parking.

One in 10 city authorities lack capacity to develop smart city

However, while one in 10 local authority representatives stated that they did not have the capacity to look at developing a smart city program, they are also being held back by budget limitations, a lack of infrastructure, short term planning and a lack of leadership on implementation.

The most common inhibiting factors are budget limitations (23%) and the need for more supporting infrastructure (19%), demonstrating that securing investment in smart city projects is no easy task. But the report suggests that projects that deliver short-term gains as well as providing infrastructure for the long-term can overcome these issues, such as telco-integrated street lighting in San Jose and smart LED streetlights in Los Angeles, which deliver annual cost savings of USD 9 million and will repay the upfront cost within seven years.

Indeed, the report reveals that it is not uncommon for a city to spend 50% of its energy budget on street lighting. Implementing smart lighting technology not only reduces energy consumption, it has also been seen to lower crime rates, support local businesses as well as create a more aesthetically pleasing environment for city dwellers. This is in addition to the cost and environmental benefits.

Cities consume 70% of worlds energy

Realising the benefits of smart cities is essential. Cities consume 70% of the worlds energy and by 2050 urban areas are set to be home to 6.5 billion people worldwide, 2.5 billion more than today.

For cities to remain fit for purpose as the demand on occupancy and energy increases, local authorities must tackle difficult areas including technology, communications, data security and energy usage.

City authorities face complex and challenging choices concerning infrastructure, balancing the need to maintain existing services while investing in improvements, managing population growth and enhancing sustainability  all within tight budget constraints, said Jacques Letzelter, segment manager at Philips Lighting.

>See also: What will the smart city of the future look like?

New technologies can already transform the way cities deliver, operate and maintain public amenities, from lighting and transportation to connectivity and health services. Often, however, adoption is slowed by the division of work and the selection of technology that doesnt easily work together or integrate with other city services. Fortunately, there are many successful examples of smart city projects that prove these obstacles can be overcome, with the right collaborative approach and integration technologies. These projects show that smart cities can bring about better lives and enhanced safety for their citizens.

Embracing the IoT

The report also discusses the key role that the burgeoning IoT has to play on smart city success. Revolutionising the collection of data (35%), revolutionising communication for accurate service delivery (15%) and managing the strain on urban resources (13%) were ranked as the top three areas where the IoT would be most effective in cities. However, the report notes that the implementation of new technologies and a smart city program is different for each city.

The top three smart cities were all noted for very different strengths in their smart city programs. Singapore was praised for its forward-thinking infrastructure including its buildings, transportation and use of underground space. London was commended for its focus on communities when implementing technology. One respondent described London as a honey pot of technologies and partnerships. Barcelona was noted for its top-level government driving change.

>See also: Smart cities: the concept vs reality

Collaboration is key. For cities to truly benefit from the potential that smart cities offer, a change in mindset is required where local authorities plan longer and across multiple departments, said Andreas Knobloch, alliance specialist at Philips Lighting.

We must think of city-wide systems as one ecosystem working together. At the same time, we all  technologists, local governments, businesses, environmentalists and the general public  must help to build the investment case to enable cities to successfully implement smart city programs.

Source: http://www.information-age.com/advanced-smart-cities-world-123470745/Police Chief Michael Wynn congratulates James Parise for his appointment as police sergeant.

PCTV Channels Moving, Pittsfield Joins Lawsuit Over Opioids



PCTV is unhappy that its low-number channels are being moved by Spectrum because of its new digital signaling.

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  PCTV is not happy with Spectrum moving the local access channels.



The cable company is moving Pittsfield Community Television's three channels  Access Pittsfield, CityLink, and Pittsfield ETV  from Channels 16,17, and 18 to 1301,1302, and 1303 on March 6. Additionally, the company is encrypting the digital signal, so in order to get the stations, the customer needs to rent a cable box.



"By encrypting their channels they will force all cable subscribers to rent one cable box for each of the televisions in their home. That means all televisions, even newer ones, will need a cable box to receive any cable channels from Spectrum. This will place an undue and unwelcome burden on the most vulnerable people in our community  the elderly, folks on fixed incomes  as many of them can't afford the extra $6 to $8 per television to continue to watch even the basic tier of channels," Executive Director Shawn Serre said.



He said the additional cost is "unacceptable." But, also what is unacceptable for Serre is moving the public channels away from the lower tier. That'll make it more difficult for residents to find them. Serre said the current channels will go black on March 6.



"Many viewers will think that they've lost these channels or they are no longer operating. Viewers who normally channel surf in the lower tier of channels are used to easily finding their City Council meetings, school committee meetings, high school sports, and all of the other good, local programming they can find on PCTV," Serre said.



Serre called on the City Council to help get the word out and to fight the cable company's decision. He asked the City Council for support Tuesday night.



"This is the cable company's strategy to marginalize local programming. Let me assure you that we at PCTV are just as frustrated with this planned change as you and your constituents must be," Serre said.



In other business, the city is joining a nationwide lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies for fueling the opioid epidemic. The firm Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Rafferty & Proctor is asking cities and towns to join the litigation suing the major companies for the costs cities and towns bear to combat the opioid crisis.



"We would have the potential to recover funds that would help us pay for the impacts the opioid crisis has had on our community," Mayor Linda Tyer said. "We pay nothing ... if they were to succeed, if they were able to recover funds on our behalf, they'd get 25 percent,"



City Solicitor Richard Dohoney said the suit is a multi-district litigation, in which numerous suits are being grouped together by regions. He compared it to former suits against big tobacco companies that resulted in anti-smoking advertising and programs the companies are still required to pay for. The state of Massachusetts, at the time, also got monetary compensation. There are numerous ways any type of settlement or judgment could play out, he said.



"Clearly it has been a long time coming for our communities, our country, to go after these pharmaceutical companies for what they've done to our communities," Council Vice President John Krol said. "It is a huge economic impact for Pittsfield and many other communities. This is a step in the right direction, we should aggressively go after these companies."

Susan Puddester and Chris Kapiloff disagreed about the number of dwelling units that should be allowed per structure in a proposed zoning district.

Williamstown Planning Board Weighs Proposal for New Zoning Districts



The proposed new zoning districts in the draft bylaw; all currently are part of the General Residence district. WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  The Planning Board on Tuesday debated the nuances of a zoning bylaw amendment it hopes will change the way the town regulates housing in its most populated district.

The board intends to ask town meeting to carve four new zoning districts out of the current General Residence District.

The intent is to both recognize how those neighborhoods were developed prior to the town's mid-'50s adoption of a zoning ordinance and to give property owners a path to creating small-scale multi-family housing on single-family lots.

The bylaw is the outcome of a year-long Planning Board study undertaken with a grant from the Massachusetts Housing Partnership that included community outreach sessions and sought to find ways to address the "missing middle" of housing options between detached single-family homes and large apartment complexes.

Just as important for the planners is the need to rationalize the town's code to reflect what already exists in the current General Residence district and bring properties that were "grandfathered" in as pre-existing, non-complying developments into compliance.

"This is an effort to make our zoning reflect the built environment on the ground that everybody likes," Planning Board Chairman Chris Kapiloff said on Tuesday night. "We're not trying to take building lots with lots of frontage and squish them down.  We're trying to make the law match what's actually there.

"I don't think there will be any lots where you can chop it in half and build two homes between two existing homes."

That said, many residents would have the option to create "detached accessory dwelling units," if they comply with setback requirements or more easily convert existing secondary buildings (garages, carriage houses) into apartments under the proposed bylaw.

The centerpiece is the creation of four new districts: Campus Residence, which mostly runs along the west side of Southworth Street; Mill Village Residence 1, which runs along the Hoosic River and includes the former Photech Mill property at 330 Cole Ave.; Mill Village Residence 2, a larger swath that runs to the south of MV1; and Village Residence, the largest new district in terms of acreage, which extends from Church Street at its northern extreme south to just beyond Main Street (Route 2).

"In a nutshell ... the current zone is entirely General Residence, a 100-foot frontage, 10,000-square-foot area zone," Town Planner and Community Development Director Andrew Groff wrote in an email regarding the bylaw proposal on Tuesday. "This, of course, makes the majority of the neighborhood non conforming dimensionally. One goal of this project is the make the zoning conform with what's already on the ground. Hopefully making it easier for folks to do simple projects like replacing a front porch."

For example, instead of that 100-foot frontage/10,000 square-foot minimum acreage in the current GR district, the already more densely developed Mill Village 1 district would have a 50-foot frontage and 5,000 square foot requirement as the bylaw is currently drafted.

In the proposed VR district, the dimensions would be more open but somewhat denser than the current GR, dropping the square footage requirement to 9,000 square feet and the minimum lot frontage to 80 feet.

The numbers were generated by a survey of what already existed in the various neighborhoods.

In addition to setting the rules for a detached accessory dwelling unit, the proposed new rules would create the opportunity to develop multi-unit housing.

As drafted, properties in MV1 would be allowed up to six dwelling units in a structure by right. MV2 would be allowed up to four units by right and up to six by special permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals. VR would be allowed up to three units by special permit from the ZBA. Campus Residence, where many of the properties are owned by Williams College, would be allowed up to six units by right and up to eight by special permit.

Those rules, drafted by a Planning Board working group along with Groff, generated most of the discussion at Tuesday's meeting.

"It's really hard for me to get behind allowing by-right structural changes in our poorer neighborhoods [MV1 and MV2] and allowing them by special permit in our wealthier neighborhoods," Kapiloff said. "I really don't care whether they're by-right or by special permit, but I feel strongly they should be the same.

"Those areas are divided by income.  I don't feel comfortable having a different set of rules for different economic groups. [As currently drafted, the bylaw would say], if you live in a higher income neighborhood, your voice is gets to be heard."

Chris Winters noted that the flip side of Kapiloff's argument would be that property owners in the MV1 and MV2 districts would have more rights associated with their land than landowners in the proposed VR district.

Kapiloff remained unconvinced and told his colleagues he could not support the bylaw as currently written with what he perceived to be built-in socio-economic distinctions.

He also raised practical concerns about the draft bylaw's allowance of up to three dwelling units per structure in the Village Residence district.

He suggested that bylaw has a better chance of meeting the two-thirds threshold needed for passage at town meeting if that number was reduced to two dwelling units per structure.

"The vast majority of people I've talked to in the last few months, when they hear three units,' they think landlord and investment property, and that's not our vision," Kapiloff said. "I think our vision is to still have owner-occupied homes  and not to have a place where people see it as a monetary investment with tenants coming and going."

Amy Jeschawitz, who helped draft the proposed bylaw, agreed.



The draft bylaw's dimensional table. Elements in red are proposed changes to the dimensional table in the zoning bylaw. "We've put a lot of thought into this the last two years," she said. "We're thinking about how we can increase housing for people who want to move to town and also accommodate people who want to downsize and allow seniors to stay in their homes.

"That's really how this came about. It has nothing to do with landlords and that.  It's about how to increase what we have in our community because, for 30 years, we haven't allowed it in our zoning. We only allow single-family homes in lots that have existed forever or you have to buy a huge lot. It comes down to: Does our community want to make that change."

Kapiloff, who reminded his colleagues that he has lived in Williamstown since he was 3 years old, told them he thought the bylaw had "a 20 percent chance of passing" with three units per structure in the VR district.

Susan Puddester told Kapiloff she would rather see bylaw allow up to four units in the VR district because the larger homes there could accommodate more residents.

"There are pretty good examples in town of places where it's done this way," Puddester said. "You can't tell if it's a single family or four living there.

"Maybe it should be a separate warrant article, but I'd hate to see this go any less than three [units] because it defeats the purpose we've been working toward."

Kapiloff said he did not disagree that three is a laudable goal but suggested it is better to take a first step of allowing two units and then, in a few years, when residents see "the world hasn't come to an end," come back and suggest up to three.

"My argument is not about the merits of what Williamstown needs for housing," Kapiloff said. "My argument is about what could pass. I'd rather pass something that would literally allow us to double the number of units.  I think the chance of passing three units is very small.

"There are a lot more people who would like to build one extra unit. We're satisfying the need of the majority of people we know about right now [by allowing two units]. If it works well, we can go back to town and talk about going from two to three. Make that jump at once, and I think we're spinning our wheels."

The Planning Board's next meeting is scheduled for March 6.Adams to Apply For Grant Funds For Memorial Building



The Selectmen voted to apply for CDBG funds for the Memorial Building.

ADAMS, Mass.  The town will pursue Community Development Block Grant funds to install a heating and air-conditioning system in the Memorial Building.

After a public hearing Wednesday when Community Development Director Donna Cesan outlined the up to $550,000 grant, the Selectmen voted to go all in on the former school building this application cycle.

"We have worked through these issues and carefully evaluated the building for future use as a community center," Cesan said. "The project is consistent with the downtown plan and with our community development strategy."

The CDBG fund comes through U.S. Housing and Urban Development and must be applied for each year.

The former middle school has been closed for some time now and although past CDBG funds were used to replace the roof, the building cannot be fully utilized without an HVAC system.

Cesan said the new efficient system would be far better than the current antiquated defunct HVAC and work would be focused on the gymnasium and auditorium area. She added that improved windows and doors would be installed.

She noted that the original plan still stands, and the town would seek private interest in the classroom wing for possible housing development.

When the board opened up the hearing to the public, developer Richard Solis expressed his interest in developing the classroom wing of the building and building market-rate housing.

"This just seems very intriguing to me, and I have not heard of mixed uses like this done in any town," he said. "I think it is a fantastic idea."

Solis said he has developed similar projects throughout the county and is open to working with the town and meeting its needs. One of his projects is the Dalton Senior Home, formerly Curtis Manor, that was renovated for senior housing a few years ago.

"What I am here to say is that if anybody in the town is willing to work with me I would be willing to work with them to just do some brainstorming to see what is the best idea for the town," he said.

He said he did walk through the building and noted it is "built like a tank" and added that he did have a rough schematic drawn up and would be looking at possibly developing 20 units just in the classroom wing of the building.

Chairman John Duval said he was in favor of market-rate housing and noted the town already has enough low-income housing.

"That is where we need to go we need more moderate-income housing," he said. "We hire hundreds of young engineers at General Dynamics and we are always trying to find housing for them."

Selectman Joseph Nowak said he was in the last class to graduate when it was a high school in 1970 and is glad to see that there is an interest in the building.

"This building has gone through many different phases and many different ideas and it has been a sore point for some people," he said. "What I have heard tonight encourages me quite a bit  it is good to know someone is interested"

The board heard from other attendees including Council on Aging Director Erica Girgenti who said the school could be used as the Council on Aging.

She said the current facility at the Visitors Center just does not have enough space for the communities growing senior population.

"We are busting at the seams and we have a lot of usage and people interested in the building, but we are running out of space," she said. "It would benefit our community members more to have a larger space."

She said the extra space would allow the Council on Aging to expand programming and perhaps hire a program coordinator.

Richard Tavelli with the Adams Arts Advisory Committee also had ideas for the building.

"There are a lot of different programs that we are considering and that would be a great use for us to have this kind of facility," he said. "There is a marvelous auditorium with a stage and a large gym that can be used for different programming."

He added that the building would also allow the committee to host classes.

"We have a dazzling array of sculptors, painters, writers and creative people who would be willing to present their skills to people and help them if they wanted to peruse and artistic endeavor."

The board also heard from Emergency Management Director Dick Kleiner who said with an HVAC system the building could be a true emergency shelter.

Cesan said the construction itself is anticipated to cost $450,000 and the rest of the grant used for administrative costs and grant execution.

She said if the town receives the funds the construction could start this fall.

Also in regard to the Memorial Building, the Selectmen approved Berkshire Music School's request to use the facility to stage, paint and decorate pianos from around the county for the Summer Music Painted Piano Program in the former shop in the building.

"Pianos collected from throughout the county are going to be decorated here in the school," Tavelli said. "It will serve as a collection and workstation for the artists. The pianos will be placed throughout the county."

He said the program is in celebration of Leonard Bernstein's 100 birthday. The famed composer and conductor was born in Lawrence on Aug. 25, 1918, and was a frequent performer with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, giving his final performance at Tanglewood in 1990.



iciHaiti - Canada : Tour organized in the heart of Haitian voodoo





Sagrado Adventure Travel Tours, a tour operator from Prince Edward Island (Canada), is offering a 7-day tour from March 28 to April 4 "Sacred Vodou Tour" and promises travelers an immersion in the voodoo culture of Haiti and visits to sacred sites. Accommodation in Port-au-Prince.



"Many people in North America have a negative and erroneous view of sacred voodoo," says David MacKay of Sagrado Tours who has been working on sustainable development projects in Haiti for several years "Through my research and my experiences, I found a very positive and soothing religion [...] Museums, voodoo temples, the fall of Saut-d'Eau... There are so many beautiful places to visit," convinced that many negative opinions about voodoo outside Haiti, date from the time of the dictatorship of the Duvaliers.



On its website www.sagradotours.ca/tours/ the tour operator says it supports financially organizations dedicated to agricultural development in Haiti. David MacKay points out in this regard, that part of the profits from this Tour organized, will be invested in the development of Leogane (South of Port-au-Prince).



IH/ iciHaiti





















This Isnt Our Last Love Letter



Dear Don Don,

Way back in 92



I walked into the room and knew



Never felt this way before



I shook your hand while gazing into your eyes



And the feeling grew



As I took a seat I knew



A love that would have my heart



Forever



I knew



Way back in 92





They say love at first sight doesnt always last or isnt true



We were the exception to that rule



Our love had no where to hide



A spark set fire



As if this is how the universe started





I never doubted our love or what we could do



Together we grew



Forming a bond everlasting



That became our glue



My euphoria was YOU



Im eternally grateful for the love and life we shared



For how fortunate we were :



to have and to hold

through sickness and in health

Til death do us part



Until we are together again



This isnt our last love letter



I love you with all my heart and soul



Yours forever,



Deirdre (Mrs. Hank Snow)





Im fortunate to have fallen in love with, marry and make a life with the sharpest, coolest, funniest, most rare, bad ass, tender loving, loyal man on the planet, my husband Don Imus.









A True American Hero

I dont know why it has been so hard for me to write about my dear friend Don Imus.



I certainly know what he meant to me, my family, my charity, my hospital and the millions of fans that listened and loved him for so many years.



I keep reading all the beautiful condolences that people are writing about how much a part of their lives were effected by listening to him over the years.

But what most people dont talk enough about is what he did for all of us.

In every sense of the word, he was an American Hero. His work with children with so many different illnesses and his dedication to their future was unmatched by anyone I have ever known or heard about.



Besides raising over $100,000,000 for so many causes, he took care of young people for over 20 years in a state where he could not breathe. Along with his incredible wife Deirdre, he created a world where children were not defined by their disease. That was a miracle! He was a miracle.

I will miss him ever day for the rest of my life.

I was blessed to be a part of his and Deirdes life.

No one will ever do what he did.

I love you Don Imus - A TRUE AMERICAN HERO





David Jurist

IMUS IN THE MORNING

FIRST DAY BACK!One of Britain's most instantly recognisable public sculptures, the Angel of the North, turns 20 years old today.

Antony Gormley's famous figure of a divine being, its arms outstretched in an ecstatic embrace, stands on top of Birtley hill at Low Eighton in Lamesley near Gateshead, looking out over the North East and the A1 and A167 into Tyneside.

The steel giant was commissioned in 1994 and completed in February 1998 at a cost of 800,000, much of which was provided by the National Lottery.

It stands at 20 metres tall and has a wingspan of 54 metres, its body weighing 100 tonnes and each wing 50 tonnes, built to withstand Tyne and Wear's notoriously chill winds.

The figure was built at Hartlepool Steel Fabrications under the supervision of structural engineer Ove Arup and had to be transported to its current location in three parts by convoy.

Families sledging under the Angel of the North (PA)

Gormley's design, according to the artist himself, symbolises the transition from the industrial to the information age and stands proudly as a beacon of hope for the future of the region.

Its site was chosen as a memorial to the coal miners who toiled in the dark earth beneath the hill to bring prosperity and wealth to the North East in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Now recognised as a beloved regional and national landmark, wryly nicknamed "the Gateshead Flasher" in some quarters, its original conception was met with a degree of hostility, not least from certain local councillors and campaigners.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures 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 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

Arguably the moment that truly enshrined the Angel in the hearts of Geordies came in the run up to the 1998 FA Cup Final, when prankster Kevin Waugh and friends contrived to hoist a mock Newcastle United shirt onto the statue bearing the name and number nine of centre forward Alan Shearer.

Shearer himself was delighted by the stunt and happily signed the 30 foot shirt in tribute.From #OscarsSoWhite to Donald Ducks tenure as host, almost every Oscars ceremony has proven controversial to some capacity. This year will not be any different: there have already been backlashes against the majority of Best Picture nominees, including people calling Three Billboards sympathetic towards racists and racists calling Get Out racist. Keeping up with what people are infuriated with has proven difficult.

As a result, weve decided to briefly look at the various backlashes facing this years competitors, ranging from the completely justified to the somewhat ridiculous.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Perhaps the best known backlash, many people have taken issue with Sam Rockwells racist, moronic police officer. Some commentators feel the characters apparent redemptive arch seems sympathetic towards someone who acknowledges torturing a black man and often dances around the N-word. Three Billboards also concentrates on the white perspective, rather than offering that of a person of colour.

Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Show all 34 1 /34 Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Picture Darkest Hour Rex Features Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Picture Call Me by Your Name Sony Pictures Classics Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Picture Dunkirk Warner Bros. Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Picture Get Out Universal Pictures Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Picture Lady Bird Moviestore/Rex Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Picture Phantom Thread Universal Pictures Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Picture The Post Twentieth Century Fox Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Picture The Shape of Water Twentieth Century Fox Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Picture Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 20th Century Fox Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Actress Sally Hawkins in 'The Shape of Water' Twentieth Century Fox Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Actress Frances McDormand in 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Actress Margot Robbie in 'I, TONYA' Neon Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Actress Saoirse Ronan as Lady Bird McPherson in 'Lady Bird' Moviestore/REX Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Actress Meryl Streep in 'The Post' Twentieth Century Fox Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Actor Timothee Chalamet as Elio in 'Call Me by Your Name' Sony Pictures Classics Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Actor Daniel Day-Lewis as Reynolds Woodcock in 'Phantom Thread' Annapurna Pictures/Kobal/Rex Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Actor Daniel Kaluuya as Chris Washington in 'Get Out' Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Actor Gary Oldman won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in 'Darkest Hour' Rex Features Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Actor Denzel Washington as Roman J. Israel Esq. Columbia Pictures Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Supporting Actress Mary J. Blige as Florence Jackson in 'Mudbound' Netflix Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Supporting Actress Allison Janney as LaVona Golden in 'I, Tonya' Neon Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Supporting Actress Lesley Manville as Cyril in 'Phantom Thread' Focus Features/Kobal/REX Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Supporting Actress Laurie Metcalf as Marion McPherson in 'Lady Bird' Universal Pictures/Kobal/REX Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Supporting Actress Sally Hawkins next to nominated Octavia Spencer in 'The Shape of Water' Twentieth Century Fox Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Supporting Actor Sam Rockwell as Dixon in 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' Twentieth Century Fox Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Supporting Actor Christopher Plummer as J. Paul Getty in 'All the Money in the World' Sony Pictures Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Supporting Actor Willem Dafoe as Bobby in the 'The Florida Project' Rex Features Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Supporting Actor Woody Harrelson as Willoughby in 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' Twentieth Century Fox Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Supporting Actor Richard Jenkins as Giles in 'The Shape of Water' Twentieth Century Fox Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Director Christopher Nolan on the set of 'Dunkirk' Warner Bros/Kobal/REX Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Director Jordan Peele directed 'Get Out' AFP/Getty Images Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Director Greta Gerwig directed 'Lady Bird' Getty Images for National Board of Review Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Director Paul Thomas Anderson directed 'Phantom Thread' Getty Images for Vanity Fair Oscar nominations 2018: in pictures Best Director Guillermo del Torro on the set of 'The Shape of Water' Twentieth Century Fox

April Wolfe writes for the Village Voice: [Director Martin] McDonagh painstakingly humanises a character who we find has unapologetically tortured a black man in police custody... and then Three Billboards seems to ask audiences to forgive and forget wrongs like police violence, domestic abuse, and sexual assault without demonstrating a full understanding of the centuries-long toll these crimes have taken on victims in real life.

The backlash against the Golden Globe-winning movie has gotten so great that McDonagh has responded, arguing that the character does not redeem himself. He starts off as a racist jerk, the director said. Hes the same pretty much at the end, but, by the end, hes seen that he has to change. There is room for it, and he has, to a degree, seen the error of his ways, but in no way is he supposed to become some sort of redeemed hero of the piece. McDonagh added that the story arch is deliberately messy because its a messy and difficult world.

The Shape of Water

 The Shape Of Water - Trailer

With 13 nominations over various categories, The Shape of Water has become a favourite to win the ceremonys biggest prize. However, theres been some controversy in recent months after Guillermo del Toro was accused of plagiarising the story from a famed American author.

David Zindel  son of Paul Zindel  claims the story copies from his fathers Let Me Hear You Whisper, a play concerning a female janitor who falls in love with a captured dolphin. She eventually attempts to save the creature, who researchers keep in a laboratory. We are shocked that a major studio could make a film so obviously derived from my late fathers work without anyone recognising it and coming to us for the rights, the statement reads.

The Shape of Water follows a mute woman  played by Sally Hawkins  who attempts to save a monstrous, sea-dwelling creature from a laboratory after they fall in love. Del Toro previously said the idea originated partly from a conversation with novelist Daniel Kraus, while Fox has denied the allegations arguing that the director/screenwriter has always been very open about acknowledging his influences but has not seen Zindels play. The Shape of Water remains one of the frontrunners for Original Screenplay.

Darkest Hour

 Darkest Hour - Trailer 2

Theres no doubt the growing #MeToo and Times Up movements will have some part to play this Oscars ceremony. Following a Golden Globes win, allegations made against Gary Oldman by ex-wife Donya Fiorentino were once again published by various outlets. Although the actor was never found guilty and continues to deny the allegations, Fiorentino has recently spoken to publications about their marriage. It remains to be seen whether the accusations will stop Oldman from taking home the Oscar for Best Actor  for which he remains frontrunner  or the movie from taking home Best Picture.

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Theres also been some backlash against a certain scene in Darkest Hour concerning a tube ride. Director Joe Wright has defended the sequence as a fictionalisation of an emotional truth, but many people detest the moment and its historical inaccuracies. Is it right to be so overtly fictional in a film thats so steeped in history, particularly relatively recent history? asks Den of Geek. And is it the right approach when the scene appears to be taking so many people out of the film altogether? That complaints are not in short supply that it breaks the tone of the film?

Dunkirk

 Dunkirk - Trailer

Another World War II flick, Christopher Nolans Dunkirk left many cinema-goers with their nerves shaken and jaws on the floor. However, many have commented on the apparent whitewashing of Britains army  only white men are given prominent roles throughout Dunkirk, with few people of colour seen throughout the movie.

It erases the Royal Indian Army Services Corp companies, which were not only on the beach, but tasked with transporting supplies over terrain that was inaccessible for the British Expeditionary Forces motorised transport companies, writes Sunny Singh in The Guardian. It also ignores the fact that by 1938, lascars  mostly from South Asia and East Africa  counted for one of four crewmen on British merchant vessels, and thus participated in large numbers in the evacuation.

The Times of India also addressed the issue, saying the significant contribution made by Indian soldiers was missing from Nolans otherwise brilliant work. Nolan has not publicly commented on the backlash yet.

Call Me By Your Name

The Independents movie of 2017, Call Me By Your Name caused some controversy in America for featuring a gay romance between a 24-year-old and 17-year-old. Conservative author Chad Felix Green took issues with the ages on Twitter, actor James Woodsadding: As they quietly chip away the last barriers of decency.

While conservatives may have been angered by the story, Armie Hammer stood by the movie, writing back to Woods: Didnt you date a 19 year old when you were 60? The actor was referring to a relationship between Woods and ex-girlfriend Ashley Madison, who reportedly began dating aged 60 and 19, respectively.

Get Out

 Get Out - Trailer

Jordan Peeles horror was always going to annoy a few people, casting seemingly liberal white people as the antagonists. Some offended viewers labelled Get Out racist to which Peele responded, via BET: People that are calling it racist havent seen it. Leading actor Daniel Kaluuya added: If that offends you and a Black kid getting shot by police doesnt, somethings not real, something is.

The rest

There are three other movies  Lady Bird, Phantom Thread, and The Post  that have caused less of an uproar. Lady Bird has been called out by some publications for featuring purely white feminism while some conservatives were put off Steven Spielbergs movie due to the timely comment on Donald Trumps negative view of the press. Phantom Thread has caused the least uproar, people mainly enjoying Daniel Day-Lewiss last on-screen performance. Whether that means the movie will come out winner will be announced on the 4 March. Just remember, the Oscars have never shied away from picking a controversial winner.Adult actress Stormy Daniels believes she is now free to talk about her alleged relationship with the President after accusing Donald Trumps personal lawyer of breaching a non-disclosure agreement.

A manager of the actress, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said that lawyer Michael Cohns admission that he paid the actress $130,000 represented a breach of the contract they had. As a result, Ms Daniels, who has until now has neither confirmed or denied having a relationship with Mr Trump, believes she is free to speak.

Everything is off now, and Stormy is going to tell her story, the actors manager, Gina Rodriguez, told the Associated Press.

 Stormy Daniels obliquely denies having written statement on Trump affair

Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported that Ms Daniels had been paid $130,000 shortly before the 2016 election to keep quiet about alleged relationship she had with Mr Trump in 2006 - a year after he got married.

Both Mr Trump and Ms Daniels denied there had been any relationship, even though she had provided details of the affair to In Touch magazine in 2011. That interview was only published recently.

In the wake of the Journal story, Ms Daniels issued a statement denying the affair ever took place. She also refused to confirm or deny a relationship when she appeared on prime time television on the night the Presidents State of the Union address.

The fact of the matter is that each party to this alleged affair denied its existence in 2006, 2011, 2017 and again in 2018, she said in a statement. 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.

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

Yet earlier this week, Mr Cohen told the New York Times he had paid the money to Ms Daniels and had done so using money from his own pocket. The statement was widely interpreted as an attempt to distance Mr Trump or his campaign from the payment.

Neither the Trump Organisation nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly, Mr Cohen told the Times. The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone.

Ms Rodriguez said her client will soon announce how and when she will tell her story publicly.Rapper Cakes da Killa - who asked white attendees to leave the stage during his show for Black History Month - has hit back at a news report which he says insinuated he's racist.

The LGBTQ rapper - also known as Rashard Bradshaw - made the request on Saturday ahead of playing one of his songs with Honey Dijon at a New York City nightclub event called "Battle Hymn."

He told the audience, "When I said it was Black History Month, I mean, like, I need all you blacks on the stage."

Cakes then commented on white privilege adding, "Shut the privilege at the door."

In response to an article published by Metro - with the headline: "rapper orders white people off stage because its Black History Month" - he said: "For Metro to take a small light-hearted moment of empowerment in a sweaty gay nightclub in midtown (predominantly filled with gay white males) and flip it to insinuate I may be racist for clickbait is just bad journalism," he explained. "Very lowbrow. I do feel like Metro proved my point. Even though I didnt set out to prove a point in the first place."

At the same time, Cakes received a lot of support on Twitter for shining a light on the black community.

One commenter said "Your Black is beautiful."

Another wrote "Protect @CAKESDAKILLA at all costs."

"White ego is fragile, across the board," he continued.

Cakes went onto explain how the article unleashed a slew of racism against him, but it wouldn't get the same attention.

"How odd that the same day Metros article went live a white porn star bursted into my Twitter feed defending his right to say n*****," Cakes said. "He then went on to call his fan base, who rushed to his defence, his n*****s. There will be no article about that. Just like there will be no article about the white males who have attacked me since the piece came out. Luckily, as an African American gay male living in America Ive grown tough skin. Ill survive."

Cakes added that it "wasn't my intention" to offend anyone, but contemplated what the "real issue" surrounding the situation was.

"Was it really that problematic to shine a metaphorical spotlight on the few African American attendees even for a few minutes, during a 6-hour event, being deejayed by an American trans woman...during Black History Month? he questioned. "I see no issue."

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Instead, the 27-year-old musician said that he saw "a fluff piece that unfortunately reinforces negative stereotypes about black males & black voices."

He concluded, "I wasnt being demanding. I wasnt being malicious. Hell, I wasnt even being racist. I was actually having a lovely time and will continue to do so with crowds of various orientations, nationalities, colours and walks of life.

Cakes said that everyone was ushered off the stage regardless of his remarks and that no-one from Metro had reached out to him for a comment.

At the end of the day, Cakes was using his platform to highlight black individuals and give a voice to the community.Chemicals in everyday consumer products including soaps and paints have been revealed as a major source of air pollution comparable with emissions from the transport sector.

Research suggests products like soap and paints emit significant quantities of petroleum-based chemicals, rivalling cars and other vehicles as the top source of urban air pollution.

Air pollution has been ranked as the fifth highest health risk in the world and is estimated to kill 40,000 people in the UK every year.

Governments around the world are under increasing pressure to clean up their air and the UK has faced legal threats both at home and from the EU over its dangerous levels of pollutants, particularly nitrogen dioxide.

The study comes on the day the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) released its latest emissions figures, which showed an overall decline in air pollution. This has been attributed largely to tighter vehicle regulations.

However, the new research suggests a need to diversify regulatory efforts beyond road traffic in order to make a dent in some of the toxic chemicals infiltrating urban environments.

Recommended Germany plans to trial free public transport to fight pollution

As transportation gets cleaner, those other sources become more and more important, said Dr Brian McDonald, a researcher in the Chemical Sciences Division at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which led the study. The NOAA is a scientific agency within the US government that focuses on the oceans and atmosphere.

The stuff we use in our everyday lives can impact air pollution.

The study, published in the journal Science, looked specifically at the contribution these substances make to air pollution by releasing volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

VOCs are chemicals that, upon entering the air, can react to produce both fine particulate matter and ozone  two substances that are regulated widely due to their severe effects on lung health.

These compounds are found in a variety of places, including commonly used household and industrial products such as pesticides, printing inks, adhesives, cleaning agents and personal care products, all of which contain petroleum.

Dr McDonald and his colleagues concluded these products were responsible for half of fossil fuel VOC emissions in industrialised cities. This is particularly surprising considering only around 5 per cent of raw oil is refined into chemicals for consumer products, while 95 per cent ends up in fuels.

Thick smog engulfs New Delhi as air pollution peaks in the city Show all 10 1 /10 Thick smog engulfs New Delhi as air pollution peaks in the city Thick smog engulfs New Delhi as air pollution peaks in the city A battery run tricylce rickshaw passes by the Red Fort amid heavy smog in New Delhi AFP/Getty Images Thick smog engulfs New Delhi as air pollution peaks in the city Indian visitors walking through the courtyard of Jama Masjid amid heavy smog AFP/Getty Images Thick smog engulfs New Delhi as air pollution peaks in the city An Indian policeman wearing a protection mask as he works near India Gate AFP/Getty Images Thick smog engulfs New Delhi as air pollution peaks in the city New Delhi during heavy smog REUTERS Thick smog engulfs New Delhi as air pollution peaks in the city Indian commuters wait for transport amid thick blanket of smog on the outskirts of New Delhi AP Thick smog engulfs New Delhi as air pollution peaks in the city Prince Charles and Camilla arrived at Indira Gandhi International Airport surrounded by smog on November 8 Getty Images Thick smog engulfs New Delhi as air pollution peaks in the city Prince Charles and Camilla depart their plane in New Delhi to smog Getty Images Thick smog engulfs New Delhi as air pollution peaks in the city The morning sun is enveloped by a blanket of smog on the outskirts of New Delhi AP Thick smog engulfs New Delhi as air pollution peaks in the city Indian residents walking along a road amid heavy smog AFP/Getty Images Thick smog engulfs New Delhi as air pollution peaks in the city A woman drives a scooter through the morning fog to drop off a child at school AP

The scientists found that, in the US, the amount of VOCs emitted by consumer and industrial products is up to three times greater than estimated by current air pollution inventories. These inventories also overestimate the contribution made by road vehicles.

While it seems unusual that something as innocuous as a perfume can have an impact on air pollution comparable with road traffic, the researchers said this can partly be explained by the role some of these consumer products are designed for.

Gasoline is stored in closed, hopefully airtight, containers and the VOCs in gasoline are burned for energy, said NOAA atmospheric scientist Dr Jessica Gilman, a co-author of the new paper.

But volatile chemical products used in common solvents and personal care products are literally designed to evaporate. You wear perfume or use scented products so that you or your neighbour can enjoy the aroma. You dont do this with gasoline.

Furthermore, while the UK and many other countries have been described as having life-threatening levels of air pollution and vehicles have often taken the blame, regulators and car manufacturers have actually made significant pollution-limiting interventions in recent years.

This is even true in Los Angeles, a heavily polluted city with famously high levels of traffic.

Having sifted through chemical production statistics from industries and regulatory agencies, the scientists used LA as a case study in their research. They found the city had reached the transition point at which consumer products begin to take over cars as the main polluters.

Analysis of LA air found that, perhaps predictably, people were exposed to particularly high levels of VOCs from everyday products indoors  around 10 times the amount found outdoors.

These indoor concentrations then act as sources for outdoor air pollution as the pollutants seep into the urban environment.

The research was welcomed by scientists who commented on the value of highlighting a largely overlooked source of air pollution. However, they noted the US teams findings may not necessarily be applicable everywhere.

This research is a useful reminder that discussions of air pollution need to consider all sources of pollutants and that measures targeting cars only address part of the problem, said Professor Anthony Frew, a respiratory medicine specialist at Brighton and Sussex Medical School.

Dr Jenifer Baxter, an engineer at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said: This research from the US is interesting and would require further validation in order to understand how it may translate to other parts of the world.

 Sadiq Khan calls air pollution in London a killer

In the UK, VOC emissions from products used in our built environment, such as internal and external paints, are covered by EU Directives meaning that the legislative framework is very different to the US.

Restrictions on tailpipe emissions in the EU have led to a decline in VOCs from cars since the turn of the century and the National Emissions Ceilings Directive has set targets to reduce them further in member states. In the UK they have fallen by 33 per cent since 2005.

A Defra spokesperson said: Air pollution has improved significantly since 2010, but we recognise there is more to do and thats why we have invested 3.5bn to improve air quality and reduce harmful emissions.

Emissions from non-methane VOCs in consumer products will be considered as part of our Clean Air Strategy which will be published for consultation later this year.

According to the scientists, this work raises highlights the need to investigate more environmentally friendly ways of producing certain household products.

Despite the surprising findings concerning the impact of these substances in relation to vehicle emissions, they also warned this work should not distract from the important business of combating car pollution.

This work doesnt mean that traffic is unimportant, said Professor Frew.

Traffic remains an important source of pollution and we still need to reduce the number of vehicle-miles driven per year by personal and commercial vehicles.Sparkling red wine still has a hard time shaking off its reputation for being sweet, cheap and a bit naff. However, the latest wave of sparkling reds are anything but  complex, sophisticated and extremely versatile, these underrated styles are well overdue their time in the spotlight. Although it is still a relatively niche area of wine production, theres so much more on offer than lambrusco (that said, lambrusco itself is having something of a revival, and we've included some of our favourites on this list).

Italy boasts the most varieties of sparkling reds, with lambrusco being the most well-known. We think its telling that it comes from the Emilia-Romagna region, which also happens to be the home of delicious parmigiano, parma ham and balsamic vinegar. For something sweeter and lighter that works well with fruity desserts, opt for a brachetto from Piedmont with its naturally low ABV. Over in Australia, youll find sparkling shiraz is drunk at everything from brunch through to barbeques. Even Portugal is getting in on the act with its refreshing baga grapes creating zesty red sparklers.

Pairing well with rich, tomato-based pasta dishes, charcuterie and stews, these wines drink well all year round. Giving red wine drinkers something to quaff come summer, and fizz fanatics another option when theyve reached peak prosecco (which surely we have by now?), sparkling reds are the wine were championing this year.

Serve lightly chilled and enjoy while young  this isnt one to be saving for a special occasion. And thanks to the mostly accessible price points (especially when compared to champagne), they neednt be saved for best. The team at Crummbs bring you the best sparkling red wines for all occasions.

You can trust our independent reviews. We may earn commission from some of the retailers, but we never allow this to influence selections, which are formed from real-world testing and expert advice. This revenue helps us to fund journalism across The Independent.

La Battagliola Lambrusco "Dosage 15", 12%: 15, Borough Wines

Leading the lambrusco revival is this excellent example from Italian wine producer Alberto Salvadori. Suitably decadent, with dark ripe fruit and a touch of spiciness, we found it really comes into its own when paired with the right food. A plate of charcuterie will bring this alive, as will the rather less obvious but rather excellent pairing of oysters, thanks to its dry, frothy finish.

Buy now

M&S Lambrusco Secco Reggiano NV, 11%: 9, Marks & Spencer

One of the best examples of lambrusco we could find from a supermarket, this is crisp and refreshing but with an exciting complexity. A blend of three grapes found in central Italy  75 per cent salamino, 15 per cent lambrusco marani and 10 per cent ancellotta  the result is a fruity yet dry wine thats crying out to be enjoyed with typical Italian ingredients from the same Emilia-Romagna region  think parma ham, parmesan and balsamic vinegar.

Buy now

Tenuta di Aljano Settefilari Lambrusco Reggiano DOP, 11.5%: 10.99, Ocado

Jam-packed with red berries and underlying notes of dark chocolate, this is a fun wine that works just as well with Italian starters as it will with decadent desserts. Soft bubbles provide an uplifting quality which we found juicier and more moreish with each sip  just as a fine lambrusco should.

Buy now

Bird in Hand Sparkling Pinot Noir South Australia, 12.5%: 14.99, Waitrose

This wine is named after the Bird in Hand gold mine in operation in the Adelaide Hills wine region of South Australia through the 1800s, an area which is now home to 80 fertile acres, ideal for growing cool-climate wines. Strawberries and cream will spring to mind from the first sip of this salmon-pink-hued vino. Clean, crisp and refreshing, try with prawn and chorizo skewers fresh from the barbeque or treat guests to a celebratory aperitif in place of champagne.

Buy now

Jacob's Creek Sparkling Shiraz, 12.5%: 9.99, Ocado

If youre new to sparkling reds, this good-value bottle is a great place to start. Awarded a bronze medal at the International Wine Challenge 2008, expect rich berries lifted with a touch of spicy pepper. Well-balanced with fine bubbles, do as the Aussies do and indulge in a bottle at brunch  your bacon and eggs will thank you for it.

Buy now

Brachetto Dacqui DOCG Braida Red, Giacomo Bologna 2016, 5.5%: 16.50, Tanners

With such a low ABV (as is typical with brachetto) a bottle of this will disappear before you know it. Lightly sparkling and suitably sweet, this isnt a wine that takes itself too seriously and for that reason goes down a treat with dessert. Strawberry is the dominant flavour, so try pairing with fruit sorbets or cheesecakes.

Buy now

Luis Pato Baga Gota Rose Brut Sparkling 2012, 12%: 9.99, Portugal Vineyards

Zesty and bright, this is a classic example of Portugals sparkling red production. The baga grape is grown on chalky soil, which results in a beautifully refreshing minerality. A good balance of sour cherries and zesty citrus, the dazzling watermelon-hued red will cut through fattier cuts of slowly roasted pork.

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Ca de Noci Sottobosco, 11%: 28.99, Selfridges

A serious wine, produced in the famous Emilia-Romagna region, Ca de Noci is an organic winery run by two brothers, Giovanni and Alberto Masini (who also happen to run a walnut farm). The unusual blend of grasparossa and di montericco lambrusco grapes results in a savoury earthiness tempered with tart raspberry, which you dont often find in this type of wine. Well be drinking ours with meatballs and spaghetti.

Buy now

Blewitt Springs Estate Sparkling Shiraz, 13.5%: 9.89, Vivino

Made by Italian wine producers who upped sticks and moved to Australia, here we have a flexible fizz that can be drunk chilled or at room temperature (ideal if you dont have time to refrigerate). Created from 100 per cent shiraz grapes, its made in a very similar way to prosecco in order to retain its fruity flavour profile  you should be able to taste ripe blackcurrant. Well be enjoying ours with pepperoni pizza or barbecued ribs.

Buy now

The Verdict: Sparkling red wines

The complexity and versatility of the wine from La Battagliola is so impressive that any memories of bad sparkling red will be long forgotten. Its the sort of wine your finish without realising (youve been warned). Otherwise, Marks & Spencers lambrusco is a great price, and we adored it with antipasti.

Have we missed any brands? Do you agree with our expert's choices? Drop us a line with any feedback or questions on indybest@independent.co.uk

IndyBest product reviews are unbiased, independent advice you can trust. On some occasions, we earn revenue if you click the links and buy the products, but we never allow this to bias our coverage. The reviews are compiled through a mix of expert opinion and real-world testing.Dani Geen said I do to Zak Walton in front of 70 of their closest friends and family this past summer in a picture perfect wedding set on a California beach.

However, there was just one slight shift from tradition; the newlyweds sealed their marijuana-themed union with a dab of cannabis in front of wedding guests that were all slightly stoned.

When Dani, 32, and Zak, 31, decided to tie the knot, they knew they wanted to incorporate marijuana - and they did, around $8,000 to $10,000 ( 5,716) worth of the stuff appeared in the decor, food, and goodie bags.

According to Dani, she wanted the wedding to be classy and elegant. She told The Independent: I really wanted to show you could have a classy cannabis wedding, - and from the pictures, it is clear she pulled it off.

Featuring meticulous attention to detail, the pair made it official on the beach, at which point all the guests raised a joint to the happy couple, before continuing the party at the reception - held in a vintage house in Monterey, California.

And the reception offered wedding guests more cannabis-themed goodies, including a "budtender" tending the dab bar, medicated cotton candy made fresh, in flavours rose and lavender, which Dani said was amazing, and table arrangements and bouquets created with roses from David Austen farms and marijuana flowers.

The newlyweds first bonded over a shared love of cars, cannabis, and the beach

But the inclusion of marijuana in their wedding most-likely came as no surprise to the guests who know of the couple's passion for the plant.

The wedding flowers featured buds of marijuana

The couple, who started dating 12 years ago, on Valentines Day, have been pretty much inseparable since they met.

Dani said: We were brought together from a mutual friend, one of my best friends from childhood, who knew Zak and said Hey you are moving from San Diego to Oakland I need you to meet my friend, she is a total cannabis girl and you will get along great.

And they did, as the pair share a love for cannabis, cars, and the beach, according to Dani.

A dab bar replaced a typical bar at the California wedding

She said: We are best friends and we get along really well. We smoke together and it brings you closer. It is a wonderful plant.

While the couple fell in love when they both enjoyed marijuana recreationally, Dani feels a significant part of the closeness in their relationship now stems from the use of cannabis medicinally - as both struggle with serious medical conditions.

Our passion became a necessity for our well-being with health issues, she said.

Zak uses cannabis to treat his chronic pain

Dani suffers from fibromyalgia and Cushing syndrome, the result of adrenal tumours, and Zak suffers from chronic pain due to a herniated disk that shattered and left him with no sensory nerves in half of his body.

Dani said: Cannabis is a saviour for both of us. It means not having to deal with prescription medication.

Not a lot of people understand the emotional pain that chronic pain can take on your body. Cannabis has really been there for us.

So when the pair decided to tie the knot, they knew the plant would be part of their big day - as it just brings everyone together.

Dani wants the stigma around marijuana usage to end

As neither are heavy drinkers, Dani ditched the typical open bar in favour of "a wedding where I knew I was going to have fun. I knew I was not going to drink and get wasted. I was just going to smoke weed.

And smoke they did - alongside their guests.

At the reception, guests could partake if they wanted, or they could indulge in the cannabis-free goodies like cupcakes or the gluten-free organic cake which was non-medicated.

Cannabis cotton-candy was a hit at the wedding

For the guests who did wish to indulge in the cannabis theme of the party, the options were seemingly endless.

In addition to various delicious-sounding edibles, guests could also pick from the stocked outdoor dab bar - which Dani placed where a smoking area would typically go.

Her thought process was a dab-bar was Way better for the air and for everyone to enjoy.

And dabbing or vaporising, when you are just smoking vapour, isnt going to smell as much as smoking flowers, a condition that appeased the venue.

The wedding cake was gluten-free and organic

Unsurprisingly, only a handful of people didnt partake, according to Dani, But most people did, even if it was their first time.

That was exciting for them to try something that maybe they didnt try. People in their 70s and 80s were trying it and were so excited. They were like This is amazing!

As for Danis own usage during her big day, she said she was actually surprised she didnt partake more.

Apart from the joints at the beach, I do to a dab, one glass of champagne, and then just dabs throughout the night, being the bride meant she had to spend her time talking to wedding guests and mingling.

However, the after-party was a different story. According to Dani, the little bit of cannabis that remained after the reception was brought up to her hotel room where she continued the celebrations with friends.

The bride and groom said "I do" to a dab

Overall, the pairs August wedding featured 70 grams of hash, joints for each guest, and every guest got two cartridges in their goodie bags, Dani said.

But luckily the newlyweds didnt have to shell out for the party favours. Dani, who works in the marijuana industry at Harborside Farms, said: We were very lucky that I had stuff donated to me. It was a lot.

And apart from some minor details, Dani said: The wedding was perfect. It pretty much went the way I wanted it to go. Everyone was happy.

Maybe if it was just a little bit longer. It just went by so quick.Breast cancer survivors and patients took to the runway at New York Fashion Week to model lingerie designed specifically for women recovering from breast reconstruction and mastectomy surgeries.

Pennsylvanian lingerie label AnaOno joined forces with US charity #Cancerland for the second-year running to produce the show in the American fashion capital at the Angel Orsenzanz Foundation on Sunday.

Women of all ethnicities, shapes and sizes walked down the catwalk in AnaOnos feminine designs, with many proudly revealing their surgical scars with #Cancerland written on their bare bodies.

(Getty Images (Getty Images)

The show was hosted by Academy award-winning actress Mira Sorvino, who was one of the four actresses to accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment in a New Yorker article published in October last year.

We at #Cancerland believe that this years show will send a clear message to our worldwide audience, that those afflicted by breast cancer will not settle for anything less than a solution to this health epidemic, reads the events Facebook page.

All proceeds from the show went to #Cancerland, which aims to give breast cancer victims a media platform to share their stories.

The Philadelphia-based lingerie and loungewear label was founded by Dana Donofree after she was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 27 and ultimately underwent a double mastectomy as part of her treatment.

(Getty Images (Getty Images)

I began to design the first pieces out of my own necessity and desire for pretty, sexy, beautiful lingerie during a recovery period that was everything but, she explains on her website.

I made it my mission to design specifically for those whove had breast reconstruction, breast surgery, mastectomy, or are living with other conditions that cause pain or discomfort because I believe that comfort should not be a compromise.More than a million people have signed a petition asking Snapchat to reverse its controversial new update.

The company has now rolled out the new version of the app to most of its users. And it has been met with intense and widespread anger, as a result of the fundamental changes it makes to the way the app works.

Now more than a million people have asked the company to simply turn it back, and reverse the changes. That's according to a petition that's now received more than a million signatures.

Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app Show all 17 1 /17 Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app Find your friends When you swipe right on the main camera screen, youll come to the Friends page. This is where Stories, Snaps, messages and group chats are, but theyre no longer ordered chronologically. Instead, new Snaps and messages, and any new Stories that Snapchat thinks youll be interested in, will sit near top of the Friends page. If youre struggling to find one of your friends, you can type their name into the search bar at the top of the screen. To make different types of content easier to find, Snapchat is adding three tabs to the Friends page  Stories, Groups and All. Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app Watch Stories If one of your friends has posted a Story you havent yet watched, youll see a circular preview bubble to the left of their name. To watch the Story, tap the bubble. After you watch a friends Story, youll see a preview of another friends Story. You can tap the screen to watch it, swipe to skip it or swipe down to exit. To re-watch a friends Story after youve already seen it, you need to open their profile by tapping their bitmoji on the Friends page. Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app Post Stories You can post your own Stories by taking a picture or recording a video on the main camera screen, then tapping the arrow in the bottom-right corner and selecting My Story. To check out your Story views and delete Snaps from your Story, you need to visit your Profile page. You can find it by going to the main camera page, hitting the profile picture immediately to the left of the Search bar at the top of the screen, and tapping the My Story panel. Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app Send Snaps To send a Snap, take a picture or record a video on the main camera screen, tap the arrow in the bottom-right corner and choose your friends from the list. The eight people you interact with most on Snapchat sit at the top of the list. Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app Discover content When you swipe left on the main camera screen, youll find the Discover page. Heres where you can access Shows, content from publishers, Stories from people you follow  but arent friends with  and Snaps from creators, Snap Map and Our Story. To find something specific in Discover, use the Search bar at the top of the screen. To see less of a certain type of content here, you can tap and hold a tile and hit See Less Like This or Unsubscribe. Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app Mute friends You can mute your friends without them realising, with Do Not Disturb. To enable it, just tap and hold the person or group you want to silence, select Settings from the popup menu and hit Do Not Disturb. Youll no longer receive notifications from that conversation, but youll still be able to access it, check any unread messages and Snaps and send your own too. Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app Shoot longer Snaps You can record up to 60 seconds of Snapchat footage with Multi-Snap (the previous limit was 10 seconds). All you need to do is tap and hold the circular Record button, and keep holding it for up to 60 seconds. Snapchat will split the footage into 10-second segments that you can edit individually, though your recording will play continuously when you send it to your friends or add it to your Story. Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app Draw with emoji You can draw with emoji rather than regular digital brushstrokes by tapping the pen icon after youve shot a snap and then hitting the symbol under the colour palette. Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app Build Geofilters You can create your own Geofilters, for occasions like weddings and birthdays, or even for places that are special to you. Go to Settings, hit On-Demand Geofilters and choose when and where youd like it to appear. Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app Use multiple filters Once youve applied a filter to your snap, tap and hold the screen with one finger and swipe with another to layer another filter on top of it. Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app Save data You can reduce the amount of data Snapchat munches through by enabling Travel Mode. Find it by going to Settings and tapping Manage Preferences. Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app Understand emoji From here, you can also learn what those emoji that appear alongside your friends names mean. You can change the ones you dont like by tapping them. Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app Understand message types Its also useful to understand what Snapchats different-coloured arrows and squares mean, so youll no longer be unsure whether you can open a certain message in public or not. Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app Collect trophies You can find out how many Snapchat trophies youve earned by going to your Profile page and tapping the Trophies button. You can unlock more by trying out new things with the app. Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app Access Snap Map You can access the controversial Snap Map, which shows you where in the world your friends are, by pinching the main camera screen. You can also hide yourself from fellow Snapchat users by tapping the Settings icon and enabling Ghost Mode. Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app Discover new music You can Shazam a song within Snapchat by tapping and holding the camera screen. Once it identifies it, you can share the song with your friends. Snapchat: How to use the new, redesigned version of the app Get new features early You can get access to new and experimental features before regular Snapchat users by joining the Snapchat beta. In the Settings menu, tap Join Snapchat Beta.

"With the release of the new Snapchat update, many users have found that it has not made the app easier to use, but has in fact made many features more difficult," the petition reads. "Many new features are useless or defeats the original purposes Snapchat has had for the past years."

It also notes that many people are being forced to take risky and complicated steps to get the old features back. While it is still possible to change back to the version of the app that was available before the update, users are putting themselves at risk by attempting to do so, security experts have warned.

Recommended Why reverting back to the old version of Snapchat is a bad idea

"This petition aims to help convince Snap Inc. to change the app back to the basics, before the new 2018 update," the petition concludes.

The petition is still some way from becoming the most popular ever on the site. One calling on the Iranian government to free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been signed by 1.5 million people, for instance, and another calling for the banning of the Yulin Dog Meat Festival has nearly hit three million signatures.

But it's much more popular than many of the  very worthy  petitions that have brought success. A petition calling on Oxford council to reverse a ban on rough sleepers received 70,000 signatures but brought action from councillors, for instance.

But in this case it's unlikely that the decision will be reversed.

Snapchat's official Twitter account has spent much of its time since the update was introduced telling people that they should try it out for longer, and they might get to like it. It also said it "isn't possible" to go back to the old version of the app, though that presumably applies to individual users and not the app itself.

What's more, the new design was in keeping with a new direction from the company that it hopes can allow it to generate more revenue. It knew that the changes would upset users in the short term and predicted that could be "disruptive to our business"  but said that it was "willing to take that risk for what we believe are substantial long-term benefits to our business".Women in the Republic of Ireland will now be fined if they are caught applying make-up while driving.

With so many new driving laws being introduced it can be hard to keep up, but fear not because the police are here to make sure those all important rules dont slip your mind.

Taking to Twitter, the Gardai - the state police force of the Republic of Ireland - posted two images of cars that had been pulled over earlier that morning with a warning that doing your make-up while driving, or waiting for traffic to move, is a punishable offence.

Recommended New driving tests introduced to cut accidents

Making an example of the two people they pulled over for doing just that, the tweet read, Roses are red violets are blue, 80 (71) fine making its way to you.

Two drivers left heartbroken after being fined this morning for applying makeup whilst driving. Please drive responsibly.

After being flooded with comments, the Gardai addressed the two separate incidents by explaining that each were given the 80 (71)fine as a result of driving without reasonable consideration for other road users.

They also added that one of the drivers was caught curling their eyelashes.

While it might seem obvious to many motorists that make-up application should not be done while on the move, it seems its not uncommon.

A previous study by womens motor insurer Diamond found that around one fifth of female motorists confessed to touching up their mascara while driving, while three per cent admitted causing a collision when distracted by applying cosmetics.

The poll of 4,000 female drivers also found that young women, aged between 17 and 21, were the most likely to put on beauty products at the wheel and the most liable to crash their car as a result.

This compares to just six per cent of women aged 56 or older who were found to be the least likely to do it.Major banks including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have been called out by an influential parliamentary committee for failing to sign the Women in Finance Charter  which pledges to promote gender diversity across their businesses.

Conservative MP and head of the influential Treasury Select Committee Nicky Morgan has written to 33 financial services firms, including BNP Paribas, PIMCO and UBS, who have yet to become signatories.

She has given companies until Friday to confirm they plan to join the initiative, or provide details of why they have decided not to do so.

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The progress of the Women in Finance Charter is to be welcomed. The aim, however, must be to see all firms in the financial sector sign up to the charter and make a concerted effort to improve their gender diversity, particularly in senior roles, said Ms Morgan.

As the charter states, a balanced workforce is good for customers, profitability and workplace culture.

Huge multi-nationals including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and UBS are yet to sign up to the charter, and if they dont intend to do so, the Treasury Committee wants them to explain why.

Committee members  who are due to meet on February 20  could agree to publish banks responses as early as next week.

A spokeswoman for JP Morgan said the bank supports the goals of the charter and is considering signing up.

Ms Morgans letter was also sent to the likes of Close Brothers, AIG Europe, Metro Bank, Vanguard Asset Management and Seedrs.

More than 160 companies had signed up to the charter as of November, representing more than 600,000 employees in the financial services industry.

That means around 50 per cent of the industrys workforce is currently covered by the charter  accounting for pledges from firms including Standard Chartered, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley International and Deutsche Bank.

The Women in Finance Charter was first published in March 2016 and commits firms to supporting the progression of women into senior roles, to publicly report on progress on delivering internal diversity targets, and have at least one member of the executive team responsible and accountable for gender diversity and inclusion.

PAUS rapper Kanye West has amicably resolved a $10m (7.1m) breach of contract lawsuit with insurer Lloyds of London over the cancellation of a scheduled blockbuster concert series in 2016.

West, 40, husband of social media star Kim Kardashian, was forced to abandon the 21-date Saint Pablo tour after being taken ill and receiving treatment at the UCLA neuropsychiatric centre in Los Angeles, California.

Lloyds, with whom the artist claimed to have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on insurance, subsequently refused to pay out, alleging that the hip-hop icons marijuana use was the root cause of the medical condition he said had incapacitated him, prompting West to sue the company.

Recommended Kanye West and Solange Knowles both reportedly sued

Lloyds duly counter-sued, citing the drink and drugs clause in his contract as justification for non-payment and arguing that cannabis consumption was to blame for the strained, confused and erratic behaviour West had displayed at a gig in Sacramento, California.

West surprised fans at the time by expressing his support for divisive US President Donald Trump and making inflammatory statements about fellow superstars Jay-Z and Beyonce.

Lawyer Howard King  representing Wests Very Good Touring company  and Lloyds attorney Paul Schrieffer have since placed a joint request with the California federal court hearing the case that it be dropped.

Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Show all 22 1 /22 Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Kanye West and President-elect Donald Trump speak with the press after their meetings at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Kanye West and President-elect Donald Trump speak with the press after their meetings at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Kanye West and President-elect Donald Trump speak with the press after their meetings at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Kanye West and President-elect Donald Trump speak with the press after their meetings at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Kanye West and President-elect Donald Trump speak with the press after their meetings at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Kanye West and President-elect Donald Trump speak with the press after their meetings at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Kanye West and President-elect Donald Trump speak with the press after their meetings at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Kanye West and President-elect Donald Trump speak with the press after their meetings at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Kanye West and President-elect Donald Trump speak with the press after their meetings at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Kanye West and President-elect Donald Trump speak with the press after their meetings at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Singer Kanye West arrives at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 as US President-elect Donald Trump continues to hold meetings in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Singer Kanye West arrives at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 as US President-elect Donald Trump continues to hold meetings in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Singer Kanye West arrives at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 as US President-elect Donald Trump continues to hold meetings in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Singer Kanye West arrives at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 as US President-elect Donald Trump continues to hold meetings in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Singer Kanye West arrives at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 as US President-elect Donald Trump continues to hold meetings in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Singer Kanye West arrives at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 as US President-elect Donald Trump continues to hold meetings in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Singer Kanye West arrives at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 as US President-elect Donald Trump continues to hold meetings in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Singer Kanye West arrives at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 as US President-elect Donald Trump continues to hold meetings in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Singer Kanye West arrives at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 as US President-elect Donald Trump continues to hold meetings in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Singer Kanye West arrives at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 as US President-elect Donald Trump continues to hold meetings in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Kanye West meets Donald Trump in Manhattan Singer Kanye West arrives at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 as US President-elect Donald Trump continues to hold meetings in New York. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images

Judge Charles Eick acquiesced and dismissed the suit on Wednesday, ordering both sides to pay their own fees and costs.

Additional reporting by wiresVirgin Media has reported a 4.4 per cent rise in revenues for the final quarter of 2017 compared to the same period a year earlier, coloured by a sharp 73 per cent drop in the total number of new subscribers to its TV and internet services.

A 1 per cent price increase for UK customers in November helped the company boost total revenue of 1.29bn for the last three months of 2017, up from 1.23bn a year earlier.

While Virgin added 28,200 net subscribers in the final three months of 2016, it added just 7,700 during the last quarter of 2017. The company attributed the dramatic fall-off to a decision to scale back a range of promotional offers issued as part of a marketing push at the close of the preceding year.

The telecoms provider was able to cheer an 8 per cent drop in the number of cancelled subscriptions, however.

Its biggest area of decline came in new internet subscriptions, which fell from 48,500 to 25,000 year-on-year, although Virgin says it remains confident that the profile of its broadband business will ensure future growth as consumers continue to value high-speed internet connections.

The companys total basic video subscriptions suffered a 1,800 loss after it secured 1,000 new net subscriptions a year earlier, while its number of new enhanced video customers increased by 2,100, comparing favourably with a loss of 2,800 during the same period of 2016.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled  leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

Virgins mobile services meanwhile added 32,800 new customers in 2017s final quarter. Subscriptions for 4G continue to make up the core of its mobile customer base, but the company said its contract packages provided a timely boost to its non-prepaid mobile market.

For 2017 as a whole, Virgin Media added 336,000 subscribers, marking a 34 per cent increase on 2016s total, while its revenue jumped by 2.1 per cent year-on-year to 4.96bn.The Government must implement an official policy on wearing hijabs in primary schools to stop headteachers from feeling isolated and vulnerable, the former Ofsted boss has said.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, the former chief inspector of schools, claimed that the Governments fear of being politically incorrect has stopped it from providing guidance to schools.

His comments on BBC Radio 5 live came after a headteacher of a London primary school was forced to reverse a ban on girls under eight wearing hijabs following backlash from the community.

The Government needs to step in. It can no longer say its up to the headteachers," Sir Michael said. That head might be faced with an opposition which says, well hang on, you made this decision, but theres a school half a mile away which does allow (wearing hijabs for primary aged children).

It now needs the Department for Education to think of this and come up with policies. Ofsted dont make policies, headteachers dont make policies either. Theres been little guidance.

Asked if a fear of being politically incorrect was creating a reticence to act, he said: Yes absolutely. There is a reticence, and its leaving headteachers alone, isolated and vulnerable.

His comments come after minister Lord Agnew, who is responsible for faith and counter-extremism in schools, said the Government would back schools who faced opposition in light of hijab bans.

Writing in The Times over the weekend, Lord Agnew said teachers, school leaders and governors were completely within their right to make decisions on how to run their schools in the best interests of their pupils... and we back their right to do so.

But Sir Michael argues that leaving the decisions around hijabs up to individual schools was not enough.

It needs more than advice. It needs guidance, official guidance. There has been none. Im calling on the Department for Education to think clearly now about what teachers need, he said.

The former Ofsted boss added: Its really up to the Department for Education to say this is now an ongoing issue that is affecting more than a few schools. You need to come up with some policies, and if not polices, guidance to heads about how they should react.

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This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA 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. 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Last month, Arif Qawi, the former head of governors at St Stephens primary school in Newham, called for official Government guidance on the issue after they banned the hijab.

The outstanding school, which eventually reversed the ban following a community outcry, was recently visited by Ofsted inspectors  despite not being due a routine inspection.

And on the day after the visit, the current chief inspector Amanda Spielman offered her support to the head of St Stephens primary school in a conference speech.

She said: It is a matter of deep regret that this outstanding school has been subject to a campaign of abuse by some elements within the community. I want to be absolutely clear, Ofsted will always back heads who take tough decisions in the interests of their pupils."More than nine in 10 university vice-chancellors either sit on, or attend, the committee that sets their salaries, new figures suggest.

Almost half (47 per cent) of vice-chancellors are members of their universitys remuneration bodies, according to data collected by the University and College Union (UCU).

Of those that said their leader was not a member of the pay committee, just seven universities said the vice-chancellor was not allowed to attend committee meetings.

And only a quarter of universities (25 per cent) sent unredacted minutes of the latest remuneration committee meeting.

The figures, obtained through freedom of information requests, come amid growing concerns over large pay rises for university vice-chancellors.

The union has today called for proper transparency of senior pay and perks in UK universities.

Of the 61 universities that are set to be hit with 14 days of strike action from next week, just two have vice-chancellors who do not sit on their remuneration committee, or attend its meetings.

Sally Hunt, UCU general secretary, said: It is quite staggering that just seven universities say their vice-chancellor was neither a member of the committee that sets their pay, nor allowed to attend the meetings.

For too long universities have got away with painting remuneration committees as independent bodies to deflect attention over senior pay. The time has come for proper transparency of senior pay and perks in our universities and that starts with full disclosure of the shadowy remuneration committee.

In some universities, it may be the case that a vice-chancellor excuses themselves from the committee if they are a member, or from the meeting they are attending, when their own pay is discussed and set.

A spokesman for vice-chancellors group Universities UK said: It is right to expect that the process for determining senior university staff pay is rigorous and transparent.

The Committee of University Chairs (CUC) new remuneration code, currently being consulted upon, will provide important guidance for university remuneration committees to ensure senior pay decisions are fair, accountable and justified, while recognising that competitive pay is necessary to attract first rate leaders.

The draft code, published last month, says the process for setting pay must be transparent.

It says: Society has a right to know that taxpayers funds are being properly used and that the institution is being managed in the interest of students, the economy and society.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral PA UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA 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

Pay for university chiefs bosses has risen significantly in recent years, and in 2015/16 the typical salary of a UK vice-chancellor was 6.4 times that of the average university worker.

Average pay last year including pensions and benefits was more than 280,000.

Under new proposals, universities will have to publish the pay of anyone earning more than 100,000 and give an explanation if someone is earning in excess of 150,000.

In November last year, the UKs highest paid vice-chancellor announced that she was retiring from the University of Bath amid criticism over the institutions handling of senior staff pay.

Professor Dame Glynis Breakwell, who reportedly earned 468,000 in salary and benefits last year, said she would step down from her position in August.

Additional reporting by PAThe Government raided 1bn from NHS funds to keep services running this year, Treasury papers reveal. The money had been earmarked for maintenance and repairs of ageing NHS buildings and equipment,

NHS funds for essential modernisation shrank by 8 per cent in 2017-18, despite the Treasury pledging 500m for equipment like state-of-the-art scanners and IT upgrades.

The raids were permitted even though official figures show hospitals need to spend 1bn just for high risk repairs, which if left unaddressed could lead to catastrophic equipment failures or major disruption of care.

This is the fourth consecutive year that the Treasury has allowed the Department of Health and Social Care to take funds from capital budgets  meant for long-term spending  to keep up with day-to-day costs.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA 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. 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Labour said the Government is simply storing up problems for the future and accused it of accounting trickery.

Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth, said: The news that 1bn of health capital funding is being used to plug gaps in the revenue budget shows just how short sighted this Government is in its approach to the NHS.

Years of underinvestment have left buildings crumbling and equipment out of date and todays announcement just stores up more problems for the future.

This 1bn transfer wipes out the extra 506m of capital investment given by Chancellor Philip Hammond in the Budget 2017, and means available funds will actually fall by 486m.

It also leaves a black hole in the Chancellors announcement of 3.5bn more capital spending over the next parliament, Labour said.

Nearly 4bn has been redeployed from NHS capital spending in the last four years, as ministers are forced to shore up services that have been left stretched to breaking point by years of underfunding.

The costs of this short-term thinking have been laid bare this winter, with hospitals more full than ever, tens of thousands of ambulances queueing outside hospitals and A&E waiting time targets unmet since 2015.

With the NHS working flat-out, equipment failures at one trust can have significant knock-on impact on other organisations.

 Theresa May says 55,000 missed operations are part of the NHS plan

In the last week of January, NHS England reported A&E departments across England had diverted a record number of ambulances to other hospitals.

Adding that a major chunk of this was down to Darlington and County Durham NHS Foundation Trust where a CT scanner broke down, sending patients to three other hospitals.

In September last year one of the biggest hospitals in London, St Marys, experienced a succession of disasters with its crumbling buildings, including the collapse of part of the first floor and ceiling in one 147-year-old ward.

This resulted in 31 beds being unavailable until December.

The most recent data from Estates Return Information Collections (Eric), published for all NHS trusts, shows a 947.1m bill for urgent repairs in 2016-17  a rise of 22 per cent on the previous year.

Eric data also shows there were more than 17,000 incidents reported because of faulty facilities, 2,300 cases affecting clinical care and nearly 3,000 cases where faulty heating required a risk assessment.

There have also been major delays in allocating funding for upgrades of GP buildings which underpin plans to move more care into the community.

Medical experts said ministers were promising a modern health service but only offering sticking plasters.

Chair of the British Medical Association, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, said: There is a clear, urgent need for upfront capital funding to help the NHS deal with a worrying repairs backlog and ensure our surgeries, health centres and hospitals are fit for the future.

The NHS has an impoverished infrastructure with many services unable to meet demands, and this is adversely impacting on patient care. Fundamentally our health service desperately needs greater funding, rather than the woeful reality of continuing cuts, as well as a long-term sustainable plan.

Patients deserve more than sticking plaster measures to help the worsening financial situation.

While Phillippa Hentsch, the head of analysis at NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said trusts needed ring-fenced funding if theyre to meet the future needs of patients.

It is unsustainable for the NHS to continue to use funding set aside to invest in buildings and equipment to relieve day-to-day financial pressures, she told The Independent.

Adequate capital funding is vital to ensure that we maintain and invest in our NHS buildings and equipment, to provide high quality, safe patient services.

A Parliamentary briefing report on the budget changes notes that the Treasury prohibits moving funding from capital to revenue budgets but has made an "exception" for the DHSC for the last four years.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said that the supplementary budget process gave departments the chance to refine their budgets and that minor changes were not unusual.

Including additional money given in the Autumn Budget, the entire planned spend on the NHS in 2017/18 was 127.4bn, so the 1bn represents a little under one per cent of the total funding for the health service.

A DHSC spokesperosn said: "We are fully committed to supporting the NHS to modernise and transform patient care for the future  which is why on top of the extra 2.8billion of revenue funding in the recent Budget, the NHS also got an extra 3.5 billion of capital funding which will support local modernisation projects."Thousands of women with asthma are struggling to become pregnant, because they are taking the wrong medication, according to new research.

Those using short acting reliever drugs known as beta agonists took 20 per cent longer to conceive on average compared to healthy peers.

They were also 30 per cent more likely to have been trying for a baby for more than a year to conceive  seen as the threshold for suffering infertility.

But there was no difference in fertility between patients on inhaled steroids known as longer acting preventer drugs, and women without asthma.

Recommended Horseradish and Haribo among strangest foods pregnant women crave

The study was based on more than 5,000 women in Screening for Pregnancy Endpoints (SCOPE), an international trial of first time pregnancies in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Ireland.

Dr Luke Grzeskowiak, of the Robinson Research Institute at Adelaide University, said it could slash the number of asthmatics requiring fertility treatment.

He said: This study shows women using short-acting asthma relievers take longer to get pregnant.

On the other hand continued use of long-acting asthma preventers to control asthma seems to protect fertility and reduce the time it takes women with asthma to become pregnant.

This could lead to a reduction in the need for fertility treatments.

Asthma is known to increase the risk of complications in pregnancy including the potentially fatal condition pre-eclampsia.

Sufferers are also more likely to have a caesarean section, an underweight baby or a shorter term.

Previous research has suggested it could be due to the steroid medications patients are often prescribed.

Dr Grzeskowiak, a pharmacist, said his results provide reassurance for asthmatic women that inhaled corticosteroids to prevent symptoms does not seem to reduce fertility.

The study published in the European Respiratory Journal examined data from SCOPE in which participants were asked if they had been diagnosed with asthma and what medicines they had used.

They were also asked how long it had taken them to become pregnant. Those using steroids conceived as quickly as other women.

Prof Grzeskowiak said: Five to 10 per cent of all women around the world have asthma and it is one of the most common chronic medical conditions in women of reproductive age.

Several studies have identified a link between asthma and female infertility, but the impact of asthma treatments on fertility has been unclear.

Studying the effect of asthma treatments in women who are pregnant or trying to get pregnant is important as women often express concerns about exposing their unborn babies to potentially harmful effects of medications.

More than one in 10 participants said they had asthma and, overall, these women took longer to get pregnant.

But when the researchers separated this group according to the types of treatments they were using they found the difference was all down to those using beta-agonists.

The disparity remained even after other factors known to influence fertility were taken into account  such as age and weight.

Dr Grzeskowiak added: There is plenty of evidence maternal asthma has a negative impact on the health of pregnant mothers and their babies and so our general advice is women should take steps to get their asthma under control before trying to conceive.

He added: What we dont yet know is exactly how asthma or asthma treatments lead to fertility problems.

As well as affecting the lungs, asthma could cause inflammation elsewhere is the body, including the uterus. It could also affect the health of eggs in the ovaries.

Inhaled corticosteroids suppress the immune system, whereas short-acting asthma treatments do not alter immune function.

In women who are only using relievers its possible that, while their asthma symptoms may improve, inflammation may still be present in the lungs and other organs in the body.

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. 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The researchers acknowledge they did not recruit women from the time they started trying to conceive  meaning the study excluded those who were unable to become pregnant naturally.

They plan further studies involving women with asthma who are undergoing fertility treatments to see if improving control of their condition could also improve fertility outcomes.

Professor Mina Gaga, president of the European Respiratory Society and medical director of the respiratory department of Athens Chest Hospital, said: Asthma is a common condition but in the majority of cases it can be well-controlled with the right medicines.

Women who are trying to conceive and women who are already pregnant are naturally concerned about the effects of their medicines, although there are large studies showing that asthma medications are safe, in fact safer than not taking medication.

This large study provides reassurance that using preventers, which include inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting bronchodilators, to prevent asthma symptoms helps asthmatic women be as fertile as non-asthmatic women, while intermittent treatment with short acting relievers is associated with reduced fertility.

Last year a study by Swedish scientists of more than a million pregnancies involving over 700,000 women found those with asthma were 17 per cent more likely to suffer pre-eclampsia.

This is a serious condition which affects up to 6 per cent of pregnant women in the UK causing raised blood pressure. It can lead to a stroke in mothers and slow growth in babies if untreated.

At the moment the majority of asthma patients use a drug derived from beta-2 agonists such as Salbutamol.

But these can become ineffective have side effects  like making the immune system less effective  and thereby making it easier for people to catch new infections.

According to Asthma UK, 5.4 million people in the UK are currently receiving treatment for asthma, a fifth of whom are children. In 2016, 1,410 people died from the disease.

SWNSWhen Cyril Ramaphosa stepped on to the balcony of Cape Town City Hall last Sunday, he closed a circle that had opened exactly 28 years earlier. It was a moment almost spiritual in its perfection, most especially in light of South Africas decline from rainbow nation to rotten republic.

On Sunday 11 February 1990, as the 37-year-old chairman of the Nelson Mandela reception committee, Ramaphosa stepped on to that balcony with the icon of the struggle against apartheid; a few hours earlier he had accompanied Mandela as he walked out of prison after 27 years.

Standing on Mandelas left, Ramaphosa held the microphone as the 71-year-old future president spoke to tens of thousands of people on the Grand Parade below him. Friends, comrades and fellow South Africans, I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy and freedom for all, said Mandela.

I stand here before you not as a prophet but as a humble servant of you, the people. Your tireless and heroic sacrifices have made it possible for me to be here today. I therefore place the remaining years of my life in your hands.

Mandela with Ramaphosa: their close friendship has always inspired trust among voters (Getty)

On Sunday 11 February 2018, Ramaphosas job as the 65-year-old recently elected leader of the African National Congress (ANC) was to launch the Mandela centennial celebrations. But the crowds biggest cheer was reserved for his announcement that in his negotiations for the removal of Jacob Zuma as president of South Africa, he was doing as Mandela did: putting the people first.

We should draw deep into Madibas wisdom, we should draw deep into Madibas style of doing things in an orderly manner, in a purposeful manner, in a way where we focus, he said, standing in front of a large photograph of Mandelas smiling face.

The Marikana massacre Ramaphosas investment company owned 9 per cent of Lonmin when a wildcat strike at its Marikana platinum mine in South Africas North West Province in 2012 led to a police massacre of 34 miners. In an e-mail to Lonmin executives before the shooting, Ramaphosa said events around the strike are plainly dastardly criminal acts and must be characterised as such, pressing for concomitant action against strikers. Speaking to students in the South African city of Grahamstown in May last year, Ramaphosa apologised for his language. Ten miners had already been killed, he said, and his intention had been to prevent further bloodshed. I have apologised and I do apologise that I did not use appropriate language but I never had the intention to have 34 other mine workers killed.

The fates could hardly have delivered a better platform for Ramaphosa to announce himself as the soon-to-be fifth president of democratic South Africa. And as he settles into the office Mandela once occupied, it will not be hard to imagine the old man, as we was affectionately known, flashing that wide and infectious grin, maybe even doing the Madiba jive. Finally, the man he saw as his natural successor gets the chance to rule.

South African politics is the gift that keeps on giving for filmmakers. Parts of Nelson Mandelas story have already made it to screens large and small; the great man played by stars including Morgan Freeman, Danny Glover, Sidney Poitier, Idris Elba, Laurence Fishburne and Terrence Howard.

Mutual respect: Mandela, Ramaphosa and FW de Klerk, who said of Ramaphosa his silver tongue and honeyed phrases lulled potential victims while his arguments relentlessly tightened around them (Gallo/Getty)

The life of Jacob Zuma offers darker material  something like House of Cards on steroids. The screenplay of this horror film would feature Zumas rumoured role as a torturer  and worse  in exile in Mozambique, an unlikely amount of sex (Zuma has had six weddings, and 22 children with 11 women), a rape trial, episodes of untold riches illicitly gained and foolishly lost, vignettes pointing to devilish cunning in the quest for unbridled power  and a cast of baddies even Hollywood would struggle to populate. The final scene, many South Africans hope, will be set in a prison cell.

As for Ramaphosa, this movie would be aimed at the art-house circuit. At the heart of the cerebral, unhurried script will be an engaging, softly spoken man  much like Mandela  who became involved in student politics while studying law.

It would relate how he launched the National Union of Mineworkers then the Congress of South African Trade Unions, took over as secretary-general of the ANC in 1991 and spent years at Mandelas right hand. Much of the action would take place around the negotiation table  formulating South Africas post-democratic constitution, crafting the National Development Plan supposed to transform the country by 2030 but largely ignored by Zuma, and finalising the Zexit deal that hands him the reins of power.

Buffalo in a china shop Ramaphosas wealth has enabled him to become one of Africas leading buffalo breeders, and shortly after the Marikana massacre he apologised for bidding R18 million (about 1.1m) for a cow and her calf at an auction. It was a mistake to even put up my hand to do so. Ive been chastised by some of my good comrades. And even before they chastised me I did admit it was a mistake. It is a mistake in the sea of poverty. I live in a community ... The damage has been done, I will live with it, he told a radio talkshow host.

It would also involve elections: the ANC leadership fight in 1997 that he lost to Thabo Mbeki, sending him off into a business career that gave him an estimated fortune of $450m (325m); the poll for ANC deputy president in 2012 in which he amassed even more votes than the victorious candidate for the party leadership, Zuma; the contest with Zumas ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, in December 2017, which handed CR17 the ANCs top job; and the general election next year, by which time he hopes to have done enough to reverse a decline in ANC fortunes, which has left the outcome in doubt for the first time since 1994.

South Africa is not relentlessly opinion polled, so there are no facts or statistics upon which to base a prediction about whether this is something he can pull off. But sentiment since Ramaphosas victory at the ANC elective conference in Johannesburg on 18 December has clearly changed. The rand, for example, has strengthened by 2.7 per cent against the pound (and by 12.7 per cent since its 2017 low on 10 November). Delegates to the World Economic Forum, jaded by years of Zumas economic recklessness, returned in numbers to South Africas room in Davos last month, eager to shake the hand of a beaming, avuncular Ramaphosa.

While expressing frustration at the speed of the transition at the Union Buildings, commentators who have long since exhausted their adjectival lexicon in scathing assessments of the ANCs reluctance to deal with Zuma have started to see chinks of light. Writing in the Sunday Times in South Africa at the weekend, financial journalism doyen Peter Bruce  once UK news editor of the Financial Times  even went as far as advising Ramaphosa how to win next years election.

The main editorial in the same newspaper, a title which has been at the forefront of exposing Zumas corrupt activities, said: Ramaphosa is drawing on a deep reservoir of goodwill from South Africans across the board but only bold steps will allow South Africa to fully capitalise on the hope that [his] election has engendered in an exhausted nation.

The key thing to understand about Ramaphosa is that people remember him walking out of prison with Mandela; leading the ANC team negotiating the end of apartheid with the National Party government; handing a bound copy of the new constitution to Mandela in 1996. As a result, he is almost universally trusted. Marikana misstep aside (see above), workers remember him as someone who led a three-month miners strike in 1987. Business has seen him prosper. Even rival politicians respect him  a refreshing change after years of parliamentary violence whenever Zuma showed his face.

The day after Ramaphosas election as ANC leader, former apartheid defence minister Roelf Meyer said: If there is one man today in South Africa that can help us put the pieces together it is him. That is why South Africans are feeling much better this morning than yesterday morning.

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Meyer, who grew close to Ramaphosa during constitutional negotiations in the 1990s, said he had never experienced him as greedy for power. He has based his skills on the fact that he has respect and understanding for the constitution.

Even FW de Klerk, the National Party president who freed Mandela, respects Ramaphosa, telling biographer Ray Hartley: His relaxed manner and convivial expression were contradicted by coldly calculating eyes, which seemed to be searching continuously for the softest spot in the defences of his opponents. His silver tongue and honeyed phrases lulled potential victims while his arguments relentlessly tightened around them.

In the same way that Donald Trumps successor as US president will have a honeymoon period based on nothing other than the fact that s/he isnt Trump, Ramaphosa can expect a few months in which criticism will be muted, constructive engagement the order of the day.

Its just as well, because his agenda is long and difficult if he is to form a new ANC government in 2019. First, he will have to mount a series of precision raids on the den of thieves Zuma built around himself. Only a purge of epic proportions, followed by prosecutions and prison sentences, will satisfy South Africans who have become numbed to the state capture perpetrated by those dubbed the presidents keepers in a recent bestseller.

Then he will have to rebuild destroyed ministries and institutions, and we can only hope the hundreds of good men and women cast aside in the Zuma years will be prepared to return to their posts  most critically at the South African Revenue Service. The tax collector was the brightest star in the governments firmament until Zuma eviscerated it, and must be revitalised if the massive and vital welfare state is to survive.

As for re-establishing the ANC as a movement with the interests of the people at its heart, Ramaphosas best hope is Mandelas centennial. By accentuating his links with the father of the nation, by talking about the values Mandela espoused, he can begin to erase the memories of the Zuma years. And if he can do that, maybe he can even revive hopes that South Africa can buck the lamentable post-colonial African trend of being run by big men.

Its a tall order, but Ramaphosa appears motivated, energised, determined and healthy. The stars have aligned for him, and the will for him to succeed is almost tangible.

A statue of Mandela will be placed on the Cape Town City Hall balcony later this year. One day, maybe Ramaphosa will get his own alongside it.

Dave Chambers is Cape Town bureau chief of South Africas Sunday Times and timeslive.co.zaA site in Ethiopia containing the footprints of ancient human children has provided researchers an insight into parenting styles 700,000 years ago.

The site of Melka Kunture was inhabited by a group of adults and children  potentially as young as a one year old  belonging to the prehistoric human species called Homo heidelbergensis.

Inhabitants of the site left footprints in a muddy bank by a pool, which were preserved by a layer of volcanic ash. They were accompanied by animals, stone tools and the butchered remains of a hippo.

Far from the helicopter parents of today, the scientists said their discovery revealed a community in which the children participated in potentially dangerous activities and were not left unsupervised by adults.

One of the human footprints found at the Melka Kunture site in Ethiopia (Matthew Bennett)

The whole surface is littered with stone flakes and tools, and the remains of this butchered hippo carcass, so clearly there was a lot of activity there, said Professor Matthew Bennett, an expert in ancient footprints at Bournemouth University.

Clearly the adult members of the groups were getting on with normal activities, creating the stone tools in order to process the carcasses they had either hunted or scavenged, said Professor Matthew Bennett, an expert in ancient footprints at Bournemouth University.

Professor Bennett explained the crucial role that footprints play for scientists studying ancient hominins  that is, human species both modern and extinct.

Some of the early hominin finds are of children, so some of our understanding of our earliest ancestors is based on child skeletons, but that doesnt say anything about the behaviour, said Professor Bennett.

Tracks are quite emotive things, and especially when you get young children that adds an extra dimension to it.

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Footprints can even be records of children at play. Another archaeological site in Namibia, for example, contained footprints left by children skipping, hopping and jumping through the mud.

In the new paper, published in the journal Scientific Reports and co-authored by Professor Bennett, the scientists described the Melka Kunture site originally discovered by researchers from the Sapienza University of Rome.

They speculated that the presence of such young children at the site was evidence infants had to tag along with adults in mobile hunting groups, and learn first-hand about hunting and butchering.

Professor Bennett said the study adds to mounting evidence about the lifestyle of young children in ancient times, and provides a clear contrast to parenting in modern Western societies.

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We have very clear views of what childhood should be like  you have helicopter parents looking after the child all the time, but in the past and also in modern day cultures around the world children are a lot more left to their own devices to learn by experience, said Professor Bennett.

The behaviour of hunter gatherer societies, which is often used as an analogue for that of our prehistoric ancestors, supports these conclusions.

In those societies, children dont have the same privileged position they have in Western society  they are just there, and not necessarily given any special treatment, said Professor Bennett.

We think leaving a small child to play with stone flakes or maybe even practice a bit of hippo butchery is unusual, he said.

But actually its us that are unusual, not them.The mystery behind the elusive phenomenon commonly known as the aurora, or northern lights, has been unravelled by scientists using measurements taken from space.

Auroras appear over both the Arctic and Antarctic  where the phenomenon is known as southern lights. They have inspired mythology and superstition for centuries.

In cultures traditionally based near the poles, the lights have been associated with everything from good luck to evil spirits.

Now, the origins of these light displays have been demystified after scientists directly observed showers of electrons thought to underpin some of these phenomena bouncing across the Earths magnetosphere for the first time.

Auroras take different forms, but perhaps the most stunning are the pulsating auroras that present not as sheets of green light but intense, flickering displays across the dark sky.

These lights cover tens to hundreds of kilometres, and appear around 100 kilometres above the Earths surface.

While the mechanisms underpinning auroras are roughly understood by scientists, the chain of events leading to pulsating auroras in particular have only ever been demonstrated in theory.

"We, for the first time, directly observed scattering of electrons by chorus waves generating particle precipitation into the Earth's atmosphere," said Professor Satoshi Kasahara, a planetary scientist at the University of Tokyo who led the research.

"The precipitating electron flux was sufficiently intense to generate pulsating aurora."

Scientists have long thought pulsating auroras result from electrons in the magnetosphere  a region of space surrounding Earth in which the planets magnetic field exerts a strong effect  interacting with so-called chorus waves.

Intermittent bursts of chorus waves  natural oscillations in the Earth's outer magnetosphere  were thought to cause the pulsations of electron precipitation and associated auroral illumination.

Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Show all 30 1 /30 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Solar Flare An image from Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows a 200,000 mile long solar filament ripping through the Sun's corona in September 2013 Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Nasa Celebrates 50 Years of Spacewalking For 50 years, NASA has been "suiting up" for spacewalking. 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Electrons usually bounce along the Earths geomagnetic field, but theories and computer simulations have suggested chorus waves were capable of scattering them.

According to these models, this scattering caused electrons to rain down into the upper atmosphere and result in the effects we can see from the Earths surface.

However, prior to the work by Professor Kasahara and his colleagues, it was unclear whether these theories played out in the real world. Specifically, scientists had no direct evidence that chorus waves were powerful enough to sufficiently excite electrons and drive them into the atmosphere.

This has been a difficult phenomenon to measure because traditional electron sensors lacked the capacity to distinguish electrons entering the Earths atmosphere from all the other electrons zooming around.

To overcome this, the research team led by Professor Kasahara designed a specialised electron sensor  mounted on Japans Exploration of energisation and Radiation in Geospace (ERG) satellite  which was capable of observing the exact movement of electrons participating in auroras.

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Using this device, they could watch electron scattering by chorus waves taking place across the Earths magnetosphere.

The results of the study were published in the journal Nature.

According to the scientists, this same phenomenon is also likely to take place on other planets that exhibit chorus waves, including Jupiter and Saturn.

Making use of their novel sensor technology, the researchers now hope to develop their research further in order to understand the complex phenomena taking place high above our heads.

"By analysing data collected by the ERG spacecraft more comprehensively, we will reveal the variability and further details of plasma physics and resulting atmospheric phenomena, such as auroras," said Professor Kasahara.Tens of thousands of crimes including rape and violence are not being recorded by police, an inspection has found.

Victims of domestic abuse are being put in danger by the failures according to Her Majestys Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS), which demanded urgent action.

An inspection of three out of 43 police forces in England and Wales found both Thames Valley and North Yorkshire Police inadequate.

It estimated that both forces were failing to record around a fifth of crimes  amounting to 52,200 a year in Thames Valley and 9,200 in North Yorkshire.

They include alleged rapes, sexual offences, assaults and malicious communications.

Inspectors said failures by Thames Valley Police, which covers Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, were preventing investigations from being carried out increasing the potential risk of harm to victims.

They had seriously concerns over measures taken to protect victims, warning: Domestic abuse often involves victims who are particularly vulnerable to further offences being committed against them.

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Forces in both Thames Valley and North Yorkshire are also failing to record some incidents of sexual offences, violence and rape.

North Yorkshire Police were found not to be properly recording or investigating some alleged rapes, including one that involved a victim suffering from mental illness who went on to be attacked again by the same man.

The force is incorrectly cancelling some recorded rape, violence and sexual offences, the report said.

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It must improve the extent to which it collects information regarding the effect of criminality on identifiable groups within communities; in particular, groups with identifiable protected characteristics like gender, sexuality or ethnicity.

Inspectors said North Yorkshire Police was experiencing a sharp rise in call volume during the audit that left control room staff struggling to answer phones and giving less time to recording work..

HM Inspector of Constabulary Matt Parr said it was simply inexcusable for a fifth of crimes to go unrecorded.

These crimes include serious and violent crimes such sexual offences, domestic abuse and rape, he added. The force is potentially depriving victims of the services and justice to which they are entitled.

We identified flaws in the forces crime-recording processes which mean that officers and staff often fail to make the right decisions at the earliest opportunity. We found some confusion over who was responsible for recording crimes, as well as issues arising from the time pressures on officers and staff.

Mr Parr said North Yorkshire Police had already introduced a new unit in its control room but needed to review its systems, supervision and training.

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A spokesperson for the force said its administration was letting us down and vowed to make improvements.

Deputy Chief Constable Lisa Winward said: Every call we answer is logged; nothing is ignored.

In every case where there was a vulnerable victim, we have sent an officer and provided the service. However we have not recorded everything properly on the system, and we need to do much better.

In Thames Valley, call handlers were not recording their full conversations with callers and causing police to be given incomplete information, while some officers did not understand recording rules.

HM Inspector of Constabulary Zoe Billingham said Thames Valley Police must ensure that records crimes at the earliest opportunity, and that there is proper supervision of crime-recording decisions.

Since the inspection in September, she said the force had taken immediate steps in response to its findings that will be checked later this year.

Thames Valley Police said it fully accepts its inadequate grading and was implementing recommendations.

Deputy Chief Constable John Campbell said: The matters subject to review were recorded as incidents rather than crimes, but there is no suggestion that we failed to respond appropriately to the calls or to deal with the matters in hand.

Durham Constabulary was graded good in the same round of inspections, which said it had improved recording vastly since the last review in 2014.

The Government has awarded increased funding to some areas, including terrorism, but rejected calls for a general budget increase (PA)

HMICFRS praised for forces outstanding culture and leadership but said around 4,700 crimes were not being recorded a year, including young people sharing indecent images of themselves, public order offences and violence.

The findings will be a concern for the Home Office, which has sought to play down a 14 per cent rise in crime recorded by police over the past year including soaring violence.

The Governments preferred measure is the Crime Survey of England and Wales, which showed a decrease of 10 per cent in crime in the same period.

The number of police officers hit a record low of 121,929 last month and chiefs have been calling for more resources to respond to rising demand and the terror threat.

Ministers have rebuffed the calls to boost general budgets, while granting money to specialist schemes and calling on forces to increase efficiency and take more money from council tax.

Crime data integrity is one of several areas probed by HMICFRS, which aims to ensure victims are given support, the public have accurate information about their area and police can properly plan their work.

In the rolling inspections carried out so far, three forces have achieved a good rating, six were require improvement and seven have been found inadequate.

An unrecorded crime is an incident that is reported to the police, but not recorded as an offence.

Other action can be taken including referring incidents to social services or other authorities, and passing victims to agencies that will offer specialist help or protection.

Home Office rules require all offences against an identified victim to be recorded if initial information amounts to a crime and there is no credible evidence to the contrary.

Regulations place an obligation on the police to accept what the victim says and crimes must be recorded even if they do not provide personal details, do not want to take the matter further or the allegation cannot be proven.Grenfell Tower activists have parked three billboards opposite the remains of the charred north Kensington block, calling for justice on the eight-month anniversary of the fire.

Campaigners from Justice4Grenfell recreated a scene from Golden Globe-winning film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri in a bid to raise awareness around the lack of arrests made in the investigation into the fire, which claimed 71 lives last June.

The posters, marked with 71 dead, And still no arrests?, How come?, were driven through central London on Thursday before being parked in front of the remains of Grenfell Tower.

Campaign coordinator Yvette Williams said the group hoped the stunt would harness the power of advertising to bring about justice.

We wanted to harness this power to remind people how little has been done since the tragic event shook this community, and the country, just over eight months ago, she said.

These billboards are here because there have still been no arrests, hundreds of survivors remain homeless, and 297 other towers in the UK are still covered in flammable cladding.

Furthermore, requests from survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire to appoint a diverse decision-making panel to sit alongside the head of the public inquiry have been denied.

In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Show all 51 1 /51 In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police have released images from inside the tower where at least 58 people have died Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A still from a video shared by polices what appears to be a stationary bicycle sitting among the ashes In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A still from a video shared by police shows the remnants of a burnt-out bathroom In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Picture showing the lifts on an unknown floor Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emergency crews outside the front entrance to the tower Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Fire crews inspecting flats in the burnt out tower London Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Grenfell Tower is seen in the distance PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A drone flies near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire 'Theresa May Stay Away' message written on the messages of support at Latymer Community Church for those affected by the fire Ray Tang/REX In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire An aerial view of the area surrounding Grenfall tower Getty In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Donated shoes sit in the Westway Sports Centre near to the site of the Grenfell Tower fire Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Messages of support for those affected by the massive fire in Grenfell Tower are displayed on a well near the tower in London AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A local resident stands on her balcony by the gutted Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Messages of condolence are left at a relief centre close to the scene of the fire that broke out at Grenfell Tower, EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A police officer stands by a security cordon outside Latimer Road station Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Firemen examine the scorched facade of the Grenfell Tower in London on a huge ladder AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A search dog is led through the rubble of the Grenfell Tower in London as firefighting continue to damp-down the deadly fire AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn comforts a local resident (name not given) at St Clement's Church in west London where volunteers have provided shelter and support for people affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower David Mirzoeff/PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn hugs councillor Mushtaq Lasharie as he arrives at St Clement's Church in Latimer Road, where volunteers have provided shelter and support for people affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn meeting staff and volunteers at St Clementis Church in Latimer Road David Mirzoeff/PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Firefighters with a dog walk around the base of the Grenfell Tower REUTERS/Peter Nicholls In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emotions run high as people attend a candle lit vigil outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Debris hangs from the blackened exterior of Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman speaks to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman holds a missing person posters near the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Sadiq Khan speaking with a resident James Gourley/REX In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Ken Livingstone walks near the scene of the Grenfell Tower fire Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is confronted by Kai Ramos, 7, near Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaks to a woman outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers distribute aid near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People attend a vigil at Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People gather to observe a vigil outside St Clement's Church following the blaze at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People light candles as they observe a vigil outside St Clement's Church following the blaze at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People attend a vigil at Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A man distributes food from the back of a van near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A firefighter is cheered near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A T-shirt with a written message from the London Fire Brigade hangs from a fence near The Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A young girl on her way to lay flowers near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire The remains of residential tower block Grenfell Tower are seen from Dixon House a nearby tower block Getty In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers prepare supplies for people affected by the Grenfell Tower block which was destroyed in a fire REUTERS/Neil Hall In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers move a car to make space for a lorry picking up supplies for people affected by the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People distribute boxes of food near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower bloc REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman touches a missing poster for 12-year-old Jessica Urbano on a tribute wall after laying flowers on the side of Latymer Community Church next to the fire-gutted Grenfell Tower AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A man looks at messages written on a wall near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Candles and messages of condolence near where the fire broke out at Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police carry a stretcher towards Grenfell Tower Rick Findler/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emergency services at Grenfell Tower Rick Findler/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police carry out a body from Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Rick Findler/PA Wire

Relations between the community in north Kensington and authorities have been fractious since the fire.

The council weathered heavy criticism in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy over its slow relief response and public meetings between council officials and survivors have regularly descended into chaos.

The police have also been criticised for the speed at which the criminal investigation into the tragedy is taking place.

In December, Cressida Dick, the head of the Metropolitan police, said the investigation is unlikely to be completed until 2019 at the earliest and could take years due to the very, very, very large number of people and records to either take statements from or examine forensically.

A spokesperson for the Met Police told The Independent: The Metropolitan Police investigation remains ongoing; there has been no arrest at this time.A homeless man who died in an underpass just beneath Parliament was a former model who had applied to be a waiter the week before.

The Portuguese national, whose body was found on Wednesday morning in Exit 3 of Westminster tube station, was in his forties, according to the Connection at St Martin-in the-fields, a charity that had been supporting him.

He was being helped to find work and despite having complex circumstances, he enjoyed singing and regularly attended yoga classes, the charity said.

An MP who used to pass him on a daily basis said the fact the rough sleeper had applied for work just a week before his death was a reflection of a mass rise in in-work poverty across the UK.

Neil Coyle, Labour MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, which neighbours Westminster, said: The saddest thing is that he had applied for work just a week before.

Ive seen a cleaner who was sleeping on the night bus, another who was doing sexual favours to get by. And this is a man who was sleeping rough, who was serious about work.

Its definitely a growing problem. Weve had eight years of growth in homelessness in all its forms, some of which are more visible than others. And there are many, many people in work caught up in that.

Its growing. There are warm words from the Government, but having this happen at Westminster has highlighted the extent of the problem to a greater degree, and the complete lack of attention from central government.

Pam Orchard, chief executive of The Connection, told The Independent: We are very concerned about the increase in the number of rough sleeper deaths.

And because rough sleeping is going up so much, its inevitable that were seeing more deaths. The longer people sleep rough, the more their physical and mental health is likely to deteriorate.

The man was pronounced dead just before 7:30am despite attempts by outreach services attempted to give him CPR until paramedics and police arrived.

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A spokesperson for St Mungo's, whose outreach services found the mans body, said: We are very sad about the death of the man at Westminster yesterday. Our sympathies are with the person's family and friends.

Westminster City Council has described the incident as a very sad incident and pledged they would work with police to establish the cause of death.

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said the death was being treated as unexplained but not suspicious. A file will now be prepared for the coroner.The brother of a British man who went missing on a stag-do in Hamburg five days ago has pleaded for him to find a way to make contact with him as fears grow for his safety.

"Please, please come home," Eammon Colgan said, before telling his brother Liam Colgan: "Everyone misses you. You're very much loved. I don't know what happened to you, just please get in touch, find a way.

The 29-year-old from Inverness, vanished in the early hours of Saturday and Eamon is leading the search for him on the ground in the German city.

Eamon, 33, was due to get married in just three weeks and Liam had made the arrangement for the celebration in the Reeperbahn area of Hamburg ahead of the wedding.

Recommended British man missing after Hamburg stag party

The pair had enjoyed a pub crawl in the popular nightlife district with friends and the last place they had been in was the Hamborger Viermaster pub.

Eammon later left the bar with the rest of the group and did not see Liam. However, he did not start to panic until he realised the next morning that his brother had not returned to the hotel room they were sharing.

He contacted police for help and they trawled canals and waterways in the Buxtehude area of Hamburg in a hunt for clues over the missing 29-year-old, the family said.

A spokesperson for the police said officers came to the conclusion that the man was highly intoxicated when he went missing in the early hours of the morning.

They hope to find him alive but the spokesperson added that there was a threat to his life and wellbeing" given the cold temperatures at the time he went missing.

Eammon Colgan has issued a plea for his missing brother Liam (Screengrab/STV News)

Eammon returned to Hamburg yesterday to lead his own search on the ground for Liam including posting up Missing notices across the city with his brothers photo in an appeal to the public.

Eammon told BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat that he did not see Liam when he and the group of friends left the Hamborger Viermaster pub at about 1.30am last Sunday morning.

"We thought Liam had left just a couple of minutes before us, he said. "When he wasn't waiting for us outside, there was no reason to panic. He'd organised the whole trip so he'd researched the city and knew better than any of us how to get home."

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 Arsenals Takehiro Tomiyasu attempts to control the ball during the Premier League match at The Emirates Stadium PA UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA 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

When Eamonn woke the next morning, his brother was not there.

He added: "That's when panic set in. I was sharing a room with him. We looked in all the other rooms but there was no sign of him."

Police are continuing their search for Liam which has included making contact with hospitals and taxi companies.

Search dogs have also been used and Liam's picture circulated online and to media outlets.

"We came to the conclusion that, even though this is a 29-year-old male, he was highly alcoholised in a city he doesn't know, possibly without orientation," a police spokesperson told Newsbeat.

"So we have to presume, especially with the temperatures outside, that this is in fact a threat to his life and wellbeing."

A Facebook group has been set up called Help Find Liam Colgan, and a video plea was made by Dundee United captain Willo Flood.

Eammon said until Liam is found his marriage will not be a priority.

"The wedding is not even a thought to me or my fiance, he said. "It won't be going ahead without Liam."

Additional reporting by Press AssociationThe life expectancy gap between Englands richest and poorest communities has grown over the past 14 years, a report has found.

A boy from one of the wealthiest areas of the country will on average outlive one from the poorest by around eight years and five months, according to new analysis of data collected in 2015.

In 2001, the average life expectancy gap was about seven years and four months.

Girls born in the top 20 per cent of areas will on average live five years and ten months longer than those born in the bottom fifth, according to the report, rising from a five-year difference in 2001.

Researchers from the Longevity and Science Panel, which is funded by financial services company Legal and General, looked at data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in 2015.

The data on death rates was divided into 33,000 residential areas rated on a range of socio-economic factors, including income, education, health and crime.

Although death rates for 60 to 89-year-olds improved for both rich and poor areas between 2001 and 2015, the biggest gains were recorded among the most affluent neighbourhoods.

People from the least advantaged fifth of the country are now about 80 per cent more likely to die in a given year than those from the most advantaged fifth, the researchers found.

This is higher than in 2001, when men were 52 per cent and women were 41 per cent more likely to die if they lived in a poor area compared to a wealthy one.

Chair of the panel, Dame Karen Dunnell, said: Dying earlier if you are poor is the most unfair outcome of all, so we should all be concerned about the growing divergence in rich-poor life expectancy.

To reduce the risk of further widening, we need better understanding of the precise causes, followed by co-ordinated policy initiatives across health, work, welfare, pension and housing to improve outcomes for all.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures 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 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

Dr Wanda Wyporska, executive director of The Equality Trust, told The Independent in an emailed statement: We know that the UK has one of the highest levels of income inequality in the developed world and this report reveals that low incomes are costing lives.

"After ONS figures last month showing a similar trend, alarm bells ought to be ringing in the heart of Government.

This trend can only move upwards, as the UK has become a country where nurses and teachers depend on food banks, where four million children live in poverty and working people are exploited by low wages and the gig economy.

The roll out of Universal Credit and over a million children losing their free school meals could also contribute to more ill health and more inequality.

A Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson said: Health inequality is a challenging and complex area, but we are committed to tackling this issue.

Cancer survival rates are at a record high and smoking rates are at an all-time low, but we know there is still too much variation.Oxfam re-hired one of the aid workers sacked over alleged sexual misconduct in Haiti just months later, it has emerged.

The charity apologised for the serious error shortly after Desmond Tutu became the latest high-profile figure to step down as an ambassador.

A spokesperson confirmed that the man was dismissed from his post in Haiti in 2011 but subsequently hired as a consultant in Ethiopia from October to December that year.

Hiring him, even in an emergency as a short-term consultant, was a serious error and should never have happened, a statement said.

We are still checking how this occurred but it further highlights that we need an organisation and sector-wide approach to the vetting and recruitment of both staff and consultants, especially in emergencies where there is pressure to fill posts quickly in order to help save lives.

We are now checking whether there were any issues in Ethiopia while he was there.

The man was among four members of Oxfam staff to be dismissed over the alleged use of prostitutes in Haiti, although the extent of their involvement is unclear.

 Oxfam's head of safeguarding: In one instance 'a woman had been coerced to have sex in exchange for aid'

Three others, including the country director Roland van Hauwermeiren, resigned before the end of an internal investigation in 2011.

The Charity Commission has launched a statutory investigation into Oxfam after claiming it failed to fully and frankly disclose material details of allegations against its staff.

The Government has warned that aid agencies failing to offer adequate assurances about their safeguarding processes and transparency could have funding withdrawn, while Labour is calling for a full inquiry.

Archbishop Emeritus Tutu became the latest high-profile figure to distance himself from Oxfam as the scandal continued on Thursday.

The South African Anglican leader said he was deeply disappointed by allegations of immorality and possibly criminality involving humanitarian workers linked to the charity, which he had supported for many years.

He is also saddened by the impact of the allegations on the many thousands of good people who have supported Oxfams righteous work, a spokesperson added, confirming he had retired from the position of global ambassador.

Actress Minnie Driver resigned earlier this week, followed by Senagalese singer Baaba Maal, while former ambassador Livia Firth, the wife of actor Colin, said the men involved had betrayed all who put their faith in them.

It would be a tragedy to see this relief work and advocacy stopped, she added.

Minnie Driver was the first celebrity to distance herself from Oxfam (Getty)

Oxfam must do everything in its power to heal the damage to those who depend on both its work and the good faith and generosity of its supporters.

Mr Van Hauwermeiren, the Belgian aid worker at the heart of the scandal, claims reports of his activities as Oxfams country director for Haiti and previously in Chad included lies and exaggerations.

"A lot of people, including in the international media, will be blushing with shame when they hear my version of the facts, he told De Standaard.

"It is not that I deny everything. There are things that are described correctly. But there are many lies and exaggerations.

"Parties every week? Fancy villas? Women paid with money from the organisation?"

He indicated the revelations had taken a personal toll, telling the paper: "It is especially bad that my family no longer want to see me."

Corporate support for Oxfam has been wavering and although the charity says it is too early to tell the impact of the crisis on donations, it revealed 1,270 people cancelled their direct debits between Saturday and Monday - almost double the average of 600 cancellations per month.

The scandal already caused the resignation of the charitys deputy chief executive Penny Lawrence, who said she took full responsibility for the alleged use of prostitutes by senior staff in Haiti and on a previous placement in Chad.

A subsequent country director for Haiti, Damien Berrendorf, was sacked last year but had no connection to the previous case.

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

Oxfam said Mr Berrendorf, who was in the post from 2012 to 2017, was dismissed for mismanagement.

The dismissal was not related to sexual misconduct and was not connected to the case in 2011, however, there were allegations of inappropriate behaviour, a spokesperson added.

As soon as the allegations were reported via Oxfams whistleblowing line, they were investigated and the individual was dismissed.

It came as the International Development Secretary met with the National Crime Agency (NCA) discuss how they could jointly tackle sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid industry.

The NCA has been closely monitoring allegations and confirmed it has a range of powers to investigate sexual offences committed outside the UK and support foreign security forces.

Penny Mordaunt has threatened to cut Oxfams public funding, which totalled 31.7m in 2016/17, and that from other charities that fail to reassure the Government vulnerable people are safeguarded.

No organisation is too big, or our work with them too complex, for me to hesitate to remove funding from them if we cannot trust them to put the beneficiaries of aid first, she said.

The Government has written to all British charities working overseas demanding absolute assurances that they are protecting vulnerable people and referring complaints to authorities.

A new unit dedicated to reviewing safeguarding in the aid sector and stopping criminal and predatory individuals being employed by other charities has been created, and a global register of development workers may be established.

The International Development Committee is to hold an urgent session on Tuesday to question Oxfam UK's chief executive Mark Goldring and its chair of trustees, Caroline Thomson.

Save the Children's chief executive, Kevin Watkins, is due to give evidence on wider sexual exploitation in the aid sector and a Government representative will be present to explain its knowledge of the problem.Britain has entered a new era of warfare with Russia and other nations moving combat into cyberspace, the Defence Secretary has said.

Gavin Williamson said the UK and its allies must be primed and ready to tackle intensifying online threats to energy, infrastructure, finance and public services.

"We have entered a new era of warfare, witnessing a destructive and deadly mix of conventional military might and malicious cyber attacks, he added.

"Russia is ripping up the rule book by undermining democracy, wrecking livelihoods by targeting critical infrastructure, and weaponising information.

He was speaking after the Government accused Vladimir Putins military of being behind a cyber attack that devastated Ukraine and affected businesses around the world over the summer.

The Kremlin has persistently denied responsibility but the Foreign Office claimed that while the NotPetya masqueraded as a criminal enterprise, its true aim was to disrupt Ukraines government, finance and energy.

Keir Giles, an expert on Russian security at Chatham House, said the attack and others like it were part of a worrying trend.

This is precisely the set of behaviours which Russias neighbours have been warning of, not just for years but for decades, he told The Independent.

 'Petya' cyber attack hits firms across the world

What is new is the willingness of senior figures in the UK to publicly recognise and state the problem - it does make a difference.

Mr Giles said that Barack Obama administrations quiet response to alleged Russian interference in the US election was counter-productive.

He called the Defence Secretarys statement an important, if overdue, step towards building proper defences and forming a response.

The new era of warfare is already here, this is what Russia has been practising hard for, Mr Giles claimed, saying the countrys actions were based on a permanent mindset of conflict with the West.

Deterring Russia from hostile action is a more complex undertaking now than during the Cold War when simple military power was a much greater component of constraining Russian activities.

The NotPetya cyber attack started on 27 June and swiftly spread around the world, to countries including the UK, US, France, Germany, Italy and Poland.

The National Bank of Ukraine was among those first hit, with affected machines displaying a message claiming the user must pay a ransom in bitcoin to recover encrypted files.

It was followed by other businesses with strong trade links with Ukraine, which has been targeted by numerous cyber attacks since the start of its 2014 conflict with pro-Russian separatists.

NotPetyas indiscriminate design let it spread quickly, eventually costing companies more than $1.2bn (850m) and hitting the profits of British firms including Reckitt Benckiser, whose other brands include Nurofen, Veet and Clearasil.

The cyber security firm FireEye has linked the attack to Russian-linked hackers known as the Sandworm Group, who have allegedly been behind numerous malware attacks on Ukraine since 2015.

An employee sits next to a payment terminal out of order at a branch of Ukraine's state-owned bank Oschadbank (Reuters)

The earliest variations simply wiped the victims' machines, however, in 2017 a ransomware component was introduced, an analyst said.

These prior attacks share features, including distribution through a compromised software provider and a wiper masquerading as ransomware, with the June 2017 Petya attack supporting the case of a link between Sandworm and Petya.

Lord Ahmad, a minister for cyber security, said the attack showed a continued disregard for Ukrainian sovereignty.

He added: Its reckless release disrupted organisations across Europe costing hundreds of millions of pounds.

Recommended Theresa May warns Russia over election meddling and vows to protect UK

The Kremlin has positioned Russia in direct opposition to the West yet it doesnt have to be that way.

We call upon Russia to be the responsible member of the international community it claims to be rather then secretly trying to undermine it.

Lord Ahmad vowed that the UK would identify and pursue those behind online attacks, no matter where they originate, and strengthen international efforts to uphold a free, open, peaceful and secure cyberspace.

It came after Theresa May accused Russia of threatening the international order with election meddling and cyber espionage and disruption in November.

We know what you are doing and you will not succeed, the Prime Minister said. "The UK will do what is necessary to protect ourselves, and work with our allies to do likewise.

Russia denied responsibility for the NotPetya attack, pointing out that Russian firms were among those whose systems were affected.

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

We categorically dismiss such accusations - we consider them unsubstantiated and groundless, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

It is no more than a continuation of the Russophobic campaign which is not based on any evidence.

NotPetya struck little over a month after another ransomware attack, WannaCry, disabled large parts of the NHS and sparked urgent calls for the government and private sector to prevent system vulnerabilities.

The Government attributed that attack to a North Korean hacking group, although the perpetrators of the vast majority of incidents have never been made public.

Recommended Cyber criminals stealing reward points for luxury holidays

Ranked as a tier one national security threat alongside terrorism and organised crime, the danger posed by cyber criminals is expected to grow amid an explosion of internet-connected gadgets sold with little or no security.

Investigators say motives can range from pure profit to disruption and political pressure, depending on whether the culprits are hostile states, organised crime gangs, lone hackers, ideological hacktivist groups or script kiddies looking for kudos among their peers.

With increasingly blurred lines between criminal and state actors, and single attacks using perpetrators and infrastructure across multiple countries, identifying a source is difficult and can involve international investigations.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is charged with preventing attacks in the UK, responding to incidents including the brute force attack on Parliaments email system.

Earlier this month it said millions of online attacks against the general public had been thwarted with technology that stops fake emails, phishing attacks and malicious servers.

Russian interference, seen by the NCSC, has included attacks on the UK media, telecommunications and energy sectors, CEO Ciaran Martin warned.

That is clearly a cause for concern - Russia is seeking to undermine the international system.Japan sees Brexit as an act of economic and political self-harm that will weaken the UK as a world power, according to the former British ambassador to Tokyo.

Sir David Warren, who served in the post between 2008 and 2012, said Britains withdrawal from the EU could have grave consequences for relations with Japan.

His comments came after the Japanese ambassador to London warned Prime Minister Theresa May his countrys firms would quit the UK if there is no profitability after Brexit.

Most of the roughly 1,400 Japanese companies currently using the UK as their European base were attracted by tariff-free trade and regulatory alignment with the EU, said Sir David.

This powerful incentive to invest in Britain could disappear along with the UKs privileged access to the single market and customs union after Brexit, he added.

Privately, Japanese policy analysts are puzzled by British government rhetoric about the global opportunities that will follow the UKs leaving the EU, the former ambassador wrote in an essay for the policy institute Chatham House. They observe that such opportunities have always been there: none depend on exit from the EU.

Japan, he said, believed Britains EU membership was strengthened its economic heft and political clout in the United Nations, the G7, Nato and elsewhere.

Sir David added: Japan sees power projection as heavily dependent on economic clout. Brexit is therefore regarded in Japan as an act of medium- and long-term economic, and therefore political, self-harm.

The diminished economic expectations which Japan and other trading partners expect to flow from Brexit risk reducing the power of the UKs voice accordingly; its ability to increase its diplomatic weight in the world by acting as part of the EU will disappear.

He called for a rigorous and honest examination of the real impact of Brexit, adding: This is a time for plain speaking not rhetoric.

Sir David has considerable insight on Japanese perspectives on the UK, having served three stints at the British embassy in Tokyo before his retirement from the Foreign Office in 2013.

He is now an associate fellow of Chatham Houses Asia programme and chairs the Japan Society, a British organisation dedicated to improving British-Japanese relations.

Last week cabinet ministers including Chancellor Philip Hammond, Business Secretary Greg Clark and Trade Secretary Liam Fox met with top Japanese investors in the UK to discuss future trade options.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral PA UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA 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

Included in the roundtable were the heads of car giants Nissan, Honda, Toyota and Mitsubishi, train manufacturer Hitachi, tech companies, energy firms, and banks.

No 10 insisted the talks had focused on how to make the UK an even more attractive destination for Japanese and international investment, as well as the UK-Japan trade and investment relationship.

But Japanese ambassador Koji Tsuruoka laid bare growing nervousness about the impact of EU withdrawal among his countrys businesses.

If there is no profitability of continuing operation in [the] UK, not Japanese only, no private company can continue operations, he said. So it is as simple as that. And this is all high stakes that I think all of us need to keep in mind.

The Japanese government, in a leaked letter, has previously called on Ms May to keep Britain in the EU single market and customs union and maintain a free flow of workers.Jeremy Corbyn has dismissed claims that he met and briefed a Czech spy during the Cold War as a ridiculous smear.

According to a report the Labour leader held three meetings with a communist spy in 1986 and allegedly warned about a clampdown by British intelligence on European spies in the UK.

It was claimed that he met with the Soviet-backed agent Lieutenant Jan Dymic in the House of Commons on two separate occasions.

But a spokesman for the Labour leader said the claim that Mr Corbyn was an agent, asset or informer for any intelligence agency is entirely false and a ridiculous smear.

He added: Like other MPs, Jeremy has met diplomats from many countries. In the 1980s he met a Czech diplomat, who did not go by the name of Jan Dymic, for a cup of tea in the House of Commons.

Jeremy neither had nor offered any privileged information to this or any other diplomat.

During the Cold War, intelligence officers notoriously claimed to superiors to have recruited people they had merely met. The existence of these bogus claims does not make them in any way true.

The story in The Sun, which ran under the headline Corbyn and the Commie spy, alleged that soviet-backed intelligence officers placed Mr Corbyn  then a backbench MP for just three years  on a list of the Czechoslovakian state security teams agents and sources.

The claims are based on documentation released in Prague relating to the former Czech secret police force (Statni Bezpecnost). The reports noted that Mr Corbyn was negative towards USA, as well as the current politics of the Conservative government.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 Arsenals Takehiro Tomiyasu attempts to control the ball during the Premier League match at The Emirates Stadium PA UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA 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

After an alleged meeting between Lt Dymic and the MP for Islington North, a note added: Behaviour is reserved and courteous, however, occasionally explosive (when speaking about human rights), though the performance is calm and collected.

But Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, who is attending a Nato briefing in Brussels, referred to the report in The Sun as evidence of Mr Corbyns untrustworthiness.

Mr Williamson told the London Evening Standard: Jeremy Corbyn has never had Britains interests at heart.

Time and time again he has sided with those who want to destroy everything that is great about this country, whether it is sympathising with terrorists, backing rogue regimes, or cosying up to those who want to inflict pain and misery on the British people.

That he met foreign spies is a betrayal of this country. He cannot be trusted.Russia was behind a major cyber attack that affected countries around the world and cost businesses hundreds of millions of pounds, the UK Government has said.

Ministers claimed Russian military intelligence was responsible for the NotPetya attack last June, which took down IT systems in Ukraine before spreading to 64 other countries, including the UK.

In an unusually strong critique of Vladimir Putins government, the Defence Secretary, Gavin Williamson, accused Moscow of ripping up the rule book.

It is understood the UKs National Cyber Security Centre has determined that the Russian military was almost certainly behind the attack. Moscow has denied suggestions that it was to blame, pointing out that Russian computers were also affected.

Mr Williamson said: We have entered a new era of warfare, witnessing a destructive and deadly mix of conventional military might and malicious cyber attacks.

Russia is ripping up the rule book by undermining democracy, wrecking livelihoods by targeting critical infrastructure, and weaponising information. We must be primed and ready to tackle these stark and intensifying threats.

The Government does not normally disclose who it believes is behind attacks affecting the UK. That it chose to do so on this occasion underlines the fact that the UK and its allies will not tolerate malicious cyber activity, the Foreign Office said.

The NotPetya malware crippled computers unless their owners agreed to make a ransom payment. It was initially targeted at key Ukrainian companies and infrastructure, including energy companies, airports and banks, but quickly spread around the world.

The attack is believed to have caused businesses globally to lose up to 850m. One of the companies affected was British manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser, which owns brands such as Dettol, Durex and Strepsils. Analysts believe the firm lost up to 100m as a result of the virus.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 Arsenals Takehiro Tomiyasu attempts to control the ball during the Premier League match at The Emirates Stadium PA UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA 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

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the foreign office minister with responsibility for cybersecurity, said the UK had determined that the the Russian government, specifically the Russian military was responsible for the destructive NotPetya attack.

The attack showed a continued disregard for Ukrainian sovereignty. Its reckless release disrupted organisations across Europe costing hundreds of millions of pounds, he said.

The Kremlin has positioned Russia in direct opposition to the West yet it doesnt have to be that way. We call upon Russia to be the responsible member of the international community it claims to be rather then secretly trying to undermine it.

Lord Ahmad said the UK would continue to identify and respond to cyber attacks, including by imposing costs on those who would seek to do us harm.

 'Petya' cyber attack hits firms across the world

The warning comes weeks after another outspoken critique of Russia by Mr Williamson, who warned that Moscow could cause thousands and thousands and thousands of deaths through cyber attacks on UK infrastructure.

In comments dismissed by Moscow as worthy of a Monty Python sketch, Mr Williamson said: The plan for the Russians wont be for landing craft to appear in the south bay in Scarborough, and off Brighton beach.

They are going to be thinking, How can we just cause so much pain to Britain?

Damage its economy, rip its infrastructure apart, actually cause thousands and thousands and thousands of deaths, but actually have an element of creating total chaos within the country.

Russia has been at loggerheads with Ukraine since 2014, when Moscow annexed the peninsula of Crimea. The government in Kiev is battling against Russian-backed separatists in the east of the country.Cyril Ramaphosa has been elected president of South Africa in the National Assembly in Cape Town.

Mr Ramaphosa, a confidante of the late Nelson Mandela and a wealthy businessman, was deputy under President Jacob Zuma.

He automatically became acting president when the embattled leader stood down on Wednesday, but was only declared president of the republic on Thursday afternoon.

Singing and clapping broke out in the assembly after it was announced that Mr Ramaphosa was the only nominee for the role.

Chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, who was chairing the session, was greeted with laughter when he said: Im trying to adapt to the environment, Im not used to it. In a court of law, no singing is allowed.

In his first speech as president, Mr Ramaphosa said he was truly humbled to have been given the great privilege of serving the South African people.

As president, he said his role was to be a servant of the people of South Africa, and he would serve with humility, faithfulness and with dignity as well.

He addressed the issue of corruption in the country, saying South Africa must come first in everything that we do.

His predecessor Mr Zumas two terms as president had been dogged by corruption allegations, relating specifically to a 1999 arms deal, a rape accusation, and his relationship with the powerful Gupta family.

He came under intense pressure from his ruling African National Congress (ANC) Party to resign, and finally did so having become a symbol of corruption.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

A cheer went up in the National Assembly when speaker Baleka Mbete announced Mr Zumas resignation.

Residual supporters of Mr Zuma remain within the ANC, and one of Mr Ramaphosas first tasks as president will be to unite the party.

Prime Minister Theresa May offered her warm congratulations to the new South African president.

Ms May said: The United Kingdom greatly values its dynamic and forward-looking partnership with South Africa, underpinned by the strong people-to-people and business ties between our countries.

I look forward to working closely with President Ramaphosa to help build a healthier, more secure and prosperous future for both our countries.

I very much hope to see the President at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London in April.Jacob Zumas second name is Gedleyihlekisa, which can be interpreted, among other things, to mean, the one who laughs at you while physically hurting you.

Many will argue that is precisely what he has done to the people of South Africa  giggled while he sold our democracy and caused immense damage to our economy and to the fabric of our society. Many say that his legacy is one of wreckage. He has wreaked havoc on the country, its economy and its optimism.

After surviving a series of scandals, which would have surely ended anyone elses career  he was facing his ninth vote of no-confidence in parliament before he left office  Zuma, with four wives (currently) and at least 20 acknowledged children, has finally left office.

Recommended South African President Jacob Zuma has resigned

The writing was on the wall for some time. In December 2017 at the ruling African National Congress (ANC) national elective conference, Cyril Ramaphosa defeated Zumas handpicked nominee  his ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, who was until recently the head of the African Union.

Then it became clear the political landscape was changing with severe repercussions for Zuma and his supporters.

It became clearer earlier this week when the police elite crime-fighting unit known as the Hawks, arrested some of his associates who were accused, among other things, of being involved in a corrupt dairy project.

Politically he was also losing support. The ANC MPs who had previously helped him defeat the eight opposition motions of no confidence tabled in the South African parliament were now  for the first time ever  prepared to back a ninth proposed by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). It says much about the ANC when it cant get rid of one of its own, like that unruly uncle who hits on everyone but will not leave unless the police escort him out.

The son of a rural policeman who died when Zuma was five, his mother, a domestic worker in Durban was unable to give him a formal education.

He joined the ANC, and then its underground military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, which was formed to fight against the apartheid government both from within South Africa and from bases in neighbouring countries, when he was teenager.

 South African President Jacob Zuma announces resignation

In 1963, he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison on Robben Island along with Nelson Mandela and other prominent leaders in the liberation struggle  something he continued to work on in the ANCs underground intelligence structures on his release, although he was mostly in exile in countries like Swaziland and Mozambique.

After apartheid was dismantled in 1991 he took up increasingly powerful positions in South African life, rising to Deputy President under Thabo Mbeki  who sacked him in 2005 after one of his associates, Schabir Shaik, was convicted for fraud and corruption.

One of the charges related to him trying to solicit a bribe on behalf of Zuma from an arms company.

That year Zuma was also accused and later acquitted of the rape of the HIV-positive daughter of a family friend. He claimed that he showered afterwards and since then he has been caricatured with a shower hanging over his head.

The allegations did little to stop his rise and he was elected president of the ruling ANC in 2007 and as President of South Africa the following year.

Since then he has been embroiled a series of scandals and faced a number of allegations of corruption and malfeasance, many of which are said to have started long before he took the nations top job.

He has been subject to a long-running legal battle over allegations of corruption stemming from the 1999 Strategic Defence Package a multimillion dollar arms deal. More than 783 counts of corruption being lodged but he charges were dropped in 2009.

The country is currently waiting for a decision by the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) on reinstating these charges. A decision on this is expected on 23 February.

There has also been a long-running saga over the upgrading of his private residence in the rural area of Nkandla, in northern KwaZulu-Natal, using state funds.

Ordered to pay back the money, in 2013, three years later, South Africas highest court ruled that he had violated the constitution by failing to repay the government money.

Mr Zuma apologised to South Africans for the frustration and confusion caused by the scandal and has since repaid the money.

But it is his relationship with the wealthy Indian-born Gupta family that has possible sealed his demise, amid allegations they had used it to influence cabinet appointments and advance its business interests.

Both Zuma and the Guptas have denied the allegation, but the ANC ordered an investigation into what its secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has called the corporate capture of government.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Some of Zumas children are known to work for Guptas companies, but the family is also accused of using its influence to hire and fire ministers who got in the way of their business interests.

Fired former Finance Minster Pravin Gordhan was one of the most high profile casualties. He accused the family of being involved in suspicious transactions worth about $490m (400m), which they deny.

Before it went out of business last year, British PR firm also found itself at the heat of the scandals surrounding the family.

Accused of pushing the idea of white monopoly capital on social media to emphasise the power of white businesses, it was accused of inflamming racial tensions in a country where the white minority still wields considerable economic power.

The firm was reportedly paid 100,000 a month by the Gupta owned Oakbay Investment, to allegedly divert attention away from corruption claims being made against the Gupta family and their close relationship with President Zuma.

It was subsequently expelled from the PR trade body and went into administration.

Many of Zumas appointments over the years were overturned by the courts. These include the head of the public broadcaster (SABC), the head of the power utility (Eskom), the head of the prosecution authority (NPA), and other smaller entities. The equally important Revenue Services (SARS) has been plagued by problems, many of which stem from Zumas meddling in its management.

With his penchant for midnight moves, he replaced capable ministers at whim. He of course retained those he considered personally loyal despite their glaring incompetence and behaviour bordering on corruption.

Over the years he has alienated many of his most vocal supporters, including some who vowed to die for him and mobilised support in his bid for presidency of the ANC. Some of the loudest were Zwelinzima Vavi, Blade Nzimande and Julius Malema, all of whom Zuma later booted or marginalised when they fell out of favour. They went on to become some of his harshest critics.

Much of the rise of Zuma was based on the idea that he was the victim of a political conspiracy to prevent him from becoming president of the country. The truth is that the ANC fed and encouraged his paranoid and delusional fantasies of victimhood and allowed him to do as he wished.

In the last municipal elections in 2016, the ANC lost many key metro areas, including Johannesburg, to opposition coalitions. The party now faces the possiblity of losing its majority in the national elections in 2019. Already there are signs that it has lost the unflinching support of the past.

Announcing his resignation in a bizarre and somewhat crazed appearance on national TV, Zuma again claimed that he was a victim of a conspiracy. He insisted that he had done nothing wrong, He was not defiant, he was just disagreeing with the ANC decision that he should resign.

But many South Africans will line up to remind him of some of his many wrongdoings: he breached his oath of office and flouted the constitution, he plundered the country to enrich his family and himself, he gutted the justice system and other institutions, he presided over state capture and he led many to be ashamed of their president.

He leaves a tattered legacy in the country which is facing 1 per cent economic growth with over a quarter of those who would like to work without jobs.

Incoming president Ramaphosa has a tough task ahead. He needs to renew confidence in the economy and in state institutions. He equally needs to renew confidence in his party and win over the electorate so that any vote of no confidence in the ANC in the 2019 elections does not lose him the presidency of the country.

Will Zuma ever face the music? Much depends on the compromised NPA (Zuma selected the top staff) bringing charges against him. Failing that, there are strong indications that private prosecutions will be launched so that the legacy and rot of the Zuma regime is eradicated. Many South Africans want him to be charged for reckless endangerment of the country.The alleged Florida shooter has been placed on suicide watch after making his first court appearance, a day after the mass shooting over which he has been charged with 17 counts of murder.

As the community of Fort Lauderdale struggled to rebound from the attack on a high school, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz appeared briefly before magistrate court judge Kim Theresa Mollica.

Cruz was wearing an orange jump suit, with his hands in front of him, and did not look at the judge when she addressed him.

Okay, sir. You are charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. I have something very important to tell you, she said, according to CNN.

Youre charged with some very serious crimes. You have the right to remain silent. If you give up that right at any time during this hearing, whatever you say can and will be used against you in the prosecution of this case.

Asked if he understood what he had been told, replied: Yes, maam.

The appearance only lasted a few minutes as the state asks for a so-called no bond hold, a request to which the defence did not challenge.

Ms Mollica then asked the prosecution how it wanted to proceed.

 High school football player pays tribute to coach killed in Florida mass shooting

Are you seeking to hold the defendant no bond and a finding of proof of evidence, presumption great?

The prosecution said Cruz had entered the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with a premeditated design, in that he went loaded with an AR-15 rifle. He had additional ammunition with him and shot 17 individuals who later died as a result of the gunshot wounds and then he fled the scene.

The judge then said: I find probable cause. I further find the proof of guilt to be evident or the presumption great, therefore Mr Cruz, youre going to be held without bond until further order of the court. This order is without prejudice.

This brief court appearance came as the FBI began digging into the background of the teenager, and friends and relatives paid tribute to the 17 students and teachers who lost their lives.

The FBI received at least two reports that Cruz may pose a threat before the shooting, a law enforcement source told CNN. In addition, the FBI was warned in September about a possible school shooting threat from a YouTube user with the same name as the suspect, according to a video blogger.

The FBI special agent in charge of the Miami division, Robert Lasky, confirmed Thursday morning that the bureau received a tip last year about the YouTube comment.

No other information was included with that comment which would indicate a time, location or the true identity of the person who made the comment, Mr Lasky said during a news conference.

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 FBI conducted database reviews, checks but was unable to further identify the person who actually made the comment.

Public defence lawyer Gordon Weekes said Cruz was under suicide watch and was a deeply troubled young man.

He said Cruz struggled from significant mental illness his entire life. According to Mr Weekes, Cruz recognised the loss to the community from the shooting. Mr Weekes said Cruz was dealing with shock, and that he has expressed sadness by the deaths of the students.

Mr Weekes, while speaking to reporters, was overcome with emotions as he talked about the victims killed in the shooting.

This is a loss for this community, he said. A tragic loss of 17 children.The FBI is reviewing its tip procedure in the wake of the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida in which 17 people were killed.

The bureau had been warned last year about an anonymous online commenter going by the name nikolas cruz - the real name of the suspect - who wrote a comment under a YouTube video that read "I'm going to be a professional school shooter."

The bureau was unable to locate that person at the time and a bureau official told Reuters that it is reviewing how it handled the tip about the comment to see if mistakes were made.

Ben Bennight, the Mississippi bail bondsman who posted the original video, was alarmed and had contacted the FBI at the time according to a new video he posted in hours following the 14 February shooting.

"No other information was included with that comment which would indicate a time location or the true identity of the person who made the comment," sai FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Lasky during a news conference.

The FBIs field office in Miami where Mr Lasky is in charge did not immediately respond to a request for further comment on exactly why the commenter could not be located, the reasons for reviewing the tip procedure, and what could be changed.

 Florida shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz appears in court the day after mass shooting

A white nationalist group called the Republic of Florida identified Nikolas Cruz, 19, as having ties with them the day after the shooting but the FBI believes he may have left proof of his association with the group last year on social media.

Police said Mr Cruz walked into Majory Stoneman Douglas High School around the time classes were being dismissed and opened fire with an AR-15-style assault rifle.

Florida shooting  in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Florida shooting  in pictures Florida shooting  in pictures Police arrest a suspect in connection with the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida Reuters Florida shooting  in pictures Parents wait for news after reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida AP Florida shooting  in pictures Anxious family members wait for news of students AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school AP Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school Getty Florida shooting  in pictures People gather waiting for word from students AP Florida shooting  in pictures Parents waiting for news on their children AP Florida shooting  in pictures People gather at a hotel where students were taken after the shooting Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks to the media as he visits Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following the shooting AFP/Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Dr. Igor Nichiporenko, Medical Director Trauma, left, and Dr. Evan Boyer, Medical Director, Emergency Services, speak about treating victims and the suspect at a press conference outside Broward Health North hospital AP

He was a student at the school before being expelled for bad behaviour last year.

According to gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety, the shooting was the 18th in a US school in 2018.

The 17 victims included three adults and 14 children, one of the youngest among them was Alyssa Alhadeff who was just 15 years old.

All the victims' families have been informed according to Broward County police.

Of those who died, 12 were inside the school, two people outside of the building, one on a street corner close to the school, and two died of their injuries in hospital.The suspect in a Florida school shooting may have been a member of a white supremacist group, with the organisation's leader casting doubt on the association after affirming it.

A representative of the Republic of Florida named Jacob Jered initially told multiple outlets that suspect Nikolas Cruz was a member, though later in the day Mr Jereb undercut his previous claim with a statement saying there had been a misunderstanding due to his group having multiple people with the same first name.

The Leon County Sheriff's Department, which has reportedly had contact with Mr Jereb and the Republic of Florida in the past, told reporters that it had not established any ties between the group and Mr Cruz.

The Southern Poverty Law Centre, which tracks extremists groups, included the Republic of Florida on its Hate Watch list. After Mr Jered walked back his initial statement, the centre said he had always been somewhat of a publicity seeker.

Tallahassee-based WTXL-TV reported last year that the white nationalist group was actively seeking more members and said the group was on the Leon County Sheriffs Offices radar.

I do think civil war is a very real possibility in the next two years, Mr Jereb told the Tallahassee Democrat, predicting an open, violent clash involving guns and people stabbing and killing each other.

Florida shooting  in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Florida shooting  in pictures Florida shooting  in pictures Police arrest a suspect in connection with the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida Reuters Florida shooting  in pictures Parents wait for news after reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida AP Florida shooting  in pictures Anxious family members wait for news of students AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school AP Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school Getty Florida shooting  in pictures People gather waiting for word from students AP Florida shooting  in pictures Parents waiting for news on their children AP Florida shooting  in pictures People gather at a hotel where students were taken after the shooting Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks to the media as he visits Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following the shooting AFP/Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Dr. Igor Nichiporenko, Medical Director Trauma, left, and Dr. Evan Boyer, Medical Director, Emergency Services, speak about treating victims and the suspect at a press conference outside Broward Health North hospital AP

Authorities have charged Mr Cruz with 17 counts of murder, and investigators are beginning to piece together information about the suspect.

The FBI confirmed that it had received a tip about an online commenter with the name nikolas cruz posting Im going to be a professional school shooter in 2017. The bureau ran database checks but could not confirm the posters identity.

An online trail left behind by Mr Cruz included some very disturbing material, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters.Seventeen people have been killed in the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, authorities confirmed.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters that 12 victims died inside the school, three victims died outside, and two died in the hospital after a lone gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Another 14 to 18 people were injured.

Doctors for the Broward Health North hospital system, where the victims were treated, said three people were still in critical condition.

School district superintendent Robert Runcie called the shooting  one of the 10 deadliest in US history  "a horrific situation".

"It is a horrible day for us," he told reporters.

Authorities have identified the suspect as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, a former student at the school. Mr Israel said the suspect had been expelled before the shooting for "disciplinary reasons". The sheriff's office is still combing through Mr Cruz's online activity, which Mr Israel said included some "very disturbing" content.

Florida shooting  in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Florida shooting  in pictures Florida shooting  in pictures Police arrest a suspect in connection with the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida Reuters Florida shooting  in pictures Parents wait for news after reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida AP Florida shooting  in pictures Anxious family members wait for news of students AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school AP Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school Getty Florida shooting  in pictures People gather waiting for word from students AP Florida shooting  in pictures Parents waiting for news on their children AP Florida shooting  in pictures People gather at a hotel where students were taken after the shooting Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks to the media as he visits Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following the shooting AFP/Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Dr. Igor Nichiporenko, Medical Director Trauma, left, and Dr. Evan Boyer, Medical Director, Emergency Services, speak about treating victims and the suspect at a press conference outside Broward Health North hospital AP

Teachers at the school told the Miami Herald that they had been warned not to let Mr Cruz onto school grounds, as he had been flagged as a potential threat. Mr Runcie, however, said he was not aware of any threats from the former student.

Mr Cruz was arrested off-campus about an hour after the shooting, Mr Israel said. Authorities believed he used an AR-15 rifle and multiple magazines to carry out the massacre.

Witnesses said a fire alarm went off at the same time the shooting commenced at the high school on Wednesday afternoon, shortly before classes were to be dismissed. Students ran into the hallway before teachers pulled them back inside.

One teacher, Melissa Falkowski, told CNN she pulled 19 students into a closet with her to protect them. They waited 40 minutes for the shooting to stop.

Another student told WSVN 7 that she saw the shooter gun down her teacher as he opened the door to let students inside. The door was left swinging open as the students cowered inside.

"As he walked by the door was open," the student, identified only as Alex, said. "He could have walked in at any time, and we just had to be as quiet as possible."

Several parents learned of the shooting from their children, who sent them panicked text messages from inside the building. Students were eventually escorted out of the building by SWAT teams to be reunited with their families.

The shooting is the 18th school shooting in the US this year, according to gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety. It was the sixth where students were wounded or injured.Teachers were warned not to let suspected Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz on to campus wearing a backpack, a staff member has said, as details emerged of very disturbing social media posts left by the teenager.

Seventeen people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, when the 19-year-old allegedly opened fire with an AR-15 semi-automatic assault-style rifle on Wednesday. Police said he was carrying countless extra magazines of ammunition.

But as a picture of the suspect began to emerge, maths teacher Jim Gard said there had been problems with him last year threatening students and that he had been asked to leave.

Senior staff had emailed teachers to warn them that he wasnt allowed on campus with a backpack on him, he told the Miami Herald.

Cruz has now been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Fellow students claimed they had joked about Cruz as a future killer, with one telling WFOR-TV: A lot of people were saying it was going to be him. A lot of kids threw jokes around saying that he was going to be the one to shoot up the school. It turns out that everyone predicted it.

Daniel Huerfano, a student who fled Wednesdays attack, said he recognised Cruz from an Instagram photo in which he posed with a gun in front of his face. He was that weird kid that you see ... like a loner, he added.

Recommended What we know about the Florida school shooting

Dakota Mutchler, a 17-year-old junior, said he used to be close friends with Cruz but had not seen him in more than a year following his expulsion from school, and that he started progressively getting a little more weird.

Mr Mutchler recalled Cruz posting on Instagram about killing animals and said he had talked about doing target practice in his backyard with a pellet gun.

He started going after one of my friends, threatening her, and I cut him off from there, he added.

A third student alleged Cruz had been abusive towards an ex-girlfriend.

On his now-deleted Instagram profile were images of multiple knives and guns. One showed a box of 150 rifle rounds and another sought advice on buying a shotgun.

A law enforcement official close to the investigation told AP after Cruz was charged, early on Thursday, that the teen had bought his AR-15 legally.

A photograph first tweeted by a local ESPN radio reporter showed Cruz at the moment of his arrest wearing a Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) t-shirt. Police sources told the New York Post he was a member of the US Army junior ROTC group.

 Florida shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz appears in court the day after mass shooting

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said Cruz had been expelled for disciplinary reasons but that I dont know the specifics.

The countys mayor, Beam Furr, told CNN Cruz had received some mental health treatment but had not attended a clinic for more than a year.

The Orlando Sentinel quoted family members as saying Cruz had been adopted at birth along with his brother by Lynda and Roger Cruz. Mr Cruz died some years ago and his widow passed away last November, the paper said.

Her sister-in-law, Barbara Kumbatovich, told the Sentinel Ms Cruz had sought counselling for Nikolas when he was younger. The boys were left in the care of a family friend after their mother died, she added.

Unhappy there, Cruz asked to move in with a friends family in north-west Broward. The family agreed and Cruz moved in around Thanksgiving.

Florida shooting  in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Florida shooting  in pictures Florida shooting  in pictures Police arrest a suspect in connection with the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida Reuters Florida shooting  in pictures Parents wait for news after reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida AP Florida shooting  in pictures Anxious family members wait for news of students AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school AP Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school Getty Florida shooting  in pictures People gather waiting for word from students AP Florida shooting  in pictures Parents waiting for news on their children AP Florida shooting  in pictures People gather at a hotel where students were taken after the shooting Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks to the media as he visits Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following the shooting AFP/Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Dr. Igor Nichiporenko, Medical Director Trauma, left, and Dr. Evan Boyer, Medical Director, Emergency Services, speak about treating victims and the suspect at a press conference outside Broward Health North hospital AP

According to the familys lawyer, who did not identify them, they knew that Cruz owned the AR-15 but made him keep it locked in a cabinet. He did have the key, however.

The lawyer, Jim Lewis, said the family was devastated and was cooperating with police. They had not seen the tragedy coming, he said.

Additional reporting by agenciesA government watchdog organisation has filed a complaint to the Federal Electoral Commission (FEC) over the $130,000 (92,500) Donald Trumps lawyer paid to porn star Stormy Daniels before the presidential election, suggesting the payment could have influenced the outcome of the vote and should have been declared at the time.

Earlier in the year, reports emerged that Daniels had been paid the amount shortly before the 2016 election to keep quiet about an alleged relationship she had with Mr Trump in 2006  a year after he married his current wife Melania Trump.

The US President could potentially face another FBI investigation during his time in office if it transpires the money paid to Daniels was an attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Who filed the complaint?

Common Cause, a Washington watchdog, has asked the FEC to investigate the source of the $130,000 payment made by Mr Trump's lawyer and determine whether it constituted an excessive campaign contribution.

On Wednesday the organisation called on both the independent regulatory agency which enforces campaign finance law in US federal elections and the Department of Justice to carry out a full investigation. The watchdog said the timing and circumstances of the payment make it appear that the hush money was paid to Daniels in an effort to influence the election.

In its complaint Common Cause argued the payment amounts to a campaign contribution way over the $2,700 limit to the amount any individual can give.

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

Michael Cohen [Mr Trumps lawyer] has now admitted to being the John Doe named in our complaints who paid off Daniels, apparently to buy her silence, at a time when she was reportedly negotiating with major media outlets to discuss the potentially damaging details of a relationship she carried on with Trump, reads the complaint.

Questions about the payment and the circumstances behind it must be answered, and they must be answered under oath.

Will the FBI be involved?

David Brock, a commentator and founder of the media watchdog group Media Matters for America, has also filed a complaint with the FEC, arguing it is imperative the US public knows more about the payment exchange.

These revelations do more than just confirm what many of us already knew about Trumps personal character. They raise serious questions about whether Trump will face yet another FBI investigation during his time in office, he said in a piece for NBC.

The American people deserve to know the truth about why their president was paying $130,000 to a former paramour in apparent exchange for her silence in the middle of the campaign, and whether he broke federal election law or violated the public trust in the process.

The complaints come after Mr Cohen admitted to paying the money to Daniels, who reportedly once told a journalist she had had an affair with Mr Trump more than a decade ago.

What has Trumps lawyer said?

Mr Cohen said he paid the porn star, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, $130,000 out of his own pocket in the months leading up to the election. But Mr Cohen insisted he was working alone and it was not a campaign expense.

Neither the Trump Organisation nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly, Mr Cohen said in a statement released on Tuesday night.

In his statement, Mr Cohen said the payment was a private transaction but failed to explain why the sum was paid or reveal whether Mr Trump knew about it.

Addressing the complaint filed by Common Cause, he said: The complaint alleges that I somehow violated campaign finance laws by facilitating an excess, in-kind contribution. The allegations in the complaint are factually unsupported and without legal merit, and my counsel has submitted a response to the FEC.

He added: Just because something isnt true doesnt mean that it cant cause you harm or damage. I will always protect Mr Trump.

In a statement to The Independent, a spokesperson for the FEC confirmed it had received Common Causes complaint. They declined to comment further, citing confidentiality rules that apply until the case is resolved.

And where does Daniels stand?

Daniels now believes she is free to talk about her alleged relationship with the president after accusing Mr Trumps personal lawyer of breaching a non-disclosure agreement.

The adult performer's manager said Mr Cohen's admission represented a breach of their contract. Everything is off now, and Stormy is going to tell her story, Gina Rodriguez, told the Associated Press.

Both Mr Trump and Ms Daniels denied there had been any relationship despite the fact she provided details of the affair to In Touch magazine in 2011. The interview was not published until recently.

In the wake of the reports, Ms Daniels issued a statement denying the affair ever took place. She also refused to confirm or deny a relationship when she appeared on TV on the night of the Presidents State of the Union address.

The fact of the matter is that each party to this alleged affair denied its existence in 2006, 2011, 2017 and again in 2018, she 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."

The Independent contacted the White House for comment.The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee has said there is an abundance of information about possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia that the public has yet to see.

There is certainly an abundance of non-public information that weve gathered in the investigation, Representative Adam Schiff told reporters.  And I think some of that non-public evidence is evidence on the issue of collusion and some ... on the issue of obstruction.

Mr Schiff is the ranking Democrat on the House committee charged with investigating Russian meddling in the US election. The probe is being conducted in parallel with that of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating allegations of collusion by the Trump campaign and obstruction of justice by Donald Trump himself.

Mr Trump has said repeatedly that he did not collude with Russia, and did not obstruct the any investigations into the issue.

Democrats on the intelligence committee tried unsuccessfully last week to release a classified document on the Russia investigation, which rebutted claims from an earlier memo written by Republicans. Mr Trump refused to approve the memos release last week, citing security concerns.

The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images

But Mr Schiff said on Wednesday that there was ample non-classified evidence of Trump campaign collusion already in the public domain. He pointed to a June 2016 meeting between Trump campaign members and a Russian lawyer, and the White Houses misleading statement on that same meeting months later.

"All of this is evidence of collusion," Mr Schiff said. "Now, I've never said that there was proof beyond a reasonable doubt. That's for Bob Mueller to decide. But to say there's no evidence of collusion, you'd have to ignore all this."

 Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff says FISA court knew the dossier was funded by a political actor

Mr Schiff also said that his committee should inform people of any "unpatriotic" or "immoral" actions by the Trump campaign, even if Mr Mueller decides that he cannot file criminal conspiracy charges.

The former federal prosecutor suggested that his committee should move forward by following the money  or more specifically, looking into allegations of money laundering.

We know that in other places they use money laundering as a way of entangling people, as a way of compromising people. To me that is far more potentially compromising than any salacious video would be, he said.

The comment was reference to a controversial research dossier claiming the Kremlin possesses video of Mr Trump committing salacious acts in a Moscow hotel room. Mr Trump has denied the allegations in the dossier, calling them fake news.President Donald Trump has threatened to veto any immigration legislation that does not mirror his own proposal to dramatically reshape the USs immigration system and build a border wall.

In the midst of a Senate immigration debate over a measure to protect young undocumented immigrants  so-called dreamers  Mr Trump threw his support behind a Republican bill that he says incorporates his four principles outlined in a White House framework for any immigration bill.

I am asking all senators, in both parties, to support the Grassley bill and to oppose any legislation that fails to fulfill these four pillars  that includes opposing any short-term Band-Aid approach, Mr Trump said in a statement.

According to the White House framework, Mr Trump would grant about 1.8m dreamers legal status, including a path to citizenship  in exchange for increased immigration enforcement, the construction of his long-promised border wall, and a restructuring of legal immigration channels that moves away from reuniting families and gives priority to higher-skilled immigrants.

Mr Trump essentially forced Congress to address US immigration policy, a big talking point during his presidential campaign, when he rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme in September. The Obama-era policy lets young immigrants who were brought to the US illegally as minors live and work in the US without fear of deportation.

Mr Trump said legislation that does not include his priorities will not  in his own words - deliver safety, security and prosperity to the American People.

Republican Senator Chuck Grassleys legislation, which is being co-sponsored by five other Republicans, would offer a chance for citizenship for up to 1.8m dreamers. It would also provide $25 billion for border security, restrict family-based immigration and end a visa lottery.

The National Immigration Law Center called it a copied and pasted version of President Trumps #DACA ransom.

Its not a serious proposal to #ProtectDreamers and only caters to one audience  anti-immigrant restrictionists, the organisation wrote on Twitter. Anything that resembles this bill should be rejected immediately.

On Wednesday, the White House said the President would not support the bipartisan McCain-Coons proposal, from Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Coons.

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

White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said the plan would increase illegal immigration, surge chain migration, continue catch and release, and give a pathway to citizenship to convicted alien felons.

The Department of Homeland Security also slammed the measure for not putting a single penny toward border security.

The McCain-Coons proposal does not authorise a single penny for appropriations for border security, ensuring that our nations border is never secured or our national security protected, DHS said in a statement. Rather than securing our border, the McCain-Coons proposal requires DHS to submit a strategy on border security Congress  something that DHS has already done.

The measured proposed by Mr McCain and Mr Coons would give a pathway to citizenship for 3.2m illegal immigrants and authorise only $3 billion of the $25 billion President Trump had requested for border security.

The clock is ticking as senators search for an agreement that will receive the 60 votes needed for the bill to clear the chamber. They have less than three weeks to go until DACA expires, and any measure approved by the Senate would also need to be approved by the more conservative House of Representatives.

Immigration has been a troublesome issue for Congress, with former President Barack Obama having implemented DACA only after a lack of congressional action on immigration reform.

With less than three days to go before the Senates immigration debate is expected to end, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, one of the key immigration negotiators, is pulling out all the stops to oppose parts of Mr Trumps framework.

Mr Durbin on the Senate floor told the story of US Olympian Chloe Kim, who has won a gold medal in snowboarding during the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea.

Mr Durbin said the 17-year-olds family would not have been allowed to come to US under policies endorsed by the President.A Democratic Congressman has said that the institution is in the "thrall" of the National Rifle Association.

Representative Jim Himes said on CNN that he feels the response to the mass shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in which 17 people died will be "perfectly predictable."

Mr Himes said after an offering of "thoughts and prayers" the Congress "will do absolutely nothing" since many members of Congress receive campaign contributions from the powerful gun owners' membership organisation.

He said he was speaking from experience since he represents the state of Connecticut, where the tragic 2014 school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, took place where 20 children between six and seven years old as well as six adults were killed by a gunman.

There is a "sense of resignation" here, Mr Himes said.

Mr Himes appeared frustrated and said that the lack of action is "the kind of thing that  at least those of us who believe that the government has the power to probably reduce this kind of violence  it's the kind of thing that really hits you right in the gut."

"20 dead babies in Connecticut wasn't enough to move the heart of this place," Mr Himes said in reference to the Sandy Hook massacre.

 Emotional mum makes passionate plea to America on gun laws after Florida school shooting

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the NRA spent $3.2m in lobbying in 2016, a little over $1m in campaign contributions, and over $54m in "outside spending," which is money spent "against candidates" who do not favour gun ownership rights.

Nearly half of the organisation's registered federal lobbyists have also been government employees at some point.

"Any person with a heart, any person with a soul, would say that this institution should do to try to prevent what happened today," Mr Himes said, adding that nearly every other country in the world has taken measures to reduce gun violence.

Florida shooting  in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Florida shooting  in pictures Florida shooting  in pictures Police arrest a suspect in connection with the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida Reuters Florida shooting  in pictures Parents wait for news after reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida AP Florida shooting  in pictures Anxious family members wait for news of students AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school AP Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school Getty Florida shooting  in pictures People gather waiting for word from students AP Florida shooting  in pictures Parents waiting for news on their children AP Florida shooting  in pictures People gather at a hotel where students were taken after the shooting Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks to the media as he visits Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following the shooting AFP/Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Dr. Igor Nichiporenko, Medical Director Trauma, left, and Dr. Evan Boyer, Medical Director, Emergency Services, speak about treating victims and the suspect at a press conference outside Broward Health North hospital AP

Mr Himes was not the only Democrat angry about the lack of response from the federal government on curbing access to weapons and ammunition.

Democratic Representative Seth Moulton called on US President Donald Trump to "get off his ass and join me in trying to do something about it" in response to the President's tweet sending his condolences to the victims' families in Parkland, Florida.

Police have arrested the suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, a former student at the high school who had been expelled due to bad behaviour.

Mr Moulton also hit out at House Speaker Paul Ryan in the wake of the mass shooting in Las Vegas during which 58 people were killed and nearly 500 injured.

He had tweeted at Mr Ryan: "how many Americans have to die before you do your job? Allow us to have a debate and a vote."In response to the school shooting in Florida President Donald Trump said it is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference  and he did not mention the issue of gun control.

Instead, he promised to prioritise school safety and tackle the difficult issue of mental health. He did not say the word gun or discuss AR-15s, which have repeatedly been used in mass shootings.

It was Mr Trumps fourth address to the nation after a mass shooting. The President also said in his White House address that his administration was working with local authorities to investigate the attack.

Later this month, I will be meeting with the nations governors and attorney generals, where making our schools and our children safer will be our top priority, he said. We must also work together to create a culture in our country that embraces the dignity of life, that creates deep and meaningful human connections, and that turns classmates and colleagues into friends and neighbours.

At least 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, about 45 miles north of Miami, were killed after a gunman opened fire on them with an automatic rifle. It was one of the deadliest school shootings on record in the US. Officials said another 14 were seriously injured.

The suspect has been identified as 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz, who was arrested after a brief manhunt. Mr Cruz had been expelled for disciplinary reasons, while teachers said they had previously been warned that he could pose a danger to the campus.

Earlier in the day, the President also brought up the issue of mental health in a tweet.

So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior, Mr Trump wrote. Neighbours and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!

The incident has again demonstrated the divide on gun policy between the USs two main political parties, with Republicans mostly only offering condolences to victims families while Democrats called for action.

Florida shooting  in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Florida shooting  in pictures Florida shooting  in pictures Police arrest a suspect in connection with the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida Reuters Florida shooting  in pictures Parents wait for news after reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida AP Florida shooting  in pictures Anxious family members wait for news of students AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school AP Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school Getty Florida shooting  in pictures People gather waiting for word from students AP Florida shooting  in pictures Parents waiting for news on their children AP Florida shooting  in pictures People gather at a hotel where students were taken after the shooting Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks to the media as he visits Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following the shooting AFP/Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Dr. Igor Nichiporenko, Medical Director Trauma, left, and Dr. Evan Boyer, Medical Director, Emergency Services, speak about treating victims and the suspect at a press conference outside Broward Health North hospital AP

This happens nowhere else other than the United States of America  this epidemic of mass slaughter, this scourge of school shooting after school shooting, said Senator Chris Murphy, who represents the district where the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting took place in 2012 when 26 people were killed.



He added: It only happens here not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction. We are responsible.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appeared to be the one Trump administration official urging Congress to consider possible solutions to gun violence in the wake of the Florida shooting.

I will say personally, I think the gun violence  its a tragedy what weve seen yesterday, and Id urge Congress to look at these issues, Mr Mnuchin said at an unrelated hearing in the House of Representatives on the White Houses budget request for Fiscal Year 2019.

The Treasury Department later told Politico that Mr Mnuchin was not stating his opinion on whether Congress should consider passing new gun control laws. He was responding specifically to a question from Democratic Representative John Lewis about the availability of funds in the budget to address the issue of gun violence, the department said.

Gun violence has become a regular occurrence at US schools and universities. There has been an average of one school shooting per week since 2014, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a research and advocacy group that lobbies the government for stricter gun control laws.

The group also said there have been 18 school shootings in the first 45 days of 2018. In January, a 15-year-old gunman killed two students at a Benton, Kentucky, high school.

As they have in the past, Democratic lawmakers responded to the Florida school shooting with calls for expanded background checks. They also want to create a committee to examine gun violence.

Attempts to pass stricter gun laws have gone nowhere in recent years.

We hope that we will have more than a moment of silence, said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Shorty afterwards, House Speaker Paul Ryan gave the same response to the shooting that the top House Democrat had predicted.

In a few moments when this vote closes we are going to go upstairs and hold a moment of silence for the victims of this shooting, the Wisconsin Republican said at his weekly press conference.

Like Mr Trump, Mr Ryan also brought up the issue of mental health, saying it is often associated with mass shootings and also appears to be related to Wednesdays attack.

We passed legislation on mental health, he said.

We passed legislation cleaning up the instant background check system, he added, placing blame on the Senate for not acting to address loopholes.

When asked if he would be willing to establish a select committee on gun violence, Mr Ryan said: I think Congress should do its job. We passed mental health legislation two years ago.

The top Republican said that the law is just being implemented, but added: The question is, are those laws where they need to be, is it being implemented correctly?

Former President Barack Obama even made a rare foray into the political fray.

We are grieving with Parkland. But we are not powerless. Caring for our kids is our first job, he tweeted. And until we can honestly say that were doing enough to keep them safe from harm, including long overdue, commonsense gun safety laws that most Americans want, then we have to change.Barack Obama used to say it was the part of the job he hated the most  speaking in the aftermath of mass shootings and trying somehow to act as consoler-in-chief.

He had plenty of practice  Orlando, Kalamazoo, San Bernardino, Charleston and Aurora. He spoke after each, and wondered aloud why the US had succumbed to a pattern of mass shootings that has no parallel anywhere else in the world.

Perhaps the toughest speech he had to deliver was in December 2012, when 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Four years later, appearing in the Oval Office with some of the parents of those youngsters who lives were stolen, and appealing for support for gun control measures, he wiped tears from his eyes. Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad, he said.

School shootings are all too common in a country unable to pass gun legislation (Getty)

Six years later  a period in which at least 400 people have been shot in more than 200 school shootings, and in which 590 individuals died in 346 mass shootings in 2017 alone  another US president is making another speech after yet another mass fatality incident takes its turn to dominate the headlines for a day or two.

Donald Trump called on Americans to answer hate with love, answer cruelty with kindness and said he would work to find ways to tackle the problem of mental health. He did not name the suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, or mention the word guns. He certainly did not mention the AR-15 semi-assault profile  the so-called civilian version of the fully automatic M-16 model used by the military

Gun control campaigners say it is bewildering that after so many incidents of gun violence, politicians remain seemingly unwilling to act to control guns, especially when the American public supports regulation.

A poll by Quinnipiac University last November, found 94 per cent of Americans believe there should be background checks for all gun purchases, 79 per cent believe there should be a mandatory waiting period for purchases, 64 per cent support banning assault-style weapons and 64 per cent support banning the sale of magazines that carry more than 10 rounds. Tellingly, 63 per cent said it was possible to make new gun laws without interfering with gun rights as afforded by the US Constitution.

You cannot find an issue on which there is more agreement, Kristin Brown, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told The Independent.

 Trump addresses nation following Florida shooting: 'Your suffering is our burden also'

The trouble is, we have a stalemate in congress. Too many lawmakers get their funding from the NRA (National Rifle Association) and they block changes that would help stop this. Instead, they tweet about praying for the families.

She added: Everyone approves of greater gun regulation. The only people who dont want this are the people who want to sell more guns.

Ms Brown said the NRA, which was founded in 1871 as a recreational group designed to promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis, today got most of its funding from gun manufacturers.

Its role as a lobbying group took off after 1977 when it formed its own Political Action Committee (PAC), to channel funds to legislators at state and local level. It even issues a rating to politicians, scoring them on how supportive they are of NRA policies.

Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate who received $1.3m (920,000) up to 2016 from the NRA, currently has an A+. Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, who received $171,977 in 2016 also has an A+. Senator Jeff Sessions, who is now the Attorney General, has an A.

By contrast, the NRA has scored Democratic senators Chuck Schumer of New York and Floridas Bill Nelson both with an F.

On Wednesday, Bess Kalb, a writer for Jimmy Kimmel Live, drew attention to the NRAs influence by responding to legislators tweeting message of condolence, by listing how much money they have received from the organisation.

Today, it is estimated that the NRA spends about $250m per year, far more than all the countrys gun control advocacy groups put together. In 2016, it endorsed Mr Trumps presidential run and provided his campaign with up to $30m. Shortly after he took office, Mr Trump attended the NRAs national convention in Atlanta.

Only one candidate in the general election came to speak to you, and that candidate is now the president of the United States, standing before you, he said. You came through for me, and I am going to come through for you.

Since then, Mr Trump has been a vocal supporter of gun rights. He supports a Republican bill pending before the Senate that the NRA considers its legislative priority and which would establish a nationwide right to carry a concealed weapon  even in those states and cities opposed to such laws.

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 right of self-defence doesnt stop at the end of your driveway, said one of his campaigns policy documents. Thats why I have a concealed carry permit and why tens of millions of Americans do too. That permit should be valid in all 50 states.

Activists say in addition to that measure, Mr Trump and the Republican Party have backed moves to make it easier to buy silencers, blocked an Obama-era rule that would have made it harder for the mentally ill to buy weapons, made it easier for people labelled fugitives to get guns, loosened gun restrictions on federal land and ignored an undertaking to set up a select committee on gun violence.

Finally, New York magazine reported, Mr Trump has proposed cutting millions of dollars from the budgets of the organisations that carry out background checks.

There are an awful lot of guns in America: up to 265 million at the last count. Sales always go up after mass shootings as people fear the imposition of new regulations. After the Las Vegas mass shooting in October in which Stephen Paddock killed 58 people, the stock prices of gun companies increased.

At the same time, although congress vowed to ban the so-called bump stock, the device that renamed Paddock to shoot his weapon as if it were an automatic, no such national restriction has been passed, even though some states, such as Massachusetts, have passed bans.

The NRA initially said it supported making the purchase of such devices more difficult. But when a bipartisan group of politicians presented federal legislation to ban them, the NRA voiced opposition, saying it was an infringement on second amendment rights. The legislation, spearheaded by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, has since stalled.

The NRA and gun rights activists took heart from a 2008 Supreme Court decision  District of Columbia v. Heller  which for the which for the first time said the second amendment guaranteed an individuals right to own guns. Yet, the ruling also allowed for gun control.

For gun control, in other words, the problem is not constitutional law but political will, the New Yorkers legal expert Jeffrey Toobin wrote after the June 2016 Orlando night club shooting that left 49 people dead.

Many states and localities have taken advantage of the gaps left by Heller to make serious efforts to limit gun violence. But because most guns are easily portable over state and jurisdictional lines, there is only so much that can be done without action by the federal government. And Congress, especially with the House of Representatives in Republican hands, seems implacably opposed to any sort of gun restrictions.A House panel has announced it is investigating how former White House aide Rob Porter was allowed to work in the West Wing under an interim security clearance despite allegations of domestic abuse.

Rep Trey Gowdy, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, confirmed that his panel was taking a look into the allegations on CNN Tuesday night, and how Mr Porter was able to play such an important role in the White House despite the claims.

The announcement came just a day after the FBI contradicted the White House, saying that they had provided the Trump administration with information about Mr Porters alleged spousal abuse at least four times over the past year. Mr Porter has denied the allegations against him.

The White House has said that they did not learn of the full extent of the allegations until just before Mr Porters resignation, last week.

I cant get into the content of what was briefed to the White House. What I can tell you is that the FBI submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March. And then a completed background investigation in late July Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, told Congress during testimony under oath Tuesday.

That soon thereafter, we received request for follow-up inquiry and we did the follow-up and provided that information in November and that we administratively closed the file in January, he continued.

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 week-long scandal has thrust the White House into a chaos that it has not experienced since the early, tumultuous days of President Donald Trumps tenure in office. As the story has unfolded, the public has learned that several senior officials including Chief of Staff John Kelly and White House counsel Don McGahn were aware of the abuse allegations for months, officials have told the Associated Press.

Despite his lack of full security clearance, and although senior officials in the White House were aware of allegations, Mr Porter was able to take an increasingly central role in the administration. At one point he was considered to be Mr Trumps deputy chief of staff.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has said that, although Mr Wray said the FBI investigation had been closed, the White House still considered the case open since the White House Office of Personnel Security had not given a final sign-off for Mr Porters security clearance.

We find those statements to be consistent with one another, Ms Sanders said.

Beyond Mr Porter, the White House has yet to disclose the number of people working for the West Wing who have not received full clearances. The group includes Mr Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Mr Kushners lawyer has said there are a dozen others at his clients level who do not have full clearance.

The Associated Press contributed to this reportDonald Trumps travel ban on six Muslim-majority countries unlawfully discriminates against Muslims, Virginias appeals court has ruled.

The Richmond-based 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals said the ban violates the US Constitution by discriminating on the basis of religion.

On a 9-4 vote, it became the second federal appeals court to rule against the ban, which the US President announced in September.

The US Supreme Court has allowed the ban to go into effect while litigation challenging it continues.

 Sally Yates shuts down Ted Cruz in debate over constitutional law surrounding the travel ban

The 4th Circuit ruling went further than the earlier decision by the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which found the ban violated federal immigration law but did not address the question of whether it violated the Constitution.

The Supreme Court already has said it will consider both issues in deciding the legality of the ban in the coming months.

The justices are due in April to hear arguments over the ban and issue a ruling by the end of June.

The court examined statements made by Mr Trump and other administration officials, as well as the ban itself, and concluded it is unconstitutionally tainted with animus toward Islam., 4th Circuit Chief Judge Roger Gregory wrote in the ruling.

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

Mr Trumps ban, the third version he has issued since taking office in January 2017, blocks entry into the United States of most people from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.

He has said the policy is needed to protect the United States from terrorism by Islamic militants.

More followsThe top US admiral in the Pacific has warned America must be "prepared" for a possible future war with China.

Harry Harris, who has been nominated to be the next US ambassador to Australia, told Congress to ignore at "our peril" China's "crystal clear" intent to dominate the South China Sea.

The 61-year-old offered an ominous assessment of Beijing's increasingly aggressive posture in the region, and of the rapid build up of its military capabilities.

Judging by Chinas regional behaviour I am concerned that China will now work to undermine the rules-based international order, not just in the Indo-Pacific but on a global scale. he told the House armed services committee.

If the US does not keep pace [Pacific Command] will struggle to compete with the Peoples Liberation Army on future battlefields, he added.

China, he claimed, is using military modernization, influence operations and predatory economics to coerce neighbouring countries to reorder the Indo-Pacific to their advantage.

 Former defence chief: Russia and China already have capability to hold the UK at military risk

On Wednesday, US intelligence chief Dan Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee that malign actors like Russia and China would continue to use several tactics, such as cyber warfare, to challenge US influence around the globe.

"As far as the idea of deterrence and winning wars, Im a military guy," Mr Harris told members of the committee. "And I think its important you must plan and resource to win a war at the same time you work to prevent it.

Harry Harris, the commander of US Pacific Command, has taken a hard line against Chinese military expansion (Getty Images ) (Getty Images)

At the end of the day the ability to wage war is important or you become a paper tiger. Im hopeful that it wont come to a conflict with China, but we must all be prepared for that if it should come to that.

Last week, Mr Trump signed a bipartisan budget deal that significantly boosted defence spending.

The President on Wednesday, speaking of the budget agreement, said were extremely happy with the bill that was passed, because it takes care of our military.

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

Our military will be in better shape than ever before, the President added.

Appointed to lead the Pacific Command by President Barack Obama, Mr Harris has taken a hard line against Chinese military expansion in the region, calling the nation provocative.

Mr Harris has spent 39 years in the Navy and is expected to be approved as ambassador to Australia by the Senate. The US has been without an ambassador to its ally since 2016.Denis* was just six years old when his house in Ukraine was hit by a shell, leaving him with shrapnel wounds to his skull and body.

Doctors were unable to remove all the shrapnel over fears it could cause nerve damage and leave him without movement in his arm, so the remaining fragments remain under his skin.

He is one of at least 357 million children who are now living in areas around the world impacted by armed conflict, a report by the Save the Children charity has revealed.

Since 1991, the number has increased by 75 per cent, with one in six children globally now considered to be living in areas where they are vulnerable to grave violations of their human rights.

Such violations include killing and maiming, sexual violence, the recruitment and use of children, abductions, attacks on schools and hospitals and the denial of humanitarian assistance.

"When I lost consciousness, I saw a dream, where there was a shelling, many casualties, and many wounded children who got under the shelling," Denis, who is now nine, told Save the Children. "Some children had their legs torn off, because they stepped on the mine."

His mother abandoned him and his brother and he now lives with his grandmother, in a flat a few kilometres away from the fighting.

Doctors were unable to remove all of the shrapnel from Denis' body, so the remaining fragments remain under his skin (Simon Edmunds/Save the Children)

His grandmother said the family still experiences shelling on a regular basis and described how the children shake with fear.

Asked what she would say to people who think there is no conflict in Ukraine, she said: "Let them try to live here. I would feed them, I would give them the shirt off my back, and I would not take any money for the rent. Let them try. They wouldn't stand the hour.

"The fighting is taking place here, ongoing heavy shelling. So heavy, that even here the windows are shaking. Regardless of the fact that there are people still living on a contact line. People here are dying like flies."

'Let them try to live here', Denis' grandmother says of people who think there is no conflict in Ukraine. 'Let them try. They wouldn't stand the hour' (Simon Edmunds/Save the Children)

The number of United Nations-verified cases of children being killed or maimed has increased by almost 300 per cent since 2010, while incidents of the denial of humanitarian access have increased by more than 1,500 per cent, the "War on Children" report said.

The rise has been fuelled by a growing lack of respect for the rules of war and indiscriminate violence in countries such as Syria, Afghanistan and South Sudan.

The report found children have increasingly been used as suicide bombers, while schools and hospitals have been deliberately targeted and children maimed and killed as a result of the widespread use of indiscriminate weapons, such as cluster munitions, barrel bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

 Save the Children campaign targets UK's weapons trade

Two in five children in the Middle East live in a conflict zone, the highest rate globally, while one in five children is affected by conflict in Africa. Asia has the highest overall number of children affected by conflict.

Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia were the most dangerous conflict-afflicted areas in the world to be a child in 2016, the last year for which comprehensive data is available.

In pictures: Children play underground in Syria Show all 8 1 /8 In pictures: Children play underground in Syria In pictures: Children play underground in Syria A child plays in the ball pit at the 'Land of Childhood,' an underground playground in a besieged town in Syria Unicef In pictures: Children play underground in Syria Abdulaziz, 10, plays in the 'Land of Childhood' underground playground in Syria Unicef In pictures: Children play underground in Syria Boys look through a show window inside the tunnel that provides a safe passage for children between the two basements that form the 'Land of Childhood' in a besieged town in Syria Unicef In pictures: Children play underground in Syria Children play at the underground 'Land of Childhood' in a besieged town in Syria Unicef In pictures: Children play underground in Syria Two girls play at the 'Land of Childhood' underground playground in a besieged town in Syria Unicef In pictures: Children play underground in Syria Children on the ride on a ferris wheel at the 'Land of Childhood', an underground playground in a besieged town in Syria Unicef In pictures: Children play underground in Syria Seven-year-old Massa at the "Land of Childhood" underground playground in a besieged town in Syria Unicef In pictures: Children play underground in Syria Children wait in line to buy sweets at the 'Land of Childhood,' an underground playground in a besieged town in Syria Unicef

Keven Waters, CEO of Save the Children, said: The marked increase in the number of children living in conflict-affected areas, combined with the worsening violations against those children by warring parties, should worry all of us.

We face a stark choice. Do we stand by while more children die in school attacks or in their hospital beds - or are denied life-saving aid - or will we tackle the culture of impunity and end this war on children?

The organisation has launched a petition calling on the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, to take action to protect children affected by the war in Yemen.Dozens of families have been evacuated from their homes after a huge sinkhole opened up in Rome, swallowing six cars.

Pictures showed the vehicles lying at the bottom of a 30ft chasm in the Italian capitals north-west Baldunia neighbourhood.

Parked cars were sucked into the cavernous hole and about 60 people were forced to evacuate their homes when part of a road crumbled.

Recommended Florida sinkhole causes radioactive leak

Construction work had been carried out nearby for months and residents said they had felt their houses shake in the days before the collapse.

One woman told Italian state broadcaster Rai: In the last days while the workers were working, I felt the floor of the house tremble and we were very worried.

Her son added: We residents feared problems... It is a miracle that there are no injuries.

About 22 families were evacuated by firefighters following the collapse at about 6pm on Wednesday. Police closed the road and ambulances also attended, although no one is thought to have been hurt.

Evacuated residents will be put up in hotels until safety checks on their apartment buildings have been carried out.

The cause of the sinkhole is under investigation. Repairs were carried out in the area late last month after a large water leak, thought to have been caused by the construction work.

The Public Prosecutor's Office reportedly launched an investigation into possible criminal negligence.Turkey has demanded the US cut off its support for a Kurdish militia Ankara is fighting in Syria ahead of what is set to be a tense visit from US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched the air and ground offensive Operation Olive Branch over the border on the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin last month, opening a new front in Syrias bloody conflict which has already killed dozens of civilians and fighters on both sides.

The Kurds in Syrias north have managed to carve out a semi-autonomous state since war broke out in 2011. However, Turkey views the Syrian-Kurdish Peoples Protection Units, or the YPG, as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) of south-west Turkey, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Ankara as well as by the US and EU.

 Explosions as Turkey confirms airstrikes on Afrin, Syria

The YPG and broader Arab-Kurdish coalition Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have won widespread Western support over the past few years as the most effective ground force against Isis.

In January the US pledged continued support for the YPG and SDF to ensure the jihadi militants do not form a resurgent movement, a strategy which further enraged Turkey in the process.

Relations between the two Nato allies - already sour - have nosedived since.

We demanded this relationship be ended, I mean we want them to end all the support given to the Syrian arm of PKK, the YPG, Turkish Defence Minister Nurettin Canikli told reporters in a briefing in Brussels on Thursday, a day after meeting US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis on the sidelines of a NATO meeting.

Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures Show all 9 1 /9 Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures Smoke billows following a Turkish airstrike on a village in the Afrin district, on 28 January, 2018. Turkey launched operation "Olive Branch" on January 20 against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in Afrin, supporting Syrian opposition fighters with ground troops and air strikes AFP Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures Smoke billows from surrounding villages during the Turkish military operation against the Kurdish enclave on 28 January, 2018 AFP/Getty Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures Twenty-year old Kifah al-Moussa, a Syrian Arab woman living among the Kurds of Afrin province, was working on a chicken farm in the village of Maryameen when a Turkish aircraft bombed the building at midday on 21 January, wounding her in the chest. When she recovered consciousness, she found eight people from one family lying dead around her Yara Ismail Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures Mohamed Hussein, a 58-year-old Kurdish farmer, lies in the Afrin hospital, wounded in the head and eye after his home was bombed by Turkish aircraft on the second night of the attack Yara Ismail Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures Syrian Kurds sit on benches overlooking a street in Afrin, on 28 January, 2018. Above is a memorial to martyrs who died in the fight against Isis AFP/Getty Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures Smoke is seen rising on the Syrian side of the border, at Hassa, near Hatay, southern Turkey as Turkish jet fighters hit People's Protection Unit (YPG) positions, on 28 January, 2018 AFP/Getty Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures A Turkish made T-155 Firtina (Storm) howitzer is dispatched to the border at Hassa near Hatay, southern Turkey, on 28 January, 2018 AFP/Getty Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures A Turkish soldier waves a flag on Mount Barsaya, northeast of Afrin, on 28 January, 2018 Reuters Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army fighters are seen in Barsaya mountain, northeast of Afrin, on 28 January, 2018 Reuters

We demanded this structure be removed from the SDF, he said.

The rhetoric from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been similarly tough. He has warned that the Turkish-backed forces fighting in Afrin could push eastwards to Manbij, where US troops are stationed.

On Wednesday he said US soldiers which stood in the way of his governments military operations would receive an Ottoman slap - a reference to a supposed historical open-handed strike which can kill in one blow.

The salvo was dismissed by US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, who said, Were used to that kind of rhetoric, whether its from the Turkish government or from other governments we dont get too riled about that.

Recommended Erdogan threatens to cut ties with US

The Turkish operation in Afrin, however, has worried the US, which says it could derail efforts to constrain Isis sleeper cells and terror attacks.

On top of long-standing issues such as the fate of Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, detained US consulate workers and the US worry that Turkeys democratic norms have been eroded since the July 2016 coup, Afrin is expected to dominate Mr Tillersons visit to Ankara on Thursday and Friday.

Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of the Brussels Nato meeting on Wednesday, Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis said talks with his Turkish counterpart had been open, but difficult.

I believe we are finding common ground and there are areas of uncommon ground, where sometimes war just gives you bad alternatives to choose from, he said

We continue to collaborate on ways to ensure their legitimate concerns are addressed."On Tuesday morning at 8.31, the first passenger-carrying train from London to Amsterdam will leave St Pancras station in London. Annoyingly it is not actually in public service but by invitation only, from Eurostar, to travel industry people and media.

The cross-Channel operator is making a promotional run to the Dutch capital, timetabled to take just three hours, 41 minutes. The train is due to pull into Amsterdams handsome Centraal Station at 1.12pm, local time, whereupon the privileged passengers can go straight to lunch at a waterside restaurant.

Eurostar starts selling tickets on Tuesday, promising one-way fares as low as 35 once the scheduled service starts on 4 April. Thats competitive with the cheapest plane tickets, which also involve the extra cost of reaching the airport. When I talked to the Eurostar's chief executive, Nicolas Petrovic, he implied the train operator is poised to transform travel between London and Amsterdam, saying: We are back to the pioneering days of 1994, when we first served Paris.

The implication: just as Eurostar trains to Paris and Brussels saw off most planes, so a rail revolution will prevail to Amsterdam.

I am not so sure. On its existing city routes, Eurostar sells time. Airlines cannot match a central London to central Paris journey of 2 hours, 16 minutes. Business Premier passengers can even check in with just 10 minutes to go. Dont try that at Heathrow or Charles de Gaulle.

By air from London, Amsterdam is the same distance as Paris, give or take 10 miles. The time in the air to both is typically 40 minutes; the gate-to-gate schedule allows for 80 minutes or more, by the time padding is added for taxiing and queueing. But by rail, Amsterdam is much further.

I reckon that if two colleagues were to start a train vs plane race from St Pancras, the flying Dutchperson is in with a good chance of waiting on the platform at Centraal Station for the Eurostar to arrive. Of course the rail traveller will have had a far less stressful and more productive journey. But that doesnt apply on the homeward trip. Because there is no Amsterdam to London express.

The problem: Eurostar needs to check passengers passports before they board trains to Britain, as it does in Paris, Brussels, Lille and Calais. But the UK and Dutch governments wont finalise a deal until next year.

So for rail travellers from Amsterdam to London, the near future looks just like today. You need to board a Thalys high-speed train to Brussels. You then go through security and border control, and join the Eurostar train, which adds complexity and an hour to the journey. And it begs the question: if Eurostar to Amsterdam is one-way only, whats happening to the trains  and wont the operator run out of rolling stock rather quickly?

The Eurostar trains will come back to London, running from Amsterdam via Brussels, where they pause for 28 minutes. But unhelpfully for Amsterdam-to-London passengers, that is considered too short a time to take people off the train and process them before continuing.

So Eurostar is trying to do two things at once. While it sends its passengers to the rival operator, Thalys, it is also seeking to poach travellers from Thalys to fill its own Amsterdam-Brussels trains.

Lets see how that goes. If the train captures as much as half of the market between London and Amsterdam I will eat my ticket. Then promptly print out another one, and hop aboard to Holland.Port availability is beyond our control: that is what Britains biggest travel firm has told cruise passengers whose planned visits to Havana, Nassau and Lisbon have been cancelled.

Marella, the cruise operation of TUI, has told hundreds of holidaymakers booked on an April voyage from Jamaica to Mallorca that they will not visit Cuba, the Bahamas or Portugal.

In a letter to passengers, TUI wrote: We start planning our future cruise schedule a long way ahead of the sailing date. And, as a result, we sometimes find we need to amend an itinerary shortly before a cruise starts so that we can offer you the best holiday experience possible.

On this occasion, Havana, Nassau and Lisbon are no longer available for us to call at due to port congestion which means we have had to re-work the itinerary.

An investigation by The Independent has revealed that the trigger for the removal of the three highlights was a US cruise line being given priority for docking at Havana.

There was a double-booking in the Cuban capital on the day the Marella Discovery 2 was due to call, 12 April. But the citys Sierra Maestra cruise terminal has only one berth fit for a vessel of that size.

Also planning a call in the Havana that day is Royal Caribbeans Empress of the Seas, which has been given preference over its UK rival. So Marella passengers who were tempted to book for the chance to visit a city that feels like a film set, thanks to its vintage Cadillacs and candy-coloured old town have been disappointed.

Without the call in Havana, the cruise would have had an extra day at sea. Instead, additional ports were scheduled, but the knock-on impact meant that Nassau and Lisbon were deleted from the itinerary.

Many customers have contacted The Independent to express their frustration.

Shirley Bishop said: The only reason we booked this cruise was because of the itinerary included the three places they have cancelled.

TUI have waited until everyone has paid as the final payment had to be paid by 26 January 2018 and we are now in a position that we have paid for a holiday we really don't want.

A spokesperson for TUI said: Wed like to apologise to our customers for any disappointment caused by some recent changes weve had to make to the Marella Discovery 2 itinerary departing on 10 April.

This is due to new information about berth availability on previously confirmed port stops which has only just come to light.

Cuban congestion: cars waiting for traffic lights to change on La Rampa in Havana (Simon Calder)

Marella has refused requests from disappointed passengers for a full refund. Each passenger has been offered 25 in on-board spend.

The TUI spokesperson said: The ship will now be calling at four new ports: Amber Cove in Dominican Republic, Georgetown in Grand Cayman, Grand Turk, Horta in The Azores and Cadiz (for Seville) in Spain, as well as extending our time in Bermuda.It was supposed to be the Valentines Day speech in which Boris Johnson used his famed linguistic gift to win over the 48 per cent to the Governments Brexit cause. It was going to be  we were led to believe  a unifying message of optimism, hope, and even, brace yourselves, love.

But this Valentine offering from the Foreign Secretary turned out to be the political equivalent of a fading bunch of polythene-wrapped carnations bought for a fiver from the petrol station forecourt  rushed, with very little thought, and leaving us wondering why he bothered at all.

Johnson asked us to put ourselves in the shoes of a constituent of his, who has become so disillusioned with Brexit she wants to emigrate to Canada. He wanted to understand her anxieties in order to put the reassuring liberal case for Brexit that the whole country could get behind. Of course, many of us dont have to imagine ourselves as this would-be expat, because for many months now, the 48 per cent have felt left behind by the Governments like-it-or-lump-it push for a hard Brexit, with no single market or customs union.

It is beyond argument that the referendum produced a result in favour of Brexit. But what is less clear-cut is that it delivered a mandate for a hard Brexit  because even the Leave side was divided on whether or not the result meant staying inside the single market. The case for a hard Brexit was therefore already weak, but last years election, denying Theresa Mays majority, made it far weaker. There is no majority in Parliament for a hard Brexit. These increasingly shaky grounds for hard Brexit should have made her government more consensual, not less; more humble, not less. Instead it has doubled down on the mutineers and saboteurs who, it claims, want to derail our departure from the EU  hurled at anyone who merely questions the austere, economically risky nature of a post-Brexit Britain that we face.

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It is a bit rich, then, that the Foreign Secretary now wants to outstretch his arms and ask the 48 per cent to succumb to his embrace. In his speech at the Policy Exchange, Johnson acknowledged that there were anxieties over Brexit, specifically around Britains security and its place in the world, being cut off from the cultural aesthetic aspects of continental Europe, and economic prosperity. Do not be fearful, the Foreign Secretary told us, while admitting that people were concerned that Brexit had made it made it less easy to live, study and work abroad  which is, in fact, technically true.

Johnson said a second referendum would lead to another year of turmoil and wrangling and feuding in which the whole country will be the loser  lets not go there, he said. Except the Foreign Secretary already went there, during the campaign in 2016, when he led scaremongering over the prospect that Turkey joining the EU would pose a security threat to Britain.

In his speech, he said he wanted to dial down the divisive you lost, get over it rhetoric, that Brexit did not mean some great V-sign from the cliffs of Dover  yet in the same breath used phrases like pro-European elite. He said he recognised the grief and alienation felt by Remainers, including members of his own family and friends, yet claimed there was a hardening of the mood, a deepening of the anger among those who are anti-Brexit and repeatedly told how hed been verbally abused in the street.

It was a Valentines message of passive aggression which, unless Im very much mistaken, isnt a great seller at Moonpig.

 Boris Johnson gives speech at Policy Exchange on Brexit

Perhaps the most deceitful theme in his speech was the idea that he is somehow leading a government charge for a liberal Brexit. But simply quoting the West Wing, the Gettysburg Address and John Stuart Mill, as he did, does not add up to a liberal vision. In fact, it was laughable to hear the Foreign Secretary ladle the word liberal into a speech that railed against migrants suppressing wages and undermining the skills of indigenous people.

If Johnson had really wanted a liberal Brexit, if he really wanted to resist what he called in his speech a reactionary Faragiste Brexit, then he should not have become the figurehead for a Leave campaign that was reactionary and Faragiste to its core: small-minded, anti-internationalist, xenophobic and unforgivably illiberal.

Johnsons wooing of the 48 per cent isnt fooling anyone: it wasnt so much a Valentines Day message of sweet nothings, but of nothing at all.Cyril Ramaphosa has waited a long, long time to lead South Africa. He arrives as his nations leader at the same age as Churchill in 1940. When I first met him in the 1980s dreams of becoming president did not exist or at least not in any conversation I had with him.

But he was impressive, by far the most impressive South African I ever met in a decade of working with the black independent trade unions that grew into the force that effectively destroyed apartheid from within.

On Robben Island sat Nelson Mandela. In exile were ANC leaders like Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. They were stupidly shunned by western leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan so turned to the Soviet Union and the then impressive network of Kremlin connected and often Soviet financed communist parties and their linked trade unions around the world.

But the action on the ground was led by a group of young trade union leaders and left-wing lawyers from all racial groups in apartheid South Africa. They were inspired by the Polish Solidarity trade union movement and by Lulas metalworkers in Brazil who used trade unions and working class organisations to challenge dictatorship.

 South African President Jacob Zuma announces resignation

In a book I wrote in 1984, I described Ramaphosa thus: To organise the mineworkers, the independent trade unions sent one of their legal experts, Cyril Ramaphosa, to begin an organising drive. In two years (1982-84) the National Union of Mineworkers has become South Africas biggest black trade union, with 70,000 members. Ramaphosas calm, well-spoken manner belies a solid union organising ability. The NUMs 180-page shop stewards manual, which he was largely responsible for drafting, is an impressive document.

Ramaphosa is the first ANC president of South Africa who has spent his life within the country with his politics not formed by years of exile, or imprisonment in the case of Mandela.

He will not get a second chance to make a first impression as president. His most important immediate task is to recapture the state from those who have confiscated it for personal gain. The scandals over the Gupta brothers, Bell Pottinger, London-based accountancy, legal and consultancy firms, Vladimir Putin and a raft of corrupt politicians became so putrid they ended Zumas career.

There are a number of ministers implicated in the corrupt end years of Zumas rule that simply have to be fired. One of the biggest examples of corruption is the 79bn deal with the Kremlin to build a giant nuclear power station using uranium from a Gupta-owned mine.

Recommended Israel and Poland find it difficult to acknowledge historical facts

South Africa is rich in coal and hydro and has no need for a nuclear plant that would increase foreign debt by a third and involves billions in loan repayments. Zuma defended the project on the grounds that the Soviet Union had helped the ANC before 1990 and therefore there was a debt to be repaid. Some believe that Zuma feared for his life if he crossed Putin.

There will be a desire to put on trial all those who enriched themselves from state capture under Zuma. Instead, Ramaphosa should be generous and let Zuma and his cronies retire quietly and under protection from any McMafia-style revenge killings.

Ramaphosa should send the Russian nuclear deal for examination by an international tribunal and meanwhile put it on hold. He ought to increase links with European Union investors. Countries like Germany and Sweden have long invested in South Africa. The EUs leadership had better reach out quickly to South Africa under Ramaphosa with soft loans and preferential trade access, and help with education and social development. The new President should reinstate Pravin Gordhan, who was finance minister for nearly a decade until he was fired by Zuma last year. Gordhan has a solid record in resisting state capture by private billionaires, the Kremlin, or London based accountancy firms and managing the economy sensibly.

In fact, Ramaphosa could do worse than call to his side the South African-born ex-Labour minister Peter Hain, who has used his platform in the Lords to expose and denounce the behaviour of British firms who have been implicated in state capture.

Ramaphosa only narrowly won the presidency of the ANC and has enemies who dislike his comfortable bourgeois lifestyle. Nelson Mandela spotted his abilities early on and anointed him as his successor. But the entrenched factionalists of the ANC once returned from exile insisted their two men  Mbeki and Zuma  should become presidents.

Ramaphosa has bided his time. South Africa has never lost its independent press and judiciary and an understanding that it can only succeed on a multiracial basis. Recapturing the state so it serves the people is his first priority.

But the man whose smile lit up a room 30 years ago and whose soft-spoken but determined radicalism impressed anyone who met him at a young age is likely to emerge as a major world leader when he steps onto the international stage.

Denis MacShane is a former Labour MP who was a parliamentary private secretary and minister at the FCO 1997-2005. The book he co-authored with Martin Plaut and David Ward, Power! Black workers, their unions and the struggle for freedom in South Africa, was published in 1984The Israelis have been mighty pissed off with the Polish government these past few days. I dont blame them. In fact  and Im not referring to the racist, extremist military occupation government of Benjamin Netanyahu  the Israeli people and Jews around the world are quite right to be enraged at Polands latest Holocaust denialism.

The Polish decision to criminalise any accusation of Polish complicity in the Holocaust, passing a law which effectively prevents any Pole from acknowledging that Poles themselves assisted in the genocide of six million European Jews, is iniquitous. Its purpose is not to elicit the truth, but to bury it. It certainly constitutes part of the denialism of the Jewish Holocaust.

But  to give a taster to what this column is also about  I will say one word: Armenia. And reveal henceforth one of the most remarkable coincidences in recent publishing history. It involves century-old telegrams  hitherto regarded as forgeries, but in fact real  ordering the mass extermination of more than one million Christians, a truly courageous Turkish historian, and a total denial of the Armenian Holocaust by the one nation which should acknowledge its existence. But first, Poland.

So lets get the facts  just the facts, Maam, just the facts, as Sgt Joe Friday never actually said in Dragnet  out of the way. Jews accounted for 10 per cent of the Polish population in 1939. Pre-war Polish governments took anti-Semitic measures to exclude Jews from important state posts. When the Germans invaded, they regarded the Poles as Slavic untermenschen, but understood all too well how latent anti-Semitism stained the Christian nationalist state of Poland.

Poland lost two million non-Jewish citizens at the hands of the Nazis. Polish Jews were virtually annihilated. Many Poles hid Jews from the Nazis and fought alongside them against the Wehrmacht and the SS.

But the Germans used Polish police forces to guard Jewish ghettoes, the last transit point before the Jews were sent in their tens of thousands to the extermination camps on Polish soil. No, they were not Polish death camps  both the Poles and the Israelis agree on that  but Polish collaborators (the Blue Police) did enforce curfews against Jews and assisted in the liquidation of the ghettoes.

There is clear and unimpeachable evidence that some (perhaps more than some) Poles blackmailed Jews in return for keeping their hiding places secret. In eastern Polish towns, Poles in a few cases participated in the murder of their Jewish neighbours. The massacre at Jedwabne comes to mind. But Poles were the first to reveal the facts of the Jewish Holocaust to the Allies, and at least one Polish resistance group saved thousands of Jewish lives by producing forged papers and finding escape routes for Jews.

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

As in most German-occupied European nations, morality  or immorality  was coloured grey. Think Vichy, and the French maquis. Think Italian fascism, and the Italian communist resistance.

In 2015, Ukraine passed laws that forced its citizens to honour nationalists who briefly collaborated with the Nazis and participated in the mass killing of Jews. No uproar from the West, of course, since we currently support brave little Ukraine against the Russian beast that has gobbled up Crimean Sevastopol.

But now to the incredible timing of the Polish legislation. For even as this disreputable law was actually passing through the parliament in Warsaw a few days ago, that most brave of Turkish historians, Taner Akcam, was publishing a short but revelatory book (Killing Orders, published by Palgrave Macmillan) which proves, finally and conclusively, that the extermination orders of Talat Pasha, a leader of the Young Turks and one of the Three Pashas who ruled the Ottoman Empire in the First World War, to destroy the entire Armenian Christian population in 1915 were real.

Not forgeries as Turkeys apologists and denial historians would have the world believe. Not concocted by Armenian counterfeiters, or fiction created by a non-existent Ottoman official, as these wretched people would have us think. But as copper-bottomed and terrible as the Nazi documents which prove Germanys responsibility for the Jewish Holocaust  and the evidence that proves Poles sometimes joined in the slaughter.

The facts of the Armenian Holocaust  for Shoah (holocaust) is the very word that many honourable Israelis use for the Armenian genocide  are well known but need, however briefly, to be repeated. In 1915 and in the immediate years that followed, the Ottoman Turks deliberately set out to liquidate a million and a half of their Armenian Christian citizens, sending them into the desert on death marches, butchering the men, raping the women, spitting the children on bayonets or starving them to death with their mothers and other family members in what is now northern Syria.

The Kurds, sorry to say, assisted in this barbarity. Taner Akcam has written extensively and with immense authority on this appalling period of Turkish history  which the Turkish government, to this day, shamefully denies  and has as a result been abused by hundreds of right-wing Turkish extremists who have even tried to place him on an American terrorist list (he teaches at Clark University in the US).

 EU takes unprecedented first step towards sanctions against Poland to stop drift towards authoritarianism

Akcams new book contains a dark and haunting  almost frightening  geography, for most of the 1915 massacres he writes about took place in or near towns which carry their own fearful message of slaughter and horror to us today: Mosul, Raqqa, Deir ez-Zour and, yes, Aleppo.

It was in the Baron Hotel in Aleppo  still standing today, the descendants of the then owner Mazlouiyan still (just) occupying its lobby  that a set of original telegrams from Talat Pasha, along with other liquidation messages memorised by an Ottoman official, Naim Bey, were handed over to an Armenian Holocaust survivor called Aram Andonian. He paid cash for the documents. We dont know how much.

Until now, Turkish historians and their supporters in the West have regarded these vital papers as false. They claimed that Naim Bey did not exist, that Andonian was a forger, that the cypher in which Talats telegrams were written did not match the Ottoman cypher system of the time. They ignored the mass of evidence presented to the existing but quickly suppressed post-war trials in Istanbul, archives which subsequently went missing. And they held up telegrams  real enough but deliberately misleading  that proved Talat had the best interests of the Armenians at heart when he deported them.

Akcams unravelling of the truth is both a detective story and a volume of sudden, inconceivable horror. He proves the cypher numbers were real, that Naim Bey did indeed exist; an Ottoman document on a corruption investigation  in which Turkish officials accepted bribes from Armenians in return for their lives  identifies him as Naim Effendi, the son of Huseyin Nuri, 26 years of age, from Silifke, former dispatch official for Meskene, currently the official in charge of Municipal Grain Storage Depots. And more powerfully than any previous historian, Akcam proves  along with papers from the archive of a dead Armenian priest  that the Ottoman authorities were sending two sets of telegrams about the Armenians. One set expressed the governments insistence that food and tents should be provided for Armenian deportees and that their confiscated property should be recompensed. The other set insisted upon their secret liquidation, preferably away from the cameras of prying US diplomats (America was neutral until 1917) and German officers allied to the Turkish army.

The Nazis told their Jewish victims that they were going to be resettled in the east rather than gassed. They also tried to cover the traces of the gas chambers of Treblinka before the Red Army arrived. But the double instructions sent by Talat Pasha and his 1915 genociders demonstrate that the pretence of humanitarian resettlement was conceived even before the organised genocide began. Some of the young German officers who witnessed the killings of 1915 turned up 26 years later in the Soviet Union, overseeing the slaughter of Jews.

And here is one very short account (courtesy of the Turkish historian Akcam) of an Armenian witness to his peoples destruction, which could  if the identities and locations were changed to the Ukraine or Belarus  have been written during the Second World War: In order to eliminate the last remaining Armenian deportees...between Aleppo and Deyr-i Zor [sic] who had managed to survive...Hakki Bey...evicted all the deportees along the Euphrates, starting from Aleppo... Close to 300 young men and boys...surviving in the camp Hamam were sent to the South in a special convoy... Solid reports about them arrived that they had been killed in Rakka [sic]... Elsewhere, we learned in no uncertain terms that in the area around Samiye, 300 children were thrown into a cave opening, gas was poured in and they were burned alive.

So heres the real hypocrisy of this story. The Israeli government, so outraged by Polands Jewish Holocaust denialism, refuses to recognise the Armenian Holocaust. Shimon Peres himself said that we reject attempts to create a similarity between the [Jewish] Holocaust and the Armenian allegations. Nothing similar to the Holocaust occurred. What the Armenians went through is a tragedy, but not genocide.

The Americans, I should add  Trump included, of course  have been equally pathetic in their failure to acknowledge the Armenian truth. But oddly, not Poland.

For 13 years ago, the Polish parliament passed a bill which specifically referred to the Armenian genocide. The speaker of the Polish parliament, Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, said at the time that the Armenian genocide did indeed take place, that responsibility fell on the Turks, and that Turkish documents  though not yet those which Akcam has just revealed  confirm this.

So there you have it. Poland punishes anyone who speaks of Polish participation in the Jewish Holocaust, but accepts the Armenian Holocaust. Israel insists that all must acknowledge the Jewish Holocaust  and Polands peripheral guilt  but will not acknowledge the Armenian Holocaust.

Mercifully, Israeli scholars like Israel Charny do so. And mercifully, Turks like Taner Akcam agree. But how many times must the dead die all over again for nations to accept the facts of history?Cape Town is thirsty. As its dams dry to acrid desert, negotiation of everyday tasks are fraught. How many litres to shower? How long to let the waste stink before the flush? Yet it is the negotiations over a more far-reaching stink which asphyxiate South Africa. Jacob Zuma, the almost comically corrupt President, faces recall and resignation as the leader of a nation which was once the great hope of Africa. As he begs, bargains and plots his way to remain safe from the 783  and counting  charges of corruption within the cocoon of the presidency, his time finally appears to have run out.

ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule announced on Tuesday that Zuma has been recalled by the powerful ANC National Executive Committee, as has one of his predecessors, Thabo Mbeki. (Mbekis ousting was puppeteered by none other than Zuma himself.) His recall was confirmed as the ANC parliamentary caucus has scheduled a vote of no confidence to remove him as president on Thursday, if he does not resign by the end of Wednesday. The irony is exceeded perhaps only by the width of the grin we might imagine on Mbekis face as he quenched his thirst for revenge, saying, [the] interests of our country would be best served if indeed Mr Zuma ceased to be President.

 Motion of confidence against South African president Zuma falls

Zuma is being ousted by his deputy and successor-elect Cyril Ramaphosa. He was once Mandelas favoured successor, but was brushed aside by the ANC leadership in favour of Mbeki. Unlike his Robben Island-veteran compatriots, Zuma, a former ANC intelligence chief, eschewed the erudite cosmopolitanism oozed by Mbeki or Ramaphosa. He claimed to stand for the vast black poor of South Africa. But after being gifted an expanding economy, he plundered it in daylight and his own corpulent wealth has gorged on the nations finances. The difference in stature between Mandela and this lesser uncle is Shakespearian in character, and brings to mind Hamlets comparison: So excellent a king; that was, to this, Hyperion to a satyr.

The charges against Zuma are more numerous than I can list here, but chief among them and stamped upon his legacy shall be the words State Capture. The Guptas, a family of wealthy immigrants now largely domiciled in Dubai, have lavished Zuma in funds and in exchange they have bought the very levers of government: selling ministerial jobs; sacking anyone with a whiff of integrity from the finance department; pawning huge government tenders mired in bribery; bought the governments nuclear energy policy. But the charges are not limited to 30 pieces of silver or even 30 million rand. In dramatic news, it has been reported this week that businesses owned by the Guptas have been raided by South Africas Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, known as the Hawks. A powerful book was published last year, written by Redi Thlabi. Thlabi was a friend of the late Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo who had accused Jacob Zuma of rape, a charge he was cleared of in 2006.

Yet Mandelas South Africa was well conceived. Journalists, who have been hounded and sometimes found dead, exposed the mafia state over which Zuma has presided. The courts have checked his rush to sell South Africas silverware. The people too have resisted his endeavours to scapegoat the blame for his failure to redistribute wealth anywhere other than his own palatial nest, Nkandla. The Guptas hired the now defunct London PR firm Bell Pottinger and launched a campaign on Zumas behalf, branding the real culprits to be White Monopoly Capital. On social media, the people rejected this cynical manipulation.

Having stuck with Zuma through five votes of no confidence called by opposition parties, why has the ANC done him in now? The answer isnt one of sudden piercing moral clarity, but of course, electoral interest. As the 2019 election approaches, Ramaphosa and the ANC seek distance from Zumas toxicity. The once unassailable dominance of the ANC was eroded by setbacks in the 2016 local elections where it lost ground to both the Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters. Crucially, the ANC needs Zuma to resign before the State of the Nation address, which has been postponed until his departure and which is required to launch Ramaphosa into the campaign for 2019. Even the supine finance minister Malusi Nkanyezi Gigaba has turned against his master, and in an extraordinary twist, his ex-wife and presidential candidate, whom he backed against Ramaphosa in December, called on him to step 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

Yet there is a danger for the ANC in the Zexit process. They fear that this ruthless ex-spy with nothing to lose will destroy their chances in 2019 by attempting to cling on. But their failure is already woven into the years of complicity, for in ensuring Zumas dignified exit, the party has lost any dignity it hoped to retain.

At a press conference this week laden with vagaries, Magashule insisted President Zuma has not done anything wrong despite Zuma being recalled. The result of their acquiescence is a South Africa which still ranks among the most unequal countries in the world  a Brics state with 1 per cent annual growth and an unemployment rate at 30 per cent. Ramaphosa is a rich businessman and his instincts are self-serving. It is doubtful whether a man not bold enough to stand up to Zumas misbegotten deeds has the radical streak needed when inheriting a legacy of corruption and mistrust.

On the day that the ANC announced its long-awaited recall of Zuma, it rained. If Ramaphosa does not stand with the stature of Tata Madiba, but at least he does not stoop to Zumas malfeasance, then South Africans may at last get the break from corruption that their brilliant country deserves. Moipone Noko, who leads the State Capture commission, is due to deliver her recommendations on whether charges should be brought against Zuma within days. One of the Gupta brothers, Zumas chief backers, was arrested in a raid by the the Hawks, South Africas specialist crime unit.

It seems that for Zuma it never rains, but it pours.I had feared that Brexit had left this country with nothing to hope for, but Boris Johnson changed all that for me in his speech on Wednesday when, through his refusal to rule it out, he implied that he might yet resign from the cabinet.

Julian Self

Milton Keynes

Watching the Foreign Secretary deliver his rousing appeal to the nation to get behind the miracle of Brexit, I could not feel anything beyond that I was watching a man wriggling on the hook of his own ambition, desperately trying to persuade himself that his chosen path would, somehow or other, work out. Verily, a new low in Tory politics.

Gerron Stewart

Edinburgh

How could anybody be surprised by the Oxfam sex scandal?

Sexual abuse is widespread, so how can anyone be surprised by revelations of exploitation in the worlds most lawless and ungoverned spaces? The aid agencies are certainly not  the issue was categorically put on the table by the 2002 West Africa scandal, which implicated 40 organisations in claims of aid for sex with refugee children.

As co-author of the 2002 West Africa report, the principal failure here, as always, is the cover up, which puts agency needs above those of the victims. Aid-worker abuse cannot completely be eliminated  as with all crime, it is a fact of life. But risks can be minimised and problems dealt with transparently.

Aid is delivered in an unaccountable space  those who pay for aid in developed countries are too removed; those who receive it in developing countries are too powerless. Donor governments, like ours, play a critical role in holding aid agencies to account, including if it means (responsibly) withdrawing funding. There is no reason why an agencys track record in safeguarding beneficiaries cannot be a key criterion in making grants  the money should surely go to the best.

Those who claim that good works will be undermined fail to understand the competitive world of aid, and short change the victims by suffocating their calls for justice. If donor governments can exercise their financial clout, they will be doing us as taxpayers a favour  and more importantly, protecting those we want to help.

Asmita Naik

London

In order to carry out Brexit, there needs to be an end destination

Peter Chapman, Letters, correctly states that Boris Johnson and his ilk have none of the project management skills needed to deliver Brexit. However, as Chapman knows, successful projects require a desired endpoint, with inherent tasks agreed along the way. Unfortunately, this Government does not seem to know what it wants, other than Brexit means Brexit. This is because, as David Davies intimated only a few short months ago, the complexities of the EU and the wide-ranging consequences of it have not been fully understood, which is why a transition period is now being sought.

However, Chapman states that the Government should get on with leaving the EU for the sake of our children. The reason why there is so much debate and division in the country is that the majority of young people do not want to leave, and increasing numbers of people, according to the polls, are agreeing with them.

If leaving were really such a good thing, there would be agreement about the endpoint. Instead we have some wanting to leave lock, stock and barrel, some wanting to stay in the single market and customs union and, others want the whole fiasco and Article 50 to be cancelled. Then there are those saying we should see what the negotiations bring about on 19 March and have a second referendum on that.

Meanwhile, we have a real possibility of the UK being broken up as the Scots voted to stay in the EU, and there are increasing calls for a united Ireland if there is a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic due to one country being in the EU and the other not.

This project has really not been thought through!

Linda Johnson

Beverley

A great piece from Matthew Norman

This is simply an immediate reaction to a first reading of Matthew Normans piece in defence of George Soros. What an outstanding piece of writing. Forthright but nuanced, focused but panoramic, it surveys the territory whilst honing in on the hollowness of those arranged against a good man.

More please.

Name and address supplied

In defence of the coalition in Yemen...

I write to you concerning an article titled UK has responsibility for Yemen crisis after exporting weapons to Saudi Arabia, Nobel Laureate says, by Shehab Khan, which The Independent published on 10 February.

The Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen operates with the unanimous support of UN Security Council Resolution 2216 to thwart an Iranian-backed rebellion in Yemen against the legitimate and internationally recognised government.

The coalition deeply regrets any civilian deaths and firmly denies allegations of deliberately targeting civilians. The coalitions campaign fully complies with international humanitarian law, it uses state-of-the art targeting procedures and engages in best practice targeting processes. Conversely, international organisations, including Human Rights Watch, have reported ongoing efforts by the Houthi militia in Yemen to recruit children and force them to the frontlines.

Where accusations have been made of breaches of the law by the coalition, they have been investigated by the independent Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT), which upholds the same standards used by the United Kingdom when faced with claims of having committed similar breaches in Iraq and Afghanistan. Any lessons learnt are acted upon and the JIATs findings are made public.

Saudi Arabia continues to lead humanitarian efforts in Yemen to alleviate the suffering of its citizens. On 22 January 2018 the coalition announced the launch of the Yemen Comprehensive Humanitarian Operations, an expanded relief programme that has committed billions of dollars in aid and support for the humanitarian response to the conflict in Yemen.

The coalition did not start and does not want this war, but it has the right to act in self-defence and it will not allow a radical militia allied with Iran to take over a country. Since the conflict began, Houthi militia have fired 95 ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia from Yemen, deliberately targeting civilians and populated areas.

The coalition seeks an early end to the hostilities and is committed to finding a political solution, based on UN Resolution 2216, to end the conflict and restore peace and security to Yemen and the region.

Mohammed bin Nawaf Al Saud

Saudi Arabias ambassador to the UKWhen it comes to turning around troubled schools, Matchbook Learning has a troubled history  two schools it took over were closed soon after. But Sajan George, founder of the management group, thinks Indianapolis is his chance to succeed.

Indianapolis Public Schools leaders have recommended Matchbook as a partner to restart School 63, a school with chronically low test scores. The nonprofit operator has been through layers of vetting from the district and its partners. But the networks past troubles raise significant questions about whether it is likely to succeed in Indianapolis and highlight the limited pool of partners with the interest and experience in restarting failing schools.

If the Indianapolis Public School Board approves the plan, School 63 would be the latest school to become an innovation school managed by an outside partner but still considered part of the district. Matchbook would be the first operator that is not yet established in Indianapolis to restart a struggling school. But over the last year, George has moved his family to Indianapolis from New York. He also has spent time building relationships in the community, reaching out to local groups and meeting with parents.

Thats one reason Aleesia Johnson, who leads innovation schools for the Indianapolis Public Schools, believes the group would be a good fit for the district.

They have done good work other places, she said. But really  the most compelling piece is that connection to Indianapolis and really grounding themselves here.

George got his start as a consultant working on corporate turnaround, before he began focusing on working with troubled school districts, and eventually founded Matchbook to restart schools. Now, George says Matchbook is solely dedicated to turning around School 63. But his long-term vision is sweeping and ambitious: He wants to upend education by developing a model that will help schools make dramatic test score gains.

At the center of that plan is Spark, a software tool that aims to help ordinary teachers achieve the same results as extraordinary ones by keeping track of how students are doing and what they need to learn, George said.

We know when you have an extraordinary teacher in the classroom, you get extraordinary results, he said. We cant replicate those extraordinary teachers to every single classroom.

When Matchbook started, the group partnered with three schools in Detroit for short contracts. Most recently, Matchbook was brought in to turn around two charter schools, one in Detroit and one in Newark, that were eventually shut down for academic and financial problems. (Matchbook also faced criticism because teachers at both schools were not fully paid when they closed due to financial issues. The group eventually paid the teachers in Detroit.)

In Georges view, the schools were stymied by politics. But in Indianapolis, where turnaround operators are given lots of time and support, he believes hismodel will be able to prove itself.

The state test data from the schools where Matchbook has operated is generally positive. Students often started with dismal passing rates. But test scores went up at most of the schools the group worked with, and in some years, passing rates on state tests rose significantly.

Educators who worked for Matchbook in Detroit and Newark shared Georges belief that the schools could have turned around with more time. But they told Chalkbeat that the companys focus on using the software was initially a hindrance. The schools started seeing greater success when they spent less time on Spark and more time using traditional teaching methods, they said.

When Matchbook began managing the school in Detroit, students spent most of their time on computers, said Anna Skinner, who taught second and third grade. Eventually, she said, teachers were given more flexibility. They stopped asking young students to watch several videos, for example, and instead spent more time teaching phonics, she said.

They needed an adult, not a computer, Skinner said.

Phillip Price, the veteran principal who was hired by Matchbook to lead the school, echoed some of Skinners concerns. The software was particularly difficult for students who struggled to read, Price said. If you cant read, trying to use a computer or watching a video, you are not going to know what the next steps are, he added.

Ronald Harvey, the principal from the charter school the group ran in Newark, said he enjoyed working with Matchbook and Spark was a helpful tool for tracking student data. Because the program was new, the school was essentially piloting it, and Spark was updated based on their experience, he said. The program worked best, he said, when the school starting spending less time using Spark and more time on direct instruction.

That first year, it did not feel very blended. It felt technology-heavy, he said. That second year, it started to become more of a blended learning type of model.

George said that teachers always had flexibility, and the only piece of Spark they were expected to use was its data tracking feature, he said. Ultimately, it is just a tool for teachers, and they become more comfortable using it in the second year, he said.

Spark is capturing the learning pathways  and the data progress. But its not the teacher, George said. I think sometimes you have to educate teachers  you are still the teacher. You are still driving the instruction.

Even with Matchbooks unproven track record, however, there are compelling reasons why Indianapolis leaders might choose to partner with the group.

Also known as Wendell Phillips, School 63 is in Haughville, and it has such a bad reputation that school board member Diane Arnold said she has steered families away from it. The school received a fifth F grade from the state this year, and if it receives another failing grade, it could be up for state intervention  including takeover or shut down.

Restarting the school as an innovation school in partnership with Matchbook is one way that the Indianapolis Public Schools board could fend off state takeover and maintain control over Wendell Phillips.

Thats why Hakim Moore, a parent of two students at School 63, said he supports the plan for Matchbook to take over. He is happy with the current principal and teachers. But faced with the prospect of the state taking control, he wants to see what Matchbook can do to improve the school.

My feeling is if they can come in and make it better  thats better than not trying at all, Moore said.

Theres another reason why the district might look past Matchbooks problems: There are not many turnaround operators with proven track records.

Charter networks typically start schools from scratch, and many are not interested in turning around failing schools, an especially difficult challenge. Although four potential partners were interested in restarting schools for the district, Matchbook was the only group to apply to restart School 63, according to the district.

Across the country, its not work that has just an overwhelming number of people signing up to do the work because its super hard, said Johnson.

Since the district began creating innovation schools, it has relied on the potential partners recruited by the Mind Trust, a non-profit that works closely with the district. When the Mind Trust was investigating Matchbook, staff spent more time vetting the network than usual because of the problems it faced in other states, said Brandon Brown, senior vice president of education innovation for the Mind Trust.

That included visiting the Matchbook school in Newark, contacting former authorizers, and reviewing test data. But their concerns were ultimately allayed, and the group offered George and his partner Amy Swann a fellowship worth about $200,000 to plan an innovation school, and another $200,000 in implementation funding to support the school before it begins receiving per-pupil funding.

We were convinced that they had learned a ton about how to turn around low-performing schools, Brown said. When you compare their results against other school operators that want to focus on restarting the most challenging schools in our country, while their results havent been perfect, we do think that they stack up very well against others.

Ron Zimmer, a professor at the University of Kentucky who has studied turnaround in Tennessee, said the approach is so recent that its difficult to find charter networks that have evidence of success  yet.

I dont think it should be alarming if a school gets taken over by a charter operator and they dont show positive effects in two years, Zimmer said. It takes time.Nationwide  How far would you go to protect yourself and your family? What if it was a matter of life and death? And what if the answer was a simple exam?

Like many, Kevin Byrd of Utica, N.Y., would do just about anything for his family. When he learned that his grandfather was diagnosed with prostate cancer, he was devastated. But nothing prepared him for the death of his grandfather from the disease about 10 years ago.

When my grandfather died from prostate cancer, my world was crushed, said Byrd. During Mr.

Byrds time of bereavement, his colleague, Blossom Brown, shared that she had also experienced the loss of her grandfather to prostate cancer.

I could not stand around to see another family suffer the loss of a loved one to prostate cancer, says Byrd. Kevin Byrd and Blossom Brown were motivated to keep their grandfathers legacy alive so they joined forces and established the Brown Byrd Foundation, a Christian organization and a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Prostate Cancer, also known as a silent killer, affects 1 in 7 men, making it the most common non-skin cancer in America and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men in the United States.

Every 2.9 minutes a man is diagnosed with prostate cancer. This means that a non-smoking man is more likely to develop prostate cancer than he is to develop colon, bladder, melanoma, lymphoma and kidney cancers combined. In 2017 alone, it is estimated that more than 181,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and more than 26,000 will die from the disease. Prostate Cancer is also the number one killing disease among the African-American male population. A man of African descent is 70% more likely to develop prostate cancer than a Caucasian man, and more than twice as likely to die from the disease.

The founders of the Brown Byrd Foundation have been longtime advocates and an active voice for the millions of men affected by prostate cancer.

We created the Brown Byrd Foundation to give men and their families hope. Our foundation helps to fund some of the worlds most prominent research to improve prostate cancer prevention, early detection, increase awareness and treatment and ultimately cure it once and for all, Brown said.

The Brown Byrd Foundation has received many accolades for their fight against prostate cancer and has led to a featured segment on Here and Now on ABC 7 News, Fios1 Heroes on our Island, and radio/ television interviews such as Keeping It Real with Shannon. In 2013, they received the Long Island, Health Care Heroes Award.

In February 2012, their work was honored and entered into the Congressional Record Library of Congress by House of Representative Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke. The foundation has also received numerous proclamations from world leaders, U.S. Presidents and the Common Council of Utica, New York recognized their commitment to prostate cancer by honoring the foundation with a street named Brown Byrd Lane. This year, Niagara Falls will be illuminating their falls in blue for the 5th consecutive year on February 2nd at 10 p.m. in honor of the Brown Byrd Foundation efforts to cure prostate cancer. (www.niagarafallsusa.com/niagara-falls-state-park/illumination-fireworks/)

In 2008, the mayor of New York City was the first to honor the Brown Byrd Foundation by designating February 2 as Prostate Cancer Awareness Observance Day. Since then, over 100 mayors have joined the efforts of the Brown Byrd Foundation by acknowledging this day in their city and states. On February 2, citizens across the nation wore a blue ribbon and lit blue candles that symbolized the thousands of men who lost the battle against prostate cancer. Citizens will also pray and have a 19 seconds moment of silence.

The founders of the Brown Byrd Foundation are not content to rest on their laurels for they understand and know that much work needs to be done to find a cure and end prostate cancer. Education regarding prostate cancer and early detection strategies is crucial to saving lives, therefore, all men over the age of 40 are asked to take action by scheduling an appointment to get tested today! For free prostate cancer screening in your state, click on the following link: www.zerocancer.org/testing/testing-map

By the time you are done reading this article, a man would have died from prostate cancer. Eliminating prostate cancer in our lifetime is a possibility within reach, and the day when the disease becomes a manageable condition is closer than ever. It is very possible that a man diagnosed with prostate cancer today may live long enough to see a treatment developed that will save his life. We are getting closer to this reality every day. Please join the fight against prostate cancer today.

For more information about Prostate Cancer, or to fund a growing number of promising prostate cancer research projects, contact the Brown Byrd Foundation at 30 Wall Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10005 or email brownbyrdfoundationinc@yahoo.com. Contact Number: 212-709-8335. You can also check out the Brown Byrd Foundation website at www.brownbyrdfoundation.org.Now 45 wants a parade.

He wants it in November, probably before the mid-term elections. Some see it as move to mobilize his base and stroke his own ego; others actually believe that he wants to celebrate and honor members of the military.

Its been reported that he wants the parade, because he saw a parade in Paris on Bastille Day. If he went to the zoo, would he want zebras and tigers roaming the lawn at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue next?

The last parade we had in Washington was in 1991, when we won the Gulf War. That parade cost $14 million ($21 million in todays dollars), and drew 800,000 people. Given 45s propensity for wanting the biggest and the huuuugest, hed probably want to spend twice what George H.W. Bush spent in 1991.

That $42 million represents less than a millionth of one percent of the nearly $500 billion federal budget increase that the Senate proposed in bipartisan legislation on February 7. I am among the many who will look askance at the possible cost of a parade.

There are lots of things we could do with $42 million, like job creation, small Pell grant increases, or even more amenities for our armed forces. But in the scheme of things, some will argue that $42 million is not that much money; they might suggest that a parade is more about symbolism than anything else.

What does a show of military might signal in these times? There has been no significant military victory, nothing to celebrate, except 45s already-inflated ego. Frances Bastille Day parade is a response to the fact that France had been invaded twice, most devastatingly by the Germans in World War II.

Their parade is as much a show of military might as it is of European unity. These days, troops from several countries, including Germany and the United States, participate in the parade. Some carry the flag of the European Union, even though the EU has no military. Would 45s parade include other countries, or is this exhibition just about us?

Instead of the show of unity that Bastille Day parade represents, 45s parade will likely be a reflection of his braggadocio. His button is bigger, so is his parade, and so is the U.S. military. The presidents parade sounds like a show of muscle, but to what end? Even the inhabitant of the worlds smallest country must know that the U.S. has the worlds greatest military.

So, why do we need to show off? Because 45 is a show-off, a blowhard, and an Electoral College-selected buffoon.

Meanwhile, consider the impact a parade might have on the District of Columbia, the used-to-be majority Black city that is mostly occupied by Democrats.

How will the streets survive huge tanks rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue, and who will pay for repairs? How extensive will this parade be, and will it happen on the weekend or a weekday? What will it mean for workers, transportation, and the Districts infrastructure? The president could care less about any of it. He passed the hot potato of the parade to the Secretary of Defense, and now General Jim Mattis and his team are stuck with the task.

Both Democrats and Republicans have verbalized opposition to the parade, and they are likely to be labeled treasonous by 45, since anyone who disagrees with him, or fails to clap (or bow) when he speaks is obviously a traitor. He is behaving like a despot like his rival, North Koreas Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un.

While 45 finds it convenient to idolize the military and insist that the rest of us do so, as well, he didnt find it convenient to serve in the military. He was excused from military service during the Vietnam era, because he had flat feet or bone spurs or something like that. More than likely, he was excused from military service, because his family had money.

The president wants a parade to celebrate the military and glorify our countrys military might. Next he will want to have someone crown him king. Yes, it is a good thing he doesnt go to the zoo, because we might end up with a menagerie in the backyard at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Julianne Malveaux is an author, economist and founder of Economic Education. Her latest book Are We Better Off? Race, Obama and Public Policy is available to order at Amazon.com and at www.juliannemalveaux.com. Follow Dr. Malveaux on Twitter @drjlastword.Refreshing. Motivating. Proud. Empowering. Epic.

Those are just some of the words that come to mind as I reflect on former first lady Michelle Obamas visit to Indianapolis earlier this week.

The buzz leading up to the event was energetic as soon as it was announced that she would be in the Circle City, but nothing prepared me for the obvious tone of the evening. It actually left me speechless. With the increased violence that has plagued our city, the in-fighting amongst local politicians and the crazy instability of this countrys president; it was beyond refreshing to be part of something positive and uplifting and motivating and inspiring and every other adjective that evokes positive emotions.

Tuesday night, downtown Indianapolis was flooded with mostly women and girls representing vast backgrounds, cultures, generations and socio-economic statuses. I loved it!

I met some of my friends downtown for dinner prior to the discussion with Obama at Bankers Life Fieldhouse and not only were we excited, everyone was excited! After dinner we walked a short distance to Bankers Life in preparation to hear Obama speak. As I looked at the masses of women and girls, the energy was so electric it seemed that everyone was literally floating in the streets. There were hugs and smiles abound. Women walked arm and arm with their daughters. Friends strolled merrily by. Family members enthusiastically walked alongside one another. Everyone wanted to experience the greatness of Michelle Obama. It was so beautiful.

Upon entering the fieldhouse and taking our seats, the energy amplified a hundred times over. It was magical.

In what can only be described as her authentic self, Obama dropped knowledge every time she opened her mouth. I thought I would be one of a small number of people taking notes, but I wasnt. Attendees wanted to not only experience Obama in the flesh, they also wanted to internalize what she said so that they could learn and grow from her insight.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from Obamas visit to Indy:

On parenting

Kids dont need a lot of stuff. I didnt have a lot of stuff. I just want parents to know its the time in. Its not the stuff.

On stereotypes and biases placed on children of color

Push past peoples low expectations of you. You have to practice achieving through peoples low expectations of you.

On verbally encouraging people who have no opportunities

I dont know what to sayno words can do that. The better use of my time is to try to fix the problems that theyre facing. I cant say anything.

On women voting for Donald Trump

Women voted for a candidate who supported so many issues that werent supportive of them. They gave their power away.

On youth who deal with challenges

Anybody who has been successful, particularly if youre a woman, and especially if youre a woman of color, you grow up with a lot of doubts in your head.

On believing in yourself

There are very mediocre people out there who run stuff, but nobody out there told them they cant. Youre just as capable. But you cant be at the table if you are not prepared.

Experiencing Michelle Obama was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. While we are all relishing in the aftermath of her time in Indy, the visit would not have been possible without the hard work of the staff and board members of the Womens Fund of Central Indiana. The Womens Fund was responsible for bringing Obama to the Circle City. The organization works to create transformative and sustainable change for women and girls in Indiana. Tuesday evenings sellout crowd of 12,000 people helped the Womens Fund raise over $1 million, which will help the organization further execute its mission. Kudos to the Womens Fund for such a noteworthy and necessary event featuring one of the most transformative women in our nations history.Activist Sameena Mustafa is vying for a Congressional seat, running in the Democratic primary election in Illinois' 5th District. The candidate said she will fight for economic justice, human rights and political reform. (Sameena Mustafa/Facebook photo)Sari Bari, an NGO in Kolkata, India, founded by American Sarah Lance, supports women who have been trafficked or held in the sex trade by poverty and lack of empowerment by training them to become skilled artisans. (Sari Bari/Facebook photo)A day after a massive fraud was unearthed in a Punjab National Bank branch in Mumbai, the Enforcement Directorate launched a nationwide raid on diamond trader Nirav Modi's offices, showrooms and workshops. The raid came a day after the Punjab National Bank revealed a fraud of Rs. 11,515 crore involving Modi's companies and certain other accounts with the bank's flagship Brady House branch in Mumbai  the banks second largest lending window in India. (IANS photo)Pedestrians walk past the Brady House Branch of the state-owned Punjab National Bank in Mumbai Feb. 14. India's second-largest state-run bank said Feb. 14 it detected a fraud of almost $1.8 billion at one of its branches, sending its shares plunging more than seven percent. PNB, one of several state-owned lenders the government is trying to clean up, said transactions worth $1.77 billion had been made 'for the benefit of a few select account holders with their apparent connivance.' (Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images)Rashid Ahmed

Framandi Alliance

Galaxy Accretion Conflicts

Click to Read an Excerpt



"I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I look forward to the authors next offering. Rogue AI, alternate history, genetic engineering, deep space travel, aliens, conspiracy, intrigue, and worm holes.[...]"

Author of the Week:

Rashid Ahmed

is a science fiction author and digital marketing specialist. Hes always been interested in technology, its evolution and impact. Having held various advertising and marketing roles, hes evolved into a weaver of stories. Aimed at readers who like immersive experiences, Rashids writing balances concept detailing with extrapolated science and reader comprehension. His interests also include economics, sustainability and ecosystem restoration.Former prime minister Antonis Samaras on Thursday filed a lawsuit against current premier Alexis Tsipras , the current alternate justice minister, three prosecutors and two out of three "protected witnesses" whose testimony has implicated him in an ongoing investigation into alleged kickbacks and price-fixing by Novartis' Greek subsidiary.Dutch FM Admits Lying About Putin / Russia

Is Fake News Used by Russia or About Russia?

By Glenn Greenwald

February 14, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Every empire needs a scary external threat, led by a singular menacing villain, to justify its massive military expenditures, consolidation of authoritarian powers, and endless wars. For the five decades after the end of World War II, Moscow played this role perfectly. But the fall of Soviet Union meant, at least for a while, that the Kremlin could no longer sustain sufficient fear levels. After some brief, largely unsuccessful auditions for possible replacements  Asian actors like China and a splurging Japan were considered  the post-9/11 era elevated a cast of Muslim understudies to the starring role: Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, ISIS and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and jihadism generally kept fear alive.

The lack of any 9/11-type catastrophic attack on U.S. (or any Western) soil for the past 17 years, along with the killing of a pitifully aged, ailing bin Laden and the erosion of ISIS, has severely compromised their ongoing viability as major bad guys. So now  just as a film studio revitalizes a once-successful super-villain franchise for a new generation of moviegoers  were back to the Russians occupying center stage.

That Barack Obama spent eight years (including up through his final year-end news conference) mocking the notion that Russia posed a serious threat to the U.S. given their size and capabilities, and that he even tried repeatedly to accommodate and partner with Russian President Vladimir Putin, is of no concern: In the internet age, 2016 is regarded as ancient history, drowned out by an endless array of new threats pinned by a united media on the Russkie Plague. Moreover, human nature craves a belief in an existential foreign threat because it confers a sense of purpose and cause, strengthens tribal unity and identity, permits scapegoating, shifts blame for maladies from internal to external causes, and (like religion) offers a simplifying theory for understanding a complex world.

One of the prime accusations sustaining this script is that the Kremlin is drowning the West in fake news and other forms of propaganda. One can debate its impact and magnitude, but disinformation campaigns are something the U.S., Russia, and countless other nations have done to one another for centuries, and there is convincing evidence that Russia does this sort of thing now. But evidence of one threat does not mean that all claimed threats are real, nor does it mean that that tactic is exclusively wielded by one side.

Over the past year, there have been numerous claims made by Western intelligence agencies, mindlessly accepted as true in the Western press, that have turned out to be baseless, if not deliberate scams. Just today, it was revealed that Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra lied when he claimed he was at a meeting with Putin, in which the Russian president said he considered Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic states as part of a Greater Russia.'

Fake news is certainly something to worry about when it emanates from foreign adversaries, but it is at least as concerning and threatening, if not more so, when emanating from ones own governments and media. And there are countless, highly significant examples beyond todays of such propaganda that emanates from within.

This article was originally published by " The Intercept " -

- See Also -

US defence chief to press Europeans on military spending

NATO Salutes Europes Defense Budget Increases

Join the DiscussionRussophobia a Futile Bid to Conceal US, European Decline By Finian Cunningham February 14, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - It is an age-old statecraft technique to seek unity within a state by depicting an external enemy or threat. Russia is the bete noire again, as it was during the Cold War years as part of the Soviet Union. But the truth is Western states are challenged by internal problems. Ironically, by denying their own internal democratic challenges, Western authorities are only hastening their institutional demise. Russophobia  blame it all on Russia  is a short-term, futile ploy to stave off the day of reckoning when furious and informed Western citizens will demand democratic restitution for their legitimate grievances. The dominant official narrative, from the US to Europe, is that malicious Russia is sowing division;eroding democratic institutions; and undermining public trust in systems of governance, credibility of established political parties, and the news media. This narrative has shifted up a gear since the election of Donald Trump to the White House in 2016, with accusations that the Kremlin somehow ran influence operations to help get him into office. This outlandish yarn defies common sense. It is also running out of thread to keep spinning. Paradoxically, even though President Trump has rightly rebuffed such dubious claims of Russiagate interference as fake news, he has at other times undermined himself by subscribing to the notion that Moscow is projecting a campaign of subversion against the US and its European allies. See for example the National Security Strategy he signed off in December.

Pathetically, its become indoctrinated belief among the Western political class that devious Russians are out to collapse Western democracies by weaponizing disinformation and spreading fake news through Russia-based news outlets like RT and Sputnik.

Totalitarian-like, there seems no room for intelligent dissent among political or media figures.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has chimed in to accuse Moscow of sowing division; Dutch state intelligence claim Russia destabilized the US presidential election; the European Union commissioner for security, Sir Julian King, casually lampoons Russian news media as Kremlin-orchestrated disinformation to destabilize the 28-nation bloc; CIA chief Mike Pompeo recently warned that Russia is stepping up its efforts to tarnish the Congressional mid-term elections later this year.

On and on goes the narrative that Western states are essentially victims of a nefarious Russian assault to bring about collapse.

A particularly instructive presentation of this trope was given in a recent commentary by Texan Republican Representative Will Hurd. In his piece headlined, Russia is our adversary, he claims: Russia is eroding our democracy by exploiting the nations divisions. To save it, Americans need to begin working together.

Congressman Hurd asserts: Russia has one simple goal: to erode trust in our democratic institutions It has weaponized disinformation to achieve this goal for decades in Eastern and Central Europe; in 2016, Western Europe and America were aggressively targeted as well.

Lamentably, all these claims above are made with scant, or no, verifiable evidence. It is simply a Big Lie technique of relentless repetition transforming itself into fact.

Its instructive to follow Congressman Hurds thought-process a bit further.

He contends: When the public loses trust in the media, the Russians are winning. When the press is hyper-critical of Congress the Russians are winning. When Congress and the general public disagree the Russians are winning. When there is friction between Congress and the executive branch [the president] resulting in further erosion of trust in our democratic institutions, the Russians are winning.

As a putative solution, Representative Hurd calls for a national counter-disinformation strategy against Russian influence operations, adding, Americans must stop contributing to a corrosive political environment.

The latter is a chilling advocacy of uniformity tantamount to a police state whereby any dissent or criticism is a thought-crime.

It is, however, such anti-democratic and paranoid thinking by Western politicians  aided and abetted by dutiful media  that is killing democracy from within, not some supposed foreign enemy.

There is evidently a foreboding sense of demise in authority and legitimacy among Western states, even if the real cause for the demise is ignored or denied. Systems of governance, politicians of all stripes, and institutions like the established media and intelligence services are increasingly held in contempt and distrust by the public.

Whose fault is that loss of political and moral authority? Western governments and institutions need to take a look in the mirror.

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The endless, criminal wars that the US and its European NATO allies have been waging across the planet over the past two decades is one cogent reason why the public has lost faith in grandiose official claims about respecting democracy and international law.

The US and European media have shown reprehensible dereliction of duty to inform the public accurately about their governments warmongering intrigues. Take the example of Syria. When does the average Western citizen ever read in the corporate Western media about how the US and its NATO allies have covertly ransacked that country through weaponizing terrorist proxies?

How then can properly informed citizens be expected to have respect for such criminal government policies and the complicit news media covering up for their crimes?

Western public disaffection with governments, politicians and media surely stems also from the grotesque gulf in social inequality and poverty among citizens from slavish adherence to economic policies that enrich the wealthy while consigning the vast majority to unrelenting austerity.

The destabilizing impact on societies from oppressive economic conditions is a far more plausible cause for grievance than outlandish claims made by the political class about alleged Russian interference.

Yet the Western media indulge this fantastical Russiagate escapism instead of campaigning on real social problems facing ordinary citizens. No wonder such media are then viewed with disdain and distrust. Adding insult to injury, these media want the public to believe Russia is the enemy?

Instead of acknowledging and addressing real threats to citizens: economic insecurity, eroding education and health services, lost career opportunities for future generations, the looming dangers of ecological adversity, wars prompted by Western governments trashing international and diplomacy, and so on  the Western public is insultingly plied with corny tales of Russias malign influence and assault on democracy.

Just think of the disproportionate amount of media attention and public resources wasted on the Russiagate scandal over the past year. And now gradually emerging is the real scandal that the American FBI probably colluded with the Obama administration to corrupt the democratic process against Trump.

Again, is there any wonder the public has sheer contempt and distrust for authorities that have been lying through their teeth and playing them for fools?

The collapsing state of Western democracies has got nothing to do with Russia. The Russophobia of blaming Russia for the demise of Western institutions is an attempt at scapegoating for the very real problems facing governments and institutions like the news media. Those problems are inherent and wholly owned by these governments owing to chronic anti-democratic functioning, as well as systematic violation of international law in their pursuit of criminal wars and other subterfuges for regime-change objectives.

Finian Cunningham has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. He is a Masters graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent.

This article was originally published by " RT " -

- See Also -

US defence chief to press Europeans on military spending

NATO Salutes Europes Defense Budget Increases

Join the DiscussionHow The Deep State Stopped Better Relations With Russia

By Robert W. Merry

Note: this article is part of a symposium included in the March/April 2018 issue of the National Interest .

February 14, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - OF COURSE theres a Deep State. Why wouldnt there be? Even a cursory understanding of human nature tells us that power corrupts, as Lord Acton put it; that, when power is concentrated and entrenched, it will be abused; that, when it is concentrated and entrenched in secrecy, it will be abused in secret. Thats the Deep State.

James Burnham saw it coming. The American philosopher and political theorist (190587), first a Trotskyist, then a leading conservative intellectual, wrote in 1941 that the great political development of the age was not the battle between communism and capitalism. Rather, it was the rise of a new managerial class gaining dominance in business, finance, organized labor and government. This gathering managerial revolution, as he called it, would be resisted, but it would be impervious to adversarial counteractions. As the managerial elites gained more and more power, exercised often in subtle and stealthy ways, they would exercise that power to embed themselves further into the folds of American society and to protect themselves from those who might want to bust them up.

Nowhere is this managerial elite more entrenched, more powerful and more shrouded in secrecy than in what Dwight Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex, augmented by intelligence and law-enforcement agencies. Thats where Americas relentless drive for global hegemony meshes with defense manufacturers only too willing to provide the tools of dominance.

Now we have not only a standing army, with hundreds of thousands of troops at the ready, as in Cold War days. We have also permanent wars, nine of them in progress at the moment and not one with what could even remotely be called proper congressional approval. Thats how power gets entrenched, how the managerial revolution gains ever greater force and how the Deep State endures.

Few in the general public know what really happened with regard to the allegations of Trump campaign collusion with Russia, or how the investigation into those troubling allegations emerged. But we know enough to know we have seen the Deep State in action.

We know that U.S. agencies released an Intelligence Community Assessment saying that Russia and President Putin were behind the release of embarrassing Democratic emails in a plot to help Trump win the presidency. But we also know that it wasnt really a National Intelligence Assessment (a term of art denoting a particular process of expansive intelligence analysis) but rather the work of a controlled task force. As Scott Ritter, the former Marine intelligence officer and arms-control official, put it , This deliberate misrepresentation of the organizational bona fides of the Russia NIA casts a shadow over the viability of the analysis used to underpin the assessments and judgments contained within. Besides, the document was long on assertion and short on evidence. Even the New York Times initially derided the report as lacking any hard evidence and amounting essentially . . . to trust us.

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We have substantial reason to believe that an unconfirmed salacious report on Trump, paid for by the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign (with the FBI eventually getting hold of it), was used in an effort to get a secret national-security warrant so the government could spy on the Trump campaign. We know that the FBI went easy on Clinton in its investigation of her irresponsible email practices, and then we find out that a top FBI official involved in both the Clinton and Trump/Russia investigations despised Trump, liked Hillary and expressed an interest in doing what he could to thwart Trumps emergence. We know he privately told his lover that, while he didnt think Trump could win, he nevertheless felt a need for an insurance policy because Im afraid we cant take that risk. We know these matters were discussed in the office of FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.

We know further that former FBI director James Comey used a cutout to leak to the press a rendition of an Oval Office conversation with the president that could be interpreted adversely to Trump. We know he did this to set in motion the appointment of an independent investigator, a potentially mortal threat to any presidentand perhaps particularly to this freewheeling billionaire developer.

Perhaps most significant, we know that all this had the effect of wrenching from the president the flexibility to pursue a policy agenda on which he had campaignedand which presumably contributed to his election. That was his promise to work toward improved relations between the United States and Russia. Prospects for such a diplomatic initiative now are as dead as the dodo bird. Trump lost that one. The Deep State won.

Robert W. Merry, longtime Washington journalist and publishing executive, is editor of The American Conservative. He is the author most recently of President McKinley: Architect of the American Century .

====

Join the DiscussionTrump Privatizes America

By Michael Hudson and Real News

Posted February 14, 2018

SHARMINI PERIES: Its The Real News Network. Im Sharmini Peries coming to you from Baltimore. President Trump presented his infrastructure plan on Monday. The long-awaited plan proposes to spend $200 billion in federal funds over the next 10 years. This is to be complemented with another 1.3 trillion in spending from cities, states, and private investors for a total of 1.5 trillion. Another major component of the plan is to reduce red tape and approval processes so that projects are approved much faster.

Heres what Trump had to say in presenting the plan.

DONALD TRUMP: This morning, I submitted legislative principles to Congress that will spur the biggest and boldest infrastructure investment in American history. The framework will generate an unprecedented $1.5 to $1.7-trillion investment in American infrastructure. Were going to have a lot of public-private. And that way it gets done on time, on budget.

SHARMINI PERIES: Joining me now to analyze the infrastructure proposal is Michael Hudson. Michael is a distinguished research professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Hes the author of several books, the most recent among them is J is for Junk Economics. Welcome back, Michael.

MICHAEL HUDSON: Good to be here, Sharmini.

SHARMINI PERIES: Michael, it sounds like you had your own infrastructure failure experience last night. Tell us about it.

MICHAEL HUDSON: I was coming back from Washington from a week at Democracy Collaborative on a $400 round trip on the Acela Express, which is supposed to be the elite Amtrak. We left Washington at 3:00. At 5:30, just before we got to New York, the train stopped. The conductor said, We were told we cant go any further, there is a track power outage, no trains are running in and out of Penn Station. He suggested if anyone wanted to take the Jersey tubes across the station platform, they could do that. But there was no idea when things would be restored.

So, everybody waited about five minutes. Then about half the people got off and got into the New Jersey tube train standing shoulder the shoulder. But that wasnt moving because they had an announcement there was no electricity going in and out of New York, you cant get there. So, I shared an Uber cab with someone who was sitting next to me to get into Manhattan.

I may add that the trip was so jiggly that it was very hard to read or to write along the whole route. That means that the idea that somehow an infrastructure plan can develop a China-style, high-speed transit is just a fantasy. In order to have high-speed transit with anything really fast, you need a dedicated roadway. While I was in Washington, the Republicans, as you know, were going to their meeting down south, and their Amtrak train crashed into a garbage truck. You can imagine that a train track that goes through crossing gate crossings wouldnt possibly work for high-speed rail.

Also, the cost would, I think, be closer to $20 trillion just to buy the land rights along the current railroad or other route, because the land is all built up in America. Theres a law of eminent domain and there have been so many lawsuits that its completely infeasible to rebuild the railroads.

SHARMINI PERIES: So, Michael, lets go over some of the key points in the plan, which includes deregulation and the so-called private-public partnerships. And also, the private incentives that states and cities are supposed to offer in order to obtain matching funds. Lets take up first the issue: deregulation. What effect will this have on communities?

MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, many states and localities have blocks to prevent privatization giveaways. They want to prevent what happened in Indiana with its toll road. They say, Wait a minute. Privatization is going to be a giveaway. Its going to triple the costs of providing infrastructure services. Its going to price our cities and states out of the market if we go along with this plan. Trumps plan says that in order to qualify for public funding, states have to abolish its regulatory framework, environmental laws and restrictions on private funding.

What Trump basically said is that states and cities have to let themselves be robbed blind by the hedge funds and Wall Street. Just as the hedge funds robbed Chicago blind on the parking meters  getting a huge rate of return that probably will force Mayor Rahm out of office at the next election  local governments have to let privatizers come in and vastly increase their cost of living for the infrastructure they need.

This means that this so-called infrastructure plan would have the effect of destroying Americas competitiveness instead of contributing to it. It would vastly raise the price of the cost of living and doing business rather than making things easier for the population.

SHARMINI PERIES: Michael, the American Society of Civil Engineers agrees with you that this is inadequate in terms of funding, that the Trump plan is just not sufficient. In fact, it needs, they say, just to deal with the backlog a $4.6-trillion investment by 2025 and Trumps plan doesnt even come close. What do you make of this?

MICHAEL HUDSON: Well, to begin with, the way that Trumps plan is to be financed would triple the cost of what the engineers say, to $22 trillion. The reason is that its a Thatcherite privatization scheme. Its economic philosophy reverses the last 150 years of public infrastructure in America. In fact, its the biggest attack on industrial capitalism in over 100 years.

Americas first professor of economics at the first business school  Simon Patten, at the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School  said that public infrastructure is a fourth factor of production. But its not like labor, land, and capital, because the role of public infrastructure is not to make a profit. Its role is to provide public services that are basic for the economys living standards and capacity to produce, and to provide these at a subsidized rate. Thats how America got rich and came to dominate the world industrial economy: by publicly subsidizing its basic costs: Low-cost roads, and low-cost other infrastructure. The government bore these costs so that public infrastructure would subsidize the economy to lower the cost of doing business.

Trumps plan would vastly increase this cost, because he forces its pricing into a highly financialized and debt-pyramided marketplace. Instead of offering roads at the cost of production, for instance, hed actually triple their cost of production by insisting that it be privately financed, probably by hedge funds and bank credit that would add interest charges, capital gains charges, management fees and other overhead charges, not to mention the fines for financial fraud that goes with it. All this overhead would be factored into the prices that the new infrastructure would be required to charge its users.

Look at the Indiana Toll Road. That was done by a Trump-style private and public infrastructure. The tolls are so high  to try to pay off the hedge fund backers  a that people dont use them. They choose to use the free, slower roads. Thats the sort of is a horror story that anyone whos thinking of Trumps plan should look at.

When Trumps plan mentions water privatization, all you have to do is look at Thatchers water privatization in Britain. It has vastly increased the price of water. The water companies have been bought out by hedge funds, registered abroad by foreign owners who are opaque. Its become probably the most unpopular privatization plan of all. So that parts a disaster.

SHARMINI PERIES: Michael, another part of the plan is what is known as value capture financing in order to raise more funds. First of all, what is value capture financing? And what are its implications for states and communities that apply this principle?

MICHAEL HUDSON: Value capture financing is a wonderful idea. Its so wonderful, I dont know how it got into the plan. It recognizes that if you build transportation along a route, like New York Citys Second Avenue Subway, that transportation is going to increase the value of land and real estate all along the route. People are going to have closer access to the subways, or to roads and railroads. Many Hollywood movies in the 1930s were all about the corruption involved in building roads up to politicians houses.

The guiding idea is that in the future, if New York City were to do something like building the Second Avenue Subway for $3 billion, that this would raise the rental value. It already has raised property valuations along the subway line by $6 billion, because people now dont have to walk a mile to the overcrowded Lexington Subway.

Under Trumps plan, in order to get federal funding, cities would have to help themselves by recapturing the real estate value created by this added transportation, instead of leaving the gains in the hands of the landlords. That was what happened with the Second Avenue Subway extension, and also the West Side extension to the Javits Center. This increased real estate values all along there. Rebuilding Wall Streets luxurious subway station cost, another 3 billion.

This is the best idea of the plan, and the one thing that should be kept  which is, of course, why the Democrats dont mention it at all. Theyre backing the real estate and the financial interests. Rick Rybeck has written a wonderful article on this recently. There are a lot of followers of Henry George that love this aspect of the plan.

SHARMINI PERIES: All right, Michael, this is your opportunity to lay out a infrastructure plan that you think will work for this country.

MICHAEL HUDSON: The government would finance it, by creating its own credit in the same way that it created the $4.6 trillion to bail out the banks on Wall Street. Instead of creating money to give to Wall Street, youd spend money into the economy to build up infrastructure. And ideally, youd tax the rich for this. But now that Trump has untaxed the wealthy, the only way that you could possibly do it  under his tax giveaway to Wall Street  would be for the government simply to print the money. It would create the money as the Federal Reserve or the Treasure can easily do, and finance it all publicly to provide the basic infrastructure services at cost or freely. So, instead of tripling the cost of water, instead of tripling the cost of transportation, youd actually reduce the cost of transportation, youd reduce the cost of water, and youd still get the value recapture tax. The basic idea is to make it less expensive for the economy to produce and to live.

SHARMINI PERIES: Michael, much of this country doesnt believe that government is capable of doing this because they have been given example after example of how government bureaucratic structures arent working. And, of course, this deterioration of the civil service, it plays a big role in all of this. How do you rebuild confidence in the state structures?

MICHAEL HUDSON: You write a history of Americas success in doing this. You can look at Eisenhowers road building plan of the 1950s, for instance. You can look at the whole history of Americas infrastructure spending and the whole logic that was spelled out by Simon Patten at the Wharton School and by the economic theorists of industrial capitalism when America was really taking off in the late 19th and early 20th century. The whole history of how America built its roads, how it built the communication system, public health are examples of how governments make things work.

You can look at Germany and other successful economies. You look at what went well, but you have to look at what went wrong to see how the financial interests can take over these plans, privatize them, and somehow gut them, making them predatory instead of productive.

SHARMINI PERIES: All right, Michael. As always, great pleasure to have you on and thank you for joining us.

MICHAEL HUDSON: Thank you. Its good to be here, Sharmini.

SHARMINI PERIES: And thank you for joining us here on The Real News Network.

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====

Join the DiscussionOn Febuary14th,2012,African music legend ,2Face Idibia proposed to Annie Idibia..

Last night ,the actress took to her Instagram page to celebrate

She wrote

You Already Know I Cast A Spell On You.. lol And I Just Love The Way You Look At Me Like Am So Unreal Like Magic . Happy proposal Day 2 Us . #loveYouEternally #ForeverMine

A 12-year-old girl, Faith Nwanja, has been rescued by the Ebonyi State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development from her childless mistress who allegedly tortured, mutilated and abandoned her. Faith Nwanja, who hails from Okoffia, Ezza South Local Government Area, was brutalized by Mrs. Nkechi Bartholomew, for being too stubborn.

The Nation reports that Nkechi, who is childless, adopted Faith and took her to Onitsha, Anambra State, when she was eight. But the scars on Faiths body show that she may be a victim of inhuman treatment. Faith, yesterday, gave a graphic description of her ordeal in the hands of Nkechi.

According to her, she was always tortured with sticks, hot iron and other weapons. She added that her mistress inserts stick into her private part, chains her, and gives her food only once a day  in the evenings.

NKECHI BARTHOLOMEW, MY MADAM DISFIGURED ME LIKE THIS. I WAS A FULL-FLEDGED HUMAN BEING WHEN SHE TOOK ME TO ONITSHA, ANAMBRA STATE. SHE INSERTED HER FINGERS IN MY EYES AND INFLICTED THESE INJURIES ON THEM.

SHE USUALLY PUT STONES INSIDE MY MOUTH. I DONT NORMALLY BRUSH MY TEETH AND SINCE I CANNOT DO IT, I MUST ALWAYS SUFFER FOR IT.

THE HUSBAND HAS NEVER BEATEN ME, HE IS ALWAYS ANGRY WHEN THE WIFE TORTURES ME. AT TIMES, HE WILL SUMMON COURAGE AND QUARREL WITH THE WIFE BECAUSE SHE IS BIGGER THAN HIM.

MY MADAM WOULD LOCK ME IN A DARK ROOM AFTER BEATING ME UP. I WAS TAKEN HOME BY MY MADAMS SISTER WHO TOLD HER TO TAKE ME HOME BUT SHE REFUSED. SHE WOULD TELL ME NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO HER IF I DIE; THAT SHE WILL SPEND HER MONEY AND BE FREED IF SHE IS ARRESTED.

I WAS ATTENDING SCHOOL IN THE VILLAGE BEFORE SHE TOOK ME TO ONITSHA. BUT IN THE FOUR YEARS I SPENT IN ONITSHA, I HAVE NOT GONE TO SCHOOL ONCE. I ONLY EAT IN THE EVENING EVERY DAY.

MY MADAM WOULD INSERT STICK INTO MY PRIVATE PART, SAYING I AM STUBBORN. AFTER BEATING ME UP, SHE WILL BRING TWO GALLONS, TIE MY LEGS ON THEM AND INSERT STICK INTO MY PRIVATE PART.

THE MINISTRYS HEAD OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT GODWIN IGWE DESCRIBED FAITHS TORTURE AS INHUMAN, DEGRADING, TORTURING AND TORMENTING.

HE SAID MRS. BARTHOLOMEWS ACTIONS WERE CONTRARY TO THE 1999 CONSTITUTION AS AMENDED IN 2011.

HE SAID:

NO HUMAN BEING OR CHILD, FOR ANY REASON, SHOULD BE SUBJECTED TO INHUMAN TREATMENT. BUT THIS CHILD WAS SUBJECTED TO MORE.

THIS IS A PURE CASE OF ATTEMPTED MURDER, ATTEMPTED ANNIHILATION, SNUFFING OF LIFE AND DEBILITATING. RIGHT NOW, SHE CANNOT USE ONE OF HER HANDS, SHE IS A DISABLED PERSON. THE HEAD HAS BEEN MUTILATED, SHE HAS BEEN DISFIGURED.

The Nation newspaper reports that the suspect, Mrs. Nkechi Bartholomew is at large, but her sister who brought the victim home has been arrested.Funke Akindele is always on point to satisfy her husband, JJC Skillz, and Fans believe she is over doing it, to celebrate valentine.. Funke Akindele took to Instagram to release smashing photo shots to celebrate.

The Jenifas Diary Crooner is yet to have a child and her fans pray that the spirit of valentine and Mewu Mewu in the other room answers all her prayers in Jesus name, Amen.

Funke Akindele is one of the few actress leading a happy married life with her husband, coupled with her career as an actress which might be multi-tasking.. But her husband is not complaining He even supports her (That doesnt mean he is wrapped around her waist).. Funke is seemingly a perfect wife Material

Gunmen alleged to be armed robbers have reportedly killed two students of the Federal University, Lafia.

One of the students who was killed, had graduated with first class from the economics department and was processing his final clearance while the other was a 400 level student in the English Department.

The gunmen had stormed the students village at Mararaba-Akunza, opposite the university gate at about 10:30pm on Wednesday night and shot sporadically. The bullets hit the victims. One of them died on the spot while the other one died while being rushed to the hospital.

The remains of the two students have been deposited at the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital, Lafia. Confirming the incident, the Nasarawa State police spokesman, DSP Kennedy Idirisu, says investigations into the matter has commenced.

Source  TORIVanguard

THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, scratch cards worth N23 million, which Nassarawa State JAMB Coordinator, Labaran Tanko, said got burnt in a car accident, have been discovered used by students to register for examinations in the state.

Punch

A former governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang, on Wednesday described as a lie a report by Zuma Times (a publication in Hausa language), which reported that the ex-governor swore that the Hausa/Fulani will never rule Nigeria again.

Thisday

The Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) wednesday threatened to throw out the federal government suit accusing a Supreme Court Justice, Sylvester Nwali Ngwuta, of false declaration of his assets, if the government fails to proceed with the trial at the next adjourned date.

The Sun

An ad-hoc committee of the House of Representatives yesterday, launched a probe into alleged loss of crude oil in Nigeria worth $21billion.

Daily Times

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that the advice by the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, that former Presidents of the country should quit politics and join the retirees club will soon be applicable to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Guardian

Labour unions under the auspices of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC ) and Joint Public Service Negotiation Council (JNC) have threatened to embark on a three-day warning strike if the Kano government fails to resolve the lingering salary crisis that affects workers.

Daily Trust

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment, Senator Oluremi Tinubu (APC, Lagos), yesterday, tackled Senate President, Bukola Saraki, over Valentine dressing remark.

Tribune

The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prince Uche Secondus, said on Wednesday that the party will resist rigging in 2019 general elections.

The Nation

This was the bone of contention among senators at plenary yesterday during debate on the report of the conference committee which harmonised the grey areas to the amendments to the Electoral Act.February 15, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Queen's University Belfast is playing a central role in an international consortium that hasannounced the development of a patch delivery system which will lower the chances of infection for those at very high risk of HIV.

HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP) is when people at very high risk for HIV take HIV medicines daily to lower their chances of getting infected. PrEP can stop HIV from taking hold and spreading throughout the body.

Queen's, along with their collaborators, PATH, ViiV Healthcare, the Population Council and LTS Lohmann Therapie-Systeme AG will combine their complementary expertise to develop a novel microarray patch for HIV PrEP in preparation for future clinical trials. The consortium have been granted over $10 million by USAID for their research. USAID is the lead U.S. Government agency that provides global leadership; supports country-led efforts; and applies science, technology and innovation to support the implementation of cost-effective, sustainable and appropriately integrated HIV/AIDS interventions at scale to achieve HIV/AIDS epidemic control.

The collaborators will work with women and healthcare workers in Kenya, South Africa and Uganda to design a microarray patch product that meets their needs.

Microarray patches are a discreet, easy-to-use technology that contains tiny projections that painlessly penetrate the top layer of skin to deliver a drug. The novel high-dose patches to be developed here have been pioneered at Queen's. The projections themselves contain large amounts of HIV medications in the form of microscopic solid particles. When the projections dissolve in skin, the tiny particles release the medication over weeks and months.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates that 1.8 million people became infected with HIV in 2016, with the majority of infections occurring in young women in sub-Saharan Africa.

Consistent use of daily oral HIV PrEP can help reduce the risk of infection, but compliance can be challenging. A discreet delivery mechanism that enables self-administration of a long-acting PrEPwith the potential to protect users for weeks or months at a timecould increase consistent usage for at-risk women and others.

Professor Ryan Donnelly, from the School of Pharmacy, who is leading the project for Queen's, welcomed this major opportunity: This exciting project is very much in line with the research ethos of the University, which is centred on Global Challenges. HIV remains a global health emergency.

"By developing a risk-free delivery system that could help prevent HIV transmission, our partnership stands to change the lives of people across the world, especially those in the world's poorest countries."

The patch is should be ready for clinical trials by the end of this advanced 3-year pre-clinical programme.

Attachments

Notes to editors

Image 1: Professor Ryan Donnelly in his laboratory at Queen's University Belfast

Image 2: Gif /image of microarray patch delivery system for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) (credit to PATH/Patrick McKern)

1. Professor Ryan Donnelly, from the School of Pharmacy at Queen's University Belfast is available for interview. Bids to Sian Devlin at Queen's Communications Office on: s.devlin@qub.ac.uk or tel: 028 9097 5292.

2. For more information on the "microarray" patch, please see:

International Journal of Pharmaceutics

R.F. Donnelly, K. Moffatt, A.Z. Alkilani, E.M. Vicente-Perez, J. Barry, M.T.C. McCrudden, A.D. Woolfson

Hydrogel-forming microneedle arrays can be effectively inserted in skin by self-application: a pilot study centred on pharmacist intervention and a patient information leaflet

Pharm. Res., 31 (2014), pp. 1989-1999

Media Release

Communications Office

Queen's University Belfast

Belfast

BT7 1NN

Northern Ireland

Tel 028 9097 3091

www.qub.ac.uk/info

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Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.aspVANCOUVER, British Columbia - February 15, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) DMG Blockchain Solutions Inc. (TSX-V:DMGI) ("DMG" or the "Company"), is pleased to announced that it has secured a new customer for its bitcoin hosting business, known as "Mining-as-a-Service" ("MaaS").

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Forside is a diversified technology company listed on the JASDAQ Standard of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (Tokyo:2330).

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About DMG

DMG Blockchain Solutions Inc. is a full service diversified blockchain and cryptocurrency company that manages, operates and develops end-to-end solutions to monetize the blockchain ecosystem. DMG intends to be the global leader in bitcoin mining hosting, Mining as a Service (MaaS), bitcoin mining, forensics and diversified blockchain platform development.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Daniel Reitzik, CEO & Director

For further information please contact:

DMG Blockchain Solutions Inc.

Investor Relations: John Martin

Toll Free: 1-888-702-0258

Email: investors@dmgblockchain.com

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Direct: 778-868-6470

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking information based on current expectations. Statements about the transaction with Forside, other potential transactions, product development, customer acquisitions, events, courses of action, and the potential of the Company's technology and operations, among others, are all forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding looking wording such as "may", "expect", "estimate", "anticipate", "intend", "believe" and "continue" or the negative thereof or similar variations. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including but not limited to, business, economic and capital market conditions; the ability to manage operating expenses, which may adversely affect the Company's financial condition; the ability to remain competitive as other better financed competitors develop and release competitive products; regulatory uncertainties; access to equipment; market conditions and the demand and pricing for products; the demand and pricing of bitcoins; security threats, including a loss/theft of DMG's bitcoins; DMG's relationships with its customers, distributors and business partners; DMG's ability to successfully define, design and release new products in a timely manner that meet customers' needs; the ability to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel; competition in the industry; the impact of technology changes on the products and industry; failure to develop new and innovative products; the ability to successfully maintain and enforce our intellectual property rights and defend third-party claims of infringement of their intellectual property rights; the impact of intellectual property litigation that could materially and adversely affect the business; the ability to manage working capital; and the dependence on key personnel. DMG may not actually achieve its plans, projections, or expectations. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the demand for its products, the ability to successfully develop software, that there will be no regulation or law that will prevent the Company from operating its business, anticipated costs, the ability to achieve goals and the price of bitcoin. Given these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

The securities of DMG are considered highly speculative due to the nature of DMG's business. DMG can give no assurance that it will secure additional MaaS customers.

Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, failure to obtain regulatory approval, the continued availability of capital and financing, equipment failures, lack of supply of equipment, failure to obtain any permits required to operate the business, the impact of technology changes on the industry, competition, security threats including stolen bitcoins from DMG or its customers, consumer sentiment towards DMG's products, services and blockchain technology generally, failure to develop new and innovative products, litigation, increase in operating costs, increase in equipment and labor costs, failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations, government regulations, loss of key employees and consultants, and general economic, market or business conditions. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information.

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additionally, the Company undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made by, third parties in respect of the matters discussed above.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

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Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.aspRICHLAND, WASHINGTON - February 15, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Founder and Winemaker Josh Phelps announces the release of his second wine from his recently-launched American wine label, Grounded Wine Company, Collusion, a red blend from the Columbia Valley in Washington. Showcasing one of his favorite AVAs outside of his home state of California, Collusion harnesses the untapped potential for phenomenal Bordeaux-varietal red blends in this lesser-known growing region.

Paying further homage to the history of winemaking in the American West, Phelps worked with Felicia Chiarello and Mero Pavlovich of Gospel to develop a visual identity for the bottle that tips its hat to those who kept the American winemaking tradition alive by any means. With playful yet communicative visual effects, Collusion's didactic label pays tribute to heritage, while challenging it with a reminder of what can be learned from the past.

A wine with power, elegance and balance, Phelps debuts the 2016 vintage with the hopes of helping introduce a strong American wine region to the next generation of wine drinkers.

THE WINE:

43% Merlot, 34% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Malbec, 4% Syrah - In line with the restrained, elegant California Cabernet 'Steady State' that Phelps released this winter, Collusion is a more easygoing red blend than others of its kind. The earthy scents, clean finish, and fresh yet deep fruit flavors make this wine simple to sip on with a bowl of pretzels or pair with a potluck serving of Texas Chili.

THE DIRT:

Venturing outside of Napa terroir and California altogether for this next wine, Phelps was drawn to the cooler climates of Washington State vineyards. "I love the balance we are able to achieve with the grapes grown in the Columbia Valley," explains Phelps, "the soil there produces fruit that deliver both power and elegance in a wine." The affordable price point (SRP: $23) of Collusion is also thanks to this under-the-radar wine region, which Phelps describes as "the next frontier for American-made Bordeaux varietal blends."

THE DESIGN:

Collaborating with the Mexico City-based design team from Gospel, Phelps developed a visual identity for Collusion that expresses and embraces the deep, sometimes dark history of American winemaking with a design directive that embraces the heritage of the wine industry during Prohibition.

The story begins when America banned the production, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors in 1919 and the daring ways a few industrious wineries found to keep the wine industry alive. Stylistically, the label is made up of a balance between a dark speakeasy aesthetic, emphasized in color and tactility, and early 20th century typography typically used on printed posters and industrial wooden crates from the time.

BOUT GROUNDED WINE CO

Grounded in heritage, grounded in soil, grounded in simplicity - Grounded Wine Co.'s mission is to create wines that evoke a sense of place. Intriguing, clean, balanced, and accessible, Grounded Wine Co. produces terroir-driven wines with an emphasis on quality and experience.

Grounded Wine Co. is the personal brand of Napa native Josh Phelps, built to reflect his experience growing up in wine country, and his relationships in the wine community. A grassroots, all-American, wine label, the wines feature grapes from trusted, sustainable vineyards in the U.S. and showcase what it means to be a winemaker today.

www.groundedwineco.com

Instagram @GroundedWineCo | Twitter @GroundedWineCo

ABOUT JOSH PHELPS

Josh's roots run deep in Napa, raised in a winemaking family, he was exposed to the industry from a young age, starting his very first endeavor in the wine world, "Napa Valet", at age 15. He continued to build his knowledge of the business through college, selling wine, working the harvest and creating wine for friends with his father, Chris Phelps (of Dominus Estate). As a Napa local, his philosophies on winemaking and business are advised the luminaries of the wine world he calls his mentors and friends like Joel Gott, Kimberly Jones and Leslie Rudd, and of course, his own father.

With Grounded Wine Co., Josh hopes to build on this legacy and make his own splash in the wine world while exposing wine drinkers of his own generation to his hometown in wine country. Working with trusted farmers and childhood friends, his company reflects his deep understanding of wine, one that can only be developed growing up around the vines. He has been named to Forbes's 30 under 30 list, along with Zagat's 30 under 30 and Wine Enthusiast's 40 under 40 - though one of his proudest accomplishments is still the Eagle Scout badge he earned at the age of 18.

Instagram @joshphelps |Twitter @joshcphelps

For more information about Grounded Wine Co. please contact

Emily burniston (eburniston@baltzco.com)

or Cara McCabe (cmccabe@baltzco.com)

at Baltz & Company

BeverageStocks.com - investing ideas in food and beverage stocks including wine and beer stocks Like Beverage Stocks? View our Beverage Stocks Directory

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Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions.

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Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.aspAnother day and another bug has been discovered in iMessage which crashes the messaging app when a particular message is sent to a user. This time around, sending a Telegu character to anyone running iOS 11.2.5 on their iPhone will lead to the iMessage app crashing. Worse, the app will fail to re-open after the crash as well.

Perhaps a saving grace for iMessage this time around is the fact that other messaging apps like WhatsApp, Twitter, Outlook etc. will also crash when they receive the same Telugu character. The issue seems to be a low-level iOS one as Springboard, the home screen of iOS, will also end up crashing if the OS tries to display the said character in a notification.

In case you end up receiving a similar message and Springboard on your iPhone crashes, you should wait for it to restart and not force reboot your phone. Doing so will end up putting your iPhone in a boot loop. And if you have already received the character through a message in iMessage then the only way to get the app to work again is by deleting the said thread or asking the said recipient to send you some more messages. It is more difficult to recover third-party messaging apps like Outlook and WhatsApp from this bug unless you have web access enabled.

The bug is not present in the latest iOS 11.3 beta so Apple was clearly aware of the bug.

Our Take

With the sheer number of bugs that are being discovered in iMessage and iOS, its good that Apple decided to focus on stability and performance with iOS 12 instead of cramming as many features as possible into it. iOS has become extremely buggy in recent years, and its reliability has taken a severe hit. The lack of a bunch of new features in iOS 12 will likely disappoint many users initially but the improved performance and stability should win them over in the long term.

Update: It turns out, the bug also affects the Apple Watch and macOS. The only messaging apps immune to the bug are Telegram and Skype.

[Via The Verge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.SOUTHERN Housing Group which provides supported services for Island residents has just scooped a top national accolade.

The group has just won the Tpas Awards South Region Excellence In Engagement in Supported Housing Award at a ceremony in London on February 9.

Southern Housing Groups highly innovative CASI (Care and Supporting Independence) team offers supported housing services to over 500 residents, and supports a further 500 people through its Community Outreach, Personal Budget and Domiciliary Care team, across the Isle of Wight.

The services they offer meet a remarkable range of needs - from hostels for those with mental health issues or dealing with homelessness, to Extra Care, and residential homes for elderly people and those with learning disabilities.

The Tpas Award for Excellence in Engagement in Supported Housing recognises a provider that is successfully engaging with or involving service users.

Award winners will now go on to compete in the national final in July, in Warwickshire.

Naomi Keyte, Head of Sheltered and Care Services for Southern Housing Group, said: The key reason we engage our supported customers is to empower them and help them gain the skills they need to maximise their independence.

"The Island is a wonderful place to live but can be isolating if you live away from your family and friends. We believe everyone has the right to high quality care and support to live the life they want. An important part of this is listening to customers and helping them reach personal goals. To receive this award is a great thrill and a testament to the caring, responsive, and much-valued service we deliver to our customers.LAPPING IT UP FOR LABOR DAY The smallest yacht in a fleet of 90 boats won Conanicut Yacht Clubs flagship regatta, an 18-mile circumnavigation of the island that bears the clubs name. The Around the Island...

Ida remnants cause rampant flooding Eleven days after Tropical Storm Henri left every home in Jamestown without electricity, remnants from Hurricane Ida, which ravaged New Orleans three days earlier, flooded dozens of basements while causing...

Ceremony to remember 9/11 victims Saturday will mark two decades since Americans watched in horror as hijackers rammed jetliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a stunning act of terrorism that left nearly...Kylie Mohr covers the education and health beats. Mohr grew up in Washington and came to Wyoming via Georgetown. She loves seeing the starry night sky again.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.Mike has reported on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem's wildlife, wildlands and the agencies that manage them since 2012. A native Minnesotan, he arrived in the West to study environmental journalism at the University of Colorado.Cody Cottier covers town and state government. He grew up with a view of the Olympic Mountains, and after graduating Washington State University he traded it for a view of the Tetons. Odds are the mountains are where youll find him when not on deadline.The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] on Thursday upheld [opinion, PDF] a lower courts preliminary injunction [JURIST report] preventing enforcement of US President Donald Trumps most recent travel ban [JURIST news archive].

The appellate court concluded, based on official statements from President Trump and other executive branch officials, along with the Proclamation itself,  that the Proclamation is unconstitutionally tainted with animus toward Islam. Notably, the court focused on statements made after Trumps inauguration, finding that we need not and thus do not rely on pre-election statements in assessing the constitutionality of the Proclamation. The court rejected the governments argument that these post-election statements, including characterizing the second travel ban as a watered down version of the first order, relaying an apocryphal story about using bullets dipped in pigs blood to punish Muslim combatants in the Philippines and sharing anti-Muslim videos on twitter, do not reflect any religious animus but instead evidence the compelling secular goal of protecting national security from an amply-documented present threat.

[A]n objective observer could conclude that the Presidents repeated statements convey the primary purpose of the Proclamationto exclude Muslims from the United States. In fact, it is hard to imagine how an objective observer could come to any other conclusion when the Presidents own deputy press secretary made this connection express: he explained that President Trump tweets extremist anti-Muslim videos as part of his broader concerns about security, which he has addressed . . . with . . . the proclamation.

Nor did the addition of non-Muslim-majority countries in the third version [JURIST report] of the travel ban convince the court that no religious animus was at play.

Here, a reasonable observer could hardly swallow the claim that the addition of North Korea and Venezuela to the twice-enjoined travel ban was anything more than an attempt to cast off the unmistakable religious objective of the earlier executive orders.

Having concluded that the Proclamation was based on religious animus, the Fourth Circuit upheld the lower courts order enjoining enforcement of the ban under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment [text].

In December, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] also upheld [JURIST report] an injunction of the Proclamation issued in October [JURIST report] by the Hawaii District Court. However, the Hawaii and Ninth Circuit opinions do not directly address the Establishment Clause claims raised by the plaintiffs in that case.The Nairobi High Court on Thursday revoked lawyer Miguna Migunas deportation, declaring it illegal [Citizens TV, report] because it was issued in contempt of court.

Miguna was deported [JURIST report] to Canada earlier this month after he swore in opposition leader Raila Odinga [JURIST news archive] as the Peoples President. Cabinet Secretary for Interior and Coordination of National Government Fred Matiangi ordered Migunas deportation, alleging that Miguna relinquished Kenyan citizenship in 1988 when he applied for Canadian citizenship. Miguna was also charged with treason earlier this month after the controversial swearing in ceremony. Justice Luka Kimaru ordered Director General of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti and Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet to appear before the high court to explain why they should not be held in contempt of court for failing to produce Miguna before he was deported.

The government pushed back against the ruling, stating [press release]: in as much [sic] the government respects the courts decision; the government still holds its earlier stated view that the deportation of Mr. Miguna Miguna was procedural and done in accordance with the law. The government also argued that surrendering Migunas passport in seven days, as required by the court, is in the best interest of the country.The Dutch senate [official website, in Dutch] on Tuesday narrowly approved legislation [text, PDF, in Dutch] revising organ donor registration to make automatic registration for organ donor status the default.

Under the bill, people would have to opt-out if they wish. The Netherlands would join eight other European nations with similar policies.

All adults not currently enrolled as a donor in the Netherlands would receive two letters from the government informing them of their impending status change and how to decline enrollment if they so choose. If they do not reply after the second letter, they would be added to the donor registry. Thereafter, a person can change their status at any time.

Critics of the bill claim that it gives the government an impermissible amount of power over individuals end of life decisions. As a result, the bill passed each house of parliament by the slimmest margins: 75-74 in the lower house and 36-38 in the senate. In the Dutch system, the senate can accept or reject bills passed in the lower house but may not amend or propose legislation of its own. The bill must now be signed by the King and the health minister before becoming law.







This is part of an interview by the Communist Party of Vietnam Online Newspaper with the Ambassador, on the occasion of the traditional Lunar New Year (Tet) 2018.

Reporter: What has made you decide to stick with Vietnam so long? Could you please share something about your experience in Vietnam?

Ambassador Oleksiy Shovkoplias: Really, I've been working in Vietnam since July 2010. This is unusually long for people in my profession. But, on the one hand, this decision is not made by the Ambassador, but by the President of Ukraine, and on the other hand, I like this country, like the Vietnamese, their culture, traditions, attitudes towards other peoples and their representatives - therefore, I am absolutely happy that my mission in Vietnam lasts for seven and a half years.

As for my life experience in Vietnam, I can talk a lot, but for the most part it (experience) is related to work and its results. My work is subordinated to one goal: to do everything possible to bring Ukraine closer to Vietnam, to increase the volume of cooperation in all areas of bilateral relations. It seems to me that relations between my country and Vietnam over the past seven years have reached a new, more qualitative level.



Regular bilateral contacts are taking place at all levels, from the supreme leaders of the two states to the relations between ordinary people. The volume of bilateral trade is growing, and flows of tourists are increasing. At the same time, both parties define new, more ambitious goals for the future. Of course, like every other person, I have some time for private life. There are many friends with whom I have the pleasure to spend free time.

Reporter: How many Tets have you celebrated in Vietnam? Which Tet leaves you the most impressions and memories? And what are the memories that stand out the most?

Ambassador Oleksiy Shovkoplias: I'm celebrating my eighth Tet in Vietnam. Most of all I was struck by Tet 2011 (according to the Christian calendar) of the year. Everything was the first time for me. For the first time, I saw the bright colours of Hanoi's streets, and was impressed by Vietnamese who transported large and beautiful New Year trees on motorcycles. Then, suddenly, Hanoi became almost empty, it was a bit unusual. Everyone travelled around to their native towns to welcome the New Year's holiday with their families.



At the same time, I was pleasantly impressed by the fact that our traditions are somewhat similar, for example, in the New Year we, like Vietnamese, pay special attention to gifts for children. We do not prepare them in red envelopes, but in a beautiful little bag, or even a colourful, beautiful sock that we put under the Christmas tree. New Year's dishes are also somewhat different from everyday dinner. I am fascinated to compare our traditions and find a lot of similarities.President Tran Dai Quang and overseas Vietnamese offer incense at Kinh Thien Palace (Photo: dangcongsan.vn)

According to Ms. Dang Thi Thu Ha, in charge of the Department of Technology, Science and Economic Relations, State Commission for Overseas Vietnamese (SCOV) under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there are about 400,000 overseas Vietnamese intellectuals, including scientists and experts working in scientific research, economic management centres, finance and banking, transnational companies and international organizations. Apart from good capacity and knowledge, they have Vietnamese blood, patriotism and desire to contribute to the development of Vietnam.



Ms. Ha said that in recent years, hundreds of overseas Vietnamese intellectuals have returned to the homeland to work, participate in research and devote themselves to the nation. Additionally, they also regularly pay attention to important socio-economic issues of the country such as renewable energy, nuclear power and start-up projects.

Entrepreneur Thach Le Anh, founding member and Head of Vietnam Silicon Valley (VSV) - a project of the Ministry of Science and Technology to attract, support and invest in start-up ideas under the model of the USs Silicon technology valley, said that over the past five years of VSVs operation, overseas Vietnamese intellectuals have made many important contributions and encouraging achievements to the construction of start-up models of Vietnams science and technology in the fields of supporting to call on capital, building relations with venture investment funds and foreign investors, advising and supporting inexperienced start-up activities in Vietnam.

Start-up activities need a lot of support, not only in finance but also knowledge and experience. Overseas Vietnamese intellectuals are one important resource to build Vietnam into a start-up nation. According to experts, if Vietnam goes slowly on the way, the creative ideas and intelligence of Vietnam will be drained out to foreign countries, where the start-up ecosystem support is better.

Encouraging and mobilizing overseas Vietnamese intellectuals to contribute to the country has great potential, but it hasnt developed symmetrically. Ms. Ha said that the promulgated policies seem not to be strong enough and there is no specific and attractive remuneration frame for intellectuals living abroad. In addition, Vietnam has no information, exchange and guidance coordination system to help overseas Vietnamese intellectuals get access to creative ideas and business ideas. Moreover, the working mechanism creates uncertainties for those trying to be ready to work in Vietnam.

The biggest problem for Vietnams start-up ecosystem is capital resources and legal framework for start-up businesses and venture investment funds. This shortcoming can discourage overseas Vietnamese intellectuals, even when willing to support the development of the country's start-up problem.

To overcome remaining problems, it is necessary to change policies to invite leading scientists, experts and intellectuals with appropriate wage and remuneration mechanisms. In addition, the change in mechanism and policy towards empowering intellectuals and scientists in research, contribution and support is an important factor to create motive force for them to return to the homeland.

Furthermore, the State should give priority to start-up ecosystem development, encouraging the establishment and development of start-up and technological businesses of overseas Vietnamese people in Vietnam. This will attract high-ranking consultants with knowledge, intelligence, capital and relations, contributing to cause of building and developing the country./.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On social media, Nikolas Cruz did not appear to be a peaceful man. He made quite clear his desire to perpetrate the exact type of violence of which he now stands accused.

Before he allegedly committed one of the worst mass shootings in US history at a Parkland, Florida, high school on Wednesday, police officials say Cruz wrote social media posts so threatening he was twice reported to the FBI.

He hurled slurs at blacks and Muslims, and according to the Anti-Defamation League, had ties to white supremacists. He said he would shoot people with his AR-15 and singled out police and anti-fascist protesters as deserving of his vengeance. Just five months ago, he stated his aspiration to become a "professional school shooter."

Yet on the morning of the massacre, the family that took the 19-year-old into their home didn't notice anything terribly strange about the young man's behavior, the family's attorney said Thursday.

The only thing abnormal was that he didn't get up for his adult GED class. Normally, the father would take him to class on the way to work, but when they tried to wake Cruz up Wednesday, he said something like, "It's Valentine's Day. I don't go to school on Valentine's Day," according to the lawyer.

"They just blew it off," attorney Jim Lewis said. "This is some 19-year-old that didn't want to get up and go to school that day, and (they) left it at that."

The family took Cruz in last year after his adoptive mother died. Cruz was depressed, Lewis said. The family's son knew Cruz, so they opened their home, got him into a GED class and helped him get a job at a Dollar Tree, the lawyer said.

"He seemed to be doing better," Lewis said.

Prior to the mass shooting that left 17 adults and children dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Cruz had exchanged texts with the son, who was a student there.

Lewis characterized the texts as, "How you doing? What's going on? Yo, you coming over later?" That kind of stuff. Nothing to indicate anything bad was going to happen."

Cruz had a gun. The family knew that, but they had established rules. He had to keep it in a lockbox in his room. Cruz had the key to the lockbox, the attorney said.

"This family did what they thought was right, which was take in a troubled kid and try to help him, and that doesn't mean he can't bring his stuff into their house. They had it locked up and believed that that was going to be sufficient, that there wasn't going to be a problem. Nobody saw this kind of aggression or motive in this kid, that he would ever do anything like this," Lewis said.

Writing on the wall?

While the family didn't see any signs that Cruz might perpetrate the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook in 2012, it appears others saw worrying indicators.

Lewis, of course, mentioned Cruz suffered from depression. Cruz had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas. A former classmate said Cruz had shown him guns, and other students say they worried he was violent.

His social media posts also paint what Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel called a "very, very disturbing" picture, and the FBI says it received at least two threat reports about Cruz, according to a law enforcement official.

Israel also alluded to Cruz's mental fitness during a news conference, while Broward County Mayor Beam Furr said the teen "had been dealing with mental health issues."

"He had been undergoing some treatment. We can't go into detail on that," Furr said. "I don't know if he was exactly on law enforcement's radar, but it wasn't like there wasn't concern for him. He had not been back to the clinic for over a year, so there's been a time where he was receiving treatment and then stopped."

Lewis said Cruz was a loner and "a little quirky," and the family hosting him knew there had been some disciplinary problems and fights, but Cruz had never expressed any discontent toward his former teachers or classmates.

"He was a smaller kid and (there's) some indication there might have been some bullying going on, but again, he'd been away from the school for over a year and had never shared with them any contempt for the school or anybody here -- no anger, just a lot of depression and stuff going on around the loss of this mother," the lawyer said.

Lewis continued, "They didn't see a mentally ill person or they never would've let him live under their (roof). ... They did not see any danger. They didn't see any kind of predilection that this was going to happen and they're horrified just like everyone else."

Cruz's digital footprint

Israel said Cruz's digital profile contains troubling content that included a variety of gun- and violence-related posts on social media.

A user going by the name of Nikolas Cruz also included slurs against blacks and Muslims in his posts. The Anti-Defamation League reported Thursday that it had spoken with Jordan Jereb, believed to the be the leader of a white supremacist group called the Republic of Florida.

Jereb told the ADL, according to its report, that Cruz "had participated in one or more ROF training exercises in the Tallahassee area, carpooling with other ROF members from south Florida." Jereb added that the group had not ordered Cruz to commit an act like the school shooting, the report said.

Cruz's disturbing behavior also included several threatening comments under videos on YouTube and other sites. They include:

"I whana shoot people with my AR-15"

"I wanna die Fighting killing s**t ton of people"

"I am going to kill law enforcement one day they go after the good people."

In September, a YouTube user going by Nikolas Cruz posted a comment to a vlogger's YouTube page, saying, "Im going to be a professional school shooter." A law enforcement official confirms the FBI received a report about the post, one of two threat reports the agency received about Cruz.

On his Instagram page, Cruz posted a photo of a shotgun. In another photo he brandishes what appears to be a BB gun. In other pictures, he is covering his face with a kerchief and brandishing long knives.

Police say Cruz was armed with multiple magazines and at least one AR-15 style rifle. The suspected shooter bought the firearm in the past year and had passed the background check to make the purchase, according to a US official briefed on the investigation.

His host family knew nothing of his social media activity, Lewis said.

"They're not social media people. They're parents. They're just not that kind of folks. And he's an adult, and they tried to help him. But did they check up on him and follow him every minute of every day? They didn't, because they didn't see any of the signs that would indicate that there was anything really amiss, that he was capable of something violent," he said.

His school life

Cruz was expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for disciplinary reasons, Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said without elaborating. The teen was transferred to another school in the county because of "issues that arose," Runcie said.

Cruz usually kept to himself but "once given the opportunity, he liked to talk," said Brandon Minoff, a senior who was assigned to a group project with Cruz during sophomore year.

"He always just seemed very quiet and strange," Minoff said.

Minoff initially tried to avoid Cruz, he said, "but when I got assigned to work with him, he started talking to me."

"He told me how he got kicked out of two private schools. He was held back twice. He had aspirations to join the military. He enjoyed hunting," the high school senior said.

Cruz appears to have been involved in the high school's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program, as his name is listed under several awards in 2016, including academic achievement for maintaining an A grade in JROTC and Bs in other subjects.

He also was awarded for presenting an outstanding appearance and outstanding conduct throughout school.

His family life

Cruz was adopted by Lynda Cruz, said Kathie Blaine, her cousin. She died November 1 after battling the flu and pneumonia, Blaine said. Cruz's father had died of a heart attack more than a decade prior.

Blaine said she last saw Lynda Cruz about 20 years ago and had never met Nikolas Cruz.

"I don't understand it anymore than anyone else does. I can't believe it. I can't believe any of these school shootings," she said.

His classmate's family took him in about a week after Thanksgiving, Lewis said.

"They had a room. He really had no other options and they brought him in," he said.

As Cruz sat in Broward County Jail without bond on Thursday, charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and awaiting his first court appearance, the family continued cooperating with police, the attorney said.

"Their home is being turned inside out," Lewis said. "We were down there late talking to them, answering all the police questions, showing them phones. They opened their house up. ... This family and the son have cooperated with law enforcement every which way they can."

"They care about this kid. They took him into the home," the attorney said, "but, as the mother told me, if they had any inkling ... that this kid was capable of something like this, they never would've brought him into their home."NEAR WIMER, Ore. -- After a thorough investigation, the Jackson County District Attorney's Office says it will not file any criminal charges in the death of 13-year-old Meadow Boyd.

The district attorney's announced Thursday that there is insufficient evidence to support proof beyond a reasonable doubt that she was killed in a criminally negligent manner.

Boyd was killed at about 7:30 a.m. on October 30, 2017. It was later determined that she'd been struck by a passing motorist. Other drivers saw Boyd on the ground and applied emergency medical aid until emergency crews arrived.

The district attorney's office says Boyd's father waited with her for the school bus that morning. When he saw the bus coming, he left for work. The bus was traveling southbound, toward Rogue River. The district attorney's office say says Boyd leaned out into the road to signal the bus to stop.

The vehicle that hit her was traveling northbound, and it was dark and foggy the morning of the collision. It was also garbage collection day, so garbage cans lined the street. Boyd was slightly taller than the cans.

Police say the driver of that vehicle came to the Jackson County Sheriff's office in tears. He said he'd heard the news about Boyd's death, and thought he may have struck her. He was pulling a camper, which had a jack stand on each corner. They hung down and protruded about six to 12 inches from the side of the truck. This is what investigators believe hit Boyd. The driver said at the time, he thought he hit a garbage can. He said the fog in addition to line of cars coming toward him was blinding.

Detectives found fibers from Meadow's clothing on the front passenger side jack stand on the camper. Investigators say the driver was not intoxicated, and he was not using his phone around the time of the crash. They also said speed was not a factor in Boyd's death.

The Jackson County Sheriff's Department, Medford Police, Ashland Police, Central Point Police, and the Oregon State police all contributed to this investigation.GRANTS PASS, Ore.  Police are looking for help from the public in locating a felon, Christopher Williams, 33. Williams has been spotted previously in Grants Pass, Cave Junction, and Happy Camp, Calif.

Williams is about 5' 11" and 185 pounds, with brown eyes and dark brown hair. He is easily recognizable by a tattoo on the front of his neck, which reads "Danielle" in a cursive-type script. A recent photo shows Williams wearing a red bandana around his neck, covering the tattoo.

Oregon State Police (OSP) say that Williams has a felony warrant for parole violation. They ask that anyone with information regarding Williams or his whereabouts call OSP dispatch or 911 immediately.A $3 Happy Meal is advertised at a McDonald's restaurant in Brandon, Miss., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. McDonaldAos will soon banish cheeseburgers and chocolate milk from its Happy Meal menu in an effort to cut down on the calories, sodium, saturated fat and sugar that kids consume at its restaurants. Diners can still ask specifically for cheeseburgers or chocolate milk with the kidAos meal, but the fast-food company said that not listing them will reduce how often theyAore ordered. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)This Facebook photo shows The Formans in happier times. Jacob Daniel Forman is charged in the December 2017 second-degree murders of his wife, Clara, and their two daughters, Yesenia and Karina. The accused appeared in Kelowna court via video on Thursday where he entered no plea and the case was adjourned for another month.Mayor Colin Basran delivered an upbeat state of the city address last month to the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce. But greater Kelowna's population growth is now below the national average, Statistics Canada says.Visitors pass through security as they attend Federal Court for a hearing to determine whether deportation proceedings should be halted for Abdoul Abdi, the former child refugee, in Halifax on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. The federal government wants to send Abdi back to Somalia because of his criminal history and his lack of Canadian citizenship. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew VaughanMarie Henein, criminal defence lawyer for CBC Radio host Jian Ghomeshi, stands in an elevator while arriving at court in Toronto on Thursday, February 26, 2015. Criminal lawyer Henein is speaking out on the recent MeToo movement for the first time tonight, calling it "a necessary social awakening." THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren CalabreseA student mourns the loss of her friend during a community vigil at Pine Trails Park, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, in Parkland, Fla., for the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)Florida Gov. Rick Scott gestures as he speaks during a news conference near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where a former student is suspected of killing at least 17 people Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. The shooting at a South Florida high school sent students rushing into the streets as SWAT team members swarmed in and locked down the building. Police were warning that the shooter was still at large even as ambulances converged on the scene and emergency workers appeared to be treating those possibly wounded. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)FILE - In this April 26, 2014, file photo, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, addresses a crowd during the Utah Republican Party nominating convention in Sandy, Utah. Mitt Romney plans to announce his Utah Senate campaign Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. Three people with direct knowledge of the plan, say Romney will formally launch his campaign in a video. The 70-year-old Republican is seeking to replace Hatch, who is retiring after more than 40 years in the U.S. Senate. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)South African President Jacob Zuma addresses the nation and the media at the government's Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. The ruling African National Congress has told Zuma to resign by the end of Wednesday after rejecting his request to stay in office for several more months. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)FILE - In this Oct. 29 2002, file photo, Mark Wellstone, son of U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone eulogizes his father during a public memorial service in Minneapolis for Wellstone, his wife, daughter and three staff members who died Oct. 25, in a plane crash in Eveleth, Minn. Wellstone Action, the campaign organization dedicated to their father's legacy, told Mark Wellstone and his brother David, on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, that they will be voted off its governing board in the coming days. (AP Photo/ Paul Sancya, File)JOSEPHINE COUNTY, Ore. -- Oregon State Police need help finding a wanted felon who they believe is in southern Oregon.

They said Christopher Williams has an active felony warrant for a parole violation.

Williams is 33-years-old. He stands 5-foot 11-inches tall and weighs 185 pounds. Troopers said he has brown eyes and dark brown hair and the name "Danielle" tattooed on the front of his neck.

Troopers said he frequents Cave Junction and Grants Pass, Oregon. He also spends times in Happy Camp, California.

Officials said if you see him do not contact him, instead contact Oregon State Police.EUGENE, Ore. -- One of Eugene Police Department's K9s is making a name for itself after helping catch two suspects just this month alone.

K9 Cwyk is a two-year-old German shepherd who has been on the force since late November.

The dog has accomplished a lot since he joined the force. On Feb. 7, Cwyk was able to help police arrest a burglary suspect in west Eugene.

Cwyk made another capture earlier this month, when officers responded to an assault along Highway 99. Police said the suspect took off running when he saw police, and Cwyk was able to pick his scent and find the suspect hiding in the bushes.

The K9's partner, officer Rob Griesel, said Cwyks skills play a valuable role for their department.

"His primary function is tracking and trailing, following scent to a source, Griesel said. Whether that's a person hiding, person who has fled or a missing person who has wondered off, or a lost item, discarded gun, or knife for something that's used in a crime. Those are kind of his area of expertise in finding."

Griesel said Cwyk will continue to serve and protect the community for years to come.CLEAR LAKE, Iowa - Three motorized vehicles have fallen through the ice in Clear Lake just in the last week, now the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is giving you tips to keep yourself safe.

Despite the DNR saying there is anywhere from 14-20 inches of ice on Clear Lake right now, Paul Skibbe, of Clear Lake, worries for those looking to venture out on the frozen lake.

It looks like it is getting softer and stuff like that, and I dont want them to fall through the ice and drowned, he said.

Those with the DNR say people should watch for pressure spots on the ice, which form mostly near the shore areas.

They say that just because a spot of ice was safe an hour ago doesnt mean it is later on, adding ice is always changing so watch your surroundings.

As far as the "Color the Wind Kite Festival" this weekend, organizers tell KIMT the safety director went out on the lake and drilled holes to determine the safety for kite flyers and the public. The ice in that area runs from 12-20 inches thick, which means it is safe for vehicles and people.FOREST CITY, Iowa  Charges of burglary and assault have been dropped against a Winnebago County man after he comes up with an iron clad alibi.

21-year-old Terell Romell Wilson of Forest City was arrested in December 2017. A man told Forest City police he saw Wilson and another man going through some cars along Oakridge Drive on August 20, 2017. The man says he yelled at them to stop and Wilson hit him in the jaw.

Police say the mans jaw was broken and had to be wired shut for six to eight weeks.

Charges of 2nd degree burglary and assault were filed against Wilson but his defense attorney presented statements, pictures and bank information which proved Wilson was working at Naked City Pizza in Cashman Stadium in Las Vegas on August 20, 2017. The Winnebago County Attorneys Office then asked for the charges to be dismissed.FOREST CITY, Iowa  A charge of 3rd degree sex abuse has been dropped against a Lake Mills man.

41-year-old Justin Everett Larsen was accused in July 2017 of sexually assaulting a woman at a Lake Mills home. The woman told authorities Larsen raped her twice.

Larsen pleaded not guilty and now the charge against him has been dismissed. The Winnebago County Attorneys Office says it was extremely difficult to contact the woman who accused Larsen as the case proceeded, with no response to multiple letters and phone calls, and now they cannot locate her at all.

Therefore, the case against Larsen has been dismissed and the state will pay all court costs.ST. PAUL, Minn.  Three finalists have been named in the search for the next president of Rochester Community and Technical College.

Jeffery Boyd, Utpal Goswami, and Charles Nwankwo were selected by a search committee comprised of students, faculty, staff, and community leaders. They are scheduled to visit the RCTC campus between February 20 and February 22.

Jeffery Boyd has served Tidewater Community College in Virginia as the provost of the Norfolk campus since 2014. He has also worked at Elgin Community College in Illinois from 2006 to 2014, the Quad County Urban League in 2005, Olivet Nazarene University in Illinois from 2003 to 2004, and Waubonsee Community College in Illinoise from 2001 to 2003. He will be at the RCTC camps on February 22.

Utpal Goswami has served as president of MCC-Maple Woods, a campus of the Metropolitan Community College district in Missouri since 2013. Previously, he was at the College of the Redwoods in California from 2010 to 2013, Yavapai College in Arizona from 2006 to 2010, St. Louis Community College-Meramec in Missouri from 2001 to 2006, and Schreiner University from 1987 to 2001. His campus visit is set for February 21.

Charles Nwankwo has served Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Arizona since 2014 in several capacities including his current roles as interim vice president of Academic Affairs and vice president of Information Technology & Media Services/CIO. His past workplaces include SOWELA Technical Community College in Louisiana from 2008 to 2014, and the Houston Community College System from 1995 to 2008. He will visit RCTC on February 20.

The Board of Trustees of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities is expected to act on Interim Chancellor Devinder Malhotras recommendation of a final candidate at its March 21 meeting. The new president is expected to begin in July 2018.ROCK DELL TOWNSHIP, Minn.  A rollover accident injured one person Thursday morning in Olmsted County.

It happened just before 9 am near mile marker 213 on Highway 30. 22-year-old Jessica Jean Larson of Stewartville was driving west and trying to pass another vehicle when she lost control and rolled, coming to a stop in the ditch.

Larson suffered what the Minnesota State Patrol calls a non-life threatening injury and was taken to St. Marys Hospital. The State Patrol says she was wearing her seat belt.

Hayfield fire and ambulance and the sheriffs offices in Olmsted and Dodge County assisted at the scene.

The State Patrol says road conditions were wet at the time of the accident.ROCHESTER, Minn.  A pickup truck collided with an SUV in Rochester Wednesday.

The Minnesota State Patrol says 21-year-old Shane Jeffrey Cords of Rochester was driving a 2005 Chevy Silverado west on Highway 14 and tried to turn south onto the Highway 52 ramp. 62-year-old Steven Charles Hopkins of Stewartville was eastbound on Highway 14 in a 2016 Chevy Equinox and they crashed in the eastbound lanes.

The State Patrol says Cords failed to yield the right of way.

Cords suffered what is described as a non-life threatening injury and was taken to St. Marys Hospital. Hopkins was not harmed. Both were wearing their seatbelts.

The Rochester Police Department assisted at the scene of this accident, which happened just after 3 pm.ROCHESTER, Minn.  A woman with an extensive criminal history has been arrested again.

Rochester police say they spotted 41-year-old Angela Mae Clemens driving in the area of 20th Street and South Broadway Avenue on Wednesday. Officers followed her and say they saw her go through mailboxes in the 200 block of 18th Street SW and the 700 block of Forest Hills Drive SW.

Clemens was stopped along Woodlake Drive SE and police say they found open packages in her car with other addresses on them.

She is facing three to four new counts of felony mail theft. Police say there six pending criminal cases against Clemens and shes a suspect in 15 more.

For previous stories about Angela Clemens, click here and here.CLEAR LAKE, Iowa - Fifty years ago Bob Steenlage, a graduate of Britt High School, was serving in Vietnam.

After high school, Steenlage went to West Point Military Academy to wrestle (he was a four-time state champion in high school) and to later serve his country. After graduating from West Point and airborne and ranger school, he went to Vietnam from 1967 to 1968. Steenlage talked to veterans this week in Britt, along with students at West Hancock schools, about his experience serving in Vietnam and his latest adventure - going back.

He went back for kids, his wife and himself. Steenlage says he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and is working through it. He says meeting those in Vietnam who served has really helped that, hearing them say they never should have been in war, either.

The pain was great but the things I learned, the lessons I learned, I never would have learned any other way. It was a worthwhile experience and it was my destiny. I like helping people, Steenlage said.

Steenlage says once he got back from his trip and he was telling other veterans about it, they pushed for him to share his story with others.(Adds details on forecasts)

* Dec core machinery orders -11.9 pct m/m vs forecast -2.3 pct

* Jan-March core machinery orders seen +0.6 pct

* Data casts doubt on outlook for capital investment

By Stanley White

TOKYO, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Japan's core machinery orders tumbled in December and companies expect orders to rise only marginally in January-March, raising concerns that recent gains in capital expenditure will start to peter out.

The 11.9 percent decline in core orders in December was more than the median estimate of a 2.3 percent fall and follows a 5.7 percent increase in November.

The machinery orders come a day after gross domestic product data for October-December showed capital expenditure had risen for five consecutive quarters and suggest this run of gains may not continue.

Companies surveyed by the Cabinet Office forecast that core orders, which exclude those for ships and from electric power utilities, said they expect orders to rise only 0.6 percent in January-March after a 0.1 percent decrease in October-December.

Orders from manufacturers tumbled 13.3 percent month-on-month in December, after a 0.2 percent decline in the previous month because of reduced orders from makers of metals and manufacturing equipment.

Non-manufacturers' orders fell 7.3 percent, following a 9.8 percent gain in November due to declines in orders from retailers and wholesalers.

For January-March, manufacturers expect their orders to fall 5.7 percent, while non-manufacturers expect their orders to rise 7.4 percent.

Since taking office in late 2012, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has used tax breaks and other incentives to encourage more domestic capital investment.

Companies were slow to respond, at first, but in recent years several indicators have shown consistent gains in capital expenditure.

Some companies are also spending on technology to deal with chronic labour shortages caused by Japan's shrinking and rapidly ageing population.

(Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Eric Meijer)(Adds details)

MONROVIA, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Liberia's new President George Weah has ordered a review of concessions entered into by previous administrations, the presidency said in a statement on Wednesday.

Concessions generally cover government grants of rights, land or property.

The statement said a committee would "review and ensure that all contracts entered into by the government of Liberia and concessionaires are executed according to agreed principles in accordance with the laws of Liberia."

The nine-member panel will also determine if the government's partners in those agreements had been fully implemented and met their performance requirements.

During the 12-year rule of Weah's predecessor, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the government attracted around $15 billion in foreign investment, according to a finance ministry report.

However, the West African nation has been criticised by watchdog groups for signing away much of its public land to logging, palm oil and natural rubber companies.

Sirleaf's government sought to develop iron ore deposits and the offshore oil sector.

(Reporting by Alphonso Toweh; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Sandra Maler and Cynthia Osterman)* Jan NODX +13.0 pct y/y, -0.3 pct m/m sadj

* Petrochemicals: +11.3 pct y/y, Electronics: -3.9 pct y/y

By Fathin Ungku

SINGAPORE, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Singapore's annual exports in January surged despite another decline in electronics shipments, thanks to a welcome jump in sales of petrochemical products.

Non-oil domestic exports (NDOX) rose 13.0 percent in January year-on-year, data from the trade agency International Enterprise Singapore showed on Thursday, accelerating from the 3.1 percent rise the month before.

That bettered the 9.0 percent increase predicted by economists in a Reuters poll. Shipments of petrochemical products - a sector known to be volatile - was up 11.3 percent in January after contracting 0.6 percent the month before.

"Examining the breakdown confirms our view on Singapore that growth is broadening," Continuum Economics analyst Jeff Ng said.

The global exports boom has benefited Singapore and other trade-dependent Asian economies in the past year, particularly for makers of electronics products and components such as semiconductors.

However, recent data has shown a cooling in demand, particularly for the city state's tech products which were hit in December and declined again last month.

On Wednesday, Singapore announced that its economic growth in 2017 had hit a 3-year high, but cautioned of moderating momentum this year due to slackening shipments. On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, exports contracted 0.3 percent in January after declining a revised 1.9 percent in December. Expectations centered on a 3.6 percent expansion for last month.

Electronics exports contracted 3.9 percent year-on-year in January after the 5.3 decline the month earlier, while overall sales to China bounced with a 3.3 percent rise from the year before.

"The decline in electronics is a reality that we have to adjust to," said OCBC economist Selena Ling.

"Going forward, electronics momentum looks like it's going to be decelerating."

(Reporting by Fathin Ungku Editing by Shri Navaratnam)Feb 15 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index was little changed on Thursday as gains in the financial sector and shares of TransCanada Corp were tempered by a decline in resource companies.

* At 10:20 a.m. EST (1520 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index edged up 4.79 points, or 0.03 percent, at 15,333.06.

* TransCanada was the biggest advancer on the index, rising 3.7 percent to C$55.64, after its fourth-quarter profit beat expectations due to lower costs and an expansion of gas lines. * The financials group also helped support the market, gaining 0.5 percent as Toronto-Dominion Bank rose 0.6 percent to C$72.74, while Royal Bank of Canada advanced 0.4 percent to C$100.86.

* On the downside, Barrick Gold Corp declined 3.0 percent to C$16.64 after the world's biggest gold producer, forecast an output drop over the next four years. * Barrick helped weigh on the materials sector , which retreated 0.7 percent.

* Investors were also taking in a slew of Canadian corporate earnings, while global markets rose. * Bombardier jumped 8.8 percent to C$3.58 after an improvement in sales and margins in its rail division helped its quarterly profit beat estimates. * Late on Wednesday, an independent U.S. trade body said it had rejected hefty U.S. duties on Bombardier's CSeries jets partly because Boeing lost no sales or revenue when Delta Air Lines ordered the aircraft in 2016 from the Canadian planemaker. * Shopify weighed on the index, down 1.8 percent at C$168.4 after the company reported fourth-quarter results and guidance. * The TSX posted 11 new 52-week highs and 6 new lows. Across all Canadian issues there were 14 new 52-week highs and 15 new lows. Volume on the index was 47.64 million shares.

(Reporting by Leah Schnurr in Ottawa; Editing by Bernadette Baum)ZAGREB, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Croatia will offer 1.3 billion kuna ($218.13 million) worth of treasury bills at an auction next week, the Finance Ministry said on Thursday.

On Feb. 20, the ministry will again offer one-year paper which has been the only paper offered in several recent auctions as well. Occasionally the ministry also offers bills of three-month and six-month maturities as well as those denominated in euros.

At this week's auction the ministry raised more bills than was the target, with yield flat. The benchmark overnight rate on the local money market was quoted at 0.31 percent on Thursday, and the one-year rate at 0.55 percent . Daily market rates change at 0900 GMT. ($1 = 5.9598 kuna)

(Reporting by Igor Ilic; Editing by Jon Boyle)FRANKFURT, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Mortgage lending rules in the Netherlands may need to be tightened as high household debt endangers the country's financial health, a European Central Bank director said on Thursday.

"There might be a need for more active macroprudential policy," Sabine Lautenchslaeger, the ECB board member in charge of bank oversight, told a conference in Amsterdam. "And by this I mean a tightening of existing borrower-based measures."

She added a high ratio between the value of mortgage and that of the property "poses a risk to financial stability".

(Reporting By Francesco Canepa; Editing by Balazs Koranyi)* Euro zone finance ministers to pick candidate next week

* Parliament's opinion not binding

* ECB role is first piece in puzzle of EU jobs to fill by end-2019

BRUSSELS, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The economic committee of the European Parliament sees Irish central bank governor Philip Lane as a stronger candidate for the post of European Central Bank vice president than Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos, its chairman said on Thursday.

European Union leaders will consider the candidate put forward by euro zone finance ministers, who are set to formally endorse Lane or de Guindos next Tuesday.

The parliament, like the ECB, has only a consultative role in the process and its recommendations are not binding. Current ECB executive board member Yves Mersch was appointed in 2012 despite a negative opinion from the parliament.

The parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs had an informal hearing with the two on Wednesday.

"The majority of the political groups considered Governor Lane's performance more convincing. Some groups expressed reservations for Minister De Guindos's appointment," the committee's chairman Roberto Gualtieri said in a statement.

Two arguments against de Guindos are that he has no experience in central banking and is an active politician. That could cast doubt over his independence in dealing with macroprudential policy and financial stability, which are part of the remit of the ECB vice president.

"Luis de Guindos is also a threat to the independence of the ECB. As a long-standing member of the Eurogroup, de Guindos cannot carry out the new office independently," said Sven Giegold, the spokesman for economic and financial affairs for the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament.

"Lane has shown himself to be a distinguished and proven economist, De Guindos, on the other hand, as a politician who would like to be a top job at the ECB," Giegold said.

Many senior euro zone officials have told Reuters de Guindos was more likely to get the job, while Lane could be chosen to succeed ECB chief economist Peter Praet next year.

The appointment is also seen as part of a larger puzzle of top jobs in the EU that will have to be filled by the end of 2019, including that of ECB president Mario Draghi.

France would like Draghi's job to go to its own central bank governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau while some see the likely appointment of de Guindos as boosting the chance of a German rather than French candidate to lead the ECB.

A French government source said on Thursday France would "most likely" support de Guindos. French President Emmanuel Macron's office declined to comment.

Euro zone ministers pick a candidate on Monday, with a formal vote on Tuesday when they are joined by non-euro zone EU finance ministers. The candidate then has a hearing with the parliament's committee and the ECB is asked for an opinion.

The term of current vice president Vitor Constancio expires at the end of May.

(Reporting By Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Hugh Lawson)JAKARTA, Feb 15 (Reuters) - * Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara (AMNT), a copper mining unit of Medco Energi Internasional , has exported 593,806 wet metric tonnes of copper concentrate in year ending Feb. 16, a company official said. * Amman has requested extension of copper concentrate exports from Indonesia, as the permit is due to expire on Friday, AMNT Senior Government Relations Manager Potro Soeprapto told Reuters via text message. * Earlier, a mining ministry official said Amman had not requested an extension. (Reporting by Wilda Asmarini; Writing by Fergus Jensen, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.JAKARTA, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Indonesia's central kept its policy rate unchanged on Thursday as expected, as it looks to maintain stability in the country's financial markets following an unexpected spike in global volatility.

Bank Indonesia (BI) kept its seven-day reverse repurchase rate at 4.25 percent for the fifth policy meeting.

Governor Agus Martowardojo told reporters that previous monetary easing was sufficient to support the economy.

The central bank had cut the rate 25 basis points in August and again in September in a bid to boost lending and economic growth, both times confounding market expectations that it would keep policy settings unchanged.

The deposit facility and lending facility rate were also kept unchanged at 3.50 percent and 5.00 percent, respectively.

All 23 analysts in a Reuters poll had predicted no change in the benchmark rate. Announcement date Rate 15-Feb-2018 4.25 18-Jan-2018 4.25 14-Dec-2017 4.25 16-Nov-2017 4.25 19-Oct-2017 4.25 22-Sep-2017 4.25 22-Aug-2017 4.50 20-Jul-2017 4.75 15-Jun-2017 4.75 18-May-2017 4.75 20-Apr-2017 4.75 16-Mar-2017 4.75 16-Feb-2017 4.75 19-Jan-2017 4.75 (Reporting by Nilufar Rizki and Maikel Jefriando; Writing by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Kim Coghill)TOKYO, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Japanese government bond prices were little changed on Thursday, as tight supplies due to the central bank's massive bond purchase helped offset some of the negative impact from rising bond yields.

The 10-year JGB yield stood flat at 0.060 percent , the low end of its range in the past month. The price of the benchmark 10-year JGB futures gained 0.05 point to 150.68.

The market was supported by Bank of Japan's bond-buying programme as it purchased more than 7 trillion yen ($65.8 billion) of JGBs every month.

The BOJ bought a total of 1.03 trillion yen JGBs on Thursday, maintaining the amount of its purchase in three categories based on maturity, over one- to three-years, three- to five-years and five- to 10-years.

Its buying in 5-10 year bonds attracted selling of 1.3328 trillion yen, less than two previous operations in the same maturities, highlighting limited selling interests.

The 20-year yield was flat at 0.560 percent , while the 30-year yield ticked up 0.5 basis point to 0.790 percent , after hitting a three-month low of 0.785 percent on Wednesday.

The five-year yield was steady at minus 0.095 percent .

($1 = 106.46 yen)

(Reporting by Tokyo Markets Team; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)DUBAI, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The global market environment is positive for Gulf stock markets on Thursday although mostly lacklustre corporate earnings in the region may limit any strength in stocks.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan is up 1.3 percent after a similar rise by Wall Street overnight, and Brent oil has recovered a little of its big losses in recent weeks, trading at $64.84 per barrel.

Corporate earnings, however, are largely mediocre. Dubai's Union Properties reported an annual net loss of 2.38 billion dirhams ($649 million) compared to a year-earlier profit of 211.4 million dirhams; the figures imply a fourth-quarter loss of roughly 90 million dirhams.

United Arab Emirates telecommunications firm Etisalat reported a 12 percent fall in fourth-quarter profit to 1.97 billion dirhams, according to Reuters calculations; SICO Bahrain had forecast 2.21 billion dirhams.

However, Abu Dhabi's Aldar Properties proposed a 12 fils per share dividend for 2017, up from 11 fils in 2016.

And in Kuwait, Burgan Bank may attract some interest after recommending a 7 percent cash dividend and 5 percent bonus share dividend; for 2016, it had paid a 5 percent cash dividend and 5 percent bonus shares.

(Reporting by Andrew Torchia)OSLO, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The Norwegian central bank will offer an F-loan for February 15-20, it said on Thursday. The deadline for bids is Thursday at 1555 CET.

(Reporting by Oslo newsroom)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.By Huw Jones

PARIS, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Paris is now neck-and-neck with Frankfurt in the race to lure jobs from the City of London financial district ahead of Britain's exit from the European Union, a senior French financial sector official said on Thursday.

The German financial capital was seen as leading the pack since since Britain's 2016 vote to leave the bloc in March next year, triggering contingency planning by banks, insurers and asset managers in London who need an EU base after Brexit.

Banks have been applying for licences in Frankfurt, home of their suprvisor, the European Central Bank, the euro zone's single most powerful institution.

But Arnaud de Bresson, chief executive of Paris Europlace, which promotes the French capital as a destination for financial businesses, says that Paris has now caught up with its German rival.

"Paris, since last October, has seen stronger growth due to new announcements from financial firms," de Bresson told Reuters.

Up to 4,000 job moves to Paris have been announced by companies including HSBC , Bank of America Merrill Lynch , Citi and JPMorgan , as well as asset managers, he said.

"We are now at the same level as Frankfurt and more than other centres," de Bresson said.

There has been no independent verification by a neutral third party of total job numbers in Brexit-related moves to Frankfurt or Paris.

Lobbyists and banking executives have also said that potential for a softer Brexit is discouraging immediate action, meaning that the two cities could receive a trickle rather than a wave of London bankers in 2018. An expected transition period before Brexit, which will expire in 2020, could also give Paris the chance to catch up with Frankfurt, which had been the most popular among banks looking for an EU base.

SHRINKING PROJECTIONS

Frankfurt's chief promoter, Hubertus Vaeth, had expected up to 6,000 new arrivals in Germany's financial capital this year in the event of a hard Brexit. Vaeth recently said he has now pared back that assessment to less than 1,000.

Initially, Deutsche Bank had signalled it could move up to 4,000 jobs from its large London operation to Frankfurt, but this has now been scaled back to a few hundred -- initially at least.

The EU's surprise decision to choose Paris as the new home for its EBA banking watchdog, currently based in London, was also a bonus for the city. The bloc's securities watchdog ESMA is already located in Paris and the EU has proposed giving it more powers.

"We believe the big decisions are still in front of us. This figure is just a milestone in the road," de Bresson said.

More significant "rebalancing", or job moves from London to Paris, is in the pipeline, he added, citing an expected acceleration of demand for licences with the market authorities but declining to name specific companies.

De Bresson sees the combination of Brexit and the "political revolution" of labour and tax reforms from business-friendly President Emmanuel Macron as helping to attract firms.

The City of London and bankers, meanwhile, have cautioned that talk of a "Brexodus" is wrong and that companies will only move what they are required to do so by continental regulators to obtain a licence.

The Bank of England, which has said it was plausible that 10,000 financial jobs could move from Britain to the EU by Brexit Day, maintains that London is the banker for Europe.

De Bresson said that Paris is looking to replicate some of the services provided from London by focusing on attracting capital market operations such as private placements, commercial paper and corporate bond issuance as companies turn to markets rather than banks for funding.

(Reporting by Huw Jones; Additional reporting by John O'Donnell; Editing by David Goodman)MANILA, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The Philippine central bank said on Thursday it was reducing banks' reserve requirement ratio by 1 percentage point, saying it will support its shift towards a more market-based implementation of its policy.

The cut will bring the amount of reserves banks need to park with the central bank to 19 percent. It will take effect on March 2.

"In deciding to reduce the reserve requirement ratios, the Monetary Board reaffirms the (Philippine central bank's) commitment to gradually lessen its reliance on reserve requirements for managing liquidity in the financial system," it said in a statement.

The central bank had previously flagged a plan to eventually reduce the reserve requirement ratio, one of the highest in the region, as it reduces its reliance on this tool to manage liquidity. It said the move should not be mistaken as a change in monetary policy.

(Reporting by Manolo Serapio Jr.; Editing by Kim Coghill)Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Thursday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 1 hour):

DATA

Poland's statistics office to release January CPI data at 0900 GMT.

CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

Construction companies suffer from labour force shortages on the market and industry representatives call for changes in regulations that would make the employment of foreign workers easier, Gazeta Wyborcza daily said.

TAMAR RESOURCES

Britain's Tamar Resources plans to reopen Poland's coking coal mine Krupinski, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna said quoting Tamar's boss and owner George Roggers.

The paper also said that Poland's energy ministry might be sceptical about the plan due to Tamar's relations with Russian Nornikiel.

ARCELORMITTAL Polish coal mines failed to deliver around 900,000 tonnes of coal to ArcelorMittal Polish plants in 2017, which forced the company to import coal to fill the gap, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna daily quoted ArcelorMittal Poland CEO as saying.

EMPLOYEE CAPITAL PLAN

Poland's finance ministry will present on Thursday details of a new pension scheme, called the employee capital plan, that is designed to boost Poles' savings, Parkiet daily said.

WIND FARMS

Poland's pro-coal government is considering conducting auctions to support wind farms, after a series of regulations that hit the renewables business, Rzeczpospolita daily said quoting sources from the energy ministry.

****Reuters has not verified stories reported by Polish media and does not vouch for their accuracy.****

For other related news, double click on: Polish equities E.Europe equities Polish money Polish debt Eastern Europe All emerging markets Hot stocks Stock markets Market debt news Forex news For real-time index quotes, double click on: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX ($1 = 3.3831 zlotys)

(Reporting by Warsaw Bureau; Editing by Adrian Croft)BUCHAREST, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Romania's finance ministry rejected all bids at a tender to sell 400 million lei ($107.02 million) worth of June 2023 treasury bonds on Thursday, central bank data showed. It said the issue of undersubscribed, with bids totalling 277.4 million lei. So far this year, the finance ministry has sold roughly 5.1 billion lei worth of domestic debt and has tapped 2.0 billion euros from foreign markets in 2028 and 2030 Eurobonds. ($1 = 3.7377 lei)

(Reporting by Radu Marinas)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.* SALIC says Iraq on list of investment opportunities

* Iraq showcased agricultural land in donor conference

* Nineveh province Iraq's most productive farming region

By Maha El Dahan

DUBAI, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC) is looking at more farmland investment opportunities and has its neighbour Iraq on the list.

SALIC, an arm of the country's Public Investment Fund (PIF), said it was also looking to expand its investments in the Black Sea region, which already includes 46,000 hectares of land in western Ukraine.

"We are considering many opportunities and Iraq is definitely on the list," newly appointed Managing Director Khaled al-Aboodi told Reuters.

Iraq on Wednesday received pledges of $30 billion, mostly in credit facilities and investment from allies after a major donor conference in Kuwait. Amongst the opportunities on display for investors during the event were 4 million dunums (400,000 hectares) of agricultural land, Hameed al-Nayef, Iraqi agriculture ministry spokesman said.

"Agricultural land that will be offered is across Iraq and investors should choose what crops to grow but we are giving priority to strategic crops like wheat, barley, corn, sesame and rice," he said.

The mechanism for investment in Iraqi farmland and terms will be up for negotiations with interested firms.

Aboodi said SALIC was not at the Kuwait conference but that, "as time goes by we will look more closely," at Iraqi farmland.

Saudi Arabia began scaling back its domestic wheat-growing programme in 2008, planning to rely completely on imports by 2016 to save water.

SALIC's agricultural investments include farmland, grain silos and terminals, as part of Saudi Arabia's food security drive.

Iraq, itself a major wheat and rice importer, has seen its most fertile province, Nineveh, lose production of strategic crops after Islamic State took over.

Iraq declared victory over Islamic State in December, having taken back all territory the militants captured in 2014 and 2015.

Industry sources said there were investment opportunities in Mosul and some western areas close to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.

SALIC also said it was looking to grow its investments in the Black Sea region. "The Black Sea is a strategic place to look at given the attractive farming conditions and proximity to Saudi," Aboodi said.

In October, SALIC set up a 5 billion riyal ($1.3 billion) joint venture with UAE agricultural firm Al Dahra to invest in the 10 countries across the Black Sea region.

(Reporting By Maha El Dahan; additional reporting by Moayed Kenany in Baghdad. Editing by Jane Merriman)MADRID, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Spain sold 4.5 billion euros ($5.62 billion) of debt at a triple bond auction on Thursday, with yields rising slightly from previous sales.

The Treasury had aimed to sell between 4 billion and 5 billion euros of three papers due 2022, 2028 and 2033.

The shortest-dated bond on offer, due Oct. 31, 2022, sold 0.63 billion euros for 0.385 percent and with demand at 4.6. That compared to a previous average yield of 0.324 percent and bid-to-cover of 3.6.

The April 30, 2028 bond with a 1.40 percent coupon sold 1.96 billion euros at an average yield of 1.580 percent and a bid-to-cover of 2.5. A previous bond also due in 2028, but with a 5.15 percent coupon, in September sold for 1.691 percent and with demand at 2.5.

The longest-dated, July 30, 2033 bond, sold 1.91 billion euros at 2.110 percent and with demand outstripping supply by 1.9 after selling for 2.098 percent in January and with demand at 1.5.

(Reporting by Angus Berwick; Editing by Julien Toyer)STOCKHOLM, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Sweden's central bank bought 1 billion crowns ($125.98 million)of government bonds in a reverse auction as part of its quantitative easing programme, it said on Thursday. It bought 500 million crowns of 2025 bonds at an average yield of 0.582 percent and the same amount of 2028 bonds at 0.963 percent. Investors offered to sell the Riksbank 1.2 billion crowns and 2.05 billion crowns in the two bonds respectively. Source text for Eikon: ($1 = 7.9380 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Daniel Dickson; editing by Johannes Hellstrom)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

PRAGUE, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Following are results of Thursday's auction of 13-week Czech Treasury bills compared with the previous sale of bills with the same maturity. AUCTION DATE 15/02/18 08/02/18 YIELD (PCT) 0.400 0.400 SOLD IN AUCTION (BLN CZK) 30.843 7.650 incl.FINMIN RETAINED (BLN) 0.000 0.000 INVESTOR DEMAND (BLN) 33.743 11.955 TOTAL VOLUME (BLN) 0.00-5.00 0.00-5.00 AUCTION OFFER (BLN) 0.00-5.00 0.00-5.00 CORRESPONDING PRIBOR (PCT) 0.90 0.91 KEY POLICY RATE (PCT) 0.75 0.75

(Reporting by Mirka Krufova; Editing by Jan Lopatka)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.BUDAPEST, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Hungary sold 80 billion forints ($320.63 million) worth of government bonds at an auction on Thursday, 15 billion forints more than planned, the Government Debt Management Agency (AKK) said . Series: A210421C Issue status: Auction data: AUCTION DATE 15/02/2018 01/02/2018 TOTAL BIDS (bln HUF) 29.46 40.8 ALLOTTED (bln HUF) 25.00 25.00 AVERAGE YIELD (pct) 0.90 0.86 Series: A221026B Issue status: Auction data: AUCTION DATE 15/02/2018 01/02/2018 TOTAL BIDS (bln HUF) 71.10 43.25 ALLOTTED (bln HUF) 33.00 30.00 AVERAGE YIELD (pct) 1.42 1.34 Series: A271027A Issue status: Auction data: AUCTION DATE 15/02/2018 18/01/2018 TOTAL BIDS (bln HUF) 58.07 54.03 ALLOTTED (bln HUF) 22.00 28.00 AVERAGE YIELD (pct) 2.50 1.93 ($1 = 249.5100 forints)

(Reporting by Gergely Szakacs)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.Editor's Note: Updating earlier story to include more details from report, prices.

(Kitco News) - Gold prices moved little after initial weekly U.S. jobless claims climbed by 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted 230,000 in the week to Saturday, according to a Thursday Labor Department report.

Consensus expectations compiled by various news organizations called for initial claims to be around 230,000. The government revised the prior weeks tally to 223,000 claims from the previously reported 221,000.

Shortly after the 8:30 a.m. EST data on jobless claims and a stronger-than-expected report on the Producer Price Index, Comex April gold was trading down 0.21% for the day to $1,355.40 an ounce. Around four minutes ahead of the report, the metal was at $1,354.10.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average for new claims  often viewed as a more reliable measure of the labor market since it smoothens out week-to-week volatility  was up by 3,500 claims to 228,500.

Continuing jobless claims, the number of people already receiving benefits and reported with a one-week delay, increased by 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1,942,000 during the week ending Feb. 3, the government said. The four-week moving average fell by 5,750 to 1,941,250.

Claims-taking procedures in Puerto Rico and in the Virgin Islands have still not returned to normal, following storms last year, the government said.

Traders monitor jobs data closely to gauge how aggressively the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee alters monetary policy.(Adds quotes, details)

VERONA, Italy, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Italy's largest coffee group Lavazza does not plan to go public for the time being and is still busy integrating the four companies bought in the last three years, its vice president said.

"Before thinking to new acquisitions we have to consolidate what we have done last year," Marco Lavazza said.

Lavazza's acquisition spree has sharply increased its scale in recent years, so that revenue in 2016 was up 30 percent to 1.9 billion euros ($2.4 billion) on the year before, reflecting the purchase of French coffee brand Carte Noire and Denmark's Merrild.

Last year the family-owned group bought Canadian organic coffee firm Kicking Horse and Italy's coffee pod firm Nims.

Despite recent growth the company remains well behind sector leaders Nestle , JAB Holdings and Starbucks and in recent months there was speculation the Italian group could turn to the stock market to help accelerate its expansion.

"It is certainly an advantage for us not to be listed and remain independent ... at this stage the market is absolutely not our priority," the vice-president said, though not ruling out the option completely.

He added that the group was solid and had enough liquidity to stand on its own two feet.

Lavazza added that the group expected sales to rise this year but conceded it would be hard for it to gain more ground in Italy, where the company has a market share of almost 50 percent. Just over 60 percent of group sales are abroad. ($1 = 0.8008 euros)

(Reporting by Riccardo Bastianello; Writing by Francesca Landini; Editing by David Holmes)(Adds finance minister's comment, background, releads)

SOCHI, Russia, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The Russian finance ministry continues to work on a potential issue of yuan-denominated OFZ bonds although it was not guaranteed to go ahead, finance minister Anton Siluanov said on Thursday.

Russia has long planned to issue OFZ bonds in yuan as one means of protecting itself against a possible extension of U.S. sanctions. In November, the ministry held a non-deal roadshow in Hong Kong to pitch the instrument to Asian investors. Siluanov's deputy, Sergei Storchak, was earlier quoted as saying by TASS news agency that the ministry had postponed plans to issue OFZ bonds in yuan. "We have not postponed. We continue to work as we were working. It is not a fact that we will do this but we are working (on the deal)," Siluanov said later on Thursday.

The share of foreign investors with holdings of Russian treasury bonds, known as OFZs, increased to 33.1 percent as of Jan. 1 from 32.1 percent a month earlier. In August, U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law a new package of sanctions drafted by U.S. lawmakers.

One of the provisions asked the U.S. Treasury Secretary to submit a report on the impact of expanding sanctions to cover Russian sovereign debt. However, earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury Department said that expanding sanctions on Russia to include new sovereign debt would have "negative spillover effects" on global financial markets and businesses.

Russia has said in the past it planned to raise the equivalent of $1 billion in yuan through the OFZs.

(Reporting by Katya Golubkova and Darya Korsunskaya; Editing by Toby Chopra)* RDIF says Russian banks interested in Saudi Aramco IPO

* Investors from Middle East and Japan have bought into Transneft

* Novatek and Saudi Aramco in discussions over LNG project

(Releads on Saudi Aramco IPO, writes through)

By Darya Korsunskaya and Polina Nikolskaya

SOCHI, Russia, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has pledged to set up a "significant" pool of investors for the potential $100 billion initial public offering (IPO) by Saudi Arabian state oil major Aramco, it said on Thursday.

The sovereign wealth fund's head, Kirill Dmitriev, who has previously said that Russian pension funds were considering participation in the Saudi Aramco IPO, said he expects widespread interest from the Russian financial sector. "We see a great interest from the Russian banks, from Russian investment banks and other Russian investors," he said on the sidelines of a conference in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

"That's why we believe that we will be able to set up a significant consortium for these investments."

Dmitriev added that the fund has been working with Chinese investors to facilitate their participation in the IPO, which could become the world's biggest, valuing Saudi Aramco at up to $2 trillion and raising more than $100 billion.

Sources told Reuters last year that Chinese state oil companies were willing to become cornerstone investors in the IPO.

Relations between Russia and Saudi Arabia, the world's two biggest oil producers, have been flourishing against the backdrop of a successful OPEC-led oil production pact.

Dmitriev said that RDIF and its partners from the Middle East, Asia and Japan have bought a "significant" amount of preferred shares in Russian state oil pipeline monopoly Transneft .

NOVATEK

Earlier on Thursday Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Russia's largest non-state natural gas producer Novatek and Saudi Aramco have signed a memorandum on cooperation.

Novak and Dmitriev headed a Russian delegation in Saudi Arabia this week.

The minister also said that Novatek and Saudi Aramco have been in discussion over the Arctic LNG-2 project, which aims to start producing liquefied natural gas from 2022-2023, and that an agreement could be signed this year at an economic forum in St Petersburg.

Vedomosti daily reported on Thursday that Saudi Aramco has been in talks with Novatek about a stake in Arctic LNG-2 and possible purchases of gas from the project, citing unnamed sources.

A Novatek spokesman declined to comment.

(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya and Polina Nikolskaya; Writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Katya Golubkova and David Goodman)US should be willing to enter into unconditional talks with NK'



By Kim Jae-kyoung



South Korean President Moon Jae-in should make it clear that North Korea should place denuclearization on the agenda if it really wants an inter-Korean summit, according to a former high-ranking U.S. diplomat.



He said that without raising the issue, the summit will be just an empty meeting jeopardizing relations between South Korea and the United States, and other allies.



"The proposed summit could improve inter-Korean relations," Joseph DeTrani, a former U.S. special envoy for the six-party talks with North Korea, said in an interview.



"Certainly, those bilateral humanitarian issues, like reuniting separated families, could be discussed and, with progress, help improve relations," he added.



However, DeTrani, who helped broker a 2005 agreement on North Korea's nuclear program, stressed that talk about denuclearization must be at the top of the agenda.



"Ideally, Moon will make it clear to Pyongyang that he would also want to discuss the core nuclear issues that have soured North Korea's relations with South Korea and others," said DeTrani.



"Indeed, a summit without any discussion of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula would be very unfortunate," he said. "It would be a message to North Korea that eventually they will be accepted as a nuclear weapons state."



His advice came after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un invited President Moon to visit Pyongyang through his younger sister, Kim Yo-jong, who visited South Korea last weekend as part of the North's high-level delegation to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.



Moon refused to immediately accept the offer, calling for efforts "to create the necessary conditions."



DeTrani, currently a professor at Missouri State University's Graduate Department of Defense and Strategic Studies in Fairfax, Virginia, said that the invitation was aimed at relieving sanctions and sowing the division between Seoul and Washington.



He pointed out that Pyongyang's charm offensive using the Winter Games came after the young North Korean leader raised tensions with a series of nuclear and missile tests over the past years in the face of continued sanctions.



"Sanctions are hurting North Korea and joint military exercises are becoming more intense, a powerful deterrence message to Pyongyang," he said.



"Participating in the Olympics could, ideally, relieve some of this pressure on North Korea. It could also possibly engender tension between South Korea and the U.S., a long term goal of North Korea."



He expects that a summit that will deal with inter-Korean humanitarian and nuclear issues could result in follow-on multiparty discussions with North Korea, similar to the 2005 six-party talks process that committed North Korea to complete verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of its active nuclear weapons programs.



Regarding U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's statement that Washington would be open to possible talks, he said, "My view is that the U.S. should be willing to enter into unconditional discussions with North Korea."



But in order for that to happen, he said, "During these discussions North Korea will refrain from missile launches and nuclear tests."



The veteran negotiator called on Moon to be resolute and continue to work closely with the U.S. in pushing his engagement strategy while not damaging bilateral relations.



"Be open to discussions with the North, but they should be principled discussions, dealing not only with inter-Korea bilateral humanitarian issues, but also with the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," he said.



By Kim Se-jeong



Naturalized male citizens may be subject to the country's mandatory military service.



The government said Tuesday it will begin discussion this year on whether to oblige foreign nationals who acquire Korean citizenship to serve in the military as all able-bodied men here have to.



Currently, military service for naturalized Koreans is voluntary. Adding naturalized Koreans to the pool of mandatory military service is expected to fill the gap caused by the decreasing number of native born Koreans.



The announcement was part of new government policy plans for foreigners covering the next five years.

Starting this year, the government will toughen requirements for permanent residence visa applicants and require permanent residents to renew their visa every 10 years.



The government will also expand the tax delinquency screening system to all 34 immigration offices so foreigners will not get their visa renewed if they have delinquent tax payments. Currently, the screening takes place at 18 immigration offices.



The administration will discuss requiring inbound travelers from visa-waiver countries to apply online for travel permission before their departure in order to prevent smuggling.



The new plans will also bolster human rights protections for marriage immigrants and temporary workers.



The government will make guidelines for temporary workers' minimum living conditions and distribute them to employers. For violators, the government will put restrictions on them when hiring additional temporary workers. Currently, employers who wish to hire temporary foreign workers are required either to make a request or report to the government. Much has been written and reported about poor working conditions of temporary workers.



The government will revise the law so employers with a record of sexual violence cannot hire foreign workers.



To help marriage migrants who suffer domestic abuse, the government will open a one-stop comprehensive help center in 2019.



It will also increase the number of shelters for such women and loosen their requirements for entry. As of last year, 26 such shelters were up and running across the country and the government projects to open 12 more by the end of this year.



The government will expand housing support for abused spouses and start to provide financial support as well.



It will resume dispatching a special official to Vietnam _ where most marriage migrants come from _ to handle marriage fraud. This was suspended in 2016.















By Oh Young-jin







Six in 10 South Koreans favored holding an inter-Korean summit, a recent opinion poll showed.







The survey of 500 people by pollster Realmeter for tbs radio Wednesday showed 61.5 percent approved of the summit as a starting point for establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula.







Another 31.5 percent backed the view that pressure and sanctions should be given a priority so opposed the summit. "Don't know" responses accounted for 7.3 percent.







North Korean leader Kim Jong-un proposed a summit to President Moon Jae-in through his sister and special envoy Kim Yo-jong who made a surprise visit to attend the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Olympic Games.







Moon gave his conditional consent to the proposal, taking into consideration U.S. President Donald Trump's tough stance on the North. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence even refused to exchange greetings with North Korean delegates at the PyeongChang opening ceremony.







The two Koreas have held two summits so far _ the first in 2000 and the second in 2007.







Meanwhile, Moon's approval rating dropped 0.4 percentage points on a week-to-week comparison to 63.1 percent in a survey early this week.





By Oh Young-jin







President Moon Jae-in staged a charm offensive to Chinese people by sending them his Lunar New Year greetings.







It was broadcast on China's state-run CCTV Thursday morning.







Moon started with a seasonal greeting in Chinese and said he conveyed warm New Year greetings from the Korean people.







Moon used the Chinese word for money given to children for the start of the New Year, wishing them a good new start.







He explained Korea's similar tradition.







He introduced the ongoing PyeongChang Olympics, saying he believed the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics would be a success.







It is rare, if not unprecedented, that a Korean leader has directly conveyed seasonal greetings to China.





Moon made a state visit to China in December.







China is Korea's biggest trading partner and as the only benefactor to North Korea could exert great influence on Pyongyang to separate it from nuclear weapons and missiles.







He also offered his greetings to Koreans as well.





















A video on YouTube refutes NBC's recent praise of Japanese occupation of Korea during its coverage of the Feb. 9 opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. Seo Kyoung-duk, a professor and a PR expert, produced the two-minute video and transmitted it to foreign media outlets. Yonhap



Koreans angered by foreign media's Olympic coverage



Some incorrect reports on Korea by overseas media outlets have spilled cold water on the Olympic mood.



The most disastrous among such reports was made by U.S. broadcaster NBC during the Feb. 9 opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, when one of its commentators glossed over Japan's occupation of Korea.



NBC's Joshua Cooper Ramo noticed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in attendance and described Japan as a "country which occupied Korea from 1910 to 1945." This part is correct but what followed infuriated Koreans. "Every Korean will tell you that Japan as a cultural and technological and economic example has been so important to their own transformation."



Many Koreans are still angry, although the network apologized after the PyeongChang organizing committee lodged a complaint and removed Ramo from Olympic assignments.



It is absolutely untrue that "every Korean" has a positive assessment of the Japanese colonial period. Since the former NBC analyst has not met "every Korean," the claim is not only baseless, but shows an obvious lack of knowledge of the historical dispute between Korea and Japan.



Koreans are still overwhelmingly negative about the Japanese occupation, during which some Korean women were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army. The so-called comfort women remain among the thorniest bilateral issues.



An analyst for a broadcast network does not have to be a history expert, but a quick check on Korea's background would have been enough to prevent such a grave insult against the Olympic host.



NBC also identified PyeongChang as being in North Korea during the opening ceremony in one of its captions.



British daily The Times' Feb. 10 edition carries a caption which suggests that Korea raised controversy by using a flag with an island that is "owned by Japan." YonhapKendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy in the afternoon. High near 75F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low 53F. Winds light and variable.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.A member of Ryanair board Juliusz Komorek has confirmed plans earlier announced by Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan to launch flights from Ukraine in autumn 2018.

"This is a real date. I hope this would happen," he said in an interview with Poland's Fly4free publication, adding that changes would be made to the routes announced last year.

Earlier Omelyan said that Ukraine in the final stage of negotiations with Ireland's low cost airline Ryanair.

As reported, on July 10, 2017, Ryanair announced the cancellation of its planned flights to Ukraine after Boryspil airport had violated the agreement achieved at the Infrastructure Ministry with the airport officials and its incumbent CEO Pavlo Riabikin in March 2017.

Two days later, on July 12, 2017, after a special meeting with the leadership of the Infrastructure Ministry, the Justice Ministry, Boryspil airport, the Airports of Ukraine Association, and the Ukraine Investment Promotion Office, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman instructed the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine to evaluate the negotiation process on Ryanair flights to Ukraine and stated the need to resume these negotiations.The first Ukrainian contest of biomedical startups MBioS Challenge has been launched in Ukraine, the finalists of which will be able to present their works in London at the annual conference of the Ukrainian Medical Association of the UK (UMAUK).

Coordinator of the National Council for Innovation Development Alla Oliynyk said at a press conference on Wednesday said that the contest is not limited to any specific areas in the field of medical technologies. The organizers will consider startups at the level of finished products and at the level of prototypes and ideas.

At the same time, she said that special attention will be paid to projects following the world trends in the field of medical technologies.

"Particularly [projects] in the context of world trends in which medicine is moving are interesting: it is personalized medicine, point delivery of medicines and many other things. If we are talking about those technologies that can be applied in Ukraine, where we have many experts, of course, we are talking about blockchain technologies, artificial intelligence, the Internet of things, the recognition of images of augmented reality, the technologies on the basis of which the world today is building its understanding of medicine," Oliynyk said.

In turn, Head of the organizing committee of iForum Oleksandr Olshansky said, commenting on the possibilities of using blockchain technology in medicine, that it provides the opportunity of storing any data on medical manipulations, cutting off the possibility of their modification.

"From the point of view of medicine, this, of course, is an important thing, since blockchain allows you to create non-qualified sources of data," he said.

Head of the House of Innovations Oleksandr Kulvanovsky said that those who wish to take part in the contest should fill out a questionnaire on the website of the organization, as well as present a video clip that reveals the essence of the project. Submission of applications for participation in the contest lasts until March 23. After the deadline for their admission, the jury, which will include professionals in the field of medicine, biology, as well as representatives of business and venture funds, will consider projects from 23 March through 23 April and assess their commercial outlook. The participants of the contest will be consulted by lawyers and certified patent attorneys.

The final of the contest will be held in the forum of Internet figures iForum on April 25.

"The winners - we assume 10 teams - will go to London. The UMAUK holds an annual conference. In the second half of the conference, they arrange a pitch deck and invite investors," Kulvanovsky said.

The contest was organized by the House of Innovations jointly with UMAUK, Borsch Ventures, with the support of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine.The International Monetary Fund (IMF), as before, has no time frames for the arrival of the mission to Ukraine as part of the fourth revision of the EFF program, IMF Spokesperson Gerry Rice has said.

"I can indeed confirm that at the request of the Ukrainian authorities, there is a small staff team from the IMF in Kyiv to discuss some technical aspects of the reforms agreed under the program, including the draft legislation on the Anti-Corruption Court. That mission is scheduled to be completed tomorrow. The timing of the next review mission is not yet decided," he said at a briefing in Washington.

As reported, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in an interview with Bloomberg in Davos expressed hope that approximately by April the IMF mission will visit Kyiv, after which Ukraine will be able to receive the next tranche from the IMF.

Head of the Council of the National Bank of Ukraine Bohdan Danylyshyn, in turn, noted the IMF mission will approximately arrive in Kyiv in mid-February.Rome, February 15 - European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said Thursday that the European Union's 3%-deficit-to-GDP-ratio limit must be respect while it is in force, while stressing that this does not mean the rule is unchangeable. "The 3% limit is a rule that should be respected," Tajani told Radio Anch'io. "That said, rules can be changed too. It's not a taboo". Tajani is a member of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI) and the media billionaire has said the EP president could be a good premier if the centre right wins the March 4 general election. "I think that Italy should count for more in Europe after the upcoming elections, it should be more present and make its voice heard," Tajani said. "We cannot just be extras. Unfortunately, Italy is not one of the major players in Europe".Rome, February 15 - The election manifesto of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, recently presented with a solemn pledge by leader Luigi Di Maio, vows to scrap 400 "useless" laws to free up the Italian economy as well as pleasing voters by reforming an unpopular 2011 pension reform and teachers by reversing former centre-left premier Matteo Renzi's 'Good School' education reform. But the key plank of the manifesto is introducing a basic income, to ge given to all Italians and called 'a citizenship wage'. Di Maio says the law will cost some two billion euros, although the M5S's opponents say it is likely to be much more expensive. "This is one of our key pledges, and it will help pay for itself by the way it will ramp up the economy, as people spend more," Di Maio says. In order to implement the law, the M5S aims to revamp job centres to "really make supply and demand meet up" and introduce a Danish-style flexisecurity to help people back into jobs by retraining. "There will be continuous training for those who lose their jobs," Di Maio says. "With flexisecurity," the manifesto says, "companies are more competitive and people emerge from a condition of poverty". In another boost to the economy, the M5S plan to set up a public investment bank "for small companies, farmers and families". Taxes will also be cut to give the economy "the shot in the arm it needs," Di Maio says. The M5S also bids to do away with wasteful political spending and 'the costs of politics' in a vow Di Maio says "will restore 50 billion euros to Italian citizens". Despite a recent salary repayment scandal, the M5S styles itself as cleaner and more transparent alternative to what it views as corrupt traditional parties, and Di Maio has vowed to "make that difference ever clearer by driving through our manifesto". The M5S says it will scrap so-called 'golden pensions, parliamentary pensions, and "useless" political costs On the hot-button issue of migrants, where rightwing parties have vowed to deport all illegal migrants, the M5S instead says it wants to do away with "the business" linked to illegal immigration. Instead of ejecting all migrants, Di Maio says the party will implement "immediate repatriation" for all new irregular migrants coming to Italy's shores. The M5S also aims to set up commissions all over Italy to assess "within one month" whether migrants are entitled to stay in Italy or not. In order to boost security, where fears have been stoked by what other parties call a migrant "invasion", the M5S aims to hire 10,000 police officers and build two new prisons "to make citizens feel safer and give them a better impression that law and order are being respected," Di Maio says. The manifesto also promises a "relentless" fight against corruption, mafias and conflicts of interest, including employing undercover agents against organised crime groups, banning the corrupt from public life, and stiffening vote-buying penalties. Di Maio also says the M5S "will cut the length of trials" in Italy's snail-paced justice system, and provide "a certainty of punishment" to stop so many cases being timed out. The M5S will also "overcome", rather than outright ban, the 2011 Fornero pension reform which raises the retirement age to 67 by 2019. So-called 'heavy' jobs will be excluded from the reform and there will be a slow process of phasing in the pension age rise, while there will be a 'woman's option' and a 'quota 41' rule for calculating pensions. They programme also aims to "overcome" the Good School reform by using a "rational" hiring system tailored to schools' needs, boosting spending on education, and "abolishing precarious employment". In other points, the manifesto aims to: - Raise minimum pensions to 780 euros - Spend 17 billion euros on helping families with children - Safeguard families' savings - Make Italian energy 100% renewable - Create a 'smart nation' with new tech jobs - Cut taxes and boost the quality of life - Reduce the debt7GDP ratio by 40 points in 10 years - Valorise and safeguard what is 'made in Italy' The M5S is currently the top party in opinion polls, with about 28%, but is unlikely to win an outright majority. Di Maio has said he would like to see other "parties of good will" rally behind the manifesto, allowing the M5S to govern.Ukraine has come close to the completion of negotiations on mutual recognition of documents and visa-free regime with the Republic of Korea following a visit of the delegation of the Interior Ministry, which ended on Tuesday, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said.

"During a brief visit to Seoul, the delegation of the Interior Ministry managed to discuss a number of key cooperation issues. At a meeting with the interior minister, the general commissioner of police, the head of the Presidential Council, we did our work to conclude negotiations on the package on the mutual recognition of personal documents of citizens, driving licenses and visa-free regime for citizens of Ukraine," Avakov wrote on his Facebook page on Wednesday.

At the same time, he noted "high motivation and interest of the Korean side in cooperation with Ukraine", including in the industrial and technical areas, space programs, infrastructure and agricultural projects.

According to Avakov, on Thursday the Interior Ministry, together with the Foreign Ministry, held a coordination meeting of the services on the implementation of the agreements reached.

"Do we need a visa-free travel with the 11th economy of the world? The question is rhetorical! I am very glad that we managed to come close to an agreement on this issue... We will do our best so that in a short while each of you reading these lines should have an opportunity to learn this first hand - by using the visa-free travel with South Korea for business or travel purposes," Avakov added.Rome, February 15 - Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi on Thursday slammed Industry Minister Carlo Calenda for "promising one billion euros for Rome" ahead of national elections to be held on March 4. "I am surprised, although not that much, that two weeks before the vote one billion (euros) are again promised to Rome after five years during which the government absolutely forgot about the capital", said the mayor, a member of the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement (M5S). Raggi was commenting a letter written by Calenda which was published by Rome daily Il Messaggero. "If that billion existed, we would have put it in the budget - in the budget I can include neither words nor promises", she also said. The minister's letter published by the newspaper accused the Raggi administration of "immobility" and "lack of ability" to get things done, which did not allow it to "use resources that have already been allocated" for the city. Calenda was referring to a 'table for Rome', a development plan for the capital he launched last year, which was at the center of multiple controversies between the mayor and the minister.Macerata, February 15 - Italian police on Thursday arrested four people in connection with almost 1,000 kg of marijuana found on a Marche beach last summer. The 915 kg of weed, contained in around 30 packages, washed up at the mouth of the River Chienti in Porto Recanati on June 29, after falling off a yacht moored off the Marche resort. The drugs had a street value of over five million euros, police said.LAHAINA  The Island Gents-Gentlemen By Choice (IG-GBC) curriculum is a proven success on the West Side.

As a matter of fact, the GBC Community Development Corp. nonprofit has been on the fast track since it was founded on the Mainland in 2013, with multi-chapters now installed in Nevada, Washington and Hawaii.

Its co-founder, Richard Jack, a transplant from Las Vegas, landed on Maui in 2015, joining the Princess Nahienaena Elementary School staff as one of its two counselors. With the support of then-principal Lynn Kahoohalahala, the first on-island IG-GBC course opened its doors on campus that same year.

A retired Air Force man on a mission, Jack had goals  to see chapters installed at schools from the top of Lahainaluna Road down to Front Street.

It didnt take long for the concept to catch on and progress up the hill to Lahainaluna High School, offering the boarders a seven-week leadership development course at the start of the school year in 2017.

Not a person to rest on his laurels or anything, Jacks vision is all-inclusive, and the Island Gents program has expanded to Lahaina Intermediate School with lessons commencing Feb. 22 for 12 weeks on Thursdays from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.

The course, open to 25 middle school age young men, focuses on Leadership, Image, Financial Management and Etiquette (L.I.F.E.) training.

According to the GBC website (mailto:info@gentlementbychoicecdc.com>info@gentlementbychoicecdc.com), These basic L.I.F.E. skills are essential for proper growth and development and are aligned with the organizations classroom to boardroom philosophy.

The premise of the program is that you have to set the example of what you want these students to become by being professional gentlemen, Jack explained.

To this end, volunteers from the community join Jack in the classroom as experts in their fields.

Born on Oahu, Brandon J. Maeda has served as The Westin Complex director of food & beverage for the past three-and-a-half years. He is an Island Gent mentor, and The Westin is a benefactor.

He is a devoted advocate of Jacks mission along with his philanthropic employer.

This program allows professionals in the community to connect with our local youth at a critical age when we can make a lasting impression on their future. We hope to serve as positive role models for them and instill values and skills that will help them to be successful contributing members of the community as they grow in to young adults.

I assist, Maeda continued, with speaking to the students about dining etiquette and other developmental topics, and we host a lunch at The Westin Kaanapali Ocean Resort Villas and The Westin Nanea Ocean Villas for the students to practice their etiquette skills and training.

Lee Otaguro is director of human resources at the Sheraton Maui.

Sheraton Maui, Otaguro said, hosts the annual Black Tie Gala for the GBC program at the end of each year. Sheraton Maui has also sent guest speakers to speak to the gentlemen in the program about various topics, including leadership, accountability and attitude.

I think any school for any grade level would benefit from this program, Otaguro observed. Unfortunately, there arent enough people like Mr. Richard Jack to go around. Ive seen Mr. Richard Jack have a tremendous impact on kids ranging from fourth grade through high school. He truly has an impact that you can clearly see. I think Lahaina Intermediate is incredibly fortunate to have this program at their school.

Otaguro is not only a mentor-speaker-favorite fan  he also serves on the GBC Maui Chapter Advisory Board along with Maeda; Jeri Dean, Lahainaluna High School vice principal; Annette Davis, Kaanapali Ocean Resorts Complex human resources director; Lei Gonzales, human resources director the Hyatt Regency Maui; and Angie Berkey, Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua human resources director.

Jacks peers also support the enrichment training.

Lindsay Ball is the Department of Education complex area superintendent for Hana, Lahaina, Lanai and Molokai.

Gentlemen by Choice after school program at LIS will allow students to be exposed to positive roles, Ball said. Gentlemen by Choice is a good character education, helping students understand their responsibilities, how to conduct themselves in appropriate ways to interact with others.

LIS Principal Stacy Bookland is of like mind: Students that are selected for this program will have the opportunity to experience much more than the academic education. They will have the opportunity to improve self-image and work with positive role models in our own backyard. They will get a taste of financial management and etiquette skills. This program provides valuable life skills to help set our Lahaina keiki up for success.

Bookland was more specific.

I believe in this program, because I have witnessed firsthand the positive effects with the young men and women. Those students who had the opportunity at Princess Nahienaena Elementary School are now our Sons and Daughters (LIS vision statement).

Middle school students, Bookland added, are experiencing their second largest growth spurt. They are learning who they are and (what they) want to become as adults, so this is the key time to offer such a program.

Otaguro left the Lahaina News with this impression, a quote from W. Hodding Carter II, a Pulitzer Prize winner born in 1907: There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots; the other, wings.

With the support from the IG-GBC opportunity, educators, mentors, community members and local businesses, our keiki have been given a flying start.

Jack is seeking like-minded, community-driven support. He has dreams: I would like to see this program grow from the high school all the way down to King Kamehameha III Elementary School.

In addition to people visiting our Facebook page Island Ladies/Gentlemen, they can also reach me directly at Richard.Jack@gentlemenbychoice.org, he concluded.LAHAINA  The 2018 Maui Plein Air Painting Invitational coming up on Feb. 17-25 is focusing on three educational offerings for the public.

Jean Stern, associate director of the University of California, Irvine, Museum and Art Institute of California, will present the lecture Artists of Influence.

Stern was director of the Irvine Museum, where his collected works of the California Impressionists was first officially recognized as a 20th century genre. His talk will focus on the specific design and expression innovations that define the works of master artists.

The lecture is free and open to the public from 7 to 8 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 19, in the Pioneer Inn Courtyard. An exclusive group of original mini paintings depicting a variety of subjects and styles will be offered in a silent auction.

The following weekend, Feb. 24-25, Maui Arts League will conduct two free forums that are geared to answer common questions about fine art as a profession.

On Saturday afternoon from 3 to 4 p.m., four professional artists will explain how their careers started and developed. Discussion facilitator Kim von Tempsky, formerly senior vice president of Lahaina Galleries, will give the audience ample time to ask questions.

Maui art students, new artists and art lovers will enjoy hearing about the inspiration and perspiration required to become a successful artist and the benefits of following your muse.

The Careers in Art panelists are Ronaldo Macedo, Mary Pettis, Patrick Saunders and Leon Holmes.

Macedo grew up in Rio de Janeiro and studied illustration at Cal State Long Beach. His quiet manner does not hint at the varied experiences that influenced his art. Take advantage of this rare opportunity to hear his story.

Pettis is a classically trained artist who spent many years in the studio mastering classical techniques of layering and glazing with oils, often spending weeks perfecting one painting. One day, she stepped into the big studio of the outdoors, which spoke to her soul.

Saunders didnt start out as an oil painter. First, he worked as a musician, illustrator, designer, animator, educator and entrepreneur. He said he does not believe in talent, but diligence. Hear more about his career in his own words.

Holmes, of Perth, Australia, attended an art trade school and then a three-year program in illustration and advertising. After working in advertising at a prestigious agency, he found his passion for painting outdoors. He will teach an adult workshop on how to depict light during this years Maui Plein Air event.

On Sunday, Feb. 25, another panel will convene to discuss how fine art benefits our community. The panelists are not artists, but their careers are connected to art.

The Benefits of Art panelists are John Inskeep III, Rae Takemoto, Neida Bangerter and Patricia White.

Inskeep, of Maui and Portland, Oregon, is a collector and lover of fine art. He enjoys visiting museums and galleries, and attending art events to broaden his appreciation of fine art. Retirement allows Inskeep and his wife to spend more time appreciating the benefits of owning art.

Takemoto is the arts integration coordinator at Pomaika?i Elementary School in Kahului. This public school offers children a whole school arts integration curriculum as defined by the Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA) Program developed by the Kennedy Center.

Bangerter is the gallery director at Schaefer International Gallery at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Since 1995, she has directed many on-loan exhibitions. Her displays include various art forms, from traditional painting, sculpture and photography to Hawaiian traditional handicrafts like kapa printing, weaving, Japanese bamboo and paper art, and hula compositions.

White is a marriage and family therapist in Lahaina who uses art therapy to promote healing in certain clients who have trouble expressing their emotions. She will discuss the rationale behind this powerful counseling tool and a national initiative to create a certified career field in art therapy.

In addition to these educational events, Maui Arts League and Maui No Ka ?Oi Magazine are presenting a free art workshop for 56 Maui youth registered through their art teachers.

Kim von Tempsky will award first, second and third place in three divisions: K-5, Middle School and High School. Maui Arts League will also award scholarships to two more high school art students to attend Maui Plein Air Painting Invitational adult workshops, taught this year by Holmes and Morgan Samuel Price.

Watching 25 plein air painters complete their original paintings in four hours or less is an educational and pleasant outing for the entire family.

Paint-outs and exhibitions are free at Lahaina Harbor on Saturday, Feb. 17, from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m., Kapalua Bay on Wednesday, Feb. 21, from 3 to 6 p.m., and Hanakao?o (Canoe) Beach on Friday, Feb. 23, from 9 to 11 a.m.

This years participating artists hail from Hawaii, the Mainland USA and Australia. They are: Jacobus Baas (CA), Suzie Greer Baker (TX), Greg Barnes (NC), Joshua Been (CO), Mark Brown (Oahu), Carleton (Maui), Mike Carroll (Lanai), Michael Clements (Maui), Jennifer Diehl (OR), Ray Hassard (OH), Leon Holmes (AU), Debra Huse (CA), Greg LaRock (CA), Ronaldo Macedo (Maui), James McGrew (OR), Jim McVicker (CA), Terry Miura (CA), Larry Moore (FL), Mary Pettis (MN), Morgan Samuel Price (FL), Scott Prior (CA), James Richards (GA), Patrick Saunders (MO), Aaron Schuerr (MT) and Randy Sexton (CA).

For further information on all the public events at the Maui Plein Air Painting Invitational, visit www.mauipleinairpainting.org or call Katherine Smith at (808) 268-0787.Use the reservoir for recycling wastewater

In October 2017, Michael Miyamoto, deputy director of the county Department of Environmental Management (DEM), announced that construction of a 1,000,000-gallon treated wastewater tank would begin in 2018. It would be located on Puukolii adjacent to Kaanapali Hillside above the resort. The entire neighborhood has been fighting against the tank location for over two years.

In articles published in multiple Maui news outlets, it was announced that Maui County had lost in the Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in their quest to keep injecting treated water into wells located in the ocean. Part of the article stated that DEM would now make use of an existing reservoir and pipeline to move the treated water to 800 feet altitude for irrigation purposes. Although not stated, it appears that the Puukolii tank will not be built.

This begs the question: why wasnt the existing reservoir considered instead of proposing a new tank at considerable cost for land acquisition, pipes and the tank? The way the DEM people conducted themselves at a community meeting indicates it was either mother knows best and/or hubris.

The Kaanapali Neighbors organized and fought this project. It shows that grassroots organizing can fight and win against government.

MIKE SOWERS, Kaanapali



Honolua area becoming a dumping ground

What a shame. We spent $20 million to purchase Honolua, and now it is returning to a dumping ground.

HTA (Hawaii Tourism Authority) did not renew the grant to Save Honolua Coalition, which was funding the ongoing maintenance of Honolua since the purchase by the state. HTA feels that this should be a volunteer position. Well, just drive by the middle gate and you can see how that is working out.

I have been taking care of Honolua for ten years and was receiving $1,000 a month from Save Honolua; now it has been cut off. I still considered myself a volunteer because I spend much more than that every month.

I burned out all my volunteers cleaning Lipoa Point in the five years it took to remove 50 years worth of junk, filling 28 30-yard roll-off dumpsters. Most of my volunteers nowadays come from the Sierra Club from the Mainland.

Angus McKelvey got us another $500,000 for maintenance, but that was quickly usurped by the state, saying they needed it for planning.

These planning guys are dragging their feet while Honolua weeps and continues to collect trash. Most people at those meeting say they dont want to see any changes, so those meetings are a waste. Government spending what else is new?

LES POTTS, Napili



Mahalo for supporting LHS Senior Projects

On Friday, Jan. 26, 191 Lahainaluna High School seniors presented their Senior Projects to rooms full of community judges. These presentations were the culmination of their Senior Projects, which also entailed a research paper and a 20-plus-hour mentorship. Projects included automobile care, native plant restoration, cooking, dental hygiene and surfboard shaping, just to name a few.

The Lahainaluna High School Senior Project Committee would like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to all the individuals who made this day possible. We would like to thank the staff members of Lahaina Intermediate School and Princess Nahienaena Elementary School who assisted in evaluating projects. To all the community members who volunteered your Friday to judge projects, thanks for your time. Finally, a special mahalo to all mentors who volunteered to oversee our seniors. We hope that the Class of 2018 has made you proud to be a part of the Lahainaluna community.

This endeavor is truly a reflection of our tight-knit community that makes Lahaina such a special place to live and grow. Mahalo, Lahaina, for your outpouring of love and support for our students. Thank you!

TARA NAKATA, Librarian, Lahainaluna High School



Use the original plans for the Lahaina Bypass

Making adjustments at the Keawe Street/Honoapiilani Highway intersection to prevent the serious disruption to traffic and local businesses that will result from all of the traffic from the south being directed only on to the southern extension of the Lahaina Bypass, which ends and exits at Keawe, will fall far short of solving the problems and seems more of a put-off to the outcry of locals about the situation.

Initially, the plan was for the new Lahaina Bypass to go around and above all of Lahaina for the Kaanapali, Honokowai, Kahana, Napili and Kapalua traffic going to and from the other side. This would also relieve the increasing congestion in Lahaina. But the new section of the bypass was placed south of Lahaina instead of north from the existing portion of the bypass, so as to truly bypass Lahaina as originally planned. Now all of the traffic from the south will be blocked from using the existing Honoapilani Highway along the shoreline drive. They will have to proceed onto the bypass and then into Keawe and the busiest intersection in Lahaina.

At the meetings that the HDOT was required to hold and that I attended, it was apparent that the decision to extend south from the existing portion of the bypass running from Keawe to Hokioko Place, instead of north, had already been made and could not be altered by the public. Instead, the developers and landowners in force at the meetings were asked how high mauka they would like the new southern extension of the bypass to go. The answer was as high as possible, thus leaving more room for developments.

Also, the promise to maintain the world-famous Honoapilani Highway shoreline drive as an additional route to Lahaina, and with access to beaches, surfing, fishing, etc., for the public, was not kept. It is to be closed to through traffic, and many fear that expensive developments for the few will extend to and take up the shoreline from the public, like from Lahaina to Kapalua. The HDOT put in the paper that this was an example of cooperation between the government and the public, but by one means or another, it was not the public that the agreement was with.

What is needed for the disastrous problem coming that this creates in the Keawe area and overall is not adjustments at the Keawe/Honoapilani intersection, but the following three things: keeping the shoreline drive open as now, creating the northern extension of the bypass, and not opening the new southern extension to traffic until the northern extension of the bypass is made, so as to allow a place for traffic to our northern communities to go other than Keawe. Local nearby adjustments to the shoreline Honoapiilani Highway can be made later if needed for shoreline erosion.

Initially, our County Council agreed with that solution, but at a recent meeting we were told that discussions and changes cannot be made about the bypass, but only about Keawe. What happened?

Keawe is not the cause of the problem nor can it affect a solution  it is the victim. With all of the revenue from our hotels, more than elsewhere in Hawaii, the northern extension should be financially feasible if our funds are retained here for our traffic needs, instead of so much of it going to Oahu for their railroad.

DR. GEORGE S. LAVENSON, Lahaina



Iwi must be protected

Theres hope for the future. The county resolved to do what is right. The Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facilitys reclaimed water is designated for irrigation. Utilizing an existing reservoir is superior to injection wells and water tanks for aesthetics, wildlife habitat and ecological benefits.

Like water infiltration, sometimes it takes a while for ideas to percolate and impurities removed. The importance of protecting iwi/bones is difficult for Western-minded people to comprehend. Sand mining in Central Maui and developments are desecrating iwi. Preserving the culture requires protecting what matters to Hawaiians.

How historical does property have to be for protection? Kahoma Village utilized 1970s archeological reports and the 1884 Bishop Map but omitted important historical information in the development approval process. An Army Corps of Engineers analysis stated the areas potential for nomination in the National Register of Historic Places.

Facts, including David Malos homestead and an important battle with Kamehameha that occurred on the property, were not forthcoming. Who ensures statutes are followed?

Are the archeologists findings receiving the same level of scrutiny? What if they uncovered four burials of chiefs in the sitting position facing the ocean?

Iwi represent people. They say, We are old, dry bones  all hope is gone. Our nation is finished. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Ill put My Spirit in you, and youll live again and return to your own land. Then youll know that I have spoken and have done it.  (Ezekiel)

MICHELE LINCOLN, Lahaina



Stop racing on the highway

Can someone please tell me if there is some sort of race that is going on constantly on Honoapiilani Highway from Kaanapali to Puamana?

The way people drive makes me think there is a prize at the end of each area going in either direction.

Cars are zooming by me as I do 40 MPH, and I think I might be the stupid one until I find those cars smack dab in front of me at the next traffic light!

I do believe that the Maui Police Department could easily hand out 100-plus speeding tickets every day on the highway.

What is everyones rush? Relax enjoy the ride!

SU CAMPOS, Napili



Pool generator needs to be fixed

Sitting down watching the Super Bowl, and once again at the Kahana Gateway Apartments, our pool generator just started to scream and vibrate.

Two weeks now with this noise  an unbelievably loud, terrible noise. Many complaints from neighbors seem to just go unnoticed. Does it really take over two weeks to fix a pool?

NAME WITHHELD BY REQUESTBUSINESS SPOTLIGHT:

Everett Stunz Duxianas customers are discerning sleepers, says Phil Coller, who with his wife Nicki (the face of the store, says Phil) run a business whose legacy goes back 55 years.

In fact, Everett Stunz opened on Girard Avenue at the same time that two other La Jolla icons opened: Harrys Coffee Shop and Warwicks Bookstore. The Collers have only owned the store since 2005, but theyre familiar faces in the business community.

Those aforementioned discerning sleepers come to Everett Stunz to buy the best, Phil Coller says. Were a specialist bedding store selling unique and high-quality products. Were not a mattress store. Were a bed-slash-mattress store.

Coller calls Everett Stunz Duxiana, which houses three showrooms among 2,500 square feet of space, a destination for people on a mission. They want to buy really good quality.

The Duxiana beds certain qualify. Theyve been around for 90 years, Coller says. Theyre from Sweden and they have a patented special spring system inside the bed. And they last a lifetime. A lot of our customers have had them for 25 or 30 years.

Everett Stunz is the only licensed purveyor of Duxiana beds, which top out in cost at around $16,000, in San Diego County.

Besides Dux beds, we also have a totally organic (mattress) called SavvyRest, said Coller, and we have a Reverie bed system which is most famous for its adjustable base. It also has a Latex mattress which is very unique.

The store features a wide variety of other products related to high-end sleep. These include sheets, pillowcases and duvet covers, and bedding such as couplets and mattress covers. Coller describes these items as special, mostly European, very high-quality bed linens and bedding.

One product that elicits a lot of praise is our Seventh Heaven down pillows. As soon as we get them in the store, theyre sold, he says, adding that the price of pillows depends upon the amount of down in them and where the down comes from. Its not unusual to find a pillow priced at $350.

When it comes to shopping for beds and bedding, the key is feel, Coller says. You can sleep on anything, but its important to have the right product in terms of feel.

No wonder Everett Stunz customers are not in a hurry.

The average customer takes two or three hours to choose a bed, Coller says. Sometimes it can take two or three weeks. These customers are welcome to test out the beds, too. In each one of our bed styles, we have the appropriate product on the floor so you can actually test it.

Some of the customers come with their dogs, which is fine, because Coller says Everett Stunz is pet-friendly. He and his wife have a couple of canine companions themselves.

Everett Stunz Duxiana is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Saturday at 7547 Girard Ave. (858) 459-3305. everettstunz.com

 Business Spotlight features commercial enterprises that support La Jolla Light.BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT:

Visions of Mary Poppins and Bert, the chimney sweep, come to mind when you think about Steven Carter. He is a real-life, present-day chimney sweep of the highest order. In fact, hes called a Master Sweep in the old English tradition, and hes swept more than 40,000 chimneys during his career. Chim Chim Cheree indeed.

Carter is founder of Chimney Sweeps, Inc. He started the company in 1985, and is based in Lakeside, although the company services chimneys across the county, including La Jolla. He has more than 30,000 customers. His philosophy is simple: Your chimney is part of your house. If the chimney goes, so goes the house. We take care of your chimney thus we take care of your home.

Despite the overwhelming success of the business, Carter fell into the profession quite by chance. I had recently come off the road as a touring musician and found myself looking for my next steady gig when I stumbled across a help wanted ad in the paper, he explains. Being originally from England  where a healthy dose of luck and folklore surround the profession of a chimney sweep  I was immediately attracted to the ad so simply written as Chimney Sweep Needed. The next week found me donned head to foot in black, with coat tails and a top hat.

Chimney sweeping is one of those rare professions that hasnt really changed much in terms of the old-world traditions dating back to England in the 1900s. Carter describes it tidily: You seal off the chimney from the bottom with tarps and plastic. Then at the top, you use the right-sized brush attached to poles to brush the chimney from top to bottom several times. With the exception of a high-powered vacuum, its all done about the same.

Running the business is definitely a family affair. Carters wife, Valerie, takes care of the finances. His sister, Georgia, answers the phone. His son, Julian, is in charge of the office. And his son, Ariel, does special installations and general inspections. Even the voice on the answering machine is his mothers, with a British accent, of course.

After more than 30 years in the business, Carter has learned a lesson or two about success. To him, it comes with a responsibility to give back to the community in which you serve. In his case, thats all of San Diego County. Giving back is a huge reason we do what we do  and feeling like all our hard work doesnt just make a difference in our lives but also in the lives of those around us  is of the utmost importance to everyone over here at Chimney Sweeps, Inc.

The company hosts a portion of the annual Spirit of Christmas event in Lakeside every year. They support local schools by helping to raise funds for new instruments, Lakeside pageants or the marching band. On top of that, a large portion of the companys profits go to national charities including the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and The Truth about Drugs campaign. Coming from a musical background, Carter also supports Musicians without Borders, as well as the San Diego Arts Foundation. The Burn Institute is also near and dear to his heart, since one of his sons is a former firefighter.

The company is part of the National Chimney Sweep Guild and complies with the regulations of the Fire Department and the National Fire Protection Association. Those groups advise consumers to have chimneys inspected once a year to check for deposits, building faults and deterioration. And that inspection should include the roof.

For more information about Chimney Sweeps, Inc. in San Diego County, call (619) 593-4020 and visit chimneysweepsinc.com

 Business Spotlight features commercial enterprises that support La Jolla Light.Although an audit of the San Diego Public Utilities Department (PUD) is ongoing to find the source of a recent spike in water bills, one question is raising eyebrows: Are the Citys Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and its smart meters part of the problem?

Over the last two months, La Jolla residents have been meeting to discuss unexplained increases in their water bills. At one meeting, some shared that they had a smart meter, but did not know when it was installed and so could not correlate it to the bill increases. At previous meetings, one resident said he was told by a PUD employee that the former (analog) meters were more reliable.

On the subject, the Citys website states: The Public Utilities Department (PUD) began installing smart meters in March 2014, as part of an effort to update our systems and provide new benefits to our customers. A full roll-out is expected by 2020. The AMI system uses a radio network to transmit customer usage data allowing electronic reading and eliminating the need for visual inspection.

Notices were sent by mail to those who received the new meters. Those with the system can access their water use online and view daily detailed water use information captured from the previous day, by visiting sandiego.gov/customercare/ and selecting the account, clicking on the consumption history tab, and proceeding to the Click to view detailed consumption history link.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that deputy PUD director Michael Vogl dismissed the idea that water bill increases were linked to the AMI system, stating that close to 90,000 of the Citys 285,000 water meters have been replaced with the new technology. About 15,000 of those are being read remotely.

City representatives did not return La Jolla Lights inquiry by deadline as to how many of these smart meters are operating in La Jolla and when the La Jolla installation project would be complete.

Fields of folly

Muirlands-area resident Tom Pastore said he questions whether the digital readings could be influenced by WiFi interference, Bluetooth technology and/or hackers. My belief is that there could be a problem with remote reading, using WiFi to read the meters at a central location, he said. Pastore has a masters degree in physics and electronic engineering, and spent 15 years at General Dynamics. I think there is the possibility of ElectroMagnetic Interference (EMI), also called Radio Frequency Interference (RFI), and because it is a small meter, I assume it may not have been thoroughly tested to reject (outside) signals. Id like someone to tell me how exhaustive the testing was against this happening.

Features that emit possible interference include Internet hotspots, television towers, cell phone signal towers, cell phone use and more, Pastore explained. I know theres a lot of RFI that surrounds us here and all over town, he said. Whats to prevent these devices from causing interference and influencing the meter readings?

Ramona resident and director of the Center for Electrosmog Prevention, Susan Brinchman, said she has researched smart meters in general after getting a SDG&E smart meter installed on her La Mesa property. When the electric smart meter was installed, she said, she experienced health effects she believed were from the increase in radiation created by the new meters (prompting her move to Ramona). She began researching smart meters, both electric and water, and found a pattern of increases in bills and increases in radiation following their installation.

I thought it was very likely that smart water meters were behind the very high increases in water bills, she told La Jolla Light. (Some La Jollans have seen their bills jump from $300 to $3,000 within months.) Brinchman said she was granted an opt-out option by SDG&E, based on her sensitivity to radiation. She printed a sign saying she did not give consent to have her water meter replaced with a smart meter, and placed it over her existing water meter. Thus far, the Ramona Municipal Water District has honored it.

They should drop the program entirely and can replace it with new analog meters, she suggested.

City: Oops, our bad

The San Diego PUD conducted an internal review of increased water bill complaints, and found that 343 meters had been misread, it announced last week. However, none of these misread meters were smart meters, and none in the City report were located in La Jolla. The cause of the misreading has been identified as human error.

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer said of the review: Every bill must be accurate and anything less is unacceptable. San Diegans need to be able to trust that their bills are correct, and that every cent they pay goes to making sure we have safe, reliable water. I have directed staff to take the necessary steps to ensure that nobody pays more than they should, meters are properly read, and any mistakes are corrected immediately.

Following the internal review, the City announced, via a press release, that it will implement six actions to provide better oversight and ensure the accuracy of water bills, including: 1) requiring PUD supervisors to personally sign off on daily reports from meter readers; 2) adding security protocols to ensure that only designated staff have ability to input data; 3) improving automated alerts that flag unusual spikes in water usage; 4) adding a second spot check review of meter reads to ensure accuracy; 5) participating in the independent City Auditors audit of customer billing issues; 6) including an informational insert in water bills on how customers can read their own meters and track their water use.

The review also found there were other factors that have contributed to higher water: most notably, a citywide rate increase of 6.9 percent that the City Council approved in 2015 and took effect August 2017, and leaks in homes and irrigation systems, warmer temperature and dry conditions leading to increased water use, and new landscaping or pool installations.

When broached by La Jollans, who reported seeing excessive water use on their bills and being charged accordingly, the common PUD response was that there must have been a leak somewhere.

Following the outcry, City Council President Pro Tem and La Jolla resident Barbara Bry called for an audit of the water department, and said she expects to see the results in June. She also called for a change in PUD practice for those who contest their water bills, giving them more time to settle the disagreement.

To contact the City with questions: Call (619) 515-3500 or e-mail customercare@sandiego.gov

Next La Jolla water bill meeting: (for locals who believe theyve been unfairly charged exorbitant amounts) 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 21 at La Jolla Riford Library, 7555 Draper Ave.An editorial cartoon that ran in the La Jolla High School student newspaper is drawing criticism for depicting offensive stereotypes. The cartoon was featured in the Jan. 23 issue of the Hi-Tide monthly newspaper, which was approved for publication by Principal Charles Podhorsky.

Two weeks after the issue was published, Podhorsky issued a statement calling the cartoon (created by the papers cartoon editor) an error in judgment and a breach of all the values we hold dear.

The illustration depicts nine people wearing hooded sweatshirts with different stereotypes on them. One reads Kool Kids Klub, another shows a Mexican man wearing a #1 (Juan) Cool Beans sweatshirt, complete with mustache and a gap between his two front teeth. Another man is depicted with an afro, wide nose and large lips, wearing a sweatshirt bearing the flag of West African Republic of Niger, and reads Niger, and the remaining characters continue the stereotyping.

The cartoon, students say, was intended as a satire of the recent H&M advertisement in which an African-American child is wearing a sweatshirt that reads coolest monkey in the jungle. The retailer apologized following backlash for the ad, stating: We have got this wrong and we agree that, even if unintentional, passive or casual racism needs to be eradicated wherever it exists.

In an e-mail to parents, Principal Podhorsky said: La Jolla is a community that values the free speech of our students. However, with the right to free speech comes a responsibility. We have talked to those involved with the publication of this cartoon about this responsibility  and the need to take public ownership of their actions in this case.

We want you to know that San Diego Unified and La Jolla High strive to be welcoming communities, and your well-being matters to all of us.  This situation reminds us all that we have more work to do to deliver the future all our children deserve.

Ephrata Abate, a senior at La Jolla High, told The San Diego Union-Tribune: I understand that free speech is necessary at school, but you cant confuse free speech with hate speech. Of Podhorsky waiting two weeks to issue a statement, she adds: If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.

Campus Free Speech Board

Following the publication of the cartoon, members of the Black Student Union hung a banner across the Free Speech Board on the campus quad that read: Can this be addressed? Another large sheet of paper with the message, How do you feel? was posted along the top of the board and the message, Political Satire? was posted along the bottom.

Students saturated the poster paper with comments. Some contained profanity-laden slurs and criticized those triggered as coming from snowflakes (students deemed ultra-sensitive) and others opined that the cartoon was just a joke.

Further comments read: You should not give racism a microphone. Its messed up. Disappointed, but not surprised.

Langston Aron, a junior at La Jolla High and member of the Black Student Union told La Jolla Light: When I first saw it, I felt like it was disrespectful. It was racist and I didnt understand why it got published. No one noticed it at first  but we had a Black Student Union meeting the next week, where we talked about it and then sent e-mails to Principal Podhorsky and (Hi-Tide faculty advisor) Robert Boyd, and didnt get a response. Thats why we placed the published comic around campus and hung the poster paper.

Aron said the response from the school seemed a little late for just an apology, and if Podhorsky had said something right away, it would be different. But the apology shows no, they are not going to act to make a change.

A change Aron would like to see is cultural sensitivity courses given to the school and the formation of a board of well-informed students to work with administrators and newspaper staff.

Faculty advisor Boyd told the Light via e-mail: The newspaper is completely student run, but a finished  but unpublished  version of the issue is submitted to the <FZ,1,0,15>principal for approval. (Podhorsky) has final say on whether an issue can be published or not. For the most current issue, the editors-in-chief followed this process and received from Dr. Podhorsky an e-mail that said something like, Looks great. 

In delving into the process, Boyd said: Dr. Podhorsky exercises his right as the principal of LJHS to review each issue of the newspaper before it goes to print. ... In the last two years, he has usually been presented with a digital copy, e-mailed to him at his SDUSD address by the editor(s)-in-chief. As a courtesy, the current editors-in-chief e-mail him a few days beforehand to let him know when he will be receiving the second e-mail with the actual issue for review.

Per SDUSD policy, Dr. Podhorsky then has four hours from the time of receipt to review the issue. If he has any concerns that would lead him to not allowing the newspaper to be published, he is required to put these concerns in writing and present them to the editors-in-chief within these four hours. From there, it would then be up to the editors-in-chief to decide if they wanted to pursue an appeal.

Podhorsky responded: We have acknowledged that there were missed opportunities by the adults to do a complete and thorough review prior to this student publication. As adults on campus, we have owned that we need to do a better job to guide our student publications.

In September 2017, La Jolla High School was named a National PTA School of Excellence. In the recognition, the schools welcome banner was mentioned as being prominently displayed throughout campus showing the 32 languages spoken at LJHS.California State Assembly member Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) opened a La Jolla Town Council forum on homelessness Thursday, Feb. 8 by stating that the vast majority of these individuals suffer from mental illness or substance abuse (and) addiction issues.

Glorias remarks echo controversial comments made last October by El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells who, during an interview with Fox 5 News, caused a countywide stir by saying almost all homelessness is linked to drugs or alcohol.

The emotional forum, held at La Jolla Rec Center, saw Gloria and other City and community leaders  including former San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, San Diego Police Sgt. Bryan Brecht, Psychiatric Emergency Response Team community liaison Marla Kincaid, City Council member Barbara Bry policy advisor Vicky Jones, and Father Joes Villages chief development officer Bill Bolstad  dialog with members of the public about how to tackle one of the worst public crises in La Jollas 168-year history.

All other members of the panel, and most of the 60 audience members, vigorously applauded Glorias opening remarks. And, later in the forum, Brecht stunned the audience with a statistic that seemed to definitively support them: Of the 1,600 homeless people interacted with by the San Diego Police Department in 2017, Brecht announced, homeless services were accepted by exactly 15.

However, Glorias assertion is not backed up by the evidence he claims there is for it. At the meeting, Gloria claimed that a database does exist. Afterward, Gloria spokesperson Nick Serrano said that database is maintained by the Regional Task Force on the Homeless (RTFH).

But when the Light followed up with RTFH chief of operations Tamera Kohler  who attended the Town Council meeting  she identified that database as the organizations 2017 WeAllCount annual report, which flags only 39 percent of its unsheltered clients as having a serious mental illness, and only 14 percent as being substance-abusers. (Kohler said those numbers are probably not accurate because the database did not consider alcohol an abused substance, and because the majority is self-reported, noting that mental illness and substance abuse are historically under-represented when self-reported.)

Glorias two-part solution

At the meeting, Gloria called homelessness the most complex issue for which people want to create a simple solution, yet he also laid out two directions in which he believes San Diego, and California, need to move.

One is toward permanent supportive housing, which he defined as housing plus services  not just a roof but someone who comes in and keeps you housed, because if you go to a schizophrenic with a drug problem and ask to provide them services, theyre not in their right minds; the second is lowering the current bar for public intervention.

According to Gloria  who served on the board of commissioners of the San Diego Housing Commission before getting elected to the City Council in 2008  permanent housing for homeless people would cost taxpayers less in the long run than leaving them on the street, where they regularly keep police from dealing with priority calls and use emergency rooms as their health care.

We are paying a tremendous amount of money to allow people to live outdoors, Gloria said. We can save money if we actually set them up with housing.

Gloria also said that requiring homeless people to clearly demonstrate a danger to themselves or others is too restrictive. He echoed the belief, held by many, that the current homeless crisis is a direct result of the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Act (AB 846), a California law passed in 1977 that gave people with developmental disabilities the right not to be institutionalized against their will.

The idea being that institutionalizing people in inhumane situations was not the right way to go about doing it, Gloria said. I would argue that, in 2018, its inhumane to leave mentally ill people on street corners without food or water.

Attempts to amend the Lanterman Act have failed, Gloria said, but I think this housing crisis, this mental-health crisis and the Hepatitis A crisis are reasons to revisit it  not necessarily to re-establish an entire statewide system, although I would be very interested in considering that  but (to establish) one that would change the definition of when we can have compulsion of action.

After Gloria spoke, he was lauded by Dumanis, who served as the Citys district attorney from 2003 to 2017 and is currently running for County Supervisor.

Former San Diego district attorney Bonnia Dumanis (standing) congratulates Assembly member Todd Gloria ( to her right) for his controversial stance on Californias homeless crisis. (Corey Levitan )

Let me applaud Todd for saying what is not popular with a lot of people, Dumanis said, and that is that we need a system  whether its state or countywide  that deals with the mental-health issue and has some component that we have to be more humane by taking care of people rather than by leaving them on the street.

She added: And it does stem from the closing of the state hospitals.

In other Town Council News

Crime Watch honored: Before the homelessness forum, La Jolla Town Council Crime Watch Committee co-chairs Cynthia Chasan and Catharine Douglass were honored by the San Diego Police Officers Association with a Leadership Award for community leadership and advocacy. As a result of their efforts, the certificate read, the City implemented a competitive compensation package that will strengthen the departments ability to recruit and retain the most qualified and experienced police officers.

CPA items pulled: Two items were pulled from the La Jolla Community Planning Associations consent agenda, which is in effect a request for a full presentation before a future Town Council meeting. Item 13 was described by Kerr-Bache as ad-hoc procedures for how much time it takes to review a permit, which could causes homeowners a delay of several months. The other item addressed traffic problems on Hillside Drive caused by construction projects.

Short-term rentals update: Kerr-Bache reported that the presidents of the town councils in La Jolla, Mission Beach, Ocean Beach and Clairemont, Point Loma and others remain united on the issue of short-term vacation rentals. Calling their umbrella organization The San Diego Coalition of Town Councils, Kerr-Bache said the group does not accept defeat in the face of the Dec. 12 City Council vote that failed to strike a compromise, and it has just finished another round of letters to Council members.

But this time, instead of waiting to try to get an audience with them, Kerr-Bache said, were going out with a full-court press and asking any San Diego resident who has an interest in this issue to let their voices be heard. Forms to fill out were available at the back of the room.

 La Jolla Town Council next meets 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 8 at the Rec Center, 615 Prospect St. lajollatowncouncil.orgLawyers of Ukrainian ex-president Viktor Yanukovych's son Oleksandr said a former member of the Russian Duma, Ilya Ponomarev, who is a witness in the ex-president against, gave false testimony to the Obolonsky district court in Kyiv regarding Oleksandr, whose lawyers are now going to sue Ponomarev.

"On February 14, 2018, during questioning at Obolonsky District Court in Kyiv, former Russian Duma deputy Ponomarev gave false testimony under oath. In particular, Ponomarev was clearly lying when he claimed that in 2013 Oleksandr Yanukovych was in talks with Russian Federation leadership over the sale of Ukrainian external bonds and after that ostensibly received $1 billion as a bribe in exchange for the Ukrainian president Yanukovych's refusal to sign an association agreement with the EU," Yanukovych Jr.'s representative Yuri Kirasir wrote on Facebook.

Ponomarev may have given this testimony "at the behest of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office as a 'payment' for being allowed to stay and enjoy government protection while doing business in Ukraine," Kirasir said.

"To prove the falseness of Ponomarev's witness statements and have him prosecuted for knowingly making false statements, very soon the lawyers for Oleksandr Yanukovych will initiate a lawsuit for the protection of honor and dignity, and file a statement about the commission of a criminal offense," Kirasir said.This Sept. 11, will revisiting the past reset our present? Two decades after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, there are distinct perspectives for those looking back on a day that stopped a nation in its tracks. Many of those who...

Politics in play, in different ways, on Mecklenburg mask mandate The one thing thats clear, absolutely crystal, about organized, encouraged, endorsed or enforced policies related to COVID-19 response was summed up in just a few words last week by Huntersville...The Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva celebrated the 70th Anniversary of Sri Lankas Independence in a grand manner, on 4th February 2018 at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) with the participation of over 250 members of the Sri Lankan community in Switzerland.

The ceremonial event for the community to mark the 70th Independence Day commenced with the hoisting of the National Flag followed by the singing of the National Anthem in Sinhala. Two minutes silence was observed in hounouring all patriots, who sacrificed their lives to preserve and protect the freedom, unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.

Following the lighting of the traditional oil lamp, multi-religious observances were conducted. Ven. Thawalama Dhammika Thero, Ven. Halyale Wimalarathana Thero and Ven. Halwitigala Sujatha Thero invoked blessings according to the Buddhist religious tradition. Rev. Uma Shankar Kurukkal conducted the Hindu religious observances. Mr. A.M. Zawahir conducted the Islamic religious observances. Rev. Sister Philo Jesudasan, Rev. Sister Clarista Benedict and Mrs. Sandra Bandaranaike conducted the Christian religious observances.

The 70th Independence Day message of President Maithripala Sirisena was read by Mrs. Samantha Jayasuriya, Deputy Permanent Representative, while Mrs. Mafusa Lafir, Second Secretary read the Message of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Ms. Shashika Somaratne, Minister Counsellor read the Message of Minister Thilak Marapana of Foreign Affairs.

Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Ravinatha Aryasinha, addressing the gathering highlighted the importance of appreciating the diversity that we all add as individuals and as groups, belonging to different ethnicities, religions, beliefs and ways of life, to the fabric of Sri Lanka, and to look to the future as one nation. He further noted that the Government under the leadership of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, is committed to achieve lasting peace, national reconciliation, achieving inclusive green growth and eradication of poverty, and uplifting the quality and competitiveness of our human capital in a global scale, which have been identified as key priorities by the Government.

Ambassador Aryasinha noted the unique position and responsibility of the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka in Geneva in advancing and contributing to these efforts of the Government through engagement with the United Nations and other International Organizations based in Geneva.

Ambassador thanked community for the continued support and urged the community to continue to contribute in the process of building a peaceful and prosperous country for all Sri Lankans. The Mission, he said will also, continue to engage and work closely with the Sri Lankan community.

Ambassador Mr. R.D.S. Kumararatne, Sri Lankas Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization (WTO) delivered the Vote of Thanks. The official ceremony concluded with the playing of the National Anthem in Tamil.

Following the conclusion of the ceremonial segment of the programme, two cultural performances were staged by the Sri Lankan children based in Switzerland namely Bulath Padaya, a dance depicting the festive season and a Baratha Natyam.

Qatar Airways code sharing with Sri Lankan Airlines drew a raffle providing a free return air ticket to a Sri Lankan in the community.

The programme was hosted by Ms. Tharaka Botheju, First Secretary (Trade) in Sinhala, Mr. K. Chandramohan, Consular Officer in Tamil and Ms. Dulmini Dahanayake, Second Secretary in English.The Permanent Mission hosted the Sri Lankan community attended to the ceremony, a traditional Sri Lankan dinner.

On the sidelines of the celebrations in commemorating the 70th Anniversary of Sri Lankas Independence, the Permanent Mission with the Sri Lankan Association in Geneva (SLAG) also jointly organized a Blood Donation Campaign on 3rd February 2018 at Geneva University Hospital (HUG) for which the staff of the Mission and Sri Lankans in Switzerland donated blood. Ambassador Aryasinha, the President of the SLAG, Mr. Lalantha Sirisenage, the staff of the Mission and Sri Lankans in Switzerland were present. Another round of blood donation will be held on 17th February 2018 at HUG.

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka

Geneva

08 February 2018FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

Former U.S. Astronaut Urges To Expand International Space Station, Bringing in China and India

Feb. 14, 2018 (EIRNS)Speaking with Fox Business reporter Neil Cavuto on Feb. 12, retired astronaut Clayton Anderson said, If I were the king, I would try to negotiate and figure out a way to bring China and India in with us [to the International Space Station], as well. If you work with people in space, you dont fight with them on the ground.

Anderson was reflecting on the Fiscal Year 2019 NASA budget, which had been released earlier in the day, and includes a proposal that the U.S. no longer fund the ISS after 2025. Anderson, who lived on the station for five months in 2007, was weighing options, and expressed skepticism about the value of privatizing orbiting laboratories. Instead, he posed the alternative of adding more space-faring partners to the project.Kyiv's Prosecutor Office on February 13, 2018 brought charges against a citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kennet Alibek, in relation to his acting as an accessory in money laundering in an especially large amount committed by a criminal group in the process of provision by BTA Bank of credit facilities for the reconstruction of Max-Well Pharmaceutical Plant in Kyiv Region, Ilyashev & Partners law firm has said in a press release.

The law firm represents the interests of BTA Bank.

According to the report, if found guilty in the court process, Ken Alibek is facing up to 15 years of imprisonment and confiscation of property.

Pursuant to the information from the unified public register, within the period from 2006 till 2010 Kennet Alibek acted as the founder and the Director of the Max-Well Scientific-Production Oncological and Cardiological Center (currently  Pharmex), which was used by the ex-owner of Kazakh BTA Bank, Mukhtar Ablyazov, for laundering the embezzled monetary assets. The oligarch, formerly Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan, is accused in Kazakhstan of embezzlement of over $7.5 billion. Similar claims were brought by Ukrainian and Russian authorities who incriminate him in the misappropriation of $2.5 billion.

Starting from 2009 the law-enforcement authorities of Kazakhstan, Ukraine and the Russian Federation have been investigating the biggest banking fraud in the CIS which involved participation of over 1 000 dummy companies all over the World.

Some time ago the English courts found Ablyazov guilty of fraud, ordered him to pay $4.3 billion and sentenced him to 22 months in prison. Ablyazov failed to serve his prison sentence by fleeing to France using fake ID where he was arrested in summer 2013. The banker had spent 3.5 years in the detention facility awaiting extradition to Ukraine or Russia. In June 2017, Ablyazov was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison and confiscation of property by the specialized inter-district court of Almaty.

At the beginning of 2017 the National Police of Ukraine opened a criminal investigation over unlawful withdrawal of the monetary assets and their laundering, as well as brought new charges against Ablyazov, and the General Prosecutors Office of Ukraine lodged an additional petition to France for extradition of Ablyazov to Ukraine for bringing him to the criminal responsibility under the count related to Max-Well (Pharmex).People used the weapons they had at their disposal, writes Bonnie Siegler in her book Signs of Resistance: A Visual History of Protest in America. Paper and pen.

Created by artists, designers, and everyday men, women, and children (!) who might not have had a lot of creative background but certainly had a lot to say, the posters, broadsides and other protest art collected in Signs of Resistance are pointed and stark, or bitingly humorous, and share a purpose: to convey a message of dissent.

Taken together, Siegler writes, they form a collection of visual expressions of the resistance throughout American history.

From Signs of Resistance; photograph used by permission of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Visual Materials from the NAACP Records. (Artisan Books )

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Siegler, a graphic designer, began compiling the images after the 2016 presidential election, uncovering protest art that was so compelling, so inspiring, it stirred something in me decades, even centuries later. Organized chronologically, Signs of Resistance features protest art from the 18th century to 2017.

The book begins with notices posted in Boston in 1765 protesting the Stamp Act and marking Americas disintegrating relationship with Great Britain, and proceeds through the 2017 Womens March, which filled streets across the world  and Facebook and Instagram feeds  with scores of pink-hatted marchers brandishing inventive, homemade posters expressing outrage with the new president. These examples may be more than 250 years apart, but in short, but illuminating captions, Siegler traces their linage.

From Signs of Resistance; photograph used by permission of Shapero Modern, London. (Artisan Book )

American icons like Uncle Sam and Rosie the Riveter reappear across decades, but Signs of Resistance contains other, oblique echoes too. A graphic image made by the Berkeley Political Poster Workshop in 1970 protesting the Vietnam War asks: Your son next? Half a century later, two children at a march in Minnesota for Trayvon Martin hold homemade signs attached to popsicle sticks that read, Am I next?

From Signs of Resistance; photograph used by permission of Darla Jones. (Artisan Book )

The means by which protest art conveys its message  with directness and economy  accounts for part of its potency. In the 1930s, the NAACP hung a flag outside its New York offices every time news was received of a lynching. The flags design  bold, uncluttered text  reflects that they had only a moment to capture the attention of drivers or walkers and make an impact. Conversely, a wordless poster made after 2017s violent rally in Charlottesville, Va., shows the Klan lurking behind the American Flag.

From Signs of Resistance; photograph used by permission of Gary Taxali. (Artisan Book )

The rich history of American protest art is the history of American wit too. A parody of the Trump campaigns red Make America Great Again hat reads, Make Racists Afraid Again, and the presidents meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel spawned a frenzy of memes. Memes are the new posters, writes Siegler, only they reach a lot more people a lot faster. The revolution will be televised  and shared online.

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Signs of Resistance includes the work of many movements  womans suffrage, civil rights, Black Lives Matter  but the creativity and conviction behind each image are a common thread. Every protest image was made because someone felt compelled to act out of a belief in what they felt was right.

Bonnie Sieglers Signs of Resistance: A Visual History of Protest in America (Artisan Books )

agatha.french@latimes.com

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@agathafrenchyBarbara Carrascos 80-foot-wide mural, L.A. History: A Mexican Perspective, is coming out of storage  again.

The 43-panel painting, a symbol of free speech, has spent far more time packed up, in the dark, than in the public eye. It was a target of censorship in the 1980s and has been displayed in its entirety only twice since Carrasco painted it in 1981.

Now the mural is headed to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, where it will be on view from March 9 to Aug. 18 as part of the exhibition Sin Censura: A Mural Remembers L.A.

Im just so happy, Carrasco said. Its one of the first museums I went to as a young person. And the people who go there are a lot of young people  and really diverse  and its so great to have the mural accessible to them.

Carrasco painted a chronological history of Los Angeles, from prehistoric times to the founding of the city in 1781 to the year she created the mural, for Los Angeles bicentennial. The mural was a commission from the Community Redevelopment Agency, where she worked as a drafting artist at the time.

But the CRA canceled the project when Carrasco refused to whitewash 14 images it felt were too controversial, including depictions of former African American slave-turned-entrepreneur and philanthropist Biddy Mason, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the 1943 Zoot Suit riots, in which Navy personnel attacked Mexican American youth.

Barbara Carrasco's mural, as it appears in the book "Murales Rebeldes! L.A. Chicana/o Murals Under Siege." Sean Meredith

The finished mural went into storage for nearly a decade before it was shown briefly at Union Station for the Los Angeles Festival in 1990. It was on view at Union Station again last fall as part of a Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA exhibition.

When it goes on display at the Natural History Museum, visitors will be able to learn more about the historical vignettes in the piece. The events depicted in the wavy hair of La reina de Los Angeles (the queen of Los Angeles) will be explained in more depth on an adjacent digital touch screen that incorporates behind-the-scenes photos and English and Spanish text.

Seeing the mural on view at the Natural History Museum has special meaning for Carrasco, she said. When she was doing research, poring over L.A. history books and speaking with historians, she relied heavily on the museum.

As I was sketching the piece, it was important to me I had everything historically accurate, Carrasco said. And the museum is such a great resource. William M. Mason, a curator there, he lent me all these photographs, let me look through the archives. He was so informative.

That cliche about it coming full circle is really true in this case. Ive been going there since I was a Girl Scout. And Im just so incredibly pleased its going back to a place where it all originated.

deborah.vankin@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter: @debvankin

ALSO

After 27 years in a warehouse, a once-censored mural rises in L.A.'s Union Station

A deeper look inside the Murales Rebeldes! book

The godfather of Chicano art  and the son who's keeping his memory alive

'Urban Light': Everything you didn't know about L.A.'s beloved landmarkThis column touched last week on the well-worn idea, revived most recently by the New York Times, that Los Angeles has an unusually weak set of civic institutions and a correspondingly spotty philanthropic record. My feeling, as I tried to make clear, is that a lack of old-line families, to use the storys own J. Press vocabulary, has been as much a strength for L.A. as a shortcoming.

At the same time, the debate about how Los Angeles might establish a coherent civic identity, and the extent to which that identity should copy or break from older cities like Chicago, New York or London, is one weve been engaged in for more than a century. And the realm where it has played out most extensively, as I was reminded when I joined a panel earlier this month at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is the world of architecture  specifically the architecture of the Spanish Colonial Revival.

Moderated by USCs William Deverell and pegged to the exhibition Found in Translation: Design in California and Mexico, 1915-1985, which runs at LACMAs Resnick Pavilion through April 1, the conversation focused on the shifting meanings over many decades in L.A. of the Spanish Colonial. If you need a primer on the style, which Elmer Grey by 1919 was already confidently declaring Southern Californias new architecture, think white stucco walls, arched openings, beamed wooden ceilings and always  always!  a red-tile roof.

Some notes on the exhibition itself, before we turn back to the Spanish Colonial and its discontents: Curated by LACMAs Wendy Kaplan and Staci Steinberger, Found in Translation is among the most ambitious, and most accomplished, of the shows in the Gettys third iteration of the Pacific Standard Time series. It aims to explore not only the full range of design and architecture dialogues between California and Mexico from 1915 to 1985, as Kaplan puts it in the catalog, but also how Southern California specifically, looking to Mexico as well as Spain, attempted in those years to construct a regional identity.

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The show follows that story through four chapters of design history: the Spanish Colonial; the pre-Hispanic revivals that celebrated the Maya, the Aztecs and other cultures (and inspired architects including Frank Lloyd Wright); folk and craft traditions; and modernism. There are times in the exhibition when that spread begins to feel unwieldy, when the trip from Mexico under Obregon to the U.S. under Reagan can seem a long one. Yet for the most part, Kaplan and Steinberger manage quite effectively to coax a wide-ranging cast of characters  including Wright, Esther McCoy, Ruth Asawa, William Spratling, Deborah Sussman, Antonio Pineda, Judithe Hernandez and A. Quincy Jones  into a single curatorial frame.

Luis Barragans Gustavo R. Cristo House, Guadalajara, Mexico, 1929 (Barragan Foundation, Switzerland/Artists Rights Society, New York )

What the show and catalog do best of all is mine the Spanish Colonial (and its slightly older sibling, the Mission Revival) for a nearly endless supply of ironies. If academics over the last two decades have made a point of teasing out the complexities, aesthetic and otherwise, in architectures modern movement  if its become fashionable to speak of modernisms, plural  its refreshing to see Found in Translation attempt something similar with the Spanish Colonial.

Among the most striking of those ironies: An architectural style that looked lovingly on Californias pre-Anglo past was among the most effective mechanisms for the elite attempt, roughly a century ago, to establish Anglo control over civic and cultural institutions and to whitewash (the verb, in this context, is Deverells) L.A.s multiethnic foundations. When Myron Hunt and George Washington Smith produced their most ambitious Spanish Colonial designs between 1900 and 1930, they werent just gazing back to Southern Californias Spanish and Mexican pasts; they were pointedly giving a foothold to a respectable Eurocentricism here. As the exhibition points out, it was commonplace to misidentify Mexican artifacts as Spanish (a 16th century chalice owned by William Randolph Hearst and now in LACMAs collection, for example) precisely because of this preference for a European lineage over a pan-American one.

Another irony: It was the advent of photography, the most modern and forward-looking of artistic media in that era, that helped generate the wave of nostalgia for the Spanish Colonial in the first place. Photographs from the 1870s by Carleton Watkins of the missions  many showing them looking ruined or abandoned but noble  produced a new appreciation for the design of those buildings and, soon enough, the first organized efforts to restore them. Once Helen Hunt Jackson published her novel Ramona, in 1884, that appreciation quickly flowered into full-on revisionist (and self-congratulatory) history.

The final irony is that a style we remember primarily for the strength of its unifying impulse was, in architectural terms, so varied and inconsistent  such a hybrid. The strain of the Spanish Colonial known as the Churrigueresque, based on examples from the Mexican and Spanish baroque and favored by Bertram Goodhue, among others, seems too wildly decorative and exuberant to fit under the same stylistic umbrella as the stripped-down exterior of Union Station, a building whose clean lines nod toward the abstraction of mid-century modernism.

Or maybe this last one isnt an irony at all: Any style capable of unifying a region like Southern California, a place with so many overlapping histories of origin and cultural inheritance, would by necessity have to be supremely flexible, even chameleon-like. On top of that  as both writer Tyler Green and my fellow panelist Julianne Polanco, Californias State Historic Preservation Officer, emphasized on the night of the event  the missions themselves were architectural and historical hybrids by the time Watkins photographed them, a mashup of original and re-created parts.

At least in the decades before World War II, one advantage of the Spanish Colonial over modernism in establishing a broad, shared patrimony for California and Mexico, however mythologized, was that the first tended to be a set of architectural suggestions and the second a set of rules. Still, plenty of architects, including Mexicos masterful Luis Barragan, managed to make the transition from red-tile roofs to insistently flat ones.

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As Phoebe S.K. Young puts it in the Found in Translation catalog, the impulse behind the Spanish Colonial was as much about distracting from certain cultural realities as expressing or celebrating them. The eye-catching Spanish Colonial architecture helped mask the regions complex  politics as well as its less glamorous history as a poor, remote outpost of the Spanish empire, she writes. The style fit so well partly because it could contain multiple narratives and California identities. Because, in other words, it was perfect for Los Angeles  a city, despite the cliches, where establishing a common culture has always been as much about smoothing over various cracks and fissures as building from scratch, and where architects have long assembled authenticity from a kit of parts.

christopher.hawthorne@latimes.com

Twitter: @HawthorneLATLooking for something interesting, inspirational or just plain fun to do this weekend? Our suggestions include a celebration of Balinese culture at the Broad Stage, a mariachi musical at the Soraya, and a salute to the Great American Songbook with Long Beach Symphony Orchestra. Plus, a little Mozart and a little Brahms, and the most Runyonesque of musicals. And if you love a parade  and we know you do  head down to Chinatown for the annual Chinese New Year celebration.

Balinese music and dance at Broad Stage

Direct from Bali, its Cudamani. This acclaimed dance troupe and gamelan orchestra performs the U.S. premiere of the nature-inspired musical fable Bhumi: Mother Earth in a pair of shows presented by the World Festival of Sacred Music. The Broad Stage, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica. 2 p.m. Sunday (family show) and 7 p.m. Sunday (full performance). $15-$50. www.festivalofsacredmusic.org

Mariachi musical at the Soraya

An aging migrant worker looks back at his life on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico order in Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (To Cross the Face of the Moon). Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan provides the live soundtrack for the L.A. premiere of this decades-spanning musical drama created by Broadways Leonard Foglia and the late Jose Pepe Martinez. In Spanish with projected English translation. The Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. $43 and up. www.ValleyPerformingArtsCenter.org

The mariachi musical "Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (To Cross the Face of the Moon)" comes to the Soraya in Northridge. Lyric Opera

Broadway stars perform with LBSO Pops

Treat your significant other to a post-Valentines Day night out with Long Beach Symphony Pops latest offering, The Great American Songbook  Isnt It Romantic? With special guests and Broadway veterans Susan Egan (Beauty and the Beast) and David Burnham (Wicked). Long Beach Arena, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach. 8 p.m. Saturday. $42-$165. www.longbeachsymphony.org

Broadway's Susan Egan will perform classic love songs with Long Beach Symphony Pops. Robert Lachman / Los Angeles Times

Celebrate Chinese New Year in Chinatown

Gung hay fat choy! Celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Dog with the annual Chinese New Year Festival in Chinatown. It will have live music, acrobats, martial-arts displays, food trucks and more, plus the 119th Golden Dragon Parade. Its fun for the whole family  especially if you buy your kids some of those Pop Pop Snappers. Various locations, Chinatown, L.A. Noon to 8 p.m. Saturday (parade, 1 to 3 p.m.). Free. www.chinatownla.com

The 119th Golden Dragon Parade takes place this Saturday in Chinatown. Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times

LACO explores Mozart, Brahms in new series

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra concertmaster Margaret Batjer leads members of the ensemble in works by Mozart and Brahms to kick off the new chamber-music series In Focus. The Moss Theater at New Roads, 3131 Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica. 7:30 p.m. Thursday. (Also at the Huntington Library in San Marino on Feb. 21.) $49 and up. www.laco.org

Concertmaster Margaret Batjer leads members of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in a program of Mozart and Brahms at the Moss Theatre in Santa Monica. Michael Burke

Dance work tells tale of trauma, recovery

Canadas Kidd Pivot and Electric Company Theatre join forces for Betroffenheit, choreographer Crystal Pite and writer Jonathon Youngs dance-theater work about coping with a tragic personal loss. Not recommended for children. The Broad Stage, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica. 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday. $45 and up. www.thebroadstage.org

Kidd Pivot and Electric Company Theatre's dance theater work "Betroffenheit" comes to the Broad Stage. Wendy D

Guys and Dolls on stage at the Carpenter CenterDirector Feras Fayyads powerful documentary Last Men in Aleppo follows volunteer members of the White Helmets as they rescued civilians inside the Syrian wars Battle of Aleppo from 2015 to early 2017 and is the first Syrian film to earn an Oscar nomination.

Arrested twice by the Assad regime and tortured for his work, Fayyad was forced to leave his homeland and flee to Jordan, then to Turkey and today lives in Denmark. Before sitting down with The Envelope, Fayyad had just returned from screening the film at the Davos World Economic Forum.

This film has helped me to not be just a victim, Fayyad says. It put me in the position of being equals [to the regime], to have a voice and have my words understood. Not just my voice, but the voice of hundreds of thousands of Syrians who lost their lives  they couldnt tell their story, but I could. So many souls, many souls 

A scene from the documentary Last Men in Aleppo. (Grasshopper Films )

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The films synopsis says it follows Syrias White Helmets. Yet, for me it felt more about the citizens being bombed and under siege by their government and how people react.

Yes, thats correct. Its not just about the White Helmets. Its talking about the impact of the Syrian war over the Syrian citizens and society and how it has divided and destroyed the country. In human terms, how do people survive such a conflict and yet do what they can for their own society? This is what makes it shareable with everyone on the Earth right now. Do we stay and fight or go somewhere else and start over?

How much actual film footage did you have prior to editing?

I filmed between 300 and 350 hours, but I put about 80 hours in front of the editor; the film was five hours when we sent it to Sundance. I tried to make it as chronologically real as I could, so I didnt want to change the timeline at all; Im aware how important the subject is and that its a historical document. Its a historical story made before anyone else has the power to tell us a different story and remove the reality that happened. It becomes about who will write the real history, so in the shooting and also the editing process I was careful.

A scene from the documentary Last Men in Aleppo. (Grasshopper Films )

The film opens with a zoom shot of a goldfish eyeball and goldfish also re-occur throughout the film. How did that fish allegory come about?

That was from one of the main characters, Khaled, when he bought goldfish to make a pond for some fun around him, a space to breathe inside all the death. When he was killed, I saw how the media covered refugees and I wanted to show what [the refugees] real dreams were versus what the international community or media thinks they should be. So I found the bombed out home and put the beautiful fish tank inside it.

Its about resistance. But its also about a collective memory  a more global view  so inside the eyeball you can see small stars, and then I pull back out. I tried to bring the galaxy down into the one small eyeball and out again.

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I read a line of yours I liked: Make art during war. Normally, people wait until war ends to create stories to sort through and heal the trauma. Why is this during war important to you?

Thats a true thing. In Davos, they called it, Art in the War Zone. Normally, the world says you have to wait to tell your war stories until the end. I think as an artist you need an attitude: Its the middle of the war; this is our normal  and what is your role as an artist? Should we close our eyes and sleep until the end of the war and then tell you our opinion? Then why are we here?

As an artist, you have to think [about] how you can tell the stories and provide people a big question in the midst of all of this  you want them to feel so that opens their minds up to solutions.

Director Feras Fayyad poses for a portrait at the 90th Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon at The Beverly Hilton hotel on Monday, Feb. 5, 2018, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Chris Pizzello / Invision / Associated Press )

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WATCH: Video Q&As from this seasons hottest contenders 

You were arrested twice and tortured by the Assad regime and you said an interrogator told you, Youll have double the amount of torture because youre a filmmaker. Having just been nominated for an Oscar, what feeling does it produce in you? Revenge or something else?

At that time, I couldnt answer the investigator. I had to keep silent, or I would be killed. I was in front of a very powerful man who represented authority  and who told us the people would have no voices and no one would hear our screams and our pain or our shouting for justice.

To me, bringing the movie to this place says a lot not just to the investigator trying to torture me, but for a thousand, hundred voices all over the world that they have to not give up and not let the depression, the fear, the sacredness kill them or keep them silent. Everyone can have a voice to do something.

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Syrian director Firas Fayyad

calendar@latimes.comThe best picture nominations are in, telling tales from history books and from imagination, from the angry to the hopeful, with coming-of-age scenarios, horror hybrids and dives into World War II. But which has the right formula to take home Oscar gold? In a way, each of them. Lets take a look at them in the light of history. Academy award history, that is. Here are this years nine nominees, compared to past Oscar winners similar in nature.

Darkest Hour / The Kings Speech

Movies about great men in times of crisis are always popular, from the winning Lawrence of Arabia (1962) to Patton (1970). But The Kings Speech (2010) is a particular match, not just for the overlapping time frame and characters but also for the reliance on soaring oration to galvanize a nation.

Dunkirk / All Quiet on the Western Front

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WATCH: Video Q&As from this seasons hottest contenders 

Movies about great countries in times of war are likewise perennial awards bait, going all the way back to All Quiet on the Western Front (1929/1930). That film addressed a different era, but it strove for a realistic and harrowing account of war  for its time, a radical move  much like Christopher Nolans immersive story.

Call Me by Your Name / Out of Africa

Call Me By Your Name, top, and Out of Africa. (Sony Pictures Classics; Universal City Studios )

Heres a coming-of-age story that we dont see every year, or any year. The only previous Oscar-winning film with an openly gay love story (were looking at you, Lawrence of Arabia) is last years victor, Moonlight, whose hard-fought tale is about as far from the easy languor of Call Mes Italian countryside as possible. So we have to strike out a bit, to 1985s Out of Africa, for an exotic locale, a romance as surprising and adventurous as the characters involved, and heartbreak that feels endless and beautiful.

Get Out / Take your pick

Get Out, left, and In the Heat of the Night. (Justin Lubin / Universal; Everett Collection )

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Writer-director Jordan Peeles film defies neat classification, so a mash-up is called for. The last time a horror movie won was The Silence of the Lambs (1991). In our book, Bradley Whitfords paterfamilias is no less repugnant than Anthony Hopkins Hannibal. For the clear-eyed stare-down of racism in a small town, add 1967s In the Heat of the Night. The examination of slavery may have been more explicit in 12 Years a Slave (2013), but Get Outs body-snatching offers a terrifying metaphor of its lasting toll.

Lady Bird / Terms of Endearment

Lady Bird, left, and Terms of Endearment. (Merie Wallace / A24 via AP; Los Angeles Times )

Coming-of-age stories are nothing new to the Academy Awards. Unless the hero is a heroine, in which case theyre a bit thinner on the ground. But for a mother-daughter story with fireworks as potent as the ones between Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf, one need tune only into 1983s Terms of Endearment.

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Phantom Thread / Rebecca

Phantom Thread, left, and Rebecca. (Laurie Sparham / Focus Features via AP; Margaret Herrick Library )

This one comes courtesy of Phantom writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson himself. In interviews, he has repeatedly mentioned finding inspiration in gothic romances such as 1940s Rebecca.

The Post / Spotlight

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The Post, top, and Spotlight. (Niko Tavernise; Kerry Hayes / Open Road Films )

All the Presidents Men also dealt with political wrongdoing and attacks on the press from the White House, but it was only a nominee in 1977, so that wont do. But 2015s Spotlight won the Oscar for its celebration of the unglamorous sleuthing that great reportage requires. Both films focus on institutionalized and hidden abuses of power, and the people who worked to expose them, despite the fiercest opposition.

The Shape of Water / The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

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This would have been a whole lot easier if ET the Extra-Terrestrial had won in 1983. Shape likewise elides easy categories. When does the monster ever get the girl? When does the lead ever get to breathe underwater? Its a stretch, but 2003s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King likewise uses magic, fantasy and some CGI to tell the eternal story of love and devotion winning over the forces of evil and ignorance. Here too, heroism doesnt come in a standard package.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri / No Country for Old Men

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, left, and No Country For Old Men. (Fox Searchlight via AP; Richard Foreman / AP Photo / Miramax Films )

For a bleak story full of rage and humor to burn, and a lead as tough as leather, theres No Country for Old Men (2007). Javier Bardems sociopathic Anton Chigurh wouldnt be out of place in Ebbing.

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calendar@latimes.comBeing a black American sometimes comes with an identity crisis. After all, parts of African American culture are rooted in a land some of them will never know thanks to colonialism, imperialism and slavery. The result, hundreds of years later, is a generational distance.

One of the things that sometimes comes with being [of African descent] is being made to be ashamed of being African and ashamed that your people live in these beautiful huts and ashamed that some of your people are running around with no shoes on and that when the music plays, we dance like no ones watching, Ryan Coogler said. But that ... is beautiful and we can be proud of it.

This is the one of the messages the co-writer and director wanted to ensure audiences received from his latest picture, Marvels Black Panther, in theaters Friday. To execute his vision, however, he knew he needed the right people around him.

What does it mean to be African? Ryan Coogler

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Black Panther, set in the fictional African nation of Wakanda, follows TChalla (Chadwick Boseman) who, after the death of his king father, returns to their homeland to assume the throne. Upon being crowned he must defend his nation  an isolated, technologically superior place that houses a secret stockpile of the powerful metal vibranium  from an interloper played by Michael B. Jordan. The ensemble cast is rounded out by Lupita Nyongo and Danai Gurira who lead the nations all-female army, (current Oscar nominee) Daniel Kaluuya, Forest Whitaker, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke and Angela Bassett.

The film has already been hailed for its historic nature  a black-led picture of this magnitude is unheard of  its unapologetically African inspiration and its unflinchingly black context, all an Afrofuturists dream. From the moment it was announced that Coogler had signed on to the film nearly two years ago, he knew he couldnt squander the opportunity.

Coogler decided he wanted to work with folks who knew his style and perspective. He chose a team led by women, Hannah Beachler as his production designer and Rachel Morrison as his cinematographer.

Hannah Beachler, left, and Rachel Morrison are Black Panthers production designer and cinematographer, respectively. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times )

Coogler first met Morrison and Beachler while searching for behind-the-camera talent for his indie debut Fruitvale Station. That film started a working relationship and friendship between the trio, among others behind the scenes. Beachler has been the production designer for all of Cooglers films while Morrison had to skip his second picture, Creed. (She was pregnant with a due date during the Creed shoot.)

After getting his team in place, Coogler realized that many of them, including himself, had never been to Africa. He staged a research trip for the crew to the continent to experience the environment firsthand. Beachler landed first.

I called Ryan, she said, struggling to find words to capture the experience. I was there for a week and it was emotional ... feeling these connections [to a place] that you never really knew.

As many pictures of it as youve seen, Coogler added, theres nothing a camera can do for [you that] your eyes do, or being a person of African descent, what your body does when you touch down there. Its a feeling I couldnt put into words, but I tried to put it into the movie.

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That trip set the stage for the production design as the team zeroed in on the continents unique topography. (Coogler also wrote parts of the script while in South Africa.)

It was important to make sure Wakanda didnt feel like it was a city, Coogler said. Sometimes in the comics, you dont get the sense of how big or small Wakanda is. We wanted it to feel like a country.

And reflecting what they saw on their trip, Black Panther showcases a pleasant mix of folks living more traditional, tribal lifestyles and those people that are fully in the city life, but its an African city life.

Wakanda also took inspiration from a number of African landmarks, including South Africas Three Rondavels (also known as the Three Sisters, a trio of geological peaks shaped like beehive huts) and Orbi Gorge, a canyon in southern KwaZulu-Natal.

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To be African is to be artistic... Ryan Coogler

Ryan was like, we should put Rondavel tops on the skyscrapers and as soon as we did that, Golden City transformed, Beachler said. And Orbi Gorge informed Warrior Falls and how the rock looks, the sediment, the color of the dirt, the way the mountains come together.

Beachler, who also designed Beyonces Lemonade and last years Oscar winner Moonlight, credits Cooglers perspective for what Wakanda finally ends up looking like.

One of the most important things I learned from Ryan is sense of place, and thats because of his connection to the [Northern California] Bay, she said. I had never met anyone who had such a profound connection to a place. That way of seeing things outside of what people normally see is why Ryans films are the way they are.

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For all of his Coogler-isms, Morrison added, the writer-director is incredibly technically savvy.

Hes one of those directors that took the time to study what the different focal lengths are and what they make you feel and what resonates with him, she said. Hes a real film aficionado and cinephile and speaks from a great base of knowledge in terms of cinematic references as well as camera movement and lensing.

In the conversations about how to capture what Beachler was concocting on film Morrison  who made history this year as the first woman to be nominated for the cinematography Oscar for her work on Mudbound  said Coogler referenced a variety of inspirations including Ron Frickes nonverbal Baraka and Samsara, The Godfather, Sicario and The Dark Knight. They even looked at an episode of Chefs Table.

1 / 40 Lupita Nyongo as Nakia, from left, Chadwick Boseman as TChalla and Letitia Wright as Shuri in Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 2 / 40 Chadwick Boseman stars as King TChalla, whose alter-ego is the titular character in Marvels Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 3 / 40 Lupita Nyongo as Nakia, left, and Letitia Wright as Shuri in Black Panther. (Matt Kennedy / Marvel Studios) 4 / 40 Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger, left, and Daniel Kaluuya as WKabi in Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 5 / 40 Chadwick Boseman as TChalla and Danai Gurira as Okoye in Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 6 / 40 Danai Gurira as Okoye, the head of the Dora Milaje, in Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 7 / 40 Chadwick Boseman as TChalla, the king of Wakanda, in Black Panther. (Matt Kennedy / Marvel Studios) 8 / 40 Okoye (Danai Gurira), left, Nakia (Lupita Nyongo) and Ayo (Florence Kasumba) are part of a band of female warriors, known as the Dora Milaje. (Matt Kennedy / Marvel Studios) 9 / 40 Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger, left, and Chadwick Boseman as TChalla in Black Panther. (Matt Kennedy / Marvel Studios) 10 / 40 Chadwick Boseman is Black Panther in Marvels Black Panther. (Matt Kennedy / Marvel Studios) 11 / 40 TChalla (Chadwick Boseman) faces his mother, Ramonda (Angela Bassett), in Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 12 / 40 TChalla (Chadwick Boseman) and Nakia (Lupita Nyongo) in Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 13 / 40 TChalla (Chadwick Boseman) and Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) face off in Black Panther. (Matt Kennedy / Marvel Studios) 14 / 40 Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther in Marvels Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 15 / 40 The Black Panther is King TChalla of Wakanda in Marvels Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 16 / 40 Letitia Wright as Shuri, Wakandas genius princess, in Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 17 / 40 Nakia (Lupita Nyongo), an undercover operative of the Dora Milaje, in Marvels Black Panther. (Matt Kennedy / Marvel Studios) 18 / 40 Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) is the Black Panthers nemesis. (Matt Kennedy / Marvel Studios) 19 / 40 Forest Whitaker as Zuri, one of Wakandas many warriors, in Black Panther. (Matt Kennedy / Marvel Studios) 20 / 40 Nakia (Lupita Nyongo), left, TChalla (Chadwick Boseman) and Okoye (Danai Gurira) in Black Panther. (Matt Kennedy / Marvel Studios) 21 / 40 The Dora Milajes Okoye (Danai Gurira), from left, Nakia (Lupita Nyongo) and Ayo (Florence Kasumba) in Black Panther. (Matt Kennedy / Marvel Studios) 22 / 40 Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger in Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 23 / 40 Lupita Nyongo as Nakia and Chadwick Boseman as TChalla in Black Panther. (Matt Kennedy / Marvel Studios) 24 / 40 Chadwick Boseman plays King TChalla, aka Black Panther, of Wakanda. (Matt Kennedy / Marvel Studios) 25 / 40 Letitia Wright plays Shuri, TChallas brilliant younger sister. (Matt Kennedy / Marvel Studios) 26 / 40 Lupita Nyongo as Nakia in Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 27 / 40 Nakia (Lupita Nyongo), left, and Shuri (Letitia Wright) in Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 28 / 40 Supervillain Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) in Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 29 / 40 Nakia (Lupita Nyongo), left, and Okoye (Danai Gurira) flank TChalla (Chadwick Boseman) in a scene from Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 30 / 40 TChalla (Chadwick Boseman), the king of Wakanda, in a scene from Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 31 / 40 Chadwick Boseman is Black Panther in Marvels Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 32 / 40 Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger, left, and Daniel Kaluuya as WKabi in Black Panther. (Matt Kennedy / Marvel Studios) 33 / 40 Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman), an ally of TChalla, interrogates Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) in Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 34 / 40 A scene from Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 35 / 40 Chadwick Boseman as the eponymous character in Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 36 / 40 Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis), left, and Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman) in Black Panther. (Matt Kennedy / Marvel Studios) 37 / 40 King TChallas Royal Talon Fighter in a scene from Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 38 / 40 Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman) is an expert on Wakanda in Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 39 / 40 A scene from Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios) 40 / 40 Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue, a supervillain in Black Panther. (Film Frame / Marvel Studios)

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And when it came to realizing that vision, this time they had Marvel money. Fruitvale Station was made for under $1 million, while Creed had a $40-million budget. Black Panther has a reported $200-million price tag.

That glow-up gave Coogler and team the opportunity to create as many physical sets as they wanted, as opposed to sets created purely by visual effects  It was great to have something that grounded everyone, Morrison said  and make use of as many camera tools as needed.

Its a much bigger machine, and what that means is you can do really cool camera moves, but its also a slower beat, Morrison said, adding that you cant just steal a shot. Half of Mudbound were shots I stole in between other scenes.

Both Beachler and Morrison credit Coogler with standing by them and helping convince Marvel to give them a shot  despite never having worked on a film even close to the scale of Black Panther.

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And while film history is littered with examples of this kind of massive undertaking compromising a filmmakers perspective and approach, Morrison said the Black Panther set was just like any other Coogler project. The result is a big film with action sequences but its made by the smaller moments and human interaction and letting the audience connect with our characters and letting the characters connect with each other, she said.

Perhaps thats because of the central question that Coogler took with him throughout the entire writing and filming process, a question he says made this movie the most personal that Ive ever made.

A big thing for me is the question of What does it mean to be African? he said, As a result of this thing that you are and have no control over, youre gonna have to deal with certain situations in a certain way  and sometimes those situations can cost you your life. When I found myself asking that question, I hadnt even been to the place.

Throughout this process, he found an answer.

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To be African is to be artistic, he said. We wear our art on our clothes. We paint on the walls. We bang it out in our music. We use our voice. We wear it on our skin. When we find an African, youre gonna find flyness, by any means necessary, whether they use Mother Earth to create the paint on their faces or make their own clothes.

And thats why I needed someone like Hannah for these walls and how this city will look and get everything together, he said. Because Hannah is an African, an African that was born in Ohio.

Get your life! Follow me on Twitter (@TrevellAnderson) or email me: trevell.anderson@latimes.com.Didnt qualify for the Winter Olympics? Neither did we. Between sweating  and sweating yoga  here are a few ways to stay in shape in and around Koreatown.

The ultimate guide to Koreatown >>>>

With the late 2017 opening of its latest studio, Hot 8 Yoga in the heart of Koreatown offers some 100 classes a week to local yoga lovers. All classes in the boutique yoga chain  there are five other studios around Los Angeles  are done in its two heated rooms. Signature sessions include Yoga Vibe, which uses rhythmic music in the background as inspiration and offers shorter pose holds with more flow.

Info: First week free to all new members. Subsequent single classes are $26 each with discounts for packages. Membership is $149 a month, with access to all locations. In Koreatown at 3150 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 200. hot8yoga.com

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::

The popular infrared sauna trend landed in downtown Los Angeles eight months ago, meaning that locals no longer have to head over to the Westside to get their sweat on. HotBox owner Jessica Mortarotti said she wanted to bring an elevated infrared experience to the area with her 1,400-square-foot space, which has eight Sunlighten sauna suites.

Many people find infrared much more comfortable than a traditional sauna because you get a deeper penetrating sweat from the inside out and the air doesnt become hot and uncomfortable, said Mortarotti. While most of the suites are designed to hold up to two people, one of them can fit six  and is often used for bridal parties. There is also a vitamin C-infused rain shower as well as a tablet in each suite so users can stream Netflix and sweat.

Info: $35 for new clients per 45-minute session. Subsequent visits are $45, with discounts on packages and groups. Memberships start at $39 a month. From March to May, every member gets a free mini massage or facial after each sweat. 835 S. Hill St. hotboxsaunastudio.com

Infrared sauna suites at HotBox comes with tablets to keep customers entertained. (HotBox )

::

Yoga amid the sculptures of visual artist Senga Nengudi is an alternative take on the practice. Through April 14, Los Angeles yoga teacher Keisha Bolden runs a free class every Friday at downtowns USC Fisher Museum of Art, where the works of Nengudi are currently on show as part of his exhibit, Improvisational Gestures, in which pieces are fittingly made of stretchy nylon mesh. The free classes are open to all levels, and include the loan of yoga mats and blocks.

Info: Fridays at 10 a.m.; arrive by 9:50 a.m. USC Fisher Museum of Art, 823 W. Exposition Blvd. RSVP at fisher.usc.edu/events or call (213) 740-4561.

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Free Friday morning yoga classes take place among the artwork at USC Fisher Museum of Art. (Selin Camli / USC Fisher Museum )

::

Little Tokyo wont be left out of the yoga action. Sweat Yoga, sister to the original Santa Monica studio, will open in the rehabbed Brunswig Square by the end of March, said owner Tom Schey.

Its a wonderful neighborhood, Schey said of the area adjacent to downtown Los Angeles and the Arts District. The 2,400-square-foot studio will offer music-driven classes that are soulful and sensuous, said Schey. They will include several hour-long classes a day, plus a shorter lunch-time session. Access to changing rooms with showers  originally built for workers in the building who bike to their jobs  will be available to visitors to the studio.

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Info: Free to first-time visitors. Classes start at $25, and its $185 for unlimited monthly membership. Updates on the opening and new location at sweat-yoga.com.

In nearby Little Tokyo, Sweat Yoga will open in March in a refurbished historical building. (Sweat Yoga )

READ ON!

Yes, you can eat your way to beautiful skin

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How Scandals Katie Lowes hid her psoriasis

7 steps to making your health your No. 1 priority

He lost 84 pounds in four months  and kept it offUkrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said he is puzzled by the refusal of representatives of the Hungarian ethnic minority to participate in the consultations with the Ukrainian Education and Science Ministry on the language provision of the law on education, which were scheduled for February 14.

"Some modifications: the Hungarians demand consultations and then refuse them. Reading the decision made by the Venice Commission, the Hungarians apparently mistake Hungarian with Russian - the languages are different and I hope the approaches will be different," Klimkin said on Facebook on Thursday.

Ukraine's Education and Science Minister Lilia Hrynevych earlier said representatives of the Hungarian communities had refused to participate in the consultations with the Education and Science Ministry on the fulfilment of the language provision of the law on education, which were scheduled for February 14.For years, from inside a cell at Folsom State Prison, Craig Coley couldnt get anyone to listen.

But his message was clear and consistent: He was innocent. The killer who actually raped, beat and strangled his ex-girlfriend and smothered her 4-year-old son in her Simi Valley apartment Nov. 11, 1978, was still out there.

I couldnt get anybodys ear, Coley recalled. They were done, they put me away and they were moving on to other things.

Now, nearly 40 years later, the 70-year-old man has a slew of powerful voices behind him as he fights to correct the injustice of having spent more than half of his life in prison for a grisly double murder he didnt commit.

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They include the district attorney of the agency that prosecuted him, the chief of the police force that arrested him, a judge who found him factually innocent and the California governor who exonerated him.

On Thursday, the California Victim Compensation Board joined that list. The board voted unanimously that Coley should receive a nearly $2-million payment, or $140 for each of the 13,991 days  more than 38 years  he was wrongfully incarcerated.

In its decision, the board said it unequivocally accepts that Coley is actually innocent of the murders.

But for these convictions, Coley would not have spent 13,991 days illegally behind bars, away from society, employment, and his loved ones, the board said, citing language the panel follows in deciding when to make such awards.

After the hearing, Coley said that although no one can return 38 years of his life, he was pleased with the decision.

I dont have that many years left. I want to travel a little bit, I want to see some friends that I havent seen in a long time. Theres a lot of things that I want to do, he said. When somebodys factually innocent, theyre somewhere they shouldnt have been for 38 years, I think its rather obvious that a grave mistake was made.

Craig Coley is shown when he was booked on suspicion of murder, left, and recently, after he was informed by authorities that hed been cleared. (Simi Valley Police Department )

Coleys claim will now move to the Legislature for consideration, a process that his attorneys have requested be expedited.

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Every day that he doesnt have this sense of security, financially, is another day of injustice, Ron Kaye, an attorney representing him in the claim, said after the hearing.

The payment would mark the boards largest payout for an erroneous conviction, according to Janice Mackey, a board spokeswoman.

The second-largest sum went to Kash Delano Register, who was awarded $1.7 million after he spent 34 years behind bars for the 1979 murder of an elderly man in West Los Angeles. Register received an additional $16.7 million as part of a settlement with the city of L.A.

Coley has yet to file a lawsuit, but his attorney said he intends to do so.

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Nothing can make up for that lost time, Kaye said. Hes been robbed of the opportunity to have a family. Hes been robbed of the opportunity to have a career.

The victims were discovered by a relative who grew concerned when Rhonda Wicht didnt show up for a family get-together. The 24-year-old had been strangled with an 11-foot macrame rope, her son smothered in his bed.

Coley, who was going through a breakup with Wicht, was held for questioning that day and ultimately charged with the two murders.

Rhonda Wicht, 24, and her 4-year-old son, Donald, were killed in 1978. (Simi Valley Police Department )

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A key witness against Coley was Wichts next-door neighbor, who said she heard banging noises and saw Coleys truck parked outside the apartment complex the morning of the murders. She testified that someone with medium-length hair drove it away.

Another neighbor who lived downstairs told jurors that he heard noises from Wichts apartment at 5:30 a.m.

There was no sign of forced entry, and Coley had a key.

At Coleys first trial, jurors spent four weeks deliberating before announcing they were hopelessly deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of guilt. A second jury convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder in 1980, and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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I didnt lose hope, sometimes it was stronger than others, he said. I dont think I ever really doubted that I would get out.

One of Coleys fiercest, earliest and perhaps most unlikely allies was Michael Bender, a detective with the law enforcement agency that put him away.

In 2015, after decades of pleading for someone to reexamine the case, Bender said he caught the right ear in Gov. Jerry Browns office. A year later, Simi Valley Police Chief David Livingstone also launched an investigation, just as he was taking the helm of the department.

In Coleys claim for compensation and other court filings, his attorneys and prosecutors detailed troubling inconsistencies in the evidence against him.

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The neighbor who heard noises from downstairs first told police, hours after the murders, that he heard the commotion not at 5:30 a.m., but an hour earlier, exactly when Coley, who worked as a night manager at a restaurant, was out socializing with former co-workers. Coley dropped one off at 4:45 a.m.

The new investigation also raised questions about Wichts next-door neighbors claim that she had seen a man matching Coleys description drive away the morning of the killings. Exactly 39 years after Wichts murder, detectives returned to the neighbors apartment to peer out her window.

There was no way, they concluded, that she could have seen from her window whoever was inside a truck parked outside. It would have been difficult to see the distinctive diamond stripe she claimed to have noticed on the trucks side at that hour. There simply wasnt enough light.

Investigators also learned Wicht was associating with people who had histories of sexual and violent conduct. But the most indisputable finding that supported Coleys innocence came when detectives located DNA evidence once thought destroyed.

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A piece of Wichts bedsheet the night she was found dead contained another mans sperm, along with a mans epithelial cells. Its unclear whether they belong to the same person, but Coleys DNA was not found on the sheet.

Investigators also tested stains, blood and semen on a childs Mickey Mouse T-shirt that police at the time said they discovered in a pile of dirty clothes during a search of Coleys apartment after the murders. New tests on the shirt revealed the boys DNA, as well as the sperm of several individuals. None of them matched Coley.

According to Browns pardon, three current and former police officers told his office that the detective at the time had mishandled the investigation or framed Mr. Coley. The pardon did not identify the detective.

Based on our experience, there is a very high probability of police misconduct that underlies this tragic conviction, Kaye, Coleys attorney, said. And were going to get to the bottom of it.

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Meanwhile, Simi Valley Police Det. Dan Swanson said he is actively pursuing leads to identify the real killer.

Coley was released from custody Nov. 22, 11 days after investigators revisited the crime scene. Prison officials gave him a prepaid debit card worth $200 and dropped him off at Benders home in Carlsbad.

They stopped at In-N-Out, where Coley had a burger, a milkshake, a Dr. Pepper and some fries. Later they picked up a drink from Starbucks. I had never had one, Coley said. It was a pleasant ride.

But for a month, Coley was too scared to leave the house. He didnt have an ID or a birth certificate, and he worried about getting stopped by police.

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Without a birth certificate, he couldnt get an ID. Without an ID, he couldnt replace his birth certificate. He felt like a hamster on a wheel.

Hes exonerated, hes wiped clean, but he lost 40 years. They give him $200, See you later, bye, Bender said. What is somebody supposed to do?

Eventually Coley got his documents, along with a cellphone and a driving permit.

I havent had time to be bitter about anything, Coley said. Ive got to move forward, and enjoy the life I have left.

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alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek

UPDATES:

5 p.m.: This article was updated with information about the second-largest payment.

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12:20 p.m.: This article was updated with details from the hearing.

This article was originally published at 7:30 a.m.The mother of an 8-year-old Palmdale boy who died after suffering brutal beatings and starvation, prompting far-reaching reforms in Los Angeles Countys child welfare system, pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree murder.

In a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, Pearl Sinthia Fernandez admitted that the 2013 killing of her son Gabriel was intentional and involved the infliction of torture.

Her guilty plea avoided a trial, where prosecutors were expected to seek the death penalty. Fernandezs defense lawyers had opposed capital punishment, arguing that her low IQ made her ineligible for death row. A judge is scheduled to sentence her June 7 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Shackled at the waist and wearing a jail-issued smock, Fernandez, 34, spoke in a faint, muted voice on Thursday as she accepted the conditions of the plea agreement.

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You will never be paroled. You will never be released from prison, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jon Hatami told her. Do you understand and agree to this?

Yes, said Fernandez as her lawyer, Deputy Alternate Public Defender Julia Dixon, comforted her.

It brings relief, Gabriels cousin, Emily Carranza, said after the brief court proceeding. I know shes never going to be out, and I know shes never going to hurt another child.

Prosecutors said Fernandezs defense lawyers inquired about a guilty plea on Dec. 14, one day after jurors recommended that her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, be executed for his role in the boys death. After two months of discussions, prosecutors agreed.

The paths of justice are always different, Hatami said afterward, noting that most cases do not go to trial.

Without a trial, Carranza said, she and her family could avoid another painful review of the brutal abuse that Gabriel endured, including graphic photos and reports of the childs injuries.

When paramedics arrived at the boys Palmdale home on May 22, 2013, Gabriel was unconscious and had a cracked skull, broken ribs, burned and bruised skin, missing teeth and BB pellets lodged in his groin. He died two days later after being removed from life support.

The death led to unprecedented criminal charges against L.A. County social workers who allowed Gabriel to remain at the home despite six investigations of the mother and numerous reports of the boys injuries. Sheriffs deputies also visited the home multiple times in the months before his death, and prosecutors said in court papers that some of the deputies were later disciplined in connection with their response.

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The killing galvanized calls for reforms in the way the county oversees abused and neglected children. A blue-ribbon commission set up by the county Board of Supervisors recommended a fundamental transformation of the current child protection system. The board responded by setting up a new agency, the Office of Child Protection, which is charged with improving how children are treated.

Among those who reported Gabriels abuse was Jennifer Garcia, a first-grade teacher at Summerwind Elementary School, who said he came to school with bruises and swollen eyes. She first became alarmed when he asked a simple question, she said.

He asked, Is it normal for your mom to hit you with a belt? she said Thursday. Five years later, Garcia said, the sight of Fernandez in the courtroom still made her angry.

She got what she deserved. She deserves worse, but . even if she got the death penalty, we dont execute, Garcia said.

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During Aguirres trial, Hatami, the prosecutor, told jurors that in the months leading up to the boys death, the defendant had reveled in his brutalization, forcing Gabriel to eat cat feces and his own vomit. The boy slept in a small cabinet, the prosecutor said, with his ankles handcuffed, his hands bound and his mouth gagged with a sock.

No human with a heart and soul could do that to an innocent little boy, Hatami told jurors, arguing that Aguirre hated the boy because he suspected he was gay.

Aguirres defense portrayed Gabriels mother as something of a mastermind of the boys abuse, but prosecutors on Thursday disputed that argument.

They both pointed fingers at each other, Hatami said. The evidence showed, and our office believed, that they were both culpable.

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Aguirre was convicted of first-degree murder on Nov. 1. A jury recommended the death penalty. He is scheduled to be sentenced March 8.

The fallout from Gabriels murder has been felt well beyond the county. The decision by prosecutors to charge the four social workers with felony child abuse and falsifying public records sent a chill through the ranks of child protection workers nationwide.

Prosecutors alleged that the caseworkers ignored evidence of repeated abuse and minimized Gabriels injuries.

At a court hearing for the social workers last year, a judge said that their actions amounted to criminal negligence, adding that in the months before the boys death red flags were everywhere. They have pleaded not guilty.

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For Carranza, the years since her young cousins death have been tough, filled with anger, guilt and pain. When reporters asked her how Gabriel, if he were alive, would look at his mother, she did not hesitate.

Hed still love her, Carranza said. Every child, no matter what, theyre always going to love their parents.

matt.hamilton@latimes.com

Twitter: @MattHjourno

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UPDATES:

6:20 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Jennifer Garcia, Gabriel Fernandezs first-grade teacher, and his cousin Emily Carranza.

1:35 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Deputy Dist. Atty. Jon Hatami and Gabriel Fernandezs cousin Emily Carranza.

This article was originally published at 10:30 a.m.A veteran Los Angeles police officer violated department rules for using deadly force last year when he shot and killed a 70-year-old man holding a pipe in downtown L.A., an oversight panel determined.

Siding with Chief Charlie Beck, the Los Angeles Police Commission unanimously faulted Officer Charles Garcia for firing his gun and for some of the tactics he used before pulling the trigger.

Several bystanders filmed the March 4 shooting, which happened at a busy intersection  Olympic Boulevard and Broadway  in the middle of the afternoon. Those videos, which show Garcia fire twice at Alejandro Mendez as he stood several feet away, quickly raised questions both inside and outside the LAPD.

In his report to the commission, Beck said the decision by Garcia and his partner to immediately deploy on Mendez limited the time they had to assess the situation or consider other tactical options.

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They could have pulled out a bean-bag shotgun instead, Beck wrote, giving them more room to react to someone who didnt have a gun.

Read LAPD Chief Charlie Becks report on the fatal police shooting of Alejandro Mendez 

Beck ultimately placed the responsibility on Garcia, noting his partner was a reserve officer working his first full day in the field. Garcia, who has been with the LAPD for more than 20 years, should have come up with a better plan for resolving the situation with the least amount of force necessary, the chief wrote.

Garcias name was redacted from a public copy of Becks report, though the department previously identified him as the only officer who fired his gun during the deadly encounter. The name of the reserve officer, who was cleared of any wrongdoing, has not been released.

Larry Hanna, an attorney representing Garcia, said he believed the officers acted appropriately to safeguard bystanders in the area. They first used a Taser to try to subdue Mendez, he said. Mendez, he added, had swung a long metal pipe at others, and the officers believed he continued to pose a threat.

There was no way they could stand by and let this person just swing at civilians, Hanna said. One hit to the head and the civilian goes down, then the chief or other people would be saying, Why didnt they take action? Why didnt they do something?

The situation unfolded shortly before 12:30 p.m., when the Central Division officers responded to a report of a gray-haired man swinging a pipe outside a Carls Jr. at Olympic and Main Street. They ultimately found their suspect, later identified as Mendez, about a block away.

At least one officer told investigators he saw Mendez swinging a long stick or pipe toward people as they approached him, according to Becks report. Video from the officers patrol car showed Mendez jabbing the pole as he stepped toward a security officer, who then stepped backward and moved a bike to keep Mendez away, the report said.

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One officer told investigators that he feared someone could be hit by the pipe, so they couldnt wait for a backup and had to move, Becks report said.

The officers began issuing commands that Mendez ignored, the report said. At least one officer moved closer, telling him to stop and drop the stick.

The reserve officer then fired a Taser, the report said, but it had no effect on Mendez.

Mendez, still holding the pipe, moved closer, Garcia later told investigators, according to Becks report.

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He came at me, and I fired, Garcia told them. He was coming at me, my partner. I was thinking about the other people that were all there, if he  it would take, literally, a couple seconds for him to advance and just start swinging.

Paramedics took Mendez to a hospital, where he died less than an hour later.

Beck disagreed with Garcias actions, saying an officer with similar training and experience would not have reasonably believed Mendez posed an imminent, serious threat at the time the officer pulled the trigger.

Beck also faulted the officer for not turning on his body camera until after the shooting and not carrying a Taser, violations of department rules. (The reserve officer didnt have a body camera.)

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Garcia also discussed the shooting with his partner and other officers after it happened, Beck wrote. Under LAPD policy, officers who fire their guns are supposed to be separated from others and ordered not to discuss the shooting with anyone other than their representatives or investigators assigned to the case.

Beck said the Taser and body camera violations, along with any issues related to the discussion of the incident were part of a personnel investigation.

It is now up to Beck to decide what punishment, if any, to hand down to Garcia.

kate.mather@latimes.com

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@katematherTwo men were shot, one fatally, in North Hollywood on Wednesday evening, authorities said.

Los Angeles police are searching for two suspects, both men about 19 to 22 years old, said Officer Tony Im. They left the scene in the 11500 block of Sylvan Street about 5:45 p.m. in a black four-door Honda thats missing a rear bumper.

Investigators are interviewing the surviving victim, who was hospitalized, and canvassing the area to determine what led up to the shooting.

Neither of the victims was identified.

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alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchekSouthern California Edison is removing power poles from the Santa Paula foothills that could be vital to determining the cause of the deadly Thomas fire, as well as the ensuing debris flow that devastated Montecito, according to area residents.

Lawyers representing Ventura and Santa Barbara county residents who lost their homes in the December wildfire and subsequent mudslide sought a temporary restraining order Wednesday that would bar the utility from removing poles and other equipment along Anlauf Canyon Road  an area where the blaze is believed to have started.

The equipment may be key in determining financial liability for the damage, as the fire created the conditions responsible for the Jan. 9 mud and debris flow, attorneys said. The fire left steep mountains and slopes above Montecito bare of vegetation and unable to absorb heavy rainfall.

We are very concerned they are moving so quickly  and hauling off critical evidence, said Alex Robertson, one of the attorneys seeking to stop the utilitys work.

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But the poles and equipment arent being destroyed, SCE attorneys argued, theyre being photographed and stored in a secure location.

SCE will meticulously photograph and tag each pole that is removed and store the poles in a secure, temperature-controlled evidence preservation facility, the utility argued in an opposing court document.

The company already has agreed to leave 15 specific poles in place at the request of the attorneys. Robertsons request on Wednesday sought to preserve more.

The judge did not reject the request outright and instead gave SCE and Robertsons team until Tuesday to file additional arguments.

SCE believes the granting of the requested temporary restraining order would harm the public interest by further delaying the restoration of power to customers in the Anlauf Canyon area who have been without utility service since December 4, 2017, as well as leaving in place fire-damaged poles that pose a safety risk to the community, and the judge in Santa Barbara court agreed, SCE said in a statement.

More than $1.8 billion in insurance claims have been filed as a result of the Thomas fire. The blaze, which grew to become the largest on state record, burned more than 280,000 acres, killed two people and destroyed hundreds of homes.

State insurance officials are still calculating total claims from the Montecito debris flow, which killed 21 people and destroyed at least 100 homes.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

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For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.Anderson Elementary School teacher Alexandria Gladstone-Lamas wants her classroom to be more like a Google office.

Gone are traditional desks and chairs  they were moved to a separate room at the Newport Beach school. In their place is IKEA furniture such as high and low tables. Two couches are placed on opposite ends of the room. Bean bags, rocking chairs, squishy yacht buoys and padded blankets are scattered on the carpet near the front.

Students can choose where theyd like to start their day and rotate after recess and lunch. A few students have requested assigned seats because it helps them focus better, but theyre still free to move around.

Gladstone-Lamas, who has taught in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District for 21 years, explained the new seating arrangements to her fourth-graders at the beginning of the academic year. She told them she was taking a big risk in the transition.

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Google, Gladstone-Lamas tells her students, cares that employees do their work. It doesnt care if they need to take a break or lounge around sometimes.

Flexible seating would offer them choices, Gladstone-Lamas said. I didnt care about their body language so long as they could get their work done.

This week in Gladstone-Lamas class, Emily Engel, 9, sat on a black yacht buoy as she balanced a Chromebook on her knees while working on her Accelerated Reader report.

This is better than sitting in a plastic chair. Its uncomfortable and hard. I think every classroom should do this, Emily said.

Delaney Turner, 10, and Yannick Schmitt, 9, sit on a couch while working on an art project in their fourth-grade class at Anderson Elementary School in Newport Beach. (Scott Smeltzer / Times Community News )

Some of her peers were sprawled on a padded blanket or a nearby couch. Others near the back stood on dome-shaped balance trainers while working at a high table.

Grayson Seery, 9, sat in a gray, plush rolling chair. He worked on a Valentines Day project at a low table with two other students.

I dont miss sitting at a regular desk, Grayson said. This is amazing. I like working at this giant table. I have never seen a class do this before.

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Since the transition, Gladstone-Lamas said shes noticed increased student participation, improved behavior, less restlessness and more desire to be in class.

Kids never want to leave the classroom; they want to be there, she said. With desks, you lose kids to the bathroom all the time.  I can go through a [sign-out sheet] in three days. That has been amazing.

Gladstone-Lamas said she was inspired to try flexible seating in her classroom a few years ago after using a yoga ball instead of a desk chair. In years past shes welcomed students to bring their own, and they did, but it became difficult to move around the room.

She placed a cubby organizer near the back of the classroom where students pick up exams and homework assignments.

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Principal Shannon Bray said Gladstone-Lamas is the pilot teacher for flexible seating at Anderson. Other classrooms offer some forms of alternative seating, Bray said, but its a change teachers have to embrace on their own.

Its a big undertaking for teachers to move desks and chairs, Bray said. Kids need to be comfortable to learn, and were doing whats best for our kids.

At least one teacher at all Newport-Mesa elementary schools is doing some form of flexible seating, said district spokeswoman Annette Franco.

Vega writes for the Daily Pilot.When a gunman attacked a high school in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, killing 17 people, the event marked a depressingly familiar milestone.

As of this week, seven of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history have all happened since 2007. The Parkland massacre is now the eighth-deadliest attack.

The nations mass-shooting problem seems to be getting worse. And the latest, most serious shootings all seem to have one new thing in common: the AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle.

The AR-15 typically has large magazines, shoots rounds at higher velocities than handguns, and leaves more complex wounds in victims.

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In each one of the older shootings on the 10-deadliest list  including the 2007 attack on Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., that left 32 victims dead  the shooters carried handguns. (The exception is the 1984 San Ysidro massacre, where the gunman also used a shotgun and an Uzi semiautomatic carbine.)

But in all of the latest incidents  Newtown, Conn., in 2012; San Bernardino, Calif., in 2015; Orlando, Fla., in 2016; Las Vegas, 2017; Sutherland Springs, Texas, 2017  the attackers primarily used AR-15 semiautomatic rifles.

There are a couple of theories that might suggest why AR-15s would be associated with deadlier attacks. AR-15 rifles shoot small but high-velocity .223-caliber rounds that often shatter inside victims bodies, creating more devastating injuries than the wounds typically left by larger but lower-velocity handgun rounds.

Shooters also commonly use the rifles with 30-round magazines, which allow them to fire more rounds uninterrupted, compared with the smaller magazines commonly used in handguns.

Details were still coming in about Wednesdays shooting in Florida, but officials say the suspected gunman, Nikolas Cruz, 19, was armed with at least one AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and countless magazines, according to Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel.

Theres one thing that does make the Parkland massacre unusual. Of the 10 deadliest mass shootings, Cruz is the only suspected gunman who escaped, survived and will likely face trial  giving the public a chance to learn why the massacre happened.

matt.pearce@latimes.com

Matt Pearce is a national reporter for The Times. Follow him on Twitter at @mattdpearce.

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More national headlinesA loner. Troubled. Depressed.

Thats how some students and police investigators describe Nikolas Cruz, 19, the suspect in the mass shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school that left 17 dead on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder as law enforcement continued to gather evidence and piece together a timeline of how the deadly shooting unfolded at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the suburbs of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Heres what we know so far about the young man authorities say launched the nations latest school shooting rampage:

Did Cruz attend Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School?

No, not at the time of the shooting.

Cruz was expelled last school year for disciplinary reasons, according to Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel. He did not go into details about the reason for Cruzs expulsion.

Victoria Olvera, a 17-year-old junior, said Cruz was expelled after a fight with his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. She said Cruz had been abusive to his girlfriend.

At the time of the shooting, Cruz was enrolled at a different high school within the Broward County school district, according to school officials.

How was his life at home?

His mother, Lynda Cruz, died in November.

After her death, Nikolas Cruz stayed with family friends in Lake Worth in Palm Beach County. Unhappy at that home, Cruz asked a former classmate from the school if he could move in with him and his family, according to Jim Lewis, an attorney representing that family. Since Thanksgiving, Cruz had been living with them in northwest Broward County, about three miles from the school, Lewis said. He added that Lynda Cruz and her late husband, Roger Cruz, who died in 2004, adopted Nikolas and his half-brother, Zachary, at a young age.

Lewis said Nikolas Cruz was a little depressed because his mother had just died.

But he seemed to be coming out of it and doing better, he added.

Cruz had been working at a Dollar Tree store, and he was going to school at an adult education center to get his GED, Lewis said.

Did he post flags about the attack on social media?

Its unclear.

On Wednesday, an Instagram account belonging to cruz_nikolas was taken down shortly after the shooting. The account included photos of a young man wearing U.S. Army hats posing with guns and knives, his face mostly concealed.

In posts, he appeared to be feuding with others, talked about background checks and plans to purchase a rifle he would outfit with a scope for hunting.

Nine months ago, a YouTube user with the handle "nikolas cruz" left a comment on a Discovery UK documentary about the gunman in the 1966 University of Texas tower shooting. The user wrote beneath the YouTube video: "I am going to [do] what he did."

Other past comments by YouTube users with Cruz's name reportedly included one remark in September, saying, "Im going to be a professional school shooter."

What about Cruzs mental health?

Law enforcement has not answered questions about Cruzs mental health.

Broward County Mayor Beam Furr told CNN that Cruz had been receiving treatment at a mental health clinic for a while, but that he had not been to the clinic for more than a year.

It wasnt like there wasnt concern for him, Furr said. We try to keep our eyes out on those kids who arent connected.  In this case, we didnt find a way to connect with this kid.

President Trump used Twitter to address Cruzs mental health.

So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again! Trump tweeted.

Did he have ties to a white nationalist group?

Apparently not. The Anti-Defamation League and others initially reported that a spokesperson for the white nationalist group Republic of Florida had said Cruz was associated with his group and took part in training exercises. But the spokesperson, Jordan Jereb, later said hed been mistaken.

What have teachers and classmates said about Cruz?

The comments have been mixed. Some say he was troubled, others say he was quiet.

Jim Gard, a math teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, said Cruz was in his class last year.

He was quiet in class. I never had any problems, Gard said.

While Olvera said Cruz was abusive toward an ex-girlfriend, others said he was a loner.

Daniel Huerfano, a student at the school, said Cruz was a shy student; he remembered seeing him walking around with his lunch bag.

He was that weird kid that you see ... like a loner, he added.

Support our journalism Please consider subscribing today to support stories like this one. Get full access to our signature journalism for just 99 cents for the first four weeks. Already a subscriber? Your support makes our work possible. Thank you.

Lee reported from Los Angeles; Jarvie reported from Parkland, Fla.

Kelli Kennedy of the South Florida Sun Sentinel contributed to this report.

UPDATES:

1:50 p.m.: This article was updated with additional biographical details on Nikolas Cruz.

This article was originally published at 10:55 a.m.Until Wednesday, there had been one fatal shooting at U.S. schools this year, the Jan. 23 killing of two students at Marshall County High School in Kentucky.

That was before a gunman opened fire inside classrooms at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the Miami suburb of Parkland, killing 17 people.

It was a return to normal for America.

There have been 290 school shootings in the United States since 2013  or more than one a week  according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for gun control. Its tally includes college campuses and all incidents in which a gun was fired, regardless of whether anybody was killed or injured.

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In the majority of school shootings, nobody is killed, and so they receive little media attention. Even the January shooting in Kentucky in which two 15-year-olds died received scant national coverage.

The Florida massacre was the 18th U.S. school shooting this year, according to Everytown. The scenes that played out on television Wednesday were familiar ones: students running with their hands clasped above their heads, crying parents hugging children, police huddled outside gymnasiums.

There have been shootings at schools since the 1800s, but the current trend appears to have started in the 1990s. The most notorious of those occurred in 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., when two students killed 12 classmates and a teacher.

The deadliest shooting at a primary or secondary school happened in 2012, when a gunman killed his mother, then went to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and shot 20 first-graders and six adults.

kurtis.lee@latimes.com

Twitter: @kurtisaleeIf you started typing school shooting into Google search Wednesday afternoon, you might have noticed that auto-fill took over and anticipated the next word: today. So even the bloodless algorithms within Google recognize that, when one tries to find information about a fresh school shooting, the search needs to be narrowed. Because people are still searching the school shooting from last week. And the one before that. And the one before that. We are six weeks into 2018, and so far there have been at least six shooting incidents on school grounds that have wounded at least one person, including the massacre Wednesday, in which 17 people were reported killed at a high school in Parkland, Fla.

When does an epidemic stop being an epidemic and become just a basic part of regular life? Its been 19 years since the nation was horrified by the carnage at Columbine in suburban Denver. Its been just over five years since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Quick: What was the most recent mass shooting incident (at least four wounded) at a school before the one on Wednesday? Heres the sick part: There have been so many school shootings that it takes a bit of work to answer what should be an easy question.



For the record: An earlier version of this story said it had been just over seven years since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. It has been just over five years.

This is what America is today: bloody.

Already the folks who support gun control (which includes us) are fuming about the ready availability of firearms in our society. Already the pro-gun folks are pooh-poohing those who think guns are integral to shooting deaths. Guns dont kill people, people do, they like to say. The accurate phrasing should be, Guns dont kill people, people with guns do. At an astonishing rate, a depressing rate, a stomach-churning rate.

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As a society we tend to become particularly shocked  at least for a few minutes  when someone shoots down children and young adults while theyre attending classes in what should be a positive, nurturing and safe environment. But even if were shocked, we tolerate it. Our outrage is more Pavlovian than visceral. We listen to the bleatings of the gun enthusiasts that, well, if those teachers had guns, then this wouldnt have been as bad.

Been as bad. Think about that. If a pistol-strapping chemistry teacher had grabbed her .45 and unloaded on todays gunman after he killed, what, one student? Three? Five? That would be good news?

We do not live in the Wild West. Our schools are not the O.K. Corral. Clint Eastwood isnt in this movie. We are a violent, disjointed, gun-embracing culture. But wait! you might say. Not me! I hate guns! We need more gun control! As true as that might be, thats not the belief of the body politic. Because if it was, we wouldnt be sitting in front of our television sets wondering what the final death tally will be. Feeling our heartstrings tugged by images of bereft parents. Feeling an impotent rage.

This is what America is today: bloody. The Florida shooting too shall pass, as did Columbine, Sandy Hook, Santa Monica College and so on  all allowed to fade into the backdrop of American memory without a thing being done. This is us. Until we decide finally, forcefully, effectively, that it is not.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or FacebookRepresentatives of some areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (ORDLO) have included 18 Russians in the lists for exchange, Ukraine's special representative for humanitarian issues in the Trilateral Contact Group, the leader of the Ukrainian Choice - The Right of the People public movement, Viktor Medvedchuk, has said.

"As for Russians, I will tell you that today representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk have again included all Russian citizens (18 people that I mentioned earlier) in their lists for exchange," he said in an interview with Novaya Gazeta, which was published on Wednesday, February 14.

Medvedchuk said that problems with liberation arise precisely from the Ukrainian side.

"I expect that the Ukrainian government will focus on the issue of the release of our citizens, rather than debate over who can or cannot be released from our side," he said.

He said that negotiations on the exchange of Ukrainian citizens held in Russia were also continuing.

"I can assure you that these negotiations never stopped with regard to [Oleh] Sentsov. They are also underway with regard to [Oleksandr] Kolchenko, [Mykola] Karpiuk and [Stanislav] Klykh. There are preliminary talks about [Roman] Sushchenko. He has not been convicted yet. There are always negotiations, there are different proposals, which, of course, about which I cannot talk about in public," Medvedchuk said.President Trump has an enormous blind spot about Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election on his behalf. He clearly believes that to make more than a grudging acknowledgment that it even occurred would undermine the legitimacy of his election and validate the investigation into possible collusion between his campaign and Russia that he has denounced as a witch hunt. As with so many other matters, its all about him.

A harder question is whether Trumps maddening myopia about Russian interference has led his administration to let its guard down in dealing with efforts by Russia to meddle in future U.S. elections  or with other actions by Moscow that threaten U.S. interests. In most respects the answer to that question is no, but there are areas of real concern.

As with so many other matters, its all about Trump.

Those who take a dark view of the administrations intentions felt vindicated on Tuesday by an exchange at a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee between Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray. After Wray testified that the FBI was making a lot of specific efforts to counter Russian efforts to interfere in this years midterm elections, Reed asked: As directed by the president? Wray answered: Not as specifically directed by the president.

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That startling revelation came in the same week that a group of Democratic senators introduced a resolution calling on Trump to impose additional sanctions on Russia, including penalties authorized in a bill the president signed in August. The lack of seriousness shown by the administration in the face of a clear national security threat and even clearer congressional intent is alarming and cannot continue, said Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.).

That indictment falls short of Hillary Clintons claim during one of last years campaign debates that Trump would be Vladimir Putins puppet. But its still a serious charge.

Under Putins increasingly autocratic rule, Russia has built up its armed forces, annexed Crimea, supported rebels in eastern Ukraine and intervened to protect its ally President Bashar Assad of Syria. Last year, Russian armed forces engaged in a massive military exercise in Belarus that increased anxieties in former Soviet republics that are now NATO member states.

Finally, there is what U.S. intelligence says is Russias continuing effort to interfere in U.S. elections. At Tuesdays Senate hearing, leaders of the intelligence community were united in insisting that they were taking measures against Russian efforts, even if the call to action hasnt come from the president himself.

On several fronts, the administration has shown itself willing to challenge Russia. The administrations National Security Strategy released in December declares that Russia and China challenge American power, influence and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity.

The administration has acted on that assumption. Under the leadership of Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis, the Defense Department has moved to reassure NATO allies of the U.S. commitment to the alliance in the face of a Russian buildup. Trump himself  however belatedly  has reaffirmed this countrys commitment to the alliances core principle of collective self-defense.

The administration has also decided to keep U.S. forces in Syria, ostensibly to mop up operations against Islamic State, but also to prevent Assad, Russias ally, from fully reestablishing his control over the country. Whatever one thinks of the wisdom of that policy, its hardly a capitulation to Russia.

And late last year, the administration approved a plan to provide anti-tank missiles and other lethal weapons to the government of Ukraine so that it could defend itself against Russian-backed separatists.

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Yet on other fronts, the administrations actions  or failures to act  do raise questions about pulled punches. The sanctions bill Trump signed last summer called on the executive branch both to impose sanctions on those who do business with the Russian defense and intelligence sectors and to publish a list of senior political figures and oligarchs in Russia who could be subject to sanctions in the future.

Last month, the Treasury Department did publish the list, but the State Department declined to impose sanctions on entities doing business with the Russian defense industry, claiming that the mere existence of the law provided a deterrent to such deals. Perhaps so, and its also possible, as some commentators suggest, that other factors influenced the decision not to impose sanctions  such as the fact that U.S. allies such as Turkey and Eastern European members of NATO buy military equipment from Russia.

But the State Departments failure to provide details about the supposed deterrent effects of the law inevitably will encourage speculation that it is going easy on Russia because of Trumps lack of enthusiasm for sanctions.

Thats part of the continuing price Trump and his administration will pay for his refusal to recognize reality.

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Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand FacebookWhen Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best Theyre sending people that have lots of problems, and theyre bringing those problems with us. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

 Donald Trump

When New York sends its people to Los Angeles, theyre not sending their best. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems, and theyre bringing those problems with them. Theyre bringing entitlement and aggression. Theyre bringing $14 cocktails. Theyre gentrifiers. And some, I assume, are good people.

Theyre coming for the sunny weather and because the New York art scene died a long time ago. Or perhaps because theyre ready to have kids and have seen one too many parents struggle with a stroller on New Yorks now barely operational subways. Or because L.A.s sprawl is less daunting now that Uber and Lyft are transportation options.

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I used to be a champion of moving to Los Angeles. Its the greatest city in America! Id say. Lately, though, Ive held my tongue when friends say they might relocate to the West Coast.

Overall, California is driving out more people than it is pulling in. Between 2007 and 2014, more people left the state than migrated here. Leading the exodus are people without college degrees and those who make less than $30,000 annually. Inbound California migrants, according to a report by the nonprofit Next10, tend to be primarily concentrated in high-wage occupations.

People in this income bracket can often work remotely, so they may not even need to rely on Californias economy to provide them with a job. They can keep their East Coast clients while they enjoy the perks of West Coast living. As a friend of mine often says, winter is a choice. Increasingly, it seems, wealthy Americans are opting out of it.

Our city is in trouble as a result. While its never been cheap to live in L.A., the housing crisis has reached epidemic levels. The number of people living on the streets and in their cars has increased 75% in the last five years. And this is happening at the same time that many low- and mixed-income neighborhoods are turning into playgrounds for creatives.

My local Asian supermarket, where my neighbors and I used to get cheap veggies, seafood and noodles, is slated for redevelopment as a trendy food-court-style collection of the latest eateries with condos attached. Two other low-cost grocery stores nearby have closed in the past month. I suppose it was inevitable: The coin laundry up the street has already become a Chipotle.

Lately, Ive held my tongue when friends say they might relocate to the West Coast.

Its time to stop dancing around the fact of whos to blame. The problem is not, as the New York Times recently argued with characteristic derision, that Los Angeles lacks civic institutions and a cohesive metropolitan identity. Its that the city is pushing out people who arent reasonably well off, and only pulling in those who are. People like me.

I like to think Im one of the good transplants. (Dont we all?) I came to California seven years ago when most New Yorkers were still turning up their noses at this city. I had a local job  not a work-remote situation. I befriended my neighbors. I patronized burrito joints that were not endorsed by Anthony Bourdain. I got a public library card. I learned the bus routes near my house. I made sure to vote in local elections.

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Personal actions cant erase hard demographic truths, though. Even as I lament the disappearance of coin laundries and low-cost markets, I can afford a $5 cup of coffee, and frequently pay that much at one of several establishments covered in white tiles and monstera plants. Developers are catering to relative newcomers like me when they replace 99 Cent Stores with restaurants that serve biodynamic wine. My economic peers and I may grumble about skyrocketing rents, but we can afford to pay them. Many of our neighbors cannot.

President Trump unfairly blames immigrants (the ones who arent married to him) for the worst systemic problems plaguing the nation today. But at the city level, high-income transplants get to shirk responsibility for how they affect their adopted home. A few weeks ago, the artist Rafa Esparza, who was born in L.A. to parents who emigrated from Mexico, posted to his Instagram feed a stark white message on a black background: Dont move to Los Angeles. He wrote in the caption, What can citizenship outside of colonization and more in tune with cultural stewardship look like?

This is the question for L.A.s economically privileged new arrivals: How do you help care for the city that drew you in, rather than allow your presence to steamroll its culture?

Within the borders of a giant country like the United States, we move to find opportunities and like-minded people. But if we expect immigrants to adapt to their new home while making it their own, we should expect the same of internal migrants. This is not too much to ask of L.A. transplants. Some of us, I assume, are good people.

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Ann Friedman is a contributing writer to Opinion. She grew up in Iowa.

To read this article in Spanish, click here

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or FacebookMaybe, just maybe, the left should tone it down with the worship of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg  a.k.a. Notorious R.B.G.

Last week, Adam Liptak of the New York Times wrote about being on tour with Justice Ginsburg, whom the headline declared a judicial rock star. Ginsburg is celebrating her 25th anniversary on the court by traversing the country, telling stories, fielding questions from sympathetic interviewers and generally basking in the adulation of crowds who see her as a judicial hero.

In many respects, Ginsburg is a judicial hero. She was the leading lawyer for womens rights before she joined the bench. She has spoken forcefully and authoritatively for the liberal wing of the court on abortion rights, voting rights and affirmative action. She has been remarkably transparent about issues related to her health and age. And she hasnt been afraid to admit, publicly, when she has made a mistake.

But there is something disconcerting about Supreme Court justices becoming political rock stars, particularly in this polarized era. Weve divided the Supreme Court into teams. We have our justices, champions who push our sides agenda. The other side has their justices, villains intent on destroying America.

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We can blame the late Justice Antonin Scalia for reinventing the notion of the celebrity justice and paving the way for this kind of excess.

In the 1960s, some justices, such as William O. Douglas and Arthur Goldberg, made frequent appearances and were considered public figures. For the most part, they didnt relitigate the courts business in public.

When Scalia got to the Supreme Court, in 1986, he revived the role of justice as public intellectual. Over the three decades that he was on the bench, Scalia made many appearances, gave speeches and went on book tours. But, unlike Douglas and Goldberg, he pushed his particular brand of jurisprudence  and was known to insult and demean the theories of the other justices. In public, he was provocative and acerbic.

Just this week, despite swearing off political statements, Ginsburg said sexism played a prominent role in Hillary Clintons election defeat.

Asked about the Supreme Courts controversial decision to end the 2000 presidential election in favor of George W. Bush, he told his liberal questioners to get over it!

He excoriated the notion of a living Constitution  a theory behind the Supreme Courts recognition of the right of same-sex couples to marry  and the justices who practiced it, saying he liked his Constitution dead, dead, dead.

Scalia may become an even bigger conservative hero in death than he was in life. A collection of his speeches has become a best seller, and President Trump promised to appoint more Scalias to the bench.

Now Ginsburg has taken up the mantle of the courts most provocative public justice. She is not afraid to share provocative political opinions. She has dropped hints about upcoming decisions. She called Colin Kaepernicks protest of racial injustice by kneeling during the national anthem dumb and disrespectful, remarks for which she later apologized.

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Most controversially, she repeatedly expressed concern in 2016 that Trump might be elected president  statements that raised serious issues about whether she needed to recuse herself from cases involving his campaign, and for which she also apologized.

As her public persona has grown, Ginsburg has embraced the Notorious R.B.G. label. Shes encouraged a cult of worship to grow up around her. Theres hagiography like the Notorious RBG book and the The RBG Workout, an illustrated book by her personal trainer. Theres a Ginsburg tumblr and Ginsburg T-shirts.

Just this week, despite swearing off political statements, she said sexism played a prominent role in Hillary Clintons election defeat. That may be true, but a sitting Supreme Court justice should not be weighing in on such questions.

Its dangerous for Supreme Court justices to assume such political roles, particularly when faith in our institutions is declining. If justices are going to be public figures, they should do so in ways that reinforce the rule of law, not partisan politics.

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Justice Neil Gorsuch took a victory lap of sorts recently, making an appearance with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Increasingly, conservative justices like Gorsuch and Samuel Alito make regular appearances at events held by the Federalist Society, a key organization and network of conservatives and libertarians closely allied with the Republican Party. Some justices on the left, including Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, appear at events held by the American Constitution Society, the liberal counterpart.

But no sitting liberal justice has appeared at a Federalist Society annual meeting, and no sitting conservative justice has appeared at an ACS annual meeting.

Id like to see Ginsburg at a Federalist Society event, and Alito at an ACS event. More than this, Id like to see other justices take up retired Justice Sandra Day OConnors work on civic education, helping young people understand the importance of an independent judiciary. The justices should speak to poor and minority high school students, as Justices Clarence Thomas and Sonya Sotomayor have done.

Justice Ginsburg is a hero. She deserves our thanks for her exemplary service. But the left neednt turn her into a god and conservative justices into devils.

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Richard L. Hasen is a professor of law at UC Irvine School of Law and the author of The Justice of Contradictions: Antonin Scalia and the Politics of Disruption.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or FacebookIt used to be an American ritual, like the State of the Union address only grimmer and far more frequent. Shots would ring out: at a movie theater, a nightclub, a church, a school, a school, a school. Bodies would be counted. And then, not too long after, President Obama would speak. Sometimes, he would cry.

Although I served as a White House speechwriter from 2011 to 2016, I never crafted one of these somber addresses. The president worked on them with the most senior members of his team in the West Wing; I was in the Executive Office Building across the street. But as I watched successive drafts appear in my inbox, I saw how much effort went into them. The reams of research, sometimes done in mere hours, that gave the president the chance to say something personal about each victim. The diligent search for a piece of scripture that could express grief, faith and resilience all at once. Above all, how to grapple with a reality unique to the United States. This had happened so often before. It would happen so often again.

I was lucky to work with and for extraordinary writers, on behalf of an extraordinary speaker. Some of Obamas most moving speeches were delivered as consoler in chief. But in low, doubting moments, I wondered whether these remarks were necessary, or even helpful. Why should the president insist on speaking clearly, forcefully and without hesitation when Congress refuses to act?

Now I think I know the answer.

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President Trump certainly cannot be accused of paying too much attention to mass shootings, and yet they continue: at an outdoor concert, an airport, a church, a school, a school, a school. Each time, the presidents first instinct has been to respond with what can best be described as aggressive silence. After 17 students and teachers were killed at a Florida high school on Wednesday, the White House canceled the daily press briefing and @realDonaldTrump tweeted condolences in a rote style that sounded suspiciously like that of his staff. His follow-up tweet, a more personal one, had absolutely nothing to say about the dead and injured.

Thursday morning, after it became clear that silence was politically unsustainable, Trump finally delivered a statement on the shooting. His rhetoric was perfectly fine. Still, I couldnt help but recall a time when it didnt take a brewing PR crisis to motivate the president to address the public. And as I remembered my previous skepticism, I found myself missing a genuine consoler in chief.

Keep in mind that Trump is capable of immediate empathy, or at least of displaying it. When an American citizen is killed by an undocumented immigrant or a Muslim commits an act of terrorism, Trump needs no prodding to stand in solidarity with victims. Nor should he. Thats part of a presidents job.

But Trumps empathy is selective. If an American familys heartbreak doesnt dovetail with his political agenda or threaten his approval ratings, he doesnt appear to feel their pain. This behavior isnt just callous. Its dangerous. The commander in chief is responsible for protecting all of us, regardless of background. In Trumps accounting, whose lives matter? Whose deaths warrant grief? To a terrifying degree, the answer seems to be driven by politics. Just consider his response to a hurricane in Puerto Rico, or the parents of a Muslim soldier killed in Iraq, or the widow of an African American soldier killed in Niger.

If an American familys heartbreak doesnt dovetail with his political agenda or threaten his approval ratings, Trump doesnt appear to feel their pain.

Perhaps following the example of the National Rifle Assn.  a strong supporter in the Republican primaries  Trump at first ignored Wednesdays shooting and hoped the story would go away. And yet even this description may be too charitable. As a candidate, Trump promised that he alone could fix what ailed the country. In his inaugural address, he promised that American carnage would end. The presidents attitude on Wednesday sent a different message. These problems are unsolvable. Theres nothing to be done.

What the president implies, his allies plainly state. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida tweeted that Wednesday was That terrible day you pray never comes, as if school shootings were acts of God rather than the inevitable outcome of freely available military-style guns. Evil is sadly always present, opined Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, as if Americas uniquely sky-high rate of gun violence is the product of an incurable moral disease. The Republican Party is weaponizing helplessness.

And not just around guns. In the worldview of the modern GOP, American leadership cant stop climate change. Raising the minimum wage cant help workers. Investing in universal pre-K cant give young people a shot at a better life. Its hopeless. But this sense of hopelessness isnt born of despair. Its born of a desire to loot the treasury on behalf of the wealthy, slash the social safety net, jeopardize our childrens futures, and still be able to sleep at night. After all, if we cant fix our problems together, greed isnt selfish. Its smart.

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Which brings me back to a president, and a podium, and a time when the words that defined the White House were Yes, We Can.

For Obama, consoling a nation was not just about feeling pain. It was about taking responsibility. We bear responsibility for every child, he said after Sandy Hook. The victims are our children. Gun violence is our problem. And while were frightened, were not helpless or hopeless. Thats the kind of message we have a right to expect from our presidents. We also have the right to expect their actions to match their words.

So thats probably too much to expect from Trump. But if we refuse to follow his example, if we take responsibility where he shirks it, if we confront our challenges where he hides from them, if we speak up where he stays silent, then slowly but surely things will change. We can replace leaders whose first instinct is to ignore mass shootings with leaders whose first instinct is to address them. And then one day, maybe they wont have to.

David Litt is the author of Thanks, Obama: My Hopey Changey White House Years and a former speechwriter for President Obama.

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Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook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The latest attempt at immigration reform, including protections to prevent Dreamers from being deported, collapsed in the Senate on Thursday as a bipartisan bill seen as having the best chance at passage failed to get enough support to advance.

President Trump had threatened to veto the bill  which shielded the young immigrants in exchange for $25 billion in border security  because it did not include the curbs on legal immigration he sought.

The breakdown in the Senate likely leaves the fate of Dreamers  immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children in the hands of federal courts. Two judges have temporarily blocked Trump from ending the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program on March 5. But Trump administration attorneys are seeking relief from the Supreme Court, which could announce as soon as Friday whether it will decide the matter.

Trumps veto threat was the first of his presidency, a bold move against an effort that had been painstakingly crafted by a group of 16 senators  Republicans, Democrats and one independent  working for weeks behind closed doors to reach a consensus.

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Trump said in a tweet shortly before the vote that passage would be a total catastrophe, in part because it did not include limits the White House wants on family visas and the diversity lottery.

The Senate voted 54-45 to advance the measure from Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine). But the bill failed to reach the 60 votes needed to break a GOP-led filibuster.

Three Democrats  Sen. Kamala Harris of California and the two senators from New Mexico, Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich  voted against the measure, mainly out of a concern that its border security provisions went too far. Eight Republicans  those who were part of the bipartisan accord  voted in favor.

The White House and Republican leaders put their muscle behind a rival measure from Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, that would protect the Dreamers and provide border security funds, but also severely limit legal immigration in the future.

It also failed to advance, showing the limits of a Republican-only strategy. The Trump-backed measure drew less support than the bipartisan measure, failing 39-60.

Senators from the bipartisan group, disappointed that the White House and GOP leaders tipped the scales against their proposal, vowed to try again after Congress returns from a recess next week.

Rounds acknowledged that Trumps veto threat hurt his groups effort but said the White House may be willing to start negotiating, now that its own bill failed to pass. Weve always said we only thought this would pass out of here if the White House would come on board. I think theyve put themselves in a position to where they can start negotiating.

A resolution, though, remains difficult, especially amid Trumps fluctuating views on immigration and both parties seeking advantage with voters ahead of midterm elections.

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Just last month, Trump told senators meeting at the White House on immigration policy that whatever bipartisan solution they could develop for the Dreamers facing deportation, he would sign into law.

But the presidents commitment proved fleeting. Though he had originally promised to help Dreamers, he ultimately was convinced by aides and conservative lawmakers to use the sympathy for Dreamers to exact broader limitations on legal immigration.

Trumps harsh criticism of the Rounds-King compromise marks a hardening of his immigration position.

President Trump has shown a remarkable ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor.

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Democrats slammed Trump for torpedoing the compromise bill. The White House, with this take it or leave it position, is evidently more interested in hurting kids who grew up here than in creating jobs and generating economic growth, said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) I think this is a decision our country is going to regret.

But the president wasnt acting alone, as Republican leaders, who had promised a free-wheeling and open debate, threw their support behind the White Houses preference, making sure the bipartisan effort was hobbled before the final vote.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his leadership team appeared confident they could blame Democrats, after Schumer led his party into a three-day government shutdown to force the immigration votes, for failing to embrace the White House effort.

The presidents provided a chance for these young people, said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). Its not Republicans fault.

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The Department of Homeland Security also launched a scathing attack on the Rounds-King bill ahead of Thursdays votes, in a move that stunned some senators.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the department had lost credibility in acting like a political organization instead of offering constructive input.

It seems as if DHS is intent on acting less like a partner and more like an adversary, Graham said in a statement.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), often seen as a centrist on immigration issues, said he voted against the bipartisan proposal because of the changes it would have made to deportation priorities, requiring immigration officials to first deport convicted criminals, national security threats and recent arrivals.

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Corker said he felt that would encourage more people to come to the country. The prioritization piece in essence began the process of creating another Dreamer category for 10 million people. I dont think that is what they intended,  Corker said.

He predicted the Senate will still have to deal with the end of DACA, adding that he thought a long-term extension of the program could be included in the omnibus budget bill coming up in several weeks.

The votes Thursday showed how far the brief, but intense, debate this week has moved senators from their staunch positions.

Democrats compromised by providing Trump $25 billion for beefed up border security, well beyond what had been imaginable at the start of the debate when just $1.8 billion in border funding was on the table.

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Harris called $25 billion for border security, particularly a border wall, a waste. I recognize that my colleagues faced the impossible challenge of crafting a bill that could meet the White Houses unreasonable and ever-shifting demands, she said in a statement. But regrettably this bill is simply not the answer.

Democrats also gave up efforts to provide legal protections for the parents of Dreamers, who in most cases violated immigration laws by bringing the children with them illegally into the country. It was a huge concession, especially as Dreamers have fought to shield their parents from deportation.

For Republicans, the willingness to reconsider DACA, an Obama-era program they railed against as illegal, is substantial. They have largely agreed that Dreamers should be allowed to remain in the United States, and be able to pursue a path to citizenship.

Both the White House proposal, and the one from the bipartisan group, would allow the immigrants, after 10 years, to apply for citizenship if they are working and otherwise law-abiding.

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brian.bennett@latimes.com

Twitter: @ByBrianBennett

lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

Twitter: @LisaMascaro

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UPDATES:

1:45 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Rounds, Harris and Corker.

1:05 p.m.: This article was updated with the Senate rejecting a bill backed by President Trump.

12:45 p.m.: This article was updated with the Senate vote on the bipartisan bill.

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11:00 a.m.: This article was updated with Trump administration quotes and additional reaction.

This article was originally published at 10:20 a.m.Bundestag Commissioner for Armed Forces, member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany Hans-Peter Bartels hopes German military will be a part of the future UN peacekeeping mission in Donbas.

He expressed this opinion in an interview with the group of publications of Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND), the Ukrainian service of Deutsche Welle reports.

According to Bartels, if a peacekeeping operation is launched under the aegis of the United Nations in Donbas, Germany will take an active part in it. At the same time, he referred to the text of the agreement between conservatives from the Cristian Democratic Union/Cristian Social Union and social democrats about the formation of a new "large coalition", where a possible UN peacekeeping mission in Donbas is described as a path to peace in this region.Sitting side by side at a long, black-draped table, six U.S. intelligence chiefs all sounded the same alarm  Russian meddling in U.S. politics didnt stop after the 2016 presidential race and could get worse in this years midterm elections.

It was a striking display of unanimity and one that left President Trump at odds  again  with his own hand-picked national security team.

Trump has downplayed and even denied Russian meddling in the U.S. election, which he largely portrays as a Democratic hoax meant to delegitimize his victory, leaving the nations spy services straining to prevent a repeat performance in November.

This is the largest gap I have ever seen between the urgency of the intelligence community and the response of the chief executive, said Michael Hayden, who headed the CIA and the National Security Agency under President George W. Bush.

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Hayden said it will be hard to adequately address Russian political interference without presidential direction because the issue requires a coordinated response.

You need emphasis, resources and restructuring  energized from the presidential level, he said.

Leon E. Panetta, who served as CIA director and secretary of Defense under President Obama, and as chief of staff to President Clinton, said U.S. intelligence officials seem determined to press forward despite disinterest from the White House.

The national security team is trying to keep the country focused on the key threats that are out there whether or not the president agrees or disagrees, Panetta said. I think their hope is that if they keep pressing on the importance of these threats from Russia that at some point the president will follow.

Panetta said thats not how the process is supposed to work on sensitive national security issues. Pushback normally happens inside the National Security Council, not in public.

In any other administration that Ive been a part of  having somebody out there contradict the president would be unacceptable, he said.

President Trump meets with members of Congress at the White House on Wednesday. (Mandel Ngan / AFP/Getty Images )

At the Senate hearing Tuesday, Dan Coats, director of national intelligence; Mike Pompeo, head of the CIA; Christopher A. Wray, the FBI director; and three other intelligence chiefs challenged or contradicted White House claims involving Russia, a declassified Republican memo about surveillance, and the security review for a senior Trump aide forced out on domestic violence allegations.

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They are hardly alone. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who travels the world in perpetual damage control mode, last week explained part of the disconnect during a visit to the Middle East. The presidents tweets dont define the policy, he said.

Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis felt compelled to tamp down fears of military conflict with North Korea last August after Trump tweeted, Talking is not the answer! The Pentagon chief publicly disagreed, saying, Were never out of diplomatic solutions.

Gordon Adams, a professor emeritus at American Universitys School of International Service, said its increasingly hard to figure out who is addressing the range of threats facing America.

The incoherence, the inconsistency, the persistent disconnect is quite unprecedented, Adams said.

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The dispute over Russian meddling is the most glaring. During the Senate hearing, the spy chiefs struggled to answer when Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) asked whether Trump had given specific orders to blunt Russian interference in the fall campaign  or had put anyone in charge of coordinating a response.

Were taking a lot of specific efforts, said Wray, the FBI director.

Directed by the president? Reed pressed.

Not as specifically directed by the president, Wray conceded.

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Reed then asked Pompeo whether the president had singled out the Russian threat, which appears to be critical to this election coming up.

Trump has asked the agency to do everything we can to ensure that we thoroughly understand this potential threat, the CIA director responded.

Follow live coverage of the Trump administration on Essential Washington 

Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian, described the episode as something we havent seen in modern history.

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After foreign attacks, Beschloss said, you usually see presidents pretty aroused and pretty eager to make sure it doesnt happen again.

Trump has tussled with U.S. spy chiefs since his election and the release several weeks later of a declassified intelligence community report that concluded groups backed by Russian intelligence had hacked Democratic Party emails and used social media in an operation aimed at undermining U.S. democracy and helping Trump beat Hillary Clinton.

After months of deriding the reports as ginned up by Democrats, Trump said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putins denial of any Moscow role after they met last November. Facing a subsequent outcry from Democrats and Republicans, Trump said he accepted the U.S. intelligence assessment.

Im with our agencies, especially as currently constituted with their leadership, he said. I believe in our intelligence agencies. Ive worked with them very strongly.

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Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is leading a criminal investigation into whether anyone from Trumps orbit assisted Russian attempts to interfere with the 2016 campaign. The president has denied any collusion, and his allies have tried to brush off questions about what kind of impact Moscow may have had.

On Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence said that it is the universal conclusion of our intelligence communities that none of those efforts had any impact on the outcome of the 2016 election.

But thats not what intelligence officials concluded. We did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election, said the report released shortly before Trumps inauguration.

Some of the most dramatic clashes have occurred between Trump and the FBI, even after the president fired James B. Comey as director last May and appointed Wray as a replacement.

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When House Republicans prepared a classified memo that alleged abuse by FBI and Justice Department officials seeking a surveillance warrant, Trump quickly declassified the memo and said it vindicated him.

At the Senate hearing Tuesday, Wray did not agree, repeating an FBI statement that the bureau had grave concerns about the memos accuracy.

Wray also contradicted the White House account of why Rob Porter continued to work as Trumps staff secretary after his two ex-wives told the FBI that Porter had been violent with them  accusations backed by photos, a police report and a judges restraining order.

That sparked another round of finger-pointing at the White House as to who knew what when about problems with Porters security clearance, widening the scandal.

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Kathleen Hicks, senior vice president at the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former Defense Department official, said its clear that the lack of coherence from the Trump administration is not a phase that will end.

The big downside is people cant really count on what you say or do, she said. There are all these different messages coming out.

Times staff writer Noah Bierman contributed to this report.

chris.megerian@latimes.com

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ALSO

As foreign hackers plot next attack, Washington struggles to shore up vulnerable voting systems

Controversial Republican memo alleges FBI abuses during 2016 campaign, but appears to be no smoking gunThis years flu shot is far from perfect, but its certainly better than nothing, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Preliminary data from five sites around the country suggest that people who got vaccinated this flu season reduced their risk of getting a serious case of influenza by 36%.

That figure covers all types of flu viruses circulating in the United States.

About two-thirds of the viruses going around this year are of the H3N2 variety  the one thats associated with more hospitalizations and deaths. Those who got a flu shot reduced their risk of being laid low by an H3N2 strain by 25%.

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If that seems modest, consider this: Australias flu shot reduced the risk of getting H3N2 by 10%, and Canadas vaccine reduced that risk by 17%, according to preliminary estimates. Neither of those amounts was large enough to be considered statistically significant.

The 25% decline in the U.S., on the other hand, was too big to be due to chance, the CDC report said.

The vaccine did a better job of protecting people against H1N1 flu strains  it reduced that risk by 67%. The flu shot also made serious infections with influenza B strains 42% less likely.

The effectiveness of the American flu shot appears to vary with age. For instance, it reduced the risk of getting a serious case of any type of flu by 59% among children ages 6 months through 8 years. (The vaccine isnt recommended for infants younger than 6 months of age.) For adults between the ages of 18 and 49, it reduced the risk of a serious flu by 33%.

Other age groups saw more modest degrees of vaccine effectiveness, ranging from 5% to 18%. But these risk reductions were too small for researchers to be sure they were more than a statistical fluke.

All these calculations were based on 4,562 children and adults who contracted an acute respiratory illness that was bad enough to send them to a doctor between Nov. 2, 2017, and Feb. 3, 2018. These patients were seen at the five universities and hospitals that make up the U.S. Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Network (Kaiser Permanente in Seattle, the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute in Wisconsin, the University of Michigan School in Ann Arbor, the University of Pittsburgh and Texas A&M University).

Respiratory specimens for all of these patients were sent to laboratories, and 38% of them came back positive for influenza.

Among the patients with influenza, 43% had gotten the 2017-2018 seasonal flu shot. Among the patients who didnt have influenza, 53% received the vaccine.

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The calculations of vaccine effectiveness  that is, how much the flu shot reduced ones risk of getting the flu  take into account the age, sex, race, ethnicity and geographic location of patients, as well as their general health and how long they had a respiratory infection before they went to see a doctor.

With February halfway over and springtime nearly in sight, procrastinators might be feeling that its too late to get a flu shot. The CDC has two words for these people: Its not.

Several more weeks of influenza activity are likely, the report authors warned. Vaccination will still prevent influenza illness, including thousands of hospitalizations and deaths.

During the 2014-2015 influenza season, the flu shot reduced the risk of serious illnesses by less than 20%. Even so, researchers estimated that the vaccine prevented somewhere between 11,000 and 144,000 flu-related hospitalizations and 300 to 4,000 flu-related deaths.

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A final accounting of vaccine effectiveness will come out after the end of the flu season, which might occur as late as May.

The new study was published Thursday in the CDCs Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

karen.kaplan@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @LATkarenkaplan and like Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook.

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In soil-dwelling bacteria, scientists find a new weapon to fight drug-resistant superbugsIn the field of regenerative medicine, induced pluripotent stem cells have a lot of neat tricks up their sleeves. One of them may be teaching the immune system how to beat back cancer.

In research that could open a new frontier in the young field of cancer immunotherapy, Stanford University scientists have found that inoculating mice with stem cells that have been inactivated by radiation significantly boosted the animals defenses against cancers of the breast, lungs and skin.

And when administered alongside an immune booster already in use among humans, a vaccine of inactivated stem cells prevented cancer from recurring and spreading in mice that already had tumors surgically removed.

The vaccines that showed such promise were made with normal skin or blood cells taken from the mice and then reprogrammed to their primitive form, when they had the potential to become many different kinds of cells.

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A vaccine based on these induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs, is years from fruition at best, and may never pan out in the long run.

But if it does, it could be administered prophylactically to patients at high risk of developing cancers due to their genetic makeup or their risky behaviors like smoking. Or it might be administered to cancer patients after their tumors out-of-control growth has been disrupted by surgery, chemotherapy or radiation.

The study was published Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

The reprogrammed stems cells must be inactivated with a blast of radiation before they can be used in the vaccine. That crucial step reduces the risk that once inside the body, they will run amok and give rise to tumors.

Dr. Eirini Papapetrou, a cancer researcher at Icahn School of Medicine in New York, called the studys results very remarkable.

A study in mice is a far cry from demonstrating that such a vaccine would protect humans from cancer, said Papapetrou, who was not involved in the new research. And as researchers aim to translate their findings to human treatments, they will have to show that inactivated stem cells are safe, she added.

But even if the Stanford teams work does not produce a single stem-cell vaccine, it could identify better targets for immune-boosting cancer drugs to home in on, Papapetrou said. And that could make a new class of cancer drugs, called CAR-T immunotherapy, more effective.

In the first experiment described by the authors, lab mice received variants of the iPSC vaccine before researchers injected them with mouse breast cancer cells. After a week, all of the mice had developed tumors. But 70% of the animals vaccinated with the stem cells and the immune-booster cleared their tumors completely in four weeks. The remaining 30% had significantly smaller tumors than mice that were seeded with breast cancer cells, but got no vaccine.

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In a second experiment, researchers inoculated mice with the iPSC vaccine and then injected them with mesothelioma cells, a form of lung cancer. Compared to mice that had not been vaccinated, those that got a mixture of stem cells and the immune booster mounted a robust defense against the cancer. In mice whose immune responses were strongest and most narrowly focused on the tumors, lung cancers were least likely to take hold and grow.

A third experiment using skin cancer cells demonstrated that an iPSC vaccine might be useful in preventing cancer recurrence or metastasis after an existing tumor has been surgically removed.

For this experiment, researchers infected mice with melanoma cells; after a tumor appeared, they performed surgery to remove it. At that point, some of the mice got the iPSC vaccine with an immune booster, and some got the immune booster only.

Mice that got neither treatment in the wake of surgery saw the rapid return of melanoma around the surgical site, as well as the appearance of metastases far from the original tumor. Mice that got the immune booster only maintained their tumor-free surgical sites, but suffered distant metastases. And the mice that got both the stem cells and the immune booster had no recurrence of tumors either close to or far from the surgical site.

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How do stem cells teach the immune system to fight cancer?

Because pluripotent stem cells have the potential to give rise to most any kind of cell, they also carry inside them the seeds of cancer. Indeed, the very qualities of self-renewal that make them so promising as regenerative medicine treatments also give them the potential to give rise to tumors.

Stem cells in their most primitive form bear the outward signs of that kinship with cancer. Hundreds of distinctive little fragments of protein  called antigens  are expressed on their surfaces, and many of those fragments look just like some of the surface proteins expressed by cancer cells.

To Stanford physicians and cell biologists Joseph Wu and Nigel G. Kooreman, this outward likeness seemed like a teaching opportunity for the immune system, and a chance to add some firepower to the burgeoning field of cancer immunotherapy.

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They surmised that if the immune system were trained to recognize the many proteins on stem cells, it would acquire a library of targets to draw on when it encountered cancer cells.

That would be a less-targeted approach than the one used by CAR-T immunotherapies. But it might prove more powerful, Wu and Kooreman figured.

In CAR-T treatments, doctors harvest some of a patients immune-system T-cells. Then they genetically engineer those defensive warriors to home in on a small handful of target proteins found on the surface of the patients own cancer. Finally, the population of these newly trained T-cells is multiplied and returned to the patient to fight that cancer.

But CAR-Ts effectiveness depends on scientists choice of just a few good targets for the immune system to go after. If the surface proteins they are trained to attack are not the right targets, or if cancer cells find a way to cloak those proteins from the immune system, they wont work.

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Perhaps showing the immune system all the proteins on the surface of a patients own stem cell would give it a whole bunch of targets to help it find and kill cancer cells. If one target protein wasnt right, another one would be.

Over years of studying stem cells, Wu said he could never answer which antigens on a cancer cells surface would serve as the best beacons for immune cells. In the end, he said, we probably dont have to identify which ones work best.

Theres hundreds of tumor-associated antigens on the surface of these cells  thousands even, Wu said. There are probably ones we dont even know about.

melissa.healy@latimes.com

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In soil-dwelling bacteria, scientists find a new weapon to fight drug-resistant superbugsA Palmdale man is in custody after police say he punched a man who is in his 70s and stole his car from a Burbank parking structure Wednesday afternoon.

Authorities say 25-year-old Kevin Green went up to the man around 2:30 p.m. as he sat in his vehicle, which was parked at a structure on 770 N. First Street. Green demanded the man get out of his car and hand over his keys; when he did so, Green allegedly punched him.

Sgt. Derek Green, a spokesman for the Burbank Police Department who is unrelated to the suspect, said Kevin Green then drove away from the area.

The victim suffered only a minor injury and remained at the scene to talk with officers, he said.

Deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department were able to locate the stolen vehicle several hours later after it was spotted in the Palmdale/Lancaster area.

Sgt. Green said the driver of the vehicle matched the description the victim gave of the carjacker.

Kevin Green was placed into custody and is being held on $100,000 bail. He faces a possible elder abuse charge in addition to carjacking.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_TrucMichael Obermeyer was a middle-aged artist working in a Laguna Beach Starbucks trying to make ends meet during the Great Recession.

Humbled and a little bitter, he did what he had to do for his wife and three children. But when he looked at his first paycheck he had to chuckle.

I could sell a 5-by-7 for that check, he said. And it just got to the point where I was really unhappy.

The worst part as an artist and someone who was self-employed for 20 years is being locked inside for six hours and you cant go out and do anything, he said. Youre like a caged animal.

Plus, the job was in the same close-knit town as his Laguna Canyon studio, so nearly everyone knew him.

His friends wondered what he was doing. He was an award-winning artist and a Festival of Arts exhibitor  now for 21 straight years. What more could he do?

But Starbucks was the only place that would hire him.

I applied at seven Trader Joes and got rejected by seven Trader Joes, he said.

Such is art. And more to the point, such is Obermeyer, a scrappy pragmatist and perennial nice guy who has always tried to make the best of things.

Still boyish and fit at 58, he survived the recession the same way that hes reinvented his artistic style since he was a boy: perseverance, hope and devilish fun.

He remembers vividly, for example, the first time he saw a naked woman. Raised in Canoga Park, his parents enrolled him in an after-school art program. He was about 5.

Its funny I would come out of Catholic school and go to this art school somewhere in the valley with paintings of naked women, he said. I was struggling in school, especially English and math, because I was just drawing, but one of my nuns, she saw something in me.

With teacher support, he survived high school and started at Cal State Long Beach, never wavering from his art.

He honed his craft and after college joined various professional art associations, including the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles. That was important because it led him to the United States Air Force Art Program.

Of course Obermeyer grew up with tons of model airplanes and earned his pilots license just out of high school.

So when the Air Force told him they wanted to fly him around the world as an observer and draw planes, he was in heaven.

Are you kidding me? he said.

He drew rocket launches at Vandenberg, made refueling runs in the Northwest, rode shotgun on anti-drug planes in Panama, but his favorite was flying in an F-16 over Peru.

To this day, his aviation drawings and paintings are in the Smithsonian, Pentagon and bases around the globe.

But like all things, that chapter of his life came to a close, largely through military cutbacks.

He had to transition his illustration work into something else. Illustrators were a dying breed because everything was going digital.

These guys coming out of college can do everything but they dont know anything about drawing, he said.

He remembers seeing a plein air exhibit in Newport Beach that was so vivid he could smell the dirt.

I was so intrigued. I thought, Ive got to go out and try to paint the outdoors, he said.

He quickly hit a roadblock. The fine lines and exacting nature of illustrations do not play well with the flowing, impressionistic plein air style.

Being an illustrator, the real tough part for me was loosening up. I think the illustrator background helped me as far as perspective, design and just basically laying out the painting  composing the painting quickly. When youre outdoors you have to do it really quick.

He also learned that its no longer all about the details of his beloved planes  or commercial buildings or houses  but the natural qualities that surround them.

When you have two hours or less to paint a scene outdoors because of the light changes, you really have to learn to squint and just put in the basic shapes, regardless of how much you see. You have to find your focal point and realize that youre just basically painting light. Its not the subject so much as how light hits the subject.

This notion of changing light is an interesting one  and almost like a metaphor for his life.

Its all the about the light, he said. Once I start painting, Im just painting form and light.

For Obermeyer, his journey now seems like its come full circle. After years of both bliss and uncertainty, he still cherishes his planes and dreams, his past and future. But hes working firmly in the present, teaching and relishing his gift.

Im constantly working on my craft. Hopefully someday I will get it down and have it all figured out, he said, tongue firmly in cheek.

For him, he probably would be disappointed to have it all figured out because there would be no more challenge. At the very least, hes learned to see and appreciate the light in front of him.

And if he ever doubts his path, he keeps his monogrammed Starbucks apron hanging in a corner of his studio as a reminder.

Once I left there I realized there are no bad days in art anymore, Obermeyer said. Anything that involves art, Im all in.

DAVID HANSEN is a writer and Laguna Beach resident. He can be reached at hansen.dave@gmail.com.Like several other cities and agencies before it, the Irvine Ranch Water District is staring down the barrel of a potential lawsuit seeking to change the voting system the district uses in its board elections.

In a letter sent Feb. 7, attorney Kevin Shenkman alleges the at-large election system  in which the five governing board members are chosen by voters throughout the districts service area  violates the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 and dilutes the ability of Latinos and Asians  to elect candidates of their choice or otherwise influence the outcome of elections.

He claims there has not been a single Latino or Asian to serve on IRWDs governing board since the agency was formed in 1961, even though those groups make up a significant portion of the districts population.

Irvine Ranch serves more than 380,000 residents in Irvine, portions of Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Lake Forest, Orange and Tustin and some unincorporated areas of Orange County.

Should Irvine Ranch not voluntarily change its election system, Shenkman warned, he will be forced to seek judicial relief on behalf of his clients, the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and its members.

Beth Beeman, Irvine Ranchs director of public affairs, said Thursday that the concerns raised in the letter are important to us because we have always believed our customers come first.

This is illustrated by our long history of active engagement and participation in the communities we serve and the many ways we offer our customers to learn, engage and participate in IRWD programs, both in the digital arena and in person, she said in a statement. We can provide further comments once we have had an opportunity to better understand and evaluate the letter.

Shenkman and his firm, Malibu-based Shenkman & Hughes, have threatened or filed similar California Voting Rights Act lawsuits against cities and school and special districts throughout Southern California in recent years.

Locally, he has represented plaintiffs in claims or lawsuits against the cities of Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District and the Coast Community College District.

Costa Mesa, Newport-Mesa and the college district have agreed to shift from at-large voting to district-based elections, in which voters in specified areas will elect one candidate from that area to represent them.

Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates said last year that his city was ready, willing and able to fight any such lawsuit from Shenkman and his firm.

luke.money@latimes.com

Twitter @LukeMMoneyCommercial pilots flying out of John Wayne Airport may transition to a quieter takeoff path late next month.

Newport Beach City Manager Dave Kiff told the City Council on Tuesday that the Federal Aviation Administration will begin using the path, which precisely hugs the curves of Newport Bay to avoid as many residential areas as possible, on March 29, assuming the FAAs budget is approved.

The curved departure is a key feature of a settlement the FAA and Newport Beach reached last month in the citys lawsuit over John Wayne Airport departure paths. The suit came after the federal agency changed the departure paths last spring, with planes turning left  and closer to homes  just as they lift off, not staying over the bay as they did before.

In other airport updates, Kiff said the city has retained two firms to provide advocacy and assistance on the citys key goals. Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney will work with the FAA and Congress, and Dynamic Strategy will work with local residents groups to emphasize those key goals to the carriers and kind of build a community message that would also allow our community members to have a forum and a stronger voice collectively, Kiff said.

The city is likely to spend about $700,000 to $800,000 this year to address airport concerns, Kiff said.

The goals include use of the quietest takeoff procedures when possible and the rapid incorporation of more technologically advanced planes such as the Boeing 737-MAX.

Kiff shared noise data from a recent Southwest Airlines flight out of John Wayne that used the quieter, more fuel-efficient 737-MAX. The Dec. 24 flight registered six to seven decibels lower than typical jets when it flew over noise monitors near the Back Bay near Eastbluff Elementary School and on Santiago Drive near the bays west side. The human ear can distinguish changes at about three decibels, Kiff said.

The planes noise didnt register at all at the next noise monitor between Newport Dunes and Back Bay View Park, which Kiff said was a good, if not conclusive, sign.

He said airlines are a few years from full adoption of the newer planes.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHDSeveral La Crescenta residents found their homes ransacked in a series of local burglaries last week, according to authorities.

The first of the burglaries was reported on Feb. 6 in the 4800 block of Briggs Avenue. A resident had woken up from an afternoon nap to discover that his late mothers coin collection had been stolen, according to an incident report from the Crescenta Valley Sheriffs Station.

According to the report, the man had been living in a nearby guest house and had placed most of his mothers valuables in the front room of the main home.

[The man] said he has been extra vigilant to make sure the house is always locked up with items just sitting in front of the room, the report states.

He told deputies that when he awoke from his nap he saw a doors deadbolt was unlocked and the front door was open despite his having locked them both before he went to sleep.

There were no visible signs of forced entry into the home, according to the report.

The next two burglaries occurred on Feb. 9.

A woman arrived at her home in the 2800 block of Frances Avenue and found the front door unlocked and its glass shattered.

[The woman] saw the shattered glass on the kitchen floor and various ransacked items in the kitchen and hallway, according to a sheriffs report.

Several rooms in the home had been ransacked, and the thieves stole an iPad and several pieces of silver.

Another burglary was reported less than a mile away in the 4900 block of Glenwood Avenue, where thieves used a boarded up pet door to break into a home.

The part of the door inside the home had been covered with drywall but the portion facing the outside was exposed, a sheriffs report states.

The report said entry was made into the house by unknown person(s) by kicking in the drywall and crawling into the living room portion of the home.

After gaining entry, the thieves proceeded to rifle through the home. Several pieces of jewelry and a laptop computer were reported stolen.

An attempted burglary was also reported that day just after 2 p.m. in the 5400 block of La Crescenta Avenue.

A resident heard noise coming from his backyard and saw the silhouette of a person walking behind his home. According to the sheriffs station, the man saw nothing when he went outside to check for the source of the noise.

However, when he checked his video surveillance system, he saw that two men had been in the back of his home.

As the two suspects approached the residences rear door, they saw that the residents were home and fled toward the front of the residence, a sheriffs report states.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_TrucFeb. 6

Shoplifting: 600 block of Foothill Boulevard (Plaza de La Canada shopping center). A store employee reported seeing three young adults  two slender black males wearing hooded jackets and carrying backpacks, and a black female who was carrying what appeared to be an empty white shopping bag  enter the store together at around 8 p.m. One of the males asked where the restroom was. After being given directions, he and his companions went toward the restroom and stood near it for about five minutes. They then moved toward the cosmetics section. The employee could hear items being taken off display shelves, so he went to check on them and saw one of the suspects putting cosmetic items into the backpack hed been carrying. All three suspects then left the store without paying for the items, which included multiple Revlon lipsticks, eye shadows, nail polishes and other cosmetics. The deputy who wrote the report noted that another deputy had been called to a store in the 3000 block of Foothill Boulevard in La Crescenta less than an hour later where three suspects matching the same descriptions had shoplifted cosmetics there.

Feb. 7

Identity theft: 600 block of Georgian Road. A man reported that between Jan. 17 and Feb. 5, someone used his name, Social Security number, home and work addresses to open credit cards at Lowes and the Home Depot.

Grand theft from unlocked vehicle: 3700 block of Berwick Drive. A man reported that he left his 2017 Jaguar parked, unlocked, in the driveway in front of his residence at about 1 p.m. Feb. 6. Thinking he would return to it soon, he left his wallet in it. At about 1:30 a.m. the next day, his parents woke him up to tell him theyd heard the car start, then immediately shut off. He went outside at that time to investigate but didnt see anything amiss. Later that morning he discovered that his wallet  containing his drivers license, five credit cards, his health insurance card and some currency  was missing from the car, as were a pair of Tom Ford sunglasses and the Jaguars key. He noticed a large handprint on the cars hood and discovered the plastic grill was bent.

Feb. 9

Burglary, business: 600 block of Foothill Boulevard (Plaza de La Canada shopping center). Three black males and two black females entered a store together, went directly to the handbag display, took three high-end handbags (Louis Vuitton, Valentino and Longchamp brands) and exited the store without paying for them.

Burglary, residential: 800 block of Lynnhaven Lane. A man reported he was standing in his kitchen at about 12:20 p.m. that day when he saw two men, one with a gray bag over his shoulder and the other with a black backpack over his shoulder, running from his neighbors front yard and onto the street. Both men covered their faces with their sweatshirt hoods and were wearing gloves. They climbed into the rear seat of a four-door Nissan, which was then driven up Princess Anne Road and out of view. The witness went outside, heard his neighbors burglar alarm sounding and called 911. Responding deputies found that a bathroom window at the neighbors home had been shattered and the front door was unlocked, so they surmised entry had been made through the window, with the thieves exiting through the front door after ransacking the house. The victims said that when theyd left the house at midmorning, all doors and windows had been secured.Train fans will have more travel options in April when Eurostar adds service between London and the Dutch cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Starting April 4, travelers will be able to take the train from St. Pancras station in London to Rotterdam in three hours, and to Amsterdam in three hours and 41 minutes, a news release said.

As the service rolls out, passengers will travel directly to the Dutch cities. But on the return, there will be a stop for passport checks in Brussels, Belgium.

Eurostar hopes to capture some of the estimated 4 million fliers between London and Amsterdam each year with its 200-mph trains. The rail service launched in 1994 with London-Paris service.

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Tickets go on sale Tuesday and start at 35 British pounds ($48) each way.

How does Eurostar compare time-wise to flying? Nonstop flights between London and Amsterdam take one hour; flights with one stop take about three hours.

If you add the amount of the time you spend getting to and from airports (generally at least an hour each way) and arriving early for screening, the train journey may be a more enjoyable option.

Eurostar travelers may board as late as 30 minutes before the train departs, and are allowed two suitcases and one carry-on bag for free.

Info: Eurostar

travel@latimes.com

@latimestravelUkrainian Ambassador to the United States Valeriy Chaly, together with President and CEO of the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) Ray Washburne and President of Energoatom Yuriy Nedashkovsky, has attended the ceremony on signing documents related to the financing of the construction of the centralized spent nuclear fuel storage facility in Ukraine.

A report posted on the Facebook page of the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States on February 14 says that the storage facility will store nuclear fuel from three nuclear power plants in Ukraine.

"In accordance with the agreement, Bank of America Merrill Lynch arranged the placement of fixed-rate bonds on the U.S. stock market for borrowing $250 million in political risk insurance from OPIC. Energoatom will receive a 20-year loan for the relevant amount. Energoatom and U.S. company Holtec International began the construction of the storage facility in November 2017," the report says.

The ambassador said that the project for the construction of the centralized spent nuclear fuel storage facility was being implemented jointly with U.S. partners and was "an important step towards strengthening Ukraine's energy security."

"The project not only enhances our energy security, but also has a significant positive social and economic effect, in particular, creating new highly paid jobs in Ukraine. After the construction of the storage facility, Ukraine will save considerable funds by refusing to transport and store spent nuclear fuel in Russia," Ukraine's Embassy in the U.S. said.Millionaire ex-businessman Cyril Ramaphosa, sworn into office as South Africas new president Thursday evening, comes to power facing the same entrenched problems that have stumped the governing African National Congress in nearly 24 years in power: gaping inequality, failing education and health systems and enduring unemployment.

Ramaphosa told Parliament he intended to address corruption and strengthen South Africas state-owned enterprises. He also vowed to work to improve the lives of South Africans.

What we have always said is that we will improve the lives of our people on an ongoing basis, and that is what we have been doing since 1994. The lives of our people have been improving on an ongoing basis. All of us should work to improve the lives of our people and take their lives to a higher level, he told opposition parties in Parliament.

South Africa must come first in everything that we all do, he said, adding he would do his best not to disappoint his countrymen.

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He was sworn into office at an evening ceremony at the presidential office in Cape Town several hours after being elected president in Parliament, as the candidate of the majority ANC party.

The biggest immediate challenge for Ramaphosa is to rebuild the ANCs waning electoral support before elections due next year by convincing jaded voters that a party in power since 1994 will be more competent and responsive in the future.

He inherits the task of unraveling the web of patronage and corruption that spread in the party and the government during former President Jacob Zumas term  without alienating too many powerful beneficiaries in the party. He has to resurrect South Africas ailing state-owned enterprises, such as South African Airways and the electricity provider Eskom, saddled with debt and requiring successive hefty bailouts from the treasury.

Nominating Ramaphosa in Parliament for the presidency Thursday, ANC lawmaker Patrick Maesola called him a revolutionary figure. Business and foreign investors see him as anything but revolutionary  stable, reliable and business-friendly.

As president, Ramaphosa must bridge seemingly incompatible ideas  implementing the partys radical economic transformation policy, including land seizures with no compensation, and also encouraging investment.

The growing strength of South Africas currency, the rand, in the hours since Zumas departure Wednesday night suggests the business community is confident Ramaphosa will avoid the controversial measure of taking land without compensation, even if that is party policy. The rand Thursday reached its highest point in nearly three years.

In Zimbabwe, land seizures, initially popular, caused the collapse of agriculture and plunged the countrys economy into a prolonged crisis.

Ramaphosa is a former union official who abandoned politics in the 1990s after he failed in his ambition to succeed Nelson Mandela and become the second black president.

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Instead, he went into business and used his connections as a political insider to make his fortune in mining, banking, insurance, fast food and other businesses. Forbes estimated his fortune at around $450 million in 2015.

The son of a policeman, Ramaphosa was born in Soweto and gained a law degree before joining the union movement. He became secretary-general of the ANC in 1991.

As a unionist in the 1990s he helped negotiate an end to apartheid and played a key role in drafting South Africas constitution.

Ramaphosas most intractable challenge is unemployment, which is about 27%. The figure is considered conservative and does not include the many people who have given up looking for a job. Analysts say about 67% of young people aged 18 to 24 are jobless.

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The countrys growth has been too sluggish to provide jobs, particularly for unskilled young people who leave South Africas struggling government schools ill-equipped for the work force. The International Monetary Fund has predicted growth of just 0.07% in 2018.

Ramaphosa has said that by creating a sense of energy, renewal and a commitment to clean up corruption, he will restore investor confidence. He told reporters last month he had returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, with many promises of investment.

He has promised to grow the economy, increase black ownership of companies and financial institutions, and create a million jobs in the next five years.

In a sign that he can be tone-deaf about his countrys poverty, Ramaphosa, a keen game farmer, bid around $2.1 million on a buffalo cow at auction in 2012, but was outbid. He later apologized for making the bid in a sea of poverty, but admitted the move had been damaging.

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Ramaphosa was attacked for the auction bid by Julius Malema, leader of the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters  who also faulted him for his role on the board of platinum mining company Lonmin. In August 2012, 34 people, mostly striking Lonmin miners, were killed when police opened fire on them.

A commission of inquiry found later that Lonmin did not engage adequately with its employees nor try to protect them from harm.

Ramaphosas role in the crisis was controversial because he contacted the police minister and mining minister requesting more police be sent to handle the crisis. In an email to a Lonmin colleague, he said the strikers are plainly and dastardly criminal and must be characterized as such, extraordinary language for a former union official.

Ramaphosa later apologized for the language he used, but said he was trying to prevent further deaths after the killings of 10 workers. The commission of inquiry later found his call for more police to control the Lonmin situation did not contribute to the massacre of striking workers by police.

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Ramaphosa has also been criticized, along with other members of Jacob Zumas Cabinet, of being complicit in the failures of the Zuma years.

The ANCs new top six including its new president are complicit directly or indirectly in the corruption and capture of the state through their own actions or lack of action, an opposition leader and former ANC member Mosiuoa Lekota, leader of the Congress of the People, said Thursday.

South Africans  and the international investor community  will be watching to see if Ramaphosa fires controversial ministers who were closely associated with Zuma, including finance minister Malusi Gigaba, energy minister David Mahlobo, mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane and social development minister Bathabile Dlamini.

Zuma is criticized for allowing his friends the Guptas, a powerful business family, too much influence in government affairs, including the hiring and firing of ministers. Zumas son, Duduzane Zuma, was in business with the Guptas.

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On Wednesday, the Hawks, a special police unit that fights high-profile crimes, arrested eight people associated with a dairy project in the Free State that was allegedly used to siphon millions of dollars to Gupta family interests.

Among those who appeared in court Thursday over the project was a member of the family, Varun Gupta. The Hawks announced Thursday that an arrest warrant had been issued for another family member, Ajay Gupta.

Some have questioned why the Hawks did not act earlier on allegations in 2016 by a deputy finance minister and an ANC lawmaker that they were offered Cabinet jobs and inducements by members of the Gupta family in return for advancing the familys business interests. The Guptas have denied any wrongdoing and claim attacks on them are political.

Critics of the Zuma era will be eyeing Ramaphosa to see if his anti-corruption drive becomes a means to oust his political enemies, or if he takes action to restore the independence of the Hawks and prosecuting authority.

UPDATES:

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11:40 a.m.: This article was updated with more information about Ramaphosas background and challenges.

7:15 a.m.: This article was updated throughout with staff reporting.

This article was originally published at 5:15 a.m.Russia began blocking opposition leader Alexei Navalnys website on Thursday after the countrys communications regulator threatened to shut down access to YouTube and Instagram if the social media sites did not remove the anti-corruption crusaders posts on a Kremlin-connected oligarch.

The oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, was featured in Navalnys latest anti-corruption investigation video posted last week on the opposition activists YouTube and other social media accounts.

The video, which has had more than 5 million views, focuses on meetings between Deripaska, an aluminum and mining tycoon, and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko on Deripaskas yacht.

Navalnys video claims Deripaska used the meetings with Prikhodko to brief the Russian Cabinet member on information he had received from Paul Manafort, President Trumps campaign chief during the 2016 U.S. election.

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The investigation draws on the tell-all book and Instagram account of Nastya Rybka, a 21-year-old model and escort. Rybka, whose real name is Anastasia Vashukevich, said the men paid her for her company.

An oligarch takes a top government official on a ride on his own yacht  thats a bribe, Navalny said in a video. An oligarch pays for all of this, including young women from escort agencies. Believe it or not, that is also a bribe.

Deripaska filed a lawsuit against Vashukevich in Ust-Labinsk, a city in southern Russias Krasnodar region, where the tycoon pays taxes.

The Washington Post last year reported that Manafort, who previously had business dealings with Deripaska, offered to give the oligarch briefings on Trumps campaign. Deripaska has denied receiving Manaforts offer. Manafort was indicted in October by the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election campaign.

Russias communication regulator, Roskomnadzor, on Feb. 9 ordered YouTube and Instagram to remove material related to the Navalny investigation. Roskomnadzor gave the social media companies until Feb. 14 to block the material from their sites. If they did not comply, the regulator said it would completely block the sites in Russia.

Navalnys team said it received an email from the legal team at YouTube, which is owned by Google, on Tuesday, stating that the campaign must comply with the request from Roskomnadzor and remove the content from Navalnys channels.

OKAY GOOGLE, what about freedom of speech? tweeted Oksana Baulina, a member of Navalnys team.

The YouTube content about Deripaska remained accessible Thursday after Navalnys website was blocked in Russia. However, Instagram on Feb. 15 complied with Russias order and removed the related material from its site.

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The federal regulators order also requires any Russia media organization to remove the content from its websites. Many news websites have complied by removing links to the video.

Navalny last year launched a bid to run against Putin in the March 18 presidential election. Navalnys campaign rallies across the country have drawn thousands of supporters, many of whom were young and closely following his YouTube channels corruption investigations and weekly shows.

Although it is widely expected that Putin will win a fourth term, the Kremlin has been rattled by the turnout at several Navalny-organized anti-corruption protests across the country.

The Russian central election committee has banned Navalny from registering his campaign, citing a 2013 bribery conviction that the opposition leader said was politically motivated.

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sabra.ayres@latimes.com

Twitter: @sabraayres

Ayres is a special correspondent.Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has submitted a resignation letter after the worst antigovernment protests in a quarter-century, the state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate reported Thursday.

The prime minister said he tried his utmost effort to solve the crisis in his country and he is resigning now to be part of a solution to it, the report said. It was not immediately clear whether lawmakers had accepted the resignation.

Ethiopia has been rocked by months of protests demanding wider freedoms that have left hundreds dead and tens of thousands detained. The government in recent weeks released more than 6,500 detained opposition figures, journalists and others after the prime minister in a surprise January announcement said he wanted to widen the democratic space for all.

The protests have disrupted life and business in one of Africas fastest-growing economies.

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The 53-year-old prime minister will continue in his role until the power transition is completed, the Fana Broadcasting Corporate report said. He also seeks to unseat himself from the ruling Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front, the report said.

Ethiopias demonstrations demanding wider freedoms began in late 2015 and engulfed much of the restive Oromia and Amhara regions before spreading into other parts of the country, leading to a months-long state of emergency that has since been lifted.

Ethiopias government has long been accused of arresting critical journalists and opposition leaders. Rights organizations and opposition groups have called for their release, saying they were arrested on trumped-up charges and punished for their points of view

The academic-turned-politician has led Ethiopia since 2012 after the death of former strongman Meles Zenawi. He also served as deputy prime minister and foreign minister under the former leader before assuming power. He also was elected chairman of the African Union in 2013.The readmission of former Georgian President and leader of the Movement of New Forces party Mikheil Saakashvili from Ukraine to Poland was legal, but there are questions to the procedure for its implementation, according to Valeria Lutkovska, the Verkhovna Rada's human rights commissioner.

"The readmission was indeed legal. The other question is how it was implemented and whether there was in this case excessive use of force against the man. This is a question that remains open. The question remains open about transportation. This is one of the questions that I asked the border and migration services. There are still some procedural issues that concern readmission, to which I would like to receive answers, and there is one more question: 'Is it possible to carry out the readmission of a person who now has the status of a defendant?'" Lutkovska told Channel 5 on Wednesday, February 14.

Saakashvili was detained in Kyiv on February 12 and returned to Poland in accordance with readmission procedures. Oleh Slobodian, spokesman for the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service, said Saakashvili had been returned "to the country of previous stay" (Poland).

The Polish Border Guard Service said Saakashvili had been admitted to Poland on the basis of a statement by the Ukrainian State Migration Service on readmission. The agency said that "the Ukrainian side's request was granted," given that Saakashvili is married to a citizen of an EU country.Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says he discussed prospects for deploying a UN peacekeeping mission to Donbas and the liberation of captives in his telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

"Our press release made this public, the purpose [of the conversation] mainly included two components. Component one is what was voiced exactly three years ago, in early 2015, while Minsk 2 was being drawn up. We vitally need peacekeepers. Nobody embraced my proposal at the time, but now, after three years of painstaking efforts, an absolute majority of the United Nations Security Council member states plus those who support Ukraine firmly insist on the absolute necessity of a UN peacekeeping mission," Poroshenko told journalists on Thursday.

He said he envisioned a peacekeeping mission to be deployed throughout the entire occupied territory, a mission that "will be empowered to establish order, hold people accountable, disarm illegal armed groups and bring peace to Ukrainian soil, and provide conditions for reintegrating these territories back to Ukraine."

The second component discussed during the conversation concerns the people whom Russia is holding in captivity, Poroshenko said. "We definitely cannot stop in our efforts to get our hostages freed, which is actively promoted by both Ms. Iryna [Gerashchenko, Ukraine's representative in the Trilateral Contact Group humanitarian subgroup and Verkhovna Rada first deputy speaker] and my entire team. Seventy-four hostages were freed before New Year's, and I discussed specific details, specific names, and specific lists, including both those whom we have to return from the occupied territories and those we have to return from Russia. I can't and won't give you any names now, because this would hinder the return process," he said.

Poroshenko said his team and he were doing all they could "to return home our soldiers held illegally in prisons in the occupied territory: Mr. Suschenko, Mr. Sentsov, Mr. Kolchenko, the Crimean Tatars, and others held in the territory of the Russian Federation."

"The conversation dealt mainly with this," Poroshenko said.When Easton Area School District Superintendent Susan McGinely wouldn't fire administrator Stephen Furst, the school board brought in someone who would, according to Furst's attorney.

That's the allegation attorney Carolyn Furst made to wrap up nearly a year's worth of testimony in a civil trial involving her husband.

School district attorney Jonathan Huerta, however, said Furst's departure from the district had nothing to do with revenge for whistleblowing. He said Furst took a deal and wasn't fired when he left the district in 2015.

Furst is seeking $4 million to cover back pay, lost pension, benefits and attorney fees. His civil trial started in March 2017. Testimony wrapped up Tuesday. Northampton County Judge Emil Giordano said he'll rule by March 1.

Carolyn Furst said her husband was demoted and later fired because he reported cyber-spying on behalf of former technology director Thomas Drago. The school district resented Furst going to police after Drago peeked into Furst's computer more than 800 times.

School board members were outraged he went over their heads, according to Carolyn Furst. Wiliam Rider called Furst a "jackbag," according to testimony. Frank Pintabone said "f---ing fire them all," in reference to Furst and other whistleblowing administrators.

Stephen Furst was demoted after John Reinhart was hired as superintendent in 2013.

"The board wanted a puppet superintendent to do their dirty work," Carolyn Furst said. "That's exactly what they got in John Reinhart."

The state Secretary of Education investigated the demotion and found it was not politically motivated, Huerta pointed out. While Drago's spying may have been excessive, he had permission to do it. Drago was never charged with a crime for spying on anyone. He entered a special program for first-time criminal offenders for illegally recording a private meeting, but not for spying.

Furst later left the district after pornography was found on his district-issued computer. Some pictures of naked children were traced back to another district employee. Furst maintains the photos came from a used hard drive at one time assigned to that employee, and the photos were of her child.

A handful of lewd photos couldn't be traced back to the other employee, though. Carolyn Furst said the district incorrectly assumed her husband downloaded them even though they were in a Dropbox folder that could have been accessed by other employees.

Huerta said Furst neglected to call a district information technology specialist to testify about how the photos may have wound up on the computer. He could have explored the issue at a termination hearing but he chose to resign.

Furst said her husband had no choice but to resign when he was wrongly accused of downloading child pornography. She said the district set aside his 31-year exemplary career as an educator and gave him 24 hours to resign or they would expose him as a viewer of child pornography.

When he learned the photos had been discovered, he pulled his car over and vomited, she said.

"He was compelled to resign and he had no choice," she said.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.Seven current and former correction officers at Lackawanna County Prison were arrested Wednesday, accused of repeatedly sexually abusing or assaulting female inmates.

The charges came following a year-long grand jury investigation by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

The following men were arrested by agents with the attorney general's office and troopers with the Pennsylvania State Police:

John Shnipes, 42, of Eynon, Pa.

Jeffrey Staff, 42, of Wyoming, Pa.

George Efthimiou, 50, of Taylor, Pa.

Mark Johnson, 53, of Scranton.

George McHale, 50, Scranton.

Paul Voglino, 45, of Carbondale, Pa.

James Walsh, 51, Roaring Brook, Pa.

"These women inmates were subjected to repeated sexual assaults by these prison guards in a persistent culture of abuse that extended for years at the prison," Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Thursday at a news conference at the Dunmore barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police. "These women literally had nowhere to turn for help, and they considered this horrendous behavior to be the 'status quo.' Today, working with our agents and the Pennsylvania State Police, we're putting a stop to it."

Bernie Brown, who represents Staff, Voglino and Johnson, told the Scranton Times-Tribune the charges were "trumped up" by women who are suing the prison and county.

Shapiro said said one accuser reported being coerced into a prison utility closet by another guard, where he sexually assaulted her. The assaults were repeated more than 10 times, investigators said.

The guards would stick their genitalia through slots in cell doors and force female inmates to touch them, the Times-Tribune reported, leading to the act having its own slang term.



In exchange for the alleged sexual assaults, these guards promised inmates commissary items, food, cigarettes or extra phone time.

Shapiro said in a few instances, allegations were reported to prison personnel and it appears no action was taken.

"This is outrageous conduct by those placed in positions of power," Shapiro said.

Investigators believe there may be victims and witnesses fearful to come forward.

"You don't have to be afraid," he said, urging them to call his office at 570-846-4074.

In September, state troopers and agents raided the jail at North Washington Avenue, its work release center on Spruce Street and the county's Administration Building on Adams Avenue as part of the investigation, the Times-Tribune reported.

Schnipes is facing 16 charges from incidents in 1999 and 2011, including institutional sex assault and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. He is free after posting $100,000 bail.

Johnson is facing six charges, including institutional sex assault and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. He is free after posting $25,000 bail.

Walsh is charged with eights counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, stemming from an incident in 2000. He is free on $50,000 unsecured bail.

McHale is charged with institutional sex assault and two counts of indecent assault. He is free on $50,000 unsecured bail.

Voglino is charged with two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. He is free on $25,000 unsecured bail.

Staff and Efthimiou were charged with institutional sex assault, and are each free on $25,000 unsecured bail.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.An Easton man is accused of a series of car break-ins earlier this month in Bethlehem and Palmer townships, one of which was caught on camera.

Palmer police said it received a tip that Kevin Lee Huber was the thief in the crimes committed overnight Feb. 1 and 2. The tip led them to raid his Easton apartment Wednesday afternoon.

The 48-year-old Huber was found on the second floor of the apartment at 1251 Lehigh St., and was arrested.

Huber was charged with 13 counts of theft from a vehicle, as well as single counts of theft and loitering.

He was sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $25,000 bail.

Bethlehem Township police asked for the public's help in identifying the car thief, caught on camera. Police at the time said the man broke into numerous vehicles in the east end of Bethlehem Township, near the Palmer Township border.

Huber, who was born in Phillipsburg, has a lengthy criminal record in New Jersey, including 12 convictions.

He was sentenced to three years in prison in 2012 in Warren County for receiving stolen property, then was arrested in December 2013 for another car break-in spree in Palmer Township, court records show.

Less than two years later Huber was arrested again, charged with multiple counts of loitering, receiving stolen property and conspiracy to commit theft from a motor vehicle.

Huber pleaded guilty to loitering and conspiracy, and was sentenced Sept. 1, 2016, to two months to 18 months in county prison.

He was paroled Sept. 29, 2016, and a year later a warrant was issued for his arrest for allegedly violating his parole.

Huber was arrested Jan. 11 of this year, and ordered to serve the remainder of his sentence, but granted immediate work release on Jan. 19.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.Phillipsburg's mayor says a hostile environment is to blame for his absence from recent council meetings, an explanation he provided over public posts on social media.

"I received an email from the council president (Robert Fulper) in January informing me I am no longer invited to sit at the dais at council meetings," Mayor Stephen Ellis said Tuesday in a post on his Facebook page. He said Fulper was "upset" at the mayor's opposition to recent council action against town employees.

My recent absence from council meetings : I remain open to a cooperative working environment, but I received an email... Posted by Stephen Ellis, Mayor on Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Council is led by a three-person Republican majority, all of whom -- including Fulper -- were elected last year. Earlier this month, a divided council in a series of actions docked some employees' pay and reassigned another's duties.

In a nearly 10-minute video posted to YouTube and the town's official Facebook page, the mayor, a Democrat, said the council overstepped its authority with the moves, saying that they should have gone through his office.

In response to a comment on his Facebook page, Ellis posted text from what he said was the email from Fulper. It accused the mayor of harassing council members and invited him to sit with residents, but said he would be thrown out if he became "unruly."

Fulper, in an emailed statement Wednesday to lehighvalleylive.com, said the mayor "chose to banish himself" and accused Ellis himself of being a distraction. The decision to ask the mayor to sit with the audience "was based upon his untruthful behavior and personal attacks on his social media account, and his nonsensical and sometimes absent responses to our inquiries," the council president said.

"The people want and deserve results," Fulper said later in his statement. "If the mayor would rather resort to social media to hold court, than that's exactly what he should do over the next two years."

Ellis, meanwhile, told lehighvalleylive.com that he believes he has been the target of political opponents stacking "Jerry Springer-like" meetings with supporters, and that by removing himself from the meetings he hopes to "calm the waters." In the meantime, he said posting social media provides him a means to communicate about council actions in a controlled environment.

"I don't have to be 1) humiliated as mayor, and 2) targeting cannot take place" in his absence, Ellis said.

"I'm not avoiding controversy at all," he continued. "I'm avoiding embarrassment for the town of Phillipsburg."

In December, Ellis posted on Facebook that he would "attend council meetings when appropriate."

I will be coming out with a 2018 Plan on January 1, 2018. I plan on changing things up a little by getting back to... Posted by Stephen Ellis, Mayor on Sunday, December 24, 2017

Another post early in January said he missed the council's reorganization meeting for health reasons.

The mayor said he intends to attend next week's meeting, where he will sit in the audience as issues involving paid parking and municipal employees are discussed.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.NATO-Russia relations will not develop until Russia changes its policy towards Ukraine, a NATO official has said.

She said at a briefing in Brussels on Thursday that illegal annexation of Crimea was recognized as a problem not only by NATO.

Sudan, North Korea and several other countries recognized Crimea as part of Russia, but there were a number of resolutions that this is a common problem, and not just a problem for NATO. The alliance and the member states will never recognize Crimea as part of Russia, this problem will remain in our relations. There were a number of sanctions imposed by a number of institutions, the EU, seven countries. This is not limited to Crimea, the situation also is destabilized in Donbas, she noted.

According to the NATO official, in the situation with Russian aggression the issue concerns a serious violation since the Second World War, that is, when one country grabs part of the territory of another country.

We will continue to discuss destabilizing actions in Ukraine carried out by Russia. It's about illegal annexation of Crimea and militarization of the Black Sea region and other provocative activities... We must reduce the number of risks to prevent accidents and incidents. Discussions as part of the NATO-Russia Council are difficult. On the topic of Ukraine, we do not have common ground, but we believe that it is important to have a dialogue, she said.Stock Market News

A quarter of British exporters yet to review post-Brexit trading strategy 15-02-2018 14:29



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.ukStock Market News

AstraZeneca's selumetinib gets FDA designation for new treatment 15-02-2018 07:08



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.ukStock Market News

BGEO's Georgia Capital considering Eurobond issuance 15-02-2018 08:39



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.ukStock Market News

Concepta signs Chinese marketing agreement 15-02-2018 08:13



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.ukStock Market News

FTSE 100 movers: SA-exposed stocks rally; Standard Life slides 15-02-2018 13:06



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.ukStock Market News

GKN makes latest play in Melrose takeover ping-pong 15-02-2018 07:54



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.ukStock Market News

NewRiver buys 2 retail parks for 26.5 15-02-2018 07:21



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.ukStock Market News

Oxford BioMedica signs collaboration agreement with Bioverativ 15-02-2018 08:27



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.ukStock Market News

Santhera enters agreement with Polyphor to licence POL6014 15-02-2018 08:16



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.ukStock Market News

Thursday newspaper round-up: Wages, sterling, Sky, food warning, Booker 15-02-2018 06:43



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.ukSolomiansky District Court of Kyiv hasn't granted the motion of anti-corruption authorities to arrest Mayor of Odesa Hennadiy Trukhanov with an alternative of UAH 50 million and released him against guarantees of MP Dmytro Holubov.

"To refuse in response to the motion of the detective from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. To immediately release a suspect Hennadiy Leonidovych Trukhanov from the courtroom," the court's decision reads.

The court ordered the guarantor to ensure the appearance of the suspect in the investigative bodies.

Holubov was elected to the parliament by the majority district No. 136 in Odesa region. He is a member of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction.Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, acting President of Ukraine from February 23 to June 7, 2014, Oleksandr Turchynov, has said he didn't give the order to shoot down a helicopter used by ex President Viktor Yanukovych to fly from Kharkiv on February 22.

"No, I did not give such orders or instructions," he said, answering an appropriate question from the prosecutor during the testimony in the Obolonsky district court of Kyiv on the case of Viktor Yanukovych's state treason.Observers from the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE SMM) recorded 401,000 instances of ceasefire violation in the Donbas conflict zone in 2017, the SMM's first deputy head Alexander Hug said.

During the whole of 2017 SMM observers recorded at least 401,000 ceasefire violations and 4,000 weapons present where they should not have been under the disengagement agreement, Hug said at a briefing in Severodonetsk, Luhansk region on Thursday.

Also, since the beginning of the year the SMM has confirmed 18 civilian casualties (dead and injured).

In 2017, the SMM confirmed 479 civilian casualties (dead and injured), he said.There was a rise in enemy activity in the Anti-Terrorist operation (ATO) zone in Donbas on Thursday, as the result of which a member of Ukrainian Armed Forces has been killed, Kyiv said.

"All in all, six deliberate attacks have been recorded since the day began. Unfortunately, as the result of hostile fire, one Ukrainian serviceman was killed," the ATO press center said on Facebook.

In the sector of Luhansk, the enemy fired 82mm mortars and large-caliber machineguns, the report reads.

In the sector of Donetsk, the enemy fired 120mm and 82mm mortars near Pavlopil and Chermalyk in the Mariupol sector. "In the same area, IFV [infantry fighting vehicle] weapons were fired against the defenders of Vodiane. Furthermore, 82mm mortars, automatic grenade launchers and small arms were fired against the Ukrainian army strongholds near Taramchuk," the report says.He and I were quite fond of each other because we were the same age, had the same liking for martial arts, and we were usually placed in the same group of countries with a history of considerable war experience at workshops and seminars.



At the end of the writing camp, Etgar and I promised each other that we would meet again soon, but it was something of an empty promise because he lives in Tel Aviv while I live in Hanoi, a distance so huge that no-one knows when we could actually meet!



More than ten years later, I stumbled upon a piece of news about the upcoming launch of a Vietnamese translation of a book titled Suddenly, a Knock on the Door by some Keret at the Goethe Institut in Hanoi. I immediately thought of him and decided to attend the event. No sooner than I had stepped into the event hall, Etgar stood up and embraced me with the warmth of old friendship.



The next day, I took him around the capital city and in the late morning we stopped at Sword Lake, which is near my office. With curiosity, he looked at The Huc Bridge and the couplets at the gate of Ngoc Son Temple. I showed him the Tower of the Writing Brush and explained its significance to him.



Etgar suddenly asked me Do you know why the Hebrew script is written from right to left? I was dumbfounded and asked myself why I had never thought of this before. Etgar explained to me that up to now the Hebrew script has never gone beyond the scope of the Tanakh or the Hebrew Bible, which dates back more than 2,500 years.



In the past when pen and paper were not yet invented, the scripture was inscribed on stone. With his left hand holding a chisel and his right hand a hammer, the artisan moved the chisel from right to left, which was the most convenient direction. That is why the Hebrew script is written from right to left, in contrast with most other scripts.



Hearing Etgars explanation, I instantly thought of how Chinese characters are written in the same direction, from right to left. The only difference is that the characters are written vertically. The origin of this writing order is perhaps the same as that of the Hebrew script, which was created by craftsmen who inscribed the characters upon stones.



Then a new question occurred to me as to why Latin-based and Slavic alphabets are written from left to right and why people do not use the left hand to write such scripts, rather than the right hand as most people do today. There must be some reason which we are yet to realise.



In life there are many simple things that we often take for granted but in fact are puzzling questions. What we know is but a single grain of sand compared to the vast ocean of the unknown.



In my humble opinion, script is an extraordinary intellectual product of mankind and has made enormous contributions to human civilisation. Joining letters according to distinctive rules, script is the manifestation of sounds used to express and store all information from scientific knowledge to philosophical writings and poetry.



Some say that the scripts we know today are just a fraction of the unexplored treasure trove of boundless methods of recording sounds that are sufficient to meet the demand of language development in the future in concert with the development of human society.



A script is the writers means of creation and as a way to express gratitude to script, the writers make every effort to enrich the language. I once told Etgar that the scripts can be compared to a fistful of sand, when we hold them tightly, they will slip away. But when we hold them in our hands with care, they will remain. We can write in different directions and in different languages, but if the friendship between writers is treasured, it will never wane over any time or distance. There are always sand banks waiting for the waves of the sea to carry them away to the ocean of beautiful life together.The event will be held at the Gia Dinh Park Circus (Go Vap district, Ho Chi Minh City), co-organised by the Southern Arts Theatre and Gia Dinh Park Circus. The gala will open at 8 pm on February 16 (the first day of the Lunar New Year). The performances will be held in the evening, every day until March 18.

The most anticipated artist in the show is a Clown by the name of Rostyslav Biliak, a talented comedian from Russia. Young artist Sattra Laura Nicole Ortega from the US will perform complex movements with thin strips of silk, while artists from Mongolia will display dizzying and spectacular feats of acrobatics.

After it leaves Ho Chi Minh City, the event will be held at the Tien Son Sport Complex in Da Nang, Dolphin Palace in Ha Long city (Quang Ninh province), Vung Tau city (Ba Ria-Vung Tau province) and other northern provinces until April 15.This year, the Temple of Literature hosted the 2018 Spring Calligraphy Festival in Van Pond campus with the participation of 63 calligraphers.



The festival honours the tradition of "respecting moral, venerating teacher, encouraging the younger generations to show their responsibility and gratitude to their predecessors.

During the new year festivities, Vietnamese will be bringing home calligraphy containing words on red paper describing their wishes, hoping that they might come true.



Elderly scholars use brushes to paint beautiful black strokes on red paper to convey peoples wishes.



Red parallel sentences are usually hung during Tet to celebrate spring.

It is a decade-long Vietnamese fine tradition during Tet.

In addition to the familiar image of senior scholars, this year's festival also sees the appearance of a young calligrapher in traditional long dresses for men.



Calligraphy attracts the attention of people of all ages.The talks took place in the context that the relationship between the two countries continues to develop substantively and effectively on the basis of respect for each others independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and political institutions, as well as for the benefits of the two countries people and for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.



President Donald Trump extended his greetings to the Vietnamese leaders and people on the occasion of the traditional Lunar New Year. He expressed his impressions on the achievements the Vietnamese people have made over the past year.



He also thanked the Vietnamese leaders and people for their warm welcome for him and the high-ranking US delegation during his State visit to Vietnam and participation in the 25th APEC Economic Leaders Meeting in November last year.



He affirmed that the US attaches great importance to its relations with Vietnam and the countrys active role in the region and will continue cooperating with Vietnam in promoting the bilateral Comprehensive Partnership in the coming time.



President Tran Dai Quang congratulated the US Government and people on their achievements made during the first year of office of President Donald Trump, asserting that the US Presidents State visit to Vietnam and his attendance in the 25th APEC Economic Leaders Meeting marked a significant milestone, creating a strong driving force for the effective and stable development of the Vietnam-US Comprehensive Partnership.



He emphasised that Vietnam treasures the friendship and cooperation with the US and will actively work with the country to create new and practical progresses for the bilateral relations in the future.



President Tran Dai Quang and President Donald Trump exchanged views on concrete measures to strengthen the Vietnam-US relationship, focusing on implementing the agreements reached by the two countries high-ranking leaders.



They agreed to continue prioritising the promotion of economic and trade relations, considering them a focus of and driving force for bilateral ties.



The two leaders also consented to boost other bilateral cooperation areas such as addressing was consequences, including the implementation of a dioxin remediation project in Bien Hoa airport.



Regarding the regional and international situation, the Presidents reaffirmed both sides positions on the East Sea issue and agreed to maintain high-level exchanges, contacts and meetings to promote bilateral relations for the benefits of the two countries people, thus contributing to consolidating peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.File photo taken on Dec. 16, 2017 shows that South African President Jacob Zuma addresses the conference in Johannesburg, South Africa. South African President Jacob Zuma declared his resignation when addressing the nation on Feb. 14, 2018. (Xinhua/David Naicker)

JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 14 -- South African President Jacob Zuma resigned Wednesday evening under the pressure of the ruling party African National Congress (ANC).

Despite an earlier show of defiance, Zuma announced his resignation to the nation just an hour before the deadline set for him by the ANC, in an effort to avoid dividing the party.

"The ANC should never be divided in my name. I have therefore come to the decision to resign," Zuma said on Wednesday evening at Union Building in a 30-minute farewell address to the nation.

"No life should be lost in my name and also the ANC should never be divided in my name. I have therefore come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect even though I disagree with the decision of the leadership of my organisation; I have always been a disciplined member of the ANC," he said.

He said he wished to be removed in line with the constitution.

"I must accept that if my party and my compatriots wish that I be removed from office, they must exercise that right and do so in the matter prescribed in the manner of the Constitution," he said.

"I fear no motion of no confidence or impeachment, for they are the lawful mechanisms for the people of this beautiful country to remove their president," Zuma said.

Zuma apologised to the nation for the errors committed during his term in office. Speaking in Zulu in his address, he said he believed he had performed the task given to him by the country, but where he had erred, "may I please be forgiven."

He said he would continue to serve the party and the country even after he resigned as the top leader. "As I leave, I will continue to serve the people of South Africa as well as the organisation I have served all my life. I will dedicate all my energy to work towards the attainment of the policies of our organisations, in particular the radical economic transformation agenda," he added.

Zuma's resignation ended two weeks of upheaval in the ruling party in which he had refused to step down after being asked to do so by the ANC's leadership.

The ANC, which replaced Zuma as party leader in December with Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, ordered him to step down as president on Tuesday over curruption allegations against Zuma.

Ramaphosa is now acting president, and he will be sworn in as president either Thursday or Friday.Stan Walker is sharing his most personal story yet in this special feature-length event, 'Stan.'

After shooting to stardom as the first New Zealander to win Australian Idol, Stan has gone on to become an international pop star and film actor with roles in Mt. Zion and Hunt For The Wilderpeople.

At the core of it all, Stan is a proud Kiwi. In this documentary, Stan opens up his world to the public, sharing his most intimate moments over the last nine months. Stan follows a man on a life-changing journey, full of ups and downs, heartache, and beauty.

Stan is coming to Three in March.Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers a speech to a festival reception at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 14, 2018. Xi Jinping, on behalf of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, extended Spring Festival greetings to all Chinese people Wednesday. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

BEIJING, Feb. 14 -- President Xi Jinping, when reviewing the achievements made by the Chinese people over the last year, said time is the most objective witness.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in a speech to a festival reception in Beijing Wednesday, extending Spring Festival greetings to all Chinese people.

Praising the achievements in developing the economy, deepening reform, advancing law-based governance, improving people's lives and fighting poverty, as well as the progress in national defense and armed forces construction, diplomacy on all fronts, and full and strict governance over the CPC, Xi said these progresses have "propelled the vessel of China toward new waters."

Xi said these achievements were made by the Chinese people with their own hands and generations of continuous hard work, expressing "highest respect" to the "old generations of heroes, model workers, soldiers and comrades" who had made contributions to China's national independence, development and prosperity.

Noting that the year of 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up policy, Xi said over the last 40 years, China has taken the great leap from "catching up with the times" to "leading the times."

Xi said the 19th CPC National Congress held last year outlined the direction for developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era and charted the new journey toward the goal of building a modern socialist China.

Facing a complicated international environment and the arduous missions of reform, development and stability in 2018, Xi called on the whole Party, military and Chinese people of all ethnic groups to rally closely around the CPC Central Committee, and work to turn the set guidelines, strategies and arrangements into reality with concrete and down-to-earth efforts.BEIJING, Feb. 14 -- Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said Wednesday that China is intensifying communication with Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members on preparations for the SCO summit to be held in Qingdao in June.

Geng said that China will work with related parties to make the summit a success to inject new driving force into the development of the regional organization.

When commenting on reports that the next Russian president is expected to attend the summit, Geng said China welcomes the attendance by then new president of Russia, as Russia is an important member of the SCO.

A total of eight people, including President Vladimir Putin, have been officially confirmed as running for Russia's March 18 presidential elections.

Geng said that the presidents of China and Russia exchange visits annually, and the two leaders also maintain close contact via bilateral or multilateral meetings, letters, and phone calls.

He said that China believes the leaders of China and Russia will continue close contact this year to guide development of the bilateral relationship to a high level.WEST SPRINGFIELD -- The Monte Carlo Restaurant held so many memories for its longtime customers, many came back one last time Thursday to see the furnishings, equipment and decorations auctioned off to the highest bidder.

"We always had great meals here," said Dominic Pompi, owner of Memo's Restaurant and Catering just down the street. "They did a great job. It is sad to see it go."

Pompi also has practical reasons for attending Thursday's auction. He's always looking for more plates, bowls, cups, dishes and other equipment and he's always looking for it as inexpensively as it can be found. Within the first few minutes, he'd bought a set of mixing bowls.

"You never know when you might see something you might need," he said. "It might be something you can put away for a while until you need it."

Various bidders paid $1 each for eight serving plates, or $4 each for a set of wine chillers. Big wooden pepper mills sold for $5 each. There were four of them.

Bo Sullivan, executive director of the Irish Cultural Center of Western New England, was there looking for things the center, also located in West Springfield, might need for its food and beverage operations.

Owners Fred and Gina Pugliano closed Monte Carlo in June 2017 after 83 years in business. The Pugliano family had run the Italian eatery just down the street from the Big E for generations.

Fred Pugliano's grandfather opened the restaurant in 1934.

The 18,500-square-foot Monte Carlo building at 1020 Memorial Ave. and its 1.75 acres of land are for sale separately with an asking price of $2.5 million. Benjamin Benton, of Benton Realty in Agawam, is representing the property.

The liquor license is also for sale.

At the auction, not all the bidders were drawn to useful items. There were two large drawings of the newspaper cartoon characters "Nancy" and "Sluggo" drawn by cartoonist Guy Gilchrist after he'd eaten there in 2006.

Nancy is saying it's her favorite place to eat in Springfield. Her boyfriend Sluggo says his favorite thing to do is to put his meal on Nancy's tab.

Anne Crouss came to the Monte Carlo for years and always enjoyed seeing a grandfather clock built by her grandfather, Arthur J. Morneau, at his clock shop in South Hadley. She bought it for $80.

"Everyone was so happy when I won it," she said. "My mother painted the face. She doesn't know yet that I bought it."

The sale had more than 500 lots and was expected to last until at least 3 p.m., said auctioneer Paul W. Scheer, president at Aaron Posnik & Co., Inc.Isaiah Thomas and Rajon Rondo met Wednesday night for the first time after the emotional (and totally stupid) Boston Celtics video tribute drama. If you guessed both players would earn ejections because they were fighting about the silly mess, well, you were spot on.

Isaiah Thomas said Rondo brought up the video tribute kerfuffle today when they went at it. He said Rondo hit him in the face 3 times without consequence before he reacted. Says he doesnt know Rondo and doesnt know why Rondo reacted to him the way he did.  Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) February 15, 2018

What was the tribute drama? Before getting traded by the Cleveland Cavaliers, Thomas asked the Celtics to postpone his video tribute until a Feb. 11 game in Boston because he didn't play in the first meeting against his former team.

The problem? The Celtics were retiring Pierce's jersey on that day. Pierce didn't want to share any of the spotlight with Thomas, Rondo very strongly took Pierce's side, and Thomas ended up backing away from his request.

None of it ended up mattering because the Cavaliers dealt Thomas to the Los Angeles Lakers before the trade deadline. But, apparently, Rondo still took offense to Thomas' initial decision.

The two guards went at each other repeatedly during the first quarter of the Lakers-Pelicans matchup Wednesday night. I mean, look at all that transpired over a four-second span:

Here's video of the stretch:

Before going at Thomas on the court, Rondo did so verbally last month:

Rajon Rondo was irked to hear that the Celtics would honor Isaiah Thomas on any night. "What has he done? Rondo asked. Told that he led the Celtics to the conference finals last year, Rondo remarked, Oh, thats what we celebrate around here?  Bill Doyle (@BillDoyle15) January 17, 2018

More Rondo on IT: This is the Boston Celtics. This isnt the Phoenix Suns, no disrespect to any other organization, but you dont hang conference titles. Do we hang going to the conference finals? What do we hang here?

Title banners, Rondo was told.

OK, cool, Rondo said.  Bill Doyle (@BillDoyle15) January 17, 2018

The '08 Celtics still hold grudges harder than anyone else.BOSTON - A Boston man was sentenced to serve seven years in prison after he admitted he got young girls to send him explicit photos by threatening to kill their families, the Boston Globe reported.

Hector Acevedo, 27, of Roxbury, entered guilty pleas to charges of posing or exhibiting a child in a state of nudity for sexual conduct, possession of child pornography, distributing child pornography, distributing obscene material to a minor and attempted extortion and human trafficking of a minor.

Acevedo was sentenced Tuesday, the Suffolk District Attorney's Office said.

According to prosecutors, Acevedo approached the girls online and threatened to kill their families if they didn't send sexually explicit photographs of themselves. Authorities said two girls, aged 11 and 12 at the time of the coercion, sent photos. Acevedo solicited a third girl, but she did not follow through.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children noticed child pornography traffic from a specific Instagram account, later traced to Acevedo, and turned the information over to law enforcement. Boston police executed a search warrant on his home and found videos and images of child pornography. Acevedo will also serve three years of supervised released after his sentence is completed.Wheaton College plans to expand its social entrepreneurship program after receiving a $10 million donation - one of the largest gifts in the school's 183-year history.

The donation from the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation will help integrate social entrepreneurship education into Wheaton's liberal arts and sciences programs, according to a news release from the college, making Wheaton one of a handful of liberal arts colleges nationwide - and the first in the Northeast - to establish an endowed professorship in social entrepreneurship.

"This is a transformational gift for Wheaton College as a whole and it is a game-changer for our programs in social entrepreneurship and innovation," President Dennis M. Hanno said in the release. "We are committed to being the leading liberal arts college in preparing students to create innovative solutions to big challenges. This commitment will help us to support them in putting those ideas into action while they are students."

The pledge establishes an endowed professorship in social entrepreneurship, provides money for entrepreneurial education programming and launches a fundraising challenge that will help pay for the construction of a dedicated space for the college's existing programs in social innovation.

"The Diana Davis Spencer Foundation is excited that Wheaton is leading the way in innovation and social entrepreneurship," foundation president Diana Davis Spencer said in the release.

Davis Spencer is a 1960 graduate of Wheaton College and a trustee emerita of the college. She has worked to promote education, entrepreneurship and international peace and understanding through her family foundation.

Earlier gifts from the family and its foundation helped launch Wheaton's Center for Global Education and continue to support international relations and Russian studies programs, according to the release. The donations also provide scholarships to undergraduates.

Wheaton is a private, liberal arts college in Norton, Massachusetts.

The foundation's pledge will allow the school to integrate social innovation efforts more formally within the college's offerings and provide additional expertise and guidance for students who are seeking to launch an organization or enterprise. The gift also will create a $1 million endowment for the newly created faculty position, once the college hires the first faculty member for the role.

The Diana Davis Spencer Foundation's donation also launches a $5 million challenge for renovating the Science Center as a space for housing the college's social entrepreneurship programs, as well as its business and management program, the principal makerspace laboratory on campus and the psychology department.The brother-in-law of former Governor Deval Patrick was indicted by a grand jury on Wednesday on charges of rape, assault and kidnapping.

Norfolk Grand Jury indicted Bernard Sigh, 65, of Milton, Wednesday, two months after he was arrested for allegedly assaulting a woman in their shared apartment. He was arraigned in Quincy District Court in December after a woman told police that she returned home to find Sigh hiding in a bedroom closet. The woman told police Sigh grabbed her when she tried to run away and then forced her into having sex.

Following the December arraignment, Sigh was eventually released on bail, but was placed into custody once again after he violated his probation by making contact with the alleged victim in the case.

Wednesday's indictment moves Sigh's case from district court to superior court. A grand jury indicted Sigh on several charges, including one count of kidnapping, one count of witness intimidation, two counts of rape and three counts of assault and battery.

In 1993 Sigh pleaded guilty to raping his wife, Patrick's sister, while living in California, where he served time before moving to Massachusetts. After serving a short prison sentence, the two made up and moved to Milton, according to reports.

Years later, the case came into the spotlight during Patrick's gubernatorial campaign, when the Boston Herald reported the story.

In 2014, as Patrick was preparing to leave office, he removed two top officials of the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board, in part because he felt they were not justified in trying to force his brother-in-law register as a sex offender. The two removed officials were part of a 2008 whistleblower lawsuit filed by Attilio Paglia, who had ruled Sigh would not have to register as a sex offender.

Paglia's lawsuit said board chair Saundra Edwards and executive director Jeanne Holmes pressured him to change his ruling, and the two created a toxic work environment after he refused. Paglia settled at $60,000 before the case went to trial. Patrick accused the former chair of "inappropriate" handling of the case involving his brother-in-law.CHICOPEE - Calling it a "death by 1,000 cuts," Superintendent Richard W. Rege Jr. told state legislators in his 36 years in education he has never seen a more dire funding situation and doesn't expect it to improve.

"I have never seen this this bad," he said. "I have always seen the light at the end of the tunnel and I don't see the light."

The School Committee met with legislators on Tuesday to talk about the state of school funding following back-to-back years of budget cuts. While officials have seen annual increases in state funding, increased costs of health insurance and other things have forced the School Committee to continually to make cuts to balance the budget.

State Sens. Eric Lesser and James Welch and State Reps. Joseph F. Wagner, Michael Finn and Jose Tosado listened to concerns from the School Committee, principals and teachers and parents during the event. Sen. Donald Humason and Rep. Thomas Petrolati did not attend. They talked briefly about other issues but most of the meeting was spent talking about funding.

"We will continue as a delegation to secure as many resources as possible," Welch told the School Committee.

State education funding has increased every year since the 1993 Education Reform Act. When the law was passed Chicopee received about $16 million in state assistance. This year the schools receive $63 million, which is more than two-thirds of the funding for schools, Wagner said.

What has not increased that much is the city's commitment to funding for education. Rarely has the city spent more than the minimum required by the state on its schools, he said.

The city's contribution to the budget through local tax funds has inched up at a much slower pace. In 1993 the city contributed about $16 million to the classrooms and 25 years later it increased to $29 million, according to state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education figures.

School Committee member Donald Lamothe agreed but said the City Council must approve any request for additional assistance and members are often reluctant to add more money to schools beyond the minimum requirement. The City Council has increased school funding by $1.25 million in the last two fiscal years and granted the schools about $490,000 in savings from last year's busing to be used toward reducing a $3.2 million deficit for this year.

Rege agreed the state has increased funding dramatically but said the school department has also been faced with cut-after-cut. It still hasn't recovered from sequestration that cut federal funding to schools about five years ago. In the School Department has had to pay for teaching assistants for all kindergarten classes after a quality kindergarten grant was cut. There have also been multiple other grants cut and a reduction in funding resulting from a change in the poverty level formula.

A task force formed by Mayor Richard J. Kos which studied the school budget for about two months failed to find efficiencies it was hoping to and instead agreed the problem was the schools were not funded to the level that they needed to be to provide the best services to students.

But Rege said equally frustrating are new regulations which force the schools to implement new and sometimes expensive programs. "Let's stop with the unfunded mandates."

The schools have cut positions through attrition but have been able to prevent layoffs and cuts to direct classroom services, but next year that is less likely to happen. At the same time the Chicopee Education Association are negotiating for raises and a new contract, Rege said.

State officials pride themselves on offering the best education in the country but that will change within three years if there are not increases in school funding, Rege said, adding most surrounding communities are facing similarly tight budgets.

During the discussion, Andrea Stolar, special education director and Comprehensive High School Principal Derek Morrison also addressed legislators about additional challenges they are facing especially with increasing numbers of disabled and troubled students entering the schools.

Stolar said 18 percent of students now have learning disabilities and the district spends $1.6 million to send the most severe students to special schools but only receives $400,000 in reimbursements.

"I'm here to advocate for funding," Morrison said. "When it comes to funding, level funding is ridiculous."

The challenges in the city continue to grow. There are more students who have disabilities, mental health issues, trauma issues and this year there are multiple students entering Chicopee Schools who are fleeing the hurricane devastation in Puerto Rico. In the past seven years six of his students have committed suicide.

Rep. Jose Tosado, who worked as a school counselor and a social worker before running for office, agreed that special education has been "treated as a step child" and is often underfunded.

"My recommendation to you is continue to do your advocacy, continue to speak to us," he said.

Legislators said they are sympathetic but said the state's funding priorities have always focused on education. Most communities are facing the same problems and funding is limited, especially since health insurance costs continue to increase.

"I reached a conclusion we have a serious issue, a dollar issue. I don't see much of a solution out there in the near future," said School Committee member Chester Szetela.

Wagner and Lesser said they are hoping the Massachusetts Fair Share Amendment, which is expected to be a referendum question on the Nov. ballot, will pass. The proposal will add a 4 percent tax on those who earn more than $1 million a year and could pump $1 billion into education.

Wagner said Chicopee may be able to take advantage of a grant that provides breakfast to all children in the classroom and at the same time will add to funding in other areas.

But Lesser said there are also concerns that Massachusetts will see falling federal assistance due to the Trump administration tax cuts, a proposal to switch Medicare finding to block grants and other things.

"Your collective sense if frustration is understandable and we share it," he said.WESTFIELD - The city has filed a federal lawsuit against three manufacturers of firefighting foam contaminating water wells near Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport, Mayor Brian P. Sullivan announced Thursday.

The facility houses a public airport and the 104th Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard. Two nearby wells were found to have exceeded federal advisory levels for chemicals found in the firefighting foam, and have not been in service since December 2015.

City Solicitor Susan Phillips said both wells are offline and the city's water is tested regularly. She said current water tests are within the federal safety levels.

The foam consisted of chemicals -- fluorinated surfacants PFOS and PFOA -- that have been identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a health hazard.

PFOS and PFOA exposure "could result in health effects including, but not limited to, kidney cancer, testicular cancer, developmental effects to fetuses during pregnancy or to breastfed infants, liver effects, immune effects and thyroid effects," according to the city's complaint, which it filed in U.S. District Court.

The complaint alleges the aqueous film-forming foam was used for decades by the Air National Guard for training as well as firefighting.

The defendant manufacturers are 3M Co., Chemguard Inc. and Tyco Fire Products LP. According to the complaint, "the defendant manufacturers knew or should have known that the chemicals are persistent when released into the environment and harmful."

The complaint further states that the manufacturers marketed and sold the products with the knowledge that PFOS and/or PFOA would be released into the environment in firefighting training exercises and in firefighting emergencies.

The city said it has incurred substantial expense to provide clean drinking water to residents. To ensure safe drinking water, the city said it works with the state Department of Environmental Protection, monitors water quality and has filtration facilities serving the public water wells near the air base.

The lawsuit was filed by Phillips, Assistant City Solicitor John E. Garber, Richard W. Head of SL Environmental Law Group in San Francisco and Kevin J. Madonna of Kennedy & Madonna LLP in New York.

Phillips said as soon as the city was notified the levels of the chemicals exceeded the maximum limit, it began taking action.

"Mayor Sullivan wanted first to make sure our water was safe, then wanted to see what we could do to help with the costs incurred," said Phillips.

The air guard no longer uses the foam for training, however in the case of a jet fuel fire, the foam would be used.

"In that instance it's a matter of containing the chemicals and keeping it out of the water," Phillips said.

Westfield v. 3M Et Al by The Republican/MassLive.com on ScribdNORTHAMPTON - Eric Matlock, a 33-year-old Northampton homeless man, pleaded not guilty in Hampshire Superior Court Tuesday to charges of assault and destruction of property, according to the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Matlock's charges in court Tuesday stem from an incident on Dec. 19 in which he allegedly attacked two people and destroyed over $250 of property belonging to them.

Scant details about the alleged incident have been released.

He was indicted on Jan. 23 on two counts of assault and battery and one count of malicious destruction of property over $250.

Matlock is being represented by attorney Dana Goldblatt. He is scheduled to return to court on April 24.

Matlock was previously involved in a much publicized incident last summer, in which he was dragged off the steps of Northampton City Hall by police after refusing to leave the premises.

Police determined that Matlock was blocking the entrance to the building and forcibly removed him, pepper spraying him in the process.

Video of the incident subsequently emerged, causing outcry from some members of the public and inspiring an internal police investigation into the use-of-force arrest.

The police department subsequently decided that the force in the incident was justified.

Matlock was arrested and charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and assault and battery on a police officer, to which he pleaded not guilty in Northampton District Court in December.

He has since expressed public criticism of the Northampton police department at public meetings.Chinese President Xi Jinping (C, rear), also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses a symposium on poverty alleviation in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, Feb. 12, 2018. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

CHENGDU, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed the difficulty of the battle against poverty and the urgency of solving significant problems in poverty alleviation.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks Monday at a symposium on poverty alleviation in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province in southwest China.

As one of China's "three tough battles," poverty alleviation is of great significance to the country's building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and achieving its first centenary goal, Xi said.

The battle against poverty should be firmly carried forward without any pause or slackness, the president said, stressing quality of poverty reduction work with a focus on areas in deep poverty.

At the symposium, Xi listened to reports and advice from local officials of China's poverty-stricken western and southern regions, and had a discussion with them on poverty alleviation issues.

Decisive progress has been made as China has exerted unprecedented efforts in fighting poverty, said Xi, who attributed the success to the CPC's leadership, targeted strategies, strong financial support, and strict requirements for poverty elimination works.

During the poverty alleviation campaign, China has built a poverty relief system with Chinese characteristics, contributing wisdom and solutions to global poverty reduction, he said.

Xi also underlined the challenges and difficulties in the battle, as the country still needs to lift more than 30 million people out of poverty in the next three years.

He named a number of undesirable practices -- formalities for formalities' sake, bureaucratism, falsification and slackness, urging persistent efforts to fight all kinds of challenges and hardships in future work.

China aims to eliminate absolute poverty by 2020 as part of the creation of a moderately prosperous society. The country's poverty rate has dropped from 10.2 percent in 2012 to 3.1 percent in 2017 after 68.53 million people were lifted out of poverty over the past five years.

Xi told local authorities to shoulder responsibilities and enhance leadership on poverty reduction, sticking to the goal of eradicating absolute poverty by 2020.

Poverty reduction funds should be spent in a transparent and upright way, Xi said, asking related parties to publicize the allocation and use of the funds. Squandering and misuse are prohibited. Severe punishment will be enforced if corruption is found.

Officials in charge of poverty reduction should receive intensive training on how to carry out work in a targeted way. The poverty-stricken population are encouraged to get rid of poverty through hard work and in a more proactive manner.

The president called on all Chinese to make concerted efforts and push for victory in the battle against poverty.

Vice Premier Wang Yang, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, attended the symposium.Someone by the username "Nikolas Cruz" once said he was a "professional school shooter." The comment was made last September and the FBI was notified.

But, in a new report by the Associated Press, FBI agents say they were unable to track down the true identity of the commenter, whose username matches the identity of Wednesday's school shooter in Florida.

Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old man behind the deadly shootings at a Parkland, Florida high school, has been charged with 17 counts of first-degree murder in connection to a shooting spree at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Wednesday. At least a dozen more wounded. Reports say Cruz was expelled from the school last year for disciplinary problems.

Cruz made his first court appearance in Broward County Thursday afternoon. A judge ordered he be held without bond.

Reports indicate the teenage shooter was somewhat of a "loner" who had an affinity for guns, white nationalism and sharing his atypical interests on social media.

Cruz's trail of disturbing online activity was alerted to the FBI last September, according to a new report by the Associated Press.

Mississippi bail bondsman Benjamin Bennight said he called a local FBI office to report a user by the name of "Nikolas Cruz," who left an alarming comment on Bennight's YouTube page that read, "Im going to be a professional school shooter." FBI agents in Mississippi reportedly visited Bennight the next day.

Agent Rob Lasky told the AP that at the time, the agency conducted a database review but could not locate the true identity of the person making the comment. Bennight said hours after Wednesday's shooting, he was contacted by the FBI.

"They're going to have to get with YouTube about where the comment originated, but I think they already know," Bennight said.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.HOLYOKE -- City Auditor Joshua Pueschel resigned today in a letter that criticized City Hall for failing to follow "numerous procedures" and suggested the answer financially is to put the city in receivership.

Pueschel, who was appointed auditor by the City Council less than a year ago, departs days after Police Chief James M. Neiswanger said that police are investigating a case of missing money in the City Hall office of Treasurer Sandra A. Smith but that Smith was not the focus of the investigation.

Neiswanger said today Pueschel also is not the focus of the investigation, in which the city treasurer's office was victimized by a cyber attack that scammed less than $10,000 in June.

The incident occurred last year, but a suspect has recently been identified on Long Island, New York, Neiswanger said.

Check back with The Republican and MassLive.com for details as reporting continues on this developing story.BELCHERTOWN - A 48-year-old man denied a charge of negligent motor vehicle homicide Wednesday in connection with a July garbage truck crash in Ware that killed a 62-year-old Hardwick man.

James Avila Jr., 48, also of Hardwick, was arraigned in Eastern Hampshire District Court.

Avila was driving a garbage truck on Church Street in Ware when he allegedly lost control, left the road and fatally struck Stephen F. Peters who was working in a yard, according to the Northwestern District Attorney's office.

Avila was released on his own recognizance with the conditions that he not operate a motor vehicle, surrender his passport to the probation department and do not leave the state without permission from the probation department.

Avila, who lives in Gilbertville, a section of Hardwick, is due back in court April 13 for a pretrial hearing.

The crash was investigated by Ware police, the Massachusetts State Police Detectives Unit assigned to the Northwestern District Attorney's office, the state police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section, state police Crime Services and the state police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Section.A Massachusetts State Police sergeant has been arrested on assault charges and relieved of duty, several Boston area news outlets reported Wednesday.

Brian Duffy, 63, entered pleas of not guilty to charges of assault and battery on a disabled person over 60 and a single count of disturbing the peace at his arraignment in Plymouth District Court Wednesday, the Boston Globe reported.

Duffy got into a verbal argument with an off-duty Carver police officer in a Plymouth CVS drugstore Tuesday, and the alleged victim said Duffy pushed him, NBC10 Boston reported, citing court documents. Duffy also was off-duty, Boston 25 News reported.

The sergeant is assigned to Troop F at Logan Airport. He was temporarily relieved of duty pending a status hearing before superior State Police officers later this week, according to Boston 25 News. Duffy could remain on active duty, be placed on restricted duty or suspended with or without pay pending the outcome of his court case.

Duffy was arrested by Plymouth police.

Duffy was released on personal recognizance pending a March 20 hearing.Advocates of Massachusetts marijuana legalization are lashing out at Gov. Charlie Baker and other officials, saying they're hitting back at a "coordinated intimidation campaign" against the Cannabis Control Commission.

The five-member commission, tasked with oversight of the new marijuana industry, is weighing draft rules for retail pot shops. Commissioners are also considering allowing things like marijuana yoga studios, home delivery and pot cafes, a step that Baker administration officials and local prosecutors say goes too far, too fast.

Baker administration officials who oversee public safety and other departments have weighed in on the proposed rules through a series of letters to the commission raising public health and safety concerns.

The latest comments on the draft rules came from the state's public health commissioner, Monica Bharel, who recommended commissioners scale back the framework of their rules and focus on retail pot shops.

Marijuana advocates say those officials are attempting to intimidate the commission, whose members are appointed by the governor, the treasurer and the attorney general.

"We are witnessing a coordinated intimidation campaign that threatens the independence of the Cannabis Control Commission and calls into question the appropriate relationship between the administration, the Legislature and the body charged with regulating this new industry," Jim Borghesani, a spokesman for the 2016 ballot campaign that broadly legalized marijuana for adults ages 21 and over.

Borghesani and other advocates, including the ballot campaign's manager, Will Luzier, plan to hold an 11 am press conference outside the State House Thursday.

The list of attendees includes Cannabis Advisory Board members Shanel Lindsay and Kim Napoli, and UMass Boston professor Michael Milburn.An orphaned 19-year-old with a troubled past and an AR-15 rifle was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder Thursday morning after being questioned for hours by state and federal authorities following the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. in five years.

Fourteen wounded survivors were hospitalized as bodies were recovered from inside and around Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Just before the shooting broke out, some students thought they were having another fire drill.

Such an exercise had forced them to leave their classrooms hours earlier. So when the alarm went off Wednesday afternoon shortly before they were to be dismissed, they once again filed out into the hallways.

That's when police say Nikolas Cruz, equipped with a gas mask, smoke grenades and multiple magazines of ammunition, opened fire with a semi-automatic weapon, killing 17 people and sending hundreds of students fleeing into the streets. It was the nation's deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, more than five years ago.

"Our district is in a tremendous state of grief and sorrow," said Robert Runcie, superintendent of the school district in Parkland, about an hour's drive north of Miami. "It is a horrible day for us."

Authorities offered no immediate details about Cruz or his possible motive, except to say that he had been kicked out of the high school, which has about 3,000 students. Students who knew him described a volatile teenager whose strange behavior had caused others to end friendships with him.

Cruz's mother Lynda Cruz died of pneumonia on Nov. 1 neighbors, friends and family members said, according to the Sun Sentinel . Cruz and her husband, who died of a heart attack several years ago, adopted Nikolas and his biological brother, Zachary, after the couple moved from Long Island in New York to Broward County.

The boys were left in the care of a family friend after their mother died, family member Barbara Kumbatovich, of Long Island, said.

Unhappy there, Nikolas Cruz asked to move in with a friend's family in northwest Broward. The family agreed and Cruz moved in around Thanksgiving. According to the family's lawyer, who did not identify them, they knew that Cruz owned the AR-15 but made him keep it locked up in a cabinet. He did have the key, however.

Jim Lewis said the family is devastated and didn't see this coming. They are cooperating with authorities, he said.

Victoria Olvera, a 17-year-old junior at the school, said Cruz was expelled last school year because he got into a fight with his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. She said he had been abusive to his girlfriend.

"I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him," she said.

Cruz was taken into custody without a fight about an hour after the shooting in a residential neighborhood about a mile away. He had multiple magazines of ammunition, authorities said.

"It's catastrophic. There really are no words," said Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel.

Frantic parents rushed to the school to find SWAT team members and ambulances surrounding the huge campus and emergency workers who appeared to be treating the wounded on sidewalks. Students who hadn't run began leaving in a single-file line with their hands over their heads as officers urged them to evacuate quickly.

Hearing loud bangs as the shooter fired, many of the students inside hid under desks or in closets, and barricaded doors.

"We were in the corner, away from the windows," said freshman Max Charles, who said he heard five gunshots. "The teacher locked the door and turned off the light. I thought maybe I could die or something."

As he was leaving the building, he saw four dead students and one dead teacher. He said he was relieved when he finally found his mother.

"I was happy that I was alive," Max said. "She was crying when she saw me."

Noah Parness, a 17-year-old junior, said he and the other students calmly went outside to their fire-drill areas when he suddenly heard popping sounds.

"We saw a bunch of teachers running down the stairway, and then everybody shifted and broke into a sprint," Parness said. "I hopped a fence."

Most of the fatalities were inside the building, though some victims were found fatally shot outside, the sheriff said.

Sen. Bill Nelson told CNN that Cruz had pulled the fire alarm "so the kids would come pouring out of the classrooms into the hall."

"And there the carnage began," said Nelson, who said he was briefed by the FBI.

The scene was reminiscent of the Newtown attack, which shocked even a country numbed by the regularity of school shootings. The Dec. 14, 2012, assault at Sandy Hook Elementary School killed 26 people: 20 first-graders and six staff members. The 20-year-old gunman, who also fatally shot his mother in her bed, then killed himself.

Not long after Wednesday's attack in Florida, Michael Nembhard was sitting in his garage on a cul-de-sac when he saw a young man in a burgundy shirt walking down the street. In an instant, a police cruiser pulled up, and officers jumped out with guns drawn.

"All I heard was 'Get on the ground! Get on the ground!'" Nembhard said. He said Cruz did as he was told.

The school was to be closed for the rest of the week.The suspect in a deadly rampage at a Florida high school is a troubled teenager who posted disturbing material on social media before the shooting spree that killed 17 people and wounded more than a dozen others, according to a law enforcement official and former schoolmates.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said the 19-year-old suspect, Nikolas Cruz, had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for "disciplinary reasons."

"I don't know the specifics," the sheriff said.

However, Victoria Olvera, a 17-year-old junior, said Cruz was expelled last school year after a fight with his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. She said Cruz had been abusive to his girlfriend.

School officials said Cruz was attending another school in Broward County after his expulsion.

Cruz's mother Lynda Cruz died of pneumonia on Nov. 1 neighbors, friends and family members said, according to the Sun Sentinel. Cruz and her husband, who died of a heart attack several years ago, adopted Nikolas and his biological brother, Zachary, after the couple moved from Long Island in New York to Broward County.

The boys were left in the care of a family friend after their mother died, family member Barbara Kumbatovich, of Long Island, said.

Unhappy there, Nikolas Cruz asked to move in with a friend's family in northwest Broward. The family agreed and Cruz moved in around Thanksgiving. According to the family's lawyer, who did not identify them, they knew that Cruz owned the AR-15 but made him keep it locked up in a cabinet. He did have the key, however.

Jim Lewis said the family is devastated and didn't see this coming. They are cooperating with authorities, he said.

Broward County Mayor Beam Furr said during an interview with CNN that the shooter was getting treatment at a mental health clinic for a while, but that he hadn't been back to the clinic for more than a year.

"It wasn't like there wasn't concern for him," Furr said.

"We try to keep our eyes out on those kids who aren't connected ... Most teachers try to steer them toward some kind of connections. ... In this case, we didn't find a way to connect with this kid," Furr said.

Israel said investigators were dissecting the suspect's social media posts.

"And some of the things that have come to mind are very, very disturbing," he added without elaborating.

Daniel Huerfano, a student who fled Wednesday's attack, said he recognized Cruz from an Instagram photo in which Cruz posed with a gun in front of his face. Huerfano recalled Cruz as a shy student and remembered seeing him walking around with his lunch bag.

"He was that weird kid that you see ... like a loner," he added.

Dakota Mutchler, a 17-year-old junior, said he used to be close friends with Cruz but hadn't seen him in more than a year following his expulsion from school.

"He started progressively getting a little more weird," Mutchler said.

Mutchler recalled Cruz posting on Instagram about killing animals and said he had talked about doing target practice in his backyard with a pellet gun.

"He started going after one of my friends, threatening her, and I cut him off from there," Mutchler said.

"I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him," Mutchler said.

Broward County School District Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that he did not know of any threats posed by Cruz to the school.

"Typically you see in these situations that there potentially could have been signs out there," Runcie said. "I would be speculating at this point if there were, but we didn't have any warnings. There weren't any phone calls or threats that we know of that were made."

However, a teacher told The Miami Herald that Cruz may have been identified as a potential threat to other students. Jim Gard, a math teacher who said Cruz had been in his class last year, said he believes the school had sent out an email warning teachers that Cruz shouldn't be allowed on campus with a backpack.

"There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus," Gard said.EASTHAMPTON -- It's been almost a year since hundreds of students staged a mass walkout to shine light upon racial tensions at Easthampton High School, and six months since state investigators released a scathing report detailing years of disparate discipline and long-standing tolerance for bullying at the school, which was once nearly 100 percent white but is now seeing a changing demographic.

A series of cascading events rocked the high school last year, including student arrests, the appearance of Confederate flags, vandalism, and bomb threats.

The school district is now operating under a binding consent agreement with Attorney General Maura Healey, and must take concrete steps to prevent civil rights enforcement. In recent months, administrators have been working through a checklist of requirements.

Tuesday night, high school students and their advisors updated the School Committee about their own work to change culture and climate at the high school.

Asher Hamilton is the district's newly-hired diversity liaison. She said when her "boots hit the ground" in January, she immediately created a "safe space" in Room 104 of the high school.

The "diversity and inclusion center" is open four days a week. Hamilton said some students still feel traumatized by past events, and appreciate having a place to go. She said the center is guided by the students, and will offer speakers, movies, and facilitated discussions. Parent engagement will be part of the plan

"People are afraid of difference," Asher observed. She said that everyone, including herself, suffers from bias. She said change will not happen overnight, and that "this is going to be an incremental process."

Hamilton described what happened to her earlier that afternoon. She said she broke a fingernail opening her car door and wanted to get it fixed before the meeting.

"So I'm looking for a salon," she said. "And I found one in my neighborhood. I thought; this is going to be quick in, quick out. I'm there waiting for a good 40 minutes. I was the next person in line. Two other individuals walked in -- and, by the way, I'm black -- and they got served."

She said another customer could see what was happening and spoke up for her. "I would have eventually spoken up for myself," said Hamilton. "But what she did was important. What I'm talking about here is being an upstander. We should all be responsible when we see something that's not right."

Student leaders described their work on the diversity front. Students in the U.S. Department of Justice SPIRIT program -- Student Problem Identification and Resolution of Issues Together -- said they worked over two days to identify and prioritize problems at the high school.

They said some of the the big issues were inconsistent discipline, poor communication and lack of transparency from school administrators, lack of trust, and tolerance for racism, sexism, and bias. They said a number of changes have already been implemented, including revisions to the student handbook, diversity training for teachers, and bringing Hamilton on board.

Students in the school's newly-formed Diversity Club, advised by math teacher Alex Alvarez, spoke of their work organizing and raising money for a day-long diversity festival featuring music, food, and discussions.

Superintendent Nancy Follansbee said the efforts are "just a beginning" and that many steps "are coming together for positive change."

Principal Kevin Burke presented a revised program of studies for the next school year. Diversity issues have been incorporated into the curriculum, he said.

Curriculum director Julie Anne Levin, who is also diversity coordinator, said it has been hard to find the right pace of change. Moving too fast and too slow each have consequences, she said.The man and woman accused of sexually assaulting a 2-year-old girl at a Worcester Walmart parking lot now appear to be under investigation for child pornography charges based on a recent search warrant filed in court.

Worcester Police Detective Tyler Collette filed search warrants in Worcester Central District Court in order to search the cell phones used by 24-year-old Joshua Rezsnyak and 27-year-old Mary McForbes, a relative of the child.

Rezsnyak is accused of sexually assaulting the child inside a car parked outside the Worcester Walmart in Jan. 18 while McForbes appeared to be taking pictures.

A witness told police an adult man was forcing the child to conduct sex acts inside a 2005 red Ford Explorer inside the Walmart parking lot at 25 Tobias Boland Way.

The witness told police a woman appeared to be taking pictures of the alleged assault as well.

McForbes and Rezsnyak both face aggravated rape of a child charges. McForbes was also charged with reckless endangerment of a child.

Officials have not specified the relationship between McForbes and Rezsnyak.

But it appears police believe there is evidence of child pornography crimes in the phones used by McForbes and Rezsnyak.

Police also say the two were known to conduct some type of live show from an app called MeetMe. McForbes was using her cell phone during the alleged attack on the 2-year-old girl, but police did not say if they believe she was conducting one of these types of live shows at the time.

Investigators have downloaded the contents of both phones and detectives are now combing through the material. What exactly was retrieved from the phones was not detailed in the search warrant affidavit.

McForbes and Rezsnyak are scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 21.

Police were able to track the New York license plate on the Ford Explorer back to Rezsnyak. Authorities were able to find McForbes and Rezsnyak at a Perry Avenue apartment because Rezsnyak filed a police report for a missing wallet earlier in the day.

When police arrived at the apartment, they could hear a child screaming in the background. McForbes and Rezsnyak were seen on a porch and appeared to be video recording with a cell phone, Collette wrote.

Police obtained a search warrant for the home on Jan. 19 and immediately placed McForbes and Rezsnyak in handcuffs.

Detectives then spoke to McForbes, who asked if she could turn off her phone.

"When asked what she meant, she then told us that her phone had the MeetMe App open and that it was live streaming to thousands of people in real time," Collette wrote. "She asked us to turn the App off so that people could not see her business."

McForbes and Rezsnyak apparently met on the MeetMe app and Rezsnyak came from New York to visit McForbes.

McForbes and Rezsnyak told investigators they have "gone live" from the app several times and people could give them currency - called diamonds - on the app that could then, in turn, be transferred into money, Collette wrote.

"Rezsnyak stated that he did not care about the diamonds, that he only liked to go live," Collette wrote. "Rezsnyak further stated that he had fewer followers that McForbes did."

They denied using their phones outside the Walmart on Jan. 18.

Authorities interviewed a 9-year-old child as part of the investigation. The child said McForbes and Rezsnyak would go live from the app and also used it to watch "weird things."

The child in the case is now in the custody of the state Department of Children and Families. Additionally, another child was taken into state custody in connection with the case.Partisan lenses sometimes provide an exceedingly distorted view.

So it is with the disturbing tale of Russian meddling in our nation's 2016 presidential election and the Kremlin's continued efforts to influence public opinion going forward.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to see Donald Trump, not Hillary Clinton, become our nation's 45th chief executive.

And he got what he wanted.

One asking for the specifics of all that went on, and why, might not yet receive a clearcut answer. But there's one thing that's certain: Putin wants what's best for Putin. And for Russia. In that order.

Trump, of course, has mostly dismissed reports of Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign. As such, many of his supporters do the same.

They'd do well to rethink their views on this one. Because Putin wasn't, and isn't, on their side. As it happened, he backed the same candidate they did. This time. Or perhaps they unwittingly voted for the candidate he wanted them to support.

It's entirely possible that Putin had lots in common with the so-called reluctant Trump voters, those who supported the reality TV star despite their serious misgivings about his abilities, his mental capacity, his temperament.

There were not a few Americans who simply couldn't abide the thought of having Clinton as president. For varying reasons. As such, some sat out the general election entirely, others voted for a third-party candidate, and some backed Trump. Because he wasn't Clinton.

Putin, however, had his own reasons for opposing Clinton: She'd doubtless have been tougher on Russia than would Trump. Plus, he may have had additional reasons to support businessman and dealmaker Trump.

It's important to consider all of this in light of recent statements from the heads of our nation's intelligence agencies, who said there's no doubt that Russia will be back in force this year, endeavoring to influence our upcoming congressional elections.

At a hearing on Tuesday, the nation's top intelligence officials warned lawmakers of the ongoing threat. Addressing the Senate Intelligence Committee, Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, said: "We expect Russia to continue using propaganda, social media, false-flag personas, sympathetic spokespeople and other means of influence to try to exacerbate social and political fissures in the United States."

Think about this for more than a second, and it should make your blood boil. Russia, a foreign adversary, messing with our electoral process with misinformation campaigns, seeking to push public opinion in whatever direction it chooses.

If you've been feeling differently about the FBI and the Justice Department of late, not necessarily believing their official statements despite long having supported our nation's law enforcement agencies, there may well be a simple reason for your change of heart: the Kremlin wanted it that way.

All of our nation's intelligence agencies, and all the agencies' top officials, are on the same page on this one. Russia worked to get Trump elected. Russia is working now to influence Americans' opinions on matters great and small. And Russia will be messing with the upcoming midterm congressional elections.

If the Kremlin is effectively choosing our leaders, our government -- supposedly of the people, by the people, for the people -- will have become a sham, little more than a shadow of what it was created to be.

This is not a partisan matter, but is instead something that every citizen must be able to see plainly, clearly, as proud Americans who believe to our core that we alone -- and together -- decide our fate.WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 -- A mass shooting in a Florida high school killed 17 people on Wednesday, local police said.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told the press that 12 were killed in the school building, two were killed outside the building, one on a road nearby and two died in hospital from wounds.

The shooting took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, just north of Miami. The school said the incident took place as the school was dismissing students.

The shooter was identified as Nikolaus Cruz, a 19-year-old expelled student at the school. He was captured shortly after the shooting. An AR-15 semi-automatic rifle was found at the site.

"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school," U.S. President Donald Trump said.

The incident took place as Parkland has recently been listed as one of the 10 safest cities in Florida.WILBRAHAM -- When some people hear the name "Scott Lively," a Massachusetts candidate for governor, it conjures up images of a firebrand minister who wants to turn back the clock on so-called social progressivism.

For Lively, though, his mission to serve the public involves fixing what he believes is a broken culture in a broken state in a broken country. That's why the ex-Catholic-cum-evangelical-Protestant is seeking to infuse mainstream Massachusetts politics with biblical values that support traditional views of family, marriage and society.

But what some people may not know about Lively -- the man who once called former President Barack Obama a "radical homosexualist" -- is that the Springfield-based minister, lawyer and would-be politician has a detailed blueprint for economic and social change, from building employee-owned cooperatives in poor communities and reducing people's dependency on government to embracing "green" manufacturing and abolishing taxes for primary-use residential properties.

On March 8, Lively will address Republicans in Wilbraham, where he hopes to promote the principles of a more fiscally and socially conservative GOP before facing Gov. Charlie Baker in the Republican primary in September. The state's moderate leader, who once again has been named America's "most popular governor," continues to enjoy approval ratings that are the envy of politicians on both sides of the aisle.

Over 74 percent of Massachusetts voters approve of the job Baker is doing, while only 13 percent disapprove of the job he's doing, according to a WBUR poll released last month. Baker has maintained high approval ratings since taking office, including with Democrats, a point that Lively hopes to exploit during his campaign to brand Baker a liberal wolf in sheep's clothing.

"You can't lead by pandering," Lively, who was raised in the Franklin County community of Shelburne Falls, said in an interview with The Republican / MassLive.com this week. "Baker panders to the left. I do the opposite."

Lively plans to present "cogent and reasonable arguments" to Wilbraham Republicans, hoping local committee members will embrace his brand of traditional-values politics.

"The Wilbraham Republican Town Committee doesn't endorse anyone during the primary season," said Dave Sanders, the committee's president. "We invite all local and state Republican candidates to our meetings to hear their presentations and to discuss the issues with them."

Candidates who can't attend often send representatives, according to Sanders, a "family values" conservative who last year lost a bid to join the town's selectboard and who has accused Baker and Donald Trump of being "progressive Democrats."

The March 8 meeting will feature Lively and two Republican candidates for attorney general, Dan Shores and Jay McMahon. Both men are looking to unseat Attorney General Maura Healey, an openly gay liberal Democrat who's unpopular with many conservatives in Massachusetts. The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Wilbraham Police Department's community room.

"Each candidate has their own agenda and beliefs," said Sanders, and committee members are "anxious to hear them firsthand."

There's a lot of interest in Lively's scheduled appearance, according to Sanders, who characterized the pastor as a conservative who adheres to the Massachusetts Republican Party's platform.

"It will be better to get a sense of support for his campaign and the other attendees after his appearance," he said.

In Wilbraham GOP circles, Sanders is a contender for the vacant First Hampden and Hampshire District seat on the Massachusetts Republican State Committee. Springfield resident Tom McCarthy recently left the position and his successor is expected to be chosen soon.

Baker supporters have spent a lot of money statewide in recent years to elect Republican State Committee people who are favorable to the governor, shunning a push by conservatives to restore social issues -- including abortion and gay marriage -- as primary talking points for the state GOP.

Mark Manolakis, a former chairman of the Wilbraham Republican Town Committee who left the post a few months ago to focus on his career, says he has no problem with a social conservative like Lively addressing local Republicans. But Manolakis says he could never politically support Lively, who co-authored "The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party," a book asserting that gays contributed to the extreme militarism of Nazi Germany.

"No, I would never vote for him," said Manolakis, whose family has deep roots in the Republican Party. "To me -- he wrote a book about how gays created Nazism. That's just ..." His words trailed off, leaving the sentence unfinished.

Manolakis doesn't believe in censoring people's political views -- even viewpoints he finds abhorrent -- which is why he supports Lively's right to speak to the Wilbraham Republican Town Committee.

"I'm a big believer of 'freedom of speech,'" said the 25-year-old millennial, who'd like to see the Republican Party broaden its appeal and become more inclusive, not get bogged down on polarizing social issues.

"I want a chance to talk about these issues and call him out," Manolakis said of Lively. "We get stuck in the mud on these social issues."

Wilbraham has long been a town dominated by older, more conservative voters, according to Manolakis, but the demographics are gradually changing. "Wilbraham is getting younger and the political landscape is starting to shift," he said.

Shifting political landscapes aside, will the Wilbraham GOP back Scott Lively for governor? "I think there's a few in the committee who will back him, and just because they hate the establishment so much," Manolakis said.

For many conservative Republicans, Baker is the poster boy for establishment politics in Massachusetts, a water-downed Republican who must appease the state's Democratic establishment if he wants to continue governing this blue state.

In order for a Republican to win in Massachusetts, conventional GOP wisdom dictates that a candidate must be fiscally conservative and socially liberal. But some Republican committees in the Bay State are reverting to anti-abortion and anti-gay agendas to rally social conservatives, which Lively hopes to capitalize on as he makes the rounds in the lead-up to the September primary.

Despite his much-publicized evangelism as an "anti-gay" crusader -- Lively claims to have influenced legal crackdowns against homosexuality in Russia and Uganda -- he insists that improving the lot of underprivileged Springfield residents has been his primary focus since founding the Redemption Gate Mission Society and Holy Grounds Coffee House several years ago.

Lively has toned down the anti-gay rhetoric and amplified his efforts to help the city's downtrodden. This includes promoting a social justice platform that calls for freeing poor families from government dependency through microfinancing, startups and prison reform that involves real rehabilitation, not merely warehousing offenders.

As an example of his dedication to the disenfranchised, Lively cites his plan to create employee-owned businesses that operate as profit-sharing cooperatives to make sure income disparities between the highest and lowest paid employees aren't so out of whack.

Lively also wants to tap into the growing green manufacturing industry, he said, to help kick-start the economy of this region, which was formerly a manufacturing stronghold.

"I'm not a one-dimensional candidate," said Lively, 60, an alcoholic and drug addict until 1986, the year he "surrendered his life" to Jesus Christ and was "miraculously healed and delivered."

When it comes to the economy, Lively believes his fiscal ideas will get people working and help stimulate the economy.

On the issue of taxes, Lively wants to do away with the residential property tax in Massachusetts. "Primary-use residential property should not be taxed," he said, "because then you never really own the property."

For example, he said, if a homeowner falls on hard times and can't pay his property tax bill, the government can take the property -- a process that would end under his proposal.

He also supports flipping the flow of sales and income taxes so the money first goes to local governments, with the state getting its cut through a pro rata system.

"My fiscal conservatism is, I think, healthier and stronger than anybody else's," Lively said. "My goal is to return principled conservatism to the Republican Party after Charlie Baker has done everything possible to undermine conservatism."

His platforms for education and family values include doing away with Common Core, which he calls "Commie Core," claiming it turns our students into "Socialist robots," and protecting children from "porn culture,"' which he summarizes as letting "kids be kids again."

On the issue of eradicating systemic, long-term poverty, Lively says some "social justice warriors" who claim to care about the poor and the homeless often belong to larger umbrella organizations that are prone to corruption and profligacy, whereas his Springfield ministry deals directly with the city's needy population.

"At the top, it's a scam," Lively said of the myriad social service organizations -- private, public or quasi-public -- that offer services that he believes should be under local control with church involvement.

"It's all about getting government money and milking the federal treasury," he said. "There's no incentive to break people from government dependency."

Even though Lively has many ideas about how to weaken the grip of government dependency, getting people back to work, and restoring pride and prosperity in the process, the mainstream media tends to focus on one thing: Scott Lively, the anti-gay activist.

And he's fed up with that.

In a 2015 letter to The Republican, Lively strongly objected to the newspaper labeling him an "anti-gay pastor," as if it were some sort of "professional title rather than an editorial comment," he said.

"I strongly object to that characterization, which deliberately misrepresents my opposition to the mainstreaming of homosexual conduct as hatred of homosexual persons," Lively said, adding that the label isn't an "honest descriptor but a slur."

After the death of Fred Phelps, the vehemently anti-gay founder of the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas -- known for its "God Hates Fags" catchphrase and website of the same name -- some hate-watch groups predicted Lively would emerge as Phelps' heir apparent. The pastor has instead worked hard to shift the focus onto his missionary work in Springfield.

"Fred Phelps was just something crazy," said Lively, who considers himself to be a political "maverick" with political views that are firmly rooted in the moral teachings of the Bible.

His views on LGBT issues are based on biblical references and reasoning, he says, noting that the Bible warns that homosexuals and bisexuals will suffer great harm, "both physically and spiritually." The "validity of this warning is manifest around us," he states on his campaign website.

The election of Donald Trump as president is proof that some Americans yearn for a return to traditional values, according to Lively and other social conservatives, despite Trump's many alleged moral transgressions -- including infidelity, sexual assault, sexual harassment, lewd behavior and the infamous "hot mic" moment that caught the New York City billionaire bragging about "grabbing women by the pussy."

Lively says more social conservatives would likely seek public office if the mainstream media focused on unbiased reporting instead of pushing a progressive political agenda.

"The key to all of this is the media going back to its original purpose: the idea of gathering and disseminating information impartially, not trying to make the world a 'better place' by pushing an agenda," Lively said. "If the media did that, we'd all be better off."

As far as Baker goes, Lively views the governor as a Republican in name only, a politician whose three-year tenure has coincided with a sizable drop in GOP enrollment in Massachusetts.

"Somebody needs to stop Charles Baker before he completely destroys the Republican Party and its foundation of principled conservatism that is the only real hope for restoring Massachusetts to its former strength and health," Lively said in December, when he announced his candidacy for governor.

For Bob Grove, a former journalist and member of the Wilbraham Republican Town Committee, Lively remains somewhat of an unknown commodity when it comes to many of the issues that have traditionally defined the Republican Party.

"I don't think he's a Republican," Grove said Wednesday. "I wouldn't pretend to speak for him. I don't know what his agenda is beyond what we've seen, and what we've seen is a man who is virulently anti-gay. That seems to consume him."

Grove says there's no point in discussing women's reproductive rights with Lively, who unequivocally believes that "abortion is the intentional killing of a living human being and should be criminalized," the pastor's campaign site states.

"Abortion is the world to him," Grove said. "It's a zero sum game. That's it."

The Republican Party has always been a "big tent party" with diverse viewpoints and ideologies, according to Grove. "But today, in Massachusetts, there's a big schism in the party," he said.

Grove said some Republicans want the party to focus on fiscal issues, including fixing the state budget, getting rid of waste, and figuring out why Massachusetts roads are so lousy even though the commonwealth spends more money on them than most states.

Social issues like abortion and gay marriage remain the primary focus of a small GOP subset, a highly organized cadre with a knack for funneling money to candidates who share their minority views, according to Grove. This "extreme right-wing" element has worked hard to get people into positions with the Massachusetts Republican State Committee, he said.

"In this state, it is impossible to get people with 'Scott Lively positions' elected, so the question is why is he doing it?" said Grove, who believes the majority of Massachusetts Republicans are moderates who are concerned about fiscal issues, not right-wing zealots obsessed with social conservatism.

"The bottom line is Wilbraham, as a town, does not support the kinds of policies ... of a Scott Lively," Grove said. "The town does not support him."BOSTON -- A group of gun violence survivors and gun control advocates gathered at the Statehouse Thursday to push for a bill that would allow someone's guns to be temporarily taken away if the person poses a danger to himself or others.

Supporters of the bill, including Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, say the legislation could prevent tragedies like Wednesday's school shooting in Florida, which killed 17 people.

"I think everything needs to be on the table when we're thinking about strategies to reduce gun violence and to keep guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves and others," Healey said. "Yesterday's terrible tragedy in Parkland, Florida, is a great example of why legislation like this is important."

But Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners Action League, a Massachusetts gun rights lobby, called the bill "very cruel and extraordinarily dangerous." He said the bill deprives people of their civil liberties and has the potential to "further enrage a psychopath" without offering any mental health treatment.

The legislation would create a process for an Extreme Risk Protective Order. That would allow a family member, law enforcement officer or health care provider to go to court and petition the court to temporarily prohibit the person from owning a gun. Within 10 days, the person would be entitled to a full hearing, where they could appeal to have the order lifted. The order could also be extended if a judge deems the person a risk.

The process would be modeled on an existing procedure for domestic violence protective orders.

According to advocates of the bill, issuing protective orders could help reduce the rate of suicide. According to advocates, 58 percent of Massachusetts gun deaths in 2016 were suicides, and 1,226 people from Massachusetts died by gun suicide in the last decade. They say 90 percent of people who survive their first suicide attempt do not die by suicide.

"Extreme Risk Protective Order bills give families a chance to get them the help they need," said Janet Goldenberg, of the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence.

Rep. David Linsky, D-Natick, lead sponsor of one of the bills, said in the Florida shooting, people knew the suspected shooter posed a threat, but the police were powerless to seize his guns.

"The time for thoughts and prayers is over. It's time for action," Linsky said. "We have to do this before Parkland becomes Plymouth, before Columbine becomes Cohasset, before Aurora becomes Arlington and before Newtown becomes Natick or Needham or Newton."

A similar bill to Linsky's has been filed by Rep. Marjorie Decker, D-Cambridge.

Similar laws have passed in Connecticut, California, Oregon and Washington.

Dianne Baylis, of Topsfield, said a close friend of hers talked to family members about killing himself, and his family was closely monitoring him and took away his gun. But the friend was able to buy a new gun and shoot himself.

Baylis said in his wallet was a card for an appointment with a psychiatrist. She believes if her friend had not been able to so easily purchase a gun, he would not have killed himself and would have made it to the appointment.

But Wallace, of GOAL, argued that the bigger problem is access to mental health services, not guns. If someone's gun is taken away through this process, he said, "You've taken someone you say is dangerous because of mental health, you've exacerbated the situation, dragged them into the public arena, taken away their civil rights, then set them free."

Wallace said angering someone like the alleged killer in Florida could only make the person turn to other methods of violence. "What happens when he makes a car bomb?" Wallace said.

Similarly, Wallace said, statistics show that in Massachusetts, after tighter gun laws went into effect in 1998, the number of suicides by gun decreased, but the number of suicides by hanging or suffocation increased. "If you simply take away their gun, people will find other means to commit harm," Wallace said.

This story has been updated to mention Decker's bill.BOSTON -- Leslie Friedman's grandfather was murdered in her uncle's store in Washington, D.C., 40 years ago.

When she talked to a reporter about Wednesday's school shooting in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17 people, Friedman, of Brookline, teared up. She expressed anger and frustration that Congress "is too scared to do anything."

"We now have more members of this family, that is a family that none of us wanted to join," Friedman said. "We're brought together as a family because we're survivors and we're victims."

Gun violence survivors who gathered at a Statehouse Thursday for a rally on a gun-related bill also reflected on the horrific school shooting.

"We know how these people are going to suffer," said Greg Gibson, whose son was killed in a school shooting at Simon's Rock College in Great Barrington in 1992. "We know that for each person, dozens of people around them are going to suffer. We know the costs it's going to reap on this town. We know the financial costs, we know the emotional costs. It's just a terrible waste of lives, resources and causes a lot of people a lot of pain."

Gibson said his reaction is the same as it has been with each shooting for the last 25 years. "It just keeps going on," he said.

Liam Lowney is the director of the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance and the brother of Shannon Lowney, a receptionist who was murdered at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Brookline in 1994.

"We haven't come very far in that time, have we?" Lowney said.

"My reaction is the same each and every time," Lowney said. "I feel for the families and the journey that they're about to embark on, having an empty seat at their table, understanding how their family network is now, the trauma that they're experiencing."

Lowney said he thinks society should be doing more to prevent gun violence.

"There are things that we can and should be doing with respect to access to guns and the prevalence of guns in our society and violence in our society, that we can absolutely prevent this time and time again, and yet we're surprised and shocked every time it happens as a country," Lowney said.

Lynnette Alameddine of Saugus, whose 20-year-old son Ross was murdered in the Virginia Tech massacre, said she was "sick to my stomach" when she heard about Florida. "It was terrible and it shouldn't be this way," she said.BOSTON -- The Massachusetts Senate has not yet chosen a new majority leader, a week after former majority leader Harriette Chandler, D-Worcester, became Senate president.

Senate Democrats met in a caucus Wednesday, where an aide to Chandler originally said they would choose a new majority leader. However, the senators did not make any announcement about leadership.

"We just had something to check and we're checking on it, and we'll be back to you with all the information you're looking for as soon as we're ready," Chandler said.

A Chandler aide said senators are still working through issues, including compensation when people are moving between positions.

Chandler became Senate president after Sen. Stan Rosenberg, D-Amherst, stepped down from the position during an investigation related to his husband's alleged sexual misconduct.

Chandler is expected not only to appoint a new majority leader but to change the leadership structure. This could be necessary if, for example, she picks a committee chairman to become majority leader, then has to replace the committee chairman.

Chandler must also replace Linda Dorcena Forry, an assistant majority whip who left to take a job at Suffolk Construction. And Chandler may want to replace herself as chairwoman of Senate committees on redistricting and citizen engagement.

Several other senators referred questions about leadership to Chandler.

Meanwhile, senators passed two bills on Wednesday. One bill, S.591, the so-called PATCH Act, would ensure that patients have the ability to request that a summary of payment form for their health insurance be sent directly to them, not to the policyholder of their insurance. Certain sensitive health care services would not be identified on the form.

This might help, for example, an adult who is on their parent's or spouse's health insurance but does not want their parent or spouse to know what kind of health care they received.

"Patient confidentiality is a foundational element of the patient-provider relationship," said Sen. Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, the lead sponsor of the bill. "Unfortunately, young adults, minors or victims of abuse are often reluctant to seek certain types of treatment, fearing that their personal health information will be disclosed to a parent or spouse."

Jennifer Childs-Roshak, president of Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts, praised the Senate for passing the bill. "For too long, confidentiality fears have kept people from seeking important health care and counseling, or forced them to pay out-of-pocket rather than risk the possibility that their private health care decisions be shared with others," Childs-Roshak said. "Whether someone needs birth control, testing or treatment for sexually transmitted infections, domestic violence counseling or other sensitive health services, access to that care must be affordable and confidential."

The other bill passed by the Senate, S.2297, expands eligibility for a job training grant program at community colleges.

The bills will now go to the House.

Meanwhile, the House passed a bill Wednesday to make it free for Massachusetts residents to request a credit freeze. It would also require any company where data security is breached to provide a year of credit monitoring for free.

Lawmakers began looking into issues related to credit freezes after a massive data breach at the credit reporting agency Equifax.

That bill will go to the Senate.The Kalispell Chamber of Commerces monthly luncheon series will feature Kalispell Public Schools Superintendent, Mark Flatau, and the needs of the district as the sole highlight for its February 27th event.

In Flataus presentation, attendees can expect to see how Kalispell Public Schools stack up against other districts across the state and funding will stand out as a noticeable difference. Each year, school districts across the state receive approximately eighty percent of their funding from the State of Montana, leaving the rest of the operating monies to come from local residents. According to Flatau, many districts take the approach of running a levy every year to maintain maximum funding levels at 100%. Kalispell has opted not to hit locals property taxes annually and as a result, only runs levies when funds are absolutely needed for operational costs.

"We dont want to ask unless we have an absolute need to," said Flatau. "This year we are spending about $1.5 million in reserve funds to simply maintain program and operational support. Operating from reserve funds cannot support us in the future."

New revenue for Kalispell Public Schools, as given by the State of Montana in 2015 was approximately $930,000 between the elementary and high school districts. In 2017, due to a tight budget during the legislative session, Kalispell Public Schools ended up with $250,000 in new revenue.

The last General Fund Levies for Kalispell Public Schools were approved in 2007 for the high school district and 2012 at the elementary district. Since 2007 the district has seen an increase of 834 students and is on track to reach nearly 6,000 total public school students by the start of the 2018/2019 school year.

The Flathead Valley has seen steady population growth, landing a spot in the top ten percent of country growth nationwide between the years 1990 and 2015. As a result, Kalispell Public Schools will be opening the doors to its newest elementary school, Rankin Elementary, in August of this year. Operating costs for the new school alone will run approximately $600,000-750,000 per year.

The Kalispell Public Schools Board of Trustees is currently in the final planning process for determining the exact details for the request, which is planned for public vote on a May 8, all mail-in-ballot later this spring. The final vote by the school board could occur on February 27, making the Kalispell Chamber luncheon the first public event with the details of the ballot issue.

The program is open to the public and will run from 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. at the Red Lion Hotel in Kalispell. Tickets to this program are $20 for those interested in eating lunch. Listening to the program from the back of the room is free. Please register with the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce at (406) 758-2803 by Friday, February 23rd at 3:00 p.m.

###

About the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau

Since 1904, the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce, Convention and Visitors Bureau has been a leading voice in strengthening the Flathead Valley community and the business climate, with the goal of making Northwest Montana an ideal location to live and work. The Chamber consists of 725 businesses and organizations, which employ over half of the workforce in Flathead County, Montana.Sen. Steve Daines delivered the attached speech on Tuesday night during the Jeff Cole Memorial Lecture at the University of Montana campus. Did the states Republican senator hit the mark in defending free speech, or did he overlook the speakers documented verbal attacks on women, minorities and other groups?

By Missoula CurrentIm the governor of Montana. Im also a husband, father of three, runner and former attorney general. Im a big fan of actually working with people to get things done while Washington, DC is stuck in constant gridlock.

So when the FCC repealed net neutrality rules, I decided to see if there was anything states could do to ensure a free and open internet for everyone. Turns out there is  and I became the first governor in the country to sign an Executive Order protecting net neutrality:

Full Discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/7xlnxi/im_steve_bullock_the_first_governor_to_protect/?st=JDONNSCT&sh=b0fe5edaFor first semester ended 31stDecember 2018:MCB Group posts profits of Rs 4.3 billion (+17.8%).

The Board of MCB Group Ltd met today and approved its unaudited results for first semester of FY 2018/2019, during which profits of Rs4.3 billion (+17.8%) were made.

Commenting on the results, Pierre Guy Noel (Chief Executive -MCB Group Ltd) said:

Group profits for the six months to December 2018 increased by 17.8% to reach Rs 4,291 million, on the back of further headway being made in our international business activities, with foreign sourced banking earnings contributing 59% to profits.

This performance was driven by a rise of 24.7% in net interest income, supported mainly by the continued rise in the foreign loan book of MCB Ltd as well as higher average yields on investment securities during the period under review. Net fee and commission income rose by 12.1%, underpinned by strong performances relating to regional trade financing and payment activities in the banking cluster as well as increased revenues from MCB Capital Markets operations.

Notwithstanding an appreciable contribution from MCB Real Assets Ltd, other income fell by 7.7%, with profit on exchange and fair value gains on financial instruments declining by 1.6% amidst volatility in the foreign exchange market whilst the results of 2017 had benefited from a contribution of Rs 191 million following the disposal of investments by MCB Equity Fund. In line with significant investments to boost internal capabilities, operating expenses were up by 9.4%, with our cost to income ratio, however, falling to 39.9% as compared to 42.5% for the corresponding period in the previous year.

Net impairment charges stood at Rs 793.4 million, with the cost of risk remaining the same as last year at 64 basis points of gross loans and advances on an annualised basis, whilst asset quality improved with the gross non-performing loan ratio reaching 4.2%. In spite of improved results from SG Mocambique and Promotion and Development Group, our share of profits of associates declined by Rs 35 million following reduced profitability of BFCOI, further exacerbated by weakness of the euro. Shareholders funds posted a year-on-year growth of 7.9% to reach Rs 52.5 billion, with our capital adequacyratio improving to 17.6% compared to the end of the last financial year, of which 15.7% in the form of Tier 1. In spite of the recent downgrade in the world economic outlook, prospects for the Group remain encouraging in view of our existing business pipeline. On this basis, full year results are projected to post a healthy growth compared to last year.China's foreign ministry spokesperson said the United States has a strong sense of insecurity which is beyond comprehension, in response to latest accusations from US National Intelligence Daniel Coats that the US is confronted with multiple threats from China.

"I don't know why the United States has such a strong sense of insecurity," said foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang at a press conference on Wednesday, adding that there is no such thing as the absolute security under the sun, and one country's security cannot be achieved at the expense of other countries' security.

Director of US National Intelligence Daniel Coats said at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday that the US is confronted with multiple threats posed by countries like Russia and China, including the Iranian nuclear issue, the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, cyber threat, espionage, and weaponization of outer space.

He said Russia, China, Iran and North Korea pose the greatest global cyber threats. "Frankly, the United States is under attack," Coats said.

Geng asked the United States to discard the "zero-sum game" mindset, refrain from viewing the relations between major countries from a confrontational perspective, correspond with the trend of the times, namely, peace and development, and make concerted efforts with China, Russia and other members of the international community to jointly uphold world peace and security.

"The United States is the No.1 major power in the world with unparallel military might. If the United States felt that it was threatened hither and thither, what would other countries do? Shouldn't they feel that the danger just lurked at the doorstep? How could they even survive in that case?" Geng retorted.

Complaints against China over security have gained steam recently. FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday that China has aggressively placed spies at US universities. Last week, senator Marco Rubio of Florida wrote to five Florida institutions and asked them to shut down their joint programs with China's Confucius Institute.

Related:

"Dangerous" to advocate for confrontation against China: Chinese ambassador to U.S.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- It would be dangerous to advocate for confrontation against China, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai has said here.

"It's certainly paranoid to fear that a China that follows its own path of development would be confrontational to the United States. And it's dangerous to advocate any strategy for confrontation (against China)," Cui told a spring festival reception at the Chinese embassy on Tuesday.

"It would be wishful thinking to believe that some political or cultural genetic engineering could be done to change China's DNA," he said.

More than 700 attended the event, among them U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, White House National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs Matthew Pottinger, Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton and U.S. Senator of West Virginia Shelley Capito.Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn suddenly resigned on Thursday in what he described as a bid to smooth reforms, following years of violent unrest that threatened the ruling party's hold on Africa's second most populous nation.

The prime minister leads the nation under Ethiopia's political system and Hailemariam's decision to quit underscores the depth of division within the ruling coalition over how fast to pursue political openness.

It was not clear who would replace Hailemariam, who also resigned as chairman of the ruling coalition that contains four parties representing Ethiopia's ethnic groups and has governed the country since it defeated a military regime in 1991.

"Unrest and a political crisis have led to the loss of lives and displacement of many," Hailemariam said in a televised speech. "I see my resignation as vital in the bid to carry out reforms that would lead to sustainable peace and democracy."

Hundreds of people died in Ethiopia's two most populous regions - Oromiya and Amhara - in 2015 and 2016. Opposition to an urban development plan for the capital Addis Ababa sparked public demonstrations against political restrictions, land grabbing and human rights abuses.

"Much of the public anger stems from the fact that the Tigryan ethnic group, representing 6 percent of the population, control key business interests, hold senior level positions in government and the military, and own significant land at the expense of other ethnic groups," wrote Ahmed Salim, vice president at Teneo global advisory firm in a briefing note.

Some foreign-owned firms were attacked in the violence, which dented investor confidence in East Africa's largest and fastest growing economy and sparked divisions in the ruling coalition on how best to end the unrest.

Hailemariam, a 52-year-old former university dean, said he would stay on as prime minister in a caretaker capacity until the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and the country's parliament named a new premier.

The ruling coalition has accepted his resignation, state-affiliated outlets said. It was not immediately clear when a new premier was to be announced. The party is scheduled to hold a congress next month.

There is pressure for a member of the Oromo ethnic group to get the post, said a source close to a ruling party member and an analyst familiar with the region. Currently the foreign minister is the most senior Oromo in government.

VIOLENCE, THEN REFORMS

Hailemariam's resignation follows a reshuffle in ruling party that began in November and sidelined a number of senior members, including the widow of the former prime minister. Since January, the government has speeded up reforms, releasing more than 6,000 of political prisoners.

Most of the released prisoners, which included high level opposition figures and journalists, were detained for alleged involvement in the mass protests.

The prime minister had pushed for even more prisoner releases, said a regional analyst familiar with Ethiopian politics. He asked not to be named in order not to jeopardise his relationship with the government.

"He (the Prime Minister) wanted more prisoners released - I think he wanted to empty the jails of all political prisoners. Remember he also ordered the closure of this notorious prison in Addis. This was a PM who wanted some major changes but sadly didn't get all that he wanted," the analyst said.

However, the resignation did not necessarily mean reforms would stop, the analyst said.

"I don't think the resignation is a sign that the hard-liners have won. They will probably continue on the path of reform, albeit not to the scale and speed that people want. They realise that there is no option," he said.

But former opposition lawmaker Girma Seifu warned that breaking the coalition's stranglehold on power would take more than the resignation of one man. Since 2015, when Seifu lost his post, the coalition has controlled every seat in Ethiopia's 547-strong parliament.

"This (resignation) is not something to cheer about. In my opinion, the whole parliament had to be disbanded and a transitional phase enacted," he said.

"Whoever replaces him (Hailemariam) has to have in mind a transition. Otherwise it will only be a false start."

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The chairmen of seven political parties launched a campaign on Monday that seeks to mobilise the public to vote in the presidential election, scheduled for 26-28 March.

In a statement issued following a meeting at the Wafd Partys headquarters on 11 February political leaders said a central operation room will be formed in order to mobilise citizens in all governorates to cast their ballots.

Yasser Qoura, assistant secretary-general of the Wafd Party, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the operation room will start work next week. The campaign is a response to those who are calling for a boycott. We want as many citizens as possible to participate and vote, he said.

A coalition of leftist and liberal opposition parties affiliated with the Civic Democratic Forum (CDM) urged citizens in a press conference on 30 January to boycott the poll on the grounds the elction has already fallen short of democratic norms.

Qoura claims the boycott calls undermine Egypts national interests.

Even if some people believe the result of the poll is a foregone conclusion this is no reason to call for a boycott, said Qoura. A high turnout will send the message that the public supports the transitional political process and the war against terror.

Qoura, however, revealed that the seven political parties also intend to submit a list of demands to President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, foremost among them that Article 5 of the constitution be implemented.

This article states that Egypts political system is based on political diversity and the peaceful rotation of power, said Qoura. We hope that if President Al-Sisi wins he will work closely with political parties towards activating this article.

Akmal Qortam, head of the Conservatives Party, told the Weekly that unlike the CDM the political parties attending the meeting at the Wafd Partys headquarters believe everyone must stand behind the countrys political leadership at this critical stage.

We think boycott calls could easily serve foreign agendas targeting the stability of Egypt, he said.

Qortam revealed public rallies are being planned in all governorates to urge citizens to vote, as well as televised forums to alert citizens to the dangers posed by a boycott on national security and democratic transition.

The Egyptian National Movement (ENM), a political party founded by former prime minister Ahmed Shafik, has joined in the condemnation of boycott calls. The party issued a statement on 8 February saying that since Shafik had decided not to contest the poll the party would be supporting the re-election of President Al-Sisi.

We call upon citizens not to listen to boycott calls and instead be keen to vote because this is a national right they must exercise, read the statement.

On 2 February the National Electoral Commission (NEC) announced that two candidates will appear on the ballot paper incumbent President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi who is seeking a second four-year term, and head of the Ghad Party Moussa Mustafa Moussa.

Some professors of constitutional law and high-profile lawyers have also condemned the calls to boycott the election. Alexandria Universitys constitutional law professor Samir Sabri said those who issue boycott calls know that they are urging citizens to violate the constitution and law.

The constitution states that national polls are part of the countrys political system and the Penal Code states anyone making calls that might harm the public interest should be prosecuted, said Sabri.

Mamdouh Maged, a professor of constitutional law at the Police Academy, told the daily Al-Ahram that Egypts Presidential Election Law [22/2014] stipulates in Article 43 a fine of between LE2,000 and LE5,000 for anyone who fails to vote without a valid reason.

On 31 January Tarek Mahmoud, a lawyer from Alexandria, filed a petition against politicians who had called for a boycott on the grounds their demand represents a coup against the constitution.

The Ghad candidate Moussa said this week if he wins he will place CDM officials on trial for treason.

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The super-giant offshore Zohr gas field recently inaugurated by President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi is a life-saver for Egypt. Not only does it help secure the countrys domestic consumption needs, saving the budget millions of dollars in imports, but its possible exports will provide a much-needed source of hard currency income.

Moreover, it will act as a magnet for investments in the oil and gas sector, with there being expectations that it will transform Egypt into a regional energy hub. Output from the Zohr field currently saves Egypt more than $60 million monthly in natural gas imports. This sum will increase to $250 million per month by the end of 2018.

Work on the Zohr field, which has reserves of 30 trillion cubic feet of gas, was expedited over only 28 months instead of the estimated six to eight years it has been needed to develop similar fields elsewhere.

Production at the field started off at 350 million cubic feet per day when it was first operational in late December 2017, and it has now reached up to 400 million cubic feet per day. It is scheduled to increase to one billion cubic feet of gas per day by mid-2018.

The Zohr fields output is expected to help Egypt attain self-sufficiency in natural gas by the end of this year when its output reaches 1.7 billion cubic feet of gas per day, Egyptian Minister of Petroleum Tarek Al-Molla has said.

By the end of 2019, production is scheduled to reach 2.7 billion cubic feet per day, representing 50 per cent of Egypts total production, Al-Molla said.

It is expected that Egypt will resume its status as self-sufficient in gas by 2019, to be followed by its resuming its role as a gas exporter after that. Egypt went from being a regional exporter of natural gas to a net importer in 2014.

The discovery and operation of the Zohr field has thus turned around the outlook for Egypt. People still remember the widescale electricity blackouts that intensified in the summer of 2014 because of gas-supply shortages.

The cause was primarily due to the accumulated debt of $6.3 billion owed to foreign oil-producing partners. The arrears prompted a lack of investment by the oil companies, causing a drop in production from six billion cubic feet per day in 2010 to 3.8 billion cubic feet per day in 2014.

To overcome such challenges, the government worked on three fronts by rescheduling the accumulated debt, importing gas to cover the gap until local production could recover, and offering new concessions for the exploration of new resources.

As far as the debt is concerned, the government started to pay regular installments in 2014. The arrears are now at $2.3 billion and down from $6.3 billion.

Meanwhile, the government has worked on infrastructure. It has leased two floating re-gasification terminals in Ain Al-Sokhna on the Gulf of Suez with a capacity to process 500 and 750 million cubic feet per day, respectively.

It has also diversified its natural gas imports from new markets such as Russia and Algeria. The moves helped stabilise the flow of natural gas to the countrys electricity stations, stabilising the electricity supply from May 2015.

Since 2014, over 22 concession agreements for the exploration of gas have been signed, leading to the discovery of substantial fields, including the Zohr, which was discovered by the Italian oil company Eni. This week another major oil field, Atoll also began production. Production started seven months ahead of scheduled according to British Petroleum (BP). The new field is now producing 350 million cubic feet of gas in addition to 10,000 barrels of condensate per day

There is strong potential for other discoveries following the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) Demarcation Agreement with Cyprus and Greece. Talks were scheduled to begin to build a pipeline to deliver natural gas to Egypt from the Aphrodite Gas Field off the coast of Cyprus to be liquefied using Egypts liquefaction plants and re-exported.

Egypts investment in liquefaction and re-gasification facilities now qualifies the country to become a regional gas hub.

Between November 2013 and November 2017, 83 gas and oil exploration, discovery, and development agreements were signed with international companies for investments of around $15 billion. It is thanks to these agreements that discoveries such as the Zohr, Atoll, Libra and Noros fields were found.

Meanwhile, the petroleum sector has succeeded in maintaining Egypts level of production of crude oil at 700,000 barrels per day as a result of implementing projects in the Western Desert, the Gulf of Suez, the Eastern Desert and Sinai.

The projects aim to make good on the natural depletion of the production at older wells and fields. The most important projects are expanding and strengthening the existing infrastructure.

While making new findings, Egypt is also working on amending its legislation for the sector, opening the door to private participation in the natural-gas sector and moving to end the states monopoly.

A new law in August 2017 set up a Natural Gas Regulatory Authority charged with licensing and devising plans to open the gas market to competition. It also allows for the eventual import of natural gas by private companies.

The law allows the private sector to directly ship, transport, market, store and trade natural gas using the countrys network and pipeline infrastructure.

* This story was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly

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Advertisement

This is the first extensive study where more than 400,000 women who are in the age group of 65 to 74 and 75 and older were included in the study. Family history as a breast cancer risk factor was analyzed in both the groups.The research team was led by Dejana Braithwaite, Ph.D., who is an associate professor of oncology at Georgetown University School of Medicine and a member of Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center."Family history of breast cancer does not decline as a breast cancer risk factor as a woman ages. The relationship didn't vary based on whether a first-degree relative's diagnosis was made in a woman age 50 or younger, or older than age 50. This means that women with that first-degree family history breast cancer in a mother, sister, or daughter should consider this risk factor when deciding whether to continue mammography screening as they age," said Braithwaite.Currently, mammography screening is recommended every two years for women who are between 50 and 74 years, and also for women at average risk, reveals the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF).The evidence for those who are above 75 years is insufficient to assess risk and benefit of mammography, revealed USPSTF's in 2016.Yearly mammograms are recommended for women who are aged 45 years, and then biennial screening at 55 years, until a woman is in good health, according to the American Cancer Society."As breast cancer screening guidelines change from age-based to risk-based, it is important to know how standard risk factors impact breast cancer risk for women of different ages," said Karla Kerlikowske, MD, senior author of the new study and a member of the UC San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.Braithwaite said that their goal is to provide evidence that helps inform screening guidelines for breast cancer in older women.Senior women who are in good health and have a first-degree family history need to screen mammogram as they age beyond the screening recommendations for average-risk women.The research teams who participated in this study were from Washington, California, Wisconsin, Vermont, New Hampshire and North Carolina. They examined records from the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortiums (BCSC) registries in their regions from 1996-2012.The research team found that age is the most influential risk factor for breast cancer. Any adult woman in the general population has a baseline 12 percent risk of developing breast cancer, where first-degree family history can double that risk.Overall, a first-degree family history leads to an absolute increase in the 5-year risk of breast cancer ranging from 1.2 to 10.3 percentage points depending on breast density and age.For example, women who are between 65-74 years with separate areas of dense tissue in their breasts had an increased 5-year risk of breast cancer, ranging from 15.1 percent in women without a family history of breast cancer to 23.8 percent in women whose first-degree female relatives had developed the disease.Likewise, women who were 75 years or older with the same scattered breast density, their 5-year cumulative risk of breast cancer was found to be increased from 15.9 percent for women without a family history to 23.1 percent for women with a family history.The research team also discovered that breast density did not attenuate the association of family history of breast cancer and the risk of breast cancer in the women when studied as a whole.However, when broken into different age groups, fatty breasts added a little risk to women who are in the age group of 65-74 years with a family history; and in the older cohort, the association was flipped dense breasts added slight risk.Source: MedindiaAdvertisement

The Acute Coronary Syndrome Quality Improvement in Kerala (ACS QUIK) study represents the largest randomized trial in cardiovascular medicine in India to date, an important milestone in a country that has more heart attacks than any other.Over the course of the study, hospitals were first assigned to deliver usual care, but were then randomly assigned to implement a quality improvement toolkit that included audit and feedback reporting, checklists, patient education materials and linkage to emergency cardiovascular care training, which are all common strategies in the United States.The investigators used a complex, yet useful, method known as a "stepped wedge" design, which improves investigators' understanding of the effects of complex interventions. This method was first used in the implementation and evaluation of Gambia's hepatitis B vaccination program in the late 1970s, yet has been rarely used because of its logistical challenges.Over the course of the study, the investigators measured the quality of care delivered by physicians, as well as patients' rates of major cardiovascular events including death, heart attack, stroke or major bleeding 30 days after hospital discharge.The study found that the intervention group experienced higher rates of key in-hospital and discharge medications. The intervention group also experienced lower rates of major cardiovascular events at 30-day follow-up compared with the usual care group 5.3% versus 6.4% but after accounting for variables including time trends, those findings failed to reach the level of statistical significance.While most studies would have determined that the intervention led to these differences in outcomes, the stepped wedge designed used by the ACS QUIK team allowed for adjustment of important variables such as time trends.The overall results suggest favorable trends in outcomes among heart attack patients in Kerala, which have improved over the past decade based on the team's prior work and are similar to outcomes among US heart attack patients."While we hoped that our trial would achieve its primary outcome, we demonstrated a high level of baseline care in Kerala. Without using the stepped wedge design, we would have incorrectly determined that our intervention was more effective than it was, which is important for setting policies to improve heart attack care," said Mark Huffman, MD, MPH, associate professor of Preventive Medicine in the Division of Epidemiology and co-first author of the study.The other co-first author was P.P. Mohanan, MBBS, MD, DM, director of Cardiology at Westfort Hi-Tech Hospital in Kerala, India. Mohanan is also a member of the Cardiological Society of India, Kerala chapter."Over the past decade, patients in Kerala with a higher-risk form of heart attack, known as a ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, are twice as likely to survive their heart attack to hospital discharge, a survival rate that now exceeds 95 percent, which is similar to countries like the United States. These improvements in the quality and safety of cardiac care reflect the tireless efforts of not only the CSI-K but also its collaborators," Mohanan said.The overall results of the study suggest favorable trends in outcomes among heart attack patients in Kerala, Huffman said.The improvements in several process-of-care measures for patients having heart attacks, including restoring blood flow to tissue or opening closed arteries with medicine or stents, demonstrated the toolkit's potential for improving the quality of care delivered at Indian hospitals, including those with lower baseline performance, according to the authors."The Keralan cardiologists are leaders in creating a culture that values quality and safety in Indian healthcare," said Huffman, also an associate professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology. "We are interested in exploring the effects of this type of intervention in other states and conditions."This project also served as a hub for four of Feinberg's Fogarty Global Health Fellows over the past three years, including Kyle Yoo, fourth-year medical student, Smitha Sarma, fourth-year medical student, Anubha Agarwal, MD, incoming fellow in the Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship Program in the Department of Medicine and Amisha Patel, MD, MS, former cardiology fellow who is now an assistant professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center in New York.Most recently, Yoo adapted the World Management Survey to survey 91 nurses, cardiologists and administrators about their management practices, finding low quality of management practice, particularly in goal-setting."The ability to set goals in quality improvement work is essential," Yoo said. Huffman believes these results could be used to shape future interventions."Global health is an area of strategic focus for Northwestern University," Huffman said. "This large trial shows the institution's commitment to improving the health and healthcare of people in limited resource settings."The ACS QUIK toolkit was developed and tested by an international consortium consisting of investigators from Northwestern University, the Centre for Chronic Disease Control in Delhi, India and members of the Cardiological Society of India, Kerala Chapter."The ACS QUIK study is a great example demonstrating the utility of simple health system interventions. Not only is it a model for replication in improving patient care but is also an exemplar of collaborative research involving several cardiologists from Kerala, the Centre for Chronic Disease control in Delhi and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine," said co-author Dorairaj Prabhakaran, MD, DM, MS, professor of Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, executive director of the Centre for Chronic Disease Control and vice president of research and policy at the Public Health Foundation of India.Source: EurekalertPolitical observers are busy asking themselves why no opposition party opted to field a candidate in next months presidential election.

When preparations for the presidential poll began in November commentators were optimistic the more established parties  like the Wafd and Tagammu  would field candidates but their hopes were quickly dashed after the majority of political parties backed the re-election of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi. The situation was compounded when Anwar Al-Sadat and Khaled Ali announced they were withdrawing their candidacy bids.

Now President Al-Sisi faces a single challenger, Moussa Mustafa Moussa, head of the Ghad Party though it is clear, political analyst Hala Mustafa told Al-Ahram Weekly, that Moussa has no interest in competing against Al-Sisi but joined the race at the last minute to prevent the election from being portrayed as a referendum.

Mustafa argues the failure of political parties to put forward candidates necessitates changes to the political parties law to allow the formation of strong parties with distinctive platforms and allow political parties with similar platforms to merge into stronger partisan entities capable of fielding high-profile candidates in the 2022 presidential election. Her hope is that in the future two strong parties will emerge, capable of fielding credible figures in presidential elections.

The real problem was that no political parties have shown interest in fielding candidates, said Makram Mohamed Ahmed, an Al-Ahram political analyst and head of the Higher Council for Media Regulation (HCMR), says parties may have preferred not to field a candidate because they believed the result of the polls are a foregone conclusion.

While political parties prepared well for parliamentary elections in 2015 they were not serious about contesting the upcoming presidential poll and remained silent about their presidential election intentions,he said.

Ahmed argued that though the 25 January Revolution in 2011opened the door wide for political participation, the vast majority of political parties  there are now 104 of them  exist only on paper.

Political parties do not have prominent figures who could achieve victory in a presidential election, Ashraf Rashad, head of the Future of Homeland Party, told the Weekly. Most parties are new. They lack the experience, financial resources and grass roots presence to contest the presidential poll.

According to Rashad political parties which successfully contested parliamentary seats decided early on they would not field candidates in the 2018 presidential election out of respect for President Al-Sisi and his achievements over four years in office.

Instead of fielding candidates we agreed that we should pave the way for President Al-Sisi to complete implementing his programme during another four-year term.

There must be a review of the laws regulating the performance of political parties, says analyst Amr Hashem Rabie. Legislation should be amended so political parties require a minimum of 5,000 members before they can be registered rather than the 1,000 currently specified. And they need to formulate credible political platforms.

Mohamed Anwar Al-Sadat, leader of the Reform and Development Party, counters that many opposition figures wanted to run but had little faith state authorities would remain neutral during the poll.

The political environment in Egypt is hostile to political parties and the government has made no concrete steps towards strengthening a multi-party system, says Al-Sadat. He added he withdrew his own candidacy bid after being barred from meeting with MPs in an attempt to solicit recommendations.

Al-Sadat recommends a national dialogue be held between President Al-Sisi and opposition parties to identify the steps necessary to create a flourishing political life. This is important for the future of the country and for ensuring that there will be a peaceful rotation of power in Egypt, he says.

Political analyst Abdel-Moneim Said argued in a recent column that the problem with most opposition parties is that they suffer from what he terms political autism. Like children who suffer from autism they live in a world of their own. Instead of actively participating in political life, their attitude is one of boycott.

According to Said, rather than holding a dialogue with political parties in his first term President Al-Sisi had focused on helping young people enter political life.

The president knows young people are the countrys future leaders. They are the ones who must be groomed to occupy leading positions in the coming years. In his first four-year term President Al-Sisi also gave priority to addressing economic and security concerns and that this might have negatively affected political life.

But in the next four years, argues Said, there will have to be some form of dialogue with political parties to pave the way for a competitive presidential election in 2022.

* This story was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly

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Selfie obsession or selfie disorder is the obsessive need of some persons to click photos of themselves on smartphones and post it on various social media . Psychologists and counselors warn that this may be a mental disorder and should be treated as such.

Holding the smartphone above your head and twisting your hand at weird angles to get that perfect selfie shot capturing your smile or mood may seem the most normal thing to do, especially among the youth. However recent studies seem to suggest that if this urge to click selfies and share it with the world is unchecked and out of control, it may indicate underlying mental health issues.

Also referred to as selfitis, the term was coined in 2014 in a spoof (fake) news story which claimed that the American Psychiatric Association was considering the option of classifying this as a mental disorder.

The spoof article nevertheless spurred a series of clinical studies, and interestingly in about two or three years, these studies appear to confirm that selfitis disorder does indeed exist and have even established a Selfitis Behaviour Scale to assess the severity of the condition.

Dr. Mark Griffiths, Distinguished Professor of Behavioral Addiction in Nottingham Trent Universitys Psychology Department, who conducted a recent major study on the selfie obsession says, Whilst the (original) story was revealed to be a hoax, it didnt mean that the condition of selfitis didnt exist. We have now appeared to confirm its existence and developed the worlds first Selfitis Behaviour Scale to assess the condition.

Studies conducted have identified six factors most likely to be associated with selfie obsession. These included the following -

Environmental enhancement

Selfie taking enhances mood and helps to appreciate the environment better

To form good and happy memories of various experiences

Selfies are cherished possessions for future memories

Social Competition  Needing to be best

Elevates social status and importance

Getting more likes and comments on social media

Creates a healthy competition among social circle

Making my selfie look better than others by using photo editing tools

Attention Seeking

Helps to be popular in social and friends circle

Gaining attention and notice and comments on social media

Mood Elevation

Makes me happy, less stressed and good about myself

Improvement in Self-confidence

Feel more confident and self-assured when taking selfies

Looking at my selfies in private makes me more confident

Conforming to Peer Group Expectation

Feel accepted and respected only when I take and post selfies

Feel isolated if I do not indulge in taking and posting selfies

Selfie obsession disorder or selfitis is a strange urge to keep snapping pictures of oneself and sharing it on social media. Studies indicate that persons obsessed with selfie-taking may have an underlying mental health disorder and need to seek help. Depending on the severity of the condition, selfitis is classified into three levels.

Levels of Selfitis

Borderline - Clicking ones photos at least three times a day but not posting them on social media.

- Clicking ones photos at least three times a day but not posting them on social media. Acute - Taking self-pictures at least three times a day and posting all of them on social media.

- Taking self-pictures at least three times a day and posting all of them on social media. Chronic- Uncontrollable urge to take selfies continuously and posting them on social media more than six times in a day.

Persons obsessed with taking selfies may have one or more of the following emotional and mental health issues and may need medical help before things get out of hand

Loneliness

Unconscious cry for help

Obsessed with self and oblivious to other peoples opinions or needs

Highly attention seeking

Difficult relations with family and friends

Addiction tendencies

Lacking in confidence and feeling the need to fit in and gain approval

Suffering from stress

Based on questionnaires, the dominant characteristics of the person are identified as any of the following  loneliness, attention seeking, self-centered, or narcissistic (love of self).

Unless treated, the underlying personality traits and mental health issues may lead to more serious conditions such as depression, Substance abuse, suicidal tendencies and disruption in relationships.

The Selfitis Behavior scale is a questionnaire consisting of 20 statements where the person rates each of these statements from 1 to 5 (1 meaning strongly disagree and 5 meaning strongly agree), with a maximum score of 200. A higher score increases the chances of suffering from selfitis.

Taking selfies gives me a good feeling to better enjoy my environment Sharing my selfies creates healthy competition with my friends and colleagues I gain enormous attention by sharing my selfies on social media I can reduce my stress level by taking selfies I feel confident when I capture a selfie I think my peer group accepts me better when I take selfies and share them on social media I can express myself more in my environment through selfies Taking different selfie poses helps increase my social status I feel I become more popular when I post my selfies on social media Taking more selfies improves my mood and makes me feel happy I become more positive about myself when I take selfies I become a significant member of my peer group through selfie postings Taking selfies provides better memories of the occasion and the experience I post frequent selfies to get more likes and comments on social media By posting selfies, I expect my friends to appraise me Taking selfies changes my mood instantly I take more selfies and look at them privately to increase my confidence When I dont take selfies, I feel detached from my peer group I take selfies as trophies for future memories I use photo editing tools to enhance my selfie to look better than others

Broken relationships and loneliness

Tendency for other addictions as well

Putting oneself at risk of cyberbullying and trolling by frequent posting of selfies

Going to extreme lengths to secure validation of others, for example developing eating disorders to look thin and beautiful

Depression and risk of suicide

Psychopathic nature manifesting as taking dangerous selfies from edge of cliff, top of buildings, bridges

Selfie deaths  being run over, falling from heights while taking selfies

Currently, no scientifically approved treatment for selfie obsession disorder exists. Some of the following measures may be tried to overcome the obsession. In some severe cases, psychological counseling and cognitive behavior therapy may be required.

Ask yourself whether you need to carry your smartphone throughout the day and instead choose to have a basic phone to carry around

You should decide when and how to use your smartphone to benefit you

Decide to reduce the frequency of logins to social media, perhaps twice or thrice a week. Indulge in other enjoyable activities to resist the urge to keep visiting social media sites or reaching for your phone

Set realistic goals to achieve your targets. Give yourself time. Believe in yourself

Practice relaxation techniques and stress management

Seek your parents or well-wishers cooperation to help you achieve your goals and wean you away from your selfie habit

In more severe cases when the above measures do not yield the desired result it is necessary to seek specialist help.

CBT is atype of psychotherapy, found to be effective in obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD). Exposure and response prevention (ERP), a type of CBT therapy, involves exposing the person gradually to the object of obsession (smartphone in this instance) and teaching them to develop coping skills to avoid their instinctive response and the associated anxiety at not being able to indulge in the obsessive behavior.

Sessions may be individual, family or group therapy sessions.

ERP takes effort and practice, but the results can be rewarding - better quality, improved relations and a new outlook on life.

Medications:

Severe cases of selfie obsession may need a referral to a psychiatrist and medications as appropriate. Often a combination of CBT and medications have been found to offer maximum benefit in OCD. Other underlying mental disorders should be appropriately treated as well.

In conclusion, although it may sound dramatic to refer to selfie obsession as a mental health disorder, several scientific studies have strengthened the validity of this claim. Like all things in life, using smartphones and social media are best done in moderation.Egypt's military prosecution ordered on Tuesday the detention for 15 days of former head of the Egyptian Central Auditing Organization Hisham Geneina pending investigations into his claims that former military chief-of-staff Sami Anan possesses documents containing state secrets, state news agency MENA reported.

Geneina was a leading figure in the short-lived election campaign for Anan before the military officer was barred from running in the March presidential elections. Anan was detained by authorities last month over accusations of committing a series of violations and crimes, including inciting against the military and forgery.

Geneina was arrested on Tuesday at his home in a Cairo suburb, his lawyer Ali Taha told Ahram Online, one day after the Egyptian army said it would take legal action against the two men.

In an interview with HuffPost Arabia published on Sunday, Geneina claimed that Anan possessed documents and evidence relating to major deadly incidents and "political crimes" since the 2011 revolution and following the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi that could implicate many Egyptian officials if they were made public.

He said the documents were kept abroad and would surface if authorities tried to assassinate Anan.

The army has responded by saying the matter would be referred to investigators to take the necessary legal action against both former officials and that it would "use all constitutional and legal powers to preserve national security."

It added that Geneina's claims "amount to crimes and aim to raise doubts about the state and its institutions" at a time when the armed forces are waging a battle to uproot terrorism from the Sinai region.

An hour after the army's statement, Anan's lawyer Nasser Amin distanced his client from Geneina's controversial remarks.

In a statement on Facebook, he described Geneina's claims as "unfounded, untrue and bearing no relation to reality." The lawyer pledged to take legal action against anyone who has given or will give statements to the media "attributing any words or acts to Anan that would undermine [Anan's] legal status or expose him to the danger of legal or social liability."

"Any statements not made by Sami Annan in person are attributed to their owners and do not in any way express him," he said.

Anan was detained by authorities last month, a week after announcing his presidential bid. The army accused him of inciting against the military and breaking the law by running for office without its permission while still a reserve officer.

Geneina was attacked and severely wounded two weeks ago while on his way to lodge an appeal against an electoral commission's decision to disqualify Anan from running in the presidential vote, scheduled for 26-28 March. He said in media interviews that Egyptian authorities were behind his assault.

The interior ministry said at the time of the attack that Geneina hit a man with his car and that his doorman, wife and daughter assaulted what Geneina said were the attackers and tore off their clothes.

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According to Fatah leader Azzam Al-Ahmed, an Egyptian security delegation is expected to visit Gaza within days to follow up on the faltering Palestinian reconciliation agreement brokered by Cairo.

Al-Ahmed, in Cairo to attend a conference for Arab Parliamentarians, appeared to avoid meeting with the high-level Hamas delegation that was visiting Egypt in a bid to push efforts to implement the agreement which seeks to end the 12-year-old conflict between Hamas and Fatah, the two main Palestinian factions.

As Al-Ahram Weekly went to press on Tuesday evening there were no signs of an imminent breakthrough. Indeed, in a sign relations between the two factions are, if anything, worsening, Hamas sources announced on Tuesday morning that its delegation, led by Ismail Haniyeh, head of the movements politburo, had met with several aides to former Fatah leader Mahmoud Dahlan, a rival to current Fatah leader and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

The Hamas delegation, which included senior officials Khalil Al-Haya, Rawhi Mashharawi and Fathi Hammad, crossed the Rafah border on Friday morning just before Egypt closed it ahead of a wide-ranging military operation against terrorist groups in north and central Sinai.

The crossing had been open for just two days, following a continuous closure of 50 days. Egypt allowed only 650 Palestinians into Gaza and the abrupt shutdown left hundreds stranded on both sides of the border.

The border crossing is the only gateway to and from the Gaza Strip that is not under Israeli control. Following Hamas electoral victory in 2006 and its eventual seizing of the Strip from Fatah Israel imposed a tight sea, land and air blockade. This exacerbated the Palestinian divide, leaving Palestinians with two governments, one in Gaza, led by Hamas, the other the internationally-recognised Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority chaired by Abbas, governing the West-Bank.

Since then Egypt has continued to host talks between the various Palestinian factions, though mainly with Fatah and Hamas.

In October 2017 Fatah and Hamas signed a reconciliation deal in Cairo in which they agreed to a series of steps that would re-install the Palestinian Authority to Gaza, including at the borders with Israel and Egypt.

Abbas was due to visit Gaza for the first time in more than 10 years shortly after the agreement, which contained a pledge to address the issue of the thousands of civil servants hired by Hamas over the past decade, was signed. The two groups also agreed to discuss a timetable for holding general and presidential elections.

Abbas was expected, as per the deal, to lift the sanctions he had imposed on Gaza to punish Hamas. In April 2017 he had asked Israel to reduce electricity supplies to the Strip and slashed the salaries of PA employees based there. The measures exacerbated the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Gaza which the United Nations says has become unlivable for its population of two million.

More recently, the two factions have been busy exchanging accusations of non-commitment to the deal brokered by Egypt. Hamas said it had dissolved the administrative body it created to replace the PA in Gaza, and invited the government of Prime Minister Rami Al-Hamadallah to resume its duties in the Strip, which did not happen. According to Fatah officials, Hamas has deliberately placed obstacles in the way of implementing the agreement.

Hamas sources say their delegation discussed the issue of employees, taxes, energy, electricity, border crossings and other day-to-day issues as well as security cooperation with Egyptian intelligence officials.

This is the first visit to Egypt by the delegations leader, Haniyeh, since the United States State Department designated him a terrorist on 31 January. Its also the first time the group has engaged in talks with the Egyptian General Intelligence since its chief, Khaled Fawzi, was replaced by General Abbas Kamel  President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisis top aide  last month.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement that the visit is aimed at consulting with Egypt on efforts to ease the crises in blockaded Gaza where conditions are on the edge of the abyss.

The groups meeting in Cairo with Dahlans aide Samir Al-Mashharawi, among others, suggests Egyptian officials may well share Hamas view that Fatah is stalling on the agreement.

Dahlan, 57, a former security chief of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, was expelled by Fatah in 2011 and sent into exile. He was sentenced to three years in prison by a Palestinian court in 2016 on charges of graft. His lawyer described the sentence as a ploy by Abbas, 82, to sideline his political rival.

Abbas is the main obstacle in this reconciliation agreement, says Abdel-Qader Yassin, a Palestinian expert based in Cairo. He didnt lift the sanctions he imposed on Gaza almost a year ago even after [US President Donald] Trump declared Jerusalem as Israels capital.

Abbas, says Yassin, could have used the reconciliation deal as a riposte to Trump but refrained from doing so, fearing that the return of the PA in Gaza  which is close to explosion  would end in failure and lead to Abbas own removal from power.

He fears rivals like the popular Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi [jailed by Israel] and even Dahlan, says Yassin.

* This story was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly

Short link:

Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with King Felipe VI of Spain in Madrid during a two-day visit that started on Wednesday, according to a statement by the foreign ministry, which praised the historical political and economic relations between Egypt and Spain.

"King Felipe offered his condolences to the Egyptian people and government for the victims of terrorism, and praised the success of the Egyptian army's ongoing Comprehensive Operation Sinai 2018 to combat terrorism, the foreign ministrys statement said.

The king also said that he is keen to take Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi up on his invitation to visit Cairo as soon as possible, given that he us the only member of the Spanish royal family not to have visited Egypt.

Shoukry expressed Egypt's desire to enhance economic relations with Spain in various fields and discussed with the king Egypt's ongoing economic reforms, which aim to achieve significant development, noting the importance of Spanish companies contributing in the fields of infrastructure and sustainable energy.

The Egyptian foreign minister also discussed Egypt's efforts to curb irregular migration, saying that the country has been successful in preventing migrant boats from sailing for Europe from Egypt since September 2016.

Following his meeting with King Felipe, Shoukry spoke with his Spanish counterpart Alfonso Maria Dastis in a meeting that was attended by Spain's state minister of defense and the Egyptian ambassador in Spain.

"The Egyptian foreign minister and his Spanish counterpart agreed on establishing a periodic political consultation mechanism between the two countries on the level of foreign ministers," the foreign ministry statement said.

Shoukry praised the positive results of the close cooperation between the two countries on regional and international issues during Egypt's membership in the UN Security Council.

The Egyptian foreign minister also demonstrated to his Spanish counterpart Cairo's vision on regional and international issues, including the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Egyptian-Ethiopian relations, the conflicts in Libya and Syria, as well as efforts to combat terrorism and irregular migration.

"The [FMs] agreed on the importance of upgrading economic and trade exchange relations between the two countries, which reached $2 billion in trade exchange in 2017," the ministrys statement said.

Egypt's President El-Sisi last visited Madrid in 2015, where he met with King Felipe to discuss bolstering bilateral ties as well as regional and international issues, namely the threat of terrorism and irregular migration.

Shoukry also discussed with the Spanish state minister of defence enhancing military cooperation between the two countries, praising the outstanding military relations between Egypt and Spain.

Shoukry is set to leave Spain for Munich to attend the Munich Security Conference (MSC), scheduled for 15-18 February, where he will be the main speaker at the conference's session on combating terrorism.

Short link:

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in Cairo late Sunday with a fully-packed agenda, covering bilateral relations and volatile regional issues such as the Middle East peace process, Libya and Syria.

Tillerson chose to start with Cairo at the beginning of a regional tour that includes Kuwait, Jordan and Turkey, reflecting the strong and strategic ties between the two countries over the past four decades.

Tillersons regional tour did not include Israel, even though the visit came just two days after an unprecedented escalation between Tel Aviv and Damascus when an Israeli fighter jet was shot down by Syrian air defences while carrying out a raid inside Syria. Israel claimed it was targeting Iranian locations in Syria that posed a threat to its security.

In a joint news conference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukri on Monday, the chief US diplomat confirmed Washington stood by Egypt in its fight against terrorism, only a few days after Egypts army launched a major operation against terrorist groups in Sinai and across the country. Shoukri and Tillerson delivered a message on Monday that relations remained strong between the two countries. We agreed we would continue our close cooperation on counterterrorism measures, Tillerson said.

Egypt deals with the threats of IS themselves and are dealing with it certainly currently in the Sinai, the US secretary of state said. The US commitment in continuing to support Egypt in its fight against terrorism and bringing security for the Egyptian people is steadfast and will continue, he added.

After meeting Shoukri, Tillerson also held talks with President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi. Al-Sisi confirmed Egypts official stand on the need to reach a just and comprehensive solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that would guarantee the rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to have their own independent state over the lines of 4 June 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital, Presidential Spokesman Bassam Radi said.

US President Donald Trump dealt a strong blow to efforts to renew peace talks between Palestine and Israel following his unilateral decision in early December to recognise East Jerusalem as Israels capital, and to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied city. Even though Congress passed a resolution in 1995 to move the embassy to East Jerusalem, all former US presidents have signed waivers to postpone the move, recognising that it would jeopardise US credibility as an honest broker in the peace talks.

East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa Mosque is located, is considered holy to more than one billion Muslims worldwide, and Trumps support for Israels claim over the occupied city practically ended prospects to revive peace talks that have stalled since 2014.

According to Radi, Al-Sisi said he expected the US, being the main sponsor of the peace process that started in 1993 with the signing of the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians at the White House, to work on reviving negotiations on the basis of international legitimacy resolutions.

Radi said that Al-Sisi praised Egypts strategic ties with the US, covering several key aspects, including the fight against terrorism, regional peace and bilateral economic cooperation. He added that Tillerson confirmed to Al-Sisi that Trumps administration remained committed to finding a just solution for the Palestinian issue, and that it will continue its effort to achieve this goal.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who was in Moscow when Tillerson arrived in Cairo, has stated that Trumps decision on Jerusalem raised serious doubts over Washingtons ability to play the role of mediator and peace sponsor and asked for the involvement of the international community to bring Israel to accept international legitimacy decisions, which call on Israel to withdraw from all territories it occupied following the June 1967 War.

Abbas refused to meet US Vice President Mike Pence during his recent visit to the region, or any other senior US official. Trump responded by threatening to close down the Palestine Liberation Organisation office in Washington and decided to cut by more than half the US contribution to UNRWA, the UN agency that provides vital health and education services to millions of Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

Tillerson said Washington remained committed to working for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, adding that Trumps decision on Jerusalem in December did not set final boundaries for the city and that Washington believes it has an important role to play to bring a resolution to the crisis.

Egypts ties with Washington have improved after Trump took office more than a year ago. Former US president Barack Obama had been critical of the armys intervention in July 2013 which removed president and Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi following widespread popular protests against his inefficient and sectarian rule. Obama also repeatedly criticised Egypts human rights record and did not receive President Al-Sisi at the White House during his second term in office.

Trump, however, has maintained warm relations with Al-Sisi ever since the two met for the first time while he was still a candidate in the US elections in September 2016. Al-Sisi was among the first foreign leaders to be received by Trump at the White House, and the two consult regularly over the phone and in bilateral meetings. However, Cairo, like all Arab and Muslim capitals, was critical of Trumps decision on East Jerusalem, and warned of its consequences.

Facing pressure from Congress over Egypts human rights record, the Trump administration suspended part of the annual military aid provided to Egypt since 1979 after the signing of the Camp David agreement with Israel. Egypt receives some $1.3 billion in military aid from the US annually.

Even though several leading US senators have been critical of the way presidential elections in Egypt are to be held in late March, with just two candidates  President Al-Sisi being one of them  Tillersons comments were reserved during his joint news conference with Shoukri. Asked about concerns over the election, Tillerson said the United States supported a credible, transparent vote in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere. He stressed a need for free and fair elections in all countries.

We have always advocated for free and fair elections, transparent elections not just in Egypt but in any country, Tillerson said.

In response to a question by a US reporter on human rights reports that point to a deteriorating record, Shoukri rejected the accusations. He said the Egyptian people have shown their commitment and their determination and their ability to change their course and to indicate their dissatisfaction. If they deemed that they were dissatisfied, they have been able to change two governments in the last seven years, and they have undertaken legislative elections and know how to protect their rights and to advocate for those rights.

He added, so its important that we recognise that it is the Egyptian people who should determine how they are applying their freedoms and their political activism, and I hope that you will have the opportunity while youre here in Egypt to discuss this with the Egyptians on the street and ascertain from them directly whether they are satisfied with current conditions.

Later, a senior State Department official told Reuters that some of the issues pending in the US-Egyptian relationship included a law regulating non-governmental organisations, concerns over civil society and democratic process baskets. The issue of American nationals detained in Egypt was also raised.

The official described the meetings with the Egyptians as a positive, substantive engagement on both sides. And from that we have to hope that similarly, there will be positive, substantive movement.

Tillerson said the US was also keen to continue supporting Egypt in its economic recovery, after the country implemented tough economic reforms backed by a $12 billion International Monetary Fund loan.

Shoukri said Cairo and Washington had agreed to hold strategic talks at the level of foreign ministers in the second half of this year. The two sides also agreed to consider a new formula to strengthen dialogue between the two countries, holding joint meetings among foreign and defence ministers, or 2+2.

Besides bilateral and regional issues, Shoukris talks with Tillerson also covered increasing demands in Washington that Cairo suspends its ties with North Korea. Egypt has had normal diplomatic ties with North Korea, as does many Western and NATO members, and those ties are, in terms of the relationship, limited to representation, and there is almost no existing economic or other areas of cooperation, Shoukri told reporters.

But we are concerned with the current status with the threats emanating from the proliferation of nuclear weapons, a situation which we deem as threatening to the global non-proliferation regime, one that has to be dealt within our maintaining global security also the threats of ballistic missile systems to South Korea and to Japan, and we believe that all of these issues must be resolved for the security of the region and the Korean Peninsula, he added.

The US has become more embroiled, diplomatically and militarily, in regional conflicts since Trump took office. It stepped up support for Kurdish-led forces in Syria before its NATO ally Turkey began a military operation against them last month. It has also forged closer ties with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states while taking a tougher line against Iran since Trump took office.

Tillersons stop in Turkey is expected to be among the most difficult on his Middle East tour, considering US support for the Kurdish forces in northern Syria. Ankara fears the Syrian Kurdish militia would provide a backdoor for Turkeys Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to threaten its border and launch operations.

Tillerson left Cairo for Kuwait where he attended a conference on Iraqi reconstruction after the defeat of IS and ending its control over Mosul.

* This story was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly

Short link:

Egyptian security forces arrested Egyptian politician Abdel-Moneim Abul Fotouh on Wednesday evening, after the High State Security Prosecution issued an arrest warrant for him.

A judicial source told Ahram Online that the head of the opposition Strong Egypt Party and former 2012 presidential candidate is facing charges of contacts with the banned Muslim Brotherhood, among other charges.

State news agency MENA reported that the prosecution ordered the arrest of Abul Fotouh, a former leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Bureau, and several others after investigations by the National Security Agency showed they "have committed a number of crimes.

The 66-year-old physician had been a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood since his university years in the 1970's and left the group in 2011 over organizational disagreements.

Abul Fotouh was arrested from his home in New Cairo hours after he returned from a visit to London, during which he gave an interview to the Qatari-based Al-Jazeera channel in which he reportedly criticised government policies.

Five members of the Strong Egypt Party's political bureau who were at Abul Fotouh's home at the time of his arrest were also arrested, but were subsequently released.

Abul Fotouh remains in police custody and is set to be questioned by prosecutors on Thursday.

In June 2012, following the 2011 uprising, Abul Fotouh ran an independent presidential bid in the first presidential elections after Mubarak's ouster, finishing fourth with 18 percent of the votes in the first round of the election, which was eventually won by the Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi in a run-off against Ahmed Shafiq.

Shortly after the 2012 presidential elections, Abul Fotouh established the Strong Egypt Party.

Egypt designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization shortly after the ouster of Islamist President Morsi in July 2013.

Short link:

Egypt's Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Thursday offering condolences to the United States for yesterday's mass shooting at a high school in Florida, which killed 17 students and injured dozens others.

"Egypt offers sincere condolences and sympathy to the US administration and the families of the victims, the statement said, adding that the Egyptian government and people stand in solidarity with the American people in their hardship."

"Egypt affirms that such outrageous acts of violence that target innocents reflect a hostile ideology that incites hatred and violates human dignity, the ministry said, stressing that those responsible for this disgraceful act must be held accountable."

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel identified the gunman as Nikolas Cruz, 19, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland who had been expelled for "disciplinary reasons."

Short link:

: chenchuan (work!), : ECUST

 : 

: BBS  (Thu Feb 15 14:41:16 2018, )



2014nsa

U.S. Suspicions of China's Huawei Based Partly on NSA's Own Spy Tricks

U.S. spies suspect Huawei of being able to embed computer exploits because

they've already done it themselves

By Jeremy Hsu



Photo: AP Photo

Advertisement



Fears of Chinese espionage based on "back doors" built into computer

hardware have prompted the U.S. government to block China's technology giant

Huawei from doing business on U.S. shores. Such suspicions may come in

large part from the knowledge that U.S. spies have already learned how to

install similar "back doors" in computer hardware and software.



The NSA allegedly launched an operation code-named "Shotgiant" in 2007 aimed

at uncovering any possible ties between Huaweia company that likes to

boast of how its routers and switches connect a third of the world's

populationand China's military, known as the People's Liberation Army,

according to the New York Times and Der Spiegel. Operation Shotgiant also

aimed to compromise and exploit Huawei's technology so that the NSA could

infiltrate the computer networks of Huawei customers in "high-priority

target" countries such as Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya, and Cuba.



John Bumgarner, chief technology officer at the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit

, a non-profit research institute, tells IEEE Spectrum that the NSA's

primary objective "was most likely to identify information that could

confirm their suspicions about Huawei relationship with the PLA." He adds

that a secondary objective was probably to acquire Huawei source code and

hardware designs. "This information would be thoroughly analyzed for

possible backdoors that were embedded by Huawei and for any zero-day

vulnerabilities"previously unknown flaws that can be exploited"that the

NSA could use to gain a tactical advantage in their operations worldwide,"

he says.



NSA documents leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden show how the NSA's

Tailored Access Operations unit had succeeded in infiltrating computer

servers in Huawei's headquarters in Shenzhen, China by 2010. The success

allowed the agency to spy on email communications for Huawei employees,

including Ren Zhengfei, founder of Huawei, as well as steal the source code

for specific Huawei products that could be used to exploit those products

for espionage or cyberwarfare purposes.



The New York Times withheld technical details on exactly how the NSA had

compromised Huawei's servers in response to national security reasons cited

by the Obama administration. But a leaked NSA "spy catalog" made available

on Cryptome, a website that publishes government and corporate documents,

does show how the agency had already succeeded in installing software back

doors in certain Huawei hardware, such as firewalls and routers, as early as

2008. The NSA catalog also reveals exploits for computer hardware belonging

to U.S. companies such as Dell.



"The exploits in the NSA catalog actually mirror what the U.S. has been

accusing Huawei of potentially doing to their products," Bumgarner says.



A joint NSA and CIA operation targeting Huawei products appears under the

code name "Turbopanda" in several software exploits described by the NSA

catalog. One persistent backdoor software implant named "Headwater" targets

Huawei routers so that the NSA could monitor Internet traffic passing

through them. Another backdoor software implant called "Halluxwater" targets

Huawei's Eudemon series of hardware firewallscomputers that guard an

organization's internal network from the rest of the Internet.



Both Headwater and Halluxwater get installed inside the router's boot ROM

the very first level of code executed by a device when it first powers up or

gets rebooted. To install the implants, NSA operatives simply transmit the

spyware remotely over the Internet to a target Huawei router or introduce

the spyware to a Huawei firewall as a boot ROM update.



The NSA catalog also listed hardware exploits that basically demonstrate

what the U.S. has long claimed Huawei might slip inside its own products to

provide back doors for Chinese cyber attacks or espionage. One series of

hardware implants known as "Cottonmouth" can be installed inside the USB

plugs of keyboards or other USB connectors.



Other NSA hardware exploits include hardware implants for Dell and Hewlett-

Packard servers. Such implants must be installed in person by NSA operatives

during an "interdiction" process described by Der Spiegel. That means the

NSA intercepts certain shipping deliveries of new computers or related

accessories so that it can load spyware or install hardware components that

provide back door access for U.S. intelligence agents later on.



"These specialized devices require someone to physically touch a specific

piece of hardware to insert the NSA-designed component," Bumgarner says. "It

's highly unlikely that these components are being embedded during

manufacturing, which means that they're being installed after the hardware

is in either the supply chain or maintenance cycle."



This all may give the U.S. the appearance of the pot calling the kettle

black when it has blacklisted Huawei based on suspicions that the Chinese

company could introduce hardware exploits similar to what U.S. spies have

already carried out. But the U.S. government has defended its spy activities

by drawing a distinction between what the NSA does for U.S. national

security reasons and Chinese corporate espionage aimed at stealing U.S.

technologies for the benefit of China's state-owned companies.



"We do not give intelligence we collect to U.S. companies to enhance their

international competitiveness or increase their bottom line," says Caitlin M

. Hayden, a White House spokeswoman for the National Security Council. "Many

countries cannot say the same."



There is no solid evidence that Huawei has in fact installed hardware back

doors in its products that could be used for either state intelligence or

corporate espionage. Huawei has also repeatedly denied any ties to the

Chinese military as it portrays itself as the victim of U.S. protectionism

aimed at keeping it out of the U.S. market. But the recent revelations about

the NSA's efforts to find such a link indicate that the U.S. remains wary

of the Chinese company.



Part of the mistrust stems from the history of Chinese corporate espionage

and intellectual property theft targeting U.S. companies. In 2003, Cisco

accused Huawei of copying source code and user manuals related to certain

Cisco networking equipment such as routers and switches. The two companies

eventually settled the legal case for an undisclosed financial amount and

with Huawei promising to revise some of its software.



The other reason for U.S. wariness toward Huawei is because it's extremely

time-consuming and cost-prohibitive to check every piece of Huawei equipment

sold to defense contractors or to companies that provide critical services

such as running power grids. Bumgarner, of the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit

research institute, says that if the U.S. eased restrictions on Huawei and

the company sold some hardware to a defense contractor, it's possible that

Huawei could embed malicious components in a few pieces of equipment, which

could then be activated by an official firmware upgrade. The activation

mechanism could be designed to only fire when a specific piece of hardware

and a specific company matched. Such a scenario is something that the NSA

has shown to be technically possible in practice.



"What this catalog shows you is what the U.S. government is worried about,"

Bumgarner says. "And that is that Huawei could be physically modifying their

hardware and that any modifications are nearly impossible to identify."



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 :chenchuan  Feb 15 14:42:40 2018 [FROM: 104.]

 :WWW  mitbbs.com [FROM: 198.]

LANSING - The number of Michigan offenders who are re-incarcerated within three years of their release has reached its lowest recorded level.

The Michigan Department of Corrections announced Tuesday, Feb. 13 that the state's recidivism rate has dropped to 28.1 percent, a metric that places Michigan among the top 10 when it comes to low state recidivism rates.

In 2017, Michigan's recidivism rate was 29.8 percent, which was the second lowest level since the state began recording the three-year rates. The state's lowest recidivism rate previously came in 2014 when 29 percent of offenders returned to prison.

Recidivism in Michigan has hovered around 30 percent in recent years but has seen a sharp drop from 1998 when the rate was 45.7 percent.

"Our communities are safer when we give offenders the tools they need to become successful and productive members of society," said MDOC Director Heidi Washington in a statement.

"The department has made it a priority to provide high-quality education, training and support to offenders returning to our neighborhoods, and Michigan's declining recidivism rates show these efforts are working."

Offenders can be returned to prison for committing new crimes, or for violating the conditions of their parole. The current figures represent individuals who were released from prison in 2014.PLYMOUTH, MI - Two people have been hospitalized after a rollover crash Wednesday, Feb. 14 along eastbound M-14 at Gotfredson Road near Plymouth.

One person was transported to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in critical condition and another person was transported in stable condition, according to Matt Rose of Huron Valley Ambulance.

The crash was reported at 5:21 p.m. and shut down all lanes along eastbound M-14 at the Gotfredson Road exit. The freeway was reopened at 6 p.m., according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.

Firefighters and Michigan State Police both assisted on scene.

Further details of the crash were not immediately available.

The Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office sent out a Nixle Alert warning drivers to stay away from the are for the next few hours.ANN ARBOR, MI - Chelsea Manning, an advocate of queer and transgender rights and government transparency who spent seven years in military prison for leaking classified documents, will speak at the University of Michigan as part of the Penny Stamps Speaker Series.

Manning will speak at 5:10 p.m. on March 15 at the Michigan Theater, focusing on the social, technological and economic ramifications of artificial intelligence, and on the practical applications of machine learning. The event is free and open to the public.

During her time as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Department of Defense, Manning publicly disclosed classified documents that she felt revealed human rights abuses and corruption connected to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during her deployment in Iraq in 2009.

The transgender woman, known as Bradley Manning when she was convicted in 2013 of leaking more than 700,000 classified documents, was released from military prison in May after serving seven years of her sentence, according to the Associated Press. President Barack Obama commuted her sentence to time served plus 120 days in the final days of his administration.

Upon being sentenced to 35 years for leaking government documents, she publicly identified as a trans woman and asserted her legal rights to medical therapy.

Bio-political artist and educator Heather Dewey-Hagborg will join Manning for the event. Dewey-Hagborg's 2017 art exhibit, "Probably Chelsea," consists of 30 different possible portraits of Manning algorithmically-generated by an analysis of her DNA.

In her creative collaboration with Manning, Dewey-Hagborg received cheek swabs and hair clippings from Manning to create DNA-derived sculptural portraits. The work illustrates a multitude of ways in which DNA can be interpreted, according to Dewey-Hagborg's website.

Manning filed last month to run for the Senate in Maryland in the Democratic primary.ANN ARBOR, MI - Several congregations in Washtenaw County are now part of a growing immigrant sanctuary movement.

Three of them are committed to opening their doors if necessary to offer sanctuary housing to those facing deportation, and others are pledging to support the cause in other ways.

While none are actually housing any immigrants yet, the Washtenaw Congregational Sanctuary campaign held a press conference on Wednesday, Feb. 14, to announce the most recent commitments from congregations supporting the movement.

During an hour-long event at the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor, several local faith leaders spoke out against President Donald Trump's continued immigration crackdown, which they observed has impacted many local families.

They said their faith teaches them to love their neighbors, welcome foreigners, and respect the inherent dignity of all people.

"We know as we do the work of illuminating the story of one person or one's family story, the names of justice and love are far larger than just those stories," said Senior UUAA Minister Douglas Wadkins.

"There are many other stories in our community and beyond every day that are impacted by our current policies and actions around immigration. So, even as we wait for our first guest, there is more to do to speak the truth of what is happening in our country now."

Last September, the Church of the Good Shepherd in Ann Arbor became the first congregation in Washtenaw County to join the new sanctuary movement and publicly announce it was committed to opening its doors to house immigrants facing deportation.

UUAA made the same pledge in October, and the Ann Arbor Friends Meeting also has offered to open the doors of its Quaker House.

Wednesday's event also highlighted commitments of support for the campaign from the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation in Pittsfield Township, the Wesley Foundation campus ministry in Ann Arbor, and St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Chelsea.

Other congregations that have pledged support include the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Ypsilanti and First United Methodist Church in Ann Arbor.

"This many congregations have stood up and are saying no to the current broken immigration system and the current policies of the administration, and saying yes to welcoming the neighbor, the stranger among us," said Mary Anne Perrone of WCS.

Perrone described it as an act of resistance by people of faith and conscience. She read an admonition from Baha'u'llah, the founder of the Baha'i faith.

"Be a haven for the distressed, an upholder and defender for the victim of oppression, a home for the stranger, a balm to the sufferer, a tower to the fugitive," she read.

"That's how we can be a sanctuary people. That is how we can love our neighbor."

Kelly Scheu of St. Barnabas Episcopal in Chelsea said her church is committed to being a "level two" sanctuary congregation. She said that means they'll volunteer to help immigrants in sanctuary, make quilts, bring food and clothes, and pray for them.

"When story after story was reported in the news about families being torn apart because of the harmful policies, members of St. Barnabas wanted to know how they could help," she said.

Scheu said the decision to become a level-two sanctuary congregation was unanimous.

"We were motivated to do so because of our commitment to uphold our baptismal vows where we seek to serve Christ ... loving our neighbors as ourselves and striving for justice and peace among all people," she said.

Lindasusan Ulrich, assistant minister at UUAA, talked about what she described as the inherent worth and dignity of all people and the interconnected web of life. She said there's no "them," only "us."

Joe Summers, pastor at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, said federal immigration officers are terrorizing people.

He said the United States is a country founded on moral principles, including caring for the vulnerable, children and families, and protecting those fleeing from terror.

"Which makes the current actions of the Trump administration ... immoral," he said.

The Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security argue more aggressive immigration enforcement is making America safer and protecting American workers.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has an office in Detroit, maintains it continues to focus its enforcement resources on people who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security, but anyone in the United States without legal authorization is subject to arrest, detention and deportation.

Margaret Harner of the Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights read a statement at Wednesday's event.

The statement was from fellow WICIR activist Maria Ibarra-Frayre, an undocumented immigrant in the Ypsilanti area who is temporarily protected from deportation by DACA, the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

"Every day I see new headlines about a mother who was deported, about a dad who is facing deportation even when his 5-year-old fights leukemia, about a husband who is taking refuge in a church in Detroit because he refuses to leave his ill wife," Harner said, reading Ibarra-Frayre's statement. "And even though these headlines are becoming routine, we cannot let them become normal. Loving our neighbors means speaking up, taking care of them and acting with courage to do what is right, even though it is uncomfortable or inconvenient.

"I hope to never need sanctuary, but as an undocumented person myself, I live with the threat of deportation every day and it brings me hope that in Washtenaw County there is a group of congregations ready to love boldly, love courageously and love with action."

Anyone in immediate danger of being deported can contact WICIR at 734-355-2707 for possible placement in congregational sanctuary.

Central United Methodist Church in Detroit recently opened its doors to offer sanctuary to the family of a 48-year-old Southgate man who is facing deportation to Albania. Ded Rranxburgaj cares for his wife, who suffers from a debilitating case of multiple sclerosis.

For years, he was allowed to remain in the U.S. under ICE supervision for humanitarian reasons, because he cares for his ailing wife of 27 years, often feeding, bathing, dressing her and physically moving her from one place to another. But his humanitarian status was revoked in 2017 as immigration policy tightened across the country.WEBSTER TOWNSHIP, MI - Amid continued controversy over plans to cut down more than 100 trees along Mast Road north of Dexter, Washtenaw County Road Commission representatives are planning to appear before local officials to explain the project.

The Webster Township Board of Trustees meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20, at the township hall at 5665 Webster Church Road.

Road Commission Managing Director Roy Townsend and Communications Coordinator Emily Kizer are expected to talk about why the commission plans to cut down the trees within 10 feet of each side of the tree-lined road, along a nearly three-mile stretch from North Territorial to the the county line near Strawberry Lake Road in Webster Township.

Some residents in the Dexter area are particularly upset about losing a handful of oaks that are believed to be hundreds of years old, with trunks measuring 10 to 13 feet around.

The commission maintains it's to improve safety, as at least six vehicles have gone off Mast Road and hit trees in the last several years. Some residents have suggested reducing the 55-mph speed limit and putting up guardrails as alternative solutions.

As of Thursday afternoon, Feb. 15, nearly 100 people had joined the Facebook group "Save the Dexter Trees," a group created "as a voice for all who are concerned over the potential loss of our beautiful and historic Dexter trees."

The page features a quote from the Dr. Seuss character known as the Lorax, who speaks for the trees: "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It's not."

An online petition to "save the trees and the natural history of our community" had nearly 300 supporters as of Thursday afternoon.

Township Supervisor John Kingsley said he's expecting residents to show up to Tuesday night's meeting and speak out.

Residents will have three minutes each to speak at the start of the meeting and at the end of the meeting.

Kingsley said he's received numerous emails from people concerned about losing the trees, but there's nothing the township can do about it because it's a Road Commission project.

"We don't have anything to do with the project whatsoever," he said, indicating the discussion Tuesday night is merely for the purpose of sharing information, not taking action. "I just thought it would be best if residents are concerned about it that we have the Road Commission available to discuss what the project's going to be."

Kingsley declined to share his own views about the project.

In an email response to a concerned resident this week, Webster Township Trustee John Westman wrote that he was just hearing about the project. He called it "obviously a huge waste of time and money," as well as an insult to township residents.

"I can easily find plenty of trees that are far bigger threats to public safety," he wrote.

The upcoming removal of the trees along Mast Road is part of a $950,000 project that also includes removal of about 340 trees along an 8.3-mile stretch of North Territorial from Gotfredson Road in Salem Township to Spencer Road in Northfield Township. The project is being funded with state and federal funds.

The work on North Territorial already is underway and Mast Road is next. The work is expected to be done by the end of March.

The Road Commission is planning to remove more trees along other tree-lined county roads in the coming years.

Kizer said other road segments where that could happen are being evaluated and need to be vetted with the Road Commission's board before being released publicly.

Dexter Township resident Anne Duykers said she and her husband are planning to attend Tuesday night's meeting.

She argues more needs to be done to "keep Michigan pure like they're advertising all the time."

"You drive over the state line and the first thing it says is 'Pure Michigan,' and I look around and it's not that pure anymore," she said. "These trees, as just a small example, could help keep it pure and keep the nature in Michigan."

Duykers said she's hoping enough people show up and speak out to put a stop to the project.

"It doesn't make sense what they're doing to cut down all these trees," she said. "It's a beautiful stretch of road."BAY CITY, MI -- Bay City officials head to Lansing next week for the first of what's expected to be many talks with the state on taking over Independence Bridge.

Bay City Commission President Andrew Niedzinski has called a meeting for Feb. 22 with Michigan Department of Transportation Director Kirk Steudle to gather more information about the state's willingness to connect M-15 to I-75 and take over operations and maintenance of the 42-year-old bridge, relieving the city of millions of dollars along the way.

State Transportation Director Kirk Steudle in September 2017.

Officials have said a state takeover of the bridge is the best solution to deal with the city's bridge crisis, but it's not the easiest. City and state officials have tried in the past, but to no avail.

About $9 million in repairs are needed for Liberty and Independence bridges over the next five years and city officials argue they don't have the funds to foot the bill. They proposed to sell both bridges to a private firm for $1 million. The firm would then build a new Independence Bridge and make critical repairs to Liberty, but charge motorists a toll to cross both ways. That proposal was tabled following public outcry.

"This meeting is to get information from (the state) and find out what they think about the bridge," Niedzinski said.

Bay County Executive Jim Barcia said the pitch to the state needs to focus on the plight Bay County faces in replacing the bridge.

"In the past, there seems to have been significant resistance in the state taking it over," Barcia said. "We need to make sure we're being the best advocates for the taxpayers here and exploring every avenue for state and federal assistance."

Barcia said the last documented meeting with MDOT came in April of 2017 when former Bay City Manager Rick Finn and state Sen. Mike Green, R-Mayville, met with Jack Hofweber, manager of Bay City's MDOT office, about a state takeover of Trumbull Street and Independence Bridge.

"It was indicated at that time that MDOT didn't believe it served as a trunkline," he said. "We need to convince the state that it's common sense to connect these state highways."

City and county officials are also exploring the possibility of a countywide millage to fund repairs for the bridge, but have admitted it could be a tough sell. Township supervisors across Bay County have said they wouldn't support a millage for Bay City bridges if the package doesn't include funds for road improvements in their municipalities.

In addition to Niedzinski and Barcia, others invited to the meeting include, state Rep. Brian Elder, D-Bay City; Bay City Commissioners Kerice Basmadjian, 7th Ward, and Ed Clements, 8th Ward; Bay City Mayor Kathleen Newsham; Bay City Manager Dana Muscott; Bay City Public Works Director Robert Dion; Bay County Road Commission Manager Jim Lillo; MDOT Bay City Manager Jack Hofweber; MDOT Regional Engineer Robert Ranck; Bay Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Ryan Tarrant; and Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance CEO Matt Felan.

Elder has previously said it would be a "big boulder to push up the hill," referring to the state taking over a bridge.

But it could help that Steudle, the director of MDOT, has Bay County connections. While he hails from Adrian, he previously served on the Essexville City Council from 1995 to 1999 before working his way up the chain with the state's transportation department.

"He's a Bay County guy," Barcia said. "Maybe that can help us."HAMPTON TWP., MI -- A penny doesn't buy much these days, but a Penny War among the 60 students at Bethel Lutheran School raised $551.19 for Bay County Animal Control.

Fourth grade teacher Sandy Mayhew organized the fundraiser, which took place during Lutheran Schools Week, Jan. 22-26.

Jim Barcia, Bay County Executive, Mike Halstead, manager of Bay County Animal Control and Sandy Mayhew, Bethel Lutheran School teacher.

Classes competed against each other to raise the most money in pennies, although silver coins were also donated. Of the $551.19 collected, $300 was in pennies, the rest in quarters, nickels and dimes. The four-year-old class raised the most money in pennies, totaling $150.

Mike Halstead, manager of Bay County Animal Control, said the money will go toward medical services for cats and dogs that come to the facility. The staff at Bay County Animal Control works with local veterinarians when an animal needs medical care.Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met in Cairo on Thursday head of the United States Central Command Joseph Votel, who praised Egypt's ongoing efforts to combat terrorism and the countrys role in maintaining regional stability.

The meeting was attended by Egypt's Minister of Defence Sedky Sobhy, Army Chief-of-Staff Mohamed Farid, and Charge d'Affaires at the US Embassy in Cairo Thomas Goldberger.

The meeting saw a discussion on bolstering military cooperation and addressed the latest regional military and political developments in crisis-stricken countries.

"The president stressed the importance of the decades-long strategic relations between Egypt and the United States, especially in military cooperation, in light of the current circumstances in the region, which require concerted efforts to confront," said a statement by the presidency.

Votel stressed his country's keenness to develop military partnership with Egypt to confront terrorism as a common challenge facing both countries, praising Egypt's efforts in combating the phenomenon.

Votel also discussed with Chief-of-Staff Farid military cooperation and joint exercises between the armed forces of both countries, especially operation Bright Star, which is a major military exercise held regularly between Egypt and the US since 1980. The latest exercise was held in Egypt in September 2017.

Short link:

A former University of Michigan pediatrician walked into a federal courtroom in Detroit Thursday, Feb. 14, wearing a loose-fitting, burgundy Wayne County Jail prisoner uniform. The pocket was gray. The slender doctor had matted hair, blue-framed glasses and a goatee.

Dr. Mark F. Hoeltzel, 46, of Ann Arbor, who specializes in treating rheumatoid arthritis, mostly in children, is jailed on federal charges of possessing and receiving child pornography, but U.S. District Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Stafford indicated he will likely be released on bond with a GPS tether pending trial.

He's prohibited from living in his Ann Arbor home with his wife and three children -- two boys and a girl between 2 and 6 years old - when he is released. Child Protective Services is currently investigating the family to determine whether Hoeltzel will have his parental rights restricted or revoked.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Woodward said at Hoeltzel's detention hearing Wednesday that his inappropriate conduct "goes beyond" looking at pornographic pictures of young girls - mostly between the ages of 11 and 15 - and spans back to 2006, when he was first investigated by the University of Michigan Police Department for an inappropriate online relationship with an 11-year-old girl that began in 2004.

Hoeltzel was found in possession of thousands of erotic photos of prepubescent to pubescent children on his computers, Woodward said, including over 300 that were pornographic or showed genitals.

Hoeltzel's attorney, Raymond A. Cassar, approached his shackled client prior to the hearing carrying a packet of text messages and other communications compiled by investigators, who scoured Hoeltzel's computers and phone.

"Caution," read the black, block letters on the fluorescent orange cover page. "Must not be taken out of the courtroom."

Cassar, who successfully argued for bond, said Hoeltzel, a University of Michigan graduate who's lived in the Ann Arbor area for 36 years, has no prior record, never traded pornography, and never attempted to entice underage girls into a sex.

"His wife is still by his side," Cassar said.

Stafford said possession or receipt of child porn, while "disturbing" and harmful to the children depicted, is not "generally considered a charge that requires detention."

The investigation into Hoeltzel began in 2017, after a former patient filed a complaint with the state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, according to Woodward.

Woodward said in court that the woman claimed to have engaged in an inappropriate sexual relationship with Hoeltzel, her doctor, whom she visited to be treated for chronic pain, beginning in 2010. It began almost immediately after she turned 18, according to Woodward.

Upon her 18th birthday, Woodward said the woman received a text message from Hoeltzel, who advised her to set an appointment for lunch time on a Friday. He asked her to wear her hair in pigtails, according to the assistant prosecutor.

Cassar claims, based on the LARA report, the teen initiated the sexual relationship.

Hoeltzel would also make sexual comments to the 18-year-old about other, underage patients he treated, mentioning their cleavage and how their "butts" looked good in leggings, Woodward said.

The relationship continued for nearly three years, according to Woodward, during which time the patient agreed to engage in sex acts with her doctor in exchange for addictive pain pills.

Hoeltzel lost his medical license and was fired by UM's Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic in Ann Arbor in December.

Once he came under investigation, Cassar said the Health Professional Recovery Program, where Michigan doctors are referred by LARA for certain misconduct, often for addiction problems, recommended Hoeltzel complete a six-week, in-patient sex addiction treatment program in Philadelphia.

While in the program, he was federally charged with child porn possession and arrested immediately at the airport upon his return to Michigan.

Woodward commended Hoeltzel for addressing his sex addiction, but said he became "proactive only when caught."

Woodward said there is another ongoing criminal investigation by Attorney General Bill Schuette's Office focused on inappropriate relationships and possible fraudulent prescribing of medication. No charges have been announced in that case.

Hoeltzel was investigated by UM police in Ann Arbor in 2006, after the mother of an 11-year-old girl reported him to authorities upon reading "inappropriate and flirtatious" Yahoo messages shared between the girl and doctor spanning back to 2004, Woodward said.

She said Hoeltzel met the child while working as the camp doctor at a camp for children with arthritis, where he also "took photos of campers."

Using the screen name "Dr. Mark," he'd comment on her "pretty, long legs," call her a "future model" and invited her on an ice cream date, prosecutors claim.

When the girl asked her mother for permission, Woodward said the mother began investigating her daughter's message activity and reported Hoeltzel to police.

The girl - now a woman - was recently interviewed about that period in her life and told prosecutors "she now recognizes he appeared to be grooming her," Woodward said.

Hoeltzel at the time was asked to take a "boundaries class," but he didn't lose his medical license, job or face criminal charges, prosecutors said in court.

Investigators were able to secure three months of text messages from Hoeltzel's cellphone - from September to December 2017 - in which Hoeltzel took on the persona of a 17-year-old, home-schooled high schooler from Missouri, according to the assistant prosecutor.

Woodward said he used a fake Facebook profile and photos of a teen boy to initiate text-message relationships with multiple girls between the age of 12 and 17, all of whom attended high school in Missouri.

The judge said that, while inappropriate and concerning, Hoeltzel didn't pose any imminent threat to the children, due to them living so far away.

Hoeltzel is expected to live with his mother in Marshall upon his release, likely to occur next week following a home inspection by the court.

He'll be banned from using the Internet, smart phones, visiting schools, parks or places kids congregated, must wear a GPS monitoring tether and will only be allowed out of the house for treatment, doctor appointments, meetings with his attorney, work or court proceedings.GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- For those with qualifying income levels, a number of free resources are available to assist taxpayers filling out their tax returns this year.

The IRS offers a list of about a dozen different free tax software offers from recognizable brands including H&R Block, TaxSlayer and TurboTax available to households with adjusted gross income as high as $66,000.

Each company has different requirements for qualifying for a free qualifying return. Michigan is one of 23 states offering free state tax return filing in partnership with some of those companies via the federal Free File Alliance initiative.

If you're not sure which offer to choose, the IRS also offers a tool with a few simple questions to help you decide.

Those with a household income above $66,000 can still file fore free using the IRS Free File Fillable Forms program. The program allows taxpayers to E-file their return, though they will need to complete some calculations manually and be guided only by the forms and instructions provided to those filing a paper tax return.

You may also be eligible for free in-person help completing your tax returns this year. Many community organizations offer tax assistance programs.

If you're not sure what is offered nearby, calling your local United Way office or, if available in your area, dialing United Way's 2-1-1 hotline is a good start.

The IRS also has a tool to help qualifying taxpayers find free tax assistance help near their home. The "Free Tax Prep Help" app on the IRS website lets users search by ZIP code and identifies programs under both the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and the Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) initiatives.

In the Grand Rapids area, the Kent County Tax Credit Coalition and Heart of West Michigan United Way offer a link to free online H&R Block Premium tax preparation software. The organizations also give details about local sites where qualifying taxpayers can find in-person assistance.

The organizations encourage those with household income of $55,000 or less to dial 2-1-1 to set up a free tax preparation appointment at one of about a dozen sites spread across Kent County.

The organization reminds those who are married and filing jointly that both adults must be present at the appointment to sign their tax return. Taxpayers should bring the following items with them:GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- An attorney's allegation that Kentwood Schools leaders want employees to keep quiet about a slain student is false, the district's superintendent said.

Attorney Christine Yared, an attorney for Mujey Dumbuya's family, on Tuesday, Feb. 13, suggested that school administrators could be stifling employees from sharing information that could help in the police investigation.

"We urge Kentwood school employees, in spite of what they have been told by administrators, to discuss, share and report any information to the police, or through a confidential resource, such as Silent Observer," Yared wrote in a statement released Tuesday as Mujey's relatives spoke about the case.

Kentwood Schools Superintendent Michael Zoerhoff, in an email to MLive, said Yared's concerns are not true.

"The district has been and will continue to work with law enforcement to do everything we can to bring justice for Mujay. We would not tell any employee, student, parent or community member not discuss this information with authorities," he wrote "In fact, we are encouraging everyone to please contact the authorities immediately with any information about the case."

Zoerhoff went on to say, however, that employees have been advised not to discuss student information with anyone other than the proper authorities to comply with state and federal confidentiality laws.

Mujey, 16, went missing Jan. 24 while heading to a bus stop to go to school at East Kentwood High School.

A body was discovered Jan. 28 in a wooded area of Kalamazoo and was identified as that of Mujey on Jan. 31.

Mujey was set to testify in April as a sex-assault victim against 42-year-old Quinn Anthony James, a former Kentwood Schools maintenance and grounds worker she met last summer. Their meeting was not related to James' work duties.

James was arrested Feb. 1 on a charge unrelated to Mujey and is now in the Kent County Jail on a $500,000 bond. Police have not named him a person-of-interest in the death but his attorney believes he is being treated that way.

Yared, the attorney for Mujey's family, has questioned whether Kentwood Schools should have hired James in 2011. He has a felony record that includes an armed robbery conviction in 1991 and a 2003 conviction for (attempted) prisoner in possession of a weapon.

School leaders say they conducted a background check on James before he was hired in 2011 and were aware of his criminal record. They complied with state laws in hiring him.

"The District's policy was to evaluate any criminal history, which did not disqualify the person from employment, before hiring a candidate," Zoerhoff wrote in an email to MLive.

"Based on the circumstances at that time, strong recommendations from community members and the fact he fit the qualifications for the position, the District hired him as substitute grounds worker," he wrote.GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Staff, students and parents experienced a scare Thursday, Feb. 15, when three suspected Molotov cocktails were found inside a locker at C.A. Frost Middle/High School in Northeast Grand Rapids.

The suspicious items turned out to be part of a World War I school project.

But before that became clear, it was a frightening situation for students and parents and students alike, police and school officials said.

Parents said both they and their children were traumatized by the event, especially knowing about the mass shooting that occurred Wednesday at a Florida high school. A 19-year-old former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, stands accused of killing 17 people and injuring another 14 with fire from a semi-automatic rifle.

After evacuating C.A. Frost Middle/High School, police determined the three bottles filled with liquid and a nearby rag were merely part of a school project and posed no threat to students.

The project was intended to show how warfare technology has evolved over time, according to school officials and police.

Evacuated students later returned to the school, which cancelled classes for the remainder of the day, and were picked up by their parents.

The following are descriptions of the situation from parents and students Thursday:

Darenda Smith and her two children, Symone and Blake

Darenda Smith has two children who go to the school. Blake, 15, is in the ninth grade and Symone, 13, in the eighth grade.

Smith said she found out about the situation through a call from the school, and was not happy about it. She said she was upset members of the news media were able to get to the school before parents were notified.

"(It) leaves parents feeling vulnerable," Smith said.

There was a lot of dysfunction and a lot of problems as events unfolded Thursday, she said.

Blake said he also worked on the school project tied to Thursday's Molotov cocktail scare. He said he was building a miniature tank.

Symone said evacuating the school was kind of scary. At first, she said, she thought it was a drill. That is, until they had been standing outside for almost an hour and started walking to a nearby church. Symone said she was scared, but also relieved, to head to the church, since it could mean they were heading somewhere safer, further away from the school.

Blake said he was not scared, but he did get nervous when they walked around the corner of the school and saw all the police that has arrived.

Symone said it was crowded in the church. Most people were standing up and there were a lot of people crying, she said.

Blake said he heard people talking about what was going on.

When they were reunited, Smith said, she rushed to hold her children.

"I held them," she said. "I held my babies."

After they left the school, Smith said, she was going to get her other kids from other schools in the area and take them all home.

Sondra Williams

Sondra Williams has 11-year-old twins, both in sixth grade, who attend the school. Williams said it was not the school who contacted her about the situation, but her sister via text message.

She thought it was a joke at first, but after pulling the story up on her computer she freaked out.

Williams said she calmed own somewhat after getting a call from one of her twins telling her they were OK, but told them she was coming to get them from the school regardless.

"My hands have finally calmed down," she said, looking down at them.

At the time of the interview, Williams said she still had not been contacted by the school about the situation.

She said if people were at work they might not have heard about the situation at all. Williams is glad everyone was safe, but said the situation was still nerve-wracking, especially after what happened in Florida.

She said her main concern was that she was not notified by the school about the situation.

"Just scary," Williams said.

Kamani Jones Sr.

Kamani Jones Sr. had a 12-year-old son in seventh grade, and a daughter, 14, in ninth grade who both attend the school.

Jones said when he found out about the situation, it was a "straight freak out."

He said this is the type of situation you never think will happen to you. The main thing, Jones said, was making sure his kids were safe.

"Until you hear their voice, nothing is right," he said.LANSING, MI - The House Elections and Ethics Committee on Thursday discussed two proposals to change how the State Board of Education and the boards of three universities are put in place.

But the chair of the committee and the sponsor of one of the proposals being considered doesn't see it actually happening.

"I think we've seen healthy opposition from the Democratic side, so this probably won't have wings as far as taking off in the legislature. So from here I'm pessimistic," said Rep. Aaron Miller, R-Sturgis.

Currently political parties select candidates at conventions and then statewide voters choose from among those options.

The idea behind one package the legislature is considering is to put a ballot question to voters: would they like to continue electing the State Board of Education and boards for Wayne State University, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan, or let the governor appoint those positions?

House Joint Resolution DD from Rep. James Lower, R-Cedar Lake, would amend the constitution to allow the governor to appoint board members of those institutions. It would replace current members on Jan. 1, 2019 and appoint them to staggered terms so some would turn over every two years.

It would take a constitutional amendment, which requires a two-thirds vote in the state's House and Senate, to put that question on the ballot.

Lower said he'd been working on the legislation before Michigan State University came under fire for its handling of ex-Dr. Larry Nassar. Nassar sexually assaulted his patients at the university for years under the guise of providing medical treatment.

"One pro is it's completely all new people for all these boards. There's one board in particular I think a lot of people would like to see that done," Lower said.

Rep. Rob VerHeulen, R-Walker, said the proposal would but three universities - U-M, MSU and Wayne State - in line with how the boards operated at the rest of Michigan's public universities.

"I look at the model that we have with 12 universities and I say 'why make that distinction' and I can't think of any rational reason," VerHeulen said.

He's the sponsor of a companion bill to Lower's proposal and said in his conversations with people at universities with appointed boards, it's working well.

Rep. Adam Zemke, D-Ann Arbor, said when you set aside the issues at MSU, the elected system seems to be working well at Wayne State University and the University of Michigan.

"I just don't understand why there's any water to this argument that the 12 universities that are appointed, that is a better process," Zemke said.

A separate proposal, House Joint Resolution EE, from Miller, would still elect the boards of Wayne State, MSU and U-M but in four-year terms instead of the current eight. They would be limited to two four-year terms, and still go through the party nomination process.

It also would need a two-thirds vote to pass the House and Senate and get on the ballot.

The committee did not vote on either proposal today, and Miller is not optimistic they have enough support.IRON MOUNTAIN, MI -The most U.P contest ever has returned to Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

The "Car Plunge Contest" is hosted by the Rotary Club of Iron Mountain - Kingsford. For $10 you can make three guesses as to when a bright orange 1998 Saturn sedan will sink through ice and fall into a local caved-in mine called Chapin Pit.

The person who most accurately guesses the month, date, and time the car sinks will win $1,500. This is the fourth year the club is hosting the contest which benefits local projects supported by club membership.

Bets can also be made online here. Participants must be at least 18 and must make their bets by March 15. In the event the car plunges prior to the deadline, any entries submitted one day prior to the actual plunge date will be rejected and money refunded.

If no entry exactly matches the date and time, the winner will be determined by the entry that is closest to the exact date and time.

In the event of a tie, the prize will be split equally between the winners. Winners will be notified by May 1.

The car is the same that has been used in previous years. It has been altered to be environmentally safe by students at the Dickinson - Iron Technical Education Center.

The engine, transmission, power train, battery, radiator, fluid coolers, master cylinder and heater hoses have all be removed.

As have oils, greases, road grime, and other unintended vehicle contaminates. The Saturn was also painted and lettered by students and it will be removed using donated equipment once it falls through the ice.ELKHART, IN - An Indiana man who killed two Michigan brothers in September 2016 has been convicted.

The Associated Press reports that an Elkhart County jury convicted 28-year-old James Ross Jr. of two counts of murder on Tuesday, Feb. 13. The decision came after a weeklong trial in Northern Indiana.

A native of nearby Goshen, Ross Jr. was accused of killing 29-year-old Antonio McClain and 25-year-old Anthony McClain, both of Saginaw, in the backyard of an Elkhart apartment house.

Prosecutors said the murders occurred after a heated confrontation between Ross Jr. and Antonio McClain erupted into gunfire. Ross apparently shot both men in the face as witnesses watched, the AP reported.

Ross Jr. argued he acted in self-defense. He is scheduled to be sentenced March 8.MUNISING, MI - Sheriff's officials and rangers with Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore are warning would-be ice walkers that the ice is not safe between the park's Sand Point and Grand Island.

The East Channel's current has prevented thick ice from forming. But that hasn't stopped people from venturing out there.

"Dangerous ice conditions reported between Sand Point and Grand Island," Alger County Sheriff Todd Brock said in a statement. "The East Channel ice conditions near Grand Island are extremely dangerous, please do not attempt to cross to Grand Island in this area!"

Grand Island sits just off the mainland coastline of Pictured Rocks in Munising.

It's an area where four snowmobilers went through the ice earlier this month, and had to be rescued after they abandoned their sunken machines and were able to reach Grand Island.

The Munising Bay area is also a popular place to beach walk in winter and check out the ice formations. It's a busy place this week because of the Michigan Ice Fest.

Pictured Rocks offered some stark advice to the foolhardy in its recent warning:

"If you choose to take the chance, wear a life jacket and dry suit, carry ice awls or something in each hand to grip the ice to pull yourself out of the water, and go with other people (spread out while walking and carry rope).

"If you fall through the ice, try not to panic. Kick/swim and pull your way back onto the ice where you fell in. Stay safe - enjoy the ice formations along Sand Point Road instead."Grand Rapids and Detroit have been listed as two of the 27 U.S. cities where the flu is at its most severe, according to the Doctors Report Illness Tracker app and website.

The Doctors Report app reports in a news release it compiles its rankings using data from nearly one million doctors across the United States. It takes diagnosed and reported cases over the course of the past week and churns out a rating for each city.

The Grand Rapids-Wyoming area is listed in the "very high" at-risk group and Metro Detroit can be found one rung below in the "high" at-risk group.

The app uses a scale of 1 to 10 to rank the severity level of flu, with the entire U.S. scoring a 9.5 as of Thursday, Feb. 15. The Grand Rapids region scored the tied for the worst rating of 9.5, and Metro Detroit came in with a 6.5 to put it at the bottom of the "high" at-risk group.

Grand Rapids-Wyoming also found itself on the app's "high" ranking for influenza severity with a score of 7.0.

"DoctorsReport.com has developed a proprietary set of algorithms for gauging the severity of 15 common illnesses," a news release from the app reads.

"The major factors that define the severity scale are: number of diagnosed and reported cases from actual doctors' offices and comparisons to historical trends for the same area."

As of last week, the U.S. government reported that the country was in the midst of its worst flu season since 2009. A government report released last week that during this season, at least one out of every 13 visits to the doctor's office was for flu symptoms, a cough or fever.

The Doctors Report Illness Tracker isn't the only app aimed at informing the public during flu season as the Sickweather app uses social media posts to track the spread of illness. The Sickweather app will find any publicly posted status updates of "I'm sick," "my son is sick" or "I can't stop coughing" to update its illness map.MLive Media Group

On Wednesday, Feb. 14, Jackson Countys public school districts joined those throughout Michigan in the states 2018 spring student count day.

Count day means funds for public schools. Their per-student state aid is based on 10 percent of this count, combined with 90 percent of the October 2017 count.

Each student enrolled represents about $7,631 in state funds for Jackson County districts.

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About the numbers

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MLive Media Group

Wednesdays counts are unaudited numbers. Theyre submitted to the Jackson County Intermediate School District, which has 24 weeks to provide audited student counts to the state. Students absent on count day can be added in if the state agrees their absences were excused.

February counts often are down from fall counts because students drop out, graduate at mid-year or move. Here are Wednesdays counts from each Jackson County public school district.

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Columbia School District

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MLive Media Group

February 2018 count: 1,435

February 2017 count: 1,401

Difference: +34

Fall 2017 count: 1,427

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Concord Community Schools

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MLive Media Group

February 2018 count: 697

February 2017 count: 728

Difference: -31

Fall 2017 count: 701

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da Vinci Institute

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MLive Media Group

February 2018 count: 415

February 2017 count: 392

Difference: +23

Fall 2017 count: 412

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East Jackson Community Schools

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MLive Media Group

February 2018 count: 945

February 2017 count: 970

Difference: -25

Fall 2017 count: 951

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Grass Lake Community Schools

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MLive Media Group

February 2018 count: 1,263

February 2017 count: 1,260

Difference: +3

Fall 2017 count: 1,253

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Hanover-Horton School District

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MLive Media Group

February 2018 count: 1,119

February 2017 count: 1,130

Difference: -11

Fall 2017 count: 1,123

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Jackson Preparatory & Early College

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MLive Media Group

February 2018 count: 365

February 2017 count: 371

Difference: -6

Fall 2017 count: 395

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Jackson Public Schools

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MLive Media Group

February 2018 count: 5,068

February 2017 count: 5,179

Difference: -111

Fall 2017 count: 5,080

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Michigan Center Schools

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MLive Media Group

February 2018 count: 1,405

February 2017 count: 1,396

Difference: +9

Fall 2017 count: 1,425

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Napoleon Community Schools

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MLive Media Group

February 2018 count: 1,312

February 2017 count: 1,314

Difference: -2

Fall 2017 count: 1,314

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Northwest Community Schools

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MLive Media Group

February 2018 count: 3,440

February 2017 count: 3,260

Difference: +180

Fall 2017 count: 3,440

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Paragon Charter Academy

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MLive Media Group

February 2018 count: 636

February 2017 count: 670

Difference: -34

Fall 2017 count: 640

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Springport Public Schools

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MLive Media Group

February 2018 count: 981

February 2017 count: 969

Difference: +12

Fall 2017 count: 970

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Vandercook Lake Public Schools

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MLive Media Group

February 2018 count: 1,108

February 2017 count: 1,180

Difference: -72

Fall 2017 count: 1,142

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Western School District

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February 2018 count: 2,888

February 2017 count: 2,926

Difference: -38

Fall 2017 count: 2,907Egypt's military said on Thursday that security forces have killed 53 takfiris since the army launched its massive counterterrorism operation in northern and central Sinai and other parts of the country over the past week.

The Arabic word "takfiri" refers to hardline Sunni Muslims who accuse other Muslims of being infidels, often as a justification for using violence against them.

The announcement was made at a televised conference  which was organised by the Department of Morale Affairs at the Armed Forces Media Centre and attended by local and international media  held to announce results of the joint mission of the Comprehensive Operation Sinai 2018 anti-terrorism campaign since it started last Friday.

The top-ranking Army, Air Force, Police officers in charge of the military operations attended the press conference and answered reporters' questions.

Army spokesman Tamer El-Refaie said that five takfiris suspects and 680 others have been arrested, including "criminal elements" and people suspected of aiding takfiris.

On Friday, Egypt launched a major operation targeting "terrorist and criminal elements and organisations" in northern and central Sinai, as well as parts of the Nile Delta and the Western Desert. Comprehensive Operation Sinai 2018 involves land, naval and air operations, as well as police and border guards.

Over the past week, army and security forces have destroyed around 400 hideouts used by the terrorists to store weapons and materials used in explosive devices, the spokesman told the conference. Air forces have also destroyed 137 targets.

Air Force Brigadier-General Alaa Dawara said that airstrikes were conducted outside residential areas.

Major General Yasser Abdel-Aziz Armed of the Armed Forces Operations Authority said that the military operations have adhered to "human rights regulations and standards, and full protection has been afforded to civilians in areas were security raids took place, mainly in central and northern Sinai."

Abdel-Aziz also said that in the two months prior to Operation Sinai 2018, 50 takfiris were killed, 200 were arrested and hundreds of hideouts were destroyed.

Border guards and military engineers uncovered and destroyed three tunnels along the northern Sinai border.

Thirty-five farms used to grow illegal narcotics were also found and destroyed.

Land, sea and air forces have also been conducting security patrols to combat attempts to smuggle arms or infiltrate through southern and western borders.

Air forces backed by a helicopter carrier have been securing the Suez Canal and northern coast of the Sinai Peninsula and naval units have been conducting military operations in several strategic regions.

Short link:

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- The son of a woman who was shot through a window while inside her home faces federal weapons charges after allegedly cutting off his electronic tether to "hunt down" the person he thought shot her.

An application for a search warrant filed Feb. 14 by a special agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives seeks to collect DNA from Jody Jon Stamp, the son of Marilyn Stamp, who was shot Nov. 30 on Woodbine Avenue in Portage.

Jody Stamp, 47, of Portage was indicted by a grand jury Feb. 7 for being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition and possession of an unregistered firearm related to his arrest on Nov. 30, hours after his mother was shot in the neck through a window of her home.

In the warrant, an ATF agent said Portage police learned Stamp, who was on parole from the Michigan Department of Corrections, cut his tether and was trying to find the person he believed was responsible for shooting his mother.

State police saw him driving a Ford Escape at a Speedway gas station on Riverview Drive in Kalamazoo. They approached the SUV while it was parked at a gas pump and told Stamp and his front-seat passenger to get out, but they refused, according to the warrant. Because they didn't comply and the SUV had tinted windows that made it difficult to see them, police shattered the side windows. Stamp put the vehicle in reverse but police were able to arrest him.

Police found two 12-gauge shotgun shells in Stamp's front pockets, several shotgun shells in the vehicle's cup holder and two 12-gauge shotguns on the floorboard behind the front seats.

A passenger in the SUV, Amanda McKibbin, told police Stamp was "hunting the individual" who he thought shot his mother.

Another passenger, Tyler Stafford, told police he "was with Stamp to make sure he did not do anything crazy," the agent said in the warrant.

Stamp has a lengthy criminal history, including a federal conviction of possessing a firearm as a felon in 2004, unlawfully driving away in 1990 and prison escape in 1991, among other crimes.

The ATF agent sought a mouth swab to get DNA from Stamp to further link him to the firearms found in the vehicle.LUDINGTON, MI - A private group has stated its interest in purchasing the iconic-yet-controversial Pere Marquette cross monument that sits on publicly-owned property.

The memorial honoring Father "Pere" Jacques Marquette came under fire recently after the Michigan Association of Civil Rights Activists called for the Christian cross to be removed, claiming it violates the separation of church and state.

Both the Michigan Association of Civil Rights Activists and the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation say the cross is a violation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, which prohibits displaying religious symbols or maintaining said monuments with public funding.

The two groups have threatened legal action if the Pere Marquette Township Board keeps the cross and maintains it with taxpayer funds. The board discussed the memorial's fate and its legal path forward on Tuesday, Feb. 13, during the body's regular meeting.

Carlos Alvarado, a Ludington attorney, spoke at the meeting on behalf of the Pere Marquette Memorial Association. Alvarado represents the association, which is a re-incorporation of a group that originally founded the monument in 1937.

Alvarado said the association would work with the township to purchase the parcel of land that the monument sits on, taking up the responsibility to maintain the cross in perpetuity, according to the Mason County Press. The deal would turn the land into private property.

The township would retain ownership of a boat launch located nearby.

Alvarado said the group has collected at least $20,000 in private donations to maintain the cross, according the Mason County Press. If the sale goes through, those assets would be held by the Community Foundation for Mason County, a nonprofit organization.

Alvarado's office declined to give further comment.

Activists call the remedy unsatisfying

Mitch Kahle, co-founder of the Michigan Association of Civil Rights Activists, said turning the property over to a private entity may not satisfy his organization's complaint.

"It's difficult to say, and it would depend on the terms of the deal," Kahle said. "These types of sales have been attempted in the past and the courts have said they were essentially sham sales. We'll have to wait until we see a deal on the table."

A representative from the Freedom From Religion Foundation agreed.

"Trying to find a way to maintain this unambiguously religious display sends a message that the (Pere Marquette Township Board of Trustees) really does prefer Christianity over minority religions, and religion over nonreligion," said staff attorney Ryan Jayne. "It would be better for the board to demonstrate for its young citizens that it is important to do the right thing, and to follow the law, even when it is unpopular to do so. The township would be giving up ownership of valuable park land just to maintain a divisive religious monument."

The township approved a cross restoration project in the fall of 2017, a vote that is believed to have prompted Kahle's complaint. The project called for the skeleton of the cross to remain in place while the exterior was refurbished.

In a letter sent to the township in November 2017, Jayne wrote that he hoped the township would remove the cross and rescind a grant issued in September 2017 for cross maintenance.

Pere Marquette Township Clerk Rachelle Enbody told MLive the grant was not for the cross, but rather for playground equipment at Buttersville Campground, a park located half a mile away from the Pere Marquette Memorial on the opposite side of Lakeshore Drive.

A map showing the distance from the Pere Marquette Memorial Shrine to Buttersville Campground in Pere Marquette Township in Ludington, Michigan.

The cross is in a hilltop memorial park on a small peninsula that separates Lake Michigan and Pere Marquette Lake. It was erected in 1955 on the spot where Marquette, one of the area's first European explorers, reportedly died.

Group pledges 'pro-bono' legal support

Further complicating the issue was a public pledge from the American Center for Law and Justice to act as pro-bono legal counsel for Pere Marquette Township. Ed White, an attorney with the firm, attended Tuesday's meeting.

The Christian law firm has experience dealing with this type of constitutional issue, and has successfully represented other municipalities in similar cases, according the Mason County Press.

The township board listened to White's presentation, but did not vote to retain the ACLJ as legal counsel. Enbody said the township board would consider the offer during a regular meeting in the near future.

Other groups and area residents voiced overwhelming support for the cross during a special meeting on Jan. 23. Dozens of people addressed the township board, with some saying removing the cross would be akin to the removal of Confederate war statues.

Jayne called the offer from ACLJ "concerning" in a second letter sent to the township just hours before White's presentation.

"What the ACLJ will almost certainly not mention is that if the Township loses a lawsuit challenging a religious government display, the Township will be liable for paying the costs and attorneys' fees for the prevailing party."

Those costs and fees can be substantial, the letter said.

Jayne said the ACLJ's offer represents a publicity stunt for the group and its fundraising operations - a stunt Jayne said would come at the taxpayers' expense.

"It was reported that the ACLJ and a related charity has raised millions of dollars for Jay Sekulow, the firm's CEO, and his family, who dominate the ACLJ Board," Jayne wrote. "The president of the American Institute of Philanthropy, a charity watchdog group, described the ACLJ as 'more like a family business than a public charity ... You would have to have a lot of trust in this family in order to want to give them your money.'"

In an email sent to MLive/Muskegon Chronicle, the ACLJ's Gene Kapp called the allegations "baseless."

"The bogus claims by the FFRF are factually wrong and without merit," Kapp said. "The American Center for Law & Justice does not charge its clients for legal services. The ACLJ is able to provide its legal services to clients free of charge thanks to the generosity of millions of people who support the mission and work of the ACLJ."SAGINAW, MI -- While members of the public called for stability, Wednesday's Saginaw school board meeting was anything but. Tempers flared. Emotions showed. Accusations flew.

With a packed room, community members looked on as board members celebrated students who participated in a district-wide art exhibit.

Then there was the presentation of the Handley International Baccalaureate.

"Will all the teachers from Handley please stand," Ruth Ann Knapp, board trustee asked.

There were only the two presenters, who informed her the teachers were at a meeting.

"Or enjoying Valentine's Day," Knapp joked.

The crowd chuckled.

That was agenda item three.

Stability

By agenda item six, the public comment part of the meeting, everyone who was there for the art celebration and presentation had departed.

Left in the audience were those who attend school board meetings when it is time to address the elephant in the room. On Wednesday, Feb. 14, that elephant was Superintendent Nathaniel McClain.

The day before, the board voted 4-3 to not offer McClain a one-year or a three-year extension on his contract, which according to some board members is set to expire June 30 of this year.

He became the district's leader in August 2015 with an initial contract through 2018.

The board has up until March 30 to reconsider its decision not to extend his contract.

The vote upset community members and district employees who attended the briefing session to express their discontent.

Deborah Sanchez, director of the Saginaw Promise, said she stood in support of McClain and pointed out a few reasons why her organization, which gives away scholarships for district students, needs him at the helm.

Those included rising test scores, increased graduation rates and more students completing college student aid and loan applications.

Sanchez also mentioned how McClain took the lead when the state wanted to take over or close Saginaw High and Loomis Elementary schools, both of which remain open after strategies implemented by his administration.

"That takes leadership," Sanchez said. "And that also takes a staff who trust that leader."

Teacher Jan Jeske, at one point, held back tears.

"I used to have faith in you," she told the board of education. "Now I don't. What you've done is the death of this district."

Jeske attempted to address Vice President Jason Thompson and Treasurer Mattie Thompson, the mother and son duo, but was warned not to address or insult board members by name. The incident was later addressed by both Thompsons during board comments.

Family Engagement Coordinator Tiffany Pruitt talked of how state agencies are looking at the district's initiative with families as a model for family engagement.

"If we don't have the families," Pruitt said, "we don't have the children. If we don't have the children, we all won't have a job.

"That's because I have the support of our superintendent. I believe he has brought stability to our district."

The district, which was once in a deficit, has restored pay cuts to teachers and now carries at least the state-mandated amount of money in its general fund.

These things occurred under McClain, many speakers pointed out.

"Please don't do this," said Kathy Gonzales, a teacher in the district. "He brings to this district stability. And we are moving forward and we continue to move forward."

Another teacher said the decision to not extend McClain's contract felt like "you pulled the rug right from under us."

"It's time for stability," she said.

Representing the Service Employees International Union, Charles Sledge, a vocal figure in the district who works at Arthur Eddy Elementary School said, "I don't know what's going on in the district or if we are even going to have a district ... we are standing behind Mr. McClain. I said it. I meant it."

Board comments

When Mattie Thompson had a chance to speak, she addressed Jeske, who had earlier tried to address her about Thompson's involvement in only certain classrooms at Arthur Eddy.

Thompson, visibly upset, told Jeske that she only visits one classroom at Arthur Eddy because she has a niece who is having trouble.

"It's my obligation to take care of my family," she said. "I'm over there as Auntie Mattie."

Secretary Kim "Tody" Hamilton said that he just wanted to keep students first.

"Just because there was some decision that was made yesterday doesn't mean that I don't want to keep students first," Hamilton said. "That could be why I made the decision."

Jason Thompson, who was a childhood friend of McClain's, reiterated what he said the previous night before voting against extending his contract.

"I don't have a problem with Mr. McClain," Thompson said. "Some things are going on in our district that needed to be addressed and wasn't addressed. I said that once they are addressed we can go back to the table and offer an extension."

President Rudy Patterson was the last person to address the audience.

But before he could speak, a woman in the audience asked if McClain's contract was over this June or June 2019, something that had been under debate among board members.

Patterson informed the woman that public comment was finished and cited an incident in January where Louisiana teacher Deyshia Hargrave was handcuffed and arrested after questioning the school board over the superintendent's contract.

"I'm not picking on you ma'am," he said.

Patterson said that it was illegal for public and board members to open dialogue among each other in a public meeting.

This bought Patterson to his next point.

Earlier in the meeting, Tamara McRae, board trustee, showed board members where in the Dec. 7, 2016, meeting minutes that the board voted 6-0 to extend McClain's contract for one year, expiring in June of 2019.

Mattie Thompson was absent from that meeting.

Patterson called the vote illegal.

Patterson then compared McClain to former Superintendent Carlton Jenkins, who left the district in 2014.

"Stuff wasn't adding up," Patterson said, referring to Jenkins. "It wasn't adding up then, stuff ain't adding up now. We just had an audit. They said we lost 3,600 kids in the district, but our money kept going up. Kids go down. Money go up. How does that happen?"

Patterson told the audience that he has facts and is willing to have a conversation when they got facts as well.

"If McClain is your leader," Patterson said. "Tell him to show it."

The school board's action meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 21, at the Administration Building, 550 Millard.SEBEWAING, MI -- A man shot and killed his wife and daughter before killing himself sometime this week at the family home in a Thumb village of nearly 2,000, police suspect.

Police expected to release the names of the dead later Thursday afternoon, Feb. 15, Sebewaing Police Chief Bill Owens said.

The husband and wife were in their mid-to-late 50s and were well-known in the small community, Owens said. He owned a carpet and tile cleaning company and she worked at the village's sole library, the chief said.

Their daughter, and only child, attended Saginaw Valley State University, Owens said. She was in her early 20s.

The apparent double murder-suicide is the first time in nearly four decades a fatal act of violence has struck the village of Sebewaing, Owens said.

"It's like a nightmare, because this doesn't happen in our town," said Cindy Parker, who graduated from Unionville-Sebewaing Area High School in 1975 with the mother and father.

Parker said although she didn't have much interaction with the family, they never hesitated to share a wave.

"You just never imagined that would happen to them," she said.

The family was found dead around 1 a.m. Thursday morning, Feb. 15, inside their residence at 534 Beach St.

A family friend was unsuccessful in reaching the family the past day or so and decided to look in their basement window, Owens said. There, the friend saw one of the dead family members.

The block in front of the family home was taped off throughout the morning and into the afternoon as Michigan State Police Crime Lab personnel, donning blue shoe covers, entered and exited the residence.

Civilian vehicles drove slow past the scene, with some drivers stopping to chat between each other.

Owens estimated the suspected double murder-suicide occurred 12 to 24 hours before they were found.

Though a gun is suspected in the killings, the type is not yet determined, Owens said, adding there were multiple weapons in the home.

Owens, the village's chief for the past 10 years, said his department has never responded to a domestic violence situation at the family's home.

"They were very active in the community, real good people," the chief said. "I think that's probably what makes it so surprising."

Eric Lutze, a Sebewaing-area resident since July, found out about the slayings from the guys gathered at Alexander's Bait and Tackle down at the marina Thursday afternoon.

"It's a nice little town, a great place to live," said Lutze, an avid fisherman. "(The double murder-suicide) doesn't bother me, because it's not like a stranger breaking into your home.

"People out here want to fish and hunt and relax; they don't want trouble."

The village of Sebewaing is located on the coast of Saginaw Bay on the southwestern side of the Thumb. As of 2010, the village had a population of 1,759, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

The Michigan State Police Crime Lab is assisting the village police department in its investigation.SEBEWAING, MI -- Police have identified the family killed in a recent, suspected double murder-suicide.

Sebewaing Police Chief Bill Owens identified the father and suspected culprit as 61-year-old Bob Bonini. The victims were identified as 60-year-old mother Margo Bonini and daughter and sole child as 21-year-old Katelyn Bonini.

Their bodies were discovered around 1 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 15, inside the Bonini family home at 534 Beach St.

Owens said it's suspected Bob Bonini shot and killed his wife and daughter before killing himself.

The Bonini's were well-known in the village of Sebewaing, a community around of 1,700, Owens said.

Bob Bonini owned a carpet and tile cleaning company that bore his namesake. Margo Bonini worked at the village's sole library. Katelyn Bonini attended Saginaw Valley State University.

Katelyn Bonini

The apparent double murder-suicide is the first time in nearly four decades a fatal act of violence has struck the village of Sebewaing, Owens said.

Though a gun is suspected in the killings, the type is not yet determined, Owens said, adding there were multiple weapons in the home.

Police have not disclosed a suspected motive.

Owens, the village's chief for the past 10 years, said his department has never responded to a domestic violence situation at the family's home.

"They were very active in the community, real good people," the chief said. "I think that's probably what makes it so surprising."

The village of Sebewaing is located on the coast of Saginaw Bay on the southwestern side of the Thumb. As of 2010, the village had a population of 1,759, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Cindy Parker, who graduated from Unionville-Sebewaing Area High School in 1975 with the mother and father, said the news has come as a shock to the close community.

"It's like a nightmare because this doesn't happen in our town," said Cindy Parker. "You just never imagined that would happen to them."

The Bonini's were found after a family friend was unsuccessful in making contact with them for the past several hours, Owens said.

The friend went to the house, finding the doors locked, the lights on and no response, Owens said.

When he looked in their basement window, he saw one of the Bonini females dead, the chief said.

The block in front of the family home was taped off throughout the morning and into the afternoon Thursday as Michigan State Police Crime Lab personnel, donning blue shoe covers, entered and exited the residence.

Civilian vehicles drove slowly past the scene, with some drivers stopping to chat with each other.

Eric Lutze, a recent transplant to the Sebewaing-area, said while the news is shocking, it doesn't make him question his safety.

"It's a nice little town, a great place to live," said Lutze, an avid fisherman. "(The double murder-suicide) doesn't bother me, because it's not like a stranger breaking into your home.

The Michigan State Police Crime Lab is assisting the village police department in its investigation.A woman consoles another as parents wait for news regarding a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Joel Auerbach)

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By Tanda Gmiter | tgmiter@mlive.com

At least 17 people were killed when a former student opened fire inside and outside a high school in Broward County, Fla., on Wednesday afternoon.

Sheriff Scott Israel identified the suspect as Nikolas Cruz, 19, who was previously expelled for disciplinary reasons, according to the Associated Press. The suspect had at least one rifle and multiple magazines.

The teen was taken into custody about a mile from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

"It's catastrophic. There really are no words," Israel said, according to a tweet from the sheriff's office.

Photos shared by the AP show students being escorted from the school by police, and worried parents waiting to pick up their children.

Len Murray said his 17-year-old son sent his parents this text from inside the school: "Mom and Dad, there have been shots fired on campus at school. There are police sirens outside. I'm in the auditorium and the doors are locked."

Murray said they told their son to stop texting, turn off his ringer and save his phone battery, the AP said.

"All I keep thinking about is when I dropped him off this morning. I usually say, 'I love you,' and I didn't this morning. He's 17, he's at that age, and I didn't say it this morning, and I'm just kicking myself right now over and over and over. Say it early and often, I'm telling you."

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Parents wait for news after a reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Joel Auerbach)

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Map courtesy of the Associated Press

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In this frame grab from video provided by WPLG-TV, students from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., evacuate the school following a shooting, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (WPLG-TV via AP)

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Family members embrace after a student walked out from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, in Parkland, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

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A law enforcement officer talks with students, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, in Parkland, Fla. A shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School sent students rushing into the streets as SWAT team members swarmed in and locked down the building. Police were warning that the shooter was still at large even as ambulances converged on the scene and emergency workers appeared to be treating those possibly wounded. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

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A student shows a law enforcement officer a photo or video from his phone, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, in Parkland, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

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Anxious family members wait for information on students, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, in Parkland, Fla. . (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

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In this frame grab from video provided by WPLG-TV, students from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., evacuate the school following a shooting, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (WPLG-TV via AP)

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Anxious family members wait for news of students as two people embrace, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, in Parkland, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

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A family reunites following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

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Students wait to be picked up after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. A shooter opened fire at the Florida high school Wednesday, killing people, sending students running out into the streets and SWAT team members swarming in before authorities took the shooter into custody. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

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An armored police vehicle arrives at Stoneman Douglas High School following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

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Young women, who walked out from the direction of the high school, are escorted by police following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, in Parkland, Fla. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

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Students are evacuated by police from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, after a shooter opened fire on the campus. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

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A young woman, who walked out from the direction of the high school, gets a hug following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, in Parkland, Fla. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

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Students released from a lockdown embrace following following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

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Students released from a lockdown are overcome with emotion following following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

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Students released from a lockdown are overcome with emotion following following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

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Students released from a lockdown embrace following following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

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Students released from a lockdown walk away following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

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Medical personnel tend to a victim following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

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An police officer tells parents waiting at Coral Springs Drive and the Sawgrass Expressway to go to the Marriott hotel to meet up with their kids following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

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People gather waiting for word from students at Coral Springs Drive and the Sawgrass Expressway just south of the campus following following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)The young man who opened fire at a Florida high school on Wednesday, killing 17 people, has been identified by a federal official as Nikolas Cruz, 19, according to authorities.

The shooting suspect is a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where the deadly incident occurred, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said.

"It's catastrophic. There really are no words," Israel said, according to a tweet from the sheriff's office.

The suspect was ordered to the ground about a mile away from the school, witnesses said.

Michael Nembhard, who lives near the school, told the AP he was in his garage when he heard a police officer repeatedly yelling, "Get on the ground!"

Nembhard saw a teenage boy on the ground nearby. An officer had a gun pointed at the teen. Other officers arrived and the teen was led away in handcuffs.While much of NASA's mainstream focus of late has been on sending humans to Mars for the first time, the space agency will actually send a piece of the planet back home with its next rover mission.

The U.S. space agency reports in a news release that it determined that a slice of meteorite it found in Oman back in 1999 actually came from the Red Planet itself.

Two chunks of the meteorite, SaU008, are actually being used by NASA as it prepares for its next rover mission. One piece will be used on Earth to help develop the "souped-up science machine's" laser instrument, and the other will go along for the ride to Mars.

NASA says that it owns a limited supply of meteorites from Mars, but asks the question seemingly to itself of"why not use an actual piece of Mars" to work on instruments headed to the planet?

"We're studying things on such a fine scale that slight misalignments, caused by changes in temperature or even the rover settling into sand, can require us to correct our aim," Luther Beegle, a principal investigator for NASA's JPL, said in the release.

"By studying how the instrument sees a fixed target, we can understand how it will see a piece of the Martian surface."

As to how limited the Martian meteorite supply is here on Earth, NASA says there are only about 200 of them confirmed by the Meteoritical Society. SaU008 will represent the first piece of Martian rock to make it all the way to Earth and then actually sent back home.

"Every year, we provide hundreds of meteorite specimens to scientists all over the world for study," Caroline Smith, curator of meteorites at London's Natural History Museum, said in the release. "This is a first for us: sending one of our samples back home for the benefit of science."

The next Mars rover is being built and developed at JPL, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, for use in the Mars 2020 mission. The rover is touted as a new "souped-up science machine," and made up of about 85 percent of heritage hardware from 2012's Curiosity rover.

The U.S. space agency says that while the next rover is made up mostly of existing parts, it has a completely new mission and set of goals. The Mars 2020 rover will scan the Red Planet for signs of ancient life by studying terrain that once consisted of flowing rivers and lakes more than 3.5 billion years ago.

Some of the new science instruments included on the 2020 Mars rover are an X-ray spectrometer, ultraviolet laser, excited rings of carbon atoms, and a ground-penetrating radar that will allow NASA to look under the surface of Mars up to 30 feet deep depending on terrain.

It will also get some upgraded Curiosity equipment in the form of new hardware, color cameras, a zoom lens and a laser that can reportedly vaporize rocks and soil.

The rover will come with 23 "eyes," which gives it 18 more viewpoints than the Pathfinder offered back in 1997. NASA cites "quantum" leaps in camera technology as the ability to put sensors and cameras in nearly every nook and cranny of its new rover.

The rover mission will launch sometime between July and August 2020 and has an expected target land date of February 2021. NASA says that the mission will address questions "about the potential for life on Mars," as it will seek out any signs of habitable conditions on the planet.

The U.S. space agency says the Mars 2020 rover will use a drill for the first time that can collect core samples, with the hopes a future mission could return the samples to Earth.Related Strong Egypt Party head Abul Fotouh arrested on State Security Prosecution orders

Egypts High State Security Prosecution ordered on Thursday the detention of the head of the Strong Egypt Party Abdel-Moneim Abul Fotouh for 15 days pending investigations into charges including spreading false news aiming to harm national interests and being of a leading member of an illegal group, referring to the Muslim Brotherhood.

According to the prosecution, Abul Fotouh has been transported to a prison hospital upon his own request after he suddenly felt ill during questioning.

The questioning was attended by five of Abul Fotouhs lawyers, including former presidential candidate and rights lawyer Khaled Ali.

Abul Fotouh, who was a presidential candidate in 2012, was arrested on Wednesday at his home in Cairo hours after he returned from a visit to London, where he gave interviews to the Qatari-based Al-Jazeera channel and Al-Araby TV channel in which he criticised government policies.

Deputy head of Strong Egypt Mohamed El-Kassass was also arrested and detained earlier this week for joining a terrorist group and plotting to topple the Egyptian state as part of the so-called "Makamaleen case."

On Thursday, Strong Egypt's political office announced the temporary suspension of the party's political activity and called for a general assembly to discuss the party's future.

Abul Fotouh, 66, had been a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood since his university years in the late 1970s. He reached the Brotherhoods guidance bureau before he left the group in 2011 over organisational disagreements.

Egypt designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation shortly after the ouster of Islamist President Morsi in July 2013 over a series of terrorist attacks linked to the group.

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[February 15, 2018] Mediaset Launches Three of Its HD Channels on HOTBIRD, Eutelsat's Flagship Video Position in Italy Regulatory News: Elettronica Industriale, a subsidiary of the Italian group Mediaset, has signed a multi-year capacity agreement with Eutelsat (News - Alert) (Paris:ETL) (Euronext Paris: ETL) to accelerate its transition to High Definition (HD). Thanks to this contract, the three flagship channels of the Mediaset Group (Canale 5, Italia 1 and Rete 4) will be broadcast simultaneously in SD and HD on the free tivusat television package operating from HOTBIRD, Eutelsat's satellite hotspot for the Italian market. Located at 13 East, the HOTBIRD position is a reference video neighbourhood in Italy, particularly suited to DTH. Out of a thousand channels being broadcast from this position, more than 300 are in HD. Michel Azibert, Chief Commercial and Development Officer at Eutelsat, said: "The signing of this new contract reinforces the commercial links with two of our hitoric Italian partners, Mediaset and tivusat. The switchover of several Mediaset channels to HD is part of the image quality enhancement trend currently sweeping the broadcasting community who want to provide viewers with the best visual experience available." About Eutelsat Communications

Founded in 1977, Eutelsat Communications is one of the world's leading satellite operators. With a global fleet of satellites and associated ground infrastructure, Eutelsat enables clients across Video, Data, Government, Fixed and Mobile Broadband markets to communicate effectively to their customers, irrespective of their location. Over 6,700 television channels operated by leading media groups are broadcast by Eutelsat to one billion viewers equipped for DTH reception or connected to terrestrial networks. Headquartered in Paris, with offices and teleports around the globe, Eutelsat assembles 1,000 men and women from 44 countries who are dedicated to delivering the highest quality of service. Eutelsat Communications is listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange (ticker: ETL). www.eutelsat.com View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180215005520/en/

[ Back To www.mobilitytechzone.com\broadband-stimulus's Homepage ]Egypt's Ministry of Interior said in a statement on Thursday that the head of the Strong Egypt Party Abdel-Moneim Abul Fotouh plotted with members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood to destabilise the country ahead of the upcoming presidential elections.

Earlier on Thursday, Egypt's High State Security Prosecution ordered the detention of Abul Fotouh for 15 days pending investigations into charges including spreading false news aiming to harm national interests and being a leading member of an illegal group, referring to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The ministry said that the National Security apparatus received information that fugitive Muslim Brotherhood members abroad made contact with Abul Fotouh inside and outside the country in order to implement a plan "to destabilise the country amid a series of attacks against vital institutions to create a state of chaos that would enable [the Brotherhood] to return to the scene."

The statement added that Abul Fotouh had secret meetings abroad with Brotherhood members, the latest of which was in London on 8 February, where he met with leading Brotherhood members Mohamed Gamal Heshmet, Hossam El-Din Atef and Lotfy El-Sayed Ali.

The statement said that they plotted to foment dissent among political and student circles to take advantage of the political climate accompanying the upcoming presidential elections.

Abul Fotouh was received by Brotherhood members at Heathrow Airport before they arranged for him to give an interview with Al-AJazeera TV channel on 11 February, which included false claims.

Abul Fotouh, who was a presidential candidate in 2012, was arrested on Wednesday at his home in Cairo hours after he returned from a visit to London, where he gave interviews to the Qatari-based Al-Jazeera channel and Al-Araby TV channel which he criticised government policies.

The Strong Egypt leader had been a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood since his university years in the late 1970s. He reached the Brotherhoods guidance bureau before he left the group in 2011 over organisational disagreements.

Egypt designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation shortly after the ouster of Islamist President Morsi in July 2013 over a series of terrorist attacks linked to the group.

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There is "optimism and excitement" among American businesses about India and they are eager to tap the opportunities for FDI in the country in sectors like healthcare after the latest budget, India's envoy to the US has said.

Navtej Sarna, who is on a maiden trip to San Francisco and Los Angeles, addressed the Indian-American community in Los Angeles and applauded their dynamism and philanthropy. He also had a series of meetings with top business executives, think tanks and community leaders.

Top among them included meeting with the Walt Disney chairman, Andy Bird, and vice president Alan Braverman, meeting with Cisco's John Chambers, a round table with the prestigious Bay Area Council and another one organised by US India Strategic and Partnership Forum.

Referring to his visit to Disney and his meeting with its chairman and vice president, Sarna said they are very excited about India and the work they do in the country - from movies to their digital application and content creation.

"There is tremendous sense of optimism and excitement (among American businesses)," Sarna said.

American businesses, he said, are uniformly positive about India's reforms and excited about the new opportunities like the one in healthcare sector that has come up in the latest budget, India's top diplomat to the United States has said.

"They (American business leaders) are uniformly positive about Prime Minister's reforms. They are very excited about the fact that we have opened up FDI in so many areas," he said.

The businesses are also very excited with the GST. They are looking at the healthcare with excitement.

"Start ups are particularly a very good area of cooperation," the ambassador said referring to his meetings with the American businesses in the west coast.

"Virtually every sector of the economy is open to foreign direct investment," Sarna said in his address to the Bay Area Council.

India which has attracted USD 60 billion in foreign direct investment is today the most favoured destination for FDI.

India with its USD 1.5 trillion plan in infrastructure sector offers great opportunities for American companies, he said.

In his address to the community leaders, Sarna said India is witnessing transformational changes.

"Today we are the fastest growing economy in the world. We are set to become a USD5 trillion economy in 2025. We will become the third largest consumer market in 2025," he said.

There is a huge burgeoning and rich middle class, whose purchasing power has increased hugely, Sarna said.

While in San Francisco, Sarna also visited Gadar Memorial - an iconic moment from India's freedom struggle.

Early this week, he also visited Bancroft, Doe and the South/Southeast Asia at Berkeley Library in University of California.The year was 2010. The occasion, auction house Christie's much anticipated event in Hong Kong. The item on sale - a 12.29 carat Golconda diamond centered in an ornately designed necklace, resplendent with pink and colourless diamonds. The hammer went down at a mind-boggling Rs 16 crore. And that was the moment when an up and coming luxury brand from India finally arrived on the global scene.

Arrived and how! Since then, brand NIRAV MODI, with its self-named founder Nirav Modi, continued to grow from strength to strength and established itself as one of the biggest luxury brands in this hemisphere.

That was until two days ago, when this luxury brand's glittering stones suddenly became tainted. A fraud of Rs 11,000 crore ($1.8 billion) was unearthed in Punjab National Bank, with fraudulent transactions traced to Nirav Modi's company.

It hasn't taken much time for the 47-year-old's sheen to come off, with his jet-set glamourous circle disowning him.

Moneycontrol contacted some of Bollywoods top celebrity stylists to find out if there is any love lost for Modis diamonds. The answer from most of them, was a surprise. My client are not a Nirav Modi fan, might have worn it once or twice among the other brands they wear, said Ami Patel, stylist to popular names like Shilpa Shetty, Priyanka Chopra, Alia Bhatt and Bipasha Basu.

Sure, while diamonds continue to be womens best friend, Nirav Modi no longer is.

The glitter

But that is for now. Modis romance with diamonds actually began for a friend. Born in India to a family of diamond traders, Modi was raised in Belgium. He dropped out from Wharton School and instead came to India to learn the business. His uncle Mehul Choksi, chairman and managing director, Gitanjali Group, in Mumbai, did Modis initial handholding (Choksi is also under investigation for his role in the PNB case).

While working for his uncle, a friend requested Modi to design an earring for her wedding. Modi was reluctant but finally gave in and not just designed something that matched her taste, but also started a brand of his own. That was 2009.

That was just the beginning, and ever since Modi did not have to look back. Over less than a decade, glitz and glamour around brand Nirav Modi only increased. With a jewellery range that goes up to as high as Rs 50 crore, Nirav Modi has been a favourite amongst Bollywood A-listers like Priyanka Chopra and Aishwarya Rai.

Modis diamonds are not just for the home turf though. With boutiques in places ranging from Delhi and Mumbai to Hong Kong and New York, the jeweller won hearts of women across the world with his diamonds.

Some of the women who have walked the red carpet for his brand include the likes of Kate Winslet, who wore a Ralph Lauren gown with Modis Pear Celestial ring, Luminance bracelet and earrings at the 88th Oscar Awards. Then there is Karlie Kloss who was spotted wearing a Mughal diamond choker and En-Tremblant earrings to compliment her white dress by Stella McCartney. The list isnt too small. There are others like Sharon Stone, Taraji P Henson and Viola Davis.

Making women happy and beautiful made Modi rich, very rich. Featuring in Forbes' world's billionaires list for 2016 for India, Nirav Modi was ranked 46 with his net worth was close to Rs 11,227 crore.

Apart from the boutiques, Modi also has his trading arm Firestar Diamond, with annual revenues of over $1.2 billion.

Firestar Diamond mainly works in sourcing and supplying rare diamonds also has operations spanning the globe including USA, Europe, the Middle East, the Far East and India.

Opulence and flamboyance are his thing. And that clearly shows in his marketing strategies too. While Priyanka Chopra and Sidharth Malhotra were ambassadors of his brand in home market, the faces that represent brand Nirav Modi globally include Andreea Diaconu and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Both the celebrities were also associated with brands like Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana.

That put Modi in the queue for A-listers in the global fashion league.

Known to be soft spoken and understated, Modis parties were not quite of the similar nature. For instance the brand celebrated its half decade at Jodhpurs grand Umaid Bhavan Palace as Modi played host to celebrities from across the country.

Lost sheen

All went hunky dory till the enforcement directorate knocked at Modis door. Are diamonds from the house set to lose its sheen?

Whenever anything is reported around the word word-whoever and whatever it is about tends to get disrespected. Here we are talking about a brand and the basic definition of it is a brand is a trust. An issue like this whether for real or unnaturally so gets the brand effected and the credibility around it, said marketing and social media consultant Harish Bijoor.

Goes without saying the entire gems and jewelry fraternity is unhappy about the developments.

It came as a very big surprise for us, said Vipul Shah, former chairman, The Gems and Jewelry Export Promotion Council. Not a pleasant one though. According to Shah, also a diamond trader, the industry works on credibility and an event like this makes it difficult for the jewelry industry that has already been caught in the storms in the last couple of years.

Whatever the investigation lead to as of now it is certain that Modis business has come to a standstill. A news like this impacts the brand tremendously. The clients popular reaction at least initially is to back out from his association with the brand, added Shah.According to the EOW, the accused colluded with the former promoters of Religare Enterprises, Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh. (Image: Reuters)

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The Supreme Court on Thursday lifted the stay on sale of pledged shares held by Fortis promoters, the Singh brothers.

The order allows lenders to sell shares pledged by the Singh brothers  clearing one of the major hurdles blocking the possible sale of the company.

However, the stay on sale will continue - for shares encumbered after August 11, 2017.

The order saw the company's stock snapping intraday losses, ending 0.84 per cent at Rs 143.70 on BSE.

As on March 2017  85.78 percent of the shares were pledged by Fortis Healthcare Holding Private Ltd (FHHPL) the promoter holding company of Fortis Healthcare.

FHHPL is owned by Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh referred as Singh brothers.

The promoters stake in Fortis has fallen from 70.28 percent as on September 30, 2016 to 34.43 percent as on December 31, 2017.

The Supreme Court in September last year restrained the Singh brothers from disposing any of their assets both encumbered and unencumbered until the final disposal of the case.

It also refused permission to banks with whom the Singhs have pledged Fortis shares to do the same.

Axis and Yes Bank, the major lenders, moved Supreme Court seeking vacation of the stay in order to allow them to sell pledged shares.

Singh brothers had pledged shares worth Rs 1,580 Cr and Rs 390 crore with Yes Bank and Axis Bank respectively.

Daiichi's petition

Japanese drug maker Daiichi Sankyo filed a petition on August 10, in the Apex Court challenging the Delhi High Court order that gave nod to Singh brothers to sell their stake in Fortis.

Daiichi claimed that it would face irreparable loss if the promoters stake in Fortis were to be sold, as it would affect its recovery of an international award it won against the Singhs last year.

A Singaporean tribunal had adjudged in favour of Daiichi that the Singh brothers had concealed information about Ranbaxy regulatory problems with US FDA, while selling its shares.

Since then, Daiichi and the Singhs have been locked in litigation over the enforcement of the Singapore courts award.

Last month, the Delhi High Court had allowed Daiichi to collect Rs 3,500 crore (USD 500 million) award money from the Singh brothers.A man works inside a rubber scrap yard on the outskirts of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad June 25, 2012. India's natural rubber imports in the year ending March 2013 are likely to drop by 27 percent from a year ago to 150,000 tonnes as local output rises and as international prices are not very attractive for importers, a senior government official said. To match Interview RUBBER-INDIA/IMPORTS/ REUTERS/Amit Dave (INDIA - Tags: BUSINESS COMMODITIES AGRICULTURE TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR344LC

The All-India Rubber Industries Association has urged government to remove anti-dumping duty on imports saying around 1,000 small and medium rubber units are facing closure due to the acute shortage of carbon black, the major raw material used in rubber products.

"Carbon black imports from China, Russia and other countries face anti-dumping duties. Due to this, small & medium rubber units are facing shortage of carbon black and resultant price hike," association senior vice-president Vikram Makar told reporters here today.

Carbon black shortage is so severe since the past few months that over 1,000 units are on the verge of closure, which will lead to loss of nearly 2 lakh jobs, while the industry is losing about Rs 750 crore every month, Makar said.

Carbon black is the most preferred reinforcing material and filler in rubber products, both in tyre and non- tyre segments, comprising 25-30 percent of the product by weight. It is also used in plastics, paints and inks as colouring pigments.

The domestic rubber industry is seen growing at 8.42 percent CAGR during 2016-2020. However, the carbon black capacity has not grown in the past couple of years, commensurate with the demand.

Current crabon black demand is 12.85 lakh tonne as against capacity of 9.5 lakh tonne. A gap of 3.25 lakh tonne, thus is primarily due to lack of capacity addition by current carbon black manufacturers in the last two years.

To tide over this crisis the association has urged government to make a few policy amendments immediately to save small and medium sized units from closing down by allowing imports and curb or stop export of carbon black, he said.

Domestic prices of carbon black rose nearly 60 percent over the last six months and nearly 30 percent in the past three months itself, he said.Punjab National Bank offers customers 4.5 percent interest on deposits less than Rs 2 crore. Senior citizens earn 5.25 percent. Those depositing between Rs 2 crore to Rs 10 crore earn an interest of 3.25 percent.

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The Reserve Bank of India has advised Punjab National Bank (PNB) to repay banks which loaned money to firms associated with jewellers Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Gems, sources told Moneycontrol. These banks--foreign branches of Indian banks--had cumulatively loaned Rs 11,400 crore to the above mentioned firms on the basis of a fraudulent Letter of Undertaking (LoU) issued by PNB. The LoU makes PNB liable to repay the loans if the borrowers default.

Mehul Chokshi, the promoter of Gitanjali Gems, is the uncle of Nirav Modi.

The counterparty banks including Union Bank of India , Allahabad Bank, Bank of India and Canara Bank have also asked PNB to repay the loans.

According to banking sources, RBI has asked PNB to make payments as the fraud has happened from the PNBs premises. Even though the investigations are on, the current loss of the entire amount may have to be spread to all the other banks. Also, given that PNB has admitted to unauthorised transactions by their own officials who bypassed the core banking solutions systems."

"We have asked PNB to honour the payments and are hopeful they would do so by this quarter itself. We will give them time to recover from this jolt," said an official with one of the above mentioned counterparty banks.

PNB may be asked to pay up more because the financial strain of the fraud of this magnitude could spread to a larger financial system, the source added.

However, investigations are still on and none of the banks including PNB, are above suspicion at this point.

An official with one of the counterparty banks said, By paying the other lenders, only the balance sheet of PNB will suffer in terms of losses while the other banks will not have to make provisions. RBI does not want the muck to spread deeper.

PNB, in its letter, has also blamed other banks for negligence and violation of RBI rules, stating that there was connivance between group companies of Modi and Gitanjali with executives at its branch and those of overseas branches of those other Indian banks.

PNB claimed that according to RBI rules, the validity of the LoU is for 90 days from the day of shipment. However, the foreign branches loaned money for a year against the LoUs, in violation of RBI guidelines

Even though PNB has tried to blame other banks, there isnt much meat in that story. The RBIs 90-day period timeline to make the credit does not apply to this transaction, the above official said.

Another banker also said that RBI has set the rules clear. We do thousands of such transactions based on LOUs, all of these cannot check the originality from the other banks. Also SWIFT is not so easy to manipulate. This could be a systemic issue for PNB but not the industry. Also, we have given the money to PNB, so they have to repay, though our common fight is against the promoter.

Sunil Mehta, CEO and Managing Director of PNB, in a press conference has denied receiving any directions from the RBI. He said they sought the intervention of the government to sort out the mess.

Mehta also said, PNB will not shirk away from responsibility, will take action against those indulging in fraudulent means and also conduct forensic audit if the need arises.

This is likely to be one of the biggest frauds in Indias banking system that happened at one Mumbai branch of PNB by group companies of Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Group owned by his uncle Mehul Chokshi with the help of two PNB officials. The officials issued unauthorised letters of undertaking (LoUs) against which the jeweler sought credit from foreign branches of the other banks.

Going on since 2011, the fraud came to light after one of the PNB officials retired and the new official could not detect the previous LOUs based on which Modi group companies sought more additional credit.Telecom regulator TRAI is considering stiff penalties on operators for call drops, a menace that has acquired significant proportions in metros. The penalty will be for call drops in the last concluded quarter, the first time new rules, which became effective October 1, will apply.

The regulator is currently in the process of completing an evaluation exercise, according to an official familiar with the development, who declined to quantify the likely penalties but added: This would most likely be a heavy one. The situation seems to have gone from bad to worse.

TRAI Chairman R.S. Sharma said action would be taken as needed.

The data on quality of services has come from the companies. It will be published today or tomorrow. You will come to know which all companies are meeting the norms and which are not. We dont go by empirical or anecdotal evidence. We will analyse the data and whatever action is due as per law shall be taken, Sharma told Moneycontrol.

The penalty could singe private operators other than Reliance Jio Infocomm. These include Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea Cellular. They will also affect state-owned companies Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam.

TRAI does its own drive tests also to check call drops and other parameters under quality of service. It also does its own audit, comparing the results thrown by drive tests against the data submitted by the companies. Another source said the companies own data had revealed a significant deterioration in the quality of service.

The Rs. 1 lakh-Rs. 5 lakh penalty under the revised rules is at least double of the Rs. 50,000 that used to be imposed earlier for every violation. The penalties rise by half for violation in the second consecutive quarter and double for non-compliance in the next three-month period. The fine is capped at Rs. 10 lakhs.

The revision led to the regulator measuring call drop at the level of a mobile tower as against the earlier practice of evaluating it at the circle level. The new norms thus made the measurement more stringent and more granular, taking into account temporary issues as well as the geographical spread of the network while doing away with averages.

As per revised norms, 90 per cent base transceiver station or mobile site in a telecom circle should not drop more than 2 per cent of the calls 90 per cent of the time. For peak hours, the norm was relaxed to 3 per cent call drops.

The issue of call drops has been burning for last three years with little to show on the ground despite several rounds of meetings between the department of telecommunications, the operators and various other stakeholders. The situation in metropolitan cities like Mumbai and Delhi is acute with several areas -- commercial and residential -- reporting 2G or zero signals including in areas where the companies claim to run 4G services.

Even as the government blames the companies for not investing enough in infrastructure, it has done little to make the companies comply, much of that job being left to TRAI to do. The companies blame housing societies in cities and the municipalities for not allowing them the right of way to erect their towers. The association bodies in the housing colonies dont allow towers near their abodes due to concerns over radiation from towers.

With consumer concern and QoS as its guiding philosophy, TRAI has done its bit to discipline the companies. In 2015, it ordered the companies to pay a consumer Re. 1 for every call drop, up to a maximum of Rs. 3 in a day. The law, effective January 1, 2016, was struck down by the Supreme Court in its May 11, 2016, verdict.West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee addresses during Youth Trinamool Congress rally at Damurjala Stadium in Howrah district of West Bengal on Friday. PTI

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today demanded a thorough and time bound investigation into the fraud in state-owned Punjab National Bank.

She said that a scam of over 11,000 crore has taken place and the people's savings are not safe.

"Look what happened at Punjab National Bank. A scam of more than Rs 11,000 crore. People's savings are not safe. There must be a thorough, time bound enquiry," she said in a tweet.

In what could be the biggest banking fraud in India, PNB had yesterday said that it has detected a USD 1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400 crore) scam in which billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from one of its branches for overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

PNB has suspended 10 officers and referred the matter to the CBI for investigation.The Nifty50 pared most of its gains made in trade on Thursday to close around its opening level forming a Doji type of pattern on the daily candlestick charts.

A 'Doji' is formed when the index opens and then closes approximately around the same level but remained volatile throughout the day which is indicated by its long shadows on either side. The body will be insignificant which will appear like a plus sign on the charts.

For bulls to regain control of this market, Nifty should reclaim 10,600 levels to extend its upmove towards 10,700-10,800 levels. A tight stop loss below 10,398 should be kept for all long positions, suggest experts.

The Nifty50 which opened at 10,537 rose to an intraday high of 10,618 which made a long upper shadow, but bears quickly took control and pushed the index towards 10,500, which made a long lower shadow on the daily charts.

The index hit an intraday low of 10,511 before recouping losses. It closed 44 points higher at 10,545. The index decisively closed below its 50-DEMA placed at 10,599 levels.

Thursdays price action is suggesting that Nifty50 is stuck up in a trading range as bulls failed to capitalise after pushing the indices beyond psychologically important resistance point of 10600 levels as by the end of the day they have given up all the gains which resulted in a Doji kind of formation, Mazhar Mohammad, Chief Strategist  Technical Research & Trading Advisory, Chartviewindia.in told Moneycontrol.

However, Thursdays price action looks slightly advantageous to bulls as they managed to close in the positive terrain after giving up all the gains in the midst of negative news flows which failed to aggravate selling pressure further during the course of the day, he said.

Mohammad advise traders to focus on stock specific opportunities and for a constructive upmove traders need to watch 10600 level on the upside whereas a close below 10398 shall accelerate selling pressure.

We have collated the top fifteen data points to help you spot profitable trade:

Key Support & Resistance Level for Nifty:

The Nifty closed at 10,545.50 on Thursday. According to Pivot charts, the key support level is placed at 10,498.3, followed by 10,451.1. If the index starts to move higher, key resistance levels to watch out are 10,605.4 and 10,665.3.

Nifty Bank:

The Nifty Bank closed at 25,424.35, up 0.33 percent. Important Pivot level, which will act as crucial support for the index, is placed at 25,274.6, followed by 25,124.9. On the upside, key resistance levels are placed at 25,594.6, followed by 25,764.9.

Call Options Data:

Maximum call open interest (OI) of 52.7 lakh contracts stands at strike price 11,100, which will be a resistance for the February series, followed by 11,000, which now holds 49.96 lakh contracts in open interest, and 10,700, which has accumulated 37.88 lakh contracts in OI.

Call writing was seen at the strike price of 10,400, which saw the addition of 1.13 lakh contracts.

Call unwinding was seen at the strike of 10,700, which shed 3.74 lakh contracts, along with 10,500, which shed 3.11 lakh contracts and 10,600, which shed 2.19 lakh contracts.

Put Options Data:

Maximum put OI of 64.18 lakh contracts was seen at strike price 10,500, which will act as a crucial base for February series, followed by 10,000, which now holds 48.48 lakh contracts and 10,400 which has now accumulated 40.24 lakh contracts in open interest.

Maximum Put writing was seen at the strike price of 10,500, which saw the addition of 5.81 lakh contracts, followed by 10,200, which added 3.71 lakh contracts and 10,600, which added 3.19 lakh contracts.

Put unwinding was seen at 10,300, which shed 2.77 lakh contracts, followed by 10,900, which shed 2.1 lakh contracts and 11,000, which shed 1.27 lakh contracts.

FII & DII Data:

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have net sold shares worth Rs 240.29 crore while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 49.92 crore in the Indian equity market on Thursday, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

Fund Flow Picture:

Stocks with high delivery percentage:

High delivery percentage suggests that investors are accepting the delivery of the stock, which means that investors are bullish on the stock.

18 stocks saw long build-up:

52 stocks saw short covering:

A decrease in open interest along with an increase in price mostly indicates short covering.

70 stocks saw short build-up:

An increase in open interest along with a decrease in price mostly indicates short positions being built up.

67 stocks saw long unwinding:

Long unwinding happens when there is a decrease in OI as well as in price.

Bulk Deals:

MT Educare Ltd: India Max Investment Fund Ltd sold 3,00,000 shares at Rs 71.15 per share while Rajasthan Global Securities Pvt Ltd bought 4,40,000 shares at Rs 71.15 per share.

Unichem Laboratories Ltd.: Nordea 1 Sicav Indian Equity Fund sold 5,40,562 shares at Rs 379.26 per share.

(For more bulk deals click here)

Analyst or Board Meets/Briefings:

Dena Bank: EGM of the members of the bank will be held on March 27, 2018 to get the shareholders' approval.

FDC: The Board of Directors of the Company in their meeting held on Thursday, February 15, 2018 has finalized the 'Record Date' for the purpose of determining the entitlement.

Stocks in news:

Yes Bank: To consider proposal to raise funds via debt securities or on private placement basis on February 20, 2018

PNC Infratech: Q3 net profit jumps 21 percent to Rs 93 crore

REC: The company has informed regarding payment of interest due on March 15, 2018.

Idea Cellular board to meet on Feb 21 to cosnider the issue price of shares to be allotted under the QIP

Network 18TV18 Home shopping network ltd and NW18 HSN Holding Plc cease to be subsidiaries of the Co

Home shop 18 and Shop CJ aggregate their business operations

Capital First to consider and approve private placement of NCDs on Feb 21

Indigrid Trust to acquire three power transmission assets from Sterlite Power Grid Ventures Ltd

Future consumerTo allot NCDs for an amount not exceeding 150cr

Raises Rs200cr debt from UKs CDC Group

IDBI Bank

Divested 30% Stake In NSDL E-governance Infrastructure Ltd

Indoco Remedies granted EU FMP Certification for Goa plant III

Sunteck Realty issuance of commercial paper of Rs 50cr

7 stocks under ban period on NSE

Security in ban period for the next trade date under the F&O segment include companies in which the security has crossed 95 percent of the market-wide position limit.

The security which are banned for trading are Balrampur Chini, Dish TV, GMR Infra, HDIL, JP Associates, Jain Irrigation and Oriental Bank.Representative Image.

Digital consumer spending in India is expected to grow 2.5 times from USD 40 billion to USD 100 billion by 2020, said the report of Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Google on Thursday.

The growth is expected to be led by sectors such as e-commerce (USD 18-45 billion), travel and hotel (USD 11-20 billion), financial services (USD 12-30 billion) and digital media (USD 200-570 million).

The report also said that women and new users from non-Tier 1 cities will drive this growth.

"There is a clear evolution as consumers move from awareness of online platforms to their first purchase and further down to become more frequent buyers- triggers and barriers to online purchase evolve with each stage. Very different actions are needed to unlock growth and move consumers from one stage to the next, "said Nimisha Jain, Partner and Director, The Boston Consulting Group, India.

The report also highlights that there is 76-80 percent internet users who do not spend online currently. This underscores that even though the digital media has gained ground over the last few years, the actual digital spending is still in evolutionary stages in India.

Nitin Bawankule, Industry Director, Google India said, "The ecosystem needs to focus on creating a very targeted value proposition for a different segment of users and across different categories to drive larger adoption. For example, in food and grocery category, convenience becomes a key trigger for frequent shoppers while discounts are important for occasional shoppers and quality is a key barrier among offline shoppers.

It calls out specific actionable insights for different sectors to drive adoption among the non-buyers. For the price conscious Indian users, discounts can be a good trigger to drive trials and building comfort with digital and guiding them along the purchase pathway.

For frequent shoppers, comprising of 15-25 percent, it is imperative to create unique propositions like loyalty programs and develop customised communications to drive stickiness.live bse live

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The Reserve Bank and the Sebi are likely to approach their counterparts in Hong Kong for cooperation in the matter relating to the whopping over Rs 11,000 crore fraud at public sector lender PNB where several entities have come under the scanner, officials said.

The regulators are set to spread their net overseas as it has been found that credit was availed from various bank branches in Hong Kong on the basis of Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) issued by Punjab National Bank.

Officials said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would be approaching its counterpart Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) to gather more details in the PNB matter.

Similarly, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) would be getting in touch with the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).

According to the officials, the LoUs were mostly used for availing credit at Hong Kong-based branches of some other Indian banks.

An LoU is a letter of comfort issued by one bank to branches of other banks, based on which foreign branches offer credit to buyers.

Several other entities which are in the diamond trade, including from South Africa, are also under the lens, they added.

Further, the officials noted that another public sector bank, which is currently under the scanner for business dealings with a South African group, is also being probed as the two cases might be linked.

Punjab National Bank today said it has detected a USD 1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400 crore) scam where billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from a branch in Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

While PNB did not name the other lenders, Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank are said to have offered credit based on LoUs issued by PNB.21:55 Thanks to all our readers for following us throughout the day on updates about what is easily the biggest banking sector scam in recent times. Please stay tuned for more updates about the scam.

20:45 As a multi-agency probe continues against Nirav Modi for allegedly masterminding India's biggest-ever banking fraud, the stock market dealings of his

relative and close associate Mehul Choksi has come under the scanner of markets regulator Sebi and stock exchanges.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the stock exchanges have begun analysing the stock market trade details of all entities associated with Modi including Choksi, who has already been under scanner for various cases including a brokerage default incident, a senior official said.

19: 30 Scam-hit PNB today said Nirav Modi, who allegedly defrauded the bank of about Rs 11,400 crore, has come up with "some vague offers" to repay the amount, even as the Enforcement Directorate continued raids at properties connected with the jewellery designer.

18:39 The Aam Aadmi Party today mounted an attack on the Centre over an alleged multi-million dollar scam involving diamantaire Nirav Modi, alleging that he could flee the country because he had access to the Prime Minister's Office.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asked if he had left the country with the backing of the government. In another tweet, senior AAP leader Ashutosh said 42 FIRs against Modi had been sent to the PMO since July 26, 2016. Yet, he was seen with Prime Minister Modi in Davos at the World Economic Forum last month.

18:31 The finance ministry today said the assets in the Nirav Modi fraud case involving state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) will be recovered and nobody will be spared.

Talking to reporters on the PNB fraud case, Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar said the bank will make the required provisioning and it has "sufficient" funds for it. "Whole lot of assets will be recovered. Nobody will be spared," Kumar said.

17:56 The source from the ED has said that there will be an investigation to determine if there was any round-tripping of funds or if some loopholes might have been exploited by those involved.

17:46 The source from the ED has told Moneycontrol's Tarun Sharma that it would be investigating the senior management of the bank as well in this case because it believed it was impossible for just normal bank officials to pull of a fraud of this magnitude. The source said that it was possible that the bank is making a scapegoat of a retired former employee.

17:43 The source from the ED has also said that some of the locations searched by it were sealed. Among the raided locations 5 were in Mumbai, 3 in Surat and 2 in Delhi. Apart from this, the source said that the ED will also be ascertaining whether the quantum of the fraud was around Rs 11,000 crore, as has come to light, or if it is more than that.

17:41 Moneycontrol's Tarun Sharma reports, quoting a source from the Enforcement Directorate, that searches have been conducted at 10 different locations, those that were not raided by CBI earlier. The source also mentioned that the ED had seized gold and jewellery at these locations and that the valuation process is due to begin shortly.

17:19 This entire NPA mess is an inherited monster, no NPA loans have been given while this government has been in power, says law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

17:16 We have plenty of photographs of Congress leaders with Mehul Choksey but we don't want to stoop to that level, says BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad.

16:47 Modus operandi of the $1.8 billion PNB-Nirav Modi scam

Three diamond firms belonging to the Nirav Modi Group and some other firms owned by Gitanjali Gems held current accounts at a domestic branch of Punjab National Bank (PNB).

These firms purchased raw gems from overseas firms, and had to make payments to the sellers in foreign currency.

The sellers of the raw gems held accounts at foreign branches of Indian banks.

A junior official at PNB fraudulently issued letters of undertaking (LoUs), allowing Niravi Modi group companies to get short term loans (buyers credit) from overseas bank branches to pay the sellers. Under the terms of the LoU, PNB was the guarantor of these loans.

Read full story here

16:33 According to CNBC-TV18, many bankers have requested the RBI to instruct PNB to pay up the outstanding on the LoUs.Many banks met the central bank complaining about dues from PNB.

15:15 CBI had issued a lookout circular against four individuals including Nirav Modi and Mehul Chokshi on February 2. Lookout notices are issued to prevent alleged wrong-doers from fleeing the country.

14:59 We were not in govt in 2011, if Congress is making allegations, were they sleeping from 2011-14? They should've probed it. This govt is taking cognizance of matters & probing them. Congress' was a govt of scams & they established these scamsters: MoS Finance SP Shukla

14:42 Nirav Modi left the country on 1st of January. CBI received complaint from PNB on 29th Jan 2018. CBI registered the case on 31st January, sources told ANI.

14:08 PNB MD & CEO Sunil Mehta will hold a conference call at 5:30 pm.

14:00 Nirav Modi suspected of laundering demonetised notes, sources told CNN-News18.

Nirav

Modi

NBFCs

PSU Banks which lost nearly Rs 20,000 crore in market capitalization on Wednesday after Punjab National Bank (PNB) declared a fraud of over Rs1000 crore, 8 times its FY17 profit, spooked investors on D-Street.

Public Sector Banks (PSBs) which were making a comeback thanks to Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) recapitalization plan and new non-performing asset (NPA) rules may have now lost the race to private banks as well as NBFCs which are now looking attractive from the investment perspective.

Stay away from PSU banks, which is the word coming from experts on D-Street. The concern of most analysts is that nobody knows if it is the beginning or the end.

Read full story here

12:59 Priyanka Chopra, the brand ambassador for Nirav Modi, is suing Nirav Modi for not paying her for a diamond advertisement, reports Times Now.

12:51 Writing to PNB, Nirav Modi is seeking 6 months time, according to India Today. In total, 30 banks have been affected. Sources have told the TV channel that he will sell the brand to sell the loan.

12:34 JUST IN| Nirav Modi is in Switzerland, according to sources quoted by CNN-News18

12:26 ED has filed Rs 11,300 crore case against Nirav Modi. Earlier it was reported that a Rs 280 crore case was filed. According to CNN-News18, Nirav Modi has written to banks saying that he will repay the loans. Reports say that he is ready to pay Rs 5,000 crore.

12:14 JUST IN| ED raids Nirav Modi showroom in Delhi's defence colony

12:06 According to reports, Union Bank, SBI Overseas Bank, Axis Bank and Allahabad Banks, are among those who lent money to Nirav Modi. Union Bank lent Rs 2,300 crore, Allahabad Bank lent Rs 2,000 crore and SBI Overseas lent Rs 960 crore.

11:54 Since the time the PNB fraud was identified, major jewellers have come under the scanner. PC Jeweller CFO however clarified stance and said the firm is not related to the case in any way.

11:15 ED raids offices of Nirav Modi, PNB, Gitanjali gems

The Enforcement Directorate is currently conducting raids at the residence and offices of Nirav Modi and PNB, reports Moneycontrol's Tarun Sharma. The ED had earlier registered money laundering case against Nirav Modi and others in connection with the scam. Proceedings have begun against officials named in the FIR. As of now, raids are being conducted in 12 properties of Nirav Modi. According to CNN-News18, Nirav Modi left the country even before the PNB FIR was filed.

10:55 Sebi likely to probe disclosure lapses by banks, jewellery firms

Sebi is likely to probe possible disclosure lapses by banks and other listed companies, including several jewellery firms, that have come under the scanner in connection with the whopping Rs 11,000 crore fraud detected at state-owned PNB.

Besides, the watchdog and the stock exchanges would analyse trading data of these companies and their top officials, some of whom are already under the scanner for insider trade and other violations, officials said.

The latest development, experts believe, is expected to give further push for the regulator's proposal to mandate listed companies to disclose loan defaults within a day of happening. The proposal has been put off apparently due to reservations expressed by the banking industry.

10:44 ED registers money laundering case against Nirav Modi and others in connection with Punjab National Bank cheating case.

10:32 Axis Bank clarifies, says bank had sold down all the referred transactions w.r.t PNB's LoUs.

10:30 How Punjab National Bank's Rs 11,000 cr scam was operated

Punjab National Bank (PNB) is witnessing probably one of the biggest scams in banking history, opening a can of worms worth over Rs 11,300 crore (USD 1,771.69 million) for the banking sector.

Fraudulent transactions likely to have been going on for last seven years were unearthed by PNB -- the second largest public sector bank and fourth-largest lender by assets  at one of its Mumbai branches.

Foreign branches of at least two Indian banks including Axis Bank and Allahabad Bank are likely to have been caught in the fraud with an alleged credit offering given based on letters of undertaking (LOUs) issued by PNB allegedly towards group companies of Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Gems.

Read the full story here

10:17 Hello and good morning! This blog will keep track of the latest developments in the recent PNB scam, amounting to more than Rs 11,000 crore. The scam orginated from a Mumbai branch where the bank spotted that fake LoUs were allegedly being issued to Nirav Modi, among other diamond firms.live bse live

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The top management of Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Thursday said that the bank has taken strong action after uncovering the fraud, is committed to clean banking and that it will honour its bonafide commitments.

The bank said that it has initiated the recovery process in the fraud case and is hoping to recover a good portion of the amount.

Sunil Mehta, Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PNB said, "This (the fraud) started in 2011. The bank itself detected on the January 25 and (it) was reported to the regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and law enforcement agencies to book the culprits and take strong legal action."

The bank may conduct forensic audit if the need arises and it will follow regulator's instructions on repayment of other banks, MD and CEO Mehta said.

The management said that the fraud was detected when the customer came for Letter of Undertaking (LoU) renewal on January 25, reiterating that this is a standalone incident that took place in one of its branches.

They also added that the bank will take full responsibility if the investigation places the onus on it.

Mehta said that foreign branches of Indian banks were mainly involved in the fraud.

"The bank is committed to clean banking. We are the first one to detect and inform it to agencies. All members in the banking sectors have been informed and have been given advisory from us," Mehta said.

Mehta added that "The bank has the capability and capacity to come out of this situation," adding that "attempts are being made to protect the bank's financial interests".

The bank's MD and CEO also said that a complaint has been filed against PNB's deputy manager, Gokulnath Shetty and other staff members too.

Calling it a "cancer", Mehta said that it needs to be detected and done away with, adding that the bank is "committed to pursue clean and responsive banking. PNB is confident of clean banking. We will resolve it and will honour all our bonafide commitments".

The top management reiterated that PNB is a 123-year-old bank and has seen many ups and downs, adding that it is the second largest lender in the country and will come out of this.

Read also: SWIFT and Tripping: How Punjab National Bank's Rs 11,000 crore scam was operated

PNB is witnessing probably one of the biggest scams in banking history, opening a can of worms worth over Rs 11,300 crore (USD 1.77 billion).

Fraudulent transactions likely to have been going on for the last seven years were unearthed by PNB -- the second largest public sector bank and fourth largest lender by assets  at one of its Mumbai branches.

Foreign branches of at least two Indian banks, including Axis Bank and Allahabad Bank, are likely to have been caught in the fraud with an alleged credit offering given based on letters of undertaking (LOUs) issued by PNB allegedly towards group companies of Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Gems.

These banks are said to have recalled the loans given based on the LoUs/FLCs (foreign letters of credit) issued on behalf of group companies of Gitanjali Gems  Gitanjali Gems, Gili India, Nakshatra  and to Nirav Modi Group firms, which include Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds & Diamonds DU.

The bank's management said that Nirav Modi, the accused, has written to the bank about a repayment plan but that the bank has requested Nirav Modi to meet and submit a written plan.

The state-owned lender is also expected to hold a conference call later in the day.The Rs 11,000 crore fraud at Punjab National Bank (PNB) is taking several twists and turns, and it is a story that has multiple threads like political, regulatory, commercial and even investigative.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, three Former RBI Deputy Governors, KC Chakrabarty, R Gandhi, and SS Mundra, and RK Bakshi, Former ED of Bank of Baroda discussed about the various developments in the PNB fraud.

Below is the verbatim transcript of the interview.

Q: Let me start by asking you and this was a question that was asked at the PNB management as well, in their press conference today, where does the liability lie. The response from the PNB management was that it will at the end of investigation process and perhaps on the direction of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) if we do have the onus of repayment, then we will take on the responsibility, we will honor our bonafide commitments. Now the six banks that have been in some form or fashion been involved in these transactions, argue that the liability must be borne by PNB as the money was sent to the banks nostro account. How do you react to that?

Mundra: Let us begin like this, number one, the information which has come is too sketchy still to really know the full facts of the case. However, having said that, on the face value, without quoting this particular instance, I would like to say that if the instruction has gone through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system, which is a secured, recognized, authentic, communication system, from one bank system if money has come into the nostro account of that bank when the Letter of Undertaking (LoU) discounting banks have disbursed and then that money has been utilized, and some argument that this was done by some employees fraudulently, but I think then there is the question of agent principle relationship and I do not think on that ground a principle can refuse the transaction.

So, if these are the three prerequisites which have been made, then obviously on the basis of, if these are all confirming evidences are there, then it is very clear liability would be on the part LoU issuing bank. However, if there are other factors and the matter enters into any kind of dispute, then ultimately it will be the investigation and judicial authority. I do not think it would be possible for RBI or regulator to if matter has entered into a judicial dispute then any kind of directions like that, summary directions can be given, I dont think so.

Q: KC Chakrabarty, would you agree with SS Mundra that it would not be possible for the RBI to give any sort of summary directions in this matter given the fact that this matter is now under investigation, this was the point that the PNB management also made today that they have received no direction from the RBI on addressing this issue of liability.

Chakrabarty: If some bank complaints that we had given the money out of the Letter of credit (LoC) and that bank is not acknowledging that or not respecting that particular thing, then if RBI examines and they find that everything is okay, no problem, but if there is a legal dispute, there is an issue. In LoC business always this problem happens that any small change anywhere makes the LoC default.

Generally whenever this problem happens, ultimately it has to be resolved legally depending facts of the case. However, if it is brought to the notice of the RBI that these are the facts of the case, then sometimes RBI may ask the bank because ultimately LoC of a bank has to be honored, it is the issue of international practice of banking. So that is the basic issue, but generally this all goes to legal disputes in such big cases when the fraud happens.

Q: Since we are talking about facts, PNB in its cautionary advisory that it issued to 30 banks yesterday, said that Indian Banks did not adhere to the RBIs guidelines on the 90 day LoU window for exports while extending the credit and hence I guess they are also putting a question mark then on why the liability should end at their door.

Bakshi: This is a point that has been made by PNB, but I will think that banks aboard, are they supposed to be bound by the LoU that has been given to them or supposed to be in the knowledge of RBI regulation. Suppose it was a foreign bank discounted, and it is possible that in a particular case PNB might have issued the LoU after obtaining forbearance from RBI. It would have been an alertness on the part of the foreign discounting branch to point it out, but whether it can put a blame on them or liability on them that they overlooked this fact, they are liable, that to me does not appear. However, everything will depend on the facts of the case.

If it was a regulatory violation, violation is first on behalf of PNB which has issued it for 360 days, not on behalf of the discounting banks which has discounted such a LoC. If at all it is found by the regulator that they were also in error, then a regulatory action can be taken against them. However, PNB cannot, on this basis to my mind, prima facie without knowing all facts of the case, cannot renege on their liability.

Q: From a perspective of a lay person who is watching this program and we heard what the PNB management had to say, the two junior branch level officials were the main perpetrators behind this alleged Rs 11,000 crore fraud. It went through the SWIFT system, it did not go through Core Banking, I mean for seven years this has gone on. It started in 2011, in February of 2017, there have been eight transactions almost amounting to Rs 280 crore. So this has gone on for the last seven years and it is not as if the pace of the transactions have decelerated. How do you explain this to a lay person, how can something like this be pulled off and what about the role of the RBI?

Mundra: That is why I said in the beginning that the details which are available are too sketchy to really reach to a firm conclusion. I really do not believe that from 2011 if there was a spate of continuous fake LoUs which were being discounted and being paid, if outstanding we are talking of Rs 11,000 crore which is at this point of time and we say it has been happening for six to seven years, then you are talking a turnover which can well be Rs 50,000-60,000 crore. So, information available is inadequate.

As far as the question I mentioned in the beginning, question of junior employees and all that, it is a principle and their agent issue, so, that cannot be a ground for disowning any kind of responsibility. However, the key question is there has been an operational failure, it is the failure of system and the risk management. In fact personally I remember sometime in September 2016 I had delivered a speech and I had exactly mentioned about this kind of possibility and in June 2016 RBI had come out with a comprehensive checklist.

Q: What gave you reason in 2016 to raise the red flag on this issue. Did you have evidence to suggest or did you have reason enough to be concerned that you actually made reference to this in June of 2016. Not this specific case but this operational failure that you are talking about?

Mundra: There has been instances where there have been effort to manipulate the SWIFT system. There have been one case about the Nostro (Nostro account refers to an account that a bank holds in a foreign currency in another bank) trail; Nostro which was filed, I wont go into the detail but there were attempts. So I think while we are discussing what is happening today but to my mind, and I would like to use this opportunity, basically we should look forward and three things are necessary. One, there should be a seamless integration interface between the core banking solution (CBS) system and SWIFT system without any manual intervention in between and thats very important. The second point, is this kind of activity should not be dispersed at hundreds of branches. Each bank should create few centralized center and this is what we had suggested, we had mentioned. Ultimately RBI or any regulator would not be in the business of running day-to-day activities. The banks would be given certain warning signals but this for them to implement. So that centralization of this activity is also very important but the third point I would like to mention at this point of time  with this kind of instances emerging, I think it is now appropriate to do a national level check and for that let us pick up a cutoff date of January end and all the Indian banks who have discounted against the LoU, let them reconcile with each other. Maybe we will not be able to cover some of the foreign banks but these LoUs are typically discounted with Indian banks maybe overseas branches. This one type of reconciliation to my mind now looks very important, so that we can be sure that this kind of risk in a large proportion is not fitting in the system  that is something I think will be very meaningful if we can convey the message very loud and clear.

Q: Would you like to add to what we now need to focus on to ensure that we do not end up in the situation a few months down the line or a few weeks down the line?

Bakshi: I would like to add but while endorsing whatever Mr. Mundra has said, he is a very senior banker and very valid point made by him. I would like to add one thing which was to my mind the biggest gap if that risk mitigation would have been practiced the fraud would have been nipped in the bud on the very first day, which is it should be the standalone system the log of the SWIFT, days messages must be independently gone through by some officer at the end of the day because ultimately you are leaving a key to the treasure in the hands of two people. If the messages are verified at the end of the day, immediately unauthorized messages would have been noticed. When we used to have earlier the telex system, the telex roll the carbon copy was at the end of the day verified individually and all messages were ticked whether only authorized messages have gone.

In this case how can you leave a standalone system which can create liability of billions of dollars and the messages are not checked neither by concurrent auditor nor by some officer. They should be checked every day.live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

The Nifty50 pared most of its gains made in trade on Thursday to close around its opening level forming a Doji type of pattern on the daily candlestick charts.

A 'Doji' is formed when the index opens and then closes approximately around the same level but remain volatile throughout the day which is indicated by its long shadows on either side. The body will be insignificant which will appear like a plus sign on the charts.

It looks like traders preferred to remain on sidelines amid uncertainty around the PSU banking stocks which fell for the second day in a row led by Punjab National Bank (down 12 percent), Bank of Baroda (down 4 percent), IDBI Bank (down 3 percent), and Syndicate Bank (down 2.5 percent).

For bulls to regain control of this market, Nifty should reclaim 10,600 levels to extend its upmove towards 10,700-10,800 levels. A tight stop loss below 10,398 should be kept for all long positions, suggest experts.

The Nifty50 which opened at 10,537 rose to an intraday high of 10,618 which made a long upper shadow, but bears quickly took control and pushed the index towards 10,500, which made a long lower shadow on the daily charts.

The index hit an intraday low of 10,511 before recouping losses. It closed 44 points higher at 10,545. The index decisively closed below its 50-DEMA placed at 10,599 levels.

Thursdays price action is suggesting that Nifty50 is stuck up in a trading range as bulls failed to capitalise after pushing the indices beyond psychologically important resistance point of 10600 levels as by the end of the day they have given up all the gains which resulted in a Doji kind of formation, Mazhar Mohammad, Chief Strategist  Technical Research & Trading Advisory, Chartviewindia.in told Moneycontrol.

However, Thursdays price action looks slightly advantageous to bulls as they managed to close in the positive terrain after giving up all the gains in the midst of negative news flows which failed to aggravate selling pressure further during the course of the day, he said.

Mohammad advise traders to focus on stock specific opportunities and for a constructive upmove traders need to watch 10600 level on the upside whereas a close below 10,398 shall accelerate selling pressure.

India VIX fell down by 5.03 percent at 16.31 which is a good sign for bulls. On the options front, maximum Put open interest was seen at 10,500 followed by 10,000 strikes while maximum Call OI was seen at 11,000 followed by 11,100 strikes.

Fresh Call writing was seen at 10,650, 10,750 and 11,000 strikes while Put writing is seen at 10,400, 10,500, 10,550 and 10,600 strikes.

Sustained Call writing, as well as Put writing, is keeping the index in a trading range with high volatility. Option band signifies a broader trading range between 10,400 to 10,650 zones, Chandan Taparia, Derivatives, and Technical Analyst at Motilal Oswal Securities told Moneycontrol.

Nifty index remained highly volatile during the day and finally closed near to its opening levels by forming a Doji Candle on the daily chart. It has been taking hurdle at its 50 DEMA from last seven trading sessions and cluster of supply is visible at 10600-10650 zones, he said.

Taparia further added that if Nifty sustains below 10,480 then weakness could continue towards 10,400 then 10,333 while on the upside immediate hurdles are seen at 10,600 then 10,650 levels.Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is arriving in Hyderabad on Thursday for a three-day visit aimed at strengthening relations between the two countries.

Earlier, reports pointed that the reason for his visit could be Iran seeking investments amid US pressure to review a 2015 international nuclear deal, which could have a negative impact on Iran.

Apart from this, India's plans to develop the Chabahar port on Iran's east coast is likely be given a go-ahead post this visit.

The two countries are also expected to sign an agreement allowing India to run operations in the first phase of the Chabahar port project. It is about 72 km from the Pakistani port of Gwadar, which China is developing.

Last year, India-Iran bilateral trade was over USD 12 billion, where India imported USD 10.5 billion worth of goods - mainly crude oil. The balance of over USD 2.4 billion was India was exporting commodities.

According to sources, Rouhani will address a congregation at the historic Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad after offering Friday prayers. Religious scholars from different schools of thought will also participate in a session with him and he will also be meeting the Iranians settled in Hyderabad.

After his stay in Hyderabad for two days, he will be heading towards the national capital where he will be holding talks on key bilateral and regional issues and will give a speech at the Observer Research Foundation on Saturday.Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways

In one of its largest recruitment drives, Indian Railways has started the process of hiring 89,000 C and D Group employees which include assistant loco pilots, technicians, gangmen, switchmen, trackmen, cabinmen, welders, helpers and porters.

The Indian Railways published a notification about Group D vacancies for candidates who have passed Class X or have an industrial training diploma and are in the age group of 18-31. The monthly salary along with allowances as per the Seventh Pay Commission (level 1) will be given to the selected candidates. Applications for these jobs will be accepted till March 12. Group C will follow a similar process with 26,502 vacancies to be filled for assistant loco pilots and technicians.

Piyush Goyal, the railway minister, announced the start of this recruitment drive talking about these Group D openings, through a tweet.

A livemint report quoted a senior railway official, who requested anonymity, Most of the recruitment is for the safety category and as per our estimates this additional recruitment will cost around Rs3,000-4,000 crore annually to the railway exchequer. The Union Budget 2018-19 has provisions for this expenditure.

Another government official said the recruitment is mainly due to retirements in the railways and that this drive will not completely level the vacancy gap in the Railways. Its not easy to fulfil the gap of over one lakh vacancies and the issue of safety in railways will remain unaddressed. There were proposals to shift some of these vacancies from permanent to contractual work, but that the decision on this was yet to be taken.

On an average, 40,000 to 45,000 employees retire annually from the Railways and data from the Railway ministry suggests that 122,000 positions were vacant in the safety department as of April 2016. An All India Railwaymens Federation spokesperson said that this year, 56,000 railway employees are expected to retire. Many experts are of the opinion that this move was long overdue and it should be carried out regularly.Representative Image.

India's defence budget broke into the world's top five, beating the UK for the first time, a new report by a London-based global think-tank has said, signalling a key shift in the military balance between the two countries.

India overtook the UK as the fifth-largest defence spender in the world in 2017 at USD 52.5 billion, up from USD 51.1 billion in 2016, according to the 'Military Balance 2018' report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

In contrast, the UK's defence budget fell from USD 52.5 billion in 2016 to USD 50.7 billion last year.

"This represents a key shift in the military balance between India and the UK, with India allocating more capabilities to develop its regional resources than the UK in a global context," said IISS Senior Fellow for South Asia, Rahul Roy-Chaudhury.

The report notes that while India continues to modernise its military capabilities, China - with the world's second-largest defence budget after the US - remains far ahead with three times India's defence budget at USD 150.5 billion.

China's real defence spending increased by nearly 25 per cent in 2016-17, whereas India's rose by just 2.4 per cent.

"Post-Dokalam, India's military balance with China continues to be significantly in China's favour. Since 2000, China has built more submarines, destroyers, frigates and corvettes than Japan, South Korea and India combined. China will continue to dominate the region militarily and seek to challenge the US in the region as well,a Roy-Chaudhury notes.

According to the analysis, the Chinese army has over 600,000 more active personnel than India; it has nearly 1,200 tactical aircraft compared to India's 785; and 55 more cruisers, destroyers and frigates than India.

The report takes note of the Indian government's 'Make in India' policy, which aims to strengthen the defence-industrial base through measures such as "reforming the cap on foreign direct investment" (FDI) and that the country is one of the top troop contributors to UN peacekeeping operations.

"The overall capability of the (Indian) army is limited by inadequate logistics, and shortages of ammunition and spare parts. Defence cooperation with the US continues to grow, with an increasing level of exercising and sales of US equipment.

"Development and procurement programmes across the services are aimed at replacing ageing equipment, but many projects have experienced significant delays and cost overruns, particularly indigenous systems,a the report finds.

IISS says the new Indian Joint Armed Forces Doctrine issued last year sees an "emerging triad" of space, cyber and special-operations capabilities complementing conventional land, sea and air capabilities as India continues to modernise its strategic forces, particularly its delivery systems.

Overall, the report found that China and Russia, with the world's fourth-largest defence budget at USD 61.2 billion, are challenging the military supremacy of the US (USD 602.8 billion) and its allies and that the West can no longer rely on the strategic advantage it has enjoyed until now.Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, today appeared before the ED for the second time in connection with the INX Media money laundering case, official sources said.

They said Karti Chidambaram deposed before the investigating officer (IO) of the case as per the scheduled summons for today.

This was the second time he appeared before the ED in this case after he was first grilled by the agency on January 18.

The central probe agency had earlier summoned Karti Chidambaram on February 2 after which he informed them that he would be unable to depose as he had an interlocutory application pending in the Supreme Court in this case.

The ED then summoned him for today.

It is understood that he today told the IO that he was appearing before the agency "under protest".

Talking to reporters on January 18, Karti Chidambaram had said that he told the investigators what he had earlier "clearly stated in his petitions in the court" (in the case). The former Union minister's son was referring to his moving of various courts, including the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court, in response to the ED's action against him.

The central probe agency had registered the case against him and others in May last year.

It had registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the ED's equivalent of a police FIR, against the accused named in a CBI complaint, including Karti Chidambaram, INX Media and its directors -- Peter and Indrani Mukerjea.

The ECIR was lodged under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The sources said the ED was probing the alleged "proceeds of crime" generated in this case.

It was the Enforcement Directorate which had provided information about the alleged illegal payments made by INX Media, based on which the CBI had filed its FIR.

The CBI had also carried out searches at the houses and offices of Karti Chidambaram across four cities for allegedly receiving money from the media firm owned by the Mukerjeas to scuttle a tax probe.

The Chidambarams, however, have denied all the charges made against them.

The CBI had filed the FIR against Karti Chidambaram and the Mukerjeas on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, receiving illegal gratification, influencing public servants and criminal misconduct.

The agency has alleged that Karti Chidamabaram received money from INX Media for using his influence to manipulate a tax probe against it in a case of violation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) conditions to receive investment from Mauritius.

The CBI has said that it also seized vouchers of Rs 10 lakh which were allegedly paid for the services.

The vouchers were issued in favour of the Advantage Strategic Consulting (P) Limited, a firm "indirectly" owned by Chidambaram's son.

The former finance minister, after the CBI searches on May 16 last year, had issued a strong statement against the raids, saying the government was using the CBI and other agencies to target his son.

"The FIPB approval was granted in hundreds of cases," the senior Congress leader had said.South Africa's far-left Economic Freedom Fighters party leader Julius Malema said on Thursday his party will not take part in the election of new president so as not to legitimise a candidate put forward by the ruling ANC.

"The EFF will not participate in the election of a new president to replace Zuma because we do not want to legitimise anyone from the ruling party," Malema said, adding his party wanted early national elections.

Acting president Cyril Ramaphosa is due to be confirmed as Jacob Zuma's permanent successor in a parliamentary vote later on Thursday.

Short link:

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will arrive here this evening as part of his three-day India visit during which the two countries will discuss regional and international issues of mutual interest.

The External Affairs Ministry had said earlier that during the visit of the president of Iran, both sides would review the progress achieved in bilateral relations and also exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Rouhani will land at the Begumpet Airport around 4 pm today where Union Minister of State for Power R K Singh will welcome him.

"He is scheduled to address Muslim intellectuals, scholars and clerics at 6.30 pm," an official source said.

Telangana Chief Secretary Shailendra Kumar Joshi, who held a coordination meeting yesterday at the state secretariat, directed officials of different departments to make foolproof arrangements for Rouhani's visit.

During his two-day visit to the city, the Iranian president will be accompanied by 21 delegates.

He will also interact with the Iranians settled in Hyderabad, the source said.

Rouhani will address a congregation at the historic Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad after offering Friday prayers, the source said, adding that religious scholars from different schools of thought will also participate in the session.

He is also scheduled to visit the Salar Jung Museum tomorrow.

The president of Iran is also expected to visit historic sites here, including the Qutub Shahi tombs at Golconda, the source said.Harsh Vardhan1

Environment minister Harsh Vardhan today met Japanese Ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu during which the envoy expressed his country's readiness to help India in addressing the issue of air pollution.

During the meeting, Vardhan also shared information about future events including the Regional 3R forum of Asia and Pacific to be held in Indore in April and science and technology in society forum 'India-Japan Workshop' in Delhi on February 28. "Shared with Amb. Hiramatsu about #CleanAirForDelhi campaign.

He said, Japan was facing same problem in 60s & 70s. Japan shared a paper on its #BlueSkyInitiative to control air pollution and expressed readiness to cooperate with India to address this problem under the Initiative," he tweeted.

Vardhan also met Fiji's Attorney-General and Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and discussed various issues related to climate change issues while acknowledging that the issue was a global threat and needed urgent action.

"We had an engaging discussion on #ClimateChange issues. Both acknowledged, #ClimateChange is a global threat and the need for urgent pre-2020 #ClimateAction. @FijiAG," he tweeted.Amit Shah

Alleging that central funds used to go down the "gutter of corruption" under the Congress rule, BJP chief Amit Shah today said Haryana has got an honest and transparent government led by Chief Minister M L Khattar after a long time.

"Congress people ask us 'from where do you get so much money to give the state'.

"We tell them even they used to give, but the difference is that they distributed it to their cronies and we give it to Haryana state," Shah said addressing "Yuva Hunkar" (youth power) rally here in which besides 63-year-old Khattar, many of his ministerial colleagues, party legislators and workers reached the venue riding motorcycles.

BJP leaders claimed that over a lakh bikers participated in the event, seen as an attempt by the BJP to consolidate its hold on Jind and adjoining areas including Rohtak and Sonepat, strongholds of the predominant Jat community. Jind is also considered to be the nerve centre of Haryana politics.

"In this state, chief ministers have gone to jail for corruption and here is Chief Minister Khattar against whom not even a single charge of corruption has been levelled," Shah said.

Under the Congress rule, "the money used to go down the gutter of corruption. But now it flows from the Centre's treasury into states' coffers," Shah said, adding that Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar needs to be congratulated for giving a corruption-free and transparent regime after a long time in the state.

Hitting out at the previous Congress government, Shah alleged that "transfer industry used to flourish in Haryana, but now the entire system has been made online and jobs are given on merit."

Referring to the opposition Congress deciding to hold protests demanding that the BJP give an account of its four-year rule, Shah said, "We don't need to give any reply to the Congress, I have come here to give account to the people of Haryana."

Shah said that Haryana had got liberal funds from the Centre under the Narendra Modi government, and the Khattar government was giving a transparent regime to ensure all-round development. Referring to former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Shah said "Listen Hoodaji, I come here with all accounts to be put before the people.

"When the Congress ruled at the Centre and in Haryana, the state got Rs 14,900 crore under 13th Finance Commission and when Modi government came, under 14th Finance Commission the state got Rs 42,000 crore," he said. "In addition, the state has got funds and grants under different schemes worth Rs 34,000 crore more under the Modi government compared to the previous regime," Shah said.

He alleged that rulers in the past exploited people over caste lines for vote-bank politics, but the Khattar government was taking every section along for all-round development in the state. "In 2014, you gave mandate to Modi ji and later to Khattar ji, I want to say both these governments gave you a corruption-free regime.

"Rs 12 lakh crore worth scams and corruption happened during Congress-led governments at the Centre and in Haryana and they were shown the door by the people of this country. We have been in power for four years now, but even our opponents have not been able to level any corruption charge at us," Shah said.

Shah said the every section including the rural poor and farmers feel "that this government is their own". He said in 2018-19 Union budget, a bold decision of fixing support prices for crops at 50 percent higher than the cost of production has been made. He said no Congress government took such a step earlier even though they sought votes from farmers.

Shah said that even 'one-rank one-pension' for ex-servicemen had been lingering for decades, but Modi Government took this decision within one year of coming to power. He said the Modi Government has also brought Ayushman Bharat Yojana to provide quality and affordable health care to nearly 50 crore people across the country.

This scheme "Namo Care" (Modicare), billed as the world's largest government-funded health care programme, is a path-breaking initiative of the central government which would bring a paradigm shift in the health sector, he said. Shah also touched upon other schemes and initiatives of the central government for the poor, women and other sections including insurance, rural electrification and toilet facility for all.

"If one starts to talk about all schemes for various sections launched by the Modi and Khattar governments, it will require a week to do so and still that time may not be enough..," Shah said.

Praising the Khattar government, he said Haryana has become kerosene-free. The state took a bold decision to introduce minimum qualification criteria for candidates contesting panchayat elections, he said Shah also lauded the efforts of government towards improving sex ratio. He told party workers to ensure that BJP wins all the 10 Lok Sabha seats from Haryana in 2019.

"Today the BJP rules 19 states. Let results (of states going to polls) come on 3rd, these will become 21," he said. He said Prime Minister Modi wants to create an India "as dreamt by our freedom fighters, our brave soldiers defending our borders, the poor, farmers and school going girls".

Meanwhile, foundation stone laying ceremony of 16 party offices across the state was held and Shah inaugurated one office here. Shah had also camped for three days in Rohtak in August last year as part of his visit to states to strategise and find ways to strengthen the party at the grass-root level.

At the outset, the BJP chief today said, "Haryana is the land of the brave soldiers, farmers, players and the youth. Brave soldiers from the state guard the country's frontiers and have given supreme sacrifices for the sake of this nation." He also said Haryana helps meet foodgrain needs of the nation.Billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi had left the country on January 1 much before the CBI received a complaint from Punjab National Bank on January 29 about a Rs 280-crore fraud, officials said.

His brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, also left the country on January 1, while wife Ami, a US citizen, and business partner Mehul Choksi, the Indian promoter of Gitanjali jewellery chain, departed on January 6, the officials said.

The agency issued a look out circular against all the four after registering the first FIR against them, they said.

A look out circular is issued by enforcement agencies to all exit and entry ports to inform them about the movement of an accused.

Modi, who is believed to be in Switzerland, was also present in a group photo of Indian CEOs with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, issued by the Press Information Bureau, in World Economic Forum on January 23, six days before the bank sent its first complaint against him to the CBI, according to the officials.

The diamantaire is an India citizen but his brother Nishal and wife Ami are not Indian nationals, the officials said.

Nirav Modi, a regular feature on the lists of rich and famous Indians since 2013, was booked by the CBI, along with wife, brother and business partner Choksi on January 31, for allegedly cheating the state-run Punjab National Bank to the tune of Rs 280 crore.Vijay Mallya

As Punjab National Bank named jewellery designer Nirav Modi as the prime accused in fraudulent transactions worth Rs 11,360 crore, heres a look at other billionaires of the country with a similar track record.

Vijay Mallya: The liquor baron faces several cases in India, where his companies have defaulted on loans of around Rs 9,000 crore from Indian banks. In March 2016, several banks approached the Supreme Court to stop Mallya from going abroad due to the money he owed them. He had, however, left by then. He is still in London and good times continue to be still rolling for him as a UK court just tripled his weekly allowance. He was arrested late last year hours after which he was given bail. He called the fuss around his arrest as usual Indian media buzz.

Lalit Modi: In 2010, Modi let out ownership details of Kochi IPL team, which was going to be a new addition to the series. He was sent show cause notices for breaching confidentiality and was sacked eventually. He fled to England citing threats to his familys safety. In 2011, his passport was revoked. The ED got a blue corner Interpol notice against him for breaching rules related to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) during the time he was the IPL chief. He continues to be in the UK and challenged the EDs notice in a London court.

Deepak Talwar: The Income Tax Department has filed five prosecution complaints against corporate consultant Deepak Talwar for allegedly receiving kickbacks worth hundreds of crores of rupees in individual and corporate bank accounts controlled by him and his family members in various tax jurisdictions, including tax havens, across the world. According to I-T officials, the investigation shows that undue favour was given to certain airlines and aviation companies under the supervision of senior officials in erstwhile UPA government. he fled India much before the cases could go anywhere. He is currently in UAE, where he has been barred from leaving the country.17:23 "In Delhi, communists take out rallies for employment and give slogans for salaries. It has been 20 years, why labourers of Tripura don't get minimum wages? Communists have no right to talk about poor and labourers. It is their double standards," PM Modi said during his public address in Agartala.

17:20 The prime minister has ended his public address

Agartala

in, Tripura.

17:15 The arrogance of Left government has become a barrier to development and welfare of people in Tripura: PM Modi has said in Agartala

17:09 The total area of ponds and pits claimed to be dug under MGNREGA in Tripura turns out to be more than the total area of the state. This is the extent of daylight loot under the Manik Sarkar government: PM Modi

17:07 Out of every Rs 100 spent in Tripura, the Centre is giving Rs 80. Still, there is no development in Tripura: PM Modi

17:02 Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that there is no democracy in Tripura.

17:00 Now the people of Tripura will not stand the Communist partys government. Bid them such a farewell that they cannot return. So that they could not run the businesses of extortion and atrocities again: PM Modi

16:57 Once we form the government here, we will conduct a high-level probe into all the political killings and killings of journalists: PM Modi has said in Agartala, Tripura.

16:56 We believe in 'Ganatantra'. But the Left government has ruined Tripura by turning it into a 'Gun tantra': PM Modi

16:54 Congress and the Left have formed alliances elsewhere but why not in Tripura? They must answer: PM Modi has said in Agartala.

16:52 Tumhara (the Tripura government) khel ab tak chal raha tha kyuki tum par Delhi mein baithi Congress sarkar ki kripa rehti thi, aur yahan Congress chunav ladne ka natak kar rahi hai.. Delhi mein dosti, Tripura mein kushti?: Prime Minister Modi

16:51 "The love and support that Agartala is offering me, I promise to replay it with interest by flooding Tripura with development," PM Modi has said.

16:50 Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that Congress government in the centre had been sheltering left party in Tripura.

16:44 Red light of traffic signal halts you, similarly this government with red flags has halted development in Tripura: PM Modi

16:42 Can any resident of Tripura say that development has been prioritised in the state? I was just told that traffic signals were installed here & they (state govt) consider it a big task: PM Modi has said in Agartala

16:29 Prime Minister Narendra Modi is speaking in Agartala, Tripura.

12:21 We are working towards building medical colleges in all parts of the nation. This is because, when one studies in a particular area, one becomes better acquainted with the local health challenges: PM Modi said.

12:08 "In India, there is no shortage of money but if there is a hole in a bucket, then will the water fill?"Modi asked.

12:05 PM Modi said that projects worth Rs 18,000 crore are ongoing in Arunanchal Pradesh alone.

12:04 Modi said that his government has brought down the prices of stents that were exorbitantly priced so that the poor and middle class families benefit.

12:02 Modi said, "Healthcare has to be of good quality and it must be affordable. We are working towards building medical colleges across the country. This is because, when one studies in a particular area, one becomes better acquainted with the local health challenges."

12:00 PM Modi said that he can confidently say it with great pride that ministers and officials from the Centre are visiting the Northeast very regularly.

11:57 Why should meetings only be held in the national capital. We must go to all states and that is why I came to Shillong for a Northeastern Council meeting and an important meeting related to agriculture was held in Sikkim: PM Modi.

11:53 Modi said that he would personally tell people to go to Arunachal Pradesh and hold important meetings at the convention centre.

11:51 Modi said that he is delighted to inaugurate a convention centre in Itanagar. "This is more than a building, it is a vibrant centre that will further the aspirations of Arunachal Pradesh. I am going to tell people- go to Arunachal Pradesh and hold your important meetings at the convention centre," Modi said.

11:47 Most of the key departments are based in the new secretariat. This makes it easier for people coming from distant villages because they do not need to move from one place to another. Everything is in one place only. Coordination and convenience are enhanced: PM Modi

11:37 Modi is inaugurating various projects including Dorjee Khandu State Convention Centre in Itanagar.

PM Narendra Modi has started addressing at IG Park in Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh.A special court on Thursday reserved its order on a plea of a director of two Dubai-based firms, seeking cancellation of a non-bailable warrant (NBW) issued against him in a money laundering case connected with the Rs 3,600-crore VVIP chopper deal.

Special Judge Arvind Kumar said he would pass order on the plea of Rajeev Saxena, one of the directors of M/s UHY Saxena and M/s Matrix Holdings, after hearing arguments from accused and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The ED had alleged that Saxena was "non-cooperative" and evading the probe in the case.

Special public prosecutor NK Matta, appearing for ED, said Saxena has not joined the probe despite repeated summons.

"The investigation in the matter is going on since June 2016 and Saxena is aware that he is needed in the probe, yet he has been evading it," the counsel said.

The agency claimed that during the probe it was found that AgustaWestland, United Kingdom, had "paid an amount of Euro 58 million as kickbacks" through two Tunisia-based firms.

Saxena had approached the court for cancellation NBW issued against him on October 6 last year.

In his application, Saxena had said that he was not an absconder and had given all the details and documents to the ED.

Saxena's name was mentioned in a charge sheet filed against his wife Shivani Saxena, who was released on bail after being arrested by the ED. He has not been arrayed as an accused so far and the agency has told the court that another supplementary charge sheet may follow.

Saxenas are residents of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, an archipelago which is home to the most expensive properties in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the charge sheet claimed.

The probe agency alleged that the two Dubai-based firms were the entities "through which the proceeds of crime have been routed and further layered and integrated in buying the immovable properties/shares, among others" in this case.

Maintaining that AgustaWestland had paid Euro 58 million as kickbacks through two Tunisia-based firms, the ED has alleged that "these companies further siphoned off the said money in the name of consultancy contracts to M/s Interstellar Technologies Limited, Mauritius and others which were further transferred to M/s UHY Saxena and M/s Matrix Holdings Ltd, Dubai and others."

The agency had also arrested Delhi-based businessman Gautam Khaitan who is currently out on bail. It had registered a PMLA case in 2014 and named 21 people in its money-laundering FIR.live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

Todays biggest news  the Punjab National Bank fraud  is something that could have made headlines over a year ago. It appears that authorities at various levels ignored an early sign of the multi-crore scam.

On July 26, 2016 Bangalore based entrepreneur Hari Prasad had written to the prime ministers office (PMO) drawing the attention of the authorities towards what he thought could lead to a huge scam. According to Prasad, the balance sheets clearly gave out all the details.

The letter sent out to the PMO mentions the possibility of a major financial scam. It pointed towards fraud committed by a person/company based in Mumbai involving loss of thousands of crores of rupees belonging to the Indian public being underway. The fraudster mentioned in the letter was none other than Mehul Choksi, Chairman and Managing director, Gitanjali Gems.

The letter was forwarded to ROC Maharashtra marking me a copy on July 29, 2016 but no action was taken. I can forwarded the same to the PMO assuming that rewarding the same might have an impact. But that wasnt the case. In the next two to three months I received a letter from ROC Maharashtra that my case was closed, said Prasad.

Having lost my faith in the system I gave up my initiative to alert the authorities about the possible scam, he added.

Prasad, however, has not given up his personal fight against Choksi, who he claims has cheated him in a Rs 13 crore fraud case. Prasad, who owns a Gitanjali Gems franchisee in Bengaluru, has alleged that Choksi has not made any payments that were promised to him. The promised sum include rent for the store premises of Rs 5.5 lakh per month and a monthly sum of Rs 10 lakh against Prasads investment of Rs 10 crore.

Prasad had filed an FIR with the central police station in Bangalore from where the matter was gradually escalated to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Shaken by the surfacing of the Rs 11,000 crore scam, Prasad feels his life is under threat given his letters to the PMO have now been made public. I am sure the alleged people are influential enough to close the case even after my repeated complaint to the authorities at the highest level. I am afraid of the consequences now, Prasad added.Europe's justice commissioner told Facebook, Twitter and Google on Thursday to do more to bring their user terms in line with EU law, saying proposals submitted by the tech giants were considered insufficient.

The European Union executive and consumer protection authorities said the three companies have only partially addressed concerns over their liability and how users are informed about content removal or contract terminations.

The authorities across the bloc, who requested the changes last year, have the power to issue fines if the companies fail to comply.

"EU consumer rules should be respected and if companies don't comply, they should face sanctions," European Commissioner Vera Jourova said in a statement. "Some companies are now making their platforms safer for consumers; however, it is unacceptable that this is still not complete and it is taking so much time."

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West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee addresses during Youth Trinamool Congress rally at Damurjala Stadium in Howrah district of West Bengal on Friday. PTI

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has never shied away from taking on the BJP government at the Centre, and so, when her government became the first in the country to opt out of the National Health Protection Scheme, dubbed Modicare, it did not come as a big surprise to many.

Banerjee made it clear that the state will not waste its hard-earned resources in contributing to the programme when it already has made hospitalisation and medical treatment free of cost for its citizens.

But this is not the first time that the Banerjee administration has rejected the Centres initiatives or replaced them with its own. Perhaps the most popular example of this is PM Narendra Modis pet project Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. In West Bengal, it is known as the Mission Nirmal Bangla ever since the state issued a circular in April this year.The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today raided Nirav Modi's home, showrooms and offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Surat.

This after Punjab National Bank (PNB) complained that a massive fraud was conducted at one of the banks' branches to benefit Nirav Modi.

Speaking at a press conference, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Law said that no one in the banking system will be spared who has helped Nirav Modi and company.Representative Image.

International donors pledged USD 30 billion to help rebuild Iraq after the war against the Islamic State group, Kuwait announced today, overcoming Western doubts and donor fatigue over Mideast crises to help the battle-ravaged nation.

While falling short of an estimated USD 88.2 billion needed to rebuild Iraq, it easily surpassed the USD 20 billion Iraqi officials initially said they needed to begin their difficult work.

While much of the larger donations came in the form of loans, Iraq remains an oil-rich nation and such debts can be forgiven by the countries and institutions offering them.

The pledges, if followed through with funding, could give Iraq a chance to dig itself out of the rubble left by the Islamic State group and the chaos that followed the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

Still, much remains uncertain for Iraq and the greater Middle East.

The Islamic State group, while dislodged from the third of Iraq it once held, remains a threat. Meanwhile, regional tensions could even be seen at a conference heralded by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as an "enormous success." "Iraq has known too many hardships and we hope these hardships are now behind us," Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said.

"Investments are the only way for us to move forward. We must learn from the past and move forward." Officials offered no breakdown of the pledges, though some countries announced them on the floor of a meeting held Thursday at Kuwait Citys Bayan Palace.

The biggest single pledge came from Turkey, which announced USD 5 billion in credit to Iraq, while Kuwait's ruling emir said his oil-rich nation will give USD 1 billion in loans and USD 1 billion in direct investments.

The donation by Kuwait's emir, the 88-year-old Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, showed the deep interest his nation has in making sure Iraq becomes a peaceful, stable country. Iraq also still owes Kuwait reparations from Saddam's 1990 invasion that sparked the 1991 US-led Gulf War.

"This large assembly of international communities that are here today is reflective of the large loss that Iraq withstood in facing terrorism," Sheikh Sabah said. "Iraq cannot commence the mission of rebuilding itself without support, which is why we are all here today from all around the world, to stand by Iraq's side."

Other major donations included both Saudi Arabia and the Kuwait-based Arab Fund each pledging USD 1.5 billion. Qatar pledged USD 1 billion in financing and donations, while Britain pledged USD 1 billion in export credits over 10 years.

The United Arab Emirates pledged USD 500 million, as did the Islamic Development Bank. The UAEs Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash also tweeted there would be USD 5.5 billion in private investments from his country home to Dubai and oil-rich Abu Dhabi, without elaborating. The European Union also pledged 400 million euros (USD 494 million).

The US, while not offering direct donations, did agree to providing over USD 3 billion in loans and financing to American firms wanting to invest in Iraq.

Officials acknowledged a feeling of fatigue from international donors, especially after the wars in Iraq and Syria sparked the biggest mass migration since World War II. Even in Kuwait, some questioned donating cash while its own country needs investment.

Iraq is OPECs second-largest crude producer and home to the worlds fifth-largest known reserves, though It has struggled to pay international firms running them. That's even after the US alone spent USD 60 billion over nine years, some USD 15 million a day, to rebuild Iraq after overthrowing Saddam in 2003.Hafiz Saeed

Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, will challenge the Pakistan government's decision of a crackdown on seminaries and health facilities run by his organisation.

Saeed said the Pakistani government is "taking extreme action against us" to please America and India.

After detaining me for 10 months without any legal ground, the government has now issued a notification regarding taking over our schools, dispensaries, ambulances and other assets. It will hamper our relief operations in Punjab, Balochistan, Sindh, Azad Kashmir and northern areas," Saeed said after the government's action.

The rift between Pakistan and USA began with Donald Trumps tweet that hinted at cutting off aid for Islamabad due to its support to terror operations. Later, USA went on to suspend nearly USD 2 billion dollars security assistance to Islamabad to condemn Pakistans involvement in funding of terrorist activities.

The Pakistan government responded angrily, saying that it has always stood for peace. After many heated exchanges, USA sided with India in demanding a terrorist declaration of Hafiz Saeed. The US labelled JuD a terrorist front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and said that many Indians and some Americans died in the Mumbai attacks. The USA stands by India and believes that Hafiz Saeed was the mastermind behind the attacks.

USA pushed for a motion in the UN to put Pakistan on the global terrorist financing watchlist with an anti-money-laundering monitoring group.

Within a few days, a meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in Paris will be held where USA and India were planning to put pressure on the organisation to put Pakistan in the grey list, which would mean increased costs of doing international business and cross-border transactions for Pakistan.

Under global pressure, Pakistan and banned donation collection by the organisations linked with Hafiz Saeed.Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will be arriving in India for a three-day visit to discuss regional and international issues of "mutual interest".

Rouhani, who has been a key player in Iran's political life since the revolution in 1979, has promised a modern and outward looking Iran in his election campaign for a second term. His view was in sharp contrast to the vision his main rival Ebrahim Raisi.

Rouhani is the seventh President of Iran, who has been in the post since August 2013, has been an influential figure in Iran even before he became the country's President. He was a part of Iran's defence establishment during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War and subsequently held several important political posts.

Also read  Iran President Hassan Rouhani seeks Indian investment amid US pressure

President Rouhani was a scretarty at the top decision-making body in Iran, Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), from 1989 to 2005. Among other government bodies, the 69-year-old became a member of the Expediency Council, the highest arbitration body on issues of legislation in 1997.

The Iranian president, who simultaneously completed a thesis on Sharia - Islamic law - as a post-graduate student at Glasgow Caledonian University, aims to steer the country away from the extremist ideas of the hardliners and extend individual and political freedoms to people.

With a modern vision for Iran, Rouhani is reported to work towards ensuring equality of men and women, extend access to internet to individuals and take steps to make Iran a modern and an outward-looking country.

Also read  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to arrive in Hyderabad today on 3-day India visit

Hassan Rouhani has been the nuclear negotiator, who criticized international sanctions against Iran but emphasized his countrys willingness to seek compromise over the Iranian nuclear program. This led to a historic telephone call with the then US President Barack Obama in late September 2013, the first direct conversation between a US and an Iranian leader since 1979.

On Rouhanis pledge to restart international dialogue regarding Irans nuclear activities, an interim agreement easing sanctions on Iran was reached by November and a variety of restrictions were placed on the country's nuclear program. In January 2016, UN inspectors certified that Iran had made satisfactory progress toward achieving its objectives under the nuclear agreement.

Early life

Rouhani was born as Hassan Feridon on November 12, 1948, in Sorkheh, Iran, where he was exposed to political issues at an early age. After studying religion as a youth, Hassan eventually adopted the surname Rouhani, which means "community of clerics."

Rouhani sought his law degree from the University of Tehran and earned a master's degree and Ph.D. from Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland in the 1990s. During his undergraduate days, Rouhani traveled throughout Iran to express his opposition to Shaw and his support for the exiled cleric Ruhollah Khomeini.

In 1977, Rouhani was forced out of the country after that he joined Khomeini in Paris and addressed students across Europe. He returned to Iran after the 1979 Iranian Revolution to help Khomeini rebuild the government.Nepal_Deuba

Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba today resigned opening the door for the Left alliance to form the next government, over two months after his party faced a debacle in the country's historic parliamentary and local polls.

Deuba was elected as the 40th Prime Minister on June 6 with the support from CPN (Maoist Centre) which is now a part of Left alliance and opting for merger with CPN-UML.

"The elections of three tiers of government have been successfully held under my leadership setting the foundation to long transition,a Deuba told in the television address.

Deuba will officially present his resignation to President Bhandari shortly, the Kathmandu Post reported.

The Left alliance has already presented its claim for the new government to the President presenting UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli as the new Prime Minister.

The Left alliance of the CPN-UML, led by Oli and CPN-Maoist Centre, led by Prachanda, had in December secured 174 seats in the 275-member Parliament in the historic provincial and parliamentary polls that many hope will bring much-needed political stability to the Himalayan nation.

It had also secured an overwhelming majority in the upper house of Parliament with 39 seats.Finnish network gear maker Nokia said on Thursday it has started a strategic review of its digital health business.

Digital health, part of Nokia Technologies unit, is one of the areas where the company has been looking for future growth opportunities amid a tough market for its mainstay telecom network gear business.

Nokia said in statement the review "may or may not result inany transaction or other changes".

Company said its patent business, brand partnerships and technology licensing units are not in the scope of the review.An Omani minister made a rare visit by an Arab official to a Jerusalem holy site on Thursday after holding talks with Palestinian leaders in the occupied West Bank.

Yusuf bin Alawi, minister in charge of foreign affairs, visited the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Israeli-occupied east Jerusalem, an AFP journalist reported.

His visit comes in the wake of US President Donald Trump's controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital on December 6, a move that angered the Muslim world.

Such a visit would usually require coordination with Israeli officials. An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said he was unaware of the visit and could not immediately comment.

Oman and Israel do not have official diplomatic relations, as is the case with most of the Arab world.

The Al-Aqsa mosque compound is the third-holiest site for Muslims and the scene of regular tensions between Palestinians and Israeli authorities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken repeatedly of improving ties with Arab nations in recent months, but there was no sign of a link to the minister's visit.

Bin Alawi visited the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque at the compound and said "it is a duty of Arabs to visit the mosque if they can".

Jerusalem's status is perhaps the most sensitive in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel occupied east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community. It sees the entire city as its capital.

The Palestinians want Jerusalem's eastern sector as the capital of their future state.

Bin Alawi met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah earlier in the day.

After the Al-Aqsa compound, Bin Alawi also visited the nearby Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built at the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.

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For the third year running Auckland's Jeram and Ganga Ravji are the longest married couple in New Zealand - and possibly the world record holders too - as they celebrate their 83rd anniversary.

The couple - who are turning 102 this year - continue to be the longest-running marriage in New Zealand and are checking up on whether they are world record holders.

Mrs Ravji said the couple had their ups and downs "but you have to live with it and work through it".

She said her parents had instilled in them the importance of marriage and she was concerned that young couples were incapable of making sacrifices.

Mr and Ms Ravji have six children, 15 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren.

The second longest marriage in New Zealand is Mosgiel couple Eric and Lillian Brinsdon, both 99, who celebrated their 80th anniversary in January.

Newshub.On 10 February, the first direct Iranian-Israeli battle took place in Syrian skies after Israel bombed military targets belonging to the Syrian regime and Iranian-backed militias. This was the first time the targets had responded, although it is unclear if it was Syria or Iran that shot down an Israeli jet in northern Palestine using anti-aircraft missiles launched from Syria.

Israel did not accuse Syria of the attack, however. We view the incident as an Iranian attack on Israeli sovereignty, said a spokesman for the Israeli army. Iran is dragging the region into an adventure it has no idea how it will end.

Israel stopped attacking Syrian military targets after bombing more than 12 in 24 hours, including air-defence and radar installations and threatening more yet to come.

The regime led by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad halted flights from the T4 Airport near Palmyra in central Syria after Israeli bombing had destroyed part of it. This was where an Iranian drone took off and violated Israeli air space. Regime forces and Iranian-backed Hizbullah militias evacuated air-defence and artillery locations in southern Syria in anticipation of Israeli strikes.

The regimes media outlets proclaimed an historic victory, saying that Syria had entrapped Israel and ended claims of Israeli superiority. They added that Syria had foiled the plot on the ground and foiled it in the air, that unprecedented fear has struck Israel, that the Israelis will flee from Palestine soon, and that the US is in a dilemma and a trap.

Media affiliated with Hizbullah reported that Iran set a trap for Israel and the latter fell into it.

The Syrian opposition mocked these claims and blamed Iran for unnecessarily subjecting Syria and its people to Israeli strikes. They added that the opposition was not happy at this Iranian scheme using Syrian territory, which was an Iranian-Israeli dispute on Syrian land.

The Syrian regime has not shot down an Israeli jet or even a bullet in Israels direction in 40 years, despite dozens of Israeli air strikes. Instead, the regime has protected the Israeli border to prevent any attacks from the Syrian Golan Heights against Israel.

Shooting down an Israeli fighter jet is no small feat, and it could be viewed as a message from Iran to the US without heading into direct confrontation or open war.

It is a message about Irans role in Syria that reminds Washington that Tehran can cause instability and even war if its interests are not considered. It is designed to head off any attempt to ignore Iran, especially in the light of reports that Russian-Israeli and Russian-US deals are in the works to curb Iranian influence in Syria.

Israel does not want to escalate the conflict at this time in order to avoid opening up another front in the Golan Heights, especially since Hizbullah militias and Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG) are in control of large swathes of Syria in Al-Qonaytara, a stone throws away from the Israeli forces.

International clamour has helped to rein in any fallout, especially when Moscow and Washington stepped in to defuse the situation and avoid confrontation.

However, there is another analysis of what happened. Some Syrians believe the incident reveals the serious conflict between the Russia-Iran camp and the US-Israel camp, namely that Irans provocation of Israel is designed to prove its power in Syria while the US attempts to curb the rival camp there and the regime.

It is also seen as an attempt by Russia, acting through Iran and the Syrian regime, to confuse the issue and change the rules of engagement, especially after the US announced a new strategy in Syria which requires regime change, reining in Iran, and curbing Russias strategic influence.

A few days before the Israeli jet was shot down, the Syrian opposition shot down a Russian jet. The armed opposition does not possess anti-aircraft weapons, which means it must have acquired them from a powerful country, namely the US.

Turkey has convinced Russia it had no hand in the incident and has taken steps to show its good faith by handing over the body of the dead pilot and allowing a Russian investigation team under Turkish auspices to inspect the wreckage and the missile that shot it down.

The Russian-Iranian axis also targeted a facility belonging to the US-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces in eastern Syria, to which Washington quickly responded by bombing some 100 members of Iranian-backed militias.

This triggered a Russian-Iranian response in southern Syria. If this analysis is correct, then the doors have been flung open for a fierce and extensive war between the US and Russia, in which Syria is the battleground and the Syrian people will suffer most.

It is likely that Russia had nothing to do with the bombing of a facility belonging to the Syrian Democratic Forces or the shooting down of the Israeli plane, said Eyad Barakat, an officer in the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA) in southern Syria.

It is purely an Iranian matter. Russia cannot rein in Iran on the ground, and it is angered by its provocations of the US in eastern Syria and Israel in southern Syria. Tehran is sending a simultaneous message to the US and Russia that it will not leave Syria if it does not get what it wants, namely connecting southern Syria with southern Lebanon so Hizbullah, Irans military arm, can control this sensitive region.

It is ready to go to war and do direct battle if the US and Russia decide to restrain Hizbullah in the region, Barakat said.

On 29 January, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, something which has become routine since Russias direct military intervention in Syria in late 2015.

Netanyahu discussed Tel Avivs concerns, including the existence of four Iranian plants in Syria and Lebanon, the deployment of Hizbullah and Iranian militias near the line of disengagement in the Golan, and the non-implementation of the US-Russia-Jordan de-escalation agreement.

The two men arranged for their respective national security councils to meet in Tel Aviv on 30 January to address military and security concerns and coordinate together so that Israel can continue bombing Iranian targets without Russian objections.

Israel does not want to transform the Syrian crisis from a proxy war to a direct war with other countries involved in Syria. The clashes will remain controlled unless Iran insists on escalating its attacks against Israel and US influence is undermined. The Syrian crisis will thus remain hostage to Iran, despite Tehrans diminished power in the face of Russia and US.

It is likely that current international conditions will not allow for military escalation between the US and Israel on the one hand and Iran on the other, but the possibility of war will remain as long as Iran continues to intervene in Syria.

This is a strategic threat, not only for the Middle East, but also for the world as a whole.

* This story was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly

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Welcome to Morningstar.co.uk!

You have been redirected here from Hemscott.com as we are merging our websites to provide you with a one-stop shop for all your investment research needs.To search for a security, type the name or ticker in the search box at the top of the page and select from the dropdown results.Registered Hemscott users can log in to Morningstar using the same login details. Similarly, if you are a Hemscott Premium user, you now have a Morningstar Premium account which you can access using the same login details.About another 200,000 South Sudanese refugees are expected to arrive in Sudan this year, fleeing fighting and food insecurity in their country, the United Nations said Thursday.

South Sudan, the world's youngest nation, descended into civil war just two years after it split from the north in 2011.

Since the war erupted in late 2013, 417,000 South Sudanese refugees have already crossed into Sudan, according to the UN.

About 200,000 more refugees are expected in 2018, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Office, or OCHA, said in its latest bulletin.

"Continued fighting, limited humanitarian assistance and extreme levels of food insecurity are forcing citizens of South Sudan to seek refuge, safety and access to food and basic services in neighbouring countries," OCHA said.

"The government of Sudan maintains an open border policy for the refugees, ensuring unfettered access, immediate protection and safety within Sudan's borders."

Most new refugees arriving in Sudan are expected to cross into White Nile, East Darfur and South Darfur states, OCHA said.

South Sudan's leaders fought for decades for independence from the north, but an internal civil war erupted in December 2013 out of a power struggle between President Salwa Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar.

The war has caused tens of thousands of deaths, uprooted nearly four million people -- roughly a third of the population -- and triggered sporadic outbreaks of famine.

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During this event, Andy Eninger  a writer, comedian and former head of the writing program for the famed comedy theater The Second City  will share his insight on the risk of leaving people behind when vision and direction shift.

Something gets lost between that brilliant new strategy and the people who have to make it real. They dont understand and check out, fade away or underperform because theyre overwhelmed and underinformed. Great leaders connect the dots through great storytelling. They map the message, going beyond bullet-

points. They build a story that builds trust, gives purpose and inspires.

In this interactive presentation, attendees will learn how to:

Recognize the power of storytelling for making strategic change meaningful and personal.

Use tools for framing message to help audiences understand the why and why it matters.

Apply universal storytelling elements like hero, hook and metaphor.

Simplify information to be more memorable.

Build rapport, trust and transparency through a well-crafted anecdote.

Be more adaptive and connected in the delivery of information.

Andy Eninger plunders techniques from the world of improvisation, comedy writing, consumer insights and marketing for an innovative and entertaining, experiential learning experience. Hes a storytelling expert, speaker and learning designer. He helps individuals and organizations connect to audiences by understanding, crafting and delivering their stories in a memorable way. Andy has worked with hundreds of corporations, including Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Cigna, State Farm and many more. Hes traveled the world designing and delivering learning programs on collaborative leadership, executive presence, innovation and storytelling. For Second City Works, he spearheaded learning programs on storytelling, selling skills and diversity & inclusion.The Trump administration remained insistent on hardline immigration measures on Thursday as the U.S. Senate prepared to vote on various legislative proposals to protect young "Dreamer" immigrants and to tighten border security.

In a statement overnight, the Department of Homeland Security dismissed what some thought was the bill most likely to win enough bipartisan support to pass the chamber, saying it failed to meet minimum criteria set out by President Donald Trump.

The plan, crafted by a bipartisan group of senators led by moderate Republican Susan Collins, would protect from deportation 1.8 million young adults who were brought to the United States illegally as children and who are known as Dreamers.

It also includes a $25 billion fund to strengthen border security and possibly even construct segments of Trump's long-promised border wall with Mexico.

The immigration issue has become a matter of urgency for lawmakers after Trump in September ordered an Obama-era program that protected Dreamers to end by March 5, telling Congress it should come up with a solution by then.

The Department of Homeland Security blasted the Collins-led plan, saying it destroyed the ability of DHS officers to remove millions of undocumented immigrants from the country, and "is an egregious violation of the four compromise pillars laid out by the Presidents immigration reform framework."

Trump's four provisions are for any bill to include funds to build the border wall, to end the visa lottery program, to impose curbs on visas for the families of legal immigrants, and to protect Dreamers.

The Republican president has backed a bill by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley that embraces Trump's wish list but is unlikely to win support from enough Democrats in the closely-divided chamber.

A narrower third bill, by Republican John McCain and Democrat Chris Coons, has been dismissed by Trump.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was expected to bring forward all three measures on Thursday to gauge which has enough support to move toward a vote in the Senate ahead of a Friday deadline he has imposed for the legislation.

Despite backing from several Republicans for the Collins-led plan, it was unclear if enough Democrats would get behind it to muster the 60 votes needed in the 100-member Senate that Republicans control 51-49.

Democratic U.S. Senator Tim Kaine told MSNBC on Thursday he thought lawmakers were "very close" to the 60 votes needed on the Collins-led measure. Republican Senator Marco Rubio told Fox News he was unsure whether any Senate plan would move forward.

Even if one of three bills passes, it must still win over the U.S. House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a larger majority and are pushing a more conservative proposal that is closer in line with Trump's framework.

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan has said he will support only legislation backed by Trump, who has carried his tough law-and-order stance toward immigrants from his 2016 campaign into his administration.



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Christie's Dubai will auction a Patek Phillippe watch belonging to Egypts King Farouk next month, with a estimated price of USD 400,000-800,000.

The reference 1518 model is part of a larger collection of 180 watches that are up for sale at the auction house, and which will be on public view from 19 March to 23 March, the date of the auction.

The king was the great-great-grandson of Muhammed Ali, and ruled Egypt from 1936 to the revolution in 1952.

A press release from Christies notes that King Farouk inherited his love of watches from his father, King Fouad I. The reference 1518 model was launched in 1941 with only an estimated 281 pieces ever created.

The Patek Philippe reference 1518 is celebrated as the first perpetual calendar chronograph wristwatch produced in series by any watch company," it states.

The watch has an encraving of the royal crown of Egypt on the back of the case, with a star and a half-moon and a letter F.

Farouks father believed that the letter F was lucky for his family and began the names of his six children with this letter," writes the release.

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Thank you for your support!Vous etes confrontes a une infestation par la puce, la punaise de lit ? Voici plusieurs actions qui sont a mettre en uvre pour faire []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.High school senior Ismael Perez is recovering after being diagnosed with influenza.

Reported flu outbreaks have been from daycares or schools

5 pediatric flu deaths in Florida this year

Doctors recommend washing hands, getting flu shot



He has been out of school for a whole week.

My temperature had gone through the roof and my body was in a lot of pain, Ismael Perez said.

Wiki Perez, Ismaels father, said he was concerned over the matter.

We definitely got worried because we had heard about some kids that had died because of the flu, he said.

More than 50 percent of the reported outbreaks were in a daycare or school setting, according to the Osceola County Health Department. The department said all five pediatric flu deaths reported in Florida this year were unvaccinated children.

Most of the time kids are in classrooms and large groups together a lot of the time so personal hygiene is not properly practiced, said Bret Smith, assistant director for the Osceola County Health Department.

Smith said that besides covering your mouth when you cough and washing your hands, the best preventative measure is to get a flu shot.

Wiki Perez said he wishes he would have taken his son to get his flu shot sooner to prevent him from getting sick.

I would suggest everybody to get it," he sad. Because its like a Russian roulette youre playing with your health.

The Osceola County Health Department has 125 free flu shots left. Theyre administered on a first come first serve basis.CHESHIRE  For those on the go Wednesday, First Congregational Church offered ashes to worshipers from the convenience of their cars.

Anyone was welcome to drive up to the church from 5:30 to 9:30 a.m., park in the looped driveway, and receive ashes along with the centuries-old Ash Wednesday prayer, Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.

The interaction with pastors Alison McCaffrey and James Campbell took anywhere from 30 seconds to a couple minutes, Campbell said. He said about 100 people drove up for ashes, most were not First Congregational members.

Nearly every person who comes through expresses how thankful they are and how much they appreciate the opportunity, Associate Pastor Alison McCaffrey said. Many people come through with tears in their eyes.

Some people took advantage of Ashes on the Way while on their way to work, to drop children off at school, or to the airport. Some came before visiting family members in the hospital, McCaffrey said.

A couple people asked for an extra dose of ashes to share with someone at home that couldnt get out, Campbell said.

First Congregational, 111 Church Drive, has offered Ashes on the Way for four years. It started when a parishioner, who moved from Miami, shared that her local church had done the same.

Its a way to take something that people want from the church into the street and making it really easy for them to have it, Campbell said. Theres nothing being asked of you, youre only being given something.

bwright@record-journal.com

203-317-2316

Twitter: @baileyfaywrightMERIDEN  An undocumented city woman is again facing deportation after her stay was rescinded.

Nelly Cumbicos, 41, was originally scheduled to be deported Feb. 16, but learned last week she had been issued a stay, allowing her to remain in the country while the Second Circuit Court of Appeals processed her case.

On Wednesday, City Councilor Miguel Castro said Cumbicos stay of deportation was rescinded.

Its a federal issue, but its also a local issue, Castro said. It effects all of us.

It is unclear why the stay was reversed, and an ICE spokesman did not provide details. Cumbicos was informed Tuesday that the Department of Homeland Security had reversed its decision and issued a new deportation date of Feb. 28, according to an online petition signed by over 15,000.

Nelly Cumbicos has never had a chance to have her case heard by Immigration, the petition states. Nelly and her family just want her to have her day in court.

Cumbicos left Ecuador 18 years ago and entered the United States illegally. She was apprehended by Immigrations & Customs Enforcement in 2015 when she applied for a Green Card.

She lives in an apartment on Twiss Street with her husband, a U.S. citizen from Puerto Rico, and 15-year-old son, who attends Wilcox Technical High School.

A GoFuneMe account has been set up to help cover Cumbicos legal fees at www.gofundme.com/keepnellyhome.

ltauss@record-journal.com

203-317-2231

Twitter: @LeighTaussRJBy Matthew Zabierek

Record-Journal staff

WALLINGFORD  Lyman Hall High School senior Jules Esposito will appear on celebrity chef Rachael Rays talk show on Friday to compete in a cooking competition with other high school students from across the country.

Esposito, a culinary arts student, competed for a $25,000 scholarship in the shows first ever Cook Your Way to Culinary School competition. She competed with three other finalists on the episode, which will air Friday at 10 a.m. on ABC.

It was an incredible experience just to be around people, celebrities of that caliber, just to be in their presence was really an incredible experience, said Esposito, who grew up watching Rays shows. I grew up with her on my TV every day, so to go there was a surreal experience.

In December, Esposito entered a contest to appear on the show by submitting a cooking demonstration video.

A month later, I had completely forgotten about it, and they called me and the caller ID said, New York, New York, and I didnt know who it was and it ended up being The Rachael Ray Show and they said I placed top 10, she said.

Esposito advanced to the top-four and earned an appearance on the show, which was filmed a couple weeks ago. Interviews of the four students were aired on the show on Tuesday and the competition will air Friday. Due to confidentiality agreements, Esposito couldnt go into detail about what happened before the episode airs.

Espositos love for baking started at a young age. When she was in the eighth grade, she started a baking blog that was eventually noticed by local TV station WTNH, which gave Esposito cooking segments that have aired almost every other every month for the last five years, she said.

Esposito lives on the Sheehan High side of town, but chose to attend Lyman Hall in the eighth grade to participate in the schools culinary arts program. Esposito manages the student-operated food truck business and helped run a pop-up bakery this past December at the HUBCAP Wallingford, 128 Center St.

Sharon Drossopoulos, a teacher in Lyman Halls culinary program, said it has been truly humbling to watch Espositos growth over the past four years.

She has set the standards so high, not only for herself, but she has helped motivate other students within the program, Drossopoulos said. Every single day we come to class and she keeps saying, lets do something, so we kept raising the bar every day until we ended up on national television.

Esposito credited the training she received at Lyman Hall for helping prepare her for the competition. The program has about 220 students and includes a student-operated restaurant, food truck, catering company, and grab-and-go cafe.

I really did not know how I would stack up against the competition, she said. So going there and realizing that our program has trained me to compete with my peers was really validating.

If she wins, Esposito will use the scholarship to attend the Culinary Institute of America and hopes to have her own cooking show on TV one day.

Esposito said she has been overwhelmed by the support she has received from the community recently. She plans to watch the show Friday with classmates.

Ive been overwhelmed by the amount of love and support by not only my family and friends but the local community, Esposito said. Just hearing the support that I have is really heartwarming.

mzabierek@record-journal.com

203-317-2279

Twitter: @MatthewZabierekDrain the Oceans dives deep into the unknown; a truly epic, truly original series that exposes hidden evidence of the most amazing undersea mysteries, as never seen before. The first episode is the Great Barrier Reef.

Thursdays from 9:30pm AEST.By Holly South

The opening day of the Arkansas House of Representatives fiscal session began with a moment of silence to honor longtime parliamentarian Tim Massanelli, who passed away at age 85 on Feb. 12.

Parliamentarian from 1977 to 2012, he served under 17 speakers. He oversaw establishment of the permanent House staff and managed it for more than three decades.

He also served seven governors, two of whom sang his praises in a 2007 profile of Massanelli in State Legislatures magazine.

Tim Massanelli has probably forgot more about the operations of the House of Representatives than anyone else ever knew, said former Governor Mike Huckabee at the time. He has been the go-to guy on rules and has been viewed as one whose mastery of the process has helped shape each legislative session.

Former President and Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton remembered that In the toughest legislative batties, he was calm, did his duty, kept his sense of humor, and always knew what was really going on. When he could do so consistent with the duty to the House, he would even tell me what was going on! He continued, I love the guy. We need more people with his dedication to public service.

The current parliamentarian of the Arkansas House, Finos Buddy Johnson, who succeeded Massanelli, considers him his mentor. Tim was a teller of stories that in many ways guided our organization. Our rule book is sprinkled with rules inspired by mishaps the membership never wanted to happen again, and Tim could tell you all about each and every one. Ive tried to carry on this tradition, but Ill never match his ability to get a point across through storytelling.

Inside the House chamber, above the front door, hangs a bronze plaque that reads In God We Trust. In Tims view, another one could have been suspended beneath it reading Multiply It By A Hundred. It was one of his favorite sayings, because it meant that if you do something for one member of the House, be prepared to do it for every other member, because each is equal. The equality of members, a foundational principle of parliamentary law, easily delivered in simple phrase. Tim could capture those phrases and deliver them at the perfect moment. He was a master of it.

Massanelli, who was ordained as a deacon in the Catholic Church, is survived by Dottie, his wife of 64 years, and three sons.

Holly South, a policy associate, is NCSL's liaison to the American Society of Legislative Clerks & Secretaries.

Email HollyBy PTI

NEW DELHI: Hit by a Rs 11,400 crore fraud, state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) has cautioned other banks about the modus operandi of the scam.

"It has been reported through a preliminary investigation that the suspected fraud has been carried out by the perpetrators in collusion with the staff of one of the our branches in Mumbai," PNB said in a letter sent to various banks, including those from the private and public sector as also to foreign lenders.

READ: Punjab National Bank detects Rs 11,360 crore worth fraudulent transactions in Mumbai branch

The letter said it was found through the SWIFT trail that one junior level official unauthorisedly and fraudulently issued Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) on behalf of some companies belonging to Nirav Modi Group.

PNB has suspended 10 officers and referred the matter to CBI for investigation.

Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar said this seems to be an isolated case and is not going to impact other lenders.

"The finance ministry has taken proactive steps by asking the lender to report the matter to CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) so that action can be taken quickly," he told PTI.

READ: Punjab National Bank files complaint with CBI against Nirav Modi, jewellery company alleging Rs 11,400 crore fraud

"The Bank has detected some fraudulent and unauthorised transactions in one of its branch in Mumbai for the benefit of a few select account holders with their apparent connivance," India's second-biggest state-run bank said in a regulatory filing.

"Based on these transactions other banks appear to have advanced money to these customers abroad.

" While PNB did not name the other lenders, Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank are said to have offered credit based on letters of undertaking (LOUs) issued by PNB.

An LOU is a letter of comfort issued by one bank to branches of other banks, based on which foreign branches offer credit to buyers.

Foreign bank branches too are under investigation.

Three other jewellers, Gitanjali, Ginni and Nakshatra are under the scanner with CBI and ED looking at their arrangements with various banks and end use of money, a senior official of a public sector bank told PTI.

The companies were maintaining only current accounts with the branch and none of the transactions were routed though the Centralised Banking System, it said.

Similar modus operandi was used by the same official for companies belonging to Gitanjali Gems promoted by Mehul Choksi.

PNB said that RBI norms were overlooked by overseas branches of other Indian banks and alleged connivance of group companies of Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Gems with its own official and also apparently of others working in foreign branches of Indian banks.

The fraudulent act was found out when subsequent to superannuation of the concerned official, the same companies again approached the branch for availing Letter of Undertakings (LoUs).By IANS

CHENNAI: The $1.8 billion fraud detected at one of the Mumbai branches of Punjab National Bank (PNB) may have an impact on couple of other banks, said a banking sector analyst.

Jaikishan J Parmar, Research Analyst, Angel Broking told IANS that it is not clear whether PNB had made any provision in its books for towards this fraud.

"Some other banks in addition to PNB might be impacted as they too have given loans to these clients abroad," he added.

Banking sector union sources meanwhile told IANS that 22 PNB employees have been placed under suspension including an Assistant General Manager in connection with the massive fraud in its Brady House Branch in Mumbai.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked billionaire diamond trader Nirav Modi, his brother, wife and an enterprise companion for allegedly cheating PNB and other banks of around Rs 280 crore.

As per the FIR registered by CBI, the accused have committed fraud on PNB, Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank to the tune of Rs 280.70 crore.

According to PNB complaint, some fraudulent issuance of Letters of Undertakings (LoU) were detected at its Brady House branch in Mumbai.

ALSO READ: CBI books billionaire diamond merchant Nirav Modi and kin in Rs 280 crore cheating case

As per the complaint, a set of partnership firms presented import documents and asked for credit to pay their suppliers. The branch officials had asked for 100 per cent cash margin for issuance of LoU.

However the partnership firms had argued that they had been availing such a facility in the past, but the branch officials did not find any official record in support of their argument.

Banking sectoral analysts are not clear whether PNB has provided any amount towards this fraud in its third quarter results.

The bank had provided a sum of Rs 4,466.68 crore towards non-performing loans and other contingencies for the quarter ended December 31, 2017.

According to Parmar, the new development dampens the sentiments around PNB which had seen a marginal improvement in its asset quality in this quarter.

The stock tanked nearly 10 per cent on Wednesday considering the magnitude of the scam which is nearly one-third the market capitalisation of PNB, he said.

On the BSE on Wednesday, PNB's shares closed at Rs 145.80, down from Rs 161.65, the closing price on Tuesday.

Meanwhile a banking industry source told IANS the alleged fraud has been going on in PNB for a long time and the matter came to light when a new official was posted and he started to look into the past transactions.

The source added that the transactions were not entered in the bank's systems to evade detection.

"The fraud quantum is equivalent to five years profit of Punjab National Bank. It is clear failure of the system. Earlier management said computerisation would avoid frauds but in this case, the transactions were not recorded in the computer systems at all," C.H.Venkatachalam, General Secretary, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) told IANS.Team Indulge By

Express News Service

She cut her hair, tortured herself and posed as a kidnapped person in the 2014 psychological thriller by David Fincher, Gone Girl. Rosamund Pike, who was seen playing the role of Amy Elliott Dunne, Nicks (Ben Affleck) wife, is back on the big screen opposite Christian Bale, this time for Scott Coopers Hostiles. Set in 1892, the film has Rosamund portraying the role of Rosalie Quaid, a suicidal widow who undertakes the harrowing and perilous journey after the murder of her family on the plains by Comanche Indians.

READ our review of 'hostiles' HERE

Tell us about the story of Hostiles.

As a publicity stunt, a soon-to-be retired cavalry captain is asked to escort a dying Cheyenne chief back to his family burial ground. I think that the United States army wouldve never contemplated had there not been, rather started to be, negative press back east talking about the treatment of native Americans. They did this as a gesture towards pleasing the negative voices against them. Its a sort of supposedly benign gesture that actually has tremendously hostile undertones.

How was Christian Bale as Captain Joseph J Blocker?

There would obviously be no movie without him. I think as a leader of men, he is untouched in the acting world at the moment. He has all the gravitas for it. He was perfect as Blocker who is kind of quiet in nature, but is coupled with rage and wildness. That character needed Christian. When you see him on the screen you just see that hes a soul that fathoms deep, and that is what you get when you hire him.

Tell us about Scott Cooper as a director.

Scott is extraordinary. He gives you this confidence to try anything while making you feel totally protected, supported and safe. I trust his judgement and his taste. That is always what makes me feel free.

If I have confidence in a director and I trust their judgement, I can be completely free and thats where the real joy of the job lies.

Any message about the film for the fans?

The story is quite simple and yet, as you work on it you realise that theres so much in it. The human landscape of it is vast, the journey of the soul is momentous and mighty, and it is tremendously exciting and subtle.

Hostiles releases today.

WATCH TRAILER HEREBy PTI

NEW DELHI: Central investigation agencies today turned up the heat on embattled jewellery designer Nirav Modi in a huge bank fraud case, by seizing diamond and gold jewellery worth Rs 5,100 crore in nationwide searches and initiating the process for revoking his passport, officials said.

The CBI and the ED moved separate applications to the external affairs ministry seeking the revocation of passports of Modi and his maternal uncle Mehul Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali jewellery chain, both accused in the 280-crore bank fraud case the officials said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) completed the analysis of computers seized from premises linked to him and was going through the two fresh complaints received from Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Tuesday that it had been defrauded of Rs 11,400 crore to decide its future course of action.

ALSO READ: Punjab National Bank fraud case: Financial services secretary updates Arun Jaitley

The day for companies and outlets owned or partnered by the 46-year-old diamond merchant, who has fled the country on January 1, began with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) carrying out searches at properties linked to him in Mumbai, Delhi and Gujarat and claiming to have seized gold and diamond jewellery and precious stones worth Rs 5,100 crore.

WATCH VIDEO: ED conducts raids on Nirav Modi showrooms

As many as 17 locations in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Surat were raided by the ED after the agency filed a Rs 280-crore money laundering case against Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal and Choksi yesterday, following a complaint by the bank.

READ: Meet Nirav Modi, the celebrity jewellery designer accused in a Rs 280 crore money-laundering case by Punjab National Bank

ED officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said five properties belonging to Modi and the other accused in Mumbai were sealed by the agency.

The ED has also written to the Income Tax department for sharing all documents seized by it during raids on January last year from premises linked to Modi and his associates.

The ED filed the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after going through a CBI FIR registered on January 31.

ALSO READ: NDA government looked other way when Nirav Modi slipped out of India, says Congress

The agency also went through the PNB complaint that was made out against Nirav Modi and others.

The ED, they said, would probe if the allegedly defrauded bank funds were laundered and these proceeds of crime were subsequently used by the accused to create illegal assets and black money.

Modi, a regular feature on the lists of rich and famous Indians since 2013, was booked by the CBI, along with wife, brother and Choksi on January 31, for allegedly cheating the state-run bank to the tune of Rs 280 crore.

The bank has sent two more complaints to the CBI on Tuesday, saying the scam was worth more than Rs 11,400 crore.

Explainer: How Punjab National Bank fell victim to India's biggest bank fraud

In a related development, the CBI officials said Modi and other members of his family, who fled the country last month, allegedly made fraudulent transactions of over Rs 11,400 crore through 150 letters of understanding issued by the bank.

Modi, who holds an Indian passport, left India on January 1, while his brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, also left the country on same day.

However, whether they travelled together has to be probed, they said.

Modi's wife Ami, a US citizen, left on January 6 and his uncle Choksi departed on January 4, the officials said.

The bank became suspicious only on January 16 when the accused companies --Diamond R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds (all accused in the CBI FIR) -- approached it with import documents and a request to issue Letters of Understanding (LoUs) for raising buyers' credit for making payments to the overseas suppliers.

The bank, however, could not find any past entries in the system, the FIR has alleged.

It approached the CBI on January 29 with a complaint of Rs 280 crore fraud, officials said.

Modi, who is believed to be in Switzerland, was also present in a group photograph of Indian CEOs with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, issued by the Press Information Bureau, during the World Economic Forum on January 23, six days before the bank sent its first complaint against him to the CBI, according to the officials.

The agency immediately swung into action registering an FIR on January 31 followed by searches at 20 locations in Mumbai and Surat and issued a look out circular on February 4 against Nirav Modi and three absconding accused, they said.

A look out circular is issued by enforcement agencies to all exit and entry ports to inform them about the movement of an accused.

The question why the PNB did not send one complaint to the CBI and decided to give separately is also under the scanner of the agency, they said.

The agency is analysing the fresh complaints and will take a call whether to register fresh FIRs or expand the ambit of the existing FIR related to fraudulent transactions of worth Rs 280 crore, they said.

In these cases, the bank has alleged that the LOUs were issued to Hong Kong-based branches of Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank, they said.By AFP

PARKLAND: A former student armed with an AR-15 rifle opened fire at a Florida high school on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people, officials said, in a harrowing shooting spree that saw terrified students hiding in closets and under desks as they texted for help.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel identified the gunman as Nikolas Cruz, 19, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland who had been expelled for "disciplinary reasons."

IN PICTURES | Florida school shooting: 17 dead in a shootout by suspected former student

Cruz was arrested without incident in the nearby town of Coral Springs after the Valentine's Day rampage and taken to hospital with minor injuries, the sheriff said.

"We have already begun to dissect his websites and things on social media that he was on and some of the things... are very, very disturbing," Israel said.

"He had countless magazines, multiple magazines, and at this point, we believe he had one AR-15 rifle," the sheriff added.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.

 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018

Israel said both students and adults had been killed. He was uncertain about the exact number of people injured, but at least 14 were taken to hospital and two had died there of their wounds.

The shooting, one of nearly 20 since the start of the year, will once again throw the spotlight on the epidemic of gun violence in the United States and the ready accessibility of weapons in a country with 33,000 gun-related deaths annually.

"This is a terrible day for Parkland," Israel said, speaking of the city of about 30,000 people, located 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Miami.

"My very own triplets went to that school."

A teacher at the school told The Miami Herald that Cruz had been identified previously as a potential threat to his classmates.

"We were told last year that he wasn't allowed on campus with a backpack on him," math teacher Jim Gard said. "There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus."

Cruz was also said to have been in the Junior ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) program while at school.

A law enforcement source told CBS News that the gunman pulled a fire alarm before opening fire, but Israel said he could not confirm that report.

'Everyone started running'

Student Jeiella Dodoo told CBS News that she and her schoolmates had evacuated their classroom calmly after hearing what they thought had been a routine fire alarm.

"The alarm went off so we had to evacuate from our classes," she said. "Then we heard gunshots.

"I heard about six gunshots," she said, "and then some people started running and then everyone started running because we were like 'If it's real, then just run.'"

Just spoke to Governor Rick Scott. We are working closely with law enforcement on the terrible Florida school shooting.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018

A math teacher at the school told CBS that he was hiding with six of his students.

"We are fine. We are waiting," he said.

Caesar Figueroa told CNN his daughter was hiding in a closet and texting her family.

"She's trapped with her 10 friends. She said she heard gunshots. A window blew and everybody is screaming and running, and she said she ran in the closet and she's still there," Figueroa said.

No child should 'feel unsafe'

"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting," President Donald Trump said on Twitter.

"No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school."

Since January 2013, "there have been at least 283 school shootings across the country -- which averages out to one school shooting a week," according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit group that advocates for gun control.

Since the 2012 massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were shot dead, warning procedures and emergency drills have multiplied at US schools.

The goal is to teach school children how to react to a shooter who opens fire at random.By AFP

PRETORIA: South African President Jacob Zuma resigned on Wednesday as the ruling ANC party finally turned against him after nine years of corruption scandals, economic slowdown and falling popularity.

Zuma railed against the African National Congress (ANC) for "recalling" him from office and threatening to oust him via a parliament no-confidence vote due on Thursday.

In a 30-minute national television address, Zuma said he had "come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect".

Zuma has been in a power struggle with multi-millionaire former businessman Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy president who now becomes interim president.

Ramaphosa, who won control of the ANC when he was elected as its head in December, is set to be voted in by lawmakers as South Africa's new president on Thursday or Friday.

Zuma, whose reputation has been stained by years-long allegations of graft, complained that the ANC party had never explained to him why he had to leave office.

WATCH VIDEO | I'm innocent, says South Africa's besieged President Jacob Zuma

READ

ANC STATEMENT FOLLOWING THE RESIGNATION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, COMRADE JACOB ZUMA pic.twitter.com/g08ZpctqkU  African National Congress (@MYANC) February 14, 2018

In an earlier TV interview on Wednesday he said he had received "very unfair" treatment from the party he joined in 1959 and in which he had fought for decades against apartheid white-minority rule.

He said he was angered over "the manner in which the decision is being implemented... I don't agree as there is no evidence of if I have done anything wrong."

ALSO READ | The Guptas: A family at the heart of Zuma's troubles

POLICE RAIDS

The party's national executive committee ordered his recall from office on Tuesday, after a 13-hour meeting at a hotel outside Pretoria.

ANC officials had said that if Zuma did not resign on Wednesday, the party's lawmakers in the Cape Town parliament would vote out Zuma on Thursday.

But senior party official Jesse Duarte said after the resignation that "we are not celebrating".

"We have had to recall a cadre of the movement that has served this organisation for over 60 years, it's not a small matter," she added.

On Wednesday morning, police had raided the Johannesburg home of the Gupta business family, which is accused of overseeing a web of corruption under Zuma's rule.

Police said three unidentified people had been arrested in investigations into "Vrede Farm" -- allegations that millions of dollars of public money meant for poor dairy farmers were syphoned off by the Guptas.

Local media reported that Zuma had been pushing for an exit deal that included covering his legal fees fighting multiple criminal charges -- but he denied the allegations in his resignation speech.

One case against him relates to 783 payments he allegedly received linked to an arms deal before he came to power.

Many other graft allegations have centred on the three Gupta brothers, who are accused of unfairly obtaining lucrative government contracts and even being able to choose Zuma's ministerial appointments.

Zuma has admitted he is friends with the Guptas, originally from India, but has denied any wrongdoing.

The political wrangling in recent weeks plunged South Africa -- the continent's most developed economy -- into confusion over who was running the country, with last Thursday's annual State of the Nation address cancelled at the last-minute.

DECLINE OF MANDELA'S PARTY

Zuma's presidency was marred by slow economic growth, continuing racial inequality and record unemployment that fuelled public frustration.

He was scheduled to stand down next year after serving the maximum two terms since coming to power in 2009.

In local polls in 2016, the ANC recorded its worst electoral result since coming to power in 1994 with Nelson Mandela at the helm as white-minority rule fell.

Ramaphosa, 65, the deputy president, must revive the economy and crack down on what he has admitted is rampant government corruption if he is to boost the party's tarnished reputation before a tricky election next year.

He is a former trade unionist and Mandela ally who led talks to end apartheid in the early 1990s and then became a hugely wealthy businessman before returning to politics.

Zuma's hold over the ANC was shaken in December when his chosen successor -- his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma -- narrowly lost to Ramaphosa in a vote for the new party leader.By ANI

LONDON: An American TV hosts have sparked controversy after they made Islamophobic remarks in an interview with a Muslim fashion blogger, who grew up in Oklahoma City of United States.

Iranian-American Muslim fashion blogger Hoda Katebi was told during a segment on local Chicago's WGN News' morning show that she 'does not sound American' because of her views, on live television.

The chat show host Robin Baumgarten asked Katebi about her opinion on Iran and nuclear weapons and she was laughed at for growing up in Oklahoma.

She was on the show to talk about bridging the gap between America and the Middle East through fashion and being an American hijab wearing Muslim and discussed being physically assaulted for wearing her hijab starting in the sixth grade in Oklahoma.

However, soon she was asked, 'Let's talk about nuclear weapons,' to which Katebi responded while laughing uncomfortably with, 'Okay.'

Hoda Katebi at the WGN talk show. (Twitter)

After which, Baumgarten's co-anchor Larry Potash said, "Some of our viewers say, We can not trust Iran."

"I don't think we can trust this country... I am a pacifist, I don't believe in violence," Katebi responded.

Katebi was called for an interview on her book, Tehran Street Style, and her blog. It was aired live on January 31.

After the interview, Katebi wrote a post on her blog Joo Joo to share her ordeal.

"So hindsight is always 20/20, and I honestly should have just stopped him right there and questioned why he thought it was okay to make this ridiculous comment and pose it as a question..." she wrote.

Katebi also took to Twitter explaining that the host called to apologize, and as a response, Katebi requested for another interview to discuss how to prevent such occurrences in the future.

Few updates: 1/ First, I can't thank you all enough for your love & support, it's so refreshing & appreciated! I hope we continue to support Muslim women & women of color who challenge state violence/bias, whether that is laughing through an interview or demanding #FreeAhedTamimi  Hoda Katebi (@hodakatebi) February 14, 2018

2/ WGN just called and Robin, the female anchor, sincerely apologized. (I also didn't realize so many of you called in! Like I said, ya'll on top of this -- thank *you* for making this happen and refusing to normalize this)! I accepted, and proposed a few ways to fix this --  Hoda Katebi (@hodakatebi) February 14, 2018

3/ One proposal I suggested of course, is for WGN to publish a reading list I put together & do an on-air interview where we discuss what happened for their audience, what went wrong, and then to talk about Fanon, Assata Shakur, Edward Said, etc, & American imperialism  Hoda Katebi (@hodakatebi) February 14, 2018Check out some of the highest-priced homes on the market in Newport Co.

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Lyndsay Jones is a reporter covering education at The News-Gazette. Her email is ljones@news-gazette, and you can follow her on Twitter (@__lyndsayjones).One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021Bengaluru: In an issueless Karnataka Assemby polls, it is one non-issue a day that is setting the tone for the voting day. The latest one is Bahmani Utsav. The main opposition BJP which has vehemently opposed the Tipu Jayanti, calling it an insult to the Hindus, is already up in the arms against Bahmani Utsava.

After briefly talking about the Congress governments corruption, the saffron party is back to Hindutva in this election.

The first one to attack the move was BJP MP and its CM face B S Yeddyurappa confidante Shobha Karandlaje. In a tweet she called the Bahmani kings murderers and rapists of the Hindus in north Karnataka.

Who is Bahamani Sulthans? Who killed lakhs of hindus, who burnt thousands of villages,who raped hindu women,who destroyed temples....now congress celebrating thier festival...more dangerous Shobha Karandlaje (@ShobhaBJP) February 13, 2018

After Tippu jayanthi now Bahamani sulthan festival!!.what is this CM Siddaramaiah?Such a low level of politics at the cost Hindu sentiments. Karnataka never expected this. Shobha Karandlaje (@ShobhaBJP) February 13, 2018

After the BJP has made it a big issue, the ruling Congress clarified that Bahmani Utsav has nothing to do with the government and it was a private initiative. The chief minister Siddaramaiah has distanced himself from the whole controversy. Speaking to media he angrily said I have no idea. You better ask the concerned minister.

The Medical education minister Dr. Sharanprakash Patil who allegedly proposed the idea of organizing Bahmani Utsav on the lines of Hampi Utsav, Kandambostava and Rashtrakoot Utsav is now claiming that it is a private event and the government has nothing to do with it.

Speaking to News18 he said, The Bahmani Utsav will happen on March 6th at Gulbarga and the government is not sponsoring it.

The revenue minister Kagodu Thimmappa has also rubbished BJPs claims that it is being sponsored by the government. Speaking to News18, the 86-year-old minister said, Who is Bahmani Sultan? Why should we celebrate them? The BJP is jobless and peddling lies.

Despite BJPs opposition the organizers have decided to go ahead with the celebrations.

The Bahmani Kingdom was the first independent Muslim empire in the south and it was founded in 1347 AD. A Turk general Alauddin Hassan Bahman Shah revolted against the Qutub dynasty in Delhi and founded his own kingdom in Gulbarga in todays Karnataka. Later the capital was moved to Bidar. At its zenith the Bahmanis ruled entire north Karnataka above the river Thungabhadra, most parts of todays Telangana and Marathwada regions.

They were at war with the neighbouring Vijayanagara Empire and the emperor Sri Krishnadevarayathe great defeated them in 1519. After that the Bahmani kingdom broke into five smaller states Adilshahi of Bijapura, Nizamshahi of Ahmednagar, QutbShahi of Golconda, Baridshahi of Bidar and Imadshahi of Birar. Together they were called Deccan Sultanates. In 1565 the five sultanates came together to take on the mighty Vijayanagara empire and defeated the last emperor Ramaraya at the battle of Talikote in 1565 AD.

According to historians the victorious armies of the Sultanates set the capital of Vijayanagaraor Hampi on fire and it was burnt for six months.

The Bahmnani kings have built magnificent buildings and were the patrons of art and culture. They had many Hindus in prominent posts in their kingdom reveal documents of those days.Jabalpur: Officers of Military Intelligence have launched a probe against an Army officer posted at Jabalpur, in connection with charges of him being honey trapped by alleged ISI agents.

The officer, of Lt Colonel rank, is believed to have sent vital defence information outside the country in return for a large sum of money.

Sources said that MI team from Army Central Command headquarters in Lucknow had reached Jabalpur on Monday evening and started questioning the officer posted at 506 Army Base Workshop in the city.

They searched the residence of the officer said to be posted as Lt Colonel and grilled him the next day, sources added.

The officer, till Wednesday night, was still in Jabalpur and wasnt arrested. He was being questioned by the Counter Intelligence Wing.

This came after MI received information that the officer had been honey trapped by ISI agents and subsequently received a large sum of money, said to be around one crore, in his account in exchange for vital defence information.

Vital information has been found his computer and several crucial documents too have been seized from his possession by MI, said sources.

Another theory was floated in local circles whether the officer fell victim to phishing e-mails and inadvertently leaked vital defence documents. Forensic examination of officers computer was also underway. Given the sensitive nature of the case, the senior army officer remained tight-lipped on the entire episode.

A week ago, an Air Force officer was taken into custody for allegedly leaking classified defence information to ISI agents posing as models over social media chats.Bangarmau (Unnao): As the sun sets, the light of a half-melted candle intermittently blows up shadows on a pale wall of Ramsevaks house. Perhaps, the dim light is the only source of brightness for most people in his village, who suddenly came into limelight after a quack was held on charges of infecting residents with HIV through a single syringe.

While a section of the media is flocking the village to get another exclusive in their hat with special stories, the residents here are miffed with this attention.

Most of us dont even have electricity connection. There are many things to cry over. Why does media keep asking us about Rajesh Yadav? His arrest has only been crucial for some. But for people like us, he was our savior for at least 12 years. While the government health centres prescribed expensive medicines, Yadav would cure us for just Rs 20 or 40, says 25-year-old Ramsevak as he sits next to his ailing father in a dimly lit room.

Stretching out his frail hand to grab a cup of tea, Ramsevaks father nods his head in agreement. My entire family has been visiting the doctor for nearly a decade. Never has such a thing happened, the father, who has been diagnosed with HIV, says.

Even as the longest six-lane highway in the country, Lucknow-Agra Expressway, has come up barely a kilometre away from Unnao districts Bangarmau, the modern facilities have done little to improve the condition of the residents.

The basic facilities in some of the villages here are in shambles. Chakmirapur village resident Ramsevak points out that the health officials may be proud to have finally discovered a quack in the area, but he is not alone.

Sometimes it amuses me to see medias fascination with Yadav. If they could only dig into the roots, they would find many of our doctors without medical degrees. Its only after such incidents that reporters and health officials make an effort to look into our plight. But otherwise the entire health facility in the area is rotting. The CHC doctors ask us to buy medicines that cost nearly Rs 200. How can we afford it when we can barely manage our daily bread? Thats the reason most of us prefer doctors that charge only Rs 20, another Chakmirapur resident says.

In Chakmirapur alone 10 people have been diagnosed with HIV, the youngest being an 8-year-old. The child's father too had AIDS and passed away a few months ago. While government claims that 35 have been infected with HIV in Bangarmau, unofficial figures put them as high as 58.

Days after the incident, none of the elected residents have bothered to visit Chakmirapur, Kirmidiyapur and Premganj villages.

Residents say that while local BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj was content after issuing a statement, the concerned health and government officials have neither held an awareness campaign or helped villagers fight their problems and social stigma.

However, Unnao DM Ravi Kumar claims that the situation is being constantly monitored and the UP state aids control society and other agencies responsible have been asked to open proper test and awareness centre in the region.

The officers said that patients are being assisted through the local CHC. Surprisingly, when News18 arrived at the CHC in Bangarmau, the claims turned out to be false.

While officials are busy in shifting their responsibilities, residents here are struggling to get back to their normal lives without the glaring attention, which they say are of no use to them.Bengaluru: A day after two workers died cleaning a septic tank of a restaurant here, two BBMP officials were arrested by the police on Wednesday.

Ramu (35) and Ravi (28), who were hired to clean the tank had asphyxiated inside on Tuesday evening. The BBMP officials were arrested after it was found that the restaurant, Yumlok, was illegally operating from the basement of a building in Bengaluru's HAL police station limits.

It is a commercial building. The basement is meant for parking. They did not have the license to run the restaurant there, said HAL police.

According to the police, the incident took place around 4 pm on Tuesday. The waste from the restaurant was being collected in the sewage tank from the past six months, which led to the drain being clogged.

The two, who hailed from Raichur, were hired to clean the waste for Rs 3,500. Ramu who had gone inside called for help when he started suffocating. Ravi, who had gone in to help the former, also suffocated from the toxic gas. The two were taken out by rescue officials but were declared brought dead to the hospital.

This is the second such incident this year in Bengaluru. In January, three people had died while cleaning a septic tank in HSR layout.

The hotel manager Ayush Gupta and caretaker Venkatesh were arrested on the same day, while BBMP Senior Health Inspector Devaraj and Deputy Health Officer Kalpana were arrested the next day.

All the four have been charged under sections of The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act and have been remanded until February 28.

The owner of the restaurant Avinash Gupta is absconding, said the police.Lucknow: The general secretary of Ayodhya Sadbhavna Samanvay Samiti, Amarnath Mishra, has lodged a complaint against Salman Nadwi for allegedly demanding Rs 5000 crore as a bribe to change his stand in the Babri title suit.

Mishra has alleged that he gave a written proposal to the expelled member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board who took it to the media.

This eventually led to the ouster of Nadwi from AIMPLB before the issue could be discussed in a board meeting, he said.

Mishra further alleged that he met Nadwi at Nadwa on 4th February in the presence of Imam Council general secretary Haji Masroor Khan.

Speaking to News18, Mishra said, Maulana Nadwi wants to islamicize Ayodhya and wants to convert Ayodhya in new Medina. That is why when he asked for a proposal and then demanded Rs 5000 crore, 200 acres of land and a Rajya Sabha seat.

He further alleged that Nadwi had put his demands in front of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar whose office in reply said that the Ayodhya issue can only be resolved by brotherhood and harmony and refused to make any deal.

Nadwi has rejected all these allegations and said that he is not familiar with Mishra or Haji Masroor Khan. He said Mishra was lying and his charges were baseless. Nadwi also said that it is all done as a part of conspiracy against him. He, however, said he will not take legal action against Mishra.

The Ayodhya Sadbhavna Samanvay Samiti was created on the initiative of Ravi Shankar. Its main aim is to settle the Ayodhya dispute out of court.Delhi Nursery Admissions 2018 First Allotment List for admissions to nursery class in over 1700 private schools in the capital is expected to be released today by the Directorate of Education, Delhi (DelE).

Delhi Nursery Admissions process for academic year 2018-19 began on 27th December 2017 for parents seeking admissions to nursery class for their wards.

The first allotment list is scheduled to be released today by the DelE and the second list will follow soon on 26th February 2018, later this month. Waiting Lists can be expected only after the first and second allotment lists are released by the schools.

The Directorate of Education, Delhi aims to complete the Delhi Nursery Admissions Process 2018 by 31st March 2018.

How to check Delhi Nursery Admissions 2018 First Allotment List?

All private schools are supposed to put the Delhi Nursery Admissions 2018 First Allotment List on their school notice boards. The same is updated on the official website of the schools. Parents must keep a tab on official websites of the schools they had applied for, to stay up to date.

Delhi Nursery Admissions 2018 - How seats are allotted?

Seats will be allotted via Point System for Delhi Nursery Admissions 2018. Out of a total 100 points, criteria like neighborhood, alumni, sibling, etc is kept and points are allocated to each criterion. Seats are allotted based on these points, however, in case of a tie, seats are allocated as per draw of lots in front of the parents.

Also, wherever the number of applications is more than number of seats, seat allotment is done via draw of lots in presence of applicants.

Parents are given a 3 days window to get their queries answered and then confirm seats.

Schools also release the waiting list for Nursery admissions as most of the parents apply for more than one school and hence seats are left vacant.

Grievance Redressal?

Directorate of Education, Delhi will open the grievance redressal window from 1st March 2018 to 7th March 2018 wherein parents can file their complaints or grievances.

Upper Age-Limit Not Applicable for Delhi Nursery Admissions 2018

Parents must know that the upper age-limit criterion is not applicable for Nursery Admissions for the academic year 2018-19. As per Delhi Governments decision, the same might be introduced from next session.Srinagar: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday took the custody of five accused arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police in connection with the escape of Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Mohammed Naveed Jhatt from the SMHS hospital, an official spokesman said in Srinagar.

The NIA spokesman said the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate here granted a two-day transit remand of the five accused who had been nabbed by the police on February 8, two days after the escape of 22-year-old Jhatt alias Abu Hanzalla from the busy hospital in the city.

The five accused -- Shakeel Ahmed Bhat, Tika Khan, Syed Tajamul Islam, Mohammed Shafi Wani and Jan Mohammed Ganai -- were arrested by the police for allegedly conspiring in the escape of Jhatt. All the five accused are residents of Pulwama.

The NIA re-registered the case pertaining to the escape from custody of Jhatt from the SMHS hospital where he was brought in for treatment on February 6.

The accused will be produced before the NIA special court at Jammu tomorrow for seeking police custody, the spokesman said. The designated court for the NIA is in Jammu, the winter capital of the state.

Two policemen -- head constable Mushtaq Ahmed and constable Babar Ahmed -- of the Jammu and Kashmir Police were killed by Jhatt and his accomplice on the fateful day.

Bhat is believed to be one of the masterminds of the escape of Jhatt and his motorcycle had been used in the escape of the terrorist, police said.

Khan, a resident of Pulwama, is alleged to have provided his car for further transportation of Jhatt out of the city, police said.

Jhatt is at present believed to be in the Pulwama area of South Kashmir, they said.

Shafi, who is from Narbal on the outskirts of Srinagar city, had posed as a patient to provide cover for the terrorists escape.

Jhatt had managed to escape on February 6 after at least two other militants attacked the police escort team at the SMHS Hospital here, killing two cops.Parkland, Florida: The man accused of opening fire at a Florida high school on Wednesday, killing 17 people, was a troubled former student who loved guns and was expelled for disciplinary reasons, police and former classmates said.

Nikolaus Cruz, 19, was arrested about an hour after a shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters.

Cruz, who had been expelled from the school for reasons that have not been made public, was found with multiple ammunition magazines and one AR-15-style rifle, Israel said.

We already began to dissect his websites and the things on social media that he was on and some of the things that came to mind are very, very disturbing, Israel said.

Chad Williams, 18, a senior at Stoneman Douglas High school, remembered Cruz as a troubled classmate from when they attended middle school together. He said Cruz would set off the fire alarm, day after day, and finally got expelled in the eighth grade.

More recently, Williams saw Cruz carrying several publications about guns when they ran into each other at the high school. Williams thought Cruz was there to pick up a younger sibling.

He was crazy about guns, Williams told Reuters, speaking by the side of the road near the high school. He was kind of an outcast. He didnt have many friends. He would do anything crazy for a laugh, but he was trouble.

Jillian Davis, 19, said she was in a school Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps with Cruz in the 9th grade. She remembered him as a quiet and shy young man who would almost change personality when angry. He talked a lot about guns and knives but no one took him seriously, she told Reuters.

"I would say he was not the most normal or sane kid in JROTC. He definitely had a little something off about him. He was a little extra quirky," said Davis, who graduated from the school last year.

Math teacher Jim Gard told the Miami Herald that Cruz had been banned from returning to campus while carrying a backpack.

"There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus," Gard told the newspaper in an interview.

Administrators sent an email to teachers warning them about Cruz, Gard told the paper. Another student at the school told local WSVN-TV that Cruz was known to have guns at home.Miami: Dubbed the "Sunshine State" for its sun-soaked climate, Florida is also ironically branded the "Gunshine State," a place where firearms are easy to come by -- especially for perpetrators of violence.

The state, home to 21 million people, has handed out more gun permits than any other state -- around 1.9 million as of January, according to official statistics.

But this only makes up part of the total number of firearms, an unknown figure that cannot be estimated.

Comparing the number of firearm permits with the number of inhabitants puts Florida at mid-range for gun ownership -- trailing a number of mostly-white rural states.

But the peninsula, located in the southeast of the country, has been the setting of several particularly deadly shootings in recent years.

The worst remains an attack on an Orlando gay nightclub on June 12, 2016, which saw a heavily armed man -- who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group -- kill 49 people.

Six months later, a man opened fire at Fort Lauderdale International Airport, killing five people on January 6, 2017.

On Wednesday, a 19-year-old man expelled from a high school for disciplinary reasons returned to the building in Parkland, Florida and killed 17 people.

But despite the repeated tragedies, Floridians make no secret of their attachment to the right to bear arms.

Florida was the first US state to adopt controversial "Stand Your Ground" legislation in 2005, backed by the gun lobby. The law allows a person to use lethal force if they believe they are in serious danger -- even if there is a possibility that they could escape or retreat from that threat.

As a result, the concept of self-defense is particularly prominent in Florida, as illustrated in February 2012 with the death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teenager killed by a neighborhood watchman. The perpetrator, George Zimmerman, pleaded self-defence and was acquitted by a jury.Islamabad: Pakistan on Thursday said that it was fully prepared to defend itself in case of any "aggression" by India and asked New Delhi to stop blaming it without any concrete evidence.

Foreign Office spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal made the comment while addressing a media briefing.

If India is bent upon aggression, Pakistan is fully capable of defending itself. The Pakistani nation should not be taken for granted by anyone. If India wants peace then it should refrain from aggressive rhetoric with the sole objective of securing electoral wins, he said.

He said India has a "kneejerk" tendency to assign unilateral blame without evidence and it also blamed Pakistan for spy pigeons and worse but Pakistan strongly rejects the allegations.

He said a similar tendency was shown after Sunjuwan camp attack and certain Indian police and defence officials, and media insinuated against Pakistan.

A group of heavily armed Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists struck the sprawling camp of the 36 brigade of Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry in the early hours on February 10, triggering a gunbattle. Seven people were killed in the attack.

He also rejected the comments of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman by saying that "the familiar tendency of apportioning blame on Pakistan, without concrete evidence, is regrettable".

Sitharaman had blamed Pakistan for the terror attack at the Sunjuwan Military Camp and made it clear that it will pay the price for the "misadventure".

We have repeatedly seen India arrogating to itself the role of judge, jury and executioner. The reflex assignment of blame and smear campaigns, based on unfounded allegations, carry no credibility, Faisal said.

To a question, he defended the regular summoning of Indian deputy high commissioner over LoC violations which he said was part of responsibility of Pakistan is to effectively and emphatically defend its borders, be they physical, diplomatic, political or intellectual.

He also said Pakistan does not support any move by foreign states to interfere in the internal affairs of the Maldives and influence its upcoming elections.

"We believe that the internal affairs of Maldives should be solved internally in consultation with all the stakeholders. The sovereignty and territorial integrity of Maldives should be respected by all," he said.Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was on Thursday taken to a Mumbai hospital after initial health examination at Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) for apparent food poisoning, a senior official in Panaji said.

Parrikar on Wednesday night complained of stomachache and visited GMCH for a health examination, the official in the Chief Minister's Office said.

After the check-up, he was taken to Mumbai in a flight for further examination, he said.

"He went home after the initial check-up and again came to the hospital this morning for a second round of check-up. His health is better now but he has been referred to a hospital in Mumbai for further check-up," the official said.

GMCH dean Pradip Naik said the Goa chief minister had come to the hospital on Wednesday night, but refused to give details.

The budget session of Goa Assembly will begin on Monday. Parrikar is to present the state budget during the session.New Delhi: After what may be the biggest con in the history of corporate banking in India, Punjab National Bank (PNB) cautioned other banks about the modus operandi of the Rs 11,360 crore scam.

It has been reported through a preliminary investigation that the suspected fraud has been carried out by the perpetrators in collusion with the staff of one of our branches in Mumbai, said the second-largest state-run lender in a letter written to private and public sector banks as well as foreign lenders.

Modus operandi

The letter by PNB said it was found through the SWIFT trail that one unauthorised junior-level official fraudulently issued Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) on behalf of some companies belonging to Nirav Modi Group.

Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), the global financial messaging service used to transfer millions of dollars internationally, was primarily used to bypass the core banking system (CBS) which processes daily banking transactions.

It was a ploy to avoid immediate detection as the SWIFT messages used to raise overseas credit were not readily available in PNBs FINACLE software system.

An LoU is an assurance given by a bank to another as a security to meet liabilities on behalf of a customer. LoUs used in international banking transactions are similar to a letter of credit or a guarantee.

Similar tactics was used by the same official for companies belonging to Gitanjali Gems promoted by Mehul Choksi.

How was the fraud unveiled

PNB in its letter revealed that the fraudulent act was found out when subsequent to superannuation of the official, the same companies again approached the branch for availing Letter of Undertakings (LoUs).

Who is Nirav Modi

Nirav Modi is a jewellery designer by profession and the founder of $2.3 billion Firestar Diamond. Born into a family of diamond merchants, Modi made it to the Forbes list of billionaires in 2013, ranked 86 out of 100 Indian billionaires

Modi happens to be the nephew of Gitanjali Gems owner Mehul Choksi, who was booked along with him in the first PNB fraud case.

According to latest development, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case in connection with the Rs 280-crore cheating. The agency filed the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after going through a CBI FIR filed early this month.

How will this affect other banks

Experts are of the opinion that the fraudulent transactions at PNB shall adversely affect the books of other lenders as well. Other banks might also be under the scanner for similar fraudulent practices.

The impact of the PNB fraud will spill over to counter parties (lenders), hit their asset qualities and increase provisions for bad loans. Most bankers said the entire liability would fall on PNB since the letters of understanding (LoUs) availed by Nirav Modis companies were issued on behalf of the banks Mumbai branch. Some banks, however, have direct exposure to Nirav Modis companies, though they have been standard assets so far.

According to a PTI report, the CBI has now started investigating a number of jewellery companies, which could be a cause for concern for banks.

Four big jewellers, Gitanjali, Ginni, Nakshatra and Nirav Modi, are under scanner. The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate are looking at their arrangements with various banks and the end use of money, said PTI quoting a senior official of a public sector.

How bad will the PNB suffer

According to PNBs complaint to CBI, the LoUs were issued for the Hong Kong branches of Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank. As a result, PNB will have to settle the LoUs with these branches.

While the exact share of PNBs liability is unknown, markets have already been impacted. The PNB stock fell 9.81% on Wednesday to close at Rs 145.80 per share, and investors lost over Rs 3,000 crore in a single day.

In case the bank is unable to trace back the money from the accused firms, it may have to set aside higher provisioning in the next few quarters.Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has requested the Centre to immediately send currency notes of different denominations amounting to Rs 5,000 crore to the state as ATMs there are facing cash shortage.

The chief minister has sent a letter in this regard to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and marked a copy of it to RBI Governor Urjit Patel, a CMO official said.

For the last few days, people in different parts of AP are greeted by 'No Cash' boards at bank ATMs, reminding one of the post-demonetisation days.

Long queues are seen at a few ATMs where cash is available but only in a limited quantity.

Bank officials say the bulk withdrawal of money from savings banks accounts was resulting in the scarcity of currency notes.

"Hitherto, people used to keep their money in their savings bank accounts and withdraw in small quantities when required," an assistant general manager of a leading bank here said.

"Of late, ostensibly because of the various charges being imposed, people are withdrawing money in one go, leaving us short of cash," the official said.

Thus, banks were unable to feed enough cash into the ATMs. Large crowds were seen at many bank branches with people waiting in queues to withdraw money.

In this backdrop, the chief minister wrote a letter on Wednesday to the Union finance minister requesting that Rs 5,000 crore be despatched to the state to overcome the currency shortage.

"Farmers who sold their paddy are unable to get money while pensioners too are suffering. Loan disbursal to women self-help groups is also affected," he said in the letter.

"People are forced to wait for hours to withdraw money from ATMs wherever it is available. In view of this, it is requested that the RBI send Rs 5,000 crore to AP in various denominations," the chief minister said.New Delhi: Students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Thursday ramped up their protest against recently introduced compulsory minimum attendance rule by the administration.

The protesting students demanded immediate rollback of the new rule.

Students, in large numbers, gathered outside the JNU administrative block to raise their demands with the JNU vice chancellor Jagadesh Kumar and requested to meet him as well.

The demands included the withdrawal of a circular issued by the JNU administration on February 9 that said the administration may deny fellowships and debar students from examinations if they didn't fulfil the minimum attendance requirement.

Protests intensified after a meeting of the JNU academic council scheduled for February 23 was postponed indefinitely. A circular for the same was issued by the JNU registrar on February 12.

Claiming that the protesting students were not restricting the movement of any official on campus, the JNU Students Union, in a statement, said, "Students have been peacefully waiting to meet JNU VC and raise questions about compulsory attendance."

Alleging that the administration was evading dialogue with the students, JNUSU said, "All university officials freely moved into and out of administration building. No one was stopped and students have not blocked any entrances and are peacefully waiting to meet the VC. Ironically, JNU VC has taken to Twitter to say we are violating High Court judgment but has he forgotten that the same HC has asked him to meet the students and union and resolve the issues?"

Speaking to CNN-News18, JNU student Sai Balaji said: "The compulsory attendance policy was never part of Academic Council agenda nor was discussed in it."

Terming a number of warnings and actions by the administration as "illegal", Balaji said, "He (JNU VC) has threatened to take away hostels, cancel studentship, stop fellowships, which, for him to do, is illegal. This is clearly against JNU statutes. By threatening and not meeting students, the VC has forced students to come to the admin block to meet him and question him. However, he has been running away from meeting the students like he did from holding a declared academic council meeting."

Meanwhile, a statement issued by the JNU registrar on Thursday said that students had blockaded the administration block of the varsity and were even restricting officials, including two rectors, from exiting the building. The statement laid out that the protest was in violation of a court order that restricts such protests within 100 metres of the administration block.

"It is directed that no protest of any sort shall be undertaken by the students within 100 metres radius of the administrative block," the court order said, adding that the administration could seek the help of police to maintain order on the campus.

In a series of tweets, VC Jagdeesh Kumar said: "As you can see from my past tweets, JNU administration including the VC, regularly meets the students for their inputs. Students can meet with appointment or can meet every first Monday of the month in the afternoon without any appointment. Even after JNU administration has promised to meet the JNUSU officer bearers, see how they have mistreated and shouted at the two rectors. All this against the attendance in University? Shouldn't such behaviour be condemned?

"JNUSU led students have confined top officials of JNU in admin building since 11 AM. When they tried to go out of admin building, they were shouted at and forced to go back into the building. Unbecoming of students. Shouldn't such behaviour be condemned? Taking the university to ransom by JNUSU led students and confining the top officials in admin building since morning is highly condemnable. Let us raise our voice against such unwelcome behaviour. You can see the pictures to realize how they are bent upon creating unrest in JNU," he said.

Taking the university to ransom by JNUSU led students and confining the top officials in admin building since morning is highly condemnable. Let us raise our voice against such unwelcome behaviour. You can see the pictures to realize how they are bent upon creating unrest in JNU. pic.twitter.com/gxDCmztVVy M. Jagadesh Kumar (@mamidala90) February 15, 2018

The JNU Teachers Association in a statement released on Monday had extended support to the students. The statement said: "JNUTA has serious reservations regarding the new system of mandatory attendance. Procedural lapses that have taken place in implementation of the new rules were in contrast to the democratic decision making processes of the university. After the general body meeting, several Centres and Schools, in addition to JNUTA, have expressed their grievances. However, instead of taking cognizance of these reservations, the JNU Administration has repeatedly sought to impose its decisions through coercion. Therefore, JNUTA urges the JNU administration to immediately start a dialogue with students and teachers."New Delhi: As Punjab National Bank named jewellery designer Nirav Modi as the prime accused in fraudulent transactions worth Rs 11,360 crore, heres a look at other billionaires of the country with a similar track record.

Vijay Mallya: The liquor baron faces several cases in India, where his companies have defaulted on loans of around Rs 9,000 crore from Indian banks. In March 2016, several banks approached the Supreme Court to stop Mallya from going abroad due to the money he owed them. He had, however, left by then. He is still in London and good times continue to be still rolling for him as a UK court just tripled his weekly allowance. He was arrested late last year hours after which he was given bail. He called the fuss around his arrest as usual Indian media buzz.

Lalit Modi: In 2010, Modi let out ownership details of Kochi IPL team, which was going to be a new addition to the series. He was sent show cause notices for breaching confidentiality and was sacked eventually. He fled to England citing threats to his familys safety. In 2011, his passport was revoked. The ED got a blue corner Interpol notice against him for breaching rules related to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) during the time he was the IPL chief. He continues to be in the UK and challenged the EDs notice in a London court.

Deepak Talwar: The Income Tax Department has filed five prosecution complaints against corporate consultant Deepak Talwar for allegedly receiving kickbacks worth hundreds of crores of rupees in individual and corporate bank accounts controlled by him and his family members in various tax jurisdictions, including tax havens, across the world. According to I-T officials, the investigation shows that undue favour was given to certain airlines and aviation companies under the supervision of senior officials in erstwhile UPA government. he fled India much before the cases could go anywhere. He is currently in UAE, where he has been barred from leaving the country.

Sanjay Bhandari: The I-T Department had been carrying out an investigation against Bhandari and the offset company in a tax evasion case when they stumbled upon the confidential papers and copies of documents of the defence ministry during the raids. The documents were allegedly related to defence purchases and proposals placed before the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC). There were also allegedly copies of minutes of the Contract Negotiation Committee meeting for purchasing refuellers. Earlier this year, a Delhi court declared controversial arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari as a proclaimed offender in an Official Secrets Act case related to the recovery of confidential documents of the Ministry of Defence from his residence during an IT raid in 2016. He is reported to have fled the country via Nepal.As Indias banking sector wakes up to yet another mega-crisis in the form of Punjab National Bank (PNB) reporting fraudulent transactions worth Rs 11,360 crore, jewellery designer Nirav Modi, the prime accused has left the country.

WHO IS NIRAV MODI?

Built brilliantly around a man, his metier, his art and extraordinary mastery of diamonds and above all, his passionate devotion to igniting feminity are the words that describe Nirav Modi and his brand as one surfs his website.

Hailing from Gujarat, Modi founded Firestar Diamond with a glitzy retail business in top cities of the world, including Delhi, Mumbai, New York, London, Hong Kong and Macau.

In 2015, US President Donald Trump inaugurated his first store in New Yorks Madison Avenue. Modis expanding retail market has made him one of the youngest Indians in the Forbes Billionaires List 2017.

The billionaire businessman grew up in Belgium, known as the centre for international refined diamond trade. Education was never Modis plan as he dropped out of Wharton Business School and moved to India to train in the diamond trade under his uncle.

Several years later, he founded the Nirav Modi jewellery brand. With an enviable celebrity clientele, Modis designs have been flaunted by both Bollywood and Hollywood A-listers, including Priyanka Chopra, Aishwarya Rai and Kate Winslet.

His exquisite pieces are worth anywhere between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 50 crore. Modi later started his company Firestar Diamond in Mumbai in 1999 to source rare diamonds and later began manufacturing.

In 2014, with his entourage of skilled craftsmen and designers, he launched his high-end flagship boutique under his name in Delhi that has now spread its wings to Mumbai, Delhi New York, Hong Kong and London.

His website reads Arts and craftsmanship are the guiding lights for the brand and the designs are inspired by his passion for travel, art and nature.

Last year, Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra was also made the global ambassador for the Nirav Modi brand.

The CBI had also surveyed the offices of Gitanjali Group  one of the largest diamond companies in India and a listed jewellery retailer promoted by Choksi  in connection with the investigation.

His designs have been worn at the Oscars by 'Hidden Figures' star Taraji P. Henson and to the Golden Globes by Dakota Johnson, among others.

In 2015, Lisa Haydon and Nimrat Kaur were chosen to launch the designer's store in New York City. Steven Spielberg and Sharon Stone have also bought the jeweller's creations in the past.

In 2016, Modi purchased the iconic Rhythm House in Mumbai.New Delhi: Under attack from the Congress over a Rs 11,400 crore scam allegedly involving designer Nirav Modi, the BJP on Thursday said no one involved in the Punjab National Bank(PNB) fraud case would be spared and the investigation was proceeding at a rapid pace.

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also clarified that Nirav Modi was not part of the delegation to Davos led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and had reached there on his own.

Addressing a press conference at the party office, he rejected the Congress' allegation that the prime minister had a private meeting with Nirav Modi.

The senior BJP leader said the tax payer's money would not be allowed to go waste.

"I wish to make it very clear on the behalf of the government that no one who has sought to derail ordinary banking system shall be spared, regardless of any individual's stature and status," Prasad told reporters.

State-owned Punjab National Bank yesterday(Wednesday) said that it had detected a scam worth about Rs 11,400 crore -- where Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from a branch in Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

Accusing the government of doing nothing to stop "independent India's biggest bank fraud" despite being informed of it, the Congress today(Thursday) released a picture of Nirav Modi with the business delegation accompanying the prime minister to Davos at the World Economic Forum meet last month.

The party also released a copy of a complaint by a Bangalore resident Hari Prasad, seeking early action against Nirav Modi and his business partner Mehul Choksi, that it said was acknowledged by the Prime Minister's Office on July 26, 2016.New Delhi: A 28-year-old Calicut resident, who was four months pregnant, was forced to go for an abortion after two CPM activists allegedly kicked her in the stomach which damaged her placenta.

The victim, Jyotsana Siby, said that her baby was born dead after the accused, Thampi and Prajesh, allegedly assaulted her.

I started bleeding and was in immense pain. My husband rushed me to a hospital where the doctors informed us that there was blood clot in my placenta, following which they had to conduct an operation on February 2. The doctors gave us our dead baby, whom we cremated in Mavoor. Even then their threats did not stop, the victim was quoted as saying by Times Now.

Siby was alleged kicked by the men following a dispute over boundary walls.

We had a problem with our neighbours regarding the boundary wall. They used to threaten us, even late at night, and also used foul language. I had filed a complaint at the police station regarding the matter, she said.

On the day of the incident, a person named Syedhalavi came and said that he had some problem with my husband, Siby Chacko Thenumkuzhy. I immediately alerted the police that there were eight people here who might create a ruckus. By the time anyone could come to our rescue, the men had assaulted everyone, including my children, the 30-year-old said, adding that the police officers refused to help her citing lack of vehicles at the station.

While the incident occurred 18 days ago, it came to light after Jyotsna and her husband sat on a dharna in front of the Kodancherry police station on Wednesday, demanding an action against the criminals.

Seven CPM activists, including a secretary of its branch committee in Kozhikode district, have been arrested in the case. Six persons, including Thettalil Thampi secretary of Kallatharamedu branch committee, surrendered at the Kodancherry police station on Thursday morning. Another one connected to the case was arrested on Wednesday.

According to the woman, the CPM activists had also threatened to chop off the legs of her husband, if she did not withdraw the complaint.Two young pilots of the Indian Air Force died when their microlight aircraft crashed near the river island of Majuli in Assam, said Defence PRO Harsh Wardhan Pande.

Wing commanders Jai Paul James and D Vats suffered fatal injuries in the crash.

The aircraft took off from the Jorhat air base on Thursday on a routine bird recce sortie. The wreckage was found at Sumoi Mari village near Majuli, south of Kamalabari. Air Commodre S K Verma, Air Officer Commanding (AOC) of Jorhat based Air Force Station said that a court of inquiry has been ordered to investigate the cause of the accident.For any designer, whether a veteran or someone comparatively new to the fashion world, showcasing at an international fashion event is like a dream come true.

Hailing from the city of Nagpur, designer Vidhi Wadhwani, 32,  among the few Indian designers who have found their way into the global market, the only Indian and one of the two Asians to be showcasing at this years London Fashion Week (LFW)  will be presenting her collection Solstice from her eponymous label on February 16.

When asked if it was a dream come true to be showcasing at LFW, Vidhi said in a telephonic conversation with News18.com, Yes it is. In fact, it will be more than a dream coming true when I get appreciation from the fashion industry both in India and outside.

Speaking about what prompted or inspired her to get into designing, Vidhi revealed that she realised she had a talent for creating beautiful textures out of plain fabrics by way of her innovative and unique techniques, and thats something she thought was new that she could bring to the fashion market.

I didnt expect this. I debuted with my show at LFW Spring/Summer 17, and after that everythings just been happening on its own, said the designer on being asked about her journey. I kept working on what my signature was (hand-crafted 3D textures), since I did not want to deviate from it. The originality and our signature creations helped us to create our own niche and be recognised in the market, she added.

Talking about the inspiration behind Solstice, Vidhi said, The play of light against darkness, the textures and the shadows that we have created, we have done a lot of beautiful sheers, organza that we have hand block-printed in, we have created a beautiful 3D, shadowy effect on the clothes that we have put it on, that kind of inspired the whole thing. The metallic elements with the sheer fabric, that put together has been the inspiration.

Vidhi explains that since her collection features a lot of separates that can be paired with different creations to create a completely different look, her muse for the collection is a woman who creates her own style, who likes to experiment, someone who is sure of her identity, one who does not conform to stereotypes and adapts to her collection according to her own sensibilities.

This season we have kept it very edgy and straight. We have done a lot of sheers and cut work. The silhouettes are easy, comfortable and wearable, not very drastic, since we have worked more on the textures and prints, Vidhi said on being asked about the silhouettes that we can expect to see in her collection. The collection will feature a lot of bright yellows against blacks and whites, metallic applique done against very transparent fabric, a lot of sheer dresses, garments with double layering (sheer on sheer) among other interesting elements.

Besides Solstice, if we speak in terms of her other creations, such is the power of her creativity and fantastic work, that Vidhi's creations have gradually found its way into the wardrobes of several Bollywood celebrities including Soha Ali Khan, Dia Mirza, Taapsee pannu, Richa Chadda among others. And although this isn't something that Vidhi is aiming for, she certainly acknowledges that a celebrity endorsement of any kind helps the brand.

Speaking about her collection gradually becoming a favourite among Bollywood celebrities, and her thoughts on celebrity endorsement of a brand, whether it takes away the focus from the collection or not, Vidhi said, Theres definitely a lot more awareness and attention given to a label when a celebrity wears its creation, but that said, thats not my focus, its not what I am aiming for.The Malayalam song Manikya Malaraya Poovi starring Priya Prakash Varrier is an overnight hit which has grabbed 3 million views in just 24 hours after release. But untouched by the fame the track has gained, the lyricist of the song is busy with his work in a grocery shop in Saudi Arabia capital Riyadh.

PMA Jabbar, is the man who wrote the song which comes under the genre mappilappattu, a popular song form among Muslims in Northern Kerala. Jabbar wrote the song in 1978 when he was 20. Jabbar was working as a madrassa teacher back then in Kerala's Thrissur. The song was a hit in its previous version also which was sung by Thalassery K Rafeeq, a familar voice on All India Radio and Doordarshan at that time.

Even though he is busy with his work in Saudi, Jabbar is very excited about the acceptance his song is getting. I am aware about the release of the song, and the popularity it's getting, I liked the music done by Shaan Rahman and the visualization by Omar Lulu, Jabbar said in an interview to a local daily.

I got to know there is some controversy around the song, we dont have to get bothered about it. Every time a new song or movie comes, people would come with different opinions, he adds.

Jabbar who belongs to Karappadanna of Thrissur district in Kerala has been working in different gulf countries for the last 20 years. He has written over 100 songs.

The song from upcoming movie Oru Aadaar Love was hit by a controversy after Raza academy raised an objection to the song terming it as an insult to Prophet Muhammad and his wife Hazrat Khadeeja. They have urged makers of the movie to remove it immediately from the movie stating that it would hurt the sentiments of Muslim across the world.

Despite threats from the fringe, director Omar Lulu said they wouldn't withdraw the song.

Meanwhile, this song was very common in marriages across the Malabar region till recently. Mappila songs are usually a mix of Malayalam, Arabi Malayalam, Urdu and Persian languages which was usually recited in cultural events. Mappila songs can usually be seen sang during oppana the traditional dance form among Kerala Muslims.

The controversy over the viral songs is completely uncalled for. The issue comes for those who can't take the literature in its real sense. If you find the song offensive then you have to say the first form Mapplipattu Muhyudheen Mala also should be banned," says Shafeeq Vazhippara a research scholar in Mappilattu from Aligarh Muslim Univesrity.

"Mappilas of Malabar have always accepted these kind of songs and found no offence in the past two centuries," says Vazhippara.

The Mappila Songs are a folklore Muslim song genre rendered to lyrics in the colloquial Mappila dialect of Malayalam laced with Arabic. It represents a distinct cultural indentity which remains closely linked to the cultural practices of Kerala.Pope Francis is heading to the big screen to talk life, the universe and everything in a rare Vatican-backed theatrical documentary, studio executives announced Wednesday. Written and directed by three-time Oscar nominee Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas and Buena Vista Social Club), Pope Francis -- A Man of His Word, opens in the US on May 18, Focus Features said. In the documentary, an almost unheard-of co-production with the Vatican and outside filmmakers, the pope addresses the audience directly, discussing immigration, ecology, wealth inequality and the role of the family.

"The film's direct-to-camera visual and narrative concepts engage the audience face-to-face with the pope, creating a dialogue between him and, literally, the world," a spokesman said in a statement, which added, "Taking questions from people of all walks of life, Pope Francis responds to farmers and workers, refugees, children and the elderly, prison inmates, and those who live in favelas and migrant camps."

The film shows the 81-year-old pontiff traveling the world, with footage of him speaking at the United Nations, addressing the US Congress and at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. He speaks to prisoners and to refugees in Mediterranean camps, and is shown visiting the Palestinian territories and Israel as well as Africa, South America and Asia.

"Pope Francis is a living example of a man who stands for what he says. In our film, he speaks directly to the viewer, very candidly and spontaneously," Wenders said in a statement when the project was first announced last year. "We wanted 'Pope Francis -- A Man of his Word' to be for all audiences, as the pope's message is universal."

Focus said Universal Pictures International will distribute the film overseas, although there were no immediate details on the global release schedule.

The former archbishop of Buenos Aires, born as Jorge Mario Bergoglio in the Argentine capital in December 1936, rose from modest beginnings to become the first Latin American leader of the 1.2 billion-strong Church.

Pope Francis made his big-screen debut last year, playing himself in a six-minute cameo role in the English-language children's adventure film Beyond the Sun.Unlike the general elections in India, elections in states do not see any drive for enrolment of displaced people more commonly called refugees in the states. This is even more obvious in north-east states, as three states of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland are going to polls on February 18 and 27 this month.

The Tibetan refugees in Dimapur, for instance, were informed by the Dimapur police to register online on or before March 31st without fail. This is to ensure that they do not engage themselves in voting or electoral process. Or for that matter involve in the political process or do not complicate the demography of the states that are sensitive to refugees or illegal immigrants in north-east India.

In 2013 , following Karnataka High Court order for granting Indian citizenship to children of Tibetan refugees born after 1950 and before 1987, the Election Commission of India directed all states to enroll children of Tibetan refugees born in India before this cut-off date in the electoral rolls. Reportedly though, Tibetans settled in India do not have the enthusiasm to do so. The Tibetan Settlement Office in Shillong has so far recorded zero names for application for Indian citizenship.

It is an individual choice, there is no force to anyone nor anyone is encouraged either, said Pema Dhondup, an official at the Tibetan Settlement Office in Shillong. So far I have not received any application, he said.

According to the Tibetan official, there are about 400  500 refugees in Shillong. The refugee population in northeast India is scattered, he said.

Unlike Tibetan refugees in other parts of India, for example in south India, where refugees lived in leased land allotted by the government it is not so in north-east India. Here in north-east states Tibetans refugees live on rent. Refugees basically come to north-east for earning, said Dhondup.

For acquiring Indian citizenship the person must surrender ones Tibetan citizenship, as there is no policy for dual citizenship. If a Tibetan applies for citizenship, he/she cannot retain his/ her identity as a Tibetan, said Dhondup. The challenge for them is that they have to surrender their Tibetan citizenship, as Tibetan administration is strictly against a policy of dual citizenship. One of the reasons for the Tibetans dislike or un-eagerness for seeking citizenship is that to be a Tibetan is far closer to their hearts than be an Indian citizen. For those inclined to the socio-politics of Tibet and for activist and political leaders to surrender their Tibetan citizenship is a surrender of their dignity and identity.

Minister of state for Home Kiren Rijiju has also reportedly stated that Tibetans are not seeking citizenship.

It is a different story for the Chakmas, Hajongs and Bru/ Reang refugees in north-east India.

Chakmas and Hajongs in north-east India are recognised as scheduled tribes, who are mostly inhabitants of Tripura, but a large section of the population is refugees in the north-east states. Over a lakh Chakmas and Hajongs were displaced from Chittagong Hill tracts in Bangladesh who fled in the early 60s (1963-64) when their lands and homes were submerged by Katai Dam built on Karnaphuli river in the hill tract. For more than 50 years or so, these new population of Chakmas and Hajong who fled from Bangladesh and came to India  in the north east region remain as refugees in these states, mostly in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and other parts.

Chakmas and Hajongs originally living in India are Indian citizens. This population even has representatives in state assemblies and local governance structures. Meanwhile, a large section of the population also lives in relief camps in southern Tripura due to tribal conflicts. These people number in thousands and take part in elections. The Election Commission sets up polling booths in relief camps.

Chakmas coming in from Bangladesh have been asking for citizenship rights in India: in places where they are settled in north-east India, such as Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and other north-eastern states.

The Central governments attempt to accommodate the Chakmas and Hajongs into the Indian electoral process has met with stiff opposition, mostly from Arunachal and Mizoram. The BJP governments recent move for implementing the Supreme Court Judgment (2015) to grant citizenships to Chakmas/ Hajong have not been taken lightly in states in north-east India.

Even as the SC ordered in 1996 to protect lives and properties of Chakmas, they remained stranded without state benefits let alone voting rights.

Kiren Rijiju has reportedly disapproved of the said citizenship to Chakmas. In September last year Rijiju stated that Chakmas cannot be given citizenship.

A rough estimate puts the number to a lakh of Chakma refugees living in Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram; while many of them have become citizens, many are still left to attain the status. Thus a large population is left with no voting rights.

Atul Chakma Namsai, who lives in Arunachal Pradesh, said The Centre and State must implement the Supreme Court (2015) order. We also want to enjoy full rights like other indigenous people.

According to Namsai, the Chakmas, who live outside the geographical purview of Autonomous District councils or who are denied citizenship, are poor and live with no support system.

He said, Those people face a lot of problems like unavailability of transport, medical support, education, road, electricity, etc. They are living on the assistance provided by Central and State governments.

But Atul Chakma Namsai is not a pessimist, he believes change is possible and that their condition will improve. Nothing is permanent, we will live with full rights and dignity one day, he said.

The Chakmas are fighting for their rights as legal citizens, said Namsai. We believe in peace and justice, he added.

The Citizenship (amendment bill) 2016 was recently passed by the central government. Rijiju though says it is un-implementable. While Arunachal Pradeshs Chief Minister Pema Khandu had expressed concern over the move grating full citizenship to Chakmas and Hajong, citing infringement on Tribal rights and demographic concerns which can be a potential case for unrest and conflict.

Pema Khandu had also written to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to ensure that special rights of the tribes of Arunachal Pradesh are safeguarded.

Apprehension over citizenship rights, voting rights and its subsequent repercussion have already been felt in various states in north-east India. Student Bodies in Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram have protested and also consistently pressured and send representation to the Central government to review and rethink over granting citizenship to the Chakmas and Hajongs. Meanwhile these student bodies have also claimed that the Chakma population has increased manifold over the recent years, claiming that there is huge influx of illegal migrants into the states (in north-east India). The influx though includes not only the Chakmas or Hajongs but people from countries like Bangladesh and Myanmar as well.Lucknow: Members of the district committee of the Congress in Allahabad have suggested the name of Priyanka Gandhi as the probable candidate for the by-election for the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat.

The name was unanimously suggested after a meeting in Allahabad on Wednesday. The final decision, however, will be taken by the party high command.

The district general secretary of Congress, Haseeb Ahmad, said, An important meeting of district congress committee took place and I along with Congress workers proposed the name of Priyanka Gandhi to our district president for Phulpur by-election.

We suggested her name as this was the first parliamentary seat of Jawaharlal Nehru. The proposal has been sent to the top leadership for final decision in this regard, he added.

Speaking on the issue, the former state spokesperson of Congress, Abhay Awasthi Baba, said that the proposal was sent keeping in mind the sentiments of the workers. If this proposal is accepted by the top Congress leadership, then this will be a good start for the party for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Phulpur seat which was vacated by Keshav Prasad Maurya when he was picked as the deputy chief minister after elections last year, was once considered a strong hold of Indian National Congress and had also sent Indias first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to the Parliament. Not just Nehru, both Indira Gandhi and VP Singh had won from Phulpur and went on to become Prime Minister.

Candidate selection will be the key when Phulpur votes on March 11, while the last date of the nomination is February 20. The constituency will share the spotlight with Gorakhpur, the Lok Sabha seat vacated by CM Yogi Adityanath. The counting of votes will be held on March 14.New Delhi: As Jats and Muslims in Muzaffarnagar come together to hold Mahapanchayats, with an aim to amicably resolve riot-related cases, one of Western UPs top political figures is eyeing an opportunity.

With local Jat activists voicing resentment against local BJP MP and former Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Chaudhary Ajit Singh spent two days in the riot-torn district.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, which were conducted in the aftermath of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, RLD failed to win even a single seat. Ajit Singh lost his own seat of Baghpat, a seat once represented by his father Chaudhary Charan Singh the only Jat to ever hold the office of Prime Minister.

The main reason for RLDs poll debacle was that Jats, the partys core vote base, deserted their Chaudhary and voted in droves for the BJP. In 2017, the party continued to scrape the bottom of the barrel. It won just one out of 131 seats on which it contested elections. The one seat was the partys bastion of Chhaprauli in Baghpat district.

During these Mahapanchayats, Jats and Muslims, to recreate communal harmony, shouted both Allah-o-Akbar and Har Har Mahadev slogans. On Wednesday, Jat activist Vipin Singh Balyan shared a video of Ajit Singh, surrounded by both Jats and Muslims, shouting both slogans.

Chaudhary Sahib appreciated our efforts at trying to bring both communities, which had been split as a result of the riots. He was happy to see that the wounds are healing, he said.

Ajit Singhs latest visit has thrown Muzaffarnagars political circles into a tizzy. There is now talk of Singh contesting the 2019 polls from the communally sensitive seat and build upon the Jat-Muslim social coalition that is currently in its infant stages. He may vacate his ancestral seat of Baghpat for his son Jayant Chaudhary, who was the MP from Mathura before he lost to BJPs Hema Malini in 2014.

When asked if Chaudhary Sahib is mulling a move to Muzaffarnagar, a party source close to the leader said, Nothing is final yet. He spent two days in Muzaffarnagar, seeing what the situation there is. We first have to see how the field develops before taking any radical decisions.

Muzaffarnagar was once the home of iconic farmer leader Mahinder Singh Tikait, the founder of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) and Chaudhary of the powerful Balyan Khap. Tikait built a powerful pro-farmer movement on the back of support from both Jats and Muslims. Ajit Singhs own father, Chaudhary Charan Singh, drew huge support from Muslims and ascended the high chair in Delhi. Many believe that at the age of 79, 2019 will likely be Ajit Singhs last election and Chaudhary Sahib would like to retire from politics with a bang.New Delhi: With the Karnataka Assembly elections just months away, wars over history seem to be breaking out periodically between the ruling Congress and opposition BJP in the state.

After a clash over celebrating the legacy of Tipu Sultan, the two parties are now clashing over the medieval Bahmani Sultnate that endured for around 180 years.

The Bahmani Sultanate and the Hindu-ruled Vijayanagar Empire were at war with each other for around two centuries. But if the accounts of medieval Persian historian and traveler Ferishta are to be believed, the southern Islamic kingdom may have had a secular origin.

During the last years of Muhammad Bin Tughlaq, the Sultan of Delhi, the grasp of Delhi over several of its provinces started to weaken. Out of this chaos emerged the Vijayanagar Empire, under a Hindu king in 1336, and the Bahmani Sultanate around a decade later, in 1347.

Immediately, the two kingdoms waged wars against each other. A military officer of the Delhi Sultanate, a man by the name of Hasan Gangu, formed for himself an independent kingdom in the city of Daulatabad and called it the Bahamani Sultanate.

But why the kingdom came to be known as Bahmani has some interesting theories. While some medieval accounts claim Hasan Gangu was a descendant of the Persian king Bahman, Ferishta rejects the notion. Hasan Gangu, Ferishta said, was an Afghan by origin.

Instead, Ferishta has a different story to tell. Hasan started out as a simple farm laborer in the fields of a Brahmin landlord by the name of Gangu. One day, Ferishta says, Hasan was tilling the land when he found buried in the soil a large copper pot filled with gold coins. Instead of making off with the gold, Hasan took the gold to his master. The Brahmin was stunned by Hasans honesty and immediately made a bhavishyavaani (prediction)  Hasan would one day be King.

Gangu the Brahmin then took Hasan to the Sultan and told him of the farm laborers honesty. The Sultan must reward Hasan, Gangu demanded. The Sultan then elevated the simple farm hand to the rank of captain in his army and named him Hasan Gangu in honor of the Brahmin master.

Years later, when Hasan himself would become Sultan, he would take on the regal title Sultan Abul Muzaffar Alauddin Bahman Shah and the kingdom was named the Bahmani Sultanate. The word Bahman, according to Ferishta, was a corruption of the word Brahmin  a nod to Hasans old Brahmin master.New Delhi: Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang has said that doors for an alliance between his party Naga People's Front (NPF) and BJP would still open if the latter doesn't try to impose a religion in the state.

"There is no difference between BJP and NPF," Zeliang told the Indian Express, adding, "But as far as culture and religion is concerned, if they try to dominate, it is the wrong agenda and is the wrong concept...Only the concept to dominate the religion should not come in, the culture should not be disturbed."

NPF has been a regional ally of the BJP in Nagaland for over a decade-and-a-half. But this time BJP decided to ally with another regional party - the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) - after talks with the NPF over seat sharing broke down.

In an interview to News18, BJP general secretary and the person in-charge of party's affairs in the North East, Ram Madhav had confirmed that his party hadn't got into an alliance with the NPF owing to differences in seat sharing.

Zeliang is not the first member from this party to have issued warning to the BJP on the issue of religion.

The NPF president and former CM of the state, Shurozelie Liezietsu, in a poll speech in the state quoted Article 25 of the Constitution that assures every citizen the right to practise their own religion, which he said was under threat because of the saffron party. Liezietsu also spoke of the Centres failure to grant Baptist World Alliance leader Revend Paul Msiza a visa to visit Meghalaya, and talked about the murder of Christian missionary worker Graham Staines, who killed by Bajrang Dal members.

The issue of the perceived cultural dominance by BJP has been raked up in the poll bound state, of which over 90% population is Christian, several times in the run up to elections scheduled later this month.

It was only last week that the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) issued a warning to the locals asking them to choose between 'Trishul' and 'Cross'.

The state's biggest church organisation said that "the Hindutva movement in this country has become unprecedently strong and invasive in the last few years with the BJP."

The open letter described the saffron party as destroying Christianity in the country and said that since it came to power in the centre, the country had seen "worst persecution of minority communities" in India.Mumbai: Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray is set to meet Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis at the latters residence on Thursday. This is the first response from the Sena after desperate attempts were made by the BJP to woo back its old ally.

Highly placed sources say the duo is likely to have a closed-door, one-on-one meeting. After three rounds of meetings that the BJP had with us, this seems logical. A meeting between both leaders is important, a Shiv Sena leader told News18.

The Sena is officially stating the reason behind the meet being about the Nannar oil refinery. The right-wing party has been opposed to the refinery in coastal Maharashtras Ratnagiri district. Uddhav Thackerays office has said that he will meet the CM, along with locals from Nannar.

The meeting will take place at 7 pm, with the first round being about the refinery. After that, both Thackeray and Fadnavis are likely to hold the private, closed-door consultation.

Just a couple of days ago, the Sena had said that wasnt any possibility of a reconciliation with the BJP. It said that they were firm on fighting the coming elections single

Just two days ago, the Sena had refuted any possibility of reconciliation of alliance with BJP. It had said it is firm on fighting the coming elections single-handedly.Hyderabad: Putting the ruling party in a spot, the YSR Congress Party has asked Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to join hands for a united fight to get promised Special Category Status for the state.

YSR Congress President YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has appealed Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu to ask TDP MPs to quit en-masse, along with YSRCP MPs to mount pressure on the Centre.

The YSRCP MPs have threatened to resign on April 6th, if Special Status is not granted to the state.

TDP should join us in the resignations which would put the Centre into action mode. We need to put up joint fight and send out strong message to Centre with all 25 MPs from state resigning together, said Jagan Reddy.

Reiterating that Special Status was promised in the Parliament which was strongly advocated by BJP, Jagan said, That is the reason why we have given the slogan SCS is our right and do not get cheated with Special Packages. We will settle for nothing short of Special Status.

YSRCP has announced agitation at Collector offices on March 1st in all 13 districts. On March 3, the party leaders will flag off the rally to take the fight to national capital. YSRCP leaders would protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on March 5, when the Budget session will resume.

The TDP, however, had called resignations a drama. Denying any pressure on TDP, Diwaker Reddy, MP, said,YSRCP is only doing drama. The resignations will not get special status for the state.Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday demanded a thorough and time bound investigation into the fraud in state-owned Punjab National Bank.

She said that a scam of over 11,000 crore has taken place and the people's savings are not safe.

"Look what happened at Punjab National Bank. A scam of more than Rs 11,000 crore. People's savings are not safe. There must be a thorough, time bound enquiry," she said in a tweet.

In what could be the biggest banking fraud in India, PNB had yesterday said that it has detected a USD 1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400 crore) scam in which billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from one of its branches for overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

PNB has suspended 10 officers and referred the matter to the CBI for investigation.With Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland heading for polls, the BJP is eyeing an opportunity in the North East. Speaking to News18.coms Suhas Munshi, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav explained how his party plans to break the stranglehold of the CPI (M) and Manik Sarkar in Tripura, the situation in Nagaland after the poll boycott call and how in Meghalaya, the party plans to defeat the Congress government and get one step closer its vision of a Congress-mukt North East.

For most of North East, your primary poll pitch has been that of anti-corruption. Do you think that in a state like Tripura where Manik Sarkar enjoys an image relatively unstained by corruption allegations, a different strategy will have to be adopted?

The CPI (M) has assiduously built a false image, a facade of Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, outside Tripura. In reality, he has run a hinsachaari [violent], atyachaari [oppressive] and bhrashtachaari [corrupt], government in Tripura.

Violent politics, oppressive, and largely corrupt administration is what people have experienced in Tripura in all these years. So we have made this as our poll pitch - we have promised to the people of freeing them of hinsachaari, atyachaari and bhrashtachaari government, and providing them with a government that is committed to peace and development.

Why was BJP the first to walk out of the poll boycott call in Nagaland? Do you think that the boycott call was largely unpopular and ineffective?

The boycott call given by various groups in Nagaland, was for a larger cause that is the interest of Naga people. They wanted a solution to the Naga problem. BJP fully supports the initiative taken by the government in holding talks with NSCN (IM) for a solution to the Naga problem.

All that we conveyed to the people of Nagaland was that while we are in favour of an early solution to Naga problem but it cannot be linked with the elections. Election is a constitutional process. The government in state and centre is obligated to undertake this exercise, which is mandated by constitution. Solution and election should be delinked. We should reiterate our commitment to an early conclusion of agreement and BJP is committed to it.

Where does the plan of North-East mukt Congress stand vis-a-vis the three assembly elections in North East? How close will you be to the goal after these elections?

Out of the three states going to polls, Congress has a presence in only one state that is Meghalaya. It is a non-entity in Tripura and Nagaland. We are sure to be back in power in Nagaland. In Tripura, we are very hopeful to put an end to the seven-consecutive-term-misrule of CPI (M). This time we'll be able to form a government with help of our partner IPFT. And as far as Meghalaya is concerned, there will certainly be a non-Congress government in place. That way the one remaining state in Congresss clutches will also slip out.

Both NDPP and NPF wanted to ally with the BJP in Nagaland. What made you finally go with NDPP and shun your decade-and-a-half old regional ally?

It was essentially about sharing of seats. Our alliance with NPF was old, we have been together for decade-and-a-half. Ideally, we two would have been natural partners, in terms of seat sharing the two partners could not come to an understanding. As a result, we had to opt for an alliance with the other regional party.

Of the three NE states, which do you think will be the most challenging?

The Battle Royale is undoubtedly Tripura. Here is a state which has been under Marxist party rule for 25 years now. And the Marxists have mastered the art of manipulating elections. They have got cadres right down to police stations well. They are well-versed in manipulating electoral processes. For BJP it's a challenge to take on this machinery.

Your partner in Tripura, the IPFT, has been talking about a separate Tripuraland. Do you agree with the demand? Is there a clarity between the two parties on this issue? Do you think it may be an issue there, were you to win elections and come to power?

When we got together we decided to have a common understanding on issues and one of the primary issues was that we both together work for a united progressive Tripura.

There is no question of any division of the state. Tripura's territorial integrity is of paramount importance to both of us. While the territorial integrity issue has been committed to by both the parties, we also gave an assurance to tribals of Tripura that their social, economic and cultural problems, will be fully attended to and taken care of once our government is formed.Taking on Amazon, Google and Apple, Facebook is now set to officially roll out two smart home speakers in 2018. According to a report in Taipai-based website DigiTimes, the two models -- Aloha and Fiona with 15-inch touchscreens -- will be launched around July. "Supply chain sources said that Facebook was originally slated to release the devices in May, but has decided to reschedule the launch to allow more time for perfecting the acoustic quality of the gadgets and software modification," the report said on Wednesday.

Also read: LinkedIn Launches 'Scheduler' Feature to Ease Hiring Process

Designed by Facebook's Building 8 hardware lab, the Aloha model is reportedly more sophisticated than Fiona. "The Aloha model, to be marketed under the official name Portal, will use voice commands but will also feature facial recognition to identify users for accessing Facebook via a wide-angle lens on the front of the device," the report added.

Also read: Microsoft Commits $500 Million Over Next Two Years to New Startup Initiative

Facebook has signed music licensing contracts with Sony and Universal Music for smart home speakers. The Facebook move is going to further fuel the global smart speaker market. According to the market research firm Canalys, the global smart speakers market is likely to double to over 50 million units in 2018. Apple has launched "HomePod", Amazon has "Echo" smart home speaker series, while Google offers "Home" and "Home Mini".

Also Watch: Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro Review: Best Bang For Your Buck at Rs 13,999Since the last two years, Vivo India has had an exciting face as a brand ambassador to represent the company in India in the form of Ranveer Singh. The Bollywood superstar was seen in many of the advertisements of the Chinese smartphone maker and even attended a few launch events of its major smartphones. Having served his tenure for two years, Ranveer Singh is now no longer the brand ambassador of the company as per a recent release by Vivo India.

A statement recently released by Vivo India thanks Ranveer Singh for being an 'integral part' of the company's growth in India and displays optimism towards the future growth. The following is the statement released by Vivo India.

Ranveer Singh and Vivo India have had an exciting and productive association for the past two years. The relationship aided Vivo India in generating mass brand awareness that has set our products apart from the competition in the Indian smartphone market. The brand has evolved significantly since its launch in India and has aggressive consolidation plans that will boost future growth. Vivo India is thankful to Ranveer for being an invaluable and integral part of the Vivo India Journey so far.

Watch: Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro Review: Best Bang For Your Buck at Rs 13,999Since Xiaomi came to India, what peaked everyone's interest in the technology community in India was the Mi TV. But Xioami was waiting to become probably No. 1 to dip a toe in those waters. This week they finally obliged the Indian consumer with the Mi LED Smart TV 4 in India and they have competitively priced it at Rs 39,999. This promises to be a disrupter in the TV space in India or is it just like another TV offering from Xiaomi to test this market and move beyond smartphones in India? Now let's be honest here, a TV screen is not like a smartphone that one changes in 3-6 months. A television purchase is more of a family decision than an individual one. Also, people who buy TVs in India expect them to last at least 3 years before they plan to buy their next one. Consumers for whom money is not everything would probably not invest in a Mi TV simply because they can afford bigger and better television from Samsung and LG, so this smart TV caters to consumers that are looking to buy a smart TV in a budget. As we wrote earlier that we wanted them to launch the Mi TV back in 2013 when they entered the Indian market because at that time they could have the early mover advantage in this market for a smart TV. In 2018 you do even have players like Kodak offering you a smart TV with loads of functionalities at a similar or lesser price point. Also, if you are willing enough to spend Rs 39,999 for a Xiaomi Mi TV, you can also consider spending Rs 5,000 more on an LG TV that has a smart WebOS interface. Now, it won't be a 4K TV and even be of a smaller size (43-inch) but will definitely give you reliability. So, here's a list of things that you should know before you invest Rs 39,999 on the latest Xiaomi Mi TV.

The Remote

Unlike the conventional remotes that one has on TV's these days, the Xiaomi Mi TV 4 remote is something that's very different. Xiaomi was also once known as the Apple of China and the Mi TV remote has a lot of resemblance to the Apple TV remote. It's not a bad thing because though the remote on the Xiaomi Mi TV is a plastic one unlike a metal one that you get on an Apple TV, it does do the job really well. In fact, this is a remote that's just too easy to use once you get the hang of it. Also, Xiaomi says that you can use this remote for your DTH boxes like a TataSky one or a DishTV one, but for that, you'll have to separately buy an IR blaster cable adapter if you are not buying it first, to make it work. So that is an over and above spend with the Xiaomi Mi TV 4.

Is It Smart?

So the main thing that one needs to know about the Xiaomi Mi TV 4 is that it is not an Android-based TV at all. It comes with a PatchWall designed user interface and comes integrated with over 500,000 hours of content from video-on-demand providers. All owners are entitled to get a 3-month subscription to SonyLIV and Hungama Play, the Mi IR cable, and on-site installation for free as part of the launch offers. The Mi LED TV 4 has a 2USB Ports (1 USB 3.0 and 1 USB 2.0) and three HDMI ports. The boot time for the TV to start is also quite substantial, more than even the Kotak TV that I was using earlier which was an Android-based TV. The Mi TV 4 does connect with wi-fi seamlessly and connectivity is one of the best in a budget TV so far that I have seen.

Watch: Xiaomi Note 5 Pro Review

Netflix and Amazon Prime Video?

No, the Mi TV 4 does not come with Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. So what do you have to do if you don't want the only 3-month free subscription to SonyLIV and Hungama Play? Well, the one USB 3.0 port on the TV will come in handy. You will have to download an APK of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video App and install it on the MI TV via a USB drive. Now that is a tedious task for a person who's buying a smart TV for Rs 39,999 and will have to let go of the Netflix and Amazon Prime Video subscription. SonyLIV and Hungama Play are not bad for streaming content, but as we said they are not bad, but they are not Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. The only thing you can watch right off the user interface without being interrupted is just YouTube on the Xiaomi Mi Tv 4. You can play titles from Hungama and SonyLIV on the Xiaomi Mi TV 4, but all it offers you is a free 10-minute preview and then most of the titles you'll have to buy for three days at Rs 120. Now, the funny thing here is that we tried even buying them from Hungama, but the TV was just non-responsive and did not even take us to a sign-up or a payment gateway page for us to view.

Design and Sound Quality

Now there is no doubt in our mind that the Mi TV 4 is one of the best looking TVs for a price point of Rs 39,999. The 4.9 mm ultra thin frame is just beautiful and space saving but one just does not buy a TV for its looks. The sound on offer on the Mi TV 4 is quite ample and crisp despite being a thin designed TV. The TV does provide 4K HDR cinematic experience and a massive size of 55-inches but we would have loved to see some Netflix HDR content on it and not just Dunkirk on Hungama for 10 minutes.

Overall, Xiaomi has finally obliged to bring in the Xiaomi Mi Tv 4 to India. The TV is available starting February 22, 2018, on their online partners as well as Mi.com. Watch this space for the full review of the Xiaomi Mi TV 4.Berlin: German police are investigating a case of severe pizza stalking in the western town of Dortmund.

Police are looking for someone who bombarded a lawyer by sending scores of pizzas to his office.

They said Wednesday the annoyed lawyer pressed charges in January but told them he had no idea who was behind the unwanted food deliveries.

Local newspaper Ruhr Nachrichten named the lawyer as Guido Grolle, who told them he had already received over 100 pizzas.

Grolle says "its so irritating, I dont even get my work done anymore." He says sometimes notices about the first deliveries of the day pop up on his phone during his morning shower.

Lately, however, the anonymous buyer's tastes have changed: there have also been deliveries for sushi, sausage and Greek food.New Delhi: Pakistan has once again acted against 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed and his institutions, the Jamat-ud-Dawa and Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation by declaring them as terrorist entities.

This move is eerily similar to action taken exactly a year ago when Saeed was placed under house arrest on 30th Jan 2017.

The impetus for this decision is the upcoming meeting of the Financial Action Task Force or FATF which is a UN mandated body that looks at the financial networks of proscribed individuals and entities under various UN Sanctions Committees.

If the FATF finds the progress of countries on cracking down on these financial networks used by terrorist organizations tardy, then it can put such countries under a grey list or worse, under a black list. Then it becomes much harder for countries to access multilateral donor agencies and financial institutions to access money either for servicing their own sovereign debts or for international projects being undertaken in those respective countries.

Pakistan has about 3 billion dollars of debt which it has to service this coming summer, which explains why it doesnt want to be grey listed by the FATF.

Already, the US along with UK and France have said on record that they will move the FATF plenary meeting in Paris next week to grey list Pakistan. China could still bail out its all weather friend Pakistan but, unlike in the UN Security Council, no single member in the FATF enjoys veto power. It has to be a majority of five decision. This explains why Pakistan is scared and why it is now moving against the likes of Hafiz Saeed.

But heres the problem. None of these actions can be legally enforced by any international statutory body. The different agencies under the UN operate under the UN charter where it is up to the member states concerned to take action as they deem fit, in their national interest. So Pakistan cannot be ostracized or penally made to pay a price for allowing a UN proscribed man to get state patronage.

A classic example is the recent UNCLOS verdict in the dispute between China and Philippines over the disputed Scarborough Shoal or Huangyan Island. Though the UN tribunal ruled against China, China is under no legal obligation to implement the order. Hence, China can walk away as though nothing happened. The same applies to all UN agencies. The onus is on individual countries under the umbrella of the UN.

Though Hafiz Saeed has been proscribed since 2008, right after the 26/11 attacks, he continues to be a free man, despite brief periods of arrest or detention. Ultimately the Pakistani government through its prosecuting agencies does not show any resolve or intent to collect material evidence to justify legal action against Saeed. Thats why he gets away with reprieves from court, just like when he was released in late November last year.

But now with Trumps blunt talk and impending FATF action Pakistan is under pressure to show it is acting against proscribed individuals and entities. But the greater pressure is going to be domestically, the upcoming elections which could undercut Nawaz Sharifs party the PML(N) after his own dismissal by the Supreme Court last year. In an election year, no party can afford to be seen on the wrong side of the mullahs. Pakistan, as has always been its perennial bane, is once again caught between Allah and America. Which way will the third A, the Army go?Parkland: A 19-year-old gunman returned to a Florida high school where he had once been expelled for disciplinary reasons and opened fire with an assault-style rifle on Wednesday, killing 17 people and injuring more than a dozen others before he was arrested, authorities said.

The violence erupted shortly before dismissal at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, a placid, middle-class community about 45 miles (72 km) north of Miami. Television footage showed students streaming out of the building, many with hands raised in the air, as dozens of police and emergency services personnel swarmed the area.

The gunman was identified as Nikolaus Cruz, who previously attended the school and was expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said at a news briefing hours later.

As a high school freshman, Cruz was part of the U.S. military-sponsored Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corp program at the school, according to Jillian Davis, 19, a recent graduate and former fellow JROTC member at Stoneman Douglas High.

In an interview with Reuters outside the school, she recalled his "strange talking sometimes about knives and guns," adding, "no one ever took him seriously."

Chad Williams, 18, a senior at Stoneman Douglas, described Cruz as "kind of an outcast" who was known for unruly behaviour at school and was "crazy about guns."

The gunman surrendered to police without a struggle, Israel said. He was armed with an AR-15-style rifle and had multiple magazines of ammunition.

"It's catastrophic," Israel said. "There really are no words."

"It's a horrific situation," Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters separately.

U.S. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida told CNN the gunman wore a gas mask, was carrying smoke grenades and set off a fire alarm, prompting students to pour out of their classrooms into the hallways. "There the carnage began," Nelson said.

Twelve of the dead were killed inside the school, two others just outside, one more on the street and two other victims died of their injuries at a hospital, Israel said. He said the victims comprised a mixture of students and adults.

Authorities at two nearby hospitals said they were treating 13 survivors for bullet wounds and other injuries, five of whom were listed in critical condition.

The Valentine's Day bloodshed in the Miami suburb of gated communities with palm- and shrub-lined streets was the latest outbreak of gun violence that has become a regular occurrence at schools and college campuses across the United States over the past several years.

It was the 18th shooting in a U.S. school so far this year, according to gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety. That tally includes suicides and incidents when no one was injured, as well as the January shooting in which a 15-year-old gunman killed two fellow students at a Benton, Kentucky, high school. [nL2N1Q41ZC]

SCENES OF FEAR

Staff and students told local media that a fire alarm went off around the time the shooting started, sparking chaos as some 3,300 students at the school first headed into hallways before teachers herded them back into classrooms, to seek shelter in closets.

Kyle Yeoward, a 16-year-old junior, told Reuters he was in the bathroom on the second floor of a building when he heard two shots.

"He let loose on the freshman building," Yeoward said.

CBS News posted a brief clip of cell phone video footage the network said was taken from inside a classroom, showing what appeared to be several students. A rapid series of loud gunshots are heard amid hysterical screaming and someone yelling, Oh my God.

McKenzie Hartley, 19, who identified herself as the sister of a student at the school described the scene in a text message to Reuters: "She heard him shooting through the windows of classrooms and two students were shot."

Anguished parents checked on their children.

"It is just absolutely horrifying. I can't believe this is happening," Lissette Rozenblat, whose daughter goes to the school, told CNN. Her daughter called her to say she was safe but the student also told her mother she heard the cries of a person who was shot.

Televised images showed dozens of students, their arms in the air, weaving their way between law enforcement officers with heavy weapons and helmets, and large numbers of emergency vehicles including police cars, ambulances and fire trucks.

The school had recently held a meeting to discuss what to do in such an attack, Ryan Gott, a 15-year-old freshman told CNN.

"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting," U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter. "No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school."Florida: A 19-year-old shooter opened fire at a Florida high school on Wednesday, killing 17 people and injuring over a dozen others before being arrested. The bloodshed was the latest outbreak of gun violence that has become a regular occurrence at US schools and colleges.

Heres a list of other deadly school shootings in the US in the last 20 years:

Benton, Kentucky, January 23, 2018: A 15-year-old boy kills two fellow students, both also 15, at Marshall County High School in western Kentucky with a pistol and wounds 14 others. Four other high schoolers suffered non-gunshot wounds in the ensuing panic.

Aztec, New Mexico, December 7, 2017: A 21-year-old man disguised as a student enters the local high school, kills two students and then shoots himself to death.

San Bernardino, California, April 10, 2017: A man dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after killing his estranged wife at North Park Elementary School. An 8-year-old student is also shot to death.

Roseburg, Oregon, October 1, 2015: A man opens fire on the campus of Umpqua Community College, killing nine people before he is shot dead by police.

Marsyville, Washington, October 24, 2014: A freshman at Marysville-Pilchuck High School fatally wounds four students in the cafeteria before killing himself.

Santa Monica, California, June 7, 2013: A onetime digital media student fatally shoots his father and brother, sets their house on fire, and then kills three people at Santa Monica College. The gunman kills himself.

Newtown, Connecticut, December 14, 2012: A man fatally shoots his mother, then kills 20 children and six adults before killing himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Oakland, California, April 2, 2012: A former nursing student kills seven people and wounds three at Oikos University, a Korean Christian college.

Chardon, Ohio, February 27, 2012: Seventeen-year-old student at Chardon High School kills three students and wounds three in school cafeteria.

Huntsville, Alabama, February 12, 2010: A biology professor at the University of Alabama at Huntsville opens fire during a staff meeting, killing three faculty members and wounding three.

Dekalb, Illinois, February 14, 2008: A former graduate student kills five students and wounds 16 at Northern Illinois University before taking his own life.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, February 8, 2008: Nursing student at Louisiana Technical College kills two classmates and herself in a classroom.

Blacksburg, Virginia, April 16, 2007: A gunman slaughters 32 people and kills himself at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, popularly known as Virginia Tech.

Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, October 2, 2006: A gunman kills five girls in a one-room Amish schoolhouse, before killing himself.

Shepherdstown, West Virginia, September 2, 2006: A 49-year-old man shoots himself and his two sons to death during a visit to the campus of Shepherd University.

Red Lake Indian Reservation, Minnesota, March 21, 2005: A 16-year-old high school student kills seven people and wounds several others in a shooting rampage after killing two people off-campus. He then kills himself.

Cold Spring, Minnesota, September 24, 2003: Fifteen-year-old student fatally shoots a freshman and a senior at Rocori High School.

Tuscon, Arizona, October 29, 2002: A failing student shoots and kills three professors and then himself at the University of Arizona School of Nursing.

Grundy, Virginia, January 16, 2002: A recently dismissed graduate student kills a dean, a professor and a student at the Appalachian School of Law and wounds three others.

Santee, California, March 5, 2001: A student at Santana High School kills two students, wounds 13.

Littleton, Colorado, April 20, 1999: Two teenagers rampage through Columbine High School, fatally shooting 12 students and a teacher and wounding more than 20 others before killing themselves.

Jonesboro, Arkansas, March 24, 1998: Two boys, ages 11 and 13, fire on their middle school from woods, killing four girls and a teacher and wounding 11 others.New Delhi: Barely 52 hours before the mass shooting incident occurred at a Florida school, Parkland was listed as one of the safest cities in the United States.

According to NeighborhoodScout report, a web-based portal, Parkland in Florida is the 15th safest cities in the United States with only 19 violent crimes every year, a crime rate of 0.6 per 1,000 residents.

NeighborhoodScout, which includes custom analytics and reports for investing, appraising, and financing real estate, released its highly-anticipated annual list of the Top 100 Safest US Cities for 2018 on February 12.

The Safest Cities list compares the safety of cities with 25,000 or more people nationwide, based on the number of crimes reported and the population of each city.

NeighborhoodScout Reveals the Top 100 Safest Cities in the U.S. for 2018!Annual Crime Rates by City Highlight Continued Appeal of Coveted Bedroom Communities Across the Country--in Massachusetts, Illinois, and Beyond.https://t.co/TrUIZPCHKh pic.twitter.com/6Ehn0DlYXn NeighborhoodScout (@NhoodScout) February 12, 2018

The deadly incident is rare in the south Florida city, according to an analysis from the Washington-based National Council for Home Safety and Security.

The group said that just seven violent crimes were reported over the past year, and 186 property crimes took place in the city of 29,242 residents.

This city, tucked alongside the Everglade Wildlife Management Area on the east coast of Florida, is an affluent one thats intentionally designed to mimic a park, the council said on its website.

With tons of character and charm, it has been an increasingly popular place to live, experiencing a population boom of over 821% in 25 years. The city offers impressive cuisine choices, an extravagant Chinese Lantern Festival each year, and visitors can see the everglades by taking an Airboat Tour in the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, it said.

The gunman, armed with a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, was identified as Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old who had been expelled from the school, the authorities said. He began his shooting rampage outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in this suburban neighbourhood shortly before dismissal time around 2:40 pm. He then made his way inside and proceeded down hallways he knew well, firing at students and teachers who were scurrying for cover, the authorities said. The suspect, 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz, is in custody.London: An Indian-origin science teacher has been jailed for over four years after he pleaded guilty to placing cameras in toilets of three schools where he worked in southwest England.

Rahul Odedra positioned the cameras in cubicles and toilet roll holders to film dozens of women and girls using the facilities, the Gloucester Crown Court was told.

The 46-year-old was described by Judge Ian Lawrie as "not wholly bad, and not wholly good" as he sentenced him yesterday for "persistently and deliberately" carrying out his perverse compulsion.

Odedra had earlier pleaded guilty to one offence of attempting to possess an indecent image, two offences of possession of indecent images and 20 offences of voyeurism between 2009 and 2017.

"He would set it up in the lunch period and then take it down later," prosecutor Anjali Gohil told the court.

"No one goes to a toilet, locks the door and expects to be filmed for third parties to see," she added.

The judge agreed that it was a "gross breach of trust" and a "brazen" violation.

"You are facing the consequences of what is long held voyeuristic compulsion to look at females. A toxic secret with the consequence you are going to prison," he told Odedra.

"People's dignity should be respected. This was a carefully calculated intrusion into people's privacy. This is some of the worst examples of this type of offending. You caused immeasurable emotional harm to your victims," he noted.

The teacher, described as good at his job, was caught when a pupil noticed he was trying to film up her skirt and reported him. Police later seized 200 videos showing women or girls on the toilet or filmed up their skirts.

On analysis of the images, officers found that he had cropped and clipped the films he captured in the toilet so that he could watch back-to-back images of females "in the act of wiping".

Odedra's lawyer, Joseph Keating, told the court that his client is aware of seriousness of the offences, which were born out of an "interest in voyeurism".

"At the time of doing this, he had little comprehension of the impact on the victims as they were not physically harmed, but he now fully understands the lasting impact that will be hard to bear. He would like to apologise. He is deeply sorry for what he did," he said, adding that his client had lost "everything good in his life" as a result of the offences.

Besides the prison sentence, Odedra was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order and was ordered to sign the sex offenders' register for life.Islamabad: Pakistans Supreme Court on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for the country's former envoy to the US Husain Haqqani after he failed to appear before it in the 'Memogate' case.

The Memogate case is based on a 'memo' which Haqqani, who currently lives in the US, allegedly gave to a high-ranking American official in May 2011, seeking US help against possible military intervention.

Haqqani denied any role in the 'memo' but a judicial commission in 2012 held him responsible.

A case was also launched at the Supreme Court against him and he was forced to quit as Pakistan's Ambassador to the US.

Haqqani left the country in January 3, 2013 after a commitment with the court that he would come back to face charges but never returned.

Chief Justice Saqib Nisar on February 1 set up a three-member bench to take up the case.

During todays hearing, he said that Haqqani had submitted an undertaking before leaving for the US that he would appear before the court but has failed.

A court official said that Additional Attorney General Rana Waqar told the court that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has asked Interpol to issue a red warrant against Haqqani.

He also informed the court that the FIA needs an arrest warrant issued by the court to proceed against Haqqani.

The bench accepted the plea and issued the arrest warrant against him.

It is however unlikely that he would return or handed over by the US authorities to Pakistan.

Haqqani said recently that he would not return to face the case.Johannesburg: A politically-connected business dynasty that moved to South Africa from India, the Gupta family finds itself at the centre of many of the scandals that have dogged President Jacob Zuma's administration.

A day after the ruling ANC ordered Zuma out of office, the Guptas' prominent role in his presidency was highlighted on Wednesday as elite crime-busters raided the family's mansion in Johannesburg.

Who are the Guptas?

The family is headed by Ajay, Atul and Rajesh ("Tony") Gupta, three brothers from the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Led by Atul, they arrived in South Africa in 1993 as white-minority apartheid rule crumbled, a year before Nelson Mandela won the country's first democratic elections.

As the country opened up to foreign investment, the Guptas -- previously small-scale businessmen in India -- built a sprawling empire involved in computers, mining, media, technology and engineering.

The New Age, an ardently pro-Zuma newspaper, was launched in 2010, and the 24-hour news channel ANN7 took to the airwaves in 2013 with a similar editorial slant.

They had developed close links with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party focussing particularly on Zuma, well before he became president in 2009.

What ties the Guptas to Zuma?

Zuma's son Duduzane was a director of the Gupta-owned Sahara Computers, named after their hometown of Saharanpur, and has been involved with several of the family's other companies.

Zuma's third wife Bongi Ngema and one of his daughters have also been in the employ of the Guptas.

Former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas claimed in March 2015 that the Guptas had offered him the post of finance minister, in return for obeying the family's instructions -- for which he would allegedly be paid 600 million rand ($50 million).

Backbench ANC lawmaker David van Rooyen was then revealed to have visited the Guptas' home the night before his brief appointment as finance minister on December 9, 2015.

Both the Guptas and Zuma, who has described the brothers as friends, deny any wrongdoing.

Tied in knots

Perhaps one of the most colourful Gupta-linked incidents related to a family wedding in 2013.

Public anger erupted after it was revealed that a jet carrying 217 foreign guests to a Gupta wedding landed at Waterkloof Air Force base, outside Pretoria.

The airport is a military facility normally used for receiving heads of state.

It appeared that Zuma, who was the guest of honour, had tacitly approved the decision, which breached air force and customs and immigration rules.

There were also allegations that the law was broken when the guests were given a police "blue light" escort.

- What about their businesses? -

The Gupta business empire has been repeatedly accused of securing deals with South Africa's giant state-owned companies on wildly favourable terms.

South Africa's ethics watchdog, the Public Protector, published a damning report in October 2016, finding that the state-owned electricity monopoly had awarded a massive coal order to a then-Gupta linked business at well above market prices.

The report also alleged that former mining minister Mosebenzi Zwane "travelled to Switzerland with the Guptas to help them seal the deal" to buy a struggling coal mine.

The family is mentioned 232 times in the report, entitled "State of Capture" because of the influence that the Guptas are alleged to have exerted on some branches of the state.

What now?

In recent years, major banks have withdrawn their facilities to the Gupta family, complicating the payment of salaries to staff and the day-to-day running of a complex, cash-intensive business empire.

India's Bank of Baroda, thought to be the last major bank to continue its relationship with the Guptas in South Africa, recently announced it would withdraw from the country, effectively ending its association with the controversial family.

They also face the prospect of a judge-led inquiry into their business dealings, as recommended by the public protector's report.

Life after South Africa?

One of the biggest scandals in South Africa is over a scheme that allegedly siphoned millions of dollars from a black-empowerment agriculture project.

Further arrests in this case could spell the end for the family's foothold in South Africa, commentators predict. Since pressure began to mount on the Guptas, they have been reported to be moving their base to DubaiWashington: President Donald Trump's travel ban targeting people from six Muslim-majority countries violates the U.S. Constitution by discriminating on the basis of religion, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday in another legal setback for the policy.

The Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, on a 9-4 vote, became the second federal appeals court to rule against the ban, finding that the Republican president's own words demonstrated that bias against Muslims was the basis of the policy.

The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the ban, put in place by Trump with a presidential proclamation in September, to go into effect while litigation challenging it continues.

The 4th Circuit ruling went further than the earlier decision by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which found the ban violated federal immigration law but did not address the question of whether it also violated the Constitution. The Supreme Court already has said it will consider both issues in deciding the legality of the ban in the coming months.

The justices are due in April to hear arguments over the ban and issue a ruling by the end of June.

"Examining official statements from President Trump and other executive branch officials, along with the proclamation itself, we conclude that the proclamation is unconstitutionally tainted with animus toward Islam," 4th Circuit Chief Judge Roger Gregory wrote in the ruling.

The travel ban challengers "offer undisputed evidence of such bias: the words of the President," Gregory wrote, noting Trump's "disparaging comments and tweets regarding Muslims."

As a candidate, Trump promised "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." The court also took note of the fact that Trump in November shared on Twitter anti-Muslim videos posted by a far-right British political figure.

In the main dissenting opinion, Judge Paul Niemeyer said the courts should be deferential to the president on matters of national security. Niemeyer criticized the majority, saying his colleagues applied "a novel legal rule that provides for the use of campaign-trail statements to recast later official acts of the president."

Trump's policy, the third version of the ban that he has issued since taking office in January 2017, blocks entry into the United States of most people from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Trump has said the policy is needed to protect the United States from terrorism by Islamic militants.

Thursday's ruling upheld a Maryland-based district court judge's decision in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents several advocacy groups including the International Refugee Assistance Project.

"President Trump's third illegal attempt to denigrate and discriminate against Muslims through an immigration ban has failed in court yet again. It's no surprise," ACLU lawyer Cecillia Wang said.Max Charles, second from right, 14, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., speaks to members of the media after being picked up by family members at a nearby hotel in Coral Springs, Florida. (Image: AP)An police officer tells parents waiting at Coral Springs Drive and the Sawgrass Expressway to go to the Marriott hotel to meet up with their kids following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. (Image: AP)A couple takes a selfie in front of Love Lock" fence, the symbol of undying love with God, near the National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help in Paranaque city, as part of Valentine's Day celebrations, Metro Manila, Philippines. (Image: Reuters)Acting President Hon. Advocate Nelson Chamisas statement on the death of a patriot, a national hero and the peoples icon, President Morgan Richard Tsvangirai.

From humble beginnings, a giant was born. President Morgan Tsvangirai was a champion of the workers struggle, a doyen of democracy, a diplomat and a statesman---all rolled into one.

Zimbabwe, Africa and indeed the world will always remember yesterday 14 February 2018 as a black Wednesday.

Our iconic leader and gallant son of Zimbabwe, President Morgan Richard Tsvangirai passed on at a South African infirmary yesterday around 5pm.

The party is at a loss for words. As a leadership, we are all still struggling to come terms with the death of this great patriot who nurtured some of us and became a pathfinder in the countrys struggle for democracy.

It may have been befitting that he die on Valentines Day to signify the boundless love that he had for his country and its people.

His death is not only a loss to the Tsvangirai family.

It is a loss to the party and to Zimbabwe.Parliament has summoned Home Affairs minister Obert Mpofu and other high-ranking bureaucrats who served under former president Robert Mugabes administration as the legislative assembly continues to seek answers to the controversy surrounding the missing diamond revenue estimated at a staggering $15 billion.



The Daily News can report that Mpofu, who was the minister of Mines and Mining Development from February 2009 to September 2014, will appear before the parliamentary portfolio committee on Mines and Energy, chaired by independent legislator for Norton, Temba Mliswa, on Monday.



Also scheduled to appear before the same committee is Mpofus successor Walter Chidakwa who served in the same portfolio between September 2014 and November 2017, along with former Finance minister Ignatius Chombo and ex-commissioner-general of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, Augustine Chihuri.



Mliswa confirmed yesterday that Mpofu, along with Chidakwa, Chihuri and Chombo would give evidence on Monday.



We have invited the minister to come on Monday to appear before the committee to give an insight into what could have transpired not only regarding the missing $15 billion but also to explain issues around how licences were given to mining companies and what the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC)s role was in all this, said the independent legislator for Norton constituency.



After him, Chidakwa will also appear along with (officials from) the diamond mines (that operated in Chiadzwa) and people such as Ignatius Chombo and others, including Chihuri whose names have been mentioned regarding diamond money, he added.



There are many people who were involved in diamond mining and the responsible ministers during this time were Mpofu and Chidakwa . . . and they should be able to help shed light on the diamond operations, Mliswa said.



In 2016, Mugabe made startling claims that his government could not account for a jaw-dropping $15 billion lost through nefarious activities by players involved in the extraction of the gems in Chiadzwa.









Weve not received much from the diamond industry at all. I dont think weve exceeded $2 billion, yet we think more than $15 billion has been earned, Mugabe told the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation television on the occasion of his 92nd birthday.





Long before Mugabe had made the claims, an international diamond watchdog campaigning against blood diamonds had released a damning report in 2012 alleging that more than $2 billion worth of diamonds had been salted away from the Chiadzwa fields.





Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) also claimed that Mugabes inner circle, together with some international dealers and a large network of criminals, had connived in the biggest single plunder of diamonds the world has seen since Cecil Rhodes.





Maranges potential has been overshadowed by violence, smuggling, corruption and most of all, lost opportunity.





The scale of illegality is mind-blowing and has spread to compromise most of the diamond markets of the world, PAC alleged in its report titled: Reap What You Sow  Greed and Corruption in Zimbabwes Marange Diamond Fields.





The fields in Chiadzwa or Marange are considered to be one of the worlds biggest deposits of diamonds.





They are located in Manicaland Province, a few kilometres outside the mountainous City of Mutare.

While the gems were discovered decades ago, a diamond rush only ensued in 2006, resulting in Mugabes government deploying the military to restore order.

There were reports that several lives were lost during clashes between the army and diamond panners.





At the height of organised mining in Marange, Mbada Diamonds, Marange Resources, Anjin Investments, Diamond Mining Company, Kusena and Gye Nyame were some of the companies that were involved in the extraction of the gems in conjunction with ZMDC.





These were later forced to vacate the diamond fields after their licences had expired.

Some of the companies took their cases to the courts while the rest were collapsed into the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company, owned by government.





During a recent debate in the National Assembly on the National Budget, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa dismissed Mugabes claims saying it was impossible that Zimbabwe could claim to have lost $15 billion when the whole worlds diamond sector produces $15 billion worth of diamonds annually, with Africas biggest diamond producer, Botswana, producing about $2 billion worth of the gems annually.





As far as he was concerned, Mugabe spoke figuratively and any analytical or scientific mind should have dismissed his claims as a non-issue.





Earlier, presidential spokesperson George Charamba had heaped the blame on the media for not appreciating the metaphor used by Mugabe to express his disgust at the

opaque nature of diamond operations in Chiadzwa.





Despite spirited attempts by government bureaucrats to dismiss claims that Zimbabwe lost $15 billion worth of diamond revenue through underhand deals, Parliament is not giving up on its attempts to get to the bottom of the matter.





The planned appearances before Parliament of Mpofu, Chihuri, Chombo and Chidakwa come as President Emmerson Mnangagwas government is upping the ante in its fight against corruption.

In December last year, Mnangagwa gave a three-month moratorium to those who externalised funds and assets to bring them back into the country or face prosecution.





Many however, doubt if the new administration has the political will to follow through leads relating to the leakages blamed for the missing diamond revenue.





These fears seemed to have been confirmed by Chinamasa when he ruled out that $15 billion could have slipped through governments fingers, suggesting Mugabe could have mentioned the figure as part of figurative speech.





One of Mugabes closest allies, former Higher and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo sarcastically applauded Mnangagwas pledge to fight corruption as a good start but went on to encourage him and his deputy (Retired) General Constantino Chiwenga to return the missing $15 billion from China.





Posting on his micro blogging Twitter account Moyo said, Good start indeed. So let him & Chiwenga lead by example by returning the $15 billion from China! Daily NewsGet the news faster.

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XSix out of 10 Koreans now have at least one meal a day on their own, and that increases the risk of obesity.

The findings come from analysis by Lee Haeng-shin at the Korea Health Industry Development Institute of public health data by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2013 to 2015.

Lee found that 36.3 percent Koreans eat breakfast alone, 25 percent lunch and 19.1 percent dinner. Some 63.2 percent had at least one meal per day alone, while 52 percent of singles eat all three meals alone. Obesity among people who ate all three meals alone was 34.7 percent, 1.4 times higher than the 24.9 percent among those who ate all three meals in company.

Many lonely eaters live an isolated life, so it is hard to break the pattern.(Newser)  Stormy Daniels is now free to tell her story after President Trump's personal lawyer violated a non-disclosure agreementand she plans to do so, her manager says. Gina Rodriguez says Daniels believes lawyer Michael Cohen violated the NDA by admitting he paid the porn star $130,000 before the 2016 election after she talked about disclosing her alleged 2006 affair with Trump. In another possible breach, the Daily Beast reports that Daniels will be mentioned in a book Cohen says he is writing about his role in the Trump campaign. "Everything is off now, and Stormy is going to tell her story," Rodriguez tells the AP. In a statement issued through a publicist last month, Daniels denied having an affair with Trump, though she hinted she was bound by an NDA in a Jimmy Kimmel Live appearance the same day.

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Rodriguez says Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, will soon announce when she plans to go public with her story. Legal experts, meanwhile, say Cohen's story that he made a $130,000 payment to Daniels out of his own pocket without being reimbursed by Trump is highly improbableand if it's true, it could be a violation of campaign finance laws. "The thing seems so weird that it invites an inquiry into what you're doing," Charles Wolfram at Cornell University tells the New York Times. "Lawyers don't go around giving $130,000 to strangers, benefiting their clients, without billing their clients." Cohen declined to tell the Times whether he made an arrangement with Trump at the time of the paymentor whether he made more payments to other women. (Read more Stormy Daniels stories.)(Newser)  The chances of emerging from a 300-mile race through Canada's Yukon Territory amid temps as low as minus 40 unscathed? Not good for Roberto Zanda. On Feb. 7, what was day six of the nine-day racewhich can be completed on foot, skis, or mountain bikeguides working the Yukon Arctic Ultra race located the Italian athlete's sled, but not Zanda. He had, up until that point, been averaging about 32 miles a day, and when he was ultimately located, he said he'd gone off in search of help after his feet began to freeze. But the effects of hypothermia, which can trigger odd or confused behavior, may have been setting in: He tells the CBC he spent 18 hours trudging through the snow shoeless before being found. He was airlifted to Whitehorse General Hospital, where an MRI showed circulation had essentially ceased in his feet.

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Yukon News reports only one 300-mile racer finished the race, which was called off early on Feb. 8 due to weather. Robert Pollhammer, who helms the race, says "we've never had these cold temperatures from the start for an entire race." But he pins the blame for Zanda's situation on Zanda, telling the CBC "he had the right gear ... he simply ignored all the warning signs of hypothermia." (Runner's World notes that those who register have to provide proof of their wilderness survival skills.) Further, Pollhammer thinks it was foolish of Zanda to leave his sled behind, as it contained a tracking device. As for Zanda, he doesn't seem to think it was foolish of him to participate: He tells the CBC he is without regrets, and that he won't stop racing, even if he's forced to do so with prosthetics. It'll be some months before doctors can gauge the degree to which Zanda's circulation has recovered, and whether he'll need to have his hands or feet amputated. (Read about another brutal race.)(Newser)  A 70-year-old woman has been charged with the murder of her husband, an 84-year-old University of Connecticut doctor and health professor who may have been dead inside the couple's home for up to eight months. Authorities arrived at the Burlington home to perform a wellness check on Pierluigi Bigazzi on Feb. 5 after university officials couldn't reach him, reports ABC News. The professor had been working remotely to update the School of Medicine's curriculum since last summer and was to present his work this month, says a university rep. Though his wife initially prevented officers from entering the home, they gained access Friday, noticed a foul odor, and found Bigazzi's dead body wrapped up in the basement, reports the Hartford Courant. They believe he died of blunt head trauma as early as June.

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It was around that time that Linda Kosuda-Bigazzi began helping her husband with his work, the university rep says, calling Bigazzi "an accomplished researcher and teacher in the field of pathology and laboratory medicine." Kosuda-Bigazzi, a former UConn science instructor, surrendered to police Friday and is now charged with murder and tampering with evidence, police say. She has yet to enter a plea but was placed on house arrest during her arraignment Tuesday, per the Courant. Police are now trying to determine when her husband died. Part of that effort involves a plan to review alimony checks sent to Bigazzi's first wife since the summer to see who signed them. Bigazzi's department head says she last received an email from him on July 7. His campus key card was last used on Aug. 23. (Read more Connecticut stories.)(Newser)  Mitt Romney is preparing to announce a bid for the Utah Senate seat held by retiring Orrin Hatch, a position some hope the 2012 GOP presidential nominee will use to continue his biting criticism of President Trump. Romney, who once called Trump "a phony" who was unfit for office, is not expected to address the president in an announcement video he has prepared for release online, sources tell the AP. Romney had planned to release the video on Thursday, the insiders say, but he tweeted Wednesday night that he would not make an announcement about Utah's Senate race because of the deadly school shooting in Florida. It wasn't clear when he would reschedule his announcement.

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Former Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican who resigned last summer, said Romney's clashes with Trump won't hurt him with Utah voters but that "I do think people want to know he's running not just to be an agitator to the president. I don't think that's going to win the hearts and minds, but I also don't think he's going to do that," Chaffetz said. "Mitt Romney's always been diplomatic. It's why Donald Trump almost named him the secretary of state. He's very deliberate and smart in what he does." Romney isn't expected to face any serious challenges for the seat, though some see him as an outsider. Utah Republican Party Chairman Rob Anderson told the Salt Lake Tribune that Romney is "keeping out candidates that I think would be a better fit for Utah because, let's face it, Mitt Romney doesn't live here, his kids weren't born here, he doesn't shop here."

(Read more Mitt Romney stories.)(Newser)  South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa is in charge as acting president until parliament elects a new leader Thursday afternoon following the resignation of Jacob Zuma, the government says. The 400-member parliament, dominated by the ruling African National Congress party, is expected to select Ramaphosa to finish his predecessor's term, which ends with elections in 2019. Zuma resigned in a televised speech late Wednesday after the ANC, which has lost popularity because of corruption scandals during his tenure, instructed him to leave or face a parliamentary motion of no confidence that he would almost certainly lose, the AP reports.

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The office of parliamentary speaker Baleka Mbete said Thursday that she had received a letter of resignation from Zuma, and that Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng would be available to swear in the new president in parliament later in the day. "The newly elected president will then address the sitting thereafter," the ruling party said in a statement. The new president will also deliver the postponed state of the nation address on Friday evening. Zuma had been unable to give the speech because of the leadership crisis. The Nelson Mandela Foundation welcomed Zuma's departure, but it said the state must act against "networks of criminality" that have hurt South Africa's democracy.

(Read more South Africa stories.)(Newser)  You don't expect a hair-raising discovery to come from a book of population estimates for the American colonies, especially one with the boring title of "Gaines Universal Register or American and British Kalendar for the Year 1793." Yet buried in the volume kept on a library shelf at Union College in upstate New York was just such a find: a lock of George Washington's hair. Archivist Daniel Michelson stumbled upon the six strands of "gray-white" hair, tied with thread, inside an envelope tucked into the leather-bound book during a recent inventory review, reports USA Today. How did it get there? As Fox News reports, the book at one point belonged to the son of Gen. Philip Schuyler. In addition to being one of the college's founders and a close friend of Washington who served under him during the Revolutionary War, Schuyler was also Alexander Hamilton's father-in law, per a release.

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Since locks of hair were then given as keepsakes, experts believe Martha Washington gave it to Hamilton's wife, her close friend Eliza. An inscription on the envelope, describing it as "Washington's hair," suggests Eliza gave it to her third son, James, who then gave it to his granddaughters, Louisa Lee Schuyler and Georgina Schuyler. While it's impossible to confirm the hair belonged to Washingtonwho didn't wear a wig and used powder to turn his reddish-brown hair white in his younger days, per National Geographicmanuscripts dealer John Reznikoff says it's "undoubtedly" his and likely worth up to $3,000, per USA Today. Union College now plans to put it on display. Special collections archivist India Spartz calls it "a tremendous testament to history and our connection to some of the most important historical figures." (Washington was surprisingly hard to kill.)(Newser)  Nikolas Cruz was on Thursday morning formally charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and booked into Broward County Main Jail. The Miami Herald reports the 19-year-old will be arraigned later Thursday and denied bond based on the charges. Cruz was taken to a hospital for labored breathing in the wake of the attack, reports the AP, and was subsequently questioned for hours by state and federal authorities. The New York Times notes that of the 10 deadliest shootings in modern US history, threethe Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the Las Vegas massacre, and November's Texas church shootinghave occurred in the last five months.

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President Trump this morning tweeted his thoughts on the mass shooting: "So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!" (Read more Florida school shooting stories.)(Newser)  Further showing Canadians to be oh so nice, rapper Drake surprised a hotel maid with a spa visit, a lobster dinner, and a $10,000 shopping spreethough, to be fair, Odelie Paret truly deserved it. The mother of five, born in Haiti, has spent that last 20 years cleaning the Fontainebleau resort in Miami Beach, Fla., commuting up to four hours a day by bus, reports the Miami Herald. Touched by her story, mentioned in a Herald article last May, Drake decided she needed a break. After receiving a mysterious phone call, Paret finished her shift last Tuesday and headed to Fontainebleau's spa for a massage, then to chef Michael Mina's restaurant StripSteak. She had no idea who was footing the bill until a car whisked her to Saks Fifth Avenue, where Drake and Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown surprised her, per People.

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Along with two other women, Paret was told she could grab whatever she wanted within 45 minutes. Among her picks: a $6,000 gold and diamond necklace, a $2,000 Valentino bag, and an $800 pair of shoes. Other Florida residents got spoiled, too. As part of filming for the music video for single "God's Plan," Drake donated $25,000 to a Miami high school, gave a $50,000 scholarship to a University of Miami student, spent $50,000 to cover groceries for supermarket shoppers, and donated $50,000 to a homeless shelter, whose 130 female inhabitants also received $150 Target gift cards, per the Herald and Billboard. "There's nothing like seeing people experience a joyful moment when you can tell they need it the most," Drake wrote on Instagram following the donations, adding the past few days "were the best I have had in a very long time." (Read more Drake stories.)Sorry!

This content is not available in your regionStormy Daniels, the adult movie star linked to U.S. President Donald Trump, is now free to tell her story, after his lawyer admitted paying her hush money, her manager said.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is no longer bound by a non-disclosure contract after attorney Michael Cohen confirmed he paid the pornographic actress $130,000 before the 2016 presidential election, manager Gina Rodriguez told The Associated Press Wednesday. "Everything is off now, and Stormy is going to tell her story," Rodriguez said.

Cohen told The New York Times Tuesday that neither the Trump Organization, the holding company for all of Trump's business ventures, nor the Trump campaign was involved in the transaction. He added he was not compensated for the payment "either directly or indirectly."

"In a private transaction in 2016, I used my own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Ms. Stephanie Clifford," Cohen said in a statement.

Cohen, who said he has served as Trump's lawyer for more than a decade, made it clear he is more committed than ever to protecting the interests of his client. "Just because something isn't true doesn't mean that it can't cause you harm or damage. I will always protect Mr. Trump," he said.A former student who had been expelled for disciplinary problems was arrested in a shooting Wednesday at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, calling it a "horrific day," identified the alleged gunman as Nikolas Cruz and said police had arrested him off school grounds without a struggle. Cruz had multiple magazines and one rifle, the sheriff said.

Israel said 12 of the victims died inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, about 72 km north of Miami. Three others were killed outside the school, and two died of their wounds at a hospital. Sixteen others were wounded. He said the victims included students and adults, but he said he did not know whether any of the adults were teachers.

The FBI was on the scene and was leading the investigation, working with police.This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing written by Finegan Kruckemeyer and directed by Abigail Van Patter, features university students Emily Ross, Freddy Gryder, Mary Conlin, Paloma Polanco and Sarah Williams.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.New Delhi:

Bangalore based businessman, Hari Prasad, claims that Nirav Modi  a diamond merchant linked with Rs 11000 crore PNB fraud case  would had been behind bars by now if the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government had acted to the whistle he had blown on the ongoing fraud in 2016.

The businessman claims that he had detailed about the illegal transactions being made by Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Jewels to the PMO office.

Hari Prasad to News Nation said, "In 2012 he has opened Geetanjali franchise store. I had invested Rs 10 crore. He had agreed to give jewelery worth the amount but gave jewelery worth Rs 5 crore only. I had lodged a complained against the company after five months."

The Bangalore based businessman in the letter had mentioned, "This company has taken huge loans to the tune of almost Rs 9872.0 crores with meagre assets of just Rs 25-30 Crores and definitely going to become NPA soon. Someone need to investigate the credit report of this group with these banks."

The letter was received by the PMO office on July 26, 2016 and forwarded to ROC Maharashtra.

Here is the full letter

Respected Sir,

I would like to bring to your notice a major financial scam similar to that of Mr Vijay Mallya of King fisher group from Bangalore, Subrata Roy of Sahara group-Calcutta or Ramalingaraju of

Satyam group-Hyderabad. This scam and fraud done by the person/company based in Mumbai involving loss of Rs 1000s of crores of Indian Public money which is under way by.

Details of the Fraudster.

Person: Mr Mehul C. Choksi,

Chairman and Managing director.

Company: M/S Gitanjali Gems Limited.

Regd. Office: A-1, 7th Floor, Lakshmi Tower,

Bandra Kurla Complex,

Bandra East. Mumbai 4000051. India.

1) Enclosed herewith PDF of the copy of the Complaints by Various franchisee victims against M/S Gitanjali Gems Ltd & Mr. Mehul Choksi and its various subsidiary/sister companies made to various regulators but no action has been taken by any one of them till Now. Having failed to get the attention of any serious investigating authority, We have finally come to your door for justice.

(2) This person has siphoned out thousands of cores out of India. Details as explained in the pdf document attached.

a) As stated in their annual report AM 14/15. There are lot of deficiencies in the balance sheets.

b) List of 31 Banks extending Loans to this group.(Pls refer to the Page-4) This company has taken huge loans to the tune of almost Rs 9872.0 crores with meagre assets of just Rs 25-30 Crores and definitely going to become NPA soon. Someone need to investigate the credit report of this group with these banks.

c) Tax liabilities are increasing year by year. This company is not paying Tax dues to Income tax authorities consistently from 2006 onwards which is running into thousands of crores.. (refer to Page 66, 67, 83, 84, 85 n 88 ) This means chances of him defaulting on payment are increasing by the year.

d) Consolidated balance sheet (page Nos 109 to 112) which says that.. his tangible assets are very very small. while large portion of it is shown as inventories and trade receivable which are manipulated n inflated figures. and loans are to the tune of 9700 crores.. Based on this kind of apparently fictitious balance sheet, any one with basic financial knowledge can understand there is something fishy with this company and its activities. He could have managed the banks by some means.

e) Pls also look at page 141 & 142 where in you can see that most of the Indian subsidiaries are in Losses and foreign subsidiaries are in profit.

f) Which is quite contrary to the economic situation of the west.. West is still in recession and India is growing at 7-8%.. IN such a scenario.. how cum .. his foreign companies are profitable and Indian companies are in loss. Assumable Choksi has siphoned out India money abroad. This deserves a detailed and thorough investigation by technical experts.

(3) We are enclosing List of several cases filed by various victims including banks and financial institutions. like LIC..which is self explanatory.

a) The Chairman and MD Mr Mehul C Choksi has a knack of misusing the law to his advantage by appointing fleet of senior advocates/auditors and consultants and drag the matters till it come to his neck.

b) Accordingly, in various cases such as (FIR 48/2015 and FIR 80/2015 at Central Police station in Bangalore) filed on him and his companies, he failed to get any relief from courts in the anticipatory bail petitions and finally he found it more convenient to somehow manipulate/manage Local police to get the some kind of B report to escape the arrest.

c) There are several victims all over India and Fighting various cases on their Individual capacity which Mr Mehul C choksi of M/S Gitanjali Gems Limited but somehow This person and his group goondas easily manage to crush by using his mussel and money power who ever raises his voice against him. There is lot more information we can offer to you but we are not able to get the right authority who will do a thorough investigation on this kind of huge frauds.

I Hope you will do your best quickly to depute a right person to investigate this fraud and save the country from loosing of thousands of crores.

For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Kerala's TPR at 15.12% after 15,876 test COVID-19 positive; active cases drop below 2 lakh

The number active cases in the state came down to 1,98,865 on Tuesday after 25,654 more recover from the infection.New Delhi:

A Mumbai court on Wednesday started hearing the sensational Jiah Khan suicide case trial involving Bollywood actor Sooraj A. Pancholi.

Earlier, in January, Judge K D Shirbhate framed charges against the 27-year-old actor for allegedly abetting actress Jiah Khans suicide.The case was filed under section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code, to which he pleaded not guilty.

According to the charge sheet, Khan, best known for her performance in film Nishabd starring Amitabh Bachchan, was found hanging at her residence on June 3, 2013, by her mother Rabiya. She had left the house of Sooraj Pancholi, where she had been staying for the last two days, in the morning the same day, it said.

Moreover, Pancholi had hidden facts and fabricated information during questioning, according to CBI. The agency also said that a three-page unsigned note seized by Mumbai police which earlier probed the case had been written by Jiah, and it narrated her intimate relationship with Sooraj and the physical abuse and mental and physical torture she faced at his hands.

According to Jiah's mother, the actress had left Soorajs house in the morning where she had been staying for the previous two days.

Also Read: Jiah Khan's mother pens down letter to PM Narendra Modi appealing for justice

The court today asked the prosecution to submit the list of its witnesses so that summons can be issued to them, Soorajs lawyer Prashant Patil said.

However, the court adjourned the hearing to February 21.

Sooraj, the son of Bollywood actor couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab was arrested on June 10, 2013, following Jiahs suicide and granted bail a few days later on July 2.

The high court transferred the case to the CBI in July 2014 on Rabiya Khans petition. The petition claimed that police were not probing it properly.

However, when the CBI filed a charge sheet against Sooraj for abetment, Rabiya Khan again moved to the high court seeking a fresh probe by a special investigation team. She claimed that the CBI was wrong in concluding that it was a case of suicide and not a homicide. The high court dismissed the petition, finding no merit in the plea.

Also Read: Jiahs mother seeks summons to Blackberry to produce communication details

Sooraj was present in the court during the hearing on February 14.

(With inputs from PTI)

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Tiger Shroff created a big buzz in the town after he announced his movie Rambo in last year. Helmed by Siddharth Anand, Rambo was said to be the Bollywood remake of Sylvester Stallone's popular Rambo series and Tiger was said to step in the shoes of the Hollywood star.

In fact, Tiger even released an official poster of the movie featuring him as Rambo.

However, after grabbing the headlines, the movie got delayed and as per the recent buzz, it will now hit the floors in November next year.

While this delay has come up as a major disappointment for Rambo fans, both Tiger and Siddharth have a valid reason for this.

According to a report published in Mumbai Mirror, Rambo was pushed owing to Tiger and Siddharth's professional commitments. Besides the actor-director duo is also working on YRF's untitled next which also stars Hrithik Roshan and Vaani Kapoor in key roles.

Tiger Shroff is currently busy with Baaghi 2 and Student Of The Year 2, while Siddharth is working on Super 30 starring Hrithik Roshan in the lead.

Talking about Rambo's Bollywood remake, Anand had revealed that the movie will be a trilogy and will be shot in the locales of Europe and Himalayas.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Former Bond actor Pierce Brosnan who made headlines due to his Pan Bahar commercial last year has been issued a show cause notice by the Delhis Health officials on Wednesday.

The health officials said that Mr Brosnan had been issued a show cause notice in which he is asked to justify his appearance in a James Bond style for the Pan Masala.

The authorities have warned Pierce Brosnan that the ads of pan masala still appear at large and he could be violating Indian laws against tobacco advertising.

Delhi Health Department official SK Arora said, "We saw Pierce Brosnan's posters advertising Pan Bahar (a paan masala brand) at tobacco shops in Delhi in the last fortnight.

Even the authorities had tried to reach out to the actor in the past but no response was received in this regard.

Earlier, the Irish actor said that the contract stated that he was to advertise a Breath Freshner/Tooth Whitener but was shocked and saddened by the deceptive use of his image in the products advt.

Mr Arora said that the 64-year old actor could face a fine of Rs 5,000 or a jail term of upto 2 years, if he fails to respond in 10 days.

Chewing tobacco had been linked to cancer and millions of Indians chewed pan masala every day, Mr Arora added.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Hollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Chennai:

Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Wednesday told the Madras High Court that the AIADMK has issued a whip for the trust vote sought by Chief Minister K Palaniswami last year only to the 122 MLAs who were staying in a resort and not to his erstwhile group.

Senior counsel C S Vaidyanathan made the submission before the first bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quoddhose during the hearing of DMK's petition seeking disqualification of Panneerselvam, then a rebel leader, and 10 other MLAs for voting against Palaniswami.

Besides DMK, four disqualified MLAs loyal to rebel leader T T V Dhinakaran have also moved the court aggrieved over the speaker not acting on their plea filed earlier for action against Panneerselvam and others.

The four had earlier filed the petition before the speaker before he disqualified 18 pro-Dhinakaran MLAs, including them.

Vaidyanathan was countering the submission by DMKs senior counsel yesterday that Panneerselvam and AIADMK had committed contempt of court by saying no whip was issued during the vote of confidence while an affidavit contrary to this had been filed before the Election Commission by the then rebel group.

We are not denying the fact that there was a whip. But the whip was issued to the 122 MLAs who were in Koovathur. We were not in Koovathur and directions were not issued to 11 of us by the party whip, he argued.

Also Read: Jayalalithaa's portrait unveiled in Tamil Nadu Assembly, DMK says black day; moves to HC for removal

At the height of the rebellion by Panneerselvam, the AIADMK had kept its 122 MLAs at the resort near here and they were brought to the Assembly on February 18 for the trust vote which was eventually won by Palaniswami by a margin of 122-11.

The DMK on Tuesday furnished a copy of the affidavit filed by Panneerselvam group during the pendency of the dispute between two factions of the party.

The groups led by Panneerselvam and Palaniswami later merged and the EC allotted the party symbol to them, ignoring the claim of the faction led by Dhinakaran.

Vaidyanathan claimed the petitions were not maintainable either on facts or on the law since the Assembly speaker was yet to take a decision on the plea made by then MLAs.

"In such circumstances, the relief sought for in the petition is not maintainable," he argued.

Also, Palaniswami was elected as the leader of the AIADMK legislative party at a meeting held on February 14, 2017, in a resort at Koovathur. Panneerselvam and the 10 other MLAs were not present at the meeting, he submitted.

Palaniswami sought to form the government with the support of 122 MLAs only.

In fact, even while a whip was allegedly issued to each MLA independently, there was no direction or whip that was received by the 11 MLAs, he said.

Countering the arguments, Senior counsel P S Raman, appearing for the disqualified four MLAs, said the present submission by Panneerselvam was "a clear afterthought" as the affidavit filed before the Election Commission was brought to light.

Also Read: Generalised remarks not acceptable: AIADMK hits out at Rajinikanths jibe

"In the counter affidavit to DMKs petition, they claimed that they have not deified whip. But now they claim that the whip was issued only to 122 MLAs of AIADMK and not to them. The present submission is a clear afterthought after the affidavit filed with the ECI was brought to light," he argued.

Besides, when a chief minister was facing a floor test, it becomes mandatory for the party MLAs to vote in favour of his confidence motion. A whip under party seal was not required in such circumstance, he added.

Recording the submissions, the bench adjourned the hearing to February 22.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The BJP and the Congress on Thursday blamed each other for the Rs 11,400 crore fraud case involving the Punjab National Bank even as the latter called the scam's main accused Nirav Modi as "chhota Modi" sparking condemnation from the ruling party.

The rival parties also traded allegations over a picture of Nirav Modi with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a business delegation accompanying him to Davos at the World Economic Forum meet last month.

The Congress targeted the government over the scam allegedly involving billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi and accused it of doing nothing to stop "independent India's biggest bank fraud" despite being informed of it in July, 2016.

"Loot and escape" had become the hallmark of the government, the party said, equating the celebrity designer with liquor baron Vijay Mallya, former IPL chief Lalit Modi and other businessmen such as Rishi Agarwal who had fled the country after allegedly committing frauds worth crores of rupees.

Party president Rahul Gandhi led the charge, alleging that the NDA government looked the other way when Nirav Modi used his "clout" with the prime minister to slip out of the country.

"Guide to looting India by Nirav Modi--1. Hug PM Modi 2. Be seen with him in DAVOS. Use that clout to: A. Steal 12,000 crore B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the government looks the other way," Gandhi said on Twitter.

The Congress also released a picture of Nirav Modi with the business delegation accompanying the prime minister to Davos at the World Economic Forum meet last month.

Dubbing Nirav Modi "Chhota Modi two" and Lalit Modi "Chhota Modi one", Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala asked if the billionaire jewellery designer had a tip-off that prompted him to leave the country.

"Billionaire Nirav Modi steals Rs 12,000 crore right under the nose of the Modi Government and flees the country. Ironically, Nirav Modi was later spotted with PM Modi in Davos," Surjewala said, adding, "Has it become the norm for letting people run away with public money? Who is responsible?"

Lashing out at the prime minister, he said, "This is the biggest bank loot scam of independent India and who permitted this scam to happen? Why did the prime minister not take any action despite knowing about it on July 26, 2016?"

The BJP while declaring that no one irrespective of stature will be spared by the probe agencies, condemned the Congress' attack on the prime minister as "baseless".

The party fielded Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to counter allegations against the Modi government and he dubbed the Congress' reference of "chhota Modi" for Nirav Modi, as "derogatory, demeaning, shameful, utterly irresponsible and scandalous".

Official sources also pointed out that Nirav Modi was not part of prime minister's official delegation to Davos as being claimed by the Congress.

Asked at the press conference about the action taken by the Prime Minister's Office after Bengaluru resident Hari Prasad warned it in a letter in July 2016 against Nirav Modi and other accused, Prasad said it was acknowledged and what action different departments took will be conveyed later.

Also read: PNB hands over to CBI list of 150 fraudulent LoUs issued to Nirav Modi

Seeking to turn the heat on the Congress, Prasad pointed out that the alleged fraud had started in 2011 when it was in power and questioned whose "blessings" were with Mehul Choksi, Nirav's business partner, as the income of Choksi's firm Gitanjali Gems doubled between 2011-13.

The fraud has been unearthed under our government and action is being taken, he said.

Prasad also said that Nirav was not part of the prime minister's delegation to Davos and had come to the Swiss town on his own. He joined a CII delegation for a group photograph with him, he said.

"I wish to deny this with full authority. No personal meeting (of Nirav) with the prime minister took place."

"Those living in glass houses, which are already broken, should not throw stones at us as the Modi government is working with full honesty..."

Attacking Rahul Gandhi, Prasad referred to a tweet by a disgruntled Congress leader and claimed that the Congress president had gone to attend an event organised by Choksi in 2013.

He claimed that the Congress' attack on the government was borne out of its "pain" over its electoral losses and it will lose to the BJP in Tripura as well.

Also read | PNB fraud case: ED, CBI recover jewelry worth Rs 5100 crore from Nirav Modi, Gitanjali's premises

He asked the Congress not to do photo politics- a reference to Nirav's presence in a group picture with the prime minister- and said his party also has "cozy" photos of its leaders with Choksi but it will not stoop to this low.

The Left and the Trinamool Congress attacked the government on the PNB fraud case and asked it to clarify how Nirav Modi was present in a group photo of Indian CEOs with the prime minister in Davos.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury questioned how Nirav Modi was allowed to escape the country.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Full freedom has been given to locals commanders of the army along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir to effectively retaliate any act of violence by Pakistani troops, Army sources said on Thursday.

They said the Indian Army has been inflicting heavy casualties to Pakistani troops while replying to Pakistani shelling along the LoC in the last few weeks.

The local commanders now have been given full freedom to retaliate to any Pakistani misadventure, the army sources said, adding the Army is resorting to coordinated fire assaults in replying to any Pakistani shelling along the LoC.

Also read: In tactical operation, Indian Army kills 138 Pakistani soldiers in 2017



Following the attack on the Sunjuwan military station in Jammu, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman warning Pakistan had said the neighbouring country "will pay for its misadventure".

Six Army personnel and a civilian were killed in the terrorist attack on the Sunjuwan military station. The attack on the camp came days after four Army men were killed in Pakistani firing in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir.

On his return from a three-day trip to Nepal, Army Chief Gen. Bipin Rawat was today given a detailed briefing about the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Also read: Pakistan shells areas along LoC, IB in Jammu



The Army sources claimed that a total of 20 Pakistani Army personnel were killed this year while the number was 138 in 2017.

The sources said senior commanders of Pakistan Army have been frequently visiting Pakistani posts in the last few weeks in the wake of aggressive response by India to Pakistani actions.

They said Pakistan has increased the alert levels at all its posts along the LoC due to Indian actions.

"We are inflicting heavy pain on Pakistani side," said an army official.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Thursday night took the staff of the university as hostages after their demands over compulsory attendance were denied by the campus authorities.

The staff and students of the campus were in a cold war since the university authorities made it mandatory for the students to have 75 per cent attendance in an academic year for availing scholarships and fellowships.

Earlier in the day, the students gheraoed the administration block demanding a meeting with the vice-chancellor on the issue of compulsory attendance and stopped Chief Proctor Kaushal Kumar and Rector-1 Chintamani Mahapatra from leaving the building.

Hundreds of students, led by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU), picketed outside all the gates of the building and confronted and stopped senior university officials who tried to go out.

Vice chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar was in his office. In a statement, Registrar Pramod Kumar said Mahapatra was feeling unwell and asked the students to disperse.

The students demanded the administration revoke the compulsory 75 per cent attendance required in an academic year for availing of scholarships and fellowships, and convene a meeting of the Academic Council which was postponed indefinitely.

Since 11 AM, a group of students performed skits and mimes and sang songs near the main entrance of the administration block. Security guards were deployed to block the students entry into the building.

A human chain was also formed around the building.

We are just following UGC guidelines not JNU guidelines. Students have all the right to protest as they feel it is injustice according to them. Ask anyone about compulsory attendance, they will say it is needed, Chief Proctor Kaushal Kumar, who was gheraoed for nearly two hours, told reporters.

Speaking about the attendance ruling, Kumar, who was allowed to leave later said, it was passed with a majority in the Academic Council.

Though it was not mentioned in the agenda, one of the centres brought up the issue in the Academic Council and the VC said it must be implemented. The JNU works according to statutes and ordinances, he added.

In a letter written to the administration in morning, the JNUSU said, Students of this university are waiting for the vice-chancellor to have a dialogue with JNUSU representatives.

There has been no call to lay siege to the administration building. All administrative works have been going on without any obstruction, JNUSU joint secretary Shubhanshu Singh said, adding the gherao would continue till the vice chancellor met the students.

Also Read: JNU students fined Rs 10k each for protesting outside admin block

Rector-1 Mahapatra, when he was stopped by the students from going out, said he could not take a decision on the matter in individual capacity and that there would be dialogue with the students.

Registrar Pramod Kumar in the statement requested the students to disperse citing age, job responsibilities of the officials who were gheraoed.

The administration has repeatedly requested the students to let the officials go out. Now the Rector-1 is feeling giddy and may require medical attention. The students are also protesting at the top of their voice and beating drums and obstructing the functioning of the varsity, he said in the statement.

After the statement was issued, the JNUSU called in ambulance to treat Mahapatras medical emergency but refused to disperse. JNUSU President Geeta Kumari said until the students meet the Vice Chancellor and their demands are met they will remain there.

Meanwhile, calling the gherao an illegal confinement, a group of professors sat on a dharna after they were not allowed to go in to let their colleagues out.

The students raised slogans against the professors.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a one day visit to poll-bound Northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura on Thursday.

At a function in Itanagar, he will inaugurate the Dorjee Khandu State Convention Centre. This Convention Centre has an auditorium, conference halls, and an exhibition hall. It is expected to become a significant landmark of Itanagar. The PM is also expected to relaunch Doordarshan for the north-east.

The Prime Minister will also dedicate the State Civil Secretariat Building to the nation, and lay the Foundation Stone of the Academic Block of the Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Science.

From Arunachal Pradesh, the Prime Minister will proceed to Tripura on a non-official visit.

Here are the live updates from PM Modi's visit to the North East -

- Morarji Desai was the last PM to attend the North East Council meeting, no PM got the time to attend it after that. They became very busy. But I have come because of you. That's why I went to attend the North East Council meeting: PM Narendra Modi in Itanagar



- I want to compliment CM @PemaKhanduBJP for the wonderful work he is doing. He has prepared a top quality roadmap on how Arunachal Pradesh should be in 2027. And, he did not only ask officials for inputs but also asked people from all walks of life: PM



-Ayushman Bharat scheme will take the lead in providing quality and affordable healthcare: PM

- There is so much work to do in the health sector. One aspect is human resource development, other is infra and there is also the need to use modern technology in the sector: PM



- I can tell you with great pride that ministers and officials from the Centre are visiting the Northeast very regularly: PM

- My visit to Arunachal Pradesh is related to three key projects in the state. The secretariat is already functional and this was a good step taken by the state government: PM

- I am delighted to visit Arunachal Pradesh and be among the wonderful people of this state: PM

-PM Modi inaugurates Dorjee Khandu State Convention Centre in Itanagar

PM Narendra Modi at IG Park in Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh). He will address a public meeting shortly. pic.twitter.com/x9nswYVEzw  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

-PM Modi tweets about his Tripura visit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also tweeted about his visit to Tripura, where elections are set to begin on February 18.



Looking forward to campaigning in Tripura today. I would be addressing rallies in Santirbazar and Agartala. You can watch the rallies live here. https://t.co/0ElF2AX661 @BJP4Tripura  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 15, 2018

- Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju gave us a glimpse of the Arunachal Civil Secretariat at Itanagar that PM Modi will inaugurate today. He posted the picture on his Twitter handle on Wednesday.

The magnificent Arunachal Civil Secretariat at Itanagar. Tomorrow our beloved PM @narendramodi ji will dedicate it to the people of Arunachal Pradesh. pic.twitter.com/cVY21MDODP  Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) February 14, 2018

-Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected to arrive at 1040 hrs in Itanagar.



Schedule of PM's public meetings in Tripura

-1415 hrs - Shantirbazaar

-1615 hrs - Agartala

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

In what could be the biggest banking fraud in India, state-owned Punjab National Bank on Wedensday said it has detected a USD 1.77 billion scam in which billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from one of its branches for overseas credit from other Indian lenders.



PNB has suspended 10 officers over the USD 1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400 crore) scam and referred the matter to CBI for investigation.



Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar said this seems to be an isolated case and is not going to impact other lenders.



"The finance ministry has taken proactive steps by asking the lender to report the matter to CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) so that action can be taken quickly," he told PTI.



"The Bank has detected some fraudulent and unauthorised transactions in one of its branch in Mumbai for the benefit of a few select account holders with their apparent connivance," India's second-biggest state-run bank said in a regulatory filing. "Based on these transactions other banks appear to have advanced money to these customers abroad."



While PNB did not name the other lenders, Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank are said to have offered credit based on letters of undertaking (LOUs) issued by PNB.



An LOU is a letter of comfort issued by one bank to branches of other banks, based on which foreign branches offer credit to buyers.



Foreign bank branches too are under investigation.



Three other jewellers, Gitanjali, Ginni and Nakshatra are under the scanner with the CBI and ED looking at their arrangements with various banks and end use of money, a senior official of a public sector bank told PTI.



No immediate comments were available from these companies.



Last week, PNB had lodged an FIR with the CBI stating that fraudulent LoUs worth Rs 280.7 crore were first issued on January 16. At the time, PNB had said it was digging into records to examine the magnitude of the fraud.



In the complaint, PNB had named three diamond firms -- Diamonds R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds -- saying they had approached it on January 16 with a request for buyers' credit for making payment to overseas suppliers.



The bank sought 100 per cent cash margins for issuing LoUs for raising buyers' credit, which was contested by the firms, saying they had availed of the facility from as early as 2010.



Nirav Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal and Mehul Choksi are partners in Diamonds R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds, which has shops in foreign locations such as Hong Kong, Dubai, and New York.



Among those named is a deputy manager, Gokulnath Shetty, who was posted at PNB's foreign exchange department in Mumbai since March 31, 2010. He had allegedly along with another official Manoj Kharat fraudulently issued LoUs to these firms without following prescribed procedure or making entries in the banking system, avoiding detection of transactions.



"This (investigation) is a part of the clean up drive that started with AQR (Asset Quality Review) in 2015. Post clean up, this is going to make banks clean forever, healthy, responsive and enable them to provide hassle-free banking to all honest borrowers," Kumar said.



A senior official of a public sector bank said there is strict instruction from the finance ministry to all banks that no big fish should go scot-free and no honest borrower is harassed.



Banks are now looking at their systems and processes so that such frauds are not repeated, he said, adding all banks have been asked to present a status report as soon as possible.



This could be the biggest banking fraud in India as its quantum was bigger than an estimated 9,000 crore scam at erstwhile Satyam computers.



In 2015, Bank of Baroda -- another public sector bank -- had brought to light a scam in which two Delhi-based businessmen cheated it of Rs 6,000 crore (slightly less than USD 1 billion at that time).



Investigations revealed major irregularities, as the forex transactions were done mainly via advance remittances for import, through newly-opened current accounts. Heavy cash transactions -- sometimes four or five times a day -- were also noticed.



The Enforcement Directorate, under the revenue department of the finance ministry, had arrested the businessman duo under money laundering provisions.



PNB said in a statement that fraudulent transactions took place in one of its branches in Mumbai for the benefit of a few select account holders with their apparent connivance.



Based on these transactions, done by his brother Nishal, wife Ami and Mehul Chinubhai Choksi, other banks appear to have advanced money to these customers abroad.



The CBI has received two complaints from the PNB against billionaire diamantaire Nirav Modi and a jewellery company alleging fraudulent transactions.



Modi, whose jewellery creations are popular among global celebrities, may face a fresh CBI probe as the agency is looking at suitable legal action to be taken in the case.



He is already being investigated by the CBI for alleged cheating and fraud involving Rs 280 crore at a PNB branch.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday raided several locations of Jeweller and businessman Nirav Modi, the prime accused in multi crore Punjab National Bank or PNB fraud case.

ED sleuths conducted raids at Nirav Modis showroom and office in Mumbais Kala Ghoda. Apart from that, the law enforcement agency also raided Modis three locations in Surat and two in Delhi.

State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB), Indias second biggest lender on Wednesday told the Mumbai Stock Exchange that it has detected "fraudulent and unauthorised transactions" worth USD 1.77 million (approx).

The bank named Nirav Modi and a Jewellery company in two of its complaints filed to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

On the basis of the FIR by CBI, the ED has also registered a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case and other with cheating of Rs 280 crores in Punjab National Bank.

According to the sources in Mumbai CBI, Nirav Modi, the prime accused in USD 1.77 billion PNB fraud case has already fled India and unconfirmed reports said he is hiding in Switzerland.

Here are the live updates on PNB fraud case:

17: 16 PM | ED raids : Jewelry including gold, diamond worth RS 5100 crore seized from 17 premises of Nirav Modi, Gitanjali Gems premises

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad press conference ends

05: 21 PM : The government have seized property worth Rs 1,300 crore owned by Nirav Modi's wife.

05: 20 PM : The Gitanjali Jewels profit doubled up in 2011

05:19 PM : No one will be spared in the case. A thorough investigation has been ordered.

05: 11 PM : The government has issued a lookout notice for Nirav Modi.

05 : 10 PM : Nirav Modi has bypassed banking channels.

05:10 PM : Nirav Modi was not part of delegation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He did not meet the PM at World Economic Forum.

05: 09 PM : The Modi-government is clean. In the last three years no NPA have been made.

05: 08 PM : We have photographs of several congress leaders in cosy positions with people associated with PNB fraud case

05: 07 PM : Nirav Modi's passport will be revoked

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad calls a press conference

# Mehta has said that the bank will take full responsibility if the investigation onus points to them.

# He said, "You are fully aware that we have kept the members involved in the developments. We have kept all the bankers aware of this situation."

# He asserted that the PNB employees who were involved in the fraud, have also been reported to the regulators, along with the creditors.

# Government of India is monitoring the situation & we are getting full support in nabbing the culprits: Sunil Mehta, MD PNB

# Meanwhile, Punjab National Bank is doing a press Conference. The bank said, committed to clean banking. will act against the accused.

# Congress has intensified its attack on Modi govt after PNB fraud case.

So the taxpayers' money being used for bank recapitalization was being funded to fraudsters like #NiravModi . Awesome work, Finance Ministry. #PNBScam  Sanjay Jha (@JhaSanjay) February 15, 2018

# Meanwhile, a photo of Nirav Modi has surfaced with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Modi Govt will let Nirav Modi off the hook, just like Mallya & Lalit Modi. He is super rich, and is relative of Modi's friend Mukesh Ambani unlike the poor farmers who commit suicide for petty debts or the middle class who is screwed by the Govt inside out. #PNBScam pic.twitter.com/unu9ahbqI7  Gaurav Pandhi (@GauravPandhi) February 15, 2018

# Visuals from Punjab National Banks's MCB Brady House branch in Mumbai, from where transactions related to PNB Scam were carried out.

Visuals from Punjab National Banks's MCB Brady House branch in Mumbai, from where transactions related to #PNBScam were carried out. #NiravModi pic.twitter.com/aAygldC0xT  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

# Meanwhile, the brand ambassador of Nirav Modi diamond jewellery house Priyanka Chopra has sued the company alleging fraud. She accused Modi of not paying her for the ad campaign.

# AAP Chief Arvind Kejriwal has raised questions BJP govt after Nirav Modi fled India. He said, "Is it possible to believe that he or vijay mallya left the country without active connivance of BJP govt?"

# According to the reports, Nirav Modi has fled India and unconfirmed reports say he is hiding in Switzerland.

# ED raids at Jeweller and businessman Nirav Modi's three locations in Surat, four in Mumbai & two in Delhi.

PNB Fraud Case: ED team at Nirav Modi's showroom & office in Mumbai's Kala Ghoda. pic.twitter.com/3YQq4lyKNj  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

Also Read | Know who is Nirav Modi, prime accused in multi crore PNB fraud case

# What happened since Wednesday

The CBI had booked diamond merchant Nirav Modi, his brother, wife and a business partner for allegedly cheating PNB of over Rs 280.70 crore after complaint from the bank.

On the basis of the FIR, the ED has also registered a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case and other with cheating of Rs 280 crores in Punjab National Bank.

The billionaire diamantaire Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from one of PNBs Mumbai branches for overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

Reacting to the reports of fraud in PNB bank, the finance ministry has asked all banks to send reports involving this case or other such incidents.

Modi, who is known to be a taciturn has not come out with any statement in his defence so far.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi and other members of his family, who fled the country last month, allegedly made fraudulent transactions of over Rs 11,400 crore through 150 letters of understanding issued by the Punjab National Bank, officials said.

Nirav Modi, who holds an Indian passport, left India on January 1, while his brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, also left the country on same day. However, whether they travelled together has to be probed, they said.

Nirav Modi's wife Ami, a US citizen, left on January 6 and his uncle and business partner Mehul Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali jewellery chain, left on January 4, the officials said.

The bank became suspicious only on January 16 when the accused companies --Diamond R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds (all accused in the CBI FIR) -- approached it with import documents and a request to issue Letters of Understanding (LoUs) for raising buyers' credit for making payments to the overseas suppliers.

The bank, however, could not find any past entries in the system, the FIR has alleged.

It approached the CBI on January 29 with a complaint of Rs 280 crore fraud, officials said.

Nirav Modi, who is believed to be in Switzerland, was also present in a group photograph of Indian CEOs with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, issued by the Press Information Bureau, during the World Economic Forum on January 23, six days before the bank sent its first complaint against him to the CBI, according to the officials.

The agency immediately swung into action registering an FIR on January 31 followed by searches at 20 locations in Mumbai and Surat and issued a look out circular on February 4 against Nirav Modi and three absconding accused, they said.

A look out circular is issued by enforcement agencies to all exit and entry ports to inform them about the movement of an accused.

Nirav Modi, a regular on the lists of rich and famous Indians since 2013, was booked by the CBI, along with wife, brother and business partner Choksi on January 31, for allegedly cheating the state-run Punjab National Bank to the tune of Rs 280 crore.

The bank again approached the CBI within a fortnight of the first complaint giving details of more transactions which were over Rs 11,400 crore.

The question why the PNB did not send a complaint to the CBI and decided to give it in tranches is also under the scanner of the agency, they said.

Also read | Bangalore businessman warned, requested PMO for investigation on Gitanjali's huge loans against meager assets in 2016



An LoU is a letter of comfort issued by one bank to branches of other banks, based on which foreign branches offer credit to buyers.

The bank has claimed in three complaints to the CBI that so far it has detected 150 LoUs which were fraudulently issued by its officials in connivance with Nirav Modi and the other accused in the case, officials said.

The agency is analysing the fresh complaints and will take a call whether to register fresh FIRs or expand the ambit of the existing FIR related to fraudulent transactions of worth Rs 280 crore, they said.

In these cases, the bank has alleged that the LOUs were issued to Hong Kong based branches of Allahabad and Axis bank, they said.

The PNB has claimed in the complaint that overseas branch of banks used the funds to clear their own liabilities, the officials said.

During searches conducted by the agency which included the residences of Nirav Modi and the other accused along with companies, the CBI recovered 95 crucial documents related to import bills, they said.

The agency has also seized computers and other digital devices and has completed mirror imaging of computers seized during the searches, the officials said.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of letting Nirav Modi, the prime accused in USD 1.77 billion (Rs 11,300 crore) PNB fraud case, slip out of the country like Vijay Mallya.

Rahul Gandhi also questioned Prime Minister Modis relationship with Nirav Modi, who was part of the delegation of Indian businessmen at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week.

In a tweet, Rahul Gandhi said, Guide to Looting India by Nirav MODI: 1. Hug PM Modi 2. Be seen with him in DAVOS, Use that clout to: A Steal 12,000Cr B Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the Govt looks the other way. #From1MODI2another.

Guide to Looting India

by Nirav MODI



1. Hug PM Modi

2. Be seen with him in DAVOS



Use that clout to:



A. Steal 12,000Cr

B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the Govt looks the other way.



#From1MODI2another  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 15, 2018

"On 26 July 2016, PM was handed with all papers regarding Nirav Modi & one of his relative. It was said that complaint had 42 FIRs. PMO acknowledged the complaint, they also sent registrar of companies to take some action. But in the end the govt couldn't do anything," Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.

In what could be Indias biggest scam in banking sector, Punjab National Bank, the country's second-largest public-sector lender on Wednesday informed the Bombay Stock Exchange about the fraudulent transactions worth over Rs 11,000 crore.

Also Read | PNB fraud case LIVE Updates: Capable of tackling situation, committed to clean banking, says PNB bank

The bank named billionaire diamantaire Nirav Modi in its complaint to the CBI and based on CBIs FIR, the Enforcement Directorate has also registered a case against him in Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

According to the CBI sources in Mumbai, Nirav Modi, the prime accused in USD 1.77 billion PNB fraud case has already fled India and unconfirmed reports said he is hiding in Switzerland.

Aam Aadmi Chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also questioned BJP governments role in allowing Nirav Modi to leave the country.

Is it possible to believe that he or vijay mallya left the country without active connivance of BJP govt?, Kejriwal said.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

In another attempt, terrorists fired at a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp in a village in Awantipora district of Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir.

The security forces at the camp, located in the Panz Gam village of Awantipora, had retaliated in the attempted firing. The area had been put under cordon with many military people stationed at several spots, in case of additional firing.

The search operations were said to be underway. As of now, no terrorist has been found.

Earlier on Monday, two militants of Lashkar-e-Toiba started a gun battle with CRPF officials at the Karan Nagar camp in Srinagar. Both the militants, later on, were killed by the CRPF personnel, with the help of the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

Also Read: Srinagar encounter: Both militants killed, mopping Ops underway

Before that, on Saturday, five soldiers and one civilian were killed while several others including an army mans daughter injured after four Jaish-e-Mohammed fidayeen terrorists stormed the Sunjuwan Army camp in Jammu. All the four terrorists were gunned down by the officials.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

A woman in Kozhikode in Kerala was forced an abortion after allegedly kicked in the stomach by CPM leader. The six people were arrested for assaulting Josna Sibi, 28, at a village in the district on January 28, they said.

According to media reports, the woman was seven months pregnant and her husband were attacked by the CPM activists in connection with a land dispute on January 28.

A profusely bleeding Sibi was rushed to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital where she had to undergo an abortion, they added. A complaint was lodged by her in this connection on February 2.

While one person was arrested on February 8, the others were apprehended on Thursday following an investigation. The accused were arrested on charges of unlawful assembly, rioting, voluntarily causing hurt, criminal trespass and wrongful restraint.



The main accused is still absconding. The victim's family has held protests outside a police station to pressurize the cops to arrest the main culprit.

"The local party workers are coming here daily, asking me to withdraw the complaint against Thamby," woman's husband said referring to the CPM leader. "My decision is to fight the case till the end. I have decided to sit in front of the police station demanding justice," he was quoted as saying by Times Now.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Washington:

At least 17 people, including students, were killed after a former student opened fire at a Florida high school, law enforcement officials said on Thursday.

The shooting suspect, identified as Nicolas Cruz, has been taken into custody. The FBI is assisting local officials in the investigation.

Nicolas Cruz was the killer. He is in custody. We already began to dissect his websites and social media that he was on ... some of the things that come to mind are very, very disturbing, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters at a news conference in Florida.

Cruz, 19, was a former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where the shooting took place.

Israel said Cruz got expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons.

The suspect had countless magazines, he added.

At this point, we believe he had one AR-15 rifle. I dont know if he had a second one, the sheriff said in response to a question. The suspect was treated and released to the police. Of the 17 dead, 12 were inside the building, two were shot dead just outside the building, one was on a street outside the school, and two people lost their lives at a hospital. Israel, however, could not confirm the number of victim students.

The school has quite a number of Indian-American students and at least one student from the community was injured in the incident.

The student, a ninth grader, sustained minor injures as he was hit by splinters. He is being treated at a hospital.

This is a sad day for the country and the community. We all Indian-Americans are praying for the victims, Shekar Reddy, whose friends son was among those injured in the mass shooting, told PTI.

Authorities said several victims were being treated in the hospital. Three of them are in critical conditions and another three in stable condition.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school, President Donald Trump said in a tweet.

He spoke with the Florida Governor and other top officials and was seeking frequent updates on the tragic incident.

Florida Senator Chris Murphy termed it as a horrific scene playing out at a high school in South Florida.

Turn on your television right now, youre going to see scenes of children running for their lives. Its what looks to be the [18]th school shooting in this country, and we have not even hit March, he said on the Senate floor today.

The mass shooting, which is said to be 18th school shooting of the year, seems to have rekindled a debate on the controversial gun control legislation in the US.

Murphy rued at the incident, claiming it was a fallout of our inaction.

This happens nowhere else other than the United States of America...It only happens here not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction. We are responsible for a level of mass atrocity that happens in this country with zero parallel anywhere else, Murphy said.

Every day in this country, 46 children are shot, said Congressman Donald M Payne.

Every day in this country, seven children die from gun violence. Those statistics do not occur in any other high-income country on this planet, he said, urging the members of the US Congress to use their power to make the world safer for all children.

The motives behind the tragic shooting today remain a mystery, but one thing is certainthe loss of innocent life at the hands of a merciless gunman is heinous and despicable, said Congressman Peter Roskam.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said another American community is reeling from the horror of gun violence, perpetrated against innocent school children.

Too many families have lost someone to the senseless epidemic of gun violence. Congress has a moral responsibility to take common-sense action to prevent the daily tragedy of gun violence in communities across America. Enough is enough, Pelosi said.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed has said he will challenge Pakistan governments illegal crackdown against his entities in the court.

Earlier on Wednesday, Pakistan had banned two so called charities of Hafiz Saeed after quietly amending its anti-terror laws to ban terrorist organisations listed by the United Nations.

Reacting to the crack down, Hafiz Saeed said, "After detaining me for 10 months without any legal ground, the government has now issued a notification regarding taking over our schools, dispensaries, ambulances and other assets.

It will hamper our relief operations in Punjab, Balochistan, Sindh, Azad Kashmir and northern areas," he added.

Also Read | US tables motion to place Pak on global terrorist-financing watch list

The Pakistan government has started taking over all the facilities, offices, schools, dispensaries and seminaries that belong to the Hafiz Saeeds JuD and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF).

The move comes days before a six-day multi-national Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting in Paris where Pakistan is likely to be grey-listed for money-laundering and terror-financing, is being seen as an eyewash by experts.

Earlier in November last year, FATF at its plenary in Buenos Aires had asked Pakistan provide a compliance report on actions taken against Lashkar-e-Taiba and JuD at Paris meeting.

FATF maintains a grey and blacklist that identifies countries supporting money laundering and terror financing. Pakistan had been on the grey list of FATF for three years from 2012 to 2015.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Jerusalem:

The name of Ratan Tata figures in the Israeli police recommendations seeking to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on graft charges, according to an Israeli media report, which was today dismissed by the Indian industrialists office as grossly incorrect in its references about him.

In the so-called Case 1000, in which Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are suspected of receiving illicit gifts from billionaire benefactors, Israeli-born Hollywood producer Milchan and Australian resort owner James Packer, the Indian Industrialist is also said to be a part of a project that Netanyahu tried to push forward to help Milchan.

According to the police, the most glaring example of Netanyahu working against Israels interests to benefit Milchan was his efforts (to) promote a free trade zone on the Israel-Jordan border, a project the Hollywood producer sought to promote as part of his partnership with Indian Industrialist Ratan Naval Tata, Ynetnews reported.

The project, which police noted went against the recommendations of the defence establishment, would have generated Milchan and Tata a huge profit, but ended up being scrapped because it wouldve cost the state an unreasonable amount in security expenses, the news portal said.

Commenting on the news report, the Indian industrialists office today told PTI that its grossly incorrect in its references about Mr. Ratan N. Tata.

Last year, the Israeli media reported that Tata testified before the Israeli police in connection to these allegation during his trip to Tel Aviv in the end of October-November on the sidelines of a business event.

A statement emailed to PTI by Tatas office did not deny the meeting between him and the Israeli officials. But it said the reports in Israeli media on the contents of the meeting are factually incorrect and appear to have been motivated.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Jacob Zuma has relented to the intense pressure from the ruling party African National Congress (ANC) and resigned as South Africas President.

The embattled President Jacob Zuma, in a televised statement on wednesday said he was resigning with immediate effect. However, he added that he disagreed with the ruling partys decision.

Earlier, the ruling party ANC had asked Zuma to resign as President or face a confidence vote in the Parliament.

Zuma said ANCs decision to formally ask him to step down was influenced by the internal violence and division of the party.

"No life should be lost in my name and also the ANC should never be divided in my name. I have therefore come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect," he said.

Also Read | Political crisis in South Africa, ruling party ANC decides President Jacob Zuma must go

"Even though I disagree with the decision of the leadership of my organisation, I have always been a disciplined member of the ANC.

Zuma, who is in power since 2009, is facing corruption allegations and was replaced by Cyril Ramaphosa as ANC leader in December last year.

Jacob Zumas tenure as South Africas President has been marred with controversies and allegations of corruption.

Recently, Zumas popularity took a nosedive after reports of his links with wealthy India-origin Gupta family, who have allegedly influenced the government.

Earlier last year, the Supreme Court of Appeal directed him to face several charges including corruption, fraud, racketeering and money laundering in connection with a 1999 arms deal.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed during a phone call Wednesday night to continue exerting maximum pressure on North Korea, while reaffirming that the reclusive state must agree to denuclearize before any dialogue can happen.

"Even at this moment, North Korea is continuing to develop nuclear and missile weapons," Abe told reporters after his phone call with Trump. "We need to directly face this reality. A dialogue for the sake of dialogue is meaningless."

"Both Japan and the U.S. believe there cannot be a meaningful dialogue unless it is toward the complete, verifiable and irreversible abandonment of nuclear weapons," he said.

The two leaders, talking for just over an hour, also discussed the importance of joint military exercises by the U.S. and South Korea. "The alliance between Japan and the U.S. will not waver at all. We will continue working together closely," Abe said.

This was the leaders' first call since Feb. 2. Abe in the meantime has met with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in Japan and South Korean President Moon Jae-in while visiting South Korea for the opening of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

There is concern in Tokyo not only over potential talks between Washington and Pyongyang, but also over the ongoing dialogue between the two Koreas. Abe probably hoped to ensure he was still largely on the same page with Trump.The Japanese government will urge companies to adopt a more transparent decision-making process through measures such as allocating at least one-third of board seats to outsiders.

The Financial Services Agency will include the guideline in this year's corporate governance code, replacing the old standard calling for just two or more outside directors. Companies are not obligated to follow the code, but they need to explain their reasons for noncompliance.

Japanese corporations trail foreign counterparts in appointing outside board members. Such directors make up 84% of boards at companies in the U.S., 69% in France and 61% in the U.K., said U.S. consultancy Spencer Stuart. In Japan, the figure totals just 31% even among the companies with the largest market caps.

In the U.S. and Europe, CEOs are often hired and fired by nomination committees composed mainly of outside directors. But that decision-making process in Japan remains opaque to outsiders because top executives typically appoint a successor. The Financial Services Agency sees murky selection of leaders as a contributing factor behind some business improprieties and wants to make the process more open.Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Wednesday announced the arrest of two men who are suspected of participating in a brawl in Taito Ward three years ago that involved nearly a dozen members of two rival street touting groups, reports Nippon News Network.

In May, 2015, Satoshi Nakamura, 42, and Daisuke Yamana, 38, are alleged to have been among the participants in the 10-person brawl that included punches to the head and kicks to the abdomen on a road in the Ueno business district.

Nakamura, who has been accused of assault resulting in injury, admits to the allegations, while Yamana says he was involved only to help an associate who became entangled in the fray, according to police. Police have arrested eight other persons in the case.

The two suspects no longer work as street touts. The two touting groups had been continually battling one another for turf at around the time of the incident. Three months later, a member of one of the groups was sprayed in the face with sulphuric acid, police said.Japan's Cabinet Office says the country's Gross Domestic Product from October to December 2017 grew 0.1 percent compared to the previous quarter based on preliminary data.

That works out to an annualized growth of 0.5 percent.

This means the economy expanded for an 8th straight quarter, which is the longest growth period in nearly 3 decades.

Domestic demand boosted GDP. Consumer spending climbed 0.5 percent, marking the first increase in 2 quarters. The auto and restaurant industries saw strong sales.

Capital investment was up 0.7 percent. This was due partly to an increase in machinery purchases to cope with a labor shortage.

Exports rose 2.4 percent, thanks to strong shipments of smartphone parts and automobiles. But higher oil prices lifted the value of imports.Chefs from an upscale Mexican restaurant in Buffalo and a farm-to-table destination in the Hudson Valley have named semi-finalists in the 2018 James Beard Awards.

The James Beard awards, to be announced at a two-day gala in Chicago in May, are considered the top U.S. honors in the word of food and drink -- the Oscars of the American culinary scene.

Semi-finalists were named today in various national and regional categories, including best chefs, best service and best wine programs.

The two Upstate New York chefs were nominated in the category of "Best Chef" for the Northeast region (excluding New York City). They are:

-- Victor Parra Gonzalez, of Las Puertas, 385 Rhode Island St. on Buffalo's West Side. It opened in 2016.

"Las Puertas serves innovative, upscale Mexican cuisine with an emphasis upon technique and quality, local ingredients," reviewer Julie Kirsch wrote in a February 2017 review at buffalorising.com. Of the owner, she wrote, "Parra Gonzalez's humble, kind, and amiable nature has much to do with his ability to attract such a motivated, loyal, and hardworking team."

Parra Gonzalez also co-owns a casual Buffalo Mexican restaurant called Casa Azul

-- Nick Suarez of Gaskins, at 2 Church Ave. in Germantown on the Hudson River in Columbia County.

"Featuring a seasonally-changing menu of mostly classic American dishes and comfort food favorites, owners Nick and Sarah Suarez have conceived a brilliant space where exceptional ingredients from nearby farms can shine," a story at andnorth.com observed. " ... the restaurant is quickly becoming the Hudson Valley's preferred meeting spot to feast, celebrate, and drop by for a friendly drink."

Nick Suarez' brother, Dan, is owner of the highly regarded Suarez Family Brewery in nearby Livingston.

Upstate New York chefs aren't nominated for James Beard awards often, but there have been past nominees and winners:

-- In 2016, Brooks' House of Bar-B-Q in Oneonta was one of five restaurants nationwide to win an "America's Classic" award from the James Beard Foundation.

-- Also in 2016, Zak Pelaccio, executive chef and co-owner at Fish & Game restaurant in Hudson, was named the Northeast's Chef of the Year.

Past Upstate James Beard nominees for the best Northeast chef include Dano Hutnik of Dano's Heuriger in Lodi on Seneca Lake in 2012 and Suzanne Stack of Suzanne's Fine Regional Cuisine, also in Lodi, in 2011.A former Political Adviser to ex-President, Olusegun Obasanjo, Akin Osuntokun has listed reasons his former principal was a better Preside...

A former Political Adviser to ex-President, Olusegun Obasanjo, Akin Osuntokun has listed reasons his former principal was a better President than President Muhammadu Buhari.





Speaking in an interview with a former Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, he recalled that Obasanjo was bold enough to order soldiers to kill members of the Odua Peoples Congress, OPC, a Yoruba organisation while Buhari has not been able to call his Fulani brothers to order.





Osuntokun also said that during Obasanjos regime, people from different tribes dined with him, discussing national issues, thereby fostering the spirit of brotherhood, adding that Buhari has locked every other tribe out of his government except his Fulani brothers.





He said, One thing you must understand is that Obasanjo is no more running the day-to-day affairs of the country. He does not have the power to have anything done in this country. I cannot direct myself to Buhari.





Whether you agree with Obasanjo or not, he has spoken. By the way, what has he said that Nigerians have not said? He just echoed the sentiment in Nigeria.





We have no decision to take on Obasanjo because he is now a private citizen. But as far as Nigeria is concerned, which you and I are citizens, and our welfare is at stake, the one who is responsible is President Buhari.





So, I am yet to see any Nigerian president that would do better than Obasanjo. I am not saying that he was a fantastic president. But I have not seen any president who is better than him.





He dealt with OPC and instructed any person parading himself as a member to be shot on sight. Is he not a Yoruba man?





Do you think it didnt cost him? But that is leadership? There is no basis for comparing the two of them. Has President Buhari done that with the Fulani herdsmen?





Obasanjos presidency was like a national rainbow. On a daily basis, you see people from different tribes on the dining table with him discussing national issues. He fostered the spirit of brotherhood.





Is it not ironical, Buhari that hasnt done well according to some Nigerians, gets African Unions award on the fight against corruption?





I have no issue with AU giving President Buhari an award. Look at the way he is handling the issue of Ibrahim Magu and the senate.





As we speak, Ibrahim Magu has not been confirmed because somebody who works for Buhari also said that he is not clean.





He has not been confirmed as the chairman of the commission and he is still there because he works for Buhari. Is that how a government should be?





Is it me or Obasanjo who created that? The Attorney-General of the country wrote to the senate not to probe a fugitive, Maina, after the debacle of smuggling in.



A former Senior Special Assistant to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Doyin Okupe, has highlighted the reason for the decline in the practi...

A former Senior Special Assistant to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Doyin Okupe, has highlighted the reason for the decline in the practice of democratic system of government in Nigeria.





Abati stated that electing presidents, governors to be leaders of political parties is to be blamed.





The former presidential spokesman on his Facebook page further urged Nigerian leaders to take a cue from Jacob Zumas resignation in order to restore democracy.





He wrote,  Lessons from Zumas resignation.We kill democracy by making Presidents,Governors, leaders of d parties.





Party leadership must be above elected officials.





 All serious political parties must amend their constitutions to correct this political anomaly.



A suspended doctor pleaded guilty to drug distribution charges for his role in putting thousands of prescription drugs on the streets of Atlantic County, according to the prosecutor's office.

Alan Faustino (courtesy of Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office)

Alan Faustino, 50, was arrested in April 2015 after a four month investigation determined he sold prescriptions, on some occasions to people he never met, according to authorities.

The Atlantic County Prosecutor's office says Faustino was licensed to write prescriptions for OxyContin, Roxicodone and Alprazolam.

With the help of six others the group was able to recruit fake patients and resell their prescription pills on the street, authorities said.

Many of the "patients" were admitted opioid addicts, prosecutors said.

Austino pleaded guilty to second-degree drug distribution on Feb. 9, authorities say.

His sentencing is scheduled for April 15. Faustino is facing up to 10 years in New Jersey state prison, the prosecutor's office said.

Alexis Johnson may be reached at ajohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @alexisjreports. Find her on Facebook.Houston police are investigating the death of a model from New Jersey who was found dead in her home of a gunshot wound.

Danielle Chaney

Danielle Chaney, 20, was found in her apartment by her boyfriend about 5:10 p.m. on Feb. 2, according to a news release from the city's police department. Chaney is from Englewood, Bergen County.

"Ms. Chaney was found by her boyfriend lying on her bed inside her apartment," Houston police said in a statement. "She had sustained a gunshot wound to the head. The boyfriend stated he brought Chaney outside to render aid before paramedics arrived and transported her to the hospital."

Chaney died at the hospital.

The boyfriend was not identified by police.

News video taken of the outside of Chaney's apartment after the shooting show a window apparently shattered by gunfire and another window left open.

Chaney lived about 15 miles from downtown Houston and was pursuing a career as a model, according to her Facebook page.

"Success over everything," she wrote on the social media site.

Her grieving mother Betty Harris told ABC13 the family needs to know the details of Danielle's death and asked anyone with information to contact police.

A funeral will be held Friday in Englewood with burial in Mount Rest Cemetery in Butler, according to an obituary.

Houston police say the matter remains under investigation.

They asked anyone with information to call 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.This is a lucrative time of the year for scammers.

Tax time.

As taxpayers collect their W-2s and 1099s, tax scammers are hard at work.

But according to recent data from the IRS, tax scams may not be as lucrative as they were before.

The IRS reports there was a 40 percent decline in tax-related identity theft in 2017 compared to the year before.

The agency said it stopped $6 billion in fraudulent tax refund attempts, and the number of tax returns with confirmed identity theft was down 32 percent.

And in New Jersey, more than 71,000 fake tax refunds worth $108 million were stopped for the 2016 tax year, according to the state's Division of Taxation.

That's all good news, but don't let the numbers comfort you.

Taxpayers still need to be on guard, ready to protect themselves -- and their identities -- from creative and convincing scammers.

Let's brush up on most common tax scams.

TAX REFUND FRAUD

Tax refund fraud is simple.

A scammer who has your personal information files a tax return in your name. Of course, the scammer says he is due a refund.

If the fake return is filed before your real one is, the refund will be paid out, and you'll be left with a mess.

You might think you can't be a victim, but you're wrong.

We've lived through a couple of years of significant data breaches and hacks, so you really have no idea how much of your personal information could be in a thief's hands.

The best way to protect yourself is to file your return as early as possible so you can beat the scammer to it. Even if you owe money, you should file quickly. Your payment to the IRS isn't due until the tax filing deadline.

SCAMMING YOUR TAX PREPARER

Con artists are now targeting tax professionals, attempting to get their clients' personal information.

In some cases, scammers impersonate the IRS, emailing tax preparers with instructions to click on a link to update information for IRS e-services. Others send phishing emails, armed with malware, to the tax pros.

They want to swipe client information so they can file fake returns and cash in on undeserved refunds.

Have a conversation with your tax preparer to make sure steps are taken to keep your information safe.

TARGETING YOUR BOSS

There's been a host of scams targeting employers, human resources workers and payroll service providers.

Scammers, using email, will impersonate a company executive or someone from a department that may legitimately need private employee data, such as copies of W-2 forms.

They basically trick company reps to hand over all the information needed to file a fake tax return in your name.

Make sure your employer is aware of the scam, and ask that he spread the news around to employees who handle sensitive information.

YOU OWE THE IRS

This one's an oldie, but it's still a money-maker for scammers.

Your phone rings, and the caller identifies himself as an IRS or law enforcement agent. You're in trouble, the caller says, explaining there's a warrant for your arrest, and unless you pay your back taxes immediately, you'll be taken to jail.

Some scammers ask that you wire money, while others ask for prepaid cards or iTunes gift cards.

Under most circumstances, the real IRS will never contact you by phone. (Learn more about the exceptions here.) If the agency wants to reach you, it usually sends a paper letter first.

If you're not sure, hang up and call the IRS directly to see if there's a problem.

NEW TAX LAW, NEW SCAMS

We expect we will hear about the next batch of scams.

With the passage of the new tax law, fraudsters will get creative and find ways to convince taxpayers they owe money.

They did it after the Affordable Care Act was passed and there was some confusion over Obamacare-related tax reporting.

You can be sure to hear some new ones soon.

To stay safe, never open emails or click on links from questionable senders and don't answer the phone if an unknown caller rings.

And let us know what new scam attempts come your way.

Have you been Bamboozled? Reach Karin Price Mueller at Bamboozled@NJAdvanceMedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KPMueller. Find Bamboozled on Facebook. Mueller is also the founder of NJMoneyHelp.com.

Stay informed and sign up for NJMoneyHelp.com's weekly e-newsletter.New Jersey's newest medical school has earned preliminary accreditation to open in Nutley and Clifton, a critical win in the lengthy process of starting a new school.

The Seton Hall-Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine on Thursday received the approval of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the group that accredits U.S. medical schools, according to the university.

The accreditation was needed before the school can receive federal grants and funds, according to Seton Hall University, which is partnering with Hackensack Meridian Health to open the school.

Neither side would say when the school will open, but a recently published hospital magazine reported classes would begin in July if the school won preliminary approval by February. An announcement about the inaugural recruitment class is still to come, according to the university.

"This is a remarkable achievement," Hackensack Meridian Health said in a statement Thursday, "and we are thrilled that our vision for a new approach to medical education is becoming a reality."

Hackensack's hospitals will serve as teaching sites for Seton Hall's medical students. The new medical school will be located in the vacant complex on Route 3, on the border of Nutley and Clifton, that was once packed with Hoffman-La Roche workers before the company began moving out in 2013.

The campus will include the new School of Medicine, as well as Seton Hall's College of Nursing and School of Health and Medical Sciences, which will relocate from South Orange, according to promotional materials for the school.

The plan is to eventually enroll between 125 and 150 students per class at the new medical school, university officials have said.

Seton Hall's medical school will be New Jersey's first private medical school in decades. It will compete for students with Rutgers University's two medical schools -- New Jersey Medical School in Newark and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway-New Brunswick -- and Rowan University's Cooper Medical School in Camden and School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford.

"We are pleased to receive preliminary accreditation," Seton Hall said in a statement. "This is an essential requirement and great accomplishment in the complex process of establishing a new medical school."

The university has yet to announce tuition rates or how students can apply.

Staff writer Kelly Heyboer contributed to this report

Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Dan Richer of Razza in Jersey City, Joey Baldino of Zeppoli in Collingswood and David Viana of Heirloom Kitchen in Old Bridge have been named James Beard Award semifinalists for best chef in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Seven New Jersey restaurants/chefs/bakers were named as semifinalists for the prestigious food awards; six were nominated in 2016 and five in 2017.

H. Alexander Talbot and Aki Kamozawa of Curiosity Doughnuts in Stockton are semifinalists in the Outstanding Baker category, while Osteria Radici in Allentown is a semifinalist for Best New Restaurant.

Chef Vola's in Atlantic City, which won an America's Classic award from the James Beard Foundation in 2011, is a semifinalist in the Outstanding Service category.

Zeppoli was one of ten finalists in the N.J's Best Italian Restaurant showdown, while Razza was one of ten finalists in the N.J.'s Best Pizzeria competition. Both Baldino and Richer have previously been nominated for the James Beard Awards.

The James Beard Awards are considered the Oscars of the food industry. The 400-plus semifinalists in 21 categories were picked from a list of 20,000 online entries. The list of semifinalists will now be sent to 600-plus judges across the country, who will vote and select five finalists in each category.

The finalists will be announced on March 14 at Parc in Philadelphia. The winners will be announced on May 7 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

The entire list of James Beard Awards semifinalists can be viewed here.

Peter Genovese may be reached at pgenovese@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @PeteGenovese or via The Munchmobile @NJ_Munchmobile. Find the Munchmobile on Facebook and Instagram.JERSEY CITY -- The prosecution said today it will prove a 52-year-old Passaic man raped a woman inside her Hoboken home last year, while the defense told jurors that no rape occurred on the day in question.

"This case is about the brazen violation of the sanctity of a young woman's home and a young woman's body," Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor John Mulkeen said in his opening statement at the trial of Marcos Blandino.

Blandino is accused of raping the woman, who was 22 at the time of the alleged April 23, 2017 incident.

Mulkeen said on the day of the attack the victim had gone to three Hoboken bars before a friend called a car to take her back to her Clinton Street apartment. He said she was dropped off a short distance from her home and walked the rest of the way.

"Unbeknownst to her, somebody was watching her every move," Mulkeen said.

The woman didn't have her key and after she entered the building's vestibule that evening, she exited again and searched for a spare key hidden in a flower pot. As this was happening, a minivan in the street is seen in security video repeatedly pulling forward and reversing before parking, the prosecutor said.

After the woman found the key and entered the building again, the man left the minivan and followed her inside, Mulkeen said. He pushed her into her apartment and partially unclothed her before sexually assaulting her. He is seen leaving and reentering the minivan within six minutes, Mulkeen said.

A week later, a similar minivan was spotted in the area, Blandino was behind the wheel and he was taken in for questioning, Mulkeen said, adding that he was shown stills from the video and admitted it was his car and he was the only person driving it the day of the incident.

Inside the vehicle, a hat and jacket were found that resemble those worn by the man who entered the victim's home on April 23. Mulkeen told the jury that DNA evidence was collected but tests were not particularly conclusive, adding that the victim will not be able to identify the victim, but her description generally fits that of Blandino.

The prosecutor said the totality of the evidence will prove that Blandino raped the woman.

When defense attorney Genesis Peduto rose to make her opening statement, she said called Blandino "an innocent man," drawing some laughter from supporters of the victim.

"On that Sunday, the victim had over six alcoholic drinks. She was very drunk," Peduto said.

The defense attorney suggested the defendant was obviously intoxicated as she walked to her home and a concerned Blandino asked her if she was going far. Peduto said the woman told him, "I'm going right here," and asked him to wait because she could not remember if she had her keys.

Peduto said the woman knocked on the window to her apartment and then came back out to look for the key under the flower pot and invited Blandino to come into her home. "She took down her clothes from the waist down. She kisses him. He realizes there is something wrong here and he freaks out. He leaves," the attorney said.

Peduto noted that the woman got changed and went to sleep. When a roommate returned hours later, she found the apartment trashed. "She tries to wake her up and was thinking to herself, 'Wow she must have been really drunk, look what a mess she made.'"

The defense attorney said the roommate then asked, "Were you sexually assaulted," first raising the issue. "When you go back into the jury room you are going to find that he is not guilty. He did not rape this woman -- not in five minutes."

Blandino is being detained through the course of his prosecution.

The afternoon was spent with jurors watching a video recording of Blandino being interviewed by detectives. The interview was conducted in Spanish and jurors and supporters of the victim in court were provided with translated transcripts.

The Jersey Journal asked for a copy of the transcript during the lunch break but none had been provided as of the end of the day's proceedings at 4 p.m.

The trial will resume Tuesday at 9 a.m. before Hudson County Superior Court Judge Vincent Militello.BAYONNE -- The city council voted unanimously in favor of an ordinance that will require local labor unions work on private developments in the city.

According to the ordinance, private developers of residential and commercial projects that receive tax abatements and exceed a cost of $15 million will now be required to enter into project labor agreements (PLAs) with local labor unions seeking jobs on project sites.

"This benefits all of the union trades -- close to 15 locals in the county," said Patrick Kelleher, president of the Hudson County Building & Construction Trades Council. "It's an opportunity for residents to be on these projects because the City of Bayonne has the largest contingent of union members in the state."

The agreement mandates that 20 percent of the hired workforce come from Bayonne or Hudson County labor unions.

Mayor Jimmy Davis, in a statement, called the agreement "historic" and "one of the most sweeping and effective union labor mandates in the state."

"Bayonne is in the middle of a complete revitalization that will mean $10 million in new tax revenue and higher property values for homeowners when it's all said and done, and now we've made sure that local Bayonne workers will also be some of the primary beneficiaries of our city's renaissance," he said.

Dozens of local union workers packed the council chambers Wednesday night to advocate for the ordinance. It passed unanimously to cheers and applause within the council chambers.

Thomas Hurley, a representative for Local 253, a carpenters union associated with the buildings and construction council that represents approximately 150 city residents, said the ordinance provides a sense of security for union workers.

"We're here to support this so we can ensure the opportunity to bring work to the residents who live here so they can afford to live here and keep community dollars circulating within the community," he said outside City Hall prior to the meeting.

Some laborers, however, questioned why an ordinance such as this took so long to pass.

The agreement drew similar ire from former Assemblyman Jason O'Donnell, who is looking to unseat Davis in the May 8 municipal election.

He previously called the proposal "completely disingenuous" and a "campaign stunt" that is an "insult to the intelligence of every working man and woman" in Bayonne and to members of organized labor in the state.

"For three and a half years and running, the Davis administration has, through its actions, denied the men and women of organized labor an opportunity to compete for work in the City of Bayonne," O'Donnell said, adding that Davis administration has approved well over 30 tax PILOT abatements with no PLA agreements.

In a previous interview, Davis rebuked that criticism of an election stunt, claiming he had been working to create PLAs but was monitoring the status of an ongoing federal lawsuit against a similar PLA agreement proposed by Jersey City.

"No one has challenged that, so that's when we said 'OK, we now have a format we can follow,'" Davis' campaign manager, Joe DeMarco, said.

Davis also pointed to the city's passing of a PLA agreement in 2015 for public projects in the city, which applies to all municipal and public works construction projects costing more than $5 million.

Nonetheless, the Davis team effectively withdrew some election ammunition from O'Donnell, who has been endorsed by several labor unions and has received thousands of dollars in campaign funds from them as well.

"Bayonne has always been a place that takes pride in our blue collar roots, and this ordinance honors that history while looking to the bright future we're building together," Council President Sharon Nadrowski said.

Corey W. McDonald may be reached at cmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @coreymacc. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.JERSEY CITY -- A 25-year-old Jersey City man is accused of failing to get medical care for his 4-month-old daughter who was suffering from numerous injuries, including a fractured skull.

Raul Torres, of the 200 block of Van Horne Street, was arrested Tuesday and charged with endangering the welfare of the baby.

The child was unresponsive and not breathing when paramedics brought her to Jersey City Medical Center on Tuesday, according to the complaint. The toddler was suffering from bleeding on the brain and had bruises all over her body, the court document states.

An official said the child was brought to the hospital by paramedics after a 911 call was made, but information on whom made the call was not provided.

The baby remains hospitalized, an official confirmed.

The heavily-redacted court document does not provide any information on how the child may have suffered such severe injuries. It says Torres was interviewed by detectives of the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office Special Victims Unit prior to his arrest.

Torres made his first appearance on the charge in Criminal Justice Reform Court in Jersey City yesterday via video link from Hudson County jail in Kearny.

At the hearing, the state moved to detain him through the course of his prosecution. A detention hearing is scheduled for Tuesday before Hudson County Superior Court Judge Paul DePascale in the Hudson County Administration Building in Jersey City.

At the hearing, Torres said he is a military veteran and the judge informed him of assistance available to veterans.NORTH BERGEN  Stephanie Conteron had plans to take her daughter Nevaeh to see "Aladdin" on Broadway tonight.

But instead of enjoying the show with the beloved 6-year-old, Conteron and her grieving family are preparing for the girl's funeral this weekend.

Nevaeh Hernandez, a kindergarten student at Lincoln School, is the second child in New Jersey to die of the flu this season and her family says her tragic death likely could have been prevented, had she not been sent home from the hospital with a fever near 104 degrees.

The 6-year-old came home from school Friday afternoon and said she had a headache, family attorney Louis Zayas said during a press conference today. Nevaeh's mother, Stephanie Conteron, gave her daughter some medicine but soon noticed her temperature began to rise. She took her to Hoboken University Medical Center that night.

After more than three hours, Nevaeh was seen by a nurse and a physician's assistant and was told both strep throat and flu tests came back negative, Zayas said, adding that she was sent home despite having a high fever.

Conteron, an emergency medical technician, knew something was still wrong Saturday. Navaeh's temperature spiked to over 105 degrees and her family brought her to Hackensack University Hospital where she was diagnosed with the flu within an hour of arriving, Zayas said.

There, the girl had four seizures, slipped into a coma, and died Monday, the attorney said.

Navaeh's father, Gabriel, is in the Army and was stationed in Germany. He was rushed home, escorted to the hospital by police, but didn't make it back in time to see his daughter before she died.

"The purpose here is to alert the public how dangerous this flu strain is, that even if your child has been given the flu shot, that this flu shot may not be sufficient to warn off this particular strain," Zayas said.

Navaeh was given the flu shot in December, her family said.

Sandra Rivera, the 6-year-old's maternal grandmother, is now reminding parents they have a right to ask for a doctor to see their child and to stay at a hospital until they feel they have received the best care.

"Only a parent knows how your child is feeling," Rivera said. "Stay there, request whatever you need. Ask for a doctor, (say) 'I don't feel right, I'm not going anywhere,' because we feel (Navaeh's) death could have been prevented"

CarePoint Health, which operates the Hoboken hospital, said in a statement it will be cooperating with the state's mandatory review of health records and lab testing, which is required for pediatric flu deaths.

"We join the entire Hudson County community in mourning the tragic death of Nevaeh Hernandez," spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said. "Our heartfelt condolences go out to her family and friends. While privacy laws strictly prohibit our commenting on individual patient conditions, testing, or treatments, Hoboken University Medical Center meticulously follows all CDC guidelines and protocol related to the flu or possible flu cases."

But as Nevaeh's family searches for answers, her mother says she's really missing the sassy, intelligent little girl who had every Disney princess dress and loved going to her ballet class.

"She would knock on the door while I was in the bathroom, telling me that she loves me, and then coming back five minutes later to tell me she loves me and ask if I'm okay in there," Conteron said.

A wake is scheduled for Friday from 2 to 8 p.m. at Vainieri Funeral Home on Kennedy Boulevard in North Bergen. Those attending are asked to wear pink, Nevaeh's favorite color. A funeral service will be held Saturday at St. Augustine Church in Union City at 10 a.m.

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.By Chris Wyman | For The Jersey Journal

VERNON  Jersey City firefighters placed first in annual ski and snowboard races this month to raise funds for the Burn Center at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston.

In all, 37 teams of professional and volunteer firefighters came out on Friday, Feb. 9, to the 31st annual event, which is now held at Mountain Creek Ski Resort.

"We expect to raise about $6,000 for the burn center,'' said Mark Ellerson, president of the New Jersey Firefighters Races and a retired Jersey City firefighter who now lives in Cream Ridge in central New Jersey.

In fact, the entire organizing committee consists of current or retired Jersey City firefighters, he said, naming Henry Matak (retired), Paul Schaetzle of the Gong Club, Tony Lemanski (retired), Glenn Ellerson (retired),Todd Tarrant, Brett Paladino, and John Austin (retired).

The event is hosted by the Jersey City firefighters union, Local 1066, and fire officers union, Local 1064.

Representing Hudson County were the North Hudson Regional Fire & Rescue team and two teams representing the Jersey City Fire Department.

Well deserving of their win, the Jersey City "A" Team, led by Austin, placed first in the races with a winning time of 27.82 seconds. The second place winner was the team from Clifton, which was a full four seconds behind the winners.

The Jersey City "B" team placed 19th, and the North Hudson team placed 28th.

For those unfamiliar with the races, each team of five members on skis or snowboards must carry a 50-foot length of "retired" hose through the gated slalom racecourse. All racers must wear a fire helmet (about 5 pounds) and turnout coat (about 8 pounds).

Bunker pants, suspenders and boots add about another 20 pounds.

Any loss of gear while on the course results in a five-second penalty. No fewer than three members of each team must finish the course and they must be holding the hose as they cross the finish line.

Here's how the all the teams finished:

1: Jersey City

2: Clifton

3: Town Of Boonton

4: Leonia

5: Rockaway Boro #2

6: Hibernia

7: Boonton Township

8: Rahway

9: Hopatcong

10: Annandale

11: Camden

12: Martinsville #1

13: Lebanon

14: Montgomery #1

15: Country Hills

16: Caldwell

17: Paterson #2

18: Montgomery #2

19: Jersey City #2

20: Maplewood

21: Westfield

22: Monroe #2

23: Monroe #1

24: Paterson #1

25: Mountainside

26: Asbury Park

27: Florham Park

28: North Hudson

29: West Caldwell

30: White Meadows

31: Whippany

32: Martinsville #2

33: Vernon

34: Union - Disqualified

35: West Orange - Disqualified

36: Rockaway Boro #1 - Disqualified

37: Manasquan - Did not startA tenured teacher won't lose her job, but will be suspended for two months without pay, after a bizarre incident last year landed her in jail on charges of pot possession and eluding a police officer.

Brenda Bruni is an Italian teacher at the William Annin Middle School and Ridge High School in the Bernards Township School District.

The district claimed that her actions were unbecoming of a teacher, but, a state arbitrator reviewed police reports, footage and heard from each party and ruled that the allegations against Bruni should not result in her losing her position with the district.

Bruni, who was 40 at the time of the incident, was initially charged for possessing marijuana and for eluding an officer, according to the state arbitrator's decision.

According to the decision, Bruni was coming back from the grocery store in March last year when a Raritan Township police officer pulled her over for speeding.

Bruni said she was concerned about being away from her house because her mother-in-law, who had Parkinson's disease and showed signs of dementia, was alone and had a meal cooking in the oven.

She asked Officer Ismael Mendez if he could issue the summons outside her home, but he declined, called for backup and went to write her a ticket, according to the decision.

As the second police officer approached Bruni's car to ask her what was going on, she drove off. The officers chased her for about two to three minutes with their lights and sirens on, before one of the officers pulled in front of her car and she stopped, according to the decision.

At this point, Bruni was across the street from her home.

The officers put her in the back of a police cruiser, and despite her pleas to check on her mother-in-law, declined and searched her car.

In Bruni's purse, officers found a small, white tube shaped like a cigarette that they determined was a "one-hit," pipe used for smoking marijuana. She said she found it in her husband's truck, where he transports workers.

After more than 20 minutes, an officer checked on Bruni's mom and determined she was not in distress, according to the decision.

Bruni was taken to headquarters where she was charged with drug possession and eluding an officer.

"Out of fear for the safety of my mother-in-law I made a grave mistake and decided to drive the short distance home instead of waiting for the officers to complete their traffic stop," Bruni reportedly said in a letter to the district's board and superintendent after the incident.

"I can't take that decision back, but please know that it was done out of concern and I never imagined it would escalate to the point it did. I made a mistake. I absolutely acknowledge it, but I can only ask that you consider the entire picture. I made this irrational decision based on the safety of my mother-in-law."

Her drug charges were later dropped in Superior Court and she was allowed into Pre-Trial Intervention on the eluding charge. After the one-year period is up, her eluding charge will also be dropped, according to the decision.

"As is frequently the case the totality of the circumstances is more nuanced than the headline. The arbitrator carefully considered all the underlying circumstances, including Ms. Bruni's long and outstanding record and somewhat unique circumstances in the case and reached a reasoned and well considered decision," her lawyer, Edward Cridge said.

Neither the district nor its lawyer immediately returned requests for comment.

Sara Jerde may be reached at sjerde@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SaraJerde.

Have information about this story or something else we should be covering? Tell us:A deadly flu season is prompting local school districts to take extra steps to ensure buildings are clean and safe for students.

Some Hudson County schools are bringing in crews at night to perform heavy-duty cleanings and at least one district is planning to bring nurses to its schools to give free flu shots to any student with a parent's consent.

The dangers of this year's flu season hit home for Hudson County residents this week when state officials confirmed that a 6-year-old North Bergen girl died of the flu Monday. Nevaeh Hernandez is the second pediatric flu death in New Jersey this year.

George Solter, superintendent of North Bergen schools, said custodians have been using bleach on surfaces while cleaning at night and disinfectant spray during school hours. Teachers are also making sure students are sneezing and coughing into their elbows to prevent germs from spreading, Solter added.

Some parents have expressed concerns about sending their children to school, but Solter said officials determined keeping the schools open was the best decision.

"The staff is doing their best and it's just that school should be open to try to keep the normalcy for the kids," he said.

Grief counselors have been at Lincoln School the past two days. Solter said Tuesday -- the first day parents knew about the student's death -- was the only day this flu season that attendance was especially low across the district.

Bayonne Superintendent of Schools Michael Wanko sent a letter home to parents Tuesday urging them to keep students home if they are sick. The district also said the "very horrific flu season" prompted officials to begin "a very aggressive" cleaning plan.

"This would include commonly used areas as well as doorknobs, desktops, phones, water fountains, lavatories, sinks, etc.," the letter reads. "We will be vigilant in our efforts to keep the virus in check."

A spokeswoman for the Jersey City schools said hand sanitizer is going to be placed in classrooms and principals discussed the North Bergen student's death with the superintendent Marcia Lyles.

One of the reasons doctors say this year's flu season is especially bad is because the strain of the virus is mutating, making it hard to vaccinate against. As many as 4,000 people around the country are dying each week from flu-related illnesses.A 23-year-old man is in the hospital after he was hit by a train early Saturday morning, Amtrak said Wednesday.

The Plainfield man was hit by an Amtrak train from D.C. traveling to Boston at about 1 a.m. Saturday near Metuchen, Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams said in an email on Wednesday.

The train "came into contact" with the man, Abrams said. He is alive and at Robert Wood Johnson hospital, Abrams said. The hospital would not release his condition.

Officials had previously said a body was found on the tracks at about 5 a.m. on Saturday. The discovery caused about an hour suspension to service on the Northeast Corridor line.

Sara Jerde may be reached at sjerde@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SaraJerde.

Have information about this story or something else we should be covering? Tell us: nj.com/tipsA Union Township police sergeant will lose his job and faces probation after admitting to accepting thousands of dollars in overtime pay he didn't earn, authorities said.

Michael Wittevrongel, 47, collected multiple overtime payments from February to October 2017 for shifts he didn't work, according to Union County Prosecutor Michael Monahan.

Wittevrongel pleaded guilty to third-degree theft. He faces probation at sentencing and will be required to pay $6,400 in restitution, prosecutors say. Wittevrongel had been employed by the department since 1993 and earned $140,000, according to state pension records.

"We hold the men and women of the Union Police Department to a high standard, and will not tolerate any violation of the public trust," said Union Police Director Daniel Zieser.

The two-month investigation was initiated by Union Police Department's Internal Affairs before being passed along to the prosecutor's office.

"This case was the result of internal checks and balances that have been put in place," Zieser said.

Wittevrongel will also be banned from future public employment in New Jersey, officials say.

The Union Township Police Department says Wittevrongel has been employed there since January 1993. His sentencing is scheduled for March 23.

Alexis Johnson may be reached at ajohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @alexisjreports. Find her on Facebook.By Marisa Iati and Bill Gallo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

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Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

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Marriage, a Newark municipal judge told couples Wednesday, is about remembering to hold hands, saying "I love you" at least once a day and never going to sleep angry.

"It is standing together and facing the world," Judge Wanda I. Nieves said as she helped couples tie the knot in a string of Valentine's Day weddings.

Holding mass wedding ceremonies on the country's most romantic holiday has become a tradition in some regions of New Jersey. Roughly 46 couples got married in Newark this year, and another local couple got married in Salem.

Some pairs had been dating for years, while others met recently. Some connected over social media, and others locked eyes in a bar. All pledged to love each other always and stay together through the good times and the bad.

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Bill Gallo Jr. | For NJ.com

Emily Alexander and Keith Whitaker Jr.

For Emily Alexander and Keith Whitaker Jr., Valentines Day 2018 was also their wedding day. The two, both 21 and of Pennsville, were married Wednesday by Salem County Clerk Gilda Gill at the clerks office in downtown Salem.

It was very special to get married on our first Valentines Day together. Thats what made it awesomely amazing, Alexander said after she and her husband exchanged vows. I got to marry my best friend on Valentines Day.

For Alexander and Whitaker, having about a dozen family and friends present as they traded wedding vows meant a lot to them. The couple, who met in May 2017, is expecting a daughter, Lila Ann Whitaker, in April.

As county clerk, Gill said she has been presiding over Valentines Day ceremonies for about 15 years. In the past, Gill has had more couples to marry, but this year it was just the new Mr. and Mrs. Whitaker who turned out.

Valentines Day is a special day  a day of love and expressing how you feel about others," Gill said. "I just thought it would be something a little bit different.

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Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Kimberly Williams and Shetaya Rivers

After six years of dating, Kimberly Williams and Shetaya Rivers tied the knot Wednesday in municipal court in Newark. The pair connected on Facebook when Rivers, 35, sent Williams, 37, a friend request.

"I feel like she's my soulmate," Rivers said. "I can't see my life without her."

When they exchanged phone numbers a few months after they connected online, their first conversation lasted four or five hours. They met the following day, they said, and have been inseparable ever since.

Williams eventually convinced Rivers to move to New Jersey with her daughter and her mother. They got married on Valentine's Day, two weeks after their anniversary.

"This is my best friend," Williams said. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

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Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Shamara Macon and Omar Dixon

Two years ago, Shamara Macon and Omar Dixon met through a mutual friend. They said they've helped each other through tough times and grown alongside one another.

The Newark couple were married by a municipal judge Wednesday.

"He's not going nowhere," Macon, 28, said with a laugh. "He's stuck with me forever."

Macon said she and Dixon, 35, "love one another abundantly."

The pair were not seeking to get married on Valentine's Day, but Wednesday ended up being the soonest they could legally tie the knot.

"One big gift for her," Dixon said.

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Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Desiree DeJesus and Jose Nieves

While dancing at a Newark lounge in July, Newark residents Desiree DeJesus and Jose Nieves started talking about movies. She put her number in his phone, and they talked non-stop after that.

"It's just been every single day we've been together," Nieves, 26, said after the pair got married in Newark. "We can't get enough of each other."

DeJesus, 23, said Nieves is very understanding and respectful, and they have a lot in common.

"You don't find that a lot out there, where you can really connect with somebody and it's a real thing," she said.

To Nieves, DeJesus is the person who can always make him smile.

"She knows how to make me feel better," Nieves said.

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Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Jasmine and Raziel Ferrer

It's been four years since Raziel Ferrer, 21, sent a message on Instagram to the woman who became his wife Wednesday in Newark. Jasmine, whose last name is now also Ferrer, said she gave him a chance, and the pair met in person for the first time at a Newark skating rink.

Jasmine Ferrer, 22, said she has always loved Valentine's Day and getting married on the holiday will make it forever special to them.

"We got married today because I couldn't wait any more," she said. "I wanted him forever."

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Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Yosmary Monero and Joaquin Lopez

Joaquin Lopez and Yosmary Monero didn't necessarily plan to get married on Valentine's Day, but that's the day they got when they signed up for a municipal court wedding in Newark.

"We wanted the closest day, and we got Valentine's Day," Lopez said with a laugh. "So, it's good."

The Newark couple exchanged vows in front of Judge Wanda I. Nieves on Wednesday six years after they met at a New Year's Eve party in Newark in 2012. Lopez and Monero have a five-year-old son, Jason, and another child due in June.

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Marisa Iati may be reached at miati@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @Marisa_Iati or on Facebook here. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Bill Gallo may be reached at bgallo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Bill Gallo on Twitter @bgallojr. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tipsWe're not even two months into 2018 and there have already been multiple school shootings. Since Sandy Hook, we've had an average of about five school shootings each month.



So how long should we wait, exactly, before we are allowed to talk about guns?

We are told that it's improper to use a moment like this for "political" purposes, that we should be content with "thoughts and prayers" until a period of time has passed. But then another school is hit, with another AR-15, and then it's too late. Again.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, charged with killing 17 in Florida school shooting



Now is not the time to talk about guns. President Trump didn't even say the word in his address to the nation today.



Instead, he advised America's children to "answer cruelty with kindness." He talked about working together, to "tackle the difficult issue of mental health."

He did not mention that one of the very first things he did as president was make it easier for mentally ill people to buy guns by rolling back an Obama-era restriction. Too soon.



Now is not the time to talk about how Obama's regulation would have added about 75,000 people receiving Social Security checks for mental illness and those deemed unfit to handle their own finances to the national background check database for gun purchases.



Instead, Trump suggested, just hours after the Florida shooting, that "neighbors and classmates" could have done more to prevent this attack by reporting this mentally disturbed young man.

"Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!" he wrote in a tweet.



And so as not to put all the onus on the kids, he added today, "We are here for you -- whatever you need, whatever we can do, to ease your pain."



But lest they get the wrong idea: Now "is not the time to jump to some conclusion" on legislation, House Speaker Paul Ryan said. This shooting was not about guns. It was about "pure evil."



The Las Vegas concert massacre was also about "pure evil," Trump said in his national address after that mass shooting in October. It was also too soon to talk about guns then.



Yet in case anyone was wondering: "The only person with blood on their hands is the shooter," Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said. "This isn't a time for us to go after individuals or organizations."



It's never that time, is it? And is there anyone in America who doesn't know exactly who and what she means?



We have a president and Republican Congress that exchanges Valentines with the National Rifle Association, which tweeted a photo of two guns on a heart-shaped box yesterday - then quickly deleted it after news of the Florida shooting broke.



We cannot have anything close to a rational discussion about ways to make us safer from these killings because we are in the grip of fanatics; not even the obvious stuff, like trigger locks and background checks.



It's always too soon to talk about guns. It's always too early until it's too late.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.By Frank Askin

One of the biggest Trump family lies growing out of the Russia investigation is the claim that Donald Trump Jr. met with Kremlin representatives in June 2016 for the purpose of discussing how to allow Americans to adopt Russian children.

The plot was compounded when, according to published reports, the president dictated a statement for Trump Jr. when the two discussed the meeting on Air Force One in July 2017, and made that excuse the official government position.

And now a former spokesman for the Trump legal team has agreed to be interviewed by special prosecutor Robert Mueller's investigation to discuss -- a meeting that is expected to take place in the coming weeks.

Would anyone like to explain why any Trump representative would care to negotiate with Russians about allowing Americans to adopt Russian children? Maybe you think there are not enough U.S.-born babies available for adoption?

So why would the issue of adoption of Russian children come up in conversation with agents of the Kremlin? The answer is clear: Russia wanted to rescind or relax sanctions imposed on Russia pursuant to the Magnitsky Act.

Sergei Magnitsky was a Russian tax accountant who died in a Russian prison after being convicted on trumped-up charges (that's "trumped" with a small "t") for exposing corruption by Kremlin tax officials. In response, the U.S. Congress adopted the Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012, also known as the Magnitsky Act. Among other things, the act froze assets of Russian bureaucrats who had helped frame Magnitsky, and denied them entry into the U.S.

In retaliation, President Vladimir Putin and the Russian legislature issued a directive forbidding the adoption of Russian children by Americans. Therefore, that directive could be lifted by Russia at any time without any involvement by the U.S.

Russians agents, headed by attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, had been lobbying for some time for the repeal of the Magnitsky Act. So when Russian agents talked to Trump representatives, including Don Trump Jr., about restoring the right of adoption, what they were really talking about was lifting U.S. sanctions.

Of course, the Russians would have to offer the Trump campaign something in return. And that, as emails have subsequently revealed, would have been "dirt" on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign.

But obviously the Trumpkins could not admit they were considering bargaining away U.S. sanctions for political advantage, so they changed the narrative to say it was all about Russian adoptions.

While lying to the public and the press is not a crime, as this story has unraveled, speculation grows that Mueller is taking special interest in pursuing this line of inquiry, possibly as evidence of obstruction of justice.

Most recently revealed is the fact that Mueller plans to question Mark Corallo, who resigned in July as a member of the Trump legal team. Corallo's resignation reportedly was related to the release of the Air Force One statement and the involvement of Trump communications director Hope Hicks. According to press reports, Hicks is denying an allegation by Corallo that she told the president that the email between Trump Jr. and Veselnitskaya would not be discovered.

Things get curiouser and curiouser. Stay tuned.

Frank Askin is general counsel emeritus of the American Civil Liberties Union and distinguished professor emeritus of Rutgers School of Law, Newark.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.By Jennifer Rubin

"Jared Kushner, a White House aide and President Donald Trump's son-in-law, appears to have drawn more money out of three separate lines of credit in the months after he joined the White House last year, a newly released document shows.

"

form filed by Kushner's wife, Ivanka Trump, bumped up each of those debts to a range of $5 million to $25 million.

"Versions of the couple's disclosures made public in July valued those debts at $1 million to $5 million apiece. The loans were extended by three banks: Bank of America, New York Community Bank and Signature Bank. ... One debt did drop in value as Ivanka Trump's form was revised: the amount owed on a Visa account went down to a range of $50,001 to $100,000, from $100,001 to $250,000."

(As an aside, who carries that much credit-card debt? Are the Kushners' liquid assets so low that their lifestyle has to be paid for by borrowing at presumably outrageous rates?)

Kushner's financial problems relating to his 2007 purchase of the 666 Fifth Ave. building for $1.8 billion have come up in the context of the Russia investigation. Last September the Wall Street Journal reported:

"Some of President Donald Trump's lawyers earlier this summer concluded that Jared Kushner should step down as senior White House adviser because of possible legal complications related to a probe of Russia's involvement in the 2016 presidential election and aired concerns about him to the president, people familiar with the matter said.

"Among their concerns was that Mr. Kushner was the adviser closest to the president who had the most dealings with Russian officials and businesspeople during the campaign and transition, some of which are currently being examined by federal investigators and congressional oversight panels. Mr. Kushner, Mr. Trump's son-in-law and confidant, has said he had four such meetings or interactions.

"Another issue was Mr. Kushner's initial omission of any contacts with foreign officials from the form required to obtain a security clearance. He later updated the form several times to include what he has said were more than 100 contacts with foreign officials."

Kushner met with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, to discuss a secret back-channel and with the head of a sanctioned Russian bank, Vnesheconombank (VEB). ("The conversation is curious not only because it represents a top Trump official secretly meeting with an arm of the Russian government, but also because accounts of the meeting differ in important ways," the Atlantic's David Graham noted at the time. "Kushner says he attended the meeting in his capacity as an adviser to President-elect Trump. But VEB says that the meeting concerned Kushner's family real-estate business.")

And he was present at the now-infamous June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower attended by a Kremlin-connected lawyer.

Kushner's financial problems make these contacts all the more troubling. As he was racking up debt, law professor Jed Shugerman tells me, Kushner "also just coincidentally was setting up secret lines to the Kremlin and was meeting with (Russian President Vladmir) Putin's banker a month after the election. And he just coincidentally was meeting with Russians offering dirt in Trump Tower during the election."

He explains, "Kushner's massive debts are an important piece of the entire Russia conspiracy on some of the parties' motives (Kushner, Michael Flynn and Trump) for such inexplicable behavior and such risk-taking."

In addition to the Russia investigation, prosecutors in Brooklyn have subpoenaed records from Deutsche Bank, which has lent "hundreds of millions to the Kushner family real estate business." (As the New York Times noted, "there is no indication that the subpoena is related to the investigation being conducted by Robert S. Mueller III.")

The Washington Post has reported that a month before Election Day 2016, "Kushner's real estate company finalized a $285 million loan as part of a refinancing package for its property near Times Square in Manhattan. The loan came at a critical moment.

Kushner was playing a key role in the presidential campaign of his father-in-law, Donald Trump. The lender, Deutsche Bank, was negotiating to settle a federal mortgage fraud case and charges from New York state regulators that it aided a possible Russian money-laundering scheme. The cases were settled in December and January."

In sum, Kushner has huge and growing debt, many suspicious Russian contacts and a close relationship (perhaps second only to Ivanka's) with Trump.

"The more money Kushner owes, especially to lenders or guarantors who do not have America's best interests at heart, the more he and his father-in-law the president are subject to compromising pressures at best and outright blackmail at worst," constitutional lawyer Larry Tribe tells me. "The fact that Kushner, without full security clearance, is permitted to peruse the president's daily briefing, containing the most secret information that exists, makes all of Kushner's financial obligations and debts urgent threats to our national security. This situation is unconscionable."

Perhaps those Trump lawyers were right - the president would have been much better off without the Russian-entangled Kushner in his administration.

Jennifer Rubin is a Washington Post columnist, writing from a conservative perspective.

Follow NJ.com Opinion on Twitter@NJ_Opinion. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.In his inaugural address nearly one month ago, Gov. Phil Murphy implored the state Legislature to act swiftly and send him a bill restoring $7.5 million in funding to family planning and health clinics in New Jersey.

On Thursday, lawmakers completed the task, rounding out an eight-year effort to reverse former Republican Gov. Chris Christie's cuts to clinics that provide birth control and health screenings to thousands of uninsured women.

The state Assembly passed the bill (S120) 47-20 with six abstentions Thursday afternoon. The Senate approved it earlier this month. Both houses are controlled by Democrats.

"Access to preventative screenings, routine exams and low-cost birth control are often scarce in many communities, but particularly so since the Christie administration cut funding for women's health, forcing the closure of a number of women's health centers throughout the state," said Assemblywoman Joann Downey, D-Monmouth, one of the bill's sponsors. "Now we finally have the chance to make good on our promise to restore this funding once and for all."

The family planning measure will be among the first batch of bills to hit Murphy's desk. Murphy, a Democrat, is expected to sign the legislation into law, possibly as early as next week.

Christie eliminated the funding shortly after taking office as part of an array of budget cuts, including $100 million for a homebuyer tax credit, to close a post-recession deficit. At the time, he said the cut was purely a financial decision. But as his "tell it like it is" presidential campaign geared up in 2015, Christie touted the cuts in furthering his anti-abortion credentials.

Year after year, Christie snuffed out Democrats' attempts to reinsert the funding into the budget with vetoes they didn't have the votes to override.

But in November, New Jerseyans elected a Democrat who pledged his support to Planned Parenthood.

"Women are dying in this state thanks to the cuts that the governor and the lieutenant governor have endorsed now for seven-and-a-half years," Murphy said after receiving the group's endorsement. "This is life and death. This is really life and death. They put a lot of women at stake."

The grants were split among 58 clinics, including some run by Planned Parenthood, to pay for preventive health screenings and birth control. The law prevents the money to be used for abortions, but organizations like New Jersey Right to Life protested, arguing no abortion provider should benefit from public funding.

Six of the 58 clinics in New Jersey closed and 14 others scaled back their hours and services after losing their share of the grant money, according to a report by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

Planned Parenthood leaders have said they're assessing whether they will reopen clinics and "where there is the greatest need."

Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi R-Bergen and Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz R-Union, voted against restoring the grants because Planned Parenthood officials refused to provide information about its financial records or explain how the money would be spent.

"I had planned to vote in favor of the appropriation. But it was the lack of transparency and the lack of respect to the women in my caucus for refusing to cooperate, respond, or even acknowledge our communication," Schepisi said. "Anybody who gets public money, any organization, you gotta be beyond transparent, and if you are refusing to, it immediately makes you suspect."

Schepisi sai she was "sad" about voting against the measure. "I am somebody who is not against Planned Parenthood. I believe they do good things and help women who need help."

Marie Tasy, executive director for New Jersey Right to Life, criticized the vote, noting the cozy relationship between Gov. Phil Murphy and Planned Parenthood's CEO, Triste Brooks, who served on his unpaid transition team prior to him taking office Jan. 16.

Tasy questioned whether the money would go into Brooks' pocket.

"It is not a good reflection on the new Governor and his administration that he appointed Planned Parenthood's CEO, Triste Brooks to his Health Care Transition Team, who stands to benefit directly by the use of taxpayer money, which will pay her already exorbitant salary and fund her organization," Tasy said. "How can this not be a conflict of interest?"

The Assembly also gave final approval to (A1656), which allows women with slightly higher incomes than Medicaid normally allows to qualify for coverage. It was approved 52-20. The federal government pays 90 percent of the cost of this expansion

"Not only is this funding a compassionate move, it's a financially prudent one, as well," Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin, D-Essex, said, one of the sponsors. "We can't leave this money sitting on the table when women's health centers throughout the state have been forced to close or turn patients away. This is an investment well worth making on behalf of struggling women and families across New Jersey."

Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com . Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus.

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio.

Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, criticized for campaign contributions from Wall Street and the drug industry, has sworn off corporate political action committee donations as he ponders whether to seek a run for the White House.

Booker, D-N.J., made the announcement in a Twitter post.

He joined three other potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kirstin Gillibrand of New York in such a pledge.

"This gives Senator Booker a good answer to the 'bought by special interest' question," said Matthew Hale, a political science professor at Seton Hall University, "This is also likely in line with Senator Booker's belief about the corrosive influence of money in politics. So good politics is important but this is also about good policy."

I heard from constituents today asking about corporate PAC contributions. I'm joining several of my colleagues & no longer accepting these contributions. Our campaign finance system is broken. I thank @StopBigMoney for their workits time to pass campaign finance reform.  Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) February 14, 2018

It's Booker's latest action pointing toward a 2020 presidential run.

He landed seats on the high-profile Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees, introduced legislation to remove the federal ban on marijuana, embraced Sanders' call for single-payer health insurance, and garnered national attention for his grilling of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, expressing outrage that she claimed not to have heard President Donald Trump's racially tinged comments at an Oval Office meeting.

"Senator Booker's decision to reject corporate PAC money demonstrates his leadership in the fight to unrig the system that's leaving too many Americans behind.," said Tiffany Mueller, president of End Citizens United, an advocacy group favoring stronger campaign finance regulations.

"He's showing he will be accountable to the people and not the agenda of corporate special interests."

More than 70 lawmakers and challengers, including New Jersey Democratic congressional candidates Andy Kim and Tom Malinowski, have pledged not to accept corporate PAC money, according to End Citizens United.

It's not much of a sacrifice for challengers; they received just 1 percent of the $182 million that corporate PACs contributed for the 2016 elections, according to Federal Election Commission statistics.

For incumbents, it's another story. Of $505,478 in PAC donations Booker received for his 2020 re-election, almost two-thirds, 66 percent, came from corporate committees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group. (Booker can transfer all of his Senate contributions to a presidential campaign account if he runs for the White House.)

The pharmaceutical industry was his biggest source of corporate PAC donations. New Jersey is home to several major drug companies, including Johnson & Johnson and Merck & Co.

When the Senate last year debated a budget resolution making it easier to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Booker and 12 other Democrats voted against a Sanders-backed provision to allow drug imports. Booker, who supported two other drug-related provisions, said the amendment it did not ensure the safety of the drugs to be imported.

Later, he teamed up with Sanders on a drug-importation bill that did include those protections,

When Booker ran in the 2013 special and 2014 general elections, he received $233,750 from employees of drug manufacturers, more than any other congressional candidate, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

He also raised $2 million from employees in the securities and investment industry, more than any other congressional candidate, according to the center. Five of his top 10 sources of donations were employees of investment firms.

Meanwhile, both Sanders and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gained traction attacking Wall Street.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.WASHINGTON -- NJ Transit trains could be kept out of the Hudson River tunnels to New York City if the commuter railroad fails to meet a year-end deadline for installing an automatic speed control system on its tracks and in its locomotives.

Amtrak President Richard Anderson told the House railroads subcommittee Thursday that commuter lines without positive train control, or PTC, could not use its tracks after the deadline, and Rep. Albio Sires, a member of the panel, said he was "very concerned" that NJ Transit would not be ready in time.

"Where they are at this stage won't allow them to make the deadline," said Sires, D-8th Dist., a member of the railroads subcommittee.

A Federal Railroad Administration progress report showed that as of Dec. 31, 2017, just 8 percent of NJ Transit's locomotives and none of its tracks were equipped with positive train control, a system designed to automatically slow down or stop trains to avoid collisions.

Positive train control is one of the National Transportation Safety Board's most wanted safety improvements.

The board said the lack of a speed control system on the tracks at Hoboken Terminal contributed to the September 2016 fatal train crash there, and the absence of PTC contributed to the May 2015 derailment of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia that killed eight people.

"We continue to see more accidents, injuries and fatalities that could be prevented by a fully functioning PTC system," NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said at the subcommittee hearing.

Under federal law extending the original deadline by three years from Dec. 31, 2015, railroads can request an additional two-year extension to finish the work, but only if they can show progress being made.

"New Jersey hasn't even started," said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., the top Democrat on the full House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. "They won't qualify under any conditions even with the most lax administrator in history to meet the minimum requirements to get an extension beyond 2018."

NJ Transit spokeswoman Nancy Snyder attributed much of the delay to problems with the software and said the contractor installing the speed control system is accelerating efforts to fix the problem and install the necessary equipment with a goal of finishing the work by the end of the year.

"NJ Transit continues to do everything within our power to meet the federal PTC implementation deadline," Snyder said.

FRA Chief Counsel Juan D. Reyes III said the agency has met NJ Transit officials, who said they expected to finish the work in time.

"We're going to keep working with them," he said.

And acting state Transportation Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti said that the FRA has given NJ Transit permission to start testing positive train control on a six mile track in Morris County.

"Our goal is to make the December deadline," she said. "We are working with the FRA every day to put a plan in place."

The railroad administration announced Thursday that it would provide $73 million in grants to help pay for installing positive train control or other safety improvements.

In his testimony, Anderson said that railroads without positive train control couldn't use Amtrak tracks after Dec. 31 and that "we will be working closely with our partners and the FRA to determine the best way to address this situation."

DeFazio said in an interview after the hearing that railroads like NJ Transit, which have made little progress if that, could face a shut down.

"For someone who has done nothing, I would say they're going dark," he said.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.Police are searching for a 19-year-old New Jersey woman who went missing on Valentines Day.

Lydia Comtois, 19

Lydia Comtois was last heard from around 5 p.m. on Wednesday when she left New Brunswick, police said. Comtois was believed to be headed for Bernards Township, according to police in a statement on Facebook.

She is described as 5 feet 7 inches tall, 155 pounds, with hazel eyes and brown hair. She has a tattoo of a heart symbol on her left wrist and a scar on the right side of her forehead, according to police.

Anyone with information may contact the Bernards Township Police Department at 908-766-1122.

Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find the Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have information about this story or something else we should be covering? Tell us. nj.com/tipsA drug court participant who had an affair with a married Sussex County sheriff's officer is suing him and the department, saying he preyed on her vulnerability and helped heroin users avoid detection by tipping them off to surprise drug tests.

The civil lawsuit filed Monday on behalf of Charity M. Thompson, 24, of Paterson, names as defendants the ex-sheriff's officer, William R. Lunger, Jr., 37, of Hamburg, as well as Sussex Sheriff Michael F. Strada, former sheriff Robert E. Untig, the sheriff's office and the county of Sussex.

A spokeswoman for the sheriff's office referred NJ.com to Sussex County Counsel John Williams, who did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Lunger, an 8-year veteran of the sheriff's department at the time, also did not immediately return a phone message. Lunger was initially charged with four counts of official misconduct and related charges.

Last year, he pleaded guilty to third-degree conspiracy to commit official misconduct and was sentenced to 270 days in county jail. And he was fired from his job as a Sheriff's Officer and cannot seek future public employment.

Thompson says in the lawsuit that her civil rights were violated and that Lunger's supervisors knew he was unfit for the job because he was the subject of multiple internal affairs complaints. They failed to reprimand or discharge him, and they hired him knowing he was discharged with a full disability from the U.S. Army for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

"He wants to get some action with a young vulnerable girl but in doing so he made it accessible and ok for people to use heroin in drug court," said Jeffrey M. Patti, Thompson's attorney.

"I find this to be one of the most egregious abuses of power I have seen," he said.

Thompson was a 22-year-old single mother of a newborn and a recovering heroin addict in July 2015 when she met Lunger, then 34 and married with children, in the lobby of the Sussex County Superior Court while he was working the metal detector and she was checking in for probation on a 2014 burglary conviction.

They talked for nearly an hour.

Lunger "aggressively pursued" a sexual relationship with Thompson, which was consummated about a month later, the lawsuit says.

When Thompson was sentenced to a five-year term in drug court in Morris County Superior Court for eluding, Lunger took the day off to drive her to the sentencing.

The drug court sentence was transferred to Sussex County, where Thompson was living at the time. On the way home from the sentencing she told Lunger that she was concerned that she wouldn't be able to make random urine test days called "blitz" days because her license was suspended.

So Lunger, the lawsuit says, offered to tell Thompson in advance of the scheduled blitz days.

Thompson discovered in November 2015 that she was pregnant by Lunger, who made her terminate the pregnancy, according to the lawsuit. He also was telling her that he was going to leave his wife for her and promised they'd have a life together.

The two communicated over Facebook Messenger, with Lunger creating several fake profiles to hide the relationship with Thompson. Within a four-month period they exchanged approximately 8,000 Facebook messages.

During that time, Lunger also coerced Thompson to have sex with him in risky locations -- inside the sheriff's office while he was on duty, in courthouse conference rooms while she was there for drug court and while he was on duty.

One Monday while he was on-duty and she was reporting to probation, he sent her a picture of his genitals via Facebook Messenger that was taken inside the sheriff's office bathroom to entice her for a rendezvous, the lawsuit says.

Thompson "due to the pressure of the relationship," the complaint says, relapsed into heroin addiction after being clean for more than a year.

So Lunger, in addition to telling her about the blitz days for drug testing, began stealing and giving her urine test kits so she could see whether she would test negative or positive.

"Lunger recklessly, callously and carelessly put [Thompson] (and others) at grave risk by enabling her to continue to use heroin and compromise the drug court," the lawsuit says.

Lunger continued to promise a life with Thompson and profess his love for her. Then, on Feb. 27, 2016, Lunger asked Thompson through Facebook Messenger to kill his wife to get her out of the way.

In one message Lunger told her: "I need something that won't come back on me ... I can let a bitch drown in her vomit," the lawsuit says.

No charges were ever filed for the alleged murder plot. "It's baffling," Patti said.

Thompson tried throughout the relationship to end it, according to the lawsuit, but Lunger would pressure her and coerce her to stay.

Other sheriff's officers were aware of the inappropriate relationship and never told their superiors, the lawsuit says.

The relationship came crashing down on March 20, 2016 after Lunger tipped off Thompson to a blitz test and she tipped off other drug court participants. A large number of urine tests came back diluted, leading officials to investigate.

Thomspon was arrested for violation of probation and was jailed for more than six months while the case was transferred to another county. A Morris County Judge ultimately resentenced her to drug court. She has been sober since her arrest, her attorney said.

The Somerset County judge who sentenced Lunger last year said he took into account his PTSD and eight-year Army career.

"He basically got a slap on the wrist and it's a little bothersome," said Patti, Thompson's attorney. "If you have a badge and a uniform it looks like you get treated differently."

Allison Pries may be reached at apries@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AllisonPries. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Rojina Akter worked six hours at a dollar store on Tuesday, took an hour-long bus ride home, sat on the couch of her two-bedroom apartment in Elizabeth and contemplated her uncertain future.

Her husband, Amenul Hoque, was picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Jan. 17 at the Newark fried chicken restaurant where he worked and was deported Monday, ICE confirmed.

Rojina Akter, second from left, with her 11-year-old son, her daughter Evana Akter, 19, and her 15-year-old son inside their apartment in Elizabeth on Tuesday. 2/13/2018 (Marisa Iati | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Ahead of a regularly scheduled check-in with ICE on Thursday, Akter, a Bangladesh native, said she wondered whether authorities would deport her, too, and what would happen to her three children.

"Who will take care of my kids? They're too small," Akter, 39, said Tuesday in an emotional interview at her home. "I don't want to leave them alone here."

A rally in support of Akter is scheduled for Thursday from 8 to 11 a.m. outside of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services building at 970 Broad St. in Newark.

Emilio Dabul, a spokesman for ICE's Newark office, said Hoque had been ordered removed by an immigration judge and the agency in January was ready to execute the removal order.

"His wife's case will be reviewed based on case-specific circumstances, as is done in all cases," Dabul said.

Immigration advocates say stories like Akter's show a sea change in officials' priorities for detentions and deportations. Immigrants without criminal records who were considered low priorities for removal used to be able to regularly report to ICE and be released with another check-in scheduled in six months or a year.

President Donald Trump in his first month in office, however, signed executive orders significantly expanding the categories of unauthorized immigrants who could be targeted for deportation, including those with final removal orders like the ones Hoque and Akter received in 2011.

ICE officials made 143,470 administrative arrests nationwide in 2017, up 30 percent from 2016, according to data on the agency's website. Deportations were down slightly, from 240,255 in 2016 to 226,119 last year, the data shows.

"I think that there's a real fear of the brazenness, the speed at which people are being deported and the fact that pickups seem so arbitrary," said S. Nadia Hussein, a co-founder the Paterson-based Bangladeshi American Women's Development Initiative. "It's like Russian roulette right now."

Seeking political asylum

Akter said she and Hoque, 51, left Bangladesh in 2000 after Hoque's brother was arrested by political opponents without warning and jailed for nine months. Fearing for Hoque's life, the couple and the two children they had at the time moved to Botswana, Akter said.

Amenul Hoque, 51, in New York City's Central Park (Courtesy of Evana Akter)

The family faced danger there, too, Akter said. She said they woke up one night to find people armed with knives and guns robbing the store attached to their house, and they came to the United States in 2004 in search of safety.

They received six-month visas to stay in the country and lived with relatives in New York for a few weeks before they moved to Elizabeth, Akter said. After they overstayed their visas, ICE detained Hoque for 11 months in 2010, she said.

Akter said the family members applied for political asylum and were denied several times. She and Hoque were assigned supervision and required to check in regularly with ICE officials in Newark.

A second detention

After Akter's 19-year-old daughter, Evana Akter, came home from her job at a pharmacy on Jan. 17, two men knocked on the family's door. They did not identify themselve as ICE officers, Evana Akter said, but told her they wanted to verify that her father lived there and had a steady source of income.

Evana Akter, a first-year nursing student at Union County Community College, said she figured the men were ICE agents and called her dad to tell him they were looking for him. Half an hour later, she said, her mom called to tell her ICE had picked up her dad at his workplace.

Through phone calls home, Hoque told the family he was being held first in Newark, then in Louisiana and finally in Texas. He was deported Monday back to Bangladesh, the family learned when they received a phone call from relatives there.

"My dad had come here and filed a political asylum case because he didn't feel safe in his country," said Evana Akter. "So him being back is very dangerous for us."

What comes next

Through an attorney and with the assistance of immigration advocates, the family is seeking to renew Akter's stay of removal so she will be allowed to stay in the country and care for her children. Thursday's rally outside the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services building in Newark will coincide with Akter's meeting with ICE officials inside.

Akter's two youngest children, 11 and 15-years-old, attend Elizabeth Public Schools. Evana and the 15-year-old are undocumented, while the youngest son was born in the United States and is a citizen.

Hussain said if Akter is detained, her youngest son may become a ward of the state. She said she does not know what would happen to the 15-year-old son, who is not protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program like his older sister.

Evana Akter said if her mom is forced to leave the country, she and her brothers would have to move to Bangladesh, too.

"I cannot take care of my two brothers by myself if they do detain her," she said. "So if they detain her and try to send her away, we would have to follow."

If Akter returns to Elizabeth after her appointment on Thursday, she will have to figure out what to do next, she said. Her job at a dollar store in East Orange is only two or three days a week, and she said the family depended on her husband's income to make end's meet.

For now, though, her mind is on Thursday.

"I want to come back," Akter said. "I want to stay with my kids."

Marisa Iati may be reached at miati@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @Marisa_Iati or on Facebook here. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tipsFormer Yankees pitcher Esteban Loaiza pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges he smuggled and possessed more than 20 pounds of cocaine.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the district attorney prosecuting the case had the bail for Loaiza raised to $250,000, successfully arguing the former MLB pitcher is a flight risk because of his significant financial assets and his ties to Mexico.

Here are more details of the case from the Union-Tribune:

Loaiza faces up to 20 years and eight months in prison if he is convicted of all felony charges.

The three drug-related charges -- which include a count of using a secret compartment to smuggle drugs -- include allegations that the bulk of cocaine for sale weighed more than 20 pounds and was located within 1,000 feet from a school.

Sheriff's deputies seized the cocaine Friday at an Imperial Beach home Loaiza leased. He was arrested earlier after he was pulled over in the beach community for a minor traffic violation.

Sheriff's Lt. Jason Vickery said the deputies had been surveilling Imperial Beach as part of a narcotics investigation and had spotted him in a 2010 Mercedes-Benz mid-size SUV believed to be linked to a smuggling operation.

After Loaiza was pulled over, deputies noticed a secret compartment in the rear of the Mercedes' interior. Karkenny described it as a "narcotics trap," which he said is used to hide drugs.

Deputies then obtained a search warrant for Loaiza's home, where they found bundles of cocaine weighing about 44 pounds.

The bulk has a market value of about $500,000, authorities said.

Loaiza pitched in the big leagues for 14 seasons, spending part of the 2004 season with the Yankees.

The right-handed Loaiza won 126 games and had a career ERA of 4.65.

He last pitched in the majors in 2008.

Mike Rosenstein may be reached at mrosenstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rosenstein73. Find NJ.com on Facebook.For nearly 20 years, Monique Verdin has documented what it means to live in coastal Louisiana. Working in photography, film, performance, and folk traditions, the New Orleans native and member of the United Houma Nation has regularly brought the stories of her people and place to light.

Keenly aware of the complexities of living along an eroding coastline, Verdin has never been shy about the challenges we face. Instead, her work addresses these challenges directly: this coming April, Verdin is collaborating on the first annual Fossil Free Fest with a dozen academic institutions, arts organizations, and nonprofits in the weeks before Jazz Fest.

Benjamin Morris

Contributing writer

As part of "Prospect.4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp," The Historic New Orleans Collection (THNOC), 400 Chartres St., New Orleans, is hosting a retrospective selection of Verdin's works. The exhibition is in two parts: a collection of two dozen black-and-white photographs, paired with large-scale, hand-woven palmetto tapestries containing photographic transparencies of yet more images.

Chronicling both the day-to-day lives of communities along the southeastern coastal parishes (Terrebonne, Lafourche, Plaquemines and St. Bernard), as well as their encounters with disaster, trauma and change, Verdin captures the reality of what it means to live permanently on the edge -- not just of this country, but of a swiftly-vanishing way of life.

Recently, I met with Verdin to discuss her artistic and political vision.

***

Benjamin Morris: The works in the exhibition run from 2000 to 2009. What is the origin of your work?

Monique Verdin: I returned home to Louisiana in the late 1990s, which was when I started photography, mainly in Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes. During this time in my life, I was learning: learning about my camera, but also about my family, about our land, about our politics. I didn't start sharing work until after Katrina in 2005, and never had the ambition to be in a gallery--to be an artist in that way.

My work came out of telling stories--I'm more concerned about the story than the medium or the form. Lately, instead of being conflicted about that, I'm trying to be more open to it. All of the projects I've been involved in, from the documentary [director Sharon Linezo Hong's "My Louisiana Love" (2012)] to "Cry You One" [Mondo Bizarro/ArtSpot Productions (2013)] where I play myself -- well, the story is real. That's the most important thing: that people walk away not with appreciation for the craft but with deeper understanding of this place specifically.

BM: Looking back over your first decade of work, what have been your hopes for these images?

MV: That my family wouldn't have to live next to a waste pit. That my cousin could continue his way of life and not get cancer. That was my hope -- never that I would have an art show. I'd rather raise awareness that southern Louisiana has socioeconomic and racial injustices that we've tolerated for decades, injustices that are rooted in this deep colonial extraction economy. The BP oil spill in 2010, that was just a new scar.

These first 10 years were just making the record. I realized nobody was documenting it even though it was changing so fast. I think of myself as a reporter, because future generations shouldn't just have to put their houses 18 feet in the sky and drive around on boats and not understand how and why we got there.

BM: In your portraits, there's a clear intimacy with your subjects, some of whom are in fact your family members.

MV: You mean all of them. (laughs) No, it's true. Most of the work was shot in Pointe-aux-Chenes, and these folks are my cousins, my uncles, my grandmother. The process of putting the show together was far more emotional than I thought it would be. I would wake up every morning at 4 am and sit with my people, so many of whom had passed. In fact, the first image I unpacked when hanging the show was a headshot of a man in sunglasses, who is my father. Honestly, I cried--my father never would have felt invited into [THNOC]. And I got to say, 'OK, Pop, you're up on this wall.'

As for others, Aniese, one of my cousins, is like a professor, teaching me and taking me down to the ancestral grounds. He's a four-time cancer survivor and has no voice anymore, which I've reflected on a great deal--the fact that I'm telling the stories. In truth, I'm carrying the stories of the storytellers. For me, some of these people represent what I've seen disappear from this community. They have a real place here, where in other places they might be cast aside.

BM: The landscape is a strong presence here too, not passive at all but an active element shaping the people who dwell within it. How do you work with the formal elements of landscape when you make an image, such as the skewed, unruly angles in "Abandoned Camp on Vanishing Land, Pointe aux Chenes," 2000?

MV: I feel like my work is very reactionary. I'm fascinated by the textures of the land, but that always comes after the fact. In the moment of taking the image, I'm normally drawn to the action or the stillness -- one or the other. It's a reflex. As for "Abandoned Camp," when you spend time in the marsh, people think of it as really flat, but it actually feels very endless and curving. Especially moving in a boat--where a lot of those image were taken -- there are no straight lines in nature.

BM: In many of your compositions you have moments of great visual serendipity, like in

"Industrial Balance," 2004, where the foreground is flooded and a young boy looks as if he's walking on water. Are these accidental, or do you search for them?

MV: In that image, I was just wandering with the kids. After Tropical Storm Matthew in Grand Bois in 2004, the kids were playing in this floodwater and I was wandering around with them. I didn't tell him to stand there -- I was just watching. At that time in my work, I was intentionally spending a lot of time in that community, wanting to make images, but I didn't know what kind of images I wanted to make. Now, just being there was serendipitous -- I had already planned to stay there and visit for a week, before the storm came in. But over the long-term, these images have been anchors for me and something to be able to share with others, to tell the story of this place.

BM: In your image "Reflection, Grand Bois, LA," 2004, you portray a house which is half on land and half in water, an image that speaks to what you've tried to capture of the uneasy geography of southern Louisiana. What are your thoughts about our long-term future on the coast?

MV: I have a lot of fears about the toxic environment we live in. I do think that that nature is amazing, and has the power to regenerate if given good conditions. We have disrespected the forces of nature here for a long time, and we've taken so much -- as communities are abandoned more and more along the coast, if they are able to learn to live with the water, then yes, there is a future here in this place.

Now, if we allow petrochemical extraction and decisions based upon greed and short-term gain to govern us, then no -- we should just start planning to move out. If we want corporations to have control and run this area as a plantation-based economy, then things will continue to disappear. We have a lot to teach other places -- we are ground zero for figuring out how to live in this kind of environment.

In November, Prospect New Orleans opened its fourth citywide art exhibition, which takes place every three years. On view through Feb. 25, "Prospect.4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp" brings together 73 acclaimed artists from New Orleans and around the world in 17 venues, including museums, galleries and public sites across the city.

Viewing many of the artworks is free, though museum admission may apply. For maps and more information, visit the Prospect New Orleans website.

This article was produced as part of a collaboration between Pelican Bomb and NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. More information aboutAn Alabama woman is behind bars in Shelby County, accused of trafficking black tar heroin, an illegal substance more commonly distributed on the West Coast, AL.com reported. Ann Marie Lowery, 37, was arrested by Pelham Police Department officers at a motel on Feb. 9.

In addition to the heroin, officers found Lowery to be in possession of GHB (also known as a "date rape drug"), Fentanyl patches, methamphetamine and prescription drugs, the website reported, citing law enforcement sources. She is being held on bonds totaling $106,000.

Alabama authorities said the black tar heroin is what makes Lowery's arrest unique. A gummy substance that resembles roofing tar or a hardened substance that looks like coal, black tar heroin is more common along the West Coast and is believed to originate in Mexico, AL.com reported.

According to Heroin.net, Mexican cartels began to produce black tar heroin to appeal to users who wanted something stronger than brown heroin but cheaper than white heroin.Update: The man shot in the head Feb. 15 at Josephine and Magnolia streets died of his injuries three days later, authorities said. The Orleans parish Coroner's Office identified him 50-year-old Charles Pettis.

--

Crime scene technicians had already taken their pictures by 8:30 a.m. Thursday (Feb. 15) at the Central City intersection where, about an hour and a half earlier, a man was shot in the head, according to police.

A gray pickup truck, which a bystander said had its engine running as New Orleans police investigated that morning, had already been towed away for NOPD to process as evidence. Firefighters had already washed down the corner of Josephine and Magnolia streets where the bystander said a pool of blood had lain.

But long strands, and bits of yellow crime scene tape, reading in black letters, "POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS," remained scattered throughout the neighborhood.

Before getting in her car, a woman in the neighborhood on Thursday scooped up a fresh pile of the yellow stuff and dumped it in a nearby city trashcan. But in a radius of just a few blocks, yellow tape remained tied to fences, telephone poles, porch railings, lying across backyards and in the middle of the street. Some of them appeared to be from old crime scenes, faded and weathered.

The previous morning (Feb. 14), a man was shot dead a block away, near the corner of St. Andrew and Magnolia streets. A little more than a week earlier, Michael Hunter, 30, was shot dead on the other end of the same block as Thursday's shooting, at Josephine and Clara streets. The still unidentified man killed Wednesday was the sixth man who was fatally shot in a one-mile radius in Central City in less than a month.

Stuffed animals, printed photos, candles and wax dotting the street marked another reminder of the gun violence in those blocks. A candle was still lit Thursday morning at the feet of stuffed animals that were part of a memorial for Hunter. The vigil was two days ago, a neighbor said, but, "They light them every day," she added. The collection of stuffed animals and a blue "M" balloon surrounded printed photos of Hunter, all set up in front of the house where his body lay nine days earlier before the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office van took it away.

Catty-corner from Hunter's memorial was another collection of stuffed animals and candles to memorialize Thaddeus "Hammie" Jackson, 26, who was killed Jan. 29 inside his girlfriend's apartment in Gert Town. His girlfriend, Jacquline Williams, 33, was also fatally shot in the apartment. Jackson's family and friends had set up the memorial for him in Central City.

Other people shot dead within a mile in Central City in the last month include:

Joshua Everett, 27, who was killed Feb. 2 in the 2800 block of South Johnson Street.

During a press conference Wednesday to address Mardi Gras violence, NOPD Superintendent Michael Harrison attributed a recent spike in murder in New Orleans to gang violence in Central City and in the 9th Ward.

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Five people were shot, including two who were killed, in the Lower 9th Ward shortly after 8 p.m. on Mardi Gras. Another person was fatally shot on the St. Charles Avenue parade route, and two teenagers were wounded in a shooting along the parade route in the Central Business District.

Harrison said detectives believed the 9th Ward shooting was gang related. Beau Tidwell, a spokesman for the department, said NOPD would not comment on the potential gang affiliation of individual victims of the Lower 9th shooting. He said investigators hadn't determined if the parade route shootings was linked to gang activity.

New Orleans Murder Map 2018

Neighbors in Central City who have more than once in recent weeks had their street blocked by police cars and crime scene tape had differing opinions about the violence.

"This is a good neighborhood, you just got to stay out of the mix of the foolishness," said a 45-year-old man who had been staying at a friend's home nearby. Speaking of Thursday's gunshot victim who was shot in the head, the man said he felt, "sorry he got shot," adding, "I hope he make it through." He said many of the people who live there are "nice people that just mind their business and try to do right."

A woman who was walking near Hunter's memorial, Lisa Navarre, said most people tend to attribute the killings and shootings to drugs, but she does not think that's always the case. "It's personal s---," she said.

Navarre lost her own son, Sadiki Navarre, to gun violence nearly five years ago, she said, "Due to gang s---." He was 24.

"They stole his life... They killed my baby just for association, just cause he knew somebody."

It's still a cold case, Navarre said, and she misses her son "dearly." On March 12, the anniversary of her son's death, she said, she plans to host a vigil for him -- one of many in the neighborhood for the families left behind by young men killed in shootings.

"Something need to be done," Navarre said. "Don't nobody want to step up."

Staff photographer Chris Granger contributed to this report.A missing South Carolina child abducted after her mother was brutally beaten in Charleston Tuesday was found in Alabama late Wednesday afternoon.

Heidi Renae Todd, 4, was recovered in Riverside. The girl - missing for more than 24 hours - was found about 4 p.m. in a wooded area off Highway 78 near Depot Street.

Her accused abductor - Thomas Lawton Evans - was captured just over the Mississippi line after a brief car chase.

It all began when two Norfolk Southern employees ,who just happened to be working on the railroad tracks at Riverside, spotted a truck parked too close to the railroad tracks. To access this location, the truck would have used a private road that leads to the railroad's tracks, said railway spokeswoman Susan Terpay.

The employees were suspicious when they got closer to the truck and saw a man asleep in the driver's seat and a young girl, who was awake, sitting in the passenger seat. The employees, Mark Burke and Chris Jackson, and a contractor, Donnie Pepper, concerned about the safety of the child, reported the information to the Riverside Fire Department.

Burke, a 30-year Norfolk Southern employee who lives on Oxford, and a father himself, says he was concerned about the safety of the child.

Once alerted by the railroad workers, Riverside Police Chief Rick Oliver Riverside Fire Chief Tim Kurzejeski went to investigate. They found the vehicle - a blue Chevrolet Impala - with a white male asleep behind the wheel. A little girl - later determined to be Heidi - was awake in the passenger's seat. Oliver said he knocked on the window to wake up the man. He told him to get out of the car and escorted him away from the vehicle, he said. The man - later identified as Evans - was very nervous, he said.

Heidi was then taken from the car by Evans. She was wearing an adult hoodie and adult pajamas, which raised Oliver's curiosity and concern."That just piqued my interest,'' he said.

The chief still didn't know, however, that it was the missing South Carolina girl and the suspect.

Oliver ran the man through a national crime database after obtaining his name and social security number. He then told him he was going to take him in. The suspect, he said, asked him to hold Heidi. He said he smelled alcohol on the man's breath.

"I knew he was going run,'' Oliver said. "I just had that feeling."

Evans jumped back into the vehicle fled on Highway 78 toward Pell City. Pell City police got on Interstate 20 and Highway 78 but couldn't not find the fleeing suspect, said Pell City Police Chief Paul Irwin. He was driving the blue sedan with an Illinois tag.

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Oliver said ALEA, as well as FBI agents from Birmingham and Gadsden ,quickly responded to the scene. "We obtained information on the vehicle and tracked it to the Mississippi line,'' he said.

He said Evans told him he had just been released from prison on Feb. 1 for a robbery conviction. According to the Post-Courier, Evans' criminal history shows numerous arrests for car break-ins and substance abuse starting in 2000 that escalated to the armed robbery charge in 2009.

The suspect was then captured in Lauderdale County, Mississippi by Lauderdale and Kemper county deputies.

Heidi was taken by Kurzejeski back to the fire station. The fire chief said she watched the Disney channel and requested cookies and chocolate milk. "I told my wife I got a little head start on what it's like to be a grandparent because that little girl was going to get whatever she wanted,'' he said with a laugh. "She was just a super trooper."

Heidi was later turned over to DHR officials and was checked out at an undisclosed hospital. Law enforcement officials and her father are reportedly en route from South Carolina Alabama to pick up her.

Heidi is believed to have been taken sometime Tuesday. She was discovered missing when her mother failed to pick up the other children at school. A friend reportedly went by the house and found the mother badly injured. Heidi was officially reported missing at 5:50 p.m. Tuesday and a massive search has been underway since then.

South Carolina police and the FBI described the suspect as an "unwanted visitor." They released a sketch of of a man Wednesday, but later said the person in that sketch was not a suspect.

Later Wednesday evening, they identified the suspect as the 27-year-old Evans. He is expected to face kidnapping and other charges. Late Wednesday night, FBI officials in South Carolina confirmed Evans was the man stopped by them and later taken into custody in Mississippi.

"We are so thankful that she is safe," Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said Wednesday night, according to the Post-Courier. "What could have been a day of great tragedy has turned out to be a day of great joy."

A mother of five, Heidi's mother was in "reasonably fair condition under the circumstances" and was expected to undergo surgery, the mayor said, according to that report.

The woman's husband, a former firefighter, is in the Coast Guard, officials said; he was out of town for training when his daughter went missing.

Oliver said he hopes he can meet Heidi's father. He said he is "tickled to death" at Wednesday's outcome. "The good Lord just put me (and the fire chief) in the place we need to be to get her,'' he said.Detectives believe gang violence is to blame for the five-victim shooting in the Lower 9th Ward on Tuesday night (Feb. 13), New Orleans Police Chief Michael Harrison said in a press conference Wednesday.

The shooting on St. Claude Avenue near Andry Street left two men dead and three others wounded after more than one person shot into the car all five of the victims were riding in, according to NOPD.

The Orleans Parish Coroner's office identified 26-year-old Jamar Robinson and 21-year-old Byron Jackson as the two men who were fatally injured. The other three victims were 23, 25 and 26.

Harrison said detectives do not believe the shooting was random, stating it was "linked to vicious gang violence between people who know each other." Beau Tidwell, a department spokesman, later said NOPD would not comment on whether any of the individual victims were connected with gangs.

Although there has been a recent spike in homicides, Harrison said the number of non-fatal shootings in New Orleans has decreased. Harrison attributed the spike in murders in the areas around the 9th Ward and Central City to gang violence.

The shooting in the 9th Ward was the third reported on Mardi Gras day, with the other two happening in the immediate vicinity of the parade route as the truck floats were rolling by.

The first shooting of the day was reported about 3:30 p.m. at the intersection of Carondelet and Union streets, about a half-block away from where the parade was rolling. Two teenage boys were injured and police released a photo of the suspect from surveillance footage Tuesday night.

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The second shooting was on St. Charles Avenue near Second Street and was reported about 4:30 p.m. The victim was 29-year-old Maurice Williams, according to the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office. He was taken to the hospital where he later died.

Harrison said police were stationed nearby both shootings and officers were able to react quickly. Police named one suspect in connection to Williams' killing Wednesday morning and are asking for help finding 21-year-old Eddie Dingle.

Overall, Harrison said 2018 Mardi Gras season was, "safe and successful."

"We cannot allow yesterday's tragic events to define who we are or the progress we've made," Harrison said. "In fact, it makes us pursue violent criminals with greater intensity."

Harrison said NOPD made over 400 arrests during the Mardi Gras season and seized 48 guns from the French Quarter and parade route alone.

"We are disgusted, but not dismayed or discouraged," Harrison said.

Note: This story was updated with additional information from NOPD spokesman Beau Tidwell.A 45-year-old man was robbed of his vehicle in Algiers by four men armed with an Uzi submachine gun early Thursday (Feb. 15), according to New Orleans Police.

Shortly before 12:30 a.m., the man was sitting in his truck, parked outside his home in the 3400 block of Vespasian Boulevard, when four young men approached him, according to a preliminary police report.

The report states the four men were "armed with an Uzi" and ordered the man to get out of the car. After the man stepped out, all four men fled in the victim's car, according to the report.

Police later said three of the men were armed with semi-automatic handguns and one was armed with an Uzi-style gun. All four are believed to be between 18 and 20-years-old, according to NOPD.

The stolen vehicle is a dark blue 2007 Toyota Tacoma truck with Louisiana license plate number RPH059, police said Thursday afternoon. The truck may have some damage to the rear bumper, according to police, because the carjackers backed into a parked vehicle as they were fleeing the scene.

Police also described the truck as having a "Jesus sticker" on the rear windshield. Anyone with information about the stolen vehicle or the suspects should contact fourth district detectives at 504-658-6040 or Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.

NOPD also reported a separate armed robbery in New Orleans East a few hours earlier. According to the preliminary police report, a 31-year-old man was in the 7000 block of Bundy Road about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, when he was approached from behind by a man.

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The report states the man was armed and demanded the victim give him money. The victim did, and the armed man ran away.

Three unarmed robberies were also reported in the 7th Ward area Wednesday afternoon and into Thursday morning, according to NOPD.

Police said a 36-year-old woman was in 1600 block of Columbus Street about 4:30 p.m. Thursday, when she was hit by a person she did not know. The person took her keys and her wallet before fleeing the scene, according to police.

Just after 7:30 p.m., a 14-year-old boy was approached by three juvenile boys near the intersection of Frenchman and North Miro streets, according to a preliminary police report. The victim told police the boys knocked him unconscious.

The victim woke up at his home, but realized his jacket was missing and his phone had been smashed, the report states.

Shortly after 4 a.m. Thursday, a 57-year-old man was sitting on bleachers in the 1900 block of North Dorgenois Street when two unknown men walked up to him and told him to empty his pockets. The victim said he only had change on him and the two men punched and kicked him before fleeing the scene with his change.

This story was updated to include new information from police regarding the discription of the stolen vehicle.Chef Donald Link, restaurateur JoAnn Clevenger and pastry chef Kelly Fields are among the New Orleans semifinalists for James Beard Foundation's annual culinary awards announced Thursday (Feb. 15).

The semifinalists are selected from 23,000 online entries, according to the foundation. Judges, committee members and previous winners narrow down those entries to the semifinalist list.

Finalists will be announced in March.

For 2018, the New Orleans- and Louisiana-based semifinalist includes:

Best New Restaurant

Saffron

Outstanding Restaurateur

JoAnn Clevenger, Upperline

Outstanding Chef

Donald Link, Herbsaint

Outstanding Pastry Chef

Kelly Fields, Willa Jean

Outstanding Bar Program

Cure

Outstanding Service

Brigtsen's

Outstanding Wine Program

Bacchanal

Also, Lucky Palace of Bossier City

Best Chefs: South

Nina Compton, Compere Lapin

Kristen Essig and Michael Stoltzfus, Coquette

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Michael Gulotta, Maypop

Slade Rushing, Brennan's

Hieu Than, Kin

Isaac Toups, Toups' Meatery

Martha Wiggins, Sylvain

As well as Manny Augello, Bread & Circus Provisions in Lafayette.

A few notes on the list:

 Upperline was named 2017 restaurant of the year by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune dining critic Brett Anderson.

 Wiggins recently announced that she was leaving Sylvain.

 Also on the Best Chefs:South semifinalist list: Bill Briand, who works at Fisher's in Orange Beach, Florida. He was a longtime chef at Cochon and is the brother of Joe Briand, wine director at Bacchanal, which is a semifinalist as well.

 Lisa Marie White, of Marsh House in Nashville, also is a semifinalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef. She is a former pastry chef at Domenica and was on the opening leadership team at Willa Jean. Marsh House is operated by QED Hospitality, a new company, co-owned by two former executives in the Besh Restaurant Group, now called BRG.

 Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman were semifinalists in the "Best Chef Southeast." They are based in Memphis, but are culinary partners at Ace Hotel New Orleans, and helm the menus for Josephine Estelle and Alto.

 Every year, the foundation honors locally owned restaurants with its America's Classics awards. In 2018, Dong Phuong, the Vietnamese bakery in New Orleans East, is one of the winners. After Dong Phuong family bakery won the award, its already popular king cakes were in even higher demand, creating long lines and causing the bakery to discontinue selling beyond the bakery on Chef Menteur Highway.

On March 14, the foundation's finalists will be announced at a live-streamed press conference in Philadelphia. In 2017, 11 New Orleans chefs, bars and restaurants were named James Beard Award finalists.

The 2018 press conference, co-hosted by Meryl Levitz, president and CEO of Visit Philadelphia, and Clare Reichenbach, CEO of the James Beard Foundation, will be streamed at the foundation's website, jamesbeard.org/, and live-Tweeted at twitter.com/beardfoundation.

Finally, on May 7, the winners of the awards will be announced during a ceremony in Chicago. The awards gala is open to the public.

In 2017, Rebecca Wilcomb, chef de cuisine of Herbaint restaurant in New Orleans was named Best Chef: South; Zachary Engel, then chef de cuisine of Shaya, was named Rising Star Chef of the Year, and Arnaud's French 75 won in the category Outstanding Bar Program.

In 2017, Engel joined chef Alon Shaya in his new business, Pomegranate Hospitality, after Shaya was fired from his namesake restaurant in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal at the Besh Restaurant Group, now called BRG, which owns the restaurant.

James Beard Media Awards, which honors the cookbook authors, culinary broadcast producers and hosts, and food journalists, will take place April 27, according to the foundation.



Dining writer Brett Anderson contributed to this report.Lyla Hay Owen, a multi-talented woman of the theater who not only acted but also was a playwright, director, author and producer, died Feb. 7 at Passages Hospice. She was 84.

"She had an incredible talent, a sort of compulsive creativity," said Jim O'Quinn, a fellow performer and frequent collaborator. "She was an artist in her heart and soul, and she lived the life of an artist. She wanted to transform life experiences into art."

She could be extravagant -- David Cuthbert, a former theater critic for The Times-Picayune, called her "a down-home diva" -- but, he said, "when the chips were down, she was a professional who could do whatever she turned her hand to. ... She was a pro."

A native New Orleanian who was born Lyla Ruth Lagarde, she spent six years in New York studying at Columbia University and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. When she returned to New Orleans, she started appearing on stages all over town - at Gallery Circle, Tulane University and Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre, to name a few.

In 1969 and 1970, she also was a member of the acting company at Repertory Theatre, which the actress-director June Havoc ran. But Ms. Owen never got to go on because she was Havoc's understudy and Havoc never missed a performance.

Ms. Owen and other members of New Orleans' theater community started The People Playhouse in 1970 as a venue for original, innovative and classic theater. It lasted eight years, closing when, Cuthbert said, the artistic and financial burdens of running the enterprise became too great.

She told Cuthbert that she realized that it was time to move on during a performance of "Uncle Vanya": When the stage manager was telling Ms. Owen she had to go on, she was trying to unclog a toilet.

In addition to appearing in plays, Ms. Owen created them. Among her productions were "Looney Blues" and plays she wrote for Le Petit's Children's Corner, including one inspired by Tarzan and two musicals about Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy, as well as "The Snow Queen" and "The Phantom of the Old French Opera House."

She also appeared in movies such as "Hard Times," "Everybody's All-American" and "Interview With the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles," in which Tom Cruise broke her neck - in character, as Lestat, the vampire.

"He was very careful and concerned not only about how he would break my neck, but how it would read on camera," Ms. Owen said in a Times-Picayune interview. "He is the consummate professional film actor."

She also sang - her favorite was "La Vie en Rose" - and she performed often in a cabaret act with her daughter Cynthia, who also was a local actress. She died in 2008.

Cynthia Owen's death came shortly after the death of Ms. Owen's fourth husband, Larry Landers.

Eight months later, Ms. Owen returned to the stage as Amanda Wingfield in Marigny Theatre's production of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie."

In a 2009 interview with The Times-Picayune, Ms. Owen said that the losses hit hard but that she felt she was coming back to life by getting involved in Williams' classic memory play.

Quoting a line from the play, she said, "Life's not easy. It calls for - Spartan endurance." Then she added a line of her own: "You have to just move on."

She also taught, working with the theater students at Warren Easton, Esperanza and Edward Hynes charter schools.

"I love teaching the talented what they love, helping them to discover the depths of their creative abilities," she said in the interview.

Ms. Owen, who taught her students improvisational skills she had learned from Chicago's Second City troupe, spoke highly of the wisdom that comes to theatrical personalities as they age.

"I always tell my students: Acting is one of the professions that the older you get, the better you get as long as you stay healthy," she said in the interview. "That's because you have all these resources: your experiences and knowledge. You have more of yourself available to not only move yourself but an audience as well."

In addition to performing, Ms. Owen collaborated with the photographer Owen Murphy Jr. on the 1987 book "Creoles of New Orleans: People of Color."

"I couldn't have asked for a better collaborator," Murphy said. "She was always there for me, always supportive and enthusiastic about what we were doing."

Survivors include a daughter, Robin Owen of New Orleans; a son, Richard Shapiro of Topeka, Kansas; and a sister, Frances Middleton.

The funeral was private. Jacob Schoen & Son Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.Shell Chemical LP has agreed to install $10 million in pollution monitoring and control equipment at its Norco chemical facility to settle allegations that four flares used to burn off emissions were operating in violation of federal law, according to a settlement agreement filed in federal court on Monday (Feb. 12) by the company and the Justice Department, Environmental Protection Agency and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.

As part of the settlement, Shell will pay civil penalties of $350,000, including $87,500 that will go to the state environmental agency, to settle claims that the company illegally allowed hazardous air emissions to occur dating back to January 1997. The complaint against the Norco facility, also released Monday, sought federal civil penalties of up to $302 million and state penalties of up to $251 million.

As part of the agreement, the Norco facility will reduce air emissions of volatile organic compounds by 159 tons per year, and reduce other, more harmful emissions that include cancer-causing benzene, by 18 tons per year. The company also will install a flare gas recovery system that will use waste gas as fuel, rather than having it burned in the flares.

"This settlement will improve air quality for citizens of Louisiana by reducing emissions of harmful air pollution," said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, in a news release announcing the settlement. "Today's agreement demonstrates EPA's dedication to working with states to pursue violations of laws that are critical to protecting public health and bring companies into compliance."

"We are proud to partner with the State of Louisiana on this important Clean Air Act settlement, which will benefit the citizens of Louisiana," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey H. Wood of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division, in the news release. "This agreement is the latest in EPA's and the Justice Department's continuing efforts to work with our state partners to protect the American public from harmful air pollution."

"We are committed to working hand-in-hand with our federal partners to reduce air pollution in Louisiana," said LDEQ Secretary Dr. Chuck Carr Brown in the news release. "Actions like this one not only serve to clean up the air our citizens breathe, they send a message that we will not tolerate violations of federal or state laws."

The consent decree, filed in federal court in New Orleans, is subject to a 30-day federal public comment period, a 45-day state public comment period and final court approval. A copy of the original federal complaint against the Norco facility and the consent decree are available at a Justice Department web site.

More information on the settlement is available at an EPA web site.Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commissionFour months after U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., went on the "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" television show to explain his bipartisan attempt to fix the health care law known as Obamacare, Kimmel trashed him. But it turns out Cassidy "didn't know who Jimmy Kimmel was," he told the Washington Examiner editorial board recently.

Kimmel had delivered an emotional monologue about his newborn son's three-hour heart surgery to correct a defect that he said would leave the boy with a "pre-existing condition" for life. He used that to rail against congressional proposals to put caps on spending for such patients.

Cassidy soon said he wanted legislation that would "pass the Jimmy Kimmel test," so the talk-show host invited him onto the show. They chatted amiably on air May 8.

On his Sept. 19 show, however, Kimmel spent almost seven minutes of the opening monologue slamming the senator, who was not present. "This guy, Bill Cassidy, just lied right to my face," Kimmel said.

Cassidy got on cable television the next morning to defend his proposal. "I'm sorry he does not understand," Cassidy said of Kimmel. That night, Kimmel was back censuring Cassidy and his legislation again: "It is, by many accounts, the worst health care bill yet," he said.

His rhetoric made Kimmel a darling of the left, and for good reason. The Daily Beast reported Sept. 23 that among his advisers had been the office of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

In his interview with the Examiner, Cassidy said he didn't know all that earlier in the summer, and he seemed miffed that Kimmel teed off on him without calling him. "I actually didn't know who Jimmy Kimmel was," he said.

"With Kimmel, I did not know that he would just take Schumer's talking points, never call me for rebuttal, and go to press on that. ... "It just seems the decent thing to do if you're going to call someone out to give them call beforehand."

Read the Examiner's full story.

. . . . . . .

Drew Broach covers Jefferson Parish politics and Louisiana interests in Congress, plus other odds and ends, for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Email: dbroach@nola.com. Facebook: Drew Broach TP. Twitter: drewbroach1. Google+: Drew Broach.In the wake of a tragic accident that took the life of a nurse as she traversed a crosswalk near the St. Tammany Parish Hospital parking lot, the city of Covington and the hospital will conduct an examination of pedestrian and vehicular traffic on and near the medical facility's campus.

Ann McCarthy, a 29-year veteran of the Covington hospital, was struck by a vehicle on Feb. 2 in a marked crosswalk at the intersection of West 8th Avenue and South Harrison Street. McCarthy, 52, was critically injured and later died at a New Orleans hospital.

Police said Merideth Andrews, another hospital employee, was leaving the employee parking lot off Harrison Street and did not see McCarthy as she was crossing at the crosswalk. Andrews' 2016 Ford truck hit McCarthy in what police described as a "low-speed accident."

Andrews was cited with failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk.

Melissa Hodgson, the hospital's director of communications, said the hospital is taking steps to lessen the chance of similar accidents in the future. In terms of immediate actions, the hospital grounds crew installed fresh batteries in pedestrian warning signs and repainted stop blocks, crosswalks and parking spaces.

St. Tammany top stories in your inbox A weekly guide to the biggest news in St. Tammany. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

In addition, a task group was formed to work with city officials to look into foot and vehicle traffic on and around the hospital campus on busy South Tyler Street, which was recently widened as part of an $16.8 million state highway project. Hospital leadership is also launching a pedestrian safety campaign for employees via internal communication channels, Hodgson said.

"If any good can come from such a tragic accident, we hope to discover ways to become even safer and make our employees more aware of hazards in routine driving settings," she said.

In a statement, Covington Mayor Mike Cooper said the city is "evaluating the conditions" at the accident site "to determine if any changes or improvements may be needed in the future."

On Thursday, flowers were in place at the scene of the accident, which is just south of the hospital's main building.The St. Tammany Fishing Pier on Lake Pontchartrain will open March 1 after a three-month winter closure.

The pier, south of Slidell, will open at 7 a.m., with the first day of the Spring season free for fishers and sightseers, the parish government said in a news release.

Regular admission after opening day is as follows:

Patrons 12 and older fish for $3 and sightsee for $1.

The pier, located at 54001 Howze Beach Road, will be open Thursday through Sunday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

For more information, visit: www.sttammanyfishingpier.com or www.facebook.com/sttammanyfishingpier.On Jan. 25, I stood up during a New Orleans City Council meeting and started singing. I sang with a group of my fellow outraged Jews, including a rabbi, to protest the council's vote to overturn a human rights resolution. We were there alongside other New Orleanians with a shared vision for justice singing, "In hope. In prayer. We're right here."

We were voicing support for a resolution that passed unanimously two weeks before. The Human Rights Investment Screen Resolution was developed by the New Orleans Palestinian Solidarity Committee in response to President Donald Trump's Muslim ban and was backed by more than 20 grassroots organizations including our group, Jewish Voice for Peace New Orleans. The resolution aligned deeply with our Jewish values of Tzedek (justice) and Tikkun Olam (repairing the world) and had the potential to make an impact locally and globally.

And yet City Council bowed to pressure from the Jewish Federation and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). These institutions opposed the resolution because it was supported by local Palestinians.

A City Council staffer told the Intercept, "It really was more ... of where it came from, the group, the Palestinian organization they were working with." Overturning this bill because of who supports it is clear discrimination.

The ADL and Jewish Federation called the resolution "anti-Semitic" despite no mention of Israel or Judaism. There is nothing anti-Semitic about holding a Jewish nation-state accountable to the same standards as the rest of the world, or about divesting from companies that profit off brutal military occupation and legalized segregation.

The only way to truly eradicate all forms of oppression, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, is to build a world where colonization is nonexistent and all people are able to live in dignity, peace and self-determination. We deplore the cowardice of our City Council, local Jewish clergy and leaders who claim to speak for us. We say: "Not In Our Name."

So many people showed up to support the resolution that they were turned away at the door and started chanting in the hallway. When we stood up to sing, people around the room spontaneously joined us, despite the threat of arrest. We are disgusted that Jewish leaders have pressured the City Council to withdraw a resolution that affirms human rights. This is why we disrupted City Council, and why we will continue to fight for the liberation of all people, from New Orleans to Palestine.

Rachel Lee

Chapter leader

Jewish Voice for Peace New Orleans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Look! Up in the sky! It's ... "NCIS: New Orleans"?

The locally produced CBS series will be taking to the air over Marrero on Tuesday (Feb. 20) to film a sequence in which a helicopter will land in the 1100 block Barataria Boulevard. The shoot will require intermittent traffic disruptions from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to a media advisory issued by the show's production company.

Local law enforcement including the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office and the Louisiana State Police will be on hand to monitor the shoot, as will the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

"NCIS: New Orleans" is in production on its fourth season and is scheduled to continue shooting throughout the region through April 30. It is one of a number of productions that are either shooting or preparing to shoot in New Orleans. Others include:Lee County Sheriffs Office deputies responding to an 8 a.m. call for assistance found a deceased male on the ground near the corner of Luckett Road and Golden Lake Road.

The LCSO Major Crimes Unit arrived on scene and declared the incident to be a homicide.

There is no additional information available at this time.

Source: Lee County Sheriffs Office





Feb 15, 2018 JB

Ulganayagan Kamal Haasan was recently in the news for having visited the USA and meeting a lot of professionals from Harvard for discussing developmental plans for Tamil Nadu. He had also mentioned that he would not align with his friend Rajinikanth if the latter decides to join hands with the BJP.

Post this, once he landed in Chennai, he met the press at his Alwarpet residence and to a query on whether he would continue to act in films, after his entry into politics, the Uthamavillain hero answered in negative. He stated that after he completes his current films, he would not do any more films. This surely has come as a big shock to his fans.

As regards his film commitments, he is almost done with Vishwaroopam 2 and the film should be ready for release. Sabash Naidu, which began as a bilingual is 40% complete and the unit has to complete rest of the shooting. He has also committed to doing Indian 2 with director Shankar. We will have to wait and see the status of these films.

Kamal Haasan PicturesFinance minister Matia Kasaija (R) and Keith Muhakanizi (C) before the probe committee earlier

When Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga last week deferred debate on an investigation report by Parliaments Public Accounts Committee (PAC) into the misappropriation of $200 million (Shs 720bn) meant for procurement of drugs, rural electrification and earth-moving equipment, the top honchos at the ministry of finance were relieved.

The report has recommended the censure of Finance minister Matia Kasaija and his Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury, Keith Muhakanizi.

But Kadagas insistence that Auditor General John Muwanga performs a value-for-money audit and reports to Parliament by February 28 presents another opportunity for the mystery to be resolved without claiming any political scalp.

Kadagas surprising February 7 ruling saved Kasaija for now. A day earlier, Kadaga had shot down floor proposals that the auditor general commences a specialised audit. She argued that such an audit would undermine the role of PAC in exposing the scandal.

The House inquiry was sanctioned in March last year after Kadaga led a joint team of MPs drawn from PAC, the committees on Commissions, Statutory Agencies and State Enterprises (COSASE), National Economy, Budget and Finance to the National Medical Stores (NMS) headquarters in Entebbe.

The drug distribution agency had complained of lack of funds to procure urgently needed hepatitis B drugs. Kadaga could not understand how NMS was cash-strapped yet parliament had approved a loan request for exactly this purpose.

After a little digging around, it emerged that the $200m loan from the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (PTA Bank) never made its way to NMS.

According to the COSASE report, the ministry of Finance engaged in some creative financial engineering. The initial loan goal, which parliament rejected, was to finance development expenditure on imports and to replace part of the high interest on domestic borrowing.

At which point, the ministry simply switched the objective title and reason for the loan to something they knew would appeal to MPs  additional budget support to NMS to mitigate the fluctuating foreign exchange rates.

NMS general manager Moses Kamabare told MPs during their visit that because of wildly fluctuating exchange rates, NMS loses a lot of money on importation of drugs, citing the Shs 68bn, lost during the 2016/17 financial year.

But NMS never received the budget support for which parliament seems to have been misled into approving. So, who took the money?

It is hoped that the auditor generals forensic audit will reveal the facts. During PACs hearings, both NMS and the rural electrification agency said that much as they were listed as key beneficiaries of the loan, they never received a penny. The auditor general confirmed this position.

Matters got compounded when the governor of Bank of Uganda, Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, tabled before the committee two letters he wrote to Finance warning against the borrowing.

Mutebile told the ministry not to borrow for purposes of stabilising the economy since the foreign exchange reserves could sustain the economy for three and a half months.

Kasaija and Muhakanizi deny any wrongdoing. Muhakanizi told PAC in April last year that their inquiry was misdirected. Speaking off the record, a minister told The Observer on February 7 that Kasaija and Muhakanizi are in trouble just because of their positions.

Kasaija early this month failed to get President Musevenis support, the chief executive insisting on an audit. Kasaija has become more and more upset that despite his extensive explanations, he remains under fire.

What do I do with people who dont want to understand? Because I have explained and explained but they seem not to want to understand, the minister who is also Buyanja MP told The Observer on February 12.

I paid out the money depending on the demands of government, Kasaija said, insisting he is innocent.

Kasaija has consistently claimed the money was banked in the Consolidated Fund account but his attempts to explain how the cash eventually left the central pool have failed to convince the legislators.

Article 154(3) of the Constitution states that, No monies shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Fund unless the withdrawal has been approved by the auditor general and in the manner prescribed by Parliament.

Section 32 of the Public Finance Management Act (2015) shows how withdrawals from the Consolidated Fund should be made. Under Section 32(1), money cannot be withdrawn from the Consolidated Fund without the minister issuing a warrant of authority to the accountant general.

Clause 2 of the same section, says the minister cannot issue the warrant without a grant of credit issued by the auditor general. Kasaija did not present any of these documents to the PAC probe.

He didnt have any serious explanation and the committee took his explanation as lies because he had no documented evidence; he only gave verbal explanations, Mathias Mpuuga (Masaka Municipality) said.

WHERE IS THE MONEY?

Kasaija has, for now, declined to explain which particular government demands the money was diverted to. However, knowledgeable sources in the ministry suggest that the money may have gone to political activities.

Many times money is diverted to fund different government campaigns which are not budgeted for, the source said, citing the hundreds of millions spent on MPs cars and the controversial constitutional amendment which lifted the presidential age limits.

Meanwhile, Jim Mugunga, the Finance ministrys spokesman, last week said: We welcome the opportunity to present facts related to the matter to a constitutionally mandated body to interrogate the issues All along, they wanted an opportunity to be heard, and, referring the matter to auditor general takes it to a neutral ground where I think facts would be rightly evaluated away from other considerations which at times may end up clouding effective decision making.

sadabkk@observer.ugLess than 24 hours after South African President Jacob Zuma was forced to resign by his own party, another African leader has thrown in the towel.

Ethiopias Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, has today, in a surprise move tendered in his resignation as both the countrys premier and chairman of the ruling coalition.

Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn

I see my resignation as vital in the bid to carry out reforms that would lead to sustainable peace and democracy...I believe my party and government will make history again by conducting peaceful power transition, Desalegn said in a televised address.

He has said he will remain prime minister in a caretaker capacity until the ruling Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and the countrys parliament accepted his resignation and named a new premier.

Between 2015 and 2016 hundreds of demonstrators were imprisoned but since the beginning of this year, many have been released. They were protesting against restrictions on political freedoms and human rights abuses.

Unrest and a political crisis have led to the loss of lives and displacement of many

On Tuesday a senior opposition leader was released from prison and all charges against him dropped, a day after demonstrators blocked roads and staged rallies in several towns to protest against his incarceration.

Bekele Gerba, secretary general of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), was arrested in December 2015 after mass protests broke out in the Oromiya region over accusations that farmers were being forced to sell land with scant compensation.

He had been held initially on terrorism charges, which were later reduced to charges of incitement to violence. State-affiliated media confirmed that Bekele had been freed along with seven other opposition figures, and that the charges against him had been dropped.

Bekele's release came amid a three-day strike across Oromiya province, which surrounds the capital, as well as a mass pardoning of dissidents by the government aimed at reducing unrest that has simmered since 2015.

Nearly 6,000 prisoners have been freed since January, mainly people who had been detained for alleged involvement in unrest in Oromiya, or, to a lesser extent, the Amhara region.

Bekele was sentenced last month to six months for contempt of court after he and other opposition members sang a protest song during their trial. Had he not been freed, a verdict on his incitement charge would have been handed down on March 7.

On Tuesday, large crowds marched in various towns in Oromiya and roads remained blocked with large stones, including in the towns of Jimma, Woliso and Legetafo.

Markets, schools and banks remained closed in most of the areas, residents said. Some protesters attacked vehicles.

"Many Oromo politicians remain unjustly incarcerated, such as Bekele," said one protester in the town of Jimma, who gave his name only as Awol, speaking before news that Bekele had been freed. "All should be released. That is why we are striking."

Sparked initially by an urban development plan for the capital, unrest spread in 2015 and 2016 with demonstrations against political restrictions and human rights abuses.

Rights groups say hundreds have died in the violence. Ethiopia is often accused of using security concerns as an excuse to stifle dissent, as well as suppressing non-governmental organizations and the media, which the government denies.

Last November, then Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was also forced by the army and party to resign from the presidency.President Yoweri Museveni has downplayed reports of fighting between the police and the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI). Reports of animosity between the two agencies emerged after the arrest of several police officers and informers.

President Museveni

But Museveni told journalists at Kawumu presidential demonstration farm in Luweero district that there was no fight between the security agencies. He however hinted at possible bickering between individual security officers. It is a public secret that security minister Lt Gen Henry Tumukunde and police boss Gen Kale Kayihura are not the best of friends. They have publicly attacked each other's work methods in ensuring security and peace in the country.

Museveni added that police officers who were recently arraigned before the General Court Martial misbehaved by serving the interests of foreigners at the expense of Ugandans. He urged security personnel to focus on fighting the enemy instead of weakening security strictures by fighting amongst themselves.

President Museveni says #Uganda's security organs being "infiltrated", "hijacked" and used by criminals is like a type of HIV/AIDS that hijacks blood cells. Some Ugandan top security officials have recently been implicated in a number of high profile murders, robberies pic.twitter.com/qMtw95P68z  The Observer (@observerug) February 15, 2018

Those facing charges before the General Court Martial include Nixon Agasirwe, the former head of the Special Operations Unit in police. He is charged alongside Joel Aguma the former commandant of Professional Standards Unit, Faisal Katende, an operative of the Flying Squad, Sgt Abel Tumukunde also of Flying Squad and James Magada who works with Crime Intelligence.

The nine are accused of kidnapping Lt Joel Mutabazi, a former bodyguard to Rwandan president Paul Kagame and Jackson Kalemera and repatriating them to Rwanda.

Others who have been arrested are Abdullah Kitatta, the chairman of Bodaboda 2010 and 12 others who were jointly charged before the Unit Disciplinary Court sitting at the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence in Mbuya. Kitatta was a close confidant of Kayihura.

While reacting to a refugee scam involving senior government officials and some members from humanitarian assistance organisations, Museveni said that all those found guilty will go to jail and refund the money.

"Well, the ones whore stealing refugee money will go to jail. That is simple because the prisons are there, Luzira is there it is waiting for some occupants from the Prime Ministers office who steal refugee food. And of course, I think God will kill them himself because to steal what is meant for refugees, what is meant for desperate people, God will also come in. These thieves have lots of problemsthese thieves will paythey will pay and they bring shame to our country because these refugees come from all sorts of countries and the funder...They will regret," said Museveni



Complaints indicate that the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) in connivance with aid workers have been inflating refugee figures in order to attract more aid which is then corruptly shared.

The allegations were reportedly raised by South Sudan refugees to UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, during a recent visit to Uganda. Donors have since threatened to withdraw the funding if the government doesn't act tough on those found guilty of the scam.Bay View, a small upscale community in Michigans Lower Peninsula, just outside of Petoskey, has been making headlines due to a lawsuit against its unusual ownership laws, which prohibit non-Christian from buying or even inheriting a home there.

What started out as a modest camping ground for Methodist families, over 140 years ago, has blossomed into one of the most beautiful resort communities in the United States. Bay View was named one of the 12 Prettiest Painted Places in the U.S., for its 444 Victorian-era cottages, fondly called gingerbread houses, and it is often referred to as a summer vacation paradise. However, its not a paradise open to all, at least not if you actually want to own property here, as according to a law dating back to the 1940s only practicing Christians are allowed to buy houses, or even inherit them.

Photo: Bobak HaEri/Wikimedia Commons

Documents dating back to the early 20th century show that Bay Views original membership requirements were a minimum age of 21 and being of good faith and moral character. The Christian exclusion clause was added during the 1940s, when racial anxiety and antisemitism were widespread in the United States. The updated law also included a racial component which required would-be property owners to be white, but this was eliminated in 1959, as racial segregation was approaching its end in the US.

However, the Catholic-only rule was not only kept in place, but increasingly enforced. Prospective home owners are required, among other things, to produce evidence of their faith, including a letter from a pastor confirming that they are practicing Christians. This means that not only are non-Christians prohibited from buying a home in Bay View, but also that current owners cannot leave their homes to surviving members of their families as inheritance, if they are of other religions, or atheists.

Even though the controversial law has been in place for decades, it only gained media attention last summer, when a dozen current and former Bay View home owners filed a lawsuit against the town, claiming that its Christian-only clause was illegal and unconstitutional. The Bay View association, on the other hand, disputes these claims, adding that the membership requirements are a part of the communitys history, and its right as a private association.

Photo: Bobak HaEri/Wikimedia Commons

Like most private associations, there are specific requirements for membership. Our membership requirements have been part of our history and we understand that some of our members or the general public may disagree with them, an official Bay View statement says. Unlike many other private properties and private associations, Bay View welcomes the public to our grounds and to experience our programming. We are not a gated community and anyone, regardless of age, income, race, gender, national origin, or religion is welcome on our campus and to attend our events.

Sarah Prescott, the Northville attorney who filled the lawsuit on behalf of Bay View Chautauqua Inclusiveness Group against the Bay View Association of the United Methodist Church, told MLive that the Christian-only clause is a clear case of religious discrimination and also violates the federal Fair Housing Act, the states Constitution and several civil rights laws.

Prescott adds that because Bay View houses cannot be sold on the open market, owners are left with only a small segment of willing buyers. She also cites cases of her clients whose children and grandchildren cannot inherit cottages in the community because of their religious beliefs. One of them for examples, was supposed to inherit her parents fourth-generation cottage, but was denied membership because she had converted to Judaism.

Photo: Bobak HaEri/Wikimedia Commons

The lawsuit filed last summer asks a judge to change Bay Views bylaws, specifically the requirement that members be practicing Christians and that the majority of association trustees be members of the West Michigan Conference of the United Method Church.

Mike Spencer, Executive Director of the Bay View Association has stated that he is confident in a favorable outcome of the lawsuit, adding that there is a simple process that members of the Association can follow to initiate bylaw amendments to change the membership requirements. Prior bylaw amendments proposals to change the membership requirements have been voted down by our members. They simply have not had enough votes in the past, so it appears that this group is now seeking to change our membership requirements through a court decision.Mark McNeely

MP&F Public Relations founder Mark McNeely will step down from his role as a senior partner, the Nashville-based agency reported today.

McNeely now plans to launch a new strategic communications firm, McNeely Brockman PR, along with his daughter Kelly McNeely Brockman.

That new operation, which will focus on media relations, media training, crisis communications and strategic planning, will be housed inside MP&Fs Nashville facilities. It is set to launch on June 1. McNeely and Brockman will be the sole leaders of the new venture.

A former journalist with The Knoxville Journal, Memphis The Commercial Appeal and the Knoxville News Sentinel, McNeely founded the firm that became MP&F in 1987. Current clients include Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, FirstBank, Math for America, the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, PhRMA and the Ohio Valley Conference.

McNeely stepped down as MP&F managing partner in 2016. He was succeeded in that role by David Fox. MP&Fs other founding partner, fellow former newspaperman Mike Pigott, died in 2015.

McNeely will continue to maintain a role with MP&F, working alongside the companys teams on clients as requested while building his own book of business.

MP&F is the largest independent, Tennessee-owned PR firm in the state. The Nashville firm in 2016 accounted for more than $7.8 million in net fees.Omnicom Group today reported a 27.4 percent drop in Q4 net income to $254.4M, following a $106.3M charge for enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Excluding the charge, net was up 3.0 percent.

Q4 Revenues slipped 1.5 percent to $4.2B. Organic growth advanced 1.6 percent, sparked by a robust 8.2 percent across Europe.

North American organic growth fell 0.8 percent, while the UK dipped 0.7 percent and Latin America slipped 0.3 percent.

OMCs PR group (Ketchum, FleishmanHillard, Porter Novelli, Brodeur Partners, Kreab, Cone Communications) showed 1.1 percent growth during the quarter to $362.8M.

The PR units chalked up flat revenues of $1.4B for the full year.

OMC's stock is down eight percent to $76.16 on the earnings news.

Chris Ferguson

Chris Ferguson, who was senior global creative director at Under Armour, has joined Weber Shandwicks DC office as executive creative director.

With more than 20 years of traditional and interactive marketing experience, hell oversee creatives in Washington, Baltimore and Dallas.

At Under Armour, Ferguson handled global brands such as Nike Running and Google Wallet. He also held top creative posts at Tribal Worldwide, R/GA, TBWA Chiat Day and Young & Rubicom.

His campaign for the Ad Council to promote feminine relief in the Horn of Africa raised more than $100M and was shared 115M-plus times in 24 hours.#internet banks S. Korean internet banks vying to lure more deposits South Korean internet-only banks are ramping up efforts to attract more deposits in the wake of a newcomer's entry into the fast-growing sector, industry sources said Wednesday. ...BACK TO SCHOOL BACK TO SCHOOL  Students at Windom Elementary returned to school Wednesday morning to begin the 2021-22 school year. In the top photo, as buses arrive, many of the students...

Committee says no to marijuana dispensaries, licenses Following calls from a number of residents for the Town of Orchard Park to opt out of marijuana dispensaries and onsite consumption licenses, the Orchard Park Economic Development Committee has...

Ethics Board chair confirms many individuals have not filed financial disclosure forms for the year According to Ethics Board Chairman James Morse, 40 town employees, committee or board members have not filed their financial disclosure forms for the year. Morse  speaking to the town...A three-judge panel of Clackamas County Circuit Court judges unanimously concluded Wednesday that a controversial state law reducing sentences for some property crimes is unconstitutional, the latest development in a political conflict erupting over the statute.

The judges, Susie Norby, Michael Wetzel and Thomas Rastetter, concluded that the law, which the Legislature passed last year, needed a two-thirds majority instead of a simple majority because it revised Measure 57. The voter-approved measure cracked down on repeat property offenders with longer prison sentences.

Clackamas County District Attorney John Foote sued the state, arguing that the new law fails to comply with Article IV of the Oregon Constitution, a provision that requires two-thirds votes of each house, or a supermajority, to pass a "bill that reduces a criminal sentence approved by the people" through the initiative process.

Supporters of the new law, House Bill 3078, argued that the Legislature had already revised Measure 57 in 2009 when it temporarily suspended its start due to a budget crisis.

That 2009 law did have a two-thirds majority and supporters of House Bill 3078 argued that meant lawmakers could revise it again with only a simple majority.

The judges disagreed.

The simple majority argument is "counter-intuitive at best and duplicitous at worst," they said.

The Legislature "clearly portrayed" the 2009 vote at the time as a delay not a revocation of Measure 57.

"A court endorsement of such governmental maneuvers would justifiably weaken public confidence in the integrity of our elected officials' commitment to our Constitution and the rule of law," they wrote.

The panel's opinion isn't legally binding, but all judges on the Clackamas County bench agreed in advance to follow whatever the panel decided, Norby said in an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive.

The Oregon Attorney General's Office has said the new law is constitutional, which leaves Foote's office in what he described Wednesday as "an untenable position." Criminal defendants will likely appeal Measure 57 sentences and lawyers for the attorney general would typically represent the state in that process.

"No judge who has ruled on this in three counties has taken (the attorney general's) position," Foote said.

Kristina Edmundson, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, said the agency is "disappointed in the ruling" and weighing its next steps.

Leaders of criminal justice reform groups, including the Partnership for Safety and Justice, which lobbied for the reduced sentences, and the ACLU of Oregon were unhappy with the ruling.

Bobbin Singh, executive director of the Oregon Justice Resource Center, said property crimes are driven by addiction, poverty and mental illness -- problems prison doesn't solve.

"Unfortunately, as individuals wait for this challenge to work its way through the courts, they will likely receive harsher sentences and at a great cost to the taxpayer," he said in an email. "It's time we can't give back to them or their families."

Under Measure 57, the sentence is 24 months for an identity theft conviction and 18 months for first-degree theft. The sentence for both those crimes is 13 months under the law passed last year.

Aggravated first-degree theft for amounts over $10,000 and aggravated identity theft involving a large number of victims remain unchanged.

The flap over the law has played out statewide, with a handful of judges declaring it unconstitutional.

In Washington County, the District Attorney's Office hasn't challenged the law, but that didn't stop Judge Charles Bailey from declaring it unconstitutional in a shoplifting case last week.

During a hearing that turned testy at times, Bailey, himself a former prosecutor, upbraided Chief Deputy District Attorney Roger Hanlon for not arguing against the law.

"It is our position that we are going to follow the law as written," Hanlon told the court.

Bailey went on to declare House Bill 3078 unconstitutional.

"Well, judge, you're on your own on this," Hanlon said.

A Lincoln County Circuit judge has also declared it unconstitutional.

-- Noelle Crombie

503-276-7184

@noellecrombieThai restaurateur Paul Jumroon, 54, of Depoe Bay pleaded guilty Wednesday to forced labor, visa fraud conspiracy and filing a false federal income tax return in U.S. District Court in Portland, officials announced.

Jumroon, also known as Veraphon Phatanakitjumroon, a naturalized American citizen originally from Thailand, fraudulently obtained E-2 visas to bring Thai nationals into the United States to provide cheap labor at his restaurants, according to a Justice Department press release. Those restaurants included Curry in a Hurry in Lake Oswego and Teriyaki Thai in Ridgefield, Wash. E-2 visas are granted to foreign nationals who invest substantial money in a U.S. business and direct its operations and to employees who have special qualifications that make their services essential to that business.

(Update: The United States Attorney's Office emailed to say Jumroon no longer owns Teriyaki Thai or Curry in a Hurry.)

Between 2011 and 2014, Jumroon brought four people to the United States to work at his restaurants, then used inflated travel expenses, debt manipulation, threats of deportation, verbal abuse and control over identification documents to compel them to work 12 hours a day, six to seven days a week, for minimal pay, according to the release.

As part of Jumroon's guilty plea, he agreed to pay all four victims a combined $131,392 in restitution for their unpaid labor. The defendant further admitted to filing false tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service, failing to report cash income earned from his restaurants between 2012 and 2015. As part of the plea agreement, he agreed to pay $120,384 to the IRS.

Jumroon faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for forced labor, five years in prison for visa fraud conspiracy, and three years in prison for filing a false tax return. His sentencing is scheduled for May 24 before U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown.

This isn't the first time a Thai restaurateur has been accused of abusing visa programs to obtain low-cost labor in Oregon. In 2011, state regulators charged the now-defunct restaurant chain Typhoon Inc. and owner Bongoj "Bo" Klinea with unlawful labor practices, eventually reaching a $100,000 settlement.

-- Michael RussellFederal prosecutors will seek a nearly four-year sentence Thursday for Oregon refuge occupier Jason Patrick, arguing that he was one of the leaders of the 2016 takeover and among the first to arrive armed.

Patrick also has "proved to be difficult to supervise'' while out of custody before and during his trial, prosecutors said.

But Patrick and his standby lawyer say he wasn't an organizer. Though they acknowledge that he was a loud and vocal supporter, posted videos on social media and spoke out at press conferences, he didn't exercise authority over others while occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, they argue.

His role was "something akin to a volunteer,'' defense lawyer Andrew Kohlmetz wrote in a sentencing memo.

A jury convicted Patrick, 45, of conspiracy to impede federal workers through intimidation, threat or violence, a felony. A judge convicted him of trespass, tampering with vehicles and equipment and destruction or removal of property, all misdemeanors.

He's seeking a sentence of time served. Prosecutors are seeking three years and 10 months.

Co-defendant Jason Blomgren described Patrick as No. 5 in the chain of command among the key figures of the occupation, prosecutors said. In a document found on leader Ammon Bundy's phone, Patrick was described as in charge of "Organization'' and "Moral" (sic).

In a Dec. 26, 2015, video taken in Burns with co-defendants Blaine Cooper, Jon Ritzheimer and Joseph O'Shaughnessy, Patrick claimed the government had no authority to own federal land, and the group called on like-minded "patriots'' to come to Burns on Jan. 2, 2016, to protest the return to prison of two Harney County ranchers convicted of setting fire to public land.

Patrick also was present at a Dec. 29, 2015, meeting where Bundy announced his plan to stage an armed takeover of the refuge and was among the first to arrive at the refuge on Jan. 2, 2016, according to prosecutors. Patrick carried an AR-15 rifle at the time, witnesses said.

Patrick carried a gun at the refuge in violation of his release conditions in a pending Georgia case and helped remove a fence on the edge of the wildlife sanctuary in a highly publicized stunt, prosecutors noted.

They also highlighted a video of the chaotic night at the refuge bunkhouse after the occupation leaders were arrested and the takeover's spokesman was shot and killed by police on Jan. 26, 2016. Patrick urged those remaining at the refuge to stay, while one suggested driving out in a government fire truck and another suggested leading a convoy to Idaho.

Patrick surrendered to the FBI early the next day and remained in custody until July 12.

Prosecutors said Patrick showed contempt for the court during pretrial hearings and his trial. He repeatedly failed to carry any identification necessary to enter the courthouse and told U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown when he was late to court that he had no way to notify her and quipped that he'd communicate via carrier pigeon in the future.

Prosecutors are seeking extra time for Patrick's leadership role, and his possession of a gun on the refuge and a terrorism enhancement for the conspiracy conviction.

Patrick's lawyer objects to the enhancements, noting Patrick was never convicted of a firearms offense and didn't organize the takeover. Patrick's simple presence at the Dec. 29, 2015, meeting at a home in Burns where Bundy described his idea "is not evidence of any leadership role,'' his lawyer wrote.

Further, Kohlmetz wrote, "This case does not involve terrorism.''

"Mr. Patrick's intent in participating in the occupation was to draw attention to the plight of the Hammond family and to a lesser degree to support a lawsuit concerning the constitutionality of the federal government's ownership of lands,'' Kohlmetz wrote.

Kohlmetz also asked the court to more closely examine the Jan. 26, 2016 video.

"Of all the highly agitated, mentally unstable and outright insane people speaking, Mr. Patrick is the only voice urging that the remaining occupiers sit tight peacefully,'' Kohlmetz wrote.

Patrick's disdain for authority arises out of the death of his father from brain cancer when he was 12. His family suspects his father died from exposure to toxic chemicals during Vietnam. His divorce in 2013 also led to major depression, his sentencing memo said.

"He is an individual with very strong opinions, a desire to speak them, a distrust of authority figures and outright disdain for those who he feels are abusing their authority,'' the memo said. "This may make him difficult or perhaps exasperating to deal with. But it does not mean he is at risk for escalating into personal violence against others.''

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonianBY REBECCA WOOLINGTON AND CARLI BROSSEAU

Oregon police regulators for the second time will consider ending the career of a former state trooper who slapped his 11-year-old son so hard it knocked him over.

The case of James P. Duncan has gone through round after round of court and administrative proceedings, and time after time, the ex-trooper escaped the worst consequences. The legal maneuverings have allowed him to retain an essential part of being a cop: The ability to carry a gun.

Today, Duncan's case faces its latest twist, as he again asks that regulators spare him his career.

He hasn't been alone in his fight to stay in law enforcement. He's had the help of aggressive lawyers, a district attorney and two retired Oregon Supreme Court justices.

Duncan did not respond to requests for comment.

Duncan spent 18 years with the state police, working in training, on the SWAT team and as part of the agency's honor guard. He knew the Supreme Court justices because the tactical team sometimes provided security for the court. He also was assigned for three years as the driver for former Chief Justice Paul De Muniz.

The criminal case against Duncan began in October 2015 after his ex-wife watched a cell phone video that captured Duncan hitting their son while questioning the boy about homework, according to a police report. Duncan's daughter had anticipated the slapping and recorded it on her phone, the police report says.

Duncan deleted the footage and told the children to hide the slap from their mother, according to the police report. His daughter later recovered the video from the deleted images folder on her phone.

In January 2016, Duncan pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault and was sentenced to 18 months of probation in Washington County Circuit Court. Typically, someone on probation can't carry a gun. The judge gave Duncan a special allowance to carry a gun while at work.

But he remained on administrative leave from the state police because agency officials were conducting their own internal review of his actions.

While the internal investigation was pending, the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training began reviewing Duncan's conduct. The department, which certifies officers in Oregon, reviews cases of officers who are fired or quit because of an investigation or are convicted of crimes.

Department officials are required to revoke the certification of an officer convicted of a domestic violence offense. But the department's rules at the time, like Oregon law, only included violence between adults and not child abuse.

The department's Police Policy Committee, an advisory committee of police chiefs, sheriffs and union officers, recommended to the department's board that Duncan should keep his certification. The department's full board agreed in October 2016.

Several committee members called Duncan's case one of the hardest they'd considered. One committee member said a character reference from De Muniz ultimately swayed him to vote against taking away the trooper's state credentials.

But Duncan's career was still in jeopardy.

Duncan's supervisors concluded that his conviction and the underlying facts in the investigation would undermine his credibility as a witness at trial, particularly in cases involving child abuse or the preservation of evidence.

State police also determined that just because the Washington County judge decided to let Duncan carry a gun for work while on probation, it didn't make his gun possession legal.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling that came after the judge made his decision clarified that a conviction like Duncan's should trigger a federal law prohibiting people from possessing a gun if they're convicted of a misdemeanor crime involving any domestic violence.

Federal and state gun prohibitions for people convicted of domestic violence applied to Duncan, Oregon State Police officials found. Duncan also was subject to a separate Oregon law that forbids people with violent misdemeanor convictions from receiving a gun for four years.

Without a weapon, Duncan would be unable to perform a core function of his job, state police concluded. The agency fired him in November 2016.

But the case wasn't over.

Since the summer, Duncan had been working behind the scenes with powerful allies to try to get his assault conviction undone.

After the Supreme Court issued its ruling affecting gun laws, De Muniz had asked Washington County District Attorney Bob Hermann whether he'd revisit Duncan's criminal case. Despite pushback in his office, Hermann let Duncan swap out his conviction for another misdemeanor.

On Dec. 2, 2016, a judge vacated Duncan's assault conviction and allowed him to plead guilty to recklessly endangering another, a crime that is not subject to state or federal firearms bans for domestic violence.

But Duncan still couldn't receive a gun for four years even with his new conviction because it was considered a violent crime. He needed another judge's permission.

The first judge he asked said no. But he went back after completing his probation in summer 2017, and a new judge said he could obtain a gun.

All Duncan needed was his Oregon State Police job back. So he pressed ahead with an appeal of his firing.

When the case reached an arbitrator in the fall 2017, Duncan and the Oregon State Police Officers Association argued that Duncan's slapping of his son was a reasonable use of corporal punishment under state law. The ex-trooper said he only pleaded guilty to avoid more severe consequences.

The union also argued that Duncan's "exemplary career" showed he could still be a good cop.

But the arbitrator sided against the union.

The arbitrator noted that Duncan's slap was "intentional and premeditated" and concluded the corporal punishment argument didn't hold up. The arbitrator questioned whether Duncan had "reached a level of full self-awareness on the inappropriateness of angrily slapping a child in the face" as punishment.

The arbitrator's decision put Duncan's case in front of Oregon's police certification agency again.

State law says the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training must decertify anyone fired for cause.

Fired, But Fit for Duty

Dozens of Oregon police officers stay eligible to carry a gun and a badge even after being fired for chronically inept police work or worse, an investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive has found.

A recent rewrite of the department's rules narrowed its definition of "for cause" to a short list of egregious behaviors. Duncan's firing doesn't fit that definition. However, the department can still ask the Police Policy Committee to review such cases.

The committee will review aspects of the case beyond the slapping of Duncan's son. According to a police report, Duncan admitted that he told his children not to mention the slapping to their mother; deleted the video of the slapping; and struck his daughter during a separate incident.

Duncan says state regulators want an unfair do-over. In a letter, he urged them to drop the case. Duncan contends all of the information that the committee will consider was part of the criminal case regulators already saw. To revisit the allegations, he wrote to regulators, is a violation of his due process rights.

Retired Oregon Supreme Court Justice W. Michael Gillette has backed him up. Gillette agreed to review the case because Duncan had impressed him when he was a trooper, he wrote to regulators.

"I write this email solely because I want to see Mr. Duncan treated fairly, and I am concerned that the Committee and, ultimately, the Board may not be treating him that way," Gillette wrote.

Gillette said he wasn't questioning regulators' motives.

"But I do ask the Committee and the Board to stand back and consider whether they are not, in fact, taking 'a second bite of the apple,'" he wrote. "If they are, they shouldn't be."

The committee will decide today whether to recommend revocation to the board.

-- Rebecca Woolington and Carli BrosseauThe Oregon Senate needs a new member from Southern Oregon to replace Sen. Jeff Kruse, the Roseburg Republican who resigned in disgrace after he was found to have inappropriately touched many women at the Capitol.

One man being vetted for the job, Douglas County commissioner Tim Freeman, also came under a cloud related to his interaction with women while serving in the legislature.

In 2012, Freeman, then a member of the Oregon House, was among a group of Republican representatives who visited a topless bar while vacationing together in California. Then-Republican House Leader Kevin Cameron abruptly resigned from that leadership position in part because of the scandal. Freeman was re-elected months after the controversy. He did not seek re-election in 2014 because he ran for, and won, a seat on the Douglas County Board of Commissioners.

Freeman's decision to visit the topless bar was an isolated incident that occurred almost six years ago.

Still, Jim Moore, a Pacific University political science professor who studies Oregon politics, said it could strike voters as tone-deaf for Southern Oregon Republicans to appoint Freeman to replace a man who resigned over his mistreatment of women. "The optics are bad on that," Moore said.

Freeman told his hometown newspaper, the Roseburg News-Review, Tuesday that he would not accept the seat if nominated. On Wednesday and again on Thursday, he declined to tell The Oregonian/OregonLive if he was seeking the job.

With Freeman's track record as a city council member, state representative and county commissioner, "his experience is what you'd expect and hope to find in a replacement senator," Moore said. "But what he got caught up in does not really fit with 2018 political culture, especially with Kruse's resignation."

A former House Republicans colleague disagreed.

"I think he'd be phenomenal in the Senate," said Katie Eyre Brewer, an accountant and Hillsboro Republican who served in the House with Freeman.

She said Freeman is an "extremely hard worker" adding, "His policy record will stand for itself." Freeman is best known for helping to write legislation setting up health care coverage networks known as coordinated care organizations.

Although Freeman told the Roseburg News-Review that he won't seek or accept the Senate appointment, he has said and done things that make it appear he is indeed vying for Kruse's seat.

Freeman did not deny he is angling for the Senate seat when asked Wednesday and Thursday. Instead, he declined to comment to The Oregonian/OregonLive, citing a conflict of interest because, as a county commissioner, he will take part in selecting Kruse's replacement. County commissioners from the five counties spanned by Kruse's district will appoint the new senator.

"I'm in a weird spot," Freeman said. "I'll have one of the votes, so I don't think it's really fair for me to discuss my personal plans."

Freeman's denial to his hometown paper that he will seek the Senate appointment also contradicts Capitol chatter.

"We have heard that he's interested," said Senate Republicans spokeswoman Tayleranne Gillespie. One Republican senator said Freeman is the "leading replacement" for Kruse. The county commissioner has also been spotted in the halls of the Oregon Capitol's Senate wing multiple times in recent weeks.

Coos County Commissioner John Sweet said that although no one has officially said they want to replace Kruse, Freeman would surely be a candidate.

"There's some scuttlebutt around but no one has put their name in the hat that I know of," Sweet said, adding that Freeman's name "would be one that I would suspect would come up."

Sweet acknowledged that two state representatives  Rep. Dallas Heard, R-Roseburg and Rep. David Brock Smith, R-Port Orford  whose districts make up Kruse's Senate district, may also be interested in the seat. Heard and Brock Smith did not return messages seeking comment.

Eyre Brewer, the former House Republican who served with Freeman, said rather than his topless bar visit, what is important is whether Freeman believes the women who accused Kruse of sexual harassment.

"I think the real question is does he believe the people who came forward?" Eyre Brewer said.

Freeman said he has "no way of knowing" if the women who accused Kruse of unwanted touching and groping told the truth because he "didn't witness" Kruse's alleged conduct. He said he has not read an independent investigator's scathing report that concluded Kruse inappropriately touched at least 10 women at the Oregon Capitol.

-- Gordon R. Friedman

503-221-8209; @GordonRFriedman

Correction: An earlier version of this article inaccurately stated that former House Republican Leader Kevin Cameron resigned from the Legislature because of controversy over a 2012 topless bar visit. Cameron did not resign from the Legislature, but did resign from his Republican leadership position because of the scandal.SALEM  Oregon lawmakers in both parties are pushing a plan to require drug makers to publicly justify big price hikes, and officials say they are charging ahead with legislation despite strong opposition from pharmaceutical companies.

If passed, House Bill 4005 would require drug companies to file annual reports with the state outlining price increases of drugs that cost at least $100 per month and why prices were hiked. They'd also have to reveal manufacturer costs, sales revenue, profit and other data.

Price information reports would be posted to a public website and the state would hold a hearing each year to review the reports, according to the bill. Companies could face fines of up to $10,000 per day if they failed to file a report on time or give state regulators "inaccurate or incomplete" information.

The proposal comes after the California Legislature adopted a similar bill last year. Nevada also has a law requiring pricing transparency from suppliers of insulin, a medicine used by diabetics.

Oregon's bill is a watered-down rewrite of legislation Democrats introduced last year, which would have capped prescription co-pays and required drug makers to refund excessive price increases. Those proposals, which were complex and politically unpalatable to some, died without a vote.

But this year's bill has bipartisan support from senators and representatives, who have hailed it as bringing needed transparency to the opaque drug pricing system.

"This is a good first step at figuring out how to bring down prescription drug prices," said Rep. Rob Nosse, a Portland Democrat and the bill's primary author.

Nosse said the bill is meant to help keep the cost of medicine down  not by humiliating drug companies for netting big profits on the backs of the sick, but by getting as much information as possible so better policies can be enacted.

Rep. Rob Nosse, D-Portland, left, and Sen. Dennis Linthicum, R-Klamath Falls.

"I don't think it's about shame," Nosse said in an interview. "It's just about saying, 'If you're going to raise your price so much, why are you doing that? Tell us.'"

Another supporter of the bill is Sen. Dennis Linthicum, a Republican first-termer from Klamath Falls.

At the bill's hearing, Linthicum said he believes government should get out of the way of the health care industry so the free market can work -- within limits.

Linthicum said more transparency is needed because the health care system is murky, making it tough to pin down problems. "I am not keen on exposing any industry to invasive government inquiries, but something is wrong," he testified, calling the prescription drug market "broken."

Linthicum is also a type-1 diabetic. So is his daughter. They've seen the price of insulin skyrocket, he said, making drug pricing transparency all the more personal. "It's important to me," Linthicum said during an interview. "It's important to my family."

Predictably, pharmaceutical companies are fighting the bill tooth and nail. The crux of the industry groups' arguments is that drug pricing transparency won't help consumers and will hamper pharmaceutical researchers.

For example, Eric Lohnes, who works for an industry group called Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, testified that the bill would give the public "a narrow and distorted view of medicine prices" and put new burdens on the health care system. He said the bill does "nothing to help patients" when they buy medicines.

Drug makers have also orchestrated opposition campaigns and employ dozens of lobbyists at the Oregon Capitol to sway lawmakers to their cause.

The Pharmaceutical Industry Labor-Management Association launched an online campaign against Oregon's bill and placed a full-page ad in the Sunday Oregonian criticizing the proposal. That group is funded by some of the world's biggest drug makers: Pfizer, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, among others.

Linthicum, the Klamath Falls senator, said pushback hasn't deterred him.

"It doesn't matter," he said. "We need visibility."

-- Gordon R. Friedman

503-221-8209; @GordonRFriedmanMembers of the Oregon House of Representatives passed legislation Thursday that would expand the number of people banned from owning guns because of domestic violence or stalking convictions.

More than one lawmaker cried on the House floor while discussing the damage that a raging person can do with a gun. The chamber's bipartisan adoption of the bill coincidentally came one day after a gunman killed 17 people at a Florida high school.

The bill, House Bill 4145, is one of Gov. Kate Brown's top priorities for the five-week session now underway. She tweeted Thursday, "This is a lifesaving policy that will help keep our promise to families across the state to keep our communities safe."

More than 250 Oregonians were killed by domestic abusers from 2003 to 2012, according to data from the Oregon Health Authority. Most victims were women and children, and of the women, more than 80 percent were killed by their husband or boyfriend.

Thursday's House vote fulfilled a long-sought goal of Brown and other Democrats to advance legislation that would close what they have dubbed the "boyfriend loophole."

Oregon has had a ban on gun ownership by convicted domestic abusers and stalkers since 2015, but it does not apply to abusers who are not married to, have children with, or live with the victim. Supporters of the bill passed Thursday have argued that the loophole leaves women vulnerable to being shot by abusers they are dating but not married to.

"A person who assaults their boyfriend or girlfriend is no less guilty of domestic violence than someone who assaults their husband or wife," said House Majority Leader Jennifer Williamson, D-Portland, adding that she believes the loophole represents "a significant flaw" in Oregon's firearms regulations.

Rep. Jeff Barker, an Aloha Democrat who coauthored the bill, said he believes it will close a "dangerous loophole" allowing domestic abusers to own guns. He pushed back against criticism of the bill by gun-rights groups, citing statistics that show many women face domestic violence and that the presence of guns make those situations more likely to be deadly.

Barker, a retired police officer, said he witnessed many instances of domestic violence while on the beat. In a speech from the House floor, he said he "tried to suppress" the worst memories, often with alcohol. He recalled one crime scene he was dispatched to, where a woman had been shot to death by her husband after a domestic dispute. Barker said he arrived to find "a young mother dead on the floor," her two children crying nearby.

"Had there not been a gun in that family maybe those girls would have been able to grow up with their mother," Barker said.

Rep. Janeen Sollman, D-Hillsboro, wept as she recalled growing up in a tiny rural Oregon community with an abusive, alcoholic father. She said she has "seen the rage" that can infect domestic abusers.

"I believe for certain that if it weren't for my father's absolute intense hatred for guns, our story would have a very different ending," she said before casting a vote in support of the expanded gun ban.

Rep. Andy Olson, a retired Oregon State Police trooper, said he opposes the bill because he believes it will not prevent domestic violence. Olson, a Republican from Albany, said people determined to commit domestic violence may attack their partners with knives, bats or by other means -- and could steal a gun by breaking into a home or car if motivated to do so.

The final vote tally was 37-23, with Rep Caddy McKeown of Coos Bay the only Democrat to vote against the bill.

Three Republicans voted "yes" despite enormous opposition from groups like the National Rifle Association and the Oregon Firearms Federation: Knute Buehler of Bend, Rich Vial of Scholls and Julie Parrish of West Linn.

"All week long as I've anticipated this moment, I've been inclined to crawl under my desk in the fetal position," said a teary-eyed Vial, referencing pushback against the bill.

Buehler, who is also a Republican gubernatorial candidate, said in a statement that victims of domestic violence "should not have to live in fear that their abusers will possess a firearm."

"This legislation makes a small change to existing policy, which was established in 2015 with bipartisan support," he said. "It will enhance efforts to keep women and children safe."

The bill now heads to the Senate, the more conservative upper chamber of the Legislature. A spokesman for Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, said Courtney supports the bill and will allow the Senate to vote on it if it passes out of committee.

-- Gordon R. Friedman

503-221-8209; @GordonRFriedmanThe Portland Thorns are set to host their third-annual Thorns Spring Invitational at the University of Portland. The tournament will run from March 11-17.

The Houston Dash, Chicago Red Stars and U.S. U-23 Women's National Team will join the Thorns for the round-robin tournament.

Here is the full release with details on the tournament from the Thorns:

PORTLAND, Ore. - Portland Thorns FC today announced details for the Thorns Spring Invitational, presented by Tillamook Yogurt, at the University of Portland. Taking place from March 11-17, the third-annual, four-team tournament features Thorns FC, the U.S. U-23 Women's National Team, Chicago Red Stars and Houston Dash.

Playing all matches at Merlo Field, Portland and Chicago will square off Sunday, March 11; kickoff is set for 5 p.m. (Pacific). Houston and the U.S. U-23s will face each other in the opening match at 11:30 a.m. (Pacific). On Wednesday, March 14, Chicago takes on Houston at 1:30 p.m. (Pacific), while Thorns FC play host to the U.S. U-23s at 7:30 p.m. (Pacific). Portland closes out the preseason tournament against Houston on Saturday, March 17, at 7:30 p.m. (Pacific), while Chicago and the U.S. U-23s square off at 1:30 p.m. (Pacific).

Tickets for the three preseason tournament matches featuring Thorns FC are general admission. Individual tickets for the three Portland preseason matches, starting at $7, go on sale to the general public starting Friday, Feb. 23, at 10 a.m. (Pacific) online at www.thornsfc.com. All Thorns FC Annual Members will receive complimentary tickets for one of Thorns FC's preseason matches. Discounted options will be available for the other two Thorns FC matches.

Fans interested in purchasing Thorns FC Annual Memberships for the 2018 season are encouraged to call the ticket office at (503) 553-5555 or email ticketsales@timbers.com. Single-game ticket information will be released at a later date.

Thorns FC open preseason for the 2018 campaign in Portland on Monday, Feb. 19.

2018 Thorns Spring Invitational presented by Tillamook Yogurt Schedule

Sunday, March 11 - Houston Dash vs. U.S. U-23 Women's National Team at 11:30 a.m. (Pacific); Thorns FC vs. Chicago Red Stars at 5 p.m. (Pacific) at University of Portland (Merlo Field)

Wednesday, March 14 - Chicago Red Stars vs. Houston Dash at 1:30 p.m. (Pacific).; Thorns FC vs. U.S. U-23 Women's National Team at 7:30 p.m. (Pacific) at University of Portland (Merlo Field)

Saturday, March 17 - Chicago Red Stars vs. U.S. U-23 Women's National Team at 1:30 p.m. (Pacific); Thorns FC vs. Houston Dash at 7:30 p.m. (Pacific) at University of Portland (Merlo Field)

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldbergFormer Portland Police Chief Larry O'Dea, discredited for his delay in reporting his off-duty shooting of a friend in April 2016 and then lying about it to investigators while he was chief, will fight to keep his state police certification Thursday.

He's scheduled to appear with his lawyer before a committee of Oregon's police certification agency to argue his case.

The committee will decide if O'Dea's misconduct in the shooting and his mishandling of an employee's discrimination complaint violates moral fitness standards for his profession.

O'Dea retired in June 2016 while he was under investigation in the shooting two months earlier during a camping trip. He also was accused at the time of not reporting an employee's discrimination complaint against the Police Bureau's equity manager.

Subsequent investigations found that he was "untruthful" in both cases and brought discredit to the city.

O'Dea's lawyer has submitted a 21-page letter to the state Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, arguing that the city's findings are "false and/or not supported by credible evidence.''

Attorney Derek Ashton said the shooting was an "accident,'' not a "negligent discharge''  even though O'Dea approved a brief news release a month after the shooting that described it as a "negligent discharge.'' That was O'Dea's first public admission that he shot his friend and came only after reporters asked about it.

An "off-duty accident that occurs unexpectedly and unintentionally should not bring 'reproach and discredit'" to the city or the Police Bureau, Ashton wrote to the committee.

"To the extent reproach or discredit was brought upon the PPB or the City of Portland, the direct cause was publicity seeking by others and/or false and defamatory media coverage,'' he added.

Ashton also argued that the indictment of O'Dea was a "meritless prosecution'' that the "alleged 'victim' did not want and which was of zero benefit to the public.''

A Harney County grand jury indicted O'Dea on a negligent wounding charge for the shooting. A judge agreed to a civil compromise that allowed dismissal of the charge, though he first ordered O'Dea to drive to Burns to have a jail mugshot taken.

The city office that investigates allegations of police misconduct found that police supervisors and then-Mayor Charlie Hales ignored protocols that called for an immediate internal investigation when O'Dea shot his friend, marking "an organizational failure of the highest order."

Independent Police Review investigators also concluded that O'Dea misled his three assistant chiefs and Hales about the case.

O'Dea first told them about the shooting four days after it occurred in a 7 a.m. phone call to the mayor and an 8 a.m. meeting with his assistant chiefs. The chief said then that he had already told the police internal affairs captain and the Sheriff's Office in Harney County, where the shooting happened, about his role.

But he hadn't done either, according to the investigative reports. He also lied to Independent Police Review officials about the shooting, the investigation found.

O'Dea shot his friend, Robert Dempsey, while they were camping with other friends in the Catlow Valley area of Harney County. They were shooting at ground squirrels at the time. A hollow-point bullet from O'Dea's rifle hit Dempsey in the lower back and fragmented. Dempsey was released from the hospital the next day, the bullet still in his body.

The second city investigation found that O'Dea failed to follow reporting requirements when an administrative assistant in his office came to him with allegations that the Police Bureau's diversity manager, Elle Weatheroy, had made racist remarks to her. Investigators found that O'Dea then lied about what he knew when they interviewed him.

The investigation found Weatheroy, who is African American, asked a co-worker of Pacific Island descent about why she was married to a white man and how she could eat lunch with "a bunch of white women.''

The administrative assistant reported her concerns to her boss, then-Assistant Chief Kevin Modica, as well as O'Dea and Capt. Derek Rodrigues, who was head of internal affairs at the time, but none of the three supervisors immediately told the city's Human Resources Bureau, according to internal affairs and city investigative reports obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

While Modica, another assistant chief and the administrative assistant each told investigators that they told O'Dea immediately about the remarks, O'Dea denied hearing about them until many months later.

City investigators determined O'Dea lied about what he knew when in his internal affairs interview.

O'Dea's lawyer submitted to the committee a resume of O'Dea's 30-year police career, awards and honors as mitigating factors.

The committee, made up of O'Dea's former peers including police chiefs and sheriffs from around the state, is expected to issue a recommendation Thursday on whether to suspend or revoke O'Dea's certification. The recommendation will go to the certification department's board, which will vote whether to accept it at a future date.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonianJeff Smith and fiancee Diana Peters of Canby were surprised to learn that their private photos, including some nude shots, ended up on the new cellphone of an elderly stranger last week.

When they found out, Smith went to a Verizon Wireless store in Molalla to ask what happened, but got the runaround, he alleges in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.

He's now seeking a jury trial and up to $4 million in damages, claiming unlawful trade practices and negligent data breach.

"Plaintiff had hoped to resolve the issue outside of court but he was told by Verizon's agent that nothing could be done unless plaintiff hired a 'big shot lawyer' to try to take on Verizon," the lawsuit said.

Heidi Flato, a Verizon spokeswoman in San Francisco, said she wasn't aware of the lawsuit and that the company typically doesn't comment on pending litigation.

Peters told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the couple has gone through a cycle of shock, frustration and anger since trying to figure out what happened. No one at the Verizon store had an explanation for them and neither did anyone through Verizon's customer service line, she said.

"We didn't want to go this route, but the company needs to be accountable to its customers," she said. "Verizon doesn't have any answers for us or any system in place to help us. We don't know what else to do."

They might not have ever discovered that the 2-year-old photos had migrated to someone else's phone if not for Nick Crommie of Oregon City.

Crommie bought a Verizon LG V20 for $167 last week in Molalla for his grandmother and offered to download her photos and videos backed up on the Verizon cloud to the new phone.

But Crommie noticed as he scrolled through his grandma's photos the next day that there were photos of a man and woman and their child mixed in. He realized that the woman in the photos was a former co-worker he hadn't seen since the summer and the man was her boyfriend.

Crommie reached out to his former co-worker on Facebook and called her about the photos. She told him the photos had been on Smith's phone.

Crommie said how they got on his grandma's new phone remains a mystery. He went with Smith last week to the Molalla store and confirmed that a manager suggested suing Verizon.

"There's no connection between them and my grandma, their phone numbers aren't the same, we later cleared the phone completely and the same photos came back again," he said.

Peters said she wonders and worries if their pictures have been downloaded onto other Verizon phones.

"They don't want this to happen to anyone else," said attorney Michael Fuller, who represents Smith. "And at this point, we don't know if this is something that other Verizon customers have experienced."

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBaileyAbove the clouds and the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, a starboard engine fell apart, and 373 people held together.

We don't know much about what happened on the United Airlines flight, not mechanically at least. The outer casing ripped off the rightmost engine midway through the San Francisco to Honolulu flight. Passengers heard a boom, followed by a high-pitched whine, and then they all shook violently with the entire plane.

For the better part of the next hour, passengers watched shreds of metal flap like feathers on the wing. Metal flew down to the ocean. When the partially disintegrated Boeing 777 finally descended toward a runway in Honolulu, hundreds of people braced their heads against seat backs, prepared for who-knows-what, and lived.

United's statement on the incident is brief and vague and antiseptic enough that we'll quote it verbatim:

"Flight 1175 traveling to Honolulu from San Francisco landed safely after the pilots called for an emergency landing because of an issue with the #2 engine. Our pilots followed all necessary protocols to safely land the aircraft. The aircraft taxied to the gate and passengers deplaned normally."

There will be no further comment while the federal government investigates, the airline added. That is all.

Except, of course, for the people -- who countered terror with acts of courage, grace and love, and even humor and bad puns.

Jeff Carter, who showed us how you stare down fear

When the engine's shell ripped off and fell hundreds of feet to the water, there was no land in sight from any window on the plane, KITV reported. Oxygen masks fell from the ceiling, and the plane shook violently, sometimes banging when a loose chunk of metal hit the wing.

So naturally, people panicked. But panic only lasts so long. The flight crew told everyone to sit down and buckle up, the New York Times wrote. That's what everyone did.

In his aisle seat, a technical engineer named Jeff Carter pulled out his phone and turned it toward his own face, which was serene, though it shook in the frame. He panned the camera to show that every man and woman behind him wore the same expression. Calm, silent, though everything shuddered around them.

"What a United 777 full of people calmly preparing themselves for death might look like," he later wrote beneath his video. He had thought the vibration would rip the plane apart.

But none of that showed in his face. Before he stopped recording, Carter took his hat off and smiled gravely to the camera.

Erik Haddad, who never lost his sense of humor

Everyone on the plane was afraid, passengers later told reporters. The flight crew acted calm, KITV reported, as they walked back to the windows to see for themselves the engine's cables and red innards exposed to open air. "But they were scared," one passenger told ABC News. "You could tell from their face."

Meanwhile Erik Haddad, a Google engineer, pulled the safety manual out of his seat-back pocket and framed it against the terror outside his window. He pulled out his phone and made a joke in the face of death, tweeting:

"I don't see anything about this in the manual"

- Erik Haddad (@erikhaddad) February 13, 2018

Nor was that the only joke he came up with on the flight.

"That looks bad," Haddad wrote. "Plane and simple."

Haley Ebert, who remembered what she flew for

When the casing ripped, it sounded like a gunshot, Haley Ebert told the New York Times. She opened her window shade and saw metal flying into the ocean.

"A bolt hit the wing, and it just made this huge bam," she said.

Then came 40 minutes of terror. When the plane descended over Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in the early afternoon, she and hundreds of others pressed their hands and heads to the seats in front of them. The flight crew chanted: "Brace, brace, brace, brace, brace." Some people amid the chanting.

And then it was over. The plane rolled to a stop on the runway at 1 p.m., Hawaii time. The shaking ceased. Sobs gave way to claps and whooping.

Surreal scenes continued to play outside the starboard windows until the passengers deplaned. Men in yellow vests stared up at the engine, many times their size, ripped open like a scrap-yard car for reasons still undisclosed.

Then 363 passengers, eight flight attendants and two pilots walked safely off Flight 1175 and went their ways. And for all the images of grim bravery and naked terror in the air, Ebert shared one last picture of her journey, and why it was worth it in the end, tweeting:

"Feeling grateful to be safe on land with my sister Jenna! Time to enjoy Oahu!"

- Haley Ebert (@haleylora) February 14, 2018

#ua1175 so glad we are all safe after our emergency landing. pic.twitter.com/bltAPWzYhn  Haley Ebert (@haleylora) February 13, 2018

-- Avi SelkWASHINGTON - A bipartisan group of senators reached a deal on immigration Wednesday as President Donald Trump attempted to preemptively undercut the proposal by delivering an ultimatum: Pass my plan or risk a veto.

The self-dubbed "Common Sense Caucus" of bipartisan senators late Wednesday circulated legislation that would fulfill Trump's calls to grant legal status to 1.8 million immigrants, and would authorize $25 billion for southern border security construction projects over the next decade - not immediately, as Trump wants. The bill also would curb family-based immigration programs, but not to the extent Trump is seeking and does not end a diversity visa lottery program that he wants eliminated.

Word of an agreement came as formal debate on immigration policy has mostly sputtered this week - a stalemate that has underscored the politically fraught nature of the showdown that is further complicated by GOP leaders' insistence that the Senate act by week's end.

A growing sense of diminishing urgency also set in as top leaders signaled that ongoing court challenges may give Congress more time than Trump's deadline of March 5 to replace an Obama-era program shielding hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation.

In a White House statement, Trump urged the Senate to back a proposal unveiled this week by a GOP group led by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, saying it accomplishes his vision for immigration. At the same time, the president rejected any limited approach that deals only with "dreamers" - immigrants who have been in the country illegally since they were children - and border security.

His full-throated demand was released by the White House just minutes before a group of Democrats and Republicans gathered to negotiate an agreement.

Democrats were gauging support for the plan in their caucus late Wednesday, with the realization that Trump may reject it.

"He created this problem, and he's making it clear today he has no intention of solving it," complained Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a leader of the bipartisan group, was more hopeful. "I know that the president wants a result, and my experience in the Senate is that you're more likely to be able to get a result when you have a bipartisan plan - and that's what we're seeking," she said.

By the end of Wednesday, Collins' group was touting the "Immigration Security and Opportunity Act" that they hope could garner the 60 votes needed to pass in the closely divided chamber. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., who has emerged in recent months as an under-the-radar bipartisan broker on several subjects, is lead sponsor of the bill, while its primary cosponsors are Collins and Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Tim Kaine, D-Va. King, Manchin and Kaine are up for reelection this year.

While the bill authorizes $25 billion in border security spending as Trump wants, it does not provide the funding all at once. Instead, the bill would dole out approximately $2.5 billion this fiscal year to begin construction of walls and fencing, new access roads and the redeployment or hiring of federal immigration and border security agents. Beginning in fiscal 2019, another $2.5 billion could be spent annually on border security construction or personnel as part of the normal appropriations and congressional review process.

Despite the breakthrough, there was no guarantee late Wednesday that the plan would find sufficient support or even earn a vote as early as Thursday.

Sen. Christopher Coons, D-Del., who supports the deal, explained that several Democrats may struggle to accept that the proposal includes "a truly robust border security" plan that guarantees significant spending over the next decade.

Aides to Rounds, Collins and other GOP senators didn't immediately respond to requests for comment about details of the legislation.

Trump's latest warning might also deter senators in both parties who are already anxious about debating such an emotionally difficult issue at the start of an election year.

Trump said in his statement that he is "asking all senators, in both parties, to support the Grassley bill and to oppose any legislation that fails to fulfill these four pillars - that includes opposing any short-term 'Band-Aid' approach."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also has backed the GOP plan, and most Republicans were rallying behind the proposal. It fulfills Trump's calls to provide legal status to 1.8 million dreamers, immediately authorizes spending at least $25 billion to bolster defenses along the U.S.-Mexico border, makes changes to family-based legal immigration programs and ends a diversity lottery system used by immigrants from smaller countries.

But Democrats in the closely divided Senate strongly oppose the Grassley plan.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that the bill unfairly targets family-based immigration and that making such broad changes as part of a plan to legalize fewer than 2 million people "makes no sense."

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who is gauging support for a House immigration bill that is much more restrictive than Trump's proposal, told reporters that the White House plan "should be the framework through which we come together to find a solution."

"On a conference call with reporters, senior administration officials said the president had made significant concessions to Senate Democrats. Last fall, Trump moved to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which had provided temporary work permits to about 690,000 dreamers. White House officials emphasized that Trump's plan allows far more dreamers to pursue the path to citizenship.

But they added that the border security provisions and the cuts to legal immigration channels are required to stem unauthorized immigration, reduce a lengthy backlog in the green-card process and reduce immigration levels that, the White House argues, have harmed American workers.

At the Capitol, the president's allies also echoed administration officials.

"President Trump has crafted a deal that is tough but more than generous," said Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., an ardent Trump defender and sponsor of the Grassley plan.

The president "wants this solved," Perdue added. "And he wants it ended right now."

At a House Budget Committee hearing, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney stated several times that the administration's fiscal 2019 budget presumes Congress will strike a deal.

"We assume that an agreement is reached on immigration, on DACA, between Republicans and Democrats," he said.

Lawmakers have been negotiating under the premise that the bulk of DACA work permits will begin to expire March 5 - a deadline Trump set last fall aimed at giving Congress time to develop a legislative solution for the dreamers. But judges in California and New York have issued temporary injunctions, requiring the Trump administration to restart the program.

(c) 2018, The Washington Post. By Ed O'Keefe, David Nakamura and Mike Debonis.By JIM RYAN and AIMEE GREEN

The Oregonian | OregonLive

Allison Monti was forced to spend the night trapped at Punchbowl Falls with her friends, including their 3-year-old daughter, when the Eagle Creek fire stranded about 150 hikers as it raced up the trail on the Saturday of a blistering hot Labor Day weekend.

The group had gone to spend a relaxing afternoon cooling off in the deep, cold pool below the falls. But as they set back down the trail toward their car, fellow hikers ran by to warn them about the blaze blocking their way out. They huddled together on the forest floor for the night  as temperatures dipped into the 50s -- and waited for instructions on what to do next.

The next day, a ranger led the group on a 14-mile march to safety around the growing fires path.

But despite what she called one of the scariest experiences of her life  one she didnt know shed survive  Monti doesnt want the teenager accused of starting the nearly 49,000-acre fire to face especially harsh punishment.

The Oregonian/OregonLive contacted Monti and a cross-section of gorge visitors, residents and business owners directly affected by the fire to ask what they hoped would happen in the case. Most said they want the teen to learn from the mistake but not pay an overly steep price.

Monti, 35, of Portland said she realizes the fires terrible toll. It racked up costs topping $38 million for firefighting and cleanup, torched some of the most beloved trails and views in the Columbia River Gorge, closed businesses, displaced people for days and shut down Interstate 84 and the Historic Columbia River Highway.

But, she said, she formed her opinion the second that I heard that it was just some kid.

Theres a reason we have a juvenile justice system. Because as a kid, he has a greater capacity to change and not be this person who made these bad decisions, she said.

I think its important to influence him to become better. The punishment should provoke that in him. Its not about making him pay.

Don't Edit

Mark Graves/Staff

The Vancouver teen, who was 15 at the time a witness reported seeing him throw a "smoke bomb" into the brush along the Eagle Creek trail on Sept. 2, is set to appear in court Friday in Hood River.

He most likely will get community service and probation if he enters a plea admitting guilt, as expected. The judge also must under state law order him to pay restitution.

Immediately after state police announced that they had a suspect in the case as the fire raged and smoke choked metro Portland, scores of people took to social media to condemn him and damage to their playground, a nationally designated scenic area that attracts about 3 to 4 million visitors a year.

The backlash prompted authorities to decide to withhold his name and shroud his arraignment, announcing it only after the fact. Capt. Bill Fugate, an Oregon State Police spokesman, said hes never seen so many people so upset at a suspect and that the agencys concern was the safety of the teen and his family.

They haven't been subject to any credible threats, Fugate said, but there have been veiled threats of violence against them online.

Kevin Marnell, who had just finished hiking the Eagle Creek trail when he spotted sheriffs deputies questioning the suspect, said he doesnt think the teen should face severe consequences from the court.

Im pretty sure hes already learned a lesson at this point, Marnell said, noting the intense public criticism.

The teen acted foolishly, he said, but thats not uncommon for 15-year-olds.

I really think that kid could have been any of 100 kids in my high school class, said Marnell, 35, of Portland.

Joseph Nolin  a Gilchrist resident whose family has long owned gorge property, including a house swamped by a landslide and later destroyed in the blaze  favored tough punishment shortly after the fire began. But now he views it as "just another burn" in the gorge, albeit larger than most.

He looks to the legal system to sort out a proper punishment and hopes the teen recovers from the ordeal as quickly, or more quickly, than the burned forest does.

Kim Brigham said she's been hearing mixed sentiments from people who visit her fish market in Cascade Locks, the town nearest the Eagle Creek trail where some residents were ordered to evacuate. She hopes that instead of financial penalties, punishments will include orders to work on trails, plant trees and otherwise confront the damage.

Michael Lang, conservation director for Friends of the Columbia Gorge, said the nonprofits members arent focused on the suspects sentencing.

Weve moved past that, he said.

Theyre instead focusing on recovery and restoration efforts, as well as promoting gorge businesses and communities. Theyve also hired a stewardship coordinator to manage the volunteer response prompted by the fire, he said.

Don't Edit

Mark Graves/Staff

Closures and costs

Lang's group is one of four that make up the Gorge Trails Recovery Team, formed in September to organize repairs.

Members of the team have begun trail work on the Pacific Crest Trail and elsewhere, filling in stump holes, clearing brush and making other improvements.

Most trails in the burn remain closed, and some hit hardest could stay off-limits for up to five years, said Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area spokeswoman Rachel Pawlitz.

Some national forest system trails could reopen by late spring, particularly those on the eastern end of the gorge such as part of the Pacific Crest Trail. Oregon State Parks officials said Ainsworth State Park could reopen in early March.

The Historic Columbia River Highway, a conduit to popular waterfalls and hikes, remains closed between Bridal Veil and Ainsworth State Park, but will likely reopen in spring, a state transportation spokesman said.

The Transportation Department alone has spent an estimated $12 million on work related to the fire.

The U.S. Forest Service and its incident management team have spent almost $20 million more on firefighting, assessing and dealing with hazards such as unstable slopes and trees and other response efforts.

The agency anticipates spending $5 million more on the incident. That figure doesnt include estimates for upcoming trail work and other repairs, as those estimates are continuously being updated, Pawlitz said.

The State Fire Marshal's office also spent about $6.6 million on protecting buildings and homes.

Don't Edit

Mark Graves/Staff

Business setbacks and fire status

Those figures dont include costs to gorge businesses that closed or lost customers when the fire hit during the busy tourist season.

Caroline Park, co-owner of Cascade Locks Thunder Island Brewing Company, said she's had to use savings on operating expenses in the aftermath of the fire. Typically, she would use those funds on hiring people in spring, making general repairs and buying equipment and merchandise.

It just sets you back, she said.

Rick Buck, proprietor of the iconic Multnomah Falls Lodge, was blunter.

Hed rank the fire right up there with a root canal.

The lodge reopened for business in late November, about the time the fire was declared 100 percent contained. But business is still down, and the fire still isn't officially out completely.

Firefighters will want to see whether any smoking hotspots remain when temperatures rise  a common approach on big fires in the wet West Cascades, Pawlitz said.

Authorities will likely wait until late spring to say the fire is out.

 Jim Ryan and Aimee Green

jryan@oregonian.com; agreen@oregonian.com

Don't Edit

Jamie Hale/Staff

More coverage of fire and aftermath

Don't Edit

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The next issue of Ottawa Citizen Headline News will soon be in your inbox.With her bold geometric designs, Amanda Whitworth brings a modern edge to the arts scene in San Diego. Sawing, staining, and painting a variety of woods, Whitworth creates pieces that capture the attention and draw the viewer into her patterns.

Despite fighting her second bout with cancer, Whitworth finds solace, purpose and direction in her art and encourages the creativity in everyone. PACIFIC recently connected with Whitworth to discover her inspiration and how she keeps pushing forward.

PACIFIC: How did you begin working with wood?

AMANDA WHITWORTH: It started two years ago, and it felt like a calling. The thought of it kept popping into my head. My dad was a carpenter, so I grew up around it and was always drawn to wood. I love the smell of sawdust. I became interested in power tools and started creating with wood.

How does inspiration strike? Is it drawn out first?

I have no rhyme to my reason. I usually know the size I want. I just put music on and start working and let it organically happen. Its an intuitive process. From the look to the colors, Im kind of on a whim.

So much of my message is about inspiring people to tap into who they are and live from there. - Amanda Whitworth

Where do you source your wood?

Originally I wanted to use reclaimed, but it is too hard to come by. So I get all my wood at Home Depot. I use red oak, poplar and alder. The wood is very refined, so it makes the pieces look more finished.

Do you stain your own wood?

I stain and paint them. I am working toward my own dyes, in particular, vegetable dyes. I want to be as non-toxic as I can.

Were you always into arts and crafts?

As a kid I loved drawing and painting and always had a wild imagination. As I mentioned, my dad was a carpenter, and my mom is an interior designer, so I grew up around creative parents. As I learned about myself as a person, I tapped into who I am.

Were you trained in woodwork?

I just bought a saw and started doing it. I first started in November 2016.

How has your journey with cancer affected your artwork?

This is my second time with cancer. I was diagnosed in March 2017. They have both been part of the same journey. When I was diagnosed, all of these opportunities showed up. I havent been able to do as much, but its also given me the opportunity to slow down and figure out where I want to take this.

Where can locals see your work?

There is a large 6-foot by 8-foot piece in Caravan West on the corner of E Street (and South Coast Highway) in Encinitas, also on Instagram, and there is a website coming next month.

Whats up next for you?

I would love to teach classes about creativity and how to harness it. My art is me. Everyone has that inside of them, whatever the medium is. Being a creative means so many different things. I would love to help other people tap into their own creativity.

Those interested in purchasing and commissioning her work can reach Amanda at thesavourysoul@gmail.com. Follow along with Whitworth on Instagram at @_sawdustandsoul.While Moschino's Jeremy Scott purveys gimp masks and full latex looks for Fall '18, BDSM runs deeper than mere fashion for New York's own MiscAllaneous DomTop. Not only is it a viable means for him to make money, but it's also a way to challenge stereotypes attached to the kink community.

As a queer man of color, who wears high-femme variations of sexy dominatrix style, MiscAllaneous considers himself an outsider  but one actively creating space for fellow marginalized people through his fetish burlesque variety show, Hard Core.

Ahead of the party's next installment on February 21st at Brooklyn's Bushwick Bizarre, we caught up with MiscAllaneous to learn more about their leather-laden practice.

Where are you from originally?

Born and raised in Southern California, I come from a very strict southern baptist church family of six. My parents were old-school, but very loving and caring. As far [back] as I can remember, I always loved to dance and entertain people; I have always had a big personality, and used to get in trouble from my mother because I would go through all her clothes dress up in them.

How do you identify today?



I'm just a sweet transvestite. I like to dress up in women's clothes and torture men for money  that's all. I was never hyper-masculine and never forced myself to act like one. I was made fun of as a child [and] my whole life, but I never let it hold me back. As I started to dress up, go out, and see how guys would look at me dressed up and what they would say to me, it gave me more confidence to keep doing what I'm doing. I would have never thought I would become a crossdressing dominatrix, but here I am today.

How did you develop your signature look?

My looks have always been very BDSM and fetish-inspired, so over the years its just has gotten stronger. I started out with just wearing a mask that always covered my face and I've kept that aspect ever since.

When you started wearing this look out, how did you notice people treating you differently?



When I am in my look, people treat me like a goddess and I love it. When I am not in a look, people treat me very different. I am often ignored and treated rudely most of the time. So it's funny, sometime I wear a look out and then I go out without a look (most people don't know what my face looks like), and I get treated like shit. It's sad, but true.

What's the story behind your name and how does it reflect your work?

The word (Miscellaneous) was one of my favorite words, and it can mean anything you want it to mean. I spell it differently because I was kicked off nstagram a long time ago, so I changed it to MiscAllaneous. The name DomTop was just for social media, but people kept calling me MiscAllaneous DomTop, so I kept the full name  and yes, I am a Dom-top.

What's your relationship to the larger BDSM community? Do you consider yourself involved? An outsider?



I will keep this short... I would say I am more of an outsider. But I feel like if I looked like "Tom of Finland," I would not be an outsider (and that's not a read, honey, that's a fact).

How did your Hard Core variety show develop?

I was asked by the owners of Bizarre Bushwick to do a monthly show. I said no at first, but then I met with them and said I will do one show. The first show was a huge success, so I said, "Let's do it monthly." Hard Core is every third Wednesday of each month. The next show is February 21st in Bizarre Bushwick at 10 PM.

What can guests expect to see at Hard Core?



My show is an anything goes show, but always with consent. Every HardCore show is a different show, but there's burlesque, boylesque, drag queens, drag kings, mistress masters, spanking, flogging, tickle torture , foot worship, trampling, sideshow performers. I book most of my talent from seeing them perform and [through] social media.

You've posted videos of you dominating men. How do you hope these will contribute to the greater LGBTQ conversation?

I post it them to show that you don't have to look a certain way to be a dom.

What's your relationship to NYC nightlife and fashion?



I feel very comfortable in NYC's LGBTQ nightlife. I only go to parties and spaces that I feel comfortable in. Fashion is a big part of aesthetic  I have a fashion styling background, so I make it a big part of my performance and looks. I feel so lucky to be able to have safe spaces that I am able to perform and be free in.

Photography: Andrew Boyle

Apple introduced Face ID with the new iPhone X, replacing their fingerprint security known as Touch ID. Globally, the growing sophistication of facial recognition technologies turn our faces into passwords that aren't protected and cannot be changed once compromised. The Israeli company D-ID offers a system that protects images from unauthorized, automated face recognition. Images are processed in a ground-breaking way that causes face recognition algorithms to fail to identify the subject in the image, while maintaining enough similarity to the original image for humans not to notice the difference.



The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will require all companies that handle personal data of EU citizens to meet data protection requirements. Under the GDPR, face images are "Sensitive Personal Data" which are subject to additional security requirements and restrictions. D-ID is the first of its kind to offer a specific solution to protect images by way of Privacy by Design.

The new ID Protection law goes into effect in May 2018 which means that Apple and Face ID will have to comply with this new law. Politico reports that "Most multinational companies from Google to General Electric must comply with the new standards because of their existing activities in Europe." To date there has been no official word on this from Apple. Whether a similar law is being contemplated for the U.S. is unknown at this time.

Rinat Harash Reports on this issue for Thompson Reuters from Tel Aviv. The Video is provided by Reuters Newslook.

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.That is the start of the recent Reuters investigative story, released late last week. Two of the journalists involved spent months in prison for their work, a testament to the cost of seeking out truth in this still quite brutal military dictatorship (with its veneer of democratic rule).

At least two were hacked to death by Buddhist villagers according to the Reuters story, which draws for the first time on interviews with Buddhist villagers who confessed to torching Rohingya homes, burying bodies and killing Muslims.

To many American Buddhists who are unaware of the fraught history of Buddhism in general and that of Burma/Myanmar of the last 75 years, this may come as a shock. Indeed, nearly every time I teach Buddhism, this issue is raised: if the first precept of Buddhist lay practice is to avoid killing, how do they [Burmese Buddhists] do this?

Responses to Burma Killing

A number of strategies might be used to answer this. One employed by many, both in Asia and outside of it, is to deem these murderous Buddhists as non-Buddhists. No real Buddhist would ever do that. This strategy is old and popular enough that it has its own place in the list of logical fallacies, called No true Scotsman. Religious practitioners and scholars wrangle deeply about just what makes a person a Buddhist, so it is fair to say that its a contested category. How about a young Burmese soldier who was educated by monks, taught the basics of Buddhism and its practice, but never really took it seriously and is now happy to take part in the killing of Rohingya? Is he a Buddhist? How about the Westerner who took part enthusiastically in college, joining a local Shambala, Triratna, Zen, or Vipassana group for weekly gatherings but slowly losing interest and participation and now, ten years later, has no particular Buddhist practice? Is she a Buddhist?

Other strategies can be more difficult to unravel. Denial is common enough. One can dismiss this as fake news and simply ignore it  although the cognitive dissonance of seeing stories like this year after year after year would hopefully sink in and lead to a reappraisal of what is real and what is fake news. Deflection is similar, thinking there must be more to the story. Indeed, there often is, but is there possibly enough to outweigh the importance of the story itself? Doubt can be useful as a means for digging deeper into the situation, and presenting ones new findings and understandings to others. Bud doubt is malignant when it is offered only to stop discussion and investigation.

A third direction one can take is to see and accept the ambiguity of Buddhist expressions of their religion (or philosophy, if that is how they wish to take it). This can be difficult for Westerners converting to Buddhism (and other religions), as there seems to be a phenomenon of new converts to try t0 be the best version of whatever their religion prescribes. I encountered this myself when I had the stark realization that my first meditation teacher owned a laptop: this was a machine. (imagine voice of outrage) Made in CHINA! Perhaps by CHILDREN! And at what cost to the environment! And he calls himself a Buddhist! (end mock voice of outrage)

It seems to me that this third way is best. But it takes a bit of letting go of idealized visions of Buddhism, or at least Buddhists. Buddhists may all  or nearly all  affirm the lofty ideals of the 5 precepts or the bodhisattva vows or the lengthy lists of rules for monk and nuns. However, many fail in one way or another and this, to me, is a sign of a struggling Buddhist, which is most Buddhists. It is not a justification for excommunication (or being deemed non-Buddhist by whatever self-appointed authorities happen to be at hand).

Appropriate Action

Responding appropriately to this ongoing tragedy presents difficulties. On the one hand we may fall into the extreme of thinking this problem rests fully on our shoulders and that we must. act. now. And everyone else must. Now. I cannot say this kind of enthusiasm is completely useless, but it does burn energy quickly and leads to burn-out just as fast. It also has the potential to create the kind of flame and friction that hurts others who would be sympathetic and even helpful.

On the other hand, one can see their place in the universe of things as too tiny, too helpless and hopeless. Here, everything simply overwhelms. Social media and the 24-hour news cycle blast a constant stream of images of violence, talking heads yelling at one another, dire predictions by pundits, meandering half-answers by politicians, sympathy from celebrities, and on and on and on. With all of these people apparently confused or at least in sharp disagreement, it is hard to know what the average person can do. Its easy to abandon responsibility to the activist musicians or Bill Gates or whoever our hero-politician is today.

Somewhere in the middle of these lies an acknowledgement and appreciation of our finitude and yet an equal acknowledgement and appreciation of our ability to act.

The Buddhas ethical teachings stress intention, time and again, as well as seeing clearly ones own mind and experience. Outcomes or consequences are often far too complex and beyond our control and as far as we know, the Buddha never suggested any kind of calculous for best results of ones actions. A discourse the Buddha gave to his son Rahula (MN 61), when he was 7, comes close. But intention, or good will, alone is not enough. As Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi writes:

According to the Buddhist outlook, goodness of will must be translated into concrete courses of action. It must be regulated by specific principles of right conduct, principles which, though flexible in their application, possess normative validity independently of any historical culture or existing scheme of values, entirely by virtue of their relation to a universal law of moral retribution and their place in the timeless path of practice leading to deliverance from suffering and the samsaric round.

Bodhi later adds:

Every moment of morally significant action, therefore, confronts us with the call for a decision, with the necessity for choice. Choice must work within the gamut of options open to the will, and these options, despite their great differences of qualitative character, necessarily fall into one of two classes according to their ethical nature  into the wholesome or the unwholesome. The one leads to progress, the other to decline. Thence progress or decline depends entirely upon our choice, and not upon any external agency whether conceived in spiritualistic or materialistic garb.  Or again, each moment of action may be compared to a crossroad at which we stand, a forked road one side of which leads to a city of bliss and the other to a swampland of misery and despair. The two roads stand, fixed and silent, awaiting our choice, and only our decision determines whether we shall reach the one destination or the other.

In a sense it really is that simple. Of course just how you act will be complex and completely unique to your own circumstances. You can read more about ways to act from my recent post on Buddhists supporting the Rohingya. You can read and share posts like this with friends still actively caught in denial. You can support teachers and organizations urging awareness and action, including Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, Jack Kornfield, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, Pema Chodron, Joseph Goldstein, and about two hundred others. Check out this Burma Task Force document (.pdf) with calls to action for this month and March.

If youre feeling overwhelmed, take action. Perhaps that action is a break for self-care. Perhaps it is a small but meaningful contribution to organizations bringing change. Or forming a small circle of friends to discuss and work on local solutions to similar issues. Really, the options are endless.

Start with something small, move forward from there.

Support independent coverage of Buddhism by joining a community of fellow learners/practitioners at Patreon.

Like American Buddhist Perspectives on facebook.Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has accepted an invitation from President Akufo-Addo to be a special guest of honour at Ghanas 61st independence celebrations on Tuesday March 6th 2018.



President Muhammadu Buhari revealed this, when Ghanas High Commissioner to Nigeria, Rashid Bawa, presented his letter of credence to the Nigerian leader in Abuja.



I will be in Ghana for your independence day celebration on March 6th, Ghana and Nigeria have come a long way and my presence there will cement the relationship between the two countries, Mr. Buhari said.



Despite being appointed in 2017, Rashid Bawa has had to wait until February 2018 to present his letters of credence, following the extended medical leave of President Buhari during that period.



Mr Bawa thanked President Buhari and pledged to deepen the strong bonds between Ghana and Nigeria.



Ghana and Nigeria have come a long way, we both share a lot in common, anywhere you hear Nigeria you will hear Ghana, he said.



Rashid Bawa also seized the opportunity to extend condolences on behalf of the Republic of Ghana to President Buhari on the recent sudden loss of two of his relatives.

Source: ghanacrusader.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoGiven an opportunity to speak with President Muhammadu Buhari, Prof. Wole Soyinka would tell him: Mr. President, I think you are under a trance. The Nobel Laureate said this, yesterday, during a press conference titled: Nomads and Nation: Valentine Card or Valedictory Rites at Freedom Park, Lagos.



The sooner Buhari woke from the dream, the better for the nation, said Soyinka. Asked to explain the nature of the Presidents reverie, Soyinka pointed at the missteps of the current administration.



So many unforced errors. Take for instance the reinstatement of the fellow who was sacked from the National Health Insurance Scheme (suspended Executive Secretary, Usman Yusuf). He was reinstated by the President. What is that about? What is going on? It is like a certain kind of alienation from reality is going on, said Soyinka.



If the inspector general of police can sit in Abuja and say that an event that is happening under the jurisdiction of a governor in another state is just a communal clash, when people are being slaughtered and their villages are being occupied, it shows complete alienation.



Then there is the authority of governors who have the ultimate authority for security. It is the governor who is supposed to be the chief security officer. We are now back to authoritative voices saying that the police need to be decentralised. We have been saying it and others have been saying for a long time. We are now getting back to the commonsensical issue that the nation cannot function under a single police command.



The Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, ought to be relieved of his position, and Nigerians must meet attacks by armed herdsmen with organised resistance, he said, describing the cattlemen as a new breed of Boko Haram and internal colonialists.Asked whether a state of anarchy was brewing, he replied: I dont understand what you mean by anarchy. It is those who create the situation in the first place that are responsible for anarchy.



He disclosed: The security units have the responsibility to look at highly placed people. We might end up discovering that some of these highly placed people have an interest in ensuring that there is chaos in the country, especially as elections are approaching.He challenged the Federal Government to set a date when herdsmen would be disarmed. People have two lines of action when they sight armed herdsmen: Report to the police, then disarm the herder, he said.



Soyinka nevertheless commended the Buhari administration for progress made in stemming the activities of Boko Haram. On restructuring, he said: The parameters for restructuring are already laid out, yet the question thrown at you is, What do you mean by restructuring? We must decentralise governance. The military came and distorted the internal relationship of the units that made up this country. They sit in one place and command all the resources as they wish. And anytime we talk about restructuring, you hear this gibberish about the sovereignty of Nigeria being compromised.



The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ahmed Bola Tinubu, meanwhile, has urged former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida to refrain from undue criticisms of Buhari.



In an exclusive interview with select journalists, yesterday, Tinubu said: I dont address those shadows. We should let our former presidents join retirees club and take pensions. They can participate in our politics if they are interested. It is a free world. But this freedom is not served a la carte. They should allow us to move our country forward. It is a challenge to every Nigerian.



Tinubu, who expressed optimism on the chances of the APC in the 2019 elections, said: We have a better chance and we are strongly determined to prosecute the election in a most transparent and democratic manner. And we will win.

Source: guardian.ng









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The Gambia has re-joined the Commonwealth almost five years after ex-President Yahya Jammeh took the country out of the organisation, which he described as neo-colonial.



He said he was not happy with the Commonwealth for accusing his government of human rights abuses and electoral malpractices.



After Mr Jammeh was surprisingly defeated in the presidential election in December 2016, one of the first announcements of his successor, Adama Barrow, was to say that The Gambia would be back in the Commonwealth fold.



Last December, the Gambian Parliament unanimously affirmed the countrys desire to re-join the organisation.



The countrys formal application to become a member again was presented to Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland by the Gambian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Francis Blain, last month and this was unanimously backed by member states.



On Thursday, a flag-raising ceremony at Marlborough House, the London headquarters of the Commonwealth Secretariat, marked The Gambias return, bringing the grouping of mainly former British colonies back to 53.



The Gambia will now attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London in April.



Mr Blain said: I am thrilled to represent my country as it formally re-joins the Commonwealth after an absence of several years  and to become High Commissioner rather than Ambassador.



The Gambia looks forward to being able both to contribute to and benefit from the collective wisdom of the Commonwealth family of countries and to playing an active role in supporting the work of the Commonwealth Secretariat and the many other organisations and initiatives that flourish as expressions of Commonwealth connection.



The Government and people of The Gambia will also draw on all that the Commonwealth collectively has to offer, assisting in practical ways to address a wide range of pressing issues - including protecting the environment and tackling climate change, and the empowerment of women and young people, Mr Blain added.



Secretary-General Scotland said: When The Gambia left in 2013, the heads of government expressed their regret in its leaving the Commonwealth family.



Weve looked forward to The Gambias return and were delighted when, after his election victory in December 2016, President Barrow pledged to return.



The Gambia became a member of the Commonwealth on achieving independence from Britain on February 18, 1965 but withdrew on October 3, 2013.



Apartheid South Africa withdrew in 1961 because newly-independent African countries that had joined the Commonwealth strongly opposed its membership because of the governments system of racial discrimination.



After the democratic elections of 1994 that saw Nelson Mandela become the countrys first black leader, South Africa was readmitted to the organisation.



No country has been formally expelled, but in November 1995 Commonwealth leaders took the then unprecedented step of suspending Nigeria under General Sani Abacha.



This suspension was lifted on May 29, 1999 with the election of a democratically elected civilian President, Olusegun Obasanjo.



Zimbabwe, on the other hand, was suspended from Commonwealth councils in March 2002.



This followed the presidential election, which the organisation deemed to have been marred by a high level of politically motivated violence and during which the Commonwealth said the conditions did not adequately allow for a free expression of will by voters.



Then in December 2003, following a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) statement on Zimbabwe, former President Robert Mugabe withdrew his country from the Commonwealth.

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Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has commended the Ghana Navy for clamping down on smugglers of petroleum products on the country's sea.



The Vice President on Thursday, February 15, 2018 paid a visit to the Western Naval Command at Sekondi in the Western Region to understand at first hand issues regarding illegal bunkering and other activities at sea that does not inure to the country's benefit.



During the visit, Dr. Bawumia was pleased with the level of work done by the Navy so far to arrest criminals on the sea and prevent illegal activities in order to eliminate its impact on the economy.



The Ghana Navy's Western Naval Command also seized the opportunity to express their concerns to the government.



The Command has asked government to equip it with the requisite tools to enable it to completely stamp out activities of criminal gangs on the sea.



Speaking at a ceremony to welcome Dr. Bawumia, the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) Commodore Isaac Osei Kuffuor cautioned that failure to safeguard the country's territorial sea will result in criminal negligence and become avenue for smugglers to carry out their activities.



It is estimated that Ghana may lose GHS 1 billion to activities of criminal groups who smuggle petroleum products to neighbouring countries.



Some of the people involved in the illegal bunkering are reportedly connected to a wide network of Ghanaians and foreign nationals.



"Our presence is enough deterrence" to the criminal groups, Commodore Kuffour emphasized but added that the Western Naval Command is "seriously challenged by the lack of adequate resources".









Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoNana Ofori Owusu, an Aspiring National Chairman of the Progressive People's Party (PPP), has lambasted the National Identification Authority (NIA) for their failure to implement the biometric identification system in Ghana.



According to him, it is significant for the Authority and government to do the biometric identification system in order to keep records of the database of Ghanaians.



He wondered why the system has been stalled when it is the surest way to fight crime and other related issues in the country.



Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme, Nana Ofori Owusu noted that the Authority's inability to roll out the biometric identification system is "hampering our development. It is affecting to trace criminals. It is our abilities to make proper projections and to account for who is a Ghanaian, who is a non-Ghanaian . . . The National Identification Authority has grossly failed us.



He was disgusted by government's initiative to do biometric driver's license when they haven't been able to implement the identification system.



Where are we? You go and you do drivers license biometric. The drivers license biometric is not linked to the national identification. Meanwhile, the law states that they must all be integrated, so why do you rush to go and do a drivers license identification system that has not been linked to the national identification system. Which comes first . . . The national identification system should be all of our focus", he said.



He asserted that the identification system will help the nation to fight crime saying without it "how are you going to fight the crime? How are you going to fight the crime if you dont have the database of the criminals?













Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoGood Thursday Morning, Fellow Seekers.

We're not even into the general election season yet, but Pennsylvania's closely watched race for U.S. Senate has already taken a seriously surreal - and seriously xenophobic - turn.

In a fiery fundraising mailer obtained by PennLive, Republican hopeful Lou Barletta, says America is "at war" with "violent criminal aliens" and "radical terrorists" who are bent on "[killing] and [victimizing] Americans."

The mailer comes even as lawmakers on Capitol Hill reached a bipartisan agreement on immigration reform that would grant legal status to 1.8 million undocumented immigrants; spend more on border security and curb family-based immigration programs. It would not end the so-called "Diversity Visa Lottery" program.

President Donald Trump, who has previously referred to undocumented immigrants as "criminals" and "rapists" has threatened to veto the legislation being circulated by the self-described "Common Sense Caucus," The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Barletta, a former mayor of Hazleton, Pa., who made his reputation for cracking down on illegal immigrants in his coal country city, lays blame for these "killers" at the feet of Pennsylvania's Democratic incumbent senator, Bob Casey, who's up for re-election this fall, and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

The two Democrats are responsible for undocumented immigrants, who are hellbent on rape, pillage and murder, taking refuge in "the sanctuary cities" of the left, where they're "untouchable," the mailer reads.

Either that, these same undocumented immigrants "sneak across our border or walk right through the front door via liberal schemes like the 'Diversity Visa Lottery Program,'" that Schumer first proposed in 1990.

In 2013, however, Schumer was among the so-called "Gang of Eight," immigration reformers who, among other things, proposed repealing the lottery program, The Atlantic reported.

Barletta's mailer dismisses Casey as Schumer's "favorite senator," and goes on to accuse him of "marching in lock-step" to block President Donald Trump's immigration reform efforts.

Then Barletta does the exact same thing he accuses Casey of doing, by offering his unqualified support for Trump.

"I was proud to be one of President Trump's earliest supporters and I'm honored he's supporting me in this race," Barletta mailer reads, dropping in a Trump soundbite where he called the Pennsylvania Republican a "great guy."

Barletta, who locked up the Republican endorsement during a state GOP meeting in Hershey, Pa., last weekend, has had trouble raising money in a three-way primary race. And some Republicans are concerned that his outspoken stance on immigration could cause trouble for down-ballot GOP candidates.

Max Steele, a spokesman for Pennsylvania Democrats, called Barletta's mailer "deeply troubling," but added that voters should expect more "extremist rhetoric" as the race grinds forward.

"It's deeply troubling that a candidate who sits on the board of a hate group and has a long history of associating with white nationalist groups would say he's building an 'army' because 'America is at war' with undocumented immigrants," Steele said in an email. "But Pennsylvanians should expect more extremist rhetoric from Congressman Barletta because he is a desperate, extremist candidate. Rather than working to find common ground and actually reform our immigration system, Barletta is doing what he always does: stoking fear and grandstanding."

Barletta's spokesman, Jon Anzur, defended the 11th District congressman's remarks, saying the mail piece makes clear "America is at war with violent criminals and terrorists who gain access to our country through our open borders and broken immigration system.

Barletta is "is fighting to enforce our laws, preserve American jobs, and protect our national security," Anzur said. "By working to stop illegal immigration, Congressman Barletta is advocating for legal immigrants who come to this country the proper way but whose wages are depressed and jobs are threatened by illegal immigration."

That's a contrast to Casey who "supports sanctuary cities and has repeatedly voted against securing our borders," Anzur said.

Read the full mailer below:

Barletta Cease and Desist Petition by jmicek on Scribd

The rest of the day's news starts now.

Today is the deadline for Gov. Tom Wolf to submit a new map of Pennsylvania's 18 congressional districts to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Gov. Tom Wolf has signed new lobbyist disclosure rules into law.

Because of uncertainty over the new maps, GOP 15th Congressional District candidate Ryan Mackenzie says he's also going to run for re-election to his Lehigh County-based state House seat, The Morning Call reports.

Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski begins his defense in his federal corruption trial today, The Morning Call also reports.

The Inquirer takes a look at how white homeowners are taking advantage of a mortgage program intended to help black neighborhoods.

The Incline takes you behind the scenes to show how Pittsburgh's Port Authority keeps its buses clean in winter time.

Here's a very colorful #Harrisburg Instagram of the Day:

Eighth graders ... EIGHTH GRADERS ... can do a better job of redistricting than Pa. lawmakers. WHYY-FM has the story.

So this happened (via PoliticsPA):

Voting lines are shorter - but mostly for whites, Stateline.org reports.

Paul Ryan is struggling to find a solution for the Dreamers as the GOP fractures, Politico reports.

Roll Call looks at what's happened to some #MeToo victims, finding stalled careers and alienation.

WolfWatch.

Gov. Tom Wolf has no public schedule today.

Heavy Rotation.

Here's one to get your Thursday morning going.

And now you're up to date.A radio host for station WIOV-FM 105.5 was found dead this morning in his home.

Jerry Murphy, a long-time host of the morning show on WIOV, did not show up to the start of his 5 a.m. shift, according to Lancaster Online.

This morning we lost a family member and a friend. Not only us, here at WIOV, but you as a listener. Murph was one of... Posted by The Big I 105 on Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Program director Rich Creeger told Lancaster Online that he went to investigate at Murphy's home when he heard no response, and called police when he found Murphy's car in the driveway and the house door locked. Police found Murphy dead inside, with no evidence of foul play,

In a statement on their website, WIOV said the following:

"This morning we lost a family member and a friend. Not only us, here at WIOV, but you as a listener. Murph was one of the most charismatic and engaging individuals to ever broadcast on the airwaves of Central Pennsylvania. We will miss him."

Listeners are invited to share memories of Murphy on the

.By TERRY SPENCER and KELLI KENNEDY, The Associated Press

PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) -- An orphaned 19-year-old with a troubled past and an AR-15 rifle was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder Thursday morning after being questioned for hours by state and federal authorities following the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. in five years.

Fourteen wounded survivors were hospitalized as bodies were recovered from inside and around Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Nikolas Cruz, still wearing a hospital gown after being treated for labored breathing, and weighing in at 5-foot-7 and 131 pounds, was ordered held without bond and booked into jail.

His former classmates thought they were having another drill Wednesday afternoon when a fire alarm sounded, requiring them to file out of their classrooms.

That's when police say Cruz, equipped with a gas mask, smoke grenades and multiple magazines of ammunition, opened fire with a semi-automatic weapon, killing 17 people and sending hundreds of students fleeing into the streets. It was the nation's deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, more than five years ago.

"Our district is in a tremendous state of grief and sorrow," said Robert Runcie, superintendent of the school district in Parkland, about an hour's drive north of Miami. "It is a horrible day for us."

Authorities offered no immediate details about Cruz or his possible motive, except to say that he had been kicked out of the high school, which has about 3,000 students. Students who knew him described a volatile teenager whose strange behavior had caused others to end friendships with him.

The school was to be closed for the rest of the week.

Associated Press writers Freida Frisaro, Curt Anderson, and Joshua Replogle in Miami; Mike Balsamo in Los Angeles; and Lisa J. Adams in Atlanta, contributed to this report.WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump struck a solemn tone Thursday after the deadly school shooting in Florida, describing a "scene of terrible violence, hatred and evil" and promising to "tackle the difficult issue of mental health," but avoiding any mention of guns.

Taking up the now-familiar ritual of public consolation after terrible violence, Trump spoke from the White House Diplomatic Room. In a slow, deliberate style, he sought to reassure a troubled nation as well as students' families and shooting survivors in Florida.

"We are all joined together as one American family, and your suffering is our burden also," Trump said. "No child, no teacher, should ever be in danger in an American school."

The president's address came a day after a former student opened fire at the Parkland, Florida, high school with an AR-15 rifle, killing 17 people and injuring 14 more. It was the nation's deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, more than five years ago.

At the Capitol, the usual divisions over gun laws were evident.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said in a statement that it is time for action. "Congress has a moral responsibility to take common-sense action to prevent the daily tragedy of gun violence in communities across America," she said. "Enough is enough."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, did not mention guns as he said the Senate would observe a moment of silence at noon. "To say that such brutal, pointless violence is unconscionable is an understatement," he said.

Before he was a candidate, Trump at one point favored some stricter gun restrictions. However, early in his administration, he told the National Rifle Association he was their "friend and champion." He signed a resolution passed by the GOP-led Congress blocking an Obama-era rule designed to keep guns out of the hands of certain mentally disabled people.

Trump, who owns a private club in Palm Beach, Fla., about 40 miles from Parkland, said Thursday he was making plans to visit the grieving community. He praised teachers and first responders and also offered a direct message to children.

"I want you to know that you are never alone and you never will be," Trump said. "You have people who care about you who love you and who will do anything at all to protect you. If you need help, turn to a teacher, a family member, a local police officer or a faith leader. Answer hate with love, answer cruelty with kindness."

Trump pledged that his administration would work with state and local officials on improving school safety, saying: "It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference, we must actually make that difference."

Trump, who did not speak publicly immediately after the shooting, weighed in on Twitter early Thursday, calling the suspect "mentally disturbed" and stressing it was important to "report such instances to authorities, again and again!" He tweeted about the shooting twice on Wednesday, expressing condolences and saying he spoke with Florida's governor.

So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2018

The president also issued a proclamation mourning the victims and ordering American flags at public buildings across the country flown at half-staff.

Trump has offered consolation before after horrific violence. A mass shooting in Las Vegas last year was the deadliest in modern history, with a gunman killing 58 people and injuring hundreds more, before killing himself. And a shooting in a Texas church in November left more than two dozen dead.

He has largely focused on mental health as a cause for mass shootings, dismissing questions about gun control.

After the Texas church shooting, the president said, "This isn't a guns situation." When he visited Las Vegas to mourn with the families of those victims, Trump called the shooter "demented" and a "very sick individual," though he added that "we'll be talking about gun laws as time goes by."

The 19-year-old suspect, Nikolas Cruz, is a troubled teenager who posted disturbing material on social media. He had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for "disciplinary reasons," Broward County, Florida, Sheriff Scott Israel said.

Mayor Beam Furr said on CNN that the shooter was getting treatment at a mental health clinic for a while, but that he hadn't been back to the clinic for more than a year.

While Trump has offered sober responses to some tragedies since he took office, he has also drawn criticism for more inflammatory reactions to acts of violence.

After the Orlando shootings at a gay nightclub that left 49 dead, he tweeted, "Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism." In the wake of a deadly terror attack in London in June, he went after the Mayor Sadiq Khan on Twitter, suggesting he wasn't taking the attacks seriously enough.President Trump, during a bipartisan meeting with lawmakers at the White House Wednesday raised the idea of a 25 cent increase in the federal gax tax as a way to raise money to fix the nation's roads and bridges, multiple media outlets are reporting.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Tom Carper said that during a bipartisan meeting with lawmakers at the White House, Trump noted that the federal gas tax of 18.4-cent-a-gallon tax hasn't been raised since 1993.

"President Trump came back to the idea of a 25 cent increase several times throughout the meeting," Carper said in a statement.

Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, took issue with Carper's characterization of Trump as supporting a gas tax.

"He was not advocating that. He was looking at all the options," Inhofe told CNN.

Last month, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce backed hiking fuel taxes by 25 cents a gallon, which it said would raise $394 billion over the next 10 years, Reuters reported. Such an increase would raise the cost of filling a 15-gallon tank by $3.75.

The White House unveiled Trump's infrastructure plan earlier this week. The $1.5 trillion package includes a $200 billion contribution from the federal government. The plan has been criticized as falling short of what is needed, and instead putting the burden on state and local governments.

Fox News Insider earlier this week quoted Republican U.S. Rep. Bud Shuster talking about the idea of a gax tax increase.

Shuster, chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, noted that Pennsylvania benefits from the federal gas tax, saying that every dollar one of his constituents pays in gas tax, they get $1.70 in return.

"The highway trust fund is going to go broke," Fox quoted him as saying. He called the gas tax more of a "user fee" than a traditional tax.Fixing aging infrastructure comes at a cost, and over the next decade, that cost will more than double the wastewater bill for Harrisburg residents.

Through a mandated consent decree with the U.S. departments of Justice and Environmental Protection, Capital Region Water announced a draft of a plan that outlines 20 years worth of needed repairs that will cost $313 million. The majority -- $214 million - will go towards rehabilitation and replacement of an aging infrastructure. The rest is earmarked to reduce combined sewer overflows and other water-pollution challenges.

Capital Region Water is holding its first of three public hearings on the plan at 6 tonight at Sylvan Heights Science Charter School, 915 South 13th Street in Harrisburg.

"(The plan) will require a more than doubling of Capital Region Water's residential wastewater bills to generate sufficient revenue, from approximately $336 per year to $787 per year over the next 10 years," the draft of the H20 Beautiful Program Plan states.

That's a roughly 134 percent increase.

"However, some customers in Harrisburg are already experiencing economic hardship and affordability issues, and these conditions may worsen as capital spending continues, and rates increase in the future," the plan went on to say.

But Capital Region Water is trying to alleviate as much of the burden as possible by stretching out the mandated work to 20 years, which is the maximum amount of time allowable. Officials say doing so "balanced the priorities of the program plan, setting the upper limit of service costs that will be assessed in the next 20 years."

The authority points out that 32 percent of the city's population is living below the poverty level, which is more than double the national, state and county levels. According to the report, about 25 percent of households in the city already have annual wastewater bills that exceed 2 percent of their income and 30 percent have bills exceeding 4.5 percent of their income.

In 20 years, that is projected to increase to about half of households having a bill exceeding 2 percent of their income, and 45 percent will have a bill exceeding 4.5 percent.

But as century-old sewer pipes collapse and deferred rehabilitation and maintenance projects add up, officials say these are projects that need to be done.

Plus, they are federally mandated.

"We're not choosing to do this," Capital Region Water spokesman Andrew Bliss said today. "But we're working to make it affordable."

The entire plan can be viewed here.

Residents can hear more and voice their opinions at one of three upcoming public meetings.

In addition to tonight's meeting, another is set for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Lincoln School, 1601 State Street in Harrisburg.

The third will be held at 6 p.m. March 1 at the Camp Curtin YMCA, 2135 North 6th Street in Harrisburg.

Some of the top projects include the rehabilitation of the advanced wastewater treatment facility and the conveyance system.

"This draft program plan is a responsible approach to addressing system-wide infrastructure deterioration with high-priority water quality compliance activities," Capital Region Water Board Chairman Marc Kurowski said in a press release. "We hope our customers take time to provide feedback and make it the best plan possible."

Capital Region Water is taking public comment through March 12.A Dauphin County jury on Thursday acquitted a truck driver of homicide by vehicle and other charges for a Dauphin County crash that killed two people.

Joseph G. Zucco Jr., 63, of Sanford, Maine, was charged for a Feb. 2, 2016 collision on Hersheypark Drive in Derry Township that killed Julie Watson, 49, of Harrisburg, and her 83-year-old father, George Storer.

Defense attorney Robert Daniels said the jury's decision, reached after about six hours of deliberation, shows "this was a tragic accident, and not a criminal act."

Township police claimed Zucco was going 18 to 23 mph over the speed limit and that he ran a red light before slamming into the victims' car.

"The accident continues to haunt (Zucco) to this day. He no longer drives a truck," Daniels said. "There was a dash cam that recorded the accident. It revealed that a train crossing immediately behind the traffic light, from a truck driver's perspective, significantly reduced the visibility of the traffic light."

He said there were several reports of traffic signals malfunctioning at the intersection of Hersheypark Drive and Mae Street where the accident occurred.

"PennDOT should conduct an examination into the safety of that intersection and make any necessary corrections so that something like this does not happen again," Daniels said.

Although the jury acquitted Zucco, Judge Deborah E. Curcillo convicted him of traffic violations, including speeding and failing to stop for a red light.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Gettle said evidence showed Zucco was traveling more than 53 mph in the 35 mph zone when his truck broadsided the victims' car.

"We respect the decision of the jury in this case. We understand it was a difficult case for all of the parties involved," Gettle said. "We hope that this case sends a stark message to the community of the tragic perils of aggressive/distracted driving."

"While Mr. Zucco may have not been drinking or otherwise impaired, his recklessness caused the deaths of two citizens. We hope that this case will remind all drivers of our responsibility to drive in a safe manner," she added.

The family of Watson and Storer released the following statement after the verdict:

"The Watson and Storer families would like to thank the Dauphin County District Attorney's Office and the Derry Police Department for their professionalism and tireless efforts to seek justice in this tragedy. The families would also like to thank the good Samaritans who stopped to offer assistance and provide statements of what they witnessed at the time of the accident. Finally, the families would like to take this opportunity to say they will be eternally grateful for the love and support provided by countless families in West Hanover Township and the community of faith at Linglestown Life United Methodist Church."HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) -- The field of teenage candidates running for Kansas governor has grown to seven, and the latest contender isn't even from the state.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that 18-year-old Conner Shelton, a University of Delaware student from Lancaster, Pa., was inspired to enter the race when a man launched a short-lived campaign for his dog, Angus. Elections officials put the brakes on the dog's candidacy, but Kansas doesn't have an age or residency requirement, which lawmakers are seeking to change.

"It's an experiment of sorts," Shelton told the newspaper.

Six other teens have entered the race, but Shelton is the first who isn't from Kansas. The chemical engineering major described his candidacy as "an experiment of sorts."

In addition to the teens running for governor, a teen is running for Kansas secretary of state.By Mark Holden and Brooke Rollins

Around 2 million people are behind bars in America's criminal justice system.

And almost all of them will eventually return to the communities they left behind. As a nation, we are failing to serve those communities by not preparing former inmates to reenter society and lead productive and fulfilling lives.

In his recent State of the Union address, President Donald Trump said, "as America regains its strength, this opportunity must be extended to all citizens. That is why this year we will embark on reforming our prisons to help former inmates who have served their time get a second chance."

We are proud to be part of a new initiative, Safe Streets and Second Chances, which will work to combine policy reforms and evidence-based reentry programs that will measure success not by incarceration rates but by whether former inmates are rehabilitated and capable of redemption.

Safe Streets and Second Chances' researchers will initially examine four states -- Florida, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Texas - and work to prepare people for reentry beginning on day one of their prison sentence, and have an individualized plan in place within two months of incarceration.

We're confident this program will be a model that can be applied across the country.

The numbers indicate the scope of the challenge.

More than three out of four former inmates return to prison within five years of release, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. That is a moral crime and a fiscal disaster. And, worst of all, it is an unforgivable waste of human potential.

Far too many inmates are incarcerated when they could be rehabilitated. Of the 1,298,159 people held in state prisons at the end of 2015, 197,200 had as their most serious offense a drug charge; 44,700 of those were for simple possession.

Nationally, more than 600,000 former inmates re-enter society every year. More than 100,000 of those are in our four targeted states.

That's a lot of damaged lives and broken families that could be saved, but instead are at risk of going to waste.

Safe Streets and Second Chances will work with states to institute substance abuse and psychiatric counseling for individuals with mental illnesses or drug addictions; educational and literacy programs; vocational programs that teach usable job skills, and mentoring capabilities.

Such programs should involve faith leaders and public-private partnerships, so the comparative advantages of these sectors can be brought to bear on the rehabilitation and redemption of individuals.

And they should be created and administered by state officials, who are more attuned to the particular needs of the people and communities they serve -- and because nearly 90 percent of those incarcerated are in state or county facilities.

The emphasis on punishment rather than rehabilitation has a high dollar cost -- $80 billion a year for incarceration at last count, and an even higher cost in the diminution of the human spirit, both for the people locked up and those waiting on the outside.

The system traps individuals in a soul-crushing cycle of poverty and prison, while doing next to nothing to make our streets safer or change the behavior of those who are going to be living among us when their time is served.

Proposals to address these challenges are not pie-in-sky do-gooderism. They are a clear-eyed assessment based on evidence and experience.

We must ensure that individuals coming out of prison are better people than when they entered. Preparations for reentry and reintegration into communities must begin on the first day of incarceration, not 90 days before they are released, as often happens now.

In 2007, the Texas Legislature projected the state would need 17,000 new prison beds over the next five years.

After implementing these and many other reforms, including expanded drug courts and mental health programs, crime dropped to levels not seen since the 1960s, the state closed four prisons and has plans to close four more. And the state saved $3 billion in the process.

South Carolina enacted similar reforms and cut its prison population by 14 percent, closed six prisons, and saved taxpayers $491 million.

Georgia has reduced its incarcerated population and saved taxpayers millions of dollars thanks to reforms aimed at curbing recidivism and rehabilitating non-violent offenders.

Other states have seen the results and are instituting programs focusing on education and training that are showing success in rehabilitating individuals and reducing recidivism.

Everyone deserves a second chance.

If three out of every four patients were dying in our hospitals, or three out of four combat soldiers were ill-prepared to face the enemy, we'd do something about it. In a hurry.

Three out of four people sitting in jail today will probably be back there if we don't do something about it. In a hurry.

Mark Holden is chairman of Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce. Brooke Rollins is president and CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think-tank in Austin, Texas.Pennsylvania is perennially among the top states for number of checklists submitted in the Great Backyard Bird Count, an annual, international count by bird enthusiasts of birds at backyards, parks, nature centers, hiking trails, school grounds, balconies, and beaches.

But, Pennsylvania hasn't been No. 1 since 2009, when counters in the state submitted 5,519 checklists.

Last year, Pennsylvanians submitted 7,212 checklists, second to New Yorkers with 7,452 checklists and ahead of Californians with 7,117 checklists.

Pennsylvania last year tied at No. 24 with Connecticut, at 149 species connected in each state. The top five states for number of species counted were California, 372; Texas, 362; Florida, 308; Arizona, 282; and Louisiana, 224.

Each year, tens of thousands of volunteers contribute data to the GBBC.

This year's GBBC - the 21st - will take place Friday-Monday, February 16-19.

The global event encourages bird enthusiasts to contribute important bird population data that help scientists see changes in bird populations.

Bird watchers count the birds they see for at least 15 minutes on one or more days of the count and then enter their checklists at birdcount.org.

"The 2018 GBBC again promises to provide an important snapshot of bird occurrence in February," said the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Marshall Iliff, a leader of the eBird program, which is the online collection system for the GBBC data. "Some stories to watch in North America are mountain birds moving into lowland valleys and east to the Great Plains, crossbills on the move across much of the continent, and many eastern birds responding to extremes as the winter temperatures have oscillated between unseasonably warm and exceptionally cold."

Gary Landham, vice president and chief scientist for the National Audubon Society, explained, "The Great Backyard Bird Count is a great way to introduce people to participation in community science. No other program allows volunteers to take an instantaneous snapshot of global bird populations that can contribute to our understanding of how a changing climate is affecting birds."

In 1998, during the first GBBC, bird watchers submitted about 13,500 checklists from the United States and Canada. Last year, over the four days of the count, an estimated 240,418 bird watchers from more than 100 countries submitted 181,606 bird checklists, reporting 6,259 species, which was more than half the known bird species in the world.

To learn more about what scientists discovered the past 21 years and how to take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count, visit birdcount.org.

For the GBBC, a birder counts the number of individuals of each species he sees during a single counting session and submits a checklist for each counting session. He can count in more than one location but must submit a separate checklist for each location each time he counts.Jack Gleeson, who plays King Joffrey Baratheon on "Game of Thrones," recently gave a public talk at Oxford University on the plague of celebrity obsession and why he's decided to retire from acting after "Game of Thrones." Game of Thrones fans may have shed few tears over the poisoning death of King Joffrey I Baratheon, hardly a lovable character. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ho-HBO CanadaToby Sicks of Inkdigenous Tattoo inks a native eagle in Toronto on Thursday February 1, 2018. Believing a centuries-old Indigenous tradition had been all but erased, Interior Salish tattoo artist Dion Kaszas decided to use his body to resurrect the ways of his ancestors, with a needle and ink. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank GunnPrime Minister Justin Trudeau is applauded as he rises to deliver a speech on the recognition and implementation of Indigenous rights in in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin TangCanadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan fields questions at the closing news conference at the Halifax International Security Forum in Halifax on Sunday, Nov. 19, 2017. Sajjan says Canada will rejoin NATO's airborne warning and control system, a program which the Harper government abandoned. The Canadian Press/Andrew VaughanCrown-Indigenous Relations and Rorthern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett speaks during a news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on October 6, 2017. Canada's Indigenous relations minister is shedding more light on the federal government's pledge to overhaul its relationship with Indigenous Peoples, which includes rethinking what constitutes a nation. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian WyldNational flags representing the United States, Canada, and Mexico fly in the breeze in New Orleans where leaders of the North American Free Trade Agreement met on April 21, 2008. Members of the Trump administration have dropped several hints in recent days that withdrawing from NAFTA is not in their current plans ??? and the latest such example came Thursday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Judi BottoniFILE - In this Jan. 16, 2016 photo, Palestinians work at the Qatari-funded Hamad City housing complex in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. Four years ago, Israel inflicted heavy damage on GazaAos infrastructure during a bruising 50-day war with Hamas militants. Now, fearing a humanitarian disaster on its doorstep, Israel is appealing to the world to fund a series of big-ticket development projects in the war-torn area. The banners show Qatar's Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, left, and of his father, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra, File)FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2018, file photo, Reuters journalist Kyaw Soe Oo, centre, is welcomed by his wife and daughter upon arrival at the court for their trial on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar. Under Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar has aggressively pursued legal charges against dozens of journalists, along with other attempts to suppress and discredit the media. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)ExxonMobil contract back with Guyana's Cabinet -President Granger By Kaieter News



GEORGETOWN

Petroleumworld 02 15 2018 Amid growing unhappiness over the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) between Government and U.S. oil giant, ExxonMobil, President David Granger yesterday disclosed that the matter is engaging Cabinet.



The President was asked by Kaieteur News, specifically, if Government is prepared to review the contract based on public requests.



These matters are before Cabinet and it depends on what determination the Cabinet arrives at, the President responded. He further stated that the contract is an agreement between two parties and these things' have to be approached very carefully.



There is no prospect at the present time that it is the intention of Cabinet to review it, but as I said, it is before Cabinet, the President stated.



Since the PSA was made public in December last, there have been daily revelations in the media over clauses in the agreement that raise several burning questions relating to the offers ExxonMobil received, including 2% royalties, zero taxes on oil production, uncapped tax concessions on imports and the limited powers of related institutions and government agencies to effectively oversee Exxon's operations.



Social and political commentators have pointed to glaring flaws that led to the conclusion that Guyana got a poor, lopsided oil contract deal by international standards. At the centre of the whirlwind to renegotiate the contract is Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman whose signature appears on the 2016 PSA on behalf of Government. Last week, Trotman told Kaieteur News that he takes his direction from Cabinet.



At the time that I signed as a Minister, I was both advised and instructed to do so. I work as a Minister in a Cabinet, and therefore if there is ever a decision to renegotiate that would have to be told to me, the Minister stated.



Last Wednesday, Petroleum Advisor to the President, Dr. Jan Mangal publicly disclosed that the PSA provisions that provide for 2% royalty and zero taxation on Exxon's share of oil production were not in keeping with the international norm for oil contracts.



Initially, Government shared the viewed that Guyana got the best deal it could have in the circumstances, and there was no reason to renegotiate, but in recent weeks the tone appears to have shifted.



The petroleum advisor shared the view that the PSA can be renegotiated and highlighted the important role civil society and the wider population can play in ensuring the best outcomes in the oil and gas sector.



Dr. Mangal had pointed out that contracts should always be reviewed as new information becomes available. He stated that the question of renegotiating the contract is one that the people of Guyana must answer, and emphasised that this discussion must continue. He also disclosed that he will be preparing a white paper on the oil and gas sector for submission to President Granger, shortly.



Dr. Mangal has spent 18 years in the industry, 13 of them with Chevron working on major oil and gas projects in the United States, West Africa and Asia.





Story from Kaieter News



Kaieteurnewsonline.com 02 15 2018

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'98,ME,XP, Vista, Windows 7,8,10 +/ 800x600 pixelsGuyana's government must have power to visit ExxonMobil oil operations, inspect records unannounced - Global Witness By Kiana Wilburg



GEORGETOWN

Petroleumworld 02 15 2018 Governments and their respective auditing officers must have the power to make unannounced visits to inspect the operations as well as the records of oil companies. It is only then one can truly ensure those entities are in compliance with the required standards of transparency and accountability.

This was the salient advice of the Global Witness, an international body that works to break the links between natural resource exploitation, corruption, and human rights abuses worldwide.



Global Witness made the said call during a review of just two of the Production Sharing Agreements (PSA) between the Government of Uganda and Tullow Oil; and Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation and French oil major, Total S. A.



During its assessment, Global Witness found that prior to 2008, the PSAs of the agreements between those entities and the Government of Uganda, contained strict rules regarding powers to inspect.



The body noted that based on the provisions of the PSAs, the government was allowed to enter the contract area at all reasonable times' to witness operations, test equipment used to measure production and inspect assets, records and data. However, the Government must give at least 30 days' notice to the company ahead of any inspection.



Global Witness said that these provisions obstruct public authorities from making unannounced visits at any time to inspect the assets or observe petroleum operations.



The anticorruption body noted that inspection covers a range of key areas for the oil sector: from financial concerns through to health and safety requirements, and environmental compliance. In all of these areas, Global Witness said that effective inspection may well require an element of surprise to prevent crucial facts from being concealed.



On that note, the international body said it is important for the Government to have the power to pay unannounced visits to inspect the site and records to ensure the company is in compliance with required standards. It subsequently recommended that future contracts, including the model PSA, should allow the Government to pay surprise visits to all petroleum facilities. It said too that inspection reports should also be made public.



Since this advice was given by Global Witness, the Government of Uganda has taken steps to ensure that it has unlimited access to all records for oil companies.



THE CASE OF GUYANA



According to the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) Guyana signed with ExxonMobil, Guyana's Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman, must give the oil company seven days notice before he can visit their operations. He is also expected to carry out such a visit at his own expense.



This is enshrined in Article 9 of the contract which speaks to records, reports and information.



Article 9 (e) states: The Minister, through duly appointed representatives, upon providing the contractor with at least seven days notice, shall be entitled to observe the petroleum operations conducted by the contractor at his sole cost and expense and at all reasonable times to inspect all assets, records and data kept by the Contractor relating to such petroleum operations. In the exercise of such rights under this paragraph the Minister shall not unduly interfere with the Contractor's petroleum operations under this agreement.



CRITICISM



Trotman recently came in for criticism from several quarters for having signed on to an agreement containing the aforementioned clause. Political commentator Ramon Gaskin recently noted that he finds this clause particularly troubling.

He noted, Generally in this country, if the tax man wants to visit your place, he visits when he is ready. It is therefore beyond comprehension why Guyana's minister would have to give notice to an operator that is bringing up oil and gas that belongs to the state.



OTHER FAULTS



Gaskin also highlighted other flaws within the contract. He was quick to point out that the APNU+AFC Government had a golden opportunity to correct a grave wrong that was committed by the PPP Administration in 1999.



During the PPP's time, ExxonMobil was given 600 blocks. This is ten times more than what the law stipulates. The nation's rules and regulations also specify that at every request for a renewal, the company is expected to relinquish half of the oil blocks it started with. But the PPP made an adjustment to the contract, thereby allowing the company to hold on to the 600 blocks.



In the new agreement that was signed last year under the Granger Administration with ExxonMobil, Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman failed to address or redress the aforementioned problem.

Gaskin is also of the opinion that the Government in missing such an opportunity has allowed ExxonMobil and its affiliates to have control of some of the main oil-producing blocks offshore Guyana.



Gaskin was also critical of the fact that the Government is yet to release the Bridging Deed.



While the Government has released the petroleum contract it has with ExxonMobil, the Bridging Deed was one of the key documents it failed to make public. The purpose of the Deed is to replace the 1999 Agreement and Petroleum Prospecting Licence.



Gaskin reminded that former President Janet Jagan signed the 1999 Agreement in violation of the Petroleum Exploration and Production Act (the Act) to the extent that the company (Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited) was granted 600 blocks instead of the 60 blocks permitted by law.



He said that the 1999 Agreement and Prospecting Licence appears to have been contained in a single package and included in it is a full description of the blocks and a map of the area allotted to the oil company. However, the 2016 Agreement merely states that a Petroleum Prospecting Licence was granted for an initial period of four years.



With the Bridging Deed not being published, Gaskin said that the Government is operating in contradiction of the nation's petroleum laws.

Section 16(2) of the Petroleum Exploration and Production Act states: The Minister, shall, as soon as may be practicable after a licence has been granted, cause notice of that fact to be published in the Gazette stating the name of the licensee and the situation of the land in respect of which the licence has been granted.



With such behaviour, Gaskin argued that the Government has lost all moral ground to criticize anyone about secrecy.





Story by Kiana Wilburg from Kaieter News



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'98,ME,XP, Vista, Windows 7,8,10 +/ 800x600 pixels"Very significant debt relief conditions " offered to Cuba by creditors





By Karin Strohecker

LONDON

P etroleumworld 02 15 2018

Cuba's commercial creditors have offered very significant debt relief in a proposal sent to cash-strapped Havana in late January, according to two advisers to the group, in a sign that holders of the defaulted debt are ready to ramp up the pressure.

The communist-run island has seen its financial situation deteriorate in recent months following the deepening of Venezuela's economic crisis, lower revenue from commodity and related exports, devastation wrought by Hurricane Irma and tightening of business and travel restrictions by the U.S. administration under President Donald Trump.

In 2015, Cuba reached a debt deal with members of the Paris Club of creditor nations, but having not dealt with its defaulted commercial creditors in the London Club means the country is in effect shut out of international capital markets.

The committee reached out to Cuba in late January, said Rodrigo Olivares-Caminal, coordinator of the creditor group and a law professor at London's Queen Mary University.

We have made a good faith proposal to the government.

The creditor group holds obligations representing a face value of $1.4 billion worth of Cuban debt and is made up of three funds - Stancroft Trust Ltd, Adelante Exotic Debt Fund Ltd and CRF I Ltd - as well as one commercial bank.

We are trying to give the country another chance to reach an amicable understanding with creditors, Olivares-Caminal told Reuters. This would give them very beneficial terms to remedy their situation vis-a-vis capital markets.

While details of the proposal were confidential, it would convey very significant debt relief said Lee Buchheit at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, one of the world's top restructuring lawyers who was retained by the group last year.

CASH CRUNCH

Cuba negotiated a generous debt relief package with most of its bilateral creditors at the very end of 2015, Buchheit told Reuters. The London Club offer draws on certain features of the deal with the bilateral creditors but in some respects it is even more generous to the Cubans.

Under the 2015 deal, a number of Paris Club of creditor nations forgave $8.5 billion of $11.1 billion official debt it had defaulted on through 1986, plus charges. Repayment of the remaining debt was structured over 18 years, and Havana paid the first two instalments due since.

As part of the accord, some creditors were also preparing to swap debt for an equity stake in local development projects. This was seen as a breakthrough with Cuba agreeing for the first time to give rich capitalist countries equity in development projects in sectors like manufacturing and agriculture.

Cuba does not publish up-to-date information on its foreign debt, citing a need to keep sensitive economic information from Washington, which it has long accused of trying to disrupt its financial and trade relations under a comprehensive U.S. sanctions regime.

However, the creditor group estimated it was holding at least 50 percent of Cuba's private sector debt. Olivares-Caminal added the proposal would be open for a limited period of time, though declined to give further detail.

Cuba's cash crunch and lower oil supplies from Venezuela have forced the government to slash imports and reduce the use of fuel and electricity.





OPEC quota accord likely to evolve rather than terminate: Kemp





By John Kemp

LONDON

P etroleumworld 02 15 2018

The lexicon of exit is not found in our vocabulary, OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Cairo on Monday.

Ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have been anxious to counter speculation about an early end to production curbs.

Barkindo was reinforcing the message that the current curbs will be maintained until at least the end of this year and could be continued into 2019 (Barkindo stresses ongoing cooperation, not exit, Argus, Feb. 12).

OPEC will review progress towards its goal of eliminating excess global inventories at its next regular meeting in June, but ministers have downplayed suggestions the review could lead to an early exit from the accord.

The Declaration of Cooperation signed in December 2016 between OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, and selected non-OPEC producers, led by Russia, has become fundamental to OPEC's strategy for managing the oil market.

Both sides appear satisfied with the results achieved so far and keen to extend their cooperation in the medium term.

Global oil inventories have been cut to just over 100 million barrels above the five-year average, down from 340 million at the start of 2017.

Benchmark Brent prices have risen by around $20 per barrel, or almost 50 percent, since the production cuts were announced, and futures prices have swung from contango into backwardation.

Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih and his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak are apostles to the value of cooperation, Barkindo told a separate conference in Riyadh on Wednesday.

They have proven to be the key strong pillars on which the historic OPEC and non-OPEC cooperation has been built (Introductory remarks by secretary-general, OPEC, Feb. 14).

EVOLUTION NOT EXIT

The agreement between 24 OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers is therefore likely to be extended and evolve rather than terminated.

In that sense, Barkindo is correct to note exit is not on the agenda. The critical question is how and when the agreement is modified not whether it is ended completely.

The most likely outcome is that the agreement is eventually adjusted to include a new set of higher production limits while maintaining the framework of regular meetings between OPEC and non-OPEC producers.

But with Saudi Arabia and Russia among the only signatories that have the capacity to boost output and benefit from higher production limits, securing a broad agreement is likely to prove tricky.

MARKET IS TIGHTENING

Production restraint has been far more successful in drawing down excess global oil stocks than most analysts expected or indeed OPEC itself originally expected (Egypt petroleum show, OPEC, Feb. 12).

Crude oil stocks remain around 100 million barrels above the five-year average, but if they were pushed down to that level the oil market would almost certainly feel very tight, given the growth in consumption since 2013.

Stocks of refined products are already close to the five-year average, and in some cases below it, which has left many fuel markets feeling under-supplied.

While OPEC insists stocks need to fall further, by most indicators the oil market has already rebalanced and is now firmly in the tightening phase of the cycle ( tmsnrt.rs/2svKweE ).

If OPEC and its allies maintain their production curbs too long, oil prices will rise and spur an even more drilling and production from U.S. shale producers.

The most recent forecasts for production and consumption show U.S. shale producers and other non-OPEC suppliers will essentially capture all the forecast demand growth in 2018.

If OPEC and its allies maintain their production curbs, they may secure higher prices, but only at the expense of losing more market share.

COMPETING PRIORITIES

The dilemma of whether to prioritise the price defence or protect market share is familiar. OPEC has regularly alternated between price defence and market share protection for 40 years.

Before June 2014, the organisation was focused on protecting prices above $100 per barrel, even at the expense of losing market share to U.S. shale producers.

Between June 2014 and June 2016, the priority shifted towards recapturing market share, at the expense of a wrenching slump in prices.

Since December 2016, the focus has been on cutting excess oil stocks and pushing up prices, even though it has cost some market share, especially in Asia.

The strategy of cutting stocks and boosting prices has been successful, but the costs associated with it are starting to rise as U.S. shale producers capture more and more of global demand growth.

At some point, OPEC and its allies will be forced to shift their focus back towards boosting output and stemming the erosion of their market share. The only question is when.

QUESTION OF TIMING

OPEC and its allies will probably adjust the declaration at some point to include higher production limits with the aim of defending their market share without triggering a steep fall in prices.

The challenge is to get the timing and the scale of the output increase right so the extra supply is absorbing by growing consumption.

But experience suggests OPEC will leave the adjustment too late, tighten the market too much and send prices surging.

The organisation will then increase supply at the moment when non-OPEC supply is accelerating and demand growth is already slowing.

OPEC allowed the market to tighten too much after both the two previous slumps in 1997/98 and 2008/09 with the result that prices overshot its initial targets. Something similar is likely in 2018/19.

The other challenge for OPEC is managing market expectations.

Hedge funds and other money managers have built a record bullish position in crude in the expectation that OPEC and its allies will continue to restrain output and continue to tighten the market well into 2018.

Position-building by fund managers has helped accelerate the accentuate the rise in oil prices and provided an early harvest for OPEC and its allies.

Any sign that producers are preparing to increase their output could trigger a rush to exit from some of those bullish positions and a sharp fall in prices.

TRICKY RE-NEGOTIATION

Most OPEC members would prefer to tighten the oil market too much and benefit from a short-term revenue windfall rather than risk not tightening it enough and a renewed fall in prices.

Saudi Arabia, the organisation's de facto leader and the real swing producer, needs relatively high prices to balance the government budget and pay for ambitious social and economic modernisation programmes.

The kingdom also needs high prices to help secure a favourable valuation in the forthcoming sale of sale of shares in its national oil company Aramco.

Most other OPEC members also need higher prices to cut their budget deficits and maintain internal social stability.

Among the non-OPEC signatories to the Declaration of Cooperation, Russia has expressed some reservations about the need to protect market share, but has so far agreed to continue with a price-defence strategy.

Ultimately, most OPEC and non-OPEC members are aware of the dangers of pushing prices too high but negotiating revised production limits will prove tricky.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Russia are probably the only signatories with the capacity to boost their output significantly in the short term.

Other OPEC and non-OPEC members have little to gain from higher production limits and would prefer higher prices instead.

Saudi Arabia and Russia have the ability to raise production unilaterally, or in agreement with each other, but will probably want to maintain the broader framework of cooperation painstakingly built since 2016.

Since negotiating an upward revision of production limits could prove contentious, it is easier for OPEC and non-OPEC producers to continue with the existing agreement for as long as possible.





Russia and China may invest in Saudi Aramco IPO via joint investment fund

Bloomberg



Russia-China investment fund shows interest: RDIF's Dmitriev. Aramco IPO is at center of Saudi plan to reboot economy

By Vivian Nereim

RIYADH

Petroleumworld 02 15 2018

Russian banks and a joint Russia-China investment fund are eager to participate in Saudi Aramco 's initial public offering, according to the head of a sovereign Russian investment fund.

Several banks and other groups in Russia are interested in investing in shares of Aramco, the world's biggest oil exporter, Kirill Dmitriev, chief executive officer of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said Wednesday in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia plans this year to sell about 5 percent of the company in what could be a record IPO.

Not only this, but we have a Russia-China investment fund, and through that Russia-China investment fund we see a major interest in the Aramco IPO from a number of leading Chinese institutions, Dmitriev told reporters. We see significant interest to invest in the Aramco IPO from Russia, from China, and we believe that this is very good for, once again, thinking jointly about oil.

Russia and Saudi Arabia, the world's two largest oil-producing nations, have abandoned their long-time rivalry and formed an alliance to try to prop up crude prices amid a surge in output from U.S. shale drillers. The pair engineered a global accord to cut output until the end of the year. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and his Saudi counterpart Khalid Al-Falih spoke Wednesday at a conference in Riyadh, the latest in a series of joint appearances that underscore their deepening ties.

Big Announcement'

Al-Falih told reporters later at a joint news briefing with Novak that he wasn't surprised to learn of the Russian and Chinese interest in the Aramco share sale. The IPO would be very transparent, he said.

Aramco, known formally as Saudi Arabian Oil Co., was set to make a big announcement of a partnership in liquefied natural gas with a Russian company later on Wednesday, Dmitriev said. Al-Falih said during the conference with Novak that an LNG project may be announced later Wednesday in Riyadh. A separate deal announced earlier in the day involves Novomet, a Russian pump manufacturer, Dmitriev said.

The RDIF and Aramco plan in the near future to set up a platform for investments in Russia's largest independent driller, Eurasia Drilling Co. , Dmitriev said. A joint $1 billion energy fund formed by RDIF and Aramco expects to close its first deals in the next three months, he said.DOVER, Del.  A task force studying issues surrounding marijuana legalization in Delaware is wrapping up its work, but it remains unclear whether there is enough support among state lawmakers to legalize recreational pot use.

The task force issued a draft report Wednesday and plans to present a final report Feb. 28.

Rep. Helene Keeley, a Wilmington Democrat who is co-chair of the task force and chief sponsor of a stalled legalization bill, said the bill would be amended to address some of the concerns raised during task-force meetings. The panel has discussed a variety of issues, including law-enforcement concerns, taxation and banking, consumer safety, and local authority and control.

Advocates argue that legalization will eliminate the stigma associated with marijuana use, decrease criminal activity associated with black market sales, and raise revenue for the state.

But the legalization proposal faces staunch opposition from a variety of groups, including law enforcement officials, the state chamber of commerce, health industry workers and AAA Mid-Atlantic, which says it will lead to more highway deaths.

Business interests, meanwhile, remain concerned about workplace safety and the ability of employers to prohibit pot smoking by employees.

William Lynch Jr., a hospital pharmacist and adviser to an advocacy group called atTAcK addiction, said marijuana legalization will lead to increased substance abuse and make the opioid epidemic worse.

Lynch said studies suggest that prolonged marijuana use leads to other drugs, increases the risk of addiction, leads to a variety of physical and mental health problems and increases the risk of deaths and injuries in car crashes.

"When all of these things begin to happen in Delaware if the bill passes,  the blood will be on your hands," Lynch warned lawmakers.

Keeley nevertheless maintained that supporters of legalization are only a few votes shy of the number needed in the legislature to pass a bill.

"I'm very hopeful that the recommendations from the task force along with the amendment will clarify those questions that individual members have and we can move forward," she said.

But even if a bill were to pass the General Assembly, it's unclear whether legalization would ever happen, given Democratic Gov. John Carney's doubts about the proposal.

"Gov. Carney does not believe now is the time to move forward with legalization," spokesman Jonathan Starkey said in an email Wednesday. "The governor does not believe that Delaware should be a test case, and should instead continue to monitor implementation in other states."

While Carney has not directly threatened to veto a legalization bill, Starkey noted that the U.S. Department of Justice created significant uncertainty around the enforcement of federal drug laws in states that have legalized recreational marijuana. Last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded an Obama-era policy that generally barred federal law enforcement officials from interfering with marijuana sales in states where pot is legal.

As currently written, the legislation sponsored by Keeley would not allow Delawareans to grow their own marijuana but would legalize possession of up to one ounce of marijuana for personal use by adults over age 21. Initial licensing would be limited to 40 retail stores and 75 cultivation facilities.

Nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational use of marijuana, the most recent being Vermont, which last month became the first state in the country to authorize recreational use by an act of a state legislature.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Teva Pharmaceuticals North America headquarters in North Wales, Montgomery County. The photo was taken in 2008. Read more

Warren Buffett stoked hopes of a transformation at the world's biggest generic drugmaker as his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. became a top shareholder weeks after pledging to cut soaring U.S. health-care costs.

Shares of the drugmaker, Israel's troubled Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., surged the most in two months after Berkshire disclosed it had bought about $350 million worth of stock.

Teva, which has its U.S. headquarters in North Wales, Montgomery County, is working on a turnaround after getting bruised by the recent slump in U.S. generics prices. It supplies one in six copycat medicines used by Americans, and its ability to develop cheaper copies of complex treatments could play a role in an ambitious effort to lower health-care costs announced last month by Berkshire, Amazon.com Inc., and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

"Drug costs continue to escalate, Trump is all over prices, and Teva, along with the rest of the generics industry, is part of the solution," Elliot Wilbur, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates, wrote in a note to clients that sought to describe "the 30,000-foot-view approach that may have led Buffett to Teva."

Teva shares closed on Thursday at $20.81, up 7.66 percent or $1.48. With about 1.9 percent of Teva's U.S.-traded shares, Berkshire became the 10th-biggest shareholder in the world's largest manufacturer of generic medicines.

Teva's bonds jumped on the news. Its 1.3 billion euros ($1.6 billion) of notes due 2023 rose 2.1 cents on the euro to 90.5 cents in the morning, the biggest ever intraday jump, according to Trace bond price data.

Buffett is buying into Teva at the early stages of its own repair. The Israeli drugmaker took on a mountain of loans in 2016 to bulk up its copycat medicines business as profit margins declined in the U.S., the world's most lucrative market for pharmaceutical companies. Worse, rival drugmakers began selling cheaper copies of Copaxone, a blockbuster multiple sclerosis injection, dragging profits of Teva's highest grossing product.

The stock lost nearly half its value in 2016 and the following year again.

Teva's new chief executive officer, Kare Schultz, laid out a vast cost-cutting plan in December, halting dividend payments and eliminating 25 percent of the global workforce. He has repeatedly stated that his biggest priority is to curb the company's $31.4 billion debt pile.

Berkshire hasn't revealed the reasons why it bought Teva shares. But the fact that it staked money supports the view of those who say that Teva "is taking the right steps to execute on a successful turnaround," Citigroup Inc. analyst Liav Abraham wrote in an emailed note to clients.Plans call for the former home of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News to become the future headquarters building for the Philadelphia Police Department. Read more

Philadelphia officials say their agreement to pay $249 million to a developer for a new city Police Headquarters in the former Inquirer building on North Broad Street is a good deal for the city.

But that position is not backed up by an independent appraisal of the property's value, because none was completed.

Now, Councilman Allan Domb is proposing legislation to stop the city from buying most properties without an assessment to make sure it doesn't overpay.

The bill, introduced Jan. 25 with Councilman Bobby Henon as a cosponsor, was a response to Domb's discovery late last year that no independent appraisal had been done for the 400 N. Broad St. building. which housed editorial offices for the Inquirer, the Daily News, and Philly.com until July 2012.

"I didn't understand how we could be purchasing a property of that magnitude without having an appraisal on our side," Domb Thursday. "It could have been used in the negotiation of the purchase price."

Domb's legislation would require an independent appraisal before most acquisitions, as well as for the sale of most municipally owned properties valued by the city's assessment office at more than $200,000. Sheriff's sales and acquisitions through eminent domain would not need an appraisal.

Although the city has no current obligation to order independent appraisals of property it aims to buy, Domb said he is familiar with cases in which the city has opted to do so, such as with the 135-acre tract beside Philadelphia International Airport where it now plans to develop a new air-shipping hub.

The councilman's legislation would make such appraisals obligatory, bringing its rules in line with other big cities', including Los Angeles, Houston and Phoenix, which all require outside valuations.

Christopher Berry, academic director at the Center for Municipal Finance at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, said such rules make sense.

"There are very good reasons that you would want to have gone through some transparent process to make sure a city's not overpaying for whatever it is that it's buying," Berry said. "If your bank is going to require you to do that as an individual homeowner, why shouldn't we, as taxpayers, expect our cities to do the same?"

City spokeswoman Ajeenah Amir confirmed that no independent appraisal had been completed in the deal for the 468,000-square-foot, 94-year-old building. But she said none had been necessary because the city's deal with the property's current owner, a unit of developer Bart Blatstein's Tower Investments Inc., involves an initial nine-year period during which the building is to be leased before it is acquired, rather than it being acquired at the outset.

The deal was so structured to allow Blatstein to receive federal historic tax credits, which support the rehabilitation of historic buildings, officials have said. As a tax-exempt entity, the city could not get those tax credits if it owned the building during and immediately after construction.

Use of those tax credits will require an appraisal before the property is formally acquired, Amir said.

"We would get an appraisal in the event we exercise the option to purchase the property, which is our current plan," she said.

Blatstein declined through a spokesman to comment on the transaction's role in motivating Domb's legislation.

The revelation that the city received no independent guidance on the property's value could add to concerns over its spending on the Police Department's planned move from its current headquarters in the dated four-story building at 750 Race St. known as the Roundhouse.

An earlier plan, on which the city had already spent about $50 million, would have moved police administration to the former Provident Mutual building in West Philadelphia. Officials last summer gave potential buyers of the neoclassical building at 4601 Market St. until Nov. 1 to submit proposals for the property in hope of recouping some of its investment at the site, but no successful bidder has been announced.

Under its newer plan to take over the former 18-story newspaper building, the city has agreed to pay $42 million to the Blatstein-led group for the vacant property and an adjacent 590-space parking structure at 1501 Callowhill St. The group will also handle the building's redevelopment at a cost of $207 million.

Other costs associated with the project that are not being paid to Blatstein or his affiliates, including furniture and equipment purchases, will bring the project's total cost to $280.8 million.

An Inquirer analysis of the deal last year found that the $90 per square foot being paid for the former newspaper building exceeds the price of other comparable buildings bought for redevelopment in the city recently. The $207 million redevelopment budget, meanwhile, makes it the second-most expensive historic-rehabilitation project of its kind in state history, after the conversion of the more-than-twice-as-big 30th Street Main Post Office into offices at a cost of $240.2 million. Blatstein's deal with the city also allows him to retain $40 million that the project is expected to generate from the historic tax credit program.

Domb, a prominent real estate investor nicknamed "the Condo King" prior to joining City Council, said he inserted himself into negotiations with Blatstein after talks were underway and secured concessions from the developer that will reduce the city's outlay for the project by as much as $10 million. City Council approved the deal in June.

In the ensuing months, as a final lease was being negotiated, Domb repeatedly asked the city's Finance and Public Property Departments for the independent appraisal that he expected had been completed as a basis for the talks, he said.

"I kept asking for it, and no one was giving it to me," Domb said. "I found out they didn't have one at the end of December, and they had closed [on the lease]. It was too late."Zakiyah, 11, of Chester, Delaware County, shows marks on the right side of her face after a fight on a school bus Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018. Darby Borough Police arrested Zakiyah, handcuffed her, and held her at Darby Police Station. ( Courtesy of Jawania Browne ) Read more

After a call came in about a disturbance on a bus Tuesday afternoon, Darby Borough police went into action. An officer arrived on the scene in Delaware County, did some interviews, and determined that he had probable cause to make an arrest. So he handcuffed an 11-year-old girl.

Yes, you read that correctly.

A fifth grader at Chester Community Charter School, Zakiyah is small for her age. She stands about 4-feet-5 and weighs just 55 pounds. A cellphone video taken before she was taken into custody shows her sitting on a school bus. She appears calm. Still, she was cuffed with her little wrists behind her back and placed in the back of a police van.

Zakiyah (I'm not giving out her last name) was understandably terrified and told NBC10 that she thought she would never be able to see her family again.

Her mother told me Thursday she was still trying to wrap her head around the situation.

"I never thought that I had to give my 11-year-old 'the police talk,' " said Jawania Browne, referring to warnings that African American parents have been giving their children for years about staying safe around police officers. "I was thinking more so my son, and he's only 1. But as he grows up, I was thinking that I've got to really drill it into my son  but not my daughter. But I guess none of us are exempt."

Authorities took Zakiyah to the Darby police station and placed her in a juvenile holding area. Zakiyah was presented with a non-traffic citation that alleges "defendant did, with the intent to cause public inconvenience or alarm, create a physically hazardous or offensive condition by actions which served no legitimate purpose to the actor."

Mind you, this drama started because she and a schoolmate had gotten into a fight on a school bus. I don't know what happened, and frankly I'm not all that interested. To me, what started the dispute doesn't matter. Children fight. They're kids.

I'm concerned about that little girl. She's traumatized. Her attorney, Joe Montgomery, says it was "the worst day of her life."

Zakiyah's mother says that since being taken into custody, her daughter  who already had been in counseling for emotional issues  hasn't been sleeping well and has had nightmares. This isn't how elementary-age kids are supposed to be treated.

Max Tribble, a charter school spokesman, declined to release details of the incident, citing privacy concerns. He said the school, in Delaware County's Chester Upland School District, hadn't yet been contacted by Darby police.

I also reached out to Chief Robert Smythe at home, where he was recuperating from a bad case of the flu. He said the arresting officer had merely been following established protocol.

"I understand that it sounds harsh," Smythe told me between coughs. "She was in custody for an assault of which we were processing her. There were wounds to the other child. I understand how it sounds, but that's the policy.

"She was being processed because she committed an aggressive assault against another person," Smythe continued. "We had her in custody for 57 minutes. It's not like we put her in a cell and held her for hours.  There are police policies that we try to follow. If you are in custody, you are in handcuffs. That's the policy."

As for her being detained in a juvenile holding area, he said, "She just can't walk the hallways."

Well, what about her being put in the back of a police van?

"The officer that responded, that was his vehicle for the day," Smythe said.

Yeah, tell that to her mom. Browne is understandably upset. She's keeping Zakiyah home from school for now, taking her to counseling, and also considering private school options.

"I would never have thought that they would have locked up an 11-year-old child and treated her like that," she said.

Nor would I.Are you a Democrat overjoyed that the congressional gerrymandering battle coming to a head this week in Pennsylvania may seem to be going your party's way?

Well then. A bit of friendly advice.

Step away from the adrenaline.

Because whether this epic battle ends in the next few days or weeks with maps that look good for your party or not, 2018 will be a bloody electoral year. And Democrats already are drawing blood from each other instead of the other party.

Not a great omen.

It's happening as Democrats still work to claw their way out of the colossal mess their leaders made of the party at the grassroots due to years of neglect and apathy. For years, they basically stopped running real candidates in tons of state and local races while Republicans assembled a political killing machine. With this focus, the GOP won two-thirds of the nation's legislatures  and the right to draw the very congressional districts under fire in Pennsylvania and beyond.

Democrats got a boost in November with huge successes in local and county races across the suburbs of Philadelphia.

Another gust of wind is behind them with Gov. Wolf on Tuesday rejecting a new congressional map proposed by the same Republicans whose old map was found to be unconstitutionally biased in favor of the GOP. (The state Supreme Court, which has a majority of Democratic justices, paved the way. Another cha-ching.)

But unity remains elusive for the party whose ugly presidential primary in 2016 led to Hillary Clinton's being mortally damaged on Election Day after Bernie Sanders supporters  embittered that the party had shafted their man  left her high and dry.

A similar rift may be forming in Pennsylvania just as Democrats prepare for this year's congressional, gubernatorial, and state legislative races.

Given how they hope to take back control of the U.S. House, this is not so great timing to be having another family feud.

On Tuesday, candidates hoping for a spot on the primary ballot began circulating nominating petitions requiring enough signatures for the privilege to run.

The good news: The number of people in line to run is huge  the party hasn't seen anything like it in years.

The bad news: There's been grumbling by restive newcomers, whether in Bucks or Delaware Counties, that they want a say over who runs in big races.

The very idea that the party would be choosing someone based on "electability" is, to some, repulsive.

The newcomers, many of whom are women disgusted with President Trump, gave the party an injection of new life. Now, they want to see people like them  not party favorites  backed to run for the state's 18 congressional seats.

A lot is at stake. A whopping 13 of the state's delegation are Republicans thanks in no small measure to gerrymandering. Oh  and not a single one of Pennsylvania's 18 congressmen is a woman.

The noise from newbies is causing hand-wringing among party officials even as the party watches closely as Republicans tangle with Wolf and the Supreme Court over what the state's congressional districts will look like before primary day.

"This is what we're grappling with," State Rep. Leanne Krueger-Braneky of Delaware County told me in an interview Wednesday.

Krueger-Braneky is a rising star and cochair of the state House Democratic Campaign Committee. A huge force working to recruit women candidates statewide, she has been meeting to help screen potential candidates for the Seventh Congressional District held by Republican Rep. Pat Meehan.

The line of people looking to run against Meehan is so long it's almost like the line for Space Mountain at Disney World.

"I'm the only Democrat in Delaware County not running for Congress," Krueger-Braneky said in a bit of a wisecrack.

And that was even before Meehan scorched his incumbency last month with a sexual-harassment scandal defense involving the words soul mate.

Krueger-Braneky says these people need to be listened to, can't be alienated. And yet, the party needs to be shrewd in backing candidates who can raise money to match the ferocious GOP fund-raising machine.

But are others in the party treading as carefully?

Unclear.

State Democratic Party Chairman Marcel Groen found out the hard way that old ways do not work with the party's new members. The Montgomery County kingmaker resigned as party chief earlier this month amid criticism over his less-than-zero-tolerance response to sexual-harassment allegations involving Democrats in the state.

Women and progressives were furious that he did not share the same outrage as the governor over recent revelations of alleged misconduct involving several party veterans in the state legislature.

At a state party meeting Friday in Harrisburg, leading elected Democrats did not dwell on the turbulence. Krueger-Braneky was among the speakers.

"The message that every one of us carried at the podium," she said, "is that we need to fight."

Now, if only they could stop aiming their fire at each other.I wasn't going to write this column. There were many reasons not to. I'd already done a lot of reporting on a different topic, timely if less emotional. Besides, more than five years has passed since the gun debate "ended" after America chose to do nothing about the slaughter of 20 little kindergartners and first graders in Newtown, Conn., so what words were left for this?  A 19-year-old with an AR-15 semiautomatic shooting up the Florida high school he'd been kicked out of, snuffing out 17 mostly young lives. That "our remaining shreds of humanity compel us to beg them to do something about the very real terrorism of gun violence in this country"? That's what I wrote after a madman with no discernible motive murdered 58 outdoor concert-goers in Las Vegas. How'd that work out? People in America have lost faith in the notion that words and deeds are stronger than bullets. Mine has wavered.

But then Wednesday night I watched  scratch that, there was nothing to watch. Wednesday night, I read President Trump's hollow Twitter thoughts and Twitter prayers  and also read that the least empathetic president in American history had initially rejected the advice of his top aides that he speak to an emotionally fraught nation about what had just happened in Parkland, Fla., to at least attempt to share our grief.

The president did eventually turn up Thursday morning with teleprompter consolations and no mention of how a 19-year-old gets a semiautomatic rifle in America. Trump's initial "opting out" of his moral duty as president reminded me of the evil banality of saying nothing, and of the words that are attributed to Martin Luther King Jr., that "our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Do the families and the other mourning people of Parkland need time to heal before we can talk about how this happened and what needs to happen next? They didn't seem to think so; indeed, one thing that was both striking and sad about Wednesday's massacre was how little shock we now feel to learn that 17 kids and teachers have been gunned down in their classroom, and that the conversation so quickly turns to our utter frustration.

"We have trained for this," Mellisa Falkowski, the heroic teacher who shielded 19 kids in her classroom closet, told CNN on Wednesday night. "We've trained the kids what to do, and the frustration is that we did everything that we were supposed to do  and still have to have so many casualties.  It's very emotional." She then added: "I feel today like our government, our country, has failed us and failed our kids, and didn't keep us safe."

She's absolutely right. There were so many ways this 19-year-old killer could have been stopped, with stronger, saner policies that wouldn't have stripped anyone of cherished Second Amendment rights. The type of weapon that he used  the AR-15 semiautomatic, which has been used in most recent mass-casualty shootings  was, essentially (with loopholes that can be closed the next time around), banned in the United States as recently as the early 2000s. The gunman was able to legally purchase high-powered weapons despite documented treatment for mental health issues  and when he's not legally old enough to buy a can of beer. Trump, tweeting Thursday morning from his bathrobe or whatever, said Americans "[m]ust always report such instances to authorities, again and again!"  apparently unaware that the shooter's bizarre conduct had even been reported to the FBI and nothing happened.

I'm not going to go chapter and verse here about the small, medium, and big things our political leaders could do that wouldn't end gun violence in America but would at least reverse things, back toward the right direction  restoring (and improving) the assault-weapon ban that was in effect from 1994-2004, banning high-capacity magazines that are only really useful for mass murder, strengthening background checks, outlawing bump stocks, etc. There's no need to discuss these in detail because none of them will happen as long as our discourse about guns is held hostage by an organization that has metastasized from a special-interest group into a hate group with an agenda that is fundamentally anti-American. I'm talking, of course, about the National Rifle Association. The NRA.

It's sad, because  in a nation with a constitutional amendment that's been interpreted as guaranteeing gun ownership  we could use an advocacy group for responsible gun training and safety. The NRA started out as exactly that, and in 1968  after guns were used to assassinate King and presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy  the group endorsed legislation with the now politically incorrect goal of "gun control." But as the 1960s ended, the NRA joined the rest of America in going off the deep end  riding both the cultural backlash against liberals and the unfettered capitalism of highly profitable high-powered gun-makers to market a brand of fear and paranoia only loosely connected to the issues surrounding gun legislation that the organization now uniformly opposes.

That sounds extreme, but listen to the NRA's latest batch of hype videos, usually narrated by its right-wing mouthpiece Dana Loesch; one from last summer seems to incite violence against the left, proclaiming that "[t]he only way we stop this, the only way we save our country and our freedom is to fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth."

In case you doubted whether the NRA has become an odious lifestyle brand, where stopping any and all gun legislation is just the loose justification for right-wing rebellion, listen to its boss, Wayne LaPierre, rail against what he calls "America's greatest domestic threats," which he describes as "academic elites, political elites, and media elites."What's that got to do with bump stocks? Not much, but the NRA does cash in on its popularity as a brand that drives liberals crazy  the exact same brand that propelled NRA supporter Trump all the way to the White House.

It's a bond that's increasingly sealed with money. The top gun lobby spent a whopping $30 million in untraceable "dark money" to drive Trump's narrow victory in 2016, and  in arguably the most 2018 thing ever  the FBI is reportedly probing if some or all of that $30 million came from Russian sources to evade U.S. scrutiny. It would make sense. With its contempt for a free press, academic liberty, and rational discourse, the NRA was already fighting to undermine American democracy even before Russia came along to help.

And now Trump is paying back the NRA with interest. His first favor to the gun lobby was signing a law overturning Obama-era regulations aimed at making it harder for people who are mentally ill to buy guns, the kind of situation that just played out in Florida with lethal consequences. His administration has massively defunded gun background checks. Indeed, as Trump was taking office, his people at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were working closely with an NRA lobbyist to craft a rollback of our already weak gun regulations.

No wonder Trump was so slow to anger his big-money sponsors by making a public condemnation of the mayhem in Florida. In the meantime, dozens of lawmakers  most but not all of them Republicans  raced to Twitter on Wednesday to hurriedly post their obligatory "thoughts and prayers," hopefully before anyone looked up their lengthy histories of accepting the NRA's blood money and cowering in fear from pro-gun lobbyists.

The biggest reason the NRA's insanity continues to flourish is because it's built up an air of invincibility. That happens when you win a lot, but there's no rational reason for this. Poll after poll has shown the American people  even Republicans and even the rank-and-file NRA members  support stronger background checks and other gun regulations that are opposed by the NRA leadership and its multimillionaire death merchants. The truth is that, when it comes to gun sanity, we outnumber them. And two things need to happen.

First, we need to acknowledge the NRA for what it really is: a hate group that uses its immoral tolerance for gun violence for profit and power. The result of that is a nation unlike any other in the world, where children go to school in the morning and there's no guarantee they'll return, living day-to-day in a climate of "shelter-in-place" fear. For the politicians and others who feed at this sordid trough, accepting the NRA's blood money and doing its bidding needs to be seen on the same moral level as an official who associates with, say, white supremacists. Indeed, as the corpses pile up, I believe a day will come  although I may not live to see it  when the pro-NRA politicians of today are seen by history with the same mix of curiosity and contempt that we view Washington's filibustering segregationists of the 1950s and '60s.

Which brings us to Step Two. You can end the NRA's reign of terror with one simple, powerful act. Vote. Vote as if your child's life depends on it  because it does  and vote the NRA and its handmaidens out of power. All it would take is one massive turnout this November to at least flip the U.S. House toward gun sanity. And what if a politician in your own party takes the NRA's tainted dough? Support his or her primary opponent who won't. What if there is no primary opponent? There's still time to circulate petitions and run yourself.

That's not pragmatic? Yes, both Democrats and Republicans have shown a "pragmatic" fear of the NRA at the polls, and too many rank-and-file voters have bought into this. Pragmatism has only gotten our kids killed. It's time for voters to be bold and courageous, and elect a brand-new Congress that will reflect the will of the people and not fight for the profits of gun manufacturers. America's children get this. They want to live. This is what Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student journalist David Hogg told reporters Thursday morning:

"Please, take action," David said. "Ideas are great.  But what's more important is actual action  saving thousands of children's lives. Please, take action." We grown-ups have let David and his generation down, terribly. But we can fix this, and the solution begins on Tuesday, Nov. 6. Meet me at the ballot box for the beginning of the end of a hate group called the National Rifle Association. This is a thing that matters.Looking at Richard Mosse's powerful, often enormous, and generally empathetic photographs of refugee encampments in Lebanon and northern Italy, perilous rescues at sea, and guerrilla warfare in eastern Congo, you can see why he borrowed the Bob Dylan song title "Beyond Here Lies Nothin' " for his exhibition at Arcadia University.

Mosse, an Irish photographer based in New York, notes that the song's haunting lyrics are said to have come from Ovid's poems about exile and relate to his own themes of human displacement. "Plus," Mosse says, "the song is about love, and how we really have nothing if we lack love, and so there is nothing beyond love. It's an important message in times of hate, wall building, and cultural war."

The five large digital prints from "Infra," a series he began in 2010 and completed in 2015, are the most visually arresting of his works, not least because they depict close-up shots of Congolese rebels and soldiers and lush tropical Congo landscapes as photographed with a large-format camera loaded with Kodak Aerochrome, an infrared film originally intended for aerial vegetation surveys to identify camouflaged targets and later used in the 1960s for album covers (Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa, others).

Mosse's use of the film displays Congo's dense foliage in vivid reds and pinks, leaving human skin tones and some clothing untouched. This makes the human figures in his photographs look like cutouts collaged into landscapes. This is war photography turned inside-out  repurposing military scouting technology as fine art in conceptual art territory.

Two monumental panoramic works from his ongoing series "Heat Maps" seem to be showing straight-on views of refugee encampments  one in Liguria, Italy, the other in Lebanon  but turn out to be composites of hundreds of individual frames. Both works were made with a video camera that registers thermal radiation (as opposed to visible light) attached to a robotic motion-control tripod that allowed Mosse to scan sites from a high eye level.

Blurry and dreamlike, the small framed photographs from the series "Incoming" (2014-17) are stills from a video installation of the same name, which accounts for their narrative character. As with the works of Mosse's other series, one is left to guess at the situations or events he is presenting. Are those refugees being pulled from the sea, for instance, or locals in distress?

You also have to wonder how Mosse found himself there at that precise moment. In fact, much of the video in "Incoming" was shot from a U.S. aircraft carrier with a surveillance camera that sees beyond 30 miles.

It's rare when pyrotechnics allow for quiet contemplation, but Mosse has found the balance, with great heart.

Through April 15 at Arcadia University Art Gallery, 450 S. Easton Road, Glenside. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays; and noon to 4 p.m Saturdays and Sundays. Information: 215-572-2131 or gallery.arcadia.edu. The show is affiliated with "Global 1968" a series of talks organized by Arcadia's Historical and Political Studies Department. Mosse will speak there Feb. 28.

Photos and beyond with Goicolea

I thought Anthony Goicolea was strictly a photographer, remembering digitally manipulated self-portraits from the 1990s that portrayed him as various adolescent boys in awkward scenes. I was wrong, though. He draws and paints, too.

"Figure/Ground," his soon-to-close show of photographs, paintings, and drawings at Swarthmore College's List Gallery, displays his ability to move fluidly through these media. The show, with works made between 2007 and 2013, also makes it clear that Goicolea is more interested in telling stories than sticking safely to any one medium.

His Cuban-born parents and other family members occupy his paintings and drawings, and some photographs as well. But the stars in this show are his large color photographs exploring human interventions in landscapes  and not in a preachy way.

They're invitingly strange. Ruins in the Forest shows a permanent-looking campsite in a jungle, The Follow a deserted mansion in what might be Florida or Cuba, Tunnel an eerie rain-soaked view of a soon-to-be flooded tunnel.

Through Feb. 22, List Gallery, Swarthmore College, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore, noon to 5 p.m Tuesdays through Sundays. Information: 610-328-7811 or swarthmore.edu/list-gallery.



A Kodachrome Whos Who

Haverford College's terrific collection of photographs extends across the history of the medium. That includes, of course, the history of color photography, which began with Eastman Kodak's Kodachrome transparency film in America in 1935 and Agfa Gevaert's Color-Neu transparency film in Germany in 1936.

"A Survey of Color Photography from Its Prehistory to the Present Day," organized by Haverford professor and photographer William Earle Williams, shows off 75 color prints by Richard Avedon, Harold Eugene Edgerton, William Eggleston, Walker Evans, Nan Goldin, David Graham, Helen Levitt, Duane Michals, Richard Misrach, Thomas Porett, Stuart Rome, Cindy Sherman, Stephen Shore, Sarah Stolfa, Zoe Strauss, Joel Sternfeld, and others.

Through April 29, Atrium Gallery, Marshall Fine Arts Center, Haverford College, 370 Lancaster Ave., Haverford, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Information: 610-896-1267 or haverford.edu/fine-arts/exhibitions.

Paul Cava, one of Philadelphia's most respected artists, canceled an exhibition hours before it was to open Wednesday at the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral on South 38th Street after church authorities objected to nudity in some images and asked for them to be removed from the show.

Cava said he considered the refusal to hang the complete show an act of censorship.

The Rev. Judith A. Sullivan, dean of the cathedral, said, "I do not consider it an act of censorship."

"Please consider our context as a house of worship," she said.

The exhibition, "Paul Cava/Inks," was hung and set to open Wednesday evening when Sullivan called Cava and told him that six of the 18 works had offended parishioners at an Ash Wednesday service.

She removed the paintings and placed them out of sight in an office, according to a parishioner.

The exhibit, Cava said later, is a distinct body of interrelated works inspired by the Cambodian genocide.

Sullivan said Thursday that the six images "were deemed to be too sensual for our sanctuary space" and Cava was asked if they could be removed for the length of the show, with the 12 remaining works in place.

"That was unacceptable to him," Sullivan said. "I understand artistic integrity. We are not an art gallery."

Cava said that he had been "reassured over and over by the powers that be that everything was fine" with the exhibition prior to installation.

"They are a response to the Cambodia genocide," he said. "What better place to show them than the cathedral during Lent?"

On the day of the opening, he said, Sullivan called and expressed appreciation for the work at some length. But, she said, "we've got a problem."

"She said, 'Can you take out these pictures?' " Cava recalled. "I said, 'Absolutely not.' I couldn't go along with that. So I took [the exhibition] down."

Cava said that a family with a young child objected to the work.

"She got a couple of complaints and decided this was a fight not worth fighting," Cava said. "She got pressure and caved."

Sullivan expressed frustration with the situation. She noted that the cathedral had instituted a vigorous art exhibition program years ago and sought to be responsive to the Philadelphia artistic community. She also said that nude figures had been shown previously in the church without complaint or issue.

"The six images were deemed too sensual," Sullivan said. "The perception was that they were just not appropriate for our sanctuary space. They were not appropriate for our church.  We have the utmost respect for Paul Cava and for his work."

She said there were no guidelines setting out what would be inappropriate for exhibition at the cathedral, adding that the thumbnail images of the works to be shown were small and difficult to read.

"I couldn't tell from the smaller images what their impact would be" when hung on the walls, Sullivan said.

Anne Minich, an artist and cathedral parishioner who has served as a curator for the exhibition program in the past, said she was not consulted about the show, which was curated by the Rev. Robert L. Tate, the cathedral's director of visual arts.

Tate could not be reached immediately for comment.

Minich said she "fully supports" Cava's actions.

"But I understand where the dean is coming from," Minich said Thursday. "Taking down the show is wrong. She is not an artist and is probably not aware that what she's doing isn't done in the civilized world of art, if there is a civilized world of art anymore."

That said, Minich continued, "Paul's nudes are sensuous; they aren't academic nudes at all."

Cava said he has found another venue for the work. Moderne Gallery on North Third Street has stepped into the breach and will host the exhibit beginning with a March 3 opening reception. The exhibition will run through April 14.

He says he "had reservations" about showing at the cathedral from the beginning but says he was continually reassured that all was fine, only to have the rug pulled when it mattered most.

"I didn't want this to happen," he said. "I should have been told this at the beginning."The Rays Special (a shot of whiskey and a can of Yuengling beer) at Rays Happy Birthday Bar. Now, Yuengling wants to make its own beer special  Philly Special. Read more

Move over, Bud Light. There's a new brewery hopping on the Eagles bandwagon.

Actually, it's the oldest in the country.

D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc. recently filed a trademark application for "Philly Special." The company is considering applying the phrase to one of its existing beers  such as Yuengling Lager  in the Philadelphia region, or perhaps using it for a new beer altogether.

"The past few weeks have been so exciting for Philadelphia fans everywhere," Yuengling's marketing director, Tyler Simpson, said in a statement. "We thought there might be something fun we could do for loyal Yuengling drinkers in the Philadelphia region."

The Pottsville-based brewery is now the sixth company or person to file a "Philly Special" trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office since the Eagles debuted the gadget play during the Super Bowl.

The other applicants are seeking exclusive rights to use the phrase for clothing and sandwiches, the Inquirer and Daily News reported Monday.

"We're still exploring options and would love to hear what the fans think a Philly Special could be," Simpson said. "We want to have fun with it and may have our Philadelphia fans vote for their favorite idea."

Simpson said Thursday that the options were "wide open." The company might use the name for a special pack of new beer, or slap it on brands like Lager, Light Lager, Black & Tan, or "other things," he said.

"This Philly Special idea would be for our loyal Yuengling and Philadelphia fans," Simpson said, noting that the company's logo and packaging has always included an eagle.

Founded in 1829, D.G. Yuengling & Son is America's oldest brewery and the fourth-largest U.S. beer-maker.

Reconnecting with Philadelphia drinkers might not be such a bad idea.

Richard "Dick" Yuengling backed Donald Trump for president and even hosted his son Eric in October 2016. Smart move in Schuylkill County, where Yuengling is located. Trump took 70 percent of the vote there.

But the Trump endorsement probably wasn't the ideal marketing strategy in Philadelphia, where Hillary Clinton won 83 percent of the vote.We are faced with yet another school shooting in Florida with at least 17 dead and many injured, including both staff and students. Our heart goes out to the victims and their families  losing a child or family member in this manner is unimaginable. Social media is already running rampant as parents, schools, and children are fearful and wonder what they should do if they ever find themselves in a similar situation. As school shootings seem to be increasing in frequency, these conversations are becoming more necessary.

Further, posting graphic images increases the traumatizing potential for other children. There is no reason to unnecessarily expose others to the violence. In the same light, it is important for parents to monitor what your children are watching and to limit viewing of horrific events. Vicarious traumatization is real and can happen by viewing too many graphic images online. As this is also true for adults, take this opportunity to model behavior by restricting your own viewing of potentially traumatizing pictures and videos.

Finally, when law enforcement teams are on the scene, their first priority is to find and either capture or take down the shooter before more lives are lost. It is common for students to take videos of law enforcement from their classrooms. For example, students in a third floor classroom may see officers on a roof below searching for the perpetrator. Please realize and have conversations with your children that if they post these videos, they may be informing perpetrators as to the location of officers. This can infringe upon law enforcement's ability to capture the shooter which could lead to even more deaths.

What to say to your children

One of the most important things to do is make time to talk to your child, according to the National Association for School Psychologists. We know that teens often prefer to talk their friends, but reinforce to them that you are available. You know your child best, so use language that is developmentally appropriate and understandable to your child. Be careful not to make assumptions about how your child is feeling. Instead, asking questions, such as "What is your biggest concern in hearing about this incident?" will open the door to communication. Further, help children understand common symptoms of distress, including difficulties sleeping or eating, and ask them to share with you if they are struggling.

Along with standard fire drills, many schools are beginning to do active shooter drills. These should not be scary events for children, but provide them a sense of control. Further, ensure children know to go to an adult should they ever feel threatened, see weaponry or trespassers in the building, or hear of threatening statements, either in person or online that are cause for alarm. Many schools are also moving toward more trauma-informed approaches due to the realization that many perpetrators of violence have experienced trauma in their own lives.

The increase of school shootings is terrifying for everyone. Remember that children feed off of the response of adults, so while it is great to model appropriate expression our own confusion, dismay, and sadness, it is important that adults maintain control. Adults can also model good coping strategies and self-care such as eating well, exercising, and sleeping. Finally, as consistency and normalcy help children feel safe, keep routines and structure as typical as possible. It is unimaginable that our children must face the tragedy of mass murder in schools. Let's try to make them feel as safe as possible in our loving arms.

Terri A. Erbacher, Ph.D. is an Clinical Associate Professor at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.Starting this month, visitors to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University will have the opportunity to watch as conservators open up and renovate dioramas that have remained untouched since they were installed in the 1930s. Workers will remove the accumulated dust and install updated lighting and labeling in the Gorilla and Takin scenes, created in 1938 and 1935, respectively. The process will provide the public insight into the artistry and resilience of the dioramas, which have educated visitors and sparked curiosity for the better part of a century.

The academy's legacy, of course, stretches back long before the first dioramas went up in 1929. The institution  founded in 1812  is the oldest of its kind in all of the Americas. Scores of preeminent scientists and scholars have passed through the academy's halls, including the famous ornithologist John James Audubon. Charles Darwin acted as a corresponding member.

One idiosyncratic Philadelphia native associated with the academy contributed enormously to the field of paleontology, though he stirred up a bit of trouble in the process. Edward Drinker Cope was born in 1840. A son of wealthy Quakers, Cope displayed a precociousness throughout his adolescence and began publishing scientific essays during his teenage years. He started volunteering at the academy when he was 18. Eschewing his father's wish for him to become a farmer, Cope took classes under the famous paleontologist Joseph Leidy at the University of Pennsylvania in 1860 and  after a stint in Europe to avoid the Civil War  became a professor of comparative zoology and botany at Haverford at the young age of 24. By 1865, he was curating for the academy.

During the late 1860s, Cope began his extensive travels across the United States, and spent a considerable amount of time unearthing fossils outside of Haddonfield. His renown began to grow, and so too did his rivalry with the Yale paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh.

Cope first met Marsh during his travels overseas when the latter was studying at the University of Berlin. The two kept up a cordial relationship as they embarked on their scientific careers, but their relationship soured after Marsh bribed Albert Voorhees  one of Cope's contacts in New Jersey  to send any bones discovered on the site to Yale instead of the academy in Philadelphia. Thus the opening salvos of the "Bone Wars" were fired, commencing a decades-long rivalry that would generate a wealth of paleontological knowledge accrued through questionable professional decorum.

On one hand was Cope, a dedicated bone hunter passionate about fieldwork, and on the other was Marsh, a more institutional academic in possession of immense resources at Yale University. The two men deployed increasingly sinister means to derail the other's work as their rivalry intensified: they would pay teams to show up at the other's dig sites; each bribed the other's workers to squirrel away unique bones behind their boss' back; they even endeavored to destroy each other's findings.

To compete with Marsh's influence in premier scientific journals, Cope purchased the American Naturalist out of his own pocket in 1878, moving it from Salem, Mass., to Philadelphia and utilizing it as an organ in his academic war with Marsh. He published frantically, sometimes making mistakes in his categorization that paleontologists would fix years later. The magazine  among Cope's many other expenditures in the conflict  drained his personal wealth, which was greatly diminished in his older years.

This feverish competition resulted in a stunning accumulation of scientific knowledge; Cope discovered or identified more than 1,000 creatures, described in the nearly 1,500 scientific papers he published throughout his life. His work made the academy a central institution in the worldwide development of paleontology.

In 1883, Cope resigned from the academy over disagreements regarding management, though he came back around to the institution toward the end of his life. In his will, he allocated monies earned from the sale of his collections for the academy to create "an endowment for a professorship or curatorship of Vertebrate palaeontology" [sic]. Though in typical form, he mandated that only those who "have the approval of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences" could occupy the position. The ever-competitive Cope would only have the best associated with his name.

He passed away on April 12, 1897.

Patrick Glennon is a communications officer at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. pglennon@hsp.orgOne of the Experiences offered by Airbnb in Philadelphia: a tour through the citys Chinatown neighborhood, including stops at local restaurants and shops. Read more

Since Airbnb was launched in 2008 as a way for two broke roommates to make extra cash by renting out air mattresses in their apartment, the home-rental service has swelled to become a gig economy titan, one that boasts four million rentals in nearly 200 countries, with an estimated valuation of at least $31 billion.

It also has become a regulatory nightmare.

As Airbnb has grown, linking millions of travelers to short-term housing around the world, the sharing-economy service has accumulated scores of critics. By allowing virtually anyone the ability to offer a home  or a castle, yurt, or tree house  for rent, Airbnb, critics have claimed, has violated zoning laws, driven up neighborhood rents, exacerbated security concerns, and contributed to the urban housing shortage.

Airbnb's response thus far has been to brazenly dig in  while also to pivot to rely less on that home-sharing component. Despite some major victories  winning legal status in a handful of cities, including Philadelphia, for example  Airbnb also has rapidly expanded into alternative services it believes could become a core piece of its future.

In November 2016, Airbnb launched Airbnb Experiences, a service that allows travelers to book adventures with hosts in designated cities. After starting small  with just 12 cities and 500 experiences  Airbnb announced this week that the Philadelphia region now offers the Experiences service, too.

With the Philadelphia launch, Airbnb has more than 5,000 experiences in more than 58 markets.

The idea is to link travelers and "hosts" to provide a hands-on, behind-the-scenes experience that an ordinary tourist would not typically receive, according to Airbnb. In Seville, Spain, for example, for $52 a person, travelers can cook paella with a professional chef. In Tokyo, for $73, a traveler can make a kimono and drink Japanese tea with a local. And in New York for $38 a person, travelers can shop in vintage Brooklyn stores with a personal stylist.

Airbnb has launched 40 experiences in the Philadelphia area. Among those offered: A $9-a-person "Rocky Run" that guides runners around Philadelphia's sites, ending at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The site also offers a $50-a-person home-cooked Italian meal, featuring first a stroll through Bella Vista's Italian Market to shop for ingredients. And, for $30, one host offers a tour through Philadelphia's best cheesesteak joints to "enjoy a little history with our whiz." (Only one cheesesteak is included in the price.) The Philadelphia market also offers six "social-impact experiences," said a spokeswoman, in which funds go straight to the nonprofit host. One example: $25 to run with Back on My Feet Philadelphia, a nonprofit that aims to give the homeless population independence and confidence through a regular running program.

Potential Experience ideas must be submitted and approved by Airbnb  a model different from its home-sharing, which allows nearly anyone to list a space for rent.

The progression from an exclusively short-term rental website to a multiservice platform has the potential to transform Airbnb into a lasting travel company, industry observers say. With the company's home-sharing facing just as much criticism as ever  and with cities worldwide continuing to pass strict regulations against it  diversifying the company's revenue, observers say, could help Airbnb outlast any restrictions or regulators aiming to rein in home-sharing.

Plus, Airbnb's home-sharing service also could be hitting a saturation point, some say. A survey of 4,000 adults, Morgan Stanley argued in a November note, indicated that adoption of Airbnb's rental service has decelerated, while awareness of the site is at an all-time high.

So far, Airbnb has had few, if any, clashes with regulators over Experiences. In an October interview with Fortune Magazine, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said the company consulted with regulators and community organizers when creating the service to decrease the likelihood of concerns.

Chesky has said in previous interviews that he expects Airbnb's home-sharing platform to account for less than half of total revenue in the future. Beyond its Experiences expansion, the Silicon Valley company also last year acquired Luxury Retreats, a rental service for high-end properties. In addition, Airbnb now allows users to book restaurant reservations through the website after partnering with reservation service Resy. And Airbnb now offers a "Places" service, which provides travelers with recommendations from local residents.

In a November 2016 announcement, Airbnb  without offering many details  said it expects to offer "Flights" and "Services" in the future.

According to a Tuesday report from Reuters, Airbnb said it soon expects one million Experiences bookings a year. (Airbnb has had more than 260 million home-sharing bookings in the last decade.) By charging Experiences hosts a 20 percent fee for each booking  compared with 3 percent for home-sharing  the Experiences sector of the company is on track to be profitable by the end of 2019, Reuters reported.With Black Panther tracking to open at $150 million, it's virtually certain that star Chadwick Boseman will generate more money in this role, in one weekend, than he did playing James Brown, Jackie Robinson, and Thurgood Marshall.

Combined.

Is that some kind of weird misallocation of public affection and regard for the icons involved?

A triumph of escapism over documented historical achievement?

Oh, hell no, says Panther writer-director Ryan Coogler, whose rousing, thoughtful new movie  it's black and it's proud, and says it loud  leverages the classic appeal of Marvel characters in the service of his interest in social, political, and racial themes.

Coogler nods to those themes right away, opening Black Panther not far from the setting of Fruitvale Station, his debut movie about the wrongful death of a young black man on a transit train in Coogler's hometown of Oakland, Calif., establishing from the outset a link between fantasy and reality.

>> Read more: 'Black Panther' is for every black kid who thought 'We didn't do stuff like that'

Fruitvale showed a director skilled at docudrama, but his own origin story involves an attraction to pop-culture myth, as he informs us in Panther, via the words of one of his characters, who admits to being "a kid from Oakland, running around believing in fairy tales."

Coogler brings all of it to bear in Panther, the story of a T'Challa (Boseman), heir to the kingdom of the African country of Wakanda. Early scenes have him staking his claim to the throne in trial by combat, taking on a challenger in a brutal fight that foreshadows battles to come  wars for the soul of his country.

Wakanda is a place, but in Coogler's view it's also a state of mind, an idealized transnational black consciousness where competing ideas of justice, solidarity, and militancy play out. There is debate, for instance, within Wakanda about the potential uses of the country's valuable technology and resources (hidden from the outside world) that could be deployed to assist oppressed people around the globe.

Cautious T-Challa worries that the country's gifts will be misused, and he's right to do so. A mercenary psychopath (Michael B. Jordan, chillingly good) wants to gain control of Wakanda's weaponry to start a bloody international uprising. But even T'Challa's own allies (and the woman he loves, played by Lupita Nyong'o) think he's being timid with the nation's resources.

All of these conflicts are eventually resolved in the conventional framework of a Marvel action movie  action sequences full of stylized martial arts and the kind of special-effects melee common to the genre.

More unconventional are Coogler's ideas. He's fixated on what it means to be a "king," a word with all sorts of upper- and lower-case resonance. Who is worthy? Factors include the mystical (trippy visits to the "ancestral plane") the historical (the legacy of fathers) and ultimately personal  T'Challa must be his own king, his own self, with his own sense of agency and justice. (Jordan's character is called unfit because he has "hate in his heart.")

This is interesting, but also  potentially  very patriarchal. Coogler defuses this by shrewdly and strongly integrating women into the story  Nyong'o's idealistic Nakia, Danai Gurira as the ferocious head of T'Challa's all-female warrior security detail, his brainiac sister Shuri (Letitia Wright), who develops and deploys the country's space-age technology.

The latter makes for good sci-fi, but I think Coogler is really implying something more  technology as a stand-in for intellect, which he sees as Wakanda's real secret weapon, its most formidable untapped resource.

Certainly it's worked for Coogler, whose smart ideas have catapulted him from indie filmmaker to Marvel universe master in three quick steps. Step two was Creed, the first time he took a familiar Hollywood property and remade it as something both Afro-centric and universal for movie fans. Black Panther sticks to Marvel orthodoxy, and yet does so with a nearly all-black cast (Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis have small roles), and with a strikingly Afro-centric production design.

In the process it freshens and enlivens the Marvel brand. Who could expect to walk into a superhero movie and hear echoes of the recent debate between Cornel West and Ta-Nehisi Coates?

The movie doesn't take sides, but there are heartfelt speeches (stick around through the credits) about "the illusion of difference," the foolishness of barricades, the need to surmount the mistakes of our fathers.

It's hard for a good man to be king, T'Challa is told.

But not, Coogler argues, impossible.

Black Panther. Directed by Ryan Coogler. With Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Luptia Nyongo', Letitia Wright, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis. Distributed by Disney.

Running time: 135 minutes

Parents guide: PG-13

Playing at: Area theatersWeavers Way is one of the longest-running of Philadelphia-area food co-ops, launched in 1973 when neighbors in West Mount Airy formed a produce-buying club in a church basement. Soon after, they opened a store at Carpenter and Greene Streets and expanded to Chestnut Hill in 2010. In October, Weavers Way opened its third store, in Ambler, Montgomery County, and now counts nearly 7,000 families as members.

The Ambler deal fell into place through fortuitous timing. A Bottom Dollar store in the borough's downtown had closed. "As a start-up, we didn't have resources or credibility to put a bid on the building," said Kathleen Casey, who headed a neighborhood group wishing to open a co-op store. "We wanted to prevent another grocer from coming in."

Casey and her fellow members approached Weavers Way, and about two years later, the neighbors got their wish. The store, at 217 E. Butler Ave., is larger than the Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill stores combined. It includes a large prepared-foods section and butcher and fish counters. Prices are about the same as the chains, but much more of the fresh inventory is local.

Last week, general manager Jon Roesser and I sat down to chat about the business.

Why Ambler?

We made a business decision a few years ago that we felt it was in the co-op's best long-term interest for us to grow. We're also a pretty mission-driven organization. We wanted to grow the cooperative economy in Philadelphia. For us, it made sense to expand to a community where it was within close proximity to our existing membership. I'm sure a place like Haddonfield or Lansdowne would make an excellent co-op community; but it's not close to where we're at. Ambler is really just the next trade area over from where we historically have been. For us, it worked out well, because the market data showed that Ambler was a good place to expand. We already had this core group of members that we knew was going to support the store.

Why not just pop up co-ops everywhere?

When we expanded to Chestnut Hill in 2010, it was five-plus years before we could contemplate expanding again. I would assume it would probably be a similar time frame  this go-round, too. It's not like we have venture capitalists backing us up with millions and millions of dollars to expand our business. Our expansion is grass roots. It comes from members saying, 'Hey, I want something like this in my community.' With the Ambler store, our [total] anticipated [annual] sales are about $30 million. We own a few buildings. We own some trucks. We own our inventory. We've got an awful lot of equipment, which is expensive. If we were to expand, one of our primary sources of funding expansion is the members themselves, through member loans. For this store, we raised $1.5 million from members. That's mostly small loans under $10,000. We have traditional financing, too. We have a bank loan for the equipment and all that.

Do you run the same kind of razor-thin margin that big supermarkets do?

We don't operate the co-op for profit. If we have profit, I wouldn't know what to do with it. Profit goes back to the members in the form of a patronage rebate. We're not going to have a profit this year. You don't open up a big store like this and turn a profit. When we budget, we budget for around 1 percent return on sales. If we get that, that goes back to the members. In the theoretical sense, what should happen is we should charge our customers the exact amount of money we need to generate the revenue we need to cover our costs. The end of a theoretical year, the balance is zero. We spent exactly as much money as we took in. Now, that would be irresponsible to budget for that sort of thing. So we budget to have a surplus. In most years, we do. Not in an expansion year like this.

Tell me about the challenges of Weavers Way. Is it competition, is it public awareness?

For starters, we have the same challenges as any other grocery store. The grocery industry is ferociously competitive. There's lots of places people can spend their money on food. In that respect, we're no different than anybody else. We have to exist in the free market, like all the other folks out there selling you groceries. The grocery industry is now also dealing with the evolution of online grocery retailing, what Amazon is doing, in terms of offering grocery to its customers through their online platform. That's disrupting the industry. But that's not unique to us; we're all dealing with that. We face a few challenges because of our model. If you're not familiar with it, it throws people off. People don't know that they're allowed to shop at Weavers Way. We get this all the time, at all three of our stores. People come in and the first thing, they look around and say, 'Am I allowed to shop here?' And it drives me crazy. A lot of people aren't familiar with co-ops, and they think about membership the way you think of membership at a Costco. I have to be a member to shop at Costco. Membership just means that you are part-owner of the organization. It doesn't mean that you can't shop if you're not a member. I tell some folks, if you're only going to shop here from time to time, for convenience purposes, then shop as a nonmember.

Why do you think people shop here?

Very broadly speaking, customers fall into three buckets. The first is our true believers. The true believers are the folks that really embraced the cooperative model and a democratically controlled organization. They're interested in supporting local, in a hyper type of way. They are very deliberate in terms of where they spend their money. They tend to be supportive of local mom-and-pops. They tend to be supportive of co-ops. They tend to have their money with a credit union, all that stuff. True believers, they spend most of their food dollars at the co-op.

At the other extreme are convenience shoppers. They're really spending the preponderance of their food dollars someplace else. They really only come to the co-op when they need a quart of milk or a loaf of bread or some eggs or whatever.

In the middle is what we would call the mid-level shoppers. They're splitting their tickets. They shop at the Terminal. They shop at farmers' markets. They go to Acme. They're really doing shopping all over the place. They go to Costco. They probably go to Whole Foods. Mid-level shoppers are the lion's share of all grocery shoppers. They're all important to us.Jesus Rodriguez, top left, and his wife, Sandra Martinez, stand for a portrait with sons Yadiel, 7, Kristal, 10, and Yandel, 12, at their home in the Fairhill neighborhood of Philadelphia on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018. The family left Puerto Rico for Philadelphia in November, but now faces an uncertain future as their cash reserves have run out and they struggle to find work. They have no living room furniture because they cannot afford it. Read more

Since Puerto Rican evacuees started arriving in Philadelphia last fall following Hurricane Maria, the Philadelphia Housing Authority has had the ability to house up to 50 of them and move even more people to the top of the public housing waiting list.

But Mayor Kenney's administration has declined to use the available housing for evacuees from Puerto Rico, except for two families.

"We stand ready to help, as we have since the hurricane struck, but we haven't received the referrals," said Nichole Tillman, spokeswoman for the Housing authority.

The housing authority gave the Kenney administration the power, under a "special preference" program, to refer up to 50 families who were victims of a natural disaster for rental assistance. Officials referred two families who arrived shortly after the hurricane, but no one else.

City officials say they want to be fair to the many others in need who have been waiting for housing.

"PHA has a waiting list that is in some cases years long. If we moved the Puerto Rican evacuees to the top of the list, we are essentially telling those folks, who have waited years, 'You have to wait longer,'" said Brian Abernathy, first deputy managing director. "Given the housing crisis and the state of PHA, we don't think that's appropriate."

More than 2,000 evacuees have relocated to Philadelphia since the Sept. 20 hurricane devastated the island. Many of them have not been able to secure jobs or housing and only some have received housing assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Some evacuees are living in basements and cramped apartments due to what they say is unavailability of public housing.

But the Housing Authority created two programs specifically for cases such as these in which families are displaced and in need of housing due to a natural disaster.

A "super preference program" moves victims of federally declared disasters to the top of the agency's public housing wait list. The victims must be able to prove they were displaced by the disaster. For both programs, families also have to meet income and other eligibility requirements.

Advocates for the Puerto Rican evacuees have been asking city and state officials to help them with housing.

Charito Morales, a nurse and advocate who led the call at a Monday news conference for local action, said Thursday that she doesn't understand why the city won't make use of "this opportunity," referring to the Housing Authority's emergency housing programs.

"The evacuees didn't ask to come here. They left everything because of a disaster. They don't know where to go or where to live. They don't know how to navigate the system. All they need right now is a house until they can learn to navigate the city," Morales said, adding that if the the evacuees found jobs that paid enough to pay rent on their own, they would do that.

Will Gonzalez, executive director of the nonprofit Ceiba, which has held legal workshops to help evacuees apply for FEMA aid, said he was "extremely disappointed" with city officials who didn't activate the preference programs for the hundreds of displaced Puerto Ricans who came to Philadelphia with nothing but a suitcase.

The Office of Emergency Management "was looking at people  at evacuees  in the eyes and telling them, knowing their needs, 'We don't have housing.' To me, that is disturbing. Especially during the Christmas season, that's being a Scrooge," Gonzalez said.

The city's emergency management office opened a Disaster Assistance Services Center between Oct. 11 and Dec. 20 to help evacuees register with FEMA and other services such as welfare, food stamps and driver's licenses.

For housing, the center referred those who had lived in public housing in Puerto Rico to the Housing Authority, and it was able to settle four families that had housing vouchers on the island into Philadelphia public housing stock, Tillman said.

Abernathy said that Hurricane Maria was a "horrible tragedy" but added that, "Being homeless is also traumatic."

"We are the poorest big city in the country," he said. "We do have to balance the needs of the poor and the needs of evacuees of Puerto Rico  Asking us to pick Puerto Rican evacuees vs. a poor family from North Philadelphia is an impossible choice."

The executive committee for Unidos Pa PR, a group that was created in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and has raised more than $400,000 to help the recovery on the island, said that for the past five months it has been working with city agencies, nonprofits and the Kenney administration to create a long-term recovery plan for the evacuees.

"We are however, very frustrated[about] the internal decision not to utilize the presidential natural disaster declaration that would allow qualifying Puerto Rican families to access public housing as it is done for our veterans, homeless and other emergencies," the committee said in a statement.

Abernathy also expressed frustration that a long-term recovery committee has not yet been set up. He suggested that the debate on whether the city should allow evacuees to move up to the front of the line should be decided by such a committee.

Abernathy said he and the administration want FEMA to do more in helping the evacuees.

"To ask local government to put it on their back is unfair," Abernathy said.

Advocates for the evacuees say each level of government  local, state and federal  must do its part.

"Philadelphia as a whole cannot shoulder the sole financial burden of evacuee resettlement," Ana Montanez, one of the activists who planned Monday's demonstration. "Mayor Kenney and Gov. Wolf, however, are responsible for leading effective resource delivery across local agencies, which has been appalling."

The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency also alerted all owners of properties that received Low Income Housing Tax Credits that they may give preference to Hurricane Maria evacuees for temporary housing through May 31, 2019.The roof deck at 2114 Christian St. Unit B in Philadelphia. Read more

Doug Reinke was living in a condo, but he didn't feel like it was home.

"I was living in a new, modern condo, which ultimately felt like an apartment," he said.

In 2016, he found a better fit in a two-bedroom, two-bath unit in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood. "This condo felt more like a house," he said.

The two-story, 1,193-square-foot property was closer to what he was looking for, but he had some renovating to do.

"The condo had a lot of character," he said. "But it was very chaotic with too many elements."

He rebuilt the staircase, replaced fixtures, and brought in an interior designer.

"I love that the two floors of the home have two distinct personalities," he said.

Downstairs, the layout features brick floors and ceilings with exposed beams, and the upstairs level has a more modern feel.

"The main floor feels like a Bucks County country home, while the upstairs feels like a bright and airy beach house," he said.

The second floor also leads to a roof deck with panoramic skyline views.

"The view from the roof deck is really a show stopper," Reinke said. "Everyone that has walked up to the deck for the first time has gasped in awe of the amazing view."

The newly outfitted kitchen on the first features stainless steel appliances, hickory cabinets, and sleek concrete countertops.

Reinke said losing both parents in the last year has reoriented his priorities. "I love this house, but now my reality is to retire, downsize and travel."

He said he expects new owners will likely enjoy the same elements in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood that he has: friendly neighbors and ample parking.

"The neighborhood is comfortable and friendly," he said.

The home is listed with Sean Kaplan at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach for $449,900.Philadelphia composer Jennifer Higdon (in silver tunic) with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the world premiere on Feb. 1 of her Low Brass Concerto. The Philadelphia Orchestra performs it Feb. 22-24. Read more

Another day. Another concerto?

Philadelphia composer Jennifer Higdon is producing them at a rate that's unprecedented since the 18th-century era of Vivaldi  and in configurations even Vivaldi never tried in his 500 or so such works. On Thursday, her Low Brass Concerto has its Philadelphia Orchestra premiere, to be followed by the March 16 world premiere of her Tuba Concerto in Pittsburgh and her Harp Concerto premiere May 12 in Rochester, N.Y.

Though the templates for each concerto couldn't be more different, they share Higdon's same foxhole prayer: "Oh, lordy, don't let me screw this up."

Writing them has obviously been a feat of time management, each one requiring four months or so, depending on interruptions. But midwifing them is an even less certain road. Rehearsal time is short. Even with the prestige of recently winning two Grammy Awards (one for her Viola Concerto and another for the disc it was on, All Things Majestic), she doesn't get artistic control over how a piece is performed.

"Sometimes, I take a very Zenlike approach. Otherwise, I would lose my mind," Higdon said the other day by phone from her Spruce Street studio. "As a composer  all the say that I have has to be on that page.  Stravinsky was big on controlling things. But you have to allow musicians to do their job."

Though Higdon's placid on the surface, nothing feels easy to her. Ever since her composing career took off in 2000 with the orchestral work blue cathedral that put her among the most-performed American composers, her distinctive ear for sound has caused her ancillary anxiety. She was so unsure of blue cathedral she asked to conduct the first rehearsal herself.

Her 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning Violin Concerto and her grand opera Cold Mountain were relatively easy sailing. But with some other pieces, she has left dress rehearsals sending discreet but alarmed emails to friends, only to have the performances go far better than she'd ever hoped. Higdon's concerto count is ambiguous  13? 14?  because she withdrew her 2005 Trombone Concerto, ultimately deciding that it wasn't fixable.

You'd be anxious, too. Around that same time, she wrote her Piano Concerto for Lang Lang, but he declined to perform it. It was later premiered by Yuja Wang.

The new Low Brass Concerto raises questions that no other major work has had to address: The soloists are instruments whose sound is usually embedded in the orchestra's foundation. Can they properly be heard above the orchestra?

The players project hearty bravado at the prospect of moving from the rear of the stage to the front-and-center position. "I doubt my colleagues know what the back of my head looks like," said Philadelphia Orchestra bass trombonist Blair Bollinger. "We low brass are capable of sounding above the whole orchestra when sitting in the back. We should have no trouble being heard when standing up front!"

You have to jump off the cliff

What Higdon most fears as a composer is the part she writes last, such as the crucial opening of her Violin Concerto  a medium that has inspired the greatest works of Beethoven and Brahms. "It can be crippling, completely crippling," she said. "But you have to jump off the cliff, even when it looks really high."

Adding to the pressure, most of her pieces have three or more co-commissioning institutions.

Muti, now 76, was the Philadelphia Orchestra music director when the Tennessee-raised Higdon arrived in Philadelphia in 1986 to study at the University of Pennsylvania and the Curtis Institute. He has never been a huge champion of new music. So premiering the Low Brass Concerto and touring it to New York's Carnegie Hall was a great vote of confidence, though not one that allowed Higdon to catch up on her sleep.

Muti had studied the piece thoroughly. "I could tell by the way he was shaping the lines," said Higdon. He was also singing instrumental lines from memory during rehearsal.

The piece has four soloists  two trombones, bass trombone, and tuba, often working as a single entity  that Muti decided would sit on stage rather than stand. That hardly alleviated Higdon's worry about the soloists being heard.

At the Chicago premiere, tempos weren't what she wanted, yet the piece found itself between there and the Carnegie Hall performance last Friday. "It was heaven," Higdon said.

Critic Nancy Malitz of ChicagoOntheAisle.com heard performances in both cities, and agreed. "The super quick call-and-response between the sections  which Higdon likes to write  were less accurately achieved in Chicago," Malitz said in an email. "Carnegie Hall took it to a new level."

The Cold Mountain cure

More Higdon concertos  and the anxiety that comes with them  are on the way. Even after the two others are premiered this spring, she has offers for more.

Concertos aren't her whole life, though. They're just what gets the most publicity. Higdon is also starting work on a chamber opera, and she writes for all media, including concert band. In Chicago, a contingent of high school students from Joliet, Ill., were on the top balcony, cheering her on as fans of her band works.

Future compositions, though, may have fundamental differences from the ones written before 2015's Cold Mountain. Higdon says writing the opera altered her brain patterns.

"I have a little bit of a problem with dyslexia, but writing the opera changed that completely," she said. She also perceives movies differently. "Before, I was focused more on the imagery. Now, I'm hearing words  and lyrics for songs that I've been hearing for 45 years or so," she said. "It's like somebody put a pair of glasses on me."

To some ears, her post-Cold Mountain concertos have had an arialike singing quality, with accompanying counterpoint that suggests some sort of character psychology. Philadelphia Orchestra co-principal trombonist Matthew Vaughn talks about the "lyrical vocal" quality of Higdon's brass writing.

Composers are notoriously bad at taking a step back from their works. But might her concertos be  at least in movements here and there  operas in disguise? Higdon pauses: "Maybe."Allison Bevan had a stroke this past October at age 35. She is part of a growing number of younger women having strokes. Read more

When Jennifer Salomon woke up with a bad headache, she figured it was due to lack of sleep. Just three days earlier she had given birth to her first child, Kelsey. But soon after getting out of bed, the 27-year-old collapsed.

"At the time, I didn't know what was going on, only that I couldn't stand up," recalled Salomon, now 39, of that fateful day in 2005. "I said to my husband, 'Something's wrong, call an ambulance,' but it came out as grunting because I had lost my speech."

When the paramedics arrived at her Levittown home, Salomon's blood pressure was 200 over 110  she's normally 120 over 80.

She was having a stroke caused by postpartum preeclampsia, a rare condition that occurs when a woman has high blood pressure and excess protein in her urine soon after childbirth.

Yet, "I had no signs of preeclampsia pre-birth," she said.

After a week in Jefferson Hospital, Salomon spent the next four months at Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, two months in-patient and two more out-patient for physical, occupational and speech therapies. Visits from her newborn provided incentive to get better, Salomon said. "I wanted to be able to be her mother."

Today, she wears a brace on her right leg and still doesn't have full movement of her right arm and hand, though she has learned to write with her left hand.

Salomon is among the more than 795,000 people in the United States who have a stroke each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Stroke is the third leading cause of death for women and kills twice as many women as breast cancer.

Because stroke risk increases with age, and women live longer than men, more women than men are affected.

But the percentage of strokes in women age 45 or younger is also increasing. Some of the causes for strokes aren't clear. Others are due, in part, to health conditions that traditionally affect older people, such as obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. Additionally, young women are at higher risk when they are pregnant, have certain types of migraines, or take birth control pills while being a smoker, said Michelle J. Smith, system chief of neurosurgery at Main Line Health.

Some younger women who have strokes learn they have rarer conditions that were not diagnosed until after the stroke.

Two main types of stroke

A stroke is a cutoff of the blood supply to a portion of the brain, which can happen in two ways.

Ischemic stroke occurs when there is a clot within a blood vessel either leading to the brain or within the brain itself. It starves the brain of oxygen and results in permanent brain injury, explained Smith.

Hemorrhagic stroke occurs when a blood vessel is weakened and bursts, causing direct injury to the brain.

"As a result, there's damage to the brain tissue, which can result in permanent physical changes," said Andria Jones, cardiologist at Jefferson Health. "They can be symptoms that can last for a long period of time or they can just be temporary, so a loss of vision for just 20 minutes can be a warning sign that a stroke is coming on."

Those symptoms include trouble with speech, memory, concentration, weakness of a body part (typically arm, leg or facial muscle), dizziness, loss of vision, balance and coordination. Also, a severe headache without any known cause could be a sign of a stroke.

One woman, multiple strokes

Sometimes, it can take days to diagnose a stroke because the symptoms can masquerade as something else entirely.

Allison Bevan, 35, was at work last October when she suddenly became very dizzy.

"I felt like the room was spinning and I was almost upside down," recalled the Pottstown resident. Her coworkers called 911 and she was taken to the hospital. Diagnosed with vertigo, she was given medication and sent home.

But that evening, the dizziness returned. Back at the hospital, CT scans were normal but she was admitted for observation. After three days, her neck began to hurt, and a CTA, a computed tomography angiography that uses contrast material and CT scanning, discovered that her right vertebral artery was torn.

Bevan took clot-busting medication and was released after a week.

The next morning, she had another, more massive stroke. She was admitted to a Pottstown hospital, where she had a virtual consultation with a doctor from Jefferson University in Philadelphia, who examined her by a screen on a robot.

"They held my eyes open so he could review them and he was yelling that they had to fly me to Jefferson right now," she recalled.

There they discovered another, larger stroke.

"The strokes were in the cerebellum, the back of my brain, the part that controls equilibrium, your balance, and the communication between your brain and your eyes," she said.

Her doctors aren't sure what caused the torn arteries that prompted her strokes, said Bevan. Weight is not a risk factor in that type of stroke, but she lost 20 pounds in the course of her ordeal and is focusing on healthy habits.

Now back at work, Bevan is staying with her folks in Souderton to be closer to her sales job because she's still not comfortable driving long distances. She goes to rehab two or three times a week for therapy to improve balance and reduce problems related to dizziness. She still has trouble following objects with her eyes.

"It's a struggle, but every day gets a little bit better," she said. "They told me at six months, whatever symptoms I still feel is the way I'll always feel."

In addition to weight management, Bevan has made another healthy change.

"I've learned to let things go and not be so stressed. After being so ill, I appreciate life more and live in the moment."

While not all strokes are preventable, it helps to keep healthy habits, including keeping your weight under control, not smoking, being physically active, and avoiding high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.

"If you do have those disease processes, keep them under control," said Jones, who added that atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat, can also lead to a stroke and must be monitored by a doctor.

Getting medical treatment as soon as possible can minimize permanent damage.

"When a patient calls 911, before they enter the hospital, a process has already been initiated," said Smith. "So as soon as the patient hits the door, there are many things happening right away to reduce the time it takes to treat someone. The faster you get treated, the more brain cells that survive and the better you're going to do."

At the same time, new guidelines on ischemic stroke, the type caused by a blockage in the vessel, recognize that for a select group of patients, there's significant improvement in outcome when treatment for this type of stroke is given after a longer time, 16 to 24 hours.

"It's opening up the window for many more patients to receive initial treatment," said Smith.When I was younger, I used to ask my mom to tell me stories about what it was like to celebrate the Chinese New Year with her family in China. She'd tell me about staying up all night with dozens of cousins she rarely got to see, spending all her red envelope money on books, eating dumplings and steamed fish on the first day of the new year, and setting off firecrackers in the streets with her friends. It sounded like so much fun. As I listened to her stories, I often wished that I had grown up in China so I could experience those things, too.

The ideas of "home" and "family" are integral to the Chinese New Year, which begins Friday. After a whole year of separation due to work, families get together and bid the old year goodbye and welcome the new one. It's the most important holiday in the country. Each year, hundreds of millions of people head home to their families for the reunion dinner that takes place on New Year's Eve, sparking the largest human migration on the planet. Together, they pray for good luck and wealth in the upcoming year.

But until last year, I never felt like I truly understood what the big deal was.

My parents immigrated to this country in 1990, joining thousands of other Chinese immigrants who left their homes in search of brighter futures. In doing so, they gave up being able to see their families for long stretches of time, so my brother and I grew up celebrating the Chinese New Year in a simpler way. My mom made dumplings each year and recorded the New Year's Gala, a splashy, nationally televised event full of music and comedic sketches. (Later I would find out that many of my Chinese American friends were also subjected to watching the show, despite not being totally clear on how our parents managed to find streams.) My grandparents rewarded us with red envelopes full of money for good luck after we paid our respects, but as I got older and moved away from home, the desire to preserve those traditions disappeared.

>> Read more: Where to celebrate Lunar New Year in Philadelphia

In January 2017, my mom brought me to Kunming, her hometown, for the festivities. We traveled to a beautiful lake with 30 of her relatives, and I witnessed how much it meant for my mom to be home during the holiday. For the first time in a long time, she was able to catch up with the cousins she had grown up with, visit her grandmother's grave, and introduce me to the family traditions she held dear.

Even now, I remember how inexplicably happy I felt on New Year's Eve, standing on the street with my cousins after a rowdy night of karaoke and listening to strings of firecrackers explode in puffs of smoke. The pops, which echoed throughout the city, seemed like they would never stop.

I realized at that moment that it didn't matter that I only saw my relatives every five years or so, or that we grew up in vastly different cultures  to them, I was family, which meant that our lives will always be connected in a profound way. Even though they had been practically strangers to me when the trip first started, I would always have their backs and they would always have mine.

In that moment, I felt like I belonged. To someone who is used to feeling like an outsider because of physical appearance, who speaks their parents' language with a hesitation that never goes away, that's a big deal.

I have no delusions about my inability to preserve traditions like this one perfectly, even though my parents have instilled in me a deep respect for Chinese history and culture. I am terrible at making dumplings. I know that I'm lucky to speak any Mandarin at all, despite feeling a bit like an impostor whenever I visit China.

Growing up, I used to try to shed the parts of myself that seemed the most "Chinese." I refused to bring Chinese food to school after a classmate made fun of how my lunches smelled. I resented spending my Saturday afternoons learning Mandarin in a classroom when my friends were having birthday parties and playdates instead. I hated being asked by teachers to say something in Mandarin in class or talk about Chinese culture, especially because my answer was often, "I don't know." I felt like a poorly equipped, often confused ambassador tasked with educating those around me about a rich culture that I had a deeply complex relationship with.

As I got older, I realized that it wasn't my responsibility to teach others about my parents' culture, and that my parents didn't expect me to carry on their Chinese New Year traditions. All they wanted me to do was to build bridges between the Chinese and American parts of my identity in ways that I was comfortable with. If that meant shedding some of the traditions that they cared about and creating new ones with the Asian American community I've found here, that was OK.

While writing this essay, I called my mom to ask her questions about the holiday that is both familiar yet unfamiliar to me. At the end of our conversation, I asked her if she was sad that some of the traditions she held close to her heart were going to be lost over time.

"I always think each culture has their advantages and weaknesses," she said after a pause. "I want you to keep some Chinese traditions, but I know that it's also important for you to learn American traditions as well. I also realized that you can't always keep a tradition without being in the environment where it started. It's hard that way."

Last year, I celebrated the Chinese New Year amid the clatter of mah-jongg tiles with dozens of relatives. This year, it's much more likely that I'll go out to eat with my friends in Chinatown, grab some bubble tea, and call my parents to wish them a happy new year. Maybe next year I'll host a dumpling-making party. That doesn't mean that celebrating the Chinese New Year is any less significant  it just means that I've finally started learning how to close the gaps between my nebulous understanding of Chinese culture and my American background and finding my own definition of "home."Leaford George Cameron was found guilty in federal court in Philadelphia of operating a fake law practice. Read more

A 65-year-old Burlington County man was convicted Tuesday by a federal jury in Philadelphia of posing as a lawyer in a nationwide legal scam that defrauded more than 100 victims.

Leaford George Cameron, of Burlington, claimed for more than a decade to be an attorney in state and federal cases, including in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Illinois, Florida, as well as Jamaica and India. He falsely asserted that he had a law license issued by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and used stolen attorney identification numbers of actual lawyers, including an administrative law judge in Washington, D.C.

He posed as a lawyer with the phony law firm of Bernstein, Cameron, Hamilton and Associates. He conducted his scam out of his home.

His victims also suffered from his lack of real legal knowledge. One woman lost her home in a foreclosure case. In some immigration cases, his victims were ordered removed from the United States.

Cameron, who was found guilty of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud, and three counts of making false statements, was scheduled to be sentenced May 31 by U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter. Cameron faces a maximum 75 years in prison, prosecutors said.Fox News host Laura Ingraham and analyst Aaron Cohen praised the AR-15 hours after it used by a gunman to kill 17 people at a high school in Florida. Read more

On Wednesday afternoon, a teenager opened fire at the Florida high school he dropped out of, killing 17 people and injuring 14. In just the first seven weeks of 2018, there have already been eight school shootings in the United States that have resulted in injury or death.

According to police, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz stormed Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland with sophisticated tactics, including flash grenades, ammunition clips, and an AR-15 semiautomatic rife, which authorities said he obtained legally. Florida doesn't require a license to purchase or carry a rifle like the AR-15, and there is no mandatory waiting period.

Fox News opinion host Laura Ingraham is among those who is a fan of the AR-15, a popular weapon with ownership estimates ranging somewhere around eight or nine million in the United States. On Wednesday night, hours after the shooting (and just seconds after showing a list of mass shootings in which each gunman used an AR-15), Ingraham defended the weapon to her audience as "so safe"

"It's a semiautomatic rifle, which means every time you depress the trigger, it releases one bullet. It's no different than a handgun," Aaron Cohen, a weapons expert and movie consultant, told Ingraham. Cohen added that it's actually "easier to shoot" than a pistol and that there's less chance of sporadic fire because "it shoots very straight."

Watch:

Ingraham's take was in stark contract to a segment presented earlier by her colleague Shepard Smith, who somberly listed the 25 fatal school shootings in the country since 13 were killed by two students, who later killed themselves, at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999.

Since the Sandy Hook shooting five years ago, in which a gunman killed 20 first graders and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school, at least 138 people have died in at least 239 shootings at elementary schools, high schools, and colleges, according to the New York Times.

It wasn't the only awkward moment that aired on Fox News after the shooting. On Thursday morning, senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano was a guest on Fox & Friends, and attempted to downplay the fact that in several recent mass shootings, the shooters used an AR-15.

"It's very, very powerful. But you could stop a person with an AR-15 with a slingshot if you know how to use it," Napolitano said, suggesting that schools could prevent more shootings by moving toward "the Israeli model," where some teachers "are armed and quietly trained" to use firearms. It was a talking point mentioned by more than one Fox News personality in the hours after the shooting, but according to USA Today, schools in the Broward district typically have one or two school resource officers, typically Broward County sheriff's deputies who are armed and always on campus.

"The fact is, we can't make our schools armed camps," Sen. Bill Nelson (D., Fla.) said on Fox & Friends. "I mean, that's not practical, and it's not reflective of our open society."

Since the shooting, not a single Republican elected official, including Florida Gov. Rick Scott, has appeared on any news network other than Fox News. "[Republicans] won't even come on the damn show. They won't even come on the show," CNN host Chris Cuomo said, noting that Democrats don't have the power in Washington to introduce legislation that could affect mass shootings. "Not a single [Republican] lawmaker would come on this morning to discuss it."

Reliable Sources host and former New York Times reporter Brian Stelter noted Republicans' unwillingness to appear on CNN in a tweet:

Speaking of CNN, counterterrorism analyst Philip Mudd broke down in tears while covering the tragic news of children being killed, citing his own nieces and nephews.

"A child of God is dead, we cannot accept this," a visibly distressed Mudd said before breaking down on live television. "I can't do it, Wolf, I'm sorry, I can't do it."

"We're going to get back to you," CNN host Wolf Blitzer responded. "You're obviously this is so emotional."

Later on CNN, anchor Don Lemon delivered a monologue that called unfettered and unchecked gun violence a "disgrace" and "a sickness that has infected the country."

"Every single one of us is just playing the odds that this point," Lemon said. "But with every deadly shooting in this country, the odds get worse and worse and worse."

There were plenty of conspiracy theories and fake news peddled in conservative circles after the shooting. Lucian Wintrich, the White House correspondent for the right-wing media outlet the Gateway Pundit, spread a fake BuzzFeed screenshot with the headline, "Why We Need to Take Away White People's Guns Now More Than Ever." InfoWars, which peddles conspiracy theories on a regular basis, falsely linked the shooting to ISIS before host Alex Jones settled on the idea the shooting could be a false flag by Democrats in order to pass gun control legislation.

One notable interaction happened on CBS during an interview with Frances Townsend, a former Homeland Security and counterterrorism adviser to President George W. Bush.

In an appearance on CBS This Morning on Thursday, Townsend was asked by cohost Gayle King if the government needs to rethink what "homeland security" really means in light of the country's problem with school shootings.

"This ought to be at the top of the list of homeland security threats, because we have an obligation to protect our children," Townsend said. "Imagine for a moment if the shooter had been a Muslim, we'd be having a different conversation. And how wrong does that feel?"

On Thursday, President Trump said "making our schools and our children safer will be our top priority," but he did not offer any opinions on renewed calls from Democrats to enact tougher gun-control measures, including banning semiautomatic weapons such as the AR-15.A judge has rejected the argument of State Rep. Vanessa Lowery Brown that she was targeted in a corruption investigation because she is black and a Democrat, a ruling that represents a major setback for the last defendant in a controversial Harrisburg sting operation.

Dauphin County Judge Scott A. Evans, ruling this week on a series of defense motions in a case that began more than three years ago, dismissed Brown's argument in one sentence.

"We find the defendant has failed to prove the requirements of a selective prosecution, let alone any prosecutorial misconduct," Evans wrote.

The long-awaited ruling is a milestone in the drawn-out pretrial maneuvering over the fate of Brown, 51, a West Philadelphia elected official charged with selling her vote to an undercover operative for $4,000 in cash. In one cash exchange, she was taped pocketing $2,000 from informant Tyron Ali in her Harrisburg office. She looked at the money, and declared: "Ooh, good looking!  Thank you twice."

After the Inquirer reported that former Attorney General Kathleen Kane secretly shut down the investigation after taking office in 2013, the case was resurrected by Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams.

In all, Williams' office charged six public officials, including Brown, in late 2014 and early 2015 for allegedly taking money from Ali in exchange for their votes on legislation or other actions. Five have pleaded guilty or no contest.

Of those, three were sitting Democratic House members from Philadelphia who have since resigned from office as part of their pleas, which allowed them to keep their government pensions. Brown has remained in office, easily winning reelection in 2016.

State law allows Brown and other elected officials accused of crimes to stay in office through their trials. If they are convicted, they are required to resign on the day of their sentencing.

After initially admitting her wrongdoing as part of a plea deal, Brown reversed course and began to fight back hard against the charges. Her lawyer does not dispute that she took the money, but asked Evans to dismiss the charges on grounds that the investigation was fundamentally unfair.

Her defense drew upon statements from former aides to Kane suggesting that prosecutors had focused on African Americans and Democrats. In one court filing, the defense cited an FBI agent as quoting Ali as having been told "not to take any initiative in contacting Republicans."

The former prosecutors who launched and oversaw the probe rejected the idea that politics or race had guided their decisions. So did Ali, in testimony before Judge Evans.

Patrick Casey, Brown's lawyer, noted Thursday that his client has one more appeal pending before the state Superior Court, arguing that prosecutors should be banned from using any of her remarks to Ali about legislation because lawmakers have immunity from criminal prosecution for such statements. The Dauphin County District Attorney's Office, which has picked up prosecution of the case from its Philadelphia counterparts, is seeking to quash that appeal.A former Philadelphia police officer accused one of his ex-colleagues Wednesday of lying under oath a decade ago in an effort to put rapper Meek Mill behind bars on drug and gun charges.

In a sworn affidavit, Jerold Gibson disputed the account of Mill's arresting officer, Reggie Graham, the sole witness to testify against the rapper at his 2008 trial.

Graham, Gibson said, falsely accused the then 19-year-old of pointing a gun at police as they attempted to arrest him outside of a suspected drug stash house in Southwest Philadelphia.

Gibson's sworn statement  only the latest to raise questions about Graham's credibility  formed the basis Wednesday for yet another push by Mill's lawyers to free their client from prison, where he is serving a sentence for a probation violation tied to that underlying arrest.

In a motion filed in Common Pleas Court, they urged Judge Genece E. Brinkley to overturn Mill's conviction and grant him a new trial.

"The guilty verdicts were expressly based on the court crediting Officer Graham's testimony," Mill lawyer Peter Goldberger wrote. "Without Graham's testimony, [he] could not have been convicted on any count."

Goldberger's motion comes two days after the Inquirer and Daily News first identified Graham as one of two dozen officers named on a secret list maintained by the District Attorney's Office of officers' whose credibility had been so tainted that prosecutors have avoided calling them as witnesses.

The filing is one of the first to cite that never-before disclosed roster as ground for a conviction review. Graham was put on the list nine years after he testified against Mill for reasons that remain undisclosed.

In addition to Gibson's affidavit, Mill's lawyers also included a sworn statement from another ex-officer, Jeffrey Walker, who has accused Graham of stealing money during unrelated drug arrests in 2005.

Graham, who retired from the force last year, has declined to comment.

But both Gibson and Walker face potential credibility issues of their own should they be called to testify on Mill's behalf.

Gibson, the former son-in-law of Gov. Tom Corbett, was fired from the Police Department in 2013 and later sentenced to six months to a year in jail, after he was caught in an FBI sting stealing from suspected drug dealers.

Walker pleaded guilty to similar federal theft charges in 2014 and later served as the government's star witness in a case against six of his former colleagues on a police narcotics field unit. But the jury, in acquitting those officers in 2015, largely rejected his testimony.

How much their new accusations against Graham might help Mill  and how quickly  remains to be seen.

District Attorney Larry Krasner has said he needs at least three months to come up with a comprehensive plan to address the issue of the two dozen cops named on his office's list of suspect investigators, which was started last year by his predecessor, Seth Williams.

But even if Krasner decided to throw his support behind Mill, the decision to grant Mill a new trial will ultimately lie with Brinkley  a judge whom the rapper's backers have spent months tarring with accusations of ethical improprieties while petitioning the court to remove her from the case.

It was Brinkley who in 2008 originally sentenced Mill based largely on Graham's testimony.

He testified that he had watched Mill sell what was later determined to be crack cocaine and that a confidential informant later made another purchase from the rapper at a nearby house in Southwest Philadelphia.

Those assertions were used to obtain a search warrant the next day, but when officers showed up at the house, Graham said, Mill pulled a gun from his waistband and pointed it in their direction.

At his trial, Mill did not deny having the firearm but said he never pointed it at anyone  a claim Gibson backed up in his affidavit.

"I never saw Mr. Williams lift his gun and point it," he said. "I observed Mr. Williams lift the gun out of his waistband in a motion that suggested he was trying to discard the gun."

Gibson and Walker also supported Mill's allegation that Graham and other officers beat him during his arrest. That accusation prompted an Internal Affairs investigation against Graham at the time, although the results of that decade-old probe were unavailable Wednesday.

Walker said in his affidavit that he recalled Graham bragging years later that he had "arrested that rapper boy Meek Mill" and "whooped his ass."

Still, at the time, Graham's testimony convinced Brinkley of Mill's guilt. She convicted the rapper of drug possession, firearms violations, and simple assault. He served five months in jail.

But his failure to comply with the terms of his probation since his release has repeatedly brought Mill back into Brinkley's court  most recently in November when she sent him back to prison for two to four years.

Mill's lawyers continue to appeal that sentence at Superior Court.

Should they prevail in their new effort to overturn his conviction, the attorneys said Wednesday, they would seek his immediate release.FBI agents arrested a Delaware man earlier this month for allegedly snapping off and stealing the thumb of a nearly 2,000-year-old terracotta warrior on loan to the Franklin Institute from China. Read more

More than a month after the defacing of an ancient piece of Chinese cultural heritage, federal agents in Philadelphia have finally fingered a suspect  a guy, you might say, they now have firmly under their thumb.

Prosecutors allege that Michael Rohana, 24, of Bear, Del., sneaked into the Franklin Institute's "Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor" special exhibit in December and snapped the thumb off one of the priceless statues inside.

With the filched finger shoved in his pocket, he left an after-hours "Ugly Sweater Party" he was attending at the museum that night and kept the clay digit in a desk drawer in his bedroom for more than three weeks.

Luckily, though  said FBI Art Crime Team investigator Jacob B. Archer in an affidavit filed in federal court  Rohana left his thumbprints all over this crime.

Surveillance video purportedly showed him  dressed in a fuzzy green sweater and Phillies cap  skulking into the closed exhibit with friends. He snapped selfies with his arms draped around the $4.5 million statue known as "The Cavalryman," and was sending Snapchat messages to friends with photos of the purloined digit the next morning.

By the time museum staff reported their thumbless warrior a week later, it took only a few days for the FBI to identify the alleged thief.

According to the affidavit, Rohana's friends said that they recalled him discussing the thumb on the way home from the party that night. And when agents showed up at the house where he lives with his parents Jan. 13, Rohana  much like brittle, fired clay  purportedly crumbled.

He confessed and led agents to the drawer where he was hiding the thumb.

Rohana was released on bail Friday on art theft charges. It was not immediately clear whether he had retained a lawyer.

Stefanie Santo, a spokeswoman for the Franklin Institute, said Wednesday that thumb and warrior will be reunited, and the statue repaired. The museum has since reviewed its security protocols and determined a contractor did not follow standard procedures the night the theft occurred.

"We thank our security and operations team for the internal investigation they took to provide the FBI with the information necessary to identify the suspect and retrieve the stolen artifact," she said in a statement. "We also thank the FBI for their swift action in this matter."

The Cavalryman is one of 10 terracotta figures discovered from the third-century mausoleum of China's first emperor that are on loan to the museum through March 4.Amanda Holt, a graphic artist and piano teacher from Allentown, took it upon herself to draw up a reasonable redistricting map. She was among a group who challenged Pennsylvanias version to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Read more

Last week, just two Republican members of the 253 members of the General Assembly sent the governor a map that is just as gerrymandered, if not more, than the last one. The Republican map was submitted without any input from Democratic lawmakers or the public. Despite being court-ordered not to do so, the map would maintain the same partisan advantage for Republicans as the current map that was found unconstitutional.

On the other hand, Gov. Wolf has held nonpartisan listening sessions and solicited online comments as a part of his continued effort to hear from Pennsylvanians on gerrymandering and congressional redistricting. He also hired a team of experts with extensive experience in redistricting to review any submitted maps.

Gov. Wolf has shown he is committed to listening to the will of Pennsylvanians and he has promised to do everything he can to ensure that Pennsylvanians are fairly represented. That's why Gov. Wolf rightfully rejected this Republican map, saying, "Partisan gerrymandering weakens citizen power, promotes gridlock and stifles meaningful reform."

It is clear why Gov. Wolf rejected this map. Nonpartisan analysts agree that the map steers the advantage to solely one political party: the Republicans who made it.

Princeton's gerrymandering expert Sam Wang said, "It appears that Republicans are not dealing in good faith with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's order," and New York Times data reporter Nate Cohn said, "At just about every opportunity, the GOP map makes subtle (and occasionally not so subtle) choices that add up to a fairly considerable advantage"

Let's review just how partisan and gerrymandered this map is. This map protects vulnerable Republicans by shifting two top-tier Democratic congressional candidates out of their current districts while keeping all Republican incumbents in their current districts.

In the case of the 18th District special election, Conor Lamb could be elected in a few weeks only to find himself no longer living in that district. Instead, Lamb would have to compete in the same district as Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle.

The plan includes the same unnecessary and intentional splitting, especially in more Democratic areas; that includes diluting Montgomery County's votes by splitting it into four separate districts and chopping up the city of Wilkes-Barre. Republicans made a conscious decision to "crack" cities like Reading and Erie by carving them into more Republican districts.

So let's call this what it is: The Republican map is a partisan, gerrymandered mess. But that's not stopping Republicans from doing everything they can to protect their unconstitutional electoral advantage in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Val DiGiorgio recently penned an op-ed about gerrymandering and upholding the rule of law. This piece rings especially hollow considering that Republicans submitted a map they knew was just as unconstitutional as their old map and that Republicans are attempting to impeach five Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices to prevent the redistricting process from finally being fair. Once again, Republican lawmakers are trying rig the system and take away the voice of Pennsylvanians for their own benefit.

Pennsylvanians have had enough of Republicans' continued unfair attempts to load the dice on this issue. They are refusing to give all citizens the equal voice in government representation that they deserve and that is required under our Constitution. And Pennsylvanians won't forget that this November when they head to the polls.

Jack Hanna is chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.Mayor Kenney and Council President Darrell L. Clarke: at odds over the the new school board? Read more

Once in lockstep over the process of returning control of Philadelphia's schools from the state-dominated School Reform Commission to a local school board, it appears Mayor Kenney and City Council President Darrell L. Clarke are at odds, setting up a potential power struggle with significant fallout.

The Council, with the mayor's blessing, had always planned to pass legislation allowing voters to consider a City Charter change that would give Council approval power over the board members. A charter change is likely to be on the ballot this spring.

But with Clarke's backing, a bill to change the charter was introduced Thursday that would make it more difficult for Kenney to remove school board members  a move seen by some as the Council president's attempt to wrest authority from the mayor.

The City Charter says plainly that school board members "serve at the pleasure of the mayor." The proposed legislation would amend that to say board members "may be removed by the Mayor for cause, including, but not limited to, neglect of duty, misconduct in office, conflicts of interest, inability to discharge the powers or duties of office, or serious violations of law." This would give school board members at odds with the mayor due process  and turn the process for removing them into a protracted affair.

On Wednesday, Kenney sent a letter to the Council urging its members to reject the change. In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Inquirer and Daily News, the mayor said the proposed language change in the charter leads the city down a dangerous path, allowing potentially dangerous situations to fester. He cited the case of former state Board of Education president Larry Wittig, who has been accused of past sexual misconduct but still serves as president of a local school board.

"Students, parents and our communities expect the return to local control to mean those who oversee the School District will be more accountable to them  ," the mayor wrote. "Simply put, for-cause removal takes from the public something we owe them in abundance: accountability. And it offers them nothing in return."

But some Council members, including Clarke, view Kenney's wish to have sole authority over removal of school board members in a dark light.

Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, who introduced the legislation Thursday, said she understood the mayor was opposed to it, but she believed it would pass anyway.

"If the mayor came to Council and said, 'This person has committed this crime [and should be removed], we would support him,'" Blackwell said. "I think that the mayor and City Council would think alike on someone trying to do the right thing by the schoolchildren of Philadelphia."

Jim Engler, Kenney's policy and legislation deputy, rejected the suggestion that Kenney was trying to assert power, since he has it now: The City Charter as it now stands gives the appointing authority  the mayor  the power to remove board members for cause.

"It's just the law as it stands," said Engler. "That's the process we'd like to return to. We've been working closely with members of Council over the past few months on these amendments, and we had no awareness of this until Tuesday. We're honestly surprised."

Kenney has been clear since he publicly announced his intention to take back the city's schools from 16 years of state control: Split accountability, the model under the SRC, has not worked.

"When the SRC dissolves itself, and we return to a school board appointed by the mayor, you can hold me and future mayors accountable for the success or failure of our schools," the mayor said in introducing his intention to push for SRC dissolution in November.

"The mayor is willing to put his position on the line and be held fully accountable for the future of our schools," Engler said. "Why anyone would want to strip that from him, I have no idea."

Late Thursday afternoon, Clarke shot back with his own letter to Council, emphasizing that the proposed change would guarantee an independent board. He wrote that the for-cause requirement would "provide some assurance that the members of the Board of Education can make independent decisions that they believe are in the best interest of the City's children  even if the Mayor or Council disagrees."

That Kenney and Council are already at odds before a single school board member has been selected could be a sign that district governance might not run as smoothly as initially billed.

Larry Ceisler, a longtime city political observer now working in public relations, said that it is "obvious that Council wants to be an equal partner in the formation and composition of the school board," but in the pre-SRC days, "it was never the intention for Council to be an equal partner."

Ceisler said he understood Kenney's move in writing the letter.

"This is his political bet," Ceisler said. "This is his legacy. He needs to have some unilateral authority here."

While Council and the mayor tussle behind the scenes, the process is moving forward.

A nominating panel has been vetting applicants for the new nine-member board, which officials have said will be selected by the end of March and take over governing July 1. Kenney alone now has the final say in who gets the board seats; any charter change could not be introduced in time to affect the first board selections.

The bill introduced Thursday would also change the rules for who could serve on the board. Under the current law, school board members must be residents and registered voters in the city. The charter change would keep the residency requirement but remove the voter clause  essentially opening up the possibility of board service to those not eligible to vote, for reasons of immigration status or otherwise.Hey, do you hear that noise  that whooshing sound coming from all around the country?

It's from patients like Theresa Williams Pope, who is exhaling in relief.

"If not for this place, I don't know where we'd go," said Pope, 62, during her visit this week to the Hunting Park office of the Family Practice and Counseling Network (FPCN). It's a federally funded community network of six health centers that provide high-quality care for low-income people.

Run by nurse practitioners, FPCN is a gleaming, beautiful godsend of an operation that has won reams of national best-practice awards for its model of care.

Until last Friday, when the president signed a budget that reauthorized funds for America's 10,280 community health centers, the future of FPCN was in jeopardy. Which meant the future of Pope, her son, and FPCN's 25,000 other patients was in jeopardy, too.

Pope's son is 32 and schizophrenic. For years, the medical care he received elsewhere was so inadequate, he often had to be hospitalized for erratic behavior. The experiences terrified him, which only exacerbated his mental crises.

"No one could help him" outside of a hospital, says Pope. "All I wanted was to keep him home with me."

The sun came out when Pope found FPCN.

"They embraced us," says Pope, whose use of the word us indicates how deeply her son's illness impacts them both. "They refused to turn us away, even when my son was at his worst. I'd be panicking and they'd say, 'It's OK  we'll figure this out.' "

Slowly, her son stabilized as the staff at FPCN patiently tried different medicines and therapies. The better he got, the more he trusted the staff and the more willing he was to comply with his treatment plan.

Which has kept him out of the hospital ever since.

Pope's is one of countless success stories that unfold every year in America's 10,280 community health centers, where 102.5 million visits occur annually. For 50 years, their federal funding has been solid, thanks to bipartisan support that has remained strong since the country's first two centers opened in 1965 during Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty.

But Sept. 30, the key federal-funding source for the centers expired. It was extended through March 18, but no one knew if or to what extent the centers would be financed in a budget forged by a Congress whose majority hasn't much empathy for the poor and vulnerable.

To save every penny for a worst-case scenario, many centers across the country started closing satellite offices, laying off staff, or reducing hours at their sites. Others nervously dipped into reserve funds while considering the unthinkable, like ending dental, mental-health, and addiction services that had been improving the lives of the unlucky.

"This is the first time anything like this has happened," says Jim Willshier, policy director of the Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers. The state has 300 center sites in 52 counties, whose 806, 000 patients generate three million visits per year.

"It really creates barriers to care," he says.

The worry ended last Friday, when Donald Trump signed a budget that not only reauthorized funding to the country's community health centers but actually expanded it.

In other words, bipartisan humanity and common sense won the day. Even a Congress as fractured and warring as ours knows that this country has gotten it right when it comes to our community health centers. Because 50 years of evidence shows that the centers deliver efficient, compassionate, and cost-effective care.

Increased access to timely primary and preventive services does more than save and improve quality of lives. It generates $24 billion in annual savings to America's health-care system, especially by reducing expensive ER visits, whose average per-visit cost is six times that of a center one.

"We're thrilled," says nurse practitioner Donna Torrisi, who heads FPCN. "We've made so much progress over the past years, the thought of cutting back was devastating."

Pope couldn't be happier, either. Now that her son is on a right track, it's time for her to get there too. She just completed her master's degree in film and now produces videos for her church. Next, she wants to prioritize her well-being.

"I've been so worried about my son, I've neglected myself," she says. So she has started seeing FPCN nurse practitioner Tarik Khan to improve her own health.

An ounce of prevention saves lives. And billions of dollars to all of us.Students released from a lockdown embrace following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. Read more

Hello, Philadelphia. I'm not sure what else to say this morning besides it is another dark day in America. Children have once again been gunned down at school by a man with a semi-automatic weapon. Once again, a community is in mourning. Once again, loved ones seek answers they may never find. It is a cruel, dark day. Be kind to each other.

If you like what you're reading, tell your friends it's free to sign up for this newsletter here.

 Aubrey Nagle (@aubsn, morningnewsletter@philly.com)

 READ MORE: Former student kills 17 in Florida school shooting

Seventeen people were killed by a former student on a shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Wednesday in Parkland, Florida.

The shooter, identified as 19-year-old Nikolaus Cruz, was armed with a semi-automatic rifle and multiple ammunition magazines as well as a gas mask and smoke grenades. Authorities said he set off a fire alarm to draw students out of classrooms as the shooting began.

Authorities didn't know of any threats posed by Cruz to the school, but a former classmate pointed to disturbing past behaviors, saying, "I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him." Others said he had been abusive to a past girlfriend and was expelled after fighting with that ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend.

 READ MORE: Ex-Philly cop says officer lied to put Meek Mill behind bars

A former Philadelphia police officer has accused one of his ex-colleagues of lying under oath a decade ago in an effort to put rapper Meek Mill behind bars on drug and gun charges. Mill's arresting officer, Reggie Graham, was the sole witness to testify against the rapper at his 2008 trial.

The revelation has Mill's lawyers pushing once again to free their client from prison, where he's currently serving a sentence for a probation violation tied to that arrest.

This news comes two days after the Inquirer and Daily News first identified Graham as one of two dozen officers named on a secret District Attorney's Office list of officers with credibility so tainted prosecutors have avoided calling them as witnesses.

What you need to know today

Through Your Eyes | #OurPhilly

We want to see what our community looks like through your eyes. Show us the park that your family walks through every weekend with the dog, the block party in your neighborhood or the historic stretch you see every morning on your commute to work.

Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and we'll pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out!

Thats Interesting

Opinions

"It's not illegal. But it is sleazy. No public benefit comes from politicians using their positions to benefit themselves."  The Inquirer Editorial Board on local politicians

Last Friday, Congress and President Trump actually got health care right when they reauthorized funds for community health centers, writes columnist Ronnie Polaneczky.

Jack Hanna, chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, writes that Gov. Tom Wolf was right to reject the Republican's proposed new congressional map of Pennsylvania.

What were reading

Your Daily Dose of | Events

The region is filled with unique weekend plans to be had, from the annual Lion Dance Parade to The Office-themed Quizzo.Thomas James Upshaw Jr. retired from the Philadelphia Fire Department, but he never left, said his friends, who recalled a loyal firefighter who rose to the rank of lieutenant, and then served as the city's assistant fire marshal.

Although he moved from his home in South Philadelphia to live in Mays Landing, N.J., Mr. Upshaw returned to the city at least once a month to lunch with other retirees from the Fire Department  even while running a liquor store he owned in New Jersey, and undergoing frequent kidney dialysis in recent years, said his granddaughter, Lisa Branch-Edwards. The 86-year-old retiree died at Atlantic Care Regional Medical Center in Pomona on Feb. 7, after being admitted three weeks earlier.

"The Fire Department was very important to him," Branch-Edwards said.

Born and raised in South Philadelphia, Mr. Upshaw joined the Air Force after graduating from South Philadelphia High School. He served as an advanced radio operator in France and Germany, earning commendation medals before his honorable discharge in 1953 with the rank of senior airman. After he returned to the United States, he followed in his father's footsteps as a firefighter. He retired in 1983, after having served 28 years on the force and achieving the rank of lieutenant and assistant fire marshal.

Edwin Wells, who served with Mr. Upshaw in the Fire Department, said Mr. Upshaw was particular about safety.

"He was a great mentor. He taught me an awful lot," Wells said. "I was grateful because he taught me skills I used throughout the years."

Mr. Upshaw served as president of the Club Valiants, a professional organization created to provide brotherhood and advanced the interests of African American firefighters  including integrating fire houses, creating career advancement, and equal pay.

In 1975, Mr. Upshaw was on the board that initiated a lawsuit against the city for failing to provide equal opportunities, which led to a court order to increase the number of minorities on the payroll. The decision to sue had not been made lightly "because we were putting our jobs on the line. We didn't know how the city would react," said former Deputy Chief Willie Williams.

Williams recalled that Mr. Upshaw also served in the department when the Gulf Oil refinery in South Philadelphia erupted into a 12-alarm blaze that burned for six days and took the lives of eight firefighters during an explosion that trapped the men in 1975. It remains one of the city's worst disasters, Williams said.

Branch-Edwards said her grandfather loved fishing. After retiring in 1983, Mr. Upshaw and his wife, Josephine, moved to Mays Landing and opened Royal Liquors in Atlantic City on Arctic Avenue. As casinos drew tourists and development, the liquor store grew into a solid business, she said.

Eventually, the business was sold and Mr. Upshaw split his time fishing, boating, and visiting friends. He enjoyed a good game of pool and taught his younger relatives how to play and improve, Branch-Edwards said. He was also very religious and supported the churches he attended. He told his family, "When God's ready for me, I'm ready for him."

In addition to his granddaughter, Mr. Upshaw in survived by his son, Carl Branch, a great-grandson, a sister, and a brother. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Lottie Branch, and in 2012 by his second wife, Josephine McGill, and a brother.

Visitation is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 16, from 9 to 11 a.m., with a service to follow at New Hope Baptist Church, 312 Manheim St., Philadelphia. Interment will be at Chelten Hills Cemetery, 1701 Washington Lane, Philadelphia.This photo posted on the Instagram account of Nikolas Cruz shows weapons lying on a bed. Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, the day after opening fire with a semi-automatic weapon in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Read more

If you feel infuriated each time a mass shooting dominates the news, it's time to start paying attention to two issues that could make a difference: gerrymandering and campaign fundraising.

These issues are linked. And that's killing us.

The senseless rampage that claimed 17 lives Wednesday in a high school in Parkland, Fla., is just the latest. It's certain that more will die unless a fundamental and systemic change happens.

Gerrymandering redraws boundaries of legislative districts every 10 years to protect the political party in power. That creates safe districts, where incumbents need not worry about challengers from the opposing party.

In Pennsylvania, Republicans  resistant to any reasonable gun control  are safe from Democratic challengers in many districts. Worse, those same Republicans often face primary challengers who cast themselves as more ideologically pure. That tends to push campaigns to the right of the political spectrum, with candidates in thrall to gun-rights groups, led by the National Rifle Association.

Which brings us to political spending and the NRA, which Politifact.com examined in October.

They found the NRA spent $203.2 million on political activities from 1998 to 2016, with $144.3 million going to outside spending like "independent expenditures," a loophole ripped open in the federal campaign finance laws by the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the Citizens United case. The NRA spent $45.9 million on lobbying and $13 million in contributions to candidates, parties and political action committees.

Where does that money go? Mostly to Republicans.

The Center for Responsive Politics in October calculated that members of the House received $5.7 million from the NRA and other gun-rights groups in the 2015-16 election cycle. Of that, 98 percent went to Republicans.

For that, Congress in 2016 voted against legislation to expand gun purchase background checks for people on federal terrorist watch lists. And in 2017, they undid a rule prohibiting gun sales to people with serious mental health issues.

Voters see the madness in all this.

A Quinnipiac University Poll released in November 10 days after a mass shooting claimed 26 lives at a church in Texas found overwhelming support for several kinds of gun regulation, from universal background checks to a ban on assault weapons. Seven out of 10 voters in that poll said Congress needs to do more to reduce gun violence.

There were 346 mass shootings, defined as four or more people wounded or killed, in 2017, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Fifteen of those were in Pennsylvania, with 11 in Philadelphia. An additional 13 occurred in New Jersey.

And 45 days into 2018, there have been 30 more mass shootings.

We are being gunned down in our schools, at country-music concerts, in churches.

President Trump on Thursday morning called Parkland "a great and safe community." The truth is, there is no such thing as a safe community. Laws that reduce gun violence are important. But it's also important to fight for fairer district lines, and to urge Congress to close the Citizens United loophole.

The carnage will continue as long as gun money keeps flowing to lawmakers who are in protected seats.A leading farming charity is advising the farming industry to start looking after themselves mentally as well as physically.

Poor mental health is the biggest health topic in the UK at present  one in four people have been diagnosed with a mental illness and in farming, mental health issues continue to be of great concern (including depression)

The leading cause of death for people aged between 20 and 34 is suicide  approximately, more than one farmer a week in the UK dies by suicide (ONS)

The Farm Safety Foundation, the charity behind Farm Safety Week, has launched this week-long initiative to raise awareness of mental health amongst the farming community

International rugby referee Nigel Owens lends his support for the inaugural Mind Your Head campaign, which launched on 13th February 2018.

Whilst UK farmers are renowned for the attention they give to their livestock, crops and machinery, it appears they do not have such a good track record when it comes to taking care of themselves and their own wellbeing.

Levels of depression in the industry are thought to be increasing and suicide rates in farmers are among the highest in any occupational group (ONS). Risk of suicide was also higher amongst those working in specific agricultural roles such as harvesting crops and rearing animals (almost twice the national average) (ONS).

In an industry with the poorest safety record of any occupation in the UK, stress is often a key factor in many of the accidents, injuries and illnesses taking place on farms. Stress is something that many farmers face at some point and is an important contributor to mental health problems. It can come from many sources such as financial pressures resulting from market fluctuations, livestock disease or poor harvests, but concerns about Brexit, policies, administration and legislation can also take their toll.

The situation is compounded by the fact that farming tends to be an innately conservative culture and some still perceive a stigma attached to mental health. This can hinder peoples willingness to speak about the issue and to seek help for themselves.

The Farm Safety Foundations inaugural Mind Your Head Campaign aims to encourage farmers and farming families not to neglect themselves, but to put themselves first, open up and get some help and advice on whatever concerns they have.

After an extraordinary journey from the depths of depression to one of the most universally respected international rugby referees, former president of the Wales Federation of Young Farmers Clubs, Nigel Owens, 46, from Carmarthenshire, is all too aware of how easily things can get out of hand when you dont open up and you allow stress to take over your life.

In his mid-twenties, Nigel lacked self-esteem about the way he looked and he was ashamed of being homosexual. Coming from a small farming community, he did not want anyone to know and did not know where to turn. This led him down a dark path where he became addicted to steroids and suffered from bulimia. On one particular occasion, he tried to commit suicide at the top of Bancyddraenen Mountain, overlooking the village he had lived in all his life, Mynyddcerrig. Thankfully, he didnt succeed and he received help to get him mentally well.

Welsh rugby union referee, Nigel said; The mind is a powerful tool which can be positive and helpful, as well as negative and destructive. From experience, if we dont open up and talk about how were feeling and what we are struggling with, we can end up becoming anxious and depressed. Im delighted to support the Mind Your Head Campaign because the farming community need to know they are not alone and that there should be no taboo about asking for help.

The Farm Safety Foundation is bringing together key organisations in the industry to work together for this initiative in the hope that farmers and their families know where, when and how to seek help when they need it. Organisations such as the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution, Rural Support and the Farming Community Network (FCN), a voluntary organisation providing pastoral and practical support for farmers and farming families, who are going through difficult times. Charles W. Smith, Chief Executive of the FCN explains: When it comes to important farm safety equipment, people usually think of tractor roll bars, shedding gates for livestock and high-vis clothing. But there is another piece of kit, which when used properly, is even better  the mind.

It is very easy to underestimate just how important the mind is when it comes to farming. Along with the body, it is, without doubt, the best bit of kit a farmer can have. The Farm Safety Foundation does amazing work in providing advice and resources about farm safety and encouraging farmers to take all relevant safety precautions before carrying out their work. However, if your mind and body are not well-maintained, as well as your machinery, it is very easy to become less conscious of the dangers around you.

Charles adds: Talking to someone about your problems is often the first step to improving your mental wellbeing. But who? If not family or friends, then why not speak to someone you dont know  someone you have no emotional attachment with, but who has a great understanding of what you may be going through?

This is exactly what the FCN offers  free, practical and pastoral support to farmers and families within the farming community. Many of the 400 plus FCN volunteers are involved in farming and have a unique understanding of the issues facing the agricultural industry.

According to Gina Fusco, Chair of Trustees of the Farm Safety Foundation; Mental Health is an issue that is very much at the heart of the farming community but one that few farmers feel comfortable discussing. The purpose of this Mind Your Head campaign is to encourage conversations and address the stigma surrounding mental wellbeing. Its about looking out for each other, reminding farmers to Mind Your Head and letting them know that there are organisations out there who want to help. The pressures of farming arent going to disappear, so as a farmer you need resilience, smart strategies and specific skills to live well and farm well. The first step to improving your mental wellbeing can be as simple as talking to someone.

For more information on Mind Your Head or any of the organisations mentioned in the article, visit www.yellowwellies.org or follow @yellowwelliesUK on Twitter/Facebook using the hashtag #MindYourHead

Get Our E-Newsletter - Pig World's best stories in your in-box twice a week See e-newsletter example Will be used in accordance with our Privacy PolicyIn 1937, Hamden L. Forkner of Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City proposed a national club to promote business education. The proposal was accepted, passed, and funded in 1940 and has since been call Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA). Since then, it has grown and is a club in schools all across the country. FBLA focuses on preparing students to be the future business leaders of tomorrow. Not knowing how FBLA impacted the students, I decided to ask fellow classmates Grace Steenburgen and Jaden Shelit.

"It's a club that helps me build on my business skills. I run a purebred cattle company and it's helped me a lot with that," and "it's fun because you get to meet so many new people. The best thing about it is really working together." said Steenburgen.

"It's helped me with time management and organization and really helped me find who I am," responded Shelit.

Mary Jacobsen, the current FBLA advisor for Pine Bluffs High School, stated that "Initially being an FBLA advisor came with the job. I've been doing it for 17 years, and I've continued being an advisor because I like to see the kids grow. We strive on excellence, service, community and competition. The best part is seeing people win after putting a lot of effort in and celebrating their successes."

Recently, Pine Bluff's own junior high kids competed: Scott Fornstrom placed 1st in Keyboarding I, 2nd in Business Concepts and 3rd Place Business Communication. Jaden Shelit placed 1st in Public Speaking, 3rd in the Elevator Speech, 3rd in Career Exploration, 3rd in FBLA Facts and 4th in Business Communication. Grace Steenbergen placed 4th in the Elevator Speech. Mady Graves placed 1st in the Community Service Project (Alexis, Abby.) Alexis DePaulitte placed 1st on a Comm. Service Project (Mady, Abby) and 4th in FBLA Facts. Ty Sweeter placed 2nd in Spreadsheet Applications. Dominic Paice placed 4th in Spreadsheet Applications. Carson Rabou placed 2nd in Business Communication. Abby Grey placed 1st in a Comm. Service Project (Alexis, Mady) Stuart Lerwick placed 4th in Business Math and Financial Literacy, Jason Mickelson placed 2nd in Website Development and 4th in Intro to Computer Programming.Stephen L. Peiffer knew upon graduating high school he would enter the military. His father and grandfather both served in the military. Their branch of service was the Navy.

Peiffer wanted a choice of what he might do and with what branch he would serve versus the pick of the draft.

Peiffer was born and raised for a few years in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Morgan Township High School in Valpariso, Indiana. The move was due to a job transfer for his father.

When he graduated, the draft was in effect and he knew it was a matter of time until he was called up. "We have mili...Most people associate Valentine's Day with celebrating love and romance by buying chocolates, flowers, or cards for their loved ones. Some people think giving gifts is a good way to show how much they care, while others view the holiday as nothing more than a good way to waste money. No matter where people stand on the topic, there is a long, somewhat confusing history behind Valentine's Day.

There are lots of interpretations and legends surrounding Valentine's Day. While nobody can be sure, many people believe Valentine's Day originated in Ancient Rome as the successor of Lupercalia, a festival that celebrated springtime and fertility. Pope Gelasius I came up with the new holiday so it would align more with the Christian religion and also serve as a day to honor and celebrate St. Valentine. There are two popular legends surrounding who exactly St. Valentine was. The first states that St. Valentine was a priest who was executed for continuing to marry couples even after Emperor Claudius II banned marriage, and the second states that he was a priest who was sent to jail, fell in love with a jailer's daughter, and gave her a letter that said, "from your Valentine" before he was executed. Both of these stories could be partially correct because there is not a definite story or even one specific St. Valentine that the holiday celebrates.

Despite the complicated origin of Valentine's Day, it gained popularity in Europe where people exchanged handwritten cards and authors wrote stories about love and gift giving. Eventually, people started buying expensive gifts to give to their "Valentines" and it developed into the holiday we know today. The traditions of Valentine's Day moved to America where they were advertised extensively and mass production of gifts began. More consumers started celebrating Valentine's Day because of its commercialization and it became a popular holiday. According to USA Today, in the United States alone, people spent $18.2 billion on Valentine's gifts in 2017, and they're predicted to spend $19.6 billion in 2018. It may seem extreme to spend so much money on Valentine's Day gifts, but the tradition of giving gifts has continued for many centuries as a way for people to celebrate love.This is Pointes June/July 2014 Cover Story. You can subscribe to the magazine here, or click here to purchase this issue.

Alicia Graf Mack tells the remarkable stories of three stars who have beaten ballets odds, finding successful careers in the field they love.

Photo by Nathan Sayers for Pointe.

Ashley Murphy

As a young girl in Shreveport, Louisiana, Dance Theatre of Harlems Ashley Murphy never dreamed of a career in ballet. I didnt grow up hearing that being a professional dancer was a real job, she says. Ballet was just an extracurricular activity that she enjoyed, along with gymnastics and piano lessons.

Not until she attended summer programs at New Yorks Joffrey Ballet School, The Ailey School and DTH did Murphy begin to realize her own potential. Though she earned admission to Dillard University in Louisiana, she ultimately followed her heart and accepted a spot with DTHs junior company. Within a year, director Arthur Mitchell, noticing her air of quiet mystery, promoted her to the professional company.

Murphy found herself in her dream job. She enjoyed working amongst so many dancers of color, striving toward this goal of showing the world that a ballet company celebrating the diversity of American society could advance the art form. This was a place where she could pursue what she loved regardless of the color of her skin. In 2003, DTH experienced a successful touring year, and Ashley performed some of the greatest works of the neoclassical canon, including Balanchines Serenade and Concerto Barocco, and the companys signature work, John Taras Firebird.

Sheer confusion is how Murphy describes her thoughts after hearing the announcement, in 2004, that DTH was closing. We were touring and performing to sold-out audiences, and the next week, I didnt have a job, she remembers. Murphy stayed in New York for a few months, auditioning for other ballet companies, but was forced to move back home when nothing worked out. The disappointment of unemployment after reaching such a high in the ballet world wore on her spirit and led her to question the role that race plays in dance. To a certain extent, race affects us all, whether we are willing to admit it or not, she says.

From 2004 to 2012, Murphy made it her mission to inspire young people of color. She not only danced with the DTH Ensemblethe performing arm of the DTH School, which continued to operate during the companys hiatusbut also worked with DTHs educational outreach program, Dancing Through Barriers. The biggest thing that we can do is to be an example to others, she says. Not seeing people who looked like me is one of the reasons I never considered ballet as a profession growing up.

Today, the powerful yet elegant 29-year-old is at the forefront of Dance Theatre of Harlems comeback as a full-fledged professional company. Murphy often wonders why it can never just be, Oh, she is a beautiful dancer. It has to be, She is a beautiful black dancer.  Those kinds of assumptions have charged her to strengthen and develop her artistry, so that her talent is undeniabledevoid of labels. Her pursuit of excellence is not about being a standout black ballerina, but about being a standout artist. That should be the larger issue, she says.

Photo by Nathan Sayers for Pointe.

Ebony Williams

Ebony Williams has worked with pop stars like Beyonce and Rihanna, but the chameleonlike dancers home is Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. Cedar Lakes repertoire emphasizes the work of innovative European choreographers, and Williams, whose strong classical technique is complemented by an urban angularity, was drawn to its marriage of classical and contemporary. I felt like I didnt have to just be a ballerina, she says.

For Williams, the dance world wasnt always a welcoming place. She started her classical training in elementary school through Boston Ballets Citydance, an outreach program designed to bring dance to inner-city public schools. Soon Boston Ballet recognized Williams prodigious talent and asked her to join the Boston Ballet School on full scholarship. As one of the only black girls at the school and on financial assistance, Williams often felt estranged.

Everyone at Boston Ballet, the staff and teachers, was very good to me, she says. It was really just the parents and the other girls. I remember one girls mom grabbed me and told me that she was paying for me to be there, and I didnt deserve the roles I was getting. It was horrible. During her freshman year of high school, Williams began to retreat, skipping classes and eventually quitting ballet altogether. It was no longer fun for me, she says.

Williams joined her high schools cheerleading squad, graduated and enrolled in college to study physical therapy. A former teacher saw her in Boston during a break and asked her why she was no longer dancing. I felt like no one was letting me quit, Williams says. Everyone knew me as Ebony the dancer. After a six-year hiatus from formal ballet training, she returned to her greatest passion, enrolling in The Boston Conservatory. I started in the lowest ballet level, and by the second semester I was in the highest level.

In rediscovering ballet, Williams rediscovered herself, and ultimately found a new path at one of the dance worlds most diverse companies. She loves that everyone in Cedar Lake is from a different place in the world, she says. It is important to the artistic direction to bring in individuals who have their own voices. Now she embraces the fact that while the color of her skin makes her special, it is her talent that sets her apart.

Photo by Nathan Sayers for Pointe.

Misty Copeland

Misty Copeland, American Ballet Theatres first African-American soloist in over two decades, is one of the ballet worlds most prominent role models. More than 250,000 fans follow her every move on social media. With a new memoir on sale, a documentary in the making and several commercial endorsements, Copeland is a force to be reckoned with.

But being in the spotlight also has its challenges. Copeland is no stranger to dealing with negative chatter and intense pressure. As I climb the ranks of the ballet world, Ive started to see more judgment from my audiences and peers, she says. I just have to block it out and stay focused and weed out the negative. I have to be able to stand my ground.

Copeland began training in classical ballet at 13. Discovered by her teacher, Cynthia Bradley, at a Boys & Girls Club in San Pedro, California, Copeland was aware that her color could present a challenge, but she trained in a caring, insulated environment that allowed her to flourish as a young artist. Even after moving to New York City in 2000 to dance with ABTs Studio Company, she was not aware of the role that race would play later in her career.

In fact, it was not until Copelands first year as an ABT corps member that she began to struggle. In the beginning it was so difficult, she says. As one of the only black female dancers in ABT, she felt really alone, and started to rebel. I was really hard on myself. She became increasingly frustrated with her casting, believing that her talent merited bigger opportunities.

Copeland attributes her change of attitude and sense of determination to conversations she had with Victoria Rowell, a former ballerina and actress who encouraged her to continue to fight for her place at ABT. Copeland says, It was the first time that I had a black woman so positive and strong in my dance career. She said, You can do this. And thats what I needed to hear. Copeland found the courage to ask for what she wanted, and her career at ABT took an upward turn.

Today, Copeland is using her position with one of the worlds premier ballet companies as a platform for bringing issues of racial inequality to the forefront of the ballet world. In following her own dreams, Copeland is paving the way for other women of color to do the same. I am constantly saying that, to be a black ballet dancer, you have to be incredibly strong, she says. I want to show people that it is possible.Detroit police Officer Darren Weathers was killed as his team conducted a surveillance training exercise that wasn't approved by the commander of the department's professional standards section, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Wednesday, and he may have run a red light.

It was initially reported that Weathers, 25, was conducting a training exercise in southwest Detroit when the crash occurred at about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. But on Wednesday, Craig said it was uncertain whether Weathers, who died from his injuries at Henry Ford Hospital, was involved in the training, reports the Detroit Free Press.

"I can't tell you with certainty that, while this officer's team was involved in surveillance training, he may have been trying to meet up with the team or he could have been actively involved," Craig said.

Craig said there are two active investigations following Weathers' death: a fatal crash investigation and an internal probe.

The first will look into causal factors in the fatal crash, Craig said, and that is being handled by the department's Fatal Squad, because the incident happened on the streets of Detroit.

The internal probe will focus on the "actual training, why it was conducted, how extensive was it," Craig said.Retired Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Steven Belanger died Tuesday as a result of being shot in the head at a traffic stop 24 years ago. (Photo: Los Angeles County SO)

A Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy wounded 24 years ago when he was shot in the head during a traffic stop in Rowland Heights has died, it was announced Wednesday.

Steven Belanger died Tuesday as a result of injuries he suffered in the December 1994 shooting, according to the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, the union representing the department's deputies.

Belanger was 29, a married father of a 1-year-old daughter and a seven-year LASD veteran when he was shot by a 20-year-old man on a skateboard, a bullet lodging in his brain, unable to be removed, according to ALADS and a Los Angeles Times article published in the weeks after the shooting.

"His retirement, ongoing health issues and ultimately his death ... were related to the shooting," according to an ALADS statement.

Read more at NBC Los AngelesAfter this weeks conclusion of a federal corruption trial that convicted two Baltimore police officers, a Maryland lawmaker floated a radical proposal: disband the Baltimore Police Department.

Del. Bilal Ali, a Baltimore Democrat, proposed the idea in a memo he sent to Mayor Catherine E. Pugh and her newly appointed police commissioner after a federal jury convicted two Baltimore detectives for their roles in one of the citys biggest police corruption scandals. Six other officers pleaded guilty in the case.

The idea quickly generated reaction among politicians Tuesday  from one calling it nonsense to others saying Ali's idea should not be dismissed.

To support his argument, Ali cited the example of Camden, N.J., which disbanded its troubled police force in 2013 and rebuilt the agency in ways that some say have led to a reduction in violent crime. Others criticize the move as a union-busting tactic to save money, the Baltimore Sun reports.

I write today to ask that Baltimore Citys leadership seriously evaluate Camdens approach, and begin consideration on whether to disband and reconstitute BPD from the ground up, Ali wrote. There is a blueprint for success, empirical data to guide us, and a light at the end of the tunnel. Our only choice now is whether we will begin to walk toward it.The former student suspected of killing multiple people at a Broward County high school is taken into custody Wednesday. He reportedly escaped the campus by posing as one of his intended victims. (Photo: ABC News screen shot)

Broward County (FL) Sheriff Scott Israel says 17 people were shot to death Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. A former student is in custody.

Law enforcement from numerous local agencies and from federal agencies responded to the scene. Tactical teams arrived in several armored rescue vehicles and cleared the school.

A federal official identified the suspect as Nicolas Cruz, according to the Associated Press. A former student, he was taken into custody off campus without incident, said Sheriff Israel. The suspect was both inside and outside the school building in the course of the shootings, authorities say.

The suspect slipped out of the school after the shooting by blending in with other students who were trying to escape, two law enforcement sources and an eyewitness told ABC News.

There are reports the suspect was on a watch list.

We were told last year that he wasnt allowed on campus with a backpack on him, said math teacher Jim Gard, who told the Miami Herald Cruz had been in his class last year. There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.

There are 3,208 students in grades 9-12 enrolled at the school, the Sun Sentinel reports.Chris Murphy Tells Trump To Stay Quiet On Parkland Shooting Because Hell Only Make Things Worse

744 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy said that Donald Trumps silence following Wednesdays mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, is probably a good thing. < When Trump offers his thoughts on anything, it often makes matters much worse, and Murphy said he isnt interested in hearing what Trump has to say  if he chooses to say anything at all. Video: Chris Murphy Tells Trump To Stay Quiet On Parkland Shooting Because Hell Only Make Things Worse #inners pic.twitter.com/Xdoc16H9Zq  Sean Colarossi (@SeanColarossi) February 15, 2018 MSNBC host Chris Hayes asked Murphy, Do you want to hear from the President of the United States on this issue? and Murphy responded: I dont know. I dont know. I mean, Id be worried to ask for more of President Trumps thoughts on mass shootings. I worry that he would make it worse, not better. If I thought he was going to offer something that was real, actual consolation, Id be willing to hear more. Im not sure whats that we would get. At this hour, Donald Trump has yet to appear in front of a camera to address the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida which left at least 17 innocent people dead. While it shows a stunning lack of compassion and leadership, it may not be such a bad thing that this president is remaining silent.

After all, in other moments of national importance, he has spoken out loudly and made matters much worse. In the case of the deadly incident in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump didnt just speak out, but he openly sympathized with white supremacists.

In the case of mass shootings, Trumps words would be even more meaningless. Not only does he lack basic human compassion, but he is completely beholden to the NRA and has no intention of doing something that could prevent future shootings.

There is no question that Donald Trumps silence after this tragedy is stunning and completely out of character for him, but the country is probably better off without his input.178.3k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

By a vote of 225-192, House Republicans have voted to gut the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and stri[e equal rights away from 56.7 million Americans.

<

The vote:

*BREAKING* HR 620 PASSED the House 225-192 We ALL must  our 2 Senators & say NO to a bill that would roll back protections of the American Disabilities Act (ADA) Please call. We can STOP this.  the  202-224-3121 https://t.co/aaVvpvLcy0  Peter Morley (@morethanmySLE) February 15, 2018

Democrats and advocacy groups are blasting HR 620

Democratic Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said on the House floor, Now we have on the Floor a bill that would undermine the central tenet of the ADA, the right of victims of discrimination to seek redress for exclusion. Requiring victims of discrimination to provide notice of a violation before bringing a lawsuit is an improper shift of the burden of compliance onto victims  one not required of any other group by any other civil rights law. Not a single civil rights law gives this kind of provision.

The ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jarrold Nadler (D-NY) warned, The ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017, would undermine the civil rights of Americans with disabilities by significantly weakening the key enforcement tool of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which is the filing of private lawsuits by discrimination victims. Congress passed the ADA 28 years ago with the goals of fully integrating persons with disabilities into the mainstream of American life and counteracting discriminatory social attitudes towards the disabled. By making it harder for persons facing such discrimination to vindicate their rights in court, H.R. 620 ultimately undermines these goals.

The Alliance For Retired Americans said in a statement provided to PoliticusUSA, The bill removes the incentives for businesses to comply with the law and imposes significant burdens on Americans with disabilities. Currently, the law provides legal recourse to disabled individuals to ensure that business and other establishments comply with the ADA law. We must not take that away. By providing businesses a 120-day waiting period before the person reporting a violation can take the case to court, this bill weakens the ADA. During this time, businesses would not be penalized as long as they are making substantial progress towards becoming ADA-compliant. However, substantial progress is not defined and would be left to the courts.

HR 620 is intended to undermine the civil rights of Americans with disabilities

HR 620 has one goal, and that it to make it more difficult for disabled Americans to get equal access to businesses and establishments. It has been a goal of Republicans for more than a decade to undermine the ADA. If a person with a disability cant gain access to a business or establishment, thats their problem. We already know how Trump feels about differently abled people, so if the bill passes the Senate, it is certain to become law.

Civil rights are under assault, and only a united wall of Americans can keep this country equal and free for all.UPC boasts 2.6 million subscribers in Hungary

Portfolio Save article Share Hungarian

Infocommunications company UPC Hungary increased its revenues by 9.7% year on year in 2017, on the back of a 7.3% rise in the number of subscriptions to over 2.064 million, the company announced on Thursday.

UPC has not disclosed its 2016 sales figure, but publicly available data show HUF 66.57 bn.



Robert Redeleanu, CEO of UPC Hungary and UPC Romania, underlined in a statement that the main engine of sales growth was a dynamic development in mobile and business services and network upgrades. UPC invested a total of HUF 17.6 bn on network developments on 40 cities, expanding its network to 1.8 million households in 347 settlements.



UPC Hungary has over 850,000 retail and corporate customers at the end of last year, which marks an increase of more than 27,000 in annual terms. The number of high-speed Internet subscriptions rose by nearly 40,000 ot over 664,000, and there were almost 20,000 more (683,000 in total) analogous and digital TV subscriptions at the end of 2017 than a year earlier. The number of mobile subscriptions exceeded 88,000, as a result of 25,900 new sign-ups.Come Sunday, March 4, Hollywood will show up (probably in a black dress) to compliment itself and pass out golden statues to its finest productions at the 90th Academy Awards Ceremony. Social media will likely be on fire, too, as people weigh in on matters of representation, sexism, and artistic vision.

Why should you care, though? Lets turn to Sean Lundberg, celebrated actor and my favorite Facebook film critic.

"Every Oscar season were met with a barrage of Important Movies that everyone is supposed to have seen but nobody has heard of. Its easy to roll your eyes at how seriously they take themselves. That dismissiveness, however, makes it easy to overlook that these are movies that are attempting to start a dialogue with the viewer. They play with themes that are beautiful, tragic, topical, controversial, and at the very least they prompt conversation. Its through the discussion of challenging art that we understand the world around us just a little bit more. Thats something were in dire need of these days."

This years crop of nominees is all over the place. If you think youre going to watch them all before the show, youd better get cracking. For those of you looking for a primer thatll give you just enough knowledge to enjoy the show, heres a quick guide.

"The Shape of Water"leads the pack this year with 13 nominations. "Dunkirk"snagged eight, while "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"nabbed seven. "Darkest Hour"and "Phantom Thread"each received six, while "Lady Bird"and "Blade Runner 2049"nabbed five each.

Highlights

"Get Out"has garnered quite a bit of buzz this awards season; its running close to the front of expected winners in the "Best Picture" category following a win at the Writers Guild Awards on Feb. 11. Though the film didnt rack up as many Oscar nominations as others, it got them where they count, with chances to win Best Picture, Best Director, and Lead Actor awards. On its own, the films unorthodox manner of exploring race relations (its a horror movie) makes it noteworthy during an awards ceremony often criticized for being too white. But its lead actors strong performance and the inventiveness of director Jordan Peele speak for themselves just fine.

If youre only going to catch one of the lead actress performances, Margo Robbie in "I, Tonya," is hard to beat. She captures the rough spirit and uncouth mouth of disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding with both sympathetic and laughably unaware beats and is able to convincingly channel the athlete from her teen years into her 40s.

In terms of ensemble performances, its tough to top Frances McDormands hard-as-nails character in "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,"especially since her co-stars Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell are competing for Supporting Actor awards in the same film. If youre looking for a take-no-prisoners female protagonist in the year of #metoo, McDormands antics in the first half of the film are where youll find her.

"Blade Runner 2049"isnt in the running for Best Picture (for shame, Academy), but if it misses awards for cinematography and sound design, somethings wrong. Clocking in at nearly three hours, the film is comprised of moment after moment that will take your breath away thanks to a seamless marriage of a remarkable score and visionary camerawork.

I havent seen "Lady Bird,"which is running as a viewer-favorite, but Anne Halliwell has, and has this to say:

"Lady Bird"won accolades for the insightful, affectionate handling of Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson (Saoirse Ronan)s coming-of-age in Sacramento, Calif. It touches on adolescent friendships, religion, money issues, and sex, but the central plot revolves around Lady Birds fraught relationship with her mother (Laurie Metcalf). The movies triumph is in portraying female relationships in a way that neither pits women against each other nor glosses over the pitfalls of growing up. Gerwig made history as the only woman who has been nominated for the "Best Director" category for her debut film. She is one of only five female directors who have been nominated in the Oscars 90-year history.

How do I watch these things?

Many of these movies receive only limited releases until awards season. Rochester theatres have been screening most nominated films, though on a limited basis. Showings change weekly, and the closer we get to Sunday, Mar. 4, the easier theyll be to catch. For current times, call your theater or check their listings online.

A hot tip for an obscure pair of categories

For the last four years, my girlfriend has made valiant efforts to see everything nominated. I go along to some, but usually never have as good a time as I do while watching the nominees for Best Animated Short and Best Live Action Short. The Academy bundles the nominees into a single program and distributes it around the country. For those of us in 507land, The Uptown Theatre, 2906 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, is the closest spot to screen them. In fact, its all theyre showing right now. True pro tip: pay the extra money for balcony seats.Until today, there were two main immigration reform proposals in the Senate. The first: a proposal by Sen. Grassley, and supported by the White House, to grant amnesty to nearly two million Dreamers while (a) allocating $25 billion for a wall and other security measures, (b) cutting way back on chain migration, and (c) ending the diversity lottery. The second: a proposal by Sens. Coons and McCain that would grant the amnesty to even more than two million illegal immigrants and allocate only $3 million towards border security.

Neither bill seemed to have any hope of gaining the 60 votes needed to pass it.

Today, a third proposal emerged. Something called the Common Sense Coalition  consisting of some liberal Democrats and some very squishy Republicans  came up with a proposal that grants amnesty for the nearly two million and authorizes $25 billion for southern border security construction projects, but over the course of the next decade, not now.

As for chain migration, the proposal, as I understand it, bars Dreamers from sponsoring their parents or enabling hem to receive temporary status. In addition, legal permanent residents would be unable to sponsor their unmarried adult children until they become citizens.

Needless to say, this doesnt deal with what conservatives mean when they complain about chain migration.

Nor does it deal effectively with border security. If we need a wall  and well need one more than ever after a mass grant of amnesty  construction over a ten year period wont cut it.

And can we be confident that the $25 billion will actually be spent? Im not. I assume at some time between now and 2028, open-borders Democrat will gain the political clout necessary to stop construction.

Furthermore, the diversity lottery isnt addressed at all.

To make matters worse, the proposed legislation audaciously sets priorities for immigration enforcement. It prioritizes people convicted of crimes and those who pose a threat to national security. But when it comes to people only guilty of unlawful presence, it calls on immigration officers to focus on those who arrived after June 30, 2018.

Readers will note (though I wonder whether all of the Republican sponsors have) that June 30, 2018 is months away. Thus, this legislation invites aliens to enter the U.S. illegally for the next four months by effectively assuring them they wont be removed.

In sum, this bill is a travesty.

But what about the politics of the proposal? Can it get 60 votes in the Senate? Can it pass the House? Would President Trump sign it?

Lets start with the easy question. If the Senate passes this proposal, Im pretty sure the House will too. Speaker Ryan would love to help enact amnesty legislation, and in the House the votes exist to do it  all House Democrats plus a sufficient number of pro-amnesty Republicans like Ryan.

What about the Senate? All Democrats can be expected to support the proposal (which should tell you all you need to know about its lack of merit). In addition, it has eight Republican sponsors  Sens. Susan Collins, Mike Rounds, Lindsey Graham, Jeff Flake, Lisa Murkowski, Cory Gardner, Lamar Alexander, and Johnny Isakson. If John McCain is able to show up for a vote, that would make nine. Only two more GOP votes would be needed.

Would President Trump veto the the bill? Its clear from the statement the White House issued today that he opposes the approach the Common Sense Coalition proposal takes.

Would this translate into a veto? I think so, but cant say for sure. I can say that if the Coalition legislation becomes law, it will only be a matter of time before even some of Trumps ardent supporters conclude they have been sold out on his signature issue. The political consequences could be devastating.

Im told that Mitch McConnell has filed for cloture on four immigration amendments: the Grassley-White House framework; Coons-McCain; the Common Sense Coalition travesty, and a bill by Sen. Toomey to curb sanctuary cities. Thus, all four measures could be voted on tomorrow or Friday.

Only the travesty has a chance to pass. That chance seems not inconsiderable.

It seems like a good idea to contact Republican Senators, especially those whose votes might get the travesty legislation to 60  e.g., Thom Tillis (202-224-6342 or www.tillis.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email-me). In addition, it might be worth contacting Senators like Mike Rounds (202-224-5842 or www.rounds.senate.gov/contact/email-mike) and asking them WTF.My normal mode in the wake of a mass shooting is to say nothing. Theres not much point in assailing the usual fixed positions of liberals on gun control. But Laurence Tribe, having already beclowned himself once this week, decided to double down again with this tweet about the Florida school shooting:

One might just as well reflect on the fact that so many of the recent mass shooters come from households with an absent father, but that wouldnt fit the liberal narrative. Or is this small hands comment an attempt at some kind of oblique humor (or insult) about Trump?

Tribe is really losing it.In a post called Up in Smoke, I discussed Sen. Cory Gardners decision to put a hold on all pending Justice Department nominees in retaliation for Jeff Sessions revocation of a memo issued by the Obama DOJ regarding enforcement of federal law regarding marijuana. The memo in question discouraged federal prosecutors in most cases from bringing charges wherever the drug is legal under state law. Sessions called the memorandum unnecessary and said that federal decisions on marijuana prosecution will follow the well-established principles that govern the way federal prosecutors decide how to use finite resources in all cases.

Sessions wasnt threatening to shut down or impede Colorados lucrative pot industry. In fact, his reference to finite resources clearly signaled that his DOJ will not persecute pot-heads in ordinary cases. The local U.S. attorney made this even clearer.

Nonetheless, Sen. Gardner decided to block President Trumps nominees for four critical Assistant U.S. Attorney position  Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division; Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division; Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division; and Assistant Attorney General, National Security Division. By doing so, he enables left-wing Obama holdovers and career government lawyers to retain a considerable amount of control over DOJ policy and practice.

All in the name of pot and, I suppose, the multibillion-dollar marijuana legalization movement.

Gardner has modified his absurd obstructionist position. He now says he will lift holds on certain Department of Justice nominees as a show of good faith for continued positive conversations with DOJ leadership. Now he will permit Obama holdovers to control only some precincts of the DOJ  including, I understand, the ultra-leftist Civil Rights Division. He will continue to hold key slots hostage to dope.

Far out!

This is a disgrace. Again, its not like the Sessions Justice Department is cracking down on pot in Colorado. All it has done is refuse formally to throw federal law under the bus. Coloradans can still get as high as they want while others reel in the profits. But, as Sessions says, I cannot and will not pretend that a duly enacted law of this countrylike the federal ban on marijuanadoes not exist.

Gardner is also a sponsor of the Schumer legislation that will grant amnesty to Dreamers in exchange for almost nothing meaningful in the way of border security and nothing meaningful in the way of true immigration reform. He seems no more interested in enforcing our immigration laws than in enforcing our drug laws, and indifferent to whether Democrats or Republicans control key divisions of the Justice Department.

With Republicans like Gardner in Congress, who needs Democrats?Poland's President Andrzej Duda on Thursday begins a three-day visit to Lithuania, where he will meet counterpart Dalia Grybauskaite and join the hosts in celebrating the 100th anniversary of when the Lithuanian state was rebuilt.

At the centenary celebrations, the Polish head of state will also meet German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Other leaders in attendance are set to include Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis, Estonia's head of state Kersti Kaljulaid, Iceland's President Gudni Johannesson, Ukraine's head of state Petro Poroshenko, Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili, as well as Donald Tusk and Jean Claude-Juncker, who are in charge of the European Council and the European Commission, respectively.

Moreover, the royal families of Sweden and Denmark are also expected to be represented.

As the Polish President's top aide Krzysztof Szczerski told PAP, Andrzej Duda's visit in Vilnius is designed to demonstrate how much connects Poland and Lithuania today, but also how many problems persist in bilateral relations.

A vital part of these links will always be the situation of Poles in Lithuania and vice versa, the aide noted, as is normal among neighbours with a turbulent past, but these diasporas "represent wealth which we should use and which should unite us."

Krzysztof Szczerski said the three-day presidential visit would have three components. First, Andrzej Duda will meet the Polish diaspora and hear their concerns and expectations regarding Lithuanian policy. The President is also set to talk with Polish investors in the Baltic country, such as the fuel conglomerate PKN Orlen, and meet Polish boy scouts at the Vilnius grave of the mother of Poland's independence hero Marshal Jozef Pilsudski, whose heart is also buried there.

A major reason for these events is Poland's independence centenary, which also falls this year.

The Polish head of state will start the visit by meeting with representatives of the local Polish community in Vilnius on Thursday afternoon. Poland's First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda will also take part in the meeting.

Secondly, on Friday the head of state will join other leaders in celebrating 100 years since the Lithuanian state was rebuilt, which "shows our appreciation and respect for the Lithuanian state," the aide emphasised. See also: Presidential official: Lithuania must respect rights of minorities

This will also provide an opportunity for discussions among top politicians, whether bilaterally or in larger groups, just as the Polish President met German counterpart in Pyeongchang last week, the official added.

Finally on Saturday, President Duda will conduct the working part of the visit. In particular, he is scheduled to meet Dalia Grybauskaite to discuss a wide array of issues, from the situation of Poles in Lithuania, to matters pertaining to NATO and working with Vilnius on economic projects, in infrastructure (as part of the Three Seas Initiative) as well as on investments.

"These talks will be very comprehensive because there are so many common themes," Krzysztof Szczerski commented. (PAP)

Press Programme>>Feb. 9 may have been an easy decision for calling a snow day, but the Dearborn Public Schools tries to avoid having students miss school, the superintendent told the board Monday.

The issue is always student safety, Supt. Glenn Maleyko said.

With the forecast calling for sustained heavy snowfall, the district made the decision Thursday afternoon to cancel school the next day.

Usually, the decision is not so simple or so early.

Don Ball, director of safety and security, said he is up in the wee hours of the morning during bad weather checking the weather service forecast and possibly calling a friend at the Coast Guard Air Station or even phoning Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

Then he calls Maleyko, who makes the decision.

I wake him up in the middle of the night between 4:30 and 5 a.m., Ball said.

Once the decision is made to close school, Communications Director David Mustonen starts spreading the word to television stations, radio outlets and even newspapers.

What has really become way more effective over the last few years is social media, Mustonen said, referring to the districts Facebook and Twitter accounts.

More than 20,000 people saw the Facebook post about that days school closing.

Parents and staff also get automated phone calls about school cancellations.

Maleyko had said several times before that his New Years resolution was to not call any snow days.

I did break my New Years resolution, he joked at the meeting.

Dearborn Schools did not close the previous Monday, although several other area districts did. Maleyko reminded trustees that districts that go over the allotted six snow days could end up adding days in the summer.

The snow day discussion let to questions about how well the district is able to find substitutes.

Everyday we are short a few subs, Maleyko said. The district averages a 92 to 95 percent fill rate.

Maysam Alie-Bazzi, executive director of staff and student services, said every building has an emergency substitute plan where building staff can shift and cover if a substitute is not available.

Trustee Mary Lane said: We are starting to encounter more and more difficulty hiring teachers.

She said fewer people are interested in becoming teachers because of low pay or stagnant pay and a general lack of respect for the profession.

Also during the meeting, Maleyko reported several positive items to the board.

Last year we had the highest graduation rates of all time, he said. We expect for that to go up. Specific details are still embargoed by the state, he said.

Dearborn Schools was also recently named by Bridge Magazine as one of the top 30 districts in Michigan, he said. Similarly, the Mackinac Center will release a piece in the next few weeks recognizing the districts success.

I think everyone deserves a big round of applause for all the positive news that keeps coming, he said.

Several other items also came up during the meeting.

Maleyko read a statement responding to a request from Hussein Berry during the January meeting to schedule a closed session to discuss personnel matters regarding the superintendent. Maleyko said that personnel matters are supposed to be handled privately for all employees, that employees are required to be notified in writing before any hearing, which he had not been, and that all of his reviews from the board have been extremely positive.

I can only guess that it is based on rumor, innuendo or assumptions as it has been in the past, Maleyko said of Berrys concerns.

The board did not schedule a closed personnel meeting.

Adding buses to reduce crowding on the high school routes would cost the district more than $1 million, reported Business Services Manager Tom Wall. Official bus capacity calls for students to sit up to three per seat. To reduce that to no more than two students per seat would require adding nine buses  four for Edsel Ford High School and five at Dearborn High. The buses themselves would cost about $990,000, Wall said. The district would then have to spend about $480,000 a year to operate the additional buses, assuming it could find drivers to hire.

We always have money. Its how we spend the money, and our strategic plan pushes most of the money to the classrooms, Wall said.

Its an exciting time for career and technical education, CTE Director John Bayerl told the board. More government programs are increasing the focus on schools provide quality CTE programs, he said. The Michael Berry Career Center recently began offering a business program, and two of the districts auto shops recently completed a rigorous certification process. MBCC is up to 435 students in its programs, more than double just a few years ago, he said. Students are our best recruiters, he added.

Dearborn Schools has received money back from the state after the courts ruled that certain retirement withholdings made from 2010 to 2012 were illegal. The district will soon return that money to current workers and is working to gather information about former employees, Wall said. Officials have yet to determine how to return funds for deceased former employees.

Administrators presented a report on teacher discipline procedures. All employees were recently reminded to report any suspected cases of sexual abuse or harassment.

All staff is responsible for reporting sexual misconduct, Alie-Bazzi said.

Katie Hetrick covers Dearborn Public Schools. She can be reached at katie_hetrick@hotmail.com.Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed rallied supporters in Dearborn at the Yemeni American Cultural Center on Feb. 13 in his bid to become the first Arabic Muslim governor of Michigan.

State Rep. Abdullah Hammoud (D-Dearborn) said that Dearborn faces a unique set of circumstances, and local constituents are working to make sure conditions dont get worse, as opposed to having the ability to make conditions better.

That is the type of politics that we live in today, Hammoud said. We encourage individuals who are running for office to come to our district, to understand the issues that we are fighting on a day-to-day basis, which is why I was excited when gubernatorial candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed reached out saying he wanted to host a town hall in Dearborn.

Hammoud said Dearborn is concerned about its aging infrastructure, public education funding, high auto insurance premiums and a Department of Environmental Quality that allows the south end to have an asthma rate that is more than double the state average.

I am really excited to talk about the real issues, Hammoud said. The issue that we face and suffer from every day. This is us asking the really tough questions of what he would or can do if he became our governor.

El-Sayed, a medical doctor who never planned to run for office, said a lot has been made of faith and ethnicity in the Michigan governors race, and he supports policies that unite people instead of separating them. He served as the executive director of the Detroit Health Department and health officer for the city of Detroit from 2015-2017.

The focus has always been that the disparity in basic goods have imprinted themselves in the lives and livelihoods of people, El-Sayed said. I went to medical school because I came to appreciate that the things that divide us actually show us how much similar we are.

He said he learned that the responsibility of a doctor went far beyond any individual patient. He found that health and disease were influenced more by politics than by the biology of their bodies.

Access to a good paying job, a home, clean air and water, and a safe community pattern health and disease more than any other factors, he said, adding that he believes all people should have equal access to good health. That led him to take on the role of rebuilding Detroits health department for 700,000 people whom he said had been systematically marginalized and neglected by every level of government intended to serve them.

El-Sayed said for a boy growing up in Detroit, his probability of winding up in jail remains statistically higher than it does of winding up in college. He said he rebuilt the health department around building a future for children to learn and earn in Detroit.

He said what he saw in Detroit was the symptom of a broken politic, and it was the Flint water crisis that motivated him to run for office.

You ask yourself how we got here, El-Sayed said. We have a governor who seems to think the government is just another business, and if you poison 9,000 kids in a city like Flint, you write it off and you walk away.

He said Michigan is also the only nation that has suffered a statewide decline in school proficiency scores on average.

We sit on 21 percent of the worlds fresh water, yet we cant seem to get it right with water, El-Sayed said.

He mentioned Michigans failure to invest in clean, renewal energy and to fix its roads, and said the world is no where near what he would like it to be for future generations.

El-Sayed said as he traveled across Michigan, people are asking how an economy that doesnt leave people out can be built, and when they do get a job, how can they be assured of a living wage.

He said people feel that redistricting has politically negated the influence of their vote, and that public schools do not prepare their children for the jobs of the future.

He said the questions bring people together, but are a symptom of a bigger problem.

They are symptoms of broken politics, El-Sayed said. Corporations have bought and sold our politics, and they dont represent the problems that we actually see. We are left to fight for a world that is not better, but not worse, and they say that is progress.

He said the challenges that people in Michigan face are the same regardless of their background.

Its about what we do together when we see eye-to-eye and recognize that this democracy is intended to bring people together, across communities, across races, across religions, to connect around something that is bigger than any of our differences, El-Sayed said. Until we all recognize that the children that we are raising together are all of ours, and the future we want to hand to them is the same future, we will continue to ask how and why not.'

El-Sayed said that if he receives the nomination from the Democratic party for the gubernatorial race, the campaign would be watched closely nationwide.

This state went for Donald Trump, he said. If we turn around in two years and go from electing Donald Trump to literally electing the furthest thing from Donald Trump, people want to see that happen.

El-Sayed said constituents have the opportunity to frame the conversation and drive it forward.

We are going to get the policy right, he said. We are organizing people in communities, and we have some of the best organizers in the country, and we are setting an agenda  we are forcing people to pay attention to issues.

El-Sayed said one of his strengths is that hes the only candidate who has ever led a government institution, and he did it by rebuilding the health department in the poorest American city.

He said he is a former professor, and he answers the questions he is asked.

Someone who is willing to tell you what you want to hear is going to tell someone else what they want to hear, which means that the institution that they are leading will not have clear leadership, El-Sayed said. I will not be bought out by corporations because I am not going to take their money, and I am not trying to buy an election.

He said he wants to bring health care and counseling to children through schools, establish universal pre-K, and make college free for low-income students. He also wants parallel tracking for school and trades.

El-Sayed said he wants all police to have body cameras, and to police with communities, and he wants to reduce prison sentences for nonviolent offenders. He wants those who are incarcerated to receive mental health care and job training, which means rethinking the prison system.

He said the regionalism of mass transit is one of Gov. Rick Snyders biggest failure. He said he also wants long-term infrastructure planning put into place that is a long term solution and not a short term fix.

I want you to think about a moment in your future, on Nov. 9, when we all wake up, and the guy who just got elected governor is a 33-year-old Muslim American doctor, El-Sayed said. I want you to think about the path between here and there. If I am given the nomination, and I am privileged to have that trust from Democrats, this race becomes the national marquis race.Dearborn residents with low to moderate incomes can receive free help preparing tax forms from volunteers through April 13.

Offered by the citys Senior Services Division with volunteers from AARP, the program offers special help for senior citizens ages 60 and older.

Assistance is available in completing the following 2017 tax forms: Michigan Home Heating Credit, Michigan Homestead Property Tax Credit, State Income Tax and Federal Income Tax.

Visit the Dearborn Senior Center inside the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center at 15801 Michigan Ave. from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays until April 13. The service is not available on March 30, which is the Good Friday holiday.

The doors open at 7:30 a.m. Assistance is available to approximately 20 people each day on a first-come, first serve basis.

A special tax session open to building residents only will be held at 10 a.m. Feb. 27 at Kennedy Plaza. Guests should bring valid photo identification, 2016 tax returns and 2017 records of all income, including Social Security, earned interest, dividends and pensions.

Individuals also should bring records of health care costs, medical insurance premiums and tax payment receipts for city, school and county taxes, and have Social Security documents for all dependents being claimed.

A new requirement in 2018 is that when filing jointly, both parties must be present.

No complicated forms or rental properties will be accepted. Dearborn Senior Services is not responsible for tax preparations.

Photo identification is required for all tax preparation with no exceptions.

In the event of inclement weather and the closure of Dearborn Public Schools, the Senior Services office will be closed and no tax preparation will take place.The robust system fits into a car trunk for driving/recording applications, and syncs with both a GPS and Averna's DriveView software, for synchronized location and video capture that is time-aligned with your data.

Preloaded with RF Studio, powerful RF record/playback software for capturing real-world RF spectrum, including GNSS, radio, video & location data. A state-of-the-art workflow tool, the RP-6500 Series lets you quickly set up your recordings, add contextual data, visualize weak signals, and analyze your collected RF environments to validate and fine-tune your designs and products.

To learn more about the RP-6500 wideband RF Record and Playback, visit www.averna.com/RP-6500

Key Features and Benefits

Easy-to-use RF Studio user interface

500 MHz wide instantaneous bandwidth

Covers most common wireless protocols from 9 kHz to 6 GHz

High dynamic range (14 bits, ~ 86 dB)

Form factor allows rack mounting or car trunk portability

Time-synchronized capture of RF, signals, and messages

"The RP-6500 is a complete RF Record and Playback platform--it's been designed and built from the ground up to be all-in-one," said Alex Pelland, Product Line Manager at Averna. "The hardware ticks all the boxes for serious users, and we've bundled it with RF Studio, so that all users can achieve simple configuration, file management, and visualization as well."

Pricing and Availability

The Averna RP-6500 is available now to customers worldwide. Detailed pricing and product information is available on request; please contact us at [email protected] or visit the RP-6500 product page.

Click to Tweet: From @Avernatech: Averna Introduces High Performance 500 MHz Wideband RF Record and Playback for advanced #GNSS applications  www.averna.com

About Averna

As a global Test & Quality Solution leader, Averna partners with product designers, developers and OEMs to help them achieve higher product quality, accelerate time to market and protect their brands. Founded in 1999, Averna offers specialized expertise and innovative test, vision inspection, precision assembly and automated solutions that deliver substantial technical, financial and market benefits for clients in the aerospace, automotive, consumer, defense, life sciences, semiconductor, telecom and other industries. Averna has offices around the world, numerous industry certifications such as ISO, CSIA, and ITAR registration, and is partnered with National Instruments, Keysight Technologies and JOT Automation. www.averna.com

 Copyright 2018 Averna. All rights reserved. Information subject to change without notice. Averna is a trademark of Averna Technologies.

Technical Information

Alex Pelland

Product Line Manager

[email protected]

T: +1 514-842-7577

Media Contact

Isabelle Pilon

[email protected]

T: +1 514-842-7577

Related Links

http://www.averna.com



SOURCE Averna"We are extremely proud to once again receive this prestigious award, which values the dedication and commitment of the Chemetall team in line with Airbus targets and expectations in 2017," says Hendrik Becker, Chemetall's Global Aerospace Manager. "Winning the award for the fourth consecutive year is a great honor for our long-lasting and successful business relationship with Airbus." In 2017, Chemetall strengthened its supply chain. "We implemented several projects to further improve the performance of our European aerospace supply chain and strongly supports the ramp-up of the Airbus A320 and A350 programs," says Ronald Hendriks, Quality Manager and SQIP Coordinator.

Airbus reviews the performance of its suppliers

The aim of the Airbus Supply Chain & Quality Improvement Program, known as SQIP, is to advance the major strategic Airbus suppliers towards the goal of industrial excellence with regard to product quality and delivery reliability. In view of increasing production rates, this goal is of particular importance. Every year, the performance of each participating supplier is reviewed and either confirmed or  in case of non-conformity with the requested quality standards  downgraded or even rejected.

"We are delighted about this supplier award from Airbus. It acknowledges the continuous efforts of the Chemetall team and our commitment to deliver high quality service and products. Operating as a brand of BASF's Coatings division, we look forward to supporting the Airbus growth strategy even more now and in the future," says Dr. Martin Jung, Senior Vice President Surface Treatment. "The combination of expertise and innovation power will accelerate innovation and drive even more success for our customer, Airbus."

Chemetall has a long-term partnership with Airbus

Over the past 25 years, Chemetall and Airbus have established a long-lasting and successful business relationship. From production sites in Langelsheim/Germany and Soissons/France, Chemetall supplies several Airbus sites with aircraft sealants, corrosion protection products, cleaners and pre-treatment technologies. In September 2017, Chemetall received the Airbus Best Performer Award for top level industrial performance and significant contributions in partnering with Airbus. Starting in spring 2018, Chemetall will expand its production site in Langelsheim, Germany, to fulfill the increasing global demands for aircrafts.

About BASF's Coatings division

The Coatings division of BASF is a global expert in the development, production and marketing of innovative and sustainable automotive OEM and refinish coatings, as well as decorative paints. We create advanced performance solutions and drive performance, design and new applications to meet our partners' needs all over the world. BASF shares skills, knowledge and resources of interdisciplinary and global teams for the benefit of customers by operating a collaborative network of sites in Europe, North America, South America and Asia Pacific. In 2016, the Coatings division achieved global sales of about 3.2 billion.

In 2016, BASF acquired Chemetall, a leading global supplier of applied surface treatments for metal, plastic and glass substrates in a wide range of industries and end markets. With this expansion in portfolio, BASF becomes a more complete solution provider for coatings.

Solutions beyond your imagination  Coatings by BASF. For more information about the Coatings division of BASF and its products, visit www.basf-coatings.com.

About BASF

At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. The approximately 114,000 employees in the BASF Group work on contributing to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio is organized into five segments: Chemicals, Performance Products, Functional Materials & Solutions, Agricultural Solutions and Oil & Gas. BASF generated sales of about 58 billion in 2016. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt (BAS), London (BFA) and Zurich (BAS). Further information at www.basf.com.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/640502/Picture_Chemetall_SQIP_2018.jpg

Related Links

http://chemetall.com



SOURCE ChemetallBENGALURU, CHENNAI, HYDERABAD, India, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Acceliant, a global leader in e-clinical data management solutions, today announced its partnership with Clinnex, a reputed contract research organization (CRO) dedicated to providing comprehensive biometrics services to pharma, biotech, CROs and medical device companies.

Through the association, Clinnex will leverage Acceliant's enhanced features such as Multi Trial Management, Randomization, RBAC, Drug Supply Management, SDTM, Medical Coding, Document Management System and eCRF development while optimizing its clinical data management offering.

The partnership will also aid Electronic Case Report Form (eCRF) development, one of Acceliant's well-appreciated service offerings (Acceliant's in-house eCRF development team helps sponsors reduce the time spent on their study start-up activities from months to weeks). Most importantly, it will also help Clinnex provide faster deployment and expedited study start-up activities in all the phases of clinical trials and BA/ BE studies through Acceliant's upgraded features and Cloud Engagement model.

"We are a customer-focused clinical research organization, and provide end-to-end biometrics services across all phases of clinical trials including BA/ BE trials. In our search to provide innovative and high-quality services to our customers, we have partnered with Acceliant. We strongly believe that this partnership will help us speed up overall clinical trial timelines, in addition to adapting and address the ever changing challenges in clinical trials," Jeenal Palan, General Manager - Biometrics at Clinnex, said in a statement.

Santhosh Nagaraj, Vice President - Client Relations at Acceliant, said, "Acceliant is extremely delighted to enter into a partnership with Clinnex. Our eClinical Suite for pharma and medical devices companies, and CROs is a battle-tested platform across all the stages of the Clinical Drug Development Cycle; it is also one of the most highly advanced and smart EDC products in the market today. The addition of Clinnex's comprehensive biometrics services will not only ensure 100% accuracy and integrity of clinical trial data across trials phases, but will also help us extend a seamless and superior experience to our clients."

About Clinnex

Clinnex is a CRO providing Biometrics (Clinical Data Management, Statistical Analysis and Programming which includes CDISC services, Medical Writing and Consulting) services to Pharmaceutical, Bio-Tech, Medical Device Companies and Clinical Research Organisations (CROs). We strive to be a quality focused company, understanding the client requirements and the unique challenges in performing various types of clinical trials. Our experience covers all phases and design of clinical research, spanning across various therapeutic areas, and delivering high quality output. At the same time, our services are tailored to fit various clinical trial needs of our clients, starting from individual stand-alone services to execution of end to end services as per agreed standards. For more information, visit http://www.clinnex.com.

About Acceliant

Acceliant provides real-time, integrated clinical trial solutions for life sciences, CROs and pharma tools and expertise to take intelligent and smarter decisions. Its eClinical Suite allows users to build studies, design electronic case report forms (eCRFs), capture data through multiple sources (EDC), capture data directly from patients (ePRO), and manage other clinical data management functions.

Media Contact:

Prashant Bhavaraju

Chief Marketing Officer

Acceliant

[email protected]

+91-40-4664-0000

http://www.acceliant.com



SOURCE AcceliantNew "Horizons Container Report" now offers the industry's most frequent updates and largest fundamental data set.

LONDON, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- London-based ClipperMaritime is launching a monthly container industry report, supported by access to a modern and extensive user - friendly data tool. The "Horizons Container" report provides the industry with best analysis and data available to enable future planning in a rapidly changing and dynamic market.

The Horizons Container monthly report explores detailed trade lane supply and demand dynamics and highlights key factors which will affect all market players in the 12 months ahead. "We utilise our data and experience to explain what is driving the market, what changes are expected to take place and what the resulting impact could be," says Neil Dekker, Container Consultant at ClipperMaritime.

"Our core ability is to work with major industry stakeholders to help them use our data analysis and outputs to plan for the future. Explaining for example, what are the key country to country or port to port cargo volume pairs on a trade route will help ocean carriers to re-define service networks or help port authorities with investment decisions if bigger ships are coming. Defining the future deployment of a large number of 10,000 TEU and above newbuild ships and how the ongoing cascade develops, continues to be a huge industry issue. But, the ability to see where specific network gaps might be is vital and once these ships are deployed, how will that impact the market? Rapidly changing operator alliances and Vessel Sharing Agreements mean that it is vital to see what is happening to carrier networks on a timely basis."

Container shipping is not always a logical market and the team behind ClipperMaritime's Container Horizons product will help the industry make better sense of the industry dynamics and offer workable scenarios for the future by utilising data sets and outlining trends.

Our data and analysis gets to the heart of the container sector because it deciphers which trade lanes are weak or strong, where shipping lines are likely to deploy their assets and how the future vessel cascade could unfold.

"Ultimately, the industry wants to know what affects freight rates, profitability and future investment decisions," concludes Neil Dekker." ClipperMaritime has modernised container shipping intelligence in terms of data and insight and will deliver this in a concise and timely manner.

Click here to get a free trial.

ABOUT CLIPPERMARITIME

ClipperMaritime, headquartered in London, England, is a comprehensive maritime data pioneer with an industry-leading team of consultants and data scientists. ClipperMaritime monitors data in over 180 countries, 5,000 commodities, 47,500 port, terminals and berths, 55,000 vessels and 1.3 million port calls annually. By modernising the shipping industry's largest and most detailed fundamental database, ClipperMaritime delivers a level of analysis and insight simply unmatched in today's maritime industry. www.ClipperMaritime.com

Media Contact: David Francoeur, 1-617-852-8868, [email protected]

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/642031/clippermaritime_Logo.jpg

Related Links

http://www.ClipperMaritime.com



SOURCE ClipperMaritimeCyclonis Password Manager is a free, easy-to-use password management solution.

Cyclonis Password Manager stores your website usernames and passwords, profile information, and private notes in your encrypted personal vault.

DUBLIN, Feb. 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Cyclonis Limited, a developer of software solutions focused on data management and organization, is proud to announce the launch of its first product  Cyclonis Password Manager. Available for Windows and macOS, Cyclonis Password Manager is a free, feature-rich password management solution built from the ground up to ensure that its users' passwords and other sensitive data are encrypted in your personal vault and easily accessible wherever you need.

All Your Data on All Your Devices

In addition to storing and organizing usernames and passwords, Cyclonis Password Manager enables users to store Private Notes in the personal vault. Users may also store bank cards, ID documents, and other personal information. An intuitive interface provides easy access to your data. The cloud functionality of Cyclonis Password Manager gives you the ability to store and access your data via supported cloud storage providers, including Dropbox, Google Drive, Apple iCloud, and Microsoft OneDrive.

Cyclonis Password Manager Encrypts, Stores & Organizes Your Data



Cyclonis Password Manager encrypts and stores your data by adding it to your personal vault, which is encrypted with AES-256, an encryption algorithm used by military, financial, and government institutions all over the world. To unlock your vault and decrypt your information, you use your own personal master password. Your master password is for your eyes only  by design, not even Cyclonis staff or servers have access to your passwords and data.

Cyclonis Password Manager also includes the Password Analyzer, which checks for weak, old, reused, and potentially compromised passwords. It estimates your Total Strength Score  a visual estimation of the user's overall website account password strength. With the built-in Password Generator, users can replace weak and reused passwords, with more complex ones.

Save Your Passwords with Ease with the Cyclonis Password Manager Browser Extension

Alongside the desktop application, Cyclonis is launching the Cyclonis Password Manager browser extension. It works together with the desktop application to integrate Cyclonis Password Manager features with your web browser. It is currently available for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari, and Opera. It provides the ability to automatically fill in login, personal and payment information on website forms, directly within your browser. This feature helps to cut down on the time needed to complete registration forms and online purchases.

Both the Cyclonis Password Manager desktop application and the accompanying browser extension are available free-of-charge and can be downloaded from https://www.cyclonis.com/products/password-manager/.

About Cyclonis Ltd.

An Irish company headquartered in Dublin, Cyclonis Limited designs and develops desktop, mobile, and cloud-enabled software products focused on simplifying data organization and management. Our applications aim to streamline the process of organizing the increasing volumes of information regular computer users deal with every day.

Connect with Cyclonis Ltd. on Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | YouTube

SOURCE: Cyclonis Limited

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/642135/cyclonis_Logo.jpg

Related Links

http://www.cyclonis.com

Duetto was founded in 2012 by CEO Patrick Bosworth, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer Marco Benvenuti and Chief Technology Officer Craig Weissman, the former CTO at Salesforce.com. The company's flagship software-as-a-service (SaaS) application, GameChanger, brought machine learning, new consumer-centric data and the breakthrough innovation of Open Pricing to the industry, enabling hotel companies to independently price all distribution channels, customer segments, room types and stay dates in real time. Duetto, headquartered in San Francisco and with offices in Las Vegas, Cleveland, London and Singapore, has quickly grown to serve more than 2,500 hotels and casinos in more than 60 countries. Those customers have consistently outperformed the market, beating their competition's rate of revenue growth by more than 6.5% since the launch of the company.

"As the pace of change has accelerated and the threats of digital disruption have grown, so have our efforts to help this industry we are so passionate about. We are pleased to have the support of Warburg Pincus, whose extensive experience in building SaaS businesses of scale will help drive our growth and provide solutions to more hoteliers worldwide," said Patrick Bosworth, co-founder and CEO of Duetto. "For more than a decade, hotel companies have been looking for ways to compete more effectively with online travel agencies and drive more direct business. By unifying data across the tech stack, our platform has become the single source capable of delivering true personalization to consumers. Hoteliers now have the ability to increase conversion and drive more direct engagement with consumers by personalizing pricing and merchandising at the point of booking."

"Duetto has established itself as the market leader in the hotel revenue management space, providing its customers with next-generation solutions to optimize demand, maximize rates and minimize costs," said Ashutosh Somani, Managing Director, Warburg Pincus. "With its strong domain experience and deep cloud SaaS technology leadership, Duetto is uniquely positioned to bring new capabilities to the hospitality industry. We look forward to supporting Patrick and the Duetto leadership team in their next chapter of growth."

Duetto's Revenue Strategy Platform brings together all core technologies and data to make them accessible through multitenant cloud architecture using AWS and MongoDB, enabling future innovations and new applications. The company's intelligent reporting application ScoreBoard forecasts and analyzes performance, delivering key insights to stakeholders across the organization. BlockBuster brings Open Pricing to contracted group business and enhances collaboration between the sales and revenue management teams. PlayMaker, the industry's first application to personalize the booking experience in real time, customizes merchandising content and offers for known and unknown guests.

"We want to modernize ecommerce in the hotel industry with our Revenue Strategy Platform at the center of the new hotel tech stack," said Marco Benvenuti, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer of Duetto. "Our cloud platform is open and agnostic and we look forward to partnering with other technology companies to unlock new ways of driving efficiencies and more revenue for the hotelier. With our agile development process, we will continually improve our core applications while looking to develop new products when there is a crucial industry need not being served."

Duetto is backed by investors Warburg Pincus, Icon Ventures, Accel Partners, Battery Ventures and Spectrum 28.

About Duetto

Duetto is hospitality's only Revenue Strategy Platform. A powerful suite of cloud applications addresses the industry's complexity in distribution and technology, providing solutions that increase booking conversion, guest loyalty and revenue.

The unique combination of hospitality experience and technology leadership drives Duetto to look for new and innovative solutions to the industry's greatest challenges. Duetto delivers software-as-a-service to hotels and casinos that leverage dynamic data sources and actionable insights into pricing and demand across the enterprise, enabling a holistic and more profitable Revenue Strategy.

Duetto's fully deployed hotel clients using GameChanger have recorded an average RevPAR Index lift of 6.5%. More than 2,500 hotel and casino properties in more than 60 countries have implemented Duetto's applications, which include GameChanger for Open Pricing, ScoreBoard for intelligent reporting, PlayMaker for personalization, and BlockBuster for contracted-business optimization.

For more information, visit http://duettocloud.com.

About Warburg Pincus

Warburg Pincus LLC is a leading global private equity firm focused on growth investing. The firm has more than $44 billion in private equity assets under management. The firm's active portfolio of more than 150 companies is highly diversified by stage, sector and geography. Warburg Pincus is an experienced partner to management teams seeking to build durable companies with sustainable value. Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has raised 17 private equity funds which have invested more than $60 billion in over 800 companies in more than 40 countries. The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Amsterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Mauritius, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Shanghai and Singapore. For more information please visit www.warburgpincus.com.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/641663/Duetto_Founders.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/641664/Duetto_Logo.jpg

Related Links

http://duettocloud.com



SOURCE DuettoAHMEDABAD, India, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

9-month standalone PAT at INR 505 million, up 156% y-o-y

Key Highlights Q3 FY18

- Standalone Q3 revenue up 23%; 9M revenue up 24%; y-o-y

- Q3 Standalone CATV subscription revenue up by 29% y-o-y; 9M revenue up 27%

- Q3 Broadband revenue up 7% y-o-y; 9M revenue up 15%; y-o-y

- Phase III and phase IV CATV ARPU up by 5.2% and 4.1% respectively

- 9M finance cost down by 48%

- Q3 PAT up by 478%, 9M PAT up by 156%

India's leading Digital Cable TV and Broadband Service provider, today announced the financial results for the third quarter and nine months ended on December 31, 2017 as approved by its Board of Directors.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/598543/GTPL_Hathway_Logo.jpg )



Commenting on performance, Anirudhasinhji Jadeja, Managing Director, GTPL Hathway said, "During Q3, we seeded 180,000 STBs and added 110,000 digital paying subscribers. Increase in Phase III and phase IV ARPU and reduction in finance costs have helped us improve our profitability significantly. Our Kolkata operations have firmly turned around and for the nine months, it has posted a profit of Rs 17 million against a loss of Rs 56 million during the corresponding 9 months of FY17."

"I am most excited about what we are doing in Broadband business. We have been investing in the latest technology to provide the best possible internet service to our customers. Recently, in Ahmedabad we launched high speed, unlimited data broadband service on GPON Fibre To The Home (FTTH) technology. We have started offering 100 Mbps and 40 Mbps unlimited data plan options at the most reasonable price. We are receiving lot of inquiries and we will gradually make these plans available throughout Gujarat," added Mr. Jadeja.

Standalone Financial Performance Highlights (as per IND AS)

GTPL Hathway Limited

- Q3 revenue at INR 1955 million up 23% y-o-y; 9M revenue at INR 5572 million up by 24% y-o-y

- Q3 CATV subscription revenue at INR 1063 million, up 29% y-o-y; ; 9M revenue at INR 2966 million up 27%

- Q3 EBITDA at INR 634 million; up 46% y-o-y; EBITDA margin as percentage to revenue at 32.4%, a y-o-y increase of 530 basis point

- 9M EBITDA at INR 1790 million; up 31% ; 9M EBITDA margin as percentage to revenue at 32.1%, a increase of 180 basis point

- Q3 finance cost down by 74% y-o-y and 54% q-o-q; 9M finance cost down by 48%

- Q3 Profit after tax at INR 238 million, up 478% y-o-y

- 9M Profit after tax at INR 505 million, up by 156%

GTPL Broadband Private Limited - 100% subsidiary of GTPL providing broadband services

- Q3 revenues at INR 344 million, up 7% y-o-y; 9M revenue at INR 993 million, up by 15%

- Q3 EBITDA at INR 101 million; up 31% y-o-y; EBITDA margin as percentage to revenue at 29.3%, a y-o-y increase of 520 basis point

- 9M EBITDA at INR 277 million; up 33%; 9M EBITDA margin as percentage to revenue at 27.8%, a increase of 380 basis point

- Q3 Profit after tax at INR 39 million, up 9% y-o-y

- 9M Profit after tax at INR 115 million, up by 23%

GTPL Kolkata Cable & Broadband Pariseva Limited (KCBPL) - 51% subsidiary of GTPL operating in West Bengal

- Q3 revenues at INR 447 million, up 61% y-o-y; 9M revenue at INR 1171, up by 39%

- CATV subscription revenue at INR 303 million, up 69% y-o-y, up 18% q-o-q

- Q3 EBITDA at INR 160 million; up 617% y-o-y; EBITDA margin as percentage to revenue at 35.7%

- 9M EBITDA at INR 342 million; up 143% ; 9M EBITDA margin as percentage to revenue at 29.2%

- Q3 Profit after tax at INR 28 million against a loss of INR 41 million for the corresponding Q3 of FY17

- 9M Profit after tax at INR 17 million against a loss of INR 56 million for the corresponding 9M of FY17

Business Performance Highlights

CATV

- GTPL seeded 180,000 STBs during the quarter taking total seeded STBs as on December 31, 2017 to 8.46 million. Added 140,000 Active digital subscribers during the quarter, taking total active digital subscriber as on December 31, 2017 to 7.2 million. Added 110,000 digital paying subscribers during the quarter, taking total digital paying subscribers to 6.75 million as on December 31, 2017

- During Q3, Phase 3 and Phase 4 ARPU increased by 5.2% and 4.1% respectively

- The average CATV revenue per user (ARPU) as on December 31, 2017 for Phase1, Phase 2, Phase 3 and Phase 4 at INR 101, INR 96, INR 61 and INR 51 respectively. Phase wise Seeded Boxes as on December 31, 2017 for Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3 and Phase 4 were at 0.74 million, 2.2 million, 2.55 million and 2.98 million respectively

- During Q3, GTPL launched its CATV services in Goa

Consolidation of stakes in subsidiaries

During the year, the company acquired stakes in the following companies

- Remaining 49% stake in GTPL Surat Telelink Private Limited

- Further 23.5% stake in GTPL Ahmedabad Cable Network Private Limited, taking GTPL's stake to 74.5% as on December 31, 2017

Broadband

- During Q3, the company added 12,000 broadband subscribers; created 90,000 new Broadband Enabled Homes. Home Pass as on December 31, 2017 stood at 1.24 million

- The Broadband average revenue per user (ARPU) during the quarter was INR 487

- On February 3, 2018, GTPL launched GPON FTTH High-Speed broadband services of 100 Mbps and 40 Mbps "unlimited data" plans in Ahmedabad with price range of INR 635-763 per month (excluding taxes). The company progressively plans to launch this service to other cities in Gujarat.

About GTPL Hathway Limited

GTPL Hathway Limited is one of India's leading Digital Cable TV and Broadband service providers. We are number 1 Cable TV Provider in Gujarat with 67% market share. Our digital cable television services reached 200 plus towns across India, including towns in Gujarat, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. As on December 31, 2017, we have seeded approximately 8.46 million STBs and had approximately 7.2 million active digital cable subscribers and 0.27 million Broadband Subscribers with a home pass of about 1.24 million.



For media queries, please contact:

Piyush Pankaj

Chief Corporate Affairs Officer

[email protected]

+91-98113-21102



Mehul Mehta

President - Dickenson Financial PR

[email protected]

+91-98202-80325



SOURCE GTPL Hathway LimitedMUMBAI, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Doctors can now prescribe Wellthy Therapeutics' 16-week Digital Diabetes Management intervention to their patients for effective lifestyle and diabetes management in between doctor visits

The diabetes app by Wellthy Therapeutics will be launched at a conference held by the Maharashtra chapter of the Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India (RSSDI) on 16th February, 2018. The 16-week diabetes intervention programme delivered through the mobile app will now be available for doctors in Mumbai to prescribe to their patients. The digital therapeutic app, developed by Wellthy Therapeutics in scientific collaboration with RSSDI, uses patient-centric design augmented by artificial intelligence to provide integrated care that complements the doctor consultation. Results from several clinical pilot studies, published in leading scientific journals, have shown that patients with Type II diabetes who complete the programme, reduce their HbA1C by more than 1% on average, lose significant weight, reduce blood sugar levels and improve their medication and diagnostic adherence.

Dr Amit A Saraf, Organizing Secretary, RSSDI Maharashtra, spoke about the launch: "A chronic condition like diabetes requires regular attention and care throughout a patient's life. Patients need to look after themselves between doctor's appointments and during this period they often become careless in their diabetes management. We look forward to seeing our patients benefit with great outcomes using this digital therapeutic intervention."

Clinical results on the use of the Wellthy Diabetes Digital Therapeutic app have been previously presented at conferences of the American Diabetes Association (ADA), the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE). Additional pilot results on how the app supports clinical and lifestyle management will be presented at the 11th International Conference on Advanced Technologies & Treatments for Diabetes (ATTD 2018) in Vienna, Austria. At the same conference, clinicians will also present data on the app being a valuable intervention tool for health insurers to offer their policyholders.

Dr Maaz Shaikh, VP - Clinical and Product, Wellthy Therapeutics, shared his thoughts on the physician launch and future prospects of the app: "As clinicians, we have always struggled in supporting our patients through the journey of changing their habits and maintaining healthy lifestyles. The Wellthy Diabetes App brings to doctors a clinically validated programme that harnesses the power of medicine, data science and technology to drive and maintain behaviour change and achieve superior clinical outcomes for our patients with Type II diabetes. Finally, we will be able to provide comprehensive and continuous care to all our patients in a scalable and meaningful way."

Dr Shaikh will be presenting on 'Enabling doctors to personalise care for Type-2 Diabetes' with clinical and lifestyle patient journey data using the Wellthy Diabetes app' at the conference on the 16th of February. This will be followed by an interesting first-of-its-kind session on 'Results and implications of a health insurer adopting an RSSDI-endorsed digital diabetes intervention'.

The conference also marks the launch of the Wellthy Magazine, the print version of the fastest growing diabetes community in India - the Wellthy destination.

The Wellthy Diabetes programme is a clinically verified and structured 16-week program that enables persons with Type II diabetes to better manage their diabetes in between doctor appointments. It gives patients the tools to understand and monitor their food intake, take their medications on time and track their blood sugar levels. Through the digital therapeutic app, users are assigned a dedicated Diabetes Expert, who users can chat with about all their diabetes-related questions and concerns. Every week's completion marks the achievement of a skill learned to better self-manage diabetes. In addition, the clinically validated artificial intelligence offers real-time guidance and feedback to assist them with effective diabetes management.

Interested doctors can get more details on the company's website - http://www.wellthy.care, or email at [email protected]

About Wellthy Therapeutics

Wellthy Therapeutics is a digital therapeutics company that uses a patient-centric design, artificial intelligence (AI) and human-assisted support to improve health literacy and facilitate behaviour change for better patient outcomes in Type II diabetes. It's the first digital therapeutic that has been endorsed by Asia's largest diabetes association (RSSDI).

Wellthy Therapeutics has a proven record of clinical evidence. It has published & presented real-world data at the AACE 26th Annual Congress in Austin, TX, at the ADA 77th Scientific Sessions in San Diego, CA, at the IDF Congress 2017 in Abu Dhabi, at the ATTD 11th International Conference in Vienna, at the RSSDI 44th & 45th Annual conferences in India, and at the RSSDI Regional Conference in Mumbai, India.

For more information, visit http://www.wellthy.care

About RSSDI:



Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India (RSSDI), founded in 1972, is the largest organisation of diabetes health care professionals and researchers in Asia. Currently, it has more than 5500 life members are represented from 29 Indian States and Union Territories. RSSDI is actively involved in updating the knowledge and skills of physicians. Each chapter carries out independent activities including CMEs for member physicians, local research grants, and awareness programs for public as well as diabetes patients. RSSDI is also actively involved in diabetes awareness programs which focus on creating awareness about various aspects of diabetes among diabetes patients and their families and population at large.

For more information, please visit http://www.rssdi.in.



Media Contact:

Dr Reshma P Nayak

[email protected]

+91-9820757767

Wellthy Therapeutics Pvt Ltd



SOURCE Wellthy TherapeuticsNEW DELHI, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Kumon, the after-school enrichment programme that originated from Japan, celebrates its 60th anniversary globally, this year. To commemorate the milestone, Kumon launched a commemorative logo that will be used throughout 2018.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/642463/Kumon_Logo.jpg )



In essence the design of the logo is based on three concepts - global outreach, evolving and deepening of learning and spreading of knowledge.

Pioneering as one of the largest after-school Maths and English enrichment programs globally, Kumon has expanded across different cities in India and Sri Lanka. While it is present in all the major Indian metros, Kumon's focus now is more on the Indian hinterland, by targeting tier 2 and tier 3 cities. 2017 marked Kumon's entry into 4 new Indian cities - Kochi, Trichy, Goa and Jaipur. By 'broadening and deepening', Kumon has seen a rapid growth specifically in the last 3 years, which it aims to sustain.

Commenting on this occasion, Mr. Takaya Kitanishi, Managing Director, Kumon India Education says, "2018 marks the 60th anniversary of Kumon globally, while in India we are presently in the 13th year of our operations. Going forward, Kumon will try to be rooted in the Indian society and contribute to developing children's ability and willingness to learn, for many more years to come. Through the Kumon method, we would like as many children as possible to experience the joy of learning Math and English and to find their special potential."

The Kumon Method is aimed at building up the basic academic skills of reading, writing, and Maths regardless of a student's age and ability. It is an individualised study method that enables students to become self-learners with occasional guidance from instructors. Therefore, the Kumon Method has been welcomed into communities around the world with widely differing cultures, values, and educational systems.

Any instructor willing to be a part of Kumon Franchise network has to go through orientations followed by a 3-week training that helps them understand the Kumon method, its purpose and the 'worksheets' - which is core to Kumon. Internally, Kumon also conducts multiple training sessions, seminars and forums for instructors, to help them keep abreast with any changes in the worksheets and course material as well as discuss case studies of model centre/students. This makes sure that they are following the right course and help children benefit from one unique methodology followed across the globe.

The Kumon method started in 1954, when Toru Kumon, a mathematics teacher wanted his son, Takeshi Kumon, then in grade 2, to reach high school materials as soon as possible so that he would have time to pursue his other interests. He wrote his own worksheets, and had his son do them as homework every day. Toru Kumon would then mark the worksheets and Takeshi Kumon would have to do the corrections, as well as the new worksheet assigned, the following day. Using this method, Toru Kumon found that his son could study high school materials by the time he was in grade 6.

Toru Kumon wanted more children to benefit from this method and study advance materials. Hence in 1958, Kumon was officially incorporated in Osaka, Japan. Since then, Kumon has spread to 50 countries around the world with more than 4 million students.

For more infomation, visit- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa6LgcnGj5BAOwAO2I-ZUew/featured

About Kumon

Kumon is the world's leading after-school enrichment programme. Officially incorporated in 1958 in Japan, the Kumon Method was born out of a father's love for his son. Today, we are located in 50 countries and regions, with more than 4 million students enrolled in over 24,700 Kumon Centres.

By discovering the potential of each child and developing their abilities to the maximum, Kumon aims to foster sound, capable individuals and thus, contribute to the global community.

For media enquiries, please contact:

Abhishek Chanda

Section Leader - PR & Brand Communications

Kumon India Education Pvt. Ltd

Tel: +91-11-46000787/88

Mob: +91-9999386069

Email: [email protected]



Website: in.kumonglobal.com

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/kumonindia/



SOURCE Kumon India Education Pvt. Ltd.BENGALURU, India, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

QuEST Global Services (QuEST), a global leader in providing premium engineering solutions, has announced the acquisition of Mobiliya Technologies based out of Pune, India. The acquisition will strengthen QuEST Global's capability in Industrial & Hi-Tech verticals and add new service offerings including artificial intelligence and augmented reality. This is the third acquisition made by QuEST Global in this financial year after the acquisition of DETECH Fahrzeugentwicklung GmbH and IT Six Global based out of Germany and Romania respectively.

Founded in 2011 by Krish Kupathil, Mobiliya offers services to its clients on cutting-edge and emerging technologies such as Deep Learning, Augmented/Mixed Reality, Internet-of-Things, Robotics and Security. With operations in India, South Korea, China, and North America, Mobiliya serves its customers in field of Automotive, Healthcare, Telecom, Energy, Hi-Tech, Insurance and Logistics.

Krish Kupathil, CEO, Mobiliya remarks, "We're excited about the acquisition of Mobiliya by QuEST Global. Mobiliya's hi-tech capabilities along with global footprint has been accelerating digital transformation for our customers. The next-gen tech expertise and experience Mobiliya brings in would be hugely complementary to QuEST's proven capability and scalable processes which will create very formidable service offerings."

Ajit Prabhu, Chairman & CEO, QuEST Global said, "To continue as the most trusted engineering solutions provider for our customers, we constantly seek outstanding engineering talent. The addition of Mobiliya into our fold will enhance our capability offering in the Hi-Tech domain. Mobiliya's long standing relationship with key customers in Hi-Tech industry will further strengthen and significantly expand with capabilities of QuEST's Global delivery teams. We are committed to providing innovative business solutions to our customers and to continue our leadership as a preferred engineering partner."

About QuEST Global

QuEST Global is a focused global engineering solutions provider with a proven track record of 20 years serving the product development & production engineering needs of high technology companies in the Aero Engines, Aerospace & Defence, Hi-Tech & Industrial, Medical Devices, Oil & Gas, Power, and Transportation industries. The company offers mechanical, electrical, electronics, embedded, engineering software, engineering analytics, manufacturing engineering and supply chain transformative solutions across the complete engineering lifecycle.

SOURCE QuEST GlobalThe report "Plastic Fasteners Market by Product Type (Rivets & Push-In Clips, Cable Clips & Ties, Threaded Fasteners, Washers & Spacers), End User (Automotive, Electrical & Electronics, Building & Construction, Supermarkets), and Region - Global Forecast to 2022" published by MarketsandMarkets, the global market is projected to grow from an estimated USD 4.45 Billion in 2017 to USD 6.04 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 6.3% from 2017 to 2022. The growth of the automotive industry is a major driver for the Plastic Fasteners Market. The automotive sector in China, India, Iran, and other countries is growing at a very fast pace, thereby increasing the demand for plastic fasteners. The growth of the Asia and North America construction markets is another reason for the growth of the Plastic Fasteners Market.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )

Browse 88 tables and 31 figures spread through 138 pages and in-depth TOC on "Plastic Fasteners Market"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/plastic-fastener-market-193049217.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

The rivets & push-in clips segment is estimated to account for the share of the Plastic Fasteners Market in 2017.

Based on product type, the rivets & push-in clips segment is estimated to account for the largest share of the Plastic Fasteners Market in 2017. Rivets are permanent fasteners primarily used in applications that require ease of installation or removability. Push-in clips are used to connect plastic parts, light sheet metals, and insulating materials.

Get PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=193049217

The automotive segment is estimated to be the largest end-user segment of the Plastic Fasteners Market in 2017.

Based on end user, the automotive segment is estimated to be the largest end-user segment of the Plastic Fasteners Market in 2017. There are numerous varieties of plastic fasteners, such as interior trim plastic fasteners, U-shaped clip fasteners, rivets and plastic clips, rear facing clips, and expanding nuts. Interior trim plastic fasteners are used in interior parts of automobiles, such as door panels, boot panels, boot liners, armrests, and speaker mounts. U-shaped clip fasteners are used for easy assembly and disassembly operations in automobiles. Rivets and plastic clips can be used in lightweight assemblies, such as trim panels and insulation panels.

Asia Pacific is expected to witness the highest growth in the Plastic Fasteners Market during the forecast period.

China is the largest consumer of plastic fasteners in the Asia Pacific region. Favorable investment policies, coupled with low labor cost, have made China an ideal market for automotive OEMs and lightweight material manufacturers and suppliers. The increase in demand for automobiles in China is one of the most significant factors influencing the growth of the Plastic Fasteners Market in this country.

Key players in the Plastic Fasteners Market include Illinois Tool Works (US), ARaymond (France), Nifco (Japan), Stanley Black & Decker (US), and Bossard Group (Switzerland), among others.

Inquiry before Buying @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=193049217

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Automotive Lightweight Materials Market by Material (Metal, Composite, Rubber, and Plastic), Application, Component (Frame, Engine-Exhaust, Wheel, Door, Hood & Trunk Lid, Seat, Instrument Panel, Bumper-Fender), Vehicle Type - Global Forecast to 2021

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/automotive-lightweight-materials-market-23937731.html



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SOURCE MarketsandMarketsQlink. The world's first decentralized mobile network, has announced joint partnership with Block Array, the company that crowdsources trucking logistics powered by a blockchain based logging records

SINGAPORE, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Qlink and Block Array today announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work together. Qlink (https://qlink.mobi/f/qlink)is the world's foremost decentralized mobile network, dedicated to constructing an open-source telecom infrastructure on blockchain. Block Array (https://blockarray.com/)is a blockchain based platform that records electronic logging device information, creates bills of lading and other shipping documents through smart contracts. Block array is pioneering a new shipping capacity marketplace for logistics companies.

The two companies plan to explore using the blockchain native base station on logistics vehicles, deepening the collaboration between mobile network and logistics industry.

As part of the MoU, Block Array will implement Qlink dApp functionalities for their users, allowing them to utilize Qlink's decentralized wireless network. This means trucks will be able to communicate engine data and electronic logging device data to their owners while en route. In return, Block Array will help to deploy Qlink Chain Full Nodes to ensure network uptime, reliability, and stability for its users.

Logistic trucks are now required by law to use Electronic Logging Devices (ELD) in order to maintain their records for Hours of Service. Block Array has developed a platform that provides secure proof of logging and proof of arrival & departure. With the two projects joining hands, in the future logistic companies will have their trucks record always online, fair, and transparent. Additionally this opens up new avenues of Internet of Vehicles usage to be explored for opportunities for further development.

"Adding Block Array to Qlink Chain as a node will increase the security and stability of the Qlink network for our users," said Susan Zhou, Qlink COO. "We are excited to work with Block Array in the future to reinforce both missions, and create better services for our users. Qlink is building a blockchain operation system for the future telecom world and welcomes Block Array to extend our reach and enrich the ecosystem."

"The partnership with Qlink will enable companies in both the United States and China to access IoT, ELD and other data sources in real time. It will bring a whole new paradigm of machine-to-machine communications," said Sam Bacha, Co-Founder of Block Array. "Qlink's wireless solution is key to the actualization of our application, and we look forward to utilizing all of Qlink's services in the future and further strengthening our commitment to blockchain interoperability."

Qlink is dedicated to constructing an open source telecom infrastructure on the Blockchain, which has the potential to underpin a variety of applications pertaining network usage. By building the world's first decentralized mobile network, Qlink's infrastructure will extend network coverage to dead zones, reduce the cost of telecom infrastructures, and reward users for sharing unused network assets to increase the telecommunication efficiency.

The joint partnership was defined and put together by Amplifi Capital (www.amplifi.capital), an early stage investor in both companies. Amplifi led the investment rounds in both Qlink and Block Array and have continued to advice both companies as well.

About Qlink:

Qlink was co-founded by a team of blockchain and telecom innovators. Allen Li, is Chief Architect and a core-developer for Qlink. He is a serial entrepreneur operating within the internet technology, traveling and telecom industries whose multiples projects were favored by venture capitalists ranging from mainland China to Singapore. With 7 years working experience with Huawei Technologies and 4 years experience as the founder & former CEO of Youyou Mobile.

Qlink is building the first decentralized mobile network which will empower telecom operators, inspire new business models, and provide users the most secure and cost-efficient telecommunication experience. Qlink has a strong investor and advisory board such as Xie Shihuang, one of the co-founders of Alibaba, Li Wei, founder of Pine VC, and Leo Wang, one of the first investors in NEO.

About Block Array:

Block Array is a blockchain startup based in Chattanooga, TN focused on applying vertically integrated blockchain solutions to amolerate issues facing 3rd-party logistics companies, supply chain management and the logistics industry.

Block Array is building a decentralized marketplace for shipping solutions, including shipping marketplace, smart contracts for bills of lading and more.

About Amplifi Capital:

Amplifi Capital is a private investment firm. The partners of Amplifi have been early adopters of crypto currencies and have focused on investing and advising early stage disruptors in the blockchain space. Amplifi's guidance has led to significant value creation and technological achievements for our portfolio companies in addition to partnerships fostered through the Amplifi Strategy Group - a private group led by Amplifi and involving some of the biggest companies in the blockchain universe.

Qlink Media Contact:

Toya Zhang

[email protected]

Tel: 852-67467319

Block Array Media Contact:

Press and Media

[email protected]

Subject: Media & Press

Amplifi Capital Media Contact:

Media Relations Dept

[email protected]

Subject: Media & Press

SOURCE QlinkBANGALORE, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Bangalore's leading fertility hospital, Tamara Healthcare, is raising INR Rs.400 million to set up 75 low-cost fertility clinics in India over the next three years. The hospital, which started its IVF and fertility operations in Bangalore around six years ago and has performed more than 1,500 IVF cycles, plans to set up clinics in 12 major states across the country.

"We are currently present in Bangalore, and now raising INR Rs. 400 million to expand our business across India over next three fiscals to set-up 75 low-cost fertility clinics. Our Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Imran's revolutionary, innovative and patent pending low-cost IVF technology will help us to set up 75 clinics with Rs. 400 million investment, whereas to setup 75 conventional fertility centers we should have minimum budget of INR Rs. 3000 million. We will be proud to say that we will be the 1st to introduce such low-cost technology in this world," said Tamara Healthcare Chief Executive Officer Ajay Gowda.

Initially, the hospital plans to come up with 20 clinics in southern part of India in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana in the next financial year. "After South India, we plan to expand in western states, central India and northern states," added Tamara Healthcare Chief Operating Officer Imran Khan.

Elaborating on the growth prospects in the Indian market, Imran added, "Around 30 million couples in India suffer from fertility issues and there is lack of quality facilities in non-metro cities to deal with the condition in the country. Due to our low-cost technology, we can run fertility clinics in low potential, non-metro cities with good profits. The USP of this technology is to set-up and run low-cost fertility clinic profitably, we just need 10% of capital and operational budget of conventional fertility clinics. Due to this factor, we are planning to extend our fertility services to non-metro cities."

"Around 70 per cent of the couples who come to us end up with babies. We have relentless focus on quality and we want to extend the same medical standards to non-metro cities, Mr. Imran's innovation is amazing and it helps us to provide the same quality medical services to non-metro cities at extremely less budget," said Tamara Healthcare Director and Clinical Embryologist Mrs. Rashmi Ajay. "We have already initiated our talks with investors, and we will officially announce the deal in next few weeks," said Strategic Consultant Satyanarayana.

About Tamara Healthcare

Tamara is a super-specialty hospital focusing on fertility, diagnostics, pregnancy and women's health. Being a large gynaecological centre, they are equipped with the state-of-the-science facilities and equipment imported from the leaders in medical electronics. They have an experience of 35 plus years in patient service. For more information, visit http://tamarahealthcare.com/

Media Contact:

Imran Khan

[email protected]

+91-9611177645

COO

Dr. Gayathri Devi Health Care



SOURCE Tamara HealthcareBENGALURU, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

'The Machine Conference', an exclusive gathering of Analytics and Data Science Leaders in India, is going to take a center stage on 11th May, 2018 at Hotel Hyatt Regency, Mumbai, India. Brought to you by Analytics India Magazine, this unique conference is based on a theme of putting Analytics to work in India, and brings an opportunity to meet 50 head of analytics and data science from Indian firms.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161117/440618LOGO )



In today's world, as analytics adoption tops the agenda, examining the latest opportunities and challenges in the data driven world is indispensable. Data is at the forefront of all business transformation, and the challenge is to use this data and transform it into customer insights. 'The Machine Conference' aims to offer a platform to recognize these ingenious minds who know how to transform data into competitive advantage.

Analytics 50 awards, which is a highlight of 'The Machine Conference', is an effort to recognize the best minds in the Indian Analytics Industry, who have successfully transformed data into meaningful insights. This prestigious award would celebrate the men and women behind the success of Data Science in India, who have helped in moulding the Indian Analytics Landscape.

Bhasker Gupta, Founder and CEO, Analytics India Magazine said, "Today, Analytics is considered an integral part of every business irrespective of its nature and size. While we are surrounded by zettabyte of data and see it in all shapes of form, we still struggle to put it to the best use. At 'The Machine conference' we bring together the leaders of Indian Analytics Industry and explore the ground breaking innovations and challenges that they face in analytics adoption. They share their experience with compelling use cases and inspire us with ideas that are truly game changing."

Sandeep Mittal, Founder and MD, Cartesian Consulting said, "You really can't go wrong with a name like 'The Machine Conference', it's supercool before it's even begun. And honoring 50 leading lights in India, who're actually making adoption happen, is brilliant. Given how much we believe in and how aligned we are to the journey analytics is taking in this market, we're more than happy to partner with AIM in bringing this to you."

Cartesian Consulting is the Presenting Sponsor of 'The Machine Conference' 2018. Analytics 50 awards will recognize outstanding achievement in analytics in 5 categories - Data Driven CxO, Exemplary Data Scientists, The Early Adopters, The Sourcing Luminary and Data Science Transformers.

An invite-only exclusive conference for senior analytics executives, it also includes other highlights such as industry thought-leader sessions, CAO panel discussions, vendor showcases, networking dinner, closed round tables with industry peers, along with offering a great networking opportunity with industry peers.

To get more information about the event, visit http://www.themachinecon.com.

About Analytics India Magazine:

Analytics India Magazine (AIM) is India's no.1 platform on analytics, data science and big data, dedicated to passionately championing and promoting the ecosystem in India. It aims for the promotion and discussion of ideas and thoughts on Business Analytics from India perspective. AIM was started in May 2012 by Bhasker Gupta, who has worked in analytics space for more than 12 years. Visit http://www.analyticsindiamag.com for more info.



Media Contact:

Bhasker Gupta

[email protected]

+91-9916006869

Analytics India Magazine Pvt Ltd



SOURCE Analytics India Magazine Pvt LtdLONDON, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Infosys (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in consulting, technology and next-generation services, today announced that UCAS, the admissions service for UK higher education, has extended its existing partnership with the company to support its business strategy up to 2021.

UCAS delivers critical admissions and information services to students, schools and higher education providers. Every year it supports more than a million applicants from over 100 countries; 6,000 registered centres; 1,200 schools; and 388 universities and colleges.

Every summer UCAS runs and delivers the single biggest infrastructure event within the UK education sector. Its systems manage millions of applications; process over 10 million exam results; answer 35,000 customer calls on A level results days; and respond to 15,000 social media enquiries. Not only is this period critical for the life chances of individuals, it has huge implications for the future prosperity of the UK society, economy and beyond. During the five critical days, including SQA Results Day and leading up to A Level Results Day, UCAS supports the placement of students equating to around 6 billion (around $8 billion) in tuition fees alone.

In the last three years, UCAS' partnership with Infosys has reaped immediate dividends, with system outage times slashed by 90 per cent, while UCAS customer satisfaction scores with UCAS peak periods of confirmation and clearing, have jumped from 60 to 94 per cent.

As part of the renewed engagement, Infosys will provide a wide range of digital services that will enable UCAS to continue to develop technology capabilities that connect learners to multiple destinations, such as universities, awarding bodies, schools and other organisations, using a dynamic digital suite of systems that responds to a rapidly changing higher education sector in the UK. Infosys will now concentrate on helping UCAS achieve its ambitious targets on lowering costs, optimising and enhancing services for students, delivering more robust security, and providing business-as-usual (BAU) services between legacy and new digital systems.

UB Pravin Rao, Chief Operating Officer, Infosys, said, "The renewed engagement with UCAS bears testament to the success we have helped the organisation achieve to date. We're very enthusiastic about the journey ahead and welcome the opportunity to power UCAS' vision for the future of Education, by developing a truly agile digital enterprise, that is able to cater to the requirements of increasingly demanding students. We look forward to working with UCAS and helping the organisation deliver its 2020 strategy and vision."

Clare Marchant, UCAS Chief Executive, said, "This is a significant milestone for UCAS. On joining in 2017, one of my first impressions was the strength and professionalism of the partnership with Infosys. This has enabled substantial service improvements and stability around key business events, particularly for confirmation and clearing when hundreds of thousands of students are using our services simultaneously to find out if they have a university or college place."

Fatuma Mahad, Director of Technology and Operations and UCAS, said, "This is absolutely right for UCAS. Our ways of working together have cemented a partnership which I feel helped us create a model for future success."

Infosys has managed UCAS' core application and IT infrastructure since 2014, enabling the delivery of technology services to customers and the business, including three successful confirmations and clearing periods and other high-volume, time-critical events.

Notes for editors

About UCAS

UCAS is a charity, and is the UK's shared admissions service for higher education. We manage applications from around 700,000 applicants each year for full time undergraduate courses, at more than 395 universities and colleges across the UK.

For further information please contact Felicity Cowie, Head of Media and Corporate Communications at UCAS at [email protected] or 01242 545469.

About Infosys

Infosys is a global leader in technology services and consulting. We enable clients in 45 countries to create and execute strategies for their digital transformation. From engineering to application development, knowledge management and business process management, we help our clients find the right problems to solve, and to solve those effectively. Our team of 200,000+ innovators, across the globe is differentiated by the imagination, knowledge and experience across industries and technologies that we bring to every project we undertake.

Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise thrive in the digital age.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this press release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectations intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. In addition, please note that any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of the date of this press release. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law.

Media contacts:

Asia Pacific

Sarah Gideon

Infosys, India

+91 80 4156 3998

[email protected]

EMEA

Margherita Di Cerbo

Infosys, Europe

+44 2075162748

[email protected]

Americas

Chiku Somaiya

Infosys, USA

+1 408 375 2722

[email protected]

This is a disclosure announcement from PR Newswire.

SOURCE Infosys LimitedTRIVANDRUM, India, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

UST Global, a leading digital technology services company headquartered in California has been awarded the exclusive Top Employers United States of America 2018 Certification. On 8 February 2017, the Top Employers Institute announced the results of its annual research into a large number of employers and their employee conditions around the world.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/540539/UST_Global_Logo.jpg )



UST Global earned the certification as a Top Employer, amongst 51 companies certified worldwide in 2018. The Top Employers Institute assessed UST Global's employee offerings around Talent Strategy, Leadership Development, Workforce Planning, Career & Succession Management, On-Boarding, Compensation & Benefits, Learning & Development, Culture, and Performance Management.

The Top Employers Institute is an independent organization which uncovers the employee offerings of significant employers around the world, measuring them against the international standard. Since 1991, they have certified 1,386 companies in 114 countries impacting 5.3 Million employees.

David Plink, CEO, Top Employers Institute, said, "Our comprehensive independent research revealed that UST Global USA provides exceptional employee conditions, nurtures and develops talent throughout all levels of the organization and has demonstrated its leadership status in the HR environment, always striving to optimize its employment practices and to develop its employees."

Manu Gopinath, Chief People Officer, UST Global, added, "This certification is a validation of the successful people practices we have built over the years. It reinforces our commitment to optimize, develop and work with employees to become an even better employer. We are excited to be recognized and certified as one among the four companies in the US region for the IT industry."

About UST Global

UST Global is a leading digital technology company that provides advanced computing and digital services to large private and public enterprises around the world. Driven by a larger purpose of Transforming Lives and the philosophy of 'fewer clients, more attention', we bring in the entrepreneurial spirit that seeks the fastest path to value in today's digital economy. Our innovative technology services and pioneering social programs make us unique. UST Global is headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California and operates in 25 countries. Our clients include Fortune 500 companies in banking and financial services, healthcare, insurance, retail, high technology, manufacturing, shipping, and telecom. UST Global believes in building long-lasting, strategic business relationships through agile and client-centric global engagement models that combines local experts & resources with cost, scale, and quality advantages of global operations.

For more information, please visit: http://www.ust-global.com.

Media Contact:

Divya Singh

[email protected]

+91-8552944004



SOURCE UST GlobalWARSAW, Poland, February 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

KFC in Poland surprises its fans with its latest release, a specially designed engagment ring in light of Valentines Day celebrations. The food supply chain claims that if fans met at a KFC restaurant, went there for a first date, or perhaps were brought together by a fierce passion for "juicy fried chicken" then the occasion deserves an unusual celebration.

This loveful ring will consist of two parts: first, the external layer made of gold with a fineness of 750, which will make fans think of a crunchy coating. Like the original KFC coating, which covers pieces of juicy chicken, its golden copy will boast some truly 'exceptional' elements. Inside is an engagement ring, platinum with a fineness of 950, set with nearly 150 small diamonds. That's not all, as the whole is crowned with a 0.7 carat diamond.

The global food chain says the special piece of jewellery is not to be missed by KFC fans who want to show their love to their significant other. KFC are yet to confirm any details ahead of the big release and the conditions for receiving the ring. According to KFC, couples who decide to tie the knot with the engagement ring can expect a special wedding surprise from the restaurant chain.

Pictures: http://webcargo.net/l/1pJFpqi3Ux/

http://www.facebook.com/kfcpolska/videos/1723612397662015/

KFC is a global restaurant chain and QSR pioneer specialising in chicken. In Poland, the brand is operated by the AmRest Holding, which manages a network of over 240 KFC restaurants. http://www.kfc.pl/

AmRest Holdings SE is the largest publicly listed restaurant operator in East-Central Europe, managing brands such as KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and Burger King. At present, the company runs a network of over 1600 restaurants in 16 countries.

Contact:

Aleksandra Staszewska

T +48-22-60-76-201

E KFC@webershandwick.pl

SOURCE KFCLONDON, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- PowerObjects, An HCL Technologies Company announced today a robust hiring initiative for 30 full-time positions in the United Kingdom (UK) as part of a plan for further European expansion. The positions are in the company's enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) practices for Microsoft Dynamics 365.

"Our in-house recruiting team personally reviews each application submitted through PowerObjects' website," said Terah Ramaekers, Director of Talent Acquisition at PowerObjects. "As we expand our footprint in the UK, we're eager to continue this tradition of handpicking the best and brightest talent in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 consulting space."

As part of their hiring initiative, PowerObjects is hosting a networking happy hour event at the Old Bank of England on 22 February 2018 to introduce prospective candidates to the company culture. The event will also provide an opportunity for individuals in the ERP and CRM space to speak directly with part of the hiring team, as well as other members from within the company.

PowerObjects is a global company, recognized by Microsoft as winner of the 2017 Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year for Dynamics 365 Consulting and Systems Integration award.

Those interested in learning more about PowerObjects' company culture and to learn more about the open positions are invited to attend the networking event. To view and apply for the open positions, go to the company's website.

PowerObjects, An HCL Technologies Company, is a leader in delivering Microsoft Dynamics 365 solutions through unparalleled offerings of service, support, education and add-ons. Winner of the 2017 Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year Award for Dynamics 365 Consulting and Systems Integration, PowerObjects has built an unmatched team of Dynamics 365 experts that help organisations increase productivity, streamline business processes and build better relationships.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/467009/Power_Objects_Logo.jpg

Related Links

http://www.powerobjects.com



SOURCE PowerObjects, An HCL Technologies CompanyRishikul Yogshala has revealed information about its yoga teacher training programs to be held during the month of March and April 2018. The month-long programs shall be held in the meditation capital and the globe's highest trekking destination, Nepal, in the tinsel town of Pokhara.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160406/798673 )

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/641982/Rishikul_Yogshala_Yoga_Teacher_Training.jpg )





Rishikul Yogshala's programs in Nepal can be availed under 200 hour, 300 hour, and 500 hour Yoga TT Certifications depending upon the eligibility of the applicants. The 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training program is specifically designed for the yoga newbie aspiring to take on more sincere teachings of the science and for the ones looking to refine their previously acquired yogic skills. The purpose of 200 hour YTTC at the school is to build a strong core for each student upon which they can develop as a fine yogi and a great yoga teacher. The 300 hour yoga program in Nepal shall predominantly focus on advancing the learning of various subjects taught in the 200 hour YTTC. Hence, the 200 hour YTTC graduates are directly eligible to apply for the 300 hour Yoga program. Whereas, the 500 hour YTTC at Rishikul Yogshala serves as the highest level of certification for becoming a globally valued yoga teacher and is ideal for all those sincere about their evolution into a yoga teacher and a remarkably serious practitioner. The 2-month long program is an ideal cumulative of 200 hour and 300 hour Yoga Training wherein, the first half focuses on the teachings of 200 hour YTTC and the second half is concerned on advanced teachings of 300 hour YTTC.

Rishikul Yogshala is a strong believer and propagator of traditional teachings which define the sanctity of yoga in the purest form. Hence, the curriculum and format of the program is a sheer reflection of the school's ideology wherein the students shall learn the traditional yoga style - Hatha and Ashtanga, along with various subjects such as Yoga Philosophy, Pranayama, Meditation, Yoga Nidra, Mantra Yoga, Yoga Anatomy, Adjustment and Alignment, and many more. The courses are conducted with references from the Great Yoga Upanishad, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and several sacred books for idealistic teachings of the science. In addition to the YTTC, the students shall also be taken for excursions and visits to some of the most heart-warming and enticing places in Nepal, including the Sarangkot Valley visit for relaxation and rejuvenation purposes.

Food and accommodation shall be offered to each student at the very hygienic and affluent in-house facility of the school. Encapsulated by the snow-laden galore of the Annapurna Range, humming river streams, and beautiful gardens, the site of accommodation shall be the perfect place for rest and self-reflection. The students shall be able to avail the rooms on both sharing and private basis depending upon their availability and comfort. The candidates shall be offered all the basic amenities such as twin beds, lights, fans, geyser, seating area, etc. Delicious yogic food prepared from fresh resources shall be served to the students thrice a day along with herbal drinks.

As a global leader in quality yoga education in the 200 hour, 300 hour, and 500 hour domain, Rishikul Yogshala has been imparting authentic teachings of the science since the foundation. With a team of honored yoga teachers and mentors, the school has its branches in multiple locations while being headquartered in Rishikesh, India.

For more information visit, https://www.rishikulyogshala.org/.

Alternatively, you can call +91-7060060954 or email at info@rishikulyogshala.org.

SOURCE Rishikul Yogshala        .  .      46-         .    ,  ...If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found hereShillong, Feb 13 : An Election Commission (EC) team led by Chief Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat will arrive here on Thursday to take stock of the preparations for the February 27 assembly polls, an official said on Tuesday.

Rawat will be accompanied by Election Commissioners Sunil Arora and Ashok Lavasa. The five-year term of the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly will expire on March 6.

Chief Electoral Officer Frederick Roy Kharkongor said the Election Commission officials will review the poll preparedness with Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police along with Divisional Commissioners.

The Commission will also hold a separate meeting with Central Armed Police Forces and Income Tax officials.

They would also hold meetings with Chief Secretary Y. Tsering and Director General of Police Swaraj Bir Singh.

The Election Commission officials will also meet leaders of political parties.

In December, a full bench of the Election Commission led by then Chief Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Joti had visited Meghalaya and voiced satisfaction at the poll preparedness in the state.

The Congress, which is ruling the state for a second consecutive term, is confident of retaining power.

On the other hand, other political parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has fielded 47 candidates, are also confident of unseating the ruling Congress.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi had visited the state and sought the people's support to vote for the Congress party.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who launched the election campaign for the BJP on December 16, asked the voters to oust the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government headed by Mukul Sangma.Chandigarh, Feb 14 : Amid tight security arrangements, thousands of people offered prayers at various temples across Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh on Wednesday to mark Maha Shivratri.

While people thronged to temples, particularly temples of Lord Shiva in and around Chandigarh, thousands of people gathered at Shiv Temple in Saketri in Panchkula district in adjoining Haryana, around 10 km from here, since Tuesday evening to offer prayers.

Tight security arrangements could be seen around temples at various places in view of intelligence reports of a terror strike.

For the first time, para-military personnel were stationed around the Shiv Temple in Saketri.

Temples of Lord Shiva were specially decorated as people thronged these since Tuesday morning.

"We have been getting hundreds of devotees who are offering prayers on this auspicious occasion," Prem Sharma, a priest in a temple in Sector 9 of Panchkula, said.

People thronged temples in Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Jalandhar and other places in Punjab and in Ambala, Hisar, Karnal, Panipat and Kurukshetra in Haryana.Bhubaneswar, Feb 14 : Thousands of devotees thronged Shiva temples across Odisha to offer prayers on the occasion of Maha Shivaratri on Wednesday.

Maha Shivaratri, otherwise known as Jagar, is observed in a ritualistic way with much serenity to appease Lord Shiva.

Shivaratri is celebrated on the 13th or 14th day of the dark half (Krishna Paksha) of Phalgun (February-March), according to the Hindu calendar.

Daylong fasting and offerings of bael (wood apple) leaves are two significant practices on this day. Hymns in praise of Shiva are chanted throughout the night because it is believed that the one who does so with full devotion is freed of all sins.

Most of the people observe fast on the day till "mahadeepa" is raised atop Shiva temples at around 10 p.m. on the day.

"We are trying to coordinate with servitors and others associated with the arrangements to conduct the rituals at the temple in an organised manner," said the president of the Lingaraj Temple Trust Board, Manoj Kumar Mohanty.

Devotees in large numbers have started visiting several shrines including Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar, Loknath in Puri, Dhabaleswar Peeth in Cuttack, Akhandalmani in Bhadrak, Panchalingeswar in Balasore, Chandrasekhar at Kapilas in Dhenkanal, Ladukeshwar in Nayagarh and Gupteshwar in Koraput.

"It is a very auspicious day as people keep fast and pray to the Lord. We eagerly wait for the 'mahadeepa darshan' as devotees break their fast after completion of this ritual," said Priyanka, a devotee.

Adequate security measures have been taken to ensure smooth 'darshan' for devotees in the Shiva shrines.

As many as 25 platoons of the police force have been deployed for smooth 'darshan' of the Lord at Lingaraj temple. Fire vehicles have been kept ready as a precautionary measure.New Delhi, Feb 14 : Iran President Hassan Rouhani will come on a three-day visit to India starting Thursday at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the External Affairs Ministry announced on Wednesday.

Modi and Rouhani will hold a bilateral meeting here on Saturday, during the course of which both sides would review the progress achieved in bilateral relations and also exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual interest, according to a ministry statement.

Rouhani will also call on President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday.

According to Iranian news agency Irna, Rouhani will first arrive in Hyderabad on Thursday where he will meet the city's Muslim Ulemas. He will also meet Iranian nationals, including students, residing in India.

Citing the Iran President's deputy chief of staff for communications and information Parviz Esmaeili, Irna said following the delegation-level talks on Saturday, both sides will sign a number of agreements.

Business leaders of both sectors are also scheduled to hold a joint meeting to review cooperation opportunities and capacities, according to Esmaeili.

This will be Rouhani's first visit to India after he assumed office in 2013.

It comes after Modi's visit to Tehran in 2016 during which a trilateral agreement on transit and transport was signed between India, Iran and Afghanistan.

India committed $85 million in investment for the development of the Shahid Beheshti Port in Iran's southeastern city of Chabahar.

The first phase of the port was inaugurated by President Rouhani in December last year, a little over a month after the first consignment of wheat from India to Afghanistan was sent via this facility.

The port opens a new strategic transit route between Iran, India, Afghanistan and other Central Asian nations bypassing Pakistan.

India-Iran bilateral trade stood at $12.89 billion in 2016-17, according to figures provided by the External Affairs Ministry.Mumbai, Feb 14 : In the wake of unseasonal rains and hailstorms lashing Maharashtra since Sunday, the government on Wednesday announced a compensation package of Rs 200 crore for farmers who suffered damage to standing crops.

"An immediate aid package of Rs 200 crore has been cleared by the government to be disbursed as per existing norms and various parameters," said Agriculture Minister Pandurang Fudkar.

"The government will request the Centre to clear the amount even as the final reports from all regions are expected in a couple of days," he added.

Fundkar said according to the preliminary survey reports, agriculture produce in more than 190,000 hectares was damaged or destroyed, hitting around 1,800 villages in at least 11 districts of Vidarbha, Marathwada and surrounding areas.

While tentative reports of the losses of in many hailstorm-hit areas had been received, the final report on losses due to unseasonal rains in Buldhana, Nanded, Bhandara, Gadchiroli, Chandrapur and Wardha was expected by Friday, he added.

The matter was also discussed in the cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

The compensation will range between Rs 6,800 and Rs 13,500 per hectare for cereals and between Rs 23,300 and Rs 40,000 for fruits or horticulture, if they are insured.

For those whose crops are not insured, the farmers would get an assistance of Rs 18,000 per hectare, the minister said.

The natural calamity that struck on Sunday has so far claimed four lives, besides many smaller animals, birds and fowl.Kathmandu, Feb 14 : Two months after the successful conclusion of parliamentary elections, Nepal's largest party CPN-UML on Wednesday picked its Chairman K.P. Sharma Oli as the next Prime Minister of the country.

A meeting of the party's Standing Committee decided to propose Oli as next Prime Minister with the support of another Communist party, CPN (Maoist Centre), said party leader Surendra Padney.

Being the largest party in the Nepal's Lower House, CPN-UML's Oli is the natural claimant for the post but requires support from Maoists to secure the majority.

According to the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxists-Leninists) leader Pandey, the meeting also gave nod to the party unification between the UML and the Maoist Centre.

Two Communist forces in Nepal decided to go together in elections last October by forming a Left Alliance. They contested elections in single manifesto and divided the candidates in 60:40 ratio.

The alliance won the majority seats in Nepal's Provincial and Federal Assemblies and will be forming governments in Centre as well as in six provinces out of seven.

As per the agreement, both Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" will co-chair of the new Communist Party and will split the premiership on rotational basis, said Pandey.

But modalities of rotational based premiership between Oli and Prachanda, unification of the party, its organization basis, management of entire rank and file and political doctrine among others will be ascertained by a task force formed by both parties.

On the other hand, the Maoist party also authorized its chairman Prachanda to take all necessary decision for party unification with the UML and future power sharing with UML including the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Speaker and Deputy Speaker.

(Anil Giri can be contacted at girianil@gmail.com)Kolkata, Feb 14 : Thr chief of Hindu Samhati, a hardliner Hindu outfit in West Bengal, and three of its activists were on Wednesday arrested for allegedly attacking journalists at an event on occasion of the organisation's 10th foundation day here, a senior police officer said.

"Hindu Samhati chief Tapan Ghosh and three other activists have been arrested in the case of assault on media persons in Kolkata on Wednesday evening," Joint Commissioner of Kolkata Police (Crime) Praveen Kumar Tripathi said.

Reporters and camera persons of various media houses were allegedly beaten up by the activists present at the meeting, after they tried to talk to the members of a Muslim family who allegedly converted to Hinduism at the event.

Ghosh, also the founder of Hindu Samhati, was present on stage when the scuffle took place. He was later arrested after being interrogated, police said.

State Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee condemned the attack on journalists and said strict action would be taken against the offenders.

"The media has every right to work independently. The way they (Hindu Samhati) attacked and heckled the media persons today is deplorable. I demand strict administrative action against the fringe elements," Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee said.

The state unit of BJP distanced itself from the accused organisation and condemned the attack on media.

"Media is one of the pillars of democracy. They should not be attacked like this. Different organisations can have different philosophy. If they do not like the media's point of view, they can ignore it but such attacks on media is condemnable," Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said.

Police said they would look into the reports of religious conversion at the event.

"We have heard that there was a case of religious conversion in public at the end of the event. We will investigate the matter," an officer said.

Formed in 2008, the Hindu Samhati website describes itself as an NGO that is "the icon of hope to Hindus in West Bengal" and says it regularly monitors and reports violence against Hindus in the state.

The outfit claims to have organisational strength in 12 of the 23 districts and can influence votes in 80 of the 294 Assembly seats of the state.Paris, Feb 15 : A French court on Wednesday discharged Jawad Bendaoud, the landlord who provided his apartment to terrorists who killed 130 people here in November 2015.

After a three-week trial, Bendaoud was cleared of "concealment of terrorist criminals" charges. According to the Paris criminal court, no evidence had been found to confirm the suspect knew he was harboring terrorists.

Earlier this month, the prosecution requested a four-year jail term for the 31-year-old drug dealer, Xinhua news agency reported.

Five days after 130 people were killed in France's worst terror attack on November 13, 2015, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the presumed mastermind of the assaults, was killed by police in Bendaoud's flat in Saint-Denis, near Paris.

Before his arrest at the time, Bendaoud told French media he had been asked to do a favour and had no idea his hosts were extremists.

The presiding judge also decided to sentence Mohamed Soumah, believed to be the middleman between the attackers and Bendaoud, to five years.

As for Youssef Ait Boulahcen, Abaaoud's cousin, he was given a four-year jail term with a one-year suspended sentence for not reporting a terrorist act.Washington, Feb 15 : At least one person was killed and 14 others were injured in a school shooting on Wednesday in the US state of Florida.

The shooting occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, which was voted Florida's safest city last year, CNN reported.

The school said the incident took place as the school was dismissing students.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel confirmed that "multiple" people were killed in shooting.

He said at least 14 victims were transported to local hospitals.

Earlier, Law enforcement officials told CNN there are at least two fatalities in the Florida school shooting.

The Police have reportedly captured the suspect about 1.6 kilometres from the school and previous reports cited local police as saying a student of the school was identified as the suspected shooter.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said, "My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school."

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut -- a prominent voice in the fight for gun control -- took to the Senate floor late this afternoon to address the Florida school shooting.

We are responsible for a level of mass atrocity that happens in this country with zero parallel anywhere else," he said.

"Let me just note once again for my colleagues: this happens nowhere else other than the United States of America. This epidemic of mass slaughter, this scourge of school shooting after school shooting," he added.

"It only happens here not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction," he said.Johannesburg, Feb 15 : South African President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday resigned from his office with immediate effect making the announcement in a televised address to the nation.

The 75-year-old has been under increasing pressure to give way to Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, the ANC's new leader.

Zuma, who has been in power since 2009, faces numerous allegations of corruption.

His resignation came at the end of a long speech in which he said he disagreed with the way the ANC had acted towards him.

According to BBC, he said he did not fear a motion of no-confidence, adding: "I have served the people of South Africa to the best of my ability."

Zuma also said that violence and division within the ANC had influenced his decision to step down.

"No life should be lost in my name and also the ANC should never be divided in my name. I have therefore come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect," he was quoted as saying.

"Even though I disagree with the decision of the leadership of my organisation, I have always been a disciplined member of the ANC.

"As I leave I will continue to serve the people of South Africa as well as the ANC, the organisation I have served... all of my life."

Meanwhile, the ANC said Zuma's resignation provided "certainty to the people of South Africa".

Deputy Secretary General Jessie Duarte told reporters: "President Zuma remains a principled member of the ANC. The ANC wants to salute the outstanding contribution he has made."Washington, Feb 15 : Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai has said that it would be dangerous to advocate confrontation and instead expressed confidence that common interest and dialogue would outgrow any friction between the two nations.

"It's certainly paranoid to fear that a China that follows its own path of development would be confrontational to the US.

"And it's dangerous to advocate any strategy for confrontation (against China)," Xinhua quoted Cui as saying at the Spring Festival reception in the Chinese Embassy on Tuesday.

"It would be wishful thinking to believe that some political or cultural genetic engineering could be done to change China's DNA," he said.

The Sino-US relationship "should be characterised by overall cooperation. Friendly competition,... but no confrontation," Cui said.

"We will continue to have differences between us, but our growing common interests are far more important... The need for cooperation will far outweigh any differences... Dialogues will lead us to solutions," Cui said.

Noting that the Chinese new year will be the Year of the Dog, Cui said "dogs are seen as loyal, sincere, and trusting companions in both Chinese and the western cultures. I believe such virtues are equally essential for relations between countries."

US Senator Shelley Capito of West Virginia, who attended the event, said:

"Our state is really excited about the investment that's going to come from China and we think it's going to be a game changer..."

She was referring to a $83.7 billion investment pledge China has made during Trump's state visit to Beijing in 2017.

More than 700 people attended the event, including US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross.Brasilia, Feb 15 : Brazil will intensify negotiations in a bid to enter the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an official statement said.

Brazil will strengthen its delegation to the OECD from March to meet the requirements for being a full member, Xinhua quoted the statement as saying.

At present, the US, Canada, Mexico and Chile are the only full members from the Americas.

The OECD is a bloc of 35 member countries that together account for 62 per cent of global GDP and around two-third of international trade.

It wields important influence over decisions by other international bodies, including the World Trade Organisation.

To apply for full membership, Brazil must show that it has met the 237 recommendations of the OECD. The government said Brazil has met only 36 so far.New Delhi, Feb 15 : They went through a shocking decline recently. Bitcoin, the leader in cryptocurrencies, fell from its high of under $20,000 in mid-December to around $6,000 in value in less than two months.

It has recovered somewhat since then, but the world of cryptocurrencies has been shaken like never before. Yet its major stakeholders are still convinced that the virtual currencies, which are not linked to any authority or central bank, are here to stay.

The price graph of Bitcoins last year went up considerably, leading people to believe that it would be a one-sided market phenomenon, says Ajeet Khurana, Head of Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Committee of the Internet and Mobile Association of India. "Now that there has been a price correction, it definitely shows maturing of the ecosystem," he told IANS in an interview.

Maturing or shaken for good? Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his 2018 Budget speech earlier this month had said that cryptocurrencies were no legal tender and the government discouraged its use. He also said it would not allow its use for illegal activities.

"The government has said it is not a legal tender and it cannot be used for any digital payment. We will always agree with government directives. We are hopeful that with increase in awareness, misunderstanding among people will fade," Khurana said.

Cryptocurrencies are "mined" through blockchain technology and massive computing power, which keeps a record of all transactions within its structure, available publicly. It is neither controlled, nor endorsed, by central bankers -- except for Japan, where it has seen some legal acceptance.

The market cap of all such currencies has fallen from more than $800 billion at its height to less than half at present. In India, an estimated five million people have invested in such currencies which are stored digitally.

Industry stakeholders are now keeping their fingers crossed as they are hopeful that the Indian government would chalk out some sort of a framework for the cryptocurrency market by March this year. A committee set up by the government to look into issues relating to cryptocurrencies is expected to submit its report next month.

According to Khurana, many investors do not know enough about the currencies and the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) panel is making efforts to increase awareness. "A significant number of participants do not have enough knowledge about cryptocurrencies. We keep sending cautionary notes in articles and video format in the public domain on a regular basis," he added.

On December 29 last year, the Indian government had sounded an alarm cautioning investors in cryptocurrencies, comparing them to "Ponzi schemes". The Finance Ministry statement had said that as virtual currencies were not backed by assets, their prices were entirely a matter of speculation.

"Consumers need to be alert and extremely cautious as to avoid getting trapped in such Ponzi schemes... The price of Bitcoin and other VCs (virtual curencies), therefore, is entirely a matter of mere speculation resulting in spurt and volatility in their prices. There is a real and heightened risk of investment bubble of the type seen in Ponzi schemes," the statement had said.

Cryptocurrency stakeholders are hopeful, though, that the government's guidelines by March could infuse a new lease of life. "It has survived several jolts along its way. Despite the jolts, it continued to exist. Around 2014-15, the non-tech participants with significant risk appetite started showing interest in it," Khurana said.

For now, it's Caveat Emptor -- buyer beware. But as in many get-rich-quick schemes, the early entrants have made huge gains, luring several others to put in their money into this new virtual world of overwhelming promise.

(Aparajita Gupta can be contacted at aparajita.g@ians.in)Accra, Feb 15 : With China increasing its trade and investment in Nigeria over the past few years, a trade exhibition involving the participation of some 200 firms from India will be an opportunity for the country to catch up.

China's trade with Nigeria was $11.2 billion over the first 10 months of last year -- against India's $9.4 billion.

The Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) says the "Source India Nigeria" exhibition, from March 27 to 29, is an opportunity for holding buyer-seller meetings and is expected to see about 3,000 trade visitors from Nigeria and neighbouring countries in the West Africa region.

Its focus is on "cost-effective promotion of Indian exporters in Nigeria and to facilitate direct access to potential buyers and influential decision-makers", a TPCI official said.

Past editions of the "Source India" shows have been organised in Kenya and Ghana. The TPCI is hopeful that the exhibition will help Indian businesses tap into Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy with more than $500 billion nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

TPCI pointed out that in 2016, Nigeria's imports from around the world totalled $30 billion. The products imported included electrical machinery and equipment, automotive parts, cereals, pharmaceutical products and rubber products.

"India's exports to Nigeria have touched $1.74 billion, with the main products being electrical machinery and equipment, automotive parts, cereals, pharmaceutical products and rubber products. "Thus, there is huge potential for Indian exporters to explore Nigeria in a multiple-product segment," the TPCI official added.

The exhibition is taking place at a time the economic and commercial counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria, Zhao Linxiang, has said bilateral trade between the two countries hit $11.2 billion during the first 10 months of last year -- a growth of 28.5 per cent.

In addition to trade, China is said to have invested about $2.7 billion in the country, with Nigeria Bureau of Statistics figures showing Chinese investment in non-oil sectors at $38.58 million. This is an improvement of about 4.6 times the figure for 2016.

Last November, the Nigerian government signed a $5.79 billion agreement with three companies for constructing the 3,050 MW Mambilla Hydro Project located in Taraba State, a project supported by the China Exim Bank. The Chinese have also been running training programmes in Nigeria over the past decade.

India is also supporting Nigeria with infrastructural projects facilitated by $100 million in Letters of Credit (LoC). The projects are in the power sector, including solar energy and rural electrification, in the states of Kaduna, Cross River and Enugu.

The Indian High Commissioner in Abuja, B.N. Reddy, has said India is also providing training through the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme, which has seen several Nigerians being trained in India. Two hundred training slots were provided in the 2015-16 fiscal, with the figure shooting up to 300 during 2017-18.

This apart, India is Nigeria's largest source of pharmaceuticals, meeting over a third of the country's demand. So far, about 30 Indian or India-linked companies are active in importing or manufacturing pharma products in Nigeria.

"During 2014-15, India's pharma exports reached $414 million against $382 million during 2013-14 -- an increase of eight per cent. This slightly increased to $428.52 million in 2015-16," the Indian High Commission said.

There is thus potential and India should strive to top the league of nations trading with the West African country, a senior Nigerian official said.

(Francis Kokutse can be contacted at fkokutse@gmail.com)New Delhi, Feb 15 : Nazia Erum's "Mothering a Muslim" has been dominating the bestseller charts for many weeks now and has opened up prime-time discussions on the telly, columns in newspapers and reams of reviews on how -- through the cases she has documented across cities -- religious bigotry has been seeping into schools, playgrounds, and into children's minds. Some of the accounts are shocking, most of them are heartbreaking, but above all, the book finally puts into words what has always existed but not acknowledged.

Nazia begins with the most basic question that any parent faces when a child is born. What name should I choose? In her own words, "it was 2014 and our country stood divided along religious fault lines". A palpable fear found its way inside the new mom as she held her little girl -- she didn't want to give her a Muslim-sounding name. Nazia is the founder of The Luxury Label, a work-wear brand for women, and "as an educated, working, metropolitan woman, I wanted to reject this unnamed fear". So she reached out to other mothers like her, an eclectic mix of woman -- doctors, IT professionals, lawyers, a burqa-clad, single mother of two who has worked with Facebook and Google, sportswomen, and homemakers.

A well-researched book, the questions brought the whispers within the bedroom walls into the drawing room. Nazia found that her concerns were not hers alone.

Sample this: Zareen Siddique, mother to six-year-old Samaira, recounted how her daughter came home one day and told her how she had been beaten up by her bench-mate in school. "Are you a Muslim?" he asked, and then started hitting her, saying, "I hate Muslims."

In another case, five-year-old Azania hollered and screamed, utterly panic-stricken, when the car in which she was travelling was halted briefly as men, dressed in crisp white kurtas and skull-caps, emerged from the Friday prayers in a mosque somewhere near Aligarh. The little girl's parents were amused, but the smile soon faded away when she shouted, "The Muslims are coming! They will kill us!"

Both Samira and Azania live in Delhi-NCR and go to internationally accredited, reputed schools; schools which children of the so-called upper-middle class, affluent and well-educated families go to. The seeds of intolerance that have sprouted through the little children find their obvious roots back in their homes, slashing, yet again, the notion that biases exist among the lower socio-economic strata, those who are not "modern", not educated.

It also leads us, as readers, to bring to focus the barrage of unfiltered information that children are getting exposed to. After all, where do children get such questions in their head: "Do your parents make bombs?" "Do you eat beef?" A mother Nazia interviewed said that while bullying in campuses -- in terms of childish rebukes -- always existed, it is now getting pronounced along religious lines, with slurs that are borrowed from angry debates on TV channels and on the internet.

About 100 children among those of the 118 families in the Delhi NCR region that Nazia spoke to said that they have been called terrorists or Pakistanis at some point of their schooling. Another mother in Bhopal recounted the day when her son, studying in a well-known boarding school in Indore, called to ask if they were Pakistanis. The alarmed parents got in touch with the school and they promised to counsel the students after a due apology. But the incidents kept resurfacing and the school said they could only do so much. The mother observed that while she and her husband -- an alumnus of the same school -- have a mixed group of friends, many of them non-Muslim, her children have started keeping company of only other Muslim children.

On the other side of the table, the fear of their children being discriminated against has put in place a kind of self-censorship into parents' hearts. A mother in Bengaluru banned her young son from playing video games after she overheard his friend congratulating him with a "Ayan, you are a pro at bombing your way out!" "But everyone is playing them, Amma," he complained. "You are not everyone; I don't want to hear your name and bomb and guns in the same sentence again," she said sternly, masking her fear.

The book has several examples from Nazia's own life, of her family and friends being "careful", of being conscious of their identity while going on about their day-to-day life. "What can I search on my laptop or mobile?" "What can I sell on OLX that cannot be misused?"

But it also calls for a wider form of self-censorship. Of being mindful of what is being passed on to the young generation; if it has the potential of tarnishing our future, of further creating stereotypes than there already are, "particularly in the present politically charged atmosphere".

Nazia ends her book with some suggestions for parents and schools to counter communal bullying: Address the subject, have inter-faith discussions, create "diversity" leaders, be clear about the school's zero-tolerance policies -- although in most cases, the schools were not even aware of such incidents as a result of under-reporting.

Not talking about a problem, Nazia reinforces time and again, is never a solution and in this case, "the problem is compounded by the fact that the urban middle-class Muslim is intimidated by his/her own largely conservative community".

"I never wrote this book keeping only a Muslim audience in mind; it was always the Indian diaspora. It was only after it came out that I realised it also has a global audience," Nazia says, overwhelmed at the wave of response to her book. "I am glad it has started discussions... much-needed discussions."

(Azera Rahman can be contacted azera.rahman@gmail.com)Washington, Feb 15 : The US Department of State has announced that Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan will visit five European nations staring Friday and seek to mend bilateral ties with them.

Starting February 16 upto February 23, the tour is aimed at mending cross-Atlantic ties that have been strained after the Donald Trump administration assumed office in January 2017, Xinhua news agency reported.

Sullivan will arrive in Munich on February 16 to attend the Munich Security Conference, kicking off his visit to Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Latvia and Belgium.

He will participate in a nuclear security and arms control panel discussion with foreign government officials to reaffirm the US stance on global nuclear security.

Sullivan will then travel to Rome to talk about cooperation on Ukraine, Libya and the Islamic State (IS), and deliver remarks at the American Studies Centre to discuss US-Italian cooperation on global security issues.

He will visit Kiev on February 21 to meet Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin.

The US diplomat will stress the importance of Ukraine speeding up credible economic and anti-corruption reforms and also underscore US support for its sovereignty and territorial integrity, according to the State Department on Wednesday.

His next stop will be in Riga on February 22 where he will meet senior Latvian officials to reaffirm commitment to NATO's Article 5, which considers an attack against one ally to be an attack on all allies.

Brussels will be his last stop on February 23. Sullivan will participate in the Sahel donors' conference and discuss US continued support for the development, security and political issues of the African region.

Bilateral discords have surfaced around the US' withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, Washington's recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and its constant push for Europe to increase the latter's share of defence expenses.

For their part, European nations complained about the US doing little to curb Moscow's move on the Ukraine issue, which they see as an act of blatant aggression.New Delhi : For the last half of the 20th century, the United States was the world's beacon for democracy and economic development and India was a laggard. These roles are reversing as the end of the second decade of the 21st century approaches.

India is becoming a beacon and the US is becoming a flashlight. In large part, this is a consequence of leadership.

India has a leader in Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is pursuing the future. The US has a leader in Donald Trump who is pursuing the past. President Trump is emphasising individualism and isolationism. Prime Minister Modi is stressing engagement and expansionism.

Freedom House, in its annual report titled "Freedom in the World 2018" released in January, noted that "A long list of troubling developments contributed to the global decline of democracy, but perhaps most striking was the accelerating withdrawal of the United States from its historical commitment to promoting and supporting democracy."

The report's aggregate Freedom Score rating (aggregate score) for the US in 2017 was 86 out of 100 points. Its aggregate score for India was 77. This shows that, overall, on the dimensions being measured, the US scores higher. But its score has dropped substantially from 94 in 2008.

Today the majority of the countries that rate 90 and above on their aggregate scores are older and smaller. They do not have the size or stature to assume the international democratic leadership mantle if America under the Trump Administration relinquishes it.

India does. In the last part of 2017, as Prime Minister Modi called for more democratic processes and participation in India's political parties, it appears that he may encourage the country to step forward to take on that obligation.

Time will tell how this plays out. What is certain, at this point, based upon Modi's opening address at the Davos Word Economic Forum on January 23, is that the Prime Minister is using India's democracy as a selling point and putting the country centre stage in terms of its own economic growth and promotion of international cooperation.

In his Davos remarks, Modi stressed that India is the "largest democracy on planet Earth" and provided a litany of the enormous opportunities for companies to invest in "inclusive economic development". He also struck a strong free-trade, globalisation note while calling for international unity to address the issues of climate change, terrorism and protectionism.

Modi didn't directly say that India is open for business. But his message, throughout his comments, was that it is.

Trump, on the other hand, in his closing address at Davos, stated explicitly that "America is open for business..." But the implicit message, throughout his comments, was that it is not.

At various points during his speech, Trump asserted: "As President, I will always put America first..."; "The United States will no longer turn a blind eye to unfair economic practices..."; "My administration is proud to have led historic efforts... to de-nuke the Korean peninsula".

According to press reports, Trump's speech was fairly well received while he stayed on script. Trump was, however, booed when he answered a question after concluding his prepared remarks by declaring, "...it wasn't until I became a politician that I realised how nasty, how mean, how vicious and how fake the press can be."

Therein lies the rub. Even in a setting where President Trump was trying to present his more cooperative side, his inherent combative nature and self-centred perspective came though. By contrast, Prime Minister Modi was collaborative and ecumenical in his presentation of self and India. This was most evident when he concluded his speech by observing:

"If you want wealth with wellness, work in India; if you want peace with prosperity, live in India; if you want health with whole life, be in India. And our promise is that your agenda will be part of our destiny. We both will have a shared and successful future."

To sum up: Trump's nationalistic communication to the world at Davos was "My way or no highway." Modi's was "Our way is the skyway."

America's retrenchment under Trump leaves a leadership vacuum in the world. India under Modi appears poised to fill that vacuum.

What stands out and is differentiating about Modi is his espousing a positive and constructive agenda in terms of world involvement. There is no assurance exactly where India will conclude its journey to world leadership. It can however be stated unequivocally near the beginning of 2018 that India is on the right trajectory and climbing upward.

It can be stated with equal certainty that the US is not. It is on a glide path headed downward. This is true because those who live in the past and retreat from the playing field are restricting their future.

(Frank F. Islam is an entrepreneur, civic and thought leader based in Washington, DC. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at ffislam@verizon.net)New Delhi, Feb 15 : The triple talaq bill is a step towards imposing a Uniform Civil Code and the judicial verdict on the practice is a lesson for the Muslim community that matters such as polygamy and nikah halala might similarly end up in court if reformative steps are not taken, Congress leader Salman Khurshid has said.

Khurshid, who has written a book "Triple Talaq: Examining Faith" (OUP/pp 260/Rs 316), said a bill on the subject that is pending in parliament "does not make sense" as the practice has been outlawed by the Supreme Court.

Khurshid, a former External Affairs Minister, accused the BJP-led government of pursuing a "divisive agenda."

"What is the effect of taking away triple talaq? This is what I have tried to say in my book -- that triple talaq is bad. We are not for it. It's a silly way of giving talaq.

"But there is no difference between talaq and triple talaq, except that talaq is reversible and triple talaq is irreversible," Khurshid told IANS in an interview.

Asked if the reform on triple talaq should have come from within the Muslim community, Khurshid said: "I agree that this is something that the Muslim community, through its chosen leaders, should have addressed before the court took hold of it. And, therefore, this is a lesson about other matters that might similarly end up in court if the community does not take steps to reform."

Asked to elaborate, he said: "Polygamy is one such thing and the nikah halala is another one. I think there are good ways of showing and explaining that both of them do not pose as great a threat to equality as is made out to be, but certainly popular perception about them is very bad. Therefore they should be addressed from within the community."

As per "nikah halala", a woman divorcee has to marry someone else and consummate this marriage before getting a divorce to remarry her earlier husband.

Khurshid noted that only a microscopic percentage of the Muslim community resorts to instant triple talaq and reforms normally happen if something becomes overwhelming and people think it is becoming a burden. "If it is microscopic, it often gets overlooked, neglected. And then there were larger issues that people amongst Muslims were preoccupied with," he said.

Asked if the triple talaq bill was a step towards imposing Uniform Civil Code (UCC), he said: "Yes, it certainly is."

"There is a hidden agenda, or not-so-well hidden agenda, there of trying to impose (the UCC). But even (for) trying to impose it, this is a very shabby way of doing it. You can't impose the code on the peril of criminal culpability. If it it's to be introduced, it has to be introduced as a code and that code is not criminal. The code has to be a civilian code."

Khurshid said talaq is part of personal law and nobody has challenged it.

"It is only triple talaq that has been challenged, and the world over the understanding is that triple talaq or a talaq said three times, six times, 100 times, is only to be considered as talaq said once and talaq said once is perfectly valid and, therefore, triple talaq's first talaq is also perfectly valid," Khurshid said.

He said the Congress is very clearly against the criminalising element in the triple talaq bill.

"To impose criminal liability in essentially a civil matter, which is the matter of a family affair, I think, is wrong. Also on fundamental jurisprudential principles, to punish somebody for something that does not exist is against the principles of criminology," he said.

The Congress and several other opposition parties have said that the bill, which is pending in the Rajya Sabha after the Lok Sabha passed it, should be examined by a select committee.

Khurshid said even women who are against triple talaq have not come out in favour of criminalisation.

Khurshid, who assisted the court during the triple talaq hearing, said if the government is genuinely concerned about divorced women, it should provide for them irrespective of the community they belong to.

Accusing the BJP of pursuing a "silly divisive agenda" to portray Muslims as "regressive", "counter-productive for modern society" and Muslim society being divided among men and women, Khurshid said: "That is a completely wrong understanding of Muslim society."

He said the BJP was "grievously mistaken" if it thinks it will get votes of Muslim women due to the triple talaq bill. "You think Muslim women don't watch television and see what happened to Pehlu Khan and Mohammad Akhlaq who were killed by cow vigilantes? I think it is a very myopic understanding of Muslim women."

Asked about the perception that the BJP got votes from the Muslim community in (last year's) Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, Khurshid said: "That's an impression they give. I have very serious doubts."

He said the government will not find the going easy on the bill as it lacks a majority in the upper house.

"They still do not have strength to pass it in the house. They may get the strength after a year or whatever, and they just have to wait till then. And then there will be matter of testing it in the courts. It is not smooth sailing as they might imagine," Khurshod conteded.

(Prashant Sood can be reached at prashant.s@ians.in)Mumbai, Feb 15 : Filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker says it is an exhilarating feeling that "Jodhaa Akbar", which clocked 10 years of its release on Thursday, is still appealing to the audience.

Gowariker tweeted an unreleased poster of the Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan starrer historical romance.

"It's truly an exhilarating feeling that 'Jodhaa Akbar' is still appealing to audiences today. Not only in India but internationally too! And I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for giving it so much love. Sharing with you an unreleased poster! Ten years of 'Jodhaa Akbar'," he captioned the poster.

The film revolves around Jodhaa, a Rajput princess who is obliged to marry Mughal emperor Akbar for political reasons. Eventually, mutual respect and admiration between the two leads to love between them.New Delhi, Feb 15 : An unidentified biker snatched a mobile phone from an elderly Iranian national here who had come to visit India, police said on Thursday.

According to the police, the incident occurred on Wednesday when the victim identified as Sorosh, 63, left his guest house 'Parsi Anjuman' at Delhi Gate to visit Rajghat.

"When Sorosh was waiting for a cab with his wife Seema and his son at Delhi Gate, a biker snatched his mobile phone and escaped towards LNJP hospital," a senior police officer said.

Sorosh alleged that he informed the Police Control Room (PCR) immediately but the police reached after 20 minutes.

"The incident occurred near DCP office and Police Headquarters, but police did not take any swift action," Sorosh told IANS.

"Sorosh was earlier in Mumbai and had come to Delhi four days before," the police officer said.

"We are examining the CCTV footages of nearby roads and are taking the help of locals to identify the snatcher," he added.Canberra, Feb 15 : Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been labelled as "deceitful" over his public rejection of enshrining an indigenous voice in the nation's constitution.

Noel Pearson, an indigenous leader from Cape York in far north Queensland, and other members of the Referendum Council on Thursday expressed their outrage with the Prime Minister over an answer he gave in Parliamentary Question Time on Tuesday, Xinhua news reported.

In response to a question from Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, Turnbull told Parliament that he had warned the Referendum Council that "a representative body available only to Indigenous Australians" was "inconsistent with a fundamental principle of our democracy."

The Referendum Council is a body that was appointed by Turnbull and Shorten to advise on the best way to formally recognise the indigenous population in the Australian Constitution.

In June 2017, the council recommended that a referendum should be held on establishing an indigenous advisory body that would be consulted by Parliament on legislation and policy affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. However, Turnbull rejected the proposal.

"I also said, being frank and honest, that I thought the prospects of such an amendment to the constitution being successful were absolutely zero, absolutely zero," the Prime Minister told Parliament on Tuesday.

Pearson said that Turnbull's assertion on Tuesday was contrary to the advice given to the council in November 2016 that he would genuinely consider any proposal made by the council, including the 'voice' to the Parliament.

Pearson said Turnbull's answer in Parliament exposed "his duplicity in relation to his dealing with Indigenous constitutional recognition" by misrepresenting what he told the council.

"The prime minister had pre-judged the whole dialogue process even before the consultations with indigenous people and the wider Australian community had even commenced," Pearson told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Thursday.

"His opposition to the 'voice' is based on his own opinion and takes no consideration of the outcomes of a public consultation process," Pearson said.Chandigarh, Feb 15 : A minor fire in the Haryana secretariat building here on Thursday led to a scare among people.

Three fire engines were rushed to the spot to extinguish the fire.

No casualty was reported in the incident, police said.

The fire was noticed on the second floor of the building in the morning before the government offices opened for work.

Hundreds of employees and officers work in the secretariat complex which is located in the high security zone of Sector 1 Capitol Complex.

Officials said short circuiting seemed to be the cause and investigations were on.Mumbai, Feb 15 : Shares of the Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Thursday continued to slump for a second consecutive day after a $1.8 billion fraud was detected in one of its branches in Mumbai.

Around 2 p.m., the scrips of the bank declined by 7.17 per cent to trade at Rs 135.35 per share, less by Rs 10.45 from the previous close at Rs 145.80.

Stocks of jewellery companies like Gitanjali and PC Jewellers too declined after authorities blamed billionaire diamond trader Nirav Modi for the fraud.

Stocks of Gitanjali Gems plunged over 18 per cent while those of PC Jewellers fell over 5.33 per cent on the BSE.

"Gitanjali Gems shares slumped 18 per cent to Rs 48.05 after PNB said on Wednesday it had been defrauded of about Rs 11,400 crore by jeweller Nirav Modi, his maternal uncle Mehul Chinubhai Choksi and other relatives through a clutch of companies they own," Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls, told IANS.

On Wednesday, PNB -- the second largest public sector bank in India - informed the stock exchanges through a regulatory filing that it has detected a $1.8 billion fraud in one of its branches in Mumbai.

In the filing, PNB put the quantum of fradulent transactions at $1,771.69 million (around Rs 11,515 crore), which is equivalent to eight times the bank's net income of about Rs 1,320 crore ($206 million).

The bank's shares had plunged drastically on Wednesday following the regulatory filing to close lower by 9.81 per cent at the BSE.

On Thursday, the Enforcement Directorate launched a nationwide raid on the offices, showrooms and workshops of billionaire diamond trader Nirav Modi.New Delhi, Feb 15 : The Supreme Court on Thursday permitted Essel Mining and Industries to restart mining activities in two of its three mines in Odisha saying that mining in the third can start only with the consent of the state government.

The bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta permitted Essel Mining and Industries -- a part of the Aditya Birla Group of industries -- to restart mining activities in two mines as the court was told that it has deposited a penalty Rs 1,717 crore determined by the state government.

While the top court gave its nod for mining in the Jilling and Koira mines, Essel will have to get the Odisha government's approval for starting mining activities in Kasia.

Permitting Essel Mining and Industries to recommence the mining activities, the court, however, declined the plea by counsel Prashant Bhushan that the forest clearance given to the company be re-looked as he referred to Birla Sahara papers alleging irregularities in the grant of the green nod by the Environment and Forest Ministry.

Refusing the plea by counsel Prashant Bushan, the bench said that it cannot expand the scope of the hearing.

The top court by its August 2, 2017, order had directed the Odisha government to recover the cost of excess production from the defaulting miners.

The apex court called for the recovery of 100 per cent compensation from the defaulting companies compared to 30 per cent as was recommended by the court appointed central empowered committee (CEC).

The top court by its August 2, 2017 order had asked the mining companies involved in violation of forest and environmental clearances to deposit by December 31, 2017 the fine to be determined by the state government.

The top court had said that the amount to be raised as fine would be utilized for the benefit of tribals in the affected districts and for area development work.

By its August 2 judgment, the top court had asked the Central government to have a fresh look at its decade-old National Mineral Policy, 2008 particularly with regard to conservation and mineral development.

The court had also asked the Centre to complete the exercise by December 31, 2017.New Delhi, Feb 15 : The Congress on Thursday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Rs 11,500 crore fraud in the PNB and asked him to come clean on the government's "failure" to prevent the scam and identify those who helped the alleged kingpin, billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi, to flee the country.

Posing a series of questions to the Prime Minister and his government, the Congress accused the PMO or any other authority of taking action even after a complaint was filed to the Prime Minister's Office as early as July 26, 2016.

"The Congress demands accountability, responsibility and recovery of the money and answers on who had protected another 'Chhota Modi' and helped him flee the country," party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters.

Pegging the scam at Rs 30,000 crore, he said the Prime Minister and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley should not remain quite and the government should not merely issue "unsigned" press releases. "They have a lot to answer for."

Accusing the NDA government of trampling upon the entire banking system, Surjewala said risk management system, fraud detection ability' and the regulatory mechanism of banks have been severally compromised under the Modi government.

"Entire system was bypassed. All regulatory mechanisms broke down. Everything escaped the eyes of auditors and investigators. Risk management' and fraud detection ability came to a naught. Yet, the Modi government would have us believe that this entire fraud was being perpetrated by two employees."

He said Modi was made aware of this entire fraud by a whistleblower, Hari Prasad, by way of a written complaint filed July 26, 2016 and acknowledged by the PMO.

"Multiple documents, including a list of 42 FIRs that were pending, were also in the knowledge of the Prime Minister. Despite all this, Nirav Modi traveled in the business delegation to Davos in January 2018 with Prime Minister Modi."

Alleging that "loot and escape" had become the hallmark of the Modi government, Surjewala said: "Post-escape of 'Lalit Modi' i.e. 'Chhota Modi' and 'Vijay Mallya', another 'Modi scam' has hit India's banking sector the hardest. First, Lalit Modi escaped. Vijya Mallya escaped. ABG's Rishi Agarwal escaped. Now, we are told that Nirav Modi has also escaped (from) India."

He said the scam involved over 30 banks including Punjab National Bank, Allahabad Bank, Axis Bank, State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Indian Oversees Bank, Corporation Bank, Andhra Bank, Vijaya Bank, Canara Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank and the Export Import Bank of India.

Posing questions to the Prime Minister, the Congress spokesperson asked how Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi duped the entire banking system through forged letters of understanding under the nose of his government.

"Who is responsible for the biggest 'bank loot scam," Surjewala queried, asking why the Prime Minister did not take any action to protect the banking sector from the fraud despite a written complaint received in July 2016.

"Why were all the authorities, including Finance Ministry, its financial intelligence units and all other authorities sleeping?"Mumbai, Feb 15 : Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan on Thursday told Maulana Salman Hussaini Nadvi, who favoured handing over the disputed land in Ayodhya where the Babri Masjid once stood for the construction of the Ram temple, that the eminent cleric being a part of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) was a liability.

"Salman Nadwi sahab, whether the AIMPLB asked you to step down or you quit, it was a blessing in disguise, as being part of the committee was anyway a liability. Please look up incidents in history where any change has been brought about by one person and not by any party or committee," Salim tweeted on Thursday.

"Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Jesus Christ and Gautam Buddha to name a few. You have started a movement which has a lot of followers and is growing. Also please note this world has more peace lovers than destructive people and that is why the world has survived. Love each other or perish," he added.

Salim's tweet comes after a general body meeting on February 10-11, where over 500 people participated and an unanimous decision was made to remove Nadvi from the Board.

Nadvi had triggered a row on the eve of the plenary by mooting a proposal after his meeting with Sri Sri Ravishankar that the disputed land in Ayodhya, where the Babri Masjid stood till December 1992, should be handed over for the construction of the Ram temple.Hyderabad, Feb 15 : Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived here on Thursday on a three-day visit to India.

Union Minister Hansraj Gangaram Ahir received him at Begumpet Airport in the city. Telangana Governor E. S. L. Narasimhan, Deputy Chief Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali and other officials also welcomed him and other members of Iranian delegation.

The visiting dignitary later left for Taj Krishna, a five-star hotel in Banjara Hills, where he will stay over next two days.

Rouhani will will address a meeting of 'ulema' or religious scholars of various sects, academicians and other eminent people Thursday evening.

On Friday, he will offer prayers at the historic Makkah Masjid and later address the congregation.

Rouhani will be the first head of a state to address a congregation at the 17th century mosque, one of the biggest in India.

He is also scheduled to visit Salarjung Museum, famous for the world's largest one man collection of artefacts.

Rouhani is also likely to visit Qutub Shahi Tombs, the mausoleums of Qutub Shahi rulers, who had Iranian lineage.

After two-day stay here, he will leave for New Delhi, where he will hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He will also call on President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday.Mumbai, Feb 15 : Filmmaker R. Balki, whose latest film "Pad Man" is yet to release in Pakistan, says banning the movie means being unfair to women and humanity.

On Wednesday, Balki along with the film's co-producer Twinkle Khanna attended an event for the celebration of its success and to hold a discussion -- organised by Unicef and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation -- on taboos related to menstrual hygiene.

Asked about the countries where "Pad Man" got banned, Balki said: "It has been banned only in Pakistan. I think they have their own reasons but I think they are wrong reasons."

"You can't ban a film like this. If you are banning this film, then you are actually being unfair to women and humanity because it's not just because of the movie, it's because of a story of this man's life and what issue its addressing."

Balki also informed that the Middle East has accepted the film.

"Strangely, the film's biggest success is in the Middle East. It's the first film to be screened in Iraq and a country where Hindi cinema wasn't released earlier and are conservative in their outlook.

"I am sure there (Pakistan) will be a lot of public pressure too, to kind of want to see the film because this is not a political kind of stuff. It's a simple film for humanity," said Balki.

Sharing an interaction with a central ministry official about how this film could have become the centre of controversy, Balki said: "Recently, a person from the central ministry met me and said that menstruation is the most controversial subject in India, but it actually had no controversy as a film.

"He pointed out that this film could have had a larger controversy and so many religious and political organisations could have said so many things but they didn't, and they actually supported it."

"Pad Man" tells the real life story of Arunachalam Muruganantham and how he came to inventing low cost sanitary napkins for women.

It released on February 9.Srinagar, Feb 15 : A court here on Thursday granted the NIA two days' transit remand of five accused in LeT terrorist Naveed Jat alias Abu Hunzullah's escape case.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has already taken over the investigations of the case and booked five locals named Tika Khan, Syed Tajamul Islam, Muhammad Shafi Wani, Shakeel Ahmad Bhat and Jan Muhammad Ganai -- all from Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district.

The transit remand for shifting the accused to Jammu was granted by Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Srinagar.

The accused will be produced before a special NIA court in Jammu on Friday for seeking their custody by the agency, NIA sources said.

Two policemen were killed in the attack by militants to free the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist who was being taken to a hospital for check-up on February 6.New Delhi, Feb 15 : The NDA government on Thursday sought to distance itself from the financial fraud done by jeweller Nirav Modi, blaming the previous Congress-led UPA regime for influencing loans that became non-performing assets (NPAs) while asserting that the guilty will not be spared.

Addressing a press conference, Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said no loans have been given in the Narendra Modi government's tenure which can become NPAs and the loan to Nirav Modi was given during the tenure of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

"The Prime Minister had said in the Lok Sabha that our government has not given any loans that have become NPA (Non Performing Assets). The legacy of NPAs comes from the Congress," he said.

Prasad also questioned Congress' right to comment on the incident, claiming that their government allowed liquor baron Vijay Mallya to run away with around Rs 9,000 crore which he had taken as loan from 17 Indian banks.

He promised action against Nirav Modi and against all those who helped him in the fraud. "No one will be spared.

"When Vijay Mallya ran away, there was no action against him. This time action was taken immediately. The Income Tax (Department) is taking very strict action against him (Nirav Modi)," he said.

Prasad also slammed the Congress for referring to Nirav Modi as "chhota Modi".

"Rahul Gandhi is the President of a party not because of his capability but because of his family. What kind of language are they using?"

Asked if the incident will taint the Prime Minister's image, he said: "The Prime Minister's image cannot be worse than that of the Congress and (Congress spokesperson Randeep) Surjewala. Prime Minister Modi has the blessing of the people of India."

The Congress on Thursday asked the Modi government to come clean on the government's "failure" to prevent the scam and identify those who helped the alleged kingpin, billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi to flee the country.

The Congress accused the Prime Minister's Office and other authorities of not taking action even after a complaint was filed to the PMO in July 2016.Tehran, Feb 15 : Iran on Thursday dismissed claims by the US intelligence about Tehran's rising influence in the Middle East.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi slammed US National Intelligence Director Dan Coats for making "worn-out" and "baseless" claims about Iran's influence in the region, Xinhua news agency reported.

"No country has tried as much as Iran to ensure stability and peace in the Middle East," Qasemi said.

On Tuesday, Coats said at a US Senate hearing that Iran, together with some other states, posed the greatest regional and global threat.

Such remarks were aimed at "creating and promoting false and self-fabricated threats and terror in different parts of the world, particularly in the Middle East", said Qasemi.

He urged the regional states to be vigilant about what he called the US "destabilising" policies.New Delhi, Feb 15 : Reeling under the $1.8 billion fraud blow, Sunil Mehta, MD and CEO of Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Thursday said the bank "will not spare anyone" involved in the crime, even as the main political parties started a blame game.

"We are known for clean banking. The fraud started in 2011. We have brought it under the notice of regulatory and law enforcement agencies as soon as we came to know about it. We will not spare anyone involved in the fraudulent practice," Mehta told reporters here in a hurriedly called press meet on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday launched nationwide raids on the offices, showrooms and workshops of billionaire diamond trader Nirav Modi in Mumbai, Surat (Gujarat) and New Delhi.

Nirav Modi, who was featured in Forbes India Rich List of 2013, was described by the magazine as a "third-generation diamantaire" who grew up in Belgium and after dropping out of Wharton moved to India in 1990 -- to eventually expand the "Nirav Modi" brandname to 16 stores in Delhi, Mumbai, New York, Hong Kong, London and Macau.

The Rs 11,515 crore fraud had been going on since 2011 at the Brady House branch of the bank but could only be detected on January 25 this year, the PNB chief said, adding that it was reported to the investigative agencies, including the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on January 29.

"We have scanned all our branches also. This is a standalone case in one of our branches. There is nothing (such) in other branches," he added.

He said he had received a "vague email" from the customers involved in the fraudulent transaction about settling the dues and the bank had asked them to send their detailed response.

As for other banks, he said overseas branches of other Indian banks were affected by the transactions, except in one case. His answer was in response to a question whether any foreign bank branch was also affected.

"There is clear criminal connivance of the group companies of Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Gems with our branch official and also, apparently, with officials of overseas branches of Indian banks," the PNB said in a detailed note sent to 30 Indian nationalised banks, a private bank and a foreign bank.

A copy of the note is available with IANS.

The PNB virtually accused other banks' foreign branches of not sharing with it information or documents made available to them by these Indian companies at the time of availing buyers' credit from them.

The PNB chief said the finance ministry was taking stock of the matter on a day-to-day basis and would "come down heavily in support of booking the culprits".

"We have the capabilities and capacities to come out of the situation," he said.

"We are confident and committed to resolve the issue. We will honour all our bonafide commitments. We will not shirk our responsibilities," he added.

Regarding recovery of the amount, Mehta said: "We have already initiated the process. ED is also seizing the properties, seizing the current assets and we hope we will be able to recover good amount." According to reports, the ED had seized property worth over Rs 5,000 crore belonging to Modi and his family members.

Shares of PNB on Thursday continued to drop for the second consecutive day, closing almost 12 per cent lower, after having fallen 10 per cent the first day.

Talking about the modus operandi of the fraud in his letter to bank chiefs, Mehta said that the buyers' Credit availed against fraudulent letter of undertakings (LoUs) of the bank was used either to retire import bills or replenish the maturing credit of some other banks. The bank staff issued these LoUs on hahalf of companies belonging to Nirav Modi without routing them through PNB's core banking solution (CBS) system which tracks all bank transactions.

He further added that: "LoUs had not been converted into funded transaction so far, so it is a contingent liability... This matter we will decide after the completion of the investigation. If the investigation process says it is your liability, we will accept it.

The fraud saw a major fallout in the political arena. The Congress lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to "come clean" on the government's failure to prevent the scam and identify those who helped the kingpin, Nirav Modi, to flee the country. Nirav Modi is said to have left the country on January 1 this year with other accused family members leaving within a week.

Posing a series of questions to the prime minister and his government, the Congress accused the PMO of not taking any action even after a complaint was filed with the prime minister's Office as early as July 26, 2016.

While implying that the fraud started when the Congress party was in power at the centre, the IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the prime minister never spoke to Nirav Modi at the recently concluded World Economic Forum at Davos, as had been alleged.New Delhi, Feb 15 : A gigantic tiger skin, about 11 feet long, was seized from Gariaband district in Chhattisgarh, police said on Thursday.

After the Wednesday night seizure, two people were arrested under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

The skin is reportedly worth millions of rupees in the international market. The length of the skin, excluding the tail, is 8.2 feet and the width is three feet.

"Following a tip that a flawless tiger pelt was on sale in Kukrar region, we established contact with the smugglers posing as buyers," Additional Superintendent of Police Neha Pandey told IANS.

"Earlier too, several cases of wildlife contraband seizure had been done in the region."

Tito Joseph from the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) told IANS that it was very important to know the region where the tiger was poached.

This is seventh such case of tiger poaching and seizure this year.New Delhi, Feb 15 : The Supreme Court on Thursday slammed the Madhya Pradesh government, among the states which had received maximum funds from the Centre under the Nirbhaya fund, for disbursing Rs 6,000-6,500 only to each rape victim, asking whether it was doing a "charity" by giving paltry amounts.

A division bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta was shocked to know that Madhya Pradesh government had only spent around Rs one crore on 1,951 rape victims.

"Are you doing a charity? How can you do so... You value a rape at Rs 6,500?," asked the court, adding: "this is total insensitiveness".

The bench further slammed 24 states and union territories for not filing affidavits indicating the amount received by them under the Nirbhaya Fund towards victim compensation, amount disbursed by them under the scheme and the number of victims of sexual assault.

"In spite of all talks, discussions and intents expressed about gender justice and safety of women, we find that there are 24 states, union territories that have not even bothered to file an affidavit in terms of our order dated January 9, 2018," said the court, asking them to file affidavits within four weeks, "if they are at all interested in looking after the welfare of women".

After the December 16, 2012 gang-rape and murder case in Delhi, the Cenrtal government in 2013 had announced the Nirbhaya Fund scheme to support the initiatives of governments and the NGOs working for women's safety.

The court was hearing petitions filed after the gangrape case in 2012 raising concerns over the safety and security of women.Jammu, Feb 15 : The Army killed two militants in a gunfight on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Thursday, foiling an infiltration bid from Pakistan, military sources said.

"Alert troops noticed suspicious movements in Balakote area early on Thursday," a source said. "A brief firing exchange took place between the troops and the terrorists. Two intruding terrorists were killed while a search operation is going on."

The Pakistani Army on Wednesday violated the 2003 ceasefire in Nowshera sector of the LoC in Rajouri district.

"They violated the ceasefire around 7 p.m. using small arms, automatics and mortars. But our positions retaliated effectively and strongly," the source added.Agartala/Santir Bazar (Tripura), Feb 15 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday accused the Congress and Left parties of having a "secret understanding" for the February 18 Tripura Assembly polls.

"Congress and Left parties like in Kerala and West Bengal have a secret deal for the Tripura polls. To change the future of Tripura, reject the two parties and vote for BJP," Modi said while addressing two election rallies.

"Both parties destroyed Tripura. Do not trust them. By putting up candidates in the elections, Congress is doing drama in Tripura though both the Congress and Left parties have 'dosti' (friendship) in Delhi," he said.

"No big Congress leader came to Tripura for election campaign because they (Congress and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) have a clandestine pact."

Terming the Congress as "vote cutting party", the Prime Minister said the Congress is "helping" CPI-M to win Sunday's polls.

Modi asked the people to "uproot" the Left parties from Tripura and throw them to "some corner of the earth".

The Prime Minister said the Rose valley chit fund organisation (a Kolkata based company) had pilfered several thousand crore of rupees of 14 lakh Tripura people and accused the Left Front government of not having properly probed the scam.

"After assuming power (in Tripura), the BJP government will inquire into the robbing of huge sums of poor people's money," Modi told the gathering.

In his second phase of election campaigning in Left-ruled Tripura, Modi on Thursday addressed two election rallies with almost the same issues and topics. He came to Tripura from Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanagar and addressed a mammoth rally at Santir Bazar in southern Tripura and gave a speech at another public gathering in Agartala before leaving for Delhi.

Earlier on February 8, the Prime Minister addressed two election rallies in northern Tripura and western Tripura.

Attacking the CPI-M-led government, the Prime Minister said that of every Rs 100 spent, the central government is providing Rs 80 but there is no sign of spending the central fund properly.

The Prime Minister said the central government long back had given Rs 988 crore for implementation of the Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojana in Tripura but the works valued at Rs 650 crore were started recently.

"Under the non-lapsable pool of resources scheme Rs 242 crore had been given to Tripura in four years but Rs 60 crore still remained unspent."

"The Left parties have been misleading the people and encashing the poverty of the people," he said.

He said the Left government has been providing salaries and allowances to state government employees according to what should have been given to government employees 25 to 30 years ago.

He promised that a BJP government would provide higher scale of salaries and allowances to state government employees at par with the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations.

Modi said the central government has invested thousands of crores to expand the rail and road network in Tripura. "The Agartala airport is being developed and digital network is also being upgraded in Tripura."

"To improve the livelihood of the people, the central government has made easy accessible of bamboo. The government would provide houses to all and electricity to each household across the country."

He said that democracy "is in danger" under the rule of Left Front in Tripura.

Modi said the CPI-M during its 25-years rule "destroyed both democracy and the future of Tripura".

He accused the CPI-M party cadres of killing 10 BJP functionaries and two young journalists and promised that a high level inquiry would be held and the perpetrators punished when a BJP led government comes to power.

He said he would attend the swearing in ceremony of the BJP ministers after March 3.

BJP's national general secretary Ram Madhav, Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is the party's Tripura election in-charge, and state president Biplab Kumar Deb among others also spoke at the rallies.New Delhi, Feb 15 : As a part of his election campaign in Tripura, Congress President Rahul Gandhi will address a public rally in Unakoti district on Friday.

The party said on Thursday that Gandhi will address a public meeting at Ramkrishna Mahavidyalaya Stadium Ground.

Tripura will witness Assembly election to 60 seats on February 18 and the results will be declared on March 3. The Congress has fielded candidates in 56 seats.New Delhi, Feb 15 : Without naming Pakistan, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said that talks cannot be held with countries that have trained their guns at India.

"We are open to conflicting views but we are not so open to senseless violence and irrational terrorism," Naidu said while releasing here a set of five books on Indian foreign policy published by think tank Indian Council for World Affairs (ICWA).

"We also know that first we must create conditions for a dialogue," he said.

He referred to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's statement that one can change friends but one cannot change neighbours and said: "There is no intention to change neighbours, but there should be change in attitude."

Describing terrorism as an enemy of mankind which has no religion, Naidu said that no religion condones or preaches terrorism.

Stating that people on both sides of the border love each other because of past history, he said that, however, some people are giving "unasked advice" to engage in dialogue.

"They should also know the reality on the ground and what is happening. It is a fact and it is known to everybody that our neighbour is aiding, abetting, funding, training terrorists," the Vice President said.

Stating that this was affecting the relationship, he said that that is why India's stand has been that talks and terror can't go together.

"We can't have talks with countries that have trained their guns at us," Naidu asserted. "Some educated leaders are suggesting that we should engage in a dialogue with one of our neighbours who is fomenting trouble and encouraging cross-border terrorism. We need to be clear about our country's diplomatic stand."

He said that India does not have any problem with any other country in the world and gave as an example India's good ties with both Israel and Palestine.

The five books released in Thursday's function are "Regional Satraps and the Battle for India's Foreign Policy" by Kalyani Shankar, "Media and Foreign Policy in India" by Shubha Singh, "Technology and International Relations: Challenges for the 21st Century" by Bhaskar Balakrishnan, "Squaring the Circle: Mahatma Gandhi and the Jewish National Home" by P.R. Kumaraswamy, and "India-Iran Relations:Under the Shadow of the Iranian Nuclear Issue and Challenges for Indian Diplomacy".New Delhi, Feb 15 : India has signed a second loan agreement for $100 million with the New Development Bank (NDB) for efficient use of water in desert areas of Rajasthan, an official statement said on Thursday.

"This is the first tranche loan of $100 million approved by the NDB under the Multi Tranche Financing Facility of $345 million for this project," the Union Finance Ministry release said.

The loan agreement to finance Rajasthan Water Sector Restructuring Project for the Desert Areas was signed between Economic Affairs Department Joint Secretary Govind Mohan and NDB Project Financing Director General Shaohua Wu here on Tuesday.

The objective is to rehabilitate the 678-km-long Indira Gandhi Canal system built during 1958-63 to prevent seepage, conserve water and enhance water use efficiency as mandated by both national and state level policies on water use.

"The project implementation period is six years. The Rajasthan government will implement the project primarily through the Rajasthan Water Resources Department," said the release.

The representatives of NDB, Central and state governments also signed Facility Framework Agreement under which NDB has agreed to provide Multi-Tranche Financing Facility for $345 million to the country for this project.

The project is aimed at arresting the seepage by refurbishing the canal, rehabilitation of waterlogged areas, modernisation of the irrigation management practices by involving water users' associations, and strengthening of drinking water supply and irrigation facilities.Chandigarh, Feb 15 : All Punjab ministers, led by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, on Thursday announced their decision to voluntarily pay their own income tax, which is currently being paid out of the government exchequer.

The announcement came after a meeting of the state cabinet here on Thursday.

Besides Amarinder Singh, there are nine ministers in the Punjab government presently. The maximum strength of the ministry can be 18.

"With respect to the MLAs, Amarinder Singh said the final decision on their self-payment of income tax would be taken after receiving their feedback on the proposal," a spokesperson of the Chief Minister said here.

The development comes within days of the Chief Minister suggesting that elected representatives in the state, including ministers and MLAs, should pay their own income tax.

The tax was currently being paid by the government and draining the exchequer, Amarinder Singh had said.

Punjab was probably the only state in the country to follow the system of the government paying taxes for all ministers and legislators.

Amarinder Singh pointed out that the tax being paid by the state government on this account stood at Rs 11.08 crore annually. While Rs 10.72 crore was spent on payment of income tax of the MLAs, the remaining was for the ministers.

The Chief Minister has also been appealing to party colleagues and rich farmers to give up their free power subsidy in the state's larger interest.

It was during the earlier tenure (2002-2007) of Amarinder Singh that the system of the state government paying income tax of ministers and legislators was started. It continued during the 10 year rule (2007-2017) of the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government in the state.

Punjab is reeling under a financial debt of over Rs 2 lakh crore.New Delhi, Feb 15 : A 26-year-old bank employee on Thursday committed suicide in the national capital by lying in front of an oncoming train, police said.

The incident took place near Mandavali Railway Colony, where some eyewitnesses saw him lie down on the track late in the evening. The police said they came to know of the incident around 10.00 p.m.

The body of the deceased, identified as Vikas, was later taken to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in east Delhi by the police.

According to the police, they have recovered a suicide note from the body, in which the deceased has written that he was forced to take the extreme step because of his wife and her family.

Vikas, an employee of a private bank, lived in Madhu Vihar area of Delhi. He got married three months back, and ever since he was allegedly being harassed by his wife and the in-laws.

Last Tuesday, Vikas was beaten up by his in-laws, and according to Vikas' suicide note, there had been several instances of harassment and violence by his in-laws, against which he had also filed a complaint in the Madhu Vihar Police Station. But, the police did not act on it.

The body has been handed over to the relatives after the post-mortem examination and the police is interrogating his relatives.CheckAlt-Klik, the largest independent provider of treasury solutions and lockbox processing to financial institutions and corporate customers in the United States, announced today it has been selected by Fidelity Bank to provide state of the art integrated receivables solutions. CheckAlt-Kliks suite of integrated receivables solutions include both paper and electronic lockbox solutions- KlikRemit (Lockbox), RemitStation (Remote Lockbox), eKlik (Online BillPay Consolidation), and KliknPay (Electronic Lockbox-EBPP).

Fidelity Bank clients will have the benefit of CheckAlt-Kliks nationwide 14-site network and advanced technology platform. KlikRemit is a highly portable, flexible and scalable approach to retail, wholesale, and wholetail lockbox processing. RemitStation allows business clients to use a web-connected PC and desktop scanner to capture remittances and payments in their office and transmit them into the Lockbox. eKlik simplifies the management of online banking checks by converting them into electronic payments and merging them into a single electronic accounts receivable file. KliknPay provides business customers the ability to quickly and easily present summary statements online and allow their customers to make payments electronically via ACH and Credit Cards.

Our partnership with CheckAlt-Klik allows us to offer our clients truly innovative receivables solutions, said Geary Kinnett, Executive Vice President, Director Retail at Fidelity Bank. We made a concerted effort to improve the tools and technology solutions we deliver to customers, and integrated receivables are a large part of our holistic approach to serving their treasury management needs. In addition to the greater functionality and flexibility, CheckAlt-Klik enables us to provide a cohesive, consistent experience to all corporate clients across all of our markets.

CheckAlt-Klik is dedicated to delivering top treasury solutions for its financial institution and corporate customer base, said David Gasman, Managing Director at CheckAlt-Klik. Our commitment and expertise in payment processing services gives Fidelity Bank a unified lockbox experience and continual access to the latest technology updates that will greatly benefit the bank and its customers. We look forward to our mutually beneficial working relationship with Fidelity Bank for many years to come.

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About CheckAlt-Klik

CheckAlt is the largest independent provider of lockbox and treasury solutions in the country. CheckAlts solutions include lockbox processing across 14 locations nationwide, consolidated item processing, Omni channel integrated treasury solutions and mobile capture services. CheckAlts client base includes 600 financial institutions. CheckAlt acquired the ERAS subsidiary from Diebold, Inc. in 2014 and Klik Technologies, Corp. from MUFG Union Bank in 2016. CheckAlt is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA and has more than 300 employees. For more information, visit http://www.checkalt.com.

###

About Fidelity Bank

Fidelity Southern Corporation, through its operating subsidiaries Fidelity Bank and LionMark Insurance Company, provides banking services, wealth management services and credit-related insurance products through branches in Georgia and Florida, and an insurance office in Atlanta, Georgia. Indirect auto and mortgage loans are provided throughout the south and parts of the midwest while SBA loans are originated nationwide. For additional information about Fidelity's products and services, please visit the website at http://www.FidelitySouthern.com.... its exciting for us to offer these highly impactful eLearning courses online, where our clients will have easy access on any device to the interactive eLearning content.

Today, Vigilance Risk Solutions (VRS), leading risk assessment, emergency and crisis planning, and training program specialists, announced the addition of new online training courses to their bevy of services. The eLearning options focus on a variety of topics, including workplace security and preparedness. Through VRSs website, clients can provide their employees around the globe with simplified accessibility to the comprehensive e-training modules.

Our clients have utilized and enjoyed our workplace violence training courses for many years now, said Ty Smith, founder and CEO. So, its exciting for us to offer these highly impactful eLearning courses online, where our clients will have easy access on any device to the interactive eLearning content.

The e-learning courses cover workplace violence, urban street smarts, and invaluable protocol for dealing with active shooters at work. Through their responsive Learning Management System (LMS), users can explore videos, scenarios, knowledge retention tools, and other interactive components. The comprehensive courses average approximately 60-minutes and are designed to empower employees with best practices in modern workplace safety.

Our amazing team of special operations, corporate security, and law enforcement professionals created these courses to allow organizations the ability to maximize their own safety and take control of protecting the lives of their people, Mr. Smith continued. Im really proud of these eLearning courses and the good theyll do for our clients around the world.

About Vigilance Risk Solutions

Based out of San Diego, CA, Vigilance Risk Solutions (VRS) is made up of dynamic and experienced security professionals with a passion for empowering people and organizations. With VRS, clients can gain insights from some of the most well-respected minds in the corporate security, special operations, cyber security, and law enforcement communities. Each member of the VRS team is fully committed to delivering the highest quality consulting and training services available. For more information visit http://www.vigilancerisk.com or call (888) 613-2871 to speak to a representative.The Mozee M010 Holster is specifically shaped for the Miura Systems device. This latest holster is specifically molded for the M010 and provides users with a holding solution option that keeps their device truly mobile.

Handeholder Products, Inc. today announced the release of a custom holster for the Miura Systems M010 mPOS (mobile payment) device. The latest in their line of Mozee holsters (http://www.handeholder.com/Mozee_holsters-main.html), the M010 holster model joins the previously announced holders for the Ingenico Groups iSMP4, and the Verifone e355/e265. Holsters for additional mobile payment device models and brands are currently in development.

Were excited to add coverage for this new brand of mobile payment devices, said Beau Keyes, VP of Marketing and Business Development, Handeholder Products, Inc., This latest holster is specifically molded for the M010 and provides users with a holding solution option that keeps their device truly mobile.

Each sturdy, but still slightly flexible, Mozee holster has an integrated belt clip. It is this belt clip, coupled with the included Universal Mozee Mount (http://www.handeholder.com/Mozee_accessories.html), that makes the holster so versatile. Unclip the holster from a belt and move it instantly to a tablet by locking it into the attached mount piece. Move the holster to other locations with additional mount pieces; for example; to a wall, countertop, vehicle dash, clipboard, cash register, back of a cellular phone, or any other required location. Each universal mount piece fastens to the back of a hard surface using secure foam tape strips.

Our clients rightfully expect all Handeholder products to be that of high quality and extreme reliability, said Keyes. Users of the Miura M010 deserve the same consideration, and weve taken great care to produce a dependable yet still affordable product for them.

The Mozee M010 holster is available for pre-order now at http://www.handeholder.com/mozee_M010_holster.html, or by calling 734.665.7052. Pricing starts at $19.99 for a package of one holster and one mount piece. The following bundles are also available; a 5-unit Small Business Bundle, 10-unit Medium Business Bundle, and 25-unit Enterprise Bundle. Additional individual Universal Mozee Mounts are priced at $2.00, and have the same bundle options.

About Handeholder Products, Inc.

Handeholder Products, Inc. is a Michigan-based company that provides their signature Handeholder tablet hand strap device and various associated accessories for both consumer and business customers. In addition, the company specializes in providing mobility solutions for mobile Point-of-Sale payment devices to small and large companies through their Mozee line of products. For more information visit http://www.handeholder.com.Call to Fine Artists to the 4th Annual ArtWalk

Chisholm Trail Arts Council, through the generous support of local businesses and community volunteers, is pleased to announce their 4th Annual CTAC ArtWalk Duncan (AWD). AWD is an annual fine arts and food festival that will be held on Friday, June 22 and Saturday, June 23 in Fuqua Park, Duncan OK.

Chisholm Trail Arts Council invites local artists, as well as artists from across Oklahoma, to be a part of this years CTACs Art Walk Duncan. Artists will have individual booths set up with art on display and items for sale. Children can experience Art in Action in our Kids Korner and take home a small art project. ArtWalk Duncan seeks to provide a free cultural experience to the citizens of Duncan and surrounding areas.

With the support of Duncan Convention and Visitors Bureau, CTAC ArtWalk is partnering with other community events as Duncan celebrates Founders Day. Other events include the Duncan Lions Club Rodeo, Stephens County Historical Museums Queen Coronation, The W.T. Foreman Prairie House home tour, Chisholm Trail Amateur Radio Club and Main Streets Founders Day Parade. CTAC is proud to boast the eclectic mix of artists as well as other events going on throughout Duncan that art patrons are sure to want to check out as well.

To find out more about Artist Booths, Sponsorships, or event information, please visit CTACs website at http://www.chisholmtrailarts.com or by calling CTACs office at 580-252-4160. Artists may submit art sample entries to director@chisholmtrailarts.com.The convenience of this program for all parties involved cant be overemphasized. It goes without saying that offering an automated, online program for exporting used vehicles is a major trade advantage for South Florida.

Crowley Maritime Corp. has helped launch a pilot Vehicle Validation Export Process Program that now allows shippers to submit original vehicle export documentation electronically instead of delivering physical copies to a local customs trade office. The automated program, which is the first of its kind anywhere in the country, is currently being offered in Port Everglades to exporters shipping used vehicles from South Florida to destinations throughout the Caribbean, Central America and beyond. Crowley was a critical player in developing the test program, which kicked off earlier this month.

The test program offers several key advantages. First, it offers exporters the ability to skip in-person visits to the trade office in Port Everglades to deliver original vehicle export documentation  a time-saving efficiency that ensures faster document processing and reduced shipment times by around a day. Now, shippers can submit digital copies online any time of the day or night for faster review, processing and approval.

Digital copies also mean that exporters are no longer required to make multiple copies of documentation per vehicle being shipped, since the files can be provided electronically.

The convenience of this program for all parties involved cant be overemphasized. It goes without saying that offering an automated, online program for exporting used vehicles is a major trade advantage for South Florida, explained Crowleys Nelly Yunta, vice president. This effort is the result of years of hard work, and it is our hope that it will be a successful experience that has long-term value.

Crowley consistently positions itself on the leading edge of innovative and modernized business processes that allow the shipping line and its customers to work more efficiently, said Steven Cernak, chief executive and port director, Port Everglades. In Fiscal Year 2017, 42,553 TEUs of vehicle cargo were exported at Port Everglades. This new program will allow Port Everglades to further develop the market.

Vehicle exporters interested in taking advantage of this time-saving pilot program should contact Crowley at PEVtraffic(at)crowley(dot)com or 1-800-CROWLEY for instructions. The required documents must still be submitted 72 hours prior to the exportation of the vehicle.

The pilot program is expected to continue through at least March, when it will be considered for further implementation in Port Everglades and potentially other locations.

About Crowley

Jacksonville-based Crowley Holdings Inc., a holding company of the 126-year-old Crowley Maritime Corporation, is a privately held family and employee-owned company that provides marine solutions, energy and logistics services in domestic and international markets. Six operating lines of business provide logistics and supply chain management, including liner container shipping; government services; contract marine towing and transportation; ship assist and tanker escort; offshore engineering and upstream project support; deep sea petroleum and chemical transportation; liquefied natural gas (LNG) transportation, distribution, engineering and consulting services; Alaska fuel sales and distribution; vessel management; vessel construction and naval architecture through its Jensen Maritime subsidiary, and salvage and emergency response through its 50 percent ownership in Ardent Global. Additional information about Crowley, its subsidiaries and business units may be found at http://www.crowley.com.

About Port Everglades

A global powerhouse for international trade, Broward Countys Port Everglades handles more than one million TEUs annually (20-foot equivalent units, the industry standard measurement for container volumes) and serves as a gateway to Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia. Located within the cities of Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, and Dania Beach, Florida, Port Everglades is in the heart of one of the worlds largest consumer regions, including a constant flow of approximately 112 million visitors statewide and 6 million residents within an 80-mile radius. Port Everglades has direct access to the interstate highway system and the Florida East Coast Railways 43-acre intermodal container transfer facility, and is closer to the Atlantic Shipping Lanes than any other Southeastern U.S. port. Ongoing capital improvements and expansion ensure that Port Everglades continues to handle future growth in container traffic. More information about Broward Countys Port Everglades is available at porteverglades.net or by calling toll-free in the United States 1-800-421-0188 or emailing PortEvergladesCargo(at)broward(dot)org.Fred Kaylor in his "smart cottage" at Masonic Village at Elizabethtown The thing now is aging in place. We dont plan to move any time soon to another part of the campus. Thats another benefit of this cottage  to have an open floor plan on one level.

Fred and Brenda Kaylor moved into their cottage in December 2017. From the outside, it looks like all the other brand new cottages at the Masonic Village at Elizabethtown. On the inside, though, is a laboratory for new technology that will be available for all residents of Masonic Villages of Pennsylvania.

When the smart cottage was offered, we jumped right on it," Kaylor said. "It sounded like something exciting to take part in and experiment with. It is a learning process.

Masonic Villages has partnered with K4Connect, a technology company focused on serving and empowering older adults and individuals living with disabilities, to roll out new options which bring the latest technology directly to residents fingertips.

In 2016, the Elizabethtown campus participated in a pilot to test K4Connects home automation features (light switches, thermostats, pedometers, motion sensors, etc.). Residents have also been testing a portal, a specially designed application that serves as a single point of access for dining menus, campus news and updates, event calendars, games, photo/video sharing and more. Known as Village Connect, it is accessible through tablets and desktop computers and available for all residents.

Other features of the cottage include a thermostat and lights, which can be programmed through the Village Connect application on a tablet or smartphone. All the window blinds are automated, and the kitchen sink features a touchless faucet. The bathroom scale can also be linked to the application, and allows users to track their weight and body mass index. A sensor on the fridge door ensures it isnt left open and monitors whether it has been used over a designated period of time.

The cottages infrastructure includes an air filtration system to clean the air. If something goes wrong with the furnace, the air conditioner or the lights, a maintenance worker will automatically be notified through K4Connect.

The Kaylors will have the chance to test additional options, which will help staff and other residents evaluate which ones are worth implementing. One of the benefits of K4Connect is that its future-proof.

As advancements are made in technology, new gadgets can be incorporated seamlessly. The cottage is not just about featuring the latest and greatest technology. Its also about keeping people happy, healthy and safe.

The thing now is aging in place, Fred said. We want to stay here in the cottage for a long time. We dont plan to move any time soon to another part of the campus. Thats another benefit of this cottage  to have an open floor plan on one level. And to have the ability to be able to stay here and age in place.

The angled cabinets, counter tops, sink and easy-access pantry, as well as zero barrier showers and pocket doors, are all designed to accommodate a walker or wheelchair. Closets include different levels of shelves and bars. The backyard includes raised planters which can be used while standing or sitting. Residents can also opt for safety features such as bed sensors that monitor movement.

In general, we absolutely love Masonic Village and all the facilities that it offers, Fred said. Being here in the smart cottage is one piece of that. It can only get better.

The Village Connect portal is available to all retirement living residents at the Masonic Village at Elizabethtown and will be available to Masonic Villages' other campuses by the end of 2018. In addition, home automation features will be made available to residents who would like to select these features across all Masonic Villages by the beginning of 2019.

The Masonic Village at Elizabethtown is a not-for-profit continuing care retirement community, childrens home and community service organization. The campus offers 665 retirement living apartments and 390 cottages, 135 personal care residences and 453 nursing, subacute and dementia care accommodations. The Masonic Villages also include communities in Dallas, Lafayette Hill, Sewickley and Warminster.We believe that the HRS platform can help us reduce hospital readmissions and improve the health status of vulnerable, high-risk individuals with heart failure...

In October 2017, Colorado Visiting Nurse Associations (VNA) partnered with innovative telehealth company, Health Recovery Solutions (HRS), to launch a pilot intervention program for adults living with heart failure.

Individuals with heart disease have a national average 30-day readmission rate of 24%.[1] Colorado VNA is hoping to significantly reduce this rate for their home health heart failure clients with the use of remote monitoring technology through HRS telehealth software.

Colorado VNA clients placed on telemedicine are provided with 4G tablets pre-loaded with the HRS software. The tablets are paired with Bluetooth biometric devices which allow patients to take their blood pressure, weight, heart rate, and more. The HRS software provides patients with daily reminders to take their vitals, answer symptom related questions, manage their medication while also providing educational content on their condition. Meanwhile, the HRS software also allows clinicians the ability to monitor patient vitals and respond to high-risk alerts when patients are at risk for hospital readmission.

The program was easy to understand, and the tablet was very easy to use, said the wife of a telemedicine client. She adds, the tablet provided valuable education and videos and overall the program kept [my husband] from returning to the hospital and doctors office.

Colorado VNA clinicians use the unique ability of the HRS software to support enhanced care continuity by combining in-home visits with video, phone, and text communication to patient tablets. This allows clinicians the ability to routinely communicate with patients, to follow up on their symptoms and care plan adherence. Communication tools available through the software are designed to complement traditional at home care. Laurel Thompson, RN, is the Clinical Manager at Colorado VNA who is monitoring patients on the program. Thompson adds the virtual visits have the potential to be a valuable supplement to in-home visits.

CEO of Colorado VNA, Chris Lee states We believe that the HRS platform can help us reduce hospital readmissions and improve the health status of vulnerable, high-risk individuals with heart failure, an exponentially growing segment of our states older adults.

The pilot program was made possible by a partnership with several area physician groups and hospitals, such as The Medical Center of Aurora and Aurora Denver Cardiology Associates, and with philanthropic assistance from Caring for Colorado and Telligen Community Initiative. Lee comments, this pilot is helping us advance new partnerships with other healthcare providers to build a team-based, cost-effective telemedicine program that fosters a culture of health, respect, and communication so that our clients can manage and live with their chronic illness during and beyond their time with Colorado VNA.

CEO of HRS, Jarrett Bauer adds we hope that our partnership helps Colorado VNA reach their goals of lowering hospital readmission rates for their heart failure patients and for keeping patients healthy and at home.

[1] OConnor, C. M. (2017). High Heart Failure Readmission Rates. JACC: Heart Failure, 5(5), 393. doi:10.1016/j.jchf.2017.03.011

About Colorado VNA

Colorado Visiting Nurse Associations (VNA) mission is to provide the most appropriate range of health care solutions to allow adults to maximize independence and to heal and age at home.

Colorado VNA was founded in 1889 as The Denver Flower Mission to comfort Denvers sick and poor. By the mid-1900s, Colorado VNAs programs had grown to include immunizations and home visits, all overseen by a dedicated corps of 50+ nurses. In later years the agency added hospice and palliative care as well as a variety of wellness programs.

In 2016, Colorado VNA merged with its Greeley, CO-based sister agency RVNA, which was founded in 1979 to serve Weld County residents following a reduction in home health services previously provided by the County Health Department.

Today, Colorado VNA is a comprehensive home and community health and wellness care agency that provides a cost-effective array of supports and services, such as medical foot care, home-based nursing and physical therapy, and home-based hospice care to maximize function, safety, and independence so our older adult loved ones can remain where they most desire  home. For more information go to http://www.vnacolorado.org or call (303) 698 - 2121.

About Health Recovery Solutions

Health Recovery Solutions (HRS) supplies leading home care agencies with the most advanced remote monitoring platform focused on changing patient behavior to reduce readmissions and improve clinical outcomes. HRS disease-specific engagement kits are customized with educational video, care plans, medication reminders while integrated with Bluetooth peripherals to engage patients.

For clinicians, HRS' software allows for the management of high-risk patients and provides seamless communication with them through video chat, wound imaging and text messaging. For family members and caregivers, HRS' software gives them the ability to be fully involved in their family member's care and well-being. To learn more about Health Recovery Solutions, visit http://www.healthrecoverysolutions.com or call (347) 699  6477Dynafios 4CAST Healthcare Analytics Dynafios C2i [physician alignment] methodology is the next level in physician alignment, creating a lean, agile organization and accelerating positive change...

Dynafios (http://www.dynafios.com), a leading analytics and healthcare consulting company, is pleased to announce that Saint Marys Hospital Waterbury and Neurosurgery, Orthopaedics & Spine Specialists (NOSS), achieved outstanding success driving quality of care and $305,000 in cost saving initiatives. By deploying the Dynafios C2i methodology and Dynafios 4CAST healthcare analytics platform, these two esteemed healthcare organizations achieved overwhelming results optimizing patient outcomes and improving financial performance.

Saint Marys Hospital is a not for profit, acute care, Level II Trauma Center and a Yale-affiliated teaching hospital located in Waterbury, Connecticut. A Trinity Health of New England healthcare organization, Saint Marys contracted Dynafios to lead physician alignment initiatives to enhance patient outcomes and reduce costs. Saint Marys and NOSS used the Dynafios C2i physician alignment methodology to identify opportunities for improvement and to institute change throughout the organization.

Ten key performance indicators (KPIs) were agreed upon by the hospital and NOSS through a newly formed C2i team of representatives across all disciplines of the organization. This Team then measured and monitored KPIs in real-time on a monthly basis using the Dynafios 4CAST healthcare analytics platform. Standardization and best practices were created, disseminated and implemented as the Team reviewed ongoing progress of each C2i initiative.

The C2i methodology is an innovative approach to physician alignment. C2i initiates consistent transformative change across multiple disciplines, rather than uneven and siloed change within one discipline in a single service line. Dynafios C2i creates a holistic vision transforming the organization by leveraging clinical ambassadors to disseminate positive change globally, which is then measured and monitored through Dynafios 4CAST healthcare analytics for Stroke/Neuro.

Dynafios tracked quality, operational, strategic and financial indicators, and verified results. The following are a few of the achievements reported:



Net positive gain of $305,000 by reducing inpatient length of stay (LOS) .3 days for all inpatient procedures by implementing best practices and pain management protocols in conjunction with anesthesia.

Improved median variable contribution margin (CM) by approximately $550 per case.

Increased operating room efficiency by improving first case on time starts by 45 percent and reducing turnover times by 10 percent.

Improved patient satisfaction and quality resulting in programmatic growth with increased elective procedures.

By taking physician alignment to the next level with the C2i methodology, this prestigious healthcare institution enhanced patient outcomes, implemented best practices and standardized protocols to achieve a significant net positive financial gain, said Steve Elliott, CEO and co-founder of Dynafios. The Dynafios C2i methodology is the next level in physician alignment, creating a lean, agile organization and accelerating positive change throughout. Combine C2i with Dynafios 4CAST healthcare analytics and Saint Marys has a winning combination and are well positioned for even greater achievements this year.

A comprehensive case study is available documenting the achievements of Saint Marys and NOSS using the Dynafios C2i methodology with 4CAST healthcare analytics platform. To read the complete story, download the case study from the Dynafios website at https://www.dynafios.com/knowledge-center/case-studies/saint-marys-hospital-aligns-physicians/.

About Trinity Health of New England | Saint Marys Hospital Waterbury:

Saint Marys Hospital in Waterbury, Connecticut is an acute care, community teaching hospital serving the community since 1909. Licensed for 347 beds, the hospital offers a Level II Trauma Center, a flourishing residency training program, a host of specialty medical services and skilled, compassionate healthcare providers. In 2016, Saint Marys became part of Trinity Health of New England, one of the largest multi-institutional Catholic healthcare delivery systems in the nation. For more information, visit http://www.stmh.org.

About Neurosurgery, Orthopaedics & Spine Specialists, PC:

Neurosurgery, Orthopaedics & Spine Specialists (NOSS) was formed in 2008 by fusing three well-established specialty medical practices that shared a deep commitment to patient outcomes. NOSS includes board certified providers in a variety of specialties and is an advocate of patient education. For more information, visit http://www.nossmd.com.

About Dynafios:

Dynafios (http://www.dynafios.com) is a leading analytics and healthcare consulting company helping both hospitals and health systems become more successful in a dynamic and ever-changing environment. Dynafios software products include 4CAST Analytics Platform and TRACE, a mobile physician timekeeping and contract compliance tool. Health systems and leadership utilize the Dynafios 4CAST Analytics Platform and the TRACE app to work closely with providers in reducing variation, driving performance and elevating compliance. Visit us at [http://www.dynafios.com, call 877.858.3282 or email info(at)dynafios.com to learn more about our wide range of consulting services and analytics tools, and how we can help transform your organization.Traditional open/click/conversion email marketing metrics tend to be highly valued measures of success, yet these metrics provide an incomplete picture of the true impact of email for a large enterprise because so much happens offline. To help marketers more accurately measure how email affects customer behavior, revenue, and loyalty, MessageGears is hosting a webinar titled Beyond Opens & Clicks: How to Measure Emails True Business Impact, which will take place Tuesday, Feb. 27, at 2 p.m. ET. Marketers can register for the webinar at https://goo.gl/CVG2UW.

The 30-minute webinar will cover why tracking email success can be such a challenge for large enterprise organizations, and provide alternative tactics marketers can use to get a more complete view of email's impact on driving consumers to become purchasers, even when those purchases are made in person instead of online. Enterprise organizations that want to understand emails true business impact go beyond the traditional metrics to look at how email campaigns affect all types of customer conversions.

Many marketers I know get focused on email-specific metrics and struggle with how to track the true business impact of the channel, but that can't be an excuse for marketers to throw up our hands and not try. It's essential that we as marketers understand what traditional email metrics are telling us and not telling us in relation to customer behavior, said MessageGears Sr. Director of Marketing Will Devlin, who will lead the webinar.

Attendees will learn:



The value (and limitations) of traditional email metrics, particularly when it comes to incorporating offline behaviors

Which industries are particularly susceptible to underestimating emails impact

Alternative means to measure emails impact on sales when channel-specific metrics are insufficient

By not understanding the true impact of email marketing on customer behavior and loyalty, enterprises can misallocate money and resources, lose potential sales, and diminish their ability to personalize customer experiences both online and offline. Not all email marketing metrics are as straightforward as opens and clicks, but it is often in the more esoteric metrics that enterprise marketers are able to reveal the true value of email marketing.

To register for the webinar, visit https://goo.gl/CVG2UW. Registrants will receive a recording if theyre unable to attend.

About MessageGears

MessageGears is the only email service provider that enables the worlds top brands to send dynamic, high-volume marketing messages with speed and precision by providing a platform that overcomes the inherent limitations of marketing cloud email systems. MessageGears works almost exclusively with large business-to-consumer (B2C) companies, including Expedia, Orbitz Worldwide, Chick-fil-A, AmTrust, and Ebates. Founded in 2010, MessageGears is based in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information, please visit http://www.messagegears.com.

Company Contact:

Jeff Haws

Jeff.Haws[at]messagegears[dot]com

Media Contact:

Stephanie Richards

SowGrow PR

678-744-7690

contact[at]sowgrowpr[dot]comI know how the justice system works and what challenges my clients may face, so I am capable of successfully defending them both inside and outside the courtroom.

Attorney Brian DiPietro, founder of Brian DiPietro Law, PLLC, is celebrating his thirty-fifth anniversary since graduating from Thomas M. Cooley Law School. DiPietro attended law school with a goal of practicing criminal defense.

To this day I am still as dedicated to representing the constitutional rights of those accused of crime as ever before, said DiPietro. I know how the justice system works and what challenges my clients may face, so I am capable of successfully defending them both inside and outside the courtroom.

During the course of his distinguished career, DiPietro has received many recognitions. In 2017 he was recognized as a National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Lawyers for Criminal Defense. He consistently uses his knowledge of criminal law and experience in the courtroom to provide residents in Phoenix and across Arizona with exceptional criminal defense regardless of how complex their case may be.

Brian DiPietro is a great criminal lawyer who is hardworking, knowledgeable about the law, and very intelligent, said client John D. He did a great job for me and I am extremely pleased with the outcome. I highly recommend Brian DiPietro as an excellent criminal defense attorney.

DiPietro graduated from Thomas M. Cooley Law School January 1983. He was admitted to the Michigan Bar in November 1983 and to the Arizona Bar in November 1994.

About Brian Dipietro Law, PLLC

Brian Dipietro has more than 30 years experience defending clients in a wide variety of cases involving DUI, drug charges, weapons,theft, assault, fraud, domestic violence, and other major felonies and misdemeanors. Practice areas of Brian Dipietro Law include criminal defense, DUI/DWI, arson, bribery, forgery, homicide, weapon offenses and more. For more information, please call (623) 242-2655, or visit http://criminallawdui.com/. The law office is located at 301 West Warner Road, Suite 133, Tempe, AZ.

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.Ubiik Weightless Long Range ePaper tag, size 2.7'' This new product is set to change the way factories have been operating.

Until now, the applicability of updating e-paper display tags has been constrained to short-to-mid ranges due to the limitations of existing communication standards, both open (Wifi, Bluetooth, Zigbee) and proprietary.

By integrating Weightless LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) distinctive advanced downlink features with high-readability e-paper displays, Ubiik breaks the ground for ultra low-power wireless signage over a much longer range than previously possible:



More than 1.5km outdoor line-of-sight (e.g., a whole campus),

More than several hundred meters indoor (e.g., a whole assembly floor),

With typically 2 years of battery life on coin cell batteries.

"We are so excited by this new product that is set to change the way factories have been operating with regards to information display such as work instructions, inventory management, or product tracking," said TH Peng, CEO of Ubiik. "Our customers in the industrial and smart city sectors have for a long time been waiting for a product like this. We are thrilled that by combining advanced LPWAN connectivity and e-paper we have now made this breakthrough product to serve their respective usages."

"ePaper applications have diversified vastly in the recent years. We are very pleased to see more and more partners joining the ePaper ecosystem and innovate." said Johnson Lee, president of E Ink, "We are delighted to co-work with Ubiik dedicated to develop wireless ePaper tags, support long-range and provide alternative business solutions. With the rapid growth of the IoT market, we believe the innovative LPWAN technologies with long-range could enable ePaper applications in many more smart spaces."

The Starter Kit of Ubiik's revolutionary Weightless-enabled 2.7" inch Long-Range e-paper is now available for purchase. Pilots and demonstrators are currently being arranged for Japanese and European partners. The Ubiik Weightless-enabled 4.2'' e-paper tag will be available in Q2 2018.

Ubiik will exhibit a Weightless-enabled LPWAN e-paper demonstrator at the Mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona from February 26th to March 1st with ecosystem partner Applus+, worldwide leader in testing, inspection and certification. Hall 7 Stand 7J81.

About Ubiik

Ubiik is the leading wireless monitoring solutions provider for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), having pioneered the development of Weightless Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) technology. Industrial customers worldwide have chosen Ubiik for electricity metering, factory sensors, energy monitoring, logistics, smart city, or agriculture projects. Products delivered are IoT total solutions (including Cloud and Analytics), end-user connected objects (Connected-Epaper, GPS tracker), or Weightless communication technology (Base Station, End Device modules, Starter Kits). Established in 2016, Ubiik is headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan and has offices in Osaka, Japan. http://www.ubiik.com

About Weightless SIG

The Weightless SIG is a non-profit global standards organization formed to coordinate the activities needed to deliver the world's best IoT connectivity technology. Ubiik is one of its board members. http://www.weightless.org

About E Ink Holdings

E Ink Holdings Inc. (8069.TWO), based on technology from MIT's Media Lab, has transformed and defined the eReader market and is redefining the signage, architecture and design, mobile, wearable and retail markets with its ePaper technology, enabling a new multi-billion dollar market in less than 10 years. Its corporate philosophy aims to deliver revolutionary products, user experiences and environmental benefits through advanced technology development. This vision has led to its continuous investments in the field of ePaper displays as well as expanding the use of its technologies into a number of other markets and applications including smart packaging and fashion. Its Electrophoretic Display products make it the worldwide leader for ePaper. Its Fringe Field Switching (FFS) technologies are a standard for high-end LCD displays and have been licensed to all major liquid crystal display makers in the world. Listed in Taiwan's Taipei Exchange (TPEx) and the Luxembourg market, E Ink Holdings is now the world's largest supplier of ePaper displays. For more information please visit http://www.eink.comTraQline Mexico provides the data necessary to unvover up-to-date insights for brands and retailers alike.

TraQline Mexico is now entering its second year of offering rich data for retailer and brand share trends on consumer durables, in addition to consumer behavior such as why they choose brands, where they shop, and what event facilitated the purchase.

TraQline Mexico is a bi-annual survey that measures consumer purchases in the Mexico metropolitan and surrounding areas. 6 months of purchase information is collected from consumers in Jan. and July and is weighted to accurately reflect the Mexican population, including Social Economic Level (SEL), geography and demographics. The survey itself collects insights into 90 different products and categories, giving TraQline subscribers the information needed to diagnose, plan, track and measure market trends in their industry.

TraQline Mexico provides the data necessary to uncover up-to-date insights for brands and retailers alike, said Eric Voyer, vice-president of sales and marketing. Subscribers to TraQline Mexico can access this information 24/7 on the website, where two years of data allows users to compare year over year trends on almost 96,000 purchases.

TraQline Mexico is syndicated by The Stevenson Company and is the newest survey that is available in the TraQline Suite of surveys. TraQline US and TraQline Canada have provided market share and consumer behavior trends since 2000 and 2007, respectively. For more than 17 years, the TraQline team has provided consistent, unbiased and reliable insights for retailers and manufacturers across a broad spectrum of consumer durables.

About TraQline

TraQline delivers improved market intelligence for North American retailers and manufacturers. Delivering greater insights into market data in industries such as home improvement, consumer electronics, and building product trends while also delivering exceptional customer service is at the core of TraQline. Its syndicated survey solutions provide consumer market research and insights that can be customized based on the individual needs of the retailers and manufacturers. For more information, please visit http://www.traqline.com, or follow us on Twitter (@TraQline) for updates on our products and consumer trends.

For more information, contact Eric Voyer: 502-271-5267 or ericv(at)traqline(dot)com.LNB (The Lyons National Bank) has announced the opening of its second full-service branch in Cayuga County. The grand opening event will take place at 311 Grant Avenue Rd. on Saturday, February 17 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

We want to show our appreciation and commitment to Cayuga County by inviting all to celebrate with us at our grand opening event, said Demetrius Murphy, Branch Manager of LNBs Cayuga offices. We welcome visitors to tour the new two-story branch, including the community room and see large murals of area landscapes by local photographer, John Francis McCarthy.

At the celebration, guests will have an opportunity to enter to win Bonus Bucks  cash certificates that can be spent at merchants in the local community. Up to $5,000 will be awarded that day. 104.7 FMs Becky Palmer will be hosting a live remote onsite from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and, Abner Doubleday, mascot for the Auburn Doubledays will be onsite for fan photos. Throughout the day there will be door prize giveaways, sketching from an area artist, food from Kostas Grill and Camerons Bakery, and more. LNB will also be offering grand opening savings specials that are exclusive to their two Cayuga County branches.

For more information on the LNB Grant Ave. Grand Opening event, visit BankwithLNB.com/GrantAve.

LNB is a $1 billion independent, community bank with fifteen branch offices located throughout Cayuga, Wayne, Onondaga, Ontario, Monroe, Seneca and Yates Counties. LNB has a long-standing tradition of excellence, dating back to 1852. LNB offers an extensive variety of products within the personal and business banking realms, including direct deposit, online banking, Cash Management Services, Remote Deposit Capture and much more. LNB also provides financial services, including investments and insurance. For a complete listing of products and services, as well as branch locations, please visit BankwithLNB.com.

###One of Embraces core values is to give back to our community and we like to partner with others who align with us on that. RescueBox is perfect because they donate five pounds of food and two vaccinations to shelter pets with each subscription.

To celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year, Embrace Pet Insurance and RescueBox are giving away several subscriptions for the curated goodie pet box. A survey conducted in 2015 by The Harris Poll found that 95% of Americans consider their pet to be a member of the family. While Chinese New Year is traditionally about celebrating with human family, 2018 is going to the dogs.

The Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year throughout Asia, begins on February 16, 2018. This year is the Year of the Dog based on the Chinese astrological signs of 12 animals. A Dog year brings good things for those lucky enough to be born in it. All animals in the Chinese zodiac are special, but many believe that people born in Dog years are especially so. There are five types of dog: Wood, Fire, Earth, Gold, and Water, and birth year determines the type of dog a person is. This year is Earth Dog which hasnt happened since 1958. The Earth Dog is known to be a good communicator, a serious soul, and very responsible in their work life.

If youre a Dog, then you have something in common with Embrace: your lucky color is purple. Red and green are also lucky colors for Dogs this year. Be mindful of blue, white, and gold though since these are deemed unlucky colors for Dogs in 2018.

To celebrate the Year of the Dog, Embrace is hosting a giveaway with RescueBox for a one-year subscription, a six-month subscription, and a three-month subscription. Box options range from small to large dogs and they even offer a box for cats. The lucky winners of the random giveaway will receive a box of premium products for their pet. Embrace Pet Insurance Marketing Manager Dawn Pyne, says, One of Embraces core values is to give back to our community and we like to partner with others who align with us on that. RescueBox is perfect because they donate five pounds of food and two vaccinations to shelter pets with each subscription.

Embrace kicks off the giveaway on Thursday, February 15 and it will run through the end of the month. Interested pet owners can visit Embraces Facebook page or visit http://www.embracepetinsurance.com/waterbowl/article/lucky-dog-giveaway for a chance to win. Cat owners are welcome to enter too!

No purchase necessary. By entering this sweepstakes, you agree to the contest rules.

About Embrace Pet Insurance

Embrace Pet Insurance is an Ohio-based pet health insurance provider, offering comprehensive, personalized insurance products for dogs and cats across the United States. Embrace is consistently ranked as one of the highest-rated U.S. pet insurance companies and is a proud member of the North American Pet Health Insurance Association. Embrace is the only company to offer a diminishing deductible feature, the Healthy Pet Deductible, and continues to innovate and improve the pet insurance experience for pet parents across the country. For more information about Embrace Pet Insurance, visit http://www.embracepetinsurance.com or call (800) 511-9172.

About RescueBox

RescueBox is a subscription box program targeting pet owners while assisting shelter pets in need. The idea for RescueBox was born from a desire to give back. A few years ago, the founders of came together to brainstorm new and unique ways to give back to the animal rescue community. They created a simple and easy way that delighted pets and their parentsRescueBox. With every RescueBox, subscribers will receive a curated box filled with a high-quality toys, delicious treats, and other tail-wagging or meow-inducing products. The best part? Each delivery will feature a rescue story that wouldnt be possible without the generous donation your purchase provides. Millions of animals are abused and abandoned every single year. The team at RescueBox is working hard every single day to reduce that number. We couldnt do it without your help. For more information about RescueBox, visit http://www.rescuebox.com or call (800) 398-6081.Banks Journal is pleased to announce the opening of their first retail store, located in downtown Los Angeles at the ROW DTLA.

The Banks Journal DTLA storefront is the brand's first brick and mortar, blending clean and minimal aesthetics with natural materials near LA's Arts District. Working with design firm West of West, the new space seeks to blend the sustainable clothing brand's Australian and Japanese roots alongside it's overall coastal influence and appeal. The store's main attraction is an eye-catching ceiling installation constructed of 1000 linear feet of wood, inspired by traditional Japanese woodworking.

Says Banks Journal: "Opening our first retail location provides us an amazing opportunity to showcase our brand's story of using sustainable and organic materials in a way that can relate to our customers. Working with West of West enabled us to have a heightened attention to design and detail for the store's interior, something that we strive for with each garment we create."

The 1,000 square foot retail space is housed in the historic 1900's building previously inhabited by American Apparel. The area has now been repurposed into a modern shopping and dining experience known as The ROW DTLA. Alongside the Banks Journal clothing, the new flagship offers a curated selection of vintage rugs, vinyl, design books and products from like-minded brands.

Banks Journal DTLA is located at:

The ROW DTLA

777 Alameda Street

Los Angeles, CA 90021

About Banks Journal:

Founded in 2013, Banks Journal is a modern clothing label inspired by coastal living and a love of modern design. The brand is infused with a unique blend of Japanese and Australian heritage thanks to its founders. These contrasting perspectives of the world come together as Banks Journal to create the contemporary look and feel of the brand. Ingrained with a deep respect for their natural surroundings, Banks Journal strives to utilize as many environmentally friendly materials as possible, from recycled polyester to organic cotton, throughout each season.Alex Gandel had a highly productive year in 2017. He is ranked No. 10 out of over 110,000 sales professionals nationwide for CENTURY 21 and still managed to offer a remarkable level of service to his community. He was recognized recently for his outstanding contributions and awarded Business Person of the Year 2017 by the Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce.

We are pleased that Alex is receiving this well deserved award, Brian Troop, Founder of CENTURY 21 Troop Real Estate said. Alex has proven to be an incredibly kind and giving human being throughout his 38 years as a top producing real estate professional.

Among his many accomplishments, Alex founded the annual CENTURY 21 Troop Turkey Drive over two decades ago. With the help of corporate sponsors and many of his colleague volunteers, the event provides a Thanksgiving meal to thousands of qualified individuals each season.

It is very humbling, yet exciting to be given an award such as this for doing things that I sincerely enjoy, Gandel said. I have been blessed to live and work in Simi Valley my entire career. Early on I became active in the community in various ways. Each one of them has enriched my life and the lives of my family members.

Alex and his wife Janet have been married for 29 years and are the parents of sons Bradley and Jarred. Alex serves on the Advisory Board at the Boys & Girls Club of Simi Valley where he has been on the Board of Directors since 1998. He has served on the Adventist Health Simi Valley Hospital Foundation Board since 2008.

Kindness makes the world a better place, Gandel said. When you are fortunate in your life, its important and fulfilling to find a way to make a difference in the lives of others less fortunate.

For more information about Alex Gandel, visit his website at http://www.alexgandel.com.

About CENTURY 21 Troop Real Estate - Established in 1987 as Troop Real Estate, Inc., CENTURY 21 Troop Real Estate is Ventura Countys largest real estate company and has perennially been a leader in the countys residential market in the number and dollar volume of listings sold. The company, with approximately 500 seasoned sales professionals, provides the full range of residential, commercial, fine estates, property management, financial, escrow, and relocation services. C21 Troop Real Estate branches are located in Simi Valley, Simis Wood Ranch community, Simi Valley (Commercial), Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Camarillo, Oxnard, Channel Islands, Hollywood Beach, Ventura, Santa Paula, and Santa Clarita. They are an independently owned and operated franchise affiliate of CENTURY 21 Real Estate, the iconic brand and franchisor with the largest global network in the residential real estate industry, comprised of approximately 6,900 independently owned and operated franchised broker offices in 78 countries and territories worldwide with more than 101,000 independent sales professionals.

2016 CENTURY 21 All Rights Reserved. CENTURY 21 and the CENTURY 21 Logo are registered service marks owned by Century 21 Real Estate LLC. Each office is independently owned and operated.This honor is not only a testament to our continued success in executing our vision, but also to the hard work and unwavering commitment of our people to accelerate value for our clients by helping them optimize their end-to-end supply chain and operations for advantage

Each February, Consulting Magazine, the flagship magazine for the consulting profession, shines a light on seven hidden gems, smaller firms that are shaking up the profession and challenging some of the industry giants. These companies are breaking new ground in terms of firm management, but they are also breaking new ground in terms of their financial performance. Year in and year out, the Seven Small Jewels far outperform the overall profession.

"Having made Consulting Magazines list of Seven Small Jewels to Watch in 2017, we are especially proud to be among the select few consultancies chosen as its Seven Small Jewels for 2018," says Maine Pointe Chairman and CEO Steve Bowen. "This honor is not only a testament to our continued success in executing our vision, but also to the hard work and unwavering commitment of our people to accelerate value for our clients by helping them optimize their end-to-end supply chain and operations for advantage, he added.

This latest listing builds on Maine Pointes considerable momentum within the industry and closely follows the companys inclusion on CIO Reviews list of The 20 Most Promising Data Analytics Solution Providers 2018.The company has also previously won accolades for its procurement solutions, award winning remote site services projects and as one of the 30 most trustworthy companies of 2017.

In 2017 we significantly strengthened our position as a leading authority in measurable supply chain transformation through Total Value Optimization , which was featured strongly in the Global Supply Chain Institutes End-to-End Supply Chain Collaboration Best Practices paper, said Simon Knowles, Chief Marketing Officer. Additionally, Steven Bowen, our CEO, launched his book, Total Value Optimization which has received further endorsements including taking the No.1 spot in the distribution & warehouse category on Amazon. Being selected as a Small Jewel validates the strategic path we are on as we strive to achieve our goal of being the worlds most sought after operational implementation consulting firm, he added.

About Maine Pointe

Maine Pointe is a global implementation-focused consulting firm trusted by many chief executives and private equity firms to drive compelling economic returns for their companies. We achieve this by delivering accelerated, sustainable improvements in both EBITDA and cash across their procurement, logistics and operations to enable growth. Our hands-on implementation experts work with executives and their teams to rapidly break through functional silos and transform the buy-make-move-fulfill supply chain to deliver the greatest value to customers and investors at the lowest cost to business. We call this Total Value Optimization (TVO).

Maine Pointes engagements are results-driven and deliver between 3.5:1-12:1 ROI. We are so confident in our work and our processes that we provide a unique 100% guarantee of engagement fees based on annualized savings. http://www.mainepointe.com

About Consulting Magazine

Consulting magazine is the flagship publication of the consulting profession featuring the latest information on consulting careers, thought leadership and corporate strategies. In addition to providing industry insights, Consulting hosts award dinners as part of our Achievement Awards series  honoring Women Leaders in Consulting, The Top 25 Consultants, Social & Community Investment and Rising Stars of the Profession.

About ALM

ALM, an information and intelligence company, provides customers with critical news, data, analysis, marketing solutions and events to successfully manage the business of business.Eric Myers, Managing Director of Accutrac Transportation Factoring Inc. Eric Myers, Managing Director of Accutrac Transportation Factoring Inc. is the ideal go-to-person for transportation business owners seeking to secure funding.

The Accutrac Capital Group of Companies is proud to announce further expansion with the recent addition of Accutrac Transportation Factoring Inc. Eric Myers, Managing Director of the new subsidiary is a 20 year veteran of financial services. His primary career focus has been to provide working capital products for the trucking industry. Erics working knowledge and practical experience in both finance and freight transportation positions him as a valued asset for Accutrac Capital and its growing number of customers. Located in Park City, Utah, this office location provides close proximity to the freight factoring companys escalating list of western based clients.

Erics career success stems largely from learned knowledge, industry related experience and a commitment to providing valued service solutions to meet customer needs. With a bachelors degree in Business Administration and an MBA in marketing, Eric quickly transited from commercial banking to alternative financial services for the trucking industry. From fleet fuel programs to customized working capital solutions, Eric has provided a number of fiscal services needed to keep fleets operational. Throughout his career Eric has cultivated an in-depth understanding of freight transportation and the specific financial burdens that challenge owners of trucking companies.

We are extremely fortunate to have Eric Myers head up Accutrac Transportation Factoring Inc, commented Charles Sheppard, President of Accutrac Capital. His education and experience in trucking is the ideal background to support the companys mandate to provide fast, convenient funding for freight carriers and brokers. Trucking is a capital intense industry. Constant access to working capital is a necessity in order to sustain uninterrupted fleet operations. continued Mr. Sheppard. When truck company owners recognize the need for a cash flow solution to meet current obligations, it is often a time sensitive issue that demands immediate action. To complicate their urgency even further, traditional banks are governed by restrictive qualification requirements that typically involve a lengthy due diligence process. Most freight carriers and brokers fail to qualify for a conventional loan as trucking is considered to be a volatile and unstable industry from a commercial bank perspective. For this reason, an alternative financial solution is needed to meet the funding needs of a working fleet.

All trucking businesses, no matter what stage of development they are in, require some form of financing to sustain operations. This constant challenge occupies the minds of transportation business owners each and every day. Identifying the right funding solution, selecting the best financial provider, and meeting the qualification requirements to secure a lending facility can be a daunting task for small and mid-size businesses. Consulting with a reputable advisor, fully conversant with the unique aspects of transportation financing is an appropriate first step in meeting this challenge.

Freight factoring is a specialized form of invoice factoring designed specifically for the trucking industry. Although it has become a mainstream financial strategy for growing fleet operations, it is often an unfamiliar choice. Eric Myers has worked both sides of business lending establishments; traditional commercial banking institutions and alternative finance companies. His financial background and extensive knowledge of trucking allows Eric to explicate the distinct advantages of factoring in terms highly relatable to owners of trucking companies.

Eric Myers, Managing Director of Accutrac Transportation Factoring Inc. is the ideal go-to-person for transportation business owners seeking to secure funding. concludes Mr. Sheppard. We are more than excited to have him join our expanding organization.

For more information regarding Accutrac Capital and freight factoring, please visit http://www.AccutracCapital.comLRS Provides Oil Spill Response Training We look forward to training Navy and Marine Corps personnel to enhance safety and establish environmentally sound response techniques.

LRS Federal, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), has been awarded a prime contract by The Naval Facilities (NAVFAC) Expeditionary and Engineering Warfare Center (EXWC) to provide Oil Spill Response Training. This contract is designed to provide on-site instruction for oil spill response at Navy and Marine Corps facilities worldwide. The training is designed to simulate real scenarios so students are prepared to respond quickly and appropriately should an actual event occur. The three courses covered by this contract are: Facility Response Plan (FRP) Training, Spill Management Team (SMT) Training, and New Skimmer Training.

1. FRT Training  This course is designed to teach management skills for oil spill response and how to successfully deploy, operate, and maintain a variety of oil response systems and equipment.

2. SMT Training - The course gives students a practical understanding of their roles on the SMT and provides them with the knowledge to maintain an effective oil spill response program, utilizing a tabletop exercise to simulate various spill incidents.

3. New Skimmer Training  This type of training will be used when a Navy or Marine Corps Facility Response Team (FRT) receives a new oil skimmer vessel, to ensure FRT personnel have the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively operate the new skimmer and to teach others to effectively operate it.

As a former naval officer, I know how important it is to have highly trained and rapidly deployable support personnel to respond to an incident. We are extremely pleased to be working with NAVFAC on this contract and look forward to training Navy and Marine Corps personnel to enhance safety and establish environmentally sound response techniques. We are committed to the Navys mission and look forward to building a strong relationship and providing expert services at naval facilities worldwide, said Sean Logan, LRS Federals CEO.

LRS Federal, a Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), with headquarters outside Annapolis, Maryland supports federal projects nationwide with a focus on engineering, environmental, field response, and training solutions services.Mark Tackmann, CPA, MBA, Managing Partner, Gelman LLP, CPAs & Business Advisors We are looking forward to creating a flexible, innovative firm that is truly focused on proactive value-added client service while heavily leveraging relationships, knowledge and technology." - Mark Tackmann, Managing Partner of Gelman LLP

Gelman LLP, a leading California certified public accounting and business advisory firm, is proud to announce Mark Tackmann as its Managing Partner, succeeding Larry Kane. Regarding the transition, which is effective immediately, Larry said, We are very fortunate to have so many qualified exceptional leaders in the firm. The unanimous agreement of Mark as our new Managing Partner is outstanding for us. Marks leadership skills and business acumen are tremendous assets that will help propel continued success for Gelman. Marks vision for the firms future is inspiring and very exciting for all of us. Mark said, We are looking forward to creating a flexible, innovative firm that is truly focused on proactive value-added client service while heavily leveraging relationships, knowledge and technology. Gelman is a firm with a depth of expertise in the construction industry and we will continue to reinforce this niche, while also providing valuable insight and technical expertise to a broad range of industries.

Mark has 23 years of experience in public accounting, and worked with Gelman LLP previously. He rejoined the firm in August 2017 after spending the last 12 years as a Partner with two Orange County based CPA firms where he was instrumental in growing strategic advisory services, shaping the client-centric service models and using advanced technology to streamline and enhance the clients' experience. Mark is adept at strategic business planning, mergers and acquisitions, financial analysis, and integrating both tax and assurance services. He has worked extensively with companies with annual revenues ranging from 10 million to over 1 billion.

Mark is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant in the state of California, has earned his Master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Accounting from the business school of California State University, Dominguez Hills. Mark is also an active member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the California Society of Certified Public Accountants.

OTHER PROMOTIONS:

Lisa Green was promoted to Senior Partner in charge of assurance services for Gelman LLP. Lisa has been with Gelman since 1995 and has a long history of providing excellent service to the firms clients. Lisa graduated from San Diego State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting. She has extensive experience serving growing, closely-held companies with an emphasis in the construction industry and employee owned companies. Lisa has memberships in the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, California Society of Certified Public Accountants, National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO), the ESOP Association and the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC).

Tackmann said, Lisas long history of staying well-informed of the continually changing assurance landscape and her ability to translate the changes to meaningful recommendations for our clients and team members has proven invaluable. Lisa is also an expert in Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs). Her national contacts in the ESOP arena seek out Lisa to assist their clients in complying with the very complex accounting and tax issues associated with ESOPs. Lisa, when asked how she became so adept in her understanding of ESOPs replied, Glenn Gelman, our late founder, absolutely loved ESOPs and I share that passion. I have worked on and managed numerous ESOPs and there is always something new and challenging to learn. I find them to be a great option for a companys succession plan.

Jay Donovan joined Gelman LLP as a Senior Tax Partner responsible for tax department administration in November 2017. Jay has more than 30 years of public accounting experience, including Big 4 and Fortune 100 experience. He utilizes a broad range of problem solving skills to serve closely-held, entrepreneurial businesses and their owners in real estate, construction, manufacturing, distribution, publishing and service industries. Jay works with clients in the areas of wealth creation and preservation, leveraging tax efficient strategies. Tackmann said, We are extremely fortunate to be able to add such a tremendous asset to our Gelman team. Jays experience and knowledge will be critical in helping the firm to continue to be on the forefront of servicing our clients' tax and related consulting needs.

Jay graduated Magna Cum Laude from California State University at Long Beach with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in Accounting. He also graduated with honors from Golden Gate University with a Master of Science in Taxation. Jay has memberships in the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and California Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Larry on the promotions, We are currently in our 35th year of public accounting. The leadership we have at the top, lead by Mark, puts us in a great position for the next 35 years. Larry will retain his position as Chairman of the Executive Management Committee.

###

ABOUT GELMAN LLP:

Gelman LLP (http://www.gelmanllp.com) is a premier accounting firm in Southern California committed to providing superior tax planning, auditing, accounting, business management consulting and business valuation services to private businesses and individuals to enhance profitability, save taxes, improve accountability and preserve wealth. As a local firm, with national and international resources, Gelman LLP attracts talented and experienced staff members who provide clients with service that exceeds expectations.

CONTACT:

Gina Colene, Marketing Manager

Gelman LLP

(714) 667-2600

info@gelmanllp.comDr. Jaqueline Subka Links Bleeding Gums in Thousand Oaks, CA, to Heart Disease During American Heart Month

During American Heart Month, Dr. Jacqueline Subka raises awareness of the harmful effect untreated gum disease can have on the heart. Warning her community of this connection, she advises anyone with common symptoms of gum disease, such as swollen or bleeding gums in the Thousand Oaks, CA area, to receive a consultation.

Dr. Subka is inviting people throughout the region to make appointments to discuss their dental issues. Her goal is to help those with gum disease red flags such as inflamed gums, persistent bad breath, and mouth sores, to learn the best ways to manage the underlying problem. One such way is through modern, safe, effective laser therapy.

Dr. Subka prefers utilizing lasers whenever possible for a variety of reasons. Leading her list is the comfort of the patient. The amount of post-operative discomfort is greatly reduced, she explains when discussing laser gum therapy solutions. We don't have to do any incisions or suturing and the results are phenomenal.

Lasers have become the gold standard in care for all stages of gum disease, from reversing very early gingivitis to keeping periodontitis from spreading. Treating gum disease is not just good for the mouth, but for the whole bodyespecially the heart.

Research has shown a strong link between people with periodontal disease and heart disease. It is thought that former condition exacerbates the latter one by releasing bacteria into the bloodstream. The bacteria cause inflammation and other issues, forcing the heart to work less efficiently. For people with already existing heart disease, the need for constant monitoring and treatment of their oral health becomes even more essential.

Patients who have experienced issues like bad breath or bleeding gums in Thousand Oaks, CA, can reach Dr. Subka for a complimentary consultation at 805-373-1919 in a comfortable, judgment-free setting.

About the Doctor

Dr. Jacqueline Subka is general dentist offering personalized dental care for patients in Thousand Oaks, CA since 1999. Dr. Subka received her dental degree from the prestigious University of Southern California School of Dentistry in Los Angeles. Dr. Subka practices gentle dentistry and incorporates state-of-the-art techniques to provide leading, minimally invasive care. She and her team are committed to continuing education and strive to provide high-quality, personalized dental care to each patient. To learn more about Dr. Subka and the dental services she provides, visit her website at http://www.subkadds.com or call 805-373-1919.The 20 "We have taken all of the common weaknesses shared by MSPs across the industry and are providing an all-in-one solution," said Tim Conkle, CEO of The 20.

The 20 has been named one of the Top 25 Organizations to Watch by Channel Partners and Channel Futures. The editors at Channel Partners and Channel Futures collaborated to present the first-ever Channel Influencer Awards to the top technologies, trends, and organizations impacting the direction of the new channel in 2018. The list recognizes "movers and shakers who could make or break your business [in] 2018."

The 20's singular platform and infrastructure allows all MSPs to maintain their individuality while being able to effectively support clients throughout North America. MSPs with a small on-site team can now provide services that were once offered only by larger MSPs without the same risks and investments.

"We are able to deliver technology in a way we'd always dreamed about in the past and always aspired to do for our clients," says Charles Henson, Managing Partner at Nashville Computer Company and member of The 20.

"We have taken all of the common weaknesses shared by MSPs across the industry and are providing an all-in-one solution," said Tim Conkle, CEO of The 20. "Ultimately, The 20 will revolutionize the IT industry and its members will be a part of that dominant force." Conkle went on to say, "We are honored to be included in a list with some of the biggest names in the industry: Verizon, Salesforce, Sirius, Rackspace, Microsoft Azure, GE, and many more."

The full article is available in Channel Partners, Spring 2018, on the Channel Partners website.

About The 20

The 20 is an exclusive business development group for Managed Service Providers (MSP) aimed at dominating and revolutionizing the IT industry with its standardized all-in-one approach. The 20's robust RMM, PSA, and documentation platform ensures superior service for its MSPs' clients utilizing their completely US-based Help Desk and Network Operations Center. Extending beyond proven tools and processes, The 20 touts a guaranteed sales model, a community of industry-leaders, and ultimate scalability.

About Channel Partners

For nearly 30 years, Channel Partners has been the leader in providing news and analysis to indirect sales channels serving the communications industry. It is the unrivaled resource for resellers, agents, VARs, systems integrators, cloud providers and consultants that provide network-based communications and computing services, applications, cloud services, managed and professional services - and more. Channel Partners is the official media of the Channel PartnersJensen Precast, one of the largest family owned precast concrete companies in the United States, celebrates 50 years in business on February 14, 2018. Founded by Donald Jensen in Reno, Nevada, the manufacturer provides communities, businesses, and government agencies with industry leading products and services for underground infrastructure needs

.

We started as a one man operation and now employ more than 800 workers throughout Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Nevada. As we celebrate our milestone 50th anniversary, my personal thanks to every employee, customer, and vendor who help make Jensen Precast a thriving success. Donald Jensen, Founder and CEO, Jensen Precast

Jensen Precast engineers and manufactures highly durable concrete products that offer lasting solutions for water, energy, transportation, and telecommunication initiatives. Among a robust product portfolio, the company delivers precast concrete manhole structures, septic tanks, utility vaults, water pipelines, stormwater systems, and highway barriers and bridges all designed for expedient and exact installation.

Precast concrete benefits engineering, contracting, and installation teams by enabling consistent quality and alignment of cost efficient infrastructure components made to endure highly corroding elements.

For five decades Jensen Precast has provided high quality products and services for customers ranging from residential neighborhoods to multinational corporations. Were a family owned company that constantly engages next generation skills and expertise. We work hard to help set the standards that move the industry forward. Eric Jensen, President, Jensen Precast

Donald Jensen began casting concrete parking curbs as a teenager attending Reno High School. After founding Jensen Precast in 1968 with a single facility in Reno, the young entrepreneur expanded operations in 1978 to Las Vegas, Nevada. The endeavor was the most challenging of his career, Jensen says, but the experience created a solid template for future business opportunities.

Over the next four decades, Jensen Precast grew in size and reputation as it opened branches across California, Hawaii, and Arizona. The company continues to introduce new products in step with market demands, including stormwater and onsite wastewater systems to help address increasing environmental considerations.

Today the still growing company operates 11 branches throughout the western United States. For more information about Jensen Precast, visit JensenPrecast.com. For details on the 50th Anniversary Celebration, go to JensenPrecast.com/50th.

About Jensen Precast

Jensen Precast is one of the largest family owned precast concrete companies in the United States. Founded in 1968, the company provides engineered solutions with precast concrete for communities, businesses, and government agencies throughout Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Nevada. Celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2018, Jensen Precast employs more than 800 workers who engineer, manufacture, and deliver products and services to construction and engineering businesses.

Visit JensenPrecast.com for locations, products, quotes, and contact information for expert consultation.

To arrange interviews with Jensen Precast executives or for more information about the companys 50th Anniversary, please contact Nicholas Drake at (775) 352-5275 or email at NDrake(at)JensenPrecast(dot)com.AISAs aim is to bring institutional-standard best practices to the EB-5 market and to develop longstanding relationship with our clients through the quality and integrity of our services

AISA Investment Advisers (AISA) announced today that it has been engaged to provide independent monitoring service for the EB-5 investors in a 45-story mixed-use real estate development in lower Manhattan. The service is part of AISAs full range of solutions offered to EB-5 project sponsors. AISAs services are primarily structured to enhance investor protection, mitigate conflicts of interest and to ensure compliance with ever more stringent regulatory requirements and the upcoming EB-5 integrity measures.

In todays increasingly competitive funding environment, project sponsors find that investor safeguards also help to improve the marketability of their offering.

The project at 25 Park Row is in one of New York Citys prime locations and is being co-developed by the Friedman family (J&R) and L&M Development Partners (L&M), one of New Yorks premier real estate firms. The project, currently under construction in Lower Manhattan on City Hall Park, will include 110 residential condominium units and 67,000 s.f. of flagship commercial space.

The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa Program is a federal government program encouraging foreign nationals to invest capital in the U.S. The use of EB-5 funding, especially in ground-up development projects, has grown exponentially since the financial crisis in 2007.

The independent monitoring service offered by AISA ensures that a neutral party, a US-registered financial entity, oversees the activities of the manager, including supervising the flow of EB-5 investment funds into the project.

EB-5 is an industry in transition and regulators, investors and the investors representatives alike are all calling for more protection of the investors, said Dr. Robert Robbins Founder and Chairman of AISA Holdings. AISAs aim is to bring institutional-standard best practices to the EB-5 market and to develop longstanding relationship with our clients through the quality and integrity of our services, said Peyman Attari, President and CEO of AISA Investment Advisers.

By engaging a regulated financial entity, we are offering the gold standard in investor protection, as one of the features distinguishing our offering in the marketplace, said David Dishy, President of Development and Acquisition and Partner at L&M.

AISAs responsibilities are separate and distinct from the administration of the fund, which will be provided by NES Financial through their full suite of Intelligent EB-5 Administration Solutions.

About AISA Investment Advisers

AISA Investment Advisers is an investment advisory firm registered with the Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions (CRD# 175121). The company has been active in the EB-5 industry since late 2012 as consultants and investment advisers. The principals at AISA are experienced investment professionals with expertise in investment research, portfolio management, fund formation, international securities offerings and Trust services. The companys services are structured to meet the needs of the EB-5 market and include EB-5 consulting and due diligence, fund management and monitoring, redeployment solutions and investment advisory services.

About the Developers

L&M Development Partners was established in 1984 and is a full service real estate firm handling development, investment, construction and management of real estate assets. Over the past 34 years the company has been responsible for over $7 billion in development, construction and investment. L&M has extensive experience with both residential and commercial projects. The company has acquired, built or preserved more than 22,000 residential units and maintains a portfolio of that includes more than 600,000 s.f. of managed, owned and net leased commercial properties.

Joe and Rachelle Friedman founded and operated the iconic J&R Music business in New York. The Friedman family owns a portfolio of commercial real estate assets along Park Row, which they are now redeveloping. The family will maintain an equity role in the project.World Port Seafood, an Omaha Steaks brand, offers a complete line of raw and prepared fish and shellfish. Omaha Steaks is leveraging its more than 100 years of experience in producing, sourcing and delivering the highest quality frozen foods to expand its World Port Seafood brand with a new designated website, www.worldportseafood.com and a seafood hotline at 1-800-315-FISH (3474).

Recognizing tremendous growth opportunities in its existing seafood category, fifth-generation, family-owned Omaha Steaks is leveraging its more than 100 years of experience in producing, sourcing and delivering the highest quality frozen foods to expand its World Port Seafood brand. A new designated website, http://www.worldportseafood.com and a seafood hotline at 1-800-315-FISH (3474) for customer questions launched today.

Seafood has long been one of the companys core offerings. Today, the demand for seafood is increasing with one-fifth of all respondents in a recent SeafoodSource.com survey indicating that they include seafood in their weekly meals. This increased demand, combined with the companys ability to offer high quality and responsibly sourced seafood from its established network of trusted suppliers worldwide, provided a unique opportunity for growth and prompted the companys launch of this new stand-alone website - http://www.WorldPortSeafood.com. The new site will enable the company to focus on expanding its line of raw and prepared fish and shellfish.

The new seafood hotline 1-800-315-FISH (3474) originated in response to calls from customers seeking guidance on seafood preparation and serving suggestions. Specially trained customer service seafood experts are available to answer the hotline calls and the website offers easy-reference information like cooking charts, seafood attributes and a variety of short cuts and recipes.

Customers have trusted Omaha Steaks to provide them with premium gourmet foods and unparalleled customer service for generations, said Todd Simon, Senior Vice President and Family Owner. While we are best known for our beef, our seafood sales have been steadily increasing as the demand for high quality seafood grows. By building on our established foundation of food expertise and our strict adherence to exacting quality standards, our new World Port Seafood website  http://www.WorldPortSeafood.com expands our ability to provide world-class seafood and share our expertise as we begin our journey toward becoming Americas foremost gourmet seafood authority.

About Omaha Steaks

Omaha Steaks, founded in 1917, is an Omaha, Nebraska-based, fifth-generation, family-owned company that markets and distributes a wide variety of the finest quality USDA-approved, grain-fed beef and other gourmet foods including seafood, pork, poultry, side dishes, appetizers, complete meals and desserts. Today, Omaha Steaks is recognized as the nations largest direct response marketer of premium beef and gourmet foods, available to customers by calling 1-800-228-9055, online at http://www.OmahaSteaks.com or at retail stores nationwide.

About World Port Seafood

World Port Seafood is an Omaha Steaks brand offering the finest raw and prepared frozen seafood options with year-round availability. All World Port Seafood products are responsibly sourced from trusted suppliers worldwide and flash frozen within hours of harvesting to ensure freshness. World Port Seafood is available online at http://www.WorldPortSeafood.com. World Port Seafood products also are available at http://www.OmahaSteaks.com, by calling 1-800-228-9055, or at Omaha Steaks retail store locations nationwide.Ameritech Financial Student loan borrowers are often in a delicate financial situation, so we encourage everyone to keep an eye out when it comes to new tax legislation.

How is the new tax legislation going to impact current or former students in higher education? A couple of key tuition and student loan tax laws are actually sticking around in 2018. However, tax codes and enforcement can change in the future, so paying attention is important. Ameritech Financial, a document preparation company which assists federal student loan borrowers in applying for repayment plans and forgiveness programs, encourages students and students loan borrowers to stay up to date with tax laws that affect them, perhaps discussing such matters with an accountant.

Student loan borrowers are often in a delicate financial situation, so we encourage everyone to keep an eye out when it comes to new tax legislation, said Tom Knickerbocker, Executive Vice President of Ameritech Financial. Luckily, there is some positive news for students and student loan borrowers.

Here are two parts of the tax law concerning student in higher education and student loans:

1) Graduate school tuition waivers will remain untaxed. This is great news for PhD students or any other kind of grad student who might get his or her tuition funded through a waiver. Despite tuition reprieves, grad students work on notoriously modest budgets, so a tuition waiver tax was widely thought to be an undue burden. While a tax on the waivers was in the original tax bill last year, it never made it to the final version that became law.

2) Student loan interest deductions will remain in place. This is likely welcome news to student loan borrowers. This deduction allows student loan borrowers to deduct up to $2,500 in interest per year. Like the tuition waiver, eliminating this deduction was floated in earlier versions of the bill, but didnt make it to the final version.

While these elements of the tax law look beneficial for students, federal student loan borrowers in repayment may be looking for more help with other issues regarding their student loans. Ameritech Financial assists borrowers in applying for and staying enrolled in repayment plans and forgiveness programs offered by the Department of Education. As a private company, not affiliated with the government or any loan servicer, Ameritech Financial acts as a guide and an advocate for all clients as the company assists in this process. Borrowers who enter into repayment plans like income-driven repayment often see their monthly payment reduced because the payment is based on income and family size.

While there is some good news in there, were not sure what the net impact of this new tax law on the world of tuition and student loans will be, said Knickerbocker. But what we do know is a lot of student loan borrowers need more support. Ameritech Financial can help borrowers apply for programs intended to get federal loan borrowers to a place where their payments are more affordable, and hopefully improve their financial situation.

About Ameritech Financial

Ameritech Financial is a private company located in Rohnert Park, California. Ameritech Financial has already helped thousands of consumers with financial analysis and student loan document preparation to apply for federal student loan repayment programs offered through the Department of Education.

Ameritech Financial is a member of the Association for Student Loan Relief (AFSLR), and each representative on the phone has received the Certified Student Loan Professional certification through the International Association of Professional Debt Arbitrators (IAPDA).

Ameritech Financial prides itself on its exceptional Customer Service.

Contact

To learn more about Ameritech Financial, please contact:

Ameritech Financial

5789 State Farm Drive #265

Rohnert Park, CA 94928

1-800-792-8621

customer.service(at)ameritechfinancial(dot)comBorn to Baja Ford VR Experience According to director D'Amico, "The Lumiere Award is fantastic validation for all of the hard work the Vaylian team, along with GTB and BCII, put into this project. We couldn't be prouder of how the final experience turned out, and we look forward to working with Ford and GTB again in the future."

The project, produced for Ford Motor Company by GTB, in association with BCII, was the creative vision of Vaylian - a boutique advanced digital media studio in Los Angeles - and its creative director Damien Christian D'Amico. Born to Baja: Ford Raptor Baja 1000 is an immersive VR journey through the deserts of Baja, Mexico with a Ford-backed race team as they attempt to race the new Ford Raptor in the stock division of the SCORE Baja 1000 - the world's toughest point-to-point desert race. Shot in real time over 50 non-stop hours of day and night racing, the program features incredible and unique composited imagery never before attempted in VR. A dedicated Vaylian team worked for a solid week on location in Mexico capturing the pre-race, race and post-race images using dozens of specially equipped camera packages and custom fabricated mounts.

Following the week in Mexico, the Vaylian in-house post-production and VFX teams, again directed by D'Amico, worked for three months compositing and node editing the complex imagery into one of the most immersive real-life motorsports VR experiences ever created. At the same time, D'Amico and the GTB team crafted the documentary storylines that would allow the viewer to feel like they were really there through all the drama of the Baja 1000.

In the end, Born to Baja represents the height of branded storytelling in the immersive world of composited VR. According to director D'Amico, "The Lumiere Award is fantastic validation for all of the hard work the Vaylian team, along with GTB and BCII, put into this project. We couldn't be prouder of how the final experience turned out, and we look forward to working with Ford and GTB again in the future."

About Vaylian

Vaylian Studios is an advanced digital media production company located in Los Angeles that specializes in the conceptualizing, creation and delivery of immersive 3D VR, AR, MR and VFX content across all delivery platforms, with an emphasis on branded content and experiential marketing projects. For more information about Vaylian, visit http://www.vaylian.com or contact melody@vaylian.com.

https://uploadvr.com/lumiere-awards-2018-vr-ar/Granicus

Granicus, the largest provider of cloud-based software solutions to government, today announced that it will acquire Vision Technology Solutions LLC, the premiere provider of website solutions for government organizations in the U.S. and Canada.

With the acquisition of Vision, Granicus is accelerating its mission to power seamless digital citizen experiences by bringing the first end-to-end digital government platform to market. The combination of Visions website solutions with Granicus cloud-based communication and legislative management solutions will enable governments to serve their citizens simply and effectively with a single integrated provider.

The combined company aims to address the digital customer experience gap that exists between the private and public sector.

Customers have come to expect a fast, seamless experience when interacting with businesses across private industry, said Granicus CEO Mark Hynes. Unfortunately, despite the best of intentions, most government agencies have been unable to keep up with rising citizen demands for access and transparency.

In fact, surveys indicate satisfaction with government services has fallen to an eight-year low. Most government organizations are critically aware of this rising dissatisfaction trend, with 73 percent of state and local government leaders indicating in a recent Deloitte survey that their digital capabilities were behind the private sector.

Our government clients are feeling considerable pressure to embrace digital technologies to share information, bring citizens closer to the legislative process and transition traditional services online. These pressures are coming both from the communities they serve, as well as the desire to deliver more impactful services with constrained budgets. said Hynes. By combining Vision with Granicus we are one step closer to providing government organizations with a comprehensive platform that delivers on the promises of a digital future - satisfying the rising digital experience expectations of citizens, while providing those services more cost efficiently.

Visions flagship product, visionLive, is a subscription-based content management system (CMS) and service plan that equips organizations with the technology, support, training and insights to keep websites relevant and effective. Together, Granicus and Vision serve nearly 3,500 organizations in the U.S., U.K. and Canada.

Millions of Americans interact with government agencies every day  whether they are looking to weigh in on legislation or virtually participate in local council meetings, they are most likely starting this interaction online. said Vision CEO David Nachman. By bringing Granicus and Vision together, we will help our clients better serve and engage todays mobile and connected citizens in ways that are more impactful and more easily delivered.

About Granicus

Granicus provides technology that empowers government organizations to create better lives for the people they serve. By offering the industrys leading cloud-based solutions for communications, meeting and agenda management, and digital services to more than 3,000 public sector organizations, Granicus helps turn government missions into quantifiable realities. Granicus products connect more than 150 million people, creating a powerful network to enhance government transparency and citizen engagement. By optimizing decision-making processes, Granicus strives to help government realize better outcomes and have a greater impact for the citizens they serve.

For more information on Granicus, visit:



About Vision

Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., Vision is a national leader in government website design, development and hosting with more than 800 government, non-profit and education clients in U.S. and Canadian communities with populations that range from less than 1,000 residents to more than 1 million. For more than 20 years, Vision has created cost-effective solutions that increase government efficiency, build transparency and promote interactive communications with citizens.As a modern dentist focused on prevention whenever possible, Dr. David McIntyre encourages his community to learn more about how they can take control of their dental health and wellness. Specifically, he wants to bring more awareness about gum disease in Buda, Texas, and the surrounding area in an effort to reduce the negative effects of unmanaged, untreated bacterial infections.

The American Academy of Periodontology estimates that roughly half the population of the United States has gum disease. Gum disease occurs when bacteria breeds between the teeth and gums in the periodontal pockets. If left untreated, the bacteria will destroy healthy gums, teeth, and bone, eventually leading to tooth loss.

Research shows that gum disease also affects more than the mouth. Because the bacteria can spread throughout the body, causing inflammation and reducing the bodys natural ability to fight diseases, persons with untreated gum disease may be at higher risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

The key to gum disease treatment and management is early detection and immediate attention, followed by regular periodontal cleaning appointments. When discovered in its earliest stage, gingivitis, which typically causes bleeding gums, red and swollen gums, tender gums, and chronic bad breath, gum disease is curable. In its later stages, moderate and advanced periodontitis, gum disease can be managed with routine periodontal maintenance to avoid further spread of the disease.

Dr. McIntyre uses advanced methods to comfortably, safely, and effectively treat gum disease in Buda, Texas, patients at his state-of-the-art practice located in Kyle, Texas. He invites anyone experiencing bleeding gums and other gum disease symptoms to make an appointment at Clear Springs Family Dentistry by calling 512-268-4011.

About the Doctor:

Clear Springs Family Dentistry is a general dental practice offering personalized dental care to patients in Kyle, Texas. Dr. David McIntyre is a dentist who values building relationships with each of his patients to truly understand their unique needs and help them reach the healthy smile they deserve. Dr. McIntyre offers a wide variety of services including dental implants, cosmetic dentistry, periodontal treatments, dental crowns and pediatric dentistry. To learn more about Dr. McIntyre or the services he offers, please visit http://www.clearspringsdentistry.com or call 512-268-4011 to schedule an appointment.Drs. Hal H. and Adam S. Kimowitz encourage patients in Randolph, NJ with bleeding gums and other symptoms of gum disease to experience minimally invasive laser gum surgery, with or without a referral. Patients with gum disease in Randolph, NJ, and surrounding areas, including Morristown, Boonton, and the greater Morris County, can now receive gum disease treatment without invasive scalpels and sutures associated with traditional osseous surgery.

Gum disease is a progressive condition that begins with the reversible stage of gingivitis, characterized by tender, bleeding gums. If the disease is left untreated and progresses past this stage, gums become increasingly inflamed and infected. In the most severe stage, advanced periodontitis, gums and bone structure are critically damaged, teeth may become loose and even fall out. Ongoing research on advanced gum disease shows there may be a link between the disease and systemic health complications, including diabetes, heart disease and the risk of stroke. Patients showing signs of gum disease can benefit from a safe and effective treatment optionlaser gum surgery.

Laser gum surgery is a minimally invasive technique that can gently and effectively treat moderate to severe gum disease. The laser is used to access the infected areas around the roots of the teeth, selectively targeting areas of bacteria and diseased tissue, without harming surrounding healthy tissue. Once all disease has been effectively removed, the teeth roots are cleaned and smoothed to allow for healthy reattachment of the gum tissue. The laser is then used to form blood clots that will also encourage a faster and healthier recovery.

Unlike traditional osseous surgery involving incisions, scalpels, and sutures, laser gum therapy uses only a single ray of laser light to eliminate areas affected by gum disease. Without the need to cut flaps in the gum tissue to reach the diseased areas, laser surgery promotes a quicker healing time for patients. Laser gum surgery is beneficial for many reasons, including:



Minimally invasive

Improved patient comfort

Minimizes pain and bleeding gums

Shorter recovery time

Patients who have bleeding gums or other symptoms of gum disease in Randolph, NJ, may benefit from gentle laser gum surgery. New patients from Morristown, Boonton, and the greater Morris County are invited to experience laser dentistry from Drs. Kimowitz. Appointments can be scheduled by calling 973-627-3363 or visiting http://www.denvilledentist.com.

About the Practice

Denville Dentist is a general and cosmetic dental practice offering personalized dental care to patients in Denville, New Jersey. Denville Dentist upholds a philosophy of providing leading preventative care to ensure patients reach and maintain proper oral health. Dr. Hal H. Kimowitz is a Fellow and Diplomate in the International Congress of Oral Implantology, Diplomate in the American Society of Osseointegration, Fellow in the Academy of General Dentistry, graduate of the Misch Institute of Implant Dentistry and member of numerous professional organizations. Dr. Adam S. Kimowitz is a graduate, Alumni President elect and lecturer at the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine and founder and president of the Grassroots Dental Study Club. He is also a credentialed Fellow of the International College of Oral Implantologists and a credentialed Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Implant Dentistry. Drs. Kimowitz offer the latest techniques in a variety of services including implant, cosmetic, and laser dentistry. To learn more about Denville Dentist, Drs. Kimowitz or the services they offer, visit http://www.denvilledentist.com or call 973-627-3363 to schedule an appointment."With such a challenging hurricane season, this past year presented an opportunity for our employees to work together and make a positive impact within the communities Crowley serves. We are extremely proud of these efforts, which have helped these communities get back on their feet.

Crowley Maritime Corp. has been honored once again as one of 904 Magazines Companies with Heart in recognition of its employees philanthropic contributions to the local community and hurricane victims in Puerto Rico and elsewhere in 2017. Later this month, Jacksonville Magazine, the publisher of 904 Magazine, will present the award to Crowley during an upcoming Companies with Heart luncheon. Each year, this event recognizes local organizations that demonstrate charitable outreach efforts in the community. 904 Magazine previously honored Crowley with this award in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017.

"With such a challenging hurricane season in 2017, this past year presented significant opportunity for our employees to work together and make a positive impact within the communities Crowley serves," said Crowleys David Holden, director, human resources. "Through our Crowley Cares program, the entire Crowley organization, including employees located in Jacksonville, came together to collect supplies and funds for those impacted by hurricanes in Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, Texas and South Florida. We are extremely proud of these efforts, which have helped these communities get back on their feet.

Following this years Hurricanes Maria, Irma and Harvey, Crowley employees utilized the Crowley Cares program to donate more than $652,000 worth of supplies  including food, fuel, water, generators and more  for the areas hardest hit. Employees in Jacksonville and South Florida filled four shipping containers with 180,000 pounds of aid for Puerto Rico and St. Thomas. Additionally, the Crowley Cares Foundation matched $9,000 in employee donations, providing a total of $18,000 in financial support to non-profits offering relief.

Each year, Crowley employees give back to their local communities across the U.S. and throughout the Caribbean and Central America. These charitable efforts include mentoring students, fundraising, community beautification projects, and donations to charitable organizations.

"Our company takes pride in making a difference in the Jacksonville community," said Holden. "Our employees have served the local area through a variety of philanthropic organizations, including volunteering for the Safe Harbor Maritime Academy, Second Harvest Food Bank, Heart for Children, Northeast Florida Hospice and so many more. This spirit of giving back has made a tremendous impact in Northeast Florida and beyond."

Crowley and other award winners will be recognized at the magazines Feb. 27 luncheon. Proceeds of the event will benefit the Junior League of Jacksonville, which has a mission of promoting voluntarism in the community.

# # #

About Crowley

Jacksonville-based Crowley Holdings Inc., a holding company of the 126-year-old Crowley Maritime Corporation, is a privately held family and employee-owned company that provides marine solutions, energy and logistics services in domestic and international markets. Six operating lines of business provide logistics and supply chain management, including liner container shipping; government services; contract marine towing and transportation; ship assist and tanker escort; offshore engineering and upstream project support; deep sea petroleum and chemical transportation; liquefied natural gas (LNG) transportation, distribution, engineering and consulting services; Alaska fuel sales and distribution; vessel management; vessel construction and naval architecture through its Jensen Maritime subsidiary, and salvage and emergency response through its 50 percent ownership in Ardent Global. Additional information about Crowley, its subsidiaries and business units may be found at http://www.crowley.com.100% native Salesforce application, which leverages new innovative technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), social, mobile and more

TargetRecruit, a leading provider of workforce management and applicant tracking systems for the global staffing industry, is exhibiting at The Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) Executive Forum North America at booth #409, held in Miami, FL from Feb. 26 - March 1, 2018.

TargetRecruit will be showcasing its Workforce Management System (WMS). The solution is already helping many companies save money, improve compliance, reduce manual & repetitive tasks and assisting in finding the best talent available.

The need for temporary and contingent labor continues to grow for companies of all sizes. However, many companies, especially mid-size, are challenged to identify a system tailored to their day-to-day talent needs. Most solutions available in the market are built for large enterprises and are complex and expensive.

TargetRecruit WMS is built on the cloud industry leading Salesforce platform, allowing organizations to streamline the processes associated with the procurement and management of the entire human capital supply chain, with low cost-to-hire.

Key features of TargetRecruit WMS include:



100% native Salesforce application, which leverages new innovative technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), social, mobile and more (supported by the Salesforce platform)

Supports supplier management as well as multi-client/department requisition management

Job publishing, automated resume parsing, and matching

Talent pooling and automated communications

Candidate profile management, onboarding and credentials management

Worker time tracking, expense tracking, scheduling, invoicing and vendor payments

Business intelligence and data analytics

In addition to the WMS solution, TargetRecruit is also introducing its Mom Relaunch initiative, which also showcased at the SIA Healthcare Staffing Summit last year. Mom Relaunch is a one-stop solution for moms to have a fulfilling and sustainable career in the HR and IT industry.

Reena Gupta, TargetRecruit CEO, commenting on this years participation, said, We are a regular at SIA Executive Forum and every year there is something new to look forward to. We have many staffing companies as our customers, and we are excited to showcase our new solution for contingent labor. We will also be talking about our new powerful initiative, Mom Relaunch, which helps moms get back to the workforce and enables companies to leverage this talent pool and meet their diversity goals.

About TargetRecruit:

TargetRecruit is an innovative talent management platform with an ecosystem of customizable apps  giving your business operations just what they need to be efficient. Built on the Salesforce platform, TargetRecruit modernizes the workforce management and recruiting cycle from the front to back office. TargetRecruit is listed in the Inc. 5000 and Gartners Critical Capabilities Report and Market Guide for Service Procurement Solutions.

TargetRecruit strives to build a stronger society by strengthening moms via Mom Relaunch - an initiative with a mission to bring moms back to the workforce - specializing in HR & IT.

For more details visit http://www.targetrecruit.net

About Staffing Industry Analysts Executive Forum:

The Staffing Industry Analysts Executive Forum is a leading annual conference for CEOs, owners, and senior level executives from all sectors and segments of the staffing industry. Typically comprised of over 55% CEOs/owners and 90% VPs and above, the Executive Forum provides access to the top industry thinkers, leaders, and innovators with a focus on the staffing industrys strategic issues, developing trends, future opportunities, current challenges, and an unparalleled opportunity for informal, peer networking in the industry.

For more on The Staffing Industry Analyst, visit http://www.staffingindustry.com/The Kitware office in Arlington, Virginia, has approximately 3,400 square feet. The office is on the block adjacent to the Ballston-MU metro station. We strategically selected this location to make it easy to collaborate with our customers.

Kitware, a software research, development and consulting company, signed a lease to open an office in Arlington, Virginia. The lease begins today at 4100 North Fairfax Drive. The destination places Kitware one-tenth of a mile from the Ballston-MU metro station.

We strategically selected this location to make it easy to collaborate with our customers, said Matt Turek, the director of computer vision at Kitware. We work a lot with government customers in the area, and with our new office, we will be able to have more regular in-person meetings.

Turek will manage the Arlington office with Michael Grauer, a technical leader on the data and analytics team at Kitware.

In addition to our government customers, our office in the heart of Arlington will help us work with nearby commercial companies, Grauer said. We will pursue projects that need software process improvements and projects in computer vision, medical computing, data and analytics, continuous software integration and cloud computing.

Grauer and Turek have worked at Kitware for a combined 17 years. Grauer originally joined the team in Carrboro, North Carolina, and Turek started at the company headquarters. Last month, Kitware published a press release on the move of its headquarters to a brand-new building in Clifton Park, New York. As a result of the move, Kitware will gain over 15,000 square feet.

While Kitware aims to hire new team members in all of its offices in 2018, it urgently seeks to hire a senior C2S developer in Arlington. To learn more about working at Kitware, please visit https://jobs.kitware.com/. To visit the new office in Arlington, please contact the company.

About Kitware

Kitware is an advanced technology, research and open-source solutions provider for research facilities, government institutions and corporations worldwide. Founded in 1998, Kitware specializes in research and development in the areas of HPC and visualization, medical imaging, computer vision, data and analytics and quality software process. Among its services, Kitware offers consulting and support for high-quality software solutions. Kitware is headquartered in Clifton Park, NY, with offices in Carrboro, NC; Santa Fe, NM; Arlington, VA; and Lyon, France. More information can be found on kitware.com.Kent Wellish, M.D. "Offering up our facility is the least our practice can do to ensure that these children are receiving the eye care that they need.

Wellish Vision Institute is partnering up with Sailing4Sight, which is a 501 C 3 public charity, to provide free eye exams and free eyeglasses to homeless and less fortunate school-aged children who live in Las Vegas and the surrounding areas. The occasion will take place at 2110 East Flamingo Road in Las Vegas, Nevada 89119. Wellishs own board-certified doctors and additional referred doctors will provide care for the event.

Dr. Kent Wellish will be the lead director and doctor of the charity event, and will work alongside select doctors, volunteers, and staff to provide these exams for qualifying children. Children should be referred to Sailing4Sight by their school nurse or parents can contact the charity directly, if necessary. Wellish Vision Institute is known for being a premier LASIK and cataract center, in addition to providing cutting-edge eye care services to Las Vegas residents.

The doctors and staff at Wellish Vision Institute are passionate about philanthropic events, and they are devoted to helping those in need that may not have the availability to see an eye doctor for their vision needs. Real care for real people is a motto of Wellish Vision Institute, and Dr. Wellish says he plans to deliver on his practices ideology. "Offering up our facility is the least our practice can do to ensure that these children are receiving the eye care that they need, said Dr. Kent Wellish. Dr. Wellish was the first laser vision surgeon in Nevada, and he has been voted a Top Doc in Las Vegas, as well as the number one choice for all-laser LASIK, according to a poll of his peers.

About Wellish Vision Institute:

Since 1994, Wellish Vision Institute has been at the forefront of ophthalmology. With a diverse staff of highly trained and experienced professionals in all areas of eye care, and a commitment to deliver top-notch, individualized treatment, Wellish Vision Institute providers are confident that no matter what the vision needs are, they can help. Their services include: LASIK, refractive, and cataract procedures, corneal transplants, collagen cross-linking, and ICL implants.

You can schedule an appointment by visiting http://www.wellishvision.com or by calling 702-733-2020.Acumatica US Partner of the Year

Crestwood Associates LLC, a leading ERP and CRM partner has once again been named the Acumatica US Partner of the Year. In addition to that honor, Crestwood racked up four additional awards at the Acumatica Summit, including two Most Valuable Professional awards, Marketing Evangelist of the Year, and Cloud Adoption Partner of the Year.

Brian McGuckin, partner at Crestwood offered, We were surprised and honored to receive so many acknowledgements at the 2018 Acumatica Summit. We are thrilled with the recognition from Acumatica, and want to give credit where credit is due, to our amazing Acumatica marketing, sales and delivery teams. Without their efforts, we wouldnt be here.

The awards were announced at the 10th annual Acumatica Summit held in Nashville, Tennessee, in January 2018.

The Partner of the Year Award is given to the partner who outshines all others in driving Acumatica growth and innovation along with demonstrated technical expertise.

This year, we are honored to recognize the expertise and commitment from Crestwood Associates and name them as our top partner in the US for the second year in a row, Jon Roskill, CEO Acumatica.

Additionally, two of Crestwoods employees earned the prestigious Acumatica MVP Award. Mike Aichinger and Jeff Williams, both Senior Acumatica Consultants at Crestwood Associates, were recognized as leaders in the industry. The Acumatica MVP award honors people in the Acumatica community who share their expertise, knowledge and dedication to the platform and product.

Our very own Director of Marketing, Donna Krizik Parsons, took home the Marketing Evangelist of the Year award. This brand new award category recognizes contributions and support of the Acumatica community through marketing leadership efforts.

Read more about these awards, and see pictures from Acumatica Summit 2018.

About Crestwood Associates

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Mount Prospect, Illinois, Crestwood Associates is a founding Acumatica partner, Acumatica US Partner of the Year (2016 & 2017), a Gold Certified Microsoft Dynamics Partner and 10-time Presidents Club Award winner and Inner Circle Award winner. Crestwood delivers a variety of business solutions, including: Acumatica Cloud ERP, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL, Microsoft Dynamics CRM (now called Dynamics 365), and Greentree applications. From accounting and financial reporting, to CRM, manufacturing, distribution, payroll and human resources, Crestwood Associates provides the tools and quality services that help businesses perform above and beyond the competition. The Crestwood team is comprised of over 45 certified professionals who provide in-depth industry experience and functional expertise.

About Acumatica

Acumatica is a leading provider of cloud business management software that empowers small and mid-size businesses to unlock their potential and drive growth. Built on the worlds best cloud and mobile technology and a unique customer-centric licensing model, Acumatica delivers a suite of fully integrated business management applications such as Financials, Distribution, CRM and Project Accounting, powered by a robust and flexible platform.The Maine Department of Education (Department) will begin using a universal reading metric called The Lexile Framework for Reading to help Maine school districts monitor student growth and progress.

The Lexile Framework, which aligns with Maines State eMPowerME Assessments administered to grades 3 through 8 (among many other nationally used assessments), will allow districts to benchmark reading growth and assist with a comparison of data across commercial assessments.

The framework will provide all schools in Maine with an additional resource to enhance classroom instruction, said Maine Department of Education Commissioner Robert G. Hasson, Jr. It will also help schools in their efforts to support families working at home with their children.

The Lexile Framework was created by MetaMetrics and provides a scientific approach to measuring growth and matching students to ability-appropriate learning materials. The Lexile Framework involves a scale for measuring both the reading ability of an individual and the text complexity of materials he or she encounters.

Content specialists at the Maine Department of Education, in collaboration with MetaMetrics, are beginning to prepare professional development opportunities that align with Lexile Framework data to help districts make instruction improvements based on student need.

The new resource is available through funds from Title I grant money from the U.S. Department of Education and administered by Maines Department staff, with ongoing professional learning opportunities to support statewide implementation.

Set to become available late spring/early summer, districts will be able to start using the new resource to monitor growth beginning in the 2018/19 school year, both within a single school year and from year-to-year going forward.

About MetaMetrics

MetaMetrics is focused on improving education for learners of all ages and ability levels. The organization develops scientific measures of academic achievement and complementary technologies that link assessment results with real-world instruction. MetaMetrics' products and services for reading (The Lexile Framework for Reading, El Sistema Lexile para Leer), mathematics (The Quantile Framework for Mathematics) and writing (The Lexile Framework for Writing) provide unique insights about academic ability and the potential for growth, enabling individuals to achieve their goals at every stage of development. Connect with the organization at: metametricsinc.com/blog.The president of Brennan & Clark, LLC is proud to announce that his son is competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics being held in PyeongChang, South Korea. Brennan & Clark congratulates Casey Larson, 19, for making it onto the U.S.A. Nordic Ski Jumping Team.

This is Larsons first time representing the United States of America in the Olympic Winter Games.

Larson had his first experience with ski jumping while at a Norge Ski Club open house event taking place a few minutes from his home. He embraced the sport right away and started to travel to competitions across the country. In 2014, Larson ended up finishing in the top 10 at the U.S. Nationals, thus earning him a coveted spot on the nations Olympic ski jumping team.

Larson experienced European competition for the first time in Summer 2015 when taking part in the FIS Cup in Switzerland. That winter, he ended up setting a brand-new hill record in an early snow competition in Colorado: a record of 150 meters in the Steamboat Springs K90 event. From there, he continued to display strong performance in other competitions and is expected to make even more of a name for himself during the current Olympic season.Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for prescription opioid, heroin and alcohol addiction has helped countless people in their battle to overcome the disease of substance abuse. While there remains some controversy over these types of programs, for an addict, it is the most viable choice compared to the alternative: further decay and fatality. While many people still need help with their addiction, few find their way into treatment due to insurance, access issues or cost restraints. To effectively get through the initial detox process, an inpatient residential stay is recommended but with it can come a higher price tag for the care.

For opioid and alcohol treatments, the hardship on the body and the mind can be brutal. Without MAT as part of the process, the rate of relapse is disparaging. To provide an easier detox and recovery experience and enhance the success rate of recovery, the option of long-term MAT is vital.

Chris Cohn, founder and president of Scottsdale Recovery Center (SRC) knows this well, which is why he made it a mission to integrate within his longstanding intensive outpatient (IOP) facility the ability to provide MAT as a preferred option for care.

Ive seen it happen over and over again, Cohn said. People either cant afford a higher level of care or they dont have the proper insurance policy. A 30-day program usually doesnt cut it, for opioids theres an 80 percent rate of relapse. Many insurance companies wont help, limiting people to outpatient programs only. By adding MAT to our outpatient program, its a winning solution, he stated with confidence.

With the addition of MAT, patients in SRCs outpatient program receive the same exemplary level of care as patients in the residential inpatient facility but in a platform allowing a more

seamless integration into their day-to-day lives while recovering from addiction. People can undergo 90 days or more of addiction recovery and maintain a work-life balance in the process.

MAT is considered an evidence-based practice published as a treatment improvement protocol (TIP No. 43) by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. MAT is geared to patients with long-term drug abuse or alcoholism who need to be tapered off those substances by introducing another substance, referred to as a harm reduction model. However, the ultimate goal is for each patient to live drug-free. For some people, the recovery process requires a buffer that lessens the intensity of the withdrawal process. MAT is just that.

The types of MAT that will be available at SRC IOP are:



Naltrexone  pill form, for opioid or alcohol addiction

Naltrexone Implant  lasts for many months, opioid addiction

Vivitrol  injection or implant, for opioid addiction

Suboxone /Buprenorphine - for heroin addiction

The painful withdrawal process can last for weeks, months or years, known as post-acute withdrawal syndrome (PAWS). When an unforeseen incidence of PAWS occurs, it can drive some patients into relapse. MAT helps reduce the impact of PAWS keeping patients on a steady road to recovery.

To provide MAT outpatient treatment, SRC employs trusted, accredited, licensed and compassionate practitioners. These include a medical director, psychiatric nurse, registered nurse and practical nurse available to monitor each patient as they receive the medication on site, how they respond and careful management of their overall health.

Program Director for SRC, David Larimer, M.Ed, CADC is passionate about the IOP MAT program and wants patients and their families to understand the big picture on what it takes to make it work.

MAT can improve recovery in conjunction with dramatic lifestyle changes, not just through the use of MAT alone. It is critical for family members to understand how to help the treatment process, Larimer said. Family members must educate and involve themselves in the treatment process by understanding the triggers and warning signs for addiction relapse. Without it, the potential for enabling a recurrence of addiction is magnified. The patient needs time to heal but the family needs to heal as well.

Scottsdale Recovery Center, through its IOP MAT Program, can provide a more sustainable and flexible approach to drug and alcohol treatment and recovery by offering Level 2-WM ambulatory withdrawal management with extended on-site monitoring, the highest outpatient level of care available determined by the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

About Scottsdale Recovery Center:

Since 2008, Scottsdale Recovery Center has served the needs of people nationwide searching for a successful solution to remove active alcohol, opioid, cocaine and other addictions in order to enjoy the benefits of living drug-free. With three facilities in Scottsdale and Phoenix, Arizona SRC continues to reset the standard of Inpatient Residential, Detox Services, Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP) Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP) and Sober Living practices. Scottsdale Recovery Center is a trusted resource, locally and nationally, to the public, health care providers, and media outlets seeking knowledge to support their investigations and bring addiction industry awareness needed to save lives. Visit Scottsdale Recovery Center or call 1-888-NODRUGS for more information.

Note: Information herein is NOT intended to be taken as medical advice. No therapeutic or medical claims are either implied or made. Before starting any addiction detox, treatment or recovery program please consult with a health care professional. DO NOT ALTER ANY MEDICAL TREATMENT, OR THE USE OF MEDICATIONS, WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF A LICENSED, MEDICAL CARE PROVIDER. The information herein is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.Number One On The List's purpose is to improve search engine results, increase search engine ranking. Everyone looks for everything on the Internet, usually on a phone.

Number One On The List's purpose at the outset was to run Internet pilot programs for companies to determine if there was an opportunity to do business on the Internet. If there was a successful outcome to the pilot program, then Number One On The List would build a company website for the client.

21 years later, Number One On The List continues to build websites but the emphasis is on Internet marketing solutions - SEO help, blogging, social media, listings like Google My Business, reviews and proven best practices to improve search engine ranking for clients.

Tom Jacoby of Number One On The List said "Everyone looks for everything on the Internet, usually on a phone."

Number One On The List usually does business in this way:



Client has a marketing problem, Number One On The List has Internet solutions.

Number One On The List looks at search engine rankings first and then at the client's web presence (website, blog, social)

Number One On The List discusses the above with the client and offers a proposal to improve search engine rankings

Client accepts some or all of the proposal

Number One On The List then delivers what was promised in the agreed proposal

"In the early days, I was constantly explaining what search engine optimiization is," said Tom Jacoby. "Now I ask about what actions a company has in place so that Number One On The List backs up and forwards that company's ongoing SEO efforts."

Emanation, Inc - NumberOneOnTheList.com operates on the proposition that websites, SEO, and internet marketing tasks should not be additional jobs for an executive in a business. The executive should do the functions in his or her area of expertise as this is what pays the rent and puts food on the table. By using an established and reputable company such as Number One On The List, a business' internet marketing and promotion costs are more than made up by the increase in business.

"I'm proud to point out that we incorporated on 11 February 1997," observed Tom Jacoby. "By contrast, Google was incorporated on 4 September 1998."

ABOUT NUMBER ONE ON THE LIST Number One On The List creates professional websites on the Wordpress platform, optimized press releases with massive distribution for maximum SEO benefit, sound social media strategies, directory listings, optimized YouTube videos and other Internet marketing solutions. Number One On The List is a famly owned business and celebrated 21 years of internet business on 11 February.

Number One On The List's purpose is to improve search engine results, increase search engine ranking.

Tom Jacoby

Number One On The List

Douglaston, NY 11362

Tel: 917-338-9586

Fax: 917-210-0142

https://numberoneonthelist.com

https://www.facebook.com/NumberOneOnTheList

https://twitter.com/mrtomjacoby

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomjacoby/

https://youtu.be/E8zvhmhln8IBest of Staffing Awards Top 2% of Recruiting Firms Nationwide Best of Staffing winners prove they can provide consistently remarkable service to their clients and job candidates.

The Medicus Firm, a leading national healthcare recruiting firm in specializing in permanent placement of physicians and advanced practitioners, announced today that they have won Inaveros Best of Staffing Client Award for providing superior service to their clients. Presented in partnership with CareerBuilder, Inaveros Best of Staffing Client winners have proven to be industry leaders in service quality based entirely on ratings provided by their clients. On average, clients of winning agencies are 2.3 times more likely to be completely satisfied with the services provided compared to those working with non-winning agencies.

Focused on helping hospitals and healthcare employers across the US find the best clinicians for their job openings, The Medicus Firm earned a spot on the Best of Staffing list by receiving client satisfaction scores of 9 or 10 out of 10 from a significantly higher percentage of clients than the industrys average. Less than 2% of all staffing agencies in the U.S. and Canada have earned the Best of Staffing Award for service excellence.

Our entire company works tirelessly to ensure the highest level of customer service and optimal results for our valued healthcare clients. It is particularly rewarding that in recent reviews, clients repeatedly referenced our ongoing innovation in all stages of the recruitment process, including candidate sourcing strategies and reporting capabilities. These advancements provide greater transparency for all parties involved regarding search progress, candidate experience, and practice opportunity details, via our EPiC candidate overview platform," states Jim Stone, President of The Medicus Firm. "We are extremely proud and honored to be recognized among Best in Staffing for the sixth year in the past eight years of participating in this program." This is the firms third consecutive year as a Best of Staffing winner.

"With a tight labor market and growing economy, finding the right recruiting partners is critical to success, said Inaveros CEO Eric Gregg. Best of Staffing winners prove they can provide consistently remarkable service to their clients and job candidates, and I couldnt be more proud to feature them on BestofStaffing.com.

About The Medicus Firm: The Medicus Firm, established in 2001, provides award-winning, peer-reviewed physician search services to hospitals and healthcare employers across the country. Based in Dallas, TX, the firm also has offices in Boston, MA, and Atlanta GA. The Medicus Firm specializes in permanent placement of physicians and advanced practitioners in all specialties and types of communities nationwide, in a variety of practice settings including hospitals, medical groups, community health centers, national and regional health systems, and academic medical centers. The Medicus Firms Physician Leadership Division provides physician executive search services. In 2016, The Medicus Firm became a subsidiary of M3 USA, which is part of a global healthcare community of more than 4 million physicians worldwide. Learn more at http://www.TheMedicusFirm.com.

About Inavero: The Inavero team administers more staffing agency client and talent satisfaction surveys than any other firm in the world, reporting on more than 1.2 million satisfaction surveys from staffing agency clients and job seekers each year. Committed to delivering ongoing value to the industry, Inavero is proud to serve as the American Staffing Associations exclusive service quality partner.

About Best of Staffing: Inaveros Best of Staffing Award is the only award in the U.S. and Canada that recognizes staffing agencies that have proven superior service quality based entirely on ratings provided by their clients and job candidates. Award winners are showcased by city and area of expertise on BestofStaffing.com  an online resource for hiring professionals and job seekers to find the best staffing agencies to call when they are in need.Colonial Nursing & Rehabilitation, a StoneGate Senior Living skilled nursing care and rehabilitative facility, announces a new in-network insurance provider agreement with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas.

STONEGATE SENIOR LIVING EXPANDS HEALTH INSURANCE OPTIONS FOR TEXAS CONSUMERS WITH BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD AGREEMENT

Lindale, Texas Colonial Nursing & Rehabilitation now offers Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance Option

In a move that increases health care insurance options while delivering an opportunity for lower costs for consumers, StoneGate Senior Living, LLC, an award-winning full spectrum senior care and housing facility, announces a new in-network insurance provider agreement with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas for Colonial Nursing & Rehabilitation.

Colonial Nursing & Rehabilitation is a skilled nursing care, rehabilitative facility and long-term living center providing comfort, care and exceptional amenities. Effective immediately, the Blue Shield Blue Cross agreement joins existing contracts with other Commercial Insurance, Medicare Advantage and the Health Insurance Marketplace plans.

The patients and residents of Colonial Nursing & Rehabilitation are our top priority, and our commitment is to deliver care, housing and rehabilitation that is exceptional in quality, says Susan Fitts, StoneGate Senior Living Development Director, Colonial Nursing & Rehabilitation. Having the ability to offer the reduced costs and flexibility of the Blue Shield Blue Cross contract to our patients insurance options reinforces this commitment to providing compassionate, cost-effective care.

The new in-network insurance provider agreements with Blue Cross Blue Shield for Colonial Nursing & Rehabilitation will allow for individuals with a commercial health insurance or Medicare plan to admit to Colonial with lower co-pays, deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses.

For more information, visit: http://coloniallindale.com/.

About Colonial Nursing & Rehabilitation:

Colonial Nursing & Rehabilitation has been serving the community of Lindale, Texas, since 1986. The 90-bed facility offers in-patient transitional care, outpatient rehabilitation and long-term living options. The facility offers a Rapid Recovery Rehabilitation for those needing skilled nursing and rehabilitation before returning home. Colonial also offers a program through Arkray USA, offering proactive personal diabetes and overall health management. http://coloniallindale.com/.

About StoneGate Senior Living:

StoneGate Senior Living is an award-winning full-spectrum senior care and housing company with 44 properties across Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado. Recently ranked as the nations 31st largest transitional and long-term care company by Provider magazine, StoneGate is a fully-integrated post-acute health care company, with service-lines and business units that offer transitional care, long-term care, assisted living, memory care, rehabilitation, wellness, pharmacy, care navigation and post-acute analytical services.

Learn more at http://www.stonegatesl.com/.Belatrix Software with the founders and executives of some of Silicon Valleys most valuable startups As the costs of customer acquisition in the software industry rise and rise, the only way to achieve high levels of growth is to have an unrelenting focus on retaining and growing your existing customer base.

Belatrix Software, a leading software development company, met with the founders and executives of some of Silicon Valleys most valuable and high-potential software startups to share insights and best practices. Alex Robbio, President and Co-Founder of Belatrix, and Pablo Lecea, Director of the Technical Consulting Team, held meetings with the management and founders of companies, including household names such as Zendesk, Zoom and Marketo.

Investors such as Jason Green, who backed trail-blazing software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies including Salesforce, Veeva, Box, and Yammer, provided insight into the current SaaS landscape. Other participants included Aaron Levie, the CEO and Co-Founder of Box, Mikkel Zvane, Founder and CEO of Zendesk, and Armando Mann, VP of Sales and Client Success of SalesforceIQ. Eric Yuan, Founder and CEO of Zoom, also attended, speaking about Zooms decision to build a flat organizational structure, and how he continually strives to build a high-performance culture, generate sales, and maintain a relentless focus on product innovation.

The meetings were arranged by the entrepreneurial organization Endeavor. Endeavor aims to bring together high-potential startups to create ecosystems, where founders can share advice. So far Endeavor entrepreneurs have created over 700,000 jobs globally, including in the United States, and generated over $10 billion in revenue in 2016 alone. Belatrix was accepted into the Endeavor network back in 2013. Marcos Galperin, Co-Founder and CEO, of MercadoLibre, was one of the judges in the selection panel that originally selected Belatrix as a high-potential company in the Endeavor network, following in the footsteps of MercadoLibre.

During the meetings, amidst the wealth of information and advice, several key themes emerged. As Alex Robbio commented after the event, Among the discussions, the importance of customer retention was mentioned time and time again. As the costs of customer acquisition in the software industry rise and rise, the only way to achieve high levels of growth is to have an unrelenting focus on retaining and growing your existing customer base.

We also discussed the importance of building a high-performance team, and a culture which will enable the company to thrive. Building this culture requires the focus and attention of both an experienced HR executive, but also needs to be owned by everyone in the company. This is something which has been one of our top priorities since we founded Belatrix.

On behalf of Belatrix, Id like to thank Endeavor for arranging the meetings, and also for the founders and other executives for sharing their insights with us.

About Belatrix Software

Belatrix Software helps companies thrive in the digital world. Organizations partner with Belatrix to turn ideas into high quality, innovative software based on highly-tuned Agile development processes. Customers use Belatrixs digital transformation services to create best-in-class software products, lower time to market, and gain competitive edge. Belatrixs dedicated labs, focusing on UX, continuous delivery, mobile, DevOps, and QA automation, help organizations become digital leaders.

Belatrix's clients include both established Fortune level and emerging, venture backed firms. Some of the firm's clients include Disney, Adobe, AOL, PwC, Fluor, and Shutterfly. Belatrix is a South American company with offices in Florida, New York, San Francisco, Mendoza, Buenos Aires, Bogota and Lima. For more information, visit https://www.belatrixsf.com.Delta Dental believes in the power of a healthy smile and the importance of oral health to overall health and well-being

The Delta Dental of Virginia Foundation has awarded $370,500 in grants to support 40 organizations committed to improving oral health across the Commonwealth.

The grants were awarded to tax-exempt organizations whose work will improve the oral health of uninsured or under-insured Virginians through education and access to care. (Full list of grant recipients below.)

Delta Dental believes in the power of a healthy smile and the importance of oral health to overall health and well-being, said Frank Lucia, president and CEO of Delta Dental of Virginia. We are proud to partner with these wonderful organizations to improve the lives of so many Virginians.

The foundation has provided more than $4.2 million in funding to 63 organizations over the past six years. Founded in 2012 with an initial $2.5 million donation from Delta Dental of Virginia, the foundation provides grants to Virginia not-for-profit organizations with a focus on community-based safety-net programs.

Many of the grants awarded focus on key areas of need throughout Virginia  the states youth, the uninsured and medically underserved population and dental professionals in training. The foundation partners with community organizations such as the Boys & Girls Clubs to provide oral health care and education to children who lack dental insurance or who qualify for Medicaid or Family Access to Medical Insurance Security (FAMIS).

Organizations eligible to receive grants from the Delta Dental of Virginia Foundation include governmental agencies or educational institutions, entities holding a 501(c)(3) tax-exemption, or organizations with a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt fiscal sponsor. Information regarding grant eligibility and application can be found online at http://deltadentalva.com/ddvafoundation.aspx.

Here is a list of grant recipients:

Arlington Free Clinic: $5,000 for dental equipment.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Southwest Virginia, Roanoke: $5,000 for Smart Smiles At the Dentist Program.

Boys & Girls Clubs of The Virginia Peninsula, Newport News: $5,000 for Smart Smiles At the Dentist Program.

Bradley Free Clinic, Roanoke: $20,000 for support of VCU dental students/ Access to Dental Days.

Central Virginia Health Services, Inc., New Canton: $7,500 for dental equipment.

CHIP of Roanoke Valley: $5,000 for fluoride varnish application/in-home dental education.

Charlottesville Free Clinic: $5,000 for dental supplies.

Christian Free Clinic of Botetourt: $2,000 for dental equipment.

Dr. Richard F. Clark Help Clinics, Hampton: $5,000 for a dental assistant.

Community Youth Program at St. Johns, Inc., Roanoke: $4,000 for oral hygiene education, dental appointments and transportation.

Craig County Rural Health Care Corporation, New Castle: $10,000 for school-based oral health services.

CrossOver Healthcare Ministry, Richmond: $5,000 for salary support and supplies.

Danville-Pittsylvania Community Services: $3,000 for preventive dental exams.

Eastern Shore Rural Health System, Inc., Onancock: $15,000 for dental chair for wheelchair patients.

Fauquier Free Clinic, Warrenton: $4,000 for dental equipment.

The Fenwick Foundation, Arlington: $5,000 for dental care for long-term care residents.

Goochland Free Clinic and Family Services: $5,000 for expansion of dental hygiene services.

Hanover Interfaith Free Clinic: $7,500 for pay dental lab for dentures.

Healing Hands Health Center, Bristol: $10,000 to continue dental program.

Health Focus of Southwest Virginia, Roanoke: $5,000 for dental education scholarships.

Isle of Wight Christian Outreach Program: $5,000 to increase number of patients served.

Lackey Free Clinic, Yorktown: $10,000 to support part-time dentist.

Lloyd F. Moss Free Clinic, Fredericksburg: $5,000 for dental supplies.

Lucy Corr Foundation, Chesterfield: $10,000 to expand dental care to seniors.

Mel Leaman Free Clinic, Marion: $5,000 for dental equipment and supplies.

New Horizons Healthcare, Roanoke: $5,000 for training for community dental health coordinator.

Northern Neck-Middlesex Free Health Clinic, Kilmarnock: $7,500 in support of VCU dental students.

Northern Virginia Dental Clinic, Inc.: $5,000 for dental supplies.

Olde Towne Medical & Dental Center, Williamsburg: $5,000 for dental equipment and supplies.

Park Place Dental Clinic, Norfolk: $5,000 for operational expenses to keep clinic open

Piedmont Regional Dental Clinic, Orange: $5,000 in support of "Smile Time and dental exams in school.

Piedmont Virginia Dental Health Foundation, Martinsville: $10,000 for support of dental clinic providing services to low-income adults and children.

Prince William Area Free Clinic, Woodbridge: $7,500 to provide dental screenings and referrals.

RAM of Virginia, Wise: $10,000 in free dental services to those in need.

Virginia Dental Association Foundation, Richmond: $15,000 for dental equipment/repairs and supplies.

Virginia Health Care Foundation, Richmond: $45,000 to pay for a Dental Opportunities Champion position

Virginia Oral Health Coalition, Glen Allen: $7,500 for online toolkits for medical and dental providers on the importance of oral health care during pregnancy.

Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Roanoke: $50,000 for a two-year pilot program integrating oral healthcare exams and fluoride varnishing for children into family medicine and pediatric practices.

Virginia Western Community College Education Foundation, Roanoke: $20,000 to strengthen dental hygiene program.

Western Tidewater Free Clinic, Suffolk: $5,000 for dental supplies.

About Delta Dental of Virginia Foundation

Delta Dental of Virginia Foundation was founded by Delta Dental of Virginia to help improve the oral health and, subsequently, overall body health of the people of the Commonwealth. The foundation focuses its support on initiatives that improve oral health with sustainable solutions through improved access to oral care, oral health education or oral health research. For more information, visit http://www.deltadentalva.com/ddvafoundation.aspx.Its hard to ignore the rapid growth of resale communities recently, particularly those centered around certain kids brands. This is where brands can find their most loyal consumers who are introducing other moms to their products.

Kidizen, the destination for moms to buy and resell kids fashion, has launched the first-ever partnership platform for powering brand resale communities, starting today with boutique kids brand June & January. This partnership provides customers with the opportunity to seamlessly resell June & January items directly on the retailers website through the Powered by Kidizen platform, as well as shop the inventory of Kidizens nearly half a million users throughout the United States. In addition, the Kidizen community is introduced to the June & January brand and earns rewards that can be redeemed on juneandjanuary.com.

Resale apparel is the fastest growing segment of retail, expected to increase from $18B today to $33B by 2021 says Dug Nichols, Kidizen CEO. With kidswear leading the sector, were excited to launch our platform and work with brands to tap into this opportunity.

The opportunity is two-fold for brands: its an unconventional marketing channel that leverages their most loyal customers resale and social activity to drive new customer acquisition, as well as provide them with a unique engagement platform to incentivize and reward repeat purchases.

It may seem counterintuitive to some brands, but we see so many benefits from fostering an active resale community, says Amy Richardson, June & Januarys founder and CEO. We love that moms can earn extra spending cash by re-selling our products, and in doing so they have built relationships with other moms who are equally as passionate about our brand. Kidizen provides us with an easy way to engage and grow this community.

Its hard to ignore the rapid growth of resale communities recently, particularly those centered around certain kids brands, says Dori Graff, Kidizens co-founder and chief marketing officer. This is where brands can find their most loyal consumers who are introducing other moms to their products. Its a missed opportunity for brands to not get involved in these conversations and reward community members for their engagement with their brand.

For more information, contact Dug Nichols, by email dug(at)kidizen(dot)com or phone 415-350-0608.

Links:

June and January Community Powered by Kidizen

About Kidizen

Kidizen was founded by Dori Graff and Mary Fallon, two marketing mamas who knew there had to be a better way to pass along the beloved (but outgrown) kidstuff that was taking up too much space in their homes. The solution was an online marketplace where families can easily sell, shop, and share kids clothes and accessories. Today Kidizen is approaching half a million members with thousands of new listings every day, all within a trustworthy and environmentally-friendly parent community.

https://www.kidizen.com

About June & January

June & January believes that kids are fun, and their clothes should be, too! Our aesthetic is full of bright colors and bold prints, with modern babies, tots and kiddos in mind. Our team (thirteen, currently!) is comprised of hard working women and mothers who believe in our aesthetic and are essential to our team. Most of our staff works remotely (between us all we cover 6 different states!) and loves having the opportunity to have a fulfilling career while not compromising their ability to be with their own babies.

https://www.juneandjanuary.com/GMA Members pose in front of a 2008 Gulfstream G-200 "It has been exciting to see an idea that started with scribbles on a napkin in 2008 has now grown to over 260 members representing over 60,000 employees with six chapters across the state," said Mr. Moss, CEO of GMA.

The Georgia Manufacturing Alliance (GMA) celebrated its 10th Year Anniversary on February 1st at the 57th Fighter Group Restaurant. Over 100 industry leaders from around the state came to show support for GMA and its founder Jason Moss. A special proclamation from the Governors office recognized the accomplishments of Mr. Moss and his organization citing that GMA provides a unique platform for our states manufacturing leaders to share best practices and secure and maintain strategic partnerships.

The Georgia Manufacturing Alliance began in 2008 with a core group of 15 manufacturers and service providers that saw a need to find local resources for their industry, said Mr. Moss They wanted to buy, sell and trade locally, but did not have the platform or resources to make the connections. It has been exciting to see an idea that started with scribbles on a napkin has now grown to over 260 members representing over 60,000 employees with six chapters across the state.

Part of the proceeds from GMAs 10th Year Anniversary went to support the Veterans Empowerment Organization (VEO) which provides housing and resources for veterans in transition. VEO is GMAs charity of choice for 2018 and Tyler Bowser, VEO Ambassador shared his testimony of finding himself homeless after returning from his service in the Airforce. He has successfully completed VEOs Self-Sufficiency Model which focuses on taking "Invisible Veterans" off the streets of our cities and placing them into a safety net of support that provides immediate and long-term housing, treatment and recovery for addiction, healthy meals, basic necessities, clothing, as well as, medical care, mental health counseling, life-skills training and workforce development support.

Another highlight of the evening was when Lt. Colonel Rob Waldo Waldman, author of the NY Times and Wall Street Journal Best Seller  Never Fly Solo, addressed the group. He is a highly experienced combat veteran with over 2,650 flight hours and sixty-five real world combat missions, having flown both in Iraq enforcing the No-Fly Zone and in Yugoslavia during Operation Allied Force in 1999. He encouraged Georgia Manufacturing Alliance members to understand the importance of teamwork and the wingmen and women that are part of your support network.

Since we have a Veterans Initiative within our organization and the focus of our Georgia Manufacturing Summit will be the aerospace industry this year, we were excited to have Tyler Bowser and Waldo Waldman at our 10th Anniversary party, continued Mr. Moss. Our goal is to expand our Summit and our reach as we open new chapters across the state. Our Summit is our capstone event of the year and will be held October 10th at the Cobb Galleria.

ABOUT GMA: The Georgia Manufacturing Alliance (GMA) is a membership-based industry organization founded in 2008 to support Georgias manufacturing community. GMA provides monthly plant tours, educational sessions, tradeshows, and unique networking opportunities designed to help make profitable business connections for its members. The Georgia Manufacturing Directory, Georgia Manufacturing Summit, Georgia Manufacturing Calendar, and BuyFromGa website are additional resources produced by GMA. To learn more about the organization, membership, and upcoming events, please call 770-338-0051 or visit their website http://www.GeorgiaManufacturingAlliance.com.Cased Winchester Henry Lever Action Rifle, estimated at $60,000-80,000. We are thrilled to welcome Julia's customers to Morphy's, and promise to match - or even top - the outstanding merchandise, service, and relationships they enjoyed at Julia's through our expanded firearms division. - Dan Morphy, President, Morphy Auctions

Morphy Auctions, the finest auction destination for fresh to the market collections, welcomes enthusiasts from around the world to this important sale to be held on March 1st and 2nd, 2018. The auction begins promptly at 9am on both days. All merchandise from this sale is on display in Morphy's Pennsylvania auction gallery and available for preview now as well as listed on the company website.

Hand-held firearms, including a huge range of pistols and revolvers, are a key category in this sale. There is something for everyone looking to add a top tier Smith and Wesson, DWM, Krieghoff, Mauser, Walther, Browning, or Colt to their collection. Many have their original cases or boxes.

The top lot here is #147, an amazing Colt Whitneyville Hartford Transitional Walker Model Dragoon Revolver, estimated at $20,000-40,000. This gun is considered by those in the know to be the Holy Grail of Colt percussion revolvers. Only 240 examples of these were manufactured, with serial numbers spanning 1100 through 1340. All were made in late 1847 at the Hartford factory from excess parts from the Walker model. This one has matching numbers on its frame, barrel, trigger guard, backstrap, and cylinder. It has been completely field stripped, examined, and vetted by numerous experts and deemed to be one of the better existing examples of this extremely rare U.S. Martial revolver.

Also available through this sale are broad selections of outstanding rifles, shotguns, muskets, and carbines. The sheer number of choices from national, as well as European makers, such as Colt, Winchester, Marlin, Parker Brothers, Ithaca, Krieghoff, L.C. Smith, Browning, A.H. Fox, J.P. Sauer, Smith & Wesson, Mauser, Springfield, and Sharps are certain to catch the eye of collectors worldwide. Several fine Winchesters are the top picks in these key categories; many are from a 19th century collection of Winchesters that took the consigner nearly 50 years to complete. These top guns include:



Lot #254, a high condition cased Winchester Henry Lever Action Rifle from 1862, estimated at $60,000-80,000. This example is 100% clean, untouched, and all original in every way and is unquestionably one of the finest standard early commercial Henry rifles in existence. It is housed in a very rare walnut factory display case; an exact example can be found on page 92 in the book "Volcanic Firearms" by Lewis and Rutter. The rifle and case are accompanied by a full sealed box of Remington UMC .44 Henry flat (50) rimfire green label cartridges. For Winchester collectors, it doesn't get much better than this!

The only complete collection of 19th Century Winchester Lever Auction Muskets ever offered. Ranging from 1866-1895 including; 1 of 5 made 1894 models, rare 1886, 1895 30-40 musket, un-fired 1873 et all.

Lot #239, a high condition, untouched Henry Marked Winchester Model 1866 Lever Action Rifle from 1869, estimated at $15,000-20,000. Its barrel and tube retain approximately 90% of the original factory blue finish that mixes with a soft patina coming through the finish, resulting in a completely clean and homogeneous appearance. The octagon barrel has the Henry's Patent stamp. According to our experts, "This is the nicest Henry marked Model 1866 standard rifle that we have cataloged; this rifle would surely place in the top 5% of all existing specimens."

Lot #229, a Winchester Ulrich Engraved Deluxe Model 1894 Lever Action Rifle, estimated at $25,000-45,000. This very rare, special order '94 has a beautifully engraved receiver in style "4" by John Ulrich and is signed on the lower tang behind the trigger. Its engraving includes a panel of a hunter shooting from behind a tree with two elk in the foreground, all in a forest scene on the left side; and a grizzly bear in a mountain scene on a promontory on the right side, all surrounded by foliate arabesque patterns and wavelet borders. This handsome example, with provenance to the Lloyd Goff, Glenn Hockett, and Wes Adams Estate Collections, comes with several museum letters from 1971, 1982, and 2008 which provide further information regarding the history and significance behind this extraordinary firearm.

Lot #243, a deluxe Winchester Model 1876 Open Top Lever Action Sporting Rifle from 1878, estimated at $15,000-20,000. This early model features rare straight grip deluxe wood checkered walnut stocks, a very rare blued half octagon barrel, full magazine, standard sporting front sight, 1876 ladder rear sight, and a case colored frame, hammer, lever, forend cap, and buttplate. Our experts describe it simply as "stunning."

Lot #539, an 1889 Paris Exhibition Winchester Deluxe Model 1873 Saddle Ring Carbine from 1889, estimated at $30,000-50,000. This example is listed in the "Winchester 1873" book by serial number by Gordon. Its receiver, dust cover, and heel of its buttplate are decorated with engraved scrollwork and punch dot background. The left sideplate features a white tail buck in circle, almost identical to the pattern seen on page 230 by the shop of John Ulrich in the book "Winchester Engraving" by R.L. Wilson.

New and antique swords, sabers, and other edged weapons also make a prominent showing in this sale. Both functional and ceremonial examples are on offer, including eye-catching rarities from Japan, Burma, and Turkey. Two standouts include:

Lot #310, an historically important French saber attributed to General Brooks and presented by Lafayette, estimated at $20,000-40,000. This piece, which is in excellent condition, was probably made at Klingenthal and is possibly a LePage. It is elaborately detailed with high-relief foliate patterns, languettes, and acanthus leaves engravings. The scabbard is decorated with four applied panels, in the French style, with relief scenes of Roman soldiers, arms motifs, and diplomats. The museum-quality sword is complete with a letter detailing its provenance and history from William Dykes Antiques.

Lot #311, a fine jade hilted silver mounted Shamshir, estimated at $15,000-25,000. This example features a curved Damascus steel blade and a silver guard with languettes. The guard is embellished with chiseled florals and scrolls with jade and turquoise ornamentation on both sides. Its well- executed 18th century jade hilt is covered with relief carved flowers and foliage.

This sale comes full circle with fine examples of Kentucky rifles and firearms, Bowie and other hand knives, modern editions, headwear and uniforms, books, ephemera, and collections. Lot #444, an exquisite cased, engraved, and gold inlaid Franz Sodia .458 Winchester SxS double rifle from 1977 is estimated at $35,000-45,000. This artistic masterpiece - capable of downing the world's most dangerous game if one chose to do so - comes protected in a Winchester hard case. To replicate this extraordinary rifle today would cost over $75,000. And lot #540, a Winchester 1885 Low Wall and archive attributed to Pawnee Bill's Wife, May Lille, is estimated at $25,000-30,000. This exciting time capsule, from a female "Wild West" legend, includes her 1888 firearm, brass tacked leather jewelry box, an 1896 Buffalo Bill Wild West Show flag with "MAY LILLIE" stenciled on front, a Pawnee Bill hand signed Wild West pocket card, a brass keyplate stamped "MAY LILLIE BBWWS" and "MAY L." and a pair of beautiful beadwork woman's leather Western gloves. This once-in-a-lifetime lot is certain to be of enormous interest to Western-centric collectors, museums, and historical societies.

According to Dan Morphy, President of Morphy Auctions, "This auction represents the first firearms sale we'll present after our purchase of James D. Julia late last year. We are thrilled to welcome Julia's customers to Morphy's, and promise to match - or even top - the outstanding merchandise, service, and relationships they enjoyed at Julia's through our expanded firearms division. This two day sale presents a non-stop offering of some of the finest firearms to come up for sale in recent memory. The selections of Winchesters are second to none. The Cased Winchester Henry Lever Action Rifle from 1862 is really mindboggling. I am certain just the thought of it will keep Winchester enthusiasts up at night! We welcome you to visit our gallery in Denver, PA to view these outstanding items firsthand, or of course check them out online anytime on our company website.

About Morphy Auctions:

Morphy Auctions, the finest destination for a fresh to the market collectables is headquartered in Denver, Pennsylvania. The company also has a satellite office in Las Vegas, Nevada. A full-service auction house, Morphys presents over 35 premiere auctions annually. The companys three-part mission includes ensuring consignor satisfaction with every auction, offering world class customer service that goes above and beyond the call of duty, and providing relentless buyer support to create confidence for all clients seeking a trustworthy purchasing experience. Morphys team of specialists include the nations finest and most recognized experts in popular collectable collecting categories; including advertising, firearms, fine automobiles, automobilia, petroliana, coin operated machines, antiques and decorative arts, dolls, bears, toys and trains, cast iron toys, marbles, jewelry and wrist watches. Morphy Auctions is owned by President and Founder, Dan Morphy, himself a lifelong and passionate collector of antiques, banks, and numerous other categories. Morphys has been in business since 2004 and has grown from 2 to over 65 employees in a span of a decade.

Morphy Auctions is located at 2000 North Reading Road, Denver, Pennsylvania 17517 and can be reached by telephone at 877.986.8880, Email at info@morphyauctions.com, or fax at 717.336.7115. Our Denver Auction Gallery is open 7 days a week, Monday through Friday, 9.00 am-4.00 pm, Saturday and Sunday from 9.00 am-1.00 pm. Our Las Vegas facility is located at 4520 Arville Street, Las Vegas, Nevada 89103 and is open Monday through Friday from 9.00 am-4.00 pm. For more information regarding Morphy Auctions, please click here."We are proud to have Dr. Weiss and Dr. Plante among our team of experienced Reproductive Endocrinologists and Infertility Specialists." --Dr. Joseph A. Hill, MD, President, Fertility Centers of New England

The Fertility Centers of New England announced today that Boston Magazine recognized their physicians, Dr. Robert Weiss and Dr. Beth Plante, as two of the top Reproductive Endocrinologists on the 2017 list of Top Docs of Boston. Dr. Weiss was selected for this honor for the seventh time, and Dr. Plante was selected for the first time.

"We are proud to have Dr. Weiss and Dr. Plante among our team of experienced Reproductive Endocrinologists and Infertility Specialists," said Joseph A. Hill, MD, President, Fertility Centers of New England. "Their commitment to compassionate patient care, and their expertise in infertility treatment, have helped set FCNE apart as one of the premier IVF centers in the country."

Dr. Weiss joined the Fertility Centers of New England in 2006 and has performed IVF and reproductive surgery for over 25 years. He also serves as Director of Reproductive Medicine and Reproductive Surgery at Boston Medical Center and is on the faculty at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Weiss is an accomplished surgeon and has presented numerous papers in the United States and Europe. He has been named one of the Best Doctors in America for the last nine years. Dr. Weiss sees patients at the Fertility Centers of New England Massachusetts offices in Boston, Reading, Braintree, Danvers, and Westborough.

Dr. Plante joined the Fertility Centers of New England in 2014 after practicing at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Tufts University School of Medicine, where she was a clinical assistant professor in their combined program in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. She has been the winner of numerous teaching and clinical awards, including the Patients Choice Award and the Compassionate Doctor recognition award. Dr. Plante sees patients at the Fertility Centers of New England Massachusetts offices in Boston, Reading, Braintree, and Westborough.

The Fertility Centers of New England provides free initial consultations to patients without infertility insurance and offers them exclusive access to their IVF Assist program. "Our program for self-pay patients is the most comprehensive and cost-competitive program available for IVF," said Dr. Weiss.

"We are so confident in our IVF pregnancy success rates," added Dr. Plante, "that should pregnancy not occur after two attempts, we will provide the third cycle free."

About Fertility Centers of New England

The Fertility Centers of New England is an international leader in the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of infertility. We combine advanced reproductive technologies within a comforting, supportive environment to give patients the personal care they deserve. The Fertility Centers of New England has eleven convenient locations for treatment and cycle monitoring throughout New England. We accept all insurance plans and offer a range of options for self-pay patients, including donor oocyte cycles. Patients interested in obtaining additional information about the Fertility Centers of New England may call our center at 877-877-9901 or visit us at http://www.fertilitycenter.com.

Media inquiries: Please contact Catherine Craig at craigc(at)fertilitycenter(dot)com or 781-942-7000.Carlisle Exterior From the opening of our distribution center to now launching this brand new retail location alongside it, we are excited to be a part of the community here in Carlisle.

4 Wheel Parts, the global leader in off-road performance product sales and installation, is bringing the nations largest selection of aftermarket parts and accessories for trucks and Jeeps to Carlisle, Pennsylvania with its grand opening celebration this Saturday, February 17. The family-friendly event, located at 5 Logistics Drive, will feature exclusive grand opening discounts, installation specials along with multiple promotions and giveaways to coincide with the launch of 4 Wheel Parts newest state-of the-art showroom and service center.

The location, adjacent to 4 Wheel Parts Northeast distribution center, is the first of a number of stores projected to open in the region to be supported by the 205,000 sq.ft. warehouse and distribution facility.

From the opening of our distribution center to now launching this brand new retail location alongside it, we are excited to be a part of the community here in Carlisle, says Store Manager, Douglas White. Beginning with the very first announcement that we were coming to town, we have received a tremendous amount of enthusiasm from the Jeep and truck enthusiasts in the region and the community in general. We are pleased to bring a state of the art, singular solution that provides everything from tires and wheels to lift kits, suspension and accessories to Carlisle.

Following a ceremonial ribbon cutting, this grand opening event allows attendees their first opportunity to experience the brand-new, interactive showroom which showcases an array of products while meeting the team of off-road performance experts who will be providing their insight. Numerous industry-leading manufacturers such as Pro Comp, Rubicon Express, Poison Spyder, G2 Axle and Gear, MHT Wheels, Polaris, ARB and Rigid Industries will be on-site displaying and demonstrating their latest products. The event will also have a live DJ along with complimentary lunch from Mission BBQ. Off-road enthusiasts from throughout the region are expected to join in the celebration including representatives from the Rausch Creek and Anthracite Off-Road Parks. Up for grabs throughout the day will be 4 Wheel Parts Gift Cards, prizes from Pro Comp, Smittybilt, Traxxas and Rigid along with a $1000 4 Wheel Parts shopping spree and much more.

ASE-certified technicians will be on-site providing installation discounts on select products purchased in addition to exclusive one-day specials.

Customers have learned about us through our mail order and e-commerce divisions and now they have the opportunity to shop here in our store or online and pick up their purchases or have them installed here allowing them to take advantage of our expert service. Theres been a great deal of anticipation leading up to our Grand Opening, so now its time to officially open the doors and show everyone in Carlisle what 4 Wheel Parts is all about, concluded White.

What: 4 Wheel Parts Grand Opening Celebration

When: Saturday, February 17 - 9 a.m.  5 p.m.

Location: 5 Logistics Drive, Carlisle, Pennsylvania 17013

Complimentary Admission

About 4 Wheel Parts

4 Wheel Parts is the global leader in truck, Jeep, SUV and off-road performance products. With 85 locations across the U.S. and Canada and growing, 4 Wheel Parts Service Centers install all the products they sell. Maintaining the nations largest inventory of off-road tires, wheels, suspension products and accessories, 4 Wheel Parts serves customers across the country and around the globe. Life is Better Off-Road. Visit them at 4wheelparts.com or call toll-free 877-474-4821SPiN Thoracic Navigation System The fact that Veran is focusing exclusively on nodules in this clinical trial says a lot about the company's confidence in their technology to help physicians diagnose earlier stage lung cancer patients.

Physician Investigators at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have successfully completed the first electromagnetic navigation procedure in the Veran Medical sponsored 'All In One' clinical trial targeting small peripheral pulmonary nodules (1-3cm).

Investigators from nine U.S. medical centers will enroll 150 patients and evaluate diagnostic yield for a novel staged diagnostic algorithm that combines Navigated Bronchoscopy and Navigated Transthoracic Needle Aspiration in a single procedure. The combined approach is designed to maximize diagnostic yield regardless of nodule size or location and is only available in Veran's SPiN Thoracic Navigation System.

Lung Cancer remains the leading cause of cancer deaths in both men and women because it's often detected too late. Suspicious pulmonary nodules often represent early stage lung cancer with a much higher likelihood of survival if diagnosed early. However, peripheral pulmonary nodules pose a greater diagnostic challenge for physicians because they are more difficult to visualize, access and biopsy. Veran's mission is to provide physicians with the tools they need to consistently and reliably access, biopsy, and guide treatment of small nodules to stage shift cancer and save lives.

"We are very excited to participate in the first prospective multicenter trial evaluating the diagnostic yield of Veran's SPiN Thoracic Navigation System," said UNC Director of Interventional Pulmonology Dr. Jason Akulian. "The fact that Veran is focusing exclusively on nodules in this clinical trial says a lot about the company's confidence in their technology to help physicians diagnose earlier stage lung cancer patients."

The SPiN Thoracic Navigation System converts CT scans into precise 3D maps used to navigate the airways in the lungs. Veran's Always-On Tip Tracked sampling instruments contain small electromagnetic sensors in the tips to help guide physicians to the nodules. Veran's proprietary SPiN Perc technology provides physicians the ability to seamlessly transition to a navigated percutaneous approach to reach small nodules outside of airways. Overall diagnostic yield will be evaluated to assess the combination of these approaches. The study design and list of participating sites and study investigators can be found on ClinicalTrials.gov (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03338049?term=NCT03338049&rank=1).

"Lung cancer kills an estimated 1.6 million people a year worldwide-more than any other cancer. Unfortunately, to date, the clinical evidence is clear that legacy tools just aren't working," said Veran Medical CEO Jason Pesterfield.

Bronchoscopy is commonly used for the diagnosis of suspicious pulmonary nodules discovered on computed tomographic (CT) imaging of the chest. However, multiple clinical trials have documented that traditional tools are failing physicians. In the large multi-center AQuIRE registry, diagnostic yields were as low as 38.5%. Results presented at the American College of Chest Physician 2017 meeting in Toronto from a randomized clinical trial pitting Radial Endobronchial Ultrasound (R-EBUS) vs. standard bronchoscopy with fluoroscopic guidance, diagnostic yields were 48.7% and 26.8%, respectively.

"Lung cancer patients and the physicians treating them deserve better odds than a flip of the coin to get a diagnosis," said Veran CEO Jason Pesterfield. "That's why we are investing in innovation and clinical evidence to help these doctors consistently get a proven answer and get their patients to appropriate therapy."

About Veran Medical Technologies

Veran is a privately held medical device company headquartered in St. Louis, MO. The company's main focus is assisting physicians in the early diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. In the United States, lung cancer kills more people each year than breast, prostate, pancreatic and colon cancers combined.

Veran has developed and commercialized an FDA cleared, next generation electromagnetic thoracic navigation platform called the SPiN Thoracic Navigation System. Veran's breakthrough technology has been adopted by leading cancer centers throughout the United States. Discover our differences at http://www.veranmedical.comWe measure our success through our clients success and look forward to continuing to channel our energy into effective marketing programs for our current and new clients.

Co-Communications, Inc., a full-service marketing and public relations agency, has relocated its headquarters from Mt. Kisco, New York to 4 West Red Oak Lane, White Plains, New York. The Company also operates two satellite offices located in mid-town Manhattan and Farmington, Connecticut. In its 20th year of business, Co-Communications has experienced tremendous growth. The new office is approximately 3,000 square feet and is designed as an open, collaborative space.

Co-Communications, founded in 1997 by Stacey Cohen, President & CEO, has evolved from a traditional public relations agency to an integrated, full-service agency with in-house design, social media and content marketing capabilities. Co-Communications works with businesses across a range of industries and expertly positions and delivers their narratives in fiercely competitive markets. One of the most esteemed projects that Co-Communications has worked on is the 18-month communications campaign Build the Bridge Now to raise awareness about replacing the Tappan Zee Bridge with a New Hudson River crossing, the largest public works project in state history. They worked closely with the Construction Industry Council, the Business Council of Westchester, Rockland Business Association, and various other stakeholders to get the word out.

We measure our success through our clients success and look forward to continuing to channel our energy into effective marketing programs for our current and new clients, said Stacey Cohen, President and CEO of Co-Communications. We have worked extremely hard to preserve the quality we are known for as we grow. Our new location enables us to meet the expanding needs of our clients while providing us with much-needed space to expand our team of Co-Stars, as we like to say.

Jessica Lyon, Partner, Executive Vice President & COO of Co-Communications, added, We look forward to creating the agency of the future that will continue to be collaborative and innovative. We will continue to work hard to find new and different ways to help our clients grow and prosper.

Under Cohens leadership, Co-Communications has been awarded the Advertising Clubs "Best of Show" (2002, 2010, 2012) sponsored by Gannett, PRSA Best in Show (2013, 2015), Forbes Enterprise Award (2006), among numerous other industry awards and was inducted into the Westchester County Business Hall of Fame (2008). Cohen was recently named PRSA Practitioner of the Year in recognition of her professional achievements, experience, and reputation in the profession.

For additional information, please call 914.666.0066 or visit http://www.cocommunications.com.

About Co-Communications

Established in 1997, Co-Communications (http://www.co-communications.com) is a full-service marketing and public relations agency headquartered in White Plains, New York which provides high-impact communications programs to maximize its clients exposure and market share. Representative services include strategic planning, branding, public relations, graphic design, website development and social media. The company has gained widespread attention for its creativity, research-based campaigns, first-rate service and results-oriented approach. Co-Communications serves clients in such industries as real estate, education, healthcare, finance, technology and non-profit. Co-Communications was recognized with the Forbes Enterprise Award and has earned awards from industry trade organizations including the Public Relations Society of America, Advertising Club of Westchester, Connecticut Art Directors Club, Ad Club of CT and Association for Women in Communications.The producers of Whisky LIVE, the internationally renowned whisky tasting event, turns it up a notch on this years annual US tour with an exciting new Whisky Nite! format touching down at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York on February 28 and at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, DC on March 2nd.

The special Whisky Nite! event builds the exclusive experience of tasting more than 200 of the worlds best whiskies along with dinner provided by acclaimed restaurateur Danny Meyers Union Square Events (New York) and Fairmonts extraordinary culinary team (DC). Spirituous authors sign their books along the singular pours and creative cocktails that will flow at each event, courtesy of that towns top whisky and cocktail bars. Expect to sip libations from Jack Rose Dining Saloon, Flatiron Room, Copper & Oak, Brandy Library, Fine & Rare, American Whiskey, Daddy-O, Porchlight and more.

Master distillers, brand ambassadors and industry experts are on hand sharing their insights, history and story of each whisky; some making their US debut. In the spotlight for Whisky Nite! are, among others, JP Wisers 35-year-old which recently was named Canadas best whiskey for 2018, and the Pilot Project Pavilion; featuring whiskies from McLaren Vale Distillery, Lime Burners Distillery, Craft Works Distillery, and Journeyman Distillery  four of the eight distilleries from around the globe that collaborated to produce a rare blend of whiskey currently aging in a 100-year old port barrel under the watchful eye of John Rochfort of McLaren Vale in Australia.

The VIP Experience

Whisky LIVE VIP Tickets to the Whisky Nite! Experience are $199 and include early access 30 minutes prior to General Admission. The exclusive VIP tasting lounge features select premium bottlings available throughout the night (many limited or no longer available). Additionally, this years event will see the arrival of many whiskies from Australia, a closed distillery from the Czech Republic and single barrel selections from India which have never been poured in the United States.

VIP guests will receive a signature Whisky Nite! tasting glass in addition to the evenings program, early admission, and exclusive access to special bottlings all night long.

General Admission Ticket Holders

General admission tickets are priced at $139 and for those ticket holders, doors open at 6:00 PM (NY) and 6:30 (DC). The ticket price includes an event program and a souvenir Glencairn tasting glass.

With tickets, whisky lovers will have the opportunity to:



Sample and taste several exclusive whiskies, which have never appeared in America prior to the event. Whisky LIVE is proud to debut these whiskies to American consumers.

Explore Authors Row featuring some of the following whisky, wine and spirits experts Fred Minnick, Davin DeKergommeaux, Amanda Schuster, Kara Newman, Warren Bobrow, and more signing copies of their latest books which will be available at the show.

Taste and experience limited offerings from the Pilot Project Whisky and Four Kings Whiskey, a 600-bottle collaboration between four Midwestern distilleries.

Explore products from non-traditional whisky producing countries like India, Czech Republic and Australia.

Whisky LIVE USA is proud to partner with Modern Trader, the award-winning, essential journal for professional traders and active investors since 1972. Modern Traders partnership for Whisky Nite! brings the event to members of NY and D.C.s financial community.

Updates and more information on the event can be found at whiskyliveUSA.com and social media channels:

Twitter: @WhiskyLiveUSA

Facebook: WhiskyLive USA

Hashtag: #WhiskyLiveNY and #WhiskyLiveDC

Instagram: WhiskyLiveUSA and WhiskyNite

About Whisky Nite! 2018

New York - Wednesday, February 28

Metropolitan Pavilion 125 West 18th Street, NY, NY 10011

VIP: 5:30-9:30 PM

General Admission 6:00-9:30

$199

DC - Friday, March 2

Fairmont Washington, DC- Georgetown 2401 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037

VIP: 6;00 PM-9:30 PM

General Admission opening at 6:30 PM

$139

For more information, please visit http://whiskyliveusa.com/Our hearts go out to everyone affected, and we want the community to know that we are here for them and will do whatever we can to ensure that everyone gets the help they need.

In the wake of yesterday's tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, mental health app LARKR is donating up to $50,000 in free therapy sessions over the next week for students involved or impacted by the shooting. LARKR co-founders Shawn and Christianne Kernes are former residents of Parkland, who were active in the community and whose daughter previously attended the school.

Since the tragedy also impacts family, friends, school children, teachers and others all across the country, LARKR is also offering subsidized, deeply discounted sessions for anyone nationwide affected by the tragedy.

"It's utterly terrifying when this kind of horror comes to a place so close to your heart. This isn't just close to home, this is home," said Shawn Kernes. "Chris and I want to do all that we can to help those in need at this incredibly trying time, which is why we are offering free therapy for students and personally subsidizing sessions on LARKR for anyone affected by these awful events."

The LARKR app is free to download on the Apple App Store. Students can use the code "MSDStrong" for free sessions over the coming week, while others can use the code "douglas" for $40 off an $85, 50-minute session with a licensed therapist on the platform. The service is available to anyone over the age of 13 and multi-user sessions are available if couples or parents and children want to participate together.

In addition to the discounted therapy sessions, LARKR also offers a number of free self-care and mental wellness tools, including guided meditations.

LARKR's network does have a limited capacity at this time, so the company is encouraging any licensed therapists in Florida or anywhere across the country who are interested in helping others through this difficult time, to sign up for the platform today in order to assist with these efforts.

"I'm proud to be a therapist and LARKR Co-Founder, but am a Douglas mom first and foremost," said Chris Kernes. "Our hearts go out to everyone affected, and we want the community to know that we are here for them and will do whatever we can to ensure that everyone gets the help they need."

Parkland, which consistently ranks as one of most affluent and safest cities in Florida and is renowned for its A-rated schools, was home yesterday to one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern times, with 17 people killed at the city's high school.

About LARKR

LARKR is a groundbreaking new start-up poised to revolutionize mental health care in America by eliminating the barriers that keep approximately 60% of Americans from receiving the help they need. LARKR provides on-demand talk therapy with licensed practitioners through an easy-to-use mobile video platform, widening the reach of mental health care. Through LARKR, patients can arrange multi-user conferences to accommodate group therapy sessions. Additional mindfulness and self-care features of the app include guided meditations - Therapy Corner, a mood tracker - My Story, and a daily good deed challenge - Be The Change. For more information, visit http://www.larkr.com.SC asks Centre to make appointments in tribunals in two weeks, give reasons if persons from recommended list are left out.Posted Tuesday, February 13, 2018 7:00 pm

Bailey E. Scott has been found safe in Oregon, more than a week after she was reported missing from Quilcene. The 16-year-old was with her father, Jeremy Scott, who had picked her up in Oregon.

I was reassured that nothing was forced. It was all voluntary. She just wanted to leave the Quilcene house, said Jefferson County Sheriffs Detective Joe Nole. She said she loved her aunt. Im wondering why did she leave and how did she get down there, Nole said of not being able to talk to Scott long enough on Tuesday morning to get those questions answered.

Roxann Anderson, Scotts aunt, said Tuesday morning that she received a call at about 10 p.m. on, Monday night from Scotts father, who said the two were in Hood River, Oregon, and that Bailey was safe.

All I know is that shes with her dad. She called him, and he picked her up, Anderson said Tuesday morning, three days after the Quilcene community rallied to support the safe return of Scott.

I know for sure it was him and I could hear her. She said, Hi, Aunt Roxy, I love you and Im sorry, Anderson said. If shes with her dad, I know shes safe from physical harm.

Anderson said she is relieved, frustrated and a bit upset because she knows nothing more than that.

Also, Scotts mother, Sonia Porter, had posted on her Facebook page at about 10 p.m., Monday that her daughter had been found safe. She thanked everyone for their efforts.

None of this makes any sense to me, Anderson said Tuesday morning of what had happened and how little she knew at that point.

COMMUNITY RALLY

More than 100 people turned out at a rally in Quilcene on Sunday, Feb. 11 to show concern for Scott, who was last seen by Anderson Friday, Feb. 2. Sometime in the early hours of Saturday, Feb. 3, Scott had slipped out through a bedroom window, Anderson suspected. Scott, who had been living with her aunt for two months, left a note telling her aunt not to worry, that she was with friends.

When Scott didnt show up for school on Monday, Feb. 5, it wasnt just Anderson who was worrying. A missing person poster was released by the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office.

By Friday, Feb. 9, Quilcene school officials had brought in crisis counselors and advised teachers to be open to listening even more than usual, said high school principal Sean Moss.

You can tell the kids are worried about it. They are talking about it, Moss said.

On Tuesday morning, after learning Scott had been found, Moss said, I cant tell you how ecstatic everyone is.

At the rally on Sunday, Justine Lake, an enrichment counselor at Quilcene High School, led the gathering, urging anyone with any possible piece of information about Scott, no matter how trivial, to step forward and share with the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office.

INVESTIGATION

Back at the sheriffs office, Nole said that shortly after Scott left Quilcene, her Facebook page and other social media accounts were all taken down.

All of her social media was taken down from the night she went missing or the next day, Nole said.

Friends of Scott had told authorities that Scott was a great kid, upbeat and more likely to try to make everybody happy than cause concern.

They were surprised, Nole said of her friends, who also had not heard from Scott and had left messages on social media that Scott had not answered.

Nole said there had never been any indication that Scott was in harms way.

She made her way to Oregon, and he [her father] picked her up in Portland, Nole said, adding that he was not exactly sure how she made her way to Portland.

Nole said Scott sounded upset on Tuesday morning, and he asked if he could call her back that day for more information, and she had said she would take his call.

A $5,000 reward that had been raised on Sunday by well-wishers was not expected to be paid to anyone, both Nole and Anderson said.

AUNTS CONCERN

Anderson said Scott had lived with her in the past, because she was having a difficult time living with family in California, but she didnt believe Scott had run away from her home in Quilcene.

At the gathering on Sunday, Anderson said she had gone through Scotts laundry trying to figure out what she had been wearing when she left her home. She decided on a black North Face jacket, jeans with holes in them, black leggings and black UGG boots.

Anderson said she didnt understand why she had left, because Bailey had asked to come to live with her.

On Sunday, she said she wanted to send a message to Bailey to remember their favorite song, Perfect by Pink. It would indicate, she said, that she loves her and just wants her home safe.The White House on Thursday blamed the Russian government for the "NotPetya" cyberattack that crippled businesses and critical infrastructure last June.

The Russian military "launched the most destructive and costly cyber-attack in history," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.

"The attack, dubbed 'NotPetya,' quickly spread worldwide, causing billions of dollars in damage across Europe, Asia, and the Americas," the statement continued. "It was part of the Kremlin's ongoing effort to destabilize Ukraine and demonstrates ever more clearly Russia's involvement in the ongoing conflict. This was also a reckless and indiscriminate cyber-attack that will be met with international consequences."

The attack used a ransomware worm whose targets included Ukrainian banks and airports, the Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft, the British advertising company WPP, the US pharmaceutical giant Merck, and the shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk, which said every branch of its business was affected.

NotPetya used a zero-day exploit developed by the National Security Agency known as EternalBlue to spread. Zero-day exploits are tools that take advantage of software vulnerabilities hackers can use to get into computer programs and data. EternalBlue exploits a loophole in Microsoft Windows and was part of a slew of NSA cyberweapons posted online last April by the Kremlin-allied hacker group Shadow Brokers.

The US's condemnation of Russia for the attack came shortly after the United Kingdom issued a similar statement, saying the Russian military was "almost certainly" responsible for the assault.

British officials said the government's decision to publicly blame Russia for NotPetya was meant to solidify the UK's and its allies' position "that malicious cyber activity will not be tolerated."

Though Russian businesses were affected, Ukraine was by far the hardest hit by the attack, which came one day before the country's Constitution Day.

Russia and Ukraine's relations have seen a steep decline since Russia annexed the territory of Crimea in 2014 and steadily pursued greater military aggression toward its neighbor.

"The first thing that raises a red flag to me is that, right now, Ukraine's main antagonist is Russia," Alex McGeorge, the head of threat intelligence at Immunity, Inc., said in an interview last year.

McGeorge said the methodology of the attack also "gives a really good and stable foothold on networks that would matter to somebody who was interested in attacking Ukraine."

"If I'm interested in disrupting Ukraine, this is great for me," he said.

In 2015, amassive cyberattackleveled against the country's power grid cut electricity to almost 250,000 Ukrainians. Cybersecurity experts linked the attack to IP addresses associated with Russia. Since then,Wired magazine's Andy Greenberg reportedlast year, Ukraine has seen a growing crisis in which an increasing number of Ukrainian corporations and government agencies have been hit by cyberattacks in a "rapid, remorseless succession."

Ukraine is now host to what may turn into a full-blown cyberwar, Greenberg reported. Two separate attacks on the country's power grid were part of what Greenberg called a "digital blitzkrieg" waged against it for the past four years, which multiple analysts have connected to Russian interests.The Ghanaguardian reported that the two Ghanaians, 32-year-old man Seare Seth Asare and Joy Kingsley, 48 as well as 38-year-old Nigerian woman, Edith Osazuwa were arrested by the Italian police after reports suggesting that the trio did not only use voodoo to manipulate the said minor, but also subjected her to severe beatings, apparently because of her unwillingness to kowtow to their demands.

The Italian laws frown upon coercing minors into prostitution and the police said they three suspects will be arraigned for court on Thursday to face trial for the offence.

Authorities have declined to reveal details of the victim saying she had "suffered mistreatment" at the hands of the culprits.The JOSPONG Group of companies hereby assures all Ghanaians that their Executive Chairman; Dr Agyepong is a law-abiding citizen who has the highest level of respect for all persons and institutions of government.

READ ALSO: undefined

The JOSPONG Group of companies further state that Dr. Agyepong holds in the highest regard, the judiciary which is entrusted with the constitutional mandate of protecting the rights of every citizen of the Republic of Ghana.

The absence of Dr. Agyepong from court on the date of the hearing was not deliberate, the reason being that Dr. Agyepong had no notice of the proceedings. The Executive Chairman of the JOSPONG Group of Companies has accordingly instructed his lawyers to vehemently contest the proceedings which, upon the advice of his lawyers have been instituted in bad faith and deliberately being given publicity only for purposes of mischief and to cause public disaffection for Dr. Agyepong.

We therefore hereby implore the public to disregard the erroneous impression that the publication sought to portray to the effect that the Executive Chairman deliberately refused to appear before the Honourable Court.

READ ALSO: undefined

As a responsible citizen of the Ghana, the Executive Chairman will always avail himself for any exercise aimed at entrenching the rule of law in this nation.He said the next six months will be crucial in this regard, whiles also urging the public, traditional leaders and government officials to help fight crime in the country.

The President made these comments whiles addressing a 14-member Standing Committee and delegation of the Upper West Regional House of Chiefs.

The contingent paid a courtesy call on the President at the Flagstaff House to discuss how best the Upper West region can be developed.

It is important that the criminal and organized gang elements in our country know that the State is not prepared just to lie down and watch them do what they like in Ghana, President Akufo-Addo said.

We should not allow it, all of us, traditional authorities, traditional rulers, regional and local government must come together in a very strong way to make sure our country is not overrun by criminal elements and that we provide an atmosphere of peace and stability to enable our compatriots prosper and develop.

Also on the discussion table was the current status of the WA campus of the University of Development Studies (UDS).

The President of the Upper West Regional House of Chiefs, Kuoro Richard Baboon Kanton VI, called on the President to consider their plea to make the WA campus of UDS autonomous from its mother university in the Upper East Region.

According to the Chief, the Wa campus has come of age and should be declared as a fully-fledged university.

READ ALSO: Bawumia says CCTV cameras to be fixed in all police stations

On his part, President Akufo-Ado said the issue was already being tackled by the Ministry of Education and the National Council for Tertiary Education.A statement signed by Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, said the President left the country on Wednesday, February 14, 2018.

He will stay in Nigeria for just a day, as he is expected to return to Ghana on Thursday, February 15, 2018.

The statement added that President Akufo-Addo will deliver the keynote address at the Conference, on the theme, How to make Democracy work for Africa.

Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, shall, in accordance with Article 60(8) of the Constitution, act in his stead.

Read the full statement from the Presidency below:

The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, left Ghana for Nigeria, on Wednesday, 14th February, 2018, at the invitation of the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Most Rev. Dr. Matthew Hassan Kukah, to attend a two-day International Conference on Transformative Governance in Africa.

President Akufo-Addo will deliver the keynote address at the Conference, on the theme, How to make Democracy work for Africa.

READ ALSO: Nana Addo expresses concern on recent spate of road accidents

The President will return to Ghana on Thursday, 15th February, 2018, and in his absence, the Vice President, Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, shall, in accordance with Article 60(8) of the Constitution, act in his stead.

Sincerely,

Eugene Arhin

Director of Communications

Office of the President

Jubilee HouseBefore he was elected into office, the president told Ghanaians that he had the men to work for us. Now we have some of the ministers who are doing very well. Others need to improve on their work but we all know those who are not working and such people need to be sacked. . . A lot of them are not doing well and this is a fact. If he (President) says he has the men then this is the time to show it to us. He should not re-assign them to other sectors as we have seen in the past,  he opined.

Speaking on Accra based Power FM, the Secretary of the political pressure group also said, "It is not a try your luck business we are doing here in Ghana. Its not a childs play. Its governance. Dont take the job because youve been appointed and enjoy the benefits associated with the appointment, he added while advising appointees to be up and doing."

This week, Nana Addo assessed a batch of his ministers on their performance after being in office for a year. Though the results of the assessment is yet to be made public, a section of the Ghanaian public have advised the President to be ruthless with those who are not performing.Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!This stemmed from UNICEF's joint efforts with the UNFPA to end the scourge in some countries, disclosed at a recent one-day policy dialogue with Women of Divine Destiny Initiative (WODDI) with support from UNICEF/UNFPA in Owerri, capital of Imo State with the theme 'Ending female genital mutilation is a political decision'.

The UNICEF's Chief of Field Office, Enugu, Dr. Ibrahim Conteh said "Around the world, momentum to eliminate female genital mutilation is building. Political will, community engagement, and targeted investment are changing practices and changing lives."

According to Conteh, in countries where UNFPA and UNICEF work jointly to end female genital mutilation, girls are one-third less likely to undergo this harmful practice today than they were in 1997. More than 25 million people in some 18,000 communities across 15 countries have publicly disavowed the practice since 2008. Globally, its prevalence has declined by nearly a quarter since around 2000.

"The Sustainable Development Goals recognize that female genital mutilation undermines progress towards a more equal, just, and prosperous world. They set an ambitious target of eliminating all such harmful practices against girls and women by 2030", it noted.On Wednesday, February 14, the Senior Media Relations Officer at Brunel University, Tim Pilgrim disclosed in a statement that Dodo won the prize for discovering a new technique for identifying and diagnosing damage to the human retina.

He demonstrated a new algorithm for Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) equipment, which can automatically segment images of the retina into distinct layers. It is hoped that the new procedure, which can separate the retina into seven distinct layers, would improve the accuracy and speed of diagnosis, and help save the sight of patients by identifying damage early.

Read Also: Federal Government moves to close down illegal drug markets

Inspired by the psychological concept of similarity, Dodo used the ideas of continuity and discontinuity to develop an OCT algorithm that can identify where one layer of the retina transitions to the next.

Dodo said, "Layer segmentation is one of the early processes of OCT retina image analysis, and already plays an important role in clinics. For example, the thickness profile of the Retinal Nerve Fibre Layer - which can be calculated directly from the segment layer - is used in the diagnosis of glaucoma, which is one of the most common causes of sight-loss worldwide."

"Automatically segmenting the layers could provide critical information for abnormality detection by comparing them to the average population, and monitoring the progress of disease against previous scans.""He died this evening. The family communicated this to me," MDC vice president Elias Mudzuri told Reuters.

Mr Tsvangirai had been suffering from colon cancer for at least two years, but his condition deteriorated rapidly in recent days despite treatment in neighbouring South Africa.

His death will be an enormous blow to the opposition in Zimbabwe, coming only months before the first elections were due to be held in the former British colony since the end of Robert Mugabe's near four decade rule last year.

He had a tumultuous and era-defining career in Zimbabwean politics.

Mr Tsvangirai's illness was said to have divided the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change), with some party officials reportedly jockeying to succeed the former trade union activist.Sadly, there is a miseducation concerning these kinds of clothing which is why Pulse Religion is here to make things right.

Here are the various types of Islamic covering you can expect to see on Muslim women.

This is the most common one, worn by a lot of Muslim ladies all over the world in different shapes and colours.

It covers only the head and neck.

Niqab

This could be regarded as the second most commonly worn covering. It is basically a veil and scarf that leaves the eyes open while covering the rest of the face.

Hence, the womans hair and chest, for the half-length ones, are also covered.

Burqa

Unlike the Niqab, this one covers the entire body from head to toe.

Another major difference between the two is that the Burqa usually has a woven mesh area around the eyes.

Abaya

Like the Burqa, the Abaya also covers the entire body as it is a full-length outfit.

However, it can be worn with a hijab or niqab as it comes in various styles.

Chador

This could be called the least common one, at least in this part of the world.

Women in places like Saudi Arabia can be seen wearing the chador, another body-length black clothing.

Unlike the rest, this particular covering has no clasps or buttons, leaving the wearer to do the job of ensuring that it is closed.The message by a local pastor named Nicolas Niyibikora was aired on January 29, 2018, by the Amazing Grace FM radio station in Rwanda.

During his sermon, the controversial Seventh Day Adventist preacher said, "women are out of God's favour, there is nothing good you can find in women.

"If you've read the Bible, who brought the sin into the world? It was not a man."

Yahoo reports that this broadcast infuriated the National Womens Association and the Womens Journalist Association.

ALSO READ: Mathematical Proof That Girls Might Be Evil

Reactions to outrageous sermon against women

Both organizations issued their complaints to the Rwanda Media Commission, the body in charge of journalist ethics.

On Monday, February 12th, commission chief Edmund Kagire also released a statement calling for the American Christian radio station to be closed for three months.

He also demanded that the station and preacher issue a public apology for the damage they have caused.Announcing the news of his eldest daughter, Damilola Osinbajos wedding to Shamsideen Oluwaseun Bakare, he wrote:

Damilolas sister, Kiki Osinbajo, also shared the exciting news on her Instagram page:

The news of the wedding caused some to call out the church for allowing Osinbajos daughter to marry the son of Muslim billionaire businesswoman, Hajia Bola Shagaya.

However, TVC News, maintains that the groom is not a Muslim.

He reportedly converted to Christianity and is now a Sunday school teacher.

ALSO READ: Man proposes to girlfriend during RCCG church service

Yemi Osinbajo and Muslim controversy

While congratulating the couple, Daddy Freeze pointed out that Bakares name appears to be a Muslim one.

The convener of the FreeTheSheeple Movement went on to accuse Osinabajos church, RCCG, of double standards.

Daddy Freeze: REDEEMED PASTOR OSHINBAJOS DAUGHTER SET TO MARRY... I congratulate them and sincerely wish them well as they look really happy and in love!

His name seems Muslim If its normal church rats that want to marry Muslims, they wont agree o The will go as far as saying Allah is not God and say lets not be unequally yoked. But with the political pedigree involved here, Im sure even the GO and his Mummy will attend.By now, students who do not know the importance of this non-teaching union in higher institutions would have known that without them no academic activities can be smoothly run in any institution.

It can be said that some Nigerian institutions are in crisis now due to the industrial action of the union members protesting for their rights.

This crisis started shortly after the Academic Staff Union of the University called off it's 2017 indefinite strike.

On Tuesday, December 4 2017, the Joint Action Committee, JAC comprising of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, Non-Academic Staff Union, NASU and National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT directed its members in all universities across the country to resume their suspended strike.

ALSO READ:

Till today, this strike continues as the government has not responded to the demands of the union.

However, this perceived neglect from the Federal Government has prompted the union members to express their plights in their institutions by taking actions that tend to disrupt academic activities.

These are the five instance when the union has made efforts to cause a disturbance in some universities this year.

1. Blackout in UNILAG

For some days, the students of the University of Lagos experienced the dark side of the lingering NASU strike in their hostels.

Students in different halls of residence in the university reportedly slept in darkness when the union renewed their agitation on Monday, February 5, 2018.

The union also shut some classrooms to register their grievances.

2. Blackout in Obafemi Awolowo University

In January, shortly after resumption, OAU students were forced to prepare for their second-semester examinations using torchlights.

There was nothing the management could do about the blackout because the NASU members in the university have down-tooled.

In fact, the Dean of Students Affairs of the university reportedly urged the students to adjust and read their books anyhow'.

3. UNN 2018 matriculation almost disrupted

The NASU members at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka recently staged a protest to stop matriculation ceremony from holding.

The union members who are still on strike believe the university is forcing them to work by holding the matriculation ceremony when actually they are on strike.

The university management probably called the bluff of the union and held the event but the union won't stop to protest as they have declared the matriculation illegal.

4. NASU declares war on lecturers in University of Ibadan

Shortly after the union started their industrial action nationwide, the union members in Ibadan declared war on any lecturers found in lecture rooms teaching students.

The University workers disrupted ongoing academic activities in the University, chased lecturers out of their classes and rained abuse on them.

5. UNILAG postpones 2017 Convocation

Finally, the University of Lagos had to postpone its 2017 Convocation because of ongoing strike of the non-teaching staff of the university.

Earlier, the union had warned the school management to postpone the ceremony the 50th convocation ceremonies scheduled to commence on February 19.

The union according to reports have also shut some administrative buildings on the university campus.

The effects of the union strike is bitting hard on Federal Universities more than ever.Contrary to media reports that the students were suspended for protesting against school fees increment, Orumwense said the students were suspended for attempting to disrupt the Universitys 47th Founders Day and 43rd Convocation ceremonies.

The VC also said the five students were recalled after interventions from various groups and well-meaning individuals.

Speaking to Pulse about what led to their suspension, one of the students, Osamudiamen Ogbidi, who was the Student Union President before their suspension said it is not possible for him to disrupt an event he participated in.

ALSO READ:

He said, ''How can somebody who had the convocation with them disrupt the event. As the president of the students union, I was requested to join them in procession during convocation.

''Now to be frank with you I have pictures of that event. At the auditorium, I processed with them, so how could you disrupt a convocation that you participated in, it is not possible.

''We didnt disrupt the convocation. In fact, it was very peaceful. The convocation was held on the 21st of November and ended on Saturday of that week. And they suspended us in December.''Oyekan, who resides in Abattoir Agege, Lagos, pleaded not guilty to a three-count charge of intent to commit felony, breach of peace and conspiracy brought against him.

According to the Prosecutor, Insp. Victor Eruada, the accused committed the offences with one person still at large on Jan.1 at No. 56, Aina Aladi St., Ilapo Estate, Alagbado, a Lagos Suburb .

Eruada said the accused broke the window of the house of the complainant, Mr Christan Clement, with a hammer to gain entry to steal his property.

Luck ran against him as he was caught and beaten by the people in the compound who handed him over to the police.

The offences contravened Section 168, 311 and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the accused may be jailed seven years, if found guilty, according to Section 311. Section also prescribes two years for conspiracy.The Magistrate, Mrs O. Sule-Amza, who gave the ruling, also ordered them to produce two sureties who must show evidence of gainful employment.

Ademola and his wife, Mojisola, who live at 15 , Balogun Kuku St., Alapere, Ketu, Lagos, is facing a three-count charge of housebreaking, stealing and conspiracy.

The accused pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Earlier, Police Prosecutor Lucky Ihiehie told the court that the accused committed the offences at 15, Balogun Kuku St.

Ihiehie said the complainant, Mrs Olushola Shuaib, the owner of the property, reported the case at Ogudu Police Station.

On Oct. 2015, the two accused living in the complainants property, sublet their apartment without the permission of the complainant and the new occupant remained in the apartment beyond when the rent expired which was between, Sep. 2015 and Aug. 2016.

They received the commission and agency fee for the apartment in the sum of N60, 000 including rent between Aug. 2016 and May 2017 amounting to N80, 000.

On Feb. 16, 2015, Ademola conspired with a certain borehole contractor and defrauded the complainant of N80, 000.

It was their agreement to construct a borehole in the compound. Since then, he has refused to return the money after failing to construct the borehole, Ihiehie said.

Ihiehie said that on Aug. 20, 2017, the two accused broke into one of the apartments in the compound which was under lock and carted away her valuables including jewellery, cloths, shoes worth N150, 000.

They also removed a television set worth N100, 000 and also disconnected the wires worth N20, 000 in the apartment.

The offences contravened Sections 287, 314 and 317 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.Some meat sellers told NAN that the patronage in meat business was low due to AshWednesday.

Mr Ede Onyema, Vice-Chairman of Meat Sellers Association, Artisan Market, Enugu, said that meat patronage this Valentine was low.

Onyema said that Enugu residents who are mostly Christians and dominated by Catholics and Anglicans church members, are passionate about Ash Wednesday.

Majority of the Enugu residents are Catholics who are passionate about Ash Wednesday. We cannot sell as usual but in small quantity, Onyema said.

Onyema said that the association slaughters 10 cows daily, but due to the Ash Wednesday, only eight cows were killed.

He added that the meat sellers made brisk businesses in past Valentine Days, stressing that their hope of making huge sells in 2018 Valentine had been dashed because it coincided with the Ash Wednesday.

Another meat seller at Akwata Market, Mr Festus Ilodibe, said he bought small quantity because few cows were slaughtered.

At Mayor Market, Mr Okwuchukwu Eze, expressed sadness on the coincidence of Valentine Day and Ash Wednesday.

Eze said that Valentine Day used to be a day that people patronise meat sellers a lot.

For me, today is just like a Sunday when business is dull, as you can see most of the meat sellers are not having much on their table and customers are not coming as they should.

The Valentine Day is a day that we meat sellers make much money but this year, it coincided with Ash Wednesday, so our business today is totally not moving, Eze said.

Some fish sellers told NAN that business was really booming from the eve of the Ash Wednesday.

A fish pond owner, Mrs Adaugo Akuoma, said she made huge sells from the eve of Ash Wednesday, adding that the prices did not change.

According to her, the prices of the fish, dried or fresh depend on their sizes.

She said that a kilo cost N1,000 while the largest size of catfish cost between N3,000 and N5,000.

Mr Uju Onyekachi, an ice fish seller at Ogbete Main Market, confirm the boom in fish retail outlets, saying she was going for her second carton of ice fish.

Onyekachi said that a carton of fish cost between N15, 000 and N17, 000, and one ice fish depending on the size could be sold for N300 and N600.According to reports, Adenekan is said to have groomed her with gifts and attention, ultimately defiling her within the schools premises on more than one occasion.

It took the intervention of many parties to unravel the case and after an unexplained reluctance on her mothers part, the matter was taken to court.

After remaining the subject of whispers and spots in the metro news for a while, a strong culture of sexual assault and violence against women has now been placed, front and centre, in popular conversation.

We are finally listening to cases of sexual abuse

Rape victims are now more likely to get an audience than they would have in the past.

Likewise, albeit reluctantly, men are learning to understand the lines of sexual relations and what habits and behaviours in a markedly patriarchal society have created this culture of sexual abuse.

Much of this is down to the gift of social media. Social platforms like Twitter have become the scene of some of the most definitive conversations about the topic.

The internet never forgets, they say, and I dare say, it also never lets anyone hide.

The immediacy of social networks means rape victims can quickly report incidents or even live-stream them and call the attention of the public to a potential or habitual sexual abuse.

In other cases, it helps to keep incidents on the burner. For a people that very easily forgets, it is important that a lot of these cases are not swept beneath the carpet.

This week, the matter involving Mr Adenekan resurfaced on social media, after the school in focus, Chrisland, released a letter defending itself and the teacherwho has since been relocated to the school's mainland annex.

Why is Chrisland Schools on the defensive?

In the text, among many senile assertions, it claimed that the matter seemed like a paid attack on the schools integrity and that after building a culture over 30 or so years, it was certain that none of its teachers would commit a foul deed.

It has also been revealed that the school hired the services of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the highest professional honour given in the Nigerian legal profession, to defend the accused teacher.

It is immensely demoralising that a school entrusted with the safety of a child would vehemently defend a person where the evidence so clearly leans against him.

It would sadden any parent that a suspected child molester is presumed innocent, even after his victim, a child, has identified him.

It leaves you wondering how many such cases have been overlooked, left unreported, dismissed or swept awayat a time when there were no virtual communities like Twitter to ensure that justice is served.

How many other children are getting molested at school?

The thought is worrying, that while we grew up in the 1990s and 2000s, our friends, brothers, sisters and relatives may have been abused but left unheard because their voices were not loud enough or there was no-one to amplify them.

It only makes sense, that on Twitter, a user has shared an account of the abuse she suffered at the young age of three and the fate of some of her peers who were not lucky enough to be heard as she was.

Twitter User, shared the story of a caregiver who groomed her over a substantial period before manipulating her into performing fellatio on him.

He also tried to penetrate her and after the pain from the incident remained, she told her mum.

According to her tweets, her parents made sure justice was served, perhaps in a form rawer than one would expect, but some of her friends were not that lucky.

ALSO READ:

Not Edna* was molested by her female teacher from when they were 5 till she turned 9. Not Emem* who performed fellatio on a teacher for years but couldnt tell anyone because her parents were hard as stone.

It was a time where people rarely ever talked about sensitive moral issues like sex and by extension, assault and molestation.

It is why this culture of sexual abuse got so strong, because molesters and abusers have learned that if they play their games well, no one will turn to ask questions or look suspiciously in their direction.

Well, all of that is changing. Still, the question arises; how do we deal with the fact that we may be entrusting our children to potential child molesters?

How do we protect our children?

How do you raise a child in todays world to be conscious and wary of sexual abuse without over-shielding them from what now passes as reality?

We can take a good lesson from the lessons our Twitter user learned from her mother.

As is usually the case with children, her mother used the acronym PANTS to teach her what she called the pants rule.

P- Private parts are private.

A  Always remember that your body is yours.

N- No means no.

T- There are no secrets from Mummy.

S  Say something, so I can do something about it

These pointers served their purpose because she had learned to tell when she was touched in an inappropriate manner.1. Women hand out chocolate in Japan

In Japan, it's the women who hand out the chocolate. Different chocolate signifies different relationships.

Giri-choko, translates as 'obligation chocolate' and is given to men without any romantic intention like bosses, colleagues, relatives and close male friends.

Cho-giri choko, is pity chocolate; cheap chocolate that girls give to people they don't really like but feel sorry for, such as an unpopular co-worker.

Honmei chocko, favourite or 'true feeling' chocolate is given to boyfriends, lovers and husbands.

2. In South Korea single ladies celebrate each other

The women in South Korea follow their Japanese sisters in presenting chocolate to men on February 14. But they also celebrate single life by catching up with their unattached friends and tucking into Jajangmyeon, a dish made up of white Korean noodles and black bean sauce.

3. Norwegians send funny poems

In Norway, secret admirers send the objects of their desire funny little poems called gaekkebrev. The only clues to their identity being a dot representing each letter of his name. If the recipient guesses who the poem is from, they earn themselves an Easter egg on Easter. If she doesn't, she has to give the man an egg.

4. Estonians celebrate friends day instead

In Estonia, Valentines Day is called Sobrapaev, or Friends Day. People exchange cards and gifts among friends with a cheery Happy Friends Day.

5. Gifting Love spoon by the WelshThe engagement was publicly acknowledged by the Vice President and his wife only yesterday, February 14 2018, when Prof Osinbajo tweeted and shared a post about it on Facebook.

"With joy and praise to the Lord, Dolly and I announce the betrothal of our daughter to ." the announcement reads.

Nigerians react

Reactions to the VPs daughters engagement have numerous, and most of the comments made have been about religious differences of the couple.

Recall that VP Osinbajo is an RCCG Pastor and according to biblical teachings, many Nigerians think his daughter, Damilola, who is also Christian should not be marrying a Muslim.

Oluseun Shamsideen Bakare is the son of Muslim billionaire businesswoman, Hajia Bola Shagaya.

This supposed mismatch has caused Nigerians to express various opinions about the upcoming marriage.

Daddy Freeze the outspoken OAP says:

"REDEEMED PASTOR OSHINBAJOS DAUGHTER SET TO MARRY...

"I congratulate them and sincerely wish them well as they look really happy and in love!

"His name seems Muslim If its normal church rats that want to marry Muslims, they wont agree o They will go as far as saying Allah is not God and say lets not be unequally yoked.

"But with the political pedigree involved here, Im sure even the GO and his Mummy will attend.

Twitter users have also had their say on the matter:

undefinedIs Seun Bakare really a Muslim?

It appears that these opinions maybe wrong.

TVC claims that although Seun is from a muslim background, hes no longer a Muslim.

He has reportedly converted to Christianity and is now a Sunday school teacher.NAN reports that lingeries are womens undergarments or sleepwears, especially, when designed to be visually or sexually alluring.

Some of the shop owners told NAN that they were surprised at seeing male customers demanding for pants for their lovers very early on Valentines Day .

Mrs Lara Oni who operates a lingerie shop in Sabo Market, Ikorodu, said there was a massive patronage from men who came to buy women undies.

I opened my shop around 7 a.m., and to my surprise, three men came in at once demanding for sets of bra and pants.

Each of them bought goods worth N25,000 from me, she said.

Also, Mr Adaraloye Tunde,a dealer in female night wears said many men had patronized his shop on Wednesdays morning to buy sexually attractive sleep wears for their lovers.

I have made huge sales this morning from my wares,many men trooped in this morning to get expensive and sexually alluring thongs and sleep wears for their lovers.

Another dealer in men and women undies,Mrs Seun Ogundele, said many underwear brands released eye-catching undies to the market during Valentine Season.

Ogundele said that more men were fond of buying them for their loved ones than women used to do.

At this time of the year, many lingerie brands release exclusive and eye-catching collections of undies but mens demands for them are higher than women.

I have made huge sales from womens lingeries more than from mens boxers,  she said.

Also,a customer who pleaded anonymity said that he used to buy lingeries for his lover during Valentine Season.

 She appreciates it more than any other gift.

I actually set aside some money to buy new undies for my girlfriend during Valentine Season because I always like to see her in sexy lingerie collections on the night of Valentines Day.The army boss disclosed this while speaking during the monthly press briefing of Operation Lafiya Dole in Maiduguri, Borno, on Wednesday, February 14, 2018.

Maj-Gen Nicholas reported that troops, especially under Operation DEEP PUNCH II, has recorded remarkable success against the terrorist group since he took over in December 2017.

When questioned over a recent video where Shekau declared that he was ready to die than bear the calamity that has befallen his terrorist group, Maj-Gen Nicholas said the army will do anything to apprehend him.

He said, "That is the statement of somebody who has already been defeated. He has seen what he has never seen before. We've romanced Shekau enough, so enough of the romance. We want him anyhow, dead or alive."

$1 biillion not enough to fight Boko Haram

During the briefing, Maj-Gen Nicholas also mentioned that the $1 billion controversially withdrawn from the Excess Crude Account is "grossly inadequate" because of the military costs of fighting the terrorists.

He further urged Boko Haram militants to come out of Sambisa Forest, lay down their arms and surrender to the Nigerian Army as they're fighting a lost cause.

Boko Haram menace

Since the insurgency of the terrorist group escalated after a 2009 crackdown by the military, Boko Haram, chiefly under Shekau's leadership, has been responsible for the death of over 20,000 people and the displacement of more than 2.5 million scattered across Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps across the country and its neighbours.The army announced the bounty in a statement signed by its Spokesman, Brig.-Gen. Sani Usman, on Thursday.

Anybody with such credible information can either contact the Military Command and Control Centre, Operation LAFIYA DOLE, any military location, security agencies or call the Nigerian Army Information and Call Centre 193, Usman said.

NAN reports that the Nigerian Army had on Tuesday said that it had credible information that Shekau was now dressing as a woman in an effort to escape the Theatre of Operation.

We reliably gathered that to avoid detection, Abubakar Shekau alternates between blue and black coloured hijabs. He was last seen in a black hijab.According to the Prosecutor, Sgt. Mike Unah, the accused committed the offences on Feb. 9 at 9.00 p.m. at Agege Railway Line, Oko-Oba, a Lagos suburb.

He told the court that the accused conducted himself in a manner likely to cause a breach of peace by assaulting and stabbing a man, Ahmed Adeoye, with a broken bottle on the head, neck, shoulder and hands.

The accused assaulted the complainant by punching him following an accusation that he stole his shoes.

The accused again attacked the complainant where he was seated with a broken bottle on the head, neck, shoulder and hands.

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty, while the Magistrate, Mr A. A. Fashola, granted him a bail of N50,000 with one surety in like sum.

The offences contravened Section 173 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 (Revised). The section prescribes three years imprisonment for offenders.The president's presence at the event was announced by his Personal Assistant on New Media, Bashir Ahmad, who posted on his Twitter account "President Muhammadu Buhari will today be the Special Guest of Honour at the Induction Ceremony of the Nigeria Air Force 'Tsaigumi Unmanned'."

The drone was indigenously designed and built by the Nigerian Air Force.

Buhari's 2nd Kaduna visit in 2018

The president's visit to Kaduna State on Thursday is his second in 2018 after he arrived the state on January 4, for a 1-day working visit.Nkanga said that the stations that the stations were sealed off in the past one week for violating government directives.

He explained that Dandy Oil and Willis Oil were sealed for diverting the products meant to be sold in the state while ConOil and three others were sanctioned for selling petrol above the government approved price of N145 per litre.

According to him, intensified surveillance was carried out to ensure that products released from the depot got to the public at government-approved price of N145 per litre.

In the past few days, we have embarked on intensified surveillance to ensure that products released to Cross River is sold at filling stations in the state and at the stipulated price.

Some marketers were found to have erred; some diverted the products and were not able to account for it.

Some of the marketers have come to report that the alleged diverted products have reached their stations; we are going to monitor them and ensure that the product is sold at N145 per litre.

Nkanga further said that DPR would soon start announcing the number of trucks released to the state and the allocations.

He said this would enable the public to report back in case such products were diverted by marketers.

He said that such effort was being initiated to ensure that products meant for each fuel station was delivered and sold to the public at the stipulated price.

Marketers should respect the guidelines covering their operations.

They should operate within the confines of the guidelines and ensure that products given to them are sold to the public accordingly.

The government is doing everything possible to bring back normalcy in petroleum product supply.The Book Presentation was organised by the Nobles Society for Human Rights and Development Advocacy (NOSHRIDA).

Bello, represented by his Special Adviser, Mr Enenche Eleojo, said that in July, 2015 he signed the Child Rights Act (Enforcement Procedure) Rules, 2015 to regulate and prescribe procedures to be followed in family courts.

He added that section 149 of the Act allows for the establishment of a Family Court in each state of the Federation and Abuja for the hearing and determining matters relating to children.

We have court designated as Family Courts both at the High Court and Magistrate Court levels in the FCT.

And the rules we are celebrating today is to regulate the practice procedure of the court on Childs Rights Enforcement.

There are also child development officers and child welfare secretariats in the FCT to help the court in its work.

However, we are not yet there. We still have shortfalls; we need family courts of international standards.

We need Borstal Homes and other institutional frameworks to achieve the desired excellent implementation of the Childs Right Act, the CJ added.

According to him, the level of utilisation of the Child Rights Act (Enforcement Procedure) Rules, 2015 to meet its ultimate target is still at its very minimal level.

Bello attributed the minimal utilisation of the rule to low level of the knowledge of its existence.

The Chief Judge commended Henry Akuchie and Armstrong Ukwuoma, authors of the book for creating awareness on the enforcement procedure of the act.

According to the CJ, the expectation is that the knowledge and usage of the rules will increase not only among the Bar and Bench, but also among the relevant institutions of government.

Children have always been an important part of our society.

Creating a special and dedicated system of justice administration for them was born out of understanding that they are relatively different from adults, he added.

The CJ stressed that children need special care and protection against the harshness of the normal court process.

Mr Abraham Yisa, Chairman of the event said that the book emphasizes on the rights of children, stating that the authors have taken a noble cause to ensure that the Nigerian child is protected.

According to Yisa, the book was written to explain and popularise the rules engaged in the promotion, protection and enforcement of the rights of children.

He noted that the future is bleak if the rights of the children are not protected in the country.

Dr Jaja Tonye, Senior Research Fellow, National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS), who reviewed the book, said the book was detailed and easy to assimilate.Lentis a solemn religious practice in the Christian calendar that begins on Ash Wednesday.

According to Daily Post, the Kaduna state Governor said that a lot can be achieved in Nigeria if there is peace.

El-Rufai also said On behalf of the good people of Kaduna State, I salute our Christian community as the holy season of Lent begins today, this Ash Wednesday.

I wish all the Christians in this State a peaceful and fruitful spiritual exercise in preparation for the grand celebration of Easter and its lesson of sacrifice, hope and renewal.

As Christians fast during Lent, I am aware that there is also a focus on reading the Bible, saying regular prayers and doing works of charity. It is my request that you pray earnestly for Kaduna State to continue to enjoy peace and peaceful coexistence among its citizens, and also support the poor as all the great religions teach.

"With peace, every part of Kaduna would experience development and jobs as people feel sufficiently confident to explore their talents and work hard to make the most of opportunities.

Let us also pray for peace in our country Nigeria, its unity and its stability. It is my prayer that this holy season will bring peace to us all and that Easter would be a joyous celebrations.

What is Lent?

It is basically about honoring the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ for forty days. This time line is modelled after His forty day fast in the desert.

Catholics and Ash Wednesday

Catholics see Ash Wednesdayas a compulsory ritual as it also initiates the beginning of a 40-day period of fasting, penance, and reflection known as Lent.The award was presented to Gov. Al-Makura by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, at the end of Presidential High Table Dialogue organised by the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Al-Makura was born on Nov. 15, 1953 in Lafia.

A Successful Businessman and Entrepreneur, Al- Makura later formed his private company TA`AL Nigeria Limited with specific interest in real estate and property development.

He was elected Governor of Nasarawa State in 2011 under the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and later got re-elected under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015.

Gov. Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom also got an award as the best performing Governor in the area Educational empowerment, good road network and payment of workers salary.

His Kano State counterpart, Gov. Umar Ganduje, received award of excellence as the best performing Governor in the area of war against drug abuse, good governance and the review of the Kano State Master plan.

Also, Gov. Rochas Okorocha of Imo, Gov. Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa, Gov. Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi state, Gov. Jibrilla Bindow of Adamawa and Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi were all awarded as the best performing Governors in Agriculture and rural infrastructure in their respective states.

However, Gov. Simon Lalong of Plateau also received award of the best performing Governor of the year 2017, especially in the area of peace and security.

He was reported to have established an agency in charge of peace and reconciliation to consolidate on the peace building effort of the government.

In his goodwill message, Gov. Al-Makura, thanked the entire management and staff of NTA for appreciating the developmental efforts carried out by the governors in their various states.Jadi said the arrest and seizure followed series of surveillance on the activities of the suspects who specialised in the distribution of Tramadol capsules and tablets in the state.

He said the two-day seizure comprised 421.100 kg of Tramadol and 30 kg of Cannabis Sativa (Hemp) on the first day.

Also, on the same day, another 198 kg of Tramadol was seized in Kamba town of Dandi Local Government Area, he said.

According to him, the drugs were concealed in motorcycle empty cartons in order to beat suspicious security agencies.

Jadi said another notorious dealer was also arrested in Zuru Local Government Area with a total of 8.00kg of Diazapam and Benhexol psychotropic.

From the figures of drugs seized, it will be realised that within two days, the command seized a total of 667.200 kgs of the drugs out of circulation  approximately 0.656 tones a day.

Put together, the total street value of all these drugs is about N31 million, he said.

Imagine, if we can make this achievement in just two days with only one vehicle, the level of achievements we would have recorded if we had enough logistics, he saidThe News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the presidential aircraft carrying the president and some members of his encourage landed at the Umaru Musa Yaradua International Airport at about 4.40p.m.

The President, who was welcomed at the airport by Gov. Aminu Masari and a large crowd of supporters and well-wishers, boarded a presidential helicopter that conveyed him to Daura.

President Buhari had earlier today inaugurated the Nigerian Air Force Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, named; TSAIGUMI.

Tsaigumi is Nigerias first indigenously developed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.

NAN further reports that Presidents helicopter landed at the Daura helipad at about 5.15p.m, where he was received by the Emir of Daura, Alhaji Umar Faruk, senior councilors of the Daura Emirate and large crowd of people from within and outside the state.

While in Daura, the President is expected to receive visitors who would be trooping to his private resident to console him on the death of Hajiya Halima Dauda and Hajiya Aisha Alhaji Mamman.

Hajiya Halima Dauda, was the Presidents niece and younger sister to his close associate and nephew Malam Mamman Daura while Hajiya Aisha Alhaji Mamman was the wife of the Presidents older brother, Alhaji Mamman.According to a report by The Punch, the incident happened on Wednesday, February 14, 2018, while Igbnovia was watching over the suspects with his comrades searching the area for more suspects who had allegedly staged a robbery on the Benin-Abraka Expressway.

The soldiers arrived the community in a Honda car with the number plate, AP 641 KTN, and killed Igbnovia as they fired continuously.

The soldiers reportedly set the imprisoned herdsmen free after the vigilante was killed.

Residents protest against injustice

A few angry residents of the community showed outrage at the shooting by blocking the path of a commercial bus conveying two of the herdsmen earlier arrested to the Benin Central Hospital for medical treatment.

The crowd had to be dispersed by operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

One of the protesters, Henry Osemwengie, explained that six herdsmen had been arrested by the vigilante group and handed over to police authorities.

He said, "Two other herdsmen, suspected to be members of the gang, were later caught. Igbinovia was asked to stay with them. Before then, the police had been called to come to pick them (herdsmen) because that is what we usually do.

"Suddenly, a red Honda car with about four men in military uniforms and armed with AK-47 rifles came and started shooting.

"Igbinovia shouted that he had been hit. By the time the other vigilantes returned, he was already down. The soldiers killed him and went away with the two robbers. Robbers, most of whom are Hausas, usually operate there. They keep their cows by the roadside, block the road and start robbing."

Mistaken identity - Army

While reacting to the incident, the spokesperson for the 4 Brigade Command of the Nigerian Army, Captain Mohammed Maidawa, said Igbinovia's shooting was an accident.

He reported that troops had been deployed to the community in response to the same armed robbery complaint and had mistaken the victim to be a perpetrator of the attack because he was armed.

He said, "Troops deployed in Ologbo for pipeline protection received information of a suspected armed robbery close to their location. They were mobilised to the scene and engaged armed men at the scene.

"Unfortunately, one person, who was later identified as a vigilante, was killed. Preliminary investigation revealed that the vigilance group also responded to a distress call on the robbery. It was a case of mistaken identity. We are going to get in touch with the bereaved family."

Police investigating incident

According to the Edo State Commissioner of Police, Johnson Kokumo, the police is already investigating the incident.

He said, "It is an allegation we are investigating. Actually, one of the vigilance members died in the course of duty."The minister spoke on the achievements of his ministry and other burning national issues.

highlights five important things the minister said.

PDP is only hungry for money

Amaechi said all the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is after is not power but money.

The minister who governed Rivers State for eight years under the PDP said the opposition would automatically bring back corruption if the APC loses in 2019.

If we don't win, corruption will come back automatically, Amaechi announced.

The way it will come back because the people (PDP) are out, they have been out for four years. They have never been out of government before. PDP never left government so now, they are hungry; not hungry for power, but money.

In fact if you tell them that I want to keep power and I will give you money, they will say take power and give us the money.

I hope Nigerians remember that by the time we came, we were borrowing money to pay salaries. I hope you people remember that we are not borrowing money to pay salaries, we are using our money.

If we are not borrowing to pay salaries, it means we are generating our own money. I hope Nigerians remember under the past government oil was at $110, $120.

But when we came oil was $58. The highest that we have gotten is the mistake that happened in the last two weeks that it rose to $70 or $80 after one day it came down to a little above $50 instantly, Amaechi added.

Buhari deserves a second term

The transport minister said President Buhari deserves a second term to consolidate his achievements during his first term.

One reason our economy is not growing is lack of infrastructure. So what happened when we had this money? What did we do with that money? We say 'Oh stop criticizing them do your own'.

The truth is that the president is eliminating corruption because it is that resource we can use to do Lagos-Ibadan [rail]. Do you know why they didn't finish Abuja-Kaduna rail [then]? Counterpart funding. They could not pay. When we came, we paid N23 billion. The counterpart funding for Lagos-Ibadan is N72 billion, we have paid.

So, are we perfect? No. Have we made mistakes? Yes. Can we overcome the mistakes, we have made? Yes. Can we surmount the challenges we met in the office? Yes. But again we need more than four years to do that, the minister said.

Buharis re-election will not come easy

Amaechi hinted that campaigning for Buharis re-election would be more difficult than 2015.

It was not easy last time but it will be more difficult now. Expectations were too high, and a lot of people felt that we did not meet those expectations but they are not looking at what it takes to meet those expectations.

In fact, the president got worried and he called me and said 'Amaechi go and reduce the expectation' and I said 'Oga I'm not a magician', the minister said.

There is corruption in the Buhari government.

I will nearly be a foolish man to say that there is no corruption in this government, but compare the magnitude if there is any, he said.

Before it was with impunity. Now there are consequences for stealing.Senator Suleiman Nazif who is Chairman of the senate committee on INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission), presented his report before Senate President Bukola Saraki.

In that report were amendments to the order of the 2019 elections as unveiled by INEC in January

Saraki thereafter subjected the recommendations to a voice vote after a war of words with Senator Kabiru Gaya; as the atmosphere grew even more tense.

Of course the ayes had it and the sequence of the 2019 elections was altered by the Senate after the House had passed a similar recommendation.

The Senate session became rowdy and a few lawmakers engaged in shouting matches with their colleagues across the aisle.

More than a dozen furious lawmakers staged a walkout from the chamber.

What are the old and new sequence of elections?

In INECs election timetable unveiled on January 9, 2018, the sequence of elections are as follows:

a) Presidential and National Assembly elections (February 16, 2019)

b) Governorship and State House of Assembly elections (March 2, 2019)

INECs sequence has the election to choose a new president coming before all other elections

However, in the amended version of the election timetable, the presidential election comes last.

The senates sequence is as follows:

a) National Assembly elections.

(b) State Houses of Assembly and Governorship elections.

(c) Presidential election.

All of the above will occur on separate days.

Essentially, Section 25 of the Electoral Act has been substituted with Section 25 (1) which has now been adopted by a joint session of the national assembly.

Why is the sequence of elections such a thing?

Because theres something called the bandwagon effect during election season in Nigeria.

When a president from a particular political party wins the popular vote, that party then goes on to sweep parliamentary and State elections.

Its almost a given in these parts. Ask the PDP.

Once Buhari won the 2015 election, the APC went on to win most governorship and parliamentary seats across the country.

In the north of Nigeria, it was called APC SAK; which is roughly translated to vote for APC everywhere, no matter which candidate is on the ballot.

Many candidates became governors and senators off Buharis popularity, goodwill and instant name recognition.

Besides, when a president is elected from a particular party, it is rule of thumb that parliamentary elections are skewed in favour of that party just to align with Aso Rock for pecuniary reasons.

Votes are also rigged in favour of the party that has just produced the president. Don't ask us how.

Executive is not liking new sequence

The reason why the executive may not like the national assemblys election sequence is because if other elections hold first and the presidents party is already losing seats in States and parliaments, it would be as good as Buharis fate being sealed before his own election.

The presidency is already viewing the move from senators as a ploy to unseat Buhari in 2019, sources have said.

If APC loses parliamentary and governorship seats before the presidential election, that may send a message across the world. A message that says Nigerians are on the verge of voting out the incumbent president.

It may also lead to the governing APC and Buhari throwing in the towel at the center.

But does this mean that the national assembly sequence of elections is now law?

No, it isnt.

Buhari has the final say here because he has to assent to the resolutions from the national assembly.

If he vetoes it as hes likely to, then the resolutions of both chambers of parliament will have no effect whatsoever.

However, the national assembly can then override the presidents veto, leaving room for a legal battle on this between the executive and the legislature.

INEC may also sue, asking the court whose right it is to determine election sequences: the legislature's or the electoral umpires?

INEC national commissioner on voter education and publicity, Solomon Soyebi, puts it this way: If it's assented to by the president, it becomes a law. We have no basis to disobey the law; we have to work within the law as it is.There has been public outcry against the agency after pictures and videos emerged online showing apparently underage children voting during a recent election in Kano State.

While speaking on the African Independent Television (AIT) on Wednesday, February 14, 2018, INEC's Director of Publicity and Voter Education, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, explained that the reason officials cannot prevent underage registration and voting in the region is that they are threatened by some members of the community.

He said when officials face apparent danger, they can decide to cave in to the pressure and report the issue when they are in a safe zone.

He said, "I agree that it is the responsibility of the registration officer to do that (refuse to register underage persons), but there are times that circumstances are such that where there is present and clear danger that he risks being assaulted or being killed, I think it will be unreasonable to expect him not to succumb to the pressure. But we encourage them to report immediately they get out of that dangerous zone.

"Even to the untrained eye, that child doesn't look more than 15, but in such circumstances, you cannot argue too much with them. The law says the registration officer is entitled to act on some kind of identification or birth certificate or proof of age.

"But very often, they are resisted, especially when there are lots of people there. They are challenged in a charged atmosphere and they are there without any protection.

"Many of them are there in strange communities which they don't know anything about. So, there is undue pressure on them to register at this point."

INEC can undo underage registration

Osaze-Uzzi further revealed that the agency has mechanisms in place to invalidate registrations that are made under undue pressure such as threat to life of officials.

He said, "It is not a complex process, you display the voter register and people come there. That is in addition to the fact that the registration officer can refuse anybody registration. But we don't expect people to risk their lives for what is essentially a simple patriotic service.

"But if they get away with that (getting registered) and the report is not taken, the second opportunity is when the register is displayed.

"The best opportunity is where higher officials physically look at each register as much as they can and those who are clearly not qualified are removed. So, it is a three-pronged process and there are different stages."PDP gave the advice in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan on Wednesday in Abuja.

The party gave the advice while reacting to INEC position on current videos and pictures in the social media platforms showing underage persons voting.

According to Ologbondiyan, the videos and pictures are showing underage persons thumb-printing ballot papers and casting their votes during the last Saturday local government elections in Kano state.

He said that Nigerians had lost confidence in the INEC.

Ologbondiyan said reviewing the voter register was the only way the commission could demonstrate its independence to Nigerians.

The PDP condemned the commission for attempting to cover its complicity in the widespread impunity recorded, particularly under age voting that characterised the state local council elections.

The party said it was INEC that registered the minors as voters in the first place.

Ologbondiyan said, as such the commission should not in any way attempt to exonerate itself of involvement in the electoral fraud, simply because it did not directly conduct the elections.

He condemned a statement by INEC, wherein it tried to exonerate itself from culpability in the participation of minors in the Kano election.

 Is it not INEC that registered the minors and issued them with Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to participate in elections as clearly documented in the Kano council election.

Can INEC truly acquit itself as the original culprit who set the stage for the eventual participation of the minors and overall rigging of theelections, he said.

He said that INEC should not give lame excuses or exonerate itself at a time it should be taking decisive steps to protect the sanctity of its sensitive materials such as the PVC.

Indeed, if this INEC is serious about the sanctity of sensitiveelectoral materials, by now, it should have ordered the immediate review of its voter register in Kano and Katsina states.

INEC supposes to be fishing out and prosecuting those who registered the minors and clean up the electoral system in the affected states.

He accused INEC of allowing itself to be used for irregularities in favour of the ruling party.

This, according to the party, was witnessed in the last Saturdays Mashi/Dutsi Federal Constituency Supplementary election in Katsina state.

Finally, we want INEC to note, and in very strong terms too, that Nigerians will not accept anything short of credible, free and fair general elections.

The commission should therefore ensure that it does not allow itself to be used by the APC against the will of the people, particularly in the 2019 elections, as such will be highly resisted.

INEC in a reaction to allegation by its Director, Voter Education and Publicity, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi recently, said the images did not relate in any way to any election organised, conducted or superintended by INEC.

Osaze-Uzzi said the commission could not be held directly or vicariously liable for an exercise outside its legal purview.This is following the Governors endorsement of his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu for Governor of Imo in 2019.

Okorocha reportedly said that he will give Nwosu, who is his chief of staff, his full support.

In a swift reaction, the Imo PDP spokesman, Damian Opara said that Imo people will not allow Okorocha rule by proxy.

Opara also warned the people of Imo state not to vote for Okorochas sonin-law, adding that he is a chip of the old block.

He said It has been on the air since Monday that Governor Okorocha has endorsed his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, to take over from him in 2019 as the Governor of Imo State.

For us in PDP, we are not afraid of this seeming caricature of governance because we know we are taking over in the next election, but what has continued to amaze us is why Okorocha wants to turn Imo State into a family business.

The endorsement of his son-in-law is a confirmation of the fact that Okorocha is taking his luck too far, having abused the privilege Imolites gave to him when he was elected governor.

The question we are asking is; what is the ground for this endorsement? Is it the fact that he has done so well or what has Rochas family offered to Imo State?

Again, we reiterate our stand that were not afraid, but we want to warn Imolites to beware of whoever Okorocha is bringing on board because it is going to be the same disaster.

In Imo, it is better to steal than smoke Indian hemp

Governor Rochas Okorocha recently told Imo residents that than to smoke Indian hemp.

Okorocha said this to buttress the harmful effect of Indian hemp, and the fact that it has been outlawed in Imo state.

Jacob Zuma and his statue in Imo

Governor Okorocha drew the fury of some Nigerians when he erected a statue in honour of the former President Jacob Zuma of South Africa

Zuma resigned as President on February 14, 2018, following pressure from his party, African National Congress (ANC) to step-down.He was arrested shortly after arriving from London where he gave interviews in which he was critical of the government.

Five aides were also arrested, the officials said. Rights lawyer Gamal Eid told AFP that they were subsequently released, but Abul Fotouh remained in custody to be questioned om Thursday.

The arrests came after a statement by Abul Fotouh and several other politicians calling for a boycott of next month's election.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is expected to easily win the election after most rivals were sidelined or withdrew.

His most credible rival, former military chief of staff Sami Anan, was detained last month shortly after announcing his candidacy. The military said he was still enlisted and had no right to run in the election.

He is accused of fraud for registerting on the voters' database, and incitement against the military.

Anan's top campaign aide Hisham Geneina, a former anti-corruption chief sacked by Sisi, was remanded into custody on Wednesday, a day after his arrest, for suggesting Anan possessed and could release documents damning to top state officials.

His lawyer Ali Taha told AFP that he did not know where Geneina was being held, and that he needed medical attention for injuries he sustained when a group of men attacked him in the street days earlier.

Sisi was elected in 2014, a year after the former army chief ousted his unpopular Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi.

Abul Fotouh, once a leading member of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, had supported the mass protests against the Islamist that prompted the military to topple him.

He has since been critical of Sisi who has been accused of clamping down on dissent.

Sisi's only remaining rival is a leader of a small party who had been a leading campaigner for Sisi until he abruptly announced his own candidacy.

Critics said he did so to save Sisi the embarrassment of being the only candidate, in a throwback to referendums held by Egyptian autocrats instead of elections.

The government has rejected such criticism and the candidate, Moussa Mostafa Moussa, insists he is a serious contender.

Former army general and prime minister Ahmed Shafiq had also announced he would stand in the election.

Shafiq made his announcement from exile in the United Arab Emirates, which promptly sent him back to Egypt where he was received by state officials who took him to a hotel.Maria de Jesus Patricio, who is known to supporters as "Marichuy," has been touring the country trying to collect the signatures needed to become the first indigenous woman ever to make it onto the presidential ballot in Mexico.

"Our spokeswoman, Marichuy, and councilwoman Lucero Islava were injured," said a statement from the National Indigenous Congress, the organization backing her candidacy.

Another councilman was "very badly" injured, it said. It did not specify what kind of injuries he sustained.

A woman who worked on the campaign was killed in the accident, it said.

Patricio has apparently broken her left arm and is being airlifted to the state capital La Paz, 700 kilometers south of the scene of the accident, said state health minister Victor George Flores.

President Enrique Pena Nieto sent his sympathies.

"I am saddened by the accident that Maria de Jesus Patricio Martinez and her companions had," he wrote on Twitter.

"The navy is helping provide medical attention and ground and air transport for the injured."

Marichuy, 54, a traditional healer from the Nahuatl ethnic group, is a long shot to win the July 1 election to succeed Pena Nieto, and may not even gather the million signatures required to stand as an independent candidate.Security forces fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrations in numerous villages, while reinforcements were dispersed across the country to prevent the protesters from blocking highways.

Home to a majority Shiite Muslim population, Bahrain has been ruled for more than 200 years by the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty.

The tiny kingdom, located between Saudi Arabia and its arch-rival Iran, has been shaken by unrest since security forces crushed the 2011 protest movement demanding a constitutional monarchy and an elected prime minister.

The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said in a statement Wednesday that seven Bahraini journalists had been stripped of their nationality since that movement began.

Under Bahrain's citizenship law, amended after the protests broke out, people who engage in acts deemed "disloyal" to the state can be their nationality.

The kingdom has stripped hundreds of its citizens of their nationality, in some cases deporting them to Iraq, and has jailed dozens of high-profile activists and religious clerics over the past seven years.

Manama accuses Iran of backing the protests and attempting to overthrow the monarchy. Tehran denies involvement.Normally such ridges tend to come and go, but they also lingered during the 2012-16 drought, the worst in the states history.

We are now seeing another year that looks like one of those drought years, said Daniel Swain, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at the University of California, Los Angeles, who during the drought coined the term ridiculously resilient ridge to describe the atmospheric pattern.

This one is definitely a resilient ridge, but we dont know if its quite reaching the ridiculous threshold, said Swain, who blogs about Californias weather.

By one measure, at least, drought has already returned. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, most of the southern half of California is now experiencing moderate or severe drought, a marked change from three months ago, when less than 10 percent of the state was in moderate drought and no part was in severe drought.

The Los Angeles area has been especially dry. Swain said that Los Angeles has had only one 24-hour period with rainfall of more than one-third of an inch in nearly a year. The one exception, Jan. 8-9, was the day the Santa Barbara area just to the north was inundated with even more rain, leading to deadly mudslides.

But overall, the current conditions are far less extreme than in 2015 and 2016, at the tail end of the drought. At times in 2015 more than half the state was considered to be in extreme drought, the drought monitors highest category. That spring, the state imposed a mandatory 25 percent reduction in water use in urban areas.

State water officials note that this year, as a result of the drought-ending rains of a year ago, there is plenty of water in Californias reservoirs, so there are no critical supply issues that could lead to similar restrictions.

Even so, the dry, warm weather that has persisted since late fall is taking a toll, with snowpack in the Sierra Nevada  the source of about one-third of Californias water  at 21 percent of normal on Monday. Without a flurry of storms to add to the snowpack in the next few months, the low snowpack could eventually lead to supply problems, especially if dry conditions persist for the next few years.

The high-pressure ridge tends to shunt storms north toward British Columbia, said Marty Ralph, director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Its very normal to have a ridge, said Ralph, who studies atmospheric rivers, trails of tropical moisture that in a normal year are responsible for much of Californias precipitation. It usually breaks down at some point and packs of storms break through.

A few studies have suggested that the persistence of such blocking ridges in certain parts of the world may be linked to climate change. But a range of conditions in the Pacific Ocean not necessarily related to climate change, including El Nino and La Nina, can contribute to the formation and positioning of a ridge, Swain said.

The thin California snowpack is also a function of high temperatures. Following a record warm summer and fall in the state, temperatures have continued well above normal this winter. In the Sierra town of Truckee, California, on Thursday the high temperature, 64, was 21 degrees above the historical average.

What were seeing is more precipitation as rain than as snow, said Doug Carlson, a spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources. The warmer temperatures raise the snow line, the elevation above which it is cold enough that precipitation falls as snow. They also cause what snow there is to melt faster.

Rain runs off immediately, while snowpack serves as a reservoir of water that is released over time as it melts. So, changes in the proportions of snow and rain and the rate of snowmelt can affect the availability and timing of water for people, industry and agriculture.

The snowpack conditions in the Sierra this year may be an extreme example of what scientists suggest will be the case with climate change  that as average temperatures rise, average snowpack will decline, perhaps by as much as 25 percent by midcentury.

The blocking pattern in the atmosphere has also brought warm, dry conditions to the Rocky Mountains and the Colorado River basin, said Greg Smith, a senior hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City.

The pattern is very strong this year, Smith said. Most of the storms track to the north of the region, he said, and the storms that do come in tend to be weak.

The situation in the lower Colorado basin  most of Arizona and parts of Utah, New Mexico, Nevada and California  is especially bad, with snow totals at or near record lows at many locations.

As in California, the upper Colorado basin  parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming  had plenty of snow runoff last year, Smith said. But without significant snowfall by April, even the upper basin will suffer. His forecast for the runoff this year into Lake Powell, the reservoir at the junction of the upper and lower basins, is the seventh-lowest in history, with expectations that the reservoir will receive less than half of its usual supply from melting snowpack.

Theres definitely some concern for supplies in some areas as we see these forecast numbers drop, Smith said. Were kind of hopeful well see a pattern change in the next couple of months. Were running out of time.

The New York TimesIn the case of his Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, he drew on the work of previous masters.

But Romeo + Juliet, which returned to repertory on Tuesday, is all Martins. (That + comes from the 1996 Baz Luhrmann movie.) There are worse versions of Romeo, but few so perfunctory or thin. Originally choreographed in 2007, Martins featured an immediately notorious moment  Lord Capulet audibly slapped his daughter Juliet  that has now been excised. Instead of the slap, Lord Capulet now merely swipes the air in anger. Amid his several showily blustering gestures, this one is scarcely noticeable.

What remains, however, is the gruesome way Romeo kills Tybalt. What on earth impelled Martins to make Romeo suddenly wrap Tybalts head in his cloak and stab him repeatedly in the back? Any Romeo abounds in fights and deaths, but this incident remains among the most gratuitously unpleasant. It also robs Romeo of audience sympathy.

Martins choreography allows Prokofievs illustrious score to do much of his work for him. Although most of his dances here look like unfinished sketches  as is true of most of the ballets Martins made after taking over City Ballet  the narrative action they represent is almost always the action Prokofievs music has in mind. I dont find this to be one of the great ballet scores; in terms of rhythm and melody, Prokofiev composed much better dance music in Cinderella. But for an audience, Romeo is like the best movie accompaniment ever written.

If only Martins had a better notion of how to direct this movielike ballet! Mark Stanleys lighting is too dim for us ever to feel were getting a close-up of the leading characters faces. (You keep peering at them through the gloom.) Per Kirkebys designs are a weird assortment of colors, styles and periods: Juliets dresses are absurdly short amid the approximately Renaissance context; the movable gray central decor looks a mix of primitivist-Minoan and late-medieval; and the costumes geometric figures and color combinations are a clumsy bend of modernism and postmodernism. There are several passages in which the stage action makes little rhythmic response to the musics overwhelming pulse  most obviously in the Capulets outrage over the death of Tybalt.

The best sustained dances are for peripheral characters and dont advance the plot. The productions sole true hit is a number for five boys (students from School of American Ballet) who turn up out of nowhere. Juliets five girlfriends, arriving on the morning of her wedding to Paris, have a dance that has more charm and musical phrasing than anything she gets herself.

When this production was new, Martins cast four pairs of junior dancers  all beneath principal level, and most in the corps  and announced that he wanted their youthfulness to make the story for real. It paid off in terms of those young dancers careers. (The first-cast Romeo was Robert Fairchild, now a Broadway name.) Yet almost 11 years later, Sterling Hyltin, Tiler Peck and Erica Pereira are still cast as Juliet, and Daniel Ulbricht remains the first-cast Mercutio. Tuesday nights performance was my first return to the production since its first year: Hyltin and Ulbricht were no less real than before.

Harrison Coll, a corps dancer who made his debut as Romeo on Tuesday, is endearingly impulsive and coltish. Its to his credit that he cant making the brutal killing of Tybalt ring true. That savagery is uncharacteristic of this Romeo anyway; its just another of the productions gimmicks.

There are five casts of lovers this year. Three of the Romeos  Zachary Catazaro, Chase Finlay, Taylor Stanley  are principals, as is a fourth Juliet, Lauren Lovette. Although Martins never again took such risks in casting his Romeo with juvenile dancers after 2007, he often took them in the companys central repertory of ballets by George Balanchine. This was one of the Balanchine lessons he learned best.

Supporting characters  Lady Capulet (Maria Kowroski), Paris (Russell Janzen), the Duke of Verona (Silas Farley), Friar Laurence (Aaron Sanz)  have mime gestures that register with more force than when the production was new. As with so many Martins ballets, you think, This could be good when he gets around to finishing it.

Andrew Litton, who is conducting 10 of the 11 performances, shapes the score marvelously, even though moments of brass and woodwind playing on Tuesday let him down. From individual portamenti to overall sections, he really sets a stamp on the music in a way we seldom hear in ballet. In several other works, Litton isnt always quite right with tempo or as a propulsive accompanist to dancers, but here his contribution powerfully enriches a patchy show.

The New York TimesRapp was not yet 20 in 1966 when, as a lark, he and a few friends sent a demo tape to ESP-Disk, an adventurous record company whose roster included the Fugs, an underground rock band known for humor and bawdiness.

We said: You have the Fugs. Were not just like the Fugs, but you might be interested,' he recalled in an interview for Jason Weiss book Always in Trouble: An Oral History of ESP-Disk, the Most Outrageous Record Label in America (2012). And they immediately sent a letter or a telegram. Yeah, come sign up with us, do a record! It was easier in those days, apparently, to get on a record.

The result was One Nation Underground, released in 1967, which became a favorite on college and underground radio. The album is full of unusual instruments and was recorded in four days, primarily at Impact Sound in New York.

They recorded all kinds of things, Rapp said of Impact Sound, so there were lots of different instruments at the studio  Middle Eastern groups and everything  so any kind of instrument in the world seemed to be right there, and we were allowed to use them. A lot of it was just impromptu.

A second album, Balaklava, came in 1968, and others followed, Rapp being the constant in an ever-changing band lineup, writing the songs, singing and playing assorted instruments.

The Florida-born Swine are not easy to describe, Paul Nelson wrote in The New York Times in 1968. Like Country Joe and the Fish, a well-known Berkeley band, they are either so simple they are complex or so complex they are simple.

The group switched to the Reprise label after two records, and Rapp eventually went solo, on albums like Sunforest (1973). But he then changed course radically, leaving music, enrolling in college and in the early 1980s receiving a degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

I wanted to do something more real, with a more direct effect on people, he told Knight-Ridder Newspapers in 1987, by which time he was working for a Philadelphia law firm, handling cases involving matters like workplace discrimination.

But he returned to performing in 1997, and he continued to make occasional appearances after that. In 1999 he released a new solo album, A Journal of the Plague Year."

I got into a 12-step program for reclusivity, he explained to an audience at the Knitting Factory in Manhattan in 1997. This is my 12th step.

Thomas Dale Rapp was born on March 8, 1947, in Bottineau, North Dakota. His parents, Dale and Eileen, were both teachers.

He grew up in North Dakota, Minnesota and Florida, where he graduated from Eau Gallie High School, just north of Melbourne, in 1965.

The songs he wrote for Pearls Before Swine might be anti-war, like Uncle John from the first album, released in the midst of the Vietnam War:

With your chamber-of-commerce soul

You talk of war so bold

God is on our side, but

Hes lost in your wallet fold.

Or they could be airy, or humorous, or mysterious. Space folkies, one writer called the band, and its sound was variously described as acid folk, hippie folk and psychedelic rock. Rapp had his own description.

I like to write about the old things  old myths and legends, Valhalla, elves and dwarfs, magic rings and magic men, he told The New York Times in 1968. If you really want to give our particular sound a name, how about transcendental rock?

Among Rapps claims to fame is Rocket Man, a song from Pearls Before Swines 1970 album, The Use of Ashes. It is said to have been among the inspirations for the Elton John hit of the same name.

Pearls Before Swine sold a decent number of records for a non-Top 40 group, but Rapp said he never made any money off the band, for various reasons, including being mishandled by a shady producer. He told The Washington Post that in 1976, figuring any future songwriting and performing would just enrich other people, he quit the music business and got a job in Cambridge, Massachusetts, selling popcorn at a theater.

I knew at the end of the week, every single week, I would get $85, he said. I was insane with joy.

He eventually enrolled at Brandeis University, graduating in the late 1970s, and then law school.

I think of myself as doing 60s law, he said in the 1987 interview. The major body of law I do is discrimination. Most of the major statutes in my field come out of the 1960s.

But thanks to the internet and some album reissues, new fans continued to find his music, and in 1997 he was invited to appear at the Terrastock Festival in Providence, Rhode Island. It was the start of a mini-resurgence. Last year saw a 50th-anniversary reissue of One Nation Underground.

Rapps first marriage, to Elisabeth Joosten in 1968, ended in divorce in the mid-1970s. His second marriage, to Susan Hein, also ended in divorce. In addition to his son, he is survived by his wife, Lynn Madison, whom he married in 1995; two sisters, Kathy Parks and Patty Lent; and a granddaughter.

Rapp once told the story of being on the bill at a Philadelphia concert sandwiched between two other acts. He was told that because of a scheduling blunder he would have only one minute to play. The promoter said he could collect his pay and simply leave, but Rapp claimed his 60 seconds.

I said, I can do a one-minute show, and I can get a standing ovation,' he recalled in the 1987 interview. He took the stage and played nothing, instead simply saying, Would you please stand up and applaud if you think hes guilty?

It was 1974, when President Richard M. Nixon was embroiled in the Watergate investigation.

The New York TimesFRANCE: The national railway must refocus on the areas where it has greatest relevance: transporting large numbers of passengers within urban areas, and providing high speed connectivity between Frances principal cities.Ulmart co-owner charged with fraud released from house arrest

 RIA Novosti, Alexey Kudenko

11:14 15/02/2018

ST. PETERSBURG, February 15 (RAPSI) - The Smolninsky District Court of St. Petersburg has released Dmitry Kostygin, a co-owner of Russian Internet retailer Ulmart, charged with credit fraud, from house arrest.

An investigator has not submitted evidence that the house arrest of Kostygin should be extended.

According to case papers, Kostygin acting as the Board Chairman of Ulmart provided false information on the companys financial position to Sberbank for signing a loan agreement. In April, Sberbank transferred 1 billion rubles ($17.3 million at the current exchange rate) to the companys account. The accused allegedly managed the money in his discretion.

The defendant pleaded not guilty, his lawyer Konstantin Dobrynin told RAPSI.

Earlier, the Smolninsky District Court of St. Petersburg granted an application by Sberbank seeking to invalidate the contract concluded between Kostygin and businessman Oleg Morozov, on the basis of which a bankruptcy petition was filed against Ulmart.

In February 2015, Ulmart received a 250-millionruble credit from Kostygin for a year. In early 2016, Kostygin assigned his right to claim a debt to Morozov. The businessman in turn filed a bankruptcy petition against Ulmart with a commercial court because the company did not pay the debt.

Moreover, the Dzerzhinsky District Court of St. Petersburg collected 653 million rubles ($11.3 million) in debt from Kostygin in favor of VTB bank.

Ulmart group of companies is the largest Russian private Internet holding focusing on e-commerce segment. The companys distribution network consists of over 400 sales outlets across more than 240 Russian cities and towns.Four defendants in Vostochny embezzlement case found guilty

 RIA Novosti, Igor Ageenko

15:59 15/02/2018

MOSCOW, February 15 (RAPSI, Nikolay Merkulov) - Four defendants in a criminal case over embezzlement of 1.3 billion rubles ($23 million) during Vostochny Cosmodrome construction were found guilty on Thursday, RAPSI reported from the Simonovsky District Court of Moscow.

In January, a prosecutor demanded 8 years in prison for former CEO of Volga-Vyatka construction company (VVCC) Yevgeniya Degtyareva, 10 years in prison for her father Sergey Degtyarev, who is believed to be the real owner of the company, and 7 years in prison for ex-VVCC managers Alexander Bazankov and Murat Matuyev each. Moreover, the prosecutor asked the court to impose fines ranging from 1 to 1.5 million rubles on the defendants.

Investigators claim that in 2014, managers of Volga-Vyatka construction company (VVCC), a subcontractor for construction of roads to Vostochny Cosmodrome, received 300 million rubles ($5.3 million) as a down payment and expend the money for purposes other than that intended. Moreover, they channeled the public money to affiliated firms and individuals at a charge. According to the indictment, the total damage caused by the defendants is estimated at over 1.3 billion rubles.

The construction of the space center, due to become Russia's main launch site, began in 2012. The first launch vehicle operation was carried out on April 28, 2016.

Dozens of cases over embezzlement during the construction of Vostochny Cosmodrome have been launched in several Russian regions.Bill on meetings between detainees and their children reaches State Duma

 RIA Novosti, Aleksei Naumov

13:47 15/02/2018

MOSCOW, February 15 (RAPSI)  A bill introducing changes to the procedure of meetings between detained suspects or defendants in criminal cases and their children has been filed with the State Duma, the document published on the website of the lower house of parliament reads.

According to authors of the bill, currently such meetings require authorization from an investigator. A new procedure would allow detainees to have a right to two meetings a month with their children that are under age of 14 or are disabled.

The bill provides that the meetings are provided only with the authorization of a prosecutor.Property details:

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We're sorry, this article is not currently availableThe Budget for 2018-19 has at least five takeaways that are yet to receive adequate attention, says A K Bhattacharya.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

The fifth Budget of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has already drawn huge attention for its ambitious health insurance scheme, a special minimum support price package for farmers, the imposition of the long-term capital gains tax on equity, an increase in the customs duty and surcharge on a host of imported goods and a substantially relaxed road map for fiscal consolidation.

But going beyond these measures, the Budget for 2018-19 has at least five more takeaways that are yet to receive adequate attention.

Here is an attempt to list them along with their key implications.

Bigger government: Contrary to expectations that the size of the government under the National Democratic Alliance will get smaller, there has been a rise in the headcount of employees in government departments, though the pace of increase has declined considerably.

At the end of February 2016, the number of government employees was estimated at 3.25 million (32.5 lakh).

This increased by 230,000 to 3.48 million (34.8 lakh) a year later at the end of February 2017.

But by the end of February 2018, the number of employees on government rolls will go up to 3.5 million (35 lakh), a much lower increase of only 25,000 employees.

Significantly, the headcount for the Indian Railways, the largest employer at 1.3 million (13 lakh), has remained unchanged in the last three years.

In keeping with that trend, government expenditure on pay, allowances and travel expenses is set to grow by less than 6 per cent at Rs 2.07 lakh crore in 2018-19, compared to an 8 per cent rise at Rs 1.95 lakh crore in 2017-18.

The increase in 2016-17 was much higher at 20 per cent.

Queering the pitch somewhat is the outlay for tax administration next year.

At about Rs 1 lakh crore, the 2017-18 outlay for tax administration represents a 36 per cent increase over what was spent in 2017-18.

It is not yet clear why the governments outlay on tax administration should go up by such a huge margin.

The headcount for the departments overseeing administration of direct taxes and indirect taxes has almost doubled in the last two years, but that alone cannot explain this sharp increase.

Weakening public sector capacity: Internal and extra budgetary resources (IEBR) mobilised by public sector undertakings (PSU) have always played a key role in promoting investments.

In 2017-18, these enterprises, excluding Indian Railways, will be spending Rs 3.96 lakh crore under IEBR. This was a huge increase of about 45 per cent over what they spent in 2016-17.

However, the IEBR of such PSUs in 2018-19 will actually decline by 3 per cent to Rs 3.85 lakh crore.

Why should the IEBR mobilisation by non-railway PSUs decline next year?

The Indian Railways will increase its IEBR by 17 per cent next year, but has the financial health of other PSUs deteriorated to such an extent that they are not in a position to provide more resources for investment? Or have they declared an investment holiday?

Capitalisation: It is reassuring that the government has allocated an additional Rs 65,000 crore for recapitalisation of public sector banks during 2018-19, which should be more than adequate to complete the proposed equity infusion of Rs 1.35 lakh crore.

In the current year, a total Rs 90,000 crore has been spent for recapitalisation, which includes Rs 10,000 crore promised earlier.

The total PSU capitalisation programme, estimated at Rs 1.63 lakh crore for 2017-18, compared to Rs 1.66 lakh crore in the current year, also provides for Indian Railways at Rs 53,000 crore, and National Highways Authority of India at Rs30,000 crore.

This would indicate how the government has ensured adequate equity infusion into railways and road-building.

But the surprise in this pack is a provision for equity infusion into Air India, which is due to be privatised next year.

An amount of Rs 6.5 billion (Rs 650 crore) is relatively small, but it does raise questions on the need for capitalising a company that is already up for sale.

Lower PSU dividends: The Budget numbers for 2017-18 show clearly how a 13.5 per cent decline in non-tax revenues contributed to the slippage in meeting the governments fiscal deficit target.

Learning from the setback, the government has now budgeted for only a 3 per cent increase in non-tax revenues for 2018-19.

The worrying projection is that dividends from PSUs, accounting for a fifth of total non-tax revenues, will decline next year. From Rs 55,000 crore dividends from PSUs in 2017-18, the revenue under this head next year will be Rs 52,000 crore.

Declining IEBR mobilised by non-railway PSUs and lower dividends by them could be early signals of a deeper problem afflicting such enterprises.

Labour reforms: Finally, Jaitley slipped in quietly a sentence in his speech to announce the extension of fixed-term employment to cover all sectors.

Only time will tell how effective it will be to introduce flexibility in the labour market.While the finer details of the fraud have not been provided, making it difficult to gauge the exact impact, analysts say it will dent the bank's financials.

Shares of Punjab National Bank (PNB) fell almost 10 per cent on Wednesday due to twin negative news.

While the new framework on non-performing assets (NPA) resolution could mean higher loan provisioning for the banking sector, PNB said it had detected fraudulent and unauthorised transactions worth $1,771.69 million (Rs 113.6 billion) at one of its branches in Mumbai.

The banks profit and overall asset quality are expected to take a hit even if the fraud alone is considered. Some analysts say if the entire amount attributed to the fraud becomes NPA, as much as 25 per cent of the banks estimated net worth of Rs 480 billion could be affected.

The bank, however, said these transactions were contingent in nature. Hence, based on the crystallised amount (one that will become the actual liability), the bank will need to make additional provisions.

The event will also hurt PNB's asset quality in the March 2018 quarter. While the finer details of the fraud have not been provided, making it difficult to gauge the exact impact, analysts say it will dent the bank's financials.

PNB has already reported elevated levels of provisioning (up 80 per cent sequentially and 74 per cent y-o-y) during the October-December 2017 quarter. The new developments will worsen its provisioning pain.

It is not very clear whether the damage (to the bank) will be equivalent to this (entire amount of fraudulent transactions). If at all there is any damage of this magnitude, then definitely it is a serious issue, said G Chokkalingam, founder and managing director, Equinomics Research.

R Sreesankar, co-head - equities, Prabhudas Lilladher, said while there was very little information available, it was a big negative for PNB.

We need to see how much of PNBs exposure is secured and unsecured, as all unsecured exposure will have to be provided for upfront. If this is classified as fraud, then 100 per cent provisioning is required. This will have an impact on its net worth and will be deducted from the banks reserves. If the entire Rs 110 billion is at risk, then it is roughly a fourth of the banks book value.

The impact of this development will not only be seen on PNB but on some other banks as well.

Though the legality of the case may be decided one to two years down the line, a contingent provision needs to be created by PNB and other banks that may be involved (in this case), based on the crystallised amount, in the March 2018 quarter itself, said Asutosh Kumar Mishra, analyst at Reliance Securities.

The crystallised amount will have to be added to the GNPAs (gross non-performing assets), Mishra added.

Worse, although PNB's stressed assets were very high at Rs 671.29 billionas on December 31, 2017 (14.13 per cent of advances), these were improving over the last three quarters.

The bank is in the process of selling part of its non-core assets, such as holdings in PNB Gilts, PNB Housing Finance and UTI Asset Management (UTI Mutual fund). The government, too, has announced a recapitalisation fund infusion of about Rs 55 billion. These will provide some cushion to the bank, but the bank will need to accelerate some of its asset sale plans.

The street is also hoping for some extra help from the government. Considering the impact of the new NPA rules, some help from the government to PSBs can be expected in the next financial year, said Chokkalingam.

Experts are waiting for more clarity on the fraud-related issue. But, considering the potential impact of the two developments on the financials of PNB, the stock is likely to remain under pressure.

Other banks flouted RBI rules, says PNB

In a letter to chiefs of 30 banks, Punjab National Bank has alleged that other banks did not follow due diligence and that there could be involvement of employees of these banks as well in the scam.

The letter, which said the modus operandi was being shared strictly for exercising necessary caution in the matter, was also deeply critical of other banks.

It said a junior level branch official unauthorisedly and fraudulently issued letters of undertakings (LoUs) on behalf of some firms belonging to the Nirav Modi group, viz, Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds, and Diamonds R Us for availing of buyers credit from overseas branches of Indian banks.

The firms were maintaining only current accounts with the branch and not enjoying any fund or non-fund based limits.

None of the transactions was routed through the core banking system (CBS), thus avoiding early detection of fraudulent activity.

Similar modus operandi were used by the same branch official in companies belonging to Gitanjali Gems promoted by Mehul Choksi -- Gitanjali Gems, Gili, and Nakshatra -- while issuing LoUs/FLCs (foreign letters of credit), the letter said. However, this set of companies enjoyed credit limit with the bank.

In case of FLCs, it has been found that at the time of issuing FLC for a smaller amount by SWIFT, the transaction was routed through the CBS system but subsequently, amendments were made in these FLCs by substantially enhancing the amount of FLC and transmitted through SWIFT without routing the enhancements through CBS.

The said official would subsequently convey via SWIFT the acceptance of bills for the full amount of FLC to the overseas negotiating bank, the letter said.

LoUs were opened in favour of branches of Indian banks for import of pearls for a period of one year, for which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines stipulate a total time period of 90 days from the date of shipment.

This stipulation was overlooked by overseas branches of Indian banks that are also required to follow the RBI guidelines. There is a clear criminal connivance of group companies of Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Gems with our branch official and also apparently, with officials of overseas branches of Indian banks, the letter said.

It added: None of the overseas branches of India based banks has shared with us any document/information made available to them by these Indian companies at the time of availing buyers credit from them.

Subsequently, the buyers credit availed against the fraudulent LoU was used either to retire import bills or replenish the maturing buyers credit of some other banks.

However, when the official of the bank retired from his service, these companies again approached the branch for availing of LoUs. On being asked to furnish 110 per cent margin, as there was no sanction of any fund or non-fund based limits, the companies insisted they were undertaking such transactions for the past so many years.

-- Anup RoyModi has been relentless in building his brand regardless of banks having a problem of fraudulent and unauthorised transactions with his companies.

Just about a week ago, diamond jeweller Nirav Modi opened a new store in Macau.

Barely three months ago, he had opened a second store in DLF Emporios Chanakya mall in New Delhi, with plans for another one, in Bengaluru, later this year.

Modi has been relentless in building his brand regardless of banks having a problem of fraudulent and unauthorised transactions with his companies. His website is running Valentines Day promotions beside pictures of Hollywood celebrities wearing his jewellery and details of the fashion shows he sponsored recently.

Modis ambition was to expand to 100 stores by 2020, not unusual for a brand that is trying to grow. He has boutiques in New York, Las Vegas, Honolulu, Singapore and Beijing. There is one store in London, three stores in Macau, and four stores in Hong Kong, where Modi's sister Purvi Mehta is based and runs the company's design division. Besides Bengaluru, another boutique was slated to open in London.

All this could be derailed now, as lenders to Modi, his company Firestar Diamond and other firms huddle into emergency meetings to try and figure out what their exposure in either loans or bank guarantees to the diamond company is.

On Tuesday, the Central Bureau of Investigation received two complaints from Punjab National Bank (PNB) against Modi and a jewellery company, alleging fraudulent transactions worth about $1.8 billion. Calls and emails made to Nirav Modi and Firestar CFO Vipul Ambani were not returned till the time of going to press.

One mainstream gold jeweller, who has been in the trade for over two decades and declined to be named, said banks giving funds to fraudulent companies was not an isolated instance.

He added there was a scramble of private equity funds and banks in search for "rock star businesses" to fund and maximise investments, while these companies promise 24 per cent internal rate of return, launch multiple stores and deploy endless amounts with fancy media campaigns to support the whole illusion.

As a jeweller with multiple stores, he said he knew the ground reality of sales and profits especially in the past two years, given the note ban as well as the goods and services tax roll-out.

Others in the industry do not condone Nirav Modi's pattern of behaviour. Pramod Agarwal, chairman of the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council, said, While it is the endeavour of every industry body to regulate behaviour of its members and enforce standards, the reality is that we cannot control the behaviour of a few stray elements. Nor do we support it."

A decade-long apprenticeship under his uncle Mehul Choksi in Mumbai gave Modi training on everything from diamond polishing to retail, after which he decided to get involved in building his own brand. But before all that, there were a string of acquisitions in the US. In 2005, he acquired the wholesale division of Frederick Goldman, a national diamond retailer.

Two years later, he bought Sandberg & Sikorski, the largest jewellery supplier to the US Armed Forces, and A Jaffe, a 120-year luxury bridal jewellery label, for $50 million. The acquisitions supported the private-label business, supplying to the military, as well as to department stores JC Penney, Costco and jewellery retailer Zales.

In 2009, Firestar, Modis wholesale business, opened offices in Hong Kong, South Africa, Belgium, Dubai, Armenia and Russia, following which in 2010, the Nirav Modi brand was launched. In 2012, Modi also acquired Fantasy Diamond, a jewellery wholesaler. He brought in professionals to do what he could not. Angelina Ypma, global president at Nirav Modi, once worked for Bulgari and Cartier, while Vipul Ambani was brought in as CFO from institutional brokerage firm Tower Capital where he was a senior executive.

Modi, who never counted the jewellery fraternity as part of his core universe has said in the past that most of his friends ended up being accountants. The bent of mind was what they had in common, he would say.

Photograph: Courtesy, Nirav Modi on Facebook.

Lenders seek forensic audit of Gitanjali groups books

Lenders to the Mehul Choksi-led Gitanjali group have ordered a forensic audit of the jewellery firm after Punjab National Bank (PNB) named him in a complaint filed with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against jeweller Nirav Modi and his relatives through a clutch of companies they own.

With a large-scale fraud in the gems and jewellery industry, banks would now be reluctant to take additional exposure to this sector, senior public sector bank (PSB) executives said.

Banks, including PNB, had earlier taken a hit for their exposure to Winsome Diamonds, whose promoters were declared wilful defaulters.

The Gitanjali stock was down 6.7 per cent at Rs 58.6 per share on the BSE.

Three bank executives said the Delhi-based PNB had flagged Choksis name. Before forming any view and taking action on Choksi-owned entities, banks would like to have clear idea about his role. The forensic audit will help in securing clarity. We cannot proceed against his entities just on the basis of concern expressed by PNB.

Bankers said the Gitanjali group had a standard account with IDBI Bank and Dena Bank. ICICI Bank is the lead lender in the consortium of banks that have exposure to the jeweller.

According to Gitanjali Gemss 2016-17 annual report, over 30 lenders had exposure to the company, including State Bank of India, Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of India and Bank of Baroda.

The company has informed the BSE that its quarterly results could not be finalised due to pressing contingencies. It did not elaborate on what those contingencies were.

-- Abhijit LeleWith the introduction of 10 per cent tax both on long-term capital gains and on dividend, choose funds based on investment horizon and risk appetite, not on tax advantage, experts tell Sanjay Kumar Singh.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

Budget 2018 has introduced two key measures that will affect investors in equity and equity-oriented mutual funds.

These were the imposition of a 10 per cent tax on long-term capital gains (LTCG) and a similar 10 per cent tax on dividend from these funds.

After these changes, make your future investment decisions based on the intrinsic merits of a product, rather than for the tax benefit.

1. Equities still good for the long term

The imposition of a 10 per cent tax on LTCG of equity funds is expected to dent investors' sentiment in the short term, as everyone loves tax-free options. But equities' long-term prospects remain intact.

Says Kalpen Parekh, president, DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund: "For investors looking to grow their capital over long periods of time, equities remain the most efficient asset class as they offer higher growth and at still lower tax rates vis-a-vis other asset classes."

The tax on LTCG will only cause a marginal dent in returns. An investor who invested Rs 1,000 per month in the systematic investment plan (SIP) of a large-cap fund for 15 years would put in Rs 180,000.

His corpus would grow to Rs 608,085 (using the category average return) by the end of 2017, a growth of 3.38 times.

Hypothetically, if LTCG tax existed, his return would diminish to 3.15 times. "Despite the tax, equity mutual funds would still retain their position as the best asset class for the long run," says Kunal Bajaj, CEO and founder of Clearfunds.com, a Sebi-registered online investment advisor.

Long-term returns from the multi-cap (CAGR return of 11.28 per cent over past 10 years) and mid-cap categories (13.90 per cent) tend to be even higher than from large-cap funds (9.35 per cent).

Under no circumstance should investors quit their equity funds in a knee-jerk reaction to this news.

Instead they need to recalibrate their plans.

"Either invest more to achieve your goals or defer your goals a little," says Vishal Dhawan, chief financial planner, Plan Ahead Wealth Advisors.

LTCG tax on equity funds will now be 10 per cent, while on debt funds it continues to be 20 per cent with indexation.

"Due to the indexation benefit, the effective tax rate on bond funds held for the long term could be lower than on equity funds," says Bajaj.

After the Budget investors should avoid choosing an asset class based on tax considerations.

"Take into account your time horizon, risk profile, diversification needs and goals to arrive at an appropriate asset allocation," says Rajeev Thakkar, chief investment officer, PPFAS Mutual Fund.

Portfolio rebalancing will now carry a cost.

Any time you book profits in equities and transfer the money to fixed income or gold, you will have to pay a tax. Hence, avoid rebalancing too frequently.

Investors will also have to plan redemptions more tactically.

"Since long-term capital gains are still exempt up to Rs 100,000 each year, avoid bulk redemption. Start redeeming two or three years ahead of your goal to benefit from this exemption," says Vidya Bala, head of research, Fundsindia.com.

You may even withdraw once in March and the next time in April to avail of this exemption for two financial years.

2. Impact of tax on dividend

Earlier, the outcome from using the dividend reinvestment option and the growth option used to be at par. Henceforth, the former will become less attractive.

"Every time dividend is declared it will be taxed at 10 per cent. This will reduce the compounding benefit from the dividend reinvestment option compared to the growth option, where you will be taxed 10 per cent only once at redemption," says Bala.

3. Move from balanced to short-term debt funds for regular income

In recent times, many investors were sold balanced funds with the promise of a regular monthly dividend. These funds are not suitable for generating income in the short term, either through dividend or redemption.

Since they have an equity exposure of 65 per cent or more, they need to be held for at least three-five years to reduce risk and deliver returns.

Investors who bought a balanced fund for regular dividend will now have to pay a tax on it. If you are a new investor who doesn't need the money, move to the growth option and stay put.

"If you need immediate income and have not been in these funds for long, move to an ultra short term or short-term debt fund and start a systematic withdrawal plan (SWP) there," says Bala.

Those who have held a balanced fund for three-five years should move to the growth option and start an SWP to avail of the benefit of exemption on LTCG up to Rs 100,000.

4. Arbitrage funds turn less attractive

Arbitrage funds were used by investors for their low volatility and zero taxation after one year (whereas a comparable debt fund category like liquid fund would be taxed).

Over the past one year, arbitrage funds have given 6.23 per cent return, lower than the 6.44 per cent from liquid funds.

After 10 per cent tax on LTCG the returns from the former will only get more unattractive.

In the dividend option, however, the tax is 10 per cent on arbitrage funds, while in liquid funds the fund house pays a dividend distribution tax of 29.12 per cent. But dividend option in arbitrage funds is better avoided.

5. Ulips may gain

Unit-linked investment plans of insurers may attract more buyers as the Budget has not imposed any tax on them at maturity.

Players like Edelweiss Tokio Life have recently launched Ulips whose costs match those of the direct option in equity funds.

Investors should, however, bear in mind that Ulips come with a lock-in of five years.For now, Edappadi K Palaniswami is in the saddle in Tamil Nadu, and firmly so. Both inside the party and the government, he has made OPS a yes-man, as the latter used to be under Jayalalithaa, says N Sathiya Moorthy.

Image: (from left) Tamil Nadu Speaker P Dhanapal, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam (fourth from left) among others at the unveiling of the portrait of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa in the state assembly on February 12, 2018.

Man proposes but god disposes.

Much water has flown under the bridge.

There cannot be a better scenario for these much used and misused idioms than present-day Tamil Nadu.

One year back, when then AIADMK general secretary Sasikala Natarajan walked into the Parapanagara Agraharam prison in Bengaluru, she would not have imagined even in her wildest dreams that her chosen stop-gap of a chief minister for Tamil Nadu would turn against his mentor, and so very completely.

But that is the truth at the end of one year.

On February 14, 2017, Sasikala had a majority of the AIADMK legislature party choose Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) as their leader after acting governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao would not swear her in for days after being elected to the post, in the face of the pending Supreme Court verdict in the wealth case against her one-time master and mentor, the late chief minister Jayalalithaa.

Two days later, on February 16, EPS got himself sworn in as chief minister.

On the intervening February 15, Sasikala delivered her famous vow at Jayas samadhi in Chennai before motoring down to Bengaluru and walking into what seemed to be an eternal political oblivion.

Today, succeeding O Panneerselvam (OPS), who proved to be the real stop-gap for the third time after Jayas death on December 5, 2016, EPS has consolidated his base, and with the very same OPS toeing his line. While Sasikala is cooling her heels in a prison cell, hauled up since for allegedly bribing jail officials, and also before the Justice Arumugaswamy Commission probing the mystery, if any, behind Ammas death.

Sasikalas nephew, T T V Dinakaran, even while losing the party to EPS-OPS after the Election Commission ruled in their favour, is a confused man, still.

He had swept the post-Jaya R K Nagar assembly by-election for her seat as none else, including Amma in her time, that too after a cancellation caused by tax raids, has become the third force in state politics, and yet does not have a party to call his own -- at least as yet.

Less -- or, more -- said about the official DMK rival the better as M K Stalin as the heir apparent of ailing octogenarian father and party president M Karunanidhi has it all -- and none at all. The party is at the cross-roads, in terms of poll strategy especially, after Stalin as DMK working president and Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly led the party into a dismal defeat in RK Nagar (where the party nominee lost his security deposit), only because he said the party should resort to principled politics, and not resort to bribing the voters.

Today, barring two adversarial court verdicts, there is nothing to suggest that EPS or the ruling AIADMK (as recognised by the EC) is still on a sticky wicket. One of those cases pertains to assembly speaker P Dhanapal, at the instance of the ruling party, disqualifying 18 Sasi-Dinakaran MLAs of the party. They promptly moved the Madras high court, which has since reserved its verdict, after long drawn-out arguments, which witnessed half a dozen or so senior counsel from the Supreme Court appearing before the bench, for many days and long hours.

The other case relates to a DMK petition, again in the high court, seeking the disqualification of 11 OPS MLAs, including leader Panneerselvam, after they had stayed away from the governor-ordered confidence vote that EPS sought as chief minister. The law permits any member of the House to seek disqualification and speaker Dhanapal had declined the DMK plea.

In the high court, the EPS counsel has argued that his camps whip for the trust vote did not cover OPS & Co. The arguments in the case are continuing still and, like the other case, this one too may end up in the Supreme Court, as and when the high court pronounces its verdict. The chances are that speaker Dhanapal may decline to heed the high court order, citing legislative privilege and prerogative if the verdict did not uphold his own orders in the matter.

All of it only means that EPS may face more hiccups of the past years kind, but nothing substantial until after the Supreme Court gets involved, if at all, and pronounces its verdict. In the normal course, it may mean a few months to a year. In political and electoral terms, it could, if at all, coincide with the timing of the Lok Sabha polls, due before May 2019. The five-year term of the state assembly does not ordinarily conclude before May 2021.

For now, thus, EPS is in the saddle, and firmly so. Both inside the party and the government, he has made OPS a yes-man, as the latter used to be under Jayalalithaa, both as her top-most political aide, and two-time, stand-in CM whenever courts disqualified her for a period.

From having treated his ministerial colleagues, including EPS, as an equal, if not more than equal in his short-lived third-term as chief minister after Jayalalithaas death, OPS is now seen sitting along the sidelines of the chief ministers working table whenever the latter received dignitaries in his office -- as used to be the case in Ammas time.

Inside the party, too, OPS is now accepted as a spent force though no one really admits that EPS is the rising star, or the star that has already risen. Political aides of OPS who had joined his rebellion against the Sasikala family, purportedly at the instance, if not wholesale instigation, of some close to the powers-that-be in the BJP-ruled Centre, feel frustrated at EPSs sidelining them all so very effectively.

They have little choice, as they had bad-mouthed Sasikala and Dinakaran so much during the period that even their own mirror image may laugh if they were to look at other options. After his R K Nagar victory, they may not have problems joining Dinakaran, but then by sacking party second, third and fourth line leaders en masse at all levels, the EPS-OPS camp has also been closing the gaps for prospective deserters from the AIADMK in the rival camp, and at all levels.

Such deserters have no place in the Opposition DMK, where Stalin has at long last stabilised his hold over the party at all levels, what with Karunanidhi having facilitated the process indirectly by sacking troublesome elder brother and former Union Minister M K Azhagiri in the long run-up to earlier elections. Stalins half-sister Kanimozhi, MP, too seems to have fallen in line, especially after the 2G scam case forced her out of the reckoning for long, and now with the CBIs appeals against her trial court acquittal promising a longer winter.

In office, EPS has also been continuing with some of Ammas favourite welfare programmes. His government has revived the free laptop scheme, and also subsidised Scooty scheme, the latter for female students. The registration for the Scooty scheme saw long queues at various venues across the state.

Taking after Amma, EPS does not lose time writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi every other day, be it on the Cauvery water issue with Karnataka, fishermens dispute with Sri Lanka, or a host of other Tamil Nadu concerns like methane extraction and the like. The state information department loses no time releasing copies of those letters to the media -- thus seeking to put the blame at the door of the Centre, time and again, as Jaya had succeeded in convincing the voters.

The EPS government, after decades, has also revived desilting of rural water storage resources, like ponds, rivers and even larger reservoirs, but the success rate is unclear as yet. So newspapers have begun carrying frequent raids of corrupt officials, who are being arrested, in a row.

Some of the high-profile arrests, as with the vice chancellor of a state university, may or may not owe to the state governments initiative -- but then, many of the state ministers, including EPS and OPS, got mentioned in tax raids initiated by central agencies, but of which nothing has been heard since.

With state BJP leaders, lately including party president Tamizhisai Soundararajan, seeking to draw the battle-lines for the next elections on religious lines, calling it all spiritual, the AIADMK has begun acting tough on the ruling party at the Centre. For instance, the Modi governments triple talaq law faced stiff opposition from the AIADMK members in the Lok Sabha.

Now, any delayed action by central agencies on alleged financial wrongdoings of AIADMK leaders and ministers will not sell any more with the states voters, who seem to be getting increasingly convinced that the BJP is playing politics with religion than the states well-entrenched Dravidian polity, and the tax-raids and such other initiatives were all politically motivated, whatever the truth otherwise.

As political history, both in the state and outside, has often proved over the past years and decades, after a point both the intended targets and voters alike end up shrugging their shoulders at it all, and look around only for the available alternative, if it at all it came to that.

In Tamil Nadu, for instance, after the DMK was nearly wiped out in the 1991 elections, the opposition BJP whipped up the Ayodhya card after demolition, and Congress Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao was chasing the ruling AIADMK through similar raids and the like, the states voters helped revive the DMK in elections 1996.

Of course, the DMK at the time did get a lot of support from the likes of Congress veteran G K Moopanar, who founded the Tamil Maanila Congress, and superstar Rajinikanth, whose voice too went with the anti-Establishment sentiments of the time.

In present-day Tamil Nadu, the third force has already appeared, not in the form of Rajinikanth or co-star Kamalahassan, but in the form of Dinakaran who seems to be earning some respect for his grit and determination, which seems to matter more with the displeased sections of the party cadres and sections of non-committal voters, who want change, quick and smooth, but without bloodletting of any kind.

That is if, and if only, they are looking for change, and would not settle for the AIADMKs traditional rival DMK, which under Stalin has become more acceptable to the voter than under Karunanidhi -- but not necessarily for all cadres.

Through all this, the state, the voter and the AIADMK cadre do not have time for Sasikala, though occasionally Dinakaran keeps her in the news by visiting her in prison and making news out of it, too.

N Sathiya Moorthy, veteran journalist and political analyst, is director, Observer Research Foundation, Chennai Chapter.R Rajagopalan predicts that Tamil Nadu won't have single party rule for the first time in its history.



IMAGE: DMK Working President M K Stalin, right, calls on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami at the state secretariat in Chennai, February 13, 2018.

Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam can be seen second from left, with other senior ministers.

Photograph: PTI Photo

Tamil Nadu politics is taking an interesting turn given the restlessness among citizens over Edappadi K Palaniswami's non-performing regime.

Prime Minister Narendra D Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit A Shah, who evinced keen interest in political goings-on in the state after then chief minister J Jayalalithaa's death in December 2016, seem to have let things slide.

Soon after Jayalalithaa's death, Modi, it seemed, wanted to render a helping hand to the divided house that her All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam had become. But all that seems to be in the past.

AIADMK rebel leader T T V Dinakaran's winning the assembly by-election in R K Nagar, a seat represented by Jayalalithaa, sent shockwaves through the political spectrum and it is clear that its impact is far from over.

The impression one gathers is that the style of campaigning that characterised the R K Nagar by-poll cannot be sustained across the state's 234 assembly constituencies.

Further, there are crucial court proceedings and investigations that are bound to have a deep impact on Tamil Nadu politics.

The first is the case over the disqualification of 18 AIADMK MLAs.

The second is the gutka scam case against state ministers and IAS/IPS officials.

The third is the Indonesia coal import scam in which six state politicians are allegedly involved and in which the Central Bureau of Investigation recently filed a first information report.

Politically, there is instability with the EPS faction in the AIADMK busy expelling cadres and district officials, but there is no sign of any fresh appointments of party functionaries.

Edappadi apparently does not want to accommodate anyone from Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam's camp. In fact, it is said that EPS is waiting for the opportune moment to dump OPS.

Ordinarily, such a situation would be ripe for the Opposition to strike, but that is not the case in Tamil Nadu.

The Opposition in Tamil Nadu is fragmented. The DMK's presence, it is said, is limited to the media. Senior DMK leaders have been sidelined with M K Stalin's emergence as party supremo M Karunanidhi's heir apparent, causing resentment among old-timers.

DMK cadres are said to be unhappy with Stalin's style of functioning. And the condition of the other Dravida parties is no better.

While Vaiko's MDMK is likely to merge with the parent DMK, Vijaykanth's DMDK is not effective anymore, and Dr S Ramadoss's Pattali Makkal Katchi remains what it always was -- a caste-based party.

The PMK is strong in four districts, but its voters face the risk of getting scattered to other parties.

There is also the sudden rise of movie superstars Rajinikanth and Kamalahaasan in state politics.

While by themselves they may not seize power in an election, what they can do is damage the votebank of the two Dravidian majors, the AIADMK and DMK.

Rajinikanth could take away 10 per cent of the DMK's votes given the reach of his fan clubs in the countryside. Kamalahaasan, who is more exclusive an actor, may bag the anti-AIADMK votes that would otherwise go to the Congress.

Which means that the next assembly election -- whenever it is held -- will see a five-cornered fight: Among the AIADMK, DMK, Dinakaran, Rajinikanth and Kamalahaasan.

The BJP and Congress will continue to struggle in the state, despite their strength elsewhere. The Congress will certainly go with the DMK, but Stalin is bound to drive a hard bargain given the stakes involved for his leadership.

Most parties will keep away from the BJP given the fallout on their minority and OBC votebanks.

The likely outcome is that there will not be a single party rule in Tamil Nadu for the first time in the state's history.

It will be, I predict, a coalition sarkar.

R Rajagopalan, a senior journalist based in New Delhi, is a keen observer of Tamil Nadu politics.'I am an old man; I am not a dangerous man, so what is the reason for my deportation?'

Former Swiss diplomat Kurt Vogele was deported from India on January 22 abruptly.

No reason was given to him for his deportation by Indian immigration officials who sent him back the day he landed in India.

In India to meet his friend Gagan Sethi, who runs a non-governmental organisation Janvikas in Ahmedabad, Vogele, who headed the Swiss Development Cooperation in the 1990s in India, was only told that he would have to fly back.

The 75-year-old diplomat was taken to a room by the staff of the airline that he flew on and sent back in the same plane that he had arrived.

"I am an old man; I am not a dangerous man, so what is the reason for my deportation?" he says.

Vogele does not think the loan that the Swiss Development Cooperation had given the Navsarjan Trust, that works for upliftment of Dalits in Gujarat, had anything to do with his deportation.

"I would like to know the reason (for my deportation) and I would like to defend my case," Vogele tells Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore on the phone from Geneva.

Can you tell us what happened?

The immigration officials told me that I had to go back and I cannot enter India.

They took me to an office and they said you will have to go back. I was taken care of by the airline I travelled with.

I asked for my passport, but they did not give it to me in India.

I got my passport after I landed in Geneva on the evening of January 22.

I asked several times for my passport, but they (the immigration officials) did not give it to me.

I left India the same day, in the same plane.

Were you given any reason for your deportation?

No. None. No reason at all.

I asked them several times, but nobody gave any reason.

Why do you think were you deported?

I don't know. You ask Indian officials (laughs).

You wrote a letter to India's ambassador in Switzerland, George Sibi, about what happened to you. Can you share the contents of that letter with us?

No response yet. No response so far.

In the letter I just described my situation. I wrote that I had lived in India for 13 years and India was like my second home.

I was a diplomat in India heading the Swiss Development Cooperation, which had a consular status, and had made friends with many Indians during my stay in India.

I visit these friends regularly.

What was the purpose of your visit in January?

I had come to visit a friend, Gagan Sethi (who runs an NGO Janvikas in Ahmedabad) and other friends as well.

I was visiting India on his invitation and I was supposed to work with him on several issues like behavioural issues and social change.

These were issues we had discussed many times earlier too.

And this visit had no political purpose?

No, not at all. But politics can have a lot of different meanings.

What was Ambassador Sibi's response to your letter?

No response so far. It has been almost three weeks, but there has been no response so far (from Ambassador Sibi).

I sent my letter to him by registered post and I have the acknowledgment to prove that the letter has reached the addressee.

When you obtained you visa in December 2017, were you asked to fulfil any conditions for getting it?

There were no conditions attached to this visa. I was shocked why I was deported.

What would be your message to India's Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj about the way you were treated?

I would like to know the reason (for my deportation) and I would like to defend my case.

I am an old man; I am not a dangerous man, so what is the reason for my deportation?

I would like them (Indian immigration officials) to refrain from such action in the future.

Do you plan to visit India again?

Yes, if it is possible.

I have been visiting India for years and I would like to visit India again.

Have you written to the Swiss ambassador in India about your deportation?

I forwarded a copy of my letter to the Swiss ambassador in New Delhi, but have not received any response from him yet.

But I will continue to seek clarifications, of which I have none till now, from the Indian authorities.

IMAGE: Cointrin airport, Geneva, published only for representational purposes. Photograph: Denis Balibouse/ReutersThe Supreme Court has criticised a Bombay high court order granting bail to three accused in a 2014 sensational murder case of Pune-based techie Shaikh Mohsin and said a court cannot make observations which may appear to be "coloured with a bias for or against a community".

The top court set aside the order of Bombay high court of January 12, 2017, by which it had granted bail to all the three accused in the case.

A bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao set aside the high court's decision to grant bail to the accused who were allegedly members of right wing outfit Hindu Rashtra Sena, saying it was difficult to understand why the high court said that "the fault of the deceased was only that he belonged to another religion".

"We have no doubt that a court, fully conscious of the plural composition of the country, while called upon to deal with rights of various communities, cannot make such observations which may appear to be coloured with a bias for or against a community," the bench said.

Critical of the views expressed by the high court, the top court said, "It is possible that the judge wanted to rule out a personal motive against the victim, but only emphasised communal hatred. It is also possible that the single judge may not have intended to hurt the feelings of any particular community or support the feelings of another community but the words are clearly vulnerable to such criticism. The direction cannot be sustained."

The apex court further said "the fact that the deceased belonged to a certain community cannot be a justification for any assault, much less a murder".

The high court had in the bail order observed that "the fault of the deceased was only that he belonged to another religion. I consider this factor in favour of the applicants/accused. Moreover, the applicants/accused do not have criminal record and it appears that in the name of the religion, they were provoked and have committed the murder."

The apex court said the single judge of the high court may not have intended to hurt the feelings of any community but the words were clearly vulnerable to such criticism.

It allowed the appeal of the brother of the deceased and directed the accused to be taken into custody and their bail application to be heard afresh by the high court.

The top court said the bail applications of the accused should be decided by the high court within six weeks.

Mohsin was assaulted and killed by a group of around 25 people for allegedly sporting a beard and wearing a pastel green-coloured shirt while he was on his way with his friend to have dinner.

The accused were alleged to be "highly motivated" after attending a meeting of Hindu Rashtra Sena, half an hour before the incident and ended up assaulting the victim.

The sessions court had rejected bail to the accused saying "the deceased was assaulted because he looked like a Muslim and that the deceased prima facie had no concern with disgracing Shivaji Maharaj."

Image: Mohsin Sadiq Shaikh, a young software professional was killed on his way home from dinner in Pune.After each massacre, survivors and witnesses have echoed the words no more  yet mass shootings have continued to plague the United States.

In fact, shootings only have continued to increase over the past few years.

The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida is the 18th attack in a school in 2018 alone.

Below are some of the worst US school shootings in the last 20 years.

IMAGE: According to official figures, 46 children are shot at each day in the United States.

Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters

Sandy Hook Elementary School

Connecticut

December 14, 2012

In December 2012, 26 people were killed, including 20 schoolchildren aged 5 and 6, inside the Newton, school after Adam Lanza, a 20-year-old entered and opened fire. The gunman killed his mother before heading to the school. After the heinous shooting, he killed himself as police closed in.

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Virginia

April 16, 2007

Gunman Seung-Hui Cho slaughters 32 people and kills himself at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and StateUniversity, popularly known as Virginia Tech. At the time it was the deadliest shooting carried out by a single gunman in US history.

Red Lake Senior High School

Minnesota

March 21, 2005

A 16-year-old high school student Jeffrey Weise, kills seven people including his grandfather, a tribal police officer, and wounds several others in a shooting rampage after killing two people off-campus. He then kills himself.

Columbine High School

Colorado

April 20, 1999

Two high school students, ages 17 and 18, opened fire in their school, murdering 12 of their peers and one teacher. They injured 21 additional people, and three more were injured while attempting to escape the school. After exchanging fire with responding police officers, the pair of killers subsequently committed suicide.

University of Texas

Austin

August 1, 1966

A former US Marine sharpshooter, 25, opened fire at the University of Texas in Austin. The gunman positioned himself on the observation deck atop the U.T.Tower and shot his targets one-by-one. He killed 14 people and wounded 31 others. He also killed his wife and mother before the attacks. The massacre ended when police located the shooter and fatally shot him.K P Sharma Oli was on Thursday sworn in as Nepal's Prime Minister for the second time, weeks after his Left alliance with former Maoist rebels swept the historic parliamentary polls, kindling hopes for much-needed political stability in the Himalayan nation.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari administered the oath of office and secrecy to 65-year-old Oli at a function held at Presidents Office, Shital Niwas, in Maharajgunj.

He is the 41st prime minister of Nepal.

Known for his pro-China stance, Oli had served as the country's prime minister from October 11, 2015 to August 3, 2016.

His PM candidacy was supported by the UCPN-Maoists, Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal, and Madhesi Rights Forum-Democratic along with 13 other small parties.

Earlier, former prime minister and Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba had addressed the nation and submitted his resignation to the president.

Deuba was elected as the 40th Prime Minister on June 6 with the support from CPN (Maoist Centre) which is now a part of Left alliance and opting for merger with CPN-UML.

"The elections of three tiers of government have been successfully held under my leadership setting the foundation to long transition," Deuba said in the television address.

The Left alliance of the CPN-UML, led by Oli and CPN-Maoist Centre, led by Prachanda, secured almost two third majority in the Parliament during the parliamentary elections.

Oli's party CPN-UML secured 121 seats in the 275-member Parliament and became the largest party in the Parliament. The Nepali Congress has 63 seats while the CPN-Maoist Centre has 53 seats.

The total strength of the CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre was 174, sufficient to form a majority government at the Centre.

The Madhesi parties, Rastriya Janta Party Nepal has got 17 seats and Federal Socialist Party Nepal secured 16 seats in the Parliamentary elections.

The elections were seen as the final step in Nepal's transition to a federal democracy following a decade-long civil war till 2006 that claimed more than 16,000 lives.

In 2015, when Nepal adopted a new Constitution that split it into seven states, dozens of people were killed in ethnic clashes over territory and rights.

Following the adoption of the new Constitution, the ethnic Madhesi group, mostly of Indian-origin, protested for months, saying they were not getting enough territory in one of the provinces and were also facing discrimination.

The polls are said to be a step forward in cementing democracy and providing political stability to Nepal, which has seen 10 prime ministers in as many years.

Oli had served as deputy prime minister during the then interim government led by Girija Prasad Koirala in 2006 after the successful conclusion of the second Peoples Movement. He was elected as a member of Parliament in the House of Representatives for the first time from Jhapa district in 1991.

He had also served as Minister of Home Affairs in 1994-1995.

He was re-elected to the House of Representatives from Jhapa electorate in 1999.

Image: Newly elected Nepalese Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli sits on a chair as he arrives to administrating the oath of office at the presidential building, Shital Niwas in Kathmandu, Nepal. Photograph: Navesh Chitrakar/ReutersMumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed has said he will challenge the government's "illegal" action in the court of law after Pakistan launched a crackdown on seminaries and health facilities run by him.

Under pressure to act against banned groups, Pakistan took control of a seminary and four dispensaries run by Saeed-linked Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation.

"After detaining me for 10 months without any legal ground, the government has now issued a notification regarding taking over our schools, dispensaries, ambulances and other assets. It will hamper our relief operations in Punjab, Balochistan, Sindh, Azad Kashmir and northern areas," Saeed said after the government's action.

According to the interior ministry notification, a copy of which available with PTI, "the federal government is pleased to direct that requisite actions with regard to freezing and taking over of assets (movable, immovable and human resource) associated with JuD and FIF shall be taken in pursuance of Ordinance No II of 2018."

The notification issuance date is February 10.

Punjab Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has also said that on the interior ministry's directions, Hafiz Saeed and his charities have been banned to operate in Pakistan and the government have already started taking over all the facilities, offices, schools, dispensaries and seminaries that belong to the JuD and FIF.

In a message to his workers, Saeed appealed for calm and asked them not give any violent reaction to the government action against their charities.

"This is the most difficult time but the workers must remain peaceful. The rulers are acting like more loyal than a king. India never bothered to implement UN resolutions on Kashmir but our rulers have got passed the president ordinance to take action against patriotic organisations like JuD and FIF," he said.

Saeed said the Pakistani government is "taking extreme action against us" to please America and India.

"We will fight our case in court against this illegal action," said Saeed, who heads the charity JuD, believed to be a front for Lashkar-e-Tayiba terror group.

Pakistan has come under intense pressure to rein in terror groups after US President Donald Trump accused the country of harbouring terrorists and suspended nearly USD 2 billion in security assistance to it.On his first visit after assuming office in 2013, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday arrived in Hyderabad for a three-day India trip during which he will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on trade, security and connectivity, including the strategically-important Chabahar port.

Rouhani was received by Union Minister of State for Power R K Singh and Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan at the Begumpet airport.

During his two-day visit to Hyderabad, President Rouhani, who is accompanied by a 21-member delegation, will also meet people of Iranian-origin living in Hyderabad.

The two sides are also looking at inking a number of pacts in several key areas apart from exploring the scope of cooperation in fields such as health and traditional medicine during the visit, which is part of India's continued regional engagement, official sources said.

They also referred to Modi's recent visit to the UAE and other countries in the Gulf and West Asia, to highlight India's growing cooperation with countries in the region.

Iran and India have already operationalised a mechanism under which Indian businessmen can invest in projects in Iran in Indian rupees, the sources said. The move is expected to boost Indo-Iran trade ties tremendously.

While there was no pact expected to be signed on security cooperation, the joint statement will talk about the engagement between the two countries in that area, including the interactions between their national security councils, the sources said.

Asked if cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan will be raised, the sources said terrorism is a shared concern but whether any specific country will be mentioned, could not be stated.

Also, whether India will seek Iran's help in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case given that it maintains that the retired Indian naval officer was kidnapped from Iran, the sources said Jadhav is not a bilateral issue between India and Iran.

Asked if India would raise the issue of its investment in Iran's Farzad-B gas field, the sources said there were commercial discussions on to find a "win-win" solution.

Asserting that connectivity is among the key themes, they said efforts would be to take forward the operational part of the strategically-important Chabahar port.

During Modi's bilateral visit to Iran in 2016, nearly a dozen pacts were signed between the two countries.

The Trilateral Transit Agreement (Chabahar Agreement) was also signed by transport ministers of India, Iran and Afghanistan in the presence of Modi, Rouhani and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

The contract entails capital investment of USD 85 million by India for equipping Chabahar port in southeastern Iran.

The strategically important port will open up the transit route for India to Iran and Afghanistan, bypassing Pakistan.

India and Iran have robust economic and commercial ties covering many sectors though it has traditionally been dominated by the import of Iranian crude oil by India, which continued to engage with Iran at the time of sanctions.

According to the external affairs ministry, India-Iran bilateral trade during the fiscal year 2016-17 was USD 12.89 billion. India imported USD 10.5 billion worth of goods, mainly crude oil, and exported commodities worth USD 2.4 billion.

India is hosting Rouhani nearly a month after the visit of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Other issues which are expected to be discussed will include visa liberalisation for greater people-to-people contact.

In New Delhi, apart from holding extensive talks with Modi and other Indian leaders, the Iranian leader is also scheduled to deliver a special address at the Observer Research Foundation on Saturday.

Rouhani is also expected to visit historic sites, including the Qutub Shahi tombs at Golconda in Hyderabad.

This is Rouhani's second visit to Hyderabad and the first after becoming president.

He would stay at the Taj Krishna hotel on Thursday night, and leave for New Delhi on Friday evening.

On Rouhani addressing a congregation at the historic Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad after offering Friday prayers, the sources said, the Iranian side showed interest in offering prayers and India had no problem in accepting it.

Photographs: PTI PhotoTwo Indian Air Force pilots were killed in a crash in Majuli, Assam on Thursday, minutes after their microlight aircraft took off on a routine sortie, defence ministry officials said.

The aircraft crashed in the river island around noon, soon after taking off from the Jorhat air base, they said.

The pilots killed in the crash were Wing Commander J James and Wing Commander D Vats.

"An Indian Air Force Microlight Virus SW-80 crashed around 1200 hrs today, after getting airborne from Air Force Station Jorhat, for a routine sortie," the defence ministry said in a statement in New Delhi.

A court of inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident, the ministry said.

The pilots attempted an emergency landing but the aircraft crashed in a sand bar in the northern part of the district and went up in flames, Tezpur-based defence spokesperson Lt. Col. Harshvardhan Pande said.

The crash took place at Darbar Chapori, a sand bar in the Brahmaputra where there is no human habitation.

People from villages in the district spotted the aircraft going up in flames and informed the authorities.

IAF personnel from the 10 Wing Air Force Station in Jorhat rushed to the spot while police and senior officials of the district set out for the crash site, accessible only by boat.

The IAF had procured around 80 Slovenian-origin microlight aircraft about three years ago. They are usually deployed for environmental and bird recce missions, an IAF official said.

Image: An air force official inspects the wreckage of a microlight helicopter that crashed at Majuli in Assam. Photograph: PTI PhotoDespite dire threats to life and property, they have brought together over 50,000 lovers under one roof across India.

Sneha Bhattacharjee reports.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

Sometime in the winter of 2010, the family of a girl charged a boy with raping her.

In her statements to the police, doctors as well as the court, the girl said she was a major and in a consensual relationship with the boy.

Shocked and surprised at the turn of events, a group of men reached the sessions court where they found the couple's lawyer had not reached in time.

Seeking permission from the judge, one of the men decided to argue the case.

By the time, the man finished his argument, the lawyer had reached, and all the formalities and paperwork was done.

Today, the boy and the girl are happily married and are parents to two children.

The man who fought for the rights of the couple is a 57-year-old 'serving' journalist Sanjoy Sachdev, the chairman of an NGO called Love Commandos.

Taking a friend's advice that they should go beyond their peace-keeping force for Valentine's Day, Sachdev along with Harsh Malhotra, chief co-ordinator, are committed to bringing young lovers together -- whether they are victims of honour killings or Khap panchayats or communal tension.

"A photo journalist called us that day and asked: 'There's a lot of news on honour killings; are you guys doing something?' I said: 'We are starting a helpline', and handed him the number," says Sachdev.

The helpline hasn't stopped buzzing since.

With seven shelters across Delhi-NCR, and over 450 make-shift shelters across the country, Love Commandos operates out of a dingy lane in Paharganj in Delhi, which they call their base shelter.

Despite dire threat to life and property, teamwork has helped them bring together over 50,000 lovers under one roof across India.

"There are several in my team whom we don't even introduce for fear of their safety. It is the grit and determination of the young boys and girls who act as our volunteers and help other couples," says Sachdev, adding, "Whoever has ever wanted to make a difference in the world for the good, has had to face obstacles."

But that hasn't deterred this old gun, whom the young couples call 'Baba', from helping rescue couples from all parts of the country.

In India, where families are oppressive institutions, young lovers face a hostile environment.

"It is a concocted notion that honour killings are limited to the northern belt of the country. Our helpline receives calls from Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and even the north eastern states. The fear for their life exists across the length and breadth of the country," rues Sachdev.

Helping the young couples has't been an easy task for this usually in-debt NGO.

Listening to the stories of rescue is akin to the romance of the movies that you see on screen. But it is a risky effort that incurs a lot of expense.

"We are broke. I don't know how my children manage. I just give them whatever I get, and that's how we sail every month," says Sachdev adding that "it is people like you who talk about us and thus, we receive some help."

Talk about how he plans to keep things afloat, Sachdev says, "as long as there is love in the hearts of everyone, Love Commandos will thrive everywhere."

"It is only a matter of time before the young decide to take decisions on their own and reject being treated as a property of their parents."Two police officers have been suspended and a constable transferred.

But the false case slapped by the Railway Protection Force against Rediff.com Reporter Anita Aikara has not yet been withdrawn.



Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

"When can we get our lives back?" asked my husband.

He asks that every day.

I am not exaggerating when I say that my life has been in limbo since last week.

I'm out on bail. All for reporting a cop who was breaking the rules.

You can read my story here.

There has been a lot of uncertainty hovering over my head since February 4, the day I was charged.

I am a law-abiding citizen and this is the first time anyone in my family has ever been charged with a (false) crime.

When my husband and I are not at work, the two of us now spend time talking to lawyers for legal advice.

We have started visiting our parents more frequently. We feel we don't want them to be unnecessarily worried about us.

Over the weekend I lost my voice answering calls from well-wishers concerned about our safety. They can't still believe that the news is true.

On Friday, I received a tweet from a fellow journalist.

The tweet was about the two officers who were handling the case being suspended and the home guard returned to the Maharashtra home guards.

Wanting to reconfirm the news, I tweeted the RPF/Mumbai Central Division and received this tweet.

'After a preliminary enquiry the inspector and concerned officer have been placed under suspension. Lady home guard has been repatriated.'

While social media cheered on hearing the news, I didn't have much to say.

Had a thorough investigation been done before the complaint was filed, we would not have had to go through all of this.

I would like to know on what grounds the home guard was repatriated.

Throughout, the Borivali station's RPF thana (police station) had maintained the home guard wasn't guilty and this home guard has been consistently lying telling her seniors I abused her, instead of it being the other way around.

If the home guard was repatriated, then why haven't they withdrawn the case as yet?

I have tried getting answers to these questions, but there is a high level of secrecy surrounding the case.

On Saturday, February 10, almost a week after the fateful day, I visited the Borivali RPF thana to tell my story for the first time.

There was a departmental enquiry being conducted and I was asked for my account.

When I went back to the police station, where I faced the ordeal, I wondered how soon justice would be served.

My mother told me that if action was taken against the concerned cops, then that in itself was a big step towards justice.

The minute I walked into the room of the senior officer conducting this enquiry, I froze.

Standing there in front of me was the home guard in question, the woman responsible for my false charge.

I wasn't sure if it was a good idea for me to face her again. I don't know how much of my face she remembered after the first incident.

But today I am certain my face has been etched in her memory. I don't feel safe.

At the enquiry, apart from the senior officer, there was another gentleman seated at the table.

He asked me why I didn't approach him that day. He went on to explain the significance of the stars on the badges of the RPF officers.

It seems when I was last at this station, I was taken to an officer with two stars on his badge. But this officer told me that I should have met him because he had more stars on his badge.

I said I didn't walk into the station on my own.

I was dragged in and sought the help of the first person I met.

I was too hassled to even remember the names of the people there, let alone the stars on their shoulders.

I also pointed out to him that if he was present that day and was the senior officer in charge, how come he didn't hear them all shouting at me?

Much later I realised this gentleman was one of the suspended officers. Thankfully, he left the room soon after.

I recounted my story to the enquiry panel of two -- of which one was an assistant commissioner -- and answered all the questions put across to me.

The enquiry did nothing to lighten the stress weighing down on me.

I explained the situation and frankly I am tired of having to wait this long for justice to be served.

I kept reminding the senior police officer that he could check the CCTV footage at Bandra, Andheri and Borivali stations.

The CCTV footage in the room where the said 'chargesheet' was filed could reveal a lot as well I said.

Later, I was informed that as there was some work going on at the Borivali station, getting any footage would be difficult!

That day, I visited the Borivali station's RPF thana again. This time it was to submit a written statement.

I left in a hurry. In minutes I was called back again. I had forgotten to sign the statement.

I went back. My husband volunteered to join me, but I asked him to wait downstairs.

I was told that my letter would be sent down with a constable so that I wouldn't have to take the trouble to come up.

Not seeing anyone downstairs, I hurried up with a pen in my hand only to realise that I had to wait for the constable to return with the letter.

One of the constables, who was part of the group who threatened and charged me on February 4 and who might have come under the scanner due to this case, walked in with the letter in her hand.

There was something intimidating about her demeanour. I let it pass.

She placed the letter on a table and angrily asked me to sign it. I put my initials on all the pages carefully too.

At the end of the letter, above the words 'Thanking You', I signed on the left side of the sheet.

Trying to intimidate me again, she angrily instructed me to sign on the right side.

It didn't make much sense to me, but I obliged.

As soon as I signed, with a swipe of her hand, she pulled it towards herself and then gave me a nasty stare.

In a tone aimed to frighten me, she asked me why I had complained against her.

I was shocked. How did she know what the contents of the letter were?

Does that mean she read it when I left the room? What about secrecy and protection to the person who has lodged a complaint?

I chose to exercise my right to be silent and gracefully exited the room.

This time as I walked down the stairs, the sense of fear again engulfed me again.

What I thought was a closed door enquiry, was not what it seemed like.

Not only did the person I complained against get to know about it, in less than 10 minutes after I left the place, she also got a chance to confront me.

I was speechless. Did she think that by intimidating me, she could get me to withdraw the complaint?

Over the last few days, I have received calls from people in the RPF department who have come under the scanner. I have no clue how they got my number.

I don't know if I will ever get justice.

To be honest, given the way things are unfolding, I seriously doubt it.

What happened to me can happen to just about anyone.

So many of us travel by Mumbai's suburban trains. The harsh reality is that there are so many of us cramped in one compartment that there is barely any room to move and absolutely no space to breathe.

Under these conditions, if you spot a home guard in uniform, like I did, encouraging ticketless travel, anyone would react.

But when the RPF turns around and slams a case against you, only because you pointed out the misdeeds of somebody from their team, you begin to question the system.

Is this the price one pays for reporting a wrong doing?

The case against me also makes me wonder that in a country of 1.3 billion people, where I am informed that on an average one person falls and dies on the tracks every day, while travelling by Mumbai's local trains, how important is this case to the RPF?

Has it been reduced to an ego battle, where they have repatriated the home guard but don't want to withdraw the case just because it will reflect poorly on their image?Disclaimer

This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.-  :           

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     .      ,       ,        .           .              70   .A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.Scott Johnson

DELAYS in legal proceedings in Canada have forced a coroner to once again adjourn the inquest into a former Radiohead roadie more than five years after his death.

Scott Johnson (33), of Hickleton, died when part of a stage fell on him while he was carrying out his duties as a drum technician for Radiohead on June 16, 2012, at Downsview Park in Toronto.

Radiohead, Keane and Sir Elton John all paid tribute to Scott, a former pupil at Brinsworth Comprehensive School, after his death.

The Assistant Doncaster Coroner, Mr Mark Beresford, adjourned the inquest yesterday (14) at Doncaster Coroners Court due to delays in legal proceedings in Canada.

Criminal proceedings against a number of corporations in Canada had been on hold and the case was stayed.

Doncaster Coroners Court heard the coroners service in Toronto was now considering an inquest.

Mr Johnsons case will next be heard at Doncaster Coroners Court on Friday, June 8.

Chinese gold demand for the Lunar New Year is expected to rise despite higher gold prices. According to market analysts, China is already seeing an improvement in gold demand ahead of the Lunar celebrations, which will usher in the year of the Dog on Feb. 16, as reported in Kitco News.

Things certainly started to pick up at the end of the year and we expect to see that continue into 2018, Daniel Hynes, ANZ senior commodity strategist. "We also saw relatively strong demand coming through in January, leading into the Chinese New Year. We expect to see double-digit growth in demand in 2018, he added.

Capital Economics analyst Simona Gambarini also projects a strong demand for the Lunar New Year. Based on the local premiums to international gold prices, it appears that demand ahead of the Chinese New Year has been relatively strong."

However, it may not be positive the whole of 2018, as Capital Economics expects to see a slight drop during the year. "The People's Bank of China hasnt added any gold to its official reserves since October 2016. With gold prices now higher, the value of the banks gold reserves has also gone up, reducing the incentive to buy more gold, she noted.



Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough & Polished



Metrolinx

Ontario is partnering with Toronto Hydro to build an energy storage system to provide back-up power to the Eglinton Crosstown light rail transit (LRT) line.

Officials said the initiative is intended to boost reliability, cut operating costs and lower emissions, and will require the construction of a facility to store the energy generated.

Arthur Potts, parliamentary assistant to the Ontario Minister of Transportation, and Laura Albanese, MPP for York South-Weston, announced Feb. 15 that Ontario and Toronto Hydro have awarded the design-build contract for the new facility.

The Backup Battery Energy Storage Facility project will support the operation of the Crosstown while addressing residents concerns about air quality in their community, Potts said. This project is an example of an innovative partnership between the government and the communityone that fulfills our mutual commitment to a cleaner, more sustainable future for Ontario.

Toronto Hydro has entered into an agreement with Renewable Energy Systems Canada Inc. (RES) to design and build the LRT lines battery energy storage facility.

The facility location is set to be at the same site where the future Mount Dennis Station and LRT maintenance and storage facility is currently being built, officials said.

Todays announcement is good news for Mount Dennis. Our community has advocated for a sustainable, creative solution since the beginning of Crosstown construction, Albanese said. The battery energy storage facility will provide a reliable power source for the LRT without increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

The new facility will store energy generated during off-peak hours at night and provide energy the next day to reduce energy use and cut the LRTs emissions and operating costs.

The facility will also provide emergency power to the LRT line during possible power interruptions and help avoid service disruptions for passengers.

The 19-kilometre (11.8 miles) line is set to include 25 stations and connect to 54 bus routes, three subway stations and three GO Transit lines.

Officials said the LRT line is scheduled for completion by 2021.The prices of leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin and others such as Ripple, Ethereum, Litecoin gained after European Central Bank (ECB) allayed fears of a ban on trading in virtual currencies. He said it's not his institution's job to regulate cryptocurrencies.

As part of the ECB's #AskDraghi video series, when asked whether he would recommend purchasing bitcoin by a college student, Mario Draghi, the president of the ECB, said he would think "carefully" about buying bitcoin. He does not see bitcon as a currency.

Earlier in the month, Draghi had warned banks about the dangers of the highly volatile nature of cryptocurrencies and branded bitcoin a "high risk" investment. He also asked investors to be cautious over cryptocurrency amid concerns over the digital tokens' volatility.

Recently, three European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) have issued a warning to consumers across the EU related to investing and trading in virtual currencies. They said Bitcoin and other virtual currencies "have shown clear signs of a pricing bubble".

The head of the Bank for International Settlements or BIS, Augustin Carstens, also had said last week that while digital currency is perhaps intended as an alternative payment system with no government involvement, it has become a combination of a bubble, Ponzi scheme, and an environmental disaster.

In the Eurozone, German and French finance ministers and central bank governors have sought joint action by the G20 group of advanced and developing countries to tackle the risks posed by cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum and many others have been highly volatile of late with significant daily fluctuations in their prices.

Lack of regulation is among the top concerns among the authorities.

Bitcoin price had increased sharply in 2017 from around $1,000 in January 2017 to nearly $20,000 in mid-December and then plunged almost 70 percent to about $6,200 in early February 2018.

Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency in terms of both value and market cap, has more recently recovered more than 50 percent from the low, and is currently trading as of 7.35 am ET on Thursday up 5.20 percent at $9,680, as per Coinbase Price Index.

Meanwhile, Ethereum is up 3.72 percent at $922, Litecoin is up 14.92 percent at $224, and Ripple is up 5.21 percent at $1.12.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsAt least 17 people, including students, were killed and 15 others wounded in a South Florida high school Wednesday afternoon after an expelled teenager returned to campus and opened fire with an assault rifle. Police said they arrested the shooting suspect, identified as Nicolas Cruz.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters that the content that the police saw on his websites and social media networks are "very, very disturbing."

Cruz, 19, was expelled from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, for disciplinary reasons.

The school was about to close for the day when the killer emerged.

Police said Cruz killed three people before entering the school building, and then walked the halls wielding an AR-15 and multiple magazines. Senator Bill Nelson was quoted as saying that Cruz pulled a fire alarm and then, wearing a gas mask, began tossing smoke bombs and shooting people as they ran through the haze.

Police subdued the attacker as he was trying to escape with fleeing students.

It was the worst school shooting in Florida history, and the deadliest in the United States since 26 people were killed at Connecticut school Sandy Hook in 2012.

This is the sixth school shooting incident in the country in just seven weeks into the year.

President Donald Trump offered prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the shooting.

"No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school" he said on Twitter.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsBitcoin is inching towards hitting the $10,000 mark after it dropped to as low as $6000 over regulatory worries a few days ago. The European Central Bank's (ECB) pronouncement that regulating cryptocurrencies is not high on its to-do list, also kept the currency from falling further.

Here is a wrap up of the main news from the cryptocurrency market over the last 24 hours.



UK Crypto Companies Float Independent Trade Body

Seven cryptocurrency companies have floated an independent trade organization in the UK to bring self regulation into the industry. The group named CyrptoUK was formed by Coinbase, Etoro, Cryptocompare, Blockex, Cex.io, Commerceblock and Coinshares. CryptoUK chairman Iqbal Gandham said the CryptoUK has been established to promote best practice and to work with government and regulators to ensure that the UK benefits from the exciting potential of this international .



Cryptocurrency prices Recover after ECB allays ban fears

The prices of leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin and others such as Ripple, Ethereum, Litecoin gained after European Central Bank (ECB) allayed fears of a ban on trading in virtual currencies. He said it's not his institution's job to regulate cryptocurrencies. As part of the ECB's #AskDraghi video series, when asked whether he would recommend purchasing bitcoin by a college student, Mario Draghi, the president of the ECB, said he would think "carefully" about buying bitcoin.



Charlie Munger Calls Bitcoin "noxious poison"

Charlie Munger, a billionaire investor who was also a longtime deputy to Warren Buffett,was highly critical of digital currencies during a question-and-answer session Wednesday at the publishing company's annual shareholder meeting. "It's just disgusting that people are taken in by something like this," he said. He also condemned the US government's lax approach to the crypto craze, and called for a crackdown. The technology that drives bitcoin might be interesting, but the investing frenzy that the world witnessed last year should have prompted a government crackdown like the one in China, according to the 93-year old media mogul.



Only a Minority in Germany Purchased Bitcoin: Poll

Majority of people in Germany have heard about Bitcoin, but only a minority have purchased or used it, German news provider dpa reported citing a representative poll by industry association Bitkom. The poll said two thirds or 64 percent of the respondents said they know how to start with Bitcoin. But only 4 percent have either bought or used it. In 2016, only 36 percent of the respondents were aware of this digital currency, and in 2013, just 14 percent, the poll showed.



Malaysia Against Ban on Cryptocurrency

At a time governments mull crackdown on cryptocurrency in the wake of overwhelming investor craze, the apex bank of Malaysia is calling for the public to decide the fate of cryptocurrencies in the country. Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Muhammad Ibrahim has promised not to ban cryptocurrencies, and said he will let the market decide on the cryptocurrencies that are here to stay. Malaysia's Deputy Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani said a ban would curb innovation and creativity in the financial sector.



Forbes 'Fintech 50' lists 11 Blockchain, Crypto Cos.

Forbes Fintech 50 list for 2018 includes 11 companies related to either cryptocurrency or blockchain. They Include Coinbase,San Francisco; and Ripple, San Francisco. Others listed are: Bitfury Group, Amsterdam; Blockchain, London; Chain, San Francisco; Chainalysis, New York City; Shapeshift, Zug, Switzerland; Symbiont, New York City;Xapo, Palo Alto, CA; Veem, San Francisco; and Xapo, CA.



Current Prices

As of this writing, Bitcoin is trading at $9,749 and Ethereum at $930 on Coinbase.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsLlew Claasen, executive director of the Bitcoin Foundation said he believes Bitcoin will hit $40,000 a coin by the end of this year. However, he sees 90 percent of the other cryptocurrencies failing, Business Insider reported.



The foundation is a key advocacy group for the cryptocurrency.

Speaking at the Startup Grind Global conference in Silicon Valley, Claasen noted that failures of cryptos are OK as it shows that investors are experimenting and taking risks with cryptocurrencies.

However, he does not see a steady climb to $40,000, but after some volatile ups and downs during the year.

Claasen also had a piece of advice for the cryptocurrency investors, "not to invest more in these coins than they can risk losing."

Claasen is not the only one predicting failure of most cryptocurrencies. Speaking on Wednesday at a Goldman Sachs conference in San Francisco, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said most cryptocurrencies are heading to becoming a zero.

Brad noted that most of the cryptocurrencies can't be used as transactional currency, and they are being traded like assets.

Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency in terms of both value and market cap, as well as other cryptocurrencies have been highly volatile of late with significant daily fluctuations in their prices as regulators and central banks are trying to get a grip on the market.

Bitcoin price has been quite volatile since late 2016 and then increased sharply in 2017 from around $1,000 in January 2017 to nearly $20,000 in mid-December before plunging almost 70 percent to about $6,200 in early February 2018.

However, the European Central Bank's statement that it is not the institution's job to regulate cryptocurrencies helped the currency regain its lost strength.

Bitcoin is currently trading up 4.88 percent at $9,685, as per Coinbase Price Index.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsSeveral members of the US Congress have called for gun control in the wake of a South Florida high school shooting that killed 17 people, including students.

The mass killing was carried out by Nicolas Cruz, 19, who was expelled from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, for disciplinary reasons. The teenager returned to the campus with an assault rifle Wednesday.

Teachers were reportedly warned last year about the behavior of Cruz, who was not allowed on campus with a backpack on him.

President Donald Trump said there were "So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem". Such instances should always be reported to authorities, he said on Twitter.

After the news of the Florida shooting broke, Sen. Chris Murphy took to the Senate floor to criticize congressional inaction on curbing the widespread use of gun. Congress has long stalled on such issues, even in the face of multiple deadly shootings year after year.

"This happens nowhere else other than the United States of America," said the Democratic Senator from Connecticut. "It only happens here not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction. We are responsible for a level of mass atrocity that happens in this country with zero parallel anywhere else."

It was the worst school shooting in Florida history, and the deadliest in the United States since 26 people were killed at Connecticut school Sandy Hook in 2012.

This is the 18th shooting incident in the country in just seven weeks into the year.

Florida's own senator Bill Nelson, Sen. Cortez Masto, Rep. Eliot Angel, Rep. Mak Pocan, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, and Rep. Lloyd Doggett also called for gun control.

Meanwhile, lawmakers who are tweeting their condolences over the shooting were criticized on social media.

Screenwriter Bess Kalb, who writes for Jimmy Kimmel Live, singled out condoling senators by responding with the amount of money they have received from the National Rifle Association (NRA).

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsNoble Energy Inc. (NBL) Thursday said it has agreed to sell its deepwater Gulf of Mexico assets to Fieldwood Energy LLC for a total value of $710 million.

CEO David Stover said, "While continuing to deliver outstanding performance and execution across the , we have strategically repositioned our portfolio over the last couple of years. The sale of our Gulf of Mexico business represents the last major step in our portfolio transformation. This has been done to focus our go-forward efforts on those assets that will rapidly grow our cash flows and margins, primarily the U.S. onshore business and the Eastern Mediterranean."

Noble has authorized a $750 million share repurchase program. The oil and gas exploration and production company will use the proceeds of sale to partly finance the share buyback program that will be executed between 2018 and 2020.

Cash proceeds included in the transaction total $480 million, and Fieldwood will assume all abandonment obligations associated with the properties, which the Company recorded at a book value of approximately $230 million as of December 31, 2017, Noble said in a statement.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News(Agencia CMA Latam) - Mexico's Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Luis Videgaray Caso, held meetings at the White House on Wednesday with high-level officials of the United States government. The goal was to keep on working on a comprehensive agreement on issues such as economic cooperation, trade, security and law enforcement, energy, regional initiatives, and migration.

According to a statement released by the Mexican Foreign Ministry, both sides agreed to prepare the bilateral meeting between Presidents Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico and Donald Trump of the United States, expected for the coming weeks, to review the progress of talks and deal with pending issues.

In Washington, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs held meetings with the Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, and with the Director of the National Economic Council of the White House, Gary Cohn.

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.(Agencia CMA Latam) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro demanded on Wednesday a meeting between the governments of Venezuela and Colombia to install a peace coordination plan on the border between both nations.

Maduro entrusted this task to the Minister of Defense, General Vladimir Padrino Lopez, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jorge Arreaza.

Maduro stressed that it is necessary to strengthen security at the border for the benefit of both countries while indicating that Caracas will keep on working to contribute to the protection of all Venezuelans.

"Many smugglers steal Venezuela's money. They take away gasoline and products, and also do a lot of drug trafficking," he said. "We want a meeting as soon as possible for a bi-national peace plan."

Faced with this scenario, he called the National Armed Forces to coordinating security measures and counteracting contraband.

"President Juan Manuel Santos, I agree with the decisions you have made within Colombian territory, strengthening their police and military presence," Maduro said, in a message addressed to his neighboring country's president.

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.Report: 7 civilians killed in 53 airstrikes, ground attacks on Wednesday [15/February/2018]



SANAA, Feb. 15 (Saba)  Seven Yemeni civilians, including children, were killed and other four were injured in 53 US-backed Saudi-led aggression coalition air strikes and ground attacks on several provinces of Yemen, according to reports combined by Saba News agency on Thursday.



In Marib province, two children and two women were killed in an airstrike targeted their home in Aal-jalal area of Serwah district.



In Taiz province, a child was killed and four civilians were wounding when the Saudi-paid mercenaries artillery shelled Salw district.



Also in Salw district of taiz, three airstrikes were waged, while three air strikes hit Khadir district.



In the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, two women were killed in two airstrikes targeted gas station in Jurahi district.



Also in Hodeidah, two airstrikes hit Majilis area east of Tahtia aistrict and an air strike was waged on southern Dawar in Hodeidah city.



In Saada province, an air strike hit Boqeaa area of Haidan district and four air strikes on Mandaba area of Baqem district.



Meanwhile, missile and artillery shelling of Saudi force targeted Razeh and Munabeh border districts.



In Hajjah province, 27 air strikes were waged on Haradh and Medi districts.



In Sanaa province, five air strikes were launched on several areas of Nehm district.



In Saudi border province of Najran, the warplanes of Saudi-led aggression coalition launched four strikes on Talaa site.



Writing by Sameera al-Mahdi, Editing by Zak

SabaReport: Yemen army inflicted Saudi aggression forces heavy losses on Wednesday [15/February/2018]



SANAA, Feb. 15 (Saba)  Yemen army and popular forces have launched military offensives on sites and gatherings of Saudi troops and mercenaries over Wednesday, inflicted them heavy losses, according to military reports combined by Saba News Agency on Thursday.



In Jizan border provice, artillery shells targeted gatherings of Saudi soldiers in Nashaw and Shamikh center, while Saudi solder sniped in Khazan hill of Qewa village.



In the border province of province, Saudi soldiers gatherings were targeted by artillery in Okafah camp, and a guided rocket fired toward military vehicle loaded with Saudi-paid mercenaries in Boqea desert.



In Asir Saudi border province, Saudi soldiers gatherings were fired by artillery in Masial site, custom, Fill-Shaibani and Qanasin hill.



Also in Asir, the army and committees targeted Saudi-paid mercenaries and soldiers gatherings in Alb crossing.



In Taiz province, Saudi-paid mercenaries inflicted heavy causalities in an offensive carried out on their sites in Han mountain of Dhabab front.



Also in Taiz, military vehicle of mercenaries was targeted by artillery down of Khazan hill of Selw district , another mercenaries military vehicle was destroyed by an explosive device in west coast front.

In Moazea district of Taiz, an offensive operation waged on Saudi-paid mercenaries sites north of Khaled camp, inflicted them heavy losses, destroying two military vehicles by explosive devices.



In west coast front , a military vehicle was bombed by a guided rocket.



Furthermore, Yemen army and popular forces repelled a mercenaries infiltration toward Asaqah and Shajarah mountain in Aqrodh, and launched an offensive operation on militias sites, blasting an explosive device, killing and wounding dozens.



Dozens of militias, including leaders, were killed and wounded during repelling their infiltrations toward the army and committees sites in Taiz, inflicted the militias heavy losses.



In Lahj province, the army and committees foiled an intensive infiltration from three sides in Khamis market of Qubaidha, killing and wounding doznes.



Also in Lahj, mercenaries military vehicle was burned by a guided rocket southern Kahbub and Musaar, killing all its crew.



In Hajjah province, gatherings of mercenaries were targeted by artillery north of Medi desert.



In Yemen province of Jawf, military vehicle loaded with Saudi-paid mercenaries was destroyed in Utemah desert, killing and wounding all its crew.



Writing by Sameera al-Mahdi, Editing by Zak



SabaCrystal Palace Close In On Diego Cavalieri Deal

Premier League side Crystal Palace are in talks with ex Brazil international Diego Cavalieri over a short term deal. The 35 year old was released by cash strapped Fluminense recently and Palace are interested, according to the Daily Mail. Eagles boss Roy Hodgson actually sold Cavalieri to Cesena back in 2010 after a spell []Pacific Trade Invest (P.T.I.) Australia and Airbnb are in Samoa to host the first Pacific workshop as part of partnership between P.T.I. Australia and Airbnb that will promote inclusive, sustainable tourism and empower Pacific Island communities.

The first workshop in the Pacific was held yesterday at the Tanoa, Tusitala Samoa on Wednesday 14 February 2018.

The workshop was facilitated with the support of the Samoan Tourism Authority and the Samoan Chamber of Commerce.

The workshop was well received. Ramona Tugaga is among the participants.

Its been so great to have this opportunity to have Airbnb here and learn what its about. Its really valuable to ask questions, she said.

Im so glad I came with my Aunty to the workshop. Im really thankful that P.T.I. Australia have brought them over as otherwise I wouldnt know about homesharing and the opportunity it can provide my family.

Chad Morris, Investment & Tourism Manager said the workshop has been met with a phenomenal response from locals and those in the tourism sector interested in learning directly from Airbnb about home sharing.

Today weve had over 100 people attended the workshops which is an amazing and shows theres real interest in Samoa to learn more, he said.

Over the last 5 years digital platforms have revolutionised how business is done including in tourism, from searching for flights to looking at where to stay and what to do.

For small pacific nations like Samoa, Airbnb has the potential to widen Samoas reach internationally. Since 2008 more than 260 million guests have used Airbnb worldwide, they have a large global network which could increase opportunities for Samoas tourism sector even further by connecting to Airbnbs users.The pensioners of Samoa have a special place in the heart of the owner and C.E.O. of Samoa Stationary and Books (S.S.A.B.), Tofilau Fiti Leung Wai.

Last week, the Senior Citizens office with the National Provident Fund received office equipment assistance valued at $4,000 from S.A.A.B.

When the application came and the C.E.O. of N.P.F. mentioned the need specifically for the elderlies to be well looked after when they come to collect their pension, my heart melted and I wanted to help them right away, said Tofilau Fiti.

The donation consisted of lounge suite, water cooler, first aid kits, glucose and blood pressure monitoring kits.

Tofilau Fiti said they always tried to help government sectors like N.P.F. that are doing a brilliant work to help the elderlies through their pension scheme.

Im actually a person who loves the elderly population in Samoa. The need to help the elders comes naturally and just like how we always donate through some of our sub groups here at S.S.A.B. like our all boys get along group and our all girls manuia group to Mapufagalele.

I am just happy that it is Gods heart to give and also God has used me to reflect that heart of giving and that same heart has trickled down to my employees at S.S.A.B., said Tofilau Fiti.

We always feel like we need to do our part, our good part in this world to help people who are in need, she said.

N.P.F. Chief Executive Officer, Pauli Suhren thanked S.S.A.B. for the donation and for always helping the community.Sixty-eight-year-old Sa Ga Sakaria from Satapuala has gone through a lot in life.

A mother of nine, she has had to endure the loss of six of them due to illnesses and still birth.

She has also had to endure an operation where one of her legs was amputated.

And with Tropical Cyclone Gita sweeping through Samoa last weekend, she held on to one thing that has kept her going in life - faith.

Mrs. Sakaria shared with the Village Voice team that she told her children and husband to evacuate immediately and leave her behind because she believed God would protect her.

I believe that God will never forsake his people, she said. Everything is well in my family and death is present everywhere, whether it is good or bad death is there. As an elderly who has seen so much in life, that is what I believe in.

If this is Gods will, then we have to accept what has happened, I cannot do much because I have undergone an operation having my leg amputated because of diabetes.

We were not prepared either and the wind came together with the rain. The only problem was that rain was able to enter the house.

She said she was aware of the cyclone and luckily her house wasnt flooded, but it was just the trees that were taken down.

Mrs. Sakaria is thankful that the cyclone did not do much damage because there was only one person who worked in their family and paying for repairs would cost them money.

My son works and he has a family of his won, his wife and his six children live with us. One thing that I have learnt is that if people do not work hard, then they will not be able to earn anything in life.

My daughter has her own family and my other son is unemployed and he is looking for a job to help our family.

I will not hide my worst and show my best because this is a sin in front of God, we need help, she added.

She shared that her son is a carpenter and he earns $300 per week and the money caters for his six children who all attend school, their commitments to the village, church and extended family.

We do not have a plantation anymore. Our old plantation used to be where the new hospital is being constructed. We had so many yams, taros, bananas and they were all removed. That is the reason we got into a clash with the Government as well. If we took our harvest from that plantation of ours to sell, that could have been a lot of money.

We could not go to our plantation the policemen did not allow anyone to enter. We were chased away. This was in 2012. Every time we did not have any money we would sell our crops to help my son.

Life maybe hard, but Mrs. Sakaria says she is positive that her children and grandchildren will help build a stable future for their family.WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP)  Thousands of Tonga residents face a long wait for power and other services to be restored after a cyclone tore through the Pacific nation this week.

More details emerged Wednesday about the damage caused by Cyclone Gita after it hit the main island Monday night just south of the capital, Nuku'alofa. The cyclone destroyed homes, churches and even the nation's historic Parliament House.

There have been no confirmed deaths from the storm. Tongan police said three people suffered major injuries and 30 had minor injuries. Police said an officer was injured while trying to help a family evacuate and was in stable condition in a local hospital.

Most of the main island remains without power and many phone lines aren't working.

Publisher Pesi Fonua said he's using a small generator, but that many people with refrigerators will have to toss out food. He said he'd heard it would likely be next week at the earliest before his power is restored.

"Yesterday, nothing happening. Everyone was in shock," he said. "But slowly, slowly things are happening. The telephones are slowly working. They're restoring the power lines."

Kuenili Ka'afi told Newshub that she took shelter in a van when the cyclone hit, having time to grab only a family photo as the winds tore her home apart. She said the cyclone started shaking and lifting the van, and that she felt lucky to be alive.

Some 5,000 people stayed in evacuation centers during Cyclone Gita, according to officials. Tonga, which is home to about 106,000 people, has declared an emergency.

New Zealand has pledged 2.25 million New Zealand dollars ($1.65 million) in aid to help with the cleanup from the cyclone in several island nations, while Australia is deploying equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The cyclone caused some damage in Fiji on Tuesday night, although its path was south of the major population centers.

Anare Leweniqila, the director of Fiji's National Disaster Management Office, said six homes were destroyed and another 27 damaged on two of the nation's southern islands. He said there were no reports of deaths or serious injuries in Fiji.

"It came down to good preparedness," he said. "People heeded the advice from officials and took shelter early in the day before the cyclone hit."

He said about 150 people had moved into evacuation centers.

The storm hit Samoa and American Samoa last week, where it caused damage to buildings, widespread power outages and flooding.

President Donald Trump on Sunday declared an emergency in American Samoa, a U.S. territory. The declaration allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide equipment and resources to help the 50,000 residents recover.Murderer and drug criminal, Tagaloasa Filipaina and a relative, Ovalegi Poli, have been identified as two of the suspects behind the failed mass prison break out last Friday.

This was confirmed by Police Superintendent, Auapaau Logoitino Filipo, yesterday.

He told the Samoa Observer that the suspects have been removed from the Tafaigata Prison.

They are under custody of the Police.

They are both convicted drug defendants, said Auapaau. As for your question on where the suspects are held, I will not answer that. I cannot give out that type of information, it is classified.

Auapaau said the decision was made following the foiled escape attempt last week.

Look, all I can say is that the suspects are no longer at the Tafaigata Prison, they have been removed from the Prison for security reasons.

Last week, the Police received information from Prisons authority relating to a planned mass prison break involving a coordinated effort by the prisoners hierarchy.

About 90 Police officers descended at the Prison. The Police also used the opportunity to raid the prison.

We conducted a raid inside the Prison and discovered more than 30 marijuana joints and stash of cash.

Efforts to get direct comments from Minister of Prisons, Tialavea Tionisio Hunt, on the prisoners behind the plot have been unsuccessful.

Last month, Tialavea defended the decision to release Tagaloasa to attend his matai title bestowal ceremony during the festive season.

The Samoa Prisons and Corrections Services (S.P.C.S.) approved the release, the Samoa Observer was told.

The release came at a time when members of the public were outraged over a prison break involving four other prisoners, which resulted in a woman and her children attacked at Ululoloa.

One of the prisoners remains at large. When concerns from members of the public about the Tagaloasa decision were put to the Minister, he downplayed them, saying the prisoner had shown enough proof that he has changed his ways.

Filipaina is a low risk prisoner, he said. We believe he has very minimal chances of reoffending.

The Samoa Observer put it to Tialavea that the Prisons new Act signed into law in 2016 indicates that those who are convicted of murder, manslaughter, sexual connection, rape, incest, burglary and robbery are not eligible for special release, holiday release and weekend release.

But Tialavea was adamant the prisoner in question posed no risk to the community.

The release depends on the condition of the prisoner, good behavior and low risk (of reoffending)."

We only release the prisoners with special conditions, meaning they are at low risk of reoffending."

For Filipaina, he has been before the Parole Board five times already and he will appear again next month. He is a low risk prisoner.Sonny Mikaele, who suffers from chronic septic arthritis, needs your help.

This is the plea from his father, Kosema Mikaele, who will leave Samoa next week to seek medical treatment overseas for his son.

He is the only boy, and he is the fourth child and at the age of 11, Sonny sprained his ankle, he explained.

Treatment was done; unfortunately his right ankle got swollen and has caused body imbalance."

There are times where hes in so much pain and as a parent; its hopeless seeing him endure the pain.'

So we sought assistance from Orthopedist, Dr. Talalelei, who is in partnership with Shriners Hospital for Children in Honolulu, Hawaii."

The hospital has offered to pay for his airfare, however in terms of accommodations, we will have to cover that on our own, hence the plea for help.

The father told the Samoa Observer, the payment is $38.50 tala per day for six month.

Mikaele cannot afford this. He is the only bread winner for his family, making $13,000 per annum.

We dont have any families in Hawaii hence staying at the hospital, but that costs $38.50 tala per day, he told the Samoa Observer.

As a parent, I appeal for your indulgence to consider the humble plea."

We never think that we would be placed in such a situation to appeal for public assistance, but when it comes to our children, we will go to any length to get them the help they need, said Mikaele.

If I can take the pain from my son, I would do it in a heartbeat, but that is impossible and this is the only way that will assure that he is relieved of the pain and so he can live his life like a normal kid."

The accident has robbed my son of enjoying life as a teenager, hence the move to seek financial assistance, stated Mr. Miakele.

His plea for help is supported by Dr. Tala Taavao who confirmed that Sonny has been accepted by the Shriners Hospital for children in Hawaii.

However there are certain aspects of his treatment that his family has to provide financially while in Hawaii, stated Dr. Tala in his confirmation letter for Sonny.

Mr. Mikaele also provided the Samoa Observer with the confirmation letter from the Shriners hospital.

Shriners Hospital for Children in Honolulu provides care and services to children without regard for their ability to pay, says Drema Green, Shriners Admissions Coordinator.

Mr. Mikaele visited the Samoa Observers office and the Save a Childs Fund has donated $1,000 to help Sonny.

If you want to help Mikaele, you can reach him at 778-6058.Tolovae Leau has no intention to relocate to higher grounds even if it means jeopardizing the safety of his family and his children.

Leau and his family barely survived Cyclone Evans floods five years ago.

And learning from that life threatening experience, the fire and rescue officer with the Fire and Emergency Services Authority (F.E.S.A.) has rebuilt his totaled home elevating it by ten feet.

So when Cyclone Gita invaded Samoa last week, Leaus brand new brick house withstood the first test.

And it has reaffirmed his conviction that despite living in a vulnerable area prone to the mercy of climate change he will stay tight.

I will take full responsibility, he says. This is our home. Its where we were born and raised by our parents and their parents.

He acknowledges the governments concerns for their safety as illustrated by the new Vaisigano River wall under construction to minimize flooding in his neighborhood behind the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa in Apia.

Government is not to be blamed because its a natural disaster and we were all aware of the consequences having stayed put to await what Gita would bring.

Before Gita arrived early Saturday morning, our area was already underwater twice with many of the elderly and young children evacuated to stay with relatives in land and on higher grounds, the rescue officer continued.

To say there was no warning is ridiculous.

We stayed behind on our own freewill knowing the consequences. I am thankful to the Father Almighty that no one was killed.

And he holds the highest of respect for government noting the new wall for Vaisigano River under construction as a climate resilient initiative to minimize flooding in the area.

The Prime Minister is commended. Despite under fire from his unappreciated critics, Tuilaepa is not fazed from securing funding and assistance for people like us.

On that note, he calls on the Prime Minister if government would consider the possibility of providing lands on higher grounds for family in low lying areas to relocate to.

A similar arrangement that government approved for Sogi residents is ideal, he said.

The Leaus like many of the residents in low lying areas are fully aware of the risks involved in defying the government pleas to relocate to higher grounds because of their cultural tie to their place of birth and heritage from the ancestors.

But its not stopping the Prime Minister from reiterating his call for residents to at least heed the weather advisories at times of bad weather to move to higher grounds.

Tuilaepa is also on the front line calling on the international community for disaster resilience through scaled-up storm recovery efforts, as well as durable partnerships that would help countries like Samoa strengthen capacities to deal with such extreme weather events.

The word vulnerable goes hand-in-hand with the words small island, said the Prime Minister. When we asked our residents why cant people go to higher ground? why cant people just move somewhere else?, the reality is that they simply cannot.Both Home Depot and Sprouts Farmers Market are among several companies making a push for workers in a tight labor market.

Home Depot is hiring 900 workers to get ready for spring, including cashiers, operations jobs and online order fulfillment positions. Jobs are available at the San Diego, Encinitas, Oceanside, Lemon Grove, Chula Vista and Santee locations.

Those interested can go to www.homedepotretailjobs.com to see the latest openings and fill out applications.

Home Depots jobs website does not list the pay for workers. It said the jobs are a mix of seasonal, lasting for 120 days, and permanent part-time positions.

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Sprouts is hiring roughly 120 jobs for its new Mira Mesa location opening in May. Jobs are a mix of full- and part-time, including department managers, clerks and cashiers.

In years past, nearly half of our seasonal associates have transitioned into permanent roles with the company, said Home Depot spokesman Matthew Harrigan.

Like Home Depot, open jobs on Sprouts website do not include pay information. Jobs for the Mira Mesa store are supposed to eventually end up on about.sprouts.com/careers, but were not up Wednesday afternoon.

Interested workers can call 1-866-925-2396 for now.

The jobless rate is at historic lows in San Diego County and employers are looking hard for workers.

In December, the unemployment rate in the county hit 3.3 percent as the region added 21,000 jobs in a year.

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phillip.molnar@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1891 Twitter: @phillipmolnar

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San Diego unemployment at 3.3%. What would government shutdown do?Sen. Elizabeth Warren is pressing Wells Fargo & Co. to explain reported problems in issuing refunds to customers for who were charged inappropriately for auto insurance and mortgage fees.

In a sharply worded letter to Chief Executive Tim Sloan, Warren called the problems unacceptable.

Wells Fargo has stolen money from its customers, wrote the Massachusetts Democrat, who has been an outspoken critic of the San Francisco banks practices since its unauthorized-accounts scandal exploded in 2016.

It has caused thousands of people to spend valuable time and money trying to deal with a problem Wells Fargo created, she said in a letter dated Tuesday. And now the bank is providing the customers it harmed with inaccurate information or making them jump through hoops to get their money back.

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Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Wells Fargo had sent erroneous letters to 38,000 customers who had been forced to buy unneeded auto insurance. The letters were unnecessary and did not contain refunds the bank has said it would pay.

Wells Fargo spokeswoman Catherine Pulley said a vendor caught a coding mistake that resulted in the letters, and that the bank would work with our vendor to ensure these customers receive the appropriate communication  including any refunds theyre eligible for.

The Journal also reported that Wells Fargo had not begun broadly reaching out to customers for refunds it agreed to pay for fees assessed to mortgage borrowers whose delays in completing loan applications were primarily the banks fault.

Wells Fargo planned to require as many as 110,000 customers to agree personally to a refund via a letter before a check would be mailed out  and estimated that no more than half of the customers would do so, the Journal said.

Warren complained to Sloan that Wells Fargo was requiring victims to opt in to receive a refund.

Pulley said the bank would address Warrens questions and those from any other lawmakers about the refund plans.

Wells Fargo remains focused on making things right for our customers and is working with its regulators to ensure that these ongoing auto and mortgage remediations are completed accurately and as quickly as possible, Pulley said.

Our auto remediation is underway and we expect it to be substantially completed by mid-year, she said. We have also begun sending refunds to customers who previously contacted us to question their mortgage rate lock extension fees, and continue to work with our regulators on plans for contacting the remaining customers who paid those fees and invite them to request a refund if they believe that they were charged fees inappropriately.

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Warren asked Sloan to get back to her by Feb. 28 with answers, including detailed descriptions of the banks process for identifying and notifying consumers due refunds and how much money Wells Fargo has budgeted to compensate them.

On Feb. 2, the Federal Reserve ordered Wells Fargo to cap its growth and improve its corporate governance in response to what the regulator called widespread consumer abuses and other compliance breakdowns.

The punishment stemmed from an investigation begun after 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.

jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com

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Twitter: @JimPuzzangheraThe San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy has completed its third citizen science monitoring project, designed to survey some of San Diego Countys most valuable open space areas.

The goal of the program is to create a cost-effective and continuing monitoring effort for the San Dieguito River Park.

This years effort began with volunteers traveling to conservancy land at the top of the watershed near Volcan Mountain. The first survey was a bird census led by the Palomar Audubon Society. The survey covered 75 acres with the help of 24 citizen scientists.

Throughout the 2017 study, a total of 157 plant species and 70 wildlife species were detected, including 10 mammal and 60 bird species.

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The program will collect critical data necessary to fill knowledge gaps on lands in the San Dieguito River Park, and better inform future land acquisitions, adaptive land management, habitat and species restoration, educational initiatives and future research while encouraging community involvement and engagement, said Trish Boaz, executive director of the SDRVC.

The annual survey has involved several groups and wildlife agencies in addition to citizen volunteers.

The monitoring program relies on partnerships with researchers and citizen science groups that have been vetted by the wildlife agencies and other regulatory organizations, said SDRVC conservation manager Jack Hughes.

Volunteers use approved protocols to gather data to ensure that information collected can be shared regionally.

In the spring, Keir Morse, an expert botanist, led a group of volunteers to inventory flowering annuals.

The Southwestern Field Herping Association added the Volcan Mountain property to the list of parcels they are helping to monitor for reptiles and amphibians while assisting with other SDRVC citizen science programs.

Bill and Susan Carter from the Volcan Mountain Foundation Wildlife Imaging Team assisted in placing wildlife cameras as part of the mammal surveys.

The San Diego Tracking Team, which has been conducting wildlife track and sign surveys in San Diego County for over 10 years, recently helped the SDRVC set up wildlife cameras in Rancho Santa Fe in preparation for 2018 monitoring.

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Examples of citizen science already in the river park include the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, Lake Hodges BioBlitz, San Dieguito Lagoon water-quality monitoring and monthly bird surveys.

Simply put, citizen science is public participation in scientific research. The best part is a volunteer doesnt need a formal science background or a fancy degree to contribute, just the willingness to volunteer his or her time and effort.

For additional information about conservancy programs, visit sdrvc.org.

Bird festival

Organizers hope that birders will flock to the desert next month to participate in the 2018 Borrego Springs Desert Birding Festival.

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The March 14-16 event will include guest speakers, field trips and seminars, along with a closing dinner program.

The annual festival is sponsored by the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association. Registration costs $125 for the general public or $95 for ABDNHA members.

Events will begin at 7:15 a.m. March 15 with a field trip to a private ranch in San Felipe Valley. Other field trips will include visits to the Borrego Hawk Watch site during this peak time of hawk migration; a Salton Sea birding tour, local desert birding walks, and a visit to Dos Palmas BLM Preserve near Salton Sea.

Presentations will include a display of falcons and hawks by master falconer Cisco Clibourne, a seminar on the migration of Swainsons hawks through Borrego, the natural history of roadrunners, hummingbirds, and burrowing owls.

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The festival dinner will include a presentation by an impersonator who brings artist, naturalist and ornithologist John J. Audubon to life.

For additional information and a complete festival schedule, visit abdnha.org.

San Diegos desert areas are one of the most interesting spring birding areas as migrating species add to the extensive list of resident birds.

Daffodil show

The historic gold mining town of Julian will be hosting the annual Daffodil Show from noon to 5 p.m. March 10 and 11 at Julian Town Hall. The show sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce is free.

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Daffodil Society experts will be on hand to answer questions about the beautiful flowers and provide the names and information about the various blooms. There will be over 1,000 blooms on display.

Email ernie@packtrain.com or visit erniesoutdoors.blogspot.com.Despite bringing a charismatic ferret up to the podium to lobby on his behalf, La Mesa resident Pat Wright failed to win over most of the Encinitas City Council Wednesday night to his campaign to make ferrets legal household pets in California.

Who can resist this? Wright begged council members as he cuddled the furry ferret, which kept wiggling about and peering over his shoulder.

While audience members laughed and cooed over the ferrets antics, several council members hardened their hearts and asked him why Encinitas needed to get involved in a state legislative issue.

Councilman Joe Mosca said he didnt feel Wright had made enough of a case for Encinitas to pass a pro-ferret resolution. Mayor Catherine Blakespear noted that no one who lived in Encinitas was there to speak on the issue, though Wright did bring some sign-toting supporters to the meeting.

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Councilman Mark Muir asked Wright why he picked Encinitas when there were lots of other places in San Diego County to consider.

Theres a lot of cities between here and El Cajon, he said.

Wright had one supporter on the council.

Councilman Tony Kranz said he wanted the council to pursue a pro-ferret resolution. Later that night at the meetings end, he moved to put the issue on a future council agenda. After Kranz made his motion, Councilwoman Tasha Boerner-Horvath said she might support putting it on an agenda, but first wanted to contact her veterinarian to find out his views on ferrets and the ban.

Tiny mammals with cone-shaped noses and long tails, ferrets are related to weasels and wolverines. They typically weigh less than 5 pounds and are less than 18 inches long. On its web site, Live Science describes them as popular, though controversial, pets. Theyre beloved by their owners for their active, playful behavior as well as their cute appearance.

Though many U.S. states allow ferrets as pets, both California and Hawaii ban them. Californias law dates from the 1930s.

On its web site, the California Department of Fish and Game states that ferrets and a host of other non-native animals, including everything from gerbils and prairie dogs to hedgehogs and monkeys, are banned to protect public health and safety, agriculture, wildlife and natural resources.

In the case of ferrets, its been feared that pet ferrets could escape and establish wild populations, impacting native animals and habitat.

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Domesticated ferrets are descended from a European species, but there is a native, non-domesticated ferret in the United States -- the black-footed ferret, which is considered one of North Americas most endangered mammals. After dropping to a population of less than two dozen individuals in the 1980s, black-footed ferrets are starting to make a comeback thanks to captive breeding and re-introduction programs, the Arizona Fish & Game Department notes on its web site.

Wright has owned pet ferrets for decades and has tried various methods of ending Californias ban over the years, ranging from direct appeals to state officials to a petition to former President Obama to legal action. His latest idea is to seek out individual cities, encourage them to support ferret-friendly resolutions and build momentum from there.

He has already won the support from the city of La Mesa. In November, its City Council approved a resolution agreeing to lobby for ferret legalization and declaring that the state law regarding ferrets is illogical, given that ferrets are legal in most U.S. states. However, the council didnt go one step farther and declare La Mesa as a sanctuary city for ferrets, as Wright had originally sought.

Wright told Encinitas council members Wednesday night that he picked Encinitas early in the lineup of cities where he would seek passage of pro-ferret resolutions because he grew up in Encinitas and owns property in the city, though he lives in La Mesa.

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Having Encinitas approve a resolution that supports ferrets as household pets has a psychological benefit that helps his efforts at the state level, he said.

It opens doors, he said. People dont take us seriously (without city endorsement).Tours of Camp Pendletons Santa Margarita Ranch House complex, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, have been extended to Oct. 1, when renovations are expected to start on the nearly two-century-old landmark.

Volunteers from the nonprofit Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores docents group, dressed in period costume of the 1800s, will give 90-minute walking tours of the 8,500-square-foot adobe, which in more recent times served as a museum and living quarters of several dozen Marine Corps generals running the base from 1947 to 2007.

The adobe is filled with antiques, period furniture, mostly from the 1900s, and memorabilia from visiting presidents and movie stars.

The docents recapture the bases history back to Spanish explorer Capt. Gaspar de Portola, who named the land Santa Margarita because he arrived on the holy day of St. Margaret, July 20, 1769. Control of the missions was passed from the church to the civil government when Mexico declared its independence from Spain in 1821.

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In 1841, Pio Pico, the last governor of Alta California, and his brother, Andreas, became the first owners of the property, which was part of a Mexican land grant and extended from Oceanside to San Clemente. Later, the property was owned by early settlers of the area, including the Forsters, Floods and ONeills.

The tour includes the Rancho House chapel, built around 1810 and purportedly the oldest building on base. The adobe chapel is believed to have been built originally as a winery for Mission San Luis Rey.

In the 1880s when the ONeill family owned the property and ran a cattle ranch, the chapel was used as a blacksmith shop. After the property became part of the base in 1942, it was used briefly as a chapel for female Marines and then opened to all Marines.

Public tours are led at 10 a.m. on the first Tuesday, second Wednesday and third Thursday of each month.

The Ranch House is scheduled to undergo extensive repairs and upgrades, starting Oct. 1, and we are not sure how or if the tours will change after the renovation, said longtime docent Barbara Greenbush.

The docent group, which started the tours in 1975 and now numbers a little over 20 members, is looking for volunteers to serve in various capacities, including leading tours, helping at the gift shop and managing the website.

Tours can be booked at (760) 725-5758 or MCBCAMPEN_history@usmc.mil.

Visit rsmylf.org.

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UPDATES:

Aug. 30, 2018: The restoration work has been postponed due to funding and the Ranch House National Historic Site is slated to remain open with docent-led tours continuing until June 2019.A cultural festival focused on the Philippines is set for Feb. 17 at the San Diego Childrens Discovery Museum in Escondido.

The free event, Roots Philippines, features traditional dance and musical performances by local Filipino performers along with Filipino food by award-winning Chef Anthony Sinsay.

Highlights include arts and crafts activities, interactive storytelling and a Kids Global Village with a Filipino-themed market and house for children to explore.

The event is part of the museums sixth annual Root Series, which highlights different world cultures. The series is funded by grants from the Nissan Foundation and the County of San Diego.

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Throughout the year, the museum will present five more community events that celebrate the diverse cultural backgrounds of area residents.

Along with the Philippines festival on Saturday, the museum will host a festival on Mexico on April 28, Germany on June 16, China on Aug. 18, Ireland on Oct. 20 and Argentina on Dec. 15.

Each event features cultural storytelling, music, dance performances, crafts and food that help children and adults gain a deeper understanding of different cultures.

The program is from 2 to 4 p.m. at the museum, 320 N Broadway, Escondido. Visitors have free access to the entire museum during the event.

Visit sdcdm.org.Pliny the Charitable

Issued in small batches once a year, Russian Rivers Pliny the Younger is a triumph of brewing and marketing. Every February, a select number of San Diego craft beer bars jockey for kegs of the rare triple IPA, whose local 2018 debut came this week.

If want to try the Younger, you can a.) follow the Twitter feed of craft-savvy taverns and brace for around-the-block lines, or b.) open your wallet for charity.

Two ways to sample Younger while supporting a cause:

1. OBriens, 4646 Convoy St., San Diego, will tap its first keg of Younger on Saturday at 3 p.m. A second follows noon Feb. 22. These are first-come, first-served affairs, but tickets for the third keg  which will be poured from 5 to 8 p.m. Feb. 21  will go on sale at 4 p.m. today. The $25 fee brings 10 ounces of Younger and the satisfaction of knowing the entire amount goes to charities supporting veterans, animals and the arts.

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2. Hamiltons, 1521 30th St., San Diego, is hosting a triple IPA challenge, pitting the Younger against  whew!  15 challengers. Tickets to this blind taste test, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Feb. 25, are $50. A portion of the proceeds will benefit victims of last years Northern California fires.

(Key)Stone

As my colleague Daniel Wheaton reported earlier this week, Escondido-based Stone insists its lawsuit against a brewing behemoth is no publicity stunt.

MillerCoors redesigned its Keystone cans to separate the words Key and Stone. Turned in a certain direction, the can displays just the latter word in big, bold letters. Moreover, 30-packs are sold in cardboard cases promising 30 Stones.

Cue the outrage.

In the world of beer, Stone co-founder and executive chairman Greg Koch said in a video posted Monday, the name Stone is ours.

While no trademark law expert, Im declaring a winner: Stone by a knockout. Even if this aint a publicity stunt, the nations 10th largest craft brewery must be loving this.

By publicly tangling with one of beers corporate Goliaths, Stone stresses its roots as a scrappy, pugnacious David making bold, full-flavored brews. In a crowded beer market  San Diego alone has more than 160 breweries  Stone is constantly on the lookout for innovative, eye-catching opportunities to trumpet its upstart message.

Just such an opportunity was gift-wrapped by MillerCoors. Kochs video? In its first 24 hours, it notched over 55,000 views on YouTube, more than any previous Stone video.

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Meanwhile, the conglomerates defense has to be read to be disbelieved. The key statement: Our consumers have commonly used Stone to refer to the Keystone brand and we will let the facts speak for themselves in the legal process.:

Good luck with that.

Kings of Beer

Is Anchor sinking? Under then-owner Fritz Maytag, San Franciscos hometown brewery was credited with helping launch the craft beer movement in the 1970s, captivating drinkers with its flagship Steam Beer. But in the last eight years, Anchor has been sold twice, first to Bay Area investors and then to Japanese megabrewer Sapporo.

Fans had to wonder. Was it time to bid sayonara to Anchor?

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Sampling its new Coffee Porter (6.7 percent alcohol by volume), my answer is an emphatic no. Using beans from a fellow S.F. establishment, Four Barrel Coffee, Anchor has created a complex yet simply delightful ale. From its mocha aromas to its quick, clean finish, this porter is surprisingly cheery. The roasted coffee notes are cut with layers of cream and dark chocolate. Expertly carbonated, this porter is light on the tongue, not overstaying its welcome.

This weeks King, Coffee Porter drives out Customized Yellow Merc IPA (6.9 percent). Fall Brewings fruity New England-style IPA is good, sporty fun. Keep it mind if you want a tropical IPA thats big without being bloated.

Homebrewing Away from Home

Judd McGhee makes brewing look easy.

Its not.

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Its a Wizard of Oz thing  dont look behind the curtain, said McGhee, owner of Citizen Brewers, a brew-on-premises shop at 5837 Mission Gorge Road in San Diego.There are so many things that can go wrong, its always a triumph when it works.

His business, which opened in 2015, is equipped with brew kettles, fermentation tanks, malts, hops, yeast strains  everything novices need to brew their first batch of beer.

Some customers require little attention as they brew. Others want step-by-step instruction. McGhee, 39, is happy either way: I enjoy hosting. Its a lot of fun.

The price of this fun varies with the groups size and the beers recipe. Parties of four to six people can make a batch in under five hours for about $300. The tab includes bottles, caps, labels and five to six cases of beer.

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While customers can brew anything from coffee-infused stouts to lemony hefeweizens, one style dominates. Of course.

Its still IPA all the time, McGhee said. Ive brewed as much IPA and derivatives of IPA as everything else combined.

Did you know

Pliny the Elder was a Roman lawyer, soldier and author who  legend has it  was the first to describe in writing the hop plant. Russian River named its double IPA (8 percent alcohol) after this figure, and its triple IPA (10.25 percent) after his nephew, Pliny the Younger.

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Twitter: @peterroweut

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peter.rowe@sduniontribune.comTwo award-winning young musicians  South Korean violinist Bomsori Kim and New Jersey pianist Drew Petersen  will kick off the new ECHO Chamber Music Series on Saturday at El Cajons Cuyamaca College.

The series is the brainchild of San Diego Symphony Board Vice Chair Sam Ersan, who has also provided invaluable support here for the Myriad Trio and Camera Lucida.

Kim, 28, won top honors at Germanys prestigious 62nd annual ARD International Music Competition in 2013.

Petersen, 24, won the 2017 American Pianists Award.

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Their repertoire here will include sonatas by Beethoven, Schumann and Ravel, plus several other selections.

The ECHO series continues with a Feb. 21 concert by Polands Szymanowski String Quartet.

ECHO Chamber Music Series presents Bomsori Kim & Drew Petersen

2 p.m. Saturday. Cuyamaca College Performing Arts Theatre, 900 Rancho San Diego Parkway, El Cajon. $5 (students), $15 (general public), free for the first 100 people to call to reserve a ticket. (619) 660-4288

george.varga@sduniontribune.com

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Twitter @georgevargaTwo-time Olympic snowboarding champion and San Diego native Shaun White is being sued for sexual harassment by Lena Zawaideh, the former drummer in his band, Bad Things.

She is also suing him over claims of bad business practices and failure to pay wages. Zawaideh, who  like White  grew up in Carlsbad, co-founded Bad Things with him in 2007. She was fired by White in 2014 and filed her lawsuit in May, but news of the litigation only emerged Tuesday after TMZ published court documents.

During her seven years in the band, Zawaideh alleges, she was subjected to Whites darker, misogynistic personality. Her lawsuit charges that he sent her sexually graphic and explicit images, made crude sexual remarks to her and forced her to watch explicit videos. She also alleges that White, Bad Things lead guitarist, dictated how she dressed in the band, how she wore her makeup and how she cut her hair.

The suit by Zawaideh further charges that, while under the influence of alcohol, White subjected her to aggressive behavior.

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I am pursuing this case because women should not have to tolerate harassment at work, Zawaideh said in a statement. Shaun White should not be allowed to do whatever he wants just because he is famous. Although I am embarrassed to have been treated this way, I cannot sit by and watch him do this to other women.

In an early 2015 blog, the photographer who shot a June, 2014, photo spread of Zawaideh for Riviera San Diego Modern Luxury Magazine identified her as drummer Lena Zawaideh (Shaun Whites girlfriend & bandmate). However, there is no other apparent indication the two were ever more than band mates.

White, 29, and his attorney, Kerry Garvis Wright, are strongly contesting Zawaidehs charges.

Many years ago, I exchanged texts with a friend who is now using them to craft a bogus lawsuit, White said in a statement released Tuesday by Garvis to Billboard magazine. There is absolutely no coincidence to the timing of her claims, and we will defend this vigorously in court.

Bad Things self-titled debut album was released in early 2014 by Warner Bros. Records. The band should not be confused with The Bad Things, a still-active Seattle band. The White-led Bad Things does not appear to have performed since Zawaideh was fired two years ago.

White is currently in Rio, where he is attending the 2016 Summer Olympics. He announced during an NBC telecast from Rio on Sunday that he intends to compete in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.Nikolas Cruz was obsessed with guns, a former classmate said, and once showed off cell phone pictures of what he said were his weapons.

Jordan Zangara, 20, of Coral Springs, said Cruz began attending an alternative school  the Off Campus Learning Centers -- in January of 2017 and was there until at least May. Cruz earlier had been expelled from Margery Stoneham Douglas High School, the site where he is accused of staging a mass shooting.

Zangara said Cruz bragged about how he was banned from Stoneham Douglas.

The pair attended class in the same portable classroom. One day, about a year ago, Zangara said he got into an argument with one of Cruzs friends. He said Cruz jumped in.

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He got mad and started talking about how nice his guns were and began scrolling through pictures of guns on his cell phone, Zangara said. It was well over the normal amount of guns that people have.

Zangara remembered Cruz looking at pictures of guns on the internet, although his classwork did not involve that topic.

He wasnt focused on his work, Zangara said. I can tell you that.

ageggis@sunsentinel.com, 561-243-6624, or @AnneBoca . Visit our Deerfield Beach community page at SunSentinel.com/FacebookDeerfield.The aging, two-story blue structure stands just across the eerie border separating North and South Korea, inside the broader buffer area known as the demilitarized zone.

The building has a military telephone, set up so that international troops under the United States command can relay messages to their North Korean adversaries in the hope of avoiding any unintended conflict.

They havent answered since 2013, said Cmdr. Robert Watt, a scruffy Canadian military officer who helps U.S.-led forces keep the peace here. Weve resorted to calling out, essentially, with a bullhorn.

This Joint Security Area is part of a 2 1/2-mile-wide demilitarized strip dividing one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world, a place where the tense international confrontation over North Koreas unbridled development of nuclear weapons plays out in a landscape of lightly armed soldiers, squat buildings  and the occasional bullhorn.

As the Winter Olympics play out just over 100 miles to the southeast in Pyeongchang, this site, where negotiators last month inked a deal securing North Koreas participation in the Games, is a symbolic reminder that the United States and its allies remain in a tense, decades-long stalemate with the totalitarian state.

Cmdr. Robert Watt is the Canadian chief of staff of the United Nations Command based in the Joint Security Area of the demilitarized zone. Gary Ambrose / For The Times

The site is a study in symmetry, only about 2,500 feet in diameter and split by the technical border known as the Military Demarcation Line. Three low-slung, sky-blue huts straddle that line, allowing chaperoned tourists from both nations to cross into opposition territory.

The huts, designed for military talks, are shadowed by two gleaming granite buildings, local headquarters for the North and South. Watchtowers at high points on both sides rise above it all, their dark or mirrored windows hiding the surveillance inside.

Its an anxiety-inducing place for some  frigid in winter and sweltering in summer  thats been the scene of deadly skirmishes between North Korea and forces serving the United Nations Command, which is controlled by the top American general in Seoul, about 35 miles south.

Camp Bonifas is the United Nations Command Security Battalion base in the Korean border village of Panmunjom. Gary Ambrose / For The Times

The most-recent incident involved a gaunt North Korean soldier shot five times by his own comrades during a brazen defection in November from across the border. Several bullet holes are still visible in a tall, silver utility tower where the soldier fell before being rescued by a South Korean commander.

The site is awash in elite soldiers on both sides, carrying only sidearms, who are sometimes separated by mere yards. Those on the United Nations side, dressed in army camouflage or green dress uniforms, wear dark sunglasses to avoid eye contact  and potentially misunderstood glances  with soldiers from the North.

The Souths guards often stand stone-faced, in sturdy taekwondo stances, their legs spread wide and their fist-clenched arms jutting down, slightly bent and to the front. Those from the North, who wear bulbous helmets, dress slightly more formally in brown uniforms with ill-fitting pants.

They all become oddly acquainted over time, though words are rarely, if ever, exchanged  especially in recent years. Those on the Souths side refer to one on the other side as Bob, named for his movements back and forth between pillars during watch.

A South Korean soldier and military police officer at the Joint Security Area. Gary Ambrose / For The Times

The whole scene  heightened when the 100,000 tourists and dignitaries who visit each year arrive  is surrounded by cameras, barbed wire and, if one ventures too far, land mines.

To enter, vehicles from the South pass over the Tong-il Bridge, which crosses the Imjin River, a site of some of the brutal battles that marked the civil war that ended in 1953. Theres an imposing security checkpoint, blocked by black-and-yellow road barriers, on the way in to Camp Bonifas  a military base named for an American officer who was one of two U.S. soldiers killed with an ax by North Korean soldiers in 1976 as he supervised the pruning of a poplar tree that blocked guards view.

North Koreans said the tree had been planted by their nations founder, Kim Il Sung.

A focal point is a central hut known simply as T-2, a place envisioned six decades ago as a temporary home for high-level military talks after the Korean War. When U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson toured the compound last year, a North Korean guard peered inside the dust-covered windows on his side of the building.

.

South Korean soldiers stand guard in Panmunjom. Gary Ambrose / For The Times

In winter, footprints are sometimes visible in the snow outside the buildings perimeter, even if the Norths guards cant be seen.

Inside, theres a deep-brown rectangular conference table, an equal number of chairs placed on each side of the border.

A United Nations command flag stands in the middle, and a blue door with three brass locks leads out one side to the North.

Exiting the wrong door could be a potentially fatal mistake.

Those in charge from the South know the risks, shouting instructions to visitors to remain in line, avoid hand gestures or loud comments and not to take photographs in the direction of secret installations, such as the building that houses the neglected telephone line.

The U.N. is not here in a peacekeeping capacity, Watt, a tall man with a thick red beard who wears a muskrat-trimmed cap, told a recent tour group of international journalists. We are here to combat the North Koreans.

Those North Korean soldiers have become much less visible since the November defection. The North dug a trench afterward, and added other security features on its side, probably to prevent similar incidents.

Ribbons with personal messages hang from a fence in Peace Village, an area in the DMZ frequented by tourists. Gary Ambrose / For The Times

It also appeared that the Norths previous security force was replaced after the incident  Bob hasnt been seen in months.

The landscape along the zone is a largely untouched wooded area that stretches two miles north and south of the border. It runs spans about 150 miles miles long, from east to west, effectively splitting the peninsula.

Wild boar  the males are the size of tractors, Watt claims  and vampire deer, an indigenous variant of the ubiquitous North American species that have fangs extruding from their mouths, roam the area.

Most of it has no human presence. Its essentially one giant wildlife preserve, Watt said.

The area behind the huts provides a sweeping, mine-riddled view of the Northern countryside  the area where cameras in November captured the defectors speeding green military-style vehicle, which passed through an internal checkpoint before winding through the complex and getting stuck in a grassy area near the line to safety.

Watch dramatic video showing North Korean forces chasing, firing on defecting soldier 

The North Korean soldier jumped from the vehicle, his comrades racing behind on foot, firing in vain to stop him. At least one pursuer crossed the border, a violation of the armistice, which also forbids firing across the line.

Also part of the stunning panorama is the infamous Bridge of No Return, a mine-laden crossing last used in 1968 to release American sailors captured by the North during an ill-fated mission of a U.S. spy ship, the Pueblo. The vessel remains a propaganda piece for the North, docked in the Potong River in central Pyongyang, the capital.

To the northeast of the lookout post is a North Korean checkpoint and a museum at the site where generals from the United States, North Korea and China signed the armistice in the 1950s.

In the distance is the North Korean village of Kijong-dong, which U.S. officials say is largely vacant; an imposing 560-foot tower flies the nations flag. The industrial complex known as Kaesong, once home to a North-South economic partnership but closed amid recent tensions, is also visible.

North Korea's flag flies from a 560-foot tower in the village of Kijong-dong . Gary Ambrose / For The Times

In the background are mountain peaks known as the Kaesong Heights, where the North has installed numerous artillery batteries in bunkers and caves that can be used in the event of a conventional weapons assault on Seoul.

Those weapons are important: They give Pyongyang a strategic advantage to counter any potential U.S. military strike designed to deter North Korea from its nuclear weapons and missile ambitions.

These batteries could launch a massive counterattack on the more than20 million residents living in Seouls metropolitan area.

The mountains serve as a reminder to the soldiers that, despite the daily routine and ritual inside the compound, the threat theyre countering is deadly serious.

Stiles is a special correspondent.

UPDATES:

For the Record, 4:50 a.m. Feb. 15:

An earlier version of this post gave the distance between Panmunjom and Pyeongchang as 40 miles. It is just over 100 miles.Berkeley has always prided itself as a pot-friendly place.

But now, the left-leaning city wants to make it more official.

The Berkeley City Council voted unanimously to declare the city a sanctuary for recreational marijuana, a move that may be the first of its kind.

The resolution, adopted Tuesday, prohibits Berkeleys agencies and employees from using city resources to assist in enforcing federal marijuana laws or providing information on legal cannabis activities.

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The city of Berkeley does not support cooperation with the Drug Enforcement Administration in its efforts to undermine state and local marijuana laws, the measure says.

Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin said the move was a response to threats by Atty. Gen. [Jeff] Sessions regarding a misguided crackdown on our democratic decision to legalize recreational cannabis. Arreguin, Councilman Ben Bartlett and Councilwoman Cheryl Davila authored the resolution.

We have become what may be the first city in the country to declare ourselves a sanctuary city for cannabis, Arreguin tweeted.

Sessions in January ended an Obama-era federal policy that provided legal shelter for marijuana sales in California and other states that have allowed recreational pot. The 2013 policy, known as the Cole memorandum, provided clarity not just to marijuana businesses and users, but also to state and local law enforcement agencies, which now could find themselves working at cross purposes with their federal counterparts.

Berkeleys sanctuary law does not cover other substances considered Title I drugs by the federal government, and it doesnt prevent city resources from being used to investigate cannabis-related crimes that are illegal under federal laws as well as state and city laws.

Millions of peaceful Americans have been fined, arrested, imprisoned, or otherwise needlessly criminalized and stigmatized, sometimes for life, because of their use of marijuana, Arreguin said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. Ending this misguided policy is long overdue.

Berkeley has a long history of lenient marijuana laws. In 1979, voters passed the Berkeley Marijuana Initiative, which called for the citys Police Department to make the possession, cultivation, sale and transportation of marijuana the lowest law enforcement priority. Decades later, in 2008, the City Council declared Berkeley a sanctuary for medical cannabis patients and providers.

California voters paved the way for recreational marijuana in November 2016, with Proposition 64 earning 57% approval statewide. Support was much higher in Berkeley, where 83% of voters supported the measure, according to city officials.

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The ballot measure made California one of eight states to approve the sale of cannabis for recreational use. Those 21 and older can purchase and possess up to an ounce of marijuana for recreational use and grow up to six plants in their homes.

Berkeley has always been a sanctuary city, said Councilman Bartlett. When Jeff Sessions announced he was repealing Obama-era protections on states rights in regards to cannabis, we decided to step up.

The new resolution plays an imperative role in preventing federal overreach, he said.

We will not allow the return of Prohibition, he said. It destroys communities of color, thwarts the will of the people and prevents a healthy economy from manifesting.

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sarah.parvini@latimes.com

For more California news follow me on Twitter: @sarahparvini

UPDATES:

2:55 p.m.: This article was updated with a statement from Berkeleys mayor.

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This article was originally published at 11:50 a.m.Shortly before she was left bloody and dying along a remote California roadside, 19-year-old Lizette Andrea Cuesta had voluntarily entered a car with her killers, police say.

Cuesta, whose throat appeared to be cut or stabbed, had crawled 100 yards before a motorist stopped to help. Police say she used her final words to tell authorities who had attacked her  her two friends and co-workers.

Daniel Gross, 19, and Melissa Leonardo, 25, have each been charged with one count of murder in connection with Cuestas death early Monday, Alameda County court records show. The charge against Gross carries a special allegation that he used a knife.

Investigators are still working to determine a motive behind the killing.

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Cuesta, Gross and Leonardo were friends and co-workers, said Alameda County Sheriffs Sgt. Ray Kelly. Cuesta grew up in San Jose and had recently moved to Tracy with her father, officials said. Gross and Leonardo lived together in Modesto.

Lizette Cuesta, 19, used her last words to identify two friends and co-workers as her assailants, officials say. (Alameda County Sheriffs Office )

In a jailhouse interview with KTVU-TV published Wednesday, Gross told a reporter the fatal confrontation happened outside the vehicle, after he and Cuesta had sex inside the car as Leonardo drove.

Gross said he acted in self-defense after Cuesta elbowed him in the ribs. It just happened like this, Gross said, as he snapped his fingers.

I  hate myself, you know? Gross told the reporter. I wish I could go back in time and that this never happened.

Gross said that Leonardo was not involved in the killing. All three worked together at a Carls Jr. in Tracy, and both women were aware Gross was having sex with both of them, he told KTVU.

For reasons authorities are still working to determine, the three were together before 2 a.m. Monday. Cuesta voluntarily entered a car with the other two, Kelly said.

This is where identifying the suspects intent is important, Kelly said. For example, you may get in a car with me consensually thinking were going to lunch, but in my mind  Im not going to lunch. I may harm you.

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When asked Wednesday about KTVUs interview with Gross while he was in custody, Kelly said, Im not happy.

The reporter that obtained that information has now become a witness in our case, and now were going to have to interview him, Kelly said. He just inserted himself into a homicide investigation.

The attack took place in the foothills of Livermore on a remote, two-lane road with no cellphone reception in the Corral Hollow Pass.

We have a very dramatic crime scene at the Tesla Road mile-marker location. All indicators are that the attack took place on the side of the road, Kelly said.

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The scene indicates Cuesta was probably attacked on a road turnout on the westbound side. Mortally wounded, she then crawled along the road east about 100 yards before she was found by motorists who stopped to help.

The first driver to see Cuesta didnt stop out of fear for her own safety and instead continued through the foothills until she regained cellphone reception and called 911, Kelly said. Witnesses reported the young womans throat appeared to have been cut and she was covered in blood. Subsequent drivers stopped and cared for Cuesta as she lay dying, with one man saying he covered her with a blanket and prayed with her.

Cuesta was able to communicate with the good Samaritans and provided some compelling information on who attacked her, Kelly said.

Cuesta then was airlifted to the hospital, where she used her last words to again identify her killers to law enforcement before she died.

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This victim really, really tried to survive. She fought, Kelly said. The last thing we believe she was able to do was point us in the direction of the people that killed her, and thats pretty remarkable.

Cuesta was a novice skateboarder who was learning the sport. A vigil was held for her at a park in her hometown of San Jose on Tuesday night. Family members said that while theyre grieving her death, theyre consoled by the fact she was able to identify the suspects in her death.

I love her, the victims father, Ray Cuesta, told CBS13. She was always a fighter. She was always brave, strong, a leader. If she wanted to do something, she would get it done.

Im proud of her, he continued. You know, she showed them that she didnt give up.

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Authorities used the information Cuesta provided to arrest Gross and Leonardo later that morning at their home. Search warrants were executed on their home and car.

That search did uncover a lot of evidence, Kelly said.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.

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UPDATES:

5:55 p.m.: This article was updated to reflect charges have been filed.

2:15 p.m.: This article was updated with details from a jailhouse interview by local media.

This article was originally published at 1:35 p.m.The judge must have been a strange sight as he walked in the early morning darkness through the vast homeless camp.

People peeked out from ragged tents along the Santa Ana River trail next to Angel Stadium. U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter whipped out his cellphone Wednesday just after 6 a.m.

He snapped pictures of the trash-strewn landscape and the human beings who called it home.

When was the last time the trash was picked up out here? How often do they come? How many needles are you finding? What kind of help are folks accepting and refusing? the judge asked in a rapid-fire fashion.

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Carter is presiding over a federal case pitting homeless advocates against Orange County and the cities of Anaheim, Costa Mesa and Orange  where officials are bent on removing the illegal tent city. The judge said he agrees that this population can create a public safety issue.

But during his miles-long walk, the 73-year-old judge  a Marine and Vietnam War veteran  warned that eviction must be handled humanely and with dignity.

In late January, Orange County officials began the process of clearing people from the encampment. They first launched a soft sell, seeking volunteers before arrests had to be made. Then last week, Carter granted a temporary restraining order barring county sheriffs deputies from arresting people who refuse to leave the encampment.

The judges order was related to a lawsuit filed Jan. 29 trying to halt the effort to remove the homeless. Brooke Weitzman, co-founder of the Elder Law & Disability Rights Center in Santa Ana, initiated it, hoping to prevent Anaheim, Costa Mesa and Orange from enforcing anti-camping ordinances and trespassing laws to deal with the encampment.

Carter is pushing the different sides to meet with their clients and staff to fine-tune an agreement to finally start clearing the camp Feb. 20.

In the meantime, the judge wanted to tour the trail himself as an alternative to listening to hours and hours of testimony inside a courtroom, he said.

It was Carters fifth visit. During more than four hours, some of the homeless people who were awake in the cold air rushed up to him, shaking his hand and expressing gratitude.

1 / 8 U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, right, greets Eddie S., 63, who is homeless, while surveying a homeless encampment along the Santa Ana River in Anaheim. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 8 U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter, center, is flanked by Brooke Weitzman, left, an attorney with the Santa Ana-based Elder Law & Disability Rights Center, and Marianne Van Riper, senior assistant county counsel, as they survey a homeless encampment along the Santa Ana River in Anaheim. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 8 U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter takes photos at a homeless encampment along the Santa Ana River in Anaheim. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 8 U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, center, surveys a large encampment along the Santa Ana River in Anaheim. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 8 Judge David O. Carter, center, photographs some of the trash and debris strewn across a homeless encampment along the Santa Ana River in Anaheim. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 8 Judge David O. Carter greets Shane Allen, 36, a fellow Marine veteran, at a homeless encampment along the Santa Ana River in Anaheim. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 8 Judge David O. Carter, left, and Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer talk as they walk through a homeless encampment along the Santa Ana River in Anaheim. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 8 U.S. District Judge David O. Carter takes photos at a homeless encampment along the Santa Ana River in Anaheim. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

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Instead of a he said/she said situation, he actually came out to judge, so to speak, with his own eyes. Looks like hes holding people accountable. He gets things done, said Kathy Schuler, one of seven homeless plaintiffs suing the county and cities for violation of their civil rights.

On Tuesday, before Carters tour, all of the parties reached an oral agreement allowing the county to start clearing the encampment next Tuesday. County officials will offer motel vouchers, good for 30 days, to an estimated 400 people still at the riverbed. They also have ordered pop-up tents and are working to retrofit two county-owned properties in Orange and Santa Ana to provide temporary housing later.

As Carter walked and took pictures of eviction announcements taped to chain-link fences, a group of about 30 people followed him.

Your honor, thats a needle up there. Dont touch it! shouted Laura Knapp, an attorney representing Orange County.

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Cant believe Im telling a federal judge what to do, she added.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter surveys the homeless encampment along the Santa Ana River in Anaheim. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times )

The entourage included managers from the countys public works department, county CEO Frank Kim, county Supervisor Todd Spitzer, city council members, social workers and a pastor. Carter embraced homeless men and women who shared their struggles with him. The judge vowed to help a Marine veteran, Shane Allen, who was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. He told him he would get him a motel voucher.

Carter exclaimed, Semper fi, before pulling county officials up to Allen, who sat in a wheelchair.

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Heres who you need to talk to for services, he reassured Allen. Were going to get you and your wife a suitable place to live and food. Dont you worry.

Spitzer leaned over to ask Allen more questions, before pointing to the judge.

Obviously, this is a very unorthodox approach coming out here to meet with the homeless, but then Dave Carter is an unorthodox guy who understands whats needed, he said. Hes pulling everyone from every agency and pushing them to work together.

Susan Price, the countys homeless czar who shadowed Carter, said: Cooperation  thats his message. This place used to be absolutely full, but people have moved out on their own, and I appreciate him coming to see the progress weve made.

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Anaheim Councilwoman Kris Murray, who last September persuaded her fellow leaders to declare a state of emergency over homelessness in her city, drew Carters attention to an especially large dumping ground for furniture, dirty syringes and debris.

When you see lots of strollers and bikes, you must figure theyre taken from residential areas. We get calls from families who live in some of the nearby apartments and they cant leave anything on their front porch, she said. Ultimately, we have to move the homeless to a higher quality of life to help everyone be safer.

Murray, Carter and two law clerks continued huddling with more residents who emerged from their tents, some cuddling pets, to meet the judge.

M.J. Diehl, who found refuge in the camp with his English mastiff three years ago, was grateful to hear he could be transferred to a motel soon.

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Im overwhelmed  relieved, he said, touching his sticky hair. The stress is gonna roll right off, at last, when I can take a shower.

anh.do@latimes.com

Twitter: @newsterrier

UPDATES:

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6:25 p.m.: This article was updated with more details about the tour.

1:10 p.m.: This article was updated with details about the verbal agreement between homeless advocates, Orange County and the cities of Santa Ana, Costa Mesa and Orange.

This article was originally published at 12:55 p.m.Yes, #HimStill

As the White House scrambles to deal with the radioactive fallout of the Rob Porter scandal, the search for a scapegoat is leading to a dizzying round of finger pointing.

Who is to blame for this bungled handling of domestic violence allegations against a senior official? Chief of Staff John F. Kelly? White House counsel Donald McGahn? The FBI? Is there any way we can pin this on Omarosa?

I can save everyone a lot of time and energy. An alleged abuser was allowed to remain in a position of power in the White House because an alleged abuser is living in the White House. You would think it couldnt be as simple as that, but it is.

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Porter resigned last week after reports surfaced that the White House kept him in a highly sensitive job for more than a year, despite allegations that he had abused both of his ex wives during his two marriages.

The White House originally tried to put the blame on the FBI, but it has since been revealed that Kelly and McGahn both knew there were issues with Porter as early as last year. According to the New York Times, Porter told McGahn last January that he was concerned about his former wives coming forward with potentially damaging accusations.

On Tuesday, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders then passed the bureaucratic buck to the White House Personnel Security Office, who she said received the final background check on Porter in November.

There has been a lot of back-and-forth concerning who knew what about the allegations and when they knew it, but to me the bigger question is, when was someone going to tell the boss?

Im guessing the answer was, Never. Because in the Trump White House, the last person who cares about violence against women is Trump. And if the man at the top doesnt care, why should anyone else?

When Trump was elected  despite the lewd Access Hollywood tape, despite allegations of sexual misconduct by nearly 20 women, despite the many crude remarks he made on the campaign trail  women knew that our lives were not going to be the same. What we didnt know was how his entitled white guy agenda would play out.

Now we do.

It is playing out with the Porter scandal, as the men hired by Trump apparently made the call that the career of a Harvard-educated Rhodes Scholar should not be derailed just because of a few domestic-abuse allegations and a protective order granted to one of his ex-wives.

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Kelly expressed his support of Porter, even after the initial allegations surfaced.

The staffers were probably betting that their boss  who has not been charged with spousal abuse but has been accused of everything from groping to sexual assault  wouldnt be particularly alarmed by this particular red flag. And judging by Trumps responses on the subject, they were probably right.

After Porter resigned, Trump praised him for a job well done and wished him good luck in his future endeavors. He did not address the allegations directly.

And in a tweet from Feb. 10, the president was too busy wringing his hands over the travails of the falsely accused (Is there no such thing as Due Process?) to spare a character or two for the victims of abuse.

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Trump finally broke his silence today, when he told reporters at the White House, Im totally opposed to domestic violence of any kind. Everyone knows that. And it almost wouldnt even have to be said. So, now you hear it, but you all know.

So those are his words. What about his actions? Nothing to see there, either.

In a recent editorial, the New York Times reminded us that Trump has yet to name a White House adviser on violence against women. No one has been appointed to head the Department of Justices Office of Violence Against Women or to be the State Departments ambassador at large for global womens issues.

As we have all come to discover, the president looks at the world through a lens that is focused only on himself. This makes for some disastrous blind spots.

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For instance, there is Russias proven meddling in the 2016 election, a national security threat that Trump refuses to acknowledge because it calls his election into question.

And there are the pervasive issues of sexual abuse, violence and harassment that are being ignored and underplayed by this administration because the subject is not flattering to the president.

And as the growing Porter scandal shows, thats when things get really ugly.

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Twitter: @karla_peterson

karla.peterson@sduniontribune.comWe are mourning in America. Again.

We are mourning the deaths of 17 students and adults after Wednesdays mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

We are mourning for the parents who lost children, siblings who lost brothers and sisters, friends who lost friends.

We are mourning the loss of another piece of our picked-over souls, as we find ourselves thinking unimaginable things like:

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Thank God my kid isnt in school anymore.

Thank God it didnt happen here.

Thank God he didnt kill even more people.

Thank God it wasnt me.

Once you get that awful litany out of the way, it is time to get mad in America. Again.

Mad about the politicians who mouth all of that empty malarkey about their thoughts and their prayers and Oh, its a mental-health problem while doing nothing about the semiautomatic weapons and the ammunition that make mass shootings possible.

And very, very mad that this is who we are.

This is America, everyone. A place where you can get killed just by going to school. Or attending a concert. Or dancing in a night club. Or getting off a plane at the Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood airport.

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This is America, where so many politicians are so deep into the pocket of the National Rifle Association there has been no national shift in gun laws since 20 children were killed in Sandy Hook in 2012. And where so many people are so crazy about their weapons, some of them have convinced themselves that Sandy Hook never happened.

President Trump said today that he would make school safety a top priority when he meets with the nations governors later this month. He said to the people of Parkland, Fla., We are here for you  whatever you need, whatever we can do, to ease your pain.

He never mentioned guns.

I wonder what that aid, comfort and safety is going to look like. I am pretty sure I know what it wont look like.

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It will not look like a national ban on the AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle or on large-capacity magazines, a combination that has no purpose other than to kill a lot of people very quickly. A gun that no average citizen needs but almost anyone is able to get.

I know this because the AR-15 was the weapon of choice in the mass shootings in Sandy Hook, the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino (2015), the Pulse nightclub in Orlando (2016), and the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas (2017).

It was also the legally obtained instrument of carnage used on Wednesday by Nikolas Cruz to kill 17 people in Parkland, Fla.

So unless the presidents plan includes doing something about semi-automatic weapons and large-capacity magazines, he will not be giving the suffering people of Parkland, Fla., what they need.

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And unless his plans include undoing the 2018 federal budgets 26 percent cut to community health services, many people suffering from mental-health issues (which Trump and gun-supporting politicians insist are the real cause of mass shootings) will not be getting what they need.

And unless your plans include moving to another country  almost any other country, really  you are not going to get any relief from the pain of living in a nation that values guns over people.

In America, we have the highest rate of murder or manslaughter by firearm in the developed world. We make up 4.4 percent of the global population but own 42 percent of the worlds guns. In 2013, our gun-related deaths included 21,175 suicides, 11,208 homicides and 505 deaths caused by accidental discharge.

So we can crow about our Olympic medals and how we are the country responsible for Google and Apple and Starbucks, but our unwillingness to deal with the sickening problem of gun violence is a shame that throws a grim shadow over all of our triumphs.

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Whenever we have another mass shooting, someone says we should not be politicizing a tragedy. But as long as people continue to vote for politicians who continue to allow guns and ammunition to be readily available, this is a political issue.

And as long as we refuse to take our fingers off the trigger, America will never be truly great.

We should never be good with that.

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Twitter: @karla_peterson

karla.peterson@sduniontribune.comTwo men accused of blowing up ATMs in San Diego last summer now face charges in federal court, the U.S. Attorneys Office said Thursday.

According to the indictment, Chad Lee Engel, 47, and Scott Michael Petri, 46, used explosive devices in an attempt to steal cash from an ATM at a California Coast Credit Union branch on Ruffin Road in Kearny Mesa last July 4 and from an ATM at a Chevron gas station on Miramar Road on Aug. 13.

The two are suspected of detonating a pipe bomb in an attempt to break into the Ruffin Road ATM, which was damaged but not breached.

While no cash was stolen from the credit union ATM, the robbery at the gas station was more successful.

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A surveillance camera at the Chevron captured an image of one man drilling a hole in the machine and filling it with gasoline. A second man then placed a fuse in the hose and ignited it, breaching the ATM. Engel and Petri are accused of stealing about $7,000 from the machine.

The five-count indictment filed Wednesday against Chad Lee Engel and Scott Michael Petri included charges of using explosives to commit a felony, using an explosive device to damage property, conspiring to commit bank burglary and conspiring to damage property by use of an explosive

A joint task force that includes the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the crimes.

Homeless Playlist  On Now San Diego hepatitis outbreak continues to grow: 481 cases On Now Homeless entrenched in booming tent city along Santa Ana River On Now San Diego mayor agreed to homeless hub, then delayed, advocates say On Now Homeless outreach in San Diego On Now Video: Street Art: Portraits of San Diego's Homeless #8 On Now In poverty himself, 'Water Man Dave,' is the fearless saint of San Diego's homeless 5:41 On Now Video: Homeless living in cars find safe havens 2:21 On Now Street Art: Portraits of San Diego's Homeless #7 On Now Pitching a tent plan for San Diego's homeless On Now Homeless efforts get $80M boost for various services

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gary.warth@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @GaryWarthUT

760-529-4939The cases against a boyfriend and girlfriend accused of trying to smuggle endangered sea life through the San Ysidro Port of Entry concluded this month with very different results.

Alan Ren, the driver and owner of two Chinese restaurants in New York, was sentenced Feb. 2 to 10 months in prison, a $7,500 fine and ordered to pay $16,600 in restitution, after pleading guilty last year.

His passenger, Wei Wei Wang, took the case to trial and was acquitted in San Diego federal court Wednesday of all four charges, including smuggling and unlawful importation of wildlife.

The couple was stopped at the border in February 2016 as they tried to cross. Ren told the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer that they were going to do some shopping and had nothing to declare, court records say. But the officer spotted suitcases and garbage bags in the back of the minivan and inquired what was inside.

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Ren first said clothing, but then admitted there were sea cucumbers for friends and family.

The officer found 172 pounds of dried sea cucumber  the Isostichopus fuscus species is protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES  and 83 pounds of frozen black abalone  an endangered species found off California and Baja California.

Both items require proper authorization to export into the United States.

The seafood was seized, but Ren and Wang were released.

Three months after the stop, Ren produced two receipts from a seafood vendor in Ensenada that falsely claimed to be invoices for the products.

In his plea agreement, he admitted he did not have the proper permits to import or export the seafood, or to act as a commercial importer of fish or wildlife.

Some of the seafood was found in luggage that appeared to belong to Wang, who was sharing an apartment in Tijuana with Ren at the time of the border crossing, prosecutors said.

Ren told investigators that he hired Wang to handle the finances of his seafood business, according to court records. In an interview with authorities at the port, Ren said the sea cucumber was for friends and family in Los Angeles and New York.

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Wang was arrested in the case in New York last April at an airport as she arrived on a flight from Taiwan.

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kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavisThe same day a moving crew was packing up a then-Navy sailors Liberty Station home, the badly decomposed body of the sailors missing wife turned up. She was found nearby, at the edge of San Diego Bay.

Elizabeth Sullivan had been missing two years when she was found Oct. 4, 2016. And in a San Diego courtroom Wednesday, nearly three and a half years after Sullivan had first vanished, her husband pleaded not guilty to murder.

During Matthew Sullivans arraignment, Deputy District Attorney Jill Lindberg said authorities believe he stabbed his wife to death late on Oct. 13, 2014 or early the next morning.

And then, the prosecutor said, he hid his wifes body.

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Elizabeth Sullivan was last seen Oct. 13, 2014  the same day she met with a divorce attorney, Lindberg said. She had also told friends she would seek a restraining order.

There were issues in the marriage, Lindberg said, and it appears that it was coming to an end.

Elizabeth Sullivan (file photo, courtesy San Diego Police Department )

The Sullivans reportedly had a stormy relationship, and police have said the couple had called 911 several times and made domestic violence allegations against each other. In court, Lindberg said there had been at least one domestic violence incident in the couples past.

After Elizabeth Sullivan went missing  which police said was uncharacteristic for the 31-year-old mother  authorities searched multiple locations, including the Sullivans home. Her family also searched for her, and hired a private investigator. The efforts came up empty, and the case went cold.

After she was discovered dead two years later, police again searched the couples former home  and this time found a knife with her blood, hidden in the attic. They also found blood under carpeting in the home. By this time, Matthew Sullivan had left the Navy and moved to Delaware.

On Jan. 31, nearly 16 months after Elizabeth Sullivan was found, San Diego police arrested her husband outside his home in Delaware. He was extradited to San Diego, and during his arraignment Wednesday, San Diego Superior Court Judge Maureen Hallahan set his bail at $2 million.

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Police say autopsy shows Navy wife was killed

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Defense attorney Marcus DeBose said his client had served five years in the Navy, was honorably discharged and had no criminal record, including no arrests for domestic violence.

Matthew Sullivan had custody of the couples two daughters when he was arrested, police said. The girls, said to be ages 5 and 7, are now with their maternal grandfather.

Also at the time of his arrest, Sullivan was in a relationship with a woman, and the two had a child together, authorities said.

After Sullivans court appearance, District Attorney Summer Stephan said Elizabeth Sullivan was in the process of leaving her husband but didnt get the chance.

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Ironically today, Valentines Day, the killer is facing justice, Stephan said.

The husband of Elizabeth Sullivan has been charged with murder in her death. She was reported missing in 2014 and her body was found in 2016. (Union-Tribune file photo )

Stephan also said regional law enforcement agencies are increasing their focus on reducing domestic violence and preventing intimate-partner homicide, which she said is one of top motives for murder in the county.

She said the approach includes a social media outreach campaign by the Family Justice Center, which provides wrap-around services for victims of domestic violence.

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Other initiatives include establishing a protocol for domestic violence cases involving attempted strangulation, which authorities said can be an indicator of future escalation in violence. In addition, the District Attorneys office recently secured a nearly $500,000 grant to study what works regionally to prevent domestic violence and whether prosecutors can be more effective in addressing the cases.

In 2016, the most recent year for which numbers are available, San Diego County saw more than 16,000 domestic violence incidents reported to law enforcement, and 12 domestic violence homicides.

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teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

(760) 529-4945

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUTBONSALL

District seeking new board member

The Bonsall Unified School District encourages community members to apply for a vacant spot on the BUSD board. Individuals must be registered voters and live within the districts attendance boundaries. Download applications at bonsallusd.com, or pick up a copy at the district office, 31505 Old River Road. Applications must be at the superintendents office (attention: Gina McInerny) by 3 p.m. Feb. 28. Mail or hand-deliver, or fax to (760) 941-4409. Qualified applicants will be able to respond to questions and address the board at the March 8 meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. at the Bonsall School District Community Center, 31505 Old River Road.

CARLSBAD

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Sage Creek High hosts JIVE Expo

Students seeking jobs, internships, or volunteer hours can meet potential employers at the JIVE (Job, Internship, Volunteer, Education) Expo, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at Sage Creek High School, 3900 Cannon Road. Vendors (potential employers) are still needed. If you can offer students one or more of these options  paid employment, job shadowing, paid or unpaid internship, volunteer hours for nonprofit, or educational program  contact Amanda Ecoff at ecoffco1@aol.com or (203) 843-3804. Visit sagecreekhs.carlsbadusd.net/jive.

Parent University classes available

These Parent University classes are available in the Carlsbad Unified School District:

Protecting Your Familys Digital Reputation, 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Valley Middle School Library, with Jon Moffat, Cyber Education Consulting. For parents and teens. Covers social media, apps and more.

6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Valley Middle School Library, with Jon Moffat, Cyber Education Consulting. For parents and teens. Covers social media, apps and more. College & Career Planning With Naviance, 8 to 9 a.m. Friday, presented by Carlsbad High School counselors in CHS Room 8101. Learn about Naviance, a college and career readiness online program available to all CUSD high school students. It helps them prepare high school academic plans, explore college and career options, and find out about scholarships and the college application process.

8 to 9 a.m. Friday, presented by Carlsbad High School counselors in CHS Room 8101. Learn about Naviance, a college and career readiness online program available to all CUSD high school students. It helps them prepare high school academic plans, explore college and career options, and find out about scholarships and the college application process. Unlocking the Potential In Your Emerging Adult, 6 to 7 p.m. Feb. 27, with Scott Schimmel of the You School, Valley Middle School Library. The You School team will share their insights into the world of raising teenagers and help overcome roadblocks and challenges.

RSVP to Student Services Specialist Rosemary Eshelman at reshelman@carlsbadusd.net or call (760) 331-5021

NORTH COUNTY

Lowes foundation gives grants to six schools

Lowes Small Toolbox for Education grant program, funded by the Lowes Gives Foundation, has made grants to six schools in San Diego County. Now in its 12th year, the program has provided more than $54 million to more than 12,000 schools nationwide. The local schools are:

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Bayfront Charter High School, Chula Vista, $3,500;

Chula Vista, $3,500; Meadowbrook Middle School, Poway, $5,000;

Poway, $5,000; Ramona High School, Ramona, $5,000;

Ramona, $5,000; Lincoln High School, San Diego, $5,000;

San Diego, $5,000; Richland Elementary School, San Marcos, $3,250;

San Marcos, $3,250; Avondale Elementary School, Spring Valley, $5,000.

Email info@toolboxforeducation.com; visit toolboxforeducation.com.

Local students honored

These students made the fall Deans List at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash.: Sara Elizabeth Brower, Brandon Michael Carroll, Dean M. Eliott and Blake William McCorkle of Carlsbad; Rachel B. Bohan, Molly Mckenna Burns and Avery Charlotte Edwards of Encinitas; Jenna Mathews of Escondido; Ryan Bennett Segura of Fallbrook; Eric Jeremy Fox, Jessica Ann Lubisich, Shane G. Stoike and Katerina Violeta Wraith of Poway; Allison Nichole Streicher of San Marcos; Madeline Lee Minney, David William Rudolph and Claire M. Swafford of Vista. These students were named to the Presidents List: Angelina Tien Nguyen and Allison Dean Seifert of Poway; Alessandra R. Eppich of San Marcos; and Ashley Marie Goode of Solana Beach.

Also named to the fall Deans List at their schools were Diana Moreno of Escondido, Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kan. (Deans Honor Roll); Michael Senti of Escondido and Corrie Jacobi of San Marcos, Trinity Christian College, Palos Heights, Ill.; and Antonia Fraser of Escondido, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

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Local students graduate

Robert Mitchell of Vista graduated from George Fox University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics and economics.

These students graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas: Caleb Hill of Escondido, Bachelor of Arts, criminal justice legal assistant; and Anthony Austin of Vista, Bachelor of Business Administration, general business.

POWAY

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New infant-toddler center on the way

A groundbreaking ceremony was held recently for The Nest Infant-Toddler Center at Ganon Gil Early Childhood Education Center in Poway. The expansion of the 30-year-old child care center will accommodate infants ages 6 weeks to 1 year, and toddlers 1 to 2 years old. Donning yellow hard hats, the preschoolers and their teachers at Ganon Gil Early Childhood Center, along with local and state dignitaries, took part in the groundbreaking ceremony at 15905 Pomerado Road. The center is scheduled to open in early spring. Contact school director Marilyn Milne at (858) 451-6558 or mmilne@adatshalom.com.

SAN MARCOS

Palomar stations get nine nominations

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Palomar Colleges radio and television programs are in the finals in a nationwide competition hosted by the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System. Named Best Community College Radio Station in last years contest, Palomars KKSM radio station (AM 1320) was nominated again for the top honor, and for: Best Specialty Music Show, Best Foreign Language Show, Best Podcast, Best Liner, Best Audio Engineer, Best Use of Video in a Radio Studio, Best On-Air Pledge Drive and Best Music Library/Playlist. Palomars Digital Broadcast Arts program was nominated in four television categories: Best TV Newscast, Best TV Sportscast, Best TV Talk Program and Best TV Commercial/Promotion. KKSM is a 500-watt station that broadcasts all day, every day, from the Palomar College campus in San Marcos. The station also simulcasts on Cox Digital Cable Channel 957, and is on the web. Visit www2.palomar.edu/pages/dba.

Time to apply for Palomar Promise

With more than 600 freshmen in their second semester of free college under the Palomar Promise, high school seniors in the Palomar Community College District have until March 2 to apply for the 2018-19 Promise. The Palomar Promise offers one year of free course enrollment and related fees, textbook assistance, and support services to students who graduate from eligible high schools. The Promise is funded by a combination of state, federal and local funding resources. Every high school district in the Palomar College service area was represented in the initial cohort of Promise students. Nearly a third came from the San Marcos Unified School District, with 25 percent coming from the Escondido Union High School District and 20 percent from the Vista Unified School District. Visit www2.palomar.edu/pages/palomarpromise; call (760) 744-1150, ext. 2366.

VALLECITOS

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Food giveaway at Vallecitos School

The Feeding San Diego program will hold a food giveaway at 1:30 p.m. Friday at Vallecitos School, 5211 5th St., Fallbrook. Bring your own bags and choose from fresh produce and staple items. The giveaway is first come, first served; open to all families who have students at the school. Call (858) 452-3663.

VISTA

Restaurant night for Alamosa Park school

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The Alamosa Park Educational Foundation invites the community to support it by visiting the Chipotle at 495 College Blvd., Suite A, in Oceanside between 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday. Show the flyer (available from the school office or download one at ape.vistausd.org) or tell the cashier you are supporting the cause, and 50 percent of proceeds will be donated to the foundation. Visit alamosaedfoundation.com.

Please send items to laura.groch@sduniontribune.com at least 10 days before events.

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laura.groch@sduniontribune.comThe county of San Diego is bracing itself for the next chapter in a years-long legal saga over its plans to limit greenhouse gases.

The board of supervisors unanimously approved on Wednesday its latest iteration of a so-called Climate Action Plan  once again drawing the ire of environmental groups and concerned residents who say elected officials arent taking the issue seriously.

After years of litigation and having some of the best scientists and one of the wealthiest communities in the world, this is what you come up with? said Jack Shu with the conservation group Cleveland National Forest Foundation. Essentially, you have no plan.

In response to criticism, supervisor Bill Horn said he was primarily concerned with whether the plan would hold up in court.

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Make no mistake. The minute we vote on this, theyre going to file another lawsuit, he said, adding: Im interested in resolving this issue with the court. Thats the biggest issue to me.

County lawyers said repeatedly at Wednesdays meeting that the plan should satisfy California law.

The county was ordered by the courts to redraft its climate blueprint about three years ago after the Sierra Club challenged the document in court. The group argued successfully that the document lacked sufficient details on how the county would realize deep cuts in climate emissions.

The San Diego Chapter of the Sierra Club said its still considering whether to file suit against the county challenging the newly approved climate plan.

The countys most recent plan to fight global warming leans heavily on creating a new program that would allow developers to offset emission through purchasing carbon credits around the globe. Registries that sell such offsets have been around for more than a decade in California, offering projects that range from paying farmers not to cut down forests to investing in solar cook stoves in developing nations.

Critics of the carbon credit strategy say the system is easy to game and the benefits hard to confirm  especially when the funded programs arent local.

Im really disappointed that youve wasted all our taxpayer money when youre not really going to address the issue, said Fallbrook resident Joy Frew.

Supervisors said the offset program will allow the county to fight climate change while also investing in much-needed housing.

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Theres no doubt we do have a difficult task before us, said Supervisor Dianne Jacob. Its a balancing act between trying to provide affordable housing in this region and also (not) adding cost to that affordable housing.

Chairwoman Kristin Gaspar echoed those concerns: Its important to remember that all CAP measures come with a cost, and at the end of the day, all of these costs are realized either directly or indirectly by our residents.

The countys climate plan calls for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions 2 percent below 2014 levels by 2020, 40 percent by 2030 and 77 percent by 2050.

Beyond cutting greenhouse gases through carbon credits, the document calls for boosting the use of renewable energy to account for 90 percent of all electricity consumed in the county by 2030.

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The green energy program  which would account for 30 percent of all reductions under the plan  sets up a controversial decision for the supervisors. Much like in the city of San Diego, elected officials in the county will need to decide whether to start a government-run alternative to San Diego Gas & Electric or rely on a program designed by the investor-owned utility.

Members of the Clear the Air Coalition, which includes lobbyists paid by the shareholders of SDG&Es parent company Sempra Energy with some of the regions most powerful groups  from the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce to the Downtown San Diego Partnership to the San Diego County Taxpayers Association  urged caution in the decision of whether to abandoning the utility.

I think its very important that we do not sign up for a risk that we dont know how to quantify, said Haney Hong, president and CEO of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association.

Advocates also expressed concerns the plan doesnt do enough to limit tailpipe emissions. While transportation accounts for roughly 45 percent of greenhouse gases in the county, efforts to reduce vehicle miles traveled, or VMT, represent only a small part of the plan.

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Elected officials recognized the situation, arguing that in unincorporated rural areas alternatives to driving are limited.

Supervisor Ron Roberts said that in the future electric vehicles will likely obviate the need to limit driving under climate plans.

Will vehicle miles traveled go up or down? he said. I would argue that Im not sure that thats an important issue, as long as the greenhouse gases are going down.

Staff officials said the county is already on track to meet its goals for 2020, largely thanks to state regulations such as fuel efficiency standards. About half of emissions reductions in the plan are expected to come from state actions and programs through 2030.

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Twitter: @jemersmith

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Phone: (619) 293-2234

Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.comA draft United Nations climate science report contains dire news about the warming of the planet, suggesting it will likely cross the key marker of 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, of temperature rise in the 2040s, and that this will be exceedingly difficult to avoid.

Temperatures could subsequently cool down if carbon dioxide is somehow removed from the air later in the century, the document notes. But that prospect is questionable at the massive scales that would be required, it observes.

The 31-page draft, a summary of a much-anticipated report on the 1.5 degrees Celsius target expected to be finalized in October, was published by the website ClimateHome on Tuesday, which said the document had been publicly available on the US federal register over the past month. Last month, several news outlets including Reuters quoted from the draft but did not publish it in full.

The 1.5 C target is crucial to small island nations worried about rising seas, and other nations particularly vulnerable to warming, and was explicitly included in the Paris climate agreement as the more ambitious of two climate goals, the other being 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

The draft document states that there is a very high risk of the planet warming more than 1.5 degrees above the temperature seen in the mid- to late 19th century. Maintaining the planets temperature entirely below that level throughout the present century, without even briefly exceeding it, is likely to be already out of reach, it finds.

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Jonathan Lynn, spokesman for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is producing the study, cautioned that the draft is a work in progress.

The text is highly likely to change between this draft and the final approved summary for policymakers, he said.

Duke University climate expert Drew Shindell, who is listed as one of the drafting authors of the document, also noted that the draft summary was a very early version of the full report.

Its much rougher and much more preliminary than even the underlying document, he said.

Although worrying, the conclusion will not be surprising to those who have followed a growing body of research on just what it would take to stop warming short of 1.5 degrees Celsius. The planet has already warmed by 1 degree Celsius or more.

In some places, the report notes, the temperature increase has already exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius. In general, warming is more intense over land than over the oceans and is already particularly intense in the Arctic.

The document finds that a warming of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) would pose substantially larger risks in many respects than 1.5 degrees C  but it also finds that some severe risks will be present at 1.5 degrees, too.

A serious risk is already emerging to highly sensitive marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs, the document states, and 1.5 C may already be too much for them. Reefs are at risk that at 1.5 C and at 2C they will no longer be dominated by corals, the draft report notes.

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The chance that Greenland or the West Antarctic ice sheet will tip toward irreversible retreat is present at both 1.5C and 2C, the study finds  but at 2C, the likelihood of commitment to major sea level rise grows larger.

Whats most striking is the radical nature and rapidity of the changes that would be required to somehow preserve a world below 1.5 degrees.

The document finds that the world has only 12 to 16 years worth of greenhouse gas emissions left, from the start of 2016, if it wants a better than even chance of holding warming below 1.5 degrees.

Two of those years have already elapsed, as of this writing. A third will have nearly elapsed by the time the draft report is finalized and released in October. (In December in Poland, it will feed into a broader United Nations deliberation about the adequacy of countries current promises to cut emissions.)

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And once this carbon budget for 1.5 degrees Celsius is used up, emissions would have to plunge to zero to preserve the 1.5 degree goal  something that would almost certainly never happen, as it would sharply impair the world economy.

Since such rapid and severe cuts arent likely, the report notes that its virtually unavoidable that the planet will overshoot 1.5 degrees Celsius. To cool the Earth down afterward and avoid staying at dangerously high temperatures for long, it would then be necessary to remove carbon dioxide from the air at a massive scale  but that, too, is highly problematic.

Carbon removal scenarios generally involve reforesting large amounts of land, or growing trees or other plants on that land and using it for energy, and storing the resulting carbon dioxide emissions underground. But increased biomass production and use has the potential to increase pressure on land and water resources, food production, biodiversity, and to affect air quality, the draft notes. Therefore, the scale and speed of implementation assumed in some 1.5C pathways may be challenging.

Avoiding a 1.5C warming would be very, very difficult without a significant overshoot, said Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer, noting that he was commenting solely on the state of the science itself, rather than the leaked document. Such a warming would cause increased bleaching and perhaps destruction of living coral reefs at some locations although at other places, reefs would probably survive a warming closer to 2C.

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Some of the high level messages I think come as no surprise, in that we are not on track anywhere near towards 1.5 C, and getting there would require enormous changes, added Shindell, noting that he was not speaking as an author of the draft report or on behalf of the IPCC, but simply as a scientist with expertise in the matter. That basic conclusion, I think its OK to say that its not a surprise to anybody. Any climate scientist would have told you that even without the report.

The documents leak has become a standard affair for major United Nations climate science reports, because they are seen by so many reviewers.

In 2013, a leaked draft of part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes fifth assessment report helped lend credence to the questionable idea that global warming had slowed down or paused, based on a brief passage suggesting that the rate of warming had declined somewhat between 1998 and 2012. The final draft addressed the issue with more nuance, largely undermining the notion of any significant slowdown.

The authors have until May 15 to include any new published material in the report. Still, its unlikely to change the fundamental conclusion that there is too little time to avert 1.5 C degrees of warming  barring some massive technological intervention.

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There is ... no documented precedent for the geographical and economic scale of the energy, land, urban and industrial transitions implicit in pathways consistent with a 1.5C warmer world, the draft report notes.After days of evading questions about Russian mercenaries killed in a U.S. air strike in eastern Syria, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs admitted Thursday that five of the dead were Russian citizens, but insisted they were not members of the military.

Maria Zakharova, the ministrys spokeswoman, also denounced reports that dozens, and perhaps hundreds, of Russians were killed in the air strike, calling such reports classical misinformation from the Western press.

There were not 400, not 200, not 1,000, and not 10, she said.

During her weekly news conference in Moscow, Zakharova said: According to preliminary information, we could be talking about the deaths of five people  presumably Russian citizens  as a result of an armed confrontation whose causes are being examined.

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She added: I want to emphasize once again that we are not talking about Russian servicemen.

It was the first time the Russian government had acknowledged the deaths since news broke over the weekend that Russians were killed during a Feb. 7 air strike, which the U.S. said it had launched to retaliate against an attack by hundreds of forces supporting Syrian President Bashir Assad near the Syrian city of Deir al Zor.

The Russian Ministry of Defense declined to comment. President Vladimir Putin has not addressed the issue. His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said only that the Kremlin is aware that there were Russian citizens killed in Syria.

The fighters killed in the air strike are believed to be part of a network of shadowy, private companies that provide mercenaries. News reports in Russia have linked the most-well-known of the companies, Wagner, to the Kremlin. The groups are believed to be supporting Syrian government forces.

The number of killed is still unknown. But Russian news outlets and open-source researchers and friends and families of those killed have gradually been confirming names of the dead. Dozens of the mercenaries wounded in the air strike are being treated in Moscow and St. Petersburg hospitals, according to Russian media reports.

The Associated Press reported Thursday that one of the dead was Ruslan Gavrilov, 37, one of seven men from the Russian village of Kedrovoye who joined Wagner.

His mother, Farkhanur Gavrilova, said one of her sons colleagues had called her to say he had died. He was torn to pieces, she told the AP. If he was alive  he is a plucky guy  he would have tried to call.

The Feb. 7 air strike has brought the issue of Russian private military contractors to the surface at a time when there are fears that Syrias multisided war could spiral into a broader conflict between the various foreign powers that have deployed forces to the country.

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Within the same week of the air strike, rebels previously affiliated with Al Qaeda shot down a Russian Sukhoi-25, a Kurdish militia downed a Turkish helicopter, Israel shot down an Iranian drone and the Syrian military downed an Israeli F-16.

I dont even know another conflict in which the situation is more complicated than it is [in Syria] now, said Alexander Khramchikhin, an analyst and deputy director of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis in Moscow. Its hard to count even the warring parties.

Critics of the Kremlin allege that the private companies are acting at the behest of the Russian government. The government has insisted, as Zakharova said Thursday, that they are operating independently.

The fallout from the incident for Russian domestic politics may be more challenging, particularly as Putin on March 18 faces reelection, which he is widely expected to win. There already has been mass media reports on the incidents, and blogs investigating exact numbers of Russian casualties, said Maxim Suchkov, an analyst and the Russia editor of Al Monitor news site, which focuses on news from the Middle East.

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The conservatives are demanding to hear a response from Putin, while the liberals call for a fair and transparent revelation of the activities of the Russian [private] military companies there because ultimately, they are Russian citizens fighting in a foreign country, Suchkov said.

Private military groups are illegal in Russia. But the presence of such groups in Syria, where they are being used instead of enlisted military to bolster Russias support for Assads forces, are one of the Russian militarys most-talked-about secret weapons: Everyone knows they are there, even if the Kremlin isnt admitting they are coordinating with them.

An investigation last year by the St. Petersburg-based Fontanka news site reported that Wagner, believed to be the largest Russian private military group, had deployed an estimated 3,000 fighters to Syria since 2015. Wagner has been described as a Russian version of Blackwater, but without a legal registration. Many of the fighters were Russians and Ukrainians recruited from the ranks of the Moscow-backed separatist rebel forces battling Ukrainian government troops in eastern Ukraine.

While Putin in December ordered the partial withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria, declaring the war against Islamic State over, the Fontanka report alleged that Wagner and other contracted fighters will stay on to guard the oil and gas fields in Syria, which Assad desperately needs to rebuild the country after nearly five years of a devastating war.

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sabra.ayres@latimes.com

Twitter: @sabraayres

Ayres is a special correspondent.Democrat Paul Kerr released his first commercial in his race for Congress this week, and like others from his party running to represent the coastal San Diego district, it introduces voters to candidates who are making their political debuts and takes aim at President Donald Trump.

Enough is enough, Democrat Paul Kerr is a Navy veteran and hell stand up to Trump and his reckless behavior that makes us less safe, Kerrs narrator said.

The commercial is the first time Kerr appears on the airwaves in the race to replace departing Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista. The two-week buy began Feb. 13 and the advertisement will play on cable across the 49th District as well as broadcast television in the San Diego County portion of the district.

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Trump became the central target of Democratic candidates commercials after Issa announced in January that he would not run for re-election. In her first commercial, Democrat Sara Jacobs, the former CEO of a non-profit organization, referenced the changing landscape.

Hes out, but hes still there, Jacobs narrator said as pictures of Issa and Trump flash across the screen. And if we want to hold him accountable, we need to win back Congress. And it starts right here with her.

The spot continues by introducing Jacobs, her work in international relations and her support for universal health care.

Her campaign said in a news release that the commercial is part of a three-week buy, and will air across the district on MSNBC and CNN in an attempt to reach television news viewers, an active voting bloc. It first aired during coverage of President Donald Trumps State of the Union address.

Kerr took particular issue with Trumps itchy-Twitter-fingers.

His reckless tweets put us all at risk, Kerrs narrator says, as one of Trumps social media posts about North Korea and nuclear weapons appears on the screen.

Like Jacobs, Kerr introduced himself and mentioned his platform.

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Paul is 100 percent pro-choice, and Paul supports Medicare for all so everyone has quality health care, the narrator said.

Christina Prejean, lawyer and a former Air Force captain, has posted an online video ad attacking Trump for comments he made about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, a justice in San Diego who presided over a class-action lawsuit against Trump University. Trump said that Curiel was unqualified to hear the case because hes Mexican. Curiel was born in Indiana.

In Congress, Ill fight racism, she said. As a law student Prejean was an extern under Curiel. She works with members of the armed forces and veterans who are victims of sexual assault, and said that shell work in Congress to create a culture of consent.

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Besides Kerr, Jacobs and Prejean, Democrats Mike Levin and Doug Applegate, both attorneys, are also running. Across the aisle, California Assemblyman Rocky Chavez, R-Oceanside; Board of Equalization Member Diane Harkey, D-Dana Point; San Juan Capistrano City Councilman Brian Maryott; San Diego County Supervisor Kristin Gaspar, R-Encinitas; and patent attorney Joshua Schoonover, are running as Republicans.

The top two candidates in the June primary, regardless of their party, will face each other in the general election.

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Twitter: @jptstewart

joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

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(619) 293-1841San Diego has agreed to sell the defunct Pacific Beach Reservoir.

Nearby residents say housing planned for the site will damage neighborhood character.

The sale is prompting questions whether excess city land parcels could help solve the local housing crisis.

San Diego officials agreed to sell the defunct Pacific Beach Reservoir to a housing developer for about $9 million this week, prompting neighborhood complaints and questions of whether excess city land should help solve the local housing crisis.

Nearby residents say the new subdivision near Kate Sessions Park, estimated at 16 homes, will damage the relatively rural character, make the area less safe and create parking problems.

They want the 5-acre former site of the reservoir, which ceased operating in the 1980s but wasnt demolished until last year, to be re-zoned to allow fewer homes.

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Meanwhile, the sale has prompted some City Council members to demand updates to city policies governing excess land so that affordable housing becomes a higher priority amid San Diegos housing crisis.

But zoning the property for less density or providing it to a subsidized housing developer could cost the city millions of dollars, according to an opinion published this winter by City Attorney Mara Elliott.

Because the land is owned by the citys Public Utilities Department instead of the citys general fund, the opinion says the city may have to reimburse water ratepayers if new zoning lowers the sale price of the reservoir property.

Despite that, nearby residents in the upscale Soledad Terrace community want the property re-zoned to allow half as much density, which would likely reduce the number of homes built from roughly 16 to about 8.

The residents dont dispute the citys obligation to seek maximum value, but say there are other factors.

In addition to seeking maximized value, the city must also consider the needs of its citizens and the impact of its decisions on the health and general public welfare, neighborhood leader Greg Nelson told the City Council on Tuesday.

The council voted 7-2 on Tuesday to authorize the sale of the property without any zoning changes.

City officials said that no sale has been finalized because community backlash prompted a withdrawal from the project by the developer that had been negotiating with the city.

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But Cybele Thompson, the citys real estate assets director, said the city was quickly negotiating a new deal with another developer for the site, which is just west of Kate Sessions Park off Los Altos Road.

Thompson declined to reveal the price or the name of the developer, citing the need for confidentiality in city property transactions.

San Diego has a policy of selling excess properties because there are many benefits beyond just the revenue from the purchase.

The city can resume or begin collecting property taxes, private development of the land can stimulate the economy and the city is relieved of maintenance costs and potential liability.

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Before the sale to a private developer, Thompson said all appropriate government agencies and city departments were notified the site was available, but she said no one expressed interest.

The site was then offered to developers of subsided housing and the San Diego Housing Commission, but they also declined to pursue anything, she said.

The 10,000-square-foot lots required by the zoning are generally not suitable for subsidized housing, and the city has a 30-foot coastal height limit.

A 2015 study by Point Loma Nazarene University concluded that subsidized housing projects less than 50 units typically dont operate efficiently.

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The no votes were cast by council members Lorie Zapf of Bay Ho, whose district includes Pacific Beach, and Chris Ward of University Heights.

Zapf said the site should have been considered for middle-income housing. Ward said the city must revamp how it handles excess land to avoid missed opportunities for subsidized housing.

Other council members said that the land is zoned residential and the development allowed by the zoning is not high density.

The city bought the site in 1906 when the surrounding area was mostly dairy farms and chicken coops, and the reservoir was in use for about 80 years.

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City officials said upgrades to the nearby Bayview Reservoir in 2004 brought essential seismic protection for the water supply, making the PB Reservoir no longer necessary. It was demolished last fall.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrickFor nine months, former sheriffs Sgt. Don Parker battled against a brain tumor that threatened his life.

In the early hours of Valentines Day, the 62-year-old longtime lawman lost that fight.

He took his last breaths while holding my hand, his wife, Missy Parker, wrote on a GoFundMe page. I will never understand why he was taken away from me. He was young, healthy, loved by all, and full of life. Its difficult not to be angry, because he did not deserve this.

Parker retired from the San Diego County Sheriffs Department after 25 years of service. He worked patrol, in the jails, at the courts, as a training deputy and for the S.W.A.T. team  but he was best known for the work he did at the helm of the departments search-and-rescue unit.

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He coordinated hundreds of searches, including for Chelsea King and Amber Dubois.

Parker was diagnosed with a Grade 4 glioblastoma in May 2017. He said last year that he experienced months of head pain, but that a doctor initially thought it was a muscular issue.

But after he got lost in his own house, his wife took him to the emergency room. They found the tumor growing on the right side of his brain. Parker, who was healthy and active, was shocked.

It was like a meteorite coming out of the universe and hitting me in the head, Parker said last year. Quite literally, I mean, what are the odds?

Doctors told him he likely wouldnt live longer than 16 months, but Parker refused to give up. He wasnt ready to leave his wife, who he met while searching for Mickey Guidry, her missing son, in 2009.

The San Marcos teenager disappeared after a trip to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. He was never found.

Parker wasnt ready to leave his children either. His daughter and two sons are in their 20s.

His wife wrote Wednesday that the last few days had been difficult. The couple listened to music, and she told him jokes and repeated over and over how much she loved him  but she could tell he was fading.

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How do you watch someone who was so full of life and love fall into a comatose state and watch his breathing get slower and slower until theres no more breath? Missy Parker wrote.

He died at 2 a.m.

After learning of Parkers death, Chris Van Gorder, chief executive of Scripps Health and reserve assistant sheriff, sent an email to the sheriffs search and rescue community. Parker retired from the department after 25 years of law enforcement service, spending eight of those years at the helm of the search-and-rescue team.

10ES5, 10ES5, 10ES5. This is a final call for Sgt. Don Parker, it read. May you rest in peace knowing your strength lives in your wife, your legacy carried on through your children and that your honor will continue with all of us. 10ES5, you are clear for end of watch.

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The GoFundMe page, which was created to help pay for medical costs, raised more than $93,000.

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Twitter: @LAWinkley

(619) 293-1546

lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.comExtra school police patrols were scheduled Thursday morning at Scripps Ranch High School after school officials investigated a comment made by a student about a threat Wednesday evening.

Law enforcement and school police investigated the matter and determined there was no credible threat, but officials decided to have the extra patrols this morning anyway, Scripps Ranch principal Nicole DeWitt said in an email sent to parents.

Yesterday evening, we were informed that a comment was made by a student that indicated a possible threat to our campus. Law enforcement was immediately notified and both SDPD and school police have been investigating this matter and are confident that there are no credible threats to Scripps Ranch High School, she wrote. However in an abundance of caution, school police will have additional officers at the school first thing in the morning.

DeWitt said school officials take the safety of their campuses seriously and she said parents with concerns should contact the school.

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karen.kucher@sduniontribune.comAuthorities on Wednesday marked the 11th anniversary of the killing of a mentally disabled Carlsbad woman by renewing their call for the publics help in solving the case, which is offering a $52,000 reward.

Jodine Elizabeth Serrin, who was high-functioning and active in several social organizations, was killed on Valentines Day 2007 inside her condominium on Swallow Lane near El Camino Real. An autopsy determined the 39-year-old victim died of blunt-force head injuries.

Serrins body was found by her parents, who went to her home around 10 p.m. after being unable to reach their daughter by phone. When they let themselves in with their own set of keys, they found a partially dressed man in his 30s in bed with her, engaged in apparent intimate activity with Jodine,' according to a website established by the Carlsbad Police Department to help solve the cold case.

Jodine Elizabeth Serrin was found killed in her Carlsbad condominium February 14, 2007. (James Johnson )

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Believing theyd found out why Serrin was not answering her phone, but concerned that the man was taking advantage of their daughter, Serrins father told the man to get dressed. The parents waited in the living room to allow her a moment of privacy, expecting an embarrassed couple to eventually emerge from the bedroom.But when they did not come out, the father entered to find that the man was gone and his daughter had been brutally murdered,' according to the Carlsbad police narrative of the case.

On Valentines Day 2010, three years after the slaying, Serrins parents offered their own $1,000 reward, doubling the standard $1,000 reward offered by San Diego County Crime Stoppers. Days later, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger approved a $50,000 reward for tips leading to an arrest and conviction, bringing the potential reward up to $52,000.

Last year, Carlsbad detectives and the District Attorneys Office sought the help of Virginia-based Parabon NanoLabs, a DNA technology company that specializes in DNA phenotyping, which predicts physical appearance and ancestry from unidentified DNA evidence.

Based on the DNA evidence found at the murder scene, the companys ``Snapshot service produced a computer-generated mug shot and trait predictions for a possible suspect that included the subjects ancestry, eye color, hair color, skin color, freckling and face shape. According to that composite, the suspect in Serrins killing at the time of her death was a fair-skinned man of Northern European ancestry with green or blue eyes, sandy blond or light brown hair and some freckles.

Witnesses also described seeing a heavy set man between 5 feet 8inches and 6 feet tall leaving her condo that night.

Anyone with information about Serrins killing is asked to call the Carlsbad Police Departments Cold Case tip line at (760) 931-2225 or the CrimeStoppers anonymous tip line at (888) 580-8477. Tipsters can also provide information online at www.sdcrimestoppers.org.

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karen.kucher@sduniontribune.comA San Diego police officer patrolling the Gaslamp Quarter on his bicycle spotted someone in a white Jaguar sedan point a handgun through the sunroof of the car and fire at least two shots late Tuesday night, police said.

The shooting was reported on Fourth Avenue near F Street around 11:30 p.m., said police Officer Billy Hernandez. No injuries or damage were reported.

The officer said he saw a dark-colored handgun with the barrel pointing in an upward direction that fired off a few rounds through the sunroof, Hernandez said.

Police followed the vehicle but lost it when it got to state Route 94 at the G Street onramp, Hernandez said. It was unclear if the officer on the bike pursued the car or if a patrol car took up the chase.

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karen.kucher@sduniontribune.comA Falcon 9 rocket will bolt into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc on Thursday, producing a pre-dawn contrail that could be visible from San Diego County.

The rocket had been scheduled to lift off on Wednesday, but launch was postponed at the last minute due to high winds.

The Air Force says the rocket will lift off from Vandenberg at 6:17 a.m. on Thursday on a mission to place Spains Paz earth imaging satellite into orbit. The launch could occur a bit later; 6:17 a.m. is the start of a launch window whose length hasnt been specified.

The website Spacearchive.info says, A computer simulation by Launch Alert contributor Rick Baldridge shows the rocket will exit the Earths shadow and climb into sunlight at T+2 minutes 10 seconds.

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That would make the launch especially interesting as the Falcon 9s exhaust plume is illuminated by the sun while suspended in a semi-dark sky. Such a display could be visible from San Francisco to Baja California.

A similar launch in December produced a contrail that was broadly visible across San Diego County.A bipartisan group of senators reached a deal on immigration Wednesday as President Donald Trump attempted to preemptively undercut the proposal by delivering an ultimatum: Pass my plan or risk a veto.

The self-dubbed Common Sense Caucus of senators late Wednesday circulated legislation that would fulfill Trumps calls to grant legal status to 1.8 million young immigrants and would appropriate $25 billion for southern border security construction projects over the next decade - not immediately, as Trump wants. The bill also would curb family-based immigration programs, but not to the extent Trump is seeking, and would not end a diversity visa lottery program that he wants eliminated.

Word of an agreement came as formal debate on immigration policy is set to intensify Thursday. The new bipartisan plan is slated for a vote, as is the GOP proposal sought by Trump, another Republican bill that would punish sanctuary cities and a bipartisan idea that would significantly water down Trumps demands.

A growing sense of diminishing urgency also set in as top leaders signaled that ongoing court challenges may give Congress more time than Trumps deadline of March 5 to replace an Obama-era program shielding hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation.

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In an interview late Wednesday, a senior administration official denounced the bipartisan bill, calling it a giant amnesty that did nothing to secure the border, and vowed the White House would strongly lobby against it Thursday.

The official said the White House already has been in contact with individual Republican senators, as well as House leadership, asking that they oppose the bill. Plans were underway to ensure that key Cabinet members also lobby lawmakers, said the official, who said the legislation made a potential deal on dreamers - immigrants who have been in the country illegally since they were children - more difficult.

Were doing everything in our power to block the bill, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss White House strategy.

In statement earlier in the day, Trump urged the Senate to back a proposal unveiled this week by a GOP group led by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, saying it accomplishes his vision for immigration. At the same time, the president rejected any limited approach that deals only with dreamers - immigrants who have been in the country illegally since they were children - and border security.

His full-throated demand was released by the White House just minutes before a group of Democrats and Republicans gathered to negotiate an agreement.

Democrats were gauging support for the plan in their caucus late Wednesday, with the realization that Trump may reject it.

He created this problem, and hes making it clear today he has no intention of solving it, said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a leader of the bipartisan group, was more hopeful. I know that the president wants a result, she said, and my experience in the Senate is that youre more likely to be able to get a result when you have a bipartisan plan - and thats what were seeking.

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By the end of Wednesday, Collins group was touting its Immigration Security and Opportunity Act, which they hope could garner the 60 votes needed to pass. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., who has emerged in recent months as an under-the-radar bipartisan broker on several subjects, is lead sponsor of the bill, while its primary co-sponsors are Collins and Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Tim Kaine, D-Va. King, Manchin and Kaine are up for reelection this year.

While the bill authorizes $25 billion in border security spending, as Trump wants, it does not provide the funding all at once. Instead, the bill would dole out approximately $2.5 billion this fiscal year to begin construction of walls and fencing and new access roads, and for the redeployment or hiring of federal immigration and border security agents. Beginning in fiscal 2019, another $2.5 billion could be spent annually on border security construction or personnel as part of the normal appropriations and congressional review process.

Despite the breakthrough, there was no guarantee late Wednesday that the plan would find sufficient support.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was noncommittal. Each side has had to give a great deal, he said, but we are closer than we have ever been to passing something in the Senate to help the dreamers.

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Aides to Rounds, Collins and other GOP senators did not immediately respond to requests for comment about details of the legislation.

The bipartisan proposal is set for a vote Thursday, as is the Grassley bill. Senators are also poised to vote on a plan by Sens. Christopher Coons, D-Del., and John McCain, R-Ariz., that would grant legal status to dreamers and pay for border security construction - but not the full $25 billion Trump wants. Their plan says nothing about curbing family-based legal migration or making changes to the diversity lottery program.

Finally, senators will cast votes on a plan by Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., that would shield municipalities from any legal liability for helping detain immigration offenders but also punish local governments that refuse to help enforce federal immigration laws. A similar version of the bill failed in 2016, but it is designed to put moderate Democrats on the record as supporting or opposing attempts to punish sanctuary.

Trumps latest warning might deter senators in both parties who are already anxious about debating such an emotionally contentious issue at the start of an election year. The president said in his statement that he is asking all senators, in both parties, to support the Grassley bill and to oppose any legislation that fails to fulfill these four pillars - that includes opposing any short-term Band-Aid approach.

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also has backed the GOP plan, and most Republicans were rallying behind the proposal. It fulfills Trumps calls to provide legal status to 1.8 million dreamers, immediately authorizes spending at least $25 billion to bolster defenses along the U.S.-Mexico border, makes changes to family-based legal immigration programs and ends a diversity lottery system used by immigrants from smaller countries.

But Democrats in the Senate strongly oppose the Grassley plan.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who is gauging support for a House bill that is much more restrictive than Trumps proposal, told reporters that the White House plan should be the framework through which we come together to find a solution.

On a conference call with reporters, senior administration officials said the president had made significant concessions to Senate Democrats. Last fall, Trump moved to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which had provided temporary work permits to about 690,000 dreamers. White House officials emphasized that Trumps plan allows far more dreamers to pursue the path to citizenship.

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But they added that the border security provisions and the cuts to legal immigration channels are required to stem unauthorized immigration, reduce a lengthy backlog in the green-card process and reduce immigration levels that, the White House argues, have harmed American workers.

At the Capitol, the presidents allies also echoed administration officials. President Trump has crafted a deal that is tough but more than generous, said Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., an ardent Trump defender and sponsor of the Grassley plan. The president wants this solved, Perdue added. And he wants it ended right now.

At a House Budget Committee hearing, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney stated several times that the administrations fiscal 2019 budget presumes Congress will strike a deal. We assume that an agreement is reached on immigration, on DACA, between Republicans and Democrats, he said.

Lawmakers have been negotiating under the premise that the bulk of DACA work permits will begin to expire March 5 - a deadline Trump set last fall, aimed at giving Congress time to develop a solution for the dreamers. But judges in California and New York have issued temporary injunctions, requiring the Trump administration to restart the program.

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The Washington Posts Erica Werner contributed to this report.Amanda Renteria, a top aide to Hillary Clintons presidential campaign, is stepping down from her post at the California attorney generals office to run for governor, according to Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra.

I wish her a great deal of luck. I obviously hired her because I knew she was pretty capable, Becerra told The Times on Wednesday.

Renteria filed a statement of intent to run for governor with the California secretary of states office. Attempts to reach her were unsuccessful.

The timing and seemingly hasty rollout of Renterias bid  without a statement by the candidate, a campaign website or any apparent staff  befuddled political observers in the state.

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I just dont get it, said Rose Kapolczynski, a Democratic strategist and top advisor to former Sen. Barbara Boxer. You cant enter the governors race in a state the size of California four months before the election and expect to win, unless she has a secret bank account with $100 million in it.

Renteria joins a race to replace termed-out Gov. Jerry Brown that has been underway for three years. The Central Valley native, who is best known in California and national political circles, will face challenges as a latecomer to the campaign.

Follow California politics by signing up for our email newsletter 

Renteria, 43, is not a familiar face to the states voters, something that could be overcome if shes able to raise significant sums of money. But many donors have already committed to a candidate. The top three Democrats in the race have been campaigning, lining up endorsements and raising money for more than a year and have millions of dollars in the bank. Renteria also missed the deadline to seek the endorsement of the state Democratic Party, or to speak at its convention next week, according to party Chairman Eric Bauman.

Its unclear who will work on Renterias bid  many of the strategists who helped with her unsuccessful 2014 congressional run are working for other campaigns.

She does have ties to prominent donors and politicians  during that run, President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden spoke at fundraisers for Renteria, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) hosted another fundraiser for her.

Renteria was defeated in that race by incumbent Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford), who painted her as a carpetbagger. He won 58% to 42%.

Dean Florez, a former state Senate majority leader from Shafter who advised Renteria on her congressional bid, labeled her a spoiler on Twitter after seeing the news about her run for governor.

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Completely saddened by this development. If you are running for Governor, announce 6 months ago, attend the debates, hold a press conference with your supporters & speak directly to the press #spoiler #platformIs #badpolitics, he tweeted.

Florez said Renteria failed to learn from her run for Congress.

I get that she completely loves politics, but her issue then and her issue now is kind of dropping in at the last moment, he said. In the [Central] Valley she didnt get any traction because voters were trying to figure out who she was. Now, getting into a race with popular politicians in California, all executive elected officials with long track records and histories  Im just kind of scratching my head.

After the congressional race, Renteria was Clintons political director during the 2016 presidential campaign. Since then, she has served as Becerras chief of operations. Becerra did not say when she was stepping down from the post.

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If Renteria is able to mount a strong campaign that draws support from her native Central Valley and among Latino voters, that would create a challenge for former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is counting on the two groups in his gubernatorial bid. Recent polling shows the gap between Villaraigosa and front-runner Gavin Newsom has narrowed.

When asked if Renteria could cut into Villaraigosas base, Becerra sidestepped the question.

I think its still very early in the race, said the attorney general, who has not endorsed anyone in the race.

Villaraigosas campaign declined to comment, though an ally questioned the timing of Renterias decision.

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This late in the race it seems very difficult to mount a new serious campaign for governor, said Bill Burton, a former Obama administration official who is advising a super PAC backing Villaraigosas campaign.

Florez argued that Renterias bid could pose a greater challenge for former state schools chief Delaine Eastin, the lone woman running among the top Democrats in the race. Eastins campaign coincides with increasingly vocal calls for more women in elected office and with allegations of sexual misconduct brought forward by women in Sacramento. But Eastin has not been able to seize on that momentum, and she lags in the polls and in fundraising.

According to the state filing, Renteria agreed to voluntary spending limits, which means she can spend no more than $8,753,000 in the primary election and $14,588,000 in the general election. Of the Democratic gubernatorial candidates, Eastin has also agreed to such limits, while Villaraigosa, state Treasurer John Chiang and Newsom have not. Republicans John Cox and Assemblyman Travis Allen of Huntington Beach also have accepted voluntary limits on their spending.

seema.mehta@latimes.com

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Twitter: @LATSeema

phil.willon@latimes.com

Twitter: @philwillon

ALSO

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Powerful labor union backs Gavin Newsom for California governor

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Live coverage of California politics

UPDATES:

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5:35 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Rose Kapolczynski, Bill Burton, Eric Bauman and Dean Florez.

This article was originally published at 12:30 p.m.Former District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis held a meeting with reporters on Wednesday to say she will not accept a salary if elected to the Board of Supervisors, and never intended to.

Her pledge reiterared something said two weeks ago by her campaign consultant, after The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that she hired lawyers to lobby pension officials to keep receiving her $268,800 annual pension should she be elected to the board in June.

Dumanis said she had nothing to do with a new law allowing elected officials to continue collecting a pension if elected to a governing body of the same agency.

Bonnie Dumanis, the former judge and district attorney now running for county supervisor, invited reporters to her campaign strategists office on Wednesday to state that she does not intend to accept a salary if she wins, and never did.

Dumanis, 66, who retired as San Diego County district attorney in July and collects an annual pension of $268,800, said she hired a team of lawyers to lobby pension officials so she could keep receiving monthly benefits but accept no salary from a seat on the Board of Supervisors. She made a similar pledge when running unsuccessfully for San Diego mayor in 2012.

I feel my retirement is sizeable, which is exactly what I said when I ran for mayor, and I didnt feel comfortable taking additional monies from the county for doing the work when theyre paying me already not to work at all, Dumanis said. So I could be sipping margaritas on the beach or I could be doing the job that I think I can really make a difference, and I am not going to take the salary and never have intended and have always told people that.

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The San Diego Union-Tribune reported last month that Dumanis had hired attorneys to lobby the pension system in favor of permitting her to retain her retirement benefits if she is seated as a county supervisor.

The report relied on 80-plus pages of exchanges between pension officials and Dumanis lawyers throughout last year. None of the records stated that the candidate was seeking to avoid collecting a county salary and pension at the same time  a practice long criticized as double-dipping.

In fact, the county records repeatedly refer to the salary that Dumanis would be expected to receive.

Dumanis did not personally address the issue for the story last month. Campaign strategist Jason Roe said the longtime prosecutor never planned to accept the $172,000 annual salary if she wins even though the candidate had not stated as much publicly.

Its the first time anyones asked, Roe wrote in a Jan. 26 email.

Dumanis and Roe subsequently provided private communications between herself and her attorneys discussing the candidates intention to forsake the salary in favor of keeping her pension.

The Union-Tribune filed a California Public Records Act request last month with the county pension system seeking copies of any documents to or from Dumanis referring to the candidates intention to work without a salary if elected to the Board of Supervisors. Pension officials on Monday responded, saying there were no such records.

Asked on Wednesday why there were no such documents, Dumanis said her intention was communicated verbally. She said she made it clear to pension officials  and donors while she was raising money for the campaign  that she would not accept a salary if elected.

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There doesnt need to be anything in the public record, Dumanis said. I always told people that. Its clear for the record that that was my intent.

I spoke in person to members of SDCERA and argued my position that I should be able to take my pension and not take the salary.

Pressed on why she never stated publicly that she would work without a salary if elected, Dumanis said she made a tactical decision to wait because the campaign has not yet gotten into high gear.

I do not have a campaign that is reflected yet, she said. (Ive been) raising money and getting endorsements. When I begin my real campaign before the public, I will do that  or if anyone asks, I will tell them.

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In a follow-up story posted earlier this month, the Union-Tribune reported that Dumanis paid her lawyers with $2,500 of campaign contributions, and owed another $3,100. The candidate said Wednesday those expenses of campaign funds were legal and appropriate.

Records show Dumanis first contacted pension officials early last year, asking how she could preserve her retirement benefits if she won a seat on the Board of Supervisors.

Pension lawyers responded that the practice was not legal, and if she were elected she would have to be reinstated into the county pension system and her monthly retirement checks would stop for as long as she served.

After Gov. Jerry Brown in September signed legislation that permitted Dumanis and others to collect a salary and pension concurrently, Dumanis lawyers contacted pension officials to alert them to the change in law. The retirement system wrote back agreeing that Dumanis could now receive both payments.

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That is good news for our client, Dumanis attorney Marissa Morimoto replied in an October email. Thank you for letting us know.

Asked why her attorneys would appear in the public record to be arguing for her to receive a salary and pension at the same time, Dumanis said they were appropriately pursuing every legal avenue available.

Dumanis said Wednesday she had nothing to do with the legislation being introduced or signed into law.

Dumanis, a Republican, is facing Democrats Nathan Fletcher, Omar Passons, Ken Malbrough and Lori Saldana, among others, on the June ballot. Unless someone receives more than 50 percent of the ballots cast, the top two vote-getters will compete in a November runoff.

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jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonaldSan Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn has long lacked tact. In 2000, the retired Marine, whose website once mistakenly listed the Silver Star among his honors, opposed gays in the military by saying, I want the people defending me to be the best there is. I dont want any other ancillary kind of problems, whether or not they use their pinky finger.

In 2005, while seeking a $28,000-a-year salary increase after the county had slashed youth services and laid off dozens of workers, Horn said, It is true that we are elected, but nobody who got elected took a vow of poverty. Were not Franciscans.

Any doubts about Horns disdain and disrespect for the public evaporated when he opposed Supervisor Greg Coxs recent suggestion that the board meet once at night as it has in years past so working constituents could discuss the countys budget.

Horn said a concerned citizen ... could make the time to come down here to testify. Im willing to sit here for two days.  I dont want to sit here at night.

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While hiring a new police chief, San Diego city officials set five night meetings and a sixth on a Saturday afternoon to let the public discuss its priorities, and they are holding two more  one at night  to discuss the selection. The supervisors need to reconsider their decision and hold a budget meeting at night for the public  the boards bosses, lest we forget. Thats no inconvenience. Its their job.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

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Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & OpinionRe At least 17 killed at Florida high school; 19-year-old suspect in custody (Feb. 14): At least 17 more children murdered at school by a deranged individual with a gun.

When will a sufficient number of our children and fellow citizens finally be sacrificed to satisfy the bloodlust promulgated by the public policies and campaign contributions of the National Rifle Association?

It is within our power to change and stop the carnage, if we have the will. Australia has shown us one effective course of action. We can certainly follow with our own.

Michael Bishop

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Chula Vista

After yet another school shooting, our president sends his condolences to the victims families and pledges support to law enforcement.

Not a single word about the root problem: easily available weapons with immense capability to kill.

Im tired of the usual refrains about Second Amendment rights. The Second Amendment states A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Since when are these school shooters and mass murderers part of a well regulated militia, fighting for security of the country? James Madison, our fourth president and the author of the Bill of Rights, would weep if he saw the rampant gun violence in this country.

Steven Miller

Rancho Penasquitos

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Who among us is not complicit? Once again, a deadly weapon found its way into hands of some unqualified person and has been an instrument of chaos and carnage.

It took an out of control industry; many sources for distribution; a fraternity, the NRA, which long ago abdicated its original purpose; owners who will not own up to being invested in the problem at some level; greedy, cowardly, unprincipled politicians of every office being on the take, and many of the rest of us who have sat on our hands and could not or would not organize to stop the mayhem we witness daily. What do we wait for? What do we expect, and at what point will we rise to what is all too apparently, a life and death challenge?

Tomorrow the gun culture is likely to reteach us the lesson of today, that we stubbornly refuse to learn, at the expense of a family near you.

Stan Levin

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San Diego

It would be interesting to compare how many lives were saved by persons who had for their defense an assault rifle to save those lives versus how many lives were lost by persons using assault rifles.

David Welsh

Oceanside

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As a registered Republican, I will not vote for any candidate that opposes gun control.

As citizens of a civilized and advanced society, we have the moral and decent obligation to stop the carnage. Our founding fathers must be turning into their graves to see the horrible harm that widespread availability of assault-style weapons have done to our youth.

Enough is enough.

Carlos A. Arteaga

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San Diego

Another mass murder has been committed in a school at the hands of a deranged gunman. But who will get the blame? Legal gun owners and firearms.

For too long we have been told that right and wrong is subjective and open to personal interpretation, do it because it feels good, its OK.

Personal responsibility and respect for our fellow human beings is thrown to the wind because of lack of consequences.

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Who is at fault? A society that condones personal irresponsibility and lack of respect.

Pro-gun groups that teach gun safety and responsibility are routinely denied access to our schools to teach these valuable lessons while anti-gun groups are granted free reign to spread their agenda of lack of accountability and irresponsibility and hate for guns.

John Ellis

Santee

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Forty-five days into 2018 and we have had our eighth school shooting and our 30th mass shooting of the year. And once again an automatic weapon was involved.

People who oppose gun control will say it is too soon after this shooting to rush to judgment and talk about gun control. Theyll say, we need to wait until our emotions are cooled down , so we can talk about the issue rationally.

Thats not a valid argument. Mass shootings are so frequent, when is the right time? Is it too soon to talk about gun control in context of the Dec. 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting? If so, is it too soon to talk about gun control in context of the July 1984 McDonalds in San Ysidro mass shooting?

The vast majority of Americans support reasonable gun control laws. But we need to be active with our voices, our money and our time to support political candidates who will enact reasonable limitations on automatic weapons.

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Michael Williams

Scripps Ranch

The news of yet another mass shooting raises the question of what to do about the willing accomplices, legislators in Washington and the NRA lobbyists who prevent rational firearm legislation.

Restricting sales of semi-automatic weapons, background checks, mandatory licensing of firearms and holding those responsible for legal weapons getting into the wrong hands does not violate the Second Amendment.

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Those measures would not interfere with sport hunting, recreational target practice, or gun collecting hobbyists. They would not prevent responsible individuals from having a gun for self- or family protection. Those measures will likely not prevent those with malicious intent from attempting mass slaughter. But such measures, if made law and enforced, would made it much more difficult for such individuals to accomplish mass slaughter.

Failure of our representatives in Washington to act makes them willing accomplices to the repeated slaughter that makes the news all too frequently. Those of us who care about our children in school, our friends and neighbors at public gatherings, and our citizens in general need to hold those preventing sensible, constitutional, legislation as willing accomplices to the repeated mass murders with weapons that should not have been in the hands of the perpetrators.

We should not be represented by those who are willing accomplices to murder, and should no longer be sending them to Washington.

Miles Weinberger

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What do the massacres of 12 people in Colorado, 26 in Newtown Connecticut, 49 in Orlando, 14 in San Bernardino, 58 in Las Vegas, 26 in East Texas, and now 17 in a Florida high school have in common?

The perpetrators all committed mass carnage using semi-automatics with large-capacity magazines.

I lean conservative politically but Im not a Second Amendment absolutist  defined as one who believes that the Second Amendment gives us the right to bear arms of unlimited firepower.

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Machine guns are severely restricted under the Constitution and it is beyond time for Republicans and Democrats to come together and create legislation to stringently vet the persons who can lawfully own a semi-automatic firearm with a high-capacity magazine. The current system is utterly ineffectual. Those who wish to argue against this should bring it up with the grieving families of the numerous dead innocents.

Jeffrey Ridgway

San Diego

The solution to gun violence in America requires a substantial cultural change for Americans, but it can be done, if we really want the gun violence to stop.

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1. Repeal and replace the Second Amendment.

2. Only police and military will be allowed to have guns unconditionally.

3. Citizens will be allowed to have guns after completing a request to own a gun and obtaining approval from a government gun control agency.

4. Gun manufacturers will not be permitted to sell automatic weapons to citizens.

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These changes will not be done without angst, but next month when the next mass shooting takes place, ask yourself if this solution isnt the right one for America.

Robert Hall

San Diego

After yesterdays high school massacre in Florida, the 18th school shooting this year, I have had it.

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As a conservative Republican and a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, I have a new personal litmus test for politicians seeking office. First, are you now or have you ever been a member of the National Rifle Association? Second, have you ever taken financial contributions from the NRA or a similar organization?

If the answer is yes, I will consider you a supporter of a domestic terrorist organization and my money and vote will go elsewhere.

Ken Blalack

La Mesa

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The most commonsensical gun law would be the banning of the private ownership of ALL firearms capable of firing bullets as fast as a shooter can pull the trigger, including ALL double-action revolvers and ALL semi-automatic pistols and rifles. AR-15 type rifles, which are incapable of fully-automatic fire and therefore do not qualify, technically, as assault rifles, are no more lethal than any other semi-automatic sporting rifle, and ALL such firearms would have to go. So, ultimately, would ALL pump- bolt-, and lever-action firearms. It is the recognition that common-sense gun laws is a code name for this kind of ban that makes those U. S. citizens who own and operate guns, not all of whom are paid-up NRA members, bristle whenever that code name is uttered, and instantaneously arouses their opposition, though they recognize that there would be major, perhaps insurmountable, problems with the implementation of such a ban.

Conway Redding

La Mesa

The shooting at the high school in Florida made me think , as a retired counselor from City Schools, that we need more security for our children if we are to ask parents to send their precious children to public schools:

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First, armed guards or police at the entrances of all public schools

Second, schools need to be, unfortunately, fortresses which are impenetrable to all but students and staff. Whether this is walls, electrical fences, or whatever is necessary for everybody to only have access through the front door.

Alarms, when they go off, need to be confirmed by speakers to each classroom so that students do not go willy nilly out their classrooms to a safe place, until the threat is confirmed. If not confirmed, all classes need to go on lock down with teachers armed with some sort of self defense system to deal with unwanted intruders.

Anything less, and parents will begin to abandon public schools and either home school or send their kids to private schools.

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Im not even going to deal with the absolutely insane gun laws in our country.

G.D. Morrill

Rosarito Beach

I am angry today, and sad. Our politicians refuse to implement commonsense gun regulations to attempt to reduce the slaughter.

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Even more damming, politicians and the media refuse to even discuss the research showing that societal violence can be reduced through the group practice of meditation. Since 1975, there have been 23 published studies and over 50 demonstrations that violent acts can be prevented.

How many thousands will have to die before we open our minds up to trying something new? Summaries of the studies can be found at the Global Union of Scientists for Peace.

William Harpur

North Park

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Every time there is a shooting at a school, every time there is a tragic loss of lives we hear the same old tired arguments.

We need common sense laws controlling the kinds of guns that are sold in this country. Every time this subject arises we hear the same old tired arguments from the NAR and the politicians they buy that now is not a good time to talk about gun control legislation.

My question to the senators, the congressional representatives, when would be a good time? When will the anti gun legislators find a time to consider legislation that will really start to save lives?

The stupid ideas of arming kindergarten teachers, putting police officers on every campus will not happen, should not happen. After 32 years in the classroom, I speak with experience of how schools function and these two ideas just wont work.

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I believe that now is the right time for the elected leaders on both sides of the aisle to step forward and put the lives of our children first not the NRA. Now is the time for the NRA to step forward and help find the compromises that will put the lives of children first.

Tim Jenkins

San Diego

Regarding gun control, Speaker Paul Ryan admonishes us to not have a knee jerk response until we know all the facts about this latest massacre of our children and teachers in what should be their safe haven.

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How incredibly shameful that comment is. The gun lobby and the politicians they control put the recreational value of weapons and ammunition made for war ahead of the lives of children and other innocents. A few people will always do bad things, but guns are the common denominator that can be controlled. But were so desensitized that we just let it pass with less discussion and no action after each event  in this case, fly the flag half-staff and a moment of silence. Its hard to imagine how much it will take to do the right thing.

Evan E. Becker

Point Loma

Re Morse High School, Fulton Elementary on lockdown after report of gun on campus (Feb. 15): Are they serious? Another person spotted with a weapon at a San Diego School? How is it possible that there are no security cameras covering every inch of our schools where we send thousands of our most precious, every day?

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How many hours of police time is spent trying to hunt down these individuals when a simple video would have them on film instantly?

The technology is there. Its an inexpensive aid to the police, as well as a strong deterrent to those that would commit a crime.

For once, can this city be pro-active on anything?!

Paul Nestor

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San Diego

Letters and commentary policy

The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below.

Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook.The Poway Elks will be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks with a dinner at 6 p.m. Friday at the Poway Elks Lodge, 13219 Poway Road.

The dinner, which will include flank steak, is open to the public if reservations are submitted. Those wishing to attend may RSVP by calling 858-748-2543.

Exalted Ruler Larry Fink and District Deputy Grand Exalted Ruler Janet Rasmussen will host, with guest speaker Mayor Steve Vaus. Rob Knudsen, from Assemblyman Brian Maienscheins office, along with a representative from state Senator Joel Andersons office, will also be in attendance.

While the Poway Elks have not been around for 150 years, the club has been going 42 years as of this year, said member Paul Kassel. Originally meeting at Poway High School, the Elks later met at Hamburger Factory and at what is now Poways Community Theater in the Lively Center, before settling into its final lodge location on Poway Road. Kassel said the lodge has been there for 18 years.

The Poway Elks club has about 380 members, said Rasmussen, though not all still live in the area. It draws members from Poway, Rancho Bernardo and Ramona. About 10 are charter members, who have been involved since the lodges inception in 1976.

Originally formed as an all-male organization in 1868, women were allowed to join in the early 1980s. It was originally a social club in New York City for actors, called the Jolly Corks, said Kassel. The organization evolved to a more service-oriented nature after the death of a member left the group raising funds for his family. That is when the members changed the name to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

Rasmussen, who joined the Poway Elks 16 years ago, was the groups first female president, she said. That was maybe five years after the Elks organization even let women into (the organization).

The organization is both social- and service-oriented, Rasmussen said. Our mission is to take care of our members, but also the surrounding community and veterans. So long as there are veterans, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks will never forget them.

Rasmussen said every Monday, a lodge in the district (which stretches from Chula Vista to San Clemente and includes 10 lodges) visits a veterans hospital and spends times with the residents.

The organizations 150th anniversary is a great way to highlight the Elks now and where they came from 150 years ago, Rasmussen said. Its a truly great tribute to the Elks and their accomplishments, and shows that we are still out in the community.

Email: news@pomeradonews.comAn appreciative park user

Id like to offer my thanks to the volunteers and employees of the San Dieguito River Park, as well as the municipalities which sponsor their mission to maintain the beauty surrounding us at Lake Hodges.

I ran along the south shore today admiring their efforts to replant native species and implement erosion controls. I encourage you all to walk, run or ride through the park. Please stay on approved trails while youre there and support the effort others are making to maintain our own natural wonder.

Joe Waggaman

Rancho Bernardo

Lyles is right on media assessment

Dick Lyles observations on the sinking credibility of the mainstream media (Jan. 25) are on the mark.

As a part-time university lecturer, recently retired, my students were required to read at least one daily newspaper (online or paper) for class discussions. It became increasing difficult to find objective writing in the mainstream media on issues of importance to citizens.

For years, I subscribed to more than one newspaper and routinely saw the same story reported very differently: content seemed to support a news organizations political leaning, left or right. We see the same today with network and cable TV presenting biased, slanted, incomplete, inaccurate or even dishonest reporting.

Technology is contributing factor to this development. Knowing that social media reports can go viral in minutes, mainstream journalists race to keep pace, and that results in errors such as printing unverified stories, telling incomplete stories, including quotes taken out of context, or worse. Media inaccuracies require frequent corrections by guilty news organization.

In addition, media credibility is being further eroded by its tendency to simply omit news that doesnt fit its editorial bias. Citizens may learn only half the story, and it is usually the half that the news organizations want us to know. Unfortunately, todays mass media have made themselves unreliable.

Jim McBride

Poway

Can Lyles back up his claims?

Dick Lyles has done it again. He has produced another outlandish screed (Feb. 8), this time excoriating liberal women who choose not to take the role of motherhood as a form of empowerment, and accused the Democrats of using this strategy of victimhood to retain these women in the party. To keep them from bolting to the Republican side, the Dems continue to increase the level of feeling victimized until theyre trapped by the left who are there to support them.

He seeks to bolster this idiocy by referring to Chinas practice of forced abortion and forced sterilization, without anesthesia. He throws around the numbers of 350 million abortions and 200 million sterilizations without any particular time period aside from mentioning recent decades.

But the frosting on the cake comes when he counsels the left to address the half-million American women subjected to genital mutilation against their will every year in this country.

Im aghast. Where does he come up with such outrageous statements, and can he back them up? Genital mutilation is against the law in every state in the Union.

Allen Wittenborn

Rancho Bernardo

Lyles lives in a fantasy

Dick Lyles should get real. He has his information courtesy of Fox News.

He writes (Feb. 8) about women in China facing forced abortions, but neglects to write about the right for American woman to make a decision about having an abortion for health reasons blocked by legislation enacted by men.

It is very nice to stay home and care for your family, cook, shop and go to meetings, but what about women who do all that and must also work to make ends meet for her family?

I think Mr. Lyles lives in a fantasy world all his own.

Get real Mr. Lyles. The world is changing, thankfully. Accept reality.

Shirley Cooper

Rancho Bernardo

Simply amazing

I was astounded to read Dick Lyles Get Real article titled What defines true womens empowerment. (Feb. 8) For real (pun intended)  really!?

By all appearances we have another older white male (as I am also admittedly) pontificating on what is best for women  not for women in his own family mind you, but for ALL women.

First, he criticizes women for having a voice and modeling such assertiveness for their own daughters, and then indicates that a real woman would not be a liberal, because he is confident that women of a more liberal persuasion dont embrace motherhood. What!? Where does this regressive thinking come from? This is 2018 after all.

I guess congratulations might be in order, in that the local newspaper succeeded in preserving this writer on ice, seeming to emerge from the 1950s after being brain dead for over six decades. An archeological miracle in deed.

Mr. Lyles appears to overlook the most important point he could have made; that older white males have attempted to define, and hence exploit women for a long, long time. Id propose that any man with some IQ points and confidence would realize and support that its women themselves who will define what is true empowerment, not a male espousing those good ole days when women knew their place.

He states that too many women identify as victims, yet it seems evident this is precisely his preferred status for those women that apparently from his perch, require his patriarchal guidance on true female empowerment.

Bruce Wexler

Poway

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.TORONTO, Feb. 14, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Electrovaya Inc. (Electrovaya or the Company) (TSX:EFL) (OTCQX:EFLVF) today reported its financial results for the fiscal first quarter ended December 31, 2017 (Q1 2018). All numbers are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.



The financial statements for Q1 2018 include the financial position and results of Litarion GmbH (Litarion) as discontinued operations. On January 25, 2018, Electrovaya announced that Litarion, formerly its German subsidiary, commenced voluntary preliminary structured insolvency proceedings.

As mentioned in previous disclosure, the demand for Litarions products in Germany and elsewhere took longer than expected to emerge. As a result, Litarion was incurring large losses despite its high-quality products and service. By accounting for Litarion as a discontinued operation, the Companys overhead expenses and cash usage are significantly reduced. For perspective, Litarions cash used was $17.5 million in fiscal 2017, and $1.8 million in Q1 2018. Moreover, the elimination of Litarion's cash usage also means that the Companys annualized break-even revenue level has decreased significantly.

Over the last 2.5 years, Litarion played an important role in Electrovayas development and validation of its industry-leading lithium ion battery systems. Now, however, Electrovaya believes that it no longer needs its own contract manufacturing facilities for electrode and separator products, as the vast majority of its customers are looking for fully integrated battery systems, especially its materials handling battery products.

Electrovaya is confident that it can continue to gain new and fulfill existing customer orders with no material disruption as a result of the Litarions Discontinued Operations. Electrovaya has developed alternative component suppliers and will continue producing products with similar high quality, long cycle-life and safety. Furthermore, the changes will additionally allow lower costs and shortened lead times, which will benefit our customers.

Electrovaya is establishing itself as a leading global producer in the emerging market of lithium ion battery systems for materials handling vehicles. The Company now has an asset-light model capable of meeting rising customer demand while capitalizing on a proven supply chain network.

Q1 2018 Financial Highlights:

Revenue from continuing operations was $0.75 million (Cdn $1 million), compared to $0.73 million (Cdn $0.98 million) for the fiscal first quarter ended December 31, 2016 (Q1 2017).

The loss from continuing operations was $2.7 million (Cdn $3.5 million) compared to $0.9 million (Cdn $1.2 million) for Q1 2017.

Net loss in total was $15.2 million (Cdn $19.4 million), compared to $2.4 million (Cdn $3.2 million) for Q1 2017. This included the net loss from discontinued operations of $12.5 million (Cdn $16 million) for Q1 2018 and $1.6 million (Cdn $2.1 million) for Q1 2017.

Inventory for continuing operations as at December 31, 2017 was $3.5 million (Cdn $4.4 million), compared to $4.1 million (Cdn $5.5 million) as at September 30, 2017.

Q1 2018 Business Highlights:

Electrovaya started both initial and follow-up deliveries on purchase orders from multiple US Fortune 500 customers for its lithium ion forklift battery systems. Other potential customers in the materials handling vehicles sector continue to test and validate the Companys products. About 85% of our revenue in Q1 2018 came from the Materials Handling Electric Vehicle (MHEV) sector.

The Company initiated deliveries on the Cdn $4.3 million purchase order from Walmart Canada, which was announced on September 18, 2017. Electrovaya recorded a small amount of revenue from this order in Q1 2018. The balance (~90%) will be delivered during Q2 2018. The Company believes that this will be the largest single lithium ion powered MHEV installation in North America and will be a major milestone for the industry and the company.

The Company continued to work with two OEM partners in the USA, who are developing electric vehicles in the MHEV and Autonomous Guided Vehicle (AGV) sectors respectively

Electrovaya completed financings that strengthened its working capital. On October 4, 2017, the Company completed the second tranche of a private placement that raised an aggregate total of Cdn$5.3 million in gross proceeds. On December 20, 2017, the Company announced that it entered into a commitment for a Cdn $8 million drawdown equity facility and a Cdn $2 million private placement. On December 27, 2017, the Company completed the private placement. Negotiations with respect to the definitive agreements for the drawdown facility are ongoing.

Subsequent to Q1 2018, on February 9, 2018, Electrovaya listed its head office building in Mississauga, Ontario for sale at Cdn $24.9 million. The Company expects to either lease back space in the building or move to other leased premises. Electrovaya requires less space as it expands its purchases from qualified supply chain providers.

The Companys complete Q1 2018 Financial Statements and Management Discussion and Analysis are available at www.sedar.com or on the Companys website at www.electrovaya.com.

Conference Call Details:

The Company will hold a conference call on Thursday, February 15, 2018 at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) to discuss the Q1 2018 financial results and to provide a business update.

Conference ID:13676683

US and Canada toll free: (877) 407-8291

International: + 1(201) 689-8345

To help ensure that the conference begins in a timely manner, please dial in 10 minutes prior to the start of the call.

For those unable to participate in the conference call, a replay will be available for two weeks beginning on February 15, 2018 through February 28, 2018. To access the replay, the U.S. dial-in number is (877) 660-6853 and the non-U.S. dial-in number is +1 (201) 612-7415. The replay conference ID is 13676683.

For more information, please contact:

Peter Koven

Bay Street Communications

Telephone: 1.647.496.7857

Email: peterkoven@baystreetcommunications.com

About Electrovaya Inc.

Electrovaya Inc. (TSX:EFL) (OTCQX:EFLVF) designs, develops and manufactures proprietary Lithium Ion batteries, battery systems, and battery-related products for energy storage, clean electric transportation and other specialized applications. Headquartered in Ontario, Canada, Electrovaya is a technology focused company with extensive IP, supplying leading global customers.

To learn more about how Electrovaya is powering mobility and energy storage, please explore www.electrovaya.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements that relate to, among other things, the Companys need for commoditized contract manufacturing facilities in its product development process, the effect of Litarions insolvency filing on the Companys financial position and performance, the future direction of the Companys business and products, the effect of a structured sale of Litarion, including on the Companys overhead and operations, the Companys ability to source supply to satisfy demand for its products and satisfy current order volume, expectations with respect to German court actions with respect to any insolvency process of Litarion, the Companys interpretation of the effect of any comfort given to Litarions auditors of the Companys financial support for Litarions operations, the Companys expectations with respect to a sale of its premises and continued premises for operations, revenue forecasts, anticipated orders and deliveries in CY2018 and beyond, demand for the Company's products, technology development progress, pre-launch plans, plans for product development, plans to work with OEMs, plans to sell directly to user, plans for shipment using the Companys technology, production plans, the Companys markets, objectives, goals, strategies, intentions, beliefs, expectations and estimates, and can generally be identified by the use of words such as may, will, could, should, would, likely, "possible", expect, intend, estimate, anticipate, believe, plan, objective and continue (or the negative thereof) and words and expressions of similar import. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. Certain material factors or assumptions are applied in making forward-looking statements, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Material assumptions used to develop forward-looking information in this news release include, among other things, that current customers will continue to make and increase orders for the Companys products, that the Companys alternate supply chain will be adequate to replace material supply and manufacturing, and that Litarions insolvency process will proceed in an orderly fashion that will satisfy Litarions debt without a significant negative effect on the Company or its assets. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include but are not limited to: actions taken by creditors and remedies granted by German courts in the Litarion insolvency proceedings and their effect on the Companys business and assets, negative reactions of the Companys existing customers to Litarions insolvency filing, the ability to sell the Companys premises or to do so at a price reflecting appropriate value, general business and economic conditions (including but not limited to currency rates and creditworthiness of customers); Company liquidity and capital resources, including the availability of additional capital resources to fund its activities; level of competition; changes in laws and regulations; legal and regulatory proceedings; the ability to adapt products and services to the changing market; the ability to attract and retain key executives; and the ability to execute strategic plans. Additional information about material factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations and about material factors or assumptions applied in making forward-looking statements may be found in the Companys Annual Information Form (AIF) for the year ended September 30, 2017 and in the Companys most recent annual and interim Managements Discussion and Analysis under Risk and Uncertainties as well as in other public disclosure documents filed with Canadian securities regulatory authorities. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the forward-looking statements contained in this document, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.Partnership ensures ROAMWORKS devices can rely on Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity worldwide, even in rural or remote locations.



Multiple network connectivity ensures that devices do not encounter problems as they travel from one country to another.

ROAMWORKS end-to-end solutions help businesses increase efficiency, cut costs, and maintain assets remotely.

SAN JOSE, Calif. and DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 14, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Companies in industries, including transportation, oil and gas, and construction, will be able to remotely monitor their devices even in rural or remote locations now that end-to-end Internet of Things (IoT) solutions provider ROAMWORKS has partnered with connectivity experts Aeris, a pioneer and technology leader in the IoT industry.

ROAMWORKS provides a range of solutions that simplify remote asset monitoring and data management and deliver real-time information to any desktop or device, anywhere in the world. The partnership with Aeris allows ROAMWORKS to ensure that its products can depend on reliable and secure global connectivity.

ROAMWORKS pioneering IoT solutions are designed to help companies increase efficiency, reduce maintenance costs, and increase visibility of their assets as they move from one destination to another. Aeris IoT cellular technology standards, such as GSM, CDMA and LTE, and its use of a carrier-agnostic network, combined with its expertise in the field, allows ROAMWORKS to expand its offerings worldwide.

Aeris initially will supply IoT connectivity via its Aeris IoT Services platform and enable ROAMWORKS products in the Middle East before expanding the partnership across the globe. ROAMWORKS clients range from DHL, Dubai Electricity, Water Authority and National Petroleum Authority of Ghana, among others.

ROAMWORKS has three standardised products  ROAM Tank, which monitors the condition and movement of assets within fixed and mobile tanks, such as an oil tanker; ROAM Heavy Equipment, which monitors the location and performance of items such as generators, pumps and compressors used within construction; and ROAM Fleet Management, the companys telematics solution.

The company also provides an award-winning Cargo Security solution using electronic seals and its proprietary ROAM platform that is currently used by Dubai Airports. It allows the airport and police to monitor duty-free cargo as it moves in and out of the airport, and be alerted if the packages are being unlocked. This allows airports to efficiently manage the whereabouts of cargo, while ensuring security is being adhered to throughout the transportation process. Also, this solution helps authorities prevent theft or fraud, as they can see whether products or items are tampered with or taken outside of duty-free zones.

-more-

Supporting Quotes

Mohammad Daudi, Director of Global Sales & Marketing, ROAMWORKS

We pride ourselves on providing the very best end-to-end IoT solutions to our clients. We allow businesses and organisations to track and monitor their assets in real-time. These assets, by their very nature, are often moved from one location to another, often across borders or into rural areas, areas which can be notoriously difficult when it comes to IoT connection. We therefore need to ensure that our solutions are backed by reliable IoT connectivity, no matter where in the world they are deployed. Aeris expertise in this area allows us to achieve this, and helps set us apart from competitors in the region and globally.

Mohsen Mohseninia, Vice President for Europe, Aeris

Aeris ability to offer high-quality IoT connectivity worldwide, at commercially competitive rates, will allow ROAMWORKS to offer solutions to its clients that will deliver a host of benefits, such as helping increase efficiency and productivity, cutting costs, increasing safety and gaining valuable insights into its business operations. We look forward to helping ROAMWORKS expand its capabilities and deliver game-changing IoT solutions to businesses in the Middle East and throughout the world.

Digital Assets

Supporting Resources

About ROAMWORKS

ROAMWORKS, headquartered in Dubai (UAE), is a leading Internet of Things (IoT) solutions provider led by a team of experienced software and hardware development professionals. ROAMWORKS develops end-to-end solutions that enable our customers to monitor, track, manage and control their asset data around the world, which helps our customers make better decisions and improve profits. ROAMWORKS has been developing and deploying M2M and IoT solutions since 2002. We have clients with assets monitored by our ROAM platform on five continents. ROAMWORKS clients are served by offices in Dubai, Abu-Dhabi (UAE) and Bonn (Germany).

About Aeris

Aeris is a global technology partner with a proven history of helping companies unlock the value of IoT. For more than a decade, weve powered critical projects for some of the most demanding customers of IoT services. Aeris strives to fundamentally improve businesses by dramatically reducing costs, accelerating time-to-market, and enabling new revenue streams. Built from the ground up for IoT and road tested at scale, Aeris IoT Services are based on the broadest technology stack in the industry, spanning connectivity up to vertical solutions. As veterans of the industry, we know that implementing an IoT solution can be complex, and we pride ourselves on making it simpler.

For more information, contact:

Kevin Petschow

Aeris

+1.312.985.9182

Kevin.Petschow@aeris.net

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/148af42f-59fc-45ec-ac87-162ad3b06f4ePerry has a strong history in experiential travel with Intrepid Travel, Peak and Flight Centre.

'We believe Damians approach, transparency, values and expertise in partner relations combined with his strong travel Industry knowledge make him the right person to lead our Hurtigruten APAC team transition. We will look at the long-term opportunities across the APAC region and build on the established strategic direction,' said Geir Kronbck, vp global sales at Hurtigruten.

Talking about Perry's time with Cox and King, Kronbck added, 'he played the pivotal role in driving Hurtigruten growth in Australia and New Zealand securing the Hurtigruten partnership and driving real growth for their business and region; and more broadly we feel he will be a great addition to our entire business.'

Perry will work closely with the management in Norway, and directly with Kronbck. The APAC team is based in Hong Kong, Tokyo and now Melbourne.

'I look forward to getting down to business with this exceptionally innovative and forward thinking company and build on the strong foundation they have established in recent years,' said Perry.

He will be working with regional agents and partners selling the Hurtigruten Explorer product to Antarctica and the Arctic, in addition to building on the Norway coastal cruising offered.

Hurtigruten is building two premium hybrid exploration ships with Roald Amundsen heading to Antarctica in 2018 and Fridtjof Nansen's inaugural sailings in 2019 will be along the Norwegian coast.Monobank is in the final stages of testing its credit card together with its partners Evry and Visa. The project is progressing in line with plan, and the company has decided to launch its Monobank Visa card in May and the Widere card in September.

The development of the joint credit card project with Widere and EuroBonus has progressed well during 2017. The launch plan has been revised, and the Widere card will be launched early fall 2018.

With the credit card project in the testing phase together with Visa and Evry, Monobank has decided to capitalise on the positive development of the project and launch a credit card under its own brand in May 2018. This launch will provide Monobank with valuable experience ahead the launch together with Widere and Eurobonus in September. Most costs associated with the credit card project have already been charged, and very limited extra costs will therefore be added in connection with the launch of a separate card.

"Monobanks uniqueness is the scalability and the flexibility in our platform. With the credit card development costs already charged this was a good opportunity to launch the product under our own brand. In addition, this first launch will provide us with valuable experience. I'm very much looking forward to bring the credit card project to completion and to reach two milestones; the Monobank credit card in May and launch the Widere card in September", says Bent Gjendem, CEO of Monobank ASA.

Contact:

Bent H. Gjendem, CEO, +47 996 11 996

Lene Sjbakk, CFO, +47 940 19 896

About Monobank:

Monobank is a digital bank offering unsecured lending to qualified private individuals in Norway and Finland. Operations started out of Bergen, Norway, in November 2015 after received its banking licence from the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway. The bank also offers attractive deposit rates on its savings accounts. Deposits up to NOK 2 million are guaranteed by the Norwegian Banks' Guarantee fund, of which Monobank is a member. For further information, please visit the company web page www.monobank.noThe Panama Canal Authority (ACP) expects that the growing global demand for LNG will boost transit through the waterway, said ACP administrator Jorge Quijano.

The demand for LNG has taken off in recent years due to the abundant supplies of natural gas, especially from shale deposits in the United States, and natural gas is also considered a cleaner fuel than coal or oil for the electricity generation.

"We are reaching almost one [LNG vessel] daily," said Quijano.

In the last quarter of 2017, some 60 LNG vessels transited the waterway compared with 43 from the same period of the previous year. Most of the ships are loaded in the United States to later make deliveries on the Pacific coast of Mexico or South America.

Cheniere Energy, which is based in Houston and operates an LNG facility in Sabine Pass in Louisiana, has been expanding its exports while building a new LNG plant near Corpus Christi, in Texas, which is expected to become operational in December 2018.

US exports of LNG through the Panama Canal fell temporarily in September due to damage caused by Hurricane Harvey in several ports in Texas and Louisiana, but have recovered in recent months, said Quijano.

In its fiscal year 2017 (October 2016-September 2017), the Canal posted record cargo volume of 403.8m Panama Canal tonnes (PC/UMS), the largest amount of annual tonnage ever transited in its 103-year history. The 22.2% increase on FY 2016 is directly attributed to the added capacity provided by the expanded Canal, surpassing forecast of 399m PC/UMS. Transits also increased by 3.3% to 13,548 vessels.

Effective 1 December, the ACP increased the number of daily booking slots available for post-panamax vessels from six to seven. With this measure, the Canal embraced the additional capacity allowed for by the new, larger locks. The seven daily booking slots for post-panamaxes are in addition to the 23 slots available each day for transit through the panamax locks.Responding to the decree on The provision of the use of sea transports and national insurance for the purpose of export and import of certain goods, ICS secretary-general Peter Hinchliffe wrote to the Indonesian ministers for transport and energy and mineral resources as well as various other top officials, saying the global shipping industry is very concerned that the decree appears to require that transportation of specified products and goods on international voyages, to and from Indonesian territory, must be conducted using Indonesian vessels. The ruling applies to the carriage and insurance of rice, coal and crude palm oil (CPO), the latter two being some of Indonesias biggest commodities exports.

Although the decree had been issued in October 2017 and is expected to come into force on April 26, there has so far been a lack of clarity on implementation.

This past week wire reports have highlighted the concerns of industry bodies concerned about the effect the ruling will have on their trade. Just last week Reuters quoted the executive director of the Indonesia Coal Mining Association as expressing concerns and saying that the lack of direction and clarity on the policy has had an effect on future contracts for the year.

If our understanding is correct, this would appear to be a form of discriminatory cargo reservation, which would be contrary to accepted international practice and maritime free trade principles that are adhered to by Indonesia's trading partners, including those in Asia, ICS warned.

It further added: Cargo reservation is also contrary to the obligations which Indonesia has accepted as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the commitments that governments have made under the 'Model Maritime Schedule' as part of the ongoing Doha Round.

Hinchliffe further pointed out that if the decree is implemented as drafted, this is likely to have damaging impacts on the wider Indonesian economy and those industries whose cargoes will be directly affected (and) implementing such protectionist measures would also limit competition in Indonesian shipping trades and almost certainly lead to an increase in shipping costs.

He noted that government intervention in international maritime trade such as this, with possible unfair competition and market distortion effects, will also reduce confidence amongst international shipping companies, planning future investments in business in Indonesia.

Hinchliffe said: If the decree is implemented as drafted this would also create an unwelcome precedent that could be emulated by other nations, by adopting retaliatory measures against Indonesian vessels engaged in international trade.

We therefore respectfully request the Indonesian government to review, remove or amend Articles 3 and 5 so they are consistent with accepted principles of global maritime trade and the commitments governments have made at the WTO, he concluded.The really bright spot remains LNG terminals, especially in emerging and frontier markets, Ince & Co terminals and energy lawyer Ton van den Bosch told Seatrade Maritime News.

He also noted that operators and investors see the potential for a lot of projects in countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka as well as Pakistan. I think we will continue to see a lot of activity there on the LNG to power projects, he said.

The preference for floating regasification solutions is because a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) is not only quicker to get to the market but also cheaper to build, van den Bosch pointed out.

However the nature of these markets creates some risks that some of the parties, especially banks find a challenge. On the financing side some banks struggle with the country risk, he said.

These risks include expropriation, FX transfer risk, political violence and natural disaster risk at the outset followed by a range of other factors that make building an LNG receiving terminal in a developing country a slightly different proposition from in the West, said van den Bosch.

For example in a country such as the Philippines, which has both earthquakes and typhoons, a floating regasification unit presents obvious risks. In addition, other slightly unfamiliar challenges that can be broadly grouped under country risks, include the possibility of a terrorist attack or a coup, or credit risk from ones key clients.

The way to mitigate this is to seek support from export credit agency or a multilateral development bank, he suggested.A home for fish now extinct in the Great Lakes, like lake sturgeon and paddlefish

A focus on conservation efforts for endangered species

Habitats for native amphibians, reptiles, turtles, small mammals, shorebirds, and birds of

prey

A native butterfly garden

Birding, astronomy, and citizen science opportunities

Programming related to education, conservation, science, and animal welfare as well as the environmental protection and economic importance of North Americas freshwater inland seas

Michigan has a lot of recreational and educational opportunities to explore its great outdoors, and it's about to receive one more. Michigan will soon have a new nature center to explore and examine the water and wildlife of the Great Lakes, this thanks to a recent announcement from the Detroit Zoological Society.The DZS has selected Macomb County as the future home of the Great Lakes Nature Center, which will open in 2019. The organization, which operates both the Detroit Zoo and the Belle Isle Nature Center, anticipates spending at least $10 million on the project, which will see the construction of a facility at more than 20,000 sq. ft. in size. DZS estimates 150,000 to 200,000 visitors annualy.Though the official site has yet to be announced, officials have decided that the Great Lakes Nature Center will be located in Macomb County. A site announcement will be made in the spring."As stewards of the environment, we have a great responsibility to protect the Great Lakes and the wildlife that inhabit them," DZS Executive Director and CEO Ron Kagan said in a release. "Macomb County, with 32 miles of coastline along Lake St. Clair and 31 miles on the Clinton River, is the ideal location for a major waterfront nature center devoted to the natural wonders of the Great Lakes."DZS has plenty of plans for the Great Lakes Nature Center, including:The Great Lakes Nature Center will funded through a combination of private, public, and foundation funding contributions.Got a development news story to share? Email MJ Galbraith here or send him a tweet @mikegalbraithPress Release

February 15, 2018 On the Roundtable Dialogue with Parliamentarians:

"Assuring Affordable, Quality and

Accessible Public Services for All"

Message

HON. LEILA M. DE LIMA

Senator UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies

Ang Bahay ng Alumni, UP Diliman

15 February 2018 Good afternoon to everyone. I am grateful for this opportunity to share the perspectives and initiatives of my office relevant to our topic today - "Affordable, Quality and Accessible Public Services for All." The quality of life of Filipino communities cannot be delinked from the political climate of the country and the priorities of the present Administration. The Duterte government's efforts in the past year have been directed on its war on drugs, with the poor as the major target, and on persecuting and vilifying its critics, including international bodies such as the United Nations and European Union. It is no secret that Duterte rejected help from European Union when the latter raised concerns about the human rights situation in the country. The President's and his supermajority's actuations show that their main agenda is to consolidate and stay in power. And they will do this through charter change, using the "federalism narrative" as a bait to gather support from the people. With this as top priority, everything takes a backseat, including his election promises to uplift the lives of the marginalized, and address social, economic and political inequalities. Duterte and his cohorts continue to fail the people. Just recently, the Chief Executive admitted that he cannot end the widely-practiced contractualization of workers. Meanwhile, the newly enacted Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law has caused a spike in the price of goods and services, impacting on the poorest segment of the population. Our workers are not protected on the one hand, and on the other hand continue to bear the brunt of government revenue generating measures like the tax reform. Concerned with the tax reform's impact on ordinary Filipinos' lives, I have filed Senate Resolution 407 calling for an inquiry to ensure uniform and equitable tax mechanism. Meanwhile, the government big ticket investments like the "Build, Build, Build" would be financed by loans mostly from China and Japan which could very much plunge us to another debt crisis. This prompted my office to propose Senate Bill 1675, or the Comprehensive Government Debt Management Reform Act, seeking to strictly manage and monitor government debts to avoid corruption and ensure that these debts are aligned with our development priorities. In all of these, the marginalized sectors are sidelined and neglected that's why I am taking steps to champion their issues. I have filed bills on free tertiary agricultural education and on autism care. I also filed resolutions calling for inquiries on: a) the rise of unemployment rate; b) the alarming rise of HIV and AIDS among Filipino youth; c) the humanitarian crisis in Marawi; d) the status of the implementation of the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons; and e) the living conditions and amortization problems of informal settlers relocated due to the Northrail and Southrail projects of the government. I have also co-authored bills on: a) the mandatory Philhealth coverage for all persons with disability (PWDs); b) free irrigation service to small farmers; c) full tuition subsidy for students in state universities and colleges; d) strengthening policies and programs on HIV and AIDS; and e) ensuring the nutrition of mothers and infants. However, so much more has to be done to ensure that public service is enjoyed by everyone as basic rights. The 1987 Constitution mandates that the State shall "protect and enhance the right of all the people to human dignity, reduce social, economic and political inequalities, and remove cultural inequities by equitably diffusing wealth and political power for the common good." But this has become extremely difficult and challenging under a megalomaniac regime bent on obliterating human rights and democracy and has arrogated upon itself the power to decide what is good for the nation. The last time this happened in our history, it produced Marcos the dictator and his cronies that fed on the suffering of our people. Thank you for your time.Press Release

February 15, 2018 SENATE PASSES ON SECOND READING GORDON'S BILL HONORING LAPU-LAPU A bill filed by Senator Richard J. Gordon honoring Lapu-Lapu as the first Asian to beat a colonial invader by declaring April 27 as Lapu-Lapu Day or Adlaw ni Lapu-Lapu was passed on second reading last Wednesday without any amendments. Senate Bill No. 108 seeks to declare April 27 of every year as a special working public holiday throughout the country to commemorate the victory of Lapu-Lapu and his men over the Spaniards led by Ferdinand Magellan in the historic Battle of Mactan on April 27, 1521. Gordon explained that Lapu-Lapu embodies the line in the Philippine National Anthem, "sa manlulupig, 'di kapasisiil," because Lapu-Lapu was the first successful defender of the Philippine shores. He was a native Muslim of Mactan and the earliest known indigenous Visayan Muslim chieftain and datu in the island of Mactan. Unlike Rajah Humabon of Cebu and other chiefs of the neighboring islands, Lapu-Lapu refused to acknowledge the Spanish sovereignty over the islands and convert to Christianity. "Lapu-Lapu had strong principles and was a peaceful leader until invaded, possessing the qualities of courage, bravery, strength, honor, and integrity, which should be emulated by every Filipino. Thus, in keeping with the Filipino tradition of commemorating momentous events in national history, this bill proposes the declaration of April 27 as a special working public holiday to be known as Lapu-Lapu Day or Adlaw ni Lapu-Lapu, as a fitting tribute to the courage displayed by Lapu-Lapu and his men in the Battle of Mactan," the senator said. When Gordon was Secretary of Tourism, he fought to have the Lapu-Lapu Monument installed in the Luneta Park to represent the Visayas and the Muslims while Rizal represents Tagalog Christians which unites the country. "The Koreans wanted to show their gratitude and deep respect to the Filipino people, whose sons fought and died in Korea. The Korean Freedom League was so touched by the sacrifices of the Filipino soldiers that they decided to honor this heroism with a statue of Lapu-Lapu in our National Park. Thus, the Statue of the Visayan-Muslim leader became the "Sentinel of Freedom in Asia," he said. In 2004, the 40-foot monument was built in the National Park in Luneta as a gift by the Korean Freedom League to the Filipino people to honor the Filipino soldiers who served and fought for the freedom of the Korean people. The Koreans gave the statue as a gift when, during every visit to Korea when he was SBMA Chairman and later as DOT Secretary, Gordon would go and visit the monument honoring Filipino soldiers who fought and died for FREEDOM during the Korean War.Press Release

February 15, 2018 HONTIVEROS TO DUTERTE: 'DI MASARAP KAPAG MAY CONDOM? NOTHING PLEASURABLE ABOUT HIV, TEEN PREGNANCY "President Duterte should stop making thoughtless, reckless and irresponsible statements at the expense of public health." This was the statement issued by Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros as a response to President Rodrigo Duterte's comments on family planning and contraception, arguing against the use of condoms as a family planning option, saying that it is "not pleasurable." "Hindi masarap kapag may condom? President Duterte seems to be overly concerned with pleasure. There is nothing pleasurable or funny about the rise in our cases of HIV and teen pregnancy. By disapproving of condoms as a safe and reliable form of contraception, the President is denying the public the widest array of options to plan their families, protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and curb the growing number of teenage pregnancies," Hontiveros said. Hontiveros, who is the Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, family Relations, and Gender Equality, said that the President's public disapproval of condoms also put the burden of family planning on women. "Virtual insistence that women should carry burden of family planning alone" "The President's statement is a virtual insistence that women should continue to carry the burden of family planning alone. This contradicts one of the aims of the Reproductive Health Law, which he claims to champion, to ensure equality in responsibility as far as family is concerned. This is unacceptable. Men must also do their share and be at par with women in sharing our family planning duty," Hontiveros stressed. Hontiveros said Duterte should refrain from issuing statements at the expense of public health. "He wants us take him seriously but not literally. What does that even mean? Who interprets him best? So sino mag-aadjust, ang 100 milyong mamamayan ng Pilipinas o siya? When he decided to run as President, his responsibilities were clear. As the highest leader of the land, he is expected to make intelligible public statements that promote progressive policy-making and positive behavioral change, especially those concerning public health," she said. Hontiveros is the author of Senate Bill No. 376 or the Philippine HIV and AIDS Policy Bill which seeks a comprehensive, inclusive and localized response towards HIV-AIDS. She also filed Senate Bill 1482 or the Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Act, which calls for the development of a National Program of Action and an investment plan for the prevention of teenage pregnancy. The United Nations reported that the Philippines has the highest HIV infection growth rate in the Asia-Pacific region. At the end of 2016, there were 10,500 Filipinos infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), a significant increase from 4,300 in 2010. Meanwhile, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Teenage pregnancy remains to be a concern in the Philippines, where four out of 10 teenagers are mothers. A study conducted in 2013 revealed that 57 out of every 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19 were pregnant. In 2008, that ratio stood at 53 for every 1,000. It said that the Philippines is the only country in Asia and the Pacific which has not seen a decrease in teenage pregnancy in the last two decades.The nomination committee of Monobank ASA (MONO-ME) proposes yvind Oanes and Torhild E. Torgersen as new members of the Board of Directors. The proposed changes to the board will be resolved at the Annual General Meeting on March 5th, 2018.

yvind Oanes is the CEO of Numbrs Personal Finance AG, a Swiss FinTech with operations in Germany and the UK. Prior to joining Numbrs, yvind spent 18 years in the Financial Services industry with focus on Retail Banking and has held senior roles in multiple countries across Europe. This includes building a consumer finance business for GE Capital in Russia, driving the turnaround of Austria's Bawag PSK and leading RBI's direct bank ZUNO across the CEE region. yvind has also held several non-executive roles at various financial institutions.

Torhild E. Torgersen has for the past years worked actively to implement the Design Thinking methodology in Norway. Regulatory changes within the financial sector in combination with changes in customer behavior, has led to an increased need for customer understanding and - orientation. Torgersen been a driving force behind the initiative to establish a master program within Design Thinking as a collaboration between four Norwegian universities.

yvind Oanes and Torhild E. Torgersen will replace Anders Silkisberg who stepped down from the Board last summer and Slvi Tangen who steps down after two years as member of the Board of Directors.

For further details:

Bent H. Gjendem, CEO, +47 996 11 996

About Monobank ASA:

Monobank is a digital bank offering unsecured lending to qualified private individuals in Norway and Finland. Operations started out of Bergen, Norway, in November 2015 after received its banking license from the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway. The bank also offers attractive deposit rates on its savings accounts. Deposits up to NOK 2 million are guaranteed by the Norwegian Banks' Guarantee fund, of which Monobank is a member. For further information, please visit the company web page www.monobank.noNew Zealand farmer confidence tumbled in January as a drought and uncertainty over new government policies take their toll.

A net 34 percent of those surveyed were pessimistic about general economic conditions over the next 12 months, a marked deterioration from 16 percent who were optimistic in July, according to the latest new season Federated Farmers' Farm Confidence January survey.

Within the different industry groups, 43 percent of dairy farmers said they now expect general economic conditions to worsen over the next 12 months versus 5.8 percent in July, 34 percent of meat and fibre farmers are expecting the same, versus 12 percent in July, while 47 percent of arable farmers are expecting a deterioration, versus 12 percent in July.

The farmer confidence echoes the business sentiment surveys showing growing pessimism about the country's economic fortunes under a new administration, triggering Finance Minister Grant Robertson to acknowledge the mood at a select committee hearing last month and say ministers are seeking to allay those concerns.

"Pretty much all recent surveys of businesses have found a drop in confidence because of the disruption and uncertainty over Octobers general election. And in mid-January, when our survey was done, farmers in many regions had endured weeks and weeks of little or no rain," Federated Farmers vice president Andrew Hoggard said.

On farmer profitability, 54 percent said they are generating a profit, 35 percent were breaking even and 9.3 percent were running at a loss. In July, 55 percent were profitable, 34 percent breaking even and 9.6 percent running at a loss.

However, a new 3.7 percent were pessimistic about farm profitability over the next 12 months versus 39.4 pecent who were optimistic in July.

Regarding farm debt, 91 percent had debt in January compared to 88 percent in July. Only 37 percent of all farms carrying debt expect that to reduce in the latest survey versus 51 percent in July. The proportion of farms expecting their debt to increase rose to 15 percent from 9.6 percent over the same time period.

Similar to the July 2017 survey, the greatest concern for farmers was regulation and compliance costs. The dry weather was also on their minds, and worry about climate change policy and the potential for livestock emissions to be included in the emissions trading scheme showed a marked increase, Hoggard said.

Also, compared to previous years, biosecurity concerns such as pests & diseases is more evident and at the highest level ever seen in these surveys. "The cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis is the likely culprit," Federated Farmers said.

The ability to recruit staff is becoming increasingly difficult - the hardest in the 18 surveys that have been carried out since 2009. "The labour market is tight with low unemployment and high labour force participation, and recent restrictions to immigration policy appear to be exacerbating the problem," according to Federated Farmers.

The January online survey received 1070 responses from farmers in four industry groups over 24 provinces.

(BusinessDesk)

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Tourism Holdings, the world's largest recreational vehicle rental business, has formed a joint venture with Thor Industries, the world's largest manufacturer of the vehicles, to develop a single platform to connect a wide range of services in the growing market for RVs.

Auckland-based Tourism Holdings will contribute assets and cash worth an estimated US$46.9 million to the Cincinnati, Ohio-based TH2connect LLC joint venture, while Elkhart, Indiana-based Thor will contribute US$47 million in cash. The business is expected to lose money in the first two years of operation as it focuses on growing customer numbers, Tourism Holdings said in a statement filed with the NZX.

Tourism Holdings shares rose 3.2 percent to a five-week high of $5.90.

The two companies expect to leverage their relevant skills, business models and know-how to enable the joint venture to become the leading global digital platform for the RV industry, with the venture acquiring US-based travel planning and travel data company Roadtrippers, including Roadtrippers' Australasian arm; the Cosmos digital platform for RV customer relationship and fleet management, product pricing and booking and rental management; the Mighway peer-to-peer RV rental operator in New Zealand and the US; and CamperMate, the New Zealand and Australian camping app.

"The RV lifestyle is exploding in popularity both in the US and around the world," said Thor Industries president and chief executive Bob Martin. "We believe TH2's digital platform will be a game changer for a new generation of RVers.

"TH2 brings together Thors experience as the worlds largest RV manufacturer and THL's expertise as the world's largest RV rental company. The result will be an industry-best collection of digital services tailored specifically for RVers, a textbook case of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts."

The companies say TH2's comprehensive platform will improve every aspect of RV ownership with capabilities that include trip planning and booking, remote systems monitoring, roadside assistance, and peer-to-peer RV and campsite rental. The system will also streamline an owners record keeping and enable RV dealers and manufacturers to provide such support as triggered service notifications, online vehicle manuals, and more. Manufacturers, RV dealers, and rental operators who utilize TH2s services and products will see increased efficiencies in product pricing, service engagement, and fleet management.

Tourism Holdings will contribute its interests in Roadtrippers, Cosmos, Mighway and US$2.5 million of cash to the venture.

"THL has been focused on building and acquiring technology-based assets that enhance the customer journey for some time," Tourism Holdings chief executive Grant Webster said. "We are very pleased to see the technology assets we have created and accumulated over the last five years underpinning TH2. The growth opportunities for TH2 under this new structure are immense."

The company said the joint venture business is expected to expand its products globally over time. The venture will be led by Bob Wheeler, chief executive and president of Thor's subsidiary Airstream, with Webster as executive chairman.

The venture partners will each own half of TH2, which will start with total assets of US$94 million, including US$10 million of cash to fund the venture over the initial set up period.

Tourism Holdings expects the venture to boost its 2018 annual earnings by $17.3 million, which includes a non-cash gain on the sale of its assets, transaction costs, and a tax expense related to the restructure of Roadtrippers. It expects to detail the trading impact from initial losses will be detailed when it releases its first-half earnings on Feb. 22.

The company said future funding requirements of the venture aren't expected to be material to its debt structure or covenants.

(BusinessDesk)

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Suncorp New Zealand doesn't see itself as a long-term shareholder in rival Tower after its $236 million takeover was rejected by the Commerce Commission but isn't interested in a fire sale.

The local unit of ASX-listed Suncorp Group recognised a $12 million mark-to-market loss on its 19.9 percent stake in Tower in the six months ended Dec. 31. It built the holding last year paying $1.30 a share for the initial stake before settling on an offer of $1.40 per share. Its takeover approach was ultimately rejected by the Commerce Commission, which deemed the merged entity would be too tough to be contained by its smaller rivals, and Suncorp later dropped plans to appeal the decision.

Suncorp NZ chief executive Paul Smeaton said that decision was disappointing, but he won't be rushed into selling the stake, with Tower shares currently trading at 64.5 cents.

"We don't have a long-term holding view of Tower, clearly. Having said that, we'll only divest that asset when we actually see an offer that actually reflects what we believe is the true value of it," Smeaton told BusinessDesk in an interview. "We'll be very patient in that regard. We're certainly not interested in any fire sale."

The New Zealand arm of the Australian insurer boosted first-half profit 81 percent to $67 million, due largely to a reduction in the number of claims in a period where there wasn't an earthquake. The general insurance unit, which consists of Vero Insurance and the AA Insurance joint venture, lifted gross written premium 7.6 percent to $768 million, with auto and home insurance premiums growing at a double-digit pace.

Smeaton said the top-line gains were mainly due to higher premiums as the insurer passed on the cost of increased natural hazard claims and higher reinsurance costs, but also some unit growth.

"We get that we can't push all the price increases to the customers - we have to manage our costs down, manage claims better which helps reduce the impact to our customer," he said.

(BusinessDesk)

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Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi today tabled legislation reviving plans that would criminalise cartels, attaching harsher penalties including the threat of jail.

The Commerce (Criminalisation of Cartels) Amendment Bill will make it a criminal offence to engage in a cartel, adding the threat of imprisonment which Faafoi said he hoped would be a "strong deterrent" with existing civil penalties too weak to deter the anticompetitive behaviour. The law would run the criminal regime in tandem with the civil one, threatening up to seven years' jail and/or a fine of up to $500,000 for an individual.

"This government wants to take a strong stance against business people who collude against the interests of consumers," Faafoi said in a statement. "Many of our trading partners, including Australia, have a criminal offence for cartel conduct."

The move revives plans to criminalise cartels that were dropped by former Commerce Minister Paul Goldsmith who preferred leaving New Zealand out of step with the US, UK, Canada and Australia, for fear it would have a chilling effect on business. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today laid criminal charges against The Country Care Group, managing director Robert Hogan and former employee Cameron Harrison in the first criminal prosecution of an Australian corporation under the cartel legislation.

New Zealand's proposed law won't impose criminal sanctions until two years after the Royal assent, which Faafoi said in a Cabinet paper would give the Commerce Commission and Crown Law enough time to get the implementation measures in place and give businesses the headroom to ensure compliance.

The proposed legislation would allow an 'honest belief defence' someone in a collaborative activity argue they "believed that the cartel provision was reasonably necessary", the paper said. That defence could also be extended to where a defendant was mistaken in relation to shipping line exemptions.

The Treasury and Commerce Commission both supported the criminalisation, although the Treasury was unsure of the fiscal cost and the commission took issue with "the breadth and complexity of the defences proposed".

The bill is expected to pass into law by April next year.

(BusinessDesk)

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Finnish English

Espoo, Finland, 2018-02-15 08:30 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Aspocomp Group Plc., Stock Exchange Release, February 15, 2018 at 9:30 a.m.



Notice is given to the shareholders of Aspocomp Group Plc. to the Annual General Meeting to be held on Friday, March 16, 2018 at 10 a.m. (EET), address Keilaranta 1, 1st floor Auditorium, Espoo, Finland. The reception of persons who have registered for the meeting will commence at 9.30 a.m. (EET).





A. MATTERS ON THE AGENDA OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING



At the Annual General Meeting, the following matters will be handled:



1. Opening of the meeting



2. Calling the meeting to order



3. Election of persons to scrutinize the minutes and to supervise the counting of votes



4. Recording the legality of the meeting



5. Recording the attendance at the meeting and adoption of the list of votes



6. Presentation of the annual accounts, the consolidated annual accounts, the report of the Board of Directors and the auditors report for the year 2017



- Review by the CEO



7. Adoption of the annual accounts and the consolidated annual accounts



8. Resolution on the use of the profit shown on the balance sheet and payment of dividend



The Board of Directors will propose to the Annual General Meeting, that a dividend of EUR 0.07 per share be paid. The dividend would be paid to shareholders registered in the Register of Shareholders maintained by Euroclear Finland Ltd on the record date of the dividend distribution, March 20, 2018. The Board of Directors proposes that the dividend will be paid on March 28, 2018.



9. Resolution on the discharge from liability of the members of the Board of Directors and the CEO



10. Resolution on the remuneration of the members of the Board of Directors



The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting that the chairman of the Board of Directors be paid EUR 30,000, the vice chairman of the Board of Directors be paid EUR 20,000 and the other members be paid EUR 15,000 each in remuneration for their term of office. The Board of Directors further proposes that EUR 1,000 be paid as remuneration per meeting to the chairman and that the other members be paid EUR 500 per meeting of the Board and its committees. The Board of Directors also proposes that the members of the Board of Directors be reimbursed for reasonable travel costs.



11. Resolution on the number of members of the Board of Directors



The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting that five (5) members be elected to the Board of Directors.



12. Election of members of the Board of Directors



The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting that the current members of the Board of Directors Ms. Paivi Marttila, Ms. Kaarina Muurinen, Ms. Julianna Borsos, Mr. Juha Putkiranta and Mr. Matti Lahdenpera be re-elected as members to the Board of Directors. In accordance with the Articles of Association of the company, the term of office of the members of the Board of Directors ends at the closing of the next Annual General Meeting following the election. The said director nominees have given their consents to the election.



The nominees' personal details are available on the companys website www.aspocomp.com/investors/governance/agm.



The Board of Directors has assessed the director nominees' independence against the independence criteria of the Finnish Corporate Governance Code. According to the evaluation carried out by the Board of Directors, all director nominees, other than Ms. Julianna Borsos, are independent of the Company's significant shareholders. The Board of Directors has also assessed that all nominees are independent of the Company.



13. Resolution on the remuneration of the auditor



The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting that the auditors fees be paid according to the auditors invoice.



14. Election of auditor



The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting that PricewaterhouseCoopers Oy, Authorized Public Accountants be re-elected as the company's auditor. PricewaterhouseCoopers Oy has notified that Mr. Jouko Malinen, Authorized Public Accountant, will act as the principal auditor. In accordance with the Articles of Association of the company, the term of office of the auditor ends at the closing of the next Annual General Meeting following the election.



15. Authorizing the Board of Directors to decide on share issues as well as the issue of options and other special rights



The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting that the Board of Directors be authorized to, in one or several installments, decide on the issuance of shares and the issuance of options and other special rights entitling to shares referred to in Chapter 10 Section 1 of the Companies Act as follows:



The number of shares to be issued based on the authorization may in total amount to a maximum of 666,650 shares. The Board of Directors decides on all the terms and conditions of the issuances of shares and of options and other special rights entitling to shares. The authorization concerns both the issuance of new shares as well as own shares possibly held by the company. The issuance of shares and of options and other special rights entitling to shares referred to in Chapter 10 Section 1 of the Companies Act may be carried out in deviation from the shareholders pre-emptive rights (directed issue).



The authorization cancels the authorization given by the General Meeting on March 23, 2017 to decide on the issuance of shares as well as the issuance of special rights entitling to shares.



The authorization is valid until June 30, 2019.



16. Closing of the meeting





B. DOCUMENTS OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING



The aforementioned proposals of the Board of Directors relating to the agenda of the Annual General Meeting as well as this notice are available on the companys website at www.aspocomp.com/agm starting from February 15, 2018. The annual report of the company, including the companys annual accounts, the consolidated annual accounts, the report of the Board of Directors and the auditors report, will be available on the companys website at www.aspocomp.com/reports as of February 22, 2018. The proposals of the Board of Directors and the annual report, including the annual accounts documents, are also available at the Annual General Meeting.



The minutes of the Annual General Meeting will be available at www.aspocomp.com/agm no later than March 30, 2018.





C. INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING



1. The right to participate and registration



Each shareholder who is registered on March 6, 2018 in the shareholders register of the company held by Euroclear Finland Ltd., has the right to participate in the Annual General Meeting. A shareholder, whose shares are registered on his/her/its personal Finnish book-entry account, is registered in the shareholders register of the company.



A shareholder, who wants to participate in the Annual General Meeting, shall register for the meeting within the period February 15, 2018  March 13, 2018. The registration must be available at the company at the latest on Tuesday, March 13, 2018 by 10 a.m. (EET).



Such notice can be given:



a) by e-mail at the address yhtiokokous(at)aspocomp.com,

b) by telephone at number +358 40 480 3965 on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. (EET), or

c) by regular mail to Aspocomp Group Plc., Keilaranta 1, 02150 Espoo, Finland.



In connection with the registration a shareholder shall notify his/her/its name, personal identification number, address, telephone number and the name of a possible assistant or proxy representative and the personal identification number of a proxy representative. The personal data given to Aspocomp Group Plc. is used only in connection with the Annual General Meeting and the processing of related necessary registrations.



2. Holders of nominee registered shares



A holder of nominee registered shares has the right to participate in the Annual General Meeting by virtue of shares based on which he/she/it on the record date of the meeting, i.e. on March 6, 2018, would be entitled to be registered in the shareholders register of the company held by Euroclear Finland Ltd. The right to participate in the Annual General Meeting requires, in addition, that the shareholder has on the basis of such shares been temporarily registered into the shareholders register of the company held by Euroclear Finland Ltd. at the latest on March 13, 2018 by 10.00 a.m. (EET).



As regards nominee registered shares this constitutes due registration for the Annual General Meeting. A holder of nominee registered shares is advised without delay to request necessary instructions regarding the temporary registration in the shareholders register of the company, the issuing of proxy documents and registration for the Annual General Meeting from his/her/its custodian bank. The account management organization of the custodian bank has to register a holder of nominee registered shares, who wants to participate in the Annual General Meeting, temporarily into the shareholders register of the company at the latest on March 13, 2018 by 10.00 a.m. (EET).



3. Proxy representative and powers of attorney



A shareholder may participate in the Annual General Meeting and exercise his/her/its rights at the meeting by way of proxy representation.



A proxy representative shall produce a dated proxy document or otherwise in a reliable manner demonstrate his/her right to represent the shareholder at the Annual General Meeting. When a shareholder participates in the Annual General Meeting by means of several proxy representatives representing the shareholder with shares at different securities accounts, the shares by which each proxy representative represents the shareholder shall be identified in connection with the registration for the Annual General Meeting.



Possible proxy documents should be delivered in originals to Aspocomp Group Plc., Keilaranta 1, 02150 Espoo, Finland before the end of the registration period.



Proxy template is available at the companys website www.aspocomp.com/agm.



4. Other instructions and information



Pursuant to Chapter 5 Section 25 of the Finnish Companies Act, a shareholder who is present at the Annual General Meeting has the right to request information with respect to the matters to be handled at the meeting.



On the date of the notice to the Annual General Meeting, February 15, 2018, the total number of shares and votes in Aspocomp Group Plc. is 6,666,505. The company does not have treasury shares in its possession.



In Espoo, February 15, 2018



ASPOCOMP GROUP PLC.



THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS





For further information, please contact Mikko Montonen, CEO,

tel. +358 40 5011 262, mikko.montonen(at)aspocomp.com.



ASPOCOMP GROUP PLC.



Mikko Montonen

CEO





Aspocomp  a service company specializing in PCB technologies



A printed circuit board (PCB) is used for electrical interconnection and as a component assembly platform in electronic devices. Aspocomp provides PCB technology design, testing and logistics services over the entire lifecycle of a product. The companys own production and extensive international partner network guarantee cost-effectiveness and reliable deliveries.



Aspocomps customers are companies that design and manufacture telecommunication systems and equipment, automotive and industrial electronics, and systems for testing semiconductor components for security technology. The company has customers around the world and most of its net sales are generated by exports.



Aspocomp is headquartered in Espoo and its plant is in Oulu, one of Finlands major technology hubs.



www.aspocomp.comEnglish French

Atos signs contract in Sweden with EuroMaint Rail, Europe's leading rail maintenance supplier to create innovative digital workplace

Paris, Stockholm, 15 February 2018 - Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, announced today that it has signed a contract in Sweden with EuroMaint Rail AB, Europe's leading independent supplier of maintenance services for the rail transport industry, to create a modern flexible infrastructure with solutions for the digital workplace of the future. This 5 year contract will significantly reduce the company's costs while ensuring security and compliance at all times.

Faced with today's changing working environment, EuroMaint Rail AB's aim was to implement a modern flexible infrastructure to address the needs of this new environment, such as mobility, with a more cost-effective delivery. EuroMaint Rail has found a trusted partner in Atos to complete its digital transformation journey and face the future today.

"We are delighted to continue our partnership with Atos taking our digital journey to the next level and the steps to transform our business. We chose Atos as our partner thanks to its proven success in the Digital Workplace delivery and renowned leadership in Digital Workplace Services both globally and in Europe. We have now started the execution of the first phase of the digitalization and we are very excited to already see the first results", says Johan Andersson, acting CIO at EuroMaint Rail.

"We are pleased to support EuroMaint Rail in its digital transformation journey. Our end-to-end Atos Digital Workplace offering enables our customers to create an agile and secure working environment in which employees can effectively connect and collaborate wherever they are and from any device." says Peter Pluim, Executive Vice President for Infrastructure and Data Management at Atos.

Atos Digital Workplace is a true end-to-end solution to transform the employee experience, delivered through an enhanced partnership ecosystem. Atos is recognized as Global Leader in Digital Workplace Services by ISG and Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Managed Workplace Services, Europe.

***

About Atos

Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with approximately 100,000 employees in 72 countries and annual revenue of around 12 billion. European number one in Big Data, Cybersecurity, High Performance Computing and Digital Workplace, the Group provides Cloud services, Infrastructure & Data Management, Business & Platform solutions, as well as transactional services through Worldline, the European leader in the payment industry. With its cutting-edge technologies, digital expertise and industry knowledge, Atos supports the digital transformation of its clients across various business sectors: Defense, Financial Services, Health, Manufacturing, Media, Energy & Utilities, Public sector, Retail, Telecommunications and Transportation. The Group is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and operates under the brands Atos, Atos Consulting, Atos Worldgrid, Bull, Canopy, Unify and Worldline. Atos SE (Societas Europaea) is listed on the CAC40 Paris stock index.

Press contact:

Laura Fau | laura.fau@atos.net | +33 6 73 64 04 18 | @laurajanefauMedia reports in Sandalwood say that Sudeep and Dhanush met in Bengaluru to join hands for a film. Sources say that Dhanush is in talks with leading stars from Telugu and Kannada industries to play an important role in his upcoming period directorial film with Sri Thenandal Films.





Dhanush had earlier approached Chiranjeevi and Nagarjuna from Telugu, now he is in talks with Sudeep for the film. As Sudeep himself is busy with multiple projects including a Hollywood film, we should wait and see whether the Naan Ee and Puli villain gives his nod or not.



English Finnish

Press Release

15 February, 2018

Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announces that it has initiated a review of strategic options for its Digital Health business, which is part of Nokia Technologies. Digital Health's business portfolio includes consumer and enterprise products, and it manufactures and sells an ecosystem of hybrid smart watches, scales and digital health devices to consumers and enterprise partners.

The strategic review of the Digital Health business may or may not result in any transaction or other changes. Any further announcements about the Digital Health business will be made if and when appropriate. The Patent Business, Brand Partnerships and Technology Licensing units in Nokia Technologies are not in the scope of this review.

About Nokia

We create the technology to connect the world. Powered by the research and innovation of Nokia Bell Labs, we serve communications service providers, governments, large enterprises and consumers, with the industry's most complete, end-to-end portfolio of products, services and licensing.

Nokia is enabling the infrastructure for 5G and the Internet of Things, and shaping the future of technology to transform the human experience. www.nokia.com

Media Inquiries:

Nokia

Communications

Tel. +358 (0) 10 448 4900

Email: press.services@nokia.com

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

It should be noted that Nokia and its businesses are exposed to various risks and uncertainties and certain statements herein that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those regarding: A) expectations, plans or benefits related to changes in organizational and operational structure; B) expectations regarding restructurings, investments, capital structure optimization efforts, uses of proceeds from transactions, acquisitions and divestments and our ability to achieve the financial and operational targets set in connection with any such restructurings, investments, capital structure optimization efforts, divestments and acquisitions; and C) statements preceded by or including "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "foresee," "sees," "target," "estimate," "designed," "aim," "plans," "intends," "focus," "continue," "project," "should," "is to," "will" or similar expressions. These statements are based on management's best assumptions and beliefs in light of the information currently available to it. Because they involve risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from the results that we currently expect. Factors, including risks and uncertainties that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to: 1) our ability to execute our strategy, sustain or improve the operational and financial performance of our business and correctly identify and successfully pursue business opportunities or growth; 2) general economic and market conditions and other developments in the economies where we operate; 3) Nokia Technologies' ability to generate net sales and profitability through licensing of the Nokia brand, technology licensing and the development and sales of products and services for instance in digital health, as well as other business ventures, which may not materialize as planned; 4) our ability to achieve targeted benefits from or successfully achieve the required administrative, legal, regulatory and other conditions and implement planned transactions, as well as the liabilities related thereto; as well as the risk factors specified on pages 67 to 85 of our 2016 annual report on Form 20-F under "Operating and financial review and prospects-Risk factors" and in our other filings or documents furnished with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Other unknown or unpredictable factors or underlying assumptions subsequently proven to be incorrect could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent legally required.New Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal's AAP government is all set to begin a two-day job fair from today. The fair will be held at Tyagraj Stadium, New Delhi and will end on February 16.





"The two-day job fair will be organised from February 15 to February 16. In the fair, around 15,237 job offers will be available, said an official statement. In 2017 November, a similar job fair was held where 74 companies participated to fill 11,500 vacancies.





This year, over 100 companies are expected to participate in the fair. This the third job fair conducted by the Delhi government. Employment Minister Gopal Rai said the interested candidates must enroll themselves in the job fair to participate and need to select companies as per their educational qualifications.





The fair will start at 11 am and and will go on till 5 pm in the morning for the two days. You can also visit the official website degs.org.in for more details.





How to register for the Delhi government job fair 2018:





1. Visit the Delhi Job Fair Portal (www.jobfair.delhi.gov.in) or website of Directorate of Employment, Delhi (www.employment.delhigovt.nic.in) and then click the Job Fair Portal link.





2. Click the Jobseekers Registration form.





4. Enter the required information and other details.





5. Click Submit button for finally registration. Note down the Registration ID for applying for the vacant posts. Registration ID will also be sent on mobile and e-mail.SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Verto Analytics (http://vertoanalytics.com), the consumer-centric audience measurement company, today released a new report titled, The E-Commerce Ecosystem: The State of Cross-Device Digital Shopping, prior to the companys annual hosting of its partners and customers at Mobile World Congress taking place in Barcelona this month. The report provides contextual and granular insight into todays cross-device consumer online shopping behavior along with factors that shape their buying journey.



With the proliferation of online shopping, fueled increasingly by mobile devices and integrated advertising within social media platforms, retailers are tapping into e-commerce sales now more than ever before - the National Retail Federation projects online retail sales will grow between 10 and 12% this year. Vertos report used its existing cross-device consumer-centric audience measurement methodology, analyzing a representative panel of U.S. consumers (ages 18 and above) in December 2017, tracking their behavior as it relates to cross-device online shopping and the path to purchase, to show what consumers are doing as they research, browse, and purchase goods online. With cross-device usage embedded in consumer behavior, having deeper insights into online shopping habits will help advertisers, brands, and marketers identify touchpoints, refine messaging tactics, and optimize the customer experience.

The report provides detailed analysis of two significant components of online shopping behavior:

The online shopper profile: looking at specific sub-segments of the overall user base according to age, gender, and behavioral attributes, such as the time of day or day of the week they shop online

Path-to-purchase: analyzing time spent across a variety of apps and web services along the consumers buying journey

Vertos data shows that while online shopping is a near-ubiquitous activity with 96% reach of the adult online population, habits are significantly different across age and gender. For instance, it is well known that women shop significantly more than men, but Vertos data shows the early hours of the morning (2-5am) is the only time of day when men actually surpass women in online shopping. Regarding age, Gen X (ages 35-54) shops online more than any of the surveyed age groups, including millennials, baby boomers and those aged 75+.

In addition to demographic differences, usage of e-commerce properties varies throughout the day and week - while Target experiences a boost in traffic on Sundays, it still does not outrank Amazon, which is the most dominant online shopping brand throughout the day. As indicated by this range in use, Verto Analytics analysis shows shopping is fully entrenched in consumer multitasking behavior, as consumers fold shopping sessions into other online activities (as well as looking at other shopping apps) as they move across devices and screens.

Our data shows that consumer online shopping behavior has become normalized within their multitasking routine, making it increasingly important for brands and advertisers to accurately identify their target audience, said Hannu Verkasalo, CEO of Verto Analytics. With behavior dependent on factors such as age, gender, income, time, and day of the week, e-commerce apps and web services are in a heated race to capture consumer attention and influence their path-to-purchase - ultimately avoiding the dreaded abandoned shopping cart.

Findings from the report include:

Online shopper profiles 35% of online shoppers shop only on mobile devices, while 18% of online shoppers shop only on a PC device. However, the majority of total online shoppers use multiple devices in e-commerce. While total amount of time spent shopping on mobile devices experiences consistent activity throughout the day, time spent shopping on PCs shows a distinct peak between 6-9pm. The super shopper is a 47 year-old woman with a household income under $50,000 who spends 44 hours per month (nearly two whole days) shopping online, spending the majority of her time on Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and Craigslist. The majority of adult online shoppers are Gen X (35%), ahead of millennials (30%), baby boomers (31%), and those aged 75+ (5%). And millennials are most well-represented as light shoppers (based on amount of time spent per month), comprising 35% of that category. A heavy shopper will visit or use an online shopping property for 27 days over the course of a 30-day month - or near-daily online shopping activity.

Path-to-purchase Total amount of time spent shopping online shows a spike in user numbers in the evening, but the average session durations are longer in the mornings, especially during 8-10am. When it comes to multitasking - one session during which at least four different apps are used with at least seven different shifts (from app to app) - the average shopping device session includes six distinct apps. Shopping apps are being used before and after other shopping apps (i.e. using Amazon and Target) in 23% of all shopping device sessions that occur on PCs, smartphones, and tablets. Social media and communications apps are used before and after shopping apps nearly 20% of the time. More specifically, Google, Amazon, and Facebook are the top 3 apps used before and after shopping apps. The presence of Amazon indicates almost all consumers are using Amazon in every online shopping session.



Methodology

Verto Analytics single-source, passive measurement methodology is based on behavioral data gathered from a panel of consumers that owns and uses multiple devices. We measure from the point of consumer interaction across all platforms, media, content, and devices. Our panelists, who are compensated for their participation depending on their demographics, opt-in to install a measurement app on their digital devices.

Vertos The E-Commerce Ecosystem: The State of Cross-Device Digital Shopping report is available to download here. To learn more about the reports findings, attend a webinar on the topic on February 22 3:00 p.m. ET. Or, meet with the Verto team in Hall 8.1 - App Planet Stand #8.1K24 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

About Verto Analytics

Verto Analytics is a media measurement platform that offers a holistic view of the consumer  their behavior along with demographics, lifestyles, attitudes, and interests. Verto owns and operates a single-source, passively metered panel that gives us the power to measure behavioral changes over time across all media  second by second. Through a platform that democratizes behavioral research, brands, publishers, and researchers can benchmark against competitors and the market, fill in the gaps in the consumer journey, and identify ways to increase engagement and loyalty.





Media Contact:

Sophia Hatef

Email ContactSTATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The man who authorities said helped the notorious "Ninja Burglar" on one of his buddy's staggering string of break-ins in the borough pleaded guilty Thursday to burglary.

In July of last year, prosecutors announced the indictment of Geovani Melendez, 48, of Uncasville, Conn., in connection with a Jan. 3, 2013 heist in Dongan Hills, which he pulled off with Robert Costanzo, the "Ninja Burglar."

Melendez and Costanzo broke into a Jenna Lane home and snatched jewelry and other items valued at more than $3,000, said District Attorney Michael E. McMahon.

Prosecutors said Costanzo, 48, of New Brighton, chalked up about 160 burglaries on Staten Island and elsewhere over 10 years between 2005 and 2015. He swiped more than $4 million in goods, including jewelry, watches and other items.

Authorities believe Costanzo's mind-boggling spree was fueled by more than $45,000 in gambling loses he incurred in Atlantic City casinos over the years.

In April of last year, Costanzo pleaded guilty in state Supreme Court, St. George, to three counts of second-degree burglary to satisfy all charges against him. He was sentenced the next month to 22 years in prison, plus seven and a half years' post-release supervision.

Melendez was only charged in the one break-in.

Melendez pleaded guilty in state Supreme Court, St. George, to second-degree burglary, the top count against him.

In exchange, he'll be sentenced on March 1 to two years behind bars.

The prison term will run concurrent to a sentence Melendez is currently serving for a burglary in upstate Saratoga.

Defense lawyer Mark J. Fonte declined comment on the case.

Assistant District Attorney Gregg Brown is prosecuting.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Bayonne Bridge has recently found itself at the center of President Donald Trump's push for infrastructure reform.

President Trump met with a bipartisan group of Senate and Congress members Wednesday morning to discuss improvements to the nation's infrastructure.

The Trump administration is calling for a single federal agency to lead the improvement projects, as opposed to the current system that sees dozens of federal agencies involved.

The proposed plan would also implement a strict two-year deadline to secure a permit -- 21 months for an environment review and three months for the states to make a decision.

Speeding up the permitting process for these large, infrastructure projects is seen by the administration as a relatively low-cost way to advance national infrastructure goals.

The Trump administration's efforts to reduce regulatory reviews on infrastructure projects was inspired by Two Year, Not Ten Years, a recent report written by Philip K. Howard, founder of the regulatory reform advocacy group Common Good.

The report examines the need for wide-sweeping changes to the regulatory process, using the Bayonne Bridge's Raise the Roadway project as a prime example of the current issues plaguing the system.

"The Bayonne Bridge Navigational Clearance Project, raising the roadway of the Bayonne Bridge, is a notorious example of the failings of the current system of infrastructure review and approval," said Howard.

The Raise the Roadway project, first introduced back in 2009, underwent a five-year approval process, generating over 10,000 pages of environmental assessment, in addition to another 10,000 pages of required permitting and regulatory material, according to the report.

"The project has no meaningful environmental impacts; it has been built using the same right-of-way and largely on the same foundations, yet five years and 20,000 pages, including appendices, were devoted to study and review of its potential environmental impacts and those of more harmful and expensive alternatives," said Howard.

While the median length of time to complete an environmental impact study is three and a half years, according to 2016 Department of Transportation data, controversial projects such as the Bayonne Bridge can take five years or longer.

The report cites three major factors that slow the environmental review process: fear of litigation, lack of a decision-maker and accretion of regulatory requirements.

FEAR OF LITIGATION

The majority of work conducted during environmental assessments (EA) is done in order to cover all bases in the event that an opponent of the project brings legal action, according to the report.

In the case of the Bayonne Bridge, a lawsuit challenging the approval of the Raise the Roadway project argued that the review was inadequate, despite the over 10,000 pages of assessment.

"Objections to the quality of review are usually a surrogate for trying to stop the project or for exacting a concession, generally a monetary payment. For the proponent, paying off the objectors is generally less expensive than spending years needed to get to final judgment," according to the report.

NO DECISION-MAKER

The lack of an environmental official to lead the review process has contributed to the inordinate length of many of these reviews.

In regard to the Bayonne Bridge, picking the lead agency to conduct the environmental review took six months.

ACCRETION OF REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS

The inclusion of various, unnecessary requirements throughout the review process has also lengthened the time needed to complete reviews.

"In the case of the Bayonne Bridge, because of a state law, the EA included a study of possible effects on historic buildings -- even though the project used the existing right-of-way and did not touch any private property or homes," according to the report.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The lights are on, but nobody's home.

That's because the city of New York filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the owners of two North Shore properties that the city says were operating as illegal hotels through listings on short-term rental websites like Airbnb.

The city is seeking over $500,000 in damages.

Named in the suit are married couple Alissa Eason, a.k.a Alissa Vasquez, and Sal Vasquez, who own the buildings; Amanda Perri, who worked as the couple's assistant, and the two properties, 14 St. Mark's Pl. and 163 Clinton Ave.

The Vasquez family lives in Mount Arlington, N.J., and Perri resides in Mariners Harbor, according to the suit.

Christian Klossner, Executive Director of the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement, said his office will continue to hold the people operating these hotels accountable.

"When illegal hotel operators persist in breaking the laws, we will elevate our response as we seek to safeguard the character of the City's residential neighborhoods and protect New Yorkers and visitors from dangerous, deceptive, and overcrowded accommodations," Klossner said.

The city claims this home at 14 St. Mark's Pl. was operating an illegal hotel through online rental listings like Airbnb. (Staten Island Advance/ Paul Liotta)

A spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio's office said the city brought the suit after the two illegal hotels remained in operation even though the city had levied over $100,000 in fines in the nearly six years they were open.

While the city has filed lawsuits against these types of hotels in other boroughs, this is the first on Staten Island.

The city also alleges that the two homes posed a serious safety risk due to the high occupancy limits listed on 29 different websites like Airbnb.

Up to 18 guests were welcome at the St. Mark's Place property, and 30 were able to stay at the one on Clinton Avenue, according to the city.

For its part, Airbnb has attempted to shut down commercial listers with multiple homes on its site since 2016, a spokeswoman for the website said.

"Starting November 1, 2016, hosts in San Francisco and New York City will only be allowed to have listings at a single address in that city. Hosts can have multiple listings at that address, but can't have listings at different addresses," a policy listed on Airbnb's site says.

Messages left at phone numbers listed for the three defendants were not returned Wednesday night. Lights were on at both homes, but no one answered either door, which had combination lock boxes attached to them.

Illegal hotels operated in New York through online short-term rental sites have long been an issue in the city.

A 2014 report from state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman estimated that 72 percent of Airbnb listings in the city operated illegally.

This is the 12th lawsuit brought by the city against building owners and operators participating in illegal hotel activity, according to a statement from the mayor's office.

In December 2017, a landlord paid a $1.2 million lump sum in what was the largest-ever settlement with the city in an illegal hotel nuisance abatement case involving four buildingsSTATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- In a desolate office, a former worker was sitting in his cubicle while on a headset call before hearing a tapping noise and seeing a gun pointed at his head.

Steven Masiello, 32, described his encounter with a gunman, his sly escape and frantic search for help during his testimony at Ricky Dennis' double-murder trial Thursday in state Supreme Court, St. George.

Prosecutors allege Dennis executed his former boss, Michael Genovese, 57, and the business manager, Carl Clark, 52, in Genovese's rear office at the Dongan Hills business at 124 Buel Ave. on Jan. 24, 2017.

At around 6:10 p.m. that evening, Masiello, a former representative at Universal Merchant Funding, said he was the only employee in the building with Genovese and Clark when he saw a man walk into the office, come straight down the hallway and go into Genovese's back office.

He also said he saw Clark come out of his office and go into his partner's office.

Moments later, Masiello testified he saw a masked man point a gun at his head and told him to get in the back office.

"I slowly rose out of my chair and when he had his back turned, I ran out the front door," Masiello said.

After his escape, the witness testified he ran down a nearby street looking for help. First, he rang a door bell at a home and when they didn't immediately answer, he flagged a nearby car.

Masiello said he frantically asked the driver to call 911 for what he believed at the time was a robbery -- but then he heard the gun shots.

"I heard five or six shots," he said.

"I was worried he was going to come looking for me," he added.

Masiello said the gunman was tall, dark-skinned and had a stocky build. He said he was wearing an olive green jacket with a hoodie and mask that went up to his nose.

The gun was silver, he testified.

Masiello did not point out Dennis as the shooter during his roughly 30-minute testimony.

After police responded to the scene, he said he went back to the office to speak to law enforcement officers.

"He was a mentor," Masiello said about Genovese. "We had a good relationship. He was hard-working, fair, and he treated me well."

Clark, he said, was fun, laid-back guy.

"He was a good guy," he said.

CRIMINAL AND DRUG HISTORY

During his testimony, Masiello admitted he is a recovering crack-cocaine addict who is currently incarcerated after pleading guilty to federal pornography charges.

The prosecution said he took a picture of a 5-year-old child and disseminated the image on the internet.

Under cross-examination by defense lawyer Mario F. Gallucci, Masiello said he is currently awaiting sentencing in the federal case and is looking at 10 years to life in prison.

Gallucci got the witness to admit he was hopeful his testimony may help him with the sentencing.

On cross, Masiello said he was in rehab for his drug addiction prior to his arrest, and said he was clean when working at the Dongan Hills agency.

Justice William E. Garnett then asked him if he was on drugs the day of the incident, and he replied, "no."

"Are you taking drugs in jail?" Gallucci asked.

"I do not take drugs in jail," Masiello answered. "But there are drugs in jail."

Prosecutors allege Dennis, garbed in a gray suit and dark glasses, was disgruntled former employee at Universal Merchant Funding, and left under acrimonious circumstances.

The trial resumes Friday.Thomas Corella, seen in this file photo after his arrest in 1996, can re-apply for parole in August 2019. (Staten Island Advance)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A New Dorp Beach man who killed his brother 22 years ago during an argument, allegedly over smoking, in the family home will remain behind bars after the state parole board denied his release for the second time.

Thomas Corella, 60, is serving a sentence of 20 years to life for first-degree manslaughter in the June 19, 1996 fatal stabbing of his brother Victor Corella, 35.

"Your criminal history reflects prior unlawful conduct that started when you were 18 years old," the parole board wrote in rejecting Corella. "This is your third New York state term of incarceration. You have demonstrated violent behavior towards others. This repeated unlawful conduct is a concern for this panel."

The board also noted Corella's "lack of remorse" for killing his sibling and wounding his mother with the knife during the attack.

"The serious and senseless loss of life you caused is a concern for this panel," wrote the board. "Your discretionary release at this time would not be compatible with the welfare of society and would tend to deprecate the seriousness of the instant offense and undermine respect for the law."

Corella, who is housed in Orleans Correctional Facility, was interviewed last week.

Prosecutors said the killing occurred between 5:15 and 5:30 p.m. inside the home on Milbank Road, which Victor shared with the siblings' mother. Thomas Corella had been staying at the home for about 10 days, the Advance reported.

Corella testified at his trial in September 1998 that events unfolded in his mother's bedroom after he came home from work.

He said his brother questioned him about missing house keys, and he quizzed Victor in return about money missing from their mother's purse.

Corella said his sibling charged him and put him in a chokehold, and fearing for his life, he stabbed Victor in self-defense.

Prosecutors, however, alleged Thomas Corella had become enraged during an argument with his brother over smoking in the house and repeatedly plunged the eight-and-a-half-inch blade of a kitchen knife into the victim's chest.

Ramona Corella, the men's mother, was slashed on the nose in the struggle.

A witness testified she was on the phone with Ramona Corella and overheard the two men arguing.

The woman said she heard Victor imploring his mother to tell his older brother to stop, while Thomas told the younger man twice to "Shut up," according to Advance reports.

The witness said she heard the phone drop, a scuffle, and a bang before the phone went dead.

A jury in state Supreme Court, St. George, acquitted Corella of second-degree murder, but convicted him of first-degree manslaughter.

In its decision, the parole board said Corella has made some progress toward rehabilitation while in prison, but had received "multiple sanctions," indicating a lack of compliance with institutional rules.

Corella was previously denied parole in 2016.

He can re-apply in August 2019.

Corella has a criminal recording dating to 1976, the Advance has reported.

He previously served prison time for attempted burglary in 1990 and attempted assault in 1994, online records of the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision show.(Editor's note: This is part of "The United States of Weed," a series on the movement to legalize marijuana for recreational use in New Jersey, and the potential impact it could have on Staten Island. Click here for additional stories in the project.)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- During a recent trip to Oregon, two Advance staffers followed the life cycle of a marijuana plant -- from seed to smoking.

Reporter Kyle Lawson and multimedia specialist Amanda Steen toured a massive indoor grow house, visited Portland's notorious "Green Mile" -- a high concentration of marijuana dispensaries located in close proximity along Sandy Boulevard -- and visited a cannabis social club for a glimpse of what could happen in New Jersey should recreational marijuana use be legalized there.

Watch the video above to get a behind-the-scenes look at the marijuana industry in Oregon, and to see what our team learned while on the West Coast.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Nineteen years after Officer Matthew Dziergowski died in the line of duty, the NYPD came together to celebrate the life and impact the 16-year veteran left on the Police Department and Staten Island.

Colleagues and relatives attended a mass for Dziergowski Tuesday at St. Christopher's R.C. Church in Grant City, honoring the ultimate sacrifice he made for New Yorkers and fellow cops.

"Every year we will continue to celebrate him and his family," stated the NYPD's 123rd Precinct on its Twitter feed. "Always in our hearts and minds."

District Attorney Michael E. McMahon said on his Twitter, "Please keep Officer Dziergowski and his loved ones in your thoughts and prayers today, the 19th anniversary of his death in the line of duty."

Dziergowski, who was 39 at the time, joined the long list of Staten Island cops who were killed in the line of duty when a drunken driver plowed into his patrol car as he diverted traffic away from a nearby accident on the West Shore Expressway on Feb. 14, 1999.

A truck had flipped about a quarter-mile south of the roadblock, on the expressway's twisting approach to the northbound Korean War Veterans Parkway.

The driver of a Dodge Durango, Ciardi Franklin, of Perth Amboy, N.J., failed to yield to the signal flares and smashed into the officers' cars at nearly 80 mph, police said at the time.

According to police, Dziergowski shouted a warning that saved the other officers' lives just moments before the impact.

Colleagues said he took the brunt of a broadside impact, when he heroically moved into its path in attempt to save their lives, sacrificing his own.

Dziergowski was pronounced dead on arrival at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, where he was taken by police helicopter. The three other officers at the scene were injured.

According to Advance archives, Officer Russell Goffred, who was Dziergowski's partner for 12 years and was injured in the crash, stated if he [Dziergowski] hadn't done what he did, "both of us would have been dead. He was a hero."

Franklin was placed under arrest and was charged with criminally negligent homicide, second-degree assault and driving while intoxicated.

Prosecutors dismissed vehicular manslaughter and driving-while-intoxicated charges against Franklin, when toxicology tests found no traces of alcohol or drugs in his system.

In 2000, Franklin was convicted of criminally negligent homicide. He was released on parole in 2002.

Dziergowski left behind his wife of 14 years, Maria, who was 3-months pregnant, and an 8-year-old son.

Dziergowski's selfless action and act of heroism came as no surprise to his fellow officers or his wife.

Dziergowski is remembered as a family man with a sense of humor, who centered his life around his wife and son.

He worked two jobs to support them -- a police officer by night and a construction worker who built grave vaults by day.

Those hours not spent working were spent with family, especially his son, Daniel, who was 8 at the time.

"He was 'Mr. Fix-It,' " his wife told the Advance, speaking of her husband's tinkering in his off-duty hours with all manner of things electrical and mechanical. Dziergowski loved model aircraft, particularly model helicopters, she said.

On the job, he was looked up to by the younger officers, who turned to him for advice, said his commanding officer at the time, Capt. Raymond Bischoff.

Dziergowski's knowledge of police work came from two generations of policing. His father, Anthony, spent 20 years with the city Police Department, assigned to the 68th Precinct in Brooklyn and Brooklyn South Task Force. He then went to work as a deputy in the Clay County, Fla., Sheriff's Department.

Dziergowski's wife named the couple's second child Matthew Jr. to honor her fallen husband and keep his legacy alive.

A year after Dziergowski's death, he was the first posthumous recipient of the prestigious New York State 1999 Police Officers of the Year Award. His wife and children were given the award.

His name also became the 589th name inscribed on Police Headquarters memorial to those who have died in the line of duty.

Later in 2000, the Dziergowski family received the NYPD's top award, a Medal of Honor.

On the two-year remembrance of Dziergowski's death, his family was awarded the police Medal of Valor.

In 2004, Dziergowski was honored during a ceremony when the intersection of Otis Avenue and Clawson Street in New Dorp was renamed in his memory.

The 123rd stationhouse in Tottenville put together a plaque to honor their fallen comrade, and to set an example for future officers.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Candidates for New York's 11th congressional district have started releasing political ads.

Rep. Daniel Donovan's campaign made its first digital ad buy earlier this month for this campaign cycle and released a two minute video called "Record of Service," which focuses on constituents who say that Donovan directly helped them.

The video features testimonials from Staten Islanders Emil Ercolano, a Vietnam War veteran who Donovan helped obtain the two Purple Hearts he earned, and Rose Spiteri, a Super Storm Sandy victim.

Michael Grimm's campaign released two videos on his Twitter account in January.

The latest video is accompanied by the tagline: "Let's give a warm welcome to NY-11's newest Democrat candidate for Congress - @RepDanDonovan!" It criticizes Donovan for not siding with some of the Trump administration's legislative efforts.

The first video cited issues such as terrorism, North Korea, and Republicans who've been critical of President Trump.

Mike DeCillis

Mike DeCillis, one of seven Democrats hoping to win June's primary election, released an ad called "Service." The video, which is being pushed on social media, focuses on DeCillis' career as a civil servant. The Bay Ridge resident has worked as a police officer, paramedic, and teacher.

Max Rose, another Democrat running in the primary race, also released an ad in October, which shows the candidate speaking with district residents and railing against national Republicans and Democrats.

In September, Mike DeVito Jr. released an ad titled "Let's Run Together." The video, which mentions jobs and infrastructure, emphasizes DeVito's community work on Staten Island.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee kicked off an advertising campaign recently, announcing that it'll push a Facebook post in 50 congressional districts including Staten Island.

The advertisement highlights House Speaker Paul Ryan's tweet, which he has since deleted, that pointed to a secretary's $1.50 weekly increase in take-home pay as a sign of the GOP tax plan's success.

SAVINO: GET TESTED FOR LEAD PAINT

State Sen. Diane Savino's office is offering free testing for lead paint exposure through March at Brightpoint Health on 57 Bay Street.

Testing is from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays; and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.

Savino encouraged Staten Islanders to participate, noting the city Housing Authority's failure to perform lead paint inspections and using untrained staffers to identify and remove lead paint.

"I'm thrilled to be partnering with these organizations who are providing free lead testing for our communities." Savino stated. "I represent thousands of NYCHA residents across 20 developments in Staten Island and Brooklyn. It is imperative to catch the signs early, especially in our young children."

RADHAKRISHNA MOHAN LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN

Radhakrishna Mohan at his campaign kick-off on February 5. (Photo/ Courtesy Mohan for Congress)

Radhakrishna Mohan officially launched his campaign for Congress on February 5 at a Hindu temple in Sunnyside.

Local and labor leaders rallied for Mohan, including Adreina Adams, vice president of the Public Employees Federation, and Rosemarie Mangano, president of the South Shore Democrats.

"I go by my record. I'm involved in interfaith, the police, quality of life, and then there's my union experience," Mohan told the Advance. "That should give them an idea of what I stand for, what I can do and what I can deliver for the people."

Mohan has lived on Staten Island for over two decades. While he works as an information technology specialist in Manhattan, he has been involved in Staten Island civic organizations for many years.

He's a member of Staten Island's Community Board 1, serves as second Vice President of the South Shore Democratic Club and the Staten Island Democratic Association. He is also a treasurer at the 121 police Precinct Community Council.

Mohan -- who's part of a group of political newcomers vying for Rep. Daniel Donovan's seat in Congress -- received nine votes from members of the Staten Island Democratic Committee. Max Rose won the committee's backing with 86 votes.

MAX ROSE GETS BROOKLYN ENDORSEMENTS

A week after earning an endorsement from the Staten Island Democrats, Max Rose, a Democrat hoping to challenge Donovan, was endorsed by Assemblyman Peter Abbate Jr., a Democrat who represents several South Brooklyn neighborhoods.

"Max has a proven record of putting the needs of our country and community above any party," Abbate said.

Rose also picked up endorsements from Stars and Stripes Democratic Club President Irene Chu.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Her "addiction" to stealing will cost a light-fingered bookkeeper plenty.

Lisa Legere, 37, has been sentenced to 18 months to three years in prison, while a judgment of restitution against her for $87,367 was entered in her former employer's favor.

The South Beach resident was busted on Oct. 14, 2015.

Cops said she had stolen $75,000 from Port Richmond-based Command HVAC II between Oct. 1, 2014, and July 1, 2015, while working as a bookkeeper.

Over the course of those nine months, she wrote 20 checks to herself from a company bank account, a criminal complaint said.

When questioned by police, Legere said, "Desperate times call for desperate measures ... I did this for two months... stealing became an addiction.... I paid bills with it," according to the complaint.

Legere later pleaded guilty in Criminal Court to fourth-degree grand larceny, a felony.

Afterward, her lawyer, Mark J. Fonte, said Legere was "extremely remorseful for her conduct."

Previously, in June 2011, Legere was arrested on similar charges.

Prosecutors alleged she racked up nearly $24,000 in personal purchases on a company credit card over two years while working for Jordan General Contracting.

Court papers said Legere paid her cell phone bills with the credit card, and bought electronics, accessories, clothing and books for herself and her children.

She was convicted of third-degree grand larceny in that case, and received five years' probation, said a law enforcement source with knowledge of the case.

A Command HVAC II representative previously told the Advance she didn't know about Legere's past arrest when the company hired her.

Fonte declined comment on the latest sentence.Sellbyville, Delaware, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



Global Sodium Acetate Market is predicted to reach USD 220 million by 2024; according to a new research report by Global Market Insights. Over the recent years, sodium acetate industry has witnessed a remarkable progression across the world due to the rapid industrialization, massive FDI investment, and other factors driving the leather & textile sector.

The positive growth in leather & textile industries owing to the increase in per capita income level, change in lifestyle, etc. will, in turn, bolster the sodium acetate market demand by 2024. The product is used as a pickling & buffering agent at the time of production process of leather goods. It is also used in dyes for textile printing, as the waste streams produced from the textile industry contain high amount of sulfuric acid, which is neutralized by using sodium acetate trihydrate. This will fuel the overall sodium acetate industry growth by 2024. Asia Pacific and North America are on the top of the list for noteworthy consumption due to the presence of myriad end-user industries.

Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2408

Availability of various substitute products is one of the key restraining factor for sodium acetate market growth over the forecast period. Sodium citrate can replace sodium acetate in dialysis fluid and widely used as anticoagulant and antioxidant. The biocompatibility of sodium citrate is higher as compared to sodium acetate, since it is a natural metabolite with anti-inflammatory properties. Thus, these factors will restrict the sodium acetate industry growth in future.

Sodium acetate market has been fragmented on the basis of end-user, product and region. The product segment includes trihydrate and anhydrous sodium acetate. Among these, trihydrate product will hold around two third of the total sodium acetate market throughout the forecast span. Trihydrate form is less expensive than anhydrous and also finds its usage in leather & textile and other end-user industries owing to its excellent hydrophilic, pH controlling and other features.

Leather & textile, food, medical & pharma are the major end-user segments in sodium acetate market. Minor end-user industries include polyester fiber, photography, etc. and have been considering in the others segment. In terms of revenue, medical & pharmaceuticals will likely generate over USD 70 million in 2024. This is owing to the wide usage of the product as an ingredient for diuretic, expectorants and systemic alkalizer in drugs, also used to form re-usable heating pads due to the superior physical and chemical properties.

Browse key industry insights spread across 150 pages with 176 market data tables & 29 figures & charts from this 2018 report Sodium Acetate Market in detail along with the table of contents:

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/sodium-acetate-market

Asia Pacific and North Americas sodium acetate market will be the most notable regional markets with more than 70% of the total industry over the forecast period. Asia Pacific will account for around USD 120 million growing with the substantial CAGR in future.

Significant production, availability of raw materials, and low labor cost along with highly mature textile and food processing industries in this region will promote the Asia Pacific industry growth in forecast period, which in turn will positively influence the entire sodium acetate market growth. High demand from the medical & pharma industries will boost the industry growth in North America and in terms of revenue the region will account for over USD 45 million by 2024.

The key producers in the sodium acetate market includes Gelest, Daito Chemical, American Elements, Shanxi Xinzhou Chemical, Sisco Research Laboratories (SRL), Karn Chem, HiMedia Laboratories., CABB, Niacet, Changshu Nanhu Chemical, Nantong Zhongwang, Spectrum Chemical, Cayman Chemical, Tokyo Chemical Industry (TCI), Avantor Performance Materials, Nandosal Chem Industries, etc.

Make an Inquiry for purchasing this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2408





Browse Related Reports:

Leather Chemicals Market Size By Product (Tanning & Dyeing, Beamhouse Chemicals, Finishing Chemicals), By End-user (Footwear, Furniture, Automobile, Garments, Gloves), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, China, India, Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, GCC), Growth Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017  2024

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/leather-chemicals-market

Sodium Bicarbonate Market Size By Form (Crystal/Powdered Crystal, Liquid, Slurry), By End-user (Food & Beverage, Industrial, Pharmaceutical, Personal Care, Agrochemical, Animal Feed), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, China, India, Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, GCC, South Africa), Application Growth Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017  2024

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/sodium-bicarbonate-market





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Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.

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Upon arrival in the Netherlands on Wednesday February 14, 2018, the Government of Sint Maarten delegation headed by Prime Minister Leona Romeo Marlin and Minister of Finance Michael Ferrier, met with executives of KLM at The airlines head office in Amstelveen.





The KLM invitation to the Sint Maarten delegation was to get a first-hand report on the post Hurricane Irma recovery progress of the island and to discuss flight network development, as they relate to Sint Maarten/Saint Martin. The KLM delegation was headed by their Senior Vice President, Mr. Harm Kreulen and included Mr. Willem de Jonge, Vice President Government and Industry Affairs, Mr. Edgar van Asperen, Network Planner, Mr. Frank Houben, Delegate to the Board and Mr. Daan Pijzel, Director Commercial Division BENELUX. Discussions centered around the general condition of the island, the progress being made getting the SXM Airport repaired, the status of stay-over guest rooms, the approximate reopening of the various large properties on the island, the speed in which some segments of the tourist market seem to be coming back and the availability of reliable data.





The KLM delegation expressed the airlines commitment to the island with the announcement that a third 3rd Amsterdam-Sint Maarten-Curacao-Amsterdam will be added in October of 2018, a fact that will be loaded in the KLM systems this week. The Government of Sint Maarten is focused on the recovery of Sint Maarten and to take it to the next level Prime Minister Romeo Marlin told her audience, adding:" I am quite excited about the KLM fight increase, as we are convinced that it will have a huge impact on our focus to bring back business to our island". KLM also announced their willingness to offer marketing support to ensure the success of any additional flights.





At the end of the fruitful meeting gifts were exchanged and Mr. Kreulens thanked the Ministers and the accompanying (The Hague based) Sint Maarten House support staff for their visit to KLM Headquarters, stressing that good, open communications between parties on both sides of the Atlantic will only serve to strengthen the relationship between the airline and the island.





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An inquiry into the ACT's nomination processes for senators, prompted after questions into Senator Katy Gallagher's citizenship amid the wider federal political scandal, has been completed.

But the inquiry examined only the procedural issues, not Senator Gallagher's validity to sit in the Upper House, given the case is now before the High Court sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns.

Senator Katy Gallagher's citizenship, which is being examined by the High Court, sparked an ACT inquiry into senate nominations, now complete. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

That case is one of a series of cases involving federal politicians, many of whom have been disqualified by the court after it found they were nominated despite being foreign citizens, in breach of the Constitution.

In hearings last month, the court heard Senator Gallagher took steps to renounce her British citizenship before nominating for the 2016 election, but it was not completed by the UK Home Office until after the poll.Greens crossbencher Caroline Le Couteur has called for the ACT government's rates deferment scheme to be reviewed, after thousands signed a petition in protest of rates rises.

Canberra Liberals leader Alistair Coe on Thursday tabled a petition in the Legislative Assembly calling on the ACT government to reverse its rates recalculation for people in multi-unit developments.

Greens politician Caroline Le Couteur. Credit:Jamila Toderas

Mr Coe said the recalculation - which is part of a 20-year move away from stamp duty towards land-based methods of taxation - would embed a "two-paced society in Canberra".

"There's one pace for people who can keep up and other pace for people who are falling behind," Mr Coe said.Dublin, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Gene Therapy - Technologies, Markets and Companies" report from Jain PharmaBiotech has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



Gene therapy technologies are described in detail including viral vectors, nonviral vectors and cell therapy with genetically modified vectors. Gene therapy is an excellent method of drug delivery and various routes of administration as well as targeted gene therapy are described. There is an introduction to technologies for gene suppression as well as molecular diagnostics to detect and monitor gene expression. Gene editing technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9 and CAR-T cell therapies are also included

Clinical applications of gene therapy are extensive and cover most systems and their disorders. Full chapters are devoted to genetic syndromes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, neurological disorders and viral infections with emphasis on AIDS. Applications of gene therapy in veterinary medicine, particularly for treating cats and dogs, are included.

Research and development is in progress in both the academic and the industrial sectors. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the US is playing an important part. As of 2016, over 2050 clinical trials were completed, were ongoing or had been approved worldwide.A breakdown of these trials is shown according to the geographical areas and applications.

The report also discusses the adverse effects of various vectors, safety regulations and ethical aspects of gene therapy including gene editing and germline gene therapy. The markets for gene therapy have been difficult to estimate as there only a few approved gene therapy products Gene therapy markets are estimated for the years 2017-2027. The estimates are based on epidemiology of diseases to be treated with gene therapy, the portion of those who will be eligible for these treatments, competing technologies and the technical developments anticipated in the next decades. In spite of some setbacks, the future for gene therapy is bright.The markets for DNA vaccines are calculated separately as only genetically modified vaccines and those using viral vectors are included in the gene therapy markets

Profiles of 182 companies involved in developing gene therapy are presented along with 250 collaborations. There were only 44 companies involved in this area in 1995. In spite of some failures and mergers, the number of companies has increased more than 4-fold in 2 decades.



Key Topics Covered:



Part I: Technologies & Markets



1. Introduction



2. Gene Therapy Technologies



3. Clinical Applications of Gene Therapy



4. Gene Therapy of Genetic Disorders



5. Gene Therapy of Cancer



6. Gene Therapy of Neurological Disorders



7. Gene Therapy of Cardiovascular Disorders



8. Gene therapy of viral infections



9. Research, Development and Future of Gene Therapy



10. Regulatory, Safety, Ethical Patent Issues of Gene Therapy



11. Markets for Gene Therapy



12. References



Part II: Companies



13. Companies involved in Gene Therapy



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/vb2ggh/global_gene?w=12



Nirav Modi's name is a stamp of corporate India's growing global prestige. On Hollywood red carpets, his diamonds have sparkled on the necklines and dangled from the earlobes of actors and models like Kate Winslet, Dakota Johnson and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.

A Nirav Modi boutique in Mumbai. Credit:AP

Back in India, billboards above the traffic jams of New Delhi bear the image of Priyanka Chopra, a Bollywood star and former Miss World who is fast becoming a household name in the United States, also adorned with Modi's jewels.

But on Thursday, officials at the nation's federal investigative agency announced it was looking for Modi as law enforcement officials fanned out to raid his jewellery stores and other businesses in Mumbai and New Delhi.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials told reporters the agency had on February 4 issued a lookout circular in the country for Modi, who they say had left four weeks earlier.A recent surge in natural disasters will contribute to household insurance premiums rising by between 3 and 5 per cent over the year ahead, insurance giant Suncorp says.

After claims from disasters dragged down its half-year profits, chief executive Michael Cameron also underlined the longer-term rise in costs from major weather events, which he said had been "dramatically" higher in the last decade.

Severe hail storms in Melbourne cost Suncorp about $170 million in claims. Credit:Penny Stephens

Climate change is one reason for the increase, Mr Cameron said, alongside changes in patterns of housing development, and the trend towards higher disaster costs was also prompting the insurer to invest more in disaster mitigation.

Suncorp's first-half profits fell 15 per cent to $537 million, weighed down by a spike in insurance claims from severe hail storms that struck Victoria in December, alongside higher spending on investment.The Canadian businessman leading the push to buy the Australian processor Murray Goulburn, Lino Saputo jnr, has questioned the sale of fresh milk for $1 a litre, telling a dairy conference, I just dont see how $1 milk could be viable.

Lino Saputo Junior. Credit:Rob Gunstone

He also told hundreds of people in the dairy industry his reaction to seeing milk selling at $1 a litre.

As a consumer, when I walk into the retail outlet and I see that water is sold at $3 a litre, and milk is sold at $1 a litre, I think there is an imbalance there, he said.

Mr Saputo made the comments on $1-per-litre milk in response to a question about what Saputos attitude would be on current Murray Goulburn liquid milk contracts.Australia is pulling petrol from 14,500 miles (23,335 kilometres) away in Europe, with companies including Singaporean commodities trader Trafigura Group among those sending cargoes on what is a rare trade.

Trafigura, which is the world's third-largest trader, hired two tankers to deliver European petrol to Australia, ship-tracking and lists of charters compiled by Bloomberg show. Another was booked by Caltex Australia Petroleum.

Australia is stocking up on fuel from the other end of the word. Credit:Michele Mossop

The first should arrive on Monday, having left Amsterdam on January 11. The country last got petrol from Europe in 2012, Australian government data show.Mr McGrath said he was in full compliance with the terms of that account. "I have never, and would never, let what I might choose to do in my personal time impact upon the company," he said. Fairfax Media reported earlier this month that Mr McGrath had a $16 million debt to bookmaker William Hill. In a statement to staff, Mr McGrath branded the report as "rubbish" . Loading In another late statement, the company restated a number of key figures it had released only earlier that day at its earnings call.

Fairfax Media can reveal the McGrath board had to engage in a ''round robin'' scramble late on Wednesday night that led to the surprise trading halt and confusion about the company's leadership. The board had gathered at McGrath Ltd's Edgecliff head office in Sydney's east earlier on Wednesday to sign off on its profit results, with Mr McGrath dialling in to the boardroom discussion. But later that night ''further information'' relating to recent media speculation that has been swirling around Mr McGrath came to the board's attention. That set off the flurry of phone calls between the directors. Founder John McGrath, chair Cass O'Connor and chief executive Cameron Judson. Credit:Daniel Munoz

As the ASX processed the McGrath profit and trading halt announcements on Thursday morning, the directors and Mr Judson delayed a media webinar that had been scheduled for 9am. When the results presentation got under way at 11am, Mr Judson said the trading halt was a ''precautionary and prudent'' move. Mr Judson, who finishes at the company on Friday afternoon, said the step was not taken lightly but declined to comment on the detail of the issue. "The company has become privy to further information, which I can't comment on, and is seeking urgent clarification from John McGrath," Mr Judson said during the investor call. "The board has considered this trading halt a significant development and let me assure you they have not taken this step lightly."

McGrath chief executive Cameron Judson. One insider said the continued media speculation had the potential to become ''very distracting''. Media speculation swirling about recently includes that Mr McGrath is keen to privatise the company he founded in 1998, of which he still owns 26 per cent; and the alleged gambling debt of $16 million, which Mr McGrath has denied. It's also been reported the ASX is reviewing claims made by McGrath Ltd disputing speculation Mr McGrath has a $100 million margin-lending facility attached to his shares in the publicly listed company. Mr McGrath did not return phone calls on Thursday.

Horror time It has been a horror time in recent months for the company, which listed with much fanfare in December 2015 at $2.10. But with residential listings almost falling overnight and the decline of overseas buyers, the share price collapsed. The shares were at 42.5 before the trading halt. Last month, Mr Judson and the entire board, barring Mr McGrath, flagged plans to quit the company after its lower than expected earnings were leaked to the media. Mr McGrath agreed to take up the position of executive chairman. In the results release on Thursday, which included a $21.8 million goodwill impairment on company-owned sales, Mr McGrath said he was ''very proud and excited'' to again be leading the business. Mr Judson, who will leave alongside the company's head of corporate services, Morgan Sloper, said the board was doing everything in its power to update the market as soon as it could.

McGrath chairman Cass O'Connor. Credit:Daniel Munoz The board, including chairman Cass O'Connor, will leave the company on Monday. Ms O'Connor declined to comment on the trading halt, except to confirm that "nothing has changed to make me change my mind to leave". ''I have told the ASX and the board I am leaving close of business, Monday and that is still the case,'' she said. It is understood Mr McGrath is in discussions with a number of new director candidates.As the National Energy Guarantee is thrown open for public feedback, the federal government and the states remain at loggerheads over whether it can solve Australia's energy crisis.

The Energy Security Board called for an initial round of stakeholder consultation on Thursday, outlining how it aims to combine energy security and reliability and help drive down costs as Australia suffers some of the worst electricity prices globally.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Minister for Environment and Energy Josh Frydenberg have been the key proponents of the NEG. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

"The National Energy Guarantee is an opportunity to resolve some of the most vexing policy issues challenging the National Electricity Market today; but the guarantee cannot solve all of these issues alone," the ESB paper noted.

It stated that it was exploring additional energy control measures, such as strategic reserves, demand response and day-ahead markets.Barnaby Joyce's decision to step aside leaving a leadership position in disgrace, is a case of history repeating itself for a National Party parliamentarian from New England. Sixty years ago the same thing happened when the top NSW National was forced out of office after he was caught lying. In 1958, William Davis Hughes was elected leader of the NSW Country Party as the Nationals were then known.. To avoid confusion with Billy Hughes, Australia's seventh prime minister, he was known as simply Davis Hughes. Artist John Olsen with Davis Hughes, who was NSW minister for public works in the 1965 Askin government, during a visit to the Sydney Opera House. Credit:Antonin Cermak/Fairfax Media A Tasmanian, he moved to New England to teach at The Armidale School and became deputy headmaster. In 1950 he was elected as the New England member in the NSW Legislative Assembly. That year Hansard recorded him as holding a bachelor of science degree upon entering parliament. The Herald reported this, too. At the 1959 state election, the Country Party took out a newspaper ad urging people to vote for them because one in four of their candidates  including Davis Hughes  had university degrees, as opposed to Labor's one in 10.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce (right) remains all smiles with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for now. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen But Hughes did not actually hold a degree. He had only ever completed one year of teacher's college in Tasmania, before he was appointed principal at a one-teacher school near Cradle Mountain. In 1936 he became a resident master at Melbourne's Caulfield Grammar, where he enrolled in third year chemistry at university, but he never finished that degree either. In World War II, he enlisted in the Air Force and was promoted on the basis of this degree he did not have. He also became a NSW teacher based on this alleged university degree. When he was exposed,he was forced to resign as party leader before the 1959 state election. For a month after this, he remained in hospital with a gastric ulcer and a nervous condition. Yet without leaving his hospital bed or campaigning at all, he was returned with an increased majority  just like Joyce, who when forced into a byelection last December because of his dual citizenship was returned with an 11 per cent swing. A month after Davis Hughes returned to parliament, he outlined the "true position" of his degree-less status to his Macquarie Street colleagues. He said he had only ever claimed to have "read for" a bachelor of science degree. "Apparently from that more was taken than was actually intended," he explained. There was a soft murmur of "hear, hears" when he gave his justification in the Legislative Assembly of NSW Parliament. He said it had been a "brave weakness" on his part not to correct the record.When the ACT Government decided in 2012 to phase down stamp duty on property sales as part of a sweeping program of tax reforms, it based its argument on modernising the territory's tax system and making it fairer for all citizens. But there have been unintended consequences.

One of these has been the steep increase in the rates being paid by thousands of unit and apartment owners across Canberra as a result of significant changes to the way in which these charges are calculated.

Numerous property owners have told The Canberra Times their annual rates have increased by as much as 40 per cent in a single year.

One apartment dweller, Barton's Sher Young, said her rates bill had jumped from $1400 to $2000.MEMPHIS, Tenn., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE:FHN), which has been honored as one of the nations best employers, is increasing the minimum pay level of employees to $15 an hour. The pay increase reflects the companys continued investment of tax savings in its people.



Late in 2017, First Horizon announced $1,000 one-time cash bonuses to 70 percent of employees and a $16.5 million contribution to the First Tennessee Foundation.

First Horizons continued strong results are driven by the individual and collective efforts of all our employees, said Bryan Jordan, First Horizons chairman and CEO. As a result of the recent tax reform, First Tennessee invested a portion of the tax savings back into our people and our communities to strengthen our business.

The investment in people and communities follows First Horizons merger with Capital Bank, which closed on Nov. 30, 2017. The merger created the fourth largest regional bank in the Southeast with approximately $41 billion in assets, $31 billion in deposits, $28 billion in loans and nearly 350 branches in Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, Texas and Virginia.

About First Horizon

First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE:FHN) provides financial services through its First Tennessee, Capital Bank, FTB Advisors, and FTN Financial businesses. First Horizon operates 350 bank locations across the southern U.S. and 28 FTN Financial offices across the U.S. Our banking subsidiary was founded in 1864 and has the 14th oldest national bank charter in the country. Our First Tennessee and Capital Bank brands have the largest deposit market share in Tennessee and one of the highest customer retention rates of any bank in the country. We have been ranked by American Banker as No. 5 among the Top 10 Most Reputable U.S. Banks. Our FTB Advisors wealth management group has more than 300 financial advisors and about $30 billion in assets under administration. FTN Financial is a capital markets industry leader in fixed income sales, trading and strategies for institutional customers in the U.S. and abroad. We have been recognized as one of the nations best employers by Working Mother and American Banker magazines and the National Association for Female Executives. More information is available at www.FirstHorizon.com.

FHN-G

CONTACT: First Horizon

Investor Relations, Aarti Bowman, (901) 523-4017

Media Relations, James Dowd, (901) 523-4305Illustration: Matt Golding However, it drew an immediate and angry response from Nationals senator John Williams. "He obviously wasn't very happy, there are plenty of people not happy, but when it comes to the Nationals we will determine who is the leader of the Nationals," Senator Williams told Fairfax Media. "It was too much..to give the Deputy Prime Minister a personal bucketing in front of the media doesn't help heal the wounds." Mr Turnbull's move came after an extraordinary fortnight that has seen his governments agenda derailed, political momentum stall and Nationals MPs consider tapping Mr Joyce on the shoulder.

Earlier in the day, Mr Turnbull took the extraordinary step of announcing Finance Minister Mathias Cormann will serve as acting Prime Minister next week after convincing Mr Joyce to take personal leave for a week. Fairfax Media understands Mr Joyce will still be paid his $8000-a-week salary. In a horror Question Time for the government, Labor also raised new questions about Mr Joyce's relationship with Greg Maguire - a businessman friend who has allowed the Deputy Prime Minister to live in a townhouse rent free for six months - in particular a $5000 payment from his department to an Armidale business linked to Mr Maguire. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull moves to limit the fallout from the Barnaby Joyce saga. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Mr Turnbull said Mr Joyce had set off a "world of woe" for Natalie Joyce, his wife of 24 years, and their four daughters. "Barnaby knows he made that shocking error of judgment. He knows that he let down his wife and daughters," Mr Turnbull said.

"He needs that leave. He needs that time to seek forgiveness and understanding from his wife and girls, he needs to make a new home for his partner and their baby, who is coming in April." Mr Turnbull said Mr Joyce should also use that time to "reflect" on his actions and "consider his own position, obviously". But he conceded he was powerless to force Mr Joyce to stand down as Deputy Prime Minister because the Nationals leadership can only be decided by the Nationals party room. Reflecting on the changes to the code of conduct, Mr Turnbull said it did not "speak strongly enough to the values that we should all live". He said he would make a series of changes to the code but the first would ban ministers - regardless of whether they are married or single - from any sexual relationship with staff.

Loading "Doing so will constitute a breach of the standards," Mr Turnbull said. "It is about time that this change was made. Probably should have been made a long time ago. And this is the standard that I will hold from this day forth all of my ministers to. "It is not acceptable for a minister to have a sexual relationship with somebody who works for them. It is a very bad workplace practice. And everybody knows that no good comes of it." Mr Turnbull confirmed Mr Joyce would have breached the code and faced the sack under the change: "If he did what he did last year tomorrow, or today, he would be in breach of the code."

Fairfax Media understands Mr Joyce agreed to take time out after a series of conversations with Mr Turnbull in recent days. Mr Turnbull had said twice in Parliament earlier this week that Mr Joyce would be acting prime minister when he travelled to the US next week. Mr Joyce's office said he has asked for leave because "he wanted to support his family and partner after such intense public focus on personal matters". Labor seized on the decision as evidence that Mr Turnbull no longer had confidence in his deputy. The opposition then shifted its focus to Mr Joyce's relationship with Mr Maguire. Mr Joyce has denied that he asked Mr Maguire to pay the rent on the Armidale home after he separated from his wife of 24 years. He says Mr Maguire made the offer as a friend and Mr Joyce originally offered to pay. Barnaby Joyce in Question Time.

But that appears to contradict statements Mr Maguire has made to the media which suggest Mr Joyce approached him. Under ministerial standards, ministers "must not seek or encourage any form of gift in their personal capacity". Labor also used Question Time to drill down on whether Mr Joyce was aware of any taxpayer money going to businesses owned by Mr Maguire. It then revealed that Mr Joyce hosted a Department of Agriculture dinner at the Quality Hotel Powerhouse in Armidale, owned by Mr Maguire. The event on March 31 last year cost taxpayers $5068 for food and drinks. Mr Joyce insisted "decisions in the vicinity of $5000 don't generally go across the minister's table". "I'm unaware of any decision that I would ever have made to be part of that decision, and anything beyond that, I will take it on notice," he said,What a shame that Barnaby Joyces extra-marital affair had to explode into our news cycle around the 10th anniversary of Kevin Rudds apology to the stolen generations. Here was something that finally gave all that Close the Gap reporting some modest journalistic zest: the parade of dry, frequently ignored statistics animated by being hitched to our memories of an emotion-laden landmark. I remember thinking it was the most concerted media coverage of this report card I could recall. Barnaby soon put an end to that.

But in some small way the juxtaposition has been helpful, if only to reveal the contrasting approaches the government has had on the issues these stories have raised through the week.

What has been so striking about the Joyce affair is the variety of poses the Coalition has tried on. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

What has been so striking about the Joyce affair is the variety of poses the Coalition has tried on. First came the private matter defence, imploring us to leave the story alone on the basis it was not a matter of public interest. That was always on shaky ground given Joyces recent political incantations on family values and the sanctity of marriage, but it collapsed completely once the story became one of how Joyces new partner had been shuffled from one high-paying job to another among the offices of Nationals politicians.

That ushered in the not his partner defence, which argued this was all legitimate since, well, a mistress isnt technically a partner. Whatever lawyerly appeal this sort of argument might have (and I admire it in a way), its political effect is a kind of self-parody. By mid-week we got rumblings of such discontent in the Nationals that a leadership spill seemed to loom until those rumblings disappeared.team created a catwalk resembling a soundstage on a movie backlot, with Vogue describing the cinematic metaphor as "the connective tissue in a country where the metaphorical centre and the coasts seem hopelessly divided".

Models wearing a mix of prairie skirts, knitted balaclavas, jackets decorated with high-vis reflective strips and a lot of silver, not unlike the space blankets wrapped around trauma victims, tiptoed through the kernels, some also carrying boxes of popcorn.

The Calvin Klein runway was made to look like a giant movie set inside the American Stock Exchange building in New York City. Credit:AP

The New York Times review was overwhelmingly positive, with chief critic Vanessa Friedman writing: "You might not like it all... but it was viscerally recognisable, the way really good fashion  which is not the same thing as wearable clothes  is supposed to be.

"The kind of fashion that suggests a different way of expressing how you think of yourself or your world at that moment. The kind of fashion that has been largely missing from the runways this week."Fashion always courts controversy, and there's every chance this year's National Designer Award winner will make history.

Pip Edwards (left) and Clare Tregoning (right) with model Ella Grace wearing P.E. Nation at the National Designer Award finalists announcement on Thursday. Credit:Eddie Jim

The finalists of the country's most prestigious prize for emerging designers were announced on Thursday ahead of the winner's announcement during next month's Melbourne Fashion Festival.

The shortlist includes activewear brand P.E. Nation, launched in 2016 by Pip Edwards and Clare Tregoning, which puts a tomboy, streetwear-inspired twist on gym gear.Most of us have experienced a moment of having to choose what we will give up for love. Thankfully the ethical battles of private lives are rarely fodder for the tabloid press. People paid for public service are just as human as the rest of us but when they choose to make sacrifices for love they cannot always do so without scrutiny. Particularly not if those sacrifices are funded by the taxpayers.

People outside public life make sacrifices for love every day. We give up jobs and friendships. We move states and countries to be with the one we love. Sometimes we even betray marriage vows for that moment of passionate perfection that overwhelms sense and thought. Love may be second only to bigotry in proving emotions are always stronger than logic in driving our choices.

From one perspective, Barnaby Joyce could be seen as an unlikely romantic hero risking everything for love. From another he is irredeemably short-sighted and self-serving. Perhaps it doesn't matter when neither of those perspectives are desirable in the (for now at least) Deputy Prime Minister.

How much should we give up for love? And where does sacrifice in the name of love cross the line from poetic to straight up stupid and selfish?

Since the day Barnaby Joyce's infidelity hit the front page of the Daily Telegraph, journalists have been writing articles for each other justifying their collusion in the cover up of Joyce's extramarital adventures. Forgetting, yet again, they are not accountable to politicians or each other, their responsibility is to the public interest they are supposed to serve. Which is also true of Barnaby Joyce.

When he chose to sacrifice his principles, public money and party credibility for love, his choices are no longer a private matter. He is the Deputy Prime Minister, the taxpayers give him more than $400,000 a year (plus expenses) to do a job that requires he puts the government, the parliament and the country ahead of his personal needs. It would not always be easy. It's not supposed to be. As both the bible and the arachnid superhero tell us, with great power comes great responsibility.

Being, at best, careless with public funds is not taking that responsibility seriously. Fairfax Media reported that between January and September 2017 he charged taxpayers for 50 nights in Canberra when parliament was not sitting. The rules allow him to charge $276 per night for official business as Deputy Prime Minister and $565 per night as acting Prime Minister (Newstart is currently $269 per week for a single person).

Fairfax Media is not suggesting these claims are outside the rules but the fact that his now pregnant lover was living in Canberra at the time justifies some public curiosity about the reasons he had to stay in the capital when parliament was not in session.

Maybe Barnaby Joyce didn't consider the arrant hypocrisy of pontificating about the sanctity of marriage while shagging up a storm with a staffer. Maybe it didn't occur to him that thunderously denouncing welfare cheats as his party was creating a series of lucrative taxpayer-funded positions for his lover would demolish his credibility. Maybe he wasn't able to play that out and understand it's not just his own credibility but all the coalition policies designed to cut funding to domestic violence victims, low income earners and the homeless that now look ludicrous. Maybe he was unable to see how such actions affect a public already cynical about their elected representatives.After the market turmoil last week, it might seem strange  or mildly self-destructive  to wonder whether Australian investors are taking enough risk.

But here's the thing. Those falls aren't "risk", but "volatility". They're a roller-coaster, not Niagara Falls. Markets have always been volatile. Yes, with occasional stomach-churning falls, but over more than a century, they've never failed to return to  and exceed  previous highs.

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during last week's volatile markets. Credit:Michael Nagle

Risk, instead, is the potential for permanent loss. And Australian investors aren't taking enough of it.

Look over to the United States, at Facebook and Twitter; the social media companies that were born there. Check out the search engine giant, Google, and its forebear, Yahoo! Witness the rise of IBM. Microsoft, Apple. And it's not just tech. Think about consumer products companies, pharmaceutical businesses and large manufacturers.Parents across the nation are breathing a sigh of relief now that kids are settled into the school term.

Its pleasant to think you can sit back and relax, leaving the education up to the schooling system but there are many areas where a schools education is lacking.

how do we raise children who understand the value of money and know how to get ahead? Credit:Virginia Star

Lets delve into a key one of these - financial management.

Money makes the world go round, so its almost inconceivable that anyone can go through life without being exposed to its influence.Melbourne Grammar School has suspended a student who created a hit list of dozens of his classmates and spoke about killing them.

Copies of the disturbing list have been circulated among senior students at the prestigious private school and includes a short, offensive description against each childs name.

I dont think Ill be able to kill him he never shows up anyway, one entry on the list says.

Melbourne Grammar is one of Australia's most prestigious schools. Credit:Chris Hopkins

Other students are chastised for being gay, being a feminist, having bad teeth and having a low IQ.A lantern at the Opera House marks the start of the Year of the Dog. Credit:Wolter Peeters

As Lunar New Year celebrations kick off today, my family and I join billions of people in China, Asia and around the world in welcoming the Year of the Dog. Like many others, Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is a special time for me because it is a time for family, honouring my ancestors, reflecting on the year that has passed and ringing in the New Year.

Lunar New Year traditions date back to the very beginning of Chinese civilisation. They have survived successive imperial dynasties and political turmoil. For many Chinese and Asian communities living overseas, Lunar New Year is an opportunity to reconnect with their cultural heritage.

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If one hopes for good fortune, health, luck and prosperity, one must follow a list of rituals during the two-week New Year period. Our family began our celebrations on Tuesday (the 28th day of the last month on the lunar calendar). Known as the day of cleaning, we swept away dust and threw away things that are no longer needed around the house.Two brothers and their wives who allegedly conspired to stage a car crash involving disgraced former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer have appeared in court.

Michael Moufferrige, 28, and his wife Nora Anne Bush, 31; and Elias Moufferrige, 30, and his wife Fakaha Ki Malinda Moufferrige, 31, remain on bail after appearing in Burwood Local Court on Thursday, all facing charges of conspiring to cheat and defraud Insurance Australia group (also known as NRMA).

Outside court Michael Moufferrige evaded a waiting media pack, saying, "I'm not guilty, my name is Bob," before raising his middle finger at photographers.

Elias Moufferrige also declined to comment, telling Fairfax Media, "I'm just going to be cool about this, I'm not going to answer any questions or ask anything. I'm just going to stay quiet, that's what I've been told by my [lawyer]."Houston, TX, US, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Houston, Texas  February 12, 2018  The International Association of Geophysical Contractor's (IAGC) 47th Annual Conference will feature top executives and experts in the oil and gas exploration industry. This years sessions focus on the conference theme "Leadership in Innovation. Insight for Energy" and will explore the geophysical industry's role within the larger energy sector in safely and responsibly meeting the worlds energy demand.

The conference will feature a provocative and informative discussion by top exploration executives. Stephen Greenlee (President, ExxonMobil Exploration), Robert Bobby Ryan (Vice President, Global Exploration Chevron Upstream), Erik Finnstrom (Senior Vice President Exploration Excellence, Statoil), Ron Neal (Co-Founder & Co-Owner, Houston Energy), Neil Piggott (Vice President of Exploration Global Strategy, Hess Corporation), Joseba Murillas (Executive Director of Global Exploration, Repsol), and Maurice Nessim (President, WesternGeco) and Nikki Martin (President, IAGC) as moderators will discuss key issues and challenges facing the oil and gas exploration sector and how to better use the opportunities.

A second panel featuring Deborah Byers (Americas Industry Leader & US Energy Leader, Ernst & Young), Gordon Ballard (Executive Director, International Association of Oil & Gas Producers  IOGP) and Dr. Scott Tinker (Director, Bureau of Economic Geology, UT Austin) will explore whether the oil and gas industry has an identity crisis and its role in better informing the public about the importance of oil and gas in our everyday lives.

Attendees will also hear several individual presentations, including Stephen Greenlee as the conference keynote speaker, as he talks about sustaining the exploration industry. President Commissioner of Mexicos National Hydrocarbons Commission Juan Carlos Zepeda Molina will provide insights into the current energy landscape of Mexico and an outlook for the country's onshore and offshore exploration activities. Joe Balash, Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals, U.S. Department of the Interior will discuss the geophysical industry's role in the nations energy strategy.

"The IAGC represents all segments of the geophysical industry essential to discovering and delivering the worlds energy resources, said Nikki Martin, president of the IAGC. This year we have one of our most impressive lineup of speakers, and this conference is geared toward providing stimulating dialog that gets industry professionals and the entire geophysical industry thinking about how to effectively enhance public understanding about our industry, and creating viable solutions to support a strong, viable geophysical industry for generations to come."

Registration is now open for the IAGCs 47th Annual Conference, and geosciences professionals are invited and encouraged to attend. The conference will be held February 20, 2018 at the WesternGeco Schlumberger facilities, 10001 Richmond Avenue in Houston, Texas. The cost per attendee is $150 for members and $200 for nonmembers. The event will include breakfast, lunch and a networking reception. To register, click HERE. Some sponsorship opportunities are still available. For sponsorship opportunities, click HERE.

# # #

About the IAGC

The IAGC represents more than 110 member companies worldwide from all segments of the geophysical industry, and is the only trade organization solely dedicated to representing the industry. It is the leader in geophysical technical and operations expertise. For more than 45 years, the IAGC has worked to optimize the business and regulatory climate, and enhances public understanding to support a strong, viable geophysical industry essential to discovering and delivering the world's energy resources.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8ade58eb-f13d-4322-943a-d7825de2602f

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3d432325-d5b4-46cb-a00f-908026266d41The scene of the shooting at Rockdale. Credit:Peter Rae

The 37-year-old went into cardiac arrest before being transferred to St George Hospital where he later died.

Hawi was shot while sitting in the driver's seat of his car outside a Fitness First gym in Rockdale about midday on Thursday.

Former Comancheros boss Mick Hawi has died in hospital, hours after being shot multiple times in what police have said was a planned attack in Sydney's south.

Mick Hawi has died hours after being shot at Rockdale. Credit:Edwina Pickles

Commander of State Crime Command Assistant Commissioner Mal Lanyon described the shooting as "a planned and targeted attack, completely without regard to human life".

Addressing the media on Thursday afternoon, Mr Lanyon said police would be exploring links between organised crime, the Comancheros bikie gang and Mr Hawi, but acknowledged that it was "too early to determine the motive for his shooting."

"What I can say is this was a serious, brutal and callous attack and one that NSW police will not stand for. We are 100 per cent committed to finding who was responsible and putting that person before the court."

Mr Lanyon said shortly after the shooting police were called to Chandler Street, Rockdale where a grey-colour Mercedes-Benz station wagon was involved in a vehicle fire.

Police are currently exploring whether the vehicle was associated with the shooting.A parliamentary committee scrutinising the NSW Government's decision to relocate the Powerhouse Museum to Parramatta at a potential cost to taxpayers of up to $1.5 billion has given the former NSW premier Mike Baird an ultimatum: either appear before it or be forced.

Mr Baird is one of three prominent business leaders who has been given 24 hours to reconsider his refusal to front the Upper House inquiry - or be summonsed to do so.

A parliamentary committee is scrutinising the decision to relocate the Powerhouse Museum to Parramatta. Credit:Louise Kennerley

Mr Baird's former chief of staff, Bay Warburton, who joined Mirvac as the head of Stakeholder Relations last August, is also believed to be among those summoned to give evidence as soon as next month.

The move suggests the committee, chaired by Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MLC Robert Borsak, may be pursuing information around any commercial plans for the existing Ultimo site or the museum's proposed riverside home in Parramatta.Homicide squad detectives are investigating whether a bounty had been placed on the head of former bikie boss Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi before he was shot dead during an ambush outside his local gym on Thursday.

Hawi, once convicted of the Sydney Airport murder of Anthony Zervas before the charge was sensationally downgraded to manslaughter, died in hospital several hours after a balaclava-clad gunman opened fire on the former Comanchero's black Mercedes-Benz SUV in the carpark of the Rockdale Fitness First gym about 12.10pm.

Despite vowing never to rejoin the gang following his prison release in 2015, Hawi had continued to associate with his bikie mates whilst remaining out of the spotlight of the public and law enforcement.

Homicide squad detectives will now need to investigate a long list of suspects who may have wanted Hawi dead, including a theory from within the underworld that a contract had been placed on the 37-year-old.An accused Brisbane burglar caught trying to steal children's money tins from their grandmother's home is in custody after a citizen's arrest.

"What are you doing here, I'm not finished?" Roy Jordan allegedly said when the people he was robbing found him in a bedroom of their Coorparoo home on Wednesday afternoon.

The home owner, who had returned from collecting her four grandchildren from school with her brother, then grabbed him by the shirt.

In a bungled attempt to flee, the 45-year-old tried to fight her off using a glass water bottle he had taken from the fridge, documents from Brisbane Magistrates Court reveal.

He then pushed past the woman and punched her brother in the head and neck.A pod of dolphins has moved into the Brisbane River, but it is unlikely they will stay around for long.

The pod of dolphins was spotted on Saturday, surfacing near South Bank and the CBD as well as at New Farm and Bulimba.

Griffith University Smart Water Research Centre researcher Olaf Meynecke said it was unusual for the dolphins to be in the Brisbane River and rare for people to see them.

If you see three its probably going to be five or eight of them in the water because they dont come up at the same time, he said.A man has been found dead in the Brisbane River after he was spotted floating in the water on Thursday night.

Following an overnight search, a member of the public found the man's body in the water near Eagle Street Pier just before 7am.

The man, believed to be aged in his 50s, was yet to be identified.

The body of a man has been found in the Brisbane River. Credit:Queensland Police Service.

On Thursday evening, police received a call from a person, reportedly a CityCat passenger, who said they had seen a man floating on his back near the QUT ferry terminal.A family friend says a teenager shot by Queensland police was unarmed, a claim rejected by police, who allege he was threatening them with a knife.

Police shot 16-year-old Jai Hunt in the upper body after being called to a disturbance at his home in suburban Springfield, south-west of Brisbane, on Wednesday afternoon.

Jai Hunt was recovering in hospital. Credit:Facebook.

Family friend Michelle Wykes said Jai had wielded the knife in a row with his father Nikolas but his dad took the weapon before he was shot.

"Jai was unarmed when the police officer actually shot him," said Ms Wykes, who told News Corp she was at the doctors when the shooting occurred.The Queensland premier has no plans to match Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's sex ban, introduced because of Barnaby Joyce's affair with a former staffer.

Cabinet members are bound by a ministerial code of conduct in Queensland, but it does not address the issue of sexual relations between ministers and their staff.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is seen during Question Time on Thursday. Credit:AAP/Darren England

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk does not intend to match Mr Turnbull's ban, but said ministers needed to live up to community standards.

"My ministers know the public have high expectations of them and I expect them to meet those expectations."A Queensland man convicted of sexually abusing a child over more than a five-year period and raping another child has been placed on a 10-year supervision order following his release from prison this month.

John Steven Murphy, 56, was convicted in March 2004 and sentenced to seven years in prison over the indecent treatment, unlawful sodomy and unlawful carnal knowledge of an 11-year-old girl over a 5-year period.

John Steven Murphy was placed on a decade-long supervison order.

In 2014, the former truck driver was convicted of rape, involving digital penetration, and indecent dealing in a separate case involving a 12-year-old child and sentenced to four years, with a release date of February 11 this year.

Murphy has maintained his denial in relation to these offences, according to court documents.Long-standing rules which effectively ban Queensland MPs from breastfeeding their babies in the Parliament chamber will be ignored.

Speaker Curtis Pitt made the ruling at the beginning of the first day of proper sittings of the Parliament for 2018 on Thursday.

The Member for Keppel Brittany Lauga is seen with her baby daughter Odette on the opening day of the 56th Queensland Parliament Credit:Dan Peled/AAP

Labor member for Keppel, Brittany Lauga, became the first woman to breastfeed her baby, Odette, in the Queensland Parliament this week, in defiance of the standing orders, which prevent "strangers" from the chamber.

Mr Pitt said after consultation with MPs, he believed there was a "collective will" that the standing order not be enforced.ADVA FSP 3000 CloudConnect(TM) provides seamless path to 400Gbit/s and beyond

New York, New York, USA. February 15, 2018. ADVA today announced that Telehouse America/NYIIX has deployed its FSP 3000 CloudConnect(TM) to tackle soaring data demand in its metro network. Telehouse America, a global leader for data centers, international internet exchanges and managed IT services is utilizing ADVA's data center interconnect (DCI) platform to boost capacity among its NYIIX service locations and New York colocation facilities. Built on the high-density ADVA FSP 3000 CloudConnect(TM) with its compact form factor and award-winning energy efficiency, the new infrastructure transports data at 200Gbit/s and offers easy scalability to 400Gbit/s and beyond. The solution was turned on in January and ADVA's open and programmable DCI technology now enables Telehouse America to meet the growing expectations of its peering customers and deliver ultra-high-speed connectivity in its NYIIX internet exchange point.

"With ADVA's unrivalled DCI technology and the drive and expertise of its team, we're addressing soaring bandwidth demand for our NYIIX Internet exchange points. The ADVA FSP 3000 CloudConnect(TM) is empowering us to connect our customers' data with more efficiency, more agility and much more speed," said Akio Sugeno, VP, internet engineering, operations and business development, Telehouse America. "The new solution enables us to easily deliver multi-Terabit capacity over diversely routed and protected fiber links. Its small footprint and high density are key features, along with its innate capacity to scale. Now we know we have a future-proof solution that will grow alongside the ambitions of our customers."

Telehouse America's upgraded NYIIX infrastructure features ADVA's open optical layer enhanced with FSP 3000 QuadFlex(TM) capabilities. This enables a single chassis to support multi-Terabit transmissions over long distances without the need for signal regeneration. Designed for scalability and bandwidth optimization, the ADVA FSP 3000 CloudConnect(TM) platform also offers unrivalled efficiency. It delivers significant energy savings and, with its incredibly small footprint, occupies very little rack space. What's more, the technology features a modular design, ensuring that the new metro network is ready to scale to 400Gbit/s and beyond whenever Telehouse America's customers demand.

"With this deployment, NYIIX is taking peering in the Northeastern United States to a whole new level. Our FSP 3000 CloudConnect(TM) is all about secure high-capacity connectivity ready to scale with the growing needs of businesses and we're honored that it's playing a major role in what Telehouse America is achieving in New York," commented John Scherzinger, senior VP, sales, North America, ADVA. "As the US's longest-serving internet exchange point and carrier-neutral data center provider, Telehouse America is not just a market leader but also a technology leader. By leveraging our innovation and the continuous support of our service team, its ensuring that it can answer the needs of enterprises both now and in the future and provide its customers with a vital competitive edge."

Watch this video for more information on ADVA's DCI technology: https://youtu.be/nyG4S-e0qgI.

About ADVA Optical Networking

ADVA Optical Networking is a company founded on innovation and driven to help our customers succeed. For over two decades, our technology has empowered networks across the globe. We're continually developing breakthrough hardware and software that leads the networking industry and creates new business opportunities. It's these open connectivity solutions that enable our customers to deliver the cloud and mobile services that are vital to today's society and for imagining new tomorrows. Together, we're building a truly connected and sustainable future. For more information on how we can help you, please visit us at: www.advaoptical.com.

About Telehouse/NYIIX

A stable and trusted pioneer of carrier-neutral data center services, Telehouse provides secure, power-protected environments, where clients house and operate their telecommunications and network resources. Among the many benefits of collocating with Telehouse is the ability to connect to state-of-the-art peering exchanges in New York (NYIIX) and Los Angeles (LAIIX). Additionally, the global availability of 47 Telehouse-branded data centers in 23 cities throughout Asia, Africa, North America and EMEA, delivers continuous, cost-effective operation of network-dependent, IT infrastructure to businesses around the world. Please visit www.telehouse.com, or email at sales@telehouse.com.

Published by:

ADVA Optical Networking SE, Munich, Germany

www.advaoptical.com

For press:

Gareth Spence

T +44 1904 699 358

public-relations(at)advaoptical.com

For investors:

Stephan Rettenberger

t +49 89 890 665 854

investor-relations(at)advaoptical.comThe books of Queensland's health sector are looking healthier, recording a $56.2 million surplus in 2016-17.

It comes after Queensland Health entities had a deficit of $43.3 million the year prior.

Queensland public health sector's financial performance is looking healthier this year. Credit:Kate Leith KLL

Queensland Audit Office auditor-general Brendan Worrall reviewed the finances of Queensland Health, 16 hospital and health services, three statutory bodies, 13 hospital foundations and three primary health networks.

When examining the HHSs alone, they posted a surplus of $45.9 million, compared with a deficit of $46.1 million the prior year.McDougall says its nine employees have no issue being banged up together in an average and already outgrown office space in suburban Chatswood. We assumed we had a big enough office and whats happened, in the space of six months, weve gone from having a nice reception area and even a place to have meetings and now its completely full of boxes and things, he says. Even though its a space with very little freedom, its a sign of our success in the marketplace  I think thats whats more important to our team than having meeting rooms and coffee areas and that sort of stuff. Diagou Sales has quickly outgrown its office. Daigou Sales holds its daily team get-together in a downstairs cafe, with the beverages on McDougall; and a college-like approach to doing business he says is helping attract and retain good people.

I could invest in bigger office space or we could work in this sort of more agile, dynamic way and I guess for us its working, McDougall says. Were a start-up thats making do with a space and I think were not compromising on being effective and not compromising on staff turning over because they want a beautiful reception area, but theyre actually encouraged because they see success every day, through the chaos of the office. Making the move Small businesses typically make the move from the garage or spare room into rented premises once the headcount exceeds three, according to commercial leasing specialist and Eve Property Group co-owner Amanda Falahey. Most look for a space thats compatible with their business image as well as their budget, she says.

Fancy facilities may help attract new staff and give workers a lift but many small businesses are better off spending money on building a good corporate culture, dmca business adviser and accountant Adam Griffiths believes. Other treats Rent typically accounts for five to 10 per cent of turnover for SMEs and can be a significant impost for young operations, Griffiths says. Providing some treats and comforts can help keep staff motivated, even if theyre housed in humble accommodation. Theres a huge amount you can do, starting with having a decent coffee machine, offering fruitWe have clients who buy bread and meat and staff can help themselves, or a masseuse that comes once a month, Griffiths says.

Thats something thats inexpensive to do but has a huge benefit for the whole team. Jocelyn Hunter is the founder of Bench PR. Offering flexible working arrangements, including the ability to work from home, can be more motivating for staff than spending nine to five in smart quarters, Melbourne small business owner Jocelyn Hunter adds. Her communications consultancy Bench PR employs a team of seven and turned over just over $1 million last year. Hunter turned down the opportunity to take over a $3,000 a month office lease on Collins Street eight years ago, opting instead for a much cheaper monthly membership at a CBD co-working space, and says she hasnt regretted it.As a shooter stalked his way through a Florida high school, killing at least 17 people, those hiding in lockdown were for the first time uploading Snapchat stories to a web-based interactive map.

The map allowed them, for the first time, to share their dramatic footage and messages not just to family, friends, and other app users, but anyone who cared to tune in online.

In one video, shots can be heard ringing out while students duck for cover. A caption on it reads "Our f------ school is being shot up".

Others show students waiting in lockdown, heavily armed police moving through the school, and one child declaring themself "safe".The teachers had noticed Josh*, 17, seemed hostile.

In class, he was belligerent, closed off. And there was that incident with a box saw, when he cut up a school table. Josh wanted to quit school. Something was wrong at home, but no one could get him to open up.

Northern Bay College student Josh and social worker Michael have come together to try and address the issue of youth homelessness. Credit:Joe Armao

So a teacher pulled aside Michael*  a social worker who visited the school weekly  and asked him to intervene.

"They said Josh isn't going well. He's angry and moody in class," he said.That's all for the blog today. Have a great day and a great weekend.

I'm taking next week off, but will be back and blogging again from March 1.

So I guess I should stretch out the closing strap to say "have a great week next week and a great weekend next weekend too".

Finally, today's target word was equipment (see 8.37am post), in case the clues did not make it obvious.Members of an outlaw motorcycle gang are believed to be responsible for the firebombing of a luxury Mercedes outside the Melbourne home of a property developer.

The Mercedes C63 AMG, worth more than $150,000, was destroyed by the petrol bomb attack last Sunday morning, which is being investigated by Victoria Police. Three bricks were also hurled through the front window of the Fulham Road property in Alphington on February 11.

The destroyed Mercedes outside an Alphington home.

The owner of the property, who is fearful for his life, declined to comment and asked not to be identified.

No one was home at the time of the attack at about 1am on Sunday morning, but a neighbour is understood to have seen three men fleeing the scene.The owner of a Victoria Park property where nine backpackers overdosed earlier this year has signalled his intention to demolish the property, and the town's mayor says it's "great news" for local residents.

The home on Colombo Street became a crime scene back in January, after emergency services received reports of people becoming "violently ill" at the home.

The house where the suspected drug overdose occurred. Credit:9 News Perth

"We saw people coming out on stretchers, most of them were unconscious but one of them was having... a spasm and punching and kicking," neighbour Sophie Barnett said.

"All of them you could tell they were not on this planet, they were off in their own world. It was so scary."WASHINGTON: The admission by President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer that he sent $130,000 to a pornographic film actress, who once claimed to have had an affair with Trump, has raised potential legal questions ranging from breach of contract to ethics violations.

The lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, told The New York Times this week he had used his own funds to facilitate the payment to actress Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, adding that neither the Trump organisation nor the Trump campaign had reimbursed him for the payment. He insisted the payment was legal.

Adult film star Stormy Daniels received a $130,000 payment from Donald Trump's lawyer.

The Wall Street Journal first reported last month that Cohen had arranged the payment soon before the 2016 election, as Clifford was considering speaking publicly about the purported affair.

But Cohen's assertions left many questions unanswered, including whether the payment was truly a personal gift by him or whether he was reimbursed by some other party, like Trump or an associate of Trump.VANCOUVER, B.C., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. (Peregrine or the Company) (TSX:PGD) is pleased to report that the Companys successful 2017 Resource Development Program has resulted in a substantial increase in the Inferred Mineral Resource at the high-grade CH-6 kimberlite pipe at Peregrines 100%-owned Chidliak Diamond Project, Nunavut, Canada.



Drilling in 2017 delineated the high-grade CH-6 kimberlite pipe to a depth of 540 metres below surface (mbs) and the kimberlite remains open below that depth. Key results include:

CH-6 updated Inferred Mineral Resource of 17.96 million carats in 7.46 million tonnes to 525 mbs;

in 7.46 million tonnes to 525 mbs; Inferred Mineral Resource tonnage increased by 61% from 4.64 million to 7.46 million tonnes;

CH-6 contained carats increased by 58% from 11.39 million to 17.96 million carats;

from 11.39 million to 17.96 million carats; High-grade KIM-L domain with a grade of 4.49 carats per tonne (cpt) comprises 17% by volume of the updated CH-6 resource; and

(cpt) comprises 17% by volume of the updated CH-6 resource; and Total Phase One Diamond Development resource now exceeds 22 million carats.

Additional tonnage, considered a Target for Further Exploration (TFFE) of 1.09 to 2.35 million tonnes, has also been identified for a portion of the CH-6 kimberlite pipe at depths between 300 and 590 mbs. The CH-6 kimberlite pipe remains open for expansion to depth.

Tom Peregoodoff, Peregrines President and CEO said Since we announced our maiden inferred resource at CH-6 in May 2014, we have grown this resource by an incredible 140%, from an initial 7.5 million carats to the 18 million carats we are proud to announce today. The growth of the CH-6 resource is remarkable and together with the CH-7 kimberlite resource, brings the Phase One Diamond Development resource at Chidliak to an impressive 22 million carats. Simply put, there is no other Canadian development-stage diamond project that compares with Peregrines flagship project in terms of resource value or upside potential. This Phase One resource is based on only two of the 74 currently known kimberlites at Chidliak providing significant resource expansion possibilities which the Company intends to pursue in 2018.

In April 2016, the Company announced a CH-6 Inferred Mineral Resource of 11.39 million carats in 4.64 million tonnes, which, combined with an Inferred Mineral Resource of 4.23 million carats in 4.99 million tonnes at CH-7, formed the foundation for the 2016 Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the Chidliak Phase One Diamond Development (see release dated July 7, 2016). The 2016 PEA Phase One development envisages a 10-year mine life at an annual average production rate of 1.2 million carats with an after-tax Net Present Value (NPV) of C$471 million, an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 29.8% and a capital payback period of two years.

JDS Energy and Mining Inc. (JDS) has commenced work on a revised PEA of a Phase One Diamond Development, with results expected in the second quarter of 2018. The 2018 PEA is based on aggregate Inferred Resources at CH-6 and CH-7 of 22.19 million carats contained in 12.45 million tonnes of kimberlite.

Mr. Peregoodoff added The PEA we announced in 2016 clearly established Chidliak as a unique diamond development opportunity. Todays announcement of the significant expansion of the diamond resource should have a material, positive impact on the forthcoming economic analysis and I look forward to sharing the results of the updated Phase One Diamond Development PEA with all of our stakeholders as soon as possible.

CH-6 INFERRED MINERAL RESOURCE UPDATE

The 2017 Resource Development Program at Chidliak focused on expansion of the Inferred Resource at CH-6. As announced on September 21, 2017, approximately 5,288 metres of diamond core drilling was completed during this program. Drilling results demonstrated geological continuity of the CH-6 kimberlite to 540 mbs, established additional pipe margin pierce-points deeper than 260 mbs, the base of the 2016 Inferred Resource, and obtained spatially representative kimberlite samples for caustic fusion diamond analysis.

Microdiamond results by caustic fusion for 1,936.45 kilograms of kimberlite collected during the 2017 program were announced on November 28, 2017. The results support a coarse diamond size distribution for all material sampled and reproduce diamond recovery rates for the previously defined KIM-L and KIM-C geological units at the CH-6 kimberlite.

Updated geological and block models for CH-6 were generated by Peregrines staff geologists, all of whom are Qualified Persons under National Instrument (NI) 43-101. Their work comprised a comprehensive review of geological attributes, pierce-point distribution, rock densities, delineated kimberlite volumes and diamond size frequency distributions and abundances for the entire CH-6 kimberlite.

The updated resource model was provided to JDS in order to establish an envelope within which reasonable prospects for economic extraction may exist, in accordance with NI 43-101 standards and Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy guidelines. JDS created a first-order Whittle open pit shell and integrated appropriate open pit and underground mining and related costs, as well as the average life-of-mine diamond price of US$175 per carat for CH-6 diamonds, all as stated in the 2016 PEA (see news release dated July 7, 2016). JDS concluded that the updated CH-6 resource model satisfies the reasonable prospect of economic extraction criterion to a depth of 525 mbs.

As a result of this work, the updated Inferred Mineral Resource estimate for the CH-6 kimberlite is as stated in Table 1 below.

TABLE 1: INFERRED MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATE FOR THE CH-6 KIMBERLITE*

Tonnes

(millions) Grade

(carats per tonne)** Carats**

(millions) Tonnage Increase***

(%) Carat Increase***

(%) CH-6 Total 7.46 2.41 17.96 61 58

* Numbers may not add due to rounding.

** Stated at +1.18 mm square-mesh sieve bottom cut-off and diamond recoveries as experienced in the 2010 and 2013 CH-6 bulk sampling programs. The updated CH-6 Inferred Resource extends from surface to 525 metres depth below surface.

*** Relative to the April 7, 2016 CH-6 Inferred Resource of 11.39 million carats in 4.64 million tonnes.

Inferred Mineral Resources are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that the PEA will be realized.

CH-6 UPDATED RESOURCE GRADE DOMAINS

The updated resource includes the previously identified KIM-L High Grade (KIM-L.HG) and KIM-L Normal Grade (KIM-L.NG) domains (see news release April 7, 2016). Updated grade estimates of these KIM-L grade domains are 4.49 cpt and 2.07 cpt respectively. As shown in Table 2, KIM-L.HG is now estimated to contain 5.80 million carats in 1.29 million tonnes to a depth of 470 mbs, a significant increase in terms of tonnage and carats contained compared to the previous 2016 Inferred Mineral Resource. The updated resource also includes a portion of the modeled KIM-C unit, all of which was previously considered as TFFE (see news release dated April 7, 2016).

KIM-C is now classified as an Inferred Mineral Resource as a result of the acquisition of pierce-points and drill information from the 2017 Resource Development Program that constrains the distribution, continuity and depth extent of KIM-C to 300 mbs, integrated with additional rock density and microdiamond data also acquired during the 2017 drill program. The breakdown of updated resource grade domains is stated in Table 2.

TABLE 2: CH-6 KIMBERLITE INFERRED MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATE* BY GRADE DOMAIN

Domain Tonnes

(millions) Grade

(carats per tonne) Carats**

(millions) Tonnage Increase***

(%) Carat Increase***

(%) KIM-L.NG 5.18 2.07 10.73 33 30 KIM-L.HG 1.29 4.49 5.80 72 86 KIM-C 0.99 1.45 1.43 -- -- CH-6 Total 7.46 2.41 17.96 61 58

* Number may not add due to rounding.

** Stated at +1.18 mm square-mesh sieve bottom cut-off and diamond recoveries as experienced in the 2010 and 2013 CH-6 bulk sampling programs. The updated CH-6 Inferred Resource extends from surface to a depth of 525 metres below surface.

*** Relative to the April 7, 2016 CH-6 Inferred Resource of 11.39 million carats in 4.64 million tonnes.

CH-6 TARGET FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION (TFFE)

Five core holes have intersected some 82 metres of kimberlite, dominantly KIM-L, in a portion of the CH-6 kimberlite body between 300 to 590 mbs, and situated adjacent to the CH-6 kimberlite resource identified above. This portion is considered as TFFE and is estimated to comprise 1.09 to 2.35 million tonnes of kimberlite. Limited microdiamond sample results confirm the TFFE is diamondiferous and the modeled TFFE comprises approximately 95% KIM-L. Insufficient exploration has been completed to date to delineate any portion of the CH-6 TFFE as a mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in conversion of the TFFE to a mineral resource.

Peregrine will file an NI 43-101 technical report covering the Chidliak Inferred Mineral Resource update within 45 days of this news release.

QUALIFIED PERSONS

Catherine Fitzgerald, P.Geo., Dr. Herman Grutter, P.Geo., and Dr. Jennifer Pell, P.Geo., all of Peregrine Diamonds Inc., prepared the CH-6 Inferred Mineral Resource estimate. Mr. Dino Pilotto, P.Eng. and Mr. Michael Makarenko, P.Eng., both of JDS Energy and Mining Inc., are consultants to Peregrine and expressed opinion on reasonable prospects for economic extraction of the CH-6 Inferred Mineral Resource.

Ms. Fitzgerald, Dr. Grutter, Dr. Pell, Mr. Pilotto and Mr. Makarenko are Qualified Persons in terms of NI 43-101 standards of disclosure and have reviewed this release and approve of its contents.

About Peregrine Diamonds

Peregrine Diamonds is a TSX-listed diamond exploration and development company with its primary assets located in northern Canada.

Peregrines core asset is its 100-percent-owned, 315,123-hectare Chidliak Project, located 120 kilometres from Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, where 74 kimberlites have been discovered to date, with eight being potentially economic. A Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) of a Phase One Diamond Development (CP1D) has been completed. The PEA highlights that the CP1D represents a robust, high-margin, ten-year, open-pit mining project with very attractive economics, including after tax NPV of C$471 million, IRR of 29.8% and a two-year payback. An Inferred Mineral Resource of 11.39 million carats in 4.64 million tonnes of kimberlite at an average grade of 2.45 carats per tonne has been defined for a portion of the CH-6 kimberlite. An independent diamond valuation by WWW International Diamond Consultants, of a 1,013 carat parcel of diamonds from CH-6, returned an average market price of US$213 per carat and modeled prices that range from a minimum of US$162 per carat to a high of US$236 per carat, with a base model price of US$188 per carat (all using the February 24, 2014 price book). In addition, a Target for Further Exploration (TFFE) of 2.34 to 3.75 million tonnes of kimberlite to a depth of 380 metres below surface has been identified at CH-6. An Inferred Mineral Resource of 4.23 million carats in 4.99 million tonnes of kimberlite at an average grade of 0.85 carats per tonne has been defined for a portion of the CH-7 kimberlite. An independent diamond valuation by WWW International Diamond Consultants of a 735.75 carat parcel of diamonds from CH-7, returned an average market price of US$100 per carat and modelled prices that ranged from a minimum of US$94 per carat to a high of US$155 per carat, with a base model price of US$114 per carat (all using the February 1, 2016 price book). In addition, TFFE of 0.90 to 2.36 million tonnes for a depth range of 240 to 320 metres has been estimated for the CH-7 kimberlite. A TFFE of 1.27 to 3.19 million tonnes to 250 metres depth has been estimated for the CH-44 kimberlite pipe.

Additional details of the Chidliak 2016 PEA are available in a National Instrument (NI) 43-101 technical report titled Preliminary Economic Assessment Technical Report on the Chidliak Project, Nunavut, Canada and dated effective July 7, 2016, available on SEDAR and the Companys website.

The Chidliak 2016 PEA is preliminary in nature and includes Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that the PEA will be realized.

Peregrine also controls the 8,494-hectare Lac de Gras Project in the Northwest Territories, located approximately 27 kilometres from the Diavik Diamond Mine. The nine-hectare, 72.1%-owned DO-27 kimberlite located at Lac de Gras hosts an Indicated Mineral Resource of 18.2 million carats of diamonds in 19.5 million tonnes of kimberlite at a grade of 0.94 carats per tonne, and it is open at depth.

For information on data verification, exploration information, and resource estimation procedures, see the NI 43-101 technical reports entitled Mineral Resource Estimate for the Chidliak Project, Baffin Island, Nunavut and dated effective June 3, 2016 and Peregrine Diamonds Limited Lac de Gras Project, Northwest Territories, Canada NI 43-101Technical Report dated effective July 15, 2014, which are available on SEDAR and the Companys website. Peregrine will file an NI 43-101 technical report covering the Chidliak Inferred Mineral Resource update within 45 days of this news release.

The potential quantify and grade of TFFEs identified above are conceptual in nature as there has been insufficient exploration to define a Mineral Resource. It is uncertain whether further exploration will result in any of these tonnages being delineated as Mineral Resources.

For further information, please visit www.pdiam.com or contact Mr. Eric Friedland, Executive Chairman; Mr. Tom Peregoodoff, President and CEO; Dr. Herman Grutter, Vice President, Technical Services; or Peregrine Diamonds Investor Relations at 604-408-8880 or at investorrelations@pdiam.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events, or developments that the Company believes, expects, or anticipates will or may occur in the future including, without limitation, proposed exploration and development programs, funding availability, anticipated exploration results, grade of diamonds and tonnage of material, resource estimates, anticipated diamond valuations, and future exploration and operating plans are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect the current expectations or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company.

Forward-looking statements are made based upon certain assumptions by the Company and other important factors that, if untrue, could cause the actual results, performances, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from future results, performances, or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the price of diamonds, anticipated costs, and ability to achieve goals. Certain important factors that could cause actual results, performances, or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: receipt of regulatory approvals; anticipated timelines for community consultations and the impact of those consultations on the regulatory approval process; market prices for rough diamonds and the potential impact on the Chidliak Project; and future exploration plans and objectives.

Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements and, even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, the Company. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things: availability and cost of funds; timing and content of work programs; results of exploration activities; interpretation of drilling results and other geological data; risks relating to variations in the diamond grade and kimberlite lithologies; variations in rates of recovery and breakage; variations in diamond valuations and future diamond prices; the state of world diamond markets; reliability of mineral property titles; changes to regulations affecting the Companys activities; delays in obtaining or failure to obtain required project approvals; operational and infrastructure risk; and other risks involved in the diamond exploration and development business. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, or otherwise. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly, undue reliance should not be put on such statements, due to their inherent uncertainty.The family of an Australian man accused of spying in the United Arab Emirates fears he could face a firing squad and may have been tortured in prison.

Naim Aziz Abbas, 63, was arrested in October last year in Dubai on suspicion of espionage, it's been reported.

His brother Adil, who lives in Sydney, has told the ABC the charges were "fabricated" after Naim was questioned by an intelligence officer during meetings in a coffee shop.

"I ask you Australia, please help my brother," he said.

"The case is fabricated and he's being accused of espionage for Qatar against Dubai, and this is ridiculous."LOS ANGELES: US President Donald Trump's pick for his ambassador in Australia, Admiral Harry Harris, has described Australia as a crucial US ally and key player in world affairs.

Admiral Harris' glowing words for Australia came during more than two hours of testimony before the US House Armed Services Committee in Washington DC on Wednesday where he called out China for constructing "military bases" on disputed islands in the South China Sea.

Rear. Admiral Harry Harris believes North Korea wants to turn the Korean peninsula into a lone Communist nation. Credit:Richard John Feder

The tough-talking 61-year-old head of the US Pacific Command also offered a theory that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was pursuing a nuclear arsenal not just to safeguard his regime, but to blackmail South Korea and other countries into reunifying the Korean peninsula into a single Communist nation.

"Australia is one of the keys to a rules based international order," Admiral Harris said.JERUSALEM: As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fought back on Wednesday against a police finding that he had accepted nearly $300,000 in bribes, his cool self-confidence betrayed not the slightest worry that he could be forced to step down anytime soon.

"The coalition is stable, and no one, me or anyone else, has plans to go to elections," he declared in Tel Aviv. "We will continue to work together with you for the citizens of the State of Israel, until the end of our term," in late 2019.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the nation, denying bribery claims. Credit:AP

If Netanyahu had entered a dangerous new period in which he must battle for his political survival and avoid imprisonment, he did so possessed of political advantages that no Israeli prime minister has before enjoyed.

Beloved by his base and respected even by his adversaries as a guardian of Israel's security, Netanyahu remains the dominant figure on the Israeli stage, his combined 12 years as prime minister closing in on the record of David Ben-Gurion, Israel's principal founder.The school day was 10 minutes from ending when a fire alarm went off at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the safest city in the southern state of Florida.

Students were puzzled. They had a fire drill that morning and, as is the sad reality in the United States, students ran through an active shooter drill just two weeks earlier.

But, as some students began to file outside or gather in the hallways, with Valentine's Day flowers in their hands, gunshots rang out.

The school of 3000 was in the midst of the 18th school shooting in the US this year; one that would become the country's third deadliest.A picture of the Florida high school shooting suspect has emerged of a deeply troubled and violent teenager who tortured animals, had no parents, trained with a white supremacist paramilitary group and was the subject of numerous calls to police.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, was charged on Thursday morning (local time) with 17 counts of premeditated murder after being questioned for hours overnight.

A video monitor shows school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz in a brief court appearance on Thursday. Credit:Pool South Florida Sun-Sentinel

On Thursday afternoon he said nothing in a brief appearance at a Fort Lauderdale court, nodding at the judge after he was ordered to be held without bond.

According to court papers seen by The Washington Post, Cruz has admitted to the shooting rampage that left 17 people dead.PHILIPSBURG:--- The House of Parliament will sit in an urgent Central Committee meeting on Thursday, February 15, 2018.

The Central Committee meeting is scheduled for 10.00 hrs. in the General Assembly Chamber of the House at Wilhelminastraat #1 in Philipsburg.

The agenda points are:

1. Discussion about Ministerial regulation authorizing the Minister of Finance to sign off the liquidity loan agreement for 2017 (IS/332/2017-2018 dated February 13, 2018)

2. Advice containing proposal to retract 5 initiative national ordinances from Members of the Parliament of the former Netherlands Antilles

Members of the public are invited to the House of Parliament to attend parliamentary deliberations.

The House of Parliament is located across from the Court House in Philipsburg.

The parliamentary session will be carried live on St. Maarten Cable TV Channel 120, via SXM GOV radio FM 107.9, via Pearl Radio FM 98.1, the audio via the Internet www.sxmparliament.org, www.pearlfmradio.com and Parliaments Facebook page: Parliament of Sint Maarten.PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten  The House of Parliament will sit in an urgent plenary public meeting on Thursday, February 15, 2018.

The plenary public meeting is scheduled for 10.00 hrs in the General Assembly Chamber of the House at Wilhelminastraat #1 in Philipsburg.

The agenda points are:

1. Discussion about Ministerial regulation authorizing the Minister of Finance to sign off the liquidity loan agreement for 2017 (IS/332/2017-2018 dated February 13, 2018)

2. Advice containing proposal to retract 5 initiative national ordinances from Members of the Parliament of the former Netherlands Antilles

Members of the public are invited to the House of Parliament to attend parliamentary deliberations.

The House of Parliament is located across from the Court House in Philipsburg.

The parliamentary session will be carried live on St. Maarten Cable TV Channel 120, via Pearl Radio FM 98.1, SXMGOV Radio 107.9 FM, video live stream via the internet www.pearlfmradio.sx, www.sxmparliament.org and also Parliament FB page: Parliament of Sint Maarten.Simpson Bay:--- Acting Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Traffic and Telecommunications (TEATT) the Honorable Cornelius de Weever made the opening remarks at the Tactical Meeting of the Steering Committee and Stakeholder Forum for the COSME program being held at the Simpson Bay Resort on February 14th and 15th 2018.

The minister spoke words of welcome, acknowledging the Project Officer/ Private Sector Specialist of the EU Delegation, Ms. Camille Wildman, Acting Program Manager of the COSME Program Ms. Lizette George, Team Leaders Ms. Diana Hendrickson (GOPA), Mr. Michael Seepersaud (STEINBEIS) and Mr. Huib Poot (ECORYS).

Minister de Weever was thankful for the support the COSME Program has given the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Development for our Island and encourages further development and the competitive edge of SMEs for the economy of Sint Maarten. He further welcomed the participants to enjoy our island and encouraged them contribute to our Friendly Island during their stay.

The COSME Program was launched on April 1, 2014, on the island of Tortola (BVI) and is slated to close in September 2018. COSME is a 54-month program with the responsibility to disperse 15 million to projects benefitting participating Caribbean territories. The funds were made available by the European Union. The programs overall objective is to contribute to the sustainable and climate-resilient economic diversification and prosperity of Caribbean OCTs by improving the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the participating territories.

The Tactical Meeting amongst key stakeholders and the Steering Committee is aimed at reviewing the achievements made within all the participating OCTs and to discuss the steps going forward as the program nears its completion.Anne-Marie Brooks joins Divis St. Maarten property ahead of the resorts May 2018 reopening

CHAPEL HILL, NC:---Divi Resorts is thrilled to welcome back Anne-Marie Brooks as the new General Manager of Divi Little Bay Beach Resort on St. Maarten. Brooks joins the team in February, 28 years after her first internship at Divi Little Bay back in 1990. She replaces Celine Van Meer, who is now the General Manager at Divi Flamingo Beach Resort & Casino on Bonaire.

Were overjoyed that Anne-Marie has decided to return to Divi Little Bay, said Marco Galaverna, Divi Resorts President & COO. Were making great progress in getting Little Bay back up and running in May, and we cant wait to see what fresh and innovative ideas Anne-Marie brings to the table.

Born in a picturesque village in the southern part of the Netherlands, Brooks grew up right in the middle of a hotel and restaurant region called Little Switzerland. From a young age she worked in the family hotel, managing everything from washing dishes to serving 7-course Christmas dinners. Naturally, she decided to further her studies in hotel & restaurant management.

In 1990, Brooks was offered a six-month management internship at Divi Little Bay Beach Resort to learn more about the industry. She had the opportunity to continue her internship in the United States, but opted to stay in St. Maarten as she fell in love with the island and the people. Not long after, she was offered a position as the Guest Service Manager at the resort.

Since leaving Divi Little Bay, Brooks has acquired a vast knowledge of the resort industry, holding management positions at several resorts on the island, and even owning and managing Beau Beaus Beach Bar & Restaurant with her husband. Most recently, Brooks spent 21 years working for Oyster Bay Beach Resort on St. Maarten, where she served as the Office Manager, Sales Operations Manager and finally, Assistant General Manager. In her position as AGM, she contributed to the resorts multimillion-dollar success in vacation ownership sales and transient hotel revenue.

I believe that it takes dedication, hard work, and most importantly, a passion for hospitality. Making sure my guests are happy and all departments of the resort run smoothly is my top priority, said Brooks. I take great personal pride in delivering the best vacation experience to vacation club owners and guests.

Brooks also has a strong bond with the local community. She has assisted in the organization of several neighborhood cleanups, collected donations for a local orphanage and supported food drives for the less fortunate. In addition, she is an active member of Chaine Des Rotisseurs, an International Association of Gastronomy that brings together food enthusiasts who share the same values of quality fine dining and culinary arts.

Brooks is married to Leroy Brooks better known as King Beau Beau, the famous Calypso artist and entrepreneur, and together, they have four children. In her free time, Brooks is an avid reader and Crossfit member.NETCONG, N.J., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Breaking Games, an award-winning game publisher and manufacturer, will feature more than a dozen new tabletop games and their designers at this years Toy Fair, including Fake News, Sparkle*Kitty, MIXTAPE, and Unstable Unicorns. Located at



Booth 6913, First Level (nine booths in a row along The Wall  yes, Fake News will be located along The Wall), the new tabletop games are sure to appeal to young children all the way to their great grandparents.

Breaking Games will also have exclusive Princess Rebel cards for all retailers who visit their booth. These exclusive Sparkle*Kitty add-on cards can be obtained only through Breaking Games vendor portal and via Alliance Game Distribution. Breaking Games will also hold a drawing for one of the life-sized Sparkle*Kitty character standees featured at Toy Fair  attendees can ask Breaking Games onsite staff how to enter.

This has been a milestone year for Breaking Games. We had seven out of the top-10 card games sold on Amazon during the holidays. We continue to expand our shelf space at national retailers like Target, Barnes & Noble, and GameStop. And we collaborate with some of the most brilliant and creative game designers in the business, said Shari Spiro, Breaking Games CEO.

Fake News

MSRP: $20.00 Release Date: Available Now Category: Party Ages: 13+

Just the kind of Fake News you want to hear! Score points for the most hilariously believable headlines because everything else is just FAKE NEWS. Add a few house rules to really take this game to the next level - the crazier, the better, dont be shy!

Sparkle*Kitty

MSRP: $20.00 Release Date: Available Now Category: Family Ages: 6+

Dark forces have trapped a group of princesses into cursed towers. But luckily these are no ordinary princesses and you are no ordinary player. Take matters into your own hands and harness the simple and sweet words into special spell combinations to set yourself free.

Circular Reasoning: The Well of Power

MSRP: $25.00 Release Date: March 2018 Category: Abstract / Family Age: 12+

Introducing a brand-new look to this Mensa -elect winning game. Circular Reasoning: The Well of Power provides a fun puzzle challenge  as the gates rotate and shift, be the first to move all your tokens into to the center room to win!

POOP: Kawaii

MSRP: $10.00 Release Date: March 2018 Category: Party / Family Age: 6+

An English / Japanese Dual Language Version of POOP! A fresh version of the hit game, where your goal is to lay a card, but dont clog the toilet!



Keep Calm: Expansion One

MSRP: $10.00 Release Date: March 2018 Category: Party Age: 18+

The first expansion to the hilarious party game. More ridiculous situations and a renewed decision to make: do you panic or keep calm?

MIXTAPE

MSRP: $20.00 Release Date: Spring 2018 Category: Party Ages: 12+

Bring out your cassette player because MIXTAPE is back! This music-themed game gives you an opportunity to play the soundtrack to your life. Music tied to memories, memories tied to emotions, emotions tied to life.

Unstable Unicorns

MSRP: $20.00 Release Date: Spring 2018 Category: Party Ages: 14+

Build A Unicorn Army. Betray Your Friends. Unicorns Are Your Friends Now. Unstable Unicorns is a strategic card game about everyones two favorite things: Destruction and Unicorns!

Rise of Tribes

MSRP: $50.00 Release Date: July 2018 Category: Area Control / Family Age: 10+

Players lead their prehistoric tribes to explore new lands, gather resources and discover new tools in an attempt to rise to greatness. Choose to build villages, raid neighbors or maybe even hunt a mammoth.

Expancity

MSRP: $59.99 Release Date: August 2018 Category: City Building / Family Age: 10+

In Expancity, players build a 3D city together, block by block, all the while trying to shape the city to grant them the best buildings in the best neighborhoods. The skylines the limit!

Pocket Dungeon Quest

MSRP: $25.00 Release Date: Early Summer 2018 Category: Role Playing Age: 8+

A unique tabletop game that is inspired by classic video games such as Rogue and Sword of Fargoal, this original board game is made up entirely of tiles that represent a dungeon, monsters and the items that could be found within. This version includes a cloth game board and etched dice to enhance your dungeon crawl experience!



Game of Phones: 002 Materialism Pack

MSRP: $5.00 Release Date: Mid-Summer 2018 (Exclusively through Uncommon Goods) Category: Expansion (Party Game) Age: 12+

The second expansion pack to the wildly popular Game of Phones game, where there are 30 all-new cards to play with the main game. Game of Phones is a race to find the best or weirdest things on your smartphone to win. Tap faster, out-culture and think cooler than the people around you to win!

ReExtinction

MSRP: $25.00 Release Date: Summer 2018 Category: Family Age: 8+

The might dinosaurs have been resurrected for battle. Armor your dinosaurs to defend them from environmental hazards, like stale grandma smell and boiling rivers of taco meat  yes, you read that right. Make every other player's dino re-extinct and be the last surviving dinosaur!

Boogie Dice

MSRP: $49.99 Release Date: Summer 2018 Category: Table Top Game Accessory Age: 8+

The worlds first sound-activated, self-rolling, motorized dice. Clap your hands to see that dice Boogie.

It Dies With Me

MSRP: $25.00 Release Date: Fall 2018 Category: Family Age: 10+

In most games - even your favorite one - theres nothing really serious at stake. But It Dies With Me is different. Take a peek into the soul; the deep, dark, twisted heart of your opponent. If you win, you will learn a secret, something never told to anyone!

At this years Toy Fair, we are showcasing some of our most clever, relevant and timely new games that will appeal to kids, grown-ups and grown-ups who like to act like kids! concluded Ms. Spiro.

For more information, please visit:

Toy Fair : Booth 6913, First Level

: Breaking Games: Website , Facebook , Twitter

About Breaking Games

Founded by Shari Spiro of Ad Magic  Breaking Games is a publishing company dedicated to getting the latest indie games to players tabletops. In its first two years, Breaking Games developed Mensa Select winners for 2015 and 2016, as well as IndieCade finalists, and multiple games in Target stores nationwide. Ms. Spiro was awarded Ernst & Youngs Entrepreneur of the Year 2016 in New Jersey. Breaking Games uber-promotes their game designers because they are the rock stars of tabletop gaming. Designers work directly with the Breaking Games team on design, development, art, and promotion to bring their vision to life. Breaking Games is proud to produce some of todays most innovative family, strategy and party games.

Media Contact:

Kathy Kwon

kathyekwon@gmail.com

(310) 435-0812Pond Island:--- Prizes galore were presented Wednesday to five lucky winners of TelCells Valentines Day SMS promotion  Weekend of Love.

The five winners announced in a hail of fanfare, by TelCell Marketing Officer, Cheryl Rismay Wednesday, were: Nijerie Marlin, Irina Stirieonova, Djoeke van der Werf, Nefeza Goolmohamed and Tessa Burrow.

Top prize winner was Nijerie Marlin, who took home a romantic dinner for two, a couples sunset champagne horseback ride, a couples three-hour professional development session and a weekend stay at Villa Valentino, Anguilla.

Other prize winners were also thrilled with their assortment of Valentines Day goodies, that also included, Moet & Chandon rose champagne, His/Her watches, Dinners for two, couples photo shoots, wine, and cheese gift baskets, couples breakfast vouchers and rose floral bouquets.

Some of the promotion sponsors were on hand Wednesday to present their own gifts to the lucky winners themselves, including representatives of Little Bamboo, Mr. Alex Prevot; Amsterdam Cheese and Liquor Store, Mr. Etienne Roger and photographer, Mr. Edgardo Lynch, of E2 Photography. Other sponsors, AMA Jewellers, TPI, and Caribbean Liquors and Tobacco were not present at Wednesdays announcement, however, were also thanked for their participation by Ms. Rismay.

We want to thank all of our sponsors without whom we would not be able to make such a splash on such a wonderful day, but we also want to thank everyone who took part and also the winners of our Weekend of Love promotion, continued the Marketing Officer.

She said once again TelCell customers were very excited about winning a prize for their Valentines Day celebration, February 14, not only for themselves but also for their loved ones, making the promotion that more special for everyone.

Right up until the final deadline for Texting LOVE to 7777 customers were still texting and having fun, said Ms. Rismay.

TelCell says its tally for prizes alone for the Weekend of Love promotion amounted to more than $5,500 this year.Quito, Ecuador:--- Still Connecting the Caribbean to the Globe, is the theme of the Princess Juliana International Airport, SXM, at the 11th Annual Routes Americas

conference which is being held in Quito, Ecuador, from February 13  15, 2018. Meanwhile, the associated tagline is SXM Strong - Rebuilding Our Nation. Both themes appear vividly on the

exhibition booth, which is strategically located at the heart of the Routes Americas exhibition hall. The event will allow the SXM Airport team to network with international senior airline decision makers.

It also offers the opportunity for SXM Airport to build high-value relationships with some of the most influential aviation professionals across the region. The SXM Airport delegation is led by Michel Hyman, Chief Operations Officer (COO), Some 650 delegates are attending the conference including representatives of 147 airports. The SXM Airport delegation has confirmed a total of 14 key meeting sessions.The delegation is set to meet with Southwest Airlines, Eurowings, Suriname Airways and Air Canada amongst many of the legacy carriers. The initial meeting sessions included a meet up with representatives of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The IATA representatives were briefed on the reconstruction process and discussed how IATA can assist with the reviving of the airport. Another agenda point was the Caribbean Aviation Day which is set to be hosted in Barbados in June 2018. The vital task at hand is to attract new airlift and service recovery to St. Maarten, while driving home the message that although we are in the midst of our recovery phase, we are actually open for business, said Hyman.Additionally, he continued, our hub partners were affected minimally by the recent hurricanes and are, therefore, even more so ready to reap the rewards of the potential partnerships. Though eager to bring home great partnership deals with the potential airlines, the delegation remained honest and open with information of the local hotel room inventory as shared by SHTA and target dates of the reconstruction process of the terminal building.PHILIPSBURG:--- On February 12, 2018, the General Audit Chamber submitted its report: Quick Scan: Crime Prevention Fund to Parliament. In this report , the Audit Chamber presents the findings of an investigation into the financial management of the Crime Prevention Fund. The Fund is managed by the Minister of Justice. The General Audit Chamber felt that a review of the Crime Prevention Fund was needed because the Funds income and expenditures were not correctly and completely accounted for in the 2015 Financial Statement of St. Maarten. Originally, it was the intention to conduct the Quick Scan of the Crime Prevention Fund using Governments 2016 Financial Statement, however, this document is still not available. The 2016 Financial Statement was due in September 2017.

In conducting the Quick Scan, the General Audit Chamber sought to develop an overall impression of the size of the fund, its legal compliance, as well as its financial management. In addition, we identified areas in need of improvement. Our investigation reveals a lack of legal compliance, inadequate financial management, and a Minister of Justice who is not in control. As a result, there is a risk that the allocation of funds in 2016, did not occur in keeping with the objective of the Crime Prevention Fund. Failing to spend money from the Crime Prevention Fund according to the funds objectives, constitutes legal non-compliance, and is a violation of the relevant regulations.

Based on our conclusions, we recommend that the Minister prepares and submits an annual policy plan and financial statement in accordance with the National Ordinance Crime Prevention Fund. Furthermore, we recommend improving financial management by (among other things) developing proper procedures to ensure accountability. In addition, the Minister needs to ensure that the required quarterly written reports regarding the fund are drafted. These reports must clearly indicate the purpose of expenditures.

In accordance with our audit methodology and protocol, we provided the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Justice with the opportunity to react to our findings in November 2017. This opportunity is always provided before a report is published. It is unfortunate that the Secretary-General did not respond. The draft report was also sent to the Minister of Justice in December 2017. The Minister failed to respond within the time allotted to him. Because our methodology requires proper due diligence prior to publishing a report, we granted the Minister two deferments based on his request for more time. Ultimately, we received the Ministers reaction a day after the due date, on January 11, 2018. The Minister has an apparatus of full-time staff within the ministry at his disposal. As such, the excuse that higher than normal work pressure caused the late response, is not persuasive.

In addition, we are concerned about the interest and commitment shown by the Minister and his Ministry given the reports objective; improving the financial management of the Crime Prevention Fund, and ultimately the functioning of the Ministry. Our task is to research and investigate, to highlight areas for improvement and, where necessary, to make recommendations in the benefit of the country. Proper cooperation is an indispensable component for this process to be successful. The level of cooperation provided for this Quick Scan was not optimal. This is regrettable, particularly because the Minister publicly expressed his intention to fully cooperate with the General Audit Chamber (Today, June 22nd, 2017). The reality is, sadly, quite different. This is our second investigation at the Ministry of Justice where we have experienced poor cooperation. We remain hopeful that in the future, the Minister of Justice will provide the required level of cooperation.

The report Quick Scan: Crime Prevention Fund is published in both English and Dutch and is available on the website of the General Audit Chamber (www.arsxm.org).DEN HAAG:--- The news of the arrest of Member of Parliament Frans Richardson has the attention of Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin; she stated, It is regrettable that as a young country we find ourselves in this situation once again, where the integrity of the highest body (Parliament) is being tested. However, I have confidence in our Countrys legal system and am convinced that the truth will eventually emerge from the investigations by the Justice Department.

The Prime Minister urges persons in the community not to rush to judgment, as this case is still under investigation. As Prime Minister, I stand for the rule of law and I believe the legal process must run its course, she said while on her working visit to the Netherlands and Belgium.Solar Novus Today Has Been Integrated

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SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Green Spirit Industries Inc. (OTC Pink:GSRX) (Green Spirit or, the Company) announced today that it has entered into an operating agreement to form a new entity, Sunset Connect Oakland, LLC, to enter into the cannabis industry in California via a joint venture with Sunset Connect SF Inc. (Sunset Connect), an established cultivation and branded extractions business headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. The operating agreement provides that Green Spirit will invest $1 million dollars for 55% of the new entity, which will be used towards expansion of the existing company, including cultivation, extraction and operations, as well as broadening distribution of the Sunset ConnectTM brand of artisan flowers and extractions throughout the state.



Sunset ConnectTM is an established San Francisco-centric cannabis brand respected amongst industry peers and popular with regional retailers. Sunset Connect produces top-shelf Indoor flowers and a portfolio of branded extractions including crumble, shatter, wax and rosin. Sunset Connect products are currently available in dispensaries, as well as through licensed delivery services.

Plans for growing the business include dramatically increasing product output, which will require securing a lease of up to 20,000 square feet of cultivation and extraction space, part of which will be used for expanded operations. Green Spirit and Sunset Connect are currently negotiating the terms of a lease for a prospective location; however, there can be no assurance that they will enter into such lease or that they will be on reasonably commercial terms. Plans also include growing the companys distribution network to include both medical and recreational dispensaries and delivery services all over the state, which has experienced a predicted boom in sales since the legalization of recreational cannabis in California on January 1st.

Following nearly a year of carefully considering the California cannabis market and how best for Green Spirit to enter, we are certain that Sunset Connect is the right way to make a big footprint in the Golden States the skys the limit cannabis industry, said Les Ball, Chief Executive Officer of Green Spirit. With five medicinal cannabis dispensaries set to open in Puerto Rico, pending final inspection and issuance of operating permits, and now an established and well-respected cultivation and extraction business poised for huge growth in California, we believe we are off to a great start in this industry and are a company to watch in this new business sector.

James Paul Sipe, Lead Cultivator for Sunset Connect, added, We knew that Sunset Connect was ready for the leap to the next level, but finding the right partner to ensure a proper transition from the Medicinal to Recreational industry was critical. In Green Spirit, we discovered a team of seasoned and successful businesspeople who just happen to also grasp our vision for taking the operations to the next level while we focus on providing the high quality product that is our hallmark. This is a great opportunity for both companies that we know is going to take us all to new heights in sales and branding. Our secret to success lies in our carefully guarded genetics library, which includes sought-after strains, including Sunset Sherbet by Sherbinski, original Lamb's Bread, Unicorn Tears, Platinum Yeti and Forbidden Fruit, among others.

Sunset Connect will continue to be managed by founder Ali Jamalian, James Paul Sipe and Sarah Rodriguez, who currently lead the organization. Jamalian developed the cannabis industry brands SpirulinexTM, Aqua Tetra Highdrate and Sunset ConnectTM. A former Creative Director who has championed brands that include Chivas, Pantene, Colgate and Harrods, among others, Jamalian brings a deep understanding of branding and marketing to the burgeoning cannabis industry. James Paul Sipe is currently Lead Cultivator for Ermont, Inc. in Quincy, MA, and before that was Lead Cultivator for William Noyes Webster Foundation, Inc. in Dennis, MA. He designed and ran cultivation operations at both companies. He also oversaw more than 30,000 square feet of cultivation at all stages of development for Compassionate Caregivers in California, managing a staff of 50+ engaged in all aspects of cultivation and processing. Rodriguez, Sunset Connects Chief Scientist, is a collaborative post-doctoral researcher with experience in strain development and metabolic engineering for terpen production, restructuring of carbon metabolic fluxes, cellular metabolic analysis, bio-separation, and fermentation engineering. She holds a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley.

About Green Spirit Industries Inc.

Green Spirit Industries Inc. (OTC Pink:GSRX), together with its wholly-owned subsidiary, Project 1493, LLC, is in the business of acquiring, developing and operating cannabis dispensaries.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Such statements include statements regarding our expectations, hopes, beliefs or intentions regarding the future, including but not limited to statements regarding our market, strategy, competition, development plans (including acquisitions and expansion), financing, revenues, operations, and compliance with applicable laws. Forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those discussed in any such statement. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements include the risks described in greater detail in the following paragraphs. All forward-looking statements in this document are made as of the date hereof, based on information available to us as of the date hereof, and we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statement except where applicable law requires us to update these statements. Market data used throughout this prospectus is based on published third party reports or the good faith estimates of management, which estimates are based upon their review of internal surveys, independent industry publications and other publicly available information.

Contact:

Paul Gendreau

PGPR

paul@pgprmedia.com

678-807-7945SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR), an industry leader in automated, scalable and secure networks, today introduced an expanded portfolio of offerings that will bring businesses closer to a secure and automated multicloud environment. Adding to its robust portfolio of data center, campus, branch and cloud networking solutions, Juniper Networks is providing the infrastructure solutions organizations need to become multicloud-ready.



Companies are moving more workloads from on-premises to the cloud to keep up with the need for agility and more flexibility. A recent study conducted by PwC and commissioned by Juniper Networks found that a majority of enterprise workloads currently on-premises are expected to migrate to the public cloud in the next one to three years. As a result, enterprises will need to adopt even greater multicloud strategies as workloads become more distributed across IT environments.

The promise of multicloud is to deliver an infrastructure that is secure, ubiquitous, reliable and fungible and where the migration of workloads will be a simple and intuitive process, said Bikash Koley, chief technology officer at Juniper Networks. For IT to be successful in becoming multicloud-ready, it is critical organizations consider not only the data center and public cloud, but also the on-ramps of their campus and branch networks. Otherwise, enterprises will face fractured security and operations as network boundaries prevent seamless, end-to-end visibility and control.

To eliminate roadblocks that could prevent enterprises from realizing the multicloud promise, end-to-end security and automation must be integrated throughout all places in the network. Enterprises are currently at different stages in their path toward a secure and automated multicloud architecture. Junipers extended offerings across its data center, campus, branch and cloud portfolio are designed to enable enterprises to migrate to a multicloud architecture on their terms, using natural refresh and expansion activities to meet todays needs, while also ensuring they are multicloud-ready.

News Highlights:

Data Center

For organizations that are refreshing, expanding or consolidating data centers to prepare their IT environments for a secure and automated multicloud, Juniper is introducing new data center solutions, including:

Universal switch for data center spine, data center edge and DCI : The new QFX10002-60C switch can be flexibly used as a spine or an edge device for data center interconnect (DCI). It features 60x100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) deep-buffer interfaces. Juniper is also adding the QFX5210-64C, a 64x100GbE port spine switch, and the QFX5200-48Y, a 48x25GbE top-of-rack switch, to its portfolio.

: The new QFX10002-60C switch can be flexibly used as a spine or an edge device for data center interconnect (DCI). It features 60x100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) deep-buffer interfaces. Juniper is also adding the QFX5210-64C, a 64x100GbE port spine switch, and the QFX5200-48Y, a 48x25GbE top-of-rack switch, to its portfolio. Secure workload transitions with new line cards: The QFX MACsec line card addition to the QFX10000 modular switches provides 30-port 100GbE connectivity for encrypted traffic in and between data centers.

Campus

Recognizing that campus networks will play an integral role in mutlicloud security and operations, Juniper is expanding its campus portfolio to include the following solutions:

Simplified campus management with a single point of control : Juniper Sky Enterprise is a cloud management service that enables operators to deploy, configure and manage switching and security devices, reducing change errors by up to 90 percent. With an intuitive and easy-to-use web dashboard, managing campus and branch networks is made simpler. Sky Enterprise also gives network operators visibility into wireless access points using Aerohive Hive Manager NG API integration.

: Juniper Sky Enterprise is a cloud management service that enables operators to deploy, configure and manage switching and security devices, reducing change errors by up to 90 percent. With an intuitive and easy-to-use web dashboard, managing campus and branch networks is made simpler. Sky Enterprise also gives network operators visibility into wireless access points using Aerohive Hive Manager NG API integration. Multigig and compact core switches: The new EX2300 and EX4300 switches bring multigig interfaces to Junipers campus portfolio. The EX4300 multigig switch supports POE++ for new applications and MACsec to enable a secure on-ramp to the cloud. The EX9250 switch is a compact campus core that gives enterprises multiple fabric options by supporting both Junos Fusion and EVPN-VXLAN.



Branch

Junipers branch approach supports a diverse set of software functions, while enabling applications and security control that is in sync with the rest of the network. Junipers extended branch portfolio prepares the branch for multicloud with the following offerings:

New network services platform with wireless connectivity : Junipers new NFX150 Network Services Platform combines native branch security and hybrid WAN functionality with wireless 4G and LTE connectivity between branches. Built as an extensible platform, it can run third-party virtual network functions (VNFs).

: Junipers new NFX150 Network Services Platform combines native branch security and hybrid WAN functionality with wireless 4G and LTE connectivity between branches. Built as an extensible platform, it can run third-party virtual network functions (VNFs). Contrail SD-WAN with new subscription-based pricing: Junipers Contrail SD-WAN solution bundles the SRX Series Services Gateway and the NFX Series with the platform and orchestration software required for multicloud-ready SD-WAN. New subscription pricing bundles provide several physical and virtual endpoint options with secure SD-WAN management.

Cloud

To securely facilitate the migration of on-premises workloads to the public cloud, Juniper is offering a secure and automated way of establishing connectivity to and within public clouds.

Secure connectivity to public cloud: Junipers secure cloud connectivity solution combines onboarding services with virtual products (vSRX Virtual Firewall or vMX Virtual Router) available in AWS and Azure to automate the setup of secure IPsec connectivity between data center, campus and branch networks and virtual private clouds (VPCs). The solution gives enterprises operational choice with options that include CloudFormation, TerraForm or Ansible playbooks.

All new offerings announced today are powered by the Juniper Networks Junos operating system, providing users the telemetry, secure programming interfaces and operational tools required to automate across multiple places in the network.

Supporting Quotes

For multicloud to yield meaningful improvements in enterprise IT, the boundaries that have historically existed between the various places in the network have to come crumbling down. That requires end-to-end security and automated operations across the data center, campus, branch and public cloud. We are bringing the full force of our engineering teams in a bid to simplify networking so that enterprises can migrate from legacy to multicloud-ready and eventually to full multicloud architectures.

-Michael Bushong, vice president of enterprise and cloud at Juniper Networks

As our global financial clients move more of their workloads to the cloud, they rely on us to provide industry-leading managed services and agile technology hosting. Our IT infrastructure plays a critical role in our ability to meet our clients needs during this digital transformation. We are excited to be working with Juniper Networks to implement our high-performance, low-latency global WAN project, which leverages Junipers QFX switches to provide optimized services to our clients and prepare our infrastructure for a multicloud future.

-Jarrod Yuster, chief executive officer at Pico Trading

At Cadenza, we work with networks ranging from startups through the Fortune 50. Managing complexity is the #1 challenge all our clients face. We believe Juniper Sky Enterprise is the only cloud networking platform that achieves simplicity without sacrificing functionality. Juniper Sky Enterprise allows our new clients to begin managing their network in minutes while simultaneously extending the reach of our senior engineers to automate complex changes around the globe.

-Jeremy ODette, managing partner at Cadenza

As enterprises increasingly embrace multicloud environments, they are recognizing the growing importance of intelligent automation and operational simplicity as indispensable contributors to network agility. Furthermore, IDC finds that enterprises also increasingly appreciate the direct correlation between network agility and business agility. With this extension to its product portfolio, Juniper continues its focus on multicloud networking that can provide the operational simplicity that will be essential for the network to become an enabler of business outcomes within the larger context of digital transformation.

-Brad Casemore, research vice president, datacenter networks at IDC

For many years, ITs top priority has been total cost of ownership but that focus has shifted with the rapid migration of business applications to the cloud. As revealed in PwC's survey, security and automation are now C-level and Board of Director discussions on the path to the cloud. We advise our clients to use natural upgrade and expansion events to ensure they are multicloud-ready. We believe solution providers that lay the groundwork to remove complexity and build the multicloud infrastructures needed for organizations will win in the next phase of IT infrastructure.

-Amit Dhir, Principal, management consulting at PwC Advisory Services

Additional Resources

About Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks simplifies the complexities of networking with products, solutions and services in the cloud era to transform the way we connect, work and live. We remove the traditional constraints of networking to enable our customers and partners to deliver automated, scalable and secure networks that connect the world. Additional information can be found at Juniper Networks (www.juniper.net) or connect with Juniper on Twitter and Facebook.

Juniper Networks, the Juniper Networks logo, Juniper and Junos are registered trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release concerning Juniper Networks' prospects, product availability, future products and expected performance, and expected benefits of our products to customers are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act that involve a number of uncertainties and risks. Actual results or events could differ materially from those anticipated in those forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including delays in scheduled product availability, incompatibility of technologies, the company's failure to accurately predict emerging technological trends, and other factors listed in Juniper Networks' most recent report on Form 10-K or Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All statements made in this press release are made only as of the date of this press release. Juniper Networks undertakes no obligation to update the information in this release in the event facts or circumstances subsequently change after the date of this press release. Any future product, feature, enhancement or related specification that may be referenced in this press release are for information purposes only, are subject to change at any time without notice and are not commitments to deliver any future product, feature, enhancement or related specification. The information contained in this press release is intended to outline Juniper Networks' general product direction and should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision.

Media Relations:

Stephanie Vanegas

Juniper Networks

(408) 936-8169

svanegas@juniper.netThe content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2018 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy StatementTORONTO, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited (BlackRock Canada), an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK), today announced the February 2018 cash distributions for the iShares ETFs listed on the TSX which pay on a monthly basis as well as XIU. Unitholders of record of a fund on February 23, 2018 will receive cash distributions payable in respect of that fund on February 28, 2018.



Details regarding the per unit distribution amounts are as follows:

Fund Name Fund Ticker Cash Distribution Per Unit ($) iShares Balanced Income CorePortfolio Index ETF CBD 0.061 CBD.A 0.040 iShares 1-10 Year Laddered Corporate Bond Index ETF CBH 0.058 CBH.A 0.049 iShares Balanced Growth CorePortfolio Index ETF CBN 0.037 CBN.A 0.019 iShares 1-5 Year Laddered Corporate Bond Index ETF CBO 0.041 CBO.A 0.032 iShares S&P/TSX Canadian Dividend Aristocrats Index ETF CDZ 0.075 CDZ.A 0.054 iShares Equal Weight Banc & Lifeco ETF CEW 0.027 CEW.A 0.0325 iShares U.S. High Yield Fixed Income Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) CHB 0.090 CHB.A 0.081 iShares 1-5 Year Laddered Government Bond Index ETF CLF 0.040 CLF.A 0.032 iShares 1-10 Year Laddered Government Bond Index ETF CLG 0.047 CLG.A 0.038 iShares S&P/TSX Canadian Preferred Share Index ETF CPD 0.051 CPD.A 0.045 iShares Short Duration High Income ETF (CAD-Hedged) CSD 0.077 CSD.A 0.068 iShares US Dividend Growers Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) CUD 0.059 CUD.A 0.031 iShares Convertible Bond Index ETF CVD 0.073 CVD.A 0.064 iShares Global Monthly Dividend Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) CYH 0.053 CYH.A 0.041 Dynamic iShares Active Tactical Bond ETF DXB 0.042 Dynamic iShares Active Canadian Dividend ETF DXC 0.040 Dynamic iShares Active Crossover Bond ETF DXO 0.057 Dynamic iShares Active Preferred Shares ETF DXP 0.072 iShares Canadian Financial Monthly Income ETF FIE 0.040 FIE.A 0.040 iShares Core Canadian Universe Bond Index ETF XBB 0.074 iShares Canadian Corporate Bond Index ETF XCB 0.054 iShares Core MSCI Global Quality Dividend Index ETF XDG 0.045 iShares Core MSCI Global Quality Dividend Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XDGH 0.045 iShares Core MSCI Canadian Quality Dividend Index ETF XDIV 0.077 iShares Core MSCI US Quality Dividend Index ETF XDU 0.044 iShares Core MSCI US Quality Dividend Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XDUH 0.047 iShares Canadian Select Dividend Index ETF XDV 0.084 iShares J.P. Morgan USD Emerging Markets Bond Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XEB 0.067 iShares S&P/TSX Composite High Dividend Index ETF XEI 0.082 iShares S&P/TSX Capped Financials Index ETF XFN 0.093 iShares Floating Rate Index ETF XFR 0.023 iShares Canadian Government Bond Index ETF XGB 0.043 iShares Canadian HYBrid Corporate Bond Index ETF XHB 0.068 iShares U.S. High Dividend Equity Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XHD 0.065 iShares U.S. High Dividend Equity Index ETF XHU 0.052 iShares U.S. High Yield Bond Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XHY 0.090 iShares U.S. IG Corporate Bond Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XIG 0.055 iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF XIU 0.163 iShares Core Canadian Long Term Bond Index ETF XLB 0.069 iShares S&P/TSX North American Preferred Stock Index ETF (CAD-Hedged) XPF 0.070 iShares High Quality Canadian Bond Index ETF XQB 0.043 XQB.A 0.033 iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index ETF XRE 0.068 iShares Core Canadian Short Term Bond Index ETF XSB 0.054 iShares Conservative Short Term Strategic Fixed Income ETF XSC 0.044 iShares Conservative Strategic Fixed Income ETF XSE 0.046 iShares Core Canadian Short Term Corporate + Maple Bond Index ETF XSH 0.046 iShares Short Term Strategic Fixed Income ETF XSI 0.049 iShares Short Term High Quality Canadian Bond Index ETF XSQ 0.034 iShares Diversified Monthly Income ETF XTR 0.050 iShares S&P/TSX Capped Utilities Index ETF XUT 0.075

Estimated February Cash Distributions for the iShares Premium Money Market ETF

The February cash distributions per unit for the iShares Premium Money Market ETF are estimated to be as follows:

Fund Name Fund Ticker Estimated Cash Distribution Per Unit ($) iShares Premium Money Market ETF CMR 0.042 CMR.A 0.032

BlackRock Canada expects to issue a press release on or about February 22, 2018, which will provide the final amounts for the iShares Premium Money Market ETF.

Further information on the iShares Funds can be found at http://www.blackrock.com/ca .

About BlackRock

BlackRock helps investors build better financial futures. As a fiduciary to our clients, we provide the investment and technology solutions they need when planning for their most important goals. As of December 31, 2017, the firm manages approximately US$6.288 trillion in assets on behalf of investors worldwide. For additional information on BlackRock, please visit www.blackrock.com/ca | Twitter: @BlackRockCA | Blog: www.blackrockblog.com/can

About iShares ETFs

iShares is a global leader in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with more than a decade of expertise and commitment to individual and institutional investors of all sizes. With over 800 funds globally across multiple asset classes and strategies and more than US$1.5 trillion in assets under management as of December 31, 2017, iShares helps clients around the world build the core of their portfolios, meet specific investment goals and implement market views. iShares funds are powered by the expert portfolio and risk management of BlackRock, trusted to manage more money than any other investment firm1.

1 Based on US$6.288 trillion in AUM as of 12/31/17

iShares ETFs are managed by BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited.

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investing in iShares ETFs. Please read the relevant prospectus before investing. The funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. Tax, investment and all other decisions should be made, as appropriate, only with guidance from a qualified professional.

Contact for Media:

Julia Koene

T  416-643-4010

Email: Julia.Koene@blackrock.comAllies have 'much work' to share burden with US: NATO chief



Brussels, Feb 14 (AFP) Feb 14, 2018



NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday that European allies had "much work" ahead to share the defence burden with Washington and also warned the EU to ensure its new defence pact avoids duplicating alliance work.

Despite the differences, Stoltenberg said US Defense Secretary James Mattis and his fellow NATO ministers agreed to modernise its command structure in the face of a more assertive Russia and perceived threats from the Middle East.

"We had a productive and forward-looking discussion on burden-sharing," Stoltenberg told a press conference in Brussels after the first of two days of talks. "We all agreed we have made great progress but there is still much work to be done."

Since he took office more than a year ago, US President Donald Trump has warned NATO allies to meet a goal they set in 2014 of raising defence spending to two percent of GDP over a decade.

Trump's administration has also asked the other 28 NATO member states, mainly European but also Canada, to increase their military capabilities and contribute more to war games.

Stoltenberg said the allies must boost "cash, capabilities and contributions" all together, adding: "It's not either one or the other."

A NATO official told reporters on condition of anonymity the allies all "agreed to focus on the three c's" and "did not push back" when asked to meet their targets, unlike what they had done in the past.

But the official said Mattis told the defence ministers over lunch that their governments will be "watched more closely in the runup" to the July summit in Brussels which Trump is expected to attend.

Stoltenberg said eight NATO members are meeting the two percent target, adding a total 15 of them are expected to do so by 2024 as the others fall short.

The ministers agreed to modernise the command structure with plans to set up an Atlantic command to protect the maritime routes between Europe and North America.

They also decided to establish a new support command to improve the movement of troops in Europe and boost troop rapid response while creating a new operations centre to defend against cyber attacks in Mons, Belgium.

Stoltenberg said the alliance will decide in June where to locate the new commands and how many staff they will have.

The United States has offered to host the Atlantic command and Germany the logistics command, he added.

The NATO ministers later headed to a working dinner with EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini, which has taken on greater significance after senior US officials voiced fears about the impact the bloc's new landmark defence pact could have on the balance of power in NATO.

The EU's so-called permanent structured cooperation on defence agreement, known as PESCO, has projects in view already to develop new military equipment and improve cooperation and decision-making.

But on Sunday a senior official working with Mattis said Washington had concerns that some of the proposed initiatives risked "pulling resources or capabilities away from NATO".

Stoltenberg said the right balance could be struck.

"Done in the right way, these efforts can make a contribution to fairer burden-sharing between Europe and North America," Stoltenberg told reporters earlier.

Stoltenberg has warned there was "no way" the EU could replace the transatlantic alliance in guaranteeing European security.

"It will be absolutely without any meaning if NATO and the EU start to compete," the former Norwegian premier told reporters on Tuesday.

"European allies are absolutely aware that the defence, the protection of Europe is dependent on NATO."



- Turkey row -



Potentially more serious is the festering row between the United States and Turkey over Ankara's "Operation Olive Branch", launched last month against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

While Turkey views the YPG as a "terrorist" group, the United States has been working closely with the militia against the Islamic State group in Syria and giving it weapons, infuriating Ankara.

Mattis is to meet his Turkish counterpart on the sidelines of the meeting on Wednesday and Stoltenberg welcomed the fact that Turkey and the United States were talking directly.

Stoltenberg said Turkey briefed NATO on its military operation. "I reiterate that NATO recognised that Turkey has serious security concerns but we expect them to act in a measured and proportionate way."Greek Cypriots link UN peace talks to Med energy search



Nicosia, Feb 15 (AFP) Feb 15, 2018



Cypriot officials said Thursday that stalled UN-backed peace talks to reunite the island cannot resume while Turkey blocks energy exploration off its coast.

Cyprus is embroiled in a standoff with Turkish warships blocking an Italian drillship from exploring for gas in the island's politically sensitive waters.

President Nicos Anastasiades, the Greek Cypriot leader, met UN special representative Elizabeth Spehar in Nicosia to raise the issue and discuss next steps after the peace talks collapsed in Switzerland last summer.

"The president again conveyed, that depending on developments, he is ready to take more concrete initiatives provided we are not experiencing such behaviour in the republic's exclusive economic zone," government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides told reporters.

"You can not hold negotiations and at the same time have such movements in the EEZ," he added.

Spehar said that Anastasiades "expressed his concerns with respect to what is happening with the hydrocarbons issue. These are concerns that we understand and which we are conveying to New York".

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned foreign energy companies not to "overstep the mark" in the eastern Mediterranean after Turkish warships blocked the Italian drilling vessel.

The standoff over exploiting energy resources in the region risks further complicating stalled efforts to reunify Cyprus.

Italy's energy giant ENI said its ship had been ordered to stop by Turkish ships last week over "military activities in the destination area" as it was on course to start exploring in block 3 of Cyprus's EEZ.

Nicosia said Wednesday that it is counting on behind-the-scenes EU diplomacy to end the standoff with Turkey.

Cyprus, a member of the European Union, has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded and occupied the northern third of the island in response to a Greek military junta-sponsored coup.

While the Greek-majority Republic of Cyprus is internationally recognised, the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is recognised only by Ankara.

Turkey and Cyprus have long argued over the eastern Mediterranean, and Ankara has been stringent in defending the claims of Turkish Cypriots for a share of energy resources.

Cyprus expects more exploratory drills, with US giant ExxonMobil also planning two drills in the second half of 2018.

cc/hc

EXXONMOBILUS never gave 'heavy arms' to Kurdish YPG in Syria: Tillerson



Beirut, Feb 15 (AFP) Feb 15, 2018



US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday Washington has never supplied heavy weaponry in Syria to the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara blacklists as a terror group.

"We have never given heavy arms to the YPG so there is none to take back," Tillerson said in response to a question at a press conference in the Lebanese capital Beirut before heading for Ankara.

Turkey has repeatedly accused the United States of massively arming the YPG, and has said Washington must gather up its weapons now that the peak of the fight against jihadists has passed.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this month accused Washington of sending in 5,000 truckloads of weapons to the YPG in Syria, as well as 2,000 planeloads of arms.

"The United States says 'we have cleansed (the area) of Daesh'," Erdogan said, using an Arabic acronym for the group.

"So if you have cleansed it from Daesh then why are you still here?" he asked.

Last month, Turkey launched an offensive against the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in northwest Syria aimed at ousting the YPG fighters from the border area.

The cross-border campaign involves both ground troops and air strikes in support of Syrian rebels against the YPG.

Syria's Kurds, estimated at 15 percent of the population, were oppressed for decades under the regime of the President Bashar al-Assad and his late father Hafez.

But they took advantage of the civil war unleashed in Syria in 2011 to establish de facto autonomy in territory they control in the north and northeast.

During his two-day trip to Turkey, Tillerson will hold talks with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu and with Erdogan.4 Ukrainian marines killed in 'hazing' incident: military



Kiev, Feb 15 (AFP) Feb 15, 2018



Four Ukrainian marines were killed in an apparent hazing incident while stationed in the country's war-torn east, and two fellow soldiers have been detained over it, officials said Thursday.

The victims were serving in a brigade of marines and their bodies were found in the house where they were living temporarily, an Ukrainian military statement said.

The shootings took place near the village of Shyrokyne around 10 kilometres (6 miles) from the strategic government-held city of Mariupol, the Prosecutor-General's spokeswoman Larysa Sargan said on Facebook.

She said that two marines had been detained on suspicion of murder after allegedly "confessing to the circumstances of the murder perpetrated on the basis of hazing while serving in the military."

More than 2,750 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed in fighting between the government forces and Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine since the conflict broke out in April 2014, President Petro Poroshenko has said.

Ukrainian media estimates claim that Kiev has lost over 190 troops last year with most killed by shelling from separatists and by explosive devices.Strikes hit yet another hospital in Syria's Idlib



Hass, Syria, Feb 15 (AFP) Feb 15, 2018



Air strikes have hit a hospital in Syria's last province beyond government control, in the seventh such raid on a medical facility there by the regime or its ally Russia in two weeks, a monitor said Thursday.

The strikes, thought to be Russian, hit the hospital in the northwestern province of Idlib late Wednesday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.

The Observatory, which relies on sources inside Syria for its information, says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions used.

Inside the hospital in the village of Hass on Thursday, boxes of medicine lay scattered on the floor while part of a wall had collapsed onto a bed and medical equipment, an AFP correspondent said.

The strikes come after the regime in December last year launched an offensive on Idlib, which is dominated by an alliance led by Al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate.

"The hospital was the last functional one in all of southeast Idlib," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

"In two weeks, seven hospitals and medical clinics have been hit in Idlib in strikes by the regime or its Russian ally," he said, adding that a blood bank was also hit.

After another strike on a hospital in Idlib last week, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) expressed alarm at the repeated targeting of healthcare centres.

"Civilian areas -- specifically healthcare facilities -- are being hit in northwestern Syria," said Omar Ahmed Abenza, MSF head of mission for northwestern Syria, after the strike on the area of Mishmishan.

"The strikes, despite their regularity during the seven years long conflict, are currently at an intensity that should be a landmark, another wake-up call," he said.

The bombardment of medical facilities has a "terrible knock-on effect", he said, with fearful staff at other facilities reducing their services after each strike.

"The result is more people in greater need, with fewer health services open and available."

Jihadists and rebels overran Idlib in 2015, but since then hardliners have expanded their control and the influence of mainstream rebels has shrunk drastically.

Some 2.5 million people, including more than one million displaced Syrians, live in the province.

More than 340,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.Senior IS leader returned to Iraq from Turkey



Baghdad, Feb 15 (AFP) Feb 15, 2018



Iraqi authorities said Thursday they have managed for the first time to have a top leader of the Islamic State group extradited from Turkey.

Ismail Alwan Salman al-Ithawi, 55, was tracked to Turkey's Sakarya region, detained and returned through cooperation between Turkish, Iraqi and US intelligence agencies, a senior official in the interior ministry's Falcons unit hunting IS members told AFP.

The break came after his unit had "infiltrated the highest levels" of the jihadist group, he said.

A native of the Iraqi city of Ramadi, Ithawi was the group's "minister" in charge of religious edicts and headed a IS committee that decided on senior appointments, according to the official.

He had fled the group's now-shattered "caliphate" in Syria and was living under his brother's name in northern Turkey.

"We asked our ambassador in Ankara to intervene with the Turkish authorities by providing the arrest warrant issued by Iraqi courts and recent photos of Ismail," the official said.

IS swept across Syria and northern Iraq in a lightning advance in 2014, unleashing a reign of terror across a vast swathe of territory that lasted some three years.

The group's territory has now been wiped out in Iraq and reduced to a small foothold in Syria by a series of punishing assaults in both countries.

The focus has since switched to tracking down the group's senior leadership and the thousands of foreign fighters who once flocked to its banner.No plan for 'bloody nose' North Korea strike: US officials



Washington, Feb 15 (AFP) Feb 15, 2018



The United States is not considering a pre-emptive "bloody nose" strike on North Korea to punish it for its nuclear weapons program, US lawmakers and a senior official said Thursday.

At a hearing to confirm nominees for top State Department roles, senators said they had been told by members of President Donald Trump's national security team that no such idea was even on the table.

Acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific Susan Thornton, who has been nominated for confirmation to take the post permanently, agreed she understood this was the case.

US Senator Jeanne Shaheen told Thornton the unnamed White House official had "made it very clear that there is no bloody nose strategy for a strike against North Korea.

"Is it your understanding as well that there is no bloody nose strategy for North Korea?" the Democratic senator asked. Thornton replied: "That is my understanding senator, yes."

A Republican senator who had also been in the previous closed door meeting, James Risch of Idaho, agreed.

"We were told clearly by administration people -- about as high up as it gets -- that there is no such thing as a bloody nose strategy, that they've never talked about it," he said.

Media reports have suggested that some White House officials would favor such a strike, designed to intimidate Kim Jong-Un's regime but stop short of an all-out war to overthrow him.

But it is also reported that senior military commanders and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis oppose the idea, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has vowed to pursue a diplomatic solution.Las Vegas, NV , Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CLS Holdings USA, Inc. (OTCQB: CLSH) CLS, a development stage diversified cannabis company operating as Cannabis Life Science, today announced that it has launched a new updated corporate website at: http://www.clsholdingsinc.com The new website provides the latest details on CLS as well as information on the Oasis Cannabis companies that CLS is in the process of acquiring.

About Oasis Cannabis (http://oasiscannabis.com)

Oasis Cannabis has operated a cannabis dispensary in the Las Vegas market since dispensaries first opened in Nevada in 2015 and has been recognized as one of the top marijuana retailers in the state. Its location within walking distance to the Las Vegas Strip and Downtown Las Vegas in combination with its delivery service to residents allows it to efficiently serve both locals and tourists in the Las Vegas area. The company recently commenced wholesale offerings of cannabis in Nevada with the launch of its City Trees brand of cannabis concentrates and cannabis-infused products in August 2017. An expansion of its cultivation and production facility is currently underway and is expected to be completed during the second half of 2018.

About CLS Holdings USA

CLS Holdings USA, Inc. (OTCQB: CLSH) plans to become a diversified cannabis company and is expanding its corporate strategy to becoming a fully licensed integrated cannabis producer and retailer in Nevada and other western states. Its strategy and business model will be similar to Canopy Growth (WEED.TO), Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) and GB Sciences (GBLX).

CLS stands for "Cannabis Life Sciences," in recognition of the Company's patent pending proprietary method of extracting various cannabinoids from the marijuana plant and converting them into products with a higher level of quality and consistency. CLS has recently received a Notice of Allowance from the U.S. Patent Office for this methodology. The Company's business model includes licensing operations, processing operations, processing facilities, sale of products, brand creation and consulting services.

Disclaimer

CLS has executed a definitive agreement to acquire the Oasis Cannabis companies (Alternative Solutions, LLC). The closing of the transaction is subject to the satisfaction of a number of conditions including our ability to raise cash, and as a result, there can be no assurance that we will be able to close the Oasis Acquisition. See CLS Holdings USAs filings with the SEC for additional details.

Twitter: @CLSHusa

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to anticipated future events, future results of operations or future financial performance. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements relating to whether certain transactions will be completed, the terms of such transactions, the descriptions of the companies and the business that any potential target companies could bring to CLS Holdings. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "intends," "expects," "plans," "goals," "projects," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," or "continue" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements are only predictions, are uncertain and involve substantial known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, levels of activity or performance to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity or performance expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. We cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity or performance and we cannot guaranty that the proposed transactions described in this press release will occur. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date that they were made. These cautionary statements should be considered together with any written or oral forward-looking statements that we may issue in the future. Except as required by applicable law, we do not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements to conform these statements to reflect actual results, later events or circumstances or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

CLS Holdings USA has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Oasis Cannabis, which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2018. See CLS Holdings USA filings with the SEC for additional details.Pentagon looks to counter rivals' hypersonic missiles



Washington, Feb 15 (AFP) Feb 15, 2018



Even as the Pentagon hustles to ensure that its defenses keep pace with North Korea's fast-growing rocket program, US officials increasingly are turning attention to a new generation of missile threat.

These weapons under development by China and Russia -- as well as by the United States -- can fly at many times the speed of sound and are designed to beat regular anti-missile defense systems.

The hypersonic missiles could change the face of future warfare, as they can switch direction in flight and do not follow a predictable arc like conventional missiles, making them much harder to track and intercept.

"China's hypersonic weapons development outpaces ours... we're falling behind," Admiral Harry Harris, who heads the military's Pacific Command, warned lawmakers on Wednesday.

"We need to continue to pursue that and in a most aggressive way in order to ensure that we have the capabilities to both defend against China's hypersonic weapons and to develop our own offensive hypersonic weapons," he added.

In its proposed $9.9 billion requested budget for 2019, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is asking for $120 million to develop hypersonic missile defenses, a big increase from the $75 million in fiscal 2018.

MDA Director of Operations Gary Pennett told Pentagon reporters this week that the potential deployment by America's rivals of hypersonic weapons -- which could be launched from planes, ships or submarines and carry either nuclear or conventional payloads -- would create a "significant" gap in US sensor and missile interceptor capabilities.

"The key challenge to US national security and the security of US friends and allies is the emergence of new threats designed to defeat the existing" ballistic missile defense system, Pennett said.

So, why the sudden alarm?

According to reports in the Japan-based Diplomat magazine, China has developed -- and last year tested -- a new type of hypersonic missile called the DF-17. The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence this week stated China "has tested a hypersonic glide vehicle."

Russia too is believed to be developing its own hypersonic weapon called the Zircon. According to Russian news agency Tass, it is to go into serial production this year.



- A mile a second -



Though the Pentagon is warning about hypersonics, the United States has been developing the technology for years.

The Air Force says its X-51A Waverider cruise missile, tested in 2012, could travel at speeds faster than Mach 6 (3,600 miles per hour, 5,800 kilometers per hour).

That's more than one mile a second, and future iterations are expected to go much faster.

Part of the reason China has been able to advance its hypersonic missile programs is that it is not subject to anti-missile treaties signed between the United States and Russia.

The 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty banned short- and intermediate-range ground-launched missiles.

"Over 90 percent of China's ground-based missiles would be excluded by INF if they were now in it," Harris said.

Still, by far the lion's share of the MDA's budget continues to go towards improving existing missile-defense systems.

Various sensors and radars can track an incoming missile hurtling towards a target, then blast interceptor rockets toward it to pulverize it with kinetic energy.UN envoy sees possible South Sudan deal from talks in Ethiopia



United Nations, United States, Feb 15 (AFP) Feb 15, 2018



The latest round of Ethiopia-led peace talks on South Sudan will wrap up on Friday with a possible agreement that could pave the way to further negotiations on ending the war, the UN envoy said.

The talks that opened on February 5 in Addis Ababa are aimed at finding a settlement to one of Africa's worst conflicts.

"We are hoping that there will be some form of agreement signed tomorrow," UN envoy David Shearer told reporters at UN headquarters in New York on Thursday.

"It might not go as far as we had hoped, but it might provide the platform for ongoing discussions."

Talks in Ethiopia have focussed on governance and security in South Sudan.

The African Union and the UN Security Council have threatened to impose sanctions on those who are blocking peace efforts in South Sudan, which this year entered its fifth year of war.

The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted nearly four million -- roughly a third of the population -- and raised the risk of famine.

Shearer said a ceasefire deal reached in December was holding despite violations, stressing that "the overall level of violence has come down."

"I'm encouraged by where we are right now," said the envoy, who also heads the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, which has deployed 14,000 troops and police.

"But it still very much hangs in the balance."

South Sudan descended into war in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup.

One million South Sudanese have crossed borders to become refugees as they flee the violence.NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NetworkWire  NetworkNewsWire ("NNW"), a multifaceted financial news and publishing company, today announces the publication of an article featuring Medical Cannabis Payment Solutions (OTC:REFG), a client of NNW committed to providing end-to-end management for medicinal marijuana operations.



The publication, titled Medical Cannabis Payment Solutions (REFG) CEO Confident About Utah Cannabis Bill Success, highlights potential in the states passing of a workable medical marijuana program and solutions to support it.

To view the full publication, visit: https://www.networknewswire.com/medical-cannabis-payment-solutions-refg-ceo-confident-utah-cannabis-bill-success/

A medical cannabis bill that would advocate a more moderate approach and would bridge the gap between two very different legalization initiatives currently underway, has every chance to be successful, according to Medical Cannabis Payment Solutions (OTC:REFG) CEO Jeremy Roberts, quoted by the Deseret News (http://nnw.fm/mThT4). Roberts, who is also a member of the Utah Republican Party, discussed the matter with Rep. Lee Perry, who is planning on coming up with a workable medical marijuana program in the state. While the bill has not yet been formally drafted, with Perry still gathering input on language and contents, Roberts is confident that the initiative will be ready in time to be debated before the end of the legislative session on March 8.

Lawmakers know that they need to pass a medical marijuana bill but they havent been given a good option so far, Roberts said. The Medical Cannabis Payment Solutions CEO is confident that what Perry will come up with be viewed as a better and more moderate option which the caucuses are going to love. The bill will most likely start by allowing unrestricted access to CBD oil to all patients who need it, and broad access to marijuana for terminally ill patients. Gradually, the bill will allow for higher ratios of THC to CBD for certain categories of patients, but it will most likely not allow access to the whole plant at any point, Roberts explained.

In a separate interview with Jane King of SCN Corporate Connect (http://nnw.fm/oK1eG), Roberts talked about his companys commitment to regulatory compliance, as opposed to other companies in the industry which would rather walk away than put in the work to meet the federal governments very strict guidelines and regulations. He said that part of his activity in Washington DC includes working with the authorities to show that people actually can and are willing to comply with the regulations they put forth.

About Medical Cannabis Payment Solutions

Medical Cannabis Payment Solutions engages in providing end-to-end management, across multiple management systems, for medicinal marijuana operations. Many medicinal marijuana companies have experienced such rapid growth that they are finding it difficult to manage all aspects of their operation. In order to become a successful and compliant medicinal marijuana operation, effective management must depend on many different systems. REFG solves the fragmentation problem by identifying tools that are important to dispensaries, and customizing those tools specifically catered to the industry. The company strives to create awareness within the medicinal marijuana industry and to develop an environmentally friendly, economically sustainable business while increasing shareholder value. For more information, visit the companys website at www.REFG.co.

About NetworkNewsWire

NetworkNewsWire (NNW) is a financial news and content distribution company that provides (1) access to a network of wire services via NetworkWire to reach all target markets, industries and demographics in the most effective manner possible, (2) article and editorial syndication to 5,000+ news outlets (3), enhanced press release services to ensure maximum impact, (4) social media distribution via the Investor Brand Network (IBN) to nearly 2 million followers, (5) a full array of corporate communications solutions, and (6) a total news coverage solution with NNW Prime. As a multifaceted organization with an extensive team of contributing journalists and writers, NNW is uniquely positioned to best serve private and public companies that desire to reach a wide audience of investors, consumers, journalists and the general public. By cutting through the overload of information in todays market, NNW brings its clients unparalleled visibility, recognition and brand awareness. NNW is where news, content and information converge. For more information, please visit https://www.NetworkNewsWire.com .

Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the NetworkNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by NNW, wherever published or re-published: http://NNW.fm/Disclaimer

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain as they are based on current expectations and assumptions concerning future events or future performance of the company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are only predictions and speak only as of the date hereof. In evaluating such statements, prospective investors should review carefully various risks and uncertainties identified in this release and matters set in the company's SEC filings. These risks and uncertainties could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements.

Contact:Optimization

Are you frustrated with a slow pc or a hard disk not performing as it should?

Try SLOW-PCfighter to speed up boot time on a slow PC, or try a free scan of FULL-DISKfighter to recover space on a full disk. The latest offering is DRIVERfighter to update your driver updater. Get complete PC optimization and extend the life of your PC with these must-have software tools.Shaheed El-Hafed (Refugee Camps), February 11, 2018 (SPS) - The Sahrawi National Committee for Human Rights signed Saturday a memorandum of cooperation with the Algerian National Human Rights Council (CNDH) in the framework of strengthening and consolidating cooperation and exchange of experiences between the two organizations.

In a welcome speech to the delegation of the Algerian National Human Rights Council, the president of the Saharawi Committee for Human Rights, Abba Al-Heisan, affirmed that the signing of the cooperation memorandum between the Algerian National Council for Human Rights and the Sahrawi National Committee for Human Rights reaffirms the strong links between the two countries and two brotherly peoples.

It should be recalled that a high-level delegation of the National Human Rights Council (CNDH) is on a working visit to the Saharawi Refugee Camps, headed by its President, Mrs. Benzerrouki Fafa Sid Lakhdar, and composed of the Secretary General of the Council, Mr. Abdul Wahab Marjana, Mr. Buzeid Zahari, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Civil and Political Rights, and Rapporteur of the Commission on Civil and Political Rights. (SPS)

062/SPS/TRA



VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Riverside Resources Inc. (Riverside or the Company) (TSX-V:RRI) (OTC Pink:RVSDF) (Frankfurt:R99) recently completed a partner-funded diamond drilling campaign at the Puerto Alamo Target at the 36 km Glor Gold Project (the Project). The exploration and drilling work was funded by partner, Centerra Gold Inc. (Centerra), as part of their option to earn a 70% interest in the Project. The Project hosts four key target areas and is located approximately 8 km west of Alamos Golds El Chanate Mine in Sonora, Mexico. The recently completed drill program focused on the Puerto El Alamo Target (see Figure 1 below) located in the central part of the Project, which had been defined by a recent detailed soil geochemistry survey and geological mapping.

Figure 1: Map of the Puerto El Alamo and other target areas at the Glor Project is available at http://rivres.com/images/news/2018/021518_figure1.png

The drilling program consisted of seven drill-holes with a total length of 1,212 metres. The drill-holes were designed to test for a near-surface deposit of disseminated and fracture-controlled gold mineralization similar to what was identified in bedrock outcroppings in the target area. Gold and arsenic analytical results obtained by the soil geochemistry survey also guided the design of the drilling program.

All of the drill-holes passed through the targeted stratigraphy and shear structures with multiple narrow intervals (1.0  4.7 metres) of low-grade gold (0.25  0.345 g/t Au) mineralization. The targeted stratigraphy consists of a Mesozoic andesite volcanic flow underlain by a package of fine-grained sedimentary rocks and a thick formation of polylithic conglomerate. On surface in the target area, gold-bearing shear structures were found conformably within the andesite unit and close to its contacts with the sedimentary rocks. Zones of iron carbonate +/- sericite alteration and minor quartz veining several meters wide were intersected in each of the drill-holes. Similar lithologies, structures and hydrothermal alteration were trenched and diamond drilled at the Pitaya Target in the north-eastern sector of the Project (see press release on June 19, 2017).

Riversides President and CEO, John-Mark Staude, stated: Our drilling at the Puerto El Alamo target with partner Centerra explored for low-angle shear structures similar in nature to those controlling the El Chanate and other multi-million ounce gold deposits in Sonora. We are disappointed given all of the positive geologic and geochemical indications that we did not hit a gold-rich structure, but we still believe the project holds excellent exploration potential. We look forward to further exploring the San Pedro and La Joya targets where there is remaining gold discovery potential. We are pleased to continue working with Centerra as a partner and hope to add additional land tenure in the coming months.

The Pitaya Target and Puerto El Alamo drill-hole data shows there is a positive correlation between gold and arsenic (As) enrichments, where core samples having gold concentrations greater than 0.2 g/t Au are seen to have As contents of 3,000 ppm and greater. The gold-arsenic relationship is a feature commonly found at other orogenic gold systems in north-western Sonora including at the San Francisco Mine. Further understanding of the controls on gold mineralization at Glor were established and will be applied going forward. Partner-funded stream sediment and soil surveys along with mapping and rock sampling are expected to be carried out this quarter.

Clemente Project Update

Riverside optioned the Clemente Silver Project in December of 2016 to partner Silver Viper Minerals (Silver Viper) (TSX-V:VIPR), which at the time was a private company with plans of a public listing and company growth. Riversides partner recently completed its IPO (see Silver Viper press release September 27, 2017) and then commenced a 2,000 metre drilling program in November of 2017. To date, approximately half of the planned campaign has been completed at the Mundo and Nuevo Mundo silver targets. Nine HQ-size diamond boreholes were drilled for a total length of 1,062 meters, with two of the drill-holes intersecting old mine workings and consequently being abandoned. The best mineralized intersection was made by hole CL-17-006; a 0.7 meter long interval that averages 827 g/t silver, 0.23 g/t gold and a combined 2.09 per cent lead-zinc. Click here for more details on the Clemente Project and option agreement details with Silver Viper.

Future exploration at Clemente could progress with testing of the Santa Elena target located in the south-eastern sector of the Clemente property and 7 km northwest of the Cerro Colorado gold mine of Goldgroup. The Santa Elena target covers an area of at least 150 hectares where there is evidence of artisanal mining for gold and silver but no previous drilling.

Figure 2: Map of the Clemente Project and its three target areas is available at http://rivres.com/images/news/2018/021518_figure2.jpg

Qualified Person and QA/QC:

The scientific and technical data contained in this news release was reviewed and prepared under the supervision of Ron Burk, P.Eng. and Vice-President of Exploration for Riverside Resources Inc. who is responsible for ensuring that the geologic information provided in this news release is accurate and who acts as a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

All drill cores at Glor were photographed, geologically logged and then sawed in half to provide samples for gold assaying and multi-element ICP mass spectrometry analysis, which was done by Bureau Veritas laboratories in Hermosillo, Mexico and Vancouver, Canada, respectively. A total of 704 core samples were analysed, with individual samples having core lengths of 1.0 m or 3.0 m, depending on the presence or absence of visible hydrothermal alteration. For quality assurance and control purposes 16 non-mineralized blank samples, 15 field duplicate samples and 47 standard reference samples were included with the batches of core samples that were analysed.

At Clemente assays reported herein were subject to industry standard sampling methods and QA-QC protocols including the routine insertion of commercially prepared standards and locally sourced blanks into the sample sequence. Sample splits of 30 grams mass were analyzed by aqua regia digestion with ultra-trace ICP-MS finish. When triggered, overlimits were completed by aqua regia digestion and ICP-ES finish. Assays were completed by Bureau Veritas, with preparation in Caborca, Sonora, Mexico and analysis in Vancouver, BC.

About Riverside Resources Inc.:

Riverside is a well-funded prospect generator exploration company with approximately $3,000,000 in the bank and a tight share structure with fewer than 45M shares issued. Riverside leverages its 77,000 location Mexico mineral database, highly experienced and dedicated technical team and partnership network to acquire and develop high-potential projects. The Company increases the chances of discovery by advancing multiple assets simultaneously through partnerships, allowing Riverside to mitigate risk and conserve capital. Riverside has a diverse portfolio of gold, silver and copper properties throughout North America. Riverside has additional properties available for option with more information available on the Companys website at www.rivres.com.

ON BEHALF OF RIVERSIDE RESOURCES INC.



John-Mark Staude



Dr. John-Mark Staude, President & CEO

For additional information contact:

John-Mark Staude

President & CEO

Riverside Resources Inc.

info@rivres.com

Phone: (778) 327-6671

Fax: (778) 327-6675

Web: www.rivres.com Raffi Elmajian

Corporate Communications

Riverside Resources Inc.

relmajian@rivres.com

Phone: (778) 327-6671

TF: (877) RIV-RES1

Web: www.rivres.com

Certain statements in this press release may be considered forward-looking information. These statements can be identified by the use of forward looking terminology (e.g., "expect, estimates", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "plans"). Such information involves known and unknown risks -- including the availability of funds, the results of financing and exploration activities, the interpretation of exploration results and other geological data, or unanticipated costs and expenses and other risks identified by Riverside in its public securities filings that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.Stockholm, Feb 15, 2018 (SPS) -Sweden announced that it will vote against granting the European Commission of the negotiation mandate on the new protocol relating to the fisheries agreement between the European Union and Morocco, including the Sahrawi territorial waters, said the Sahrawi news agency SPS.

Swedens Rural Affairs Minister Sven Erik Bucht affirmed in a communique sent to the committee of permanent representatives of EU that his country will reject any new agreement of partnership between EU and Morocco in the field of fisheries, as long as it will include the Sahrawi territorial waters, announcing that Sweden will vote against the motion.

This refusal reflects Swedens position which considers that the proposed mandate is not in accordance with the international law, said the communique, adding that the government considers that the agreement doesnt respect neither the interest, nor the willingness of the people of Western Sahara whose territory is under the Moroccan occupation since 1975.

The Swedish position regarding this issue remains consistent since its voting in 2012 against granting the European Commission a negotiation mandate on new agreement, said the communique.SPS

125/090/700English14/02/2018

MILUNOVIC: MOST SIGNIFICANT DATE IN SERBIAN HISTORY MARKED

VISEGRAD, January 14 /SRNA/ - Today is one of the most significant dates in the Serbian history, the day when the foundations of Serbian statehood, cultural and national transformation were laid, said Dusko Milunovic, Assistant Minister of Labour and Protection of Veterans and Disabled Persons of Republika Srpska.



At an event marking the Veterans Day and First Serbian Uprising at the monument to Serbian fighters in the Fallen Veterans Square in Visegrad on Wednesday, Milunovic said this was one of the 25 dates important for Republika Srpska which were established by the Entity Government.



This is one of the four dates we mark together with Serbia and I believe one of the most significant in Srpska because the foundations of the modern Serbian state and freedom in these parts were laid then. That was a centuries long aspiration of the Serbs to set themselves free from the Turkish rule here, said Milunovic.



Mayor of Visegrad Mladen Djurevic said that celebrating the Veterans Day and First Serbian Uprising conveys the message that the sacrifice and heroism of our ancestors must be signpost to the younger generations, as well as the ones living today.



Thats why this monument here is not just a monument of gratitude to all the fighters, but a monument of gratitude to everyone who fought and died for freedom, for honour and the right to life of their Serb brothers, said Djurevic.



This gathering shows a respect for the victims who died for the creation of Republika Srpska, where people today live free.



We are showing that we nurture our tradition, cherish the memory of the past and given an example to the young generations. Thats why we need to know that our homeland is Republika Srpska and that we spread our brotherly love united and want it to last forever. In this unison, we the descendants of our glorious ancestors are obliged to remember all those who were killed in our nations liberation wars, Djurevic pointed out.



Head of the Veterans Association of Republika Srpske Milomir Savcic said he was certain that this generation of Serbs was worthy of its ancestors from 1804 who started the fight for the final liberation of the Serbs in these parts and the creation of their own Serb Republic, which has always been a guarantee of freedom and independence.



Several delegations laid flowers to the monument, including an envoy of the Srpska president, representatives of the National Assembly and Government, envoy of the member of the BiH Presidency from Republika Srpska.



Attending delegations included the Veterans Association, Association of Families of Captured and Fallen Veterans and Missing Civilians, Association of Camp Detainees of Republika Srpska, 3rd Infantry Republika Srpska Regiment and municipality of Visegrad.



The First Serbian Uprising was mounted on February 15, 1804 in Orasac in Serbia against the Ottoman Empire by hajduk companies as well as the village population and Serbian army which counted 25,000 soldiers.



A total of 215,671 members of the Army of Republika Srpska fought during the 1992-1995 defence and homeland war and 23,184 of them gave their lives for Srpska. /end/dsCHICAGO, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Epazz, Inc. (OTC: EPAZ), a leading provider of blockchain cryptocurrency mobile apps and cloud-based business software solutions, announced today that the companys patent-pending Blockchain Smart Legal Contracts Technology will be called Cordtell (www.cordtell.com). Cordtell reduces fraud in business transactional contracts. The technology allows for a transactional contract to become a living contract that is tracked and traced; it also verifies that a section of terms within a contract are followed and that all parties of an agreement obey the terms of the contract.

Cordtell, which is under development, automatically verifies signatures, distributes the contract to the blockchain, records the transaction and verifies the terms are being followed via our blockchain apps, which also trace any changes. The technology sends reminders, and tracks payments and delivery of items. The technology will work with Microsoft Word and Google Docs to provide real-time contract edits and updates via version control. The company will primarily market the technology to law firms, health care providers, businesses and governments.

Part of Cordtell is the transmission of data storage in a blockchain storage unit. This part of Cordtell will be released first before the Smart Legal Contracts Technology as it is a key feature of storage and data retrieval, which is part of the provisional patent the company filed. The company will use the blockchain storage technology on other new products. Once the company is ready for beta testing, the company will then file a non-provisional patent to include additional claims created during the development process. Our goal is to release Cordtell in two parts: first, the blockchain storage technology in the third quarter and then the Smart Legal Contracts in the fourth.

Epazz CEO Shaun Passley, Ph.D., said, 2018 is a major software development year for the company; we are increasing our blockchain software team to take advantage of new technology and are also updating our existing cloud products and creating new blockchain cloud products.

If you would like to receive updates on Cordtell, visit www.cordtell.com



About Epazz, Inc. (www.epazz.com)

Epazz, Inc. specializes in enterprise cryptocurrency blockchain mobile apps and cloud business process software, with more than 500 repeat customers. The new Bitcoin Mobile app is a financial technology company that offers unique software that allows consumers to acquire Bitcoin at the point of sale. The consumer can then use the cryptocurrency or digital currency to make a purchase at the store with ease. Epazz technology makes it easy to convert legacy systems into cloud business process software, for which the company then charges an annual subscription fee. Epazz has acquired 11 software companies that have converted or are in the process of converting their legacy software products to cloud software using Epazz technology. Epazz then markets the new cloud-based solutions to new and existing customers.

SAFE HARBOR

Safe Harbor statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Certain statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by their use of forward-looking terminology such as may, expect, intend, estimate, anticipate, believe and continue (or the negative forms thereof) or similar terminology. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from future results or those implied by such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Epazz, Inc. assumes no obligation and has no intention of updating these forward-looking statements, and it has no obligation to update or correct information prepared by third parties that is not paid for by Epazz, Inc. Investors are encouraged to review Epazz, Inc.s public filings on SEC.gov and otcmarkets.com, including its unaudited and audited financial statements and its OTC markets filings, which contain general business information about the companys operations, results of operations and risks associated with the company and its operations.VANCOUVER, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SouthGobi Resources Ltd. (TSX:SGQ) (HK:1878) (SouthGobi or the Company) is pleased to announce that SouthGobi Sands LLC (SGS), the Companys subsidiary in Mongolia, has completely fulfilled its obligations under the previously disclosed judgment of the Mongolian Second District Criminal Court (the Tax Verdict) rendered against SGS in January 2015.



SGS has been informed by the Court Decision Implementation Agency of Capital City in Mongolia that the enforcement procedure in relation to the Tax Verdict has been terminated and no party shall have any right to make any further claims in connection with the Tax Verdict. For details relating to the background of the Tax Verdict, please refer to the Companys Managements Discussion and Analysis for the quarter ended September 30, 2017 and, in particular, the section under the heading entitled Governmental and Regulatory Investigations, which is available under the Companys profile on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com and on the website of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at www.hkexnews.hk.

SGS and the Company will continue to comply with the laws of Mongolia and to contribute to Mongolias society, economy, and environment as a whole.

About SouthGobi

SouthGobi, listed on the Toronto and Hong Kong stock exchanges, owns and operates its flagship Ovoot Tolgoi coal mine in Mongolia. It also holds the mining licences of its other metallurgical and thermal coal deposits in South Gobi Region of Mongolia. SouthGobi produces and sells coal to customers in China.NAPLES, Fla., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FTE Networks, Inc. (NYSE American:FTNW) ("FTE" or the "Company"), a leading provider of innovative technology-oriented solutions for smart platforms, network infrastructure and intelligent buildings, today announced that it was awarded a contract valued at approximately $36 Million.



FTE has secured a $36 Million award from one of the oldest and largest financial institutions in the U.S. to provide state-of-the-art technology, infrastructure and fit out services that support the enablement of future ready smart and innovative workspaces. The project, located in Manhattan, is anticipated to begin in the 1st Quarter and expected to complete over the next 18 months.

Michael Palleschi, President and CEO of FTE Networks, stated, Our team continues to meet and exceed the expectations of our valued customers. Being awarded the contract by a marquee firm strengthens our ability to secure additional engagements with notable global companies located in one of the foremost markets. This award furthers our mission to transform tenant experiences and address increasing tenant demands for advanced technology solutions and high-speed internet. FTE is well positioned to meet the new design and future-ready requirements for smart building infrastructure. We continue to bolster our backlog, and these new contract awards are a testament to the hard work and dedication of the employees of FTE and its subsidiaries.

About FTE Networks, Inc.

FTE Networks, Inc. ("FTNW"), FTE Networks, Inc. ("FTNW") is a leading provider of innovation technology. We enable adaptive and efficient smart network connectivity platforms, infrastructure and buildings. FTE provides end-to-end design, build, and support solutions for state-of-the-art networks, data centers, residential and commercial properties. We create transformative smart platforms and buildings. FTE's services are predicated on smart design and consistent standards that reduce deployment costs and accelerate delivery of leading edge projects and services. The Company works with Fortune 100/500 companies, including some of the world's leading Telecommunications and IT Services Providers as well as REITs and Media Providers.

Note on Forward-Looking Statements

This release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as: anticipated, expected, and similar references to future periods. Examples of forward-looking statements in this release may include, without limitation, statements and forecasts we make regarding the estimated timeframe these projects will be completed by and our ability to leverage these newly awarded contracts to increase our market share in New York City Markets and elsewhere; our strategies for continued growth and strategic expansion in select markets; and other matters that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from results expressed or implied by this release. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on our current beliefs, expectations, and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and market trends, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. These risk factors and others are included from time to time in documents we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to, our Form 10-Ks, Form 10-Qs and Form 8-Ks. Our actual results and financial condition may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this update is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

Media and Investor Relations:

FTE Networks, Inc. 999 Vanderbilt Beach Rd.,

Suite 601 Naples, FL 34108

(877) 850-4308

ir@ftenet.com

NYSE American: FTNWVANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DMG Blockchain Solutions Inc. (TSX-V:DMGI) (DMG or the Company), is pleased to announced that it has secured a new customer for its bitcoin hosting business, known as Mining-as-a-Service (MaaS).



DMG received an order in excess of C$3 million from Forside Financial Services Inc. (Forside), a company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan for the hardware purchase and set-up, with monthly recurring hosting revenues to begin upon completion.

Forside is a diversified technology company listed on the JASDAQ Standard of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (Tokyo:2330).

Mr. Izumi, the Chairman of Forside commented We are excited and thankful to have DMG provide MaaS for our company and look forward to completing more business in the future with DMG. We conducted due diligence and spoke to many other companies and decided to do business with DMG due to its knowledge and expertise in this sector.

DMGs access to the Japanese market continues to grow and we look forward to doing more business with Forside, said Chris Filiatrault, Co-Founder and Chairman of DMG.

Daniel Reitzik, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of DMG commented We are delighted to onboard our second major hosting client from Japan, which represents a significant market opportunity for us and further validation of our MaaS model.

MaaS adopts a unique model by democratizing the ability for customers to become a cryptocurrency miner anywhere in the world in a cost-effective manner. DMGs MaaS offering provides turn-key operations for clients by charging a set-up and monthly hosting fee.

In addition, DMG expects a previous order of an additional 1,000 S-9 bitcoin mining servers to arrive at one of its facilities in March, 2018.

DMGs facilities and power access will be for its MaaS clients, and for DMGs own use. This hybrid model allows DMG to scale at a faster pace and without as much capital, while at the same time enabling DMG to benefit from the appreciating value of bitcoin. This hybrid model balances out the capital requirements in the traditional mining model with the benefits of the value of bitcoin minted.

About DMG

DMG Blockchain Solutions Inc. is a full service diversified blockchain and cryptocurrency company that manages, operates and develops end-to-end solutions to monetize the blockchain ecosystem. DMG intends to be the global leader in bitcoin mining hosting, Mining as a Service (MaaS), bitcoin mining, forensics and diversified blockchain platform development.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Daniel Reitzik, CEO & Director

For further information please contact:

DMG Blockchain Solutions Inc.

Investor Relations: John Martin

Toll Free: 1-888-702-0258

Email: investors@dmgblockchain.com

Web: www.dmgblockchain.com

Direct: 778-868-6470

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking information based on current expectations. Statements about the transaction with Forside, other potential transactions, product development, customer acquisitions, events, courses of action, and the potential of the Companys technology and operations, among others, are all forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding looking wording such as may, expect, estimate, anticipate, intend, believe and continue or the negative thereof or similar variations. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including but not limited to, business, economic and capital market conditions; the ability to manage operating expenses, which may adversely affect the Companys financial condition; the ability to remain competitive as other better financed competitors develop and release competitive products; regulatory uncertainties; access to equipment; market conditions and the demand and pricing for products; the demand and pricing of bitcoins; security threats, including a loss/theft of DMGs bitcoins; DMGs relationships with its customers, distributors and business partners; DMGs ability to successfully define, design and release new products in a timely manner that meet customers needs; the ability to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel; competition in the industry; the impact of technology changes on the products and industry; failure to develop new and innovative products; the ability to successfully maintain and enforce our intellectual property rights and defend third-party claims of infringement of their intellectual property rights; the impact of intellectual property litigation that could materially and adversely affect the business; the ability to manage working capital; and the dependence on key personnel. DMG may not actually achieve its plans, projections, or expectations. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the demand for its products, the ability to successfully develop software, that there will be no regulation or law that will prevent the Company from operating its business, anticipated costs, the ability to achieve goals and the price of bitcoin. Given these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

The securities of DMG are considered highly speculative due to the nature of DMGs business. DMG can give no assurance that it will secure additional MaaS customers.

Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, failure to obtain regulatory approval, the continued availability of capital and financing, equipment failures, lack of supply of equipment, failure to obtain any permits required to operate the business, the impact of technology changes on the industry, competition, security threats including stolen bitcoins from DMG or its customers, consumer sentiment towards DMGs products, services and blockchain technology generally, failure to develop new and innovative products, litigation, increase in operating costs, increase in equipment and labor costs, failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations, government regulations, loss of key employees and consultants, and general economic, market or business conditions. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information.

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additionally, the Company undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made by, third parties in respect of the matters discussed above.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.



MT. PLEASANT, Utah, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pursuant to the terms of the Asset Purchase Agreement signed on February 22nd, 2017, Green PolkaDot Box Incorporated (Pink Sheets:GPDB) and Buying Collective Holdings Incorporated (BCHI) formed a joint venture to deploy new working capital from BCHI for the development and national launch of the Health Merchant network of virtual online stores in a newly formed subsidiary of BCHI, Green Polka Dot Box LLC (the LLC), until a final closing of the Asset Purchase Agreement can occur.



Joint Venture Activities

The LLC commenced business activities in July 2017 and began organizing to establish direct purchasing relationships with hundreds of the nations top CLEAN (organic, non-GMO) food manufacturers and suppliers. Inventory purchases commenced in November of this year. By the end of December more than 1,600 unique products were purchased and stocked in the LLCs warehouse in Mt. Pleasant, Utah; short of the Companys goal to stock over 3,500 CLEAN food products.

Crowdfunding Offering

Concurrent with the LLCs efforts to build inventory levels, on December 12th, BCHI opened a Title III Crowdfunding offering at www.startengine.com/bchi. Proceeds from the offering are intended to increase inventory levels to meet building demand by the LLCs Health Merchant stores. The Offering closes in approximately 26 days or when BCHIs goal of $1,000,000 is achieved, whichever occurs first.

Health Merchant Store Activations

Anticipating continuing acquisition of inventory, approximately 100 of 250 Health Merchants have commenced sales operations on a limited basis. However, the LLC is announcing today that it has reached or signed new agreements with several prominent CLEAN food market influencers to become Health Merchants on the LLCs digital platform and open their new stores in the coming weeks.

These new, Super Health Merchants include March Against Monsanto organization (4,000,000 followers), the Organic Consumer Association (1,300,000 followers and subscribers), Optivida (Davis Distribution) with more than 3,000,000 followers, and another major organization with 8,000,000 subscribers to be identified next month. Collectively, these new Health Merchants will bring potentially more than 16,000,000 consumers to shop at their stores, opening between now and April 1st.

About GPDB: Green PolkaDot Box is Americas first mover virtual online U.S. distributor of CLEAN foodsdirect to consumerthrough its unique and disruptive Health Merchant network comprised of hundreds of market influencers.

About BCHI: Buying Collective Holdings Incorporated is a newly formed holding company that is focused on the development and financing of vertically integrated companies providing affordable access to non-GMO contaminated foods.

Forward-Looking Statements

Non-historical statements included in this press release are forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements relating to the Company's future performance are subject to many factors including, but not limited to: working capital and availability of capital, implementation difficulties, impacts involving key vendors, lenders, competitors, and other risks. Such statements are based upon management's current beliefs and expectations subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, the terms "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "may", "should", "plan", "possible", "potential", "project", "will", and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. There is no guarantee that the Company will enter into the agreements referenced herein, nor if we do, that successful implementation will transpire. The forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date hereof, and we do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of future events, new information, or otherwise. For additional information contact BCHI CEO Rod Smith at (801) 478-2500, ext. 1000 or write to: rsmith@greenpolkadotbox.com. Forward-Looking Statements Non-historical statements included in this press release are forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements relating to the Company's future performance are subject to many factors including, but not limited to: working capital and availability of capital, implementation difficulties, impacts involving key vendors, lenders, competitors, and other risks. Such statements are based upon management's current beliefs and expectations subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, the terms "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "may", "should", "plan", "possible", "potential", "project", "will", and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. There is no guarantee that the Company will enter into the agreements referenced herein, nor if we do, that successful implementation will transpire. The forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date hereof, and we do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of future events, new information, or otherwise.

For additional information contact BCHI CEO Rod Smith at (801) 478-2500, ext. 1000 or write to: rsmith@greenpolkadotbox.com.

Source: Uptick NewswireWeve just released our new film 3 Days in Sonoma. You can watch the 25-minute short in the embed in this article, or directly on the Stark Insider YouTube channel.

Its definitely an experimental piece. Loni Stark and I meshed together about 5 years of non-fiction (verite I suppose) footage shot in Sonoma County and the San Francisco Bay Area, along with narrative scenes that we story-boarded and planned over a two year period.

The short is based on the idea that I forgot to push record once for an interview we did a few years back (true story) and Loni then decides to book an Airbnb in Sonoma to ESCape the fuss and drama. Man, the redwoods can do wonders for the soul. Sunshine or rain, they are nature unleashed and majestic. Especially so, apparently, if you take it all in while cruising in a Toyota Prius.

Valentines Day seemed like an ideal release date. This video could be considered a love letter to what is the spousal creative process run amok. Or maybe, more properly, a love letter to one of our favorite destinations on earth: Sonoma. No, make that Sonoma! Yes! And all the people, personalities and stories that the wonderful coastal California landscape embodies.

At the end of the day, if youre like us you do it for love.

And just because your hearts (and minds!) are hopefully mostly there on any given day, doesnt mean there wont be iffy moments. So, yes, revel in that creative tension and those unavoidable, countless mistakes.

Some of our favorite wineries and people are featured in 3 Days in Sonoma including Osmosis Spa, DeLoach Vineyards, Jean-Charles Boisset, Sonoma Wine Country Weekend and Healdsburg Plaza.

But I dont want to give too much away you just need to watch to see who and what shows up. Plus, given this is Stark Insider, it just wouldnt be so without a surprise or two. Poor Loni!

Thanks to Russian River Valley Winegrowers and SWCW and the cities of Sebastopol and Healdsburg and also to the Napa Valley Vintners for providing Stark Insider access and support over the years. Its pure privilege to shoot video at these stunning locations.

With that, consider pouring your favorite Sonoma Chardonnay, or maybe an earthy Russian River Valley Cabernet and tour the Sonoma Valley, Stark Insider style.

Oh: if you shoot videos for 12 years or so, you will forget to push record. At least once. Sooner or later. Trust me on that! Best off to leave it to Billy Idol himself: It could happen to you so think for yourself.

WATCH: Short Film 3 Days in Sonoma by Clinton and Loni StarkNEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Eyeview, the leader in outcome-based video marketing, today announced a guaranteed brand safety solution that specifically addresses the environments in which they run their personalized video marketing campaigns. This comes on the heels of its late 2017 announcement of a 100% guaranteed verification solution that addressed the growing concerns of marketers.

Eyeview is leveraging real-time, pre-bid technology from industry-leading partners DoubleVerify, Grapeshot and Integral Ad Science to filter every single impression for each campaign and only bidding on impressions once theyve been identified as safe and relevant. This proactive approach ensures that potential safety issues are addressed before they can arise and negatively impact a brands campaign.

Eyeviews brand safety protection ensures that brands activate solely in contextually relevant and brand safe environments by ensuring:

Always-on blocking of severe content categories pre-bid (adult content, drugs and alcohol, graphic violence and weapons, hate speech and profanity, illegal activities, etc.)

Custom category blocking based on individual brand criteria

Keyword-level contextual blocking across negative content categories

Custom keyword blocking to anti-target trending toxic content

An updated blacklist of over 255,000 unsafe sites with the ability to implement any other site blacklists provided by clients or partners

We believe in personalized video experiences, says Andrew Wynschenk, Product Manager at Eyeview. Our clients dont want to associate with bad content. While most of what is considered bad is universal, there are nuances to specific brands that must be tailored to. Weve built the tools to ensure that we can have the flexibility to deliver on what each individual client requires.

Eyeview partners this brand-safe guarantee with its industry-leading video personalization capabilities to drive benchmark-breaking return-on-ad-spend for clients such as Lowes, P&G, Walgreens, Hyundai and Bayer.

About Eyeview

Eyeview is a video marketing technology company and the industry leader in outcome-based video marketing. Eyeview delivers superior return on investment through 1-to-1 video.

With our proprietary VideoIQ technology, Eyeview easily leverages brand, product and consumer data to create and deliver 1-to-1 video ads to every consumer and ultimately drive sales. VideoIQ provides an elemental knowledge of video variables that powers a results-driven decisioning engine, capable of making billions of decisions each day, delivering the most relevant message to every consumer across television, desktop, mobile and Facebook.

Headquartered in New York City, with offices in LA, Detroit, Seattle, Chicago and London, Eyeview serves the nations top brands, including P&G, Walgreens, Lowes, Honda, BMW and Priceline. Eyeview was ranked as the second-fastest growing company in the Tri-State Area by Deloittes Technology Fast 500.

Contact:

Julie Harnik

julie@eyeviewdigital.comEnglish Norwegian

(Oslo, 15 February 2018) Solon Eiendom ASA (OSE: SOLON), calls for the extraordinary general meeting to be held at the company's offices in Olav Vs gate 5, 0161, Oslo, Norway on 09 March 2018 at 10 am (CET).

The notice convening the extraordinary general meeting, including the agenda and the board's proposals to the matters to be dealt with, is enclosed with this notification and will be sent to all shareholders with known addresses.

Relevant documents referred to in the notice are made available on www.soloneiendom.no.

For further information, please contact:

Andreas Martinussen

Chief Executive Officer, Solon Eiendom ASA

E-mail: am@soloneiendom.no

Cell Phone: +47 400 00 405

Scott Danielsen

Chief Financial Officer, Solon Eiendom ASA

E-mail: sd@soloneiendom.no

Cell Phone: +47 952 55 620

About Solon Eiendom ASA

Solon Eiendom is a Norwegian residential real estate development company focusing on the Oslo and Akershus region

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Full-service agency Rauxa today announced that it has appointed Autumn Berrang as its new SVP, Account Services. Berrang is based in Rauxas New York office and will lead several client teams including Frontpoint Home Security and new clients Bahlsen and Lansinoh Laboratories. She will report directly to Rauxa Chief Client Officer Nanci Leos.



As Social Media Agency of Record (AOR) for international food company Bahlsen, Rauxa is focused on driving brand awareness and social engagement while supporting U.S. market expansion. The agency is also leading a new global brand campaign for Lansinoh Laboratories, geared toward expectant and new mothers, a sweet spot for Rauxa as the countrys largest woman-owned independent ad agency.

Were excited to have a leader like Autumn join our team. Her entrepreneurial spirit matches our roll-up-your-sleeves work ethic that resides at every level of the agency, said Gina Alshuler, President & CEO of Rauxa. Shes an expert at building brands and driving results.

In 2013, Berrang founded Adjective & Co., a boutique branding and advertising agency she now co-owns and which was recently named one of Inc. Magazines 50 Best Workplaces in the nation. Berrang is an entrepreneur with extensive experience providing strategic leadership to top brands including the New York Islanders, HP Enterprise Business, Milk-Bone, Hidden Valley Ranch and more. She also co-founded and branded Whalebone Media, which rethinks how to engage consumers in print, experiential and on digital platforms. Prior to her entrepreneurial start, Berrang held roles at marketing and advertising agencies Rapp and FCB.

Im excited to join a team with so many other amazing women at the helm and with diversity and female empowerment as bedrocks of the agency. Its so refreshing to see in this industry, said Berrang. As Rauxa continues to gain momentum, Im proud to be part of building that story with the agencys strong roster of client partners.

Berrang is a graduate of University of North Florida and lives in New York with her husband and two daughters.

About Rauxa

Makers of results, Rauxa applies data, technology, and content to create measurable impact at maximum speed for clients that include Gap Inc., TGI Fridays, and Verizon. The countrys largest woman-owned independent advertising agency, Rauxa is powered by a team of more than 250 marketing professionals in seven locations across the countrydefined by the distinction, Head. Heart. Hustle. Find out more at www.rauxa.com.

Media contact:

Alyssa Kehoe

Alyssa.kehoe@digennaro-usa.com







HOUSTON, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SMG Indium Resources Ltd. (the "Company") (OTCQB:SMGI), an oilfield services company headquartered in Houston, Texas, focused in selling products and services to drilling rig operators, E&P companies and other oilfield companies today announced the acquisition of RigHands, an industrial strength hand cleaner product line, and its intellectual property through its wholly-owned subsidiary MG Cleaners LLC. RigHands is a trademarked branded product which is focused on the oilfield and industrial markets.



Mr. Matt Flemming, CEO of SMG, stated: "We are excited to add RigHands to our existing product lines and related distribution channels. We currently anticipate RigHands will generate at least $150,000 of revenue within the first year post-acquisition which should accelerate the Companys growth. RigHands will be sold through the Company's wholly-owned subsidiary MG Cleaners LLCs sales force and its existing distribution partners." Mr. Flemming continued, We believe RigHands will provide an entrance into another sales channel in the industrial cleaning market for MG Cleaners.

The consideration paid for the product line and its intellectual property was $150,000, effected through the issuance of a promissory note by MG Cleaners LLC, bearing five percent interest and payable in equal monthly installments over 36 months.

About SMG Indium Resources Ltd.: SMGI is an oilfield services company that operates throughout Texas. The Company, through its wholly-owned subsidiary MG Cleaners LLC, is focused on selling proprietary branded products including detergents, surfactants and degreasers (such as Miracle Blue) to oilfield drilling rig contractors and oilfield companies. In addition to the Company's proprietary products, SMGI sells equipment and parts and has service crews that perform on-site repairs, maintenance and drilling rig wash services for customers such as Nabors Industries, Patterson-UTI, Helmrich & Payne, Cactus Drilling and others. SMG Indium Resources Ltd's headquarters are located in Houston, Texas with facilities in Carthage, Texas and Odessa, Texas. Read more at www.smg-indium.com and www.mgcleanersllc.com.

Source: Matthew Flemming, SMG Indium Resources Ltd. +1-713-821-3153CALGARY, Alberta, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Its a disturbing picture: oil and gas companies incentivized to walk away from thousands of wells, leaving behind the mess; receivers of bankrupt companies selling off the good assets and casting aside the bad ones; Albertans and Canadians being forced to bear the multimillion dollar costs of cleaning it all up.



In Alberta, we live by a simple rule: if youre going to profit from our energy resources, you must be responsible and properly abandon the infrastructure and reclaim the site. From the Alberta Energy Regulators (AERs) perspective, the repayment of loans should not come at the expense of public safety and the environment. Sadly, thats not the reality in Alberta today, and our efforts to address it have taken us all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

This liability challenge stems from a court case involving the creditor and receiver of Redwater Energy Corp. In May 2016, the Court of Queens Bench of Alberta made a ruling in a dispute that pit Redwater receiver Grant Thornton Limited and creditor ATB Financial against the AER and the Orphan Well Association. The ruling stated that the receivers and trustees who manage company bankruptcies can avoid complying with provincial legislation, ignoring environmental and public safety obligations, in order to maximize profit for secured creditors. As you can imagine, we take issue with this. We license energy development on the premise that companies will be held accountable to clean up their mess. Our provincial legislation demands that accountability and our liability management approach is founded on it.

The decision affects not just Albertas oil and gas industry and our ability to enforce our rules. This decision impacts all industries and regulators in all provinces. But first lets talk about the way we manage liability in Alberta.

Albertas approach to managing liability was built to balance multiple interests: environmental protection, public safety, landowner interests, investment, royalties, jobs, market volatility, to name a few. In short, the system works like this: we compare assets (production) to liabilities (estimated abandonment and reclamation costs), and when that ratio falls below 1.0, the licensee must take steps to improve their ratio. To bring their ratio back up, they can reduce liability (by reclaiming sites or selling less-productive assets), increase their assets (by purchasing highly productive sites), or posting security (by way of cash, or letters of credit) with the AER. We have also made sure there is a safety net. As a last resort, we have the Orphan Well Association, an industry-funded organization that abandons and reclaims infrastructure left behind when companies go bankrupt.

Economic declines and years of low commodity prices have put pressure on our system, but there is no question that it has allowed for investment and prosperity in our province. Managing energy infrastructure liabilities is a complex challenge that is not limited to our province. We collaborate with many jurisdictions from across North America and around the globe that face the same problems, and were working together to find solutions.

The Redwater case has turned the very foundation of that systemthe provincial legislation that says polluters must pay to clean up their messon its head. If this decision is upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada, weand every other regulator in Canadawill no longer be able to hold companies accountable for cleaning up their mess.

We cant emphasize this enough: this is not an Alberta problem. This is not an oil and gas problem. It can be applied to industrial sites left behind by companies in other industries, allowing receivers to take and sell for the benefit of creditors the good assets and walk away from the bad ones and the end-of-life obligations associated with them.

When the Redwater ruling came down from the Alberta court, we acted quickly to minimize risks to industry, stakeholders, and landowners while working with the Government of Alberta to put regulatory measures in place to address the impact. We started by introducing temporary rules to ensure that licence transferees are financially able to fulfil their end-of-life obligations, including abandonment, remediation, and reclamation.

Despite our efforts, since the Redwater ruling, about 1800 AER-licensed sites have been disclaimed with estimated liabilities of more than $110 million. In the same period, the Orphan Well Associations inventory more than tripled from almost 1200 to more than 3700.

We have also introduced stronger rules to prevent people and companies with a history of leaving behind liabilities from operating again without proper safeguards. This protects both responsible energy companies and Albertans from bearing the financial burden and other risks associated with orphaned infrastructure.

We are also actively participating in the Government of Albertas liability management review, which focuses on improving the management of historic, current, and future liabilities associated with the full life cycle of upstream oil and gas development.

And of course weve joined forces with the Orphan Well Association to appeal the Redwater decision to the Supreme Court of Canada. Were not alone in our concern. Its an important case, as evidenced by the numerous government and nongovernment interveners in the appeal.

Jim Ellis

Chief Executive Officer

Alberta Energy Regulator

For more information, please contact:

Ryan Bartlett, AER Public Affairs

Phone: 403-669-3916

Email: ryan.bartlett@aer.ca

Media line: 1-855-474-6356TORONTO, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- InsurEye Inc. has recently announced the launch of a new website, CondoEssentials, a condo review platform designed to inform Canadians about real estate space, particularly condominiums. InsurEye has been informing consumers for years about the details of auto, life and condo insurance through thousands of independent insurance reviews, which are carefully moderated to ensure high-quality information.



Henry Karimi, a real estate veteran and InsurEye co-founder, oversees real estate operations at CondoEssentials. He says, Many aggregator platforms out there, including MLS, are doing a good job providing an overview of prices, but what you cannot find out from them is how it actually feels to live in each condo. Thats the gap that CondoEssentials closes. We started with auto insurance, life insurance and home insurance reviews a few years ago and focused, among other products, on condo insurance. Given the current real estate situation in Canada, condominiums represent a viable dwelling option for more and more Canadians. With CondoEssentials, we are informing them about this crucial asset.

Dmitry Mityagin, another InsurEye co-founder and CTO, says, The experience and information we have gained in the insurance review space is now invaluable for CondoEssentials. With close to 2 million occupied condos across Canada in 2016, the condo market is growing aggressively. Rapid growth can make it difficult to properly compare options. CondoEssentials, however, will make those comparisons fast and easy. We hope that CondoEssentials will become one of the go-to tools for Canadian condo buyers.

CondoEssentials evaluates condos using three dimensions: condo building and appearance, unit size and floor plan, and condo amenities. All reviews are moderated and checked to make sure that they are helpful and do not include false comments. The company uses a proven, proprietary method to ensure the integrity of all submitted reviews. CondoEssentials currently offers reviews for condos in Toronto and condos in Mississauga.

InsurEye Inc. is a Canadian company, located in Toronto, Ontario. InsurEye manages the largest Canadian review platform for various types of insurance and other financial products, including credit cards and mortgages.COAST SALISH TERRITORY/VANCOUVER, B.C., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vancity is giving more than 350 Metro Vancouver youth an opportunity to hear former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama speak today at an event hosted by the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade.



Former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama is a role model for millions of young people, says Vancity president and CEO Tamara Vrooman. Providing access for the next generation of leaders is a priority for us, and we hope they find the experience inspirational and motivating.

Vancity is working with the B.C. Ministry of Education, and various community organizations, to distribute the tickets to a diverse range of young people who may not otherwise have access to participate in events like this.

In addition to the tickets for youth to take part in the afternoon event, Vancity is also offering many of its members and community partners  including not-for-profit organizations and the clients those organizations serve  the chance to participate in the sold-out evening event.

Vancity is the presenting sponsor of tonights event, and Vrooman will moderate the on-stage conversation with Mrs. Obama.

Vancity has been a longtime Member of The Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, and both organizations share a commitment to promoting diversity in the leadership of our local communities and organizations. Vancity has a long history of supporting women in leadership and increasing access to opportunities for young women and children.

About Vancity

Vancity is a values-based financial co-operative serving the needs of its more than 523,000 member-owners and their communities in the Coast Salish and Kwakwakawakw territories, with 59 branches in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Victoria, Squamish and Alert Bay. With $25.6 billion in assets plus assets under administration, Vancity is Canadas largest community credit union. Vancity uses its assets to help improve the financial well-being of its members while at the same time helping to develop healthy com munities that are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.

Tweet us @vancity and connect with us on Facebook.com/Vancity.

For more information:

Brent Shearer | Vancity

T: 778-837-0394

mediarelations@vancity.comVANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Precipitate Gold Corp. (the Company or Precipitate) (TSXV:PRG) announces today, with great regret, the sudden death of one of the Companys founding Directors, Mr. Gary Freeman.



Gary was a prolific venture capital financier, a company builder, a former stock broker, and a promoter in the very best sense of the word. He contributed to the success of many Canadian listed issuers and played an important role as a Director of Precipitate. Gary was known for his unique brand of charm and sense of humour. At the time of his passing, Gary was President and CEO of Ethos Gold Corp. and a Director of other listed companies. Gary enjoyed a long and successful career in the capital markets, most notably as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Pediment Gold Corp. from 2005 to 2011, where he was responsible for raising funds and executing certain exploration campaigns that would lead to the discovery of the San Antonio deposit, the purchase of the La Colorada mine, and the eventual sale of Pediment to Argonaut Gold Inc. for approximately $140 million.

Jeffrey Wilson, Precipitates President and CEO commented, "It is with great sadness and regret that we announce the passing of our friend and colleague, Gary Freeman. As a founding Director of the Company, Garys input and contributions to the Company were invaluable. The Board of Directors, management and staff of Precipitate Gold are indebted to Gary for his significant contributions to the Company. Gary leaves behind many grateful colleagues and good friends and his unique and loveable character will be greatly missed. Our thoughts are with Gary's wife and family at this very difficult time."

About Precipitate Gold:

Precipitate Gold Corp. is a mineral exploration company focused on exploring and advancing its mineral property interests in the Tireo Gold Trend of the Dominican Republic. The Company also maintains assets in British Columbia and southeast Yukon Territory, including the Companys Reef property located immediately adjacent to Golden Predators 3 Aces Project in the Upper Hyland River area. The Company has entered into an Option to Purchase Agreement with Golden Predator, whereby Golden Predator can earn a 100% interest in the Reef claims by making certain staged payments in cash and shares and warrants. Precipitate is also actively evaluating additional high-impact property acquisitions with the potential to expand the Company's portfolio and increase shareholder value.

Additional information can be viewed at the Companys website www.precipitategold.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of Precipitate Gold Corp.,

Jeffrey Wilson

President & CEO

For further information, please contact Jeffrey Wilson:

Tel: 604-558-0335 Toll Free: 855-558-0335 investor@precipitategold.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward looking information. Generally, forward-looking information may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "proposed", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases, or by the use of words or phrases which state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, or might occur or be achieved. This forward-looking information reflects Precipitate Gold Corp.s (Precipitate or the Company) current beliefs and is based on information currently available to Company and on assumptions it believes are reasonable. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Precipitate to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: the exploration concessions may not be granted on terms acceptable to the Company, or at all; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the concessions acquired by the Company may not have attributes similar to those of surrounding properties; delay or failure to receive governmental or regulatory approvals; changes in legislation, including environmental legislation affecting mining; timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; conclusions of economic evaluations; and lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals. Although Precipitate has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Precipitate does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.Glen Ellyn, Ill., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Whether its a burning desire to learn a new language or a quest to explore the world, thousands of students both young and old have turned to College of DuPage to expand their global horizons.

Because CODs Field and Experiential Learning/Study Abroad/Global Education program is so successful in creating new opportunities for students, the Institute of International Education recently ranked it second among community colleges nationwide for international study opportunities.

Students and community members feel comfortable traveling with College of DuPage. They see the value of study abroad opportunities and want to travel with a professor to get the added benefit of that expert insight, said Maren McKellin, Field Studies/Study Abroad/Global Education program manager.

The College offers trips of varying length to a variety of places each year. For students wanting to immerse themselves fully in a language and culture, the office coordinates traditional semester abroad opportunities. Individuals interested in learning a new language or improving one they already speak can choose from among seven Summer Language Immersion programs to locations including Italy, Costa Rica and Japan. Students interested in diving a little deeper into a single subject, like Russian History or the Geology of Iceland, can enroll in short-term Field Studies.

Fewer than 10 percent of students in higher education study abroad and we want to change that, McKellin said.

While studying abroad is more expensive than studying locally, financial aid options can make an impossible-sounding trip doable. Field Studies/Study Abroad/Global Education staff work with students to investigate all their options, said Sue Kerby, Study Abroad coordinator.

We always talk to our students about building their story, finding things that set them apart from other students, she said. Study abroad does that. It gives students a unique chapter in their story and they take that experience with them when they leave COD, whether thats transferring to a four-year school or down the road when they start their careers.

Another benefit to the Colleges program is the diversity of the student groups, whether it be ethnicity, age or gender. Diverse groups of students can make for a more meaningful study abroad experience, McKellin said, as the COD travelers often have different perspectives on the culture based on their own personal life experiences. Its a strength for the student groups traveling and for the overall program.

Being a community college, and serving the populations that we do, theres value in going to class with people who dont look like traditional students or who come from very different backgrounds, she said. One of the things we enjoy is seeing groups of students who are at different points in their lives come together because of their common interest in a culture.

COD is one of the founding members of the Illinois Consortium of International Studies and Programs, which seeks to build and expand international opportunities for community college students. The long-standing membership means College staff have built strong relationships with partner institutions around the world, enabling COD to offer such a diverse program.

Its our ability to have different programs for different needs that sets us apart, Kerby said. We offer International Field Studies, Summer Language Immersion, and Semester Abroad. We have three types of study abroad programs and thats unique for a community college.

For more information on all College of DuPage study abroad opportunities, visit cod.edu/field or call (630) 942-2356.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0482cd5e-b672-4709-89c0-5a6c0116fe0aMOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CloudGenix today announced it has joined the Symantec Technology Integration Partner Program (TIPP), a global ecosystem composed of more than 100 participating technology companies, in a collaborative effort to combat cyber crime and secure the cloud generation.

As part of Symantec TIPP, CloudGenix can leverage an open ecosystem which includes a complete API framework, as well as integration with the Symantec Integrated Cyber Defense Platform. CloudGenix and Symantec will explore and strive to offer API-based integrated solutions that best service customers and help protect them from security threats. Also as part of Symantec TIPP, CloudGenix will have access to Symantec technology, tools, and support, to enable delivery of these API-integrated solutions to market faster and more efficiently.

On joining the Symantec TIPP, Kumar Ramachandran, CEO of CloudGenix, said, Symantec is a proven global leader in information security and threat prevention. By coupling AppFabric SD-WAN with Symantecs cloud-based security solutions, we provide businesses with a consistent security perimeter for all sites and SD-WAN to enable secure, performant connectivity regardless of where applications are deployed using policies that align with their business intent.

In the cloud generation, its important for companies to work with an open ecosystem to reduce the potential risk of fragmentation that can result in increased vulnerabilities and high operating costs, said Peter Doggart, vice president of Business Development at Symantec. By integrating with the latest, advanced security technologies, our partners can help protect their customers and data from threats. With the Symantec Technology Integration Partner Program, weve made our Integrated Cyber Defense Platform open for integration in order to develop deep technical integrations. Together, we can make a positive impact and help make the world a safer place from cyber threats.

Learn more about the Technology Integration Partner Program HERE.

About CloudGenix

CloudGenix (www.cloudgenix.com) is the software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) leader, revolutionizing networking by transforming legacy WANs into a radically simplified, secure, application-defined fabric and unified hybrid WAN. Enabling application-specific, service-level agreements (SLAs), CloudGenix controls network application performance based upon application-performance SLAs and business priority. CloudGenix ION (Instant-On Network) simplifies how WANs are designed and managed, enabling customers to build networks without networking, and achieve more than twice the performance at less than half the cost while extending data center-class security to the network edge. Founded in 2013 by a team that has delivered industry-leading products in networking, SDN, cloud, security and web-scale applications, CloudGenix serves world-class financial services, legal, retail and technology organizations.

Contact

CloudGenix

pr@cloudgenix.com



The Sidney City Council Tuesday approved an agreement supporting Agri-Plastics through LB840.

LB840, also known as the Local Option Municipal Economic Development Act, authorizes incorporated cities and villages to appropriate and spend local sales and property tax revenues for certain economic development purposes. These expenditures must come under compliance of the procedure as defined in LB840. LB840 was approved by Cheyenne County voters from 2007-2017, according to the presentation by Economic Development Director Melissa Norgard, and renewed for another an additional 10 years (2017-2...Officials from the Cheyenne County Chamber of Commerce will review plans and answer questions on a proposed project for Sidney's Hickory Square. The meeting will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20. in the Sidney City Council chambers.

Residents are encouraged to attend and ask questions, gather information on project specifics and funding, and offer community input on the downtown revitalization project.

The idea of Hickory Square started a few years ago when the City of Sidney received a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for Downtown Revitalization from the Nebraska Department of Economi...Avoiding national debt was one of George Washingtons greatest admonitions yet neither liberals nor conservatives have paid much attention to it. It would be well to reflect on his advice this Presidents Day.

The trillion dollar Republican proposal will raise overall spending caps by about $300 billion over the next two years and will make interest on the debt the largest growing part of the federal budget. This expenditure of the peoples hard-earned taxes purchases nothingsimply vanishes.

This prompted Senator Rand Paul to say, When the Democrats are in power, Republicans a...The Hermanos Madrid bar in the La Roca neighbourhood of Malaga now accepts Bitcoin as a form of payment.

The owners, the Madrid brothers, are convinced that it will soon be commonly accepted, and that their bar will have been the first in the province to embrace the future.MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PetVivo Holdings, Inc. (www.petvivo.com) (OTCMARKET:PETV) an emerging biomedical device Company, is moving Mr. David Merrill, a member of the Board of Directors, to cover the newly formed position of Special Revenue Consultant. His role under this title will be to oversee Marketing and Sales to successfully drive our product launch into meaningful revenues.



Mr. Merrills enjoyed a 40+ year career in the Medical Device arena, serving as an executive at Medtronic, St. Jude and I-Flow Kimberly Clark. Merrills focus was on sales and market development internationally. He served as Vice President, CRM, Asia-Pacific at Medtronic, and Vice President, International, at I-Flow/Kimberly Clark, stated Wes Hayne, PetVivo CEO. As one of his first actions he is announcing the addition of Tami Wenthold to represent sales and market development in Minnesota. Tami will join representatives located in Nebraska, Ohio, and Arizona.

You can feel the momentum building. Our field sales team is booming with enthusiasm. Meetings have been scheduled with Key Opinion Leaders during the NVAC meeting later this week. Its an exciting time to be a member of the Kush-PetVivo team, Merrill stated.

First small batch processing to test the production format is expected to be produced within a week. Petvivo is using a date of mid-March to mid-April for commercial release. An independent sales team is being assembled along with training, market materials and the numerous items and issues that make up a typical product launch. Veterinaries should start hearing about the product with a soft launch through April and May 2018.

Company management and representatives have been attending industry trade shows in anticipation of the Kush product launch. Cynthia Sweatt, Office Director/Sales Co-Ordinator attended the Veterinary Meeting & Expo (VMX) show last week in Orlando, Florida. As the countrys largest trade show of its kind, it was previously called the North American Veterinary Community (NAVC) show. February 15-17 of this week, Wes Hayne (CEO), Randy Wenthold, (Chief Science Officer) and Cynthia Sweatt, (Office Director/Sales Co-Ordinator) will all be in attendance for the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association (MVMA) in Rochester, Minnesota. During their stay in Rochester they will be spending a fair amount of time at Elite Custom Solutions, which will be hosting the manufacturing of Kush.

About PetVivo Holdings, Inc.



PetVivo Holdings Inc. (OTCPINK:PETV) is an emerging biomedical device company focused on the licensing and commercialization of innovative medical devices for pets and pet therapeutics. PetVivo is leveraging investments made in the human medical device industry to commercialize therapeutics for pets in a capital and time efficient way. A key component of this strategy is the accelerated timeline to revenues for veterinary medical devices, which enter the market much earlier than the more stringently regulated pharmaceuticals.

PetVivo's strategy is to commercialize proprietary products from human medical device companies specifically for the companion animal market. The companys product pipeline includes seventeen animal and human therapeutics. A portfolio of twenty patents protects the companys products, production processes and biomaterials. PetVivos lead product, a veterinarian-administered joint injection for the treatment of osteoarthritis in dogs, is scheduled for launch later this year.

The Company will also be seeking licensing partners to commercialize its portfolio of proprietary human clinical therapeutics in large market sectors, including: cardiovascular, orthopedic, urology and aesthetics.

(All Press Releases Will Be Available for Viewing on Facebook or the Web at www.petvivo.com )

Forward-Looking commercial Statements:

The foregoing material may contain forward-looking statements. We caution that such statements may be subject to uncertainties and that actual results could differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Readers accordingly should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which do not reflect unknown or unanticipated events or circumstances occurring after the date of these forward-looking statements.

CONTACT:

Wes Hayne

CEO

PetVivo Holdings, Inc.

Email: info1@petvivo.com

Main: 962-405-6216

Direct: (763) 443-7272

Source: Uptick Newswire



CAMILLUS, N.Y. -- West Genesee School District Superintendent Chris Brown wants lawmakers to do more to prevent school shootings.

"We need changes in legislation," Brown said. "This is not a Democrat or Republican thing, this is a human thing."

Brown took to Twitter, as he does every morning, to address the community. But instead of sharing his usual lighthearted fact of the day, Brown addressed the Florida school shooting -- the 18th school shootings of 2018, according to ABC News.

"... My fact would be that too many people have access to guns who shouldn't and there is not enough support for mental health," Brown tweeted. "Thoughts and prayers mean nothing."

Brown, who has served as a superintendent for 18 years, said he closely studies school shootings. From what he's learned, Brown said, the change needs to come from policymakers and lawmakers.

"We need to get serious about who is allowed to carry a firearm and who is not," Brown said.

Brown said access to mental heath services also needs to be addressed. He said there are not enough resources for mental wellness support for the people that "we know need the support."

"What about the ones that we don't know about?" he said.

In a message to West Genesee school district staff Wednesday night, Brown also addressed these issues.

"The words 'thoughts and prayers' will be thrown around like they mean something," Brown wrote. "They don't. Elected officials will argue gun control and mental wellness, as they always do, and nothing will happen. Again."

Brown said he'll be bombarded by salespeople from "school safety" companies in the next few days "trying to capitalize on this tragedy by attempting to scare parents into making us spend money on bulletproof glass and backpacks."

"There may even be a few calls to put school resource officers in every building," Brown wrote. "All of those things combined will not stop another school shooting from happening."

What will stop school shootings?

Brown said it's the district's relationship with students, knowledge of school safety plans, working relationship with the local police department and access to mental health care.

The superintendent encourages parents to have open communication with their children and reminds everyone "if you see something, say something."

Brown said the district has created safety plans and practiced them thoroughly and frequently. Staff and students have also conducted "active shooter drills."

Brown is also making sure that the district's employees have Crisis Prevention Institute Training and are working with Upstate University Hospital on trauma wound control.

"All of those things make us feel prepared, and I am confident that we will execute those things to perfection should we ever need to. I hope we never need to," Brown said in his blog. "The bigger picture though is since we cannot rely on lawmakers and policymakers to help us, we need to rely on each other."Syracuse, NY -- A Syracuse refugee who had been in this country for less than two weeks will spend 20 to 23 years in state prison after admitting to killing a fellow refugee.

Award Kabayiza, 25, pleaded guilty this morning to first-degree manslaughter in the November 2016 stabbing and beating death of 64-year-old Jesca Nyirakubanza inside her Butternut Street residence. In two decades, he's expected to be deported back to his native Democratic Republic of Congo.

Kabayiza told police that he assaulted the victim by stabbing her with pen in the neck, striking her in face a number of times and standing on her neck.

One of the major hurdles during his court case has been the language barrier. Kabayiza speaks a specific dialect of Swahili called Kinyarwanda. Numerous court proceedings have been delayed by translators who struggled to translate or didn't know his specific dialect.

Today, prosecutor Michael Kasmarek said that Kabayiza's family -- and the killer himself -- had sought help for mental issues in the days leading up to the homicide.

In fact, Kabayiza's uncle was warning the victim's family of his instability when Kabayiza locked the door to the residence and killed Nyirakubanza, Kasmarek said.

"Moments before this fatal attack, members of Kabayiza's family had sought members of victim's family to tell them he suffered from this ailment," Kasmarek said in court.

In a confession to police, Kabayiza said: "Yes, the police have treated me fairly, however the woman I killed bit me in the finger and hurt me," according to a translation read in court.

Kasmarek said the killer had a mark on his finger consistent with a bite mark, but it's unclear how he got it. Only Kabayiza and the victim were present when she was killed.

It's unclear, other than his own explanation, what motivated the homicide. Kabayiza had just been in an argument with his uncle -- who was concerned about him -- before the beating.

Kabayiza came to the United States in the fall 2016 to join his family here. Kabayiza had been living in a Ghanaian refugee camp and had witnessed the brutal murders of his father and mother and violent attacks on other family members, Kasmarek said today.

Kabayiza told authorities he had sought mental health treatment while still in Africa.

Once in Syracuse, his family had noticed signs of paranoid behavior before the killing, Kasmarek said.

The day before, Kabayiza had checked himself into a local hospital for help, Kasmarek said. The hospital -- unable to understand what he was saying -- treated him for a cold.

"Evidence (showed) he had sought medical treatment due to his condition, but tragically due to language issue, his real mental problem wasn't able to be addressed," Kasmarek said in court. He declined to identify the hospital, saying there was no reason to believe the institution did anything wrong.

Kabayiza, through a translator, told authorities later that he went to the hospital to get help for his mental issues.

Defense lawyer Ralph Cognetti has long argued that Kabayiza's poor mental health -- as determined by a defense doctor -- should have led to an insanity plea that would get into a secure mental hospital.

Kabayiza suffered from "severe PTSD" (post-traumatic stress disorder) caused by the violence he endured in his war-torn homeland, the doctor found.

A prosecution doctor did not disagree, Kasmarek said. But Kabayiza should still be held criminally liable, he argued.

So Kabayiza was due to stand trial this week for second-degree murder. County Court Judge Thomas J. Miller was called upon to decide his fate after he gave up the right to a jury trial.

Under law, the judge could have found that Kabayiza was responsible for Nyirakubanza's death, but that he was suffering from "extreme emotional disturbance."

That would have reduced any conviction that would typically be murder to manslaughter.

Kasmarek said the facts showed that Kabayiza appeared to be emotionally distressed and that, to him, his actions could have appeared reasonable at the time.

The prosecutor noted Kabayiza's experience with violence, his family's concern and his own attempt to get help, as well as Kabayiza's confession to police, as evidence that Kabayiza was emotionally disturbed.

Today, instead of going to trial, both sides agreed that Kabayiza would plead guilty to manslaughter. The judge promised him a sentence of anywhere from 20 to 23 years, to be determined at sentencing.MIAMI, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Watsco, Inc. (NYSE:WSO) announced today that Barry Logan, Senior Vice President, is scheduled to present at the Barclays Industrial Select Conference being held at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel in Florida on Wednesday, February 21, 2018 at 1:15 p.m. (ET). Internet users can listen to a live webcast of the presentation at the Investor Relations section of Watscos website at http://www.watsco.com.



About Watsco, Inc.

Watsco operates the largest distribution network for heating, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC/R) products with locations in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico, and on an export basis to Latin America and the Caribbean. Watsco estimates that over 250,000 contractors and technicians visit or call one of its 560 locations each year to get information, obtain technical support and buy products.

Watsco has launched a variety of customer-obsessed technologies to transform how HVAC/R contractors and technicians are served in the marketplace. Watsco believes speed, productivity and efficiency will be ever more critical as the digital era progresses and is investing to ensure an unparalleled customer-experience. Proprietary innovations launched by Watsco include:

Mobile apps, websites and e-commerce platforms, incorporating the industrys most data-rich repository of product information.

Business intelligence and data analytics to enable insightful decision-making by 600+ managers.

Order fulfillment software to improve speed and convenience of fulfilling nearly 7 million orders

Predictive analytics-driven demand planning and inventory optimization software to improve order fill-rates, increase inventory turns, reduce real estate requirements and improve long-term productivity.

HVAC/R products provide comfort to homes and businesses regardless of the outdoor climate. There are approximately 92 million central air conditioning and heating systems installed in the United States that have been in service more than 10 years. Older systems often operate below todays government mandated energy efficiency and environmental standards. Watsco has an opportunity to accelerate the replacement of these systems at a scale greater than its competitors as the movement toward reducing energy consumption and its environmental impact continues. This is especially important since heating and cooling accounts for approximately half of the energy consumed in a typical U.S. home.

Additional information about Watsco may be found at http://www.watsco.com.SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A Syracuse motorcycle shop owner was sentenced to 3 to 6 years in state prison for failing to pay $37,323 in New York State sales tax.

Robert Woodward, the owner of Rob's Cycle Supply, was charged with collecting sales tax from customers between March 2012 and August 2013, and keeping it for himself. The store, on Wolf Street, specialized in motorcycle repair and parts.

The state Department of Taxation and Finance today announced Woodward, 45, of Clay, pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and third-degree criminal tax fraud, both felonies. He was sentenced on Feb. 8 in Onondaga County Court.

"Business owners who disregard their obligations to collect and remit sales tax violate the trust of their customers, deprive the communities where they operate of revenue needed for vital services, and put similar businesses at a competitive disadvantage," Acting Commissioner Nonie Manion said in a news release. "I thank the Onondaga County District Attorney's office for prosecuting this case."

Woodward also tried to pay several tax assessments, including the sales tax owed, with a forged check. Since his guilty plea, Woodward has made a partial payment for his combined tax liabilities, according to the state.Update: The passenger has been identified as a New York state government employee and reportedly suspended from her job.

*******

A woman has been kicked off a plane to Syracuse for complaining about being seated near a mother and her baby.

Marissa Rundell, a 19-year-old mom from Rochester, shared video of the incident last week, showing an angry passenger "screaming" at staff on a Delta Air Lines flight from New York's JFK Airport to Syracuse's Hancock Airport. She said she was traveling with her 8-month-old son.

"This lady thought she was going to be rude to me and Mason now she has no way home today. Thank you to the lovely Delta flight attendant for not letting this women bully us," Rundell wrote Tuesday, Feb. 6.

"Karma is a b****."

Rundell told the Daily Mail on Wednesday that the incident began immediately when the other woman boarded the plane. She was the last to get on the plane, and was shouting and swearing.

"She came to the back and slammed her bags down. She said 'this is f----- ridiculous. It's bulls--- having to sit in the back of the plane,'" Rundell recalled.

When Rundell asked the other passenger to stop swearing around her young child, the woman allegedly said "shut the f--- up and shove it."

Video shows the woman asking for another seat, telling a flight attendant that she's "not sitting near a crying baby." The attendant says the woman can take the next flight, but the woman refuses and asks for the employee's name -- Tabitha -- and ID number.

"Thank you, Tabitha," the woman says. "You may not have a job tomorrow."

Tabitha then tells another crew member that she wants the woman, who has not been identified, removed from the flight.

"She was screaming at the baby," Tabitha says.

"I'm not screaming. I'll be quiet now. Please. OK? I'm sorry. I was really stressed out," the woman says in a desperate plea.

Photo: Marissa Rundell and her 8-month old son, Mason

Rundell told the Daily Mail that the woman continued arguing when a gate agent came to remove her from the flight. She finally left after getting her bags.

"I thought it was funny how she was acting like a child throwing a tantrum," Rundell said.

According to Fox News, the flight was operated by Endeavor Air, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta. A spokesperson for the airline said the woman was removed for not following the company's standards requested of its passengers and crew.

"We ask that customers embrace civility and respect one another when flying Delta," a Delta spokesperson told Fox News. "This customer's behavior toward a fellow customer on a flight from New York to Syracuse was not in keeping with those standards. We appreciate our Endeavor Air flight attendant's commitment to Delta's core values and apologize to the other customers on board Flight 4017 who experienced the disturbance."SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The Syracuse city school board voted unanimously Wednesday to ask the state to impose a three-year moratorium on charter school expansion in the city.

But the move may prove to be little more than symbolic because a state Education Department official said today the law does not allow moratoriums on charter schools.

The state denied a similar request last year from the Buffalo school board.

"If it's rejected we still have a position the members of the school board are taking as a group," said Derrick Dorsey, Syracuse's school board president. "We wanted to make a statement."

He said charter school expansion is draining money from the Syracuse city schools the district needs to serve refugees, newly arrived immigrants and other high-need students.

The district pays $24.3 million a year, nearly 6 percent of its budget, for charter school tuition. It expects that amount to nearly double over the next four years. Meanwhile the district's tax revenues are flat, Dorsey said.

There are three charter schools operating in the city and a fourth will open this fall.

"We are not anti-charter school," Dorsey said. "But charter schools can turn people away and we can't."

About 18 percent of students enter the district unable to speak English. "If English isn't your first language we need extra resources in the classroom to make sure you are successful and pass your exams," he said.

"We have a lot of different unique challenges in a diverse district that may require more resources than any other district in the state," Dorsey said.

Charter schools are independent public schools funded by the district and state that operate under a contract known as a "charter." They are exempt from some of the regulations governing typical public schools. Charter schools are authorized by either the state Board of Regents, which oversees the state Education Department, or the State University of New York.If you love grocery shopping late at night, you may soon need to find a new place for a 3 a.m. food run.

Wegmans announced Thursday that some of its locations, including two in the Syracuse area and three near Buffalo, will no longer be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Wegmans at 4722 Onondaga Blvd. in Syracuse (near Western Lights) and 4256 James Street in East Syracuse will close from midnight to 6 a.m. starting March 4.

The Buffalo News reports the Rochester-based retailer will also end its overnight hours at 1577 Military Road in Niagara Falls, 675 Alberta Drive in Amherst, and 601 Amherst St. near Elmwood Avenue.

"This will allow us to better align our employee resources with the times when the vast majority of our customers are shopping in those stores," Wegmans spokesperson Michele Mehaffy told the publication.

"Bottom line, there are just too few employees and too few customers overnight, and it makes sense to operate more efficiently during the overnight hours."

Mehaffy said that it's possible other stores still staying open 24/7 could cut its hours in the future, but Wegmans has no plans for changes at other locations.

No other changes have been announced in other Upstate New York locations. Wegmans spokesperson Jo Natale told the Democrat & Chronicle that all of its Rochester-area locations are operating as usual; one location in Geneva already closes from midnight to 6 a.m., while the rest of the stores in the Rochester area are open all day and night.

According to the Buffalo News, most Wegmans stores in other states already close overnight as supermarket competitors in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts are not open 24 hours.A new report says the woman kicked off a plane to Syracuse last week has been identified as a New York state government employee.

Marissa Rundell, a 19-year-old mom from Rochester, shared video of an incident last week, showing an angry passenger "screaming" at staff on a Delta Air Lines flight from New York's JFK Airport to Syracuse's Hancock Airport. The passenger was complaining about being seated near Rundell's 8-month-old son.

Spectrum News reports the passenger has been identified as Susan Peirez, program director for the NY State Council on the Arts.

"I work for the governor," she can be heard saying at the beginning of the video, referring to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

"You may not have a job tomorrow," Peirez told a flight attendant before being removed from the plane on Feb. 6.

An employee for the council said Peirez has been suspended for her behavior.

"State employees are and must be held to the highest standard both professionally and personally. We were notified of this situation and have commenced an investigation. This employee has been removed from the office and placed on leave until further notice and until the inquiry is resolved," Director of Public Information Ronni Reich told Spectrum on Thursday.

According to WGRZ, Peirez made $94,815 in 2016 for her work on the state Council on the Arts.

Rundell told the Daily Mail on Wednesday that the incident began when Peirez boarded the plane. She was the last to get on the plane, and was shouting and swearing.

"She came to the back and slammed her bags down. She said 'this is f----- ridiculous. It's bulls--- having to sit in the back of the plane,'" Rundell recalled.

When Rundell asked Peirez to stop swearing around her young child, Peirez allegedly said "shut the f--- up and shove it."

Video shows Peirez asking for another seat, telling a flight attendant that she's "not sitting near a crying baby." The attendant says the woman can take the next flight, but the woman refuses and asks for the employee's name, Tabitha, and ID number -- and then threatens to have her fired.

Tabitha then tells another crew member that she wants Peirez removed from the flight.

"She was screaming at the baby," Tabitha says.

"I'm not screaming. I'll be quiet now. Please. OK? I'm sorry. I was really stressed out," Peirez said in a desperate plea before finally being taken off the flight.

Rundell shared video of the incident on Facebook, saying she thought Peirez deserved to be removed from the plane.

"This lady thought she was going to be rude to me and Mason now she has no way home today. Thank you to the lovely Delta flight attendant for not letting this women bully us," Rundell wrote Tuesday, Feb. 6.

"Karma is a b****."

According to Fox News, the flight was operated by Endeavor Air, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta. A spokesperson for the airline said the woman was removed for not following the company's standards requested of its passengers and crew.

"We ask that customers embrace civility and respect one another when flying Delta," a Delta spokesperson told Fox News. "This customer's behavior toward a fellow customer on a flight from New York to Syracuse was not in keeping with those standards. We appreciate our Endeavor Air flight attendant's commitment to Delta's core values and apologize to the other customers on board Flight 4017 who experienced the disturbance."Roy S. Gutterman is an associate professor and director of the Tully Center for Free Speech at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. He is one of the organizers of a coalition supporting the New Voices campaign.

Roy S. Gutterman

New York has been a beacon of free press rights since before it was a state. From colonial printer John Peter Zenger, who in 1734 convinced a jury that truth should overcome his trial for seditious libel, to The New York Times fighting for First Amendment rights in landmark Supreme Court cases in the 1960s and early '70s, the Empire State has supported free press rights of almost all its citizens.



Now it is time to extend those rights to student journalists in high schools and colleges.



The Student Journalist Free Speech Act, introduced in the New York Assembly last week by Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Binghamton, seeks to protect the free speech and free press rights of student journalists in both high schools and colleges. Its Senate sponsor, Republican Thomas O'Mara of Big Flats, reintroduced an expanded version of the bill this week.

This proposed legislation follows three decades of potentially rigid control exerted by public school administers since the Supreme Court ruled in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (1988). Under Hazelwood, school administrators have a lot of power to control, censor and punish students who engage in serious journalism, often about controversial or sensitive topics.



Hazelwood sent a chill down the spine of student journalists and their advisers that has not thawed. Hence, the need for the legislation.



Over the past few years, the Student Press Law Center, the country's pre-eminent advocate for student press rights, has organized the New Voices campaign, a national push for state legislatures to pass laws protecting student journalists' rights.



The New York bill's justification statement explains:

"In many states including New York, school administrators have the authority to prohibit content from being published in school newspapers over the objection of student journalists. This legislation would guarantee freedom of expression and freedom of the press to all student journalists, including both public and private high schools and colleges and universities by giving them final editorial control, rather than school administrators. This will allow for student independence and individual initiative; student ownership of their publications which would foster a greater sense of civic engagement and increase the protections of student journalistic expression."



The proposed law also calls for reasonable control over libelous, slanderous, obscene content, privacy invasions and speech that is unlawful or "materially and substantially" disruptive to the educational institution.



These are all standards borrowed from Hazelwood and the landmark student speech case, Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), which sprang from high school students wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. Tinker famously stated that students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.



Nevertheless, schools have been precarious places for speech issues. A series of Supreme Court cases has repeatedly straddled a line between allowing students to express themselves as citizens and speakers while attempting to balance the needs to educate and maintain some degree of order within classrooms. There needs to be a reasonable balance. But too often, that balance tips toward censorship and sanctions against both students and student media advisers.



Even though the SPLC tracks this issue and high-profile cases of censorship or punishment sometimes garner headlines, there is no measurement for the chilling effect. How can you measure self-censorship?



It is also important to note that as much as student journalism is a venue for learning about and practicing journalism, student media is just as much an exercise in civics education and democracy. Student journalists provide important coverage of issues close to their lives. No journalist is closer to their subjects, sources and readers than student journalists. And, no population needs information near and dear to them more than students.



Student media helps young people learn about their world, it supports literacy and media literacy as well as democratic citizenship values. Journalism, even student journalism, fuels our democracy.



New Voices efforts are underway in New Jersey, Nebraska, Missouri, Minnesota and Wisconsin. To date, more than a dozen states have laws that protect student journalists. California was the first state to provide protections for student journalist in 1977 with the California Student Free Expression Law. Other states with similar laws include Pennsylvania, Washington state, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Maryland, Kansas, Oregon, and recently North Dakota.



As an historic paragon of press rights, it is time New York joins the club.



New York law has been at the forefront of protecting the free press for decades: from how the state defines defamation and its narrow definition of invasion of privacy to legislation that protects the use of confidential sources, opens public records and makes it difficult for "libel tourists" to enforce foreign libel judgements in the state. New York's constitution has also vested its citizens with free speech protections that even exceed those afforded under the federal First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.



At a time when the news media - all news media - need more protection, New York can make a statement and start protecting our journalists while they're still young.



More from our guest columnistsWASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. John Katko on Thursday called for Democrats and Republicans in Congress to work together to address a wave of mass shootings, and said it's not acceptable for Congress to ignore the issue.

"We need to have conversations that may make both sides of the aisle a little uncomfortable, and I'm willing to lead that effort," said Katko, R-Camillus, a gun rights supporter with a top rating from the National Rifle Association.

Katko said in a statement that he has "become increasingly frustrated by the level of discourse that has unfolded in the wake of these horrific shootings and the failure of Republicans and Democrats alike to produce meaningful, bipartisan reforms."

The second-term congressman said he will work across the aisle with Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-Calif., and the House Mental Health Caucus to examine whether there is a significant correlation between mass shootings and mental illness.

"The inaction in Congress to date is unacceptable," Katko said. "I'm hopeful that our efforts will begin a productive and bipartisan dialogue that will yield real reforms."

Katko made his comments in the aftermath of the shooting at a high school in Florida that left 17 people dead on Wednesday. The suspect, Nikolas Cruz, had been receiving treatment at a mental health clinic but had not been to the clinic for more than a year, Broward County Mayor Beam Furr told CNN.

"Gun violence has decreased dramatically nationwide, yet, the number of mass shootings nationwide continues to rise at an alarming rate," Katko said. "The common thread in most, if not all, of these instances is mental illness."

Katko indicated he would support new legislation to keep guns from individuals suffering from mental illness. In the past, he has voted in favor of NRA-supported bills that expanded or reinforced gun rights.

In December, Katko voted to pass a bill that allows owners of concealed-carry permits to transport their guns into any other state, even if those states have more restrictive permitting laws. The bill was the top legislative priority for the NRA in 2017.

Contact Mark Weiner anytime: Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751Hope Cafe and Tea House inside the Village Mall in Liverpool is a great place to go for unusual coffees and teas as well as delicious food. When one can do good for others at the same time one enjoys all that, what could be better?

Founded to help support The People Project, a local charity that helps people around the world, the little restaurant uses all profits for good works. They do this by offering drinks you probably won't find anywhere else in this area and a blend of Peruvian, Italian and American food.

The Hope Cafe is open only during the day, so we arrived at mid-afternoon on a cold Tuesday to find their community lounge softly lighted and filled with sofas, armchairs, tables and picnic style dinettes. The ambiance, like a quiet corner of one's own home, was matched by the sweet smile and friendly words of greeting from the young woman who took our order and payment at a desk near the front door.

The two most unusual drinks offered here are esencia de cafe ($2) and the "emoliente," a Peruvian tea based on barley ($3.50 for 20 ounces). We ordered both, as well as an empanada de pollo ($4.25), guacamole with chips ($6.75), the day's combination offer of a panini and bowl of soup ($9.75), and a Liege waffle ($3.50) and baklava ($2.50) for desserts.

We had never tried an emoliente before, and our experience with roasted barley tea led us to think this would be just okay. However, though the scent of the barley steamed from the large cup, the flavor was dominated by the other ingredients, which included many spices and herbs, cinnamon, chia, lime, aloe and a touch of sugar. It was literally mouth-watering hot, and we knew we would want it iced in summer.

The best comparison for the esencia de cafe would be a slightly larger, much smoother espresso. The drink could have been hotter but was delicious with the raw sugar and half and half provided on a sideboard, where ice water and cups were also available.

Everything else we had ordered came out at once and made a very large meal for two.

Our guacamole, served with gluten-free chips, was the only dish we were served that didn't quite suit us, as its salt level was higher than we prefer. It was, however, herby, fresh and delicious otherwise, with an enjoyably looser texture than usual.

The chicken and barley soup that came in combination with a panini as the day's special was served very hot and fragrant with cumin. The light broth held chicken, celery and herbs made substantial by the soft-cooked barley.

The panini we chose to go with the soup was stuffed with tender pulled pork cooked in a tomato-based barbecue sauce made in the restaurant with, according to its creator, Matt, "everything in it...about 20 different spices." The blend was only a touch sweet and full of deep, rich flavor. The whole grain ciabatta it was served on is brought in from Maryland but was very fresh and chewy.

Our empanada, filled with a blend of stewed chicken, olives and hard-boiled egg, had a doughy crust that surprised us with its interesting texture. This was much tastier than a plain white-bread dough.

The main sauce that came with the empanada was a mildly spicy dip made with yellow aji peppers. On request, we were also given a hotter sauce based on rocoto chilies. Both were delectable, supplying heat that underscored rather than overwhelming other fruity flavors.

As varied and interesting as our mains had been, the desserts offered were equally good. Our baklava was drenched in honey and stuffed full of the honey-walnut mixture we expected. But it was the Liege waffle that really caught our attention.

Named for the town in Belgium, a Liege waffle is made with a dough rather than a batter, and with beet sugar pearls that caramelize the exterior. The resulting texture is cake-like, and served with fresh berries or with powdered sugar only, it would make a fine dessert or snack for two. At $3.50, it was a gift.

Hope Cafe is proud of its Peruvian heritage. Its signature drinks, particularly the emoliente, are healthful and delicious. The comfort and welcome of the venue demonstrates why the owner calls it a "community lounge." This is a place to return to again and again, for the welcome, the food and drink and to help support the work the associated charity performs. We certainly will be back.

The Details

The Restaurant: 305 Vine St., #5, Liverpool. 315-451-5121.

Credit Cards? Yes

Access to Disabled? Easy

Reservations? Yes, for groups

Children's menu? Off-menu choices are cheerfully prepared.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Mondays, 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. Closed Sundays.

Cost: Mains on the menu range from $4 to $9.75. A couple could expect to pay $15-$25. For our review, we ordered from across the menu, and our total for two including two drinks, a starter, two mains and two desserts, with tax and a 20 percent tip, was $38.70.Divers from the Monroe County Sheriff's Office scuba team have located a car at the bottom of the Genesee River that belongs to a missing Perinton couple.

Police have been searching for Robert and Mary Ross for more than two weeks. Robert, 73, and Mary, 72, have not been seen since Jan. 30.

Dive teams and investigators are working to raise the sunken car Thursday from the Genesee River near the Pelican's Nest restaurant in Charlotte.

The sheriff's office confirmed Thursday that the sport utility vehicle found underwater was the same 2017 Kia Sorrento owned by Robert and Mary Ross. They did not say if divers located anyone inside the vehicle.

The vehicle, initially located Wednesday with side-sonar from a boat checking the area, was stuck in the mud at the bottom of the river.

Robert and Mary Ross were reported missing after a social worker at Strong Memorial Hospital notified authorities on Feb. 5 that Robert had missed three appointments for cancer treatment.

#BREAKING Divers start SUV recovery in connection to missing Perinton couple case https://t.co/SxFT9VTEI7  Democrat & Chronicle (@DandC) February 15, 2018

Robert was recently diagnosed with brain cancer. He and his wife had made arrangements for treatments before they went missing. According to their son Bobby Ross, his father was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma, an inoperable brain tumor. He had between 6 to 18 months to live.

According to News10 WHEC, pictures from their WeatherBug camera show a white vehicle and a couple in the Pelican's Nest parking lot near the boat launch in Charlotte on Jan. 31. The images were captured at 11:01 a.m., noon, 1 p.m., and 2 p.m. The car is in the parking lot from 11:01 a.m. through 1 p.m., but it is gone by 2 p.m. that same day. The station's camera only archives one screen capture per hour.



This is the same area where dive teams are working to raise the sunken vehicle. According to the Democrat & Chronicle, it is possible the vehicle entered the water via a private boat launch next to the Pelican's Nest and was carried a little way by the river current before sinking and coming to rest on the riverbed.SCHENECTADY -- Six-inch strands of white hair -- looped and tied with a piece of thread, folded into a letter and sealed in an envelope -- were tucked into a worn red leather almanac published in 1793, and closed with a metal clasp.

The hair went undiscovered for a century.

This hidden time capsule of ephemera sat unnoticed amid a large archival collection comprising old books and rare manuscripts tightly packed on shelves at Union College's Schaffer Library.

The hair was found recently during an inventory review. Imagine the archivist's surprise when the strands turned out to be the hair of George Washington, first president of the United States, whose likeness graces the $1 bill.

John Myers, catalog and metadata librarian, made the discovery. "He was very excited. It's not the kind of thing you run into every day," said Dan Michelson, a historical records project archivist who flagged the well-worn red leather almanac for further examination but did not open the clasp and unlock the mystery.

The hair was given as a keepsake to James A. Hamilton, third son of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton and his wife, Eliza Schuyler Hamilton. The almanac also concealed a folded 1804 Schuyler family letter.

Alexander and Eliza Hamilton, popularized in Lin-Manuel Miranda's hip-hop Broadway hit "Hamilton," were married in 1780 at the Schuyler Mansion in Albany's South End. Washington was a close friend of the prominent family and spent several nights at the Schuyler Mansion. The envelope was inscribed: "Washington's hair, L.S.S. & GBS from James A Hamilton given by his mother, Aug. 10, 1871."

The keepsake Washington locks were later handed down from James A. Hamilton to his granddaughters, Louisa Lee Schuyler and Georgina Schuyler.

College officials sent photographs of the hair, letter, envelope and almanac to John Reznikoff, a noted manuscripts and documents dealer in Westport, Conn. He is considered the nation's foremost authority on hair from historical figures. He had no doubt of its authenticity.

"Without DNA, you're never positive, but I believe it's 100 percent authentic," Reznikoff told a college official. He is regularly called as an expert witness in legal proceedings regarding contested documents. He also is listed in the Guinness World Records book for owning the largest collection of hair from notable figures including Napoleon, Washington, Lincoln and Beethoven.

"There's no reason to suspect the hair is not authentic," said Heidi Hill, site manager of the state-run Schuyler Mansion. "The Washington and Schuyler families were close friends. Locks of hair were given out frequently as mementos in that era, the way you'd give a photograph today."

In fact, a gold-trimmed glass pendant containing locks of Washington's hair is displayed in the visitors center of the Schuyler Mansion. The historic site has enjoyed a surge of visitors due to the excitement generated by the record-setting Broadway musical. Hill calls it "the Hamilton effect."

"I'm fascinated that they're still finding historic artifacts like this, and it makes me wonder what else is out there," said David Hayes of Loudonville, a collector who purchased an original letter by Alexander Hamilton at a Sotheby's auction and loaned it to the Schuyler Mansion.

Hayes also commissioned an original painting by Len Tantillo that depicts a 1783 meeting at the Schuyler Mansion between Washington, Hamilton and his father-in-law, Gen. Philip Schuyler, which he also loaned to the mansion. "This is another great example of the rich history Albany has with the Founding Fathers."

"The discovery is an affirmation of the richness of our archival collection and of Union's link to the early history of America," said India Spartz, head of special collections and archives at Union. Founded in 1795, Union became the first college chartered by the Board of Regents of New York and is one of the oldest non-denominational colleges in the country.

The Schuyler family patriarch, Revolutionary War hero Gen. Philip Schuyler, is one of Union's founders. Schuyler lobbied to establish the college in Schenectady rather than in Albany. Schuyler's portrait hangs in Hale House dining hall on campus. Schuyler's great-grandson, Robert Livingston Schuyler, presented the painting at Union's first Founders Day on Feb. 27, 1937.

One aspect of the mystery remains intact: There is no documentation as to when Union acquired the almanac that contained Washington's hair and the family letter. The book is the "Gaines Universal Register or American and British Kalendar for the year 1793," a compendium of population estimates for the American colonies, members of Congress and other measures of the young republic. The book is also filled with scrawled notations in the hand of Gen. Schuyler's son, Philip Jeremiah Schuyler.

The book was inscribed to Schuyler as "a present from his friend Mr. Philip Ten Eycke New York April 20, 1793."

College officials and Hill speculated that the items may have been donated to Union by Schuyler descendants in the early part of the 20th century, perhaps for the inaugural Founders Day that honored the Schuyler family.

"A lot of these objects were donated around that time because the families of the Founding Fathers were feeling squeezed out by nouveau riche American society," Hill said. "Donating historic artifacts was a way for these families to reassert their prominence."

Paul Grondahl is the director of the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany and a former Times Union reporter. He can be reached at grondahlpaul@gmail.com

- By Paul Grondahl, Times Union, Albany, N.Y.MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FogHorn Systems, a leading developer of edge intelligence software for industrial and commercial Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, today announced its participation in the upcoming Bosch Connected World 2018 Conference, taking place in Berlin from February 21-22, 2018. At the show, FogHorn will demonstrate the increasing role its software platform is playing for Industrial IoT (IIoT) applications requiring rapid synthesis of disparate digital, video and audio data feeds into actionable insights in real-time.



The powerful combination of edge analytics and edge machine learning enables real-time decision-making by operators in close proximity to the machines and processes they manage and has become the foundation for digital transformation in every industrial sector. FogHorns solution allows application developers, systems integrators and production engineers to build high-performance edge analytics solutions for their industrial operations, and rapidly deploy those applications throughout highly-dispersed distributed edge environments. This approach of processing data at its source not only reduces bandwidth usage, data storage cost and cyber security exposure but facilitates the high reliability, latency free real-time responsiveness that is critical to a growing number of more advanced IIoT applications.

Clearly some of the most valuable industrial sensor data today is coming in the form of audio and video, said Sastry Malladi, CTO, FogHorn Systems. To effectively address the most complex and mission critical IIoT use cases, sensor fusion with edge analytics and machine learning must be deployed as close to the data source as possible. Today, FogHorn is the only vendor capable of delivering this level of edge intelligence in highly constrained computing environments.

What: Bosch Connected World is an annual event that celebrates the Internet of Things industry, and its purpose is to provide the inspiration, education, and connections you need to thrive in the IoT.

When: February 21-22, 2018

Where: Booth B-11, STATION-Berlin, Berlin, Germany

What: At the event, FogHorn will demonstrate how edge intelligence with advanced sensor fusion incorporating digital, video and audio data streams is being used to enhance industrial operations. Attendees will also be able to witness first-hand demonstrations of edge intelligence applications for the manufacturing and oil & gas sectors.

For further details about FogHorn at Bosch Connected World 2018, please visit https://www.foghorn.io/bosch-connected-world/



For further details on FogHorns offerings, please visit https://www.foghorn.io/

About FogHorn Systems

FogHorn is a leading developer of edge intelligence software for industrial and commercial IoT application solutions. FogHorns software platform brings the power of advanced analytics and machine learning to the on-premises edge environment enabling a new class of applications for advanced monitoring and diagnostics, machine performance optimization, proactive maintenance and operational intelligence use cases. FogHorns technology is ideally suited for OEMs, systems integrators and end customers in manufacturing, power and water, oil and gas, renewable energy, mining, transportation, healthcare, retail, as well as smart grid, smart city, smart building and connected vehicle applications.

FogHorn and Lightning are trademarks of FogHorn Systems. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Media Contact

Kyra Tillmans

ktillmans@10fold.com

+1 925-271-8214NEW YORK CITY -- The Syracuse developers standing trial on bribery charges have an opportunity to question the government's star witness today.

Todd Howe will testify for the seventh day of the four-week long trial against a former top governor's aide and three businessmen. Lawyers for Cor Development executives Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi are expected to cross-examine Howe.

The former lobbyist Howe worked for Cor, and admitted to eight felonies in connection with a scheme to bribe Joseph Percoco, former top aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Aiello lawyer Steve Coffey began questioning Howe late Wednesday afternoon.

Coffey and Howe frequently sparred, both earning scoldings from the judge for being argumentative.

Aiello's lawyers have said their client never paid Percoco. The defense claimed in opening statements Aiello paid Howe for "honest work," not the arrangements prosecutors have said were bribes.

Coffey showed Wednesday that Howe performed other work for Cor. He questioned Howe about whether he tricked and manipulated the Syracuse developers.

"Best of my recollection, I didn't deceive anyone..." Howe said.

Coffey will continue his questioning this morning, followed by Gerardi lawyer Milt Williams.

Syracuse.com is covering the trial from New York City. Check back for updates.

Read our continuing coverage of the trial

Public Affairs Reporter Julie McMahon covers courts, government and other issues affecting taxpayers. She can be reached anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-412-1992The sister of Craig Lehner, the Buffalo police officer who died during a dive training accident in the Niagara River in October, says the Buffalo Police Department should not have allowed the training exercise to take place because it was too dangerous, that her brother had not been properly trained before going into the water and that his diving equipment was "in dangerous, unsafe and/or defective condition," according to court papers she filed late last month.

Lehner, a K-9 officer who joined the Buffalo Police Underwater Recovery Team six months before his death, had just jumped into the water for a training exercise in the fast-moving waters of the Niagara River when he ran into trouble. A frantic recovery effort followed as law enforcement officers and first responders from around the region came to assist. On the fifth day of searching, Lehner's body was recovered about two miles downstream.

What killed Craig Lehner? Sister blames 'defective' equipment, lack of training https://t.co/QMObK3k1AD  The Buffalo News (@TheBuffaloNews) February 15, 2018

Lehner's sister, Donna Wilson, filed a notice of claim, the first step in a lawsuit, against the City of Buffalo and the Buffalo Police Department on Jan. 25. In it, she says the training accident "was caused by the reason of negligence, recklessness and carelessness" of the city and police department.

The notice of claim alleges that:

* The training exercise was allowed to take place "despite reasonably dangerous conditions."

* Lehner, 34, was not sufficiently trained or supervised when he went into the water.

* The diving equipment was in "dangerous, unsafe, and/or defective condition," wasn't properly inspected and was "inefficient to provide reasonable and adequate" protection for Lehner, creating the conditions that led to the equipment to fail and prevented Lehner's rescue.

* There wasn't an adequate communication system for police divers.

* Lehner's supervisors were "negligent, careless and/or incompetent" regarding the dive operation.

* The city and police department violated state labors laws in "failing to furnish its employees with a place of employment free from recognized hazard that caused or were likely to have caused death or serious physical harm to its employees."

The notice of claim does not specify damages being sought.

Buffalo police officials defended their longtime practice of training divers in the Niagara River.

"The Buffalo Police Department trains in those waters to be ready to respond if needed," said Buffalo Police Capt. Jeff Rinaldo.

Lehner's fatal dive was the police department's first training exercise in the Niagara River in 2017 and Lehner's first training in the Niagara.

The state Labor Department is conducting an investigation into Lehner's death. The Buffalo Police Department conducted its own investigation into the death and has not released the report. Police officials said Wednesday they want to review the Labor Department's findings before releasing their internal report.

Police sources said Wednesday the internal investigation found that Lehner's tether got snagged on a boulder at the bottom of the river, which spun him around in the water, causing the current to knock the regulator out of his mouth. They also said there were no indications of equipment failure.

After Lehner's death, the Buffalo's Underwater Recovery Team suspended training exercises in the Niagara River for the rest of the year.

Lehner was a nine-year veteran of the Buffalo Police Department and joined the Underwater Recovery Team in April 2017.

Before joining the team, prospective members need to be certified scuba divers. Once accepted, members train for a year before becoming a permanent member. Lehner was still going through the year of training.

The commander of the department's dive team, Leo McGrath, is not certified as a master diver or as a scuba instructor, police confirmed. But officials said that is not required.

When Lehner jumped Oct. 13 into the swift moving waters off Bird Island Pier, he was in water that was about 25 or 30 feet deep. A fellow member of the police Underwater Recovery Team was holding the tender line, which is standard practice for dives of this nature, police sources told The Buffalo News in October.

Lehner was in the water for less than five minutes when the team member holding the tether line noticed it suddenly tightened. The line then went slack, and then tightened again, police sources said.

His team members feared he was trapped, possibly tangled in old fishing lines or debris. A rescue effort followed, starting at about 12:50 p.m. Oct. 13. Two divers tried to follow the tender line down to Lehner but the current was too strong and they could not locate him, police sources described to The News.

Team members next threaded an emergency air tank to the tender line and attempted to send it down to Lehner, but again the current proved too strong and the tank would not sink to the river bottom. It was later found floating near the pier.

The Buffalo police divers called for assistance, and the U.S. Coast Guard dispatched a 45-foot response boat that arrived at approximately 1:10 p.m., according to the Coast Guard.

With the tender cable extended to its full length, 300 feet, and attached to the boat, the Coast Guard crew pulled from different directions, hoping to unsnag the line. A police diver went down on the line from the boat. But the line snapped, police sources said.

When Lehner's body was found floating in the river a few thousand feet north of the International Railway Bridge on Oct. 17, he was still wearing much of his gear, his air tank, a regulator, a buoyancy compensator and a 40-pound weight belt, according to police. His face mask was missing. He had with him two knives and a pair of surgical scissors.

Several inches of a tender line were still connected to a harness ring on Lehner's suit. The end of the line was frayed, and did not appear to have been cleanly cut, which likely means it tore or snapped and wasn't cut, police and diving experts consulted by The Buffalo News in October said.

Divers are trained to ditch their weights and inflate the buoyancy compensator, a vest designed to fill up with air, if they need to get to the surface, diving experts said in October.

Lehner's tank was found more than half-full of air, about 1,600 psi (pounds per square inch), police said. The diving experts said that would provide as much as about an hour of air, depending on the diver's exertion levels.

An autopsy showed he had drowned and he had water in his lungs, police said. There was also a gash on his forehead and trauma to his head.

On WGRZ-TV, Channel 2, Daniela Porat of Investigative Post reported Wednesday evening Lehner had taken training dives five times in the still waters of the Buffalo River and Union Ship Canal. She added he had gotten his scuba certification in the Caribbean in 2014 in still waters.

Porat reported Lehner was not wearing a quick release device to disconnect from his tether. She noted the Buffalo Police Department does not use them and divers are trained to cut the rope on their connection. She said Lehner was not wearing a face mask that would allow him to communicate electronically with officers on the surface.

- By Maki Becker, The Buffalo News, N.Y.PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) -- Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel says the suspect in Wednesday's deadly high school shooting is an 19-year-old former student at the South Florida school where the shooting erupted.

A federal official has identified the suspect as Nicolas Cruz.

The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The official says he had been briefed on the investigation into the shooting at the South Florida high school, but was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Israel said the teen was arrested without incident after he was located off the school grounds in a nearby community. He didn't give details of when the suspect had attended the school. But the sheriffs says the suspect wasn't currently enrolled.

"I don't know why he left," Israel said, briefing reporters Wednesday afternoon.

He also says the shooter was outside and inside the school at points during the attack. He didn't elaborate.

The sheriff says several SWAT teams have gone in during the afternoon and are clearing every building at the Parkland high school complex to ensure no other threat remains.

He also says the FBI has stepped in and will begin processing what he describes as "horrific scene."

Said the sheriff: "This is a terrible day ... This is catastrophic."WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump at last broke his silence to explicitly denounce domestic violence in the wake of allegations that a top White House aide had abused two former wives. Chief of staff John Kelly, under fire for mishandling the matter, stayed largely out of sight, his future in doubt and the White House in tumult.

The chaos surrounding the departure of aide Rob Porter put a harsh spotlight on Kelly, the retired general who was brought on last summer to instill military-like discipline in the free-wheeling West Wing. Questions persisted about what and when Kelly knew about the abuse allegations against Porter, who resigned as staff secretary last week after the accusations became public.

West Wing aides have had their faith in the chief of staff shaken, and morale has plunged to levels not seen since last spring's firing of FBI Director James Comey and the August uproar over Trump's refusal to denounce white supremacists after the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

This White House scandal erupted initially without the president's involvement. But Trump fed the fury last week when he defended Porter and questioned the #MeToo movement that sprang up in recent months to protest the mistreatment of many women.

In Trump's first comments after Porter resigned, he praised his former aide. Next, he appeared to cast doubt on the ex-wives' allegations by tweeting: "Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation."

Finally, on Wednesday, Trump said the words that Democrats and Republicans alike had been listening for:

"I am totally opposed to domestic violence and everybody here knows that," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I am totally opposed to domestic violence of any kind. Everyone knows that, and it almost wouldn't even have to be said. So now you hear it, but you all know it."

The denunciation of domestic violence was greeted with relief by some West Wing aides. But a sense of unease about Kelly's fate persisted.

For months, Kelly -- with help from Porter -- had established a semblance of stability in a White House often rattled by an unpredictable president. That has eroded in a week's time, as accounts about the handling of the Porter matter continue to shift and some aides come to believe Kelly lied to save face and save his job.

Trump has complained to confidants that Kelly let the scandal spin out of control and that the constantly shifting narratives make the White House -- and, by extension, Trump himself -- look amateurish and incompetent, according to one person familiar with the discussions but not authorized to discuss them publicly.

The president has floated names of possible replacements for Kelly, including National Economic Council head Gary Cohn, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and businessman and GOP heavyweight Wayne Berman.

There was no sign that a move was imminent, according to four people with knowledge of Trump's recent conversations. The president is known to frequently poll his advisers about the performance of senior staff but is often reluctant to actually fire aides.

McCarthy tried to douse speculation about a possible change, saying: "I have not spoken to the president about anything about a job, and I never have. And there is no job opening."

Berman has not been approached about the job, according to a person familiar with his thinking but not authorized to discuss it publicly. Mulvaney has previously denied angling for the post.

Kelly has indicated he would step aside if he lost the faith of the president. But he has not offered to resign, according to a White House official and an outside adviser. Neither was authorized to discuss personnel matters publicly and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

A retired four-star Marine general, Kelly took the post last July and immediately tried to rein in a West Wing that was riven by rivalries and plagued by inexperience He fired attention-seeking aides such as Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka, curtailed access to Trump for outside advisers and insisted that even powerful West Wing staffers, like Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, receive his blessing to reach the president.

But as Kelly shook up the West Wing and had some success at clamping down on public backstabbing, he also made some enemies inside and outside the building. They were quick to pounce on a vulnerable chief of staff, leaking negative stories about him this week.

A number of aides who earlier had rallied around Kelly were dismayed and disillusioned by his handling of the domestic abuse allegations. Officials, up to press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, took to couching their comments with the caveat they did not have firsthand knowledge of some of the details.

At a senior staff meeting last Friday, Kelly tried to press his own timeline concerning Porter in a way that played up his decisiveness once he learned the details of allegations, according to some aides. But Kelly, aides said, had encouraged Porter to try to weather the initial allegations.

But White House officials had known for months of at least the broad charges of abuse against Porter by his ex-wives, as revealed Tuesday by FBI Director Christopher Wray. Wray's testimony to lawmakers contradicted the accounts of West Wing officials.

Kelly, a dark cross on his forehead to mark Ash Wednesday, kept his distance from reporters as he helped manage the White House response to the mass shooting at a Florida school.

The Porter drama has placed a renewed focus on the role of White House Counsel Don McGahn, who first informed Kelly about Porter's situation last fall.A homeless man declared dead by coroners in California showed up alive 11 days after his own funeral and his family is now suing.



The suit against Orange County and Chapman Funeral Homes seeks $5 million and alleges negligence and infliction of emotional distress, among other things, according to NBC Los Angeles.



The story began in May when Francis Kerrigan was told his son, 57-year-old Frank, was found dead near a Verizon store in Fountain Valley, California. The coroner told him the body had been positively identified and friends and family flew in from around the country for the funeral and burial.



Eleven days later, Frank, who suffers from mental illness, showed up at the home of one of his pallbearers, according to ABC 7 in California.



"It was great that he was alive and we cherished that he was alive, but we also knew immediately there was somebody else that was gone that was a loved one in that grave," Francis Kerrigan said, according to ABC 7.



The body in the grave was later identified as belonging to John Dickens, whose family lives in Kansas. The body was exhumed and cremated.



The Kerrigan family's attorney believes the body wasn't Dickens' either and said the entire case was mishandled by the Orange County coroner.



"There's a third body and nobody knows who it is except perhaps for the Orange County Coroner's Office," attorney V. James DeSimone said, according to ABC. "They did a cover-up by shipping them a body that roughly approximated the height and weight and physical resemblance of their son."



The lawsuit said the coroner didn't use proper identification procedures on the body, according to NBC. The coroner's office declined to comment.

Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Google + | 315-454-2112ROCHESTER, Mich., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OptimizeRx Corp. (OTCQB:OPRX), a leading provider of digital health messaging to the pharmaceutical industry, has been invited to present at the 30th Annual Roth Conference being held on March 11-13, 2018 at The Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point, California.

OptimizeRx CEO William Febbo is scheduled to present on Monday, March 12, 2018 at 5:30 p.m. Pacific time, and participate in one-on-one meetings with institutional investors and analysts. He will discuss the value of the companys digital communication platform. Febbo will also discuss OptimizeRxs recently expanded exclusive partnership with Allscripts for its suite of solutions, as well as the companys growing electronic health record (EHR) and electronic e-prescription (eRx) network that reaches more than 500,000 healthcare providers in the U.S.

I look forward to sharing the progress we have made over the last 12 months with the Roth investor community, said OptimizeRx CEO, Will Febbo. We believe that better communication about medication options leads to better patient outcomes, and so we continue to focus on the large opportunity to create a real-time, digital communication channel between pharma and the point of care.

The presentation will be also webcast live and available for replay here and via the investor relations section of the companys website at investors.optimizerx.com.

This years Roth Conference will feature presentations from hundreds of growth companies, along with Q&A sessions, expert panels, and thousands of one-on-one and small group meetings. As one of the largest of its kind, the event is designed to provide investors with a unique opportunity to gain insight into emerging growth companies across a variety of industry sectors.

For more information about the conference or to schedule a one-on-one meeting with OptimizeRx, please contact your Roth representative at (800) 678-9147 or via e-mail at oneononerequests@roth.com.

About Roth Capital Partners

ROTH Capital Partners, LLC is a relationship-driven investment bank focused on serving emerging growth companies and their investors. As a full-service investment bank, ROTH provides capital raising, M&A advisory, analytical research, trading, market-making services and corporate access. Headquartered in Newport Beach, CA, ROTH is privately-held and employee owned, and maintains offices throughout the U.S. For more information on ROTH, please visit www.roth.com.

About OptimizeRx

OptimizeRx (OTCQB:OPRX) is the nations leading provider of digital health messaging via electronic health records (EHRs), providing a direct channel for pharma companies to communicate with healthcare providers. The companys cloud-based solution supports patient adherence to medications by providing real-time access to financial assistance, prior authorization, education, and critical clinical information. The companys network is comprised of leading EHR platforms like Allscripts, Amazing Charts and Quest, and provides more than half a million healthcare providers access to these benefits within their workflow at the point of care. For more information, follow the company on Twitter, LinkedIn or visit www.optimizerx.com.

Important Cautions Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the definition of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and such section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934, amended. These forward-looking statements should not be used to make an investment decision. The words 'estimate,' 'possible' and 'seeking' and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, which speak only as to the date the statement was made. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted, or quantified. Future events and actual results could differ materially from those set forth in, contemplated by, or underlying the forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties to which forward-looking statements are subject include, but are not limited to, the effect of government regulation, competition and other material risks.

OptimizeRx Contact:

Doug Baker, CFO

Tel (248) 651-6568 x807

dbaker@optimizerx.com

OptimizeRx Investor Relations:

Ron Both, CMA

Tel (949) 432-7557

oprx@cma.teamTama County Ag Outlook, Sept. 3

August rain grows the grain. Throughout the last half of August, northeast and central Iowa has been blessed with timely rains just as the ...Welcome, DISH customer! Please note that we cannot save your viewing history due to an arrangement with DISH.

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ACCEPTVANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Tajiri Resources Corp. (the "Company") (TSXVENTURE:TAJ) is pleased to announce that, subject to TSX Venture approval, it has entered into an Agreement with Australian-listed Middle Island Resources Limited (or MDI), that will see it acquire, through option, an 100% interest in the advanced Reo Gold Project, located in Burkina Faso, West Africa. The Reo Project is of regional scale, covering 1,002km2 at the confluence of the prolific Hounde and Boromo greenstone belts which are hosts to several substantial gold deposits of including: Karma 3.8Moz, Bissa 6.6Moz, Hounde 4.9Moz and Mana 8.6 Moz (reported inclusive of all P&P reserves and all M,I&I Resources)1



The Reo Project, which has had approximately USD$8 million spent on exploration since the mid 2000s, contains two advanced prospects: The Morley Prospect - where shallow Reverse Circulation (RC) and Aircore drill intercepts include: KRAC011-aircore: 34m@16.48g/t, KRAC128-aircore: 39m@2.62g/t, KR020-RC: 38m@2.33g/t, KRC022-RC: 10m@7.55g/t, MRRC0005-RC: 10m@9.63g/t, and the K4-K5 Prospect - where RAB, aircore, RC and diamond drill intercepts include MRRB0076-RAB: 44m@1.48g/t, including 12m@ 4.11g/t, MRRB009-RAB: 8m @ 8.20g/t, MRRB1611-RAB: 8m @ 4.68g/t, MRRB0062- RAB: 12m@4.99g/t, NAC037-aircore:- 18m@2.5g/t, NAC027-aircore: 18m @ 2.51g/t, MRRC0081-RC: 16m @ 1.95g/t, and 13m @ 2.19g/t, MRRC0091-RC: 10m @ 3.47g/t, MRRC0047-RC: 13m@2.33g/t, MRDD001-diamond: 3m @ 11.5g/t including 1m @ 23.2g/t and MRDD003-diamond: 2m @ 16.8g/t including 1m @ 31.9g/t. These mineralised intercepts and all others reported in this press release including those shown in figures are reported as down hole intervals not true widths, which are yet to be determined.

Summary commercial terms involve aggregate cash payments to MDI of USD$335,000 and issuance of 5 million Tajiri shares over a period of 21 months. The agreement also includes a 2% net smelter return royalty in favour of MDI, which may be purchased by Tajiri for USD$5 million.

Tajiri considers the exploration upside at the project to be of the highest order, with immediate well-defined drill targets at the K4- K5 Prospect to be followed on from past drilling, combined with a large regional land package that hosts the smaller drilled Morley Prospect and several remaining auger geochemical targets yet to be tested by drilling.

Information contained in this press release relies on information provided by Middle Island, other public and unpublished documents which include technical reports from previous explorers and Middle Island. including all figures which were prepared by Middle Island. Tajiri has used reasonable efforts to review the technical information but until it conducts further due diligence, as envisaged by the Heads of Agreement, including site visits and independent data verification it relies on information supplied by Middle Island. However, it is Tajiri's opinion that historical exploration and assay procedures were executed to a high standard consistent with industry best practices in effect at the time and that these practices conform to acceptable standards for further use, albeit subject to inherent risks.

Details of the Agreement

The reader is referred to the release made by Middle Island on 11/2/2018 which is attached to this news release.

The terms of the agreement are as follows:

Pay MDI USD$35,000 to secure a 3 month period of due diligence. Pay MDI USD$150,000 and issue 2.5 Million shares at any time during the due diligence period to enter into the option representing 4.139 % of the listed shares of Tajiri on a fully diluted basis. Pay to MDI USD$50,000 within 12 months of entering into the option, if the option has not been exercised. Pay MDI USD$100,000 and issue MDI 2.5 Million* shares of Tajiri within 18 months if the payment made under 2) above to exercise the option and acquire 100% of the Project. Maintain the REO project licences in good standing during the Option Period and meet mandated exploration expenditures. MDI will retain a 2% NSR on any future production and Tajiri may acquire the NSR at any time after the exercise of the option for USD$5 million.

*The stipulated number of shares to be issued to Middle Island in each Tranche are calculated on a fully diluted basis, based on Tajiris current capital structure. The number of shares to be issued to Middle Island at the time a tranche is issued shall be fixed at, and adjusted accordingly to, 4.139% of the fully diluted equity of Tajiri. All shares issued to MDI will be subject to any mandatory minimum TSX-V restriction periods.

Reo Project highlights:

Large regional 1,002km 2 gold project of 6 contiguous tenements located astride 50km strike of highly prospective West African greenstone belt geology (Figure 1). Two tenements are granted and four are subject to extension applications. Importantly the tenement overlying the K4-K5 prospect is in good standing and the second granted tenement, Nebya in the south west of the project is granted but has not yet been transferred to MDI from the original vendor.



gold project of 6 contiguous tenements located astride 50km strike of highly prospective West African greenstone belt geology (Figure 1). Two tenements are granted and four are subject to extension applications. Importantly the tenement overlying the K4-K5 prospect is in good standing and the second granted tenement, Nebya in the south west of the project is granted but has not yet been transferred to MDI from the original vendor. Project located 150km west-northwest of the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, has good infrastructure - bitumen road from the capital, process water (15km from the Black Volta), grid power to the centre of the project and a rail line at Koudougou (35km).



Burkina Faso is favourable to mining with a sound Mining Act in West Africa and a competitive fiscal regime. The 2016 Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies ranks Burkina Faso as third most attractive mining jurisdiction in West Africa in both its Policy Perception Index survey and Investment Attractiveness Index and fourth in all of Africa



USD$8 million prudently expended since mid-2000s by both Newmont Mining's subsidiary Newmont Ventures and Middle Island, with past work including 70,666m of geochemical auger drilling in 9,543 holes, 67,148m of RAB drilling in 1,918 holes, 22,150m of aircore drilling in 439 holes, 12,791m of RC drilling in 146 holes and 1,649m of diamond drilling in 11 holes. In addition, a high resolution 100m line spaced airborne magnetic and radiometric survey covers the entire Project along with 128km 2 coverage by ground magnetic surveys 8km 2 of IP/Resistivity surveys.



coverage by ground magnetic surveys 8km of IP/Resistivity surveys. The Project hosts numerous untested auger geochemical targets and the smaller, drilled Morley Prospect (see Figure 2).



The Project hosts the substantial and advanced K4-K5 prospect where a gold in auger anomaly with a strike of 4.5km and width of 3km has returned robust grade drill intersections from multiple targets (further detailed below).



Excellent local community relations have been established by MDI. Since it began work at Reo MDI has sponsored a water supply project that now supplies potable water to some 1,000 residents and a market gardening project.

Figure 1:

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e07e0e5d-2188-4ad1-bab9-e9ef8b0146fb

Geological Summary

The geology of the Project is dominantly covered by transposed to transported ferruginous laterites, interspersed with minor outcrops of granite and granitic gneiss. Outcrop over the volcanic and meta-sedimentary units is extremely limited. Thus, regional geological information on the Project largely relies on interpretation of a high resolution (100m line spacing) aeromagnetic and radiometric survey conducted by Middle Island in 2011.

The project area is interpreted to comprise volcanic, sedimentary and felsic intrusive rocks of the Boromo and Hounde greenstone belts that come close to intersecting, and are in thrust contact with the major central Burkina granitoid massif to the east.

Known gold mineralisation styles are largely hosted within greenstone belts and at granitoid contacts, and are of orogenic style (quartz vein and shear zone related).

Figure 2:

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/19678b68-ed58-4a61-9c54-66414fc4b4e4

Regional Exploration

In addition to several phases of stream sediment, lag and soil geochemistry, the Project was subject to extensive auger drilling by MDI between 2011-2012. This work was completed on grids ranging from 1,600 x 200m, down to a 400 x 100m pattern, which defined four main prospects- K4-K5, Morley (formerly Didyr), Dassa and East Prospect. Of these, the most significant prospects are K4-K5 and Morley, which were both identified and subject to scout drilling by Newmont.

Follow-up RAB/Aircore drilling on mostly 400m spaced lines (25m -100m spaced holes) at the other auger geochemical targets (Dassa and East targets) produced limited intersections above 1g/t Au. A series of Auger geochemical anomalies stretching SW from the Dassa target have not yet been tested by any form of drilling (see Figure 3).

The Morley Prospect

The Morley prospect was a blind discovery by Newmont identified via drainage sampling and subsequent lag and soil geochemistry. This was followed with an initial 120 hole aircore drilling program, producing an exceptional intercept of 34m at 16.48g/t Au from 3m depth (KRAC011) and follow up drilling (83 holes) produced 39m @ 2.62g/t Au from 5m (KRAC 128), drilled in alternate directions toward the NW and SE. Better intercepts were derived from holes oriented toward 345 degrees. 2

Newmont then drilled six diamond core holes behind significant aircore intercepts (-55 to -65 towards 345). These holes were generally disappointing and did not intercept targeted mineralisation. Subsequently Newmont completed trenching, RAB (66 holes) and a final RC program (37 holes). Selected significant intercepts from RC included 38m @ 2.33g/t Au from 3m depth (KRC020), 10m @ 7.55g/t Au from 16m (KRC022) and 10m @ 2.32g/t Au from 78m (KRC029bis) (reported as down hole intercepts not true widths).3

Figure 3:

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e53ba036-708f-4ed6-a1d4-3064ec1d1c72

MDI completed 12 trenches for 550 metres and 58 RC holes for 4,931m at the Morley Prospect. All holes were drilled at -60 toward grid 180. Mineralisation intercepted in Newmont drilling was interpreted to dip at approximately 50 to the north, with a shallow plunge to the east. MDI drilling was planned to test down dip and along strike extents of known mineralisation. Drilling intercepted numerous robust intercepts (Table 1), notably 2m at 18g/t Au including 1m at 32.5g/t Au (MRRC001), 10m at 9.63g/t Au including 1m at 43g/t Au (MRRC0005), 6m at 2.47g/t Au (MRRC0006), 5m at 4.72g/t Au including 1m at 10.1g/t Au (MRRC0016) and 1m at 75.5g/t Au (MRRC0040)4

Host rocks at the Morley Prospect are granodiorite with rafts of mafic rocks. MDI RC Drilling confirmed the interpretation of stacked, east-west trending and moderately north dipping lodes, and delineated two lodes at Morley approximately 100 metres apart.

Exploration at the Morley Prospect has traced the mineralised structure over 1,000m in an east-west direction. However, it appears that mineralisation at the peripheries is relatively thin and low grade and that thicker higher grade zones are confined to a 200-300m zone straddling the granodiorite contact. Exploration results for the central part of the of the Morley Prospect are shown in Figure 4 below.

It is recognised that Morley represents a smaller, albeit high grade, potential satellite deposit to a more a substantial resource if identified elsewhere on the property, and that further work will be readily justified if this proves the case.

Figure 4:

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6b4a4f87-3b8a-46e4-9def-18b04cfbbbf7

The K4-K5 Prospect

The K4-5 Prospect, located in the southeast of the tenement package, is the most significant Prospect located at the Reo project. Although no geology is exposed, as the area is veneered by transported laterite, an extensive auger geochemical anomaly of 4.5km strike and 3.5km width has been defined, with numerous values exceeding 100ppb and a peak value of 1,577ppb.

A large artisanal mining pit (c.500m x 250m) exists in the central part of the prospect, where up to 5,000 miners have worked palaeo-alluvial material at the interface between laterite and saprolite.

The K4-K5 Prospect was initially defined by soil sampling by Newmont and later Auger geochemical sampling by Middle Island, and since has been variously assessed by rotary air blast (RAB), aircore, reverse circulation (RC) and limited diamond core drilling.

The geology comprises a package of meta-sediments and felsic volcanics irregularly on-lapping a shallowly south-plunging granodiorite. Mineralisation is interpreted to be associated with the Madi Shear and hosted in all lithologies, but is structurally controlled, with quartz veining and strong shearing developed around the brittle ductile contacts between the granodiorite and volcano-sedimentary rocks. Alteration observed is outwardly zoned, variously dominated by silica/pyrite, sericite and chlorite assemblages, with more distal carbonate alteration.

K4-K5 Exploration Summary

After conducting both lag and soil geochemical sampling, Newmont completed ground geophysics at the prospect and drilled several aircore fences on a 400m line spacing and a 50m to 100m hole spacing, completing 193 holes for 10,319m. The best intercept for the program was NAC027 at the K5 Prospect, which returned 18m at 2.5g/t Au, however numerous other broad lower grade intercepts were returned.6

After defining the K4-K5 anomaly by auger geochemistry, Middle Island conducted several phases of RAB, RC and diamond drilling, completing 825 holes for 34,953m of RAB drilling, 26 holes for 2,627m of RC drilling and 5 diamond drill holes for 724m.

Shallow RAB drilling (sampled as 4m composites), performed predominantly on 400m spaced lines to better investigate anomalous auger geochemistry, succeeded in defining a broad, 2.5km long, open ended zone of continuous gold mineralisation lying along the southeast margin of the K4/K5 geochemical anomaly, coincident with the Madi Shear.

Better 4m RAB composite sample intercepts included 13m at 2.47g/t Au. 44m at 1.48g/t (including 12m at 4.11g/t), 16m at 1.95g/t, 13m at 2.19g/t and 10m at 3.47g/t Au., 12m at 4.99g/t (including 4m at 14.0g/t) and 8m at 8.20g/t (including 4m at 16.2g/t Au). 36m at 1.25g/t, 16m at 2.66g/t (incl. 12m at 3.23g/t), 20m at 1.65g/t (incl. 8m at 3.17), 8m at 4.68g/t (incl. 4m at 8.21g/t), 8m at 1.70g/t, 4m at 3.54g/t, 4m at 2.25g/t, 6m at 1.24g/t, 18m at 2.51g/t, 44m at 1.48g/t (incl. 12m at 4.11g/t), 12m at 4.99g/t (incl. 4m at 14.0g/t) and 8m at 8.20g/t (incl. 4m at 16.2g/t), 8m at 2.25g/t, 20m at 1.73g/t, 4m at 8.54g/t, 18m at 1.59g/t and 4m at 12.2g/t Au (see Table 2).7

RAB drilling was followed up by a 5-hole program of diamond drilling with holes designed to assess the geological and structural framework, alteration and host rock lithologies. As such holes were planned at four distinct mineralised areas across the prospect. Significant results were 2m at 16.8g/t Au from 160m depth including 1m@31.9g/t and 3m@11.5g/t from 48m depth including 1m@23.2g/t (see Table 4).8

RC drilling was largely completed after the completion of RAB and Diamond drilling and RC drilling was planned to in to confirm RAB intercepts and test down dip extensions. Significant intercepts include; 13m at 2.47g/t Au., 16m at 1.95g/t, 13m at 2.19g/t and 10m at 3.47g/t Au. (See Table 3).9

Drill results and geology are summarised visually in Figure 5.

Based on the presence of strong silica-pyrite alteration encountered in drilling, an IP survey was conducted comprising 58 line kilometres of gradient array and 4km of pole-dipole IP. The survey defined the major structural controls along the Madi Shear and identified a new parallel trend to the southeast, which remains untested by drilling.

Middle Island also conducted initial bottle roll cyanidation metallurgical test work on 17 individual samples derived from diamond core which strongly suggests that mineralisation tested to date is amenable to conventional CIP/CIL extraction. The metallurgical samples tested various oxidation states, rock types, gold grades and alteration styles. Samples were prepared at a nominal grind-size of 80% passing 75 microns and subjected to 72 hour bottle roll tests, with cyanide solution readings taken at 12, 24, 36, 48 and 72 hour intervals. Final solution readings (72 hours) against calculated head grades generated average indicative recoveries of 93%, 97% and 95% from oxide, transitional and primary mineralisation types respectively.

K4-K5 Exploration Potential

Tajiri believes that the K4-K5 prospect presents excellent exploration potential evidenced by the combination of processed IP results with historic drilling as presented in Figure 6. This shows that the inference pattern between resistivity and chargeability, believed to be consistent with zones of silica-pyrite alteration, is often associated with the better drill intersections and that these zones to date have only been tested by wide spaced drilling.

Evident, upon a close inspection of Figure 6, is that the majority of significant drill intersections are spatially associated with the resistive-chargeable zones. Further that drill line spacing has resulted in seven resistive-chargeable zones of between 400-700m being tested by only one or two lines of drilling and where those zones have been tested, significant drill intercepts have mostly been returned. There is therefore a large strike of each resistive-chargeable zone as yet untested by drilling. Furthermore, the largest resistive-chargeable zones, located to the south of drilling and east of UTM 533,500 remain completely untested by drilling.

It is Tajiri's opinion that the K4-K5 project offers substantial potential to move quickly from drill testing both the along strike potential of historic drill intersections, guided by IP, and drill testing the undrilled largest resistive-chargeable zones into a resource definition drill program.

Figure 5:

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a80c4f68-f842-4e4c-b1ec-c0119145f615

Figure 6:

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7828a660-16c3-4c88-8fdb-1e325d87b48c

Of Particular Significance:

1) The largest resistive-chargeable zones of the Prospect in the south and east of 533,500 are untested by drilling.

2) The majority of significant drill intersections are associated with resistive-chargeable zones.

3) Most of the drilled resistive-chargeable zones that have returned significant intersections are untested by drilling for 200-400m of strike.

Tajiri President Mr. Graham Keevil stated:

"Tajiri looks forward to beginning Project due diligence as early as possible and conducting in country reviews in early March. We look forward to working closely with Middle Island during the due diligence period in order to complete the transaction and subsequently continue building on the excellent work that Middle Island have completed to date."

"The board of Tajiri believes that the Reo Project offers compelling upside, at an attractive entry price, and gives shareholders exposure to an advanced gold project, located in an excellent mining jurisdiction that with minimal work can become subject of a resource definition drilling program. The agreement also further validates the Companys growing portfolio of Guyana based Gold Projects and the potential value they represent."

John Higgins, a Member of the AusIMM is an independent consulting geologist and has practiced for 14 years. He is a qualified person with respect to the technical information contained within this press release as define by NI43-101 and has reviewed and approved this press release.

On Behalf of Tajiri Resource Corp,

John Higgins, MAusIMM #202299

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on assumptions and judgments of management regarding future events or results. Such statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to revise or update such statements.



Neither Tajiri, nor the author of this report, is qualified to provide extensive comment on any legal issues associated with the tenure of the Reo Project. Assessment and reporting of these aspects relies on information provided by Middle Island and has not been independently verified by Tajiri or Mr. Higgins.



No warranty or guarantee, be it express or implied, is made by Tajiri or Mr. Higgins with respect to the completeness or accuracy of the legal aspects of the tenure of the Reo Project. Neither Tajiri, nor Mr. Higgins accepts any responsibility or liability in any way whatsoever to any person or entity in respect of these parts of this document, or any errors in, or omissions from it, whether arising from negligence or any other basis in law whatsoever.

Contact Information:

Tajiri Resources Corp.

Graham Keevil

President, CEO

604-642-0115 or Toll Free 866-345-0115

604-642-0116 (FAX)

info@tajiricorp.com

Tables of Results Table 1: Morley Prospect -Selected MDI Significant RC drill intercepts









Hole



Prospect



East (m)



North (m) RL

(m) Total

Depth (m) From

(m) To

(m) Width

(m)



Au (g/t) MRRC0001 Morley 540,261 1,388,183 299 84 17 19 2 18.0 including 17 18 1 32.5 26 27 4 2.85 MRRC0002 Morley 540,240 1,388,220 301 86 31 32 1 3.54* 36 37 1 21.9 44 45 1 3.35 69 71 2 2.11 MRRC0003 Morley 540,263 1,388,219 299 72 39 45 6 2.37 including 40 41 1 4.66* and 44 45 1 3.26* MRRC0004 Morley 540,430 1,388,195 313 102 96 97 1 3.74 MRRC0005 Morley 540,440 1,388,155 299 84 33 34 1 2.05 74 84 10 9.63 including 74 75 1 43.0 and 82 83 1 13.5 MRRC0006 Morley 540,400 1,388,200 305 106 90 96 6 2.47 including 93 94 1 8.78* MRRC0008 Morley 540,200 1,388,185 300 84 29 30 1 2.00 46 47 1 7.41 MRRC0009 Morley 540,202 1,388,230 298 114 70 71 1 2.90 MRRC0010 Morley 540,396 1,388,236 307 126 101 102 1 2.49 MRRC0015 Morley 540,498 1,388,246 298 84 24 25 1 2.30 MRRC0016 Morley 540,400 1,388,160 303 88 60 65 5 4.72 including 60 61 1 10.1 MRRC0027 M -Satellite 3 539,155 1,387,125 293 90 32 33 1 3.01 MRRC0028 M -Satellite 4 539,200 1,387,100 295 84 23 24 1 2.87 MRRC0033 Morley 540,160 1,388,200 294 90 34 36 2 3.08 MRRC0036 Morley 540,256 1,388,257 304 132 78 80 2 5.9 MRRC0040 Morley 540,400 1,388,120 306 82 33 34 1 75.5 37 38 1 7.13 45 50 5 2.15 MRRC0043 Morley 540,436 1,388,236 314 54 33 35 2 2.51 MRRC0062 Morley 540,360 1,388,170 302 84 77 78 1 5.44 MRRC0067 Morley 540,380 1,388,170 300 80 29 30 1 5.32

NB: All holes drilled to grid 180o and inclined at -60o

Initial significant intercepts calculated at a 1 g/t cutoff including 2m of internal waste

* Denotes calculated using 3g/t cutoff and no internal waste.

 Denotes calculated at a 10g/t cutoff and no internal waste.





Table 2: K4-K5 Prospect Selected significant MDI RAB intercepts Hole Prospect East North RL Dip Azi From

To Width

(m) Au g/t MRRB0009 K5 532,470 1,371,406 282 -50 360 0

8 8 8.20 including 4

8 4 16.2 MRRB0030 K5 532,630 1,371,235 289 -50 360 4

40 36 0.87 including 12

16 4 2.83 and 28 32 4 1.78 MRRB0037 K5 532,706 1,371,311 288 -50 360 56 60 4 0.98 MRRB0044 K5 532,790 1,371,352 291 -50 360 32 36 4 1.88 MRRB0049 K5 532,787 1,371,144 289 -50 360 48 52 4 1.59 MRRB0062 K5 532,946 1,371,054 297 -50 360 28 40 12 4.99 including 28 32 4 14.0 MRRB0076 K5 532,470 1,370,948 288 -50 360 4 48 44 1.48 including 4 16 12 4.11 MRRB0256 K5 532,638 1,371,305 282 -50 180 40 44 4 5.83 MRRB0256 and 52 56 4 1.1 MRRB0268 K5 532,652 1,370,776 296 -50 360 12 16 4 1.07 MRRB0268 and 20 24 4 1.12 MRRB0277 K5 531,816 1,370,118 290 -50 360 52 56 4 1.63 MRRB0278 K5 531,815 1,370,158 309 -50 360 16 20 4 1.68 MRRB0281 K5 531,812 1,369,869 299 -50 360 20 24 4 8.54 MRRB0287 K5 531,529 1,370,281 285 -50 360 0 4 4 1.6 MRRB0290 K5 531,531 1,370,378 279 -50 360 36 44 8 1.135 MRRB0389 K5 532,047 1,372,817 288 -50 360 76 80 4 3.16 MRRB0390 K5 532,044 1,372,875 289 -50 360 24 28 4 1.26 MRRB0412 K4 531,701 1,372,669 276 -50 360 20 24 4 12.2 MRRB0423 K4 533,303 1,372,097 277 -50 360 12 16 4 3.92 MRRB0427 K4 533,306 1,372,196 272 -50 360 48 56 8 2.745 MRRB0427 and 360 64 66 2 1.14 MRRB0428 K4 533,305 1,372,237 275 -50 360 16 20 4 1.29 MRRB0515 K5 533,378 1,371,292 296 -50 360 28 32 4 1.16 MRRB0535 K5 532,012 1,370,563 296 -50 360 32 36 4 1.44 MRRB0575 K4 531,406 1,371,465 263 -50 360 0 4 4 1.57 MRRB0585 K5 530,059 1,370,590 287 -50 360 16 20 4 3.4 MRRB0610 K4 532,709 1,372,128 274 -50 360 20 24 4 2.38 MRRB0671 K5 533,566 1,374,915 275 -50 360 8 12 4 1.38 MRRB1551 K4 532,014 1,370,673 292 -50 360 52 54 2 2.82 MRRB1588 K4 531,296 1,370,132 292 -50 360 12 20 8 1.475 MRRB1588 K4 531,296 1,370,132 292 -50 360 24 28 4 1.65 MRRB1588 and 360 36 48 12 1.69 MRRB1591 K4 532,304 1,370,315 298 -50 360 12 16 4 1.19 MRRB1595 K4 532,302 1,370,456 300 -50 360 44 48 4 1.66 MRRB1596 K4 532,303 1,370,491 301 -50 360 20 28 8 1.7 MRRB1607 K4 532,663 1,370,998 286 -50 360 12 16 4 1.5 MRRB1608 K4 532,664 1371,016 283 -50 360 4 16 12 3.23 MRRB1611 K4 532,667 1,371,063 282 -50 360 20 26 6 1.24 MRRB1624 K5 531,702 1,372,742 286 -50 360 60 68 8 3.16 MRRB1625 K5 531,702 1,372,794 291 -50 360 68 76 8 4.68 MRRB1649 K5 532,042 1,373,237 280 -50 360 16 24 8 1.06 MRRB1663 K4 532,970 1,370,877 293 -50 360 44 48 4 3.54 MRRB1664 K4 532,972 1,370,908 271 -50 360 4 8 4 2.25 Calculated using Micromine, 1ppm trigger





Table 3: K4-K5 Prospect Selected significant MDI RC intercepts



Hole



Prospect



East (m)



North (m) RL

(m) Total Depth

(m) From

(m)



To (m) Width

(m) Grade

(g/t) MRRC0073 K5 532,039 1,373,219 284 80 36 42 6 2.73 53 55 2 1.19 MRRC0074 K5 532,040 1,373,182 284 120 73 77 4 1.65 88 89 1 2.66 MRRC0076 K5 531,692 1,372,710 287 120 64 68 4 2.82 including 64 66 2 4.6 100 102 2 8.04 MRRC0077 K5 531,701 1,372,770 287 123 46 50 4 3.20 79 80 1 2.23 97 98 1 1.06 109 112 3 4.52 including 110 112 2 5.68 MRRC0081 K4 532,661 1,371,008 290 102 7 23 16 1.95 54 60 6 2.27 including 55 56 1 5.3 80 81 1 1.03 85 98 13 2.19 including 86 87 1 9.31 MRRC0082 K4 532,664 1,370,973 290 102 94 96 2 1.59 MRRC0083 K4 532,646 1,370,767 297 23 19 20 1 9.41 MRRC0084 K4 532,653 1,370,732 298 86 19 20 1 4.19 27 28 1 2.33 59 60 1 2.50 MRRC0085 K4 532,474 1,370,943 289 123 5 11 6 2.23 including 7 8 1 5.96 33 34 1 1.00 46 50 4 1.11 53 54 1 1.54 61 64 3 3.48 including 62 63 1 7.64 MRRC0087 K4 532,009 1,370,538 296 94 69 70 1 1.50 76 77 1 2.95 MRRC0089 K4 532,302 1,370,406 301 141 22 23 1 2.14 36 37 1 2.16 104 105 1 2.26 131 132 1 1.10 MRRC0090 K4 532,474 1,370,901 290 124 56 57 1 1.24 MRRC0091 K4 531,815 1,370,144 297 100 20 23 3 1.70 MRRC0091 25 35 10 3.47 including 25 28 3 7.70 38 39 1 1.57 43 44 1 1.20 MRRC0092 K4 531,815 1,370,016 299 123 63 64 1 1.41 70 71 1 1.21 MRRC0093 K4 531,525 1,370,010 296 116 62 63 1 1.05 82 83 1 1.42 94 95 1 1.35





Table 3: K4-K5 Prospect Selected significant MDI RC intercepts (continued)



Hole



Prospect



East (m)



North (m) RL

(m) Total Depth

(m) From

(m)



To (m) Width

(m) Grade

(g/t) MRRC0094 K4 531,524 1,370,054 296 90 27 31 4 1.47 including 30 31 1 3.53 39 40 1 1.17 69 71 2 2.29 89 90 1 1.66 MRRC0095 K4 531,308 1,369,943 295 121 51 52 1 2.56 MRRC0097 K4 532,658 1,371,051 290 93 13 17 4 2.62



including 15 17 2 4.32 19 24 5 1.82 Including 19 20 1 4.80 28 30 2 1.25 32 33 1 1.12 34 35 1 1.29 38 39 1 1.38 MRRC0098 K4 532,634 1,370,764 296 69 18 19 1 1.23 30 36 6 1.87

Notes: Significant intersections calculated at a 1g/t cut-off, including 2m of internal waste.

Included intervals calculated using 3 g/t cut-off and no waste.





Table 4: K4-K5 Prospect - Significant MDI Diamond Drilling Intercepts



Hole_ID



Prospect



East (m)



North (m)



RL (m)



Dip (o) Azimuth

(o) From

(m) To

(m) Width

(m) Grade

(g/t) MRDD0001 K4-5 532635 1371340 277 -60 180 18 19 1 2.16 MRDD0001 K4-6 26 28 2 1.54 MRDD0001 K4-7 33 34 1 1.49 MRDD0001 K4-8 48 51 3 11.5 including 48 49 1 23.2 MRDD0001 K4-5 58 59 1 1.1 MRDD0002 K4-5 531815 1370069 299 -50 360 43 47 4 1.13 MRDD0002 K4-5 67 68 1 1.28 MRDD0002 K4-5 126 127 1 6.14 MRDD0003 K4-5 532469 1370858 288 -60 360 55 56 1 3.37 MRDD0003 K4-5 66 67 1 5.41 MRDD0003 K4-5 149 150 1 3.03 MRDD0003 K4-5 160 162 2 16.8 including 161 162 1 31.9 MRDD0004 K4-5 532630 1371172 282 -60 360 41 43 2 1.05 MRDD0005 K4-5 533306 1372160 281 -60 360 148 149 1 1.42

Notes: Calculated using Micromine software at a 1g/t Au cut -off, with included intervals calculated at a 5g/t Au cut-off.

Middle Island Resources Ltd ACN 142 361 608 ASX code: MDI www.middleisland.com.au

ASX Release  13 February 2018

Heads of Agreement executed for option over Reo gold project in Burkina Faso, West Africa

 Middle Island today executed a Heads of Agreement with Tajiri Resources Corp. (TSX-V:TAJ, Tajiri) for Tajiri to be granted an option to acquire a 100% interest in the Reo gold project in Burkina Faso, West Africa.

 Summary commercial terms involve aggregate cash payments to Middle Island of US$335,000 and the issue of 5 million shares, representing 8% of Tajiris then post-issue expanded capital, plus a 2% net smelter return (NSR) royalty, which can be purchased by Tajiri for US$5 million.

 Via the equity and royalty components, the transaction structure allows Middle Island to retain a significant indirect interest in the upside potential of the Reo project. The equity component also offers considerable exposure to Tajiris significant gold project interests in Guyana, South America.

 On completion, the Reo project transaction would represent the divestment of Middle Islands remaining gold interests in West Africa, allowing the Company to fully focus on its advanced Sandstone gold project development in Western Australia.

 The Company looks forward to working closely with Tajiri to finalise the transaction.

REO GOLD PROJECT (West Africa)

Heads of Agreement for an Option to Purchase

Middle Island Resources Limited (Middle Island, MDI or the Company) is pleased to advise that it has executed a Heads of Agreement (HoA) relating to divesting its 100% interest in the Reo gold project in West Africa to Tajiri Resources Corp. (TSX-V:TAJ, Tajiri) via an Option to Purchase Agreement.

Transaction Terms

Tajiri will pay MDI US$35,000 on execution of the HoA in return for a three-month exclusivity period in which to complete its due diligence.

On satisfactory completion of due diligence and signing of a formal Option to Purchase Agreement, the essential terms of which are set out in the HOA, Tajiri is required to pay a further US$150,000 and issue to Middle Island 2.5 million Tajiri shares. By that agreement, Middle Island will grant Tajiri an exclusive option to purchase MDIs entire interest in the Reo project (the Option). The term of the Option is 18 months. During the Option term Tajiri must pay all expenses associated with maintaining the Reo Project permits in accordance with Burkinabe law.

Should Tajiri elect to exercise the Option, it will pay a further US$150,000 and issue Middle Island with a further 2.5 million Tajiri shares.

If Tajiri has not exercised the Option within 12 months, it will be required to pay US$50,000 to Middle Island as a non-refundable advance on the Option exercise cash consideration, with the balance of US$100,000 payable if the Option is exercised during the remaining six months of the Option term. If the Option is exercised within the first 12 months the full US$150,000 is payable on exercise.

The stipulated number of shares the subject of the two tranches to be issued to Middle Island were calculated on a fully diluted basis based on Tajiris current capital structure, with additional shares to be issued to Middle Island at no cost if Tajiri issues further shares or options prior to exercising the Option. All shares issued to MDI will be subject to any mandatory minimum TSX-V restriction periods.

If the Option is exercised by Tajiri, Middle Island will retain a 2% net smelter return (NSR) royalty on any minerals derived from the Reo project. Tajiri will have the right to acquire that royalty from Middle Island for US$5 million.

If the Option is not exercised by Tajiri, Middle Island will retain all consideration already paid to Middle Island and it will continue to own its 100% interest in the Reo Project.

Middle Island Managing Director, Mr Rick Yeates:

The transaction structure allows Middle Island shareholders to retain a significant indirect interest in the upside potential of the Reo project via the Tajiri equity and royalty components. The full equity component, which will represent some 8% of Tajiris issued capital on a fully diluted, post issue basis, also offers shareholders considerable exposure to Tajiris highly prospective gold project interests in Guyana, South America.

On completion, the Reo project transaction will represent the divestment of Middle Islands remaining gold interests in West Africa, allowing the Company to fully focus on its advanced Sandstone gold project development in Western Australia.

Middle Island looks forward to working closely with Tajiri to facilitate remaining aspects of the due diligence and documentation, in order to complete the transaction and progress the Reo project towards feasibility.

Middle Island will keep shareholders updated on progress with the Reo project transaction during 2018.

ASX Release  13 February 2018

COMPANY CONTACTS:

Rick Yeates  Managing Director +61 (0)401 694 313

MEDIA CONTACT:

Kevin Skinner Field Public Relations +61 (0)8 8234 9555 / +61 (0)414 822 631

WEBSITE: www.middleisland.com.au

Forward Looking Statements

Statements contained in this release, particularly those regarding possible or assumed future performance, costs, dividends, production levels or rates, prices, resources, reserves or potential growth of Middle Island, industry growth or other trend projections are, or may be, forward looking statements. Such statements relate to future events and expectations and, as such, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward looking statements depending on a variety of factors.

We Seek Safe Harbour.







1 All Resources noted in paragraph 2 above have not been independently verified by Tajiri and rely on publicly reported and referenced Resource and Reserve statements of other public listed companies as noted below. The Resources reported in paragraph 2 are totals of Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resources inclusive of Proven and Probable Reserves.

Karma - Endeavour Mining Corporation MI&I resources, inclusive of P&P Reserves of 3.772 Moz https://www.endeavourmining.com/our-portfolio/reserves-and-resources/default.aspx. Bissa - Nord Gold - Bissa and Bouly deposits MI&I resources, inclusive of P&P Reserves of 6.577 Moz http://www.nordgold.com/upload/iblock/f05/Nordgold%202016%20Mineral%20Resources%20and%20Ore%20Reserves%20Update_1.pdf Hounde - Endeavour Mining Corporation MI&I resources, inclusive of P&P Reserves of 4.90 Moz https://www.endeavourmining.com/our-portfolio/reserves-and-resources/default.aspx Mana- Semafo MI&I resources, inclusive of P&P Reserves of 8.581 Moz http://www.semafo.com/English/operations-and-exploration/reserves-and-resources/default.aspx

2 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths

3 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths

4 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths

5 All mineralised intercepts shown as down hole intercepts and not true widths

6 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths

7 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths

8 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths

9 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths

10 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths



The good news is that Google shipped a total of 3.9 million Pixel and Pixel 2 smartphones in 2017, which is double the figure that the company achieved in the previous year.

The bad news, however, is that Google Pixel devices have barely made a dent in the smartphone market, especially compared to the sales figures of Apple's iPhone.

Google Pixel Sales Improve, But Still Lacking

According to IDC's Francisco Jeronimo, the 3.9 million units shipped of Pixel and Pixel 2 smartphones in 2017 is just a fraction of the smartphone market, which sees total shipments of 1.5 billion units per year.

Pixel smartphone sales are certainly heading in the right direction, validating the company's recent push into making Google hardware. However, looking at the big picture, Google still has a lot of catching up to do.

In comparison, according to IDC, Apple shipped a total of 215.8 million iPhones in 2017, equivalent to about 4.15 million units a week. This would mean that Apple shipped more iPhones per week than the number of Google Pixel and Pixel 2 smartphones for the whole of 2017.

The Google Pixel smartphones were supposed to be Android's answer to Apple's iPhone. The devices come with powerful specifications and a bloatware-free experience with Google's mobile operating system that make them arguably the best Android smartphones in the market. However, despite a very capable product and a lavish marketing campaign, customers are apparently not yet getting on board the Pixel train.

Why Can't Google Pixel Catch Up To The iPhone?

Google Pixel smartphones are nice, but that would not matter much if customers are not able to purchase them. The Pixel and Pixel 2 devices are only available in up to eight countries, compared to the iPhone X, for example, that may be purchased in 70 countries. In addition, there are 499 Apple Stores spread out in 22 countries, while Google relies on occasional pop-ups and its online Google Store, with no constant physical retail presence. Lastly, Google Pixel smartphones are only available through Verizon, while the iPhone models are available in all carriers.

It also certainly does not help the Google Pixel's cause that there are certain problems associated with the Pixel and Pixel 2 smartphones, including microphone defects and touchscreen problems.

No smartphone comes without any issues, but if Google wants to make a bigger splash in the market, its Pixel devices will need to come as close as possible to being perfect. Perhaps then, Google could think of how to make the smartphones more accessible to everyone.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.NASA is developing a new aircraft that can fly twice the speed of existing commercial airlines. It's fast and supersonic, only quieter.

Dubbed as the Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator aircraft, this new plane can fly at the maximum speed of 1,100 miles per hour, or twice as fast as the Concorde airplane. This plane is even faster than the speed of sound that is 767 mph.

The funding for this program received a full backing from the U.S. government in the recently approved 2019 national budget. NASA is expecting to fly this new supersonic aircraft by 2021. Potential commercial flights would follow.

"This 'X-plane' would open a new market for U.S. companies to build faster commercial airliners, creating jobs and cutting cross-country flight times in half," states to the budget document.

Supersonic Boom

Supersonic aircrafts, though faster than the speed of sound, has a downside: the loud sonic boom from waves of pressure from air particles created by the plane. This booming sound that rolls out like a carpet beneath the plane is so loud and deafening that it can even cause property damage and that would be a problem when supersonic planes travel above land.

The technology for supersonic planes previously existed. In fact, the British Airways and Air France-run Concorde turbo-jet powered supersonic passenger jets were in operation until 2003. The Concorde aircraft had a maximum speed of 1,354 miles per hour or 2,180 kilometers per hour at a cruising altitude.

Concorde commercial planes had a seating capacity of 92 to 128 passengers. It flew commercial flights for more than three decades but was grounded due to expensive operating costs.

During the era of the supersonic New York-to-Europe Concorde jets, residents of Queens in New York complained of glass-shattering boom sounds from the aircrafts.

Quest For A Quieter Supersonic Plane

Under its New Aviation Horizon Initiative, NASA is already testing an experimental aircraft called Quiet Supersonic Technology. This aircraft produces shock waves resembling thumping or rumbling sounds and not loud booms.

The agency said the QueSST aircraft will produce a sonic boom that is so quiet, it will hardly be noticed by the public. The QueSST's distinct shape that features a long nose and highly-swept wings will help keep the noise down during a flight.

"In the airline industry's current tube-and-wings model, shock waves largely roll off and then meld into a sonic boom," said Lockheed Martin, the plane's lead contractor that received $20 million from NASA for the building of the next-generation X-planes.

Meanwhile, Boom Technology and Virgin Galactic are working together to create a new supersonic aircraft that can cruise at approximately 1,500 mph with a seating capacity of 45 to 55 passengers. At this speed, transatlantic travel would be reduced to half from the normal six hours down to just three hours from New York to London.

"The next big thing, hopefully in my lifetime, will be supersonic travel coming back and people traveling around the world in next to no time," says Richard Branson, owner, and CEO of Virgin Galactic.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.HTC is losing its smartphone chief as Chialin Chang, the company's President for the Smartphone and Connected Devices Business, announces his resignation effective immediately.

The executive's decision to leave the company leaves HTC in a tough spot and no replacement is yet official.

Chang cited a "personal career plan" as the reason for leaving HTC, without going into any details.

HTC Smartphone Chief Resigns

Throughout the years, Chang was the company's Chief Financial Officer, and also served as HTC's head of global sales from 2013 until 2017. HTC saw many executives depart and Chang was among the few veterans left.

On the other hand, Chang's position with HTC was no longer as relevant as it used to be. HTC sold a large portion of its smartphone engineering and design team to Google in a $1.1 billion deal.

No Replacement Yet For HTC's Chialin Chang

HTC has yet to appoint a replacement for Chang and until it does, it's likely that CEO and Chairwoman Cher Wang will take over most of Chang's duties and responsibilities. While Chan was rather evasive regarding his career plans once he leaves HTC, some reports indicate that the executive aims to launch an AI start-up sometime this year.

What's Next For HTC?

Despite selling off most of its smartphone business to Google, HTC is not leaving the smartphone scene. The company is still expected to release a flagship smartphone this year, likely coming as the HTC U12, boasting a dual camera setup and high-end specs all around.

HTC may not launch its next flagship at the upcoming Mobile World Congress 2018 later this month, but it should formally unveil it shortly afterward. The handset should then go on sale sometime in March or April, competing at the high-end segment of the smartphone market.

With Chang now leaving the company, it remains unclear what will come of HTC's smartphone business after the new flagship hits the scene. Some speculate that the HTC U12 might be the company's last flagship, but nothing is confirmed at this point.

A few years back, HTC was one of the most popular smartphone makers, getting high praise for the design and quality of its HTC One (M7) and (M8) smartphones. The company lost significant ground to rivals in recent years, however, and despite its efforts to catch up and get back on top, it's still struggling to return to its glory days.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Google Chrome is finally getting the much-needed and highly requested ad blocker. Chrome will natively block pesky ads, rendering third-party ad blockers unnecessary.

Google is enabling the ad blocker on Feb. 15. The built-in ad filtering feature will cover up some of the internet's most annoying and intrusive ads, and ultimately convince publishers to get rid of them.

There are a few caveats, however. Google Chrome will not blot out all ads, just the ones that are in violation of the standards laid out by the Coalition for Better Ads. Here's what's out: full-page ads, ads with autoplay audio and video content, and flashing ads. Chrome will immediately get rid of the aforementioned ads upon detection.

Here's how the built-in ad blocker works.

For desktop users, Google will block pop-up ads, large sticky ads, autoplay ads, and web pages that forcefully block content with a countdown timer. Things are more interesting on the mobile front. Pop-up ads, ads that load up before the main content loads, autoplay ads, huge sticky ads, flashing animated ads, fullscreen scroll-over ads, and ads that take up more than 30 percent of a given webpage will all be blocked.

"It's clear that annoying ads degrade what we all love about the web," said Google in a blog post.

Why Is Google Doing This?

The search company also explained why it's implementing such a drastic change, considering that advertising is one of Google's biggest cash cows.

"The web is an ecosystem composed of consumers, content producers, hosting providers, advertisers, web designers, and many others. It's important that we work to maintain a balance  and if left unchecked, disruptive ads have the potential to derail the entire system."

Google Chrome Ad Blocker

Users will know when ads are blocked on a webpage when they see a small pop-up in Chrome that gives them the option to allows ads on that particular site. There's a huge chance that users will see a boost in performance with ad blocking on. Ads are pesky little performance hogs that drag down a system. However, Google says the boost is merely a bonus on top of the main goal.

The drastic set of changes will challenge publishers and content creators to employ a better way of displaying ads on their sites. According to Ryan Schoen, Google's product manager for the Chrome Web Platform, 42 percent of publishers with pesky ads have already moved to other ads. This means that a lot of websites are yet to comply with Google's new guidelines, but Schoen thinks they'll most likely do so once they see the effects of the upcoming changes.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.A mother in Indiana is being accused of giving her daughter bleach to cure her autism. She was able to make the bleach mixture by combining hydrochloric acid and a chlorine-based water purifying solution. Her husband says that she found the cure for autism online.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department filed a report on the case.

Autism Cure

There is no cure for autism, but there are various cures online that don't work. The woman's husband says that she found the cure for autism on a Facebook group. She called the mixture the "miracle mineral solution."

IMPD has referred the case to the Department of Child Services. It is currently investigating the case and removed the daughter from the home. The "miracle mineral solution" is nothing more than bleach produced by combining drops of hydrochloric acid and a chlorine-based water purifying solution that was added to the child's drink.

This isn't the first time that bleach has been cited as a cure for autism. Things became so bad that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had to issue a warning about the dangers of the miracle mineral solution.

People who have taken the miracle mineral solution have experienced severe nausea, vomiting, and life-threatening low blood pressure from dehydration. The FDA says that when used as directed, it produces an industrial bleach that's harmful to health.

"The product instructs consumers to mix the 28 percent sodium chlorite solution with an acid such as citrus juice," says the FDA's warning about the miracle mineral solution. "This mixture produces chlorine dioxide, a potent bleach used for stripping textiles and industrial water treatment. High oral doses of this bleach, such as those recommended in the labeling, can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and symptoms of severe dehydration."

Besides autism, this bleach drink has made claims that it can cure other illnesses. Online, it says it can cure HIV, hepatitis, H1N1, common colds, acne, and cancer. This drink has not been shown to treat any diseases and is harmful to people.

The National Autistic Society in the UK had to put out a statement after there were reports that the cure was being used by parents in the UK. It makes it known that there is no scientific evidence that this product cures autism.

"Autism is a lifelong condition," says the NAS in a statement about cures for autism. "There is no 'cure' and the idea of aiming to 'cure' autism is often deeply upsetting for people on the autism spectrum and their families, who see autism as a part of themselves or their loved ones."

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Tired of feeling obligated to respond to so many text messages from friends and family members every day? Google is reportedly testing a reply robot that can respond to messages.

Google's new Smart Reply feature can respond to multiple messaging apps, such as Google Allo, Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Slack, and Twitter.

Google's Reply Robot Will Respond To Text Messages

Called Smart Reply, Google's on a mission to provide easy access to one-tap responses, in addition to automatic replies, so users can let friends and family members know when they are busy and can't respond to text messages.

Developed by Area 120, a group focused on creating the AI-based robot, the goal of Reply is to help people become more involved in the real world.

"You probably get a lot of chat messages. And you want to be there for people, but also for people in the real world. What if replying were literally one tap away? Reply puts the Smart Reply you may know from Google right into notifications from the chat apps you use most often."

Reply's Do Not Disturb For Drivers' Safety

The Smart Reply team highlights a new Disturb mode, which makes it easy to put away messages so drivers can focus on what's in front of them. When smartphone owners are driving, Reply can put phones on silent so people don't feel like they have to chat right away.

A Vacation Responder mode also checks for upcoming events to inform friends and family if a person is busy or not. Making it much easier to plan for upcoming social events, such as birthday parties, weddings, and other gatherings.

When smartphone owners get an urgent message such as "We're waiting for you!", Google's smart Reply can send messages on behalf of a user, even if a phone is on silent.

Reply has the ability to answer questions like "Are you at the restaurant?" and "When can you be home?"

We're not sure when Google plans to make Smart Reply available to the public. We do know the company is currently seeking testers for the new feature. Those interested in testing out Google's latest feature can sign up to test Reply. It's good to keep in mind that not everyone gets selected for testing out new features.

Smart Reply has become one of the most popular features in Gmail's Inbox, especially among people who receive a ton of emails while on the go. Initially, the project is being tested on Android devices. However, there's probably potential for Google to make Reply available on iOS.

Tech Times reached out to Google, but we're still waiting on comment.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Apple HomePod owners, beware: don't place the Siri-powered smart speakers on top of wooden furniture, as the device may possibly cause permanent damage.

The Apple HomePod is capable of producing audio that sounds amazing, but it is far from being perfect. The smart speaker has some shortcomings, and the fact that it may damage wooden furniture is the latest to be added to that list.

Apple HomePod May Damage Wooden Furniture

There have been multiple reports that if the Apple HomePod is placed on top of a wooden object, the smart speaker may leave white rings on the surface. The damage may happen even after just a few minutes and, in some cases, may be permanent.

Through an updated support page, Apple confirmed the authenticity of the problem, which is apparently due to the interaction between the silicone base of the HomePod and the oils used for finishing the surfaces of wooden furniture.

According to Apple, the white, circular marks left behind by the HomePod on wooden surfaces may improve after several days. However, if the damage does not disappear, Apple suggested that customers should either clean the furniture with the "suggested oiling method" of the manufacturer or to have the furniture refinished.

Pocket-Lint founder Stuart Miles told BBC that the HomePod left a white mark on his kitchen worktop after just being on there for 20 minutes.

"To clear it, I had to sand the wood down and then re-oil it," Miles said. While it was not a huge problem for him, it would be a major issue for customers who unknowingly place their HomePod on an expensive piece of wooden furniture.

It is definitely not a good idea to limit the places where customers can place a $349 product, but Apple has apparently done that with the HomePod.

Apple HomePod Problems: The List Is Growing

The possibility that the HomePod may damage wooden furniture adds to the growing list of problems that customers have with the Siri-powered smart speaker.

Ever since it was launched, one of the major issues with the smart speaker was that Siri was not "smart" enough, especially compared with the capabilities of the Amazon Echo's Alexa and the Google Home's Google Assistant. In addition, at $349, the HomePod is much more expensive than most of the products in the Amazon Echo and Google Home families.

For now, it would appear that the HomePod is a niche product for customers who have already invested a lot into the Apple ecosystem. However, even then, make sure not to place it on a wooden surface.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Snapchat has become friendlier to content creators with the addition of audience analytics tool, an initiative seen to drive further growth. The app interface was redesigned as well.

Beginning today, Snapchat users can access important data insights on story views, engagement, and demographics. The app, for instance, will provide the numbers on total views on a given period, which can run from a week and up to a year. In the same way, users will be able to see the total time spent by viewers on a particular post.

In addition, the upgraded Snapchat now includes engagement stats such as the actual figures on unique viewers and the average time spent while on the social media site. The complementing demographic indicator will also be useful in mapping calibrating contents to the targeted audience, depending on gender, age, location, and political or social orientation.

It was clear that the new analytics plus the UI tweaks will enable content creators to use Snapchat as a solid platform to conduct business activities and earn, which is in line with the recent promise issued by CEO Evan Spiegel.

"In 2018, we are going to build more distribution and monetization opportunities for these creators in an effort to empower our creative community to express themselves to a larger audience and build a business with their creativity," Spiegel was reported as saying.

Snapchat Late In The Game

Spiegel's latest move, however, was seen as far from proactive as competitors such as Twitter have long made available built-in tools to content creators that allowed them to expand on their reach and flourish in the process.

Now that the company is taking on the same road, it is believed that Spiegel is looking to sustain on the impressive results reported in the last quarter of 2017. Snapchat said Snap users leaped by 9 million from the 178 million previously recorded, indicating too that swelling numbers contributed to total revenue of $285.7 million.

The social media firm saw an incredible sales increase of 72 percent in Q4 2017, which likely convinced Spiegel that empowering content creators on the platform and giving them greater chance of earning top dollars will likewise translate to company growth.

Things Are Looking Up

Before the new feature was introduced, producing on Snapchat required extra effort and additional expenses, as some creators were forced to rely on third-party providers for their analytics insight requirements. Inevitably, many sought better usability experience and greater opportunity of making money.

Snapchat user Shonduras, described by TechCrunch as one of the platform's biggest earning creators, had entertained thoughts of migrating to greener pasture, but the rolling out changes prodded him to believe again.

"I have been dreaming of these analytics for years, and now that they are here I can honestly say ... yes they are good," Shonduras said.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Doctors have released a detailed medical report about symptoms of brain injury that were observed in U.S government personnel who were assigned in Havana, Cuba.

U.S Diplomats In Cuba Showing Symptoms Of Concussions

In a report published in the medical journal JAMA on Wednesday, Feb. 14, Randel Swanson II, from the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues, reported about the odd symptoms experienced by U.S diplomats in the Caribbean island nation.

The staff experienced sleep impairment, visual, balance, and auditory dysfunction as well as severe headaches that require treatment.

Some of those affected developed the symptoms within 24 hours after they arrived in Havana. Three suffered hearing loss and had to be fitted with hearing aids.

Taken together, the symptoms are comparable to that of brain dysfunction associated with concussions. While patients who suffered from concussions often make a quick and full recovery, however, the U..S government staff in Cuba experienced symptoms that lasted for months.

Swanson and colleagues tested 21 of the 24 embassy staff who sought medical attention starting late 2016 after reported experiences with audible and sensory phenomena in their homes or hotel rooms.

Swanson said that had these patients been put into a brain injury clinic, they would be thought of as having a traumatic brain injury from a car accident or a blast in the military.

No History Of Head Trauma

The doctors said that the patients had no history of head trauma but were still found to have changed within the white matter tracts in the brain. Swanson and colleagues raised concern about a new mechanism that can cause brain injury.

"These individuals appeared to have sustained injury to widespread brain networks without an associated history of head trauma," Swanson and colleagues wrote in their report.

Potential Cause

Earlier reports have linked the diplomat's condition, particularly their auditory problems, to potential exposure to the covert sonic device. The authors, however, said that the cause of the mysterious condition remains unclear.

"The most plausible explanation is mass psychogenic illness triggered by a group of close-knit staff working for the same department in an anxiety-fueled, hostile, foreign environment in a country with a long and well-known history of targeting US embassy personnel," said Robert Bartholomew, from Botany College in Auckland, New Zealand.

The Canadian government also said that some of its diplomats have exhibited similar symptoms such as hearing loss and dizziness.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.We read, write and talk about the cloud every day. Part of the industry vernacular, this much-hyped, highly regarded technology has come a long way in its brief history. And, in ITEXPOs first Keynote of show, delivered by DialPad Founder & CEO Craig Walker, attendees were given the opportunity to take a walk down memory lane, illustrating exactly how far technology has come.

1999 was a different world. Per Walker, the technology was terrible, there were no protocols, but there was international calling and a PoC for VoIP technology. Explaining that while starting DialPad1, the cost hurdles were substantially higher than today. It was Sun servers, H.223 and a penny a minute.

When launching GrandCentral in 2006, by this time H.223 was replaced by SIP. A competitive market was forming with solutions like Skype readily available. The savings added up along the development, hosting and management phases. But this time, it wasnt about price. It was about making it better, noted Walker. That product became Google Voice. Ring a bell?

In 2010, Uber conference and DialPad were next up on Walkers journey. Recognizing that the consumer side of communications was evolving and companies were meeting the demand, the business side was lacking the same level of tools. As Walker put it, Work would be like getting into a time machine.

Today, the financial investment in developing a communications solution is nil. Theres WebRTC, building blocks, developer sandbox, all for next to or nothing.

Posing the question, Do you know what your business will looks like in ten years? Walker set up a strong point, listing companies like wework, UBER and Stripe  All companies with multi-billion dollar valuation that were not in existence 10 years ago (and, not coincidentally, all also DialPad customers). So much has changed.

It took 75 years for landlines to reach 50 million users. Wow, right? Well, it only took the iPhone 2.5 to accomplish the same feat. Today, apple sells that many iPhones every three months. Before the iPhone, Walker explained, business communications werent developed for mobility or the modern worker. It was traditional telecom, focused on fixed lines. After the iPhone, focus turned to applications, personal productivity and the like.

Between 2006-2011 cloud services came about, and thats when the move from monolithic to microservices took place.

Architecture matters. The 1st generation of PBX/phone was wires on top of wires, on top of more wires; With Walker viewing every desk phone as an opportunity to move to the cloud. The 2nd generation took the phone system off-prem, throw it in a data center, and provide people with the first true cloud PBX, mimicking the feature sets of Cisco and Avaya.

Then we arrive at the 3rd generations, driving the cloud era with microservices, AWS, Google Cloud, etc. Walker explained, that while with Google, We kicked all of the logic into the Google cloudyou get this worldwide, instantly available, always redundant, always secure, environment. At this point, the cloud is always there, always thinking, just leaving the border controller and softswitch in the rack.

Why does it matter? Walker asked, It matters because the future is unknown. In close, busting out his crystal ball, walker proclaimed that one day every single IP endpoint will be an endpoint for communications. Only time will tell, but Im with him.

Edited by Erik LinaskWAYNE, Pa., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Judge Group, a leading global professional services firm, announced today that they were chosen as a winner of Inaveros 2018 Best of Staffing Client and Talent Diamond Awards, for providing superior service to their clients and job seekers. Diamond Award winners have won the Best of Staffing for at least 5 years in a row.



Presented in partnership with CareerBuilder, Inaveros Best of Staffing Diamond winners have proven to be industry leaders in service quality based completely on the ratings given to them by their clients and the permanent and temporary employees that theyve helped find jobs. On average, clients of winning agencies are 2.3 times more likely to be completely satisfied, and talent of winning agencies are 1.7 times more likely to be completely satisfied with the services provided, compared to those working with non-winning agencies. Award winners make up less than two percent of all staffing agencies in the U.S. and Canada who earned the Best of Staffing Award for service excellence.

Focused on helping to connect people with the right job openings at U.S. and Canadian companies, The Judge Group received satisfaction scores of 9 or 10 out of 10 from 71% of their clients and 68% of their talent, significantly higher than the industrys average. Just 33% of the 2018 Best of Staffing winners earn the Diamond Award distinction.

We are honored to be recognized as Best in Staffing and to have done so with the consistency to earn the Diamond Awards, said The Judge Group CEO, Marty Judge, III. The fact that these awards are driven by the direct feedback from our clients and job seekers makes them all the more special. Our goal is to have a truly customer service centric business with our employees focusing on the client and job seeker needs and I am proud to have that approach validated directly by those we serve.

"With a tight labor market and growing economy, finding the right recruiting partner is critical to success," said Inavero's CEO Eric Gregg. "Best of Staffing Diamond award winners provide consistently remarkable service to their clients and job candidates, and I couldnt be more proud to feature them on BestofStaffing.com."

The Judge Group, headquartered in suburban Philadelphia, is located at 151 South Warner Road, Wayne, PA 19087. The office can be reached at 1-800-650-0035. To learn more, visit www.judge.com.

About The Judge Group

Working at the crossroads of people and transformative technologies, The Judge Group delivers innovative business solutions  powered by top talent  to help organizations reach their strategic goals and realize opportunities now and in the future.

The Judge Group is a leading professional services firm specializing in talent, technology, and learning solutions. Our services are successfully delivered through a network of more than 35 offices in the United States, Canada, China, and India. The Judge Group serves more than 40 Fortune 100 companies and is responsible for 7,000 professionals on assignment annually across a wide range of industries.

About Inavero

The Inavero team administers more staffing agency client and talent satisfaction surveys than any other firm in the world, reporting on more than 1.2 million satisfaction surveys from staffing agency clients and job seekers each year. Committed to delivering ongoing value to the industry, Inavero is proud to serve as the American Staffing Associations exclusive service quality partner.



About Best of Staffing

Inaveros Best of Staffing Award is the only award in the U.S. and Canada that recognizes staffing agencies that have proven superior service quality based entirely on ratings provided by their clients and job candidates. Award winners are showcased by city and area of expertise on BestofStaffing.com  an online resource for hiring professionals and job seekers to find the best staffing agencies to call when they are in need.

CONTACT

Ryan Miller

Marketing Manager

(610) 667-7700

rmiller@judge.comTORONTO, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rapier Gold Inc. (TSX-V:RPR) (Rapier) is pleased to announce that at a special meeting of securityholders held earlier today, 90% of the Rapier securityholders present in person or by proxy voted in favour of the proposed transaction pursuant to which GFG Resources Inc. (GFG) agreed to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Rapier by way of a plan of arrangement (the Arrangement). The Arrangement was approved by the required majority of the votes cast by all of the Rapier securityholders eligible to vote at the meeting.



David Lotan, interim chief executive officer at Rapier, says: "We are very pleased with the outcome of the vote and the support of Rapier shareholders. We believe that the Arrangement represents the best way forward for Rapier. Brian Skanderbeg and the GFG team have an exemplary record of delivering value to shareholders both through exploration and corporate strategy. We look forward to working with GFG to implement a smooth integration."

Brian Skanderbeg, President & CEO of GFG, says: "We welcome the positive vote from Rapier shareholders. The combination of Rapiers prospective properties with our recent acquisitions in the Timmins gold camp represent a compelling addition to our project portfolio. In 2018, we will aggressively advance the Pen Gold Project with a strategic district scale exploration approach which will include extensive geophysical and geochemical surveys over the entire property and a drill program to test high priority targets."

Rapier will be seeking a final order from the Supreme Court of British Columbia with respect to the Arrangement on February 19, 2018 and the Arrangement is expected to be completed on or around February 21, 2018.

At the Meeting, the Rapier shareholders also approved Rapiers deferred share unit plan.

About Rapier Gold Inc.

Rapier Gold Inc is a Canada-based gold mining and exploration company, listed on the TSXV on March 8, 2013. Rapier's activities are solely focused on exploring the Pen Gold Project which comprises 16,448 hectares (approximately 160 sq. km), 75 km southwest of Timmins, Ontario, in close proximity to the western extension of the Porcupine-Destor Deformation (Fault) Zone, one of the most productive gold structures in the world. For more information, please visit our website: www.rapiergold.com .

CONTACT: Diana Mark

Phone: 6045690049

Email: diana@rapiergold.com

Website: www.rapiergold.com



Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of any securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the U.S. Securities Act) or the securities laws of any state of the United States and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or the benefit of, any person in the United States unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to an exemption from such registration requirements.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements: Certain disclosure in this release constitutes forwardlooking statements. In making the forwardlooking statements in this release, the Company has applied certain factors and assumptions that are based on the Company's current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company, including expectations regarding the completion of the Arrangement. Although the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect, and the forwardlooking statements in this release are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forwardlooking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forwardlooking statements. The Company does not intend, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to, update or revise any forwardlooking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.



English French

PRESS RELEASE

Renault Board of Directors proposes appointment of Messrs. Pierre Fleuriot and Thierry Derez as New Independent Directors

Boulogne-Billancourt, February 15, 2018 - On the proposal of the Appointment and Governance Committee, the Board of Directors of Renault proposed at its meeting held on February 15, 2017, the appointment of Messrs. Pierre Fleuriot and Thierry Derez as new independent directors, as successors to Messrs. Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere et Thierry Desmarest, and the renewal of the directorship of Mrs. Pascale Sourisse and Catherine Barba and Messrs. Patrick Thomas and Yasuhiro Yamauchi.

Appointment of Messrs. Fleuriot and Derez

Mr. Pierre Fleuriot, graduate of the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and alumni of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, started his career as financial auditor, then he became General Manager of the Commission des Operations de Bourse. In 1997 he joined ABN AMRO, where he held various positions and lastly served as Senior Executive Vice-President of ABN AMRO and Vice-President of Wholesale Clients. In 2009 he became Chief Executive Officer of Credit Suisse France, in charge with the Investment Banking, Private Banking and Asset Management for France, Belgium and Luxembourg. He left the management of Credit Suisse France in 2016.

Admitted to the Paris Bar before joining the insurance group AM-GMF in 1995, first as Deputy Chief Executive Officer of GMF and then as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Assurances Mutuelles de France and of GMF in 2001, Mr. Derez was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the AZUR-GMF Group in September 2003. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of Assurances Mutuelles de France, of GMF Assurances and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Garantie Mutuelle des Fonctionnaires (GMF). He was appointed as director of MAAF Assurances in November 2004 and became its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in June 2005. Since June 2007, he has been the Chairman of the Board of Directors of MMA IARD Assurances Mutuelles, MMA IARD, MMA Vie Assurances Mutuelles and MMA Vie. Since 2008, he has been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Covea. He is a director of Scor.

The appointments of Messrs. Fleuriot and Derez aim at maintaining Chief Executive Officer expertise within the Board of Directors of Renault.

Mr. Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Renault, declared: "Their appointment will strengthen the skill set of the Board of Directors in both finance and insurance and will valuably contribute to the strategy of Renault".

Departure of Messrs. Ladreit de Lacharriere and Desmarest

The term of office of Mr. Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere is due to expire at the close of the Annual General Meeting to be held on June 15, 2018. His directorship may not be proposed for renewal by reason of reaching the age limit laid down in the Company's articles of incorporation.

Mr. Thierry Desmarest informed the Board of Directors of his intent to resign as a Director for personal reasons. Accordingly, his resignation was accepted, effective February 15, 2018.

Mr. Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Renault, declared: "I salute Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere's and Thierry Desmarest's remarkable contribution during their directorships".

Renewal of Directorships

The Board of Directors of Renault also proposed the renewal of the directorships of Mr. Patrick Thomas, Mrs. Pascale Sourisse, Mrs. Catherine Barba and Mr. Yasuhiro Yamauchi.

***

About Groupe Renault

Groupe Renault has been making cars since 1898. Today it is an international multi-brand group, selling close to 3.76 million vehicles in 127 countries in 2017, with 36 manufacturing sites, 12,700 points of sales and employing more than 120,000 people. To meet the major technological challenges of the future and continue its strategy of profitable growth, the Group is harnessing its international growth and the complementary fit of its five brands, Renault, Dacia and Renault Samsung Motors, Alpine and LADA, together with electric vehicles and the unique Alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi. With a new team in Formula 1 and a strong commitment to Formula E, Renault sees motorsport as a vector of innovation and brand awareness.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Frederic Texier

GM Corporate communication

frederic.texier@renault.com

+33 1 76 84 33 67 / +33 6 10 78 49 20Zinc Media Group has announced that Richard Farmbrough has resigned from his position as Commercial Director and Chief Executive Reef Television and will be leaving the Company in August 2018.

Farmbrough founded Reef in 2003 and it was bought by Zinc Media (then known as Ten Alps) in July 2015. Recent credits for the company include Paul Hollywoods City Bakes, Selling Houses with Amanda Lamb and Village of the Year.



Richard Farmbrough, said: Im immensely proud of everything that we have achieved as a company: the quality of our programme making has always been paramount, we have grown the careers of many brilliant people, and we have always treated contributors to the highest standards. And, we have managed to win some awards on the way.

Peter Bertram, Zinc Chairman, said: We wish to thank Richard for all his strategic input and support, and fully understand that, after setting up Reef Television some 14 years ago, is looking for a new challenge. We wish him well in his future endeavours 

Zinc has now made David Galan Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect. He joined Zinc Media as Chief Financial Officer in January 2016 and took on the additional role as Chief Operating Officer in July 2016.

The Company has also appointed Katie OReilly as part time interim Director of Finance. She has provided ad-hoc financial consultancy to Zinc Media for approximately six months prior to her appointment.

Share this storyWashington, D.C., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Give an Hour a national nonprofit 501 (c)(3), founded in September 2005, announces that it is opening its network of mental health providers to provide free, immediate and long term mental health and emotional support for those affected by the horrific shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.

Give an Hour has provided free and confidential mental health care to those who serve, our veterans, and their families  providing over 244,000 hours of free care valued at over $24M. Since its founding, the organization has expanded efforts to address the mental health needs of other populations, and has historically opened its network to assist those affected by national tragedies and traumas. Give an Hour encourages all mental health professionals interested in joining our network of providers to visit www.giveanhour.org to give your gift of care and support to those in need.

Our network of 7,000 mental health professionals volunteer their time to support populations in need  because they have unique skills and abilities to help those who are suffering. In response to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida  our volunteer providers are stepping up to respond to the immediate and critical needs of those affected by this tragedy  including family members and first responders said Dr. Barbara Van Dahlen, Founder and President of Give an Hour. Preventing these tragedies requires efforts on multiple fronts  but we can and must do more to identify those who are struggling with unaddressed mental health issues  to prevent unnecessary tragedies from occurring. We must change the culture about mental health  so that those in need are able to seek and receive the care they need. We must educate everyone because everyone can be part of the solution.

Give an Hour provides those in need with help and hope. We offer those who care the opportunity to give  and we offer expertise as well as care and support when tragedy strikes in our communities.

If you have been affected by the shootings in Florida and need emotional support, please visit: www.giveanhour.org.

###

About Give an Hour

Give an Hour, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) providing free mental health services to military members, veterans, and their families, was founded in September 2005 by Dr. Barbara Van Dahlen, a psychologist in the Washington, D.C., area. Give an Hour has been instrumental in the development of the community-based approach to addressing the challenges that face our nation's military community, having created a successful model for harnessing skill-based volunteers eager to offer their services. Thus far, the network of nearly 7,000 licensed mental health professionals has provided over 244,000 hours of free care and support to those in need. To learn more, visit www.giveanhour.org.

About the Campaign to Change Direction

The Campaign to Change Direction, a national initiative to change the culture of mental health in America, encourages Americans to care for their mental well-being just as they do their physical well-being. The campaign is led by Give an Hour, a national nonprofit organization providing free mental health services to the military and veteran community. Change Direction addresses common barriers to understanding mental health and raises awareness about Five Signs that may indicate someone is suffering emotionally and needs help: change in personality, agitation, withdrawal, decline in personal care, and hopelessness. Over 500 partner organizations are using their unique skills and opportunities to spread awareness. Organizations and individuals who are interested in learning more or making a pledge can visit www.changedirection.org.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/006e645a-f82a-48ec-95d0-532f6e42e2deCLEARWATER, Fla., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Sunday, 11 February, the Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization hosted the 6th Annual Pre-Valentines Day Grandmothers Gala organized by Children with a Vision in the Fort Harrison Auditorium. There were 530 guests in attendance, 450 of whom were grandmothers. Special guests included Florida State Senator Darryl Rouson and Daniel Alvarez from the Hillsborough County Sheriffs Office a partner of Children with a Vision.



Dylan Pires, the Community Affairs Officer for the Church welcomed the guests to the Fort Harrison. He read an excerpt from L. Ron Hubbards The Way to Happiness precept, Honor and Help Your Parents:

Children are indebted to their parents for their upbringing  if the parents did so. While some parents are so fiercely independent that they will accept no return on the obligation, it is nevertheless true that there often comes a time when it is the turn of the younger generation to care for their parents.

Youth from Men of Vision, a non-profit organization helping young men achieve their dreams, demonstrated their care for the grandmothers, escorting them, hosting them and dancing with them.

Keisha Boyd, Vice President of Children with a Vision, served as the MC.

Tonya Lewis, founder of Children with a Vision, explained that it was a grandmother who helped her when she was a troubled youth. She thanked everyone for their support and then presented two grandmothers with awards: 110 years old Ms. Voncille Dry; and 93-year-old Ms. Flossie Pittman.

Tonya said, I want these ladies to know how much we honor them while they are with us and can still see the flowers that we present to them.

Senator Darryl Rouson discussed a law he sponsored and got passed that allowed grandmothers to have guardianship of their grandchildren if anything happens to the parents. Previously, children who lost their parents were sent to orphanages and not allowed to be with their grandparents.

The Fort Harrison Religious Retreat:

Since its construction in 1927, the Fort Harrison in Downtown Clearwater has been the home for many community events and charitable organizations. The Fort Harrisons current owner, the Church of Scientology, has hosted over 500 community events there since a top-to-bottom restoration in 2009. The Scientology religion was founded by humanitarian and philosopher, L. Ron Hubbard, and incorporated in 1954. To learn more, visit www.scientology.org.





For More Information

Contact: Pat Harney

727-467-6860

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/09ae5d95-8a9e-4e55-8b23-0ecf137faf24The East Baton Rouge Metro Council agreed Wednesday to fund a $300,000 disparity study of City Hall's purchases, contracts and bids with small and disadvantaged businesses, a move Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome's administration said could lead to more local companies doing government business.

Slightly more than 9 percent of City Hall's 1,115 purchase orders in 2016 went to small and minority-owned businesses, said Chief Administrative Officer Darryl Gissel. Nearly half of the East Baton Rouge Parish population is black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2016 figures.

Mayor Broome urges support for Baton Rouge disparity study, but major price tag could be problem Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome is expanding her proposal for a $300,000 study that could open the door for City Hall to mandate requirem

Broome's administration had said the study could give the city-parish the legal framework to adopt goals for inclusion of certain types of businesses in its contracts. The study will focus on minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, veteran-owned businesses, small businesses and medium-sized businesses.

After the Metro Council voted 8-to-3 to approve the study, the audience broke into applause.

Council members Donna Collins-Lewis, Tara Wicker and Trae Welch celebrated the approval as they recalled their attempt in 2009 bolster inclusion of DBEs, or disadvantaged businesses, in City Hall's contracts. They said their 2009 attempt never reached its potential because of the lack of a disparity study.

"Many of the people we want to find out about as a result of this data that will be provided  they have to know that there are opportunities in their own hometown," Broome said.

The city-parish will request proposals from firms to conduct the study. Excess sales tax collections from last year will cover the cost, though it is three times more expensive than recent studies City Hall commissioned about East Baton Rouge Parish Prison health care and improving prison infrastructure.

Purchasing Director Patti Wallace told council members a disparity study could boost competition for city-parish contracts, bids and more. She said 24 percent of the 274 sealed bids in the city-parish last year had only one bid or zero bids, and that the study should help identify more qualified people or firms that could do the work.

Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

Mayor Broome issues order to study increasing contracts with female, minority-owned businesses Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome issued an order Monday for East Baton Rouge Parish to conduct a disparity study that examines whether min

Council Democrats and Welch, a Republican, have mostly been on board with the disparity study since Broome proposed it in November last year. But Broome won over some Republicans, including Metro Councilman Buddy Amoroso, by expanding the study to include small and medium-sized businesses. Baton Rouge Area Chamber President Adam Knapp supported the initiative.

Amoroso called small businesses the lifeblood of Baton Rouge. Republican Councilman Matt Watson was a tossup on the vote, as he previously questioned whether the money could be better used for roads and sidewalks. But Watson voted for the study Wednesday, and said Wallace swayed him with her discussion of competition.

"I'm worried about letting everyone who can do the work know that the work is out there to be done," Watson said.

Metro Councilman LaMont Cole, a Democrat, connected the city-parish's contracting practices to crime. He said bolstering DBEs in impoverished communities will lead to more job opportunities for young people who otherwise resort to crime.

+2 Baton Rouge officers honored for saving life of train crash victim, aiding homeless woman When a man was struck by a train in Baton Rouge last month, city police were able to give him life-saving first aid before paramedics could ge

"It levels the playing field for all businesses in East Baton Rouge Parish," said Will Campbell, a commercial lender in the Baton Rouge market who spoke in favor of the study at the meeting.

Republican Metro Council members Barbara Freiberg, Dwight Hudson and Scott Wilson voted against the study, saying they had problems with the price tag. Councilman Chandler Loupe was absent.Tax policy won't cause the only disputes in Louisiana's upcoming special session. Lawmakers may squabble just as much over a package of spendiWhen Shantell Jackson, a 23-year-old mother of two, died from an apparent drug overdose in October, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office detectives began investigating the Slidell woman's death.

Last week, armed with a Coroner's Office report confirming her death was a result of heroin poisoning, deputies arrested Jackson's boyfriend and an alleged drug dealer and booked them on second-degree murder counts, according to Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Meredith Timberlake.

Louisiana law allows the prosecution for homicide of people whose actions in selling or providing narcotics led to a death.

The investigation led detectives to Warren Brown, 25, the boyfriend who bought the heroin that killed Jackson from Oren Bowens, 39, of Slidell, Timberlake said. Brown, who was already in jail on a probation violation, was rebooked on one count of murder, Timberlake said.

Bowens also was arrested Thursday and booked into the St. Tammany Parish jail on counts of second-degree murder, possession of a controlled dangerous substance and possession with intent to distribute heroin after detectives found drugs in his home, Timberlake said.

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"Although these cases are very difficult to make, our detectives have worked hard to bring the individuals responsible for Shantell Jackson's death to justice," Sheriff Randy Smith said in a statement.

He said the arrests send a message to dealers that the Sheriff's Office will aggressively pursue drug dealers "who choose to do business and distribute these deadly drugs in our parish."

While the statute is not frequently used, two men were charged with second-degree murder in the 2016 death of 17-year-old St. Paul's School student James Shelby, who died after smoking synthetic marijuana. One of them, Jabari Pea, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge. The other, Jamie Cooper, is scheduled to go to trial March 5.

Also in 2016, Joseph Laue, of Slidell, was arrested in the heroin overdose death of Albert Marant. His case has not yet come to trial.After creating a stir on Mardi Gras day, videos have emerged showing ATV and dirtbike riders putting the blitz on traffic in New Orleans, even blocking I-10.

One video, titled "Mardi Gras Rideout 2018," shows scores of riders performing stunts and disrupting traffic in several areas of the city.

Can't see video below? Click here.

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At one point, a large group of riders can be seen blocking traffic on I-10 headed Westbound near the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, before heading toward and across the Crescent City Connection.

The video describes the ride as the "second annual bikelife rideout ... for fat tuesday." A similar video exists for last year's ride, but substantially shorter and does not have any footage from the interstate.

New Orleans police said in a statement Thursday that it's investigating the "illegal ... dangerous" behavior, and "strong enforcement" action will be taken.

"The NOPD is working with our law enforcement partners on a long-term solution to this dangerous nuisance, and we are grateful for the support of our citizens and any information they can provide," read the statement. They encouraged anyone witnessing dangerous driving behavior, or anyone with information on the identities of riders to contact police.

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Louisiana State Police spokesperson Melissa Matey said they are working with the NOPD and Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office to establish a plan to counter such rides in the future, but stopped short of what that might entail. She, however, encouraged onlookers to report, not record.

"Call us when this happens instead of trying to video tape," she said.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto, whose agency's helicopter helped State Police provide surveillance of Tuesday's ride, said it would likely require a mixture of investigative techniques.

Among them: showing up to disrupt any rides, whether or not any arrests are immediately made; then, trying to use intelligence and surveillance to make arrests of repeat offenders.

"The goal is not having them believe they can get away with these actions," Lopinto said.

Officials have reason to think many of the riders that participated in Tuesday's incident were invited in from out of town, through social media and other methods. Of seven people arrested by State Police and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office in two separate incidents in New Orleans and Metairie, five were from out of state.

Check back for updates.

Information from staff writer Ramon Antonio Vargas was used in this report.As work crews dismantled the trappings of another Mardi Gras on Wednesday, police were on the hunt for suspects in two of the three shootings Tuesday that left three people dead, five others wounded and a city hung over from yet another Carnival season stained by bloodshed.

Two of the shootings  one in the Central Business District, another Uptown  erupted in late afternoon as one of the truck parades rolled along St. Charles Avenue. Revelers were sent fleeing or diving for the ground.

The third, a gun melee in the Lower 9th Ward that claimed two lives, happened Tuesday night as many parade-goers returned home, some still wearing their Mardi Gras gear.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison said the incidents brought the number of homicides in the city this year to 30.

Can't see the video below? Click here.

That's the highest tally in New Orleans to this point in the year in at least a decade, according to former city crime analyst Jeff Asher. There were 27 killings over the same period last year, amid a 12-month surge in deadly violence that tapered off last summer.

Harrison noted that two of Tuesday's shootings took place near areas that have been hot spots for violent crime lately. He said both the 9th Ward and Central City have seen repeated shootings and deaths in recent months, and police have focused the attention of gang officers and other resources there.

Harrison emphasized that the two parade route shootings apparently were sparked by antagonists who knew each other and brought their beefs to the route.

While he called Tuesday's violence "disgusting," Harrison dismissed the notion that Carnival season as a whole was more dangerous this year than others.

"I believe, by and large, this was a safe Mardi Gras," he said.

He added that his officers and members of other agencies brought in to bolster law-enforcement ranks were aggressive in combating unlawful behavior. They made 44 more arrests and seized 11 more illegally carried guns this Carnival than in 2017, Harrison said at an afternoon news conference.

"We sent out a strong message: Don't bring guns to parades. They don't mix," Harrison said. "Don't bring guns to areas where you're drinking. It's a bad combination."

Tuesday's Uptown shooting occurred near the same spot where gunfire left seven wounded, including a toddler, on Mardi Gras 2009. And it was about a mile from the site of a shooting that killed two young men during parades on the Thursday before Mardi Gras in 2015.

Police have singled out suspects in both of this year's parade shootings, but they have confirmed the name of only one: 21-year-old Eddie Dingle, who is accused of second-degree murder in the killing of 29-year-old Maurice Williams along the Uptown parade route.

Parade-goers said they watched as a scuffle broke out at St. Charles and Second Street. Police said onlookers stepped in, trying to break it up, before Dingle pulled out a gun and opened fire. Someone gave chase as Dingle ran from the scene, but he got away, Harrison said.

Records show Dingle was jailed Jan. 11 in Lincoln Parish by Grambling State University police on allegations of illegally carrying a weapon. School officials didn't immediately respond to a request for more details on the case.

Now he's wanted in a deadly shooting that sent parade-goers scampering for the side streets or diving to the ground.

As they fled, a 2-year-old boy named Brandon sat on a wooden perch atop a 6-foot ladder near the curb, suddenly alone amid the mayhem until a woman rushed to the ladder, wrangled him down and dove beneath a green camouflage tent, where another toddler was crying beneath his mother.

"The kids, they come to enjoy it. They're going to be afraid next year," said Angela Harrison, who lives down the block from where the fatal shooting happened and is not related to the police chief. "They ruined it."

Her neighbor, Terrie Coyle, said she heard the pop-pop of gunfire and "hit the ground," huddling with a pregnant woman and her young daughter.

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"I just wish they would stop," Coyle said. "They need to stop."

The shooting on St. Charles followed a fight involving three men, two of whom had ripped off their shirts, said a woman who works across the street and had been watching it from the neutral ground with her daughter.

Elizabeth Murray, a 21-year-old nursing student who lives a few doors from the shooting, said she heard the gunfire as she was rounding the corner from Carondelet Street onto Second, heading back to the parade route with a pizza.

She saw a wave of people come running toward her, along with a man clutching what seemed like a gun at his hip, under chase.

"Some guy in a Mickey Mouse costume says, 'Is that a gun?' " Murray said. "I heard the two shots, saw him running like that was a gun."

More than three hours later and several miles away from the bloodshed along the Uptown route, a shooting outside a home in the Lower 9th Ward bloated the day's victim count.

The gunfire arrived as people had gathered to wind down after a day of watching parades and celebrating the holiday. It was aimed at a car parked outside a party near St. Claude Avenue and Andry Street and killed two men: 26-year-old Jamar Robinson and 21-year-old Byron Jackson. Three others, ages 23 to 26, were wounded.

Kenneth Robinson, the uncle of Jamar Robinson and two of the wounded victims, said it was a heartbreaking end to a day that had started beautifully, catching beads alongside his loved ones just outside the old Iberville housing complex.

"It brings the worst out of you. The tears, the agony, anger  you're just exhausted and broke down," said Robinson, standing around the corner from where the quintuple shooting occurred.

Yet, as horrified as he was, Robinson said he couldn't be all that surprised that New Orleans' violent crime problem had reached his family's doorstep. "I see it everyday on television," he said.

Several neighbors described hearing dozens of gunshots rattle off before the electricity cut out  an outage that Entergy said was unrelated to the shooting.

"It was like, 'What the (expletive)? Are they gonna stop?' " said one of the neighbors, all of whom declined to identify themselves out of fear for their safety.

"We were six kids and three adults on the ground, and we were so scared to look out because we thought we would die."

That woman said her family couldn't help but consider moving out of the neighborhood after Tuesday night's mayhem. Three months earlier and four blocks away, one man died and five other people were wounded in a shooting at Forstall and Burgundy streets.

That attack occurred during a funeral dedicated to the memory of a recent murder victim.

"These (shooters) don't care if kids or old people are around," a neighbor said Wednesday. "They don't even think about it."

Ash Wednesday didn't bring a reprieve from the carnage. About 10:30 a.m., officers responding to a 911 call found a man who had been shot in the head in the parking lot of a corner store near St. Andrew and Magnolia streets, in Central City.

Paramedics took the man to a hospital, where he died within the hour. Authorities had not identified him as of Wednesday evening.

Police had placed 17 evidence cones, which are typically used to mark shell casings, scattered around a puddle of blood in the middle of the parking lot.

Just around the corner, workers at Heard Dat Kitchen were setting up decorations for Valentine's Day.

School was out Wednesday, and a group of children gazed at the crime scene from a nearby stoop.

Staff writer Matt Sledge and WWL-TV's Paul Murphy contributed to this report.CLEARWATER, Fla., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Sunday Feb 11th, Mark Ruff and Trish Williams, Scientology Volunteer Ministers, returned to Clearwater from Puerto Rico where they helped on disaster relief for two months. Mark and Trish said they helped people all over Puerto Rico even in the mountains where the roads were almost impassable.



We met an elderly couple that looked like they had been living in the woods, they had no food, no water and minimal shelter, said Trish. We provided them with these things as well as an inflated air mattress and a propane camping stove. They were so happy and it made us happy. We met so many people like this.

In 2016, Mark Ruff and Trish Williams had their own life struggles when relocating from Maine to Clearwater to get a new start. As they searched for jobs, their funds were eaten away staying in motels and they eventually ended up on the streets.

One day, they passed by the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Center in downtown Clearwater, went in and from then on were given support and taught life skills. They then found work and a place to stay.

Inspired by the help they got from the Scientology Volunteer Ministers, Trish and Mark decided to help Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria devastated the island. Mark is also a trained Emergency Management Technician, and is licensed to operate heavy machinery, skills which are very much needed in Puerto Rico.



When times get tough out in the world, its important to lend a helping hand, said Mark.

To learn more about the Scientology Volunteer Ministers please contact Glendy Goodsell at (727) 467-6965 or email glendy@volunteerministers.org.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Disaster Relief Response:



The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Disaster Response Team was born out of the World Trade Center disaster in New York City on September 11, 2001.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers, located in 120 different nations collaborate with over 1,000 organizations using their organizing skills to distribute water, food and first aid in conjunction with medical teams on site.

The Scientology Volunteer Minister Program was conceived by L. Ron Hubbard who wrote in 1991, "A Volunteer Minister does not shut his eyes to the pain, evil and injustice of existence."

For more information please visit http://www.volunteerministers.org/l-ron-hubbard.html.

For More Information

Contact: Amber Skjelset

727-467-6966

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/180bf20b-ac1b-422e-a6ea-e24f8e3a2583



Do you tire of all the safer sex messages and wonder where the sexy went in sex?

Do you feel that living with HIV has taken the pleasure out of sex, or taken the sexy out of you?

You are not alone! Living with HIV (HIV+) can definitely take the fun and pleasure out of sex. Many women living with HIV struggle in one way or another with intimacy after being diagnosed -- whether it be with stigma, fear of transmission, HIV drug side effects, body image issues, or just overall health (for more about issues regarding HIV and intimacy, please scroll down).

So what's a woman to do? Despite these challenges, it IS possible to be a sexy woman living with HIV, to have a satisfying sexual life, and to get your sexy on! What you need is a little sex-esteem ...

A Few Tips to Boost Your Sex-Esteem!

What Is Sexy?

How do you know someone is 'sexy'? Is it based on their physical appearance, their youth, their vitality, or how they dress? Generally, someone's sexiness is a complex thing that includes all aspects of a person and is not just about physical features. That is a good thing, because no human body is without flaws, and all bodies change with age.

Sexiness is just as much about a person's attitude, personality, or values as it is about physical characteristics. No matter what anyone else may say or do, your attitude and your perception of yourself are yours and yours alone. In other words, you are sexy if you believe you are sexy!

Yes, you may be living with HIV, but that does not make you any less worthy of respect, love, or affection. HIV may challenge your body's immune system, but it is not necessary for it to steal your sexiness or your confidence. Nor is an HIV diagnosis a reason to expect less than anyone else would in a relationship. Being sexy is not about something you do or a certain way you look -- it is about feeling good and being fully alive within yourself.

What Is Sex?

Have you ever thought about what "having sex" means? Does it mean vaginal-penile penetration (intercourse)? Does it mean having an orgasm? Although sexual desire and arousal often lead to intercourse and/or orgasm, these are not the defining components of a satisfying sexual encounter. Sex can also include emotional intimacy, sharing fantasies, "talking dirty" or whispering "sweet nothings," "petting" (sensual touch), sharing the warm waters of a bath or shower, and kissing. The more broadly you define "sex," the more things can bring you sexual pleasure and satisfaction.

(Re-)Discover Pleasure!

The key to having pleasurable, enjoyable sex is knowing what feels good to you. Pleasure is different for everyone, and can involve all the senses -- sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch. For some, what sets the mood and comes before any physical contact is just as important as the physical, sexual contact itself. Some women prefer to learn what they find pleasurable while being sexually active with themselves (masturbation), while others like to learn what feels good in the company of another. Regardless, it is important to find out what excites you, what turns you on, and what you are willing to do (or not!). You may find that what feels good to you changes over time.

Once you know what you like, it helps to be able to say it to your partner. Something as simple as "I like this," or "that feels good" can greatly enhance your sexual pleasure with a partner. If you feel safe, you may also find it helpful to talk openly with your partner about how it feels to be sexual while living with HIV. This can enhance your connection to and deepen your intimacy with your partner -- and these in turn can help "light the fire" between you.

It is also important to find out what feels good to your partner(s). Giving pleasure is as much a part of sex as receiving it, and finding out what your partner likes sexually gives you an opportunity to talk about how to have pleasurable, protected sex. Many women find that when they feel confident being sexual, they enjoy sex more. Part of this confidence comes from not only knowing what feels good to you and your partner, but also understanding how to practice safer sex and have it feel good. There's a lot more room for pleasure when worry and fear about spreading HIV have been addressed. Safer, smarter sex can be fun and erotic. The trick is to pair protection with pleasure -- which can require a bit of playful, sensual experimentation.

If you need help talking about using condoms, check out our fact sheet on Talking with Your Partner about Condoms. Other than barrier methods, which many people or their partner(s) may not wish to use, there are now several more options to protect against getting or spreading HIV during sex. Treatment as prevention, or TasP, refers to ways in which we can use HIV drugs, or HIV treatment, to lower the risk of spreading HIV. After many years of research and evidence, we now know that a person living with HIV who is taking HIV drugs and is virally suppressed (has an undetectable viral load) can rest assured that they cannot transmit HIV to a partner. For much more information on this exciting development, see our Undetectable Equals Untransmittable fact sheet.

There are many ways to learn how to make sex feel better. You may find it helpful to check out your local sex shop or visit an online shop like Good Vibrations. There are all sorts of books, videos, toys, and safer sex supplies to choose from and play with. Some women find it helpful to test products when they are alone so that they feel more confident introducing the product or idea to their partner(s). Others make experimentation and testing part of sexy, playful interaction with their partner(s).

Sex Is Good for You!

If you sometimes wonder "why bother?" and think it might not be worth the effort, then this tip is for you. First, human beings are innately sexual beings. Being sexual -- with yourself or another -- is a normal part of being human. Every woman, including every woman living with HIV, is a unique human being who deserves to live a full and satisfying sexual life.

Second, being sexually active has several health benefits. Having sex can lower your stress levels and boost your immunity. It can lower your blood pressure and improve your heart health. As a good form of exercise, it burns calories.

Being sexual can increase levels of the hormone oxytocin (the "love" or "connection" hormone), which has been shown to boost feelings of trust, generosity, and intimacy. Oxytocin, in turn, boosts endorphins, the body's natural painkillers, so that pain may improve after sex. Lastly, oxytocin promotes sleep, which is a key ingredient to living a long and healthy life.

One more thing: researchers have found that having sex can boost your self-esteem. Those who already feel good about themselves have sex to feel even better. That's right -- having sex can help you feel better about yourself, which can then lead to your having more sex and feeling even better!

HIV and Intimacy

Sometimes the first part of feeling sexy is recognizing and trying to overcome obstacles to being intimate with (letting yourself feel close to) another person while living with HIV. Some of the main barriers to intimacy include:

Physical health: It can be difficult to feel sexy or want to be sexual when you feel tired, in pain, or sick to your stomach. In some ways this is very similar to how anyone with a chronic illness can feel. It can also be hard to consider yourself sexy if you are upset with how your body's appearance has changed since you learned you were living with HIV or began taking HIV drugs. To help with these issues, please take a look at our fact sheets on managing Side Effects, Lipodystrophy and Body Changes, Nutrition and HIV, and Physical Activity, Exercise, and HIV.

It can be difficult to feel sexy or want to be sexual when you feel tired, in pain, or sick to your stomach. In some ways this is very similar to how anyone with a chronic illness can feel. It can also be hard to consider yourself sexy if you are upset with how your body's appearance has changed since you learned you were living with HIV or began taking HIV drugs. To help with these issues, please take a look at our fact sheets on managing Side Effects, Lipodystrophy and Body Changes, Nutrition and HIV, and Physical Activity, Exercise, and HIV. Mental and emotional health: Many women living with HIV feel depressed, and as primary caregivers, women often take care of others before themselves. Many women living with HIV also experience large life stressors such as racial discrimination, poverty, violence, and single parenthood, which can contribute to depression. For more information on how to treat and manage depression, please see Depression, Women and HIV.

Many women living with HIV feel depressed, and as primary caregivers, women often take care of others before themselves. Many women living with HIV also experience large life stressors such as racial discrimination, poverty, violence, and single parenthood, which can contribute to depression. For more information on how to treat and manage depression, please see Depression, Women and HIV. Stigma: More than 30 years after the epidemic started, there is still widespread stigma attached to HIV. Stigma can cause people to feel shame about living with HIV -- a fear that they are no longer worthy of love, connection, or relationships. Feeling sexy while living with HIV can be difficult in the face of social messages suggesting that people living with HIV are somehow "less" than others. Support groups and sharing with others who have similar experiences can help (see the "Remember, You Are Not Alone" section below).

More than 30 years after the epidemic started, there is still widespread stigma attached to HIV. Stigma can cause people to feel shame about living with HIV -- a fear that they are no longer worthy of love, connection, or relationships. Feeling sexy while living with HIV can be difficult in the face of social messages suggesting that people living with HIV are somehow "less" than others. Support groups and sharing with others who have similar experiences can help (see the "Remember, You Are Not Alone" section below). Disclosure: Disclosing your status can be stressful, and the fear of it can keep people from dating altogether, let alone having an intimate relationship with another person. While there are no perfect answers to the "when" and "how" questions around disclosure, our fact sheet on Disclosure and HIV has many helpful tips and is a great resource on this topic. Many A Girl Like Me bloggers have written about their personal experiences with disclosure; you can find their courageous writings here.

Disclosing your status can be stressful, and the fear of it can keep people from dating altogether, let alone having an intimate relationship with another person. While there are no perfect answers to the "when" and "how" questions around disclosure, our fact sheet on Disclosure and HIV has many helpful tips and is a great resource on this topic. Many A Girl Like Me bloggers have written about their personal experiences with disclosure; you can find their courageous writings here. Safer sex/transmission: Feeling sexy while living with HIV can also be tricky because, while being sexual is a normal, natural part of being human, sexual contact can be a major route for spreading HIV. If you know you are living with HIV, it can be scary to think about passing HIV to a partner -- and worrying about it can totally ruin the mood! Understanding how to practice safer sex and how HIV treatment can act as prevention can lead to much more fun and much less worry.

Remember, You Are Not Alone

Because of the stigma and seriousness of an HIV diagnosis, women living with HIV can feel very isolated. If not already in a relationship, many women decide their days of dating (and their sex lives) are over after they are diagnosed with HIV. It can be very helpful to learn that there are other women out there, living -- and being sexy! -- with HIV.

There are many ways to learn how women living with HIV and other chronic illnesses are "getting their sexy on" and leading full, satisfying lives. Check out some of the links on this page, read what some of our bloggers have written in A Girl Like Me, or join a support group. You may find it helpful to share some of your feelings about being sexy or sexual in the group (most likely you will not be the only one to have those feelings). If that is not comfortable for you, maybe you could suggest privately that one support group meeting focus on sexuality or ask the group organizer to bring in a speaker to talk about it.

It is said that we are shaped by our thoughts. While the stigma of HIV may pose a threat to your self-esteem, it is important to believe in yourself and realize you deserve respect, love, and affection. You can choose to define sexy and sex in whatever way feels right to you, and to get your sexy on!

[Note from TheBody: This article was created by The Well Project, who last updated it on Feb. 8, 2018. We have cross-posted it with their permission.]A new company dedicated to genetic manipulation was born with a grand purpose: to save elephants from extinction and to revive extinct woolly mammoths. Colosseum - whose name could not be more appropriate for the purpose - was founded byCLEARWATER, Fla., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Saturday, the 10th of February, in the Fort Harrison Auditorium, the Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization hosted a college tour fundraiser for the Rays of Hope, a non-profit that empowers youth. $6,000 was raised to take the youth to Atlanta to tour several colleges.



Dylan Pires, the Community Affairs Officer for the Church, opened the event and welcomed the guests to the Fort Harrison.

The MC was Helen Neal-Ali, founder of Agape Outreach, a group Helen created to bring unity between Tampa Bay youth after her grandson lost three of his friends in gang shootings. Agape Outreach uses the non-religious The Way to Happiness booklet by L. Ron Hubbard to teach morals to youth. The group is a partner of Rays of Hope and The Way to Happiness Association of Tampa Bay.

Horace Drew, founder of Rays of Hope, spoke about his organization and what he does with the youth. Several youth and parents talked about what the program has done for them and their children.

Michael Mariner, motivational speaker, told the audience how important it is for kids to take advantage of their time in school. He emphasized how they can set up their life for great success if they get a good education and get into a field that they really want to do.

Our children are our future, said Ms. Tanja Cranton, Executive Director of The Way to Happiness Association Tampa Bay. As educators, parents and adults it is our responsibility to make sure that their future is secured by educating our children not only in reading, math and science but also with a framework of morals, which, in fact, encompasses all other aspects of life.

The Fort Harrison Religious Retreat:

Since its construction in 1927, the Fort Harrison in Downtown Clearwater has been the home for many community events and charitable organizations. The Fort Harrisons current owner, the Church of Scientology, has hosted over 500 community events there since a top-to-bottom restoration in 2009. The Scientology religion was founded by humanitarian and philosopher, L. Ron Hubbard, and incorporated in 1954. To learn more, visit www.scientology.org.

For more information

Contact: Pat Harney

727-467-6860

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0991322f-1a74-41f5-8606-cc8b665e8228ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Burgess, an innovator in healthcare payment operations for over 20 years, today announced that Burgess Group's Source Application has earned Certified status for information security by HITRUST.



Receiving HITRUST CSF Certification for Burgess SourceTM affirms our companys ongoing commitment to deliver secure cloud-based payment accountability solutions to our clients, says Greg Burgess, Founder and Chief Product Officer at Burgess. Burgess Source significantly reduces the costly inefficiencies in first-pass payment inaccuracies that affect providers and payers today, and this certification is another step in our mission of achieving real change in our industry.

HITRUST CSF Certified status demonstrates that Burgess Group's Source Application has met key regulations and industry-defined requirements and is appropriately managing risk. This achievement places Burgess among the top tier of organizations worldwide that have earned this certification. By including federal and state regulations, standards and frameworks, and incorporating a risk-based approach, the HITRUST CSF helps organizations address these challenges through a comprehensive and flexible framework of prescriptive and scalable security controls.

HITRUST has been working with the industry to ensure the appropriate information protection requirements are met when sensitive information is accessed or stored in a cloud environment, said Ken Vander Wal, Chief Compliance Officer, HITRUST. We are pleased that Burgess has taken the steps necessary to achieve HITRUST CSF Certified status, and we expect their customers to have confidence in this designation.

Burgess latest innovation, Burgess Source, introduces a new workflow solution to address healthcare payment inaccuracies, compliance, and rework. Designed from the ground up as a sole-source platform to natively manage and deliver claims editing, pricing, analytics, transaction audits, and bi-weekly regulatory data updates, Burgess Source provides health plans a next generation approach to simultaneously improve both their bottom line and provider relations.

For more information on Burgess Source and to discover how its unified approach can streamline payment operations in your organization, visit burgessgroup.com.

About Burgess

After 20 years, Burgess continues to design and build innovative and scalable solutions for healthcare payment operations. With headquarters in Alexandria, Va., and an office in West Hartford, Conn., the company serves many of the nations top health plans, including multiple BCBS, national, and regional payers.STEINHAUSEN, Switzerland, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) announced today that an agreement has been reached with the incumbent customer to amend the drilling contract on the harsh environment semisubmersible Transocean Leader.



The rig experienced equipment breakdown that could not be repaired timely, providing the customer with the right to cancel the contract. However, given the otherwise efficient performance of the rig, the customer elected to complete its program with the Leader and Transocean agreed to amend the drilling contract, signed today and effective January 13, 2018, whereby the dayrate and contract duration were modified.

The rig is currently in the shipyard for these repairs and will not earn a dayrate during the first quarter of 2018. It is expected to return to work in April of 2018, for approximately 300 days, 210 of which are with the incumbent customer and 90 days with Dana Petroleum.

Contract backlog is reduced by approximately $112 million ($73 million in 2018 and the remainder in 2019) as a result of the contract renegotiation and a new fixture with Dana Petroleum.

About Transocean

Transocean is a leading international provider of offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells. The company specializes in technically demanding sectors of the global offshore drilling business with a particular focus on deepwater and harsh environment drilling services, and believes that it operates one of the most versatile offshore drilling fleets in the world.

Transocean owns or has partial ownership interests in, and operates a fleet of 47 mobile offshore drilling units consisting of 27 ultra-deepwater floaters, 12 harsh environment floaters, two deepwater floaters and six midwater floaters. In addition, Transocean has two ultra-deepwater drillships under construction or under contract to be constructed. The company also operates two high-specification jackups that were under drilling contracts when the rigs were sold, and the company continues to operate these jackups until completion or novation of the drilling contracts.

For more information about Transocean, please visit: www.deepwater.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

The statements described in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements contain words such as possible, intend, will, if, expect or other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on managements current expectations and assumptions, and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. As a result, actual results could differ materially from those indicated in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, changes in tax estimates, impairment of goodwill, asset impairments, operating hazards and delays, risks associated with international operations, actions by customers and other third parties, fleet utilization, the future prices of oil and gas, capital markets and other factors, including those and other risks discussed in the companys most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016, and in the companys other filings with the SEC, which are available free of charge on the SECs website at www.sec.gov. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize (or the other consequences of such a development worsen), or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those indicated or expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to the company or to persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by reference to these risks and uncertainties. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of the particular statement, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur, or which we become aware of, after the date hereof, except as otherwise may be required by law.

This press release, or referenced documents, do not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and do not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of article 652a or article 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations or a listing prospectus within the meaning of the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of Transocean and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of Transocean.

Analyst Contacts:

Bradley Alexander

+1 713-232-7515

Diane Vento

+1 713-232-8015

Media Contact:

Pam Easton

+1 713-232-7647BOISE, ID , Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gold Torrent, Inc. (OTCQB: GTOR) (Gold Torrent or the Company) announces that on February 9, 2018, it entered into a binding letter agreement (the Letter Agreement) that amends the Gold and Silver Prepayment Agreement (the GSPA) dated February 13, 2017, between its 70% owned subsidiary, Alaska Gold Torrent, LLC (AGT) and CRH Funding II Pte. Ltd. (CRH), in order to provide additional incentives for AGT to reach commercial production of gold at the Companys Lucky Shot mining project in Alaska (the Project).

In particular, the Letter Agreement amends the royalty rate CRH receives from the first 23,000 gold equivalent ounces produced at the Project from a flat 18% of the all gold and silver produced at the Project to percentages based on the following schedule:

 14% if AGT reaches commercial production of gold at the Project before November 30, 2018;

 15% if AGT reaches commercial production of gold at the Project in December 2018;

 16% if AGT reaches commercial production of gold at the Project in January 2019;

 17% if AGT reaches commercial production of gold at the Project in February 2019;

 18% if AGT reaches commercial production of gold at the Project in March or April 2019;

 19% if AGT reaches commercial production of gold at the Project in May 2019; and

 20% if AGT reaches commercial production of gold at the Project in June 2019.

Instead of the standard 18% royalty rate, this amendment provides us with additional incentive with lower royalty rates to achieve gold production at the Project at the earliest possible date and adds additional time to the production delivery dates to allow the Company more time to raise the additional funds required to further develop the Project, said Ryan Hart, President of Gold Torrent, Inc.

The Letter Agreement also adds a condition that requires AGT to have produced at least 650 gold equivalent ounces per month for two consecutive months by May 31, 2019, and to continue to be producing gold at least at that level onwards or be considered in default of its obligations under the GSPA. Further, the Letter Agreement establishes that before AGT can draw down the $4.75 million second tranche of funding under the GSPA, the Company must raise at least $10 million in capital to fund the development of the Project.

About Gold Torrent, Inc.

Gold Torrent is an exploration and development company with a key project located in Alaska, USA. Gold Torrent's priority is to develop and advance the Lucky Shot Gold Project, ultimately resulting in gold production, and an increase in value for shareholders. Gold Torrent continues to pursue high-grade gold opportunities in safe mining jurisdictions. www.goldtorrentinc.com.

This press release is neither an offer to sell, nor a solicitation of offers to purchase, securities.

Forward Looking Statements:

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Securities laws and applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, among others, estimates of resources at the Project, plans for development of the Project and plans for additional sources of funding. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about Gold Torrent's exploration projects, the industry in which Gold Torrent operates and the beliefs and assumptions of Gold Torrent's management. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "targets," "goals," "projects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "continues," "may," variations of such words, and similar expressions and references to future periods, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, including such factors as the results of exploration activities and whether the results continue to support continued exploration activities, unexpected variations in ore grade, types and metallurgy, volatility and level of commodity prices, the availability of sufficient future financing, potential changes to royalties and taxes imposed by the Alaska government and other matters as disclosed in the reports we have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual results or developments may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this release is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.Author Kevin Kwan is set to release the Indonesian cover of Rich People Problems, the third book from the best-selling series Crazy Rich Asians. The cover, using blue as the background color with an illustration of a girl, has grabbed the public's attention. Kwan expressed gratitude for the cover's illustrator, Martin Dima.

When I found out that he liked the cover, it felt satisfying, said Martin to The Jakarta Post in a phone interview. Martin also works as creative director for a lifestyle magazine.

It took around two to three weeks for Martin to do the cover, and he finished it last year. It took longer for the approval [part], Martin added. I made several poses [for the girl on the cover], gave them to my editor [Dini Pandia] and then she picked one. After she approved the pose and the color, I made the final [version].

Martin was also the man behind the Indonesian cover for the first and second books, Crazy Rich Asians and China Rich Girlfriend. When you look at these three books, there are two templates  the girls pose and icons in Chinese culture, explained Martin, adding that there are three different icons on the books title. The first one is a dragon, the second is a phoenix and the third is a tiger.

Read also: Glee actor Harry Shum Jr. cast in Crazy Rich Asians

A post shared by Kevin Kwan (@kevinkwanbooks) on Jan 31, 2018 at 10:00am PST

A post shared by martindima (@martin.dima) on Jul 6, 2016 at 3:42am PDT

Although he has illustrated three, Martin admitted there was a challenge in finding the connection between the third installment and the first and second installments. In the beginning, I didnt know the [first] book would have its sequels. Thankfully, theres an icon on the book title, so I just did the [girl's] pose and background color, Martin stated.

Having served as cover illustrator for many Gramedia books since 2007, Martin's other illustration credits include: Stephenie Meyers The Chemist, Jeff VanderMeers Annihilation, Agatha Christies Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly and Sophie Kinsellas Finding Audrey. His work on Finding Audrey was also used as the cover for the books Turkish edition.

When asked which was his favorite cover, Martin could not choose one. For him, although he has illustrated many covers, he still finds the task challenging. Its important to be able to translate what the book wants, he said. Theres a saying: Dont judge a book by its cover. But many people may buy the book based on its cover.

Its also important that my editor is satisfied with the result and readers express that they like it, said Martin, who credited God for his success. As for his forthcoming project, Martins illustrations will be found on the Artemis Fowl series, which has yet to be completed. (mut)TORONTO, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lydian International Limited (TSX:LYD) (Lydian or the Company) is pleased to announce that the Company will attend the BMO Capital Markets 27th Global Metals & Mining Conference to be held February 25  28, 2018 in Hollywood, Florida. Howard Stevenson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lydian, will host one-on-one meetings during the conference and present to attendees at 12:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, February 28, 2018. The presentation will provide an update on construction and upcoming activities at the Companys Amulsar Gold Project in Armenia.



The presentation will be available on Lydians website at www.lydianinternational.co.uk. To view current Amulsar construction photos and videos, click here.

About Lydian International Limited

Lydian is a gold developer focusing on construction at its 100%-owned Amulsar Gold Project, located in south-central Armenia. Amulsar will be a large-scale, low-cost operation with production expected to begin in the third quarter of 2018. Open pit mining and conventional heap leach processing contribute to excellent scale and economic potential. Amulsar will be Armenias largest gold mine and make Lydian one of the largest emerging gold producers of 2018. Estimated mineral resources contain 3.5 million measured and indicated gold ounces and 1.3 million inferred gold ounces. Gold production is targeted to average approximately 225,000 ounces annually over an initial 10-year mine life as outlined in the Q1 2017 Technical Report. Existing mineral resources beyond current reserves and open extensions provide opportunities to improve average annual production and extend the mine life. Lydian is committed to good international industry practices in all aspects of its operations including production, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility. For more information and to directly contact us, please visit www.lydianinternational.co.uk.

For further information, please contact:

Doug Tobler, CFO Pamela Solly, Vice President of Investor Relations +1 720-307-5087 (d) or +1 303-905-4442 (m) +1 720-464-5649 (d) or +1 303-810-4863 (m)

Or: moreinfo@Lydianinternational.co.uk

Caution regarding forward-looking information

Certain information contained in this news release is forward looking. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events, results, outcomes or developments that the Company expects to occur are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects, is expected, intends, anticipates or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, will, would, should, or occur or the negative or other variations of such terms. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, among others, statements with respect to: the realization of mineral resource estimates and the timing of development of the Amulsar Gold Project, including the expected start date of production; the current Amulsar Gold Project construction schedule, including the Companys plan to begin and advance various on-site construction activities; current expectations regarding forthcoming operational objectives and the timing and satisfaction of such objectives; the Companys approach to sustainability, including the biodiversity programs; the fabrication, delivery, and assembly of certain equipment; the ability to access funds under current and future financing arrangements and the timing and terms of such funding; results of future exploration and drilling; the commitment to and implementation of good international industry practices; the expected gold production from, and life of mine of, the Amulsar Gold Project; the expected mining methods at the Amulsar Gold Project; and the expected cost of operations at the Amulsar Gold Project. Statements concerning mineral resource estimates may also be deemed to constitute forward-looking information to the extent that they involve estimates of the mineralization that will be encountered when the property is developed.

Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on estimates and assumptions that are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties and factors include, without limitation: changes in gold and silver prices; adverse general economic, market or business conditions; failure to achieve the objectives of the future exploration and drilling programs; regulatory changes; as well as "Risk Factors" included in the disclosure documents filed on and available at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results and future events could materially differ from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All of the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, events or otherwise, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.Officials in Klungkung regency in Bali have listed 13 classical Balinese paintings as part of the districts cultural heritage. The paintings are in the collection of the Nyoman Gunarsa Museum of Classical Balinese Painting.

Most paintings are more than a century old, some were even created in the 16th or 17th century, said Nyoman Suwirta -the regent of Klungkung- on Wednesday to Antara.

The regent delivered his speech on the celebration of the paintings being officially listed as cultural heritage items. Prominent residents and the management team of the museum attended the event.

Read also: Adieu maestro: Bali bids farewell to influential visual artist

According to Antara, 64 paintings from the museums collection had been suggested as part of the regencys cultural heritage. But only 13 received the status after the process was completed in 2017. The rest of the paintings are expected to receive the status later this year.

Apart from the paintings, other artifacts have been given the cultural heritage status, namely a leather puppet and some sculptures. According to Suwirta, the bestowing of cultural heritage status on the artworks was the idea of the late Nyoman Gunarsa. The artist himself expressed his wishes to President Joko Widodo when they met. The idea was to make sure that the priceless assets could be preserved and maintained by the officials of Klungkung regency.

I will ensure that the remaining paintings are to be assessed and given cultural heritage status soon. Furthermore, we will propose this museum be integrated with the city tour package, explained Suwirta. Apart from the museum located in Banda Desa Takmung hamlet, the Kertha Gosa pavilion at Klungkung Palace and Goa Jepang (Cave of Japan) will also be listed as cultural heritage items. Suwirta confirmed that the regency was ready to help develop the Museum of Classical Balinese Painting as Gunarsas legacy. (mut)Two artists share their views and perceptions on colonial legacies and identities.

Indonesian painter Jumaldi Alfi, who hails from West Sumatra, and American-born multimedia artist Adam de Boer, who is of Dutch-Indonesian decent, have teamed up for an exhibition entitled Legacies Real and Imagined, held in the World Trade Center Building 2 ( WTC2 ) in Central Jakarta.



Running until March 9, the exhibition was commissioned for the WTC2 by private property company PT Jakarta Land, in consultation with ISA Art Advisory. Also present at the opening of the exhibition were United States Ambassador Joseph R. Donovan and Alan Feinstein, the director of the American Indonesian Exchange Foundation (AMINEF).



The decision by ISA Art Advisory to pair these two Yogyakarta-based artists in a single exhibition is interesting given the similarity in the source of the two artists subject matter. Jumaldi and De Boer have both been impacted personally, and in their artwork, by enduring issues stemming from Indonesias negative experience with Western colonialism.



In the case of De Boer, who is descended from a family of Dutch-Indonesians, negative aspects of Indonesias colonial history have very much been embroiled with his own identity.



During Indonesias post-colonial and anti-imperialist years under president Sukarno, the Dutch-Indonesians as a group were despised by wider Indonesian society as they were perceived as having enjoyed preferential treatment during Dutch colonization, on top of the colonial administrations racially prejudiced beliefs.



As such, De Boers family was forced to leave Indonesia in 1957 when they faced vengeful ostracism. They moved to Los Angeles in the US where De Boer was born and grew up around the surfing and skateboarding culture of California.

Room Screen for Margio Bin Suyeb ( 2017 ) by Adam de Boer (JP/Reuben Wylie)

During an interview with The Jakarta Post, De Boer described how his experience learning and practicing art in Indonesia since 2012 had been marked by a sense of discovery and re-connection to a heritage he thought lost after his familys exodus.



I first came here with some surfer friends in 2010, kind of by accident. When I got out of the airport, I realized  hey the taxi driver looks just like my dad, De Boer said.



The Fulbright awardee said he realized there was something genetic there that related well to the countrys landscape.



Now, eight years later and with Fulbright funding, I was able to really dive deep into past traditions that I respect and love from Java, and figure out ways to combine them with more western practices to make mixed media pieces []. Im talking about mixed-race identity for my generation, he said.

De Boer related some of his artwork to the story of his Dutch-Indonesian grandparents and their forced exodus. He talked about his grandfathers inability to protect himself and his inability to protect his family when Indonesia was under Japanese occupation and then through the independence process.



His familys story is particularly represented in the installation artwork entitled Room Screen for Margio Bin Suyeb, a reference to the 2004 novel Man Tiger by award-winning Indonesian author Eka Kurniawan. The installation centers on an acrylic and oil painting of an Indonesian tiger over a carved leather screen.



De Boer said he had drawn and painted that same tiger around three times over the past five years.



Before it was more like an object in a box, but I felt this time that the spirit of the tiger was boxed in [with the artwork], which became a kind of metaphor for the social and political realities that my grandfather lived through, he said.

Shaping perceptions: Artist Jumaldi Alfi poses in front of his painting Melting Memories, Rereading Landscape, Mooi Indies #03 ( 2013 ) on Feb. 6. (JP/Reuben Wylie)

Meanwhile, Jumaldis artwork discusses issues related to Indonesias colonial past, as seen in his series of Blackboard Paintings, many of which parody and criticize the Mooi Indies style of landscape painting which was established by Dutch colonial painters in the 19th century.



The Mooi Indies style of painting was highly misrepresentative of Indonesia, with the serene features of the countryside being used to promote the archipelago as a tranquil paradise for the audiences of Europe, Jumadi said.



He claimed the style was historically misleading in its representations of Indonesia, as it ignored the suffering of the Indonesian people at the hands of colonialists, especially those in the provinces being painted.



He is concerned that the styles and mentalities of the Mooi Indies painters have been adopted in the traditions of contemporary Indonesian art culture. He fears that a Mooi Indies mentality is continuing to prevent artists in Indonesia from properly representing the country by ignoring the harsh reality shared by many of Indonesias diverse lifestyles, and of the suffering of Indonesias poor and downtrodden.

Many Indonesian artists have still mentalities, just like the mentality of the Mooi Indies artists. Nothing has changed, Jumaldi told the Post.



Jumaldi, a co-founder of Jendela Art Group, is one of the influential contemporary artists in the country. His practice of analyzing Indonesias artists led to him analyzing the artist profession. He claims that artists bear a responsibility to serve and listen to the people of their country.



In Indonesia we dont have anything []. Now we just have art and culture. If we didnt care about art and culture maybe we wouldnt have anything. Thats my [sense of] responsibility, he said.



***

The writer is an intern with the ACICIS program

Lim Tju Kuet will not celebrate this years Chinese New Year, which ushers in the Year of the Dog this Friday, with his children.



Both his son and daughter have given up their Indonesian citizenship to become Australian citizens to pursue their careers as accountants. They are still traumatized, said the 72-year-old Chinese calligraphy artist, fondly known as Akwet.



He was referring to the dark time when fires were gutting houses and hotels in the Glodok area back in May 1998, making his children scared to go home after school because of the riots.



He felt deep gratitude for a Muslim man who sheltered his children in his house at the back of their school while waiting for the situation to calm.



In the past few days, Akwet was busy writing Gong xi fa cai  a wish for a prosperous New Year  onto postcards in his studio, located near the 260-year-old Dharma Jaya Temple, also known as Toa Se Bio.



Such a sight was impossible during the New Order era, when Chinese-Indonesians were discriminated against and Akwet had to work in secrecy, as the government had banned not only his culture and tradition but also his language.



We will also prepare candy, peanuts, fruit and new clothes for the New Year, he told participants of a food tour organized by the Jakarta Food Traveler (JFT) community.

Man of art: Calligraphy artist Akwet works at his studio in Glodok. (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung)

The tour stopped at his studio on the way to the famed Gang (Alley) Kali Mati, home to Glodoks mouth-watering culinary treasures.



Guided by JFT founder Ira Lathief, the participants explored Glodoks popular food spots, from Pantjoran Tea House, to Gang Gloria, to Dharma Bhakti Vihara.

As the Chinese New Year inched closer, the shops turned brighter, sparkling in gold and pink ornaments along with red paper lanterns. All around, shops offered angpao (red envelopes) for money, firecrackers, fireworks and kue keranjang (glutinous cake).



Nearby, traders also offered sea cucumber  one of eight basic ingredients to cook eight-treasure soup, a special dish for the family dinner. The celebration day is, for those who celebrate it, a symbol of hope and prosperity.



On the Chinese calendar, Chinese New Year, or Imlek, is the most significant holiday. In Indonesia, thanks to former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, it has been celebrated as a national holiday since 2003. She followed the actions of her predecessor, then-president Abdurrahman Gus Dur Wahid, who revived Chinese traditions in 2000.



Back during late president Soehartos rule, Chinese-Indonesians were discriminated against, and during the May 1998 riots, some of their shops were set on fire or looted.



Fences of Chinese-Indonesians houses and shops are mostly high because during the New Order era, they [the Chinese community] lived in fear, Ira said.

Its hot: People wait to buy sekba (pork soup), also known as bektim, in the popular Gang Gloria in Glodok, West Jakarta. (JP/P.J. Leo)

As the tour reached Gang Gloria, the participants were taken directly to Tak Kie coffee shop to taste its signature iced coffee.



Having existed since 1927, the shop uses robusta and arabica coffee beans from Lampung, Toraja, in South Sulawesi and Sidikalang in North Sumatra.



Along the alley, many vendors offer pork dishes, from kuo tieh (fried pork dumplings) to sekba or bektim (pork soup).



Halal food is also available, including turtle soup, known as pi oh, which costs Rp 50,000 (US$3.70) per bowl. Chinese tradition believes that consuming turtle flesh is good for the skin. Here, many food vendors are Muslim, Ira said.



The participants were later introduced to another popular halal food, cheung fan. It is a Cantonese rice noodle roll, which resembles kwetiau (flat rice noodle) at a glance, believed to originate from Southern China and commonly served as a snack or variety of dim sum.



The tour continued to Dharma Bhakti Temple, the oldest Chinese temple in town. It was burned to the ground when over 10,000 ethnic Chinese were massacred by Dutch soldiers in 1740.



Chinese people are hard workers. Wherever they live, they will survive no matter how hard they are pushed, Ira said.



At the time of visit, the temple was crowded with many Chinese-Indonesians, not only to pray and pay respects to their ancestors, but also to release sparrows. They believe that by releasing the birds, they will have good luck in the coming year.



Dharma Bhakti is a combination between a vihara [Buddhist monastery] andkelenteng [temple], a uniqueness [found] in Indonesia, Ira said, pointing out the fact the place of worship was guarded by Muslims, serving as a symbol of tolerance.

Chinese style: A Muslim woman looks inside Santa Maria de Fatima Church in Glodok. (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung)

The tour also visited Santa Maria de Fatima Church, the only Catholic church in Jakarta with oriental design and architecture.



Ira showed us a picture of Mother Maria clad in a batik dress with St. Maria, Bunda Segala Suku (St. Maria, Mother of All Ethnicities) written on it.

Through the drawing, people were asked to love each other, as Gods love is for all mankind regardless of ethnicity.



She made the point based on her concern over the rise of anti-China sentiment in the country, despite the fact that Chinese culture has become an integrated part of Indonesian peoples life, as seen through Chinese-influenced food like noodles and siomay (steamed dumplings).



Ana Andriani, a Muslim, said the tour, which she discovered via Instagram, gave her a better understanding about the history of Chinese-Indonesians in the country. Most importantly, for her, she learned that not all dishes in Glodok were haram.



One of the 48-year-olds favorites during the tour was Kedai Lao Ho, a halal food stall serving Belitung-style noodles. I will tell my Muslim friends they no longer need to worry if they want to visit Glodok, she said.French exports of wine and spirits jumped by more than a billion euros last year to strike a record level, driven by a surge in sales of cognac, a trade body said Wednesday.

The number of 12-bottle cases shipped abroad rose by 5 percent to 198.6 million, while in terms of value exports climbed by 8.5 percent to 12.9 billion euros ($15.9 billion), according to data from the Federation of French Wine and Spirits Exporters (FEVS).

Exports of cognac led the growth, climbing by 8.7 percent in volume and 10.8 percent in value.

Exports of wine also perked up in 2017, having been held in check the previous four years due to fierce price competition, rising by six percent in volume and 9.6 percent in value.

Read also: Four things oenophiles should know about collecting wine

While exports to fellow EU members returned to growth last year, but most of the expansion was due to sales further afield, in particular North America and Asia.

Shipments to the United States climbed by 10 percent to over three billion euros, making it the top export market for French wine and spirits.

Exports to China shot 25 percent higher to more than 1.2 billion euros due to the growth of the middle class and urbanisation of the population.As 2018 ushers in the Year of the Dog this Chinese New Year, astrology and feng shui experts say Indonesia is looking at a hard-headed year.



The dog is the 11th sign on the Chinese astrological calendar and mainly symbolizes protection, intelligence and harmony. It is grounded in the Earth element, which also symbolize firmness but the tendency to be stubborn.



When consulted on the fortunes of the year, Indonesian feng shui experts and authors Yulius Fang and Xiangyi Hong both agreed that due to the stubborn nature of the Earth element, any changes that Indonesia needed to make would still be obstructed by those who insisted on using old methods to solve new problems and address new issues.



The earth dog also symbolizes a longing for the past and a desire to address those past memories in the present. Behavior-wise, the Year of the Dog in 2018 will be mostly affected by people who are either too patient or too stubborn or too honest, with differing amounts of control.

Read also: Feng shui masters predict claws out in Year of Dog

Recent bouts of shocking social intolerance in Indonesia revolving around religious and sexual freedom have shocked many members of the public in their swiftness and ridiculousness.



Yulius explained that this was caused by a bevy of people who insisted on doing things the old fashioned way.



To absolve this, we must treat this year as a year of mediation and understanding [] It is this clash between ideas and methods that is creating the image of disharmony, Yulius said.



Meanwhile, Xiangyi said that in 2018, potential disasters that might occur would likely revolve around earthen themes: earthquakes, landslides or structural collapse.



Because Earth is a strong element, we must keep up our stamina and be cautious of heights, Xiangyi added.



The Year of the Earth Dog is also the year that calls on everyone to be more creative and flexible. This not only applied to individuals but also to the Indonesian government as well, said Yulius.



The nature of the year symbolizes why a lot of the governments infrastructure projects will likely be delayed this year, as the governments priorities have visibly shifted outside of development to what seems to be mending its fractured social harmony.



Problems that we as individuals might face economically this year may be hard, but that difficulty will only propel us to become more creative in overcoming them. For one, due to slowdowns in several economic sectors, many people may decide to start businesses this year,

Yulius said.



Yulius also considers this economic creativity a duty that must be taken up by the Indonesian government. However, he places a more urgent emphasis on being realistic when setting government economic targets for

this year.



Currently, President Joko Jokowi Widodos economic growth target for this year is 5.3 percent. It is a target that the feng shui expert feels is difficult to attain.



A more realistic growth percentage that the country can reach this year is a minimum of 4.9 percent and a maximum of 5.1 percent.



Despite the lower target, the expert feels that the countrys economic condition will stay relatively stable due to Jokowis unique energy.



Politically, Xiangyi commented that the nostalgic factor of the year would also be the reason why the Indonesian government would be preoccupied with ideas of yore instead of fostering and moving forward with new ideas for the sake of the country.



Candidate pairs running for elections will tend to rehash old programs or promises that are similar to ideas in the past, but oddly, this will only increase their winning chances, Xiangyi said.

_______________________



Luckiest signs:



 Rabbit, Horse, Tiger.



Less harmonious signs:



 Dragon, Chicken, Goat, DogDespite its reputation as a resource-rich country, Indonesia still bears the shame of a problem with stunting, globally having the fifth highest number of cases. The Jakarta Post journalist Moses Ompusunggu examines why Indonesia remains struggling with the issue and what it is doing to address it. by Moses Ompusunggu

Recently, an auditorium at the Health Ministry in South Jakarta was jam-packed with hundreds of health experts attending a conference called Doctors Parade. The days star speakers were eight scientists who had just obtained their doctoral degrees from various universities. Among the most awaited presentations from scientists representing government bodies were two nutritionists who would reveal the results of their studies on stunting. The conference took place at a time when Indonesia is struggling to address the chronic health problem. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines stunting as the impaired growth and development that children experience as a result of poor nutrition, repeated infection and inadequate psychosocial stimulation. Undernourishment is the leading cause of stunting. Stunted children have poor cognitive abilities and undersized brains, whic...Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, February 15, 2018 08:00 1308 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c5a5e3f 1 City damaged-road,East-Jakarta Free

A 50-meter-long crack has appeared in a road in Kebon Manggis subdistrict in Matraman, East Jakarta. Residents of Berlan village said a crack had appeared in the same spot several times before.

Weve patched up the crack with concrete, but it keeps recurring, RT 012 head Herry said on Wednesday. The damaged road is located in RT 012 (neighborhood unit) RW 03 (community unit).

We heard a loud cracking sound on Saturday night that we thought it was an earthquake. It turned out that it was the crack in the road. We then rushed to notify the subdistrict head, he added, kompas.com reported.

Kebon Manggis subdistrict head Mesrarianita said the Matraman Bina Marga road agencys attempt to patch up the crack with asphalt had been unsuccessful. The crack stretched toward the Ciliwung River.

The current road restoration project involves other parties like the BBWSCC [Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Control Office], the Water Management Agency and the East Jakarta mayoralty. Our main attempt is to build a gabion wall near the landslide-prone village, she said.

Some people assume it was caused by heavy equipment and trash trucks that frequently pass the road, she added.

Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency head Harry Tirto Djatmiko has given assurances that the crack was not caused by a natural disaster.

If it was due to an earthquake, the agency would have detected it beforehand and the impact would not have been only in Matraman, he said. (vla)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, February 15, 2018 17:16 1307 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c5c1a5c 1 City Chinese-New-Year,security,North-Jakarta Free

More than 1,5000 joint security officers will be deployed to secure the Lunar New Year celebration in North Jakarta on Friday, the municipality's police chief Sr. Comr. Reza Arief Dewanto has said.

"We will involve at least 1,500 security officers from the police, the military, the city administration and representatives of residents," Reza said on Thursday according to kompas.com. North Jakarta is home to several Chinese settlements.

The officers will guard 13 viharas, nine malls and two tourist spots, Ancol and Pantai Indah Kapuk, he added.

They will also guard other popular places, Reza said.

Reza went on to suggest residents participate in the effort to secure the celebration.

"I hope residents can maintain tolerance, so the celebration can be held safely," he said. (cal)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) La Paz, Mexico  Thu, February 15, 2018 09:02 1308 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c5abd0c 2 World dolphin,Mexico,environment Free

Twenty-one dolphins that were apparently attacked by another species of dolphin have died after washing up on a beach in northern Mexico, authorities said.

Environmental activists launched a frantic operation to try to save the dolphins after a group of 54 washed up on a rocky beach in Bahia de la Paz, in Mexico's Baja California peninsula.

They managed to get 33 of the short-beaked common dolphins back in the water alive, but the rest died on the beach, the Mexican environmental protection authority, Profepa, said in a statement.

The dolphins had bite marks that appeared to indicate they had been attacked by bottlenose dolphins, rescuers said.

Despite their cute and friendly reputation, some dolphins, including the bottlenose, are known to attack and even kill other dolphins.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Martin PARRY (Agence France-Presse) Sydney  Thu, February 15, 2018 14:32 1307 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c5b5d96 2 World sex-scandal,Australia Free

Australia's prime minister imposed a formal ban on sex between ministers and their staff on Thursday after his deputy made "a shocking error of judgement" by having an affair that left an aide pregnant and the government reeling.

Malcolm Turnbull announced the amendment to the ministerial code of conduct at an extraordinary press conference during which he slammed deputy Barnaby Joyce for causing "terrible hurt and humiliation" to his wife and four children.

"Barnaby made a shocking error of judgement in having an affair with a young woman working in his office," he said.

"In doing so, he has set off a world of woe for those women and appalled all of us.

"Our hearts go out to them. It has been a dreadful thing for them to go through in the glare of publicity."

Joyce, 50, has been under immense pressure since his affair with former media advisory Vikki Campion, 33, who is now pregnant with their child, became public last week.

It has led to allegations that he breached ministerial rules, with the crisis dominating the front pages and parliament question time, with calls mounting for him to resign.

Joyce, whose National Party is in a coalition with the prime minister's Liberals, will take leave next week, allowing him to side-step the role of acting leader while Turnbull is on a visit to the United States.

Turnbull departs for Washington next Wednesday for meetings with US President Donald Trump and is scheduled to be overseas for four days.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, as deputy Liberal leader, would normally step in if Joyce was unavailable. But she will also be travelling, which means Senate leader Mathias Cormann will take the position.

Turnbull said the break would allow Joyce to "consider his own position".

The prime minister could sack him, but that risks fracturing the ruling coalition and could cause a rift between the Liberal and National parties.

- 'No good comes of it' -

Joyce admitted to the affair after a picture of his pregnant lover was splashed across the front page of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, and has publicly apologised to his shattered wife of 24 years Natalie and their daughters.

Turnbull said times had changed and people expected politicians to set an example.

"I am not here to moralise. But we must recognise that whatever may have been acceptable or to which a blind eye was turned in the past, today, in 2018, it is not acceptable for a minister to have a sexual relationship with somebody who works for them," he said.

"It is a very bad workplace practice. And everybody knows that no good comes of it."

As such, he amended the code of conduct to make unequivocally clear that "ministers, regardless of whether they are married or single, must not engage in sexual relations with staff".

Joyce -- best known internationally for threatening to euthanise Hollywood star Johnny Depp's dogs over a quarantine violation -- denies he breached any rules, which could be grounds for him to be removed from office.

He has defended the two jobs, one for a minister, that Campion was given after she stopped working for him last year.

The code stipulates that "partners" of ministers cannot be given jobs in ministerial offices without the express approval of the prime minister.

Joyce is also under fire over revelations that he accepted a rent-free apartment from a millionaire friend after his marriage collapsed.

Labor accused him of breaching ministerial standards by asking for a place to live, and in effect receiving a gift of not paying rent for six months. Joyce insists it was offered and he did not ask for it.

Joyce was re-elected in his rural constituency in New South Wales late last year after being forced to stand down over a once-obscure rule barring dual citizens from federal office.

He campaigned on a platform of being a pillar of the community who upheld conservative values, including marriage.BALTIMORE, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Algeco Scotsman Global S.a r.l. (A/S Global and, together with its subsidiaries, Algeco Scotsman), today announced that Sunny Thakrar, its former European Chief Financial Officer, has been appointed Group Chief Financial Officer following the concurrent resignation of Stephen Bishop, who had served as the Groups Chief Financial Officer since 2014.



Diarmuid Cummins, CEO of Algeco Scotsman, commented, I would like to thank Steve for his dedicated service and significant contributions to our group. Under his leadership, our finance organization and capital discipline have been greatly improved. As we embark on our next phase of development with a more Europe-centric business, I am happy to welcome Sunny as our new CFO. Sunny brings a wealth of experience, most importantly as CFO of Algeco Scotsman Europe for the last two years. His knowledge of the leasing business and his experience with both private and public companies will be very valuable to Algeco Scotsman.

About Algeco Scotsman

Algeco Scotsman is the leading global business services provider focused on modular space, secure portable storage solutions, and remote workforce accommodation management. Headquartered in Baltimore, Algeco Scotsman has operations in 24 countries with approximately 245,000 modular space and portable storage units and 11,400 remote accommodations rooms. The company operates as Target Logistics in North America, Algeco in Europe, Elliott in the United Kingdom, Ausco in Australia, Portacom in New Zealand, and Algeco Chengdong in China.

Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains statements reflecting assumptions, expectations, projections, intentions or beliefs about future events that are intended as forward-looking statements. A number of risks and uncertainties could cause our actual results to differ materially from current projections, forecasts, estimates and expectations relating to us. Any or all of these forward-looking statements may turn out to be wrong. They can be affected by inaccurate assumptions or by known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond our control.

Important Regulatory Notice

This announcement contains information that prior to its disclosure may have constituted inside information under European Union Regulation 596/2014 on market abuse.

Investor Relations Contact

Scott Shaughnessy

Vice President, Finance

Algeco Scotsman

+1 410-933-5921

Scott.Shaughnessy@as.willscot.comShare this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Bambang Muryanto (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta  Thu, February 15, 2018 17:27 1307 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c5c1cf4 1 National Yogyakarta,Kulonprogo Free

Local authorities in Yogyakarta barred an art exhibition initiated by a group of activists protesting of the construction of a new airport in Kulonprogo regency, Yogyakarta.

The exhibition, titled Tanah Istimewa (Special Land) and initiated by a group called Teman Temon (Temons friends), was initially to be held at Lorong Gallery in Kasihan district, Kulonprogo. Local authorities, however, prevented the exhibition's opening, citing the organizers failure to lodge a notification letter with the local authorities as the reason.

After we checked with the village head, we found out that the organizer had not submitted a notification letter about the event to local authorities. The Lorong Gallery [management] voluntarily cancelled the exhibition, Kasihan Police Precinct head Comm. Supardi told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Lorong Gallery curator Arham Rahman, however, said a village head in Kasihan, Joko Pramono, had called him while he was preparing the opening of the exhibition of Wednesday evening. During the meeting, Joko claimed that the police had warned him not to let the exhibition go on because it triggers unrest among society.

The planned two-day exhibition was held in solidarity with local farmers affected by the construction of a new airport in Kulonprogo. The farmers were allegedly evicted from their plots of land to make way for the airport construction. The exhibition had planned to display paintings, art installations, posters, short films and pieces of evidence indicating evictions in Kulonprogo.

The Post was unable to reach Joko for comment. (swd)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, February 15, 2018 15:30 1307 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c5ba6c3 1 City Bekasi,illegal-levies,police Free

The former head of the Bekasi Police's traffic unit was found to have amassed Rp 61 million (US$ 4,270) in illegal fees, the Jakarta Police said on Thursday.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono said former Bekasi traffic police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. I Nengah Adi Putra had reportedly collected the money from people who bribed traffic officers to obtain a driver's license without formal testing.

"The suspect also renewed expired licenses by manipulating the non-tax state revenue [PNBP] fee," Argo said, as quoted by kompas.com, adding that the amount of the "fee" varied from person to person.

He said the polices internal affairs division (Paminal) had confiscated the illicitly gained money and would place Nengah under disciplinary sanctions, adding that internal affairs were investigating the case.

Nengah, who has been dismissed from his position, was caught red-handed in the act of collecting illegal fees on Feb. 10 by internal affairs officers. (cal)Visitors observe the works of finalists of the Asia Student Package Design Competition (ASPAC) Awards 2017 on Wednesday. Held in Multimedia Nusantara University in Serpong, Banten, the competition and exhibition featured the works of students from eight countries in Asia.(JP/R. Berto Wedhatama)(ASPAC) Awards 2017 on Wednesday. Held in Multimedia Nusantara University in Serpong, Banten, the competition and exhibition featured the works of students from eight countries in Asia.(JP/R. Berto Wedhatama)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, February 15, 2018 18:19 1307 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c5c482a 4 Business AJB,Bumiputera,OJK,restructuration,failure Free

The Financial Services Authority (OJK) has allowed insurance company PT Asuransi Jiwa Bersama Bumiputra (AJB Bumiputra) to resume operations after the OJK canceled its restructuration plan to save the company.

We change the old plan because it prevented cash inflow. We canceled the plan and we agreed to allow AJB Bumiputra to operate, said said OJK head Wimboh Santoso in Jakarta on Thursday as reported by tribunnews.com.

Under the new plan, three subsidiaries of ABJ Bumiputra will also be allowed to operate again and to sell its products through its three subsidiaries.

He called on policyholders of the insurance company to stay calm as business and the funding aspects of the company were taking place normally.

The financial performance of the company had been worsening in the recent years since revenue from the premiums could not cover the obligation payment to the policy holders.

In October 2016, the OJK started the process to save the company, but there had been no progress since then. Earlier this week, a number of policyholders threatened to file legal complaints to the government as they saw no program for the OJKs restructuration plan.

Wimboh admitted the restructuration by the OJK had failed to help AJB Bumiputera become a healthy company. He said the OJK needed a more comprehensive approach to help AJB Bumiputra.

He added that among the efforts to help ABJ Bumiputra included improvements of the institution structure, management and human resources, information technology systems and distribution and marketing. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, February 15, 2018 17:28 1307 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c5c2a28 1 City IllegalCosmetics,factory,BPOM Free

The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) and the National Police have raided an illegal cosmetics factory on Jl. Jelambar Utama Raya, Grogol Petamburan, West Jakarta, on Wednesday and confiscated products worth Rp 2.5 billion (US$184,500).

The factory produced cosmetics without complying with standards set by the agency, BPOM chairwoman Penny Lukito said on Thursday.

"She got Rp 50 million to Rp 100 million per week. The products we confiscated were worth Rp 2.5 billion [in total]," Penny said, according to kompas.com, adding that the owner had produced the cosmetics for a year.

She added that the BPOM found the factory had allegedly faked some cosmetics brands.

The National Police have arrested the factory owner, who was also the producer of the cosmetics.

The police confiscated tools and ingredients to make some of the products, such as face cream, soap and toner.

They also found several packages of cosmetics that were ready to be delivered to some areas across the country.

The police and BPOM are now investigating the chain of distribution of the illegal cosmetics, and whether the perpetrator delivered them to beauty clinics, markets or individuals.

The factory owner is charged under articles 196 and 197 of the Health Law, which have a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum fine of Rp 1.5 billion. (cal)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, February 15, 2018 11:33 1308 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c5afcdd 4 Business rice,imports,arrivals Free

Imported rice has started arriving in a number of ports across Indonesia as the commodity price remains above the ceiling set by the government.

State Logistics Agency (Bulog) procurement director Andrianto Wahyu said that 57,000 tons of rice had arrived since Tuesday in three Indonesian ports  Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta (41,000 tons), Merak Port in Banten (6,000 tons) and Tenau Port in East Nusa Tenggara (10,000 tons).

A further 24,750 tons of rice is expected to arrive on Thursday -- 20,000 tons at Panjang Port in Lampung and 4,750 tons would arrive at Benoa Port in Bali --, he said, adding that Bulog was still waiting for the arrival of another 261,000 tons of rice by the end of this month.

Andrianto said that as of Wednesday, the 1,500 tons of rice that arrived at Tenau Port had been stored at Bulogs warehouse in East Nusa Tenggara. "We will keep [all of] the rice at Bulogs East Nusa Tenggara warehouse [before being distributed], he said as reported by tribunnews.com.

The workers were still unloading the rice that had arrived at Tanjung Priok and Merak was also still in the unloading process, he added.

Currently, Andrianto said the Bulog rice stock stood at 630,000, including the government rice reserve.

The governments decision to import rice sparked controversy as a number of regional leaders opposed the imports, arguing that their farmers produced enough rice. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Jakarta  Thu, February 15, 2018 15:21 1307 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c5b99a2 2 National terrorism Free

A jailed Indonesian cleric accused of being the mastermind of a deadly 2016 terror attack in Jakarta went on trial Thursday and faces a possible death sentence if convicted.

Aman Abdurrahman is charged with terrorism-related offences over the attack, claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group, that killed four bystanders in a busy downtown neighborhood. Four militants died after they were shot or blew themselves up.

The handcuffed cleric arrived at a Jakarta court in an orange vest worn by criminal suspects, escorted by armed guards.

Prosecutors read out the indictment against Abdurrahman on charges that he "deliberately used violence or threats to create terror among the general public and caused mass casualties [...] or caused damage" to property, which can carry a penalty ranging from four years in prison to a life sentence or the death penalty.

Abdurrahman showed little emotion, saying he did not recognize the court and would not read the charges against him or hire a lawyer. The court appointed a lawyer to represent the cleric.

The attack -- the first claimed by IS in Southeast Asia -- saw dramatic scenes as a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Starbucks and security forces battled gun-toting militants.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, has long struggled with Islamist militancy and has been hit by a series of attacks in the past 15 years, including the 2002 Bali bombings that left 202 people dead.

A crackdown is believed to have weakened the most dangerous networks, but fears have grown of a resurgence in militancy after hundreds of Indonesians flocked to the Middle East in recent years to join IS.

The country has seen a surge in plots and attacks linked to the jihadists, including an attack last year in which suicide bombers killed three police officers at a bus station in Indonesia's sprawling capital.

Despite being in prison since 2010, Abdurrahman has actively recruited militants to join IS, according to the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis and Conflict (IPAC).

He is thought to have been in communication with leaders of the jihadist group and is the main translator for IS propaganda in Indonesia, it has said.

The cleric was detained by counter-terrorism police on Aug. 12, five days before he was due for release from the Nusakambangan maximum-security prison where he was serving a sentence for raising funds for a militant training camp in conservative Aceh province.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Andi Hajramurni (The Jakarta Post) Makassar  Thu, February 15, 2018 18:26 1307 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c5c4def 1 National Jokowi,election,election-campaign Free

President Joko Jokowi Widodo has called for Indonesians to maintain unity and harmony as the local election campaign period begun today.

Lets maintain our unity, harmony and solidarity. Dont let elections of governors, regents, mayors and president divide us, Jokowi said during a visit to Gowa, South Sulawesi, on Thursday.

Jokowi added that Indonesia had been blessed with diversity in religions and ethnicities.

Diversity is Gods blessing for our country. Lets maintain that together, he said.

Today marked the first day of the campaign period for the simultaneous local elections. On June 27, 171 areas including 17 provinces, 39 cities and 115 regencies, will see eligible voters casting the ballot to choose their leaders.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, February 15, 2018 12:44 1308 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c5b2683 4 Business Jokowi,equality,2019 Free

President Joko Jokowi Widodo has raised the theme of equality for quality growth in the 2019 government work plan, the final year of his current term in office and the year the legislative and presidential elections will be held.

National Development Planning Minister/National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) head Bambang PS Brodjonegoro said that equality was not only about reducing the wealth gap between the rich and the poor, but also concerned interregional equality.

The work plan is elaborated in five national programs and 24 prioritized programs, said Bambang on Wednesday in Jakarta during the kickoff of preparations for the 2020 census, as quoted by tempo.co.

The five programs for 2019 are developing human resources , reducing interregional inequality, improving added value products and services, stabilizing national security and stabilizing the provision of food and energy, Bambang said. He added that the government introduced 10 national programs this year.

Bambang said the government stressed the importance of national security stability, because it was closely related to ensuring smooth progress in efforts to attain equality.

There have been questions as to why the government linked national security stability and equality, he said, answering that if equality could not be attained, certain people might feel they were discriminated against.

In discussing the 2019 work plan at a Cabinet meeting recently, President Jokowi stressed the continuing need for the country to boost investment and exports to support economic growth. He also called on regional leaders to support the economic program by improving the investment climate in their regions. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Kharishar Kahfi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, February 15, 2018 15:24 1307 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c5b9fc5 1 National KPK,#KPK,corruption Free

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) arrested 14 people, including councillors, officials and businesspeople, in Central Lampung on Wednesday, a KPK spokesperson revealed today.

KPK spokesperson Febridiansyah confirmed on Thursday that the arrests took place in Jakarta and Central Lampung.

We found a stack of cash in a cardboard box during an arrest in Central Lampung. [We] allege that the money was provided to influence the local councils decision regarding local loans, he said in Jakarta.

Febri added that there were no local leaders among the 14 who were arrested on Wednesday.

According to kompas.com, the cash confiscated during the arrests amounted Rp 1 billion (US$70,000). (swd)TORONTO, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE:MUX) (TSX:MUX) (McEwen Mining or the Company) announces results of the updated Feasibility Study (FS) for its 100% owned Gold Bar Mine in Nevada. Construction has started on the Gold Bar Mine with a planned completion date in late 2018, and commercial production beginning in 2019. The FS was prepared by M3 Engineering & Technology Corp. (M3) of Tucson, Arizona, in accordance with the requirements of Canadian National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101).



We are excited that construction of the Gold Bar Mine is now underway. We have already invested over 10% of the total capital required to complete the project, and the balance will be financed with cash on hand, supplemented by a combination of debt, equipment leasing, and equity, said Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner. Exploration is advancing since the mine permits were received, and is already delivering encouraging results, which supports our belief that sustained exploration can extend the mine life, he added.

Key changes were made to the implementation strategy of the Gold Bar Mine with the primary goal of reducing overall project risk while maintaining the highest possible capital efficiency. The installation of a crushing and agglomeration plant increased the capital costs by about 30% over our 2015 estimate. However, this is offset by a 20% increase in total gold production. We believe the increase in the capital investment is prudent, and will result in improved gold recoveries and reliable ore leaching on the pad, said Xavier Ochoa, President and Chief Operating Officer.



Highlights of the Feasibility Study (1)

Capital expenditure of $81 million (of which $9.7 million has been spent to Jan 31, 2018).

(of which has been spent to Jan 31, 2018). Project pay-back period of 3 years at $1,250/oz gold and 2.5 years at $1,350/oz gold.

at $1,250/oz gold and 2.5 years at $1,350/oz gold. After-tax IRR of 23% at $1,250/oz gold and 32% at $1,350/oz gold.

at $1,250/oz gold and 32% at $1,350/oz gold. After-tax NPV-5% of $54 million at $1,250/oz gold and $87 million at $1,350/oz gold.

at $1,250/oz gold and $87 million at $1,350/oz gold. Average annual gold production of 62,800 oz at a cash operating cost of $770/oz .

at a cash operating cost of . Updated Reserve Estimate of 16.5 million tons at a gold grade of 0.029 oz/t (1.0 g/t) resulting in 397,700 oz of gold produced over 7 years .

at a gold grade of resulting in of gold produced over . Updated Resource Estimate of 629,000 oz M&I and 115,000 oz Inferred.

M&I and Inferred. Recent exploration around planned pit limits has returned positive results including (2) : Hole GB255: 0.062 oz/t (2.1 g/t) gold over 125 ft. (38.1 m) ; Hole GB262: 0.028 oz/t (1.0 g/t) gold over 85 ft. (25.9 m) ; and Hole GB257: 0.040 oz/t (1.4 g/t) gold over 55 ft. (16.8 m).

:

Financial Analysis

The FS base case uses a gold price assumption of $1,250/oz and generates a life-of-mine (LoM) after-tax free cash flow of $150 million. FS results are disclosed on an after-tax basis. A summary of key economic metrics is provided below, along with a comparison to the previous 2015 study.

Table 1: Updated After-Tax Economic Sensitivity (2018 FS)

Base Case

$1,250/oz gold Upside Case

$1,350/oz gold After-tax IRR 23% 32% NPV (5% Discount Rate)(3) $54 million $87 million Average Annual Cash Flow $21 million $27 million Average Operational Margin $364/oz $457/oz Payback Period 3.1 years 2.5 years





Highlights and Table 1 Notes:

1. All amounts are in U.S. Dollars. g/t means grams per metric tonne, oz/t means Troy ounces per short ton, oz means Troy ounce(s), IRR means Internal Rate of Return, M&I means NI 43-101 Measured & Indicated mineral resources (see Table 8). 2. Exploration drilling results contained in this release were not included in the 2018 Mineral Resource Statement disclosed herein. 3. NPV is discounted to January 1, 2018.

Table 2: Comparison with Previous Study (2015 FS)



2018

Current

Update 2015(4)

Now

Obsolete Delta

(2018-2015) Primary Reasons for Difference Gold Price ($/oz) $ 1,250 $ 1,150 +$ 100 Higher average market price for gold. LoM Gold Production

(000s oz) 397.7 325.4 +72.3 Improved mine plan to increase mineable reserves, and heap leach recovery increased. Initial Capital Cost

(millions) $ 80.8 $ 60.4 +$ 20.4 Crushing, conveying and agglomeration plant added, changes to heap leach pad construction, higher capital for water system and power generation. Much more advanced engineering and supplier quotations. Mine Life (years) 7 5 +2 Larger reserves combined with slightly lower annual production. After-tax IRR 23 % 20 % +3 % Impact of higher gold price and production, partially offset by higher capital and operating costs. NPV (5% Discount Rate)

(millions) $ 54 $ 30 +$ 24 Average Cash Cost ($/oz) $ 770 $ 728 +$ 42 Payback Period (years) 3.1 3.1 -





Table 2 Notes:

4. Report entitled "NI 43-101 Technical Report Gold Bar Project Feasibility Study, Eureka County, Nevada" filed on Dec 4, 2015 on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

Mining and Processing

Oxide ore will be mined from three open pits and transported by 100-ton haul trucks to be crushed, screened, conveyed and agglomerated. The study assumes the use of a contract mining fleet. Ore will be conveyor-stacked at a rate of approximately 8,000 tons per day on a conventional heap leach pad. An adsorption-desorption recovery (ADR) carbon plant will produce a final gold-silver dore product.

Over the 7 year LoM, production will total 16.5 million tons of ore at a diluted gold grade of 0.029 oz/t (1 g/t) for a total payable gold of 397,700 oz. The planned production schedule is below.

Table 3: Mining and Production Schedule

Year Ore Tons

(000s tons) Gold Grade

(oz/t) Contained Gold

(000s oz) Recovered Gold

(000s oz) Waste Tons

(000s tons) Strip

Ratio 0 265 0.020 5.2 0 4,370 16.5 1 2,038 0.035 70.7 55.1 14,369 7.1 2 2,773 0.032 87.6 74.2 14,137 5.1 3 2,742 0.030 82.9 68.0 16,193 5.9 4 2,752 0.025 70.0 58.6 13,437 4.9 5 2,665 0.027 71.2 57.2 13,815 5.2 6 2,749 0.029 80.9 66.4 9,082 3.3 7 513 0.032 16.5 18.2 1,065 2.1 LoM 16,497 0.029 485.0 397.7 86,468 5.2

Capital and Operating Costs

Initial capital cost is estimated at $80.8 million, including $4.6 million for contingencies for the process plant and infrastructure. All costs provided below are in Q2 2017 US dollars.

Table 4: Capital Cost Summary

Capital Items Cost ($ millions) Site General 3.6 Mobile Equipment 1.3 Crushing & Agglomeration 4.8 Leach Pad Stacking 3.9 Heap Leach Pad & Ponds 13.6 Solution Transfer Systems 2.9 ADR Plant 6.1 Refinery 2.0 Water Systems 4.7 Power Generation & Distribution 4.4 Reagent Systems 1.1 Laboratory 2.2 Warehouse 0.4 Administration 0.8 Fuel Station 0.5 Freight 2.1 Trends 1.4 Direct Cost 56.7 Indirects (EPCM, mobilization, demobilization, and commissioning) 8.4 Contingency 4.6 County Sales Tax 1.2 Plant and Infrastructure Total 70.9 Owners Costs 6.4 Mine Development and Pre-Stripping 3.4 Total Capital Cost 80.8

Table 5: LoM Operating Cost Summary

Cost per Ton of Ore Processed Cost per Ounce Produced Mining $ 11.75 $ 487 Process $ 5.23 $ 217 G&A $ 1.59 $ 66 Total Cash Cost(5) $ 18.57 $ 770 All-In Cost(6) $ 1,031





Table 5 Notes:

5. Cash cost is calculated by dividing total life-of-mine production costs by total ounces produced. 6. All-in cost is calculated by dividing the sum of all capital, operating, tax, royalty and reclamation costs by total ounces produced.

Table 6: Production Cost by Year of Operation



$/oz Gold Payable $/Ton of Ore Year Mining Process G&A Total Mining Process G&A Total 1 575.77 229.76 73.76 879.30 13.79 5.50 1.77 21.05 2 451.75 191.11 54.81 697.67 12.09 5.11 1.47 18.67 3 538.16 207.83 59.86 805.84 13.34 5.15 1.48 19.97 4 538.67 241.11 69.43 849.20 11.47 5.13 1.48 18.08 5 549.20 242.22 71.13 862.55 11.78 5.20 1.53 18.51 6 374.07 212.57 61.25 647.90 9.04 5.13 1.48 15.65 7 229.13 172.91 100.50 502.54 8.14 6.15 3.57 17.86 Average 487.35 216.79 65.97 770.11 11.75 5.23 1.59 18.57

Exploration

Exploration at Gold Bar has been limited after 2012 due to mine permitting activities. Upon permit approval in November 2017, a property-wide exploration program started with the objectives of expanding the mineral inventory surrounding the planned open pits, and testing new targets.

Initial drilling has focused on three areas: northwest of the planned Gold Pick open pit, northwest of the planned Gold Ridge open pit, and in-between Gold Pick and Gold Ridge (see Figure 1: Click here). Thirty-seven reverse circulation (RC) holes have been completed, and assay results from twenty-nine holes have been received. A new shallow oxide zone of mineralization has been identified in Hole GB257, which returned 0.040 oz/t (1.4 g/t) gold over 55 ft (16.8 m) starting at a depth of 30 ft (9 m). Seventeen holes encountered significant mineralization, with a weighted average grade and thickness of 0.030 oz/t (1 g/t) gold over 50 ft (15.2 m), comparable to the average grade of the deposit. Results from the new drilling are summarized below.

Table 7: 2017-2018 Exploration Drilling Results

U.S. Standard Units Metric Units Hole ID(8) From (ft) To (ft) Thickness

(ft)(7) Gold

Grade

(oz/t) From

(m) To

(m) Thickness

(m)(7) Gold

Grade

(g/t) GB251 300 320 20 0.078 91.4 97.5 6.1 2.66 And 355 370 15 0.051 108.2 112.8 4.6 1.74 GB252 185 195 10 0.012 56.4 59.4 3.0 0.42 GB253 375 400 25 0.074 114.3 121.9 7.6 2.53 GB254 290 330 40 0.017 88.4 100.6 12.2 0.58 GB255 190 315 125 0.062 57.9 96.0 38.1 2.13 GB256 25 80 55 0.023 7.6 24.4 16.8 0.78 GB257 30 85 55 0.040 9.1 25.9 16.8 1.36 GB260 220 240 20 0.029 67.1 73.2 6.1 1.00 GB261 220 255 35 0.020 67.1 77.7 10.7 0.69 GB262 185 270 85 0.028 56.4 82.3 25.9 0.97 And 290 305 15 0.029 88.4 93.0 4.6 0.99 GB264 625 650 25 0.040 190.5 198.1 7.6 1.37 GB265 440 490 50 0.014 134.1 149.4 15.2 0.48 GB267 320 390 70 0.016 97.5 118.9 21.3 0.55 GB274 270 345 75 0.021 82.3 96.0 22.8 0.73 GB275 255 265 10 0.012 77.7 80.8 3.0 0.40 GB276 315 405 90 0.021 96 123.4 27.4 0.72 GB280 255 280 25 0.013 77.7 85.3 7.6 0.45





Table 7 Notes:

7. All intercepts are true width. 8. Holes GB250, 263, 266, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 277, 278, and 279 did not return significant gold values.

Mineral Resource Estimate



SRK Consulting (U.S.), Inc. (SRK) of Reno, Nevada, developed the updated resource estimate included in the FS in accordance with the requirements of NI 43-101. The resource estimate is comprised only of gold resources that fall inside the boundaries of a conceptual pit and the permitted mine area. Cut-off grades (CoG) and inputs for the conceptual pit are provided in the footnotes of the resource statement.

Table 8: Mineral Resource Estimate

U.S. Standard Units Metric Units Gold Bar Project Resources Tonnage

(000s tons) Gold Grade

(oz/t) Contained

Gold (000s oz) Gold Grade

(g/t) Contained

Gold (kg) Measured 2,800 0.035 98 1.22 3,151 Indicated 20,039 0.027 532 0.91 17,104 Measured and Indicated 22,839 0.028 629 0.95 20,223 Inferred 4,776 0.024 115 0.82 3,697

Table 8 Notes:

Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that all or any part of the Mineral Resources estimated will be converted into Mineral Reserves.



Resources stated as contained within a potentially economically minable open pit; pit optimization parameters are: $1,350/oz Au, 82% recovery, $5/oz Au sales cost, $1.85/t waste mining cost for Cabin Creek, $1.80/t waste mining cost for Gold Pick, $1.78/t waste mining cost for Gold Ridge, $2.74/t ore mining cost for Gold Pick, $2.83/t ore for Cabin Creek, $6.74/t ore processing and G&A cost, 54-degree pit slopes for Gold Pick and Cabin Creek, and a 42-degree pit slope for Gold Ridge. Portions of the Cabin Pit were subject to a NPI royalty of 4.0%;



Resources are reported using a 0.008 oz/t CoG on gold for Gold Ridge and the NPI Portion of Cabin Creek, Gold Pick and the remainder of Cabin Creek are reported at a 0.007 oz/t CoG on gold;



Numbers in the table have been rounded to reflect the accuracy of the estimate and may not sum due to rounding.

Reserves

Independent Mining Consultants (IMC) of Tucson, Arizona, developed the Mineral Reserve estimate in accordance with SEC Industry Guide 7 and NI 43-101. In accordance with NI 43-101, only resources in the Measured or Indicated resource category can be included as Proven or Probable reserves. The Mineral Reserve estimate is guided by a pit optimization routine that used a $1,000/oz gold price. The $1,000/oz cone was selected to maximize the project return on investment.

Table 9: Mineral Reserve Estimate

Gold Grade Contained Metal Cutoff

Grade

(oz/t) Tons

(000s) Contained

(oz/t) Recovered

(oz/t) Contained

(g/t) Recovered

(g/t) Contained

(000s oz) Recovered

(000s oz) Contained

(kg) Recovered

(kg) Proven 0.008 2,253 0.037 0.030 1.27 1.04 83 68 2,594 2,127 Probable 0.008 14,244 0.028 0.023 0.97 0.79 401 329 12,481 10,234 Proven and Probable 16,497 0.029 0.024 1.01 0.83 485 397 15,074 12,360

Table 9 Notes:



Reserves stated in the table above are contained within an engineered pit design based on a floating cone optimization (see Table 10 for additional assumptions related to the Reserve estimate).



Since the completion of the pit optimization there have changes to project cost and metal prices. The stated Reserve is robust to these changes.



Mineral Reserves stated above are contained within and are not additional to the Mineral Resource.



Numbers in the table have been rounded to reflect the accuracy of the estimate and may not sum due to rounding.

Table 10: Assumptions Relating to the Reserve Pit

Assumptions for Reserves Gold Zones

(Deposits) Units Values Gold Price $/oz 1,000 Mining Cost Gold Pick Ore $/ton 3.12 Gold Ridge Ore $/ton 3.89 Cabin Creek Ore $/ton 3.11 Gold Pick Waste $/ton 1.95 Gold Ridge Waste $/ton 1.81 Cabin Creek Waste $/ton 1.68 Processing and G&A $/ton 6.24 Recovery % 82 Sales Cost $/oz Gold 5 NPI Royalty (Portions of Cabin) % 4 Gold Cut-off Grade oz/ton 0.008 Road Design Road Width Feet 85 Road Grade % 10 Inter-Ramp Pit Slope Angles Gold Pick Degrees 54 Gold Ridge Degrees 42 Cabin Creek Degrees 54

Metallurgical Testing

Gold Bar ore is a Carlin-style carbonate sedimentary sequence with strong fracture-controlled oxidation above the water table to the full depth of planned mining. Test work shows that ore is amenable to heap leach cyanidation with high gold recoveries and relatively rapid leaching kinetics. There is a significant amount of metallurgical testing on the Gold Bar ore bodies, including new work completed since the last feasibility study published in 2015. The terminal gold recovery used in the FS is 82%, which is based on the crushed and agglomerated ore testing below. The assumption of 82% recovery is conservatively set below representative results from laboratory testing. For example, actual empirical results for the 36 column test described below predict 82% recovery after 30 days of leaching and ultimate recovery of 89% after 120 days. The FS assumes 50% recovery after 30 days and ultimate recovery of 82% after 180 days.

Table 11: Results of Additional Metallurgical Test Work Since 2015 Feasibility Study

Column

Diameter

(inches) Crush Size

(inches) Calculated

Gold Grade

(oz/t) Gold

Recovery

(%) Leach Days Sodium

Cyanide

Consumption

(lb/t) Lime

Added

(lb/t) Cement

Added

(lb/t) Agglomerated Large Diameter Column Leach Tests 36 6 0.035 89 120 0.29 - 11.14 24  0.037 93 70 0.52 - 5.06 24  0.150 97 70 0.93 - 5.24 24  0.050 92 70 0.73 - 5.08 24  0.051 92 70 0.67 - 5.14 24  0.056 95 57 1.13 - 5.04 Non-Agglomerated Large Diameter Column Leach Tests 24 4 0.037 89 76 0.43 2.12 - 24 2 0.037 91 70 0.51 2.07 - 24 4 0.123 93 76 0.62 2.14 - 24 2 0.124 95 70 0.94 3.20 - 24 4 0.042 91 76 0.58 2.01 - 24 2 0.053 92 70 0.74 3.11 - 24 4 0.068 90 76 0.65 2.03 - 24 2 0.071 93 70 0.67 2.94 - 24 2 0.040 91 57 0.34 3.07 - 24 2 0.045 91 57 0.85 3.06 - 24 2 0.040 90 57 1.47 3.04 - 24  0.037 92 57 0.72 3.05 - 24  0.040 92 57 1.02 3.07 - 24  0.037 91 57 2.08 3.03 - 24 2 0.054 96 57 1.17 3.05 - 24  0.047 97 57 1.22 3.03 - 24 2 0.043 85 57 0.98 3.04 - 24  0.043 91 57 1.06 3.03 - 24 2 0.051 95 57 1.43 3.06 -

ABOUT MCEWEN MINING

McEwen has the goal to qualify for inclusion in the S&P 500 Index by creating a profitable gold and silver producer focused in the Americas. McEwens principal assets consist of: the San Jose mine in Santa Cruz, Argentina (49% interest); the El Gallo Gold mine in Mexico; the Black Fox mine in Timmins, Canada; the Gold Bar mine in Nevada, currently under construction; and the large Los Azules copper project in Argentina, advancing towards development.

McEwen has a total of 337 million shares outstanding. Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner, owns 24% of the shares.

QUALIFIED PERSONS

The following people are independent Qualified Persons as defined by NI 43-101, in their specified areas of expertise.

Disclosure related to process plant, infrastructure capex and economic analysis: This news release has been reviewed and approved by Daniel Roth of M3.

Disclosure related to recovery methods and opex: This news release has been reviewed and approved by Ben Bermudez of M3.

Disclosure related to heap leach costing and infrastructure: This news release has been reviewed and approved by Ryan Baker of Newfields Mine Design and Technical Services.

Disclosure related to mining and the Reserve estimate: This news release has been reviewed and approved by Joe McNaughton of IMC.

Disclosure related to the Mineral Resource estimate: This news release has been reviewed and approved by J. B. Pennington, MSc, CPG, of SRK Consulting.

Disclosure related to Metallurgy: This news release has been reviewed and approved by Daniel Sepulveda, BS, of SRK Consulting.

The following people are Qualified Persons as defined by NI 43-101, in their specified areas of expertise.

Disclosure related to exploration: This news release has been reviewed and approved by Robert L. Kastelic, MSc, CPG, McEwen Minings Senior Staff Geologist, who is responsible for program design and quality control of mineral exploration undertaken by the company at its Nevada exploration properties. Holes drilled by reverse circulation were sampled on 5-ft intervals. Core from diamond drill holes was split and sampled on intervals from 1 to 5 feet in length. All gold assays are uncut, with analyses conducted by ALS Laboratories utilizing a 30-gram fire assay charge with an AA finish. Samples returning greater than 10 ppm gold were re-analyzed using gravimetric fire assay. Quality assurance/quality control is implemented by inserting standards and blanks every 40th sample and check assays sent to a second lab every 20th sample.

Discussion and interpretation of technical information in this news release have been reviewed and approved by Xavier Ochoa, Chief Operating Officer of McEwen Mining.

CAUTIONARY NOTE TO US INVESTORS REGARDING RESOURCE ESTIMATION

McEwen Mining prepares its resource estimates in accordance with standards of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum referred to in Canadian National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101). These standards are different from the standards generally permitted in reports filed with the SEC. Under NI 43-101, McEwen Mining reports measured, indicated and inferred resources, measurements, which are generally not permitted in filings made with the SEC. The estimation of measured resources and indicated resources involve greater uncertainty as to their existence and economic feasibility than the estimation of proven and probable reserves. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that any part of measured or indicated resources will ever be converted into economically mineable reserves. The estimation of inferred resources involves far greater uncertainty as to their existence and economic viability than the estimation of other categories of resources.

CAUTION CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements and information, including "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements and information expressed, as at the date of this news release, McEwen Mining Inc.'s (the "Company") estimates, forecasts, projections, expectations or beliefs as to future events and results including, but not limited to, the closing of the Offering and the use of proceeds thereof. Forward-looking statements and information are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties, risks and contingencies, and there can be no assurance that such statements and information will prove to be accurate. Therefore, actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements and information. Risks and uncertainties that could cause results or future events to differ materially from current expectations expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements and information include, but are not limited to, factors associated with fluctuations in the market price of precious metals, mining industry risks, political, economic, social and security risks associated with foreign operations, the ability of the corporation to receive or receive in a timely manner permits or other approvals required in connection with operations, risks related to fluctuations in mine production rates, risks associated with the construction of mining operations and commencement of production and the projected costs thereof, risks related to litigation, the state of the capital markets, environmental risks and hazards, uncertainty as to calculation of mineral resources and reserves, and other risks. The Companys dividend policy will be reviewed periodically by the Board of Directors and is subject to change based on certain factors such as the capital needs of the Company and its future operating results. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information included herein, which speak only as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to reissue or update forward-looking statements or information as a result of new information or events after the date hereof except as may be required by law. See McEwen Mining's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, under the caption "Risk Factors", for additional information on risks, uncertainties and other factors relating to the forward-looking statements and information regarding the Company. All forward-looking statements and information made in this news release are qualified by this cautionary statement.

The NYSE and TSX have not reviewed and do not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the contents of this news release, which has been prepared by management of McEwen Mining Inc.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France  Thu, February 15, 2018 16:31 1307 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c5c01e3 2 World Oxfam,sex-abuse-scandals Free

A scandal over sexual abuse in the foreign aid industry that began with Oxfam spread on Wednesday, as French group Doctors Without Borders revealed it had fired 19 staff last year for harassment or abuse.

The Paris-based group, known by its French acronym MSF, said it had received 146 complaints or alerts last year, of which 40 were found to be allegations of harassment or sexual assault.

It said in a statement that it had acted on 24 of these cases, firing 19 employees as a result.

With 40,000 staff around the world, MSF is one of the world's largest aid groups, best known for its work offering medical aid in conflict zones.

"Even though reports of abuse have steadily increased, MSF is aware that abuse goes under-reported," the charity said.

The revelations came as Oxfam grapples with allegations that it was not transparent about a scandal involving some of its staff for using prostitutes in Haiti following a devastating 2010 earthquake.

The scandal has led to the resignation of Oxfam's deputy head and has thrown into question British government funding for the charity, which amounted to around 32 million (36 million euros, $44 million) last year.

Britain warned on Wednesday it would cut off ties with foreign aid charities that cover up sex scandals.

"Unless you report every serious incident or allegation, no matter how damaging to your reputation -- we cannot be partners," Britain's International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt told a conference in Stockholm, according to extracts of her speech released by her ministry.

"The same message goes out to any organisation or partner which receives UK aid. We want procedures to change. We want leaders to lead with moral authority and we want staff to be held accountable," she said.

Mordaunt called the Haiti prostitution allegations "horrifying".

"Sexual abuse and exploitation is an issue the entire development sector needs to confront," Mordaunt said, calling for a culture that "ensures victims and whistleblowers can come forward without fear".

An Oxfam spokeswoman on Wednesday said the aid agency had received 1,270 cancellations of donations by direct debit between Saturday and Monday -- compared to a normal monthly average of 600.

- 'Goes around the system' -

The allegations revolve around Oxfam's then head of mission in Haiti, Belgian national Roland van Hauwermeiren, whose behaviour had already led to complaints when he worked for the charity in Chad.

After resigning from Oxfam, he went on to work for French charity Action Against Hunger in Bangladesh.

There were reports on Wednesday that there had already been complaints about Van Hauwermeiren and his use of prostitutes when he was working for the British medical charity Merlin in Liberia before joining Oxfam.

Swedish former aid worker Amira Malik Miller told the humanitarian news agency IRIN that she had made a complaint about him in 2004 when she was working alongside him in Liberia.

When she saw an initial report about Van Hauwermeiren in The Times newspaper last week, she remembered thinking: "Oh my God, he's been doing this for 14 years."

"He just goes around the system... from Liberia to Chad, to Haiti, to Bangladesh. Someone should have checked properly," Malik Miller was quoted as saying.

An aid worker familiar with the case told IRIN that Van Hauwermeiren and other staff members were "shameless".

- Actress 'devastated' by response -

Oxfam's internal investigation into the use of prostitutes in Haiti led to the dismissal of four employees and three others being allowed to resign, including Van Hauwermeiren.

"They let perpetrators go. They did not inform donors, their regulator or prosecuting authorities," Mordaunt said.

"It was not just the processes and procedures of that organisation that were lacking but moral leadership."

British actress Minnie Driver quit her role as an Oxfam ambassador late Tuesday, saying she was "devastated" by the charity's response to the scandal.

Several sponsors and partners of Oxfam including Visa and the retail chain Marks and Spencer have also said they are examining the situation.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Kathmandu, Nepal  Thu, February 15, 2018 14:17 1307 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c5b52a6 2 World Nepal,resignation Free

Nepal's prime minister resigned Thursday, making way for a new communist government to take power two months after landmark elections in the impoverished Himalayan nation.

Sher Bahadur Deuba served just eight months as prime minister, overseeing the first elections to be held under a new national constitution intended to cement Nepal's transformation from Hindu monarchy to a federal republic.

Work on the constitution began 11 years ago as part of a deal that ended a brutal Maoist insurgency.

But it was delayed by disagreements between the parties and only signed in 2015 after a devastating earthquake spurred warring politicians into action.

"My main responsibility was to hold the three phases of elections for the implementation of the new constitution," he siad in a televised address to the country.

"My responsibility has been fulfilled so I have decided to resign."

The next government will be formed by an alliance of the main Communist party and the Maoists, who together trounced Deuba's Nepali Congress party in last year's polls.

The president is expected to appoint the Communist party leader, K.P. Sharma Oli, as prime minister in the next few days.

The historic elections in December were the first under the country's new post-war constitution, which sets out a sweeping overhaul of the political system, devolving significant power from the centre to the seven provinces.

The Communist alliance won a landslide victory, but the handover of power was delayed by disagreements over how the new election rules in the constitution should be implemented.

The long delay has dampened the optimism that accompanied the polls, when many voters cast their ballots hoping a new government would bring much-needed stability and development.

Nepal has cycled through 11 prime ministers since the civil war ended in 2006, allowing corruption to flourish and growth stagnate.

Rules under the new constitution make it harder to oust the premier, raising hopes that the next government could last a full five year term.TheJakartaPost

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Parkland, United States  Thu, February 15, 2018 12:50 1308 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c5b2ceb 2 World Florida,shooting Free

Nikolas Cruz, the shooter who opened fire on a Florida school Wednesday killing 17 people, was a teenage gun lover previously expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons.

The gunman, 19, showed up at the end of the school day at his former school -- Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland -- with a semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle and a large amount of ammunition.

Local police later arrested him in nearby Coral Springs.

Born in September 1998, Nikolas Cruz had posted "very disturbing" messages on social media, according to Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, who did not specify their exact content.

Authorities have not released a photograph of the shooter, and an Instagram account reportedly belonging to him has been suspended.

Cruz was known at school as having problems, according to several witnesses interviewed by local media.

"There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus," Jim Gard, a math teacher who had taught Cruz for a semester in 2016, told the Miami Herald.

Gard told CNN that although he had not had problems with Cruz in class, female students reported Cruz having "problems with other girls."

Meanwhile a student, who wasn't named, told local broadcaster WSVN-7 that Cruz was "a troubled kid" who had firearms at home and had talked about using them.

"He shot guns because he felt it gave him, I guess, an exhilarating feeling," the student said.

According to another pupil, Nicholas Coke, Cruz was a "loner" who left the school and moved to northern Florida following the death of his mother. He had also undertaken a junior military training program, according to Pentagon sources who did not offer details.

The shooter had already had "a lot of problems," Coke said, recalling an incident during middle school when Cruz kicked out a window.

Meanwhile another student, speaking to local channel WJXT, said "everyone predicted" Cruz would carry out such an atrocity.

"Honestly, a lot of people were saying it was gonna be him," the pupil said.

He added Cruz knew the layout of the school and had some knowledge of security procedures through participating in fire drills.

"He knows the school layout, he knows where everyone would be at as of right now, the student said.

"He's been with us in fire drills, he's prepared for this stuff."Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, February 15, 2018 16:57 1307 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c5c0c8b 1 City flood,soekarno-hatta-airport,Terminal-3 Free

The underpass near Terminal 3 Ultimate of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, was flooded on Thursday at noon because of cracks on the walls of the underpass.

According to the Jakarta Police Traffic Management Center's (TMC) Twitter account, no motorcycles were allowed to enter the underpass due to the flood.

The airport management repaired the underpass by around 3 p.m.

Meanwhile, the management also pumped out floodwater that had inundated the airport complex.

The severe flood was reported to have occurred at Terminal 2F of the airport.

Some areas in Jakarta were also inundated by floodwater due to heavy rain on Thursday afternoon.The Pasar Lama area of Tangerang is believed to be the site of one of the first Chinese settlements in Indonesia. Its history can be traced back to 1407, when Chen Ci Lung led a group of people sailing from China and arriving on the Cisadane River near the Lama Market.

Because of these roots, the traditional marketplace is surrounded by cultural sites that are well worth visiting to learn about the history of the settlers, who have since become known as Cina Benteng, which translates to the Chinese of the fort. That name refers to a Dutch fort built in the 17th century in a bend of the Cisadane River.

How to get there

Pasar Lama is located approximately a five-minute walk from Tangerang train station, which is the last stop on the Tangerang line.

The entrance to the traditional market that gives the area its name is located on the corner of Jl. Kisamaun and Jl. Bakti Saham.

Numerous becak (pedicabs) operating in the area can take you to nearby places.

What to wear

As it is a traditional market with a cramped combination of indoor shops and outdoor stalls, things can get messy.

Several shops sell prayer items, such as prayer incense sticks, for those going to the temple. (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)

Its advisable to wear casual clothes, such as T-shirt and jeans. Although covered shoes are highly recommended, locals prefer to wear sandals for convenience.

Read also: Jakpost guide to Glodok

What to do

Visit Lama Market to do some grocery shopping, as basic everyday ingredients can easily be found, including fresh fruits and vegetables. Meat, poultry and seafood are also widely available at the market.

Lama Market in Tangerang (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)

In preparation for the celebration of Chinese New Year in early February, the market was stocked with traditional decoration, angpao money gift envelopes, toys commemorating the new Year of the Dog, as well as with sweets and cakes, including kue keranjang, or nian gao (basket cake).

Since the market is also located near a Chinese temple, the historical Boen Tek Bio, several shops sell prayer items, such as prayer incense sticks.

Boen Tek Bio Temple in Tangerang (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)

While in the area, visitors could enter the Boen Tek Bio temple, which is the oldest Chinese temple in Tangerang. Located on the corner of Jl. Bakti Saham and Jl. Cilame, the historical site was founded in 1684, with the oldest part of the present structure believed to date back to 1775.

The temple has gone through several rounds of renovation, with its largest one conducted in 1904.

As it is a sacred place of worship, visitors should be respectful when entering the temple complex, minding their behavior, using polite language as well as dressing appropriately.

Further down Jl. Cilame, youll find the Benteng Heritage Museum.

Inside the Benteng Heritage Museum in Tangerang (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)

There, visitors can learn about the life and history of Chinese settlements in Indonesia. The museum, which is a restored house of Chinese architecture believed to have been built around 17th century, also hosts Chinese artifacts found in the vicinity of old Tangerang.

Read also: Benteng Heritage Museum: Pearl of Tangerang

Near the market is the Cisadane River, where those looking to get some light exercise could stroll along the path on the riverbank all the way down to Taman Gajah, which has a playground and a small park.

Gajah Park in Tangerang (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)

What to eat

On Jl. Kisamaun, the main stretch just outside of the entrance to Lama Market, visitors can find numerous restaurants that are open throughout the day.

One of the well-known local eateries is Laksa Sari, with its signature dish of a bowl of savory laksa broth filled with lontong (rice cake), shredded chicken, tofu and vermicelli noodles and topped with emping (nut crackers).

Another dish to try at Laksa Sari is asinan sayur (pickled vegetables), which consists of boiled vegetables and crackers drizzled with creamy peanut sauce and kecap (soy sauce).

Laksa and asinan dishes at a local eatery near Lama Market (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)

At night, the street transforms into a culinary hotspot, with food stalls stretching out along both sides of the road. Visitors can find anything from rice dishes, satays and soto (Indonesian soup dishes) at the night market.

Tips:Posted Wednesday, February 14, 2018 11:00 pm

After a vigorous discussion by board members and impassioned pleas from teachers in the audience, members of the Hillsboro School Board voted against recommendations from its administrators to not fill retiring eighth grade social studies and physical education positions at the Hillsboro Junior High School during the Tuesday, Feb. 13, board meeting at the unit office.

"The recommendation is not to replace the retiring eighth grade position and not to replace the retiring P.E. position," Superintendent David Powell said.

Dr. Mark Fenske, principal at the junior high, presented a plan that would consolidate health and P.E. next year after the retirement of a P.E. teacher, and not replace a retiring eighth grade social studies teacher by asking the remaining eighth grade staff to teach social studies curriculum.

"I have nothing but faith in my faculty that they can handle this with professionalism," Fenske said.

Before making those decisions, the board heard from teachers in the audience.

Shonda Ronen, a first grade teacher at Beckemeyer and the teachers' union president, asked board members to focus on students and the district's mission statement when considering whether or not to replace two retiring social studies teachers (one at the end of this year and one at the end of next) and a physical education teacher.

Referencing herself as an advocate for the school district, its students and her own children, she told board members that teachers have been asked to keep the same standards with less resources, "but we can't do more with less. When you cut our social science, health and P.E. departments, you're not making a student-centered decision."

Jamie Harrison, teacher at Hillsboro Junior High School, handed each board member a packet of information from a published study on class size before junior high teacher Mary Ellen Mathews referenced that material in her remarks.

"If you want teachers to attend to the needs of all students, you have to keep class sizes down," Mathews said, pointing out that larger class sizes make a teacher's work more "managing" than "instructing."

"We understand that there are budgetary concerns, but we respectfully request that you look elsewhere," she asked before referencing administrative costs.

"I can't imagine adding a whole new curriculum to what I teach," Beckemeyer first grade teacher Carol Naylor said, "but that's what you're asking our junior high teachers to do."

"I disagree with the proposal not to replace junior high teachers," high school teacher Matt Vaughn said. "I thought that staff was pretty thin already."

He pointed out that "the district can realize significant savings by replacing the retiring staff with new teachers"about $64,500 this year and about $109,000 next year."

"It's a tough decision when you're running deficit budgets, and you're always trying to get that deficit to zero," board President Greg Bellaver said. "There are multiple sides to every decision we make. As a general rule, when my administration speaks up and says they can handle things, it's very difficult for me to go against their wishes and thoughts if they have answers that suffice."

Board member Barbara Adams disagreed.

"The board sets policy," she said. "I don't believe it's good policy to take a thinly-staffed building and make it even thinner. I think social studies is more important now than everand I think everybody knows my political addiction. Students have to be able to make critical decisions."

"To me in my mind, social studies has been on the back burner for a long time," board member Bryce Rupert said. "I think this is the opportunity with the new standardswhich seem rigorousto have a full-time social studies teacher. We're still saving money, just not as much."

Bellaver cast the lone vote to not replace the social studies teacher. Rupert, Adams, Dan Wilson, Dan Tester, Matt Lentz and Earl Meier cast dissenting votes; hence, that position will be replaced.

The motion to replace the P.E. teacher passed 4-3: Adams, Lentz, Tester and Rupert voted in favor; Meier, Wilson and Bellaver voted against.

At the recommendation of administration, though, the board made curriculum changes at both the junior high and high school.

After Dr. Fenske's recommendation, the board added two elective "encore" classes for seventh and eighth grade students, a Computers III class on program languages and an Art III class focusing on multi-media digital design.

At the high school, the board accepted the recommendation of Principal Patti Heyen and ag teacher Kate Niemeier to add a year-long horticulture class that would incorporate agribusiness and a new greenhouse.

The board learned about a new high school master schedule proposal from the principal that would eliminate study hall and once a week advisory time and replace them both with a 25 minute a day "flex time" between first and second hour.

"I'm not asking for any action on this tonight," Powell said. That will come at next month's meeting.

According to the new schedule proposal, students would take seven classes a day and spend an extra 25 minutes every day with one of their academic teachers.

"Students report using study hall to do homework, but not to seek help," Heyen said. "It's often difficult for our students to match one-on-one time with teachers."

This school year, Heyen said, 73 students failed 156 classes, and 164 students had Ds in 302 classes.

Flex time would be for makeup work, missing assignments, re-teaching, homework, grade and assignment checks, and college and career planning.

The schedule would also move Fusion to seventh hour, move band to seventh hour and separate it from choir, and schedule driver's training with P.E.

Continuing a discussion that began at previous meetings, the board hired Hurst-Rosche in Hillsboro for technical consulting on what could be a half-million dollar project to make entrances and exits at schools in the Hillsboro district more secure.

The concept would install security cameras, some new doors, and revamp floor plans that would require visitors to enter school buildings through the office "and not just head off down a hallway," according to the superintendent.

According to the contract, Hurst-Rosche would turn those concepts into designs and bid packets, then oversee the bidding process.

"You're not approving the project cost," Powell said, an estimated $568,000. "What you're being asked to do is to hire Hurst-Rosche to begin that process."

The project would be funded through the new school facility sales tax, but there was some "sticker shock" among board members.

Board member Dan Tester asked Tim Downen of Hurst-Rosche to describe the "standard fee" for the company's servicesroughly ten percent of the estimated cost of the project. "Pretty standard for renovation-type work," Downen said. Although based on ten percent of the estimated project cost, the fee is a set amount.

Rupert questioned estimates of possible security improvements at the junior high, such as new structures that would connect separate buildings on the campus.

"If you ask somebody to build something very small, you don't always get the cost savings if you ask them to build something very large," Downen said.

"People voted on this sales tax on the promise that we were going to use some of it to make our building safe," President Bellaver said.

"It's time we address it," Adams agreed.

The motion to enter into the agreement passed 6-1 with Tester voting against.

The first day of school for students for the 2018-19 school year will be Wednesday, Aug. 15, the board decided after a presentation by Assistant Superintendent Kyle Hacke. Next school year will begin with two teachers' institute days, on Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 13-14, before students show up on Wednesday.

The board also entered into intergovernmental agreements with the regional office of education for their safe schools programs (ChrisMont) and alternative schools programs (New Approach).

"It's a very good environment for students there, and it helps our classroom environment here," Powell said of ChrisMont. The alternative school is a credit-recovery program in Vandalia. "It's worked well," he said of the alternative school.

The board also adopted policy revisions recommended by the Illinois State Board of Education.

After two hours in open session, the board spent nearly an hour in closed. Following that, they accepted the resignation of Meg Reynolds as high school cheerleading sponsor.Posted Wednesday, February 14, 2018 11:00 pm

Members of the Schram City Village Board met for a short monthly meeting Tuesday evening, Feb. 13, with President Albert Oberle absent.

The trustees voted 6-0 to approve a $125 donation to be made to the Hillsboro High School Post Prom Committee to help fund the event, which allows students to participate in a safe, fun environment with various activities available.

In area news, trustees Kevin Tuetken and Pat Rhodes would address their concerns over alleyways that demand rock. Tuetken also inquired about street signs to be replaced, and Trustee Jerry Woods reported that semis continue to travel outside of their appropriate routes. He added that Oberle has made contact to address these issues, but has yet to hear back.

Rhodes asked if a business would be required to pay for a permit if they've built their sign to fit the pre-existing sign structure, with Water Clerk Marsha Eller saying that Oberle will be reviewing the ordinance.

Rhodes also added that the city employees have placed rock behind Route 66 Truck Repair, and how the board members should patronize the local business.

Area trustees mentioned a few derelict vehicles, and expressed their wishes to continue their clean-up efforts around the village before motioning to pay bills.

The next meeting will be held Monday evening, March 12, beginning at 6 p.m. at Schram City Village Hall. The public is encouraged to attend.Following a court order laying out a timeline for the return of tenants at 85 Bowery, local elected officials are asking city agencies to come up with a detailed plan to move the displaced residents back into their apartments.

The Department of Buildings (DOB) ordered a full vacate order Jan. 18 due to a destabilized staircase. More than 75 tenants were displaced while emergency repairs take place. In a hunger strike that ended Monday, several tenants demanded a deadline for the renovations to be completed.

In a decision dated Feb. 9, State Supreme Court Judge Kathryn Freed established a timeline. It lays out dates by which the staircase on each of four floors must be completed. A DOB inspection is scheduled for March 28. If the owner fails to meet the deadlines spelled out in the court order, he must go before the judge to explain the cause of the delays. The court-mandated timeline was requested by the tenants and by city agencies.

In the letter sent yesterday to DOB and to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), City Councilmember Margaret Chin and several colleagues requested more specifics from the agencies. Given the ongoing crisis of displacement and an extended timeline for the landlord to complete work, they wrote, we feel that it is imperative that your agencies compile a detailed and thorough plan for the return of residents. We are interested in working with you to provide the necessary input on the best way to achieve our shared goal on behalf of our neighbors, who continue to suffer terribly due to the negligence of their landlord.

While Betesh was originally given two weeks to complete structural repairs, city agencies conceded earlier this month that the stairwell replacement would take six weeks. They indicated that two additional weeks might be required to address other safety issues. In this weeks letter, the elected officials stated, it is unclear what the processes are to determine what these safety issues are, and where the tenants fit into the agencies determinations. They asked for a meeting to clarify the plan and, as Chin explained in a statement, to set this dialogue in motion and ensure the timely and coordinated return of tenants.

In a lengthy court battle, Betesh has argued that building repairs could only be completed if tenants were temporarily relocated. In past statements, he has pledged to complete the renovations as quickly as possible, clearing the way for residents to come home. The tenants, however, are deeply suspicious of Beteshs motives. Theyre convinced hes plotting to deprive them of their rent-stabilized apartments. While the hunger strike was ended so residents could prepare for Chinese New Year, tenants have left open the possibility of resuming their high-profile protests if the timeline slips again.

A spokesperson for the tenants, Caitlin Kelmar, told us this morning that the residents want a statement in writing from the city in support of the March 28 deadline. They do not agree with the two week buffer period given to the landlord once the staircase is completed, and are negotiating to make it shorter, said Kelmar.

The letter delivered to city officials this week was signed by Chin, U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Public Advocate Letitia James, State Sen. Brian Kavanagh and State Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou.

Letter 2/14 Return of 85 Bowery Tenants by The Lo-Down on Scribd

Court Order 85 Bowery Timeline by The Lo-Down on ScribdLast week, people around the United Kingdom were celebrating the 100 anniversary of women getting the right to vote. Indeed, in 1918 the Parliament passed an act granting the vote to women over 30 who were householders, the wives of householders, occupiers of property with an annual rent of 5, and graduates of British universities. Although women in the UK can now vote as their male counterparts do, there still exists a significant lack of gender equality in Western countries.

via Wikimedia Commons

I will continually wonder how suffragettes would react if they were aware that a hundred years after they were granted the most basic right of voting, women were still mostly considered less capable than a man. Indeed, women are still discriminated against men in several areas and no concrete actions are being taken by governments around the world, except for Iceland who became the first country to make gender pay gap illegal in January.

A popular gender issue is the gender pay gap. According to recent studies, women are the providers to at least half of the households in the UK but they are still prevented from getting an equal pay for the same job than their male colleagues. Although in the past, this could have been due to a lack of female education, this is no longer the case. Indeed, more than half of new university graduates are women, according to the World Economic Forum, but they were still paid 17.48% less in 2014 in the UK from an OECD study. Moreover, they are still underrepresented in managerial roles in organisation . Last year, it was said that those issues would take at least another 170 years to be completely resolved.

via thebluediamondgallery.com

Furthermore, women are still stigmatised for being victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault. While the fuss around the issue at the end of last year led to more awareness of those issues. This hasnt solved the main issues as for instance, at the beginning of February Cambridge admitted to the Guardian that they received 173 complaints about sexual misconduct in the past nine months. Indeed, at university, many people are still taking consent for granted taking a passive approach to people ripping women from their rights to say no.

This issue may even more dangerous as even women are turning against each other around this. At the start of the year, French female celebrities signed a letter in which they addressed their concern that this fuss about consent would undermine male-female relationships. They completely forgot from their privileged lifestyle and the harsh reality surrounding average women, whereby when they are a victim of those kinds of issues they are regarded as having brought that upon themselves and need to justify their look, actions, and even alcoholic intake. This deprives them of their human right of being physically safe and happy within their bodies.

Another problematic issue of equality is the right of contraceptive methods and access to abortion. This also has to do with a woman having the right to their own body. It is scandalous that 100 years after women were given the right to vote, men are still deciding on their physical health and access to contraception methods. While some countries are taking back some of women rights previously granted such as Poland which put back restrictions on womens access to abortion. If the situation was inverted, men would be outraged to see a table with women signing a document asking them all to get a vasectomy.

via army.mil

Also, on the issue of contraceptive methods, a couple of years ago a medical research for male pills was dropped because some of the men tested were showing signs of depression due to the intake of the pills. Yet, all the female pills are playing their hormones and can make them feel depressed, can make them put on weights, and according to new research, it would increase their likelihood to get breast cancer. Still, society deems it as acceptable for women to undergo all of this but impossible for men to get a glimpse of what women have been sustaining in the past decades.

It would be unfair not to state that those issues can legitimately bring troubles for men too, for instance, they are deprived of equal rights to women regarding paternity leave and have a pressure from society to appear as the provider of the household.

A 100 years ago, women made a huge victory in getting the right to vote. Still, they would certainly consider the future as a failure as a hundred years wasn't enough for a woman to be treated as the equal of a man. Those models of male and female are obsolete and shouldnt exist anymore. Women and men are both human beings and equal. They should have the same rights and women shouldnt need to protest or ask their government for help either for their physical safety or for simply being granted human basic rights.University teachers are going on strike - and students should get a refund This piece was written in response to

Many students are expecting to see significant disruption to their university timetables in the coming weeks as lecturers from the University and College Union (UCU) are set to strike in the coming weeks.

This involves lecturers at 61 universities across the United Kingdom, lecturers who are rightfully aggrieved over proposed changes to their pension schemes.

Strikes are scheduled for a total of 14 days between Thursday 22nd February and Friday 16th March. Many students are calling for compensation for lost lessons which they have already paid 9000 for. But why are the lecturers striking?

As it stands, when you retire, you will receive a pension in the form of a defined benefit. In other words, your pension will be linked to your final or average salary. Universities UK (UUK), the organisation who administer pensions for university staff, want to move away from this system.

They are instead proposing a defined contribution system whereby you pay in a certain amount, and the amount they receive upon retirement will be determined by market performance during your working life. This may potentially have an enormous impact on university workers.

Despite the UCU meeting with UUK to discuss the issue, no agreement has been reached. This means the strike will still go ahead as planned unless an agreement can be reached before then.

The proposed changes are attempting to close the 7.5bn deficit in the assets vs liabilities of the pension fund. Remaining on the current scheme would require both universities and the university staff to increase their respective contributions.

Other university pension schemes seem to be managing without serious difficulties. The UUK pension fund has been atrociously managed, the responsibility of this should most definitely not fall into the hands of these lecturers.

Of course, as students, we should be concerned by the potential inconvenience that may be caused as a result of these strikes.

Strikes are there to demonstrate the value of a workforce that is being held back. If we, as students, are being negatively affected by our lecturers not teaching us, this certainly proves their value to our degrees.

The lecturers do not want to strike by any means. They are doing it because it is the last resort. Over 30 meetings took place last year between the UCU and UUK. These talks came to no avail. Strike action is taking place in the hope that the UUK will come back to the negotiations table.

University staff work in universities because they love researching and teaching, and because they care about the progression of their students.

UCU believes the average lecturer would be left 10,000 a year worse off under the proposed changes than under the current set up. This equates to, on average, around 200,000 by retirement.

A petition set up by the Pro Bono Society at City, University of London has received more than 750 signatures and is demanding students are refunded 1295 for the loss of teaching. A petition by Cardiff University students has gained more than 2500 signatures.

Admittedly, the Cardiff University petition, one of many petitions by students affected by striking lecturers across the country, seeks compensation of some form, whether this is financial or extenuating circumstances during the exam in deadline period.

None of the lecturers *want* to strike by any means. With their level of qualifications, they are paid very little in comparison to other jobs held by people holding similar qualifications. Strike action truly is the final straw. It will result in a significant financial loss for those who choose to strike and an equally difficult decision for others unsure on whether to strike or not. Showing solidarity with their colleagues versus not wanting to let their students down.

Why I feel there is no basis for a refund, you may ask?

University chancellors have addressed their students by insisting action will be taken to ensure minimal disruption to students. For example, at City, any missed lectures or tutorials will be rescheduled. Meanwhile, at other universities, changes to teaching and assessment arrangements can be made in times where exceptional circumstances cause disruption to quotidian activities at the University.

Measures will be taken to ensure our degrees are not severely affected by these strikes which, in my opinion, are absolutely necessary. Put yourself in the position where you could be 200,000 worse off. Thats an enormous amount of money.

Some lecturers will lose up to half a month's wages as a result of this strike action. In the grand scheme of things, their loss is far greater than the minimal amount we lose which will be at no, or at the most very little cost to our degrees. We should be standing in solidarity with them.

Academia has traditionally been a poorly paid tradition given the high-qualified nature of those holding these positions. Taking away one of the few recommendations of the profession, the respectable pension, will only see a gradual deterioration of teaching standards at the universities affected by the strike action. This is why it is needed.

If this piece hasnt swayed your opinion in any way, I would hope it may have perhaps provided more of an insight into the reasoning behind these strikes.Members of the Lincoln Park Police Department, along with Sarge the newest K-9 unit, will host Coffee with a Cop Feb. 22.

The event, set for 9-10:30 a.m., at the Chapatawala Family McDonalds, 2106 Dix-Toledo, will offer residents a chance to chat with the police officers in a relaxed setting.

One of the keys to the success of the event and other like is that it removes the physical barriers and crisis situations that routinely define interactions between law enforcement officials and community members. Instead, it allows for relaxed, informal one-on-one conversation in a friendly atmosphere.

More than 175 cities in 36 states have participated in similar events across the country since January 2012 when the program was founded.At his 2017 State of the City address, Taylor Mayor Rick Sollars announced Wahlburgers was opening a location in Taylor.

At his 2018 speech on Thursday, he said, the restaurant should finally open within a few weeks.

PHOTOS: 2018 State of the City address

PHOTOS: Mark Wahlberg visits Taylor Meijer

Were anticipating a March opening, he said.

The restaurant was initially set to open in June, and then mid-September, which later turned into October. The reasons for the delays havent been publicly released.

The restaurant, which will be co-owned by musician/model/actor Mark Wahlberg, is slated to open where Big Boy, 21200 Penn Street was. It will be directly across from the Menards development on Eureka.

This will be the second Wahlburgers location in Michigan; the other being near the Greektown Casino in Detroit.

Wahlberg visited Taylor in December when he, along with some friends, family and staff, stopped at the Taylor Meijer to announce a partnership with the company to bring several Wahlburgers restaurants to Meijers stores throughout Michigan and Ohio.Someone's just one upped our lawnmower experience.



Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do to get your fried chicken.

And that's been proven by one now-legendary Gold Coast man, who was spotted manoeuvring what appears to be a full-blown tank through a KFC drive-thru.

The anonymous Nerang local was captured making the unusual trip for his fried chicken by Michelle Skelton Fay, who was in a drive-thru at the neighbouring Hungry Jacks.

She posted photos of the unfamiliar sight on her Facebook page, saying she "loved it".



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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.Understanding the buzz words

What is the difference between a debt exclusion and an operational override?

Proposition 2 1/2 is a Massachusetts law passed in 1981 which limits the amount a municipality can raise its total tax levy in any given year to 2.5 percent.

Communities can elect to override the tax-limiting law in two ways.

An operational override allows a municipality to infuse funds collected from increased taxes into the base of its tax levy. The operational override results in a permanent increase in the levy limit, which would then continue to increase at the rate of 2.5 percent each year.

A debt exclusion is different in that it does not create a permanent increase in the tax levy base. Communities can elect to raise funds temporarily to pay for certain projects or debt service costs. The additional amount for the payment of the debt service is added to the levy limit for the life of the debt only. When the debt expires, so do the additional taxes to residents.

Job Title: Driver

Organisation: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

(UNHCR)

Position No.: 10026831

Vacancy Notice: 003/2018

Reports to: Administrative/Finance Associate Assistant

Duty Station: Arua, Uganda

Post Grade: GL2

About UNHCR:

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was

established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly.

UNHCRs mandate under the Statute of the Office of the United Nations High

Commissioner for Refugees is to lead and co-ordinate action for international

protection to refugees; seek permanent solutions for the problems of refugees

and safeguard refugee rights and well-being. UNHCR has an additional mandate

concerning issues of statelessness, as it is given a designated role under

Article 11 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

Job Summary: The Driver is mainly responsible for up keep

and maintenance of the assigned UNHCR vehicle(s) as per technical guidance and

specifications established by the organisation. The incumbent will be required

to follow strict instructions and security guidance provided by the supervisor.

While the basic function of a driver is to drive the official vehicles of

UNHCR, he/she may be called upon to perform minor maintenance and repair of

UNHCR vehicles. The incumbent has regular contacts with staff within UNHCR

office and with service providers outside UNHCR involving a limited exchange of

information.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Drive UNHCR vehicles

for the transport of authorized passengers and delivery and collection of

mail, documents, UNHCR pouch and other items.

Meet official

personnel at the airport and facilitate immigration and customs

formalities as required.

Carry out the

day-to-day maintenance of the assigned vehicles; check oil, water,

battery, brakes, tyres, etc. and ensure that the assigned UNHCR vehicles

are road worthy and maintained up to the established security standards.

Conduct minor repairs

and arrange for other repairs and ensure that the vehicle is kept clean.

Ensure that the steps

required by rules and regulations are taken in case of involvement in accident.

Log official trips,

daily mileage, gas consumption, oil changes, greasing, etc.

Perform any other

related duties as required by the Administrative/Finance Associate

Key Performance Indicators:

Assigned UNHCR

vehicles are properly maintained and equipped as per technical guidance

and specifications established by the Organisation.

Local traffic rules

and regulations are strictly observed.

Instructions and

security guidance provided by the supervisor and security focal point are

strictly followed by the Driver and the passengers during the journey









Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

The ideal candidate

for the United Nations UNHCR Driver job vacancy should have completed

Primary Education or equivalent technical or commercial school.

At least two years of

previous job experience relevant to the function.

Driving licence,

knowledge of driving rules and regulations and skills in minor vehicle

repair.

Good knowledge of

English, Aringa, Madi and Lugbara

Good mechanical skills

are desired

Ability to work in

remote areas.

How to Apply:

All interested Ugandan nationals who wish to join the United Nations

High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the aforementioned capacity are

encouraged to click on the link below and follow the application instructions

after reviewing the job details.

Deadline: 26th February 2018Organisation: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

(UNHCR)

Position No.: UNOPS-LICA-BID (004)

Vacancy Notice: UNHCR/UGANDA/LICA/002/2018

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

About UNHCR:

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was

established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly.

UNHCRs mandate under the Statute of the Office of the United Nations High

Commissioner for Refugees is to lead and co-ordinate action for international

protection to refugees; seek permanent solutions for the problems of refugees

and safeguard refugee rights and well-being. UNHCR has an additional mandate

concerning issues of statelessness, as it is given a designated role under

Article 11 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

Job Summary: The Best Interest Determination (BID) Associate will greatly enhance the ability of

UNHCR to ensure that this casework is done in an expedited manner. BID

Management Overall BID co-ordination and management in Kampala is a Child

Protection activity, under the overall supervision of the Senior Protection

Officer (Community Based) Yoko Iwasa, and the direct supervision of the ICMC

BID Specialist in Kampala. The ICMC BID Specialist based in Kampala will

coordinate and monitor BID activities in Kampala. The ICMC BID Specialist will

support the Units with all activities including reviewing of BID reports, case

management and follow up and convening of the BID panel.The BID Associate will

present his/her cases in front of the BID panel, which meets on a monthly

basis. Thewill greatly enhance the ability ofUNHCR to ensure that this casework is done in an expedited manner. BIDManagement Overall BID co-ordination and management in Kampala is a ChildProtection activity, under the overall supervision of the Senior ProtectionOfficer (Community Based) Yoko Iwasa, and the direct supervision of the ICMCBID Specialist in Kampala. The ICMC BID Specialist based in Kampala willcoordinate and monitor BID activities in Kampala. The ICMC BID Specialist willsupport the Units with all activities including reviewing of BID reports, casemanagement and follow up and convening of the BID panel.The BID Associate willpresent his/her cases in front of the BID panel, which meets on a monthlybasis.



Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Conduct BID casework including:

Conduct interviews with refugee children

and other members of the family to determine the best interest of the

child and complete Best Interest Determination (BID) and, when

appropriate, Best Interest Assessment (BIA) reports.

Conduct home visits with refugee families

as part of the BID process.

Provide counselling to refugees,

explaining the BID and BIA processes, prospects, and problems involved in

the processes.

The incumbent will also ensure proper

monitoring and followup of cases including updating proGres database and

any internal monitoring and tracking systems are regularly updated with

the necessary events.

Implement Child Protection policies, BID

and BIA procedures, and existing SOPs (including fraud prevention SOPs)

with guidance from respective Community Service, Protection and

Resettlement colleagues.

Work closely with relevant child protection

partners to include all the information available on the child in the BID

report;

Generate BID forms from proGres;

Ensure that BID reports are in compliance

with UNHCR protection principles as well as best international practice.

Present cases and attend BID panels on a

monthly basis;

Conduct additional assessment on BID cases

as per recommendation by the BID panel;

Prepare BID Addendum for BIDs which were

completed more than one year ago;

Prepare monthly progress reports;









Key Performance Indicators: The BID Associate will be required

to prepare monthly quantitative progress reports during the assignment. A final

report covering the entire period of his/her assignment is compulsory. The

report shall contain a description of activities and the data collected

regarding of cases referred, number of BIDs and BIA conducted, number of BIDs

presented to BID panels, number of deferred BID cases and any follow ups on

case management that may have been carried out by the BID Associate.

Qualifications, Skills and

Experience:

The ideal candidate for the United Nations

UNHCR Best Interest Determination

(BID) Associate job vacancy should possess an academic degree in relevant

area (e.g. social work, child development, social science, education,

public administration etc.);

At least two years of related work

experience in relevant work area (e.g. as a social worker, child

counsellor, community development worker, educator, conducting social

assessments, individual case advocacy, assisting with family

reunification, working with refugees in a resettlement context etc.);

Excellent drafting skills in English is

required. French and Swahili would be a great asset.

Knowledge of and/or preparedness to become

familiar with and abide by UNHCRs principles, Code of Conduct and

humanitarian goals;

Broad knowledge of the international legal

framework governing refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons

and statelessness;

Knowledge of UNHCR guidelines on refugee

status determination and resettlement as well as UNHCR Best Interest

Determination Guidelines.

Awareness of gender issues and how to

apply a rights and community based approach to identify and respond to

specific needs;

Excellent interviewing and counselling

skills especially child interviewing skills highly desirable.

Excellent drafting and analytical skills;

Ability to conduct assessments and

identify protection risks of individuals and groups;

Broad knowledge and understanding of

mental and physical development of children as well as International

Convention on Child Rights.

Excellent interpersonal skills and ability

to work effectively in teams;

Ability to work in stressful situations

and in hardship locations;

Experience giving advice on resettlement

guidelines / policy highly desirable;

Experience in the area of refugee

resettlement conducting refugee resettlement assessments and submissions

highly desirable.

Broad knowledge and awareness of the

importance of preventing fraud and ways to mitigate risks.

How to Apply:

All interested Ugandan nationals who wish to join the United Nations

High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the aforementioned capacity are

encouraged to click on the link below and follow the application instructions

after reviewing the job details.

Deadline: 23rd February 2018The Vision Group incorporatedas the New Vision Printing & Publishing Company Limited (NVPPCL), startedbusiness in March 1986. It is a multimedia business housing newspaper,magazines, internet publishing, television, radio broadcasting, commercialprinting, advertising and distribution services. NVPPCL is listed on the UgandaStock Exchange, with an expected turnover of over UGX 60 billion (FY2010/2011).At a time when the Indian Army is carrying out preliminary investigation to ascertain involvement of its Lieutenant Colonel, posted in Jabalpur in a suspicious honey-trapping or spear phishing episode by Pakistan's notorious intelligence agency, ISI, Army headquarters is claiming that constant efforts are on to make its social media policy more stringent.

Indian Army has a very robust social media policy and there is a particular department which is dedicated to monitor social media engagement of army personnel. Whenever, anyone is noticed to be violating guidelines, he or she is warned immediately.

In the wake of last week's incident in which a Group Captain of the Indian Air Force was caught for sharing classified information to an agent of the ISI, Army officials maintain that its social media policy has outlined all the dos and donts for all army personnel.

As per the guidelines, army men should not: a) watch porn on Facebook/social networking sites, b) use photo in uniform as profile pic on WhatsApp/Facebook, c) click advertisements on social sites alluring for prizes/awards, d) expose official identity on such sites, e) upload pictures with weapon on such sites even in civil uniform, f) reveal your rank, unit name and location or anything related to your work, g) accept friend request from unknowns, h) allow family members to post/mention their profession on sites, i) post any picture with anything related to military as background, j) store/ save any information related to military in computer/laptops.

Recently, several information was being circulated on WhatsApp groups of army personnel. immediately, senders of that information were identified and taken to the task. Now, everyone in the army is being under scanner for use of social media," said a defence official.

On Wednesday, an officer posted with the Jabalpur based Army Base workshop, was questioned by the officials of counter-intelligence unit, who noticed some suspicious information being leaked out from his computer. The investigating officials are yet to establish that whether he was a victim of spear fishing mail or was actually honey-trapped.

"We have a strong mechanism and a laid out procedures to prevent such incidents of honey-trapping. But still, some people fall prey to it. We keep monitoring such activities," official added.

In 2012, Indian intelligence agency had busted a honey-trapping module operating from Bangladesh, when three Army officers were came in touch with a same woman named as 'Sheeba' through social media.If anything happens to me, please tell my story. This was...Jewish leaders in the Nordic countries have slammed the proposed legislation in Island's parliament banning the circumcision of young boys, calling it an 'attack on Judaism' which 'would not be successful'.

The bill to ban circumcision has been introduced in the 63-member AlbingiIcelands national parliament, the oldest parliament in the world by eight members of the ruling Left Green Movement, the Progressive Party, Peoples Party and the Pirate Party. The bill will come up for discussion in the coming weeks.

Brit milahthe Hebrew word for the ancient custom of circumcision of boys is a commandment in the Torah, the Holy Book of Judaism, as a sign of covenant between God and the faithful. The ritual of the removal of the foreskin is performed on newborn babies as early as on the eighth day of their birth. It is also practiced by Islam as taught by the Prophet Muhammad in the Holy Koran.

In a joint statement against anti-circumcision legislation in Iceland, Jewish leaders in the Nordic CountriesFinland, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Norwaysaid Iceland would be the only country to ban one of the most central, if not the most central, rites in the Jewish tradition, in modern times. More than one oppressive regime has, through history, tried to suppress our people and eradicate Judaism by prohibiting our religious practices, they said.

Urging the Icelandic parliament members to vote against the bill, the Scandinavian Jewish leadership in an open letter said Iceland did not have an organised Jewish community now, but banning brit mila would guarantee that no Jewish community would be established in the country.

Cardinal Richard Marx, the head of the Commission of the Bishops Conferences of the EU (COMECE), has protested against the proposed legislation calling it a a dangerous attack on religious freedom.

Since Iceland does not have a significant Jewish presenceout of around 335,000 people, hardly over 100 are Jewsthe community leaders have called on their European brethren to put pressure on Icelandic leaders to prevent passing the bill.

The supporters of male circumcision say it reduces chance of contracting sexually transmitted diseases and is a preventive measure that helps fight HIV/Aids. However, those who opposes view it as an unwanted foreign primitive custom comparable to infamous female genital mutilation. Iceland has banned circumcising girls in 2005. Criticism against circumcision started off in the region following the rise in Muslim immigration in Europe .

The legislation came up after a study report was issued by Childrens Ombudsmen for Nordic countries in 2013 which said that circumcision without a medical indication on a person unable to provide informed consent conflicts with basic principles of medical ethics, particularly because the operation is irreversible, painful and may cause serious complications." Iceland is the first of the five Nordic countries to act on this proposal.

However, the move is slowly catching up in other Nordic countries. The Danish Medical Association has already recommended that boys under the age of 18 should not be circumcised unless there is a medical problem.

Intact Denmark, a Danish organisation fighting against genital mutilation, has asked people to sign a petition demanding the Danish Parliament to enact a similar legislation banning circumcision for boys under 18.MBABANE  The Municipal Council of Mbabane could be coerced to review and reprioritise implementation of general council funded activities and programmes due to governments delay in settling arrear rates.



In a report of the finance committee for the period ended December 31, 2017, it has been reported that governments current rates balance was at E38.4 million. It was reported that letters of demand were sent to government every quarter and there was also constant verbal communication on the issue with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.



Councils financial position remains relatively strong for now, despite the delayed receipt of government rates. However, should the situation persist, council will have to start reviewing and reprioritising implementation, reads the report in part. It was disclosed that the state had paid E6.5 million for government funded capital improvement projects.



During the month of December, it was reported that E8.8 million had been received as revenue, E1.7 million of this was from private property owners and the balance of E600 000 from user fees and government plot sales.

The rates increased by 10 per cent on average. In some of the worst case scenarios, in what was termed a ridiculous rates increase, some ratepayers saw their rates increase by up to 50 per cent.



What compounded the anger and worry of ratepayers was the fact that in the case of rates default, the municipality takes legal action to collect outstanding fees; an action which has seen a number of people lose their valuable properties which eventually get attached and auctioned.MBABANE  While consumers believe they are already tax burdened, there is a strong perception to the contrary by the private sector.



The assertion is to the effect that a lot of Swazis are not part of the tax bracket and therefore costing the country millions in revenue has been brought to the fore by the business community through one of their umbrella bodies  Federation of Swaziland Employers and Chamber of Commerce (FSE&CC).



The federations President Andrew le Roux has recommended that consumption taxes, which are usually indirect such as Value Added Tax (VAT), should be increased if the kingdom seeks to generate more revenue by closing tax gaps.

The president said an increase in Value Added Tax (VAT) and other consumption taxes would greatly improve revenue generation to help government improve service provision.



If as a country we are committed to expand the tax base, we need to hike consumption taxes, such as VAT and tax on fuel, so that whether you are a dagga farmer or hawker, you are brought into the tax net, said le Roux. He said an increase on consumption taxes would also be highly beneficial for the kingdom because it remains cost effective to collect.



In justification of the recommendation, le Roux said consumption taxes were a fair form of tax on the basis that it remains user pace based. He said this effectively means the consumer would be able to determine how they would pay tax by monitoring their expenditure.

VAT is levied on the consumption of goods and services in Swaziland, and is also levied on the importation of goods and services into the country. It was introduced on April 1, 2012 to replace Sales Tax. Like Sales Tax, it is an indirect tax and levied on most goods and services at the rate of 14 per cent. The legal basis is the VAT Act 2011 supplemented by VAT Regulations.



VAT is paid by a person who brings taxable goods or services into Swaziland (usually the importer) and any person who receives supplies of taxable goods or services in Swaziland. A person in this case includes any individual, partnership, company, trust, government and any public or local authority.



Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) Acting Director Communications Ricardo Kruger said even though they may have a comment on the issue of the recommended hike, they would prefer to let the ministry of Finance take the lead in discussions.

This is a policy issue that should be led by the ministry (of finance). We can only make our comments known at a later stage, Kruger briefly said.



Business Day recently reported that South Africans are already bracing themselves for a VAT hike. It was projected that an increase of one percentage point increase in VAT rate could raise more than E22 billion in revenue for the republic.



An economist interviewed by the Business Desk on condition of anonymity said governments decision not to hike VAT would only be in the short term. He said considering Swazilands reliance on the South African economy, which includes the local currency being pegged to the rand, the country would eventually follow suit by also hiking VAT.



The VAT hike relief will only be a short while. Considering the fact that government has cash flow challenges, it will definitely consider hiking VATMBABANE  There will be a bit of a wait for the crowning of the countrys fairest of them all.



Both the major national pageants, Mr and Miss Swaziland have been postponed.

The Miss Swaziland Beauty Pageant was scheduled to take place on March 24 while Mr Swaziland was to be held on March 3. Both pageants are under Pageant Swaziland (Pageant SD).



Information gathered was that one of the reasons that prompted Pageant SD to take a decision of postponing Miss Swaziland was the fact that it was discovered that this date clashes with other national activities which could not be revealed.



Over 20 girls have shown interest in trying their luck and were all hoping to start boot camp by the end of February. On the other hand, the committee responsible for organising the Mr Swaziland Pageant felt they needed more time to prepare for the event . This is because they are a new committee and have promised great prizes plus an international standard Mr Swaziland event.



Information gathered is that Pageant SD met with the Swaziland National Arts and Culture (SNCAC) where the matter was deliberated.

During that meeting, a decision to postpone the pageant was taken.

Pageant SD was then tasked to check the national calendar and come up with suitable dates for the pageants. Mr Swaziland Director Linda Chester confirmed the postponement saying there were just too many preparations and they needed more time. We discovered that there are a lot of preparations that are required so we decided to move the day to give us ample time to plan, he said.



He added he was hoping that the pageant will be held in May highlighting that the dates will be confirmed at a later stage. Catriene Potgieter, Pageant SDs Chairperson Pageant said they had no choice but to postpone the Miss Swaziland Pageant.



As we were preparing for the event, we discovered that the date we had picked clashed with one of the national events. We agreed with the council that we should postpone the pageant, she said.



She assured the nation that the pageant would be held soon saying they were still looking for a new date.

All is set for the pageant finals. Had it not been the issue of the dates, the pageant would be on, she said.



She thanked all the girls who have showed interest in the pageant. She said they were doing everything possible to see to it that the pageant becomes one of the best. The whole idea is to see to it that the pageant reaches the standard of those internationally. We need to be among the countries that produced one of the best pageants, she said.



SNCAC CEO Stanley Dlamini said the council would be meeting Pageant SD where all the details of the pageants would be discussed.

Its all up to Pageant SD. If they have valid reasons, they can postpone. However, all the details will be discussed during our next meeting, he said.



Attending training on leadership, I was taught that there are different styles of leadership. All have positives and negatives. So whatever style of leadership that one has to engage in is determined by the task at hand, the people involved and of course the timeframe. Two kinds of leadership stood out for me.



There is the buffalo kind of leadership where the leader knows everything and listens to no one. His word is the law. The other kind was what was called the flight of the dominoes. This is the leadership where everyone is important and everyone is listened to and consulted. Everyone is given a chance. As pointed out, all the forms of leadership have pros and cons and should be used where there is a need and should bring about the most gains.



However, Im worried that government is using the buffalo style of leadership where only the people in leadership know what is best for the people of the country. The people who are led are never consulted and their views are never considered. Some people will mention representation in Parliament as a way of peoples views being considered. I will agree that in an ideal situation that is what should be the case. But the question that comes to mind is whether in real life that is the case?



Do Members of Parliament always consult their constituencies before decisions are taken in government? Do parliamentarians have the capacity to engage with their constituencies before they go to decide in Parliament? Are parliamentarians listened to before a decision is taken by government or they are also ignored and in essence the peoples views ignored?



We are awaiting the opening of Parliament and the delivery of the budget soon. Are people of the country consulted before the budget is formulated or their views are thought not to be important? Who knows what are the needs of the people to influence and shape the budget accordingly?



Are parliamentarians consulted on the budget before it is delivered in Parliament? If they are why then did they decide to reject it last year? If they are consulted, what is the need to have it debated in Parliament because what is delivered is what they have already agreed to?



Looking back, I am of the opinion that all the answers to the questions are to the negative. What worries me even more is that parliamentarians are then bullied by a certain clique and they keep their peace and the views of the masses in the country are ignored. Only the views of a few individuals prevail.



Despite the fact that the views of the few individuals have time and again failed, they are still there implementing the failed views. A buffalo leader always decides what is good for the group even if the strategy he is employing is failing.



State institutions are always used to force the views of the few on the masses. What am I saying here? The prime minister and his few companions decide on the budget. Then they allow a number of students to be admitted at tertiary institutions knowing very well that there is no money to pay for their tuition.



The next thing the students will want to cash on the promissory notes that government has given them and they are then told there are no funds. The next thing we know is that government will be using security forces to suppress the students from demanding that government do good on the promissory notes.

This is more waste on the little there is on something that could have been prevented. If government was transparent in its budgeting and expenditure, who is going to blame it when it says there is no money to give students or for whatever service? No one would blame it because we would all know the truth.



I was little surprised that we are rated among the worst when it comes to the way we budget. We will never rate high because only a few people do the budget and then force it on the people. We have a precedent of a Parliament that rejected a budget but it was then arm-twisted by a few to approve the budget. What are the results of that exercise now?



Students are demanding the promise and institutions are closed. The leading buffalo makes all the decisions and the others have to follow. How I wish one day we would have a leader who employs the flight of the dominoes style of leadership; where people of the country would be consulted before major decisions are taken.Sir,



The subject of colonialism often stirs up very different emotions in people, depending on where you are from. In most African countries, colonialism touches on a raw nerve as it is often associated with oppression, racism and the theft of land and resources by white occupiers from Europe, while in some European countries , colonialism is still often associated with the military prowess and the heroic exploits of their empire building ancestors, as can be attested by some social media comments on the subject.



We Africans have developed a tendency of blaming colonialism for most of our problems, including self-inflicted ones.

Unfortunately, the lack of written historic records seems to have given us a victim mentality whereby we see ourselves as the innocent victims of the bad behavior of others but never the other way round.

The fact that colonialism began in Africa before it began in Europe is a case in point.



There is a lot of evidence which suggests that Southern India (and other parts of Asia) was colonised by Africans in the past, and that the early Dravidian people of Southern India, such as Siddhis, were their descendents.



It is also a known fact that Spain, Portugal and parts of Italy were also once colonized by Islamic invaders from North Africa. Interestingly, Portugal, which as the first country to expel the Muslim occupiers, also became the first European colonial power soon after by attacking and occupying the North African territory of Ceuta.



This would eventually culminate in the end of the Ottoman empires dominance over the lucrative slave and spice trade with the arrival of Vasco da Gamas fleet in India, something which soon attracted the attention of Europes larger nations.

But is colonialism even a thing of the past, as we are made to believe. Well not according to a group of Australians and Canadians whose website massive fraud would seem to suggest otherwise.



After all, the continued occupation of territories by the descendents of the people who conquered and occupied them in the past, such as North and South America, Australia, New Zealand and even Southern Africa, hasnt come to an end.



The world is yet to see a native American president or prime minister of Canada, the US, Mexico or Brazil; an Aboriginal president of Australia or a Nama (San) president of South Africa or Botswana.



These are historic facts which the world chooses to ignore but just simply ignoring the facts wont make them go away.

The fact is that colonialism has always existed. It is simply part of the human condition  the tendency of the powerful to seek to impose their dominance over the weak.



Swazi CitizenMBABANE  Murder suspect Sipho Shongwe is opposing the application to have him extradited to the Republic of South Africa.

In South Africa, he is wanted for allegedly escaping from Barberton Maximum Prison, forgery and uttering, which comes with a maximum of 10 years imprisonment. Locally, he stands charged with the murder of prominent businessman Victor Gamedze. He has since instructed senior lawyer Ben J Simelane to defend him in the extradition matter. This means that he now has two attorneys, as in the main matter (murder case), he is represented by Sipho Mnisi. Lawyer Simelane was yesterday in court and at one point in time, he was seen consulting with Shongwe, who was at the High Court for the hearing of his bail application. The date on which the extradition application would be heard would be known during Shongwes next remand hearing on March 9, 2018. Shongwe is now having two tasks, which are that of convincing the courts why it should release him and why he should not be extradited to SA.

The application for Shongwes extradition was filed by Advocate Elizabeth Leonard (nee Jordaan), who is the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for the Gauteng, Pretoria, Division of the High Court of South Africa. In terms of Article 10 of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Extradition, which is operative in the Republic of South Africa and by virtue of the existing extradition agreement between South Africa and the Kingdom of Swaziland, I am entitled to request for the provisional arrest of Mr City Sipho Shongwe pending extradition, submitted Advocate Leonard. She submitted that at the time of the commission of the offence, Shongwe was allegedly serving a prison sentence in the Barberton Maximum Prison. The advocate highlighted that Shongwe was convicted and sentenced twice to life imprisonment on March 1, 2001 and had to serve his sentences in prison.

On March 25, 2008, Mr Shongwe escaped from Barberton Maximum Prison in that he facilitated a fraudulent court order that was presented to the prison authorities, whose contents indicated that his appeal against conviction and sentence was upheld and that his conviction and sentences were set aside, alleged the Deputy DPP. She averred that this was not correct as Shongwes convictions and sentences were never set aside. Due to the presentation of this fraudulent court order to the Barberton Maximum Prison authorities, Mr Shongwe was released from prison and failed to serve his remaining sentence. Mr Shongwe subsequently left the Republic of South Africa and fled to Swaziland, averred Advocate Leonard. She pointed out that in the Republic of South Africa; Shongwe was accused of having committed the following offences: contravening of Section 117 of Act 111 of 1998 of the Correctional Services Act; escaping and absconding, forgery and uttering.



[February 15, 2018] BC-led Digital Technology Supercluster awarded federal funding to transform Canada's fastest-growing tech sector

Initiative estimated to create 50,000 jobs and inject $15 billion in GDP into BC's economy over 10 years VANCOUVER, Feb. 15, 2018 /CNW/ - The British Columbia-led Digital Technology Supercluster is one of the funding recipients for the Government of Canada's Innovation Supercluster Initiative, Minister Navdeep Bains announced today. "It is an exciting and historic time for innovation in Canada. The Digital Technology Supercluster is a generational opportunity  one that holds significant promise for companies in BC and across Canada," says Bill Tam, Co-Chair of Canada's Digital Technology Supercluster consortium. "Now the important work begins. As a collective, we'll apply data and use technology in new ways, such as mixed reality, which can digitally transform companies, solve industry problems and advance economic opportunities throughout BC, Canada and the world." In May 2017, Minister Bains announced a nationwide initiative to create up to five superclusters that will supercharge Canada's regional innovation ecosystems and "build Canada as a global centre for innovation." Superclusters are innovation hotbeds, designed to energize the economy and become engines of growth. Canada's Digital Technology Supercluster was created as a collaborative effort of over 200 organisations, including some of Canada's biggest names in healthcare, telecommunications, natural resources, computing and transportation. The following examples demonstrate how the Digital Technology Supercluster will contribute to life-changing advancements in precision health, natural resources and manufacturing: A secure, anonymous Health and Genomic Platform will build the systems required to allow medical specialists to create custom, leading-edge cancer treatments that are personalized to the unique genetic makeup of each patient, building on Canada's current leadership in this area.

will build the systems required to allow medical specialists to create custom, leading-edge cancer treatments that are personalized to the unique genetic makeup of each patient, building on current leadership in this area. An Earth Data Store will facilitate and improve data collection, sharing and visualization in the resource sector  enhancing how information about resource projects is shared between project proponents, Indigenous Peoples, governments and communities.

will facilitate and improve data collection, sharing and visualization in the resource sector  enhancing how information about resource projects is shared between project proponents, Indigenous Peoples, governments and communities. A Digital Learning Factory will help facilitate the development of virtual environments that enable design, rapid experimentation and testing of cost-saving approaches to address the most significant challenges in modern manufacturing. These initiatives are among the estimated 100 projects that will be made possible by this infusion of federal funding.



Canada's larger international firms. "Leveraging the capability of Canada's world-leading broadband telecommunications networks, our BC-led Supercluster will use advanced data collection, analytics and visualization to produce innovations that have tremendous local and global impact, including enabling advanced healthcare treatments and cures via precision health analytics," says Josh Blair, Chief Corporate Officer, TELUS and Executive Vice President, TELUS Health. "As a founding member, TELUS looks forward to contributing to the breakthroughs our Supercluster will deliver for the benefit of Canadians from coast to coast to coast."

"The Canadian Digital Technology Supercluster is a powerful example of what we can achieve together as we build a globally-recognized technology hub along the Cascadia Innovation Corridor. The economic growth to be generated by the British Columbia-born consortium is a testament to how emerging technology will create new industries and jobs. Bravo to the Canadian Federal Government for making this bold investment in the future of Canada's fastest-growing tech sector," says Brad Smith, President, Microsoft. "As a BC-born startup, we've experienced rapid growth through BC's tech ecosystem. We're proud to have been part of Canada's Digital Technology Consortium. It is a pivotal time for BC as we develop and implement a convergence of technologies in IOT, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Mixed Reality. This innovation will solve some of the biggest productivity challenges facing businesses today," says Ryan Peterson, CEO, Finger Food Studios. "This announcement represents an incredible opportunity to unleash the potential of Indigenous innovation across BC, transforming the technology sector and communities across the province," says Denise Williams, Executive Director, First Nations Technology Council. "It is our hope that this Supercluster initiative achieves transformation of Canada's digital landscape, empowering Indigenous innovators across all its focus areas while deepening the sector's commitment to the meaningful advancement of reconciliation in a digital and connected age." "This investment will have a lasting impact on our economy, our graduates and our ability to create innovative solutions," says Jamie Cassels, President of the University of Victoria and Chair of the Research Universities' Council of British Columbia. "BC resource and technology companies are working together to use data and analytics to enhance environmental performance, productivity and safety. This funding will allow for further collaboration between the resource and tech sectors to unleash new innovation and address sustainability and productivity opportunities and challenges here in Canada and around the world," says Greg Brouwer, General Manager of Technology and Innovation at Teck. The Digital Technology Supercluster Consortium extends their thanks to founding members AMPD, Augurex, Avcorp, Business Council of BC, BC Tech Association, Change Healthcare, D-Wave, Life Sciences BC, Microsoft, Providence Health Care (supported by St. Paul's Foundation), Premiers' Technology Council of BC, Research Universities' Council of BC, Teck, Telus, Terramera, Timberwest, Urthecast and Wavefront. The collaborative effort of this Supercluster set it apart throughout the application process. When short-listed as one of nine finalists in October 2017, new members from across Canada joined. We would like to thank Shoppers Drugs Mart, Canfor, GE Digital, Illumina, the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre at University Health Network (supported by the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation), SickKids and the Terry Fox Research Institute for coming on board. The commitment, talent, diversity and collaborative approach of this Supercluster is unique. As a result, Canadians will benefit from new skilled jobs, new products and new platforms. These developments will enable Canadian companies to scale-up, making Canada more attractive for startups, international talent and investment. It is a pivotal moment for Canada's digital economy. As the Federal Government has demonstrated with this funding, the time has come for our country to invest in becoming a leading centre for innovation. About Canada's Digital Technology Supercluster Consortium: Canada's Digital Technology Supercluster Consortium is a cross-industry inititiave dedicated to ensuring BC and Canada are leaders in the digital economy. It is proudly based out of British Columbia, with partners from (and benefits that will be felt across) the nation. The consortium includes founding members AMPD, Augurex, Avcorp, Business Council of BC, BC Tech Association, Change Healthcare, D-Wave, Lifesciences BC, Microsoft, Providence Health Care (supported by St. Paul's Foundation), Premiers' Technology Council of BC, Research Universities' Council members (UBC, SFU, UVic, UNBC with Emily Carr and BCIT), Teck, Telus, Terramera, Timberwest, Urthecast and Wavefront. We also had new members join in late 2017 after we were shortlisted as one of nine applications in the running. New members include: Shoppers Drug Mart, Canfor, GE Digital, Illumina, the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre at University Health Network (supported by the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation), SickKids, the Terry Fox Research Institute and more than 200 other organizations and post-secondary institutions collaborating to solve the biggest challenges facing the world today. The Supercluster will advance projects guided by defined industry needs to advance solutions using virtual mixed/augmented reality, data analytics and quantum computing. To learn more, visit www.digitalsupercluster.ca. Media Inquiries: For more information, please contact Kathleen Reid at kreid@switchboardpr.com or 604-724-1242. For media assets, please click here. Interview opportunities with Bill Tam, Co-Chair, Canada's Digital Technology Supercluster Consortium, are available upon request. SOURCE Canada''s Digital Technology Supercluster

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] Campus First Expands into Florida with the Acquisition of The Ridge, A Class A+ Student Housing in Gainesville, FL

Campus First Student Living and CF Real Estate Services LLC, today announced the acquisition of The Ridge, a 661-bed student living community located less than 1 mile from the University of Florida. This is just the latest addition to the rapidly growing student housing firm. Campus First focuses on student housing acquisitions, development, and property management. The addition of this student housing project brings Campus First's student portfolio to just over 6,000 beds. The property is located in Gainesville, Florida, within walking distance to the University of Florida, and the new Celebration Pointe and expanded Butler Plaza retail centers. "The addition of The Ridge to our Campus First portfolio furthers our investment strategy of adding well located student assets in growth markets," states CF Real Estate Services CEO, Brett Finkelstein. >



Campus First is a boutique style acquisition/development and property management firm that focuses on purpose built student housing. Campus First is a division of parent company, CF Real Estate Services, headquartered in Atlanta, GA. Campus First currently owns or manages 6,000+ student beds, while CF Real Estate Services currently owns or manages 25,000 market rate and workforce housing units located throughout the Southeast, Southwest, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.

Renovations and value-add improvements for The Ridge are valued at more than $700,000 and are scheduled to begin prior to the 2018/2019 school year. Property renovations will include improvements to the clubhouse and the build-out of new private study areas. Within the fitness center, there are plans to add additional fitness equipment, Fitness on Demand, and a yoga studio. Within the pool area, there will be new fire pits and game areas. Ownership also plans to upgrade the dog park. "We are eager to introduce our boutique style management to the Gainesville market. Campus First Student Living will present students an opportunity for an elevated off-campus living experience that they will not receive elsewhere," states Christopher Feeley, President of Campus First. To learn more about Campus First Student Living, please visit www.campus1st.com View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180215005334/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] U.S. Air Force Boosts Security With Second Bug Bounty Challenge on HackerOne

HackerOne, the leading hacker-powered security platform, today announced the results of the second Hack the Air Force bug bounty challenge. Hack the Air Force 2.0 invited trusted hackers from all over the world to participate in its second bug bounty challenge in less than a year. The 20-day bug bounty challenge was the most inclusive government program to-date, with 26 countries invited to participate. Hack the Air Force 2.0 is part of the Department of Defense's (DoD) Hack the Pentagon crowd-sourced security initiative. Twenty-seven trusted hackers successfully participated in the Hack the Air Force bug bounty challenge - reporting 106 valid vulnerabilities and earning $103,883. Hackers from the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium and Latvia participated in the challenge. The Air Force awarded hackers the highest single bounty award of any Federal program to-date, $12,500. On December 9, the first day of the challenge, 24 hackers met in New York City and participated in a live hacking event, the first ever including federal government participation. DoD and U.S. Air Force personnel were on-site and worked alongside the hackers to simultaneously report security flaws and remediate them in real-time. Together, they collaborated to find 55 of the 106 total vulnerabilities in 9 hours during this one-day event.



"We continue to harden our attack surfaces based on findings of the previous challenge and will add lessons learned from this round," said Air Force CISO Peter Kim. "This reinforces the work the Air Force is already doing to strengthen cyber defenses and has created meaningful relationships with skilled researchers that will last for years to come." Since the Hack the Pentagon program kicked off in 2016, over 3,000 vulnerabilities have been resolved in government systems. The first Hack the Air Force bug bounty challenge resulted in 207 valid reports and hackers earned more than $130,000 for their contributions. At the time, it was the highest total and single rewards of any public government program. Hack the Army in December 2016 surfaced 118 valid vulnerabilities and paid $100,000, and Hack the Pentagon in May 2016 resulted in 138 valid vulnerabilities resolved and tens of thousands paid to ethical hackers for their efforts. Hack the Air Force 2.0 demonstrates continued momentum of the Hack the Pentagon program beyond just its first year, as well as a hardened attack surface.

About HackerOne HackerOne is the #1 hacker-powered security platform, helping organizations receive and resolve critical vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. More than 1,000 organizations, including the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. General Service Administration, General Motors, Google (News - Alert) Play, Twitter, GitHub, Nintendo, Panasonic Avionics, Qualcomm, Starbucks, Dropbox and the CERT Coordination Center trust HackerOne to find critical software vulnerabilities. HackerOne customers have resolved over 63,000 vulnerabilities and awarded over $25M in bug bounties. HackerOne is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in London and the Netherlands. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180215005220/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 14, 2018] Enterprises Simplify and Save Resources by Consolidating Files and Object Storage on Cohesity DataPlatform

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 14, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cohesity, the leader of hyperconverged secondary storage, today announced that customers are expanding the use of its scale-out platform to handle file and object storage along with data protection on the same platform, achieving dramatically lower infrastructure costs and simpler data management. Cohesity DataPlatform's radically simple and efficient approach to data protection has gained popularity as enterprises grow out of legacy backup solutions that are costly and dont scale. Now these companies are extending the value of their Cohesity deployment by using it to consolidate their unstructured data across the organization. A growing share of Cohesity customers, such as Manhattan Associates, which started with Cohesity backup capabilities, are now adding file and object storage to seamlessly read and write to the same data volume, eliminating unnecessary data copies and hardware siloes for maximum efficiency and simpler management.

Both the volume and variety of enterprise data continues to grow exponentially. Along with the cost and complexity of traditional enterprise storage, it is putting enormous pressure on businesses to find a better way to manage their exploding data assets. Until recently, enterprise IT handled different use cases with separate storage solutions, each built with its own proprietary hardware, user interface, and licensing model, leading to fragmented data siloes that become operationally inefficient and complex to manage. Cohesity DataPlatform consolidates all secondary storage - that is, any workload that doesnt require strict service level agreements (SLAs) - including file shares, backups and archiving, logs, media, test/dev and analytics. This enables companies to dramatically simplify their data center and save resources by bringing everything together on a single platform. Industry Transition to Scale-Out Storage The enterprise storage industry is shifting from legacy appliances to scale-out platforms. According to a Gartner report by 2021, more than 80 percent of enterprise data will be stored in scale-out storage systems in enterprise and cloud data centers, up from 30 percent today. 1 The Gartner report goes on to state that I&O [Infrastructure and Operations] leaders are now looking for distributed scale-out storage products to build new platforms based on software-defined approaches where performance comes from hardware innovation of a commodity hardware layer and data resiliency comes from a scale-out software layer where data is distributed across multiple nodes. 2 Cohesity DataPlatform provides highly efficient, pay-as-you-grow data protection that empowers enterprises to moe beyond legacy point backup solutions that dont scale and eventually require expensive forklift upgrades and manual data migration. Cohesitys patented web-scale distributed file system, SpanFS, was built from the ground up to handle any secondary storage workload, offering multi-protocol access (NFS, SMB and S3), strict consistency for guaranteed data resiliency, storage efficiency with global deduplication, and global indexing and search. Cohesitys software-defined solution spans from the edge, to the data center, and to any cloud, allowing enterprises to leverage the economics and flexibility of cloud infrastructure on one seamless platform.



Unstructured data from an increasing number of sources is rapidly outpacing structured data as the greatest source of storage growth for IT, said Steven Hill, senior analyst of storage technologies at 451 Research. Cohesity DataPlatform unifies file, object, and data protection as a seamless model for automating unstructured data control based on visibility, scalability, and policy-based management. Cohesity Users Add More Workloads Beyond Backup

Like many Cohesity customers, Manhattan Associates, which provides inventory, supply chain and omni-channel commerce technology, was initially drawn to the power of Cohesitys data protection capabilities. After trialing, they realized that because Cohesity DataPlatform supports various secondary storage use cases simultaneously, they could add file and object storage on the same platform. In the end, they replaced their legacy backup solution with a distributed platform that combined data protection and file storage, as well as long-term archiving, all within one simple management interface. Before Cohesity, we had a complex IT environment that was difficult and expensive to manage, said Brian Sweeney, principal engineer, Manhattan Associates. Cohesity hit on all our must-haves and consolidated multiple file use cases and data protection on a single platform that natively integrates with Amazon Web Services for long-term archival, eliminating our dependence on tapes. With Cohesity, Manhattan Associates dramatically improved operational efficiency and lowered total cost of ownership for data protection, target storage, and file services. Cohesity CloudTier played a crucial role by allowing the company to quickly provision new datastores while moving inactive cold virtual machines (VMs) to public cloud storage and still keep them fully available to users. Finally, the team eliminated the need to invest in specialized training, which allowed them to achieve an increased operator-to-device ratio, and optimized resources by leveraging Cohesitys scale-out, pay-as-you-grow model to purchase capacity based on current rather than future needs. To learn more about Cohesity DataPlatform and see specific customer use cases for file and object storage, join the upcoming webinar scheduled for Feb. 28. 1 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Distributed File Systems and Object Storage, Julia Palmer, Arun Chandrasekaran, and Raj Bala, October 17, 2017

2 ibid. About Cohesity?

Cohesity makes your data work for you by consolidating secondary storage silos onto a hyperconverged, web-scale data platform that spans both private and public clouds. Enterprise customers begin by radically streamlining their backup and data protection, then converge file and object services, test/dev instances, and analytic functions to provide a global data store. Cohesity counts many Global 1000 companies and federal agencies among its rapidly growing customer base and was named to Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups 2017, LinkedIns Startups: The 50 Industry Disruptors You Need to Know Now, and CRNs 2017 Emerging Vendors in Storage lists. For more information, visit our website www.cohesity.com and blog https://cohesity.com/blog/, follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/cohesity and LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/3750699/ and like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/cohesity/. Media Contacts

Jenni Adair

Head of Corporate Communications

jenni@cohesity.com

650-400-1871 BOCA Communications for Cohesity

cohesity@bocacommunications.com



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 14, 2018] Community Health Systems Announces Definitive Agreements to Sell Leesville, Louisiana Hospital to Allegiance Health Management

Community Health Systems, Inc. (NYSE: CYH) announced today that subsidiaries of the Company have signed definitive agreements to sell 60-bed Byrd Regional Hospital and its associated assets to subsidiaries of Allegiance (News - Alert) Health Management. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2018, subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions. The hospital included in this transaction is one of the additional planned divestitures discussed on the Company's third quarter 2017 earnings call. About Community Health Systems, Inc. Community Health Systems, Inc. is one of the largest publicly traded hospital companies in the United States and a leading operator of general acute care hospitals in communities across the country. The Company, through its subsidiaries, owns, leases or operates 127 affiliated hospitals in 20 states with an aggregate of approximately 21,000 icensed beds. The Company's headquarters are located in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb south of Nashville. Shares in Community Health Systems, Inc. are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "CYH." More information about the Company can be found on its website at www.chs.net.



Forward-Looking Statements Statements contained in this news release regarding potential transactions, operating results, and other events are forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainties. Actual future events or results may differ materially from these statements. Readers are referred to the documents filed by Community Health Systems, Inc. with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's annual report on Form 10-K, current reports on Form 8-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. These filings identify important risk factors and other uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements, or to make any other forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180214006290/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 14, 2018] ROAMWORKS Partners with Aeris to Enhance Global IoT Connectivity for Remote Asset Monitoring

Partnership ensures ROAMWORKS devices can rely on Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity worldwide, even in rural or remote locations.



Multiple network connectivity ensures that devices do not encounter problems as they travel from one country to another.

ROAMWORKS end-to-end solutions help businesses increase efficiency, cut costs, and maintain assets remotely. SAN JOSE, Calif. and DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 14, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Companies in industries, including transportation, oil and gas, and construction, will be able to remotely monitor their devices even in rural or remote locations now that end-to-end Internet of Things (IoT) solutions provider ROAMWORKS has partnered with connectivity experts Aeris, a pioneer and technology leader in the IoT industry. Mohsen Mohseninia, Vice President for Europe, Aeris



ROAMWORKS provides a range of solutions that simplify remote asset monitoring and data management and deliver real-time information to any desktop or device, anywhere in the world. The partnership with Aeris allows ROAMWORKS to ensure that its products can depend on reliable and secure global connectivity. ROAMWORKS pioneering IoT solutions are designed to help companies increase efficiency, reduce maintenance costs, and increase visibility of their assets as they move from one destination to another. Aeris IoT cellular technology standards, such as GSM, CDMA and LTE, and its use of a carrier-agnostic network, combined with its expertise in the field, allows ROAMWORKS to expand its offerings worldwide. Aeris initially will supply IoT connectivity via its Aeris IoT Services platform and enable ROAMWORKS products in the Middle East before expanding the partnership across the globe. ROAMWORKS clients range from DHL, Dubai Electricity, Water Authority and National Petroleum Authority of Ghana, among others. ROAMWORKS has three stndardised products  ROAM Tank, which monitors the condition and movement of assets within fixed and mobile tanks, such as an oil tanker; ROAM Heavy Equipment, which monitors the location and performance of items such as generators, pumps and compressors used within construction; and ROAM Fleet Management, the companys telematics solution.



The company also provides an award-winning Cargo Security solution using electronic seals and its proprietary ROAM platform that is currently used by Dubai Airports. It allows the airport and police to monitor duty-free cargo as it moves in and out of the airport, and be alerted if the packages are being unlocked. This allows airports to efficiently manage the whereabouts of cargo, while ensuring security is being adhered to throughout the transportation process. Also, this solution helps authorities prevent theft or fraud, as they can see whether products or items are tampered with or taken outside of duty-free zones. -more-

Supporting Quotes Mohammad Daudi, Director of Global Sales & Marketing, ROAMWORKS

We pride ourselves on providing the very best end-to-end IoT solutions to our clients. We allow businesses and organisations to track and monitor their assets in real-time. These assets, by their very nature, are often moved from one location to another, often across borders or into rural areas, areas which can be notoriously difficult when it comes to IoT connection. We therefore need to ensure that our solutions are backed by reliable IoT connectivity, no matter where in the world they are deployed. Aeris expertise in this area allows us to achieve this, and helps set us apart from competitors in the region and globally. Mohsen Mohseninia, Vice President for Europe, Aeris

Aeris ability to offer high-quality IoT connectivity worldwide, at commercially competitive rates, will allow ROAMWORKS to offer solutions to its clients that will deliver a host of benefits, such as helping increase efficiency and productivity, cutting costs, increasing safety and gaining valuable insights into its business operations. We look forward to helping ROAMWORKS expand its capabilities and deliver game-changing IoT solutions to businesses in the Middle East and throughout the world. Digital Assets [Photo] Mohsen Mohseninia

[Image] Aeris logo Supporting Resources Read about ROAMWORKS .

Read about Aeris.

Read about Mohsen Mohseninia.

Read and subscribe to Aeris Blog and Neo Blog.

Read Aeris news releases.

Read about the Internet of Things FAQ.

For more information about Aeris news and activities, follow the company via Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, Instagram , and YouTube. About ROAMWORKS

ROAMWORKS, headquartered in Dubai (UAE), is a leading Internet of Things (IoT) solutions provider led by a team of experienced software and hardware development professionals. ROAMWORKS develops end-to-end solutions that enable our customers to monitor, track, manage and control their asset data around the world, which helps our customers make better decisions and improve profits. ROAMWORKS has been developing and deploying M2M and IoT solutions since 2002. We have clients with assets monitored by our ROAM platform on five continents. ROAMWORKS clients are served by offices in Dubai, Abu-Dhabi (UAE) and Bonn (Germany). About Aeris

Aeris is a global technology partner with a proven history of helping companies unlock the value of IoT. For more than a decade, weve powered critical projects for some of the most demanding customers of IoT services. Aeris strives to fundamentally improve businesses by dramatically reducing costs, accelerating time-to-market, and enabling new revenue streams. Built from the ground up for IoT and road tested at scale, Aeris IoT Services are based on the broadest technology stack in the industry, spanning connectivity up to vertical solutions. As veterans of the industry, we know that implementing an IoT solution can be complex, and we pride ourselves on making it simpler. For more information, contact:

Kevin Petschow

Aeris

+1.312.985.9182

Kevin.Petschow@aeris.net A photo accompanying this announcement is available at //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/148af42f-59fc-45ec-ac87-162ad3b06f4e

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 14, 2018] Duetto Closes $80 Million Series D Financing Round Led by Warburg Pincus

Record investment in hotel technology will fuel product growth and global expansion of industry's only Revenue Strategy Platform SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Duetto, hospitality's only Revenue Strategy Platform, announced today the closing of an $80 million Series D financing round led by funds affiliated with Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm focused on growth investing. The round is the largest ever non-acquisition investment in a software company serving the hotel industry. Duetto was founded in 2012 by CEO Patrick Bosworth, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer Marco Benvenuti and Chief Technology Officer Craig Weissman, the former CTO at Salesforce.com. The company's flagship software-as-a-service (SaaS) application, GameChanger, brought machine learning, new consumer-centric data and the breakthrough innovation of Open Pricing to the industry, enabling hotel companies to independently price all distribution channels, customer segments, room types and stay dates in real time. Duetto, headquartered in San Francisco and with offices in Las Vegas, Cleveland, London and Singapore, has quickly grown to serve more than 2,500 hotels and casinos in more than 60 countries. Those customers have consistently outperformed the market, beating their competition's rate of revenue growth by more than 6.5% since the launch of the company. "As the pace of change has accelerated and the threats of digital disruption have grown, so have our efforts to help this industry we are so passionate about. We are pleased to have the support of Warburg Pincus, whose extensive experience in building SaaS businesses of scale will help drive our growth and provide solutions to more hoteliers worldwide," said Patrick Bosworth, co-founder and CEO of Duetto. "For more than a decade, hotel companies have been looking for ways to compete more effectively with online travel agencies and drive more direct business. By unifying data across the tech stack, our platform has become the single source capable of delivering true personalization to consumers. Hoteliers ow have the ability to increase conversion and drive more direct engagement with consumers by personalizing pricing and merchandising at the point of booking."



"Duetto has established itself as the market leader in the hotel revenue management space, providing its customers with next-generation solutions to optimize demand, maximize rates and minimize costs," said Ashutosh Somani, Managing Director, Warburg Pincus. "With its strong domain experience and deep cloud SaaS technology leadership, Duetto is uniquely positioned to bring new capabilities to the hospitality industry. We look forward to supporting Patrick and the Duetto leadership team in their next chapter of growth." Duetto's Revenue Strategy Platform brings together all core technologies and data to make them accessible through multitenant cloud architecture using AWS and MongoDB, enabling future innovations and new applications. The company's intelligent reporting application ScoreBoard forecasts and analyzes performance, delivering key insights to stakeholders across the organization. BlockBuster brings Open Pricing to contracted group business and enhances collaboration between the sales and revenue management teams. PlayMaker, the industry's first application to personalize the booking experience in real time, customizes merchandising content and offers for known and unknown guests.

"We want to modernize ecommerce in the hotel industry with our Revenue Strategy Platform at the center of the new hotel tech stack," said Marco Benvenuti, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer of Duetto. "Our cloud platform is open and agnostic and we look forward to partnering with other technology companies to unlock new ways of driving efficiencies and more revenue for the hotelier. With our agile development process, we will continually improve our core applications while looking to develop new products when there is a crucial industry need not being served." Duetto is backed by investors Warburg Pincus, Icon Ventures, Accel Partners, Battery Ventures and Spectrum 28. About Duetto Duetto is hospitality's only Revenue Strategy Platform. A powerful suite of cloud applications addresses the industry's complexity in distribution and technology, providing solutions that increase booking conversion, guest loyalty and revenue. The unique combination of hospitality experience and technology leadership drives Duetto to look for new and innovative solutions to the industry's greatest challenges. Duetto delivers software-as-a-service to hotels and casinos that leverage dynamic data sources and actionable insights into pricing and demand across the enterprise, enabling a holistic and more profitable Revenue Strategy. Duetto's fully deployed hotel clients using GameChanger have recorded an average RevPAR Index lift of 6.5%. More than 2,500 hotel and casino properties in more than 60 countries have implemented Duetto's applications, which include GameChanger for Open Pricing, ScoreBoard for intelligent reporting, PlayMaker for personalization, and BlockBuster for contracted-business optimization. For more information, visit http://duettocloud.com. About Warburg Pincus Warburg Pincus LLC is a leading global private equity firm focused on growth investing. The firm has more than $44 billion in private equity assets under management. The firm's active portfolio of more than 150 companies is highly diversified by stage, sector and geography. Warburg Pincus is an experienced partner to management teams seeking to build durable companies with sustainable value. Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has raised 17 private equity funds which have invested more than $60 billion in over 800 companies in more than 40 countries. The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Amsterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Mauritius, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Shanghai and Singapore. For more information please visit www.warburgpincus.com. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/641663/Duetto_Founders.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/641664/Duetto_Logo.jpg

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] SWIFT revolutionises Australian banking with real-time payments

Next steps of global instant payments strategy underway in Europe, Asia and the Americas BRUSSELS, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SWIFT welcomes the public launch of the New Payments Platform (NPP) in Australia, which is set to revolutionise the way payments are made domestically. SWIFT has helped to design, build and deliver the NPP and will play a key role in operating the infrastructure for the NPP. The NPP's paradigm-shifting financial architecture has been designed and constructed to fundamentally improve how consumers, businesses and governments transact with one another. The key features of the NPP include: 24/7 instant payments and real-time line-by-line settlement via the Reserve Bank of Australia

PayID, new and easy way to link a financial account with an easy-to-remember identifier such as a mobile phone number, email address or ABN for businesses

Open access infrastructure that truly empowers innovation through competition

Overlay services framework that will provide new value services to Australian consumers, businesses and government Alain Raes, Chief Executive of EMEA & APAC, SWIFT, said the rollout of the NPP and the enablement of real time payments is the most significant development in the Australian payments industry in decades, and could have a more revolutionary impact on the economy than any previous payments system innovation. "SWIFT has supported the evolution of payments systems around the world for more than 40 years and is delighted to have played an important role in the creation and roll out of real-time payments in Australia. The smooth delivery of the project is a measure of the great partnership that SWIFT and the Australian industry have developed throughout the collaboration," said Mr Raes. "The NPP has also showcased the expertise and innovative approach of SWIFT's global payments team and the value that we can deliver to other markets, including the European Union as it moves towards the goal of a armonised instant payments service within the Eurozone."



NPPA CEO, Adrian Lovney said: "SWIFT, an international leader in the provision of secure financial services, has worked tirelessly to help design, build and deliver this world class system." NPP is a key component within SWIFT's broader global instant payments strategy, which also includes the provision of an instant payments messaging service for the euro area. Launching in November 2018, to coincide with the launch of TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS), the euro real-time payments service commissioned by the Eurosystem, SWIFT's new messaging service will allow instant payments to be made in euros across Europe through both TIPS and EBA CLEARING's RT-1 instant payments system.

In the context of the Eurosystem's 2020 vision, which envisages access to TARGET2, TARGET2 for Securities and TIPS through the Eurosystem Single Market Infrastructure Gateway (ESMIG), SWIFT's instant payments strategy is committed to the future agenda of the Eurosystem, supporting customers as they move to meet this vision. The same SWIFT solution will provide customers with a single gateway to connect seamlessly to other instant payment systems in Europe and elsewhere. SWIFT, which currently connects 85 of the 149 High Value Payments systems in the world, including CHAPS in the UK, TARGET2 in Europe and the SWIFT India Domestic Services, also offers gateways to instant payments platforms in Hong Kong and in the US. -##- Press Contacts: Jaime Lee

+852-2107-8860

jaime.lee@swift.com Notes to editors: SWIFT and NPP SWIFT was selected by NPP Australia as the vendor to design, build and operate the basic infrastructure of this landmark payments industry initiative. About SWIFT SWIFT is a global member owned cooperative and the world's leading provider of secure financial messaging services. We provide our community with a platform for messaging and standards for communicating, and we offer products and services to facilitate access and integration, identification, analysis and regulatory compliance. Our messaging platform, products and services connect more than 11,000 banking and securities organisations, market infrastructures and corporate customers in more than 200 countries and territories. While SWIFT does not hold funds or manage accounts on behalf of customers, we enable our global community of users to communicate securely, exchanging standardised financial messages in a reliable way, thereby supporting global and local financial flows, as well as trade and commerce all around the world. As their trusted provider, we relentlessly pursue operational excellence; we support our community in addressing cyber threats; and we continually seek ways to lower costs, reduce risks and eliminate operational inefficiencies. Our products and services support our community's access and integration, business intelligence, reference data and financial crime compliance needs. SWIFT also brings the financial community together  at global, regional and local levels  to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest or concern. Headquartered in Belgium, SWIFT's international governance and oversight reinforces the neutral, global character of its cooperative structure. SWIFT's global office network ensures an active presence in all the major financial centres. SWIFT's strategic five year plan, SWIFT2020, challenges SWIFT to continue investing in the security, reliability and growth of its core messaging platform, while making additional investments in existing services and delivering new and innovative solutions. For more information, visit www.swift.com or follow us on Twitter: @swiftcommunity and LinkedIn: SWIFT. Logo - http://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20160127/8521600559Logo SOURCE SWIFT

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] 'The Machine Conference' 2018, India's Most Powerful Gathering of Analytics and Data Science Leaders Commences on 11th May, 2018 at Mumbai

BENGALURU, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- 'The Machine Conference', an exclusive gathering of Analytics and Data Science Leaders in India, is going to take a center stage on 11th May, 2018 at Hotel Hyatt Regency, Mumbai, India. Brought to you by Analytics India Magazine, this unique conference is based on a theme of putting Analytics to work in India, and brings an opportunity to meet 50 head of analytics and data science from Indian firms. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161117/440618LOGO )

In today's world, as analytics adoption tops the agenda, examining the latest opportunities and challenges in the data driven world is indispensable. Data is at the forefront of all business transformation, and the challenge is to use this data and transform it into customer insights. 'The Machine Conference' aims to offer a platform to recognize these ingenious minds who know how to transform data into competitive advantage. Analytics 50 awards, which is a highlight of 'The Machine Conference', is an effort to recognize the best minds in the Indian Analytics Industry, who have successfully transformed data into meaningful insights. This prestigious award would celebrate the men and women behind the success of Data Science in India, who have helped in moulding the IndianAnalytics Landscape.



Bhasker Gupta, Founder and CEO, Analytics India Magazine said, "Today, Analytics is considered an integral part of every business irrespective of its nature and size. While we are surrounded by zettabyte of data and see it in all shapes of form, we still struggle to put it to the best use. At 'The Machine conference' we bring together the leaders of Indian Analytics Industry and explore the ground breaking innovations and challenges that they face in analytics adoption. They share their experience with compelling use cases and inspire us with ideas that are truly game changing." Sandeep Mittal, Founder and MD, Cartesian Consulting said, "You really can't go wrong with a name like 'The Machine Conference', it's supercool before it's even begun. And honoring 50 leading lights in India, who're actually making adoption happen, is brilliant. Given how much we believe in and how aligned we are to the journey analytics is taking in this market, we're more than happy to partner with AIM in bringing this to you."

Cartesian Consulting is the Presenting Sponsor of 'The Machine Conference' 2018. Analytics 50 awards will recognize outstanding achievement in analytics in 5 categories - Data Driven CxO, Exemplary Data Scientists, The Early Adopters, The Sourcing Luminary and Data Science Transformers. An invite-only exclusive conference for senior analytics executives, it also includes other highlights such as industry thought-leader sessions, CAO panel discussions, vendor showcases, networking dinner, closed round tables with industry peers, along with offering a great networking opportunity with industry peers. To get more information about the event, visit http://www.themachinecon.com. About Analytics India Magazine: Analytics India Magazine (AIM) is India's no.1 platform on analytics, data science and big data, dedicated to passionately championing and promoting the ecosystem in India. It aims for the promotion and discussion of ideas and thoughts on Business Analytics from India perspective. AIM was started in May 2012 by Bhasker Gupta, who has worked in analytics space for more than 12 years. Visit http://www.analyticsindiamag.com for more info.

Media Contact:

Bhasker Gupta

info@analyticsindiamag.com

+91-9916006869

Analytics India Magazine Pvt Ltd



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] Evotec and MaRS Innovation Announce First Funded Project under LAB150 Bridge

Evotec AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, TecDAX, ISIN: DE0005664809) and MaRS Innovation announced today that they have identified the first project to be developed under their LAB150 partnership. After signing a collaboration agreement in September 2017, the first project within this academic BRIDGE has now been identified. The project aims to develop kallikrein-targeting compounds as novel topical drugs for the rare but severe inflammatory skin disease 'Netherton Syndrome' as well as the broader disorder atopic dermatitis. Skin kallikreins are expressed in the outer layer of the human skin and represent an attractive target. Extensive research over many years from the laboratory of Dr Eleftherios P. Diamandis at Mount Sinai Hospital, part of Sinai Health System in Toronto, has shown that excessive activity of kallikreins is central to the development of skin inflammation. Approximately 2-5% of the general population and 20-30% of newborns suffer from skin inflammatory diseases, which significantly impede their quality of life. Current options are limited to general immune-suppressants (steroids) or systemic anti-inflammatory biologics. "There is a clear unmet medical need for the development of novel topical drugs that can prevent inflammation before it becomes full-blown, especially in the paediatric population", mentions Dr Ioannis Prassas, one of the co-investigators on this project along with Drs Diamandis and Antoninus Soosaipillai. The team has completed a series of drug screening activities which have led to the identification of some very promising novel kallikrein inhibitors. "We are very excited to team up with renowned partners like Evotec and MaRS Innovation under the LAB150 partnership. Access to capital, Evotec's world-class drug discovery infrastructure and MaRS Innovation's commercialisation expertise is a recipe for success", says Dr Diamandis. Dr Rafi Hofstein, President & CEO of MaRS Innovation, says: "We are excited to propel this project through LAB150 - an important bridge for our members. The outcome of the project out of the Diamandis lab is a potential game changer for the health of many children, with stellar foundational scientific technology to be the inaugural LAB150 project." Dr Werner Lanthaler, CEO of Evotec, comments: "Following the positive outcome of further drug discovery efforts that are conducted jointly at Evotec and at Dr Diamandis' lab, the foundation of a new company is planned in order to make these therapies available to patients in the most efficient and effective manner through LAB150." ABOUT LAB150

LAB150 is a collaboration between MaRS Innovation and Evotec AG designed to accelerate drug discovery. We bring scientists, investors and company building expertise together to rapidly deliver concepts to the marketplace. The mission of LAB150 is three-pronged: To develop and identify commercialisable assets based on disease-related novel biological pathways; To significantly shorten the drug discovery timeline and; To generate viable start-up companies with high potential for success. The name commemorates Canada's 150th birthday in 2017, the year in which the LAB150 partnership was formed. For more information, please visit www.LAB150.com. ABOUT MARS INNOVATION

MaRS Innovation is a leading provider of commercialisation services, early-stage funding, and deal-brokering with industry and private investors. As a member-based organisation made up 15 Member institutions, MaRS Innovation's mandate is to drive the commercialisation of their most promising research breakthroughs. MaRS Innovation's portfolio consists of early-stage assets and companies. Our team leverages its deep expertise and experience to mature our portfolio via important global and strategic partnerships. With an active portfolio of more than 40 companies which have raised in excess of $200M from global investors, and with the creation of more than 400 direct jobs, MaRS Innovation is truly a leader in the commercialisation field. For more information please visit www.marsinnovation.com. ABOUT EVOTEC AG

Evotec is a drug discovery alliance and development partnership company focused on rapidly progressing innovative product approaches with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academics, patient advocacy groups and venture capitalists. We operate worldwide providing the highest quality stand-alone and integrated drug discovery solutions, covering all activities from target-to-clinic to meet the industry's need for innovation and efficiency in drug discovery (EVT Execute). The Company has established a unique position by assembling top-class scientific experts and integrating state-of-the-art technologies as well as substantial experience and expertise in key therapeutic areas including neuroscience, diabetes and complications of diabetes, pain and inflammation, oncology and infectious diseases. On this basis, Evotec has built a broad and deep pipeline of more than 80 partnered product opportunities at clinical, pre-clinical and discovery stages (EVT Innovate). Evotec has established multiple long-term discovery alliances with partners including Bayer, CHDI, Sanofi or UCB and development partnerships with e.g. with Sanofi in the field of diabetes, with Pfizer in the field of tissue fibrosis and Celgene in the field of neurodegenerative diseases. For additional information please go to www.evotec.com and follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @EvotecAG. FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

Information set forth in this press release contains forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent the judgement of Evotec as of the date of this press release. Such forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, and which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. We expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statements to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.







Language: English Company: Evotec AG Manfred Eigen Campus / Essener Bogen 7 22419 Hamburg Germany Phone (News - Alert) : +49 (0)40 560 81-0 Fax: +49 (0)40 560 81-222 E-mail: info@evotec.com Internet: www.evotec.com ISIN: DE0005664809 WKN: 566480 Indices: TecDAX Listed: Regulated Market in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Regulated Unofficial Market in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Hanover, Munich, Stuttgart, Tradegate Exchange

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180214006546/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] UK and Asian tech leaders share excellence at GREAT Festival of Innovation

HONG KONG, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Some of the world's leading entrepreneurs, business leaders, academics and creatives will gather to explore topics of innovation and technological excellence at the GREAT Festival of Innovation in Hong Kong from 21 to 24 March. The Festival will showcase some of the UK's most advanced technology, including the UK-designed and developed autonomous robot dog MiRo, which will be shown in Asia for the first time. Organised by the UK's Department for International Trade, the event has already attracted a host of top names at the cutting edge of their sectors. The four-day Festival will examine the future challenges and opportunities of an increasingly connected world, bringing to Hong Kong some of Asia and the UK's lead experts in technology and innovation. The Festival aims to deliver further growth and investment through enhanced international trade for Hong Kong's technology and business sectors. Speaking at the Festival will be a number of entrepreneurs who have been pioneers in their technology fields. These include Brent Hoberman, Co-founder of Lastminue.com and Executive Chairman of the leading digital start-up incubator Founders Factory; Ambarish Mitra, Co-founder and CEO of the world's first AI powered visual discovery browser Blippar; Heba Bevan, Founder and CEO of UtterBerry, smart sensing technology designed for infrastructure monitoring that is set to shape the smart cities of the future; and Alex Kong, Founder of Hong Kong currency transfer firm TNG Wallet who have recently expanded their services to the UK. The Festival will also hear from thought leaders who are globally recognised as experts in their field. Joining from Singapore is Sanjay Aurora, Managing Director, APAC of Darktrace who is responsible for leading the expansion of the company and its award-winning Enterprise Immune System technology for cyber securiy in the Asia Pacific region. Japan-based Eiji Uda, Chairman and CEO of digital knowledge management provider Yext and Chief Technology and Innovation Officer for Tokyo 2020, will take part in an exciting panel to discuss the future of how sport will be experienced. Sharing insights into advancements in information and communications technology for smarter cities will be Shinya Kukita, Chief Engineer from Japan's NEC Corporation who has partnered on notable flagships smart city initiatives in the UK.



Alongside engaging sessions, panels and workshops, there will be a showcase of some of the UK's leading technology. Travelling to Asia for the first time is UK-designed and developed autonomous robot dog MiRo. MiRo the robot dog is the creation of designer-in-residence to the University of Sheffield engineering faculty, Sebastian Conran CEO of London/Bristol based Consequential Robotics. A companion robot with six senses capable of emotional engagement, MiRo has been developed in conjunction with Sheffield Robotics to enhance quality of later life. Also showcasing will be McLaren Design Studio who will present their VR technology that allows customers to design their own driving experience and interiors. Day One of the Festival will have a strong tech focus; some of the sessions announced so far include FinTech Futures, a look at technologies such as blockchain, apps and online lending that are driving start-ups in the financial sector; Disruption in Business, equipping businesses with the knowledge to master the societal and technological changes to come; and Securing the Global Network, a discussion into strategies for the increasingly important cyber-security.

Other tech sessions include Smart Cities: From Simulation to Citizens, an insight into how the evolution of connected living environments; Dawn of the AI Age, a look at how artificial intelligence and machine learning will impact businesses of today; and Ageing Well, in an era where older people will form a significant portion of the population, a look into what technologies will revolutionise the support we give to live a healthier life for all. Outside of the conference programme, the Festival offers Asia's business leaders the chance to meet handpicked counterparts from across the UK and to discuss possible future trading and investment opportunities. Several hundred invited delegates will attend the Hong Kong event, which takes place at the Asia Society Hong Kong Centre and will feature more than 60 panels and events over its four days. For more information, please visit great.gov.uk/innovation or follow the hashtag #GREATinnovation. High-resolution images can be downloaded here:

Link: http://gallery.sinclaircomms.com/gallery/GREAT+Festival+of+Innovation

Password: talkofthetown About GREAT Festival of Innovation 2018 The GREAT Festival of Innovation, to be held at Asia Society Hong Kong Centre from 21 to 24 March 2018, is the third of its kind after the success of the GREAT Festivals of Creativity in Istanbul (2014) and Shanghai (2015). Its vision is to share innovation and create life-long partnerships that will drive the future of free trade and prosperity between the UK, Hong Kong and the region. The Festival will explore the latest in cutting-edge innovation and the future of how we work, live, play and learn through a series of talks, panels and interactive workshops over four days. Bringing together some of the world's brightest minds, business leaders and policy makers, the Festival will provide a unique platform for powerful future partnerships. The GREAT Campaign Bringing the best of Britain to the world The GREAT Britain campaign showcases the best of what the whole nation has to offer to inspire the world and encourage people to visit, do business, invest and study in the UK. It is the Government's most ambitious international promotional campaign, uniting the efforts of the public and private sector to generate jobs and growth for Britain. The campaign has already secured confirmed economic returns of GBP3.1bn for the UK. The UK has a huge amount to offer, with world-class universities, ground breaking research, high tech start-ups and entrepreneurial business people. Global leaders in the creative industries like music, fashion, design and film, the UK can offer visitors unforgettable experiences, breath-taking landscapes and iconic attractions. The GREAT Britain campaign captures the best of all that is familiar about the UK, but also what is new and surprising about the country. Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180215/2058075-1

Logo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180105/2026066-1LOGO SOURCE GREAT Festival of Innovation

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] McLaren Formula 1 Driver Fernando Alonso to Keynote at Mobile World Congress 2018

The GSMA (News - Alert) today announced that McLaren Formula 1 Driver and double World Champion Fernando Alonso will be a featured speaker in a keynote session taking place on Tuesday, 27 February at Mobile World Congress (News - Alert) in Barcelona. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180215005446/en/ McLaren Formula 1 Driver Fernando Alonso (Photo by Renaud Corlouer) Widely regarded as one of F1's most talented drivers of all time, Alonso has also challenged himself by competing in the Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 24 Hours in the past year. This season, Alonso is focused on returning McLaren to the front of the grid and will also compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Alonso will be joined onstage by Zak Brown, Executive Director of McLaren Technology Group. In this session, Alonso and Brown will share their perspectives on the intersection of motorsport and cutting-edge mobile technology. McLaren increasingly relies on connectivity and sensors as a critical tool in optimising the performance of all of their cars, both F1 and road, and collaborates with a broad ecosystem of companies from the technology and mobile industries to provide these solutions. This keynote will be open to all Mobile World Congress attendees holding a Silver, Gold, Platinum or Press/Analyst Pass. Details of the session follow: Keynote 7: The Fourth Industrial Revolution (News - Alert)

Tuesday, 27 February

16:45 - 17:50

Auditorium 1, Hll 4





This session, along with all other Mobile World Congress keynotes, will be streamed live to audiences globally on Mobile World Live at www.mobileworldlive.com.

Get Involved at Mobile World Congress 2018 For more information on Mobile World Congress 2018, including how to attend, exhibit or sponsor, visit www.mobileworldcongress.com. Follow developments and updates on Mobile World Congress on Twitter (News - Alert) @GSMA using #MWC18, on our LinkedIn Mobile World Congress page www.linkedin.com/company/gsma-mobile-world-congress or on Facebook (News - Alert) at www.facebook.com/mobileworldcongress/. The Mobile World Congress is the cornerstone of the Mobile World Capital, which will be hosted in Barcelona through 2023. The Mobile World Capital encompasses programmes and activities that span the entire year and will benefit not only the citizens of Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain, but also the worldwide mobile industry. For more information on the Mobile World Capital, visit www.mobileworldcapital.com. -ENDS- About the GSMA The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting nearly 800 operators with more than 300 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as Mobile World Congress, Mobile World Congress Shanghai, Mobile World Congress Americas and the Mobile 360 Series of conferences. For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at www.gsma.com. Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180215005446/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] Brandon Frere Recommends Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Success

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Entrepreneurship is intimately linked to business in our society. More specifically, it's associated with start-up business owners. While entrepreneurship is often a necessary trait of a start-up business owner, not all entrepreneurs have successful businesses. Brandon Frere, entrepreneur and businessman, shares his thoughts about entrepreneurship and its value outside business owner functions. Frere sees high value in entrepreneurship. On his website, BrandonFrere.com, he describes his childhood as one in which he sought out avenues to make money for himself and his family. While he continues to develop those habits, he considers entrepreneurship a mindset rather than a trait inherent in business owners. Furthermore, it becomes more valuable when combined with other traits, like innovation. "I'm constantly thinking of new innovations that can help my business or my life," said Frere. "I believe in an entrepreneurial mindset, and encourage everyone to develop their own." Frere believes that successful businesses are ones that can run themselves. Hiring the right people is important, but so is developing processes that seamlessly grow with the business. Frere explains, "That leaves you to be able to take an 'outsider's' view and build the business even more by fine-tuning the systems, processes and procedures thatmake it run. The best way to do that is through innovation."



According to Frere, innovation is a key quality in growing a business. He suggests exercising both entrepreneurship and innovation. One way to do that is to seek new perspectives. By looking at even the smallest processes with "new eyes," anyone can look for strengths and weaknesses with an eye toward improvement. "It's hard to do that, but the more you try, the greater success you'll have," says Frere. "Innovation is a muscle you have to strengthen, and that takes regular exercise. The drive to innovate and keep building on success embodies what it means to be an entrepreneur." About

Brandon Frere is an entrepreneur and businessman who lives in Sonoma County, California. He created his website, www.BrandonFrere.com, as a means to communicate many of the lessons and information he has learned in business and personal endeavors, specifically in the federal student loan landscape. During his own student loan repayment, Mr. Frere found out how difficult it can be to work with federally contracted student loan servicers. His efforts were eventually successful: he paid off his loans and gained an insider's look into the repayment process. His knowledge of the confusing landscape of student loan repayment became a vital theme in his future endeavors, and he now uses those experiences to help guide others through the process of applying for available federal repayment and forgiveness programs. To find out more about Brandon Frere, visit his website. To reach out, fill out the contact form on the Contact page. BrandonFrere.com CONTACT: Brandon Frere

www.BrandonFrere.com Related Links Brandon Frere's website View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/brandon-frere-recommends-entrepreneurship-and-innovation-for-success-300599246.html SOURCE Brandon Frere

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] UCAS Appoints Infosys as its Core Technology Partner up to 2021

LONDON, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Infosys (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in consulting, technology and next-generation services, today announced that UCAS, the admissions service for UK higher education, has extended its existing partnership with the company to support its business strategy up to 2021. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130122/589162 )

UCAS delivers critical admissions and information services to students, schools and higher education providers. Every year it supports more than a million applicants from over 100 countries; 6,000 registered centres; 1,200 schools; and 388 universities and colleges. Every summer UCAS runs and delivers the single biggest infrastructure event within the UK education sector. Its systems manage millions of applications; process over 10 million exam results; answer 35,000 customer calls on A level results days; and respond to 15,000 social media enquiries. Not only is this period critical for the life chances of individuals, it has huge implications for the future prosperity of the UK society, economy and beyond. During the five critical days, including SQA Results Day and leading up to A Level Results Day, UCAS supports the placement of students equating to around 6 billion (around $8 billion) in tuition fees alone. In the last three years, UCAS' partnership with Infosys has reaped immediate dividends, with system outage times slashed by 90 per cent, while UCAS customer satisfaction scores with UCAS peak periods of confirmation and clearing, have jumped from 60 to 94 per cent. As part of the renewed engagement, Infosys will provide a wide range of digital services that will enable UCAS to continue to develop technology capabilities that connect learners to multiple destinations, such as universities, awarding bodies, schools and other organisations, using a dynamic digital suite of systems that responds to a rapidly changing higher education sector in the UK. Infosys will now concentrate on helping UCAS achieve its ambitious targets on lowering costs, optimising and enhancing services for students, delivering more robust security, and providing business-as-usual (BAU) services between legacy and new digital systems. UB Pravin Rao, Chief Operating Officer, Infosys, said, "The renewed engagement with UCAS bears testament to the success we have helped the organisation achieve to date. We're very enthusiastic abou the journey ahead and welcome the opportunity to power UCAS' vision for the future of Education, by developing a truly agile digital enterprise, that is able to cater to the requirements of increasingly demanding students. We look forward to working with UCAS and helping the organisation deliver its 2020 strategy and vision."



Clare Marchant, UCAS Chief Executive, said, "This is a significant milestone for UCAS. On joining in 2017, one of my first impressions was the strength and professionalism of the partnership with Infosys. This has enabled substantial service improvements and stability around key business events, particularly for confirmation and clearing when hundreds of thousands of students are using our services simultaneously to find out if they have a university or college place." Fatuma Mahad, Director of Technology and Operations and UCAS, said, "This is absolutely right for UCAS. Our ways of working together have cemented a partnership which I feel helped us create a model for future success."

Infosys has managed UCAS' core application and IT infrastructure since 2014, enabling the delivery of technology services to customers and the business, including three successful confirmations and clearing periods and other high-volume, time-critical events. About UCAS UCAS is a charity, and is the UK's shared admissions service for higher education. We manage applications from around 700,000 applicants each year for full time undergraduate courses, at more than 395 universities and colleges across the UK. For further information please contact Felicity Cowie, Head of Media and Corporate Communications at UCAS at f.cowie@ucas.ac.uk or 01242-545469. About Infosys Infosys is a global leader in technology services and consulting. We enable clients in 45 countries to create and execute strategies for their digital transformation. From engineering to application development, knowledge management and business process management, we help our clients find the right problems to solve, and to solve those effectively. Our team of 200,000+ innovators, across the globe is differentiated by the imagination, knowledge and experience across industries and technologies that we bring to every project we undertake. Visit http://www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise thrive in the digital age. Safe Harbor Certain statements in this press release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectations intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017. These filings are available at http://www.sec.gov Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. In addition, please note that any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of the date of this press release. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law.



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] Collinson Group Partners With LocusLabs to Bring New Contextually-Aware Mapping Technology to Priority Pass

SAO PAULO, February 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- An industry first, this innovative partnership will enhance the experience for choice-rich, connected travelers worldwide Collinson Group, the global leader in influencing customer behavior and driving customer devotion, today announces a partnership with indoor mapping and wayfinding specialist, LocusLabs. The relationship will enhance the lounge experience and airport services available to Collinson Group's customers, including those of Priority Pass - the world's largest independent airport lounge and travel experiences program. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/642171/Collinson_Group_Logo.jpg )

LocusLabs' location-as-a-service technology is successfully used by a number of leading airlines and technology companies. It will be incorporated into the Priority Pass app, making it easier for users to locate lounges and understand how busy different facilities are, such as security wait times, in addition to seeking out other benefits inside terminals. Additionally, those with push notifications enabled on their smartphones can receive recommendations of services when entering an airport to help them navigate to lounges and exclusive discounts. Priority Pass will be the first lounge membership program to integrate LocusLabs' indoor mapping and wayfinding features within its app, through an update due in the coming weeks. Initially, key major airports will be covered including Dubai, Hong Kong, London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Singapore, Manchester, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Mexico City and Istanbul Ataturk airports, ith more locations due to follow in the coming months. The two companies are also collaborating on other groundbreaking technologies including Augmented Reality as they look to assist customers in navigating the airport space of the future.



Reflecting the trend for airports investing in unique experiences on the ground, this partnership represents another major step in realising Collinson Group's vision to provide connected travelers with smarter digital and real-world experiences which enrich their travel journey. The company is continuing to evolve and improve its Priority Pass service, supported by a growing number of premium features such as restaurant and spa discounts and seamless mobile access to retail discounts. The LocusLabs partnership marks the start of a string of further developments for the company in 2018, with a number of exciting capabilities due to be introduced to the Priority Pass app. Christopher Evans, Joint CEO of Collinson Group, said: "Feedback from Priority Pass members consistently highlights the opportunities that contextually-aware mobile technologies can create as we look at smart ways to help an increasingly choice-rich traveler to make the very best use of their time at airports and other transportation hubs. We are delighted to be working with the team at LocusLabs and see their innovative mapping and location services playing a major role in helping us enhance the travel experience we offer our customers and clients."

Campbell Kennedy, CEO, LocusLabs, added: "As part of a core focus on customer experience, Collinson Group is leveraging terminal maps and location services as a valuable tool for discovery, but also to facilitate a truly tailored and relevant experience for their mobile users. LocusLabs is extremely excited to realise the potential of the technology together." About Collinson Group Collinson Group (www.collinsongroup.com) is a global leader in influencing customer behavior to drive revenue and value for clients. The Group offers a unique blend of industry and sector specialists who together provide market-leading experience in delivering products and services across four core capabilities: Loyalty, Travel Experiences, Insurance and Assistance. The group provides unrivalled insight and expertise around affluent consumers and frequent travelers, creating and delivering products and services that increase engagement, loyalty and value for today's increasingly choice-rich customer. We have 25 years' experience, with 25 global locations, servicing over 800 clients in 170 countries, employing 2,000 staff, and managing over 20 million end customers. Our clients include: Accor Hotels, Air France KLM, American Express, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Diners Club, Intel, Mandarin Oriental, Mastercard and Visa. About LocusLabs Launching their platform in 2015, LocusLabs (http://www.locuslabs.com ) is an Oakland-based company that provides the platform and tools to enable apps to be location-aware on a micro level. Focusing on bringing context to the physical world, LocusLabs is pioneering the first of its kind Location-as-a-Service offering for major brands around the globe. LocusLabs is going a level deeper than existing mapping solutions by not only mapping places, but also people, products, and things, using technology that scales. LocusLabs' mission is to provide global venues, enterprises and brands a digital platform to communicate, share and manage everything about their physical space.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] Glance Represents Over 5% of Holdings of Canada's First Blockchain ETF

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Glance Technologies Inc. (CSE:GET.CN) (OTCQB:GLNNF) (FKT:GJT) is pleased to announce that investments in equity securities of Glance Technologies represents 5.9% of the total portfolio holdings of Harvest Portfolios Groups Blockchain Technologies ETF as of February 7, 2018. For further detail, please refer to http://harvestportfolios.com/etf/blockchain-technologies-etf/?fundcode=HBLK.

Situated in Oakville, Ontario, Harvest Portfolios Group Inc.s Blockchain Technologies ETF is the first blockchain focused exchange-traded fund in Canada and began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on February 7, 2018 under the symbol HBLK. Harvest is a registered investment fund and portfolio manager, and acts as promoter, trustee, manager and portfolio manager of HBLK. Were very proud to be one of the initial investments made by Canadas first blockchain exchange-traded fund, says Glance CEO, Desmond Griffin, We hope that more blockchain focused funds will come to market. About Glance Technologies Inc. Glance Technologies owns and operates Glance Pay, a streamlined payment system that revolutionizes how smartphone users choose where to shop, order goods and services, make payments, access digital receipt, redeem digital deals, earn great rewards & interact with merchants. Glance offers targeted in-app marketing, geo targeted digital coupons, customer feedback, in-merchant messaging and custom rewards programs. The Glance Pay mobile payment system consists of proprietary technology, which includes user apps available for free downloads in IOS (Apple) and Android formats, merchant manager apps, a large scale technology hosting environment with sophisticated anti-fraud technology and lightning fast payment processing. Glance has also recently purchased an end-to-end blockchain solution for a rewards-based cryptocurrency which is currently being integrated into the Glance Pay app.



For more information about Glance, please go to www.glance.tech. For more information, contact:

Christina Rao

Vice President, Investor Relations

(604) 723-7480

investors@glancepay.com Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward- looking information is typically identified by words such as: may, "believe", thinks, "expect", exploring, expand, could, "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", plan, pursue, "potentially", should, will and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. A complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects which may be accessed through Glance's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Glance cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by Glance is not a guarantee of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Undue reliance should not be placed on such forward-looking information, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. In particular, Glance may not be successful in building its planned cryptocurrency or there may not be sufficient support for the cryptocurrency to make it a success.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] Aria Systems Unveils Cloud Billing Industry Trends to Watch in 2018

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aria Systems, the leader in helping enterprises grow subscription and usage-based revenue, today released its list of top cloud billing industry trends to watch in 2018. As businesses move to the cloud, cloud billing is also poised to grow due to its role as a key enabler for recurring revenue and subscription and consumption-based usage models. According to a recent study by analyst firm MarketsandMarkets, the cloud billing market is estimated to grow to $16.59 billion by 2021. In this category, Aria predicts the following trends for this year:

Billing becomes more complex as consumption-based models grow and customer choice reigns. The increase in highly-tailored services and products -- like the per-second service pricing introduced by AWS last year -- will make the billing process more intricate than ever. New regulations in Europe and other countries will add new privacy rules into billing, further complicating workflows. End-customers will still demand ease-of-use and an intuitive experience, so billing models need to adapt to meet these expectations while handling increased complexity on the back end.

Everything as a Service expands. In the software industry, Gartner predicts that more than 80 percent of software vendors will change their business model from traditional license and maintenance to subscription by 2020. Technology solutions are leading the charge, but more traditional products also are moving into the service conomy. Even the modern workspace is being sold as a service through industry disruptors like WeWork and PeerSpace. This year more industries from manufacturing to transportation will continue to be tested as a service, whether their markets are ready or not.



The telco industry continues to disrupt itself. The telco industry rarely had to worry about customer service back when it had few competitors, but the landscape has completely changed. Theyre now in direct competition with OTT service providers that are siphoning off traditional TV subscribers and producing and distributing their own content without cutting in MSOs. The telco industry can no longer sustain growth just by providing the pipelines for distributing content  they now must become digital service providers (DSPs) to remain competitive and support the next generation of digital services. In addition to becoming DSPs, telcos must also provide customer experiences on par with their born-digital rivals. This means reinventing their antiquated back-end infrastructure, including billing systems, to deliver the services needed to lead in the 21st century.

Cloud billing becomes a strategic competitive advantage. While buyers will continue to demand choice and flexibility, sellers will increasingly deliver varied payment models and plans as a way to differentiate their offerings. Successful companies will leverage cloud billing to retain customers longer and increase profitability. As such, companies will reap the benefits of repeat customers and a continuous revenue stream.

These trends indicate that, for enterprise companies to remain relevant and meet the new demands of digital-age consumers, they need to update their backend operations and embrace billing as a strategic differentiator for their recurring revenue business models, said Tom Dibble, President and CEO of Aria Systems. Weve been privileged to partner closely with the enterprise teams who have executed successful digital transformations across an array of business models and industries ranging from technology and telco to healthcare and automotive. About Aria Systems Aria Systems cloud-based monetization platform is the analysts choice, top ranked by leading research firms. Innovative enterprises like Adobe, Philips, and Pitney Bowes depend on Aria to accelerate time to market and increase flexibility, enabling them to maximize customer value and grow recurring revenue through subscription- and usage-based offerings. For more information, visit www.ariasystems.com. Aria Systems and the Aria logo are trademarks of Aria Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Media Contact Marina Greenwood | Activa PR for Aria Systems | +1 415 776 5350 | marina@activapr.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] PerfectMind Takes the Residents' Association Market by Storm

Residents' associations in the U.S. and Canada embrace the agile PerfectMind activity scheduling and facility management platform to wow its staff and residents with convenience and efficiency. BURNABY, British Columbia, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PerfectMind  innovators of activity registration, member management and facility booking technology  announces its expansion into the residents' association market. The robust PerfectMind platform also powers cities, parks and recreation centers, educational institutions, martial arts studios, and health and fitness organizations globally.

With 20 years of experience providing technology solutions to over 480,000 users, PerfectMind is a well-established cloud-based software provider. Now, they are making waves among residents' associations by strategically refining their power-house platform to suit this markets specialized needs. PerfectMind allows association staff members to manage households, coordinate programs and book facilities with ease. It also lets families register for classes, pay dues and view program schedules online  at home or on the go. PerfectMind's client roster boasts several residents associations. Highlands Ranch Community Association (HRCA), one of the largest in the U.S., went live with the platform in 2016. They rely on it to manage their 93,000+ residents. Among other clients who have entrusted PerfectMind to streamline their daily processes, several residents' associations in Alberta, Canada, are also currently implemeting the PerfectMind software.



Since adopting the platform, HRCA has significantly improved its operational efficiencies and customer satisfaction in ways they previously dared not imagine. Mark Gunther, HRCAs Assistant Operations Director, says, "PerfectMind allows us the opportunity to stay ahead of the curve to serve our members and grow with the community, both technologically and as an organization."

The HRCA team shares their experience in this Perfect Partner video series and highlights their results in this case study. "PerfectMind has been serving community-based organizations for two decades," explains Farid Dordar, CEO of PerfectMind. "We're excited to continue building a product that will help residents' associations deliver the best possible experience to their members." About PerfectMind PerfectMind software is used by over 480,000 users globally. The platform empowers cities, parks and recreation departments, higher education, health and fitness organizations of all sizes to inspire healthier and more connected communities. PerfectMind has twice been listed on the Profit100 list of fastest growing companies in Canada and has been selected by city leaders throughout North America to enhance access to city programs and facilities to support healthy and active lifestyles. Learn more at www.perfectmind.com. Pei En Thong

Email: pei.thong@perfectmind.com

Phone Number: +1 877-737-8030 ext 6785 A video accompanying this announcement is available at //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6aa3152a-44e6-478b-8dfb-a6791f0ff4c4

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] Tech Staffing Agency Mondo Reveals Top Eight Tech Jobs with Salaries of $200K or More for 2018

NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mondo (mondo.com) today reported the results of its annual Tech Salary Guide with eight tech jobs garnering salaries of $200,000 or more for 2018. The eight highest-paid positions include: CTO/CIO, Chief Security Officer, DevOps Lead/Engineer, Demandware Developer, Data Architect, Data Scientist, Database Architect and Project Manager.

The 2018 Mondo Tech Salary Guide also revealed that salaries for the DevOps Lead Engineer position jumped to a high of $250,000, making it the third highest-paid position among technology professionals. Data shows Full-Stack Developer salaries range from $90,000 to $162,500 and this position remains one of the hardest to fill. With Salesforce skills in high demand, the Salesforce Solution Architect is also one of highest-paid technology professionals, with salaries ranging from $145,000 - $195,000. Among database professionals, Mongo DB skills are the most in-demand skill set, with salaries ranging from $125,000 - $175,000 for a Mongo DBA. According to the 2018 Mondo Tech Salary Guide, the highest-paid tech jobs for 2018 with salaries of $200,000 or more include: CTO/CIO ($160,000 - $292,500)

Chief Information Security Officer ($162,000 - $275,000)

DevOps Lead/Engineer ($115,000 - $250,000)

Demandware Developer ($127,500 - $237,500)

Data Architect ($130,000 - $210,000)

Data Scientist ($130,000 - $210,000)

Database Architect ($145,000 - $200,000)

Project Manager ($77,500 - $200,000) Salaries for technology professionals continue to increase with more than eight different positions now earning more than $200,000 a year. This year, in particular, we have seen a spike in salaries for DevOps Engineers and eCommerce Developers, said Gianna Scorsone, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales Oprations for Mondo. Tech professionals with Virtual Reality (VR), IoT, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) expertise can expect to see salary jumps for corresponding titles as demand rises for these skills in 2018.



AI and Machine Learning Salaries include: Machine Learning Scientist ($125,000 - $175,000)

Machine Learning Engineer ($125,000 - $175,000)

AI Developer ($100,000 - $150,000) Top AR, VR & IOT Salaries include:

IoT Solution Architect ($125,000 - $185,000)

AR Engineer ($100,000 - $185,000)

VR Engineer ($90,000 - $185,000)

Mixed Reality Developer ($100,000 - $175,000) The DevOps/Cloud positions with the highest salaries include: DevOps Lead/Engineer ($115,000 - $250,000)

Cloud Engineer ($120,000 - $195,000)

Azure Developer ($130,000 - $185,000) eCommerce Developer roles are also in high demand and landing top salaries, including the following titles: Demandware Developer ($127,500 - $237,500)

Magento Developer ($100,000 - $170,000)

eCommerce Technical Analyst ($80,000 - $135,000) The Database positions with the highest salaries include: Database Architect ($145,000 - $200,000)

Mongo DBA ($125,000 - $175,000)

NoSQL DBA ($120,000 - $175,000)

Open Source DBA ($120,000 - $175,000) Mondos 2018 Tech Salary Guide data is based on Mondos placements over the past year in New York City, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Denver, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Dallas. Mondo is the largest national staffing agency specializing exclusively in high-end, niche Tech and Digital Marketing talent. (Note: The salary ranges highlighted in Mondos annual Tech Salary Guide are primarily attributed to the current rate of supply vs. demand for specific tech skill sets. A difference in skill levels, soft skills, and nuances in complementary technologies associated with certain skill sets are also factors that influence salaries for tech professionals. Geographic location no longer dictates a significant increase or decrease in salary range. According to Mondos data, in-demand tech skills now net top salaries regardless of region.) About Mondo Mondo is the largest national staffing agency specializing exclusively in high-end, niche IT, Tech, and Digital Marketing talent. Mondos staffing services include freelance, contract, contract-to-hire, and full-time placement options. For nearly 20 years, Mondo has been delivering solutions that bridge the talent gap and accelerate technology and digital marketing innovation for global companies including Spotify, Aramark, UBM, Stanley Black & Decker, Abbott, Thomson Reuters, and many more. Headquartered in New York City, Mondo has offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Denver, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, and Atlanta. To learn more, visit www.mondo.com or call 212-257-5111. Connect with Mondo on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. For more media information, contact: Lisa Hendrickson

LCH Communications for Mondo

516-767-8390

lisa@lchcommunications.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] Execs In The Know Connects Customer Experience Leaders to Industry Learning at Customer Response Summit Charleston

PHOENIX, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Community of customer experience professionals, Execs In The Know, have released the agenda for their next executive gathering  Customer Response Summit (CRS) Charleston. CRS Charleston will be held March 12th-14th, 2018, at the Belmond Charleston Place, in Charleston, SC. AI for service, employee engagement, outsourcing, quality, personalization, and more will be featured topics of discussion. The customer experience conference will include keynotes from Neiman Marcus, Indeed, Capital One, and T-Mobile. CRS is a gathering of customer service leaders, across many verticals, focused on working together to improve the customer care industry, and create innovative experiences for their brands. Highlights of the CX leadership event include an Innovation Lab, evening networking opportunities, and an exclusive tour of the T-Mobile Charleston facility. The newest version of the CXMB Series - 2017 Corporate Edition - will also be released (a joint effort between Execs In The Know and COPC Inc.). "Between our stelar line-up of speakers and our historic host city of Charleston, we are thrilled to bring CRS to the East Coast, in March," said Chad McDaniel, President and CEO of Execs In The Know. "Our community is constantly inspiring us through the stories and innovative experiences they offer in their own brands. I can't tell you how special it is to be able to meet face-to-face with these amazing leaders and watch the sharing that takes place amongst peers."



Other leading corporate brands that will be speaking at the customer care event include Grubhub, Sweetwater Sound, Aetna, USA TODAY NETWORK, Balsam Hill and more. To learn more or to register, visit the event website www.execsintheknow.com/events/crs-charleston/.

About Execs In The Know Execs In The Know gives brands a platform to share and gain insights, benchmark their brand, stay on top of the latest trends in CX, and create lasting relationships with their peers  "Leaders Learning From Leaders." Besides their live events, which include CRS, Subject Matter Briefings (on topics like social media, AI, SMS, outsourcing, etc.), Lunch & Learns, Workshops, and EITK Dinners, they also offer industry content and thought leadership, webinars, reports, and various social communities to join. Learn more at www.execsintheknow.com. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/execs-in-the-know-connects-customer-experience-leaders-to-industry-learning-at-customer-response-summit-charleston-300598901.html SOURCE Execs In The Know

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] Triple Crown Consulting Opens Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Office to Build East Coast Business

Triple Crown Consulting, an IT recruitment firm filling hard-to-find senior tech roles through its network of IT talent, today announced the opening of the company's Portsmouth, New Hampshire, office to support its East Coast business. Triple Crown was founded in 2004 in Austin, Texas, and grew to the West Coast by first expanding to Phoenix, Arizona and then San Jose, California. Today, East Coast clients represent nearly 25 percent of its business, and the expansion to Portsmouth is part of the company's plan to double its growth in 2018. The Portsmouth office will be led by Kyle Raymond. Triple Crown chose Portsmouth as the hub for its Northeast operations to support its existing client base in the area, connect with new clients, offer East Coast-based tech projects to Triple Crown's network of high-caliber tech professionals, and gain access to the talent graduating from local colleges and universities. Business in the Boston area has contributed to a significant part of the company's recent revenue spike, and the new office enables Triple Crown to better support this market. "The decision to expand Triple Crown's physical presence to the East Coast was a logical next step to support our rapid business growth here and with ur high-tech Fortune 500 clients," said Dave Smith, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Triple Crown. "We chose Portsmouth because it's one of the fastest growing cities on the East Coast, and has a unique and vibrant atmosphere. The area is rich with diverse talent both for our internal team and senior software, hardware and big data IT professionals."



Kyle Raymond relocated to Portsmouth from Triple Crown's headquarters in Austin, where he served as a Business Unit Manager. As Site Manager of Triple Crown's Portsmouth office, Raymond will build a team to bring clients the same recruiting speed and efficiency as the company's West Coast operations. Raymond, who has hired five new employees and plans to hire up to 12-14 total, is joined by Recruiting Team Lead Ryan Rooney to develop the business. "Kyle and Ryan have helped lead the Austin office to incredible success, and we know they will build a strong East Coast presence for Triple Crown," said Sabatino Guerriero, Co-Founder of Triple Crown. "As one of our top performers for the past five years, Kyle knows what it takes to meet client needs in a timely and precise manner. Together with Ryan, this team is an energetic duo with a drive to create success for clients, contractors and the company."

The Portsmouth office is located at 25 New Hampshire Avenue, Suite 205, Portsmouth, NH, 03801. To reach the office, contact Kyle at kyle.raymond@tripleco.com. About Triple Crown Consulting Triple Crown Consulting fuels the digital economy with hard-to-find, project-based software, hardware and big data tech professionals. We specialize in filling software, hardware and data roles, and we do it across all high-tech industries, from military technology development to consumer electronics, avionics, aerospace, cable, telecom, automotive and more. Giving us speed no recruiting agency can match and relationships no recruiting technology can form, our unique, unrelenting recruiting model results in ready access to sought-after technology innovators. Software, hardware and data experts nationwide turn to Triple Crown to work on challenging projects where trails are blazing and ground is breaking. Businesses and technology teams, from Fortune 500 enterprises to emerging startups, rely on our ability to rapidly place the developers, architects, coders, analysts and designers who engineer digital transformation and growth. Triple Crown is headquartered in Austin with offices in Phoenix, San Jose and Portsmouth. For more information, visit www.tripleco.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180215005704/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] Vivify Health First to Achieve Infoway 2017 Edition Certification

TORONTO, Feb. 15, 2018 /CNW/ - Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) and Vivify Health announced today that Vivify Health Pathways, a mobile digital health platform, is the first to achieve Infoway's certification under the new 2017 Edition of enhanced privacy and security requirements. "Vivify Health underwent a thorough assessment to ensure it complied with Infoway's new enhanced privacy, security and management control certification requirements," said Ron Parker, Group Director, Interoperability, Standards and Certification Services, Canada Health Infoway. "We applaud Vivify Health for not only meeting these rigorous requirements, but also for being the first to achieve Infoway Certification under our 2017 Edition." Infoway Certification provides assurance that digital health software complies with specified requirements and standards, which helps ensure the protection of personal health information. The 2017 Edition requirements build upon Infoway's original certification reuirements and are harmonized to increase alignment between Infoway, provincial requirements and international standards, and to reduce testing redundancies.



Vivify Health has been selected as the technology platform for Telehomecare by Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN), connecting patients at home to their care team for remote patient monitoring of chronic disease and other conditions. In addition, Vivify is a Vendor of Record for OTN's pre- and post-surgical patient engagement, to educate and manage patients before and after surgical procedures. "Vivify Health is thrilled to accomplish this certification from Canada Health Infoway, validating Vivify's commitment to security and privacy," said Michael Hawkins, Chief Technology Officer of Vivify Health. "Infoway and Ontario Telemedicine Network have been incredible partners in this independent confirmation of the security of Vivify's digital health platform, which will deliver connected care services to thousands of patients across Ontario."

About Canada Health Infoway

Infoway helps to improve the health of Canadians by working with partners to accelerate the development, adoption and effective use of digital health across Canada. Through our investments, we help deliver better quality and access to care and more efficient delivery of health services for patients and clinicians. Infoway is an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the federal government. About Vivify Health

Vivify Health's mobile digital health platform empowers physicians, hospitals, home care, and other provider organizations to deliver prescriptive care plans, automate remote biometric data collection, and interact virtually with patients of all ages and levels of technology expertise with a very simple and intuitive patient experience. Connecting the care continuum to the home, Vivify Health's customers customize and deliver over 100 disease-specific remote care pathways at any time, on any interval and to any digital device. Vivify Health is implemented in payers and health systems representing over 800 hospitals, measurably transforming healthcare costs, outcomes, engagement and adherence for the better. For more information, please visit www.vivifyhealth.com. For more information: Akilah Child

Senior Communications Advisor, Canada Health Infoway

Tel: (416) 595-3435

achild@infoway-inforoute.ca

SOURCE Canada Health Infoway

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] SUEZ Signs the Medan Drinking Water Production Plant Extension Agreement for EUR191 Million and Contributes to Improve Access to Drinking Water in Indonesia

PARIS, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- PDAM Tirtanadi, the Water Corporation of the Province of North Sumatra has awarded SUEZ the contract for the extension of the drinking water production plant in Medan, the third largest city in Indonesia. The extension of this BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) contract for a period of 25 years and EUR191 million, includes the funding, the building, the operation and the transfer of two additional water production units for the Medan plant. This agreement is in line with SUEZ's international growth dynamic; it strengthens the Group's positioning in Indonesia and marks a new step in the drinking water supply in the region. This project will improve access to drinking water for the fast-growing population of the city of Medan and will contribute to local authorities' goal of supplying more than 84% of the population with drinking water by 2020, as compared with 73.2% today. In 2001, SUEZ finalized the first phase of the Medan drinking water production plant building, which the Group has been operating since. With a production capacity of 43,200 m3/day, this plant supplies drinking water to 150,000 inhabitants of the North Sumatra Province capital. The extension project of this plant will bring production up to 77,760 m3/day. The contract includes the funding and the installation of two degremont compact drinking water production units (UCD). This modular solution increases production in a fast and simple manner, in compliance with the applicable regulations. Each unit is made up of interchangeable modules for reduced civil engineering costs and rapid istallation with no impact on existing structures. The system provides comprehensive, reliable and robust treatment with a minimal footprint and optimal ease of operation.



The engineering and construction period for these units will end in 2020 and will be followed by a 25-year operating period. "This new contract illustrates the excellent partnership that has been maintained since 2000 between PDAM Tirtanadi and SUEZ. We are proud to continue our collaboration for the next 25 years to support the development of the city of Medan by guaranteeing access to water for the growing population and industries in the area," said Marie-Ange Debon, Group Deputy CEO in charge of the International Division.

With this contract, SUEZ is strengthening its presence in the water management industry in Indonesia, where the Group has built over 150 water production and sanitation plants since 1953. The Group currently operates water production plants and provides drinking water services to the inhabitants of Medan (Sumatra) and Semarang (Java). Since late 2015, SUEZ has also treated wastewater from Michelin's synthetic rubber production plant in the region of Cilegon. Press contacts:

Paris Press Office

Isabelle Herrier Naufle

+33 (0)1 58 81 55 62

isabelle.herrier.naufle@suez.com Aurelie Botbol

+33 (0)1 58 81 24 53

aurelie.botbol@suez.com Analysts & Investors

+33 (0)1 58 81 24 05 SUEZ Asia

Ivy Wong

Tel: +852 3126 1930

Email: ivy.wong@suez.com SUEZ Southeast Asia

Julien BACHELET

Tel: +65 9862 3643

Email: julien.bachelet@suez.com SUEZ

With 90,000 people on the five continents, SUEZ is a world leader in smart and sustainable resource management. We provide water and waste management solutions that enable cities and industries to optimize their resource management and strengthen their environmental and economic performances, in line with regulatory standards. To meet increasing demands to overcome resource quality and scarcity challenges, SUEZ is fully engaged in the resource revolution. With the full potential of digital technologies and innovative solutions, the Group recovers 17 million tons of waste a year and produces 3.9 million tons of secondary raw materials and 7 TWh of local renewable energy. It also secures water resources, delivering wastewater treatment services to 58 million people and reusing 882 million m3 of wastewater. SUEZ generated total revenues of 15.3 billion euros in 2016. SUEZ in Asia

SUEZ has been present for over 60 years in South East Asia and 40 years in Greater China in water and waste management. With over 9,000 employees and over 60 water and waste projects with local partners, SUEZ is helping authorities and industries develop innovative solutions to address climate change and sustainable resource management. The Group built over 420 water and wastewater treatment plants in Asia, supplying drinking water to 20 million people. It operates China's first PPP water contract in Macau and Mainland China's first water concession in Chongqing. It is also the leader of waste management in Hong Kong and delivers its expertise in the management of environmental services to 11 industrial parks in Mainland China. In 2016, SUEZ managed revenues of over EUR1.2 billion generated by its activities in Asia. Find out more about the SUEZ Group on the website & on social media: Twitter

LinkedIn

YouTube

Instagram Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180215/2058164-1-a

Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20180215/2058164-1-b SOURCE SUEZ

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] SynGlyphX Announces Addition of Marshall Communications to the SynGlyphX Technology Partner Program

Alexandria, Va, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alexandria, Va. - SynGlyphX  , the leading provider of interactive, 3D, data visualization and discovery technology, today announced the addition of Marshall Communications to the SynGlyphX  Technology Partner Program . Marshall Communications is a premier small business provider of broadband Internet Protocol (IP) satellite communications services, including worldwide satellite voice, video, and data communications services, as well as Information Technology (IT) products and product-based services to both government and commercial customers. As a SynGlyphX Partner, Marshall Communications will provide SynGlyphXs 3D, interactive, data visualization and insight discovery software to enable efficient management and rapid analysis of cyber and communications data collected by Marshall customers. At Marshall, our clients rely on our engineering and program management teams to design and build reliable, efficient, high-quality communications systems," said Eric Newman, President at Marshall Communications. "We work closely with each client to ensure continuity across all communications technologies. Adding SynGlyphX as a partner enables Marshall to analyze data more quickly and efficiently and create new solutions internally, while we provide greater insight, visibility, and service to our clients. We are excited about the addition of Marshall Communications as a member of the SynGlyphX Technology Partner Program," said Mark Sloan, CEO, and Co-founder of SynGlyphX. "Marshall Communications and SynGlyphX understand the need for efficient data analysis to both prevent problem and discover solutions that create significant impact. Our partnership will provide an innovative solution for their data insight needs.



Open to reseller, technology/implementation, and OEM partners, the SynGlyphX  Partner Program is designed to help SynGlyphX partners use and act on complex data more efficiently, effectively, and confidently. The SynGlyphX Technology Partner Program consists of three distinct partnership categories:

 SynGlyphX Resellers Partners

 SynGlyphX Technology/Implementation Partners

 SynGlyphX OEM PartnersThe SynGlyphX Technology Partner Program puts insight delivery software in the hands of a greater number of people so that they can discover opportunities in their field that will create significant impact. SynGlyphX partners help their customers move beyond the old ways of looking at data and into optimal data productivity. Interested partners can learn more about the program at http://www.synglyphx.com and by contacting Mark Sloan, CEO. About Marshall Communications

Marshall Communications Corporation (MARSHALL) is a premier small business provider of broadband Internet Protocol (IP) satellite communications services, including worldwide satellite voice, video and data communications services, as well as Information Technology (IT) products and product-based services to both government and commercial customers. For 25 years, MARSHALL has been a leader in systems integration and engineering for secure streaming video solutions for satellite-based communications. We specialize in delivering "Best of Breed" value-added, turnkey solutions for secure broadband satellite and IP multimedia services. MARSHALL is a Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB), headquartered in Ashburn, VA, with core competencies in operating, managing, training and maintaining satellite systems to provide customers with confidence and security that their network is available to support their mission. MARSHALL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mission Solutions Group (MSG), acquired on December 21, 2015. MSG was founded by military veterans with extensive Special Operations and high-risk protection backgrounds. MSG is a VOSB focused on business growth in three principal verticals: C4/IT; Sustainment; and Survivability (www.missionsolutionsgroup.com). About SynGlyphX

Headquartered in Alexandria, VA, U.S., SynGlyphX is transforming the way the world interacts with data for discovery and insight. With superior technology and perceptual engineering, it offers its' customers the ability to assimilate massive amounts of data in a single computer screen, allowing the user to identify patterns, trends, and anomalies, and ultimately transform data to knowledge faster. For more info: http://www.SynGlyphX.com/ . SynGlyphX understands how the mind assimilates and processes complex data. Its' unique approach to interactive visualization technology is enhanced by Perceptual Engineering: the optimal design of a visual environment to enable the user to more efficiently interact with and synthesize complex data sets. This approach is supported by decades of academic and government-funded research on how the mind best understands and processes complex data. John Lang john@synglyphx.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] NEXT Canada Joins SCALE.AI AI-Powered Supply Chain Supercluster

Will deliver its world-leading NextAI venture accelerator program in Quebec TORONTO, Feb. 15, 2018 /CNW/ - NEXT Canada, the national nonprofit focused on developing entrepreneurial talent and facilitating the adoption of homegrown technology, will join the Montreal-based SCALE.AI AI-Powered Supply Chain Supercluster as one of its first Ontario-based partners. The partnership also provides a launching point for the expansion of the organization's globally recognized NextAI venture accelerator program to Montreal. "NEXT Canada is a critical partner in the SCALE.AI supercluster initiative," said Helene Desmarais, Chairman of the Board and CEO, CEIM and Co-Chair SCALE.AI. "They have a terrific model and a proven track record of supporting high potential entrepreneurs. The NextAI accelerator program is a shining example of how to connect talent to the marketplace, increasing the adoption of built-in-Canada technology." SCALE.AI is an industry-led consortium whose mission is to shape a new global supply chain platform, bolster Canada's leadership in artificial intelligence (AI), and accelerate industry adoption of enabling technologies through collaborative and incremental projects. The federal government launched the supercluster initiative on May 24, 2017 to strengthen Canadian competitiveness in key areas of the innovation economy. SCALE.AI joins other strategic supercluster initiatives across Canada that were announced in Ottawa on February 15 by Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. "I want to ongratulate Helene and her colleagues at SCALE.AI for building a consortium of incredible partners," said Sheldon Levy, CEO of NEXT Canada. "By harnessing Canada's preeminent research capabilities and sizeable talent pool, SCALE.AI and NEXT Canada will work together to fuel economic growth and increase the health and vitality of communities across the country. NEXT Canada is thrilled to strengthen our footprint in Quebec and deliver our programming in Montreal, one of the global hotbeds for artificial intelligence."



The expansion to Quebec gives NEXT Canada its first physical presence outside Ontario, and also with support from the Government of Ontario allows NEXT to further strengthen interprovincial cooperation on AI initiatives. NEXT Canada is also exploring opportunities to expand westward to other hubs of AI activity, including Edmonton, Alberta and other potential locations. NEXT Canada is already collaborating with groups in all three provinces, including the Institute for Data Valorization (IVADO), the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms (MILA) in Quebec, Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Ontario and the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) in Alberta on the Canada.ai digital platform. NEXT Canada will announce the timing and other details of its NextAI - Montreal program in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, programming for the 2018 cohort of NextAI - Toronto begins next week with an immersive itinerary of classes, workshops, networking and introductions to key players in the Canadian AI ecosystem. The cohort consists of 46 entrepreneurs building 18 ventures in sectors including healthcare, agriculture and financial services. NextAI attracts highly trained and sought after global talent, with more than one-third of participants moving to Canada from abroad and two-thirds of the founders possessing graduate level degrees.

About NEXT Canada NEXT Canada is a national non-profit organization, focused on increasing national prosperity by developing exceptional talent, creating industry-changing ventures and serving as the catalyst for business technology adoption across Canada. NEXT Canada is a pioneer at delivering innovative programming that ultimately will improve the lives of all Canadians. It grew out of The Next 36, a program founded in 2010 by a group of business leaders and academics. NEXT Canada delivers three programs, Next Founders, NextAI and Next 36. NEXT Canada is supported by generous National Partners including, EY, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, and Power Corporation of Canada, as well as Founding Partners in NextAI, BDC Capital, Magna, RBC and Scotiabank. NEXT Canada also receives operational funding from government partners. For more information, please visit: www.nextcanada.com About NextAI NextAI is a NEXT Canada program launched to create a world-leading AI ecosystem in Canada by funding, supporting, and mentoring entrepreneurs working on AI technology. The program is open to both Canadian and international students, professionals and entrepreneurs, who are interested in developing and building commercially viable ideas underpinned by artificial intelligence. For more information, please visit: www.nextai.com About SCALE.AI SCALE.AI is an industry-led consortium that will shape a new global supply chain platform, bolster Canada's leadership in artificial intelligence (AI), and accelerate industry adoption of enabling technologies through collaborative and incremental projects. For more information, please visit: https://aisupplychain.ca/ SOURCE NEXT Canada

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Signs First US Interstate Agreement

PLAYA VISTA, Calif., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- (New Images) - Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT | HyperloopTT) announced today the signing of official agreements with the North Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) and Illinois' Department of Transportation (IDOT) to begin a feasibility study for the region. Several corridors have been identified for study connecting Cleveland to Chicago. Support for HTT's Hyperloop system has been widespread throughout the region with Ohio's legislature passing a resolution for the initiative in 2017. In January, HTT worked alongside a bipartisan group of congressional representatives from several states including, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin sent a formal letter to President Donald Trump requesting infrastructure funding support to develop the system. As part of this growing movement, HTT has formed a regional consortium around the project to include a multitude of other prominent organizations. An event is scheduled for February 26 in Cleveland at the Great Lakes Science Center where additional detals will be revealed along with the growing list of consortium members.



"Regulations are the ultimate barrier for Hyperloop implementation, and we are excited to build the first real public-private partnership to bring Hyperloop travel to the US," said Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of HTT. "With this agreement, we welcome innovative and industry-leading partners in both government and industry to our movement." "It's quite amazing to see how many partners Hyperloop Transportation Technology already has in the development of the Hyperloop," said Grace Gallucci, Executive Director of NOACA. "And they have been developing these partnerships across the spectrum: They have partnerships with academic institutions, with government institutions, with the private sector."

"We came here because places like Cleveland, Chicago and Pittsburgh have the manufacturing, the raw materials and the talented, hard working people in order to make it happen," said Andrea La Mendola Chief Global Operations Officer of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies. "We can source everything from this area. This is a place where you make big things." About HTT Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc. (HTT, HyperloopTT) is an innovative transportation and technology company focused on realizing the Hyperloop, a system that moves people and goods at unprecedented speeds safely, efficiently, and sustainably. Through the use of unique, patented technology and an advanced business model of lean collaboration, open innovation and integrated partnership, HTT is creating and licensing technologies. Founded in 2013, HTT is a global team comprised of more than 800 engineers, creatives and technologists in 52 multidisciplinary teams, with 40 corporate and university partners. Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, HTT has offices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, UAE; Bratislava, Slovakia; Toulouse, France; and Barcelona, Spain. HTT has signed agreements in Slovakia, Abu Dhabi, the Czech Republic, France, Indonesia, Korea and the United States. HTT is led by co-founders Dirk Ahlborn (CEO) and Bibop Gresta (Chairman) and a senior management team of experienced entrepreneurs and professionals. For more information or media inquiries, contact press@hyperloop.global or visit http://hyperloop.global/. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies' images and assets can be found here Media contact:

Ben Cooke

190504@email4pr.com

310-720-1214 View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hyperloop-transportation-technologies-signs-first-us-interstate-agreement-300599548.html SOURCE Hyperloop Transportation Technologies

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] Government of Canada's new innovation program expected to create tens of thousands of middle-class jobs

$950-million investment positions Canada for an innovation boom in high-growth sectors OTTAWA, Feb. 15, 2018 /CNW/ - When small, medium-sized and large companies, academic institutions and not-for-profit organizations come together to generate bold ideas, Canadians benefit from more well-paying jobs, groundbreaking research and a world-leading innovation economy. That's why the Government of Canada is investing up to $950 million under the Innovation Superclusters Initiative. The investment, which will be matched dollar for dollar by the private sector, is expected to create more than 50,000 middle-class jobs and grow Canada's economy by $50 billion over the next 10 years. In 2017, the Government of Canada challenged Canadian businesses of all sizes to collaborate with other innovation actors, including post-secondary and research institutions, to propose bold and ambitious strategies that would transform regional economies and develop job-creating superclusters of innovation, like Silicon Valley.

Today, the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, announced Canada's five superclusters: The Ocean Supercluster (based in Atlantic Canada ) will use innovation to improve competitiveness in Canada's ocean-based industries, including fisheries, oil and gas, and clean energy;

) will use innovation to improve competitiveness in ocean-based industries, including fisheries, oil and gas, and clean energy; The SCALE.AI Supercluster (based in Quebec ) will make Canada a world leading exporter by building intelligent supply chains through artificial intelligence and robotics;

) will make a world leading exporter by building intelligent supply chains through artificial intelligence and robotics; The Advanced Manufacturing Supercluster (based in Ontario ) will connect Canada's technology strengths to our manufacturing industry to make us a world manufacturing leader in the economy of tomorrow;

) will connect technology strengths to our manufacturing industry to make us a world manufacturing leader in the economy of tomorrow; The Protein Industries Supercluster (based in the Prairies) will make Canada a leading source for plant proteins and help feed the world;

a leading source for plant proteins and help feed the world; The Digital Technology Supercluster (based in British Columbia ) will use big data and digital technologies to unlock new potential in important sectors like healthcare, forestry, and manufacturing. The Innovation Superclusters Initiative is a centrepiece of the Government of Canada's Innovation and Skills Plan, a multi-year strategy to prepare Canada for the innovative jobs of today and tomorrow.



Quotes "Today we are investing in five superclusters so that tomorrow we will be more than 50,000 jobs richer and benefit from an even stronger economyan innovation economy. With the Superclusters Initiative, we bet on Canadians. We looked at what we did well across our great nation, and we asked industry, academia and NGOs how we could do it better. The response was impressive and the ideas were remarkable."

 The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development

"When Canadian small businesses succeed, Canadians succeed. That's why I'm thrilled to see more than 300 Canadian small and medium-sized businesses playing such a central role in Canada's superclusters. Our economy is changing, and this kind of collaborationbetween large and small businesses, alongside community and academic partnersshows what is possible when we work together. I am especially proud of the fact that so many of these small businesses are run by women. These new superclusters will create great new opportunities for them to scale up, export and create well-paying middle-class jobs. This is great news for our economy, for Canadian innovation and for our society."

 The Honourable Bardish Chagger, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister of Small Business and Tourism "Groundbreaking Canadian research is at the heart of these superclusters. We are renowned for our bold progress in artificial intelligence, ocean and marine science, and agriculture. With our Superclusters Initiative, scientists in these fields and others can look forward to expanding their research horizons in partnership with their academic peers, businesses, entrepreneurs and members of the non-profit community."

 The Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities "The government's investment in the Ocean Supercluster will position Canada as a global leader in the ocean economy of the future. It catalyzes unprecedented private investment in collaborative innovation across Canada's ocean sectors, including energy, food and bio products, shipping, defence, and ocean technology. This will kick start new partnerships, innovations, and economic opportunities."

 Robert Orr, Managing Director, Cuna del Mar "SCALE.AI will build something unique: bolster Canada's leadership in AI and data science, and define the new supply-chain platform, deeply impacting the retail, manufacturing and transport sectors. SCALE.AI will drive economic growth, create highly-skilled jobs and boost our talent pool, putting AI at the service of all Canadians."

 Louis Roy, President, Optel Group, and Helene Desmarais, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, CEIM, Co-Presidents, SCALE.AI Supercluster "Led by some of Canada's strongest companies, the Advanced Manufacturing Supercluster will drive greater connectivity and collaboration between our manufacturing and technology sectors. By leveraging southern Ontario's innovation infrastructure and a strong network of manufacturing, technology and business expertise, we're confident that the Advanced Manufacturing Supercluster will drive exponential benefits for industry and the Canadian economy."

 Linda Hasenfratz, CEO, Linamar and lead applicant for the Advanced Manufacturing Supercluster "The world has a growing appetite for crop protein. That's a huge new opportunity for Canada but also a challenge. The Innovation Supercluster Initiative will help farmers, feed and food processors meet that challenge and provide high quality plant proteins for the global market."

 Frank Hart, Chair of the Board for the Protein Industries Supercluster "Canada's Digital Technology Supercluster represents over 200 member organizations, including large, medium and small enterprises as well as not-for-profit entities and post-secondary institutions. Leveraging the capability of Canada's world-leading broadband telecommunications networks, we will use advanced data collection, analytics and visualization in order to realize breakthroughs in sectors such as healthcare, natural resources and industrial applications. Our goal is to produce innovations that have tremendous local and global impacts."

 Josh Blair, Chief Corporate Officer, Executive Vice President TELUS, founding member of Canada's Digital Technology Supercluster Quick facts Superclusters are dense areas of business activity where many of the middle-class jobs of today and tomorrow are created. They attract large and small companies that collaborate with universities, colleges and not-for-profit organizations to turn ideas into solutions that can be brought to market.

Together the superclusters represent more than 450 businesses, 60 post-secondary institutions and 180 other participants in sectors covering 78 percent of Canada's economy.

economy. Having the strong representation of women and under-represented groups in these superclusters is a top priority. The superclusters will endeavour to increase the representation of women and under-represented groups in their activity and leadership, helping them succeed in skilled jobs in highly innovative industries. Associated links Innovation Superclusters Initiative: Canada's Superclusters

Superclusters Backgrounder  Innovation Superclusters Initiative: Quotes Follow Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada on Twitter: @ ISED _CA For official event photos, please visit our Canadian Innovation Facebook page. SOURCE Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] PowerObjects, An HCL Technologies Company Looks to Fill Open Technology Positions in Hiring Initiative for the United Kingdom

LONDON, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- PowerObjects, An HCL Technologies Company announced today a robust hiring initiative for 30 full-time positions in the United Kingdom (UK) as part of a plan for further European expansion. The positions are in the company's enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) practices for Microsoft Dynamics 365. "Our in-house recruiting team personally reviews each application submitted through PowerObjects' website," said Terah Ramaekers, Director of Talent Acquisition at PowerObjects. "As we expand our footprint in the UK, we're eager to continue this tradition of handpicking the best and brightest talent in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 consulting space." Aspart of their hiring initiative, PowerObjects is hosting a networking happy hour event at the Old Bank of England on 22 February 2018 to introduce prospective candidates to the company culture. The event will also provide an opportunity for individuals in the ERP and CRM space to speak directly with part of the hiring team, as well as other members from within the company.



PowerObjects is a global company, recognized by Microsoft as winner of the 2017 Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year for Dynamics 365 Consulting and Systems Integration award. Those interested in learning more about PowerObjects' company culture and to learn more about the open positions are invited to attend the networking event. To view and apply for the open positions, go to the company's website.

PowerObjects, An HCL Technologies Company, is a leader in delivering Microsoft Dynamics 365 solutions through unparalleled offerings of service, support, education and add-ons. Winner of the 2017 Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year Award for Dynamics 365 Consulting and Systems Integration, PowerObjects has built an unmatched team of Dynamics 365 experts that help organisations increase productivity, streamline business processes and build better relationships. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/467009/Power_Objects_Logo.jpg

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] Granicus Announces Acquisition of Vision Internet

DENVER and EL SEGUNDO, Calif. and ST. PAUL, Minn. and WASHINGTON, Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Granicus, the largest provider of cloud-based software solutions to government, today announced that it will acquire Vision Technology Solutions LLC, the premiere provider of website solutions for government organizations in the U.S. and Canada. With the acquisition of Vision, Granicus is accelerating its mission to power seamless digital citizen experiences by bringing the first end-to-end digital government platform to market. The combination of Vision's website solutions with Granicus' cloud-based communication and legislative management solutions will enable governments to serve their citizens simply and effectively with a single integrated provider. The combined company aims to address the digital customer experience gap that exists between the private and public sector. "Customers have come to expect a fast, seamless experience when interacting with businesses across private industry," said Granicus CEO Mark Hynes. "Unfortunately, despite the best of intentions, most government agencies have been unable to keep up with rising citizen demands for access and transparency." In fact, surveys indicate satisfaction with government services has fallen to an eight-year low. Most government organizations are critically aware of this rising dissatisfaction trend, with 73 percent of state and local government leaders indicating in a recent Deloitte survey that their digital capabilities were behind the private sector. "Our government clients are feeling considerable pressure to embrace digital technologies to share information, bring citizens closer to the legislative process and transition traditional services online. These pressures are coming both from the communities they serve, as well as the deire to deliver more impactful services with constrained budgets," said Hynes. "By combining Vision with Granicus we are one step closer to providing government organizations with a comprehensive platform that delivers on the promises of a digital future - satisfying the rising digital experience expectations of citizens, while providing those services more cost efficiently."



Vision's flagship product, visionLive, is a subscription-based content management system (CMS) and service plan that equips organizations with the technology, support, training and insights to keep websites relevant and effective. Together, Granicus and Vision serve nearly 3,500 organizations in the U.S., U.K. and Canada. "Millions of Americans interact with government agencies every day  whether they are looking to weigh in on legislation or virtually participate in local council meetings, they are most likely starting this interaction online," said Vision CEO David Nachman. "By bringing Granicus and Vision together, we will help our clients better serve and engage today's mobile and connected citizens in ways that are more impactful and more easily delivered."

About Granicus

Granicus provides technology that empowers government organizations to create better lives for the people they serve. By offering the industry's leading cloud-based solutions for communications, meeting and agenda management, and digital services to more than 3,000 public sector organizations, Granicus helps turn government missions into quantifiable realities. Granicus products connect more than 150 million people, creating a powerful network to enhance government transparency and citizen engagement. By optimizing decision-making processes, Granicus strives to help government realize better outcomes and have a greater impact for the citizens they serve. For more information on Granicus, visit: www.granicus.com www.twitter.com/granicus About Vision

Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., Vision is a national leader in government website design, development and hosting with more than 800 government, non-profit and education clients in U.S. and Canadian communities with populations that range from less than 1,000 residents to more than 1 million. For more than 20 years, Vision has created cost-effective solutions that increase government efficiency, build transparency and promote interactive communications with citizens. For more information about Vision visit: www.visioninternet.com. CONTACT: Lynette Viviani

973-534-1004

lynette.viviani@vivianipr.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/granicus-announces-acquisition-of-vision-internet-300599384.html SOURCE Vision

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] Treliant Announces Executive Leadership Appointments

Treliant is pleased to announce the following promotions in its Executive Leadership Team, to support the firm's next stage of strategic growth. Susanna K. Tisa has been appointed Chief Executive Officer. Tisa is a founding member of the firm, most recently serving as Chief Business Officer. A 30+ year banker and consultant, she has managed significant client engagements as well as the Executive Leadership Team since the firm was founded nearly 10 years ago. Mortgage and financial industry veteran Robert "Bob" Broeksmit, formerly Deputy Chief Business Officer, has been appointed as the firm's President and Chief Operating Officer. He will continue to oversee Treliant's Litigation Support and Mortgage service areas, as well as the firm's operations. Andrew L. Sandler, who has been the firm's Chief Executive Officer since its inception, will become the firm's Chairman, succeeding Mark W. Olson (News - Alert) . Olson, who has been Chairman since founding the firm with Sandler and Tisa, will become Chairman of Treliant's Senior Advisory Board while continuing to serve on the firm's Board of Directors. "I take personal pleaure in announcing these promotions," said Sandler. "Susanna, Mark, and I, together with Bob, have built an unparalleled team of professionals with trusted relationships across the financial services industry. Today's announcement acknowledges the leadership and dedication that Susanna and Bob have contributed to our clients and our firm."



"The trust and track record we have built are our foremost accomplishments," said Tisa. "I look forward to continuing close relations with our clients, our business partners, and my professional colleagues as we set the stage for the firm's second decade of service to the financial services industry." About Treliant

Treliant provides financial services companies and consumer-oriented businesses with trusted advisory services that strengthen compliance, risk management, and business performance. As a firm of leading professionals from industry and government, we assist our clients in navigating changing regulatory agencies and policies while meeting strategic and operational objectives. We focus on the industry's most pressing concerns, including consumer compliance, global financial crimes, mortgage operations, financial markets conduct, fair and responsible banking, litigation support, wealth management compliance, and cybersecurity. We serve companies from Main Street to Wall Street and across the globe, often in partnership with premier law firms. Our firm continues to grow in the service of our clients, with headquarters in Washington, DC and offices in New York and Dallas. For more information, visit www.treliant.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180215005880/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] Helsinki Reaches out to Millions of Chinese Travellers with new Helsinki Mini Program

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Internet service giant Tencent and the City of Helsinki launched a groundbreaking WeChat Helsinki mini program on Thursday 15 February. The new application offers Helsinki travel information in Chinese to almost one billion WeChat users. As a pioneer in utilising open data, Helsinki will continue to work closely with Tencent to further develop the application. China is the largest outbound tourism market in the world. The cooperation between Helsinki and Tencent gives the Finnish capital a groundbreaking channel straight into the mobile devices of WeChat users. Helsinki has set itself the goal of being the most digitalised city in the world, and the cooperation with Tencent ensures that the city is already now a globally remarkable innovator in digital tourism services. In September 2017 the City of Helsinki and Tencent signed a cooperation agreement, according to which Helsinki will serve as an intelligent tourism model for Chinese outbound tourism. The two cooperation partners have since codeveloped a destination mini program that offers Helsinki travel information to almost one billion WeChat users. On Thursday 15 February the Mayor of Helsinki Jan Vapaavuori and General Manager Zhan Shu from Tencent Governmental Affairs and Tourism Center launched the new WeChat Helsinki mini program as part of the Chinese New Year celebrations in Helsinki. Helsinki uses its open data resources to take digital tourism to the next level The initial version of the WeChat Helsinki mini program allows users to access content about Helsinki's sights, services, events and transportation. Panoramic Helsinki 360-photos, a translation service and emergency help are also included. As a pioneer in utilising open data, Helsinki will continue to work closely with Tencent to further develop the application. Helsinki's open data resources include databases for places, events and services. The aim is to build an application that provides users with comprehensive, professional and real-time information and services. "Helsinki's strategic aim is to be the forerunner city of digitalisation in the near future. For travellers we want to be the safest, most functional and happiest place to visit. The Helsinki mini program makes it possible to share what's best about Helsinki with millions of Chinese people in a way that creates a sharable, local experience," says Jan Vapaavuori, Mayor of Helsinki. "This is Tencent's first overseas pilot cooperation project in the field of smart city tourism. The project provides comprehensive and practical information about overseas destinations for Chinese tourists and a more convenient platform for overseas destinations to showcase their urban charm. Helsinki wants to build a more tailored travel experience for Chinese visitors, and forming a partnership with Tencent is the right way to do that," states Zhan Shu, General Manager of the Tencent Governmental Affairs and Tourism Center. In the near future the WeChat Helsinki mini program will also include an interactive map and a public transportation journey planner. The aim is also to include the possibility to buy mobile tickets for public transport and test the WeChat Pay integration for some of the services. Helsinki is the fastest transit city from China to Europe The Finnish airline Finnair offers nearly 40 direct flights a week from seven major Chinese cities to Helsinki. Helsinki's excellent accessibility has given the Finnish capital a head start in the Chinese tourism market, and now the same step has been taken also digitally. Helsinki has become increasingly popular among Chinese tourists in recent years. The number of registered overnight stays by Chinese travellers in Helsinki has more than doubled in the past five years. In 2017 the number of overnight stays by Chinese visitors increased by 29,3 percent over the previous year to 135 000. Helsinki joined the Beijing-based World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) in 2014. The valuable membership has enabled new business contacts and opened significant opportunities for cooperation in China. The WTCF has selected Helsinki to be the host city of its 2019 summit meeting. Beijing and Helsinki have been sister cities since 2006. Contact Information: Laura Aalto

CEO, Helsinki Marketing

laura.aalto@hel.fi

Mobile: +358-40-507-9660 Kaari Artemjeff

Marketing Manager (China, Russia), Helsinki Marketing

kaari.artemjeff@hel.fi

Mobile: +358-50-307-0835 Hao Wang

Manager, Tencent Governmental Affairs and Tourism Center

jossewang@tencent.com

Mobile: +86-1860-1110-375 Helsinki Marketing Helsinki WeChat ID: MyHelsinki Helsinki Marketing is a marketing company owned by the City of Helsinki. Helsinki Marketing is responsible for Helsinki's operative city marketing and business partnerships. Tencent, Helsinki Marketing and WTCF signed the cooperation agreement during the WTCF conference in Los Angeles in September 2017. Official website: www.myhelsinki.fi

Image bank: http://materialbank.myhelsinki.fi/ This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/helsinki-marketing/r/helsinki-reaches-out-to-millions-of-chinese-travellers-with-new-helsinki-mini-program,c2453188 The following files are available for download:







http://news.cision.com/helsinki-marketing/i/mockup,c2345177 mockup http://news.cision.com/helsinki-marketing/i/helsinki-mini-program-qr-code,c2345187 Helsinki mini program QR-code http://news.cision.com/helsinki-marketing/i/mockup-print-rgb,c2345196 mockup print rgb

SOURCE Helsinki Marketing

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] FreshDirect and Chobani Partner to Share Love with South Bronx CS 300 Students on Valentine's Day

FreshDirect (News - Alert) was joined by Chobani at The School of Science and Applied Learning Community School 300 in the Bronx yesterday to celebrate Valentine's Day with a free yogurt giveaway and a special heart health-themed program for students grades 1-3. The companies joined forces to donate more than 600 yogurt cups to the students, along with heart-healthy recipes and arts & crafts supplies for an interactive Valentine's Day-themed project, led by school representatives and FreshDirect and Chobani employees. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180215005910/en/ FreshDirect driver Raymond Talovera delivers donated Chobani yogurt to CS 300 in the South Bronx on Valentine's Day. (Photo Credit: Joy Kim for FreshDirect) "At FreshDirect, we strongl believe that healthy food options should be accessible to all and we remain committed to broadening access to healthier food options, while positively impacting all the communities we serve," said Jason Ackerman, FreshDirect CEO and co-founder. "We were thrilled to partner with Chobani on Valentine's Day to create a unique experience for students at CS 300 in the South Bronx. We are incredibly proud that the South Bronx will soon be our new home and look forward to executing many more engagements with the local community in the years to come."



FreshDirect is committed to the communities it serves and in 2017 donated more than 2 million pounds of food to people in need through its partnerships with City Harvest and local food programs across the Northeast. About FreshDirect:

FreshDirect is a food tech company and the Northeast's leading online fresh food grocer, delivering directly to customers throughout seven states, including the New York City and Philadelphia metropolitan areas, and the District of Columbia. FreshDirect is committed to sourcing the freshest and best-tasting meat, fish, produce, and specialty items through direct relationships with suppliers, growers, and farmers. In 2016, FreshDirect expanded its portfolio with the launch of FoodKick, an on-demand business that caters to the needs of urban dwellers with a curated selection of food, alcohol, and essentials-all delivered in as little as an hour. Launched in 2002, FreshDirect is a privately held company headquartered in Long Island City, NY. For more information, visit www.freshdirect.com or www.foodkick.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180215005910/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] Planisware Reports Revenue of $70 Million in 2017, Growth in Mid-Market NPD, Project Control and Engineering, and IT Customers

Planisware, the leading global provider of Project and Product Portfolio Management ( PPM (News - Alert) ) software solutions for new product development (NPD) and engineering organizations, today reported a total revenue of $70 million for the fiscal year 2017, for an 18% year-over-year increase in revenue. The milestone marks the fifth straight year of double-digit growth for the organization. New implementations in 2017 included Huawei (News - Alert) , Hydro-Quebec, Johnson & Johnson Medical Device, Hager, McDonald's, AirLiquide, Catapult, Ipreo, Merck, and Dainippon Sumitomo. Planisware continues to establish its PPM leadership in NPD by serving more than one-third of the top 100 R&D spenders worldwide and expanded its footprint in project control and engineering, IT, and mid-market NPD with the addition of several new customers. The company also grew its global presence by adding offices in Manchester (U.K.), Montreal (Canada) and Boston (U.S.), and experienced significant expansion in its Tokyo (Japan) and Denver (U.S.) locations. A majority of new customers selected the Planisware Live offering - the company's SaaS (News - Alert) solution - benefiting from the full-service PPM tool's fast implementation time, affordability and the Customer Success Management program. The program assigns Planisware Live customers to a Planisware representative who is dedicated to the ongoing success of each company's ongoing PPM objectives. "Planisware Live's CSM program has evolved the way we collect information on what our users want," said Pierre Demonsant, CEO and co-founder of Planisware. "Our customer success program enables us to better capture the 'voice of the customer' to drive our product enhancements and the overall user experience. Ultimately, clients will reap the benefits of a solution updated to meet and exceed their articulated needs."



Planisware's differentiated PPM solution was noted by several top analyst firms - including Gartner and IDC (News - Alert) - and Forrester Research named Planisware a leader in "The Forrester Wave: Strategic Portfolio Management Tools, Q3 2017." Additionally, Planisware was the first PPM vendor to achieve Stage-Gate International's new Innovation Team Agility certification, which requires that a solution provider includes the workflow configuration, user interface and collaboration capabilities necessary to enable teams to execute product innovation with greater agility, flexibility, and speed. In terms of product evolution, Planisware upgraded its cloud service offering by creating tighter integration with popular tools like Microsoft Office Suite and G-Suite, enhancing its Agile (News - Alert) for project management capabilities, and delivering new features for business intelligence tools.

The Planisware Center for Excellence continued to deliver best practice education throughout the year, with several webinars and masterclasses in the U.S. and Europe led by thought leaders like Dr. Robert G. Cooper, Dr. Richard Bayney and Johanna Rothman. Planisware also held its PPM Best Practices Tour in 2017, comprised of events in Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Montreal, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Cincinnati. The organization's User Summit North America in May assembled more than 250 PPM professionals and thought leaders from 80 organizations around the world, and user summits in Paris and Germany drew 350 and 100 PPM professionals, respectively. Planisware is primed for continued success in 2018 and remains committed to fostering a strong user community with events such as its North America User Summit this May 16-17 in San Francisco and regional best practice meetings throughout the year. The European operations will also host user summits in Germany in June and Paris in November. About Planisware Planisware is a global provider of Project and Product Portfolio Management software solutions. Planisware's acclaimed configurability accommodates the company's customers across a variety of industries and empowers users to align the solution with key business programs and portfolio management processes. To learn more about Planisware, please visit www.planisware.com or call 888-752-6479. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180215005670/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] Talk Fusion Releases its Most Powerful Video Chat Product to Date

BRANDON, Fla., Feb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Florida-based video marketing company Talk Fusion released several breakthrough enhancements to its two-time award-winning Video Chat product. The reengineered application includes permanent chat rooms, custom URLs, superior contact management, immersive video support, and powerful desktop, file, and screen sharingall powered by groundbreaking WebRTC technology. As the forerunner in real-time communication, WebRTC eliminates the need for third-party plugins, successfully streamlining communication and providing an enhanced and more secure user experience. With the introduction of new WebRTC-powered features, Talk Fusion is setting a new disruptive standard for the video communication industry. "Essentially, it's an entirely new app for our users," explains Talk Fusion Chief Technical Officer Ryan Page. "Plus, with superior WebRTC audio quality, we're introducing a state-of-the-art voice-only calling option that utilizes some of the latest tech advancements in existence today." Giving users the ability to make free and clear audio calls to and from any location around the world, Talk Fusion has revealed a new way to connect, share, and build. "It's quality you can see and hear," explains Page. "We're bringing our users a product that is as dynamic as it is simple." Packaged within a stunning, intuitive new interface, the all-new Video Chatgives users more control and flexibility than ever before. "It's a remarkable product that adapts to you, not the other way around," explains company Founder & CEO Bob Reina.



Prior to today's much-anticipated launch, Talk Fusion gave members of its exclusive product-testing group, the VIP Product Council, a first look at the latest enhancements. "We're already beginning to receive glowing feedback from our VIP Product Council members and global user base." As Talk Fusion moves into Q2, the company will continue to set a new pace for future enhancements to its Video Suite, whichalongside Video Chatincludes Live Meetings, Video Email, Video Newsletters, and Sign-up Forms.

"This is some of the most advanced technology we've ever developed," explains Reina, "but it's only the beginning for us." Known for its history of chasing after progress and innovation, Talk Fusion is certainty no stranger to revolutionary upgrades. "Our intention has always been to challenge the status quo, which is why we're continually developing new, innovative ways to both unify and improve the global communication experience." Talk Fusion's all-new Video Chat product is now available to the public through the iTunes App Store and Google Play for both Apple and Android users. The app is free to download and includes unlimited video, voice, and messaging services from any device to every device. ABOUT TALK FUSION Home of the award-winning Talk Fusion Video Suite, Talk Fusion is dedicated to helping businesses stand out from the competition, increase sales and profits, and keep their customers coming back. Talk Fusion offers dynamic ways to make marketing more engaging, memorable, and persuasive with video. Talk Fusion's innovative products are marketed person-to-person by Independent Associates in more than 140 countries. 30 day Free Trials of the Talk Fusion Video Suite are available to anyone who wishes to try before they buyno credit card requiredat www.TalkFusion.com. Established in 2007 by Founder & CEO Bob Reina, Talk Fusion fosters a strong commitment to Giving Back to family, friends, communities, and animal charities across the world. Learn more at www.TalkFusion.com and "Like" Talk Fusion at www.facebook.com/TalkFusion. Media contact:

Courtney Fitzpatrick

courtney@statuslabs.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/talk-fusion-releases-its-most-powerful-video-chat-product-to-date-300599726.html SOURCE Talk Fusion

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] Avidbots signs distributor agreement with Macnica Inc. to help address labour shortage in Japan.

Neo floor cleaning robot will provide efficient autonomous cleaning service. KITCHENER, ON, Feb. 15, 2018 /CNW/ - Avidbots Corp. today announced that they have signed a distribution agreement with Macnica Inc., a supplier of specialty technology products in Japan and worldwide. Macnica will distribute the Neo self-driving floor scrubber across Japan to customers challenged by the largest labour shortage in the country in over 40 years. An aging and declining population has left Japanese companies desperate for workers, especially in facilities management and cleaning roles, sending labour costs skyrocketing. Macnica can now offer an autonomous floor cleaning robot that reduces labour requirements and costs while providing a higher quality and consistent cleaning service. The Avidbots Neo is a purpose-built floor scrubbing robot that integrates state of the art navigation technology with hardware that is designed for ease of use, longevity, serviceability, safety and high productivity. "We have customers that simply can't find enough staff to clean their facilities, or they are losing cleaners due to retirement," says Tomokazu Kanazawa, Director, New Business Development for Macnica Inc. "The Avidbots Neo will allow us to offer a service that reduces the need for human resources while delivering superior cleaning, which can be tracked through detailed reports." Neo enables both in-house cleaning teams and builing service contractors to offer an innovative technology-driven approach to cleaning that cuts costs, enhances service, and differentiates them from competition. Neo is supported by an easy-to-use web portal that provides real-time and historical reporting, providing greater visibility into operations for cleaning teams. Macnica will provide installation, support and maintenance services for Neo to customers in a variety of target industries including airports, shopping malls, logistics industries, factories, and offices.



"Japan is one of the most tech-forward nations on the planet and is also suffering from a significant labor shortage. We are extremely excited to partner with Macnica as it allows us to further actualize our vision of bringing robots to everyday life and expanding human potential," says Faizan Sheikh, CEO of Avidbots. The Avidbots Neo is currently deployed on 4 continents, servicing some of the world's leading shopping malls, airports, education facilities, healthcare centers, manufacturing sites, and other commercial spaces.

About Macnica Inc. Since its establishment in 1972, Macnica Inc. has specialized in the supply of wide a variety of high-value-added electronic parts and network equipment, particularly semiconductors, to the electronics, information and communications industries. The company is justly known as a leader in the high-technology fields in which they operate. In recent years, Macnica has expanded its lineup to provide in-depth technical support to customers in addition to the supply of electronic components and information systems. Its customers include world's leading electrical and electronic products manufacturers. The company has its headquarters in Yokohama, and its subsidiaries are located 77 cities in 22 countries including Japan, USA, Canada, Brazil, England, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Israel, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, China, Singapore, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Viet Nam, Myanmar, Philippines, Indonesia. For more information, visit http://www.macnica.co.jp/en About Avidbots Avidbots Corp. vision is to bring robots to everyday life to expand human potential. Its first product is the NEO self-driving floor scrubber, which is widely deployed and trusted by the world's leading facilities and building service contractors. As a 100% vertically integrated company headquartered in Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada, Avidbots offers comprehensive service and support to customers in Canada, the U.S.A., France, Norway, UAE, Singapore, Japan and Australia. For more information, visit www.avidbots.com. SOURCE Avidbots

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 15, 2018] Sector 5 Names Erick Kuvshinikov Chief Executive Officer

Alexandria, VA, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sector 5, Inc. a Nevada Corporation (OTCQB: SFIV) today announced that Erick Kuvshinikov, as the new Chief Executive Officer. The new executive appointment is effective immediately. As an international entrepreneur and business leader, Mr. Kuvshinikov brings more than 22 years of manufacturing and IT management and marketing experience to Sector 5. We feel Erick is exactly the right leader for Sector 5. With his extensive diverse background and vision, we are confident Sector 5 will grow. His strong management experience will help shape Sector 5 as we continue our growth domestically and internationally. Prior to his appointment, Erick worked directly with clients from diverse backgrounds in retail, wholesale, business to business. His goal is to instill trust and confidence in Sector 5 products. Erick earned a B.S. degree in Computer Science & Business from Pepperdine University. He began his career as a senior marketing director for a Southern California Furniture Company and was instrumental in developing brand awareness and international trade deals with Chinese companies. Because of his computer science background and business knowhow carried his knowledge into the technical field while assisting local Southern California IT companies. During his time supporting companies in the IT field he received not only his license as a Real Estate Sales Associate, but also his license as a Real Estate Broker, at Realty Works Temecula, California. Erick Kuvshinikov, CEO, stated, We want to specifically utilize our relationships with Google to capture a rising market share. New technology is fundamental to the growth of our company. We must make clientele knowledgeable about not only the hardware they are able to acquire, but the software that supports it. Potential customers are unaware of the capabilities that are possible with our units. We will utilize our relationship with Google to make sure that individuals, students, and companies that want our products have access to the training and customer service they deserve. The power to unify and incorporate all of your needed information is essential in todays moving classrooms and economy. People, schools, & businesses have to be made aware of what can be accomplished through our devices. Not only that, the ease of use must be stressed and advocated. A large portion of people want simple, they dont want technical if they dont hae too. Its nice to know its there if needed, but the simple solution will allow our customers to get more accomplished from hour to hour.



Sector 5 is committed to excellence. It is continually negotiating contracts, sales, & securing new sales agents to further its operations. The Sector 5 brand is not only at the forefront of new innovation, but we are continually looking to grow our product awareness in all aspects of retail. With our relationships, we strive to become a household name in U.S. & international markets. The agreements & innovation that Sector 5 has been working on, will be groundbreaking to industries. About Sector 5, Inc.

Sector 5, Inc. is a Nevada corporation, publicly traded (OTCQB: SECT), that creates, manufactures & sells Sector 5 branded electronics utilizing Chrome, Android & Windows Operating Systems, focused on the educational & consumer electronics markets. Sector 5 & its manufacturing partners, "best in class" suppliers, & tier-1 designers are working together to combine American ingenuity & China's manufacturing strengths to create products with the latest technology, innovative features (rugged designs, spill/drop resistant, portable) & best pricing, exceeding market expectations. Sector 5's distribution strategy centers on our competitive advantages in the B2B, retail, e-commerce, K-12 & Higher Education markets. Sector 5's foundation of success & promise to the world is defined by a pursuit of simplicity & a commitment to innovation. Quality, reliability & excellent customer support is an integral component of that commitment. Further information can be found at www.sector-five.com & sectorfiveblog.wordpress.com. Forward Looking Statement: Certain statements made in this release are "forward-looking statements" regarding the plans & objectives of management for future operations. Such statements involve known & unknown risks, uncertainties & other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements included herein are based on current expectations that involve numerous risks & uncertainties. Our plans & objectives are based, in part, on assumptions involving judgments with respect to, among other things, future economic, competitive & market conditions & future business & financial decisions, all of which are difficult or impossible to predict accurately & many of which are beyond our control. Although we believe that our assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove inaccurate &, therefore, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements included in this website will prove to be accurate. In light of the significant uncertainties inherent in the forward-looking statements included herein particularly in view of the current early stage of our operations & lack of sufficient financing, the inclusion of such information should not be regarded as a statement by us or any other person that our objectives & plans will be achieved. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in our periodic reports & other filings we make with the U.S Securities & Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason, except as required by federal securities law. Related Links http://www.sector-five.com https://sectorfiveblog.wordpress.com Contact: Erick Kuvshinikov 571-348-1005 contact@sector-five.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

A few passing clouds. Low near 70F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few passing clouds. Low near 70F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.Magic Leaps founder and CEO, Rony Abovitz, sat down for an on-camera interview at Recodes Code Media Conference to discuss the companys upcoming Magic Leap digital lightfield platform. Abovitz wouldnt discuss the finer details about the Magic Leap Creator Edition, which is set to launch later this year. However, the executive revealed enough to set the expectation that Magic Leap headsets wont be cheap devices.

Mass Market Pricing? Don't Hold Your Breath!

Abovitz didnt reveal the specific price of the Magic Leap Creator Edition headset. However, when pressed, he conceded that it wouldnt be a $200 mass-consumer device. Abovitz set the expectation that Magic Leap devices would be pricey, not only at launch but well into the future. I think were pricing itits a premium computer so that I would think of it that way, Abovitz said. He added that the company isnt pursuing a path to bring the price down dramatically. I think the Magic Leap Creator Edition price pointwe will have a product in that price point probably for the companys history.

Abovitz said the company is planning to introduce multiple tiers of Magic Leap devices that would cater to different customers. He said that the Creators Edition, which well learn more about this spring, is a pro-sumer level product. Later, the company would release a higher-end device for the hyper-pro market, and another, more affordable headset for the wider consumer market.

Dont expect that mass-market device to carry a budget price, though. Abovitz said that the higher-end mobile phone to higher-end tablet zone would probably be [Magic Leaps] floor, which is to say, dont expect to buy a Magic Leap HMD for less than $500 any time soon. We expect the Magic Leap Creators Edition to carry a price tag closer to $1,000.

Abovitz justified the high price of the Magic Leap hardware by comparing it to a myriad of devices it could eventually replace. His vision for the future includes a day when people will ditch their smartphones, their tablets, their computers, and their television sets in favor of a single Magic Leap device.

The economy of what were building can replace not on day one, but over gen-2, gen-3a whole suite of electronics, said Abovitz.

Were probably many years away from Abovitzs vision for the future, but early adopters will get a glimpse of it in the coming months. Abovitz said that Magic Leap would discuss the details of the hardware later this spring. He did, however, stress that the Magic Leap Creator Edition is not a developer kit, as we previously reported.

Its not a dev kit in a sense that were not blocking [anyone from buying one]anyone can be a creator, said Abovitz. If you want to create, or you want to tinker, or you want to play with whats coming, Magic Leap creator edition is for you.

The first iteration of the device wont be for everyone, but it will be a polished, consumer-ready product. Abovitz said the Magic Leap Creator Edition would be of interest to enthusiasts, developers, creators, brands, artists, partners; people who want to get an early taste of what the future looks like.The US intends to impose sanctions on a major Latvian bank for laundering billions in illicit funds and allowing its clients to violate sanctions on North Korea, the US Treasury Departments Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) said on Tuesday.

ABLV Bank, the third largest financial institution in Latvia in assets, faces the prospect of being prohibited from opening or maintaining a correspondent account in the US.

FinCEN will continue to take action against foreign banks that disregard anti-money laundering safeguards and become conduits for widespread illicit activity, said Steven Munchin, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, in a statement on FinCENs website.

Washington rarely uses the sanction, which can make banks inoperable, but its likely application is seen as part of a broader campaign of pressure against North Korea and Russia.

The bank said in a statement on its website that it was familiar with FinCENs proposal but that the institution uses false information and has not taken into account the banks past efforts regarding money laundering and prevention of terrorist financing.

The Bank will make every effort to refute the allegations made, the statement said, adding that it was observing the laws and requirements of international law and that it has carried out several audits, some in cooperation with US advisers.

However, money laundering is a pillar of ABLVs business practices and because of its failure to implement effective anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing measures, the bank enabled its clients to violate sanctions imposed by the United Nations on North Korea in relation to its nuclear weapons program, according to the FinCEN.

Deficient practices at banks foster a wide array of illicit conduct, said Munchin. Including activity linked to North Koreas weapons program and corruption connected to Russia and Ukraine. FinCEN is committed to protecting the U.S. financial system from these types of risks.

ABLV facilitated various transactions for corrupt politically exposed persons and funneled billions of dollars in public corruption and asset stripping proceeds through shell company accounts, the agency said.

ABLV failed to mitigate the risk stemming from these accounts, which involved large-scale illicit activity connected to Azerbaijan, Russia, and Ukraine, the statement said.

The Financial and Capital Market Commission [of Latvia] can confirm the release of such statement by the US authority today, the Latvian banking watchdog said on its website. The commission has taken relevant supervisory actions.

After a prior FBI investigation, the Latvian banking watchdog imposed financial penalties of more than 3 million (US$ 3,7 million) on five other Latvian banks, which mainly serve non-resident clients, in 2017, for failing to comply with rules in connection with breaching North Korea sanctions.

(Photo: eng.lsm.lv)

occrp.orgEven on love day, the quotient of local killing continues to rise. Here's a look at violence on local streets today . . .At this time last year there were 16 murders as the 2017 homicide count now stands @ 150.Developing . . .We know we need a good night's sleep. It's good for our health, our cognition and productivity and our relationships. It's so important that now, some Kansas City companies want to help their employees sleep better at night. The KC Chamber of Commerce is hosting a forum on sleep for the business community on Thursday morning.TKC BREAKING NEWS!!! PROGRESSIVE HILLARY SHIELDS DESPERATELY SEEKING REMATCH VS. GOP NEMESIS!!!

Hillary Shields Launches 2018 State Senate Campaign

Democrat Hillary Shields Announces Campaign for Missouris 8th Senate District

Last time around this candidate claimed that she was victim of "dirty politics" andAnd now . . .Take a look at the fight brewing out in Sleaze Summit for Midterm 2018 election supremacy. Checkit:Lees Summit, MO  Lees Summit community leader and AFS host mom Hillary Shields will be hosting a reception on February 21st to kick-off her campaign for Missouris 8th Senate District. After narrowly losing in a special election last year, Shields will be running in a rematch against Republican Mike Cierpiot.Volunteering in my community has taught me a lot about the issues affecting families in Eastern Jackson County, from the importance of supporting our great public schools to the need to protect our seniors. It is clear that our communitys needs are not being addressed by the career politicians inJefferson City, said Shields. Im running for the Missouri State Senate because I believe our community deserves a senator who will put regular families first.Hillary Shields grew up in Missouri and lives in Lees Summit with her husband, Mitch. As longtime residents of Eastern Jackson County, Hillary and her husband chose Downtown Lees Summit as their home for its strong sense of community and charm. For the past nine years, Shields has worked with local schools as an advocate for study abroad programs and as a partner with AFS-USA.As an AFS host family, weve opened our home to foreign exchange students from around the world. We love making these kids feel like a part of our family and our community. Its been a joy to share in their learning experience and to see how they have enriched our schools and our community in return, Shields said. Thats why public education is so important to me. Without proper funding, enrichment programs like foreign exchange will be cut, and that will hurt our local community.Hillary Shields works as a paralegal and dedicates her spare time to local constituency groups as an advocate for community interests and a volunteer for several non-profits throughout the area. Hillary and her husband also enjoy spending time with their rescue dog, Bowser.# # #Shippings biennial Athens fair is a magnet for the global industry, with shipyards, shipping companies, mechanical equipment producers and shipping hubs vying to attract Greek interest

With more than three-and-a-half months to go till opening day on June 4, top global shipping exhibition Posidonia 2018 is heading for a record number of participants, having already leased out over 90 percent of its exhibition slots.

Shippings biennial Athens fair is a magnet for the global industry, with shipyards, shipping companies, mechanical equipment producers and shipping hubs vying to attract Greek interest. They will all be in Athens during the first week of June to address the worlds biggest shipping community, as well as the many foreign businesspeople who will be present.

Compared to the same month ahead of the previous edition in June 2016, organizers have already received 10% more bookings, and estimate that over 1,850 firms will be present in a formal capacity while many more will pay a visit to the exhibition, as some 22,000 visitors are expected this year.

Posidonias strength and appeal is drawn by the collective quality and reputation of its exhibitors, delegates and visitors, first-timers or repeaters, who commit funds and resources every two years to be part of a signature industry event that is a true celebration of everything shipping stands for, noted Theodore Vokos, executive director of Posidonia Exhibitions SA.

This years event will be held at the Metropolitan Expo Center, next to Athens International Airport, on June 4-8.

A new feature is the 4th Energy & Shipping Seminar, organized by the Institute of Energy of South East Europe (IENE) on June 8. This will offer an in-depth analysis of global oil and gas markets and examine the factors that define the correlation between energy cargoes and shipping.

The organizer announced that Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabias state oil company, and its partners have elected Posidonia 2018 for the global unveiling of their International Maritime Industries (IMI) joint venture. When the yard is fully operational in 2022, IMI will offer new build and maintenance, repair and overhaul of vessels, including very large crude carriers (VLCCs) and offshore rigs.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Source: ekathimerini.comGreek Americans have always been a very active community in the United States reinforcing the historic ties between the two nations and certainly boosting tourist inflows over the years

CHICAGO  The newest exhibition at the National Hellenic Museum (NHM), Change: The Story of Coins, is set to open on March 4. This interactive display will teach how coins are important financial, cultural, and political tools.

Visitors will explore the many ways in which Hellenic culture influenced the use, production, and design of coins from early use to today. Themes of mythology, trade of goods, power, imagery, and value will be examined across this hands-on exhibit.

Coins are some of our best records of political, social, and economic change. The coins in this exhibition demonstrate the vast reach of the Hellenic world in antiquity, said Katherine Kelaidis, PhD, Resident Scholar of the National Hellenic Museum.

CHANGE: The Story of Coins will feature 29 coins, which date from the Hellenistic Period to the early Roman period (336 BCE-55 CE). Accompanying these coins will be a section focusing on Alexander the Greats impact on the spread of Hellenism.

These coins represent a key moment in world history  the period in which Greek customs spread out of the Eastern Mediterranean and become the shared culture of educated people, Prof. Kelaidis said.

The National Hellenic Museum will celebrate the March 4th opening of the exhibition with a reception, 2-4 pm.

This exhibition will be on view through February 2019. It may be extended beyond the first year with rotations of coins from other time periods, such as the Classical and Byzantine.

About the National Hellenic Museum

The National Hellenic Museum (NHM) portrays and celebrates Greek heritage and the Hellenic legacy through educational classes, exhibitions and programs. With a growing repository of over 20,000 artifacts, the Museum collects and highlights the contributions of Greeks and Greek Americans to the American mosaic and inspires curiosity about visitors own family journeys though cultural expression, oral history, and experiential education. Located in Chicagos Greektown, the NHM provides lifelong learning for the whole community using artifacts and stories to spark inquiry and discussion about the broader issues in our lives.

More information about the exhibition and the NHM is available online at: www.nationalhellenicmuseum.org or by phone: 312-655-1234. Follow NHM on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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: National Hellenic Museum

Source: thenationalherald.comOpportunity to present their products to over 37,500 trade visitors from 140 countries

Greece had a strong presence in the ISM 2018, the international Fair for Sweets and Snacks, and in the ProSweets Cologne 2018 fairs that were held between 28 and 31 January in Cologne, ANA records.

According to the Hellenic-German Chamber, the 44 Greek companies that took part in the fairs had the opportunity to present their products to over 37,500 trade visitors from 140 countries. Among them some companies presented their products in the group pavilions of Promo Solutions and Great Greek Exports and Trade.

A total of 1,656 exhibitors from 73 countries participated in ISM, and 325 companies from 33 countries in ProSweets Cologne. Both fairs will be organized from 27 to 30 January 2019.

ProSweets Cologne offers the complete range of supplies for the sweets and snacks industry: from innovative ingredients, to pioneering packing solutions, through to optimised production technologies.

In effective conjunction with ISM, the world's leading trade fair for sweets and snacks, ProSweets Cologne covered the entire value chain of the industry.

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: D-Kuru License: CC-BY-SAValentine's Day is celebrated in Greece as in the rest of the World. Romantic dinners, gifts, flowers, heart shaped chocolates, cards, etc

Once officially declared by Pope Gelasius I in 496, Valentines Day replaced its pagan predecessorLupercalia festival. Despite the long heritage, the common tradition of sending love cards is dated back to Great Britain and days much more present, circa the beginning of the seventeenth century.

Nowadays pop culture tends to depict Valentines Day as a cracking opportunity to confess love or even propose. But how relevant is the financial context of this lovebirds most important festival?

Picodi.com surveyed over 5,600 people from 32 different countries (including Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and both Americas) to find out about the local perception of Valentines Day. As the lovers festival of 14th February is banned in some countries due to religious reasonsi.e. Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabiathey decided to omit them in this particular study. Its report is a great source of information about lovebirds readiness to spend money, what are the most commonly chosen gifts and their costs, and eventuallywhether reality does live up to recipients expectations.

Valentines Day in Greece

In Greece, the Valentines day, called as well the Lovers Day, was first established in 1977. The Greeks celebrate Valentine's Day as the rest of the World. Romantic dinners, gifts, flowers, heart shaped chocolates, cards, etc. However, there are also many people who dont celebrate the Valentines Day at all, whether they are in a relationship or not.

First things first, according to the research Greeks tend to enjoy Valentines Day three out of four Greeks (precisely 72%). The other 28% refuse any form of celebration and those are not only the ones who havent found their better half yet. 23% of men and 18% of women in relationships do not celebrate Valentines Day at all. As mentioned before 72% of Greeks do celebrate the Lovers Day, such results are most likely good news for all the restaurants, cinemas or flower shop ownersthose are in fact the most popular forms of gifts.

28% of the male respondents will offer their soulmates a romantic date in a restaurant, Meanwhile 29% of women decided to work on their partners style buying them clothes for Valentines gift.

14% of the men surveyed will give sex toys to their partners. Not even one woman had the same intention. We werent surprised at all by the fact that women are more romantic. 19% of women will give a romantic Valentines Day card to the beloved ones. The number of men giving a romantic card was 0.

But what about the expectation itself? Which gifts would really win Greek hearts? We have asked what are the most desirable gifts? 35% of women and 36% of men answered that a romantic dinner is the best gift for them. 32% of women would love to go for a romantic trip. Perfume was marked as the most desirable gift by 31% of women and 14% of men. 27% of women would love to get jewellery to emphasize their beauty. Surprisingly 25% of women want sweets. 17% of men would love to get some electronics No surprise here.

The most popular gift - a bouquet of flowers - is the least desirable Valentines gift by 23% of women in Greece.

33% of men answered that the least enjoyable gift is a romantic dinner. Definitely it was a big surprise finding out that 26% of the surveyed men in Greece dont want to get any electronics this year. Certainly you wont impress 26% of women buying them household appliances

31% of men and 26% of women never received a Valentines gift. Maybe thats the unspoken reason of not celebrating it anymore?





It's the Thought that Counts

According to estimations, over a billion of cards is being sent on a Valentines Day, just a smidgen less that during Christmas time. Beginning of February is quite hot period for shop owners. As Picodi internal data shows a pre-Valentines period is characterised by an average 37% surge in demand on Jewellery category, 38% on Cosmetics & Perfumes and 45% on Adult.

How much do Greeks spent on the gift for their beloved ones?

Research shows that Greeks will spent around 74. Curiously, men are planning to spend on average 35% more money than women.

When making worldwide comparisons, Hong Kongers declare the highest amount they are willing to spend on Valentines Day gifts (152), closely followed by people from China (127) and the USA (121). The least will spend Hungarians(27), Nigerians(26) and Filipinos(24)

In almost every surveyed countryexcept Turkey, Vietnam and Nigeriamen try to impress women by spending more. Even though some researchers point out that a significant part of female population does not enjoy flowers, a nice bouquet is still 5th most popular Valentines Day gift in the World. Being sceptical or not, chocolate and perfume makers, restaurant and cinema owners are on top of the world during the first half of February.

With no doubt for all businessmen the Lovers Day became an Income Day.

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: m01229 License: CC-BY-SA

Read more here.

Source link hereBahraini authorities are set to start work in September on the second phase of the Wadi Al Sail Housing Project, a 267-unit development which will benefit the affiliates of the Bahrain Defence Force (BDF), said a BNA report.



The first phase of the Wadi Al Sail project, which featured 774 units, was completed in 2011, while Phase Two units will be ready by the end of 2019, stated officials at the foundation stone-laying ceremony held recently in the presence of Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Dhiyab bin Saqr Al Nuaimi.



The event was held under the patronage of the commander-in-chief of the BDF, Field Marshal Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa.



Addressing the gathering, Al Nuaimi underlined the BDFs keenness on providing adequate and conformable housing for its affiliates in order to ensure them the requirements of decent living so that they feel satisfied, and perform their duty with utmost determination and devotion.



BDF usually provides housing units to its servicemen according to the authentic Bahraini traditions, he stated.



The BDF offers its affiliates two types of housing services. The first is temporary and is granted to the servicemen until they own a housing unit, reported BNA.



In this regard, 112 flats have been distributed in Riffa, three BDF officers residential buildings, with 54 units each, were opened in 2001, and 350 temporary housing units have also provided in Wadi Al-Sail region, it stated.



As to the second type, it is related to ownership units provided in projects carried out in cooperation with the Housing Ministrym, said the report.



The other major BDF developments which have been handed over to the beneficiaries include the second phase of Zayed City Housing project comprising 217 units and 98 land lots, in addition to 252 units in Hamad Town, it added.

Qatar Airways has acquired the Sheraton Melbourne Hotel, further expanding the growing portfolio of its hospitality division, Dhiafatina Hotels.



The Sheraton Melbourne joins a growing list of distinguished establishments acquired and managed by Dhiafatina Hotels, including the Sheraton Skyline Hotel at Londons Heathrow Airport, The Novotel Edinburgh Park in Edinburgh Scotland, the Oryx Rotana Hotel in Doha, and The Airport Hotel located at Dohas Hamad International Airport (HIA).



Qatar Airways Group chief executive Akbar Al Baker said: The acquisition of the Sheraton Melbourne Hotel complements Qatar Airways global strategy for growth, and further strengthens our offering for passengers travelling on board our daily flights to Melbourne. Melbourne is an incredibly important destination on the Qatar Airways network, so much so that last year we began flying our state-of-the-art Airbus A380 aircraft to Melbourne.



Qatar Airways is committed to going places together with our passengers, and I am delighted to announce the acquisition of the Sheraton Melbourne Hotel as part of the Dhiafatina portfolio, hand-picked to extend the excellent service our passengers receive, both in the air and once they arrive at their destination.



The five-star Sheraton Melbourne Hotel is located in the Paris end of Melbournes Little Collins Street, just minutes away from many well-known restaurants, theatres, and designer boutiques, as well as Melbournes Central Business District. It is also within walking distance of the iconic Parliament House and the Melbourne Museum. With its 174 luxurious rooms and suites, it is ideally situated for guests choosing a city break as well as business travellers who are attending one of Melbournes many events and exhibitions.



The hotel features the Little Collins Street Restaurant with its Signature Seafood Buffet and High Tea, as well as its magnificent view of Melbourne. The hotel also features the distinguished East Restaurant on the ground floor, as well as the many scrumptious delights of Crux & Co Patisserie.



The Spa at the Sheraton Melbourne features five treatment rooms, an indoor heated lap pool and a state-of-the-art fitness centre. A dedicated floor offers 670 sq m of meetings and events space and extensive event coordinating and catering facility.



Earlier this week, Qatar Airways launched direct services to the Australian capital of Canberra, and now connects Canberra to the airlines extensive global network of more than 150 destinations. The airline also recently launched services to Chiang Mai, Thailand; St. Petersburg, Russia and Penang, Malaysia, to name just a few. The airline will launch service to Cardiff, United Kingdom and Thessaloniki, Greece in coming months.  TradeArabia News ServiceBest Western Hotels & Resorts has unveiled a series of tempting special offers in Thailand, which will be available exclusively at Thai Tiew Thai 2018, a popular tourism fair taking place in Bangkok from March 1 to 4.



Attendees at the event at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center (QSNCC) will be able to take advantage of enticing promotions at multiple Best Western branded hotels and resorts in Thailand, a statement said.



Relaxing beach breaks in Phuket



Best Western Patong Beach



Enjoy a special rate of THB1,299 ($41) net per room per night including breakfast for two, free wi-fi and a free upgrade to a Pool View Room. This deal is available for stays from April 1  October 31.



A three-day, two-night package costing THB3,699 net in a Superior Room includes breakfast for two, free wi-fi and a complimentary airport transfer. This offer is available for stays from April 1 - October 31.



Stylish staycation deals in Bangkok



Best Western Plus at 20 Sukhumvit



Stay in the heart of Bangkok for a special rate of THB 1,700 net per night for a Superior Room, including breakfast for two and free Wi-Fi. Available for stays from now till December 23.



SureStay Plus Hotel by Best Western Sukhumvit 2



Guests can take advantage of the Super Hot Deal Promotion at Asias first SureStay Hotel, which offers a rate of THB2,199 net per night for a Superior room, or THB 2,399 net per night for a Deluxe Room, including breakfast for two, free wi-fi and in-room minibar.



Alternatively, guests can discover our Sabai Promotion for THB1,999 net per night for a Superior Room or THB2,199 net per night in a Deluxe Room. Both rates include breakfast for two and free wi-fi.



All special promotions at the SureStay Plus Hotel by Best Western Sukhumvit 2 are available for stays from now till October 31.



Best Western Premier Sukhumvit



Special rates at the chic upscale hotel in downtown Bangkok are available from just THB2,500 net per night for a Premier Room, including breakfast for two and free Wi-Fi. This offer is available for stays from now till December 23.



Best Western Plus Wanda Grand Hotel



Visitors to Thai Tiew Thai 2018 can arrange their next special occasion with a series of restaurant, meeting and wedding promotions at the Best Western Plus Wanda Grand Hotel, Bangkok.



Guests dining at the hotels Vivanda Restaurant can pay just THB1,000 to receive a dining voucher worth THB1,500. This offer is valid until December 31.



Under the HOT Deal Meeting Package, groups can book a full-day meeting for just THB800 net per person (including lunch and two coffee breaks) or a half-day meeting for only THB700 net per person (including lunch and one coffee break). Both packages are valid for meetings of 10 people or more, held before December 31 (booked and paid for by September 30). All meeting rooms come equipped with free wi-fi, an LCD projector and screen, flip chart, white board and markers.



Finally, couples can celebrate their Big Day in style at the Best Western Plus Wanda Grand Hotel. The amazing Wedding Package promotion is offering 15 percent off weekday wedding parties (Monday  Friday) and 10 per cent off weekend wedding parties (Saturdays and Sundays). These deals are valid for weddings held by December 31 (paid for and booked by September 30).  TradeArabia News ServiceThe mayor of Odessa and his deputy were arrested on Wednesday morning at the Boryspil international airport near Kyiv on suspicion of embezzling state property, the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine, NABU, announced.

The bureau had been investigating four officials of the city hall of Odessa, including mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov, on suspicion of Acquisition of property by abuse of office, the statement said.

Border guards detained Trukhanov as he landed from Warsaw after a seven-week vacation in Greece, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Poland.

Ukrainian media reported that the director of the communal property department and the head of the standing commission on communal property of the Odessa City Council were also under investigation.

According to NABU, Odessa City Hall bought a building from a fictitious private company for 185 million UAH (US$6,92 million) in September 2016.

That company had allegedly bought the building months earlier for just for 11.5 million UAH ($430,000) at an auction organized by a state liquidator.

In other words, the city sold it cheaply to a private company and then bought it back again for 16 times more.

Pure "profit" of UAH 170 million (US $6.35 million) from a corrupt scheme, a Member of the Ukrainian Parliament, Mustafa Nayyem, wrote on his Facebook wall.

Anti-corruption detectives and state prosecutors subsequently blocked the accounts of the company-seller of the mentioned building.

They claim the beneficiary is a sitting member of the Odessa Regional Council and that he and another person had offered a NABU employee US $500,000 to unblock the account. That charge has been added to the litany of offences they are supposed to have committed.

It is unlikely state officials will be able to locate the owner of the company since they are apparently in the ATO zone where a low level war continues to be waged.

According to Radio Free Europe, Trukhanovs press office said that he cut his business trip to the Czech Republic short so that he could "return to Ukraine to take part in the ongoing investigation."

However, RFE also reported that neither the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade, nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were aware of Trukhanov's trip to Prague.

occrp.orgUse of Smart Beta Rises, but with Geographic Differences and Education Gaps

FTSE Russell reported in a new survey that that smart beta strategies are becoming a growing part of the asset allocation schemes of US-, UK- and Canada-based financial advisors. However, implementation of these strategies is still evolving and advisors are keen to better understand how they can use smart beta to its full potential.

Rolf Agather, Managing Director of North America Research, FTSE Russell said:

The results of our second smart beta advisor survey show that there is continued and growing popularity of smart beta strategies among retail advisors. There is also a significant opportunity for growth in the wealth market but more education is needed. Importantly, the use of smart beta strategies is evolving and not all markets view these strategies in the same way, highlighting the need for more consistent global education and insight on smart beta index-based strategies for investment and portfolio allocation.

The 2018 FTSE Russell smart beta advisor survey expanded on the 2015 US advisor smart beta survey with input from 256 financial advisors divided almost equally between the US, UK and Canada. These established, full-time, fee-based financial advisors and wealth managers all have more than three years experience and $25 million in assets under management.

Key survey findings:

Aware but not familiar. Across all three markets, there is a high awareness of smart beta strategies yet a low level of familiarity. Among financial advisors surveyed, 68% in Canada, 72% in the UK and 79% in the US say they are aware of smart beta strategies, yet on average only 35% of those surveyed are very familiar.

On their way Outlook for adoption of smart beta strategies is strong in all three countries, with more than half of financial advisors surveyed in the UK and Canada and 40% of those surveyed in the US expecting to increase their usage.

But not there yet. Financial advisors in the US and Canada are looking for more information about smart beta strategies before increasing their usage. UK advisors are skeptical as to the benefit, expressing concerns over predictability of performance (35% of non-users) and insufficient track records (32% of non-users). And in the US, 47% of advisors say they dont know enough about smart beta strategies, suggesting an opportunity for continued education.

Actively passive or passively active? The survey uncovered differences in the use of smart beta across the three countries but all respondents believe these strategies help meet both strategic and tactical needs and complement active and passive investment strategies. Interestingly, findings indicate a continued evolution of how smart beta is being used. In the UK and Canada, eight of 10 view smart beta as best sitting alongside active strategies while, in the US, six of 10 advisors view smart beta as best sitting along passive strategies

FTSE Russell partnered with Greenwald & Associates to execute this research on smart beta perception and usage among financial advisors. The research was conducted in September-October 2017 among 256 financial advisors (92 in the US, 81 in Canada and 83 in the UK). In the US, respondents were drawn primarily from RIAs (41%), wirehouses (29%) and independent broker-dealers (14%). In Canada, respondents were divided between full-service brokerages (43%), independent financial advisors (33%) and career exclusive financial advisors (14%). In the UK, the top three affiliations were with independent financial advisors (39%), wealth managers (33%) and private banks (17%).

US advisors were the most experienced, with 60% having more than 10 years working as an advisor. The comparable percentages in the UK and Canada were 43% and 30%, respectively. In terms of assets under management, US and UK advisors were more likely to have $100 million or more in AUM (61% and 56%, respectively) as compared to Canadian advisors (37%). More specific details on survey methodology and findings can be found in the survey report.

68-79% of US-, UK- and Canada-based financial advisors aware, yet only 35% on average are very familiar with smart beta investment strategies

Outlook for future use of smart beta is strong in all three countries, yet advisors still skeptical and looking for more information

Smart beta implementation still evolving; financial advisors divided as to whether it complements active or passive investment strategies

For more information on related topics, visit the following channels:The 70 years of culinary excellence promotion



(TRAVPR.COM) SWITZERLAND - February 15th, 2018 - Baar, Switzerland, 12 February, 2018  Movenpick Hotels & Resorts is kick-starting 2018 with a burst of gastronomic vision and flavour as its parent company, the Movenpick Group, celebrates seven decades of culinary excellence and innovation.

To mark the companys 70th anniversary, its Food & Beverage Director Europe, Thomas Hollenstein, and his team of chefs, have unveiled a menu of seven remarkable dishes that marry the old with the new  popular classics and guest favourites reimagined for the modern palate, inspired by cuisines and gastronomy trends from around the world.

The 70 years of culinary excellence promotion, available in restaurants at all Movenpick properties globally from 10 March to 20 April 2018, introduces seven inventive dishes that pay tribute to Ueli Prager, who when founding the Movenpick brand in 1948, redefined the European restaurant scene and paved the way for a new style of modern hospitality, based on a simple premise: doing normal things in an extraordinary manner.

Just as Prager introduced diners to unpretentious cuisine with a twist, such as curry-based Riz Casimir  a first in Europe  so 70 years on, Movenpick chefs have created an inspiring menu of uncomplicated but surprising creations, all of which use fresh, authentic and health-promoting ingredients.

They include: Scallops & avocado tartare -a reinvention of Movenpicks popular beef tartare, influenced by Mediterranean cuisine; salade belle fermiere -a lively interpretation of Salade Francois, made famous in the 1948 American musical film, Easter Parade; mille feuille saumon & caviar dolive -a savoury take combining delicate smoked salmon, puff pastry and golden olive caviar; mushrooms and vegetables Zurich style - a meat-free version of Zurich-style veal that pairs aromatic root vegetables and smoky Shitake mushrooms; seafood Casimir - a medley of steamed seafood, fish and salicornia (sea asparagus), and an assortment of citrus fillets, paired with wild rice; bare beef burger Cafe de Paris  a prime beef cut paired with crispy ultra-thin parmesan-dusted fries; and carrot waffle -a quirky reinterpretation of classic Swiss carrot cake.

These dishes not only take inspiration from Pragers visionary approach to cuisine, but his original idea for a new restaurant concept: a sophisticated yet relaxed place where guests could sample dishes at affordable prices  the name for which came when he least expected.

As he strolled the shores of Lake Zurich with a friend and considered the possibilities, a seagull (or Mowe in German), swooped down to skilfully pick up food mid-flight. That one elegant movement encapsulated his idea and so Movenpick (Mowe pick) - and Europes first casual dining experience - was born.

Pragers first restaurant, Claridenhof, opened in Zurich in July 1948, offering simple dishes that could be ordered a la carte - a refreshing alternative to conventional set menus and the first of many Movenpick innovations.

Twenty-five years later, in 1973, Prager capitalised on the brands reputation for quality food, affordability, staff training standards and innovation by opening the companys first two hotels. This marked the official launch of Movenpick Hotels & Resorts and today, his values penetrate every aspect of Movenpick Groups business, including Movenpick Gastronomy, Movenpick Wine and Movenpick Fine Foods.

Movenpicks story is astonishing, founded on a commitment to service, authenticity, culinary excellence and innovation, and in 2018 we celebrate these values and our rich heritage in the way we know best  by treating our guests around the world to an inspiring gastronomic experience, said Olivier Chavy.

The 70 years of culinary excellence promotion is a fitting tribute to Ueli Prager who was truly ahead of his time when he founded our company, and we continue to build on his legacy with experimental cuisine and new concepts that keep his original vision in mind  doing normal things in an extraordinary manner.

Download link: http://bit.ly/2FQU1qN

-Ends-

For further information, please contact:

Tina Seiler PR & Communication Manager Corporate

Oberneuhofstrasse 12 | 6340 | Baar | Switzerland

Phone +41 41 759 19 28 | tina.seiler@movenpick.com

Laura Perez Diaz VP Communications Corporate

Shatha Tower Floor 39, Office 3903 | Dubai, United Arab Emirates

laura.perez@movenpick.com

About Movenpick Hotels & Resorts:

Movenpick Hotels & Resorts, an international upscale hotel management company with over 16,000 staff members, is represented in 24 countries with 83 hotels, resorts and Nile cruisers currently in operation. Around 40 properties are planned or under construction, including those in Kuredhivaru (Maldives), The Hague (The Netherlands) and Basel (Switzerland). Focusing on expanding within its core markets of Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, Movenpick Hotels & Resorts specialises in business and conference hotels, as well as holiday resorts, all reflecting a sense of place and respect for their local communities. Of Swiss heritage and with headquarters in central Switzerland (Baar), Movenpick Hotels & Resorts is passionate about delivering premium service and culinary enjoyment  all with a personal touch. Committed to supporting sustainable environments, Movenpick Hotels & Resorts has become the most Green Globe-certified hotel company in the world. For more information, please visit www.movenpick.com.

###editorial@tribune.com

Hepatitis cases have surfaced due to it in affected areas

We will ask MC officials to get the water from the area tested and take immediate measures if sewage is found in drinking water. Dr Madan Mohan, District Epidemiologist

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 15

A team of health officials, led by District Epidemiologist Dr Madan Mohan, visited Nehru Colony, Friends Avenue and other nearby areas as residents had been complaining regarding the outbreak of hepatitis due to contaminated water supply.

Dr Madan Mohan said, "The visit was paid after receiving complaints from residents. We have not come across any new case of hepatitis but we have asked residents to take precautions. Medicines for water purification have also been distributed.

Residents say that the potable water is getting mixed with sewage due to which the disease is being spread. "We have brought the issue to the notice of MC officials but to no avail," they said.

Dr Madan Mohan said they would also ask MC officials to get the water from the area tested and take immediate measures if sewage is found in drinking water.

The epidemiologist said that in case of any problem, residents should visit the nearest government health facility. We have not found any case related to the chronic problem here but as the residents are apprehensive, we will keep a close watch, he added.monicakchauhan@gmail.com

Washington, February 15

There is "optimism and excitement" among American businesses about India and they are eager to tap the opportunities for FDI in the country in sectors like healthcare after the latest budget, Indias envoy to the US has said.

Navtej Sarna, who is on a maiden trip to San Francisco and Los Angeles, addressed the Indian-American community in Los Angeles and applauded their dynamism and philanthropy.

He also had a series of meetings with top business executives, think tanks and community leaders.

Top among them included meeting with the Walt Disney chairman, Andy Bird, and vice president Alan Braverman, meeting with Ciscos John Chambers, a round table with the prestigious Bay Area Council and another one organised by US India Strategic and Partnership Forum.

Referring to his visit to Disney and his meeting with its chairman and vice president, Sarna said they are very excited about India and the work they do in the country from movies to their digital application and content creation. There is tremendous sense of optimism and excitement (among American businesses),Sarna said.

American businesses, he said, are uniformly positive about Indias reforms and excited about the new opportunities like the one in healthcare sector that has come up in the latest budget, Indias top diplomat to the United States has said.

They (American business leaders) are uniformly positive about Prime Minister's reforms. They are very excited about the fact that we have opened up FDI in so many areas, he said.

The businesses are also very excited with the GST. They are looking at the healthcare with excitement.

Start ups are particularly a very good area of cooperation. The ambassador said referring to his meetings with the American businesses in the west coast.

Virtually every sector of the economy is open to foreign direct investment, Sarna said in his address to the Bay Area Council.

India, which has attracted US$60 billion in foreign direct investment is today the most favoured destination for FDI.

India with its US$ 1.5 trillion plan in infrastructure sector offers great opportunities for American companies, he said.

In his address to the community leaders, Sarna said India is witnessing transformational changes.

Today we are the fastest growing economy in the world. We are set to become a US$ 5 trillion economy in 2025. We will become the third largest consumer market in 2025, he said.

There is a huge burgeoning and rich middle class, whose purchasing power has increased hugely, Sarna said.

While in San Francisco, Sarna also visited Gadar Memorial -- an iconic moment from India's freedom struggle.

Early this week, he also visited Bancroft, Doe and the South/Southeast Asia at Berkeley Library in University of California.

Well known as a Sikh scholar of eminence, Sarna during his visit viewed parts of the South Asians in North America Collection, which is housed in Bancroft, and other Library holdings on Sikhism. PTIeditorial@tribune.com

New Delhi, February 15

Essar Oil has sold its entire production of coal-seam gas or coal-bed methane (CBM) from a West Bengal block to state-owned GAIL India Ltd using the same formula that Reliance Industries used for pricing of its CBM.

GAIL will buy 2.3 million standard cubic metres per day of coal-bed methane (CBM) that Essar Oil and Gas Exploration and Production (EOGEPL) will produce from its Raniganj block in West Bengal for $7.1 per million British thermal unit.

According to an evaluation of bid posted by Essar on its website, GAIL outbid Matix Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd, Graphite India Ltd and Positron Energy Pvt Ltd to bag the supplies.

The price is more than double of the $2.89 per mmBtu price set by the government for most of the domestically produced conventional natural gas.

Essar used the same formula which Reliance Industries had first used in 2012 to seek bids for its CBM gas from its Sohgpur block in Madhya Pradesh, and then again last year for selling the CBM. In the first instance, the Oil Ministry had not approved the price.

Like RIL, Essar had sought bids for potential users in the form of a deductible from 12.67% of Brent crude oil price plus $0.52 per mmBtu plus $0.26 per mmBtu, according to the bid document.

GAIL bid a deductible of 1.89, which translated into a gas price of $7.12 per mmBtu (on gross calorific value) at todays Brent oil price of $64.80. At three-month Brent crude average of $65.8, the gas price comes to $7.23 on gross calorific value (GCV) basis.

Interestingly, GAIL had in the similar bid process run by RIL last year for 3 million standard cubic metres per day of Sohagpur CBM gas quoted a deductible of 3.495. RIL had bid a deductible of 1.836 to win all the supplies.

RILs Sohagpur gas at todays oil price comes to $7.15 per mmBtu on GCV basis.

The formula used by RIL and Essar is the same at which Petronet LNG, a joint venture of public oil companies, whose chairman is the oil secretary, used to import long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar.  PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 15

Just over a month after Mohali Mayor Kulwant Singh challenged a show-cause notice to remove him from councillorship, Justice Daya Chaudhary of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today quashed the same.

The Punjab Government had earlier issued a show-cause notice to Kulwant Singh for taking away his councillorship for alleged misuse of power in the purchase of a tree-pruning machine and causing loss to the state exchequer.

His counsel, senior advocate DS Patwalia and Sukhmani T Patwalia, had contended that a resolution in the matter was passed by a majority at a general house meeting. It was approved by the Department of Local Government.

The bid was confirmed, after following the due procedure. Patwalia added that the petitioner was one of the members of the house/committee. Certain terms and conditions were settled in the agreement with the approval of the members as well as the state government.

Denying violation of procedure or of law, Patwalia further added that the impugned show-cause notice was issued with predetermined mind to remove the petitioner from the councillors post. He also refuted the allegations of concealment of facts and undertook to file a reply during the course of the day only.

Kulwant Singh also claimed that the Chief Vigilance Officers report was not supplied to him, though the entire case against him was built upon it. He claimed it was the states case that the CVO submitted a report on the basis of which a conclusion was drawn that the tree-pruning machine purchased by the Mohali Municipal Corporation was twice the amount of those available in India and abroad, including the UK. It was further mentioned that the report was made the basis of the allegation against the petitioner and the show-cause notice issued to him. Kulwant Singh submitted that he categorically asked for the report through a representation and a reminder. But till date, the report was not made available to him.

The Punjab Government, on the other hand, sought the dismissal of his petition with costs. The state, in its reply, alleged that the petitioner had filed the present writ petition with unclean hands and had concealed the material facts from the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Responding to his contentions, the state added that the present writ petition was premature as only a show-cause notice had been issued to the petitioner. He had been provided with an opportunity to file his reply.

No action has been taken against the petitioner and the issuance of the show-cause notice does not give rise to any cause of action against him. Hence, the present writ petition is liable to be dismissed on this ground only, it was added.vinaymishra188@gmail.com

Tribune News Service

Patiala, February 15

The Health Department will provide training to medical and paramedical staff of government hospitals and conduct awareness camps regarding various mental illnesses in the district.

The move comes nearly a year after a report claimed that 22 lakh people in the state could be suffering from various mental diseases. The report was published last April.

The report published by the department of psychiatry, Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Chandigarh, in association with the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangaluru, last year also mentioned that around 3 lakh people above the age of 18 in the state could be suffering from depression. As many as 2,895 people from Patiala, Moga, Faridkot and Ludhiana were surveyed.

Later, the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Punjab, started the District Mental Health Programme in all 22 districts of the state from September last year.

A grant of Rs 75,000 was received for the project this week. With this, the medical staff of primary health centers (PHC), community health centers (CHC), paramedical staff and accredited social health activists (ASHA) workers will be trained in providing assistance to all patients in collaboration with officials of Government Rajindra College.

Training regarding recognising symptoms of mental diseases, including various disorders and depression, will be provided to school and college teachers also. The department will conduct outreach camps in schools, colleges, slums and private rehabilitation centres.

Apart from this, the city presently lacks a psychiatrist. The post is lying vacant at Mata Kaushalya Hospital for the past six months. The lone psychiatrist in the city was shifted to another district. There is only one psychiatrist in Rajpura, who is now considered the nodal officer for the programme.

Dr MS Dhaliwal, Deputy Medical Commissioner, Patiala said, We have now received the grant for the project and training of all staff will begin soon.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Mohali, February 15

After the Punjab and Haryana High Courts order in his favour, Mohali Mayor Kulwant Singh is all set to file a defamation case against Punjab Local Government Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and others soon.

Talking to Chandigarh Tribune, Kulwant Singh said the justice has been prevailed.

I am having full faith in our judiciary and today they gave me justice, said evidently elated Kulwant Singh after the pronouncement of the order by the High Court.

The Mayor said now he would sue Navjot Singh Sidhu and others for defaming him.

The Minister took my name in the toilet scam. Interestingly, in the so-called scam, not even a single penny was spent. My name was taken for the scam in front of the media. So I will knock the doors of the court in this regard, said Kulwant Singh.

The Mayor also said he would also sue all those officials who had signed on the show-cause notice to him and issued a press note of his suspension to the media.

They wanted to tarnish my image, said Kulwant Singh.

The Mayor said due to the ministers agenda against him, all development works in Mohali had come to a standstill.

Actually the morale of councillors and officials of the corporation had also come down due to this development (show-cause notice). Obviously my attention was also diverted. Now we would expedite all development works in the town, said Kulwant Singh.

What they say

We respect the High Courts verdict. Though Kulwant Singhs petition has been allowed by the court, an inquiry in the entire episode (tree-pruning machine issue) will be conducted. Truth will come out in the inquiry. Contrary to their (Kulwant) claims of all development works coming to a halt in the town, I must say that the story is entirely different. All development works are being done here by our government and officials.

Balbir Singh Sidhu, Mohali MLA

With Thursdays order, the conspiracy of the state government against Akali Mayor Kulwant Singh has been exposed. Justice has prevailed. The reasons behind the conspiracy are an open secret here. The minister (Sidhu) had caused damage to the town with his step against the Mayor.

Paramjit Singh Kahlon, SAD councillor

We respect the High Courts decision in the matter. Though a tussle was on, we (Congress) always strive for the continuous development of the town. In my viewpoint, development works should not suffer in any situation.

Kuljit Singh Bedi, Congress councillor

We are soldiers of our party and will stand by our leaders always. After Thursdays decision, I must say that every member of the MC House should focus on the towns development with honesty and dedication.

Rajinder Singh Rana, Congress councilloreditorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 15

Three more snatching incidents have been reported from the city, including one in which a 56-year-old woman, who wass sitting outside her house in Sector 30, was targeted.

According to the police, the victim, Kamlesh, reported to the police that she was sitting outside her house today when two motorcycle-borne miscreants arrived outside her house.

Sources said the accused riding pillion got down from the motorcycle and walked up to the victim on the pretext of asking for an address. The accused then snatched her gold chain. The sources said the victim tried to chase the snatchers, but they managed to escape from the spot.

The police were informed about the incident, who rushed to the spot. A case has been registered at the Industrial Area police station. The police said they were looking for CCTV footage of the area.

In another snatching incident, a purse was snatched from a woman. According to the police, the victim, a resident of Zirakpur, reported that unidentified miscreants riding a motorcycle snatched her purse from the parking of the Sector 18 market on Wednesday. The victim was standing near a showroom when the accused escaped after snatching the purse containing a mobile phone, Rs 1,500 and important documents.

A case has been registered at the Sector 19 police station.

Yet another snatching incident was reported from Sector 21 this evening.

A miscreant riding a black Splendor motorcyle snatched a purse from a 22-year-old girl, Prachi, a resident of Sector 32. The purse contained a mobile phone, Rs 1,500 and an ATM card. A case has been registered at the Sector 19 police station.CP Bhambhri

CP Bhambhri

Professor Emeritus, Centre for Political Studies, JNU

After the idea of 'simultaneous' elections was mentioned in the address to Parliament by the President, the Election Commission of India in a note to the Ministry of Law on February 4 expressed its readiness to hold 'simultaneous' elections at the Centre and in 29 states and seven Union Territories. It has made some proposals for the implementation of such a policy:

1 An additional financial allocation of Rs 2,000 crore only for expenditure on EVMs/VVPATS.

2 Amendment of Articles 83, 172 and 174 of the Constitution which provide for five-year term of the elected representative assemblies with a 'provision' that they can be 'dissolved' before completing their term.

3 Amendment of Article 356, which provides for the imposition of Presidential rule in a state on the basis of 'breakdown of the Constitutional' system of governance.

4 A vote of no confidence against the ruling party or coalition of parties should include a provision for the name of an alternative leader and party which would replace the 'defeated party-in-government'.

Why are polls held so frequently?

Imposition of presidential rule: The first main reason for the holding of frequent elections for different state assemblies and union territories is the imposition of presidential rule under Article 356 of the Constitution where elected state assemblies have not been allowed to complete their full term of five years. Every political party or coalition of parties which has been in power at the Centre has 'dismissed' duly elected state assembly and its government during the last 70 years of democracy. There is no exception to this rule and in spite of the Bommai Case judgment by the Supreme Court, Article 356 continues to hang like a sword of Damocles over the head of state governments.

Can the Modi government manage a consensus among all major parties for the deletion of the emergency provision in the Constitution, especially about the imposition of presidential rule and dissolution of elected state assemblies? The answer to is a big no. The present government has to create a national consensus for the amendment of the Constitution before it can implement the idea of 'simultaneous' elections.

Fractured mandate: Lok Sabha elections have had to be frequently held because of 'fractured' mandate given by the voter which led to the formation of 'unstable' coalition governments, like that of former prime ministers VP Singh, Chandra Shekhar, HD Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral. Can anyone ensure that in a multi-polar, multi-party political system as that of India, the voters' verdict shall not be fractured? Can anyone ensure that the Central government will not be ruled by 'unstable' multi-party coalition governments? Has the era of coalition governments at the Centre come to an end?

Indias federal democracy unique

Awakened voter: It should not be forgotten that India's parliamentary federal democracy has a certain uniqueness of its own and models of stable western democracies  whether a parliamentary democracy like that of the UK or the presidential federal system of the USA  are not applicable to the Indian situation. The functioning of the democratic process of 70 years has led to an awakening among people: Indian voters' participation is very high during the elections. The voter has learnt to teach a lesson to political leaders and rejection of parties during elections has become a 'norm'. This is one part of the story.

Caste affiliations: The other part is that voter's loyalty is fragmented along caste, sub-caste and other group affiliations. The impact of multiple and diverse 'group affiliations' has been felt on parties which have fragmented and proliferated and the so-called all-India parties have become 'dependent' on multiple regional and sub-regional, caste and sub-caste based parties and groups. In such a situation of fragmentation and shifting loyalties, it is difficult to suggest that a party or parties in coalition will complete their full term of five years in government, either at the Centre or the 29 states and seven Union Territories.

No guarantee of 5 years of rule

This is the reality of Indian politics and multi-party system which cannot be ignored by those who are thinking about 'simultaneous' elections because the premise, underlying 'simultaneity' of elections is that a party or coalition of parties will complete full five years term in government. A party or coalition of parties may complete full five years term of its election to the Lok Sabha. However, this may not happen in one or many states. Elections will have to be held if a state government or a government at the Centre collapses under the weight of its own contradictions without completing five years term in power.

The upshot of the above narrative is that parliamentary federal system of democracy has a uniqueness of its own and it should be kept in mind before the architecture of the electoral calendar for simultaneous elections is created to deal with the problem of the frequency of elections.

The idea of 'simultaneous' elections seems to be a 'non-starter' because consensus among parties is difficult, especially at the present when the old calendar of elections for state assemblies during 2018, especially for Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, or North-Eastern states, cannot be interrupted. Opposition parties will never agree to stop the process of elections in 2018 for these state assemblies. So, the suggestion of a one national calendar for all-India elections is quite difficult because in a federation of 29 states and seven union territories, unexpected and unforeseen political developments may create a situation for mid-term polls.

Social dialectics of politics is at work in India and any legal interventions to deal with the new situation should be undertaken with great care. Hence, the time is not ripe for the implementation of the suggestion of 'simultaneous' elections.

German model not applicable to India

The German model has been suggested where vote of no-confidence is not admitted unless an alternative leader and party which is in a position to form the government is in place of a defeated party-in-government at the floor of the house of parliament. This is not applicable to India because Germany has a few parties but India has numerous other parties. How can any new leader be elected or nominated to replace the present leader against whom the vote of no-confidence is moved because alliances are made only after the present coalition-in-government is ousted from office?gspannu7@gmail.com

London, February 15

An Indian-origin science teacher has been jailed for over four years after he pleaded guilty to placing cameras in toilets of three schools where he worked in southwest England.

Rahul Odedra positioned the cameras in cubicles and toilet roll holders to film dozens of women and girls using the facilities, the Gloucester Crown Court was told.

The 46-year-old was described by Judge Ian Lawrie as not wholly bad, and not wholly good as he sentenced him yesterday for persistently and deliberately carrying out his perverse compulsion.

Odedra had earlier pleaded guilty to one offence of attempting to possess an indecent image, two offences of possession of indecent images and 20 offences of voyeurism between 2009 and 2017.

He would set it up in the lunch period and then take it down later, prosecutor Anjali Gohil told the court.

No one goes to a toilet, locks the door and expects to be filmed for third parties to see, she added.

The judge agreed that it was a gross breach of trust and a brazen violation.

You are facing the consequences of what is long held voyeuristic compulsion to look at females. A toxic secret with the consequence you are going to prison, he told Odedra.

Peoples dignity should be respected. This was a carefully calculated intrusion into peoples privacy. This is some of the worst examples of this type of offending. You caused immeasurable emotional harm to your victims, he noted.

The teacher, described as good at his job, was caught when a pupil noticed he was trying to film up her skirt and reported him. Police later seized 200 videos showing women or girls on the toilet or filmed up their skirts.

On analysis of the images, officers found that he had cropped and clipped the films he captured in the toilet so that he could watch back-to-back images of females in the act of wiping.

Odedras lawyer, Joseph Keating, told the court that his client is aware of seriousness of the offences, which were born out of an interest in voyeurism.

At the time of doing this, he had little comprehension of the impact on the victims as they were not physically harmed, but he now fully understands the lasting impact that will be hard to bear. He would like to apologise. He is deeply sorry for what he did, he said, adding that his client had lost everything good in his life as a result of the offences.

Besides the prison sentence, Odedra was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order and was ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.  PTIharinder@tribunemail.com

It no longer comes as a surprise that a scam in India is detected only after culprits escape the country. Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi are new additions in the list of smart fraudsters living a luxurious life abroad. The latest corporate offender Nirav was seen in the World Economic Forum at Davos along with Indias top business and political leaders promoting Brand India, days after Punjab National Bank had detected the fraud internally on January 15. Choksi also fled to a foreign land, apparently for some medical treatment, well before the bank decided to make the multi-crore fraud public. Whether it is notorious Vijay Mallya or disgraced Lalit Modi  the pattern is the same. Scams took place under one political regime and scamsters fled the country under the other. Therefore, both the incumbent and the predecessor lack any political will to thoroughly investigate these scams. Undoubtedly, the businessman-politician nexus is strong and omnipresent.

The growing culture of crony capitalism has encouraged unscrupulous businessmen to siphon off huge sums from financial institutions, particularly public sector banks, with impunity. The daylight robbery is covered up by classifying such bad loans as non-performing assets or NPAs. The burden of such losses are eventually borne by nameless taxpayers. This is how Indian banks have accumulated about Rs 10 lakh crore NPAs. Although, the incumbent blames the erstwhile government for this fraud, it lacks political will to nab the culprits. Frauds of this scale cannot happen without the nexus of the rich and the mighty. But, none is held accountable to date. Such frauds cannot be brushed under the carpet. They call for a CBI probe.

The PNB naively wants the citizens to believe that the $1.77 billion scam was committed by some small-time managers. How could such large transactions take place bypassing the surveillance system? Top officials, including the chairman, are paid huge salaries and perks to implement a robust system. Hence, they should be held accountable. Rs 11,400 crore is not peanuts. The money is enough to salvage the entire farming community of cash-strapped Punjab. Bank frauds will never stop unless chairmen and top managers are held accountable and punished for lapses.harinder@tribunemail.com

An Iranian Presidents overseas visit is always global news. Hassan Rouhanis visit to India too should make a worldwide splash, for Iran is trying to break-free from a determined US-Saudi squeeze to end its intervention in the regions hotspots on the side of their adversaries in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Irans US-Saudi promoted difficulties, however, are neither recent nor do they make Tehran an easy candidate for extracting concessions. But Iran is well-practised in the art of playing hardball even though its low GDP growth rate and fall in fixed gross capital formation recently triggered street protests in several cities. Iran has offered India two tantalising but juicy carrots: a stake in a lucrative gas-field and access to landlocked Afghanistan without going through Pakistan.

Irans permission to India to operate its Chabahar port is a teaser. Iran also wants India to set up an industrial complex next to the port and build a railway line to its Afghan border. The politics is good: both Iran and India are wary of Sunni militancy incubated in Pakistan. The plan for massive investments could be a good fix. But the lack of any interest by PM Modis business entourage in the Chabahar projects strengthens doubts about their economic viability. Rather, Indian PSUs are backing all the capital-intensive projects penciled for Chabahar. India as a nation will need to reflect whether South Blocks antipathy to Pakistan is blinding it to the reality that it is actually Iran which gains from these projects built in a militancy-wracked and drug-afflicted region.

Indias attempt to bag a potentially lucrative gas-field is also up against some determined Iranian bargaining. The negotiations have already witnessed bad blood after New Delhi scaled down purchases of Iran crude in retaliation against stonewalling by Iran. The shadow of the US also looms large over any Indian attempt to enhance its energy security and geopolitical ties with Iran. The challenge before PM Modi is not only to escape US disapproval, but also ensure that he is not persuaded by his anti-Pakistan antipathy to put the taxpayers money in unviable projects.editorial@tribune.com

Vishal Joshi

Tribune News Service

Pandu Pindara (Jind), February 15

To win over Jat voters in Haryana, BJP president Amit Shah today said the party is not against any caste. The BJP stands for sabka vikas (development for all) without any prejudice, he said while addressing a Yuva Hunkar Rally in the Jat heartland here.

The rally was projected as a launching pad for the BJPs 2019 Lok Sabha campaign.

Shah lauded Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankar for his contribution to farmers welfare, and state BJP chief Subhash Barala for strengthening the party.

He congratulated BJP leaders for organising an impressive gathering in Jind, the home turf of Union Steel Minister Birender Singh.

Dhankar, Barala and Birender are Jat leaders.

Unlike political parties that ruled Haryana in the past, the BJP does not believe in favouring a particular caste. Khattar deserves appreciation for breaking the tradition of corruption and nepotism in the state, the BJP chief said.

He told the gathering that increasing the MSP was one of the major electoral promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Without naming the INLD, Shah said Haryanvi leaders had organised massive farmer rallies at Delhis Boat Club, but no initiative was ever taken to increase the income of peasants.

The Congress ruled in Haryana and at the Centre for 10 years simultaneously, but it did not implement the Swaminathan Commission report. On the other hand, ever since Dhankar became president of the Bharatiya Kisan Morcha, he had been demanding better prices for crops. His demand has been fulfilled, he said.

In another apparent reference to Jats, the BJP chief said the youth of the state had brought laurels to the country by joining the defence forces and excelling in sports.

Shah said the Manohar Lal Khattar government had introduced several path-breaking initiatives of transparent governance, including e-tendering and recruitment on merit basis.

Earlier, transfer industry used to flourish in the state. A former Haryana Chief Minister is languishing in jail for corrupt practices. But Khattar has rooted out the middlemen culture by introducing online transfer policy and other measures, he said.

Birender said that under Shahs leadership, the Congress had been decimated and his supporters would continue to work for the BJP in any election. This years Union Budget focuses on farmers and their income is set to be increased.

In his address, Khattar said all 90 Assembly segments were given equal number of development projects.

Green tribunal clears decks for event

New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) cleared the decks on Thursday for holding of the 'hunkar' rally by disposing of a plea seeking reduction in the number of motorcycles in the rally on pollution grounds. A Bench headed by Justice Raghuvendra S Rathore passed the order after noting the Haryana State Pollution Control Board's submission that only the motorcycles which had valid pollution under control certificates would be allowed to participate in the rally. The NGT said nothing survives in the plea after the boards assurance, but it gave liberty to the petitioner to approach it in the future. pti

Tanwar detained

Jind: INLD legislator from Narwana Prithi Singh and state Congress president Ashok Tanwar, along with their supporters, were detained on Thursday. They were taken into preventive custody as they were on their way to Jind to protest against BJP president Amit Shah. Sources said Tanwar was camping here with a group of his supporters. The INLD leader and his team were detained at Narwana. Congress and INLD activists reportedly waved black flags at participants of the rally at several places. tns

Saini stays away

Kurukshetra: BJPs Kurukshetra MP Rajkumar Saini did not attend the rally chaired by the party president. Saini has been blaming a section of Jat leaders in the BJP for mounting pressure on the state government for demanding Jat reservation. tnseditorial@tribune.com

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Jhajjar, February 15

While disobeying Section 144 of CrPC imposed by the administration in the district, the Indian National Lokdal (INLD) workers today showed black flags to the cavalcade of local BJP leaders and workers at various places in the district. While Aanganwari workers held a protest demonstration at the Mini-Secretariat here.

They also raised slogans against the state government for not accepting their long-pending demands. Significantly, police personnel remained a mute spectator at all the places. They did not make efforts to disperse the protesters.

The authority had yesterday imposed Section 144 in the district in view of Amit Shahs Jind rally and proposed Balidan Divas to be organised by the All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJSS) at Rashalwala chowk here on February 18.

The authority concerned had also appointed 81 duty magistrates to maintain law and order in the district. Earlier, separate groups of INLD workers, led by Harender Silana, at Birdhana Chowk, Rakesh Jakhar and Upender Kadian at Guda village and Karamveer Rathi in Bahadurgarh town showed black flags to local BJP leaders and raised slogans against the BJP and its chief Amit Shah.

Interacting with mediapersons on the occasion, Rathi said they had assembled to register their protest against the BJP government, which only wasted public money by organising events during the last three years.

The BJP had promised to provide jobs to educated youths, remunerative price for crops and SYL canal water to farmers and various welfare schemes for other sections of society, but it failed to fulfill even a single promise, he added.

Fleeing leaders rounded up

Panipat: There was drama near Nara village on the Panipat-Jind road with the district INLD president along with halka president and some others running into the fields and the police chasing them. The police rounded them up and released them in the afternoon. A group of INLD leaders and workers led by district president Suresh Kala along with Kuldeep Rathi, Panipat rural president, gathered at Nara village to show black flags to the Transport Minister Krishan Lal Panwar and other BJP MLAs who were going to Jind to attend Amit Shahs rally. As they started to wave black flags, the police rounded up INLD workers. Kala and Rathi managed to escape and tried to show black flags near Nara village. Meanwhile, the police reached the spot. They started running into the fields and the police started chasing them. DSP Jagdeep Duhan managed a motorcycle and rounded up the duo. Mukesh Tandoneditorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Karnal, February 15

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar claimed the BJP would continue to enjoy power for the next five years also.

It is a historic day for Haryana. Workers and leaders are full of enthusiasm for the party president Amit Shahs rally. This rally will establish a milestone and the BJP will retain the power for the next five years, he said while talking to mediapersons today at Rajgharana banquet hall on Kaithal road, from where he flagged off the motorcycle rally.

Earlier, he drove a Bullet with district party president Jagmohan Anand from PWD Rest House till Rajgharana banquet hall.

He flagged off the rally of party leaders and workers and said the rally would be a stamp on the development works done by the state government in last three years.

He criticised the previous governments for discrimination and said the present government had been focusing on inclusive development and the state was moving ahead on the wheels of development.

Earlier, the Chief Minister refused to ride on a motorbike at PWD Rest House. The party workers brought the bike from Delhi for the CM.

Harvinder Kalyan, Hafed chairman, left for Jind with party workers from Gharaunda, while Minister of State for Food and Supplies Karandev Kamboj left for Indri.

Sugarfed chairman Chander Parkash Kathuria, honorary secretary of Kurukshetra Vikas Board Ashok Sukhija and other party leaders also left on bikes with party workers. Several youths were given slips of petrol and helmets for free.rchopra@tribunemail.com

Jammu, February 15

An attempt by militants to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan was foiled by the Indian Army on Thursday, military sources said.

Soldiers noticed suspicious movements in Balakote area of the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district early in the day.

The troops fired and the intruding terrorists were forced to withdraw back into the Pakistani side. A search operation is on in the area, an official said.

The Pakistani Army on Wednesday violated the 2003 ceasefire in Nowshera sector of LoC in Rajouri district.

At around 7 p.m., the Pakistani Army used small arms, automatics and mortars, forcing the Indian side to retaliate effectively and strongly, the official added.  IANSamansharma@tribunemail.com

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 15

Faced with more than 400 Pak-backed terrorists waiting to infiltrate into India, the Indian Army has adopted an approach to launch coordinated fire assaults along the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan, indicating that the action along LoC will continue.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Top sources said a pro-active strategy includes coordinated attacks along the LoC that divides the state of Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan. A series of continuous fire assaults  classified as punitive fire  have been carried out in the past few weeks.

Adequate freedom of action has been given to commanders on ground," the sources said.

The Army estimates that some 400-odd terrorists are in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and waiting to enter. These armed terrorists are located in launch pads on either side of the Pir-Panjal range that forms a massive ridge east-west axis across India and Pakistan dividing the terrain into distinct geographic features.

The number of terrorists is much more than the number last year indicating a 'hot-summer' ahead.

Indian Army has used its posts at Balnoi, Sarla, Mendhar, Laleali, Doda, Banwat, Kalal and Karen among others, to launch the fire assaults.

Pakistan Army has issued 35 red-alerts to its forces keeping in mind the firing from India. The frequency of visits by its 10 Corp commander Lt Gen Nadeem Raza have increased at Pak Army posts along LoC while the village defence committees on their side have been activated.

Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, addressing a press conference in New Delhi on January 12 had said, Ceasefire violation is part of our counter-terrorism strategy. Terrorists are a disposable commodity for Pak Army has to be victim of its actions. If there is a drop in infiltration we can adhere to the ceasefire.shalender@tribune.com

Ishrat S Banwait

While the mainstream rapper objectifies women and glorifies violence, theres the underground artiste that writes against it. He has always gone unheard though, for he does not have the means to promote himself and buy the popularity. Now, Lehar, an initiative to strengthen the underground/ non-commercial hip hop community in the country, has started making waves.

Lehar is a movement away from commercialisation, claim its creators. It aims at bringing hip hop together and on to the streets in its purest form. Currently, the movement takes place in Chandigarh and Delhi; it is all set to start in Jaipur next. It involves artistes collecting at a common point, jamming and sharing their skill sets. Rappers, producers and b-boys are seen in these meetings, but it is open to anyone and everyone to join in.

Meaningful lines

Jado tak ik kudi nu milda insaf;

karna maaf, paida ho jandi dooji Nirbhaya

(By the time one girl gets justice; forgive me, another Nirbhaya is born) Bagi

Going freestyle

Rappers at these meetings have been seen showcasing their creations and even making impromptu ones, which they call freestyling. The meetings are announced on social media and in Chandigarh, these are being held at Sukhna lake at 12 noon, every Sunday. A stand-out feature of these meetings is that meaningless and vulgar lyrics are discouraged, and rappers try to bring their best to the fore. However, that does not mean that these young rappers do not use cuss words; some of them do so to drive home a point.

An initiative of three such underground artistes from the city, Lehar aims at unifying this community and bringing forth the true art form. Dinesh Kumar aka Slim Nesh, a multi-lingual rapper, Mandeep Singh aka Dox Revolu, a music producer and emcee, and Randhir Singh Sandhu aka Srganah, another rapper, were meeting up to discuss music last year, when they came up with the idea.

Rapping trio

Our conversation drifted towards rappers not coming together in tricity and the need of an initiative, says Randhir. A student of sociology, Randhir has been rapping and releasing his tracks on YouTube since 2010. Mandeep, a class 12 pass-out, came up with the name Lehar. A self-taught music producer, he wants to perform at Tomorrowland someday.

Dinesh, a computer operator at a local college, raps in Hindi, Punjabi and Haryanvi. He asks the social media rappers to be real and come out of the virtual world while adding that their skills would be tested if they come to jam sessions.

In any given meeting, the number of artistes joining the movement is from 10 to 30. The age-group varies from 16 to 26 with skills ranging from beginner to pro. The culture of rappers and b-boys coming on to the streets and jamming was popularised in USA in the 80s. In the last few years, it came to Indias metro cities like Delhi and Mumbai; with Lehar, the region can hope for some good, meaningful rap to come out from here as well.rchopra@tribunemail.com

Islamabad, February 15

Pakistans Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan has said that India has not only wasted the opportunity for normalisation of ties with Islamabad but also restricted the space for peace through its hostile stance, according to a media report.

The defence minister made the comments on Wednesday while announcing a policy statement in the Senate, Dawn News reported.

The unremittingly hostile, anti-Pakistan stance by the current Indian government has drastically reduced the space for any advocacy of peace, he said.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Khan noted that the Indian government also wasted the opportunity for making peace at a time when a political consensus existed within Pakistan for improving relations with India.

Pakistans perception of threat from India is not reflex; it is based upon a thorough assessment of Indian capacity to threaten Pakistans military from an unprecedented forward position, he said and reminded that the threat is calculated on capacity, not intent.

The statement was made after Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman warned Pakistan after Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad militants attacked a military camp in Sunjuwan in Kashmir that left six soldiers and a civilian dead.

The paper also reported an escalation in ceasefire violations along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary.

Violations of a 2003 ceasefire pact--a key confidence-building measure between India and Pakistan--have seen a spike in 2017 compared to 2015 and 2016, it said.

The pattern had continued this year and there had been more than 200 violations in the first six weeks of 2018, the report said. PTIharinder@tribunemail.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 15

Even as the ED today conducted multiple searches in connection with a Rs 280 crore money-laundering case against billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi and others following a complaint by the Punjab National Bank (PNB) and seized diamonds, jewellery and gold worth Rs 5,100 crore, the Congress, targeted the PM, saying he could not escape responsibility for the banking scam worth Rs 11,400 crore.

Edit: Loot with Impunity

With the government under Opposition fire, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, told the media that Nirav Modi was not part of the delegation to Davos led by the PM.

As the fraud unfolded, the Congress today released a letter dated July 26, 2016, revealing how the PMO knew then of the scam in the making.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The letter by complainant Hari Prasad flagged financial fraud worth thousands of crores by Nirav Modis uncle Mehul Choksi, Chairman and MD, Gitanjali Gems, and sought action.The PMO acknowledged the complaint and referred it to the Registrar of Companies (ROC) for action. The ROC did not act. Nor did the PMO follow up.

Attacking the PMO for inaction, Congress media head Randeep Surjewala, said: Though the complaint was only against Mehul Choksi, the fact remains that Choksi is the uncle of Nirav Modi and both are joint shareholders in the company mentioned in the complaint .

Though the BJP sought to pin the blame on the Congress, saying the scam began unfolding in 2011, the Congress retorted: When did the PNB issue letters of understanding to chhota Modi? Is it not true that as per conditions of the letter of understanding the payment had to be made within 90 days? Who has been in power in India for those 90 days? The fact is the BJP cant escape responsibility.

The Congress, while pointing to absconding Vijay Mallya and Rishi Agarwal, bank defaulters, said, Loot and run away has become a character under this government. When the PMO was in the know of the scam as of July, 2016, why did it not act? Who is protecting Nirav Modi?

Surjewala alleged the bank loot involved 30 banks, including the SBI, Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Overseas Bank of India. More scams will be unravelled soon. The Congress alleged that under the Narendra Modi government, the systems bank fraud detection ability and the risk management capacity had collapsed. Experts say this is a potential Rs 30,000 crore scam. You will soon know, he said.

The Congress further asked who had tipped off Nirav Modi to flee India and why was he not arrested when the PNB had on January 29 this year asked the CBI to issue lookout notices against him.

We also want to know why outstanding loans to Nirav Modi were not converted into NPAs and were instead restructured? Its equally troubling to note that Nirav Modi was in PMs business delegation to Davos. The Congress said the PM could not escape responsibility by fielding ministers "unrelated" to the matter. "The PM will have to answer this time," Surjewala said.

Who is protecting Nirav: Cong

Loot and run away has become a character under this government. When the PMO was in the know of the scam as of July 2016, why did it not act? Who is protecting Nirav Modi?  RS Surjewala, Cong spokesperson

Guilty will not be spared: BJP

No one, irrespective of stature, will be spared... Taxpayers money wont be allowed to go waste.  Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union ministeramansharma@tribunemail.com

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 15

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday slammed the Congress on its baseless allegations in matter related to Nirav Modi.

Assets worth Rs 1,300 crore have been seized and action has been initiated to revoke his passport, Prasad said.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

There are thousands of people who share the surname with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said. BJP takes strong objection to the Congress describing Nirav Modi as chhota Modi. It is demeaning and derogatory and is reflective of their political situation, Prasad added.

The BJP asked the Congress to stop doing politics based on photographs, warning them that they have several photographs depicting intimacy between some Congress leaders and Mehul Chowksi.

All the NPAs of banks are the legacy of the Congress-led UPA, Prasad alleged. He also slammed the Congress of insinuating that Vijay Mallya was linked to BJP whereas the business tycoon had thanked former PM Manmohan Singh for the latters help.

The Modi-led government has not given a single loan that turned NPA, he said reminding the Congress of "string of scams" beginning with Harshad Mehta.

Modi's partner Chowksi's income doubled between 2011 and 13, Prasad said, asking the Congress to be careful. Those with shattered glass houses should be extra vigilant.

They bypassed the banking establishment. I wish to make it very clear on the behalf of the government that no one will be spared in the banking system, regardless of status and stature, of official concerned, he said.

Prasad also rejected observations that Nirav Modi case and Congress insinuation chhota Modi will not affect the personal image of Prime Minister Modi. It is shameful and condemnable, he said. Even if they (Nirav Modi and Chowksi) are abroad, the Indian government's position is such that strongest action will be taken against them.

"Nirav Modi did not have any private meeting with the PM. He was not part of the PM's delegation to Davos. He had gone there on his own," Prasad said.rchopra@tribunemail.com

Beijing, February 15

China on Thursday voiced its firm opposition to the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Arunachal Pradesh which it claims as part of South Tibet and said it would lodge a diplomatic protest with India.

Chinas position on the China-India boundary question is consistent and clear-cut, said Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang in response to reports that Modi visited Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday.

The Chinese government has never recognised the so-called Arunachal Pradesh and is firmly opposed to the Indian leaders visit to the disputed area, Geng was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua news agency.

We will lodge stern representations with the Indian side, he said.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Geng said China and India had reached important consensus on properly managing disputes, and the two sides were working to resolve the territorial disputes through negotiation and consultation.

The Chinese side urges the Indian side to honour its commitment and abide by the relevant consensus, and refrain from taking any action that may complicate the boundary question, Geng said.

(These three areas) located between the illegal McMahon Line and the traditional customary boundary between China and India, have always been Chinese territory, he said in the Xinhua report, adding that the McMahon Line drawn by Britain in 1914 was an attempt to incorporate the areas into Indian territory.

He urged India to cherish the hard-won momentum of improvements in bilateral relations and create enabling conditions for the boundary talks and the development of bilateral relations.

China routinely protests visits by Indian leaders to Arunachal Pradesh and reiterates its claims over the state.

The India-China border dispute stretches across 3,488 km. Both sides have held 20 rounds of talks so far through their Special Representatives to resolve the issue. PTIrchopra@tribunemail.com

Agartala, February 15

The election in Tripuras Charilam Assembly seat, which was postponed following the death of CPI (M) candidate, would be held on March 12, Chief Electoral Officer Sriram Taranikanti said.

CPI (M) candidate Ramendra Narayan Debbarma died of cardiac arrest while campaigning on February 11.

Regular poll schedule in the ST reserved Charilam Assembly constituency in Sipahijala district was cancelled after the death of the candidate, Taranikanti told reporters here on Wednesday evening.

Nomination for the seat would begin on Thursday and the last date of filing documents is February 22, he said. The last date of withdrawal of nomination is February 26.

Only CPI (M) would be allowed to file fresh nomination as other nominations were declared as valid, he said.

The result of this particular election will be declared on March 15.

Polls for 59 Assembly seats of the 60-member house will be held on February 18. PTIharinder@tribunemail.com

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 15

Connectivity and energy security will be key pillars during the tour of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who arrived in Hyderabad this afternoon on his first official visit to India after taking charge in 2013.

Edit: Rouhani comes to India

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the last Iranian President who came to India in 2008. During Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Tehran in 2016, a landmark trilateral transit agreement was entered into by Afghanistan, Iran and India.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Sources say amid rising tensions with the US and possibility of western sanctions, Iran is now accepting Indian rupees for investments in the country, something allowed so far only by Bhutan and Nepal. Indian businessmen trade in foreign exchange for overseas investments.

In the last financial year, the India-Iranian bilateral trade stood at nearly $13 billion with more than $10 billion accounting for Indian imports of mainly crude oil. The absence of banking and payment channels has been a challenge in commercial transactions with Iran, but efforts have been made to address these issues over the last few years, said a government official privy to discussions. The two sides are also now looking at options of opening banking channels in each others countries.

The larger objective is for India to insulate non-oil trade from possible adverse impact of any sanctions in future on Iran, like the oil money that now gets paid through Eurozone banking arrangements.

In official meetings on Saturday, the two sides will also discuss handing over of operations from Iranians to Indians of two berths at Chabahar port that are being equipped and developed by India. Two thousand containers of wheat have already been shipped to Afghanistan through the port, seen as Delhis alternate to strategic Gwadar port in Pakistan, being developed by China. However, talks are dragging slowly on India developing Iranian Farzad-B gas field.

Rouhanis Friday sermon at Makkah Masjid will be watched closely given Indias significant Shia link with Iran. Rouhani had prayed there on earlier visits. But leading Friday prayers in India will have its own significance given Modis recent West Asia tour and increased bonhomie with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.editorial@tribune.com

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 15

Faced with more than 400 Pakistan-backed terrorists waiting to infiltrate into India, the Indian Army has adopted an approach to launch coordinated fire assaults along the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan, indicating that action along the border will continue.

The Director General of Pakistans Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) today criticised the Indian Armys action across the LoC on Twitter. Sources in New Delhi said a pro-active strategy includes coordinated attacks along the LoC, which divides Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan. A series of continuous fire assaults  classified as punitive fire  have been carried out in the past few weeks.

Adequate freedom of action has been given to commanders on ground, sources said. The Army estimates that some 400-odd terrorists are in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and waiting to enter. These armed terrorists are located in launch pads on either side of the Pir-Panjal range that forms a massive ridge east-west axis across India and Pakistan dividing the terrain into distinct geographic features.

The number of terrorists is much more than the number last year, indicating a hot-summer ahead.

The Indian Army has used its posts at Balnoi, Sarla Mendhar, Laleali, Doda, Banwat, Kalal and Karen among others, to launch the fire assaults.

The Pakistan army has issued 35 red alerts to its forces, keeping in mind the firing from India. The frequency of visits by its 10 Corp commander Lt Gen Nadeem Raza has increased at Pakistan Army posts along the LoC while the village defence committees on their side have been activated.

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat addressing a press conference in New Delhi on January 12 had said: Ceasefire violation is part of our counter-terrorism strategy. Terrorists are a disposable commodity for Pakistan Army has to be victim of its actions. If there is a drop in infiltration, we can adhere to the ceasefire.

Terror, talks cant go together: Naidu

Endorsing Indias stance that terror and talks cannot go together, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said people advocating dialogue with Pakistan should understand that a conducive atmosphere is needed for such a move. We cant have talks with countries that have trained their guns at us. It is baffling that some educated leaders are suggesting that we have to engage in a dialogue with one of our neighbours who is by all accounts fomenting trouble and encouraging cross-border terrorism. We need to be clear about our countrys diplomatic stance and make it known to the world in subtle ways, Naidu said at a book release function at the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) in New Delhi. TNSrchopra@tribunemail.com

Mumbai, February 15

A 30-year-old man was killed in a fire at a godown in suburban Andheri early on Thursday, a fire brigade official said.

The godown, located on the sprawling premises of Mittal Industrial Estate on Andheri-Kurla Road, caught fire around 1.15 am, the official said.

Four fire engines and water tankers were pressed into service. The fire was doused after two hours and fire brigade personnel recovered the body of a man, the official said.

The victim, later identified as Pradeep Vishwakarma, was sleeping inside the godown when it caught fire, he added.

An investigation is on to know what started the fire, the official said. PTIgspannu7@gmail.com

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 15

With some BJP voices speculating about the authenticity of the controversial Nirav Modi photo in Davos, official sources have confirmed the jeweller is indeed seen in the same frame as Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

However, sources explained that Nirav Modi was not a part of the official delegation of the prime minister whose core team comprises of 10+1, including the leader himself, National Security Advisor, Foreign Secretary, Foreign Ministry spokesperson and senior officials in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and PMO (Prime Ministers Office) on most foreign tours.

The accompanying delegation has security personnel.

The prime minister after coming out of a meeting was asked to come for a photo shoot with some Indian business persons. Nirav Modi can be seen in the photograph but it was a less than a ten seconds photo shoot and there was no meeting between Nirav and the prime minister, claimed a government source.

The arrangement of the photo shoot was taken care of by DIPP (Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion) under the Commerce and Industry Ministry and Invest India  The National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency of GOI (Government of India), added the source.

Interestingly the photograph now in the eye of the storm was also tweeted by MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar during the PMs Davos visit on 23 January at 6.55 pm.

Together we can! PM Narendra Modi with Indian CEOs present at the #WorldEconomicForum working hand-in-hand towards a brighter future for the country. #IndiaMeansBusiness, wrote the spokesperson on Twitter as he posted the photograph, retweeted by several including Frank Noronha, the principal spokesperson of GOI.

Official sources also argued that any linking between the prime minister and Nirav based on this photograph would be incorrect as several industrialists and businesspersons attend the World Economic Forum each year in their personal capacity.monicakchauhan@gmail.com

New Delhi, February 15

The Congress and the AAP on Thursday alleged that the NDA government was looking the other way when billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi used his clout with the prime minister to slip out of the country and steal Rs 12,000 crore, drawing comparison with the case of liquor baron Vijay Mallya.

State-owned Punjab National Bank yesterday said that it had detected a US$ 1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400 crore) scam where Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from a branch in Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

"Guide to looting India by Nirav Modi--1. Hug PM Modi 2. Be seen with him in DAVOS. Use that clout to: A. Steal 12,000 crore B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the government looks the other way," Congress chief Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

Guide to Looting India

by Nirav MODI



1. Hug PM Modi

2. Be seen with him in DAVOS



Use that clout to:



A. Steal 12,000Cr

B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the Govt looks the other way.



#From1MODI2another  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 15, 2018

Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surejewala raised questions on whether Nirav Modi had been tipped off following which he left the country.

"Who is Nirav Modi? The new #ModiScam? Was he tipped off like Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya to escape by someone within the government," he asked.

Who is Nirav Modi? The new #ModiScam?



Was he tipped off like Lalit Modi & Vijay Mallya to escape by someone within the Govt?



Has it become the norm for letting people run away with public money?



Who is responsible?



Pl wait for AICC PC at 2 PM today.  Randeep S Surjewala (@rssurjewala) February 15, 2018

"Has it become the norm for letting people run away with public money? Who is responsible," Surjewala tweeted.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accused the Modi government of helping the prime accused in the Rs 11,515 crore PNB fraud, Nirav Modi, to flee from India.

"Is it possible to believe that he or Vijay Mallya left the country without active connivance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (government)?" the Aam Aadmi Party leader asked in a tweet.

Is it possible to believe that he or vijay mallya left the country without active connivance of BJP govt? https://t.co/6iMFf9VAkF  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 15, 2018



Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation booked Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nischal and maternal uncle Mehul Choksi for their alleged involvement in a cheating case of over Rs 280 crore.

IANS/PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Bijay Sankar Bora

Tribune News Service

Guwahati, February 15

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today lauded the roadmap prepared by Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on how the state should be in 2027.

Inaugurating the Dorjee Khandu State Convention Centre in Itanagar, Modi appreciated that inputs for the roadmap were taken not just from officials, but also from people. He also dedicated the state civil secretariat building to the public and laid the foundation of the academic block of the Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Science. He also renamed the New Delhi-Naharlagun Express as Arunachal Express.

Addressing a gathering, Modi said he always felt delighted to visit Arunachal Pradesh and be among the wonderful people of the state. The PM hailed the patriotic nature of the people of Arunachal, saying they greet each other with Jai Hind. He said the government was working towards building medical colleges in all parts of the country because when one studies in a particular area, one becomes better acquainted with the local health challenges.

He accused the UPA regime of neglecting the N-E and said his government has given priority to the region. (with agency inputs)harinder@tribunemail.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 15

Scam-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) today said it will take strong action against the culprits in the Rs 11,400-crore Nirav Modi fraud case.

PNB CMD Sunil Mehta said the bank detected the fraud and referred the matter to the law enforcement agencies. The bank in its full capacity will take every action to book wrongdoers. This fraud had started in 2011. Our bank detected it first and told the law enforcement agencies about this. PNB is fully committed to its clean banking policy. That is why we are the first ones to detect and report this to various law enforcement agencies, he said.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Mehta said it was a standalone incident confined to a single branch in Mumbai. All other branches have been scanned for fraudulent activity. The bank had informed lenders about the case, he said. We have issued advisory as well to them. We were the first to inform SEBI about this under the disclosure norms. So all these things are as per our clean banking agenda, Mehta added.

He said Nirav had made vague repayment offers. Nirav has not come out with any concrete plan to repay so far. But theyre coming out with some vague offers, which are under examination, said Mehta.amansharma@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, February 15

Political parties collected over Rs 1,500 crore during the five state assembly elections held last year but spent just Rs 494 crore, according to an analysis by ADR.

The figures are cumulative for five national and 16 regional parties put together during the polls to the assemblies of Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

"Total funds collected by the national parties during the five state assembly elections held in 2017 were Rs 1,314.29 crore and total expenditure incurred by the national parties was Rs 328.66 crore," a report by think-tank Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said.

Among the national parties, BJP mobilised the maximum fund of Rs 1,214.46 crore, which formed 92.4 per cent of the total funds collected at the central and state levels for the state assembly elections, the report said.

The central headquarters collected Rs 1,194.21 crore and BJP's Goa unit collected the second highest amount of about Rs 17 crore among various state units.

On the other hand, 16 regional parties collected about Rs 189 crore and shelled out Rs 166 crore.

Six regional parties have not submitted their election expenditure statements for any of the assembly elections that they contested in.

The report is based on the election expenditure statements submitted by political parties to the Election Commission of India.

Political parties received funds in the form of cash, cheques and demand drafts. They declare their expenditure under the heads of publicity, travel expenses, other/miscellaneous expenses and lumpsum amount paid to their contesting candidates.

The national parties spent a total of Rs 189.46 crore on publicity while the regional parties declared about Rs 111 crore under the same head, ADR said.

Interestingly, Congress, NCP and CPM are the three national parties whose state units have collected more funds than their central headquarters.

Congress has received Rs 62.09 crore from its state units, followed by Rs 0.61 crore received by state units of NCP and Rs 0.46 crore by CPM. Incidentally, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) declared that the party collected no funds at all.

Among the regional parties, Shiv Sena collected the maximum funds of about Rs 116 crore to contest in Goa, Punjab, UP and Uttarakhand assembly elections. This was followed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that received Rs 37.35 crore while contesting in Goa and Punjab.

"Despite contesting in three assembly elections (Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand), Shiv Sena declared that the party incurred no expenditure towards their election campaign in the states," the report noted.  PTIamansharma@tribunemail.com

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, February 15

Industrialist Ratan Tata on Thursday denied reports appearing in the Israeli media that he had entered into any business partnership with Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan, who is allegedly accused of bribing Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A statement issued on behalf of Tata by Tata Trusts said the Israeli establishment had sought the assistance of the Tata group in setting up a low-volume automotive assembly plant on the banks of the Jordan river as part of that countrys peace efforts with Palestine. The intention was to provide skilled employment to Palestinians. To be viable, the plan envisaged the establishment of a free trade corridor to Haifa to facilitate exports and offset higher logistics costs in Israel, the statement said.

According to Tata Trusts, the discussions on the project were directly held between a Tata team and the Israeli authorities and not with Arnon Milchan as has been reported in the Israeli media. Ratan Tata wishes to clarify once again that there has never been any partnership in any such project with Milchan, the statement added.

According to the statement the concept plan never reached the stage of detailed planning or costing as the peace initiative itself was not put in place because of which the car project died a natural death.

While on a visit to Tel Aviv on November 1, 2017 to address a conference on Mobility, Tata met a team of Israeli investigators at their request and enunciated these facts to them, the statement added.

Reports in the Israeli media had stated that Milchan was promoting a free-trade zone on the Israel-Jordan border as part of his partnership with Tata but against the advice of that countrys defence establishment.harinder@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, February 15

Is rape worth Rs 6,500? Thats how a shocked Supreme Court today asked the Madhya Pradesh government while questioning the state whether it was doing a charity by giving this meagre amount to the victims of sexual assaults.

The apex court said it was shocking that Madhya Pradesh, which was among the states that had received maximum funds from the Centre under the Nirbhaya Fund scheme, was disbursing Rs 6,000-6,500 only to each rape victim.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The Nirbhaya Fund scheme was announced by the Centre in 2013 after the sensational December 16, 2012, gang-rape and murder case in Delhi to support the initiatives of governments and the NGOs working for womens safety.

A Bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta, while perusing the affidavit filed by Madhya Pradesh, said, According to you (Madhya Pradesh) and your affidavit, on an average, you are paying Rs 6,000 to a rape victim. Are you doing a charity? How can you do so.... You value a rape at Rs 6,500?... this is total insensitiveness.

The Bench termed it shocking that despite getting the maximum amount under the Nirbhaya Fund, the state had only spent around Rs 1 crore on 1,951 rape victims. Twenty-four states and UTs are yet to file their affidavits.  PTIrchopra@tribunemail.com

Majuli (Assam), February 15

Two Indian Air Force pilots were killed as a plane crashed in this river island district on Thursday, a defence spokesperson said.

The microlight aircraft crashed soon after it took off from the Rowriah air base in Jorhat around 1.30 pm on a routine sortie, officials said.

The wreckage of the two-seater plane has been sighted and a court of inquiry ordered, the officials said in New Delhi.

Tezpur-based defence spokesperson Lt Col Harshvardhan Pande told PTI that the two pilots killed in the crash were identified as Wing Commander Jai Paul James and Wing Commander D Vats.

The pilots attempted an emergency landing but the aircraft crashed at a sand bar in the northern part of the district and went up in flames, the official said.

The crash took place at Dorbar Chapori in Majuli isle in the bosom of Brahmaputra.

People from other villages of the district spotted the aircraft going up in flames and informed the district authorities.

IAF personnel from the 10 Wing Air Force Station in Jorhat have rushed to the spot while police and senior officials of the district have also set out for the crash site which has to be reached by boat.

A senior IAF official said more details of the crash can only be obtained after the team reaches the site.  TNS/PTImonicakchauhan@gmail.com

Mumbai, February 15

Slamming Karnataka BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa over his remarks that Congress president Rahul Gandhi had consumed meat before visiting a temple Shiv Sena on Thursday said that discussing such issues during poll campaign shows the "sick mentality" of the "nervous" BJP.

Three days back, Yeddyurappa had hit out at Rahul Gandhi for reportedly visiting a temple after eating "Javari chicken" during his tour of northern parts of the poll-bound state.

"Congress president Rahul Gandhi gave the BJP family sleepless nights in Gujarat. It looks as if the same is going to be repeated in the Karnataka (Assembly elections). Rahul Gandhi visited a number of temples in Gujarat and offered prayers there. That time, the BJP criticised him severely, as it was worried about its own existence thinking what will happen if the Congress leader adopted Hindutva," the Sena, in an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana said.

Gandhi, during his election, had stopped at Kanakagiri in Koppal district and visited the Kanakachala Laxmi-Narasimha temple.

The write-up also claimed that the Congress will corner the BJP in the upcoming Karnataka elections, similar to what they did last year ahead of the Gujarat polls by adopting "soft Hindutva".

"Now, election rallies are being held in Karnataka and there is an exchange of allegations between the BJP and the Congress.

Like in Gujarat, Rahul Gandhi has been visiting mosques as well as temples in that state. This has angered the BJP's chief ministerial face, B S Yeddyurappa, who accused Gandhi of visiting a temple after consuming meat," the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said.

And though the Congress immediately issued a clarification saying that Rahul Gandhi had a vegetarian meal before visiting the temple, according to Shiv Sena, the whole incident only shows the new "low" that this election campaign has touched.

"Discussing such issues during the election campaign is a sign of sick mentality," the Sena noted.

The piece further read that one should not hurt people's religious sentiments, and also should not see what others were eating.

"Every religious place has its own customs and traditions. There are temples in Maharashtra where meat is offered to the deity...Raking up such issues in election campaigns displays a sick mentality.

Only they know what was there in Rahul Gandhi's plate. But we are sure that it has turned the BJP nervous," the party added.

The Sena said that instead of thinking about whether former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was a vegetarian or not, it was important to note that she divided Pakistan.

The Sena, in his mouth-piece, also hit out at Yeddyurappa over the violence at Karnataka border during his tenure as Karnataka chief minister.

"During 'vegetarian' Yedyurappa's tenure as the chief minister, the blood of Marathi speaking people living in Karnataka's border areas was shed after they were hit by violence. This violence is also a kind of non vegetarianism!" the Sena said. PTIeditorial@tribune.com

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 15

With the arrest of two youths, the city police solved the double murder in which a woman and her daughter were killed at Darshan Avenue here on February 6.

Those arrested were identified as Pankaj Sharma and his friend Neeraj Kumar, both residents of Guru Gobind Singh Nagar in Chheharta. Pankaj is a friend of deceased Gagan Vermas son Ridham Verma. He was a frequent visitor to the house.

Police Commissioner SS Srivastav said from the initial stages the police suspected the role of an insider as there were no signs of forced entry to the house. He said Pankaj needed money and therefore he went there with a bottle of chloroform with an intention of loot. He said the police also recovered some cash, gold ornaments and camera stolen from the house from their possession. The police also recovered the bike used in the crime.

Answering media queries about suspected rape attempt, Srivastava said though it was apparent from the circumstances that the accused attempted to rape the victims, but it was yet to be corroborated with the autopsy and forensic examination reports.

According to police sources, the accused tried to rape Gagan Verma after making her unconscious with chloroform but they got f rightened considering her dead. They also tried to rape Shivnaini. Later, in order to destroy the evidence, they set the bodies afire.

Bid to burn bodies

Gagan Verma and her daughter Shivnaini were found murdered at their residence in Darshan Avenue, near Golden Gate, in Amritsar in the wee hours of February 6. Before fleeing, the killers put the house on fire in a bid to burn the bodies. The matter came to light when a neighbour called the fire brigade. Gagan was a clerk in a government school in Jandiala, while Shivnaini was a student. Gagans son Ridham had gone to Canada a couple of months ago.laxmi@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 15

Social activist Anna Hazare has blamed the Central government for the plight of farmers and accused the BJP for failing to keep up its promises made before it came to power.

The Central government has failed to solve the problems of the farmers and the common people in its three-and-a-half year rule. In order to wake up the government, I will now start an agitation for which I need the support of the people of Uttarakhand, said Hazare today, while addressing a rally in Chamba (Tehri).

Anna lashed out at the Central government for failing to do enough for farmers. In the last 22 years around 12 lakh farmers have committed suicide.

He said that so far nine lakh research scientists have visited the village that he has developed in Raligan Siddhi (a sustainable village). The government too can take up the model and build such villages, he said.

Earlier, Anna Hazare, who arrived in Dehradun on Tuesday, addressed a rally in Rishikesh which was attended by large number of farmers. Anna will start an agitation in Delhi on March 23.pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Beijing, February 15

It is dangerous to advocate confrontation in relations between the United States and China, and wishful thinking to believe China will change the nature of its politics, Chinas ambassador in Washington was quoted as saying by state media on Thursday.

While US President Donald Trump made a largely successful and controversy-free visit to China late last year, Trump has repeatedly threatened to get tough on what he see as unfair Chinese trade practices, and has called on China to do more to rein in its nuclear-armed neighbour North Korea.

On Tuesday, Dan Coats, the director of US national intelligence, warned that Chinese cyber espionage and cyber attack capabilities would continue to support Chinas national security and economic priorities.

Speaking at an embassy reception for the Lunar New Year, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai said while the two countries did have their differences, what was more important was that their common interests continued to grow.

Sino-US ties should be characterised by overall cooperation, Cui was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.

Friendly competition, if competition is necessary, and no confrontation, he added.

We will continue to have differences between us, but our growing common interests are far more important. We may continue to have disagreements between us, but the need for cooperation will far outweigh any differences between us. Well continue to have problems, but dialogues will lead us to solutions. Still, China will not be forced to change, Cui said.

Its certainly paranoid to fear that a China that follows its own path of development would be confrontational to the United States. And its dangerous to advocate any strategy for confrontation, he added.

It would be wishful thinking to believe that some political or cultural genetic engineering could be done to change Chinas DNA.

Xinhua said attendees at the event included US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and White House National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs Matt Pottinger.

Other areas of disagreement include the disputed South China Sea, where the US Navy has sailed freedom of navigation missions to challenge Chinese claims there, and self-ruled Taiwan, claimed by China as its own but armed mostly by the United States. Reuterspardeepdhull@gmail.com

Lima, February 15

Five detainees at a juvenile centre in Perus northern city of Trujillo died on Thursday when a blaze broke out in the facility during a revolt, police said.

Right now, we know we have five people deadfive minors who have died. We are still at the site, police official Helber Ordonez told AFP.

There was a rebellion, he said.

Some detainees had set fire to mattresses in one part of the centre and as a result the blaze started, he said.

Thirty other detainees were hurt and were taken to hospital, emergency officials and local media said. Some were seen being carried to ambulances and municipal vans.

The fierce heat from the fire initially made it difficult for police to enter the facility, media reported.

It was not immediately known how many young offenders were in the Juvenile Diagnosis and Rehabilitation Centre in Trujillo, located 500 kilometres north of the capital Lima.

A couple of years ago, the establishments director complained that although the facility was built to hold 80 minors it had more than twice that crowded inside.

Peruvian television showed images of relatives gathered outside the centre, anxious for news of what was happening inside.

Please, we want to know the truth. There are people dead, they arent at the hospital. My son is inside, the mother of one detainee sobbed in a video posted by the newspaper Correo.

Columns of smoke were seen rising from the site, and it was reported fire crews had brought the flames under control after a three-hour operation.

Trujillo, Perus main northern city, has high a high crime rate, much of it linked to gangs and drug traffickers. Pope Francis visited the city in January during a South America tour.  AFPpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Parkland, Fla., February 15

The man accused of opening fire at a Florida high school on Wednesday, killing 17 people, was a troubled former student who loved guns and was expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons, police and former classmates said.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, was arrested about an hour after a shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters.

Cruz, who had been expelled from the school for reasons that have not been made public, was found with multiple ammunition magazines and one AR-15-style rifle, Israel said.

We already began to dissect his websites and the things on social media that he was on and some of the things that came to mind are very, very disturbing, Israel said.

Chad Williams, 18, a senior at Stoneman Douglas High school, remembered Cruz as a troubled classmate from middle school. He said Cruz would set off the fire alarm, day after day, and finally got expelled in the eighth grade.

More recently, Williams saw Cruz carrying several publications about guns when they ran into each other at the high school. Williams thought Cruz was there to pick up a younger sibling.

He was crazy about guns, Williams told Reuters by the side of the road near the high school. He was kind of an outcast. He didnt have many friends. He would do anything crazy for a laugh, but he was trouble.

Jillian Davis, 19, said she was in a school Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps with Cruz in the 9th grade. She remembered him as a quiet and shy young man who would almost change personality when angry. He talked a lot about guns and knives but no one took him seriously, she told Reuters.

I would say he was not the most normal or sane kid in JROTC. He definitely had a little something off about him. He was a little extra quirky, said Davis, who graduated from the school last year.

A little off

Math teacher Jim Gard told the Miami Herald Cruz had been banned from returning to campus while carrying a backpack.

There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus, Gard told the newspaper in an interview.

Administrators sent an email to teachers warning them about Cruz, Gard told the paper.

Another student, 17-year-old junior Dakota Mutchler, told reporters at a hotel in nearby Coral Springs that he hadnt spoken with Cruz in more than a year. Students were reuniting with their parents and friends at the hotel.

Mutchler said he declined to communicate with Cruz, a former friend, after the suspect contacted him two weeks ago on Snapchat.

Everybody that knew of him had a sort of suspicion about him, Mutchler said. Cruz had once told him he had used a pellet gun in his backyard for target practice, he said.

Travis Julmice, an 18-year-old senior, said he had not been in a class with Cruz since middle school.

You could tell he was a little off, Julmice told Reuters at the Coral Springs hotel. He was always like a troubled kid, getting in-school suspension a lot. And detentions. However, Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters outside the school after the shooting that the school had no indication Cruz was a danger.

Typically, you see in these situations that there potentially could have been signs out there, he said. But we didnt have any warnings, there werent any phone calls or threats that we know of that were made.

Runcie later said Cruz was still a student at Broward County Public Schools but declined to provide further details.

Israel said earlier Cruz may have been enrolled at Taravella High School in Coral Springs after his expulsion but the sheriff did not know if Cruz still attended Taravella. Reuterspardeepdhull@gmail.com

Kathmandu, February 15

CPN-UML chairperson K P Sharma Oli on Thursday became Nepals Prime Minister for the second time, over two months after his Left alliance routed the ruling Nepali Congress in the countrys historic parliamentary and local polls.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari appointed 65-year-old Oli as the countrys 41st Prime Minister.

Oli, who is known for his pro-China stance, had served as countrys Prime Minister from October 11, 2015 to August 3, 2016.

Olis PM candidacy was supported by the UCPN-Maoists, Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal, and Madhesi Rights Forum-Democratic along with 13 other small parties.

Earlier, former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had addressed the nation and submitted his resignation to the President.

Deuba was elected as the 40th Prime Minister on June 6 with the support from CPN (Maoist Centre) which is now a part of Left alliance and opting for merger with CPN-UML.

The elections of three tiers of government have been successfully held under my leadership setting the foundation to long transition, Deuba said in the television address.

The Left alliance of the CPN-UML, led by Oli and CPN-Maoist Centre, led by Prachanda, had in December secured 174 seats in the 275-member Parliament in the historic provincial and parliamentary polls that many hope will bring much-needed political stability to the Himalayan nation.

It had also secured an overwhelming majority in the upper house of Parliament with 39 out of the 59 seats. PTIgspannu7@gmail.com

Toulouse (France), February 15

Three French skiers were found dead on Thursday in the Pyrenees mountains after being buried by an avalanche in an off-piste area, a local official said.

The bodies of the three men from western France, aged between 29 and 38, were retrieved by rescue services this morning, the local government office in the resort of Cauterets said.

Another skier died in the resort of Gavarnie in the Pyrenees on Tuesday.

The mountain range between France and Spain has seen heavy snowfalls this year, as have the more popular Alps, leading to tempting but treacherous off-piste conditions where most accidents happen, local authorities warned.  AFPAfter days of jury deliberation, three of the four former Pilot Flying J sales employees indicted for their roles in a fuel-rebate scam that defrauded trucking companies of millions of dollars have been found guilty, according to a report in the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Former Pilot Flying J executive vice president Mark Hazelwood and sales representative Heather Jones were found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud. Former Pilot Flying J president Scott Wombold was found guilty of a single count of wire fraud. Hazelwood was also found guilty of witness tampering, and another count of fraud.

Only former sales representative Karen Mann was found not guilty of all charges by the jury. Sentencing is scheduled for June 27.

The jury was expected to hand out convictions on Feb. 14, but was deadlocked on one of the charges. It took until late in the day on Feb. 15 for the jury to finally the verdicts to come in.

The trial began in November of last year. Jurors sat through 19 days of testimony in the Chattanooga, Tenn., courtroom. The four on trial were just the latest Pilot Flying J employees to be charged in connection with the fuel-rebate scam. Fourteen other employees have pled guilty for their various roles.

The fraud case dates back to 20212 when the FBI discovered that Pilot Flying J sales employees were operating a fuel-rebate scam that victimized trucking companies. The trucking companies were promised certain amounts back in rebates, but sales staff would reduce the amount at a later date to increase profits. The FBI found that over the course of several years, Pilot Flying J defrauded as many as 5,500 customers of more than $56 million in owed rebates that were not paid.

Pilot Flying J reached settlement agreements with the authorities and customers in 2014, for $179 million in total.University of Houston College of Nursing students showing school pride on the job.

The top-ranked nursing program in Texas is University of Houston College of Nursing, according to RegisteredNursing.org, a nursing advocacy organization dedicated to promoting excellence in nursing.

The organization made its selection based on the programs that supports students towards licensure and beyond. They ranked the top 50 nursing programs in Texas by analyzing current and historical pass rates of the Registered Nurse National Council Licensure Examination.

UH College of Nursing boasts a 100 percent pass rate for the last three years, placing the program in the top 5 percent in the nation. The scores were very close to perfect for two years prior to that.

As one of the newer baccalaureate programs in the state of Texas, weve had a remarkable five years of growth and excellence, said Kathryn Tart, professor and founding dean of the college.

For registered nurses who want to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing, UH offers the RN-BSN program online and at the UH Sugar Land and UH campuses. Additionally, students who currently hold an unencumbered Texas RN license may pursue the Master of Science in the nursing program online. The college also offers the Second Degree BSN program at UH Sugar Land for those who have completed a four-year university degree and want to become a nurse. For more information go to http://www.uh.edu/nursing/

RegisteredNursing.org reviewed programs that offer an associates degree in nursing (ADN/ASN), Bachelor of Science in nursing (BSN) and direct-entry Masters of Science in nursing degree.

About the University of Houston

The University of Houston is a Carnegie-designated Tier One public research university recognized by The Princeton Review as one of the nation's best colleges for undergraduate education. UH serves the globally competitive Houston and Gulf Coast Region by providing world-class faculty, experiential learning and strategic industry partnerships. Located in the nation's fourth-largest city, UH serves more than 45,000 students in the most ethnically and culturally diverse region in the country.facebook like button Tweet tweet button for twitter

Published February 15, 2018 (Revised February 20)

The University of Louisiana Monroe Campus Activities Board (CAB) and Student Government Association will host a special presentation with former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young Jr. on Tuesday, February 27 at 7 p.m. in Brown Auditorium.

Ambassador Young will also give a guest lecture for political and social science students in the SUB on February 27 at 3 p.m.

The evening will feature a question and answer format as well as a keynote presentation.

"We're excited for the ULM community to hear from such a prominent figure not only in Black history but American history," said Brea Joyner, Coordinator of Student Activities and CAB adviser.

The event is $5 for public free for students, faculty and staff. Tickets available online only and should be reserved or purchased in advance.

UPDATED: TICKET INFORMATION

All tickets MUST be purchased online. Tickets are REQUIRED to gain entry to Brown Auditorium.

General Admission: https://tinyurl.com/y8wvr5zu

If you already have a ULM Warhawks athletics account, you do not have to create an account. Simply log-in with your account details and select the print at home option.

Students, Faculty, and Staff: https://tinyurl.com/ybnfc3vo

Passcode: To claim your free ticket, enter your CWID.

After adding the ticket to the cart, you can use your school email address and you do not have to create an account. Simply use your ULM email address and your my.ulm.edu password and select the print at home option upon checkout.

For more information, contact Brea Joyner at bjoyner@ulm.edu.The Asia-Pacific region has long been synonymous with economic dynamism. Over the last few decades, the volume of capital and trade flows has ballooned in the region, and hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. By some estimates, Asia Pacific will become the worlds largest economic region by 2030. The centrality of trade and foreign direct investment to Asias economic growth now means that consumer concerns and business ethics take centre stage for many Asian states.

Against the backdrop of rapid economic development, however, the region has witnessed a growing trend in the violation of human rights by companies in their business operations in three key areas: environmental, labour and land rights. This has been exemplified by contaminated water sources from steel plants in Ha Thinh in Vietnam, illegal deforestation in Malaysian Borneo, and the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh.

Companies have resorted to illegal land appropriation against indigenous peoples in Papua province in Indonesia, whilst economic growth has translated into the violation of workers rights in the Thai seafood industry. Such violations require innovative, regional solutions that foster local ownership.

UNDP Asia-Pacific has worked since 2014 to address this. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), unanimously adopted by the Human Rights Council in 2011, provide a framework that enhances standards and practices in addressing adverse business impacts on human rights conditions.

At UNDP, we advocate for the implementation of the UNGPs with governments, business, civil society and indigenous peoples groups. This work has been conducted through the organization of multi-sector stakeholder dialogue and hybrid capacity-building events.

In addition, we work closely with National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) to improve their capacity, in particular their promotion and protection systems, to handle business and human rights cases. This enables NHRIs to effectively tackle national and transboundary cases and function as strong mediators for rights-holders. We also seek to facilitate a process of peer-learning between states.

UNDP has achieved significant success in Southeast Asia, cooperating with governments to develop National Action Plans (NAPs) on business and human rights. Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand received technical support in developing NAPs. Malaysia and Thailand are two of the first Asian nations to begin development of NAP drafting processes, closely followed by Indonesias incorporation of a business and human rights component into a wider human rights strategy.

UNDPs Southeast Asia Parallel Session Speakers at the UN Global Forum on Business and Human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland on 29 November 2017. Photo: Victoria de Mello/UNDP

Such success was showcased at the 2017 UN Global Forum on Business and Human Rights, held in Geneva, Switzerland in November. The progress of Southeast Asia in addressing business impacts on human rights was underlined in UNDPs parallel session, where representatives from all three nations highlighted their experiences.

Pivotal to this success has been the rise in peer learning between partner governments, serving to fuel the regional race to the top towards NAPs. While UNDPs technical support was vital in the early stages of kick-starting the business and human rights agenda in their countries, experience-sharing between Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand has provided a catalytic effect on progress. Malaysian representatives were informed on the methodology needed to conduct baseline assessments and the drafting process of an NAP, while Thai officials got assistance in linking their business and human rights work within the wider framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Later, the Indonesian delegation would enquire about Malaysias help in drafting their own strategic framework with a business and human rights component.

This experience-sharing exercise increases state ownership of business and human rights work within countries and fuels a relationship of simultaneous cooperation and healthy competition in the region. Crucially, this facilitates increased political will for state action against business violations of environmental, labour and land rights.

The success of peer-learning in Southeast Asia has generated significant interest in UNDPs work on business and human rights, with officials from South Asian states requesting technical support from UNDP and Southeast Asian states in beginning their own NAPs. This subsequently raises the possibility of exporting this model to other regions through South-South cooperation.

Learn more about UNDPs work on business and human rights in Asia.UNHCR Special Envoy for Somalia, Ambassador Mohamed Abdi Affey and UNHCR Regional Representative for Southern Africa, Ms. Sharon Cooper (right) with the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Hon. Fatima Chohan in Cape Town on 7 February 2018.  UNHCR/B. Robertson.

PRETORIA, South Africa  The generosity of the South African government has ensured that over 300,000 refugees and asylum-seekers live in the country in a free and safe environment, noted UNHCR Special Envoy to the Somalia Refugee Situation.

South Africa has a generous policy that grants asylum seekers and refugees free movement, access to jobs and public services, said Ambassador Mohamed Abdi Affey during a recent visit to South Africa.

The Special Envoy visited Pretoria and Cape Town from 05 to 09 February and met with Government officials, the Ambassador of Somalia to South Africa and representatives from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, donors and partner agencies.

He also gave media interviews and met with Somali refugee leaders who gave him first-hand information on the challenges that Somali refugees and asylum-seekers are facing in South Africa including xenophobia, difficulties in accessing the asylum documentation as well as long asylum processes.

Somalia should not be forgotten.

During his meeting with the Deputy Minister for Home Affairs, Hon. Fatima Chohan, Ambassador Affey expressed UNHCRs gratitude to South Africa for providing asylum space for hundreds of thousands, including nearly 32,000 Somali refugees and asylum-seekers. He especially lauded the Government for its progressive policies that "UNHCR is also promoting with other countries in the region."

Somalia should not be forgotten, he urged as he appealed to the South African Government to support the ongoing peace and reconstruction efforts inside the war ravaged country.

UNHCR Special Envoy to Somalia (centre) in discussions with Somali refugee leaders in Johannesburg.  UNHCR/M. Aikomus

Nearly three decades since the start of the Somalia crisis, close to one million Somalis are exiled in the Horn of Africa region.

Despite many positive developments in Somalia, the country remains fragile and requires continued support from the international community, added the Special Envoy.

He noted that Somalia not only requires financial aid to rebuild shelters, schools and other infrastructure inside the country but also durable solutions for Somali refugees in the region through local integration and third country resettlement.

Although the situation in Somalia is not yet conducive for large scale voluntary repatriation, UNHCR is providing assistance to those individuals who have made the decision to return. Some Somalis in South Africa have expressed interest in eventually returning to Somalia; however, most of them prefer to wait until the situation in the country stabilizes.

UNHCR provides technical support to the Government of the Republic of South Africa to enhance the protection of refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless people by working within national, political, economic and social structures to bring policies, practices and laws into compliance with international standards.

This kind of support is crucial as it assists refugees and asylum-seekers to integrate locally and contribute productively to the local communities.

The Special Envoy applauded the cohesive nature of the Governments partnership with UNHCR and other aid agencies, particularly in helping refugees to find jobs and various sources of income. The livelihood support programmes in place help refugees with micro-grants for businesses, empowerment of womens skills, local language training and vocational skills training.

This kind of support is crucial as it assists refugees and asylum-seekers to integrate locally and contribute productively to the local communities.Libya: Deaf Eritrean artist evacuated to safety

Amanuel is an Eritrean refugee and artist, and has been on a difficult and dangerous journey. The 25-year-old has been deaf and mute since birth, but he expresses much through his drawings, including compassion and hope for the future. UNHCR on Wednesday evacuated Amanuel from detention in Libya, and toward safety in Italy, part of a three-month operation that has led to the evacuation of more than 1,000 extremely vulnerable individuals to third countries.UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi meets Syrian refugee women who are members of a women's solidarity group.  UNHCR/Claire Thomas

ANKARA, Turkey  UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi on Thursday praised Turkeys generosity in hosting more than 3.5 million refugees from the war in Syria, calling for greater support for the country in its role as host to the worlds largest refugee population.

In a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the capital, Ankara, Grandi expressed his gratitude for Turkeys hospitality towards Syrian refugees, and its policy of inclusion by providing access to education, health care and employment.

Turkey and its people have provided safety and refuge to millions of Syrians fleeing war and destruction back home, the High Commissioner said. As a host to more refugees than many of the worlds major economies combined, the international community must do its part to support Turkeys continuing generosity.

Turkey plays host to hundreds of thousands who flee conflict and instability (Edith Champagne, producer / Houssam Hariri, camera-editor)

Besides more than 3.5 million refugees from the seven-year conflict in Syria, Turkey also plays host to hundreds of thousands who fled conflict and instability in countries including Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

About 70 per cent of Turkeys refugee population consists of women and children. More than 90 per cent of refugees in the country live outside camps in urban and rural areas alongside their Turkish hosts.

During his visit, the High Commissioner highlighted some of the steps taken by the government to include Syrian refugees in services. Syrians were granted the right to work in 2016 and, while the language barrier presents a challenge for many in finding a job, the authorities have organised language courses and vocational training.

Life in Turkey is beautiful.

With almost 1 million school-age Syrians living in the country, a campaign to encourage them back to school meant enrolment levels doubled in the 2017-18 academic year to 60 per cent, mostly in public schools. The government aims to reach 100 per cent enrolment with the support of the international community.

In discussions with senior Turkish officials, including the ministers of foreign affairs, interior, and family and social policies, on solutions for refugees, in addition to the steps taken with respect to social inclusion, both sides underlined the importance of availability of options for resettlement and legal pathways and voluntary return once conditions allow.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi meets Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.  Courtesy of Turkish Government

Grandi described Turkeys inclusive legal framework towards refugees as a positive example that would help to shape UNHCRs drafting of a comprehensive global compact on refugees, due to be presented to the UN General Assembly later this year.

He expressed dismay that the numbers of refugees being resettled in third countries had decreased and called on governments to share responsibility with Turkey and other large refugee hosting countries by offering more places.

The High Commissioner commended Turkey for its role as a global humanitarian actor, particularly for its support for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

A day earlier, Grandi met with some of the 540,000 Syrian refugees currently living in Turkeys largest city Istanbul. As well as young entrepreneurs and students studying at Turkish universities, the High Commissioner spoke with members of a Syrian womens support group who told him of their hopes and challenges.

Hevin, a 30-year-old mother of three from Aleppo, came to Turkey with her family in 2013. She described the difficulties she faced during her first few years in exile, recovering from the trauma of conflict and displacement inside Syria while struggling to survive in Istanbul on limited resources.

Life in Turkey is beautiful, but Istanbul is very expensive, she said. In the beginning we barely had enough to cover our basic costs, but since we began receiving cash assistance of 600 Turkish Lira (US$159) a month, now I can afford a few extras for my kids.

We must strive to support them as much as possible.

Hevin said her only priority was to provide a secure future for her three young children and she was grateful that her two school-aged sons were able to go to public school. She said integrating into Turkish classes had been difficult for her Arabic-speaking boys.

Grandi acknowledged the economic and social challenges she and others faced, and pledged that UNHCR would continue to work with the Turkish authorities to help them.

Turkey has extended hospitality and protection to three and a half million Syrian refugees, who have benefited  as the refugees also said during our conversation  from stability and peace, he said.

But their lives  especially in a big city like Istanbul  are also full of struggles: the language barrier, education challenges, legal problems and financial issues, because the resources are so limited. So we must strive to support them as much as possible to improve their lives, he added.UNHCR staff greet refugees on arrival at Pratica di Mare military airport after an evacuation flight from Libya in December 2017.  UNHCR/Alessandro Penso

Since November, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has evacuated over 1,000 highly vulnerable refugees out of Libya and is looking for durable solutions for them in third countries. On Tuesday, a flight departed from Tripoli bound for, Niamey, Niger, carrying 128 refugees and on Wednesday, a second plane took 150 refugees from Tripoli to Rome, Italy, bringing to 1,084 the total number of refugees evacuated since the beginning of UNHCRs operation, three months ago.

These evacuations have provided a new chance at life for more than 1,000 refugees who were detained in Libya and suffered tremendously. By the end of 2018, we hope to evacuate thousands more, said Vincent Cochetel, UNHCRs special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean.

With the cooperation of UNHCRs partners and thanks to the crucial support of the government of Niger, the 128 refugees evacuated to Niger on Tuesday, 13 February, are being accommodated in guesthouses in Niamey, where assistance and psychosocial support are made available pending resettlement or other durable solutions. So far, 770 refugees have been evacuated to Niger, including single mothers, families and unaccompanied and separated children.

The 150 highly vulnerable refugees who were evacuated from Tripoli to Rome on Wednesday included children and women who had been held captive for long periods of time. This was the second evacuation from Libya directly to Italy and could not have happened without the strong commitment of the Italian authorities and the support of the Libyan Government. In total, 312 refugees have been evacuated directly to Italy. Upon arrival in Rome, refugees go through medical checks and are provided with warm clothes and a hot meal before undergoing identification procedures. The refugees are then transferred to various reception facilities.

These evacuations are the best example of the impact that international solidarity can have on refugees themselves; however, much more needs to be done. Only 16,940 resettlement places have been received so far for the 15 priority countries of asylum along the Central Mediterranean route, including Libya and Niger. We call on all countries to come forth with additional places that will provide a tangible solution for many more refugees who are still in Libya, added Cochetel.

Please find video B-roll and UNHCR interview of refugee arrivals from Libya to Italy at the following link here.





For more information on this topic, please contact:Eritrean refugee Amanuel is inseparable from his drawing pens, whiling away the time by sketching his surroundings and companions, and dreaming of Europe.

The naturally gifted artist, who is deaf and mute, fled to Libya with his cousin Aounif more than a year ago. He claims he was persecuted in his homeland and hoped to reach safety in Europe. However, as they tried to cross the Mediterranean, their boat was intercepted and they have been held in a detention center for the past three months.

The cousins are among 150 refugees evacuated by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, on a flight to Rome on Wednesday. A day earlier, a plane carrying 128 left for Niamey, Niger.

"We are very happy."

Since November, UNHCR has evacuated more than 1,000 highly vulnerable refugees from Libya and hopes they can be resettled in third countries.

These evacuations have provided a new chance at life for more than 1,000 refugees who were detained in Libya and suffered tremendously, said Vincent Cochetel, UNHCRs special envoy for the Central Mediterranean. By the end of 2018, we hope to evacuate thousands more.

With the cooperation of UNHCRs partners and support from of the Niger government, the 128 refugees flown to Niger on Tuesday are being accommodated in guest houses in Niamey. So far, 770 refugees have been evacuated to Niger, including single mothers, families and unaccompanied and separated children.

A group of 150 refugees arrive in Rome with UNHCR.  UNHCR/Valerio Muscella

UNHCR staff assist vulnerable refugees as they leave the plane.  UNHCR/Valerio Muscella

The naturally gifted artist fled to Libya with his cousin.  UNHCR/Valerio Muscella

The 150 refugees included children and women who had been held captive.  UNHCR/Valerio Muscella

Since November, UNHCR has evacuated more than 1,000 highly vulnerable refugees from Libya.  UNHCR/Valerio Muscella

The 150 refugees flown to Rome included children and women who had been held captive for long periods of time. In total, 312 refugees have been evacuated to Italy.

Aounif said his cousin hoped he would be able to receive treatment for his deafness in Europe, as well as training to become a professional artist.

Speaking for both of them, Aounif said: We are very happy, we cannot believe this is happening to us, especially because we tried to go to Italy by sea before.Dailyhunt appoints Umang Bedi as president (WITH PHOTO)

New Delhi, Feb 15 (UNI) Umang Bedi, former Managing Director of Facebook for India and South Asia on Thursday joined Dailyhunt as President.

Verse Innovation Private Limited, creators of Dailyhunt, a news and regional language content app, stated in its release that ''move was taken in the wake of Dailyhunt's emergence as 80 million users spend over 6 billion minutes on the app each month. The platform offers over 250,000 news articles in 14 languages licensed from thousands of content partners and contributors every day. It provides original video content in Hindi and Telugu, free live television streaming service with 130+ channels across 9 languages through a strategic partnership with Vuclip and YuppTV, market leaders in the over-the-top (OTT) video content space.

A study by KPMG and Google titled Indian languages Defining Indias Internet highlights that by 2021, regional language users will account for 75 per cent of Indias Internet user base. 90 per cent of the new internet users in India in the next 5 years will be Indian language users growing by 230 per cent to 536 million users in 2021.

Mr Bedi, the Harvard Business School Alumnus, contributions were instrumental in India emerging as amongst the largest markets for Facebook globally. Having led global enterprises such as Adobe, Intuit, Symantec in India and South Asia, Mr Bedi has championed collaborative cross-functional management. He has been the recipient of coveted awards including - Fortune India 40 Under 40, GQ's 50 Most Influential Young Indians and 40 Under 40 by the Economic Times, stated the release.

UNI DJK ADG 2055Guinea-Bissau: Pol crisis requires continued UN presence

United Nation, Feb 15 (UNI) The United Nations will need to focus its efforts on supporting Guinea-Bissaus national leaders in their efforts to appoint an acceptable Prime Minister, establish an inclusive Government, organise and conduct timely elections, and implement the priority reforms, a UN envoy for the West African country has said.

After several years of long-term investment in the stability of Guinea-Bissau, it is time to consolidate and reap the dividends of our concerted efforts. It is vital that we accompany this process to its completion, Modibo Ibrahim Toure, the Secretary-Generals Special Representative in Guinea-Bissau told the Security Council on Wednesday.

Mr Toure stressed the importance for the Council to continue to reaffirm the centrality of the Conakry Agreement, reiterating its support to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in its mediation efforts.Intellectual Property Discussion for Businesses Feb. 23 at UW

Two experts on intellectual property will discuss how to cost-effectively leverage those new ideas and innovations for business success Friday, Feb. 23, from 10-11:30 a.m. at the University of Wyomings Wyoming Technology Business Center.

Garth Rademaker, supervisory patent examiner at the Rocky Mountain Regional U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and Karen Kitchens, state publications and intellectual property librarian for the Wyoming State Library, will participate in a roundtable conversation on how startups, small businesses, independent inventors and entrepreneurs can identify and protect intellectual property to create an organizations value. This can be done with a well-formed strategy that includes multiple tools: patents, copyrights, trade secrets and trademarks.

The two experts also will be available for one-on-one discussions immediately following the presentation. There is no charge.

The event is sponsored by the Wyoming Small Business Development Center (WSBDC) Network.

Rademaker graduated from the University of Virginia with degrees in psychology and studio art. After working for a number of years as a web designer and developer, he joined the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2005. As a patent examiner in designs, he examined applications for the designs of articles as varied as bottle openers, flowerpots and toner cartridges. In 2014, he was promoted to supervisory patent examiner, overseeing Art Unit 2911. Also, in 2014, he began working with the Patent Training Academy, where he has had a significant role in the training of all new design examiners. He joined the Rocky Mountain Regional U.S. Patent and Trademark Office management team in 2017 where, in addition to continuing his role with Art Unit 2911 and work with the Patent Training Academy, he regularly participates and speaks at outreach events across the region.

Kitchens has a bachelors degree in political science from the University of Akron and a Master of Library Science degree from Texas Womans University. At the Wyoming State Library, she is primarily responsible for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Resource Center Program and the Wyoming State Publication Repository Program. She conducts basic patent- and trademark-searching education for all patrons across the state and promotes public awareness of both collections. She joined the State Library team in 2009. Before that, she worked as a reference librarian at the Laramie County Library System.

WSBDC Network programs and services are provided to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis. Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made, if requested at least two weeks in advance. Language assistance services for clients with limited English proficiency will be provided. For further information, call Kelly Haigler Cornish at (307) 766-2904.

WSBDC Network is a business consulting group consisting of the Wyoming Small Business Development Center, Procurement Technical Assistance Center, Market Research Center and Wyoming SBIR/STTR Initiative. Its mission is to help Wyoming entrepreneurs succeed. Consulting and most market research services are free of charge to Wyoming residents. The WSBDC Network is funded, in part, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. Additional support is provided by the Wyoming Business Council and UW.

For further information, go to www.wyomingsbdc.org.Wild Author Cheryl Strayed to Visit UW March 22

Best-selling author Cheryl Strayed will speak at the University of Wyoming Thursday, March 22. (Joni Kabana Photo)

Cheryl Strayed, the best-selling author of the memoir Wild, will visit the University of Wyoming for a public lecture and book signing Thursday, March 22.

Her lecture, A Wild Life, will be at the College of Arts and Sciences auditorium at 5 p.m. Doors will open at 4 p.m. There are no tickets for this event; it is free and open to the public.

The book signing will be hosted by the University Store after the lecture in the Arts and Sciences Building lobby.

UWs departments of English and Visual and Literary Arts, with the support of the College of Arts and Sciences deans office, sponsor the authors appearance.

I hope this visit by Strayed attracts fans not just from UW and Laramie, but from all over the state and northern Colorado, says Professor Brad Watson, program director for UWs Creative Writing Program in the Department of Visual and Literary Arts. Cheryl is a thrilling writer and speaker.

Strayed also will participate in two question-and-answer sessions with students in English and creative writing during her visit to UW.

Wild was a No. 1 New York Times best-seller and was adapted into an Oscar-nominated movie.

Wild was a No. 1 New York Times best-seller, chosen by Oprah Winfrey as her first selection for Oprahs Book Club 2.0. The Oscar-nominated movie adaptation of the book stars Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl and Laura Dern as Cheryls mother, Bobbi. The film was directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, with a screenplay by Nick Hornby.

Strayed also is the author of New York Times best-sellers Tiny Beautiful Things and Brave Enough, along with the novel Torch. Her books have been translated into 40 languages, and her essays have been published in The Best American Essays, the New York Times, the Washington Post Magazine, Vogue, Salon, The Sun, Tin House and elsewhere.

Not only is Wild a searing account of wrestling with her demons through her grueling solo hike of the Pacific Crest Trail, but her writing as Dear Sugar in Tiny Beautiful Things contains some of the most empathetic literary engagements with human suffering you are ever likely to read, says Peter Parolin, associate professor in UWs Department of English. We are lucky, indeed, to spend time with her at UW this spring.

Strayed is the co-host, along with Steve Almond, of the WBUR podcast Dear Sugar Radio, which originated with her popular Dear Sugar advice column on The Rumpus. Strayed received her Master of Fine Arts in fiction writing from Syracuse University and a bachelors degree from the University of Minnesota. She lives in Portland, Ore.Sunrise presented by Vancouver Sun

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We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againEntrance to the Empire State Building, New York City

Facing north on Fifth Ave., at 54th St., NYC

Facing north on Sixth Avenue, at about 42nd St, NYC

Greenwich Village at the interection of W8th Street and 6th Avenue, looking south

Looking up at the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, NYC

Lush Life was a restaurant and jazz club on Thompson Street at Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, NYC

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, New York City

Manhattan from Liberty Island, New York

NYC street scene

NYC street scene

NYC street scene

Reflected buildings, New York City

Saint Marks Place, New York City

St. Marks Cinema in Manhattans East Village, on the corner of St. Marks Place and Second Avenue

St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York City

Statue of Liberty, NYC

The Back Fence music bar on Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, New York

The Dakota apartment building in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City

The entrance to a New York City subway station

The Hotel Chelsea neon sign, West 23rd Street, NYC

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City

Twin Towers from Liberty Island, New York

View from the Empire State Building, New York

View from the Empire State Building, New York

View from the Empire State Building, New York

View from the Empire State Building, New York

View from the enclosed observation deck of the World Trade Center, New York City

Yellow Cab driver, New York City

A protest against Iranian's religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini, New York City

Chelsea Hotel on West 23rd Street, NYC

City Diner, New York City

Dog on a fire hydrant, New York City

East 17th Street & Broadway, NYC

In many ways, New York City is a very different place to how it was in the 1970s and early 1980s. I first visited Manhattan in 1982 when parts of the city looked semi-derelict. It was edgy and sometimes dangerous, but the city also had a character that has been buried by property developers and chain stores.Hanging-out in Greenwich Village record stores, braving the subway, not making eye contact with anyone and watching movies at St. Marks Cinema are all in the past. But great cities like New York and London never stand still for long, they are constantly changing.London-based photographer Paul Wright took these fascinating photos of New York City's street scenes when he visited there in 1982 and 1983.Three students in a boarding house room, from the book Daughters of Aesculapians, c.1890.

International students Anandabai Joshee, Kei Okami, and Tabat Islambooly, photographed at the Deans Reception on October 10, 1885.

Operating room, North College Avenue, early 1890s.

The Womans Medical College of Pennsylvania class of 1891.

Medical students training in 1892.

Four members of the class of 1893.

Womans Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1895.

Students with skeletons, c.1895.

Alice R. Evans and Dr. Hill, an eye, ear and throat doctor, examining a skull, 1896.

Four graduates, along with a skull and some bones, from the scrapbook of Laura Heath Hills, class of 1896.

A brain anatomy demonstration, 1897.

Alice Evans scrapbook with dissection images, c.1898.

Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania operating amphitheater, 1915.

Ella B. Everitt lecturing, 1915.

The Womans Medical College of Pennsylvania, founded in 1850 as the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, was the first medical school in the world for women authorized to award them the M.D. It was established in Philadelphia by a group of progressive Quakers and a businessman who believed that women had a right to education and would make excellent physicians. Renamed the Womans Medical College in 1867, the school trained thousands of women physicians from all over the world, many of whom went on to practice medicine internationally.The college provided rare opportunities for women to teach, perform research, manage a medical school, and, with the establishment of Womans Hospital in 1861, learn and practice in a hospital setting. It was the longest-lasting all-women medical school in the nation, until it became coeducational in 1970, admitting four men into what became the Medical College of Pennsylvania.The Womans Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP) was founded during an era of reform, just two years after the first womans rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York, asserted womens rights to an education and a profession, among other rights. The colleges founders, early supporters, faculty, and earliest students reflected this reform mindset. The founders and early faculty included Quaker and non-Quaker activists for prison reform, abolition, and temperance.Here, below is a collection of rare and amazing vintage photographs that capture student life at the Womans Medical College of Pennsylvania from between the 19th and early 20th centuries:(Photos  Drexel Med ArchivesBAC A BANKs vice chairwoman and general director Thai Huong visits the high-tech dairy production project in Russia under the banks consultancy

Two weeks ago, BAC A BANK was given the Best Corporate Advisory Board of Vietnam award by International Finance Magazine (IFM), a publication reputable as a rich source of information, analyses, and insights for the global financial community. Meanwhile, the banks founder Thai Huong also won the Most Inspirational CEO of the Year award from the London-based IFM.

The first award mirrors the banks unique operational strategy, which provides investment consultancy for corporate clients engaged in high-tech agricultural projects, rural development, and social security.

The consultancy has greatly supported many enterprises to implement community-oriented high-tech projects which produce safe foodstuffs, fresh milk, and herbs, or building international-standard hospitals and schools in Vietnam.

Thai Huong was also recognised by IFM as the outstanding leader who has driven the bank to this new development strategy, which is in line with the Fourth Industrial Revolution surging in Vietnam and the world.

In order to have successful projects, we pursue a clear vision, a suitable strategy, and a particularly strong sense of community, Thai Huong said.

We should employ Vietnams brainpower and high technology to awaken the countrys natural resources in order to create high-quality products for the Vietnamese people. High technology is a golden key to agricultural development. We cannot do projects without high technology.

At a recent conference of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc mentioned Thai Huong as a businesswoman inspiring local enterprises to deploy high-tech agricultural projects.

Amid the Fourth Industrial Revolution, these projects are expected to help significantly change Vietnams agricultural sector, which remains backward, the prime minister said. TH Groups projects, for example, have been making considerable contributions to the sector.

Since 2008, under BAC A BANKs consultancy, TH Group has been operating a $1.2 billion high-tech concentrated dairy and fresh milk production project in Nghe An province.

This project, recognised by the Asian Record Organisation as the largest concentrated high-tech-applying dairy farm complex in Asia, has helped TH Group take over 40 per cent of Vietnams fresh milk market share. The group has won many world-class awards, with its TH true MILK having become a famous Vietnamese brand name.

Currently, TH Group is also building a $2.7 billion high-tech concentrated dairy and fresh milk production project in Russia. This project also receives investment consultancy from BAC A BANK. The first product is scheduled to be marketed in Russia in 2018.

Besides milk projects, TH Group, under the banks consultancy, has also been effectively implementing projects to produce organic vegetables, fruit, and herbs with many brand names in Vietnam.

On December 28, 2017, the bank listed on the Hanoi Stock Exchanges Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) with the stock code B.A.B, at a price tag of VND20,000 ($0.9) per share. The bank offered 500 million shares to the market.

As of December 25, 2017, the banks total assets were nearly VND90 trillion ($4.09 billion), its deposits totalled VND64.25 trillion ($2.92 billion), and its loans were valued at VND54.65 trillion ($2.48 billion), while its bad debt sat at a low rate of 0.65 per cent.Real estate continues to attract investors from all over the world with its high yield potential, Photo: Le Toan

Cantonese Leung Kai Sun Sunny was eager to study a range of real estate projects around Ho Chi Minh City. A long-term investor, Sunny wanted to seek out the ideal property project that ensures long-running benefits.

Sunny had previously bought two units in Vista Verde and two others in Felix en Vista  both high-end residential projects invested in by CapitaLand Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City.

With experience in many other countries in the region, Sunny realised that investing in Vietnam was bringing higher benefits than elsewhere.

The expense of buying land plots and construction activities in other countries like China and Japan is very high, leading to the fact that the price to end-users or homeowners is also very high, mostly three to four times higher than in Vietnam, Sunny told VIR in an interview.

Then we have individual investors like me who are paying close attention to the benefits, which pays off. I would say that investors might face higher risk in other markets like China and Japan, where the investment cost for every project is very high, he added.

Chen Lian Pang, general director of CapitaLand Vietnam, said that in some projects, the company took only 5 per cent of the profit, while the same project in Hong Kong or Singapore could drive 30 to 40 per cent of profits to the developers.

Moreover, the yield in Vietnam is now quite high, at 5-8 per cent per year, much higher than those in other countries.

Chen, who is the developer of many projects in Vietnam and also an individual investor, told VIR that the housing price in Vietnam is now much lower than in Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok. More specifically, for the price of a unit in Ho Chi Minh City, investors could not buy a unit in Singapore, not even a social housing one.

However, Chen stated that investing in Vietnam must be for the long term of five to 10 years at least, instead of only two or three years.

With the recent improvement of infrastructure and urbanisation, the potential for price increases in Vietnam is huge, which is also a potential for investors who wish to buy property and then re-sell or lease that property for profit, Chen said.

According to Lieu Nguyen, a representative from the American Real Estate Association in Vietnam, the US is now also keeping its eyes on Vietnams property market, despite hesitations over the not yet fully legalised status of regulations that permit overseas Vietnamese and foreigners to buy houses here.

I expect that when the legal system is equipped with greater transparency, the number of Americans, and foreigners in general, interested in the Vietnamese property market will be much higher, said Nguyen.

The current reality is that not many foreigners are able to buy houses in Vietnam due to legal barriers, complicated rules, and excessive paperwork.

Expats do not have a clear understanding of the legal procedures and some administrative agencies are not used to dealing with foreign buyers, noted Nguyen Minh, a real estate broker in Ho Chi Minh City.

Foreign owners remain few and far between

According to figures from the Ministry of Construction, even two years on from when the government issued regulations to permit foreigners to buy houses in Vietnam, less than a thousand foreign homeowners were reported. With 80,000 expats living and working in Vietnam and over four million Vietnamese expatriates, this figure is very modest.

This figure is not fully reliable, as many foreigners are still naming their Vietnamese spouses or friends on their housing contracts for the authorities, said Minh.

The 2015 Housing Law allows foreign investment funds, foreigners with valid visas, and international firms operating both in Vietnam and overseas to buy unlimited residential properties with leaseholds of 50 years.

Prior to that, they were only eligible to buy one apartment providing they were either married to a Vietnamese national, held a managerial position, or could demonstrate significant contributions to the country.

The shortage of publicised projects that foreigners are eligible to buy in is one of the biggest obstacles, according to industry insiders.

According to the Housing Law, developers can sell a maximum of 30 per cent of units in an apartment building to foreigners, and a maximum of 250 houses in a ward. Areas considered sensitive to national defence and security are still off limits to foreign buyers.

A barrier facing foreigners and overseas Vietnamese is the lack of property title insurance, a standard document issued in many other countries, added economist Nguyen Tri Hieu.

The number of red books issued to foreign organisations and individuals buying houses has been relatively low considering interest and demand.

According to Sergey Nam  deputy CEO of Kusto Home, the developer of the Diamond Island project high in foreign interest  the number of foreigners buying his units has been increasing, and he has nearly hit his targets.

Actually, we have to admit that the revised Housing Law, which took effect on July 1, 2015, has affected foreign buyers. Its easier for foreigners to buy residential properties in Vietnam, as long as they can enter the country legally, and there is now no need to have a residency visa like before. The doubled total of foreign buyers in our Diamond Island project in District 2 has demonstrated the foreign interest in Vietnamese properties, Nam told VIR.

Nam further added that the big challenge now is how foreigners can apply and receive 50-year ownership certificates, and what the terms and conditions of extending the leasehold are.

If it was clear by now, I am sure the number of foreign buyers would be much bigger, he added.

Potential is high

Vietnam is quickly becoming one of the regions hottest property markets for Hong Kong and mainland Chinese investors, as prices continue to soar through the roof in their domestic markets.

According to a survey released at the end of 2017, Emerging trends in real estate, Asia Pacific 2018 by PwC  which surveyed 600 respondents including investors, fund managers,

developers, property companies, lenders, brokers, advisors, and consultants  Ho Chi Minh City was ranked among the top 10 investment and development prospects.

The report ranked Ho Chi Minh City in fifth position on the list, with a verdict of generally good in investment prospects. Only destinations in five countries were ranked in the category of generally good.

Ho Chi Minh City also ranked second to Sydney in development prospects. Only three countries were voted generally good in this category.

Vietnam was ranked the most popular developing market and continues to draw interest, according to the report.

Notably, PwCs survey also ranked Ho Chi Minh City among the highest in terms of rental value growth, reflecting confidence that economic strength will spill over to property values.

In Vietnam, according to PwC, investors continue to draw favourable comparisons with the China of 10-15 years ago. GDP growth is in the area of 7.4 percent, and while bureaucracy remains an issue, the regulatory environment is slowly becoming less restrictive.

Encouraged by fast economic growth, supportive government policies, and low entry costs, housing prices in the countrys two largest cities, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, have seen considerable growth in recent years.

Real estate experts and investors say that simpler procedures could have driven the number higher.

Nguyen Khanh Duy, head of the housing division at Savills Vietnam, said the number of foreign owners is low compared to the level of interest they have received since the new rule was introduced.

In the recent Vietnam Business Forum (VBF) held late last year in Hanoi, the foreign community also suggested the government push the process faster in permitting foreigners to buy houses in Vietnam.

Accordingly, the issuance of land use right certificates for foreigners is still delayed, along with the listing of residential housing developments which are allowed for foreign ownership.

It is unclear at the moment what is holding back the issuance of such a list. Due to the delay in issuance of the Foreign Ownership Prohibited Projects List, the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment is refraining from issuing Land Use Right

Certificates (LURCs) to foreigners who have signed residential housing purchase contracts, said David Lim, head of the VBFs Real Estate Group.

We propose that the Foreign Ownership Prohibited Projects List be issued as soon as practicable so that foreigners purchasing residential housing in Vietnam can obtain the LURCs in their name, Lim added.A view of Hyosung plant located at Nhon Trach Industrial Zone in Dong Nai province

Cho Hyun-joon, chairman of Hyosung Group, said that the group commits to strengthening co-operation with Vietnam, not only in processing spandex and yarn for automotive tires, but also in the chemicals and heavy industries. Their detailed plan for expanding investment has been outlined.

Last year, Hyosung poured a total of $1.3 billion into a polypropylene manufacturing plant and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) underground storage in Cai Mep Industrial Zone of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province. Besides, Cho Hyun-joon revealed that Hyosung is considering establishing a production plant in Quang Nam province.

Hyosung has set out a strategy for semi-finished products in Vietnam based on cost competitiveness. The semi-finished products will be turned into finished products at a plant in Changwon, South Korea, then will be exported to other countries. This strategy will raise export value as well as improve the productivity of the plants in South Korea.

When the projects are complete, Hyosung Vietnam could supply products for all segments of the world market.

Expanding investment in chemicals and heavy industry will enable Vietnam to become a global manufacturing base for both, with various plants producing four major product groups.

When the projects are complete, Hyosung Vietnam could supply products for all segments of the world market, noted a representative of Hyosung Group.

At a meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on February 8, chairman of Hyosung Group also mentioned infrastructure projects in Vietnam. He said that the group has considerable experience in the implementation of power construction and transmission projects. Hyosungs technical foundations, along with technology transfer, will enable Vietnam to become an exporter of transformers rather than an importer.

He also intends to co-operate with other firms and promote IT projects in the fields of energy storage system (ESS), ATM, e-payment, and fintech. The two countries expect to hold Korea Investment Forum to further lure Korean investors to Vietnam.

Earlier, in 2007, Hyosung poured $1.5 billion into a plant at Nhon Trach 5 Industrial Zone to produce textiles and core industrial raw materials, such as spandex yarn, yarn for automotive tires, steel, and electric motorcycles. This plant is based on an area of 90,000 square metres and has 7,000 workers.

South Korean investors eye renewable energy sector in Vietnam Thanks to Vietnams issuing incentive policies to lure investment into the renewable energy sector, more and more foreign investors, especially those from South Korea, have ...

South Korean contractors sign $2.7-billion deal for Long Son complex Two South Korean investors, namely SK E&C and POSCO E&C, will develop two projects to serve Long Son Petrochemical Complex located in Long Son Island ...File photo of Saudi Energy and Oil Minister Khalid Al-Falih at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh, on Oct 24, 2017. (FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP)

Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday (Feb 14) it will further trim oil production and exports next month to reduce excess stockpiles that have weighed on crude prices, as concerns mount over US oversupply.

Saudi Aramco's crude output in March will be 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) below its February level while exports will be kept below seven million bpd, the energy ministry said.

"Saudi Arabia remains focused on working down excess oil inventories," a ministry spokesman said.

"Market volatility is a common concern for producers and consumers, and the kingdom is committed to mitigating this volatility and moderating its negative impacts."

Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, last month called for extending cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC producers beyond 2018, after a deal to throttle output succeeded in shoring up prices.

Oil prices fell from above US$110 per barrel in 2014 to around US$30 at the start of 2016. But the market has seen a turnaround since and oil prices are now close to US$60.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Wednesday that producers would rather persist with production cuts this year even if that brings about a slight supply shortage.

"If we have to overbalance the market a little bit, then so be it," he told reporters following an industry conference in Riyadh.

His comment comes a day after the International Energy Agency warned that surging oil production in the United States is putting the brakes on crude prices, undermining the kingdom's efforts.

Shale producers, particularly in the United States - who are not party to the deal - are ramping up output to cash in on rebounding crude prices.

But Falih and his Russian counterpart, Alexander Novak, rejected the idea of any "exit strategy" from production cuts.

Following their meeting in Riyadh, the ministers of the two major oil producers said they agreed on the need to cooperate to prop up prices amid a surge in US output.

"I am confident that our high degree of cooperation and coordination will continue to bring the desired results," Falih said.South African President Jacob Zuma addresses the nation and press at the governments Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa, on Wednesday. Zuma says he will resign with immediate effectGovernors Visit to the Gibraltar Youth Service

HE the Governor visited the offices of the Gibraltar Youth Service earlier today. This was a great opportunity for HE to learn about the variety of targeted, specialist and generic provisions carried out across the four clubs.

He was particularly keen to hear about the issues and challenges our young people are experiencing in todays society and how the Youth Service respond and address the local needs of our youth.Oh, thank God. Gianni Versace is back, he wears an amazing Versace top while being interviewed by The Advocate, and, as a special bonus, we also get Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace wearing a fitted butterfly blazer and microscopic black skirt. What better outfit to wear when being super mean to your brother and his lover? I would probably let someone treat me as shabbily as Donatella does Antonio as long as she dressed like that.

Those few scenes add splendor to the otherwise dreary and sad world of Andrew Cunanan, where weve been living for the past few episodes. Dont Ask Dont Tell is really about coming out and the two very different experiences of these two very different men. We see Gianni in his great designs and well-lit photo shoot for his Advocate cover, immediately contrasted with Jeff Trail, one of Cunanans victims, giving an interview with CBS News about gays in the military where he has his face and voice disguised like a criminal.

This illustrates just how difficult and different coming out was for different classes of people in the mid-90s. Versace, as a millionaire with a thriving business in a creative field, was allowed to come out without much consequence. (Although the actual Advocate interview wasnt exactly as depicted here.) Donatella is worried that celebrities and tastemakers will leave the brand like they did to Perry Ellis when it was discovered that he was dying of AIDS. Her brother retorts, At least well keep Elton, meaning the famously out rocker Elton John. (Duh.)

Versaces coming out is seen as a celebration, something that advances gay rights and gay visibility. It was only possible because he was in fashion, one of the industries where you cant swing a designer handbag without hitting a friend of Dorothys. Not everyone was so lucky to have the financial success and protection that Versace did, and things were a lot harder for them.

Look at how it was for Jeff Trail. Hes forced into the closet so that he can continue to serve his country and be a member of the military. Everyone in his family has served. While coming out might have a bit of an impact on Versaces multimillion-dollar business, if Trail came out, hell lose his job, possibly his family, and everything he holds dear. Coming out isnt a choice for him, especially after his commanding officer gives him a creepy comic book (seriously, U.S. military? A comic book?) about how he cant be gay and in the Navy at the same time.

I always say that the closet makes people crazy, and in this case, it leads Jeff to consider severe self-harm. He thinks about cutting out a tattoo on his leg when he hears that a gay man has been caught for cruising on his military base and is going to rat out the tattoos of every enlisted man hes slept with. First of all, this is a bad idea because it doesnt work (except as a plot device on Riverdale). Second of all, its a bad idea because who the hell wants to carve out their flesh in the shower with a box cutter and some alcohol?

After the comic-book incident, Jeff tries to hang himself in the shower rather than come out, but he cant do it. Hes suffering under Dont Ask, Dont Tell not only in the military, but also in his own mind. Maybe if he doesnt talk about it, he seems to decide, he can be just a little bit gay. Even after hes out of the military, he refuses to come out to his parents despite his sister insisting that he do it. He knows that she has his back, so why cant he still be true to himself? After being in the military for so many years, the homophobia is coming from inside the house.

I didnt really like the way the episode played out, however. We see Jeff first through Andrews eyes, when he plots a trip to Minneapolis (on American Expresss dime) in a last attempt at having a normal life by marrying David. Thanks to the last episode, we all know how that ends. Im still fascinated with the series playing out backwards because Andrews trip always had an air of failure about it, from the moment he shows up at the airport to a less-than-fuzzy reception from his former friends. Because of what weve seen, there is a much more sinister overtone to the proceedings.

What I didnt like is that we see Jeff talking on tape about saving a mans life in the military and how he wouldnt do it again because that is what outed him to his fellow sailors. I feel like that really took away from the magic of seeing him actually save the man, comfort him in the showers, and get caught by that very imposing looking dude with a mustache. (How come the old-school bigots in these things always have a mustache?) If we didnt know what was coming, it would have had more impact. The same goes for when he finally gives the interview later in the episode. It just seemed like needless repetition. The emotion could have been more intense if we didnt see Andrew watching that video in the first place and didnt know exactly what Jeff was going to say.

The relationship between Andrew and Jeff is also very confusing. Andrew definitely saved Jeff the first time he came into a gay bar: He needed someone to show him the ropes, prove to him that being gay wasnt so awful, and to joke about his name being spelled out in sparklers on the bar. But eventually, Jeff is the only one who sees that Andrew is just spinning a bunch of lies, and that hes a dangerous sociopath who could cause them all a lot of pain. David, on the other hand, sees Andrew as harmless and wants to help him. He even offers to break his date with the hunk in the leather vest so they can talk, but Andrew cant abandon his crazy stories about starting a new life in San Francisco in order to ask for help. When he does accept Davids offer, its only as a pretense so that he can kill both David and Jeff. The crazy stories are stronger than any real connection with a human being.

What confused me was when Andrew and Jeff have their confrontation in Jeffs sad apartment when he returns home to find Andrew eating Fruit Loops on the floor and his military uniform splayed out on the bed. He confronts Andrew about the story and about sending a postcard to his parents trying to out him. Even though Andrew saved him, Jeff wishes they never met. The bars, the meals, the men. Everything you gave me means nothing, he tells Andrew. I want my life back. My real life, as a soldier. Jeff equates gay life with Andrew and since Andrew is a person of mirages masking an empty and rotten core, he sees gay life the same way. We would assume that because Andrew was his role model, Jeff thinks it is impossible to live a rewarding and openly gay life. He sees gay values as being about fun times, meaningless sex, designer clothes, and hot go-go boys in star-spangled Speedos. Thats why he rejects both Andrew and gay life and ends up yelling at other veterans in the lunchroom of a shitty factory.

I could buy that, except that Jeff also has David in his life. We get hints that theyre a couple  even though David was obviously seeing other people  so why wouldnt David be a good role model for Jeff? Hes openly gay, he has a successful career, and hes a caring person who seems to be about more than just hookups in the back of bars. Shouldnt Jeff see that he can have a life like Davids? Shouldnt he know that Andrew is the negative extreme played up by the media and shitty military comic books?

Tragically, he doesnt. Finn Wittrock does an excellent job showing Jeffs pain and struggle, just as Darren Criss and Cody Fern have both been spectacular in the past two episodes. Its going to be a really tough Emmy race if they wind up duking it out with each other. This episode as a whole, however, seems a little bit clunky. Its just too much of a stretch to knit all of these stories together in a meaningful and emotionally impactful way. Still, the differences between these coming-out stories are key to understanding exactly how and why Versaces death happened, and Im glad the show is drawing those unique parallels.Wakanda in Black Panther. Photo: Film Frame/Marvel Studios

Sorry, Latveria. Screw you, Sokovia. 2018s hottest fictional country is Wakanda, the African kingdom ruled by TChalla (Chadwick Boseman) in Marvels Black Panther. Before you go see the movie this weekend  and it sounds like a lot of you are going to see the movie this weekend  heres everything you need to know about Wakanda.

Location

The exact location of Wakanda has varied throughout its comics history, but the movie features a zoom in from space that places it somewhere around Rwanda. Aiding its isolation from the rest of the world, new comics explain the country is bordered by hills, mountains, and the sprawling Lake Nyanza. (In the movie, its also protected by a hologram that hides its capital city from outside eyes.) Wakandans have their own language, which is played in the movies by Xhosa, a Bantu language spoken in South Africa. (South African actor John Kani, who plays TChallas father, TChaka, came up with the idea while filming Captain America: Civil War.) To make things easier for subtitle-averse viewers, pretty much everybody in the movie also speaks English.

Related Stories Kendrick Lamars Black Panther Soundtrack Spotlights These South African Artists

Isolation

As Carvell Wallace wrote in the New York Times, what makes Wakanda so attractive is the fantasy of an African nation untouched by colonial influence. (Director Ryan Coogler say he based aspects of his version of Wakanda on Lesotho, which was able to resist both the Zulus and the Boers, and was only lightly colonized by the British.) Wakanda zealously guards its borders, and its comics history is filled with failed invasions from neighboring tribes, 19th-century European mercenaries, and Nazis. It refuses to trade with other nations, though as one line in the movie makes clear, Wakandans are still able to consume American memes. As we see in a Western television broadcast in the movie, Wakanda is able to get away with this by masquerading as an impoverished third-world country, and since the countrys leadership refuses to take international aid, the rest of the world doesnt ask too many questions.

Vibranium

Fundamental to Wakandas self-sufficiency is its supply of vibranium, which nearly every character in Black Panther helpfully explains is the strongest metal in the world. Wakanda is the only country on Earth that has it, thanks to a vibranium-filled meteor that crashed into its lands thousands of years ago. You dont need to know too much about the science of it except that vibranium is able to absorb kinetic energy and release it later, and the near-inexhaustible supply of it has made Wakanda the most technologically advanced nation on Earth. (In the comics, Wakanda split the atom decades before the U.S. did, and its got a cure for cancer that its not sharing with anyone else.) Thanks in part to its decision to only export scant amounts of the metal  which is how Captain America got his vibranium shield  Wakanda has been able to avoid the resource curse, and the kingdom seems to have put a portion of its riches aside to fund a comfortable social safety net. And though Wakandas mostly painted as a techno-utopia, both the movie and the comics are very interested in the question of whether its tradition of self-preservation through isolation is morally right.

Related Stories Why Marvel Spent More on Getting Black Panther Just Right

History and Politics

You want a foundation myth? You want a legendary hero? Wakandas got both. According to a legend outlined near the start of the movie, the land that would become Wakanda was originally inhabited by five different tribes (pared down from 18 in the comics). After the meteor hit, the leader of the Panther Tribe was visited by the panther god Bast, who instructed him to drink from the Heart-Shaped Herb, a flower that was affected by the impact. The flower gave him superpowers, which he used to unite most of the tribes under his rule. (In both the comics and the movie one of the tribes, the White Gorilla Cult, lives separately from the rest of them, though the reason why differs.) This leaders line continues today in TChalla, who is both the superhero Black Panther and king of Wakanda.

You might think that strange cats distributing drugs is no basis for a system of government, but the Wakandan people do have a sort of veto power  any citizen can challenge the king to a duel, and if they win they get to be the king. Its a good gig: Besides the whole superpower thing, the king also has a squad of all-female bodyguards, the Dora Milaje, as well as a shadowy secret police, the Hatut Zeraze, also called the Dogs of War. (In the comics, the Hatut Zeraze dress in all white, but the movie gives them more traditional spy gear.)

The king of Wakanda seems to be something like an absolute monarch, though he does have a council, the Taifa Ngao, made up of representatives of the various tribes. Wakandas comics history has been full of threats to TChallas rule, and Ta-Nehisi Coatess recent run introduced a popular revolt against the monarchy. I wont spoil exactly how things played out, except to say the uprising eventually had an effect on Wakandas political structure. None of that happens in the movie  but hey, maybe itll be a part of the sequel?With a primarily black cast and beautifully designed Afrofuturistic setting, Black Panther is the first film of its kind not only within the Marvel Cinematic Universe but in all of Hollywood. Evan Narcisse, co-writer of Marvels Rise of the Black Panther, talked with us about the implications of a depicting a never-colonized African nation onscreen and the importance of black narratives in speculative fiction.Photo: Grasshopper Film

The director and subject of The Last Men in Aleppo, the documentary about a volunteer medical relief unit in Syria called the White Helmets, will not attend the Oscar ceremony next month. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the Syrian government refused to expedite the visa process that would allow Kareem Abeed and White Helmets founder Mahmoud Al-Hattar, the documentarys producer and subject, to travel to Hollywood. Kareem, my producer and fellow nominee, cannot come to the U.S. because of the Trump travel ban, director Feras Fayyad told THR. Barring a miracle, he will not be at the Oscars with me. We are artists and we just want to share our stories and nothing more. Its very sad he wont have an opportunity to share his.

The Last Men in Aleppo is the first movie produced and directed by Syrians to be recognized by the Academy. I want to be on the Oscar stage to say, Its time to end this war and to stop those who use their power to destroy us, Al-Hattar told THR. He said he would use his speech to condemn Russia, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and everyone who represents the authorities and supplies weapons to suppress the people of Syria.James Dashner. Photo: Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images

James Dashner, author of the Maze Runner series, has been dropped by his literary agent following sexual-misconduct claims. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Michael W. Bourret confirmed that he would no longer be representing the young-adult novelist. The agent explained, I couldnt in good conscience continue working with James, and I let him go yesterday.

Dashner was accused of misconduct in a comment thread on the School Library Journals website. In the same thread, 13 Reasons Why writer Jay Asher was also accused of misconduct. On Monday, the Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators announced that it had banned Asher, though the author has denied the accusations against him and claims he left the society of his own accord. Ashers agent has also dropped him.

Dashners dystopian book series was turned into a film franchise, with the third and final movie in the series, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, hitting theaters last month.

Update February 15: James Dashner posted a message to his Twitter account Thursday afternoon, apologizing for his initial defensiveness. I didnt honor or fully understand boundaries and power dynamics, he wrote. I can sincerely say that I have never intentionally hurt another person. But to those affected I am so deeply sorry. See his full statement below:Nashville Cant Help But Wonder Where Im Bound Season 6 Episode 7 Editors Rating 3 stars * * *  Previous Next  Photo: Mark Levine/CMT

Nice rebound for Nashville this week. Dont get me wrong, the show didnt actually make any sense or resemble the world as we know it, but at least it was hella fun, which is a lot more than I can say for last weeks dud.

I kind of want to begin with the madness of new Juliette, but I should probably leave that for last, huh? Instead, lets start with a boy named Twig. Early in the episode, I almost turned on Twig because he was talking to Maddie and Jonah in a fake British accent, which is one of my deal-breakers, right up there with vaping, wearing cargo shorts, and voting Republican. But damn! Dylan Arnold, the actor who plays Twig, is just so charming, isnt he? He brings a whole different kind of quirky energy to the show that Im really digging.

Anyway, Maddie has just finished a gig in Miami with Jonah and is vacationing with the boys when Jonah gets called to Austin to do an emergency audition for Richard Linklater (snort!), conveniently leaving Maddie and Twig to their own devices. Theyre having a great talk when an anti-drug PSA basically breaks out as two other members of Jonahs entourage emerge with a giant bag of magic mushrooms, which they commence stuffing in their faces like potato chips. Maddie and Twig both demur, but then the boys start rapping/chanting, Twig dont  Twiggy, Twiggy, Twiggy  Twig do Its all very disturbing. Twig succumbs to peer pressure and takes the mushroom. And of course, since this is a PSA, Twig has a bad trip and starts freaking out.

Twigs friends dont help matters by throwing Cheetos at his face. (At this point, I was beginning to wonder if I was tripping.) Maddie gets her phone and looks up How to talk your friend down from a bad trip, presumably (clear your cache, Maddie, clear your cache!), and takes him into the bathroom and tells him to breathe. He begins to calm down. The next day, he thanks Maddie and very casually is all, Oh hai, funny thing  I dont even have your phone number when Jonah walks in, brimming with that Jonah confidence, kissing Maddie possessively. Twig looks wounded.

Bad spoken-word rap is apparently a leitmotif of this episode because it turns out that young Jake is also a practitioner of the spoken-word arts. Daphnes junior high school is having an open house, which back in my day meant, like, showing off the new filing system in the library, but since this is Nashville, theres an assembly. Daphne goes first and shes amazing. I love that they are letting my boo shine this season. Deacon is tearing up, which is the cutest, most Deaconest thing. But  argh!  Brad is there, too, and I do not like the way he is looking at Daphne one bit, like shes the chum and hes the shark. STAND DOWN, BRAD.

Then its Jakes turn to do this angry  but down-tempo, he is a suburban white boy after all  spoken word that references Star Wars, Game of Thrones, and, naturally, how much he hates his father. Afterward, Deacon tells Jake that his rap was something else (and later, the two have a genuine bonding session), but Brad is a complete jerk, praising Daphne (You deserve a real stage, girl) and mocking his son for whatever that was. As Brad slithers off, he turns to Daphne and says, Hey, you, youre a star. I need a Silkwood shower, stat.

Meanwhile, Gunnar, Avery, and Wills band still has no name, which is just bizarre at this point. Also, thanks to a few behind-the-scenes machinations on Brads part, Alannah is getting the lions share of attention from the press. She and Gunnar are still sleeping together, but she seems to want things to be more casual than he does. (In true Gunnar fashion, hes already picking out china patterns.) She tells Gunnar to get a hobby, which is flat-out rude. The best part of their scenes is when Alannah gives Gunnar a frozen waffle with no syrup and he acts like its some sort of gourmet taste sensation. Wow! he gushes. Bless his simple little heart.

The Band With No Name scenes also give us a chance to explore Wills roid-rage situation, which as far as I can tell manifests as him being slightly testy to his bandmates and going all Guitar Hero on stage to show up Alannah. Later at the gym, hes on the treadmill rage running  faster, faster, faster  until the world gets blurry and he almost passes out. Thats not how this works. Thats not how any of this works.

Finally, we get to poor Avery. I mean, my God, poor Avery. He takes Cadence to the tarmac to wait for Juliette to touch down from Bolivia  Look, Mommys on that plane!  but shes nowhere to be found. This is positively enraging. Hasnt Avery suffered on tarmacs enough? (Okay, that sentence was inadvertently funny, but tell me what part of it is untrue.) Turns out, Juliette has decided to stay in Bolivia, but she hasnt so much as sent Avery a text or a tweet or a snap to tell him about her plans. He decides to take matters into his own hands and fly to Bolivia. At first, I thought he was just going to land in Bolivia and wander the streets, yelling, Juliette! Juliette! Wherefore art thou, Juliette? but theres actually a Bolivian branch of the Movement for Coherent Philosophy. (Is it just the two branches, by the way? Nashville and Bolivia? If so, thats a weird franchising model.)

Initially, they wont let Avery past the front desk but he makes a fuss and they finally lead him to Juliette.

Let me set the scene: Shes sitting alone in a spartan room, wearing a plain dress, with her hair pulled back, and no makeup. She is placid, she is calm, she is the soul of serenity. She is NOT HERSELF AT ALL.

Avery goes to hug her, but shes a bit cold in response.

Whats going on? he asks, recoiling. Youre not acting like yourself.

Youre right, Juliette responds, calmly. Im not the person I was. But Im more myself than Ive ever been in my life.

Oh boy.

Juliette goes on to tell Avery that shes coming into her own, finding an inner peace and clarity, and that, although its not his fault, hes part of the problem. Also? Shes staying in Bolivia.

What about Cadence? asks Avery  and literally every one of Nashvilles viewers. Juliette half-heartedly suggests that Avery bring Cadence to come live with her in Bolivia, which even she knows is ridiculous. When Avery loudly objects, Juliette says, Then Ill FaceTime her every day. Great parenting there, Juliette. A+.

And thats it. Avery has to leave Bolivia and leave behind his wife, who has basically been body snatched by a cult.

Nashville, we have a problem.Theodor Geisel. Photo: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive

Dr. Seusss life story is being adapted for the big screen. Deadline reports that Wonder director Stephen Chbosky will be helming the biopic about the childrens book author, whose real name is Theodore Geisel. The movie will reportedly focus on Geisels relationship with his first wife, Helen Palmer. The two met in the 1920s as graduate students at University of Oxford, where Palmer encouraged Geisel to pursue a career as an artist. According to Deadline, Palmer also played a part in influencing one of Geisels most beloved books The Cat in the Hat.

Before writing over 60 childrens books, Geisel began his career illustrating advertisements and drawing political cartoons. During World War II he also created propaganda films in the armys animation department  his movie Our Job in Japan was later expanded into 1947s Design for Death, which won the Academy Award for best documentary. He died in 1991.We're getting more insight into how school districts in our area are prepared for a shooting.

WAAY 31 spoke to a teacher with Huntsville City Schools who also has young children in school.

He said a shooting happening at school is something always on his mind.

"It's very concerning. I worry about the safety of my kids just like any other parent," said High School Teacher Micah Freeman.

Districts in our area have prepared in several ways.

Athens City Schools has taken the preventative measure of focusing on students' psychological health.

"If they're having some type of mental health issue type crisis in their life that just acutely happens all of a sudden they can get to somebody to talk," said Athens City School Superintendent Dr. Trey Halladay.

That measure is to prevent a student from bringing a gun to school in the first place.

Athens City Schools and other districts throughout our area have building safety measures in place and they also run frequent drills.

As a high school teacher, Freeman has seen those drills first hand.

"We practice and so practice makes perfect for a better outcome in case the real thing does come about," said Freeman.

Freeman said the kids he teaches have internalized what to do.

"Very confident. They're very aware of their surroundings. They know that when that announcement comes over the intercom they know what time it is. They know to lock that door. We huddle in the corner and we look out for one another," said Freeman.

Freeman said he can't see how Huntsville City Schools can do anything more than what they're doing right now.

"You can't predict these types of things. You can't predict somebody coming in school and killing 17 people," said Freeman.The Alabama Senate passed five bills Thursday to support military veterans as Governor Kay Ivey proclaims, "Military Appreciation Day."

This includes the Parks for Patriots Act which will give Alabama veterans free access to state parks.

The Senate also approved a tax credit for small businesses that hire unemployed veterans, created a voluntary contribution check-off on income tax returns for the Alabama State Veterans Cemetery at Spanish Fort, added Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who own businesses to the preferred vendor list for state contracts, and passed a bill that would make it illegal to park a vehicle in spaces reserved for military veterans.

The Legislature also held a joint session of the House and Senate this morning to honor General Gus F. Perna, the commander of the U.S. Army Material Command in Huntsville and Alabama's only four star general.

More than 50,000 Alabamians serve in the military or work as employees of the Department of Defense, and it is appropriate and right that we honor their heroism and service, Senate Majority Leader Greg Reed (R-Jasper) stated. Veterans from Alabama have fought honorably in numerous wars, defending this nation from Nazi fascists and now, radical Islamic terrorists.AK AL AS AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA GU HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA PR RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VI VA WA WV WI WYWASHINGTON DC - The Democratic Governors Association didn't like IL GOP Governor Rauner's budget address today. Anyone surprised?

Today, Governor Bruce Rauner released another unbalanced budget that asks Illinois middle-class to shoulder the burden of his failed fiscal management. The Democratic Governors Association in Illinois released the following statement, attributable to Sam Salustro:

Bruce Rauner drove the states finances into the ground, and hes going to make the middle-class pay for it. Rauners two-year budget crisis did lasting damage to the states future by slashing services, driving up debt, and pushing out jobs and people. His fiscal mismanagement means Illinois budgets will be burdened by the billions in debt Rauner racked up. Rather than take responsibility for his failure, Rauners still trying to leverage the past budget crisis for his own political games.

Rauners fourth unbalanced budget clearly shows that Illinois fiscal health and economic future are worse under his failed leadership.The newspaper business, however, was supposed to be an exception to this rule. Traditionally, a headline was a pull quote or summary statement about one of the key elements in an article, so a headline should give the reader a good idea of what its article would be about.

Among the first truisms we learn as children is the old saying Dont judge a book by its cover. Good advice, any way you look at it. Antique dealers, realtors, food critics, and a thousand other professions will attest to the fact that the contents are often either much better or much worse than a products first appearance.

In the age of media bias, unfortunately, this is no longer true.

Speaking to the National Sheriffs Association on February 12, Attorney General Jeff Sessions mentioned that "since our founding, the independently elected sheriff has been the people's protector who keeps law enforcement close to and accountable to people through the election process. The office of sheriff is a critical part of the Anglo-American heritage of law enforcement."

Now, on first glance, anyone who follows politics knows that this is, on its most basic level, a standard compliment to ones audience by a politician. Whether youre speaking to an audience of doctors, teachers, engineers or entrepreneurs, you always try to compliment them as a group. Whatever your political differences may be, you mention that you respect their career choice as important to society. On that level, theres nothing in the statement that anyone could argue with.

To study the content a bit, one can find a bit more depth that is indeed worth considering. Most countries - even those that elect their representatives  dont elect people in law enforcement. Police commissioners and carabinieri are normally appointed by other elected officials, like mayors and governors. But we in the United States elect county sheriffs directly, a conscious choice that shows the (small r) republican nature of our system. We want our sheriffs to owe their offices to the voters they serve.

To provide further detail, AG Sessions mentioned the roots of our system in the Anglo-American heritage of law enforcement.

Again, anyone with the slightest knowledge of history or the law understands exactly what he was referring to: the fact that the American political system is, at its heart, a product of the Enlightenment, and a continuation of the then-500-year-long human rights process that had been practiced in England. Our Founding Fathers recognized that England had progressed from a hereditary dictatorship  the unlimited powers of the Norman King William the Conqueror  to a parliamentary republic and limited monarchy  with the far more limited powers of the Hanoverian King George III.

And our Founding Fathers, recognizing that this progress had been slowed, intended to continue upon the path on this side of The Pond, through our War of Independence and our Constitution.

Our Founding Fathers borrowed liberally from the English system, and improved upon it. They utilized English Common Law, essentially grandfathering in the laws of England until new American laws and judicial rulings addressed issues.

In short, our current legal system  both in our laws and in our law enforcement  is a combination, and a continuation, of hard-won English innovations. From the Magna Carta to the Petition of Right and beyond, the freedom of the individual citizen from the caprice of omnipotent rulers has been an 800-year-long progression, wholly English and American  codified as Anglo-American - in nature.

There is naturally nothing racist or bigoted in such a reference. It is a recognition of history, an appreciation for the great advances on this earth by many great thinkers who have long since left it.

In speaking of our Anglo-American legal heritage, we tip our hat to Mason and Marshall, and to Madison, Hamilton and Jay and to Blackstone and Bentham even Richard de Clare and Archbishop Langton. Our legal heritage goes back eight hundred years. It is a heritage to be proud of.

Compare the Anglo-American system with the medieval systems that preceded it: who would choose trial by fire or trial by water, over our practices of trial by a jury of our peers? We have the right to obtain counsel who is expert in the laws under which we are charged; we have options for recourse through appeals to higher courts.

We dont have to go back a thousand years to find weaker alternatives though. We can go back three thousand, and compare against Hammurabi and Leviticus (even those of us who today champion their sentencing approach will hardly support their shoddy protections against false convictions).

Or just look at the rest of the world today, and well see people held without trial or even charge for years, for decades, because of the omnipotence of their rulers, and a lack of such protection for the citizens such as our forefathers earned for us, at the point of a sword, through eight hundred years of political and often revolutionary activism.

Are you familiar with the Napoleonic Code of Justice? It was an immense improvement over what came before, but if youre ever accused of a crime in a country settled by the French, be careful what you tell your lawyer; what we think of as attorney-client privilege is turned on its head by the French system.

There is simply no question: no matter whether you are rich or poor, black or white, young or old, a Mayflower descendent or one with much more recent roots the Anglo-American system is good for you the best legal system in the world, particularly for a minority, because of the countless protections that our system provides.

Now, back to AG Sessions.

As soon as he made his remarks, the anti-American Left pounced on them. ANGLO-AMERICAN! they screamed How Dare He!

Social media was quickly filled with self-identified experts in such detailed studies as feeling offended, and assigning intent and of course, the ever-popular talent, mind reading.

The Left declared that his citation of our Anglo-American legal heritage was insulting to minorities, in fact, to everyone on earth except White America, whatever that means.

Now, this posed a challenge for the mainstream media. Reporters who knew exactly what Jeff Sessions meant couldnt lie about it, just to score points against a Republican, could they? Especially when they remembered that a good percentage of their readers  maybe even a majority  would know exactly what was going on.

So in press coverage in the days that followed, we saw an interesting process develop in our news coverage, one that has become all too common in modern America.

1: A conservative says something undeniably accurate and inoffensive.

2: The Left calls it out as mean-spirited and bigoted, without grounds.

3: The press reports both sides as if both the truth and the lie were of equal merit and

4: The headline writer gives the impression that the article supports the Lefts false charge.

Consider the Tampa Bay Times article on the matter. Their headline read Florida sheriff: Jeff Sessions Anglo-American comments divisive while the article itself quoted sources including professors and sheriffs denouncing the accusation and explaining the harmlessness and inoffensiveness of the remarks.

USA Today titled their piece Jeff Sessions Slammed for Anglo-American Heritage Comments. But what did they admit in the article itself? That as most law students learn in the first week of their first year, American law, also known as the Common Law, is a shared legal heritage between England and America. Their defense checks out. In fact, even then-Senator Barack Obama has been cited as referring to our justice system as the Anglo-American legal system in a speech from 2006.

Again and again, as we read through the coverage of this alleged faux pas this week, we find that the columnists and reporters had no choice but to admit the truth: that there was nothing racist about Jeff Sessions remarks whatsoever.

But youd never know it from the headlines. The articles start out touting the liberal line, as promised in the headlines, and then only as one gets a quarter of the way in, or halfway, or even later, does one discover the truth: that the Lefts accusation is both wrong and unjustifiable that this isnt a statement that could be taken either way, but can in fact only be taken one way and the Left is making up a slight entirely for political purposes.

Can we blame voters for making poor choices on election day, if they have diligently paid attention to the news, as they were instructed in their childhood, never dreaming that such news was more spin than truth? Can we blame minorities for thinking the worst of people in the majority, when they have heard nothing but the claim that whites are bigoted against them, and theyve been shown proof of it on a daily basis? They may have no way to tell that such proofs were utter fraud.

Our culture has sunken low, very low, from the days when valiant libertarians risked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor on a quest to design a nation of laws, a nation in which men and women could live and prosper, free of oppressive government.

We have fallen far indeed. But we havent just fallen, weve been pushed. And tragically, for decades now, but never so much as in recent months, the vaunted free press has done a good deal of the pushing.

Copyright 2018 John F. Di Leo

John F. Di Leo is a Chicagoland based trade compliance and transportation professional, writer and actor. Permission is hereby granted to forward freely, provided the IR URL and byline are included.More than 95 per cent of workers  12 million Australians  hold superannuation accounts, double that of 20 years ago. We have built the fourth largest pool of savings globally in just 25 years.

Yet Australias population size and age profile pose significant challenges to our system. We are getting older and are having fewer children. If not addressed by policy makers, an ageing population may affect both economic growth and the viability of our retirement income system. We need as many taxpayers as possible to fund our aged pensions, or, preferably, maximise the super accounts of workers.

It is incumbent upon government to deal with other challenges to our retirement system. Non-payment of superannuation is rampant. Workers have been fleeced of $17 billion since 2009 - an average $2.81 billion every year between 2009 and 2015. Some businesses are reducing entitlements for workers who choose to make voluntary contributions through salary sacrificing. Government must prosecute a zero-tolerance approach towards employers who dont pay super.

Our super sector is also increasingly failing employees because the system was designed in the early 1990s for individuals who worked in stable, full-time employment, not for multiple employers or as contractors.

The traditional nine-to-five jobs market been placed under severe strain by the emergence of a so-called "gig economy", or "Uberisation' of the workforce, dominated by casual or part-time workers and contractors. A third of employees are engaged as freelancers and that number is set to rise dramatically over the next decade, while the number of independent contractors, sham or deliberate, is on the rise.Labor could face a worse electoral thrashing in next month's Batman byelection than it suffered in the state seat of Northcote late last year, party insiders fear.

Early Labor research points to a primary vote in Batman even lower than the dismal 35 per cent it slumped to in November's Northcote state byelection when the ALP was crushed by the Greens, who recorded a swing of more than 11 per cent and a primary vote of more than 45 per cent.

Labor candidate for Batman Ged Kearney conceded on Thursday that she was the underdog in the contest, but said the unpopularity of the Turnbull government provided a powerful incentive for those in Melbourne's north to vote ALP.

Labor candidate for Batman Ged Kearney at the Preston Market

Ms Kearney, who was due to contest the state seat of Brunswick in November's Victorian election, will take on the Greens' Alex Bhathal, who is contesting Batman for the fifth time, in the March 17 byelection.Just before the trampoline park closed for the day, Codie Walton wanted to squeeze in one more trick to dazzle his friends  a double back flip into the foam pit.

But it went horribly wrong. His knee rebounded into his head, knocking him out as well as three of his adult front teeth.

"The teenage staff let the kids do any tricks they wanted no matter how dangerous and they gave us no safety warnings and had no formal training to know what to do," said his mother Melinda.

Nearly 500 children presented to hospital emergency departments across three Australian states between 2012-2017 due to injuries at indoor trampoline parks. Credit:Jason South

"I've spent thousands of dollars on a denture plate, which he has to wear until he is 25 when he can get permanent implants."The nail-biting experience of attempting to get the perfect shark shot for the world's most famous nature series has been shared by a West Australian conservationist in the lead-up to its premiere Down Under.

It has been 16 years since Sir David Attenborough's Blue Planet; now the sequel Blue Planet II will screen in Australia, after being hailed as Britain's top-rating show in 2017.

Blue Planet II was in production four years, using breakthroughs in marine science and revolutionary technology to complete more than 6000 hours of underwater diving and filming.

It visited 39 countries and filmed across every continent and ocean, and two Australian locations feature: the Great Barrier Reef, and the tiger sharks and seagrass meadows of Shark Bay, WA.A woman is recovering in hospital after having her throat slashed during an assault in Perth's south.

The victim, aged in her 40s, was rushed to Royal Perth Hospital early on Thursday after she was found with neck injuries at a Gosnells home.

The victim, aged in her 40s, was rushed to Royal Perth Hospital early on Thursday. Credit:Quentin Jones QCJ

A 63-year-old man known to the woman was arrested at the scene.

AAPThe gunman who allegedly opened fire on a large Florida high school, killing 17 people and causing 3000 students to flee in panic, is a former student with an apparent gun obsession.

The 19-year-old student, Nikolas Cruz, was expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School recently for disciplinary reasons, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said.

Authorities are not sure if he had enrolled in another school.

He allegedly started shooting outside the high school just before the end of the school day on Wednesday. He continued shooting as he entered the school, leaving bodies scattered in the hallways and out the front of the school grounds.Photo by Peter Glatz Bone broth ingredients.

All my life Ive struggled with bouts of insomnia. When I was in college I had a Social Psychology lecture right after lunch. I remember very little about the content of the course, but I do remember the professor: Harry C. Triandis. Professor Triandis was a renowned psychologist, author of our courses textbook, and a recipient of a prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. And what I most remember about him is his monotone voice and slow, hypnotic cadence that lulled me to sleep every time. I had to record his lectures with a portable cassette recorder in order to find out what he had lectured about. In the evenings while I studied and listened to his tape, my roommate would immediately fall asleep and start snoring. Every damn time! For several years listening to those tapes in bed was my go-to insomnia cure. I even used them to help put my infant daughter to sleep when my wife had evening choir rehearsals.

In more recent times I have found that a late night mug of warm chicken broth has similar sleep-inducing effects. My wife often had a pot of homemade chicken broth simmering away on the back burner throughout the night. If I couldnt sleep and I smelled its wondrous aroma wafting up from the kitchen, Id go downstairs slowly sip a ladleful. Low serotonin levels can lead to insomnia, and it is estimated that 90 percent of the bodys serotonin is made in the digestive tract. Bone broth is supposedly one of the best things you can consume to heal and strengthen the lining of the gut so perhaps thats why it helped me finally fall asleep. Or maybe it was the amino acid glycine from the gelatin in the broth that curbed the buzzing of the neurotransmitters in my brain. The science is fuzzy, but as long as I got sleepy, I wouldnt over-analyze.

Bone broth has become a burgeoning health concoction. Various health and nutrition sites, especially the paleo community, tout bone broths restorative powers, including detoxification, improved joint and gut health, a boost to the immune system, tissue regeneration and, yes, better sleep. The food industry has picked up on this trend and nutritional bone broth is showing up on the shelves of health food stores. Industrial food has invented ways to make broth more quickly and less expensively by liquefying ingredients to make it shelf stable, or reducing it to a base to add water later, but the savings to the producer come at a cost to the consumer. The best broth is made the way your grandmother would have made it: slowly and simply from bones, vegetables and a little vinegar.

Bone broth shops are starting to pop up across the country, providing a more gentle, supportive alternative to coffee or tea. I was recently in Wisconsin where the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art has set up a broth bar in its lobby. One of the first proponents of bone broth as a nutritious beverage was New York City chef Marco Canora who started selling to-go cups of bone broth out of a small take-out window at his Manhattan restaurant Hearth. He named his side project Brodo Broth Company and now has several other New York outposts, as well as a broth mail order business. He is the author of Brodo: A Bone Broth Cookbook.



Marco Canora has operated a successful restaurant for over 14 years. He was recently awarded Best Chef - New York by the James Beard Foundation. His success, however, came at a price. Being a maniac chef ended up making me physically ill. I was stressed, overweight, depressed and I felt like shit all the time. When I started drinking broth, I realized it was not only delicious and great to sip on, but also really healing. This inspired him to start selling to-go cups of broth out of his restaurant. The financial success of his broth business allowed him to buy out his business partner and reconceptualize Hearth, his extremely successful restaurant. Making changes to something that was already working well is quite risky, but according to the New York Times, he felt the risk was worth taking in order to serve foods that are nutrient-dense and free of antibiotics, growth hormones and chemical additives.

Making your own bone broth is a simple and rewarding process. The first step is to source out bones. Ask your butcher for beef knuckle or soup bones. You can also add poultry bones, left over from Sundays roast chicken. I put my leftover chicken carcasses and wing tips in the freezer until Im ready to make a batch of broth. Chicken feet (available online from Stewardson CSA farmer Stan Schutte at triplesfarms.com) are a great addition and make a rich, gelatinous broth.



I make my bone broth in big batches and store in pint deli containers in the freezer. I utilize all frozen poultry carcasses and meat bones that Ive been saving. Most weekends I do meal prep for the upcoming week and generate a large amount of vegetable scraps. Instead of going into the compost bucket, they go into my stockpot. Except for cruciferous veggies like cabbage (which make the broth taste funky), most vegetable trimmings are a welcome addition. Onion skins and root ends, garlic trimmings, carrot peels, leek greens and celery scraps are utilized. I leave the stockpot on a back burner all weekend, keeping the temperature adjusted to a gentle simmer.

In addition to sipping the broth as a restorative beverage, I use it as a base for soups, risottos and sauces. Most recipes say that it can be kept in the freezer for up to six months. However, I store the broth made from the carcass of the Thanksgiving turkey for a year, to be used as the base for the next Thanksgivings gravy and dressing.

Chef David Radwine provided this simple recipe for Slow Cooker Bone Broth. The addition of apple cider vinegar not only gives the broth a nice acidity, but also helps draw out the nutrients from the bones.



SLOW COOKER BONE BROTH

Ingredients:

 2 pounds beef knuckle or soup bones from a healthy source, plus additional poultry bones and chicken feet if available

 1 onion, unpeeled, cut in quarters

 2 carrots, scrubbed but unpeeled

 2 stalks celery, rinsed

 2 tablespoons organic apple cider vinegar

 1 head garlic, unpeeled, cut in half through cloves, exposing the inside of the garlic

 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

 Several branches of parsley

 1 teaspoon dried thyme

 2 bay leaves



Procedure:

 Place all ingredients in a slow cooker. Cover with water. Cook for 24 hours.

 Strain and discard vegetables. Remove any bone marrow from beef bones to eat, and then discard bones.

 Add salt to taste.

 Refrigerate broth. Fat will solidify on top. The fat can either be discarded or used for cooking.

 Broth will keep for 4-5 days in the refrigerator.

 May be frozen for up to 6 months.A recent statewide poll taken for Sen. Daniel Biss gubernatorial campaign showed Gov. Bruce Rauner is much less liked by Illinois voters than his fellow Republican President Donald Trump. The poll also found that the underfunded Democrat Biss actually does slightly better in a head-to-head match with Gov. Rauner than does presumed frontrunner billionaire J.B. Pritzker.

The Public Policy Polling survey does have one problematic issue, so lets get to that right up front. 76 percent of respondents were reached on landline phones (thats too high for polls these days because so many people only use mobile phones) while 24 percent were interviewed over the internet. But this problem doesnt totally disqualify it, so lets go ahead and talk about it.

According to the poll, 37 percent of Illinois voters have a favorable opinion of President Trump and 58 percent gave him an unfavorable rating while 5 percent were unsure. That seems about the expected number, considering national polls. The poll of 866 Illinois voters Feb. 5-6 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percent.

What is somewhat unexpected is only 26 percent of Illinoisans have a favorable impression of Gov. Rauner while a whopping 63 percent have an unfavorable view of the state leader.

Whew.

Thats just spectacularly lousy for a governor who isnt under criminal investigation.



Rauner is forging ahead with his reelection campaign by dumping a fortune into TV ads slamming J.B. Pritzker by tying him to convicted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Combine that with Biss own TV ads attacking Pritzker and it might be no surprise that Pritzkers favorable rating is also upside down.

According to the poll, just 33 percent of Illinoisans have a favorable view of Pritzker while a plurality of 42 percent have an unfavorable view of the man. A quarter of voters were still unsure, but yikes, man. The dude has spent $40+ million on his campaign, so youd think hed be doing better. But fewer Illinoisans have a favorable opinion of Pritzker than  President Trump. OK, hes not nearly as disliked as Trump, but still.

The Biss campaign didnt release its candidates own favorable ratings or any data on the other top tier contender, Chris Kennedy. But its poll found Biss leading Gov. Rauner 47-30 in a head-to-head matchup, with 23 percent saying they were unsure.

Pritzker also led Rauner, but by slightly less than Biss 17-point margin. According to the poll, Pritzker is ahead of Rauner by 13 points, 48-35, with 17 percent unsure.

Whether 13 points or 17 points, a win is a win. But there are growing concerns among Democrats that Rauners ads will continue to deflate Pritzkers numbers through November. Then again, Biss doesnt have Pritzkers billionaire cash, and, aside from Pritzkers 15-second ads targeting him, nobody has yet put him on blast, as the kids say, so we dont know how hed survive an all-out assault like the one Pritzker is enduring.

Pritzkers favorable rating among his fellow Democrats was a somewhat tepid 52 percent, while his unfavorable rating was 22 percent and 26 percent are undecided, despite the fact that the guy has spent tens of millions over many months to woo those particular voters. Racial crosstabs were not released.

This confirms what weve known all along: voters prefer a middle-class governor in Daniel Biss rather than having to choose between billionaires Pritzker and Rauner, said Biss campaign manager Abby Witt via press release. Despite Pritzker outspending Daniel 20-to-1 on TV ads, Daniel continues to build momentum and is the strongest candidate to beat Bruce Rauner.

Back to Rauner. The poll found that Gov. Rauners favorability rating among Republicans is much narrower than a poll released last month, which might be good news for his primary opponent, state Rep. Jeanne Ives.

A poll taken by We Ask America in mid-January had Rauners favorables at 65 percent and his unfavorables at 25 percent. But the new PPP poll found that just 49 percent of Republicans now have a favorable view of Rauner vs. 43 percent with an unfavorable view. Thats far less than President Trumps score of 73 percent favorable among Republican voters and a mere 19 percent unfavorable.

Among voters who said they voted for President Trump, the new PPP found that 92 percent still view him favorably, while just 4 percent have an unfavorable view of the president. Among those same Trump voters, however, 54 percent view Gov. Rauner favorably while 36 view Rauner unfavorably and 9 percent say theyre unsure. Thats obviously not a great sign.



Rich Miller also publishes

Capitol Fax, a daily political

newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.Photo BY Piero Taico. DEMO Project, mid-demo.

The DEMO Project art space on the grounds of the Springfield Art Association achieved its apotheosis this past Wednesday when the small house, still festooned with fanciful work by 17 artists installed last month for the demo DEMO farewell exhibit, was demolished by a single backhoe to make room for new SAA facilities. The demolition was always in the cards for DEMO (hence the name) since 2013, when it was offered for use as a showcase for contemporary work until such time as funds were available for improvements to the SAA campus. It is not known for sure if there has ever been a building destroyed while displaying a full art exhibit on its exterior.



I knew it was going to happen, of course, said Allison Lacher, one of the DEMOs directors, who witnessed the destruction firsthand, but it was still shocking to see that claw come down  the back porch suddenly splintering, artwork flying all over the place. It was awesome, in the truest sense  and when the whole front just collapsed, it was really a sight to behold. I dont toss the word epic around very often, but it was epic. It was crazy.

Photo courtesy UIS Visual Arts Gallery Mixed media piece from Hold Me by Erin Hayden, on display at UIS Visual Arts Gallery through Feb. 22.

After five years of presenting monthly shows in the now-defunct space, Lacher is not sure what, if anything, might eventually take DEMOs place. She said that she believes there are people in the community who are going to feel the void left by DEMO and will want something else. Here in Springfield, I find that people want to give artists opportunity, she said.In the meantime, Lacher and fellow ex-DEMO director Jeff Robinson continue to manage and direct the UIS Visual Arts Gallery, which is dedicated to presenting contemporary work and is currently hosting a show entitled Hold Me by Chicago-based artist Erin Hayden. We had another artist scheduled and they had to cancel because of an emergency. Not only did Erin agree to do this with only two weeks notice but she also made all new work for the show.The work in Hold Me is also Springfield-centric, using the image and layout of Abraham Lincolns presidential funeral card as source material. She designs and prints digital canvases and then paints on those, Lacher said. We see a lot of Lincoln work here, to the point where sometimes I want to say, Get on with it! There are so many other awesome points of history to reflect on here! But Erin brings a fresh take on Lincoln. I think the work is very funny and smart and politically charged.Robinson and Lacher have talked about wanting to bring the spirit of DEMO to the UIS gallery, although it remains to be seen how this will manifest. This gallery is an institution, though, said Lacher. Its not going anywhere.The Visual Arts Gallery is located on the UIS campus in the health and science building, room 201, and is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Hold me will be on display through Thursday, Feb. 22. For more information, visit www.uis.edu/visualarts/galleryThe 3rd Steering Committee (SC) Meeting of WCO ESA Project II took place from 5  7 February 2018 in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and was hosted by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA). The WCO-ESA Project II, To progress the Trade Facilitation (TF) agenda within the framework of the WCO Mercator Programme in the East and Southern Africa Region, 2016 - 2019 is funded by the Finnish Government. The Meeting was chaired by Mr. Dicksons Kateshumbwa (ESA Vice-Chair and Commissioner of URA) and attended by SC members from Uganda, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Finnish Customs, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, and the WCO Secretariat. The ESA ROCB attended as an observer.

The Steering Committee was presented the Mid-year Progress Report and Project Performance for 1.7.2017  31.1.2018. A draft narrative report was shared and discussed within the SC members including detailed information on the activities carried out from 1.7.2017  31.1.2018 and further planning through the end of the financial year 2018 (30.6.2018). It was noted that the WCO has received 52 requests for support from eleven (11) ESA countries in the areas of risk management, implementation of the Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC), Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), Authorised Economic Operator (AEO), Single Window (SW), Human Resource Management and the Regional Training Centers (RTC).

As of January 2018, ten (10) countries have benefitted from the Programme activities: six (6) of them under the WCO Mercator Programme (23 activities). Activities were also carried out in French (Mauritius RTC, Burundi and Comoros), in Portuguese (Angola and Mozambique) and in Amharic (Ethiopia) speaking countries. The SC acknowledged the process involved to complete the missions and appreciated the work carried out to date. It also approved future planning activities and the revised budget but highlighted the need to carry out activities as planned and to minimise delays. All counterparts were urged to ensure the continuity and sustainability of the project.

Lastly, the SC expressed its gratitude to ZIMRA for organising the event and the Finnish Government for continued funding in the ESA region.

For further information please contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org.Fort Polk, LA (71446)

Today

Cloudy with periods of light rain. High 76F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Showers in the evening, then cloudy overnight. Low around 70F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.Kaden Adrian, forefront, stands with Kimball High School math teacher, Danielle Reader, as they address the Kimball School Board Monday night. Adrian and Reader presented the unique challenges accelerated students face and how Kimball Public Schools has addressed those challenges using online classes for advanced learners. Fellow high school student Natasha Selves, not pictured, presented Student Voices, a new addition to the Kimball Board of Education agenda.

Kimball High School student Natasha Selves addressed the Kimball School Board at their regular meeting, Monday, Feb. 12 regarding the perspective of Kimball High School students.

Selves address is the first from a new agenda item titled Student Voices which will be heard at each monthly board meeting.

"This is our first month doing this and I am really glad," board president Lynn Vogel said. "This is fantastic. We want to hear from the students."

Selves reported to the board that she asked her classmates what they saw as the school's strengths and what they would like to see improved.

"You guys wanted a voice from the students. I appreciate that you guys (the board) asking for students' voice because that is not something that adults do often," she said. "I will start with some of the problems so we can end on a good note."

Consistency was a concern for many students, particularly as it applies to the dress code and violations of such.

"From the student's perspective, there seems to be an inconsistency between the boys and girls who get dress coded," she said.

While girls tend to be called out for violating the dress code, Selves said, often male students are seen with inappropriate logos on their clothing, but they are not "dress coded".

Likewise, some young ladies are called out more often while their female peers, wearing similar styles, are not.

Educators were also asked what they would like to see changed, to which the answer was holding students accountable. One suggestion was that if a student does not complete an assignment, that student would be required to remain after school each day until the assignment is completed.

"Students are probably not going to like that, because it will take away from their time after school," Selves said.

Other ideas include adding a wider variety of classes, including electives or advanced classes through distance learning, facility updates like improved lighting, new furnishings and more or upgraded security cameras in the parking lots.

"I feel like we would take better care of our school if we have better things to take care of," she said.

For the positive notes, Selves noted that students are able to build healthy, positive relationships with educators and those teachers then become a kind of mentor to students.

Open campus for those students who maintain higher grades is also something that students appreciate.

The change to the grading policy is seen as a positive move, according to Selves, who said that it gives students motivation to improve their scores and will ultimately lead students to feel more confident transitioning into adulthood.

"We are moving in the right direction with our (use of) technology," Selves added.

Fellow High School student Kaden Adrian also spoke to the board for the Pride in Excellence item alongside high school math teacher Danielle Reader regarding the use of technology. Adrian and Reader presented the Florida Virtual Schools AP (advanced placement) Calculus class.

Six high school students qualified to take calculus this last year for the first time in many, according to Reader, who added that in her five years on board at Kimball Public Schools, the class was not previously offered.

"I knew the benefits of an AP program, so we investigated to see if I could find a calculus program," Reader said. "This group has been exceptional corp of students with some very high ambitions and we wanted to get them the programs they needed."

Adrian explained to the board how he progressed through math classes. He included that last year he took trigonometry in a similar way, setting his own pace while his classmates set theirs accordingly.

"We are all responsible enough to work at our own pace. This year we are using Canvas and Florida Virtual," Adrian said. "While the program isn't designed for all students, it does a very good job at what it is meant to do  prepare us for college."

He added that students using the virtual program and flipped classroom combination watch a video at home for each lesson, they then are able to research other teaching tools if additional help is needed.

They can use Reader's help in class following their at-home lesson and a five questions are provided with each lesson.

"For me it has been a very positive experience and it has prepared me for college more than anything else could have at this point," Adrian said. "It is self-motivating and that is all a high achieving student could ask for at this point."

"Overall I have been very happy with it," Reader added. "We have a multitude of students who are getting college credit done before they leave high school. I think that, as we provide more and more opportunities, we are going to see more and more trying to do this."

Reader further discussed Canvas, the learning management system the school provides.

Reader is one of the few Kimball classes that provides a flipped classroom, meaning that students learn the lesson at home and then do their "homework" in class with the teacher present to assist if needed.

"Canvas is now the learning management system that is being used across the state of Nebraska for all of the University schools," Reader said. "So the familiarity the students are going to have with the learning management system is going to make them much more comfortable when they begin their courses in college."

Reader added that she uses the program for everything she does in the classroom, and while some teachers are jumping in, she is the sole Kimball educator who uses the program completely.

"Their are others who use it for assessments," she said. "For me the nicest feature is that we have so many students that miss school. We are a small school and our students are involved in everything. They may miss two days for one-act and then they go to cheer. There are some weeks that I don't see my students for three or four days a week."

Reader added that she has seen "huge gains" since implementing the Canvas system and flipped classroom combination.The Wetzel County Sheriffs Office has had a busy couple of days as law enforcement officers apprehended two fugitives from justice, along with another gentleman who has been accused of receiving stolen property.

Clark Floyd III and Alisha Floyd have been arrested on felony fugitive from justice charges from Monroe County, Ohio. Meanwhile, Robert Michael Rowe was arrested for receiving and transferring stolen property.

According to Wetzel County Sheriff Mike Koontz, Corporal Roger Spragg received information Feb. 13 from the Monroe County Sheriffs Office. The information regarded two fugitives, along with some drug activity, that could be located in the Smithfield area of Wetzel County.

Sheriff Koontz said that, through the information, Corporal Spragg was able to obtain and execute search warrant at a particular residence in Smithfield.

The Wetzel County Sheriffs Office, along with a member of the West Virginia State Police, were able to execute the search warrant. As a result, three individuals were arrested, and approximately 17 grams of methamphetamine, with a street value of more than $2,000, was seized.

There are other drug arrest and charges pending as a result of this investigation, Koontz said.

Koontz said the investigation has also resulted in information and possible charges as to an investigation in the Smithfield area, of a breaking and entering and thefts of trucks and ATVs at an Ascent Resources location. Koontz said these thefts have occurred in the last two weeks.

These arrests are a good example of cooperation between agencies and even states, in the battle against drugs, Sheriff Koontz noted.Williamson, WV (25661)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms in the morning, then mainly cloudy during the afternoon with thunderstorms likely. High 79F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Rain showers early with overcast skies late. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.The inaugural print issue launches simultaneously with its digital platform vogue.pl going live, together with social media channels including Instagram. Vogue Poland is published under licence agreement with media venture Visteria.

The March issue launch cover, shot by Juergen Teller, features Polish supermodels Anja Rubik and Malgosia Bela in front of the iconic Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw.

The content of the debut issue includes a photographic portfolio produced by Juergen Teller; an eclectic mix of fashion and portraits celebrating Polish icons in art, culture and politics. Figures shot include Noble Prize Winner and Solidarity Movement leader Lech Walesa, artist Paulina Olowska, and film director Pawel Pawlikowski. The issue also highlights the work of many Polish fashion designers, as will each issue, together with Polish and international contributors. Launching simultaneously, vogue.pl will bring the reader up-to-the minute and insightful news online seven days a week as an extension of the authoritative print edition, says Conde Nast.

Karina Dobrotvorskaya, President of Conde Nast International New Markets and Editorial Director of Brand Development commented, Whenever I tell people that we are about to launch Vogue Poland, I am asked the same question: Is there no Polish Vogue already? Indeed, Poland, with its economic stability and great appetite for luxury goods, seems a very natural fit for Vogue. It is a long-anticipated brand there, the Polish audience is definitely ready for it. We are extremely excited about this addition to the Vogue family and about the passionate, creative, young Polish team behind it. Vogue Poland is a big step forward for Conde Nasts ongoing expansion into Eastern Europe.

Filip Niedenthal, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Poland, remarked, Vogues arrival in Poland brings with it authority and insight, qualities which will quickly establish it as the luxury market leader. We are pleased to be able to offer unique content to fulfill the needs of our local readers.

Other members of the editorial team include Editor-at-Large Malgosia Bela, whose achievements as an internationally recognised model allow her to function not only as an editor and creative force, but also as the magazines ambassador and liaison. Joanna Lorynowicz is Deputy Editor, Lukasz Aksamit is the Art Director, and Daniela Agnelli the Fashion Director, having previously held the same role at Vogue Arabia and The Sunday Telegraph Magazine.

Vogue Poland is the twenty-third edition of the magazine worldwide. Vogue is published in the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Russia, Japan, China, Taiwan, Mexico & Latin America, the Middle East, Korea, Brazil, Australia, Portugal, India, Turkey, Thailand, the Netherlands, and the Ukraine.NEW RICHMOND  Mingo Central erased an early 6-0 deficit and went on to claim[Read More]Insurance Back FITCH: increasing demand for cyber insurance may be both an opportunity and threat for insurers

In response to the sharp increase in data breaches in recent years, P/C insurers' efforts to offer cyber risk coverage for their policyholders have advanced significantly, and insurers' cyber risk offerings are likely to expand further in 2018, Fitch Ratings says.



Cyber insurance brings opportunities for business growth and diversification for some insurers but could be a credit negative for others given the potential to generate larger future losses.



The number of U.S. data breaches increased 44.7% in 2017, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center and Cyber Scout. Such a large one-year jump in incident frequency, combined with numerous higher profile and more severe events in 2017 such as the Equifax breach and the Wannacry and NotPetya ransomware attacks, highlights how challenging it is for insurers to underwrite and actuarially price cyber exposures in a rapidly evolving environment.



Cyber insurance is currently a profitable niche segment for many insurers but as the market grows and becomes more competitive, Fitch believes that this opportunity may erode. Also, newer market entrants may be more vulnerable to underpricing risks and exposure to large future losses as they may lack the unique underwriting and claims expertise needed for cyber insurance.



Demand for cyber insurance is likely to grow. Risk surveys such as the recent Allianz Risk Barometer 2018 report continue to list cyber as a top-10 business risk. However, the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers's December 2017 Cyber Insurance Market Watch Survey indicates that only 31% of respondents' clients had purchased some form of cyber coverage. Further, a 2018 report by Lloyd's and AIR Worldwide estimates that a cyber event that knocks out a major U.S. cloud provider for several days could cause USD 6.9 billion to USD 14.7 billion in damages, with only about 20% of those losses insured.



Demand for cyber insurance will also be spurred by increased regulation. New York Department of Financial Services cybersecurity regulations that went into effect in 2017 introduced new compliance certification requirements for financial service companies. This year, the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will introduce more stringent notification requirements for data breaches. Such regulations not only foster awareness of cyber risks but also increase the potential for fines and penalties when data breaches and other cyber incidents occur.



More businesses are seeking specific stand-alone cyber insurance policies to cover a wider variety of cyber exposures. For example, an increase in critical data theft and ransomware attacks is leading to greater interest in first-party business interruption and property damage coverage. Similarly, a rise in public company shareholder suits from cyber incidents that have generated large losses and reputational damage is leading to greater demand for cyber coverage specific to directors' and officers' liability policies.



Source: Fitch





Published on 15.02.2018





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Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.As protests continue to erupt in the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, and across the world in outrage against the horrific shooting of Jacob Bla Read moreAssemblyman Anthony Brindisi is calling out the proposed cuts in President Donald Trumps budget plan that seek to reduce rail service in the northeast.

The Assemblyman and Congressional candidate says the proposed cuts to Amtrak would directly impact service in Utica and Rome. He says the cuts would reduce federal rail subsidies by more than half, from $1.4 billion to $738 million, leaving New York taxpayers to pick up more of the costs.

I'm calling on the New York Congressional Delegation to immediately reject this White House proposal, Brindisi said. And I'm convinced that these cuts will harm the states economy, inconvenience local businesses and tourism travel, and jeopardize rail safety.

Congresswoman Claudia Tenneys campaign responded saying in part, The out-of-control tax and spend policies of Gov. Cuomo and Anthony Brindisi are the reason Upstate NYs economy is withering. Anthony Brindisi trying to blame his failed track record in Albany on Congress just shows that he is a typical dishonest politician.LITTLE FALLS, N.Y.-- The chief of the Little Falls fire department confirms three people were reported to have injuries during Wednesday afternoon's home explosion on West Main Street.

Robert Parese could not confirm the severity of the injuries, but was able to confirm there were no fatalities. As for the cause of the explosion, Parese said it's still too early to tell.

"We're still looking into a bunch of different things at this point, nothing really conclusive right now," Parese said.

By 11:00 p.m. Wednesday, residents evacuated from the street were allowed back in their homes, and power was restored. Seven families who lived closest to the explosion are still displaced and are receiving help from the Red Cross.

Shawn and Richelle Devereese own the home that exploded, but they and their two children were not in the structure at the time.

"I was home all morning, never smelled anything," Richelle said.

"I got out of work early so we could go do a few errands," Shawn said.

"And it exploded about 10 to 15 minutes before we came home," Richelle said. "We got to pray, we got to praise the lord, we got to thank God, get down on my knees."

The superintendent for the Little Falls City School District confirms no children in their district were hurt, though several may be affected by the debris.

"We actually kept the students at the school for a safe location," Keith Levatino, LFCSD superintendent said. "And then we contacted all parents or guardians. Either they were picked up or they were walked home. So everyone is home safe from the school district."(KING) An 18-year-old Washington state student was arrested after a journal was found detailing plans to shoot his classmates at ACES High School in Everett.

According to the Everett Police Department, the 18-year-old's grandmother called 911 Tuesday morning after finding the journal and believed the threats to shoot students at the school were credible.

Responding officers were shown excerpts of the journal and were told the grandson had a semiautomatic rifle stored in a guitar case. As officers reviewed the journal, they were alarmed by the statements and detailed plans to shoot students and use homemade explosives, according to a press release.

Excerpts from the journal show the teen had been thinking about the shooting frequently and wanted to make it "infamous," according to probable cause documents.

Court documents state the young man wrote, "I can't wait to walk into class and blow all those (expletives) away," and "I need to make this shooting/bombing infamous. I need to get the biggest fatality number I possible can."

Prosecutors allege the suspect had inert grenades in his bedroom that he planned to fill with black powder along with the AK-47 hidden in a guitar case.

The student attended Kamiak High School last year before transferring to ACES Alternative School this fall. Detective say he simply flipped a coin to determine which school to target. It came up ACES.

Read more: http://kng5.tv/2C0shBQSYRACUSE  The Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse has established a compensation program for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, Bishop Robert Cunningham announced Wednesday morning at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Syracuse.

The Independent Reconciliation Compensation Program (IRCP) is a voluntary program meant to promote reconciliation and further healing of those who were harmed by members of the clergy, according to Cunningham. Only those who reported their abuse prior to Feb. 14, 2018 will be eligible to receive the compensation.

Kenneth Fienberg and Camille Biros  who previously helped administer compensation programs for survivors of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the BP oil spill and IRCP programs with other Catholic dioceses  will be responsible for administering the program.

Feinberg and Biros will work with people who previously notified the Diocese of Syracuse that they had been abused or harmed by a member of the clergy. Those victims will receive a letter inviting them to participate in the program, and then Feinberg and Biros will retain complete and sole discretion over all eligibility agreements and settlement compensation amounts for the eligible individuals.

Over the past year, we have monitored the IRCP in the Archdiocese of New York, the Diocese of Brooklyn and the Diocese of Rockville Centre, Bishop Cunningham said in a news release. The response from survivors and their families has been extremely positive. We know and acknowledge that we cannot reverse the damage that was done but our hope is that this new effort will provide an opportunity to seek forgiveness for the irreparable acts of the past and perhaps, bring a sense of healing to some.

The program will be paid for by the Diocese of Syracuses general liability insurance program, according to Cunningham. Money received from members of the diocese to support parishes, schools, the annual Hope Appeal and other charitable funds within the diocese will not be used for the IRCP program.

For more information about the program, visit www.SyracuseDioceseIRCP.com.A decade and a half after the scandal first broke in Boston, opening the floodgates for victims everywhere to come forward, the Syracuse Diocese announces, on Ash Wednesday, the establishment of the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program.

"There are 76 individuals who will recieve a letter, if they have not already done so, inviting them to participate. This represents 40 priests over the decades that have been accused of abuse. Most of these individuals are deceased, and all have been erased from ministry," said Bishop Robert Cunningham.

The financial compensation program will be administered by two individuals out of Washington, D.C., who have overseen similar programs for Penn State, 911 and British Petroleum. They acknowledge that a check is not a bandaid and will not erase decades of pain and betrayal.

"Offering people a check after what they've been through is not satisfaction. Not much solace. But at least we're trying, with the church's instruction, to give these innocent victims some degree of financial help for what they've been through," said Kenneth Feinberg.

The Diocese monitored similar programs by the Dioceses of Brooklyn and Rockville Centre in preparation of setting up their own. Feinberg and his colleague, Camille Biros, have the task of attempting to assign a dollar figure to victims' suffering.

"We look at the age of the child when the abuse began. We look at the duration of the abuse," says Biros. "We look at was it a recidivist priest? We look at, lastly, most importantly, the nature of the abuse."

The program will first address the cases involving victims who have already come forward, citing abuse that happened decades ago. The money will come from the Diocese's general liability insurance; it will not come from the annual Hope Appeal, Catholic Charities, or other donor programs.

There is a deadline in May to opt in the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program. The administrators say such deadlines are often necessary to encourage, or incentivize, victims to come forward. If a victim chooses to take part in the program, they must agree not to pursue lawsuits against the Diocese or its employees.WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)  A new report names Purdue University the 12th safest campus in the country.

The National Council for Home Safety and Security ranked the schools based on the FBI's uniform crime reporting.

The schools safety score was calculated by analyzing crimes reported by universities, including rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, motor vehicle theft and arsons. Schools with insufficent data were excluded.

The report lists Brigham Young University-Idaho the safest followed by Oakland University in Michigan and Northern Kentucky University.

Purdue is the only college in Indiana to rank within the top 100 and is number one in the Big Ten. Indiana University ranked 109. Ball State University ranked 157.LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)  St. Elizabeth School of Nursing students are heading to Haiti for a mission trip. Before they leave, they are collecting donations for the children they will help.



The nursing students are going on this mission trip with the Hearts Helping Haiti organization. The trip is from March 10-16. They will get a chance to see the cultural similarities and difference in medical care.

The group will visit three different orphanages during this journey. At each stop, the students will run a medical clinic to assess the children and provide them with treatment if needed.

The top items needed include children's chewable vitamins, no gummies, children's shoes and over the counter medications. This includes, but is not limited to, Tylenol, Benadryl, and tums. Cash donations are also being accepted.

"We don't get enough donations as far as vitamins," said "We like to have money to go buy the stuff that we need more of before we leave and we also use the money when we get there to go to their pharmacy to buy deworming meds and other things that we try to treat all the kids with when we go.

All donations must be received by Feb. 28. They're hoping to collect multiple 50-pound bags full of donations. There is also an option to sponsor a bag and pay for the baggage fees.WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)-- She didn't see this coming.

Joan Capper's niece died of the flu this morning.

Capper, a Eucharistic Minister at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, didn't even know her niece was sick.

Capper gets her flu shot every year but understands that the flu can still be easily transmitted.

Before each service, Capper washes her hands in an antiseptic wash.

February 14th is the beginning of Lent for the Catholic Church, where many people gather to celebrate.

Infectious Disease Physician Dr. Lin says this flu season is the worst we've had in years.

"We're in the middle as you guys know, of a significant flu outbreak, that the statistics indicate the most intense flu outbreak for 5, 6 , 7 years."

He recommends people who have the flu to take the warning signs seriously.

"If you develop fevers, coughs, just not feeling well, unusual fatigue then you should definitely stay home from work, school, to help protect the people around you." Lin said.

Anyone in the church who serves the public must take precautions.

"Every time we go up especially if we are serving, and we are Eucharistic ministers, we have an antiseptic hand wash and get on the altar."

Church members can decide if they want to receive the offerings or not.Data science: Because data isnt just for scientists

Strong start: Dan Runfola, the director of William & Marys new data science program, says since the program began accepting students this past fall it has already amassed 17 declared minors and 15 self-designed majors. Photo by Joseph McClain

In the lab: Dan Parker, assistant professor of English and linguistics, works directly with the data science program to ensure students get the skills they need to support research in his lab. Here students learn how to use eye-tracking software to collect data. Photo courtesy Dan Parker Photo - of - Hide Caption

In February 2013, a 31-year-old man was arrested driving a car in La Crosse County, Wisconsin. Eric Loomis pleaded guilty to eluding an officer and was sentenced to six years in prison. Before his sentencing, Loomis received a score from an algorithm called COMPAS, a program developed by software company Northpointe to score the rate of recidivism for parole candidates.

Loomiss COMPAS score, which claimed to suggest he was at a high risk of committing another crime, played a part in his six-year sentence. Loomis later challenged the use of the algorithm in court, saying it violated his right to due process. Loomis lost the case and COMPAS remains in use throughout the country.

COMPAS is an example Dan Runfola, the director of William & Marys new data science program, uses to demonstrate the ethical issues with relying on predictive data to calculate recidivism rates. Northpointe has never released the algorithm behind its risk assessment software, but an investigation by ProPublica suggested race was a factor.

If we are trying to predict the risk of a criminal recidivating and going back to prison, and race is quantitatively a good predictor for that, should we use it? Runfola said. William & Mary students need to be ready to critically answer these questions.

Ethics is a persistent theme throughout the new program, which was designed to give students in any discipline the computational chops to create and analyze giant data sets.

I see our job as preparing the next generation of students to be able to understand the advantages and limitations of computation, but also to consider the implications, said Runfola who also serves as AidDatas senior geospatial scientist and is an assistant professor of applied science. The ethical dilemmas in data are enormous, everywhere and hidden at the same time.

Since the data science program began accepting students this past fall, it has made a strong case that computational applications are valuable to students with a wide array of interests. The program has already amassed 17 declared minors and 15 self-designed majors (an official major in data science is still in the works). A total of 251 students are enrolled in data science courses this spring, a 32 percent increase from the fall semester, and nearly every discipline is represented in the student body.

It is exceeding expectations, said Dennis Manos, vice provost for research at William & Mary. Data science is the most fully developed in a series of educational initiatives spearheaded by Manos that are aimed at integrating data analysis, engineering and design into the universitys liberal arts curriculum. A second initiative, the new physics track in Engineering, Physics and Applied Design (EPAD), will begin accepting students next semester.

My appreciation of it at this point is that the courses are to capacity or beyond, Manos said of the data science program. Which is all we can ask for. If you hang out a shingle and people come, you're happy.

So far, the program has done far more than hang out a shingle, it has served as a kind of pipeline for research laboratories on campus. Researchers who collect massive amounts of data have come to lean on the data science program to train students for work in the lab.

We have affiliate faculty that are in departments that dont have a depth of computational skills. Those faculty have a need, Runfola said. They want students in their labs helping them do research, but they cant because the students dont yet have the skills that they need.

Margaret Saha, Chancellor Professor of Biology, says a full half of her lab is involved in the new program. When it comes to her field, technological innovations have made data collection exponentially easier in recent years. For example, a routine RNA sequencing gives about 60 million reads, with roughly 300 bases in each read, she said.

How do we take all of this data and turn it into knowledge? Saha said. Thats where data science comes in. It is addressing this major problem and huge need in biology.

Saha concedes that not all biology students are initially interested in learning how to write programs or manage massive data sets, but the way data science is pitched -- as just another tool in their biology toolbox -- helps them see the light.

Manos says that is exactly the point of data science. It is meant to attract students who have strong interests outside of computer science and quantitative analysis. He says the endgame for students should not be understanding coding architecture or the underpinnings of Boolean algebra, but using these skills as tools to find some long-term benefit or solution theyre being asked to provide.

I like to jokingly refer to data sciences teaching model as entrapment, Runfola said. A lot of the students we are serving would never consider themselves computer science people. We want to show them that theyre wrong.



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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Bond has been set at $500,000 for Julie Cahlaway, accused of a scam that netted hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Cahlaway is accused of targeting a recently divorced Nebraska man online. She allegedly moved to Omaha and forged an ultrasound to convince the victim she was pregnant and needed money for medical bills.

The investigation alleges that over a years time she obtained $375,000 from men she met through online dating services.

An arrest affidavit filed by a Douglas County Sheriffs investigator states Cahlaway promised to invest the familys money in oil ventures but instead spent it on herself. Cahlaway is also accused of scamming a third victim by selling a car that did not belong to her.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine told 6 News this isn't the first time she's tried similar scams.

"Shes currently on probation in another state for the same type of activity and was previously convicted in another state for similar activity, said Kleine.

Cahlaway faces two counts of felony theft by deception. If shes found guilty, Julie Cahlaway could face up to 22 years in prison.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled in March.The nations top fishing port welcomed seven European seafood buyers in late January  all women  and showed off its massive seafood industry during peak operations at Dutch Harbor.

The women, whose companies import more than $60 million in U.S. seafood sales, hailed from France, Germany, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain, and the U.K., said Hannah Lindoff, international program coordinator for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, which hosted the trip.

They are interested in Alaska pollock, cod, surimi, octopus, salmon, roe, black cod and king crab, she explained.

The whole poi...More success for steelworks regeneration project in Brymbo  1.1m BIG Lottery award

This article is old - Published: Thursday, Feb 15th, 2018

A community group looking after the former Brymbo Iron and Steelworks Site near Wrexham has been awarded just under 1.1m by the BIG Lottery to support its Brymbo Heritage Area: A 300 Million Year Story project.

Brymbo Heritage Trust had already secured 2 other major Lottery grants during 2017 worth nearly 3m between them, and this latest grant means work can now start on repairing the works main building  the Machine Shop. This is all part of their 10m vision to restore the site and surrounding landscape as a visitor attraction, learning centre, country park and space for community events, all anchored on the industrial buildings, its associated landscape and the Brymbo Fossil Forest.

The Machine Shop was constructed in 1920 to serve as one of a series of maintenance buildings for the growing steelworks. It housed a series of lathes, drills and milling machines, with skilled mechanical engineers making and mending parts for the rolling mills. It was built right in front of the 19th century ironworks buildings, squeezing in amongst a vast but densely cramped complex of sheds, workshops and offices.

The works closed in 1990 and since 2005 the Machine Shop has stood as the sole steelworks-era building, facing straight onto the new road that opened in 2015.

A spokesperson said: Its a large open space with some smaller temporary rooms inside, and anyone whos been to one of the Trusts many open days will have been inside it. With its roof full of holes, and more than 2000 panes of smashed glass its a drafty place thats far from weather-proof.

Its dereliction has come to symbolise the demise of the works. An eyesore to some, it has become a beacon of hope for the Trust whove selected it to be the first building to be put forward for restoration.

Even in its current condition its already in use daily as the base for the Trusts team of volunteers who relentlessly work to steadily improve the place and find new ways of using it. They make cider there, serve visitors a brew and a piece of cake, exhibit fossils and works memorabilia, and have a seemingly endless stream of meetings with partners and technicians who are now helping to bring the whole project to life.

Now it can have a new roof, new glazing, and a new floor. The work is scheduled to start this summer, with the building opening in Spring 2019.

This latest grant provides 800,000 for to cover the repairs. When it opens it will be divided into two distinct halves:

At the front, the Trust will be putting on a series of arts, exhibition, social and entertainment events. It wont be fitted out at first, rather theyll be using the year of 2019 to trial things and see what works. This space could become the reception and main exhibition area for the whole site when it hopefully opens fully in 2021 after the other buildings have been restored.

At the rear, the building will take the form of a workshop once again, but with a focus on construction trades rather than engineering. It will be operated as a learning space in conjunction with Coleg Cambria and a series of other training providers, upskilling volunteers and serving as an exciting real-world context for young people undertaking vocational learning programmes. Their efforts will help improve the works, and they will be involved in building new facilities within the Heritage Area such as the the narrow gauge railway platforms and garage workshops.

A further 295,000 of BIG Lottery Funding (taking the total announced today to 1,095,000) will support running costs and the two new posts  a site improvement coordinator and a learning coordinator  to take the project forward. These two posts are in addition to current team of 10 staff who work with the Trustees and volunteers.

They added: This new life is being made possible because of several things coming together. The Trusts determination and strength of vision is certainly a major factor, and it wouldnt be deliverable without the support of players of the National Lottery week in week out. But theres more to it, a backstory of leaps of faith, of belief and trust that has made sure their vision can see the light of day.

Wrexham CBC brokered initial work in 2012 to commission a feasibility study into the Brymbo Heritage Area concept, a study that gave a resounding thumbs up and recommended a series of key steps including the funding of a worker to act as the focal point for progressing the plan, for the trust to form, for the site to be mixed use, for the site to link with the wider commercial development across the road and the new school, for the fossil forest to be an integral part of the industrial heritage story, and for the doors of the place to be opened to the public.

WCBC have continued to champion the project at every opportunity and have lent the Trust 170,000 to support their cashflow over the course of 2018 and 2019. They provide officer support and advice and guidance to the Trust to help their vision develop.

Lead Member for Partnerships and Communities Cllr Hugh Jones and local Councillor Paul Rogers have both been strong advocates of the Trusts work.

Cllr Rogers said This is fantastic news for our community, a great sign of the growing confidence in the Trusts plans for the steelworks and a major coupe in securing additional facilities for residents, learners and visitors alike. Id like to offer my heartfelt congratulations to the team at Brymbo Heritage for pulling out all the stops to make this happen, well done!

Since 2014 the Welsh Government have taken a series of investment decisions to help ensure the survival of the buildings and the fossil forest through their CADW, Natural Resources Wales, and National Museums Wales arms. Senior Officers in those divisions have worked alongside local AMs Ken Skates and Mark Isherwood and MP Susan Elan Jones to give the Trust their backing.

Today Susan Elan Jones MP said: This is truly wonderful news which is a real credit to everyone who has worked so hard to re-develop the old Brymbo Steelworks site.

The new programme offers great opportunities for education, tourism and jobs. The grant is a testimony to the vision and commitment of everyone involved with Brymbo Heritage. I have always been pleased to support this work through references and in other ways.

As the daughter of a former Brymbo Steelworks employee as well as as the local MP, I am delighted to express my congratulations to everyone involved in securing this very significant grant.

The Trust have also published further details of the support, reasoning and destination of the help and support they have received.

In each of the last four financial years CADW have granted 25-40,000 to the Trust to undertake emergency works to the ironworks buildings that are Scheduled Ancient Monuments. The Foundry, Casting House, Pattern Makers Workshop and Agents House have all been systematically stabilised through this funding, preserving them for future restoration (hopefully in 2020). Without these early repairs the buildings would have collapsed, and the Trusts vision could well have collapsed with them.

Natural Resources Wales have spent 27,000 on securing the Fossil Forest following its 2015 designation as a Site of Specific Scientific Interest. National Museum Wales have spent 10,000 conserving one of the prime specimens from the Fossil Forest and helping it feature in a six month exhibition in Wrexham Museum in 2016, and they are a key partner in developing the shape and nature of the visitor attraction to come.

The Welsh European Funding Office is currently assessing a bid from the Trust for 128,000 to put a building over the top of part of the Fossil Forest to allow a scheme of excavation to take place. A decision is due in the next few months and should coincide with the Trusts latest staff appointment  of an internationally renowned palaeontologist  in May.

The Princes Regeneration Trust have played a role behind the scenes in all of this, mentoring the Trustees and Trust Manager, helping develop a masterplan for the site, and providing training and encouragement for the Trust to deliver a series of meanwhile uses for the site before its full restoration. Its a big undertaking, and their ability to bring learning from the rest of the UK to bear here in North East Wales has brought tremendous benefits.

Volunteers from all walks of life, with and without connections to the former works, have joined date Trust and got stuck in with helping it all move forward. From scanning thousands of old photos and recording oral histories, to helping deliver workshops for schools, selling donated goods on eBay to raise small funds, salving old land rovers, opening up the landscape, mowing, streaming and chopping, planting, nurturing and celebrating the ecology, making cider, and clearing the way to establish a railway.

Over the past two years the Trust had 33,000 of funding from the Peoples Health Trust to strengthen its work with volunteers, helping the Trust to deliver much of its work with schools in particular, and helping connect volunteers through training and the development of new friendships.

Trust Manager Gary Brown said This is such wonderful news for everybody involved in Brymbo Heritage Area, not our first major grant award but quite possibly our most important  for it will see us restoring our first building, ahead of schedule, and ahead of expectations.

Chair of Trustees Nick Amyes added ..and its happening because everyone is working together to protect and celebrate Brymbos proud heritage. Thank you to all who have been supporting us along the way, and especially to players of the National Lottery for making this all possible.

Wed also like to thank the Heritage Lottery Fund for their initial and sustained investment in our vision. From the 97,500 awarded in 2013, to the 10,000 awarded in 2015, 78,000 awarded in June 2017 and 839,400 awarded in October 2017, were incredibly excited about now being able to deliver the next stage of our vision with the help of both you and the BIG Lottery, bringing together funds raised by the National Lottery to make a huge difference in our community.

New volunteers are always welcome and the Trusts volunteer coordinator can be contacted on 0800 772 0981 or via email at lynze.rogers@brymboheritage.co.uk.

You can learn more on brymboheritage.co.uk !New Development Bank of Wales Wrexham HQ unveiled to accommodate 50 quality jobs

This article is old - Published: Thursday, Feb 15th, 2018

The Development Bank of Wales has signed the lease on its new headquarters in Wrexham. The newly formed development bank will be based in the former Moneypenny offices on the Wrexham Technology Park.

Economy Minister Ken Skates announced in July last year that the new development bank would be headquartered in Wrexham. The Development Bank of Wales launched in October and the first staff will begin working from the new HQ later this year.

Economy Secretary, Ken Skates said: I am absolutely delighted that the lease has now been signed for the Development Banks headquarters which will accommodate 50 quality jobs here in Wrexham.

Our new Economic Action Plan includes a real focus on strengthening our regional economies and ensuring the fruits of our prosperity fall more evenly across Wales, and the Development Banks move to Wrexham is a great example of how we are working to achieve this.

Our priority now is translating the content of the Economic Action Plan into meaningful delivery that benefits our businesses and communities, and we will be working constructively with our partners in business, in the trade unions, in the third sector and others, to ensure it is a plan that truly delivers for Wales.

In 2017, the Development Bank or Wales invested 15 million into north Wales businesses, more than three times the amount advanced in 2016. The team, which is based across the whole of the North Wales region, has doubled in size over the last year. Further recruitment is in the pipeline including a number of live vacancies.

Development Bank of Wales Chief Executive Giles Thorley said: Were very pleased to have secured our new HQ in Wrexham and to deliver this key component of our all-Wales location strategy.

Weve been scaling up our operations in North Wales and continue to see ambition and appetite for investment from businesses in the region, supported by a vibrant business community.

Our aim is to ensure that we are well positioned to support businesses on the ground. Whilst we have been investing in our digital service offering, maintaining a local, face to face presence continues to be very important to us and to our customers. We look forward to welcoming people to the offices when they open later this year.

Director of Risk, Compliance and Legal Neil Maguinness will be permanently based out of Wrexham when the new office opens. Newly appointed Finance Director David Staziker will divide his time between the Cardiff and the headquarters. The Development Bank of Wales will also hold 50% of their board meetings in the new HQ.

The bank was advised by Knight Frank in the transaction which has seen it take a five year lease. Partner Mark Sutton said: The Technology Park provided the right mix of a prominent location with flexible, open plan office space for the Banks new headquarters and we now are pressing on with the project management of the new fitout.

The Development Bank of Wales offers loans from 1,000 up to 5 million as well as equity investments up to 5 million for Welsh companies or businesses looking to move here. They also manage the Help to Buy Wales scheme, which offers equity loans to people buying new homes in Wales.

The development bank is targeted to have an impact of more than 1 billion on the Welsh economy over the next five years.Protests swept across Canada last weekend following the acquittal of Gerald Stanley, a Saskatchewan rancher, in the fatal shooting of 22-year-old Colten Boushie, a member of the Red Pheasant First Nation. The outcry over the verdict has been fuelled not just by the blatantly discriminatory character of Canadas justice system, but also by a growing recognition that the Trudeau Liberal governments pledges to bring about reconciliation with the native people are a sham.

Boushie was killed when Stanley fired a single shot to the back of his head in August 2016. The 22-year-old had been spending the day with friends, with whom he drove onto Stanleys farm near Battleford, Saskatchewan after their vehicle suffered a puncture. Stanley, who alleged the group tried to steal one of his vehicles, retrieved a semiautomatic weapon from his shed and fired a series of warning shots.

Stanley then proceeded to confront the group. Making his way over to the vehicle, he fired the fatal shot that killed Boushie at point-blank range. He later claimed he was trying to reach through the car window to turn off the ignition when the gun accidently went off. Stanley also claimed that he thought he had already fired all the shells he had put into his weapon.

Although Stanley pulled the trigger, the authorities responded as if Boushie were the murderer. Police officers, arms drawn, raided his mothers home, asking her if she had been drinking and searching the house without permission. Police failed to secure the vehicle in which Boushie was shot, meaning they were unable to obtain blood swabs that could have contained crucial evidence about his death.

Only after lengthy delays and much pressure from First Nations people were charges laid against Stanley in Boushies death.

In the months after the 2016 shooting, the provinces right-wing Saskatchewan Party government spent $6 million deploying armed police to the rural area around Battleford. This was justified in the name of combatting rural crime, a pretext that has been used time and again to whip up anti-Native sentiment in western Canada. It was also the very same argument Stanley used to justify his resort to a firearm, even though Boushie and his friends were unarmed.

At trial, Stanleys defence attorney advanced the absurd argument that the fatal shot resulted from hang firea delay between the trigger being pulled on a weapon and the bullet being fired. Experts dismissed this suggestion, pointing out that such incidents generally delay the shot being fired by only a second and, in any case, are extremely rare.

In spite of this and many other holes and contradictions in Stanleys testimony, the jury not only found him innocent of murder. They also acquitted him of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

The broad public disgust at such a clear case of injustice stands in stark contrast to the cynical and hypocritical handwringing over the Boushie case by the Liberal government and the political establishment as a whole.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took time out of his latest trip to the US to state, I know Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians alike know that we have to do better. Both Trudeau and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, herself a former First Nations chief, expressed their condolences to the Boushie family and have vowed to do more to promote reconciliation, among other things via a reform of the justice system.

Responding to criticisms that the jury contained no Indigenous people although they make up a quarter of the population in the Battleford area, Wilson-Raybould announced a plan to do away with the practice known as peremptory challenges, which allows Crown or defence attorneys to exclude a possible jury member without explanation. Even commentators in the mainstream media have pointed out that this measure in itself would do little to improve Native representation on juries, since other factors, such as the cost of travel to courts, represent prohibitive barriers for many Indigenous people serving on juries.

Yet even accepting for the sake of argument the possibility that an increase in Indigenous jury members could be brought about, this would do nothing to change the fundamental character of the capitalist criminal justice system. Wilson-Raybould herself provides a devastating refutation of such fraudulent claims, since her presence as the highest legal official in the land has failed to alter the justice systems callous disregard for the concerns of Native people.

While Indigenous people comprise barely 5 percent of Canadas population, more than 25 percent of all men in federal prisons are Indigenous and 36 percent of all female inmates are Indigenous.

The Liberals empty promises are aimed at covering up the reality of their leading role in carrying out and perpetuating the brutal oppression of Canadas Indigenous population. As the ruling elites preferred party of government, the Liberals are implicated in all of the horrific crimes perpetrated by Canadian capitalism against Indigenous people, going all the way back to the foundation of the Canadian capitalist state in the mid-19th century. These include a deliberate policy of exterminating the Native population with the goal of clearing the plains for European settlement, the terrible abuses associated with the residential school system, the apartheid-style pass system on Indian reservations, and the denial of citizenship rights until well into the second half of the twentieth century.

Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government are perpetuating this legacy. During the 2015 election campaign, Trudeau spouted rhetoric about change and moving forward with Native reconciliation. Much was made of the appointment of Wilson-Raybould as the first Native Justice Minister, and the convening of a national inquiry into the thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) whose cases remain unsolved.

Yet more than two years after coming to power, the Trudeau government has fulfilled none of its bogus promises. It has not even managed to increase per capita funding for healthcare and education in Indigenous communities to match what the provinces provide to other Canadians.

Conditions on many Native reserves resemble those in the developing world rather than in one of capitalisms most advanced societies, with frequent absence of drinking water, chronic housing shortages, few public services, and a lack of job opportunities. Things are little better for those Indigenous people who have moved into urban areas, where rates of homelessness, drug addiction and other social ills are far above those in the overall population.

On the other hand, a thin layer of wealthy Indigenous businessmen and chiefs, of whom Wilson-Raybould is the most prominent example, have been promoted as part of the efforts of successive Canadian governments to reconcile the Native population to capitalism, by cultivating a thin petty-bourgeois layer of Indigenous professionals and entrepreneurs. The Trudeau government hopes to leverage support from these privileged strata to suppress growing opposition among Native people and to provide social license for lucrative resource exploitation projects on traditional First Nations lands.

The outrage over the Boushie case has come at an inopportune time for the Liberals in this regard, since they are under mounting pressure from big business to make good on their promises to push through the expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline over widespread popular opposition, including form many First Nations people.

The response from broad sections of the corporate-controlled media to the Boushie case has been as dishonest as that of the government, with Macleans magazine, the Toronto Star and others endeavouring to portray the verdict purely in racial terms. Macleans observed in an article on the outcome that the white justice system and an all-white jury brought about Stanleys acquittal, while a piece by David MacDonald in the National Post spoke of the settler-based Canadian legal system.

Of the jurys decision to acquit Stanley, Star columnist Tim Harper wrote, [T]hey live in a white world, as do I, and we would all be incapable of knowledge of an Indigenous upbringing in this country.

These deeply misguided conceptions are aimed at concealing the truth about who is responsible for the discrimination experienced by the Native population at the hands of the criminal justice system and the social and economic misery that underlies it. By proclaiming the existence of an unbridgeable gulf between white people or settlers and Natives, these bourgeois pundits are attempting to foist responsibility for the crimes of their own class onto the entire population.

Racism undoubtedly played a role in the Boushie case, from the polices disgraceful treatment of Boushies mother, to their inexplicable delay in charging Stanley, and the brutal law-and-order crackdown launched by the Saskatchewan provincial government.

Saskatchewan has been the site of other racist killings. In 1991, Carney Nerland, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, fatally shot Cree trapper Leo LaChance. Like Stanley, at his trial he used the defence that he did not know how many bullets were in his gun. He was acquitted.

However, racism does not emerge organically from the genes of white people or settlers, but has been cultivated and employed persistently for over a century and a half by Canadas ruling class and its capitalist state. In order to consolidate bourgeois rule, Canadian capitalism had to dispossess the Indigenous population and destroy their communal forms of property.

The only way to achieve justice for Boushie and deal with the pervasive oppression of the Native population is for Indigenous people to link their struggles with the fight of the working class of all racial, ethnic or linguistic backgrounds to put an end to capitalism. Only on the basis of a socialist program will it be possible to right the historic wrongs done to Canadas Native population, including through the abolition of the capitalist justice system, and to secure basic rights and social equality for all.

This author also recommends:

Canadas aboriginal Truth and Reconciliation Reportthe class issues

[13 June 2015]

Canadian capitalism and the subjugation and decimation of the indigenous population

[23 April 2016]Chinas popular, social-media platform Sina Weibo reintroduced key elements of its service a week ago after they were suspended in January by the countrys Internet regulator for failing to halt the spread of harmful content.

In January, the Beijing office of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) declared that, obscenity, low taste, and ethnic discrimination continued to spread on Sina Weibo, along with content containing wrong public opinion orientation.

Sina Weibo has violated the countrys laws and regulations, led online public opinion in the wrong direction and left a very bad influence, the CAC stated.

According to WhatsOnWeibo, the company responded with an announcement on its website that it accepted the criticism and promised to fulfil higher standards and responsibility.

It pledged to increase the cooperation with the formal mediathat is, state-owned enterprisesand better manage its content through developing, more technology and manpower [to] improve our management of illegal and harmful information, maintain the order within the online information and preserve a good [online] environment.

According to a bill passed in 2000 by Chinas State Council, what can be deemed illegal is very broadly and vaguely defined. This provides the basis for severe restrictions on Internet companies operating in China.

Article 15 of the bill entitled Measures for the Administration of Internet Information Services, prohibits Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from publishing information that constitutes mere rumours, or disrupts social order and stability, or undermines national unity and interests.

Weibo, owned by the technology company Sina Corp, is a microblog social network similar in function to Twitter, enabling users to publicly share short messages, images and video content. In 2017 it experienced explosive growth, reaching 376 million Monthly Active Users (MAUs) in September, outpacing Twitter, which had 330 million MAUs.

Of critical concern to the Chinese government is social medias potential to serve as a conduit for mass political disaffection and radicalisation outside the control of the state apparatus and its extensive Internet police.

In response to the CACs actions, Weibo overhauled sections on its main page, including trending hashtags, most searched topics and searches from friends. A new section was also introduced, entitled new era, which directs users to topics and discussions lauding the achievements of the Chinese state, as well as to sanitised versions of domestic news produced by the state-owned media.

Previously, what Weibo presented as trending and most searched was managed somewhat organically by trustworthy usersaccounts that Weibo ranked as having positive online behaviour. With the recent changes, according to the China Global Television Network, Weibo staff can now directly monitor and remove online content.

This is the latest episode in the Beijing regimes long-running campaign to monitor and control online activity.

On December 29, sections of the popular news app Jinri Toutiao were similarly updated, due to CAC accusations of spreading pornographic and vulgar information and causing a negative impact on public opinion online.

Last August, Weibos parent organisation, Sina, along with two other tech firms, Tencent and Baidu, were each fined the maximum penalty of 500,000 yuan ($US76,000) for allowing the spread of harmful content on their social media platforms.

It is telling that governments in the US and Europe, as well as corporate giants such as Google, Facebook and other social media, are using justifications for censoring the Internet that are indistinguishable from those of the Chinese Communist Party.

In late January, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg released a statement lamenting harmful content on his platform, as well as the proliferation of supposed fake news.

The world feels anxious and dividedand that played out on Facebook, Zuckerberg wrote. Weve seen abuse on our platform, including interference from nation states, the spread of news that is false, sensational and polarizing, and debate about the utility of social media. The billionaire pledged to amplify the good and prevent harm. That is my personal challenge for 2018.

In line with the Chinese governments attempts to redirect its citizens to the formal media, Zuckerberg also broadcast his companys intentions to promote broadly trusted and high-quality sources, citing the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, which are mouthpieces for US military, corporate and political elites, in order to counter misinformation and polarization.

Amid the growing dangers of war and signs of social unrest, fundamental democratic rights are increasingly under attack, both in established police-states such as China, and so-called democracies such as the United States. As they prepare for war abroad and class war at home, the ruling classes around the world fear that the Internet increasingly will become a vehicle, not only for accurate information and news, but for organising protests and opposition.

The Chinese regime is notorious for its online censorship system, popularly known as the Great Firewall, which aims to limit online discussion to officially approved topics, along the lines of state propaganda. However, the burgeoning use of the Internet in China is a challenge even for its vast policing apparatus.

According to the China Internet Network Information Center, 40.74 million Chinese citizens became new Internet users last year alone, bringing the total to 772 million users, or approximately half the population. Of these users, 97.5 percent used mobile phones to access the Internet.

To better manage online activity, the CAC introduced new regulations last October requiring ISPs to request and verify the real names of their users, as well as to investigate thoroughly anyone suspected of using fake names, and to turn over all relevant data to authorities.

In a candid interview with Bloomberg last year, Baidu president Zhang Yaqin provided an indication of the extent to which social media companies are involved in turning over claims of fake news to government authorities.

Zhang reported that, utilising the latest advances in technology and online vetters, every year Baidu sees, somewhere around 3 billion claims, requests that we need to verify, that might turn out to be fake news.

We have an obligation to make sure the user gets good content, but it continues to be a challenge for us, for other companies in China, and companies in the US, Zhang said.Deaths and injuries among workers in the booming construction industry in New York state in 2016 showed a striking parallel in both the rate and causes of death in the industry nationwide, according an annual report Deadly Skyline, published last month by the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH).

NYCOSH reports that construction deaths in the state of New York reached a 14-year high in 2016, with 71 workers killed on the job. This amounts to a nearly 30 per cent increase from 2015, when a total of 55 construction workers were killed on the job in the state.

As the WSWS has reported, there were 5,190 fatal workplace injuries recorded in the United States in 2016, an increase of seven percent from the 4,836 workers killed on the job in 2015.

Overall, construction workers in the US saw the highest number of deaths in any industry in 2015. That year, a total of 937 construction workers were killed on the job, marking the second straight year of fatality increases in construction, according to the most recent data available to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unreported incidents undoubtedly place the numbers even higher, as injury and deaths among migrant and undocumented workers who are forced to accept the most hazardous jobs routinely go unreported.

In the recent tally of fatalities for New York state, half died from falls, an entirely preventable cause of death that plagues many sectors of basic industry. This grisly toll in flesh and blood takes place in the face of revolutionary advances in the knowledge, technology and equipment which could make it possible to eliminate injury and death on the job entirely. Safety belts, harnesses, ropes, ladder ties and other equipment, as well as computer technology for monitoring and tracking safety procedures, could, if implemented systematically, eliminate falls altogether.

Under the profit system, however, workers face constant pressure to take short cuts to boost productivitypressure that inevitably leads to disabling and fatal incidents. Instead of improving safety and working conditions, recent advances in computer tracking of job sites are subordinated to the profit drive of giant corporations.

Furthermore, the majority of workers, employed by unregulated small contractors, are exposed to extreme hazards of falls, electrocutions and cave-ins. As an example, a master electrician in Detroit told the WSWS that he had been compelled by a small contractor to disconnect a live 480-volt transformer. One false move would have meant instant death by electrocution. In that sense, the reported deaths are not accidents, but rather the predictable results of unchecked cost-cutting and speed-up.

The release of the NYCOSH report came on the heels of the deaths of two young construction workers on the same day in New York City. On January 23, a 33-year-old electrician employed by U-Tek Elevator, Inc. died after a fall down the elevator shaft where he was installing an elevator car for a 12-story hotel project in Manhattan without a protective line to prevent such a fall. Hours later, 26-year-old John Davie fell to his death while working with his father on the renovation of a co-op building which lacked a valid work permit. Both of his parents witnessed the fall.

Despite the growing death toll, construction companies and some New York lawmakers are moving to get rid of the scaffolding law, a century-old regulation that requires construction companies and property owners to accept full liability for all accidents that occur on a construction site.

The move is part of the much-publicized drive by the Trump administration to deregulate industry and cut funds from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which will only accelerate the loss of life. In campaign rhetoric, Trump argued that regulations cost jobs because they pinch profits, discouraging investment.

Many deaths in the construction industry already go unreported to begin with, due to a stripping away of federal and state regulations and the blatant violation of existing regulations by contractors. Funding cuts to OSHA over successive years have left it strapped for resources to inspect job sites and investigate accidents. The cuts have continued unabated under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

OSHA is a small agency, with a total of approximately 2,100 inspectors to protect the health and safety of 130 million workers employed at more than 8 million worksites around the country. That leaves one compliance officer for every 59,000 workers, or one inspector for every 3,810 work locations.

Predictably the OSHA standard to protect workers from falling is the most frequently violated regulation. Other standards which are most often violated include are those governing hazard communication, scaffolding, respiratory protection and control over hazardous energy.

Going hand in hand with federal and state government efforts to disembowel OSHA is the role of the AFL-CIO construction unions. As the various levels of government cut the regulatory agency, the unions hand off more and more of the responsibility for protecting worker safety. As an example of the pro-business outlook and role of the unions, the investigation of serious injuries and deaths and the collection and dissemination of fatality and injury statistics are done, not by the unions, but by OSHA, on an increasingly limited budget.

Very often OSHAs investigations of deaths and injuries can take months. The drawn-out process is used to prevent the families of the deceased and the injured from finding out what actually happened to their loved ones, and prevent them from placing responsibility for the violation of safety rules onto the employer. Furthermore, the fines imposed by the agency are outrageously low, and represent no serious deterrent to the violations which have caused the loss of life.* "Most Popular Intellectual Property Law Blawg" of all time according to Justia rankings , September 2021.

* "Most Popular Copyright Blawg" of all time according to Justia rankings , September 2021.

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* Top Patent Blog poll 2009: 3rd out of 50 in the "Favourite Patent Blog" poll and 2nd out of 50 in the "Most-read" poll.

Blog of the Year, 20 August 2008. * ComputerWeekly IT Law and Governance, 20 August 2008.Since the start of the year, southeastern Australia has been hit by a series of heatwaves, continuing into February. Such events are known to have a severe impact on human health, as well as producing conditions for catastrophic bush fires.

January ended with heatwave conditions. South Australia was particularly badly hit, with temperatures reaching 41 Centigrade in Adelaide and 42 C in the states north. In neighbouring Victoria, Melbourne reached 39 C and Mildura, in the northeast, experienced five successive days over 40 C from January 25.

Australias Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) rated January as an exceptionally hot month for the whole country and the third warmest on record. January was Sydneys second-warmest month in the past 24 years.

In Melbourne, thousands of households were cut off electricity due to a large amount of faults, according to the privatised power providers. As a result, many people were unable to use air-conditioning to escape the oppressive heat.

In some regions of Australia, extreme heat conditions have persisted into February. Western, central and northern parts of Queensland have experienced temperatures above 40 C, and forecasters have warned that the heat could persist.

BOM forecaster Sam Campbell said: For many people they wont see overnight temperatures dropping below 30 C overnight and then the daytime temperatures getting up into the 40s and approaching, say, 45 C around Longreach So it is actually going to be a significant heat event for Queensland.

In recent years, studies have pointed to the serious health consequences of extreme heatwaves. An assessment of PerilAUS, a database of natural disasters, conducted by Andrew Gissing and Lucinda Coates from Macquarie University, characterised heatwaves as Australias deadliest natural disaster.

The assessment estimated that the JanuaryFebruary 2009 heatwave, which produced horrific bushfires that killed 177 people in Victoria, also resulted in 432 deaths from the effects of extreme heat. In that period, Melbourne experienced three successive days over 43 C, while Adelaide had eight days over 40 C. Extremely hot nights, with minimums of 20 to 25 C in Melbourne and 30 C in Adelaide, meant people experienced little relief in between scorching days.

Earlier heatwaves produced similar resultsfor example the 1939 Black Friday bushfires resulted in 71 deaths in Victoria, while at least 420 people died from the heat, mostly in New South Wales.

The mortality statistics are probably understated as people present to hospitals with various illnesses, such as heart attacks or renal failure, that heatwaves exacerbate. Children, the elderly, disabled people and outdoor workers are considered at the greatest risk.

A perspective published in the Medical Journal of Australia, Extreme heat threatens the health of Australians, by Marion Carey and others in 2017 showed that extreme heat disrupts the bodys thermoregulatory mechanisms so it is unable to maintain a normal core temperature. This can exacerbate pre-existing conditions in vulnerable parts of the population.

A Climate Council report, The silent killer: Climate change and the health impacts of extreme heat, published in 2016, estimated that during the heatwave in southeast Australia in January-February 2009, emergency call-outs jumped by 46 percent; cases involving heat-related illness jumped 34-fold; and cardiac arrests almost tripled in Victoria. In total, 374 excess deaths were recorded, a 62 percent increase on the previous year.

Similar mortality figures have been experienced internationally. A heatwave in France in July 2006 produced 2,065 deaths, one in Japan during June 2010 resulted in 1,718 deaths and one during July 2010 in Russia reportedly resulted in 55,736 deaths from heat and wildfires. On the Indian sub-continent, 3,729 people died in May 2015.

The extreme heat conditions have intensified and become more frequent due to the effects of global warming. According to the Climate Council, the number of hot days in Australia has more than doubled since 1960. This warming trend has accelerated in the past few years, with 2013 the hottest year on record.

A study led by Sophie Lewis from the Australian National University, prepared for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, assessed the potential magnitude of future extreme temperatures in Australia under the conditions outlined in the 2015 Paris Climate Accord. That international agreement aimed to restrict greenhouse gas emissions and limit the increase in global temperatures to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The study warned that at the top end of that range, Australian cities could have 50 C days as early as 2040 to 2050. In other words, even if the 2-degree limit set by the Paris accord were met, the temperatures would reach critically dangerous levels.

If we warm average temperatures, we shift the whole distribution of temperatures, and we see a really large percentage increase in extremes. What seems like a small increase in average temperatures, say 1 degree, can lead to a two- or three-fold acceleration in severity of extremes, Lewis told the Sydney Morning Herald.

This underscores the inadequacy of the Paris accord, which again demonstrated the inability of governments worldwide to take any effective action to contain global warming.

In a paper published in Scientific Reports in 2017, Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a research fellow at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of NSW found that the worst effected regions in parts of the tropics could experience heatwave conditions for the whole of the summer.

Government indifference and inaction has increased the impacts on health. The Australian government and some of the state governments have no heatwave action plans. Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia have plans, but they are totally inadequate. The Victorian plan, published in 2009, does not allocate extra resources to meet the growing threat of heatwaves. Most of the responsibility for any response is shoved onto local councils, which are unable to respond effectively.

Australian governments also have taken no long-term measures, such as urban planning, to mitigate the impact of extreme heatwaves. Systematic cuts to the public health system by successive Labor and Liberal-National governments have left hospitals ill equipped to cope with large influxes of patients in extreme conditions.

To stem temperature increases and deal with their social consequences, an international strategy is required but that is entirely bound up with the fight for socialism. Capitalist governments worldwide, tied to the profit interests of the financial elite, have demonstrated their complete indifference to the growing disaster facing the human population.Daniel Renwick is the producer, co-writer and co-director of Failed by the State. We interviewed him this week about the making of the documentary on the Grenfell fire and the attack against it by the Daily Beast and right-wing newspapers in Britain for being funded by a subsidiary of Russias RT network.

WSWS: Can you tell us about your background?

DR: I used to work for Ruptly. Redfish is a subsidiary of Ruptly, which is owned by RT. I left them over two years ago. My friends who used to work there were part of forming a team, with editorial independence. I got assured in writing that would I have the final approval of Failed by the State. Im no Kremlin stooge.

What I did was tell the story from the community perspective. I even managed to get the community rights to the footage used. The only thing that can be commercially exploited, with half the proceeds going to organisations of my choosing, is the final film itself. The rest of it is for non-commercial purposes, held by the community.

Daniel Renwick

There is no media in town that would have offered that! I asked for it to set an example of what is possible, and they did it. In all fairness to them, Redfish did it I have no fundamental issue with working with them because of where their finance comes from.

It would be nice if the attacks focused on the narrative and the challenges that the film presents, not where the money comes from. They are trying to get it dismissed by association, with the kind of Russo-phobic times we live in.

Im more than happy to contend with anyone over the narrative of the film or what the film contains or claims. And I can put you in touch with my interview subjects and they will do the same thing. They dont care about who commissioned the film. It has no relevance to the people of North Kensington, or the people engaged in the struggle more widely. Its about what the story is and how it empowers the community and I think Failed by the State will do that more than anything Ive seen so far.

WSWS: Why do you think the media has targeted Failed by the State for such a witch-hunt?

DR: This is not the first time the right-wing media have thrown mud. Theyve targeted Edward Daffarn [a member of the Grenfell Action Group who warned the local council that a catastrophic fire would be inevitable due to the lack of basic safety measures in the tower]. Theyve targeted Justice for Grenfell. The Telegraph did their hit piece. The Times have probably been the most rabid in their attacks.

They dont want truths. They want to make out that Grenfell is an aberration, a tragedy in which the community of North Kensington came together, with an outpouring of aid nationally. They want to lionise the community, while pardoning the market state and its criminal culpabilities.

They dont want to deal with the structural issues that Grenfell raised or the continued failings of the state. They dont want us challenging them, but we are, and we will, and were better than them.

WSWS: What do you think are the main strengths of the film?

DR: What I wanted to do in writing the film was set up what every localitys struggle is like. What happened in North Kensington could have happened in many places across the country and world.

There is an incredible history that North Kensington can tap into. It has a real history of mass action and not going down a party-political route. The politicisation that comes with a thing like Grenfell kind of transcends party politics, as the world conceives of it.

Every day I meet people who have been politicised and have a deeper consciousness through whats happened. Its about building a media infrastructure and resources to get people to engage with the world critically and thats what the film is the beginning of.

Everyone else wants to humanise the individuals in Grenfell Tower, to zoom in and pull on the heartstrings. Thats what every major production on Grenfell is going to do and it completely decontextualises what actually happened.

There is the context of global neo-liberalism, the context of gentrification, its the context in this country, of the Housing Act and the warfare against any sort of social housing. In North Kensington its the battle over public space again and again and againwithin one of the most contested spaces in London and therefore the world.

They dont want working-class low-income families living in North Ken. They havent for a long-time. Theyve tried to push them from Holland Park and tried to push them from Notting Hill for generations and they are doing and it's violent warfare and its very sharp. For a lot of people in that area, they see the cranes moving. They see the changes and its horrible.

WSWS: I understand that you have long connections with the local area?

DR: I used to live in Ladbroke Grove. Its a place where radical post-war history was made. People talk about Cable Street. They very rarely talk about the anti-fascist resistance in Grove and figures like Baron Baker and others who took on the likes of [British Union of Fascists leader Oswald] Moseley and Colin Jordan [of the 1970s fascist group, the National Front] on the streets. There are proud traditions of radical working-class actions and global solidarity. Eight people from Ladbroke Grove died when they went to fight in the Spanish Civil War.

WSWS: What other films have you worked on?

DR: Ive made several films on a local history project, mainly with the Octavia Foundation. Our project, Waking the Dead, attempted to popularise figures buried in Kensal Green cemetery. A lot of radical activists are buried there, people like Feargus OConnor from the Chartist movement.

I made a campaign video for residents resisting the merger of Notting Hill Housing and Genesis, a campaign video to keep North Kensington library for public use. I call myself a community worker, and I make films and I write. I have the YouTube channel Malcontents and there are a lot of videos after Grenfell happenedwith survivors, on the first rally after the Silent March. And they got quite a lot of views at the time.

Nothing that has happened so far surprises me. The attack on Failed by the State is about corporate interests and the power of money and those beholden to it. The Daily Beast that started this is so Russo-phobic. They are the most neo-Con publication you could imagine. And they did their little investigation and then the right-wing press got going on the back of it.

They just want to shut me up and keep me out of the picture, I imagine. Im more than happy to wade into this, because there is no one that can erase the indelible mark Grenfell has made on our country, our society and the world. Im not going to shut up. I dont have any fear of them challenging my competency.As the #MeToo movement encounters a growing backlash, rape charges against Nicolas Hulot in recent days have brought the media frenzy to absurd heights.

The accusations against Hulot, rumors of which had been circulating and amplified in the media for at least a week, came from the newly-founded Ebdo magazine. Ebdo was launched in January by Thierry Mandon, a former junior minister for state reform of Frances Socialist Party (PS) government. The magazine cited a 2008 complaint for acts of rape against Hulot over events that occurred in 1997. The complaint was filed intentionally after the expiration of the statute of limitations, by a granddaughter of the late President Francois Mitterrand.

The second charge involves a former associate of the Hulot Foundation. This employee has issued an official denial  of the rumors on the LCI television channel, declaring that she had no comment about this affair which is not in fact an affair.

Hulot, who received public support from President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Wednesday, preempted the publication of the article in Ebdo by speaking to BFM-TV, to reject the accusations and rule out any resignation. A few hours later, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb reiterated the governments support for Hulot.

The author of the 2008 complaint, Pascale Mitterrand, insisted that her identity not be revealed and that the matter not be used politically against Hulot, and claimed she did not want it to be reported. She herself has not said it was an act of rape but of act under constraint. Her father, Gilbert Mitterrand, told LCI that her family had nothing do to with this media buzz.

The WSWS has no political sympathy for Hulot, a long-standing representative of the corporate and political elite. He is part of a reactionary government promoting militarism and unprecedented attacks on workers basic social rights in France and across Europe. But such witch-hunts against politicians have nothing to do with democracy. It stokes an atmosphere of denunciation, humiliation and summary dismissals that trample on basic democratic rights and due process and benefits the most reactionary forces.

For the Macron government, which supported #MeToo last year as it put forth a reactionary bill setting up a morals police against immigrant youth in working class suburbs, supposedly to protect women, the #MeToo chickens have come home to roost. The sexualized media hysteria Macron helped stir up has now turned against the government itself.

At the same time, the Islamophobic campaign in the political elite is still escalating against #MeToos original intended targets in France. Islamist scholar Tariq Ramadan, against whom rape charges were directed just after the #MeToo campaign emerged in France in October, was arrested on January 31 and indicted. He is still detained. As soon as the charges were made public, his employer, Oxford University, placed him on leave.

Ramadan has denied all the accusations. As ultra-detailed descriptions of the sexual accusations circulated in the press, a confrontation with one of his accusers reportedly ending with both Ramadan and the accuser insisting on their own account of events. Ramadan refused to sign the transcript of the discussion.

Ramadans lawyers accused the Paris prosecutors office of having influenced the inquiry and hidden exculpatory evidence, and demanded the General Inspection of the Justice System (IGJ) investigate the procedure. They also demanded the identification of a judge who reportedly took testimony from one of Ramadans accusers in 2009, who did not press charges at the time.

The accusation against Ramadan, even if he were proved to be guilty, has been politically manipulated from the beginning, stemming from a campaign waged by a large variety of forces appealing to anti-Muslim racism.

One of the leading protagonists in the campaign against Ramadan is the secular feminist writer and former Charlie Hebdo journalist Caroline Fourest. Initially a promoter of pseudo-left identity politics who then turned towards attacking Islamic fundamentalism after the 11 September 2001 attacks, she wrote a 2004 book on Ramadan titled Brother Tariq. Over the last decade, she has campaigned to brand political Islam as the greatest threat to democracy.

Speaking to RTL radio last October, she said that after a discussion with one of Ramadans accusers, she presented [the accuser] to a judge. She added the claim that Ramadan has a hatred of women and that his sexuality corresponds to the ideas that he promotes. Fourest, who claimed to have been well appraised of accusations against Ramadan as far back as 2009, reportedly testified in November and provided plenty of evidence against Ramadan.

Ramadan is a political representative of the Muslim bourgeoisie who is hostile to the working class, but his case clearly illustrates how #MeToo reinforces Islamophobic campaigns waged by forces ranging from Charlie Hebdo to the neo-fascist National Front.

In recent weeks, #MeToo has met with an increasing backlash in the media and in the broader public. After the statement signed by 100 women including actress Catherine Deneuve criticizing #MeToo, more forces in cultural circles have criticized its repressive character.

As Ebdo published its article on Hulot, France TV Info published an interview with Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke attacking #MeToo as a witch hunt. He added, I consider the hysteria and the sentencing without trial that we are seeing today to be quite disgusting  Each shitstorm that these revelations trigger, including even on Internet forums of serious newspapers, poisons the social climate.

Certain newspapers which hailed and enthusiastically promoted #MeToo are now reporting that it is causing unease, seeking to distance themselves from it as they risk being exposed by the witch hunts they helped trigger. They have also pointed to the inconsistency and the vagueness of the accusations against Hulot.

On February 8, in an article titled Rumors on Nicolas Hulot: Hype leads to Unease, Liberation wrote, In fact, after reading [the accusations], one has more questions than answers. It is as if the magazine had lit a fuse and was then hoping that it could sell a lot of copies. L'Obs magazine said there was unease in the press over the issue.

Political commentator Alain Duhamel complained, Everything is based on anonymous denunciations, which are supposed to remain such, by alleged victims. We are as usual in a world of allegations, accusations, rumors withoutfor the moment at leastany tangible proof.

Significantly, Duhamel pointed to the risks to the Macron government and the entire ruling elite: This could not come at a worse time, since there is already the matter with Darmanin [a public finances minister recently accused of rape].  Now we are in a period where accusations of sexual violence dominate the headlines every day.  A majority of Frenchmen already consider the political establishment to be financially corrupt. If they conclude it is sexually corrupt, as well, that is getting to be too much.

This comment points to the deep conflicts among wealthy and affluent social layers of which #MeToo is one expression. Having permitted the media to whip up this anti-democratic campaign, they are now beginning to wonder whetherin the interests of stabilizing a regime that is discredited and hated by masses of workersit might be better to clip its wings.Tuesdays Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Global Threats and National Security was an exercise in right-wing hysteria aimed at promoting the claim that all social opposition in the United States is the product of foreign subversion. This fraudulent narrative was advanced to justify censorship and police state repression.

Not since the McCarthyite witch hunts of the 1950s has Congress seen such a vitriolic denunciation of supposed foreign subversion. Russia, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the committee, perceived its past efforts [at manipulating the 2016 elections] as successful and views the 2018 US midterm elections as a potential target.

It is necessary to inform the American people that this is real, Coats proclaimed, and that resilience is needed for us to stand up and say were not going to allow some Russians to tell us how to vote, how we ought to run our country.

One after another, senators pressed the assembled intelligence officials about purported Russian and Chinese plots to sow divisions within American society, calling on the intelligence agencies to work with technology companies to censor the Internet and prevent the dissemination of divisive content.

Chinese students were denounced as potential spies and subversives and Americans were instructed not to buy smartphones made by Chinese companies.

All of these accusations were made without the slightest attempt at proof or substantiation. This is because they are simply made up.

The basic claim of the liars and frauds on Capitol Hill is that the US would be a peaceful and healthy democracy if it werent for the nefarious operations of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. The absurdity of such a statement was revealed once again on Wednesday when a mass school shooting took place in Parkland, Florida, the 18th school shooting to occur in the seven weeks of 2018. Are Russia and China responsible for the social dysfunction that produces such atrocities with horrific regularity?

The concern of the American ruling class is not Russian or Chinese subversion, but the growth of social opposition within the United States. The narrative of Russian meddling has been used to justify a systematic campaign to censor the Internet and suppress free speech.

The performance of Senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the committee, was particularly obscene. Warner, whose net worth is estimated at $257 million, appeared to be doing his best impersonation of Senator Joe McCarthy. He declared that foreign subversion works together with, and is largely indistinguishable from, threats to our institutions from right here at home.

Alluding to the publication of the so-called Nunes memo, which documented the fraudulent character of the Democratic-led investigation of White House collusion with Russia, Warner noted, There have been some, aided and abetted by Russian Internet bots and trolls, who have attacked the basic integrity of the FBI and the Justice Department.

Responding to questioning from Warner, FBI Director Christopher Wray praised the US intelligence agencies greater engagement and partnership with the private sector, concluding, We cant fully police social media, so we have to work with them so that they can police themselves.

Wray was referring to the sweeping measures taken by social media companies, working directly with the US intelligence agencies, to implement a regime of censorship, including through the hiring of tens of thousands of content reviewers, many with intelligence backgrounds, to flag, report and delete content.

The assault on democratic rights is increasingly connected to preparations for a major war, which will further exacerbate social tensions within the United States. Coats prefaced his remarks by declaring that the risk of inter-state conflict, including among great powers, is higher than at any time since the end of the Cold War.

As the hearing was taking place, multiple news outlets were reporting that potentially hundreds of Russian military contractors had been killed in a recent US air strike in Syria. This came just weeks after the publication of the Pentagons National Defense Strategy, which declared, Inter-state strategic competition, not terrorism, is now the primary concern in US national security.

However, the implications of this great-power conflict are not simply external to the US homeland. The document argues that the homeland is no longer a sanctuary, and that America is a target, for political and information subversion on the part of revisionist powers such as Russia and China.

Since Americas military has no preordained right to victory on the battlefield, the only way the US can prevail in this conflict is through the seamless integration of multiple elements of national power, including information, economics, finance, intelligence, law enforcement and military.

In other words, Americas supremacy in the new world of great-power conflict requires the subordination of every aspect of life to the requirements of war. In this totalitarian nightmare, already far advanced, the police, the military and the intelligence agencies unite with media and technology companies to form a single seamless unit, whose combined power is marshaled to manipulate public opinion and suppress political dissent.

The dictatorial character of the measures being prepared was underscored by an exchange between Wray and Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who asked whether Chinese students were serving as spies for Beijing. What is the counterintelligence risk posed to US national security from Chinese students, particularly those in advanced programs in the sciences and mathematics? asked Rubio.

Wray responded that the use of nontraditional collectors, especially in the academic setting, whether its professors, scientists, students, we see in almost every field office that the FBI has around the country, not just in major cities, small ones as well, basically every discipline.

This campaign, with racist overtones, recalls the official rationaledefense of national securityused to justify the internment of some 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry during the Second World War.

In its open letter calling for a coalition of socialist, antiwar and progressive websites against Internet censorship, the World Socialist Web Site noted that the ruling class has identified the Internet as a mortal threat to its monopolization of information and its ability to promote propaganda to wage war and legitimize the obscene concentration of wealth and extreme social inequality.

It is this mortal threatand fear of the growth of class conflictthat motivate the lies and hypocrisy on display at the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.Prime Minister Theresa May pledged a renewed fight to defeat socialism before an audience of ultra-wealthy donors last week at the Conservative Partys annual fundraising dinner.

Those arriving in chauffeur-driven Rolls Royces, Bentleys and Jaguars at the Black and White Ball, held in the Natural History Museum in London, paid 15,000 to get through the door.

Once inside, the multi-millionaires and billionaires were wined and dined in luxury, while competing for prizes that included the personal attention of the prime minister and leading members of her cabinet.

A day with May secured a winning bid of 55,000 from one unnamed donor. Dinner with Defence Secretary, Gavin Williamson, in the Churchill War Rooms in Westminster fetched 30,000 and a home-cooked dinner with Environment Secretary Michael Gove and his wife, Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine, a distressingly low 12,500.

Smaller lots include a 1,000 gift voucher and private shopping experience at the prime ministers favourite designer store Fluidity (although it admittedly will not buy much), and an original Labour isnt Working 1979 campaign poster signed by Margaret Thatcher.

Bitter inner-party divisions that have seen May threatened with a leadership challenge were set aside for the evening. Leading advocates of a hard-Brexit lining up as possible replacements for May, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg, rubbed shoulders with Chancellor Philip Hammond, whose suggestion that the British government should minimise trade disruption with the European Union (EU) on exit led to demands for his head.

May thanked the partys super-rich financiers for not being fair-weather friends as she pledged to protect and promote the interests of British businesses trading in Europe, and EU businesses trading here, following Brexit.

We will raise our horizons beyond our near neighbours across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans to nations far and wide to broaden and deepen our trade and security relationships across the world, she said.

Her paean to post-Brexit Britains glowing future stood in stark contrast to her presentation of global capitalism in grave peril:

Around the world, we see a rise of populism, nationalism and protectionism. We see the great positive forces of free trade, economic liberalism and the rules-based order which sustains them under threat.

There was no reference to the leading source of this instability in the shattering of the rules-based orderUS imperialismnor to the terror threat, which for almost two decades has been presented as the gravest challenge to British and international security.

Instead, almost 40 years after Thatcher vowed to roll back the tide of socialism, and more than 25 years since the liquidation of the Soviet Union was given as definitive proof of the triumph of capitalism, May declared the task at hand was a renewed mission  to defeat socialism today as we have defeated it before.

What accounts for this extraordinary statement?

Mays remarks were framed in opposition to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who she attacked for exploiting populist politics. Asking rhetorically what Labour offered the UK, she replied, Massive renationalisation. Capital flight. A run on the pound. That all leads to a bankrupt Britain.

In truth it is the neo-liberal policies championed by Thatcher and deepened by her admirers in Tony Blairs New Labour that have bankrupted Britain. After the criminal, anti-social activities of the financial speculators brought the economy to the brink of collapse in 2008, the resulting crisis was seized on by the powers-that-be to deepen their social counter-revolution against working people.

Welfare, health care, education and other vital provision have been gutted or privatised, so that millions can be left without jobs and any social support overnight. The last weeks alone have seen the collapse of Carillion, a major government contractor, jeopardising workers livelihoods and essential services. But worse is to follow. Every day the menace of a Third World War looms nearer.

In contrast, according to the Tory Spectator magazine, Since the crash, the amount of wealth in Britain has risen by more than 4 trillionalmost half of which has accrued to the richest 10 percent of households. The prices of the assets typically owned by the ultra-rich has risen even faster. Vintage Ferraris have quadrupled in price, as have similar collectibles. This is the magic of quantitative easing: Bank of England figures suggest that it has increased the assets of the richest households by 125,000 while reducing the lot of the poorest by 300.

The criminal consequence of this social plunder is horrifically displayed less than three miles away from the venue of the Tory Ball. Grenfell Tower, where at least 71 people died last June, lies in the same Royal Borough of Kensington and ChelseaBritains wealthiestas the Natural History Museum. Yet the two locales may as well be worlds apart. The towers burned out husk stands as a terrible symbol of social inequality and the contempt and indifference of the ruling elite for working people whose lives count for nothing.

Last week, Vietnamese-born Anh Nhu Nguyen was imprisoned for 21 months for falsely claiming that his wife and son had died in the Tower and claiming 12,500 in aid. Nguyen has a history of mental illness and a string of convictions. Yet none of those responsible for the fact that the Tower was enveloped in highly combustible material as a means of saving money have even been questioned, let alone charged. Eight months on, many of those affected and made homeless by the fire remain in temporary accommodation.

The bourgeoisie is aware of the massive and growing anger over these conditions. May referenced Corbyn as a representative of this developing social explosion. But the Labour leader is only a symptomand an especially insipid one at thatnot the cause.

A report by the right-wing Tory think tank, the Legatum Institute, in September found that voters wanted the government to take a more socialist approach to economic policy by renationalising railways and utilities, while creating a wage cap for top earners

Some 83 percent of British voters would prefer public ownership of water companies over privatisation, 77 percent wanted the renationalisation of the electricity and gas companies and 76 percent favoured the renationalisation of the railways, it reported. Such left-wing sentiments find only a pale reflection in Corbyns cautious call, in response to the massive crisis in public services, to create a mixed economy fit for the 21st century.

As the Spectator itself commented on the contrasting fortunes of the super-rich and working people, The craziness explains why 1970s-style socialism is making a comeback. It is a perfectly logical form of protest against an economy that has indeed been rigged in favour of those at the top.

What are the implications of this state of affairs? This year is the bicentenary of the birth of Karl Marx. As David North wrote in the statement marking the anniversary, The modern capitalist ruling elites have themselves become an absolute impediment to the progressive development of human society. The growth of their personal wealth has acquired a grimly metastatic character, which provokes popular revolution and portends the downfall of the system.

Mays anti-socialist message was aimed at quickening the pulses of her ultra-rich audience, but it is one that feels itself under siege. They know the tide is turning and fear above all else that hostility to capitalism and growing sympathy for socialism portends an immense intensification of social tensions and an escalation of class conflict around the world, and with it their downfall.

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The bicentenary of Marxs birth, socialism and the resurgence of the international class struggle

[3 January 2018]TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Vigo County Schools took time on Thursday to talk about policies that keep students and staff safe.

Superintendent Danny Tanoos met with school principals and local law enforcement.

They talked about any potential tweaks they could make to security protocols.

Tanoos told us schools in the county already have several security measures in place.

Each school has an armed officer.

They also have policies for locked doors and cameras.

If you have any information about a threat or concerning behavior, you are asked to report it to the school or call the police.BETHESDA, Md. (AP)  Melania Trump brought some Valentines Day cheer Wednesday to children receiving medical treatment at a private facility on the campus of the National Institutes of Health.

During the visit, the first lady was informed by her staff of a shooting at a South Florida high school. She later tweeted her condolences as her motorcade sped back to the White House through rush-hour traffic.

My heart is heavy over the school shooting in Florida. Keeping all affected in my thoughts & prayers, she wrote. A spokeswoman said she has asked for continuous updates on the shooting.

At the center, Mrs. Trump  dressed for the occasion in a belted red coat  helped one group of kids decorate heart-shaped cookies with white frosting and sprinkles. She later distributed White House holiday cards and accepted handmade ones from a larger group that included the cookie decorators.

Happy Valentines Day, the first lady said as she greeted each patient, who ranged in age from 4 to 26. She asked whether they liked Childrens Inn, how they were feeling and what they liked to do.

Four-year-old Jared Rogers of Pennsylvania didnt wait for the first lady to come to his table. He rushed toward her with a decorated Valentines paper gift bag and got a hug in return. Another patient gave the first lady a pair of sunglasses.

First Lady Melania Trump visited the Childrens Inn in Bethesda, MD for a Valentines Day celebration. She decorated cookies and made valentines with children who are currently patients at the National Institutes of Health. (Feb. 14)

This is very fashionable, she said, holding them up.

Childrens Inn is a private, nonprofit facility for seriously ill children, and their families, who are participating in clinical trials at NIH.

Mrs. Trump is focusing her work as first lady on the well-being of children. She visited a childrens hospital in Cincinnati last week to get a briefing on Ohios opioid epidemic.

___

Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleapPARKLAND, Fla. (AP)  An orphaned 19-year-old with a troubled past and an AR-15 rifle was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder Thursday morning after being questioned for hours by state and federal authorities following the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. in five years.

Fourteen wounded survivors were hospitalized as bodies were recovered from inside and around Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Just before the shooting broke out, some students thought they were having another fire drill.

Such an exercise had forced them to leave their classrooms hours earlier. So when the alarm went off Wednesday afternoon shortly before they were to be dismissed, they once again filed out into the hallways.

Thats when police say Nikolas Cruz, equipped with a gas mask, smoke grenades and multiple magazines of ammunition, opened fire with a semi-automatic weapon, killing 17 people and sending hundreds of students fleeing into the streets. It was the nations deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, more than five years ago.

Our district is in a tremendous state of grief and sorrow, said Robert Runcie, superintendent of the school district in Parkland, about an hours drive north of Miami. It is a horrible day for us.

Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida are describing the shooting that left 17 people dead on Wednesday. Police say 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on students and teachers with a semi-automatic weapon. (Feb. 15)

Authorities offered no immediate details about Cruz or his possible motive, except to say that he had been kicked out of the high school, which has about 3,000 students. Students who knew him described a volatile teenager whose strange behavior had caused others to end friendships with him.

Cruzs mother Lynda Cruz died of pneumonia on Nov. 1 neighbors, friends and family members said, according to the Sun Sentinel . Cruz and her husband, who died of a heart attack several years ago, adopted Nikolas and his biological brother, Zachary, after the couple moved from Long Island in New York to Broward County.

The boys were left in the care of a family friend after their mother died, family member Barbara Kumbatovich, of Long Island, said.

Unhappy there, Nikolas Cruz asked to move in with a friends family in northwest Broward. The family agreed and Cruz moved in around Thanksgiving. According to the familys lawyer, who did not identify them, they knew that Cruz owned the AR-15 but made him keep it locked up in a cabinet. He did have the key, however.

Jim Lewis said the family is devastated and didnt see this coming. They are cooperating with authorities, he said.

Victoria Olvera, a 17-year-old junior at the school, said Cruz was expelled last school year because he got into a fight with his ex-girlfriends new boyfriend. She said he had been abusive to his girlfriend.

I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him, she said.

Cruz was taken into custody without a fight about an hour after the shooting in a residential neighborhood about a mile away. He had multiple magazines of ammunition, authorities said.

Its catastrophic. There really are no words, said Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel.

Frantic parents rushed to the school to find SWAT team members and ambulances surrounding the huge campus and emergency workers who appeared to be treating the wounded on sidewalks. Students who hadnt run began leaving in a single-file line with their hands over their heads as officers urged them to evacuate quickly.

Hearing loud bangs as the shooter fired, many of the students inside hid under desks or in closets, and barricaded doors.

We were in the corner, away from the windows, said freshman Max Charles, who said he heard five gunshots. The teacher locked the door and turned off the light. I thought maybe I could die or something.

As he was leaving the building, he saw four dead students and one dead teacher. He said he was relieved when he finally found his mother.

I was happy that I was alive, Max said. She was crying when she saw me.

Noah Parness, a 17-year-old junior, said he and the other students calmly went outside to their fire-drill areas when he suddenly heard popping sounds.

We saw a bunch of teachers running down the stairway, and then everybody shifted and broke into a sprint, Parness said. I hopped a fence.

Most of the fatalities were inside the building, though some victims were found fatally shot outside, the sheriff said.

Sen. Bill Nelson told CNN that Cruz had pulled the fire alarm so the kids would come pouring out of the classrooms into the hall.

And there the carnage began, said Nelson, who said he was briefed by the FBI.

The scene was reminiscent of the Newtown attack, which shocked even a country numbed by the regularity of school shootings. The Dec. 14, 2012, assault at Sandy Hook Elementary School killed 26 people: 20 first-graders and six staff members. The 20-year-old gunman, who also fatally shot his mother in her bed, then killed himself.

Not long after Wednesdays attack in Florida, Michael Nembhard was sitting in his garage on a cul-de-sac when he saw a young man in a burgundy shirt walking down the street. In an instant, a police cruiser pulled up, and officers jumped out with guns drawn.

All I heard was Get on the ground! Get on the ground! Nembhard said. He said Cruz did as he was told.

The school was to be closed for the rest of the week.

___

Associated Press writers Freida Frisaro, Curt Anderson, Joshua Replogle and Jennifer N. Kay in Miami; Mike Balsamo in Los Angeles; and Lisa J. Adams in Atlanta, contributed to this report.VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - Inside the church is a place most consider safe.

"We think about houses of worship, that's the last thing we would even like to imagine or have to even think about," said Senior Pastor Jeff Lee, Blackhawk Community Church.

For Lee, who also runs Toccoa Security Consulting, he says many safe places, like churches, are becoming targets for danger.

"It's a balancing act," he said, "What do we need to do to keep our schools safe? What do we need to do to keep our houses of worship safe?"

Some Indiana lawmakers think an answer could be in Senate Bill 33.

The proposal would allow legal gun owners to carry a gun at churches located on school grounds. That's only if the gun holder is attending worship service in the church or is a church volunteer or employee. Churches can also prohibit it from their campus as well.

On social media we wanted to get your opinion on Facebook and Twitter.

Lee, who often visits churches for security consulting, says over the last five years, statistics point to 70 deadly force incidents at churches on average in the U.S. per year. Statistics also show that 2017 was considered a record year for violence.

"It continues to get worse and worse," he said.

While there are many differing opinions on whether or not guns should be allowed at churches in general, Lee says he believes with the proper training and trust it could go a long way in keeping others safe.

"Sadly we understand that we have to be ready to meet force with force whether it is inside a school, or whether it's inside a church," he said, "and unfortunately that's just the world we live in. We just have to make sure that when we are preparing for that that we don't contribute to the problem."WILMINGTON, N.Y. (AP)  Police on Wednesday were trying to piece together how a 49-year-old skier whose disappearance sparked a massive search on a snowy New York mountainside ended up six days later in California, confused and still in ski clothes.

Toronto firefighter Constantinos Danny Filippidis told investigators he doesnt know what happened after he was reported missing Wednesday, Feb. 7, from Whiteface Mountain during an annual ski trip with colleagues. The search ended Tuesday when Filippidis turned up in Sacramento, California, some 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) west of the Adirondacks.

At this point, we want to assist Danny in getting back the last six days of his life, said New York State Police Maj. John Tibbitts.

Filippidis was heading back to the Lake Placid, New York, area on Wednesday. Tibbitts said the firefighter had agreed to be interviewed by state police but that hes not aware that Filippidis broke any laws.

Frank Ramagnano, president of the Toronto Professional Firefighters Association, told reporters at a news conference Tuesday evening that Filippidis appeared to be confused and was unable to give direct answers.

Police on Wednesday were trying to piece together how a 49-year-old skier whose disappearance sparked a massive search on a snowy New York mountainside ended up six days later in California, confused and still in ski clothes. (Feb. 14)

He had phoned (his wife) and called her by a nickname. She quickly recognized the voice and that it was him, Ramagnano said. Then they lost contact and he contacted her again and they kept him on the phone and asked him to call 911 to get him help as soon as possible.

Filippidis told deputies he remembered little, but thought hed suffered a head injury, rode in a big rig-style truck and slept a lot, Sgt. Shaun Hampton of the Sacramento County Sheriffs Department told the Post-Standard of Syracuse.

Filippidis said he bought an iPhone to call his wife and told deputies that a truck dropped him off in downtown Sacramento, where he got a haircut, Hampton said.

Tibbitts said it was too early in the missing person investigation to comment on details provided from others. He also declined to estimate the cost of the six-day search, which involved a helicopter and up to 140 people a day, some combing the snow with hands.

Police distributed a picture of Filippidis taken in California on Tuesday, hoping people who recognize him can help solve the mystery.

He wants to find out where he was as badly as we want to find out where he was, Tibbitts said.The audience here is very targeted and you can really build relationships with providers and business' here. It's a good place to network and meet new partners.

AudiocodesCOLES COUNTY, Ill. (WTHI) - The boy suspected in the Mattoon High School shooting will receive more mental health evaluations.

His attorney asked a judge to consider placing him in a treatment facility.

The judge ordered the Illinois Department of Human Services to evaluate him.

Dr. Lawrence Jeckel took the stand in Thursday's hearing.

He's the psychiatrist who was ordered to evaluate the shooting suspect following the incident.

Dr. Jeckel said he's spoken to the boy twice.

The boy claims a girl at the school was bullying him.

He was suspended from school when he got into a fight with her.

That is when the boy decided to take action.

First, he learned the combination of his father's gun safe.

He took a gun when he went back to school, hid the weapon, and planned on shooting the girl.

When she didn't show, he decided to just open fire, and it was a teacher who stopped him.

"The circumstances and the heroics of that teacher stopped this situation from becoming more like the Florida situation, with more deaths and more injuries, it was fortunate that it minimized to the degree it was," Coles County State's Attorney Brian Bower said.

We could learn more about the evaluation by DHS at the suspect's next hearing, which is set for March 29th.TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - The Vigo County School board will meet in executive session on Tuesday. That's when board members are expected to meet with a member of the University Placement Team. This is the team who will help the school board hire its first superintendent in 20 years.

On Monday, Dr. Danny Tanoos announced he will step down as superintendent on July 1, retiring from the school corporation on December 31st. Board President Jackie Lower told News 10 the following day they will hire his replacement by that July 1st date. Lower also told us about the selection of the University Placement Team to help the board in its search for Tanoos's replacement.

Dr. Terry McDaniel of Indiana State University is a member of the University Replacement Team. McDaniel sat down with News 10 on Wednesday morning to talk more about who they are and what they do. He said ISU is one of four universities represented on the team, which includes a member from Indiana University, Purdue University and Ball State University. McDaniel told us the team formed in 1960 as a means of helping school corporations in the state to land the best superintendent candidates.

Most superintendents who work in Indiana received their superintendent's training at one of these four universities. In fact, McDaniel said 43% of the state's superintendents came through Indiana State University's program.

"The four of us have been superintendents," McDaniel said. "So, we've either worked with these people as fellow superintendents, or they've been through our training program."

Dr. McDaniel spent 28 years in the Spencer-Owen School District as both a principal and superintendent. Typically, he spends initial meetings with school boards setting up the application process, timeline and getting the position posted on-line.

"We will accept the applications for them," Dr. McDaniel explained. "We do that because it's better for us to take them in and seperated from the school board so they're not pressured about who's applying."

Dr. McDaniel expects the Vigo County job to be popular among applicants. Once the application deadline passes, McDaniel will reach out to each of the applicants.

"I'll review the internet to look and see what I can find about these candidates," Dr. McDaniel explained. "Of course, my colleagues and I will talk about what we know about each of the candidates."

Dr. McDaniel confirms this will be a national search, though he expects most candidates will come from Indiana and the rest of the Midwest.VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - This week is Random Acts of Kindness Week and some Vigo County schools are celebrating with special projects.

Murals in restrooms at West Vigo High School that each have a positive message.

Students selected quotes and made designs for them. Then, they brought their ideas to life for others to enjoy.

The idea is to give students and staff some uplifting inspiration.

We forget when we're so busy that little boost, that little compliment or that word of encouragement makes a difference to somebody, said Sara Laughlin, teacher at West Vigo High School.

Some students also posted encouraging messages in other places like notes on lockers.

The group hopes to create more artwork in the school.1:30 p.m.

A jury in Lafayette County Circuit Court has sentenced Steven Wilbanks to death for capital murder in the 2013 killing of an Ole Miss graduate student.

The jury unaniomously reached the decision after deliberating for about three hours. Wilbanks was transported to Parchman to begin serving his time on death row.

His attorney says they will appeal the decision.

Hear from the McClendon family here.

Original story

OXFORD, Miss. (WTVA) - Steven Wilbanks has been convicted of capital murder for the 2013 killing of Ole Miss graduate student Zacharias McClendon.

The verdict came Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday the sentencing phase of the trial started.

Judge Andrew Howarth says the trial will continue at 8:30 Thursday morning at the Lafayette County Circuit Court.

McClendon was found dead of a gunshot wound at his home on County Road 140 after his mother notified deputies she was not able to get in touch with him.

Joseph Lyons, 24, of Houston, Texas and Derrick Boone, 27, of Laurel have already pleaded guilty to capital murder in his death.

Wilbanks testified at Boone's trial the three planned the robbery while high on drugs and said Boone intended to shoot McClendon.

Wilbanks will either be sentenced to life in prison, or the death penalty.MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)  Alabama's only four-star Army general will address the Legislature on Thursday.

Gen. Gus Perna will address a joint session of the Legislature to recognize Military Appreciation Day.

Perna is the highest-ranking military officer in Alabama. He has been the commanding general of the U.S. Army Materiel Command in Huntsville since September 2016.

Previously he was deployed to Bosnia, Somalia and Iraq. He has received multiple service and merit awards including the Legion of Merit.

Perna's appearance comes weeks after the Legislature approved measures honoring the military.

The Alabama House passed resolutions on Jan. 9 honoring state veterans and living Medal of Honor winners. Lawmakers presented the awards in a special joint session on "Military and Veterans Appreciation Day" on Jan. 16.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum is releasing new gun safety proposals following a mass shooting at a Florida school.

A press release said Gillum was releasing the list of safety proposals in response "to the continued epidemic of mass shootings in America."

The common-sense gun safety proposals include:

Ban assault weapons and large capacity magazines

Ban bump stocks

Strengthen and require universal background checks for all gun sales

Close private sale loopholes

Restrict gun access for the mentally ill

Restrict gun access for known foreign and domestic terrorist

Close the "Boyfriend Loophole" and prohibit gun possession for those with felony and misdemeanor domestic violence and stalking convictions

Ban the purchase and possession of armor piercing bullets

What do you think of his proposals?PARKLAND, FL (WTXL) - A reported school shooting with injuries at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, sent students and faculty evacuating school premises Wednesday.

A school official told the Associated Press there are numerous fatalities from the high school shooting in South Florida.

The Broward County Sheriff's Office says that 17 people have lost their lives. Doctors tell AP that 16 people wounded in a deadly shooting at a Florida high school are being treated at area hospitals.

"I'm saddened to say that 17 people lost their lives."- Sheriff Scott Israel #stonemanshooting  Broward Sheriff (@browardsheriff) February 14, 2018

ABC News reports that the suspect, 19-year-old Nicolas Cruz, was a former student at the high school.

NEW: Broward County sheriff: Suspect is a 19-year-old former student of the high school; he was expelled for disciplinary reasons. https://t.co/6ONvnzpjDX pic.twitter.com/0fn2J8HP3V  ABC News (@ABC) February 14, 2018

Broward County Superintendent Robert Runcie told AP "There are numerous fatalities. It is a horrific situation." He added, "It is a horrible day for us."

School official says there are "numerous fatalities" after high school shooting in Parkland, Fla.; sheriff says "at least 14 victims", their condition unclear. https://t.co/SeFQHzxSiy  The Associated Press (@AP) February 14, 2018

Multiple people can be seen on TV footage being taken to ambulances.

The shooter has been taken into custody, according the Broward County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Israel says, "the shooter was not a current student."

Shooter is now in custody. Scene is still active. #stonemanshooting  Broward Sheriff (@browardsheriff) February 14, 2018

ABC News reports the suspect got out of the school after the shooting by blending in with other students who were trying to escape.

Local media reports say multiple people are injured, some reporting up to 20. So far, BCSO says that 14 have been injured.

So far we have at least 14 victims. Victims have been and continue to be transported to Broward Health Medical Center and Broward Health North hospital. #StonemanShooting  Broward Sheriff (@browardsheriff) February 14, 2018

Parkland is located northwest of Fort Lauderdale.

Police are evacuating students, were seen leaving the school with their hands up.

There are still a number of students still inside, according to reports.

Still locked in. I checked the local news and there is 20 victims. Long live Majory Stoneman Douglas High. pic.twitter.com/4kQMAlCBWt  Aj22000 (@TheCaptainAidan) February 14, 2018

The FBI has also gotten involved.

#BSO is working a developing incident regarding a report of active shooter located at 5901 Pine Island Rd, Parkland. Here's what we know so far: deputies are responding to reports of a shooting at Stoneman Douglas High. There are reports of victims. PIO will be on scene 3:15pm.  Broward Sheriff (@browardsheriff) February 14, 2018

Florida Gov. Rick Scott said in a tweet that he is aware of the situation.

Ive spoken with Broward Sheriff Scott Israel, Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie and FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen regarding Stoneman Douglas High School, Scott said. Well continue to receive updates from law enforcement.

Ive spoken with @BrowardSheriff Scott Israel, @browardschools Superintendent Robert Runcie and FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen regarding Stoneman Douglas High School. Well continue to receive updates from law enforcement.  Rick Scott (@FLGovScott) February 14, 2018

The last reported shooting at a middle or high school in the U.S. was only a few weeks ago, on Feb. 1, at the Salvador B. Castro Middle School in downtown Los Angeles, according to the Associated Press.

A 12-year-old girl was arrested on charges of negligent discharge of a firearm on school grounds after a gun shed brought to school went off, injuring four students.

The public high school has an enrollment of 3,158 students, and serves grades ninth through 12th.

WATCH LIVE FEED OF THE ACTIVE SITUATION BELOW:

Gov. Rick Scott's office issued this statement:

"Governor Scott is traveling to Broward County now to be briefed by emergency management officials and law enforcement. Immediately upon learning of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Governor Scott spoke with President Trump, law enforcement, school officials and the Department of Homeland Security. The Governor will continue to be briefed by law enforcement as this incident evolves. Additional details regarding the Governors schedule will be made available later today."

My thoughts and prayers are with the students and parents of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and all of Broward County.  Jimmy Patronis (@JimmyPatronis) February 14, 2018

On my way to Broward County now to be briefed on the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School by local law enforcement and emergency management officials. pic.twitter.com/lFVR5d8NLy  Rick Scott (@FLGovScott) February 14, 2018

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018

We are monitoring the horrible unfolding situation in Broward County, Florida with reports of a shooting at a local high school. #Sayfie  Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 14, 2018

Prayers going out to friends and colleagues in Coral Springs and Parkland. This headline is gut wrenching. https://t.co/o3naQCRktB  Nicholas X. Duran (@DuranForFlorida) February 14, 2018

The entire @BrowardLegDel is praying for the students, teachers, and staff at this time. https://t.co/y3SQhfJQzi  Shevrin Jones (@ShevrinJones) February 14, 2018

Im sick about this news from home. Just spoke with the sheriff. This is devastating. https://t.co/vI5K0e3AvU  Rep. Ted Deutch (@RepTedDeutch) February 14, 2018

Praying for everyone at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Just spoke with Broward Undersheriff to ensure they have everything they need. And just spoke to FBI to make sure all federal resources are being made available to help. Will continue to monitor closely.  Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) February 14, 2018

Our worst fears are being realized. It looks like its a number of fatalities. Praying for all those students, families and school members affected at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.  Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) February 14, 2018

Nita and I are praying for the students and families involved in the nightmare tragedy in Florida  Casey Cagle (@CaseyCagle) February 14, 2018

Were thinking of our friends in Parkland, @BrowardCounty @CoralSpringsFL and the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. @FLCities  Gil Ziffer (@gilziffer) February 14, 2018

Deeply concerned about this ongoing situation. Keeping the students, faculty, teachers, staff & community lifted in prayer. https://t.co/zDAwXGZBtz  Andrew Gillum (@AndrewGillum) February 14, 2018

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018

My heart is heavy over the school shooting in Florida. Keeping all affected in my thoughts & prayers.  Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) February 14, 2018

Praying for the victims and their families during this tragedy. https://t.co/hWgAbQ98kO  Lizbeth Benacquisto (@lizbethkb) February 14, 2018

Monitoring the tragedy in Parkland FL. My office is prepared to help in any way.  Senator Bill Galvano (@BillGalvano) February 14, 2018

Praying for everyone involved in today's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. My victim advocates will be available in full force to help the victims and their families with any services they need.  Fla. AG Pam Bondi (@AGPamBondi) February 14, 2018

I am deeply saddened by the shooting in #Parkland today. My prayers are with the survivors, their families, the Parkland community, & the first responders who are working heroically to save lives & catch the perpetrator of this terrible act of violence 1/2 https://t.co/cf2F3kTlJk  Annette Taddeo (@Annette_Taddeo) February 14, 2018TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - There was a sea of red Wednesday afternoon as girls from PACE Center for Girls visited the capital for PACE Day at the capitol.

The PACE Center for Girls works with middle and high school girls who are considered to be at risk for dropping out of school, human trafficking, or involvement in the juvenile justice system.

The girls were able to meet with legislators, and talk about the impacts that pace has had on them.

Wednesday, was an even more special day for the girls in attendance as they received an official word from Governor Rick Scott declaring March as "Believe in Girls Month."

"When we believe in girls and they begin to believe in themselves. When they begin to believe in themselves, is when they can make a change and change, and they really do change their life trajectory," said Mary Marx, the president and CEO of PACE Center for Girls. "We have girls who have come back to us as alumni who are now doctors, teachers, lawyers, amazing mothers. So it really is, it all begins with that belief."

PACE Center for Girls recently opened it's 20th location in Florida, and serves more than 3,000 girls each year across the state.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A parent is facing child neglect charges after his child brought an unloaded pellet gun to Hartsfield Elementary School.

Tyrone Williams has been charged with child neglect and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

According to court documents, the Leon County Sheriff's Office was called out to Hartsfield Elementary School on Feb. 1.

The assistant principal told deputies that a third grade student brought a pellet gun on the bus and was showing it to other students. She said that the gun was passed around while on the bus and in a restroom.

Other students at the school noticed the gun as well and alerted administrators, who then contacted deputies. Upon their arrival, deputies found and seized the unloaded gun.

When they spoke with the child, he told deputies that he had seen his older brother get the gun out a drawer before.

Investigators followed up on the incident and spoke with the child's father, Williams.

Williams told deputies that the gun belonged to his ex-wife who moved out approximately two years ago. He said that he thought she took it with her and did not know the gun was in the house.

When asked if he had been convicted of any crimes, Williams told deputies he was convicted for cocaine possession a number of years ago.

A check confirmed that Williams was a convicted felon and therefore not allowed to be in possession of a firearm.

As a result of an investigation, a warrant for Williams' arrest was issued on Feb. 8. LCSO called in the U.S. Marshal Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force to capture Williams.

He was apprehended on Valentine's Day and, as of Thursday, remains in the Leon County Detention Facility on a $7,500 bond.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A third grade student is facing disciplinary actions after bringing an unloaded gun to Hartsfield Elementary School.

School officials say a young student brought in an unloaded gun Thursday morning.

The Leon County Sheriff's Office says other students at the school noticed the gun and alerted administrators, who then contacted deputies. Upon their arrival, deputies found and seized an unloaded gun.

Deputies say the gun was not stolen and was registered to an owner.

LCSO has been working with the state attorney's office in this investigation. The student who brought it, a third grader at Hartsfield, is facing potential disciplinary actions with the LCS, but no charges will be filed at this time.

Deputies believe this was an isolated incident and there is no immediate threat to the community.

Dr. Rhonda Blackwell-Flanagan, who is the principal at Hartsfield Elementary, sent out the following email to parents on Thursday via Leon County School's Listserv:

Parents and/or guardians:

I want to make you aware of a situation that occurred this morning. Do to the seriousness of this particular incident I wanted to communicate with you at a high level. A young student of ours was found to have brought an unloaded weapon to school. Law enforcement was immediately notified and the situation was quickly handled. The student will face discipline in accordance with our student code of conduct.

The safety of our students will always be our top priority. If you have any additionally questions, please contact me at (850) 488 -7322 or Flanaganr@leonschools.net

Sincerely,

Principal FlanaganTALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - The Tallahassee Police Department is back with another fundraiser benefiting their Unity Tour for fallen officers.

For just $20, the department is selling one flat, that's 12 pints, of fresh strawberries grown in Plant City. This fundraiser benefits the Police Unity Tour.

The Unity Tour honors the lives and the families of fallen officers. The money raised goes towards taking that bicycle trip to the National Law Enforcement Memorial.

So why strawberries?

"Everybody loves strawberries, they are a very popular fundraiser" said Officer Rachelle Denmark with TPD. "Somebody's child was selling in school. It was very popular fundraiser that they did. Plant City isn't far. Those are world renowned strawberries so we just decided we would do a strawberry fundraiser."

You can contact a Unity Tour member or order online.

The last day to buy is March 5. Pick up is March 8 from 4 pm. to 6 p.m. at TPD.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Over at the Tallahassee Police Department, barriers are being broken, this time the agency is celebrating its first black, female motor cop.

Tyesha Gates is the first African-American, female motorcycle officer.

Gates says this has been a dream of hers for years, and the absence of officers that look like her only pushed her to strive higher. Now Gates wants to remind others that they can follow their dreams, just like she did.

"People are proud because of course in this city, they've never seen that before," said Gates. It's something that shows people if they want to do it, they can."

Gates says she was honored to receive training and guidance during her journey toward becoming TPD's first black, female motorcop.(ABC NEWS) - The Anti-Defamation League, a civil rights watchdog, told ABC News they have information they believe to be credible linking Nikolas Cruz, the Florida school shooting suspect, to a white supremacist group called Republic of Florida.

The ADL said ROF leader Jordan Jereb told them Cruz was associated with his group. Jereb, who is based in Tallahassee, said Cruz was brought into the group by another member and had participated in one or more ROF training exercises in the Tallahassee area, the ADL said. Law enforcement officials have not confirmed the link.

ROF has mostly young members in north and south Florida and describes itself as a white civil rights organization fighting for white identitarian politics and seeks to create a white ethnostate in Florida.

Three former schoolmates of Cruz told ABC News that Cruz was part of the group. They claimed he marched with the group frequently and was often seen with Jereb, who also confirmed to ABC News that Cruz was, at least at one point, part of that group.

Jereb told the ADL that ROF had not ordered Cruz to take any such action. He told ABC News he has not spoken to Cruz in some time but said "he knew he would getting this call." He would not comment further but emphasized that his group was not a terrorist organization.

Authorities are still digging for clues to why Cruz allegedly opened fire outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday, killing 17 people.

Family members, classmates and former friends described Cruz, a 19-year-old former student, as a troubled teen who was largely alone in the world when he allegedly stormed through the school carrying an AR-15 rifle and multiple magazines.

He was able to leave the school after the shooting by blending in with other students who were trying to escape, but he was apprehended shortly thereafter. He has been answering questions from investigators working on the case.

The former student also allegedly made a comment on YouTube last year, saying, "I'm going to be a professional school shooter," according to the FBI.

However, the FBI couldn't confirm his identity.

The FBI issued this statement to WLOX-TV on Thursday about a YouTube comment from someone named Nikolas Cruz on September 24, 2017:

In September 2017, the FBI received information about a comment made on a YouTube channel. The comment said, Im going to be a professional school shooter. No other information was included in the comment which would indicate a particular time, location, or the true identity of the person who posted the comment. The FBI conducted database reviews and other checks, but was unable to further identify the person who posted the comment. "We cannot comment any further on this matter."

WLOX-TV spoke with the Youtube vlogger from South Mississippi who reported the comment to the FBI last fall. You can see the full interview here.

According to Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, investigators have already found some disturbing content that could have provided warning signs.

We have already begun to dissect his websites and things on social media that he was on, and some of the things that have come to mind are very, very disturbing, Israel said.

Cruz, 19, was a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas who was expelled, according to Israel, for unspecified disciplinary reasons.

Israel said Cruz entered the school on Wednesday afternoon with one AR-15 rifle and multiple magazines. According to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation, the rifle had apparently been legally purchased.

The victims  12 within the building, two outside the building, one on a nearby road and two who succumbed to injuries at the hospital  included both students and teachers.

There is still no clear motive for the shooting, but a portrait of the suspect is starting to emerge.

Cruz was adopted as an infant, but he had been living with the family of a classmate after the sudden death of his adoptive mother late last year. His adoptive father died in 2005.

In an interview with ABC News George Stephanopoulos, an attorney for the family that had taken Cruz in for the past few months said Cruz was depressed following his mothers death but he had been going to therapy.

The family is still shocked, he said, that Cruz would allegedly engage in mass violence.

They indicated they saw nothing like this coming, Lewis said. They never saw any anger, no bad feelings about the school.

They were aware that Cruz was in possession of a military-style assault weapon, he said, which two law enforcement officials tell ABC News was legally purchased by Cruz within the past year from a federally licensed dealer. They insisted that it be locked in a safe.

He brought it into the home and it was in a locked gun safe, Lewis said. That was the condition when he came into their home that the gun was locked away.

Cruzs former classmates, however, were less surprised.

An ex-classmate and former teacher told ABC News that before Cruz was expelled from the school he was barred from carrying a backpack on campus. The classmate said the rule was put in place after the school found bullet fragments in his bag after a fight with another student.

Joshua Charo, who went to school at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, said he knew Cruz but hasn't spoken to him since he was expelled in relation to the incident involving the fight. He said Cruz would regularly talk about shooting rats with a BB gun and was part of a very small group of friends.

One student said Cruz even once threatened to shoot up the school.

"About a year ago I saw him upset in the morning," student Brent Black told ABC News. "And I was like, 'yo whats wrong with you?' And he was like 'umm, dont know.' And I was like 'whats up with you?' He's like 'I swear to God I'll shoot up this school.' And then I was like 'watch what youre saying around me,' and then I just left him after that. He came up to me later on the day and apologized for what he said."

Fernando Santos, a friend of Cruz who spoke to ABC News through Instagram, said the alleged shooter was picked on in his first few years of school.

"I know he had his own problems, but I never thought he would be capable of this," Santos said. "I stopped seeing him before his mom passed away because I ended up moving [to Sunrise, Florida], but we would still contact each other every other day.

"I did know he really did like guns a lot, but I didnt think he would cause such tragedy," he added.

A student who told ABC News that he participated in Junior ROTC with Cruz described him as a psycho. Cruz was a well-known weapons enthusiast, the student said, who once tried to sell knives to a classmate.

ABC News' Maureen Sheeran, Kathy Conway and Dylan Goetz contributed to this report.People attend the funeral of the three Israelis killed in West Bank settlement of Halamish, in Modi'in cemetery, on July 23, 2017. A knife-wielding Palestinian man stabbed and killed three Israelis and seriously injured another one in the West Bank settlement of Halamish. (Xinhua/JINI)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Israeli additional settlement activity does not help peace with the Palestinians, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said here on Tuesday.

"We have been very clear about this, that additional settlement activity, unrestrained settlement activity, does not advance the prospect for peace," Heather Nauert said at a press briefing when asked to comment on such activity.

Israeli parliament recently adopted a new law allowing an extended application of the education law on academic institutions based in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

On Monday, Palestinian Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh warned that any Israeli expansion of settlement would only result in more tension and instability, and destroy every international effort to save the peace process.

On the same day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he was discussing with the U.S. administration an initiative to annex Israeli settlements in the West Bank. But the claim was denied by the White House.

Peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis have been stalled since 2014 and look more impossible than ever after U.S. President Donald Trump's administration last year recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and decided to move the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 03:05:07|Editor: yan

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KIGALI, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Technology experts from Africa and beyond on Wednesday pushed for increased investments in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry in Africa to accelerate the continent's digital revolution.

They were speaking at the Africa Tech Summit opening on Wednesday in the Rwandan capital Kigali, which aims to explore the latest trends in digital technology.

Rwanda is hosting the forum from Feb. 14 to 15, which has attracted about 250 African and international technology leaders, experts and enthusiasts.

"Africa remains one of the preferred frontiers for investment opportunities and doing business, but little investments are channeled towards ICTs which hampers the growth of the technology sector," said Proud Dzambukira, a strategic product partnerships manager of Facebook.

"In order to promote Africa as the next global technology hub, heavy investments are needed in this sector in the next 10 years."

He said Africa's infrastructure has improved over the past few years with new roads, airports, energy plants and communication networks and this should provide a solid ground for investors to massively invest in ICT.

According to Marieme Diop, investment associate at Orange Digital Ventures in Senegal, investment in technology has played a crucial role in the growth of the most developed economies in Europe, Asia, Middle East and the Americas.

"We need increased investments in ICTs to develop African economies to move from agriculture based to knowledge based. In Africa, government's budgets are often stretched, with funding being directed towards more pressing needs such as healthcare, agriculture and education," she added.

According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), only 22 percent of Africa's population used the Internet in 2016, compared to a global average of 44 percent.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 03:30:19|Editor: Chengcheng

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday spoke with his Vietnamese counterpart Tran Dai Quang over phone to reaffirm their commitment to strengthening bilateral relations.

The White House said in an announcement that the two leaders discussed bilateral defense relationship as well as regional security issues.

They also discussed trade issues, and pledged to ensure bilateral trade "fair and reciprocal," it added.

Xu Liping, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), told Xinhua that the Washington-Hanoi defense cooperation has been haunted by both the severe lacking of mutual trust and their war-time history.

"The prospect for their further defense collaboration is quite limited, as can be proved by the U.S. rejection of Vietnam's offer to build strategic partnership," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 03:50:25|Editor: yan

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ROME, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Bilateral talks between Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and president of the European Union (EU) Council Donald Tusk were held in the Italian capital on Wednesday.

The meeting took part at the government's Chigi Palace, as part of usual bilateral consultations Tusk was carrying out with EU partners ahead of an informal summit on Feb. 23 in Brussels.

The two leaders focused their talks on the Brexit, and on the possible planning of a multi-year EU budget, since these two issues would be on top of the agenda of the next EU summit.

No press conference was held after the talks, but Tusk said on Twitter that they had a "very good discussion".

Before his short visit to Rome, the president of the European Council had already held consultations with counterparts from Romania, Portugal, Holland, Germany, France, Croatia, Austria, and Cyprus, among others. Tusk's pre-summit tour would end in Lithuania on Thursday and Friday.

On Feb. 23, the 27 leaders of the EU (except Britain) will take part in an informal gathering, for discussions that are meant to be "future-oriented", the European Council said in a statement.

Apart from Brexit and budget, other priorities at the summit would include defense and security, and illegal immigration to Europe.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 04:50:42|Editor: Chengcheng

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PARIS, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- France was envisaging military operation against forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if their responsibility in chemical arms attacks would be confirmed, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian said on Wednesday.

French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that he would proceed to military strikes against government installations if there was a new use of chemical weapons by Bashar al-Assad's forces when these attacks are lethal and the government's responsibility is proven, Le Drian told lawmakers.

Speaking to reporters from the Association of Presidential Press (APP), Macron, on Tuesday, reaffirmed that the use of chemical weapons would represent a "red line."

"If we have proven evidence that chemical weapons proscribed in treaties are used, we will strike the place where they are made," he said.

"Today, our agencies, our armed forces have not established that chemical weapons, as set out in treaties, have been used against the civilian population," he added.

Recent reports said forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had used chlorine gas in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus on January.

The Syrian government has repeatedly rejected allegations of using chemical arms which it said were handed to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons as part of 2013 accord brokered by Moscow and Washington.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 07:06:24|Editor: Chengcheng

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ABUJA, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian army on Wednesday said 186 Boko Haram fighters have been killed in the past one month by troops in the ongoing clearance operation in the country's northeast and Lake Chad region.

Rogers Nicholas, commander of the Nigerian troops in Maiduguri, the capital of the northern state of Borno, said the clearance operation had yielded positive results, decimated and degraded the Boko Haram group.

Nicholas said the troops destroyed and took total control of the "Camp Zairo," a tactical ground of the terror group in Borno.

More than 1,000 Boko Haram fighters had reportedly surrendered or were captured by troops, following the operation.

On Tuesday, Nigerian leader Muhammadu Buhari said that with the narrowing of the recruitment base of the Boko Haram terror group, the era of terrorism is gradually drawing to an end in the west African country.

Buhari noted that the terrorist group has lost its appeal in its initial strongholds, necessitating a steady retreat that will eventually culminate in ending attacks.

Boko Haram has been trying since 2009 to establish an Islamic state in northeastern Nigeria. More than 15,000 people have been killed and millions displaced.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 07:53:33|Editor: Liangyu

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A volunteer pastes a paper-cutting to the house window of an impoverished family in Gejiazhuang Village of Qiaoxi District in Xingtai City, north China's Hebei Province, Feb. 14, 2018. Volunteers sent gifts to impoverished family to greet the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year which falls on Feb. 16 this year. (Xinhua/Mu Yu)Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 07:41:41|Editor: Liangyu

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A saleswoman tidies a rose bouquet in Guanyun County, east China's Jiangsu Province, Feb. 12, 2018. People bought flowers to decorate their homes for the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year which falls on Feb. 16 this year. (Xinhua/Wu Chenguang)Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 08:07:17|Editor: Chengcheng

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Displaced Tawerghans are seen at a camp near the city of Bani Walid, some 180 km southeast of Tripoli, capital of Libya, on Feb. 8, 2018. About 200 displaced families of Tawergha in western Libya are currently stranded in the desert area near their city, as their return to home scheduled for early February has been obstructed by armed groups from the neighboring city of Misurata. (Xinhua/Hamza Turkia)WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- A mass shooting in a Florida high school killed 17 people on Wednesday, local police said.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told the press that 12 were killed in the school building, two were killed outside the building, one on a road nearby and two died in hospital from wounds.

The shooting took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, just north of Miami. The school said the incident took place as the school was dismissing students.

The shooter was identified as Nikolaus Cruz, a 19-year-old expelled student at the school. He was captured shortly after the shooting. An AR-15 semi-automatic rifle was found at the site.

"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school," U.S. President Donald Trump said.

The incident took place as Parkland has recently been listed as one of the 10 safest cities in Florida.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 07:46:31|Editor: ZD

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NEW YORK, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Authorizing J.P. Morgan Chase Bank to provide RMB clearing services in the United States is a significant step forward in the internationalization of the currency, experts have said.

The decision was made to implement the results of the eighth round of the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue and in accordance with a memorandum of cooperation signed between the People's Bank of China (PBOC) and the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, said the PBOC in a statement on Tuesday.

"The announcement will support the introduction of more RMB products and services in the United States, improving the competitiveness and efficiency of U.S. businesses by lowering trading costs and increasing access to China's capital markets," said Michael Bloomberg, chair of the Working Group on U.S. RMB Trading and Clearing.

"The announcement underscores China's commitment to opening its markets, offering investors and corporations an unprecedented choice for trading, clearing and settling the RMB," said Mary Schapiro, vice-chair of The Working Group on U.S. RMB Trading and Clearing.

"The designation of two clearing banks in a market as expansive and deep as the United States' will further the internationalization of the RMB around the globe," said Schapiro.

Bank of China USA viewed the decision more as an opportunity for cooperation than competition. The bank was authorized to provide RMB clearing services in September 2016.

Xu Chen, President & CEO of Bank of China U.S.A., said for the Chinese currency to truly go global, "we need more foreign banks, institutions and corporations to get involved, and PBOC's decision is good news."

He added that as a major U.S. bank, J.P. Morgan Chase could bring its experience in U.S. dollar clearing services to RMB clearing, to better serve U.S. customers.

With greater economic and trade ties between China and the United States, he foresees more demand and huge potential on RMB in the U.S. market this year.

"Stepping up trade cooperation in areas such as energy and agriculture between two countries will lead to more RMB usage," said Xu.

However, the expert said it will be a long process for the currency to be accepted and widely used in the United States.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 09:11:42|Editor: Liangyu

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- It would be dangerous to advocate for confrontation against China, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai has said here.

"It's certainly paranoid to fear that a China that follows its own path of development would be confrontational to the United States. And it's dangerous to advocate any strategy for confrontation (against China)," Cui told a spring festival reception at the Chinese embassy on Tuesday.

"It would be wishful thinking to believe that some political or cultural genetic engineering could be done to change China's DNA," he said.

More than 700 attended the event, among them U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, White House National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs Matthew Pottinger, Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton and U.S. Senator of West Virginia Shelley Capito.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 09:11:43|Editor: Liangyu

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BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- China is to continue its campaign against the spread of vulgar, pornographic, or violent content on live streaming platforms, and online cartoons featuring popular children's characters in sexual or violent scenarios.

The crackdown, which lasts from early February to late April, was initiated by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and several other departments.

Authorities will conduct thorough checks and ban unlicensed platforms and delete illegal or unhealthy content from licensed platforms, according to the joint plan.

Websites with severe violations will be closed and those who are suspected of crimes will be prosecuted.

China has been working to regulate the circulation of videos online, particularly those targeting children. The public is encouraged to provide information on individuals or companies suspected of creating or broadcasting such content by calling 12390 or visiting shdf.gov.cn.Students gather following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, a city about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Miami, February 14, 2018. (Xinhua/AFP PHOTO)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- A mass shooting in a Florida high school killed 17 people on Wednesday, local police said.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told the press that 12 were killed in the school building, two were killed outside the building, one on a road nearby and two died in hospital from wounds.

The shooting took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, just north of Miami. The school said the incident took place as the school was dismissing students.

The shooter was identified as Nikolaus Cruz, a 19-year-old expelled student at the school. He was captured shortly after the shooting. An AR-15 semi-automatic rifle was found at the site.

"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school," U.S. President Donald Trump said.

The incident took place as Parkland has recently been listed as one of the 10 safest cities in Florida.by Farid Behbud

KABUL, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- As millions of people around the world are gearing up to celebrate the Chinese New Year, Chinese-language learning Afghan students have come together here to share the joy and excitement of their neighboring folk.

Held at the Avicenna Language Institute of the private Ibn-Sina University in Kabul, the event was the first-ever Chinese Spring Festival celebratory ceremony to take place in an Afghan private university.

"This is the first time Chinese Spring Festival has been celebrated in a private educational institute in Kabul. But more efforts are needed to improve bilateral ties between the two nations," Baqer Niazi, Director of Ibn-Sina University Language Institute, told the audience Wednesday.

"Today's celebration with no doubt has become a platform for cultural exchange between China and Afghanistan," he said.

A contest between two groups of students presenting articles in Mandarin and singing a Chinese song was among the various performances during the celebration.

"My message to the Chinese people is to have a very good New Year, a successful New Year," Niazi told Xinhua.

Praising the celebration, Niazi said that Afghanistan has received a lot of Chinese investment over the past 17 years and the two nations have enjoyed improved and stronger relations than at any other time in the past.

"Chinese people are very successful from the perspectives of business and agriculture. Afghans can learn a lot from our Chinese friends. In the past, the language barrier had been a challenge for Afghans who wanted to visit China for business or education, but now, it is not a problem anymore," he said.

"Nowadays, many Afghans can speak Chinese after they learned the language at the Kabul University and other educational institutions, like our Avicenna Language Institute," student Mohammad Reza Haidari told Xinhua in Chinese on Wednesday.

"Today's celebration brings joy to students, but at the same time, we also learned a lot about Chinese culture, language and traditions," he said.

After the performances, Niazi joined other teachers and guests to present certificates to 12 Afghan students, who recently passed a Chinese language proficiency test, HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) program.

"We hope to continue our studies in Chinese universities. And we are looking forward to receiving more scholarships. At present, only two male students from our institute are learning Chinese after they won scholarships from the Chinese government," Haidari said.

"I want to extend my best wishes to the Chinese government and people during the New Year celebrations. I wish our Chinese friends the very best New Year," Farzana Khashie, who is teaching Chinese at the Avicenna Language Institute, told Xinhua.

"China and Afghanistan are old friends, they are neighbors and a good neighbor is better than a far off cousin. Today's celebration has been a very constructive step forward for exchanges of culture and tradition. Such events would deepen the ties between the two countries and bring our peoples closer," she said.

The Avicenna Language Institute has enrolled around 50 students in its Chinese Department, of whom two have won scholarships to study in China.

It also holds English, Turkish, German, Russian and French classes.

"Due to the recent expansion of business and cultural relations between Afghanistan and China, many Afghan youth believe that learning the Chinese language is a key to finding a decent job.

We will need dozens of Chinese interpreters in the coming years. Our institution is trying to further improve the Chinese Department to enroll more students in the future and further promote the Chinese language in Afghanistan," Khashie explained.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 09:56:51|Editor: ZD

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Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai speaks at the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America during a Chinese New Year celebration reception in Washington D.C., the United States, on Feb. 13, 2018. (Xinhua/Yang Chenglin)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- It would be dangerous to advocate for confrontation against China, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai has said here.

"It's certainly paranoid to fear that a China that follows its own path of development would be confrontational to the United States. And it's dangerous to advocate any strategy for confrontation (against China)," Cui told a spring festival reception at the Chinese embassy on Tuesday.

"It would be wishful thinking to believe that some political or cultural genetic engineering could be done to change China's DNA," he said.

The Sino-U.S. relationship "should be characterized by overall cooperation. Friendly competition, if competition is necessary, and no confrontation," Cui said.

"We will continue to have differences between us, but our growing common interests are far more important. We may continue to have disagreements between us, but the need for cooperation will far outweigh any differences between us. We'll continue to have problems, but dialogues will lead us to solutions," Cui said.

Noting the Chinese new year will be the Year of the Dog, Cui said "dogs are seen as loyal, sincere, and trusting companions in both Chinese and the western cultures. I believe such virtues are equally essential for relations between countries."

More than 700 attended the event, among them U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, White House National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs Matthew Pottinger, Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 10:01:51|Editor: ZD

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Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai speaks at the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America during a Chinese New Year celebration reception in Washington D.C., the United States, on Feb. 13, 2018. (Xinhua/Yang Chenglin)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- It would be dangerous to advocate for confrontation against China, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai has said here.

"It's certainly paranoid to fear that a China that follows its own path of development would be confrontational to the United States. And it's dangerous to advocate any strategy for confrontation (against China)," Cui told a spring festival reception at the Chinese embassy on Tuesday.

"It would be wishful thinking to believe that some political or cultural genetic engineering could be done to change China's DNA," he said.

The Sino-U.S. relationship "should be characterized by overall cooperation. Friendly competition, if competition is necessary, and no confrontation," Cui said.

"We will continue to have differences between us, but our growing common interests are far more important. We may continue to have disagreements between us, but the need for cooperation will far outweigh any differences between us. We'll continue to have problems, but dialogues will lead us to solutions," Cui said.

Noting the Chinese new year will be the Year of the Dog, Cui said "dogs are seen as loyal, sincere, and trusting companions in both Chinese and the western cultures. I believe such virtues are equally essential for relations between countries."

U.S. Senator Shelley Capito of West Virginia, who attended the event, told Xinhua that she looks forward to closer ties between China and the United States.

"Our state is really excited about the investment that's going to come from China and we think it's going to be a game changer and put a lot of people to work and create a lot of prosperity for our region," Capito said, referring to a 83.7 billion U.S. dollar investment pledge China has made during Trump's state visit to Beijing last year.

"We have a lot of common goals in terms of wanting to build our manufacturing facilities, much like China wants to build theirs and create a greater wealth for all of our citizens. We had a shared value. So, I hope we have a closer relationship. I look forward to it," she said.

More than 700 attended the event, among them U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, White House National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs Matthew Pottinger, Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 10:37:00|Editor: Liangyu

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XINING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Spiderman, a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books and Hollywood movies, has crawled out of screen onto the roofs of many Chinese private cars.

The car decoration toys have become a new fad in Chinese provinces such as Hunan, Henan, Hainan, Shandong and Qinghai, though nobody seems to know where the trend originated from.

Measuring between 22 to 45 cm, the Spiderman toys range in price from 50 to 100 yuan (around 8 to 16 U.S. dollars). They are usually placed on the car roof or trunk.

In addition to Spiderman, Batman, Captain America and Minions are also popular decorations among Chinese drivers. One store on Taobao, China's most popular online shopping platform, has sold more than 18,000 such toys in just one month.

Wang Ning, 21, a spray painter in Xining, capital of Qinghai Province, installed a Spiderman toy on his car roof. "I think it makes my car more attractive," he said.

"I'm a fan of Spiderman movies. It's fashionable to put it on my car," said another driver Zhu Wenbin.

Xu Jingbo from Soochow University said the trend demonstrates that Chinese are increasingly willing to show their individuality, and need something fresh to enrich their mundane lives.

However, the fast fashion may pose a danger to traffic. Hu Jinwen, a traffic police officer in Xining, warned the decorative toys may distract other drivers and cause accidents.CANBERRA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- An agreement on how to distribute water from Australia's largest river system is on the brink of falling apart after amendments were defeated at the Senate.

The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is a controversial bi-partisan agreement on how water that flows through the system can be used.

However, both Victoria and New South Wales (NSW) look set to walk away from the plan after proposed changes which would have reduced the amount of water returned to the environment by 70 gigaliters were defeated by the Greens and Australian Labor Party (ALP) in the Senate on Wednesday night.

The Murray-Darling Basin drains one-seventh of the Australian continent, represents one-third of agriculture production and is home to more than two million people.

The 2007 Water Act, put in place in the midst of one of Australia's worst-ever droughts, dedicated 7.9 billion U.S. dollars to reaching a national agreement on water use in the basin.

The main aim of the plan, signed into law in 2012, was to remove 2,750 gigaliters of water from irrigated agriculture and return it to the river system.

As of June 2017, more than 2,080 gigaliters had been recovered, primarily through the government purchasing water licenses and infrastructure improvements.

However, the NSW government on Thursday said it was "untenable" that the state remain a signatory to the plan.

"New South Wales under my stewardship will now start the process of withdrawing ourselves from the plan," NSW Water Minister Niall Blair said in a statement on Thursday.

"We will seek legal advice and unless Canberra can come up with a way to fix this, I won't be attending anymore ministerial meetings in relation to the basin plan.

"I am urging the federal government to fix the Senates sabotage and take every step necessary to prevent the short-sighted and politically motivated action that will destroy this historic reform."

Blair's Victorian counterpart Lisa Neville echoed his sentiment but the South Australian government has urged its counterparts not to walk away from the plan.

"If they walk away, what they're giving up is the down-water component which they desperately wanted. I can't see them, frankly, walking away more than a few days because their own constituency won't allow them," SA Water Minister Ian Hunter said.

"And the Commonwealth Government should threaten Victoria and New South Wales, if they do walk away from this, that they will withhold their funding."

South Australia was opposed to the amendments which were defeated on Wednesday night because they would have reduced water flow into the state by 1,100 gigaliters.

Federal Assistant Water Resources Minister Anne Ruston accused the Labor SA Government of putting pressure on their ALP colleagues to block the changes.

"I cannot see New South Wales and Victoria being prepared to come back to the table. This really was Russian roulette," Ruston said.

"They have basically shot themselves in the foot and the rest of us in the backside in the process.

"It would be a nightmare if you tried to take it to the (High) Court as Ian Hunter is suggesting that we should do."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 11:07:03|Editor: Chengcheng

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by Misbah Saba Malik

ISLAMABAD, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Nauman Khan, 21, bought flowers for his fiancee on his way back from office and will visit her home at dinner to present flowers and chocolates as a Valentine's Day gift.

"We got engaged last month and her parents allowed us to see each other often at their home. I will celebrate Valentine's Day with her because I think there isn't bad in expressing your affection for someone on the day meant for the expression of love," Khan told Xinhua while selecting flowers at a shop in Islamabad.

Khan is one of the Pakistanis who celebrated Valentine's Day despite a ban on it by Islamabad High Court for the second year in a row, terming it un-Islamic.

The court also directed the country's media regulatory authority to put a check on TV channels from airing any content in this context.

Despite the ban, markets and restaurants in Islamabad were comparatively more crowded than usual and the Valentines' Day remained the top trend at twitter the whole daylong.

Overall, Pakistanis are divided on the issue, while some say that there is nothing evil in celebrating the day, others believe that it promotes western culture so the ban has been rightly imposed on it.

Generally young and educated people from big cities celebrate it, while a majority of the population living in small towns and rural areas remains indifferent to the celebrations.

Salman Shahid, a twitter users wrote "I maybe allergic to maulvis (Muslim clerics) but I fully endorse their stance on Valentine's Day! It's a festival that has no grass root linkage with Pakistan and does not fit with our culture."

Nadia Ismail, another twitter user wrote, "It is ridiculous that courts are banning celebration of love in Pakistan. It is hatred, tyranny and injustice that should be banned, not Valentines' Day."

The youth wing of religious political party Jamaat-i-Islami has marked the day as "Haya Day" (Chastity Day) and conducted countrywide activities and programs to promote the day in Pakistani youths.

Defending the court's verdict, Rukhsana Hussain, a lawyer in Islamabad, said that the judges are not against the basic human feelings, but they put a check on media to stop being obsessed with the day too much.

"Pakistan is a conservative country where most of the families don't allow their girls to mingle with boys, there are thousands of honor killings every year. Having a romantic relationship with some one out of wedlock is a taboo in Pakistan, so to avoid further complications in the society, the courts had to ban the Valentine's Day celebrations," Hussain told Xinhua.

Ban on the day has also affected the business of flower vendors and the stores, which were selling Valentine's Day gifts.

Talking to Xinhua, Wajid Khan, a flower vendor in Islamabad, said that the sale of flowers was higher than normal days, but much lower than 2016, when the courts did not ban the celebration on the day.

While most of the people of the country are divided over the issue, there are some who believe that religion or culture should not be dragged into this matter, as it is associated with the personal lives of people.

"I personally did not celebrate the day, but I think it should be everyone's own choice whether to celebrate Valentine's Day or not, or celebrate it in whatever way they want. Government, court or media should not interfere in it," Khalid Sohail, a university student, told Xinhua.CANBERRA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Australian Prime Minister has been labelled as "deceitful" over his public rejection of enshrining an indigenous voice in the nation's constitution.

Noel Pearson, an indigenous leader from Cape York in far north Queensland, and other members of the Referendum Council on Thursday expressed their outrage with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over an answer he gave in Parliamentary Question Time on Tuesday.

In response to a question from Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, Turnbull told the Parliament that he had warned the Referendum Council that "a representative body available only to Indigenous Australians" was "inconsistent with a fundamental principle of our democracy."

The Referendum Council is a body that was appointed by Turnbull and Shorten to advise on the best way to formally recognize the indigenous population in the Australian Constitution.

In June 2017, the council recommended that a referendum should be held on establishing an indigenous advisory body that would be consulted by the Parliament on legislation and policy affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

However, Turnbull rejected the proposal.

"I also said, being frank and honest, that I thought the prospects of such an amendment to the constitution being successful were absolutely zero, absolutely zero," the prime minister told the Parliament on Tuesday.

Pearson said that Turnbull's assertion on Tuesday was contrary to the advice given to the council in November 2016 that he would genuinely consider any proposal made by the council, including the voice to the Parliament.

Pearson said Turnbull's answer at the Parliament exposed "his duplicity in relation to his dealing with Indigenous constitutional recognition" by misrepresenting what he told the council.

"The prime minister had pre-judged the whole dialogue process even before the consultations with indigenous people and the wider Australian community had even commenced," Pearson told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Thursday.

"His opposition to the 'voice' is based on his own opinion and takes no consideration of the outcomes of a public consultation process."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 11:32:07|Editor: ZD

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CANBERRA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The number of rare shellfish reefs off the coast of Australia has declined by up to 99 percent since British colonization, a new study revealed on Thursday.

Shellfish reefs are formed by millions of oysters or clams clustering together at the mouth of a river where the tide meets the stream, known as an estuary.

A study released by Nature Conservancy Australia on Thursday revealed that the number of reefs formed by Ostrea angasi, Australian flat oysters, had declined 99 percent from 118 to just one in Tasmania.

The number of rock oyster reefs also fell sharply, down 90 percent from 60 known historical locations to just six surviving reefs.

The decline of shellfish reefs is even more drastic than that of the Great Barrier Reef, which has suffered from mass coral bleaching, and kelp forests which have shrunk by 90 percent off the coast of Western Australia.

Ian McLeod, a co-author of the study and professor at James Cook University, said that the main reasons for the decline of the reefs were over-fishing, destructive fishing practices, decline in water quality and invasive species.

"For many Australians today, the Great Barrier Reef probably first springs to mind as our most endangered ocean ecosystem," McLeod said in a media release on Thursday.

"While it and other coral reefs are indeed under threat, it's the shellfish reefs that have really suffered the most. It's just that most of them disappeared before we were born so people aren't aware we've lost them."

Chris Gillies, marine manager at Nature Conservancy Australia and author of the study, said that the data collected in the study would be used in an application for shellfish reefs to be included as a threatened ecosystem under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Nature Conservancy Australia already has shellfish reef restoration projects either planned or underway in every Australian state.

"At The Nature Conservancy we have shellfish reef restoration projects underway in Port Phillip Bay, Victoria; Gulf St Vincent, South Australia; and Oyster Harbour, Western Australia," Gillies said.

"At an eventual size of 20 hectares, Windara Reef in South Australia will be the largest shellfish reef restoration project ever undertaken in Australia."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 11:42:09|Editor: ZD

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Department of State announced Wednesday that Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan will visit five European countries to take part in conferences and hold talks with senior officials.

Sullivan will arrive in Munich on Feb. 16 to attend the Munich Security Conference, kicking off his visit to Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Latvia and Belgium. He will participate in a nuclear security and arms control panel discussion with foreign government officials to reaffirm the U.S. stance on global nuclear security, as well as hold talks with officials from Germany and other countries.

The senior U.S. diplomat will then travel to Rome to talk about cooperation on Ukraine, Libya and the Islamic State (IS), and deliver remarks at the local American Studies Center to discuss U.S.-Italian cooperation on global security issues.

He will visit Kiev on Feb. 21 to meet Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, and Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin. Sullivan will stress the importance of Ukraine speeding up credible economic and anti-corruption reforms and underscore U.S. support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, according to the State Department.

He will arrive in Riga on Feb. 22 and meet senior Latvian officials to reaffirm commitment to NATO's Article 5, which considers an attack against one ally to be an attack on all allies.

Brussels will be his last stop on Feb. 23. Sullivan will participate in the Sahel donors' conference and discuss U.S. continued support for the development, security, and political issues of the African region.

Cross-Atlantic ties have been strained in recent years, especially after the Trump administration assumed office in January 2017. Bilateral discords revolve round the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, Washington's recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and its constant push for Europe to increase the latter's share of defense expenses.

For their part, European nations complain about the U.S. doing little to curb Moscow's move on the Ukraine issue, which they see as a blatant aggression of European nations. EnditemSource: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 11:52:12|Editor: ZD

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CANBERRA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Australian researchers have developed a new method of purifying water which they say could save millions of lives.

Scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have designed their own type of graphene, a form of carbon consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms in a lattice, named "GraphAir."

The new technology has made water purification quicker, more effective and simpler for the 2.1 billion people in the world who do not have access to clean drinking water.

GraphAir was tested on water samples from Sydney Harbour and was so effective that several independent analyses found the water was safe to drink after passing through the filter once.

Dong Han Seo, lead author of the study, said that Sydney Harbour was chosen as the test site because the water was similar to the primary water supply in areas where water purification was a necessity.

"Sydney Harbour was chosen as a representative source of water which has a mixture of runoff from light industrial and residential areas," Seo told Xinhua on Thursday.

"That's the sort of commonly found water which could need to be filtered."

Despite being just one carbon atom thin, graphene is the world's strongest material. However, it is usually water repellent.

To solve the problem, Seo's team created a graphene film with microscopic channels that would let water through but stop pollutants.

The GraphAir film can be applied to commercially available water filters and instantly improve their performance.

The film is cheaper, faster and more environmentally friendly to produce than standard graphene, Seo said.

"Making graphene thin films conventionally involves many hazardous compressed gases such as purified hydrogen gas and methane gas as precursors which are expensive and explosive," he said.

"(The) 'GraphAir process' involves replacing all expensive and hazardous components in graphene thin film synthesis with safe and low-cost and renewable source such as vegetable oils and we can make the graphene film much faster than the conventional process."

In addition to being more effective than other water filters, GraphAir also offers a solution to fouling, the biggest problem facing most current water purification methods.

"Our water system contains many contaminants, especially when oils and chemicals are involved, they like to stick to the membrane and clogs the membrane surface which leads to rapid degradation in membrane," Seo said.

"This happens to all polymeric water purification membrane that are used today. But once a GraphAir film is placed, it is anti-fouling to chemicals and oils and salt while rejecting them all acting as a significantly superior membrane."

The CSIRO will scale its GraphAir production in 2018 before identifying potential commercial partners to make the product available globally.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 12:32:20|Editor: ZD

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BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Beijing's public security bureau has reinforced security and fire safety during the week-long Spring Festival starting Thursday.

The bureau said the police would target bustling downtown areas, temple fairs and public transport terminals, and has mobilized 700,000 volunteers for street patrols.

The bureau has checked 5,700 fire risks, treated 560 tonnes of inflammable waste and arrested 1,700 suspects for various criminal offenses ahead of the festival.

During the fire prevention campaign, 2.6 million people have been mobilized to take part in cleaning. The fire department has also watered sites for fireworks as the capital is experiencing its longest dry spell in 47 years, recording 115 consecutive days without "effective precipitation" as of Wednesday.

The fire department said that the city would have 122 mass activities during the festival, ranging from temple fairs to snow sport festivals, which will be closely watched for fire risks.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 12:47:21|Editor: ZD

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NEW YORK, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- ZTE has always adhered to laws and remains a trusted partner of U.S. suppliers and customers, the Chinese telecom company said Wednesday, a day after U.S. intelligence officials warned Americans against its products.

"ZTE is proud of the innovation and security of our products in the U.S. market," a ZTE spokesperson said, adding that the company takes cybersecurity and privacy seriously.

The statement came in response to the U.S. government's recent move to block the entry of select Chinese companies.

On Tuesday, the directors of six top U.S intelligence organizations, including the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Security Agency, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that they would not recommend private citizens to use products from ZTE and Huawei, another Chinese telecom company.

In addition, two U.S. senators proposed bills last week to block the use of Huawei and ZTE equipment, stymieing the Chinese companies' expansion in the U.S. market. In January, U.S. telecom companies Verizon and AT&T dropped plans to sell Huawei phones.

"As a publicly traded company, we are committed to adhering to all applicable laws and regulations of the United States, work with carriers to pass strict testing protocols, and adhere to the highest business standards," the ZTE spokesperson added.

It was not the first time the United States has targeted Chinese companies. Fintech firm Ant Financial's plan to acquire U.S. money transfer company MoneyGram International was rejected by the U.S. government panel in January due to "national security concerns."

China has expressed opposition and concerns over rising protectionism in the Untied States after high-profile planned deals were blocked citing security concerns.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 13:17:29|Editor: ZD

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Seventeen people were killed in a mass shooting in a high school in Florida in the United States Wednesday, local police said.

The incident took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, north of Miami, recently listed as one of the 10 safest cities in Florida.

The suspect was identified as Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old expelled student.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told the press that 12 of the victims were killed in the school building, two were killed outside, and one was shot fatally on a road nearby. Two more died in hospital.

Other wounded students were being treated in a nearby hospital, with some undergoing surgery, police said.

Cruz was captured shortly after the shooting. An AR-15 semi-automatic rifle was found at the site.

Police said Cruz carried "countless" magazines. He reportedly wore a gas mask and carried smoke grenades.

He entered the school close to dismissal of class and pulled the fire alarm, causing the students to crowd into the hallway where he stood ready to shoot.

He then tried to leave the scene with a group of evacuating students, but was unsuccessful.

Police did not immediately disclose the motive behind the crime, but people who knew Cruz said he had a troubled past.

Police said "disturbing" content were found after digging through Cruz's internet activities.

"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school," U.S. President Donald Trump said in a condolence tweet.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 13:47:33|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Dancers perform a lion dance on the square in the Royal Palace, celebrating the Chinese New Year in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Feb. 15, 2018. (Xinhua/Mao Pengfei)

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Lion dance was performed in Cambodia on Thursday to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, which will fall on Friday.

Three lion dance troupes staged at the Royal Palace and the Chinese Embassy here.

At the palace, the troupes were welcomed by Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Royal Palace Minister Kong Sam Ol, while at the embassy, they were greeted by Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Xiong Bo.

Xiong said he felt at home when he saw the lion dance. "May the New Year bring good luck, good health and new success to the peoples of our two countries," he said.

Meanwhile, the ambassador expressed his belief that the China-Cambodia relations will be further deepened in the New Year, which is also the year that the two countries mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties.

Bo Reth, vice-president of the Association of Khmer-Chinese in Cambodia, said the lion dance was to celebrate the Chinese New Year and to promote Chinese culture and traditions in Cambodia.

Lion dance is usually invited by traditional Chinese families to perform as a symbolic ritual to usher in the Spring Festival and to ward off bad luck and evil spirits.

The Chinese New Year is broadly celebrated in Cambodia, even though it is not a public holiday in this Southeast Asian country.

Thai Norak Sathya, secretary of state and spokesman for the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, said it is estimated that more than 60 percent of the Cambodian people celebrate the festival.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 13:52:34|Editor: Liangyu

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LVIV, Ukraine, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Grand Chinese New Year celebrations kicked off here on Thursday.

The ancient city, known as the "cultural capital" of Ukraine and attracting about 3 million tourists each year with its impressive architecture and rich history, is welcoming the Spring Festival for the seventh year in a row.

The central square and nine other venues of the four-day festivities are showcasing Chinese traditions such as the dragon dance, a laser show, and a Spring Festival-themed gala.

A fair with traditional Chinese cuisine and souvenirs in the heart of the city near the city hall and the installation of a huge statue of a yellow dog near the Lviv Opera House to usher in the new Year of the Dog are among the major attractions.

A giant screen at the city center, beaming the New Year festivities in major Chinese cities, will provide a "telebridge with China".

The festival, organized by the Ukraine-China Research Center, Lan Hua, is an opportunity for Ukrainians and foreigners visiting Lviv to get an insight into Chinese culture.

It also puts the Chinese in Ukraine in a festive mood despite being far from home.

Yury Kotyk, in charge of Lan Hua, said he decided to start the celebrations in Lviv because in the past, his Chinese friends felt homesick during Spring Festival and were forced to observe it either at home or in student dormitories.

"I decided to organize such a holiday for them," Kotyk told Xinhua.

Initially, the Lunar New Year was just another festival in Lviv. Today, it has become a hallmark of the tourist city, attracting thousands of visitors each year.

Apart from cultural exchanges, the festivities spur business, bringing profits to hotels, restaurants and tourist agencies.

Olga Grenyukh, an art director of Lviv Fairs, which organizes street fairs during the Lunar New Year, said the number of businessmen who participate in the celebrations has tripled since the first festival held in 2011.

"In Lviv, the cultural capital of Ukraine, this holiday has found new roots and we can say that thanks to it, local business is growing," Grenyukh told Xinhua. "The Spring Festival extends the tourist season in the city."

This year, more than 30,000 people are expected to take part in the Spring Festival celebrations in Lviv.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 14:02:37|Editor: Chengcheng

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LILONGWE, Malawi, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Malawian government has suspended a weeks-long mass registration of sim cards due to public concerns, Minister of Information and Communications Technology Nicholas Dausi said in a statement Tuesday.

The Malawi National Assembly enacted a new Communication Act in July 2016, which requires all sim cards to be registered. The registration was scheduled from Jan. 1 to March 31. However, it triggered fears that the authorities would listen to private phone calls.

Dausi said the government has taken note of the concerns and has decided to defer the registration until the issues are addressed.

The statement added that the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology would engage the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority, telephone operators and other stakeholders in a mass awareness campaign to address the issues raised. EnditemSource: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 14:02:38|Editor: Chengcheng

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SINGAPORE, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- International Enterprise Singapore, a government agency that promotes international trade and partners Singaporean companies to go global, announced on Thursday the country's non-oil domestic exports (NODX) hiked 13 percent year on year in January.

The growth was higher than the growth rates of 3.1 percent in December 2017. The authority attributes the month's growth to the increase in non-electronic NODX, as electronics declined.

On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, NODX declined by 0.3 percent in January to 15.1 billion Singapore dollars (about 11.5 billion U.S. dollars), following the revised 1.9 percent decline for the previous month, due to the decrease in electronic NODX which outweighed the growth in non-electronic NODX.

According to the agency, Singapore's electronic NODX dropped 3.9 percent year on year in the first month of 2018, after the revised 5.3 percent contraction in December 2017. Non-electronic NODX grew 20.7 percent year on year, wider than the 6.8 percent growth in the previous month.

Among the top NODX markets of Singapore, the United States, the European Union's 28 countries and Japan were major contributors to the NODX increase in January, according to the authority. The NODX to them grew 53.4 percent, 16.9 percent and 28.8 percent year on year, respectively.

Meanwhile, the non-oil re-exports (NORX) rose by 4.9 percent year on year in January, after the seven percent decline last December, due to the higher shipment of electronic and non-electronic re-exports.

Singapore's oil domestic exports grew by 15.4 percent year on year in January, following the 19.1 percent expansion in the preceding month. Higher sales to Malaysia, Australia and Indonesia contributed the most to the year-on-year increase. The three markets saw oil domestic exports from Singapore increase 51.6 percent, 56.9 percent and 20.7 percent, respectively. In volume terms, oil domestic exports increased by five percent in January, comparing to a revised 8.2 percent rise last December.

The total trade of Singapore grew 7.1 percent year on year in January 2018. Total exports grew by 9.2 percent in the month, and total imports increased by 4.8 percent.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 14:02:39|Editor: Liangyu

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BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Seventy-two salvage ships and 20 helicopters have been deployed in China's coastal waters to ensure travel safety at sea during the Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year.

Spring Festival is the most important occasion for family gatherings and falls on Feb. 16 this year. The peak travel period around the festival, known as Chunyun, will last for 40 days from Feb. 1 to Mar. 12, as many Chinese people return to their hometowns.

Du Haipeng, an official in charge of salvage work with the Ministry of Transport, said that Bohai Bay, the Taiwan Strait and the Qiongzhou Strait usually had the most passengers during this period.

Twenty large salvage ships and 12 helicopters have been posted to these waters.

The Ministry has also deployed salvage ships in case of emergencies in areas where cargo freight is heavy and fisheries active, such as the estuaries of the Yangtze and the Pearl rivers, and waters off Zhoushan Island.

To prevent ice blockage in the Bohai Sea, three large salvage ships have been readied.

As the number of travelers going to Taiwan by sea is expected to rise this Spring Festival, Du said that the ministry had sent two large salvage ships and three helicopters to waters off Xiamen City in east China's Fujian Province.

Another 50 vessels and 10 emergency squads are standing by. Nearly 4,000 personnel will take shifts to monitor river and sea transport 24 hours a day during the Spring Festival.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 14:27:43|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Photo taken on Feb. 14, 2018 from Weehawken of New Jersey, the United States, shows the fireworks over Manhattan of New York City celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year. (Xinhua/Li Rui)

NEW YORK, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Spectacular fireworks lit up the night sky over the Hudson River in New York City on Wednesday as part of the celebrations of the Chinese Lunar New Year that falls on Friday.

The fireworks display, themed "Happy Spring Festival", was held near Pier 84 over the Hudson River, close to the Chinese consulate general in New York.

In mostly red and gold, the two major auspicious traditional Chinese colors, the display created images representing Chinese cultural elements, like the dog, one of the 12 traditional zodiac signs, and the Chinese knot.

Prior to the display, Zhang Qiyue, Chinese consul general in New York, hosted a celebratory gala for 300-odd local celebrities and officials.

Designed and organized by China's Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), the display was executed by Fireworks by Grucci, a New York-based fireworks company.

"It (was) fantastic, especially on Valentine's Day," Scott C. Cooper, director of business development at Fireworks by Grucci, told Xinhua.

He said Grucci was excited to work with CAFA to stage the event, which is already a must-see for New Yorkers and international visitors to the city during the Lunar New Year. The two sides initiated the cooperation in 2014.

Aside from the fireworks show, the week-long Lunar New Year celebrations in the U.S. city also include a performance by the New York Philharmonic, the lighting of the Empire State Building, and the annual Lunar New Year Parade and Festival in Chinatown.

The headline event of this eight-day-long festival is a special "Students Day" on Friday at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

New York City became the largest urban school district in the country to recognize the holiday for its public school children in 2016.SINGAPORE, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Singapore Thursday held the 51st War Memorial Service in commemoration of the civilian victims of the Japanese Occupation and Total Defence Day Commemoration event.

Almost 1,000 guests, including Singaporean President Halimah Yacob, Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence Ong Ye Kung, and civilian victims' family members, participated in the event.

Yacob said Singaporean people suffered from the three years and eight months of Japanese occupation, which was a time of unspeakable horror, deprivation and suffering.

"Through them, we learn the lesson of not being able to defend our home," she added.

The president called on Singaporean people to do their utmost to protect their sovereignty and way of life. She said a strong defence is the cornerstone of peace, progress and prosperity of Singapore, and Singaporean people must sustain their efforts in building defence, including a strong support for National Service.

The event was organized by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI) and the Central National Education Office of the Ministry of Defence.

"It shows the resolve of Singapore, as a young nation, to never forget, stay united, and rise above one of the darkest times of our history to build a better and brighter future together," said SCCCI's president Roland Ng.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 14:52:48|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba announces his resignation at the Prime Minister's residence in Kathmandu, capital of Nepal, Feb. 15, 2018. Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Thursday stepped down to pave the way to the left alliance for formation of a new government. (Xinhua/Sunil Sharma)

KATHMANDU, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Thursday stepped down to pave the way to the left alliance for formation of a new government.

After making an address to the nation following a cabinet meeting this morning, Deuba put forth his resignation in the wake of completion of the electoral processes of provinces, House of Representatives and National Assembly.

Election Commission had submitted the final results of the federal and provincial assembly elections to President Bidya Devi Bhandari Wednesday evening.

"Under my leadership, the three-tiers of crucial elections were held successfully, which has set the foundation for a long transition," he said in the address, highlighting the major roles of the incumbent government.

Deuba was sworn-in as Nepal's 40th prime minister on June last year under the alliance with CPN Maoist Centre, replacing Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

Deuba served as the prime minister of Nepal from 1995 to 1997, from 2001 to 2002 and from 2004 to 2005. Deuba was sacked by the then King Gyanendra Shah in 2005 over failing to hold elections and bring Maoist rebels to the negotiating table.

Deuba's exit came at a time when the Himalayan country is implementing the federal set-up as provisioned in the constitution promulgated in September 2017.

Nepal successfully held three-tier elections of local bodies, provinces and parliament in 2017 under the leadership of Deuba, giving high expectations that the country will usher in much-needed political stability and development.

Deuba is lauded for bringing the agitating Madhes based parties who were against the new constitution to the election board.

However, Deuba's Nepali Congress faced humiliating defeat in the polls as the party President Deuba is blamed for his poor leadership role.

The opposition parties had been lashing out Deuba for sticking in power for almost two months even after the completion of elections. He is also criticized for taking some controversial decisions as the outgoing prime minister.

Meanwhile, CPN-UML, which emerged as the largest political party in the elections, has officially claimed for the formation of the new government with support from the CPN Maoist Centre.

The CPN-UML Standing Committee meeting held on Wednesday decided to put forth its Chairman KP Sharma Oli as the next prime minister. The left alliance have claimed for premiership afore President Bhandari this morning.MALE, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- In an interview with the Indian media, former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed alleged that China was "grabbing land" from the Maldives by investing in 17 resort islands, a statement rebutted by Maldivian and Chinese officials and experts.

The "land grabbing" rhetoric is not only fictitious but also irresponsible, just as what Maldivian Economic Development Minister Mohamed Saeed told Xinhua, "Nasheed is very detached from the reality. He is trying to confuse the system. He is trying to tell a different story to the world, which is far from reality."

According to the open statistics from the Maldivian Tourism Ministry, among the more than 100 Maldivian resort islands, Chinese companies have only planned to invest in seven of them, not 17.

Tourism Minister Moosa Zameer said there are only about seven resorts which have been invested by Chinese enterprises and these resorts are still being developed. Countries such as Singapore and Thailand have invested much more in the Maldivian tourism sector, China only ranks the sixth, he noted.

"We do encourage countries including China to come to invest in the Maldivian tourism sector, that does not mean 'grabbing land' from our country," Zameer said.

Saeed also said that the Maldives currently has a number of economic development projects with China. China today is a major economic power in the world, yet that does not mean China is involved in "land grabbing" anywhere.

The Chinese government and its people have been maintaining a close friendship with their Maldivian counterparts since the two countries established diplomatic relations decades ago.

Today, under the Belt and Road Initiative, the Maldives and China have embarked on many cooperative projects such as the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge project, the Male International Airport expansion project, as well as jointly developing the seven resort islands.

China's efforts and contribution to promoting the transition and upgrade of the Maldives' economy and the improvement of the Maldivian people's livelihoods have been greatly appreciated and welcomed by the Maldivian people.

However, as a former Maldivian president, who has also experienced the benefits from the fruitful cooperation between the Maldives and China, Nasheed this time chose to turn a blind eye to the fact.

Spokesperson of the Chinese embassy in the Maldives, Counselor Yang Yin said, the bilateral cooperation such as the housing projects, the Lamuu link road were initiated during Nasheed's tenure.

"Why did Nasheed support this normal economic and trade cooperation during his tenure and now turns to oppose it? Let alone fabricating statistics to tarnish the normal bilateral cooperation between the two countries? These doubts remain in the mind of the Chinese side," Yang said.

The diplomatic relations between the Maldives and China have been established for more than 45 years, with the practical cooperation between the two sides deepening day by day.

It is the people of the two countries who have the final say over whether the bilateral cooperation is mutually beneficial or not, not by a single former politician.

Looking at the development of China-Maldives relationship, one needs to hold an objective, fair and balanced position with a long-term view. Only with that kind of attitude, one can really promote the healthy development of China-Maldives relations.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 15:32:57|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML) KP Sharma Oli talks in an exclusive interview with Xinhua in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Feb. 13, 2017. Chairman of CPN-UML party KP Sharma Oli on Thursday became the 41st Prime Minister of Nepal. (Xinhua/Sunil Sharma)

KATHMANDU, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML) Chairman KP Sharma Oli on Thursday became the 41st Prime Minister of Nepal.

His appointment comes following the resignation of Sher Bahadur Deuba from the post in the wake of completion of the electoral processes of provinces, House of Representatives and National Assembly.

Deuba, the four-time prime minister and also the president of Nepali Congress party, had resigned from the post after making an address to the nation this morning.

Issuing a statement immediately, the Office of the President informed that Oli became the new prime minister of Nepal under Article 76 (2) of the constitution.

The article states that if no party gets clear majority, the president shall appoint the new prime minister who has majority support of two or more parties represented in the House of Representatives. The left alliance comprising CPN UML and CPN Maoist Centre has a comfortable majority in the 275-member House of Representatives.

Oli's party CPN UML emerged as the largest political party in the elections and officially claimed for the formation of the new government with support from the CPN Maoist Centre led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

This is the second time that UML chairman Oli has become the prime minister of the Himalayan nation. In October 2015, he was elected as the 38th prime minister, a month after the promulgation of a new constitution in September.

KP Sharma Oli was born in 1952 in an eastern district Terathum located in Province 1. He will be sworn in by President Bidya Devi Bhandari later in the day.

His appointment comes at a time when Nepal is going on a federal set-up as provisioned in the new constitution.

Nepal successfully conducted the three-tier elections of local bodies, provinces and parliament in 2017, giving high hopes to local people that the country will usher in much-needed political stability and development.MANILA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Philippine authorities has threatened to close down a number of islands resorts in the Philippines, including the world famous island Boracay, as many commercial establishments there are polluting the environment especially due to sewerage problems.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque told a news conference on Thursday that President Rodrigo Duterte ordered Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu during last week's cabinet meeting six months to address the non-compliance of business establishments to environmental regulations.

The palm-studded island of Boracay in Aklan province in the central Philippines, which consistently voted by travel magazines as one of the top tourist destinations because of its powdery white sandy beach and warm crystalline waters, is a famous destination for Chinese and South Korean tourists.

Helen Catalbas, the director of the Department of Tourism in Western Visayas, told Xinhua that 375,284 Chinese tourists visited Boracay last year, for the first, surpassing by 5.32 percent the 356,644 South Korean tourists who visited the island.

Data also showed that tourist arrivals on the island hit a new record high, increasing by 16 percent last year from the 1.72 million visitors recorded in 2016.

However, President Duterte called Boracay a "cesspool" and threatened to "close" the popular beach island resort if nothing is done to improve the sewer problem there in six months.

"I will close Boracay. Boracay is a cesspool," Duterte told a forum in Davao City last Friday.

"You go into the water, it's smelly. Smell of what? Shit. Because everything that goes out in Boracay...it's destroying the environment or the Republic of the Philippines and creating a disaster coming," Duterte said then.

"(Duerte) did mention that Boracay was very dirty and that he was putting the blame on local government officials (who) implement relevant laws and regulations on the protection of the environment," Roque said on Thursday.

The environment secretary said that his department has issued notices of violation to 51 establishments in Boracay, requiring them to have "technical conference" with its Pollution Adjudication Bureau within the week.

Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo lauded Duterte's directive, saying "it is high time to order the closure of some 200 tourism establishments in Boracay found violating environmental laws and regulations."

Aside from Boracay, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has threatened to close two other famous island resorts in Siargao Island in Surigao del Norte in the southern Philippine and Coron in Palawan due to sewage disposal systems.

"We hope that efforts for Boracay clean-up will resonate to our private stakeholders in other destinations to ensure full compliance of environment and eco-tourism laws," Teo said.SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Two U.S. cities in western California on the U.S. west coast are seeking support from cities from China and other countries in joint efforts to "form smart city alliances."

At a news briefing on the G50 Smart City Summit to be held in Silicon Valley in early April this year, Berry Chang, president of the G50 Smart City Summit Committee, said Wednesday that five Chinese cities, including Beijing, the capital of China, and Tianjin, a port city in northern China, have confirmed their intention to attend the first summit of its kind to discuss the prospect of making use of smart city technologies.

He said that cities around the world which have been invited to the event have a lot to learn from each other and the opportunity to share their ideas.

Talking about smart transportation system in urban areas, he cited as an example the driverless subway system in Shanghai, an international metropolis in eastern China.

"I visited China and to my surprise, (the) Shanghai subway system is driverless, and it can move 4,000 passengers in one train. That's quite enough," he said.

Chang said that he expected the Chinese cities to come to (the summit) to share their success in urban construction and they can also learn what other cities can do.

However, California's Monterey City on the pacific coast has very rich experience in oceanic technology, and any city that wants to learn about the technology can come over and talk to Moneterey City directly, he added.

The G50 Smart City Summit, which will take place from April 6 to 7, aims to connect cities around the world with experts from the hi-tech community, academia and local governments to share ideas and advance solutions for some of the most challenging issues that cities are facing today.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 15:48:01|Editor: Yamei

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- At least 17 people were killed and over a dozen others were wounded after a 19-year-old gunman opened fire Wednesday at a high school in the U.S. state of Florida, authorities said.

The shooting took place when the students were being dismissed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the city of Parkland in Broward County, just north of Miami on the state's southeastern tip.

The suspected gunman, captured shortly after the shooting, was identified as Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old expelled student at the school. An AR-15 semi-automatic rifle was found at the site.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters that 12 of the victims were killed in the school building, two were killed outside, and one shot fatally on a road nearby. Two more died in the hospital.

All of the victims have been identified, Israel said, but no identities will be made public until the families of all of those affected have been notified.

At least 14 others were wounded, five of whom had life-threatening injuries, hospital authorities said.

"I was on the first floor of the building where the shots happened first," freshman Jason Snytte told U.S. television network NBC News.

"I heard six or seven shots. Our door was open. I ran and closed it, and everybody ran into a corner," he said.

Federal and local authorities said there was no indication that the gunman had any accomplice.

"This is a terrible day for Broward County, the state of Florida, the United States," Israel said. "There really are no words."

Cruz, the shooter, was sent to a local hospital for "labored breathing" and was later released to police for custody, local authorities said. He is due in court Thursday.

Police said Cruz carried "countless" magazines, and pulled the fire alarm after entering the school, causing the students to crowd into the hallway where he stood ready to shoot.

Cruz then tried to leave the scene with a group of evacuating students, but was unsuccessful in the attempt.

Police did not identify the motive of the crime, but people who knew Cruz said the youth had a troubling past. Police said that "disturbing" content was found after going through Cruz's Internet activities.

"You come to the conclusion this is just absolutely pure evil," Florida Governor Rick Scott said Wednesday night.

The shooting is among the 10 deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history.

"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school," tweeted U.S. President Donald Trump, who was briefed on the incident and was monitoring the situation, according to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen from New Hampshire said "We cannot allow this to continue to be the status quo. Congress has a responsibility to take action and help keep guns out of the wrong hands."

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said "Maybe, just maybe, after 18 school shootings in America in just 43 days of 2018 the Congress might want to consider common-sense gun safety legislation and save innocent lives."

The incident took place as Parkland, with a population of 31,000 in 2016, has recently been listed by a national survey as one of the safest cities in Florida.MANILA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Philippine Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez thanked Alibaba's founder and Executive Chairman Jack Ma on Thursday for providing insights on optimising the use of technology to improve governance and prepare Filipinos for the future under a digital economy.

Upon Ma's invitation, Dominguez, along with Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno and other government officials and representatives from the Philippines' business sector attended the Alibaba Business School's three-day New Economy Workshop last week.

The workshop was designed to gain a wider understanding of an e-commerce ecosystem including the digital technologies that can be employed to improve the Philippines' nascent online payment system in pursuit of inclusive growth.

Dominguez said the workshop organized by the Alibaba Business School offered him and the rest of the Philippine delegation the opportunity to peer into the future and learn how to further open opportunities for growth for Filipinos.

"The real purpose of doing this is really to see how our government can improve the people's lives not only for tomorrow but for the future," Dominguez said, mentioning they were offered a series of lectures on how digital technology applications can be used to empower small businesses and expand their access to online credit, improve logistics networks, and even improve traffic enforcement.

According to Alibaba, the new economy program for government officials will be expanded to more countries in Southeast Asia, underlining the company's commitment to promoting the new economy paradigm and the role of e-commerce in creating a more inclusive trade and development system.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 16:53:09|Editor: Lifang

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BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday sent his Spring Festival greetings to the youth of Hong Kong, asking them to serve Hong Kong and the country with their actions.

Xi made the remarks in a letter replying to the members of the Junior Police Call (JPC). He visited its permanent activity center and integrated youth training camp in June 2017.

Affiliated to the Hong Kong Police Force, the JPC is a major youth organization in Hong Kong with a membership of more than 210,000, making it one of the largest police youth organizations in the world.CANBERRA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has revealed the design of Australia's new 50-dollar banknote.

The new banknote, which is worth 39.6 U.S. dollars, features portraits of Aboriginal author and inventor David Unaipon and Edith Cowan, the first female member of an Australian parliament.

The note, nicknamed the "pineapple" for its yellow color, has a string of security features including a top-to-bottom clear window containing dynamic features and micro-printed excerpts from Unaipon's book and Cowan's maiden parliamentary speech.

"Improved security and ease of recognition underpin the design of the new 50 dollar banknote," RBA Governor Philip Lowe said in a media release on Thursday.

"With the release of the five and 10 (dollar notes) during the past two years, we are confident the Australian public are becoming familiar with the new banknote security features.

"David Unaipon and Edith Cowan were campaigners for social change and we are proud to continue featuring them on the 50 dollar banknote. The new banknote provides the opportunity to tell more of the rich story behind these distinguished Australians."

Just as every other Australian banknote does, the new 50 dollar note also includes representations of a wattle and a native bird.

The 50 dollar note features Acacia humifusa, a type of shrub associated with Unaipon, and a Black Swan; the bird of Cowan's home state of Western Australia (WA).

The new five and 10 dollar notes, revealed in 2016 and 2017 respectively, encountered problems in their rollout with ATMs and other machines refusing to accept them.

However, the RBA said it was "working closely with banknote equipment manufacturers and retailers" to ensure a smooth introduction for the newest note.

The new 50 dollar note will enter circulation in October 2018 with the 20 dollar note set for a redesign in 2019.CANBERRA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce will take personal leave after it was revealed that he is expecting a baby with a former staffer.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that Barnaby Joyce, leader of the National Party of Australia, would take leave until February 25.

The decision came after a number of government Members of Parliament (MPs) expressed doubts over Joyce's capability to fill in as acting prime minister when Turnbull is overseas on official business from February 19 to 25.

"The deputy prime minister will be taking leave from Monday 19 February to Sunday 25 February, and accordingly will not be able to be acting prime minister while I'm overseas," Turnbull told parliament on Thursday.

A spokesperson from Joyce's office said he asked for personal leave because "he wanted to support his family and partner after such intense public focus on personal matters."

With Foreign Minister Julie Bishop also overseas, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann will act as prime minister.

Joyce's leave comes as the opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) continues its pursuit of him over his extramarital affair with former staffer Vikki Campion, namely over a series of promotions she gained after engaging in a relationship with Joyce and their living situation.

It has been confirmed by Joyce that he and Campion are living in Armidale, a city in Joyce's New South Wales electorate, rent-free at a house owned by a millionaire friend of Joyce's.

The ALP formally put forward a motion in the Senate on Thursday, calling for Joyce's resignation.

ALP Leader Bill Shorten questioned whether Joyce taking leave means he is incapable of doing his job.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 17:28:19|Editor: Yamei

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SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. fifth largest airline Alaska Airlines announced Wednesday a merger agreement with Virgin America and the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) for the airline's 5,400 flight stewards.

The merger accord offers competitive pay raises, increase in retirement contributions and quality of life benefits, which will preserve all productivity of Alaska Airlines' existing contract, the company said in a statement.

The tentative merger agreement marks a major milestone in integrating Virgin America and Alaska Airlines flight attendants.

Virgin America flight attendants joined the AFA in April 2017, after the Alaska Airlines acquired Virgin America in 2016, a merger close to completion now.

"We're thrilled to have reached this major milestone towards integrating our flight attendant work groups," said Jeff Butler, Alaska Airlines' vice president of guest and inflight services.

He said the agreement will support the company's long-term low cost, low fares business philosophy.

Flight attendants of Alaska Airlines will conduct a ratification vote expected to be completed in April.

Alaska Airlines said it will push for next-step work that includes combining seniority lists, cross training on Boeing and Airbus aeroplanes, as well as integration of crew scheduling systems, which will be completed in 2019.

The existing five-year contract, which was approved by the airlines' employees in 2014, becomes amendable in December 2019. Alaska Airlines will begin negotiations with the AFA for its first joint labor agreement later this year.

Alaska Airlines, together with Virgin America and its regional partners, flies 44 million guests a year to more than 115 destinations with an average of 1,200 daily flights across the United States and to Mexico, Canada and Costa Rica.

The company that is based in Seattle, the largest city in Washington state on the U.S. west coast, operates its largest hub at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, a primary commercial airport about 21 km south of downtown Seattle.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 17:38:22|Editor: Yamei

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BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- With nearly 20 million cards issued outside China in 2017, China UnionPay now has a much stronger presence overseas.

Statistics from UnionPay International, a subsidiary of China UnionPay focusing on international business, showed that the total number of UnionPay card holders outside China had reached 90 million by the end of 2017.

These card holders live in 48 countries and regions. About 25 million cards were issued in the countries along the Belt and Road routes.

In Laos, Mongolia and Myanmar, UnionPay is the most popular bank card in terms of users.

In Pakistan, there are more than 4.1 million UnionPay cards in use, second highest among international card brands, while in Russia, some 1.3 million UnionPay cards have been issued by local banks.

A lot more foreigners were found using UnionPay cards to consume in China. The cities of Hangzhou, Chengdu and Xiamen reported the fastest growth in transaction volume in 2017.

The transaction volume for Pakistan-issued UnionPay cards in China more than doubled last year, while that for cards issued in Tajikistan and Kazakhstan rose by approximately 50 percent.

Starting from last September, the transaction volume made by overseas card holders had exceeded the cross-border transaction volume made by Chinese card holders.

In Europe and the United States, card issuance both rose by more than 20 percent last year.

Established in 2002, China UnionPay is a financial services corporation based in Shanghai.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 17:43:22|Editor: Yamei

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Photo taken on Feb. 14, 2018 shows attendees at the ministerial meeting of the Kuwait International Conference for the Reconstruction of Iraq (KICRI). (Xinhua/Borhan Salama)

KUWAIT CITY, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Challenges lie ahead for the reconstruction of Iraq though the international community has pledged 30 billion U.S. dollars to support the war-torn country.

Political leaders and representatives from 76 countries, and 107 regional and international organizations and funds on Wednesday wrapped up a three-day conference for the reconstruction of Iraq after defeating the terror group Islamic State (IS).

Despite the generous international support, the Iraqi reconstruction process still faces grave challenges, including continued IS threat to its security, widespread concerns about corruption and insufficient financial support.

INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FALLS SHORT OF IRAQI HOPE

The participants pledged a total of 30 billion U.S. dollars to support Iraqi reconstruction at the conference, including 5 billion dollars from Turkey, 2 billion dollars from Kuwait and 1 billion dollars from Qatar.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told the conference Tuesday that Iraq could not rebuild without outside help.

"Iraqis feel that the world is with them. As they were victorious against Daesh (IS), they will be, with your support, victorious in the battle of reconstruction," he said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that the UN is firmly committed to the reconstruction process in Iraq, while urging the international community to provide comprehensive aid to this country.

Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, host of the conference, said Wednesday Iraq needs to start an inclusive reconstruction process that would cover infrastructure and other public utilities, a task that cannot be done by Iraq alone.

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khaled Al-Sabah on Wednesday hailed the success of the conference for showing the clear commitment of the international community to support Iraqi's rebuilding process in the post-IS era.

But the amount of financial support pledged by the international community at the conference still fell short of what Baghdad is seeking.

Iraqi Planning Minister Salman Al Jumaili said on Monday that Iraq needs 88.2 billion dollars to rebuild the devastated areas in Iraq after years of war against IS.

According to a report provided by the minister, the total damage in Iraq by the anti-IS military operations amounted to 45.7 billion dollars. The most affected sectors include housing, power supply, industry and commerce, oil and gas, and transportation.

HIGH RISKS, HIGH RETURNS

The reconstruction projects in Iraq have created many lucrative business opportunities for countries and companies participating in the rebuilding process.

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim pointed out that post-IS Iraq is putting many investment opportunities on the table, as the process of reconstruction and development could be efficiently pursued through the private sector.

Indeed, Iraq is offering hundreds of projects in almost every field of its economy, from oil to agriculture, with an aim to attract international investors.

"Iraq is open for investors," said Sami al-Araji, chairman of Iraq's National Investment Commission, on Tuesday at the conference.

In an interview with the media, Nizar Nasser Hussein, head of the legal department at the commission, said the latest version of the Iraqi law does not distinguish between foreign and Iraqi investors, adding that investors would be given lease contracts for 50 years, renewable for a similar period.

"Investors will also be exempt from customs duties and income tax for 10-15 years," he said.

Sami al-Araji said that investors in Iraq will find "high risks, but high returns."

CHALLENGES AHEAD FOR IRAQI RECONSTRUCTION

Iraq declared victory over IS in December 2017, after Iraqi forces, backed by the U.S.-led coalition, regained control of large parts of the country seized by the group in mid-2014.

However, the reconstruction of Iraq after years of war against terrorism faces grave challenges, including the IS intreat.

Despite the loss of major regions it used to control since 2014, IS still poses threat to Iraq's security and the businesses that will take part in the reconstruction.

Terror bombings and suicide attacks have never stopped in Iraq since the war against IS started.

Al-Abadi pointed out that Baghdad was looking forward to turning a new page in its history, while admitting that grave challenges still lie ahead, citing ineffective legislation and corruption as impediments to its economic growth.

Lise Grande, UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, said failure to help Iraq could lead to renewed instability.

"If the international community doesn't help the government of Iraq to stabilize these areas (devastated by the war) the gains against Daesh could be at risk," she said.

At the foreign ministers meeting of the international coalition against IS held on Tuesday in Kuwait, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that IS remains a threat despite the liberation of the areas from IS rule, stressing the need to provide financial support for Iraq and Syria to make sure IS could never be able to return.

He warned that IS still has the capacity to re-emerge in the liberated territories to pose a serious threat to the stability of the region, and elsewhere in the world.

The concerns about corruption in Iraq have also been raised by many countries and businesses, though Baghdad promised to tackle the problem.

"We will not stop fighting corruption, which is not less than terrorism. In fact, it was one of the reasons for the rise of terrorism," al-Abadi said Wednesday.

Iraq took measures last week to simplify the procedures for investments, al-Abadi said, adding that his government had also ratified international agreements on protecting investments.Children play at a camp for displaced people in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia, on Sept. 3, 2013. (Xinhua/Faisal Isse)

NAIROBI, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- An international charity has warned that 4.7 million children across East Africa risk dropping out of school this year due to malnutrition arising from displacement sparked by drought and conflict.

David Wright, Regional Director for Save the Children in East and Southern Africa, told journalists in Nairobi on Monday that about 90,000 children drop out of school weekly in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan, which translates to 12,000 children abandoning studies each day.

"No child should miss out on their right to education, so it is especially crucial to keep schools open during drought because they offer a perfect opportunity for food, water and vaccines to enable them learn, be safe and realize their dreams," Wright told journalists in Nairobi.

"We urgently appeal for funding to help keep children in school and take schooling to the children who have already been forced to drop out," he said during the release of the report in Nairobi.

Wright said this year calls for increased humanitarian assistance in order to meet the persistent and diverse needs of children affected by drought for their survival, learning and protection.

He drew attention to donors, governments and all stakeholders to address food insecurity and tackle the growing nutritional crisis and ensure children are able to survive and thrive.

"Children should receive uninterrupted quality learning even in crisis and protected from all forms of violence and exploitation," Wright said.

Save the Children Country Director for Kenya, Wang Le, said only three out of ten children are enrolled in school in the drought-prone areas, adding that schools close due to lack of water and the few children enrolled dropping out to migrate with their families in search of the commodity and pasture.

Her Somalia counterpart, Timothy Bishop, stated already three million children are already out of school, with 1.2 million of them suffering from malnutrition.

Ekin Ogutogullari, Country Director for Ethiopia said over 600 schools have closed since February 2017 because of drought, pushing close to 400,000 children out of lessons, which translates to about 50 schools shutting down a month.

Deirdre Keogh, who oversees South Sudan operations, noted that malnutrition has soured, especially among children in Africa's youngest nation where more than 1.1 million children under five years are forecast to be malnourished in 2018, double the number from the same time last year and added that more children than ever are out of school.

Save the Children's global report on protecting children in conflict, conducted by the Peace Research Institute, will be launched on Feb. 15 ahead of the Munich Security Conference.NAIROBI, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Two people were injured after a light aircraft on training mission crash-landed within the Nairobi National Park on Thursday, the police said.

Head of the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) Police Unit Phillip Ndolo said an instructor and a pilot trainee had taken off from Wilson Airport for training sessions at about 7 a.m. when the plane went down less than a minute later.

Ndolo said the Cessna 152 plane, registration number 5Y-BXP, belongs to 99 Flying School and is used for training.

He said the aircraft overturned in an open area after crash-landing.

"We have not established the cause of the accident," Ndolo said. But preliminary findings had shown the aircraft experienced partial power after take off.

The police who attended the scene said the two injured had been rushed to hospital.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 18:03:26|Editor: Yamei

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TEHRAN, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Ministry on Thursday said that Israel is the cause of regional instability, rejecting the charges against Iran for the recent rising tensions.

"It is indeed the occupying and aggressive Zionist regime (of Israel) that has seriously jeopardized the region's security, stability, and peace and must be blamed for that," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said.

He was in response to the German government's stance on Tehran's role in the escalation of tensions with Israel.

The allegations about Iran's role in the recent downing of an Israeli fighter by Syria are "baseless," Qasemi said.

The Israeli F-16 fighter crashed on Saturday while carrying out airstrikes against alleged Iranian and Syrian military targets inside Syria, after an Israeli helicopter intercepted an Iranian drone intruding into its space.

Iran basically sees no need for rising tensions and conflict in the region, Qasemi stressed.

However, he said Syria has the legal right to defend its territorial integrity and national sovereignty against any aggression.

Qasemi urged the international community to "take a major and big step against the occupation, repeated aggressions and destabilizing moves of the Zionist regime."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 18:33:31|Editor: Yamei

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File photo taken on Dec. 16, 2017 shows that South African President Jacob Zuma addresses the conference in Johannesburg, South Africa. South African President Jacob Zuma declared his resignation when addressing the nation on Feb. 14, 2018. (Xinhua/David Naicker)

JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The South African parliament said on Thursday that it has received the resignation letter of besieged President Jacob Zuma, and it is effective immediately.

"The Speaker of the National Assembly has today, 15 February, received a letter from President Jacob Zuma informing her of his resignation as the President of the Republic of South Africa," the Parliament said in a statement.

The speaker thanked Zuma for his service to the people of South Africa in the last eight years and wish him well.

According to the statement, a new president will be elected at 2 p.m. on Thursday afternoon.

The Speaker has been informed by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng of his availability to preside over the National Assembly's election of the new President, the statement said.

Section 86 of South Africa's Constitution prescribes the procedure of electing a president and states that the process must be presided over by the Chief Justice or his designated authority.

Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to be elected president of South Africa. According to the local media, opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters said it would not vote for Ramaphosa. Democratic Alliance confirmed that it will nominate its own candidate

If only one valid nomination is received, the Presiding Officer declares the nominated candidate to be duly elected. If more than one valid nomination is received, a vote is taken by secret ballot and proceedings are suspended until the result of the voting can be made known.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 18:43:33|Editor: Yamei

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Graphics shows that China's consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.5 percent year on year in January. (Xinhua/Qu Zhendong)

BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Decades ago, China was basically a self-sufficient country, and the products on its marketplace were largely dull and limited. But the reform and opening up initiated in 1978 has dramatically changed the country's economic landscape, bringing in a wealth of overseas goods and services, not to mention creating one of the largest drivers of global economic growth -- Chinese consumers.

As one of the top markets for automobiles, clothes and video games, China keeps marching forward in a dash to purchase consumer products, services and culture.

BUYING FROM GLOBE

As a tradition, Chinese people usually make special purchases to celebrate Chinese New Year, which falls this Friday, with shopping lists containing anything from beef and nuts to firecrackers and poetic couplets.

Wang Yang's shopping is not so traditional this year. German beer, French steaks and seafood from Northern Europe were a small fraction of his 500 U.S. dollars of purchases in a mall for imported goods only, at a land port in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province.

"I don't even have to leave the city to buy all this food. It is fast and convenient. Our family dinner will be made of ingredients from all over the world this year," Wang said.

More and more exotic foreign delicacies are finding their way to Chinese tables like Wang's, with fresh farm produce and any number of specialties arriving from thousands of miles away.

From 2011 until now, about 7,000 cargo trains have traveled on 61 lines linking to 36 European cities such as Hamburg and Madrid with 38 Chinese cities, including Xi'an and Yiwu. The number of trains back to China tripled annually over the past four years due to the growing appetite of Chinese consumers who are increasingly "going global."

The busy China-Europe freight trains mirror the power of China's many deep-pocketed consumers, who exert their influence through purchases, catering and travelling. As a steady economy has boosted personal incomes, people are willing to spend more on foreign products in pursuit of better quality and experience.

"As the market keeps growing, Chinese consumers need more options, which has created opportunities for many European countries," said Slawomir Majman, chairman of the World Union of Agricultural Association, citing a 40 percent increase in Greece's exports to China over the years. Greece, of course, is just one of many countries that has seen such a boost.

Booming e-commerce has fanned a spending boom. Chinese consumers no longer need to take long-distance flights or go to luxury malls to shop, with many choosing to simply make their purchases with a few clicks of a mouse.

China's e-commerce imports rocketed by 116.4 percent to 56.59 billion yuan (8.76 billion U.S. dollars) last year, outpacing the around 40-percent growth in exports.

"China will make more efforts to cut tariffs on products including cars," senior Chinese official Liu He said at the World Economic Forum in January. Import taxes on 187 products were slashed last year, with the average rate down from 17.3 percent to 7.7 percent.

ECONOMIC ENGINE

China has the largest middle-class in the world, with a population of 300 million, and it is growing fast, accounting for 30 percent of the world's total.

The government predicts the group, which has ever stronger and more sophisticated consumers demands, will play a significant role in propping up the economy.

The celebration of Chinese New Year is seeing new modes of spending as more families favor organic food, shop online, dine outside, and entertain themselves.

A recent report said about 6.5 million overseas trips will be made by Chinese during the holiday. Online travel service provider Ctrip said people have booked outbound tours to over 700 cities in 68 countries and regions on its platform, with destinations as far afield as Antarctica.

"The key term for this year's holiday will be 'consumption upgrade,' with higher-quality products and services gaining popularity," said Wang Bingnan, vice minister of commerce.

Wang Yang said that back in the 1990s his father always took him to farmer's markets only to buy local meat and chicken ahead of holidays. "But now it is a fashion to shop overseas and shop online," he said.

"This is a very important trend that will prompt marked changes in the growth pattern and quality of the economy," said Mao Shengyong, spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

A major aspect of such changes is an economy less reliant on investment that analysts believe has become less effective and can easily cause structural imbalances. Consumption is now a key economic driver and contributed 58.8 percent to the domestic gross product growth in 2017, according to the NBS.

Consulting firm McKinsey & Company said in a report that China's consumer confidence hit its highest in 10 years, partly due to the tech-savvy younger generation born in the age of the Internet.

The power of consumption will likely continue due to improve people's incomes. Morgan Stanley expects China to gain high-income status as early as 2025.

RURAL POTENTIAL

There is also huge consumption potential in less-prosperous rural areas, which are narrowing the gap with cities, as the country moves to revitalize its rural regions.

In 2017, retail sales of consumer products in rural areas surged 11.8 percent to 5.2 trillion yuan, outpacing the 10 percent rate in urban areas, according to the NBS. Online sales topped 1.24 trillion yuan, up 39.1-percent year on year.

The growth was attributed to policies to boost the incomes of farmers. In 2017, per capita disposable income of rural residents increased 7.3 percent, faster than both urban growth and GDP expansion.

In a key report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the strategy of rural revitalization was proposed as a "historic task" essential for accomplishing China's modernization goals and building a moderately prosperous society.

E-commerce is helping the process, with more and more of the rural population going online for business and shopping.

"Internet commerce has restructured production and logistics in rural areas, which has also helped farmers raise incomes, particularly in the country's west," said Mao Risheng, a researcher with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

According to a report by the e-commerce giant Alibaba, there are 2,118 Taobao villages, referring to villages where over 10 percent of households are involved in online selling, with total annual transactions of more than 10 million yuan.

It is expected that the number of Taobao village will hit over 5,500 in 2020, bringing more than 3 million jobs to the countryside.

Retail sales in rural areas will remain robust this year, with a 12 percent growth pace, 1 or 2 percentage points faster than in the cities, according to a report by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. EnditemSource: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 21:04:09|Editor: Lifang

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China's ambassador to the United Nations Ma Zhaoxu (C, front) addresses a Security Council meeting on the situation in Myanmar, at the UN headquarters in New York, Feb. 13, 2018.(Xinhua/Li Muzi)CAIRO, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's air forces destroyed 10 vehicles loaded with weapons and ammunition near the country's western border with Libya, the Egyptian army said Thursday.

The operation came while the Egyptian army continues a massive anti-terror operation named "Comprehensive Operation Sinai 2018," which was launched on Friday.

The Egyptian army has killed 53 suspected terrorists so far, while the police have killed 13.

The latest raid is part of a plan to eliminate terrorists as well as prevent border infiltration and smuggling activities, said the statement.

"The air forces and the border guards continue carrying out their missions so strictly to secure the state borders and prevent any border infiltration attempt," it said.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said in late October 2017 that his army had destroyed more than 1,200 vehicles loaded with arms, ammunition and fighters along the border with Libya over the past three years.

Egypt is concerned about its 1,200-km western border with Libya where the smuggling of arms and militants has been very active over the years.

The Egyptian leadership sees Libya's stability necessary for maintaining Egypt's national security and uprooting cross-border terrorism.

The country has been working with Libya's neighboring states to reach a political settlement in Libya, which is torn by a civil war and run by two rival administrations, one in the capital Tripoli in the northwest and another in Tobruk in the northeast.

Egypt has been fighting a wave of terrorist attacks that have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, as well as civilians, following the military ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 19:23:42|Editor: Lifang

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BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday sent his Spring Festival greetings to the youth of Hong Kong, asking them to serve Hong Kong and the country with their actions.

Xi made the remarks in a letter replying to the members of the Junior Police Call (JPC). He visited its permanent activity center and integrated youth training camp on June 30, 2017, a day before the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China.

During the visit, he met 22 members of the JPC, who recently sent him a greeting card hand-made by themselves for the Spring Festival, in which they delivered festive wishes and expectations of meeting President Xi again.

"You put a lot of heart into the card with delicate handwriting, and your wishes touched me deeply," Xi wrote in the letter, expressing his gratitude and joy upon receiving the greeting card.

He said the photos on the card reminded him of his meeting with the members last year, who were all young and energetic, and illustrated the positive spirits of the youth of Hong Kong.

He said he hoped that they could read and travel more, learn more about history and the national conditions, broaden their vision and improve their knowledge and ability, so that they could "serve Hong Kong and the country with their actions," as the future of the motherland and Hong Kong counted on the younger generation.

Founded in 1974 and affiliated to the Hong Kong Police Force, the JPC is a major youth organization in Hong Kong with a membership of more than 210,000, making it one of the largest police youth organizations in the world.

It is considered an important platform to educate the youth on law and patriotism in Hong Kong, having attracted over a million young people in total to participate so far.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 19:28:47|Editor: Yamei

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers a speech to a festival reception at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 14, 2018. Xi Jinping, on behalf of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, extended Spring Festival greetings to all Chinese people Wednesday. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's Spring Festival greetings to all Chinese people with references to hard work and family values on Wednesday have struck a chord with overseas Chinese.

This year's Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese Lunar New Year, falls on Feb. 16.

Addressing a festival reception at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday, Xi extended his greetings to all Chinese on the mainland, as well as in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and abroad.

In his speech, Xi encouraged the Chinese people to continue their hard work in a "new era" following the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held in October 2017.

He also praised the multiple achievements made by the Chinese people in the past year, and called on them to uphold traditional family values at this time of the year in which family reunion carries great significance.

LIVING WITH ENDEAVORS

Liu Hao, a senior member of the Chinese Association of Brazil, said one part of Xi's speech where the president said "happiness can only be earned by filling one's life with endeavors" had inspired him.

"I was deeply touched by that," Liu said. "For us living abroad, only by carrying forward the spirit of hard work can we earn a life in a foreign land."

Echoing Xi's call to focus on realizing people's aspirations for a better life, Zhang Guoquan, head of the Federation of Associations of the Chinese Community in Rome, said it is high time that people like him strive for the realization of a better life for overseas Chinese, contribute to China's reform and opening-up, and facilitate the development of China-Italy economic and trade relations.

"By contributing to the Italian economy, we improve our own lives as well," Zhang said, adding that hard work will indeed lay the foundation for a happy life.

Qi Zihan, a businessman who has been working and living in Qatar for 17 years, said that the overseas Chinese's struggle for personal perfection has always been closely linked to the homeland's economic development, and that a smooth career path for an overseas Chinese is underpinned by the prosperity of the homeland.

"The Chinese economy has been developing by leaps and bounds ... Overseas Chinese nowadays are feeling a greater sense of pride and witnessing a surge in business opportunities," Qi said.

SHARING THE CHINESE DREAM

Ever since he became general secretary of the CPC Central Committee in November 2012, Xi has made realizing the Chinese Dream, which he further interpreted as "the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," a priority of the CPC.

In his speech on Wednesday, Xi also urged the people to integrate their personal and family dreams with the Chinese Dream.

"We should pool the wisdom and strength of more than 1.3 billion Chinese people in more than 400 million households to strive for the great success of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era and realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation," he said.

Inspired by Xi's remarks, Liu Hongyou, president of the federation of the Chinese community in Japan, told Xinhua: "While enriching and improving ourselves, we overseas Chinese should also make our share of contribution to the development of the homeland."

Liu had just arrived in his hometown of Nanjing in eastern China from Japan, where he is based.

"China has developed so fast since its reform and opening-up 40 years ago. It has sailed into the ocean of community of shared future for mankind, just like President Xi has stressed," Liu said.

Li Li, president of a cultural society organized by Chinese people living in Britain, said she was moved by Xi's visit to families in the mountainous Daliangshan region in southwest China on Monday.

After listening to Xi's "affectionate wishes and inspirational words" on Wednesday, she said she was excited and proud of China's achievements and growing global influence since the 18th CPC National Congress.

"We overseas Chinese will continue to carry forward the love for our homeland and contribute to the great cause of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," she said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 19:28:48|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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RABAT, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Morocco on Thursday arrested three people with suspected links to the terror group Islamic State (IS), the Moroccan Interior Ministry announced.

Describing the suspects as "dangerous" IS supporters, the ministry said in a statement that they were operating in the cities of Laayoune, Sale and Marrakech.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspects, aged between 24 and 30, had pledged allegiance to IS and were involved in inciting violence and plotting terror attacks.

One of the arrested was plotting terrorist acts inside the kingdom, while the others expressed intention to acquire expertise in the field of producing explosive devices.

The suspects will be brought to justice upon the completion of the investigation, being done under the supervision of the public prosecutor's office, the ministry said.

Official statistics showed that Moroccan security services have so far busted around 50 terrorist cells, over 40 of which were linked to the IS, since 2015.AYBAK, Afghanistan, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- At least two persons including a child were killed and two others injured Thursday in a blast in northern Afghanistan's Samangan province, according to police.

The blast hit a house in Aybak city, the capital of the province, police spokesman in the region, Sayed Sarwar Hussaini, said.

"A mine planted into the house of a tribal elder in Aybak city went off today afternoon, killing two persons including an innocent child on the spot and injuring two others," Hussaini told Xinhua.

Without providing more details, the official said that an investigation has been initiated into the case.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 19:43:52|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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JERUSALEM, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian youth was granted four life sentences by an Israeli military court on Thursday for murdering three family members in a West Bank settlement last July.

Omar al-Abed, 19, was convicted in December by the Ofer Military Court in West Bank of three counts of murder for stabbing to death Yosef Salomon, his daughter Chaya and his son Elad in their family home in the settlement of Halamish. Additionally, he was convicted of attempted murder of Yosef's wife, incitement and stone-throwing.

The court sentenced him to four life terms and ordered him to pay the Salomon family 1.8 million shekels (about 511,000 U.S. dollars) in damages.

A military spokesperson said in a statement sent to Xinhua that the judges discussed a possibility of sentencing al-Abed to death, a move that has never been taken in Israel.

One judge in the three-seat panel decided that al-Abed should receive the death sentence, the spokesperson said.

"Throughout the trial, I watched him (al-Abed) enjoys himself and grinning, even doing so in front of the family," Judge Dov Gilboa wrote in his dissenting opinion.

"The defendant's punishment is the death sentence," Gilboa wrote.

Al-Abed, a resident in the village of Kobar in the central West Bank, said he carried out the attack "for al-Aqsa," a mosque and a major holy Muslim compound in East Jerusalem, which was at the center of a Palestinian uprising after Israel installed new metal detectors at the entrance to the compound.

Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, a vocal proponent of death penalty for Palestinian assailants, wrote on his Facebook page that "no number of life sentences would suffice to punish" al-Abed.

Under Israeli military law, a military court could sentence a person to death if all judges in the panel reach an agreement.

Such penalty was never made. However, over the past months, ultra-nationalist lawmakers and government ministers have increased their calls to allow both military and civil courts to sentence Palestinian attackers to death.

The calls come amidst a wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, which have killed hundreds of Palestinians and dozens of Israelis since 2015.WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- At least 17 people were killed and over a dozen others wounded after a 19-year-old gunman opened fire Wednesday at a high school in the U.S. state of Florida, authorities said.

The shooting took place when the students were being dismissed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the city of Parkland in Broward County, just north of Miami on the state's southeastern tip.

The suspected gunman, captured shortly after the shooting, was identified as Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old expelled student at the school. An AR-15 semi-automatic rifle was found at the site.

This is the latest in a string of deadly shootings in the United States that have become more and more frequent in recent years.

The following is a chronology of the mass shooting incidents recorded in the United States in recent years:

-- SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas, Nov. 5, 2017: At least 26 people were killed after a gunman opened fire at a church during Sunday services in Sutherland Springs in the U.S. state of Texas. Most of the victims ranged in age from five to 72 years old while the deceased included a 14-year-old girl.

-- LAS VEGAS, Nevada, Oct. 1, 2017: At least 59 people, including the alleged gunman himself, were killed and more than 500 others wounded when the attacker opened fire, sniper-style, on an open-air music festival in Las Vegas. It was the worst mass shooting attack in U.S. history.

-- FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida, Jan. 6, 2017: Five people died and six others were injured in a shooting inside the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The gunman, Esteban Santiago, then laid down his weapons and surrendered to police.

-- ORLANDO, Florida, June 12, 2016: A security guard wielding an assault-type rifle and a handgun killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando before he was shot dead by police.

-- SAN BERNARDINO, California, Dec. 2, 2015: A couple declaring allegiance to the Islamic State killed 14 people and wounded 17 others at a social services center in San Bernardino City, southern California. Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik were pursued by police and died in the ensuing shootout.

-- ROSEBURG, Oregon, Oct. 2, 2015: A gunman killed nine people at a community college in the state of Oregon before committing suicide after being wounded by police.

The gunman, identified by U.S. media as 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer, opened fire at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, about 290 km south of Portland, Oregon's largest city.@ -- CHARLESTON, South Carolina, June 17, 2015: A white man opened fire during a prayer meeting inside a historic black church in downtown Charleston, killing nine people in an assault that authorities described as a hate crime. Subsequently, the assailant, Dylann Roof, was sentenced to death in January 2017.

-- CHICAGO, Illinois, May 26, 2015: Twelve people were killed and more than 40 more wounded in shootings in Chicago during Memorial Day.

-- WACO, Texas, May 17, 2015: Nine people were killed and several wounded after a shootout between rival biker gangs in Waco, Texas, with more gangs threatening to descend on the town after the violence.

-- WASHINGTON, District of Columbia, Sept. 17, 2013: A 34-year-old navy contractor employee opened fire inside a building at the Washington Navy Yard that serves as the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command, killing 12 people before he was shot dead by police.

-- NEWTOWN, Connecticut, Dec. 14, 2012: The Sandy Hook elementary school shooting stunned the nation after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults. The attacker, who killed his mother prior to the rampage, also died in the massacre.

-- OAK CREEK, Wisconsin, Aug. 5, 2012: A white supremacist killed six people in a Sikh temple in Oak Creek before he was wounded by police and turned the gun on himself.

-- AURORA, Colorado, July 20, 2012: Twelve people were killed and 59 others injured at a Batman movie premiere, where a lone, heavily armed gunman burst into a packed theater in a suburb 10 miles (16 km) east of Denver. Local police identified the perpetrator as James Holmes, 24, who was given 12 life sentences for each victim, and an additional 3,318 years for those he tried to kill.

-- TUCSON, Arizona, Jan. 9, 2011: A gunman opened fire at a public gathering outside a grocery in Tucson, Arizona, killing six people including a nine-year-old girl and wounding at least 12 others. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot point blank in the head, leaving her critically injured, but she miraculously recovered. The 22-year-old shooter, who was reported to be fixated on Giffords, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012.

-- FORT HOOD, Texas, Nov. 6, 2009: U.S. army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan opened fire at a military base in Fort Hood, leaving 13 dead and 42 others wounded. He was sentenced to death in 2013.

-- BINGHAMTON, New York, April 4, 2009: A man shot 13 people dead at a civic center in Binghamton, where he had enrolled earlier to study English,before killing himself.

-- CARTHAGE, North Carolina, March 30, 2009: A heavily-armed gunman shot dead seven patients and a nurse in a privately-owned nursing home in North Carolina, intending to kill his estranged wife who worked there. He was given multiple sentences, totalling over 179 years.

-- DEKALB, Illinois, Feb. 15, 2008: A former student opened fire in a lecture hall of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, killing five students, mostly women, and wounding 16 others before fatally shooting himself.

(Xinhua reporters Liu Wanli, Ding Yimin, He Jing, Gao Lu and Sun Ding contributed to the story.)Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 19:53:55|Editor: Yamei

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JAKARTA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) --- Players grouped in the Indonesian bridge team will take part in several tryout matches in Europe and India in a bid to win at least 2 gold medals the Asian Games this year.

A total of 38 Indonesian athletes and officials departed for Monaco on Wednesday to take part in the "European Winter Games," in the country, the chairman of the Indonesian bridge association Eka Wahyu Kasih disclosed.

"The national bridge team has completed general practice sessions, next it moves to to take part in several phases of tryouts in Europe," he said on Wedesday night.

After taking part in the tournament in Monaco, the Indonesian bridge team is scheduled to participate in the Asia Cup tournament in India from June 4-10, said Wahyu.

From June 19-July 1, the team will compete in the International Bridge Festival in Bulgaria, he added.

From there, the chairman said that team is scheduled to hold a try out match in Hong Kong from July 17-21.

Wahyu said that the participants from China are considered to be the strongest opponents in the Asian Games.

The 18th Asian Games are scheduled to be held in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta and in Palembang city, the provincial capital of South Sumatra province from August 18 to September 2.Photo taken on July 2, 2016, shows a view of Gwadar Port in southwest Pakistan. Gwadar Port is a warm-water, deep-sea port situated on the Arabian Sea in Balochistan province of Pakistan. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

LONDON, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Close cooperation between Pakistan and China is bringing the Belt and Road Initiative into reality in the South Asian country, a senior Pakistani government official told Xinhua, saying it "brings positive changes to the lives of millions of people in Pakistan".

Pakistani Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal said in a recent interview with Xinhua at the High Commission of Pakistan in London that "the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is the biggest flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative".

The 3,000-km-long corridor starts from China's Kashgar in the west and ends at Pakistan's Gwadar, aiming to promote economic cooperation between China and Pakistan in sectors of energy, transportation, infrastructure and industry.

"It is demonstrating to the people that Belt and Road Initiative is not just in speeches, not just in paper, but it is in reality," said Iqbal, who is also the Pakistani minister for planning, development and reforms.

It is "bring really positive change to the lives of millions of people in Pakistan," he said. "And it also assures that our true connectivity."

The multi-billion-dollar CPEC is a long-term, systemic project to promote economic cooperation between Pakistan and China in sectors of energy, transportation, infrastructure and industry.

IMPACT

"CPEC is having a big impact in Pakistan," said the minister. "It has helped significantly in overcoming energy shortage by investment in energy projects. It is helping connect different markets in Pakistan through infrastructure projects."

"And we also hope that through its infrastructure, it will be a bridge between China, Southeast Asia and Central Asia, which has almost 3 billion people," Iqbal said, adding that the people in the region "will benefit from the infrastructure that we are building."

"It will, through economic investment, create new job opportunities, and new job opportunities mean that we will create more foundations for peace and stability," Iqbal said.

In the region, particularly Pakistan and Afghanistan, has not attracted investment in infrastructure and energy since the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001, Iqbal noted. "So the CPEC is helping us overcome the infrastructure deficit that exists."

"The people of Pakistan believe that China came to Pakistan's help when no one was willing to invest in Pakistan due to security considerations, or due to the negative ratings on Pakistan," he said. "But China proved to be a real friend."

"That is a very important contribution to reviving the local economy and the regional economy," he said.

"CPEC has taken Pakistan-China friendship to the next level," he said. "We have very strong political friendship. But now it has translated into economic partnership."

"After China decided to come, the perception of Pakistan's economy changed," he said. "The government of Pakistan has worked very hard to improve the security situation here."

"There is a very fast improvement in the peace environment and stability in the country" after Pakistan carried out very big security operations against terrorist groups, he said, adding that they also carried out about four million stop-and-search operations.

"We have also placed a 10,000 (security) force for special protection of Chinese who are working on the CPEC projects," he said.

The security force is working in addition to normal police and military units that are deployed to protect the CPEC projects, he said.

GAME CHANGER

"We see CPEC as a game changer for the region, not just Pakistan but for the entire region," Iqbal said, adding that "it is laying foundation for regional cooperation."

The Pakistani minister noted rising protectionism in world trade, saying that "we need to break the walls to create new markets."

"If we build walls, then we will close markets," he said. "We need to create new demand through new markets. And new markets will only open if we break the walls and focus on connectivity, which is the basic principle under the Belt and Road Initiative."

The Belt and Road Initiative aims to achieve policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity along and beyond ancient Silk Road trade routes, thus building a new platform for international cooperation to create new drivers of growth.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 20:04:00|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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File photo taken on April 20, 2017 shows that Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn (Front) lays a cornerstone for the construction of first phase of the Medical City Center in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has submitted a resignation letter, state-affiliated media outlet Radio Fana said on Thursday. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde)

ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has submitted a resignation letter, state-affiliated media outlet Radio Fana said on Thursday.

Desalegn, 52, took over the position of PM soon after the death of late former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in August 2012.

Desalegn, who is chairman of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has been hailed for his technocratic expertise.

But, he has struggled to rise politically above the shadow of Meles who was the nation's prime minister from 1995 to 2012.

In recent months, internal political wrangling among four coalition partners of EPRDF, including Tigray Peoples Liberation Front, Amhara National Democratic Movement, South Ethiopia People's Democratic Movement and Oromo Peoples Democratic Organization (OPDO), has cast fears about the stability of the nation of about 100 million people.

Ethiopia is also reeling from persistent deadly protests since 2016 especially in the two most populous regional states of Amhara and Oromia over alleged political and economic marginalization.

It's not immediately clear who will replace Desalegn. But speculation among public is that OPDO, which rules Oromia, the most populous Ethiopian regional state, is angling to have its candidate take over the prime ministerial post.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 20:04:02|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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BEIRUT, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Visiting U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has reaffirmed the importance of the U.S. close partnership with Lebanon, the U.S. embassy said Thursday.

Tillerson held a meeting with Lebanon's President Michel Aoun Thursday immediately after arriving in Beirut, during which he discussed Lebanon's gas and border dispute with Israel.

Tillerson left the meeting with Aoun without making a statement, but he signed the guest book at the Baabda Presidential Palace.

He later held talks with Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri at Ain el-Tineh.

Tillerson "reaffirmed to Berri the importance of the close U.S.-Lebanese partnership as the two countries work together to pursue common goals that advance Lebanon's sovereignty, stability, and prosperity," the U.S. embassy said on its Twitter page.

Israel has recently escalated its threats over Lebanon's invitation for offshore gas exploration bids along the disputed maritime border.

Israel claims that Lebanon will be drilling in Israeli territories, but Lebanese officials have rejected the claims, saying the area where it plans to drill belongs to Lebanon.

The long-standing border dispute between the two countries resurfaced recently as Lebanon invited foreign companies to sign exploration deals. U.S. officials have previously tried to mediate the Israeli-Lebanese dispute.MOSCOW, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Kremlin on Thursday flatly rejected accusations by the British Foreign Office that the Russian government was behind the NotPetya cyber attack of June 2017.

"We categorically reject such accusations and we consider them to be unsubstantiated and groundless," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian media.

"This is nothing more than a continuation of the Russophobic campaign, based on no evidence," he added.

In a statement earlier Thursday, British Foreign Office Minister Lord Ahmad attributed the NotPetya cyber attack to the Russian government and the Kremlin, saying Britain and its allies would not tolerate "malicious cyber activity."

The attack of a malware dubbed NotPetya disrupted numerous computer systems last year. It erupted first in Ukraine, but the virus later spread to many other countries, including Russia.ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Unrest in Ethiopia's central Oromia regional state left nine people dead, a regional official said on Wednesday evening.

Speaking to journalists, Umi Abajemal, deputy head of the Oromia regional state communication affairs bureau, said a further 13 people were injured in the unrest that affected various parts of Oromia.

She also said most areas affected by the blocking of roads and ceasing of commercial activities is returning to normal.

The deaths in the Oromia regional state occurred during a three-day strike called by activists starting on Monday to call for release of prisoners and political reforms.

The Ethiopian government seemingly relenting to the protesters' demands freed hundreds of jailed suspects on Wednesday.

Ethiopia is still reeling from unrest that affected large parts of the country in 2016.

The unrest in 2016 led to the deaths of hundreds and was dubbed by analysts as the gravest challenge the ruling coalition Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front faced in 25 years.

The unrest involving parts of the three most populous regions of Amhara, Oromia and Southern led to an imposition of martial law in October 2016 which was only lifted in August 2017.

However, sporadic deadly protests especially in Amhara and Oromia regional states in recent months have renewed fears about Ethiopia's stability.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 20:19:09|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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GAZA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Gaza Strip's only operating power plant was shut down early Thursday due to an acute fuel crisis, a local official said.

Mohammed Thabit, a spokesman of the Gaza Electricity Company, told Xinhua they shut down the last operating turbine at the plant.

More than 2 million people in Gaza have been suffering from an energy crisis since mid-April 2017 due to a dispute over the taxes between Hamas, which controls Gaza, and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA).

Residents of the besieged enclave generally receive 3-4 hours of electricity a day, delivered by the territory's own power station and others in Israel and Egypt.

The Gaza Strip requires 450 megawatts daily, but it was only receiving around 150 megawatts daily last month.

Gaza's sole power plant, which could supply 60 megawatts, was previously shut down in April after it ran out of fuel. Prior to its shutdown, the PA removed a tax exemption on diesel fuel, doubling the price as a result.

Israel, which supplies 125 megawatts, or 30 percent of the total Gaza' electricity need, decided last month to reduce the power supply by at least 40 percent after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cut electricity funding.

Last week, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that an acute energy crisis in the Gaza Strip is pushing the blocked Palestinian territory into disaster.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza declared two weeks ago that the generators have been turned off in 16 health centers and three main hospitals.Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn addresses both the local and international journalists in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, Jan. 9, 2017. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde)

ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has submitted a resignation letter, state-affiliated media outlet Radio Fana said on Thursday.

Desalegn, 52, took over the position of PM soon after the death of late former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in August 2012.

Desalegn, who is chairman of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has been hailed for his technocratic expertise.

But, he has struggled to rise politically above the shadow of Meles who was the nation's prime minister from 1995 to 2012.

In recent months, internal political wrangling among four coalition partners of EPRDF, including Tigray Peoples Liberation Front, Amhara National Democratic Movement, South Ethiopia People's Democratic Movement and Oromo Peoples Democratic Organization (OPDO), has cast fears about the stability of the nation of about 100 million people.

Ethiopia is also reeling from persistent deadly protests since 2016 especially in the two most populous regional states of Amhara and Oromia over alleged political and economic marginalization.MANILA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- On the eve of the Chinese New Year, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday expressed his wish for a stronger sense of solidarity and goodwill between Filipinos and Chinese in the country.

In his Chinese Lunar New Year message, Duterte also wished that 2018 brings "more opportunities for growth and success to all."

"I join the Chinese-Filipino community in celebrating the Lunar New Year," Duterte said.

He said the Philippines "shares a long and colorful history with the Chinese."

"This enduring friendship has contributed to our rich culture, stimulated trade between our nations, and fortified the foundation of our continuing quest for economic development," Duterte said.

"As an integral component of Philippine society," Duterte said, "Chinese-Filipinos will continue to play an important role in shaping our national identity and in upholding the beauty of diversity in our respective cultures."

"Let the joy of this occasion strengthen our sense of solidarity and goodwill as a single nation committed to the preservation of our unique and multi-faceted Filipino heritage," Duterte said.

The Philippines observes the Chinese New Year as a special non-working holiday on Friday.NEW DELHI, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived in India Thursday on a three-day state visit.

President Rouhani landed directly in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, where he will offer prayers at the historic Makkah Masjid (mosque) and interact with the selected leaders of the 1,000-strong Iranian community there Friday.

On Saturday, he will meet Indian President Ram Nath Kovind and later hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Delhi's iconic Hyderabad House, where several agreements are expected to be signed, according to the Indian External Affairs Ministry.

"During the forthcoming visit of the President of Iran, both sides would review the progress achieved in bilateral relations and also exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual interest," the ministry said.WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- A mass shooting claimed 17 lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Wednesday in Parkland in the U.S. state of Florida, local police said.

The suspected gunman, captured shortly after the shooting, was identified as Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old expelled student from the school. An AR-15 semi-automatic rifle was found at the site.

Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who survived a shooting attack in 2011, said in a statement that the deadly school shooting in Florida should "strike fear into all Americans."

She also said an epidemic of gun violence continuing "days after deadly day" plus the latest shooting should stir fresh resolve in Congress to "find the courage to pass the laws we need to protect children."

GUN CONTROL POLICIES REMAIN STAGNANT

After the Florida school shooting, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted his prayers and condolences to the victims, as he has done in previous mass shootings at a Texas church in November and Las Vegas concert in October.

Representative Seth Moulton from Massachusetts quote-tweeted the president and urged him to "do something" about gun violence.

However, the White House in its newly unveiled budget proposal for 2019 would cut millions of dollars from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, a system of the Federal Bureau Investigation to help gun dealers verify if a prospective buyer is qualified.

Furthermore, in early 2017, having been in office for merely a month, Trump revoked former President Barack Obama's regulation on gun control, which imposed purchase limits on people receiving Social Security checks for mental illnesses and those deemed unfit to handle their own financial affairs.

In an exclusive interview last month with British political pundit Piers Morgan, Trump described himself as a "Second Amendment person," saying he believes that people need weapons for their own security.

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution preserves the right of the people to keep and bear arms, a legal document in force for two centuries.

TURMOIL BECOMES THE "NEW NORMAL"

The United States has been disturbed by increasing problems in public security in recent years involving hate crimes and gun violence.

In addition to frequent shootings, the emergence of white nationalists and supremacists has triggered the fear of a hate crimes resurgence, especially after the Charlottesville incident in August, 2017, which triggered nationwide protests denouncing white supremacy and neo-fascists.

The heavily-armed neo-Nazis, Klansmen and white supremacists gathering in Charlottesville spewed hatred and incited violence to protect their so-called "right to bear arms."

According to Everytown for Gun Safety, a U.S. nonprofit organization advocating gun control, the Florida attack has been the 18th school shooting in the past 45 days in the country in 2018; only eight of these incidents had no one injured.

The death toll in the latest attack would make it the third deadliest school shooting in recent U.S. history only after the Virginia Tech attack in 2007 and the Sandy Hook elementary school incident in 2012, killing 33 and 28 respectively.

During an interview with the U.S. television network MSNBC, former chief of the New York City police department Bill Bratton said the frequency of school shootings was "astonishing," but had become "the new normal."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 21:34:26|Editor: Lifang

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BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- China is about to embrace the Year of Dog, but this particular year is known as a Wuxu year, which only comes every 60 years.

One such Wuxu year was in 1898, two cycles ago, when the emperor and his supporters tried to reform the weak feudal system of the Qing Dynasty whose weakness was exposed in a series of defeats to the West and Japan.

The reform lasted only 103 days, and the Chinese failed in catching up major countries that were making great leaps forward in modernization.

Despite the tries of every possible means to seek salvation, the nation suffered from decades of turmoil and civil war until the People's Republic of China was established in 1949 under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.

The Party dragged the country out of its war-torn economy, started a socialist revolution, established socialism as China's basic system, and advanced socialism. The past decades have seen the broadest and most profound social transformation in China's history, reversing its fate from its decline in modern times, and putting it on a steady track toward prosperity and strength.

Forty years ago, China launched the reform and opening up, removing ideological and institutional barriers to the nation's development, and embarking on the path of "socialism with Chinese characteristics." In 1982, China adopted its current Constitution, which has shown that good legislation meets the demand of the times.

In 1994, the country started to build a socialist market economy, which boosted China to a fast and steady track of development. Both years were the Year of Dog.

Now, China is marching toward the goal of building a moderately prosperous society by 2020 and embarking on a new journey to become a modern socialist country by the middle of this century. It is also playing an increasingly important role in safeguarding world peace, promoting economic globalization and improving global governance.

The country is no longer "catching up with the times," but "leading the times."

China has shown that to achieve national rejuvenation, it is imperative to follow the times, respond to the people and have courage to reform and open up. Establishing a system that suits the country's circumstances is essential.

As the Chinese saying goes, the last leg of a journey marks the halfway point. Achieving national rejuvenation will be no walk in the park. It needs everyone of the nation to work even harder to achieve this goal.

China's per capita GDP is still standing at the middle of the world rankings. About 30 million people are still living below the national poverty line. The country is also tasked with defusing major risks and controlling pollution. Upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics will take generations, perhaps dozens of generations, of hard work.

China must grasp the historic opportunity to develop in science, technology and industry, as well as to provide wisdom and solutions to problems throughout the world.

There will be difficulties along the way, but battling them will strengthen the nation's faith in its dream, and deliver whatever goals the nation wishes to achieve.An Iraqi elderly porter waits outside a market in Baghdad to be hired on February 14, 2017. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)

BAQUBA, Iraq, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Weak and sick, 64-year-old Munthir Haider still works hard daily to earn the bread for his family in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala.

"No work means death for me and for my family," Haider told Xinhua.

Haider works as porter, usually seen with his cart at a popular market in Baquba, the capital city of Diyala.

He has to support his poor family, but it is hard for him because there are not enough job opportunities while he has no pension or any other financial assistance.

Like other areas, Diyala is witnessing a sharp rise in the number of elderly laborers due to the hike in poverty rate after years of war and conflicts, particularly in the areas just liberated from the rule of Islamic State (IS).

Hassan al-Rubaie, an Iraqi economist, told Xinhua that the number of elderly laborers has climbed by 90 percent, and they have become a common phenomenon in Iraqi markets.

Another porter named Abu Arkan, 60, carries goods in a local electricity market in central Baquba.

"Poverty pushed me to work in a profession that does not fit with my age, but what can I do? I have to bring food to my family," he told Xinhua.

Abu Arkan used to be the owner of a shop in his ethnically-mixed city of Jalwlaa, some 70 km northeast of Baquba, before IS militants burned it, forcing him and his family to flee to Baquba in 2014.

"I lost everything back home so quickly and became a poor man, because my family and I couldn't take anything out from our house. We barely escaped with our lives," Abu Arkan recalled.

Abu Hassan, 58, was hired as a temporary cleaning worker. He works for long hours a day, but cannot earn enough money to buy food for his family.

The number of elderly laborers is rising sharply in Iraq, especially among the displaced people, who were forced to flee their homes and original careers during the war against IS since 2014.

"I hope that the current conference on reconstruction of Iraq in Kuwait would provide some help for us by rebuilding our cities so we can return home," said Abu Hassan, referring to the international meeting for reconstruction of Iraq being held in Kuwait City.

The elderly laborers are harder to get a job because they face unequal competition from the young workers.

"The elderly almost have no hope to compete with young men, especially for arduous jobs, which need the energy and strength of youth," Udai Abdullah, a young construction worker, told Xinhua.

al-Rubaie said most of the elderly workers are victims of the U.S.-led invasion into Iraq in 2003 and the destruction done by extremist groups like IS, which took over large swathes of land in northern Iraq in 2014.

"Elderly laborers is one example of the human tragedy that resulted from the extremism and terrorism," Rubaie said.

Rubaie said the government's social protection program, designed to reduce poverty by providing financial grants to the individuals and families in need, is insufficient.

"It cannot resolve all the cases of poverty, vulnerability and needs reforms," Rubaie said, adding that the program does not include the displaced people.

Many Iraqis said the problem of the rising number of elderly laborers requires greater government efforts in cooperation with the civil organizations to encourage the displaced people to return home, while providing jobs that fit their ages and abilities.

Local reports in Diyala indicated that the poverty rate there exceeds 30 percent, including 7 percent under extreme poverty.

However, the figures released by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq said that 23 percent of total Iraq's population live in poverty, spending less than 77,000 Iraqi dinars (2.2. U.S. dollars) per person per month.

On Dec. 9, 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared full liberation of Iraq from IS militants after Iraqi forces recaptured all the areas once seized by the extremist group.

Nevertheless, Diyala, like several other Iraqi provinces, is still suffering from severe damage of its infrastructure and substantial government support for its reconstruction process.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 21:49:31|Editor: Lifang

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ULAN BATOR, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Mongolians are set to celebrate the Lunar New Year to welcome the Year of the Dog, a traditional festival known as the "White Moon" in the country.

According to the lunar calendar, the White Moon this year begins on Friday, which symbolizes the start of spring and the end of a harsh winter.

The White Moon is actually a combination of ringing the old year out and the new year in, as well as a celebration when families get together.

As a great family festival in Mongolia with many ceremonies, the White Moon has been celebrated for several centuries by Mongolians.

The festival dates back to 1206 when the Great Mongol Empire was established. Back then, Mongolians celebrated the Lunar New Year in the early months of winter, calling it the "Dairy Festival" on the order of Genghis Khan.

The festival later became known as the "Herder's Festival" and was celebrated only by herders from 1952 to 1990, and has spread nationwide since. People celebrate it in hopes of having a plentiful new year and erasing all misfortunes of the previous year.

EVE OF WHITE MOON

The Eve of the Lunar New Year is known as "Bituun" in Mongolia, which means "new or dark moon," mainly because the moon can't be seen on this day and all unfinished businesses should be settled within the day.

It is seen as a preparatory day before the Bituun ceremony, with lots of food and drinks prepared. Mongolians believe that plenty of food and drinks symbolize a wealthy life in the coming year.

Mongolians clean up their home all day long, believing good luck comes with cleanliness.

People are customarily prohibited from drinking too much, talking about bad things, arguing with someone and staying hungry.

The Bittun ceremony begins after sunset. All families cook food and set the table for a feast with dairy products, drinks and sweets.

In the evening, Mongolians wear clean, new clothes and gather at their parents' home for dinner. During the meal, the elderly tell their children and young people folk tales and myths. Family members also play traditional games, for example knucklebones, using the knucklebones of sheep as a form of dice.

FIRST DAY OF WHITE MOON

Mongolians wake up before dawn on the first day of the White Moon. Wearing new traditional outfits, they brew tea and spray it to the ground to worship mother earth.

Offering White Moon greetings is the most important custom during the celebration, and has many strict rules to follow.

Traditionally, children and adults greet the eldest or the most senior family member first by grasping their elbows to show respect and say "Are you living peacefully?" in Mongolian. The elder person responds by kissing them on both cheeks.

Then all the guests sit around the feast table, and guests and elders exchange Khuurug -- a snuffle-bottle with fine-ground tobacco inside -- with its lid open and say "Are you celebrating well?"

The hostess serves tea with milk as well as traditional dishes, such as steamed sheep, or "utts", and a plate of traditional cookies placed in stacked rows in odd numbers. After the meal, the host offers gifts to guests when they are ready to leave.

WHITE MOON TABOOS

A husband and wife cannot greet each on the day of the White Moon since it is believed that they would have to part ways if they do so. Women also do not greet each other during their pregnancy, believing that otherwise the unborn child's sex could be switched.

Mongolians also believe that if they cut their hair on the first day of the Lunar New Year, some of their relatives would pass away during the year.

It is also a taboo to spend the first night of the White Moon outside the home, as it was believed the person could become a vagabond.

Money, in addition, should not be lent on Lunar New Year's Day, and all debts have to be paid by the eve. If someone owes you money, do not go to his or her home to demand it, as anyone who does so is said to be unlucky for the whole year.

On the seventh day of the new year, it is a taboo to go out to visit other relatives and friends, as the day is considered by Mongolians as a "black day."MOGADISHU, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Somali forces backed by African Union forces destroyed Al-Shabaab bases in the Lower Shabelle region in southern Somalia, the military said.

Lower Shabelle region military commander Ibrahim Aden Najah told journalists on Thursday that the forces raided the bases in Kurtunwarey and destroyed the bases used by the militants to attack Somali and Amisom forces.

The military officer said the forces were going on with operations in the regions to flush out the militants. Lower Shabelle region remains one of the strongholds of Al-Shabaab.

"We will not relent until we kick out all Al-Shabaab in the region," added Najah.

Security forces Tuesday also destroyed explosives in Lower Shabelle region suspected to have been destined for the capital Mogadishu. They also destroyed an FM station run by Al-Shabaab.

The allied forces have ramped up offensives against the militants as the African Union forces continue with the draw-down which started with 500 troops last December.NAIROBI, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Tax incentives will help spur uptake of clean cook stoves in Kenya, the industry said on Thursday.

Clean Cookstoves Association of Kenya (CCAK) CEO Myra Mukulu told Xinhua in Nairobi that the current tax regime has made efficient cookstoves out of the reach of ordinary citizens.

"We are therefore urging government to remove all taxes on cookstoves to ensure that customers have greater access to stoves that will safe fuel," Mukulu said during a pre-budget hearing for the 2018/2019 financial year.

The East African nation has reduced the import duty of solid biomass complete stoves from 25 percent to ten percent but inputs for local manufacture of stoves still attract Value Added Tax (VAT).

Mukulu said duty reductions affect only imported goods which do not constitute a significant portion of the cookstoves sold in the country.

"Local manufacturers do not benefit from import duty exemptions. A VAT zero rating benefits the entire sector and enables greater consumer adoption through enhanced affordability for energy efficient cookstoves," she added.

Mukulu said approximately 84 percent of Kenyans cook with solid biomass, mostly over traditional and inefficient stoves.

"These have resulted in 13 million tons of wood annually being consumed as a result of inefficient charcoal and wood cookstoves," she said.

Mukulu observed that increased adoption and use of energy efficient cookstoves and fuels will reduce Kenya's greenhouse gas emissions by hundreds of thousands of tons.

According to CCAK, up to 34 percent of woodfuel harvested is unsustainable leading to forest degradation, deforestation as well as climate change.

Mukulu noted that increasing use of energy efficient cookstoves through enhanced affordability will also save the lives of thousands of Kenyans currently at risk from respiratory-related illnesses.JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Cyril Ramaphosa, leader of South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress, was elected Thursday by the National Assembly to be the nation's new president.

The election came after former president Jacob Zuma announced his resignation on Wednesday night. Ramaphosa also becomes the fifth democratic president of the Republic of South Africa.

"I would like to thank all members of this Assembly for the honour you have bestowed on me to serve my people. This is truly a humbling experience," Ramaphosa said when addressing the house after the election.

He pledged to "execute that task with humility and dignity".

The election of the president will make way for the State of the Nation Address to be delivered on Friday.

The South Africa speaker of parliament, Baleka Mbete commended former president Jacob Zuma for his work, and wished him and his family well in "his future endeavours". She also thanked the people of South Africa "for their patience."

"Cyril Ramaphosa, I wish you all the best, but I will see you in 2019 on the ballot boxes," said Mmusi Maimane, leader of the opposition party, Democratic Alliance.

In response, Ramaphosa delivered a minor rebuke to Maimane. He said amid ANC caucus applause, Maimane should consider leaving talk of 2019 aside and focus on working together now. "This shouldn't be an opportunity to grandstand," he said.

Ramaphosa said he will outline steps on Friday during the SONA to deal with corruption and state capture.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 22:34:45|Editor: yan

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by Tichaona Chifamba

HARARE, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- As Zimbabweans mourn the passing of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in South Africa on Wednesday, debate has shifted to the type of honor that should be bestowed on former President Robert Mugabe's nemesis.

Social media was on Thursday awash with people offering their condolences and others calling on the government to honor him as one of the country's national heroes.

Presidential spokesperson George Charamba told state media that the government, which had been footing Tsvangirai's medical bills since President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his deputy Constantino Chiwenga visited him in Harare in January, would help out with funeral expenses.

"In the interim, with the family taking the necessary decisions the Zimbabwean embassy in Pretoria has been instructed to help in any way appropriate in the circumstances including assuming the costs that are attendant to the proper handling of the body of the late," he said.

Mnangagwa on Thursday sent a condolence message to the Tsvangirai family saying that Tsvangirai would be remembered especially for his readiness to stretch and reach out across the political divide for a government of national unity after the polarizing 2008 elections.

Mnangagwa said whatever controversial decisions Tsvangirai and his party may have made in the past, he would be remembered for his insistence on free, fair and peaceful elections which Zimbabweans must validate in the forthcoming 2018 harmonized elections.

Tsvangirai emerged from being a leader of the trade union movement to become Mugabe's strongest opponent since the ruling Zanu-PF party united with Joshua Nkomo's former PF-Zapu to become the United Zanu-PF in 1987.

His party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was born out of the NCA in 1999 and together with the NCA campaigned against the first proposed constitution in 2000, alleging that it did not capture the wishes of the people and vested too much power in the President.

He contested the presidential election in 2002 and lost to Mugabe under what the opposition considered controversial circumstances.

He went on to contest the 2008 presidential elections and won the first round although he failed to garner the required 50 plus one percent of the vote. This led to a re-run of the election but he withdrew citing violence allegedly being perpetrated on his supporters by Mugabe's supporters and the military.

However, the widely discredited election led to the intervention of the Southern African Development Community and the subsequent signing of a Global Political Agreement with Mugabe and the MDC.

The agreement led to the formation of an inclusive government in 2009 in which Tsvangirai became Prime Minister and chairperson of the Council of Ministers while Mugabe remained President and chairperson of Cabinet.

During the first years of the inclusive government, the country experienced economic growth which however waned as it moved towards fresh elections in 2013.

Following Mugabe and Zanu-PF's victory in the 2013 elections, Tsvangirai and his party retreated back to the corridors of opposition politics. Tsvangirai in 2016 announced that he had been diagnosed with colon cancer.

Since then he had travelled to South Africa for treatment on a number of occasions and in January he intimated that he was considering stepping down as leader of the party.

"At a personal level, I feel an air of satisfaction as I reflect on the great journey we have travelled together even as I seriously ponder about the future," he said.

"I am looking at the imminent prospects of us as the older generation leaving the levers of leadership to allow the younger generation to take forward this huge task that we started together so many years ago," he said.

He said his appointment of two vice presidents in 2017 in addition to Thokozani Khupe was meant to provide the party with a clear succession plan.

As he breathed his last in the early evening of Wednesday, his party was embroiled in a succession battle which supporters hoped would be weathered before elections are expected to be held as early as June.

Meanwhile, Zimbabweans and the international community continue to offer their condolences to the man who was the face of opposition in Zimbabwean politics.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 22:44:47|Editor: yan

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HARARE, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabweans and the international community on Thursday mourned opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai who succumbed to colon cancer in a South African hospital Wednesday.

From senior government officials to ordinary people on the streets, Zimbabweans expressed grief over the death of Tsvangirai who has been the face of opposition politics in Zimbabwe since 1999 when he founded his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.

"The MDC family mourns with the Tsvangirai family over the unexpected loss of an icon, a unifier, a peacemaker, a fighter, a brave leader and somebody who was principled.

"We are really grieving over this sudden loss. It is not only a loss to the MDC family but a loss to Zimbabwe and the whole of Africa," said MDC parliamentarian Tapiwa Mashakada.

He said his death was a huge blow to the party but indicated that his demise does not signify the end of the struggle for democracy in Zimbabwe.

"In actual fact, we have to strive to make sure that the ideals that he fought for are achieved. So it's just a continuation of the struggle so that his legacy remains," he said.

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday mourned the death of Tsvangirai, saying he would be accorded a state-assisted burial while lauding him as a fearless fighter for the rights of workers and democracy in his later life as a politician.

Zimbabwe Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said he was saddened by Tsvangirai's death, who he described as a son of the soil.

"We are saddened by the death of MT, we will sit and see how Zimbabweans can honor that great son of the soil," Chiwenga said on Twitter.

The U.S. Embassy in Harare expressed its deep condolences over Tsvangirai's death and said it hoped his spirit and determination would help carry the country forward to a brighter future.

The European Union delegation in Zimbabwe also mourned Tsvangirai, saying it was saddened by his demise. It said Tsvangirai will be remembered as a great trade unionist and a courageous man who stood up for multi-party democracy and justice in Zimbabwe.

Former ZANU-PF politician and government minister Saviour Kasukuwere said Tsvangirai's legacy will remain etched in the hearts of Zimbabweans.

"It is a great loss. We had hoped that Tsvangirai, even while sick, would continue to be with us and give us strength in our fight for democracy in Zimbabwe," said Edmore Murove, who was among scores of party supporters gathered at party headquarters in the capital to mourn Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai, a former trade unionist, formed his MDC party in 1999, a party that was to become Zimbabwe's major opposition party post-independence in 1980.

He died aged 65 in South Africa Wednesday after battling colon cancer since 2016.

Tsvangirai's death comes at a time when his party is rocked with infighting by the party's three deputies who are vying to succeed him, and comes a few months before polls scheduled for mid-2018.

Tsvangirai was the presidential candidate for the broader MDC Alliance, a coalition of seven opposition parties seeking to challenge the ruling ZANU party in the polls.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-15 23:39:58|Editor: yan

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LHASA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- As Chinese celebrate traditional Lunar New Year, the most important festival of a year, Tibetans are even happier as the Tibetan New Year coincides with the Spring Festival this year.

Both the Spring Festival and Tibetan New Year fall on Friday. On the eve of the double New Year, locals were busy buying goods on streets flanked with booths in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

With her 68-year-old husband Luo Yunxue, Degyi Zhoiyar, a Tibetan in the city's Chengguan District, prepared both Tibetan delicacies and filled dumplings, or "jiaozi", to observe the festivals. Luo, an ethnic Han, has been living in Lhasa for more than 20 years.

Traditional New Year celebrations extend from cities to towns and pasturing areas in the southwest China region.

In his new house, Yangla, a Tibetan herder in his 60s in Amdo County, gathered with his children, taking Tibetan food while watching TV on the eve of the New Year.

"I have more than 1,000 sheep and 300 yaks," said the herder, who lives at an altitude of above 5,000 meters.

Residents who just shook off poverty danced in front of their new homes in Tingri County, Xigaze, to celebrate their new life.

To observe the festivals, government staff in Tibet enjoy a 10-day holiday starting Friday.

"Chunlian" or Spring Festival couplets, in Tibetan language, has been increasingly popular in recent years in the autonomous region. The couplets are traditionally mounted on gate posts or doors to convey good wishes for the new year.

"I sell Tibetan couplets each year in recent years. This year, the Tibetan couplets sell very well," said a dealer surnamed Bai in Lhasa.

"This is the first time I buy Tibetan couplets. The Tibetan and Han ethnic groups celebrate traditional New Year on the same day. Posting Tibetan couplets is a celebration of the two festivals," said Drugla, a Tibetan in Baqen County.

Some Han residents like Tibetan couplets, too.

"I have been here for ten years and has many Tibetan friends. This year, I chose Tibetan couplets so that my Tibetan friends understand my wishes when they come to greet me," said a resident surnamed Xiong in Lhasa.

Qamba Sangye, a Tibetan teacher who wrote Tibetan couplets for sale for the first time, said the couplets were about health, harmony, prosperity and safety.

"Some couplets highlight the Tibetan-Han friendly feelings," he said.

This year is the Year of Dog in the 12-animal Chinese zodiac. In Tibetan culture, the dog is also revered as a positive image representing loyalty and integrity.

Dogs are close friends of people on the plateau, said Cedain Zhaxi, a professor at Tibet University.

In Nyingchi, a plate with diverse food items is offered to dogs by villagers who believe the animal can predict the luck for the coming year.

"It is actually the government's good policy which has brought us a good life," said Urgyen Cering, Communist Party chief of a village.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 00:30:05|Editor: yan

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CAIRO, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian prosecution decided Thursday to detain a former presidential candidate for 15 days pending investigation over his leadership of an outlawed group undermining the country's national interests and social peace, official MENA news agency reported.

Abdel-Moneim Aboul-Fotouh, the head of Strong Egypt Party, was arrested on Wednesday, along with several other leaders of his party, a day after his return from London.

Aboul-Fotouh is facing charges of spreading false news that would threaten the country's national interests and leading an outlawed group that seeks to undermine the state and its institutions, harm national unity and social peace and topple the regime by force, according to MENA.

The politician was once a leading member of the currently blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood group of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, who was toppled by the military in July 2013 in response to mass protests.

Aboul-Fotouh quit the Brotherhood in 2011, following the ouster of veteran President Hosni Mubarak, and ran as an independent candidate in the 2012 presidential election.

He has recently called for boycotting Egypt's 2018 presidential election scheduled for late March, where incumbent President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi is expected to make an easy win for a second term due to the lack of strong contenders in the race.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 00:40:12|Editor: yan

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JUBA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan said on Thursday that the reopening of the border with its northern neighbor Sudan will spur hitherto stalled trade between the two countries.

Chairperson of the South Sudan Business Union, Ayii Duang Ayii, said the reopening of the border after a seven-year closure will help South Sudan's battered economy, which has been suffering from more than four years of conflict.

"What we had been requesting all the time from the two presidents is finally implemented and borders are now open, even the goods which were not allowed to come will be allowed now to come freely," Ayii told journalists in Juba.

Sudan on Monday announced the opening of the border between its White Nile province and South Sudan's Upper Nile region.

Sudan's Trade Minister Hatem Elsir said the reopening of the border will be one of the mechanisms to limit the smuggling of commodities, a development analysts say could ease economic troubles in both countries.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir and his Sudanese counterpart, Omar Al-Bashir, met in October last year in Khartoum and agreed to expedite implementation of the cooperation agreement signed in 2012 that covered security, trade and oil issues.

They also agreed to establish customs and migration offices in the 11 crossing points between the two countries.

South Sudan descended into violence in December 2013, after political dispute between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar led to fighting that pitted mostly Dinka ethnic soldiers loyal to Kiir against Machar's Nuer ethnic group.

The 2015 peace agreement to end the violence was again violated in July 2016 when the rival factions resumed fighting in the capital forcing Machar to flee into exile.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions that have sought refuge in neighboring countries.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 00:50:15|Editor: yan

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said here on Thursday that "making schools safer will be our top priority," after a mass shooting in a Florida high school killed 17 people on Wednesday.

"No student, no teacher should be in danger in an American school," Trump said in a national address from the White House.

He said that he is making plan to visit the shooting scene in Parkland, Florida.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 00:55:16|Editor: yan

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BERLIN, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) is hosting Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim in Berlin on Thursday as the two countries seek to repair their strained diplomatic relationship.

A key sticking point which is widely-expected to be addressed in the high-level talks is the fate of German journalist Deniz Yuecel.

Yuecel has been imprisoned for a year in Turkey on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization. Berlin has repeatedly criticized the arrest of "Welt" newspaper correspondent as politically-motivated and demanded his swift release.

Prior to his arrival in Germany on Thursday, Yildirim told the public broadcaster "ARD" that, while it was ultimately up to the Turkish judiciary to decide, he was hopeful that Yuecel would be a free man again soon.

Similarly, acting German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) said that he was "relatively optimistic" that a court verdict would soon be reached. "Of course, I hope that the ruling will be positive for Deniz Yuecel", Gabriel added.

Yilidirim advocated for a frank exchange of views between himself and Merkel in order to overcome "quarrelling in the past" which had weighed on the traditionally close ties between their two countries.

Although diplomatic tensions were eased slightly after the recent release by Turkish authorities of the German journalist Mesale Tolu, Turkey's ongoing military intervention against Kurdish forces in Northern Syria remains a highly controversial issue in Germany.

Sahra Wagenkecht, parliamentary faction leader of the Left party (Linke) took the meeting between Merkel and Yildirim as another opportunity to call for a complete stop of German arms exports to Turkey and demand the freezing of already largely symbolic European Union (EU) accession talks with Ankara.

Wagenknecht argued that it was "inacceptable that Deniz Yuecel has been imprisoned for a year while Turkey continues to receive European financial- and credit aid worth millions of euros".

Green party (Gruene) leader Cem Oezdemir further urged Merkel to make the Turkish military intervention in Northern Syria as subject of the talks. Oezdemir also demanded the unconditional release of Yuecel and warned against a "dirty deal" in which the journalist's freedom was bought with arms exports.

Similarly, Niels Annen, the parliamentary foreign policy spokesperson for the German Social Democrats (SPD), emphasized that arms should currently not be exported to Turkey.

"As long as a war is being led against the Kurds, I cannot imagine arms exports," Annen said. Nevertheless, he advocated maintaining a relationship of partners between Germany and Turkey.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 01:00:17|Editor: yan

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said here on Thursday that he is making plan to visit shooting scene in Parkland, Florida.

"Making schools safer will be our top priority," Trump said in a national address from the White House, after a mass shooting in a Florida high school killed 17 people on Wednesday.

He said that he will also "tackle the difficult issue of mental health."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 01:05:18|Editor: yan

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CHICAGO, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) futures were trading mixed on Thursday morning as traders weighed weather factors against demand for U.S. supplies.

As of 1550 GMT, March corn was down 1 cent at 3.6625 U.S. dollars per bushel while March wheat was down 2 cents at 4.5375 dollars and March soybeans up 2.5 cents at 10.1975 dollars per bushel.

The prices were little changed in the morning as traders were weighing dry weather in Argentina and U.S. southern plains against relatively weak demand for U.S. supplies.

According to official data, U.S. output of ethanol, made from corn, dropped to 1.016 million barrels a day last week, the lowest level in more than one month.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 01:15:20|Editor: Chengcheng

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RABAT, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Moroccan Justice Minister Mohamed Aujjar and his Senegalese counterpart Ismaila Madior Fall vowed Thursday in Rabat to give new impetus to bilateral cooperation in the area of justice.

Speaking to the press following talks with his Senegalese peer, Aujjar said the meeting was an opportunity for the two parties to examine means to promote bilateral cooperation in this field.

The Moroccan minister expressed his country's commitment to strengthening Senegal's skills in the management of justice affairs and developing its judicial system and institutions.

This commitment is in line with the historical partnership between Morocco and a number of African states, he added.

He noted that the Moroccan-Senegalese cooperation in the area of justice covers particularly commercial justice and modernization of the judiciary.

For his part, Madior Fall hailed the excellent friendship between the two countries, characterized by a historic partnership between the two countries to further strengthen bilateral ties.

He expressed the wish of his country to benefit from the Moroccan experience in the field of justice, notably commercial justice, penitentiary policy, and the family code, commending Morocco's deep reforms in this area.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 01:25:21|Editor: yan

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by Salah Takieddine

BEIRUT, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who arrived Thursday in Lebanon on a one-day visit, said that "the people of Lebanon should also be concerned about how Hezbollah's actions."

Tillerson met upon his arrival with Lebanon's President Michel Aoun and discussed Lebanon's gas and border dispute with Israel.

Tillerson left the meeting with Aoun without making a statement, but he signed the visitors' guest book at the Baabda Presidential Palace, marking his first official visit to Lebanon.

He later held talks with Speaker Nabih Berri at Ain el-Tineh.

The U.S. embassy said on its Twitter page that Tillerson "reaffirmed to Berri the importance of the close U.S.-Lebanese partnership as the two countries work together to pursue common goals that advance Lebanon's sovereignty, stability, and prosperity."

Ending his official meetings, Tillerson met with Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the Grand Serail and held following a luncheon given by Hariri in his honor, a joint press conference with the PM.

Tillerson said that his government is engaged with the Israeli government to make sure that the situation on the Lebanese southern border remain calm.

He said "Lebanon has been under enormous pressure. We are engaging with both governments of Lebanon and Israel to ensure Lebanon's southern border remains calm. And we remain committed to helping Lebanon and the Lebanese people to prosper through the development of their natural resources in agreement with all their neighbors. If an agreement can be reached it truly has the ability to help Lebanon and the neighboring countries prosper now and years to come."

Israel has recently escalated its threats over Lebanon's invitation for offshore gas exploration bids along the countries' maritime border.

Israel claimed that Lebanon will be drilling in areas owned by Israel. Lebanese officials contested those claims, saying the area where it plans to drill belongs to Lebanon.

The long-standing dispute resurfaced recently as Lebanon invited companies to sign exploration deals. U.S. officials have previously tried to mediate the dispute.

Addressing Hezbollah's issue, the U.S. official reaffirmed his country's position that the resistance party is a terrorist organization.

He said "it is impossible to talk about stability, sovereignty and security of Lebanon without addressing Hezbollah. The United States has considered Hezbollah a terrorist organization for more than two decades now. We neither see nor do accept any distinction between his political and his military arms. It is unacceptable for militias like Hezbollah to operate outside the authority of the Lebanese government. The only legitimate defender of the Lebanese state is the Lebanese armed forces."

He cautioned that the Lebanese should worry about the repercussion of Hezbollah's actions.

He explained "Hezbollah is not just a concern for the United States, the people of Lebanon should also be concerned about how Hezbollah's actions, its growing arsenal, bring unwanted and unhelpful scrutiny on Lebanon. Hezbollah entanglement in regional conflicts threatens the security of Lebanon and has destabilizing effects on the region."

Tillerson left Lebanon immediately following his press conference.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 01:45:25|Editor: yan

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BRUSSELS, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The European Union's trade surplus with the U.S. widened to 120.8 billion euros (150.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017, up from 113.1 billion euros in 2016, according to trade data from the EU statistics office, Eurostat, on Thursday.

That amounts to a 6.8-percent increase, despite U.S. President Donald Trump's complaint of "very unfair" EU trade policy at the end of January.

Numbers from Eurostat showed that EU's trade deficit with China was 176 billion euros, virtually unchanged from 175.3 billion euros in 2016.

Throughout 2017, EU exports of goods rose 7.7 percent to 1,878.5 billion euros, while imports rose 8.2 percent to 1,853.5 billion euros, leading to a surplus of 25 billion euros, compared with 32 billion in 2016 euros.

In the euro area, which has 19 economies instead of the EU's 28, exports rose 7.1 percent to 2,192.9 billion euros, while imports rose 9.7 percent to 1,954.8 billion euros. As a result, the euro area's surplus dropped from 265.2 billion euros in 2016 to 238.1 billion euros in 2017.

A research note from Daiwa Capital Markets Europe said "looking at 2017 as a whole, euro area exports rose by an impressive 7.1 percent year on year, having barely grown at all in 2016."

The growth was "fuelled not least by stronger shipments to China (up more than 16 percent year-on-year) and Russia (up almost 20 percent year on year), although non-euro area EU member states such as Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic also provided notable support," according to the research. (1 euro = 1.25 U.S. dollars)Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 02:55:36|Editor: yan

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KIGALI, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda's horticultural exports recorded a significant increase in 2017, a top official of the National Agricultural Exports Board (NAEB) said on Thursday.

Speaking at a horticulture event, Bill Kayonga, chief executive officer of the NAEB, said Rwanda earned 21 million U.S. dollars in revenues from its horticulture exports in 2017, up from 12 million dollars in 2016.

"The horticulture sector, that is vegetables, fruits and flowers, in Rwanda witnessed remarkable progress in recent years," he said. "From almost nonexistent five years ago, the sector is now a strong contributor to Rwanda export base."

"We are so proud of the revenues the sector recorded last year," Kayonga said.

He said the Rwandan horticulture industry is still not fully tapped and the country is looking for more investors to explore the young developing sector.

Rwanda targets to raise the horticulture sector's annual export earnings to 140 million dollars by 2020, according to the ministry of agriculture and animal resources.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 03:10:41|Editor: yan

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BAGHDAD, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi Thursday said that his government would negotiate with the world companies next month to sign investment contracts in various fields in in Iraq.

Abadi announced his government's move in a televised press conference after his weekly cabinet meeting, which came just one day after some of the world countries and organizations concluded a conference in neighboring Kuwait and announced 30-billion U.S. dollars financial contributions to help rebuild the war-torn country.

"The Iraqi government will hold meetings in the coming days with ambassadors of the countries and the representatives of the financial institutions participated in Kuwait conference, and during the next month we will carry out negotiations with the world and local companies so we can conclude deals with them," Abadi told reporters.

Abadi distanced himself from wasting billions of dollars without improvement in Iraq's infrastructure during the past years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, particularly during the eight years of the rule of former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who took office from 2006 to 2014.

"We have to make plans from now, not like what happened in the past when they spent the money into incorrect directions and then we haven't seen any improvement in infrastructure and (public) services," Abadi said without naming those who wasted the money.

"We will be keen to get the funds of Kuwait's conference for the reconstruction of Iraq, to the right projects," Abadi said, adding that "the steps to rebuild Iraq will include all the Iraqi provinces."

"The international community has shown great confidence in Iraq, and the attendance at the Kuwait conference was three times greater than we expected," Abadi said.

On Wednesday, 76 participating countries, along with 51 international development funds, 107 local and international NGOs, in addition to 1,850 representatives from the private sector, concluded Kuwait International Conference on Reconstruction of Iraq.

The conference collected total contributions of 30 billion U.S. dollars to help reconstruction process in the war-torn Iraq.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 03:20:42|Editor: yan

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JERUSALEM, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Oman's Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi paid a rare visit to al-Aqsa mosque compound, a contested holy site in Jerusalem, on Thursday, local media reported.

The Times of Israel newspaper reported that Alawi toured the site in East Jerusalem's Old City, which Muslims revere as the Noble Sanctuary and Jews revere as the Temple Mount.

The visit followed talks Alawi held with Palestinian National Authority officials in the West Bank, to where he arrived on Tuesday for a three-day official visit.

Visits to the site by Arab leaders are unusual because the site is located in a territory that Israel seized in 1967 Middle East war and annexed shortly later.

Israel usually requires that such visits would be conducted under coordination with its authorities, but a spokesperson for the Israeli foreign ministry said the ministry has no knowledge of the visit and had no immediate comment.

Israel and Oman have no official diplomatic relations, but several official and secret meetings reportedly took place over the past years.

In 2009, former Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, met with Alawi in Qatar, according to Israeli media, and in 2016, Oman sent a diplomatic representative to the funeral of the late Israeli president, Shimon Peres.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 03:40:45|Editor: yan

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KIGALI, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Overall fintech (financial technology) in Africa will grow from around 200 million U.S. dollars currently to 3 billion dollars by 2020, pan-African banking group Ecobank said Thursday.

The number of digital transactions in Rwanda increased by 11 percent in the first half of 2017 from 1.37 million the previous year to 1.53 million, said Nshuti Lucy Mbabazi, assistant vice-president of the push payments division of Ecobank Group, on the last day of the Africa Tech Summit in the Rwandan capital Kigali.

Speaking at a penal discussion looking at delivering a cashless society in Africa, Mbabazi explained the importance of fintech and moving toward a cashless society.

"Digital technology is central. Technology offers great opportunities to open up new markets, increase choice and speed delivery of services," she said.

Africa is now at the forefront of fintech, with 57.6 percent of the world's 174 million active registered mobile money accounts (100.1 million) in sub-Saharan Africa, according to Ecobank Group statistics.

The Africa Tech Summit, which concluded on Thursday, explored the latest trends in digital technology, attended by some 250 key African and international tech leaders.Turkish-backed Syrian rebel fighters stand guard at a checkpoint in the Syrian town of Azaz on a road leading to Afrin, on February 1, 2018. (AFP PHOTO)

MOSCOW, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday that five Russian nationals were preliminarily confirmed to have been killed in Syria in clashes with the U.S.-led coalition last week.

"According to preliminary data, as a result of the armed conflict, the causes of which are being clarified, and five people, presumably Russian citizens, could have been killed," Zakharova said in a briefing.

She said that others were injured, but details of their nationalities are being checked.

The spokeswoman underlined that reports about large-scale casualties among the Russian troops are a "classic disinformation."

"I want to stress once again, they were not Russian servicemen," Zakharova said, adding that there were many people of various nationalities with different purposes in Syria's conflict zones and that it was hard to trace all of them.

Last week, the Russian Defense Ministry said a pro-government militia unit conducted a reconnaissance and search operation on Feb. 7 in the vicinity of an oil refinery in the province of Deir al-Zour to identify and destroy a bandit group responsible for shelling government troop positions, and yet came under fire of the U.S.-led coalition and its local allies.

The coalition claimed that it carried out airstrikes against "Syrian pro-regime forces" that launched an "unprovoked attack" on Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces' headquarters and killed an estimated 100 militiamen.

It is the first time that Moscow officially admitted that Russian citizens were killed in a clash with the U.S.-led coalition in Syria.A Ukrainian woman performs Chinese traditional dance at a ceremonial reception in Kiev, Jan. 23, 2018. (Xinhua/Chen Junfeng)

LVIV, Ukraine, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Grand Chinese New Year celebrations kicked off here on Thursday.

The ancient city, known as the "cultural capital" of Ukraine and attracting about 3 million tourists each year with its impressive architecture and rich history, is welcoming the Spring Festival for the seventh year in a row.

The central square and nine other venues of the four-day festivities are showcasing Chinese traditions such as the dragon dance, a laser show, and a Spring Festival-themed gala.

A fair with traditional Chinese cuisine and souvenirs in the heart of the city near the city hall and the installation of a huge statue of a yellow dog near the Lviv Opera House to usher in the new Year of the Dog are among the major attractions.

A giant screen at the city center, beaming the New Year festivities in major Chinese cities, will provide a "telebridge with China".

The festival, organized by the Ukraine-China Research Center, Lan Hua, is an opportunity for Ukrainians and foreigners visiting Lviv to get an insight into Chinese culture.

It also puts the Chinese in Ukraine in a festive mood despite being far from home.

Yury Kotyk, in charge of Lan Hua, said he decided to start the celebrations in Lviv because in the past, his Chinese friends felt homesick during Spring Festival and were forced to observe it either at home or in student dormitories.

"I decided to organize such a holiday for them," Kotyk told Xinhua.

Initially, the Lunar New Year was just another festival in Lviv. Today, it has become a hallmark of the tourist city, attracting thousands of visitors each year.

Apart from cultural exchanges, the festivities spur business, bringing profits to hotels, restaurants and tourist agencies.

Olga Grenyukh, an art director of Lviv Fairs, which organizes street fairs during the Lunar New Year, said the number of businessmen who participate in the celebrations has tripled since the first festival held in 2011.

"In Lviv, the cultural capital of Ukraine, this holiday has found new roots and we can say that thanks to it, local business is growing," Grenyukh told Xinhua. "The Spring Festival extends the tourist season in the city."

This year, more than 30,000 people are expected to take part in the Spring Festival celebrations in Lviv.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 05:01:04|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, Feb 15 (Xinhua) -- Director of China's State Administration of Taxation Wang Jun urged here at the United Nations headquarters for greener, more open and effective tax systems to boost economic growth.

Major international organizations - including the IMF, OECD, UN and World Bank Group are gathering here at the United Nations headquarters, calling on governments from around the world to strengthen and increase the effectiveness of their tax systems to generate the domestic resources needed to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Delivering his keynote speech on Wednesday at the Eve of the Chinese Spring Festival, Wang said that while a country with the biggest tax paying population is preparing for the traditional New Year, when fireworks are an import part of the celebration, Chinese tax authorities have imposed a special tax on fireworks production and sale, to help change the tradition more environmental friendly and with some are turning to E-fireworks.

Sharing China's experience in tax systems, Wang said that China has been trying hard to make a greener, more innovative, more coordinated, open and tax-payer-friendly system to go along with China's economy which is shifting from quantity-focused growth to a quality-oriented one.

Tax is also a very important part of global governance, Wang said, adding that China has established cooperation ties with 117 countries around the world.

Wang proposed that China would like to hold an international tax conference with countries along the Belt and Road, and sponsor tax capability-building training with developing countries to further strengthen international cooperations.

"I call upon the international community to establish effective mechanisms to combat tax evasion, money laundering and illicit financial flows, so that developing countries could better mobilize their own resources," Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations said in his message to the conference.

"Funding the SDGs is an economic and ethical imperative with major implications for taxation. Countries themselves need to raise more revenue in an equitable way. And the entire international community needs to eradicate tax evasion and tax avoidance."

Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, said in her video message.

Research indicates that at least 15 percent of GDP in revenue is necessary to finance these basic services but, in almost 30 of the 75 poorest countries, tax revenues are below this 15 percent threshold.

At the same time, all countries need to pay greater attention to the spillovers from their tax policies and step up their support for stronger tax systems. Governments and relevant stakeholders also need to continue to work together on establishing a fair and efficient system of international taxation, including efforts to fight tax evasion and tax avoidance.

During a three-day conference at UN headquarters on "Taxation and the SDGs," ministers and deputy ministers of finance, tax authorities, and senior representatives from civil society, private sector, academia, regional and global organizations will debate the key directions needed for tax policy and administration to meet the SDGs by 2030.

The conference, organized by the Platform for Collaboration on Tax (PCT) at UN headquarters, provides a unique opportunity to discuss the role of tax in ending poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring prosperity for all, including: how to mobilize domestic resources for development; tax policies to support sustainable economic growth, investment and trade; the social dimensions of taxation (income and gender inequality, human development); as well as capacity development and international tax cooperation.

The conference aims to provide guidance to countries and other stakeholders on how to better target tax efforts to achieve broader development goals. Insights from the conference will help inform and shape the future work of the PCT members and partners, including the IMF, OECD, UN and World Bank. EnditemSource: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 05:06:06|Editor: Liangyu

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Chinese artists perform acrobatics during a lighting ceremony at the Cairo Tower in Cairo, Egypt, on Feb. 15, 2018. The Cairo Tower is lit in red to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year here on Thursday. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

CAIRO, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's Cairo Tower, an outstanding landmark in the Arab capital, was lit up Thursday in red to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year.

The Spring Festival Celebration, inaugurated by the Chinese Ambassador to Cairo Song Aiguo and Egypt's Minister of Tourism Rania al-Mashat, was co-organized by the Chinese Culture Center in cooperation with the Egyptian Tourism Authority.

Ambassador Song Aiguo told the crowds at the celebration that he was very pleased to see the landmark of Cairo celebrating the Chinese New Year, which reflects the strength of ties between the two peoples and countries.

"It is a great honor and pleasure for me and my Chinese compatriots in Egypt to have Cairo Tower illuminated in red on this New Year's Eve," the ambassador said.

For her part, minister al-Mashat said today's celebrations prove that the Egyptian-Chinese relationships are very strong and deeply rooted.

She added that celebrating the New Year at Cairo Tower is very special for Egypt, expressing willingness and hope for even stronger and broader partnership.

The celebration featured Chinese cultural and folkloric performances in the presence of distinguished figures of the Chinese and Egyptian sides, along with public figures and celebrities.

After upgrading the relations between the two countries to a "comprehensive strategic partnership" in 2014, cultural exchange has been at its peak as artists, cultural and musical delegations have exchanged visits.

Through such activities, Egypt and China want to boost friendly ties and enhance mutual understanding and future development between the peoples of the two nations, whose relations have deep roots back in history.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 05:11:07|Editor: Chengcheng

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TRIPOLI, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Libyan Constitution Drafting Assembly on Thursday called on the eastern-based parliament to issue the referendum law.

"The Assembly has made effort to pass the draft constitution. It will enable the Libyan people to exercise their constitutional right through the referendum," said Nooh Abdallah, the head of the Libyan Constitution Drafting Assembly, in a statement.

"We call on the House of Representatives to speed up the completion of its constitutional commitment through the issuance of the referendum law," he added.

Abdullah also called on all state institutions and the international community to assist the assembly in the referendum "in order to promote peaceful transfer of power and guarantee rights and freedoms."

Last July, the constitution drafting assembly voted for a draft constitution and presented it to the parliament.

However, the parliament said it refused to issue a referendum law pending a court ruling regarding the validity of the drafting procedures.

A month later, the appeals court ruled that the draft constitution should be suspended on grounds that the Assembly held the voting session on a holiday.

However, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the administrative judiciary is not competent to hear cases against the constitution assembly.

The parliament so far has made no comment regarding the ruling of the Supreme Court.File Photo: 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 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. 15 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote to U.S. senior officials on Thursday to express his profound sadness at the "horrific gun massacre" that took place on Wednesday at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

He wrote to Florida Governor Rick Scott and to Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, to express his sadness, Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a daily news briefing.

"It is wrenching to see so many young lives cut short -- in a place where students should feel safe -- as well as so many families torn apart, and yet another community thrown into shock," Dujarric quoted the secretary-general as writing.

"At this time of profound sorrow, we at the United Nations wish to say that our thoughts are with all those touched by this tragedy."

Seventeen people were killed as a 19-year-old former student opened fire at students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 05:16:08|Editor: Chengcheng

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TEHRAN, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry on Thursday dismissed French President Emmanuel Macron's latest comments on the country's missile program as "unrealistic."

Earlier in the day, Macron suggested that Iran's missile program should be brought under international surveillance.

Macron's comments are an "unrealistic" approach to Iran's defense program, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said.

"No country can impose restrictions on Iran's missile program," he added.

He also slammed Macron's comments as "destabilizing" influence in the region.

Meanwhile, the Iranian spokesman criticized U.S. National Intelligence Director Dan Coats for making "worn-out" and "baseless" claims about Iran's influence in the region.

No country has tried as much as Iran to ensure stability and peace in the Middle East, Qasemi said.

On Tuesday, Coats said at a U.S. Senate hearing that Iran, together with some other states, poses the greatest regional and global threat.

Such remarks are aimed at "creating and promoting false and self-fabricated threats and terror in different parts of the world, particularly in the Middle East," said Qasemi.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 05:21:11|Editor: Chengcheng

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LONDON, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Prime Minister Theresa May spoke Thursday night with the leaders of the two main political parties in Northern Ireland following the collapse of talks aimed at restoring self-rule to the region.

May made it clear to Arlene Foster, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein leader Michelle O'Neill that the British government has a responsibility to consider what needs to be done to protect the interests of Northern Ireland in the ongoing absence of its devolved executive.

The deadlock could lead to direct rule from Westminster or the calling of a new all-out election in Northern Ireland.

Home rule collapsed over a year ago in a fallout between the DUP and Sinn Fein, leaving civil servants to run the region.

A spokesperson at 10 Downing Street said: "The prime minister spoke to the leaders of Sinn Fein and the DUP on the phone earlier this evening about the recent phase of political talks in Northern Ireland."

"In both phone calls the prime minister expressed her disappointment that an agreement had not yet been reached despite recent progress being made by everyone involved."

According to the spokesperson, May reiterated that restoring devolved government is in the best interests of everyone in Northern Ireland, and the prime minister believes the basis for an agreement exists.

Mary Lou McDonald, newly elected leader in Ireland of Sinn Fein said in media interviews on Thursday that a draft agreement was in place last week to restore Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive. But the talks collapsed Wednesday, with the DUP saying there was no current prospect of a deal to end the deadlock.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 05:51:20|Editor: yan

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MAPUTO, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Mozambique's National Institute of Fishery Investigation announced in Maputo on Thursday that the country is fighting hard to protect 300,000 hectares of mangrove at stake due to climate change and human impact.

With more than 60 percent of the country's population living along the coast, the mangrove forest constitutes one of the main sources of income and building materials for houses and boats.

"We are currently discussing potential models that could be considered for the management of the mangrove in the rural and urban areas. If we look to the expansion of our cities they are occurring in areas close to the mangrove, the city of Quelimane, including the capital Maputo, are examples for that," said Salomao Bandeira, a consultant working with the institute.

The Institute, its partners and other stakeholders are seeking to develop a strategy for an efficient management of the mangrove, taking into consideration the causes that lead to its destruction either from human activities or natural causes.

Mozambique in the southern African region has the largest mangrove ecosystem and it committed in 2017 during the United Nations conference to replanting 5,000 hectares by 2022, so far the country has finished 15 hectares.

"Because of the commitment with the United Nations we want to start structuring our intervention. We will start replanting according to a program well designed. And to reach that goal, we have done a study in every province of the country and defined what the critical ones are. Later with the action plan, we will distribute goals for each province and implement it," said Jorge Mafuca, National Director of the Investigation Institute.

The study carried out by the institute revealed the southern province of Maputo, the central Zambezia and Sofala, and the northern Nampula are the mostly hit provinces in terms of mangrove devastation.

The institute said that it has a clear idea on how the restoration process should be conducted in order to guarantee its efficiency and the strategy should be ready by April.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 06:31:31|Editor: Chengcheng

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HAVANA, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Cuba on Thursday denounced attempts to exclude Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from attending the upcoming Summit of the Americas, to be held in Peru in April.

"Cuba energetically rejects" the move by the so-called Lima Group of Latin American countries whose governments are critical of the Venezuelan leader, the Cuban Foreign Ministry said in a statement published by the daily Granma.

Cuba said the group's announcement on Tuesday seeking to disinvite Maduro from the gathering of regional leaders "constitutes unacceptable meddling in the internal affairs of ... Venezuela," just weeks before the country is set to hold presidential elections.

Following Tuesday's meeting of foreign ministers from group members Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Santa Lucia, Peru announced it would withdraw Maduro's summit invitation.

A day later, the U.S. State Department endorsed Peru's decision, as well as the group's rejection of what it described as the Venezuelan government's "unilateral" decision to set a date for presidential elections, to be held on April 22.

Maduro's government was in the process of negotiating an election date with the right-wing opposition, which suddenly withdrew from the talks following U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's visit to the region.

Also Thursday, Maduro confirmed he will be attending the summit of regional leaders to publicize "the truth about Venezuela."

The 8th Summit of the Americas, organized by the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS), is to take place April 13 and 14.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 06:31:31|Editor: Chengcheng

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NAIROBI, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Rwandan army on Thursday said three soldiers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) were killed in a fire exchange when the latter attacked an army position in northern Rwandan district of Musanze.

This came after accusations by DR Congo on Wednesday that Rwandan soldiers launched an incursion into its territory.

Eugene Nkubito, commander of Rwanda Defense Force (RDF)'s Second Division, said the Armed Forces of DR Congo (FARDC) attacked an RDF position in Iterambere village, Shingiro Sector, on Tuesday around 7 a.m. local time, and three were killed before the attackers were repelled.

Nkubito made the case at a meeting in Musanze, which brought together experts from the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism (EJVM), a group of about 20 military experts from 11 member states grouped under the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).

Rwanda has appealed to the EJVM to investigate the motive behind the attack, Nkubito said.

On Wednesday, a DR Congo army spokesman said heavy fighting took place late Tuesday between the FARDC and "elements of the Rwandan army (RDF)" at the foot of Mount Nikeno in its province of North Kivu.

DR Congo also reported the incident to the ICGLR and "demanded unconditional withdrawal of Rwandan army from its soil."

There have been border skirmishes between DR Congo and Rwanda over the years.

In 2014, Rwanda accused the FARDC of firing a rocket on its territory in Bugeshi Sector, Rubavu district, Western Province. The rocket did not cause any casualties.

In 2013, Rwanda said FARDC fired over 60 projectiles on Rwandan territory, killing and injuring civilians, including women and children. (Xinhua correspondents in Kigali, Rwanda, and Goma, DR Congo, contributed to this report.)Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 06:56:34|Editor: yan

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KIGALI, Feb.15 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda's Finance Minister Claver Gatete Thursday urged Rwanda's development partners to move beyond traditional financing.

Speaking at a meeting with development partners in the western district of Rubavu, Gatete stressed the important role the private sector is envisaged to play as the engine of Rwanda's economic growth and urged development partners to move beyond traditional financing and consider new and innovative ways to finance the private sector.

Rwanda's development partners need to "find ways to mobilize financing in different forms" and "evolve from the changing financing landscape" as what Rwanda wants is "unconventional and ambitious," which is "very well deserved and justified," said World Bank's country manager to Rwanda Yasser El-Gammal at the annual meeting of Rwandan government officials and development partners.

Fode Nidaye, UN Resident Coordinator, said Rwanda will require more private sector engagement and investment, more human capital development, and more innovative finance to successfully implement its national strategy for transformation.

He said to increase private sector involvement, Rwanda needs to mobilize more domestic resources, given its vision of moving towards upper middle and high-income country status and its policy of more self-reliance.

The central African country, which has risen from a genocide that killed about one million people in 1994, seeks to transform the country from a low-income, agriculture-based economy to a knowledge-based, service-oriented economy with middle-income country status by 2020.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 06:56:35|Editor: Chengcheng

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LVIV, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- "Xinnian kuaile! Xinnian kuaile! Xinnian kuaile!" -- a group of Ukrainian girls is chanting "Happy New Year" in Chinese in the heart of Ukrainian ancient city of Lviv to greet the Spring Festival.

The festive atmosphere is in full bloom in the almost millennium-old city in western Ukraine, which hosts the Lunar New Year for the seventh year in a row.

The gothic and baroque buildings of Lviv and even its alleyways are decorated with red lanterns and colorful paintings with Chinese characters.

A huge statue of a dog, symbolizing the Year of the Dog in the Chinese zodiac, is welcoming the guests of the festivities near the Lviv Opera House in the Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

About 40 pavilions with Chinese and Ukrainian food are installed on Ploshcha Rynok, the central square of Lviv, with people crowding around a pavilion with dumplings.

Inessa, a 25-year-old guest of the Spring Festival, said she "felt the taste of China" when sampling the dumplings.

"Really wonderful atmosphere reigns today and the Chinese food is simply perfect! I eat it for the first time in my life, and I really liked it," Inessa told Xinhua.

Chinese food, dragon dancing, laser show, Chinese karaoke, Kung Fu show and Spring-themed gala attracted thousands of tourists to Lviv.

Olga, a young lady from Dnipro city in southeastern Ukraine, came to Lviv with her boyfriend Zhang Yuanwei from China's northern Henan Province.

"This is the first time for my boyfriend to celebrate New Year far from his home. I decided to show him how the Spring Festival is celebrated in Ukraine," Olga told Xinhua.

"I think, everything is organized perfectly -- both scenery and music. When we were approaching the central square, Zhang Yuanwei heard the sounds of Chinese songs and was moved," Olga said.

For his part, Zhang said he also filled with joy when seeing the red lanterns hanging everywhere and the dragon show, which is typical for China.

"I really like today's atmosphere. I am very glad that I can see Chinese culture here. Lviv is the only Ukrainian city that has the spirit of China," Zhang told Xinhua.

Meanwhile, Chinese entrepreneur Zhu Liming from Beijing, who came to Ukraine on business, said that he liked the "telebridge with China" when the huge screen installed on the stage beamed the New Year festivities in major Chinese cities.

Zhu said he could never imagine that the Spring Festival is celebrated on such a big scale in the European cities.

"It is very good, it reminds me China. Some festival venues are even more crowded than in China," he told Xinhua.

Zhu said that he will continue the New Year celebration in the night club, which organizes a Spring Festival party for Chinese and Ukrainian youth.

Overall, the four-day Spring Festival in Lviv, which kicked off on Feb. 15, will be held on ten venues.By RALPH ANSAMI

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Bessemer  Beacon Ambulance and Aspirus Ironwood Hospital officials are trying to come up with a long-term plan to retain ambulance service in Gogebic and Iron Counties.

Gogebic County Emergency Management Director Jim Loeper told the county board of supervisors Wednesday that Beacon Ambulance is in jeopardy of closing for a bunch of different reasons.

The chief reason, Loeper said, it that Beacon has lost many employees in the past six months and is facing a personnel shortage.

Beacon, under the ownership of the Lawrence Kutz family, of Hurley, has been operating in the two counties and beyond for 48 years, said Loeper, a former Beacon employee.

Loeper said its difficult now to conduct emergency medical technician classes to train new recruits, as the cost of putting on the classes is practically unaffordable. He said rural areas across Michigan are facing the same dilemma.

He also said regulations make it tough to teach an EMT class, with a requirement that a doctor must be on hand for the training.

Commissioners said theres a burn-out factor with paramedics because its a grueling job.

This is an issue thats been brewing for years, Loeper said, adding that he had predicted six or seven years ago it would come to a head around now. They need to help us keep these courses going, he said.

Wisconsin has a law requiring EMT response be provided by counties, but Loeper said Michigans law merely says the sheriffs department must remove people from roadways and highways.

If Beacon leaves, the area is in trouble, Loeper said.

Loeper said he has been talking to law enforcement and governmental agencies and said short- and long-term needs must be addressed for the two counties, perhaps by a committee.

County board chairman George Peterson, of Watersmeet, said he believes the concerned parties are on the right track in addressing the issue from the east to west ends of Gogebic County.

Keep us updated, he told Loeper.

After the meeting, Loeper said its not an issue of Aspirus seeking to force out Beacon. He said lawmakers have been contacted about the issue.

On Tuesday, Hurley Mayor Joe Pinardi, who also serves as Iron County Board of Supervisors chairman, told the city council Beacon didnt intend to pull out of the area and an online posting last week in response to rumors said Beacon wished to continue serving the area.By RICHARD JENKINS

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LANSING  Much like the road itself, a more than $4.7 million state grant announced Wednesday to improve County Road 519 is intended to smooth the way for the development of the Copperwood copper mining project in northern Gogebic County.

The $4,775,321 state transportation economic development grant is designed to help fund a Gogebic County Road Commission project to reconstruct 13 miles of County Road 519 between M-28 and the site of Highland Coppers Copperwood Project to make the road an all-season road.

Im thrilled obviously for...This has been a long time in the making, but in our continuing pursuit to bring only the best of firearms, 2nd Amendment and defence related news to our readers, we are very excited to announce the next step in our evolution as a company.

As of 2020, Minuteman Review is now the proud owner and operator of Your Defence News, a website with a long history of breaking huge news stories and investigative journalism.

We hope you are equally as excited as us.

This means that now the teams of Minuteman can combine with the firepower of Your Defence News to stay at the absolute forefront for our readers.

Keep an eye. Big things are coming soon. We couldn't be more excited.

In the meanwhile, here are some of our most popular posts and categories to keep you busy.

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Washington, DC - The United States and Cuba held a series of meetings this week in Washington, D.C. to coordinate their efforts to combat trafficking in persons.

On February 13, the Department of State hosted a bilateral meeting on efforts to prosecute traffickers, protect victims, and prevent trafficking. The U.S. delegation was led by Joel Maybury, Acting Principal Deputy Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Representatives from the Departments of Justice, Labor, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services also participated. The Cuban delegation was led by Deputy Director General Johana Tablada de la Torre of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Directorate General for the United States and included officials from various Cuban agencies.

On February 14, the Department of Homeland Security hosted a technical exchange on trafficking in persons, one of the eight working-level exchanges under the U.S.-Cuba Law Enforcement Dialogue. Participants discussed best practices on investigations and prosecutions, human trafficking trends in the region, and potential areas of coordination to fight the scourge of trafficking, which threatens national security and public health and safety in both countries.

The United States and Cuba last met to discuss trafficking in persons in January 2017.Yuma News

Yuma, Arizona - An Arizona Western College professor was recently recognized for her decade-long pursuit of raising awareness about human trafficking.

Monica Ketchum, AWC Professor of History, was honored with an Angel of Trafficking award from the Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition (BSCC) during their 8th Annual Freedom Breakfast and Awards event in San Diego, Calif. She also received certificates of recognition for her work from U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and California State Senator Toni Atkins, D-San Diego.

As the San Francisco District Attorney and then Attorney General for California, Kamala Harris made prosecuting human traffickers and assisting victims of human trafficking a priority, so receiving recognition from her office means a lot to me, said Ketchum.

A founding member of the Imperial Valley Unity Coalition, Ketchum has played a role in educating and training a number of different organizations and agencies on several issues related to human trafficking. As part of her coalitions annual summit, she has had an opportunity to raise awareness with a diverse group of advocates including local, state, and federal law enforcement; the District Attorneys Office; social services, and nonprofit organizations.

She first began fighting against human trafficking when Soroptimist International adopted the subject as a focus issue about 10 years ago. As a member of the Calexico Soroptimist Club, she partnered with a small committee to organize a STOP Human Trafficking awareness rally on the border. Their first rally was in 2011, followed by two more in 2012 and 2013.

Our efforts brought awareness to the issue and Imperial County District Attorney, Gilbert Otero has remarked that the publicity we generated spurred his office to adopt the issue as a focus, she said.

Although Ketchum initially focused her efforts on raising awareness about sex trafficking of women and girls, over the years she discovered that the issue is much more complex and far-reaching than she originally thought.

Although my primary focus remains on sex trafficking, I have broadened my understanding, through research, into how the internet has become a recruiting tool and addressing the demand side of sex trafficking. Understanding how traffickers prey upon vulnerable populations is key, and I have researched and presented on the trafficking of LGBTI youth and Syrian refugees at conferences in El Centro and Tucson in the past year, she said.

Ketchum started teaching part-time for AWC in 2009 and has been working full-time for the college since 2012. She also regularly teaches a Womens Studies class called, Sex, Power, and Politics for San Diego State Universitys Imperial Valley Campus.

She earned her bachelors and masters degree in History from California State University, Long Beach, where colonialism, imperialism, and slave trade factored heavily into her studies. Ketchum believes these historical topics have ties into modern human trafficking today.

Im a member of Historians Against Slavery, which is a community of historians who equate modern-day human trafficking with the slavery of the past. I believe that my profession gives me insights into modern problems in that I often spot patterns that have occurred in the past repeating.

Ketchum currently serves as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) and is on the board of directors for WomanHaven, A Center for Family Solutions. Shes also a member of the Imperial Valley Food Banks Harvest Bowl Committee, is an advisor for the Athenas after-school club she co-founded at William Moreno Junior High, and has worked on several projects with the Calexico Chamber of Commerce.

Considered an expert in her field, Ketchum presents widely on a variety of topics. This weekend, Ketchum is presenting at the Hawaii, California & Northwest Joint Regional Meeting of the World History Association in Seattle.Yuma News

Yuma, Arizona - Arizona Western College Professor of Economics Michelle Sims presented on the impact of the minimum wage increase on small businesses in rural Arizona during a Committee on Commerce and Public Safety meeting Monday, February 12.

Sims was invited by Senator Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake, to share at the state senate meeting based on the preliminary data from her doctoral research on the subject. Allen is the sponsor of Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) 1016, which if passed, would freeze minimum wage increases at $10.50, repeal sick leave accrual, and require all of Arizona to have the same minimum wage.



Sims testified in favor of SCR1016 along with eight others, sharing that her research has shown a large number of rural businesses in Yuma County have had to increase their prices, cut employee hours, eliminate or combine positions, and compress wages as the result of the 2016 measure that is set to raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020. Yuma business owner Donna George of the Peanut Patch also testified and explained that as a result of Proposition 206, she has had to cut two full-time and one part-time positions, cut advertising spending, increase prices, eliminate merit raises for long-time employees, and borrow from her own savings to make ends meet. Nine people were also present at the meeting to testify against the bill.



SCR1016 passed at the meeting by a vote of 5-3, and now the measure will be sent to the full Senate and the House. If approved, the question would go to voters in November.Yuma News

Yuma, Arizona - Arizona Western College will be hosting 2018 Transfer Week from March 5- 8. During this week, students will have a chance to explore a variety of different transfer opportunities. Each day one of the Arizona universities will be featured and the weeks activities will culminate with an annual Transfer Fair.

Monday, March 5, NAU-to-YOU Transfer Tour "From Matador to Lumberjack," 10:00am-2:00pm, 3C Breezeway and East Boardroom (3C Building)



This event provides students with opportunities to become a Lumberjack in Fall 2018! The event consists of students submitting their application for admission and informative sessions for a smooth transfer. It also provides students with the opportunity to speak with representatives from different degree programs at the NAU College Fair.



Tuesday, March 6, Arizona State University Day "From Matador to Sun Devil," 9:00am-1:00pm, Agriculture Science Building (AS)



Transferring students learn what it takes to become a Sun Devil! Arizona State University will showcase their degree programs and respond to specific student inquires through the availability of program representatives. Colleges representing different programs will be at the College Fair to provide information about admission requirements, admission applications, and the transfer process.



Wednesday, March 7, University of Arizona Instant Decision Day at AWC "From Matador to Wildcat," 8:00am-4:00pm, Agriculture Science Building (AS)



This event provides students with opportunities to become a Wildcat in Fall 2018! The event consists of students submitting their application for admission, personal advising, and financial guidance. It also provides them with the opportunity to speak with representatives from different degree programs (colleges). Application and FAFSA workshops will be held throughout the event as well.



Students are encouraged to visit go.arizona.edu/uaday-awc to RSVP for this event.Coun Perez reiterates warning to barangay leaders involved in drugs

07 Aug 2017 Hits:37 Comments(0)

Liga ng mga Barangay President, Councilor Jerry Perez yesterday reiterated his warning to all barangay officials from using or selling drugs. Perez said he is closely monitoring the activities of all the barangay officials and vowed sanctions against erring leaders. Aqui gane na mio barangay ya quita ya iyo na puesto cunel dos barangay leaders quien mas temprano ya sale positivo na...On Wednesday after, Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old expelled student, opened fire at his former school  Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. The terrifying incident left 17 dead.

Authorities, who began investigating the case, found disturbing elements on his laptop.

We already began to dissect his websites and the things on social media that he was on and some of the things that came to mind are very, very disturbing," Israel said.

Born in September 1998, Nikolas was adopted by his mother Lynda Cruz.

His 68-year-old adoptive mom died of pneumonia in November 2017, barely four months before the incident. His adoptive father died long ago. He has a brother, who too was adopted by the Cruz family.

Nikolas had issues from childhood, say relatives.

One relative, on condition of anonymity, told arcamax.com that Nikolas had been diagnosed with autism.

Lynda reportedly sought counselling for Nikolas from a young age and he was on medication for a long time.

After his mother passed away, Nikolas started living with a friend.

Former classmates recall Nikolas as a lonely student who made weird comments.

Cruz had "a bunch of weapons" and talked about shooting lizards, squirrels and frogs, said former classmate Trevor Hart.

Neighbours recall Nikolas often causing trouble, with police being called out numerous times.

Once, he made his dog attack neighbour's little pigs, another time tried to steal a bike from neighbour's garage.

More recently, Williams saw Cruz carrying several publications about guns when they ran into each other at the high school. Williams thought Cruz was there to pick up a younger sibling.

He was crazy about guns, Williams told Reuters, speaking by the side of the road near the high school. He was kind of an outcast. He didnt have many friends. He would do anything crazy for a laugh, but he was trouble.

With agency inputsPARKLAND: A 19-year-old gunman opened fire on Wednesday at a Florida High School he had previously been expelled from, killing at least 17 people before he was finally arrested by police, the authorities said on Thursday.

The violence erupted shortly before dismissal at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, about 45 miles (72 km) north of Miami. Live television footage showed students streaming out of the building as dozens of police and emergency services personnel swarmed the area.

The gunman was identified as Nikolas Cruz, who previously attended the school and was expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said at a news briefing hours later.

"Seventeen people were killed when a 19-year-old former student opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at a Florida High School,'' Sheriff Scott Israel sheriff said, calling the scene "horrific.".

He said the suspect has been identified as Nikolaus Cruz, a former student at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who had been expelled for "disciplinary reasons."

"We have already begun to dissect his websites and things on social media," Israel said, calling some of the posts "very, very disturbing."

''The gunman is now in police custody since he surrendered without a struggle,'' Israel said.

Twelve of the dead were killed inside the school building, two others just outside, one more on the street and two other victims died of their injuries at a hospital, Israel said.

He said the victims comprised a mixture of students and adults.

Donald Trump has offered his condolences, following the shooting at a school in Parkland, Florida.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018

"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school," President Trump wrote on Twitter.

Trump also assured the US citizens that a strict action will be taken against the shooter.

"Just spoke to Governor Rick Scott. We are working closely with law enforcement on the terrible Florida school shooting," said another tweet from the President.

Just spoke to Governor Rick Scott. We are working closely with law enforcement on the terrible Florida school shooting.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018

First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump, too offered her condolences.

"My heart is heavy over the school shooting in Florida. Keeping all affected in my thoughts and prayers," she wrote on Twitter.

My heart is heavy over the school shooting in Florida. Keeping all affected in my thoughts & prayers.  Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) February 14, 2018

It was the 18th shooting in a US school so far this year, according to gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety.

That tally includes suicides and incidents when no one was injured, as well as the January incident when a 15-year-old gunman killed two students at a Benton, Kentucky, high school.

More than five years have passed since a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, stirring the long US debate about gun rights, which are protected by the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.

(With Agency inputs)Washington DC: United States President Donald Trump on Thursday offered his condolences to the families of the victims who were killed after a 19-year-old gunman opened fire at a school in Parkland, Florida.

"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school," President Trump said in one his tweets.



My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018

Trump, however, assured that strict action will be taken against the shooter who was later taken into police custody.

"Just spoke to Governor Rick Scott. We are working closely with law enforcement on the terrible Florida school shooting," said another tweet from the President.

Just spoke to Governor Rick Scott. We are working closely with law enforcement on the terrible Florida school shooting.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018

Meanwhile, US First Lady, Melania Trump, too offered her condolences.

"My heart is heavy over the school shooting in Florida. Keeping all affected in my thoughts and prayers," she wrote on Twitter.

My heart is heavy over the school shooting in Florida. Keeping all affected in my thoughts & prayers.  Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) February 14, 2018

A 19-year-old gunman opened fire on Wednesday at a Florida High School he had previously been expelled from, killing at least 17 people before he was finally arrested by police, the authorities said.

The violence erupted shortly before dismissal at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, about 45 miles (72 km) north of Miami. Live television footage showed students streaming out of the building as dozens of police and emergency services personnel swarmed the area.

The gunman was identified as Nikolas Cruz, who previously attended the school and was expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said at a news briefing hours later.

"Seventeen people were killed when a 19-year-old former student opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at a Florida High School,'' Sheriff Scott Israel sheriff said, calling the scene "horrific.".

He said the suspect has been identified as Nikolaus Cruz, a former student at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who had been expelled for "disciplinary reasons."

"We have already begun to dissect his websites and things on social media," Israel said, calling some of the posts "very, very disturbing."

''The gunman is now in police custody since he surrendered without a struggle,'' Israel said.

Twelve of the dead were killed inside the school building, two others just outside, one more on the street and two other victims died of their injuries at a hospital, Israel said.

He said the victims comprised a mixture of students and adults.

It was the 18th shooting in a US school so far this year, according to gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety.

That tally includes suicides and incidents when no one was injured, as well as the January incident when a 15-year-old gunman killed two students at a Benton, Kentucky, high school.

More than five years have passed since a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, stirring the long US debate about gun rights, which are protected by the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.

(With Agency inputs)WASHINGTON: Pakistan is increasing slipping out of United States' grip and getting closer to China, several intelligence agencies told Trump administration.

Seventeen US intelligence agencies have warned Congress that Pakistan will continue to slip out of Americas influence and into Chinas orbit in 2019, and will become a threat to Washingtons interests in the South Asian region, states a report in Pakistan daily Dawn.

These 17 agencies include the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Security Agency (NSA), and several others.

The agencies warned Pakistan will continue to threaten US interests by deploying new nuclear weapons capabilities, maintaining its ties to militants, restricting counterterrorism cooperation, and drawing closer to China.

Militant organisations will keep seeking refuge on Pakistan's soil and plan attacks on India and Afganistan, the report adds.

India-Pakistan relationship in the meantime will remain tense, as violence continues on the Line of Control and the risk of escalation if there is another high-profile terrorist attack in India or an uptick in violence on the Line of Control.

India-China relations will also remain tense, said the agencies.

The agencies informed Congress that in 2019, relations between India and China will remain tense and will possibly deteriorate further, despite the negotiated settlement to their three-month border standoff in August, said the Dawn report.

Meanwhile, Pakistan on Wednesday threatened the US that any effort to bully them will be counterproductive.

Speaking to CNN, Pakistan's Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal said, "Any unilateral action in Pakistan will be a red line for Pakistan. Pakistanis are dignified people. We want to have a friendship which is based on mutual respect but any effort to try to bully Pakistan or force Pakistan will be counterproductive."

He highlighted that Pakistan has lost about 60,000 people and suffered a $25 billion loss to its economy.

"We are committed to fighting terrorism. There is very nominal aid which is coming from the USAID or the United States to Pakistan. Pakistan is not fighting this war for the US aid, we are fighting this war for our people and the future of our people," Iqbal said.

Over the last few months, the Trump administration has repeatedly warned Pakistan to stop sheltering terrorists. The US also suspended a $2 billion military aid to the nation.

Despite warnings, last year a Pakistani court released globally designated terrorist and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed  the co-founder of Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief. Saeed, after his release, went on to form a political party and announced his decision to contest national polls.

Last week, the US and its allies  the United Kingdom, Germany and France  approached international financial watchdog Financial Action Task Force's (FATF's) to blacklist Pakistan for funding terror activities.

The move can severely dent Pakistan's economy.

Under pressure from the United States, Pakistan last week quietly pushed forward an ordinance that bans 27 terror groups including Saeed's JuD.BHOPAL: The organisations working for the cause of the Bhopal gas tragedy victims today said they will campaign against the BJP in the upcoming bypolls to two Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh.

They alleged that the ruling party has failed to resolve the issue of compensation to those who suffered in the world's worst industrial disaster.

The five organisations fighting for the rights of the gas victims told reporters that they will raise their issues during the campaign for the Mungaoli and Kolaras Assembly seat bypolls slated this month, and also during the state elections due later this year.

Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh president Rashida Bee said they would highlight the alleged false promises made by BJP leaders regarding compensation to the industrial disaster victims in their voter education programme ahead of the bypolls.

"We plan to share copies of official documents with the electorate in the two areas to substantiate our allegations of betrayal by the BJP leaders," she said.

"The by-elections will be our first step in making the long pending issues of the gas disaster a part of the state polls later this year and the general elections next year," she further said.

"We hope to provide a critical edge to ensure the defeat of BJP in Mungaoli and Kolaras," Rashida Bee added.

Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pensionbhogee Sangharsh Morcha's Balkrishna Namdeo said the BJP's campaign in the by-election mostly rests on the promises made by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

"Our strategy is to present facts on the government's betrayal of the promises on compensation to the six lakh victims of the disaster," he said.

Bhopal Group for Information and Action's Satinath Sarangi said they will not align with any political party and seek public support for their campaign resources.

The bypolls in Mungaoli and Kolaras Assembly seats will be held on February 24, and the counting of votes would take place on February 28.

The byelections were necessitated following the death of the sitting Congress MLAs Mahendra Singh Kalukheda (from Mungaoli) and Ram Singh Yadav (Kolaras).

Thirty-three years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, the survivors are still fighting for adequate compensation and proper medical treatment for ailments caused by the toxic leak.ARA: The family members of slain CRPF jawan Mujahid Khan, who died fighting militants in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, today turned down a cheque of Rs 5 lakh from the Bihar government, saying it was "demeaning" as Army personnel killed in such incidents get Rs 11 lakh.

The cheque was given to Khan's family in Bhojpur district's Piro Tehsil where the slain CRPF constable's body was brought this morning and the funeral held with full police honours.

Khan was killed in a gunbattle with militants who had attacked the camp of the CRPF's 23rd Battalion at Karan Nagar in Srinagar.

"Khan's family has refused to accept the cheque. They are of the view that when Army personnel killed in such incidents were given Rs 11 lakh ex gratia, the substantially lower amount of ex gratia for paramilitary force jawans was demeaning", Bhojpur District Magistrate Sanjiv Kumar said.

"We have written to the state home department about the grievance expressed by the members of the deceased jawan. The amount of ex gratia is decided by the department and only upon its approval can any change be effected", Kumar said.

Meanwhile, RJD national vice-president Shivanand Tiwary issued a statement in Patna demanding an apology from the Nitish Kumar government for the "insensitivity shown towards the sacrifice of the CRPF jawan, at whose funeral no minister or senior official was present".Patna: Bihar's Opposition RJD and its ally Congress on Thursday announced that they have reached a seat-sharing arrangement for next month's bypolls to one Lok Sabha and two assembly constituencies.

Addressing a press conference here, Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, flanked by state Congress President Kaukab Quadri, said that it had been agreed that the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) would contest the Araria Lok Sabha and Jehanabad assembly seats and the Congress will contest by-elections on the Bhabua Assembly.

The RJD has also announced its candidates for Araria and Jehanabad bypolls - Sarfaraz Alam and Suday Yadav respectively, although the Congress has not yet finalised its nominee for the Bhabua assembly seat.

The Congress will finalise the name of its candidate for the Bhabua Assembly seat soon, Quadri said.

Alam, who was a sitting lawmaker of the ruling Janata Dal-United (JD-U), had last week resigned from the party and the assembly to join the RJD.

The legislator from Jokihat in Araria district, he was the son of RJD MP Mohammad Taslimuddin, whose death last year led to the seat falling vacant.

Araria has been a stronghold of Alam's father, Taslimuddin, for over three decades and this will give him an opportunity to lay his claim to his father's legacy.

Bypolls to the Jehanabad and Bhabua assembly seats were necessitated following the deaths of the sitting legislators belonging to the RJD and the Bharatiya Janata Party respectively.

The Nitish Kumar-led government is yet to announce any seat-sharing arrangement.

Mumbai: Filmmaker R Balki, whose latest film "Pad Man" is yet to release in Pakistan, says banning the movie means being unfair to women and humanity.

On Wednesday, Balki along with the film's co-producer Twinkle Khanna attended an event for the celebration of its success and to hold a discussion -- organised by Unicef and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation -- on taboos related to menstrual hygiene.

Asked about the countries where "Pad Man" got banned, Balki said: "It has been banned only in Pakistan. I think they have their own reasons but I think they are wrong reasons."

"You can't ban a film like this. If you are banning this film, then you are actually being unfair to women and humanity because it's not just because of the movie, it's because of a story of this man's life and what issue its addressing."

Balki also informed that the Middle East has accepted the film.

"Strangely, the film's biggest success is in the Middle East. It's the first film to be screened in Iraq and a country where Hindi cinema wasn't released earlier and are conservative in their outlook.

"I am sure there (Pakistan) will be a lot of public pressure too, to kind of want to see the film because this is not a political kind of stuff. It's a simple film for humanity," said Balki.

Sharing an interaction with a central ministry official about how this film could have become the centre of controversy, Balki said: "Recently, a person from the central ministry met me and said that menstruation is the most controversial subject in India, but it actually had no controversy as a film.

"He pointed out that this film could have had a larger controversy and so many religious and political organisations could have said so many things but they didn't, and they actually supported it."

"Pad Man" tells the real life story of Arunachalam Muruganantham and how he came to inventing low cost sanitary napkins for women.

It released on February 9.New Delhi: Central investigation agencies today turned up the heat on embattled jewellery designer Nirav Modi in a huge bank fraud case, by seizing diamond and gold jewellery worth Rs 5,100 crore in nationwide searches and initiating the process for revoking his passport, officials said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) moved separate applications to the external affairs ministry seeking the revocation of passports of Modi and his maternal uncle Mehul Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali jewellery chain, both accused in the 280-crore bank fraud case the officials said.

The CBI completed the analysis of computers seized from premises linked to him and was going through the two fresh complaints received from PNB on Tuesday that it had been defrauded of Rs 11,400 crore to decide its future course of action. The day for companies and outlets owned or partnered by the 46-year-old diamond merchant, who has fled the country on January 1, began with the ED carrying out searches at properties linked to him in Mumbai, Delhi and Gujarat and claiming to have seized gold and diamond jewellery and precious stones worth Rs 5,100 crore.

As many as 17 locations in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Surat were raided by the ED after the agency filed a Rs 280-crore money laundering case against Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal and Choksi yesterday, following a complaint by the bank. ED officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said five properties belonging to Modi and the other accused in Mumbai were sealed by the agency.

The ED has also written to the Income Tax department for sharing all documents seized by it during raids on January last year from premises linked to Modi and his associates. The ED filed the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after going through a CBI FIR registered on January 31. The agency also went through the PNB complaint that was made out against Nirav Modi and others.

The ED, they said, would probe if the allegedly defrauded bank funds were laundered and these proceeds of crime were subsequently used by the accused to create illegal assets and black money. Modi, a regular feature on the lists of rich and famous Indians since 2013, was booked by the CBI, along with wife, brother and Choksi on January 31, for allegedly cheating the state-run bank to the tune of Rs 280 crore. The bank has sent two more complaints to the CBI on Tuesday, saying the scam was worth more than Rs 11,400 crore.

In a related development, the CBI officials said Modi and other members of his family, who fled the country last month, allegedly made fraudulent transactions of over Rs 11,400 crore through 150 letters of understanding issued by the bank. Modi, who holds an Indian passport, left India on January 1, while his brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, also left the country on the same day.

However, whether they travelled together has to be probed, they said. Modi's wife Ami, a US citizen, left on January 6 and his uncle Choksi departed on January 4, the officials said. The bank became suspicious only on January 16 when the accused companies  Diamond R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds (all accused in the CBI FIR)  approached it with import documents and a request to issue Letters of Understanding (LoUs) for raising buyers' credit for making payments to the overseas suppliers.

The bank, however, could not find any past entries in the system, the FIR has alleged. It approached the CBI on January 29 with a complaint of Rs 280 crore fraud, officials said. Nirav Modi, who is believed to be in Switzerland, was also present in a group photograph of Indian CEOs with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, issued by the Press Information Bureau, during the World Economic Forum on January 23, six days before the bank sent its first complaint against him to the CBI, according to the officials.

The agency immediately swung into action registering an FIR on January 31 followed by searches at 20 locations in Mumbai and Surat and issued a lookout circular on February 4 against Nirav Modi and three absconding accused, they said. A lookout circular is issued by enforcement agencies to all exit and entry ports to inform them about the movement of an accused.

The question why the PNB did not send one complaint to the CBI and decided to give separately is also under the scanner of the agency, they said. The agency is analysing the fresh complaints and will take a call whether to register fresh FIRs or expand the ambit of the existing FIR related to fraudulent transactions of worth Rs 280 crore, they said. In these cases, the bank has alleged that the LoUs were issued to Hong Kong-based branches of Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank, they said.New Delhi: A day after registering money laundering case in connection with the Rs 280-crore cheating of Punjab National Bank (PNB) by billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi, the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday conducted several raids at his offices, showrooms and residence.

Official sources said the agency sleuths swooped down on at least ten premises of entities involved in the case early morning. The premises raided by the ED in Mumbai include Modi's residence in Kurla, his jewellery boutique in Kala Ghoda area, three company locations in Bandra and Lower Parel, three premises in Surat in Gujarat and Modi's showrooms in Chanakyapuri and Defence Colony in Delhi.

Modi, 46, has been booked by the CBI for cheating after PNB sent a complaint to it alleging that the jewellery firm owner, his wife Ami, brother Nishal and uncle Mehul Choksi entered into a criminal conspiracy with the officials of the bank and cheated it, causing a "wrongful loss".

Modi, his wife, brother and Choksi are partners in Diamonds R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds.

The billionaire diamantaire, whose jewellery creations are popular among global celebrities, has two boutiques in Delhi and Mumbai. He has several boutiques worldwide including Hawaii, Las Vegas, New York, London, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Beijing, Macau and Hongkong.

State-owned PNB on yesterday said it has detected a USD 1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400 crore) scam. PNB has suspended ten officers and referred the matter to CBI for investigation.New Delhi: The Finance Ministry has asked all banks to present a status report as soon as possible following reports of state-owned Punjab National Bank detecting a USD 1.77 billion scam.

This could be the biggest banking fraud in India as its quantum was bigger than an estimated 9,000 crore scam at erstwhile Satyam computers.

The Finance Ministry has also issued a strict instruction to all banks saying that no big fish should go scot-free and no honest borrower is harassed.

PNB in a regulatory filing yesterday said, The Bank has detected some fraudulent and unauthorised transactions in one of its branch in Mumbai for the benefit of a few select account holders with their apparent connivance.

"Based on these transactions other banks appear to have advanced money to these customers abroad," it added.

While PNB did not name the other lenders, Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank are said to have offered credit based on letters of undertaking (LOUs) issued by PNB.

An LOU is a letter of comfort issued by one bank to branches of other banks, based on which foreign branches offer credit to buyers.

Foreign bank branches too are under investigation.

PNB has suspended 10 officers over the USD 1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400 crore) scam and referred the matter to CBI for investigation.

Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar has however said that this seems to be an isolated case and is not going to impact other lenders.

Talking to news agency PTI he said, "The finance ministry has taken proactive steps by asking the lender to report the matter to CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) so that action can be taken quickly."

Meanwhile, the CBI has received two complaints from the PNB against billionaire diamantaire Nirav Modi and a jewellery company alleging fraudulent transactions.

Modi, whose jewellery creations are popular among global celebrities, may face a fresh CBI probe as the agency is looking at suitable legal action to be taken in the case.

He is already being investigated by the CBI for alleged cheating and fraud involving Rs 280 crore at a PNB branch.

With PTI InputsNEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation on February 25 in his monthly radio address Mann Ki Baat programme.

This will be the 41st edition of the Mann Ki Baat programme, which will be broadcast on All India Radio (AIR), Doordarshan and also on the Narendra Modi mobile application.

Prime Minister Modi took to Twitter to ask people to share their views, ideas, and suggestions.

"What are your ideas and inputs for this month`s #MannKiBaat, which will take place on the 25th? Dial 1800-11-7800 to record your message.

You can also write on the NM App Open Forum or share your suggestions on MyGov," Prime Minister Modi tweeted.

What are your ideas and inputs for this months #MannKiBaat, which will take place on the 25th? Dial 1800-11-7800 to record your message. You can also write on the NM App Open Forum or share your suggestions on MyGov. https://t.co/6AMicNM07I  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 15, 2018

In his 40th edition of `Mann Ki Baat` Prime Minister Modi had said, "Woman power is playing a pioneering role and establishing milestones and there are no upper limits for Nari Shakti.

"It will be streamed on the YouTube channels of the Prime Minister`s Office, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and DD News.

Akashwani will broadcast the programme in regional languages immediately after the Hindi broadcast.Mann ki Baat is now available as an Alexa skill.NEW DELHI: The triple talaq bill is a step towards imposing a Uniform Civil Code and the judicial verdict on the practice is a lesson for the Muslim community that matters such as polygamy and nikah halala might similarly end up in court if reformative steps are not taken, Congress leader Salman Khurshid has said.

Khurshid, who has written a book "Triple Talaq: Examining Faith" (OUP/pp 260/Rs 316), said a bill on the subject that is pending in parliament "does not make sense" as the practice has been outlawed by the Supreme Court.

Khurshid, a former External Affairs Minister, accused the BJP-led government of pursuing a "divisive agenda."

"What is the effect of taking away triple talaq? This is what I have tried to say in my book -- that triple talaq is bad. We are not for it. It`s a silly way of giving talaq.

"But there is no difference between talaq and triple talaq, except that talaq is reversible and triple talaq is irreversible," Khurshid told IANS in an interview.

Asked if the reform on triple talaq should have come from within the Muslim community, Khurshid said: "I agree that this is something that the Muslim community, through its chosen leaders, should have addressed before the court took hold of it. And, therefore, this is a lesson about other matters that might similarly end up in court if the community does not take steps to reform."

Asked to elaborate, he said: "Polygamy is one such thing and the nikah halala is another one.

I think there are good ways of showing and explaining that both of them do not pose as great a threat to equality as is made out to be, but certainly, popular perception about them is very bad.

Therefore they should be addressed from within the community."

As per "nikah halala", a woman divorcee has to marry someone else and consummate this marriage before getting a divorce to remarry her earlier husband.

Khurshid noted that only a microscopic percentage of the Muslim community resorts to instant triple talaq and reforms normally happen if something becomes overwhelming and people think it is becoming a burden.

"If it is microscopic, it often gets overlooked, neglected. And then there were larger issues that people amongst Muslims were preoccupied with," he said

Asked if the triple talaq bill was a step towards imposing Uniform Civil Code (UCC), he said: "Yes, it certainly is."

"There is a hidden agenda or not-so-well hidden agenda, there of trying to impose (the UCC). But even (for) trying to impose it, this is a very shabby way of doing it.

You can`t impose the code on the peril of criminal culpability. If it `s to be introduced, it has to be introduced as a code and that code is not criminal. The code has to be a civilian code."

Khurshid said talaq is part of personal law and nobody has challenged it.

"It is only triple talaq that has been challenged, and the world over the understanding is that triple talaq or a talaq said three times, six times, 100 times, is only to be considered as talaq said once and talaq said once is perfectly valid and, therefore, triple talaq`s first talaq is also perfectly valid," Khurshid said.

He said the Congress is very clearly against the criminalising element in the triple talaq bill.

"To impose criminal liability in essentially a civil matter, which is the matter of a family affair, I think, is wrong.

Also on fundamental jurisprudential principles, to punish somebody for something that does not exist is against the principles of criminology," he said.

The Congress and several other opposition parties have said that the bill, which is pending in the Rajya Sabha after the Lok Sabha passed it, should be examined by a select committee.

Khurshid said even women who are against triple talaq have not come out in favour of criminalisation.

Khurshid, who assisted the court during the triple talaq hearing, said if the government is genuinely concerned about divorced women, it should provide for them irrespective of the community they belong to.

Accusing the BJP of pursuing a "silly divisive agenda" to portray Muslims as "regressive", "counter-productive for modern society" and Muslim society being divided among men and women, Khurshid said: "That is a completely wrong understanding of Muslim society."

He said the BJP was "grievously mistaken" if it thinks it will get votes of Muslim women due to the triple talaq bill. "You think Muslim women don`t watch television and see what happened to Pehlu Khan and Mohammad Akhlaq who were killed by cow vigilantes? I think it is a very myopic understanding of Muslim women."

Asked about the perception that the BJP got votes from the Muslim community in (last year`s) Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, Khurshid said: "That`s an impression they give. I have very serious doubts."

He said the government will not find the going easy on the bill as it lacks a majority in the upper house.

"They still do not have the strength to pass it in the house. They may get the strength after a year or whatever, and they just have to wait till then.

And then there will be a matter of testing it in the courts. It is not smooth sailing as they might imagine," Khurshod conteded.New Delhi: Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) 2018 answer key is now available at their official website -http://gate.iitg.ac.in/.

The candidates who applied for GATE 2018, held on February 3 and 4, can now visit the official website and check for the answer key.

Candidates are required to first log in to their account on the official website to check the answer keys.

Advantages of GATE consist of employment in PSUs (Public Sector Undertakings), direct recruitment to Group A level posts in Central Government and some other Government of India Organizations.

GATE 2018: Steps to check answer key

-Visit official website of GATE --http://gate.iitg.ac.in/

- Log in with your bona fides at http://appsgate.iitg.ac.in

- Add the required information - Enrollment ID / Email Address and Password etc

-Click on Submit

-The last step will ask to pay the fees and access the answer keys

Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is a national level examination held mutually by Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore and the seven Indian Institutes of Technology (at Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras and Roorkee).

It is a computer-based test in which candidate is asked to solve 65 questions in 3 hours.

Mostly questions are fundamental and concept based.Jind: BJP national president Amit Shah on Thursday kick-started a mega motorcycle rally in Haryana's Jind district on Thursday, which was earlier cleared by National Green Tribunal (NGT) court.

According to reports, Shah was clicked riding a bike on his way with party workers to the 'Yuva Hunkar Rally' venue in Jind.

BJP President Amit Shah on his way with party workers to 'Hunkar Rally' venue in Jind, #Haryana. pic.twitter.com/JZ3fVe32U3  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

The BJP chief is later expected to address the Yuva Hunkar Rally which will also be attended by over 1 lakh bike-borne BJP supporters.

Interestingly, ahead of the mega rally, Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar on Wednesday rode a motorcycle to review preparations for the rally and later tweeted a photo of the same.

Khattar also wished the participants of "Yuva Hunkar Rally" a happy and safe journey and adviced them to adhere to the speed limit.

The 63-old BJP leader urged the participants of the rally to wear helmets and some woolen clothes to counter the morning chill.

The Haryana Chief Minister also urged the Jat agitation leaders to withdraw their protest against the rally.

The Jat leaders had been pressing the Haryana government to give more reservation in jobs to members of their community and withdraw cases against protesters, who indulged in violence and arson during the Jat agitation in February 2016.

The National Green Tribunal, which gave a go-ahead to the rally, said that it will keep a close watch on the 'Yuva Hunkar Rally' as one lakh motorcycles will hit the roads of Jind district.

The Haryana government had assured the NGT that only motorcycles with valid Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates will be allowed in the rally.

Meanwhile, the Akhil Bhartiya Jat Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti (ABJASS) has decided to call off its proposed blockade of the bike rally.

Hundreds of security personnel, including Haryana Police and para-military forces, have been deployed in Jind, ahead of Shah's rally in view of the threat by opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) that its workers would show black flags to the BJP chief and protest against his rally.

Armed jawans could be seen in different parts of Jind and some adjoining towns, including roads leading to the venue at Pandu Pindara village, on the outskirts of the Jind city. A few companies of paramilitary forces have also reached Jind. Police and security forces have been put on alert to prevent any untoward incident taking place during the rally.

CM Khattar had personally reviewed the arrangements along with state party president Subhash Barala and Haryana BJP party in-charge Anil Jain.

The rally is being seen as an attempt by the BJP to consolidate its hold on Jind and adjoining areas. Jind is considered to be the nerve center of Haryana politics.

State BJP leader Rajiv Jain said the rally was part of 'Mission Vistaar' or to strengthen the party at the booth level and to gear up the cadre for polls.New Delhi: 'Tomb Raider', based on a popular reboot of a video game with the same name, will release in India a week before it opens in the US.

The Warner Bros. Pictures project, featuring Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, will release in India on March 9, read a statement.

In the film, audiences will see Croft going in search of her father's last known destination: a fabled tomb on a mystical island that might be somewhere off the coast of Japan.

"Tomb Raider" is directed by Roar Uthaug with Oscar-winner Graham King producing under his GK Films banner.

The film also features Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu and Nick Frost.New Delhi: Days after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had suggested that talks with Pakistan were necessary to end bloodshed in the state, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said on Thursday that talks with countries who train guns at India are not possible.

"It is baffling that some educated leaders are suggesting that we have to engage in a dialogue with one of our neighbours who is by all accounts fomenting trouble and encouraging cross-border terrorism... We cant have talks with countries that have trained their guns at us," he said without naming Pakistan.

Addressing a gathering at the Indian Council of World Affairs, Naidu said Indias love for peace is more out of a concern for the welfare of humanity and not because it is weak and incapable of fighting.

"So, our diplomacy relies on building bridges across the world with dialogue as the sole sustainable method to resolve disputes. We are open to conflicting views but we are not so open to senseless violence and irrational terrorism...We have been the pioneers in the non-aligned movement. Our alignment is with the forces of peace and non-violence," he said.

The Vice President also said the present government has recognised the importance of states in its foreign policy as well as security, trade and economic relations with the neighbouring countries.

J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti pitches for talks with Pakistan:

On February 12, 2018, Mufti had pitched afresh for a dialogue between India and Pakistan to end the violence in the restive state.

The CM had also hit out at some media houses, which, she claimed, have created an atmosphere in which the very talk of talks was considered anti-national.

"If Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti say hold talks with Pakistan, they are dubbed anti-national. There is no alternative (to resolve the issue) except by holding talks," Mehbooba had told the state Assembly on the concluding day of the Budget Session.

"If we (the Kashmiris) don't talk about it (dialogue), who will? Not a Bihari, not a Punjabi," she had said. "Dialogue with Pakistan is necessary if we are to end bloodshed. I know I will be labelled anti-national by news anchors but that doesn't matter. The people of J&K are suffering. We have to talk because war is not an option," she had later tweeted.

Dialogue with Pakistan is necessary if we are to end bloodshed. I know I will be labelled anti-national by news anchors tonight but that doesnt matter. The people of J&K are suffering. We have to talk because war is not an option.  Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) February 12, 2018

Her remarks came after Jaish-e-Mohammad militants attacked an Army camp in Sunjwan area of Jammu on February 10, 2018, killing six people including five soldiers. Three militants were also killed in retaliation by the Army.

And on February 12, 2018, a CRPF constable was killed in a gunfight with terrorists in downtown Srinagar after security forces foiled militants' attempts to strike a CRPF camp.

(With PTI inputs)Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has questioned the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government amid reports of billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi, who is under Enforcement Directorate scanner over Rs 280 crore fraud at Punjab National Bank.

Taking to Twitter on Thursday, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said, Is it possible to believe that he (Nirav Modi) or Vijay Mallya left the country without active connivance of BJP govt?

This came even as the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday conducted raids at Modis residence and offices in Mumbai.

Official sources said the agency sleuths swooped down on at least ten premises of entities involved in the case early morning. The premises raided by the ED in Mumbai include Modi's residence in Kurla, his jewellery boutique in Kala Ghoda area, three company locations in Bandra and Lower Parel, three premises in Surat in Gujarat and Modi's showrooms in Chanakyapuri and Defence Colony in Delhi.

Modi, 46, has been booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for cheating after PNB sent a complaint to it alleging that the jewellery firm owner, his brother Nishal, wife Ami, and one Mehul Choksi entered into a criminal conspiracy with the officials of the bank and cheated it, causing a "wrongful loss".

The billionaire diamantaire, whose jewellery creations are popular among global celebrities, has two boutiques in Delhi and Mumbai. He has several boutiques worldwide including Hawaii, Las Vegas, New York, London, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Beijing, Macau and Hongkong.

State-owned PNB on Wednesday said it had detected a USD 1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400 crore) scam. PNB has suspended ten officers and referred the matter to CBI for investigation.

(With PTI Inputs)Amid the controversy over no minister from Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government attending the last rites of slain CRPF jawan Mujahid Khan, one of his ministers has justified the absence of ministers. Speaking to news agency ANI, Bihar minister Vinod Singh asked if his attending the last rites of the jawan would have made the martyr alive again.

Kal hi jaake kya fayda hota? Maine dil se unko salute kiya hai, aur kal hi jaake kya hum unko zinda kar dete? (What would have been the benefit of our going there yesterday? I have saluted him from my heart. Would the martyr have been alive again had we gone there?) said the minister.

Bihar Minister Vinod Singh talks about not being present for the last rites of CRPF's Mujahid Khan (lost his life in Srinagar's Karan Nagar), says, 'kal hi jaake kya fayda hota, maine dil se unko salute kiya hai, aur kal hi jaake kya hum unko zinda kar dete?' pic.twitter.com/r4Tt5KImyb  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

When asked about the controversy, the agitated minister said, Dont you know how far Katihar is from Piro? I covered a distance of 400 km to be here today and I am going to meet the bereaved family of the martyr.

This comes a day after the family of the CRPF jawan, who died fighting militants in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, turned down a cheque of Rs 5 lakh from the Bihar government, saying it was "demeaning" as Army personnel killed in such incidents get Rs 11 lakh.

The cheque was given to Khan's family in Bhojpur district's Piro Tehsil where the slain CRPF constable's body was brought on Wednesday morning and the funeral held with full police honours.

All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen Party (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi had attacked the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar for not visiting the family of the martyr. "Mujahid Khan - a constable of CRPF, a resident of Bihar, Piro district Ara - not a single minister of Nitish Kumar visited the deceased family," Lok Sabha MP from Hyderabad had tweeted.

Khan was killed in a gunbattle with militants who had attacked the camp of the CRPF's 23rd Battalion at Karan Nagar in Srinagar.NEW DELHI: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over reports that billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi, who is under Enforcement Directorate scanner for a multi-crore fraud, has fled India. Taking potshots at the Modi, he tweeted a 'guide to loot India'.

Rahul tweeted: "Guide to Looting India by Nirav MODI

1. Hug PM Modi

2. Be seen with him in DAVOS

Use that clout to:

A. Steal 12,000Cr

B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the Govt looks the other way."

Guide to Looting India

by Nirav MODI 1. Hug PM Modi

2. Be seen with him in DAVOS Use that clout to: A. Steal 12,000Cr

B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the Govt looks the other way. #From1MODI2another  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 15, 2018

Earlier in the day, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had also hinted at the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) role in the fraud. "Is it possible to believe that he (Nirav Modi) or Vijay Mallya left the country without active connivance of BJP govt?," the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader tweeted.

Modi has been booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for cheating after PNB sent a complaint to it alleging that the jewellery firm owner, his brother Nishal, wife Ami, and one Mehul Choksi entered into a criminal conspiracy with the officials of the bank and cheated it, causing a "wrongful loss".

The ED also went through the PNB complaint that was made out against Modi and others. The agency would probe if the allegedly defrauded bank funds were laundered and these proceeds of crime were subsequently used by the accused to create illegal assets and black money.

The Enforcement Directorate has conducted raids on at least ten premises of entities involved in the case, including the jeweller's residence and offices in Mumbai. The premises raided by the ED in Mumbai include Modi's residence in Kurla, his jewellery boutique in Kala Ghoda area, three company locations in Bandra and Lower Parel, three premises in Surat in Gujarat and Modi's showrooms in Chanakyapuri and Defence Colony in Delhi.

State-owned PNB had on Wednesday said that it has detected Rs 11,400 crore scam. Thereafter, it has suspended ten officers and referred the matter to CBI for investigation.Hyderabad/New Delhi: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived in Hyderabad on Thursday for a three-day India trip during which he will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He was received by Union Minister of State for Power RK Singh and Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan at the Begumpet airport in Hyderabad.

Rouhani is expected to hold talks on trade and connectivity, including the strategically-important Chabahar port with PM Modi.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrives in Telangana's Hyderabad. He will offer Friday prayers at Makkah Masjid tomorrow. He will also visit Golconda Fort and Salar Jung Museum. pic.twitter.com/gYBZibYbYu  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

The two sides are also looking at inking a number of pacts in several key areas apart from exploring the scope of cooperation in fields such as health and traditional medicine during the visit, which is part of India's continued regional engagement, official sources said, as per PTI.

Rouhani is accompanied by ministers of foreign affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif, petroleum Bijan Zangeneh, road and urban development Mohammad Akhundi and industry Mohammad Shariatmadari, as per reports. A large delegation of businessmen are also said to be part of the President's delegation.

During PM Modi's bilateral visit to Iran in 2016, nearly a dozen pacts were signed between the two countries.

The Trilateral Transit Agreement (Chabahar Agreement) was also signed by transport ministers of India, Iran and Afghanistan in the presence of PM Modi, Rouhani and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

The contract entails capital investment of USD 85 million by India for equipping Chabahar port in southeastern Iran. "Today, we are witnessing a creation of history... Not just for the people of our three countries, but for the entire region, PM Modi had said at that time.

"The agenda for economic engagement is a clear priority for us. We stand together in unity of our purpose," he had added.

On his part, President Rouhani had said that through this agreement, Tehran, Delhi and Kabul have sent the message that the path of progress can be achieved through cooperation and utilisation of regional resources.

President @ashrafghani:100 years from now historians will remember this day as the start of regional cooperation pic.twitter.com/EEfU38AgyO  Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) May 23, 2016

Discussed India-Iran ties with President Rouhani. His leadership & clarity of vision is extremely impressive. pic.twitter.com/HVNZppH1Nr  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 23, 2016

India and Iran have robust economic and commercial ties covering many sectors though it has traditionally been dominated by the import of Iranian crude oil by India.

According to the External Affairs Ministry, India-Iran bilateral trade during the fiscal year 2016-17 was USD 12.89 billion. India imported USD 10.5 billion worth of goods, mainly crude oil and exported commodities worth USD 2.4 billion.

(With PTI inputs)Here is what is making headlines today:

JeM, LeT synchronised recent attacks in J&K; over 300 terrorists ready to enter India, warns Army

The near-simultaneous strikes in Jammu and Kashmir regions were executed to possibly divide the attention of the security agencies and counter-forces, the Army said. Read more.

Pakistan slipping out of US grip into China's orbit, warn intelligence agencies

Seventeen US intelligence agencies have warned Congress that Pakistan will continue to slip out of Americas influence and into Chinas orbit in 2019, and will become a threat to Washingtons interests in the South Asian region, states a report. Read more.

PNB fraud: Finance Ministry asks all banks to present status report as soon as possible

This could be the biggest banking fraud in India as its quantum was bigger than an estimated 9,000 crore scam at erstwhile Satyam computers. Read more.

Jio effect: BSNL offers unlimited calls, 1GB data/day for 1 year at Rs 999

Under the BSNL plan called 'Maximum' prepaid plan, users in India will get unlimited data access for 365 days and unlimited voice calls (Local and STD) for 181 days at Rs 999. Read more.

As Priya Prakash Varrier's song goes viral, 'Oru Adaar Love' director says 'won't delete any scene'

The director of the Malyalam movie 'Oru Adaar Love', which features a controversial song picturised on actress Priya Prakash Varrier, has said that no scene will be deleted from the movie. Read more.NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has hit out at the Congress for claiming that billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi, allegedly involved in the multi-crore Punjab National Bank scam, had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Davos. Dismissing the claims, Ravi Shankar Prasad said: "Nirav Modi did not meet PM Modi at Davos. Nirav Modi had arrived in Davos on his own and was present at CII group photo event," Prasad said.

Hitting out at the Congress, he said that the party should end playing politics over photographs. "Many good and cosy photographs of many of the Congress leaders with Mehul Choksi is available with us, but we don't want to stoop to that level," he added.

His statement comes after Congress President Rahul Gandhi claimed that Nirav Modi was in Davis with the Prime Minister. Rahul had tweeted: "Guide to Looting India by Nirav MODI

1. Hug PM Modi

2. Be seen with him in DAVOS

Use that clout to:

A. Steal 12,000Cr

B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the Govt looks the other way.

The Congress has also alleged that a whistleblower had alerted the government in 2016 about the banking fraud by Nirav Modi but the Prime Minister and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley ignored the tip. "What does the Prime Minister do? Nothing. What does the Finance Ministry do? Nothing. What does the Corporate Affairs Ministry do? Nothing. What does the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Finance Ministry do? Nothing," Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.

Calling Nirav "chhota Modi", he added that he was part of a delegation travelling with Prime Minister Modi despite "the complaint against him". The BJP has called the jibe derogatory and demeaning.Jerusalem: Tata Sons has termed the media reports that its chairman Ratan Tata has been named in a corruption case involving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as "factually incorrect".

The clarification from the Tata Sons came after media reports claimed that its chairman Ratan Tata's name figures in the Israeli Police's recommendations seeking to indict Netanyahu on bribery and breach of trust charges in two corruption cases.

In a statement, Tata Sons said, ''the media report about Rata Tata is factually incorrect.''

The Israeli Police made this recommendation after a year-long investigation into allegations that PM Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, accepted gifts from Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer.

There were suspicions that the Israeli leader also offered to give preferential treatment to a newspaper publisher in exchange for favorable coverage.

Ratan Tata is alleged to have been part of a project that Netanyahu tried to push forward to help Milchan, reports said.

The project, which came under the scanner, would have generated both Milchan and Tata a huge profit, the reports said.

However, the project was later scrapped because of its escalating cost to the Israeli government.

"According to the Israeli Police, the most glaring example of Netanyahu working against Israel's interests to benefit Milchan was his efforts (to) promote a free trade zone on the Israel-Jordan border, a project the Hollywood producer sought to promote as part of his partnership with Indian Industrialist Ratan Naval Tata," Ynetnews had reported.

Israeli media too reported that the renowned Indian industrialist had also testified before the Israeli Police in connection to these allegations in October-November 2016.

However, Tata Sons issued a statement saying the ''the reports in Israeli media on the contents of the meeting between Ratan Tata and the Israeli officials are 'factually incorrect' and appear to have been motivated".A day after reports of an Army officer being detained in Jabalpur over alleged honey trap by Pakistans spy agency ISI, a senior official of the Indian Army has said that the Lieutenant Colonel would continue to perform his routine duties in unit as he was only questioned as part of an ongoing enquiry.

The senior official said that reports of detention of officer, honey trapping and money exchange at this stage are pure speculation and neither accurate nor substantiated. He added, Details on the outcome of the enquiry will be intimated in due course as per progress.

According to him, a preliminary enquiry was ordered on February 12 by the Indian Army to ascertain facts on suspected leakage of classified information from IT devices of the Lieutenant

Colonel in Jabalpur. It is yet to be established whether it has happened inadvertently or deliberately as reported, said the senior Army official.

He added that digital evidence related to the case has been seized and sent for further forensic analysis.

On Wednesday, Defence PRO, Allahabad, Wing Commander Arvind Sinha had said that the officer was being questioned "after he was picked up from Jabalpur by the Army HQ team last (Tuesday) night".

The officer, however, refused to disclose details. "We are not in a position to clarify the exact reason behind this episode at present," Wing Commander Sinha said when asked whether it was a case of honey trap.

"The officer is being questioned and is under grilling at present," the PRO had said. The officer also refused to share whether the Lt. Colonel was taken to Lucknow for further questioning or is in Jabalpur.

The Lt Colonel has reportedly been accused of transferring crucial and confidential information of the Indian army to Pakistan's ISI. According to reports, the detained armyman allegedly got into a honey trap by Pakistans spy agency ISI and shared information that were confidential.JORHAT: Two personnel of the Indian Air Force (IAF) were killed after a microlight aircraft crashed near Jorhat in Assam on Thursday. The aircraft was on a routine sortie when the crash took place. Reports suggest that the two were riding microlight plane Virus SW80.

The crash happened soon after the aircraft took off from Jorhat air base around noon. Both the pilots were reportedly Wing Commanders of the IAF.

The incident took place at Sumoimari Chapori, a police officer said, adding that the two personnel were on their way to Majuli.

There are no details as yet on how the mishap took place. However, it is suspected that the crash took place due to technical reasons. A court of inquiry has been ordered in connection with the crash.

The wreckage of the aircraft has been sighted near Sumoimari village near Majuli river island.NEW DELHI: A war of words is on between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress after billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi, allegedly involved in the multi-crore Punjab National Bank scam, fled the country. Agitated over the manner in which the Congress is attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Central government, the BJP said it was derogatory and demeaning. "What is this word 'Chhota Modi'? BJP takes strong offence to the kind of language being used by describing someone like that. It is derogatory, scandalous and demeaning," Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Prasad also claimed that contrary to the Congress claims, the PM did not meet Nirav Modi at Davos. "Nirav Modi did not meet PM Modi at Davos. Nirav Modi had arrived in Davos on his own and was present at CII group photo event," Prasad said.

Hitting out at the Congress, he said that the party should end playing politics over photographs. "Many good and cosy photographs of many of the Congress leaders with Mehul Choksi is available with us, but we don't want to stoop to that level," he added.

Nirav Modi was booked by the CBI for cheating after the Punjab National Bank (PNB) sent a complaint to it alleging that the jewellery firm owner, his brother Nishal, wife Ami and Mehul Choksi entered into a criminal conspiracy with the officials of the bank and cheated it, causing a "wrongful loss". State-owned PNB on Wednesday said it has detected Rs 11,400 crore scam.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also blamed the UPA government for the massive fraud and said action will be taken against those responsible. "Whatever is coming out is the result of the previous UPA government. This happened in UPA's time and had been kept suppressed. It is their gift. In fact, we have brought it out. There will be action definitely," Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

The Congress had alleged that a whistleblower had alerted the government in 2016 about the banking fraud by Nirav Modi but the Prime Minister and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley ignored the tip. Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said whistleblower Hari Prasad had written to the Prime Minister's Office as early as July 2016, alerting the government about the "biggest bank loot scam in 70 years" in independent India.

"What does the Prime Minister do? Nothing. What does the Finance Ministry do? Nothing. What does the Corporate Affairs Ministry do? Nothing. What does the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Finance Ministry do? Nothing," Surjewala had said.

"You are in power, a fraud is happening under your nose. What were you doing and how did they let the accused escape? Face the truth and answer questions," he added.

He had said "chhota Modi" was part of a delegation travelling with Prime Minister Modi despite "the complaint against him".In a shocking incident, a Garib Rath train going from Amritsar in Punjab to Saharsa in Bihar reportedly went missing for a few hours only to be discovered later that it had travelled on a wrong route. According to reports, the authorities could find out about the whereabouts of the train only after almost two hours.

The train was scheduled to go to Morababad in Uttar Pradesh, but from Ghaziabad junction, it was diverted towards Aligarh. The driver realised that he was on a wrong route only after one-and-a-half hours of travel towards Aligarh. He stopped the train immediately and avoided any untoward incident that could have occurred.

Amritsar-Saharsa Garib Rath reportedly reached Ghaziabad junction at around 1.30 pm, following which its route was mistakenly diverted.

After getting information from the train driver, authorities rushed to the spot and later managed to bring the train back to Ghaziabad junction. The train then moved towards Moradabad.

Reports said that the Indian Railways has initiated an inquiry into the incident.Vienna: Authorities investigating a suspected bitcoin-related scam centred in Austria have asked Interpol to help determine whether there might be perpetrators-and victims-of the scheme across Europe.

"Hundreds" of people across Austria have complained of being defrauded by the "Optioment" scheme dealing in the digital currency, Christina Ratz, spokesperson for the Vienna public prosecutor's office, told AFP on Thursday.

Die Presse, a daily, put the number of possible victims as high as 10,000. Two Austrians have been identified as being accused of fraud in the case, with more suspects possible as the case progresses, Ratz said.

Investors were promised returns of up to four percent per week for investing bitcoins into the opaque scheme, which initially did offer dividends before suddenly collapsing in November.

In January Austria's financial market watchdog brought Optioment to the attention of prosecutors, saying it suspected fraud, a pyramid scheme or violations of capital markets regulations.

The scheme appears to have used "multi-level marketing" in order to grow, with investors encouraged to find new clients themselves.

"I got my whole family involved. We put around 50 bitcoins in. The money`s gone. I`m sure of it," one young woman told a joint investigation by Die Presse and the public ORF TV station.

Another investor recalled an event promoting the scheme at the Pyramide hotel in Voesendorf, just south of Vienna: "They ran on stage and started running around, they were playing air guitar. It felt like a cult".

Reports of the number of bitcoins invested in the scheme go as high as 12,000, worth around 95 million euros at current value, or more than double that at the peak of the boom in the currency.

Lawyers acting for the Austrians identified as the frontmen for the scheme issued a statement saying their clients did not handle any cash or bitcoins themselves, Die Presse reports.

The paper reported the men as saying that they were themselves defrauded by two mysterious figures behind the scheme, a Danish man, Lucas M., and a Latvian, Alex P.Jammu: Amid reports indicating that the recent attacks at an Army camp at Sunjuwan in Jammu and a CRPF camp at Karan Nagar in Srinagar were synchronised by Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Army has warned that more than 300 terrorists are waiting to infiltrate into India from across the Line of Control (LoC).

The warning comes after the investigation suggested that the JeM and LeT synchronised the two attacks to hit security forces simultaneously in the two regions.

''The Jammu mission was assigned to Jaish, while the LeT was chosen to execute the Srinagar strike,'' a senior official of the J&K Police was quoted as saying by media reports.

The near-simultaneous strikes in Jammu and Kashmir regions were executed to possibly divide the attention of the security agencies and counter-forces, he added. All the five terrorists involved in the two strikes - 3 in Jammu and 2 in Srinagar - were Pakistani nationals.

Meanwhile, Lt Gen Devraj Anbu has issued a fresh warning, saying more than 300 militants are waiting across the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan to infiltrate into India.

Devraj Anbu added that the Pakistan Army had played a key role in planning terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.

Addressing a press briefing at the Udhampur headquarters of the Army's Northern Command, Anbu said, ''(A total of) 185-220 terrorists in the south and 190-225 terrorists in the north of Peer Panjal are ... ready for infiltration."

The officer said the Pakistan Army had a direct role in planning terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan.

Asked about possible Indian retaliation against the terror attack on the Sunjuwan Army camp in the state, he said, "Operating along the LoC is quite complex and challenging. I do not feel that we really need to do tit for tat."

"We plan our strategy and we will continue with this," he said.

Speaking on ceasefire violations by Pakistan, he said 192 Pakistani soldiers were killed in Indian retaliation.

"They admitted only six or seven deaths in two incidents, but our sources said that number is big," he said.

(With Agency inputs)Jammu: The security forces on Thursday foiled an infiltration bid by the Pakistani-backed terrorists on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district.

According to ANI, a highly vigilant security personnel noticed suspicious movements in Balakote area of the LoC early this morning and retaliated in equal measures.

"Troops fired and the group of intruding terrorists was forced to withdraw back into the Pakistani side. A search operation is now going on in the area," the defence sources said.

The Pakistani Army had violated ceasefire in Nowshera sector of the LoC in Rajouri district on Wednesday too.

"At around 7 pm, using small arms, automatics and mortars they violated ceasefire. But our positions retaliated effectively and strongly," the sources added.

However, no casualty or damage was reported on the Indian side.

In a related development, the Army today warned that over 300 Pakistan-trained terrorists are ready to enter India at an opportune time.

The warning came from Lt Gen Devraj Anbu who said that more than 300 militants are waiting across the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan to infiltrate into India.

Devraj Anbu added that the Pakistan Army had played a key role in planning terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.

The warning came in the wake of reports that the recent attacks at an Army camp at Sunjuwan in Jammu and a CRPF camp at Karan Nagar in Srinagar were synchronised by Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba,

The intelligence sources alleged that the JeM and LeT had synchronised the two attacks to hit security forces simultaneously in the two regions.

''The Jammu mission was assigned to Jaish, while the LeT was chosen to execute the Srinagar strike,'' a senior official of the J&K Police was quoted as saying by media reports.

The near-simultaneous strikes in Jammu and Kashmir regions were executed to possibly divide the attention of the security agencies and counter-forces, he added.

All the five terrorists involved in the two strikes - 3 in Jammu and 2 in Srinagar - were Pakistani nationals and killed in the ensuing operation by the India Army.RANCHI: A Jharkhand man travelled across 65 villages on a bicycle in search of his mentally unstable wife.

A daily wage labourer from Jharkhand, Manohar has been married to Anita for the last 16 years. The couple has a 14-year-old son.

Anita, along with her son, went to visit her paternal home Kumrasole village in the Paschim Medinipur district. On January 11, she stepped out of home but lost her way.

Manohar, who at the time worked in Odisha, immediately quit his job and started looking for his wife. He filed two missing diaries at Dumaria and Musabani police stations near Kumrasole village.

Instead of waiting for police action, he then took out his old cycle, repaired it, and went on this massive voyage to find Anita. Alongwith, he carried her photograph and got her missing report published in local newspapers.

Finally, someone recognised Anita from the newspaper pictures and took her to Kharagpur police station. The cops then contacted the Musabani police station, who in turn informed Manohar.

Manohar, who was at Ghatsila in East Singhbhum, at the time, pedalled all the way to Kharagpur and met his wife.

Anita had wandered for over 120 km along National Highway 6 towards Kolkata.KOZHIKODE: A woman in Kozhikode in Kerala was forced to undergo an abortion after she was allegedly kicked in the stomach by a Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader. Police have registered a case in connection with the incident.

The 30-year-old woman was reportedly four months pregnant when she faced the assault. The incident took place when the woman tried to intervene in an argument which between her husband and a neighbour at her house. She reportedly said that she spoke up in the fight when two men started assaulting her husband. One of these men was a local CPI(M) leader.

While she was trying to mediate, she was kicked in the stomach and she started bleeding. She was taken to a hospital but the baby had to be aborted.

One person has been arrested in connection with the case however the main accused is still absconding. The victim's family has been claiming that they are being pressured by local CPI(M) workers not to disclose the identity of the accused.

They are also being asked to withdraw the case. However, the family is adamant that they will fight the case till the end. They have been holding protests outside the police station to keep up the pressure for a probe.

Meanwhile, CPI(M) workers have denied any role of their leader in any such incident.New Delhi: Is rape worth Rs 6,500? That's how a shocked Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Madhya Pradesh government while questioning the state whether it was doing a "charity" by giving this meagre amount to the victims of sexual assaults.

The apex court said it was shocking that Madhya Pradesh, which was among the states which had received maximum funds from the Centre under the Nirbhaya fund scheme, was disbursing Rs 6,000-6,500 only to each rape victim.

The Nirbhaya Fund scheme was announced by the Centre in 2013 after the sensational December 16, 2012, gang-rape and murder case in Delhi to support the initiatives of governments and the NGOs working for women's safety.

A bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta, while perusing the affidavit filed by Madhya Pradesh, said, "According to you (Madhya Pradesh) and your affidavit, on an average, you are paying Rs 6,000 to a rape victim. Are you doing a charity? How can you do so... You value a rape at Rs 6,500?"

"For Madhya Pradesh, the figures are fantastic. There are 1,951 rape victims in Madhya Pradesh and you are giving them Rs 6,000-Rs 6,500 each. Is that good, commendable? What is this," the bench asked, adding, "this is total insensitiveness".

The bench termed it "shocking" that despite getting the maximum amount under the Nirbhaya Fund, the state had only spent around Rs one crore on 1,951 rape victims.

The Haryana government also faced the wrath of the top court today for not filing its affidavit giving details about Nirbhaya Fund.

The court had last month directed all states and union territories (UTs) to file an affidavit indicating the amount received by them under the Nirbhaya Fund towards victim compensation, amount disbursed by them under the scheme and the number of victims of sexual assault. As many as 24 states and UTs are yet to file their affidavits.

During the hearing, when Haryana's counsel said they would file their affidavit, the bench observed, "If you have not filed affidavit, it is a very clear indication of what you feel for safety of women in your state".

"You take your time and tell the women in your state that you do not care for them," the bench said while observing that 24 states and UTs have not yet filed their affidavit as per the court's direction.

When the counsel representing one of the petitioners told the bench that they have so far received only one affidavit filed on behalf of Sikkim, the bench asked, "is this becoming a joke? If you are not interested in this case, tell us. On what basis you are saying that only one state has filed affidavit. You do not even see the office report?".

The counsel for Meghalaya told the bench that they have disbursed around Rs 30.55 lakh to 48 victims of sexual assault.

In its order, the bench noted that despite all talks, discussions and intent expressed on gender justice, 24 states and UTs have not yet filed their affidavits.

It asked these states and UTs to file their affidavits within four weeks, "if at all they were interested" in the welfare of women.

Earlier, the Centre had told the apex court that it was finding it difficult to get the cooperation of states on the issue relating to disbursal of compensation to the victims of sexual assault under the Nirbhaya scheme.

Six petitions were filed in the Supreme Court after the gangrape case in Delhi on December 16, 2012, raising concerns over the safety and security of women.

All the petitions were tagged by the apex court and several directions have been issued from time to time in this regard.Mumbai: Days after Shiv Sena said that it will contest future elections alone, its president Uddhav Thackeray is scheduled to meet Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at the latters residence on Thursday.

This is probably the first time that the Shiv Sena chief will be meeting Fadnavis after it said that there were no chances of any reconciliation with the BJP.

According to reports, the duo is likely to have a closed-door, one-on-one meeting.

The Shiv Sena is likely to meet the Chief Minister along with a delegation of local residents from Ratnagiri district who are opposing an upcoming oil refinery in the area.

Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray to today meet CM Devendra Fadnavis with delegation of locals from Ratnagiri district who are opposing an upcoming oil refinery in the area (file pics) #Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/0kUt6vumO5  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

The Nannar oil refinery has become a point of contention between the two old NDA allies.

The Shiv Sena, which is opposed to the refinery in coastal Maharashtras Ratnagiri district, had assured the residents of its full support on the issue.

The meeting between Uddhav Thackeray and Fadnavis will take place at 7 pm, with the first round being about the refinery.

After that, both Thackeray and Fadnavis are likely to hold the private, closed-door consultation.

This comes days after the Shiv Sena said that there was no possibility of a reconciliation with the BJP.

It said that the party is firm on fighting the coming elections single-handedly.

BJP's estranged ally Shiv Sena had in the recent past taken post shots at the Narendra Modi government over a wide range of issues from demonetisation, rising unemployment, string of terrorist attacks to the saffron party's 'pakoda' politics.

Giving a piece of advice to the ruling BJP, Shiv Sena Member of Parliament (MP) Sanjay Raut had recently said, "In Jammu and Kashmir, soldiers are being killed on a daily basis, even hospital are being attacked. But we talk about fritters (pakoda) here.''

Cautioning the Narendra Modi government, Raut said that ''if we don't take these issues seriously, very soon everyone will start frying 'pakoda' in Delhi.''

Raut made these remarks days after senior Congress leader and former Union minister P Chidambaram took pot shots at the Narendra Modi government over its tall claims on job creation and said that the present dispensation is completely ''clueless'' on the issue.

(With Agency inputs)AGARTALA: With just three days to go for Tripura Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address two election rallies in the state on Thursday. Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members are also expected to join the PM in these rallies.

The Prime Minister will address rallies in Santirbazar of South Tripura and Agartala of West Tripura districts.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also visit Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh and participate in three programmes, including the inauguration of the Dorjee Khandu state convention centre in Itanagar.

The Prime Minister will also dedicate the state civil secretariat building to the nation and will lay the foundation stone of the academic block of the Tomo Riba institute of health and medical science.

Earlier, Tripura BJP chief Biplab Deb said the Modi government will act like a "father figure" to help the poor state stand on its feet and fulfil the party's campaign promises if the party comes to power.

He accused the Left Front of running a Sarkar's sarkar  a reference to Chief Minister Manik Sarkar  and not people's 'sarkar' (government), leading to the high unemployment rate and lack of development.

Meanwhile, Congress Party claimed the PM would he use his visit to announce numerous sops.

"He would be giving lip service this time too amounting to `empty vessel sounds much` as 2018-19 Budget has already been presented," Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee president Takam Sanjoy, flanked by his predecessor Padi Richo, told press persons at the Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan here on Tuesday.

With agency inputsThiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday alleged that the BJP, which has joined hands with an "anti-national divisive outfit" in Tripura for the assembly polls, was "violently attacking" CPI(M) workers.

"Tripura is witnessing an unholy alliance by the BJP that makes tall talk on nationalism while joining hands with a regional outfit of anti-national divisive forces," Vijayan said in a Facebook post.

This alliance is resorting to "violent attacks on CPI(M) workers. But they will not succeed in their nefarious plans," he said.

"The BJP in Tripura comprises discredited and corrupt defectors from the Congress party. People of Tripura will no doubt reject this anti-people, anti-peace alliance," the chief minister said.

He also expressed confidence that voters in Tripura would once again elect the left front with a thumping majority in the assembly polls.

"Tripura is a symbol of peace, harmony and unity of people across religions, tribal and non-tribal, in a region beset with ethnic differences," Vijayan said.

This has been possible because of the policies of the Left front Government led by Manik Sarkar, which enabled progress in all fields, he said.

People of Kerala and the country as a whole are looking to the people of Tripura to sound the first bell of the defeat of BJP in the coming elections which will be repeated all over India, the chief minister added.AGARTALA: The Assembly polls in Tripura on Sunday will see 23 women contesting, including two pitted against Chief Minister Manik Sarkar.

The northeastern state has also seen a marked rise in the percentage of women voters -- touted as the highest in the country so far.

Of the national parties, the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has this time fielded seven women candidates, followed by Congress with five, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with four while the Trinamool Congress has fielded two women.

The Tripura Assembly has 60 members.

The 23 women are among 297 contenders in the fray for the February 18 Tripura polls.

The previous assembly elections in 2013 saw 15 women contesting, of whom five won while seven forfeited their deposits.

In the 2008 assembly polls, 31 women had contested, of whom three won while 22 forfeited their deposits.

Chief Minister and CPI-M politburo member Manik Sarkar is pitted against two women in his Dhanpur assembly constituency (in western Tripura) -- BJP`s Pratima Bhoumik and Congress` Laxmi Nag (Barman), who was also a minister in the erstwhile Congress ministry (1972-1977).

In the outgoing Tripura council of ministers, out of 12 ministers, one is a woman.

In the 2013 and 2008 assembly polls, women in Tripura scripted a record in the electoral history in India by casting 92.94 per cent and 91.72 per cent votes, respectively, against the 90.73 percent and 90.74 percent of their male counterparts.

Tripura Election Department`s brand ambassador and ace gymnast Dipa Karmakar, who narrowly missed out on a bronze medal in the women`s vault event at the Rio Olympics in Brazil in 2016, told IANS: "Unlike other parts of India and the northeastern states, Tripura women are not only conscious about political and political issues but also aware of education, health and socio-economic matters."

Karmakar, 25, urged women to come out in bigger numbers to participate in politics and in important governing bodies to empower other women.

Noted social activist and Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar`s wife Panchali Bhattacharya said that women of Tripura, including those from the tribal and Scheduled Caste communities, are more politically conscious than in other parts of India.

"Due to the Left Front government`s woman-friendly series of initiatives, women are empowered on all fronts and platforms.

Tripura is one of the few leading states in the country that has reserved 50 per cent seats for women in local government bodies," said Bhattacharya, 67, a Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) Vice-President and convenor of Working Women`s Forum.

Bhattacharya, who had worked as a government official in the central social welfare board for more than 30 years, said that women are fully protected and secure in Tripura and the gender ratio in the electoral rolls, population, government services, and literacy is much better than in other states.

The final electoral rolls of Tripura, published on January 5, shows a record increase in the gender ratio among voters in the state -- at 971 females to 1,000 males.

"Though I have no exact data readily available, the sex ratio of Tripura in the electoral rolls is much higher than the national average and most states in India," Tripura Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sriram Taranikanti told IANS.

In last year`s electoral rolls in Tripura, there were 965 female voters for every 1,000 males.

According to Tripura`s electoral rolls, there are a total of 25,79,060 voters, including 12,67,785 females -- an increase of 2.52 percent from last year.

In eight of the 60 Tripura assembly constituencies, women voters outnumber men --- Agartala, Ramnagar, Town Bardowali, Banamalipur, Teliamura, Ampinagar, Pabiachara, Dharmanagar.

The Tripura government reserved 50 per cent seats and posts for women many years ago in local bodies -- with the result that today in many Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samities, Zilla Parishads, Municipal Councils and Agartala Municipal Corporation, the percentage of women is higher than men.

Union Information and Broadcasting and Textile Minister Smriti Irani, who was here to campaign for the forthcoming polls, feels that women in Tripura are unsafe under the Left rule.

"It is a matter of grave concern that crime against women is very high in Tripura. My sisters and mothers are not getting justice here because law enforcing agencies are not women-friendly. Otherwise, women would be much more empowered," Irani told IANS.

However, Tripura`s lone woman minister (in-charge of social welfare department) Bijita Nath strongly refuted Irani`s contention. "Irani`s views are politically motivated, and not based on facts," Nath told IANS.

Former Congress Minister and veteran woman leader Laxmi Nag, 68, said that women of Tripura are very aware of all socio-economic and political issues.

"Since Tripura joined the Indian Union in October 1949, successive governments, irrespective of political parties, have helped to empower women in the political and societal sectors," Nag, who is contesting against the Chief Minister in DhanpurKohima: Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang on Wednesday exuded confidence that the NPF will return to power and said the party has not shut doors to the BJP to return into the partnership after February 27 elections. He, however, ruled out any possibility of alliance with the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) even in the case of a hung Assembly.

Interacting with reporters after launching campaign for the Naga People's Front (NPF) Kohima division here, Zeliang said his party NPF and the National People's Party (NPP) entered into an alliance agreement on Monday while things are also being worked out with the JD(U) to form the next government together.

The BJP has tied up with the newly-formed Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) led by former chief minister Neiphiu Rio. The BJP has fielded candidates in 20 seats while the NDPP candidates are fighting on the rest of the 40 seats. Rio had left the NPF to form the NDPP last year.

"There will not be a hung Assembly, and even if it happens there is no possibility of the newly-floated Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party coming together with the NPF," Zeliang said.

Over the BJP, Zeliang said, "We have not closed the doors because our partnership still continues as presently also there are two ministers and one adviser to the chief minister of the BJP in the NPF-led DAN government". "It is on their (BJP) request that we revoked the decision of severing ties, so our alliance continues and it is up to them to decide," he said.

"The door is open and unless they walk away from us, we will continue to have alliance," Zeliang said.

Over Rio forming the NDPP, he said, "I am happy that he has gone away from us, because if we remain together we will always fight but now he is in a different camp." NPF President Shurhozelie Liezietsu, who also addressed the gathering, said, Since creation of the state of Nagaland in 1963 and the inception of regional party in 1964, solution to the Naga political problem has been the top-most priority of the Naga Peoples Front and it has remained unchanged for it.

The NPF has taken several initiatives to facilitate the peaceful resolution of the Naga political issue and shall continue to do so till we achieve its goal, he said.

Liezietsu said it will not be difficult for the Nagas to differentiate and choose between the Cock and the saffron party for their future.

Now Naga people have to understand which party will be right for the state, he said.

The NPF president also lambasted the NDPP, saying that its intention for sharing seats with the BJP is nothing but just to get into power at the cost of the Naga people.New Delhi: In the wake of a recent scam involving jewellery designer Nirav Modi, Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra has sought legal opinion to terminate her contract with the designer's company.

Earlier, there were speculations that actress has reportedly sued the brand for non-payment of dues.

"There are speculative reports that Priyanka Chopra has sued Nirav Modi. This is not true. She is seeking the legal opinion with respect to terminating her contract with the brand in light of allegations of financial fraud against Nirav Modi," ANI quoted the actress's spokesperson as saying.

Priyanka was first associated with Nirav Modi in January 2017 and since her collaboration with the brand, the actress has shot several ad campaigns for it.

Previously, actress Lisa Haydon has been the face of the brand.

On the other hand, actor Sidharth Malhotra, who also featured in the same advertisement with Priyanka, told PTI that since his contract is already over with the brand he is not planning any legal action.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday seized diamonds, jewellery and gold worth Rs 5,100 crore during searched in Nirav Modi case, as per reports.

A day after a massive $1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400 crore) fraud was unearthed in a PNB branch in Mumbai, the ED launched a nationwide raid on the offices, showrooms and workshops of billionaire diamond trader Nirav Modi.

Modi (46), who had figured in the Forbes' list of richest Indians, was booked by the CBI for cheating after PNB sent a complaint to it alleging that the jewellery firm owner, his wife, his brother and business partner Mehul Choksi entered into a criminal conspiracy with the officials of the bank and cheated it, causing a "wrongful loss".New Delhi: Ace comedian Kapil Sharma delighted us all when he announced his comeback TV reportedly titled 'Family Time with Kapil Sharma'. The new show will have almost the same cast except for Sunil Grover. Kiku Sharda and Chandan Prabhakar will be a part of the show but it is not clear if Ali Asgar is on board.

However, looks like things aren't going too well for the comedian-turned-actor. As per the latest reports, the Independent Students Federation has filed a complaint against Kapil for not adhering to traffic rules.

India.com attributes the report to a leading daily which says that the president of the Federation, Keshav Kohli alleges Kapil was not adhering to the speed limit while riding a bike. The star comedian was on his way to Amritsar.

The report further says that Keshav filed a complaint against Kapil at the police station and also argued that it was abhorrent to see Kapil, a native of Amritsar, to not adhere to traffic rules. A video of Kapil went viral which featured the comedian riding a bike and talking about his experience of growing up in the city. It is after this video, that the case originated. Furthermore, the actor is accused of not wearing a helmet.

New Delhi: Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma are one of the much-adored celebrity couples. The two got married on December 11, 2017, in a hush-hush ceremony in Tuscany, Italy. The moment these two tied the knot, our hearts skipped a beat and we started believing in fairytales!

The pictures from their wedding had gone viral much before the duo shared it on social media. And then there was an avalanche of videos and photos of the couple posing and enjoying their wedding festivity.

The newlyweds are currently busy in their respective career's and as Anushka Sharma's Pari is all gearing up for release, Virat has the sweetest reaction to the trailer that has been unveiled today.

Virat took to Twitter to express his excitement about the film and wrote-

 Cant wait to watch my one and only in an avatar never seen before and Im blown away already. Cant wait @anushkasharma @officialcsfilms #PariTrailer

Cant wait to watch my one and only in an avatar never seen before and Im blown away already . Cant wait @anushkasharma @officialcsfilms #PariTrailerhttps://t.co/6zbPAbzlFD  Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) February 15, 2018

The couple held two receptions post their weddingone in Delhi for the high and mighty while another in Mumbai for the stars.

An unseen video of Virushka from their Mumbai reception had found its way on the internet yesterday. The adorable couple can be seen dancing to popular track 'Mere Rashke Qamar' in the video.New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has vowed to resolve all the payment, arear, hiked allowances and fitment formula related issues rising out of the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission.

As per media reports the government is working on a strategy to accomodate the concerns of lower-level employees of pay matrix between level 1 and 5.

Reports further said that the central government contemplating hike in pay with fitment formula 3.00 times of basic pay of 6th pay commission.

The new scales of pay provide for entry-level basic pay going up from Rs 7,000 per month to Rs 18,000, while at the highest level i.e. Secretary, it would go up from Rs 90,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh. For Class 1 officers, the starting salary will be Rs 56,100.

However, the central government employees unions had demanded for hiking minimum pay of Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000. They also demanded that fitment factor be raised from 2.57 times to 3.68 times.

The Union Cabinet had in June approved recommendations of the CPC with 34 modifications, which will mean an additional annual burden of Rs 30,748 crore on the exchequer.

All allowances are given effect from July 1, 2017.

The recommendations benefit over 1 crore employees. This includes over 47 lakh central government employees and 53 lakh pensioners, of which 14 lakh employees and 18 lakh pensioners are from the defence forces.AMRITSAR: A government delegation from Canada has paid a visit to the Golden Temple in Amritsar on Thursday, ahead of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau`s visit to India.Canadian Prime Minister will visit the Golden Temple on February 21.

On January 22, the Canadian Prime Minister announced that he will travel to India for a state visit from February 17 to 23.

The visit - which includes stops in Agra, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and New Delhi - will provide an opportunity for Trudeau to connect with the Indian leaders in government and business, promote empowerment of women and girls, and strengthen Canada and India`s close economic ties.

The prime ministers will reaffirm the close friendship between the two countries, and discuss ways to further deepen bilateral cooperation.

Trudeau will also participate in several business roundtables to promote further trade and investment between Canada and India, as Canada works closely with Indian leaders to advance economic opportunities in both countries.

While in India, Trudeau will engage with youth, and visit several landmarks, including the Taj Mahal, the Jama Masjid, and Swaminarayan Akshardham.New Delhi: The last thing one would ever expect to come across on opening an old library book is a lock of hair - especially one belonging to the first President of the United States of America.

Yes, you read that right! Experts stumbled upon a lock of hair belonging to George Washington inside a long-forgotten book during an ongoing inventory of archival collections of the Schaffer Library at the Union College in the US.

This is a very significant treasure. Its a tremendous testament to history and our connection to some of the most important historical figures, said India Spartz, head of Special Collections and Archives at the library.

While surveying some of the oldest books and records, Daniel Michelson, a historical records project archivist, spotted on a shelf a compact, leather book, Gaines Universal Register or American and British Kalendar for the year 1793.

The popular almanac, which includes population estimates for the American colonies and comparisons of various coins and currencies, is believed to have belonged to Philip J Schuyler, the son of General Philip Schuyler, one of the founders of the Union College.

The eldest Schuyler was also a close friend and supporter of Washington, served under him during the Revolutionary War, and later became a US senator from Albany.

Examination of the almanac by John Myers, catalogue and metadata librarian, uncovered a slender yellowed envelope tucked inside.

It was inscribed: Washington's hair, L SS & (scratched out) GBS from James A Hamilton given him by his mother, Aug 10, 1871.

The envelope contained several strands of gray or whitening hair, neatly tied together by a single thread.

The envelope also has an 1804 letter to the younger Schuyler.

A grandson of General Schuyler, James Alexander Hamilton was the third son of Alexander and Eliza Schuyler Hamilton.

Alexander Hamilton served as a lieutenant colonel in the Revolutionary War under Washington and later joined his cabinet as the first secretary of the Treasury when Washington was elected the first US president.

According to Ron Chernows Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Hamilton, George and Martha Washington were close to the much younger Alexander and Eliza. Washington died in 1799.

In an era when people frequently exchanged hair as a keepsake, it's quite probable that Martha had given Eliza some of George's hair, which in turn was given to their son, James, who later distributed it, strand by strand, as a precious memento to close friends and family members, said Susan Holloway Scott, an independent scholar.

A lack of documentation on clear custody of the material found in Unions archives or DNA testing makes it difficult to verify that the strands of hair are Washingtons.

Without DNA, youre never positive, but I believe its 100 percent authentic, said John Reznikoff, a prominent manuscripts and documents dealer in the US.

Its not hugely valuable, maybe two to three thousand dollars for the strands you have, but its undoubtedly George Washingtons, said Reznikoff who is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for the Largest Collection of Hair from Historical Figures.

George Washington served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797 and was one of the Founding Fathers of the country. He is popularly considered the driving force behind the nation's establishment and came to be known as the "father of the country," both during his lifetime and to this day.

(With PTI inputs)New Delhi: As space agencies around the world are putting in every effort to search for alien life, two scientists have warned that messages sent by aliens could destroy life on Earth if not read carefully.

As per the scientists, aliens could ruin life on Earth merely through their messages  they don't even have to be present on the planet.

In the academic paper titled 'Interstellar Communication. IX. Message decontamination is impossible', the two researchers from the University of Hawaii and Sonneberg Observatory in Germany have discussed the way we might read and understand a message received from space.

They found that it would be impossible to figure out how dangerous the contents of a message might be without opening it, therefore it would be safest to simply discard them without ever reading them, they warned.

According to the Independent, it's unlikely that any alien civilization we came into contact with would be harmful, researchers Michael Hippke and John G Learned wrote in the study posted on arXiv.org. But since it's impossible to know what the message would say before we read it, the safest scenario would be to avoid doing so entirely.

"After all, it is cheaper for ETI to send a malicious message to eradicate humans compared to sending battleships," they wrote.

While some have suggested that the message would have to be decontaminated before reading it, the paper says it would be practically impossible to remove the danger.

According to the researchers, the message could come in the form of a computer virus that infected networks on Earth when it was decrypted or an artificial intelligence that would then be able to take over our computing systems.

The researchers wrote in their academic paper, A complex message from space may require the use of computers to display, analyze and understand. Such a message cannot be decontaminated with certainty, and technical risks remain which can pose an existential threat. Complex messages would need to be destroyed in the risk-averse case.

Eventually, however, scientists suggest that the message should be opened as the risk is relatively small and the reward is potentially huge.

The message, they say, could give us a way into networks with aliens that could offer us unimagined new knowledge and resources.

As well as helping guide how we should respond to any message received on Earth, the conclusions should help decide what messages we send out, the paper warns.

"We should certainly not transmit any code. Instead, a plain text encyclopedia, images, music etc. in a simple format are adequate," they write. "No advanced computer should be required to decrypt our message," the Independent reported.New Delhi: On Friday, February 16, two astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS)  NASA's Mark Vande Hei and JAXA's Norishige Kanai  will step out into space for a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk to put things in order.

The astronauts are scheduled to begin their spacewalk at 7:10 am to move components for the station's robotic system into long-term storage, NASA said on Wednesday.

The two spacewalkers will move a Latching End Effector (LEE), or hand, for the Canadian-built robotic arm, Canadarm2, from a payload attachment on the station's Mobile Base System rail car to the Quest airlock.

This LEE was replaced during an Expedition 53 spacewalk in October 2017 and will be returned to Earth to be refurbished and relaunched to the orbiting laboratory as a spare.

They also will move an aging, but functional, LEE that was detached from the arm during a January 23 spacewalk and move it from its temporary storage outside the airlock to a long-term storage location.

That LEE will be available as a spare part on the Mobile Base System, which is used to move the arm and astronauts along the station's truss structure.

The spacewalk originally was scheduled for January 29 but was postponed when a new LEE, installed during the spacewalk, encountered start-up issues.

Those issues were later resolved through software updates written by Canadian Space Agency robotics specialists.

The spacewalk was rescheduled again to accommodate the February 15 docking of the Russian Progress 69 cargo spacecraft that launched on February 13, NASA said.

The 69P is due to complete its delivery when it docks on Thursday at 5:43 am EST (4:13 pm India time).

The spacewalk will be the 208th in support of space station assembly and maintenance and the third in 2018.

This will also be will be the fourth spacewalk in Vande Heis career and the first for Kanai, who will become the fourth Japanese astronaut to walk in space.

Vande Hei will wear the suit bearing the red stripes and Kanais suit will have no stripes.

(With IANS inputs)Hyderabad: Citing India as a living example of peaceful co-existence of people of different religious and ethnicities, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday called for unity between Shias and Sunnis.

Stating that there can be no military solution to conflicts, he said that Iran seeks brotherly relations with all the Muslims nations and the countries of the region including India.

Addressing Muslim leaders and scholars belonging to different Islamic schools of thought here on Thursday, the first day of his three-day visit to India, his half an hour long speech was focused on calling for the unity among the Shias and Sunnis while holding the West responsible for sowing the seeds of discords among various sects of Muslims.

"India is a living museum of different ethnicities and religions peacefully co-existing. This process is going on for centuries. Shia, Sunnis, Sufis, Hindus, Sikhs and others are living together. They together built their country and built their civilization," Rouhani said in his speech in Persian.

He noted that India and Iran have historical and cultural relations which go beyond political and economic ties and the people of two great countries share the same historical roots.

Rouhani said Tehran seeks more cordial and closer relations with India in all areas of mutual interest.

He alleged that the West created rift among Muslims by instigated certain groups and outfits.

"They portray themselves as Islamic groups but we call them 'takfiri'. All those who follow 'qibla' (the direction in which Muslims offer namaz) and believe that there is no god but Allah and Mohammad is His last messenger are living together as brothers," he said.

Claiming that Iran in recent years made efforts to end conflicts and bloodshed in the region, he said that his country plans to enhance brotherhood with all Muslim nations and countries of the region.

"Iran is not seeking any discord with the other Muslim countries who have age-old relations with us. We believe that in case of differences, bullet is the not the solution. Dialogue and logic are the tools at our disposal to overcome the differences. There is no military solution. The solution has to be political," said Rouhani.

The Iranian leader said his country was ready to help countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

He said that the Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians lived together in Iraq and the same was true of Syria till the West created a discord there.

"We want to spread peace and also engage in dialogue while defending our rights. In case of need, we do believe in resistance and steadfastness," he added.

Rouhani said the enemies of Islam were trying to portray Islam as a religion of violence. "The fact is that Islam is a religion of moderation, tolerance and forgiveness", he said extensively quoting from Quran and the sayings of Prophet Mohammad.

Quoting Quran, he said the Muslim community shoulder huge responsibility as they are present on this planet to spread good deeds and eradicate evils. Quoting a saying of Prophet Mohammad, he said oppressed irrespective of his faith should be helped.

Rouhani said while during industrialization, the West plundered the mineral resources of the East and in the current age of technology, it is trying to plunder their culture and beliefs.

He said the solution to the problems faced by the humanity lie in returning to genuine Islam and underlined the need for educating all, especially youth, of the teaching of Quran and Prophet Mohammad, whom the Quran described as the mercy for humanity.

The Iranian President called for explaining how the Islam does not merely focus on issues of individual or family but it has the power to manage a society, politics, international relations, judicial issues, and social affairs. Islam rules and regulations for running affairs of the society, he added.

Mumbai: Bigg Boss 11 contestants Shilpa Shinde and Vikas Gupta, who made fans go gaga over their bitter-sweet relationship, may never work together. The two, who apparently had an unpleasant experience working with each other in the past, had mended fences while they were inside the house of Bigg Boss.

There was tremendous animosity between them even before they entered the house and the first few weeks were all about their rivalry. It took a while for them to reconcile and become friends. And it was during the brief period of friendship that Shilpa had promised to work with Vikas after being requested by him.

Shilpa and Vikas chemistry was truly adorable and many of their fans wanted them to get hitched in real life. Their jodi became popular as Shikas and their admirers hoped that someday they would become man and wife.

But something of that sort will never happen. Vikas dear friend Kamya Punjabi had asked reporters not to discuss something that is impossible.

Moreover, things arent all that pleasant between Shilpa and Vikas now. The former Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Hai star has said that she will never work with the popular TV producer.

During an interaction when Pinkvilla asked about her plans to work with Vikas, Shilpa said, I dont think I will be able to do it, adding that, I know I had said yes to it and it was a reality at that time but to be frank after coming out of the house, I got to know a few things like how big a mastermind he is.

When the website quizzed Vikas about Shilpas remark, he said, If Shilpa has said that she doesnt want to work with me after the third time she said she wants to work with me, it is her choice.

Well, this update will certainly leave Shikas fans unhappy but who knows time may just turn the tide.Lucknow: Moulana Salman Hasni Nadvi, executive member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) who was expelled for proposing the Ayodhya compromise formula, has once again come under scanner for allegedly demanding money for building a Mecca-like mosque in the holy city.

Amarnath Mishra, the president of Ayodhya Sadbhavna Samnvyay Maha Samiti, has claimed that Nadvi had demanded money, position and land for building another mosque in Ayodhya.

Mishra had reportedly met Nadvi on February 5 to discuss how the Babri Masjid-Ram Janambhoomi could be peacefully resolved.

It is during that meeting, Nadvi asked for money, Mishra alleged.

"I met Nadvi on February 5, we discussed the issue of Babri Masjid-Ram Janambhoomi. He asked me to give a written proposal on the issue and I did the same, which was forwarded to everyone. He wanted to make another mosque like Mecca in Ayodhya, and for that, he asked for 200 acres of land, membership in the Rajya Sabha and Rs 1,000 crore," he claimed.

Nadvi, however, rejected Mishra's claims, saying that he didn't know him at all.

Nadvi, who has been accused of 'surrendering' to the right-wing Hindu outfit over the Ayodhya issue, even accused Mishra of spreading maintain tension between the two communities.

"Such people don't want a temple or a mosque to be built in Ayodhya. He is a devil and their only work is to create tension in the work of God. They are scared that Hindu and Muslim will be united. He knows that I am the only one who is raising this issue," Nadvi told ANI.

"We want to spread a message of peace and prosperity in the nation. I don't even know Mishra and his alleged deals," Nadvi added.

The fresh development comes days after AIMPLB removed Nadvi for supporting the construction of the Ram Temple on the land under dispute.

Earlier on February 9, Nadvi had spoken to media about his meeting with Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar where he extended support to the construction of Ram temple and said that their ''priority is to join hearts of people.''

He also hinted at an out-of-court settlement by saying, "The courts do not join people's heart as the verdict is always in favour of one and against the other."

(With ANI inputs)BAREILLY: Superintendent of police (SP) Bareilly, Rohit Singh Sajwan and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jyoti Mishra can be seen slapping each other in a CCTV footage. The video was recorded on Tuesday in Bareilly.

A case has been registered against both the people involved in the altercation. The reason for the argument is not known yet.

#WATCH: Police SP Rohit Sajvan & BJP leader Jyoti Mishra slap each other in Bareilly. Case has been registered against both the parties. (13.2.2018) pic.twitter.com/LY2wAp3uGB  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 15, 2018

The incident comes weeks after an altercation between a Congress MLA and a woman constable was caught on camera. In the video then, Congress MLA Asha Kumari was seen assaulting a woman constable in Shimla. In retaliation, the constable slapped the MLA back.

#WATCH Shimla: Congress MLA Asha Kumari assaults woman constable, gets slapped back. She was being allegedly denied entry by Police in Rahul Gandhi's review meeting (amateur video) pic.twitter.com/puvMRnHKss  ANI (@ANI) December 29, 2017

The MLA was allegedly infuriated as she was denied to enter a review meeting chaired by Congress President Rahul Gandhi after the assembly polls in the state.Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday demanded a thorough and time-bound investigation into the fraud in state-owned Punjab National Bank.

She said that a scam of over 11,000 crore has taken place and the people's savings are not safe.

"Look what happened at Punjab National Bank. A scam of more than Rs 11,000 crore. People's savings are not safe. There must be a thorough, time-bound enquiry," she said in a tweet.

In what could be the biggest banking fraud in India, PNB had yesterday said that it has detected a USD 1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400 crore) scam in which billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from one of its branches for overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

PNB has suspended 10 officers and referred the matter to the CBI for investigation.Cape Town: Cyril Ramaphosa was elected as South Africa`s president in a parliamentary vote on Thursday and pledged to tackle endemic corruption after scandal-ridden Jacob Zuma resigned on orders from the ruling African National Congress.

Ramaphosa faces an uphill battle in revitalising growth, creating jobs and stamping out a culture of graft in a nation still polarised by race and inequality more than two decades after the end of white-minority rule.

Still, Zuma`s departure late on Wednesday provided evidence of the strength of South Africa`s democratic institutions, from the courts to the media and the constitution.

Ramaphosa, in brief remarks to parliament ahead of his first state of the nation address expected on Friday, said he would work hard "not to disappoint the people of South Africa".

"The issues that you have raised, issues that have to do with corruption, issues of how we can straighten out our state-owned enterprises and how we deal with state capture (influence-peddling) are issues that are on our radar screen," he said.

Ramaphosa, 65, was elected unopposed as Zuma`s permanent successor by parliament, and sworn into the post by South African Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, who had earlier read out the former president`s resignation letter.

South Africa`s main stock market index jumped by as much as 5 percent on Thursday, heading for its biggest one-day gain in more than three years, on hopes that Zuma`s exit will pave the way for new leaders to quicken the pace of economic growth.

The rand currency remained on the frontfoot too, soaring to its firmest level since early 2015.

Investors hailed Zuma`s departure after nine years in office rife with allegations of sleaze and economic mismanagement.

Ratings agency Moody`s said it was closely monitoring developments in South Africa, focusing on the policy implications of Ramaphosa`s arrival as president.

The S&P Global agency said South Africa`s sovereign credit ratings and outlook will not be immediately affected by the change of the country`s leadership.

Ramaphosa, who was elected ANC head in December and will be president until elections next year, has his work cut out to win back disaffected voters after a string of scandals and policy blunders under Zuma, as well as investor confidence.

But his stated commitment to boosting growth and stamping out graft has gone down well with foreign investors and ANC members who felt Zuma`s handling of the economy could seriously damage the party in the 2019 election.

Africa`s most developed economy needs faster economic growth if it is to reduce high unemployment - currently at 27 percent, up from around 22 percent in the year before Zuma first took power - and alleviate persistent, widespread poverty that aggravates inequality and stokes instability.

The economy slipped into recession last year for the first time since 2009 and has also declined in indices that measure corruption and the ease of doing business.

Moreover, the economy remains largely under the control of whites who held power under apartheid.

The 75-year-old Zuma said in a 30-minute farewell address to the nation he disagreed with the way the ANC had thrust him towards an early exit after Ramaphosa replaced him as party president, but would accept its orders.

"Zuma did the right thing to resign. Yes, let`s see what Ramaphosa is having for us, thank you," said Hlengiwe Mswazi, an office worker in the capital Pretoria.

Tshepo Kgobane, also in Pretoria, said: "So it is a good thing that he resigned. We must have a party, a big party, we must throw a party because he resigned. We wanted to see that."

Zuma bowed out hours after police raided the luxury home of the Gupta family, the Indian-born billionaire allies of the former president who have been at the centre of corruption accusations against Zuma and his circle for years.

Zuma and the Guptas have always denied wrongdoing.

"Defiant in defeat" and "Going, Going, Gone" were among the newspaper headlines that captured Zuma`s unwillingness to leave.

"South Africa`s long nightmare is over," read the headline from online political news website Daily Maverick.

Julius Malema, leader of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), led his party in a mass walkout from parliament on Thursday, saying it would not take part in the election of a new president so as not to legitimise an ANC candidate.

The EFF, which has six percent of the seats in parliament, had sponsored a no-confidence motion in Zuma that would have gone ahead on Thursday had Zuma not jumped.

The foundation set up to guard the legacy of the late anti-apartheid icon and first black South African president Nelson Mandela said Zuma`s departure brought to an end "a painful era for the country".

"One chapter in South Africa`s political soap opera has finally ended with the resignation last night of President Jacob Zuma," NKC African Economics analysts wrote in a note.

"It would be gratifying to see the dedication and purpose the ANC put into ridding itself of Zuma now be directed into rebuilding the economy, dealing with the corruption still residing in the ANC and improving its shoddy governance record."

South African police said officers had arrested eight people so far in its investigations into high-echelon influence-peddling revolving around the Gupta family.

Chief prosecutor Shaun Abrahams declared Ajay Gupta, one of the three Gupta brothers, a "fugitive from justice" after he failed to hand himself in. Abrahams provided no further details.

State broadcaster SABC said a Gupta family member was among those detained, while a senior judicial source said police were expected to arrest up to seven more people and that Gupta family members would be among them.

Police said the raid on the Gupta estate was in connection with a state-funded dairy farm, which prosecutors last month called a "scheme designed to defraud and steal".Kabul: In a 3,000-word open letter, the Taliban has urged the "American people" to press their government to withdraw from Afghanistan, reminding them that the Afghan war is the longest conflict in which they have been embroiled and at a cost of "trillions of dollars."

The letter was addressed to "the American people, officials of independent non-governmental organizations and the peace-loving Congressmen."

Through its letter, the Taliban repeated its long-standing offer of direct talks with Washington, which the United States has repeatedly refused, saying peace negotiations should be between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

The letter promised a more inclusive regime, education and rights for all, including women.

However, it seemed to rule out power-sharing, saying they had the right to form a government.

"Our preference is to solve the Afghan issue through peaceful dialogue," the letter said.

"America must end her occupation and must accept all our legitimate rights, including the right to form a government consistent with the beliefs of our people," it said.

Despite informal and regular contact between the Taliban and senior Afghan officials, there are no prospects of early public peace talks that could bring an end to the protracted war.

In the letter, the Taliban railed against widespread corruption in the government and a burgeoning narcotics industry, from which officials say the insurgents make millions of dollars in taxes and tolls, charging those dealing in the drugs to move their illicit cargo to market.

Afghanistan is the worlds largest producer of opium, the raw material used to make heroin.

The letter assailed US President Donald Trumps strategy announced last August that called for military force to bring a more compliant Taliban to the negotiation table.

"If the policy of using force is exercised for a 100 more years and a 100 new strategies are adopted, the outcome of all of these will be the same as you have observed over the last six months," the letter said.ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan has said that India has not only wasted the opportunity for normalisation of ties with Islamabad but also restricted the space for peace through its "hostile" stance, according to a media report.

The defence minister made the comments yesterday while announcing a policy statement in the Senate, Dawn News reported.

"The unremittingly hostile, anti-Pakistan stance by the current Indian government has drastically reduced the space for any advocacy of peace," he said.

Khan noted that the Indian government also "wasted the opportunity for making peace at a time when a political consensus existed within Pakistan for improving relations with India".

"Pakistan's perception of threat from India is not reflex; it is based upon a thorough assessment of Indian capacity to threaten Pakistan's military from an unprecedented forward position," he said and reminded that "the threat is calculated on capacity, not intent".

The statement was made after Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman warned Pakistan after Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad militants attacked a military camp in Sunjuwan in Kashmir that left six soldiers and a civilian dead.

The paper also reported an escalation in ceasefire violations along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary.

Violations of a 2003 ceasefire pacta key confidence building measure between India and Pakistanhave seen a spike in 2017 compared 2015 and 2016, it said.

The pattern has continued this year and there have been more than 200 violations in the first six weeks of 2018, the report said.WASHINGTON: The US Department of State has announced that Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan will visit five European nations staring Friday and seek to mend bilateral ties with them.

Starting February 16 up to February 23, the tour is aimed at mending cross-Atlantic ties that have been strained after the Donald Trump administration assumed office in January 2017, Xinhua news agency reported.

Sullivan will arrive in Munich on February 16 to attend the Munich Security Conference, kicking off his visit to Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Latvia and Belgium.

He will participate in a nuclear security and arms control panel discussion with foreign government officials to reaffirm the US stance on global nuclear security.

Sullivan will then travel to Rome to talk about cooperation on Ukraine, Libya and the Islamic State (IS), and deliver remarks at the American Studies Centre to discuss US-Italian cooperation on global security issues.

He will visit Kiev on February 21 to meet Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin.

The US diplomat will stress the importance of Ukraine speeding up credible economic and anti-corruption reforms and also underscore US support for its sovereignty and territorial integrity, according to the State Department on Wednesday.

His next stop will be in Riga on February 22 where he will meet senior Latvian officials to reaffirm commitment to NATO`s Article 5, which considers an attack against one ally to be an attack on all allies.

Brussels will be his last stop on February 23.

Sullivan will participate in the Sahel donors` conference and discuss the US continued support for the development, security and political issues of the African region.

Bilateral discords have surfaced around the US` withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, Washington`s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and its constant push for Europe to increase the latter`s share of defence expenses.

For their part, European nations complained about the US doing little to curb Moscow`s move on the Ukraine issue, which they see as an act of blatant aggression.

Lahore: Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed has said that he will challenge the Pakistan government's ban on seminaries and health facilities run by him.

Saeed further said the Pakistan government's crackdown against the seminaries and health facilities linked to him is "illegal" and it will be challenged in a court of law.

Reaction from Saeed came hours after Pakistan, apparently under US pressure, took control of a seminary and four dispensaries run by his outfits Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF).

"After detaining me for 10 months without any legal ground, the government has now issued a notification regarding taking over our schools, dispensaries, ambulances and other assets. It will hamper our relief operations in Punjab, Balochistan, Sindh, Azad Kashmir and northern areas," Saeed said.

A release from the Interior Ministry said, "the federal government is pleased to direct that requisite actions with regard to freezing and taking over of assets (movable, immovable and human resource) associated with JuD and FIF shall be taken in pursuance of Ordinance No II of 2018."

The notification was issued on February 10.

Punjab Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has also said that on the Interior Ministry's directions, Hafiz Saeed and his charities have been banned to operate in Pakistan and the government have already started taking over all the facilities, offices, schools, dispensaries and seminaries that belong to the JuD and FIF.

Saeed, however, appealed to his supporters to stay calm and asked them not give any violent reaction to the government action against their charities.

"This is the most difficult time but the workers must remain peaceful. The rulers are acting like more loyal than a king. India never bothered to implement UN resolutions on Kashmir but our rulers have got passed the president ordinance to take action against patriotic organisations like JuD and FIF," he said.

Saeed said the Pakistani government is "taking extreme action against us" to please America and India.

"We will fight our case in court against this illegal action," said Saeed, who heads the charity JuD, believed to be a front for Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terror group.

Pakistan has come under intense pressure to rein in terror groups after US President Donald Trump accused the country of harbouring terrorists and suspended nearly USD 2 billion in security assistance to it.

(With PTI inputs)The soldier was killed as a result of mortar shelling, after which his body was seized by illegal armed formations

Open source

Militants of Donbas returned the body of the Ukrainian defender who died on February 12 during the fulfilling of the combat mission. This was reported by the press center Ukraines Army HQ in Facebook.

It is noted that representatives of the humanitarian project of the Armed Forces of Ukraine "Evacuation 200" held long and complicated negotiations on this issue.

The transfer of the body of the deceased serviceman to the territory controlled by Ukraine took place in the vicinity of Shchastia village with the participation of representatives of the Union of Afghan Veterans of Luhansk Region, OSCE and the Ukrainian side of the JCCC.

The soldier died as a result of mortar shelling, after which his body was seized by illegal armed formations.

"For three days, the militants changed the time of the transfer of the body of defender, looking for the benefits to conduct cynical information actions," the report said.

As it was reported earlier there is a lot of evidence of Russian involvement in the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine. Alexander Vershbow, the former Assistant Secretary General of NATO said that in a recent interview.

According to him, the war in eastern Ukraine would have been over for a long time if Russia ceased to supply weapons to militants. 'There are many tanks without Russian insignia, but we all are aware where they come from... The conflict has been lasting for more than four years now - mainly due to the lasting Russian aggression,' he said.Illegal armed groups in Donbas carried out six targeted shelling of the positions Ukrainian forces from the beginning of February 15. As a result of the attacks, one Ukrainian soldier was killed. This was reported by the press center of Ukraines Army HQ in Facebook.

It is noted that in Luhansk area militants repeatedly shelled from 82-mm mortars, large-caliber machine guns and IFV weapons near Luhanske.

"In Donetsk sector, the enemy used 120 mm and 82 mm mortars near Pavlopil and Chermalyk in Pryazovia," the report said.

In the same area, militants shelled the defenders of Vodyane from the IFV armament.

In addiation, illegal armed formations attacked the strongholds of Ukrainian Armed Forces from 82-mm mortars, automatic grenade launchers and small arms near Taramchuk.

As it was reported earlier there is a lot of evidence of Russian involvement in the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine. Alexander Vershbow, the former Assistant Secretary General of NATO said that in a recent interview.

According to him, the war in eastern Ukraine would have been over for a long time if Russia ceased to supply weapons to militants. 'There are many tanks without Russian insignia, but we all are aware where they come from... The conflict has been lasting for more than four years now - mainly due to the lasting Russian aggression,' he said.Open source

The Russian Federation in spring of 2014 planned to invade the mainland of Ukraine without resistance, took control of the south and east of the state and seized Kyiv after having occupied the Crimea. This was stated by the Secretary of Ukraines Defense and Security Council Oleksandr Turchynov during the questioning as a witness from prosecution side in Obolonsky court on the case of the former president Viktor Yanukovych. This was broadcasted by 112 Ukraine TV channel.

According to him, since the seizure of the building of Crimean Council of Ministers and the Parliament, an active phase of the occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea began. At the same time, according to the reports of Ukrainian intelligence and foreign partners, the concentration of Russian Army forces began on the northern and eastern borders of Ukraine in order to prepare an invasion to the mainland of Ukraine.

"Russian Parliament agreed with President Putin to use the Russian Armed Forces on the territory of Ukraine and according to plans of Russian military and political leaders, the occupation of Crimea and disarmament of the Ukrainian units were to end on March 1. They aimed, having occupied Crimea, provoking the deaths of civilians in the Crimea, to use the chaos and lack of governance to invade Ukraine without resistance and take control over the south and east of the country and over Kyiv to restore by force the power of the puppet regime of Yanukovych," Turchynov said.

According to the Defense Council secretary, the Russian Federation planned an invasion to Ukraine without resistance.

As it was reported earlier Russian leader Vladimir Putin decided to annex Crimea at the drop of a hat on February 23, 2014; Ilya Ponomarev, the former lawmaker from the Russian State Duma said that at a session of Obolon district court in Kyiv, as the jury considered the case of ex-president Viktor Yanukovych.

Crimea was annexed by Russia by the illegal referendum held in March 2014. Earlier the Russian militaries that stayed there without any marking conquered all the force and state bodies of strategic military objects and building. The results of the referendum were not recognized by Ukraine and the world society. The number of the European and world countries, including Ukraine imposed the economic sanctions against Russia.Several Ukrainian Marines were found dead in their house not far from Shyrokyne, Donetsk region (Ukraine-held territories, - 112 International). Counter-terrorism operation HQ reported on February 15.

The actual number of the deceased is not disclosed yet.

'The military police are now sorting out the details of the incident, which ended up in deaths of servicemen of the detached brigade of the Ukrainian Marines. The bodes were found at a house where they lived,' the message says.

A source told 112.ua news agency that the tragedy took place due to irresponsible drinking; the servicemen appear to have opened fire.Stepan Poltorak, Harjit Sajjan in Brussels, June 2017 Ministry of Defense of Ukraine

One of Canadas arms producers hopes to re-equip the Armed Forces of Ukraine with new assault rifles as the latter country tries to joint NATO, while battling Russian-backed separatists at the same time. According to Canadas National Post, Colt Canada (Kitchener, Ontario) is chasing an agreement that would lead Ukraine to order up to 100,000 rifles, UNIAN reports.

Alex Payne, a Colt Canada manager, said the companys representatives had an explanatory type of meeting with Ukrainian government officials in January. But this meeting is just the start of a long process, which could take up to two years, as Ukraine figures out exactly the kind of weapons it needs and their country of origin.

I believe there is a long way to go in terms of being able to say there is an opportunity for Colt Canada in Ukraine, Payne told Postmedia. We have as equal a chance as anybody, but I suppose there is a lengthy process to go through in terms of them finding the best available weapons for the optimal price.

In December, the Liberal government made changes to Canadas rules on arms exports allowing the sale of machine-guns and other small arms to Ukraine. The process began at the time when the Conservative government was in power. Ukraine hopes to bring its weaponry up to the NATO standard, which would move it closer to eventually joining the alliance. The country is also engaged in an armed conflict with Russian-backed separatists in Donbas, which has left over 10,000 people dead.

Ukraine is also hopeful of acquiring other military equipment like anti-tank weapons from both Canada and the United States. In late December, the US President Donald Trump announced that anti-tank missiles were about to be shipped to Ukraine, infuriating Russian representatives, who argued this would only facilitate the conflict.

Payne said that Colt Canada is hopeful to organize demonstrations of its products in Ukraine sometime in the upcoming summer. We produce great goods, and we have an outstanding reputation, so we have got as good a chance as anybody does Alex Payne explained.

Colt Canada is the primary supplier of small arms to the Canadian Armed Forces. Ukraine is also interested in support from Canada in other areas. At the end of September, Ukraines defense minister Stepan Poltorak told journalists he had had talks with his Canadian counterpart Harjit Saijan about having Canada engaged in building an ammunition plant in Ukraine. At the time, Saijan said the plans went beyond the construction of the plant and would involve even more support from Canada for Ukraines Armed Forces. This is about building the capacity, Saijan told journalists. This is about boosting the effectiveness of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which is underway, and then actually providing the necessary equipment in order for them to sustain that development.

Moreover, Canadian troops are also present in Ukraine and training local military men. In late January, Stepan Poltorak confirmed that Canada was interested in selling weapons to Ukraine. We expect to figure out some positions, including one with Canada, on military and technical cooperation, such as procurement of weapons and equipment from our partners, he said.

On the other hand, another arms purchase (this one funded by Canadian taxpayers) is in limbo. Weapons that were supposed to be supplied to Kurdish forces are currently stored at a supply depot in the Montreal area. In February 2016, Canadas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the country would provide the weapons to Kurdish fighters in support of their efforts against the Islamic State. However, the delivery of those arms was suspended after clashes between Iraqi and Kurdish forces.In Q4 2017 the deficit was around $1.42 billion, which exceeds the last years figure by over 22 times.

The deficit of Ukraines balance of foreign trade in 2017 amounted to $2.63 billion. On the same day last year, the balance stood at a surplus of $0.54 billion, the State Statistics Service reported on Wednesday, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

Taking into account the data released earlier, in the last quarter of 2017 the deficit was around $1.42 billion, which exceeds the last years figure by over 22 times.

The State Statistics Service said that in 2017 exports of goods and services from Ukraine grew by 16%, to $52.33 billion, whereas imports increased by 23.3% and reached $54.96 billion.

Exports to the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States rose by 9.2%, to reach $10.65 billion, whereas imports from those nations soared by 31.2% and reached $12.12 billion.

At the same time, exports to member states of the European Union increased by 26.7%, to $20.05 billion and imports grew by 19.1%, to $23.3 billion.

The deficit of Ukraines balance of foreign trade in goods rose 2.2-fold in 2017 and reached $6.33 billion, while the balance of foreign trade in services exhibited an increased surplus of 12%, to $5.09 billion.

The surplus of Ukraines balance of foreign trade in 2016 stood at $0.34 billion, which is around 91% less than in 2015.According to the minister, the official presentation of Ryanairs timetable will occur in upcoming weeks.

Europes leading low-cost airline Ryanair will begin operating flights from Ukraines largest state-owned international airport Boryspil (Kyiv) and the Danylo Halytsky international airport (Lviv) in the fall of 2018, UNIAN reports.

Ukraines Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan says the official presentation of Ryanairs flight timetable will be held in the upcoming weeks.

Ryanair will launch flights in the fall of 2018 from the Boryspil and Lviv airports. I am confident it will happen, the minister told Hromadske TV on February 12.

On 15 March, Ryanair announced the opening of 11 flights from Kyiv and Lviv, beginning on 30 October 2017. On 10 July, Boryspil airport CEO Pavlo Ryabikin said that signing an agreement with Ryanair would lead to the enterprise receiving $74 million less in annual profits.

According to Ryabikin, the agreement with Ryanair would, therefore, be financially unattractive for the enterprise and refused to sign it unless the companys requirements were taken into account.

On 10 July, Ryanair announced the firms withdrawal from the Ukrainian market due to non-compliance by Boryspil officials with agreements previously concluded with the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine.Read the original text at atlanticcouncil.org

Open source

In January, the Czech government announced plans to double its annual quota for Ukrainian fast-track migrant workers from 9,600 to 19,600. Three years ago, the quota had been just 3,800. Pragues message is clearUkrainian workers are not merely welcome but vital for the Czech Republics economy.



The Czechs are not the only ones in Central and Eastern Europe seeking to entice greater numbers of Ukrainian workers to replenish their own depleted populations. From the Baltic to the Balkans, national governments are relaxing employment regulations and looking at ways to bolster their Ukrainian workforce. Many are actively recruiting within Ukraine itself, with billboards in towns and cities advertising the attractions of seasonal work or full-scale emigration. Others have set up agencies and launched multimedia campaigns as they fight over the human resource Klondike that is the highly skilled and grossly underpaid Ukrainian workforce.



It is not hard to see why the idea of importing workers is so popular across the region. Central and Eastern Europe suffer from a perfect storm of demographic decline that threatens to undermine the political and economic progress achieved over the past quarter of a century. Low birth rates, high mortality rates, and vast outflows of youth migration to the wealthier nations of Western Europe are combining to create shrinking populations where pensioners may soon begin to outnumber those of working age.



This phenomenon makes the region unique. According to UN figures, the ten countries with the fastest-shrinking populations in the world are all former Eastern Bloc nations.



Ukraine is prominent among these dwindling populations and set to witness an 18 percent decline by 2050. The UN list also features Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Romania, and Poland. Over the next thirty years, each of these countries faces the prospect of at least a 15 percent drop. Demographers say such drops are historically unheard of except in times of war.



Why is Central and Eastern Europe turning to Ukraine as the solution to their demographic woes? Costs, skills, and proximity all serve to make Ukrainians attractive economic immigrants. The economic crash that accompanied Ukraines 2014 Revolution of Dignity and subsequent hybrid war with Russia has served to amplify preexisting economic disparities between Ukraine and its EU neighbors. Ukrainians earn the lowest average salaries in Europe, making the modest incomes on offer in Central Europe seem like a kings ransom. Geographical proximity also makes Ukraine an appealing option, with Ukrainian workers readily available on short notice. They enjoy a positive reputation as highly educated employees with a good work ethic.



Perhaps the biggest selling point for Ukrainian migrants is their cultural compatibility. Western Europe has long grown used to the idea of covering its own demographic shortfalls through mass immigration from African and Asian countries, but this remains a politically toxic option for much of Central and Eastern Europe. Electorates there have repeatedly demonstrated their opposition to non-European immigration and have shown resistance to multiculturalism. These diverging attitudes toward immigration have caused ruptures between old and new Europe, leading to escalating confrontations within the EU and fueling the rise of populist nationalism in Poland and Hungary.



Against this backdrop of identity politics and anti-immigration anxiety, Ukrainian economic migrants have come to be seen as not the worst option for a region that desperately needs new workers but fears losing its historic character. Ukrainians benefit from positive perceptions as ethnically, religiously, culturally, and socially close to their Central European neighbors, making successful assimilation less of a challenge.



The popularity of Ukrainian workers is most evident in Poland. The Polish government has led the way in welcoming Ukrainians, issuing work permits to more than one million since 2014. The rapid expansion of the Ukrainian workforce has become a central plank of Polands economic policy, allowing the country to maintain growth rates despite labor shortages. The approach has set the tone throughout the region.



Poland has also sought to reap geopolitical benefits from its recent Ukrainian arrivals by positioning them as refugees. Polish politicians like to argue that the EU should be thanking Warsaw for harboring so many Ukrainians fleeing Russian aggression, rather than pressuring the country to accept Syrian immigrants. This argument has convinced few in Brussels while annoying many in Kyiv. In truth, virtually none of the Ukrainians who moved to Poland since 2014 would qualify as refugees. They are economic migrants drawn by the same promise of higher salaries and brighter prospects that has seen millions of Poles leave their own country for Western Europe.



While the debate continues over the status of Polands Ukrainian community, there is no question that the rapid expansion of this community is transforming the makeup of Polish society. Ukrainian communities of similar prominence now look set to become the norm throughout Eastern and Central Europe. Ukrainians are already the largest minority in the Czech Republic. Within a decade, they will be the dominant minority in towns and cities throughout the entire region.



The flow of Ukrainians into Central and Eastern Europe poses significant problems for Ukraine itself, raising the prospect of a demographic decline that could easily outpace what are already disastrous UN projections for the country.

Thanks to a big post-Maidan push for decentralization of power. Local Ukrainian communities already received considerably more free access to state funds. This will give rural Ukraine a fighting chance and allow inventive administrators to make individual districts more appealing. Coordinated nationwide efforts are also necessary in order to keep local communities alive and convince Ukrainians that they can build an attractive future for their children in their own country. Better roads, schools, and healthcare will encourage people to start families and persuade them to stay, even if offered salaries are not as high as abroad.



In the long term, nothing will prevent Ukrainians from continuing to vote with their feet unless Ukraine becomes a more competitive country. The current trend in living standards between Ukraine and even the poorest nations of the EU makes further population shifts inevitable, with Ukraine trapped in the advantageous role of supply source for a region scrambling to bridge the gaps in its own depleted workforces. Unless Ukraine addresses this issue urgently, the countrys demographic crisis will only worsen. Within a generation, depopulation may become a far greater threat than both corruption and the Kremlin.The war in eastern Ukraine would have been over for a long time if Russia ceased to supply weapons to militants, Alexander Vershbow says

There is a lot of evidence of Russian involvement in the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine. Alexander Vershbow, the former Assistant Secretary General of NATO said that in a recent interview as quoted by Ukrinform news agency.

'Open sources such as social networks provide us with a lot of evidence of Russia's involvement in the war in Donbas. At official ceremonies, Russian leader Putin awards generals who allegedly come from Luhansk, eastern Ukraine. Even Wagner PMC participates now,' he said.

According to him, the war in eastern Ukraine would have been over for a long time if Russia ceased to supply weapons to militants. 'There are many tanks without Russian insignia, but we all are aware where they come from... The conflict has been lasting for more than four years now - mainly due to the lasting Russian aggression,' he said.

Speaking about Javelin missile launchers and supplies for Ukraine, Vershbow stressed that this is 'a way to deter the Russian aggression, not to claim or re-gain territories'.

Previously, U.S. President Donald Trump signed the U.S. defense budget for 2018. It foresees the allocation of 350 million dollars of financial aid for the Ukrainian military.The pipeline will lead to Denmark and allow to tap into the Norwegian gas network

Open source

The Polish 'Law and Justice' Party intends to implement the Baltic Pipe project that provides the building of its own gas pipeline along the bottom of the Baltic Sea in the opposition to the building of the 'Nord Stream-2' from Russia to Germany as Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported.

'The Baltic Pipe project will lead from the Polish coast to Denmark and will allow the Polish state pipeline company Gaz-System to tap into the Norwegian gas network', the message said.

The Polish state oil and gas company PGNiG reserved the capacity of the gas pipeline for the sum of more $2 billions for 15 years in the end of 2017. The branch of the gas pipeline with the carrying capacity of 10 billions of the cubic meters should begin to work in 2022. It will reach the Polish coast near Swinoujscie city where the LNG import terminal is situated.

The final decision on the building of the gas pipeline will be made in 2018.

As it was reported earlier Poland asked United States to expand sanctions on the construction of Nord Stream 2 gas pipelinebetween Russia and Germany. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said this after the meeting with the US Secretary Rex Tillerson. He stressed that the previous interpretation of the law did not satisfy Poland.

Russias leading energy enterprise Gazprom and its partners intend to start implementing the Nord Stream-2 project worth almost 10 billion euros in April 2018. The 1,200-kilometers-long pipeline is to be laid through the Baltic Sea, linking Russia and Germany  bypassing Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic States. The capacity will be twice larger than that of Nord Stream I. The construction is to be complete by late 2019.Almost three-quarters of the cases were spotted in Ukraine

The Foreign Ministry of the UK publicly accused the Russian army of the cyber-attack of Not Petya virus that took place last June and infected thousands of computers all over the world as BBC reported.

'The UK government judges that the Russian government, specifically the Russian military, was responsible for the destructive NotPetya cyber attack', Tariq Ahmad, the Deputy Secretary for Foreign Affairs claimed.

Almost three-quarters of the cases were spotted in Ukraine. In the NotPetya attack, businesses which strong trade links with Ukraine, such as Reckitt Benckister, Dutch delivery firm TNT and Danish shipping giant Maersk were badly affected. According to Ahmad, the attack was disguised as an attempt of the interference into the business-processes; however, its aim was the dysfunction of the organizations and companies in Europe. The main aim also was the financial, energy and governmental sectors of Ukraine.

'This attack showed the persistent disregard of the sovereignty of Ukraine. Its reckless release disrupted organizations across Europe costing hundreds of millions of pounds'.

As it was reported earlier, on June 27 a large-scale cyber attack hit dozens of companies and enterprises across Ukraine.These are the stories of those making the new history of Donbas, making the Ukrainian East close and near to the country. 112 Ukraine TV channel airs Close East  a series of reports on a joint initiative of the 112 Ukraine TV channel and Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative (UCBI II) funded by the US agency of international development USAID

Every day, mass media distribute tons of negative information from Donbas. The territory is still called a zone of anti-terrorist operation and it is impossible to see any positive changes in the light of tragic messages and associations. And of course, one simply cant see the people who drive these changes.

There are live people who stand out and overcome the circumstances. Many of them have suffered from the war  some of them are forcibly displaced; others had to defend Ukraine and then come back to a peaceful life. Their ideas, actions, searches for development of businesses and communities alter their lives for the better. They create the landmarks for those who left their homes, willing to come back, says Iryna Malykhina, the author of the project and the head of the news service at the 112 Ukraine TV channel.

Examples of positive changes and news about new possibilities are the most important for those who live in the territories affected by the war conflict in eastern Ukraine. According to the sociologists, 38% of the respondents residing in Donbas believe that the successful restoration of peaceful life in the regions under Ukraines control is a key to the settlement of the conflict. Thats why reporters of 112 Ukraine TV channel shall keep track of the positive changes happening in lives of people living in Donetsk and Luhansk regions to show it to the wide audience.

The Close East initiative is a series of major reports to be aired twice a week on 112 Ukraine TV channel. The documentary film will be created at the end of the project.

The first film was aired on January 17, telling the story of Serhiy Svyrydenko, who lost his home and private business because of the war. He had a quarrel with his relatives who had betrayed Ukraine and went to the frontline. After coming back, Serhiy had to start a life from scratch.

It was worth to drive 700 km from Kyiv to Ivanopillya, Donetsk region to meet people like Serhiy. When I was listening to his stories I was thinking: this should be included in a film, and this and that as well. And finally, I realized that we shot a three-hour video which needs to be cut into a five-minute piece. It is hard to fit into the runtime. I always liked telling stories about people like this, because they inspire with their example and demonstrate that a man can do more than he or those close to him expect from him, Tetyana Nakonechna says, a special correspondent of the 112 Ukraine TV channel and the author of the first film.

Related: 'Much evidence' of Russia's involvement in Donbas conflict, - NATO ex-official

Please meet the people who overcame the despair of the losses and disappointment, and despite this, they stayed in their hometown to make life better. And they started from themselves. Watch the documentaries from the Close East series on 112 Ukraine TV channel (in the Ukrainian language) and at 112.international website (in English).Open source

The Orthodox Christians celebrate the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple on February 15. It is one of the 12 Great Feasts that symbolizes not only the meeting of the humanity and God but also the meeting of the winter and spring.

History of Feast

The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple appeared at the liturgic calendar of the church in IV century for the first time. However, it was not treated as the independent holiday but as the day that ends the 40-day-cycle after the Epiphany.

According to the gospel, Mary and Joseph took the Infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem forty days (inclusive) after his birth to complete Mary's ritual purification after childbirth, and to perform the redemption of the firstborn son, in obedience to the Torah. Upon bringing Jesus into the temple, they encountered Simeon. The Gospel records that Simeon had been promised that 'he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ'. When he swept up Jesus he claimed that this infant will become the Savior. The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple is the landmark meeting of the Books of the Old and New Covenant and acquaintance of the humanity with Messiah.

Open source

Ceremonies with Candles and Water

The early Slavs also celebrated the meeting of the winter and spring this day. February 15 was the only day during the winter when it is possible to hear the thunder. It gave the second name for the holiday 'Gromnytsia'.

Traditionally people sang the heathen charm-songs for warm and good summer, set the great fires near the roads and told fortunes.

Open source

This day people blessed the water in the church, then the candles, lighted them and brought home. According to the beliefs, these candles have the strength to protect the home and members of the family. The water considered to be healing. It was taken from the icicles and added to the regular water.

Superstitions

This holiday is connected to a lot of the superstitions such as predictions based on the weather, fortunetelling and financial superstitions. Also, there were the prohibitions for this day. People were not able to be bored as it is the happy holiday, to quarrel as it can attract worries. It was also not allowed to work, excepting the cooking, animal care, laundry, washing in the baths.

At the same time, the most positive activity for the holiday was the visiting of the church.The unknown threw the improvised explosive device into the museum of Stepan Bandera in Stary Ugryniv village, Ivano-Frankivsk region on the night of February 14th to 15th as Reporter reported.

'They inflicted not too many harms just to attract the attention. It is unknown who did this and why but it is some mean traitor. The investigators work at the moment and there are the CCTV cameras in the museum', the director of the museum said.

The museum was opened on December 30, 2000. Until this time, the museum was situated in the undamaged room where the Bandera family lived in 1906-1933.

The exposition of the museum shows the processes of the beginning of 20th century and the environment in which Stepan Bandera grew up, his personality, life and activity.

As we reported in the center of Kharkiv, unknown people painted a monument of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) soldiers in the colors of the Polish flag on February 14.

As we reported Polish leader Andrzej Duda has signed the bill with amendments to the law about the Institute of the National Memory in Poland. They stipulate criminal responsibility for denial of the Volyn Massacre of the 1940s and forbid the propaganda of the 'Banderite ideology'.Criminal proceedings were opened based on the fact of wounding a police officer near the court

Police detained 38 participants of the clashes that occurred on Thursday, February 15, near Solomiansky District Court of Kyiv that is hearing Odesa Mayor, Hennady Trukhanov case. Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said this in commentary for Ukrainian News agency.

"38 people were detained, and we will detain more," he said.

According to the Kyiv police, criminal case were opened based on the fact of wounding a police officer near the court.

The investigators started criminal proceedings for threat or violence against a law enforcement officer.

"Active participants of the conflict at the court are brought to the police department in Kyiv, including a man who used a gun," the report said.

According to the police press service, about 30 active participants in the conflict were brought to the police.

Police seized two devices for shooting rubber bullets, two telescopic batons, a grenade, several knives, gas cartridges and smoke bombs.

After identifying the detainees and obtaining explanations from them, a legal assessment of their actions will be given.

In addition, after examining the seized items, it will be decided whether to open a criminal case for the unlawful handling of weapons, ammunition or explosives.

As it was reported earlier the shooting occurred at the entrance to Solomiansky Court where the hearing of the case of Odesa Mayor Hennady Trukhanov is taking place. One police officer was wounded in the shooting. A police officer on duty was wounded in Kyiv near the court. The shooter was detained. Police officer with gunshot wounds in the legs was taken to the hospital. The shooter was taken to the police department,according to the police.

Earlier, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) served charges and detained Hennady Trukhanov, the Mayor of Odesa on February 14. It was noted that Trukhanov is transported to the building of the NABU for the questioning.

The NABU detectives under the guidance of the prosecutors of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office served charges on Trukhanov due to the suspect of the embezzlement through the malpractice. Moreover, three people were detained on the same criminal proceeding.

The NABU began the investigation in November 2016 on the purchase of the former plant 'Krayan' at an overvalued price by the city council. According to the bureau, the building was sold for $149, 080 in the beginning of 2016 and the Mayor office of Odesa purchased it in September 2016 for $ 6.9 million.He noted that he appealed to the border guards with the urge to not provide the helicopter with Yanukovych with the possibility to leave the territory of Ukraine

Oleksandr Turchynov, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council claimed that he did not order to shoot down a helicopter with Viktor Yanukovych, the former president of Ukraine in February 2014. He claimed this during his testimony as 112 Ukraine broadcasted.

Turchynov noted that he appealed to the border guards with the urge to not provide the helicopter with Yanukovych with the possibility to leave the territory of Ukraine.

'It became known that he would attempt to cross Ukrainian-Russian border from Kharkiv and to leave the territory of Ukraine in such way. I appealed to the Border Guars Service and ask not provide the helicopter with Yanukovych with the possibility to leave the country to not allow the disappearance of the important documents, resources of the country or traitors and malefactors that could be with Yanukovych, particularly the Interior Ministry and SBU head. He came on the board in Donetsk and refused to communicate with any representatives of the Ukrainian authority and then disappeared from the Donetsk Airport to an undisclosed location', Turchynov said.

He also specified that he did not give an order to shoot down the helicopter with Yanukovych.

Viktor Yanukovych, the fourth president of Ukraine left the country and moved to Russia after the strengthening of the crisis in the country on February 22-23, 2014. He also organized the press conference in Rostov on March 11 where he announced that he is alive.Open source

Oleh Slobodyan, an assistant director of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, named the reason why Russian border guards took away the checkpoints on the administrative border with annexed Crimea. According to him, the occupying authority wants to introduce a control system like the one in Russia, in Crimea. He said that on air of 112 Ukraine TV channel.

We are speaking about the so-called pre-check posts. They appeared in close proximity to the administrative border before Russia annexed Crimea back in 2014. Now they are taking away these checkpoints, leaving only those for implementing border crossing control. However, they leave CCTV cameras at the pre-check posts. In fact, they introduce the control system in the annexed peninsula in order to bring it to the standards, introduced in other parts of the border, Slobodyan said.

As we reported earlier, Russian border guards dismantled the roadblocks on the administrative border in Crimea. Russian checkpoints continue functioning as normal.Lance Ozier/Todos Juntos Photography

Starting its tenure at the National Hispanic Cultural Center (1701 Fourth Street SW) on Sunday, Feb. 18, and running until Sunday, Feb. 25, is Bless Me, Ultima like you've never seen it before. For this little-over-a-week long engagement, Opera Southwest is presenting the first ever performances of Rudolfo Anaya's classic story in the form of an opera conducted by Maestro Guillermo Figueroa.

Looking ahead to the show's premiere, Opera Southwest's Publicity Director Stephanie Hainsfurther provided some further details on this re-telling of the novel.

Alibi: How was an opera production of this book conceived of?

Hainsfurther: Opera Southwest and the National Hispanic Cultural Center, along with Opera Cultura in Los Angeles, commissioned this opera from prominent Mexican-American composer Hector Armienta, creator of a musical drama based on the legend of La Llorona. It has long been an ambition of Opera Southwest to present a world premiere of a distinctly New Mexican opera. Rudolfo Anayas American classic was foremost in the minds of Artistic Director Maestro Anthony Barrese and Executive Director Tony Zancanella, and our major donors were always on board with the idea.

What were the unique challenges that adapting it to this medium presented?

There are story lines within the novel that were dropped from the opera, for the sake of brevity. Mr. Armienta consulted with Mr. Anaya on the libretto, and they were careful to adhere to the major themes, scenes and characters. The opera is an art form in and of itself. But Bless Me, Ultima the novel is the kernel of the story.

How do you think seeing it as an opera might deepen viewers understanding of the story?

The principle themes: personal destiny, the spiritual world vs. the temporal world, good vs. evil, come through poignantly in the beauty of the music. Theyll feel it in their hearts.

What do you hope viewers walk away with, or have learned, after seeing this production?

That New Mexico is a place unlike any other, where we have celebrated authors like Rudolfo Anaya, and people dedicated to showcasing our uncommon arts and culture, like everyone involved with Opera Southwest.Courtesy Of Gwich'In Steering Committee

Were expanding the definition of what we mean by art, Subhankar Banerjee, an art and ecology professor at UNM, as well as the one of the key organizers of the last oil symposium, explained to me about the upcoming conference, to be held on the universitys campus from Wednesday, Feb. 21 to Friday, Feb. 23. The gathering brings together artists, activists, writers, whistle-blowers and many more in the first national symposium to address federal offshore energy policies, particularly as they relate to the arcticthough the connections to New Mexico and the broader west are everywhere.

The conference posits that we are in the second oil agethe age of petroleum, our reliance on which has had devastating effect on the natural world; the arctic is the bellwether of climate change. There is a very clear context for thisin December oil and gas development was approved on the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and last month a five-year offshore drilling plan was introduced which opens up significant federal water to oil and gas development.

The lands in question are essential for animals and for landscapes, as well as vital for Indigenous communities in the far north. How do we resist oil? Banerjee asked. Multi-species justice is a way to think about all of thiswhich means bringing environmental conservation into alignment with environmental justice and Indigenous rights.

Banerjee pointed to the work, Calling All Polar Bears, by multi-disciplinary artist Allison Akootchook Warden as a perfect enunciation of what multi-species solidarity can look like and how artists can seamlessly breach that gap, which often remains fraught. Shes talking about polar bears, Banerjee said, but shes talking about a whole lot more than polar bears.

In this piece Wardenwho is Inupiaq, from the small island of Kaktoviktransports viewers, through performance, to her home. There, Warden transforms into a polar bear, using musichip-hop and popto explore the experience of the suffering species as the ice melts right out from underneath them. Yet, then she again transforms into other, human characters, all to illumine a place. It is a piece explicating human and non-human experiences with equal parts humor and tremendous sadness. Banerjee notes in his essay, Why Polar Bears?: Seeing the Arctic Anew that climate change has largely been precipitated by those with affluence and power, in which the poor and the marginalized, including Indigenous peoples, have contributed little to climate change so far but will continue to be disproportionately affected by its devastating consequences. This, he says, makes Wardens piece part of the cosmopolitics of Indigenous resistance. Warden will be speaking on the first night of the symposium, as part of the multispecies solidarity panel at 6pm, and will perform afterwards.

Joining the discussion the following day is artist Brian Adams, an Inupiaq photographer currently residing in Anchorage. Adamswho along with Wardenwas recently awarded a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Fellowshipuses his skill to share Inuit identities with a wide audience, and illustrate how the lives of Indigenous communities in the far north intersect with climate change and cultural preservation. Adams is joined in conversation by Julie Decker, the director of the Anchorage Museum. Its not just individually what artists are doing, Banerjee explained, but for art to thrive, you need support. Decker and Adams will participate in a panel at 6pm on Thursday, called Next North: On art, the North, and climate change, which will be moderated by Director of the UNM Museum of Art, Arif Khan.

The final day will see The Red Nation organizers connecting whats happening in the Arctic to what is happening closer to home, and also illustrating what Banerjee meant when he said the conference aims to expand our working definition of what art is. Arthe explainedis creative expression. Protests like the ones organized by The Red Nation, we look at that as creative expression, as art. [Art] is no longer just something that you paint and get posted on the wall.

That notion is galvanizing. What Banerjee hopes for is a spark of recognition, a bit of inspiration. We are living in dispiriting times, he said. Something like this could maybe lighten the room a little bit. Not by way of pleasant distraction, but by providing information and the blueprints on how to make strides in the right direction where these topics are concerned.

Happening in conjunction with the the last oil symposium are the final days of Banerjees own exhibition at the UNM Museum of Art, Long Environmentalism in the Near North (up until March 3). As is illustrated in his photography and writing in the show, these are landscapes that he feels personally connected to. Everything I do today, he said, and I mean it, everythingas a writer, as an artist, as a scholar, as a teacher, as an activisteverything in one way or another is informed by what took place in the arctic.  My real education did not happen in any university. It happened in those lands.

For Banerjee however, its less about his experiences, and more about the process of creating connection in this world. Thats what I tell young peopleits really about engagement. Its not about the product you might create, or the art you might be creating, or a piece of writing you might do. Its just staying engaged with these issues. You dont know youre getting into beforehand, but it could fundamentally change who you are.

The last oil symposium is totally free and open to the public. No registration is required. Specific locations, times, parking suggestions and more are online at thelastoil.unm.edu.PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 14, ARMENPRESS. Artsakh recorded a nearly 6% tax revenue over-execution last year. The expected 15% economic growth was based on economic activity in the mining and other industry branches. The IT sector is considered to be a promising development direction for encouraging growth.

ARMENPRESS spoke to Artsakhs finance minister Grigori Martirosyan on last years achievements of the country, as well as expectations of 2018.

Mr. Martirosyan, what indicator of economic growth has been recorded last year in Artsakh and what factors contributed to it?

We still dont have official data on economic growth indicators, it will be specifically clear in March-April. But according to preliminary estimates we await a rather high  up to 15% economic growth. The economic activity of the year was a foundation for such a high indicator  first of all in the mining, industry and other branches. Rather high results have been recorded in the agriculture sector as well. According to our estimates the share of mining in the 15% economic growth will comprise nearly 6%, industry and other branches  nearly 3%, construction  2-3%, and the remaining at the expense of services and other sectors.

What economic growth indicator are you striving for in 2018?

Weve planned a minimum of 8% economic growth, but our expectations are higher. And depending on what economic situation and successes in investment policy we will have, I think growth will exceed 8%.

What directions is Artsakh trying to develop to boost growth?

As a priority direction for economic policy the government of Artsakh has emphasized energy. Hydro-energy gains big momentum. The government is currently also planning other restoration works. There is certain work in the food, light industry branches also. While in the service sector we will point out information technologies, which is declared to be a priority branch. Works are underway to create an environment for Armenian and international companies to establish branches and take orders. The IT sector can be a promising development direction for Artsakh. Agriculture and tourism are also important branches. 2017 stood out with a big flow of tourists. We are developing both historical and ecological tourism. Individual projects are planned for different directions, and the government is support these projects.

Mr. Martirosyan, what are the biggest achievements in the tax sector of last year?

In terms of revenues we recorded an unprecedented indicator in 2017  a nearly 6% over-execution of revenues. 22% growth was recorded against the previous year. We havent recorded such over-execution indicators at least for the past 10 years. I would like to especially emphasize that this result was recorded not only based on the growth of the mining sector. More than 50% from the total over-executed 2 billion 200 million was ensured by other major taxpayers also.

Please point out the major taxpayers

This year the first biggest taxpayer is from the mining sector, followed by a communications carrier, while several construction companies are the third.

Speaking about challenges for 2018, the minister says challenges will mostly be in the agriculture sector due to bad weather conditions of the beginning of the year.

-In one of your interviews you mentioned that this year housing will be under the spotlight in the state budget. What actions have been taken or planned in this regard?

In 2018, we plan to support through various options families who are willing to re-settle. Support will be in the form of construction materials, apartment construction and others. The main emphasis will be on the Shahumyan and Kashatagh regions, but other regions will also be included.

And how much is planned for the project?

400 million drams is planned.

Interview by Anna GrigoryanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. A former student opened gunfire in a Florida high school on Wednesday, killing at least 17 adults and children, CNN reported citing local authorities.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott ordered government flags flown at half-staff through Monday in honor of victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, was expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons.

"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school," US President Donald Trump said.

Law enforcement sources said the suspect used a .223 caliber, AR-15 style firearm in the shooting.

The shooter has also been wounded and is hospitalized.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. Armenia will assume the WCIT 2019 preparations works after the World Congress on Information Technology  WCIT February 19-21 is completed in Hyderabad, India.

The event is held is different countries every year, and the 2019 congress will be held in Yerevan, Alexander Yesayan, president of the Union of Information Technology Enterprises (UITE)  organizer of the event in Armenia  told ARMENPRESS.

The World Congress on Information Technology will become the next most significant event for Armenia after the 2018 La Francophonie summit. Yerevan will become a technopark capital for more than 2000 global IT leaders, which will create a wonderful opportunity in terms of the countrys image, positioning on the world IT map, attracting investments and tourism, he said.

In his words, there are powerful visiting cards to present to IT giants  Armenia is a country where strategic and engineering mentality begins developing from school  first of all chess, followed by engineering education from the age of 10. Yesayan says this is a promising experience which is applied only in Armenia.

Its no coincidence that we were enabled to hold this congress thanks to the Armath engineering lab program. In 2014 the UITE presented our experience of engineering education at the Mexico WCIT, and at the same time the Armath program was awarded the Sustainable Growth award by WITSA, and this year we will sign an agreement with India on exporting Armath labs, Yesayan says.

The World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) is the largest and the most reputable international event among worldwide IT leaders.

It brings together high-level officials from different countries, heads of multinational organizations, universities and scientific research centers, non-governmental organizations representatives and many more.

The event includes discussions of legal, political and economic trends affecting IT business processes, presentations of innovative solutions, B2B meetings and so on.

The WCIT has been held since 1978. Previous hosting countries were Canada, the Netherlands, Malaysia, USA, Greece, Australia, China, Spain, Japan, England, France, Denmark, Mexico, Brazil.

Armenia has been approved as the hosting country for WCIT 2019 during the meeting of the WITSAs board of directors at WCIT 2014 Mexico.

It is expected 2000-2500 delegates from more than 80 countries of the world. WCIT 2019 will be the first Congress being held in Europe since 2010.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENRESS. Hovhannes Azizyan, deputy minister of economic development and investments of Armenia, says the recently signed agreement between Armenia and Japan on liberalization, encouragement and mutual protections of investments is a good opportunity for Japanese investors to be more actively involved in Armenia.

In an interview with ARMENPRESS, Azizyan stressed that Armenia is the first country in the region that Japan is signing this agreement with.

The deputy minister was the main negotiator over the document from the Armenian side.

We carried out negotiations in a rather short period of time, but the document is rather big with its coverage. The services part has also been included here. It is a new format with the overall coverage, and we are thankful to the Japanese side that we were able to negotiate quickly, he said.

Azizyan says the document will enable Japanese investors to clearly understand regulations.

The deputy minister added that Armenia offers a transparent and international standard environment for the investors, which will enable to carry out activities in Armenia rather actively.

After ratification of the document, Azizyan says both sides must carry out work to present the opportunities to Armenia and Japanese investors.

He mentioned that Armenia can serve as an entry point to the EEU market and Iran.

In his words, the Eurasian Economic Unions market is in the interest of not only Japan, but all countries, because it is a vast and containable market.

The document was signed on February 14 between FM Edward Nalbandian and Japans Ambassador H.E. Eiji Taguchi.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. Nusret Senem, vice president of Vatan, a left wing party of Turkey, has requested the prosecution to shut down the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party, Diken reports.

Senem said that the Peoples Democratic Party has criticized the Operation Olive Branch during the 3rd Congress of the party.

The Peoples Democratic Party has also been accused for praising the PKK, and raising the photos of Abdullah Ojalan, leader of Turkeys Kurds.

Operation Olive Branch is the codename of Turkey's military intervention in Afrin, Syria.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. The current international ranking indicators of Armenias digital conversion are insufficient, according to PM Karen Karapetyan, which is mainly associated with the absence of necessary complete statistical data and monitoring tools.

At the same time it is needed to expand the circle of digital tools for providing governmental services to citizens, reduce time periods and possible corruption risks, the PM said during todays Cabinet meeting.

The Prime Minister tasked government officials and the Digital Armenia Foundation to design specific actions during 2 months, aimed at improving Armenias indicator in international digital rankings and ensuring progress, as well as to study and register within a month the governmental services which are subject to digitization.

The minister of transportation, communication and IT was tasked with supporting monitoring agencies.

The PM also suggested the national statistical service and Digital Armenia to design proposals on the e-Statistics pilot program initiation.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. The Government of Armenia is suggesting the Speaker of Parliament to convene another extraordinary session immediately after the February 27 sessions.

The relevant decision was adopted during todays Cabinet meeting.

Justice Minister Davit Harutyunyan said the session includes legislative bills as part of the new Constitution.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan addressed the issue of environmental monitoring at todays Cabinet meeting.

The PM mentioned that the nature protection ministry carries out monitoring of air, land and water pollution quarterly. At the same time, the tests do not contain analysis regarding the recorded issues, reasons and their elimination, and no mandatory conditions and active mechanisms are defined under the legislation for reducing or solving the problems, Karapetyan said.

The Prime Minister tasked minister of nature protection Artsvik Minasyan to submit proposals on carrying out analysis and studies of monitoring results.

Upon hearing the report of the nature protection ministry, we recorded that there are communities where the ministry issues the same conclusion every year whereas it is not clear what the community official should do, the cause is not clear and has an unclear content. This means that we record something, but dont do anything, and when the next year comes, we once again record [the issue], the PM said.

Mr. Minasyan, clearly formulate the issue, the PM told the minister.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. During todays Cabinet meeting, the government approved ratifying the agreement between Armenia and Tajikistan on mutual recognition and comparability of educational qualifications, scientific degrees and titles.

The deal will contribute to mutual academic mobility and cooperation in the educational and scientific sectors.

The agreement specifies the basis of mutual recognition of educational documents in the two countries.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. Deputy minister of foreign affairs of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan says he agrees with the assessment of the US national intelligence which said in a report that there is a risk of hostilities in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone. It is obvious for anyone. The 2016 April events prove this, he said, speaking to reporters after todays Cabinet meeting.

Shavarsh Kocharyan stressed that Armenia and Artsakh are always ready to any kind of developments.

In terms of being ready for negotiations, Kocharyan said: It is enough to mention the Azerbaijani Presidents latest speech, which definitely shows who is ready for what, who isnt ready to move forward in the negotiations process.

Kocharyan mentioned that with that speech, Aliyev brilliantly proved that Nagorno Karabakh cannot anyhow be a part of Azerbaijan, and that the international recognition of Artsakh is unavoidable.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence of the United States released February 13 the global Annual Threat Assessment report.

The report also addressed the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, where the US sees risks of hostilities in 2018.

In particular, the report mentions that tensions over Nagorno Karabakh can devolve into a large-scale military conflict, which can draw in Russia to support its regional ally.

According to the US National Intelligence, both sides reluctance to compromise, Azerbaijans steady military modernization, Armenias acquisition of new Russian equipment sustain the risk of large-scale hostilities in 2018.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. President Serzh Sargsyan held a meeting on February 15 with renowned Polish composer and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki with his spouse Elzbieta Penderecka.

The prominent musician is in Armenia for the festival dedicated to his 85th birthday.

During the meeting the President noted that he is always happy to welcome them in Armenia, where Krzysztof Penderecki and his art is known and loved.

Dear Mr. Penderecki, maestro,

It is symbolic that events on your birthday planned worldwide for the whole year begin in Yerevan. I believe that one of the calling of great artists is bringing people together, strengthen friendship between them, and you are doing this very good, President Sargsyan said.

Sargsyan mentioned that last year Armenia and Poland marked the 25th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations, as well as the 650th anniversary of the Armenian community of Poland.

Penderecki thanked the President for the reception and warm words and mentioned that he is very happy to see that his music is greatly popular in Armenia.

I am very happy that the festival dedicated to my jubilee begins in Armenia. This isnt the first time that such wonderful festivals are held in Yerevan. Indeed, the musical performance level is very high in Armenia  both in orchestras, conductors, and individual musicians. It is a big pleasure and joy for me, my wife and our family to be in Armenia. I have to stress that I feel myself a quarter Armenian, because my grandmother had Armenian origin, he said.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. The final list of participants of the La Francophonie Summit in Yerevan is not yet clear, deputy foreign minister Shavarsh Kocharyan told reporters after todays Cabinet meeting.

The final list isnt yet known. But, the participation of the leaders of two very important Francophone countries  France and Canada  is certain, Kocharyan said.

In a January 24 interview to LExpress, Armenias President Serzh Sargsyan said that as a result of the summit we will be able to present Armenia to the whole world. We will do our best for it to have great success. Take into consideration that almost half of the worlds states will be in Yerevan, mainly at the level of heads of state and heads of government, the president said when asked what significance the summit will have for Armenia.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. Armen Sarkissian, the potential candidate of the ruling party for the upcoming presidential election in Armenia, says he is hopeful that in case of being nominated voters in the Parliament or outside of it will not be guided by party affiliation, but rather by the person himself.

Speaking to reporters after touring the AGBU Yerevan office, Sarkissian noted that it is a great honor for him to be offered the nomination by incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan.

I am not a nominated candidate yet. The President offered me to think, and if an agreement takes place, the Republican party of Armenia, which is led by President Sargsyan, will nominate my candidacy. But I am not a member of the Republican Party of Armenia. I am not a member of any party at all, and I hope that in the Parliament or outside of it the voting will be done for the person, regardless of what party has nominated him, Sarkissian said.

According to him, it is wrong to polarize the society and adopt a stance that certain party affiliation candidates should be rejected solely because of the affiliation.

A reporter argued that the opposition Yelk faction of the Parliament has this kind of a stance, to which Sarkissian responded: Yes, I know about their stance, which they clearly expressed. I didnt go to meet them to ask and change their attitude, because their stance is principled. I went [to meet] because I believe our country needs dialogue. All organizations, structures, parties inside and outside the Parliament in our country should start a dialogue, because otherwise our society will become even more divided, he said.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. More than 10,000 civilians lost their lives or suffered injuries during 2017, according to the latest annual UN report documenting the impact of the armed conflict on civilians in Afghanistan, UNAMA said in a report.

A total of 10,453 civilian casualties - 3,438 people killed and 7,015 injured - were documented in the 2017 Annual Report released today by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN Human Rights Office. Although this figure represents a decrease of nine per cent compared with 2016, the report highlights the high number of casualties caused by suicide bombings and other attacks using improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

The chilling statistics in this report provide credible data about the wars impact, but the figures alone cannot capture the appalling human suffering inflicted on ordinary people, especially women and children, said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Afghanistan.

Yamamoto, who also heads UNAMA, expressed deep concern at the increased harm to civilians caused by suicide attacks. I am particularly appalled by the continued indiscriminate and unlawful use of IEDs such as suicide bombs and pressure-plate devices in civilian populated areas. This is shameful, he said.

The second leading cause of civilian casualties in 2017 was ground engagements between anti-government elements and pro-government forces, although there was a decrease of 19 per cent from the record levels seen in 2016.

The report attributes close to two-thirds of all casualties (65 per cent) to anti-government elements: 42 per cent to the Taliban, 10 per cent to Daesh / Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIL-KP), and 13 per cent to undetermined and other anti-government elements.

Women and children remained heavily affected by conflict-related violence. UNAMA documented that, in 2017, 359 women were killed - a rise of five per cent - and 865 injured. Child casualties - 861 killed and 2,318 injured - decreased by 10 per cent compared with 2016.

Afghan civilians have been killed going about their daily lives - traveling on a bus, praying in a mosque, simply walking past a building that was targeted. The people of Afghanistan, year after year, continue to live in insecurity and fear, while those responsible for ending lives and blighting lives escape punishment, said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein.

Such attacks are prohibited under international humanitarian law and are likely, in most cases, to constitute war crimes. The perpetrators must be identified and held accountable, he said.

The report stresses the importance of implementing Protocol V, noting that in 2017, UNAMA documented 164 deaths and 475 injured as a result of explosive remnants of war. Eighty-one per cent of the victims were children and many of those who survived lost limbs or eyes, and suffered other serious injuries and psychological trauma, limiting their prospects for a normal life.

Among its recommendations, the report urges parties to the conflict to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians and civilian installations. It calls on anti-government elements to cease the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian objects and the indiscriminate and disproportionate use of all IEDs.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. The number of tourists in Armenia increased by 18,7% in 2017, state tourism committee president Zarmine Zeytuntsyan told reporters after todays Cabinet meeting.

The tourism official said the main growth was provided by Russia, Iran and Eastern European countries. An interesting growth and dynamics is felt from China and Japan, she added.

Zeytuntsyan added that interesting tourism events have been designed for 2018.

Soon we will present the Russian Trace program in St. Petersburg, which is about Russian heritage in Armenia, it is a very interesting program, we plan to present it in Hermitage, she said.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. Armen Sarkissian, the potential candidate of the ruling party for the upcoming presidential election in Armenia, toured the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) Armenia Office in Yerevan today and participated in a consultation with the executives of the office.

Speaking to reporters after the tour, Sarkissian said there is much to do in Armenia in terms of benevolent structures and programs.

He mentioned that compared to the previous years the charitable programs are more practical and effective in Armenia. But a while ago we were discussing with colleagues that even this structure needs improvement, it needs to look at charity in a new way, it needs the support of the state and the society. The purpose of my todays visit is charity  as a national and state institution, how we must treat charity, how the state should support charity and how to coordinate so that charity programs dont repeat one another, Sarkissian said.

Vazgen Yakubyan, head of the AGBU Armenia office, told reporters they had a healthy discussion with Sarkissian on how benevolent organizations can have a great role in linking the abilities of the diaspora with Armenia.

We expressed our idea that we want to bridge our organization between Armenia and the Diaspora, and this bridge must work in two-ways, he said.

The Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) is the worlds largest non-profit organization devoted to upholding the Armenian heritage through educational, cultural and humanitarian programs. Each year, AGBU is committed to making a difference in the lives of 500,000 people across Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and the Armenian diaspora.

Through the vision of its leaders and the generous support of devoted donors and members over the years, AGBU has played a significant role in upholding Armenian traditions and values by adapting to the needs of the worldwide community and the demands of the times. Since 1906, AGBU has remained true to one overarching goal: to create a foundation for the prosperity of all Armenians.

AGBU currently operates with an annual budget of over $46 million, made possible by our countless benefactors. Headquartered in New York City, AGBU has an active presence in 31 countries and 74 cities and addresses the needs of Armenians with traditional and progressive programs worldwide from schools, scouts, camps and support for the arts to internships, virtual learning and young professional networks.

Description from agbu.org21 Nepalis to visit Australia for disaster risk reduction course

Twenty-one Nepalis will be attending a short course on Inclusive Governance for Effective Disaster Risk Reduction at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia from February 19-March 3, the Australian Embassy said in a statement on Wednesday.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. Armenias Yolyan Hematology Center is a regional leader with international standards, chief pediatric hematologist of the healthcare ministry Anahit Zakaryan told a press conference.

Zakaryan says the facility has introduced flow cytometry for efficiency assessment of diagnostics and treatment.

The cytogenetic FISH method has also been introduced for diagnosis, which enables to detect genetic problems related to blood diseases, she said.

Hematologist Lusine Krmoyan from the center says cancer is not a verdict, moreover among children, because new methods and new equipment enable to carry out effective treatment.

Treatment in line with international standards is carried out in Armenia and we have rather serious successes, she said.

Doctors of the center are proud to say that 800 of their patients have fully recovered from cancer and returned to normal lifestyle.

February 15 is marked as International Childhood Cancer Day throughout the world, aiming at raising awareness and supporting sick children and their families.

According to WHO, 215,000 cancer diseases are diagnosed yearly among children under the age of 14, and 85000 cases among teenagers aged 15-19.

WHO experts say 80% of malignant tumors are treated if diagnosed early. This figure is 65-70% in Armenia.

In Armenia, 80-90 new cases are diagnosed. Experts say the prevalence indicator hasnt changed significantly in the last 10 years.

Diagnostics and treatment of children with cancer is done at the Fanarjyan National Oncology Center, the Yolyan Hematology Center and the YSMU Muratsan Hospital Complexs Chemotherapy Clinic (state-funded).

First Lady Rita Sargsyan, who serves as Honorary Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Give Life Benevolent Fund, has an invaluable role in the process of treatment of children with cancer. The Fund is always supporting in solving issues related to treatment of sick children, acquisition of expensive medication, and if necessary in organizing treatment both abroad and the modernized Yolyan Hematology Center in Yerevan.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. Artsakh President Bako Sahakyan held a meeting on February 15 with a group of members of the Artsakh Union of the Afghanistan War Veterans led by head of the organization Yesay Balayan, the presidents office said.

A range of issues related to the activity of the union were discussed during the meeting.

The President highlighted the participation of the Afghanistan war veterans in the Artsakh National Liberation War, signifying their contribution to the patriotic upbringing of the younger generation too.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. New successes have already been achieved in the winemaking sector of Armenia in 2018.

With assistance of the Viticulture and Winemaking Foundation of Armenia 14 winemaking companies participated in the ProdExpo 25th exhibition in Moscow February 5-9.

This was the second time that Armenian companies presented their production in the largest regional annual international exhibition.

We met with representavices of Germany, Canada, Hungary, who are interested in Armenian winemaking. I think we will have export contracts in the future, Zaruhi Muradyan, CEO of the Foundation said.

Experts say Armenian wine will definitely have its unique place in the international market.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. Armen Sarkissian, the potential candidate of the ruling party for the upcoming presidential election in Armenia, had a meeting with representatives of national minorities in Armenia.

I asked for this meeting to take place because I believe it is very significant. It is significant for a nation which has a big Diaspora all over the world. I myself have lived for many years with my family outside Armenia and I very well know that the community is important. Each of you, regardless of ethnicity and what passport [he or she] carries in addition to the Armenian one, must feel themselves as complete citizens of Armenia, Armen Sarkissian told members of the coordination council of ethnic minorities national cultural organizations, which functions under the presidents office.

According to him, a multiethnic city and a multiethnic culture is a great wealth. Sarkissian expressed hope that he will have the chance to meet representatives of ethnic minorities in the future also.

You are my countrymen for me and regardless of the fact if I will be president or not I dont think our relations will end this way. Before we didnt meet with the status of this council, but I knew many of you, and some have been my friends for many years, he said.

Armen Sarkissian, Armenias Ambassador to the United Kingdom, was offered by the Republican Party to be nominated for the upcoming presidential elections. At a January 19 meeting with incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan, who also serves as President of the ruling party, Sarkissian requested a brief period of time to ponder the offer, mentioning he wants to meet with political parties, representatives of the civil society and others to make a decision.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. Newly appointed Ambassador of Chile to Armenia Rodrigo Nieto Maturana (residence in Moscow) delivered the copies of his credentials to FM Nalbandian on February 15, ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the MFA Armenia.

Congratulating Ambassador Maturana on the appointment, FM Nalbandian noted that the official visit of President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan to Chile in 2014 gave a new impetus to bilateral relations. The Foreign Minister hoped that Ambassador Maturana will foster the implementation of the agreements reached in the sidelines of the Presidents visit.

Thanking for the reception and the warm wishes, Rodrigo Nieto Maturana assured that Chile is interested in deepening relations with Armenia, assuring that he will spare no efforts for that goal.

Edward Nalbandian expressed gratitude to Ambassador Maturana for the adoption of the resolution recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide by the Senate in 2007 and the parliament in 2015.

During the meeting Minister Nalbandian presented to his interlocutor the recent developments over Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process, and the joint efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chair countries aimed at an exclusively peaceful settlement to the conflict.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. US President Donald Trump says that mental issues caused the suspect in the Parkland school shooting to gun down 17 students.

So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!, Trump said on Twitter.

A gunman unleashed horror at his former high school in South Florida on Wednesday, authorities said, slaughtering at least 17 unsuspecting students and adults.

The suspect, Nikolas Cruz, 19, gunned down victims with a rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland shortly before 3 p.m. after he allegedly activated a fire alarm, sending people outside unaware of what was to come, officials said.YEREVAN, 15 FEBUARY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 15 February, USD exchange rate down by 0.31 drams to 481.30 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 5.92 drams to 600.85 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.13 drams to 8.50 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 8.43 drams to 676.66 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 155.46 drams to 20677.34 drams. Silver price down by 0.55 drams to 256.56 drams. Platinum price up by 36.77 drams to 15040.88 drams.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan will pay a working visit to Moscow on February 16-17. The Premier is scheduled to hold meetings with a number of Armenian and Russian businessmen with whom he will discuss ongoing and prospective projects.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Government of Armenia, in the sidelines of the visit Karen Karapetyan will also attend the event dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the establishment of Gazprom company.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. The Russian Foreign Ministry has commented on the announcement of Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev on February 8 during the congress of the ruling party of Azerbaijan Yeni Azrbaycan, where he said that pressures against Armenia will be continued in order they bring back their historical lands, Yerevan and Armenia in general.

ARMENPRESS reports during a weekly briefing answering the question of the "Public Agenda" program of Armenia's Public TV about how the Russian MFA assesses the announcement, the official representative of the RF MFA Maria Zakharova said, We watched the speech of the Azerbaijani president in Russia during the congress of the ruling party. We know very well that the relations of Azerbaijan with neighboring Armenia are extremely tense and such announcements obviously do not de-escalate the situation.All gas bottling plants apply for NS mark

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) bottling companies that were defying the government instruction to meet safety requirements have applied for the Nepal Standard (NS) certificates after the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM) tightened the noose around them.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. The bogus stories about hundreds of Russians allegedly killed in Syria in an air raid by the US-led anti-terrorist coalition was launched by anti-government rebels, ARMENPRESS reports, citing TASS, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told during a news briefing on Thursday.

"Anti-government Syrian rebels were one of the first to have spread this rumor through their media channels.

Western medias reports about dozens and even hundreds of Russians killed in Syria in an attack carried out by the US-led coalition, is a classic example of disinformation, she said. "Reports about the death of dozens and even hundreds of Russian nationals are a classic example of disinformation," she said. "There were not 400, 200, 100 or even ten (who died), according to preliminary information, in a clash the cause of which is being investigated. Five people, who allegedly were Russian citizens, may have been killed. Several people suffered wounds but it requires verification, particularly as to whether all of them are Russian nationals," Zakharova said.



"I would like to stress that they are not military servicemen," she added. "The Russian presidential administration and Defense Ministry have promptly clarified that there were no Russian military servicemen in the area targeted by the US-led coalition."

The Russian diplomat noted that "Syrian militants fighting against the government" had been the first to start "spreading this disinformation through their channels." "God knows why they used a picture of the Martian landscape, adding a photo of destroyed military hardware, which could be Ukrainian (a probe is underway) that dates back to June 2014." "We can understand the reason why international terrorists spread such rumors," Zakharova went on to say. "As well as why US media outlets do that. This information campaign was stoked by Washington, which has been accusing Moscow of interfering in the US presidential election," she added.

"There is a large number of people from all over the globe in conflict zones, including from Russia and CIS member states," the Russian Foreign Ministrys spokeswoman said. "They have various reasons to be there, including participating in military activities. They do not turn to state agencies when they head off to conflict zones, and use illegal routes. It is difficult to figure out who is doing what there but the Russian Foreign Ministry together with other state agencies has been looking into every such case because one of our goals is to protect Russian nationals abroad," Zakharova concluded.TRUMPINGTON, D.C.Stormy Daniels still possesses a dress that she wore during her affair with Donald Trump in 2006, and she plans to have the dress tested for DNA samples to prove beyond a doubt that the affair actually took place, according to a report Thursday by the celebrity news site The Blast.

Trump has not publicly commented one way or the other on his alleged affair with the 2014 AVN Hall of Fame inductee. On January 12, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trumps personal lawyer. Michael Cohen, arranged a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels just one month before the 2016 presidential election.

After initially denying the story, Cohen acknowledged on Tuesday that he had, indeed, paid $130,000 to Danielsbut claimed that he used his personal funds to facilitate the payment.

In his statement on Tuesday, Cohen did not specify why he facilitated the $130,000 payment to Daniels, only that the payment was made.

Now, Daniels manager Gina Rodriguez says that the performer-turned-director believes that Cohen himself has violated their agreement not to discuss the affair and as a result, Daniels will now tell her side of the story.

According to Thursdays Blast report, she has the dress that could add a near-certain level of credibility to her story. A report in Britains Daily Mail said that Daniels will seek payment in the six-figure range to publicly discuss her affair with Trump.

Unlike in the case of the blue dress which allegedly connected President Bill Clinton to White House intern Monica Lewinsky in the 1990s, through what was purported to be a semen stain left on the dress by Clinton, Daniels apparently has not claimed that the dressa sparkly-gold mini-dress with a deep cut necklinecontains evidence of Trumps ejaculate.

However, according to the report, Daniels believes that the dress may contain other sources of DNA from Trump, and she plans to have the garment forensically tested for DNA evidence. An image of the gold dress, which Daniels has reportedly kept in pristine condition can be viewed at this link.

Cohen, known as an unshakeable Trump loyalist, himself acknowledged earlier this week that he is pitching a book to major publishers detailing his decade-plus as Trumps personal lawyer and fix-it guy. Cohens book proposal says that he will clarify the unfortunate situation regarding Stormy Daniels.Floral and tropical flavoured macarons are set to become the next big thing, according to Brioche Pasquier.

Ahead of National Macaron Day (20 March), the French patisserie producer has claimed tropical flavoured macarons, such as guava, mango and coconut, will grow in popularity this year.

It is also expecting interest to grow in floral flavours such as lavender, rose and violet that have traditionally been popular in Middle Eastern countries.

Tropical flavours became established in 2017, but are expected to gain further traction this year.

The new kids on the block are floral essences such as geranium, violet and rose  delicate tastes which are ideal for flavouring macarons, said Brioche Pasquiers foodservice sales manager Jon Turonnet.

No-one wants to eat a whole plate of geranium-flavoured pudding, but a light bite of crisp macaron flavoured with a hint of the essence is truly delicious.

Also set to thrive this year are lemon meringue macarons, according to Brioche Pasquier, as the French have taken a leaf out of a traditional British recipe book.

Lemon meringue has become the flavour of the moment with many eminent French patissiers recently introducing this flavour combination into their ranges, added Turonnet. Paris is falling for the lemon meringue pie  albeit a supremely French version.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.My elementary years were spent at a rural school in Tuxedo, NC. Built in the 1920s, it was the same school that my father and his siblings attended. I remember using textbooks with my aunts' and uncles' names in them. We had no fancy equipment...just pencils, paper, and chalkboards. The only technology we had was the reel-to-reel movie projector and the hand-cranked duplication machine (I loved the smell of purple worksheets).I tell you about my childhood school because, despite its significant financial limitations, it produced a major general in the Marine Corps, an Oprah Book Club writer, an international storyteller, and the usual assortment of doctors, lawyers, teachers, and generally hard-working Americans. A rural mountain school did this without tons of money.It is possible to see the same results in the lives of graduates of today's inner-city schools, and, similar to that rural mountain school, it doesn't require a ton of money. What is the secret for successful educational outcomes? Quite simply, it is the influence of quality teachers.The golden thread that runs through all educational research is the assertion that positive student outcomes are directly tied to accomplished teaching. Everyone knows this, but we continue to throw money at a myriad of other educational initiatives. I have long been concerned about a growing lack of quality in the teaching profession. Like every other profession, there are both good and bad practitioners. This fact should not be interpreted as a criticism of all teachers, of course. However, we can never improve the teaching profession until we recognize this reality.What do I mean? Teacher quality in North Carolina is becoming questionable within the ranks of newly-graduated teachers, lateral entry educators, and the long-enduring (and often long endured) veteran teaching force. Many new hires have graduated both high school and college with what might be characterized today as a minimal education; poor spelling and grammar, limited historical knowledge and context, and a disturbing lack of basic content knowledge. Some new teachers have technological knowledge and yet have no idea how to teach real concepts if the power happens to go out.Lateral entry educators are hired from other professions to fill difficult to staff positions in areas such as math or science. They are certified to teach when they take a minimal number of course hours. The most concerning group in this category however includes the colleagues that all current teachers recognize -all professions have them. These are the ones who do the minimum amount of work and complain constantly. Administrators seem loathe to address their various shortcomings and colleagues end up carrying their weight.How can we solve this problem? Admission standards need to be raised for teacher candidates and the quality of teacher preparation courses in the UNC system must be upgraded. Applicants to colleges of education should be able to demonstrate an academic commitment to their undergraduate core courses, but all universities do not currently expect them to demonstrate a 3.0 GPA. Most college level work for teacher candidates is heavy on disjointed theory and very light on theoretical applications in real classrooms. I've heard from some teacher candidates that say many of their courses are online. Reducing our teacher preparation to a correspondence course is troubling. Since tax dollars go to support the UNC system, it is reasonable that citizens should be able to expect quality and a minimal amount of standardization in the prescribed coursework. There is enough research available to help guide the adoption of a standard of basics.For those new hires who may be entering as lateral entry or even as an experienced teacher from another state, NC's certification requirements need to be updated. There are quality educators who moved to NC and give up trying to get work teaching because of the arduous and lengthy certification process. We also need to apply stricter standards to the performance of current teachers, especially early in their work years. Despite concerns about the overall quality of the potential teacher talent pool, there are always excellent candidates. We need to make sure that the quality candidates in each area have a fair and fast track to practicing their craft for the benefit of all our students.Numerous studies demonstrate a link between quality teachers - defined here as effective teachers - and future income potential. Seeing such outcomes can go a long way toward building the case why North Carolina needs a superior teaching force.The Oprah Book Club writer who attended the same country school that I did has credited some of his early teachers with the inspiration and basic skills necessary to begin his lifetime pursuits. I believe North Carolina has an opportunity to provide this for every student, when we use the research and resources at our disposal to promote consistent, high-quality teaching.Do Relocating Businesses Really Care About the Quality of Schools?

Last month, Toyota and Mazda chose to locate a new joint car plant in Alabama despite a $1.6 billion incentives package offered by N.C. Department of Commerce officials. The companies chose Alabama, not due to its comparatively modest $800 million incentives offer, but presumably because the state had an existing supply chain for automotive parts in the region.The circumstances that led Toyota and Mazda to choose Alabama are less important than the contents of the North Carolina proposal, which have been made public . The nearly 400 pages of emails, text messages, and planning documents included in the release offer fascinating insights into the strategies employed by economic development officials to lure businesses to our state.The car plant, dubbed "Project New World," would have used a combination of taxpayer money, tax breaks, infrastructure improvements, and training programs to locate a plant on a megasite in Randolph County near Greensboro. Of the $1.6 billion total, $46.5 million would have been used for workforce and training incentives, mostly involving the N.C. Community College System. This included $2 million for talent identification and selection, $16.4 million for community college training programs, $25 million for a specialized training center funded through Golden LEAF Foundation grants, $3 million for apprenticeships, and $100,000 for a Japanese Saturday school.Curiously, at no point did the economic development team appear to discuss the quality of the public schools in Randolph County, Asheboro City, or adjacent counties. A September 2017 itinerary for visiting automotive executives, for example, dealt with aspects of the site itself, such as permitting, power, and logistics. Certainly, it's possible that the topic came up during the meeting even though there is no mention of it on the itinerary. Funds for the Japanese Saturday school, for example, may have led to a broader discussion of public schools or educational options, but the absence of the topic in the documents is striking.Starting in the mid-1990s, researchers began producing empirical studies that examined the relationship between school quality and business relocation and expansion decisions. In addition to tax, regulatory, and infrastructure conditions, the consensus in the research literature was that schools are among a number of "quality of life" factors that businesses consider when making operational or capital investments. Unsurprisingly, surveys of top business executives and managers agree with the research. According to a 2017 survey of corporate real estate executives, workforce skills were identified as the most important location criteria, followed by transportation infrastructure, utilities, state and local taxes, and the availability and price of real estate.Indeed, the notion that there is a strong relationship between public school quality and economic development is rarely questioned. And the idea is a bipartisan, super-charged crowd-pleaser. Few batted an eye when Republican Gov. Pat McCrory remarked in his 2013 State of the State Address, "We can all agree on the importance of improving education because our competitive [economic] future depends on it." Four years later, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper declared Countless elected officials and education advocates from both sides of the aisle have echoed the same sentiment.So why, then, did state economic developers not focus on it as part of their bid for the automotive plant? I can think of at least three possible explanations. Perhaps they discussed it at length, and the 400 pages of documents released this week did not capture those conversations. State officials may have omitted it from the discussion with the Toyota and Mazda executives for strategic reasons, such as the fear that revealing student achievement data would be counterproductive or even harmful to their effort. Maybe, despite claims to the contrary, workforce skills are less important to the business community than the incentives and tax breaks offered by local and state governments.Although the first two are plausible, the cynic in me leans toward the "goodies over grades" explanation.Tom Campbell

It feels like the 2017 session of the North Carolina General Assembly has lingered longer than grandma's Christmas fruitcake and the fruits and nuts have grown stale and distasteful. HB90, the so-called class size reduction bill is a classic case of good legislation that turned into an egregious example of bad government.HB90 was proposed to fix the mess lawmakers created by reducing class sizes in grades k-3. Either they didn't ask or weren't told the consequences of their actions; specifically how many new classrooms and teachers would be required. When school administrators and teachers pointed out the problem the legislature hemmed and hawed, finally delaying implementation of the act. But they didn't solve the problem until February in one of the many "special sessions."HB90 further delayed implementation of the class size reduction, but included $61 million in additional money to help fund PE, art or music teachers. It wasn't enough, but it was a start, and if lawmakers had stopped there they might have been o.k.But this legislature had to get a pound of flesh in exchange for being called on the carpet. And the subject of their ire was once again Governor Roy Cooper. Ironically, legislative leaders were angry about a perceived challenge to their authority when Cooper announced a $58 million fund that accompanied the decision to approve the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Lawmakers quickly declared it a "slush fund" and responded by adding a provision in HB90 to reallocate the money from Cooper's control to schools along the corridor where the pipeline will run. That money will have little more impact than another gallon of water over Niagra Falls, but it was intended to show Cooper who was boss.Here's what lawmakers might have found out if they had bothered to inquire how this $58 million was agreed to by the owners of the pipeline. In July of 2017, while the fate of the pipeline was uncertain, a group of concerned rural leaders met with some of the owners of the proposed pipeline in the offices of The North Carolina Farm Bureau. It was agreed the pipeline was good for rural areas but there were some concerns expressed. Specifically these discussions focused on how to mitigate potential environmental problems, but also economic development issues, like the need to run spurs to communities and counties not directly in the path of the line. We were told these conversations were congenial and cooperative. But we were also told emphatically there was no "quid-pro-quo agreement" because the pipeline's status was in doubt. If fact, initially the fund was proposed to be a private sum not connected with the state.It is unreasonable to assume that the state would not be informed of this agreement at some point and was unfortunate that the $58 million was announced at the same time as was the approval of the pipeline. It isn't difficult to get the impression that the one was connected with the other, however we're told by unimpeachable sources that wasn't the case.But back to HB90. Lawmakers pounced on this as a way to attack Cooper. Making matters worse they also added a codicil to strike back at the court's decision in Cooper's favor regarding administration of the State Board of Elections.Some may view all these shenanigans as shrewd political strategy, singing the tired song that Democrats were no better when they ran things. HB90 may be great politics but it is lousy government. Let's hope lawmakers go home and stay until the short session. Maybe some people might talk to them about focusing on good government when they return instead of "gotcha" politics.Time and again we hear that individuals responsible for mass shootings have also targeted animals as their victims. Photo by David Sokol/For The HSUS

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Once again, our country is in collective mourning over a senseless, gruesome massacre at a school, this time in Parkland, Florida. As the mother of a high schooler myself, I am heartbroken and worried for every child, for every family, and for every community that has to endure such suffering and pain. Beyond the shared grief and heartache for the victims and their families, a common refrain we are once again hearing is, what could we have done?

Its a challenging question to answer  gun violence is a complex, multifaceted issue. When media reports indicated that the shooter had a history of bragging about killing animals on social media, those of us in the animal protection movement were sadly unsurprised. This pattern of violence is common and well-documented  time and again we hear that individuals responsible for mass shootings have also targeted animals as their victims.

Many have long appreciated the important relationship between animal abuse and interpersonal violence, but some individuals have not yet made the connection. The HSUSs Law Enforcement Training Center shares this important message with law enforcement officers on the front lines. Each year, The HSUS provides training to thousands of officers across the country on investigating and prosecuting animal abuse, with a focus on the link between these cases and acts of violence against human beings. Our courses include discussions around why a child might abuse animals, and how animal crimes are related to other felonies (including mass shootings, distribution of illegal drugs, gang warfare, as well as domestic violence, elder abuse, and child abuse). Next month, in a sad irony, The HSUS will collaborate with the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association to discuss these very issues.

Prevention through education and awareness is another common theme, as we encourage multidiscipline cross-training, and cross-reporting among enforcement officers, veterinarians, and human service professionals. We encourage early intervention methods, asking domestic violence shelters to team up with humane societies to create safe havens where people fleeing violent situations can keep their pets safe, too. We urge human services agencies to screen for animal abuse during client assessments. In addition, we have been clear in recommending that children who abuse animals should receive help to address the reasons for their violent actions.

At the same time, we, like other humane organizations, have long championed humane education and the cultivation of pro-social sentiments and skills in children, an obvious solution to the social and cultural crisis that violence has created in American life.

In the public policy area, elected officials should continue their efforts geared toward reducing mass murders and gun violence. But they should also consider the role of strengthened anti-cruelty laws. Across the country, The HSUS works alongside state legislators to pass meaningful protections for animals and to hold the perpetrators of cruelty and abuse accountable. At the federal level, there are two bills designed to protect both pets and their people:

The Pet and Women Safety (PAWS) Act, S.322/H.R.909, will help protect domestic violence victims and their pets by expanding domestic violence protections to include pets, and by establishing a federal grant program to assist in securing safe shelter for the pets. The PAWS Act establishes a national policy on this issue and encourages states to expand their legal protections for pets in abusive households.

The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act, H.R. 1494/S. 654, will make it a federal crime to commit malicious cruelty to an animal on federal property or otherwise in interstate commerce. It also targets bestiality, which is associated with child pornography and other sexual crimes. In a study of more than 44,000 adult males evaluated for sexual misconduct, researchers concluded that bestiality is the number one risk factor and the strongest predictor of increased risk of sexual abuse of a child. The PACT Act will create a federal anti-cruelty statute that complements the cruelty laws in the 50 states.

Simply put, animal cruelty is an indicator of social pathology. Congress should act now to pass these bills without further delay, so we can help protect both animals and humans from needless violence.AARP has reviewed all 50 states and the District of Columbia to highlight progress and pace of change, as well as identify needs for the improvements of long-term care services and support systems for older adults, people with physical disabilities (those who cannot perform daily activities on their own because of physical, cognitive, or chronic health conditions), and family caregivers. The scorecard, Picking Up The Pace of Change, shows that although many states have made some advancements in care scenarios, most systems arent changing fast enough to support the growing trends the baby boomer generation will demand within the next decade.

The scorecard ranks states based on their performance in these five main categories:

Affordability and access

Choice of setting and provider

Quality of life and quality of care

Support for family caregivers

Effective transitions between nursing homes, hospitals and homes



How Illinois Ranks

Among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Illinois ranked in at the No. 30 slot giving the states 1,200+ long-term-care facilities a mediocre rating and leaving plenty of room to improve the quality of life and quality of care for residents and their caregivers.

The specific scorecard revealed these rankings for Illinois, starting with the lowest:

Quality of Life & Quality of Care: 44 Effective Transitions: 44 Support for Family Caregivers: 29 Affordability and Access: 26 Choice of Setting and Provider: 8

After a close review of these five categories, AARP then scored Illinois in 25 specific indicators, including such things as Medicaid spending, antipsychotic medication use in nursing home residents, long nursing home stays, and support of working caregivers.

Illinois ranked poorly in several of these indicators, including:

Percent of long-stay nursing home residents who are receiving an antipsychotic medication: 48

Percent of nursing home residents with moderate to severe dementia with one or more potentially burdensome transitions at end of life: 47

Percent of adults age 21+ with ADL disabilities at or below 250% of poverty receiving Medicaid: 41

Although these facilities are licensed, regulated, inspected and/or certified by a number of public and private agencies at the state and federal levels, including the Illinois Department of Public Health, the scorecard conclusions bring obvious concerns related to the challenges long-term care residents and their caregivers face in our state.

Neighboring Indiana sits dead last for providing the worst long-term care services and supports in the nation. To review the full list published in 2017, visit the AARP scorecard here.



Nursing Home and Long-Term Care Negligence Attorneys

If a loved one has been neglected or you feel they are in a situation where their long-term service care or support is causing them harm or discomfort, we want to hear about it. There is a time limit to file a case in Illinois, so please contact us now for a free consultation with one of our skilled nursing home attorneys.

Levin & Perconti has become one of the most widely-known and respected nursing home abuse and neglect law firms in Illinois, achieving multiple million dollar verdicts and settlements.Centre tells local units to ensure students get textbooks on time

As the new academic session got under way in the mountain districts on Wednesday, the federal government has asked the local governments to ensure students get their textbooks on time.

Utility poles

I am almost always interested in utility infrastructure. I see it every day, and often don't think about it. The electric power distribution grid is a gigantic machine, one of the biggest devices ever built, and people spend their whole lives becoming experts on just one part of it. What is it all for, how does it work? What goes wrong, and how do you fix it? Who makes the parts, and how much do they cost? Every day I go outside and see things like these big cylinders: and I wonder what they are. In this case from clues in the environment I was able to guess they were electrical power transformers. Power is distributed on these poles at about seven thousand volts, which is called medium voltage. But you do not want 7000-volt power in your house because it would come squirting out of the electric outlets in awesome lightnings and burn everything up. Also most household uses do not want three-phase power, they want single-phase power. So between the pole and the house there is a transformer to change the shape of the electricity to 120V, and that's what these things are. They turn out to be called distribution transformers and they are manufactured by  guess who?  General Electric, and they cost a few thousand bucks each. And because of the Wonders of the Internet, I can find out quite a lot about them. The cans are full of mineral oil, or sometimes vegetable oil! (Why are they full of oil? I don't know; I guess for insulation. But I could probably find out.) There are three because that is one way to change the three-phase power to single-phase, something I wish I understood better. Truly, we live in an age of marvels. Anyway, I was having dinner with a friend recently and for some reason we got to talking about the ID plates on utility poles. The poles around here all carry ID numbers, and I imagine that back at the electric company there are giant books listing, for each pole ID number, where the pole is. Probably they computerized this back in the seventies, and the books are moldering in a closet somewhere. As I discussed recently, some of those poles are a hundred years old, and the style of the ID tags has changed over that time: It looks to me like the original style was those oval plates that you see on the left, and that at some point some of the plates started to wear out and were replaced by the yellow digit tags in the middle picture. The most recent poles don't have tags: the identifier is burnt into the pole. Poles in my neighborhood tend to have consecutive numbers. I don't think this was carefully planned. I guess how this happened is: when they sent the poles out on the truck to be installed, they also sent out a bunch of ID plates, perhaps already attached to the poles, or perhaps to be attached onsite. The plates would already have the numbers on them, and when you grab a bunch of them out of the stack they will naturally tend to have consecutive numbers, as in the pictures above, because that's how they were manufactured. So the poles in a vicinity will tend to have numbers that are close together, until they don't, because at that point the truck had to go back for more poles. So although you might find poles 7951879604 in my neighborhood, poles 7960579923 might be in a completely different part of the city. Later on someone was inspecting pole 79557 (middle picture) and noticed that the number plate was wearing out. So they pried it off and replaced it with the yellow digit tag, which is much newer than the pole itself. The inspector will have a bunch of empty frames and a box full of digits, so they put up a new tag with the old ID number. But sometime more recently they switched to these new-style poles with numbers burnt into them at the factory, in a different format than before. I have tried to imagine what the number-burning device looks like, but I'm not at all sure. Is it like a heated printing press, or perhaps a sort of configurable branding iron? Or is it more like a big soldering iron that is on a computer-controlled axis and writes the numbers on like a pen? I wonder what the old plates are made of. They have to last a long time. For a while I was puzzled. Steel would rust; and I thought even stainless steel wouldn't last as long as these tags need to. Aluminum is expensive. Tin degrades at low temperatures. But thanks to the Wonders of the Internet, I have learned that, properly made, stainless steel tags can indeed last long enough; the web site of the British Stainless Steel Association advises me that even in rough conditions, stainless steel with the right composition can last 85 years outdoors. I will do what I should have done in the first place, and go test the tags with a magnet to see if they are ferrous. Here's where some knucklehead in the Streets Department decided to nail a No Parking sign right over the ID tag: Another thing you can see on these poles is inspection tags: Without the Internet I would just have to wonder what these were and what OSMOSE meant. It is the name of the company that PECO has hired to inspect and maintain the poles. They specialize in this kind of work. This old pole was inspected in 2001 and again in 2013. The dated inspection tag from the previous inspection is lost but we can see a pie-shaped tag that says WOODFUME. You may recall from my previous article that the main killer of wood poles is fungal infection. Woodfume is an inexpensive fumigant that retards pole decay. It propagates into the pole and decomposes into MITC (methyl isothiocyanate). By 2001 PECO had switched to using MITC-FUME, which impregnates the pole directly with MITC. Osmose will be glad to tell you all about it. (Warning: Probably at least 30% of the surmise in this article is wrong.)

[Other articles in category /tech] permanent link

The Environmental Protection Agency's mission is in its name. But it's hard to tell whether or not the EPA is doing its job if the government refuses to release any records of its doing so.

In the summer of 2017, the Center for Biological Diversity  an organization that is passionate about the link between the well-being of humanity and the ongoing safety and diversity of all the creatures bopping around the earth  requested that the EPA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service provide them with public records on the use of a number of pesticides: chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion. Their request for information was never acknowledged.

Unwilling to take ghosting for an answer, they filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, demanding that the thousands of pages of analysis on how the pesticides' use affects wild plants and animals, be released. In a statement released by the organization earlier today, they cited the following:

The Fish and Wildlife Service had committed to releasing its analysis of that research for public comment by May 2017 and to finalize the documents by December 2017. But last year, shortly after donating $1 million to Trump's inauguration, Dow Chemical asked federal agencies not to finalize the legally required assessments that are crucial to establishing common-sense measures to reduce the pesticides' harm to endangered species. The EPA's initial analysis of the three pesticides, released in 2016, found that 97 percent of the more than 1,800 animals and plants protected under the Endangered Species Act are likely to be harmed by malathion and chlorpyrifos. Another 78 percent are likely to be hurt by the pesticide diazinon. Upon the completion of the EPA's analysis, the Fish and Wildlife Service was then required to complete its assessment and suggest mitigation to avoid jeopardizing the continued existence of endangered species like whooping cranes and Karner blue butterflies. But the finalization of those assessments has stalled in the wake the request by Dow, which over the past six years has donated $11 million to congressional campaigns and political action committees. Over the same period the company has spent an additional $75 million lobbying Congress.

Gross, if true.

If you believe in what the Center for Biological Diversity stands for and want to make a donation to support their work, you can do so, here.

Image: Casey Deshong  This image is from the FEMA Photo Library., Public DomainYou may have noticed of late that things in America are becoming less, well, American.

A cruel misogynist with dangerously racist beliefs is running the show. Nazis and bigots of all stripes no long fear giving voice to their hatred in public. The nation's journalists and the free flow of information are under attack. The government is working hard to defund the healthcare apparatus designed to protect the country's most vulnerable citizens. Piece by piece, the country's institutions, its heart and soul are being torn asunder, paving the way for something new. After reading Timothy Snyder's most recent book, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, I gotta tell you, if you're scared of the outcome of all of this, chances are you're likely not scared enough.

Snyder is a scholar who specializes in the history of the the 20th century and, more pointedly, the holocaust. His knowledge of how a country's slow slide into fascism at the whim of a tyrant can occur is beyond reproach, given his academic street cred: he's the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale, a Committee on Conscience member at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. What I'm getting at is that he knows from bad shit, how it starts and historically, how it's gone down. With the current political and popular climate in a number of nations around the world, he's concerned that the ugliest parts of humanity are ready to rear their heads once again.

On Tyranny's only 126 pages long. Over the course of the book's 20 easy-to-read chapters, Snyder explains the signs that can be seen in the lead up to a fascist regime, sites brutal examples of where these signs have pointed to in the past, and what we as individuals can do to stand against the tide of such authoritarianism and hatred. From the book:

"The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wider than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism or Communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience."

No matter which side of the political fence you walk on, the lessons that the book offers make for essential reading. If you're interested and can't find the book at your local library, getting your hands on a copy of your own won't cost you much. Amazon's got it in paperback for $6.39, as an audiobook for $5.95 and Kindle owners can read it for just $3.99. That's a small price to pay for a tool that'll help you know fascism when you see it and how to stand against it when it comes.

Image via Seamus BellamyNews / National

by Staff reporter

GOVERNMENT has instructed the Zimbabwean Embassy in Pretoria to assist the Tsvangirai family in any way appropriate, including meeting expenses attendant to the handling of the body of the now deceased, pending decisions to be made later.Speaking in the wake of the sad demise of the veteran opposition MDC-T leader last night, Secretary for Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Mr George Charamba said Government - which had been footing Mr Tsvangirai's medical bills - was aware of and seized with the tragedy."The leadership is now aware of the sad passing on of VaTsvangirai. In the interim, while the family is taking the necessary decisions, the Zimbabwean Embassy in Pretoria has been instructed to help in any way appropriate in the circumstances including assuming the costs that are attendant to the proper handling of the body of the late," Mr Charamba, who is also Presidential spokesman, said.Mr Tsvangirai succumbed to cancer of the colon at Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre in Johannesburg at around 5pm yesterday.He was 65.Mr Tsvangirai's career was marked by a long political struggle against former President Robert Mugabe.He had been beaten and imprisoned numerous times by the ruling Zanu-PF machinery.President Mnangagwa and Vice President General Constantino Chiwenga (Retired) visited Mr Tsvangirai at his Highlands home on January 5 where they talked for close to 45 minutes.Mr Tsvangirai revealed he had cancer of the colon on June 27, 2016.He told reporters at a Press conference at his home in Harare then: "On the 8th of May, 2016, my Zimbabwean doctors referred me to South Africa where a further diagnosis revealed that I am suffering from cancer of the colon. Following the diagnosis last month, I underwent an operation last month that was successful. However, a diagnosis of cancer is the first of several medical procedures that include treatment through chemotherapy, which treatment I began this week."As a leader and public figure, I have taken a decision to make public my condition. It is my firm belief that the health of national leaders, including politicians should not be a subject of national speculation and uncertainty."Mr Tsvangirai vowed to fight the disease, telling reporters that: "This health condition is unfortunate, but can be faced by anyone. I intend to confront this development with the determination to overcome it."Cancer has become the second deadly disease in Zimbabwe after HIV and Aids, with statistics showing a surge in the number of people who succumb to the ailment annually.Last night, National Constitutional Assembly leader Professor Lovemore Madhuku mourned the death of Mr Tsvangirai, saying: "Although we were seeing it coming, it is devastating and saddening. He was the founder of the post-independence democratic movement focusing on genuine social justice. I can confirm that without him, we would never have been able to establish the kind of opposition party that made our country a multi-party democracy."We will certainly miss his commitment to uplifting lives of the majority of our people."Morgan Tsvangirai is an icon for those of us who belong to the other side."The best way of remembering him is to continue to build a credible, independent and vigorous opposition movement. I must also add that he remained one of the few people that were with us at the founding table of the MDC in 1999."Former advisor to Mr Tsvangirai during the tenure of a coalition Government between Zanu-PF and the MDC formations, Dr Alex Magaisa tweeted his condolences last night saying: "It is a dark day. Morgan Tsvangirai lost his brave battle with cancer this evening. The heart breaks with pain."It was a rare privilege and an honour to have the confidence of this icon of the democratic struggle. My thoughts are with his family."Norton legislator Mr Temba Mliswa expressed shock at the death of Mr Tsvangirai last night."Although he has been unwell we are in shock at the passing of Tsvangirai, a true democrat who fearlessly stood up to the Mugabe regime and was an inspiration to many. Although we may have differed politically, I held a deep respect for Morgan Tsvangirai. My condolences to his family."MDC leader Welshman Ncube, who once worked with Mr Tsvangirai as secretary general before the first MDC split, described the death of the former trade unionist as a huge loss."It is a huge loss. We are devastated by the death. It was untimely and came at a time when we had unanimously agreed that Morgan Tsvangirai would lead MDC Alliance in the coming elections," he said.Mr Tsvangirai's illness had of late caused serious power struggles within the MDC-T pitting co-vice presidents Advocate Nelson Chamisa against Eng Mudzuri.The fierce battle was on who succeeds Mr Tsvangirai  a move that riled the opposition leader's family  who felt party vultures were more concerned with position of authority than seeing the politician survive the deadly disease.On Tuesday Adv Chamisa held a Standing Committee meeting as the MDC-T acting president.Eng Mudzuri was set to hold his yesterday but was barred from Harvest House by forces reportedly loyal to Adv Chamisa.News / National

by Staff reporter

Buhera South legislator Joseph "Cde Chinoz" Chinotimba is living the time of his life in Dubai, where he is attending the World Government Summit on Happiness, flirting and even enjoying beach life.In videos and pictures circulating on social media, Chinotimba got to the point of praising God for getting to the Gulf Sea, which he never thought he could have a sight of.In one of the short videos, Chinotimba is shown holding a shopping bag wearing a black suit and talking while holding hands with a woman who seemed Arabic, as they chuckled."She is my real sister so I spent almost three weeks at the black sea with submarines," said Chinoz.Before leaving for Dubai last week, Chinotimba even bid farewell to his fellow legislators in the National Assembly. A beaming Chinotimba rose to a point of privilege and said his goodbyes.In another video, the comic legislator was shown running into the sea in beach shorts. He gets in the water, comes out and disgustingly blows his nose in the water and does silly moves in it."My friend, God is good, because I never thought I would get to the Gulf Sea, I am in the Gulf Sea. As you are now seeing me, look at that, look," he said pointing to Burj Al Arab Hotel.In a picture that became picture of the day, Chinoz was seen getting cosy with South Africa's former first lady Graca Machel.Chinotimba went to the Middle East together with television personality Rebecca "Mai Chisamba" Chisamba.World Government Summit on Happiness attracted more than 300 international experts plus more than 30 000 delegates from over 130 countries.On their website, the Global Dialogue for Happiness said the event is meant to discuss themes impacting happiness and wellbeing.The two were accompanied by minister of Labour and Social Welfare Petronella Kagonye who confirmed the development."We have been invited by the government of Dubai to attend World Government Summit which is running under the theme of Global Dialogue for Happiness' and it will run from February 11 to 13. The trip was funded by the host country," Kagonye said.Chinotimba was ecstatic about the trip."My job is very simple and I know how to execute it. I am going there to make people laugh, that is all. Even when I am in Parliament, I make sure parliamentarians across the political divide are happy. I am very happy to go to Dubai for the first time," Chinotimba told the Daily News earlier."I compensated my lack of education by sending my children to school. I am proud that three of my girls have graduated at the University of Zimbabwe. Two of them have degrees in finance while the other one is pursuing Masters in Sociology," he said.Last month, Chinotimba was hailed by vice president Constantino Chiwenga during the launch of his book Masasi aChinoz saying the Buhera South legislator is proud to showcase his comic character hence reaping the results from it.Chiwenga praised Chinotimba for proudly showcasing his talent as a comedian, saying the Buhera South legislator is now reaping benefits from his talent."You have heard from the minister of Labour and Social Welfare that. . . they are going to spend a week in Dubai, rubbing shoulders with other people like him our ambassador of Happiness around the world and the Head of State of that country. It's amazing."Some of you have two or three degrees and have never seen the inside of an aeroplane, but our ambassador of Happiness is flying to Dubai because of being happy and making people around him happy as well," Chiwenga said then.News / National

by Staff reporter

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has conveyed his condolences to the family of the late opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, who died on Wednesday after a battle with cancer.Tsvangirai, 65, who founded the MDC in 1999, was among the most prominent critics of ex-president Robert Mugabe, the long-time authoritarian leader who was ousted from power in November.In a statement, Mnangagwa said that the late veteran opposition leader would be remembered for his "readiness to stretch and reach out across the political divide for a government of national unity after the polarising 2008 elections".Mnangagwa described Tsvangirai as a national figure who "obdurately insisted on free, fair, credible and non-violent elections in his bid to strengthen the country's democracy and re-engagement with the international community".Mnangagwa pledged to hold a free and fair election in honour of the veteran leader, adding that he would invite all opposition leaders to a consultative meeting ahead of the crunch polls.Zimbabwe was set to go to the polls before July."Whatever other controversial decisions he and his MDC-T party may have made in the past, we all remember him for his insistence on free, fair and peaceful elections which we must validate in the forth-coming 2018 Harmonised Elections in tribute to him and to our democracy. This we owe him as political leaders of all contesting parties in our country which deserves unfettered peace and stability. As part of building political consensus in the country ahead of the Harmonised Elections, I shall soon be inviting leaders of all political parties for a day-long consultative meeting" he said.Meanwhile, Mnangagwa's deputy, Constantino Chiwenga also expressed his "sadness" over Tsvangirai's death, pledging to honour the "great son of the soil".According to the privately owned New Zimbabwe.com, Chiwenga said: "We are saddened by the death of MT. We will sit and see how [as] Zimbabweans [we] can honour that great son of the soil," Chiwenga reportedly said.Mnangagwa and Chiwenga visited Tsvangirai at his home in January - just before the opposition leader left for medical treatment in South Africa.Their visit was a symbolic gesture, as the ruling Zanu-PF party party and the military had vilified Tsvangirai for decades, calling him a puppet of the West.News / National

by Staff Reporter

President Emmerson Mnangagwa says the late former Prime Minister and MDC-T leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai will be given a state assisted funeral.Speaking to journalists, Mnangagwa said the government has instructed the Zimbabwean Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa to liaise with the Tsvangirai family on how best to deal with the departure of the late opposition MDC-T party leader.He added that Mr Tsvangirai shaped the political discourse in this country for a long time he was in politics and was the Prime Minister for five years hence the need for a befitting send-off.Mr Tsvangirai (65) died yesterday in South Africa where he was receiving treatment for colon cancer.News / Press Release

by Jacob Mafume, PDP

Ash Wednesday is the day that the traditional churches remember that the human being is mortal; the Priest physically draws a cross of ash on each of the foreheads of every congregant accompanied by the following words."Yeukai murihuruva muchadzokera kuhuruva (dust you came & dust you will return)This is the day that the maker called Dr Morgan Richard Tsvangirai back to the place of eternal resting, symbolically reminding folks of the need to take comfort in the fact that mortal men at some point will demise.It is a call to self-introspection particularly on the life we lead, we in the MDC Alliance are proud of the work that Dr Morgan Tsvangirai led.We remember his unwavering commitment to the struggle for majority emancipation against all forms of oppression including neo-colonialism.He led in times of suffering, many a time was exiled, he was beaten by fellow countrymen, always had a threat on his life, was arrested and charged with the crimes of the highest nature including treason, lost friends and comrades at the peak of it lost a loved one yet remained committed.Up to yesterday he remained committed to the idea of finishing what we started back in 1998, a task placed on him and others by the workers convention held at the Women's Bureau.The task to rescue the hijacked agenda of the liberation struggle and redefining the Zimbabwean dream.Under his leadership we aptly captured this dream in section 8 of the National Constitution."The establishment, enhancement and promotion of a sustainable, just, free and democratic society in which people enjoy prosperous, happy and fulfilling lives."He did not only fight to allow the pursuit of happiness but was beacon of democratic inspiration in Africa. Inspiring the continent to challenge vampire states and coconut republics created by the elites in Africa.He was therefore a Hero at home and abroad, receiving baton sticks at home and accolades abroad. Most people will remember his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize which happened twice in a row.He was also a voice of reason who many a time rose above toxicity and hatred, often choosing magnanimity and love, maybe those who were heads over heels on Valentine's Day will say "hang on we can relate to this."The love birds can also relate to the symbolic red colour they wore yesterday, the Colour of Dr Tsvangirai's party.He displayed his love for his country and displayed a magnanimous act by his last deed, the idea of bringing together everyone around a noble cause including some of us who had at some point viciously disagreed with him. The big idea leading to the formation of the MDC Alliance.His distinguished public service as prime minister of the Republic of Zimbabwe, saw the stabilisation of a state that was sniffing at failure.Looking back even on Ash Wednesday, this was a worthy life. A life dedicated to a worthy cause.Christians who are not familiar with Ash Wednesday will however remember reading chapter 14 verses 1 and 2 of the book of Job."Man that is born of women is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth like a shadow and continueth not."We take comfort in this scripture, also remember many other souls we lost along the way including some who were maimed and killed by ZANUPF.As we are forced to update our Hall of Fame we take pride in that today we add the peak of the names to this list which includes Gibson Sibanda, Isaac Matongo, Roy Pachedu Bennet, Better Chokururama, Godfrey Kauzani, Tonderai Ndira and others.We celebrate the life of Dr Tsvangirai and we recommit to his ideals, we are indebted to his commitment and we will finish off the journey he walked for so long.The People's Democratic Party expresses its heartfelt condolence to the Tsvangirai family, the MDC-T, the MDC Alliance and the nation at large on the passing of a national icon Dr Tsvangirai.May His Soul Rest in Eternal PeaceTogether Another Zimbabwe is Possible.Jacob MafumePDP Spokesperson, MDCAlliance Information Committee.News / Press Release

by Farai Mbira, ZUNDE President

Zimbabweans United for Democracy (ZUNDE) learns with deep sorrow the untimely death of the MDC-T President and former Prime minister Dr Richard Morgan Tsvangirai. We will miss his huge presence that had made fighting for the dismantling of Zanu PF evil dictatorship much nobler. MT or Save, as we lovingly called him, will be missed by us all who are fighting for democracy in Zimbabwe.It is not disputable that Tsvangirai became the embodiment of our aspirations for freedom. It did not surprise me when even Chiwenga, a freedom fighter, had his senses back and acknowledged that Tsvangirai was a hero. Indeed Tsvangirai was unique; he fought for freedom and finished well.Though wounded by Mugabe regime, especially by the current illegal military junta, Morgan Tsvangirai soldiered on. Though retarded by failing health, he soldiered on encouraged us to register and vote out the current military junta.This man was a legend and a brand. He was a brand that little men rode on and appeared big.At the end of his life he could say "I finished the race, I fought a good fight". He started well and ended well. Morgan Tsvangirai is unlike people like Mugabe who are a walking contradiction. Mugabe, Mugabe spent the greater part of his youth fighting oppression but spent the greater end of his life perfecting it.To MDC-T we humbly suggest that they respect Morgan Tsvangirai by setting aside power differences and focus on what Tsvangirai would have wanted. The powers be at MDC-T must respect their leader and restore his legacy, not by succeeding him but more importantly by fighting, from whatever position, to realise his dream.As someone who closely worked with him in attempts to unite the opposition I can safely say Morgan Tsvangirai would have wanted the entire opposition to fight from one corner. He tirelessly wanted it so but was opposed not only by opponents but, sadly at times, by some of his own. What he impressed on me was his intelligent simplicity, humbleness and love for Zimbabwe. Some used guns to free Zimbabwe but Tsvangirai offered his precious heart. For that Morgan Tsvangirai is more than a hero and he deserves to be buried at the National Heroes Acre.To vachinjanja who gave us this man, we thank you for the son and national hero Morgan Richard Tsvangirai Chikara cheZanu. Isu vana Sinyoro tinodada nemi. Thank you MDC-T family; you natured this brave man. Our prayers are with you Elizabeth, you took care of this man your husband and national hero.RespectfullyFarai MbiraZUNDE President.News / Press Release

by Thembani Dube, 1893 MHRRM Co-Secretary for Information and Publicity

Released by the 1893 Mthwakazi Human Rights Restoration Movement's Department of Information and Publicity

The 1893 Mthwakazi Human Rights Restoration Movement (1893 MHRRM) takes this opportunity to thank individuals and representatives of organizations who graced its 10th February 2018 Matebelel "Gukurahundi" Genocide Demo outside the Zimbabwe embassy in the United Kingdom. We thank their enduring and indefatigable spirit to come out and join the Demo under very wet and cold conditions on the very day. These organizations include Mthwakazi Solidarity-UK, Mthwakazi National Party, Zapu, Yes We can and others.The supreme organ of our glorious 1893 Mthwakazi Human Rights Restoration Movement (1893 MHRRM), the International Restoration Board, once more declares the past Demo a huge success. One thousand five hundred (1 500) leaflets were distributed on the day about the Genocide and about the organisation and what it stands for. Many passers-by came to the Demo site, asked questions about the Matebele Genocide and were favoured with comprehensive answers.The stage is set for another demo end of March/beginning of April outside the Zimbabwe embassy in the UK before a 12th May 2018 scheduled Matebele "Gukurahundi" Genocide Diaspora Conference. We will be releasing a date for the next Demo soon and all Human Rights Defenders and Lovers are invited to the Demo.Meanwhile we have received news that the United Kingdom government has made an agreement with the Zimbabwe government to deport our people from safety to go and face the wrath of the regime in Harare.The 1893 MHRRM is totally against forced removals and deportations of our people to face persecution at the hands of the regime in Harare. Our people have a right to refugee status and protection from a regime that has been harming them since 1983. We once more call upon our people to come out in huge numbers for the next Demo to send a message to the UK government that it is taking a "Genocidal" and "~Gukurahundist"and persecutory policy against our people instead of defending their rights and protecting them from harm from the Harare government.We therefore, as an organisation, say "No to forced removals and deportations of Matebele Genocide victims in the UK". We urge the UK Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson and the UK government to rethink this policy. Rewarding impunity of human rights violations to the regime and then sending the victims of genocide to the very government that is being rewarded in terms of impunity, plays into wilful blindness in human rights violations in that country.Child rape accused bribes victims mum to lie in court

A child rape accused tried to bribe the mother of his 12-year-old victim to lie to the court in Chitwan, it has been revealed.News / Press Release

by Nelson Chamisa

From humble beginnings, a giant was born. President Morgan Tsvangirai was a champion of the workers' struggle, a doyen of democracy, a diplomat and a statesman---all rolled into one.Zimbabwe, Africa and indeed the world will always remember yesterday 14 February 2018 as a black Wednesday.Our iconic leader and gallant son of Zimbabwe, President Morgan Richard Tsvangirai passed on at a South African infirmary yesterday around 5pm.The party is at a loss for words. As a leadership, we are all still struggling to come terms with the death of this great patriot who nurtured some of us and became a pathfinder in the country's struggle for democracy.It may have been befitting that he die on Valentine's Day to signify the boundless love that he had for his country and its people.His death is not only a loss to the Tsvangirai family.It is a loss to the party and to Zimbabwe.A loss for Africa whose death equally leaves a yawning gap that will always be difficult to fill by any Zimbabwean.He began his journey in the trade union movement and became a pathfinder in the democratic struggle when, as secretary-general of the ZCTU, he together with others pioneered the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change.He taught this country democracy and the dignity that comes with tolerating political differences.During his short stint in government, he showcased that his criticism of the Mugabe regime went beyond mere rhetoric. He lives his words. He was bound to his ideals; a man of principle, a man of honour and indeed a humble man.President Tsvangirai showed it was possible to use government as an arena to infuse positive change in the lives of the people.As he ebbs into the sunset, the only befitting tribute this party can pay him is by showcasing unity and togetherness.The spirit of oneness, convergence, accord and agreement will be in keeping with his legacy in this dark hour for the family, for the party and for Zimbabwe.President Tsvangirai had outgrown his family and his party. As we remember his mammoth contribution to the people's collective struggle for positive change, we can only do so with the realization that he was a national hero.His towering contribution will continue to loom large for generations to come.The story of Zimbabwe's politics will never be fully told without due recognition to the towering brand of Morgan Tsvangirai---a man whose indelible footprints will endure until end of time.He shook the world. He marked a dispensation and moved hearts and minds.To the Tsvangirai family, we grieve with you.To mbuya Tsvangirai, we assure you this is not your loss alone.To every Zimbabwean, we urge you to step into these great shoes and live a patriotic life underlined by the twin values of service and sacrifice.To the generality of Zimbabweans, the business community, the church and fellow political parties, we wish to thank you for the befitting outpouring of grief and messages of condolences.As a party, we will not only open a condolences book at harvest house, but we declare a week of national mourning in remembrance of this great icon of our struggle. We seek to remember him every hour, every time.As we go towards the next election, we will not lose sight of the edifice of his legacy whose construction he wanted us to complete----the legacy of a huge alliance for positive change.We fully understand that in his last hours, he strove to leave a legacy of not only a united opposition but a nation sculpted into a huge alliance that goes beyond political parties.He sought to leave a united people, a broad consensus, a grand coalition.Indeed, his vision was an alliance that included workers, women, the youth, minority groups, people living with disability, war veterans, the elderly, vendors, workers, students, ordinary Zimbabweans and those in the Diaspora struggling to eke out a living in foreign lands.He had a vision of a mammoth alliance that would move and shake the stubborn pillars of incompetence and cluelessness that define the current militarily junta futilely disguised as a civilian administration.We ought to complete our democratic journey under the banner of that huge alliance. That is the only tribute we can pay his towering and enduring shadow that will live with us until his wishes are fulfilled.As a party, we pledge to shelve our falacious differences and give this national hero a befitting send-off. President Tsvangirai deserves a resemblance of his true character; a character of peace, camaraderie, team spirit and consensus.It would be remiss of us as a leadership to lose sight of the magnitude of this moment - the veneration that this people's icon deserves in this sad hour of his departure.As a party and as a leadership, we will work with the Tsvangirai family and ensure that we give this national hero the huge send-off that he duly deserves.The party, the country and the whole of Africa will miss him.Indeed, some of us began with him this struggle when we were in our teenage years. I personally became a man under his guidance and tutelage.Go well Save.Go well, gallant son of the soil.Hamba Kahle.Fambai zvakanaka Pakuru.I thank youOpinion / Columnist

When politicians plan for and agree to form coalitions, the implication is they have been able to subdue personal egos.It is the culmination of an embrace of diversity and tolerance. They have agreed to iron out their differences while thriving on their areas of agreement.Their success rides on the wealth of ideas from across the different parties, brought about by a convergence of their worldviews, perspectives on life as well as ideologies formulated with the focus of defeating one common enemy.There is no room for avarice and selfish subjectivity. The ultimate goal is the common good which may hitherto have been elusive.Over the years, Zanu-PF - which has been at the centre of Zimbabwe's political conundrum for over 37 years - has proven very difficult to beat at elections.So many political outfits emerged and went under during Zimbabwe's rather bumpy political history.-PF Zapu - which had jointly waged the war of liberation with Zanu-PF, Ndabaningi Sithole's Zanu Ndonga, Enock Dumbutshena's Forum Party of Zimbabwe and Edgar Tekere's Zimbabwe Unity Movement among many others came into being but never managed to steal the thunder away from the ruling party. So did Margaret Dongo's Zimbabwe Union of Democrats (Zud). Zud appeared on the scene with pomp but unceremoniously sank into oblivion.The opposition's major undoing has been their failure to come together.There is no doubt that the biggest opposition Zanu-PF has had to deal with over the years came from the Morgan Tsvangirai-led Movement for Democratic Change - a political outfit that came into being in 1999.Tsvangirai became the first person - and possibly the last - to beat Mugabe in an election, clobbering the former president in the March 2008 elections, albeit without the required 50 percent plus one vote that would have enabled him to form a government.When Zimbabwe's opposition political parties mooted the idea of coming together in 2016, progressive-minded Zimbabweans felt the chance to deal with Zanu-PF had finally come.However, there emerged a contestation of egos with Joice Mujuru - who had been ejected from Zanu-PF in the run-up to the party's congress in 2014 - declaring that Tsvangirai could not be leader of the envisaged coalition. Then Tsvangirai had been endorsed as the MDC Alliance's presidential candidate for the 2018 elections.Mujuru and her Zimbabwe People First, which later split, leaving Mugabe's former vice president to form the National People's Party (NPP) had just come from a heavy by-election defeat in Bikita West.Today, there is talk of another alliance seeking to bring together Mujuru's People's Rainbow Coalition, Elton Mangoma's Coalition of Democrats (Code) and the Tsvangirai-led MDC Alliance. Mujuru has to date rejected coalition talk, and clearly she is not prepared to enter an entente in which she is not a leader.For her, the opportunity has been presented by Tsvangirai's illness - a development which has not been good for the MDC Alliance.Mujuru's is a clear manifestation of greed and self-centredness which must never be allowed to prevail. When such politicians visit the electorate and declare they are doing it for the people, there is need to interrogate these overtures further.Clearly, theirs are self-aggrandisement projects, which they get into after guarantees of leadership positions.Alliances that are built on such pretentious foundations are easily penetrated by adversaries and are prone to splits and divisions usually fomented by the love for positions.History has taught Zimbabweans very tough lessons about opposition political parties and all due respect, the MDC has been the strongest opposition political party to date.Opinion / Columnist

Vusi Nyamazana. Political Analyst - Team Leader, MnangagwaMeter

The state of government accountability and performance in Zimbabwe from independence till the new dispensation is highly disheartening. The current socio-political and economic situation aptly provide more than sufficient evidence that the Mugabe administration's performance was very weak. It failed to deal with the problem of unaccountable and non-transparent public service. This system created a culture of corruption in government where public officials did not need to be accountable for their actions and the citizens could not demand accountability.Zimbabwe is blessed with vast mineral deposits and tracts of fertile land, but the average man on the street is poor and there is poor amenities and infrastructure like roads, hospitals, etc. This buttresses the evidence that the Mugabe administration lacked proper accountability and this resulted in poor performance in service delivery. With over three decade of independence, the public service ought to have institutionalized accountability and performance.The absence of an accountability ethos, and lack of strong government agencies to enforce laws and rules, had adverse effect on public sector performance. This backdrop created an opportunity for public officials to embezzle funds, externalize millions, become land barons and multiple farm owners without fear of repercussion or punishment. This obscene political patronage meant that the politically favoured could get away with crimes. Being in the civil service became a ticket for self aggrandizement. The Mugabe administration unavoidably became a failed state due to this unbridled white collar crime, where people of high respectability and social status took advantage of their occupation to illegally accumulate financial gain for themselves at the detriment of the larger society.In spite of this funereal picture, there is still a glimmer of hope if the new dispensation under President Mnangagwa would have the moral courage to remove the bureaucratic inertia of the various tiers of government. The buzz word with the new administration has been "New Economic Order", " Business-Unusual", the hallmark of which is to provide quality public services that meet the needs of the citizens, to be more accountable for government decisions and actions, and manage resources more prudently. It conjures up an image enmeshed with an efficient and effective government, de-bureaucratization, citizen-centered public service, privatization, performance management, etc.For the new administration to succeed and meet these desired results, it must curtail the excesses of public office holders and make them performance oriented by introducing programme and performance budgeting, management by objectives, organizational development, planned and preventative management, and so forth.The new administration acknowledges the problems posed by unaccountability and corruption to the socio-economic development of the country. A series of measures at combating corruption and bad governance have been started, and we wait to see if they will walk the talk. These measures include:- Business Unusual Approach - Ensuring policy consistency, clarity, credibility and predictability.- Government will have no tolerance for bureaucratic slothfulness.- Introduce Smart Technology - Direct contacts between government officials and citizens can open opportunity for illicit transactions.- All Ministries to establish Audit Committees by end of December 2017.- The Public Expenditure & Financial Accountability Assessment Report to be published during 1st quarter of 2018.- The Public Finance Technical Response Unit to study and follow up on matters raised through the Auditor General's Reports.- Acts of corruption must stop. Where these occur, swift justice must be served.- Establish toll-free lines to facilitate reporting of any cases of corruption to the Office of the President and Cabinet, over and above the administrative levels.- NPA, ZACC and ZRP will be required to publish reports once every quarter giving statistics on crime and corruption.- Regularize lifestyle audits of all Public Office Holders.- Uncover cases where huge sums of money and other assets were illegally externalized by certain individuals and corporates.Zimbabwe cannot afford to continue treading on the path of unbridled corruption, because corruption erodes the capacity of government at all levels to provide public services at the quality and quantity needed to improve the living standards of the people.In order to ensure effective running of government and ensuring accountability in Zimbabwe, adequate structures need to be put in place, systems and processes need to be developed to guide the operators of the structures and ensure strict compliance with them. There is dire need to re-position the public service, making it more efficient, effective, dynamic and results oriented by enhancing its work culture that will, among others, enhance transparency, accountability and ethical standards.The Zimbabwe Anti Corruption Commission (ZACC) need to be given the authority to pursue and prosecute anybody regardless of his or her position. Evidence of such will build public trust in government, and also serve as a deterrent to corrupt public officials.The new administration, therefore, needs to show the public that they are performing their responsibilities in the best possible way and using the resources provided them effectively and efficiently. It is imperative that citizens have access to information either facts or figures that allow them to pass judgment on the conduct of the government - approving account, denouncing policy or publicly condemning behaviour. Democracy makes it permissible for citizens to hold government accountable and also to monitor and control government conduct.The Wayfarer is the second brand released by Serino Cigar Company. It follows up the companys first line, Serino Royale. Serino Cigar Company is run by industry veteran Tony Serino. After working two decades in the industry importing and selling premium bundle cigars, in 2016 Serino started his own super premium line. To produce his blends, Serino has teamed up with Omar Gonzalez Aleman of La Corona Cigars S.A.. Gonzalez is the former head director of the La Corona Factory in Havana, maker of many well-known Cuban brands such as Romeo y Julieta, Hoyo de Monterrey, Cuaba, Por Larranaga, Saint Luis Rey, San Cristobal de Habana and some Montecristos. The Wayfarer is actually a second generation project that was spearheaded by Tony Serinos son Carson, done in conjunction with Omar Gonzalez Alemans son Luis Omar Gonzalez. Today, we take a closer look at the Wayfarer in the Corona Gorda size.

The name Wayfarer refers to a traveler by foot and its an appropriate name for Carson Serino, who is an avid traveler and backpacking enthusiast. On a backpacking trip he made to Iceland, Carson had forgotten to pack cigars. Once he arrived in Iceland he went to stock up on cigars. Carson soon discovered the majority of the cigars available in Iceland were Cubans. As he started to smoke the Cuban cigars, he was inspired to develop a cigar with that type of profile. This led to the blending sessions of the Wayfarer after he returned from Iceland. Wayfarer originally started out as a personal cigar of Carsons handed out at events. Eventually, the decision was made to introduce the Wayfarer into widespread distribution.

Without further ado, lets take a closer look at the Wayfarer in the Corona Gorda size.

Blend Profile

The blend to the Wayfarer consists of an Ecuadorian Corojo 99 wrapper over Nicaraguan tobaccos. As mentioned, the Wayfarer is produced at the La Corona factory in Esteli, Nicaragua.

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Corojo 99

Binder: Jalapa, Nicaragua

Filler: Nicaragua

Country of Origin: Nicaragua (La Corona Cigars, S.A.)

Vitolas Available

The Wayfarer is available in five sizes:

Corona Gorda: 6 x 46

Robusto: 5 x 52

Toro: 6 1/4 x 50

Corona: 5 1/8 x 44

Dalia: 6 3/4 x 43

The line showcases three types of classic Cuban style caps. The Corona Gorda uses a classic Cuban triple cap. The Robusto has a Perilla (fan-tail cap) while the Toro has a 109 style cap (tapered tip with a flat top).

Appearance

The Ecuadorian Corojo wrapper of the Wayfarer Corona Gorda had a medium brown color to it. Upon closer examination, there was some slight mottling on the surface. The surface of the wrapper also had a light coating of oil on it. This was a slightly bumpy wrapper as it had some visible veins and visible wrapper seams.

The band to the Wayfarer has a black background with gold font on it. There is a retro-look to the band as a whole. This band is highlighted by the text Wayfarer in a retro-cursive font. Just below that text is the text SERINO CIGAR. There is a small image to the left and right of the center of the band depicting a foot traveler. The text SERINO CIGAR also goes around the rear of the band. There are many gold adornments on the band. The band is also trimmed around the edges in gold. The trim has more of a metallic gold look to it.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

As I normally do, I chose a straight cut to commence the cigar experience of the Wayfarer Corona Gorda. After clipping the cap, I proceeded with the pre-light draw. The cold draw delivered a mix of caramel, natural tobacco, and cedar. There was a nice dose of sweetness on the pre-light draw and while thats something I dont usually prefer, I was very pleased with the flavors I got here. With an excellent pre-light draw in the books, I was ready to light up the Wayfarer Corona Gorda and see what the smoking experience would have in store.

Flavor Profile

The Wayfarer Corona Gorda kicked off with notes of cedar, citrus, sweet natural tobacco, and some hints of black pepper. Early on, the citrus notes moved to the forefront and developed a honey-like sweetness. The natural tobacco notes was a close secondary note that occasionally popped in the forefront. As for the pepper and cedar, that settled in the more distant background. As the cigar moved through the first third, there were some hay notes that also surfaced. On the retro-hale, I got an additional layer of pepper.

On the second third, I found the natural tobacco notes started to become more prominent as a primary note. The citrus/honey combination slowly started to diminish during this stage of the smoking experience. There was an increase in the cedar notes while there still were also notes of hay and pepper in the equation as well. Meanwhile, I found the retro-hale changed from pepper to notes of cedar.

The final third of the Wayfarer Corona Gorda saw the natural tobacco take control. The citrus/honey combination was now in the background, playing more of a complementary role in the flavor profile. At the same time there still some notes of hay and pepper present. This is the way the flavor profile of the Wayfarer Corona Gorda came to a close. The resulting nub was cool in temperature, but slightly soft to the touch.

Burn and Draw

Overall, the burn of the Wayfarer Corona Gorda performed extremely well. This was a cigar that maintained a straight burn path from start to finish. There was some occasional jaggedness on the burn line, but overall I didnt find it to trigger much in the way of additional touch-ups. The resulting ash was on the firm side. The ash was light gray with some darker spots mixed in, Meanwhile the burn rate and burn temperature were both ideal.

The draw of the Wayfarer Corona Gorda also performed excellent. This was a draw that had a touch of resistance to it  which is ideal for my preference. At the same time, this was a low maintenance cigar to derive flavor from.

Strength and Body

The Wayfarer is a cigar that started out on the upper end of mild to medium for both strength and body. Both attributes increased in intensity, but at different rates. The strength would reach the medium level by the midway point while the body moved into medium territory by the second third. The increase in body leveled off in the second half, but I still found the strength developed some additional intensity  particularly in the last third.

In terms of strength versus body, the body had a slight edge for the first two-thirds, but in the final third, the strength would have a slight edge.

Final Thoughts

The term Cubanesque is a loaded term and I often see it used when someone wants to say a non-Cuban cigar smokes like a Cuban one. I personally find the term to be an oxymoron because there are non-Cuban cigars and Cuban cigars  and they are different. At the same time, I get the concept of saying there are some qualities of a cigar reminiscent of a Cuban. I think thats the best way to describe the Wayfarer Corona Gorda. There are some very unique qualities to the Wayfarer  especially the way the sweet notes hit the tongue. While the Wayfarer Corona Gorda delivers more sweetness than I would prefer, I found it worked beautifully with the overall profile of this cigar. Overall, Serino Cigar Companys sophomore release comes through with flying colors. Its a cigar I could recommend to a novice or experienced cigar enthusiast. As for myself, this is a cigar Id smoke again  and its one that easily garners box worthy consideration.

Summary

Key Flavors: Natural Tobacco, Citrus, Honey, Hay, Pepper, Cedar

Burn: Excellent

Draw: Excellent

Complexity: Medium Plus

Strength: Mild to Medium (1st Half), Medium (2nd Half)

Body: Mild to Medium (1st Third), Medium (Remainder)

Finish: Very Good

Rating

Value: Box Worthy Consideration

Score: 92

References

News: Serino Cigar Company to Formally Introduce Wayfarer at 2017 IPCPR Trade Show

Price: $7.70

Source: Serino Cigar Company

Brand Reference: Serino Cigar Company

Photo Credits: Cigar CoopTHURSDAY, Feb. 15, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- In what researchers call a first step toward personalized vaccines for a multitude of cancers, a vaccine made from stem cells protected mice from tumors.

The vaccine was composed of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) -- which are adult cells that have been reverted back into stem cells. They are similar to the primitive cells found in embryos, and they have the potential to develop into any type of body tissue.

Researchers have been studying iPS cells as a way to treat various diseases. The general idea is to take cells from an adult patient -- from the skin, for instance -- then genetically tweak them so they "rewind" into iPS cells. Those cells could then be used to generate healthy replacement tissues for those damaged by disease or injury.

But it turns out that iPS cells also have similarities to tumor cells, explained senior researcher Dr. Joseph Wu, a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Specifically, both iPS cells and cancer cells share various antigens -- or proteins -- on their surfaces.

So, Wu and his colleagues decided to see if iPS cells could serve as a vaccine against cancer: If the immune system is exposed to the cells, would it be primed to recognize and attack any tumor cells that later arise?

They found that, at least in lab mice, the concept worked.

"This is obviously just a first step," stressed Dr. Nigel Kooreman, who also worked on the study.

No one knows if the premise will pan out in humans. The next step will be to test the approach in human cells in the lab dish, according to Kooreman, who was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford at the time of the study.

The results, published Feb. 15 in the journal Cell Stem Cell, come on the heels of another cancer vaccine study conducted by some of the same researchers.

In that trial, a shot of two compounds stimulated the immune system to seek and destroy several different kinds of cancer cells -- again, in mice.

The hope with the latest research, Kooreman said, is to eventually create personalized vaccines from an individual's own iPS cells that could protect against a range of cancers.

"I think this is a really exciting study," said Dr. Sasha Stanton, of the University of Washington's Cancer Vaccine Institute in Seattle.

There are, of course, many unanswered questions, according to Stanton, who was not involved in the research.

Any vaccine used for cancer prevention would have to be "very, very safe," she pointed out.

With iPS cells, Stanton explained, there is always some concern that they could develop into tumors.

Beyond that, she said, there will be questions about how long would any immune response from vaccination would last. Would it protect people from cancer for 20 years, or would repeat "boosters" be needed, Stanton wondered.

But these initial findings are promising, Stanton said.

For the study, Wu's team used four groups of mice: In one, the animals were injected with a control solution; another received an immune-boosting substance called an adjuvant; a third group received injections of iPS cells that were genetically matched to each animal; the fourth received iPS cells plus the adjuvant. All of the animals were later implanted with mouse breast cancer cells.

While those tumors grew in most of the animals, the picture was different for mice that received iPS cells plus the adjuvant: Breast tumors shrunk in 7 of the 10 animals, and two completely rejected the cancer, the researchers said.

Similar results were seen when mouse versions of melanoma and mesothelioma (a type of lung cancer) were studied.

What happens to the iPS cells after they are injected into the body? The immune system destroys them, Kooreman said.

And before the iPS cells were infused into the animals, they were treated with radiation. That, Kooreman explained, was to prevent them from developing into tumors.

Another safety concern is that iPS cells could trigger an immune response against the body's healthy tissue. But there were no signs of that in the lab mice, according to Kooreman.

"So far, in our preclinical studies of mice, it appears safe," he said.

If a preventive cancer vaccine can be developed for humans, how would it be used?

At first, Stanton said, it could be used to prevent recurrences in patients successfully treated for cancer.

Kooreman added an iPS cell vaccine could also potentially aid cancer treatment.

He envisioned it working this way: After a patient receives an initial cancer therapy, the vaccine could be used to "reactivate the immune system to attack any remnant cancer cells."

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has an overview on cancer vaccines.THURSDAY, Feb. 15, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Obese men with advanced melanoma skin cancer seem to have a survival benefit over their slimmer peers, a new study suggests.

Among men who received treatment for the potentially deadly cancer, obese patients lived an average of 47 percent longer than those with a healthy body weight, researchers found.

For women, however, weight did not affect survival, according to the study.

"The question is, what underlying mechanism causes this advantage in obese men, and can we take advantage of it to improve outcomes in patients with melanoma?" said the study's lead author, Dr. Jennifer McQuade. She's an instructor of melanoma medical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

"One hint may be the interaction between obesity, sex and outcomes, which has not been detected before in any cancer," McQuade said in a news release from the cancer center.

It's long been known that women with advanced melanoma live longer than men with the disease. The researchers said their finding that obesity overcomes this survival disadvantage for men will lead them to examine the role of sex hormones.

The study involved about 1,900 people whose advanced melanoma was treated with targeted therapy, immunotherapy or chemotherapy. Overall, obese men lived from about 27 to 37 months after treatment, depending on the treatment, compared with 14 to 20 months for men of normal weight. Women lived about 33 months after treatment, regardless of their weight, the study found.

Although the study found an association between weight and survival after melanoma treatment in men, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

"The public health message is not that obesity is good. Obesity is a proven risk factor for many diseases," McQuade stressed.

"Even within our metastatic melanoma population, we would not suggest that patients intentionally gain weight," she said. "We need to figure out what is driving this paradox and learn how to use this information to benefit all of our patients."

The findings were published online Feb. 12 in The Lancet Oncology.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more on melanoma.THURSDAY, Feb. 15, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers from Denmark are suggesting a potential -- and unusual -- risk factor for stroke: Being short as a kid.

The investigators found that men and women who had been about 2 inches taller than average at age 7 had, as adults, up to an 11 percent lower risk for an ischemic stroke. That's the type of stroke caused by a blood clot.

The risk for a hemorrhagic stroke -- the type caused by bleeding in the brain -- was reduced by 11 percent for men who'd been 2 inches taller than average at age 7. No such association was found for women.

"Shorter heights signal an increased risk for stroke," said the study's senior author, Jennifer Lyn Baker, an associate professor at the Center for Clinical Research and Prevention at Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospitals in Copenhagen.

"People can use this knowledge to act on other modifiable risk factors in order to reduce their risks of this devastating disease," she suggested.

The nearly 70-year study included more than 310,000 people. However, Baker noted that although the study is large and covers a long time frame, it doesn't prove that being short is a cause of stroke.

Dr. E. Steve Roach, a spokesman for the American Stroke Association, agreed that the study's size and length were impressive but expressed caution over how the findings might be viewed.

"Association is not the same thing as causation," Roach said. "Child and adult height have multiple contributing factors -- genetic, environmental and timing of puberty. These findings may be important as a clue for understanding stroke, but height is so variable it's not possible to use these findings to make a prediction about stroke risk."

The study might also help scientists understand how hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) begins, Roach suggested.

This isn't the first study to link height and stroke risk. Background information in the study pointed to research that suggested that as adult heights have increased slightly in high-income countries, the number of strokes and deaths from stroke have gone down.

The current study tracked a group of children born in Copenhagen from 1930 to 1989. Schoolchildren in Denmark have annual exams that include recording factors such as height. Denmark also keeps track of its citizens' health through national hospital and death records.

The researchers focused on children's height from ages 7 to 13. They found similar results regarding stroke risk and height for each of those ages.

The study authors accounted for a number of factors linked to height and stroke risk, such as socioeconomic status, nutrition, infectious diseases, alcohol consumption and smoking.

Baker said one possible mechanism that might link height and stroke risk is blood pressure.

"It's been shown that shorter people have higher blood pressure, which in turn increases the risk of stroke," she said.

Like Roach, Dr. Shazia Alam, director of neurohospitalist and stroke services at NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., isn't ready to ring any alarm bells just yet for her patients with shorter stature.

"This study is interesting, and it's important to be aware of any potentially modifiable risk factors, but it's hard to know to what extent height plays a role," Alam said. "Factors a child has been exposed to may play more of a role."

The study was published Feb. 15 in Stroke.

More information

The American Stroke Association has information on how to keep your brain healthy.THURSDAY, Feb. 15, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- They described hearing loud, unusual noises in either their homes or hotel rooms. Afterwards, they experienced concussion-like symptoms such as memory and thinking problems, headaches, dizziness and balance issues.

But the exact nature of what harmed more than 20 U.S. government personnel stationed in Havana, Cuba, last year remains mysterious, reports a team led by Dr. Douglas Smith of the University of Pennsylvania.

All that can be said for sure is that "we have identified a new syndrome that may have important public health implications," Smith said.

"None of these patients have suffered any type of blunt head trauma, yet the symptoms they describe and evaluations demonstrate are remarkably similar to those found in persistent concussion syndrome," noted Smith, who directs UPenn's Center for Brain Injury and Repair in Philadelphia.

Reports of the strange illnesses among U.S. diplomats stationed in Havana began to surface in late 2016 and continued through August of 2017, Smith's team reports in the Feb. 15 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Of the 80 embassy staff evaluated in the spring of 2017, "16 individuals were identified with similar exposure history and a constellation of neurological signs and symptoms" most often tied to concussion -- though none had suffered head injury, the researchers noted. Another eight cases developed over time.

The U.S. government convened an expert panel to look into the issue and that panel "came to consensus that the triage findings were most likely related to neurotrauma from a non-natural source," and requested further investigation, led by the UPenn team.

Initial testing done at the University of Miami also showed that the symptoms resembled those of concussion. Patients were then tested in a more detailed manner at UPenn facilities, beginning in the summer of 2017.

"In the new study, the Penn research team reports that patients experienced a wide variety of neurocognitive symptoms, including memory problems, trouble concentrating and processing information, and word-finding difficulties," a UPenn news release noted. "Visual focusing, dizziness and balance problems were also commonly reported during and after the sound incidents, and many patients subsequently suffered from headaches and sleep problems."

Overall, more than 20 people from the U.S. diplomatic staff in Havana have displayed such symptoms, Smith's group concluded.

The exact nature of what caused the symptoms -- and whether they are related to the strange noises heard by patients beforehand -- remain unclear, however. The research team said that noise "in the audible range is not known to cause persistent injury to the central nervous system."

Brain scans were largely inconclusive, the researchers added.

And the scientists also said that certain symptoms differed from those of a classic concussion. Patients developed pain in one ear, or tinnitus ("ringing in the ears") and balance issues, none of which is common after a concussion. Recovery for some patients was also much slower than that usually seen with concussion.

However, there was one upside to the study.

"The good news is that the symptoms appear to respond to rehabilitation interventions in a similar fashion, as we see in patients with persisting symptoms following a concussion," study author Dr. Randel Swanson said.

"While some patients reported that symptoms diminished on their own over time with no treatments, most individuals had symptoms that did not begin to improve until targeted therapies were initiated," said Swanson, an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at UPenn.

He said that, based on what's been learned, a special rehabilitation program has been developed to help patients recover and return to their jobs.

More information

There's more on concussion symptoms at the American Academy of Neurology.WEDNESDAY, Feb. 14, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Extreme weather such as severe flooding and droughts will become much more common if the targets in the Paris Agreement on climate change aren't reached, researchers warn.

The agreement seeks to limit global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. However, the specific commitments made by individual countries who signed it fall 1 degree Celsius short.

That small difference could increase the chances of extreme wet and dry weather events, according to a study published Feb. 14 in the journal Science Advances.

The researchers, from Stanford University in California, used computer models to estimate the risk for extreme weather events under two scenarios:

A global temperature rise of 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius if countries that signed the agreement meet its goals.

A global temperature rise of 2 to 3 degrees Celsius if those countries meet the individual commitments they've made.

"The really big increases in record-setting event probability are reduced if the world achieves the aspirational targets rather than the actual commitments," researcher Noah Diffenbaugh said in a Stanford news release. He's a professor earth system science in the university's School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences.

"At the same time, even if those aspirational targets are reached, we still will be living in a climate that has substantially greater probability of unprecedented events than the one we're in now," he added.

For instance, a 2- to 3-degree temperature rise would result in a more than fivefold increase in record-breaking warm nights over about half of Europe and more than a fourth of East Asia, the study predicts. That temperature change also would result in more than a threefold increase in record-breaking wet days over more than a third of North America, Europe and East Asia, according to the study.

A 2- to 3-degree temperature increase would bring more hot days, fewer and milder cold nights and shorter freezes, the study predicts.

Meeting the Paris Agreement's targets, according to the study, would reduce the number of record-setting weather events but would not eliminate them.

Showing how the world's climate might change could prove helpful in planning to deal with the effects, the researchers said. Previously, they said, people have had to rely on historical data, which no longer apply.

"Damages from extreme weather and climate events have been increasing, and 2017 was the costliest year on record," Diffenbaugh said. "These rising costs are one of many signs that we are not prepared for today's climate -- let alone for another degree of global warming."

"But the good news is that we don't have to wait and play catch-up," he said. "Instead, we can use this kind of research to make decisions that both build resilience now and help us be prepared for the climate that we will face in the future."

More information

NASA has more on climate change.Share this: Twitter

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Kiev, February 15, 2018The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Ukrainian authorities to ensure that journalists at Media Holding Vesti are able to access their office and continue their work without fear of retaliation. Journalists at Media Holding Vesti remain blocked from their newsroom in central Kiev one week after dozens of law enforcement agents raided the office, editor-in-chief Oksana Omelchenko told CPJ.

Omelchenko, head of the companys editorial division, which includes Radio Vesti, the daily newspaper Vesti, and the news website Vesti-ukr, told CPJ today that authorities still have not presented her with a court order or any other legal document authorizing the measures.

She also said that unknown persons in law enforcement attire, not police, have been blocking the office for the past week.

Media Holding Vesti has come under scrutiny by Ukrainian authorities for taking what they describe as a pro-Russian editorial line and has previously been raided by government officials, CPJ documented. The companys owner, Oleksandar Klymenko, a former tax minister under ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, is currently being investigated by Ukrainian authorities for fraud. Klymenko denies the allegations.

We call on Ukrainian authorities to immediately clarify the reasons behind the hostile raid on Media Holding Vesti, ensure that journalists have access to their offices, and take action against whoever has been occupying the newsroom for a week, CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said from New York. It is outrageous that the Interior Ministry and National Police are shrugging off responsibility for this ongoing obstruction of journalistic activity.

Asked about their presence and the role of the Interior Ministry and National Police forces in the raid and in the current situation at the Vesti newsroom, spokesman for both of those agencies Artem Shevchenko said, Its not our issue. He added that control of the situation around Vesti had been passed to the National Assets Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA), and that police officers sometimes assist the agency by securing the area in which they operate.

Shevchenko referred CPJ to ARMA for answers to further questions. ARMA could not be reached for comment and did not immediately respond to emailed questions.

Omelchenko told CPJ that Vesti has critically reported on the activities of ARMA, which was created as part of the Ukraines fight against corruption. But, she said, she did not believe any specific article was behind the authorities actions against the media holding.

The problem, Omelchenko said, is that the authorities, in general, do not like Vesti as an opposition resource, which raises uncomfortable issues while the newspaper has one of the largest circulations in the country. She said the pressure on Vesti has increased in the run-up to parliamentary and presidential elections in 2019.

Dozens of law enforcement agents from the National Police and main military prosecutors office raided Vestis offices on February 8, seizing equipment and destroying property in the process, CPJ documented. Omelchenko said many of the journalists have since been unable to recover personal belongings left inside the newsroom, and she fears much of the office property has been destroyed and looted.

She said journalists are working from home but at least half of them are doing so without the equipment needed to perform their duties. Radio Vesti chief editor Andriy Blinov said that his journalists are able to broadcast from a reserve studio, the Institute of Mass Information reported.

During a press conference on February 14, Vestis lawyer, Alexander Dulsky, declared his intention to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in connection to the raid against the media holding.Dhangadhi-Paliya power line back in operation

The Dhangadhi-Paliya cross-border transmission line has come back to life after 10 years, bringing joy to the inhabitants of Province 7 as now there will be regular electricity even during peak demand hours. 



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This website follows the DNPA Code of Ethics.Myanmar: Life flows through Mekong

February 15,2018 | Source: Sun Star

The first time I caught a glimpse of Mekong River was when my friends and I were crossing the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge from NongKhai, Thailand to Vientiane, Laos. The next day, we were having a bottle of beer in a hut by the river bank in Vientiane, watching the sunset and the view of Thailand at the other side of the river. Although Mekong River serves as a natural border among countries, it also binds six countries where it flows through: Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Cementing what Mekong has naturally joined together, the Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation Program was established in 1992 with the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other stakeholders. Thinking of Mekong brought me back to the times I traveled to Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, on different instances. I have been to Chinas major cities.



The closest part of China where Mekong lies, specifically Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Mekong Yunnan Province, which I have visited were Guangzhou and Shenzhen in the Guangdong Province. Going back to our Thailand-Laos trip, we took a 12.5-hour train ride from Bangkok to NongKhai to cross over to Vientiane. It was right smacked into the Songkran Festival. Water-throwing were everywhere on both sides of the Mekong River. Even though we were recipients of that water splashing spree and were mostly wet during those days, we still enjoyed the celebration immensely. I made new friends in Vientiane, even joining some of the Songkran gatherings. It wasnt just food and drinks that were free-flowing. Even laughter flowed fluidly among locals and visitors. As if these were not enough, we crossed back to Thailand towards NongKhai and headed to Udon Thani, then took an overnight bus to Chiang Mai where the Songkran festival was even grander.



The next travel that got me close to Mekong was when I visited Cambodia and Vietnam. Flying into Siem Reap, the view of Tonle Sap from the air was breathtaking. Boats looked like tiny moving insects while houses dotted the waterway. Tonle Sap is connected to Mekong, with water flowing to and fro between these two bodies of water. Siem Reap is a juxtaposition of tranquility and vivacity. When we roamed it at daytime, the city was quiet and movement was slow. I reckon that most of the people, locals and tourists alike, were probably out exploring the Angkor Archaeological Park. When nighttime came, Pub Street and the Night Market were suddenly filled with so much people, as if they suddenly sprouted from somewhere.



After our Siem Reap and Angkor adventure, we hopped on a bus and took the road for six hours onwards to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. Upon our arrival, we made our way towards the Royal Palace, which was already closed by the time we got there. Walking outside the palace late in the afternoon, we opted to watch the sunset by the Sisowath Quay. It was also the point where portions of Tonle Sap River and Mekong River meet. We sat there watching tourists enjoying a rickshaw ride and locals having a picnic on the grassy parts. More and more people arrived and some started dancing for their afternoon exercise. Vendors began setting up their stalls.



Some were fishing by the river banks, while ahead, boats of different kinds were passing by. One docked to let some passengers on board. Looking around, there was a certain vibe that showed the joy of people moving to the rhythm of the city. Life by the Mekong is not just about getting food and sustenance from the river. It was a means of transportation connecting people and communities. It is where activities happen, where people are brought together, where they converge and share some laughter. We followed the direction of Mekong and continued towards Vietnam, specifically to its capital, Ho Chi Minh City. Like the water, we just went with the flow.Kerala: Govt for crackdown on contamination of fish

February 15,2018 | Source: The Hindu

The government is gearing up for a crackdown on chemical contamination of fish, Fisheries Minister J. Mercykutty Amma has said. Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, she said move was afoot to clamp down on traders using hazardous chemicals for preservation of fish. The operation would be carried out jointly by the Fisheries and Food Safety Departments. The Minister released a kit developed by the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT) for quick detection of ammonia and formaldehyde, commonly used as preservatives for fish. Named CIFTest, the kit includes a paper strip that is laced with a reagent after rubbing on the fish. In a process akin to a litmus test, the strip changes colour as the reagent interacts with ammonia or formalin.



K. Ashok Kumar, one of the scientists at CIFT who developed the kit, said 18% of the samples collected from various fish markets during the validation of the kit had shown dangerous levels of ammonia and formaldehyde, indicating the public health hazard. Most of the highly contaminated samples were collected from traders importing fish from other States. CIFT has recommended better cold storage facilities at fish-landing centres and markets to eliminate the use of chemical preservatives. The Minister, who later distributed the kit to Matsyafed and Food Safety officials, said the CIFT would transfer the technology for mass production. She said periodic inspections would be carried out at fish markets across the State and promised stern action against traders using hazardous chemicals to extend the shelf life of fish.



Ms. Mercykutty Amma said the government was framing legislation for regulation of fish marketing in the State. The proposed Bill was aimed at eliminating middlemen in the fish marketing chain and ending the exploitation of fishermen, she said. It envisaged a greater role for fishworkers cooperative societies in procuring directly from fish landing centres and bringing fresh fish to the consumer. Earlier, officials from the Fisheries and Food Safety Departments, accompanied by the Minister, collected samples from fish vendors in the Palayam market here. All the samples tested negative for ammonia and formalin, a press note issued here said.Emerging Tech

IARPA looks to build 3-D geospatial models on the fly

Because geospatially accurate 3-D data is critical to global situational awareness, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity has been looking for a way to automate the construction of those models.

IARPA's Creation of Operationally Realistic 3-D Environment (CORE3D) program is developing automated systems that can quickly build complex 3-D models from commercial, satellite and airborne imagery.

While manually created models are accurate, reliable and better at "extracting mission relevant information and understanding scenes  the process to create them is time-consuming," said CORE3D program manager Hakjae Kim.

Automated modeling also is necessary because it is difficult to predict when or where a crisis might occur that could be informed by an accurate 3D model. Having such a capability would allow the government to quickly model locations anywhere on Earth and update them as satellite data is refreshed and video or images become available.

Through a competitive broad agency announcement, IARPA awarded CORE3D research contracts to teams led by Applied Research Associates, General Electric, Kitware and Vision Systems Inc.Second try: Ryanair confirms plans to launch flights from Ukraine in autumn

Flight destinations will not coincide with those announced in the spring of 2017, when Ryanair first announced its entry into Ukraine.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterUkraine sees decline in cattle, pig livestock

The statistics report does not include data from the occupied areas in Crimea and Donbas.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterRoshen unable to register TM Crabs in dispute with Russia's confectionery

Russia's Krasny Oktyabr claimed that Roshen would violate intellectual rights with regard to its previously registered brand "Rakovye Sheyki."

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterRussia to stop gas production on seized Black Sea shelf in Crimea  media

Russia's position in the dispute over the Odeske gas field is weak from the legal point of view.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterEC submits poll results to Prez

The House of Representatives finally took a complete shape after the Election Commission on Wednesday announced winners of the elections under the proportional representation category.Former President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has once again lambasted the judiciary, this time while standing on the steps outside the courtroom where his close ally, Hamid Baghaei, was on trial for financial corruption.

While Baghaeis trial was under way, Ahmadinejad accused the judiciary of confrontation with the people.

Referring to the recent alleged suicides at Iranian prisons, Ahmadinejad said on February 14, They [the judiciary and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps] carelessly detain people, deliver their dead bodies later and claim that they were drug addicts who committed suicide.

Furious for not being allowed to enter the courtroom, Ahmadinejad lamented, They had announced that the trial is open to public, but, when we tried to attend it, they stopped us. The Islamic Republics judiciary is in confrontation with the nation.

Ahmadinejad, without missing the chance to mention the Islamic Revolutions 39th anniversary, maintained, The revolution occurred to let the people freely express themselves and defend their rights without any reservation.

The ex-president, who has become critical of the top leadership, went even further in his remarks and blamed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of ignoring the peoples demands.

Whenever we want to complain about this injustice, we dont know where to go or to whom. The supreme leader says, I have no responsibility, since the administration bodies are independent. Therefore, who is accountable in this country?

Last year, Ahmadinejad had sarcastically commented that the head of the judiciary was more powerful than the supreme leader.

Deriding the dilemma, Ahmadinejad affirmed, We have grievances against the government and judiciary; are we expected to seek justice through them who are responsible for our discontent?

Directly aiming the whole regime, Ahmadinejad said, It is obvious that people do not trust the ruling system.

However, the former president reiterated that he expected change. Soon, the situation will be changed in favor of the nation, he said.

Ahmadinejad, a hard-liner who was president from 2005 to 2013, has become increasingly isolated for challenging Khamenei and his powerful allies, namely the judiciary.

Attempts for mediation between Ahmadinejad and the head of judiciary, Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani, have failed so far.

Khamenei has preferred to avoid any open confrontation with the vociferous former president.HYDERABAD, India (AP)  Iran's president said on Thursday that his country was ready to help promote dialogue as a way to end bloodshed in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Hassan Rouhani made the comments to a group of Muslim religious scholars in the in southern Indian city of Hyderabad shortly after his arrival for a three-day India visit.

Rouhani will meet Saturday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

Rouhani accused western countries of sowing discord among different sects of Muslims.

He called for unity between the Sunni and Shia sects of Muslims. "The Shias, Sunnis and people of other ethnicities coexisted peacefully in Iraq and Syria for centuries until the West created a discord there," Rouhani said.

Rouhani's visit comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to scuttle an international deal reached with Iran in 2015 over its nuclear program that ended economic sanctions imposed on the country.

This poses a challenge for India, which is helping Iran develop the Chabahar Port for trade with Afghanistan.

In 2016, India, Afghanistan, and Iran decided to establish a trade route for land-locked Afghanistan and Central Asian countries.

India committed up to $500 million for the development of the Chahabar Port along with associated roads and rail lines. India shipped its first consignment of wheat to Afghanistan by sea through the Chahbahar Port in October last year. India's bilateral trade with Iran in 2017-18 was around $12.89 billion, with India importing mainly crude oil and exporting commodities.President Hassan Rouhani has appointed a committee to investigate recent regrettable incidents at detention centers in Iran, according to an announcement on his official website on February 14.

The members of the committee are the interior, intelligence, and justice ministers, as well as the deputy president for legal affairs.

The committee is tasked with investigating the issues and reporting back to the president about possible negligence in this regard, the statement said.

The order comes days after a prominent Iranian-Canadian university professor and environmentalist, Kavous Seyed-Emami, allegedly killed himself while in custody.

Earlier in January, following widespread protests against Irans ruling system, at least two other detainees allegedly committed suicide while in custody at Evin Prison in Tehran and a police station in the city of Arak, central Iran.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), whose intelligence agents are said to be responsible for arresting Emami and several other environmental activists, claims he had relayed information on the countrys missile bases to the CIA and Israels Mossad.

However, espionage and counterespionage operations, according to Tehran MP and deputy parliamentary speaker Ali Motahari, are the exclusive responsibility of the Intelligence Ministry and the IRGC had no legal right to interfere in such matters.

It is not clear to what extent Rouhani's committee will be able to do a thorough investigation if IRGC intelligence refuses to fully cooperate.

Nevertheless, Tehran Prosecutor-General Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi insisted Emami and other detained environmental activists had collaborated with foreign spy agencies.

They installed cameras in strategic locations across the country and collected information on Irans sensitive sites, including missile bases, Dolatabadi said on February 13.

Isa Kalantari, head of the Environment Department in Rouhanis administration, dismissed Dolatabadis comments, noting that environmental cameras cannot be used for espionage purposes.

Environmental cameras that monitor leopards activity have a range of no more than 50 meters (roughly 55 yards), Kalantari said.

Meanwhile, Emamis suspicious death has created a new hurdle on the path to Iran-Canada rapprochement.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised during his 2015 election campaign to restore diplomatic relations with Iran, but the brutal crackdown on the recent widespread unrest prompted opposition calls for the government to reconsider, Associated Press reported.

Emamis death has also turned into a reminder of another Iranian-Canadian citizen who died behind bars in Tehran.

Zahra (aka Ziba) Kazemi was an Iranian-Canadian freelance photojournalist who was arrested in July 2003 while taking pictures of families protesting relatives detention outside Evin Prison.

Kazemi was detained and later officially declared dead after hitting her head on a sharp object and suffering a stroke.

Her suspicious death led to a political row between Iran and Canada.The son of an Iranian-Canadian academic and environmentalist who recently died under suspicious circumstances at Evin Prison in Tehran says Iranian intelligence agents interrogated and threatened his mother to force her into silence.

On February 9, Kavous Seyed-Emamis son Ramin wrote on his blog, They summoned my mother purportedly to meet with her husband. Instead, they interrogated and threatened her for three hours before announcing the death of her husband.

Ramin says they forced his mother to commit in writing not to speak to the media. They threatened her by saying she would be imprisoned, too, he added.

He also says threats against his family are not unprecedented. Similar threats of harming my dad had previously been issued from authorities and forced us to keep silent while he was in custody, he wrote.

Emami, an environmental activist and sociology professor, was arrested on January 24 and died under suspicious circumstances on February 9 at the notorious Tehran prison. Iran's judiciary said on February 11 that Emami had confessed and then committed suicide. The judiciary did not say what did Emami confess to.

In an official statement dated February 14, Ramin reiterated, We have the right to know why my father was arrested and under what circumstances he died. Such a right is guaranteed by the countrys laws. We will use every legal channel at our disposal toward holding an independent investigation.

Ramin says he was allowed to view his fathers body on February 12, but his familys lawyers were not permitted to join him and the autopsy report was not made available.

Ramin and the lawyers took the issue to court, where Ramin alone was shown a video purportedly of the suicide. I was the only member of the family to see the video, he said. I want to stress this point because rumors have spread that my uncle has also seen it. None of my uncles has spoken to the media, and any statement to this effect is null and void.

Earlier, IRGC-run news agency Tasnim had cited one of Ramins uncles, Kamran Seyed-Emami, as saying, Along with my late brothers wife, we saw his dead body and on the insistence of the prosecutor-general thoroughly inspected it but saw nothing suspicious. We saw only the traces of being hanged, which is also clearly documented in the prisons CCTV video. It was obvious that my brother had hanged himself.

However, Ramin maintains that the footage is inconclusive. The actual death is not recorded, he said. All I could see was my dad in a nervous and restless condition going into a bathroom where we were told he then hanged himself.

Ramin concluded by insisting, Our familys wish first and foremost is to know why my father was arrested, the details of his interrogation, and to see any files associated with this case.

He also tweeted that his fathers memorial service, which had been scheduled to be held on February 15 at a Tehran mosque, was cancelled after a telephone call. He did not say who made the call but what he probably meant is that security agencies interfered.

Emamis body was buried on February 13 at Amameh Cemetery, 40 kilometers (roughly 25 miles) north of Tehran.(Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday warned Lebanon over the Iran-backed Hezbollah group's growing arsenal and said the Shi'ite movement's involvement in regional conflicts threatened Lebanon's security.

Speaking alongside Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri in a Beirut news conference, Tillerson also said the United States was engaging with Lebanon and Israel to ensure their border remained calm.

Israel regards Hezbollah as the biggest direct threat on its borders and has repeatedly struck it in Syria, where the group is fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad in a civil war now entering its eighth year.

The heavily armed Shi'ite movement is part of the Lebanese coalition government led by Sunni Muslim politician Hariri, under a complex political system that promotes sectarian power-sharing.

"Hezbollah is not just a concern for the United States. The people of Lebanon should also be concerned about how Hezbollahs actions and its growing arsenal bring unwanted and unhelpful scrutiny on Lebanon," Tillerson said.

"Hebollah's entanglement in regional conflicts threatens the security of Lebanon," he added during his visit, the first by a U.S. Secretary of State to Lebanon since 2014.

Israeli-Lebanese tensions have spiked in recent months because of Israeli plans to build a wall at the border, and because of Lebanon's decision to begin exploring for oil and gas in an offshore block in disputed waters.

Hezbollah, which the United States deems a terrorist organization, has increased its military strength since the last major conflict with Israel in 2006.

Tillerson urged Lebanese leaders to uphold the country's commitment to staying out of regional conflicts, a reference to Hezbollah's role in wars around the Middle East including in Syria.

Israel has accused Iran of seeking to set up weapons factories in Lebanon, and the Israeli military last month said the country had turned into one "large missile factory".

Lebanon is a big recipient of U.S. military support. Tillerson said Washington remained committed to supporting the Lebanese army and internal security forces.

When asked about the maritime border dispute with Israel, including Lebanese media reports that Washington had asked Beirut to give up a portion of sea it claims, Tillerson denied the reports.

"We will continue to be very engaged with both parties. We've asked no one to give up anything, rather we are looking for a solution," he said. "We are engaging the governments of both Lebanon and Israel to ensure Lebanon's southern border remains calm."UNITED NATIONS, Feb 14 (Reuters) - The U.N. Syria peace mediator warned on Wednesday that a recent increase in violence has created one of the most dangerous moments in years of civil war there, as the government bombards rebel areas and foreign powers further intervene.

"I have been now four years (as) special envoy, this is a violent and worrying and dangerous a moment as any that I've seen in my time," Staffan de Mistura told the United Nations Security Council.

Last week was one of the bloodiest in the nearly seven-year-old conflict as Syrian government forces, backed by Russia and Iran, bombarded two of the last major rebel areas: Eastern Ghouta and the northwestern province of Idlib.

The 15-member Security Council is currently negotiating a possible resolution, drafted by Kuwait and Sweden, that would demand a 30-day ceasefire in Syria to allow the delivery of aid and the evacuation of sick and wounded.

The multi-sided conflict is also raging elsewhere, with Turkey waging an offensive against Syrian Kurdish forces in the Afrin region of northwestern Syria, while on Saturday, Syrian government anti-aircraft fire downed an Israeli warplane returning from a bombing raid on Iran-backed positions in Syria.

"What we are seeing in Syria today not only imperils the de-escalation arrangements and regional stability, it also undermines the efforts for a political solution. Yet we will not be deterred from pursuing the Geneva process, which is the only sustainable path toward a political solution," De Mistura said.

The U.N.-led Geneva process to try and broker an end to the conflict has been making little or no progress. Last year Russia, Turkey and Iran agreed "de-escalation" zones to ease hostilities in western Syria where they wield influence.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the Security Council that Russia was supposed to guarantee adherence to the de-escalation zones and the removal of all chemical weapons from its ally Syria.

"Instead we to see the Assad regime continue to bomb, starve and yes, gas, civilians," Haley said, referring to President Bashar al-Assad's government. "Russia can push the regime to commit to seeking a real peace in Syria ... now is the time for Russia to use that leverage."

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia pushed back on Haley's remarks, saying the Syrian political process should be free from "external pressure." He also called on the United States to "exert their influence" on Syrian opposition fighters to ensure they cease hostilities.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 16

Trend:

In 2017, the Carlsberg Azerbaijan Company managed to stop the decline in sales volumes, revive the growth, as well as to launch a number of projects that will play a positive role for the company's sustainable development in the longer term. Carlsberg Azerbaijan keeps the leadership positions in the beer market of Azerbaijan.

The drop in the beer market, and consequently the fall in sales volumes of Carlsberg Azerbaijan, which began in 2015 due to macroeconomic reasons  devaluation of the local currency and a drop in consumption, was stopped in 2017. This allowed the company to return profitability and rehabilitate the business after nearly two years of decline.

In 2017, the company's shipments increased by 9 % compared to the previous year, which was due to both the normalization of the economic environment in the country and the series of important steps taken by the company's management for the optimization of the business and improvement of its efficiency. The growth in the draught beer channel (on-trade) was undoubtedly an essential contribution to the overall result; the growth in shipments within the channel was about 25% in comparison with the previous year.

Vyacheslav Maltsev, CEO of Carlsberg Azerbaijan: "Within the past year, we have finally managed to stop the negative dynamics observed in the beer industry and, consequently, in our results, and I am pleased to say that the industry is returning to the growth. Besides the company's efforts, the strengthened dialogue with government authorities made an important contribution to the business normalization. It makes possible to get point of the brewing industry across the issues being vital for us, and as a result, to have a more consistent and predictable legislative regulation encouraging the development and the industry, as well as the economy in whole. Maintaining this approach is critical for us, as for a foreign investor; the development of constant dialogue and the state support means a lot in view of stability and assessment of the business prospects in a particular country."

We should note that the year became significant for the company in terms of refreshment of the brands portfolio. As the largest brewery in the country and part of one of the world's brewing leaders, Carlsberg Azerbaijan strives to bring new varieties and tastes to the beer and drink market of Azerbaijan. Following a thorough study of the local consumer preferences, the company chose the best alcoholic and non-alcoholic brands being successful in dozens of markets of the Carlsberg Group: over the past year Azerbaijanis were offered brands such as Carlsberg, Kronenbourg Blanc, Holsten, Seth and Riley's Garage Hard Lemon in different packaging forms, and at the end of the year the company entered the energy drinks market with the Flash Up brand, that won strong positions in several Eastern European countries.

Carlsberg Group was founded in 1847 and at is one of the world's largest beer producers today. Its products are represented in 150 countries, the company's portfolio includes more than 140 beer brands. The total number of Group's employees is more than 42,000. The total amount of the company's investments into the development of the Carlsberg Azerbaijan brewery is about 50 million AZN, annual budget contributions are about 15 mln AZN.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

Trend:

Azerbaijan will be a reliable and long-term supplier of energy resources to the world markets for decades, said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

President Aliyev made the remarks as he was addressing the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council in Baku Feb. 15.

President Aliyev stressed that Garabag is another field that they hope to get further involved in international cooperation.

Furthermore, there are two fields with huge gas potential - "Dan Ulduzu" and "Ashrafi". Thus, the confirmed gas reserves of Azerbaijan is twice more than the gas reserves of the Shah Deniz field - 2.6 trillion cubic meters of gas and I am sure that it will be more. Because our experience shows that initially the anticipated reserves are substantially higher than previous one. For example, when the "Contract of the Century" was signed in 1994, the reserves of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli were estimated at more than 500 million tons. Modestly speaking, this figure is now twice as high - about 1 billion tons. I think and hope that we will witness the same in gas fields. Therefore, in the coming decades Azerbaijan will become a reliable and long-term supplier of energy resources to the world markets. Today, Azerbaijan's oil makes up about a third, or even 40 percent of oil consumption in some European countries. Azerbaijan is ready to enter the European market with its gas reserves, he said.Establishment of tea auction centre stalls

The establishment of a Tea Auction Centre, which is expected to benefit tea farmers and entrepreneurs by allowing them to sell their products via auction, has been stalled due to lack of coordination among the concerned stakeholders.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

By Ali Mustafayev  Trend:

Russia pays close attention to settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russian Foreign Ministrys Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Feb. 15.

"We hope the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be resolved and we pay close attention to this process, she said. The main thing is that we are actively participating in the work on implementation of all that was outlined by the sides."

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. 15

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

The work to clarify the missing people list of Azerbaijans State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons, and the measures to eliminate the difference when compared with the list of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), continues, Eldar Samadov, deputy head of the Working Group of the State Commission, said in an interview with Trend.

For now, the fate of the two missing persons whose names have been excluded from this list has been clarified, he said.

He noted that as a result of the investigations held last year, it was established that during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, dozens of people went missing during the fighting prior to the establishment of the ceasefire regime. Their names were registered in the State Commission and included in the corresponding list, he added.

As of Dec. 1, 2017, the State Commission registered the names of 3,875 missing persons, Samadov said.

He added that investigations were carried out regarding persons not included in the ICRC list and, according to the procedures of the structure, requests were sent to the corresponding addresses for their registration. The data collected from the citizens were sent to the ICRC to restore the work on the search for dozens of missing persons, he noted.

The structure additionally registered 29 people, Samadov said. Presently, 3,800 persons are registered as missing in the ICRC list. The difference when compared to the list of the State Commission is 75 people, while this difference was more than 300 people in 2015.

Samadov noted that the work was continued to establish GPS coordinates of burial places of people who became martyrs during the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and were buried as unknown persons. In particular, the GPS coordinates of six burial places in Azerbaijans Barda district were established, he said.

A total of 195 burial places were found during the process, he added.

In addition, during the familiarization with photos of persons buried in 11 graves discovered in April-May last year in the Shammadli cemetery in Imishli district, five families of missing persons said that they had recognized those persons, and therefore, the necessary discussions and consultations were held with the ICRC, Forensic Medical Expertise and Pathological Anatomy Scientific Practical Investigation Unit of Ministry of Health and law enforcement agencies of Azerbaijan, he said.

The State Commission together with the ICRC took DNA samples from 17 donors - relatives of missing persons, he noted. In connection with the abovementioned, a letter was sent to the Prosecutor Generals Office to investigate the issue related to unknown graves in the Imishli district and conduct genetic testing, Samadov said.

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. 15

Trend:

Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov will pay a working visit to Germany to take part in the Munich Security Conference scheduled for Feb. 16-18, the Foreign Ministry told Trend.

During the visit , Mammadyarov will deliver a speech and will hold bilateral meetings.

The conference agenda for the MSC 2018 will focus in particular on the future role of the European Union as a global actor and its relations with Russia as well as the United States. Moreover, arms control issues will be a point of emphasis, in particular the tensions over North Koreas nuclear weapons program.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.15

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

US Agency for International Development (USAID) Assistant Administrator for Europe and Eurasia Brock Bierman will visit Azerbaijan as part of his regional visit between February 25 and March 1, said a message from USAID.

In Azerbaijan, the Assistant Administrator will meet with representatives from USAID-supported programs and government officials, and will visit USAID activities focused on rural community development and agriculture, according to the message.

Reportedly, he will then travel to Georgia to serve as the US government's co-chair for the US-Georgia Strategic Partnership Commission's Economic, Trade, and Energy Working Group.

According to the draft budget of the US State Department, in 2019, USAID can allocate $3 million worth funds to Azerbaijan to support the countrys economic development and $600,000 for professional military education in the country.

For 2018, it is planned to give only $600,000 to Azerbaijan to support professional military education, including various trainings and courses in the country.

Azerbaijan received $639,000 from USAID in 2017 for the abovementioned purposes, while another $1 million was allocated as military financing.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_ZeynBaku, Azerbaijan, Feb.15

Trend:

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has met with European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union, co-chair of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) Advisory Council Maros Sefcovic.

President Aliyev thanked Sefcovic for attending the 4th Ministerial Meeting of the SGC Advisory Council and for his warm words at the event.

The head of state described the meeting as a new stage in the development of the Southern Gas Corridor project.

President Aliyev thanked Sefcovic for supporting the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor, as well as for the European Investment Bank's financial support for the project.

Sefcovic, in turn, said he is pleased to participate both in this meeting and the previous Ministerial Meetings of the SGC Advisory Council. He praised the significant progress in the implementation of the project.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

By Elchin Mehdiyev  Trend:

President Ilham Aliyev has set serious tasks before executive authorities to ensure holding of transparent elections, said Zeynal Nagdaliyev, chief of the department on work with regional management bodies and local self-management bodies at Azerbaijans Presidential Administration.

Nagdaliyev made the remarks at a meeting held for heads of the district election commissions.

"The main task is that the process should be transparent without any breaches of the law, or fraud. Azerbaijan will play the role of an exemplary country in the world in the context of opportunities created at the District Election Commissions. Because, very high opportunities were created for the District Election Commissions, the newest buildings, the newest venues were established for voters to vote in a comfortable way. We are no longer talking about material and technical base, because these issues have long been resolved," he said.

Nagdaliyev noted that local executive authorities were instructed to review places for campaigning of candidates and to publish the list in the media.

Next presidential election in Azerbaijan is to be held on April 11, 2018, according to an order signed Feb. 5 by the country's President Ilham Aliyev. According to the Calendar Plan of Azerbaijans Central Election Commission (CEC), pre-election campaigning starts 23 days prior to the voting day and is stopped 24 hours before the start of voting. Thus, the campaigning will start on March 19 and end at 08:00 (local time) on April 10.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

Trend:

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a letter of condolence to US President Donald Trump.

"I was deeply saddened by the news of casualties and injuries as a result of an armed attack at a high school in Parkland, Florida," the President said in his message.

"On the occasion of this horrible event, on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my deepest condolences to you, families and loved ones of those, who died and all the people of the United States, and wish those injured recovery," the head of state said.Deatils added (12:50)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.15

Trend:

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has met with Italy's Deputy Minister of Economic Development Ivan Scalfarotto.

Scalfarotto extended Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni`s greetings to the head of state. He expressed his satisfaction with his country`s involvement in the Southern Gas Corridor and its participation in this event.

The minister said the cooperation between the two countries is also successfully developing in other areas. The undersecretary of state for economic development stressed that they support Azerbaijans investments in Italy. He stressed the importance of strengthening efforts to develop Azerbaijani-Italian cooperation in other fields.

Saying that bilateral cooperation between the two countries covers energy, trade and other fields, President Aliyev noted successful activities of Italian companies in Azerbaijan.

The head of state stressed that the Southern Gas Corridor is an important project that unites the two countries, adding that it will play an important role in developing cooperation in the years ahead.

President Ilham Aliyev said Italy will be one of the largest gas export markets for Azerbaijan.

The head of state thanked for Prime Minister Gentiloni`s greetings and asked Scalfarotto to extend his greetings to the Prime Minister.Deatils added (12:52)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has met with First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia Dimitri Kumsishvili.

The head of state said Azerbaijan and Georgia enjoy the long-term active cooperation. President Aliyev noted that this cooperation opens wide opportunities not only for Azerbaijan and Georgia, but also for many countries. The President stressed that the Southern Gas Corridor project is being successfully implemented, describing this as a sign of the two countries` opportunities and partnership.

The head of state emphasized that Azerbaijan and Georgia are implementing global projects in the field of transport. President Aliyev underlined that cooperation in the oil and gas sector brings the two countries closer to each other and provides a basis for the sustainable development.

Noting that the Southern Gas Corridor already covers seven countries, President Aliyev said that it is important to coordinate interests of producers and transit countries. We have succeeded in it and this is the guarantee of our future achievements.

Kumsishvili, in turn, conveyed Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili`s greetings to President Ilham Aliyev. Underlining the importance of Georgia's involvement in this project, Kumsishvili said the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor created thousands of new jobs in the country.

Kumsishvili noted that Azerbaijan and Georgia are jointly implementing successful global projects. The first vice prime minister said that these projects are of great importance to both Azerbaijan and Georgia as well as to Turkey and Europe.

The head of state thanked for Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili`s greetings and asked the first vice prime minister to extend his greetings to the Georgian prime minister.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree Feb. 15 amending the Regulations on the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations.

According to the decree, the State Committee gives permission to send the countrys citizens to religious educational institutions for the purpose of obtaining religious education, permission to exchange students and teachers of religious educational institutions, as well as religious figures and specialists.

The State Committee gives permission for Azerbaijani citizens, who receive religious education abroad, to conduct religious rites and ceremonies upon the appeal of the Caucasian Muslims Office.Ex-Energy Minister Shahi appointed CM of Province 6

Former Energy Minister and CPN (Maoist Centre) Parliamentary Party leader Mahendra Bahadur Shahi has been appointed as the Chief Minister of Province 6.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev sent a congratulatory letter to Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite.

"On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my cordial congratulations to you and the people of your country on the occasion of the national holiday of the Republic of Lithuania," President Aliyev said in his congratulatory letter.

I am sure that the strengthening of friendly relations between Azerbaijan and Lithuania, our cooperation at the bilateral level and within international organizations will continue to be useful for our countries and peoples, the president said.

"On this remarkable day, I wish you success in your activities, and the friendly people of Lithuania peace and prosperity," added President Aliyev.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

By Elchin Mehdiyev  Trend:

Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan prepared and sent an activities plan to respective instances to ensure holding of presidential election in a stable and secure environment, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Oruj Zalov said addressing a seminar held for heads of regional election committees.

Next presidential election in Azerbaijan is to be held on April 11, 2018, according to an order signed Feb. 5 by the country's President Ilham Aliyev.

Oruj Zalov said that it is important that law enforcement bodies properly perform their duties.

The deputy minister added, that stability in Azerbaijan is a result of people's confidence in the government.

"Azerbaijan is one of the most stable countries in the world today. The activities plan was prepared and sent to respective instances to ensure holding of the election in a stable and secure environment," he said.

Security of candidates will be fully ensured during the election campaign, Zalov stressed.

"Polling stations will be taken under police outlook to fully ensure security. Changes will be made to location of post-patrol services to guarantee safety for foreign representatives," he said.

A special plan is ready to avert actions calling for religious, racial and any other hostility and they will be ultimately prevented, the deputy minister concluded.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

By Kamala Seyidova  Trend:

President of Albania Ilir Meta will visit Azerbaijan to participate in 6th Global Baku Forum organized by Nizami Ganjavi International Center with support of the State Committee on Work with Diaspora on March 1518, press-office of the State Committee announced.

Ilir Meta will participate in panel discussion dedicated to the current geopolitical situation in Balkan region. Peace and security issues in the Middle West region, the growing role of youth in the modern social and political life and other topics are to be discussed at the event as well.

Ilir Meta has been holding office since April 2017 and previously worked as a prime-minister, foreign minister and chairman of the parliament.

Along with Ilir Meta, presidents, prime-ministers and foreign ministers of more than 10 countries will participate in the Forum. About 500 guests including members of Nizami Ganjavi International Center such as former state leaders, notable social and political figures will take part in the event as well.

Former presidents of Albania Rexhep Meidani, Sali Berisha and Bamir Topi are also members of Nizami Ganjavi International Center and have participated in the previous forums.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:

Azerbaijan needs to strengthen control over the lubricating oil production, said Vagif Farzaliyev, the director of the Institute of Chemistry of Additives of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences.

Farzaliyev made the remarks addressing an event titled Innovation Industry Trends in Azerbaijan: Existing Potential, Development and Prospects.

"Earlier, 1.2 million tons of lubricating oil were produced annually in Azerbaijan. But, today there is no control in this sector, so there is a big number of artisanal products in the market," Farzaliyev said, adding that control over this sector should be strengthened.

In turn, Deputy Economy Minister Niyazi Safarov told reporters that creation of industrial zones may give impetus to the lubricating oil production.

The creation of industrial parks and industrial zones may help the development of this industry, he said. Also, provision of certain benefits shouldnt be ruled out. In Azerbaijan, the lubricating oil production has always been at a fairly good level. In the past, lubricating oils were produced by the facilities of Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR, and they continue production.

However, there must always be competition in the market economy, he noted. As is known, Alco Lubricant is one of the residents of the Sumgait Chemical Industrial Park. The facility has already started operating. I believe the facility will be able to provide the country with quality products, and this will allow us to withdraw low-quality products from circulation."

Alco Lubricant produces lubricating oils. Annual production capacity of the companys plant is 30,000 tons.

According to the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan, in 2017, the country produced 34,900 tons of lubricating oils, which is 3.6 times more than in 2016.Details added (first version posted on 13:10)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:

Azerbaijan needs to strengthen control over the lubricating oil production, said Vagif Farzaliyev, the director of the Institute of Chemistry of Additives of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences.

Farzaliyev made the remarks addressing an event titled Innovation Industry Trends in Azerbaijan: Existing Potential, Development and Prospects.

"Earlier, 1.2 million tons of lubricating oil were produced annually in Azerbaijan. But, today there is no control in this sector, so there is a big number of artisanal products in the market," Farzaliyev said, adding that control over this sector should be strengthened.

In turn, Deputy Economy Minister Niyazi Safarov told reporters that creation of industrial zones may give impetus to the lubricating oil production.

The creation of industrial parks and industrial zones may help the development of this industry, he said. Also, provision of certain benefits shouldnt be ruled out. In Azerbaijan, the lubricating oil production has always been at a fairly good level. In the past, lubricating oils were produced by the facilities of Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR, and they continue production.

However, there must always be competition in the market economy, he noted. As is known, Alco Lubricant is one of the residents of the Sumgait Chemical Industrial Park. The facility has already started operating. I believe the facility will be able to provide the country with quality products, and this will allow us to withdraw low-quality products from circulation."

Alco Lubricant produces lubricating oils. Annual production capacity of the companys plant is 30,000 tons.

According to the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan, in 2017, the country produced 34,900 tons of lubricating oils, which is 3.6 times more than in 2016.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.15

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Trends exclusive interview with Bulgarias Minister of Energy Temenuzhka Petkova on the occasion of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting in Baku

Question: How do you see the prospects for energy cooperation between Azerbaijan and Bulgaria?

Answer: Bulgaria and Azerbaijan have traditionally good, friendly relationship and I am pleased that in the energy field it develops in an excellent way. Both countries are a natural bridge between the Caspian and the Black Sea and hence the natural route of gas supplies from the Caspian region to Southeast and Central Europe. Azerbaijan is the main driving force for the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project, which is a key to diversifying sources and routes for natural gas supply not only for our country, but also for Europe. As you know, we have a contract for delivery of 1 billion cubic metres of natural gas from Shah Deniz 2 field. During the recent visit of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and the Bulgarian government delegation in Baku, the state oil company SOCAR expressed its interest in taking part in the household gasification in Bulgaria. You also know about the signed Memorandum of Understanding between Bulgartransgaz EAD and SOCAR, which main purpose is to explore the possibilities for additional routes for supply of natural gas, as well as for transit through Bulgaria to other markets in Southeast Europe. All of these are examples of the lasting interest of both countries to deepen their traditional good relations in the energy field. I am confident that this mutually beneficial cooperation will continue and its outcome will be diversification of natural gas supply sources and routes for the whole region.

Q.: Currently, together with its foreign partners, Azerbaijan is implementing the Southern Gas Corridor project. What is the significance of this project for Europe, in particular, for Bulgaria?

A.: The Southern Gas Corridor project is of key importance for energy supplies in Europe. I take this opportunity to thank our Azerbaijani partners for the active work on the implementation of this project, which will help implement one of our main priorities  diversification of natural gas sources and routes. By building the Southern Gas Corridor whose main driving force is Azerbaijan, European consumers will be able to receive gas from the Caspian region, the East Mediterranean and from other distant destinations through LNG terminals. Integral parts of the Southern Gas Corridor project are the interconnectors between Bulgaria and the neighboring Greece and Turkey, on the implementation of which we are actively working. Regarding the construction of the gas interconnector with Greece, we are currently at the stage of selection of an owners engineer and line pipe supplier. We're planning to start the construction by mid-year.

TANAP that connects Azerbaijan with Georgia, Turkey and Greece will be completed by the end of the year. In July this year, we will also complete the extension of the gas pipeline with Turkey, which will allow the flow of additional quantities of gas along the transit gas pipeline at the Bulgarian-Turkish border. These routes will be diversified with the construction of other interconnectors at a further stage.

Q.: Bulgaria will receive Azerbaijani gas via the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB). At what stage is the process of the implementation of this project?

A.: The interconnector with Greece is one of the key projects that will help diversify energy supplies in Europe. Since the project had been delayed for years, during our previous government mandate we signed the Final Investment Decision that made the implementation of the project irreversible. Now we are working intensively to build the interconnector through which we will have access to new sources of natural gas. As it has already become clear, there is an ongoing tender procedure for the selection of an owners engineer and a pipe supplier. The tender procedure for EPC contractor is forthcoming and actual construction activities will begin around the middle of the current year. We plan to start commercial exploitation of the interconnector in 2020.

Q.: Could you update on the amount of financial resources approved for IGB project?

A.: The total investment cost of the project is 240 million euros. The project has an approved grant of 45 million euros under the European Energy Program for Recovery. A procedure related to the possibility of approval by the European Commission of a transfer of 39 million euros from the Interconnector Bulgaria-Serbia project to the Interconnector Greece- Bulgaria is currently ongoing. These funds are under the Innovation and Competitiveness Operational Program. We expect the project to receive funding from the Greek Structural Funds in the amount of about 12 million euros.

I would also like to stress that for several consecutive years a sovereign guarantee for IGB project of 110 million euros of the budget of the Republic of Bulgaria has been confirmed, which is an unambiguous sign of the importance the Bulgarian Government gives to the implementation of the interconnector. This guarantee allows the project company to negotiate for more favourable loan conditions than the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development offer.

Q.: Bulgarias Bulgargaz has a long-term contract for 25 years with Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR for supply of 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year from Shah Deniz 2. Is Bulgaria interested in increasing those volumes?

A.: Bulgaria through Bulgargaz company has concluded a contract with the state-owned company SOCAR for the delivery of 1 billion cubic metres per year from the second phase of Shah Deniz gas field. These volumes represent about 25-30 percent of the consumption of natural gas that we expect by 2020 in our country.

Bulgaria has an interest in possible additional supplies of natural gas from Azerbaijan in the development of the new Azerbaijani gas fields in the Caspian Sea and upon agreement of competitive prices. I would also like to underline that we are ready to ensure the transit of Azerbaijani gas for Southeast and Central Europe by using the well-developed Bulgarian gas infrastructure and the Balkan regional gas hub project currently under realization. In this respect, I believe there are still many opportunities for sustainable energy cooperation between Bulgaria and Azerbaijan.

Q.: How do you assess the prospects for SOCARs entering Bulgarias energy market? What about SOCARs participation in Chiren project?

A.: The possibility for the state-owned SOCAR to invest in household gas supply in Bulgaria was one of the topics discussed in the recent visit of Prime Minister Borissov and the government delegation to Baku. As we know SOCAR has implemented a similar project in Georgia and its entry on the Bulgarian household gas supply market would benefit consumers: the increase of competition reduces prices and improves quality. One option is Azerbaijani gas to be included in energy aids as an alternative to heating vouchers. This perspective will be analyzed in detail in order to clarify the exact parameters.

Regarding the underground gas storage Chiren, the future for cooperation under the project for the storage expansion is regulated in the memorandum signed last year between the two companies  Bulgartransgas and SOCAR. The possible involvement of SOCAR in the project would be another opportunity for our country to enhance its cooperation with Azerbaijan.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_ZeynBaku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:

Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR estimates the total spending required to complete the Southern Gas Corridor project at $2.7 billion, Fitch Ratings said in a message on Feb. 15.

Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) CJSC, a joint venture between SOCAR and Azerbaijans Economy Ministry, continues the key gas projects in the country, including the development of the Shah Deniz gas and condensate field, the expansion of the South Caucasus Pipeline, and the construction of Trans-Anatolian and Trans Adriatic gas pipelines (TANAP and TAP), according to the message.

SOCAR expects its share of overall funding to come below its 49 percent stake owing to financing raised by SGC internally (bonds issued to the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan, SOFAZ) and externally, said the message.

ACG Extension Positive: In September 2017, the Azerbaijan government, SOCAR and international oil companies signed a contract to extend the production-sharing agreement (PSA) for the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field until 2049.

ACG is the main oil field in Azerbaijan, accounting for 76 percent of total Azeri oil output in 2016.

Fitch Ratings has affirmed State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic's (SOCAR) Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'BB+', Short-Term IDR at 'B' and senior unsecured rating at 'BB+'. All ratings have been removed from Rating Watch Negative (RWN). The Outlook is Stable. SOCAR's rating is aligned with the rating of Azerbaijan (BB+/Stable).Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

A number of important decisions were made during the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) Advisory Council in Baku, Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said.

He was speaking at a press conference following the meeting in Baku on Feb. 15.

The minister said the meeting participants discussed issues related to implementation of the SGC project over the past year and the work to be carried out this year, and a number of important decisions were made.

Shahbazov said all the components of the SGC project were separately discussed in details by the meeting participants.

Implementation of all the components of the SGC project is at the satisfactory level and is carried out in line with the schedule according to which Azerbaijani gas will be supplied to Turkey in mid-2018 and to Europe in 2020, he noted. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev also took part in the meeting and gave a number of instructions and advice on the projects further implementation.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority projects for the EU and provides for the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.

At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.

As part of the Shah Deniz Stage 2, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

The EU is ready to discuss the possibility of connecting Iran to the Southern Gas Corridor, European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic said at a press conference in Baku Feb. 15 following the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council.

This will also depend on Iran's strategy, as presently the country mainly focuses on increasing oil export, he said.

Expression of interest by different countries to the Southern Gas Corridor once again testifies to its importance as a strategic infrastructure, he said.

Thanks to the project Europe will have access to a region rich in energy resources, Sefcovic said, adding the European side is ready to discuss all further opportunities related to the Southern Gas Corridor.

The issue has been several times discussed with Irans representatives, he added.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority projects for the EU and provides for the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.

At an initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.

As part of the Shah Deniz Stage 2, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).Details added (first version posted on 17:46)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

The EU continues to seek ways to connect Turkmenistan to the Southern Gas Corridor project, European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic said.

Sefcovic made the remarks at a press conference in Baku Feb. 15 following the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council.

European side maintains regular contacts and holds meetings with the Turkmen side in connection with the implementation of the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline Project, through which it will be possible to supply Turkmen gas to Europe, he said.

Reminding that a few years ago the EU received a mandate to hold talks with Turkmenistan on the issue, Sefcovic said Turkmenistan expressed interest in joining the Southern Gas Corridor.

Sefcovic voiced appreciation of Azerbaijans role in studying the ways of connecting Turkmenistan to the Southern Gas Corridor.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority projects for the EU and provides for the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.

At an initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.

As part of the Shah Deniz Stage 2, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).Farewell to visiting sadhus today

Guthi Sansthan and Pashupati Area Development Trust will organise a farewell programme on Thursday for 4,000 sadhus who visited the Pashupatinath temple for the Mahashivaratri festival.Details added (first version posted on 18:02)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

The EU is ready to discuss the possibility of connecting Iran to the Southern Gas Corridor, European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic said at a press conference in Baku Feb. 15 following the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council.

This will also depend on Iran's strategy, as presently the country mainly focuses on increasing oil export, he said.

Expression of interest by different countries to the Southern Gas Corridor once again testifies to its importance as a strategic infrastructure, he said.

Thanks to the project Europe will have access to a region rich in energy resources, Sefcovic said, adding the European side is ready to discuss all further opportunities related to the Southern Gas Corridor.

The issue has been several times discussed with Irans representatives, he added.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority projects for the EU and provides for the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.

At an initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.

As part of the Shah Deniz Stage 2, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).Details added (first version posted on 18:49)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

By Anvar Mammadov  Trend:

Standard & Poor's does not anticipate new electricity tariff revisions, at least in the next two years, according to the updated rating of Azerenerji JSC (Azerbaijani energy operator), published on the S&P website.

Since December 2016, the Tariff Council has increased Azerenerji's tariffs by about 33 percent in order to compensate for the increase in prices of gas and fuel oil, S&P said. We do not anticipate new tariff revisions, at least in the next two years, given the economic and social sensitivity of such moves.

S&P Global Ratings today affirmed its 'BB/B' long- and short-term issuer credit ratings on Azerbaijan-based electricity utility Azerenerji. The outlook remains negative.

S&P analysts think that Azerenerji plays a critical role for the government as the sole transmission system operator and the state's largest electric utility.

The affirmation reflects our view that the likelihood that Azerenerji will receive government support, if needed, continues to be almost certain, S&P said. At the same time, we see high uncertainty about the funding of Azerenerji's enlarged investment program, sustainability of cash collection from distribution grids operator Azerishiq, and general government's tolerance to relatively high debt at Azerenerji. Any indications of weakening ongoing and extraordinary government support could make us reassess the uplift we currently incorporate in our rating on Azerenerji and potentially lead to a multi-notch downgrade.

We observe the government so far has been able and willing to cover Azerenerji's liquidity shortages, including the maturing debt and interest payments, S&P said. Under our base case, we expect this to continue. The government guarantees most of the company's debt as of the end of 2017 and, in line with the Cabinet of Ministers' decision, will provide equity injections to

Azerenerji to support repayments of foreign currency loans over 2018-2025.

We believe that the Ministry of Finance closely monitors Azerenerji's debt payments and that Azerenerji, similar to other government-related entities (GREs) in the country, cannot incur any new borrowings without the government's approval, S&P said.

Still, we continue to see uncertainty about the government's commitment to the company in the longer term, S&P said. Although the government provides financial support to cover the company's ongoing debt payments and monitors cash collection, it still tolerates high debt at Azerenerji, and funding of enlarged capex remains uncertain. We don't rule out that eventually the government could reduce monitoring of stand-alone performance and liquidity, if the SACP further improves.

Therefore, we do not equalize the ratings on Azerenerji with those on Azerbaijan (BB+/Stable/B), S&P said. Instead, we continue to apply a one-notch downward adjustment from the sovereign rating to arrive at our issuer credit rating on Azerenerji.

In our base case, we expect the company's structure and current asset composition will remain unchanged in the near term and stand-alone credit quality will remain weak, with a significant debt portfolio and material investment program at least in the next two to three years, S&P said.

We would likely revise our outlook on Azerenerji to stable if we observed substantial government steps supporting the company, S&P said. In particular, a stable outlook would require the new capex program to be funded with equity or government-guaranteed debt, continuing government support to cover any liquidity shortages, and sustainable stand-alone performance, with tariffs covering any cost increases and robust cash collection pattern.Details added (first version posted on 17:35)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.15

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Romania has expressed interest in participation in the Southern Gas Corridor project, European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic said.

Sefcovic made the remarks at a press conference in Baku Feb. 15 following the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council.

He said 2018 will be a special period in implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project.

Sefcovic added that Azerbaijani gas will reach Europe in 2020.

SGC is a strategic project that will strengthen Europes energy security, and therefore the EU is supporting the project from the very beginning, Sefcovic said.

He added that the key components of the Southern Gas Corridor were outlined as the projects of the common interest for Europe. Since the very beginning of implementation of the energy strategy, the EU has closely worked with the countries of Southeast Europe and supported the creation of interconnectors to connect those countries to the Southern Gas Corridor.

Sefcovic said from this point of view, the expression of interest by such countries as Bulgaria and Romania to join the project is of great importance.

He said Europe will be stronger than ever thanks to implementation of the project.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority projects for the EU and provides for the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.

At an initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.

As part of the Shah Deniz Stage 2, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).Details added (first version posted on 17:50)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

The US is impressed with the progress in implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) project, Acting Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs of the US Department of State Sue Saarnio said.

She was speaking at a press conference following the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council in Baku on Feb. 15.

We have always been a long-standing supporter of European energy security efforts, she said. Europe's efforts to diversify its energy supply are critical to a strong Europe. Strong Europe is a good partner for the US in combating challenges.

We are really impressed to hear the reports today on the progress on the Southern Gas Corridor and also of the EU interconnector projects, Saarnio added. As a result of that Europe, as a whole, will be more secure and be a strong partner of the US.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority projects for the EU and provides for the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.

At an initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to the project at a later stage.

As part of the Shah Deniz Stage 2, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).On February 14, 2018 the Ministry of Economy invited representatives of relevant state bodies, expert community and international organizations to discuss specific measures for the optimization of services provided at the local level, Kabar with reference to the Embassy of Switzerland in the Kyrgyz Republic reported.

The discussion was based on a draft "Plan of measures for optimization of the system of municipal services provided at the local level for 2018-2023". The elaboration of this plan was supported by the "Public Service Improvement" project, which is financed by the Government of Switzerland through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and implemented by the Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation and the Development Policy Institute.

In recent years various efforts have been made to optimize the system of public service provision in terms of legislative and regulatory improvements, however the area of municipal service provision has been lagging behind. The implementation of the Law of the Kyrgyz Republic "On State and Municipal Services" has revealed some issues making it necessary to revise the existing system of service provision at the local level. As it turns out, local self-governments are actually responsible for delivering different types of services that are not reflected in the existing legal framework.

The elaboration of the Plan and its further implementation are an important step toward improving the quality and accessibility of services provided to people at the local level  said Danielle Meuwly Monteleone, Deputy head of the Embassy of Switzerland in the Kyrgyz Republic.

After receiving feedback from various stakeholders, the Plan will be submitted to the Interagency Commission under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic for optimization of the system of state and municipal service provision for further actions for its implementation.Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Feb. 15

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Preparations are underway in Turkmenistan for the election of members of parliament, as well as local authorities to be held March 25, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a message Feb. 15.

Registration of candidates, which will last until Feb. 27, continues. Upon its completion, the lists of candidates will be published in the press, and the pre-election campaign will begin.

In all constituencies, several candidates are nominated for one seat, and this fully corresponds to the principles of alternativeness of the election, the message said. The participation of international and national observers in the election will contribute to its openness and objectivity.

A total of 2,963 observers were registered from the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the Agrarian Party, public organizations and associations, as well as groups of citizens of the country.

Representatives of the CIS, the UN, the OSCE, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) stated that their representatives will participate as observers in the election.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 13

By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:

An Iranian envoy has voiced his countrys interest in booming bilateral trade with Pakistan by 70 percent.

Irans Consul General in the Pakistani city of Quetta, Mohammad Rafiei, has called for bringing the level of bilateral trade to $5 billion, IRNA news agency reported.

According to the official, the current figure of trade between Iran and Pakistan stands at $1.5 billion.

The trade turnover between the two countries in the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (starting March 20) increased by 49 percent.

Iran exported worth of $634 million of goods to Pakistan in the mentioned period and Pakistan exported $348 worth of goods.

The value of exports from Iran to Pakistan in the nine-month period increased by seven percent and the value of Irans imports from Pakistan increased by 42 percent.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

By Gazenfer Hamidov  Trend:

A Mineral raw material stood at the top of Irans non-oil export list to China, according to the data released by the Asian countrys customs administration.

The Islamic Republic exported $1,373.2 million worth of iron ore to China in 2017.

Irans iron ore exports to China registered a huge rise by 68.3 percent, year-on-year. Iran was Chinas fifth iron ore supplier after Australia, Brazil, South Africa and India.

The countrys overall iron ore imports accounted to $75,959.9 million in January-December 2017, 34 percent more compared to the 12-month period of 2016.

Irans iron ore exports also registered the highest growth among the minerals top five suppliers to China.

Top iron ore suppliers to China in 2017

Country Value 2017 ( million USD) Value 2016 ( million USD) Change % Australia 46,190 34,970 32 Brazil 17,226 12,435 39 S. Africa 3,503 2,734 28 India 1,751 844 107 Iran 1,373 816 68

Trade turnover between Iran and China stood at $37.18 billion in 2017, 19 percent more year-on-year.

China's exports to Iran in the 12-month period amounted to $18.599 billion, 13.3 percent more year-on-year. The country also imported $18.579 billion worth of goods from Iran in the 12-month period, 25.3 percent more compared to 2016.

China mainly imports crude oil from Iran, which has witnessed price rise in recent months.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

By Gazenfer Hamidov  Trend:

The recent statistics released by the Chinese Customs Administration indicate that the country has almost doubled its auto sector exports to Iran.

China exported $2,179.2 million worth of cars and chassis to Iran in January-December 2017, according to the administrations data.

The value is 61 percent more compared to $1,354.8 billion worth of motor vehicles and chassis exports to Iran in 2016.

China exported $231.2 million worth of motor vehicles and chassis to Iran in December 2017, 52 percent more year-on-year.

Chinas Motor vehicles and chassis export to Iran in 2017

Period Value (million USD) -2016 Value (million USD) -2017 Y/Y increase % Jan-Dec. 1,354.85 2,179.,18 61 Jan-Nov. 1,202.64 1,947.99 62 Jan-Oct. 1,041.18 1,775.82 71 Jan-Sep. 880.23 1,535.12 74 Jan-Aug 741.033 1,400.228 89 Jan-July 586.445 1,225.388 109 Jan-June 463.193 1,033.585 123 Jan-May 371.365 840.981 127 Jan-April 267.622 670.019 150 Jan-March 184.916 484.622 162 Jan-Feb 117.724 319.955 172 Jan 43.301 180.751 317

China, Irans traditional trade partner during the sanctions period, has successfully maintained its dominant share in Irans market even after the removal of the international sanctions, despite primary doubts in Iran about the future of the mutual economic cooperation.

Reviewing the statistics of Chinese Customs Administration unveils that export of motor vehicles and chassis to Iran was continuously in rise since the removal of the sanctions in 2014.

The figure was $490 million in 2013, but increased by 116 percent to over $1 billion in 2014 and continued rise to experience a value of $1.35 billion in 2016.

Chinas Motor vehicles and chassis export to Iran in 2013-2016Iran's president, on Thursday and before leaving Tehran for New Delhi, said that during his stay in India he and his accompanying team will discuss with the Indian officials ways to enhance bilateral relations in an array of fields.

President Hassan Rouhani said that officials of the two countries will examine development of relations in areas like economy, culture, communications and information technology, healthcare, industry and agriculture, IRNA news agency reported Feb. 15.

He also said that one of the top issues expected to be discussed between the two countries, is development of transit cooperation between the two nations.

Development of the Chabahar Port city in southern Iran and connecting India to Afghanistan and Central Asia is of great importance to India based on the agreement signed by the presidents of Iran, India and Afghanistan regarding the issue, President Rouhani said.

Rouhani heading a politico-economic delegation departed Tehran for New Delhi on Thursday upon the invitation of the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.

'Recently, the developed phase of Shahid Beheshti Port in Chabahar was opened in presence of officials from 17 countries,' he said, adding that the capacity of the port will be raised to 8.5 million tons in the next phases.

'Iran and India also share concerns, including terrorism, as both are members of The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM),' the president added.

'The two countries are on the same positive, right track,' Rouhani said, expressing hope that his visit to India will serve as complementary to the visit to Iran by Prime Minister Modi in May 2016.

Several high-ranking Iranian officials including Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zanganeh, Minister of Road and Urban Development Abbas Akhundi, Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade Mohammad Shariatmadari and Chief of staff of Iran's President Mahmoud Vaezi are accompanying President Rouhani during his three-day visit to India.Lawyers slam Parajulis call for JC meeting

Legal professionals and students on Wednesday staged a protest against the summoning of Judicial Council (JC) meeting by Chief Justice Gopal Prasad Parajuli to appoint judges in various levels.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

By Azer Ahmadbayli  Trend:

It seems the Eastern Mediterranean is becoming the area of Russias keen interest. In addition to the Syrian Tartus naval base controlled by Russia, on Feb. 3, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev issued an order for the Ministry of Defense to sign military cooperation agreement with Lebanon, entailing, among other things, access of Russian warships and military aircraft to Lebanese ports and military airfields, military exercises, training of Lebanese army staff etc.

The second noticeable move Russia has planned in the Eastern Mediterranean is the establishment of Russian oil and gas industrial zone in Egypt. It is assumed that the zone will be located in Eastern Port Said, at the entrance of Suez Canal. The establishment of the zone, reportedly, will take about $6.9 billion.

Currently, the draft agreement on the establishment of the Suez industrial zone has already been agreed upon. The document can be signed in March in Moscow within the meeting of the joint Russian-Egyptian Commission on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation.

Why has Russia decided to increase its visibility in this part of the Middle East?

Geopolitics

Historically, the Middle East has been one of the most important regions of the world for a number of reasons (the emergence of civilizations, the emergence of world religions, the richest deposits of hydrocarbons, key trade crossroads etc.). Numerous wars to take control over the region, from Crusades to the WW2, underline its importance.

Russia is keen to loudly declare its status as the new old world superpower, whose presence in the Middle East will have a decisive influence on the further alignment of interests of all the parties involved.

Russia fills niches where there is no American influence or it is insignificant, offering its projects, technologies and armament; otherwise the political architecture of the Middle East will be rebuilt according to the American scenario. A landmark element of this new Middle East architecture has been the recognition by the United States of Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel  a fact that forced Russia to act faster.

Energy

Energy issues play key role with regard to Russia's national interests. Abundant occurrences of hydrocarbons discovered in recent years in the Eastern Mediterranean - in territorial waters of Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and Cyprus  are the potential and closer sources of exports to Europe, that is, competitors of Russia, which has to drag its own oil for thousands of kilometers from Siberia to Europe. Better to manage hydrocarbon flows from the Eastern Mediterranean.

Military

It seems Russia intends to become a new peacemaker in the region and has entered the competition with the US on this.

Tons of killing metal are directed from South Lebanon towards Israel targeting its cities. The latter, most likely, is not going to tolerate this. It will be miracle if the war doesnt break out.

Russia is likely keen to build its own political architecture in the region and can no longer leave Syria. Syria can become either a valuable asset or a heavy burden for Moscow. Military actions, if commenced between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah, will likely affect and involve Syria.

Russia wants nothing less than chaos in Syria, because only lasting peace in this country can ensure the implementation of the Russian regional vision.

So, the Russian military presence in Lebanon translates as control and risk management, and it is some kind of constraint on the unleashing of war.The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is launching a new three-year energy program in Georgia to support the development of energy market in the country, Agenda reports.

The $7.5 million energy program aims to contribute to the development of commercial electricity opportunities in Georgia; to optimise energy-related investments; help the country integrate with the renewable energy network and provide strategic consultation assistance to the Government of Georgia in terms of increasing energy security.

USAID presented the new energy program in Georgia.

Georgias Economy Minister Dimitry Kumsishvili, who attended the program presentation ceremony, positively assessed the importance of the newly launched energy program.

He said that the program would significantly help Georgia to improve its energy market and attract more investments in this field.The UK formally accused the Russian military of orchestrating and launching the NotPetya ransomware outbreak, media reports.

"The UK Government judges that the Russian Government, specifically the Russian military, was responsible for the destructive NotPetya cyber-attack of June 2017," said Foreign Office Minister Lord Ahmad in a statement.

"The attack showed a continued disregard for Ukrainian sovereignty. Its reckless release disrupted organisations across Europe costing hundreds of millions of pounds," Lord Ahmad added.

"The Kremlin has positioned Russia in direct opposition to the West yet it doesnt have to be that way," Lord Ahmad also said. "We call upon Russia to be the responsible member of the international community it claims to be rather then secretly trying to undermine it."China has reported the first human case of the H7N4 strain of bird flu in a woman in an eastern coastal province, though she has since recovered, Reuters reports.

The winter is traditionally the high season for bird flu infections.

In a statement late on Wednesday, the Hong Kong governments Centre for Health Protection said it had informed of the case by mainland Chinas health ministry, the National Health and Family Planning Commission.Washington hopes to cooperate with Ankara to minimize threats against Turkey and continue the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Feb. 14, Turkish media outlets reported.

We hope to have talks about how we can work cooperatively to lessen those threats to Turkey but ultimately achieve the objective in Syria, Tillerson said at a joint press conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Amman, Jordan.

Ankara is an important NATO ally and partner in the region, added Tillerson, who acknowledged that Turkey faces threats from within its border as well as from areas in Iraq and Syria.

He also noted Washington and Ankara are committed to the same outcomes in Syria, including the defeat of ISIL, the de-escalation of violence there, and moving the Geneva peace talks forward.

The U.N.-backed international peace conference is aimed at ending the Syrian civil war by bringing together the Syrian government and opposition groups to discuss steps toward a transitional government.

I think what will benefit Turkey the most will be a successful peace process in Geneva that stabilizes all of Syria, Tillerson said.

Just a day earlier in Kuwait, Tillerson struck a different tone when he said Turkeys military operation to remove terror groups in Afrin is hampering the U.S.-led coalitions efforts to maintain the focus on the fight against ISIL in Syria.

Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch on Jan. 20 to clear YPG militants from Afrin in northwestern Syria.

Tillerson starts his two-day visit to Ankara on Feb. 15, as the two NATO allies seek ways to ease disagreements, particularly over Syria policies.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15

NATO doesn't object to Turkey's Olive Branch military operation in Syrian Afrin, Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Janikli said on Feb 15. according to Turkish media.

"NATO General Secretary has always been one of the most supportive towards our struggle against external threats, for what I thank him. There is no negative attitude towards the Olive Branch operation from his side. NATO member countries generally show understanding towards our actions in Afrin. NATO doesn't demand us to finish the operation," Janikli said.

He noted, that NATO only calls Turkey not to use force inadequate to the threats.

Janikli is currently in Brussels where he participated in Meetings of NATO Ministers of Defence and met with NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg.

On Jan. 20, the Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Free Syrian Army, launched the Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, Syria.

Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced that about 8,00010,000 PYD/YPG terrorists are supposed to be hiding in Afrin, Syria.

Turkey began drawing its military to the Syrian border from the late June, 2017. The forces were being concentrated in Turkish Kilis province bordering Syrian territory controlled by YPG/PYD.

On Aug. 24, 2016, Turkish Armed Forces, with the support of the Syrian opposition, launched the Euphrates Shield operation against the IS militants and liberated the city of Jarabulus as well as the city of Al-Bab in northern Syria.Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed on Thursday to improve strained ties between the two countries following months-long tensions between Ankara and Berlin, according to Anadolu.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Merkel in Berlin, Yildirim called for an intensified dialogue and stronger solidarity in the fight against terrorism.

The PKK is a terrorist organization. The PYD/YPG is a terrorist organization.

In fact, the YPG is the PYD/PKKs Syrian offshoot. This is also confirmed by British and American intelligence.

Whatever their names are, their main purpose is to violate peace in the region and create new troublesome fields, he said, adding that Turkey wants to see its allies support.

The premier also said the decisiveness shown by the West in its fight against Daesh should also be displayed in the battle against the PYD/PKK and YPG terrorist organizations.

The German chancellor welcomed Turkish premier's first visit to Berlin and backed the need for dialogue to improve ties.

I believe that this visit is a signal, showing that both sides have an interest in improving German-Turkish relations, she said.

But she also acknowledged that difficult issues were on the agenda of bilateral relations.

"We must continue our intensive discussions, Merkel added.Seven Turkish soldiers were injured on Thursday during Operation Olive Branch in Syrias northwestern town of Afrin, according to a Turkish General Staff statement, Anadolu reported.

The statement said the soldiers were injured in two different clashes.

The military also wished a speedy recovery to the wounded soldiers.

On Jan. 20, Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch to remove PYD/PKK and Daesh terrorists from Afrin.Dupa inscrierea pe site-ul HotNews.ro, poti deschide sectiunea MyHotNews ca sa completezi sau sa schimbi profilul de utilizator.

Atentie! Logarea pe site se face cu adresa de email, nu cu nickname-ul. Adresa ta de email va ramane confidentiala si nu va fi niciodata data unor terte persoane sau institutii.

Inainte de a te inscrie pe site te rugam sa parcurgi termenii si conditiile atasate unui cont HotNews.ro.Chandan Kumar Mandal is the environment and migration reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering labour migration and governance, as well as climate change, natural disasters, and wildlife.NFC misses procurement target due to low prices

Various branches of Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) have not been able to fulfil their paddy procurement quota as its prices are lower than those offered by private traders, and farmers are not keen to sell their harvests to the state-owned company.Oli lays claim for premiership before President

CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli has laid his claim for the post of prime minister.KYODO NEWS - Feb 15, 2018 - 13:56 | Sports, All, News

Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot of Germany came from behind to win the gold medal in the pairs figure skating competition at the Pyeongchang Winter Games on Thursday.

Savchenko and Massot started the day in fourth place after the short program, but the world silver medalists fell to the ice hugging after an enthralling free skate worth 159.31 points saw them snatch the gold with 235.90.

"I was positive after yesterday. I said to Bruno, we will write history today. And then everything happened as I had imagined it and it came true," said Savchenko, referencing the pair's world record free skate score.

"It is my moment. We celebrated the New Year together and we said 2018 will be our year and it became our year."

The gold medalists were the first from their country to win the pairs event in 66 years, adding to their momentous day.

"It was hard for me yesterday, but Aljona was there for me. She said, 'It is not finished. We still have the free program to come.' We did a gold medal program, we broke the record. It is amazing to come from fourth to first, it is incredible," said Massot.

Reigning world champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China were unable to hold their short program lead and took the silver medal in their Olympic debut with 235.47.



"I was quite nervous, this being my first Olympic Games. We really wanted to do well, but simply fell too short in the end. But I hope that this will give us the motivation we need over the next four years to do well again at the Beijing 2022 Games," said Sui, who fought to overcome a training accident that left her with 12 stitches in her left leg.

"It's something we have to manage every day," said Han of his partner's injury. "On a scale of one to 10, the pain is probably at a seven or eight. We've stopped doing some of the harder moves in training and only did simple moves in practice this morning."

Two-time world champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford of Canada won the bronze with 230.15.

Japan's Miu Suzaki and Ryuichi Kihara failed to advance to the 16-pair free skate after finishing second to last in 21st place in the short skate on Wednesday.KYODO NEWS - Feb 18, 2018 - 23:57 | Sports, News, All

Skip Satsuki Fujisawa and the Japanese women's curling team beat South Korea late Thursday to book its second success of the day and keep its unbeaten run at the Pyeongchang Olympics going, while the men's team took its first loss.

After topping Denmark 8-5 early in the day at the Gangneung Curling Centre, the world No. 6 female foursome turned an almost certain loss into a 7-5 win on the back of a home-team blunder.

Japan's men lost 6-5 to reigning Olympic silver medalist Great Britain.

Against South Korea, Japan was headed for its first loss of the games, down 5-4 in the eighth end and facing the home team with the final shot in the ninth.

Some smart tactical play in the penultimate end saw Japan place two stones button-high, either side of the target, but all South Korean skip Kim Eun Jung had to do was draw dead with the final stone to take a two-shot lead.

Unfortunately for the home team, Kim picked the gap, but overshot, turning Japan's one-shot deficit into a one-shot lead. And with the game's final throw, Kim just missed a tough shot that would have brought the South Koreans victory.

"Trailing by two, I thought it would come down to the final end," Fujisawa said. "It's good that we could come from behind in the ninth end."

"Although it turned out to be a very tough match, what got us a win was consciously executing the fundamentals, including reading the ice."

Earlier, ninth-ranked Denmark stole a go-ahead point in the sixth end but Fujisawa played a draw-shot for three points to regain the lead in the seventh and another two in the eighth to ensure the easy win and send Denmark to its second consecutive loss.

In men's action on Thursday, Japan's team was looking to emulate the women by staying unbeaten.

Taking on Great Britain, the Yusuke Morozumi-skipped Japanese quartet got off to a poor start, dropping a shot on the first end despite starting with the hammer. After stealing back in the second, Japan saw their opponents build a two-shot buffer over the next four ends.

Japan evened the match at 4-4 in the seventh and limited the damage to just one when Great Britain had the hammer in the eighth.

But after failing to draw a second shot with the last stone in the ninth end, Japan could only tie it up, giving Great Britain the chance to claim the 6-5 win with the last stone in the 10th, which skip Kyle Smith did.Description

CRITICAL BREAKS supports artists who are in the pivotal phases of developing their work in theater and performance, as an incubation and innovation space.

What happens when a Dominican boy in Queenswith an imagination far beyond his shell, who won't go anywhere without his nerf gun and is obsessed with James Bondfinds out that the real James Bond was Dominican? Que, Que? Yeah!

The Real James Bond Was Dominican is a true story, not the one you've read in books and seen in the movies, about Porfirio Rubirosa, Ian Fleming's inspiration for Bond and how this discovery set off a whole tragi-comic journey for a young, Dominican actor-to-be.

The Real James Bond Was Dominican is a young man's guide to love, sex, color, code-switching, white-washing, success, fake-it-till-you-make-it, and the roller coaster of finding one's true self.

This presentation is a part of the CRITICAL BREAKS Residency Series.

Sub-Categories: Attractions | Other.

Artists / Speakers: Written and Performed by Christopher Rivas Directed by Daniel Banks.Workforce

Feds protest Trump's workforce plans

J. David Cox, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, addresses a Feb. 14, 2017 rally. (Photo courtesy: AFGE)

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs voted Feb. 14 to advance President Donald Trump's nominations for Office of Personnel Management director, Jeff Pon, and for deputy director, Michael Rigas. The nominees, who both appeared before the committee last October, now await full Senate confirmation.

Outside the Capitol, meanwhile, federal employees voiced their grievances with the administration and Congress's stances towards the workforce.

Brandishing signs that read, "proud union member," "we make America happen and we vote," and "keep your tiny hands off our pay and retirement," members of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, rallied on Capitol Hill Feb. 14 to support pay raises for federal employees  and to protest the administration's proposed workforce cuts, civilian pay freeze in fiscal year 2019 and call for expanded firing authorities.

"I don't think [Trump] loves as at all," AFGE National President J. David Cox said onstage.

Members of Congress -- Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Reps. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), plus House and Senate Minority Leaders Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) -- donned AFGE embroidered scarves and beanies and made on-stage speaking appearances in support of federal employees.

Rank-and-file feds raised specific concerns facing their agencies that are impacting their missions, as well as concerns about administration plans to change civil service rules.

Jim Rihel, a Department of Veterans Affairs employee and union representative from Pennsylvania, said he was in attendance to support pay raises for employees and to "stop the [VA Accountability Act] from spreading throughout the entire federation," as Trump called for in his State of the Union.

"It's a good talking point, but it's not being done right," he said. "We're not against accountability by any means, but [the law] wound up giving the same people who were supposed to be held accountable more power over employees."

Travis Riggs, a local union chapter president and VA employee from Idaho, said the impact of the expanded firing authorities have led to excessive penalties for lower-level VA employees, while not holding management officials accountable enough.

"Congress has us on a race to the bottom of the barrel as far as who we're able to recruit and retain," he said, adding the law "has had the absolute opposite effect that Congress intended."

Colleen Allen-Roig, another VA employee and Army veteran from Maine, said while she was opposed to the on-stage negativity directed at Trump and lawmakers, she wanted to make sure VA facilities are able to fill their staffing needs.

"I don't want it to degrade our message," she said, adding it was more important to focus on "taking care of the people doing the work. Not giving them more than they deserve  just to allow them to continue doing the work."

Howard Egerman, who served in the Navy before joining a California office of the Social Security Administration, said his "major concern" was proposals that could affect his agency's ability to attract and retain young talent.

"When people retire, they're not replaced," he said. "What has been happening at Social Security is they've been gutting our agency."

As a result, delivery of service has slowed, he said. "The waiting room is crowded And it's been worse in the last year, year-and-a-half."

Sharon Boyde, a long-time Environmental Protection Agency worker based out of Washington, D.C., said the steep budget cuts and exodus of employees have put EPA "under attack" and threaten to "destroy our agency."

"I have 37 years at EPA, and for the first time  I'm hearing management say they no longer know what our priorities are," she said.Cybersecurity

Wyden grills FBI chief on encryption

Oregon Democrat Sen. Ron Wyden on election night 2016. (Photo credit: Diego G. Diaz/Shutterstock.com)

At a Feb. 13 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) confronted FBI Director Christopher Wray over calls from the bureau and the Department of Justice to give law enforcement greater access to locked and encrypted devices.

"I don't pretend to be an expert on [cryptography], but I think there is a clear consensus among experts in the field against your position to weaken strong encryption," Wyden said.

Wray told Wyden he didn't support "weaker encryption" but rather that tech companies and law enforcement should work together address the problem.

After the hearing, Wyden released a letter signed by four cryptography experts -- Bruce Schneier, Martin Hellman, Steven Bellovin and Paul Kocher -- backing the claim that "responsible encryption" as described by Wray and other officials is essentially impossible. They want the FBI to provide more technical details to support its request.

"Just because a non-technical person believes such that such a system can be developed does not make it so," they wrote.

Wray said in a Jan. 8 speech that he doesn't "buy the claim that it's impossible" to achieve the goal of providing law enforcement access to encrypted communications without weakening user security.

Wyden asked Wray in a Jan. 25 letter for a list of any cryptographers he had consulted with on "this ill-informed policy proposal."

In their letter, the cryptographers suggested that "instead of vague proposals that sound reasonable yet lack details, the FBI needs to present the cryptographic research community with a detailed description of the technology that it would like implemented" so experts can examine the tradeoffs in an open and transparent way.

A Wyden spokesperson told FCW a day after the hearing that the FBI "has not cited any experts or answered Wyden's question regarding experts that support weakening encryption."General electric undervalued stocks value investing equities US share price

A falling share price may not seem like a positive thing  but for potential investors it is a good signal to buy. While you can almost guarantee you won't time the market perfectly, and probably make a loss before a gain, in the right stock, this act of bravery will be rewarded.

Shares can fall in value for a number of reasons  a set of bad results, contagion, investor sentiment, a board reshuffle, or that the fundamentals are strong but the stock has been misjudged by the market. It is this last situation which is the sweet spot for value investors  spotting diamonds in the rough, which will reward shareholders when the market recognises their worth.

Morningstar equity analysts spend their time working out the true value of the companies under their coverage  an impressive 1,800 plus worldwide. Analysts believe a company's intrinsic worth results from the future cash flows it can generate, they call this the shares fair value estimate. The Morningstar Rating for stocks identifies stocks trading at a discount or premium to their intrinsic value. The rating takes the form of stars  one to five  with one star signifying a company that is trading significantly above its fair value estimate. Three stars signifies the company is fairly valued by the market, and five stars mean it is currently significantly below fair value.

These stocks have recently acquired a five-star status, meaning they have recently seen their share price fall, but over the long term, should rally to their fair value estimate.

General Electric (GE)

The investment thesis for General Electric has swiftly changed from transformative growth to turnaround as the industrial giant embarks upon a multiyear restructuring to drive out excess corporate costs, aggressively manage working capital, and fix its struggling power generation business, says Morningstar equity analyst Keith Schoonmaker.

While analysts initially applauded the bold move to separate GE Capital and retain focus on GEs industrial roots, they believe that overreaching ambition ultimately cost prior CEO Jeff Immelt his job. The flaw, in their opinion, was tackling too much too soon.

Story continues

Managing the complex unwinding of GE Capital while supporting important new product launches in power and aviation, integrating Alstom, and courting Baker Hughes left GE with too many concurrent calls on cash and vulnerable when customer demand began to flag in its important power segment. Cutting the dividend for the second time in a decade is a stark reminder that even great portfolios can suffer under the weight of poor capital allocation.

China Mobile (CHL)

With more than 877 million customers, China Mobile not only dwarfs its Chinese competitors, but also is the world's largest wireless telephone company by far, says analyst Dan Baker. It has more 3G/4G subscribers than its competitors despite being handicapped by the Chinese government, which required it to use the home-grown TD-SCDMA technology standard for 3G mobile.

However, with the industry shift to 4G, the technology playing field is more level, as the strong handset ecosystem development in the first few years of operation of China Mobile's TD LTE network means that the technology gap between its 4G version and its competitors is much smaller than it was for 3G.

Just as PG&E emerged from the long, dark shadow cast over it from the September 2010 San Bruno explosion and subsequent gas pipeline issues, it now faces another round of legal, regulatory, political, and financial uncertainty related to California wildfires, says analyst Travis Miller.

Public and regulatory scrutiny come with being the largest utility in California. Analysts believe shareholders should be prepared to see PG&E in the headlines, both good and bad. Implementation of California's energy initiatives and the projected 2024/25 retirement of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant are other current topics to monitor.

Wildfire liabilities that could top $10 billion would far surpass what they estimated were about $3 billion of net fines, rate credits, and unrecovered investments totalling $6 per share of lost value related to post-San Bruno gas pipeline issues. PG&E's board suspended the dividend in late 2017 and analysts think it could remain suspended until at least late 2018. Worst case, PG&E might not pay out a significant dividend for several years. This comes just one year after shareholders received their first dividend increase in six years, dating back to the San Bruno disaster.

However, shareholders should have faith in the state's mostly constructive regulatory framework that supports earnings and dividend growth. Between PG&E's exit from bankruptcy in 2004 and San Bruno, the company posted sector-leading earnings growth and stock returns by investing to meet the state's energy policy goals.Rai, Raut, Pokharel named CMs

Sherdhan Rai, Mohammad Lalbabu Raut and Shankar Pokharel were appointed as Chief Minister (CM) of Province 1, 2 and 5 respectively on Wednesday. The trio are scheduled to take oath of office on Thursday.Purchasing a phone made by Chinese company Huawei could expose you to having your information stolen or spying, say the chiefs of the major U.S. intelligence agencies.

Credit: Tom's Guide

Credit: Tom's Guide

As reported by CNBC, the heads of the CIA, FBI and NSA, as well as the director of national intelligence, warned against buying Huawei handsets during a meeting with the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"We're deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don't share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks," testified FBI Director Chris Wray.

"To say that this presents a challenge to Huawei's smartphone business in the US would be a massive understatement." - Avi Greengart, GlobalData

"That provides the capacity to exert pressure or control over our telecommunications infrastructure," Wray said. "It provides the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information. And it provides the capacity to conduct undetected espionage."

MORE: Top 10 Galaxy S9 Rumors

In response, Huawei issued the following statement:

"Huawei is aware of a range of U.S. government activities seemingly aimed at inhibiting Huawei's business in the U.S. market. Huawei is trusted by governments and customers in 170 countries worldwide and poses no greater cybersecurity risk than any ICT vendor, sharing as we do common global supply chains and production capabilities."

U.S. lawmakers were already pushing a bill that would ban the government from using Huawei and ZTE phones, citing connections between these companies and the Chinese government, but this is the first time that everyday consumers are being warned.

"U.S. authorities used to make a distinction between telecom infrastructure and consumer devices; that line is now deliberately being blurred," said Avi Greengart, research director of consumer platforms and devices at GlobalData. "To say that this presents a challenge to Huawei's smartphone business in the U.S. would be a massive understatement."

Story continues

According to previous reports, both AT&T and Verizon backed away from selling the Mate 10 Pro, a promising flagship phone that we praised in our review for its AI camera features and long battery life.

However, without carrier support, the company has been forced to rely on U.S. retailers such as Best Buy. And this week Huawei got in hot water for reportedly encouraging the publication of fake reviews of its handset through Best Buy, though the firm chalked up the controversy to "confusion around a recent social media post reaching out to recruit new beta testers."



FILE PHOTO: A sign to the campus offices of chip maker Broadcom Ltd, who announced on Monday an unsolicited bid to buy peer Qualcomm Inc for $103 billion, is shown in Irvine, California, U.S., November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

By Greg Roumeliotis

(Reuters) - Broadcom Ltd (AVGO.O) cut the number of board seats it was trying to win at Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) to six from 11 on Tuesday, saying this would let Qualcomm shareholders push the U.S. chip maker toward a sale while ensuring continuity.

The move came following Singapore-based Broadcom's meeting with proxy advisory firm ISS on Monday and concern from some Qualcomm shareholders that replacing the company's entire 11-member board could create uncertainty during the time it would take to complete a combination of the two companies.

The move on board seats comes a day ahead of planned talks between the semiconductor companies to discuss Broadcom's $121 billion cash-and-stock acquisition offer, which will be their first such discussion.

Broadcom said the change would let Qualcomm stockholders direct a simple majority of the board to negotiate a deal while also ensuring that the remaining five directors who are familiar with the company continue to oversee it.

Broadcom's six nominees are Samih Elhage, David Golden, Veronica Hagen, Julie Hill, John Kispert and Harry You. The company said it would withdraw its offer if it was not accepted by Qualcomm's executives or unless its six nominees were elected at Qualcomm's shareholder meeting scheduled for March 6.

Qualcomm offered no comment.

The takeover battle is at the heart of a race to consolidate the wireless technology equipment sector, as smartphone makers such as Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd use their market dominance to negotiate down chip prices.

Broadcom is mainly a manufacturer whose connectivity chips are used in products ranging from mobile phones to servers. San Diego-based Qualcomm primarily licenses its technology for the delivery of broadband and data, a business that would significantly benefit from the rollout of 5G wireless technology.

The difference in their business models has led to Qualcomm raising concerns that its licensing agreements with customers could be upended should a deal with Broadcom be announced.

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It has warned that regulators could take more than 18 months to approve the deal, and may never do so. Broadcom has countered it believes it can complete the deal in 12 months.

Qualcomm has been a supplier of components to Apple for years, but the relationship soured last year when Apple accused Qualcomm of overcharging for chips and refused to pay some $1 billion in promised rebates. Apple and Qualcomm are now locked in a bitter legal dispute.

Broadcom raised its cash-and-stock offer last week to $82 per share from $70, and made other concessions. They include offering to pay Qualcomm an $8 billion breakup fee should antitrust regulators block the deal.

Qualcomm rejected the revised offer, as it did the first bid, saying the proposal undervalued the company and fell well short of commitments on regulatory issues.

(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Additional reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal and Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza, Bernard Orr and Ian Simpson)Chinese intelligence operatives are littered across U.S. universities, possibly to obtain information in fields like technology. Schools have little understanding of this major predicament, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday.

Speaking before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Wray warned about possible operatives at the nations highest learning centers who occupy various positions like professors, scientists, [and] students, according to McClatchy DC. The vast network of Chinese operatives, Wray said, requires participation from each of the FBIs field offices around the country.

Wray said the FBI is also monitoring academies within universities that are sponsored by the Chinese government. Though, he said, such institutions seem unaware of who could be spying on their campuses.

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I think the level of naivete on the part of the academic sector about this creates its own issues, Wray said. Theyre exploiting the very open research and development environment that we have, which we all revere. But theyre taking advantage of it.

GettyImages-917811148

Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla

Across the country, there are reportedly some 350,000 Chinese students enrolled at American universities, or 35 percent of the one million foreign students in the country, according to McClatchy.

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Wray stated the U.S. innovative culture was one reason for why China was trying to penetrate the countrys top schools.

Because America is the land of innovation, theres a lot of very exciting stuff thats happening in terms of smaller start-up companies, Wray said.

Story continues

He added that a certain unfamiliarity with Chinas attempts has left universities open to such counterintelligence work, but that educating the educators could prove useful.

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I think the private sector is not used to spotting [this]. And so a lot of it is trying to educate them about what to be on the lookout for, he said.

Wray sat before the committee along with other top members of the U.S. intelligence community, including Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

The panel also explained how Russia was already actively meddling in the 2018 midterm elections much like it did in 2016.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweekchina huaiwei smartphone fbi cia

The head of the FBI has warned that the Chinese government may be spying on U.S. citizens who use smartphones made by Huawei.

The intelligence chief told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday that American telecom companies should be cautious of Chinese technology companies that have links with foreign governments.

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Were deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that dont share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks, said FBI Director Chris Wray.

That provides the capacity to exert pressure or control over our telecommunications infrastructure. It provides the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information. And it provides the capacity to conduct undetected espionage.

Wrays comments follow a 2015 report from the bureau that described the perceived threat posed by Huawei due to its opaque relationship with the Chinese government.

Since Huaweis inception in 1987, the company continues to receive open support from senior Chinese Communist Party officials and Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Commanders, the report stated.

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With over $100 billion in Chinese Government subsization and direct financing, Huawei is able to offer unsuspecting U.S. businesses low-cost offers difficult to refuse in exchange for access to U.S. networks.

Huawei denied that its devices were at any greater risk to hacking or spies than that of its competitors.

Huawei is aware of a range of U.S. government activities seemingly aimed at inhibiting Huaweis business in the U.S. market, the firm said in a statement.

Huawei is trusted by governments and customers in 170 countries worldwide and poses no greater cybersecurity risk than any ICT vendor, sharing as we do common global supply chains and production capabilities.

Story continues

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During the hearing, Wray also claimed that Chinese operatives acting as professors, scientists and students have infiltrated American universities.

I think the level of naivete on the part of the academic sector about this creates its own issues, Wray said.

Theyre exploiting the very open research and development environment that we have, which we all revere. But theyre taking advantage of it.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekFILE PHOTO: The logo of Chipotle Mexican Grill is seen at a restaurant in Paris, March 7, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo

By Sangameswaran S

(Reuters) - Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc <CMG.N> shares jumped as much as 16 percent on Wednesday, as analysts called its recruitment of Taco Bell chief executive Brian Niccol a potentially transformational moment after two years of brand-crushing food-safety scandals.

However, they cautioned that Niccol - the man behind "Doritos Locos Tacos" and a savvy marketer who could transform Chipotle's menu - would need at least a year to make an impact as chief executive.

Some underlined the stark differences in Taco Bell and Chipotle's business models and the scale of the burrito chain's problems in two years that saw its stock sink nearly 50 percent.

Of 37 analysts who cover the stock there were no changes in ratings on the news. The company has a median price target of $300, 2.8 percent above Wednesday's high of $291.72.

But after another round of results last week that offered few major new ideas on how to turn around Chipotle's battered public reputation, they said Niccol's appointment was at least a step in the right direction.

Niccol checks all the boxes for the skill set Chipotle needs, including operational expertise, turnaround experience, brand management knowledge and credibility with investors, several analysts said.

"We're hard-pressed to find a better fit for Chipotle's CEO position than Brian Niccol," Morningstar analyst R.J. Hottovy said in a note.

At Taco Bell, Niccol has largely been credited for mastering mobile ordering and introducing food options such as Doritos tacos and Nacho Fries, which were a big hit among customers.

BTIG analyst Peter Saleh said he expected the new CEO would lean on his past success driving sales at Taco Bell by introducing breakfast, limited-time-offers and compelling marketing to help improve trends at the company.

But Saleh stuck to his neutral rating for the company.

"Niccol was critical to Taco Bell's turnaround, but we note CMG is starting in a position of far greater weakness," Cowen analyst Andrew Charles said.

"Further, we note Mr. Niccol has less experience with cost management, given Taco Bell is a primarily franchised brand compared to Chipotle's 100 percent company-operated model," Charles said.

(Reporting by Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)FILE PHOTO: The logo of Chipotle Mexican Grill is seen at a restaurant in Paris, March 7, 2016. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo

By Lisa Baertlein and Vibhuti Sharma

(Reuters) - Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc (CMG.N) has hired Brian Niccol, known for bringing "Doritos Locos Tacos" and mobile ordering to Taco Bell, as its next chief executive to turnaround the once red-hot burrito chain that has been battered by food safety lapses.

Shares of Denver, Colorado-based Chipotle were up 11.8 percent at $281.03 in extended trading, still less than half their $742 high set in 2015, before sales-crushing E.coli, Salmonella and norovirus outbreaks sickened hundreds of U.S. customers.

Niccol, 43 and head of Yum Brand's Taco Bell since 2015, on March 5 will replace Chipotle founder Steve Ells, who built the chain on the idea that food could be both healthy and fast but failed to nail the operational prowess needed to guide it through several health scares.

While Chipotle excelled by promoting organic produce and antibiotic-free meat to distance itself from fast food, Niccol used feisty marketing and unusual food creations, such as the Doritos tacos and Nacho Fries, to excite customers. He also took aim at Chipotle's customers, starting a higher-end Cantina chain and launching a healthier Cantina menu at Taco Bell.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, said Niccol's operational discipline and creativity would be good for Chipotle, but not a guarantee of success.

"Chipotle still hasnt recovered from its health scares and has a lot of work to do to rebuild confidence. The menu and concept are tired and customers are less enthusiastic about the brand than they once were. On top of all of this, there is a lot more value-focused competition in the market," he said.

Taco Bell's turnaround began under the leadership of Greg Creed, who is now CEO of the fast-food chain's parent company, Yum Brands, and continued under Niccol, who joined the chain in 2011 as chief marketing and innovation officer, was president from 2013 to 2014 and became its CEO in 2015.

In 18 of the past 20 quarters, Taco Bell has reported growing sales at established U.S. restaurants - better than many of its rivals, including McDonald's Corp (MCD.N) and Chipotle, said Maxim Group analyst Stephen Anderson. It also outpaced Yum chains Pizza Hut and KFC in same-store sales for 2016 and 2017.

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Part of the success is attributed to mastering mobile ordering and launching breakfast, and Niccol in a statement referred to using menu innovations and digital communications at Chipotle.

Still, Chipotle cannot simply repeat the Taco Bell formula with better ingredients. Its assembly line food preparation style prevents it from doing a mix of high- and low-priced offerings that appeal to a broad range of diners, Mizuho restaurant analyst Jeremy Scott said.

It likely could add nachos and new beverages, including margaritas, with minimal disruption, but breakfast would be a heavier lift since workers use the morning hours to prepare food for the day ahead, said Scott, who expects more executive changes at Chipotle and restaurant franchising over time.

Ells said in November he would step aside after failing for two years to rescue the burrito chain's sales and reputation, and he told investors recently he would not get in the way of a new CEO.

"His expertise in digital technologies, restaurant operations and branding make him a perfect fit for Chipotle," Ells said in a statement announcing Niccol's appointment.

Chipotle shares through Tuesday's close had fallen 13 percent in 2018, adding to a 23.4 percent drop last year. That compares with a 22.8 percent gain in the S&P 500 Restaurants sub index (.SPLRCREST ) in 2017.

Despite its problems, Chipotle shares traded recently at a premium to peers: 28.8 times earnings projected over the next 12 months, versus 21.3, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Ells became sole CEO after co-CEO Monty Moran departed in December 2016, under pressure from hedge fund manager William Ackman, whose Pershing Square Capital Management LP is Chipotle's largest investor with a 10 percent stake.

On Tuesday afternoon, Ackman's team cheered the move, describing Niccol as their first choice.

He is the right leader to reinvigorate the company and help it achieve its enormous potential, said Francis McGill, a Pershing Square spokesman.

Ackman has been telling his own investors that Chipotle has enormous potential by innovating its menu and improving customers digital experience.

Last year Chipotle ranked among Ackmans biggest losers and his Pershing Square Holdings fund lost 4 percent, the third straight year of declines.

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles and Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Svea Herbst Bayliss in Boston, Noel Randewich in San Francisco and Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Henderson and Lisa Shumaker)Heads of six U.S. intelligence agencies are warning Americans against using products made by Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei.

In a Senate Intelligence Committee briefing on Tuesday, the heads of the CIA, FBI, and NSA, the director of national intelligence, and others, expressed concern that the devices could be used as conduits for spying.

Read: Verizon Says It Will Fight Criminals By Locking Your Smartphone

FBI Director Chris Wray said that the intelligence community is deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that dont share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks.

It provides the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information. And it provides the capacity to conduct undetected espionage, he continued.

Wray and his intelligence counterparts said they would advise against using Huawei smartphones. U.S. lawmakers seem to be taking such an opinion to heart, with one congressman introducing a bill that would ban the use of Huawei phones for government employees.

Read: Apple Trails Samsung in Smartphone MarketAnd Wont Catch Up in 2018

Huawei was founded by a former engineer in Chinas Peoples Liberation Army, leading Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) to call the company effectively an arm of the Chinese government.

For its part, the manufacturer told CNBC that, Huawei is trusted by governments and customers in 170 countries worldwide and poses no greater cybersecurity risk than any ICT vendor, sharing as we do common global supply chains and production capabilities.Teenage pregnancy rife in Makwanpur

Nirmaya Chepang of Khairang Village in Raksirang Rural Municipality-9, Makwanpur, gave birth to a baby girl at Khairang Health Post last week. She is only 14.In this Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015, file photo, an F-35 jet arrives at its new operational base at Hill Air Force Base, in northern Utah. Airbus and Boeing will again hog the spotlight at the Paris Air Show with their battle for ever-larger slices of the lucrative pie in the sky.

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) will invest more than $50 million at its Orlando, Fla., facility and create hundreds of new jobs.

Governor Rick Scott, R-Fla., announced on Wednesday that the investment would create 500 new positions for American workers, boasting an average salary of $87,064.

Overall, Lockheed said it plans to hire 1,800 new employees over the course of the next two years.

Earlier this month, Lockheed Martin was awarded a $148 million contract to manufacture its F-35 fighter jets, which are produced at the Orlando plant.

Lockheeds investment in its Florida plant comes at a time when businesses are making investment decisions based on recent changes to the U.S. tax code.

Lockheed Martins continued investment in Florida sends a strong message to aerospace and aviation business leaders that Florida is the most business-friendly state in the United States for aerospace and aviation companies, Peter Antonacci, the CEO of Enterprise Florida Inc., said in a statement.

As previously reported by FOX Business, experts believe that the elimination of state and local tax (SALT) deductions may cause businesses to flee higher-tax states such as New York, New Jersey and California.

As of 2017, Florida was listed as one of the top five most-business-friendly states in the U.S., with New York, New Jersey and California listed as the three least business-friendly.

Lockheed Martin employs 100,000 across the globe.

Related ArticlesOpioid abuse has cost the US at least $1 trillion in the 21st century: AFP/Getty Images

The opioid crisis in the United States has cost the economy $1 trillion since 2001, and things do not look like they will get better any time soon.

A new report from Altarum, a nonprofit group that studies the health economy, has found those incredible costs and suggests that the epidemic will cost the US economy an additional $500bn over the next three years as the country sees skyrocketing death rates related to the drugs.

The study finds that the greatest financial costs result from lost earnings due to losses in productivity from young Americans who would otherwise be in their prime working years, but have been hampered by substance abuse disorders, creating a cascading effect that damages local, state, and federal government tax revenues.

Far and away the largest driver is the loss [in the] productivity and earnings category. Thats driven primarily by those passing away prematurely from opioid overdoses, Corey Ryan, a senior analyst at Altarums Center for Value in Health, told The Independent.

Were projecting an acceleration, Mr Ryan continued. I would describe that estimate as a case scenario under current policy and current growth rate.

The report also shows that health care related expenses related to opioids have cost quite a bit of money. Since 2001, medical expenses including emergency room visits, ambulance costs, and the use of the life-saving anti-overdose drug naloxone have cost roughly $215bn, the report finds.

The new report is not the first time the economic costs have been detailed, and not all estimates agree. The White House Council of Economic Advisers has ascribed a much higher cost of the epidemic, for instance, with the cost topping out at $504bn in 2015, up from an estimate of $78.5 billion in 2013. Meanwhile, a recent study conducted by Princeton Universitys Alan Kruger, estimated that 20 per cent of the reduction in male workforce participation is due to opioid misuse.

President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency in October, freeing up some further resources for treatment to combat the epidemic. More recently, the Trump administration is seeking $17bn in federal dollars as a part of the 2019 budget to combat the crisis, including coverage for medication-assisted therapy for opioid use disorders through state Medicaid programmes.

Story continues

We are currently dealing with the worst drug crisis in American history, Mr Trump said in October, before adding, its just been so long in the making. Addressing it will require all of our effort.

We can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic, he continued.

The opioid crisis has been fuelled by what many have described as an over-prescription of the drugs to help manage pain, including chronic pain. A survey of Americans in 2015 determined that nearly two in five had used the drug for pain relief that year, accounting for 92 million US adults.

That prescription rate has resulted from a decades-long effort by prescription drug companies for their products to be given out for pain management. That effort started in the 1990s, when doctors became aware of the burdens of pain, and was fuelled in part by misleading marketing about the safety and efficacy of opioids.

A recent report made public by members of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has found that the pharmaceutical industry has given millions of dollars to third-party advocacy organisations that then engaged in pro-opioid advocacy, including through the release of guidances that minded the risks of opioid use for long-term chronic pain.

The report, commissioned by the top-ranking Democrat on the committee, Sen Claire McCaskill, argued that the pro-opioid advocacy efforts were conducted in spite of growing bodies of evidence suggesting the dangers of the drug.

The pharmaceutical industry spent a generation downplaying the risks of opioid addiction and trying toe expand their customer base for those incredibly dangerous medications, and this report makes clear they made investments in third-party organizations that could further those goals, Ms McCaskill said in a statement accompanying the release of the report. These financial relationships were insidious, lacked transparency, and are one of many factors that have resulted in arguably the most deadly drug epidemic in American history.

In addition to that outside spending  some of which may be obscured because some outside advocacy groups are not required to reveal the source of their donations  the pharmaceutical industry has donated millions of dollars to political candidates, and millions more lobbying the federal government every year.

The industry donated a record $42.7m to candidates  Republican and Democrat  in 2016, and spent $277.8m lobbying the federal government in 2017, according to data from the Centre for Responsive Politics.

Mr Ryan said that the incredible costs to the economy projected by his organisation in the coming years could still be curbed through policy and treatment changes to help stem the rising rate of opioid fatalities the reached 64,000 deaths in 2016.

If the crisis is not addressed, however, the costs could be much higher than his organisations simple economic impact assessments.

If you expand that scope, to the societal costs, and the loss of life, and the implicit value of life the impact on communities and families, in all honesty  the number is much larger than when you look at just the pure economic costs, he said.The logo of Swiss drugmaker Roche is seen at its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland February 1, 2018. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

(Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG (ROG.S) said on Thursday it would buy the rest of U.S. cancer data company Flatiron Health for $1.9 billion to speed development of cancer medicines and support its efforts to price them based on how well they work.

Privately held Flatiron, backed by Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), taps into data on individual cancer cases to help doctors select promising approaches for their patients.

It also stores billing data, doctors' notes and related information. (http://bit.ly/2EL5OKg)

Roche currently owns 12.6 percent of Flatiron.

In 2016, Roche led a $175 million investment into Flatiron, in part to help the Swiss company harness the deluge of still-underutilized data collected from cancer patients with the New York City-based company's products.

Roche has said Flatiron algorithms will improve not only its research and trials, but also buttress its arguments during head-to-head price talks with payers as new combinations of its expensive therapies hit the market. (http://reut.rs/2o9x6iY)

"It gives us better insights into the potential for our products," Roche's head of pricing Jens Grueger told Reuters in a 2016 interview.

"But it also creates flexibility in how we can create value contracts in the future."

Roche has made a number of bolt-on acquisitions in recent months, including in December when it said it would buy U.S. cancer drug specialist Ignyta Inc for $1.7 billion in a deal to broaden its oncology portfolio.

In 2014, Google Ventures led a $130 million investment in Flatiron as healthcare had become a hot area for venture capital, especially companies related to health, data and software. (http://reut.rs/2CnuZxb)

Roche and Flatiron expect the deal to close in the first half of 2018, after which the latter will continue its operations as a separate entity.

Allen & Company LLC is the financial adviser to Flatiron Health and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is its legal counsel. Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP is acting as legal counsel to Roche.

(Reporting by Akankshita Mukhopadhyay in Bengaluru and John Miller in Zurich; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Lisa Shumaker)Wells Fargo & Company CEO and President Tim Sloan testifies before the Senate Banking Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein

(Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co Chief Executive Tim Sloan tried to deliver a message of consistency and stability at an investor event on Tuesday, less than two weeks after the third-largest U.S. bank disclosed another regulatory sanction related to a long-running sales scandal.

Asked whether an asset cap imposed by the U.S. Federal Reserve would have any impact on Wells Fargo's expenses, growth, core businesses, customer retention, employee turnover or capital return plans, Sloan said repeatedly that nothing much had changed.

"We're absolutely open for business," Sloan said at a Credit Suisse industry conference. He has returned to that catch-phrase repeatedly to dampen concerns about fallout from the scandal.

Wells Fargo's problems took root more than a decade ago, when the bank started pushing employees to sell as many products as possible to customers.

That culture became a serious problem for the bank in September 2016, when it reached a settlement with regulators over employees opening fake accounts in customers' names without their permission to hit aggressive sales targets.

Since then, Wells Fargo has discovered other issues with auto loans, mortgages, frozen funds and improperly closed accounts, faced a number of other regulatory probes and litigation.

On Feb. 2, the Fed announced a consent order requiring Wells Fargo to prove that it is making appropriate changes to corporate governance and risk management. Until the requirements are met, Wells cannot grow its balance sheet beyond the $1.95 trillion in assets it had at year end.

Management immediately detailed plans to comply with the order, and said it would not hit profits significantly. Still, the severity of the Fed's action so many months after the scandal erupted, underlined questions about how long it will take for the bank to get past its sales practices woes.

At the event on Tuesday, Credit Suisse analyst Susan Katzke pressed Sloan on whether the Feds action, and broader reputational issues, are affecting business on the ground, or managements outlook for growth and shareholder returns.

Story continues

Sloan reiterated statements he has made about business being stable, employees being happy to work at the bank, and Wells Fargo management being focused on generating better results. Asked to share metrics to back up some of his comments, Sloan jokingly changed topics and began talking about the Olympics.

"There's a lot of different metrics that you look at, but they're all pointing to a slow but steady recovery," he eventually said, without offering any specific numbers. "It's never as fast as I would like, but it's absolutely occurring." Wells Fargo shares were up 0.8 percent at $56.96 in midday trading. Through Monday's close, the stock has lost nearly 14 percent since the Fed placed restrictions on it on Feb 2.

(Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru; Writing by Lauren Tara LaCapra in New York; Editing by Maju Samuel and Shailesh Kuber)There is no excuse

The government has been making a mockery of justice by disregarding court ordersBy Patricia Zengerle and Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. director of national intelligence warned on Tuesday that time was running out for the United States to act on the threat posed by North Korea's nuclear weapons program. North Korea presents "a potentially existential" threat to the United States and is likely to conduct more weapons tests this year, Dan Coats said at the Senate Intelligence Committee's annual hearing on "Worldwide Threats." "Decision time is becoming ever closer in terms of how we respond to this," Coats said. "Our goal is a peaceful settlement. We are using maximum pressure on North Korea in various ways." The warning came despite an easing of tensions on the Korean peninsular after talks resumed between North and South Korea, and as the North participated in the Winter Olympics hosted by the South. While the Trump administration has stressed its preference for a diplomatic solution to the crisis over North Korea's development of nuclear weapons that are capable of hitting the United States, it has warned that all options on are on the table, including military ones, to prevent this. Last month, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said North Korea could be only "a handful of months" away from being able to make a nuclear attack on the United States. Pompeo told Tuesday's hearing that despite the North-South talks, there was "no indication there's any strategic change" in North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's desire to remain a nuclear threat to the United States. Talk of preventative military strikes has eased since the Koreas resumed dialogue last month and Washington has appeared to endorse deeper post-Olympics engagement between the two Koreas that could lead to U.S.-North Korean talks. But it has also stressed the need to ramp up sanctions to force North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. Last year, North Korea conducted dozens of missile launches and its sixth and largest nuclear test, in defiance of U.N. sanctions. However, it has now been more than two months since its last missile test in late November. Coats said North Korea's repeated statements that nuclear weapons were the basis for its survival suggest government leaders there "do not intend to negotiate them away." "In the wake of accelerated missile testing since 2016, North Korea is likely to press ahead with more tests in 2018, and its Foreign Minister said that Kim (Jong Un) may be considering conducting an atmospheric nuclear test over the Pacific Ocean," he said. Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein asked whether U.S. intelligence has looked into what it might take to bring North Korea to the negotiating table, but Pompeo declined to discuss the subject during a public hearing. Feinstein said she had participated in a classified briefing recently on North Korea and described it as "difficult and harsh." (Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Patricia Zengerle and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Andrea Ricci)By Doina Chiacu and Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China is trying to gain access to sensitive U.S. technologies and intellectual properties through telecommunications companies, academia and joint business ventures, U.S. senators and spy chiefs warned on Tuesday at a Senate hearing. Republican Senator Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he worried about the spread in the United States of what he called "counterintelligence and information security risks that come prepackaged with the goods and services of certain overseas vendors." "The focus of my concern today is China, and specifically Chinese telecoms (companies) like Huawei (Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL]) and ZTE Corp, that are widely understood to have extraordinary ties to the Chinese government," Burr said. Chinese firms have come under greater scrutiny in the United States in recent years over fears they may be conduits for spying, something they have consistently denied. A Huawei spokesman said the company is aware of "U.S. government activities seemingly aimed at inhibiting Huawei's business in the U.S. market." He also said the firm is trusted by governments and customers in 170 countries and poses no greater cyber security risk than other vendors. ZTE officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Burr said he worried that foreign commercial investment and acquisitions might jeopardize sensitive technologies and that U.S. academic research and laboratories may be at risk of infiltration by China's spies. Several of the U.S. spy agency chiefs who testified at the committee's annual worldwide threats hearing cited concerns raised by what they called China's "all of society" approach toward gaining access to technology and intellectual property. "The reality is that the Chinese have turned more and more to more creative avenues using non-traditional collectors," said FBI Director Christopher Wray in response to a question about student spies. Senator Mark Warner, the committee's Democratic vice chairman, said he worried about commercialization of surveillance technologies as well as the close relationship between the Chinese government and companies. "Some of these Chinese tech companies may not even have to acquire an American company before they become pervasive in our markets," Warner said. Wray said the United States needed a more "strategic perspective on China's efforts to use acquisitions and other types of business ventures." Under questioning from Republican Senator Tom Cotton, none of the Intelligence officials said they would use a Huawei or ZTE product. Last week, Cotton and Republican Senator Marco Rubio introduced legislation that would block the government from buying or leasing telecoms equipment from Huawei or ZTE, citing concern the companies would use their access to spy on U.S. officials. In 2012, Huawei and ZTE were the subject of a U.S. investigation into whether their equipment provided an opportunity for foreign espionage and threatened critical U.S. infrastructure - something they have consistently denied. "Chinese cyber espionage and cyber attack capabilities will continue to support China's national security and economic priorities," said Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence. Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the United States was the world's most powerful country. "If even the United States thinks it is surrounded by threats, what should other countries do?" Geng told reporters. "I don't know where the United States' sense of insecurity comes from. But I want to emphasize that in this world there is no such thing as absolute security. One country's security can't be put before another country's security." (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Doina Chiacu; Additional reporting by Michael Martina in BEIJING; Editing by Frances Kerry, Rosalba O'Brien, Susan Thomas & Simon Cameron-Moore)File Photo: Flags of U.S. and China are placed for a meeting at the Ministry of Agriculture in Beijing, China June 30, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee/Files

By Doina Chiacu and Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China is trying to gain access to sensitive U.S. technologies and intellectual properties through telecommunications companies, academia and joint business ventures, U.S. senators and spy chiefs warned on Tuesday at a Senate hearing.

Senator Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he worried about the spread in the United States of what he called "counterintelligence and information security risks that come prepackaged with the goods and services of certain overseas vendors."

"The focus of my concern today is China, and specifically Chinese telecoms (companies) like Huawei and ZTE that are widely understood to have extraordinary ties to the Chinese government," Burr said.

Chinese technology firms have come under greater government scrutiny in the United States in recent years over fears they may be conduits for spying, something they have consistently denied.

Burr said he worried that foreign commercial investment and acquisitions might jeopardize sensitive technologies and that U.S. academic research and laboratories may be at risk of infiltration by China's spies.

Several of the U.S. spy agency chiefs who testified at the committee's annual worldwide threats hearing cited concerns raised by what they called China's "all of society" approach toward gaining access to technology and intellectual property.

"The reality is that the Chinese have turned more and more to more creative avenues using non-traditional collectors," said FBI Director Christopher Wray in response to a question about student spies.

Senator Mark Warner, the committee's Democratic vice chairman, said he worried about commercialization of surveillance technologies as well as the close relationship between the Chinese government and Chinese technology firms.

"Some of these Chinese tech companies may not even have to acquire an American company before they become pervasive in our markets," Warner said.

Story continues

Wray said the United States needed a more "strategic perspective on China's efforts to use acquisitions and other types of business ventures" rather than just evaluating one transaction at a time.

Under questioning from Republican Senator Tom Cotton, none of the Intelligence officials said they would use a Huawei or ZTE product.

Last week, Cotton and Republican Senator Marco Rubio introduced legislation that would block the government from buying or leasing telecoms equipment from Huawei Technologies Co Ltd or ZTE Corp, citing concern the companies would use their access to spy on U.S. officials.

The companies did not return calls last week seeking comment on the legislation.

In 2012, Huawei and ZTE were the subject of a U.S. investigation into whether their equipment provided an opportunity for foreign espionage and threatened critical U.S. infrastructure - something they have consistently denied.

"Chinese cyber espionage and cyber attack capabilities will continue to support China's national security and economic priorities," said Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Frances Kerry and Rosalba O'Brien)FILE PHOTO: A Bombardier CSeries aircraft is pictured during a news conference to announce a partnership between Airbus and Bombardier on the C Series aircraft programme, in Colomiers near Toulouse, France, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo

MONTREAL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An independent U.S. trade body on Wednesday said it rejected hefty U.S. duties on Bombardier's CSeries jets partly because Boeing lost no sales or revenue when Delta Air Lines ordered the aircraft in 2016 from the Canadian planemaker

The International Trade Commission (ITC) also said the 110-seat CSeries jets ordered by Delta <DAL.N> and Boeing Co's <BA.N> smallest 737 MAX 7 plane do not compete, adding the sale to Delta did not come at the American planemaker's expense as it did not offer any new aircraft to the No. 2 U.S. carrier.

"Boeing lost no sales or revenues," the ITC said in its 194-page ruling.

"The higher standard seating capacity of the 737-700 and 737 MAX 7 limits competition between those models and the CS100 for some purchasers."

The ITC issued the reasoning three weeks after its Jan. 26 ruling that discarded a U.S. Commerce Department recommendation to slap a near 300 percent duty on sales of Bombardier Inc's <BBDb.TO> 110-to-130-seat CSeries jets for five years, following a complaint by Boeing.

ITC commissioners voted 4-0 that Bombardier's CSeries prices to U.S. carriers did not harm the 737 MAX 7, thereby removing a valid reason to impose duties.

A Bombardier spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

A Boeing spokesman, which said the company is now reviewing the decision, said in January it would not consider options like an appeal before seeing the ITC's reasoning.

Boeing has the option of appealing the decision at the Court of International Trade in New York, or a trade dispute settlement panel under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

However, in negotiations to modernize NAFTA, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has pushed to scrap NAFTA's process to settle trade disputes, which he says is biased against the United States.

The ITC decision was the latest twist in U.S.-Canadian trade relations that have been complicated by disputes over tariffs on Canadian lumber and U.S. milk and President Donald Trumps desire to renegotiate or even abandon NAFTA.

Story continues

Boeing alleged it was forced to discount its 737 narrow-bodies to compete with Bombardier, which it said used government subsidies to dump the CSeries during the 2016 sale.

The report, however, said that the CSeries is not likely to depress prices of U.S.-made jets and that Bombardier is unlikely to offer other prospective buyers the same discounts provided to Delta.

(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal, Lesley Wroughton in Washington; editing by Denny Thomas and G Crosse)Uber's logo is pictured at its office in Tokyo, Japan, November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

(Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc narrowed its fourth-quarter loss to $1.1 billion from a loss of $1.46 billion in the previous quarter, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The ride-hailing company's quarterly revenue rose 11.8 percent to $2.2 billion from its previous quarter, the source said.

Uber has gone on to raise more than $14 billion in new funding and last month closed a deal with SoftBank Group Corp in which the Japanese conglomerate, along with other investors, took about a 17.5 percent stake in the company.

Silicon Valley-based Uber's quarterly gross bookings rose 14 percent to $11.1 billion from the third quarter, the person said.

The company had previously reported third-quarter net loss of $1.46 billion on net revenue of $2 billion. Uber had gross bookings of $9.7 billion in the previous quarter.

Uber said last week that it would pay $245 million worth of its own shares to Alphabet Inc's Waymo self-driving vehicle unit to settle a legal dispute over trade secrets, allowing Uber's chief executive to move past one of the company's most bruising public controversies.

(Reporting by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru)Building tools to secure computer processors

The recent news of major vulnerabilities in computer processors -- dubbed Meltdown and Spectre -- that allow hackers to directly access data regardless of operating system protections was no surprise to researchers at Galois, a computer science research company based in Portland, Ore.

Computer processor designers simply havent paid attention to security, said Joe Kiniry, principal scientist at Galois. They still basically trust that the user of the system is going to respect what was said in a developers guide for the CPU, he said.

Kiniry is leading a team that has just been awarded a $4.5 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop tools and methodologies for designing secure CPUs.

The project -- Balancing Evaluation of System Security Properties with Industrial Needs (BESSPIN) -- will develop security metrics and a framework for making decisions about the tradeoffs in securing CPUs.

Even before the metrics and tools are developed, Kiniry said focusing on the need for security in hardware is in itself a critical step. Currently, companies engaged in hardware development rarely would involve actual cybersecurity professionals in research and development, he said

The first step in BESSPIN, he added, is to develop metrics. If youre going to make decisions about the design of your system, you need quantifiable means by which to do so, Kiniry said. The problem is there isnt any good security metrics in the world today.

Building a product that is going to use cryptography, for example, requires a choice about what algorithm to use and what key size. That boils down to a metric, Kiniry said. If you pick a big fat key -- RSA 4096, for example -- that's going to have a huge implication on the size of your circuit and the cost it takes to fabricate and the speed at which it can compute.

Similarly, modern processors have extra bits reserved for checking memory and controlling permissions to access specific memory pages. Deciding to add those extra bits was all about adding a layer of security to the chip, Kiniry said. But adding those bits had implications on performance and power.

The [Defense Department] wants those notions in a unified framework so that designers of new generations hardware can make informed decisions about the trade-offs between modifications to an architecture for security purposes and what implications it has on power, performance, area, cost, he added.

In addition to metrics and a security decision-making methodology, the project will also develop a suite of tools tailored for engineers to encourage better security in the design process.

As a hardware engineer you think in terms of hardware design, hardware architecture, hardware description languages, Kiniry said. You're not a cybersecurity person, and you probably don't know much about software, so the tooling we build for this program must respect that perspective. It has to be usable by, comprehensible to, fit in the workflow of, a typical hardware engineer.

The tools will distill the security implications of designs. If the chip isn't secure it'll highlight why it's not, provide recommendations for how to fix it and give counterexamples like actual proofs-of-concept flaws in the feedback, Kiniry said. And if it is secure, it will provide assurance that is formal.

Given that DARPA is funding the project, is there an expectation that the federal government might require chipmakers to meet specified security standards? I can't speak for the government, Kiniry said. But people in my line of work have made similar recommendations to the government for decades.Army looks to digitize battlefield medical data

When a wounded U.S. soldier is rushed from the battlefield to a medical facility, the injury and treatment data that accompanies the casualty comes on paper, pinned to his or her uniform.

Digitizing that process would bring obvious benefits -- data from the front could precede a patient to the hospital, and it would be far less likely to get lost or destroyed in transit. So the Army and the Defense Health Agency have turned to Management Sciences Inc. (MSI) and Cog Systems to develop a secure mobile solution.

Since Army field medics already carry secure mobile devices, the communications infrastructure is already in place. But the very security of that network is part of the challenge.

Those devices are running on a classified network, Cog Systems Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer Carl L. Nerup explained "because they have battlefield data on there." And while protecting medical data is critical, running at the classified level makes it impossible for doctors at a field hospital or at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany -- to which injured warfighters are often transported within hours -- to access the records in real time.

"Once data is marked as classified," Cog Systems CEO Daniel Potts said, "its got to go through the cleansing process" to be declassified, "which obviously is manual and takes a lot of time."

Cog Systems and MSI are developing a "dual persona" solution that will separate the unclassified medical data from the classified tactical data. Field medics and treatment facilities will connect and share information over an unclassified virtual private network that tunnels through the classified battlefield network.

"Back in the day, our friends at Fort Meade used to have two computers on their desk," Nerup said, until secure virtualization "allowed DOD to collapse to one machine."

"We have been able to take that same technology and apply it to connected devices."

The prototype solution, which Nerup and Potts said they hope to deliver by the end of the year, also will provide a two-way voice channel for remote telemedicine teams to communicate with combat medics in real time. The prototype will use HTC devices rather than the Samsung Galaxy S5 units are that currently in the field. The Army will soon upgrade to new equipment, Nerup said, and "our technology can be ported to just about any device."

But because Cog Systems' D4 Secure Platform technology, which is what isolates the classified and unclassified data, lives "just above the chipset and below the operating system  we need the cooperation on the OEM," he added.

The contract, which was awarded under the Armys Small Business Innovation Research program, is relatively small -- 18 months to develop a prototype solution. (MSI is an Albuquerque, N.M.-based small business; Cog Systems a Sydney, Australia-based firm with a U.S. subsidiary that handles all the SBIR work.) But Potts said he's bullish on the broader potential -- not just for battlefield medicine, but for any government mission that requires multiple mobile security environments.

"We have a really cool technology thats actually quite mature," Potts said, noting that Cog Systems has worked with "most of the western governments" on other projects. "This is exciting because it puts it all together."Threats will not deter us from filing case

Attorney General Basanta Ram Bhandari on Wednesday said threats and intimidating phone calls will not deter us from registering the case against former Deputy Inspector General Nawaraj Silwal.Sellbyville, Delaware , Feb. 14, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



Global India Dry type Transformer Market is projected to cross USD 250 million by 2024, as reported in the latest study by Global Market Insights, Inc. Favourable regulatory framework pertaining to establishment of sustainable transmission systems coupled with growing suburban population across the nation will foster the dry type transformer market share. The India Energy Security Scenarios and the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) are key policies introduced by the government to strengthen the environmental and energy policy.

Northern region dry type transformer market is set to reach over USD 70 million by 2024. Rising investments from public and private entities to nourish the existing and new electric infrastructure along with growing demand for electricity from off-grid areas will stimulate the industry growth. The IFC has planned to invest USD 5 billion by 2020 toward the expansion of sustainable and renewable energy network in India.

Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2402

Large scale integration of renewable energy technologies along with favorable government policies toward Foreign Direct Investments will propel the dry type transformer market size. The consistent demographic and economic escalation across the nation will further fuel the business outlook. The Government of India in 2015, introduced the Green Energy Corridor Project proposing an investment worth USD 1 billion toward the development of a self-sustained grid infrastructure for renewable energy transmission.

Effective insulation capabilities, temperature bearing strength, and sustainable product applicability across distribution networks lay competitive grounds for Class H transformer deployment. Rapid technological enhancements in the product design and development have led to the introduction of advanced insulation technologies catering across a broader application prospect.

Browse key industry insights spread across 335 pages with 450 market data tables & 27 figures & charts from the report, India Dry type Transformer Market in detail along with the table of contents:

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/india-dry-type-transformer-market

Increasing emphasis on the integration of wide-ranging frequency electric links along with the growing concerns for energy efficiency will stimulate the dry type transformer market growth. The rising demand for high voltage networks to sustain rising peak load demand will further complement the product penetration. Increasing investments by private and governmental organizations to electrify the remote areas will positively influence the business growth.

The vacuum pressure encapsulated transformer is set to witness strong growth on account of its effective transformation capabilities and long service life when compared with its competitive counterparts. These products include a series of dip processes aligned to the overall transformer construction that provide better protection from wet and harsh environments.

The rapid expansion of high-tension electrical networks to cater to the rising electricity demand across isolated load centers will stimulate the demand for outdoor transformers. The ongoing expansion of inter-regional electric networks coupled with the revamping and restructuring of the existing grid infrastructure across suburban areas will further escalate the dry type transformer market.

Eminent players across the dry type transformer market include ABB, Schneider Electric, Siemens, GE, Kirloskar, GE, Toshiba, Eaton, WEG, Prima, Vijay Power & Control Systems, BHEL, CG and Voltamp.

Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2402

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Dry type Transformer Market Size 2017  2024

Dry type Transformer Market share for 2016 was valued over USD 4 billion and the annual installation is set reach over 600 thousand units by 2024. Rapid technological enhancements adhered by drifting propensities toward the replacement of conventional insulation techniques will drive the market.

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Instrument Transformer Market Size 2017  2024

Global Instrument Transformer Market share for 2016 was valued over USD 3 billion and the annual installation is set to exceed 50 thousand units by 2024. Rising electricity demand coupled with growing concerns pertaining to grid stability in the recent years will augment the instrument transformer market.

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/instrument-mransformer-market

About Global Market Insights

Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.

Contact Us:TORONTO, Feb. 14, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Datametrex AI Limited (the Company or Datametrex) (TSXV:DM) (FSE:D4G) is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, Ronin Blockchain Corp., has executed a Definitive Agreement with Gosun Group (GoSun) which provides Ronin with access to their Inner Mongolia data center for the purpose of crypto currency mining.



Key points of the contract:

Immediate access to hosting capacity of up to 10MW and 5000 server rigs

and server rigs Ability to increase capacity up to 100MW and 50,000 server rigs by December 31 st , 2018

and server rigs by December 31 , 2018 Commencing Q2 2019, ability to scale up incrementally with a minimum capacity of 10MW and 5000 server rigs per quarter up to a maximum of 140MW or 70,000 server rigs by December 31 st , 2019

and server rigs per quarter up to a maximum of or server rigs by December 31 , 2019 Ronin to utilize GoSun procurement to enable Ronin Blockchain access to preferred pricing and equipment sourcing for mining hardware.

GoSun (www.gosun.com) was founded in 2006 and is one of Chinas largest infrastructure and networking companies with over 90 operating data centers in China. GoSun is a public company traded on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (000971.SZ). GosSun has Tier one and Tier two data centers providing hosting services for companies such as Alibaba, Tencent, China Telecom, etc. The agreement with GoSun provides Ronin with access to the worlds largest Blockchain mining market with key fundamental drivers for success: fast internet connections, low cost energy delivery, proximity to miners and equipment producers.

Signing the agreement with Gosun positions Ronin to become a leader in industrial scale crypto currency mining without incurring the massive costs and time delays associated with building new data centers to accommodate large scale mining. The opportunity to utilize GoSuns existing infrastructure, enjoy pass through pricing on power and the ability to piggyback on their procurement of equipment is an advantage that is unique to Ronin. We are excited about this agreement to position Ronin as a leader in the sector, says Andrew Ryu, CEO and Chairman of the Company.

About Ronin Blockchain Corp.

Ronin Blockchain Corp., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Datametrex AI Limited. Ronins business model is based on a centralized AI powered mining platform to operate a geo-diversified footprint of industrial scale Blockchain mining operations. Ronin has the potential to deploy state of the art mining capability across high value mining locations in North America, Asia and Europe from a centralized command center to maximize efficiency and profitability for GPU-based mining. Additionally, Ronin will also investigate further use of its expertise in software development and Artificial Intelligence algorithms to develop future revenue streams within the Blockchain space.

About the Company

Datametrex AI Limited is a technology focused company with exposure to four exciting verticals. Big Data, collecting data from retail point of sale environments, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning through its wholly owned subsidiary, Nexalogy (www.nexalogy.com), Implementing Blockchain technology for secure Data Transfers through its joint venture company, Graph Blockchain (www.graphblockchain.com), and Industrial scale Cryptocurrency Mining through its wholly owned subsidiary, Ronin Blockchain Corp. (www.roninblockchain.com).

Additional information on Datametrex is available at: www.datametrex.com

To stay informed about Datametrex, please join our Investor Group on 8020 Connect http://bit.ly/2fPUNwF for all upcoming news releases, articles comments and questions.

For further information, please contact:

Jeffrey Stevens  President & COO

Phone: (647) 400-8494

Email: jstevens@datametrex.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Such forward-looking information and statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only the Company`s belief regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Companys control.

Generally, such forward-looking information or statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, will continue, will occur or will be achieved.

The forward-looking information contained herein includes, but is not limited to, statements regarding the terms, timing and completion of the proposed spin-out of Graph. By identifying such information and statements in this manner, the Company is alerting the reader that such information and statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such information and statements.

Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking information or statements contained in this press release.

The forward-looking information contained in this press release is made as of the date hereof, and the Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information that is contained or referenced herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking information and statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice.VANCOUVER, B.C., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Midas Gold Corp. (TSX:MAX) (OTCQX:MDRPF) today updated its mineral resource estimates for the Stibnite Gold Project (the Project), located in the historic Stibnite-Yellow Pine mining district in Idaho, USA. These updated estimates incorporate: (1) additional drilling completed since 2014 that was focused on converting mineral resources from the inferred to the indicated category within the limits of mineral reserve limiting pit in the 2014 Preliminary Feasibility Study (2014 PFS), (2) additional data collected and recovered from pre-Midas Gold activities, and (3) more detailed geological modelling supported by relogging Midas Gold core, rock geochemistry, mapping, alteration modeling and other information. While overall totals and averages have seen modest changes since 2014, key highlights include:



First time definition of a measured resource at Yellow Pine, located at surface, with a grade of 2.5 g/t gold and 0.25% antimony, which would be the first area to be mined under the development plan proposed in the 2014 PFS. An overall 6% increase in gold grade and a 22% increase in antimony grade in the Yellow Pine deposit, which would be the first deposit to be mined under 2014 PFS, which should benefit project economics as compared to the 2014 PFS. A 31% increase in antimony contained in the mineral resources for the Project, split between the Yellow Pine and Hangar Flats deposits, potentially increasing production of this critical metal. On a total project basis, a 2% increase in measured and indicated gold grade and a 3% increase in gold contained in the measured and indicated mineral resources. The West End deposit saw a 6% increase in gold contained in indicated mineral resources, and a 49% increase in gold contained in inferred mineral resources. These increases in measured and indicated mineral resources are partially offset by reductions in inferred mineral resources as a result of the updated model and conversion of inferred resources.

Details of the above highlights are provided, below.

Table 1: Consolidated Mineral Resource Statement(1,2,3,4,5,6) for the Stibnite Gold Project

Total(5) Open Pit Oxide + Sulfide Mineral Resources  Base Case Estimate

Classification Tonnage Gold Contained Silver Contained Antimony Contained (000s) Grade Gold Grade Silver Grade Antimony (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000s oz) (%)(5) (000s lbs) Measured 4,623 2.53 377 3.91 581 0.25 25,821 Indicated 100,289 1.62 5,234 2.47 7,955 0.08 178,016 M & I 104,912 1.66 5,610 2.53 8,536 0.09 203,838 Inferred(6) 23,174 1.29 959 2.04 1,518 0.04 20,524

All mineral resources have been estimated in accordance with Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) definitions, as required under National Instrument 43-101 (NI43-101). Mineral resources are reported in relation to a conceptual pit shell in order to demonstrate potential for economic viability, as required under NI43-101; mineralization lying outside of these pit shells is not reported as a mineral resource. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability  see Compliance with NI43-101 below. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate and therefore numbers may not appear to add precisely. Open pit sulfide mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.75 g/t Au. Cut-off grades are based on a price of US$1,050 per ounce of gold and a number of operating cost and recovery assumptions, plus a contingency (see details below). Open pit oxide mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.45 g/t Au. Cut-off grades are based on a price of US$1,050 per ounce of gold and a number of operating cost and recovery assumptions, plus a contingency (see details below). Total project mineral resources include those resources from the Yellow Pine, Hangar Flats, West End and Historic Tailings deposits. Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.

The updated mineral resource estimate for the Stibnite Gold Project represents another milestone in the path towards completion of a feasibility study, said Stephen Quin, President and CEO of Midas Gold Corp, The successful execution of a focused drilling campaign combined with extensive geological modelling has resulted in a refined and enhanced mineral resource estimate that has confidence levels sufficient to support the completion of a feasibility study, he said. While the overall changes to the mineral resource estimates are relatively modest, the positive changes are concentrated in the Yellow Pine deposit, and particularly the upper portions of that deposit, which should provide enhanced margins in the early years of the operational life, since the Yellow Pine deposit would be the first deposit to be mined.





Highlighted Changes to Mineral Resource Estimates

The principal changes in the 2018 mineral resource estimates (relative to the 2014 PFS consolidated mineral resource statement) are a 2% increase in Measured and Indicated (M&I) gold grade and a 3% increase in M&I gold contained in mineral resources, as well as a 31% increase in indicated antimony contained in mineral resources. These changes are largely driven by a 6% increase in M&I gold grade at Yellow Pine, a 10% increase in indicated mineralized tonnage in the West End deposit and increased antimony contained in mineral resources in both the Yellow Pine and Hangar Flats deposits. Positive changes are slightly offset by a 2% decrease in indicated gold contained in mineral resources at Hangar Flats.

The change in grade at Yellow Pine is the result of additional drilling and a more detailed geological model, which better segregates mineralized and unmineralized materials on the basis of newly identified fault zones defined based on re-logging, oriented core data from the 2016-2017 drilling program and surficial pit mapping from pre-Midas Gold activities. Similarly, increased tonnage in the West End deposit is the result of a more detailed geological model which subdivides metasedimentary formations into individual lithotypes and models stratigraphic offset along post-mineralization faults. Another principal change in the West End model is the definition of more oxide resources following a thorough comparison of cyanide recoverable to total gold ratios against distribution of logged oxidation in drill logs.

All models use sub-block or partial-block percentage reporting to accurately report in-situ mineral resources, which will allow for quantitative forecasting of mining dilution in the feasibility study.

Increases in antimony contained in mineral resources at Yellow Pine are due to new drilling in the antimony resource area, definition of an antimony grade shell using indicator methods, and re-evaluation of legacy data used in the estimate on the basis of reconciliation against historic production records. Similarly, the increase in antimony contained in mineral resources at Hangar Flats is the result of new drilling in the antimony resource area and different treatment of legacy drillhole data following assessment of the impact of this data. Additional details for each deposit are provided below.





2018 Updated Mineral Resources within the 2014 PFS Mineral Reserve Pit

Since the 2014 mineral resource update, Midas Golds efforts have almost exclusively been focused on optimizing mineral resources located within the mineral reserve limiting pit defined in the 2014 PFS. In order to more clearly illustrate the results of these efforts, the table below compares the updated mineral resources within the same 2014 PFS mineral reserve limiting pit. This comparison is provided for information purposes only and is only intended to allow a direct comparison of mineral resources within that 2014 PFS mineral reserve limiting pit. This comparison should not be interpreted as a statement of mineral reserves; mineral reserves will only be defined in the pending feasibility study, due for completion in later 2018.





Table 2: Comparison of 2018 and 2014 Consolidated Mineral Resource Statement(1,2,3,4,5,6) for the Stibnite Gold Project Located Within the 2014 PFS Mineral Reserve Limiting Pits + Historic Tailings

Classification Tonnage Gold Contained Silver Contained Antimony Contained (000s) Grade Gold Grade Silver Grade Antimony (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000s oz) (%)(5) (000s lbs) 2018 Update Measured and Indicated 85,999 1.70 4,693 2.31 6,392 0.08 155,500 Inferred(6) 7,134 1.22 279 1.41 324 0.01 1,218 2014 Estimate Indicated 83,224 1.67 4,476 2.50 6,684 0.07 132,660 Inferred(6) 7,203 1.33 308 2.02 467 0.06 9,671 2014-2018 Change Indicated +2,775 +0.03 +217 (0.19) (292) +0.01 +22,840 Inferred(6) (69) (0.11) (29) (0.61) (143) (0.05) (8,453) Percentage Change Indicated +3% +2% +5% -8% -4% +14% +17% Inferred -1% -8% -9% -30% -31% -83% -87%

For footnotes 1-6, see Table 1.





Antimony Sub-Domains

The Yellow Pine and Hangar Flats deposits contain zones with substantially elevated antimony-silver mineralization, defined as containing greater than 0.1% antimony, relative to the overall mineral resource. The existing historic tailings resource also contains elevated concentrations of antimony. These higher-grade antimony zones are reported separately in the table below, in order to illustrate the potential for antimony production from the Project and are contained within the overall mineral resource estimates reported herein. Antimony zones are reported only if they lie within gold mineral resource estimates.





Table 3: Antimony Sub-Domains Consolidated Mineral Resource Statement(1,2,3) at a 0.1% Sb cut-off within the Total Mineral Resources in Table 1

Classification Tonnage Gold Contained Silver Contained Antimony Contained (000s) Grade Gold Grade Silver Grade Antimony (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000's oz) (%) (000s lbs) Measured Yellow Pine 2,141 2.76 190 5.79 398 0.52 24,440 Indicated Hangar Flats 6,423 2.02 416 8.26 1,705 0.57 80,987 Yellow Pine 6,705 2.32 500 5.46 1,178 0.52 76,557 Historic Tailings 2,583 1.19 99 2.95 245 0.17 9,648 Total M & I 17,852 2.10 1,205 6.14 3,526 0.49 191,632 Inferred (3) Hangar Flats 1,031 1.78 59 11.74 389 0.84 19,166 Yellow Pine 12 1.24 0 3.35 1 0.25 68 Historic Tailings 140 1.23 6 2.88 13 0.18 563 Total Inferred 1,183 1.71 65 10.60 403 0.76 19,797

Antimony mineral resources are reported as a subset of the total mineral resource within the conceptual pit shells used to constrain the total gold mineral resource in order to demonstrate potential for economic viability, as required under NI43-101; mineralization outside of these pit shells is not reported as a mineral resource. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability  see Compliance with NI43-101 below. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate.

Open pit antimony sulfide mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade 0.1% antimony within the overall 0.75 g/t Au gold cut-off. Cut-off grades are based on a price of US$1,050 per ounce of gold, $4.00/lb antimony and a number of operating cost and recovery assumptions, plus a contingency (see details below). The antimony subdomain is further limited to discrete zones of mineralization with grades that exceed 0.1% antimony.

Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.





Mineral Resource Estimates by Deposit

The mineral resource estimate for the Project encompasses four separate deposits: Yellow Pine, Hangar Flats, West End and Historic Tailings. Each deposit was modelled based on a combination of Midas Gold and pre-Midas Gold drilling, with the latter information being used only where sufficient confidence was obtained to support its use. Details of each of the mineral resource estimates are summarized below.

Yellow Pine Mineral Resource Estimate

The mineral resource estimate for the Yellow Pine deposit is summarized in the table below and is based on 69,753m of drilling in 629 holes, including 43,814m of drilling in 223 holes by Midas Gold and the balance drilled by others. Additional work, including oriented core drilling by Midas Gold since the 2014 PFS, relogging of core, rock geochemistry and alteration modelling, mapping, surface sampling and other information, has made possible a significantly improved and more detailed geologic model, resulting in improved understanding of controls on mineralization. The principal changes in the 2018 updated mineral resource estimate for Yellow Pine versus that in the 2014 PFS are (1) use of additional geostatistical estimation domains and search strategies reflecting the improved geological model, and (2) constraint of the antimony shell using a combination of geological boundaries and indicator kriging. An additional minor change was to remove some additional Bradley-era (1939-1953) drill holes that were used in the PFS and eliminate the range restrictive search strategy applied to this data. This estimation plan was adopted following additional confirmatory drilling in the high-grade central part of the deposit by Midas Gold, a review of legacy data relative to structural boundaries and model reconciliation against historic production. The net result of the mineral resource estimate for Yellow Pine is a 3% increase in gold contained in indicated mineral resources, a 6% increase in gold grade and an 62% reduction in gold contained in inferred mineral resources, the latter is a result of the conversion of ounces to the indicated category and reduced grade extrapolation based on improved geologic controls and more restrictive search strategies. Within the PFS Mineral Reserve Pit, the result is a 6% increase in indicated gold grade and a 2% increase in indicated contained gold resources. Other significant changes to the model include more accurate reconstructions of the Bradley and Hecla legacy pit-bottoms, use of partial block percentage reporting, and removal of some low-precision silver assays from the estimation plan.





Table 4: 2018 Updated Yellow Pine Mineral Resource Statement (1,2,3)

Classification Tonnage Gold Contained Silver Contained Antimony Contained (000s) Grade Gold Grade Silver Grade Antimony (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000s oz) (%) (000s lbs) Sulphide (1) Measured 4,623 2.53 377 3.91 581 0.25 25,821 Indicated 38,598 1.99 2,469 2.31 2,863 0.10 81,406 M & I(2) 43,221 2.05 2,845 2.48 3,444 0.11 107,228 Inferred(3) 3,814 1.18 145 0.72 88 0.00 76

Mineral resources are reported in relation to a conceptual pit shell in order to demonstrate potential for economic viability, as required under NI43-101; mineralization lying outside of these pit shells is not reported as a mineral resource. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability  see Compliance with NI43-101 below. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate.

Open pit sulfide mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.75 g/t Au. Cut-off grades are based on a price of US$1,050 per ounce of gold and a number of operating cost and recovery assumptions, plus a contingency (see details below).

Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.

Hangar Flats Mineral Resource Estimate

The Hangar Flats mineral resource estimate tabulated below is based on 39,181m of drilling in 217 holes, including 26,583m of drilling in 106 holes by Midas Gold and the balance drilled by others. The updated Hangar Flats resource model incorporates additional drilling by Midas Gold since the 2014 PFS with only minor changes to the block estimation strategy and geological model but a more restrictive classification methodology. The net result of the updated mineral estimate for Hangar Flats is a 2% decrease in gold contained in indicated mineral resources and an 7% reduction in gold contained in inferred mineral resources, the latter a result of the conversion of ounces to the indicated category and the results of additional drilling. Within the PFS Mineral Reserve Pit, the result is a 3% increase in indicated gold grade and a 1% decrease in indicated contained gold resources.





Table 5: 2018 Updated Hangar Flats Mineral Resource Statement (1,2,3)

Classification Tonnage Gold Contained Silver Contained Antimony Contained (000s) Grade Gold Grade Silver Grade Antimony (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000s oz) (%) (000s lbs) Sulphide (2) Indicated 19,697 1.71 1,080 4.80 3,041 0.20 86,962 Inferred(3) 7,654 1.37 336 3.95 971 0.12 19,885

Mineral resources are reported in relation to a conceptual pit shell in order to demonstrate potential for economic viability, as required under NI43-101; mineralization lying outside of these pit shells is not reported as a mineral resource. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability  see Compliance with NI43-101 below. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate. Open pit sulfide mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.75 g/t Au. Cut-off grades are based on a price of US$1,050 per ounce of gold and a number of operating cost and recovery assumptions, plus a contingency (see details below). Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.

West End Mineral Resource Estimate

The updated West End mineral resource estimate tabulated below is based on 73,695m of drilling in 857 holes, including 11,767m of drilling in 50 holes by Midas Gold and the balance drilled by others. A more detailed geological model was constructed based on 50 digitized legacy bench maps which better constrains mineralization within the West End Fault Zone corridor, models offset along important post-mineralization faults and subdivides key stratigraphic horizons within the thicker metasedimentary units. The new geological model, coupled with new drilling, newly digitized blast hole assays and 448 new gold fire assays obtained for pulps from pre-Midas Gold drill holes, led to improved modeling of controls on mineralization and an updated mineral resource estimation strategy based on the geologic model. In addition, Midas Gold re-evaluated the spatial distribution of oxide resources on the basis of oxidation logging and cyanide-recoverable to total gold block ratios resulting in an 115% increase in oxide resource tonnage. The net result of the mineral resource estimate for West End is a 6% increase in gold contained in indicated mineral resources, and a 49% increase in gold contained in inferred mineral resources. Within the PFS Mineral Reserve Pit, the result is a 2% decrease in indicated gold grade and a 14% increase in indicated gold contained in mineral resources, largely resulting from definition of additional lower grade oxide mineral resources.





Table 6: 2018 Updated West End Mineral Resource Statement (1,2,3,4)

Classification Tonnage Gold Contained Silver Contained (000s) Grade Gold Grade Silver (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000s oz) Oxide (3) Indicated 18,765 0.92 557 1.37 827 Inferred(4) 3,907 0.92 115 0.96 121 Sulphide (2) Indicated 20,645 1.55 1,029 1.48 980 Inferred(4) 7,659 1.45 357 1.32 325 Total Indicated 39,411 1.25 1,586 1.43 1,806 Inferred(4) 11,566 1.27 472 1.20 446

Mineral resources are reported in relation to a conceptual pit shell in order to demonstrate potential for economic viability, as required under NI43-101; mineralization lying outside of these pit shells is not reported as a mineral resource. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability  see Compliance with NI43-101 below. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate.

Open pit sulfide mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.75 g/t Au. Cut-off grades are based on a price of US$1,050 per ounce of gold and a number of operating cost and recovery assumptions, plus a contingency (see details below).

Open pit oxide mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.45 g/t Au. Cut-off grades are based on a price of US$1,050 per ounce of gold and a number of operating cost and recovery assumptions, plus a contingency (see details below).

Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.

Historic Tailings Mineral Resource Estimate

No additional data has been collected in respect of the historic tailings, and the mineral resources stated below are the same as those reported in the 2014 PFS and are repeated here for the sake of completeness.

Table 7: Historic Tailings Mineral Resource Statement (1,2,3)

Classification Tonnage

(000s) Gold

Grade

(g/t) Contained

Gold

(000s oz) Silver

Grade

(g/t) Contained

Silver

(000s oz) Antimony

Grade

(%) Contained

Antimony

(000s lbs) Indicated 2,583 1.19 99 2.95 245 0.17 9,648 Inferred(3) 140 1.23 6 2.88 13 0.18 563

Mineral resources are reported in total above cut-off since all the spent heap leach ore stacked on top of the tailings will be removed for construction purposes and the tailings full exposed. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability  see Compliance with NI43-101 below. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate.

Open pit sulfide mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.75 g/t Au. Cut-off grades are based on a price of US$1,050 per ounce of gold and a number of operating cost and recovery assumptions, plus a contingency (see details below).

Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.





Sensitivity to Cut-Off Grade

As show in the Table 8 below, the mineral resource estimates for the Project are not particularly sensitive to gold cut-off grade.

Table 8: Combined Sensitivity to Cut-Off Grade (Base Case Highlighted) (1,2)

Sulfide Oxide Yellow Pine Hangar Flats West End Historic Tailings Total Cutoff Cutoff (sulfide) (sulfide) (oxide + sulfide) (sulfide) (oxide + sulfide) Grade Grade (g/t Au) (g/t Au) Gold Contained Gold Contained Gold Contained Gold Contained Gold Contained Grade Gold Grade Gold Grade Gold Grade Gold Grade Gold (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000s oz) Measured and Indicated 0.6 0.3 1.89 2,964 1.55 1,153 1.02 1,818 1.16 102 1.45 6,037 0.65 0.35 1.95 2,923 1.61 1,128 1.10 1,737 1.17 102 1.52 5,890 0.7 0.4 2.00 2,884 1.66 1,103 1.18 1,659 1.17 101 1.60 5,747 0.75 0.45 2.05 2,845 1.71 1,080 1.25 1,586 1.19 99 1.66 5,610 0.8 0.5 2.10 2,806 1.75 1,056 1.32 1,516 1.21 96 1.73 5,474 0.85 0.55 2.14 2,769 1.80 1,031 1.39 1,450 1.24 92 1.79 5,342 0.9 0.6 2.18 2,732 1.85 1,006 1.46 1,388 1.26 89 1.85 5,215 Inferred(2) 0.6 0.3 1.06 172 1.19 392 1.04 545 1.21 6 1.09 1,115 0.65 0.35 1.10 163 1.25 373 1.12 519 1.21 6 1.16 1,061 0.7 0.4 1.15 153 1.31 353 1.20 494 1.22 6 1.23 1,006 0.75 0.45 1.18 145 1.37 336 1.27 472 1.23 6 1.29 959 0.8 0.5 1.22 138 1.43 316 1.33 452 1.27 5 1.35 911 0.85 0.55 1.26 129 1.49 301 1.39 433 1.3 5 1.40 868 0.9 0.6 1.30 121 1.54 287 1.44 416 1.31 5 1.45 829

Mineral resources are reported in relation to the base-case conceptual pit shell in order to demonstrate potential for economic viability, as required under NI43-101; mineralization lying outside of these pit shells is not reported as a mineral resource. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability  see Compliance with NI43-101 below. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate. Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.





Cut-Off Grade and Prospects for Economic Extraction

The updated mineral resources are reported within the same pit-shells and at the same cut-off grades as Midas Gold used in 2014. The cut-off grades of 0.75 g/t gold for sulphides and 0.45 g/t gold for oxides are equivalent to a conservative gold price assumption of approximately $1,050/ounce, based on updated cost estimates from ongoing feasibility level engineering studies (Table 9, below). Prospects for eventual economic extraction of the mineral resources, as required by NI43-101, were demonstrated in the 2014 PFS by developing conceptual pit shells using a Lerchs-Grossman algorithm and input parameters derived from preliminary cost estimates associated with pre-feasibility level engineering studies, as outlined in the press release dated September 10, 2014. Only mineral resources above these cut-offs and within the mineral resource-limiting pits are reported; mineralization falling below this cut-off grade or outside the resource-limiting pits is not reported, no matter what the grade. Antimony and silver are considered by-products and were not utilized in pit optimizations or for establishing likelihood of economic extraction. Sensitivity to cut-off grade is reported in Table 7 above.



Table 9: Gold Cut-off Grade Calculation Parameters

Input Parameters Units Cost Notes Mining Cost - Resource $/tonne mined 2.00 Includes mining G&A Mining Cost  Waste $/tonne mined 2.00 Includes mining G&A Oxide Processing Cost $/tonne mined 7.00 Excludes G&A costs Oxide Au Recovery % 86 Oxide / Sulfide Boundary (1) CN Au : FA Au 0.6 Sulfide Processing Cost $/tonne milled 16.00 Excludes G&A costs Sulfide Au Recovery % 91 Dore Transport Cost $/oz Au 1.15 Dore Refining Cost $/oz Au 1.00 G&A and Rehabilitation Cost $/tonne milled 4.00 Pit Slopes degrees 48 Au Payability % 99.5 Au Selling Price - Base Case $/oz 1,050 Mining dilution % 0 Mining recovery % 100 Net Smelter Return Royalty on Au % 1.7

AuCN is cyanide leachable gold, AuFA is total gold.

Assumptions used to derive the cut-off grades and define the resource-limiting pits are estimated in order to meet the NI43-101 requirement for mineral resource estimates to demonstrate reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction. The cut-off grades to be used in the upcoming feasibility study may vary from those used to limit the mineral resources reported herein, as the inputs to that study are determined. No inference is implied in the changes to the assumptions used in the cut-off grade calculations from the prior mineral resource estimates as to what will be used in the upcoming feasibility, as those assumptions remain to be determined.





Updated Technical Report and Upcoming Feasibility Study

The details of four mineral resource estimates for Yellow Pine, Hangar Flats, West End and Historic Tailings will be provided in a NI43-101 Technical Report to be filed in conjunction with the completion of the feasibility study scheduled for later in 2018.

With the completion of the mineral resource estimates contained herein, the results of the metallurgical test programs and the other engineering, design and baseline work completed, Midas Gold and its consultants are currently completing mine planning, estimates of capital and operating costs, and other components of the planned feasibility study. The feasibility study is anticipated to be completed in late 2018 and results will be announced when appropriate and will be detailed in the required Technical Report.





2018 Mineral Resource Estimate Methodology

The mineral resource estimates for Yellow Pine, Hangar Flats and West End were prepared to industry standards and best practices using commercial mine-modeling and geostatistical software. Garth Kirkham, P.Geo. is the Qualified Person responsible for the Yellow Pine and Hangar Flats mineral resource estimates for the purposes of NI43-101. Bart Stryhas, C.P.G. and former Chief Geologist of the Stibnite Mine, is the Qualified Person responsible for the West End mineral resource estimate and West End geologic model for the purposes of NI43-101. The Yellow Pine and Hangar Flats geologic models and mineral resource estimates were completed under the supervision of Midas Golds Senior Resource Geologist Austin Zinsser, SME-R.M., and Exploration Manager Chris Dail, C.P.G. Each deposit was segregated into multiple estimation domains based on geologic models with the majority of mineral resources estimated using ordinary kriging interpolation of capped composites in multiple estimation passes. Search ellipse orientation and anisotropy were based on structural and geological controls and/or variogram models with first pass major axis search distances generally 40-60m, and subsequent pass distances generally 100-150m.

Midas Gold and its consultants conducted extensive statistical analyses to assess the quality of the pre-Midas Gold legacy drill hole data in preparation of 2014 PFS mineral resource estimates. Confirmatory drilling has generally shown the data to be of good quality but use of historical data still presents certain risks in mineral resource estimation due to historical drilling, sampling and assaying methodologies. The improved constraints on mineralization provided by the updated geological model at Yellow Pine have reduced the variance of resource sensitivities run with and without Bradley Mining Company pre-1953 data to within 2%. Based on these sensitivity studies, and on good reconciliation against historic production records from the Yellow Pine and Homestake pits, a limited set of pre-1953 drillholes was used in all estimation passes to improve local accuracy of the estimates rather than limiting the influence of this data through range-restricted searches, as was done in the 2014 PFS. Similarly, antimony mineral resources were estimated using some pre-1953 drilling but were limited to areas where confirmatory Midas Gold drilling established continuity of this mineralization.

Mineral Resources are classified under the categories of Measured, Indicated and Inferred according to Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) guidelines. Mineral resource classification for gold was based primarily on drillhole spacing and on continuity of mineralization. Measured resources were defined at Yellow Pine as blocks with an average distance to three drillholes of less than ~15m (50 feet) and occurring within the Central Yellow Pine or Homestake estimation domains where historic production occurred. Indicated resources were defined as those with an average distance to three drillholes of less than ~36m (120 feet) at Yellow Pine and ~30m (100 feet) at Hangar Flats. Indicated resources at West End were defined as those with an average drillhole spacing of less than ~30m (100 feet) and meeting additional requirements. Final resource classification shells were manually constructed on sections. Antimony and silver are not classified separately and are reported based on gold classification. A full description of the modeling methodologies for each deposit will be included in a technical report scheduled for release in conjunction with completion of feasibility study for the Project. Modeling methodologies for the Historic Tailings mineral resource estimates are discussed in a news release dated October 28th, 2013.



Illustrations

Diagrams illustrating the locations of each of the mineral deposits for which mineral resource estimates are reported herein, including plans and sections showing changes from the 2014 mineral resource estimates, can be viewed by clicking here.

For further information about Midas Gold Corp., please contact:

Liz Monger  Manager, Investor Relations

(t) 778.724.4704

(e): info@midasgoldcorp.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/midasgoldidaho

Twitter: @MidasIdaho

www.midasgoldcorp.com





Compliance with National Instrument 43-101

The technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 (NI43-101) and reviewed and approved by Stephen P. Quin, P.Geo., President and CEO of Midas Gold Corp., and a Qualified Person. The exploration and drilling activities at Stibnite carried out by Midas Gold were undertaken under the supervision of Richard Moses, C.P.G., Field Operations Manager for the Stibnite Gold Project, Chris Dail, C.P.G., Exploration Manager for the Stibnite Gold Project, Austin Zinsser, SME-R.M., Senior Resource Geologist for the Stibnite Gold Project, and Kent Turner, SME-R.M., all Qualified Persons.

Garth Kirkham, P.Geo., of Kirkham Geosystems Ltd. is the Qualified Person, as defined in National Instrument 43-101, responsible for the Yellow Pine and Hangar Flats mineral resource estimates as reported herein. He has read and approved the relevant technical portions of this news release related to the mineral resource estimates for which he is responsible. Bart Stryhas, C.P.G. and former Chief Geologist of the Stibnite Mine (part of the West End deposit), is the Qualified Person responsible for the West End mineral resource estimate and West End geologic model for the purposes of NI43-101. He has read and approved the relevant technical portions of this news release related to the mineral resource estimates for which he is responsible.

Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Mineral resource estimates do not account for mineability, selectivity, mining loss and dilution. These mineral resource estimates include inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.

The Project mineral resources are contained within areas that have seen historic disturbance resulting from prior mining activities. In order for Midas Gold to advance its interests, the Project will be subject to a number of Federal, State and local laws and regulations and will require permits to conduct its activities. However, Midas Gold is not aware of any environmental, permitting, legal or other reasons that would prevent it from advancing the Project.

About Midas Gold

Midas Gold Corp., through its wholly owned subsidiaries Midas Gold Idaho, Inc., Idaho Gold Resources, LLC and Stibnite Gold Company, is focused on the exploration and, if warranted, development of deposits in the StibniteYellow Pine district of central Idaho. The principal gold deposits identified to date within the Project are the Hangar Flats, West End and Yellow Pine deposits, all of which are associated with important structural corridors, as well as a mineral resource contained in Historic Tailings.

Forward-Looking Information

Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "Forward-Looking Information") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward Looking Information includes, but is not limited to, disclosure regarding possible events, conditions or financial performance that is based on assumptions about future economic conditions and courses of action including actions taken with the goal of improving, expanding and de-risking previously defined mineral resources; the timing and availability of future drill results; the potential for antimony production from the Project; the anticipated completion of a feasibility study and filing of a NI 43-101 technical report in conjunction therewith; potential sites for additional drilling that could result in potential improved confidence, enhanced economic returns and/or extending higher grade areas. In certain cases, Forward-Looking Information can be identified by the use of words and phrases such as once, estimates", "potential", "confirm", if or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" "be achieved". In preparing the Forward-Looking Information in this news release, Midas Gold Corp. (the Corporation) has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to, that pending drill results will be available in a timely manner without undue delay; that areas identified as potential sites for additional drilling will yield results consistent with management's expectations based on the 2014 PFS; any additional financing needed will be available on reasonable terms; the exchange rates for the U.S. and Canadian currencies will be consistent with the Corporation's expectations; that the current objectives concerning the Stibnite Gold Project can be achieved and that its other corporate activities will proceed as expected; that the current price and demand for gold will be sustained or will improve; that general business and economic conditions will not change in a materially adverse manner and that all necessary governmental approvals for the planned activities on the Stibnite Gold Project will be obtained in a timely manner and on acceptable terms; the continuity of the price of gold and other metals, economic and political conditions and operations. Forward-Looking Information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Corporation to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the Forward-Looking Information. Such risks and other factors include, among others, the industry-wide risks and project-specific risks identified in the 2014 PFS and summarized above; risks related to the availability of financing on commercially reasonable terms; operations and contractual obligations; changes in exploration programs based upon results of exploration, including drill results; changes in estimated mineral reserves or mineral resources; future prices of metals; availability of third party contractors; availability of equipment; failure of equipment to operate as anticipated; accidents, effects of weather and other natural phenomena and other risks associated with the mineral exploration industry; environmental risks, including environmental matters under US federal and Idaho rules and regulations; impact of environmental remediation requirements and the terms of existing and potential consent decrees on the Corporation's planned exploration and development activities on the Stibnite Gold Project; certainty of mineral title; community relations; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing; fluctuations in mineral prices; the Corporation's dependence on one mineral project; the nature of mineral exploration and mining and the uncertain commercial viability of certain mineral deposits; the Corporation's lack of operating revenues; governmental regulations and the ability to obtain necessary licenses and permits; risks related to mineral properties being subject to prior unregistered agreements, transfers or claims and other defects in title; currency fluctuations; changes in environmental laws and regulations and changes in the application of standards pursuant to existing laws and regulations which may increase costs of doing business and restrict operations; risks related to dependence on key personnel; and estimates used in financial statements proving to be incorrect; as well as those factors discussed in the Corporation's public disclosure record. Although the Corporation has attempted to identify important factors that could affect the Corporation and may cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in Forward-Looking Information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that Forward-Looking Information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Information. Except as required by law, the Corporation does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to Forward-Looking Information contained in this news release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.



Note to US Investors

This news release has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the securities laws in effect in Canada, which differ from the requirements of United States securities laws. The terms mineral resource, indicated mineral resource and inferred mineral resource are defined in and required to be disclosed by NI 43101; however, these terms are not defined terms under SEC Industry Guide 7 and are normally not permitted to be used in reports and registration statements filed with the SEC. Investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of mineral deposits in these categories will ever be converted into reserves. Inferred mineral resources have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or prefeasibility studies, except in rare cases. Investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource exists or is economically or legally mineable. Disclosure of contained ounces in a resource is permitted disclosure under Canadian regulations; however, the SEC normally only permits issuers to report mineralization that does not constitute reserves by SEC Industry Guide 7 standards as in place tonnage and grade without reference to unit measures. Indicated mineral resource and inferred mineral resource have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and a great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an indicated mineral resource or inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of mineral deposits in these categories will ever be converted into reserves. Accordingly, information contained in this News Release contain descriptions of the Companys mineral deposits that may not be comparable to similar information made public by U.S. companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements under the United States federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.



Weve all heard it before: Dairy farmers are in the beef producing business, too.

Between cull cows and heifers, dairy bull calves, and dairy steers, dairy cattle make up more than 20 percent of U.S. beef production. Thats why for every head of dairy cattle sold, $1 is taken to support the Beef Checkoff Program.

The Beef Checkoff is a producer-funded and producer-directed marketing and research program designed to grow domestic and international demand for beef through promotion, research, and new product development. While some of these benefits may seem hard to put value on for the average farmer, there is a payback for producers.

John Frietag, executive director of the Wisconsin Beef Council, gave a Beef Checkoff Program update during his presentation at the Dairy Business Associations Dairy Strong Conference held in Madison, Wis., last week. He shared results from a Harvard University study, which revealed an $11.20 return to the producer for every dollar invested in the Beef Checkoff.

We think thats a pretty good return on investment, he said.

Furthermore, the study showed that every dollar invested in export promotion yielded $48.39 to American beef producers. Frietag pointed out that 95 percent of the worlds population lives outside the U.S., providing a huge opportunity to market beef beyond the nations borders.

Most times, when cattle are sold through a sale barn or directly to a processor, that $1 is automatically taken out of the check and producers dont need to worry about it. Frietag explained that what people may not realize is that every time an animal is sold, even for dairy purposes, $1 is due to the Beef Checkoff.

If selling animals privately, the buyer is generally responsible for collecting $1 per head from the seller, but both the buyer and seller are equally liable to see that the fee has been collected and paid. More details about that commitment can be found at the Beef Board website.

To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com.

(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2018

January 22, 2018Trilochan Bhatta appointed Province 7 CM

CPN (Maoist Centre) leader Trilochan Bhatta has been appointed chief minister of Province 7 on Thursday. He was unanimously elected as Maoist Centre Parliamentary Party leader recently.Melbourne, Feb 15 (IBNS): A new study has found almost all of Australias shellfish reefs have disappeared, making them the countrys most threatened ocean ecosystem.

Dr Ian McLeod, Senior Research Scientist at James Cook Universitys Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystem Research, is the co-author of a study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE today.

Led by The Nature Conservancy, the study involved 15 scientists from 10 organisations across every state of Australia, and found that between 90 and 99% of the shellfish reefs have disappeared.

Dr McLeod said the Great Barrier Reef is probably what first springs to mind as our most endangered ocean ecosystem.

And its true that the Great Barrier Reef and other coral reefs are under threat, but its the shellfish reefs that have really suffered the most. Its just that most of them disappeared before we were born so people arent aware weve lost them, said Dr McLeod.

Most of this occurred during the 1800s and early 1900s, so the loss occurred outside the living memory of most people today  a phenomenon known as generational amnesia or shifting baselines, he said.

The study reveals the most dramatic decline has been for reefs formed by the Australian Flat Oyster  out of 118 historical locations only one known location remains (Georges Bay, Tasmania).

The second most severe decline of the 14 bivalve species covered in the study was the native Rock Oyster, with only six locations known to still contain their ecosystems out of 60 historical locations.

We already knew shellfish reefs were in bad shape globally with 85% of them lost or severely degraded, said study leader Dr Chris Gillies, Marine Manager at The Nature Conservancy Australia.

Our study confirms the situation for these important marine habitats in Australia is even worse, with less than 1% of Flat Oyster and 10% of Rock Oyster habitats remaining.

The scientists said the good news is that, with help, these reefs are making a comeback where the threats that previously wiped them out can be avoided.

Dr McLeod said the main reasons for the reefs decline are overfishing, destructive fishing practices such as trawling, habitat modification, disease outbreaks, invasive species and a decline in water quality.

The scientists say oysters and mussels are ecosystem engineers that create, modify and maintain important habitat for a range of other species at a system-wide scale.

They form reefs and beds that contain unique biological communities. They also provide a range of ecosystem services such as food provision, habitat for fish and invertebrates, water filtration, fish production and shoreline protection.

The study highlights how the loss of these habitats negatively affects the economic and social wellbeing of coastal human populations, reducing the productivity of fisheries, increasing pollution risks to coastal communities and industries (e.g. aquaculture) and by increasing the cost of protecting coastal assets with built infrastructure like seawalls.

The degradation of coastal ecosystems also contributes to the release of stored carbon, worsening climate change and increasing coastal risks associated with more frequent and intense storms, sea level rise and ocean acidification.

There is still time to arrest the decline in shellfish reefs and restore them to places where they once provided people and nature these benefits, said Dr Gillies.

Dr Gillies said fortunately Australia is already well equipped to reverse the decline of shellfish ecosystems with a number of existing tools available to help protect and restore them.

Projects are planned or underway in every Australian state with the assistance of private, government and non-government funding. And a national network of practitioners, The Shellfish Reef Restoration Network, has been established to help support reef protection and restoration.

At The Nature Conservancy, we have shellfish reef restoration projects underway in Port Phillip Bay, Victoria; Gulf St Vincent, South Australia; and Oyster Harbour, Western Australia, said Dr Gillies.

At an eventual size of 20 hectares, Windara Reef in South Australia will be the largest shellfish reef restoration project ever undertaken in Australia, he said.Tsvangirai breathed his last in South Africa on Wednesday. He was suffering from colon cancer.

Announcing his death, Elias Mudzuri, the vice-president of the MDC, the party Tsvangirai represented, tweeted, " As you are aware that our MDC T President, Dr Morgan Richard Tsvangirai has not been feeling well for some time, it is sad for me to announce that we have lost our icon and fighter for democracy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, the party and the nation at this hour."

"Tonight I paid my condolences to the late president's family at his Highlands home. The Tsvangirai family together with us, is finding it difficult to come to terms with the passing on of our iconic democratic leader. May His Soul Rest in Peace," an ensuing tweet added.

Tsvangirai's political stint was marked by his long struggle against former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who ruled the nation for nearly four decades, before being asked to step down.

Image: youtube screengrabThe comments seemed to have been highlighted in Western media as an amusing example either or the Iranian regimes paranoia or its far-reaching propaganda, or both. But Firouzabadi also helped to highlight the often deadly consequences of those phenomena, insofar as his remarks sought to justify a recent crackdown on environmental activists, which resulted in the arrest of at least two dual nationals, one of whom died in custody last week.

The Post pointed to this connection, reiterating the report that Kavous Seyed-Emami, an Iranian-Canadian professor, had been described by Iranian officials as having committed suicide following a confession of spying. His family has disputed both the criminal accusation and the official account of his death, and authorities have reportedly pressured them to bury the corpse quickly, before an independent autopsy can be performed.

Firouzabadis statement, in addition to articulating an implausible conspiracy theory about Western spying, appeared to lay the groundwork for further arrests and reprisals against anyone with known or suspected ties to Western countries. The former head of the Iranian military declared that those countries have often used tourists, scientists, and environmentalists to spy on Iran. The reference to environmentalists is especially relevant in light of Seyed-Emamis death, which corresponded with the arrests of at least 10 figures in the Iranian environmentalist movement, some of whom had publicly criticized the government for mismanagement of the countrys water resources.

Among those arrestees was the governments own environmental official, Kaveh Madani, who had been educated in the United States and employed in the United Kingdom. Although Madani was released after about two days, the New York Times described his arrest as another instance of security officials undermining Iranian President Hassan Rouhanis oft-repeated promises that Iranian expatriates were free to return to their homeland without fear of reprisal.

Prior to the latest round of arrests, it had been reported that at least a dozen Western nationals were in detention in Iran. While Seyed-Emamis death prevents him from now being counted alongside them, it was revealed on Monday that an American citizen named Morad Tahbaz was among those who were detained in January for their membership in the Persian Heritage Wildlife Foundation.

ABC News reported upon Tahbaz case in the context of an article that focused on the plight of another imprisoned Iranain-American, the 81-year-old former charity worker Baquer Namazi. He has returned to the headlines several times in recent weeks as reports emerged from Iran of his worsening health condition and the authorities alternating denial and provision of medical attention. Namazi is serving a 10-year sentence on unsubstantiated charges of espionage, and his advocates maintain that his confinement to the harsh conditions of Evin Prison is a de fact death sentence.

Last month, Namazi was hospitalized after experiencing a severe drop in blood pressure and an erratic heartbeat. The Iranian medical examiner recommended that he receive at least three months of medical leave, but he was soon returned to prison, only to be hospitalized again days later when similar symptoms re-emerged. Various critics of the Iranian regime have suggested that the authorities are unwilling to grant him a longer release out of fear of losing a potentially important bargaining chip in talks with the West. By the same token, advocates for many of the detained dual nationals have referred to them as hostages.

The crackdown on dual nationals and so-called spies is an extension of national rhetoric that was put on prominent display this week amidst celebrations of the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. The Middle East and North Africa Financial Network reported that these celebrations included military parades and the public display of a Ghadr ballistic missile, which is reportedly capable of striking targets as far away as 2,000 kilometers, or roughly 1,240 miles.

In the wake of mass protests against the clerical regime which started in late December and were largely suppressed by mid-January, the regimes recognition of this anniversary also included public statements that sought to downplay public unrest while laying the blame for it at the feet of enemies led by the United States. The MENAFN report indicated that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a self-professed moderate, had reiterated these accusations in a public speech the content of which was very similar to earlier remarks by the hardline supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.

Meanwhile, Irans English-language propaganda network Press TV highlighted similar statements from the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mohammad Ali Jafari. The hardline paramilitary leader spoke vaguely of hostile acts by the global arrogance aimed at creating divisions among the Iranian public. Jafari effectively blamed Western powers for economic problems and a range of domestic issues that were widely seen as sparking the recent protests.

Press TV tied Jafaris statement to earlier remarks by Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who said that unrest and instability were created by infiltrators and not by the Iranian people. On one hand, such declarations seem to encourage the crackdown on returned expatriates and dual nationals. But at the same time, they also provide the regime with the cover to associate virtually all perceived threats with foreign infiltration.

Accordingly, the longstanding crackdown on dual nationals has reportedly coincided with a broader crackdown on dissent, which predictably intensified in the wake of the December and January protests. An estimated 8,000 people were arrested for participation in those demonstrations, and a dozen have reportedly been killed under torture. Additionally, some 50 individuals were shot dead while the protests were still ongoing.

Subsequent enforcement activities have focused not only on participants in that uprising but also on political dissidents in general, and not only on them but also on their families. The National Council of Resistance of Iran reported on Tuesday that the mothers of two prominent womens rights activists and political prisoners and the sister of one of them had been arrested following a rally outside Evin Prison. One of those activists, Atena Daemi, is reportedly in extremely poor health more than 10 days after beginning a hunger strike in protest against her arbitrary transfer to the unsafe and unhygienic conditions of a facility that is otherwise dedicated to the incarceration of violent criminals.

Following the suppression of the nationwide protests, there have been numerous reports of authorities arresting or otherwise exerting pressure on the families of political and social activists, often as part of efforts to either compel them to present themselves to authorities. Meanwhile, the regime has sought to discredit many of those activists who have already been detained, in some cases by portraying them as drug addicts and in some cases by asserting connections to Western intelligence agencies, as in the case of Seyed-Emami and his fellow environmental activists.Our previous piece ended with the mullahs launching violent attacks on the MEK via Ruhollah Khomeinis terrorist gangs (i.e. Hezbollah) in order to intimidate the MEK into dropping out of the 1980 election. The MEK refused to bow out or to join the mullahs in abusing their power, believing that the democratic system would be allowed to work fairly.

Lets see what happened next.

Were the MEK likely to win in the elections?

When the mullahs finally began organising an election in January 1980- a year after the Revolution- the MEK were very popular with the people of Iran. The MEK had spent the year rebuilding and reorganising, as all but one of the previous leadership had been executed under the Shah.

Now, the MEK, under the leadership of Massoud Rajavi, had offices and branches in over 250 cities in Iran and their newspaper, the Mojahed, had a daily circulation of almost 600,000 (the largest in Iran).

So when Massoud Rajavi announced he was running for President, he enjoyed widespread public support-even from members and candidates of other political parties- and was expected to do very well with marginalised communities, like religious and ethnic minorities (i.e. Kurds, Sunnis, Christians, Jews), women, students, young people, and secular groups.

How did the mullahs react to that?

Well, the mullahs decided that they didnt want to risk going up against Massoud Rajavi as they would likely lose.

Instead, Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini disqualified Massoud Rajavis candidacy just one week before the elections, giving the reason that Massoud Rajavi had not voted for Irans new constitution that created an authoritarian theocracy.

The MEK was undeterred in its fight for freedom and democracy and vowed to continue its political campaign within the framework of the new legal system.

So, the Regime hit back in the only way it knows how: violence and suppression.

Over the course of the election race, the mullahs increased the pressure on the MEK, hoping that they would drop out. Here is just a small sample of what the mullahs did:

 banned the MEK from appearing at universities

 travelled across Iran to openly criticise the MEK

 prevented the MEK from being featured in election coverage

 seized and burnt 60,000 copies of the MEKs newspaper

 had Hezbollah attack the MEKs buildings and meetings in many cities- some 700 MEK members were injured in an attack in Qaemshahr, while 400 more were injured in Mashad

In spite of all this, the MEK was still a viable threat to the Iranian Regime in the elections, so the mullahs rigged the vote tallies and transferred all votes for MEK candidates to the Islamic Republican Party (IRP) candidate so that they could prevent any MEK member from taking a seat in Parliament.

They also handed out IRP leaflets at polling stations, stopped likely MEK voters from casting a ballot, and even had Islamic militants fraudulently fill out the ballots themselves.

What di the MEK do?

Once the MEK found out about this, they denounced the elections and submitted evidence for review. The Iranian people protested in the streets and the Regime eventually set up an investigation into the fraud, but nothing ever came of it.

The Regime did not investigate and no one was ever found guilty. It was the first of many instances that proved that you should not trust the Iranian Regime to investigate themselves. They will not investigate because they dont want to and this will never change o long as the Regime is in charge.US Embassy congratulates Oli

The Kathmandu-based US Embassy on Thursday congratulation CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli on his appointment as the new Prime Minister of Nepal.This coincides with concern over Saturdays confrontation in Syria between Israel and Iranian assets. After an Israeli F-16 jet bombed a site used by Iran-backed position in Syria, Syrian air defenses shot it down.

Ali Akbar Velayati, top aide to Irans Supreme Leader, quickly responded to the US official, saying that Irans military presence in Syria was based on invitation of the Syrian regime. ISNA quoted Velayati as saying, Those should leave Syria who are there without the permission.

Tillerson called the US administrations work on a new Middle East peace planfairly well advanced and said that President Trump will decide when to announce it. Tillerson said the peace plan, I have seen the plan Its been under development for a number of months. I have consulted with them on the plan, identified areas that we feel need further work. So I think it will be up to the president to decide when he feels its time and hes ready to put that plan forward. I will say its fairly well advanced

Despite Trumps threat to withhold support from states opposed to his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Tillerson also signed a five-year aid package that extends US support to Jordan, a key regional ally.

Trump reversed decades of US policy last December, when he declared that Jerusalem would be recognized as Israels capital, and set in motion the process of moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv. This triggered outrage in the Arab and Muslim world, and led Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to declare that he would not cooperate with the United States as a mediator.

After a UN resolution calling for Washington to reverse its Jerusalem decision, Trump threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that backed the resolution. Jordan backed it, because King Abdullahs Hashemite dynasty is the custodian of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, which makes Amman particularly sensitive to any changes of status.

The non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) for $6.375 billion in aid starting this year was signed by Tillerson and Safadi. The previous such MoU between Jordan and the United States was for three years.

A statement by the US State Department said, This MoU commitment highlights the pivotal role Jordan plays in helping foster and safeguard regional stability and supports US objectives such as the global campaign to defeat ISIS, counter-terrorism cooperation, and economic development.

Tillerson also met in Amman with a delegation from the Syrian High Negotiations Committee (HNC) headed by Nasr al-Hariri. After the closed-door talks that the HNC had held with the US official, Hariri tweeted that it was an important meeting and added that the delegation had stressed the need try war criminals and hold the regime accountable for chemical weapons attacks.The statement was made in the wake of a clash last Saturday between Israeli forces and defenders of the Assad regime in Syria, during which one Israeli fighter jet was downed and a dozen Syrian and Iranian targets were destroyed.

The Free Beacon indicated that the growing fog of war in that region has been allowing the Islamic Republic of Iran to secretly move advanced weapons among militant proxies including but not limited to its longstanding Lebanese patron, Hezbollah. In recent years, various reports have suggested that the Hezbollah model was being emulated among groups such as the Houthi rebels in Yemen and the diverse networks of Shiite militias in Syria and Iraq. In an article in The Atlantic analyzing Irans regional goals, Sam Dagher noted on Wednesday that Hezbollah has used the recent flare-up with Israel to brag about supposed unity among the various organizations affiliated with Tehran.

We are witnessing a strategic transformation on the ground, said one commentator on a Hezbollah-run television network. From now on, we cant speak about [the] Syrian army, Hezbollah, Yemeni army, Iraqi army, and Iranian army. We must speak about one resistance axis operating in all theaters.

Dagher went on to observe that Iran seems to be threatening the mobilization of this entire axis in order to secure its own aims in the region, namely a permanent Iranian presence in Syria and Iraq leading to the development of a Shiite crescent under hegemonic Iranian leadership. Israels recent attacks on Syria reportedly came after the incursion of an Iranian drone into Israeli airspace, an act that arguably underscores Daghers observation that Tehran seems to be daring the world to test the pro-Assad axis.

The Islamic Republic has a long tradition of using conflict with Israel as a rallying cry for the unity of Muslim entities under an Iranian banner. Toward that end, Iranian institutions have hosted anti-Israeli cartoon contests and conferences on Holocaust denial, as well as soliciting donations from throughout the Muslim world aimed specifically at arming Palestinian terrorist groups. The Atlantic article suggested that this phenomenon was recurring in the current circumstances, for the sake of solidifying a regional axis that would also serve Tehrans broader foreign policy goals.

The article quoted Ali al-Amine, a Beirut-based expert on Shiite affairs, as saying, Iran is now mainly preoccupied with Syrias future and cementing its share of influence and power in the Arab world. The enmity with Israel is simply the card it will use in negotiations to achieve its goals.

These goals have been the subject of numerous warnings by the administration of US President Donald Trump since he assumed the Oval Office last year. Those warnings were predictably reiterated in the wake of last weekends Israeli strikes. On Thursday, the website Bridges for Peace called attention to a statement that had been presented to the United Nations Security Council by US Ambassador Nikki Haley in the wake of the incident.

The statement declared that the Iranian drone incursion should serve as a wake-up call for all of us regarding Irans long-term designs for Middle Eastern hegemony. Haley also called attention to Irans status as the worlds leading state sponsor of terrorism, and she observed that instability always follows when Hezbollah or other Iran-backed forces establish a foothold in a given area. As well as blaming the Islamic Republic for increasing the risk of broader escalation in the now seven-year Syrian conflict, Haleys statement recalled attention to human rights abuses allegedly perpetrated by the Assad regime and said that advisers from Iran and Hezbollah were guilty of helping direct those atrocities.

While the White House presumably did not need the recent clash as an excuse to repeat its longstanding criticisms of the Iranian regime, there may have been a more significant impact of the recent developments in the form of justification for renewed criticism among Americas European allies. And to the extent that the Iranian drone incursion has had this effect, the subsequent rhetoric from Hezbollah and its affiliates can be expected to further extend this phenomenon.

Although the nations of Europe have been somewhat at odds with the White House over the future of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the more general European tone toward the Iranian regime has seemingly grown more confrontational in recent months. The government of France in particular has moved closer to the American positions on matters like Irans hegemonic ambitions and its missile program, both of which were simultaneously highlighted by the recent rhetoric from Hezbollah and also from Iranian officials themselves.

On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron once again made public statements calling for international monitoring of Iranian activities related to the development and testing of ballistic missiles, some of which would be capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Macron also addressed the issue of Irans provision of missiles to entities in Yemen and Syria, noting that this was a security concern for French allies.

The Iran Project reported that Bahram Qasemi, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, responded on the following day by reiterating Tehrans rejection of any discussions over the countrys military capabilities. Qasemi even went so far as to boast of the supposed effectiveness of the nations military in combating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, among other regional threats. Undoubtedly, [other] countries should appreciate the efforts by the Islamic Republic of Iran, he said.

These sentiments were repeated this week by other Iranian officials. For instance, Ali Akbar Velayati, a leading advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, spoke to the media on the topic of Iranian missiles following a meeting in Tehran with the head of the European Parliaments Foreign Affairs Committee. According to Fars News Agency, Velayati said that such issues were no business of foreigners, who would not be allowed to interfere in matters related to Irans military development.

The same report quoted Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the lieutenant commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, as disregarding any connection between the missile issue and the nuclear agreement. Although restrictions on Iranian ballistic missiles were left out of the text of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action at Irans insistence, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution at the time of that deals implementation calling upon the Islamic Republic to avoid work on all nuclear-capable weapons.

The weak language of that resolution, combined with its distance from the JCPOA itself, has been a major point of contention for Western critics of the nuclear deal. President Trump has given the US Congress and European allies until mid-May to finalize parallel agreements that would put more pressure on Iranian missile activities and regional interference. In absence thereof, Trump has promised to halt the renewal of economic sanctions suspended under the deal.

Hezbollah and Tehrans recent boasting about missile capabilities can be expected to strengthen the criticisms that are so closely associated with assertive White House policies. But those same remarks are indicative of Irans persistent refusal to compromise. When nuclear negotiations were nearing their end, it was widely reported that Supreme Leader Khamenei had barred his subordinates from negotiating with Western powers over anything other than the Iranian nuclear program. This posture of non-cooperation was reiterated last Saturday by Salami, who said that because the Iranian missile program is unrelated to the nuclear deal, Tehran will never hold talks about it.AAFCAs 9th Annual Awards Celebrates Black Excellence in Cinema, TV & New Media

Recently, the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) held its 9th Annual awards ceremony at the Taglyan Complex Theatre in Hollywood to honor the best in Black cinema, television and new media. Founded by Gil Robertson, AAFCA is unique in that it both honors and provides opportunity for Black filmmakers and creatives.

This extraordinary night of Black excellence began with an elegant cocktail hour followed by red carpet interviews and a full course spread during the award ceremony. Special guests included Mike Epps, Laz Alonso, Sherri Shepherd, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Keegan Michael-Key, Tristan Mack Wilds, the cast of Queen Sugar and more. Ava DuVernay, Rob Reiner, Jordan Peele and Frances McDormand were among distinguished honorees.

As a woman of many firsts, namely the first Black female to win Best Director at Sundance and the first Black female to score an Oscar nod, its a no brainer that Ava DuVernay would receive AAFCAs Innovation Award. DuVernay, who has amassed large amounts of success as a major player behind the scenes, says she is grateful for AAFCAs support and most thankful for the viewers who meet her at the place of creativity to watch her films.

I was a publicist before I was a filmmaker and AAFCA used to be my client. AAFCA continued to support me when I made my very first film for $50,000, DuVernay said. This is an innovation award and its incumbent upon us to get outside of our boxes. Jordan has done that, Ryan Cooglers doing that, Dee Rees is doing that, so many of us in this moment, DuVernay declared.

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As Director of the upcoming film A Wrinkle in Time, starring Oprah Winfrey, DuVernay says that its critical Black filmmakers and content creators continue to stand together to push our narratives forward. It only works if theres an audience to meet us where we are, so I just want to thank you all for always supporting my stuff, for showing up, she added.

Jordan Peele received AAFCAs Horizon Award, and said it was quite the honor to have it placed in his hands by his partner in crime Keegan Michael-Key. Peele said the sketches that he and Keegan developed were designed to spark conversation and as a by-product helped guide the thought process for Get Out.

We had this idea that if we could identify the sketch we had never seen, we could identify the thing that was missing from our culture, that we could fill that void, and that whatever happens, people would be talking. It would give people a context and ability to talk about the issues in a new way, Peele said.

Peele also said that he designed Get Out as a horror film, because its a genre that allows viewers to face their fears. As Black people, we are subjected to horrors everyday, so despite the fact that we did not see the representation of our ideas, of our faces, of our point of views on screen, we are a loyal horror film audience, so I wanted to fill that gap, Peele said. And the best part of watching Get Out is hearing Black people in the theatre, Peele said jokingly.

As the night continued, the Sentinel also spoke with one of AAFCAs event sponsors from OneUnited Bank, Teri Williams. As the President and COO of OneUnited Bank, we asked Williams about her thoughts on the Black Panther film and how Black communities can work more cohesively to build economic and generational wealth.

My belief is that theres going to be a before Black Panther and after Black Panther, and after Black Panther, we and our children are really going to see [ourselves] as heroes, heroes in our own lives, heroes in our culture, heroes in our Country, heroes in this world, Williams declared.

Its going to be a change in our way of thinking. The whole bank Black, buy Black movement is really going to explode, partially as a function of Black Panther. Why were here today is that film and images are so important and thats another powerful image that well have of ourselves, she continued.

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Sheryl Lee Ralph, the actress best known for her work on the hit-TV series Moesha, also touched on the film and how critical it is to support our own causes, saying its wonderful to show the world how much we celebrate the cradle of humanity, the continent of Africa. Theres nothing wrong with having an organization that shines the light on what is being done in front of the camera and behind the camera, with people, by people, for people of color, Ralph added.

Gil Robertson, the brainchild behind AAFCA, says the night is really about celebrating excellence. Were just happy that tonight we are able to celebrate that excellence through the work of Ava DuVernay, Rob Reiner and Jordan Peele among others, Robertson said. For exclusive interviews from the night, please visit www.lasentinel.net.Assemblymember Thurmond Introduces Legislation To Fund Early Education Programs By Taxing Private Prisons

Assemblymember Tony Thurmond (D-Richmond), introduced a bill that implements a tax on private prisons that operate in California. The tax revenue generated by the bill will fund preschool and after-school programs. Among other benefits to participants, these programs are known to lower the likelihood of incarceration.

Every child deserves an opportunity at a high-quality education, said Thurmond. Students who have access to early education and after-school programs show higher test scores and increased engagement in school. This bill will invest in programs that promote educational equity.

Current active contracts between private prisons and the Department of Correction and Rehabilitation total over $200 million. The proposed corrections budget this year alone totals $12 billion. In comparison, the state spends relatively little on programs known to prevent incarceration.

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Studies show that access to high-quality preschool programs results in a 20% lower likelihood of incarceration. Preschool attendance has also been shown to be a key indicator for attending college and results in higher lifetime income earnings compared to those who did not attend preschool.

Effective after-school programs bring a wide range of benefits to youth, families, and communities. After-school programs have been proven to enhance academic performance, promote physical health, and provide a safe and structured environment for the children of working parents.

This bill supplements existing prison population reduction efforts by focusing on reducing contact with the criminal justice system in the first instance. By providing high-quality early educational opportunities, this bill addresses the school-to-prison pipeline.Black History Month Recognizes: The California Jazz and Blues Museum

The California Jazz and Blues Museum (CJBM) highlights the history of jazz and blues locally and nationally. Local musical artist Barbara Morrison started the museum to educate and inform the community.

Down Degnan in front of [Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center], for a whole half a block was the Sankofa Passage and it had all the stars, African American stars, of jazz and blues, stated Morrison. I said  we need a museum so people can put picture with a face, with a name on that walk of fame.

CJBM opened in April 2017 during Jazz Appreciation Month with performances from established artists such as Stix Hooper of the jazz group, the Crusaders and Charles Wright of the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. Famed pianist and photographer Larry Farrows portrait series A Musician on Musicians: The Photographic Rif was on display along with additional music memorabilia.

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The California Jazz and Blues Museum is a neighbor to Morrisons performing arts center in Leimert Park. The museum welcomes guests with photos galore of jazz and blues artists as well as inspired art. The museum also offers lectures and information directly from artists. Morrison would like to invite the community to come visit the museum, which is a rarity within the already rare arts culture of Leimert Park.

For more information on the California Jazz and Blues Museum or the Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center, please call (310) 462-1439 or visit www.californiajazzandbluesmuseum.comBreaking into the Oil and Natural Gas Industry

As industry insiders tout the growing opportunities for Blacks and other minorities in the oil and natural gas sector, breaking into the industry can still present challenges.

From access to capital and understanding the industry jargon to knowing how and when to pursue business opportunities, the learning curve can be steep.

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The industrys impact on the U.S. labor force is undeniable.

The natural gas industry supported more than 4 million jobs across the U.S. in 2015, from production to end uses such as manufacturing, according to the State of American Energy 2018 report. That number is expected to rise to 6 million jobs by 2040.

When it comes to hourly wages, Black workers also fare better in the oil and natural gas (ONG) industry.

Blacks in non-ONG industries make $20.18 in hourly wages compared to Blacks that work in the ONG industry that earn $24.87 in hourly wages. Whites in non-ONG industries make about $27.77 in hourly wages compared to $32.58 in hourly wages inside the industry.

Blacks with STEM degrees earn about $17 more in hourly wages in the oil and natural gas industry, than they earn outside of the industry, according to a recent RAND report.

Whether youre looking for a career or business opportunities, it pays to be prepared.

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Do your research and learn the business.

Tyra Metoyer, the external mobilization manager for the American Petroleum Institute (API), said that its essential for business owners looking to break into the oil and natural gas industry, to learn as much as they can about the industry, before they start going after contracts.

Being knowledgeable about the supply chain, payment cycles and staying up-to-date about industry-related innovation can really separate new business owners from their competition.

She said that companies also need to think about how they can supply ancillary services to the oil and natural gas industry like financial services, transportation, catering and custodial services.

Networking is important in the oil and natural gas industry.

Metoyer said that job seekers and small business owners have to network at conferences, at trade shows and online.

Keep talking to people and asking questions, said Metoyer. Youve got to find your champions in the industry. Sometimes your champion isnt necessarily the one that opens the door; your champion might be the one that explains something to you that is the key to finding the right opportunity or connecting to the right person.

Metoyer continued: The relationships are critically important; so, network, network, network.

Avoid the pitfalls.

One of the worse things that can happen is for a business to land a big contract, then fail to deliver the goods. To avoid that mistake, Metoyer recommended that minority and women business owners partner with other companies to go after the more complex contracts.

Metoyer also warned against business owners focusing only on Tier 1 direct-to-client business relationships, especially, when they can gain more experience and credibility as a subcontractor.

As the external mobilization manager for API, Metoyer said that she knows that the work she does every single day makes a difference as she connects women, African Americans, Hispanics, young professionals and other diverse communities to opportunities in the oil and natural gas industry whether thats for a job or a business.

API plans to work with its member companies to develop an industry specific supplier diversity education program that will include an oil and gas 101 that will help participants understand the supply chain better and learn additional steps of identifying goods and services that might fit within industry.

Partnering with community groups like the local urban league affiliate or the local chambers of commerce, officials with API said that they also want to establish relationships with community stakeholders to provide training about the ins-and-outs of the oil and natural gas industry and to address some of the challenges that minority and women-owned businesses face.

In addition to the work that we do every day, we spend millions of dollars on research, because we want to make energy cleaner and more efficient, Metoyer said. Were also looking to be safer.

Metoyer said that the ONG industry thrives on innovation.

There are tremendous opportunities especially, when you can bring innovation to us. Thats the challenge, said Metoyer. If you can learn the business and bring innovation to the industry, you can find your place and really make a difference.Catching Up with Artist David G. Brown

In his latest book Barack, Race and the Media: The Obama Legacy, award-winning artist, educator and publisher David G. Brown has accumulated his political cartoons which chronicle the former presidents journey as the first African American President of the United States of America.

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Brown was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in a small town called West Atco in Southern New Jersey one of six siblings. He attended Edgewood Regional High School in Tansboro, New Jersey. Brown went on to attend Richard Stockton State College and earned a BA Studio Arts in 1978. He also attended Philadelphia College of Art where he studied marketing and advertising and Temple University, where he studied business. Brown would later move to Los Angeles and continues to learn having taken several classes at UCLA Extension.

I consider myself a lifelong learner, said Brown. [Im] always looking for opportunities and experiences to grow from.

Brown is a primarily self-taught artist, inspired by his mother and two older brothers who were blessed with natural artistic talent. While in college, he worked for the student newspaper doing editorial cartoons and eventually became an assistant editor for the publication. After graduating, Brown began working for several design studios and advertising agencies.

He has been awarded multiple prestigious merit awards including Best Editorial Cartoon from the National Newspapers Publishers Association (NNPA). Pelican Publishing Company Inc. featured his work in the 2005 thru 2014 editions of the Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year. Hes been awarded numerous PRAME (Public Relations Marketing Excellence) awards, the American Graphic Design, International Davey Silver and Communicator Print Media Awards. Brown is most proud of his NAACP Image award for his book Barack, Race and the Media: Drawing my own Conclusion.

Outside of working on editorial cartoons, Brown teaches and produces award-winning comics. The versatile commercial artist and producer client roster boasts promotional work for Los Angeles International Airport, Automobile Club of Southern California, Warner Bros, city of Los Angeles, Wells Fargo Bank, California African American Museum, ABC-TV and others. In October of 2009, the U.S. State Department and Brazilian Consulate sponsored an art exhibit and cultural exchange visit for Brown to Brazil. In October 2011, he was awarded Stockton Colleges School of Humanities Professional Achievement Award.

The Sentinel had a chance to catch up with Brown recently and talk to him about his career, his latest book and advice for up-and-coming artist.

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Los Angeles Sentinel Newspaper: Who/what were some of your inspirations growing up?

David G. Brown: My mentors include my father, who taught me the value of a strong work ethic and mother who gave me the gift of creativity and taught me to Keep GOD First, believe in yourself and be willing to work hard for what you want. In addition my older brother Tony Brown who is talented painter and illustrator, high school art teacher, co-workers and friends who took the time to care and encourage me.

LAS: Tell me about some of the illustrations/projects you are most proud of.

DB: After the Los Angeles Civil Unrest I was inspired to create the L.A. Phoenix comic book trilogy which launched my book publishing career. As a boy, I read comic books like every other kid, and always wanted to create my own with a black superhero, something I didnt see growing up. But not until after the L.A. riots did I see comics as vehicle to express myself. The mission of the L.A. Phoenix was to show youth there were other ways of dealing with conflict than violence (the unrest). Phoenix uses all non-lethal weapons and focuses on address community issues, such as gang violence, graffiti and drugs. Some of my other projects include: The West Adams District (I published for the Auto Club), Steps to a Drug Free Life, Intersections South Central (CAAM and Auto Club), Simon Rodias Watts Towers, Dying to Smoke (NAACP) and FASTER (Auto Club).

LAS: What led to you doing editorial cartoons? Tell me why you feel editorial cartoons are important to a newspaper.

DB: I started doing editorial cartoons for my college newspaper, then after graduating from college a company newsletter for the design firm I worked for at the time. I think editorial cartoons are important because I feel the role of any editorial cartoonist is to educate, inspire and enlighten his or her audience about issues that impact their community and the world. Images are very powerful and can have a greater and emotional impact on the reader. Unfortunately, especially communities of color, we are living in a society where many of us do not read! Unfortunately, with the decline of the newspaper industry (Editorial cartoonist are primarily employed by newspapers) there are fewer of us. I am one of the only African American cartoonists in the United States that works for a weekly newspaper. The majority of cartoonists on staff for the major newspapers are middle aged White men. Who could care less about issues that impact communities of color or women. All the more reason why my role is important in acknowledging and addressing those issues that are often over looked by the main stream media.

LAS: Tell me about Barack, Race and the Media: The Obama Legacy. What does this book feature and why should people take notice? How long did it take to put this book together?

DB: Barack, Race and the Media: The Obama legacy is a book featuring a collection of political cartoons focusing on the journey and legacy of the first African American President of the United States of American, Barack Hussein Obama depicted from the perspective of a diverse group of political cartoonists. Inspired by the NAACP Image award-winning Political cartoon book Barack, Race and the Media: Drawing my Own Conclusions originally published in 2008. The book will feature the work of Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper cartoonist David G. Brown, Angelo Lopez, Lalo Alcaraz, David Horsey, Tim Jackson and Steve Greenberg. I think it is important for our community and country keep the legacy and efforts of our 44th President alive in our minds. Especially, enlighten of our current leadership in Washington. And not allow them to undo, tarnish or discredit all the positive things that Obama did during his 8 years in office.

LAS: Do you have any advice for up-and-coming artist or cartoonist? What steps do they need to take to have their work seen?

DB: First of all, realize that being a creative, especially an artist, is very competitive, you will have to work very hard and deal with a lot of rejection. If possible, seek out a mentor who is doing what you want to do. Utilize social media to promote yourself and your brand. Most of all, be true to what you believe and your audience will find you!

Brown is a member of the IOTA PHI THETA fraternity, 100 Black Men Los Angeles and the Association of American Editorial Cartoonist. He also serves on the board of directors of the Museum of African American Art Los Angeles, where his primary role is to contribute to the defining of the mission, governing and success of the museum. Brown has one child, Damon David Brown, who is a journalist.

Brown will be having a book signing and artist talk on Sunday, March 11, 2018 @ 2:00 to 4:00 PM at the Museum of African American Art/Baldwin Hills/ Macys 3rd Floor located at 4005 Crenshaw Blvd. in Los Angeles, CA 90008. For more information, please visit www.maaala.org.

For more info on David G. Brown, please visit, http://www.aaeconline.org/cartoonist/profile.cfm/BrownD/Fair Play Charter Aimed at Rooting Out Bias in the Ad Industry

 Fair Play Charter seeks to address perceived bias against Black and Hispanic media owners in the advertising industry.

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., president and CEO of the NNPA, praised the 4As renewed commitment to diversity and inclusion.

The 4As requested that all of their members add the charter to their policies and procedures handbooks.

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The American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) recently issued a Fair Play Charter to its members, in an effort to to recommit to fair and equitable treatment of minority media owners, according to a statement by the organization.

The Fair Play Charter was issued in response to perceived no Hispanic/no urban directives in the media-buying process, which describe a practice in which agencies and the brands they represent make media-buying decisions that are non-inclusive of media owned by or targeted to African Americans or Latinos, the statement said.

Louis Jones, the executive vice president of Media & Data for the 4As, said that Sherman Kizart, the managing director of Kizart Media Partners, and other industry insiders raised 4As awareness about the lack of clarity around some of the decision-making practices in the media buying process. Jones said that, as head of a media agency and as a member of the Media Leadership Council in 2011, he was familiar with the undercurrent of no urban dictates.

Jones said that these situations happen from time to time and that it was important for the 4As and its members to recommit to fairness in their business practices.

It is important that we remain cognizant of unfair treatment and not let it affect industry practices or societal perception, Jones said in a statement about the charter. This is a great step toward raising the bar in the media community.

Founded in 1917, the 4As is the leading authority representing the marketing communications agency business, according to the groups website, and it serves 740 member agencies across 1,400 offices that control more than 85 percent of the total U.S. advertising spend.

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In the statement about the charter, Kizart said that it was a privilege to work with the 4As executive leadership team and their Media Leadership Council to develop the Fair Play Charter and work toward creating equal opportunity access and equal consideration for all media.

Its an important step toward helping to create a level playing field in the trillion-dollar media landscape, said Kizart.

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., the president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, said that the NNPA welcomed the announcement about the charter and 4As commitment to diversity and inclusion in the advertising industry.

We believe that this can be a game changer for increasing awareness about the importance of fairness and equity in how advertising agencies conduct business, said Chavis. African American media companies play a major role in raising public awareness not only on the issues that affect the African American community, but also on those companies and products that affect the quality of life of 47 million African Americans.

The NNPA is the oldest and largest trade group representing more than 200 African American-owned media companies that reach more than 20 million readers in print and online every week.

Jones said that a collaboration between 4As and the NNPA could lead to any number of business opportunities and added that engagement between 4A members and African American owners of media companies could be a great thing.

Chavis agreed.

The NNPA is looking forward to the engagement that will be a fulfillment of the commitment announced by the 4As in the Fair Play Charter, Chavis said.Federal Judge Rules ICE and L.A. County Sheriffs Department Unlawfully Detained Immigrants

A federal judge ruled that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department unlawfully detained thousands of suspected immigrants and denied them bail even for minor offenses on the basis of unconstitutional requests from ICE known as immigration detainers, court papers obtained last week show.

The ruling issued last Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Andre Birotte Jr. entitles class members to injunctive relief and monetary damages and as a result of two lawsuits brought by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and other civil rights groups.

The courts decision vindicates years of work by the Los Angeles immigrant community to challenge the Sheriffs Departments abuses and throws a major wrench in the Trump administrations deportation machine, said Jessica Bansal, litigation director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. Together with the recently enacted California Values Act, this decision is proof that Trumps assault on immigrants faces stiff  and effective  opposition in the streets, the state legislatures and the courts.

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The decision issued in Roy v. County of Los Angeles and Gonzalez v. ICE holds the sheriffs department liable for violating the Fourth Amendment rights of thousands of inmates it detained without probable cause of any crime, including some who were held for days after they should have been released. It also holds that the department unconstitutionally incarcerated thousands of individuals with low bail amounts who would not even have been booked into jail if it were not for unconstitutional immigration detainers.

Members of both classes may be entitled to monetary damages, according to court papers.

For years, the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, the largest law enforcement agency in the United States, callously denied immigrants constitutional protections that universally apply to all other jail detainees  unjustifiably holding them without cause as prisoners, said civil rights attorney Lindsay Battles. This decision holds law enforcement agencies accountable for their anti-immigrant, abuse of their authority.

The decision issued in Gonzalez v. ICE holds that ICEs practice of issuing detainers based on evidence of a persons foreign place of birth and no other information about a persons citizenship or immigration status violates the Fourth Amendment. It also holds that its practice of issuing detainers without obtaining an administrative warrant violates its own statutory arrest authority.

The decision entitles a national class of people currently subject to immigration detainers to relief from their detainers. The court further found that factual issues about certain detainer-related practices of ICE and LASD would require a trial. No date has yet been set in the case.

British filmmaker Duncan Roy filed suit in October 2012, alleging he spent nearly three months in Los Angeles County jails without a chance to post bail.

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This decision is a victory for the constitutional rights of both citizens and non-citizens alike who for years have been subject to unlawful arrest and detention due to ICEs immigration requests, said Jennie Pasquarella, director of immigrants rights and senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Southern California. As the highly polemical `sanctuary city debate continues, this decision further clarifies that the immigration detainers at the heart of that debate are unlawful and that police who honor them violate the constitution.Historically black college fighting for survival in Selma

Tiny Concordia College has been struggling for years, and administrator James Lyons told WSFA-TV it will have to close at the end of the current semester without additional funding.

The board has been looking for an investor with a large amount of money to help stabilize the school financially, he said, but no one has stepped forward. That means a decision to shut down could come within weeks.

That decision has to be made fairly soon. We have an obligation to our students to work with them and try to help them transfer to other institutions, get their financial aid in order, and their student records in order. We also want to help our faculty and staff who may have other job opportunities and try to support them in terms of letter of reference, said Lyons.

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The Selma campus has about 400 students and fewer than 100 employees.

Concordia College was established in 1922. Its the only historically black school in the Concordia University System of the Lutheran Church -Missouri Synod.

Glenn King Jr., dean of business and computer information systems, attended Concordia and hopes it survives.

This institution has built me in to the man I am today. It has impacted my professional career, my personal career as well as my spiritual walk, said King.Homeless Donation Meters Introduced in City

Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar and County Supervisor Hilda Solis fed the first two coins last week into a new homeless donation meter that was unveiled downtown.

The meter, which looks similar to a parking meter, but is bright orange in color and located in Grand Park away from the street, allows people to give loose change or use their credit card for donations that go to an organization which helps homeless people in Skid Row.

The donation meter was one of two that started operating in Grand Park and among six planned for the downtown area in the coming weeks.

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We know that many people want to help, considering the homeless crisis that we have at this time, Huizar said. And oftentimes we get approached by somebody asking for change and it crosses our mind whether we should help them or not  are we feeding their addiction? So having a donation meter will allow people to have an option knowing that the money is going to an organization directly assisting individuals.

The program was designed by Huizars office along with the Flintridge Center, and is based on the centers Real Change Movement, which has similar programs in Pasadena and West Palm Beach, Florida.

Funds collected at the meters and from $3,500 sponsorships of each meter will go to the People Concern, a non-profit that is a lead provider for the City County Community (C3) program in the Skid Row neighborhood that offers services to homeless people.

Huizars and Solis offices are sponsoring the meters in Grand Park, and the other sponsors are the Alexandria Hotel, Hayward Manor Apartments, St. Vincent Jewelry Center and El Pueblo Historical Monument.

Huizar said the program was being organized through he and Solis office but that they hoped to turn it over to a city or county department so that it has a more formalistic, institutionalized approach.

John Maceri, executive director of The People Concern, said the money from the meters are really going to impact peoples lives, with the ultimate goal of moving them indoors into stable housing.

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The IPS Group donated the meters and will be the contractors on the project that the Los Angeles Department of Transportation will work with while coordinating their operation.

The meters have been placed on private property in highly visible areas because the city has some contractual obligations with companies that put up bus stops and other public sponsorships, Huizar said. Grand Park is owned by the county but managed by the Los Angeles Music Center.

People know that its a simplistic way to give. Its not hard, and I think it will move peoples hearts. In fact, my vision is to hopefully see these meters throughout the county, Solis said.

According to the Fintridge Center, the meters in Pasadena that were placed in 2014 generated $4,000 in donations their first year, with the United Way matching the donations.

Los Angeles does not yet have an organization matching donations, but Huizar said he hoped one could be found.How Sweet the Sound Reveals L.A.s Role in Gospel Music History

A new exhibit reveals Black L.A.s key role in the evolution of gospel music. How Sweet the Sound: Gospel Music in Los Angeles uses vintage photographs, video recordings and other memorabilia to tell how African American artists and churches created a global musical phenomenon.

The multi-media presentation is at the California African American Museum in Exposition Park until August 26. The historical display charts the Black religious experience in Los Angeles from 1872 to the early 1970s.

Within that timeframe, a range of innovators and ministries are highlighted for their contributions to the genre. Starting with Biddy Mason, the founder of First AME Church of Los Angeles, the exhibit chronologically spotlights the influence of institutions such as Victory Baptist Church, St. Paul Baptist Church, Mount Moriah Baptist Church and the Azusa Street Revival along with notable ministers affiliated with the Church of God in Christ and AME denominations.

Also, biographical background and artifacts are featured about several gospel music trailblazers including Sallie and Cora Martin, Thomas A. Dorsey, Rosetta Tharpe, the Rev. James Cleveland, Andrae Crouch, Dr. Rodena Preston Williams, Dr. Margaret Pleasant Douroux, Doris Akers and Edna Tatum.

Los Angeles was the epicenter of gospel music that changed the way the country and the world approaches it. The commercial success of gospel music happened here in South Central, said Tyree Boyd-Pates, CAAM history curator and program manager who developed the exhibition with historian Dr. Daniel E. Walker, director of USCs Gospel Music Archive.

Aretha Franklins Amazing Grace is her most successful album of all time and gospel musics most successful album of all time. That happened with James Cleveland and the Southern California Community Choir right in South L.A., noted Boyd-Pates.

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Walker, who wrote the exhibits historical placards, tied gospel musics rise and popularity to the influx of African Americans migrating to Los Angeles, especially during the mid-20th century.

L.A. became a magnet for people to migrate [to]. A lot of them were coming from Chicago, Detroit and the South and I think in that period, especially between the 1940s and early 1970s, demographically its the largest number of Blacks in L.A., he said.

Walker added that many African American migrants were focused on a new start and doing things differently, which resulted in the city becoming a hotbed of innovation for gospel music.

We were innovating musically. When James Cleveland started taking choirs to another level, we were innovating. [With] Andre Crouch, people asked, You can do that with gospel at Carnegie Hall?

Underscoring Clevelands productivity and generosity towards other artists, Walker shared that Cleveland released 198 albums. Sometimes he would do 10 in a year. But, what he was really doing was giving people opportunity. He would put his name on it, go in and lead one song and the rest was their choir. Because it had James Clevelands name on it, it (the album) elevated.

While Boyd-Pates mused that the exhibit may be the first to explore gospel music from a west coast perspective, he also acknowledged that it is not a definitive history or end-all, be-all for gospel music in Los Angeles. Its more of a conversation starter.

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The reason more historical information is not available may lie in the fact that there are few archives or collections about gospel music. Besides USC, Walker explained, There is no space around America thats dedicated to the study and preservation of gospel music.

Boyd-Peters relied heavily on Walker and USCs digital art resources and on the scholarly research of Dr. Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje, emeritus professor and former director of the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive. DjeDje has authored several books and articles on African and African-American music and gospel music in California.

Several decades ago, Dr. DjeDje wrote about the history of gospel music in Los Angeles, so I used her research, statistics and interviews she conducted with many artists in the exhibition, said Boyd-Pates. We used the work shes been doing in the community with the Black church for over 30 years and I thank her. Without her work 30, 40 years ago, the exhibition would not exist today.

Still, the How Sweet the Sound exhibit offers a broad overview of Los Angeles impact on gospel music and both Boyd-Pates and Walker agree that the public will be enlightened by the display.

This exhibition provides an overarching look at how African American migration patterns to Los Angeles ended up changing the world. Our love of music and our spiritual inspiration, not only touched our lives, but they impacted politics, pop culture and the world at large, Boyd-Pates said.

Boyd-Pates and Walker will conduct of the exhibit on Friday, Feb. 16. To RSVP, visit caamuseum.org. To view the USC Gospel Music Archives, visit http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15799coll9.Improving foster care placements by making program more efficient goal of legislation

Last year, California launched a new statewide program for approving individuals to serve as foster caregivers, and the goal was to fix an inefficient, ineffective system.

But since the program has been in place, families have seen huge delays and have not received needed support, causing financial hardship and deterring permanent placements of foster youth.

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Today, Sen. Holly J. Mitchell announced introduction of Senate Bill 1083 to help fix the program, known as Resource Family Approval, to create a more unified, child-centered and family friendly approval process.

Specifically, SB 1083 by Mitchell, chair of the Senate budget and Fiscal Review Committee, would enact the policy changes needed to remove hurdles to timely placements.

Also announced today was introduction of Assembly Bill 2183 by Asm. Blanca Rubio, which would outline funding for families at the time of placement.

We need to do a better job of ensuring young people can thrive by placing them in suitable and appropriate foster care homes that serve their best interests, Mitchell said. If one believes that our children will be tomorrows leaders then we must look through a child-development lens and provide the appropriate resources and policies to get them there.

Rubio agreed, adding, Last years overhaul of the Continuum of Care Reform was long overdue and critical; however, the unintended consequences need to be addressed immediately. AB 2183 provides support to resource parents and the children in their care, fine-tuning the comprehensive goal of the Continuum Care Reform, by preventing financial hardships from causing further trauma to these children.

Fixing the RFA program will bring California back on track, improving the lives of foster youth and families, Mitchell said.Mayor Garcetti and FAME Kickoff Black History Month in Los Angeles

On Sunday, February 11, 2018, First AME Church hosted the 2018 city of Los Angeles African American Heritage Month Worship Service to kick off Black History Month in the city of Los Angeles. Mayor Eric Garcetti kicked off the days event paying tribute to those Black leaders who laid the ground work for not only First AME Church but all of Los Angeles. It is such a privilege to follow in the footsteps of the legendary Mayor Tom Bradley, who paved the way for so many historic moments that we enjoy today here in Los Angeles, stated Mayor Garcetti.

The church was filled with the whos who of African American political leadership and included those currently seeking office in and around Los Angeles and the state of California. Pastor J. Edgar Boyd and First Lady Florence Boyd welcomed and paid special tribute to the members of the California Legislative Black Caucus. Members in attendance included the Southern California contingent of state representatives including State Senator Holly Mitchell, State Senator Steve Bradford, Assemblymember Chris Holden (Caucus Chairman), Assemblymember Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer (former Caucus Chair), Assemblymember Mike Gipson and Northern California Representative Tony Thurmond.

The significance of the tribute to the California Caucus was bolstered by the fact that the Honorable Frederick M. Roberts, the First African American Legislator in the State of California who served 16-years in the California State Assembly, was a member and an officer of First AME Church of Los Angeles. Assemblyman Roberts also authored the bill to establish UCLA.

The worship service concluded with an inspirational message and the Word of God reading by special guest speaker Bishop Clement W. Fugh, president of the Council of Bishops of the AME Church and the Presiding Prelate of the Fifth Episcopal District of the AME Church which encompasses the 14 westernmost States.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and First Lady Amy Elaine Wakeland, along with members of the Los Angeles Consular Corps and officials from the federal, state, county and local governments, all joined in for the U.S. Postal Services special unveiling of the 41st stamp in the Black Heritage stamp series honoring legendary performer and civil rights activist Lena Horne.

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Pastor Boyd of First AME said Lena Horne was a trailblazer in Hollywood for women of color and used her fame as an entertainer to become an important civil rights spokesperson.

The congregation was also treated to a special performance by famed Gospel artist Tremaine Hawkins backed up by the renowned First AME choir.

Very few churches or people can pull together this level of political power for one event. You had Mayor Eric Garcetti, Former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Congresswoman Karen Bass and Congresswoman Nanette Barragon, City Council President Herb Wesson, Councilmembers Curren Price and Marqueece Harris Dawson, all the members of the California Legislative Black Caucus and almost every state and city commissioner present as well as almost every person seeking elected office this year. But First AME is a special place and Pastor Boyd left very little doubt that the African American Community needs to be and will always be included in the political structure of Los Angeles and American History, said Assemblymember Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer former Chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus and current representative of the 59th California Assembly District.Michaels Colyars Momma: The One-Man Show

Comedian, actor, motivational speaker and author Michael Colyar spoke to the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper about his upcoming one-man show titled Michael Colyars Momma. The play unveils Colyars career from humble beginnings to Hollywood powerhouse comedian.

Los Angeles Sentinel: What inspired Michael Colyars Momma?

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Colyar: Ive always wanted to do a one-man show. Ive had so many ups and downs in my life. Even Mike Epps said I should share my story! I started to write down some ideas and found a similar theme. My mother. She was always involved in the stories I told. I realized this wasnt solely about me or solely about my mother. There was a beautiful exchange amongst us both.

LAS: How has your mother impacted your work?

Colyar: My mother started to get ill. I really wanted to do the story while she was still here. She was my biggest supporter. She would walk up to strangers just to share my story. She was life to me. I knew she was aware of my addictions. She never brought it up though. She only offered love and kindness.

LAS: You spoke about your past addictions, how did that impact your career?

Colyar: I was just blowing off money, blowing off friendships, and above all blowing off opportunities. It put my life on hold. Thats what happens when you have an addiction. Its like pressing the pause button. I thought drugs were my joy but then I realized God was. . . That is the type of joy no one can take away from me because no one gave it to me except God. We all have the capability to finding that joy.

LAS: What words of wisdom would you offer for someone?

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Colyar: In my mothers transition, I learned so much more about the quality of life. I had many precious moments with her. Those moments included watching cowboy movies, combing her hair, or just talking to her. My mothers influence on me is everywhere. I would offer to let people know to focus on the truth. If God is not the answer then you are asking the wrong question. Its not about what you get, its about what you see. You have to focus and believe. Between my mother and God I have everything I need. There are a lot of people who may be wealthier than me but aint nobody happier than me!

The highly anticipated show happens on Saturday, Feb. 24 at the Barnsdall Theater in Los Angeles. For ticket information, visit www.brownpapertickets.com.NNPA Foundation Chair Touts the Virtues of the Black Press

The irony of a recent San Francisco Board of Supervisors decision to appoint Mark Farrell, a White venture capitalist, as acting mayor, and how it played out, still rubs Amelia Ashley-Ward the wrong way.

The boards decision resulted in the removal of London Breed from that position, who was the first African American woman to serve in that post.

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Here we are in a city thats supposed to be so progressive and then you watch about 50 White progressives tell this young, Black woman that they dont want her, because shed have too much power and shed have the advantage of running for mayor; thats B.S., said Ashley-Ward, the new NNPA Foundation chair and publisher and owner of the San Francisco Sun-Reporter. When did a Black woman raised in public housing get an advantage over anyone? London Breed isnt begging for hand-me-downs, but this is another reason that the Black Press will live forever, because of injustices like this and my newspaper will keep this on the front page and we are going to call it like we see and no one else will do that.

A single mother, Ashley-Ward raised her son, Evan, alone since he was seven years-old.

His father died when Evan was 15, but Ashley-Wards relentless push to keep her son from being just another statistic has helped him to become an Emmy Award-winning television news writer.

Born in Magnolia, Mississippi, Ashley-Ward and her family moved to San Francisco, where her mother encouraged her to apply for a job at the San Francisco Sun-Reporter; thats where she met the legendary Dr. Carlton Goodlett, who owned the newspaper.

At that time, we were about bringing something back to the community and my mother used to always read the Sun-Reporter, so she said told me to go and I went, Ashley-Ward said.

Goodlett promised her a permanent job once she obtained a college degree.

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In 1979, she graduated with a degree in journalism from San Jose State University, where she also studied photojournalism at San Jose State University.

Goodlett hired Ashley-Ward full-time after she graduated.

I had a flair for writing and I was a photographer, who basically wrote with a camera, said Ashley-Ward. I was sort of a two-for-one deal in that I could write and take pictures.

In just five years and after many achievements and accolades, Ward earned a promotion to the post of managing editor. A decade later, after Goodlett left the newspaper, Ward was promoted to publisher.

Her awards included the 1980 Photojournalism Award from the NNPA; the 1981 NNPA Feature Writing Award; and later, the 1998 NNPA Publisher of the Year.

After taking over as owner and publisher in 1997, Ward received the Woman of the Year award from the San Francisco Black Chamber of Commerce. In 1998, Ashley-Ward won NNPA Publisher of the Year. In 2004, she received the Alumnus of the Year award from San Jose State University, and was the commencement speaker for the universitys journalism department that same year.

In 2005, Ward was selected as Woman of the Year by California State Senator Carole Migden and, in 2008, she was named one of the 49 Most Influential People in San Francisco by 77 magazine.

My work was also published in magazines like People, Jet and Sepia, Ashley-Ward said.

Her belief in the Black Press led to ultimately owning the Sun-Reporter, where Ward prioritizes community news of interest.

She also started organizations like the Sun-Reporter Foundation and was founding president of the Young Adult Christian Movement.

Ward served on the boards of the NNPA and the San Francisco branch of the NAACP.

That background made for an easy segue into her latest role as chairman of the non-profit NNPA Foundation.

I took on the job as chair of the NNPA Foundation, because Im good at event planning and fundraising and, with this being a 501(c3), I see it as a tool, where you can reach out to get the donations that are necessary to keep the foundation running, Ward said. I see the NNPA Foundation, as a critical tool in our struggle for Black America. To keep the doors open for up and coming Black journalists, which is one of the main goals of the foundation.

Ashley-Ward sees the Black Press as vital to African Americans and the NNPA will also be necessary as long as we have racism and sexism in our country, she said. We tell the stories that dont get told anywhere else. The proud grandmother can always count on us to show that talented grandson who is an award-winning athlete or the granddaughter whos the track star.

Ashley-Ward continued: You can read in our papers about who won the schools essay contest and you wont get that in the daily papers.

While newspapers continue to adjust to the Web, Ashley-Ward said its important that publishers dont lose sight of their bread and butter.

Im adapting to the Web and I feel that we are still a few years away from being totally profitable with digital, she said. But, we must understand that we have an obligation to let our advertisers know that we are newspapers. We print newspapers and we cant afford to shut down what weve been doing thats kept the business going.

Finally, Ashley-Ward said shes most proud of her son, who also values the Black Press.

My son is 25 and hes on the computer but hes not shopping or looking at advertisers, she said. Im blessed, because Ive been able to get Evan a solid education at Middle Tennessee State University and he now works for a local top market news station, where hes gotten air time and where hes part of a team that won an Emmy last year for coverage of the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland.

Ashley-Ward continued: I worked hard, even though I had the responsibility of running a newspaper and caring for my employees, I was able to be there for my son and its hard raising a Black male in America, whos targeted by police and crime in the Black community.ORIGINS AND PERSISTENCE OF BLACK RAGE

For the most part, Black rage exists submerged, but for poor Blacks, rage is barely below the surface, primed to explode at any time. So in varying degrees Blacks tend to submerge feelings of rage, but even the more passive explode periodically. Research about Black rage focuses largely on individuals, but examining overt group rage is equally important.

The 21st century began with a widespread, but absurd claim that America is a post-racial society. That mindset, the financial crisis, emergence of ultraconservatism, huge demographic shifts, and Donald Trumps presidency, all tend to obscure any serious consideration of Blacks discontent or subdued rag. But didnt we have a Black president? Understanding the genesis and continuing reality of Black rage is crucial for developing sustainable alternatives to the ill-fated status of Black people in this country.

Todays column revisits excerpts from Black Rage (1968), co-authored by psychiatrists William H. Grier and Price M. Cobbs. It is an unsettling, exhaustive analysis of a closet issue embedded in Blacks behavior since slavery. The book explores the origins and ramifications of Black rage that still beg illumination and are at the heart of unresolved psychological, social and political challenges.

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It begins, What the hell do niggers want anyway? Every other ethnic group has made it up the ladder on its own. Why dont Blacks do likewise? America began building its case when Black men were first sold into bondage. It developed a way of life, an American ethos, and a national lifestyle which included the assumption that Blacks are inferior. Hatred of Blacks has been deeply tied to being an American.

America is rich, powerful and in large measure, built on the backs of Blacks. It has become a violent, pitiless nation, hard and calculating. With the passing of the need for Black laborers, Black people have become useless. They are a drag on the market. There are not enough menial jobs. The facts, however, are simple. Since the demise of slavery, Black people have been expendable in a cruel and impatient land.

The most idealistic social reformer of our time, Martin Luther King, Jr., was not slain by one man. His murderer grew out of that large body of violent bigotry America has always nurtured. To the extent that he stood in the way of bigotry, his life was in jeopardy, his saintly persuasion notwithstanding.

Black men have been so hurt in their manhood that they are now unsure and uneasy as they attempt to teach their sons to be men. They have stood so long in such peculiar jeopardy in America that a Black norm has developed a suspiciousness of ones environment that is necessary for survival.

And Black professionals do not escape racial oppression. If these educated recipients of the white mans bounty find it hard to control their rage, what of their less fortunate kinsmen who have less to protect, less to lose and more scars to show for their journey in this land? The tone (of the book) is mournful, painful and desolate as the psychological consequences of white oppression of Blacks are described. Centuries of senseless cruelty and the permeation of the Black mans character with the conviction of his own hatefulness and inferiority is psychologically crippling and the book attempts to evoke a certain quality of depression and hopelessness in the reader and to stir these feelings. These are the most common feelings tasted by Black people in America.

But Black people have also had to develop a genius for surviving under the most deadly circumstances. They have survived because of their close attention to reality. A Black dreamer would have had a short life in Mississippi. And the preoccupation with religion has been a willing adoption of fantasy to prod an otherwise reluctant mind to face another day. The psychological devices used to survive are reminiscent of the years of slavery and this is no coincidence. Psychologically, Black men face substantially the same danger now as then.

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We should ask what is likely to galvanize the masses into an effective response to psychological oppression. It could happen in any number of ways, but will it be by Blacks finally, and in an unpredictable way, simply fed up with the racism of this country? It will be fired not so much by any one incident as by the gradual accretion of stupidity into national policy.

One might consider the possibility that if the national direction remains unchanged, a requisite conflagration simply might not come about. Might not Black people remain where they are as they did for hundreds of years during slavery?

Such seems truly inconceivable, not because Blacks are so naturally warlike or rebellious, but because they are filled with such grief, such sorrow, such bitterness and such hatred. No matter what repressive measures are invoked against Blacks, ultimately they will never swallow their rage and go back to blind hopelessness. There are no more psychological tricks Blacks can play on themselves to make it possible to exist in dreadful circumstances. No more lies can they tell themselves. No more dreams to fix on. No more opiates to dull the pain. No more patience. No more thought. No more reason.

Black rage remains a submerged reality. Therefore, concerned folks must work together so that the books disturbing, but redemptive, analysis is manifested in new mindsets that ensure, for us, a more secure and prosperous future.

[email protected]Poor Peoples Campaign readies nationwide mobilization

The renewed version of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.s campaign to lift poor people is holding its first national mobilization, with actions and events planned Monday in 32 states and the nations capital.

Poor people, clergy and activists in the Poor Peoples Campaign plan to deliver letters to politicians in state Capitol buildings demanding that leaders confront what they call systemic racism evidenced in voter suppression laws and poverty rates.

Among those who have signed on to the campaign is the Rev. John Mendez, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who recalled protesting in New York City in the 1960s.

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Ive been waiting for almost 50 years for this to actually happen, said Mendez, 68.

The campaign is especially important now because the leaders who dont want to help the poor should not have a free hand to say and do whatever they want and there be no resistance, he said.

Led by the Revs. William Barber of North Carolina and Liz Theoharis of New York, the campaign officially began Dec. 4, 50 years after King started the first Poor Peoples Campaign. King was assassinated a few months later and nobody really picked it up until now, Mendez said.

The letters to politicians call for a new course in government. Our faith traditions and state and federal constitutions all testify to the immorality of an economy that leaves out the poor, yet our political discourse consistently ignores the 140 million poor and low-income people in America, the letter states.

Barber, who will be among the group that delivers letters to the office of House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, said the campaign is building toward a season of direct action and civil disobedience that begins on May 13 and continues through June 21, the anniversary of the slayings of three civil rights workers in 1964 in Philadelphia, Mississippi.

The actions, including a poverty tour, will be followed by more work as part of a multiyear campaign to build power among the poorest and most powerless communities, he added.

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And on Feb. 12 _ the 50th anniversary of the sanitation workers strike that brought King to Memphis, where he was assassinated _ fast-food cooks and cashiers plan to walk off their jobs in Memphis to support higher wages and union rights. Protesters plan to march from Clayborn Temple to Memphis City Hall, the same route the sanitation workers took.

The most important part of the campaign is that the people who are hurting because of poverty and racism are its leaders, Theoharis said. I feel very positive that the real heroes and heroines of our country are coming together to cross all kinds of lines that usually divide us like race, gender, economic status, political party.

Leslie Boyd of Candler has followed Barber since he began the Moral Monday protest movement in North Carolina almost five years ago. Her son, Mike Danforth, was 33 when he died of colon cancer in 2008 because he lacked insurance even though he had a job and couldnt afford the yearly colonoscopies that he needed.

Her hope for the campaign is that it changes what she sees as a national narrative that not only blames the poor for the poverty but uses religion to do so. Too many people believe that if you were a good person, Jesus would bless you, she said.

U.S. Census figures show that the poverty rate among blacks was 22 percent in 2016, while it was almost 9 percent among whites. But in sheer numbers, almost 17.5 million white people are classified as living in poverty, compared to 8.7 million blacks. The U.S. poverty rate was almost 13 percent in 2016.

Its not immoral to be poor, said Boyd, 65. Its immoral to make people poor with our actions as a government and as a people.Post-Katrina debt cleared for four southern colleges

Three historically black universities in New Orleans and one in Mississippi will see about $330 million in post-Katrina debt owed to the federal government cleared under a provision in a congressional budget deal signed by President Donald Trump.

Dillard University, Xavier University and Southern University at New Orleans and Tougaloo College, just north of Jackson, Mississippi, borrowed the money in 2007 from the federal Department of Education as they struggled to deal with crippling blows dealt by Hurricane Katrina.

The New Orleans Advocate reports little of the loans had been paid back in the past decade, as most of the universities tried to regain their footing and boost enrollment. Payments were suspended in 2013 under a provision inserted into a 2012 spending bill by former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu but the five-year loan forbearance period was set to expire in April, putting pressure on the universities. Each potentially faced millions in debt payments to the federal government.

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It wouldve been crippling, said Walter Kimbrough, the president of Dillard University, which borrowed about $160 million after several feet of water inundated its campus.

Xavier University borrowed $165 million through the program, while SUNO took out $44 million and Tougaloo borrowed about $28.5 million, according to U.S. Department of Education data compiled by the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal reported in 2017 that the four institutions together had paid back about $12.4 million.

The loans forgiveness brings to a close years of lobbying by the institutions and politicians from Louisiana and Mississippi. The provision wiping away the debt was included in the budget deals massive $90 billion disaster-relief package primarily geared toward communities devastated in 2017 by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

My predecessor, Dr. Victor Ukpolo, and I have been working with the other three universities for some time to make the case for this forgiveness, said SUNO Chancellor Lisa Mims-Devezin. Attempting to pay off the loan would have caused an additional decrease in available funds and would have required significant budget cuts, termination of programs and employee layoffs.

The chancellor also noted that the vast majority of other Katrina federal loans have already been forgiven.

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This loan forgiveness will allow Xavier University to provide academic excellence to all of our students, today and into the future, said Reynold Verret, president of Xavier University of Louisiana. We would like to thank the members of the House and Senate from Louisiana and Mississippi who worked diligently to secure this legislation so that our historic institution can continue our work of contributing to a just and humane society.

Louisianas congressional delegation, including Rep. Cedric Richmond of New Orleans and Sen. Bill Cassidy, worked with the presidents of the universities on the issue, Kimbrough said.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran, a Mississippi Republican whose committee wrote the bill, played a key role in including the provision in the text.Resentencing and the Decriminalization of Cannabis

The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a motion by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas calling on the Office of Cannabis Management, in collaboration with various Los Angeles County departments and community stakeholders, to develop a countywide plan to facilitate the resentencing of minor cannabis convictions.

Under Proposition 64, certain convictions qualify for reduction or dismissal. However, many people remain unaware that they may be eligible for legal relief, or are deterred by the cumbersome process.

The war on drugs led to decades-long racial disparities in cannabis-related arrests and convictions, Supervisor Ridley-Thomas said. We have a responsibility now to seek widespread reclassification and resentencing for those with minor cannabis convictions on their records, including the destruction of court records for youth.

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This would remove barriers to employment, housing, financial assistance, and deepening social and economic disparities, he added. For many, this is the second chance that was due to them, and has been a long time coming.

The motion, coauthored by Supervisor Hilda Solis, also seeks to prevent the disproportionate enforcement of cannabis-related offenses seen in other jurisdictions post-legalization. In Alaska, for example, while overall cannabis-related arrests fell after legalization, African Americans were still arrested for these offenses approximately 10 times more often than Caucasians were. In Washington, D.C. this racial disparity was closer to 4:1, and in Colorado, 3:1.

Eunisses Hernandez, policy coordinator with the nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance, supported the motion. The act of getting someones conviction reclassified or dismissed off their record removes at least 4,800 barriers that prevent them from obtaining housing, employment and supportive services, she told the Board. Providing post-conviction relief services opens the door for new opportunities that allow people to fully integrate back into their communities after being impacted by the criminal justice system.

She added, Everyone in our communities benefit from having more people eligible for employment and other resources that allows them to support themselves and their families.Rev. Cecil L. Chip Murray Honored at The Black Business Associations Black History Month Awards Dinner

The Black Business Association (BBA), the oldest ethnic business organization in the State of California, will commemorate Black History Month by presenting its Annual Awards Dinner on Saturday, February 24 at the California African American Museum, 600 State Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90037. Reception begins at 6 PM, Awards Dinner at 7 PM.

Rev. Dr. Cecil L. Chip Murray, will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Rev. Murray is a University Fellow, USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture and Pastor Emeritus, F.A.M.E. Church of Los Angeles. He became a nationally known figure in the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and became actively involved in the issues of job-training, homeowner loans, affordable housing, condom distribution, and HIV/AIDS awareness. Rev. Murray started FAME Renaissance, a non-profit organization that focused on economic development.

Held in recognition of Black History Month, this years theme is African Americans in Times of War.

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For more tickets and more information on BBAs Salute to Black History Month Awards Dinner, visit http://www.bbala.orgSuccess On The Way Ask Dr. Jeanette: So, Your Best Friend Is Your Enemy Part 1

Wow! What do you do about that? How did that happen?? How did you find out? It happened over time as your friend studied you, got to know you and your family, visited your home, saw your life style.. Thats another thing my mother used to tell us girls too, Dont let people hang around your home all the time either. Thats what my mother used to say. She used to say, Jeanetta, dont let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. Thats a difficult rule to live by. After all, shouldnt we be able to trust somebodyMae Mae would say, Jeanetta, you just cant trust everybody. And some of the people you trust are the ones who will go behind your back and do you harm. [Now, aint that the truth..] Thats what my mother used to say. We called her Mae Mae. She was a really wise woman, wonderful mother and very intelligent too. So, lets get back to the friend who is the enemy in disguise. Do you remember Bob Marley? Bob Marley was due to sing at a peace rally. He believed that racism and hate could be cured through his music. Someone came to his house and shot him. He walked out on the stage two days later, singing. When asked why, he said the people who are trying to make this world worse are not taking a day off. So, why should I? He has these enormous number of quotes: Dont judge someone just because they sin differently than you. Who are you to judge the life I live? I know Im not perfect and I dont live to be, but before you start pointing fingers, make sure your hands are clean. Dont gain the world to lose your soul. Your worst enemy could be your best friend and your best friend could be your worst enemy. The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively. [Bob Marley quotes online] As I thought more on this subject of friend/enemy, I began to ask myself, How is it that you help a person come up, nurture that person, help them come up [so called] and then the person does something really clandestine? So, as I thought more two words came to my mind: covetous and jealousy. Just to let you know, covetousness and jealousy are close relatives. A person who is covetous wants what you have, not just admires what you have, but actually wants what you have. Covetousness has an inherently jealous component, which could be deadly detrimental if the person doesnt put it in check.

Teach the children.

Jeanette Grattan Parker, Ph.D., Superintendent Todays Fresh Start Charter School; author, speaker, All rights reserved copyright: Will You Marry Me; Inquiring Minds Want to Know. [email protected]

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Feb. 21

Discussion will Feature Filmmakers Kathleen Dowdey and Charles Floyd Johnson, as well as USC Law Professor Franita Tolson

The City of West Hollywoods Human Rights Speakers Series will honor the legacy of civil rights leader John Lewis on his 78th birthday with a screening of the documentary film John Lewis: Get in the Way on Wednesday, February 21, 2018 from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Citys Council Chambers/Public Meeting Room at the West Hollywood Library located at 625 N. San Vicente Boulevard. The films writer/director Kathleen Dowdey and executive producer Charles Floyd Johnson will be joined immediately following the screening by Franita Tolson, USC Gould School of Law professor and voting rights expert, to discuss Congressmember Lewiss civil rights legacy.

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Congressman John Lewis is an icon in the civil rights movement. He continues to be a champion for people suffering due to discrimination, poverty, poor education, police brutality, healthcare inaccessibility, and threats to voter rights, among so much else, said West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman. Despite setbacks, Congressman Lewiss eyes remain on the prize. He is an inspiration to us all in the fight for equality and justice.

At the 1965 Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March, John Lewis, then Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, suffered a skull fracture at the hands of club-wielding troopers and yet continued to embody the movements principle of non-violence, advocating for and winning protections for future marches. Lewis, who turns 78 on February 21, is now considered the conscience of Congress.

John Lewis: Get in the Way follows the life and career of the civil rights hero, congressmember, and human rights champion from his early life as the son of sharecroppers in Alabama to his 50 years of civil rights activism. Through never-before-seen interviews filmed over 20 years, Lewis, a masterful storyteller, tells the gripping tale of his role in these history-making events. The film also features interviews with civil rights activists Andrew Young, C.T. Vivian, Juanita Abernathy and Bernard Lafayette; and congressional colleagues Eleanor Holmes Norton, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Emanuel Cleaver, and Amory Houghton.

Once an activist pushing from the outside, Mr. Lewis is now a determined legislator making noise on the inside. With equal measures of modesty and forcefulness, Congressmember Lewis strives to persuade D.C. power brokers to hear the voices of the unheard.

This is a free community event, but seating is limited. RSVP on the event website at http://bit.ly/2Bpmm4E. Validated parking is available for the adjacent five-story parking structure. This event is co-presented by World Channel and the Impact Media Partners Community Perspectives Film Series.

For more information, please contact Joy Tribble, Arts Technician, City of West Hollywood at (323) 848-6360 or [email protected]. For people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, please call TTY (323) 848-6496.Trumps Parade Plan a Waste of Money

Why President Donald Trump Really Wants a Parade

Now 45 wants a parade. He wants it in November, probably before the mid-term elections. Some see it as move to mobilize his base and stroke his own ego; others actually believe that he wants to celebrate and honor members of the military. Its been reported that he wants the parade, because he saw a parade in Paris on Bastille Day. If he went to the zoo, would he want zebras and tigers roaming the lawn at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue next?

The last parade we had in Washington was in 1991, when we won the Gulf War. That parade cost $14 million ($21 million in todays dollars), and drew 800,000 people. Given 45s propensity for wanting the biggest and the huuuugest, hed probably want to spend twice what George H.W. Bush spent in 1991. That $42 million represents less than a millionth of one percent of the nearly $500 billion federal budget increase that the Senate proposed in bipartisan legislation on February 7. I am among the many who will look askance at the possible cost of a parade. There are lots of things we could do with $42 million, like job creation, small Pell grant increases, or even more amenities for our armed forces. But in the scheme of things, some will argue that $42 million is not that much money; they might suggest that a parade is more about symbolism than anything else.

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What does a show of military might signal in these times? There has been no significant military victory, nothing to celebrate, except 45s already-inflated ego. Frances Bastille Day parade is a response to the fact that France had been invaded twice, most devastatingly by the Germans in World War II. Their parade is as much a show of military might as it is of European unity. These days, troops from several countries, including Germany and the United States, participate in the parade. Some carry the flag of the European Union, even though the EU has no military. Would 45s parade include other countries, or is this exhibition just about us?

Instead of the show of unity that Bastille Day parade represents, 45s parade will likely be a reflection of his braggadocio. His button is bigger, so is his parade, and so is the U.S. military. The presidents parade sounds like a show of muscle, but to what end? Even the inhabitant of the worlds smallest country must know that the U.S. has the worlds greatest military. So, why do we need to show off? Because 45 is a show-off, a blowhard, and an Electoral College-selected buffoon.

Meanwhile, consider the impact a parade might have on the District of Columbia, the used-to-be majority Black city that is mostly occupied by Democrats. How will the streets survive huge tanks rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue, and who will pay for repairs? How extensive will this parade be, and will it happen on the weekend or a weekday? What will it mean for workers, transportation, and the Districts infrastructure? The president could care less about any of it. He passed the hot potato of the parade to the Secretary of Defense, and now General Jim Mattis and his team are stuck with the task. Both Democrats and Republicans have verbalized opposition to the parade, and they are likely to be labeled treasonous by 45, since anyone who disagrees with him, or fails to clap (or bow) when he speaks is obviously a traitor. He is behaving like a despot like his rival, North Koreas Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un.

While 45 finds it convenient to idolize the military and insist that the rest of us do so, as well, he didnt find it convenient to serve in the military. He was excused from military service during the Vietnam era, because he had flat feet or bone spurs or something like that. More than likely, he was excused from military service, because his family had money.

The president wants a parade to celebrate the military and glorify our countrys military might. Next he will want to have someone crown him king. Yes, it is a good thing he doesnt go to the zoo, because we might end up with a menagerie in the backyard at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Julianne Malveaux is an author, economist and founder of Economic Education. Her latest book Are We Better Off? Race, Obama and Public Policy is available to order at Amazon.com and at www.juliannemalveaux.com. Follow Dr. Malveaux on Twitter @drjlastword .Urban Leaguers Are Ready to Fight for a Fair and Accurate 2020 Census

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.  United States Constitution, Article 1, Section 2

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Recently, Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin accused the Trump administration of attempting to sabotage the 2020 Census, and from all indications, we have reason to be concerned.

The Census Bureau has been without a director since June and remains critically understaffed and underfunded.

The Bureau plans to discontinue the practice of hiring non-citizens with legal work permits  who have been crucial in the past for communicating with hard-to-reach non-English-speaking communities.

The administration has rejected requested changes that could improve the accuracy of the 2020 Census, declining to include a combined question format for collecting Hispanic origin and race, or a separate Middle Eastern or North African category on the Census form.

The administrations reported choice for deputy director, Thomas Brunell, is a hyper-partisan gerrymandering advocate with no political experience.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors this week warned in a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, We are troubled by the administrations reported intent to appoint a candidate for Census Bureau deputy director whose body of professional work largely centers around achieving partisan advantage in the use of census data.

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Since census data is used to draw Congressional districts, the choice of Brunell seems a deliberate attempt to skew census data to give one party an unfair advantage in the 2022 elections.

The decennial census is among the most crucially-important undertakings, with far-ranging implications for legislative redistricting, civil rights laws and distribution of opportunities and resources. A fair and accurate census is of paramount importance. The National Urban League has been a powerful advocate for accurate African American representation in the census for generations. In 1970, then-executive director Whitney M. Young testified to Congress about the drastic undercount of African Americans, estimated at 15 percent.

As chair of the Census Bureaus 2010 Census Advisory Committee, I urged the Bureau to expand its paid advertising to areas that have high percentages of hard-to-count residents, who often distrusts of government workers. I also pushed for more census funding specifically targeted at Black communities.

Despite our efforts, the 2010 Census missed an estimated 1.5 million people of color. Unless the Census Bureau makes immediate, drastic changes, the results of the 2020 Census will be much worse.

As part of our efforts, the National Urban League has enlisted civic engagement expert Jeri Green, who will serve as a Senior Advisor for the 2020 Census. In her former position as Senior Advisor for Civic Engagement with the U.S. Census Bureau, Green educated diverse stakeholders on the benefits of Census participation and engaged Hard-to-Count communities to ascertain their unique challenges to obtaining an accurate count.

Politicizing the census, particularly at the expense of the nations most vulnerable citizens, violates the foundational principles of representational democracy. The National Urban League will continue forcefully toWhen The Mainstream Media Covers the Deaths of Black People by the Police

The presence of news media at a recent town hall meeting in South LA to address the deputy-involved killing of unarmed 16-year-old Anthony Weber couldve been a blessing. The grieving family and community had an opportunity to be heard on a national level. An opportunity to say or do what they needed in front of sheriffs department officials with less of a chance of being threatened, beaten, or shot. An opportunity to expose the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Departments actions for what they are  the coverup and justification of the state-sanctioned murder of a Black child.

But as usual in the long history of white-owned media covering Black grief, they were there to consume and exploit. To film and take notes the entire time, but only explicitly publish the parts that discredit the community being harmed. To get clicks and likes with buzzwords like gang member, angry mob, and chaos. And most disappointingly, to uplift the narrative put forward by the very people that killed Anthony Weber, the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. A narrative designed to protect them from liability and justify their actions while the murderer is on paid administrative leave.

For those of us that were present that night, we know that the town hall meeting was not accurately covered. If it was, then the media would be focusing on the fact that Anthonys father asked why the Sheriffs Department is able to confidently say on live TV that his son was a gang member and had a gun, when that is not true. Whenever he asked the Sheriffs Department any questions, their reply was always, We cant discuss that since this is an ongoing investigation.

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But then why are they able to discuss details that discredit his son on TV during an ongoing investigation with absolutely no evidence to support them? Isnt that the kind of hard-hitting question a good reporter would want to ask?

How about, why wasnt the family given any details about Anthonys death, yet a press conference was held where they went as far as to play the 911 call for the public? That is a question that was brought up at the town hall meeting and left unanswered by the Sheriffs Department. Could they, as investigative reporters, not have researched and reported on that? How about when Anthonys brother asked people in the room to stand if they were there because they cared about Anthony and everyone stood up except for the Sheriffs Department representatives? Is that not the kind of controversy that gets clicks and reactions? How about when Anthonys brother described how he was handcuffed and put in a police car while his brother was dying on the concrete and the deputies told him, Fyour brother  is that not newsworthy?

There is one part the news media did grasp onto. When the audience got so fed up of not being answered and being disrespected that they stood up and raised their voices  but they didnt accurately describe why. Some of them didnt even attempt to describe why.

If they need an explanation as to why that happened then theyre in the wrong line of work.

Its hard for us to believe that they dont know the crisis of police violence in Black and Brown communities. That deputies consistently get away with killing unarmed Black children. That when the brother of the deceased asked, Based on the information that youve collected, do you think were due something? and Captain Christopher Bergner replies, Absolutely not, that is NOT OKAY  and its also not because he was misheard.

The only explanation left is that they accept that their job is just a mechanism to uphold white supremacist systems and condone the killing of Black children.

Instead of gang member the could have used child.

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Instead of angry mob they could have used grieving community.

Instead of chaos they could have used completely rational response to the murder of a 16-year-old.

Instead of the Sheriffs Department said they could have used the family and community said

Instead of catering to racists and opportunists, they could have catered to justice and peace for the family.

If reporters have further questionsand they shouldthey should reach out directly to the affected family, community or local organizations doing the work.

Its that easy. Somehow, the Black media is capable of doing that in every story.

Perhaps their careless reporting is due to the fact that there is no diversity in their newsrooms.

Well leave you with the words of Amber Marie, whose 17-year-old nephew Armando Garcia was shot to death by deputies earlier this summer.

They always try and justify shooting teens by portraying them as gang members because they know once the community hears theyre part of a gang they wont give a damn that these cops murdered a child!!! My heart goes out to his familyMy family and I know what theyre going through and the pain theyre enduring.

The same Captain Christopher Bergner who said that Anthony Webers family wasnt due anything from the Sheriffs Department, claimed the deputies were trying to shoot a dog and that the bullets ricocheted off the ground when they killed Armando Garcia. The media also initially reported him as a suspect and gang member.

Jasmyne A. Cannick is a nationally known writer and commentator on politics, race and social issues. She was selected as one of Essence Magazines 25 Women Shaping the World, one of the Most Influential African-Americans in Los Angeles Under 40. Follow her on Twitter @Jasmyne.

Patrisse Khan-Cullors is an artist, organizer and freedom fighter living and working in Los Angeles. Founder and board chair of Dignity and Power Now and co-founder of Black Lives Matter, she is also a performance artist, a Fulbright scholar, a popular public speaker and author of her New York Times best-selling memoir, When They Call You a Terrorist.

A police official in the American state of Florida says 17 people have died in a shooting attack Wednesday at a high school.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel says police have arrested the suspected shooter. He says the 19-year-old suspect is a former student of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The attack began minutes before the end of the school day.

The attack is the deadliest school shooting in the United States since 2012, when 20 students were killed at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Israel said the suspect had been expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons. The official said the man had at least one rifle and several magazines. Israel said most of the deaths happened inside the building.

One man said he watched as officers arrested the suspect.

Michael Nembhard told The Associated Press he was watching television news reports of the shooting when he heard yelling. He said it was a police officer repeatedly ordering the suspect to get down on the ground!

Nembhard said he saw a teenage boy on the ground about 130 meters away. An officer was pointing a gun at him. The officer stood over the boy until other officers arrived, handcuffed him and led him away.

A federal official, who spoke on condition that he would not be identified, said the suspects name is Nikolas Cruz.

The White House canceled its daily press briefing after news of the attack. President Donald Trump spoke with Florida Governor Rick Scott about the shooting. Trump wrote on Twitter that the White House is working closely with law enforcement on the terrible Florida school shooting.

Earlier, Trump tweeted his condolences to the families of the victims.

His spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said Trump has offered Florida federal assistance, if needed. The homeland security secretary has also been in touch with state and local officials.

Sanders said, We continue to keep the victims, and their friends and family, in our thoughts and prayers.

Caty Weaver adapted this story from AP news reports. Hai Do was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

disciplinary - adj. intended to correct or punish bad behavior

rifle - n. a type of gun with long barrel

magazine - n. part of a gun that holds bullets

handcuff - v. to put handcuffs on someone (a set of two metal rings that are joined together and lock a person's wrists)Writer, actor and activist Eve Ensler has spent her adult life working to support women and womens causes around the world.

For years, Ensler has visited war zones -- areas of extreme violence. In 2007, she was invited to the Democratic Republic of Congo. She developed an especially close connection with victims of rape and torture there.

I think what really struck me about the Congo was the kind of synergistic cauldron of colonialism, capitalism, racism, insane misogyny. You know all of those violences kind of being enacted on the bodies of women.

She worked with Congolese activists to create a womens leadership community for survivors of gender violence. The shelter, called City of Joy, opened in Bukavu in 2011.

And it's almost impossible building something in the middle of a war zone. You don't have roads, you dont have electricity, you don't have...It was madness."

Then, her own life was upset with frightening news. Doctors discovered she had uterine cancer.

The alchemy of it all was just: you know, change or die.

Medicine to memoir

Ensler turned months of difficult treatment -- and years of painful memories -- into a book called In the Body of the World: A Memoir of Cancer and Connection.

Tony Award-winning director Diane Paulus read the book and wanted to make it a one-woman show.

I thought it was some of her best writing because it was signature Eve. Philosophy, politics, feminism, all told through humor and her point of view, which she does not shy away from. But it was so deeply personal.

So,the director met with Ensler and they soon began an intense process to make a play from the book.

In the Body of the World moves between Enslers fight with cancer, her painful family history, and her connection to women and nature in the outside world.

Ensler says her own experiences with rape and abuse caused her to mentally disconnect from her body.

I think my whole life, not only have I been trying to get back into my body, but I've been really working to find ways to support women coming back into their bodies. And cancer did the trick, as well as building City of Joy because those two things together  you know, we were building a place where women could come back into their bodies.

The show, which recently opened in New York City, has received critical praise. But it is a difficult performance series. Ensler says the play will not travel, unlike her most famous work, The Vagina Monologues.

A play that launched a movement

Ensler wrote The Vagina Monologues in 1994 as a celebration of women. But she says the purpose changed over time, becoming a movement to stop violence against women.

Twenty years ago, on February 14, or Valentines Day, the first V-Day was held. That day, productions of the play in theaters, colleges, and even living rooms, raised millions of dollars toward womens causes.

Im Caty Weaver.

Jeff Lunden reported this story for VOANews.com. Caty Weaver adapted his story for Learning English. Her report also has information from the Associated Press. George Grow was the editor.

Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

capitalism  n. an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market

misogyny  n. a hatred of women

gender  n. the state of being male or female

madness  n. behavior or thinking that is wild, foolish or dangerous

alchemy  n. a power or process that changes or transforms something in a mysterious or impressive way

signature  adj. closely associated with someone or something: making a person or thing easy to recognizeWhen a child feels sick, one of the first things a parent does is reach for a thermometer.

That common reaction got one man thinking.

Inder Singh is a health policy expert. He wondered what if the thermometer, in addition to measuring body temperature, could serve as a communications device? Could it then connect people with information about infections and gather real-time data on diseases as they spread?

That is the idea behind Singhs health data business. The San Francisco-based company, called Kinsa, sells smart thermometers.

Worst flu season in years

Many people in the United States are sick with influenza this winter. In fact, this is reported to be the countrys worst flu season in 15 years.

Over the past several weeks, Kinsa has been following the spread and severity of flu-like symptoms across the country. The company says its findings are similar to those reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Singh told VOA that the CDC collects information about the spread of the flu from state and regional reports. But he adds Kinsa is able to identify high rates of infection in even smaller areas or by cities.

Fast and detailed information about how disease is spreading can make a difference during a health crisis.

Singh said, If you knew when and where a disease was starting, you could target the people who needed the treatment and potentially prevent pandemics and epidemics from occurring.

How the smart thermometer works

A Kinsa thermometer sells for anywhere between $14.99 and $49.99 in the U.S.

Users connect the device through Bluetooth wireless technology to a smartphone app. The software program asks questions about a persons condition. The users personal information is kept private, the company said.

With its thermometers in 500,000 homes nationwide, Kinsa says it receives 25,000 temperature readings every day.

The company cannot identify diseases or recognize differences between different kinds of diseases.

But from gathering data about individuals body temperatures and other information, Kinsa can report where flu-like symptoms are rising. In recent weeks, it found the flu has infected many people in two states: Missouri and Kansas.

Selling aggregated data

In addition to selling thermometers and advertising on its app, Kinsa makes money by selling data to businesses. Singh says that his company removes any personally identifiable information.

The buyers, such as drug companies, want to know where and how sickness is spreading. They fill stores with products and change marketing plans if they know how a sickness is progressing.

Kinsa has launched a program in schools, where it gives away thermometers, so parents can learn about the general health of the community. The company is also starting an effort with some U.S. businesses, which buy the smart thermometers for their employees. When an employee has a high temperature, Kinsa can inform the person about available health care assistance.

Currently, Kinsa thermometers are sold just in the United States. But the company plans to sell them overseas.

Imagine a living breathing map where you can see where and when disease is spreading, Singh said. Thats what we want.

Im Jonathan Evans.

Michelle Quinn and Deana Mitchell reported this story for VOANews.com. George Grow adapted their report for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

thermometer  n. an instrument used for measuring temperature

data  n. facts or information that is produced or stored on a computer

smart  adj. controlled by computers

symptom  n. a change in a persons health which is a sign of a disease

regional  adj. related to or involving a part of a country or state

pandemic  n. an event in which a disease spreads quickly and affects many people over a wide area

epidemic  n. an event in which a disease spreads quickly and affects many peopleThe Lunar New Year begins February 16. It is one of the biggest and most important holidays in Asia.

In China, it is called chun jie. In Vietnam, it is known as Tet. And in Korea, it is Seollal.

While the names may be different, these and other countries mark the coming year with many similar activities: family reunions, festivals, cleaning and organizing the home, the color red, and -- of course -- traditional foods.

Today, we learn about five foods considered lucky during the Lunar New Year.

Spring rolls

The Chinese name for the holiday means spring festival in English. And spring rolls -- a common New Years food  are named in honor of the holiday.

Spring rolls are often made of finely cut vegetables, such as carrots and cabbage, and pork meat. They are wrapped in dough that turns crispy and golden as it fries. To fry is to cook in oil over high heat.

The fried spring rolls are said to look like large pieces of gold. The food is a symbol of wealth and financial success for the coming year.

Vietnamese red sticky rice

In Vietnam, one food you will find during Tet is orange-red sticky rice. The special dish is called xoi-gac. It is made with gac, a fruit that only grows in Asia. In English, it is known as baby jackfruit.

The inside of the fruit is a beautiful, deep red. This gives xoi-gac its orange-red color. And it is the food's color that makes it especially popular during Tet; red represents luck, happiness and celebration in many Asian cultures.

Xoi-gac is made by steaming white sticky rice with the fruit, coconut milk and sugar. The result is an exceptional, sweet taste.

Korean rice cake soup

No Korean New Year celebration is complete without tteokguk, or rice cake soup.

Eating a bowl of it is said to bring a person a long life. Eating tteokhuk also represents growing another year older. In fact, Koreans may ask a person their age by saying how many bowls of tteokguk have you eaten?

The soup includes broth, vegetables and thin, round pieces of rice cake. The round shape it said to symbolize old Korean money. So, tteokguk is said to bring riches, too.

Radish cake

While Koreans celebrate the New Year with rice cake, people in Taiwan do it with radish cake. A big reason? In the Hoklo language spoken in Taiwan, the words for radish and good fortune are homophones, or words with different meanings that sound the same.

Radish cake is made with thinly cut pieces of radish, rice flour, fatty meat, spices, shrimp and dried mushrooms. It is cut into pieces and fried. The result is a savory snack.

This dish can be easily found all year long. But, it is said to bring good luck for the next 12 months if you eat radish cake around the Lunar New Year.

Fish

In many places in Asia, fish is another lucky food for the New Year. And there is another homophonic connection in China. The Mandarin word for fish (yu) sounds like the word for surplus, which means more or extra.

So, fish also symbolizes wealth. As a New Year's dish, it is often steamed with ginger and soy sauce and topped with greens, like cilantro and spring onions.

But do not eat all of the fish. To be especially lucky, there should be some left for a meal the next day. That suggests your riches will continue throughout the new year.

Happy New Year to all!

Im Ashley Thompson.

And Im Caty Weaver.

Do you celebrate the Lunar New Year? If so, what are some of the lucky or traditional New Year foods where you live? Let us know in the comments section!

_________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

dough - n. a mixture of flour, water, and other ingredients that is baked to make bread, cookies, etc.

steam - v. to cook, heat, or treat (something) with steam

crispy - adj. pleasantly thin, dry, and easily broken

broth - n. liquid in which food (such as meat) has been cooked

symbolize - v. to be a symbol of (something)

savory - adj. having a spicy or salty quality without being sweet

snack - n. a small amount of food eaten between mealsSouth African President Jacob Zuma has resigned, in his words, with immediate effect.

He made the announcement in a 30-minute speech on national television late Wednesday.

The 75-year-old Zuma had been under strong pressure from his ruling African National Congress, or ANC, to leave office before the end of his term.

Zuma said he would resign although he disagreed with the instructions of the ANC to leave office immediately. In his speech, he said the party should observe the constitution in its efforts to remove him.

The party was set to hold a no confidence vote on Thursday to remove him from office.

Zuma has faced eight no confidence votes and survived each one.

However, years of corruption accusations had left the South African leader with fewer and fewer allies.

The ANC also has seen its support drop as the accusations of corruption continued.

Earlier Wednesday, Zuma gave an interview on South Africas state broadcaster SABC. In it, he said party leaders had not given him a clear reason for why he should resign.

Zumas earlier position had been that he wanted to remain in office for several additional months.

After the announcement, the ANC expressed gratitude for Zumas loyal service. The party is calling on its members to support Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Reports say Ramaphosa is expected to be elected in a parliamentary vote and sworn in soon.

Ramaphosa replaced Zuma as president of the ANC in December.

Im Jonathan Evans.

Mario Ritter adapted it for VOA Learning English from AP Reuters and VOA sources. Hai Do was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

confidence - n. the feeling of being certain that something will happen or that something is true

gratitude - n. a feeling of appreciation or thanks9 hours ago

US stocks can't hold on to an early gain and resume falling

Banks and energy companies led a broad slide for stocks on Wall Street Tuesday, handing the S&P 500 its sixth loss in the last seven trading days. The S&P 500 fell 0.6% after an early gain faded by midafternoon.

Read ArticleCambodian lawmakers yesterday unanimously approved changes to the criminal code and the constitution that can further limit free speech and political activities, already under stress from the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

All 123 members of the National Assembly approved the changes to the criminal code making lese majeste  insulting the monarchy  a criminal offense punishable by a fine and up to five years in prison. A court dissolved the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party last year at the governments behest, and its lawmakers have been replaced in the assembly by ones who support the government.

The broadly worded constitutional amendments ban foreign interference in Cambodian affairs and political activity that could be harmful to the national interest.

Hun Sen has been in power for three decades, and while maintaining a framework of democracy, tolerates little opposition. In the past year, the government cracked down severely on its opponents and critics, relying on the courts  widely considered to be under the influence of the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party  to uphold criminal complaints it has lodged. In addition to dissolving the main opposition party, almost all critical media outlets have been shut down.

The government has said the lese majeste law is needed to protect the honor and reputation of the king.

King Norodom Sihamoni, 64, is a constitutional monarch who maintains a low profile and plays a minimal role in public affairs, while Prime Minister Hun Sen exercises almost absolute control over politics.

Earlier this month, the human rights group International Commission of Jurists condemned the Cabinets approval of the lese majeste legislation, saying it appears to be a further attempt by the government to weaponize the countrys legislation against its perceived opponents. APMacau and Hong Kong have reached an agreement regarding the circulation of private vehicles on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HKZMB) and the number of vehicle quotas to be allocated per city.

The Macau government announced yesterday that there will be a quota of 600 Macau- registered private (non-commercial) vehicles to travel to and from Hong Kong once the HKZMB is launched.

Among the 600 permissions under the cross-boundary initiative, a total of 500 will be valid for one year and the other 100 will have a six-month validity.

The regular quota for Hong Kong private vehicles entering Macau, via the cross-delta bridge, is set at 300 permitted vehicles, each with a three-year validity.

Macau and Hong Kong-bound vehicles registered under the regular quota initiative will have unlimited access to the neighboring Special Administrative Region (SAR). The Transport Bureau will soon announce more details regarding the arrangements for the relevant Macau- registered vehicles.

According to a statement issued yesterday by the Government Information Bureau, the Macau and Hong Kong authorities have reached consensus on the topic, with a view to promoting closer ties between the two SARs on economic and trade matters, and in terms of people-to-people exchanges.

Once the bridge is launched, Macau-bound users of Hong Kong-registered vehicles that have not been registered under the regular quota initiative will have an option to apply to join a transit scheme. Under it, drivers of Hong Kong-registered vehicles wishing to enter Macau via the bridge will be required to register in advance and reserve a space in a particular car park, which will have a total of 3,000 spaces for private vehicles.

This car park is at the eastern end of the artificial island that also accommodates the Macau boundary crossing checkpoint, which is the Macau end of the bridge.

Hong Kong motorists, who are registered under the transit scheme, will not be permitted to drive directly into Macau. The registered Hong Kong motorists will be able to travel into Macau from the car park using public transport services.

It was also announced that drivers must follow mainland Chinese traffic rules by keeping to the right if they were to cross the HKZMB linking the three cities. Regardless of origin or destination, tolls on the bridge will be paid in renminbi, while non-cash payment methods include bank cards, as well as electronic wallets Alipay and WeChat Pay.

There will be a total of 140 shuttle buses travelling two routes: Hong Kong-Macau and Zhuhai-Hong Kong. Initially, such bus routes will depart with a frequency of every 10 minutes, while the authorities work to consider the possibility of shortening this time to three to five minutes according to future needs.

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HKZMB) is expected to open in the second quarter of this year.

Insurance must cover three regions

The Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) stated yesterday that with the agreements reached by the governments of Macau and Hong Kong regarding the circulation of private vehicles, vehicle owners are required to have a valid road insurance covering the cities in order to use the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HKZMB). According to AMCM, vehicle owners need to possess a valid road insurance, according to the laws of each of the three jurisdictions, [which will be valid] in the areas of the corresponding region and according to their driving destination.

The AMCM also warns, citizens should plan their trip schedule in advance, acquiring insurance for the area of the corresponding region, before entering the bridge, reminding that local insurance companies are prepared to help in the acquisition of a vehicle insurance that is valid for the other two regions (mainland and Hong Kong).

According to AMCM, the insurance associations of the three regions will also create a thematic webpage about motorized vehicles insurance, aiming specifically to inform on the special characteristics and needs of the HKZMB.The representation of Macau in Hollywood cinema during its colonial times is the title of an upcoming conference at Portugals Museum of the Orient on February 18.

The conference will be the last of a series of events featuring Macau as the main topic, the Fundacao Oriente informed in a press statement.

According to the information provided, during the period known as Estado Novo, (New State) in Portugal, Macau was the most prominent Portuguese colony in North American film fiction, serving as a location for more than a dozen movies revolving around crime and adventure.

Its ancestral reputation as a place of exotic vices and the typical Hollywood fascination with Eastern-style narratives contribute to the prominence of Macau in these genres, reflecting the geopolitical context of the territory at that time.

Most of the films were produced in the 1950s, reflecting the fact that the colony was simultaneously situated on a cold war frontier and dominated by a power outside the Bretton Woods monetary management system. These elements contributed to the prominent storylines of espionage and smuggling.

These are precisely the topics that Rui Lopes  who holds a doctorate in International History and is a researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History of Nova University  proposes to analyze, seeking to unpack the context in which these productions emerge and the implications of these fictional stories on the portrayal of Portuguese colonialism in the region.

After the conference, the film Sisters by Tracy Choi will be screened, closing the series titled Macau Cinema. Past and Present.

Both the conference and the film screening will be held in the Museum of the Orient, with free admission.China appealed to President Donald Trump yesterday to avoid disrupting trade and to settle steel and aluminum disputes through negotiation after Trump said he would decide whether to impose tariffs or quotas.

U.S.-Chinese trade is mutually beneficial and disagreements are inevitable, said foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang. He said all governments should spare no effort to avoid negative impacts on the global recovery.

Trump said Tuesday he is considering all options in response to complaints Chinese steel and aluminum being sold at improperly low prices threatens American jobs. Speaking to legislators, the president said he might take action on national security grounds.

We should see these differences in a reasonable and objective manner and properly handle and manage them through dialogue and consultation following the principle of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, said Geng.

Trumps government has raised tariffs on Chinese-made aluminum foil and stainless steel to offset what Washington says are improper subsidies. Last month, Trump also approved higher tariffs on solar cells and washing machines from China.

Steel and aluminum are among industries in which Beijing is trying to reduce excess production capacity other governments say are flooding their markets and threatening jobs. Despite that, steel output has risen while aluminum producers are setting up new, more efficient smelters.

Trump said the U.S. aluminum and steel industries are being decimated by dumping He said if the U.S. were ever in a military conflict, we dont want to be buying steel from a country that were fighting.

The U.S. Commerce Department announced in November it would investigate whether Chinese aluminum producers receive improper government subsidies. It estimated prices were 56 to 60 percent below the proper level. APIs Saudi Arabia serious about shaving off its reputation as a promoter of ultra-conservatism across the globe? That is what can be deduced from its surprise decision to hand over to local authorities control of Belgiums largest mosque, often labelled as a cradle of extremism in Western Europe.

Giving up control of the mosque came in the wake of the extremist attacks by locally radicalized youth and the rise in numbers of Belgian foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq.

The Saudi decision was also taken against the backdrop of rising voices in Belgium denouncing the alleged intolerance that was being propagated by the mosques Saudi administrators.

Belgium leased the Grand Mosque to Riyadh in 1969, giving Saudi-backed imams access to a growing Muslim immigrant community in return for cheaper oil for its industry.

Riyadhs quick surrendering of control over the mosque is indicative of a willingness in the Kingdom to clean up its image as a cradle of Wahabism, one of the most extremist interpretations of Islam.

The move was also seen as part of the liberalization drive in Saudi Arabia, spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman.

As part of a number of other economic and social reforms, Saudi Arabia announced it will re-open movie theaters after a 35-year ban and a royal decree enacted womens right to drive.

More recently, a Saudi cleric said women shouldnt be forced to wear the abaya, a loose fitted robe, in public, further highlighting the unprecedented change the country is undergoing.Amyloid beta pathology - protein deposits in the brain - might have been transmitted by contaminated neurosurgical instruments, suggests a new UCL-led study.

For the paper, published today in Acta Neuropathologica, researchers studied the medical records of four people who had brain bleeds caused by amyloid beta build-up in the blood vessels of the brain.

They found that all four people had undergone neurosurgery two or three decades earlier as children or teenagers, raising the possibility that amyloid beta deposition may be transmissible through neurosurgical instruments in a similar way to prion proteins which are implicated in prion dementias such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Amyloid beta is best known for being one of the hallmark proteins of Alzheimer's disease, but the researchers did not find evidence of Alzheimer's in this study.

"It is well known that the abnormal proteins seen in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease have been transmitted between patients by certain medical and surgical procedures. We have been investigating whether the same can be true for amyloid beta," said the study's lead author, Professor Sebastian Brandner (UCL Institute of Neurology).

The researchers looked in the pathology archive at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery for biopsy and autopsy materials of young adult patients with confirmed amyloid beta pathology, which can lead to brain bleeds or harmful plaques, in the brain's blood vessels. These deposits of the amyloid protein occur increasingly frequently in older individuals but only very rarely in younger people.

Four cases were identified - three of them were in their 30s, and one was aged 57 - all of whom had experienced brain bleeds caused by amyloid deposits in brain blood vessels. None had any known genetic causes that predispose to this pathology in younger people.

A separate review of the medical literature supported the discovery by identifying four other case studies with similar pathology and past surgical history. As these patients were all men with a history of head trauma, research teams had previously speculated that those were correlated.

The new study suggests otherwise, as all patients had a history of childhood neurosurgery, three were women and only one had a history of head trauma.

In a comparison group of 50 people of similar ages from the same archives, the researchers did not find any amyloid beta pathology and only three had a recorded history of childhood neurosurgery.

Previous work in laboratory animals has shown that tiny amounts of abnormal amyloid beta protein can stick to steel wires and transmit pathology into the animals' brains, but this paper is the first to suggest the same may be possible in humans.

The new study follows reports in recent years of amyloid beta pathology in brain blood vessels following treatment with cadaver-derived human growth hormone in childhood.

"We have found new evidence that amyloid beta pathology may be transmissible. This does not mean that Alzheimer's disease can be transmitted, as we did not find any significant amount of pathological tau protein which is the other hallmark protein of Alzheimer's disease," said Professor Brandner.

"Our findings relate to neurosurgical procedures done a long time ago. Nevertheless, the possibility of pathological protein transmission, while rare, should factor into reviews of sterilisation and safety practices for surgical procedures," he said.

"Neurosurgery is becoming increasingly common in older individuals. As amyloid beta pathology increases in brains with age, this raises the potential for onward transmission of protein pathology to other individuals in the same hospital," said the study's first author, Dr Zane Jaunmuktane (UCL Institute of Neurology).

As this study was small and retrospective, the authors hope their findings stimulate others to explore these ideas further. They are currently expanding their study by looking at more archives across the UK.

"There are several reasonable alternative explanations for our findings that we cannot yet rule out. Further research is required to clarify things. A large epidemiological study would be particularly useful," said co-author Professor Simon Mead (MRC Prion Unit at UCL).

More information: Acta Neuropathologica, DOI: 10.1007/s00401-018-1822-2In 2015 Chinese researchers edited the genome of a human embryo for the first time. Credit: Wikimedia

If you've ever heard of CRISPR, it has most likely been in the context of human gene editing.

In 2015, Chinese scientists announced they were the first to successfully edit the genome of a human embryo using a mysterious new technique. This technology, CRISPR, was so powerful that the implication seemed clear: humanity was taking its first step towards a new genetically modified future. Genetic diseases might soon be a thing of the past, but society would have to be wary of "designer babies", and inequitable access to, and potentially malicious uses of, this revolutionary technology.

Understandably, since that moment the ethics of genome editing has been widely discussed in the media and at the interface between scientists, philosophers, policymakers and the public. Changing the human genome shouldn't be something to undertake lightly, and discussions around its risks and limitations are essential.

But CRISPR itself threatens to be swept up in the controversy, forever branded as something that might be too dangerous to ever use. As a scientist who uses CRISPR in my research, this has me concerned that society is misunderstanding what is probably the greatest new scientific tool since genome sequencing arrived around 20 years ago.

CRISPR (also frequently called CRISPR-Cas9) is an acronym for "Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats", which, along with its associated Cas proteins, comprises the anti-viral immune system of bacteria. If a virus invades a bacterium and the invasion is thwarted, the bacterium stores pieces of viral DNA in its CRISPR array, like a memory bank of past victories. If the same virus reappears later, Cas proteins use the stored sequences to efficiently cut up the virus' DNA before it can do any harm.

The way viral DNA is recognised and cut up by CRISPR machinery caught the eye of molecular biologists in the early 2010s, who realised it could be used to make changes in virtually any piece of DNA they wanted. What followed was an explosion of interest in CRISPR as a tool for genome editing and its rapid adoption by the research community, including myself and my colleagues at the University of Melbourne. Its many exciting uses extend far beyond editing human DNA in the clinic.

At its most basic, CRISPR is a way to cut DNA at precise locations. But quirks in how organisms repair this damage allow a remarkable amount of flexibility in what happens afterwardsgenes can be deleted, replaced or just subtly modified, in virtually any organism. Emerging techniques even allow genes to be reversibly switched on or off.

Scientists are using CRISPR gene editing to research Drosophila, or fruit flies. Credit: Pixabay

In the past, routinely changing genomes in this way was difficult, time-consuming and out of the reach of poorly resourced labs. CRISPR's true revolution is giving unprecedented access to the genetic code to basically any scientist. Its uses are incredibly broad and span the entire scope of biology, not just in clinical medicine. It's a truly exciting time to be a biologist.

My work in the lab of Dr. Charles Robin in the School of BioSciences uses CRISPR to understand the inner workings of insects. How do tiny flies, known as Drosophila, shape the pulses of hormones that control their growth from eggs to adults? And how do they survive eating only rotting fruit? With the ability to manipulate any gene I choose using CRISPR, these questions have become closer to being answered than ever.

Research into Drosophila, already a fantastic model for genetics, has been uniquely placed to reap the benefits CRISPR brings. Existing tools, such as huge living libraries of organ-specific "driver" flies, a very high-quality genome sequence and over 100 years of research attention, give researchers an exquisite amount of power to discover biological secrets.

A fantastic example of the power of CRISPR in Drosophila is the work of Professor Phil Batterham and Dr. Trent Perry at the Bio21 Institute, who study how agricultural insecticides kill insects. By deleting or modifying insecticide-targeted genes in the brains of flies, they are revealing not only how and why certain insecticides work against some insects but not others, but also how these genes help the brain function. Their research has implications for our understanding of the nervous system not just in flies, but in all animals, including us.

But CRISPR is also invaluable for those studying "non-modelsorganisms that don't already have existing genetic toolkits. Which genes control the colours and patterns of butterfly wings? How do ants' sense of smell help them form complex societies? How do amphibious axolotls regenerate severed limbs so easily? These questions are already being answered with the help of CRISPR tools.

Basic research isn't the only beneficiary of CRISPR. For many decades, the goals and dreams of synthetic biologythe field dedicated to creating new proteins, genomes and even organisms from scratchreached far further than laboratory techniques could carry them. With CRISPR, building microbial factories to make medicines or industrial compounds has become far easier. If the world ever replaces petroleum with algal biofuels, CRISPR may be partially responsible.

Of course, medical research isn't isolated from this new technology either. Outside of the clinic, researchers can use CRISPR to help better understand how the body works, using flies, mice and even human cells grown in a dish. Even if human genome editing never becomes legally permitted, CRISPR can be used to further medicine without even a single person ever receiving gene therapy. The group led by Dr. Justine Mintern at the Bio21 Institute is a perfect example, using CRISPR screens to understand the immune system. And there are hundreds of labs around the world now doing similar things for other aspects of human biology.

This all is just the tip of the CRISPR iceberg; its uses extend far beyond what I've mentioned here, and new applications are constantly being discovered. This is why it's unfair to lump CRISPR together with editing human genomeswe risk misunderstanding this incredible tool, when we're only just starting to realise what it's capable of.

Explore further Equipping CRISPR/Cas9 with an enzyme that controls translation of genetic information into proteinNew European Society of Cardiology Clinical Practice Guidelines on syncope will be presented and published online for the first time during EHRA 2018, which will be held 18 to 20 March in Barcelona, Spain.

Formerly the EHRA Europace congress held annually in June, EHRA 2018 marks the beginning of a new schedule, in which the congress will be held in March each year. It is the annual congress of the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA), a registered branch of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).

EHRA's aim is to improve quality of life by reducing the impact of cardiac rhythm disturbances and reducing sudden cardiac death. The yearly congress is an important activity towards meeting this aim; it covers the full spectrum of arrhythmias management, from atrial fibrillation to stroke, and from simple to complex arrhythmias. It will be held from 18 to 20 March in Barcelona, Spain, at the Fira Gran Via. The full scientific programme is available here.

"We have a really outstanding scientific programme this year," said Professor Christophe Leclercq, scientific programme chairperson of the congress, "It's a packed programme, which promises to deliver cutting edge data on cardiac rhythm disorders."

A record number of late-breaking science abstracts were submitted for the congress this year. Highlights to be presented include the AXAFA-AFNET trial on the impact of continuous apixaban during catheter ablation; the MORE-CRT MPP trial on the benefits of cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) with multipoint pacing; two studies on the outcome of surgical versus catheter ablation in atrial fibrillation; and new data from the BRUISE CONTROL-1 and 2 trials on continued versus interrupted non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) during device implantation.

Innovative technologies will be presented in a special session that will focus on the accuracy of smartphone applications for detecting atrial fibrillation; the effectiveness of a novel endovascular balloon for treating vein tears during transvenous lead extraction; and the benefit of ultra-low temperatures for cryoablation of atrial fibrillation.

Registries provide real life data and late-breaking findings will be presented in a dedicated session. Two-year follow-up results with the WATCHMAN left atrial appendage closure device will reveal the impact on stroke and bleeding; two-year outcomes will also be presented from the GLORIA-AF registry on dabigatran use in almost 5,000 patients with atrial fibrillation; and the ALTITUDE registry of more than 145,000 patients will give insights into how device programming can reduce unnecessary implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) shocks.

EHRA will launch a scientific document on arrhythmias and cognitive function, and a practical guide on the use of NOACs in atrial fibrillation.

An entire session is devoted to the novel use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to guide ablation of atrial fibrillation. International experts will present cutting edge data, giving a complete picture on whether real-time MRI guidance can improve ablation outcomes.

Controversial issues will be debated by world opinion leaders on issues such as whether a subcutaneous ICD should be preferred over a transvenous ICD to prevent sudden death, and whether anticoagulation can be stopped after successful catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation.

Summits will be held on e-health, cardiac mapping, lead and device management, and ventricular tachycardia. Members of the press can watch state-of-the-art techniques being performed in live sessions streamed from Barcelona and Leipzig on atrial fibrillation ablation, pacing, lead extraction, ventricular tachycardia, and MRI-guided procedures.

The Einthoven Lecture will be given by Professor Josep Brugada of the University of Barcelona. Professor Jonathan M. Kalman of the University of Melbourne will deliver the Intercontinental Lecture.

Professor Helmut Puererfellner, scientific programme vice-chairperson, said: "This is the congress on cardiac arrhythmias, with updates on the entire armamentarium. Save the date now and be among the first to hear the latest scientific findings in this fast-moving field."

Explore further Holographic cardiac imaging among innovations showcased at arrhythmias congressCredit: University of Manchester

The study of 17 research papers by academics at the Universities of Manchester, Southampton and Liverpool, concludes that pets can help people manage their long-term mental health conditions.

Published in BMC Psychiatry, the study reviewed papers on the impact of animals including cats, dogs, goldfish, hamsters and finches on their owners with mental health problems

The team searched 9 databases and looked for unpublished literature which identified 8,145 articles which were screened for inclusion. 17 articles were included in the final review.

The studies found that pets helped the owners to manage their feelings and provided a powerful distraction from the stress of having mental health problems.

The animals were seen as being non-judgemental about their owners and helped alleviate loneliness.

And some pets were seen as helpful in terms of encouraging physical activity such as walking the dog but also allowing them to engage socially with other pet owners.

Even the hamster owner said that merely cleaning its cage and feeding the animal gave her a purpose.

However, though the benefits were clear, some of the qualitative data identified negative aspects of pet ownership as well.

Dr. Helen Brooks from The University of Liverpool said: "This review suggests that pets can provide benefits to those with mental health conditions.

Credit: University of Manchester

However, further research is required to test the nature and extent of this relationship and the range of roles and types of support pets confer in relation to mental health.

Pets by provided acceptance without judgement, giving unconditional support, which they were often not receiving from other family or social relationships."

Dr. Kelly Rushton, from The University of Manchester said: "We feel that pet ownership has a valuable contribution to mental health, so should be incorporated into individual care plans of patients.

"This sort of intervention also offers an opportunity to involve patients in their own mental health service provision through open discussion of what works best for them."

One of the studies included in the review was their own NIHR-funded study from 2016.

Explore further New study highlights the impact companion animals have on owners

More information: Helen Louise Brooks et al. The power of support from companion animals for people living with mental health problems: a systematic review and narrative synthesis of the evidence, BMC Psychiatry (2018). Helen Louise Brooks et al. The power of support from companion animals for people living with mental health problems: a systematic review and narrative synthesis of the evidence,(2018). DOI: 10.1186/s12888-018-1613-2This undated handout photo from the US Drug Enforcement Administration(DEA) shows 20 mg pills of OxyContinthe drug produced by Purdue Pharma

Accused of profiting from a deadly opioid crisis ravaging middle class America, the maker of the world's best-selling pain medication, Purdue Pharma, said Tuesday it is changing tack in the face of increasing scrutiny.

The privately-held firm, which made the fortune of the Sackler family of philanthropists, confirmed that it has asked its salespeople not to encourage doctors to prescribe the anti-pain medications, including the popular OxyContin, which are often abused by addicts.

"We have restructured and significantly reduced our commercial operation & our sales representatives will no longer promote opioids to prescribers," Purdue Pharma said.

Oversubscription of pain medications has led to dependence by millions of Americans and an explosion of fatal overdoses, including those of pop icon Prince and rocker Tom Petty.

Purdue Pharma is among manufacturers named by New York City in a $500 million lawsuit filed in January to recoup costs that could help battle the escalating opioid crisis.

The deadly toll from overdoses in New York doubled between 2010 and 2016, when more than 1,000 people died from opioid excess. More New Yorkers died from opioid overdoses than from car accidents and homicides combined, the suit claims.

The lawsuit, like hundreds of others, accuses manufacturers of deceptive marketing and distributors of over-supplying prescription painkillers, burdening the city with increased health care, criminal justice and law enforcement costs.

In October, President Donald Trump described the opioid crisis as a national public health emergency.

An estimated 2.4 million Americans are addicted to opiates, the narcotics that include prescription painkillers, as well as heroin.

The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington is one of many bearing the name of the family that founded opioid maker Purdue Pharma

Family dynasty

Brothers Mortimer and Raymond Sackler founded Purdue Pharma. Another brother, Arthur, had a sizable stake.

All three are dead but the family namesynonymous with generous donations to the art worldlives on at multiple museums in the United States, in London and in Paris at the Louvre.

Other Sackler family members still sit, quietly, on Purdue Pharma's board of directors.

In October, The New Yorker magazine said that OxyContin had generated $35 billion for Purdue Pharma since hitting the market in 1995, a large part of which went to the Sacklers.

But the family remains discrete about its links with Purdue Pharma. The group's website does not identify the family members who serve on the company's board.

'Morally abhorrent'

In January, American photographer Nan Goldin began a public campaign about the link between opioids and the wealthy philanthropists.

Golden, a former opioid addict, formed the group PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) and launched the hashtag #ShameonSackler.

The aim is to push Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers to finance programs for treatment and prevention, to limit prescriptions for opioids and to publicize their dangers.

Photographer Nan Goldin, a former opioid addict pictured in 2009, wants museums to refuse funding from the Sackler family, whose members sit on the board of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma

Goldin also called on museums and universities that benefited from the Sacklers' largesse to refuse future donations.

Paradoxically, her crusade received support from Elizabeth Sackler, a daughter of Arthur, who told American media that "the opioid epidemic is a national crisis and Purdue Pharma's role in it is morally abhorrent to me."

She underlined that her father, who died in 1987, played no role in the development and commercialization of OxyContin, and that his stake in Purdue Pharma was sold to his brothers before the drug was put on the market.

"None of his descendants have ever owned a share of Purdue stock nor benefited in any way from it or the sale of OxyContin," she said.

Arthur Sackler's widow Jillian also sought to put distance between her husband and the controversial drug.

"None of the charitable donations made by Arthur prior to his death, nor that I made on his behalf after his death, were funded by the production, distribution or sale of OxyContin or other revenue from Purdue Pharma. Period," she said in a statement to AFP.

"Passing judgment on Arthur's life's work through the lens of the opioid crisis some 30 years after his death is a gross injustice."

'Part of the solution'

Purdue Pharma posted on its website a warning about the effects of opioids and said it is committed "to being part of the solution by partnering with local law enforcement, state and local government agencies, and community groups across the country."

But, according to a report made public Monday by Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, Purdue Pharma financially supported the Washington Legal Foundation, a group that in 2016 criticized recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aimed at limiting the prescription of opioids for cases of chronic pain.

The report lists a long series of medical associations specialized in the treatment of pain that Purdue Pharma and other opioid producers have helped financially.

"Organizations receiving substantial funding from manufacturers have, in fact, amplified and reinforced messages favoring increased opioid use," McCaskill said.

Explore further New York hits big pharma with $500mn lawsuit in opioid crisis

 2018 AFPLori Regenstreif, study co-author and assistant clinical professor of family medicine at McMaster. Credit: McMaster University

A study from McMaster University suggests more can be done to improve access to and delivery of opioid dependence treatment in adult correctional facilities in Ontario.

Researchers say collaboration between the health-care and correctional systems is needed to close the gaps, and to benefit and improve the health of those in custody.

The recommendation is based on surveys completed by physicians working in more than half of Ontario's provincial correctional facilities. The study results were published today in PLOS ONE.

"In Canada, research has consistently identified high rates of substance use disorders among people in prison," said Lori Regenstreif, study co-author and assistant clinical professor of family medicine at McMaster.

"Evidence from Ontario, in particular, reveals that the death rate due to overdose is high in this population compared to the general public, especially at the time of release from jail."

The study included completion of an online survey by 27 physicians, who reported working in 15 of 26 provincial correctional facilities for adults in Ontario. This included 10 of the 13 facilities with a population of more than 200.

The study identified that about half of the physicians prescribed methadone and half prescribed buprenorphine/naloxone to treat opioid dependence.

Among physicians who reported prescribing methadone in custody, all 14 reported that they continued methadone treatment if it was initiated in the community but only five (36 per cent) reported they also started patients on this treatment in the correctional facility.

Of the 13 physicians who reported that they prescribed buprenorphine/naloxone, 10 (77 per cent) reported they continued patients on this treatment if they started in the community and only three (23 per cent) started patients on this treatment in the correctional facility.

The most common reasons physicians provided for not prescribing these treatments were not having an exemption to prescribe methadone, other physicians being responsible for the service in the institution, not being interested in adding this treatment to clinical work and not having adequate knowledge about these treatments.

Among the identified barriers to starting patients on these treatments while in prison were concerns about medication diversion and safety, and challenges to care continuity with community-based providers.

"While no published research in Canada has explored these issues, our findings are consistent with the limited research from the United States regarding access to treatment for opioid addiction in prisons," said Regenstreif.

Among the suggestions from the physicians to overcome the barriers for treatment were support from institutional health care and administrative staff, adequate resources for program delivery, and access to linkage with community-based opioid treatment providers.

"Incarceration presents a unique opportunity to offer prevention and treatment to people who use substances and who may otherwise be hard to reach," said Regenstreif.

"The World Health Organization has recommended that all prisoners with opioid use disorders have access to methadone or another related treatment."

The researchers note opioid dependence treatment is a way to reduce harms associated with opioid use, and has been shown to positively impact treatment retention, illicit drug use, drug-related HIV risk behaviours, criminal activity and death in those with an opioid dependence.

Explore further Study looks at physicians who prescribe methadoneA medical imaging technology under development has enabled doctors to see bacteria deep inside patients' lungs for the first time.

Early tests indicate the bedside technology may be able to detect harmful bacteria in patients' lungs in less than 60 seconds.

Fast diagnosis would enable critically ill patients to be given the right medicine quickly and could avoid unnecessary use of antibiotics.

The technology is being showcased at the Annual Congress of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Austin, Texas, on 15-19 February.

Each year around 20 million patients in intensive care need ventilators to help them breathe. Up to one-third of these patients are suspected to have serious lung infections.

Doctors currently diagnose infections using X-rays, which are imprecise. Tests on fluid samples extracted from patients' lungs may also be used, but these can take days to return a result.

Researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh and Bath and Heriot-Watt University are developing a new approach with major funding from the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

The consortium - called Proteus - is developing the imaging tool that can reach deeper into the lungs than existing devices.

The team have designed chemical probes that can be sprayed into patients lungs, which light up when they attach to specific types of infectious bacteria.

This fluorescence is detected using fibre-optic tubes that are small enough to travel deep inside patients' lungs.

The team is currently testing the chemical probes in clinical trials involving patients with a chronic condition called bronchiectasis.

Tests are also under way with intensive care patients who are being ventilated and are suspected of having pneumonia.

If the approach proves successful, doctors expect it will greatly speed up their ability to provide life-saving treatments for patients in intensive care.

At the moment, critically ill patients who are suspected to have an infection are often treated with powerful antibiotics as a precaution, before any infection is confirmed. These medicines can have side effects and are expensive.

This blanket approach to therapy can also contribute to the emergence of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, experts say.

The Proteus system aims to cut the use of antibiotics by pinpointing patients who will benefit and those who will not.

In addition to the chemical probes, the researchers are developing bespoke optical fibres and new detector technologies that will allow sensing as well as imaging deep inside the lung. This will enable doctors to measure biological changes in the lung, such as oxygen levels and acidity.

In parallel, the team are adapting the technology to detect and treat other types of infection and illness - such as fungi and cancer

Proteus has also received funding from the Medical Research Council, Wellcome and CARB-X, the world's largest public-private partnership devoted to antibacterial early development research.

Kev Dhaliwal, Professor of Molecular Imaging & Healthcare Technology at the University of Edinburgh, said: "Our team is making rapid progress in bringing together many technologies to help us develop entirely new approaches to diagnose and treat disease at the bedside.

Professor Philip Nelson, Chief Executive of the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) said, "The strength of the Proteus team is that it links the expertise and knowledge of people skilled in engineering, science and medicine. By investing in this research the research councils and their partners are making a real impact on the lives of patients both in the UK and elsewhere in the world. Collaboration is the key here and we look forward to seeing the techniques developed reaching the wider marketplace."

Explore further Lung probe that spots infections aims to cut antibiotic overuseRapid increases in pollution may be as harmful to the heart as sustained high levels, according to research published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a European Society of Cardiology journal. The authors urgently call for confirmatory studies as even residents of clean air cities could be at risk.

There is longstanding evidence that exposure to high concentrations of air pollution increases the risk for several diseases including heart attacks and European Union (EU) statutory pollution limits are based on absolute upper values.

However, this study investigated whether rapid increases in pollution increase the risk of heart attack, independently of an absolute threshold. It also looked at whether an association between heart attacks and changes in air pollution exists in clean air cities where concentrations of air pollution vary but do not exceed EU limits.

The study was conducted in Jena, Germany, a city with 100,000 residents and only a few days over the last several years during which concentrations of some air pollutants exceeded EU daily limits. All patients living within 10 km of Jena who had a heart attack and were admitted to Jena University Hospital between 2003 and 2010 were included.

Each of the 693 patients served as his or her own control. Concentrations of air pollutants one, two, and three days before heart attack symptoms were compared to concentrations in the previous and following week. The researchers analysed whether there were rapid variations in air pollution before the heart attack.

Increases of nitric oxides of more than 20 g/m3 within 24 hours were associated with a more than doubled risk of heart attack.

Senior author Dr Florian Rakers, a researcher and doctor at Jena University Hospital, said: "Our study suggests that the risk of heart attack associated with nitrogen oxides depends on the dynamics and extent of increases, and not only on exposure to high concentrations."

The researchers were surprised by the magnitude of the association. Dr Rakers said: "The risk of heart attack more than doubled after a 24 hour increase in nitric oxides of more than 20 g/m3. The impact of rapid increases in air pollutants on heart health may be at least as important as absolute concentrations."

He continued: "The adverse effects of rapid rises in pollution can occur in smaller cities. Increases of nitric oxides by more than 20 g/m3 within 24 hours happen more than 30 times per year in Jena, which is known as a 'clean air' city where statutory limits for nitric oxides are generally not violated."

Ground traffic and especially diesel cars are the primary source of nitric oxides in the EU. The study did not investigate the cause of rapidly changing pollution levels, but Dr Rakers said they could be due to irregular events that lead to more traffic than usual - for example the start of holidays or meteorological conditions associated with smog.

The researchers urgently called for larger studies to confirm the association between rapid increases of air pollution and cardiovascular risk.

The paper states: "Even though the ambient air in the city of Jena is comparably clean, the significant association between rapid changes in nitrogen oxides and onset of myocardial infarction (MI) suggests that the current EU statutory limits do not sufficiently protect against effects relating to the cardiovascular health of the population. A more specific definition and stricter implementation of statutory limits for rapid increases of nitrogen oxides are potentially needed to address this issue and to close this gap regarding the risk of MI."

Dr Rakers said: "Once our findings are replicated, the EU should discuss statutory limits on rapid increases of nitric oxides. This would require more efforts to reduce these air pollutants, such as banning diesel cars that exceed EU emission limits."

Explore further Traffic noise increases the risk of heart attack

More information: Rasche M, et al. Rapid increases in nitrogen oxides are associated with acute myocardial infarction: A case-crossover study, European Journal of Preventive Cardiology (2018). Journal information: European Journal of Preventive Cardiology Rasche M, et al. Rapid increases in nitrogen oxides are associated with acute myocardial infarction: A case-crossover study,(2018). DOI: 10.1177/2047487318755804Using self-sampling followed by HPV testing, more than twice as many women at risk of developing cervical cancer could be identified and offered preventive treatment. This is shown by researchers at Uppsala University in the first randomised study in the world comparing two ways of identifying cervical cancer, published today in the British Journal of Cancer.

Cervical cancer screening has previously been based on cell sampling and cytology. This method initially reduced the number of cases of cervical cancer in Sweden substantially, but additional effects have been difficulty to achieve. This is due to the limited sensitivity of the method, and the fact that not all women attend screening.

In the new study, researchers have compared today's screening based on cytology and sampling by a midwife, with the woman taking a self-sample and submitting it for analysis of human papillomavirus, HPV, which is the cause of cervical cancer.

The study is based on 36,390 women between the ages of 30 and 49 who participated in the organised screening in Uppsala County, 2013-2015. These were divided into two groups: one group performed self-sampling for an HPV test, while the other group had a midwife take a cell sample for cytological analysis. Women who were HPV positive repeated the self-sampling after 4 months and those who were HPV positive in both of their tests were called in for gynaecological examination. During 18 months of follow-up, the number of women with severe cell changes was recorded for both groups.

The results show that self-sampling was received very positively. Of the women who were offered self-sampling, 47% opted to participate, compared with 39% among those who were offered regular cell sampling. Among the women who did self-sampling for HPV testing, more than twice as many with cell changes were found than among those who had a cytology analysis. Also, the time until diagnosis was shorter for those who did self-sampling.

This is the first randomised study in the world that compares these two ways of identifying cervical cancer. By using self-sampling followed by HPV testing, more than twice as many women at risk of cervical cancer could be identified and offered preventive treatment. Screening based on self-sampling also makes it possible to reach women who have previously chosen not to participate and have a sample taken by a midwife.

Calculations of the health-economic consequences of self-sampling and HPV testing show that the total cost of cervical cancer screening could be halved, while still being twice as effective as current the method. Few changes in healthcare can simultaneously double the effectiveness and halve the cost. Screening based on self-sampling also makes it possible to reach women who have chosen not to participate in the cell sampling and take a sample in midwife.

Explore further Improving cervical cancer screening rates for transgender men

More information: Inger Gustavsson et al, Randomised study shows that repeated self-sampling and HPV test has more than two-fold higher detection rate of women with CIN2+ histology than Pap smear cytology, British Journal of Cancer (2018). Journal information: British Journal of Cancer Inger Gustavsson et al, Randomised study shows that repeated self-sampling and HPV test has more than two-fold higher detection rate of women with CIN2+ histology than Pap smear cytology,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/bjc.2017.485Image A shows a metastatic tumor neglected by the immune system. Image B is taken after the inhibition of TGF-beta (Galunisertib), leading to the infiltration of many immune cells (in brown). And image C shows the result of the inhibition of TGF- beta plus immunotherapy (antibodies against PD-L1); this combination of treatments potentiates the activity of the immune system against the metastatic tumor. Credit: Daniele Tauriello, IRB Barcelona

In a short space of time, immunotherapy against cancer cells has become a powerful approach to treat cancers such as melanoma and lung cancer. However, to date, most colon tumours appeared to be unresponsive to this kind of therapy. Given this observation, researchers hypothesized that this kind of tumour was simply invisible to the immune system. In a study published today in the journal Nature, a team headed by ICREA researcher Eduard Batlle, at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), explains that the hormone TGF-beta is responsible for the "blindness" of the immune system to colon cancer cells.

"The few clinical immunotherapy trials done in patients with the most common subtype of colon cancer were not giving good results, and we didn't understand why this was happening," explains Eduard Batlle.

By inhibiting the activity of TGF-beta, the cells of the immune system infiltrate and recognise the tumour, fight the cancer, and even stop colon tumours from metastasizing to the liver and lung in a preclinical mouse model that mimics the human disease. In addition, and more importantly, the researchers demonstrated that the combination of a TGF-beta inhibitor with available immunotherapies boost the anti-tumour effect, allowing the immune system to efficiently eliminate already established metastases that would otherwise kill the individual in a question of weeks.

Scientist Daniele Tauriello, postdoctoral fellow and first author of the article, induced four of the most common mutations present in advanced human colon tumours in mice. "The development of the animal model took us four years, but we hit the nail on the head," he says.

After confirming the similarity of the mouse tumours with those in humans, they built a biobank of tumour organoids3-D mini-tumoursand grafted them in a controlled manner in immunocompetent mice. "For studies of the immune system, the tumour has to be of mouse origin. Otherwise, the animal would reject it," he explains. This animal model, which mimics the main features of metastatic colon cancer in humans, allowed the researchers to examine how cancer cells evade the immune system.

Beyond colon cancer

Around 40 to 50 percent of colon cancer patients relapse in the form of metastasis, with the tumours reproducing mainly in the liver and lung. "Once advanced stage colon cancer is diagnosed, oncologists do not have access to efficient treatments to cure the patient," explains Eduard Batlle. This study paves the way for the development of the first immunotherapy treatment for patients with metastatic colon cancer and for those patients with poor prognosis but who have not yet developed metastasis.

Oncologists and pharmaceutical companies will soon start clinical assays that combine TGF-beta inhibitors, which are already in clinical use, with immunotherapies. The researchers are convinced that many colon cancer patients will benefit from this therapeutic strategy.

In the same issue of Nature, another study addresses the lack of response of bladder cancer patients to immunotherapy. Conducted by the U.S. pharmaceutical company Genentech, this study draws the same conclusions as Batlle's team. "This second study demonstrates that the discovery goes beyond colon cancer. It appears that many types of tumour use the same strategyincreasing the expression of TGF-beta in the environmentto evade the immune system. Patients with these tumours may also benefit from immunotherapies based on the inhibition of this hormone," Batlle says.

Explore further Discovery of the genetic fingerprint of aggressive colon tumors

More information: Daniele V. F. Tauriello et al, TGF drives immune evasion in genetically reconstituted colon cancer metastasis, Nature (2018). Journal information: Nature Daniele V. F. Tauriello et al, TGF drives immune evasion in genetically reconstituted colon cancer metastasis,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/nature25492Credit: iStock

To better serve families, University of Kansas researchers are examining the use of standardized assessments of support needs for children with autism spectrum disorders and intellectual disabilities. Two recently published studies demonstrated that the Supports Intensity Scale-Children's version a standardized, norm-referenced measure of support needs originally developed for children with intellectual disabilitiesis a valid and reliable tool for children who also have autism spectrum disorders.

KU researchers led the development of the Supports Intensity Scale-Children's (SIS-C) version, which was published by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in 2016. The SIS-C was developed to provide a children's version of the widely adopted Supports Intensity Scale-Adult (SIS-A). Until now, it was not known if the SIS-C was reliable in determining the support needs of children with autism spectrum disorders and intellectual disabilities and if the tool could identify support needs that may differ in youths with autism spectrum disorders, such as social activities. The researchers found that the SIS-C could identify those unique needs, opening the door for more effective supports planning.

Karrie Shogren, Michael Wehmeyer and James Thompson, University of Kansas researchers in the nationally No. 1-ranked public special education department and the Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies, are leading the work. The studies were published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders and Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities. The studies were co-authored by researchers at Texas Tech University, Ohio State University, Hastings College and Queens College.

"The SIS-C is innovative because before it was developed, there was not a standardized measure of support needs for children with disabilities. This research extends the application of the SIS-C, showing that we can use it with children with autism spectrum disorders to determine their needed supports for success in community environments," said Shogren, professor of special education and director of the Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities within the Schiefelbusch Institute. "In understanding these needs we can plan for effective supports. Without such assessment information, educators, family members and other practitioners are often guessing at specific areas of support need, which is not always effective.

"This opens up doors for meaningful education planning for children with autism spectrum disorders that focuses on what children need to be successful, considering the unique needs that they have across life domains, including social activities," she said.

There is a common saying: "If you've met one child with autism, you've met one child with autism." Each individual's needs and abilities can vary widely from their peers, so having an assessment that can identify individual support needs enables educational supports to be tailored to an identified need, rather than a suspected need. And the SIS-C measures children's support needs across seven domains, including home, community and neighborhood, school participation, school learning, health and safety, social and advocacy activities.

"When there is a poor 'fit' between children's competencies and the demands of the environments where children live and learn, a need for support is created. What defines children with disabilities is their need for extraordinary supports, above and beyond the general population, to successfully participate in typical environments," Thompson, professor of special education, said. "Educators that use the SIS-C can better understand the types of settings and activities where students experience a poor fit, and they can identify and arrange supports that enable students to successfully participate."

SIS-C and the original SIS-A are available and in use in several states and have been translated into several languages as well. Knowing it is a valid way to identify and plan for supports for children with autism spectrum disorders and intellectual disabilities will help reach even more with responses, strategies and interventions that support the children's growth.

"The SIS-C can help move the field toward individualized supports based on a valid understanding of the needs that each child has. In doing so, we can focus on the goals and vision that a child and their family have for the future," Shogren said. "But until now, there really haven't been reliable and valid assessments that pinpoint specific areas of needs to enable individualization of supports."

The SIS-C is administered after a child's diagnosis. A person trained in the scale conducts interviews with at least two people who know the child well, such as a family member and teacher. Questions are designed to understand support needs in the aforementioned seven domains. The approach shifts away from the focus on a child's deficiencies to understand what a student needs to be successful.

"As disability service systems increasingly adopt a supports paradigm, it is critical to have a valid and reliable measure for use with people with autism spectrum disorder. Supports-based services focus less on impairment and deficit and more on determining what supports do people need to be successful in typical environments," said Wehmeyer, chair of the Department of Education, Ross and Marianna Beach Distinguished Professor in Special Education and director of the Beach Center on Disability. "These studies are a first step. We certainly need to know more about how the support needs of people with ASD might differ from other groups so as to provide truly personalized supports to enable people to be successful."

Shogren, Thompson, Wehmeyer and colleagues previously published a book describing a framework for using the results of a SIS-A assessment to develop individualized supports plans with adults with disabilities. The researchers plan to continue to study how the SIS-C works for children with autism spectrum disorders, including how it can be applied in school and community contexts to enable effective supports. This ongoing work can help build on a scale that provides educators and families more tools to improve young people's education, communication and social skills and ultimately a better quality of life. Thus far, one of the main values of the Supports Intensity Scale is that it is general enough to use be used widely, yet also able to be individualized and clearly detect the differences in individuals and their needs for support.

"Supports are a means to an end. Individualized supports will lead to greater participation and engagement in settings and activities, which will lead to greater learning and a more positive school experience for students, educators and families," Thompson said. "A focus on supports steers the conversation away from what students can't do because of their disabilities to what they can do when the right supports are in place."

Explore further Time between pregnancies may affect autism riskLittle has been done to repair the damage of three hugely destructive wars in the last decade.

Last year, the Palestinian Authority, seeking to win back control over Gaza, slashed the salaries of thousands of workers still on its payroll and halted payments to Israel for Gazas fuel and electricity. That pushed Hamas into a much-heralded agreement with the Palestinian Authority in October, but nothing has come of it.

Most recently the Trump administration waded in with a vindictive decision to cut funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which supports Palestinian refugees, including 1.2 million in Gaza.

While the blockade and Israeli military attacks have ruined Gaza, there is no defending Hamas, which regularly fires rockets across the border into Israel. Money that should have gone to hospitals and medicine has been spent on futile confrontation with Israel and digging tunnels that the Israelis are now spending a small fortune to block.

But holding two million people hostage is not the way to fight Hamas, and the suffering only nurtures more rage and militancy. A majority of Gazas two million people are simply trying to survive against lengthening odds and can do little to alleviate their plight.

If, as General Eisenkot warned, another uprising lies in the future, that would likely prove futile. It would cause great suffering and destruction again, and might not even rouse the world to Gazas plight. The Palestinians no longer seem to be a serious concern even for Arab nations.The Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) has found Takealot guilty of selling products at higher prices than what it advertises the goods for.

In a recent sponsored Facebook promotion, Takealot advertised DKNY perfume at R369  a saving of 62% on the normal price.

When a consumer tried to purchase this product, however, they had to pay over R200 more than the advertised price.

A complaint was lodged with the ASA regarding this practice after Takealot told the client it was not responsible for advertising appearing on third-party platforms.

According to the complainant, Takealot told her its terms and conditions exempt it from liability emanating from its own advertising.

Takealot responds

Takealot responded to the complaint, stating it is not an ASA member and that the organizations rulings are therefore not binding to it.

The online retailer did acknowledge that this was the third complaint of this type brought to the ASA.

It explained there may be lags in bringing the pricing of third-party advertisers in line with price changes.

The product on special had sold out when the complainant claimed the deal, but the advertising had not been changed, said Takealot.

ASA ruling

The ASA rejected Takealots argument that it was not responsible for advertisements from third-party advertisers.

If Takealot uses third-party advertisers, then it must ensure that checks and balances are in place that such advertisers only display correct information, said the ASA.

The reality is that Takealot benefits from the traffic flow to its website and it must take responsibility for the actions of the third-party advertiser.

The ASA subsequently rejected Takealots submission that its advertising is not misleading.

It said consumers are led to believe that advertised products at the discounted rates are available on Takealot, which they are not.

The complaint that Takealots advertisement promising a discounted price was misleading was upheld, and it advised the company not to repeat this advertising.Amazon has promised that it will create 2,000 permanent contract positions in France this year, Reuters reported.

The company said this will bring its total permanent staff complement in France to 7,500.

This reflects its confidence in the economy of the country, where it has invested over 2 billion since 2010, said Amazon.

France is Amazons third-largest market in Europe, after the United Kingdom and Germany.

Amazon launched its Prime Now express delivery service in Paris in 2016 and has opened five logistics centres across the country.

Earlier this month, Amazon also settled a long-running dispute with French tax authorities  which wanted nearly 200 million from the online retailer.

Now read: Locals argue against Amazon headquartersPolitico: European Commission chiefs classified speech found in trash

Armenia Court of Appeal continues considering appeal of case on ex-President Kocharyan, some other former officials

Biden: Extreme weather events will cost more than $100bn in damages this year

Newspaper: Armenia authorities agree to opposition proposal to hold parliament session on Goris-Kapan road issue

Newspaper: Armenia authorities send Karabakh Security Council chief as envoy to imprisoned opposition MP

Energy security expert: Artsakh economic growth averaged 10.5% since 2000

UN General Assembly 76th session kicks off in New York

Karabakh President's spokesperson: Azerbaijanis shoot in direction of Taghavard village, no victims

Armenia Investigative Committee: Battalion commander who was on-duty in Karabakh's Khtsaberd village is arrested

Trilateral MoC signed to raise level of seismic safety of Armenian Nuclear Power Plant to the highest level

Armenia opposition MP: Authorities didn't help Ombudsman prepare report on tortures of Armenian citizens in Baku

Hanged body of 44-year-old serviceman of Armenia MOD found in village

Armenia opposition MP slams parliamentary committee chairman's statement

Police apprehend armed student at Yerevan metro station

Azerbaijanis demand punishing Member of the Russian State Duma Vitaly Milonov

Armenia Parliament Deputy Speaker receives Russia President's Special Representative

Armenia President grants high state award to chess grandmaster Elina Danielyan

Armenia PM appoints deputy economy minister

Putin holds phone talks with Iranian counterpart

Armenia Supreme Judicial Council chairman on his relations with PM Nikol Pashinyan

Karabakh President meets with journalists and editors of country's Free Artsakh newspaper

US Embassy in Armenia to Baku: Only comprehensive solution can help normalize Armenian-Azerbaijani relations

Armenia President receives Slovakia FM

Armenia defense minister's mother dies

Armenia parliament's foreign relations committee chairman meets with Ukrainian MPs

Armenia Syunik Province governor meets with newly appointed US Deputy Ambassador

Monument to heroes who took revenge over Armenian Genocide organizers to be placed in Yerevan

Armenia Parliament Speaker receives Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Minister-led delegation

Digest: Protests being held in Yerevan, more on COVID-19 in Armenia

Yerevan mayor: Not going to resign

Dollar still going down in Armenia

Karabakh emergency situations service: Remains of 1 Armenian serviceman found in Varanda

Armenia Cassation Court has new judge

PACE recommends holding debates over Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and Afghanistan situation

National Archives of Armenia and Iran to sign memorandum within scope of cooperation

Armenia PM, Gazprom Management Committee chairman discuss Armenian-Russian energy partnership

Armenia Deputy PM participates in session of Eurasian Economic Commission's Council

Police apprehend Yerevan neighborhood resident on hunger, water strike

Armenia Ambassador to Ukraine: Aim of intergovernmental commission is to take steps to unblock communication

Deceased serviceman's little brother born at medical center in Armenia's Etchmiadzin

Taliban denies war crimes charges against human rights defenders

Armenia PM, Slovakia FM discuss Karabakh peace process

Criminal case opened into death of Armenia soldier, another one receiving gunshot wounds

Biden: You either keep Gavin Newsom as your governor or you'll get Donald Trump

Armenia Investigative Committee former chair, ex-Prosecutor Generals arrest appealed

4 of Yerevan neighborhood residents protesting outside city hall apprehended

Frances Macron makes social media post in Armenian

Iran ambassador tries to discuss, with Azerbaijan presidential aide, demarche against Iranian trucks in Armenia

4 new cases of coronavirus reported in Artsakh

US and EU urge global community to cut methane emissions by 30%

Ukraine official: We have always considered Armenia as important partner in South Caucasus

US, Japan and South Korea discuss new North Korean missile tests

Yerevan neighborhood residents close off street adjacent to city hall

Armenia Central Bank raises refinancing rate by 0.25 percentage point

Appeal filed against court decision to arrest mayor of Armenias Goris

25,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine sent by France arrives in Yerevan

Armenia FM informs visiting Slovakia colleague about Azerbaijan provocations

Armenia ruling partys parliamentary faction holding closed meeting

Armenia MOD confirms: There is also wounded soldier in tragic incident at the military outpost

Slovakia FM: Process of returning Armenian captives from Azerbaijan must continue

US intends to invite Russia and China to international summit on COVID-19 fight

Armenia legislature elects Corruption Prevention Commission new member

657 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Karen Vardanyan has allocated 105 million AMD to rescue the Yerevan Botanical Garden

Armenia MOD: Army representatives will observe Russia-Belarus joint military exercise

ArmLur.am: New details become known from tragic incident at Armenia military outpost

China to start cooperation with Singapore on drug development

Armenia to assume CSTO chairmanship on Thursday

Google fines $ 177 million by South Korea's antitrust regulator

Yerevan neighborhood resident on hunger strike declares water strike too

Slovakia FM visits Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan (PHOTOS)

Armenia MOD: Reserve sergeant receives fatal gunshot wound

Armenian historical sites in Djulfa, Nakhichevan, elsewhere in Azerbaijan systematically erased

Armenia parliament continues regular sessions

Newspaper: Armenia authorities ready to offer deal to Investigative Committee former head, ex-Prosecutor General

Newspaper: Opposition Armenia bloc itself to not run in upcoming local elections

Armenia ombudsman: Azerbaijan police base, barricades, cameras on Vorotan road must be removed immediately

Armenia PM receives French Co-Chair of OSCE Minsk Group, paths for Karabakh conflict settlement discussed

Armenia Deputy PM introduces newly appointed governor of Gegharkunik Province

Traffic jams on Armenia's Goris-Kapan interstate road, Azerbaijanis rudely telling Armenians to drive away

About 50 soldiers and police officers killed after attacks in Myanmar

2 dead after explosion near COVID-19 testing site in central Myanmar

Armenia pregnant woman with COVID-19 dies

Azerbaijan planning another festival in occupied Armenian Shushi

Karabakh emergency situations service: Remains of 2 more Armenian servicemen found in Hadrut

Russia to resume flights to Spain, Iraq, Kenya and Slovakia

Russia Senator: Russian peacekeepers will remain in Karabakh so long as their presence is necessary

Armenia FM receives French Co-Chair of OSCE Minsk Group

"Armenia" alliance: Armenian authorities have turned detention into punitive mechanism against opposition

Armenia appoints new Ambassador to Belarus

Armenia has new Ambassador to the State of Qatar

Iran MFA responds to situation regarding Iranian truck drivers in Armenia's Syunik

Armenian MFA: No negotiations being held for normalization of Armenia-Turkey relations at the moment

Digest: Azerbaijan tries to control goods transportation via Armenia, more on COVID-19

Armenia Deputy PM receives Co-Chairs of Armenian-Ukrainian Intergovernmental Commission

Armenia appoints new Ambassador to Greece

Judge delays granting Armenia ex-President Kocharyan permission to travel to Moscow

Armenia Ambassador to Ukraine Vladimir Karapetyan is in parliament

Armenia Armed Forces' General Staff chief has new deputy

FM: Azerbaijan armys illegal presence in Armenia undermines de-escalation efforts in regionAzerbaijans attempts to obstruct the development of Artsakhs parliamentary cooperation with foreign countries are having short-term results.

Chairman of the Republic of Artsakh National Assembly (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic/NKR NA), Ashot Ghulyan, told the aforementioned to Armenian News-NEWS.am, when asked about these attempts by Azerbaijan.

Because, on the whole, its hard to curtail the methods and opportunities for the development of relations, especially in the system of interparliamentary relations, said the Artsakh NA speaker. I believe there will be no such second state in the world that allows itself the cynicism to curtail the opportunities of the parliament of another state.

In his words, there are countriesat the level of European statesthat have very good indicators in terms of awareness of parliamentary relations with the NKR.

Even if Azerbaijan succeeds in influencing at some point, not for long, since such methods cant be acceptable to the parliaments of civilized states, Ghulyan stressed. The value-system, freedom of movement, protecting human rights, which European countries are faithful to, has nothing to do with Azerbaijan, and its efforts cant support.Amidst Egyptian Offensive in Sinai, IS Warns Fighters in Egypt are Seeking to Escalate Attacks on Christians, Tourists, and OthersHome | News | General | ESI graduates 100 on entrepreneurial devt, skills acquisition

Wife of Nigerias Transportation Minister and founder of the Empowerment Support Initiative (ESI), Dame Judith Amaechi has said that entrepreneurial, vocational and leadership value enhancement is the key to completely unlock the potentials and possibilities available to the youth in a sustainable manner.

*Mrs Judith Amaechi

Mrs Amaechi spoke at the graduation of 100 participants of ESIs vocational skills training in home finishing in partnership with Dudley College of Technology, United Kingdom and the Niger-Delta Development Commission (NDDC) which held in Port Harcourt at the weekend.

She explained that the mission of ESI is to tackle endemic poverty head on, develop a scheme that enables our citizens to be employable and self-employed thereby reversing unemployment, eliminating social vices and tempering restiveness in our region and country by empowering and securing opportunity for the sustainable livelihood of our youth and women.

ESI flagship programme however, is our entrepreneurial development and skills acquisition programme. It was conceived at a time when the skills gap in the Niger- Delta Region seemed a daunting challenge and we recognised that the regions potentials for sustainable personal growth were severely stunted. As a direct consequence, we created our training platform in 2008, which has provided various training programmes to over 3000 beneficiaries in Nigeria.

Dame Amaechi also disclosed that the graduating trainees would be supported with N150,000 each as an investment capital support to get them moving and called for more support from individuals and agencies to empower more youths.

She also thanked the NDDC and other sponsors as well as the trainers from Dudley College for collaborating with ESI on the project.

For the participants whose passing out ceremony we have all gathered here today to observe, all of them, 100 in number, are a part of ESI hands-on effort to evolve the culture of self-employment in Nigeria. For us at ESI, evolve is an acronym which keeps us very focused on entrepreneurial, vocational and leadership value enhancementthe key to finally and completely unlocking the potentials and myriad possibilities open to our people in a tactically achievable and sustainable manner.

Today is not a day to inundate you with statistics, no, today is the day you see the results of our action. These successful 100 trainees will be presented their certificates and starter packs including the sum of N150,000 each as business investment capital support start, to set them up in the right direction.

The training was delivered through our international academic skills exchange programme from highly experienced professors, tradesmen and women from the Dudley College of Technology, United Kingdom who have offered first-hand knowledge and experience in training NVQ level 3 advanced/professional skilled workforce that has sustained their own economy.

I would like to express our profound gratitude for the continuous cooperation of our sponsors. A combination of their vital support have remained the driving force behind the success of our training and other programmes. We need your support, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, with your support, the number of trainees can be over 100 instead of 100 that it is today. I will now focus all my energy towards building and expanding the empowerment coverage of the ESI, she said.

The programme which was flagged off on the 10th of January with courses in POP, ceiling installation, screeding, decoration, floor tiling, electrical wiring, carpentry and plumbing, is a curriculum-based four-week development and training programme of good finishing concept.

Other programmes by the ESI include, maternal health programme, lady cabbies project and general advocacy programmes.

On his part, Executive Director of the NDDC, Obong Nsima Ekere congratulated the graduands and hailed NDDCs strides in developing the Niger-Delta Region through empowerment programmes.

He said: This graduation ceremony marks a major milestone in the continuing quest by the Niger-Delta Development Commission to transform our great region. Development is about people and today 100 sons and daughters of the Niger-Delta who have just completed the first phase high end upscale skill training programme in home finishing skills would be empowered to step out and to take the world. These graduates will be joining about 22,512 other sons and daughters of the Niger-Delta who have been trained and equipped with world class skills as clear evidence of the impact and investment that NDDC has made in rewriting the Niger-Delta story. I congratulate you all.

Also at the event were Minister of Information and Communication, Lai Mohammed and wife of the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Aisha Buhari represented by wife of the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Gimbiya Yakubu Dogara and other top national dignitaries.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General

Loading...Home | News | General | 2019: APC has lost goodwill since 2015 -Tinubu

By Omeiza Ajayi & Dirisu Yakubu

ABUJA For the first time since the 2015 general elections, national leader of ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has met with the partys national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, in a move widely seen as the beginning of his new task as presidential negotiator into the crises bedeviling the party.

APCFrom left: Party National Secretary, Mai Mala Buni; National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and National Chairman, All Progressives Congress, APC, John Odigie Oyegun, during a consultative meeting among NWC members of the party at the party secretariat, Abuja, yesterday. Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan.

Speaking with journalists after the meeting, which lasted nearly four hours, Tinubu, said though the party remained the hope of Nigerians, it had lost tremendous goodwill since the 2015 elections.

The APC leader spoke on a day Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, said the advice he gave Nigerias ex-Presidents to quit politics and join the retirees club should also be heeded by President Muhammadu Buhari in the interest of the nation.

Tinubu, who was recently appointed by President Buhari to reconcile warring parties within the party, said he was visiting the national secretariat as part of consultations on how to carry out his assignment.

He said: Since we won the elections, the expectations were very high and the goodwill was extremely high. But where are we today?

The solution is to seek opinion and advice on the various complex issues around some states or if there is any national one, to reconcile, move the party in a cohesive manner, reposition it and build confidence among ourselves.

Though he declined comments on whether he was among the foremost aggrieved stakeholders of the party, having last year called for the sack of Chief Odigie-Oyegun, Tinubu said challenges faced by the government and the President were enormous.

He said: It is only because people are not paying attention to the various statistics that are available. We have never governed before, but we won the confidence of Nigerians to govern.

We have a creed to really serve the country, change and reform the country. It is not easy to have those changes implemented like instant curfew. We have to grow and face challenges. I sympathize with us and we should equally look at ourselves.

Tinubus visit to Oyegun

Welcoming Tinubu to the APC national secretariat, national chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, said the assignment given to him (Tinubu) by the President was significant to heal the wounds where necessary.

Your visit is very significant, in view of your Presidential assignment which I will describe as a peace ambassador, to heal wounds where the party has wounds and bring everybody together behind one single objective, which is the APC being in good condition to be a fighting political force, such that in 2019, the election will become virtually a runaway victory for the party.

There is no question at all that we have major issues with the National Assembly, major issues in Kano, Kogi, Benue states with the current challenges that we are facing.

So, we truly welcome your appointment and I want to say that we will give you all the assistance that you will possibly need to make your assignment a most successful one.

Tinubus counsel on retirees club, good for Buhari  PDP

Meanwhile, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said the advice by APC national leader, Tinubu, that Nigerias ex-Presidents should quit politics and join the retirees club should be heeded by President Buhari in the interest of the nation.

The party said Tinubus position completely vindicated the positions of former Presidents, including Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida, PDP as well as majority of Nigerians, who believe President Buhari should not seek re-election in 2019, having failed woefully in governance and nation building.

The PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, yesterday, said the former Lagos State governor had invariably weighed Buhari and found him unfit to remain in office beyond 2019.

The statement read: Every discerning Nigerian has discovered the fact that Tinubu is subtly passing a critical message to President Buhari and his supporters that he should not contest the 2019 election and that Nigerians have already moved on even without them.

Even Tinubu knows that President Buhari, for obvious reasons, is the most qualified of all our elder statesmen to join the retirees club and save the nation the agony of more years of misrule characterized by untold economic hardship, heavy bloodletting and general indignation.

The supporters of President Buhari should therefore accept the reality by reading the handwriting on the wall and heed wise counsel from well- meaning Nigerians. In any case, the APC is already on a death throe, having led the worst government in the history of our nation and will end up as the first party in government at the centre that will be rejected by Nigerians at a second attempt.

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Loading...Home | News | General | President Buhari arrives Kaduna for induction of Air Force's Nigerian-made fighting drone

President Muhammadu Buhari has arrived Kaduna state on Thursday, February 15, to commission an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) built by the Nigerian Air Force.

The Tsaigumi UAV is the first indigenous operational Remotely Piloted Aircraft designed and produced by personnel of the Nigerian Air Force.

NAIJ.COM gathered that it will be deployed for military operations in the northeast after the induction ceremony.

President Buhari has commissioned an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) built by the Nigerian Air Force. Credit: Sodiq Adelakun

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Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) built by the Nigerian Air Force. Credit: Sodiq Adelakun

READ ALSO: Soldiers deal heavy blow to Boko Haram (photos)

The drone will be deployed for military operations in the northeast after the induction ceremony. Credit: Sodiq Adelakun

The NAF's Research and Development Centre where the aircraft was produced has undergone a major face-lift under the leadership of the Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Saddique Abubakar.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that former president Olusegun Obasanjo launched another attack at President Muhammadu Buhari over his administrations handling of anti-corruption fight.

The Nation reported that the former president in his latest attack, maintained that Buhari has corruption on his nose.

NAIJ.com gathered that in an interview with German international broadcasting outlet, Deutsche Welle, Obasanjo said the Presidents anti-corruption fight has been polluted by people in his inner circles.

Obasanjo said the president could do better on how he goes about the war on corruption.

PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet!

He said if he was the president: I would make sure people in charge of anti-corruption institutions are people of integrity. There is no point in fighting corruption beyond you and you have corruption on your nose.

On his newly formed movement, Coalition for Nigeria movement (CNM), the former president said the movement will truly help Nigerians to move away from the old order of politics and into a new age where the interests of the citizens are truly represented.

Who is Nigeria's greatest president ever? - on NAIJ.com TV:

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Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | Wealth and net worth of Linda Ikeji

Linda Ikeji is a famous Nigerian writer, blogger, model and entrepreneur. In the past few years, she has gained quite a popularity for herself and her blog, and with that popularity, came wealth. Find out the answer to the question How much is Linda Ikeji worth?

Who is Linda Ikeji?

Before we start talking about Linda Ikejis wealth and net worth, lets take a moment to talk about the woman herself. Linda was born on September 19, 1980 in Imo State. Her family was never very wealthy, so she quickly understood that she could only rely on herself if she were ever to become successful. From the early years, she realized that she liked writing, so she started it out as a hobby.

Cut to 2006, when shSoon, the blog became so popular that she was able to get herself her own domain (which you now know as www.lindaikejisblog.com) and make a solid career out of blogging.

Linda Ikeji net worth

So how much is Linda Ikeji worth? Well, according to TheNetWorthPortal, she is currently worth the whopping $8.5 million. Previously, it was reported that she was worth even more, although those reports might be unreliable or outdated.

Regardless, $8.5 million is a lot of money! How on earth could Linda Ikeji ever earn that much? For the answer to this question, lets look at how ads work on her website. If you have ever visited Linda Ikejis blog, you might have noticed that it is filled to the brim with ads, which are actually the main source of Lindas income.

READ ALSO: Top entertainment blogs in Nigeria

A year ago, it was reported by yours truly that the various ads on the blog bring Linda Ikeji almost 20 million every month, with additional money coming from Googles AdSense (the exact amount depends on the monthly views). In 2012, it was estimated that the blog was worth over $1 million dollars, so it is hard to imagine how much it would be worth today.

In addition to her blog, Linda also has her own social network, LindaIkejiSocial.com, TV network and online radio, which all operate from her luxurious office of Linda Ikeji Media in Lekki. It is said that it costs Linda 10 million every year in rent, but it most likely brings her way more than that.

Now that we have talked about the main sources of her income, lets take a quick look at her various assets, including her wonderful mansion and a fleet of cars.

Linda Ikeji wealth

One of the most notable assets of Linda Ikeji is, of course, her house. She frequently flaunts it on her social media, claiming that it is the house she has always dreamed of. The gorgeous mansion can be found in the luxurious Banana Island and is said to cost over 500 million.

The house consists of six bedrooms, two living rooms, a swimming pool and a cinema room located on three floors. Its size is around 700 square metres, so it would probably able to house her entire extended family and then some.

Apart from the house, Linda also has quite a few rather expensive cars. One of her first purchases was the Toyota Camry, which was the car she always wanted. Later, she bought an Infinity FX 35 and a Range Rover Sport, so the girl travels in style now!

Even Lindas wardrobe could probably feed the entire city for a month. She is a big lover of expensive brands and couture outfits, and she does not spare any expense on her looks. One of her dresses cost her a whopping 1 million, as it was custom-made for her, and she bought it on a charity auction, with proceeds going to various funds for Ebola research.

Linda also does not forget about her family and loved ones. Ikeji bought her parents houses which cost 300 million and several cars which amounted to about 50 million.

She bought a Toyota Sequoia for her father, an Acura MDX for her mother, a Honda Civic for her manager and a Honda Accord for her brother, so you know she appreciates the people in her life very much.

In addition to that, she gives back to the young girls that want to become entrepreneurs. She has her own charity called Id Rather Be Self-Made, with which she helps girls aged 16 to 25 to realise their dreams of becoming businesswomen.

As you can see, being a hard worker pays off big time. Taking into account that she came from nothing, Linda Ikeji has managed to make quite a name for herself over the years and improve the lives of those around her. We wish her further successes and hope that she is truly happy.

READ ALSO: What can I do to make money in Nigeria? Top 10 ways

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Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...For more than three months, the Al Riwaq Gallery at the Qatar Museum provided an insight into some 70 years of German design development. Porsche is among the manufacturers represented in the gallerys exhibition entitled Driven by German Design, which looks back on a rich history.

Design ideas and works that were devised or developed in Germany by German designers after 1945 formed the centrepiece of the Driven by German Design exhibition, which linked together various design disciplines such as architecture, graphic design, product design, automotive design, fashion and furniture design. The exhibition attracted more than 30,000 visitors, giving them an insight into the complexities and artistic value of design developments, as well as their relevance in society.

Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums, said: The success of this exhibition is the result of close collaboration between a large number of partners and it clearly demonstrates the diverse cultural relations between our two countries.

Michael Mauer, Matthias Muller and Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani (f.l.)

The exhibition also celebrated the dedication of its curator Martin Roth, who died unexpectedly during the final coordination work on the exhibition. Roth is considered one of the most innovative and most active curators of the past few decades. As the director of world-renowned museums in Dresden and London, Roth consistently used platforms that invited a wide audience to enjoy motivating encounters with art.

Matthias Muller, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, said: This review of 70 years of German design history has a strong connection with the Volkswagen Group and its brands. Several of our vehicles have shaped the spirit and cultural identity of their era time and again throughout the years. And we plan to continue doing this with our designs in the future, which will see dramatic changes in automotive and industrial design in the face of digitalisation and new drive concepts.

The gallery showcased more than 400 exhibition pieces

In total, the gallery showcased more than 400 exhibition pieces. With its contribution of nine vehicles and two engines, the Porsche Museum provided the vast majority of the automotive pieces. Clay models from the Development Centre in Weissach and wind tunnel models from the historical archive were also shown publicly for the first time as part of the exhibition. The exhibition space was organised into five zones, each one dedicated to the most important post-war eras of German design and presenting works from more than 30 designers who exerted a specific influence on the progress of national and international design through their efforts.1. Yes. COVID-19 can only be stopped through vaccinations. A mandate is needed.

2. Yes. This is a major step, but were facing a national emergency. It is a justifiable move.

3. No. The government is right to promote vaccinations, but not to require them.

4. No. This is government overreach and legally questionable. A mandate is wrong.

5. Unsure. Its in the publics interest, but mandates infringe on individuals rights.

Vote

View ResultsMy heart hurts

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I'm 40 and we didn't have this kind of mass shootings when I was in school.if I was kid today id be scared all the time to go to school :(

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i only work at a school and i'm scared to go to school. a lot of the children are used to this though, growing up during a time where this is prevalent.

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Columbine happened when I was in High School, so this kind of crap is nothing new for me...



Edited at 2018-02-15 06:31 am (UTC)

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Most of the people who have the ability to make a change don't care about this which is why they keep re-electing these people so...

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the NRA is a terrorist organization

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Call out every single rep that took this blood money. Put it on newspapers, social media, billboards, follow them around day in and day out reminding them of the lives they've ruined. May they never know peace. They don't deserve it.

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I heard one of the parents on Lawrence ODonnell tonight call Marco Rubio an elegant speaker and politician.



Im starting to believe the problem isnt the politicians. Its the constituents.

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One of the other dads ripped the govt. I will tell you that Broward and Miami Dade County are not the issues in FL when it comes to voting.

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Your comments are always dumb

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Looking at those sums of money, all I can think of is how pathetically small they are for even one life. Never mind the hundreds that being a gun lobby stooge actually costs.

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i'll never understand how we as a people allowed things to get to this point.

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I think because of a lot of people's indifference. For as many people that could vote in the US, the country has such a small percentage of participation. So its simple to buy politicians and power.



We have a saying in Spanish that roughly translates to "we have the government we deserve". I would think that after what has now happened in the US, people would rise up. Hopefully.

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The US definitely has the govt it deserves. You couldnt pay us to give a fuck about anything besides our superhero movies and extreme couponing.

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Its the price you pay for ~freedom apparently.

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Too many people are ignorant and believe owning a gun is the most important thing ever, because they can fight the government/terrorists/random bad guys like it's a movie.

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American culture is in large part a cancer, quite frankly.

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because the gun lobby deftly understood that they needed to make guns a potent cultural and political issue instead of a practical one. through buying politicians to be their shills and terrifying any politician from crossing them with smear campaigns, they've made any sensible gun control conversation an attack on the ~cultural heritage~ 50% of america's (backwoods) population and any change practically impossible.

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it absolutely sickens me

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racism

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Capitalism has created a complete and utter lack of empathy, especially from white men, who hold the most power with it. They are selfish, racist, sexist and don't care about anyone but people who look like them. They are severely undereducated but think they know best and won't hear a word otherwise from anyone else. I think they see minorities finally speaking up now and are straight-up terrified at what the consequences could be (ie they get treated the way they've been treating everyone else for centuries).

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every mass shooting that happens in this country chips away at something in me. i can't believe our government does nothing. (from werebel heartbreaking. those poor fucking kids.every mass shooting that happens in this country chips away at something in me. i can't believe our government does nothing. (from

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for sure! it's a small comm but i like how lowkey it is.

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just accepted you bb!

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Me too...

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Oh dang, didn't know that was a comm!

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...I read that as were bel at first and got confused. Then I realized it was 'we rebel'

-Fail-



Also I'm apparently already a member and forgot about the comm, oops

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i made a post about mass shootings the last time something happened and the one i linked to, "what bullets do to bodies"... the first line is still horrifically true.

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This is so fucking frustrating. Children are paying for the inept cowardice of Republicans in Congress who time and again refuse to do anything concrete to stop this shit



At this point I just want to the 2nd Amendment abolished, fuck the bullshit

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Thank you

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After listening to quite a number stupid parents today, Im starting to change my mind on all of this.

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same. I'm so fucking over this.

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Same tbh. I have a hard time giving a fuck about anyone's right to own a gun when I, as a parent, have to live with this fear lurking in my heart.



Fuck the 2nd Amendment.

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ia so fucking much

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2018 is watching children live tweet mass shootings while other kids who've survived school shootings talk them through it  Muna Mire (@Muna_Mire) February 14, 2018





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Oh my god........

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crazy shit b

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& watching them be scared af on snapchat.

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JFC this is... I don't even know what to say. Upsetting? Disheartening? Nothing feels like it's enough.

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This one kid tweeted his way through the shooting and gave live updates. Poor bb.

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This is so messed up. The fact that it's on survivors to help people currently going through that...that they're doing more than the government. I can't.

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That video of the gun shots going off with the kids screaming. I lost it.

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That snap was fucking horrific.

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I just have no words for this. As a Brit I just don't understand US gun laws in 2018...apparently there have already been 18 school shootings this year, it's a fucking disgrace!!!



Edited at 2018-02-15 12:25 am (UTC)

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the ONLY thing that brings me hope is that the kids who first went through this are getting old enough to force change on the members of congress who sat by and did nothing

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Ugh

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fuck :(

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That's fucked up.

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Jesus christ

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unreal

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the sad truth :(

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That broke my soul.

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woah

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reading this broke my heart so bad

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I have huge issues with these kids turning to social media for comfort in that moment. There's so much that's disturbing about having to see a snap video of what was going on in a classroom as you hear gunfire.





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"I really hope this isnt real." A student describes her thoughts during the confusion after the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida https://t.co/cLg20ReNBl pic.twitter.com/kv1m4Y5TjC  CNN (@CNN) February 14, 2018



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damn she's so well composed :(

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poor girl...Id never wish to even my enemy to go through that

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Dr: You have cancer

Person: what we can we do?

Dr: Whoa I don't think now is the time to talk "medicine"

Person: But

Dr: Thoughts & Prayers  John Sabine (@jsabine214) October 3, 2017



I mean. What is there even to say anymore?

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omg :(

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Im in south florida, and there has been non stop coverage. I cant watch it. Its just too disturbing.

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I've been in tears since I got the alert. It hits too close to home.

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This is so fucking heartbreaking

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Were averaging one school shooting every 60 hours in 2018 https://t.co/VvZi0YRQVG  HuffPost (@HuffPost) February 14, 2018





There have been 18 school shootings in the first 45 days of 2018, according to a nonprofit group that tracks gun violence. https://t.co/sp9znbcSr4 pic.twitter.com/c2k9Aslklj  ABC News (@ABC) February 14, 2018





Deadliest school shootings in US history:



32 killed, Apr 16, 2007, Virginia Tech

27 killed, Dec 14, 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School

18 killed, August 1, 1966, University of Texas

*** 16 that we know of as of now today in Florida*****

13 killed, Apr 20, 1999 - Columbine  Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 14, 2018





A reminder of what bullets do to bodies https://t.co/jzfqm3UP0s  Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) February 14, 2018





The Vox explainer on this is also very good and, sadly, updated again.



"Americas unique gun violence problem, explained in 17 maps and charts" https://t.co/dCMkcgHUX8  pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) February 14, 2018





Every time another mass shooting happens it's the exact same cycle/response. It's so defeating :( I saw some videos and they were horrifying. I was pretty young in elementary school but Columbine was the first big event I remembered and the first time I realized how fucked our world is. I remember coming home off the bus and my mom watching it on tv. Seeing students running out with their arms up took me back to that horrific moment.



and as always if you haven't read this longform you should

Every time another mass shooting happens it's the exact same cycle/response. It's so defeating :( I saw some videos and they were horrifying. I was pretty young in elementary school but Columbine was the first big event I remembered and the first time I realized how fucked our world is. I remember coming home off the bus and my mom watching it on tv. Seeing students running out with their arms up took me back to that horrific moment.and as always if you haven't read this longform you should

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Holy shit, 18 school shootings?!

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Right? Though I swear the first two weeks of January I saw something about school shootings every day on my Facebook news ticker

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jesus i don't know if i can stomach reading that article about what bullets do to the body

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Today was the anniversary of a school shooting in Chicago. It happened a decade ago at Northern Illinois University. I remember being in high school at the time and being notified about it.

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A cop was killed last Monday right by where I work and it's a very conservative area so all of the comments are Blue Lives Matter instead of focusing on preventing violent men from getting dangerous firearms

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Once i saw nothing happened after Sandy Hook then i realized we went to shit as a country.

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Douglas is my old rival high school. My sister teaches at the middle school down the street and shes so scared for her former students. Shes been on lockdown all afternoon.



Pulse happened not far from me.

My university has a shooting in the library.

And now this.

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What school did you go to? I went to Douglas and then transferred to Glades.

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Are you talking about FSU? I was a freshman living on campus when the shooting happened. I heard everything, it was terrifying. We had just gotten back from celebrating our friends birthday at around midnight (when it happened) and people were already running for their lives, begging other students to unlock dorm halls so they can be safe. Ill never forget that night for the rest of my life.

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Has anyone works had meetings about what to do in a active shooting ? My last work did and at my current job my administrator is gonna do a meeting soon.

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No, but I wish we would since we had an active shooter on campus a couple years ago. They mentioned it in safety talk at orientation and thats about it.

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We have to watch a training video once a year now.

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we had a meeting and implemented walkie talkies.

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Yes. Escape first, barricade if you can't escape and fight back as a last resort. My current and former employer often get threats of violence and I hate to say I've come to accept it but I have. But I'm an adult and no high school kid should come to accept the real threat of school violence.

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I remember when that wasn't the advice and it was more to shelter in place, but that's changed in the last few years.

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I had school shooting drills all the time in high school.

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yeah we have

they push run/hide/fight, in that order

this country sucks

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My old job had active shooter and terrorism drills, but I worked right near Penn Station so emergency preparedness has been a thing here for a while.

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Nope, we just have passes to swipe to get in... that was the big security move awhile back

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i've had to watch several videos on it & my work has done "active shooter" drill to train us on what to do.

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as someone who used to work in a high school, we got more active shooter drills than fire drills. it's sad, really.

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My sister is an elementary school teacher and they have drills on what to do. She teaches first grade. It's so disheartening.

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No, but I wish we did. Especially after they had to lock one of the floors because a recently fired employee made threats against the manager. I sit at reception on my floor and I'm the only person who sits up at the front and I'm a sitting fucking duck if anyone decides a mass shooting is on order for the day.



We do fire drills, but nothing for active shooters.

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We have a computer course that we have to take yearly as a refresher course :/

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I've had the video during orientation. I can't help but formulate an idea of where to go in a shooting.

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my Canadian self is reading this thread in shock! I'm so sorry to you all, I hope something changes

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My old job had a training course but not all of our staff cound attend due to responsibilities. I had my own escape route, i knew if i was on the 1st floor how to escape , and if i was on the 2nd floor my only chance was to be on the exit side that lead to the parking lot. Or hide on the roof.

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Yep. They have reenactment videos and everything, it's fucking intense.

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We dedicated a day to it when I was with the county prosecutor.



My son's middle school has active shooter drills.

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Mine did a class and I remember them stressing for people to hide, be quiet, keep the lights off.



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during the active shooter training i had we were told our center was a death trap. three years later, it's going to get construction to change its security and accessibility so... yay on that front. it was really terrifying being told we were going to have to make the decision on whether to leave children behind or not so i'm glad the security is getting tightened by getting a new waiting room where parents can be buzzed in by cameras like schools are.

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pff no.

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we have an active shooter video we have to watch every six months though sometimes we'll have to watch it more often because we get people calling in saying they're coming to shoot the place up. my very first week in training we went into lockdown because someone threatened it and they deemed it a valid enough threat.

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Yes. We had an active shooter training when I worked in administration for a large city hospital. An NYPD officer actually ran the training. You escaping if you can. If you can't, you barricade. Items like filing cabinets and large copy machines are good to use because they can slow down a bullet. Last resort is to fight back. Don't be a hero is what they said.



I also worked as a teacher previously in Florida when I lived down there and we did drills for lockdowns/these types of school shooting situations and actually were on lockdown once due to a shooting down the street from the school. You're trained to lock the door, blackout windows (especially the window pane of the classroom door, keep students away from windows and line them up against a safer interior wall or under desks and to keep quiet. I opened my storage closet door which couldn't fit 25 but in an emergency, I could try to cram as many of them in as possible if needed.

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I'm a teacher...so...yes. :\



We had a lockdown not too long ago, too. Guy walking around outside with a gun. That was super.

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I work in a NICU. Ive thought about it and we do education on it. Ive decided that if it ever happens in my unit, Im grabbing my most stable baby (or two if I have the time) and running.

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No. The retail company basically says 'fuck you' to all the times we could be unsafe. We're forced to drive in hazardous conditions, to work in unsafe situations, because customers 'may' need to get some TP, milk, and eggs during a hurricane. They don't care about active shooters.

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We had to watch a video about what to do with an active shooter as part of our annual refreshers. Basically just run, hide, fight. Its so scary. We had what they thought was an active shooter on campus a year and a half ago and we were on lockdown all day. It turned out to be a activated ISIS dude with a car and a knife trying to kill people, thankfully the perp was the only one who died and the victims were just injured. I cant imagine how many would have been lost if he had a gun. It was scary as fuck.

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We had the local police come in and share their active shooter video with us after my friends soon to be ex husband came in and tried to kill my boss and her. It was pointless. When you are trying to figure out what to do when you hear screaming and gunshots, common sense goes out the window.

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We have active shooter training for all new hires (pretty much just a video though), and the most recent one for employees was a good 6 months ago. We've never had a drill.

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i work in a middle school and we have lock down drills - a lock down would only be announced if there was an active shooter in the building. they finally changed the way the doors lock this year - the key that unlocks the door from the outside cannot unlock the door if the door has been locked with the inside key and when lock down gets announced, all teachers and staff are to shut their doors, use the inside key to lock the doors, drop the black out shades on the tiny door windows, close the curtains on the regular windows, turn the lights off, and huddle against the wall farthest from the door. there's a specific phrase that the principal or assistant principal needs to say when they "clear" the lock down drill and if we don't hear that phrase, we stay in lock down mode.

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Yes, my old job had site-intruder drills regularly. We had to find a place inside the building that had a lock on the inside, blinds or fogged-glass on the windows (preferably a place with no windows), and the designees would walk around the building making sure they didn't find anyone in the halls and that they couldn't hear any of us.

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I'm a paramedic and we train monthly now for active shooter situations.

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how long until "now isn't the time to talk about politics" comes out of the mouth of a GOPer?

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Its been happening all day

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LinkFrancois lives again lol. The show was a mess but those departing cast members were very boring.

Also we finally saw his peen in Permission god bless even tho it was just the tip



Edited at 2018-02-15 07:13 pm (UTC)

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That lil peen?

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I love Sarah Ramos as a personality, I wish she was more interesting as an actress.

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Agreed! Her roles have always been so one note. Even Parenthood. Plus they did her character so dirty but maybe its because shes so one note.

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Creek wasn't in the second book so I'm not surprised, though I haven't watched the series yet so I'm not sure how much the show deviated from the book.

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[ spoilers ] they did a mashup of books one and three, and the season ended with it leading into book two. But they minimized Fiji's role and gave parts of it to Manfred. Yeah, Creek def wasn't in the second book. I watched the show and

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I can definitely do without Creek. That's a win for me!

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Im kinda glad Sarah isnt coming back cause I'm just so used to viewing her as a little girl (from american dreams or parenthood) that she just looked like a teenager hooking up with francois even tho shes like 26 now.

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they never tore down the town set so i kind of knew they were coming back. our union's been buzzing about it and work calls have been going out for a show starting soon and running into september. probably this one. it's a pretty impressive set, it would have been a shame if they tore it down or didn't use it for something else.



i was supposed to do some makeup for the show but it was right on the tail of 'lion king' wrapping and i'd been doing makeup and wigs for that show for a month and before that was working a crazy schedule making stuff for 'godless' and 'woman walks ahead'. i needed the break. cut to a few months later and i get a call from a casting agent to be a bg actor on (i think) the last day of shooting for season 1. i was a construction worker that was preoccupied with the thermos of stale smelling coffee on a blueprint table. i think it was the last day because the crew made us wait in the church set while they took their cast and crew photo.

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Seriously? I thought this was dead. Anyway, good for those casting decisions. At least, they kept the more entertaining/interesting ones.

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I missed the last few episodes. I'll have to catch up.

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I may have to try this. I looooove True Blood and I've read the Sookie series about 10x. (It's my mindless reading guilty pleasure)

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Lol yes.



So sad oh well. So they will be adding.... can't wait.

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Yes! I feel bad but I'm so glad Creek is leaving. She was SO boring and it was so chemistry-less with Francois.

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I don't know anything about this show, but Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder ran "Ringer" so uh...good luck with that.

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Creek was annoying, but I actually started to like her by the season finale. The preacher I don't really care about and the same goes for about half the cast, but I'm still gonna watch season 2.

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I didnt watch it, but I'm happy for my boo Francois!



And I'm with you OP hoping for some day to have a Holliday and Francois reunion.

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To be honest I am shocked. The ratings were really low and the story isnt that great.

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as one of the only 5 people who enjoyed this show WTF it got a second season?! yay!



re cast spoiler, im glad! i still dont know how you cannot have chemistry with Francois, like take a good hard look at him!

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Creek is not returning?



How? How will they explain her absence?!

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LinkI've Been Given 'Safety' . . . . So Now What Do I Do?

"Oh my, what did I do to myself? I seemed a little interested in 'Safety,' and now I've been appointed to be my company's safety person! But I don't really know a thing about safety!"

You might be surprised how often I hear that. Really. While there are some organizations that, due to company size, type of industry and regulatory experience (and sometimes, company culture) have long-established "safety" (or "health, safety and environment" (HSE)) staffs, there are many that do not. Sometimes organizations have never had a dedicated "safety" person or think they have done "just fine" by making HSE an "additional duty" of existing staff. (Hello, Human Resources, Facilities and Quality staffs?)

If this speaks to you, then  welcome. It's a wonderful thing that you (or someone in your company) had some inspiration to address its HSE programs, maybe a bit more formally. Maybe this was because of workers' compensation costs or a bad injury. Maybe it was because the company needs to prove for its customers, that it has certain programs in place. Or something else.

The good news is that regardless, with the proper company support and some effort on your part  you can make a significant difference for your company. You don't have to be an expert in "everything." There are some simple things that can get you moving in the right direction and focusing on some fundamentals can help you.

However, and on the other hand, you also need to know that having effective "safety" programs is not just a matter of telling people to "be safe today." There is a lot more to it, as persons who take on safety roles, with or without safety backgrounds, usually find out.

The Lay of the Land

I am not an attorney and so do not take this as legal advice, but, when you take on safety duties on behalf of an employer, as part of an occupational health and safety program, there are levels of responsibility that go with that. This can vary by country. Speaking purely of safety, in some countries, safety staffs and persons acting in supervisory capacities can have personal liabilities. In the United States, state laws build in the principle of "exclusive remedy." This basically means that employers provide injury benefits to injured workers, regardless of fault. Workers however, lose their ability to sue their employer. Companies in those cases don't have unlimited liability for occupational injuries but in exchange for that, there can essentially be liberal application of workers' compensation benefits. (There can be exceptions to this, such as for cases involving intentional harm, concealment, or other reasons.) This does not however mean that third parties cannot sue companies, such as the families of fatally injured workers, or non-employees. And of course, OSHA can still cite employers for violations of OSHA regulations. (Sometimes, everything can seem to be going "great" until that serious injury or fatality....)

The violation of environmental laws tends to have much higher potential for personal liability and jail time. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can prosecute criminally, and the Department of Justice has an Environmental Crimes Section. For a discussion pertaining to your potential liabilities, consult your company's legal counsel or your attorney.

In any event, if your company is regulated by OSHA, the supervisors and managers in your company "do" have certain obligations. There are higher expectations of supervisors and managers than of general employees, but then again, the law does describe the rights and responsibilities of employees.

Ignorance on the part of your company, is not an excuse for not otherwise providing a safe and healthful workplace. Especially if push ever comes to shove, your company will want to show that it is compliant with applicable laws and regulations, has competent persons performing necessary actions to provide a safe workplace, and that it takes reasonable and prudent actions in its approaches to safety.

Understanding basic requirements or "safety 101" issues is part of that and will be important to you. This includes knowing which organizations regulate your business (including OSHA and EPA or State-equivalents as well as others) and becoming aware of critical compliance issues. You need to know what your basic "blocking and tackling" issues are. Focusing on safety and health for the moment, these types of items would include basic hazard identification and control, first aid and emergency medical care, emergency action plans, fire protection, basic injury and illness reporting and investigation, regulatory reporting of injuries, claims management, processes for ensuring proper training (some topics are mandatory), processes to determine and ensure workers are qualified to perform certain work (e.g. electrical), and written programs that apply across a number of industries. (For example, emergency action plans, energy control (lock/tag/try), hazard communication, and others.) While some regulations will apply to a broad range of types of employers, others apply only if conducting certain types of work. If your company uses machines and equipment with hazardous motion or components, you will want to learn machine guarding requirements, for example.

Going beyond that, to do the best job, you will also need to know some related and/or extended concepts. For example, what are reasonable company policies and HSE goals? What are "leading" and "lagging" safety indicators? How does what "you" do fit into your organization's workers' compensation programs and disability insurance programs? How can or should what "you" do integrate with new projects, processes, and equipment that other departments might be planning? What organizations exist in your industry that may have defined best practices for the type of business you are in?

You will want to start a process to answer those questions.

What Causes Injuries? What Prevents Them? Your Answers Are Critical

You will want to be able to move beyond just taking notes on injuries that have already happened and instead, proactively avoid having those "bad" things from happening to begin with. (Or are you happy to serve just as the local claims administrator for the insurance company?)

What is YOUR take on the age-old topic of "why accidents (incidents) happen?" This is a critical question, and your personal answer to this question will affect how you develop and implement your programs. Is it the case that most accidents are from dumb mistakes and a failure to be careful, and that people should be fired if they have one, regardless of the culture, management leadership, training, and work environment? Is it just the opposite of that  always "management's fault," regardless of employee actions? Or do causes tend to include a blend of factors? There are many books and articles written about these questions; you should take some initiative if you haven't already, to become informed about causes and prevention.

'Warning! Warning! Warning!'

There is the risk that some of the well-intentioned folks whove asked you to take on your new role, may have some misconceptions about what an effective safety program should include, or otherwise firmly believe in ideas and approaches to safety that are not acceptable to OSHA or have otherwise been discredited. For example, one must be careful when implementing safety incentive programs, so that the program does not discourage injury reporting. For another example, some might want you to model your accident prevention programs based solely on the old triangle theory (Heinrich theory) of injury causes and relationships. Organizations that use that approach and that treat all events as equal in terms of serious injuries and fatality (SIF) potential, are likely to miss important risk reduction opportunities. This is because in at least most cases, the types of things that cause SIFs, are not the same things that cause other less severe types of injuries. By the way, the old Heinrich model also had explicit consideration for mental deficiency as one potential cause of injuries. I doubt that you'll want to be telling your injured employees that they are mentally deficient.

Where to Begin?

If you dont have a safety background, it would be good to learn some basic concepts. Work with your company to identify resources that are already available to you. Are there corporate resources and possibly a corporate web page with links and tools?

An OSHA 30-hour regulatory overview class can be helpful to understand a broad range of requirements, although it will also probably cover some requirements that have nothing to do with your type of business. With a good trainer, it will be a good start, but do realize that will "just" be a start. Your company should not be under the illusion that this is all you will ever need.

There are other ways to gather information about basic hazards and requirements. Some states have compliance assistance/consultation programs that provide mini-courses on things like "Top 25 OSHA Violations" and high-impact requirements. The federal OSHA web page has some great resources, including a small employer orientation. There is even an interactive tutorial on hazard identification. Then, there are other decent primers that you can find on line with a little bit of research. You can also find various kinds of task-specific hazard checklists online, in many cases, for free.

Training might be available through the insurance company that provides your company's workers' compensation coverage. If so, you can often work with your insurance company and ask them to provide and/or tailor a class for you and other employees. Be selective however, because usually there is only "so much" that can be provided within a policy year.

Also, I would find a book or two on basic safety management. As you identify your gaps, you can obtain more specialized texts and materials if you need them.

You may want to tie in with one or more associations or organizations dedicated to occupational safety and health. Depending upon your perspective, this could include, for example, the National Safety Council (NSC), the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), or the Joseph A. Holmes Safety Association (for mining). There are also industry-specific organizations that can help address industry-specific safety issues. For example, the American Foundry Society (AFS) has a committee dedicated to foundry-related health and safety.

You can also subscribe to online safety publications. These organizations discuss current safety issues and also periodically provide related webinars. Some are free, but for those with a fee, it's usually pretty minimal. OH&S Magazine is one option for this.

At some point, attendance at regional or national safety conferences can be helpful. These normally provide you with access to both excellent presentations on topics that you choose, and exhibits and displays of safety related gear, equipment, supplies and software that may be of interest to you. Consider checking out the Michigan Safety Conference, the Indiana Safety and Health Conference & Expo, the Tennessee Safety & Health Conference, and other regional events. National events include (but certainly are not limited to) the National Safety Congress & Expo, the American Society of Safety Engineers' Professional Development Conference & Exposition, and the American Industrial Hygiene Conference & Exposition. There are numerous specialty conferences beyond those, such as for ergonomics.

There are also several documents out there that are intended to describe elements of effective safety management systems. You might want to look at these to gather ideas for what to be sure to include in your own system or to set a company trajectory. For example, there is the well-established ANSI/ASSE Z10 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems standard, recently reaffirmed and with some fantastic additions planned. The revised standard should be released by the end of 2018. There is also the newly approved international standard ISO 45001: Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems.

Once you understand basic requirements and good practices, you can and should assess how your company stacks up.

To do this, you should (if you haven't already) conduct a review of the last few years of your company's injury and illness records and note the types of injuries/illnesses that have occurred and the corresponding causes. Also ask your company for copies of prior insurance and risk assessment reports and prior regulatory citations, and/or conduct other assessments against criteria that you establish. Perhaps your company has conducted internal walk-throughs or program evaluations. Take a look at those.

Evaluate your safety committee, if there is one. Is there a scope, and does it have clear goals? With proper scope and employee involvement, some great things can come out of having one. But this is with willing employee involvement, meaningful participation, and appropriate training. Safety committee members may be willing and able to assist with special projects. If you don't have a safety committee (and presuming that one is not required by regulation or contract), then evaluate whether or not one would be helpful.

It can make sense to ask for a third-party assessment or assistance periodically. You don't know what you don't know. An extra set of eyes can help. Injuries and fatalities sometimes occur because workers can basically become complacent or inattentive to risks they are used to taking, or because people don't fundamentally recognize risk potential. Also, some types of assessments are best conducted by third parties unless you have staff fully trained and competent for the type of assessment needed, such as for personal air sampling to assess compliance with regulatory exposure limits.

Back at the Ranch

Hopefully, you plan to take your new assignment seriously and manage it as you would for any other part of the business. For that matter, your company's HSE programs should be integrated into the business, for greatest buy-in and success. Develop a coordinated game plan and follow it. Plan to develop your skills and knowledge. Ask for help when you need it. Develop measures of success, communicate, and seek to improve over time. You don't need to be intimidated, and you can succeed in your new role with the proper mindset and deliberate action. Good luck.

Greg Zigulis, CIH, CSP, is President of Sixth Sense Safety Solutions and provides companies with comprehensive occupational health and safety assistance. Over the span of his 30+ year career (to include in manufacturing, construction, restoration and mining), he has helped many persons assigned "safety duties" to understand responsibilities and best practices, to grow in knowledge and to develop in their roles. To learn more, go to www.sixthsensesafetysolutions.com or contact Greg at [email protected].

(This article is posted with permission from the author's blog.)The 2,000 new jobs will take Amazon's overall workforce in France to 7,500

US online shopping giant Amazon said Thursday it plans to create 2,000 permanent full-time jobs in France this year as consumers are making more and more of their purchases via the internet.

"The jobs are at all levels of skills" even if "the overwhelming majority of the positions are for fulfilling orders," Amazon's director in France Frederic Duval told AFP.

The new jobs will be across Amazon's distribution centres in France, as well as its offices in the Paris region, and take overall staff to 7,500.

Amazon said it has invested more than two billion euros ($2.5 billion) in France since 2010 and created more than 1,500 jobs in France last year.

However Amazon, along with other US tech companies, has also been at loggerheads with French authorities over taxes as they structure sales to pass through other European countries where tax rates are lower.

Amazon announced earlier this month it had reached an agreement with French tax authorities under which it will now register French sales in France.

Explore further Amazon hammers out tax deal with France

 2018 AFPCredit: CC0 Public Domain

Neuronal cell types in the brains of birds linked to goal-directed behaviors and cognition are similar to cells in the mammalian neocortex, the large, layered structure on the outer surface of the brain where most higher-order processing takes place.

In a new study, published this week in the journal Current Biology, scientists from the University of Chicago show that some neurons in bird brains form the same kind of circuitry and have the same molecular signature as cells that enable connectivity between different areas of the mammalian neocortex. The researchers found that alligators share these cell types as well, suggesting that while mammal, bird and reptile brains have very different anatomical structures, they operate using the same shared set of brain cell types.

"Birds are more intelligent than you think, and they do clever things. So, the question is: What kind of brain circuitry are they using?" said Clifton Ragsdale, PhD, professor of neurobiology at UChicago and senior author of the study. "What this research shows is that they're using the same cell types with the same kinds of connections we see in the neocortex, but with a very different kind of organization."

Both the mammalian neocortex and a structure in the bird brain called the dorsal ventricular ridge (DVR) develop from an embryonic region called the telencephalon. However, the two regions mature into very different shapes. The neocortex is made up of six distinct layers while the DVR contains large clusters of neurons called nuclei.

Because of this different anatomy, many scientists proposed that the bird DVR does not correspond to the mammalian cortex but is instead analogous to another mammalian brain structure called the amygdala.

In 2012, Ragsdale and his team confirmed a 50-year-old hypothesis by University of California San Diego neuroscientist Harvey Karten that proposed the DVR performs a similar function to the neocortex, but with dramatically different anatomy. In that study, the UChicago researchers matched genetic markers of the "input" and "output" neurons of the mammalian neocortex with genes expressed in several bird DVR nuclei.

In the new study, led by graduate student Steven Briscoe, the team found that other populations of neurons in the bird DVR share molecular signatures with neocortical intratelencephalic cells, or IT neurons. These IT neurons form a critical link in the circuitry of the neocortex. They help communicate between different neocortical layers and across cortical areas from one side of the brain to the other. The team then extended their work from birds to reptiles and identified IT neurons in a similar place in the alligator DVR.

"The structure of the avian DVR looks nothing like the mammalian neocortex, and this has historically been a huge problem in comparative neuroscience," Briscoe said. "Anatomists have debated how to compare the DVR and neocortex for over a century, and our identification of IT neurons in the bird DVR helps to explain how such different brain structures can give rise to similar behaviors."

The research suggests an interesting possibility that birds and primates evolved intelligence independently, developing vastly different brain structures but starting with the same shared sets of cell types.

"The input cell types, the output cell types and the intratelencephalic cell types are all conserved. They're not just found in mammals, which we knew, but in non-avian reptiles like alligators and avian reptiles, or birds," Ragsdale said. "It begins to clarify where and how in evolution we got this fantastic structure, the neocortex."

Explore further Scientists find homolog of mammalian neocortex in bird brain

More information: "Neocortical association cell types in the forebrain of birds and alligators," Current Biology (2018). Journal information: Current Biology "Neocortical association cell types in the forebrain of birds and alligators,"(2018).Boeing and Embraer are structuring an agreement to combine their commercial air operations in a way that addresses the Brazilian government's concerns about national defense, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said

Partnership talks between Boeing and Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer are making progress but there is "still work to do," Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said Thursday.

Boeing is pursuing a deal with Embraer which would give the American aerospace giant access to the Brazilian company's line of smaller jetshelping it compete with Canada's Bombardier, which has a partnership with Boeing European rival Airbus.

The Boeing-Embraer link, however, has faced opposition from the Brazilian government, which must approve any deal.

"We're respectful of the concerns the Brazilian government has raised around sovereignty and their national defense," Muilenburg told CNBC.

"We believe we've structured a deal concept that will satisfy the needs of everybody involved. So we're making progress."

He once again touted the benefits of the merger.

"We've got complementary product lines, complementary services," he said. "Embraer has vertical capabilities that fit with our strategy going forward."

The deal would to form a join unit to produce Embraer commercial jets, while allowing the Brazilian government to have a decision-making role, person with knowledge of the matter told AFP earlier this month.

But Embraer's defense aviation business would remain under Brazilian control, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Privatized in 1994, Embraer is the world's third-largest aircraft maker, with annual revenues of $6 billion, and 16,000 employees as well as commercial, defense and business jet product lines, making it a prized industrial player in Brazil.

 2018 AFPArabidopsis thaliana. Credit: Wikipedia.

An international collaboration of plant researchers this week reports yet another newly discovered role for the versatile receptor kinase, FERONIA, in the model plant Arabidopsis. The researchers say it acts as a sensor in the plant cell wall to help maintain its integrity and protect the plant from environmental assaults.

How cells sense their physical state and compensate for cell wall damage is poorly understood, say authors led by Alice Cheung at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and collaborator Jose Dinneny from the Carnegie Institute for Science and Stanford University. But their new analysis of plants exposed to salt stress offers the first experimental evidence and molecular mechanisms showing how FERONIA is essential for the cellular responses that ensure survival under high salinity.

Details are online now and will be in the March 5 issue of Current Biology.

As Cheung explains, "The chemical composition and properties of the cell wall are very complex. Even after decades of intense research, we still don't know all that much about it. Cell wall was considered a 'dead tissue' for a long time, but over time we have learned that it actually is a highly dynamic structure capable of undergoing rapid and extensive modification on demand. It is constantly sensing environmental conditions and communicating with other parts of the cell, which adjust and communicate in a feedback loop to affect conditions at the wall."

"This paper shows for the first time that FERONIA is an essential part of this wall-to-cell communication. Without FERONIA, the cell wall loses its ability to sense," the molecular biologist adds.

For these investigations, molecular geneticist Dinneny and colleagues worked with an Arabidopsis line, previously studied in the Cheung lab, that has lost the FERONIA gene so it cannot tolerate high salt conditions in the environment and will stop growing. A normal plant can adapt to some salt and with time will recover enough to grow, Cheung points out. She adds, "in some parts of the world, high soil salinity is a problem that severely reduces agricultural outputs, so understanding how plants might withstand high salts is important to solve food production issues."

Dinneny and colleagues found that salinity causes the cell wall to soften. "Lacking FERONIA, the mutant plants fail to sense the loss in cell wall integrity to trigger the needed cellular remedy for reinforcement. This leads to root cells exploding in the mutant plants rather than regaining growth as normal plants would do," they write.

The top images show a normal root with cells expanding during the growth recovery process of salt stress. The bottom row of images show the mutant deficient in FERONIA, where cells are disappearing due to a loss of wall integrity. Credit: Wei Feng

Knowing that Cheung's research group had FERONIA-related cell wall data that could provide a mechanistic basis for their observation, the Stanford researchers proposed a collaboration.

Cheung says purifying the FERONIA protein presented the first big challenge. With that accomplished, her laboratory's contribution was to use the purified protein and fragments of cell wall, made up of a sugar polymer called pectin, in several different assays to establish the protein's interactions with the cell wall, a prerequisite for it to act as a "sensor."

The two U.S. groups, with two others in France and Germany, did more experiments to complete the study, Cheung says. The French group carried out atomic force microscopy, an advanced technology that can probe cell wall strength, while the German group carried out analyses related to calcium ion responses that are important to maintain cell wall integrity during salt stress. She adds that these two labs' expertise complemented her own lab's biochemical and molecular expertise and the Dinneny group's developmental and stress physiological expertise.

"This work is another example of how biological research often gets done in this era, through collaboration," she points out.

As Cheung explains, scientists once thought that FERONIA was involved only in female plant reproduction, thus by tradition it was named for a Roman fertility goddess. But she and colleagues changed that notion when they reported in 2010 that FERONIA is required for many and varied plant growth and survival processes. This opened a whole new research community that now involves many groups around the world, she says.

Cheung says, "This most recent study and previous reports from many laboratories have clearly established that FERONIA is more like a command center, the goddess at the center of communication for many ongoing processes. One of the reasons FERONIA can do so many things is that it regulates a cellular pathway that is very broad, with many side branches."

"Another reason could be that FERONIA binds with the cell wall, which is outside the cell membrane and at the front line of interactions with multiple agents from the outside and with molecules secreted from inside cells," she adds, as shown in this new work. Her group is continuing to work on discovering additional ways that FERONIA functions to maintain its "goddess" stature.

Explore further Discovery in plant growth mechanisms opens new research pathCredit: CC0 Public Domain

To manufacture medicines, chemists must find the right combinations of chemicals to make the necessary chemical structures. This is more complicated than it sounds, as typical chemical reactions employ several different components, and each chemical involved in a reaction adds another dimension to the calculations.

In an ideal world, chemists would like to predict which combination of chemicals would deliver the highest yield of product and avoid unintended by-products or other losses, but predicting the outcome of these multi-dimensional reactions has proven challenging.

A group of researchers led by Abigail Doyle, the A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University, and Dr. Spencer Dreher of Merck Research Laboratories, has found a way to accurately predict reaction yields while varying up to four reaction components, using an application of artificial intelligence known as machine learning. They have turned their method into software that they have made available to other chemists. They published their research Feb. 15 in the journal Science.

"The software that we developed can work for any reaction, any substrate," said Doyle. "The idea was to let someone apply this tool and hopefully build on it with other reactions."

Vast resources and time are expended to make synthetic molecules, often in a largely ad hoc manner, she said. Using this new software, chemists can identify high-yielding combinations of chemicals and substrates more cheaply and efficiently.

"We hope this will be a valuable tool in expediting the synthesis of new medicines," said Derek Ahneman, who completed his chemistry Ph.D. in Doyle's lab in 2017 and now works for IBM.

"Many of these machine learning algorithms have been around for quite some time," said Jesus Estrada, a graduate student in Doyle's lab who contributed to the research and the paper. "However, within the synthetic organic chemistry community, we really haven't tapped into the exciting opportunities that machine learning offers."

"As chemists, we've traditionally veered away from multi-dimensional analysis," said Doyle. "We only look at one variable at a time, or a single set of conditions for a range of substrates."

When Ahneman told Doyle that he wanted to use machine learning to tackle the multi-dimensional problem, she encouraged him. "I alwaysespecially for my most talented studentstry to give them free rein in the last year of their Ph.D.," she said. "This is the project he proposed to me."

Doyle and Ahneman set out to model reaction yield while modifying four different reaction components, an exponentially more difficult endeavor than modifying one variable at a time.

"At the outset, we knew there would be many challenges to overcome," Ahneman said. "We weren't sure it was even possible."

Historically, one obstacle to developing multi-dimensional models has been collecting enough data on reaction yields to build an effective "training set," he said. But recently, Merck has invented robotic systems that can run thousands of reactions on the order of days.

Another challenge has been calculating quantitative descriptors for each chemical, to use as inputs for the model. These descriptors have typically been calculated one by one, which would have been impractical for the large number of chemical combinations they wanted to use.

They overcame this limitation by writing code that used an existing program, Spartan, to calculate and then extract descriptors for each chemical used in the model.

Once they had their quantitative descriptors, they tried several statistical approaches. First, they use linear regression, the industry standard, but found that it failed to accurately predict reaction yield. They then explored multiple common machine learning models and found that one called "random forest" delivered startlingly accurate yield predictions.

A random forest model works by randomly selecting small samples from the training data set and using that sample to build a decision tree. Each individual decision tree then predicts the yield for a given reaction, and then the result is averaged across the trees to generate an overall yield prediction.

Another breakthrough came when the researchers discovered that with random forests, "reaction yields can be accurately predicted using the results of 'only' hundreds of reactions (instead of thousands), a number that chemists without robots can perform themselves," Ahneman said.

They further found that random forest models can predict yields for chemical compounds not included in the training set.

"The techniques used are completely state-of-the-art," said Chloe-Agathe Azencott, a machine learning researcher at the Centre for Computational Biology of Paris Science and Letters University, who was not involved in the research. "The correlation plots in the paper are good enough that I think we can envision relying on these predictions in the future, which will limit the need for costly laboratory experiments."

"These results are exciting, because they suggest that this method can be used to predict the yield for reactions where the starting material has never been made, which would help minimize the consumption of chemicals that are time-consuming to make," Ahneman said. "Overall, this methodology holds promise for (1) predicting the yield for reactions using as-yet-unmade starting materials and (2) predicting the optimal conditions for a reaction with a known starting material and product."

After Ahneman finished his degree, Estrada continued the research. The goal was to create software that was accessible not only to computer experts like Ahneman and Estrada but the broader synthetic chemistry community, said Doyle.

She explained how the software works: "You draw out the structuresthe starting materials, catalysts, basesand the software will figure out shared descriptors between all of them. That's your input. The outcome is the yields of the reactions. The machine learning matches all those descriptors to the yields, with the goal that you can put in any structure and it will tell you the outcome of the reaction.

"The idea is to help people navigate the multi-dimensional space where you can't intuit the outcomes," said Doyle.

Explore further Subtle steric differences reveal a model for Ni cross-coupling success

More information: "Predicting reaction performance in CN cross-coupling using machine learning" Science (2018). Journal information: Science "Predicting reaction performance in CN cross-coupling using machine learning"(2018). science.sciencemag.org/lookup/  1126/science.aar5169DETECTR, a DNA-detection system based on CRISPR biology, can spot specific DNA snippets in human samples, and could help identify infections, cancer, and more. Credit: HHMI

A powerful genome editing tool can be deployed as an ace DNA detective, able to sniff out DNA snippets that signal viral infections, cancer, or even defective genes.

This genetic detective, developed in the laboratory of Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator Jennifer Doudna at the University of California, Berkeley, uses the genome-slicing system known as CRISPR. By combining the capabilities of CRISPR with a molecular flare gun, Doudna and her colleagues have devised a simple method that may lead to fast, reliable medical tests.

The new method, called DETECTR, "enables sensitive and accurate DNA detection," Doudna says, and was able to spot two types of cancer-causing human papillomavirus, or HPV, in human samples. She and colleagues first reported their results in a preprint posted on bioRxiv.org in November 2017; the peer-reviewed report appears February 15, 2018, in the journal Science.

DETECTR, or DNA Endonuclease Targeted CRISPR Trans Reporter, is based on CRISPR, a bacterial defense system that cuts and disables viruses and other threats. Since its discovery, CRISPR has been co-opted by scientists eager to selectively snip and repair genomes. In the new study, Doudna and her colleagues show that CRISPR biology can be used in another way, tooas a DNA homing beacon.

DETECTR relies on Cas12a, an enzyme described in 2015. Like its molecular cousin Cas9, which Doudna and colleague Emmanuelle Charpentier turned into a genome editing tool in 2012, Cas12a snips DNA. But instead of snipping only the DNA strand it binds, Cas12a chops other DNA, too. "We started to see this surprising activity where it would just start cutting random stuff," says study coauthor Lucas Harrington, a graduate student in Doudna's lab.

Under certain circumstances, the enzyme turns into a DNA shredding machine, slicing up any single-stranded DNA nearby, the researchers saw. But this wasn't indiscriminate destruction. For the machete action to begin, Cas12a first has to find a precise DNA target. Researchers can program that target by adding a guidean RNA molecule that tells Cas12a what to look for. "It's so easy to reprogram this to find any piece of DNA that you want to detect," Harrington says.

Once Cas12a locks onto and snips the target, it then begins shredding all of the single-stranded DNA it can find. But for the system to be useful, Doudna and colleagues needed a way to see when Cas12a starts this molecular mayhem, signaling that it has found its target. So the researchers used a glowing moleculean easy-to-spot flarelinked by a single strand of DNA to a suppressor molecule that prevents the glow. When Cas12a turns into a machete, it slices the DNA strand that links these two molecules together. This removes the suppressor, letting the glowing molecule shinea signal researchers can detect.

The team then put their DNA detective to the test. Working with Dr. Joel Palefsky and his team at the University of California, San Francisco, they hunted for DNA signals from two types of cancer-causing HPV: type 16 and type 18. Researchers obtained 25 DNA samples taken from people who had no HPV infection, one type of virus, or both types. For HPV16, DETECTR made the right call for all 25 of the samples. For HPV18, DETECTR got it right for 23 of 25 samples. The ones it missed gave weak signals that can likely be improved with different guide RNA design, Doudna says.

Compared with current methods to detect HPV, DETECTR is "simpler, quicker, and does not require specialized equipment," Harrington says. That could make the system useful in resource-limited health clinics and for point-of-care diagnostics.

The new DETECTR system, created at UC Berkeley based on CRISPR-Cas12a, can analyze cells, blood, saliva, urine and stool to detect genetic mutations, cancer and antibiotic resistance as well as diagnose bacterial and viral infections. It works by amplifying target DNA with the RPA system, and using a fluorescent reporter (F star) tied to single-stranded DNA to signal Cas12a has found its target. Credit: Doudna lab, UC Berkeley

About 79 million Americans carry HPV, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, and more than 4,000 women die from cervical cancer each year. Together, HPV16 and HPV18 cause 70 percent of cervical cancers and precancerous lesions, according to the World Health Organization.

Doudna's team's method could easily be applied to other types of viral or bacterial infections, and even cancer markers, chromosomal abnormalities, or other genetic signals, Harrington says. More generally, the results highlight the promise of basic biology. Basic research on an ancient bacterial defense system keeps turning up new surprises, and new potential uses. CRISPR "is a treasure chest that we keep digging into and finding new things," Harrington says.

Explore further Pac-Man-like CRISPR enzymes have potential for disease diagnostics

More information: J.S. Chen el al., "CRISPR-Cas12a target binding unleashes indiscriminate single-stranded DNase activity," Science (2018). Journal information: Science J.S. Chen el al., "CRISPR-Cas12a target binding unleashes indiscriminate single-stranded DNase activity,"(2018). science.sciencemag.org/lookup/  1126/science.aar6245When professor Frank Israel graduated at Leiden Observatory some forty years ago, little did he know that one of his theories would be making headlines in 2018in the form of a 3-D animation on the Internet, no less.

Even before his graduation, Israel became interested in the significant and mysterious difference in velocity of the stars in the heart of the Orion nebula and the gases that surround them. For his doctoral research, he studied luminous gaseous nebulae, including the Orion nebula, as seen in wavelengths in the radio part of the light spectrum (measured with the radio telescope in Westerbork, the Netherlands). Many of these nebulae came in a form inexplicable by the theories of the time: asymmetrical and with an uneven, uncentered distribution of stars.

In the year leading up to Israel's promotion, radiation emanated by carbon monoxide molecules could be measured for the very first time; the presence of this radiation proved the existence of enormous, solid and largely invisible clouds of molecular gas and dust. Inspired by two publications that described the Orion nebula as a number of gases flowing along the surface of such a cloud, Israel measured the properties of several dozen similar gaseous nebulae.

He found that the vast majority of gaseous nebulae in the Milky Way came into being by the formation of extremely luminous stars on the outher surface of these large, dark clouds. After their formation, these stars ionise their environment, which up until that point had been neutral. The ionisation front digs into the cloud as it grows, causing a pressure differential with the thin, rarefied gas outside the cloud. The ionised gas rushes outward, moving far faster than the stars that illuminate it.

A new video by NASA displays a surface pit, eroded by stars, in the Orion nebula. It is artfully animated and what is more, that pit (called a blister) matches precisely the predictions and descriptions that Frank Israel and his colleagues came up with those forty years ago. Credit: NASA

All this was in contradiction to the common theory of the time, according to which stars form in the centres of clouds; however, in spite of the paradigm shift, the new theory rapidly became an accepted view of nebula formation.

For this new video, researchers working at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and the Caltech/Infrared Processing and Analysis Center in Pasadena have combined scientific techniques and data with special effects and computer graphics. The video is being distributed to American observatories and museums hoping to provide their visitors with a crystal clear picture of these ideasideas that found their origins some forty years ago, at the Leiden Observatory.

Explore further Glory from gloomIt's a cracking discovery

A Japanese scientist said Thursday his team has cracked open a method to improve the production of carbon-free energyby using proteins taken from egg white.

Yusuke Yamada, a professor at Osaka City University, said his team has managed to use protein from egg white as a "tool" for producing hydrogen, a powerful source of clean electricity.

The new method "brings us closer to our ultimate goal of producing hydrogen from water," Yamada told AFP.

"This lays the groundwork for the clean production of hydrogen in the future," added the scientist.

When it reacts with oxygen, hydrogen produces electricity, releasing only water and heat in the process.

But hydrogen is currently mass-produced using natural gas or fossil fuels, which themselves result in harmful emissions.

It can be produced in labs without fossil fuels and scientists have traditionally done this by creating a special interaction of the molecules in liquid, explained Yamada.

But free-moving and randomly located molecules and particles in the fluid can interfere with the process of producing hydrogen and scientists have long searched for a way to immobilise them.

Yamada's team used a protein found in egg to build crystals with lots of tiny holes to trap these particles.

The change brought a sense of traffic control to the molecular interactions and improved the efficiency of clean, hydrogen production, Yamada said.

"If you use hydrogen as an energy source, it only releases water in the environment. It is extremely environmentally friendly," he told AFP.

"We found protein was a useful tool" to generate hydrogen in a lab without using a fossil fuel, the professor said.

The world's leading companies see hydrogen as the ultimate clean energy to power everything from cars to office buildings in the future, and ditch fossil fuels that cause global warming.

Yamada's method was published in the February edition of the scientific journal Applied Catalysis B.

Explore further A new way to produce clean hydrogen fuel from water using sunlight

 2018 AFPA powerful nor'easter battered the US East Coast on Jan. 4, 2018. Credit: NOAA

Hurricanes spawn most of the largest storm surges in the northeastern U.S., right? Wrong, according to a study by Rutgers University-New Brunswick scientists.

Extratropical cyclones , including nor'easters and other non-tropical storms, generate most of the large storm surges in the Northeast, according to the study in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology. They include a freak November 1950 storm and devastating nor'easters in March 1962 and December 1992.

In a first, the Rutgers scientists found intriguing trends after searching for clusters of, or similarities among, storms, said study coauthor Professor Anthony J. Broccoli, chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. It's a new way of studying atmospheric circulation.

Understanding the climatology of storm surges driven by extratropical cyclones is important for evaluating future risks, especially as sea-level rise continues, the researchers said.

"The clusters are like rough police artist sketches of what surge-producing storms look like," Broccoli said. "Like facial recognition software, clustering is trying to find storms that look like one another."

"We wanted to understand the large-scale atmospheric circulation associated with storm surges," said Arielle J. Catalano, the study's lead author and a doctoral student in the Graduate Program in Atmospheric Science at Rutgers-New Brunswick. "It's an atmospheric approach to the surge-producing storms."

The study covered the 100 largest storm surges driven by extratropical cyclones at Sewells Point in Norfolk, Virginia, The Battery in southern Manhattan in New York City, and Boston, Massachusetts. It excluded hybrid systems, like Superstorm Sandy, that shifted from tropical to non-tropical or were tropical up to 18 hours before peak surges.

This nor'easter in early February 2013 packed hurricane-force wind gusts and dumped lots of snow. Credit: NASA-NOAA GOES Project Science Team

The Rutgers scientists examined tide gauge records from the early 20th century through 2010. They analyzed atmospheric circulation during storms to look for clusters, and studied climate variability patterns that influenced circulation in the Northeast. They also looked at the probability of surges linked to much larger-scale atmospheric patterns that cover vast areas.

They found that the biggest surges develop when slowly moving extratropical cyclones (low pressure systems) encounter a strong anticyclone, or high pressure system. That scenario leads to a tighter pressure gradient (the contrast between low and high pressure) and longer-lasting onshore winds, the study says.

This favorable environment for large storm surges is influenced by large-scale atmospheric patterns, including El Nino, the Arctic Oscillation, the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Pacific-North American pattern.

Though Superstorm Sandy in 2012 led to the largest storm surge on record at The Battery, extratropical cyclones spawned 88 of the 100 largest surges there.

The November 1950 "Great Appalachian Storm," with wind gusts exceeding 140 mph in the mid-Atlantic region, generated the highest extratropical cyclone surge at The Battery: nearly 7.9 feet. That's only 20 percent smaller than Sandy's surge - 13 percent smaller if sea-level rise is not considered, the study says.

The water level during the 1950 storm was lower than during Sandy because the surge peaked at close to low tide. Future extratropical cyclones could cause Sandy-like flooding and coastal damages.

At Sewells Point, the highest surge was 5.4 feet in November 2009, while the highest surge at Boston was nearly 6.3 feet in February 2010. Of the 100 largest surges at those locations, extratropical cyclones were responsible for 71 at Sewells Point and 91 at Boston.

"The elephant in the room is sea-level rise," Broccoli said. "That will likely matter more than how storms may change in the future, but what happens will be a combination of the two factors."

More information: Arielle J. Catalano et al, Synoptic Characteristics of Surge-Producing Extratropical Cyclones along the Northeast Coast of the United States, Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology (2017). Arielle J. Catalano et al, Synoptic Characteristics of Surge-Producing Extratropical Cyclones along the Northeast Coast of the United States,(2017). DOI: 10.1175/JAMC-D-17-0123.1Credit: Liana Anderson

Carbon emissions from the Brazilian Amazon are increasingly dominated by forest fires during extreme droughts rather than by emissions from fires directly associated with the deforestation process, according to a study in Nature Communications.

The authors suggest that recurrent 21st century droughts may undermine achievements in reducing emissions from deforestation in this region.

Dr. Luiz Aragao, from the University of Exeter and the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE), and colleagues used satellite data and greenhouse gas inventories to assess drought impacts on fire incidence and associated carbon emissions between 2003 and 2015 in the Brazilian Amazon.

The authors found that despite a 76 percent decline in deforestation rates over the past 13 years, fire incidence increased by 36 percent during the 2015 drought compared to the preceding 12 years.

They estimate that forest fires during drought years alone contribute on average emissions of one billion tonnes of CO2 annually to the atmosphere, which are more than half those from old-growth forest deforestation.

According to Dr. Aragao, this is the first time scientists have clearly demonstrated how forest fires can become widely spread during recent droughts and how much they influence Amazonian carbon emissions in a decadal scale.

He emphasizes that the suite of satellites currently in operation allows the retrieval of data on current climate, atmospheric carbon content and the status of terrestrial ecosystems.

The combination of such data is already permitting Dr. Aragao's research laboratory at INPE to develop robust methodologies for understanding and accounting for carbon emissions from forest degradation, one of the bottlenecks for accurately monitoring, verifying and reporting the Amazonian carbon budget.

Lessons learned with this study are important because some observations and models indicate that the intensity and frequency of droughts in Amazonia may increase as a consequence of climate change and deforestation, explains Jose Marengo from the Brazilian Monitoring Center for Natural Disaster Alert (CEMADEN).

Dr. Marengo adds that three "droughts of the century" in 2005, 2010, 2015/2016 have occurred in the region due to a warmer tropical North Atlantic ocean or to El Nino, and the intensification of these phenomena in the future favours more droughts.

Dr. Liana Anderson, also from CEMADEN, says if changes in the near future climate are consistent with model results and no policy actions are taken to efficiently predict and avoid fire occurrence, she expects that carbon emissions from forest fires would be sustained in an analogue way as demonstrated by the study.

The study highlights that Brazil has made substantive advances to report emissions from deforestation.

However, based on the results, Brazil needs urgently to focus on incorporating into estimates, CO2 losses associated with fires unrelated to the deforestation process.

Governments must be aware of these values to propose realistic and effective solutions to maintain low deforestation levels, find new practices of land management and curb fire incidence.

These actions will be of utmost importance for reducing future carbon emissions from the Brazilian Amazon.

The authors argue that ongoing pervasive land-use activities and the intensification of extreme droughts are likely to increase fire emissions unrelated to the deforestation, risking the stability of forest carbon stocks and undermining the biodiversity co-benefits achievable in carbon conservation schemes, such as reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+).

Explore further Counting the carbon cost of forest destruction

More information: Luiz E. O. C. Aragao et al. 21st Century drought-related fires counteract the decline of Amazon deforestation carbon emissions, Nature Communications (2018). Journal information: Nature Communications Luiz E. O. C. Aragao et al. 21st Century drought-related fires counteract the decline of Amazon deforestation carbon emissions,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02771-yResearchers from UConn and the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation and Research examined how the overhunting of seed dispersing animals is changing tree communities in Western Amazonia, such as those in Manu National Park. Credit: Varun Swamy

When it comes to spreading their seeds, many trees in the rainforest rely on animals, clinging to their fur or hitching a ride within their digestive tract. As the seeds are spread around, the plants' prospects for survival and germination are increased.

But in many tropical forests, over-hunting is diminishing the populations of those animals, and, as a result, changing the make-up of the forests themselves.

A new study of the Amazon rainforest by researchers at UConn and the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation and Research, published in the Journal of Ecology, examines what happens to plants if their seed dispersers are no longer present. They found that theoretical models predicting a dire impact on plant communities and huge decreases in the amount of carbon stored in tropical forests are not supported by the facts. Instead, the effects on the ecosystem are less straightforward and less immediately devastating.

"Yes, there is a negative effect, but there isn't 100 percent mortality," says Robert Bagchi, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UConn. "The story is more complex and much more subtle."

Whereas the models used in the previous studies did not use actual data on items such as mortality, survival, growth, and spatial distribution, Bagchi and his fellow researchers explored the question in greater detail, using a statistical technique they recently developed with extensive data collected on tree communities in the 80,000 km2 Madre de Dios river basin, located in the southeastern corner of Peru's Amazon rainforest.

In Western Amazonia, as many as two-thirds of all tree species rely on native, fruit-eating mammals such as spider monkeys and tapirs, or birds like guans, trumpeters and toucans, who are able to travel fairly large distances and carry any ingested seeds far from their parent trees.

Dispersal is advantageous for seeds because spreading out will give seedlings an edge over specialized natural predators who might otherwise wipe out aggregations of undispersed plants.

"The idea is that the seeds escape," says Bagchi. "A lot of pathogens and insects are quite specific about which plants they will eat, and if there is no dispersal and their desired plants are densely aggregated, those plants will be clobbered."

In tropical rain forests, as many as two-thirds of all tree species rely on native, fruit-eating mammals such as capuchin monkeys who are able to travel fairly large distances and carry any ingested seeds far from their parent trees. What happens to the forests when these seed dispersing animals are over hunted? Credit: Varun Swamy

In addition, the tree species dispersed by these animals also store the most carbon.

Unfortunately, the large-bodied animals and birds are the favorite quarry of hunters for bush meat.

The researchers examined tree communities in the tropical rain forests of Western Amazonia, in terms of forest spatial organization and carbon storage capacity. They did find that tree communities in hunted forests appear to be undergoing a reorganization, where saplings of species that rely on large hunted animals for dispersal are now growing closer to each other and forming denser clumps in hunted forests.

But the long-term implications for biodiversity and the biomass of forests are not yet clear. And the expectation that without their dispersers, seeds of these plant species will land in the "kill zone" of insects and diseases under their parents and be replaced by other species that store less carbon, culminating in huge decreases in the amount of carbon stored in tropical forests, has not materialized.

A number of factors could be contributing to the reason that previous theories are not proving true, Bagchi says.

Smaller seed dispersers that often increase when their larger competitors are hunted out may be compensating. Additionally, the trees analyzed in the study were already at least 10-15 years old, so follow-up studies will instead focus on the early lives of these trees, starting at the germination stage.

Questions the researchers hope to pursue include, What are the survival rates of undispersed seeds in hunted forests? Is limited dispersal by smaller animals enough to ensure a seed's survival? How do these stages fit together - does high survival at a later stage compensate for low survival of undispersed seeds?

"We can't simplify the process to just a linear one," says Bagchi. "We need data following the whole process, from seed dispersal to trees growing into adults."

Bagchi also cautions that although these findings are somewhat hopeful in light of previous modeling studies, tropical forests in South America, Asia, and Africa are becoming ever more stripped of their diversity of flora and fauna, fundamentally changing the structure of these complex systems.

More information: Robert Bagchi et al, Defaunation increases the spatial clustering of lowland Western Amazonian tree communities, Journal of Ecology (2018). Journal information: Journal of Ecology Robert Bagchi et al, Defaunation increases the spatial clustering of lowland Western Amazonian tree communities,(2018). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.12929This series of Hubble Space Telescope images taken over 2 years tracks the demise of a giant dark vortex on the planet Neptune. The oval-shaped spot has shrunk from 3,100 miles across its long axis to 2,300 miles across, over the Hubble observation period. Credit: NASA, ESA, and M.H. Wong and A.I. Hsu (UC Berkeley)

Three billion miles away on the farthest known major planet in our solar system, an ominous, dark storm - once big enough to stretch across the Atlantic Ocean from Boston to Portugal - is shrinking out of existence as seen in pictures of Neptune taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

Immense dark storms on Neptune were first discovered in the late 1980s by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft. Since then, only Hubble has had the sharpness in blue light to track these elusive features that have played a game of peek-a-boo over the years. Hubble found two dark storms that appeared in the mid-1990s and then vanished. This latest storm was first seen in 2015, but is now shrinking.

Like Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS), the storm swirls in an anti-cyclonic direction and is dredging up material from deep inside the ice giant planet's atmosphere. The elusive feature gives astronomers a unique opportunity to study Neptune's deep winds, which can't be directly measured.

The dark spot material may be hydrogen sulfide, with the pungent smell of rotten eggs. Joshua Tollefson from the University of California at Berkeley explained, "The particles themselves are still highly reflective; they are just slightly darker than the particles in the surrounding atmosphere."

Unlike Jupiter's GRS, which has been visible for at least 200 years, Neptune's dark vortices only last a few years. This is the first one that actually has been photographed as it is dying.

"We have no evidence of how these vortices are formed or how fast they rotate," said Agustin Sanchez-Lavega from the University of the Basque Country in Spain. "It is most likely that they arise from an instability in the sheared eastward and westward winds."

The dark vortex is behaving differently from what planet-watchers predicted. "It looks like we're capturing the demise of this dark vortex, and it's different from what well-known studies led us to expect," said Michael H. Wong of the University of California at Berkeley, referring to work by Ray LeBeau (now at St. Louis University) and Tim Dowling's team at the University of Louisville. "Their dynamical simulations said that anticyclones under Neptune's wind shear would probably drift toward the equator. We thought that once the vortex got too close to the equator, it would break up and perhaps create a spectacular outburst of cloud activity."

But the dark spot, which was first seen at mid-southern latitudes, has apparently faded away rather than going out with a bang. That may be related to the surprising direction of its measured drift: toward the south pole, instead of northward toward the equator. Unlike Jupiter's GRS, the Neptune spot is not as tightly constrained by numerous alternating wind jets (seen as bands in Jupiter's atmosphere). Neptune seems to only have three broad jets: a westward one at the equator, and eastward ones around the north and south poles. The vortex should be free to change traffic lanes and cruise anywhere in between the jets.

"No facilities other than Hubble and Voyager have observed these vortices. For now, only Hubble can provide the data we need to understand how common or rare these fascinating neptunian weather systems may be," said Wong.

The first images of the dark vortex are from the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, a long-term Hubble project that annually captures global maps of our solar system's four outer planets. Only Hubble has the unique capability to probe these worlds in ultraviolet light, which yields important information not available to other present-day telescopes. Additional data, from a Hubble program targeting the dark vortex, are from an international team including Wong, Tollefson, Sanchez-Lavega, Andrew Hsu, Imke de Pater, Amy Simon, Ricardo Hueso, Lawrence Sromovsky, Patrick Fry, Statia Luszcz-Cook, Heidi Hammel, Marc Delcroix, Katherine de Kleer, Glenn Orton, and Christoph Baranec.

Wong's paper appears online in the Astronomical Journal on Feb. 15, 2018.

Explore further Hubble confirms new dark spot on Neptune

More information: Michael H. Wong et al. A New Dark Vortex on Neptune, The Astronomical Journal (2018). Journal information: Astronomical Journal Michael H. Wong et al. A New Dark Vortex on Neptune,(2018). DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/aaa6d6Credit: M. Ahmetvaleev

Vapour cloud trail left by the Chelyabinsk asteroid as seen by M. Ahmetvaleev on 15 February 2013.

It shows the path where an approximately 20 m-diameter, 13 000-tonne (and previously unknown) near-Earth object (NEO) entered Earth's atmosphere over the city of Chelyabinsk in Russia.

The small asteroid exploded at a height of about 30 km, generating a bright, hot explosion with a gas cloud, as well as a large shock wave that broke windows and knocked down parts of buildings and structures. Subsequent media reports said some 1500 people were injured by flying glass and other debris, although no deaths were reported.

In 2015, former Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart described the event in this Asteroid Day blog post.

Explore further Small asteroid to shave safely by Earth FridayAlex Pullen looks through a microscope at the L.G. Rich Environmental Laboratory at Clemson University. Credit: Clemson University

Dust that blew into the North Pacific Ocean could help explain why the Earth's climate cooled 2.7 million years ago, according to a new study published in the journal Science Advances.

One of the co-authors was Alex Pullen, an assistant professor of environmental engineering and earth sciences at Clemson University.

"Why study the past? It's a great predictor of the future," he said. "The findings of this study were both interesting and very unexpected."

Researchers were interested in dust because when it blows off land and into the ocean, the iron in it fertilizes the water like farmers do their fields. Through photosynthesis, tiny organisms that live in the ocean surface waters pull carbon-dioxide out of the atmosphere, which usually means cooler temperatures.

The biggest surprise in the study was that precipitation, rather than dryness, was the most important factor for adding East Asian dust to the atmosphere and oceans leading up to the ancient climate change, Pullen said.

It may seem counterintuitive, he said, because "most people associate dust emission with aridity and deserts, not with precipitation."

But researchers believe they have an idea of what happened.

The monsoon precipitation intensified, and the increase caused erosion along the Tibetan Plateau and lower elevation areas nearby in what today is China, researchers found. Wind carried the relatively loose sediment into the North Pacific Ocean, where it likely helped spur photosynthesis.

The research focused on a time that marked a change between a period of high carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere similar to modern day and much lower levels similar to the period before the industrial revolution, Pullen said.

The research helps explain what caused the Earth to go into the glacial and interglacial periods that have dominated ever since, he said.

But the findings do not suggest humans are off the hook on warming global temperatures, Pullen said.

Researchers were dealing in geologic time millions of years and the geologic record isn't always detailed enough to reflect what might have happened in the span of a few hundred years, he said. That would be enough to melt the ice caps and put islands and coastlines underwater, Pullen said.

The future climate could look like the Pliocene Epoch, which was 5.3 million to 2.5 million years ago, said Pullen, who is a geologist.

"Now we just have to figure out what the Pliocene looked like everywhere on Earth," he said. "That's going to be difficult because the Pliocene rock record doesn't exist everywhere. But we need to collect as much information from the Pliocene as we can to improve climate models and have a better understanding of what is in store for our future."

The study was an international collaboration between Junsheng Nie, Wenbin Peng, and Zhao Wang of Lanzhou University in China; Pullen; and Carmala N. Garzione of the University of Rochester.

The team's findings were drawn from detailed analysis of sedimentary rock in the Chinese Loess Plateau, an area of East China that has been collecting dust for at least the past 8 million years.

David Freedman, chair of Clemson's Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences, congratulated Pullen and the team on their work.

"Publishing in Science Advances is a significant accomplishment," he said. "Dr. Pullen is helping draw positive attention to the department, boosting our reputation for excellent research."

The article is titled, "Pre-Quaternary decoupling between Asian aridification and high dust accumulation rates."

Explore further New sources found for accumulated dust on Chinese Loess Plateau

More information: Junsheng Nie et al. Pre-Quaternary decoupling between Asian aridification and high dust accumulation rates, Science Advances (2018). Journal information: Science Advances Junsheng Nie et al. Pre-Quaternary decoupling between Asian aridification and high dust accumulation rates,(2018). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aao6977Set to land in mid 2018, the new mosquito emoji will give people a new way to talk about mozzies. Credit: Cameron Webb

Mosquitoes are coming. The Unicode Consortium has just announced that alongside your smiling face  or perhaps crying face  emoji you'll soon be able to add a mosquito.

The mosquito emoji will join the rabble of emoji wildlife including butterflies, bees, whales and rabbits.

We see a strong case that the addition of the much maligned mozzie to your emoji toolbox could help health authorities battle the health risks associated with these bloodsucking pests.

Given it is the most dangerous animal on the planet, the mosquito is more than deserving of an emoji. But will it make a difference to the way the science behind mosquito research is communicated? Could it influence how the community engages with public health messages of local authorities? Will more people wear insect repellent because of the mosquito emoji?

We won't know for sure until the mozzie is released.

Where did the mosquito emoji idea come from?

A staggering sixty million emoji are shared on Facebook each day!

We've needed a mosquito emoji for a while now (although the blood filled syringe has been a useful substitute). While heavily promoted last year by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, it was one of us, an Australian virologist, who played a critical role in the emoji's development by submitting the original proposal in June 2016.

The idea arose during the Zika virus epidemic in South America, when the mosquito-borne infection was triggering many questions and few answers. While the emoji doesn't represent a specific mosquito species, it captures the distinctive shape of a mosquito.

How might a mozzie emoji make a difference?

The mozzie emoji will give health professionals and academics a more relatable way to communicate health risks and new research using social media.

Surveillance programs across the world routinely monitor mosquitoes. Local health authorities could simply tweet a string of mozzie emoji to indicate the relative mosquito risk or identify that there is a risk. Adding in the new microbe emoji (currently in the form of a generic green microscopic shape) could even indicate the presence of mosquito-borne viruses such as dengue virus, West Nile virus or Ross River virus.

Emoji could remind us to tip out, drain or cover backyard water-holding containers that may be a source of mosquitoes following rain. Weather monitoring services or health authorities could simply add the mosquito emoji in alerts featuring a string of storm clouds and water droplets.

More than likely, it'll be used by the public to punctuate those summer tweets complaining of bites and bumps following backyard BBQs.

Social media is changing public health

Social media will continue to play a role in public health campaigns. Whether promoting better nutrition, encouraging exercise or addressing concerns over vaccine coverage, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and whatever platform comes next will remain important for the communication tool kits of local health authorities.

Smartphones have already been identified as tools for surveillance of mosquito-borne disease outbreaks.

The addition of a mosquito emoji, together with concise public health messaging, may increase the chances a message hits home, maybe even changing behaviour and reducing the risk of bites.

Simple communication works

The usefulness of emoji as a communication tool has been shown in several fields of research. Emoji can accurately express emotional associations with commercial products, reflect state of mind in cancer patients and aid communication with sick young patients.

Applying these examples to the mozzie emoji, we predict it may aid citizen science  for example, if the community can signal how bad nuisance-biting mosquitoes are in their area. Perhaps this mobile surveillance network could help pick up the introduction of exotic mosquitoes such as the Asian Tiger Mosquito, a species often first detected because of reports by the community. Measuring a rise in mozzie emoji use may identify regions under attack by mosquitoes.

Big corporations have already identified the usefulness of emoji, and fork out serious cash for hashtag-customized emoji. If branded emoji work for commercial enterprises, why not for public health and why not a mosquito? A simple image may provide a critical reminder to put on insect repellent, sleep under a bed net or get appropriately vaccinated for mosquito-borne diseases such as Japanese encephalitis or Yellow Fever.

It is increasingly difficult to escape our social media streams, and emoji use shows no sign of waning. Health authorities should embrace these tiny visual prompts to better engage the community with key health messages.

The mozzie emoji may pave the way for more medically important arthropods: perhaps the tick, flea, lice and bed bug emoji will be on their way soon. Perhaps even viruses and bacteria.

From the middle of 2018, we look forward to watching the creative ways researchers, health workers and the general public incorporate the mosquito emoji into their communications.

Explore further Tweet NY Public Library an emoji, get a related image back

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.Robots in the workforce will give rise to new jobs for humans, including safety engineers, robot specialists and augmented reality experts, according to researchers. Credit: FANUC robots, by Mixabest - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Robots are already changing the way we workparticularly in factoriesbut worries that they will steal our jobs are only part of the picture, as new technologies are also opening up workplace opportunities for workers and are likely to create new jobs in the future.

Last year, the BBC reported that 800 million global workers will lose their jobs to robotic automation by 2030. This statistic, from a McKinsey Global Institute study, led to countless headlines asking, will robots take your job?

The study found that robots will eliminate some jobs, but also create new ones. As the field develops, European roboticists are busy investigating how factory robots could create new opportunities for workers in manufacturing jobs.

The MANUWORK project is collaborating with non-profit group Lantegi Batuak in Spain, which helps to incorporate people with disabilities into the world of work.

The project scientists are testing a number of assistive technologies including augmented reality (AR) displays that can help workers with disabilities in complex tasks such as the assembly and wiring of electrical cabinets. The display shows step-by-step wiring instructions to the worker.

'We want to introduce a robot to work with them in the assembly process, to indicate cable connections or do some quick quality checks,' said Dr. Kosmas Alexopoulos at the University of Patras in Greece, who coordinates the project. This kind of human-robot collaboration technology could allow greater involvement of people with disabilities in manufacturing roles across Europe.

Predictable

Predictable physical work in factories plays to the strengths of robots, but even the most modern factories are not run entirely by machines.

European car manufacturing is leading the way in adopting robotics. Last year, the number of robots in French car factories rose by 22% to 1,400 units, with around 9 robots for every 100 workers.

Robots are used heavily for the assembly of cars, mainly for body welding and positioning of large metal parts. Later, the skilled human labour comes in to create the interior. 'Assembling car interiors is complex and it requires the skills of a human to perform,' explained Dr. Sotiris Makris, industrial robotics expert at the University of Patras.

His industrial robots lab in Patras took a leading role in a project called ROBO-PARTNER, which aimed to safely mix people with robots operating in the same workspace to perform a car assembly task. Under normal circumstances, close man-machine teamwork is not possible because robots and humans are kept apart for safety reasons. The human worker brings intelligence and fine skills, while their robot buddy delivers super-human strength and precision.

The team took a real-life scenario as a starting point. In an automobile factory, the rear axle of a vehicle  which can weigh over 50 kilograms (kgs)  must be brought into position by a worker. They must secure the part and then fit drum brake components, which also involves heavy lifting and manipulation of flexible wire parts.

'The worker carries the drums, mounts them and must screw them in place. It is quite a stressful process, both physically and cognitively,' said Dr. Makris.

The project developed a robot, capable of lifting 130 kgs, to move the axle and brake parts into place for the human worker. Importantly, the worker remains in the vicinity as the robot  essentially a powerful arm that can move around and grip and lift items  manoeuvres the car parts into position.

Strenuous

At present, one particular 14-kg part for the rear wheel must be lifted 500 times in a single shift by car assembly workers, but the robot could shoulder this strenuous work. This would mean physical strength would no longer be a reason for someone not to do this job.

Video cameras, sensors and adjustable safety zones prevent the robot from moving dangerously close to the worker. The worker interacts with the robot using a control panel, but also uses virtual reality (VR) glasses that visualise the next task for the worker. The completion of each task is signalled using a smart watch and the human remains in charge.

Dr. Makris is optimistic that such research will allow people and robots to work side-by-side. There will be new jobs too. Factories of the future will create new roles, such as safety engineers, robot specialists and AR experts, Dr. Makris predicted.

Robots are also being used to transform warehouses for online businesses, which are currently divided into two areas. In the centre, wheeled robots shift shelves around and move items to the perimeter, where human workers are waiting. The workers and robots are kept apart for safety. A laser barrier detects any unauthorised entries by people, which will cause the system to shut down. In the case of a robot failure, the warehouse has to be stopped so a service technician can do repairs.

But what if robots and people could safely tango together in warehouses? This is the vision of SafeLog, a project that is developing a flexible warehouse system where humans and automated guided vehicles safely share the same space.

'With SafeLog, the service technician could just walk in the warehouse and fix the robot, so the warehouse could stay online,' explained Professor Bjorn Hein, robotics engineer at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, and coordinator of the project. Right now, there are usually a few dozen robots, so downtime is not a significant issue. As numbers of robots start to increase, downtime could start to be a problem.

Safety vest

SafeLog is creating a safety vest to be worn by warehouse workers. This wirelessly transmits the worker's location and can be detected by robots nearby, so that they will sense if a human is too close and stop.

For coordination, SafeLog scientists are developing algorithms that track and predict the movements of people using the vest and robots. This would be used by a fleet management system, the silicon brain that will safely guide hundreds of robots around a warehouse.

The workers will wear smart glasses that will warn them about objects close by and help guide them to items in the warehouse.

'We intend to make it possible for warehouses to become even bigger, because allowing robots and humans work together adds flexibility and makes it easier to extend,' said Prof. Hein.

The SafeLog system will be put through its paces in a real warehouse in early 2019.

Explore further Social robot set to revolutionise workplace experienceOn the tail of California's most destructive and expensive year of firefighting ever, it might seem obvious that vegetation removal would reduce the risk of such a year happening again. But scientists from the University of Arizona and the University of California, Berkeley, are showing that in chaparral, California's iconic shrubland ecosystem, management can devastate wild bird populations and that fire-risk reduction is only temporary.

"We studied bird populations following two types of vegetation removal, prescribed fire and mastication (the mechanical crushing of vegetation), because both management methods have been used to try reduce wildfire risk in California chaparral," said Erica Newman, lead author of the study and scientist in the UA School of Natural Resources and the Environment.

"We know from multiple studies that any management eventually increases fire risk as invasive grasses move in," Newman said. "But to add to this, we now know that mastication in particular is extremely harmful to bird populations."

The study appears in the February issue of Journal of Applied Ecology, available online today.

Chaparral is a fire-prone ecosystem in North America that is widespread throughout California. Although it makes up only 6 percent of California by area, it contains one-quarter of the species found in the California Floristic Province, a global biodiversity hotspot. To date, no other studies have compared the effects of different fire management types on California chaparral wildlife.

Using 24 five-acre plots in northern California, researchers reduced vegetation by 95 percent with either prescribed fire or mastication in three different seasons (winter, fall and spring). They then tracked bird populations in each experimental and control plot using point-count surveys, in which researchers look and listen for birds for a set amount of time. Co-authors Jen Potts and Charles Vaughn visited the plots hundreds of times over the course of five years. They counted 49 species and approximately 2,500 birds.

Although bird species diversity and abundances rebounded after one-time use of prescribed fires, most birds never returned to masticated sites. Mastication reduced the number of bird species by about 50 percent and reduced total numbers of birds by about 60 percent.

"The pressures on this ecosystem's biodiversity are intense," said Michael L. Mann, assistant professor of geography at George Washington University, who was not part of this study. "There are over 5 million housing units in this ecosystem that need some form of fire protection, and wildfire risk and housing demand are only expected to increase in the next 50 years."

Much of California's chaparral is burning too frequently to replace itself because of human-caused ignitions and longer wildfire seasons due to climate change. According to Scott Stephens, the principal investigator of the experiment at UC Berkeley, too-frequent fire can cause chaparral to be replaced by invasive grasses, which can increase fire risk.

This leads to other problems. Grasses don't hold soils in place, so deadly mudslides may follow wildfires, such as those in Santa Barbara, California.

Newman emphasized that previous fire policy hasn't worked to protect people or wildlife.

"The best available science tells us that managing chaparral imperils wildlife and increases fire risk," she said. "Our study continues to build the case that we should live densely and away from chaparral."

She said that agencies such as CALFIRE, California's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, should abandon their practice of clearing chaparral in remote areas. "Some management practices are not informed by science. We can do better," she said.

"A fire policy that would make more sense is to do a better job of land management planning and try to avoid the hazardous areas for building," Stephens said.

Explore further Carefully managed fire can promote rare savanna species

More information: Erica A. Newman et al, Chaparral bird community responses to prescribed fire and shrub removal in three management seasons, Journal of Applied Ecology (2018). Journal information: Journal of Applied Ecology Erica A. Newman et al, Chaparral bird community responses to prescribed fire and shrub removal in three management seasons,(2018). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.13099A young European cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) trying to escape predation by expressing dermal papillae in 3-D and a mottled pattern, both of which disrupt the body contour and allow the cuttlefish to fool predators by avoiding recognition. As reported by Gonzalez-Bellido et al., these muscular structures contain a mix of muscle types that allow the animal to express and flatten the papillae quickly, and to maintain papillae expression for extensive periods without the need for neural input. The circuit that controls them appears homologous to the squid skin iridescence circuit. Credit: P Gonzalez-Bellido.

An international team of scientists has identified the neural circuits that enable cuttlefish to change their appearance in just the blink to eye - and discovered that this is similar to the neural circuit that controls iridescence in squids.

Cuttlefish and octopuses are remarkable creatures. They have the ability to change their appearance in a matter of seconds, camouflaging themselves from predators and enabling them to surprise their prey. However, unlike a number of reptiles and amphibians which merely change colour to blend into their surroundings, these cephalopods are also able to change the physical texture of their skin to match the coarseness of surrounding rocks, coral or seaweed.

"The sea is full of strange and wondrous creatures, but there are few as bizarre and intelligent as octopuses and cuttlefish," says Dr Trevor Wardill from the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge. "We've seen dozens of examples of these animals suddenly appearing from nowhere, as if they have thrown off an invisibility cloak. How they do this has long remained a mystery."

The skin of these animals is covered in tiny muscular organs known as 'chromatophores' that change colour in response to a signal from the brain. It also has a second set of muscular organs that can be activated to create bumps known as 'papillae'. When stimulated, each papilla can change the texture of the skin from flat to three dimensional. The papillae can serve several functions, including disguise.

Understanding the nervous system of these creatures and how they manipulate their skin has proved challenging, but now a team of scientists from the Marine Biological Laboratory and University of Cambridge has begun to understand how this happens. Their results are published today in the journal iScience.

A composite image of six young cuttlefish in the lab, use their neurally innervated skin to express different types of body color patterns and different levels of papillae expression. Papillae are the skin "bumps" that make the animal skin look leafy or corrugated, which helps in breaking its own silhouette and avoiding detection and recognition by predators. As reported by Gonzalez-Bellido et al., these muscular structures contain a mix of muscle types that allow the animal to express and flatten the papillae quickly, and to maintain papillae expression for extensive periods without the need for neural input. The circuit that controls them appears homologous to the squid skin iridescence circuit. Credit: Paloma T. Gonzalez-Bellido

The researchers found that the instruction signal from the cuttlefish's brain is routed through the stellate ganglion, a peripheral nerve centre. The stellate ganglion houses the giant axon system, so called because it is large enough to see with the naked eye. It also houses particular motor neurons that control the papillae on the mantle (the cuttlefish's outer surface). This nerve circuitry is similar to that by which squids control skin iridescence.

The giant axon system, due to its large size of up to 1mm, helped Nobel prize-winning Cambridge scientists Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley, along with Australian scientist John Eccles, figure out how nerve impulses (action potentials) work.

Cuttlefish expressing papillae for camouflage purposes. Credit: Roger Hanlon

Dr Paloma Gonzalez-Bellido, also from the University of Cambridge, adds: "This discovery is really interesting from an evolutionary point of view. It opens up the question of which came first: was the common ancestor to cuttlefish and squid able to camouflage themselves using papillae or express iridescence, or possibly both?"

The researcher team - including Lexi Scaros of Dalhousie University and Roger Hanlon of the Marine Biological Laboratory - also looked in greater detail at the papillae to find out how they manage to hold their shape over a long period of time without a signal. They found that the papillae use a mechanism which they describe as being 'catch-like'. It resembles the 'catch' mechanism found in bivalves, such as oysters, mussels, and scallops, which enables the bivalve shell to remain closed without expending much energy.

A close up of the skin of this European cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) highlights its expressed mottled appearance the result of chromatophores and fully erect papillae; dermal structures that allow cuttlefish to disrupt their body shape in 3-D. In the wild, papillae expression provides cuttlefish with the ability to masquerade as inanimate objects, such as algae or rocks. As reported by Gonzalez-Bellido et al., these muscular structures contain a mix of muscle types that allow the animal to express and flatten the papillae quickly, and to maintain papillae expression for extensive periods without the need for neural input. The circuit that controls them appears homologous to the squid skin iridescence circuit. Credit: P Gonzalez-Bellido.

"There is still a big mystery, however, which is how these animals interpret the world around them and translate this into signals that change their appearance," says Dr Wardill.

The researchers say that understanding how cephalopods' skin changes from a smooth, flat surface to a textured, 3D structure could help in the design of biologically-inspired materials that can themselves be assembled from flat materials.

"This research on neural control of flexible skin, combined with anatomical studies of the novel muscle groups that enable such shape-shifting skin, has applications for the development of new classes of soft materials that can be engineered for a wide array of uses in industry, society, and medicine," adds Professor Roger Hanlon of the Marine Biological Laboratory.

Explore further Engineers develop a programmable 'camouflaging' material inspired by octopus skin

More information: Neural control of dynamic 3-dimensional skin papillae for cuttlefish camouflage. iScience; 15 Feb 2018; Neural control of dynamic 3-dimensional skin papillae for cuttlefish camouflage.; 15 Feb 2018; DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2018.01.001Prof. Dr. Andreas Greiner (left) and Prof. Dr. Seema Agarwal (right) with equipment for electrospinning at the University of Bayreuth. With backlighting, one can see the thin fibres from which nonwoven materials are formed. Credit: Christian Wiler

Uncomfortable, rigid, with low air permeability: textile materials capable of conducting electricity can be awkward for day-to-day use. However, researchers at the University of Bayreuth, Donghua University in Shanghai, and Nanjing Forestry University have now developed new nonwoven materials that are electrically conductive as well as flexible and breathable. This paves the way for comfortable high-tech clothes which, for example, convert sunlight to warmth, supply wearable electronic devices with electricity, or contain sensors for fitness training. The scientists have published their findings in the journal npj Flexible Electronics.

Prof. Dr. Andreas Greiner's team of researchers at the University of Bayreuth and their Chinese partners have succeeded in producing electrically conductive nonwovens which have all the other characteristics you would expect from clothing that is suitable for daily use. The materials are flexible, and thus adapt to movements and changes in posture. In addition, they are air-permeable, meaning they do not interfere with the natural breathing of the skin.

The combination of these properties is based on a special production process. In contrast to common methods of production, metal wires were not inserted into finished textiles. Rather, the scientists modified classical electro-spinning, which has been used to produce nonwovens for many years: short electro-spun polymer fibres and small amounts of tiny silver wires with a diameter of only 80 nanometres are mixed in a liquid. Afterwards, they are filtered, dried, and briefly heated up. If the composition is right, the resulting nonwoven material exhibits a very high degree of electrical conductivity.

This opens up a whole range of possibilities for innovative applications, especially in the area of smart clothes (i.e. wearables). Everyday clothing, for example, can be equipped with solar cells such that the captured sunlight is converted to warmth, heating up the textiles themselves. Mobile phones, cameras, mini-computers, and other wearable electronic devices could be charged by plugging them into the textiles. Sensors installed in the clothes could provide athletes and trainers with important fitness and health data or could give family and friends information on its location. "In addition to articles of clothing, similar functions could also just as easily be installed in textile materials for use in seats and instruments in cars or airplanes," explained Prof. Dr. Andreas Greiner, Chair of Macromolecular Chemistry II at the University of Bayreuth. "Our approach, which takes the production of conductive textiles as its basis, can in principle be applied to many different systems," added Steffen Reich, doctoral researcher and lead author of the new study. As an example, he cites current Bayreuth research projects on microbial fuel cells, which could eventually be used as electrodes in such nonwoven materials.

The research findings that were published in npj Flexible Electronics resulted from close cooperation between the University of Bayreuth, Donghua University in Shanghai, and Nanjing Forestry University. It was only two years ago that the University of Bayreuth signed a cooperation agreement with Donghua University, which has had a research priority on the research and development of textiles since the establishment of the institution. The mutual exchange in research and teaching that was agreed on is now beginning to bear fruit.

Explore further Better than nature: artificial biofilm increases energy production in microbial fuel cells

More information: Steffen Reich et al. Polymer nanofibre composite nonwovens with metal-like electrical conductivity, npj Flexible Electronics (2018). Steffen Reich et al. Polymer nanofibre composite nonwovens with metal-like electrical conductivity,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41528-017-0018-5Violet sabrewing hummingbird in Costa Rica. Credit: Urs Kormann

Old, complex tropical forests support a wider diversity of birds than second-growth forests and have irreplaceable value for conservation, according to an Oregon State University-led exhaustive analysis of bird diversity in the mountains of southern Costa Rica.

During their surveys, researchers found similar numbers of bird species in secondary stands compared to stands comprised entirely or in part of old-growth forest. However, the bird community in secondary forest was clearly shifted towards non-forest species, and only old-growth forest stands tended to include rare birds and to benefit biodiversity across the entire landscape. Scientists reported their results this week in the Journal of Applied Ecology.

The findings are important because in some cases, conservation programs have focused on the potential benefits of secondary forests. Although secondary forests do have value for conservation, the study suggests that primary forests are necessary as sources of biodiversity and as a refuge for species that can colonize other sites that are being restored. Thus, these results suggest that a strategy focussing only on second-growth forests may not benefit conservation-relevant species. Indeed, such stands tend to support only a few common species that can survive in highly disturbed areas.

Emerald toucanet in Costa Rica. Credit: Urs Kormann

To reach their conclusions, a team led by Urs Kormann, a post-doctoral scientist in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University, surveyed bird communities in 49 forest fragments near the Las Cruces Biological Station in Costa Rica. They analyzed diversity within each fragment as well as from one stand to another. Much of the old-growth forest in the area has been cleared for pasture in the last 50 years, but about 30 percent of the old-growth remains in patches ranging from less than two to more than 2,500 acres. The study was conducted in the Coto Brus region, which borders Panama and varies from rolling hills to mountains more than 10,000 feet high.

Previous studies have focused only on bird diversity within a tropical forest stand and not analyzed how the community changes from one stand to another. "We show that there are always the same few common species in small, isolated secondary forest fragments, so each time you go to another piece of forest, you will encounter the same common birds, a phenomenon called biotic homogenisation. In contrast, you will often see new, rare species with each new piece of primary forest you visit," said Kormann, lead author of the paper.

"We add to the growing evidence that both the amount of forest and the way it is arranged matters for tropical birds. In addition, we are among the first, to my knowledge, to show that it is really important to distinguish between primary and secondary forest. Landscapes with only secondary forest may not represent a panacea for the conservation of tropical biodiversity."

Chestnut backed antbird in Costa Rica. Credit: Urs Kormann

Effective conservation efforts should include maintenance of large old-growth forest tracts, the scientists wrote, and insure that human activities in the forest do not drive away species that depend on such areas. The results also suggest that restoring forests is likely to be most effective for forest birds if such efforts are performed in the vicinity of primary forest. This is likely because primary forest will provide a source for forest birds that may colonize the restored forest. Relying on secondary forests alone may create "potentially misleading expectations," researchers wrote, that landscapes significantly modified by people can still accomplish conservation goals.

In other studies, scientists have documented the ecological functions that birds perform, such as seed dispersal, pollination and herbivore control.

More information: Urs G. Kormann et al, Primary rainforest amount at the landscape scale mitigates bird biodiversity loss and biotic homogenization, Journal of Applied Ecology (2017). Journal information: Journal of Applied Ecology Urs G. Kormann et al, Primary rainforest amount at the landscape scale mitigates bird biodiversity loss and biotic homogenization,(2017). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.13084Credit: CC0 Public Domain

New research from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy suggests that a universal basic income would not cause people to leave the workforce.

Such proposals, including one considered by Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign, include direct payments that ensure each resident has a baseline of income to provide for basic needs. While previous research has focused on the effects of these unconditional cash transfers at the micro levelfor example, winning the lottery this study examined their large-scale impact by looking a government program that has supported Alaska residents for the past 25 years.

In a working paper released Feb. 12 by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Assoc. Prof. Damon Jones of Harris Public Policy and Asst. Prof. Ioana Marinescu of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice (formerly of UChicago) examined the effect of unconditional cash transfers on labor markets using the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividenda payout from a diversified portfolio of invested oil reserve royalties, established in 1982. They concluded unconditional cash transfers had no significant effect on employment, yet it increased part-time work.

"It is reasonable to expect an unconditional cash transfer, such as a universal income, to decrease employment," Jones said. "A key concern with a universal basic income is that it could discourage people from working, but our research shows that the possible reductions in employment seem to be offset by increases in spending that in turn increase the demand for more workers."

With only a few exceptions, every Alaskan who has been a resident for at least 12 months is entitled to a dividend from the Alaska Permanent Fund, which as of August 2017 is worth nearly $61 billion. In recent years, the payment, which residents receive through direct deposit, has averaged about $2,000 a year in a lump sum. But because it is a per-person amount, a household of four could receive more than $8,000.

Jones and Marinescu examined the effects of a large number of people receiving a cash transfer. Notably the researchers found that:

There is no significant effect, positive or negative, on employment as a whole, although part-time work does increase by 1.8 percentage points, or about 17 percent.

There is a difference in the effect of the unconditional cash transfer in sectors that produce goods or services that can be traded outside of Alaska and those that cannot. Part-time work increases and employment decreases in the tradable sector, but the effects in the non-tradable sector are insignificant.

Any negative effects in the non-tradable sector, meanwhile, are offset by positive macro effects.

Jones and Marinescu conclude that more research needs to be done to analyze universal basic income proposals, including the effects of proposed funding models and possible impacts on the prices of local goods. They found that a major component, called the unconditional cash transfer, has no effect on aggregate employment.

Explore further Giving cash without strings attached can improve health

More information: The Labor Market Impacts of Universal and Permanent Cash Transfers: Evidence from the Alaska Permanent Fund. The Labor Market Impacts of Universal and Permanent Cash Transfers: Evidence from the Alaska Permanent Fund. www.nber.org/papers/w24312.pdfA species of Australian funnel-web spider. Credit: Marshal Hedin

Two groups of highly venomous spiders might be seeing more of each other at family reunions. A new study led by San Diego State University biologist Marshal Hedin has found that two lineages of dangerous arachnids found in Australialong classified as distantly related in the official taxonomyare, in fact, relatively close cousins. The findings could help in the development of novel antivenoms, as well as point to new forms of insecticides.

The spiders in question are those from the families Atracinae and Actinopodidae and include Australian funnel-web spiders and eastern Australian mouse spiders, respectively. One member of Atracinae, Atrax robustus, is considered by many to be the most venomous spider in the world.

"A reasonable number of people get bitten every year, but basically nobody dies from it anymore because of the wide availability of antivenom," Hedin said.

Historically, the spiders were thought to have diverged from a common ancestor more than 200 million years ago and therefore were only distantly related. Based on their anatomy and other traits, funnel-web spiders and mouse spiders closely resemble other species of spiders known to be distantly related. Yet based on their highly similar venomthe same antivenom can treat bites from both Atricinae and Actinopodidae many biologists suspected these spider groups might be more closely related than previously thought.

"The funnel-webs always were an uncomfortable fit in their taxonomic place," Hedin said. "I could see the writing on the wall."

So Hedin and colleagues, with help from biologists in New Zealand and Argentina, collected new spiders from both branches throughout Australia, sought out museum specimens and raided his own collection to come up with dozens of specimens representing various branches of spiders both closely and distantly related. Then the scientists sequenced large chunks of the spiders' genomes, looking for genetic patterns that would reveal how the species are related to one another.

After this analysis, the researchers discovered that the Australian funnel-web spiders and mouse spiders were, in fact, fairly closely related, although it's unclear exactly when they diverged from a common ancestor. In addition to solving that mystery, Hedin and colleagues discovered the existence of three entirely new taxonomic families of spiders. The researchers published their findings last month in Nature Scientific Reports.

Online taxonomy databases have already begun updating to reflect these changes, Hedin said. "We've convincingly resolved this relationship."

Knowing these spiders' ancestry could help scientists devise a kind of general-purpose antivenom to treat bites from a wide variety of related spider species, Hedin explained. In addition, funnel-web and mouse spider venom is notable for containing many different types of peptide molecules, including some that specifically target insects. Knowing more about how their venom evolved could help bioengineers to design bio-insecticides that target insects but are harmless to vertebrate animals.

Explore further Recluse or not? Scientists use Twitter to tackle spider questions

More information: Marshal Hedin et al. Phylogenomic reclassification of the world's most venomous spiders (Mygalomorphae, Atracinae), with implications for venom evolution, Scientific Reports (2018). Journal information: Scientific Reports Marshal Hedin et al. Phylogenomic reclassification of the world's most venomous spiders (Mygalomorphae, Atracinae), with implications for venom evolution,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-19946-2[MANILA] Despite a funds crunch and legal challenges mounted by coastal communities in Papua New Guinea (PNG), the worlds first deep-sea mining industry will go ahead, assures a spokesperson for Nautilus Minerals, the project developer.

Noreen Dillane, the corporate communications manager at the Canada-registered Nautilus, tells SciDev.Net that the company views the Solwara 1 project as ultimately lucrative because of the rising demand for metals due to the development of electric vehicles and storage batteries.

"Commodity prices are very strong at present, with gold and copper prices currently at four-year highs, cobalt at an all-time high, and zinc at a ten-year high," says Dillane.

By the company's own admission, the project is an experiment with unknown environmental and social consequences and uncertain profits. Arnold Amet

Solwara 1 aims to extract gold and copper deposits beneath the Bismark Sea under permits given by the PNG government, which also owns 15 per cent equity in the project.

But in December, Nautilus warned the Toronto Stock Exchange that "there can be no assurances that the company will be successful in securing the necessary additional financing transactions within the required time or at all". The company had fallen short of the target to raise US$41 million for the project by the end of 2017, as well as an additional US$270 million to build and deploy the seafloor production system for the project.

In the same month, on 6 December, local communities launched legal proceedings against the PNG government demanding production of documents relating to the licensing of Nautilus and potential environmental, health and economic impacts from the Solwara 1 deep-sea project.

And in January, Arnold Amet, former PNG attorney-general and justice minister, asked the government to end its partnership with Nautilus, saying that the mining project was financially risky and posed an environmental threat.

By the company's own admission, the project is an experiment with unknown environmental and social consequences and uncertain profits. The past few months have really shown the extent to which financiers and our own communities in PNG reject this project, he said in a statement Opponents of deep sea mining point to impacts such as disruption to fishing industries and marine ecosystems, as well as ocean pollution with metal-rich slurries.

The local communities of Namatanai district in the New Ireland Province and the Duke of York Islanders in the Gazelle district of the East New Britain Province (all in PNG) are still very concerned about environmental impacts of mining activities to their traditional fishing waters, Amet tells SciDev.Net. There are uncertainties about the tides carrying the sediments onto their shallow waters, affecting fishing, as well as marine life and marine environments.

Two key officials left Nautilus in recent months: director Mark P.M. Horn resigned in October, followed by the vice-president for PNG operations Adam Wright in January.

This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Asia & Pacific desk.[SANA'A] Agricultural experts are seriously concerned about the spread of stem rust through Yemen to the worlds major wheat production regions, where it could wipe out huge cultivation areas of a crop crucial for food security.

Stem or black rust is a disease that hits basic agricultural crops such as wheat and barley. It is caused by a Puccinia fungus which attacks a plants stem, roots and leaves, but mostly damages the stem.

"As a gateway to Asia [from the south-west], Yemen has become one of the important areas of research, study, and intensified efforts related to the spread of the disease," said Salah Hajj Hassan, who represents the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Yemen.

Wheat is a source of food and livelihood for more than one billion people in developing countries. The FAO estimates that 31 countries in North and East Africa, as well as across Asia, account for 37 per cent of the worlds wheat production.

If the conditions are right, black rust disease is capable of causing losses [of] up to 100 per cent of the crop within weeks David Hodson

According to two studies published early last year by a group of scientists in collaboration with the FAO, new strains of yellow and black rust appeared in several parts of the world in 2016. These added to older strains that have been spreading in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Another study, published in the journal Nature Plants in the last quarter of 2017, focused on identifying and tracking the fungi responsible for the spread of wheat rust across continents. It was this research which eventually confirmed that "Yemen is an important spore donor country and stepping stone for transmission.

"Yemen is a green bridge for these diseases to [spread to] major wheat-cultivation countries," Wageeh Al-Mutawakil, an expert at the General Authority for Agricultural Research and Extension in Yemen, told SciDev.Net.

Abdullah Sailan, a coordinator of wheat research at the Authority, explained that wheat rust diseases usually spread from Uganda to Kenya, Ethiopia and then Yemen, before moving on to Asian countries, Australia, and North America.

"Monsoons are the main cause of the spread of [the] fungus from Africa to Yemen, Sailan explained. As soon as any new strain emerges in Ethiopia, it appears directly in Yemen because of the wind movement."

Wind movement helps the disease spread rapidly across large areas. If not detected and treated effectively, it could destroy healthy crops weeks before harvest  reducing them to fragile yellow leaves, black stems, and scrawny grains.

"If the conditions are right, black rust disease is capable of causing losses [of] up to 100 per cent of the crop within weeks," said David Hodson, a senior scientist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

Al-Mutawakel pointed out that since an outbreak of the fungus first appeared in Yemen in 2006, huge resources have been allocated and several projects implemented to confront the problem.

According to Sailan, internationally imported sensors planted in Yemens Jahran district, in the central province of Dhamar, managed to detect the ferocious strain of the fungus that appeared in 2016, which was named Ug99 when it was discovered in Uganda in 1999. He says it can infect wheat cultivars that are able to resist other strains.

The spread of the disease over an extended period, and the emergence of new strain variants of the fungus, have further weakened the resistance of wheat plants  and this indicates that the threat posed by the disease is escalating, according to Sailan.

FAO is working with partners to tackle the outbreak, intensifying the training of specialists in affected countries, especially Yemen, in order to enhance their ability to detect and deal with rust strains.

"Currently, under the conditions in Yemen, the level of communication has dropped to some extent, restricting access to materials required to follow the development of the disease," said Sailan.

However, Yemens agricultural research authority continues its efforts to cultivate wheat that can resist black, yellow and brown rust  these have been studied in previous years, and have limited spread of the disease to a great extent, according to Sailan. To prevent severe infections in the future, the authority recommends spraying the crop with fungicides.

Although the threat remains imminent, Yemen's farmers are preparing to expand wheat cultivation this season, particularly in the governorates of Saada, Al Mahwit, Amran, and Al Jawf. Under the ongoing conflict conditions that weaken monitoring capacity, this suggests a growing risk of disease that is likely to go undetected.

According to Hassan, the solution lies in the exchange of information and materials, as well as the continuous coordination between organizations and concerned parties, to overcome the danger before it escalates.

This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Middle East & North Africa desk.When the Philippines launched its dengue vaccination programme on 4 April 2016, using Sanofi Pasteurs newly approved Dengvaxia, there was great fanfare and optimism.

This week, the Public Attorneys Office has filed a lawsuit against the company, seeking compensation for the death of a 10-year old girl it says has died as a result of the vaccine.

It follows an investigation of the halted programme by the Philippine Senate. Meanwhile, threats of more class action suits against Sanofi continue, with the health ministry itself threatening to sue the company for refusing to refund the PhP3.5 billion (US$70 million).

And, Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chair Richard Gordon said in a radio interview this week that the committee is considering filing of anti-graft cases against former President Benigno Aquino III, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and Health Secretary Janette Garin.

Some scientists are pitching in, explaining what Sanofi Pasteur and the former health department officials have done. On the other hand, a group of 58 medical doctors and scientists, headed by former Health Ministers Esperanza Cabral and Manuel Dayrit, have issued a statement calling for calm.

But as Philippine scientists and politicians fight over the failure of Asias first mass dengue vaccination programme, the biggest casualty may be peoples trust and confidence in vaccination and other government-led public health programmes as an effective way to fight diseases.

Public trust in vaccination has taken a beating, helped by the medias sensational coverage of suspected dengue-vaccine related child deaths. Unfortunately, the mistrust has extended to other public health programmes: news stories report that families in poor communities are now refusing to take part in free, basic child care programmes such as deworming.

The furore began on 29 November 2017, when Sanofi Pasteur warned in a statement that people inoculated with the dengue vaccine would be at severe risk if they had not been previously infected with the virus. Dengvaxia, according to the manufacturer, gives persistent protective benefit against dengue, but only for those who have been previously infected with the disease.

Almost immediately after the news came out, a number of parents came forward claiming that their children either got sick or died as a result of the vaccination.

The facts



Let us review the facts, briefly.

Dengue is a highly endemic disease in the Philippines, with an average number of cases in the region of 175,000 in recent years.

On 22 December 2015, the Philippines became the first Asian country  and second in the world next to Mexico  to license Sanofi Pasteurs vaccine, Dengvaxia.

On 4 April 2016, just four months later, the Philippines launched its school-based mass vaccination programme. It went ahead with the programme without the WHO pre-qualification that is normally required. However, I am told that this decision was based on the advice of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE), a 15-member panel of independent experts, which provides recommendations to the WHO on global vaccine policies.

On 24 April 2016, or 20 days later, a total of 204,397 vaccinations were completed, 362 of which had adverse reactions. By the following year, a total of 837,000 people, mostly children, had been vaccinated, all of whom come from regions where dengue is endemic.

But on 29 November 2017, Sanofi Pasteur issued a statement warning that people who got vaccinated with Dengvaxia would be at severe risk if they had not been previously infected with the virus. The warning was based on a new analysis of six years worth of data from clinical studies done by the company.

Immediately after that, the Philippine health secretary Francisco Duque said in a press conference that the dengue vaccination programme was being halted, and a review had been ordered. He told SciDev.Net in an interview that there are no plans to resume the programme. The health department was also looking at 24 deaths possibly linked to the mass vaccination, added Duque.



Political fallout

The Philippine media has kept the Dengvaxia issue in the headlines ever since Sanofi Pasteur made its announcement. Both broadcast and social media have sensationalised the story, airing pictures of mothers crying over the deaths of children they say are attributed to dengue.

Views on social media are especially critical of Sanofi Pasteur and some health officials, often voicing negative opinions about vaccination itself.

The Philippine Senate, through its investigative and anti-corruption Blue Ribbon Committee, has conducted several hearings on the scandal, with no less than former Philippine President Benigno Aquino III among those who have testified and stand to face charges.

Lessons learned

What have we learned from this fiasco?

First, we are reminded again that haste makes waste. I confess to being gung-ho when I wrote about the launch of the vaccination programme in 2016. It seemed a bold and pioneering move, considering the number of cases in the Philippines.

It is easy to overlook the dangers of a new technology being introduced  dangers which should be heeded especially when the technology involves the human body. The Philippine government could have been more conservative in adopting the new vaccine, especially in this case, since it involves children.

And why start at such a massive scale? Testing the vaccine on a smaller sample size as an extension of the clinical trials underway, while Sanofi Pasteur completed its own tests, would have been ideal.

Now, the public is wary of other health programmes  and the scepticism could extend to scientists who will be talking of new technologies that could affect health, like GM foods. On January 31st, a group of leading Filipino physicians and scientists published a statement in leading newspapers expressing concern about the misinformation generated by the Dengvaxia controversy, which they said has eroded public confidence in the countrys vaccination programme and other public healthcare endeavours.

If this trend continues, then we may find ourselves faced with outbreaks of debilitating and life-threatening diseases that we have already been able to control through our vaccination programmes, the statement emphasised.

Indeed, the Philippines has the distinction of being the first country in the world to introduce Dengvaxia in a mass vaccination programme  but it is now paying the price for this. In hindsight, it looks like Filipino children became unwitting guinea pigs in the rush to roll out a new dengue vaccine, with the scientific and health communitys reputation taking a hit as well.



Crispin Maslog, a former journalist with Agence France-Presse, is an environmental activist and former science professor at Silliman University and University of the Philippines Los Banos. He is a founding member and now Chair of the Board of the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre.

This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Asia & Pacific desk.

A review of research on how information services based on mobile phone technology can improve the lives of farmers has found only patchy evidence of success.

The review, which looked at 23 studies of such services in Africa, Asia and Latin America, found that although users often reported improvements, these were perceived benefits not always borne out by tangible evidence, such as changing trading patterns and price gains.

Mobile phone services for farmers comprise text message services, helplines and apps that provide information on training or weather forecasts, as well as accessing markets, financing and inputs such as fertilisers.

It is hard to put a finger on what makes an app successful, Michael Kende

Developers of these services, funders and others believe these services hold promise for developing world farmers  to help them improve their yields, for example, or achieve stronger negotiation positions when taking goods to market.

But Heike Baumuller , a researcher at the Center for Development Research of the University of Bonn in Germany, who conducted the review, says that developers failure to look at the context in which farmers use these services means many are under-utilised. Some of the data shows usage rates dropping among women, for example, or recommendations not acted on due to logistics.

There are only a few studies looking at who is using these services and what the needs of users are, explains Baumuller. If developers dont understand how a service fits into farmers lives, it can easily happen that these services arent effective.

Pricing information for different markets is one example, she says: this would not help farmers if bad roads or lack of transport prevents them from accessing those markets.

The review, published in the January issue of the Journal of International Development, found that most studies of mobile services relied heavily on farmers perceptions, rather than independently verifiable data. In addition, studies rarely differentiated between men and women, even though in many countries there are stark gender differences in access to technology and money.

Some developers have recognised the problem of ensuring mobile services take context into account. James Legg, a Tanzania-based plant virologist at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, has spent two years working with field researchers and software developers to improve an app to diagnose cassava diseases.

The first factor for a successful application is obviously that farmers can access and use it, Legg tells SciDev.Net. So, you need something that is free and in their own language.

Baumuller says developers should also start developing apps and information sources that address wider community problems. Her review found that most services focus exclusively on farmers  but there is room for apps targeting transport providers and market brokers, she says, which would help farmers by enabling bigger companies to buy from them.

Mobile services can be useful elsewhere, and still a farmer would profit, says Baumuller. If you want to support smallholder farmers, you dont have to make their world so small.

The review suggests that future studies should include data collected by independent investigators. It also says more studies should assess different usage patterns and how these develop over time, rather than just counting users versus non-users at a specific point in time.

Michael Kende, a former chief economist of the advocacy organization the Internet Society group, agrees that there are knowledge gaps. Part of the problem, he says, is that mobile app stores and developers have no obligation to share usage data with researchers.

It is hard to put a finger on what makes an app successful, says Kende. But I think that it has to be designed and tested in the local context, using local networks to make sure it is relevant and that it works.This article was supported by The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center.

The project wants a clearer picture and open talk on poverty. Does it oversimplify? Tania Rabesandratana investigates.

Every minute in Nigeria, 6.5 people fall into extreme poverty. And as this sentence is being written, 42.5 per cent of its population  82,640,203 people  are extremely poor.

These are up-to-the-second, specific estimates that come from the World Poverty Clock: a database, launched in May 2017, of national income figures paired with easy to follow, real-time graphics. Nigerias rising poverty trend translates to the colour red on the website's map.

Official data sources do not give such specific poverty estimates. The 'global poverty today' figure often bandied at big international meetings is usually based on four-year-old data, says Homi Kharas, the lead economic adviser behind the clock, who also leads the global economy and development programme at the Brookings Institution, a US think tank.

This is exactly the mind-set we are trying to break. We want everyone to talk about poverty dynamics. Homi Kharas

The clocks team is aiming to paint a clearer and more timely picture, so that countries can check their progress to escaping extreme poverty by 2030  one of the targets under the UN's global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In the process, the clock can also come up with surprises.

Unlike Nigeria, India is well on track to meeting the target and appears green on the map. At the time of writing the clock estimates that 83,653,728 people, or 6.3 per cent of its population, live in extreme poverty (with less than 1.9 US dollars per day) and 47 people escape it every minute.

This means that within the next few months, Nigeria will have the largest absolute number of poor people in the world  which Kharas says is unexpected, given that India has held that title for hundreds of years.



A screenshot of the World Poverty Clock, showing poverty trends in Nigeria, captured earlier this month

The clock is the brainchild of the non-profit arm of World Data Lab (WDL), an Austria-based company. Its models rely primarily on publicly available national household surveys, which governments typically conduct every three to ten years, to project income figures into the present and the future.

For India, for example, the estimates are based on 2012 data collected by the National Sample Survey Office, adjusted and published by the World Bank on its PovcalNet website. Though the clock's algorithms rely largely on World Bank data, the bank is not responsible for the clock.

Those algorithms estimate how people's incomes change over time in each country, using economic growth forecasts and long-term scenarios that account for global events such as climate change.

The estimates, available for all nations except Syria, are then paired with graphics to display how fast each country is escaping poverty and whether they will meet the 2030 goal. We want this used by individual countries, to see how they are doing against their neighbours, says Kharas.



A welcome provocation

The project has received a mixed response. Some economists at the World Bank say its simple predictions give a false sense of accuracy

If [providing such specific estimates and forecasts] was a safe thing to do, wed have done it, says Francisco Ferreira, who oversees the banks research programmes on poverty, inequality and agriculture. For example, if there is an epidemic or the price of oil goes through a drastic change, then the number of poor Nigerians will fall or rise, he says, adding that the Clock's visualisations hide these enormous uncertainties.

But Kharas says Ferreira misses the point, and that the clock makes clarity a priority over economic jargon.

Adding complexity  detracts from that [communication] effort and reinforces the idea that poverty dynamics are a subject that only 'experts' should discuss, Kharas argues. This is exactly the mind-set we are trying to break. We want everyone to talk about poverty dynamics.

[The clock] does make [poverty] information more accessible to a general audience, says Haishan Fu, director of the World Banks development data group. But wed like to see a better approach to communicating the often large uncertainties in these estimates.

WDL's vice-president for Africa, Bitange Ndemo, believes that to spark conversation and action it is worth taking a risk on the numbers.

We need to have a culture of using data to develop evidence-based policymaking, says Ndemo, who previously served as permanent secretary of Kenyas Ministry of Information and Communication. Other observers have embraced the clock's approach. For example, the SDG Index and Dashboards Report issued to monitor progress towards the targets uses the clock's data in its 2017 edition.

The clock is a welcome provocation to the official data system, which has been slow to embrace new estimation techniques to provide real-time data, says Guido Schmidt-Traub, the report's scientific co-director.

The International Organization of the Francophonie has also asked WDL to develop a specific clock comparing French-speaking African countries.

Push for better data

The clock's architects argue that one of its strengths is its effort to include subnational data using complex methods to correlate census data with household surveys. But Ferreira, again, urges even more caution with such finer-resolution data, especially for forecasts.

WDL has added county-level data for Kenya, and is working on Indonesia and Pakistan.

In Kenya, Ndemo says, the clock helps governors take better notice of problems by highlighting differences between counties. Meru and Nyeri, for example, are two largely agricultural counties; both are on track to escaping poverty by 2030, but Nyeri has a higher poverty rate and a slower escape rate  and this means they require different policy interventions. The clock could be more accurate if private or philanthropic data was added, says Ndemo. For example, Kenyan mobile operator Safaricom has some of the best data from users and from its M-Pesa money transfer service, but is reluctant to share them, he deplores.

It sounds like science fiction but is actually doable when you sit down with people who know their stuff Jesus Crespo Cuaresma

To make up for unavailable or poor government data, the clocks team is looking for proxies from space.

It sounds like science fiction but is actually doable when you sit down with people who know their stuff, explains Jesus Crespo Cuaresma, head of the Institute for Macroeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

In August, the team got together at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center in Italy with Olha Danylo, a researcher at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria, who uses machine learning to analyse remote sensing data.

Researchers can estimate poverty from satellite images by extracting information about the location of human settlements, road infrastructure, agricultural areas and light intensity. Household data may be collected every five years, but satellite images are coming [in] every day, Danylo explains.

For example, the team studied how to combine satellite pictures with records from mobile phone operators in Senegal. And in North Korea, where no data are available, they combined satellite images with images from tourists.

The Bellagio meeting planted a seed, Crespo says, for research to estimate numbers of poor people across North Korea, with the method potentially applied to other data-poor places such as Somalia.

It's still a very complicated task, says Danylo. But it's very exciting to work with people who have big ideas and want to make a difference in the world.[LONDON] Only 2 per cent of hospitals and clinics in lower and middle-income countries (LIMCs) provide patients with good quality services across the four key areas of water, sanitation, hygiene and waste management.

The finding comes from the first study to provide a baseline measure of environmental conditions in healthcare facilities to support progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It looked at more than 130,000 facilities worldwide, and found that half of them lacked regular access to piped water.

The study also warned that around 40 per cent of hospitals and clinics in LIMCs are short of hand-washing soap. The same percentage of facilities cannot provide infectious waste disposal, and three out of four do not have enough sterilisation equipment.

To come up with the estimates, researchers at the Water Institute of the University of North Carolina in the United States compiled data from various sources including UN reports and peer-reviewed literature.

Nearly 60 per cent of facilities do not have reliable electricity, making it difficult to deliver babies at night, refrigerate vaccines, and provide other critical services, says Ryan Cronk, one of the authors of the paper.

Without water we cannot do surgeries or flush the toilets, so conditions quickly become terrible Julius Mollel

The study, published this month (11 January) in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, looked at six countries in detail: Bangladesh, Haiti, Malawi, Nepal, Senegal and Tanzania.

Among them, Bangladesh had the highest proportion of facilities with sewer access; but even then, only 17 per cent of hospitals and clinics pipe their wastewater into a sewage system. Access to clean water and wastewater treatment is one of the biggest problems healthcare facilities face in LIMCs.

Julius Mollel, a general surgeon at Nkoaranga Hospital in the Meru district in Tanzania, says getting water is a daily struggle for the hospital, as local groundwater resources are depleted. Without water we cannot do surgeries or flush the toilets, so conditions quickly become terrible, he tells SciDev.Net. We always keep back 50 litres for [each toilet facility in] emergencies.

According to the study, only 32 per cent of healthcare facilities in Tanzania have access to basic water services. Mollel says Nkoaranga Hospital is looking to international donors to install a 100,000-litre tank to ensure it has a steady water supply. We get no money from the local government for this, he says.

Faith-based healthcare facilities appear to be faring better than state-funded ones, and Cronk says this may be linked to more access to international funding making up for a lack of government support.

Where basic water and sanitation facilities are present, there are often secondary problems: more than 70 per cent of Nepalese healthcare facilities, for example, provided toilets for patients, but only 26 per cent had separate toilets for women, leaving female patients vulnerable and exposed.

The authors say that lack of these services threatens the achievement of the water and health-related SDGs. UNICEF, which works with the World Health Organization on implementing the SDGs, says this affects the most vulnerable patients most, especially mothers and newborns.

According to Lizette Burgers, senior adviser on water, sanitation and hygiene at UNICEF, sepsis and pneumonia are the most common infections picked up in hospital settings. We need to return to the pre-antibiotic era, when infection prevention was recognised as a priority, she told SciDev.Net. Governments and other relevant partners have a crucial role to play in making this a reality.

The WHO is planning to publish a global update on hygiene in healthcare facilities later this year, as part of its monitoring of SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation." " BBC documentary "Planet Earth II" narrator Sir David Attenborough speaks via satellite during a press tour. The documentary prompted Queen Elizabeth II to ban several types of plastic from many royal properties. Jesse Grant/Getty Images

Scientists predict that by 2050, the plastic that ends up in the ocean will outweigh all the fish in the sea. Now, Queen Elizabeth II has decided to do what she can by banning plastic straws and bottles from all the Royal estates in Great Britain.

Reports say that after working on the BBC docuseries "Blue Planet II" with Sir David Attenborough, whose beautiful films have chronicled the world's myriad environmental issues, the Queen became concerned about the impact plastic is having on the world's oceans. As a result, Buckingham Palace drew up a new solid-waste plan banning plastic straws and bottles from cafes and all Royal residences.

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Food service workers at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, Scotland must begin using glass cups, recyclable paper cups and china. Takeout food will be packaged in biodegradable or compostable materials.

"Across the organisation, the Royal Household is committed to reducing its environmental impact," a royal spokesperson told British reporters. "As part of that, we have taken a number of practical steps to cut back on the use of plastics. At all levels, there's a strong desire to tackle this issue."

Attenborough's series focuses in part on the impact plastic is having on the world's oceanic ecosystems. The sea is quickly becoming a landfill for plastic, mostly in the form of microscopic beads and fibers. Since plastic takes more than 400 years to degrade, it doesn't easily return (like organic matter) into its original chemical state that the environment can absorb.

According to the World Economic Forum, the production of plastic has increased from 15 million tons (13.6 million metric tons) in the 1960s to 311 million (282 million metric tons) in 2014. That number is expected to increase threefold by 2050. As a result, a lot of plastic ends up in the sea. Scientists say the ocean is expected to contain 1 ton (.9 metric tons) of plastic for every 3 tons (2.7 metric tons) of fish by 2025. That's why by 2050, they expect plastic in the oceans to outweigh fish all together.

The Queen's desire to ban plastic is part of a more comprehensive plan to reduce pollution and waste throughout the royal households. Companies wishing to work for the Royals must now prove they are doing their jobs in an environmentally friendly way. Moreover, Buckingham Palace itself is undergoing a 369 million ($512 million) renovation project to make one of Britain's most popular attractions more energy efficient, among other things. The goal is to reduce the Palace's annual energy consumption by 40 percent.

Now That's Scary According to one report, 1 million plastic bottles are bought worldwide every minute, a number that is likely to increase by another 20 percent in 2021. Another study suggests that 91 percent of all plastic is tossed in the trash instead of being recycled.News network climate reporting soared in 2017 thanks to Trump

Posted on 15 February 2018 by dana1981

In 2016, US TV network news coverage of climate change plummeted. News coverage was focused on the presidential election, but the corporate broadcast networks didnt air a single segment informing viewers how a win by Trump or Hillary Clinton could affect climate change or climate policy. That followed a slight drop in news coverage of climate change in 2015, despite that year being full of critical events like the Paris climate accords, Clean Power Plan, and record-breaking heat.

The good news is that the annual analysis done by Media Matters for America found that in 2017, network news coverage of climate change soared.

Minutes of US corporate news network climate coverage by year, 20142017. Data from Media Matters for America. Illustration: Dana Nuccitelli

The bad news is that most of it was focused on Trumps historically stupid withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.

Broadcast news coverage of climate change (pink), and related to the Trump administration (blue). Illustration: Media Matters for America

All Trump, all the time

Media Matters found that in 2017, 79% percent of the time that corporate broadcast networks spent covering climate change featured actions or statements by the Trump administration. Trumps withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement was featured in 52% of climate news segments.

Topics covered in 2017 climate-related news stories. Illustration: Media Matters for America

The administration also brought climate denial into the news cycle. Of the network news climate segments last year, 19% mentioned that Trump has called climate change a hoax, and 37% of those didnt rebut the claim.

Many statements by the administration have focused on manufacturing doubt about human-caused global warming. For example, in a June 4 segment on CBS Face the Nation, when asked about Trumps hoax comments, his U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley dodged the question by saying:

The president believes the climate is changing, and he does know that pollutants are a part of that equation.

Other members of the administration like Scott Pruitt have similarly cast doubt on the fact that humans are the dominant cause of current climate change.

This happened in a year filled with expensive climate-fueled disasters including hurricanes, droughts, heatwaves, and floods. The corporate broadcast networks  ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX  aired just four total segments that discussed these events in the context of climate change.

Number of news segments discussing the extreme weather events of 2017 in the context of climate change. Illustration: Media Matters for America

PBS still has the best climate reporting

By contrast, PBS aired 8 news segments discussing the link between climate change and the extreme weather events of 2017. Like the previous year, PBS had far more overall climate change coverage than the corporate news networks. PBS NewsHour interviewed or quoted more scientists in its climate coverage than all the other networks combined  29 scientists, compared to a total of 27 scientists for the others (14 on CBS, 10 on NBC, 3 on ABC, and none on FOX). PBS NewsHour also featured the highest number of climate change segments (69), followed by CBS Evening News (44), NBC Nightly News (27), and ABCs World News Tonight (23).

Its thus perhaps unsurprising that Trumps proposed budget would eliminate federal funding for PBS.

Click here to read the restAn ahistorical claim has been making the rounds as of late, falling from the mouths and keyboards of people earnestly, yet clumsily, trying to explain why Black Panther has become a cultural juggernaut unlike anything weve ever seen. It goes something like, This is the first ever big-budget comic book film starring a black superhero. Thats a lot of qualifiers. And its not entirely accuratesure, the movies budget is twice as big as Catwomans, but that feline-centered campfest was still made for $100 million in 2004, hardly a small, or even medium, budget at the time. Even ignoring those qualifiers, however, theres a danger in inadvertently isolating Black Panther by ignoring its predecessors. Thankfully, a few have used the occasion to remind us that there have been movies about black superheroes long before Ryan Coogler and Disney brought us King TChalla: Spawn, Meteor Man, and the Blade trilogy, to name just a few.

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And yet before all of those exceptional characters made their way to the big screen, there was Abar, a character I only just recently learned about thanks to a great film series on black superheroes currently playing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Abar, the First Black Superman, in fact, as the movies title handily spells out. A long-forgotten, low-budget blaxploitation flick from 1977, Abar is about the dissipation of race relations, consolation, segregation, dispensation, and more. Its defiant, didactic, and occasionally delirious. The cast of amateurs seems to be competing for whoever can give the stiffest, most incoherent line reading of the fantastically terrible script. And you should definitely grab a friend or two, some intoxicants, and check it out.

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Heres the scoop: Dr. Kinkade (J. Walter Smith, also credited for the story) moves in to a posh, all-white Los Angeles suburb with his wife and two kids. At first, two nosey Gladys Kravitz types from next door, assuming that they are the help, greet the family pleasantly and inform them they are planning a luncheon for their new neighbors. But when Mrs. Kinkade reveals that they are, in fact, the new neighbors, the welcoming committee turns indignant. I wont let them! an enraged Mabel retorts to her friend. I wont let them move into our neighborhood! As she spews more hatred about burning the house down herself, Mr. Kinkade attempts to calm Mabel down by slowly reaching for her shoulder, but she tumbles dramatically to the ground and yells, Get your black hands off of me! Awkwardly abrupt dissolve into a loud group of white people picketing outside their homes, marching in circles and carrying signs.

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As the demonstrators hold court and the community board plots to push the Kinkade family out of their home, in steps John Abar (Tobar Mayo), leader of the Black Front of Unity, a grassroots band of fly-looking motorcyclists who work to help the brothers and sisters down in the ghetto and preach nonviolent self-defense. (So basically, a fictionalized version of the real-life Black Panthers.) After hearing about the Kinkades troubles on the news, he and his team arrive at their home offering protection from the white people outside. But theres a catch: Abar wants the family to consider moving back to the ghetto, so they can uplift their own people. Dr. Kinkade isnt interested, and Abar and his men leave disappointed. Nonetheless, Abar returns sometime later, just in time to fend off a couple of white guys who are attacking the doctor on his doorstep. (He throws them in a garbage truck to the tune of that familiar wa-chicka-wa-chicka musical queue found in pretty much every blaxploitation movie.) From then on, the two develop a complicated relationship in which Abar agrees to protect the Kinkades home and participate in some tests the doctor is running for a prevention for heart disease (a leading cause of death for black Americans, especially). They constantly debate what is best for the black community and how things might be fixed as if they were in the middle of an after-school special.

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Much like The Room, a good chunk of Abar is pretty slow goingthough never not bizarre, thanks to an unforeshadowed death, a dream sequence in which the son imagines Abar as an Old West cowboy (My friends call me Deadwood Dick, but my enemies call me Smart Black Nigger), and the actors consistently delayed reactions to one anothers lines. But the last 40 minutes finally get us where the film really wants us to go. (Spoilers ahead.) Its revealed that Dr. Kinkade isnt actually working on a cure for heart disease but has developed a potion that can make a man in top physical conditiona man like Abar, it turns outindestructible so that he can clean up the ghetto in one fell swoop. At first, Abar is resistant, but he soon changes his mind (although not before a surely unlicensed Martin Luther King excerpt is heard, for some reason) and drinks the serum.

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This last act of the film is all over the place, with Abar realizing that the serum has worked on him after two cops shoot him for coming upon them as they plant a gun on an unarmed black man theyve just killed. Abars unhurt and now roams the ghetto using his new superpowers for good. A guy steals a ladys purse on the street and runs off? Abar squints hard and compels the thief, by telepathy, to run and tumble back to her, returning the bag. (Waka-chicka-waka-chicka.) A prostitute is being slapped around by her pimp? Abar telepathically confers on her the strength and skill to defend herself and beat him to the ground. (Waka-chicka-waka-chicka.) Troubled youths are hanging out on the street, smoking and shooting craps? The powerful mind of Abar sends them straight to graduating, emerging from a school in caps and gowns with diplomas in hand. (Waka-chicka-waka-chicka, then, generic graduation music.)

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The most bonkers moment is saved for the end. Abar uses his powers to bring down a plague of biblical proportions upon the Kinkades white neighborspowerful, hurricanelike winds (you should see the actors tossing their bodies around like rag dolls for extra effect), rat infestations, snakes in beds. He drives them all away, except for the aforementioned Mabel. She approaches the Kinkades in the middle of the street, meekly humbled. And then: I want to apologize for the way I behaved when you moved in to Meadow Park. The reason I didnt want you to live next door to me is because  Im black, and Ive been passing as white all these years and

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The doctor cuts her off. Yes, I know. But how did he know? Well, in an earlier scene, Mabel faintedimmediately after calling their son a little black bastard, mind youand the doctor was kind enough to take her in to his home and call her doctor to find out if she had any pre-existing conditions. It turns out she hadwait for itsickle cell anemia.

She asks for forgiveness. The Kinkades look at one another and embrace her reassuringly, as MLKs voice swoops in once again: I HAVE A DREAM that one day my four little children  They walk down the street together, happily, as a proud Abar looks on.

Abar, the First Black Superman is truly a cinematic marvel. It has its heart in the right place and fumbles spectacularly in every way possiblethe painfully preachy dialogue, the scrappy special effects, the too long running time. But even if its not anywhere close to the achievement of Black Panther, its a fascinating product of the time and more proof that black superheroes have long existed outside the Marvel universe. And just like Black Panther, their superpowers are almost always political.

Read more about Black Panther in Slate.Black Panther, the latest entry in Marvels shared cinematic universe, is a remarkable feat of world building and visual craft. Its setting, the fictional central African nation of Wakanda, is a technologically advanced wonderland light years ahead of the rest of the world that lives and breathes unlike anything weve seen from Marvel Studios or the superhero genre at large. Its protagonist, King TChallawho fights in defense of his nation as the Black Panther, equipped with a bulletproof suit and imbued with enhanced strength, speed, and agilityis played with both regal confidence and real vulnerability by the versatile Chadwick Boseman.

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But what drives Black Panther isnt its visuals or superheroics. What drives the film is its pursuit of the idea that arguably defines the superhero genre, best articulated in 1962s Amazing Fantasy No. 15: With great power comes great responsibility. And what makes Black Panther unique is that it pursues this in the context of its characters and its setting. It asks not just, What is TChallas responsibility to Wakanda? but What is Wakandas responsibility to the world?

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First, the basics. Black Panther is unmistakably a film from Marvel Studios, with all the humor, action, and callbacks to past movies that act as a connective tissue between the different entries in its megafranchise. But it strains against that template. Throughout the movie, director Ryan Coogler delivers moments that feel as rooted and personal as anything in his previous films, while building environments that carry a real sense of atmosphere and place. Wakanda is fantastical, but in Cooglers hands it feels as real and as lived in as the Oakland, California, of Fruitvale Station or the Philadelphia of Creed, the two films he wrote and directed before signing up with Marvel.

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With Killmonger, Coogler and Jordan give us the single most compelling villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Chadwick Boseman anchors the film, but he is nearly upstaged by an impressive cast of cinematic veterans and relative newcomers. Lupita Nyongo shines as Nakia, TChallas close confidante who hopes to see her country take a larger role in the world. The Walking Deads Danai Gurira gives what ought to be a star-making turn as Okoye, the fierce leader of Wakandas royal guard. Letitia Wright steals the lions share of the movies laughs as Shuri, TChallas younger sister and a technological wunderkind who develops the tools and weapons deployed by her brother. (It is worth noting here that this is probably the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in which women drive the story and plot as much as their male counterparts.) Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, and Andy Serkis give more than capable performances, as they are wont to do, and Sterling K. Brown makes an unexpected, moving appearance as an important relative of the king.

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The most dynamic performance, however, comes from Michael B. Jordan, a longtime collaborator of Cooglers who dominates the screen as Erik Killmonger, TChallas chief rival. With Killmonger, Coogler and Jordan give us the single most compelling villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Its not just Jordans muscular build and physical presence. Its the fire in his eyes. Driven by pain, anger, and ideology, this is a character who believes in his cause with an almost religious fervor. And critically, its hard to say that hes wrong.

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Which gets us back to the ideas in Black Panther. The plot is straightforward. Set shortly after the events of Captain America: Civil War, the film begins as TChalla prepares to take the mantle of king. When an old and dangerous adversary appears on Wakandas radarcarrying a stolen cache of vibranium, the fictional metal that is the source of the nations wealththe new monarch springs into action, hoping to bring him to justice while securing Wakandas future and continued secrecy. But his path crosses with Killmonger, who hopes to use Wakandas power and technological prowess to spark a revolution of oppressed peoples around the world, exporting weapons and assistance to those who suffer under the boot of racial oppression.

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From the view of the American-born Killmonger, Wakanda and its leaders are morally bankrupt. Theyve isolated themselves with their wealth and technology, indifferent to the fate of the African diaspora. They have great power, but they wont take responsibility, cloistering themselves away from the world, when they could rule it, inverting racial and colonial hierarchies. The sun will never set on the Wakandan empire, declares Killmonger at one point in the film, imagining a future where an unconquered people become conquerors themselves in the service of liberation.

Black Panther is the most political movie ever produced by Marvel Studios.

Its a provocation that flows directly from the premise. If there were a Wakandaa powerful African nation that never experienced colonization and white supremacywouldnt it have an obligation to those African peoples, and their descendants, who lacked the resources to defend themselves? And if it took revolutionary action to liberate them, wouldnt that revolution be justified, just desserts after centuries of theft and bloodshed? Killmonger, a man who has experienced racism intimately, says yes. TChalla, privileged to have never experienced the sting of color caste, says no. And Nakia, who has traveled the continent and believes Wakanda has a humanitarian duty to the world, plots a middle course. With great power, what exactly is the responsibility?

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Of course, Black Panther isnt a political thriller. These conflicts and tensions play out in action as much as dialogue, and the ideas come naturally. There are no mouthpieces speaking on behalf of the writers. But it is fair to say that Black Panther is the most political movie ever produced by Marvel Studios, both in its very existenceits the most expensive movie to have ever starred an almost entirely black castand in the questions its story raises. Indeed, the ideas are almost too big: There are times when you wish they, and the characters, had more space to breathe.

The best superhero films dont transcend the genre as much as they embrace it in all its respects. Richard Donners Superman: The Movie captured the wonder and optimism of the Superman mythos. Sam Raimis Spider-Man 2 did the same, fully realizing the earnest melodrama and quotidian feel of Stan Lee and Steve Ditkos first comics. Christopher Nolans The Dark Knight distills both Batman and the Joker to their cores and raised the bar for what this kind of blockbuster could accomplish.

With its aesthetic ambition, depth of imagination, and genuinely challenging themes, Black Panther belongs with this group. It doesnt just capture the essential qualities of the character, it expands on the concept itself, standing as a film that matters for what it says as much as what it is.

Black Panther could have been just another Marvel rompa fun but ultimately disposable entry in the studios catalogue. But Ryan Coogler and company had the power, and perhaps the responsibility, to do much more. And they did.

Read more in Slate about Black Panther.For no reason at all, here are some videos of American politicians addressing the National Rifle Association. Theyre great to watch if you ever lose faith in our system of government or the people who run it: undeniable video evidence that politicians sometimes make promises they intend to keep.

Heres President Trumps address to the National Rifle Associations Leadership Forum on April 28, 2017:

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And here he is addressing the NRA-ILA in 2016:

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And in 2015:

Heres Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum in 2014:

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And again in 2015:

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And heres Floridas Gov. Rick Scott at the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum in 2017, where he gave a shout out to the state attorney general Pam Bondi, who was also in attendance:

Just a few things to keep in mind when evaluating the sincerity of the solemn condolences on offer over the next few days.Seventeen dead would have been a bad day in Iraq or Afghanistan at the height of our wars there. To see the same death toll Wednesday at a U.S. high school suggests American soil has become a battlefield, too.

A day before Nikolas Cruzs shooting rampage in Florida and 1,000 miles away in Washington, the leaders of the nations 17 intelligence agencies briefed Congress on their 2018 worldwide threat assessment. This assessment detailed myriad threats to Americas national security from abroadChina, Russia, transnational organized crime, and terrorismbut ignored the threat from within posed by guns. Wednesdays carnage in Florida illustrates the problem caused by this collective failure to see the existential threat posed by guns to Americans. As long as it remains easy for malicious people to acquire weapons like those used in Parkland, Las Vegas, Orlando, or San Bernardino, Americans will die by the dozens.

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Guns kill more than 15,000 Americans a year, with the numbers of gun deaths rising slightly from 2016 to 2017. A pattern has emerged after each mass shooting: gratuitous offering of hopes and prayers, followed by proposals for stricter controls on guns or purchases thereof, followed by lobbying by gun advocates and manufacturers for the scuttling of those proposed controls. The net effect is the same, every damned time: Nothing changes. It is as easy to obtain a semi-automatic military-style rifle today as it was two years ago when Omar Mateen used one to kill 49 at an Orlando nightclub; it remains legal to buy bump stocks today, just as it was four months ago when Stephen Paddock used one to murder 58 in Las Vegas. The thunderous hail of bullets is always followed by the silence of a nation that cannot bring itself to do anything besides offer hopes and prayers.

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Three broad options exist for the country to do better: regulating guns or ammunition, regulating the people who can acquire them, and creating defenses or responses in case a gun incident occurs. With few exceptions (like the now-expired assault weapons ban), we have focused our national response on the last, with deadly consequences.

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Better regulation of guns or ammunition would be entirely justifiable and lawful under our Constitution, notwithstanding the Supreme Courts recent jurisprudence on gun ownership. If the federal government can regulate explosives and machine guns, then certainly it can more closely regulate the acquisition of military-style rifles, high-capacity magazines, bump stocks, or military-grade ammunition. And yet, these moves have been stymied after each massacre by an unholy alliance between the NRA, the gun industry, and the Republican Party. There was a time when conservatives such as Ronald Reagan embraced gun control, both as a nod to responsible gun owners and a nod to American law enforcement. No longer; the gun lobby seems to prevail every single time.

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A second option would be to regulate gun owners and their purchasing rights, such as is now the case for felons and others like those dishonorably discharged from the military. This path may be more fraught given the courts recent Second Amendment jurisprudence, which would require careful tailoring of any new rules that impinge on the constitutional right to bear arms. A lawful, common-sense approach would likely start by limiting gun acquisition by those on terrorist watch lists, or those with serious mental health disorders. However, the NRA has successfully fought each of these efforts in recent years. Indeed, President Trump signed a bill last year making it easier for Americans with serious mental health disorders to obtain firearms.

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Our national failure to smartly regulate guns or the people who get them leaves just one option: hardening civil defenses, the 21st-century equivalent of what we did during the Cold War to build bunkers and shelters to survive a potential nuclear exchange with the Soviets. Hardening schools, churches, and government buildings works to a point, but you cant harden everything, and protecting some sites only turns others into more attractive targets. Law enforcement agencies cant be everywhere; trauma centers can save only so many lives when bodies are ripped apart by high-velocity bullets. These civil defense measures have saved lives in recent attacks, but they have not stopped the attacks themselves.

The NRAs answer has been to arm more people, not fewer, under the theory that a good guy with a gun can stop a shooter in their tracks. This is a dangerous fantasy that will likely only get more people killed. For starters, a good guy with a gun is rarely at the right place and time. To be effective, such a good guy (or woman) would also need a level of expertise and combat skill found only in the best trained military or law enforcement personnel. And in some cases, like Las Vegas, even that would be inadequate, based on the shooters advantage in location and weaponry. A more likely outcome is that a good guy with a gun would turn a mass shooting into a firefight, potentially killing additional bystanders in the crossfire.

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Our country spends hundreds of billions of dollars on an intelligence and military capability to protect Americans from external threats, both real and projected. We do quite little to protect Americans at home from the very real threat of gunsa threat which took an average of 42 lives per day in 2017. Framing matters. Presenting guns as a law enforcement issue has not catalyzed an effective response; describing gun violence in public health terms has illustrated the scope of carnage, but also not generated a sufficient societal response. Perhaps presenting gun violence as a national security threat will finally galvanize America to act. On his way out as director of the National Counter-Terrorism Center, Nick Rasmussen mused, We find ourselves in a more dangerous situation because our population of violent extremists has no difficulty gaining access to weapons that are quite lethal. Hes rightbut the threat does not just come from violent extremists. It comes from Americans like Stephen Paddock and Nikolas Cruz, tooand the time has come for us overcome the powerful people who insist on pretending that threat doesnt exist.Update, Feb. 15, 6:40 p.m.: After media outlets began reporting Jerebs claims about Cruz being affiliated with the ROF, a spokesperson for the Leon County Sheriffs Office told the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper, We are still doing some work but we have no known ties between the ROF, Jordan Jereb or the Broward shooter. A law enforcement source also told the Associated Press after its reporters talked to Jereb that there were no known ties between Cruz and a white supremacist group. Jereb himself has apparently taken to Gab, a free speech alternative to Twitter popular with the far right, to backtrack on the claims he made.

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Jordan Jereb, the ADL's source on the Florida shooter's ties to white supremacist groups, is now backtracking on Gab, claiming that he lied, or was underslept and made a mistake.



Local law enforcement are now saying there are "no known ties" between Cruz and Jereb. pic.twitter.com/wvU4wN2B1z  Jack Smith IV (@JackSmithIV) February 15, 2018

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Original Post: The Republic of Florida, a militant white supremacist organization, admitted to the Anti-Defamation League and others that the 19-year-old charged with murdering 17 people in Wednesdays Florida high school shooting had ties to the group.

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A man claiming to be Jordan Jereb, the purported leader of the group, told the ADL over the phone that alleged shooter Nikolas Cruz was brought up by a fellow member, attended at least one ROF training exercise in Tallahassee, and carpooled with other people in the ROF. Jereb and three of Cruzs former schoolmates also told ABC News that he was part of the group, and the Anti-Defamation League found that 4chan users identifying themselves as ROF members have posted comments to the same effect. The former schoolmates added that they had repeatedly seen Cruz with Jereb and in ROF marches.

Jereb claimed to ABC and the ADL that the organization had neither ordered nor wanted Cruz to carry out an attack on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Jereb made the same point to the Associated Press, asserting that Cruz acted on his own behalf and is solely responsible for what he just did. The ROF leader conjectured that the timing of the attack on Valentines Day was purposeful because Cruz had trouble with a girl.

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The ROF describes itself on its website as a white civil rights organization aiming to create an ethnostate. Its short-term goals are to occupy urban areas to recruit suburban young whites. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the white supremacist group has a presence in North Florida and South Florida, and has adopted paramilitary principles from anti-government militias. It is a few years old, and its members are primarily young white men. Jereb himself is 22 years old and was charged in 2016 for threatening one of Florida Gov. Rick Scotts staffers.

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In an August 2017 video about the clashing protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, Jereb spoke of a coming civil war and warned leftists that their actions and  worldview will very shortly lead to your own annihilation (and I dont say that lightly.)

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Media outlets have discovered multiple pieces of evidence since Wednesday indicating that Cruz had white supremacist leanings. The Daily Beast quoted Ocean Parodie, a student who formerly attended school with Cruz, as saying, He always wore like really patriotic shirts that seemed really extreme, like hating on the Islamic religion. For example, he would say things such as like, he would degrade Islamic people as terrorists and bombers. Ive seen him wear a Trump hat. Other students have said he was obsessed with guns.

Heavy.com also found a now-deleted Instagram account apparently belonging to Cruz, which featured images of guns, and knives, and a post that appears to contain an anti-Muslim slur. One profile picture shows him wearing a Make America Great Again hat.The alleged shooter in a massacre at a Florida high school was known to school officials after having been permanently kicked off of campus, it was reported on Wednesday. Nikolas Cruz had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School before he allegedly returned to that campus on Wednesday and murdered at least 17 people, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters.

Cruz was taken into custody after the shooting and investigators were examining his social media, Israel added.

We have already begun to dissect his websites and things on social media that he was on, and some of the things that have come to mind are very, very disturbing, Israel said.

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Seventeen-year-old Stoneman Douglas junior Matthew Walker told ABC News that Cruz was known to show off knives and guns on his social media accounts. Everything he posts [on social media] is about weapons, Walker said. Its sick.

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Heavy.com pointed to a since deleted Instagram account of a Nikolas Cruz that heavily featured knives, guns, ammunition, and general shooting imagery. One post also appeared to include an anti-Muslim slur.

Local media, meanwhile, reported accounts of former classmates and teachers who described Cruz as someone who had an obsession with guns and about whom faculty had been warned.

We were told last year that he wasnt allowed on campus with a backpack on him, math teacher Jim Gard, who said he had previously had Cruz as a student, told the Miami Herald. There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.*

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Jillian Davis, a 19-year-old former classmate of Cruz, told the Treasure Coast Newspapers that she had been in a junior ROTC class with Cruz and that he would joke about guns and had been bullied.*

I definitely heard all of those signshed talk about guns, hed talk about not needing any gun control, Davis said.

She also said he would joke about mass killings and suicide. It was primarily jokes about guns, Davis added.

Another former JROTC classmate also said he talked about guns a great deal.

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He was off, Giovonni Watford told BuzzFeed. He was super stressed-out all the time and talked about guns a lot and tried to hide his face.

Watford also told BuzzFeed that Cruz complained about bullying at school.

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The Herald reported that another student, Nicholas Coke, said Cruz had left the school months before and had kicked out a glass window when they were in middle school.

He had a lot of problems in middle school, Coke said.

Broward County Superintendent Robert Runcie said that Cruz was currently enrolled in Broward County Schools apparently at another school, though he said he couldnt offer more information about Cruz because of privacy concerns.

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Sen. Bill Nelson told CNN that Cruz allegedly wore a gas mask and he had smoke grenades, according to his conversations with law enforcement officials.

He went and he set off the fire alarm so that the kids would come pouring out of the classroom into the hall. And there the carnage began, Nelson said. [There was] enormous preparation . [he used] an AR-15.

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Israel confirmed that Cruz allegedly used an AR-15 semi-automatic weapon and countless magazines.

An AR-15 was also used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, which left 27 killed, including 20 children between 6 and 7 years old. It was also used in the mass shootings in San Bernardino, California, and Aurora, Colorado, that each left one dozen or more people dead.

The Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which barred the manufacturing of such semi-automatic firearms, expired in 2004 and was not renewed at the time by a Republican Congress.With less than four months until the California primary, Dianne Feinstein is sitting pretty. The five-term Democratic senator is up big in the polls and up even bigger in the fundraising department. The most serious challenger to her left, state Senate leader Kevin de Leon, has yet to get within 20 points of her in any major survey this cycle, and he began 2018 with a campaign bank account roughly one-thirtieth the size of hers. (The most serious challenger to Feinsteins right, meanwhile, does not exist.)

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De Leons failure to gain significant traction to date is a bit surprising, in no small part because of how much many progressives dislike the woman he wants to unseat. That rage has long simmered in the background, but it seemed to reach a boiling point this summer when Feinstein offered some relatively kind words about Trumps potential to evolve into a good president and urged patience. Even before that round of booing from the left, Emma Roller was making the case on Splinter (nee Gawker) that Feinstein was out of touch with her states liberal voters on things like health care and national security, and that she should retire. But things really picked up steam this fall, when Feinstein made her re-election effort official in October. That very day, Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas took to Twitter to urge de Leon to run and defeat the most pro-Trump Blue-state Dem in the country. And soon after that, the American Prospects executive editor Harold Meyerson made a similar pitch in far greater detail in a piece that credited de Leon with doing as much as anyone else to turn California into not only the capital of anti-Trump America, but also the progressive model for Americas future.

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To date, though, that online excitement has not translated into a whole lot of IRL support for de Leon, notwithstanding this weeks somewhat surprising endorsement from the typically establishment-friendly Service Employees International Union. But the SEIU is an outlier in this one; Feinsteins list of supporter reads like a whos who of California Democrats: Sen. Kamala Harris, former Sen. Barbara Boxer, Lt. Gov. (and current gubernatorial hopeful) Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor (and no-longer gubernatorial hopeful) Eric Garcetti, and U.S. Reps. Ted Lieu and Adam Schiff among them.

That list makes it clear Feinstein has the Democratic establishment behind her, but some of those names also help paper over her less-than-zealous opposition to Trump. Harris, a progressive darling and a potential 2020 candidate, has called for Trump to resign over accusations of sexual harassment and assault. Lieu has been clear he thinks the president is absolutely a racist. And Schiff, as the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, is helping lead the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Theyll make for strong surrogates if Feinstein needs help drawing a bright line between herself and the president. She has also been laying some groundwork herself for the anti-Trump case of late, most notably when she decided to unilaterally release the Fusion GPS transcripts, which debunked the conservative conspiracy theory that it was Hillary Clintons campaign that effectively started the FBI investigation into Trump.

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Thats not say that de Leon doesnt have a progressive case to make against Feinsteinhe certainly does. As her critics are quick to point out, she was to the right of California Democrats even before the electorate shifted left. The senior senator from California fails two progressive litmus tests, one old and one new: She voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq in 2002, and she opposes single-payer health care today. And as the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, shes been a vocal backer of the nations surveillance apparatusshe supported intelligence gathering practices that Obama didnt even want as president and called Edward Snowden a traitor. And on top of all that, there is her age: At 84, she is the oldest person serving in the Senate, making her a convenient target for the ire of a younger generation of progressives who are eager for change at the top of the Democratic Party, both in California and elsewhere.

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Feinstein and her allies counter by pointing to her long history of leadership on issues like gun control, womens rights, and the environment, along with a pragmatic argument for letting Feinstein be, chiefly that too much hangs in the balance this November for the left to spend a single cent or second challenging a Democratic incumbent when there is so much work to be done in the midterms.

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Some also worry aloud that if de Leon gives Feinstein a scare but she still prevails, any residual hurt feelings from an intraparty feud could leave her more likelynot less soto break with her party. Exhibits A and B in their case are Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, both of whom lost a primary challenge but won re-election anyway. Both would, on occasion, go on to break with their respective parties on key issues, but one could also argue that it was those very independent streaks that got them primaries in the first place. (Chicken, meet egg.) Regardless, though, there is one major difference between those cases and this one: Californias unique jungle primary, which advances the top two finishers, regardless of party, and all but ensures both Feinstein and de Leon will be on the general election ballot.

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Its the general election where this race could potentially get interesting. To be clear, without a major, fundamentals-altering change to this race, Feinstein will enter the general as the clear favorite and likely stay that way to Election Day. A new poll released last week by the Public Policy Institute of California shows de Leon trailing Feinstein by 29 points among likely voters, 46 percent to 17 percent. But hovering below 50 percent is never a great place for a longtime incumbent, and de Leon has room to grow. Sixty-four percent of likely voters said they either had never heard of him or didnt know enough about him to have an opinion.

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The good news for de Leon is that he too has his own double-digit leadover third place, which is currently held by the perennial candidate Someone Else at 3 percent support. That means de Leon will have until November to raise his name ID and make a more forceful case for replacing Feinstein.

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This will be only the third California Senate election since the state moved to this open primary format in 2011. And while California is blue and getting bluer, registered Republicans still make up a significant slice of the electorateabout 25 to 30 percent of those considered most likely to vote. De Leon could alienate those Republican voters if he runs hard to Feinsteins left, but its possible that a sizeable number either wont notice that or simply wont care when faced with the chance to vote against a Democrat that has been a bold-faced name in California politics for four decades. Toss in a strong Latino turnoutfueled by the presence of both de Leon and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is running for governorand the general election could well turn out to be more competitive than the primary. For de Leon and his progressive backers, that might be their only real hope.Donald Trumps inappropriate habit of referring to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren as Pocahontas is a reference to the allegation, first raised during her 2012 Senate campaign, that Warren attested to a Native American heritage that doesnt exist in order to advance herself through affirmative action. While there continues to be no evidence that Warren ever asked for or received any ethnicity-based preference in an admissions or hiring process, she has claimed partial Cherokee ancestry of which no genealogical documentation has ever been found in a variety of public forums throughout her life. (You can click here to read a 2015 Slate piece about why so many Americans believe, with no proof, that they have Cherokee blood.)

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The issue is one of the only red flags on Warrens resume from the perspective of voters and activists on the left, and on Wednesday, she addressed it in more detail than she ever has before in a surprise speech at a National Congress of American Indians event in Washington, D.C. Warren didnt apologize for or retract her past claims per sein fact, she asserted that my mothers family was part Native American. But she acknowledged implicitly that this belief is supported only by family lore and does not meet many others standards of what it means to be a member of a Native community:

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I get why some people think theres hay to be made here. You wont find my family members on any rolls, and Im not enrolled in a tribe. And I want to make something clear. I respect that distinction. I understand that tribal membership is determined by tribes  and only by tribes.

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The biographical section of her speech seemed to be an attempt to turn the issue of contested heritage into an opportunity to explain why the story her mother and father told about themselves (including the part of it thats about ancestry) remains important to her:

But my mothers family was part Native American. And my daddys parents were bitterly opposed to their relationship. So, in 1932, when Mother was 19 and Daddy had just turned 20, they eloped. Together, they survived the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. They saved up to buy a home. They raised my three older brothers, and they watched as each one headed off to serve in the military. After Daddy had a heart attack and was out of work, after we lost the family station wagon and it looked like we would lose our house and everything would come crashing down, my mother put on her best dress and walked to the Sears and got a minimum-wage job. That minimum-wage job saved our house and saved our family. My parents struggled. They sacrificed. They paid off medical debts for years. My daddy ended up as a janitor.  Theyre gone, but the love they shared, the struggles they endured, the family they built, and the story they lived will always be a part of me. And no one  not even the president of the United States  will ever take that part of me away.

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Youll note that Warren interspersed references to personal and group identity with references to challenges like debt and low wages that she believes unite Americans across lines of race and gender. Its the same technique she deployed in a high-profile August 2017 speech about social justice, and its one that well presumably see used on the campaign trail if she decides to run in 2020. But Warren also promised to be active on issues of specific interest to Native Americans, saying that, Im here today to make a promise: Every time someone brings up my familys story, Im going to use it to lift up the story of your families and your communities and naming goals related to land protection and the availability of credit and broadband access in Native population centers, among others.

As for whether any of this will be seen as meaningful by the people who have something at stake in the discussion, its obviously too early to say, but for what its worth Indian Country Today says Warren got a standing ovation, while political reporters, including those at her hometown Boston Globe, seem to think her remarks were A Big Deal. (Right-wing Twitter was, predictably, unimpressed.)The 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Virginia, has become the second federal appellate court to rule that President Donald Trumps third try at a travel ban directed at eight countries, of which six are Muslim-majority, is likely unconstitutional. Despite the fact that this third iteration of the ban, enacted in September after two previous efforts were set aside, is currently pending before the Supreme Court, which has allowed it to go into effect temporarily, the 4th Circuit on Thursday joined the 9th Circuit in finding that the ban is likely unconstitutional, because it is rooted in animus toward Muslims and thus violates the Constitutions Establishment Clause.

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In a 94 decision on behalf of the entire appellate court, Chief Judge Roger Gregory wrote that the governments proffered rationale for the Proclamation lies at odds with the statements of the President himself and determined that examining official statements from President Trump and other executive branch officials, along with the proclamation itself, we conclude that the proclamation is unconstitutionally tainted with animus toward Islam.

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In so doing, the en banc court upheld an injunction put in place by a lower court in Maryland that had blocked the newest version of travel ban. That injunction now awaits a final ruling at the Supreme Court.

Unlike the narrower 9th Circuit decision from December, which set aside the travel ban based on a reading of federal immigration laws, the 4th Circuit went much further, addressing constitutional infirmities that it found in Trumps first version of the executive order, signed in January 2017. Painstakingly citing every single anti-Muslim statement and tweet made by Trump from the day he signed the first travel ban into effect, Gregory noted that On a fundamental level, Trumps Muslim travel ban second-guesses our nations dedication to religious freedom and tolerance. Citing tweets and statements proffered by the president about the central purpose of the ban, the court determined that the President of the United States has openly and often expressed his desire to ban those of Islamic faith from entering the United States. Further, notes the majority, its just not proven that the government has a bone fide purpose in pursuing the ban, and that the nondiscriminatory reasons proffered in the newer ban, still dont amount to a reasoned basis for this kind of action.

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The judges in the majority also found that the plaintiffsthe families affected by the new version of the orderwere likely to succeed on the statutory claims as well. Several concurring opinions offered up various other rationales for setting the travel ban aside, presumably in an effort to give the Supreme Court a narrower basis from which to rule if the constitutional arguments are not persuasive. The principal dissent, authored by Judge Paul Niemeyer accused the majority of failing to defer to the executive branch, and failing to recognize how the ban has changed since its first incarnation. Niemeyer charged that the opinions of the district court and those supporting the majoritys judgment are demonstrably wrong in virtually every material respect.

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The Supreme Court, which signaled the possibility that it will side with the government and uphold the ban when it allowed it to go into effect in December, has already asked for briefing on both the statutory and constitutional questions raised by the travel ban. The high court will presumably have the last word on all this. Arguments on the 9th Circuits decision are already scheduled for April, and the fate of the 4th Circuits rulingall 285 pageswill wait until then.

Becca Heller, director of International Refugee Assistance Project, who brought this suit, reached via email gave this statement: With all of the news swirling around these days, real, fake, absurd, or otherwise, its easy to forget that one of President Trumps most harmful and insidious policies is still on the books. As Americans, we must continue to remember the hundreds of millions of people now banned from our country solely based on their religion or nationality. We must keep fighting for them. Even when they are not making headlines.On Wednesday, a 19-year-old gunman in Parkland, Florida, killed 17 people in the deadliest high school shooting in American history. President Trump offered his prayers and condolences in a tweet soon afterward:

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018

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In his public statement on Thursday morning, Trump urged Americans to pray for healing and for peace in the wake of the tragedy. His response was notable for several reasons, including his vague hand-waving about mental illness and his utter failure to support meaningful gun legislation. But there was one thing made conspicuous by its absence: the phrase thoughts and prayers.

The president wasnt alone in avoiding that specific idiom in the wake of yet another mass shooting. The vast majority of Republican politicians reacting to Wednesdays deadly event found other ways of expressing the fact that they are not prepared to do anything concrete about gun violence. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who has used the phrase often in the past, tweeted that Wednesday was that terrible day you pray never comes. Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, another repeat offender, asked Twitter followers to join me in praying for the victims. Other politicians sent love, stood with the community, and, over and over, thanked the first responders.

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Until recently, offering thoughts and prayers after a mass shooting was the standard response from Republican politicians who had no interest in gun control. But in the wake of the Parkland attack, thoughts and prayers was a phrase much more often deployed by those who are fed up with it:

How this is going to go:



America: Outrage, sadness

NRA: Complete silence

NRA supporter in DC: Thoughts and prayers

WH: Statement of grief, praise 1st responders

Media: Lamentations, coverage of funerals, candlelight vigils



Adds up to: Nothing changes#RepeatTheRitual  Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) February 15, 2018

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On Twitter, the few politicians who hadnt gotten the memo were quickly ratioddeluged with scornful replies that far outnumbered supportive retweets and hearts.

Tragic news out of Florida. Please keep the victims, their families, first responders and the community in your thoughts and prayers.  Senator Thom Tillis (@SenThomTillis) February 14, 2018

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Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the victims & all those impacted by today's senseless shooting in Florida. #PrayersforFlorida  Senator Mike Rounds (@SenatorRounds) February 14, 2018

The backlash to the motto has been building for years, particularly in the context of gun violence. Our thoughts and prayers are not enough, President Obama said at a news conference after a campus shooting in Oregon in 2015 (though notably Obama was not able to move gun policy despite that correct sentiment). In 2016, satirists created an online game in which players choose whether to think or pray as a stream of mass shootings pop up on a map of the United States. In a powerful BoJack Horseman episode last year titled Thoughts and Prayers, the phrase becomes a thoughtless mantra murmured over and over by Hollywood executives working on a movie that glamorizes gun violence. Countless think pieces have wrestled over whether the mockery amounts to prayer-shaming and Christian-bashing, or whether the backlash represents a justifiable impatience with strategically ineffective public piety.

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Either way, the backlash seems to have worked, in the narrowest sense. The public responses to Parkland suggest that the phrase thoughts and prayers has become sufficiently toxic that politicians have learned not to deploy it as part of their public response to tragedy. Of course, the quiet expiration of one specific phrase does not mean Republican lawmakers are doing anything beyond thinking and praying about gun violence. Many of them still offered variations on the promise to pray for victims and the Parkland community. But it does mean they have been successfully shamed into changing one tiny aspect of their behavior. In the dismal context of the American conversation about guns, that just might count as a positive step.A bipartisan group of moderate senators calling itself the Common Sense Caucus has finalized a piece of immigration legislation. It will be brought up during the grand, historic, freewheeling Senate immigration debate, during which zero pieces of legislation had received votes as of early Wednesday evening. With Republicans mostly united against Democratic leaders preferred proposals, and vice versa, the moderates bill represents the Senates best chance of passing legislation to protect Dreamers and secure the border.

But just because its the best chance doesnt mean it has a great chance. The White House already hates it, raising a crucial question: Are at least 11 Republicans willing to break with their president?

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The moderates bill touches three of the four pillars the White House has demanded Congress address. It would offer a 10- to 12-year path to citizenship for Dreamers and $25 billion for border security, including a wall. Most proposals have gotten this far and then get stuck on what else should be included. The conventional wisdom around the Hill seems to be that another element or two of dunking on immigrants is necessary to bring around Republicans. The common sense caucus, in their infinite centrist wisdom, settled on not allowing Dreamers to sponsor their parents, or to allow their parents to receive temporary status. It also would not allow legal permanent residents to sponsor their unmarried adult children until they become citizens. Illinois Sen Dick Durbin, who said he would support the proposal, told reporters Wednesday night that those visas, roughly 26,000 per year, would transfer to other eligible family members.

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This is a rightward shift from last months bipartisan legislation, the Gang of Six bill, negotiated largely by Sens. Durbin, Jeff Flake, and Lindsey Graham. The new measure increases the border security dollar amount from $3 billion to $25 billion. The Gang of Six bill also allowed parents of Dreamers to apply for three-year renewable work permits. This does not.

That [was] a tough pill for a lot of Republicans, Flake said Wednesday. This is a more centrist bill.

Well, centrist is one word for a bill that protects Dreamers by selling out their parents; one can think of other descriptors. What was once a tough pill for a lot of Republicans will now become a tough pill for many Democrats.

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Going through our caucus, there are parts of this that are very hard for some of my colleagues, Durbin said. Specifically: Parents and the wall. There are not 49 Democratic votes for this yet.

The new compromise, on the other hand, doesnt include any of the 1920s-style cuts to legal immigration that hawks in the White Houseincluding the presidenthad been pursuing in their own proposal. It narrows the arbitrary punching of immigrant families to a smaller pool.

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A size much too narrow for the White House, of course. On a press call Wednesday, a senior administration official, according to Talking Points Memo, said early reports of the moderates plan suggested it was worse than current law and not serious and not designed actually to become law.

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The White House has staked out the position that its proposal, as codified into legislation by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, is the only bill that it will accept. This is the bill that restricts family reunification not just for Dreamers, but throughout the legal immigration system. As that senior administration official said, our proposal is the way to go. Other proposals that leave chain migration in place would just produce catastrophic surges of illegal immigration.

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In a statement Wednesday morning, President Trump made clear that this hard line was not just a certain senior administration official freelancing, either. The Grassley bill accomplishes the four pillars of the White House Framework: a lasting solution on DACA, ending chain migration, cancelling the visa lottery, and securing the border through building the wall and closing legal loopholes, the statement read. I am asking all senators, in both parties, to support the Grassley bill and to oppose any legislation that fails to fulfill these four pillars. The moderates proposal touches about two and a half of the four pillars. The president, for now, is against it.

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The more worrisome factor in the short term is that Republican leaders in the Senate, who are managing the grand debate, appear to be on the same page as the president, and are trying to funnel the process towards a conclusion where Grassleys proposal is the take-it-or-leave-it option. The sequencing of the votes, whenever they begin, is a key concern of the moderates.

Im sure Grassley, as the chairman [of the committee of jurisdiction], will want his bill last, Flake told me. The one thats positioned last is in the best position. Since the Grassley bill likely wouldnt get enough Democratic support to reach 60 votes, getting it out of the way early is key to passing a compromise eventually. Having voted on that, having taken that vote, Flake added, its easier [for Republicans] to vote then for a compromise bill.

Durbin agreed that Republican leaders would likely save the Grassley bill for last, although he said Chuck was at work negotiating the sequencing. He didnt think it would matter that much.

I think the writings on the wall on the Grassley proposal, he said.The Senate rejected four immigration bills in quick succession on Thursday afternoon, including a bipartisan compromise, and a more conservative plan proposed by President Trump. The four procedural votes were the culmination of what was supposed to have been a freewheeling, week-long debate in the Senate over the fate of Dreamers and a beefed-up plan for border security. But that debate devolved quickly into partisan bickering, and its unclear what the path forward is now, or if there is one.

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The first bill, a narrow, bipartisan proposal to provide legal status for Dreamers and authorize certain border security measures, was co-sponsored by Delaware Sen. Chris Coons and Arizona Sen. John McCain. It failed 52 to 47. All measures needed 60 votes to advance.

The second, a red-meat and somewhat tangential proposal from Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey to cut off funding for sanctuary cities, failed 5445. Democrats up for re-election hadnt been looking forward to this vote, and several voted for it.

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The third, a bipartisan bill put forward by the common sense coalition, was fiercely opposed by the Trump administration, which deployed every weapon in its arsenal to prevent it from reaching 60 votes. The bill, which would have offered a path to citizenship for Dreamers, authorized $25 billion in border security, and prevented Dreamers from sponsoring their parents, failed 5445. Once it was clear that not enough Republicans would support it, both New Mexico Democrats, Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall, voted against it, as did California Sen. Kamala Harris.

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But the failure of that compromise didnt help the White House with its own preferred bill. That one, sponsored by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, also would have offered a path to citizenship and authorized billions in wall spending. But it would have eliminated the diversity lottery and made sharp cuts to legal immigration, too, making it a nonstarter for most Democrats. The White House bill did the worst of the four, with just 39 votes in favor and 60 opposed.

The Senate goes on recess next week.

If youre looking for someone to blame, the guy who ended Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and then did everything in his power to block the bill with the best chance of fixing the problem is a good place both to start and finish.On Tuesday, writing in Politico magazine, Eric Posner, a University of Chicago law professor, and Glen Weyl, a researcher at Microsoft, reimagined the U.S. immigration system. Instead of corporations and families sponsoring immigrant visas like in todays system, they proposed that individual citizens could sponsor migrant workers who would work for them and be paid below-market wages in return for the sponsorship.

This might sound to you like indentured servitude. The authors would prefer you think of it as a support system for impoverished foreigners and working-class natives.

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Take Sofia, an imaginary Paraguayan immigrant who, according to Posner and Weyl, grew up in a village and endured hardships that few Americans can imagine. Eager to make money in the United States, she moves to West Virginia to work for Mary, a laid-off chicken factory worker, who is also imaginary and is starting a dog-walking business. Mary would offer a room in her basement, meals and $5 an hour.

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While thats a garbage deal for Sofia, whats worse is this cheap labor scheme already exists in a limited form in the United States today. Its called the au pair program, a temporary work program under the J-1 visa, which was created to promote cultural exchange.

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Au pairs are (mostly) young women who spend a year or two in the United States living with host families and doing 45 hours of child care a week in return for room, board, and $4.35 an hour. The State Department is supposed to run the program, but in reality provides very limited oversight and outsources the programs day-to-day management to private companies that charge both the au pairs and host families thousands of dollars to participate.

Posner and Weyl appear to have taken inspiration for their visa from this arrangement. While the program might seem crazy at first, they write, it is not that different from the au pair program.

Like in the au pair program, there would be virtually no government oversight. They propose drastically reducing the role of government bureaucrats in immigration. Under their program, the government would merely run security checks on migrants.

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What about the clear potential for abuse without government watchdogs?

Citing an expose I wrote about au pairs last spring, also for Politico, they suggest their program would be fine because the au pair program suffers from only occasional exploitation.

In reality, many au pairs face regular abuse including sexual and physical assault, food deprivation, extra work, withheld wages, and even robbery by their sponsors, along with threats of arrest or deportation as retaliation for complaining about poor conditions.

These issues arent just occasional. In Politico, I published data from then-unreleased State Department memos showing that the government had been concealing the existence of thousands of complaints about the program from the public.

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Overlooking the data, Posner and Weyl have faith migrant workers wouldnt be abused. It is hard to demonize the person who lives in your basement, they write.

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In reality, many au pairs face regular abuse including sexual and physical assault.

Actually, its pretty easy.

One au pair told me she was locked in the basement as a punishment. The lady locked me in the basement, cut down on my phone, internet and tried to steal my passport just because I complained, she said. I thought I was gonna die. She also said she was only fed a yogurt, an apple, and a bottle of water a day.

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For a migrant worker not locked in the basement, Posner and Weyl believe she would be free to leave at any time if she did not like the conditions of her employment. They say the agency that runs the [recruitment] website will find a new match for her. (This is how it works in the au pair program, too.)

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But technically having the right to walk away doesnt mean someone is actually able to do so. Since the visa is tied to employment (and since the migrant worker potentially owes debts to a recruiter), leaving can become hard.

For au pairs, one of the most feared parts of the program is rematchwhere the au pair has to find a new family through their agencys website after being kicked out or having left. If you cant find anyone, or if the company just doesnt like you (and doesnt offer any new families as options), you could easily find yourself being deported by the company. This causes au pairs to stay with dangerous families rather than risk leaving, or to enter into new dangerous situations in order to avoid being deported or becoming an undocumented immigrant.

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When an au pair is in rematch, she has a strong desire to stay in your country in a legal manner, another au pair told me, saying that made her judgment totally clouded.

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Beyond the abuse, Posner and Weyl dont seem to understand the labor laws and basic legal structure that govern the au pair program.

All health and safety laws would apply to [the migrant workers], they write. One of those laws is the Fair Labor Standards Act. That law entitles workers to a $7.25 minimum wage, including state minimum wage if it is higher. It also limits wage deductions below minimum wage for things like housing when the situation primarily benefits the employer (like when the employee lives in their basement and works in their house or for their home business).

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Paying $5 an hour is illegal, and exempting noncitizens from the minimum wage is not applying all health and safety laws in good faith.

What about the $4.35 an hour wage for au pairs? Au pair companies attempt to get around the Fair Labor Standards Act by citing the programs classification as a cultural exchange. This is a con: Companies market the program differently to host families and to au pairs, a 2014 State Department analysis acknowledged. For au pairs, the program is often advertised as an easy way to live with an American family, learn about American culture, take classes and earn some money. For host families, its an affordable, reliable and flexible way to obtain quality child care.

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The au pair companies deceptive strategy is faltering, though, and they are facing a massive class-action lawsuit, certified last week, for wage theft and antitrust violations.

But Posner and Weyl, who correctly identify au pairing as a nanny migrant-labor program used by upper-middle class American families, dont even have the cultural exchange as a smokescreen element in their proposal. Legally, it just doesnt work.

There is room to debate whether the au pair program should be reformed rather than eliminated, given that without the program foreign domestic labor would slide entirely into the shadows and be ripe for the same, or worse, exploitation. But the model should not be expanded to other industries.

Its hard to look at the au pair program and not recognize theres a dire need for reform. But Posner and Weyl share that blind spot with Congress.

When you recognize the inequality of only the rich having access to indentured servants, the appropriate reaction is to support ending that practice, not expanding that access to everyone.Update February 14, 8:20 PM: In addition to at least 17 people killed, law enforcement officials said that at least 15 people had been sent to the hospital with injuries in Wednesdays shooting at a Florida high school.

Further details emerged of how the shooting occurred on Wednesday evening. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson told CNN that he had been briefed by law enforcement officials who described what seemed to be a well-planned assault.

The shooter wore a gas mask and he had smoke grenades, Nelson said. He went and he set off the fire alarm so that the kids would come pouring out of the classroom[s] into the hall. And there the carnage began.

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Update February 14, 6:30 PM: At least 17 people have been killed in Wednesdays shooting at a Parkland Florida high school, according to law enforcement officials.

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The suspected shooter is a 19-year-old former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School named Nikolas Cruz, who is now in custody. The death toll makes this the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history. (The AP and the New York Times initially identified the gunmans first name as spelled Nicolas, while other outlets including the Washington Post identified the spelling as Nikolas.) It supplants the 1999 Columbine massacre, in which 13 peopleincluding 12 studentswere murdered and two perpetrators took their own lives.

At this point we believe he had one AR-15 rifle, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters of the alleged shooter.

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Update February 14, 4:35 PM: Several outlets have picked up videos and social media posts that have been shared by people who were in the building during the shooting. The following video contains gunshots.

VIDEO: Students scream as gunman fires several gunshots pic.twitter.com/VUYMBodU9m  News This Second (@NewsThisSecond) February 14, 2018

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President Trump has tweeted condolences for the victims and their families.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018

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White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that Wednesdays press briefing would be cancelled in light of the shooting.

Update February 14, 4:25 PM: The Broward County Sheriffs Office has tweeted that the shooter is in custody and that theyve counted 14 victims so far.

So far we have at least 14 victims. Victims have been and continue to be transported to Broward Health Medical Center and Broward Health North hospital. #StonemanShooting  Broward Sheriff (@browardsheriff) February 14, 2018

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Shooter is now in custody. Scene is still active. #stonemanshooting  Broward Sheriff (@browardsheriff) February 14, 2018

Initial post: At least one person is reported dead and 20 more have reportedly been injured in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. From 7 News Miami:

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Margate Fire Rescue has deemed this a mass causality incident, which means at least 20 people have been injured. []As 7 Skyforce arrived on the scene, one person was seen being wheeled into a Coral Springs Fire Rescue ambulance, but he was on his phone. However, soon after, at least four other people were spotted surrounded by fire rescuers, at the corner of an intersection at the north part of the school

Video has been posted on social media of students fleeing the scene.

Students at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida flee amid reports of a shooting at the school. https://t.co/O0pXTKDQ3y pic.twitter.com/s53xK8mcBp  ABC News (@ABC) February 14, 2018

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A mother of the students told NBC News that her daughter called her from inside the school and told her that she was barricaded inside with around 20 other teachers and students.

JUST IN: Mother of one of the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School tells NBC News' @TammyLeitnerNBC that students are still trapped inside the school. pic.twitter.com/bEjZFRoNTa  MSNBC (@MSNBC) February 14, 2018In the aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday, details continue to emerge about the tragedy. Heres what we know so far:

 At least 17 people were killed, and 15 others sent to the hospital, according to law enforcement officials. This is the second-deadliest school shooting in American history, with more fatalities than the 1999 Columbine massacre in which the two assailants murdered 13 people and then took their own lives. (The 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in which the shooter killed 26 children and staff, remains the deadliest.)

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 The suspected shooter is a 19-year-old former student named Nikolas Cruz. Police arrested him near the campus without incident on Wednesday and sent him to a hospital due to breathing issues.

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 Cruz allegedly had an extensive plan for the assault. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson informed CNN, The shooter wore a gas mask and he had smoke grenades, Nelson said. He went and he set off the fire alarm so that the kids would come pouring out of the classroom[s] into the hall. And there the carnage began.

 The suspect used an AR-15 rifle, the same gun used for the mass shootings in Newtown in 2012, Aurora in 2012, and San Bernardino in 2015. Investigators report that the gun was purchased legally.

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 Students posted graphic images and video footage from the scene of the shooting on social media.

 Former classmates of the alleged shooter described him as morbid and troubled. Authorities said Cruz was expelled for disciplinary reasons. A now-deleted Instagram account purportedly belonging to Cruz featured images of knives, guns, and anti-Islamic content.

 Nikolas Cruz and his half-brother, who were adopted, had been living with their mother, Lynda Cruz, until her death in November, the Washington Post reports. Their adoptive father, Roger Cruz, had also died years ago. Lynda reportedly struggled with Nikolass behavioral problems and called the police to their home several times.

 The suspect had been living with his friends family after his mother passed away. The familys lawyer, Jim Lewis, told CNN that Cruz usually attended adult education courses during the week to earn a GED, but that he refused to go on Wednesday, saying something like, Its Valentines Day. I dont go to school on Valentines Day.

 The lawyer further indicated that the family thought Cruzs mood was improving and saw no signs he would be capable of a mass shooting. They let him keep his gun in their lockbox.

On Thursday, Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder after state and federal authorities interrogated him for hours. Authorities transferred him from a hospital to the Broward County Jail in the morning, where he is being held without bond.

This post will be updated throughout the day.White House staff secretary and alleged domestic abuser Rob Porter was not the only White House official to handle classified secrets for months on end without permanent security clearance.

NBC News reported on Wednesday that as of November, 130 political appointees working on President Donald Trumps staff had not yet been permanently clearedamong them White House counsel Don McGahn.

The White House Counsels office typically plays a key role in adjudicating security clearances and managing top government secrets. So McGahn would have potentially been charged with determining who gets to see classified informationwithout having been fully cleared himself.

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According to NBC News, McGahn obtained a top secret security clearancebut not the higher-level Sensitive Compartmented Information clearance. That higher-level clearance would have been required to handle the kinds of information typically seen in a White House Counsels Office, says Andrew McCanse Wright, a former associate counsel in President Obamas White House Counsels Office.

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A whole lot of the information that goes through the White House is at the SCI level because it involves things like sources and methods of gathering intelligence, McCanse Wright told me. If youre talking about Don McGahn reviewing signals intelligence related to the Russia investigation, I would assume any of that stuff is going to be above top secret clearance. When you get into those other categories, were talking about the most precious secrets we have.

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The FBI investigates high-ranking officials before clearing them to handle government secrets, in part to weed out people vulnerable to blackmail, for instance over a history of domestic violence.

Its not known for certain why McGahn and more than 130 othersincluding Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, social media director Dan Scavino, and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sandershad not been able to obtain security clearance 10 months into Trumps administration. Its conceivable that there was a backlog of investigations at the FBI, or processing issues in the White House security personnel office. It would have had to have been quite a backlog, though!

The White House has given multiple accounts of why Porter was allowed to stay on the job despite his inability to gain security clearance. At first, officials said the investigation of Porter was still in progress. FBI Director Christopher Wray refuted that account under oath earlier this week, saying that the bureau had closed its file on Porter in January. The administration subsequently claimed the White House personnel security office had yet to make a final recommendation on Porters clearance.

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Former White House officials say the personnel office plays a merely logistical role in the clearance process, passing along information from the FBI to the White House counsel and the chief of staff for a final call. The White House has refused to say what McGahn and chief of staff John Kelly knew, and when they knew it, about the Porter investigation.

On Tuesday, another senior White House official resigned because he was unable to receive a permanent security clearance. Last week, meanwhile, a speechwriterwho reportedly did not need security clearanceresigned over domestic abuse allegations.

Through it all, the clearance process is potentially being overseen by a man who himself hadnt been permanently cleared as of a few months ago. Im in shock that the White House counsel himself [apparently] does not have a final clearance, McCanse Wright said. Thats crazy.Many American pundits have bought into the idea that Vladimir Putin is a grand master of international politics and that the Russians are better than we are at eking strategic triumphs from tangled quagmires. Syria now stands as the smoldering rebuttal to this shrewdly woven myth.

The myth long predates Putins rise. In 1979, as a congressional aide, I attended a classified briefing by the Defense Intelligence Agency on the Soviet Unions then-recent invasion of Afghanistan. Toward the end of the meeting, a fellow aide for a liberal Democrat asked if the Russians might get bogged down in this war, just as we did in Vietnam. The DIA briefer smirked; the other, mainly hawkish, congressional aides laughed out loud. The aide no doubt snickered a little himself nine years later, when the Soviets rolled out of the graveyard of empires and saw their own empire crumble soon after.

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In Syria, the Russians are making a better show of things than we are. In part thats because were pursuing lots of interests (with varying degrees of enthusiasm), many of them mutually exclusive, while the Russians are focused on just one. We want to crush ISIS, help the Kurds, placate Turkey, contain Iran, keep Iraq from falling apart, and reach a political settlement that eases President Bashar al-Assad out of power. These are all worthy goals, but its impossible to achieve any one or two of them without torpedoing the others.

Russias goal is to maintain its long-standing foothold in Syria, including its naval port and air baseMoscows only military facilities outside the area of the former Soviet Union. So a threat to Assads regime could endanger Putins dream of restoring Russia as a global poweror, to put it another way, expose that dream as a fantasy.

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Putin has run up against the same limits that the United States is facing.

And so, when the regime began to crack under rebel pressure in 2015, Putin sent more planes, missiles, advisers, and troops, saving Assad from a catastrophic fall. But that feat and that augmented military presence havent boosted Russian power in the Middle East. Rather, as a recent Rand Corp. study concluded, its left Russia trapped in Syria.

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Putin has run up against the same limits that the United States is facing. There are many wars going on in Syria. Allies in one war are deadly foes in another. All the wars overlap politically and, to an increasingly alarming degree, geographically. Therefore, as long as the wars intensify and theres no clear road for diplomacy, any one country can amass only so much powerand is likely to lose much of that as the fighting gets thicker.

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Last fall, it seemed as if Putin was indeed gaining an upper hand in Syria. His pummeling of rebel groups had helped secure Assads hold on power, so much so that Putin announced his own troops would soon be going home. In November, he organized an international conference in Sochi, Russia, to discuss Syrias future. Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, wrote in Foreign Affairs, Through military intervention and diplomatic maneuvering, Russian President Vladimir Putin has made his country into one of the major players in the Syrian conflict.

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But Putins stab at playing peacemaker proved pointless: Iran and Turkey were the only foreign powers to attend the summit in Sochi, and any formula set just by them would be ignored, if not defied, by the wars other combatants and donors.

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Then the quicksand thickened. On New Years Eve, a rebel militia shelled Russias air base in Syria, destroying at least seven planes, blowing up an ammunition dump, and injuring more than 10 military personnel. Early this month, another rebel alliance shot down a Russian fighter jet. Last week, U.S. air and artillery forces killed more than 200 Russian contract soldiers as they tried to recapture a base held by American and Kurdish troops in an oil-rich area of eastern Syria.

The Russian Defence Ministry disavowed any involvement in the raid, claiming that only 25 Syrian soldiers were injured and that if Russian citizens were among the fighters, they were on their own. But a U.S. military statement described the pro-Assad force as a battalion-sized formation supported by artillery, tanks, multiple-launch rocket systems, and mortars. (Just on Thursday, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman acknowledged that five of those killed were presumably Russian citizens but added, I want to stress again that we are not talking about Russian servicemen.)

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The death toll far exceeded Russias casualties in Syria so far. By comparison, 40 died in all of 2017small numbers compared with the 5,000 or so civilians that its airstrikes have killed. Even so, the toll set off alarm bells in Moscow. Putin may have shielded himself from accountability in many spheres of Russian life, but sensitivities run high when it comes to body bags returning from dubious wars in distant lands. Hence the Kremlins refusal to acknowledge Russian casualties in Syria and the near silence in state-owned media about any Russian fighting there since the announcement of an imminent withdrawal (which, of course, has not occurred).

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Putin, or at least his general staff, must also know that the Russian military has never been skilled at sustaining operations at great distances. Logistics were a problem even in neighboring Afghanistan, as they are in the eastern sliver of Ukraine that its troopsalso unacknowledgedoccupy today. Many analysts were amazed that Russia managed even to mobilize the number of advanced fighters, drones, artillery rockets, and tanks that have been sent to the much farther battlefield of Syria.

So, yes, as the Foreign Affairs analyst noted, Russia has emerged as one of the major players in the Syrian conflict. But thats not entirely good news. Its more akin to the Chinese curse, May you live in interesting times.A group of centrist senators has struck an immigration deal, and the Trump administration wants desperately to kill it.

The administrations first missive against the moderates deal, which would devote $25 billion towards border security (including a wall), create a path to citizenship for Dreamers, and bar Dreamers from sponsoring their parents, came on Thursday morning in a Department of Homeland Security press release thats Breitbart-level in its hysteria.

The bill would be the end of immigration enforcement in America and only serve to draw millions more illegal aliens with no way to remove them, according to this actual statement from the executive branch. It adds that the bill would effectively make the United States a Sanctuary Nation where ignoring the rule of law is encouraged.

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The root of the mania is a provision at the end of the bill directing the secretary of Homeland Security to prioritize immigration enforcement against certain categories of undocumented immigrants. They include criminals, those who pose a threat to national security or public safety, and those who are unlawfully present in the United States; and arrived in the United States after June 30, 2018. In the text, that date is written by hand in the margin, while an original date, Jan. 1, 2018, is crossed out.

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For DHS, this change was the cue to get crazy.

The bill eviscerates the authority of DHS to arrest, detain, and remove the vast majority of aliens illegally in the country by attempting to limit DHS enforcement by codifying a priorities scheme, the statement reads, that ensures that DHS can only remove criminal aliens, national security threats and those who arrive AFTER June 30, 2018 creating a massive surge at the border for the next four months. The enforcement holiday as DHS calls it, will show to the world we are not serious about enforcing our immigration laws as those who arrive here can just stay here consequence free, at a minimum until the next amnesty.

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Ugh. The language says straightforwardly that these categories should be the first priority, not the only priority, as Maine Sen. Susan Collins told reporters in a press conference Thursday. It is odd that DHS is complaining about language instructing it to prioritize enforcement of criminals first; it shouldnt really need to be told that. And if conservatives are concerned about stopping further illegal immigration, they should be pleased with language that also instructs it to prioritize deportation of those who come from now on. Collins did say, though, that because of the outrage, they would revert the date back to Jan. 1. That will kill the holiday talking point, and we can all be sure that good-faith immigration cranks everywhere will stop using it.

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South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was livid over the DHS statement, noted during the press conference that it was penned by a former aide to retired Rep. Tom Tancredo, Congress go-to immigration restrictionist of the previous decade.

Speaking of restrictionists, the White House released its own statement opposing the deal later. The White House statement, which threatened a veto, said that the bill would undercut existing immigration law.

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Specifically, it reads, preventing enforcement with respect to people who entered our country illegally before a date that is in the future would produce a flood of new illegal immigration in the coming months.

Well, specifically, thats been changed now. But dont expect the White House to change its position. Conservatives want to prevent this bill from reaching 60 votes, so that when its preferred bill, authored by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, comes up last in the flurry of votes, they can try to pressure enough Democrats into accepting it as the last hope for a Dreamer resolution. If thats the case, Democrats would, and should, accept nothing. Republican senators behind the compromise legislation hope that the administrations scare tactics are just a negotiating ploy, and that if the compromise gets 60 votes and passes the Senate, the White House might change its posture. Maybe? Or maybe the White House just doesnt want a deal, and Democrats should make the president own the mess hes created.If you believe the most breathless technology prophets, blockchainbest known for its role in the cryptocurrency boom, though its far more complicated than thatis primed to disrupt almost everything around us. Late last year, Slates Aaron Mak rounded 57 industries and enterprises it was supposedly set to revolutionize, from time capsules to e-books. Silly as many of those proposals seem, there may be something to a few of them, but all that enthusiasm still seems a little overeager at this point

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In the meantime, though, it may be easier to talk about what the technology is already changing for the worse. Todays Radical Disruption contender? The search for extraterrestrial life.

The problem, as Motherboard reports, begins with the way that UC Berkeleys SETI project studies possible signals from other worlds. Ordinarily, researchers would employ powerful graphics processing unitsthe sort that were developed for video gaming rigsto analyze all the data at their disposal. This alternative redeployment of the hardware isnt exactly new: GPUs have been employed for a host of other purposes, including artificial intelligence research, thanks to their number crunching capabilities. The trouble is that there arent enough high-end units to go aroundand cryptocurrency miners are largely to blame.

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Gamers have been aware of the problem for some time, partly because the price of many GPUs has spiked in tandem with the growing popularity of cryptocurrency, with retailers and resellers marketing hardware bundles at well above the normal market rate. As Ars Technica has explained, many miners have designed custom-built alternative solutions to optimize their quests for Bitcoin and other popular currencies. Ethereum, however, has a memory-hungry mining algorithm that still benefits from commercial graphics cards. As a result, its proving difficult for others to get their hands on such hardware.

Graphic card manufacturers are, it seems, aware of the shortage. Nvidia, which has seen its stock dip when cryptocurrency values have fallen, insists that it remains focused on gamers, though it has also been rumored to be considering cryptocurrency-focused hardware. It would be a savvy move, since it would shield the company against the eventual end of our current cryptocurrency vogue. If it follows immediate trends too aggressively, Nvidia risks driving away its core customers, who may not be willing to pay inflated prices to optimize their computers for the latest Call of Duty. Creating a separate product that more directly meets the crypto-communitys needs could prove an acceptable alternative. In the process, it might also help get GPUs back into the hands of the people who really need them: scientists looking for aliens.

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I have, in the past, argued that we would be better off hiding from aliens than looking for them. If thats true (and Im still not sure if I was serious, to be honest), SETI still seems like a worthy project, if only because its investigation of distant stars should, in theory, still give us plenty of time to go dark before the baddies show up. On the other hand, maybe we shouldnt bother: Given that the massive energy consumption of cryptocurrency mining threatens to further devastate the environment, maybe planetary annihilation by alien death ray is the best we can hope for.The Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in internet rights around the world. It originally appears each week on Global Voices Advocacy. Afef Abrougui, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Rezwan Islam, Karolle Rabarison, Elizabeth Rivera, Taisa Sganzerla, and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

In the wake of public panic surrounding a spike in threats of violence and hate speech online, the European Commission has been preparing new recommendations on how member states should address illegal online content.

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Although they have not been officially submitted, a leaked draft of the recommendations has begun to circulate and is now accessible on the website of the coalition group European Digital Rights. The draft reveals that the commission does not propose new regulations, but rather envisions private companies like Facebook and Google taking greater responsibility for these issues voluntarily.

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In a brief analysis of the recommendations, EDRis Joe McNamee writes:

On the basis of no new analyses, no new data and no new pressing issues to be addressed, the leaked draft Recommendation seeks to fully privatise the task of deciding what is acceptable online or not. The only protection for user rights like freedom of expression is an unenforceable hope that certain adequate safeguards will be put in place voluntarily by the companies. The draft reminds readerstwicethat the providers have contractual freedom, meaning that any such safeguards will be purely optional.

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The only specific types of online content referenced in the draft are terrorist material (no definition offered) and content under copyright. McNamee argues that the repeated references to measures proposed to address copyright and intellectual property rights infringements gives an indication of the real driving force behind for such far-reaching measures.

Bangladesh orders internet shutdown, then backs down

On Feb. 11, the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission ordered internet service providers to shut down the internet over a few set time periods during the month of February that correspond with national university placement exams. The impetus for the temporary shutdowns was to stifle the circulation of leaked answers to the exams. The order was swiftly reversed following broad public criticism.

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Malawi suspends mandatory SIM card registration until further notice

The Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority announced in June 2017 that it would become mandatory for mobile phone users to register their SIM cards with network operators. In late January, authorities doubled down on this promise and set a deadline for SIM registration, threatening that any phone with an unregistered card would have its service shut off on April 1, 2018.

But this week, the measure was suspended, with authorities citing the need for a civic education campaign on the matter before resuming registration practices. Azania Post reports that some citizens have shown reluctance to register their SIM cards for fear that the program is a ploy by government to tap peoples phones.

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Research shows that European telecommunications companies behave better at home than in Africa

A new study by the French NGO Internet San Frontieres shows that major European telecommunications providers offering services in sub-Saharan Africa do not offer the same levels of transparency and consumer protection to African customers as they do to their European markets. The study compares the practices and policies of Orange in Senegal and Safaricom (owned by Vodafone) in Kenya.

Brazils largest newspaper ditches Facebook

Folha de Sao Paulo announced that it will no longer post news articles or updates on its Facebook page, which has nearly 6 million followers. In an editorial-like article, the company said the decision stems primarily from Facebooks recent decision to reduce the amount of newsfeed content from Facebook pages, instead favoring posts by friends and family. Folhas executive editor accused Facebook of banning professional journalism from its pages in favour of personal content and opening space for fake news to proliferate.

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Facebook is violating German consumer laws

A Berlin court ruling (made in January but released to the public in mid-February) found that Facebooks default settings for privacy and corresponding policies do not meet the basic standards for personal data protection required by German consumer protection laws. The ruling is the result of a lawsuit filed by the federation of German consumer organizations, VZBV. The company has pledged to overhaul its privacy approach in tandem with the release of the EU General Data Protection Regulation.

New Research

Approaching Access: A Look at Consumer Personal Data Requests in CanadaCitizen LabTook to social media is an oft-reviled phrase frequently seen in the context of celebrity spats, rants, and otherwise frivolous behavior: So-and-so Real Housewife took to social media. But on Tuesday, teenagers at a Florida high school took to social media when they had nowhere else to turn, to send tweets and pictures from inside their classrooms as they hid from an active shooter. At least 17 people died in the shooting, according to the last available figures.

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These students grim posts provide an intimate peek at horror that no one envisioned back when social media first came along. Images of terror and despair, like the shaky footage of students crouched under their desks as the sound of bullets and screams ring out, surface on our phones now, transmitted directly from the victims own. Social media often invites the question of who asked for this? On Tuesday, the debates about who cares about what I ate for breakfast? seemed pretty far away as we were confronted with pictures taken from the cellphone of a student squatting inside a locked classroom, worried for his life and the lives of those around him. Were not used to seeing Snapchats quirky trademarksvertical aspect ratio, transparent black bar for text caption, emojisapplied to scenes of fear and destruction.

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Video offers a particularly visceral record of the violence, but text-based tweets depict no less upsetting a scene: Along with the photos of a classroom, a Twitter user named Aiden wrote, My school is being shot up and I am locked inside. Im fucking scared right now. Another Twitter user, one named Heather, posted, I JUST WANT TO KNOW IF EVERYONE IS SAFE CAUSE IM SHAKING THERE WAS LIKE PEOPLE IVE SEEN BEFORE JUST DEAD IN THE HALLS I CANT CALM DOWN AT ALL THIS WAS THE MOST TERRYFYING THIS IVE EVER SEEN. Never before has caps lock been quite so inadequate at conveying emotion and emphasis.

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My school is being shot up and I am locked inside. Im fucking scared right now. pic.twitter.com/mjiEmPvGNb  Aidan (@TheCaptainAidan) February 14, 2018

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These videos, pictures, and text updates are horrible in all the ways weve come to expect of the details that emerge from mass shootings, tragedies that dont become any less tragic even though theyve morphed into something like an everyday occurrence in this country. But theyre also horrible in a way that feels new. Despite the ubiquity of the internet and social media and the many ways theyve long since transformed and reshaped daily life, many of us still think of this constant stream of our life experiences as novelties, activities for goofing off or wasting time. What happens on social media has always had the quality of not seeming quite like real life. Its even palpable in that phrase, took to Twitter, which implies that if something really mattered, it would be worth a better platform, a more august mode of communicating.

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My little brother just sent me this video of the swat team evacuating his classroom at stoneman douglas. So scary but glad he's safe. @nbc6 @CBSMiami @NBCNews @wsvn @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/XNTtra221q  Melody (@Melody_Ball) February 14, 2018

Students shouldnt have to tweet through shootings or post snaps while worrying that theyre the last messages theyll ever send. That they now doand that social media posts from inside active shooting zone will likely soon become another routine element of a situation that should never have been routineshould fill us with as much horror as the images themselves. This is not the fault of kids who have grown up tweeting, snapping, and posting their every thought and feeling. Whats really disturbing is that these shootings keep happening and that even being inside the classroom with these kids, via their first-person, real-time accounts, seems unlikely to change a thing. It wont spur politicians to action or make Second Amendment advocates reconsider their positions. As the oft-repeated phrase goes, if the deaths of 20 first graders didnt, why should this? Weve now seen inside the classrooms and heard the screams of children who deserve to go to school every day without fearing for their lives. If we wont do anything to protect them, at least well have to watch.While its certainly not embarrassing or uncommon to use a dating app, plenty of people dont want to broadcast it. For Tinder users, though, thats happening anyway, and it has been for a long time. Despite the fact that the company has known about its apps security vulnerabilities for almost a year now, Tinder hasnt yet made the necessary patches to its network to keep its users personal information safe.

So on Wednesday, Valentines Day, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden wrote a lovely note to Greg Blatt, the CEO of Tinder, asking that his company get its act together. The problem, according to recent research, is that Tinders app doesnt use HTTPS, which is a secure way of sending information online (though its website does). Wyden would like to see this fixed ASAP.

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Checkmarx, one of the security companies that pointed out Tinders vulnerabilities, reportedly notified the dating app company in November that photos on the app are sent through an unencrypted connection. That means that anyone monitoring the network can pull information, like the users gender and sexual preferences. In other words, if someone knows how to monitor Wi-Fi traffic at a cafe or in at an airport, the type of information youd prefer a random passerby not know could be traveling in plain sight. Business Insider first reported on Tinders security flaws with how the app stores photos in March 2017. And in October, Gizmodo reported that the app is also vulnerable to location tracking.

Wyden has made a habit of sending angry letters on behalf of Americans digital privacy to corporations and government agencies. In October 2017, he sent a letter to the countrys top voting machine manufacturers to ask what theyre doing to harden security in advance of upcoming elections. And in August 2017, he requested the Department of Justice provide more details about the agencys policy on using stingrays, which is a device that pretends to be a cell tower and can intercept mobile phone data.

Tinder told Wired in January that the company is working towards encrypting images on the app, but Wyden is asking for results in addressing its security holes, and he put it in a way Tinder might understand, suggesting the company swipe right on user privacy and security.In his Thursday morning speech responding to the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida, President Donald Trump correctly noted that it is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference; we must actually make that difference. This comment came near the end of a speech packed with condolences, platitudes, and vague promises to the 17 people who were killed on Wednesday. Though he acknowledged that reports of gunfire first brought police to the scene, not once did he utter the word guns.

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This isnt just a verbal tic. Though his speech was mind-blowingly blurry in terms of policy, he pointed a finger at one cause for Wednesdays shooting:

Our administration is working closely with local authorities to investigate the shooting and learn everything we can. We are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of mental health.

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These appeals to consider the shooters mental health are an inevitable part of our all too frequent news cycles on gun violence, even though the evidence suggests that people with diagnosed mental illness are more likely to have violence done to them than to perpetrate violence themselves. There is something a bit understandable about the impulse to otherize the shooter when these massacres happen. We want to separate ourselves from the monsters who walk into schools and shoot children, and explaining their behavior with comforting clinical terms that mark them as officially broken offers relief, never mind that it demonizes an entire group of people who do not deserve it. It also offers pro-gun rights politicians an out: What could we have done? they seem to say. He was mentally illas though these shootings are acts of nature, like a devastating tornado.

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Given all of this, I have extremely limited faith in Trumps ability to tackle the difficult issue of mental health.

I dont know whether Nikolas Cruz struggled with mental health problems, and I doubt the president does, either. But say Cruz does. Lets think for just one moment how Donald Trumps America has served him. For one thing, nearly a year ago, Trump reversed a law that would have made it harder for people with mental illness to get guns. The law had been drafted following the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting that killed 20 children and eight adults (including the shooter and his mother). The president did not offer an explanation for his reversal. Then, in the subsequent months, Trump crusaded for several iterations of new health care policy that would have obliterated mental health care access. His namesake bill, which did not pass, had provisions to roll back mandates that required Medicaid to cover mental health care. The Senate bill, which also did not pass, would have allowed private insurers to remove mental health care from the list of essential benefits they are required to pay for. This legislation dovetails with how Trump talks about mental health issueshe relies on platitudes about strength rather than taking it seriously as a medical issue, and he flattens issues of drug addiction into demonstrations of personal failure that he assumes could have been fixed if people had just a little more willpower. Given all of this, I have extremely limited faith in Trumps ability to tackle the difficult issue of mental health.

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I find Trumps comments hard to stomach for another reason, though. The most established association we find in people who commit this kind of violence is not mental illness. It is anger. As the psychologist Laura L. Hayes wrote in Slate in 2016 after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, the ability to regulate anger is an essential skill. When it isnt developed, the result can be catastrophic:

An adult who is able to effectively regulate anger uses it to alert himself to a problem situation. Managed well, it is an extraordinarily effective warning system. Unregulated, impulses are stronger, and thinking is less clear. The poorly regulated adult with enhanced reactivity, impulsivity, and a constant state of fight or flight sees in every interaction the potential for being harmed and the necessity to defend himself. The angrier he feels, the less clearly he will think. His reactions will often be out of proportion to the situation, and he will be prone to violence. Because he sees the world as a constant source of danger, he externalizes blame, to his spouse, children, neighbors, government, and others in race, nationality, religion, or culture. Angry, blaming, aggressive, and unable to modulate his emotions, he can become a danger to others.

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Hayes wrote this before American journalism was spending so much time psychologizing Donald Trump, but as someone who has spent a fair bit of time considering what happens inside the presidents head, this strikes me as quite relevant.

Later, Hayes offers a strategy for the question we all want to know the answer tohow do we identify these people and get them help before they kill. She writes:

There is a profile of the typical mass murderer, albeit not one particularly useful in identifying dangerous individuals. He is male, white, and single, divorced, or separated. He is also isolated, lacking in social support, and bears a grudge toward someone or something. He externalizes blame and sees himself as wronged. It is clear the first part of this profilemale, white, and singleis not the part that would best predict a violent killer. It is the second partlonely and isolated, blaming others for his problems, and most importantly, angrythat depicts a man likely to lose control.

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Again, I have no idea what exactly was happening in the life of Nikolas Cruz, though I am sure we will all learn more over time. And I cannot assess how the behavior modeled by the president of the United States may have influenced him or convinced him that his anger was OK, even righteous. But I do know that our president is an exceptionally angry man who blames others as a matter of course and condones violence in many formsagainst women, against the press, against Americans who show up to his rallies in protest. So its a bit rich that today, he asked children to answer hate with love.Artificial intelligence (AI) has moved from the domain of data scientists and researchers to entrepreneurs and consumers. This has created great opportunities for companies providing or looking to provide AI related services and those consuming it, whether it be other businesses or individuals.

Why jump on the AI bandwagon? By many accounts, the technology is slated to improve global GDP by trillions of dollars. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, AI has the potential to contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy and boost local economies up to 26 percent by 2030. In its report, PwC also classified 300 AI use cases for the technology across virtually all industries.

This optimism is driven by what AI is capable of doing, which is to improve productivity and automate tasks and roles. With new levels of efficiency, companies can introduce more variety, personalization and affordability, which PwC says will drive consumer demand. So how do you get from here to there?

As a Business Consumer

As a business, you have to assume your competition already has some form of AI as part of its operation, and it is up and running. The question is, do you want a turnkey solution or build a custom platform? The choice you make will depend on your need and budget.

Fortunately, the market now has service providers with turnkey solutions designed to integrate with existing applications already used for business functions. Whether it is customer relationship management, digital commerce, operations, productivity or security  you have options.

If you have the team to build on machine-learning-as-a-service (MLaaS) platforms like Microsoft, you can use these services to optimize the data you have within their ecosystem. This approach provides the best of both worlds because it wont cost as much as custom solutions, but you will be able to tailor some functions to address your specific needs. Again, this makes sense if you have the talent in-house or you can afford the cost of building on the MLaaS platform with an outside hire.

Even if you are a small business, your needs may be beyond the scope of turnkey solutions. This will require securing the services of an AI development company. The process is complex, time consuming, and expensive. It will require the AI firm to identify your business challenges, go through the whole of your organization, and examine your technology, workflow and more. It then builds a custom AI solution to optimize your company across the board.

As a Service Provider

Artificial intelligence applications can include cognitive computing, machine and deep learning, predictive APIs, natural language processing, image and speech recognition, and much more. As a service provider, you can opt to add these features to optimize the current crop of services you offer in cloud and data storage for healthcare, finance, manufacturing and other industries.

With the right partnership, you can integrate AI services into your products. Microsoft helps its partners layer in sophisticated AI capabilities by guiding them with resources for developing AI strategies, acquiring new skills and marketing the new services.

Providing AI enabled solutions is a must for service providers now and in the future. International Data Corporation (IDC) says 75 percent of developer teams will include cognitive and AI functionality in one or more applications in 2018. And it predicts 40 percent of all digital transformation initiatives and 100 percent of all effective IoT efforts will be supported by cognitive/AI capabilities.

Choosing the Right Company

Whichever option you select, it is important to clearly identify the problems you want AI to resolve. The number of vendors is growing for all segments, so due diligence is key to ensure you get the right fit.

When a new technology gets as much hype as AI, it can get very difficult to know what is real as vendors embellish the services they can provide. For this reason, Gartner recommends asking the following questions when vetting vendors:

What AI method is being proposing for the solution? How robust or brittle will the implementation be in terms of the resources needed to deploy and manage it? How much training data is needed to prime the solution, and how often will it need to be retrained?

Another point to remember is that just because a company claims its solution is AI doesnt mean it is. Gartner says the company might be using classic machine learning (ML) solutions instead of newer technologies such as deep learning.

Writing on the Y Combinator blog, entrepreneur Ivan Novikov recommends five other questions small business owners should ask potential vendors.

Can the company give you a stand-alone demo? Can you use your own data? What are their data sources and sizes? What are the details of their algorithm? Do they have reference customers you could interview?

Gartner points out the process should be thorough because introducing an AI solution as part of your organization will introduce certain risks, complexities and costs.

But if properly implemented, small businesses can reap tremendous rewards from use of AI to gain a competitive advantage in a rapidly changing market. For more on providing cloud solutions including AI, contact Meylah.Robert Gilpin, R.I.P. - The Washington Post : His greatest book was written in 1981, but the main theory in it is perhaps more trenchant now...Nova Cvernovka begins full operation in former school

The creative community not only successfully moved to a new place but advanced to a new, higher level

The biggest event for the public this year will again be the 1 May  Day of Opened Studios festival. (Source: Jana Liptakova)

Fellowship and good energy. These are feelings visitors can physically feel when visiting the new Nova Cvernovka culture centre 15 minutes by tram from Bratislavas centre. The creative community of architects, designers, painters, photographers, IT experts and other so-called creatives not only successfully moved to a new place but advanced to a new, higher level. Unlike the original Cvernovka near the Mlynske Nivy bus station, the new cultural and creative venue in the former chemical school on Racianska Street offers a rich year-round programme for the public.

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Our ambition is to create a cultural venue for various genres with quality production, said Viliam Csino, who is responsible for cultural events in Nova Cvernovka, while a film director by occupation. All these expectations should be fulfilled this year. This means that people can come and enjoy concerts, performances, exhibitions, discussions and lectures as well as meet interesting people and get inspired.

How it started

When the previous home of the creative community, the former thread factory known as Cvernovka, changed owners, the creatives had to pack and look for a new place. They found it in the former secondary chemistry school on Racianska street in the Nove Mesto borough of Bratislava. Its owner, the Bratislava Self-governing Region (BSK), rented it out to them for 25 years.

Nova Cvernovka Located in the former secondary chemical school on Racianska Street 78, about 15 min. from the city centre by tram (numbers 3, 5,7, Namestie Biely Kriz stop) or bus (numbers 59, 75, N55, ZST Vinohrady stop), www.novacvernovka.eu

Run by the Cvernovka Foundation, www.nadaciacvernovka.sk

There are more than 40 studios-

The multifunctional space with a cafe and a stage has a capacity for 200-400 people

Cabinet of Slowness public library on the ground floor, www.kabinetpomalosti.com

Coworking Cvernovka with a small kindergarten on the fifth floor, where those interested can rent a table or an office, coworkingcvernovka.sk

The building, since it was abandoned for six years, was in bad condition and needed reconstruction. Architects, designers, IT experts and other creatives rolled up their sleeves and replaced heating, piping and removed decaying plaster to make the school habitable again. They worked on common spaces as well as turning former classes and chemical labs into their future studios. Some kept bricked tables in former labs, others preserved original lighting or floors. Others changed the rooms completely. Now the former school houses more than 40 studios, of which 70 percent were moved from the original Cvernovka.

On the ground floor they created a multifunctional space with a cafe and a stage with capacity up to 400 people where concerts, discussions and other events for the general public can take place.

It took about one and a year and a half to do all the work. So far they have invested about 1 million into the premises, including a commercial loan and voluntary work. The VUB Foundation has helped them with a contribution of 350,000, which it is paying them out between 2017 and 2019.

What has happened here is a small miracle, said photographer Symon Kliman, who is the director of opportunities in Nova Cvernovka. What we have built here usually lasts much longer in western Europe.

What a programme

There are two types of activities in Nova Cvernovka  events for the general public like concerts, discussions and workshops taking place in the multifunctional hall and the activities of the Cvernovka Foundation focusing on societal problems on a longer basis.

15. Feb 2018 at 7:38 | Jana LiptakovaAnother silver for Kuzmina

Slovak biathletes competed in PyeongChang today: The best Slovak female biathlete, Anastasiya Kuzmina, confirmed her good shape. Paulina Fialkova finished fifth.

Anastasiya Kuzmina finished the race in 41:31.9 minutes. That was enough for second place behind Swedish biathlete, Hanna Oeberg, who hit all 20 targets and finished in 33:54.4 minutes.

Another Slovak biathlete, Paulina Fialkova, finished fifth, 59.8 seconds behind first place, in what the press labelled the race of her life.

It was great. Im very sorry about that one missed shot, but Im satisfied with the race, Fialkova said.

This discipline is not Kuzminas forte, since the focus is on shooting (when the athlete fails to hit the target, one minute is added to their time, as opposed to the pursuit discipline where failure to hit the target results in running the penalty round). Kuzmina does not belong among the best shooters at the moment, the Sme daily noted before the race.

I had a great run, Kuzmina commented after she finished the race.

The Slovak biathletes will compete in the mass start race on Saturday.

Read more about the performance of Slovaks at the Olympics so far:

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15. Feb 2018 at 10:46 | Compiled by Spectator staffSlovakia has a university with the same accreditation as Cambridge

The Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies of STU offers much to students, but it should focus more on teachers.

The up-to-date education, the objectivity of exams, the communication with students, the cooperation with companies and scientific output are the benefits offered the Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (FIIT STU).

Thanks to them, it has become the only faculty in Slovakia and the Czech Republic to receive the prestigious accreditation of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

The international accreditation is a birthday present for us, said Maria Bielikova, dean of the FIIT STU, as quoted in a press release, adding that they are celebrating their 15th birthday this year.

Bielikova stressed they are the only faculty focusing solely on informatics and IT. During the past 15 years, the importance of digital skills and the IT industry has developed significantly in Slovakia and has potential to grow.

We need leaders and top IT experts, Bielikova said. We want young people not to seek IT education abroad. The accreditation from the biggest engineering organisation in the world confirms that the demands on the quality education of our students are comparable with the demands on quality at British universities.

Differences from Slovak accreditation

The faculty had been collecting documents necessary for the accreditation for more than one year. At the end of September 2017, the members of the accreditation committee came to Slovakia and spoke with students and the facultys partners.

The committee sent a letter confirming the accreditation for all bachelor and engineer study programmes on January 18, 2018. The accreditation will last five years.

Unlike the Slovak accreditation committee, IET focused mostly on how education responds to IT development, whether the exams are impartial and transparent, how the school communicates with students and collaborates with companies, and what are the inner processes to secure the quality of education.

Work of teachers important

The IET committee also scrutinised the scientific outputs, particularly how the latest revelations are reflected in the education process and whether students can get to them. It appreciated that the students start with research and co-author nearly all scientific works when getting their bachelor degree.

We especially appreciated the strong participation of industry representatives in study programmes and education content at the faculty, said Mark Zwolinski of IET, as quoted in the press release. As for recommendations, the faculty should focus on key employees, their professional growth and training.

STU Rector Robert Redhammer stressed the importance of quality informatics teachers.

It is a paradox that our IT experts achieve important international awards and there is a huge interest in their further education both from the side of employers and students, but we fail to appreciate them financially, Redhammer said, as quoted in the press release.

He stressed it is time for the financing of public universities to reflect and respond to real labour market needs.

15. Feb 2018 at 12:41 | Compiled by Spectator staffThe very first Slovak receives Japans Order of the Rising Sun

MP Frantisek Sebej views the award as the story of Slovak karate.

Frantisek Sebej, head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee and MP for the Most-Hid party, has become the first Slovak ever to receive Japans Order of the Rising Sun, Second Class: Gold and Silver Star.

He was rewarded for his contribution towards deepening mutual understanding between Japan and Slovakia, the TASR newswire reported.

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The Japanese government, which decided to bestow the state award on Sebej in autumn 2017, highlighted his activities, mainly at the helm of the Japan-Slovakia Parliamentary Friendship Group as well as his long-standing promotion of karate.

Sebej views the award as the story of Slovak karate, of which Im an integral part, he said at a ceremony attended by several representatives of the Slovak government, including PM Robert Fico (Smer).

The awardee is fascinated by karate partly due to the spiritual value it gives to people. The pioneer of karate in Slovakia further said that some tens of thousands of followers have taken up this discipline since Sebej began with it some 50 years ago.

All those who have done karate for at least a while keep a piece of Japan with themselves forever, Sebej told TASR. This is partly what the award expresses.

Presented on behalf of the emperor of Japan, the Order of the Rising Sun is the oldest Japanese order and was established by Emperor Meiji in 1875.

15. Feb 2018 at 12:45 | Compiled by Spectator staffSilence about hundreds of killed Russian mercenaries

What actually happened and why are both Moscow and Washington silent about the events?

Apparently, hundreds of armed men and dozens of pieces of heavy armor were destroyed in eastern Syria during an evening attack on the Kurds on February 7 and 8. But who were those men?

Shortly after the massacre, news started to emerge on Russian sites, suggesting that most of those killed were not part of Assads forces, nor Iranians, but Russian mercenaries employed by private military company (PMC) Vagner. It is assumed that the core of Vagner's men are members of the Russian special forces Specnaz.

What actually happened and why are both Moscow and Washington silent about the events? The answer to the second question is simple: after repeatedly declaring victory and withdrawal of Russia from Syria, the Kremlin cannot admit to a massacre of Russian citizens without recognizing that both the victory as well as the withdrawal are pure fantasy and the "small victorious war in Syria is transforming into a new Afghanistan. That is the last thing Putin needs one month before the election. Even if the result of the election is secured by the elimination of his key competitor, the Kremlin needs to appear to have mass support and legitimacy.

The Americans, for their part, showed what they can do and do not need to escalate the situation through media reports on the event.

To answer what really happened is, in the absence of any official information, more challenging. Consequently, it took several days to compose a picture of the events from the fragmented pieces.

15. Feb 2018 at 12:54 | Juraj MesikMore employees probably involved in dubious plastic surgery in Kosice

The hospital is currently analysing discussions with its employees.

Several employees were probably involved in the dubious plastic surgery business at the University Hospital of L. Pasteur in Kosice (UNLP). This was revealed by the internal inspection, part of which include talks with the clinics employees, as well as staff at the anaesthesiology and intensive medicine ward.

They are now analysing information about surgery on private patients.

The internal investigation is still dealing with more than 380 medical histories of private patients who underwent plastic surgery in the years 2016 and 2017, so its not possible to calculate the potential damage, Ivana Staskova, spokesperson for UNLP, told the regional Korzar daily.

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So far, the hospitals management have recalled the plastic surgery clinics senior doctor Robert Sabovcik, but others may follow, Staskova added.

Dubious medical tourism

The inspection was launched shortly after the Trend economic weekly addressed UNLP with questions, asking about conditions for foreign clients that undergo surgery mediated by the New Look Holiday agency. The weekly reportedly sent an email to the agency, impersonating a foreign client interested in surgery and received instructions which, among other things, contained much higher sums for the operation than stated in the clinics official price list.

The hospital has not signed any agreement with the agency, Trend reported.

The internal inspection has not been completed yet, the spokesperson explained. This means that doctors who participated in the agencys business may lose their jobs in the future. The hospital launched proceedings against the clinics team of doctors and other employees who could have been involved.

In published ratings, British clients have praised better plastic surgery and skilful Kosice surgeons, Korzar reported.

15. Feb 2018 at 23:02 | Compiled by Spectator staffSlovaks invited to join international call for dieselgate compensation

So far 700 Slovak car owners with manipulated software responded to the call.

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Almost 700 Slovak car owners with manipulated software have responded to a call made by the Consumer Protection Society (S.O.S.) from Poprad (Presov Region) in December to join collective efforts by car owners in Europe aimed at claiming compensation related to the Volkswagen's emissions scandal known as dieselgate from two years ago.

Second-hand and other car owners, both private individuals and companies are eligible to join the international effort, which concerns vehicles bought between January 1, 2009 and September 18, 2015, said Petra Cakovska, project manager of S.O.S., which is a member of the European Consumer Organisation.

Owners of vehicles purchased abroad but registered in Slovakia can also apply, said Cakovska as cited by the TASR newswire. This concerns both cars that have not been fixed yet and also those that have already been to repair shops.

People can register on sk.myright.com website. The people who sign up should then be represented in court by an American law firm, which only wants 35 percent of the potential compensation in case of success, said Cakovska, noting that some 15,000 people from Germany and 6,500 car owners from Slovenia have responded.

Several EU-member countries, including Slovakia, are still lacking mechanisms for the collective protection of rights, so it is relatively more difficult for consumers to join forces and act together, said Cakovska, adding that at least 1,000 registrations are necessary to join the international action. I believe that there will be many more registrations than that, as we have a unique opportunity to apply for compensation along with tens of thousands of other Europeans, a fact that significantly increases our odds.

15. Feb 2018 at 22:47 | Compiled by Spectator staff10 hours ago

US stocks can't hold on to an early gain and resume falling

Banks and energy companies led a broad slide for stocks on Wall Street Tuesday, handing the S&P 500 its sixth loss in the last seven trading days. The S&P 500 fell 0.6% after an early gain faded by midafternoon.

Read Article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.

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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..Everton linked with Dutch winger

| Thursday, 15 February 2018



ESPN claim that "sources close the player" suggest that the two clubs are keeping an eye on the 20-year-old who has five goals and six assists from 22 Eredivisie appearances this season.

Torino reportedly had a 10m bid rejected for Bergwijn last summer.

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 ToffeeWebTwo foreigners living in and outside Vietnam recalled their cozy memories with the Lunar New Year, or Tet in Vietnamese.

'Starting afresh'

Ive witnessed ten Tet since I started living here. In the early years I went to the fireworks and partied with friends in the expat bars around Hoi An. Often I would meet people I hadnt seen for months as I tend to live quietly but was also busy with teaching. In the more recent years as I had some dogs as pets, I tended to stay at home or take the dogs for walks during the holiday evenings because its so calm, peaceful and lovely to see how people have decorated their houses.

I like the idea of starting afresh  throwing out old things, cleaning up and yet, remembering their ancestors. Ive lost both my parents in the last two years so this has been on my mind. I admire the devotion to the family, helping out with the Tet chores and working for the parents while they do stuff for Tet. I like the energy of it  everyone off to buy something nice and being excited about seeing their hometown relatives again.

Stivi Cooke in a photo he provided Tuoi Tre News

Society has changed rapidly, but I dont think Tets changed so much. However I have seen more noticeable status symbols  new cars, big TVs, brand new motorbikes or bicycles  and especially students with the latest smartphones which cost a small fortune. Also Ive observed more families eating out in a fancy restaurant instead of home cooking as a way of enjoying their rising prosperity. And definitely more young adults cruising around on their motorbikes just for fun and company rather than doing traditional home customs.

I think theres a Vietnamese proverb, A day of travelling will bring a basket of learning  I think young people are curious about their country and hungry for new experiences as daily life in Vietnamese can be monotonous. Its also an empowering feeling to have the money and opportunity to see new places and show off or post on Facebook selfies of where you are. Also travel is becoming more affordable with cheaper flights, more buses and more local destinations opening up to domestic tourists. And given all the stress of life in the big cities I think its becoming more natural to think about getting away from it all.

A lot of foreigners (particularly living in Vietnam) are a bit jaded and it takes a bit of effort to impress them whereas the young Vietnamese tourist probably has a lot more appreciation for the simpler experiences of something new. Foreigners are looking for more exotic places and wilder experiences but the Vietnamese just revel in the sheer joy and fun of getting out of town!

Stivi Cooke, Australian

'Tet is important to me and my family'

My first Tet in Vietnam was 2005. I was told by other American expatriates that the streets would be deserted and to make sure that I had enough food to eat for a week as all of the stores would we closed. That first Tet in Vietnam, I stayed at home and played video games a lot. I know many Western friends in Saigon who speak of the loveliness of the deserted streets of the city during Tet. But they dont know what theyre missing.

Eric Burdette in a photo he provided Tuoi Tre News

I started to get a taste of the true spirit of Tet one holiday when an adult student of mine invited me to his house during the break. Hospitality was overflowing as we chatted, snacked, drank beer and gave lucky money to the roving bands of lion dancers going through the neighborhood. As the years went on, I got more and more invitations to come to peoples houses to experience Tet, and I really came to look forward to the holiday.

Then I moved to Saigon and got married. Now Tet was even more fun as it was a chance to get out of the big city and spend time in the Mekong Delta with friends and family. Empty streets of Saigon are no comparison to the festive nature of the holiday in the delta.

To be honest, Tet is in many ways more enjoyable than Christmas or Thanksgiving for me. I love driving and walking around the streets festooned with yellow and pink flowers picking up soft drinks, beer and snacks for the holiday. I love delivering gift baskets to close friends and family. I love meeting up with friends and relatives that I dont see very often. And I love a little time to just be o khong (doing nothing).

However, now my family and I are in America. Tet has always and will always be different here. It is not a national holiday here, and it is not widely celebrated either. Tet can be a little sad in the U.S. as we sit in the midst of cold weather and remember the warm days full of fun in Vietnam. But Tet is important to me and my family and always will be. Even though the weather is dipping below freezing and nothing in the streets suggests that a holiday is approaching, we will be celebrating Tet in the US. We are fortunate to know other friends and families that have lived in Vietnam, and we will we celebrate Tet with them.

Even though we are on the other side of the world from Vietnam, I will observe the tradition of my wifes family and eat vegetarian food until noon on Mung Mot (the first day of the first month in the lunar calendar). And even though I am in another country, I will remember with fondness all of the many wonderful times I have enjoyed Tet in Vietnam.

Eric Burdette, AmericanA retired English teacher in Ho Chi Minh City has decided to celebrate the 2018 Lunar New Year in his own special way by making over 50 dog figurines from eggshells.

Nguyen Thanh Tam is a retired English teacher and has been holding the record of having the highest number of eggshell figurines since 2010, a title recognized by the Vietkings.

Tam, 67, has created over 1,000 eggshell statuettes of the 12 zodiac animals, as well as other animals and cartoon characters to facilitate his lectures or just to fulfill his passion.

Nguyen Thanh Tam makes his eggshell figurines. Photo: Tuoi Tre

To celebrate the Year of the Dog, the man has made a collection of more than 50 dog figurines under various themes.

Each item took him from 60 minutes to up to 10 hours.

The kind of art is affordable as eggshells are very easy to find. Making the statuettes helps boost my creativity and patience as well as relaxing my mind, Tam elaborated.

Tam adds paint to a dog statuette. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The collection of eggshell dogs is kept inside a glass cabinet at his house. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The eggshell dogs under the theme of Happy Family. Photo: Tuoi Tre

A figurine inspired by Courage the Cowardly Dog animated series. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!United States President Donald Trump has sent his greetings to the Vietnamese people on the occasion of the traditional Lunar New Year.

Vietnamese State President Tran Dai Quang held phone talks with President Trump on Wednesday, against the backdrop that the two countries relationship has been developing on the basis of mutual respect and benefits for the two peoples.

The U.S. president extended his greetings to the Vietnamese leaders and people on the occasion of the Lunar New Year, which begins on February 16.

He also expressed his gratitude for the warm welcome during his state visit to Vietnam and participation in the 25th APEC Economic Leaders Meeting in November last year.

The U.S attaches great importance to its relations with Vietnam and the countrys active role in the region and will continue cooperating with Vietnam in promoting the bilateral comprehensive partnership in the coming time.

President Quang congratulated the U.S. government and people on their achievements during the first year of office of President Trump, adding that his previous state visit to the Southeast Asian country marked a significant milestone in bilateral ties.

Vietnam treasures the friendship and cooperation with the U.S. and will actively work with the country to create practical progress for the bilateral relations in the future, the Vietnamese head of state continued.

The two leaders discussed measures to strengthen the Vietnam-U.S. relationship, agreeing on the effective implementation of agreements reached by the two countries.

They consented to continue promoting economic and trade relations, considering them the driving force for bilateral ties.

Both sides vowed to boost ties in other areas as well as in dealing with war consequences.

The presidents reaffirmed both sides perspectives on East Vietnam Sea-related issues and agreed to maintain high-level exchanges and meetings to promote bilateral relations.

They also discussed the regional security environment and the growing bilateral defense relationship between the two countries, including the upcoming visit by the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to the central city of Da Nang in March.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Four people were rushed to the hospital after an accident involving three cars and three motorbikes in Hanoi on Tuesday, only three days before the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday.

The pile-up occurred at around 3:40 pm near the Tran Phu - Luong Ngoc Quyen intersection in Ha Dong District, with a Camry first crashing into three two-wheelers, according to eyewitnesses.

The car, with the motorbikes still stuck underneath, then hit a seven-seater sedan and continued its crazy run for about ten meters. The Camry did not come to a complete halt until it smashed into a taxi.

The Camry driver fled the scene while four injured drivers were rushed to the hospital. A number of plastic debris was seen at the scene of accident, with the Camry having its head completely deformed.

Nguyen Duc Thang, deputy head of a local traffic police team, said his officers were present at the scene almost immediately to moderate traffic.

Ha Dong police said they are still investigating the case.

An injured motorbike driver. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The crashed motorbikes are seen after the accident. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The crashed motorbikes are seen after the accident. Photo: Tuoi Tre

ike us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Sixty-nine clubbers have tested positive for drugs following a sudden police inspection in the southern Vietnamese province of Dong Nai.

Police in Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai Province carried out a sudden raid on a local club owned by 21-year-old Pham Duy Hung at around 1:00 am on Wednesday.

About 100 people aged from 18 to 30 were partying against loud music at the venue at the time of the examination.

Officers found a considerable amount of synthetic drug powder and pills, while many of the clubbers also showed signs of being high on stimulants.

The law enforcers decided to escort all of the partiers to the police station for a quick test, whose results indicated that 69 of them, including 53 men and 16 women, tested positive for drugs.

Fines were later imposed upon the drug users.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Chau Van Sang, chief of the anti-drug division under the Bien Hoa Department of Police, the raid was part of the agencys efforts to minimize drug-related crimes during the Lunar New Year.

The 2018 Lunar New Year begins on February 16, but preparation and celebration often take place during the week before and after the date.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Here are the news stories you should not miss today:

Politics

-- United States President Donald Trump extended his greetings to the Vietnamese leaders and people on the occasion of the traditional Lunar New Year during a phone talk with Vietnamese State President Tran Dai Quang on Wednesday.

Society

-- Typhoon Sanba was downgraded into a tropical depression after passing the southern Philippines on Wednesday morning, packing wind speed of between 50 and 60km per hour. The tropical depression is forecast to travel west toward the East Vietnam Sea and continue to weaken.

-- A total of 22 traffic accidents happened across Vietnam on Wednesday, two days before the Lunar New Year begins, killing 20 people and injuring 28 others, according to the National Committee for Traffic Safety.

-- Two people were killed and four others severely injured after a car crashed into the guard rails along the section of National Highway 1 in the north-central province of Quang Binh on Wednesday afternoon.

-- A 30-year-old man in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho has been arrested for murdering a 58-year-old porter, who was sleeping on a hammock in a backyard, by cutting his throat on Wednesday evening. Local residents added that the suspect is a drug addict.

-- Sixty-nine people tested positive for drugs after police carried out a sudden raid on a club in the southern province of Dong Nai on Wednesday night.

-- A man and his father were killed after their motorbikes, which were stopped on the side of a street, were hit by a passenger bus in Buon Ma Thuot City in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak on Wednesday morning.

Business

-- Many residents in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday evening rushed to buy themselves a decent yellow apricot flower tree to decorate their homes during the Lunar New Year.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Two people have been killed and four others severely injured after a car slammed into street guard rails in Vietnam this week.

The automobile was traveling on the section of National Highway 1 in Bac Trach Commune, Bo Trach District, Quang Binh Province when it rammed the railings at around 3:30 pm on Wednesday.

The vehicle was steered by Mai Van Thang, 54, carrying along six people from the central city of Da Nang to the north-central province of Nghe An for Lunar New Year celebration.

The accident claimed the lives of Thang and a passenger, Hoang Thi Tho, while four other people in the car suffered serious wounds.

Competent authorities are carrying out an investigation into the incident.

According to the National Traffic Safety Committee, a total of 22 traffic accidents occurred across Vietnam on Wednesday, two days before the Lunar New Year begins, killing 20 people and injuring 28 others.

Among them, 21 crashes happened on the streets, while the other was a railroad accident.

Traffic police dealt with 6,455 traffic violations, issuing fines worth a combined VND6 billion (US$264,389), impounding 583 vehicles, and revoking 297 driver's licenses.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!A Vietnamese-made satellite is now ready to go into space this year.

The MicroDragon satellite, developed by researchers from the Vietnam National Space Center (VNSC), is expected to be launched into space by Japans Epsilon rocket within 2018.

Following the successful debut of Vietnams first-ever satellite, the PicoDragon, Dr. Pham Anh Tuan, general director of the VNSC, and his partners decided to carry out another satellite project on a larger scale, the MicroDragon.

The PicoDragon weighed one kilogram and was put into orbit around the earth in 2013.

In order to conduct the new project, the VNSC sent 36 of its young engineers to five top universities in Japan for masters programs in satellite technology.

The team also had a chance to design, produce, and test the MicroDragon under the mentorship of Japanese professors.

The satellite, measuring 50x50x50 centimeters and weighing 50 kilograms, is designed to monitor the quality of water in coastal areas, locate fishery resources, and observe changes in the ocean to assist the nations aquaculture.

It can also be used to trace the origin of oil spills and supervise ships at sea, Dr. Tuan said, adding that images provided by the satellite can help detect strange vessels near the countrys maritime sovereignty.

Natural disasters cost Vietnam about 1.5 percent of its GDP, equivalent to US$3 billion, every year, Tuan quoted the findings of Japanese experts as saying.

Vietnamese engineers at Japans Tohuku University. Photo: VNSC

With information from a satellite, forecasts of storms and flooding can be made promptly, thus lowering damage by 10 percent, equal to $300 million, and minimizing casualties, the VNSC head continued.

Images from the MicroDragon can be retrieved after six to 12 hours, he added.

According to Lam Dao Nguyen, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Space Technology Application Center, satellite technology can also be applied to the Mekong Delta region to supervise local farming progress and calculate the most suitable amount of water and nutrition for the plants.

It is essential for Vietnam to develop its own satellite in order to achieve the above benefits, said Dr. Tuan.

The industry can give a boost to such sectors as material industry, mechatronics, and automation, he added.

The VNSC is developing another satellite named LOTUSat, weighing 600 kilograms, which is expected to be launched into orbit in 2019.

The LOTUSat-2 project is anticipated to begin in 2022.

These two satellites will optimize the radar sensing technology to monitor the entire Vietnamese territory, including the sea, providing images with high resolution under all weather conditions.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!BBC First screens a 2 part period drama Man in an Orange Shirt which tells two love stories, 60 years apart  stories linked by family and a painting, with a secret that echoes down the generations.

The screenwriting debut by bestselling British novelist Patrick Gale, this charts the challenges and huge changes to gay lives from the Second World War to the present day with Julian Morris, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Vanessa Redgrave.

In 1944, British Army Captain Michael Berryman meets war artist Thomas March in Southern Italy while chaos reigns all around them. Despite having a young fiance, Flora, waiting at home for him, straight-laced Michael finds himself falling for Thomas bohemian charms.

In 2017, an ageing Flora looks on as her grandson, Adam, tentatively forms a relationship with his client Steve in a more accepting world. But while the external obstacles have fallen away, a minefield of internalised issues and dangerous temptations still line the road to happiness.

8:30pm Saturday on BBC First.Students

Aviation historian Janet Bednarek gave interviews nationwide about air travel since 9/11, including The Wall Street Journal. Meghan Henning in religious studies shared her expertise with The Daily Beast and The Conversation. Dayton-area media featured the blessing for first responders, 9/11 commemoration, new partnership between UD and the Hall Hunger Initiative, and new bistro featuring food from local underrepresented, minority-owned and woman-owned vendors at The Hub Powered by PNC.

Read MoreWhen he was in the throes of his Presidential election campaign back in 2016, Celebrity Apprentice host Donald Trump promised the hardcore, immigrant-bashing conservatives who supported him every step of the way that as soon as he was in the Oval Office, he would begin the construction of a great, great wall along the southern border between the United States and Mexico. Now, hes been in the White House for a year and there hasnt been a single brick laid.

Trumps Chief of Staff, John Kelly, has suggested that the government is mulling over the prospect of shutting down the wall construction plan altogether, expressing doubts that the US President thought the whole thing through and had a specific plan for how he was going to go about putting up this wall, which would be somewhere between the sizes of the Berlin Wall and the Great Wall of China.

However, Trump himself has come out to publicly contradict his Chief of Staff, telling people that there have been no changes to the plans, he hasnt changed his mind, and he did know what he was talking about when he promised to build a wall. Yeah, right.

Kellys way of saying that Trumps mind had changed about the Mexico wall plans were that they had evolved, because during the campaign, he was not fully informed about how exactly to go about construction of the wall. The Chief of Staff made these comments in private, but they were later confirmed to have been made during an interview with Fox News. This all comes as officials in the Republican Party are struggling to keep the funding to the US government flowing nicely.

The immigration issue is dividing the US government

As is usually the case, the US government is split right down the middle on the immigration issue. The Democrats and the Republicans each want to do very different things with government funding. The Democrats want the funding to bring in dreamer immigrants (undocumented migrants who came to America as children with their adult immigrant parents) and help them to settle and have a good quality of life.

But the Republicans, of course, want to use the money to keep immigrants out by putting up a stupid, asinine wall along the entire US/Mexico border.

The stakes are really high here. The US government might shut down if the Democrats and the Republicans cant get along, which they never, ever can. By midnight tonight, theyll have to have come to some sort of deal about what to do with the government funding.

The Democrats will have to agree to build a wall along the Mexican border, which they never will, or failing that, the Republicans will have to agree to giving money to help immigrants to settle in their precious United States, which theyll never do. And if they dont reach an agreement, the government will shut down completely and all non-essential workers will have a few days off while their country takes a swift downwards turn towards the ground.

The Republican Party is starting to show cracks

In response to Kellys comments, Trump tweeted, The Wall is the Wall, and declared that the plans for its construction or what it would be have never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it. This is just one sign of the growing divides in the President and his administrations conservative party.

There are some cracks beginning to show within the Republican Party, as internal disagreements over Trumps attitudes and behavioural patterns are becoming clear.

Many Republican officials are unhappy that the President is not making his position on the major issues of immigration clear, which is something he kind of needs to do, especially amid these debates and the impending threat of a government shutdown. Trump needs to secure Democratic votes in order to get future spending approved, and some Republicans doubt that hell be able to do it if he doesnt stick to his guns.Boris Johnson aimed to unite both leave and remain camps over Brexit but his speech, which was filled with nationalist, British Empire rhetoric, only fuelled the divisions further. He retained the leave campaign battle cries of sovereignty, taking back control and embracing the world, because these arent notions that existed during our time in the EU. But his role as Foreign Secretary is to represent the country abroad and he has failed in that respect.

If we remove our focus from the speech for an iota of a moment, he put risk to the freedom of British-Iranian, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was imprisoned in Iran 22 months ago.

Yesterday, human rights organisations have asked the UN to step in and get her released.

Brexit meanscarrots?

The speech itself was a peculiar mix of waffle and rhetoric, lacking any real substance but he did make a reference to Nigel Farage by saying That is surely not some reactionary Farageist concept, who responded on Twitter by claiming 72% of people wanted tighter immigration controls. Where he plucked that percentage from remains 100% confusing to people. But away from the man who once said In a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way. If the Remain campaign win two-thirds to one-third that ends it." Carrots became an important agenda for Mr Johnson.

This is where we drift into the realms of Armando Iannuccis The Thick of It, because he was asked by journalist (reportedly from the Telegraph) about clarity over Brexit.

Except he responded by saying carrot? the journalist responded by saying the clarity then Johnson proceeded to respond Clarity! Ok. God. Carrot. Carrot then harped on about Theresa Mays Lancaster House speech, even though the only clarification from that speech was the governments inept ability to come up with an actual plan.

Afterwards he got to point where he stated about the Brexit agenda that I think there is a great a positive agenda and we need to get out there and explain it, yes, that could be perhaps true and there is a fantastic way to get information to masses of peoplespeeches.

But the lack of substance was apparent, because after hailing that they need to get out and explain the positivity of Brexit, Mr Johnson the deflected from the lack of content from his speech by talking about how it can be good for carrots, he finished this question (and this is not satire) by saying you knowpromote organic carrots.The new Snapchat Update has upset a lot of users, with many calling it "confusing".

A petition with one million signatories has started online, calling upon app Snapchat to reverse its latest update.

Changes, which are not welcomed by many users, have included taking out celeb and Social media influencers content from the 'friends' section.

This now makes confusing friendly interactions with branded content or advertising much harder.

Swipe left/swipe right hard to use

In line with Tinder, users must now swipe left to see and interact with their friends and swipe right to reveal any branded and celebrity content - the two are now clearly separated

Snapchat boss Evan Spiegel welcomed the new update, saying that the blurring of social and branded content had helped contribute to the rise of fake news.

However, an unintended consequence has sparked criticism that the new layout is hard to use.

Angry and despondent users have even taken to change.org to start a petition to scrap the new update.

One petition started by an Australian user named Nic Ramsey named Remove the new Snapchat update and has attracted over one million supporters.

He says that the new update has made some of the features more difficult to use and changed the original concept of the image messaging app.

He also says that users are reverting to using VPNs - virtual private networks, which help to mask a device's location - in order to continue to use the older version.

The fact that users are going to such lengths to get the old version, Rumsey feels, shows how annoying the update has become.

The petition is one of several, attempting to lobby Snapchat and reverse to its previous version.

Celebs now involved

Celebrities have also taken to social media to voice their concerns about the new update.

Model Chrissy Teigen tweeted to her 9.72 million followers that she no longer felt like her followers were her friends.

Im seeing this same comment so often. I liked that you guys felt like we were friends. Im sad it doesnt feel like that anymore. How many people have to hate an update for it to be reconsidered? https://t.co/PI7OAf9Qlg  christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) 9 February 2018

She wrote: Im sad it doesnt feel like that anymore.

How many people have to hate an update for it to be reconsidered?"

Celebrity and social media influencer Kylie Jenner also asked her 24.4 million Twitter followers what they thought of the new update and then appeared to agree with a follower who replied that they hated it.

I kinda agree  https://t.co/bdIYtmux4M  Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) 9 February 2018

YouTuber Evan Edinger also commented: "Yo real talk but how the absolute heck am I supposed to find stories of people I want to watch on snapchat after the update and not just the plethora of ads and publishers that are in the way?"

Yo real talk but how the absolute heck am I supposed to find stories of people I want to watch on snapchat after the update and not just the plethora of ads and publishers that are in the way?  Evan Edinger (@EvanEdinger) 15 February 2018

Some people, however, are getting used to the new update.

Elite Daily has reported that after realising that this new Snapchat is an everlasting reality, the best way to cope with it is to ultimately learn how to actually use it.

Snapchat maintains the design is here to stay, saying that updates can take a little getting used to. It hopes that the community will enjoy it once they settle in.Marital Rape (or spousal rape) in India is still not a criminal offence because it may "destabilise the institution of marriage and make men vulnerable to harassment by their wives," according to the Indian government.

The issue has been raised in court again following a petition by activists who are demanding that a legal loophole stated in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) be scrapped and marital rape become its own specific criminal offence.

What are the legalities concerning marital rape in India?

Section 375 of the IPC only considers forced sex in marriage as a crime when the wife is below age 15, following a crackdown on gender-based violence in 2013 after the brutal rape of a young girl in Delhi on a moving bus.

Yet, if the wife is above 18 (originally 15 but amended last October), it is not classed as rape.

While indias parliament has passed similar recommendations recently including the criminalisation of stalking and making acid attacks a specific offence in itself, it did not agree with the proposal to outlaw marital rape.

What has the Indian government said in regards to this?

The Indian government also suggested that those who are actively seeking to stop the rape of women by their husbands are "blindly" following Western customs.

Yet, neighbouring Pakistan has already arrested a man in the country's Jhelum district recently after he was charged of committing marital rape and sodomy on his wife.

The AAP government defended its response to the petitions seeking the age factor to be eliminated in the clause by saying that marital rape is an offence under Section 498A of the IPC.

This particular section deals with harassment caused to a married woman by her husband and in-laws which causes mental or physical harm to the woman.

They also highlighted examples of cases whereby this law along with the dowry law and the Domestic Violence Act of 2005 have been abused by married women to file lawsuits against their husbands and families in order to extort money and settle personal vendettas.

Yet it should be noted that such cases are extremely rare and heavily outweighed by the victims who they protect and gain justice for.

How many victims of marital rape are there in India?

Whilst there are no completely accurate statistics, a 2014 study undertaken by the Indian government suggested that rape by husbands was 40 times greater than those committed by non-intimate partners.

Amongst married women who were victims of sexual violence, over 83% reported their present husband and 9% report a former husband as the perpetrators.

The most common form of sexual abuse reported by women was that their husband used physical force to have sex when they didn't want to, whilst others reported that their husband forced them to perform sexual acts that they didn't want to using threats.

Many men get away with the rape of their wives as the lack of a legal policy allows them to "prey" on women in the security of their own homes.

Sexual violence also becomes worse if the husband is an alcoholic with 66% of married women experiencing physical or sexual violence if the "husband gets drunk often."

Some victims of marital rape use the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 (PWDVA) for relief.

The PWDVA - which was implemented in 2006 - outlaws marital rape, although it only offers a civil remedy for the offence.

However, since the vast majority of cases are not reported, figures are likely to be much higher as survivors in India often face humiliation at police stations and hospitals with only 10% of married victims of sexual violence seeking help. The lack of trained counsellors to help survivors with their recovery coupled with a lack of access to legal aid adds to their plight.

Unfortunately, it is also likely that these women experience marital rape on an ongoing basis.

Where does this policy come from?

The exception clause dates as far back as the 1800s whereby a girl of eleven was brutally raped by her 35 year old husband and died as a result.

This encouraged the then-colonial government to change the age of consent from ten to twelve years old alongside English common law that women who agree to sex with their husbands on marriage aren't allowed to retract their consent. Ironically enough, this was largely criticised and the argument was amended in 1891. Since then, Section 375 has remained untouched.

The Indian government has also added that a woman is entitled to refuse sex with her husband through Article 21 (protection of life and personal liberty) of the Indian Constitution which ensures that bodily integrity and privacy is secured to all women regardless of whether they are married or not.

What is the main issue regarding marital rape in India?

However, the main problem concerning martial rape in India is that it simply isn't considered to be rape at all.

A video which was being widely shared across social media at the beginning of the year featured several men in India, seemingly across class boundaries, showed the rather disturbing consensus of views which Indian men hold in regards to marital rape.

Indeed even 54% of women themselves said that violence by husbands is justified in a National Health and Family Survey (NHFS).

Separate research though, concluded that 68.4% of women and 63% of men said that a wife is justified in refusing her husband sex for any of these reasons: if she knows he sleeps with other women, has an STI or if she is tired or isnt in the mood.

The one woman featured sums it up when she says "No means no." There doesn't need to be any sort of justification for it, marital rape is rape and needs to be considered as such so that Indian society doesn't continue to violate women's rights. If the government is serious about building a "New India" by 2022 then marital rape needs to be definitively outlawed, criminalised and enforced.Last night the news broke from America that 17 people have been killed following a mass shooting at a school in Florida. Another 14 were injured, 5 of which suffered life threatening injuries. The shooter was identified as Nikolas Cruz, a former student of the school who had been expelled for behavioural problems. Concerns were raised by the FBI six months ago after a user on YouTube called Nikolas Cruz posted a comment saying, Im going to be a professional school shooter.

Florida Governor, Rick Scott said, "You come to the conclusion this is just absolutely pure evil," with the usual plethora of faux-Republican and Democrat sorrow tweets of condolences and prayers.

If only they could do something about it.

Gun laws

The Republicans have spent a large period blocking and removing laws that would have made it more difficult for Cruz to get hold of the AR-15 like semi-automatic weapon he used to commit the atrocity. Trumps administration blocked a bill that made it harder for those with mental health illnesses to get weapons, purged 500,000 from list that labelled them as fugitives and made it easier for fugitives to buy guns, they made it easier to obtain silencers and passed a bill that allows people to carry concealed weapons across state lines plus much more.

When Rick Scott was questioned as to how Cruz got hold of the weapon, he attempted to deflect the issue away from gun laws and said that theyll look to keep people safe through law enforcement and mental health illness funding, the latter is likely to be cut in the upcoming budget, which was revealed two days before the shooting.

The constant deflection away from the issue of gun laws is because the NRA help fund politicians like Rick Scott and the after every mass shooting, it is the NRA whose profits increase dramatically. It is no wonder they lobby hard to oppose any restrictions.

Flawed political system

Most people in the UK cant get their heads around why nothing has been done even though you are more likely to get killed by a white American (terrorist or not) than an Daesh-inspired terrorist.

But it is an issue that divides America down the middle, despite the Las Vegas shooting and various school and other shootings throughout decades, the second amendment remains untouched. The second amendment is the right bear arms and this law was made when guns had a capacity of 1 shot and took a good 5 minutes to reload.

Every time a senator speaks in favour of restricting gun laws, the NRA and its supporters begin the claim that they are taking away the very rights of the people.

Completely quashing any further debate on the issue over the idea of what liberty stands for even though most of the supporters of the NRA, are those who would happily remove the rights from other humans because they are deemed unworthy. That is largely a generalisation but it does mostly stand up to the test but there are of course those Democrats who support the NRA and/or the second amendment.

The political system that America is built upon, is flawed at the very best. There are still attitudes and laws in the very core of the political system. Where for centuries the population have been convinced that the second amendment exists to protect a free state, but the reality is that it puts more people in danger than it saves.

Neo-Nazis and other far-right figureheads will always try and claim the state of the countries in the Middle-East even though US intervention is at fault for most of those problems but that is a whole other issue. Gun laws in America present a real problem for any genuine politician because the wealthy who back the NRA will always spend vast amounts of money, lobbying and funding campaigns for candidates who support the NRA, because the investors and NRA members directly profit from every mass shooting.Medical equipment supplier Lidco saw product revenues grow just 2% in its recently ended trading year as the benefits of a strong UK performance were erased by product registration issues out East that helped swing the group to a loss.

In a trading update on Thursday, Lidco said it expected product revenues to grow by 2% to 6.87m, as total revenues moved ahead 1% to 8.27m.

However, Lidco, which recorded no sales in China during the twelve months leading to 31 January due to it lacking regulatory approval for a "fundamental accessory", would've reported a product revenue growth of 9% to 6.87m if excluding the Asian business.

In the UK, Lidco had another strong performance, with product revenues expected to be up 9% to 4.14m.

Following the expansion of its sales team in the US, Lidco's revenue for the year was expected to expand around 15% to 1.36m after it won a second significant multi-year high usage programme (HUP) customer, bringing the number of HUP monitors in North America to 58.

But, overall revenues outside the UK and US markets were expected to have declined by 23% to 1.37m, largely due to not being able to sell products to its Chinese distributor.

As expected, after a year of investment for Lidco while it expanded its commercial presence, 1.67m of cash was invested and the board expects to report a loss for the year when posting its full-year results on 10 April.

Matt Sassone, Lidco's chief executive officer of Lidco, said, "Behind the headline numbers I am encouraged by the way our expansion plan is developing. Excluding China, Lidco sales grew 9% and we start the new financial year with 0.7m of HUP revenues contracted. We have a strong and growing pipeline of opportunities to further drive growth in our key target markets."

"As the business continues to win HUP contracts, it will transition towards multi-year license revenues, giving good visibility alongside strong cash generation. I expect this to greatly enhance the quality of the Company's earnings although accounting for such contracts will have a short-term impact on revenue recognition as the income will typically be spread over the term of the contract as opposed to monitor revenues being recognised up front," he added.

As of 0840 GMT, shares had fallen back 5.08% to 7.00p.Tlou Energy s shares fell over 20% on Thursday after the company reported that the Botswanan government cancelled their tender for coalbed methane-fueled (CBM) power plants due to non-compliance.

The company has met with the Ministry of Mineral Resources Green Technology and Energy Security to discuss the cancellation of Tlous plans, which had included an outlined development commencing with power generation of up to 10MW.

In a statement, Tlou Energy said: "The Ministry outlined that neither of the bids received had met their compliance requirements and detailed the areas where bids were non-compliant. The non-compliant areas were discussed, and it was clear that most of them could not be complied with, as the requirements could only be met by a party that was already in commercial operation."

According to the statement, the company will write to the ministry this week, responding to all compliance matters raised, and believes the ministry is "amenable to amending the tender document as required".

"The company is confident that a favourable outcome can be achieved due to the good working relationship with the ministry and the eagerness on both sides to get the CBM industry up and running in Botswana," said the company's statement.

The Brisbane based company said it will continue in its efforts to connect to the Botswana power grid and to secure other regional off-takers who can be supplied via the South African power pool.

As of 1444 GMT, Tlou Energys share price had dropped 20.55% to 8.74p.Tullow oil : Barclays downgrades to equal weight with a target price of 190p.

Whitbread: Barclays reiterates equal weight with a target price of 3,920p.

Merlin: Barclays reiterates overweight with a target price of 480p.

Pattisserie Holdings: Berenberg reiterates buy with a target price of 400p.

Greggs plc: Berenberg reiterates buy with a target price of 1,450p.

Domino's Pizza Group: Berenberg reiterates hold with a target price of 320p.

The restaurant group: Berenberg reiterates sell with a target price of 230p.

ZPG plc: Berenberg reiterates buy with a target price of 440p.

Shire plc: Deutsche Bank reiterates buy with a target price of 4,500p.

essure group: Deutsche Bank reiterates hold with a target price of 315p.

RSA Insurance group: Deutsche Bank reiterates hold with a target price of 640p.

Randgold resources ltd: Morgan Stanley reiterates overweight with a target price of 7,140p.

Glencore: Credit Suisse reiterates outperform with a target price of 470p.

Mccarthy & Stone: Deutsche Bank reiterates buy with a target price of 196p.

Galliford try: Canaccord reiterates buy with a target price of 1,000p.

Botswana diamonds: Northland Capital Markets reiterates speculative buy.

Bodycote plc: JP Morgan upgrades to overweight with a target price of 960p.

Royal Bank of Scotland: JP Morgan reiterates neutral with a target price of 290p.

Britvic: JP Morgan reiterates overweight with a target price of 810p.

Diageo: JP Morgan reiterates overweight with a target price of 2,800p.

Drax: JP Morgan reiterates overweight with a target price of 350p.

Anglo American: RBC Capital Markets reiterates outperform.

Indivior plc: RBC Capital Markets reiterates outperform with a target price of 540p.

Playtech: Shore Capital Markets reiterates buy.

Lancashire: Shore Capital Markets reiterates buy.Under pressure from the telecoms watchdog and rival firms, BT Group has agreed to legally separate its Openreach infrastructure arm this year, but will still retain legal ownership of the assets and keep the unit within the wider group.

The new Openreach will have roughly 32,000 staff transferred from BT, plus its own management, independent board and own logo, but still be within the BT group.

Calling it the "biggest reform" of the UK telecoms infrastructure company in its history, regulator Ofcom said Openreach Ltd will have "the greatest degree of independence from BT Group without incurring the delays and disruption  to industry, consumers and investment plans  associated with structural separation or the sell-off of Openreach to new shareholders".

Assets, such as the physical national broadband and phone network, will be controlled by Openreach alone.

The Openreach board will make decisions on building and maintaining its physical assets, with BT handing these powers to Openreach while still retaining a title of ownership.

Openreach's chief executive, who will in future be appointed by the Openreach board, will have a separate strategy and control over budget allocation within an overall budget set by BT Group.

Reporting to the Openreach chairman, the CEO will still be accountable to BT chief executive Gavin Patterson and his eventual successors, which the company said was related to certain duties consistent with BTs being a listed company.

BT agreed to all of the changes needed to address Ofcoms competition concerns, which Ofcom said meant it would not need to impose these changes through regulation.

A spokesperson from rival Sky said the announcement was "a welcome step that we have long called for on behalf of our customers".

"A more independent Openreach is a step towards delivering better service to customers and the investment that the UK needs. It's important that today's agreement is now implemented by BT in good faith and without delay."

However, investors felt it was mostly good news for BT, with shares in the former state monopoly rising more than 4% on Friday morning to 344.05p, their highest since late January's profit warning due to problems in its Italian arm.

Sky shares were flat, TalkTalk was up 0.3% as was Vodafone.

BT has 'dodged a bullet'

"Todays news confirms what investors had been hoping for since July when BT dodged a bullet as Ofcom said it wanted Openreach hived off into a separate company with its own board within the group," said analyst Neil Wilson at ETX Capital.

"The regulator could have forced BT to shed the infrastructure part of the business completely to address concerns around competition."

Consumer telecoms expert Dan Howdle of Ofcom-accredited Cable.co.uk, said Openreach will finally be committed to acting equally in the interests of all providers, "allowing them finally to act on behalf of their own customers and to affect future strategy and investment decision-making associated with the Openreach network".

He added: "This is a good day for the average broadband, TV and phone customer too, who will enjoy all the benefits the stoking of competition in a fairer marketplace is likely to bring, without suffering the costs and delays to infrastructural rollout a full separation would have incurred. We should not, however, rule out a full separation happening at some point in the future."

Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets, felt that where the agreement is "rather more interesting" was the focus on legal separation rather than genuine independence, with Patterson still able to veto the appointment of the Openreach CEO, simply by notifying regulator Ofcom.

"This veto is only mentioned in the Ofcom statement. Does its absence from BTs own release say something about independence? Ofcom saying the deal seeks the greatest deal of independence also suggest it doesnt quite fully deliver in terms of true autonomy," he said.

"All this begs the question whether Openreach will have the true independence being demanded by customers and competitors to foster real competition on the UK network. Is this simply a legal fudge on an existing subsidiary to get everyone off its back? Was OFCOM so tired of it all that even it thought thatll do? Does the fact that shares in competitors SKY, VOD and TALK have barely moved suggest doubts there too?"

Joshu Mahoney at IG felt the deal was great news for consumers, with increased investment and competition likely to ensue.

"Without the need to contribute towards a wider BT balance sheet, Openreach can now concentrate on improving their services, which is good news for the economy as a whole. With the likes of TalkTalk, Sky and Plusnet all utilising the Openreach fibre infrastructure, there is likely to be a better environment for those firms, with BT no longer gaining first dibs on capacity."Lidl is set to open 19 new stores in the first two months of 2018, creating 700 new jobs across the country, as the German-owned discounter looks to overtake Waitrose as the UK's seventh largest grocer.

On Thursday, five new stores were officially opened, in Edinburgh, Stockton, Hull, Polegate and Rosehill in South London, lifting Lidls total in the UK to 700. The German supermarket group further plans to open 50 more shops in Britain in 2018, as well as regenerating 30 existing ones as part of a 1.45bn expansion plan that stretches through 2017 and 2018.

Recent industry data from Kantar Worldpanel showed that Lidl remained the UKs fastest-growing grocer, with sales increasing 16.3% in the 12 weeks to 28 January, expanding its market share 0.5 percentage points to 5.0%. Currently eighth largest supermarket in the country, Lidl's could soon overtake Waitrose's 5.2% to become the seventh largest retailer in the sector with sixth-placed Co-op's 5.8% also in its sights.

Kantar said that while Lidl has traditionally focused on own-label lines, its fastest growth has recently come from branded products, which now account for 12% of all sales.

Lidl announced its five new openings shortly after news emerged that Tesco has hired consultants to look into a possible launch of a discount grocery chain to try and take back some ground from Lidl and fellow fast-growing German-owned rival Aldi.

As part of Lidl's expansion plans, it is building a major new regional distribution centre in Luton and has five new warehouses already in the pipeline.

Ingo Fischer, Lidl UK board director for expansion and development, said, As the UKs fastest growing supermarket, surpassing 700 stores is yet further proof of our ambitious rate of expansion across Britain.

Its great that more people than ever before have access to our high quality, fresh and locally sourced products at incredible value, and that as a result, were able to create more jobs for local communities up and down the country.

Lidl experienced a 16% sales growth in 2017 and it shows no sign of stopping. The latest Kantar Worldpanel results have outlined sales growth of 16.3% year on year and a market share of 5%.Britain is set for a pay rise as the world economy lifts growth and falling migration makes it harder for companies to find cheap foreign labour. A report by the regional agents of the Bank of England suggests firms expect to give the average worker a 3.1 per cent pay rise in 2018, compared to 2.6 per cent last year, amid the strongest growth for a decade. - Daily Mail

Sterling will plunge more than 15 per cent from current levels if Britain leaves the European Union in a disorderly fashion, the IMF has warned. In its annual Article IV assessment of the UK economy, the Bretton Woods institution said the pound was up to 15 per cent overvalued on fundamentals today but should Brexit lead to a significant increase in trade barriers, the equilibrium exchange rate could be more depreciated than suggested here. - The Times

British businesses want to stay in the customs union and the single market after Brexit, according to a Harvard survey conducted by Ed Balls. The former shadow chancellor interviewed 80 small and medium-sized businesses in Britain about the type of deal they wanted and has published the findings in a report from the Harvard Kennedy School. - The Times

The Goldman Sachs boss, Lloyd Blankfein, has added his voice to the chorus warning that Donald Trumps $1.5tn tax cut and spending plans could lead to an overheated US economy. The odds of a bad outcome have gone up, Blankfein said, warning that over-stimulating an already healthy economy could prove too much of a good thing. - Guardian

The Murdoch clan are under mounting pressure to increase their takeover bid for Sky in the wake of the pay-TV giants successful Premier League rights auction. Sky retained its status as the dominant Premier League broadcasterand slashed its annual bill by nearly 200m, prompting renewed calls for a more generous offer from 21st Century Fox.

Eating factory-made food including cornflakes, pizza and chocolate bars every day increases the risk of cancer by a quarter, the first study of its kind suggests. Additives in ready meals, packaged snacks and shop-bought cakes may combine to trigger the disease, with scientists fearing cancer caused by highly processed food over and above the harmful effects of the sugar and fat it contains. - The Times

An activist US hedge fund trying to push Tesco to pay more for Booker Group claims that a growing number of shareholders supports its position. Sandell Asset Management, which holds a 1.75 per cent position in Booker, said last week that it intended to vote against Tescos proposed 3.7 billion takeover of the cash-and-carry wholesaler. - The Times

More than 50,000 British workers may be being cheated out of part of their pension each year, according to a scathing report by MPs who warned of another major mis-selling scandal. The work and pensions select committee accused regulators of fiddling while Rome burns after its investigation found that unscrupulous financial advisers, sometimes employing vulture intermediaries at factory gates, had persuaded steelworkers to transfer their final salary pension pots. - The Times

City firms including Goldman Sachs, Invesco Perpetual and NFU Mutual have committed to signing up to a government-backed gender equality charter after being pressured to do so by the chairman of the Treasury select committee. Nicky Morgan, the Conservative MP, wrote to more than 30 finance firms urging them to sign up to the Women in Finance Charter  or explain why not. The charter commits firms to building a more gender balanced industry, including hiring more women in senior roles. - Telegraph

A new company backed by a trio of City grandees has been launched, with plans to raise an initial 150m to fund promising entrepreneurs. The business, named Ansor Ltd, has signed up Martin Morgan, the former chief of Daily Mail and General Trust, David Weaver, ex-chairman of Jefferies, and Tom Boardman, the chairman of huge Swedish investment company Kinnevik. - Telegraph

Faulty appliances such as washing machines, tumble dryers and fridge freezers are causing more than 60 house fires a week in the UK  a figure which has stayed stubbornly high in recent years  according to a Which? investigation. Government action to remove potentially dangerous electrical white goods from homes is falling woefully short, the consumer group warns, as it challenges ministers to explain how the fledgling Office for Product Safety and Standards will tackle the problem. - Guardian

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, could be costing the UK billions of pounds a year, according to a new report. According to the thinktank Demos, ADHD is a major socio-economic burden. The costs to the nation of the disorder in adults who are unable to work or hold down a full-time job are high. - Guardian

An independent US trade body on Wednesday said it rejected hefty duties on Bombardier's C-Series jets partly because Boeing lost no sales or revenue when Delta Air Lines ordered the aircraft in 2016 from the Canadian planemaker. The International Trade Commission (ITC) also said the 110-seat C-Series jets ordered by Delta and Boeing Co's smallest 737 MAX 7 plane do not compete, adding the sale to Delta did not come at the American planemaker's expense as it did not offer any new aircraft to the No 2 US carrier. - Telegraph

Persimmon boss Jeff Fairburn has failed to subdue the anger felt by shareholders over a 110m payout despite promising to give a substantial amount to charity. Mr Fairburn said today that he planned to set up a charitable trust after facing criticism over his pay package, claiming that he was misplaced in believing the decision was a private matter. - Telegraph

Jim Ratcliffe, the multibillionaire chemicals tycoon and Brexit supporter, has handed a contract to create a British successor to the Land Rover Defender to a company in Germany. His chemicals company Ineos had signed up more than 200 German engineers to create a new world-class 4x4, the idea for which he first conceived in a pub near Buckingham Palace. - GuardianLondon's FTSE 100 was up 0.2% to 7,228.87 in afternoon trade on Thursday, helped along by a solid performance from miners, while companies with exposure to South Africa did well as investors welcomed Jacob Zuma's resignation.

Old Mutual and Mondi - both of which have dual listings on the London Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Securities Exchange - racked up healthy gains as Cyril Ramaphosa took over from Jacob Zuma as president of South Africa.

The South African rand rallied to its highest level since March 2015 following Zuma's resignation, after weeks of political wrangling, helping to boost companies with SA exposure.

Neil Wilson, senior market analyst at ETX Capital, said investors were breathing a sigh of relief after nine years of scandal.

"Growth has stagnated badly under Zuma and there is hope that this will usher in a period of greater political stability and maybe some economic reforms that can get the drivers of growth going again.

"Ramaphosa us seen as good for business and will tackle corruption and mismanagement. Not that he wont face challenges of course - there are deep economic and social problems and the ANC remains pretty divided. But whatever happens under the new president, I think markets and business assume it wont be anything like as bad as Zuma."

Miners Rio Tinto, Fresnillo and Antofagasta advanced as metals prices gained on the back of a weaker dollar.

On the downside, Standard Life Aberdeen retreated after saying it was making an impairment charge of around 40m after Lloyds Bank announced it was withdrawing an estimated 100bn in funds controlled by its Scottish Widows investment arm.

"We are disappointed by this decision in the context of the strong performance and good service we have delivered for LBG, Scottish Widows and their customers," said SLA chief executives Keith Skeoch and Martin Gilbert.

We will be discussing the implications of this with LBG and Scottish Widows."

AstraZeneca, Royal Dutch Shell and Unilever were all weaker as their stock went ex-dividend.

Risers

Old Mutual (OML) 248.40p 3.76%

Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,215.00p 3.58%

Evraz (EVR) 387.80p 3.33%

Mondi (MNDI) 1,850.00p 3.27%

BAE Systems (BA.) 589.00p 2.90%

Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,135.00p 2.71%

Just Eat (JE.) 883.40p 2.55%

Fresnillo (FRES) 1,360.50p 2.33%

Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,558.00p 1.99%

Antofagasta (ANTO) 933.80p 1.94%

Fallers

Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) 358.50p -7.91%

Severn Trent (SVT) 1,675.00p -3.18%

United Utilities Group (UU.) 656.40p -1.91%

DCC (DCC) 6,685.00p -1.69%

AstraZeneca (AZN) 4,752.00p -1.61%

Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,291.50p -1.21%

Unilever (ULVR) 3,754.50p -0.99%

Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,264.50p -0.75%

British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,407.50p -0.73%

National Grid (NG.) 739.40p -0.64%Cyclicals were clearly in demand on Thursday, with Industrial Metals&Mining and Mining towards the top of the leaderboard as the US dollar gave back some of its recent ill-gotten gains and the start of the Lunar New Year holidays saw some Asian sellers come out of base metals markets for a time.

As of 1930 GMT, the Bloomberg commodity index was sitting atop gains of 1.38% for the day at 87.9853, while the US dollar spot index was 0.66% lower to 89.112.

Earlier, three-month LME copper futures had jumped from an opening level of $7,018 per metric tonne to $7,163 per tonne, although nickel was the standout gainer in London, rising from $13,470 per tonne at the open to $14,100.

Iron ore futures were also higher.

Sandwiched in between Industrial Metals&Mining and Mining was Automobiles, after Melrose Industries released a response to GKN late on Wednesday morning, after the latter outlined its Project Boost strategy to return up to 2.5bn to shareholders over the next three years.

Melrose said the Project Boost announcement was a "stark admission" of GKN's underperformance over many years, and a validation of its own diagnosis.

Investors were also tuned into the media space on Thursday, with WPP pacing the advance supported by positive comments out of analysts at Liberum.

"WPP has been one of the two best performing FTSE100 stocks in the recent correction (the other is another media stock, Just Eat) driven by positive comments from Publicis (Hold, TP 68) and Dentsu (NR), suggesting that 2018 will be a better year than 2017.

"We think the comments add weight to arguments that the structural concerns on the Agencies have been overdone. If this is correct, then the correct multiple of 11x for WPP looks too low and represents a buying opportunity. Interpublic (NR), another Agency group, reports today so their comments should provide further visibility," they said.

Sky was the other standout gainer in Media after the company managed to clinch the rights to four of the five biggest Premier League 32 game packages for 1.193bn - approximately 20% less than analysts had forecast.

Shares of lenders were also on the move, led by TBC Bank, HSBC, CYBG and Barclays.

Weighing on the sector however, RBC Capital downgraded its recommendation on shares of Virgin Money from 'outperform' to 'underperform', lowering its target price form 350p to 250p.

The same broker revised his target on CYBG from 240p to 300p.

Top performing sectors so far today

Industrial Metals & Mining +4.23%

Automobiles & Parts +3.29%

Mining +2.18%

Media +1.67%

Banks +1.41%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Household Goods & Home Construction -0.77%

Food & Drug Retailers -0.44%

Construction & Materials -0.39%

Mobile Telecommunications -0.35%

Real Estate Investment Trusts -0.35%UNCW Establishes Honors College Agreement with Five North Carolina Community Colleges

Students graduating from five North Carolina community colleges honors programs will now be able to enroll at UNCW and work toward earning full university honors. The universitys initial partners are Alamance Community College, Cape Fear Community College, Durham Technical Community College, Southwestern Community College and Wayne Community College. UNCW plans to pursue additional agreements in the future.

We recognize that graduates of community college honors programs would like to continue their honors-level academics when they attend UNCW, and we want to facilitate this, said Kate Bruce, director of UNCWs Honors College. To do so, we have worked with the honors program directors at several area community colleges to develop memos of understanding that encourage and simplify entry into the honors curriculum at UNCW for those students who did honors work at their community colleges.

At UNCW, transferring community college honors graduates would be expected to complete a number of requirements to graduate with full university honors, including completion of honors-option courses with a B or better and a formal meeting with Bruce to determine how their previous honors courses apply to UNCWs Honors College requirements. At present, more than 350 students transfer from the partnered community colleges to UNCW each year, and Bruce hopes to continue to grow that number.

These new relationships align well with the universitys strategic priorities of fostering collaborative partnerships and preparing students for post-graduate success, said Bruce. We hope to continue reaching out to area community colleges and extending these opportunities to even more students.

Currently, 711 scholars are enrolled in UNCWs Honors College, including 40 transfer students.

-- Christina Schechtman

#HONORSA group of 18 students from the Mike Cottrell College of Business at the University of North Georgia (UNG) are providing some tax relief for local residents through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistant (VITA) program, which allows them to file taxes for low-income families and individuals at no cost.

VITA offers free tax help to people who generally make $54,000 or less, persons with disabilities and taxpayers with limited English comprehension who need assistance in preparing their tax returns. These students are Internal Revenue Service (IRS)-certified volunteers who provide free, basic income tax return preparation with electronic filing to qualified individuals.

Lisa Nash, a lecturer of accounting at UNG's Mike Cottrell College of Business and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), said 50 clients have already registered for the program, which was the total number of returns her group of six students completed last year.

Nash said both the students and clients benefit; students gain real-world experience in tax preparation while clients receive professionally-prepared tax returns, saving them dollars that would have been spent in preparation fees.

"The students must apply the tax laws learned in the classroom to situations for each tax client they are assisting," Nash said. "They interview the taxpayers and sift through the documents given by the taxpayer to find information pertinent to tax preparation. They then prepare the returns within the scope of their training and certification with oversight of the instructors."

Student volunteer tax return preparers must be certified to prepare taxes. All student volunteers in the VITA program must take the standards of conduct training and pass the advanced certification test with a score of 80 or above. All returns undergo quality reviews by the site coordinators before filing electronically with the IRS.

Cody McQuillen, 23, of Jefferson, Georgia, said getting hands-on experience helping prepare tax returns is something one won't learn in a textbook.

"I thought it would be a unique experience, one that is outside a normal class setting," McQuillen said. "I really enjoy interacting with clients and the experience I receive here will help me in my future career."

McQuillen graduated from UNG in December with a bachelor's degree in accounting and is taking the class to build hours for the CPA exam. He plans to go to graduate school at the University of Georgia later this year, with a long-term goal of being an auditor and risk advisory consultant in relation to cybersecurity.

This is McQuillen's first time at tax preparation and he feels up to the task. He spent four weeks studying the materials on tax preparation and passed all the qualifying exams.

"I feel confident," he said. "We have the resources like the Volunteer Resource Guide for reference. On top of that, the site coordinators (Nash and Dr. Anne Duke, CPA) are here to help us if we have questions. And we partner with another student to check each other's work."

McQuillen's partner, Daniel Tipton, 21, from Columbus, Georgia, found out about VITA when Nash visited one of his accounting classes looking for volunteers. The accounting senior thought it would be good experience for his career plans of being an accountant and tax preparer.

"You're advocating for these people, for their financial situation," Tipton said. "A lot of the people who come through here would never go to a CPA for tax returns. It's a lot of work, but it is good experience for me, and we have a chance to help others who need someone knowledgeable to do their tax return."

The VITA program runs through March 8 and is available on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4-7 p.m. by appointment only. For more information or to schedule an appointment, contact Lisa Nash at 706-867-3082.Donald Trump has sent out over 36,800 tweets since creating his account in March 2009, many of which were posted since he kicked off his presidential campaign back in 2015. As his Twitter use has increased, one host on MSNBC decided to compare the president to a child.

MSNBC on Trump

It started early on during the 2016 presidential election when Donald Trump would clash with the majority of the mainstream media. With each controversial policy proposal and questionable remark, the former host of "The Apprentice" decided that he could no longer count on the press to look the other way at his agenda.

In response, Trump took to social media, most notably Twitter, to push his policies and lash out at anyone who didn't agree with him. Whether it was the media, which he refers to as "fake news," critics in Hollywood, the Democratic Party, and even some Republicans, Trump has made it a habit to attack with his tweets. The president has even caused global concern with tweets directed at North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who he has since given the nickname of "Rocket Man." These issues and more were highlighted during the January 15 edition of "Deadline: White House" on MSNBC.

(Wallace's remarks start at 4:40 in the above video.)

On the Monday edition of "Deadline: White House," host Nicolle Wallace was joined by Bret Stephens, a conservative columnist for the New York Times who has expressed his disdain for Donald Trump on more than one occasion.

Stephens blamed Trump for the lack of progress being made in Washington, citing his attacks on the media, as well as his "obscenities offered with respect to immigrants" and the president's "bizarre language about the size of his nuclear button." Stephens then pointed out Trump's "bigotry" and "obsessions," which Wallace was quick to agree with.

Doubling down was Nicolle Wallace, who ripped into Donald Trump over his childish use of social media. "We seemed to have glossed over the fight he is having the Wall Street Journal," Wallace said, in reference to the paper quoting the president for claiming he has a "good relationship" with Kim Jong-un. Trump denies he ever said that, but the Wall Street Journal was able to provide an audio recording.

"He thinks that the Twitter taunts constitute a relationship," Wallace continued. "He's like a 12-year-old Commander In Chief," she said, before stating, "I dont know what other kind of relationship they have unless hes suggesting there are talks we dont know about."

Moving forward

While many in the press continue to hold the president's feet to the fire. Donald Trump is not letting up on his attacks against the so-called "fake news" media. As 2018 kicks into high gear, only time will tell how Trump's relationship with the media and his use of Twitter evolves.Over the course of Donald Trump's time as a politician, he's been forced to deal with allegations that he is prejudice towards immigrants and minorities. In his latest tweets, the president is coming under fire once again.

Trump on Twitter

It started the moment Donald Trump kicked off his campaign for president when he labeled illegal immigrants from Mexico as "rapists" and "murderers." Since then, Trump has taken a hard-line stance on immigration, whether it pertains to Hispanics or Muslims coming from the Middle East. The latest issue facing the commander in chief stems from comments he reportedly made during a recent bipartisan meeting on immigration.

After being presented with the idea of allowing protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and countries in Africa, Trump balked at the proposal and referred to those nations as a "sh*thole." In the days that have passed, Trump has done his best attempt at damage control by denying that he used the term "sh*thole," but rather other "tough" language. With the backlash still picking up steam, the president decided to tweet out a report by the Department of Homeland Security about the number of Foreign Born individuals committing terrorist acts.

New report from DOJ & DHS shows that nearly 3 in 4 individuals convicted of terrorism-related charges are foreign-born. We have submitted to Congress a list of resources and reforms....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018

Taking to Twitter on Tuesday night, Donald Trump attempted to shift the focus to a recent report to back up his position on immigration and national security.

"New report from DOJ & DHS shows that nearly 3 in 4 individuals convicted of terrorism-related charges are foreign-born," Trump tweeted out.

....we need to keep America safe, including moving away from a random chain migration and lottery system, to one that is merit-based. https://t.co/7PtoSFK1n2  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018

"We have submitted to Congress a list of resources and reforms we need to keep America safe, including moving away from a random chain migration and lottery system, to one that is merit-based," Donald Trump concluded in the second part of his post.

As expected, those who oppose the president weren't pleased, including Maggie Haberman of the New York Times who was forced to fact-check the president over his incorrect use of the term "foreign born" instead of "international."

The press release from DHS said international, which is a word left out of this tweet and a pretty key one https://t.co/6wkcZmzrkQ  Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 16, 2018

Twitter reaction

Within minutes of his post on Twitter, Donald Trump faced criticism.

"New report also shows you still have not released your tax returns," one tweet read.

American citizens are responsible for more mass-shooting deaths than any foreign-born terrorists. And its not even close.  Hot Mitch (@QuavoSlice) January 16, 2018

The war on brown people continues.  Nick O'Neill  (@nickoneill) January 16, 2018

No, dumbshit. The fact is that 73% of acts of terrorism committed in this country since 9/11 were done by right wing americans. Those are Your people and supporters, remember? I do believe you referred to them as "very fine people".  Elisa (@ElisaWilding) January 16, 2018

"The war on brown people continues," another tweet added. "American citizens are responsible for more mass-shooting deaths than any foreign-born terrorists.

And its not even close," an additional tweet stated.

I thought you passed the cognitive exam..you ramble on and on about the same shiyat..  monique (@luvtheusa76) January 16, 2018

In yet Americans kill MORE AMERICANS than any other group i.e. Vegas, Texas Church shooting. But ya thats great your fixated on on something positive for a change. Glad #DayCare is working today. #ShitShow #ShitholeInChief  Mango Malignancy (@JFKinAZ) January 16, 2018

"In yet Americans kill MORE AMERICANS than any other group i.e. Vegas, Texas Church shooting. But ya that's great your fixated on on something positive for a change. Glad Day Care is working today," a Twitter user wrote. "I thought you passed the cognitive exam..you ramble on and on about the same shiyat.." a tweet noted.In what has become routine, Donald Trump decided to vent his frustrations on social media. As part of his morning Twitter attacks, the president went after the Democratic Party over their stance on immigration reform.

Trump on Dems

The hottest political topic currently being debate in Washington, D.C. is over the future of immigration reform. The issue has long been a hot topic among Republicans and Democrats who have been unable to get on the same page for years. With the election of Donald Trump, many wondered what progress, if any, would be made, especially considering the president's hard-line stance .

From the day he kicked off his campaign for president, Trump insulted illegal immigrants from Mexico by claiming they were "rapists' and "murderers." Since then, Trump has proposed potential mass deportation and a border wall fully funded by Mexico. Over the last week, Trump has come under fire for remarks he reportedly made about immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and countries in Africa by calling them a "sh*thole." In his latest round of tweets on January 16, Trump spoke out even further.

We must have Security at our VERY DANGEROUS SOUTHERN BORDER, and we must have a great WALL to help protect us, and to help stop the massive inflow of drugs pouring into our country!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018

Taking to Twitter on Tuesday morning, Donald Trump made it clear that he is putting the blame of inaction on immigration on the doorstep of the Democratic Party.

Trump tweeted that the country "must" have increased security for immigration, while also doubling down on his desire for a border wall.

The Democrats want to shut down the Government over Amnesty for all and Border Security. The biggest loser will be our rapidly rebuilding Military, at a time we need it more than ever. We need a merit based system of immigration, and we need it now! No more dangerous Lottery.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018

"The Democrats want to shut down the Government over Amnesty for all and Border Security," Donald Trump added in a follow-up tweet, before stating that the Democratic Party will cause the military to be the "biggest loser."

Trump on Russia

In a follow-up tweet, Donald Trump turned his attention to an attack on the mainstream media over the current Russian investigation.

Trump targeted the "fake news" media for allegedly ignoring the positive aspects of the economy, tweeting that they'd rather focus on negative scandals and drama rather than anything that reflects well on the administration. "The Russian Collusion Hoax is dead, except as it pertains to the Democrats," he concluded.

Do you notice the Fake News Mainstream Media never likes covering the great and record setting economic news, but rather talks about anything negative or that can be turned into the negative. The Russian Collusion Hoax is dead, except as it pertains to the Dems. Public gets it!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018

Twitter reacts

As expected, critics of the president didn't hold back in their opposition to Donald Trump's tweets on immigration and the Russian investigation.

It's almost like he's incompetent and likes to take credit for things he hasn't done and blame others for everything else he fails at!  York Dweller (@jbrownridge) January 16, 2018

since a year ago!  unbelievable! (@norazolezzi) January 16, 2018

Republicans control all three branches of government. Responsibility for any shutdown falls on those running the government.



Why is now a time that we need our military "more than ever," Donnie? Planning to start a war?  Average Joe (@Fight4Goodness) January 16, 2018

Moving forward

While Donald Trump continues to blame the media and Democrats for much of his problems, the majority of the American people are not happy with where the country is headed under his presidency. In the most recent round of polling, Trump's approval rating is hovering around just 35 percent, and is showing no signs of improving at any point in the near future.On Saturday, two police officers were killed after engaging in a shootout with a suspect in Ohio. After Donald Trump gave his thoughts, some weren't impressed with his response.

Just spoke to @JohnKasich to express condolences and prayers to all for the horrible shooting of two great police officers from @WestervillePD. This is a true tragedy!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 11, 2018

Trump on Ohio shooting

Police officers Antony Morelli and Eric Joering responded to a reported domestic incident in Westerville, Ohio on Saturday night. A call was placed to 911 by a woman who was heard crying before hanging up, alerting dispatch to send the officers to the scene.

Once Morelli and Joering arrived, a shootout occurred, with Quentin Smith, described as a "violent criminal" by reports, shot the officers as his wife called 911 to inform them about what took place. Smith has since been taken into custody, according to Westerville Police Chief Joe Morbitzer. In addition, Smith had previously been convicted of burglary back in 2008 and was illegally possessing the gun he used during the shootout in question.

UPDATE: Two Westerville police officers were killed in

a shooting today. https://t.co/EVw0m5WU3O  Columbus Dispatch (@DispatchAlerts) February 10, 2018

On Sunday afternoon, Donald Trump addressed the incident during a tweet. "Just spoke to John Kasich to express condolences and prayers to all for the horrible shooting of two great police officers from WestervillePD," Trump tweeted out.

"This is a true tragedy!" he concluded. As expected, Trump's sympathies didn't go over well as many who oppose the current commander in chief decided to fire back, making note that there was still no mention of gun control.

Instant reaction

After Donald Trump posted his tweet about the police shooting in Ohio, the critics wasted no time giving thoughts of their own.

"Now do one for the white man who did the mass shooting in Las Vegas who's victims are still in the hospital or do only do them for illegals?" one tweet went on to read.

Impeach Trump  Reda Morjani (@RedaMor_) February 11, 2018

The real tragedy is the American people have to hear statements about real tragedies like this from YOU.#Resign #NationalDisgrace   Global Echo  #Resist // #SomethingBurger // (@EhhcoG) February 11, 2018

Your presidency is going he true tragedy. #resign #dotard  Melissa G Leitzan (@GLeitzan) February 11, 2018

"A fabulous leader!

Just ask Stormy Daniels, Melania and Barron," one Twitter user wrote. "Hey, remember when you wrongly claimed a Border Patrol agent was killed by an illegal immigrant (turns out, his death was an accident) and you insisted on stricter immigration measures and your Wall? It's weird how you don't demand gun control when police are killed by guns," a follow-up tweet noted.

Like he said last year, its his thoughts that count .   Alma (@glammaa1959) February 11, 2018

This summer a guy in Vegas wounded 517 people and killed 37. Talk about it.  MJG  (@MJGWrites) February 11, 2018

Hey, remember when you wrongly claimed a Border Patrol agent was killed by an illegal immigrant (turns out, his death was an accident) and you insisted on stricter immigration measures and your Wall?



It's weird how you don't demand gun control when police are killed by guns...  Pe Resists (@4everNeverTrump) February 11, 2018

"This summer a guy in Vegas wounded 517 people and killed 37.

Talk about it," an additional tweet stated. "Any action on guns? Or still hoping thoughts and prayers will shield the people you are supposed to be leading?" a social media user wondered. The negative reaction continued as the opposition to the entire Trump administration heats up.Over the weekend, the biggest story to dominate the news cycle has been allegations of domestic abuse against Rob Porter, the recently resigned White House staffer. In an attempt to deflect attention from Donald Trump, some over on Fox News are blaming former President Barack Obama.

#AMJoy puts Fox News on blast and accurately describes how they are trying to blame Obama for Trump's wife beating White House. https://t.co/Hzb3WZ5u5n pic.twitter.com/AUJxxd4BJ0  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) February 11, 2018

Reid on Fox News

Once the story made the rounds that Rob Porter was out at the White House after his two ex-wives accused him of various acts of domestic assault, Donald Trump and pro-Trump media outlets scrambled to come up with a defense.

Trump, as expected, gave Porter a pass, praising the work he's down in the administration while casting doubt on the accusers. Over on Fox News, host Judge Jeanie Pirro went a step further, putting the blame on Barack Obama for the reports of alleged domestic violence. "You hate Donald Trump. Find another scapegoat. You might want to look at the last president," Pirro said.

Fox News Jeanine Pirro Somehow Finds Way to Invoke Obama in Rob Porter Scandal https://t.co/Mcv7gLhnfb (VIDEO) pic.twitter.com/4Zy2Ao84HA  Mediaite (@Mediaite) February 11, 2018

Addressing these issues on Sunday morning was MSNBC host Joy Reid. "Fox News, Donald Trump's favorite TV channel, has revived its tried and true tactic of getting the Republican president out of a jam; blame Obama," Reid said.

"Fox has actually found a way to blame the former president. A man who did not abuse women, much less his wife. Who did not face multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, for the latest Trump White House scandal," she added.

"Fox's Trump defense should come as no surprise, the network reflects the attitude of Trump himself, who has a long history of defending men accused of misconduct and assault against women and girls, including Roy Moore, Bill O'Reilly, and Roger Ailes," Joy Reid pointed out.

Reid went on to cite Trump's latest Twitter defense of Rob Porter when he blamed false allegations for ruining the careers and lives of men who could be innocent.

Trump's Fox ties

Judge Jeanine Pirro's latest Trump defense doesn't come as a surprise as reports recently noted that the Fox News host could soon sit down for an interview with the president in what is being described as a rebuttal to Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury" book.

From hosts like Sean Hannity to the crew on "Fox & Friends," the majority of the network has not hidden their allegiance to the president, regardless of the information that is presented. With Trump's approval ratings remaining around or below 40 percent, it's expected that Fox News and other conservative news outlets will continue to push back against the media in an attempt to paint a brighter picture of the commander in chief.Hollywood is often seen as the sacred land for film fans everywhere; and with this allure, it draws in masses of aspiring actors, actresses, and producers. But everything is not as it seems, as highlighted by the recent scandals in the news. With all of this focus surrounding the imperfections of this seemingly perfect world, we are now seeing the dark underbelly. But how will this change Hollywood in the future?

Hollywood's underbelly

If you have kept your ear to the ground recently, then you've probably heard the maelstrom of controversy tear through the Hollywood landscape like a tornado.

Scandals have always been rife in Hollywood, and it was almost accepted that this was the reality.

With many aspiring actors, actresses, and directors alike embracing this lifestyle. But that was the way things were. The Hollywood system was shaped by bankable names, star-studded studios, and most notably the money. All of these inevitably lead to a sink or swim mentality. You either made it, or you didn't. You'd be chewed up and spat out without a single shred of remorse; because at the end of the day, in a dog-eat-dog world, it is up to you to not be the main course on the menu.

Systems of repetition

Systems of repetition are all too common when large sums of money get involved. This is not an exception for the world of film.

With blockbuster budgets thrown around like spare change its easy to see how control is of the highest importance. For example, we can look at how the big six operate. The big six is the nickname given to the six largest production studios in Hollywood, who have almost complete control of the film markets due to their prolific presence and ownership of franchises, companies, and assets; which all ensure massive profits for them.

With just six studios being the main production companies, it's easy to see how familiar names and faces get around so easily and penetrate each and every aspect of the industry. They are able to create these systems in which they stay in total control of everything that happens with seamless ease; and why? It's mainly due to their power over people.

Studios have a hold on directors, directors have a hold on actors/actresses, and unfortunately, they are the ones that suffer. Which leads me to why the Hollywood system is about to be shaken up.

Our mentality

In recent years we have seen many massive changes in our modern day world. Donald Trump becoming President of The United States, Britain choosing to leave the EU under Brexit, and the scandals being exposed in Hollywood. All of which are great examples of how we have begun making massive changes towards how we operate.

It is clearly an understatement to say that the people of the world want change. And change is exactly where Hollywood is heading. Uma Thurman's recent reveals about the disgusting acts Hollywood director Harvey Weinstein allegedly performed on her is a detailed instance of just how systematic the abuse of power is in Hollywood.

But not for much longer.

As previously mentioned, the massive world events that have unfolded in the 21st Century have shown that the world was in need of a shakeup in order to disrupt the current state of inertia. Harvey Weinstein, Quentin Tarantino, Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, and Kevin Spacey have all become examples of how the movements towards the intolerance of sexual assault prove to be effective. They have been singled out and held accountable for their actions; because the people want change. No more cyclical abuse. No more systematic manipulation. No more. The people of the world are standing up, finding their voices, and speaking out.

New Hollywood order

This is a huge shift in power.

Control is being torn out of the hands of the ones who misuse it; and with these huge changes, we must look at the future of Hollywood. We may see the rise of aspiring young directors taking the reigns of beloved film franchises after studios chose to cut ties with directors after the assault allegations against them. We may see movements such as feminism flourish to the forefront of new productions and not be suppressed by the manipulative hierarchy. This will completely change the way how films are made, and how the film industry will move forward.

Hollywood is clearly about to change, but a massive question still remains - will the change be a help or a hindrance for the industry?scheana marie has her fans in an uproar after discussing her former boyfriend's behavior with an ex-girlfriend during Monday night's episode of "Vanderpump Rules." While the SUR waitress and her actor ex, Robert Parks-Valletta, aren't dating currently, they are still together and facing rumors of infidelity on the sixth season of the show which is presently airing.

On last week's show, Kristen Doute and Brittany Cartwright confronted Scheana Marie with allegations of her then-boyfriend having kissed another woman at a nightclub in Los Angeles. Right away, Scheana Marie denied he did so and claimed he didn't even like to kiss.

One week later, the reality star acknowledged that the kiss with Parks-Valletta's ex-girlfriend might have happened but made sure that her fans knew that she wasn't concerned about the encounter.

Robert Parks-Valletta may have kissed his ex-girlfriend on the lips

"You confirmed that your [boyfriend] kissed his ex on the lips. But you say [Robert Parks-Valletta] didnt cheat on you? Do you hear yourself?" one person wrote on Instagram in the comments section of Scheana Marie's latest photo. In response, Scheana Marie said that her now-ex-boyfriend "kissed her on the cheek maybe the lips touched." She then asked, "Who cares!?," before revealing that she does the same thing with her male friends.

Scheana Marie has been facing tons of backlash in recent weeks due to her ongoing, and seemingly delusional statements about her relationship with her former boyfriend. As fans may know, Robert is no longer interested in a committed relationship with the reality star but has been treating himself to a "friends with benefits" relationship with her.

Still, she claims that she will continue to defend the actor and recently said on Instagram that he was the "most loyal" person she knows.

Scheana is single and living in Las Vegas

Scheana Marie moved to Las Vegas after splitting from Robert Parks-Valletta months ago. Since then, she's been starring in the on-stage production of "Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man."

To see more of Scheana Marie, Robert-Parks-Valletta, and their co-stars, including James Kennedy, Brittany Cartwright, Stassi Schroeder, Lala Kent, Lisa Vanderpump, Tom Sandoval, Katie Maloney, Jax Taylor, Kristen Doute, and Tom Schwartz, don't miss new episodes of "Vanderpump Rules" season six on Monday nights on Bravo TV at 9 p.m."Days Of Our Lives" spoilers suggest that viewers may be getting some big news about the possible return of Ej Dimera very soon. Many "DOOL" fans have been wishing and hoping for news about the return of EJ DiMera, formerly portrayed by actor James Scott. EJ was shocking shot and killed by one of Clyde Weston's thugs back in 2014 and hasn't been seen on the NBC soap opera since. However, there have been plenty of hints that EJ may actually still be alive.

EJ's death left fans in mourning

As many "Days of our Lives" fans know, Sami Brady returned to Salem after EJ's death with the hope that her husband may actually still be alive.

Sami found a letter revealing that EJ believed his father, Stefano DiMera, was up to something shady, and revealed to his beloved wife that if something were to happen to him there could be mysterious circumstances behind his death. "DOOL" fans also previously saw Kristen DiMera sneak into the morgue and inject EJ's corpse with a mystery substance that viewers now know to be a resurrection serum developed by Dr. Rolf and proven to work on Will Horton.

Major hints that EJ is still alive

After Will's return from the dead, "Days of our Lives" viewers watched as Kristen DiMera made another cameo on the soap opera to drop a major hint that EJ DiMera was still alive. Although fans are hoping for a return, one shocking "DOOL" theory reveals that EJ may actually already be back in Salem.

That's right, some fans believe that EJ is currently back in town and right under everyone's noses! In fact, the theory states that EJ is no longer EJ, but that he may actually be the newly introduced DiMera brother, Stefan O. DiMera. It seems some longtime viewers believe that EJ could have had surgery on his face and returned to Salem as Stefan.

There are a few signs that Stefan could be EJ, such as his cunning business sense, knowledge of the DiMera family, and his attraction to Abigail, whom EJ previously had an affair with.

Is Stefan really EJ?

Although most "Days of our Lives" fans don't believe that Stefan and EJ are the same person, it would be a shocking storyline for viewers to watch unfold.

In the past, John Black had everyone, including himself, believing that he was Roman Brady. In addition, Philip Kiriakis once returned to Salem with a brand new face after having surgery due to an injury he received while in the military. It seems that fans will have to watch the soap each weekday to see how the story unfolds.Jessa Duggar and ben seewald are raising two little boys and seem to be doing a great job with it. That doesn't stop the Fans of the show "Counting On" from freaking out, though. In Touch Weekly shared that the fans have figured out that they live right by a highway and they are freaked out over this idea.

Fans aren't happy the kids could be in trouble

Living near a highway can be scary with two small children, but also if you are watching them all the time then children live by highways safely all the time. The fans have figured out that they live on a .46 acre lot that is right next to Interstate 49.

This interstate in Arkansas is actually known for a lot of deadly crashes. This is a scary place to have children by. The Duggars home where they grew up was further back from the road.

You can see in pictures that when the kids are outside there is not a fence between them and the highway. The only thing there is a line of trees. In one picture, Ben is seen holding his son Spurgeon on his shoulders, so obviously he is safe, but the fans notice that there is no fence behind him. Maybe if they put a fence up everyone wouldn't worry about their children quite so much.

On February 10, there was a really bad accident on this road. Washington County Sheriff's Office shared saying "If you know someone driving NB on I-49 who may be headed toward this area (S of WF exit), please call them and warn them.

This is a serious, multi-vehicle accident. SLOW DOWN - DRIVE SAFELY!"

They get a lot of backlash

This couple gets a lot of backlash from fans. Everyone questions their every move. They have noticed that the kids were playing near a fireplace. They were also not happy that one of the children threw a phone in the toilet and they feel like they might have been in the bathroom unsupervised.

The fans of the show give Jessa and Ben Seewald a hard time, but they aren't the only ones. They also aren't easy on Jill and Derick Dillard over the way that they parent their children. When you put your lives out there for the world to see, then people are going to be judgemental about it. Jinger and Jeremy will probably get a lot of trouble from fans once they have their child as well.

Do you feel like Jessa and Ben Seewald should be concerned about living by a highway? Do you think the fans are worrying too much? Sound off in the comments section below, and don't miss new episodes of "Counting On" when it returns to TLC. It is almost time for the Duggars to be back on television again.Lisa Rinna may be in her 50s but her body doesn't show any signs of aging. Over the weekend, according to a report by People magazine on February 10, the longtime "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star and soap actress posted a stunning image of herself posing in a lingerie-esque bikini in her bathroom.

As fans know by now, Rinna never shies away from a bikini photo and for the past several years, she has continued to stun fans with her impressive physique. Most recently, just days ago, Rinna showcased what People magazine described as a "scintillating snap" of herself in a black lace bikini, that perfectly showed off her toned abs, arms, and even her legs.

Thanks for the swim suit [PilyQ Swimwear]," Rinna wrote in the caption of her photo.

Last week, Lisa Rinna traveled to the Bahamas to appear on "Live with Kelly and Ryan" and while there, she shared a number of photos of herself on the beach. Wish you were here, she wrote in the caption of one of her beach photos. Along with another, Rinna wrote, "old school," and in the image, she was seen sporting a bikini from Ed Hardy.

Lisa Rinna debuted extensions earlier this month

During a recent appearance on "Watch What Happens Live," the nightly talk show of "Real Housewives" creator Andy Cohen, Rinna showcased a new look. Although Rinna has been known for decades for her signature shortcut, she debuted extensions during the appearance and later revealed her decision to try something new was due to it being "time" for a change.

The last time I grew my hair out was when I had [Delilah Belle Hamlin]... 19 years ago! Rinna explained to People at the time. I think spending the last two years with [Erika Girardi] has rubbed off on me. It really has.

As Lisa Rinna explained, Erika Girardi's hair is always done incredibly and several months ago, Rinna tried out a look with her hairstylist in which her hair was off her face and she really liked it.

"This seemed like the next thing to try! she added of her decision to get extensions.

Lisa Rinna recently returned to 'Days of our Lives'

As she filmed the eighth season of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" last year, Lisa Rinna also reprised her role on "Days of our Lives." As some may know, Rinna has appeared on the soap as Billie Reed on and off for the past several years.

To see more of Lisa Rinna and her co-stars, don't miss new episodes of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" on Tuesday nights at 9 PM on Bravo TV.Stassi Schroeder and patrick meagher got back together in 2017 after spending several months apart and according to a new report, their relationship was bound to fail. Months after the couple called it quits, a source spoke out against the radio host, claiming that Meagher only agreed to give his relationship with Schroeder another shot in an effort to give his radio show a boost in ratings.

[Patrick Meagher] was only back together with [Stassi Schroeder] and on ['Vanderpump Rules'] for ratings for his radio show, an insider told Page Six on Tuesday, February 13.

As the insider explained, Meagher allegedly told his friends that he was in need of a boost for his show and never intended to stay with the reality star for long.

Patrick Meagher joined 'Pump Rules' for season six in 2017

After previously claiming that he did not want to be involved with "Vanderpump Rules" at all, Meagher began filming scenes for the sixth season of the Bravo TV reality show last summer. In the weeks that followed, Meagher and Schroeder's storyline was hit with a feud due to a solo trip to Amsterdam that he had taken prior to the start of filming. Schroeder and Meagher also butted heads before her birthday celebration and during the event, Schroeder told her friends and co-stars that Meagher being there stressed her out.

She also admitted to binging on Adderall and tequila before storming out of the bash.

Stassi Schroeder and Patrick Meagher dated on and off for four years but shortly after he joined the show, they called it quits for good and Schroeder quickly confirmed the news with listeners of her podcast, "Straight Up With Stassi." In August, Schroeder told her audience that her ex-boyfriend forgot their anniversary and got her nothing.

Where are Stassi Schroeder and Patrick Meagher now?

According to Page Six, Meagher appears to be single after splitting from Schroeder last year and has continued to host The Rap on Sirius XM. Meanwhile, during an episode of "Watch What Happens Live" earlier this week, Schroeder confirmed to host Andy Cohen that she is now involved in a new romance.

That said, Schroeder didn't reveal any details about her new man during the broadcast and has yet to share any images of the mystery guy on her social media pages.

To see more of Stassi Schroeder and the drama between her and Patrick Meagher, don't miss "Vanderpump Rules" season six on Mondays at 9 p.m. on Bravo TV.Earlier this week, co-host of "The View," Joy Behar mocked Mike Pence for allegedly talking with Jesus Christ. In response, the vice president was quick to lash out.

Pence's faith

Last week during an episode of "Celebrity Big Brother," former White House staffer Omarosa exposed various aspects about the current administration that worried her the most. While she mostly focused on Donald Trump, Omarosa revealed a few things about Vice President Mike Pence that she thinks should worry Americans, most notably the way he follows his faith. Pence is known for his strict belief in conservative Christianity, with Omarosa claiming that the vice president gets policy ideas by talking to Jesus.

The Vice President goes to war with Joy Behar over her comments on The View (via @toofab)https://t.co/56Hba11XYZ  TMZ (@TMZ) February 15, 2018

This issue was brought up during a recent episode of "The View" where co-host and comedian Joy Behar didn't pull any punches when it came to the aforementioned news of Mike Pence, going as far as jokingly saying could have a "mental illness" for thinking he's speaking to Jesus. Pence address the issue during an interview with Axios on February 14.

Pence on Behar

"I actually heard that ABC has a program that compared my Christianity to mental illness," Mike Pence said on Wednesday afternoon, explaining that he would like to laugh it off as a joke, but "I really can't." "To have ABC maintain a broadcast forum that compared Christianity to mental illness is just wrong," the vice president went on to add.

(Behar's comments start around 3:10 in the above video.)

Not stopping there, Mike Pence went on to further rip into Joy Behar's remarks, calling them an "insult" to the "vast majority of the American people." Pence concluded his criticism by accusing Behar and ABC of "religious intolerance" and being "out of touch" with the way many Americans view their religion.

Pence's faith has been one of his main sticking points as a politician over the years, and was one of the reasons why he was selected as Donald Trump's running mate. Knowing he wasn't doing well in the polls with Evangelical voters, Trump tapped Pence to help sure up the religious right and energize them enough to get to the voting booth, which did pay off in the end.

Moving forward

Over the last week, Mike Pence has found himself in the headlines more often that many are used to. Pence has been in a week-long spat with openly gay Olympic medalist Adam Rippon, which has dominated much of the Winter Olympic news coverage. With a new feud in the making with Joy Behar, only time will tell what the vice president ends up getting himself into next.Piers Morgan was a guest on the CBS daytime talk show "The Talk" on Wednesday, February 14. The 52-year-old British journalist and television personality did not hold back when talking about Omarosa, the former White House adviser who is now a contestant on "Celebrity Big Brother."

Morgan accuses Omarosa of offering to have a showmance with him when they both were on the first season of "The Celebrity Apprentice," hosted by Donald Trump from January to March 2008. He said the 44-year-old woman wanted to sleep with him. When he refused, she lashed out at him and tried to belittle him by calling him names and using homophobic slurs.

She questioned his sexuality and talked about his ex-wife and his four children. Piers summed it up by saying he has never been spoken to in his life like Omarosa talked to him during the weeks they were filming. Morgan was the winner of that season, which infuriated Omarosa even more.

Name calling

Not only did Omarosa call Morgan negative names on the reality show, but he also described her in derogatory terms on "The Talk." The journalist said he is not thin-skinned, but she was so vicious that it was unbelievable. He said she was not only vicious, but she was also duplicitous, conniving, backstabbing, a lying piece of work, and a poisonous little viper.

*NEW: Omarosa offered me sex to win Celebrity Apprentice, then called me a 'f***ing f*gg*t', invented gay smears & threatened to punch me.

Why the hell was this vile creature ever employed at the White House? https://t.co/HyxnSWyBLZ pic.twitter.com/UbXQzDX1Tj  Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) February 13, 2018

Before Morgan appeared on "The Talk" on Wednesday, he initially made the accusations in the Daily Mail that was published on Tuesday (Feb.

13). In addition to speaking out about Omarosa, he also questioned why President Trump hired her in the first place because he knew how rude she is because he had worked with her previously on two of his shows. He fired her twice but hired her to help him run the country. Piers didn't appreciate her for making fun of Vice President Mike Pence and his faith on the last episode of "Celebrity Big Brother." Pence is a devout Catholic and so is Morgan.

Sequestered in 'Big Brother' house

Omarosa can't respond right now to what Morgan said because she is sequestered in the "Big Brother" house and doesn't know what is going on around the world. When the series is over, she will probably respond to the accusations.

Everyone can't be wrong. Attorney and co-host of "The View," Sunny Hostin, appeared on the "Wendy Williams" show last week.

Hostin described Omarosa in almost the same ways as Morgan did. Hostin said Omarosa is one of the rudest persons she has ever met. She said the reality personality disrespected the cast of the ABC show when she appeared as a guest. It is hard to believe that the most hated reality TV villain is a minister, the wife of a pastor, and the associate pastor of her church.Last year, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle officially announced their engagement and plans to tie the knot on May 19. Actually, they dated less than two years before making the official announcement on November 27. Everyone is eager to see what the popular Prince Harry and the star actress royal wedding will look like. According to a report from the palace, the wedding, including the church service, the flowers, music, and reception will be taken care of by the Royal Family. Finally, Meghan will become a British citizen and senior HRH after the wedding.

This is amazing! A report by Vogue provided most of the information used in this article.

How the lovebirds met

Given the separate spheres and continents occupied by these two, people are so surprised about how they met. Well, the Prince and his fiance have let the cat out of the bag in an interview. According to the couple, they were introduced by a mutual friend during a blind date in July 2016, after which they had several dates. They got to know each other and then decided to take their relationship to another level. Actually, they have decided to keep the mutual friends name to themselves because they want to maintain her privacy.

However, there have been lots of wide thoughts about who the matchmaker is.

Some think it is Meghans friend Misha Nonoo, who is married to Prince Harrys close friend Alexander Gilkes while others think it is Violet Von Westenholz, the daughter of Prince Charles friend and a close friend of Prince Harry. According to E! news, Violet, the barons daughter, is the matchmaker, and they are not surprised that she has refused to respond to the request to say something about the role she played in the relationship.

While I don't know the real hero or heroine of this love story, there are lots of things you need to know about Meghan Sparkles Engagement Ring

The story behind the engagement ring

Prince Harry engaged his fiancee with a stunning $500,000 pink diamond ring. Besides the sparkling ring, there is an emotional story linked to the ring, which will make you teary.

The ring has a gold band, and a diamond on the center and two diamonds on the sides. Every part of this ring holds significance for the prince. The center diamond is from Botswana, a country in Southern Africa where Lady Diana always traveled to stay with her brother and friend. Also, Prince Harry often visits this country to ease himself of lifes daily pressure. The two diamonds on the side belonged to the dearly beloved late Princess Diana, Prince Harrys mother, while the gold band is made by the popularly known as Royal Jeweler Cleave & Company. The wait for the couples royal wedding is still on.South Africa awoke to the news many of them had been waiting for: Jacob Zuma has officially resigned as president of the country. The local currency, the rand, was seen to be one of the first to demonstrate its support at the news as within hours it had reached highs not experienced since 2015.

When Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was voted in recently as the new leader of the African National Congress [ANC] party, the rand had already shown signs of strengthening. But with a recent history of surviving 'no confidence' votes in parliament, the most recent of which had been postponed until the evening of Thursday 15 of Feb, people were waiting with bated breath to see if it would actually happen this time.

eNCA reported

Public opinion and response

The South African Communist Party, long-time collaborators with the ANC expressed their joy at the news, saying that this was something that should have happened a very long time ago. News 24 report.

"The levels of parasitic looting of public resources that have occurred under [outgoing] president Zumas watch, the firing of ministers who have stood in his way, the erosion of the hard-won rule of law, the perversion of key state institutions notably in the criminal justice system, the manipulation of the public broadcaster, and the auctioning off of our national sovereignty in the pursuit of private accumulation have caused huge damage to our country."

This echoes the sentiment of many of South Africa's population, who had grown weary of incidents of corruption and mismanagement, ineptitude and excuses.

With a failing currency and a recent November downgrade of the country's credit rating to junk status, South Africa has definitely been in need of a leader who can inspire confidence both locally and abroad. For the majority of the people, Jacob Zuma had stopped being that a long time ago.

For the first time in almost a decade, South Africans can rejoice that the sun has set on the Zuma era.

We can finally celebrate that the president, who had become a symbol of the erosion of state integrity, has left office. For the first time in almost a decade, South Africans can rejoice that the sun has set on the Zuma era. We can finally celebrate that the president, who had become a symbol of the erosion of state integrity, has left office. [Neeshan Balton, the executive director of the Ahmed Kathrada foundation]

Is that a Light?

As we approach what seems like a light at the end of the tunnel, there are some who are more cautious in their celebrations.

It is important to note that Cyril Ramaphosa, who as new president of the ANC was always destined to be South Africa's next president, has spent many years in support of Zuma and together with the majority of ANC leadership defended him through many of the controversies and corruptions that plagued his presidency since 2009 when he took over from Thabo Mbeki.

Jacob Zuma did not act alone and despite him moving on, it may be good to spend some time reflecting on those who will be stepping into leadership and ask what does this mean and for who. Cyril Ramaphosa himself has some question marks around his character and integrity which were raised during the 'Miners Shot Down' documentary which tells the story of the Marikana Mining Massacre in which 44 people were killed during a strike action, which placed a lot of the responsibility on his head.

So we will wait and see. But for now, there will be many South Africans celebrating with a view that it couldn't be any worse than it was. Time will tell us just how true that is. In the meantime, hope reigns supreme and the work of rebuilding a nation lies ahead for all of its people.Top high school performers for Week Five of fall sports

More things are happening on the fields and courts for fall athletes during the high school sports season.SANTA FE  New Mexico lawmakers reached final agreement on a $6.3 billion spending plan late Wednesday, sending the bill on to Gov. Susana Martinez.

Approving a balanced budget was legislators top task for the 30-day session that ends at noon today, and the spending plan for the fiscal year that starts in July would provide a funding infusion for public schools, Medicaid, and crime-fighting efforts in Albuquerque.

A Martinez spokeswoman suggested the two-term Republican governor would sign the bill but said she may use her line-item veto authority to strike out wasteful pork projects in the legislation. The governor has until March 7 to act on bills passed during the final days of this years session.

The governor worked with legislative leaders and is generally pleased by the budget and how it prioritizes public safety, crime, and economic development, Martinez spokeswoman Emilee Cantrell said.

The budgets overwhelming approval came after top budget experts in the House and Senate reached a compromise on the spending plan Wednesday. That was prompted by a previous House vote not to go along with Senate changes to the bill.

Under the deal hatched in a rare legislative conference committee, in which appointees from both chambers try to reach agreement on competing versions of legislation, overall spending in the budget bill remained largely unchanged.

Specifically, the compromise calls for $64 million to be spent on road repairs statewide, $4 million for rest areas, $1 million for broadband infrastructure and $5 million for a partial repayment to school districts for money that was taken last year in a budget-balancing maneuver.

I think it sends a very poor message if you dont at least make some attempt at restoration, said Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, who described the $41 million taken last year as a debt owed to schools.

The compromise would not affect other spending areas in the budget, such as more money for prosecution efforts in Bernalillo County and pay raises for state workers and teachers.

State Police and corrections officers would receive  at 8.5 percent  among the largest salary increases, which Department of Public Safety Secretary Scott Weaver said would help with officer recruitment efforts.

Were trying to be competitive with the market, Weaver said. Everybody wants good, quality law enforcement officers.

Overall, the budget would use a recent oil-driven revenue uptick to increase state spending by nearly $260 million  or 4.1 percent  over current levels.

It would also set aside more than $632 million  or roughly 10 percent of state spending  in cash reserves. The reserves were depleted last year, after two consecutive years of lower-than-expected revenue collections prompted spending cuts and other cost-saving moves.

Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, D-Gallup, chairwoman of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, described road projects as an important component of the spending plan, saying the spending would help kick-start New Mexicos economy.SANTA FE  A proposal that would protect the confidentiality of aerospace companies at Spaceport America passed the House late Wednesday  but only after significant changes aimed at narrowing what can be kept secret.

Senate Bill 98 underwent significant change in the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and later passed the full House on a 63-1 vote.

And transparency advocates didnt oppose the proposal.

A previous version of the legislation specifically said aerospace tenants at the Spaceport could keep their identities secret if they wanted. Even how much rent they paid could have been kept confidential.

But the new version  a product of negotiations involving House Minority Leader Nate Gentry, R-Albuquerque  is more narrow, though there may be disputes over how to interpret the language.

Nonetheless, the bill now exempts from public disclosure aerospace customer information that would cause substantial competitive harm to the company. The exemption would have to be based on specific factual evidence.

The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government didnt oppose passage of the amended bill  a contrast to its position on early versions.

The sponsors of the proposal agreed to the amendments.

Supporters say the legislation would help taxpayers earn a return on their $220 million investment in the Spaceport, which lies west of White Sands Missile Range. They hinted that customers are ready to sign contracts if the bill passes.

The aerospace industry is so competitive that companies wont consider the Spaceport unless they have confidentiality guarantees, supporters say.

This is such an important time for the Spaceport, Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, said Wednesday.

She is a co-sponsor of the bill, in addition to Sen. William Burt, R-Alamogordo, and Rep. Rebecca Dow, R-Truth or Consequences.

The proposal still must go back to the Senate for approval of the amendments. The session ends at noon Thursday.

Gov. Susana Martinezs signature would also be required.For the fourth consecutive year, the New Mexico Lottery is pushing legislation to repeal the guarantee that at least 30 percent of lottery revenues must go to college scholarships.

This fight goes back more than a decade. Prior to 2007, the lottery was not required to deliver any amount to the scholarship fund. The lottery had to pay out at least 50 percent of revenues as prizes, but once that requirement was met, the lottery paid its operating costs and sent whatever was left over to the scholarship fund.

As a result, during its first decade, only about 23 cents of every dollar bet on the lottery reached the scholarship fund. Another 55 cents was used for prizes, and 22 cents went into overhead and administrative costs, almost as much as reached the scholarship fund.

Fortunately, in 2007, the Legislature enacted the 30 percent guarantee to scholarships, based on a proposal by Think New Mexico.

The 30 percent guarantee has been a resounding success: the lottery has delivered more money to the scholarship fund every year since the 30 percent guarantee was enacted than it did in any year before. The scholarship fund received an average of an additional nearly $9 million a year. Meanwhile, the lotterys operating costs fell to 14 to 16 percent.

The students gain was a loss for the multinational gaming corporations that contract with the lottery to print Scratcher tickets and run multistate games like Powerball. Their contracts were significantly reduced when the 30 percent guarantee was enacted. For example, one contract decreased by about $5 million a year, money that went directly to scholarships.

So perhaps it is not surprising that these lottery vendors have hired at least five powerful lobbyists to try to roll back the 30 percent guarantee so that they can negotiate more lucrative contracts. In each of the past three years, the bills pushed by these lobbyists have failed to pass the Legislature.

However, something different happened with this years bill, House Bill 147, which like its predecessors was introduced by the lottery and its vendors to repeal the 30 percent guarantee.

Last Saturday afternoon, House Bill 147 was re-written on the House floor so that it puts the interests of students first. Thanks to leadership from legislators across the political spectrum, three pro-student amendments were added to the bill on strong bipartisan votes.

First, Rep. Jason Harper, R-Rio Rancho, passed an amendment capping the lotterys annual operating costs at 15 percent. This amendment makes sure that the lottery wont go back to spending 22 percent on administrative costs and vendor contracts.

Then, Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Santa Fe, passed an amendment to make sure students will continue to receive at least $40 million a year. The scholarship fund has received at least $40 million a year in nine of the last 10 years, thanks to the 30 percent guarantee.

Finally, Rep. Alonzo Baldonado, R-Los Lunas, passed an amendment requiring that unclaimed prize money must go to the scholarship fund in addition to the $40 million floor. Unclaimed prizes average $1 million to $3 million a year.

It was very telling that the lottery opposed all three amendments as unfriendly even though the lottery claims to be acting in the best interests of students.

Thanks to these amendments, students will receive at least $40 million a year for scholarships, plus $1 million to $3 million in unclaimed prizes, and if the lottery ever fails to deliver that amount, the 30 percent guarantee automatically returns. In addition, lottery operating costs are capped at the current level so that any growth in the lottery will go to students, not gaming companies.

Since House Bill 147 now puts the interests of students first, we are encouraging the Senate to pass the bill in its amended form. However, it appears that the lottery and its vendors are lobbying the Senate to strip out the House amendments that protect students.

The New Mexico Lotterys statutory mandate is to provide the maximum amount of revenues for scholarships at the states public universities. You can help make sure the Lottery stays true to this core purpose by visiting www.thinknewmexico.org and urging your legislators and the governor to pass House Bill 147 with all three pro-student amendments intact.

Think New Mexico is an independent, statewide, results-oriented think tank serving New Mexicans.The Albuquerque Teachers Federation (ATF), New Mexicos largest teachers union and affiliate of AFT NM, constantly beats the drum for higher teacher pay.

This is what any good union does for its members. Included as part of What We Stand For, ATF writes, Educators need compensation comparable to others with similar education and experience levels.

Teachers work hard and deserve better pay. I fully agree. As a former union teacher and the child of a lifelong ATF member, Im on board.

Why then has ATF/AFT leadership worked so hard to squash multiple bills that provide our hard-working teachers what they deserve?

I believe unions remain an important countervailing force in our country. I also believe that demanding smarter, better unions is not anti-union. I expect more and better from those I most admire.

This past week alone AFT/ATF leadership went against organizations from all perspectives, including many traditional allies: National Education Association, School Boards Association, Coalition of Charter Schools, Superintendents Association, Teach Plus NM, NMPED, NMKidsCAN, Las Cruces Public Schools, Gallup McKinley County Schools, Farmington Schools, Think New Mexico and Lovington Public Schools.

Are you as confused as I am? OK good, because Im left scratching my head at yet another regressive stance from a so-called progressive organization.

In what universe is a potential raise for teachers (HB 310), an additional pathway for career advancement (HB 177), and directing more money to classrooms (HB 180) a bad thing?

Welcome to the upside down that is Albuquerque public education, and the undue influence that it has through the entire state.

On Saturday ATF/AFT leadership stood as the lone opposition to HB 310, which provided increases for starting teacher salaries at all levels, a raise for all licensed and non-licensed school staff, and $5 million for teacher recruitment.

Afterward they issued a statement calling the bill an unfunded mandate. More misleading jargon to justify the indefensible. The real problem is their view of education as a zero-sum game and their scorched-earth approach to anyone who doesnt fall in line.

They also stood against HB 177, the Level Three Teacher and License Salary bill. Put simply, HB 177 allowed our best educators to progress in their careers without jumping through hurdles that have little direct impact on student learning, like a masters degree.

This would have been a win/win for our teachers and, especially, for our students.

Lastly, they rallied against HB 180, a bill developed from research conducted by the highly respected Think New Mexico. HB180 called for NMPED to implement an advanced data collection system to save districts time and money.

It also sought to establish voluntary minimums for what percentage of a districts budget goes to instructional or school-based spending. Both parts of the bill sought to ensure more of the roughly $2.6 billion  $3 billion if you include federal funds  we spend on K-12 education annually gets to classrooms.

So why is AFT/ATF leadership so willing to go against the best interests of its own members?

Efforts to defeat all three of these bills are mystifying unless you understand two things:

First, their undying hatred for our teacher evaluation system, NMTeach. This despite strong evidence that treating all teachers the same is harmful to both educators and students. Good and great teachers deserve recognition; struggling teachers deserve support.

Second, ATF/AFT leadership secures its outsized power by conjuring boogeymen and fighting like hell against anyone or anything that doesnt fit their narrow, dated ideas.

They have a problem for every solution. And the reality is their views are increasingly ideological and archaic.

Though efforts on these three bills stalled out this year, I hope to see them again next January. And, if ATF/AFT leadership cant keep up with the best interests of its own teachers and our students, its time for new leaders with a fresh vision for the decade ahead.It simply defies explanation why the former mayor of Santa Fe cant seem to renew his drivers license.

Theres no question that when the state of New Mexico moved to Real ID-compliant licenses and Driver Authorization Cards in November 2016, there was a learning curve  for drivers as well as Motor Vehicle Division clerks.

The system requires drivers to present specific documents for a Real ID license, which also serves as a vetted federal identification card, and less-stringent documents for a DAC, which simply allows the holder to drive legally. It was mandated by Congress after the 9-11 attacks and is being implemented by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

And while it is different from the days of simply walking into an MVD office with your soon-to-expire license and re-upping it, even for those just wanting a DAC, almost 35,000 drivers authorization cards have been issued in 15 months.

Yet David Coss says MVD clerks repeatedly turned him away when he tried to get a DAC because he had lost his Social Security card and they insisted he needed it to get a DAC. He is now the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit accusing the state Taxation and Revenue Department (which oversees MVD) of requiring too much documentation for those seeking a DAC and other ID cards.

You can request a replacement Social Security card online and get it in a few weeks, but thats not the point of the lawsuit.

The fact is, according to MVDs website, www.mvd.newmexico.gov, you dont need proof of a Social Security number to get a DAC.

Coss may have drawn an uninformed or misinformed MVD clerk every single time he went in, because the list of acceptable documents for a DAC posted on the website is extensive. And he says he brought in the proper documents, just not a Social Security card.

Rather than protesting his DAC rejection, Coss joined with the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness, Somos un Pueblo Unido, the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty and ACLU of New Mexico to sue Tax and Rev, claiming the state went beyond state law and is requiring DAC applicants to establish proof of identification number. And the lawsuit claims an untold number of people have been unlawfully denied DACs.

MVDs own list specifically says applicants who do not have a Social Security number can instead use two proofs of identity  and it lists 29 options, including current New Mexico drivers license; foreign or U.S. government birth certificate; valid passport; Medicare, Medicaid or other medical insurance card; military ID, discharge papers, VA ID or selective service card; tribal membership card; court order for a name change, adoption, divorce or gender change; or state Corrections Department or federal prisons ID.

The changeover has been hard, and not only in New Mexico. But it is essential to remember that Real ID was passed by Congress in 2005 after 18 of 19 terrorists used state-issued drivers licenses to board planes and then crash them into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and, thwarted by heroic passengers, a field in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001. In fact, Robert Thibadeau, director of Carnegie Mellons Internet Security laboratory, has said the 19 terrorists on Sept. 11 were holding 63 state drivers licenses for identification.

The chances are slim to none that the nation is going to return to a pre-9-11 ID and licensing system. But the state has been working with Homeland Security to make adjustments for drivers who simply do not have some of the documentation, such as Native Americans who do not have a birth certificate but do have a Certificate of Indian Blood. Those types of accommodations need to continue, as does ensuring that front-line clerks are properly trained and have the resource materials and backup they need to assist applicants who dont have their documents in order or are using ones off the beaten path.

As a government agency almost everyone has to deal with every four years, MVD is an easy target for criticism. But a lawsuit that burns up scarce taxpayer dollars that could have been used to improve customer service is an un-Real way to go.

Real ID, DAC documents

Go to www.mvd.newmexico.gov

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

Officials explored using the states permanent funds as well as the Albuquerque Convention Center to entice Amazon to build its new $5 billion headquarters in New Mexico, according to emails obtained by the Journal.

Seattle-based Amazon is expected to create up to 50,000 jobs at the location it selects for its new headquarters, also known as HQ2. The e-commerce giant announced in January that it had selected 20 potential sites from the 238 proposals it received. No New Mexico locations were on the short list, though Albuquerque and several entities in Dona Ana County said they had submitted proposals.

In an Oct. 2 email to Albuquerques former economic development director, Gary Oppedahl, State Investment Officer Steven K. Moise wrote that he had examined any options available using the permanent funds, as we discussed at lunch.

Moise pointed to a 9 percent allocation of the states Severance Tax Permanent Fund that could be used for economically targeted investments. Moise said much of the allocation had already been invested, leaving approximately $124 million.

However, investments in this program may only be made in NM-based entities, Moise wrote in the email. We know of no other manner in which the permanent funds might be helpful.

In a subsequent email, Oppedahl asked whether Amazon would qualify as New Mexico-based if the company built its headquarters in the state, and whether the 9 percent could be increased in a special legislative session. Moise responded that statutory changes would probably be required.

Questions to Moise were directed to a State Investment Council spokesman, who called the conversation between Moise and Oppedahl limited with no specific plans or details. He also said it was not unusual for officers to have exploratory conversations about economic development projects, though any financial decisions would have to be discussed and approved by the council.

In an interview, Oppedahl said the final proposal included the permanent funds as one of the incentives offered to Amazon. That money could legally be used for infrastructure, he said, such as construction of a building or a rail spur.

Permanent funds were not the only incentives for Amazon discussed by the city and its partners. In another email, Albuquerque Economic Development President Gary Tonjes, whose not-for-profit organization prepared the proposal on behalf of the city, described the Albuquerque Convention Center as a potential real estate opportunity for Amazon.

We absolutely do not want it to be known publicly that the convention center could be in play.  Were also waiting for approval on another site, Tonjes wrote in an Oct. 10 email.

Tonjes declined to comment. But Oppedahl said the convention center was offered as a temporary space for Amazon until a full headquarters could be constructed.

A spokeswoman for Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said in a statement that his administration would not support either the use of permanent funds for an out-of-state entity or giving away the Albuquerque Convention Center, though it would support welcoming big businesses to Albuquerque, using reasonable tools to do so.

Mayor Keller has appointed new leadership at Economic Development to create an innovative economic engine in our city that works for local small businesses and as well as larger companies, the spokeswoman said in the statement.

An Oct. 8 email shows that Steve McKee, president of ad agency McKee Wallwork & Co., one of several organizations involved in the project, suggested not offering any incentives because they would be a rounding error to (Amazon) in the long term, he wrote to Oppedahl and others. It is unclear whether the final proposal reflected McKees idea, although subsequent emails show others disagreeing with him.

McKee declined to comment, citing the confidentiality of the process.

The emails, which were selected for release by a city attorney, are the result of a Journal request for records from the citys Economic Development Department during the time the proposal was being developed. City staff under both former Mayor Richard Berry and Mayor Tim Keller have said the Amazon proposal itself falls outside the scope of New Mexico public records law and have rejected several requests for the document.

Documents obtained as part of the record request include a nondisclosure agreement with Amazon signed by Tonjes, and a letter prepared by an attorney on behalf of Albuquerque Economic Development addressed to the city of Albuquerque. The letter said the city had located two drafts of the proposal that were potentially responsive to what appeared to be the Journals record request, but the city did not release those drafts.

A spokeswoman for Keller said the proposal places the city in a legal bind. AEDs letter describes the proposal as a trade secret protected under state law and said that AED must protect its trade secrets if it is to continue to generate economic development opportunities.

Among the other information disclosed by the emails and related documents:

 Officials nicknamed the proposal Project Golden.

 AED said it invested hundreds of hours as well as approximately $30,000 in the proposal.

 A draft of the proposal included Rancho Cielo in Belen as a potential headquarters site.

 Another potential, unnamed site was described as being literally adjacent to 400 acres owned by the University of New Mexico.

 Copies of Albuquerques paper proposal were delivered to Seattle at 7:59 a.m. Oct. 19 and signed by E. Golden. The proposal also contained a link to a password-protected website with additional information.

Amazon is expected to make its final selection on its headquarters site sometime this year.The Democratic Party of New Mexico vice chairwoman says she has been the target of unwanted sexual advances by an elected Democratic official who also is active in the party in southern New Mexico.

In a letter dated Monday, Neomi Martinez-Parra wrote that shes been a victim of inappropriate sexual misconduct by Dona Ana County Commissioner and Dona Ana County Central Committee member John Vasquez.

As you are well aware, Mr. Vasquez has been accused of various inappropriate behavior(s) (toward) females, Martinez-Parra wrote in a letter to New Mexico Democratic Party Chairman Richard Ellenberg. I too have been a victim of Mr. Vasquezs inappropriate sexual misconduct, which I will address separately through my legal counsel.

Vasquez drew condemnation last month for Facebook posts directed at a female community activist in which he attacked her mother and suggested the activist had asked him for favors.

They say you can take a girl out of the ghetto , Vasquez wrote in a dig at New Mexico Comunidades en Accion y de Fe organizer Johana Bencomo.

Vasquez didnt respond to emails from The Associated Press and his voicemail was full.

Martinez-Parra also wrote that she strongly disagreed with a proposal from Ellenberg that she not pursue a complaint in exchange for Vasquez stepping down from a post as chairman of the Democratic Party of New Mexico Veterans Caucus.

Vasquez resigned this month as Veterans Caucus chair in response to allegations of inappropriate behavior, including egregious and disrespectful posts on Facebook, Ellenberg said in a statement.

Ellenberg told the AP he didnt mean to suggest Martinez-Parra should drop her claim and apologized for conveying thats what he wanted. That was not my intention, Ellenberg said.

Still, Ellenberg said there was little the state party could do to sanction Vasquez because its up to the Dona Ana County Democratic Party to remove Vasquez. The party also cant force Vasquez to resign from his commissioners post and he isnt up for re-election until 2020, Ellenberg said.

Ellenberg said party officials were scheduled to hold a conference call with Martinez-Parra late Tuesday to discuss options.

The flap comes after the Democratic-led New Mexico Legislature recently overhauled its policies against sexual misconduct and harassment.

Female lobbyists and elected officials have said sexual harassment at the Capitol has gone unchecked under procedures last updated in 2008.

Democratic state Sen. Michael Padilla of Albuquerque was ousted in December as majority whip and ended his campaign for lieutenant governor amid allegations that he harassed women at a previous job a decade ago. He has repeatedly denied the allegations.SANTA FE  State lawmakers are racing to approve a temporary change in the states personal income tax code aimed at lessening the impact for some New Mexicans who could face a financial hit from the federal governments new tax law.

A bill approved 66-0 by the House would keep in place a current state tax deduction for heads of household  usually single parents with dependent children  for one year.

We need to make sure those dollars stay in their hands, Rep. Carl Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, said during a House floor debate this week.

While the federal tax law signed into law by President Donald Trump lowers corporate and income tax rates, it also increases the standard deduction and removes the ability to deduct some state income taxes.

In New Mexico, that will actually mean a higher tax bill for some individuals.

Overall, the state will take in an additional $51.8 million per year in state personal income tax revenue due to the federal tax changes, according to a state Taxation and Revenue Department analysis.

But keeping the head of household exemption in place for another year would reduce that total amount by $6.2 million, lawmakers say.

Rep. Jason Harper, R-Rio Rancho, who has pushed unsuccessfully for sweeping changes to New Mexicos tax code in recent legislative sessions, said the federal tax law essentially broadens the tax base by doing away with certain tax deductions.

The feds did what weve been trying to do with our gross receipts tax, Harper said during a House floor debate this week.

However, he said he supports the legislation pending at the Roundhouse, House Bill 367, to minimize the impact on some taxpayers while lawmakers further study the federal law.

Other states are also considering changes in response to the federal law, officially called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

New Mexico is one of seven states the Tax Foundation identified in a recent report as likely to receive increased revenue under the federal tax bill. Thats because those states conform with federal guidelines when it comes to personal income tax, and the elimination of exemptions is expected to outweigh the increase in the standard deduction.

To be enacted into law, the New Mexico bill would still have to be approved by the Senate before the 30-day session ends at noon today. It would also have to be signed by Gov. Susana Martinez.WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump at last broke his silence to explicitly denounce domestic violence in the wake of allegations that a top White House aide had abused two former wives. Chief of staff John Kelly, under fire for mishandling the matter, stayed largely out of sight, his future in doubt and the White House in tumult.

The chaos surrounding the departure of aide Rob Porter put a harsh spotlight on Kelly, the retired general who was brought on last summer to instill military-like discipline in the free-wheeling West Wing. Questions persisted about what and when Kelly knew about the abuse allegations against Porter, who resigned as staff secretary last week after the accusations became public.

West Wing aides have had their faith in the chief of staff shaken, and morale has plunged to levels not seen since last springs firing of FBI Director James Comey and the August uproar over Trumps refusal to denounce white supremacists after the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

This White House scandal erupted initially without the presidents involvement. But Trump fed the fury last week when he defended Porter and questioned the #MeToo movement that sprang up in recent months to protest the mistreatment of many women.

In Trumps first comments after Porter resigned, he praised his former aide. Next, he appeared to cast doubt on the ex-wives allegations by tweeting: Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation.

Finally, on Wednesday, Trump said the words that Democrats and Republicans alike had been listening for:

I am totally opposed to domestic violence and everybody here knows that, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. I am totally opposed to domestic violence of any kind. Everyone knows that, and it almost wouldnt even have to be said. So now you hear it, but you all know it.

The denunciation of domestic violence was greeted with relief by some West Wing aides. But a sense of unease about Kellys fate persisted.

For months, Kelly  with help from Porter  had established a semblance of stability in a White House often rattled by an unpredictable president. That has eroded in a weeks time, as accounts about the handling of the Porter matter continue to shift and some aides come to believe Kelly lied to save face and save his job.

Trump has complained to confidants that Kelly let the scandal spin out of control and that the constantly shifting narratives make the White House  and, by extension, Trump himself  look amateurish and incompetent, according to one person familiar with the discussions but not authorized to discuss them publicly.

The president has floated names of possible replacements for Kelly, including National Economic Council head Gary Cohn, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and businessman and GOP heavyweight Wayne Berman.

There was no sign that a move was imminent, according to four people with knowledge of Trumps recent conversations. The president is known to frequently poll his advisers about the performance of senior staff but is often reluctant to actually fire aides.

McCarthy tried to douse speculation about a possible change, saying: I have not spoken to the president about anything about a job, and I never have. And there is no job opening.

Berman has not been approached about the job, according to a person familiar with his thinking but not authorized to discuss it publicly. Mulvaney has previously denied angling for the post.

Kelly has indicated he would step aside if he lost the faith of the president. But he has not offered to resign, according to a White House official and an outside adviser. Neither was authorized to discuss personnel matters publicly and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

A retired four-star Marine general, Kelly took the post last July and immediately tried to rein in a West Wing that was riven by rivalries and plagued by inexperience He fired attention-seeking aides such as Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka, curtailed access to Trump for outside advisers and insisted that even powerful West Wing staffers, like Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, receive his blessing to reach the president.

But as Kelly shook up the West Wing and had some success at clamping down on public backstabbing, he also made some enemies inside and outside the building. They were quick to pounce on a vulnerable chief of staff, leaking negative stories about him this week.

A number of aides who earlier had rallied around Kelly were dismayed and disillusioned by his handling of the domestic abuse allegations. Officials, up to press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, took to couching their comments with the caveat they did not have firsthand knowledge of some of the details.

At a senior staff meeting last Friday, Kelly tried to press his own timeline concerning Porter in a way that played up his decisiveness once he learned the details of allegations, according to some aides. But Kelly, aides said, had encouraged Porter to try to weather the initial allegations.

But White House officials had known for months of at least the broad charges of abuse against Porter by his ex-wives, as revealed Tuesday by FBI Director Christopher Wray. Wrays testimony to lawmakers contradicted the accounts of West Wing officials.

Kelly, a dark cross on his forehead to mark Ash Wednesday, kept his distance from reporters as he helped manage the White House response to the mass shooting at a Florida school.

The Porter drama has placed a renewed focus on the role of White House Counsel Don McGahn, who first informed Kelly about Porters situation last fall.

___

Lemire reported from New York. Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey, Jill Colvin and Ken Thomas contributed reporting.

___

Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com///twitter.com/@ZekeJMiller

.Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  A package of remedies to try to fix the states ailing guardianship system cleared the House late Wednesday on a 63-0 vote, with the measure headed to the Senate for concurrence as the final hours waned in this years legislative session.

The bill, if approved, would provide more public and family access to the traditionally closed system for the hundreds of mentally or physically incapacitated adults in New Mexico who are placed under court-appointed guardianships or conservatorships each year.

If approved, the reforms would into effect July 1.

State Rep. Gail Chasey, D-Albuquerque, chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee, before the vote Wednesday night said the bill is manageable, measured and still addressed substantive reforms.

Earlier in the day, Chasey said addressing the guardianship issue was a huge priority in the session.

Heavily amended in the committee process, the measure is an excellent and substantial start, but it is by no means the end of the process, said Rep. Daymon Ely, D-Corrales.

Ely led the move to lop off 200 pages of the original bill, which would have adopted a version of a new model Uniform Guardianship Act, which was considered too costly and in need of more study.

Before the House vote, Ely said that not all court-appointed guardians or conservators are bad actors.

But this has become a tremendous problem, Ely said. There were some really doing horrendous things to very vulnerable people and their families.

The bill relies on increased transparency, providing for open court hearings and more involvement of family members, to help deter abuses and exploitation that critics of the system have complained about publicly for months. The open hearings could still be closed at the courts discretion, but an open hearing on the closure would have to be held first.

To salvage the reform bill, Chaseys committee agreed to kill the section that would have implemented a national reform statute by July 2020.

The courts, which still cant say exactly how many people are currently under guardianships or conservatorships, say New Mexicos underfunded judicial system isnt ready for such a dramatic and costly change.

Earlier in the week, Ely took the lead in proposing amendments to keep the implementation of the key provisions low-cost, within $1 million.

This is a long-overdue reform, Ely told the Journal. Theres two ways that you get the crooks. One is you shine a light on them with transparency. The other is you make them accountable. You make them worry that somebodys going to catch them.

Nearly all the criticism of the system involves corporate guardians and conservators appointed by the courts in cases in which people are mentally or physically incapacitated. Over the past year, a major New Mexico corporate guardian, Ayudando Guardians, was closed by the U.S. Marshals Office after its top executives were indicted on federal charges related to the embezzlement of more than $4 million in client funds.

Primary opposition to the scaled-back version came from its original sponsor, state Sen. Jim White, R-Albuquerque, who proposed the state adopt a version of the newly released Uniform Guardianship Act, which provides for improved representation of those incapacitated people in guardianship and conservatorship proceedings. The comprehensive model law would also set out specific ways families could file grievances with the court about the appointed guardian or conservator.

Im so happy weve got this interest going, We didnt have this a year ago, White told the House Judiciary Committee before it scrapped the provision to implement the new model law by 2020. But theres a lot more that can be done. We need to make a commitment to bigger changes.

White said that if someone would ask him whether they should get a guardian appointed, Id say, Dont do it. The system is so broken right now.

He described the current closed process as very, very scary.

Ely, an attorney who said he has sued conservators in the past, told the Journal his amendments included a provision to outlaw the practice of some conservators, who oversee an incapacitated persons finances, to require heirs to release them from all liability before they receive any distribution from an estate.

In addition, under the proposed legislation, You cant restrict visitors as much as you used to, said Ely, who added that some nefarious guardians and conservators keep relatives away so they can isolate the incapacitated person.

Another feature of the bill is to require professional conservators to post bonds and file regular, extensive accountings with the courts on how they have handled an incapacitated persons financial affairs. I did hear this from one conservator that they couldnt violate the confidentiality (of the closed process) to cooperate with the audit, and I thought that was unbelievable. Ely said.

But Ely said the provisions aimed at accountability would be ineffective without the proposed $1 million in funding in House Bill 2 dedicated to guardianship reform. That money would help the courts research their case files to ascertain who is currently under guardianship and their status. The appropriation would help pay for independent auditors to perform spot checks.

Judges would also need to be educated on the reforms, he said.

Were depending on you to make it right for people who dont have a voice said Mary Darnell. The controversial guardianship/conservatorship case in 2010 of her mother, Blair Darnell, was featured in Whos Guarding the Guardians?, a Journal investigative series, in late 2016.

Darnell asked the committee members to consider what would happen if they someday were placed under a court-appointed guardianship or conservatorship in New Mexico.

If somebody walks into your home  puts down court papers and says theyre appointed by the court to take care of you and they have all your finances in their name  your family is going to be turned upside down. The courts are culpable, because they hire these people and theyre not overseeing them.

Ely said the challenge of fixing all the problems with current law is daunting, considering that legislators had less than 30 days to achieve consensus.

I think everybody, including Sen. White, are all motivated to do the right thing. Is it going to be perfect? No. But is this an incredibly significant reform to the process? Yes. And if we discover there are problems, we can come back during the next 60-day session and fix them.WASHINGTON  A group of 16 senators announced they had reached a bipartisan agreement Wednesday aimed at balancing Democrats fight to offer citizenship to young Dreamer immigrants with President Donald Trumps demands for billions to build his coveted border wall with Mexico.

New Mexicos Democratic Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich were noncommittal on the compromise, details of which were still trickling out Wednesday night. The proposal as drafted Wednesday would extend citizenship opportunities to Dreamers, whose parents brought them to the U.S. illegally as children, but not their parents.

Were evaluating these proposals in real time, and Im examining each one to determine what the impact would be in New Mexico, Udall said in a statement to the Journal. My first priority is to protect Dreamers, whose lives were thrown into chaos by President Trumps completely unnecessary and heartless decision to end DACA on March 5.

Heinrich and Udall highlighted the plight of New Mexico Dreamers on the Senate floor and on social media Wednesday.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, is an Obama-era program that Trump decided in September to end on March 5. A federal judge in January issued an injunction on Trumps executive order while it is subjected to legal challenges. A second federal district judge this week echoed that decision. The DACA program is now accepting applications for two-year permit renewals but is not taking new applicants.

Whitney Potter, a spokeswoman for Heinrich, said the senator has serious concerns about the proposal to spend $25 billion on border security included in the bipartisan bill under consideration in the Senate.

I am not willing to allow Dreamers to be used as political bargaining chips to advance President Trumps offensive and horribly wasteful border wall, Heinrich said in a statement Wednesday night.

In a Senate floor speech Wednesday, Heinrich said he would back legislation that includes giving Dreamers a right to stay in the U.S. and gain citizenship. He also said he would support rational border security policies that our communities actually need, but not a border wall.

While not specifically mentioning the bipartisan pact, Trump urged lawmakers to oppose any plan that doesnt meet his more stringent demands, which include curbs on legal immigration and the abolition of a visa lottery. The Senates No. 2 Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, warned that lawmakers need to address Trumps entire proposal.

There were also qualms among Democrats. The partys No. 2 Senate leader, Richard Durbin of Illinois, said some Democrats had serious issues with parts of the plan. Those concerns focused on its spending for Trumps wall and its bar against Dreamers sponsoring their parents for legal residency.

Were not there yet, Durbin said of the 60 votes the proposal would need for approval.

Udalls spokeswoman, Jen Talhelm, said Wednesday that the senator has voiced support for an immigration bill introduced by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Chris Coons, D-Del. The bill would allow Dreamers to qualify for permanent residence and direct federal agencies to more effectively control the border by 2020, but it doesnt offer the Dreamers a special path to citizenship or make sweeping changes in immigration rules. Heinrich is also open to considering the McCain-Coons bill, his spokeswoman said, although it is not currently under debate in the Senate. The White House opposes the McCain-Coons plan.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.WASHINGTON  He was an unruly college student in Louisiana where he mixed booze and gambling with classes on electrical engineering. A decade later, he was guarding an Islamic State oil field in Syria and storing bomb-making files and military handbooks on thumb drives.

This still-unidentified dual American-Saudi citizen, whos been detained by the U.S. military in Iraq for nearly five months, has become a test case for how the government should treat U.S. citizens picked up on the battlefield and accused of fighting with IS militants.

U.S. authorities say that when he surrendered in mid-September to U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, he was carrying thumb drives containing thousands of files. There were 10,000 or more photos  some depicting pages of military-style manuals. There were files on how to make specific types of improvised explosive devices and bombs. There also were nearly a dozen spreadsheets in Arabic, including one, dated Nov. 11, 2016 titled: Islamic State Spoils and Booty Bureau.

The government made its case against the detainee in a public version of a sealed document filed late Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. It said he voluntarily signed up to be an IS fighter, worked for the group for 31 months and has an extensive social media history espousing pro-IS philosophy.

The government also said it discovered the detainees name, biographical details and information labeling him as an IS fighter on another thumb drive the Defense Department obtained separately in November 2015. That drive, full of what appear to be intake forms for new IS recruits, was recovered by local Syrian forces in July 2015.

While the governments more than 150-page filing doesnt identify the detainee or say when or where he was born in the United States, it discloses extensive detail about his activities and travels worldwide leading up to his surrender at a Syrian battlefield checkpoint.

The detainee, who is married and has a 3-year-old daughter, has black hair, brown eyes, is about 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs about 140 pounds.

An individual who met the detainee in July 2005 in New Orleans where he was studying told the FBI that he was a wild and typical college student, who drank and partied. He said the detainee used marijuana and gambled at Harrahs casino in the city. The detainee didnt work, he said, but received a sizable amount of money from the Saudi Arabian government each month and that his mother was very wealthy.

The Saudi embassy in Washington said Thursday that it is common for the Saudi government to provide monthly stipends to students studying abroad to cover living expenses.

The associate said the detainee lived briefly during 2005 or 2006 in Covington, Louisiana, where he frequented casinos and strip clubs. After an argument with friends about not repaying money he used to gamble, the detainee left the United States for Saudi Arabia.

Between 2006 and 2014 the detainee got married and lived in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, working in various family businesses, including a womens tailoring shop and a construction company. While his wife was pregnant, he traveled on business to Indonesia, Singapore, China and Malaysia.

While in Asia, the government said, the detainee tweeted pro-IS messages, including one that said: Muhammad is the messenger of God and those who are with him are harsh against the infidels and merciful among themselves.

The associate from New Orleans said the detainee stayed with him briefly in the summer of 2014 when he tried unsuccessfully to get a U.S. passport for his daughter. He said the detainee returned with his wife and child on a second visit to New Orleans in late 2014.

He lost contact with the detainee, but said he had heard he had disappeared. He described him as being enthusiastic to an extreme and having a good heart, but noted that he could be misled, the government said. The associate said the detainee had spoken very passionately about how the Syrian regime needed to be overthrown and how IS was justified in beheading captives.

In early 2015, he flew to Athens, Greece, and then to Gaziantep, Turkey where he paid a smuggler $300 to get him into Syria. He arrived there with $40,000 in his pocket.

The detainee said that three days after he entered Syria he was kidnapped by IS militants and imprisoned for seven months. He said he was released only after agreeing to work for IS. He spent two months at a IS training camp near Mayadin, Syria, before being assigned to a brigade responsible for guarding the front lines in Deir el-Zour province.

After that he worked getting fuel for IS vehicles, handling brigade expenses and guarding a gate of an oil field. He left the oil field without permission one day and headed to Deir el-Zour, where he was apprehended by IS military police. After another stay in IS detention, he worked for IS monitoring imams and prayer callers and civilians running heavy equipment.

Upon learning that he had a background in electrical engineering, IS gave him a car to drive to Raqqa, Syria, where IS militants told him about a project to use a type of machine, similar to a satellite dish, to transmit microwaves that could bring down an airplane, the government document said. The detainee declined to work on the project.

In late 2016, he rented 200 acres in Hamah, Syria, from IS for $750 and spent at least $12,000 on olive and almond trees. He spent another $4,000 to buy 80 sheep. He hoped to flee into Turkey as a shepherd, the government said.

He remained in contact with his wife and last spoke with her via WhatsApp in July. He told his sister via text and through WhatsApp that everyone was leaving the IS and he was leaving, too. He was captured three weeks later at the checkpoint.

He told the American-backed SDF forces that he was daesh, which is another name for IS, and said he wanted to turn himself in and speak to the Americans. When he surrendered, he was carrying the thumb drives, $4,210, a global positioning device, hats, clothes, a Quran and a scuba snorkel and mask.

The government claims presidential authorities as well as congressionally approved war powers written after 9/11 provide the legal basis to hold the detainee as an enemy combatant linked to IS.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the detainee, argues those war powers pertain to al-Qaida and the Taliban and dont apply in the battle against IS.

The ACLU claims the government has not provided any evidence that he took up arms against the United States and notes that he was imprisoned by IS. The detainee said he had press credentials to do freelance writing about the conflict in Syria, although the FBI hasnt found any published articles or blogs he authored.

The bottom line is that the government is holding him illegally, said ACLU attorney Jonathan Hafetz. If the government wants to continue to detain him, they should charge him with a crime.

The government says its still deciding what to do with him.

Government lawyers say options include continuing to hold as an enemy combatant or charging him in U.S. federal court  possibly with providing material support to terrorists. One other option is to hand him over to another country, perhaps Saudi Arabia because of his dual citizenship.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has ruled that the government must provide 72 hours notice if it wants to transfer the detainee so that it can be contested in court.WASHINGTON  Roswell lawyer Joel Carson  nominated by President Donald Trump for a lifetime appointment to the Denver-based 10th Circuit Court of Appeals  sailed through his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday with a glowing introduction from New Mexicos senior senator and friendly questioning from the panel.

Carson would replace Paul J. Kelly Jr., who plans to take a more limited, senior status on the court if Carson is confirmed. Carson, 46, is a principal at Carson Ryan LLC, a Carlsbad-based law firm specializing in oil and gas law, regulatory issues, litigation and appellate cases. He has also served as a part-time magistrate judge since 2015.

Sen. Tom Udall, a New Mexico Democrat and former state attorney general, praised Carson during his introduction of the nominee on Wednesday.

There is little doubt he has the legal expertise to be a good judge, as had been shown from his well-qualified (rating) from the ABA, Udall told the Senate Judiciary Committee, citing letters he received from Carsons colleagues who said he has demonstrated character, integrity, compassion, fair-mindedness  and respect for opposing points of view.

All of these qualities will serve him well on the district court, said Udall, whose office said he intends to vote in support of Carsons nomination.

Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., was noncommittal on Carsons nomination. Heinrich spokeswoman Whitney Potter told the Journal in December that the senator hopes to be able to support his confirmation. She said the senators position remains the same on Wednesday.

In his questioning of Carson at Wednesdays committee hearing, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., noted that black people get the death penalty as punishment for severe crime more often than white people. He asked if Carson thinks there is implicit racial bias in the criminal justice system.

I absolutely recognize that racism is a problem in this country, Carson said, adding that he would be on guard for it in our courts.

Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor, who closely tracks judicial nominations said that Carsons hearing went well and that Udalls laudatory introduction should help him secure Democratic votes.

Carson appeared to be well-prepared and his answers were careful, Tobias said. Moreover, he has much practice experience in energy and environmental areas, which are important for service on the 10th Circuit.

Carson earned his law degree at the University of New Mexico. He has been active in New Mexicos Republican Party over the years serving both as secretary and on the state partys executive committee.

The 10th Circuit hears appeals from New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas, Utah, Wyoming, and parts of Montana and Idaho. In addition to Kelly, Judge Harris Hartz of Albuquerque sits on the court now, as does senior Judge Bobby Baldock of Roswell.Legislation to improve New Mexicos troubled guardianship system through transparency and greater involvement of family members is headed to the desk of Gov. Susana Martinez.

The 60-page bill is designed to prevent abuse and exploitation of thousands of incapacitated people who are under court-ordered guardianship or conservatorship in the state.

The measure, which involved last-minute efforts by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers to address the issue this session, put off more comprehensive reforms, which are to be studied for the next two years.

Some things have to be above politics, said state Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque. This guardian issue is one of those issues.

After a unanimous vote of approval by the House late Wednesday, the Senate took up the amended measure for concurrence in the first hour of the last day of the 30-day session. That vote was unanimous. If Martinez approves the bill, changes could go into effect July 1.

Another measure, designed to close loopholes in the law regarding state-certified trust accounts, was also approved by the Legislature.

That bill, proposed by the state Regulation and Licensing Department, came in response to the discovery last year of a $4 million embezzlement scheme of trust accounts, including those of vulnerable or incapacitated people under conservatorship. A top executive of the Desert State Life Management firm of Albuquerque has pleaded guilty to federal fraud and money laundering charges and is awaiting sentencing.

Fueling the campaign for reform was another federal criminal case involving a $4 million embezzlement of client accounts by Ayudando Guardians, whose top executives are accused of siphoning funds from vulnerable clients to finance a lavish lifestyle for themselves and their families.

During the recent legislative debate, the question wasnt whether guardianship reforms were needed in New Mexico but whether the proposed legislation went far enough and how to foot the bill.

The final product was a scaled-back version of a 260-page guardianship measure originally sponsored by state Sen. James White, R-Albuquerque, who called the current system dangerous and very, very scary earlier this week.

The bill underwent extensive edits as the members of the states judiciary expressed fears that a more comprehensive overhaul of the system was too costly and in need of further study.

The judiciary, represented by state District Judge Shannon Bacon of Albuquerque, said the courts advocated reform but were unprepared for a massive overhaul. Judges noted that because of a lack of funding, there still is no computer database to determine how many pending guardianship cases exist in the state. Estimates range from 5,000 to 7,000, with some cases dating back decades.

White originally proposed that the state adopt a new model guardianship unveiled last fall by a national Uniform Law Commission.

And White insisted that the state commit to implementing the act by 2020 and find ways to prepare for the cost, estimated at from $5 million to $7 million a year for each of the first two years.

But Ivey-Soto, working with the judges, said he was worried about unintended consequences and proposed a compromise in the Senate that was modified in the House Judiciary Committee.

Were taking care of the most immediate needs with regards to guardianship and recognizing theres still more work to be done, Ivey-Soto said after the session ended Thursday. Ivey-Soto said he hopes all the legislators and the courts recognize the necessity to make sure this isnt the last stop.

The final bill asks the courts to study implementation of the Uniform Act over the next two years and report back.

Yet some of the key concepts of the proposed Uniform Code were inserted into the final bill, such as:

 Opening closed, or sequestered, guardianship hearings to the public, unless a judge rules otherwise. Current law mandates closed hearings unless the incapacitated person requests an open hearing.

 Providing more extensive notice to family members about such proceedings. Currently, the list of relatives required to be notified is limited. Advocates say family members, if there are any, can alert judges of problems with guardians and conservators, who handle finances for the incapacitated person.

 Reining in guardians who restrict or ban family members from visiting their incapacitated loved ones. The practice has been criticized as a method by which nefarious guardians perpetrate abuse and exploitation by isolating the incapacitated person.

 Requiring bonds to be posted by non-family conservators who handle finances for an incapacitated person, which can often include the sale of their property. Current law gives judges discretion to require bonds, but judges havent.

Up to $1 million in funding has been proposed to implement the reform package.

The funding would pay independent auditors perform spot checks in cases involving conservators. Expanded notification by the courts to relatives will also have a financial impact, judges say, as will the process of identifying the status of the existing caseloads.

Judges by law still have to provide oversight of how the incapacitated person is being treated and how assets are being handled.

A bigger problem is the entire criminal justice system has been underfunded for years  so everythings been slowed down, Rep. Daymon Ely, D-Corrales, told the Journal. This is what happens when you dont fund a system properly.Victims relatives and student survivors called for action while the president and congressional leaders offered condolences and condemnation of the crime. Americans with close ties to past school shootings expressed distress at how little has changed. And world leaders, Olympic athletes and TV talk show hosts reacted with horror to the slaying of 17 by a lone gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida.

Here is a sample of those voices responding to the tragedy.

___

We are all joined together as one American family, and your suffering is our burden also. No child, no teacher, should ever be in danger in an American school.

 President Donald Trump, addressing the nation the day after the shootings

___

Youre right. Ive been saying this since my mom was murdered at #SandyHook in 2012. So, is it finally time to talk #gunsense? Im happy to share my experience with you to help brainstorm solutions.

 Erica Lafferty, the daughter of slain Sandy Hook Elementary School principal Dawn Hochsprung, responding to Trump on Twitter

___

If we do something, it should be something that works. And the struggle up to this point has been that most of the proposals that have been offered would not have prevented, not just yesterdays tragedy, but any of those in recent history.

 U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, speaking on the Senate floor

___

Why is your hunting hobby more important than my nieces life?  I dont care that Nikolas Cruz did this. If it had not been him, it would have been some other sad sick young man. I do care that he was able to legally purchase an assault weapon.

 Abbie Youkilis, an aunt of 14-year-old Jaime Guttenberg, who was slain in the Florida shooting, in an emailed statement

___

Its not as if nothing has been done to enforce the laws we have on the books and make sure that bad people who arent supposed to get guns dont get guns. But I dont think that means you then roll the conversation into taking away citizens rights.

 U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, in an interview with radio show host Tony Katz

___

My message to lawmakers in Congress is please take action. Ideas are great. Ideas are wonderful and they help you get re-elected and everything. But whats more important is actual action.  Children will continue to die if we dont take a stand now.

 David Hogg, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, on CNN

___

It cannot be denied that something dangerous and unhealthy is happening in our country.  We can and we must do better. We owe it to every one of those kids crying outside their school yesterday and all those who never made it out of that school.

 U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, speaking to a group of sheriffs in Washington

___

We are grieving with Parkland. But we are not powerless. Caring for our kids is our first job. And until we can honestly say that were doing enough to keep them safe from harm, including long overdue, commonsense gun safety laws that most Americans want, then we have to change.

 Former President Barack Obama on Twitter

___

I had to have the exact same conversation that every parent in Broward County had to have with their children this morning. And then I had to walk and meet with him. Im fully aware of the impact that this has on the people that live here. This is a national conversation.

 Melisa McNeill, public defender for shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz

___

Those families are going to say to me, when is enough, enough? For those saying now is not the time to talk about gun violence,  I would ask, when is the time? If now is not the right time, when is the right time? After the next shooting? Or after the one thats going to come after that? Because these are not going to stop unless we change ourselves as a culture.

 U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat from Florida, on the Senate floor

___

To say that such brutal, pointless violence is unconscionable is an understatement.

 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, in calling for a moment of silence for the Florida victims

___

The issue of school shooting, the issue of mass shootings, is such a complex issue. But the fact of the matter is we are the only developed nation that is not currently a war zone that is currently a war zone.

 Devon Adams, who as a student fled the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, in an interview with KMGH-TV in Denver

___

We have mourning parents, we have people who are in really difficult circumstances, and I think we just need to keep them in our thoughts and prayers at this time. We can have conversations about other things later.

 U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speaking during a visit to Lebanon

___

Congress has a moral responsibility to take commonsense action to prevent the daily tragedy of gun violence in communities across America. Enough is enough.

 U.S. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California in a statement

___

We are so privileged and lucky to be doing what we are doing, and its so sad that 17 people died in the United States.  Theres an emotional hurt. I am overwhelmed.

U.S. pairs skater Alexa Scimeca-Knierim, who broke down in tears after her free skate performance with husband Chris Knierim at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea

___

This is just absolutely pure evil.

 Florida Gov. Rick Scott.

___

In this moment, I am a mom of three kids that go to school and I had to talk my kids off a ledge this morning because they were afraid to go to school.

 TV talk show host Kelly Ripa on ABCs Live with Kelly and Ryan

___

This tragedy is something that just cannot be swept under the rug or think about it for a few hours or a few days and then its gone.  Everyone has to take a long look at how we treat guns and particularly those assault rifles.

 TV talk show host Maury Povich in a video posted to Twitter

___

Follow the APs complete coverage of the Florida school shooting here: https://apnews.com/tag/FloridaschoolshootingFollowing serious allegations of misconduct, a substitute teacher at Jimmy Carter Middle School has been placed on unpaid leave, while the schools principal and vice principal were placed on paid leave.

The allegations, that Im aware of at this moment in time, are not violent in nature  and do not involve sexual assault, APS spokeswoman Monica Armenta said Thursday.

Albuquerque police are conducting an investigation while the Albuquerque Public Schools are simultaneously conducting an internal investigation, Armenta said.

The substitute teacher, identified as Claude Carroll, was placed on leave late last week. The decision to put principal Amy Mahr and vice principal Frances Chavez on leave was made late Tuesday, so interaction with parents, staff and students doesnt interfere with the integrity of the investigation, Armenta said.

On Wednesday, Jimmy Carter parents received a recorded phone message informing them of the police investigation into the allegations of serious misconduct by the substitute teacher and the naming of Margaret Lucero as interim principal.

The recorded message went on to say: Because this is a police investigation and a personnel issue, there is nothing more we can share, only that the safety and well-being of our students is always our first priority. We apologize for any anxiety this may cause you or your family. Please talk with your student and encourage him or her to talk with our school counselor if this situation proves to be stressful for any reason.

Its not the first time teachers at Jimmy Carter Middle School have been the subject of investigations.

In 2010, a teacher and two educational assistants were caught on recorded video pinning a 12-year-old special education student face-first against a wall. That same teacher previously had taught at a charter school in Socorro, where two students accused him of inappropriate touching.

Those charges were later dropped after the girls refused to testify at a preliminary hearing. APS ultimately terminated the teacher.

In 2009, a 33-year-old female teacher was fired after confessing to a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old boy.A former social worker with the Children, Youth and Families Department has been indicted on charges of embezzlement, demanding a bribe and violation of ethical principles of public service, after a special agent with the New Mexico Attorney Generals Office said he asked for money in exchange for setting up a hearing for a father whos children had been taken into state custody.

According to the indictment, between May 3, 2016 and June 25, 2016 Antonio Tapia, 38, of Valencia County solicited money from a father in order to schedule a psychological assessment. The assessment was already pending or at least should have been brought before the father in Tapias official capacity.

The father had filed a complaint against Tapia and the state of New Mexico later that year saying Tapia had offered to get things done for $350.00 and later went down to $150.00 and then finally to $80. He said Tapia had asked him to meet up at a gas station on Old Coors and said if he paid the fee immediately his hearing could be moved up.

Henry Varela, a CYFD spokesman, said Tapia had been hired as a permanency planning worker to help families with reunification or adoption on May 27, 2015 and was no longer an employee after Sept. 30, 2016. He could not comment on why Tapia left CYFD and if it had anything to do with the case.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 implementation of the contract to deliver Russian Su-30SM fighter jets to Belarus may begin one year later in 2019 after Russia gets rid of dependence on imported and blacklisted components, Belarussian Defense Minister Andrey Ravkov said on February 14, 2018.

A RusAF Su-30SM fighter jet

(Credit UAC)

"So far the Russian Federation is unable to supply the aircraft to us because of problems with deliveries of spare parts which are under sanctions. A fully Russian aircraft is being localized and they promised to begin implementing the contract in 2019," he said.



"We determined the procurement schedule and will buy four aircraft a year. Su-30 will enhance the capabilities to protect troops and facilities from air attacks and will also renew the air fleet," he added.



Last year the Belarussian Defense Ministry signed a contract with Irkut Corporation on the purchase of 12 Su-30SM in 2018-2020. Belarus had to annually receive four aircraft. The ministry later said the contract was delayed for a year because of technical problems with aircraft components.



The multirole Su-30SM (serial, modernized) (Flanker-H by NATO classification) is designed to win supremacy in the air and for strikes at ground and surface targets. The aircraft has front horizontal fin and steerable thrusters. They make the aircraft super maneuverable. Su-30SM carries multifunctional Bars radar. It has a broad range of weapons, including air-to-air missiles and high-precision air-to-surface armaments. Su-30SM can be used to train pilots for perspective one-seater fighters. The aircraft has been built since 2012.The PLO Executive Council decided last month to halt economic ties with Israel, reject Palestinian recognition of Israel and call for an end to security cooperation, yet Israeli-Palestinian economic relations remain steady in terms of imports, exports and new joint projects.

A source at the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy, who declined to be named, told Al-Monitor that, so far, Palestinian and Israeli "economic relations, including trade relations, haven't deteriorated," despite posturing after US President Donald Trump decided to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

In fact, Palestinian Minister of National Economy Abeer Odeh and Israeli Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon jointly inaugurated a new cargo scanner Jan. 30 on the Allenby Bridge to promote the movement of goods among Jordanians, Israelis and Palestinians, and to increase trade volume by allowing 20 trucks carrying 40 tons each of merchandise to cross daily, instead of seven trucks.

Speaking to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, a Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics source said trade activity statistics for December 2017 haven't been issued yet because work on clearance revenues (VAT, import taxes and other revenues) with the Israeli side hasn't been concluded. The source at the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy, however, said there were no significant changes in the import and export volume for December 2017 and January 2018.

Per the Paris Protocol signed in 1994 between the PLO and Israel, the Palestinian economy has become integrated into Israel's. In other terms, the Palestinian economy is subordinate to Israel's through a customs union that dispenses with economic borders, despite the disparity in income levels. The protocol also allowed Israel to tax Gaza importers for goods brought in via Israel. Israel continues to collect taxes on Palestinian imports on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and sends the PA the taxes monthly. Israel has abused this system many times to pressure the PA into meeting demands. The entire Palestinian economy process has to go through Israel first. Palestinians would need to break free from this protocol to end their dependency on the Israeli economy.

That's a tall order for the PA. In addition to economic control, Israel has authority over Palestinian crossings, border posts and basic services such as electricity, fuel and water.

According to Azmi Abdul Rahman, director of the Statistics Department at the Palestinian National Economy Ministry, So far, indicators on trade with Israel have remained unchanged. The Palestinians subordination to Israel continues to prevail over trade relations, as our trading activities are mostly made to or through Israel.

He told Al-Monitor, The PAs [annual] imports are worth $6 billion, 75% of which are made [both directly] from and via Israel. Its exports are worth $900 million, 80% of which are made through Israel. Such indicators have remained unchanged for five years.  Palestinian trade will continue to be subordinate to the occupation as long as the latter controls all of the border and commercial crossings and obstructs activities between Palestinian governorates, especially between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The checkpoints, crossings and control over economic resources in Area C hinder a productivity boost. Area C is a unit of the West Bank populated by Palestinians and Israeli settlers and administered by Israel.

Abdul Rahman added, Israel holds the reins of the trade activity. Breaking away from subordination to Israel is not beyond the bounds of possibility, but rather a hard task that would take forever.

Despite a Palestinian boycott of Israeli products, trade volume between the PA and Israel over the past few years has remained steady so far. Abdul Raham said, Israeli exports in Palestinian markets are worth $2 billion a year. Should national products replace Israeli goods on the market, our subordination would be lessened and thousands of job opportunities would be created.

Although the PA admits ending economic subordination to Israel is essential, multiple policies need to be modified. Raja Khalidi, research coordinator for the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute, told Al-Monitor the so-called trade exchange between the PA and Israel is actually "Israeli goods flowing into the Palestinian market."

"Based on that, the lack of political decision and [actual mechanisms] for this purpose prevents an instant and swift end of such subordination, he said.

Khalidi stressed the need to replace Israeli commodities with Palestinian-made products by promoting national production and marketing products internationally. That kind of change would require protective policies to encourage local production of industrial and agricultural goods, he said.

Khalidi confirmed that to achieve economic recovery, there must be a political and economic decision to reform the internal economic situation and business environment, promote local companies capacities and production, and tackle the PAs 25-year-long open market policy. Palestinians need to adopt a political position aimed at ending the commitment to the Paris Protocol and develop an alternative economic plan.

Palestinian political authorities' decision to sever economic relations with Israel has nothing to do with reality and only serves to temporarily distract the Palestinian public. This is true particularly since severing ties requires a strategic economic plan that has yet to be developed and a willingness to bear its consequences. The PA has yet to show either. The PA must lay the foundation for a new economic path that is a far cry from the situation that has remained the status quo for a quarter of a century.The latest exhibition of works by Hossam Dirar, one of the Middle East's most promising artists today, pays homage to 19th-century Cairo through his re-interpretation of Orientalist paintings. Le Caire 1801, which opened at the Soma Art Gallery in Cairo on Feb. 4, features works in which Dirar has added his own touch of striking colors, among them shades of red and blue, to the older works depicting Western artists images of Egypt.

I took European Orientalist artists paintings, which I duplicated as black and white photos, and then I painted over them using acrylic paints and inks, Dirar told Al-Monitor. I used collage techniques on some of the works.

The exhibition is partly inspired by Description de lEgypt, a richly illustrated, 24-volume work on the topography, architecture, monuments, natural life and population of Egypt. The group of scientists and artists who accompanied Napoleon on his 1798 expedition to Egypt, some 160 in all, compiled this classic work from 1802 to 1829. Published in Europe, the volume became an influential scientific and artistic document recording Egyptian life at the time, significantly impacting 19th-century European art, including producing the style of visual art, architecture, fashion and literature under the rubric of Orientalism.

With this exhibition, I want to show people the good old days of Cairo, which we no longer see  the beautiful Egypt that we have lost, the buildings, people and the lifestyle in general, Dirar remarked.

A multi-disciplinary artist, Dirar produces works in a variety of media, including painting, photography and graphic design, and creates installations and video. His works to date are regarded as a modern reinterpretation of Egypts rich visual heritage. The current exhibition focuses on the people, who wear traditional attire, and the beauty of Egypt's 19th-century architecture. The images capture an air of calm in the city during that period.

We miss the magnificent design of architecture of the epoch that [has been] replaced by ugly buildings, said Dirar.

One of the paintings on display at Soma depicts a woman at home playing an oud, which resembles a lute. It shows how life at that time was peaceful and simple, Dirar said. It expresses the relaxed nature of daily life.

Another work features a number of men wearing white garments and turbans standing in front of a shop selling olal, earthenware jugs. Olal, used as containers to store water, were healthy, unlike the plastic bottles that we use today, Dirar commented.

Dirar graduated from Helwan University in 2000, having studied in the Faculty of Applied Arts. Since then, he has presented works in numerous solo and group shows in Austria, Egypt, Italy, France, Germany, Slovakia, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Dirar is recognized as one of Egypts most significant contemporary artists. At the start of his career, he sold his works through online galleries. In 2013, Saatchi Art acknowledged him as an emerging artist in whom to invest.

I was keen to display my works in Europe, to etch my name among famous artists, he said. In the interview with Al-Monitor, Dirar, now based in Spain, referenced the Mediterranean basin's richness in art and commented on how suffering in the Middle East today is driving creativity.

In Syria after the trauma of the 2011 war, many artists are successfully trying to express their suffering by displaying their works abroad, Dirar said. The same thing happened with Iraqi artists [after the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein]. I believe that suffering helps artists to be more creative.

Aisha Lutfi, a visitor to Dirars exhibit, told Al-Monitor with a sigh, I really wish I could go back to that era and live in this vibrant life, where people were social, friendly and loved fun.

A student at the Faculty of Applied Arts at the German University in Cairo, Lutfi praised Dirars use of color on the black-and-white photos. She gestured toward a painting showing a woman belly dancing while a number of men sit in the background, watching her.

Look, Lutfi exclaimed while snapping a photo of the image with her cellphone. She is the focus while men are just watching.

Le Caire 1801 runs through Feb. 22 at the Soma Art Gallery, in the Zamalek section of Cairo.A new form of protest in Iran against mandatory veiling has received much attention in the press and social media in recent weeks. The bold waving of veils on sticks by women who have no apparent affiliation with any movement has not only provoked questions among politicians and even forced some to react, but has also pushed women activists to clarify their position on this issue. Not all activists, and especially those who have a long history of struggle in advancing women's rights, have welcomed the public protests. Their concerns are manifold.

Some worry that it will push other problems that women face to the margins. Meanwhile, others are concerned that the effort against mandatory veiling, a practice begun in the early months after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, might be hijacked by other peoples agendas. In particular, some say pointedly that they do not want to be branded as part of My Stealthy Freedom and White Wednesdays, the anti-compulsory hijab campaigns driven by the US-based activist Masih Alinejad, a host on Voice of Americas Persian Service, which is jammed and outlawed in Iran.

For instance, Narges Hosseini, one of the young women currently detained in Gharchak prison for removing her hijab in public last month, said in a Feb. 12 interview from inside the penitentiary that she had decided to protest on a Monday to signal her independence from the White Wednesdays campaign. Hosseini remarked that she had been aware of the consequences of her action, but she nonetheless wanted to demonstrate her objection to the compulsory hijab. She also acknowledged her commitment to the goals of the Green Movement and revealed that for the 2009 presidential elections, she had campaigned for Reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has been under house arrest since 2011.

Amid criticisms and allegations of attempting to hijack the anti-compulsory hijab movement in Iran, Alinejad insists that this is not the case. The banner of protest against the forced veil was passed on to me by other women, Alinejad told Al-Monitor. The same way the banner has now been passed on to the girls of Enghelab [Revolution] Street, referring to the avenue in central Tehran where several women, including Hosseini, have publicly removed their headscarves.

Alinejad says she took inspiration for her current efforts from exiled Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi when both of them still lived in Iran. Back then, Ebadi would appear at international conferences without a headscarf, provoking fury and criticism back in Iran. Ebadi always responded that there was no obligation to be veiled outside the country, because the Iranian penal code only applied within the geographical boundaries of the state.

I was writing in Reformist newspapers at the time and wanted to do bigger things, Alinejad told Al-Monitor. I preferred to wear the veil but uncover corruption in the parliament. After leaving Iran in 2009, she still covered her hair, but by wearing a hat. When she finally abandoned covering her head altogether, she decided to share her personal experience with others. Her intimate writing struck a chord with young girls and women who share her concerns.

Yet, many activists in Iran continue to argue that while the mandatory hijab is a cause of irritation for many women, it is unrealistic to imagine the law being revoked under the Islamic Republic. Thus, they long ago made a strategic decision to devote their energy, time and resources to fighting discriminatory laws against women in areas that could bear results, such as those involving divorce, inheritance and giving testimony.

One Million Signatures, founded in 2006, is arguably the most important campaign confronting laws that discriminate against women, including in the areas of nationality, custody of children, inheritance, testimony, marriage and divorce. The campaign did not adopt the mandatory headscarf as one of the issues in its crosshairs for an obvious reason.

Women activists and the founders of the campaign believed that given the political intricacies at the time, including the power wielded by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, there was no way to effectively challenge the mandatory veil. They saw no ray of hope in changing the law. Therefore, they searched for cracks to challenge and change discriminatory laws in other areas within the existing legal structure and given the prevailing political context. The new approach to fighting the mandatory dress code  although not particularly sophisticated  is nonetheless proof that the forced veil remains a key concern for many Iranian women.

My Stealthy Freedom, which began as a movement with Iranian women sending Alinejad photos and videos to post online showing them unveiled outside the confines of their homes, gave rise to another campaign run by Alinejad, White Wednesdays, for which on Wednesday women wear white head coverings or white clothing to protest the mandatory dress code. The strategy underlying Alinejad's initiatives is to communicate about events and activities in which to take part in a way that invites everyone to participate regardless of political affiliation. The campaigns rely on the latest technology: smartphones  simple and effective tools in the hands of most Iranians.

One should remain mindful that the womens movement in Iran is not monolithic. It is highly diversified, with various components adopting different strategies for dealing with womens issues. Their differences in approach have sometimes resulted in fundamental internal splits among activists, raising the prospect of losing sight of the larger objective of female emancipation and gender equality.

It is not important at this point in time who or what groups or campaigns are carrying the banner of the struggle against the mandatory dress code. Indeed, rather than intense and heated sniping over where credit belongs for advances in womens rights, there should be concern about the banner being dropped to the ground as a result of disagreements over views and strategies. More than ever, all Iranian woman sit in the same boat.In his new role as a member of those critical of Irans unelected power centers, especially the judiciary, former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has now joined the ranks of those criticizing officials for a number of unexplained prison deaths that the authorities have labeled a suicide.

The latest incident of a mysterious death in custody has been of environmentalist Kavous Seyed Emami, whom authorities claim committed suicide two weeks after his arrest. In January, two individuals who had been arrested during the nationwide protests also had reportedly committed suicide while in prison. Both parliamentarians and activists have questioned the deaths and have sought answers from the judiciary.

Ahmadinejads foray into this latest scandal in Iran came Feb. 14 on the steps of an appellate court. Ahmadinejad and his former adviser Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei were denied entry into the courtroom where the corruption charges against Hamid Baghaei, his vice president at the time, were discussed. Instead, Ahmadinejad decided to deliver a speech to his supporters and onlookers just outside the court building.

There was a revolution so that a few did not have absolute discretion, Ahmadinejad began, speaking just days after Iran marked the 39th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Addressing the judiciary, he said, Today, unfortunately, one of the organizations that must defend the rights of the people has stood against the people. The smallest criticism, the smallest protest is confronted with the harshest behavior.

Ahmadinejad continued that some of the individuals who have rightful protests are quickly arrested and taken to prison, and right after their bodies are turned over, [the authorities] say the individual was an addict or committed suicide. He added, Its clear that the people do not believe it.

Ahmadinejad said that there was no place to file a complaint against such institutions and they lack accountability. He added that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has stated that responsibility of these institutions is not with him. Khamenei appoints the head of the judiciary, and Ahmadinejads comment is both an indirect criticism of Khamenei for not accepting responsibility for the organizations that operate under his authority and an insurance policy to say that he is not directly criticizing the supreme leader.

Ahmadinejads speech on the lack of accountability came on the seventh anniversary of the house arrests of the 2009 Green Movement leaders, whose imprisonment is linked to his presidency. Mir Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard and Mehdi Karroubi challenged Ahmadinejads 2009 re-election claiming the results were fraudulent and calling for street protests that eventually led to their house arrests, although their cases never went to trial. Dozens were killed in the protests and a number were even killed while in prison.

Many Iranians online marked the seventh anniversary of the house arrest. BBC Persian analyst Hossein Bastani tweeted, Seven years ago during such a day, with the approval of Ayatollah Khamenei, the house arrests of Ahmadinejads rivals began. Today, Ahmadinejad repeated the criticisms of those under house arrest that the institutions under the supreme leader are not accountable.

Reformist activist Mostafa Tajzadeh, who was arrested in the aftermath of the 2009 elections, tweeted, The house arrests are illegal and unjust. The continuation of the arrests also have no political or moral justification. No one has any doubt that the decision on these house arrests is at the discretion of the supreme leader. [We] expect that before it is too late, the supreme leader ends this illegal action.Much like every week, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walked into the Likud factions room in the Knesset on Feb. 12, a group of party activists was waiting for him there. It is, after all, a matter of routine. This time, however, the prime minister made a point of spending more time with each and every one of them than he usually does. It was right before the Israeli Police released its recommendations regarding investigations into his affairs, so it was especially important that Netanyahu get a boost of support from within his own party.

Just a few moments later, journalists and photographers were asked to leave the room. Then the prime minister surprised the members of his faction by telling them that he had been in contact with the US administration over Israels annexation of parts of the West Bank. On the subject of applying sovereignty, I can say that I have been talking to the Americans about it for some time, Netanyahu said reportedly, sharing the momentous news. He then explained that the entire move must be conducted in coordination with the Americans, because our relationship with them is a strategic asset for the State of Israel, but also for the settlement enterprise.

Netanyahus remarks to his faction were intended to explain why he had blocked proposed annexation legislation made by Knesset members Yoav Kisch of Likud and Bezalel Smotrich of HaBayit HaYehudi, which were scheduled for discussion by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation just a day earlier.

While these proposals were more in the spirit of the Likud Central Committees unanimous vote on Dec. 31, 2017, to annex West Bank lands, Netanyahu immediately realized that this was actually a hot potato for an otherwise supportive US administration. He realized that the United States considers annexation to be a red line and decided to hinder the bills. In fact, the prime minister and his staff applied pressure on Kisch to remove his proposal from the agenda, and Netanyahu even discussed the matter with Chairman of HaBayit HaYehudi Naftali Bennett, whose party platform includes annexation as a central pillar. Eventually, the proposals were blocked, with Netanyahu explaining to his faction that a historic move like annexation cannot be based on private legislation. Rather, he insisted, it can only be based on a government initiative.

The problem was that Netanyahus remarks, which were intended for a very specific audience, quickly found their way out of the conference room and to the various news sites. This resulted in an embarrassing incident between the Israeli government and the White House. Netanyahu was accused of lying, and he was eventually forced to walk back his remarks. The prime minister takes great pride in his diplomatic achievements when dealing with the Trump administration, and he did not expect that American pushback would be so intense. As far as he was concerned, it was more reminiscent of the reactions he usually received from the Barack Obama administration.

First, the White House demanded a clarification from Netanyahus office, saying that such discussions had never taken place. At this point, Netanyahu believed that he could contain the incident by issuing a noncommittal clarification. So a senior Israeli official in the prime ministers inner circle released a statement that Netanyahu had long been talking with the US administration about Israels national interests in the context of some future peace agreement, but did not present the United States with any specific annexation proposals, and in any event, the United States did not express its support for these proposals. The statement went on to say that Israel had updated the United States about the various proposals being raised in the Knesset, and the United States responded unequivocally that it wants to advance President Donald Trumps own peace plan.

But that was not enough for the Americans. Soon after, the White House spokesman released a statement denying Netanyahus claims, effectively saying that Netanyahu was lying. Reports that the United States discussed with Israel an annexation plan for the West Bank are false," the spokesman said. "The president's focus remains squarely on his Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative.

At this point, Netanyahu realized that the incident had spun out of control, so his office released the following statement: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu updated the Americans on the initiatives brought up in the Knesset, and the Americans expressed their unequivocal position by which they are committed to advancing President Trump's peace plan.

The Israeli opposition was quick to take advantage of Netanyahus humiliation by celebrating the slap across the face he just received from his good friend. But within a day, the entire incident had died down, and the Americans announced that it was closed, as far as they were concerned.

So what caused the prime minister of Israel to get into trouble with such a statement, knowing full well how problematic it would be for the Trump administration? After all, it was Netanyahu himself who blocked the advancement of the Annexation law in the Knesset, so as not to upset the Americans. It looks as if Netanyahu grew more confident after Trump was elected, especially in the past few months following the United States' historic recognition Dec. 6 of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and Trumps declaration that he will move the US Embassy to Jerusalem. In fact, Netanyahu grew so confident that he forgot how mercurial the president really is or how no one fully understands him.

In fact, Netanyahu said as much to the right in the first few months after Trumps election. In February 2017, he told his Cabinet, Trump is an improvement, but we must still avoid tugging at the rope too hard. This came in response to those ministers pressuring Netanyahu to take back his support for a two-state solution. At the time, Netanyahu even expressed concern about a potential clash with the new president and told his ministers to act wisely, explaining, We must take his personality into account.

It looks like Netanyahu believed that a sympathetic administration in the White House would show understanding. After all, his remarks were made behind closed doors to his own party, with the sole intent of bolstering his coalition. Still, it was a big mistake. He ended up humiliated and was forced to walk back what he said while the entire world watched. As soon as the commotion dies down, the Annexation law will likely be put in deep freeze now that it has officially become a bone of contention with an otherwise supportive US administration.

The same is true of Bennett, who had his own annexation plan. He now understands what the impact would be if he were to advance such a law. He would be opening a new front against the very president who was recently responsible for some of the rights most historic political achievements.The Donald Trump administration is seeking nearly $2 billion in precision-guided weapons for the Iraq and Syria battlefields, as the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS) faces increased threats from forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad. Thats 20% more than the Pentagon spent on munitions in all Middle East war zones in 2017.

A spokeswoman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Al-Monitor that the Pentagon has requested $1.8 billion to replace expended munitions  including precision-guided bomb kits, small diameter bombs and Hellfire missiles  used in 2017 to help liberate Mosul and Raqqa. The spending boost for munitions is driving the US budget for the anti-IS mission to $15.3 billion for fiscal year 2019, a 15% jump over the $13 billion requested for the current year.

US Marine Corps Maj. Lisa Lawrence said the boost will be offset by reductions in operations and maintenance as well as military construction in the Pentagons $716 billion budget request for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. She did not elaborate on what projects could be cut.

The DoD [Department of Defense] has expended more munitions than planned over the last few years, primarily to defeat Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS], leading to higher demand to replenish munition inventories, states the overview for the Defense Departments budget, which was released Monday. That includes Hellfire missiles, bomb upgrades and small-diameter bombs that the Pentagon says were used extensively to liberate Mosul last year.

The weapons surge may prove helpful in Syrias Euphrates River Valley, experts say, where pro-Assad troops and Russian contractors are threatening to dislodge the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces near their Deir ez-Zor headquarters. The area east of the river is generally considered a no-go zone for pro-regime forces under a de-confliction agreement struck by the United States and Russia that has been facing military pressure in recent weeks.

In a three-hour battle last week, US forces left as many as 100 pro-regime troops dead in what Pentagon officials characterized as a defensive stand against advancing foes. The United States called in airstrikes to ward off what it called a battalion-sized force including Russian-made T-72 tanks.

When youre talking about taking out groups in contact situations when the bad guys are within 200 meters, in order to deploy that, you have to get down and get dirty, said John Venable, a retired US Air Force colonel whos now a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. All of those [weapons] allow you to strike small targets with high precision, to minimize collateral damage and kill the thing youre after.

The $31.1 million request for Javelin anti-tank missile systems in the fiscal year 2019 budget will come in very handy, Venable added, as they can notably be used against Syrian army tanks. A US MQ-9 Reaper drone destroyed a pro-regime tank over the weekend, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, head of US Air Forces Central Command, told reporters on Wednesday. The United States is also asking for more air-to-ground missiles that are good for destroying entrenched targets from the air.

The Pentagon says more precise weapons could help limit civilian casualties, but the main justification for their expanded use is to protect aircrews by allowing them to fly high above targets. Limiting the possibility of US pilots getting shot down and taken prisoner by IS has been a high priority for the Pentagon since the torture and death of a Jordanian fighter pilot whose F-16 was shot down near Raqqa in 2015.

Precision gave us options that we never had before in history, US Defense Secretary James Mattis told reporters in Iraq following the liberation of Mosul, the countrys second-largest city, last August.

Rights groups and journalists on the ground have disputed the Pentagons casualty figures as unrealistically rosy. The New York Times late last year found that one in every five US strikes in Iraq caused civilian casualties. In January, the US-led coalition said that 831 civilians had been killed in anti-IS airstrikes since the start of the campaign in 2014.

Yet after three years of war in Iraq and Syria, its not clear that President Trumps budget bump for the US-led mission of 73 nations will lead to a deepened air campaign in the region. Some of the weapons included in the new budget could be used elsewhere, Venable said, such as Afghanistan.

Even as the anti-IS mission began to wind down at the end of 2017, the United States set a new high of nearly 40,000 munitions dropped in 2017, according to the Air Force component of US Central Command, despite flying fewer bombing sorties than the previous year.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said in September that the United States fired 100 precision weapons a day against IS. She has said that Iraqi forces have called in strikes using the small diameter bomb to take out enemies as close as 13 meters (43 feet) from the front lines. Military officials have cited a shortage in small diameter bombs as a cause for concern.

The increase in precision-guided weapons capability in Iraq and Syria comes as other parts of the anti-IS mission are getting cut. Funding to train and equip Iraqi and Syrian forces, for example, is expected to get cut by $369 million  more than 17%  while the Defense Department sets aside $410 million to replace worn-out equipment on the battlefield.What has been happening in Idlib province in recent weeks  and in Ghouta in the past few months  is exactly what we witnessed in Aleppo during November and December 2016, Mohammed Shabeeb, a former citizen journalist from Aleppo city, told Al-Monitor Feb. 2. The [Bashar] al-Assad regime, covered by Russian airplanes and Iranian militias on the ground, is trying to annihilate the governorate of Idlib by bombing the civilians, the hospitals, the markets  every sign of life.

Shabeeb was studying English literature at the University of Aleppo but had to stop in his second year. Joining the demonstrations in his city to demand freedom and dignity, he was soon wanted by the regime forces and so could not finish his studies. On Dec. 22, 2016, the regime displaced us from Aleppo and from that moment, I have lived in Idlib, he continued. Today I came to Saraqeb to see what was happening and to stand by the people close to the tragedy.

The city of Saraqeb, located in Idlib province in northwest Syria, was one of the first to participate in the demonstrations against Assads regime in March 2011, in solidarity with the people of Daraa. Its strategic location, connecting the main roads of Aleppo-Damascus, Aleppo-Latakia and Aleppo-Idlib, means the regime has made great efforts to take control of the city, as is reported in detail in the book The Story of a Place, The Story of a People, compiled by the Creative Memory of the Syrian Revolution.

When some civilians were trying to escape from Saraqeb by car, taking the Aleppo-Damascus highway yesterday, Russian airplanes targeted them and left seven civilians dead and many injured. The highway is often attacked. Shabeeb covered the fighting around Aleppo over the past few years as a freelancer, but stopped writing when he left Aleppo.

When I was displaced, I was disappointed about what happened to us, about the silence of the international community. I was feeling hopeless about what I was doing, thinking its useless communicating with the international media. The war will not end, he said. As Shabeeb spoke to Al-Monitor, the sounds of bombs interrupted the conversation. Saraqeb continues to be under persistent, heavy attack. While many citizens have fled, one who signs his graffiti as Ali. K wrote on a Saraqeb wall after the Feb. 4 chemical attack on the city, Saraqeb is the strongest. It is stronger than war planes and chlorine. It is stronger than napalm and fire.

The fall of Saraqeb would cut the northern part of Idlib province off from its south, impeding displaced people from returning to their homes, Rasha al-Shahad told Al-Monitor in a phone interview. She said, I am from a small village called Ghadafa, between Maarrat al-Numan and Jarjanaz, in southern Idlib province. My village is being hit every day, and all the people have left. My family and I are in Salqeen, at the Turkish border in the north.

In her village, Shahad was a member of the womens bureau of the local council and director of a womens center called Brightness of Tomorrow. The bombs forced it to close on Dec. 29, 2017. We used to have teacher training, professional classes for hairstyling, a nursery, a theater for children, campaigns against early marriage.  But now we dont know if we will ever see our village again.

Women's centers run by the nongovernmental organization Women Now for Development were destroyed in Maarrat al-Numan and Saraqeb in January, as well as in eastern Ghouta, where the regime continues to attack despite UN pleas.

Another former resident of Aleppos southern countryside who withheld their name for security concerns chatted with Al-Monitor online during the last few weeks of intense strikes. This person left almost three years ago for the small village of Tal Touqan and was injured and displaced again in the January strikes.

Working as a humanitarian activist to support the population since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, this person claims to be independent and not support any side. But I cant tell you where I am right now after having left Tal Touqan. The regime is advancing very quickly in the eastern countryside of Idlib and what remains of southern Aleppos countryside. It can enter at any moment and take revenge on those of who worked as activists in the field. I am afraid for my children.

A person originally from Bab al-Hadid in Aleppos Old City who also spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity is working as a logistics officer for the Polish Humanitarian Aid organization, distributing humanitarian aid to Aleppos displaced in Idlib city, villages and towns. The situation is very dangerous for everyone, including aid workers, the officer concluded.A crucial election cycle awaits Turkey in 2019. Barring the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) calling early elections, voters will go to the polls for municipal elections in March 2019 and for presidential and parliamentary elections in November that same year. The presidential polls will mark the formal transition to the presidential system narrowly approved in a 2017 referendum. With President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the leading contender for the powerful position, the state of Turkeys opposition remains a major concern for those who view the polls as the last chance to stop Erdogan.

With Turkey under emergency rule since the July 2016 coup attempt, the main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) has failed to provide much hope to government opponents amid a ferocious crackdown on opposition groups and the media. CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu is under fire from both his own base and the countrys secular and leftist quarters over what many see as toothless leadership and bad decisions at critical moments.

In May 2016, for instance, Kilicdaroglu lent support, though reluctantly, to an AKP proposal to strip parliament members of their judicial immunity, a process that resulted in the incarceration of Kurdish deputies and ultimately to the imprisonment of one of his own lawmakers, Enis Berberoglu. Similarly, shortly after the coup attempt, Kilicdaroglu came under fire for attending Erdogans big rally in Istanbul in the name of national unity, despite signs that Erdogan would use the state of emergency to strengthen his grip on power and suppress dissent.

Yet Kilicdaroglu's most controversial move in recent times was perhaps on April 16, 2017, after election officials made a last-minute decision to accept ballots that had not been stamped by the elections' board as valid, a move that many believe tipped the outcome of the referendum in favor of switching to a presidential system. In several cities, including Istanbul, people took to the streets to protest the unprecedented rule change, which came atop allegations of fraud and other irregularities. Kilicdaroglu urged protesters to return home. In defending his decision later, Kilicdaroglu would say he got wind that armed men, apparently government supporters, would attack the protesters, and he wanted to avoid grave incidents. His decision to discourage protests at such a fateful moment caused a rift not only between the CHP and its base, but among CHP leaders as well. Selin Sayek Boke, the partys high-profile deputy chair and spokeswoman, resigned her party posts in protest.

Less than a year later, Boke has returned to the spotlight, this time at the helm of an in-house opposition movement advocating tougher opposition against the government and its increasingly oppressive policies. Together with fellow Istanbul deputy Ilhan Cihaner, she issued We for the Future, a manifesto to that effect, ahead of the CHP convention, held Feb. 3-4. Although the party re-elected Kilicdaroglu as chairman, Boke won a seat on the party's assembly with the second-highest number of votes by delegates.

Boke believes the backing she received reflects strong popular support for a more organized and determined opposition against the government. Our appeal received huge support from the people, she told Al-Monitor. What we put forward was not just objections but also the definition of a new style of politics.

What does this new style of politics entail? For Boke, the ongoing state of emergency is extraordinary and therefore requires organizing an extraordinary opposition, a point that features prominently in the manifesto.

Despite the extraordinary conditions today, the opposition remains stuck with political instruments and methods of ordinary times, Boke said, stressing that the CHP should review its role in parliament. As long as the emergency rule regime continues, and until the conditions of minimum democracy and fair and secure elections are restored, party organs should seriously consider democratic instruments, such as active boycotts in parliament and withdrawal from legislative work.

On the Kurdish question, which remains the CHPs weak spot, Boke called for a social democratic solution framework that refuses to squeeze the public between security-centered oppression policies and terrorism and is committed to achieving lasting societal peace by expanding the sphere of democratic politics.

Together Boke and Cihaner have become the voice of the left-leaning camp in the CHP's base, advocating class-based, pro-labor and unequivocally leftist politics.

So, what's next for the We for the Future movement? Boke offered the following vision: Weve already seen the examples of extraordinary opposition in the Gezi Park protests, in the no campaigners ahead of the referendum and in the millions who supported [Kilicdaroglus] Justice March, she said. We know what has to be done, and we are committed to an approach that does not squeeze politics between the walls of parliament. Our first step in this context was the support we gave to the struggle against the nuclear power plant project in Sinop. We will keep up such actions. Turkey has sustained enormous damage from a political Islam that exploits religion and a neoliberal economic order. Against all this, we have to put forth a vision for a different Turkey.

Cihaner told Al-Monitor that the pair would have meetings and organize activities with civic society groups. But make no mistake, he said, we are going to do all this as part of the CHP.

In other words, We for the Future aims to reshape the CHP and create an opposition that will change Turkey. Its road map has received significant support from various groups yearning for a different Turkey. The CHPs performance in the coming period will have a direct impact on the government and on the opposition in general. Hence, every political actor in the country closely followed developments at its convention.

The results from the convention suggest, however, that the party leadership is not really prepared for a major change in its methods of opposition, but the intense pressure from the grassroots is creating alternative fronts of opposition. Their success or failure appears bound to directly affect the future policies of the main opposition party. The We for Change team has, no doubt, embarked on an uphill trek, but it could point the way out for an opposition stuck in the mud.As Turkeys offensive against Syrian Kurdish forces in Afrin grinds on for a third week, the prevailing wisdom is that NATOs second-largest army is getting bogged down. Critics point to the number of Turks killed in combat  at least 31 in 26 days  the swelling pile of disabled helicopters and tanks and the slow pace of Turkish advances into the hilly enclave. A veteran Kurdish politician went so far as to suggest that Afrin would become Turkeys Vietnam.

Others highlight Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans efforts to leverage the tidal wave of Turkish nationalism inspired by Afrin for political gain. Never mind the cost, the real objective of Operation Olive Branch, they say, is to help cement his victory in the presidential elections due to be held in 2019.

The plan is contingent on Russias blessing, as it controls the airspace over Afrin. Meanwhile, Turkeys relations with its NATO ally the United States are in full meltdown because the Syrian Kurdish militia that Turkish forces are targeting is the US-led coalitions top partner against the Islamic State. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due to meet with Erdogan in Ankara today amid worries of a military confrontation in Syria.

But not everyone agrees with the picture being painted of a flailing and increasingly isolated giant unleashed by a ruthless and self-serving leader at the mercy of Russia. To the contrary, Turkey is playing the long game and its the United States that is isolated in Syria, argues Fabrice Balanche, a French academic and fellow at the Hoover Institution who specializes in Syrian affairs.

Balanche, who just returned from a three-week research trip to northern Syria, told Al-Monitor in a wide-ranging interview, Americas current policies  will lead to Americas defeat in Syria. At some point they will be forced to pull out because  US soldiers will get blown up. Balanche said he had reached this conclusion after talking to scores of Arabs living under effective Kurdish control in the mainly Arab towns of Raqqa, Tell Abyad and Manbij.

As the war against IS winds down, Balanche observed, problems that existed prior to the campaign have come back with a vengeance. Economic needs once again outweigh basic security. In Arab eyes, the Americans are mainly helping the Kurds. Frustration among Arabs is reaching a boiling point and Turkey, which is home to more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees, is eager to exploit it. Angry Arab youths are the future Taliban and could target Americans. But because the Americans on the ground dont mix with the Arab population for security reasons, they have no idea what is going on.

The Kurdish-administered northeastern belt of Syria is the countrys breadbasket and also contains much of its oil and dams. Yet according to Balanche the economic situation is explosive.

There is virtually no aid coming in, he said, explaining, America is very stingy and the Saudis are focused on Yemen. There is not enough water to irrigate crops. Bombs destroyed irrigation canals. Electricity is provided for only part of the day, from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Villagers can no longer grow crops.

Turkey, which controls the headwaters of the Euphrates River, on which Syrian agriculture heavily relies, has reportedly reduced the flow, increasing both Syrians' misery and the pressure on the YPG. Last year, Turkey shut down the operations of Mercy Corps and several other humanitarian outfits delivering aid to northern Syria because the areas they serviced included those run by the YPG.

In January, violent protests erupted in Manbij amid allegations that the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces had arrested and tortured two civilians from the city. The unrest was spurred in part by the forced conscription of Arab youths by the group  a practice that has since been scrapped  and led the YPG to grow even tougher, in Balanches words to prevent a spreading revolt.

Turkeys offensive in Afrin has added to the climate of repression and economic decline. Turkey is in no hurry to leave and can absorb further casualties amid robust public support for Operation Olive Branch.

Indeed, most Turks accept the governments narrative that the YPG is no different from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is fighting Turkish forces inside Turkey and therefore needs to be eliminated as well.

Howard Eissenstat, a Turkey researcher at St. Lawrence University and a senior nonresident fellow at the Project on Middle East Democracy, argues that Erdogan's electoral calculations figure only partially in Olive Branch. He told Al-Monitor that the Afrin campaign has delivered real benefits for Ankara: It ensures that Turkey plays a role in determining the shape of northern Syria and demonstrates to the United States the costs and limits of its own poorly thought-out policy in Syria.

Erdogans threats to move against the YPG in Manbij and expand the campaign all the way to the Iraqi border may well embolden some Arabs to switch sides. The shift, in turn, would disrupt the coalitions ongoing efforts to flush out IS remnants in the Middle Euphrates Valley and stabilize the towns and cities liberated from the jihadis.

Arabs are getting scared, Balanche said. 'It's not our war,' they say and dont want to be caught in the middle." As they watch life return to a semblance of normalcy in Aleppo and Damascus, with running water, electricity and functioning schools, for a growing number of Arabs in Manbij who described the period of Turkish-allied Free Syrian Army rebel rule as the worst experience of all, the idea of the regime returning seems less unpalatable.

It may be true for Turkey as well: Faced with a choice between the YPG and the Syrian regime as its neighbors, Ankara would likely plump for the latter. In the meantime, Balanche concluded, America has lost Turkey and its sole ally in Syria is the PKK.Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi gave instructions on Feb. 11 to stop the encroachment upon water quotas and increase the water share to Al-Mejar district in Maysan province in southern Iraq.

Abadis instructions came days after tribal conflicts in Iraq's southern provinces broke out over agricultural land water quotas, prompting activists in the province to launch a campaign titled Save the Tigris in a bid to end the water crisis. There are already conflicts plaguing those provinces  especially Basra, where water issues between the southern tribes have already escalated into armed conflicts.

Hassanein al-Munshid, a civil activist in a local campaign in Maysan province working to end the water crisis, told Al-Monitor, Tribal conflicts are intensifying in the province because of the water crisis, which might lead to additional fighting.

He added, There is a tribal sheikh in the northern areas of Maysan province controlling the water flow of the Tigris River to irrigate his farms. There are top officials who are aware of his acts of encroachment, but the government cannot do anything about it.

For security reasons, Munshid did not name the sheikh.

The Iraqi government is doing its best to face the drought that hit the southern provinces due to the lack of water flowing from Turkey, which is the source of the Euphrates River. Most areas of the south and the middle Euphrates depend on the water flowing from the Euphrates.

Majid al-Gharabi, a sheikh in Diwani province, told Al-Monitor, The reason behind the tribal differences over water is that some clans are diverting the flow of water to prevent it from reaching the farms of other tribes.

On Jan. 21, Iraqi Minister of Water Resources Hasan al-Janabi wrote on his Facebook page, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in front of Abadi that Turkey is committed to postponing the filling of the Ilisu Dam and that the Turkish president is committed [to not harming] Iraq. We definitely have specific demands we seek to achieve peacefully and diplomatically in this regard.

In an interview published by Foreign Policy Concepts on Jan. 7, the Iraqi minister said the country's water scarcity is intensified by excessive control measures in the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Of note, 70% of the water that flows into Iraq comes from outside of Iraqs borders, and this issue  just like any other  affects and is affected by politics, so Turkeys construction of the Ilisu Dam faced strong Iraqi objections given the risks of drought it entails for Mesopotamia.

In the province of Dhi Qar alone, 20 clan clashes erupted recently due to water scarcity, according to Mayor Hussein Ali Raddad of the Islah district, who also confirmed that the local government in the province failed to reach any solutions regarding the issue.

Ali Raddad told Al-Monitor, The crisis we are facing now lies in the tribal conflicts that sometimes escalate into violence.

Iraqi officials say the reason behind the water crisis in the country is that not enough water is flowing into Iraq from Turkey, warning of a looming disaster in the coming months.

Meanwhile, a number of citizens blame the Iraqi government for the tribal conflicts erupting in the country, saying the government is incapable of monitoring the distribution of water quotas to farmers. Some tribes are not getting their share of the water while others are getting more than their specified quota, citizens told Radio Nawa.

Water is not sufficiently flowing into farms from the main sources in their provinces, worsening the issues between tribes.

The water crisis may serve as the impetus for new demonstrations in Iraq, specifically in the southern regions where some tribes warned the Iraqi government of a war that may erupt in the absence of appropriate measures to resolve the water crisis.

In Maysan province, water shortages are no less serious than those in Dhi Qar, Samawah and Wasit. The capital city of Maysan, Amarah, may suffer a major disaster as a result of drought, as waves of displacement will ensue, the marshes will dry out, the livestock will die and the agriculture industry will be doomed, officials say.

This is not the first time that armed conflicts have erupted between the tribes of southern Iraq over water. Three years ago, the dispute escalated between the tribes of the provinces of Muthanna and Diwaniyah for the same reason.

Parts of southern Iraq are going through a phase no less serious than the situation in the Sunni areas of Anbar, Salahuddin and Ninevah. Water is the dwindling lifeblood that could lead to long-term tribal fighting in those areas.

Despite its attempts, the Iraqi government is seemingly unable to control the tribal differences over water in the areas of southern Iraq, especially considering that there are tribes and families controlling the water flow and preventing it from reaching other farms and areas.

The Iraqi government may have to resort to a military option to end inter-clan disputes over water and force tribes to divide water quotas. Otherwise, some farms will be deprived of their quotas.Protesters were heard chanting, "Death to Khamenei," "Death to Rouhani" and "Reformists, principalists, end of story," expressing their abhorrence of the ruling regime.

Iran's protests are proving how the people demand change to a democratic system. These nationwide demonstrations, rejecting the entirety of Iran's regime, and U.S. President Donald Trump's positions, alongside other administration officials such as Vice President Pence and UN Ambassador Nicki Haley, have angered Iran's lobbyists and appeasement supporters in the U.S. They have launched retaliatory measures supporting Tehran.

As protests grew, Tehran launched a wave of crackdowns, arrests, torture in prisons, and a series of suspicious "suicides" among those arrested, all to create a climate of fear. At the same time, Iran began publishing fake news to divert attention and render disappointment among protesters, and isolate international support.

Reports citing Iran's officials indicate 5,000 arrests, including 1,400 women. The Iranian opposition, however, says at least 8,000 were apprehended and over 50 were murdered. The international community expressed concerns over prisoners' conditions.

The University of Marylands Center for International and Security Studies, which generally supports the regime, has attempted to claim that the Iranian majority desire to maintain the regime in power and oppose U.S. support for the protesters. For this purpose, they conducted a fake telephone poll by calling people inside Iran.

The Washington Post reported a segment of this poll as such:

The poll, released on Friday by the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) and IranPoll, found comparatively little support for changing Iran's political system or relaxing strict Islamic law and suggested that criticism of Iranian foreign policy in Syria and Iraq was not as widely shared by the general population. "Iranians also felt expressions of support for the protesters from President Trump and other U.S. officials did not help those demonstrating, the survey found, with 39 percent saying they hurt the protesters' demands and 9 percent saying they helped. When asked for their opinion on the U.S. government, 85 percent of Iranians were found to have a very unfavorable opinion of it; less than 1 percent had a very favorable opinion. "The poll also found that generally, Iranians were happy with the way authorities had handled the protests, with roughly two-thirds saying police handled the protests very or somewhat well, and a slightly smaller about (64 percent) saying they used an appropriate amount of force.

Its interesting how those behind these polls chose to telephone individuals inside Iran, people living under a vicious dictatorship whose communications are controlled. Authorities summarily hunt down and arrest those taking part in protests. They are arrested without any warrants and transferred to unknown locations. The bodies of a number of those arrested are dumped in public with signs of torture.

In such circumstances, would anyone in Iran asked about regime change actually provide their true opinions?

Such questions were most likely addressed to regime officials and their relatives, as the majority of the Iranian people are living in poverty, struggling with unemployment due to rampaging government corruption, forced to sell body parts to make ends meet, and all the while fearing arrest and execution.

Pro-Iran advocate Barbara Slavin and the Atlantic Council were behind this survey. The questionnaire was carried out by IranPoll, noted for its affiliation to Tehran and former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It was presented by the University of Maryland to provide some legitimacy.

Concerning the results of the poll, Slavin goes further and directly insults the Iranian people by saying:

"The survey shows that Qasem Soleimani -- the head of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a man under US sanctions -- remains the most popular figure among regime stalwarts. According to the poll, he is gaining in popularity with an 83% approval rating now compared to 73% two years ago. "President Hassan Rouhani, meanwhile, has seen a noticeable slide, from 82% approval two years ago to just over 65% now. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif's numbers have also gone south, with 68% approval now versus 78% in 2016."

The poll was carried out by Dr. Ebrahim Mohseni of Tehran University. Mohseni used to work in a Tehran center and gained Ahmadinejad's attention after conducting a poll in his favor. He is in direct connection with Iran's U.S.-based lobbies and to this day has prepared a number of fake polls in Tehran's favor.

The Iranian American Forum published a report on April 20, 2015 on this individual's past and connections with Iran's Revolutionary Guards [IRGC].

Ebrahim Mohseni was a student at the University of Maryland in 2007 who went to Iran and worked under the supervision of Mohammad Marandi, a Tehran University professor to conduct [a] poll Following the successful launch of two polls in the US in 2007 and 2008, and the large media coverage that they received, President Ahmadinejads office dedicated more resources to the project and helped to create the 'University of Tehran Center for Public Opinion Research (UTCPOR)' in 2009. The head of the center is Mohammad Marandi and the director of projects is Ebrahim Mohseni who is also tied to the Revolutionary Guards Since 2009, UTCPOR has produced a dozen of polls for its partners in the US. Additionally, the center has also released domestically used polls designed to help the hardliners and Revolutionary Guards. For example, in 2014, the ultra-hardliners planned to impose a mandatory separation of men and women in working places and universities. They also envisaged to pass it into law in parliament. The plan created a social and media uproar but UTCPOR released a public opinion poll of Iranians that showed an overwhelming support for the plan. "Mohseni explained the result of his poll in an interview with 'Tasnim News', affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards and declared: 'A majority of Iranians who answered our questions told that implementation of Islamic rule in Iran will help to reduce the social and economic problems in the country. 78% believed that the separation of men and women will improve work conditions in public offices and will strengthen the foundation of families. 64% of them preferred that women be given only jobs that are related to women.'

The fake news industry has escalated to fake polls. Organizers of such schemes, along with Iran apologists, are opposed to fundamental change in Iran and seek to undercut the strong support provided by the Trump administration. Their shameful measures provide a green light for the regime's crackdown.Jeremy Bentham and the Judges

February 15 marks the 270th birthday of the English philosopher and social reformer Jeremy Bentham. Bentham is typically remembered for his formulation of the principle of utility: the greatest happiness of the greatest number as the measure of legislation. He's also known for instructing that his body be preserved as an "auto-icon" and the apocryphal story that the body is regularly brought out for board meetings at the University College London. But in these days, when judges are de facto legislators, what we ought to remember Bentham for is his perspicacious warning about the danger of judicial power. Judges in Bentham's Great Britain were supposed to be limited by the principle of parliamentary sovereignty. As the ultimate authority, Parliament had the uncontrollable ability to make, enlarge, or abrogate laws. Courts had a role in interpreting parliamentary enactments and expounding the customary law of the realm, but they could not overturn an Act of Parliament as unconstitutional.

Despite the constitutional limitations on the British judiciary, Bentham noticed a tendency in the judges to aggrandize their office through interpretative chicanery. Parliament, the judges oft observed, would not knowingly enact any law contrary to reason; therefore, the judiciary had to construe statutes to ensure a reasonable result. And what is reasonable? "[F]or my part I will speak plainly," Bentham declared, "and confess that with me to be most evidently contrary to reason, is to be most evidently contrary to my reason, i.e., to what I like." The same tendency, Bentham concluded, was true of the judges and was obvious in their rulings. Bentham saw a similar judicial legerdemain used in the exposition of the common law. Under the pretense of merely declaring what was pre-existing customary law, the judges created new law and built upon judicial precedents to direct the law's development to suit their own inclinations. If they came across an earlier case that was incongruent with their policy preferences, the judges again turned to the inward reason of the law. "The trick is," Bentham wrote, "when [the judges] are satisfied that the thing is not Law, say it is not reason." This allows for long existing precedent to be overturned and replaced. To counter the unbridled power of the judges, Bentham proposed that all laws be codified. The citizen, Bentham believed, should be able to search and study the laws that applied to him rather than guess about what a judge believed was reasonable. Moreover, Parliament was subject to regular election, and thus the people could exercise some influence and control over the lawmaking body of the realm via the franchise. With the judiciary, the people had no avenue of remonstrance or control. Modern American judges use many of the same tricks that Bentham inveighed against, but to a degree unimaginable in Bentham's day. For example, despite the U.S. Constitution specifically providing that government may take the life, liberty, or property of a convicted criminal if proper procedures are followed, many judges and academics insist that the death penalty is per se unconstitutional. They argue that capital punishment is unreasonable and that established, written constitutional law evolves to suit the judges' conception of a good society. Similarly, the Supreme Court has ruled that constitutional safeguards requiring "due process of law" grant the courts the power to review the substance  that is, the reasonableness  of all legislation. This has set the courts up as super-legislatures examining various federal and state statutes under a sliding scale of scrutiny. Today, the courts evaluate the policy objectives of everything from marriage law to immigration regulations. Enactments contrary to the judges' personal opinions are declared unreasonable and struck from the code books. This doctrine of "substantive due process" has worked a great unconstitutional shift of power away from the people and their representatives to the federal judiciary. We would do well to remember Jeremy Bentham on his 270th birthday. At the heart of Bentham's criticisms were concerns about unelected and unaccountable officials making law for the people. Bentham recognized that only those beholden to the people should be permitted to make law. We too should seize on this principle as we seek to reform our constitutional order. William J. Watkins, Jr. is a research fellow at the Independent Institute and author of Crossroads for Liberty: Recovering the Anti-Federalist Values of America's First Constitution (2016, Independent Institute).Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York ruled that DACA participants and states are likely to succeed in their challenge that the way President Donald Trump terminated the Obama-era program was arbitrary and capricious.

Trump last year announced his plan to end DACA, the policy that allowed [illegal aliens] brought to the US as children to stay in the country, effective March 5.

That deadline has become central in the congressional debate over immigration, but Democrats and Republicans are nowhere near a breakthrough.

Tuesday's ruling, combined with a ruling from a California judge last month, means the program could end up going beyond the March 5 date. The ruling means DACA recipients can renew their status, but the administration will not have to hold the program open to those who never applied.

"Defendants indisputably can end the DACA program," Garaufis wrote, referring to the Trump administration.

"The question before the court is thus not whether defendants could end the DACA program, but whether they offered legally adequate reasons for doing so. Based on its review of the record before it, the court concludes that defendants have not done so."One would surely think that the chosen artists of the former president and first lady of the United States would have been carefully vetted  for quality of work, appropriateness of artistic style for the venue, and reputation in the community.

The selection of the artists painting the Obamas' new portraits commissioned for the Smithsonian revealed much more than two pieces of "art."

Barack Obama's selection of Kehinde Wiley for his portrait is proving to be more atrocious than the painting itself.

The major media outlets, though, such as CNBC, were quick to observe a momentous occasion, breathlessly reporting that "The Obamas made history not only as the country's first African-American presidential couple featured in the gallery but also for selecting the first African-American painters to receive a presidential portrait commission from the museum."

That same CNBC piece also recounted the history of Obama's personal selection of Wiley, writing that Obama "thinks 'it's safe to say Kehinde and I bonded'" and "how much he and Wiley had in common."

It was the painting itself, however, and not the artist, upon which my friends in the conservative Twittersphere focused at first. I couldn't help offering my own opinion, sarcastically tweeting my suggested title: "Obama Manspreads in Sea of Poison Ivy."

Others noted the oddness of a "sixth finger," the unusually large proportions of Obama's hands, and the prominent vein on the side of his head. Some, after showcasing the presidential portraits that preceded Obama's, observed the obvious and radical change in tone. I'm no art critic, but if past portraits were considered stately, this one, if not more interesting and colorful, also has an aura of something else entirely.

That "something extra" is apparently the calling card of the artist. And, fittingly, the provocative nature of such a selection is also the calling card of Obama.

Of course, in all the mainstream media gushing about the painting and its painter, a disturbing career history and reputation were left unquestioned. With just a little research, it's not difficult to discover.

In a 2012 piece on Wiley in New York Magazine, the very first paragraph described a painting in his studio that "stands out: a tall, elegant black woman in a long blue dress  the canvas is enormous, eight feet by ten feet  calmly staring down the viewer. In one hand, she holds a knife. In the other, a cleanly severed brunette female head. 'It's sort of a play on the "kill whitey" thing,' Wiley says."

Described as "a riff on classical depictions by Caravaggio and Gentileschi of the biblical story of Judith beheading Holofernes," the painting is actually one of two that Wiley has painted in the same "riff."

That piece also noted the disturbing description of the openly gay Wiley's chosen models  "the boys"  as well as his 2002 creation of "his own Sistine Chapel ... which featured guys in modern hip-hop garb posing as saints in front of swarms of sperm."

The Daily Caller reported that in 2015, the Village Voice described Wiley's selection of male street models as "predatory" and "perverse." An art blog, Mr. Sawyer's Opus, described Wiley's themes of gay culture and his habit of filling the backgrounds and frame designs of many of his works with dozens of spermatozoa.

And since Wiley often uses "riffs" of the setting and poses of other famous portraits as his theme, it is interesting to note the identity of the leaders found in similar-looking paintings: Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.

Back in 2010 on the pages of American Thinker, I wrote about the "blank screen" that Obama told us he offered, noting that in The Picture of Dorian Gray, author Oscar Wilde wrote: "It is not [the sitter] who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself."

And since Wiley enjoys producing these "riffs" of famous artwork, should we assume that he managed to paint a "riff" of the U.S. presidency that's actually displayed in the Smithsonian Institution as a serious piece of our nation's historical art? Is this a joke on Obama, or is it on us?

As a side note, just imagine if Trump selected an artist with a similar but reverse outrageousness for his presidential portrait.

For now, this is the "message" we're supposed to hear, as Obama noted in his Instagram post following the unveiling:

Thanks to Kehinde and Amy, generations of Americans  and young people from all around the world  will visit the National Portrait Gallery and see this country through a new lens. They'll walk out of that museum with a better sense of the America we all love. Clear-eyed. Big-hearted. Inclusive and optimistic. And I hope they'll walk out more empowered to go and change their worlds.

Obama certainly did promise transformation. No matter how successful Trump is in his undoing of what Obama had wrought, it is Obama's portrait, however, that will endure, preserved in a museum, forever transforming the lineup of presidential portraits.

As I said, I'm certainly no art critic. But the quality of the portrait that spoke to me the loudest was actually not the sitter nor the painter, and was probably not the intended message. It was the overwhelming botanical background: that the man "we've been waiting for" who could stop the rise of the oceans is not "standing over the world as "a sort of God," but is instead enveloped in a suffocating sea of ivy.

Follow Cindy on Twitter @simpsonreport.President Trump's needling of Senator Elizabeth Warren's unsupported claim to Native American ancestry has hit its mark. Yesterday, the Massachusetts senator made an unannounced appearance before the National Congress of American Indians, the oldest national organization that claims to represent the interests of Native Americans, and repeated her previously debunked claims in a particularly offensive manner.

Warren did not apologize for her undocumented claims that her mother's family had Cherokee blood  instead, reaffirming: "My mother's family was part Native American. And my daddy's parents were bitterly opposed to their relationship. So, in 1932, when Mother was 19 and Daddy had just turned 20, they eloped. "The story they lived will always be a part of me," she said, as tears came to her eyes. "And no one  not even the president of the United States  will ever take that part of me away."

The tears are a nice touch, don't you think? She's a victim, just like her Indian momma. Trump is so mean...

Judge for yourself the sincerity of the tears:

But her claim implying that her paternal grandparents were racists in opposing marriage to an Indian-heritage girl is false and despicable, besmirching the reputation of long dead ancestors for political gain. Michael Graham of the Boson Herald, no friend of Warren, easily debunks this claim of parental racial victimhood.

No, her grandparents were not the racists she claims they were, forcing their son to marry in secret. The wedding of Pauline Reed and Donald Herring (Warren's parents) was conducted by a prominent Methodist minister (he helped found Southern Methodist University) and announced with great fanfare in the local paper.

Not exactly the behavior of parents who opposed a marriage, and definitely not an elopement.

As for the claim of victim status:

And most important of all, no  Liz Warren's family never suffered a single setback or even a moment of discrimination due to family lore about their heritage. Liz Warren never lived one minute of her life as a minority. The entire premise of her claim is ludicrous on its face  with or without the high cheekbones.

She also lied about exploiting her purported minority status to hop on the affirmative action gravy train. From the Globe:

Responding to critics who claim she used a minority status to gain prestigious law professorships, she said: "I never used my family tree to get a break or get ahead. I never used it to advance my career."

She had herself listed in directories listing minority faculty members in the United States. These directories are what universities use when under pressure to add minorities and women to their faculties, as Harvard Law School was under pressure to do at the time of her hiring. And Harvard touted her as a minority hire. And, at the time she was hired, I believe she was the only member of the Harvard faculty not to have attended an elite law school. Her hiring, in other words, screams affirmative action.

Warren threw in some palliatives to distract the audience, made up of genuine Native Americans who are members of tribes (no tribe has ever recognized Warren as a member).

"I get why some people think there's hay to be made here. You won't find my family members on any rolls, and I'm not enrolled in a tribe," Warren admitted, much as she did in 2012. And just as in 2012, yesterday she failed to produce any proof of her Cherokee heritage claim.

But even so, she'll lobby for their causes just as if she were a genuine Indian:

The Massachusetts Democrat ... made an impassioned pledge to advocate for issues of importance for Native Americans.

It should now be abundantly clear that Warren is running for president in 2020 and wants to put this behind her.

It won't work.The Intercept is reporting on a leaked private Twitter message calling Trump aide Roger Stone a "b" (the word means someone who regularly lies or makes up stories) for implying that the operative had been in contact with Assange.

A leaked message from Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, has disproven one of the Democrats' theories on Donald Trump's collusion with Russia.

Stone hinted in public statements that he was in contact with Assange prior to the WikiLeaks release of DNC emails in October, 2016. Assange denied it.

Daily Caller:

In private Twitter messages exchanged in Aug. 2016, Assange referred to Stone as a "b" who falsely implied in public statements that he was communicating with WikiLeaks, The Intercept reported Wednesday. "Stone is a b," Assange wrote to an associate in a private group chat. "Trying to a) imply that he knows anything b) that he contributed to our hard work," he added. Assange was responding to a news article that quoted Stone claiming he was in contact with Assange. "I actually have communicated with Assange," Stone told a group of Florida Republicans on Aug. 8. Stone, a longtime Republican operative who has known Trump for 40 years, made other cryptic comments suggesting he had foreknowledge of WikiLeaks' release of emails stolen from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's campaign manager John Podesta. WikiLeaks began publishing Podesta's hacked emails in Oct. 2016. In July, the group dumped 20,000 emails that were stolen from the Democratic National Committee. The U.S. intelligence community believes the Russian government orchestrated the hacks and used WikiLeaks as a cut-out. "Trust me, it will soon the Podesta's [sic] time in the barrel," Stone tweeted on Aug. 21, 2016. The release of Podesta's emails two months later led to allegations that Stone and the Trump campaign cooperated with WikiLeaks and/or Russia. "I think there's at least a reasonable belief that Mr. Assange may have passed this information onto Mr. Stone," Podesta said after his emails were released. Stone responded at the time by softening his initial claim that he had direct contact with Assange. "I had no advance knowledge. They don't tell me who [sic] they're hacking, they don't tell me who [sic] they're not hacking, and I'm not clearing what they put out. It's an absurdity, it would be funny if it wasn't so outrageous," Stone told The Daily Caller at the time.

I think this illustrates perfectly the quality  or lack thereof  of charges of collusion against Trump. Assange is 100% correct; Roger Stone is a publicity whore, a proven liar and dirty trickster. Stone probably admires Assange as someone who, like himself, can create havoc. But was he actually privy to WikiLeaks' email-leaking campaign? Doubtful.

Knowing Stone the man, no reasonable politician would have taken him at his word. But the Democrats are unreasonable and hysterical about Trump and will accept any falsehood  including the Steele dossier  as proof of Trump's guilt.

The same holds true of the Democrats' other "key" witness, Carter Page. Page was running around Washington in 2013 bragging that he was advising the Kremlin. This raised so many red flags that the FBI got a FISA warrant to spy on him. But national security experts are sure that Page was spouting off and not seriously involved with the Russians, even though they tried to recruit him as a spy. They eventually gave up on that when Page was revealed to be uninformed about Russia and the U.S.

The irony of the leaker being the target of leaks is rich. Assange may have, indeed, been a Russian cut-out, unaware that he was being used by the Kremlin. But a conscious Russian agent doing Putin's bidding? Absurd.A few days ago, it was psychologists who were concerned that enforcing immigration law gives illegal alien children post-traumatic stress disorder ; today, it is doctors claiming that putting a question about citizenship on the Census will jeopardize the health of the nation as a whole.

Marxists believed that all forms of science should serve Marxism. So did Maoists, calling on the masses to be "Red and Expert." So it should be no surprise that liberals are doing the same thing.

Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? But no, they really mean it:

The fear is that immigrants  even those in the country legally  will not participate in any government-sponsored questionnaire that could expose them, their family members, or friends to deportation. But low response rates from any demographic group would undermine the validity of the next decade of health statistics and programs, health experts warn.

Isn't it great that we have health experts? These are probably the same health experts who cook up the flu vaccine every year, which works 10% or less of the time.

Scientists use census data to understand the distribution of health conditions across the United States population. In turn, officials use the data to target interventions and distribute federal funding. When census results are released, scientists often measure the impact of a disease by comparing its prevalence to the total population. With skewed census data, public health officials may invest in solving a problem that does not exist  or worse, may overlook one that does. "This is completely foundational," said Michael Fraser, the executive director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. "We take for granted that we have a really accurate understanding of who lives in this country: their ages, ethnicities, where they live."

So, Dr. Fraser wants all the information he can get  ages, ethnicities, and so on  except for one thing: he doesn't want to know if the people who fill out the census are from another country! Given that diseases can cross borders along with foreign nationals, don't you think this is extremely useful information that any professional epidemiologist would be desperate to know?

According to Dr. Laurence Nickey, director of the El Paso heath district[,] "Contagious diseases that are generally considered to have been controlled in the United States are readily evident along the border[.] ... The incidence of tuberculosis in El Paso County is twice that of the U.S. rate." Dr. Nickey also states that leprosy, which is considered by most Americans to be a disease of the Third World, is readily evident along the U.S.-Mexico border and that dysentery is several times the U.S. rate[.] ... A June, 2009 article in the New England Journal of Medicine noted that a majority (57.8%) of all new cases of tuberculosis in the United States in 2007 were diagnosed in foreign-born persons. The TB infection rate among foreign-born persons was 9.8 times as high as that among U.S.-born persons. "The pork tapeworm, which thrives in Latin America and Mexico, is showing up along the U.S. border, threatening to ravage victims with symptoms ranging from seizures to death[.]

Wouldn't it be relevant to know if a person answering the census is not from America, to better track diseases like these? If Dr. Fraser really is a doctor, why doesn't he want to protect us from the pork tapeworm?

Here's one more fact that might shed some light:

The results of the census determine how more than $600 billion is appropriated across state and local governments each year, including federal block grants for children's health and preventive care services. An immigrant [sic]-heavy region that underreports its total population could lose public health dollars  as well as funding for food programs, school programs and transportation services.

Now we get to the real reason. It's not that Dr. Fraser and his liberal friends are insensitive to the plight of pork tapeworm sufferers. They want illegals to fill out the Census in as large a number as possible so money, money from American taxpayers, can be allocated to them, and also more congresspeople are allocated to represent them, a class of people who should have no representation at all.

Liberals will use any argument and pervert any science in order to get what they want. Medicine has been politicized to the point where cutting off your body parts and injecting yourself with hormones from the opposite sex are considered healthy, but asking a genuinely useful question about national origin on the Census will make you sick.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.President Trump tried Wednesday to persuade his fellow Republicans to raise the gas tax. In a closed-door meeting on infrastructure with members of both parties, Trump pitched the idea of a 25-cent increase in the gas tax, which hasn't been raised since 1993.

In a closed-door meeting, President Trump repeatedly asked congressmen to raise the gas tax. President Trump is so eager to raise taxes that he even volunteered to take the blame for it:

"To my surprise, President Trump, today in our meeting, offered his support for raising the gas and diesel tax by 25 cents a gallon and dedicating that money to improve our roads, highways[,] and bridges," said Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), who attended the meeting. Carper supports the increase and said "Trump came back to the idea of a 25-cent increase several times throughout the meeting." The president "even offered to help provide the leadership necessary so that we can do something that has proven difficult in the past," Carper said.

In case you think this is "fake news," here is some degree of confirmation from a Republican:

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), chairman of a key Senate committee that is working on infrastructure, attended the meeting with Trump and reiterated that a gas-tax increase remains a nonstarter.

As well as a non-committal response from the White House, which refuses to deny that it happened:

A White House official refused to confirm the president's comments in Wednesday's meeting. But the official noted that Trump has previously said everything is on the table[.]

This is not the first time the president has reportedly tried to raise the gas tax:

During a White House meeting with House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) several weeks ago, Trump mused about a gas tax increase to 50 cents per gallon, almost triple the current level, according to a person briefed on the exchange who requested anonymity to discuss White House deliberations.

The federal gas tax is currently 18.4 cents per gallon. Trump's 25-cent increase would more than double it; his initial proposal to increase it by 50 cents would more than triple it.

States also have their own gas taxes. California's is 38 cents per gallon, New York is 43 cents per gallon, and Pennsylvania is 58 cents per gallon, just to give a few examples. With Trump's 25-cent increase to the 18-cent federal tax, people could be paying close to a dollar a gallon in gas taxes when you combine state and federal.

That raises the inevitable question: if gas taxes are already so high, where are they going? The states alone should have billions of dollars to spend on highways and roads. When you combine that with the money from the federal gas taxes, there should be plenty for a wide variety of projects.

The answer is what you'd expect: a lot of gas tax revenues are diverted to other schemes, notably subsidizing mass transit, which have nothing to do with roads and highways.

Rather than calling on states to use their existing gas taxes for their intended purpose, Trump's apparent response is to call for gas taxes to be even higher. But even Trump seems to have the self-awareness to be ashamed to call for a tax hike in public, instead peddling it in closed meetings with fellow members of the "swamp."

Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.Ukrainian hacker group Coinhoarder has been revealed as the agents behind a massive spoofing of the Google ads system that resulted in the group being able to steal more than $50 million in cryptocurrency from an undisclosed number of victims. Tech giant Cisco cooperated with Ukrainian authorities in an investigation spanning six months before finally being able to confirm the identity of the hackers. The group used Googles AdWords platform to run ads on search terms related to cryptocurrency, such as blockchain and bitcoin. When users clicked on the ads, they were taken to a fake landing page that mimicked popular wallet site Blockchain.info. Once hackers had users information in hand, they were able to empty out their cryptocurrency wallets with no issue.

Cryptocurrency and the blockchain that powers it inherently has some measure of anonymity, which has made cybercrime related to cryptocurrency far less dangerous than cybercrime relating to actual currency, such as phishing bank information or hacking into domains to steal digitally represented money. The phishing server for this hack is unique in that it did not reconstruct the original page that it aped from the ground up, but rather overlaid a proxy on that page with a few specific JavaScript instructions and other bits that would send users information to the hackers, instead of sending it to the correct domain. It was this behavior that allowed Ciscos Talos team and Ukrainian cybercrime authorities to eventually trace the attacks.

While Coinhoarder has been found out and done away with, Cisco reported that the groups tactic has since been copied, and users involved with cryptocurrency will need to exercise extra caution when handling their wallets. The world of cryptocurrency can still largely be considered to be an untamed part of the internet. While that affords cryptocurrency users a measure of privacy and autonomy, it means that security is a bit more lax, and authorities may have a harder time helping out when things like this happen. All of the usual rules of the web need to be followed, along with some extra caution. Users should always double check the URL of any page that they enter personal information into, and if theyre using a browser that gives them security alerts, such as Chrome, they should think twice before ignoring or bypassing such alerts to interact with a page.Images have leaked for the Nokia 7 Plus and the Nokia 1, two brand new phones coming from the Finnish smartphone maker, both of which are also looking to be the next two devices in Nokia and HMD Globals Android phone lineup. While its not confirmed which versions of Android the two phones will be running, Nokia has been fairly clear about its plans for software updates and such with its current phones and any phones that it has planned to launch in the future, so these will both be running at least Android 7.1 Nougat.

Another big thing to take into account is that the Nokia 7 Plus, the phone which can be seen up above, is an Android One device so this will potentially skip Nougat and come running on Android 8.0 Oreo, or at the very least get an update to it rather quickly following its launch. That said its also possible that the Nokia 1 could come with Oreo as well. The Nokia 1 is the more budget-friendly of the two new phones, coming with no fingerprint sensor, what appears to be a much smaller size screen and significantly larger bezels both on the sides and on the top and bottom. The Nokia 1 does have an audio jack on top but its not possible to tell what sort of charging port the phone is carrying. It also has a rear-facing camera with an LED flash and a single front-facing camera with no flash, and it comes in two colors  what appears to be a dark Blue and a Red option.

As for the Nokia 7 Plus, this will come in at least the color shown which is White alongside orange accents for things like the surrounding ring of the fingerprint sensor, the Nokia logo on the back, the border around the rear-facing camera and the volume up and down buttons as well as the power button. Theres even the same color accent following around the edge of the display. Theres no detail mentioned along with the image other than the fact that its running Android One, but based on the image this will come with some pretty high-quality cameras. It comes with a dual camera setup on the back with Carl Zeiss optics, and a front-facing camera to the right of the earpiece, though it isnt known if these use Carl Zeiss optics as well. The Nokia 7 Plus also appears to be coming with an 18:9 aspect ratio. Though no specs for the Nokia 7 Plus have been confirmed yet nor were any rumored in the image leak, they have been leaked before, and its rumored that Nokia will use a Snapdragon 660 CPU and that the Nokia 7 Plus will indeed come running on Oreo. It should also come in a Black option based on a prior leaked image.BarcelonaThe Barcelona City Council Commission for the Presidency agreed Wednesday on an institutional statement calling for the transfer of pro-independence prisoners to Catalan penitentiaries while they continue on remand. It argues that the distance to their current prisons "carries a social punishment that violates rights acknowledged by international legislation and is a violation of human rights".

The statement was signed by the government of BComu plus the representatives of the PDECat, ERC, the CUP, as well as the unaffiliated councilman Gerard Ardanuy (Democrates). In the near future, the city aims to host a reception for the family members of Oriol Junqueras, Joaquim Forn, Jordi Sanchez, and Jordi Cuixart, according to the official statement.

The text considers that applying a precautionary measure like prison without bail "hinders the normalization of the political situation in Catalonia", and offers to provide emotional and psychological support to the prisoners' families, with whom it expresses the Council's solidarity.

The City Council is working with organizations dedicated to defending human rights, as well as stakeholders in the civic and legal communities, to plan the reception for families, which will be presided over by Ada Colau, Barcelona's mayor, and Jaume Asens, deputy mayor for Citizens' Rights. The event aims to be an act of support for the families and a space for dialog.

The Council noted that it has repeatedly demanded the release of the four prisoners, and suspended its institutional activity in protest. It also held a special plenary session in which it approved another institutional statement calling for their release.

This declaration was accompanied by the placement of a banner calling for their freedom on the City Hall facade, and a yellow ribbon on the balcony, and the City Council also illuminated fountains around the city with the color yellow, as a symbol of support.CAS was originally part of Carillions in-house legal department but has expanded to offer services to other clients and law firms.

Lawyers have a trust problem says LSB

Research into the needs of small businesses from the legal profession has flagged up a major issue; trust in lawyers is declining.

The UKs Legal Services Board says that over the past four years the share of small business owners and managers who say lawyers offer a cost-effective way to solve disputes has declined from an already-low 14% to just 11%. Even among those who used an adviser the figure was only 20%.

There still remains a perception of legal services as expensive  whether or not that perception is accurate  resulting in many businesses either ignoring legal issues or trying to handle them alone, said the LSBs interim chair Dr Helen Phillips.

Around a third of small businesses said that they have encountered a legal issue in the past 12 months. The research also found that 49% of respondents only use a legal adviser as a last resort and most are more likely to consult accountants than lawyers.The team, which consists of 60 paralegals in Newcastle and 10 in Birmingham, has since provided more than 30,000 hours of support to the in-house team, saving Carillion about 15% of outside legal spend in 2016, the Law Society Gazette said.

Lucy Nixon will continue to lead the CAS team, which is intended to be fully integrated into Clifford Chance. The team, which will still be based in Newcastle, will report to Michael Bates, managing partner, and Oliver Campbell, global head of client services.

Bates said that by working with CAS, the firm enhances its ability to provide extremely cost-effective, efficient, and high-quality services on low complexity legal tasks.

To date, we have delivered this work either through our legal support centre in India, or through working with other third parties including legal outsourcers, he said. The addition of the team in Newcastle, with their well-recognised expertise in unbundling, developing processes and applying the latest in legal tech, will enable us to provide clients with another option from within the firm.





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UK legal heavyweights band together for cross-firm LGBT mentoring scheme

German juggernaut buys Australian business with Magic Circle firms helpOver two years ago we received serious allegations related to incidents in Wellington. Where allegations were made, we immediately conducted a full internal investigation at the time and initiated a formal process. Those who were the subject of the allegations left the firm following the investigation. Out of respect for the privacy of the women involved, we have no further details to share.

As a responsible employer, Russell McVeagh has always taken employees concerns extremely seriously. Our firm is committed to ensuring our workplace is a supportive and safe environment for all of our staff and their safety and wellbeing is our utmost priority. We have zero tolerance for bad behaviour and will have no hesitation to act if we are alerted to behaviour that contravenes our values, with robust processes in place to investigate and resolve any issues. We continue to take all possible steps to create a speak out culture and as part of this, have made it clear to our staff that there will be no repercussions for speaking out in any circumstance.

We are committed to addressing any issues of harassment at Russell McVeagh and in our profession generally by making it known that any such behaviour is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

In addition, we have been and are working closely with many of the other major law firms and the universities to develop a transition to work programme and have appointed an independent person, to provide additional support to our staff and graduates within the profession as they commence their careers from university.

We have been asked by the women affected to respect their privacy, and therefore, will not be commenting further.As any self-respected carmaker, Aston Martin does not limit itself to selling just cars. Being such a famous car brand means it can quickly try and expand that James Bond appeal some of its buyers go for with a series of non-auto related merchandise.On Thursday, Aston Martin announced that a new online shop is open for business, providing fans with anything from Aston Martin print to clothing. Polo shirts, bags, cashmere scarves and a mini race suit for kids aspiring to be like their Aston Martin-owning fathers are all up for grabs.Traveling in a bespoke car cannot be done without bespoke luxury luggage in the form of wash bags, briefcases, and holdalls. When returning home from travels, what better feeling than to rest ones eyes upon artwork showing models and events like the Valkyrie at the Geneva Motor Show in 2017, Aston Martin Vulcan s first visit to Abu Dhabi or Aston Martin Racings 2017 class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans?Also sold online is a selection of iPhone cases, priced at around $21, embellished with Aston Martin-related images.But perhaps the most exciting objects in the new online shop are the scale models of Aston Martin cars . Fantastic as they already were, they now include the Aston Martin DB11 and James Bonds DB5 from Skyfall and DB10 from Spectre.The shop has something for everyone from Aston Martin Racing gear to your very own set of Aston Martin wings or bespoke luggage for your DB11. With many more product lines to be added in the future we invite you to visit it or a browse, said Simon Sproule, Aston Martins Chief Marketing Officer.Idaho Gov. Butch Otter said last month he would let insurance companies sell policies that do not comply with the Affordable Care Act. And yesterday, Blue Cross of Idaho took him up on it.

The bottom line: This is a huge test for Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar. And if he doesnt step in enforce the ACA now, the Trump administration could ultimately find itself tied up in just as much ACA litigation as the Obama administration. (Medicaid work requirements are also being challenged in the courts.)

What theyre saying: Its not that hard to see why this is a good business proposition for Blue Cross of Idaho. These plans will appeal to the younger, healthier consumers insurers crave.

But I also asked BCI officials yesterday how they decided it was safe to jump into this new arena  how they decided to go ahead and sell these plans, despite the questions about whether theyre legal.

The way the ACA is constructed, the ACA gave the right to regulate the market to the states, and the state is charged with substialy enforcing the ACA to make it work and be stable, BCI executive vice president Dave Jeppesen told me.

In other words, its OK because Idaho said its OK.

The details: These new plans will still adhere to some of the ACAs regulations. Theyll cover all the essential health benefits, for example, and wont charge a copay for preventive services like contraception.

But they will charge consumers more based on their pre-existing conditions, and will impose an annual cap on the benefits theyll pay out. The ACA outlawed both of those features.

The natural concern is that these plans would pull people out of the market for ACA-compliant coverage.

But, Jeppesen said, premium increases in Idaho have been so bad that those people have already left. Blue Cross believes theyre now uninsured, and that these plans will pull them back into the insurance market at all  and because Idaho requires these plans and ACA plans to keep all their customers in the same risk pool, he said, this could actually end up stabilizing the ACA marketplace.

The other side: Theres no question that these plans are illegal, University of Michigan law professor and ACA legal guru Nick Bagley told me. Its not that what they're doing is legal, They just think they're not going to get caught.The international aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (or Doctors Without Borders) said on Wednesday that it had fired 19 people connected to 24 sexual harassment cases last year, per Reuters. The group has investigated 40 complaints of sexual misconduct, it says.

The backdrop: The disclosure comes in the wake of a sex scandal at British charity Oxfam, whose deputy head stepped down last week after it emerged that staffers had paid for sex with women in Haiti while providing post-2010 earthquake aid. The British government later warned it would slash funds from overseas aid agencies embroiled in sexual abuse scandal."The suspect in a deadly rampage at a Florida high school is a troubled teenager who posted disturbing material on social media before the shooting spree," AP reports.

His background: Nikolas Cruz, 19, had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for "disciplinary reasons."

"Cruz's mother Lynda Cruz died of pneumonia on Nov. 1 ... Cruz and her husband, who died of a heart attack several years ago, adopted Nikolas and his biological brother, Zachary."

Lynda Cruz died of pneumonia on Nov. 1 ... Cruz and her husband, who died of a heart attack several years ago, adopted Nikolas and his biological brother, Zachary." "The boys were left in the care of a family friend after their mother died."

in the care of a family friend after their mother died." "Unhappy there, Nikolas Cruz asked to move in with a friend's family in northwest Broward. The family agreed and Cruz moved in around Thanksgiving."

Nikolas Cruz asked to move in with a friend's family in northwest Broward. The family agreed and Cruz moved in around Thanksgiving." "According to the family's lawyer, ... they knew that Cruz owned the AR-15 but made him keep it locked up in a cabinet. He did have the key."

the family's lawyer, ... they knew that Cruz owned the AR-15 but made him keep it locked up in a cabinet. He did have the key." "[T]he shooter was getting treatment at a mental health clinic for a while, but that he hadn't been back to the clinic for more than a year."

was getting treatment at a mental health clinic for a while, but that he hadn't been back to the clinic for more than a year." "Daniel Huerfano, a student who fled [the] attack, said he recognized Cruz from an Instagram photo in which Cruz posed with a gun in front of his face."

a student who fled [the] attack, said he recognized Cruz from an Instagram photo in which Cruz posed with a gun in front of his face." Huerfano recalled Cruz ("that weird kid ... a loner") as a shy student and remembered seeing him walking around with his lunch bag.

A key quote: Broward County Mayor Beam Furr to CNN:

"We try to keep our eyes out on those kids who aren't connected ... Most teachers try to steer them toward some kind of connections. ... In this case, we didn't find a way to connect with this kid."A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson confirmed on Thursday that five Russians were killed in last week's strike from U.S. and Syrian Democratic Forces, NBC reports.

Why it matters: This is the first public acknowledgement from Moscow about Russian casualties in Syria at the hands of U.S. forces. The five killed are paramilitary contractors, not Russian military personnel. Per the Financial Times, this furthers the idea that "the Kremlin is using hired guns to mask its official involvement."

Notable: Russia's resistance to announcing deaths could stem from Putin's re-election attempts as he nears voting in March; per U.S. News and World Report: "Any reports of large numbers of Russian deaths in Syria could create a public relations problem for him."

Russia's resistance to announcing deaths could stem from Putin's re-election attempts as he nears voting in March; per U.S. News and World Report: "Any reports of large numbers of Russian deaths in Syria could create a public relations problem for him." What they're saying: The U.S. was in contact with Russia before, during, and after the attack last week. Per CNN, Defense Secretary James Mattis said: "The Russians professed that they were not aware when we called them about the force that had crossed [the Euphrates]."

Go deeper: The rare strike from the U.S. in Syria.South Korea's government announced today that there is no evidence to back up claims that wages paid by South Korean companies to North Korean workers at a cross-border industrial park were funding North Korea's military ambitions, per Reuters. The South's previous administration, headed by deposed President Park Geun-hye, had made the assertions following a long-range missile test by North Korea last year.

The context: The complex in question  Kaesong industrial park  was designed to help foster cooperation between North and South Korea. 55,000 North Korean workers at the facility made double the North's usual minimum wage by doing work for South Korean companies.The Taliban released an open letter Wednesday calling on the American people, independent NGOs and "peace-loving Congressmen" to help end the occupation of Afghanistan by pushing for negotiations, reports The Guardian.

The backdrop: The letter points to the thousands of fatalities, the massive spike in opium production and the billions of dollars that will continue to be spent by the U.S. government as reasons America must put an end to the 17-year war in Afghanistan. In a January meeting with members of the UN Security Council, President Trump rejected the idea of peace talks with the Taliban after a suicide bomber killed 95 people in Kabul, per Reuters.

When you see what theyre doing and the atrocities that theyre committing, and killing their own people, and those people are women and children ... it is horrible.... We dont want to talk to the Taliban. Were going to finish what we have to finish, what nobody else has been able to finish, were going to be able to do it.

 President Trump, speaking to the UN Security Council

Read the full text of the Taliban's letter.Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's trip to Turkey offers a reminder that while Turks are divided 50-50 on many political issues  including their feelings toward President Recep Tayyip Erdogan  they broadly oppose the U.S. policy of working with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria.

Why it matters: Most Turks object to U.S. partnership with the YPG  an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which is viewed as a terrorist group by Turkey and its NATO allies. Secretary Tillerson needs to assure the Turks that the U.S. policy was a temporary and tactical alliance, and that Washington is ready to wean itself away from the YPG now that the Islamic State has been defeated in Syria.

Washington shouldn't worry too much about upsetting the YPG with such a shift in policy. The YPG seeks international legitimacy for the areas it controls in Syria, collectively dubbed Rojava. Yet the YPG knows that a split from the U.S. would force Rojava to fold under Moscow, becoming a Syrian version of Transnistria  Moldovas breakaway republic now under Russian military occupation and lacking any international legitimacy.

The bottom line: Secretary Tillerson has the opportunity to turn around the U.S.'s deteriorating relationship with Turkey if he can convince Ankara that the U.S.YPG alliance is winding down.

Soner Cagaptay is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the author of "The New Sultan: Erdogan and the Crisis of Modern Turkey."Trump's homeland security advisor Tom Bossert said the U.S. would prefer Turkey exit from Afrin, Syria, where it's been launching an assault on U.S.-backed Kurdish forces. That's a shift from just earlier this week when U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he hoped Turkey would exercise "restraint" in the offensive.

What's happening: Turkey's entrance for the first time as an overt combatant in the war is dramatically shifting the political calculus of the war, and exposing a new challenge for the Trump administration: delineating the boundaries, physical and otherwise, of U.S. involvement in Syria post-ISIS.

The big picture is this reveals how little influence in the region the U.S. now holds, former Senior Adviser to the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the U.S. State Department, David Phillips, tells Axios.

is this reveals how little influence in the region the U.S. now holds, former Senior Adviser to the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs at the U.S. State Department, David Phillips, tells Axios. This cements , at least in near term, that Turkey and Russia will work against the U.S. in the region for an outcome that is damaging for U.S. national security, Jenny Cafarella, the Senior Intelligence Planner at the Institute for the Study of War, tells Axios.

, at least in near term, that Turkey and Russia will work against the U.S. in the region for an outcome that is damaging for U.S. national security, Jenny Cafarella, the Senior Intelligence Planner at the Institute for the Study of War, tells Axios. Turkey coordinated with Russia to de-conflict the area so that Turkey could launch the assault in the first place, even though Russia and Turkey hold different beliefs about what Syria's future should hold.

to de-conflict the area so that Turkey could launch the assault in the first place, even though Russia and Turkey hold different beliefs about what Syria's future should hold. The bottom line, per Cafarella: If the U.S. is indirectly at war with Turkey the U.S. will have a hard time pivoting to broad goals, such as getting Assad booted from power.

State of the conflict in Afrin

"The Turkish army is besieging Afrin from three sides," Rezan Hiddo, a Kurdish official in Afrin told the AP.

The chief of the U.S. Central Command Gen. Joseph Votel and the White House envoy for the war against ISIS Brett McGurk are in Syria this week talking with Kurdish officials, per the AP.

Gen. Joseph Votel and the White House envoy for the war against ISIS Brett McGurk are in Syria this week talking with Kurdish officials, per the AP. Turkeys stated objectives are to seize Afrin and then move the offensive towards Manbij. If that happens, it raises the prospect of direct clashes with U.S. forces.

The U.S. shifts

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced last week the U.S. would be bolstering a border force, which alarmed Turkey and provided some rationale for the assault.

announced last week the U.S. would be bolstering a border force, which alarmed Turkey and provided some rationale for the assault. A State Department official then walked Tillersons comments back and pointed out that the operation in Syria remains one of support and stability.

then walked Tillersons comments back and pointed out that the operation in Syria remains one of support and stability. Yes, but: A stabler YPG force is exactly the opposite of what Turkey wants. This pits the U.S. against Turkey so long as the U.S. backs the YPG.

A stabler YPG force is exactly the opposite of what Turkey wants. This pits the U.S. against Turkey so long as the U.S. backs the YPG. It was a question of when this would happen, not if. Turkey has been posturing to counter the YPG for some time now, and the U.S. has long-known Turkey views the YPG as a terrorist organization.

Turkey has been posturing to counter the YPG for some time now, and the U.S. has long-known Turkey views the YPG as a terrorist organization. The White House said Trump discussed concerns with Erdogan that the assault erodes U.S. and Turkish goals in Syria. Turkish officials told the AP Trump did not express concerns over escalating violence.

What now

Phillips predicts a more hands off approach from the U.S. moving forward: Im just waiting for the next foot to fall, Phillips said. He says he thinks the U.S. will do the same thing that it did to the Iraqi Kurds in Kirkuk (allowing rivals in, such as the IRGC in that case, in to reduce the Kurds' gains). He expects it will happen to the Syrian Kurds as soon as its expedient" for the U.S.

moving forward: Im just waiting for the next foot to fall, Phillips said. He says he thinks the U.S. will do the same thing that it did to the Iraqi Kurds in Kirkuk (allowing rivals in, such as the IRGC in that case, in to reduce the Kurds' gains). He expects it will happen to the Syrian Kurds as soon as its expedient" for the U.S. On whether a political solution is possible now: Right now, not really, per Phillips. Its hard to get to that point when theres active hostility going on. Thats why Turkeys entry into Syria as an overt combatant is such a problem" for the U.S.

Scheduled diplomatic talks lie ahead, which Cafarella says could help the U.S. preserve gains that weve built and realign with Turkey.The British National Cyber Security Centre said Thursday that "the Russian military was almost certainly responsible" for the disastrous NotPetya malware attack.

Why it matters: NotPetya created massive global damage last June, with $300 million to shipping giant Maersk alone. But, cybersecurity firm ESET calculated that 80% of its damages were centered in Ukraine. That was by design. The malware was affixed in an update to accounting software M.E.Doc, which is widely and almost exclusively used in Ukraine.

Deja Vu: Russia is linked to a large number of cyberattacks against its European neighbors, with particular venom towards the former Soviet Bloc and especially Ukraine. The country has faced several blackouts caused by cyberattacks believed to be launched by Moscow, and believes Russia almost comedically botched an election hacking scheme in 2014.

NotPetya is presented as ransomware, a high tech extortion scheme where malware encrypts files and charges users for the decryption key. But in this case, NotPetya was deliberately capable of decrypting files, even if the user paid. Most experts believe NotPetya was intended to cause damage rather than make money.President Nicolas Maduro has said he will attend this year's Summit of the Americas in April, despite host country Peru claiming the Venezuelan leader is "not welcome," reports AFP.

The backdrop: The summit has brought together the 35 members of the Organization of American States seven times since 1994 to discuss shared policy issues and challenges. Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski rescinded Maduro's invitation following his decision to hold Venezuela's presidential election in April, against the wishes of opposition leaders.

Go deeper: Venezuela's economic collapse, by the numbersBy Rashid Shirinov

A delegation led by UK Prime Ministers Trade Envoy for Azerbaijan Baroness Emma Nicholson held negotiations at the Azerbaijan Airlines CJSC (AZAL), the company informed on February 14.

During the meeting, the sides expressed satisfaction with cooperation of Azerbaijan and UK in the political and economic spheres.

Cooperation with UK companies dates back to 1999 when upon national leader Heydar Aliyevs instructions Azerbaijan obtained Boeing 757 aircraft equipped with engines of UK company Rolls-Royce.

Currently, part of AZAL and Silk Way Airlines fleets is equipped with Rolls-Royce engines, which is one of the leaders of the world industry. Such large-scale projects have turned Azerbaijans civil aviation into one of the largest industries in which UK companies are involved.

It was noted during the meeting that London was one of the first international destinations of Azerbaijan Airlines. Presently, flights in this direction are operated using the state-of-the-art aircraft Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Baroness Nicholson stressed that Azerbaijans civil aviation has great potential and is very attractive for the activity of UK producers and investors.

At the end, the sides expressed hope for further successful cooperation with UK companies in this field.

AZAL, a major air carrier and one of the leaders of the aviation community of CIS countries, is one of the main airline companies not only in the region but also across the globe. Total route network of the airline is around 40 destinations in 25 countries. In 2017, Azerbaijan Airlines carried 2.2 million passengers, and the number of its flights is increasing.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Laman Ismayilova

The Azerbaijan Carpet Museums new Carpets and Legends project was launched with an exhibition Chinese New Year on February 14.

The exhibition was co-organized with the Embassy of the Peoples Republic of China to the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Prominent public and art figures, representatives of diplomatic missions attended the event.

Director of the museum, chairman of the ICOM National Committee Azerbaijan Shirin Melikova, Chinese Ambassador to Azerbaijan Wei Jinghua, the head of the Cultural Institutions and Folk Art Department at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism Fikret Babayev stressed that both Azerbaijan and China have an ancient history, art and traditions. The exposition serves as a cultural bridge linking two nations.

According to the Chinese Lunar calendar, the Year of the Dog began in February 2018. Therefore, the project linked the museum exhibits with the image of this years symbol. A few never-seen-before carpets from the museum fund are also presented at the exhibition.

Dog images are one of the common elements of world art. Their content in various epochs and in the art of different peoples varies from totem to a way of life.

In the ancient Chinese Art, this is a wide range of images of celestial guardian  mythical dog-lion (Foo Dog) in carpet art, painting and sculpture, as well as modern clay dog  the traditional fishery of Huaiyang.

The dog images are frequent on Azerbaijani carpets. Several dozen of the late 19th  early 20th-centuries Shirvan, Karabakh, and Gazakh carpets in the compositions and ornaments of which the dog images are somehow involved will be put on display as part of the project.

The exposition consists of two parts: the first exhibits carpets where images of dogs are shown realistically, while in the other they are depicted symbolically, in an encrypted form.

The dog images appear in a stylized and even fragmented form on such Azerbaijani carpets as Maraza, Gazakh and Shirvan. On such carpets dog patterns can carry a deep and even totemic meaning stretching back to earliest times.

The exhibition will run until February 28.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

First Vice-President of Azerbaijan, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva has met UK Prime Minister's Trade Envoy Baroness Emma Nicholson.

The UK Prime Minister's Trade Envoy Baroness Emma Nicholson presented a keepsake to Azerbaijan's First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva.

Mehriban Aliyeva hailed Baroness Emma Nicholson visit to Azerbaijan. Emphasizing that the UK PM's Trade Envoy will take part in the 4th Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) Advisory Council in Baku on February 15, the First Vice-President expressed her confidence that the meeting will be fruitful. Recalling her meeting with Baroness Emma Nicholson in November 2016, Azerbaijans First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva hailed her extensive activity and said that it deserves great respect.

First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva stressed the role of Baroness Emma Nicholson in expanding and strengthening cooperation between the two countries.

Mehriban Aliyeva underlined that long-term business relations between Azerbaijan and the UK cover many areas, and hailed the cooperation in the energy sector. She praised the successful activities of a number of British companies, including BP.

Stressing the importance of the Southern Gas Corridor, worth $42 billion, to Azerbaijan, Mehriban Aliyeva said the project is successfully underway. She said BP is one of the key partners of the project, which will see delivery of the first gas to Turkey in July this year and to Europe in 2020.

Azerbaijan's First Vice-President underlined that the two countries enjoy wide cooperation opportunities in other spheres, noting there is a great potential in transport, high technologies, health and agricultural areas.

Highlighting the charitable activity of Baroness Emma Nicholson, Mehriban Aliyeva hailed the successful cooperation between the AMAR International Charity Foundation and the Heydar Aliyev Foundation.

Saying it is her second meeting with First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva, the UK PMs Trade Envoy Baroness Emma Nicholson said she is glad to be in Azerbaijan and highly appreciated the discussions she had with the First Vice-President.

Baroness Emma Nicholson said that as a result of the discussions, successful work was carried out in the areas of mutual interest.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) Advisory Council has kicked off at the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev is attending the meeting.

Energy ministers from the Southern Gas Corridor member-states and representatives of a number of organizations, as well as European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union, co-chair of SGC Advisory Council Maros Sefcovic are participating in the event.

Prior to the meeting a joint photo was taken.

President Ilham Aliyev made a speech at the event. Maros Sefcovic then addressed the event.

The meeting continues with plenary sessions and round tables.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The Organization of Veterans of War, Labor and Armed Forces held a general meeting in Baku on Feb.14 dedicated to the presidential election scheduled for April 11.

The event participants paid a minute of silence to honor the memory of martyrs, who sacrificed their lives for the independence and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Chairman of the Republican Veterans Organization, Colonel General Tofig Agahuseynov spoke about the active participation of veterans in all elections. He expressed confidence that they will once again be active in the presidential election on April 11.

Agahuseynov further spoke about the successes achieved in Azerbaijan under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev. He stressed that the military power of Azerbaijan is also increasing, which creates greater confidence in the liberation of the Azerbaijani lands occupied by Armenia. The improving welfare and social status of the people, including the state care and attention paid to veterans, as well as the successes achieved in other areas, motivate to vote for Ilham Aliyev at the upcoming elections.

Deputy Chairman of the Republican Veterans Organization Jalil Khalilov, in turn, spoke about the forthcoming tasks in connection with the elections, and the importance of demonstrating a higher activity in this work.

Speaking at the event, Head of the Union of Chernobyl Invalids of Azerbaijan Mehdi Mehdiyev, Chairman of the Association of Azerbaijan Patriotic War Veterans Mirhasan Hasanov, member of the presidium of the Republican Organization of Veterans Fizuli Rzaguliyev, professor Bahram Zahidov and others stressed that veterans will unanimously vote for Ilham Aliyev - for sustainable development, stability and happy future of Azerbaijan and urged all to be active on election day.

The event ended with adoption of an appeal to the veterans of Azerbaijan on behalf of the participants of the general meeting.

Next presidential election in Azerbaijan is to be held on April 11, 2018, according to an order signed Feb. 5 by the country's President Ilham Aliyev.

The 6th congress of the New Azerbaijan Party was held in the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku Feb. 8. The decision was made during the congress to nominate chairman of the party Ilham Aliyev as a presidential candidate. The decision was unanimously adopted.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

A republican conference of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) was held in Baku on Feb.14.

President of Azerbaijan National NGO Forum Rauf Zeyni, addressing the event, spoke about the work done in Azerbaijan under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev and the successes achieved.

"Thanks to the successful policy of the head of state, Azerbaijan has become a state capable of defending its position. Today, not a single project is implemented in the region without the participation of Azerbaijan," Zeyni said.

The leaders of the NGOs, addressing the event, stressed that they would support Ilham Aliyev's candidacy at the presidential election scheduled for April 11.

Later, the NGO representatives adopted an appeal in connection with the presidential election.

The participants of the conference called on Azerbaijani citizens to take an active part in the presidential election on April 11, and to vote for Ilham Aliyev for the future well-being of the people.

Next presidential election in Azerbaijan is to be held on April 11, 2018, according to an order signed Feb. 5 by the country's President Ilham Aliyev.

The 6th congress of the New Azerbaijan Party was held in the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku Feb. 8. The decision was made during the congress to nominate chairman of the party Ilham Aliyev as a presidential candidate. The decision was unanimously adopted.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed an order on additional measures to provide sown plots with water in Jojug Marjanli village in the countrys Jabrayil district Feb. 14.

According to the order, 700,000 manats will be allocated to the Azerbaijan Land Reclamation and Water Management OJSC to complete the construction work, which will result in provision of Jojug Marjanli village, as well as Mirzanagili and Gazakhlar villages of Fizuli district with irrigation water.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzTeachers who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19, do not have a certificate of contraindication to vaccination or a certificate of immunity, will not be admitted to educational institutions, Trend reported with the reference to the adviser to the Education Minister Rustam Aghayev.By Trend

Ulke TV, one of the authoritative news channels in Turkey, aired a report about the upcoming presidential election in Azerbaijan.

The report features facts proving that a lot of work was carried out for Azerbaijans development under the leadership of Ilham Aliyev, elected as the countrys president in 2003 by the absolute majority of people. It is emphasized that over the past period, Azerbaijan has achieved great development in politics and economy thanks to President Ilham Aliyev.

It is noted that President Ilham Aliyev attaches great importance to the development of economy and industry in Azerbaijan. For 14 years, the Azerbaijani economys growth has tripled and the unemployment rate has dropped to 5 percent, according to the TV channel.

The currency reserves of Azerbaijan increased 23 times, the report said. It is also noted that over the past 14 years, a total of 12,300 kilometers of roads have been laid in Azerbaijan.

The authors of the report note that along with the development of the economy, the Azerbaijani army has also strengthened. Equipped with modern weapons, the Azerbaijani army liberated a territory of 2,000 hectares from the Armenian occupation overnight in April 2016, according to the report.

The report emphasizes that President Ilham Aliyev sent historic messages at the 6th Congress of the New Azerbaijan Party. The head of state stressed that the return to Yerevan - the historical land of Azerbaijan, which is currently the capital of Armenia - is a political and strategic goal, according to the TV channel.

In the conclusion of the report, it is noted that there is great faith in the victory of Ilham Aliyev in the presidential election to be held in Azerbaijan on April 11.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Kamila Aliyeva

The summit of the heads of the Caspian states may take place in the second half of this year, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov said, Central Asian media outlets reported.

As for the Summit of the Caspian states, we are talking about the adoption of a convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea, this is a five-sided document between Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Iran. We agreed upon the text of the convention in the preliminary meeting of the foreign ministers of the Caspian states in Moscow last December, now it is a question of technical work, he said.

The completion of the internal procedures from all sides, after which a specific date for this summit will be determined, is now expected, according to the minister.

But, most likely, these procedures will take quite a long time, about several months. Therefore, probably, if we are talking about the summit, we need to talk about the second half of this year, the minister said.

Earlier, the ministers of foreign affairs of the Caspian Five - Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan - had already met in Moscow and discussed the elaboration of a document on the legal status of the Caspian Sea.

The ministerial meeting preceded the summit of the heads of state which is planned to be held in Astana in 2018.

Russian presidents special representative for humanitarian cooperation with the Caspian countries Ramazan Abdulatipov has earlier said that the summit of the heads of the Caspian states will discuss the draft convention on the legal status of the sea.

The leaders of the five countries met for the first time in 2002 in Ashgabat. The second Caspian summit was held in Tehran in 2007, the third one in Baku in 2010, and the fourth summit  in Astrakhan in 2014.

Caspian Sea, the largest enclosed inland body of water on Earth, is surrounded by the five coastal countries of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan.

The issue of determining the legal status of the Caspian Sea became relevant after the collapse of the USSR, when the emergence of new subjects of international law - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan - raised the issue of delimitation of the Caspian Sea between the five littoral countries.

The legal status of the Caspian Sea has remained unsolved during the past two decades, preventing development and exploitation of its disputable oil and gas fields and creating obstacles to the realization of major projects.

The difficulties in determining the status of the Caspian Sea were linked, in particular, with the recognition of it as a lake or sea, the delineation of which is regulated by different provisions of international law.

If the Caspian is legally declared a sea, all five littoral countries would map out their territorial waters and exploit the resources as they see fit. If it is designated as a lake, all the resources of the Caspian, and profits from those resources, would be split equally among the five countries.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has received Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Berat Albayrak.

They hailed the successful development of friendly and brotherly relations in a variety of areas between the two countries.

Jointly implemented by Azerbaijan and Turkey, a number of large-scale projects, including the TANAP, TAP, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum, and Baku-Tbilisi-Kars was hailed at the meeting.

Albayrak extended President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's greetings to President Aliyev.

President Aliyev recalled his meeting with Berat Albayrak during the ceremony of the extension of the Contract of the Century last September, saying the execution of the TANAP project is going to be completed.

The head of state noted that the production of gas from Shah Deniz 2 field and its piping will soon be started.

Albayrak emphasized the importance of the extension of the term of the Contract of the Century. He also noted the importance of the 4th Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council.

The minister noted that testing got underway as part of the execution of the TANAP project last month.

President Ilham Aliyev thanked for the greetings of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and asked the minister to extend his greetings to the Turkish President.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The projects implemented in Azerbaijan have created a strong foundation for realization of the Southern Gas Corridor, said Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev.

President Aliyev made the remarks as he was addressing the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council in Baku Feb. 15.

The President stressed that the Southern Gas Corridor project is one of the key elements of Azerbaijan's energy strategy, which has been very successful so far and has helped Azerbaijan diversify its economy.

We have invested in non-oil sector, human capital and infrastructure using energy resources, and thereby ensured long-term sustainable development of our economy. Certainly, the projects we have implemented in Azerbaijan in previous years have created a strong foundation for the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor. Our energy strategy began shortly after restoration of our independence, and after three years, in 1994, Azerbaijan signed a contract with the world's leading oil companies consortium led by BP. Taking into account the volume of the project and investments, the contract was immediately named as the "Contract of the Century". After our last meeting in Baku in February last year, we signed a new agreement to extend the "Contract of the Century" on the same field. Presently, the project is extended until 2050. In the upcoming decades, we will benefit from stable and sustainable development at one of the world's largest oil fields, Azeri-Chiraq-Guneshli, he said.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Kamila Aliyeva

SOCAR Energy Ukraine, a subsidiary of Azerbaijans state oil company, plans to launch five new facilities in Ukraine in 2018, the company told Azernews.

In 2018, it is planned to launch at least five new facilities, as well as install modules for the sale of LPG at operating filling stations, according to the message.

The company recalled that SOCAR's retail network includes 59 refueling complexes and two oil loading bunkers located in nine regions of Ukraine.

We see great prospects for development in Ukraine, SOCAR Energy noted.

In addition to the retail sector, SOCAR is one of the five largest importers of natural gas in Ukraine, the company said.

SOCAR is also involved in developing the aviation fuel market in Ukraine, according to the message.

The company added that SOCAR doubled the volume of LPG supplies and increased its presence in the countrys diesel fuel market in 2017.

SOCAR Energy Ukraine considers it important to maintain leadership in terms of innovation and continue creating unique, thought-out products while moving at the right pace, the company stressed.

So far, SOCAR has invested more than $5 million in the development of socio-cultural projects in Ukraine, according to the companys website.

SOCAR entered the Ukrainian market back in 2009. The main activity of SOCAR Energy Ukraine is to improve the network of petrol filling stations and organize wholesale of petrol and oil products in the territory of Ukraine.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The Southern Gas Corridor has a strategic importance for the European energy security, especially in the most vulnerable parts of Europe, such as South-East Europe and Southern Italy, European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic told Trend Feb.14.

It helps diversify our energy supply sources and transit routes. At the end of the day, we all stand to gain from this 'bridge' between the EU market and the Caspian region, as our long-term objective is to create a pan-European energy market based on free trade, competition and diversified supplies, sources and routes, he said.

As for the upcoming Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting to be held in Baku Feb.15, Sefcovic said that the Council is crucial for streamlining the development and implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor by bringing together all the countries and stakeholders involved.

During its 4th meeting tomorrow, I am looking forward to receiving a detailed update from the operators and consortia on various projects of the Corridor, which is of strategic importance for the European energy security. We will discuss what has been achieved as well as remaining challenges in order to ensure timely completion of the Corridor and even possible extension in the future, noted the vice-president for Energy Union.

Sefcovic said that during the meeting, he wants to underline Europe's firm commitment to completing this strategic project.

I'm glad to come to Baku with a positive message about the European Investment Bank (EIB) 1.5 billion euros loan for the construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, which is the single biggest contribution of an international financial institution to this project, he added.

Moreover, past four years  since the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council was established  were marked by profound changes in the energy landscape, including the deepest transformation of EU industry and economy accelerated by historical signature of the Paris Agreement, said Sefcovic, adding that therefore, this Council can also be a good opportunity to reflect on these new trends.

The Southern Gas Corridor, worth $41.5 billion, is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages the transportation of gas from the Caspian region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.

At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.



As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans Adriatic Pipeline.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project will make Europe stronger than before, European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic said.

Sefcovic made the remarks at a press conference in Baku Feb. 15 following the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council.

He said 2018 will be a special period in implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project.

Sefcovic added that Azerbaijani gas will reach Europe in 2020.

SGC is a strategic project that will strengthen Europes energy security, and therefore the EU is supporting the project from the very beginning, Sefcovic said.

He added that the key components of the Southern Gas Corridor were outlined as the projects of the common interest for Europe. Since the very beginning of implementation of the energy strategy, the EU has closely worked with the countries of Southeast Europe and supported the creation of interconnectors to connect those countries to the Southern Gas Corridor.

Sefcovic said from this point of view, the expression of interest by such countries as Bulgaria and Romania to join the project is of great importance.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority projects for the EU and provides for the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.

At an initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.

As part of the Shah Deniz Stage 2, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The Knesset rejected a bill sponsored by Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid to have Israel recognize the so-called Armenian Genocide, in a preliminary vote Wednesday, Jerusalem post reports.

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said sent a parliamentary delegation to the 100th anniversary event in Yerevan, but will not take an official stance on the matter, because it has a clear political connection.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov discussed the situation over the Iran nuclear deal with Deputy Director of the Iranian Presidential Administration Majid Takht-Ravanchi, as well as deputy foreign ministers in Tehran Feb. 15, Russias RIA Novosti agency reported.

"During the consultations, the current situation over the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Irans nuclear program was discussed, said a message published on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry. The parties agreed to continue close coordination in this direction to preserve the JCPOA, as well as to protect their national interests in connection with the negative political dynamics around the agreement.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

A round table dedicated to the activity of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA) was held in the Turkmen Foreign Ministry, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a message.

According to the message, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Central Asia, Head of the UNRCCA Natalia Gherman spoke about the plans of the Center for 2018.

The forthcoming events will be aimed at further promoting preventive diplomacy in the region in all areas, combating terrorism, drug trafficking and promoting regional integration of Afghanistan.

The Center's activity will also affect the issues of the preservation of the environment and water resources. In this regard, the need for rational use of natural and transboundary water resources was stressed.

Gherman added that the Center will continue to actively cooperate with Turkmenistan in resolving the problems of the Aral Sea.

In late November 2017, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the role of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA). Fifty-seven countries acted as co-authors of the resolution. The headquarters of the UNRCCA is located in Ashgabat.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Kamila Aliyeva

The volume of Kazakhstan's foreign trade turnover in January-December 2017 in monetary terms amounted to $69.4 billion, showing an increase of 25.1 percent compared to 2016, according to the Committee on Statistics of the Kazakh National Economy Ministry.

The volume of exports in the reporting period amounted to $43.06 billion, thus registering a rise of 31.6 percent.

The volume of imports in the previous year amounted to $26.3 billion, thus showing a 15.8 percent increase compared to 2016.

According to preliminary data, the volume of mutual trade between Kazakhstan and the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) amounted to 17,359.6 million dollars in monetary terms, which is 25.9 percent more than in 2016.

The volume of exports to the EAEU countries in the reporting period amounted to $5.1 billion (30.2 percent higher than in the same period last year), imports - $12.2 billion (+24.1 percent).

At the same time, in the total volume of foreign trade turnover of Kazakhstan with the countries of the EAEU, Russia accounts for 92.1 percent, Kyrgyzstan - 4.4 percent, and Belarus - 3.5 percent.

Kazakhstan is the 48th most complex economy according to the Economic Complexity Index (ECI).

The country has an export-oriented economy which is highly dependent on shipments of oil and related products (73 percent of total exports). Other exports include ferrous metals, copper, aluminum, zinc and uranium.

Main imports are electronics, machinery and mechanical appliances (25 percent of total imports), mineral products (15 percent), transport equipment (12 percent) and base metals and related products (10 percent).

Kazakhstan became a World Trade Organization (WTO) member on November 30, 2015.

The country officially entered into a Customs Union with Russia and Belarus on July 1, 2010. Since that time, Kazakhstans trade policy has been heavily influenced by regulations promulgated by the Customs Union and its governing body the Eurasian Economic Commission.

As a condition of membership in the Customs Union, Kazakhstan had to double its average import tariff and introduced annual tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on trade apoultry, beef, and pork.

However, in accordance with its WTO commitments, Kazakhstan will now gradually lower 3,512 import tariff rates to an average of 6.1 percent by 2020. Starting from January 2016, Kazakhstan has applied a lower-than-Customs Union Tariff rate to food products, automobiles, airplanes, railway wagons, lumber, alcoholic beverages, pharmaceuticals, freezers, and jewelry.

On May 29, 2014 Kazakhstan and its Customs Union partners signed a treaty to create a common economic space known as the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). The EAEU is expected to further integrate their economies, and provide for the free movement of services, capital and labor within their common territory. The government of Kazakhstan has asserted that EAEU agreements comply with WTO standards.

Kazakhstans government is optimistic that further integration within the EAEU will make Kazakhstan more attractive for foreign investment by expanding market access to those countries.

Kazakhstan is a signatory of the Free Trade Agreement with CIS countries. In addition, as a member of the EAEU, Kazakhstan is party to the Free Trade Agreement between the EAEU and Vietnam.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzArtists, vendors and musicians will take over Orleans Street in downtown Beaumont for this annual festival. Stroll down the street and take in the sights and sounds while appreciating Beaumont's arts scene.

When: Noon-8 p.m. SaturdayWhen the guys of rock trio Shields wanted to take their music to a bigger stage, they knew a move would be required.

The band, originally from Rhode Island, New York, packed up and made Austin home after their producer told them about opportunities they would have."It is a lot healthier and better in Austin," said Christian Shields, lead vocalist and guitar player. "I could go on about all of the positives."

Since, Shields has performed more than 100 shows throughout the Southwest and along the West coast, including a stop at SXSW.

Christian, his brother and drummer N.V. Shields and bassist and long-time friend, Shade, enjoy delighting crowds with their party-rock sound.

The band has performed in Beaumont before and is excited to return.

"Last time we played, we had a great time," Christian said. "We haven't played there since April of 2017. So, we've been itching to get back there."

Christian sat down to discuss Shields and its music endeavors before Saturday's show at the Texas Rose Saloon.

Shields With: The Disgustoids, The Prof. Fuzz 63, and Jesse Gage

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: Texas Rose Saloon, 2013 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Pkwy., Beaumont

Cost: $6 for 21 and up and $7 for under 21

Info: www.ShieldsTheBand.com and www.twitter.com/shieldstheband See More Collapse

Q: What inspired the band name, Shields?

A: Before Shields formed, we were in a number of bands. So, when we started forming this band and began thinking about what to call it, we decided on Shields because it is both of our last names and we are the primary songwriters for the band.

Q: What inspired the band to form?

A: My brother and I wanted to get back into a band together for a while. We worked together in a now-defunct band called Dreamer and various side projects. Our producer on our last record suggested that we get back together and move to Austin. We listened to the suggestion and it's been great since.

Q: How would you personally describe your sound?

A: We are definitely party rock. I use to just say that we are rock and roll, but we like to be fun, and we like being a fun band. Some say we sound closer to punk rock because we have some songs that are punky, kind of in the vain of Blink 182, but I'd say we are party rock.

Q: On your latest album, "Use Protection" what's your favorite song to perform?

A: It is definitely a toss-up between "Size Queen" and "Far Away." "Size Queen" has one of my best guitar solos. It is also has a cool and sleazy '80s hair-band vibe to it, I'm impartial to the glam rock era. The lyrics are also tongue-in-cheek. "Far Away" is also a favorite of mine, because it has a cool Southern rock sound to it and it's bluesy, which are my roots.

Q: What inspired the song "Sex Rocks"?

A: That is a song that is originally from our old band, Dreamer. The song originally was called "Girl of the Night." It had an '80s hair metal band type of sound and was basically about getting a girl and taking her home for the night for a one=night stand. After bringing that song to our producer, he told us to lyrically get to the point in the song. So, we tweaked the song to focus on being with a girl and it rocking, we basically polished it up. We brought it to the new band, Shields, because it really fits what we are trying to do.

Q: What's next for Shields?

A: We are still planning out our Use Protection Across America tour. We will be playing the whole record, "Use Protection," in its entirety across America. The first part of the tour will start in March. We will be touring the West coast in places such as Arizona, Colorado and more. We are working on a video for "Far Away," that should be out by next February. By the summer, we will do the East coast length of the tour, and by the fall, we will tour the middle of the country.

Q: Is there anything Shields would like to say?

A: People should definitely come out and check out a Shields show. We pack an arena-sized show into a small club.

Antonio Del Rio is a freelance writer.Country music is king at RodeoHouston. Or at least we like to think so.

But when it comes to attendance numbers, crowds are singing a different tune. In a different language.Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls hopes a $20,000 reward and new technology will help uncover clues that will finally solve a decades-old cold case murder in Sugar Land.

Detectives and family members spoke to reporters on the 32nd anniversary of the Valentine's Day murder of Marilu Geri at a press conference at the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Department on Wednesday.

"Every Valentine's Day rolls by, and it's my mother's birthday, and we can't celebrate it," Geri's brother, Louis Serrato told Chron.com.

SHOOTOUT: Humble police officer, robbery suspect injured

On Feb. 14, 1986, deputies arrived at a residence located in the 9800 block of Calford Street around 9:15 a.m. where the victim was found bleeding and unresponsive at the home she shared with her husband, Stephen Geri.

Marilu was taken to an area hospital with multiple gunshot wounds and later pronounced dead. The Houston Post reported in 1986 that she was shot four times, three times in the back and once in the side.

Detectives have reopened the case and are now using resources not available in 1986.

"Because of all the new DNA and technology available to us now, we are sending a lot of our information and evidence back to the crime lab to have it examined for a second or third time, " Nehls told reporters.

"We are re-examining all of our cold cases, but this one is near to my heart because I have a family, and when Marilu' s mother, Maria Serrato, came to my office and showed me her picture, that image as haunted me since then," Nehls said.

On the day of the murder, Geri was planning to host a birthday celebration for her mom at her home. Detectives say Geri's mother discovered her body when she arrived with decorations.

"My sister knew who killed her. My sister would never have opened the door for someone she didn't know and I don't believe for one minute my sister was taken by someone at the front door," Serrato told reporters at the press conference.

He told Chron.com on Tuesday that even with an $80,000 reward posted back in the 1980s, no one has ever called with tips on the case.

"It's been 32 years and there's not been a peep," Serrato said. "Nothing. It gets aggravating."

Serrato said he hopes renewed public interest in the case will generate new leads.

"It's not going to bring Marilu back, but it would be nice to see some kind of justice."

Detectives later said that the bullets were fired from two guns, a .22-caliber pistol and a .25-caliber pistol.

Anyone with information related to the murder is asked to call Fort Bend County Crime Stoppers at 281-342-TIPS. Callers can remain anonymous.A U.S. Army soldier from Mid-County who was under investigation in a sexual assault at Fort Bragg, N.C., has been charged in a brutal 2013 rape and kidnapping during which a Cypress teenager was attacked with an ax and left for dead in a field.

Levi Austin Goss, 24, was charged last week with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault of a child. Goss was arrested after Harris County Sheriff's Office investigators matched his DNA to forensics samples from the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Laboratory.

A public records search shows Goss grew up in Nederland. He graduated in December 2014 from Lamar Institute of Technology, according to Enterprise archives.

Goss, who joined the Army in 2016, was arrested on a fugitive warrant last week in Cumberland County, N.C., where he is also under investigation in a 2017 sexual assault at the Fort Bragg army base, investigators said at a Tuesday news conference.

In the Harris County case, Goss is alleged to have viciously beaten and raped the girl before leaving her for dead in a grassy area outside a Cypress movie theater on Feb. 5, 2013.

The then-16-year-old girl later told investigators she left her home after getting into an argument with her foster mother earlier in the night. About 30 minutes later, the girl was struck with the blunt side of an ax as she walked near Cypress Woods High School, court records show.

The attacker, who wore a "ninja" mask, dragged the girl into a nearby field, where he raped her, court records show.

The teen told investigators that her attacker then pulled her to her feet and hit her in the back of the head with the ax. Bloodied and naked, she then played dead for a few minutes as the man stood over her, according to court records.

Harris County investigators said Goss had family who lived near the crime scene.

The investigation continued over the years, after early efforts to identify an assailant were not successful.

The Sheriff's Office released a composite sketch of a suspect a few days after the incident, and an employee of a nearby gas station told investigators that a man in a gray shirt, identified as Goss last month, used the store's bathroom. The man then left wearing a white "muscle shirt," court records show.

The gas station employee found the gray shirt, drenched in blood, inside the bathroom trash can, court records show.

Then, late last year, Harris County investigators were contacted by the Department of Defense regarding a DNA match, after which Goss agreed to be interviewed by deputies.

Goss is being held on $1 million bail at the Cumberland County Jail and is awaiting transfer to Harris County.

robert.downen@chron.comMilwaukee-based Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center ended its partnership with Milwaukee-based Anesthesiology Associates of Wisconsin opting to partner with parent organization Aurora Health Care's own physician group, the Milwaukee Business Journal reports.

Here's what you should know:

1. MBJ reports Anesthesiology Associates had 38 physicians on staff a year ago.

2. Aurora spokesperson Tami Kou said the decision to switch to its own physician group "will better align our operations and support Aurora's strategies for clinical integration and population health."

3. Anesthesiology Associates Administrator Mike Mihlbauer said to MBJ he couldn't comment on Aurora's decision because of a non-disclosure agreement.Construction officially began on the $1.3 million, 3,800-square-foot Papagallo Oral Surgery Center in Wichita, Kan., the Wichita Business Journal reports.

Here's what you should know:

1. Design-Build Evolutions is constructing the surgery center. The firm didn't disclose the surgery center's owner.

2. The surgery center also has yet to register with the Kansas Secretary of State's office.

3. The center is being built close to another in-development center which is owned by the Wichita Nephrology Group.Odyssey Real Estate Capital recently sold Parkway Medical Plaza in Las Vegas to an unspecified buyer, Nevada Business reports.

Here's what you should know:

1. Odyssey purchased the 90,000-square-foot property in 2013, renovating the building's lobby and painting its exterior.

2. During its tenure, Odyssey increased occupancy by 30 percent. The building currently houses a surgery center with imaging services and lab space.

3. Odyssey Real Estate Partner Dave Sundaram said, "This asset is in the bullseye for the [real estate investment trusts] and investment funds that are targeting well located off-campus medical office buildings with surgery centers, diagnostic imaging and primary care."

4. Odyssey owns and operates 27 commercial products in Las Vegas and in Kansas City, Mo.HHS Secretary Alex Azar testified in front of the House Ways and Means Committee about the effects of the Bipartisan Budget Act on healthcare.

During the hearing, Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, inquired about Mr. Azar's feeling on physician-owned hospitals. For the first question in the hearing, Mr. Johnson asked Mr. Azar whether he believed the ban eliminated competition, to which Mr. Azar replied, "Yes, I believe physician-owned hospitals can provide effective competition from other hospitals."

Mr. Azar then went on to agree physician-owned hospitals provide high-quality care and said, "We ought to be inspiring competition among hospitals."

To end his line of questioning, Mr. Johnson asked Mr. Azar to commit to working with him on repealing the ban on physician-owned hospitals. Mr. Azar replied, "So I commit to working with you on any changes that we can make to ensure that we are allowing good competition and allowing physician-owned or other owned facilities to deliver the highest quality, low-cost service to our beneficiaries, so I'm very happy to work with you."

Mr. Johnson's home state of Texas includes the most physician-owned hospitals in the U.S. Last May, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., introduced legislation into the Senate that would improve access to physician-owned hospitals, and Mr. Johnson introduced similar legislation in the House. The bill would have lifted restrictions on forming and expanding physician-owned hospitals.

https://www.beckersasc.com/asc-transactions-and-valuation-issues/physician-owned-hospital-bill-introduced-in-senate-5-things-to-know.htmlNorthwest Medical Center of Albany (Mo.) plans to break ground on renovations this week, KTTN reports. Here are five insights:

1. Announced in August 2017, the renovation is a joint venture between Mosaic Life Care and Northwest Medical Center Foundation.

2. The hospital's same-day surgery, outpatient and emergency services will undergo expansion.

3. Mosaic pledged $4.5 million for the project and set aside an additional $1 million for new equipment at the hospital. The Northwest Medical Center Foundation will provide $3 million for the expansion.

4. Once construction is completed, the hospital will operate under the Mosaic Life Care brand.

5. The partnership with Mosaic will give Northwest Medical Center of Albany access to the Mayo Clinic Care Network.Missoula, Mont. residents Ryan Peterson and Clay Holley are seeking a special use permit to build an ophthalmology clinic and ASC in Butte, Mont., according to Montana Standard. Here are three insights:

1. The proposed clinic and ASC is 14,226-square-feet.

2. The two will present to the Butte's Zoning Board of Adjustment Feb. 15.

3. Their proposal to build the medical facility in a residential zone will include a request for wall signs and variances to install landscaping.

More on transactions & valuation:

HHS Secretary Alex Azar commits to support changes to physician-owned hospital ban

5 new joint venture ASCs  January/February 2018

MedEquities Realty Trust to pay quarterly dividend of $0.21  3 insightsHere are five practices with gastroenterology services making news in the past week:

Southlake-based Texas Digestive Disease Consultants retained investment banking firm Nexus Health Capital.

Corpus Christi (Texas) Endoscopy Center is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Newark-based GI Specialists of Delaware gastroenterologist Michael Bass, MD, became a partner at Wilmington, Del.-based Limestone Surgical Center.

Birmingham, Ala.-based Southeast Gastro will provide up to 50 free screening colonoscopies at Trussville, Ala.-based St. Vincent's East Campus to those without insurance.

University of Alabama at Birmingham Medicine partnered with Toronto, Canada-based patient engagement and care management platform SeamlessMD.Former General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt joined the athenahealth board of directors as chairman Feb. 7 in what could be a strategic move for both  or a risky adventure, according to an analysis by Fortune Senior Editor at Large Geoff Colvin.

For years, athenahealth has been in trouble in part because it overpromises results of its future products. This has caused its stock to stagnate, Mr. Colvin said. But, Mr. Immelt could counter this with his corporate America perspective.

Moreover, having run GE's healthcare division before taking on the CEO role, Mr. Immelt knows the industry well, which is why an analyst at RBC Capital Markets dubbed him "a door opener and deal closer" for athenahealth, according to Mr. Colvin.

However, Mr. Immelt didn't leave GE on the best of terms. GE was the Dow's worst performer in 2017  over Mr. Immelt's tenure. But, athenahealth creates a "low-key re-entry, as Mr. Colvin calls it, into another publicly traded company that offers a refreshing start for Mr. Immelt in the tech startup arena.

But, both Mr.Immelt and athenahealth are assuming some amount of risk under this new agreement. Mr. Immelt faces the risk that athenahealth doesn't produce the results he'd hoped for as Wall Street analysts remain divided on the company's future. And for athenahealth, the risk lies in Mr. Immelt's past. Shortly after he left GE, the company faced scandal when it was revealed an empty corporate jet would fly behind Mr. Immelt's personal jet

Additionally, a recent Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry into GE's accounting and revenue recognition sparks some concerns. In January, GE shocked investors when it revealed a $6.2 billion charge to its earnings based on accounting practices dating back years.

"Jeff Immelt and athenahealth  what do those two see in each other? It's an old story. Both have something to lose but also something to gain. Probably both wish they were in a position to be choosier," Mr. Colvin concluded.

More articles on EHRs:

4 study insights into physicians overriding decision support alerts in EHRs

EMR alert may help physicians screen children for physical abuse, study suggests

Dartmouth-Hitchcock to share veterans' EHR data with nearby VA facility



There are four central pieces of data physicians can use to identify and diagnose potential fibromyalgia patients  and they're recorded in nearly every physician practice's EHR.

Fred Davis, MD, a pain specialist with ProCare Pain Solutions, a division of North American Partners in Anesthesia, was an author of a study published in the January 2018 edition of Pain Practice. The sweeping analysis of 82,000-plus patient medical records resulted in the development of a predictive algorithm capable of identifying potential fibromyalgia patients "hiding in plain sight," leading to earlier and more proactive treatment.

Becker's Hospital Review caught up with Dr. Davis about the fibromyalgia study and its implications for patient care and EHR use.

Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

Question: First, why is fibromyalgia so difficult to diagnose?

Dr. Fred Davis: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a common condition  almost everyone knows someone with FM . Yet patients who have this condition often experience it very differently, and symptom presentation can evolve over time. Some patients may present with localized symptoms such as neck and shoulder pain, while others may have back pain or limb pain, and many patients have comorbidities. In search of relief, FM patients typically present at various touch points across the continuum  primary care practices, rheumatologists, orthopedists, urologists, gastroenterologists, pain specialists  each physician focusing his or her exam and treatments of different localized areas.

Another factor contributing to the confusion is that gold-standard tests for FM, such as the Widespread Pain Index and the Symptom Severity Index, are rarely employed in primary care clinics and are difficult to integrate into general EHRs.

Q: How did researchers use patient EHR data for this study? What data was most and least valuable?

FD: Across ProCare Pain clinics, in addition to the practice EHR, we use the PRISM care management system, which looks at the functional, psychosocial, and quality of life dimensions of the pain experience.. We found about 1,000 patients who were officially diagnosed with FM, and we combed their medical records for commonalities, looking at characteristics such as gender, demographics, how many times they visited, treatment types, diagnoses and other traits. Turns out, FM patients all had markers that would be recorded in nearly every physician practices' EHR.

From there, we developed a predictive model and identified another 2,400 additional potential FM patients in our system pretty much hiding in plain sight. These are patients who come in more often for treatment, have a latex sensitivity, who use more medications, and who carry more pain related diagnoses. For specialists, it's important to understand that even though the patient has a problem in the area you focus on  shoulder, neck, joints  it may be part of a more generalized condition.

One of the most interesting takeaway pearls we gleaned: When you have a complex pain patient, especially female, who has a latex allergy (indicating environmental sensitivity), you should consider the diagnosis of fibromyalgia. In fact, we found these patients have a 10-times greater risk of FY than patients without this sensitivity.

Q: What do this study's conclusions mean for the diagnosis and treatment of FM patients?

FD: The clinical relevance of this study is that it proposes four predictive variables for FM based on information that is readily accessible in most EHRs. Following the study, we developed and incorporated an algorithm in the PRISM  care management system portion of our EHR that alerts our clinicians to the increased potential diagnosis of fibromyalgia in patients due to those four variables.

Yet, this study's conclusions go beyond just thinking about FM. Many physicians are incredibly frustrated with EHRs and don't believe they're useful tools for practicing medicine. Yet I think this study shows there is potential significant benefit to using EHRs and the data they store to advance patient care  we just need the right tools to mine this "dark" data we store but haven't used effectively yet.

There is usefulness to EHRs if you start using the right tools. We're going to see more benefit in EHRs as we continue to use them. If companies like Apple, Google and Amazon have taught us anything, it's that data is extremely valuable if you can find the right way to analyze and use it.

Q: What are you working on next?

FD: This first study was very gratifying; we knew we were on to something. We've since completed two more studies, the first focusing on distinct patterns or "stages" of fibromyalgia and how patients move between stages over time. In the latter, we looked at which medications seem to work best or are most effective for FM patients. Spoiler about this study: Narcotics generally do not help.

Q: Were there any personal learning points or moments for you throughout this research and publishing process?

FD: There's been a lot of controversy surrounding the usefulness of EHRs and whether physicians believe they add value to care delivery. I'm reminded of an October 2017 interview Becker's did with my friend and colleague, Dr. Prunskis, in which he discussed how his practice decided to eliminate EHRs altogether. He made some excellent points. However, based on our research, we feel that there is useful clinical information that is currently hidden in otherwise unused portions of the record that can contribute to better care and drive clinical and patient value. There is light at the end of the tunnel in terms of EHRs.

The other learning point I found personally exciting was you don't have to be at an academic research institution to advance the field of medicine. Those of us physicians who contributed to the study are practicing doctors. I think this study substantiates that community-based physicians play an equally significant role in driving patient care forward.

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Dartmouth-Hitchcock to share veterans' EHR data with nearby VA facilityHCA Midwest, which is currently located in Kansas City, Mo., will receive $3 million in tax incentives from the state of Kansas when it moves its headquarters 4 miles west to Overland Park, Kan., this summer, reports the Kansas City Business Journal.

Since HCA Midwest's administrative headquarters will cross state lines from Missouri to Kansas, the health system could receive as much as $1.5 million in Promoting Employment Across Kansas tax credits, which allow companies to keep 95 percent of withholding tax for employees at that location. HCA Midwest would be eligible to receive as much as $300,000 annually for five years.

PEAK tax credits are given to companies who create at least 10 new jobs in Kansas. The headquarters move would create about 60 new jobs. While HCA Midwest employs nearly 10,000 people at its hospitals, the administrative headquarters move would only transition approximately 60 employees.

HCA Midwest would invest $10.88 million into its 25,000-square-foot headquarters, which makes it eligible for additional state tax incentives, according to the state's Commerce Department. HCA Midwest will receive more than $1.5 million "right of law" incentives, including $987,861 from Kansas' high-performance incentive program. This tax credit provides breaks for high-wage employers making any new capital investments.

HCA Midwest could not confirm the exact incentive amounts because the contracts have yet to be signed.In their 10th annual letter for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, co-chairs and trustees Bill and Melinda Gates addressed the 10 questions they are asked most frequently. The questions range in topic from how they maintain their optimism in today's world, to if their efforts to save children lead to overpopulation, to whether they feel as if they are imposing their own values on other people and countries.

In their 2018 annual letter, the couple notes what drives their unwavering optimism is not only knowing that life for millions of people across the world has improved during the past decade or century, but "knowing how life can get better."

"Although we see a lot of disease and poverty in our work  and many other big problems that need to be solved  we also see the best of humanity. We spend our time learning from scientists who are inventing cutting-edge tools to cure disease. We talk to dedicated government leaders who are being creative about prioritizing the health and well-being of people around the world. And we meet brave and brilliant individuals all over the world who are imagining new ways to transform their communities," the annotated letter reads.

Here are four additional excerpts from the Gates' 10th annual letter.

1. On the decision to make accessible vaccines a primary issue for the foundation: "Take vaccines. We assumed that since it was possible to prevent disease for a few cents or a few dollars at most, it was being taken care of. But it turned out that we were wrong, and tens of millions of kids weren't being immunized at all. We've spent $15.3 billion on vaccines over the past 18 years. And it's been a terrific investment. Better immunization is one reason why the number of children who die has gone down by so much, from almost 10 million in 2000 to 5 million last year. That's 5 million families that didn't have to suffer the trauma of losing a daughter or a son, a sister or a brother."

2. On how they use their foundation to support climate change initiatives: "Even breakthrough technology can't stop the weather from changing. So the world needs to adapt to what's happening now and what we know is coming. That's why our foundation's work, especially in global agriculture, is increasingly focused on climate issues. Hundreds of millions of people in developing countries depend on farming for their livelihoods. They had almost nothing to do with causing climate change, but they will suffer the most from it. When extreme weather ruins their harvest, they won't have food to eat that year. They won't have income to spend on basic necessities like healthcare and school fees. For smallholder farmers, climate change is not just an ominous global trend. It is a daily emergency."

3. On whether they're imposing their own values on other cultures: "On one level, I think the answer is obviously no. The idea that children shouldn't die of malaria or be malnourished is not just our value. It's a human value. Parents in every culture want their children to survive and thrive.  We're acutely aware that some development programs in the past were led by people who assumed they knew better than the people they were trying to help. We've learned over the years that listening and understanding people's needs from their perspective is not only more respectful  it's also more effective.

4. On whether saving children's lives leads to overpopulation: "When more children live past the age of 5, and when mothers can decide if and when to have children, population sizes don't go up. They go down. Parents have fewer children when they're confident those children will survive into adulthood. Big families are in some ways an insurance policy against the tragic likelihood of losing a son or a daughter.  When more children live, you get one generation that's relatively big. Then, when families decide to have fewer children, the next generation is much smaller. Eventually, a country ends up with relatively more people in the labor force producing economically  and relatively fewer dependents (very old or very young people). That's a recipe for rapid economic development, especially if countries take advantage of it by investing in health and education."

To read the Gates' full letter, click here.Charlotte, N.C.-based Carolinas HealthCare System announced the organization's rebranding to Atrium Health last week. However, many community members have since voiced their opposition to the name, stating the change erases the health system's cultural ties to the area, among other issues, according to The Charlotte Observer.

Atrium Health's former brand, Carolinas HealthCare, was introduced in 1996. Executives at the time said the Carolinas HealthCare brand reflected the 40-hospital system's regional scope, the report states. Its previous brand name dated back to the 1940s.

While some community members have accepted the rebrand as just another symptom of the sweeping changes taking place across the region, others criticize the Atrium Health brand as too corporate-sounding, arguing the new brand is "as appealing as a fake Ficus" and elicits a "sad loss of a sense of place[,] renamed to a buzzword," according to The Charlotte Observer.

Atrium Health officials have contended the rebrand constituted an effort to convey the health system's strength and warmth, as well as being instantly recognizable. Officials noted they decided to keep the system's "Tree of Life" icon, though slightly updated, the report states.

However, some residents question the timing of the decision, as Atrium Health is in the midst of negotiating its proposed merger with Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health Care, which the organizations announced last year.

"Shame on Carolinas HealthCare System, now Atrium Health, for needlessly spending what will easily be millions of dollars changing signs, stationery, pens, and white coats  for a name change amidst negotiations that may very well create another name change," a resident wrote in a letter to the editor to The Charlotte Observer.

To access the full article, click here.Preston Doerflinger resigned from his role as Oklahoma State Department of Health interim commissioner and state Cabinet secretary of finance, administration and information technology after reports of alleged domestic violence arose Monday in the local media, Republican Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said.

The Oklahoma State Board of Health on Tuesday accepted Mr. Doerflinger's resignation as interim commissioner, effective immediately. Ms. Fallin said he also resigned from his other cabinet position.

Neither the department, which recently announced layoffs amid financial troubles, nor the governor provided reasoning behind the resignations. Mr. Doerflinger wrote a short letter to the board of health to notify them of his immediate resignation, but did not mention the reason for his departure either, according to The Oklahoman. He did not respond to a call from the publication seeking comment.

Mr. Doerflinger's resignations come after reports of alleged domestic violence. Police officers received a domestic violence report at Mr. Doerflinger's home in 2012 with his then-wife as the alleged victim, according to a Tulsa Police Department report cited by The Oklahoman, The publication also cited another domestic violence report from the home that same year. No charges resulted from either report. Mr. Doerflinger's ex-wife said in a statement to Tulsa World this week:

"There are people, right now, being harmed by domestic violence who are in desperate need of help. My family is not one of them. Comparing their plights to a situation that occurred several years ago minimizes and distracts attention away from their urgent needs. Our energies would be far better spent focusing on how to best help those struggling families, rather than participating in the politics of destruction by making an example out of a currently healthy family who had one bad night six years ago."

In Ms. Fallin's response to the resignations, she highlighted accomplishments during Mr. Doerflinger's tenure, and said she did not know about the incident involving Mr. Doerflinger and his ex-wife until recently.

"Preston has played a critical role in state government, serving as director of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services, and Cabinet secretary of finance, administration and information technology," she wrote in her statement. "During the past seven years, his efforts saved tax dollars by implementing cost-saving reforms and consolidating state agencies. He also helped guide the Department of Human Services during a critical time when key reforms, such as the Pinnacle Plan, were implemented. I appreciate his service to the state."

As far as the domestic violence allegations, she said, "I take domestic violence very seriously, but I will take Mrs. Doerflinger at her word that this matter was not a case of domestic violence. I respect Preston's decision to move on from his government service, and wish him and his family the best."

The Oklahoma State Board of Health appointed Brian Downs, OSDH director of state and federal policy, acting commissioner.

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4 FTC nominees to go before Senate WednesdayFranklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems revealed Feb. 14 its subsidiaries entered into a definitive agreement to divest Leesville, La.-based Byrd Regional Hospital and its associated assets to subsidiaries of Allegiance Health Management, a 14-hospital organization in Shreveport, La.

Officials expect to close the transaction during the second quarter of 2018, subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions.

The divestiture of the 60-bed hospital is one of the health system's planned divestitures discussed during CHS' third quarter 2017 earnings call.Milwaukee-based Aurora Health Care and Downers Grove, Ill.-based Advocate Health Care have reportedly received approval to merge from the Federal Trade Commission, according to the Milwaukee Business News.

Letters from Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board Chairman Kathryn Olson to Advocate dated Feb. 5 reveal the proposed merger also received approval from the agency for the change of ownership of 15 Advocate hospitals, according to the report.

If successful, the proposed merger would create the 10th largest health system in the nation with annual revenues of about $11 billion and comprise 27 hospitals and 73,000-plus employees.

The organizations announced their intent to merge last December.

"We are excited to move one step closer to bringing our two great organizations together to reimagine the possibilities of health for those we serve," the health systems told Becker's Hospital Review Feb. 15 in a joint emailed statement. "Advancing through the FTC's review process was a key milestone in addition to securing regulatory approval in Illinois. We look forward to the final step of receiving approval in Wisconsin before our anticipated closing this spring."

The proposed merger must still receive approval from Wisconsin healthcare officials.

Editor's note: This article was updated at 10:15 a.m. to include a joint statement from the health systems.The Massachusetts Department of Public Health approved Boston-based Partners HealthCare's proposed acquisition of Massachusetts Eye and Ear, also in Boston, Feb. 14, according to the Boston Business Journal.

The department unanimously approved the proposed acquisition Wednesday, with the condition Partners keep any annual rate increases within the state's cost growth benchmark, the report states. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey previously said the AG's office would not sue to stop the proposed acquisition.

The DPH's approval represented the final step necessary to complete the acquisition.

The approval came amid concerns the deal would raise healthcare costs for patients. The state's Health Policy Commission, a healthcare watchdog, issued a report last November indicating the proposed deal could result in increased healthcare costs equating to roughly $20.8 million to $61.2 million annually.

Under the terms of the proposed acquisition, Mass. Eye and Ear will remain a separate hospital with its own leadership. Partners will become the sole corporate member of the hospital, which accrues a net patient service revenue of approximately $185 million and comprises 2,200 employees.

The organizations announced their intent to merge in January 2017.

Following the vote Wednesday, a spokesperson for Partners HealthCare told the Boston Business Journal in a statement, the acquisition would "greatly strengthen the clinical and scientific relationships between our organizations. Together we will make Mass. Eye and Ear services and research accessible to a broader population of patients, further improving the quality of life for thousands of individuals and families."A former employee is accusing Albuquerque-based University of New Mexico Hospital of workplace discrimination, according to a KRQE report.

Mercedes Kern, who worked as a nurse at the hospital since 2013, claims in a lawsuit colleagues bullied her. Ms. Kern's attorney, Donald Gilpin, told KRQE his client came to the United States from Spain and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder related to her upbringing. He said coworkers treated her differently "because of her Spanish speaking and because of her accent." According to the report, Ms. Kern claims she reported the alleged mistreatment, but her complaints were ignored by hospital staff.

UNM Hospital declined to comment to Becker's Hospital Review, citing pending litigation.

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Florida physician's license restricted for allegedly masturbating during patient exam: 4 things to knowA federal judge determined the Justice Department can move forward with a lawsuit accusing UnitedHealth Group of defrauding Medicare at least $1 billion in false claims, Reuters reports.

Here are five things to know about the case.

1. In Los Angeles on Monday, U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald said the department sufficiently alleged UnitedHealth provided the government with inaccurate data about the health status of its Medicare Advantage beneficiaries.

2. However, Mr. Fitzgerald dismissed accusations UnitedHealth falsely attested to the data's accuracy. The department's key argument that the assurances affected CMS' payment decisions for Medicare and Medicaid services wasn't apparent, he said.

3. UnitedHealth rejected the Justice Department's claims Tuesday and vowed to continue fighting them.

4. Last May, the Justice Department intervened in a whistle-blower lawsuit brought by Benjamin Poehling, former finance director of UnitedHealthcare Medicare and Retirement, who filed the case under seal in 2011. The lawsuit alleges UnitedHealth defrauded the Medicare program more than $1.14 billion between 2011 and 2014.

5. In October, a federal judge dismissed a separate but similar case against UnitedHealth. In that case, the judge ruled the federal government failed to claim CMS would not have made payments to UnitedHealth if it was aware of facts presented in the case.As Americans continue to die of drug overdoses at record-setting rates, The New York Times reached out to more than 100 healthcare professionals to get their take on treating patients with opioid addiction.

Here are a portion of responses from five clinicians.

1. On what remains unknown about opioid addiction: "I don't think that we know why one person can be prescribed oxycodone after surgery and take it for five days and then stop and another person becomes addicted," Heather Schwemm, MD, a Kennebunkport, Maine-based primary care internist, told the Times. "I don't think that anybody wants to be a drug addict. I don't believe in 'victimhood,' but if we don't understand the events that led to a person's becoming addicted to opioids, we'll never be able to find solutions to the problem. There is no 'one size fits all' model for treatment.

2. On barriers to care: "One of the biggest challenges is helping patients access quality mental-health services and counseling both for the addiction issues and the almost always present untreated mental health issues," said Sarah Butler, a Livonia, Mich.-based physician assistant. "Mental healthcare and medical care for addiction is expensive. Medications that prevent withdrawal symptoms and block the high (or do one or the other) are excellent for tools for reducing the chance of relapse, but at an out-of-pocket cost of $500 to $700 per month, it is too expensive for many patients. Patients can end up buried under mountains of debt simply because they were responsible and sought treatment for their addiction."

3. On the stigma of addiction: "The misconception about opioid use is the belief that it's a choice," Rebecca Jones, MD, a Brattleboro, Vt.-based dermatologist, told the Times. "There has been so much research that links opioid addiction with attachment disorder. So you have people who have suffered from poor parental bonding getting hooked on opioids often at the hands of the medical community; they go to jail, lose their jobs, children, freedom, and when they get out they can't get jobs, they have no emotional support, and they blame themselves for their vulnerability. Why wouldn't they? The rest of the world blames them. No wonder they go back to using drugs. Addicts need love, support, connection."

4. On burn out: "I got burned out and left my job about a year and a half ago because I couldn't deal with addicts anymore," said an unnamed Brooklyn-based licensed mental health counselor. "They turn treatment on its head  it becomes a sort of 'game on' when they enter programs and proceed to break every rule, in a giant game of distraction, which invariably leads back to relapse. It's an exhausting and grim business treating addicts because one can't help but conclude in the end that most of them don't really want to change. It's been heart-wrenching for me to become so disillusioned with the whole thing."

5. On recovery: "The biggest misconception about opioid abuse is that folks cannot get better," a licensed clinical social worker in Syracuse, N.Y., identified only as Christine, told the Times. "I saw with intensive outpatient treatment over a year with Suboxone that miracles do happen. I saw folks get better and become productive members of society. I saw them turn around and give back to other addicts. I saw their families heal with them. But the investment of resources is significant. They also need continuing care for many years  less frequent treatment but they still need to attend groups at least once a week sometimes for years and continue on their Suboxone."

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Opioid use linked to increased risk for meningitis, pneumoniaA conversation guide is helping physicians learn strategies for some of the most difficult discussions they have as care providers  telling patients they are dying.

Physicians can be so focused on trying to fix each ailment that "no one is addressing the big picture," particularly when addressing patients who are dying, said Lynn Black, MD, a physician at Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Black, along with hundreds of other physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital, are now receiving training to talk seriously with ill patients about their goals, values and prognoses. To practice these conversations, physicians use a script based on the Serious Illness Conversation Guide.

The guide has trained more than 6,500 clinicians across the globe since its 2012 inception, said Rachelle Bernacki, MD, associate director of the Serious Illness Care Program at Ariadne Labs in Boston.

Juliet Jacobsen, MD, a palliative care physician at Mass General, serves as medical director for the Continuum Project, which works to quickly train clinicians to navigate through these conversations.

To help physicians begin these discussions, Dr. Jacobsen gives them a laminated page with scripted language. The participants engage in role playing with professional actors, where they tend to quickly experience communication difficulties. To solve these difficulties, Dr. Jacobsen encourages physicians to allow more silence and respond to patients' emotions rather than only their words.

The scripted conversation is significantly different from how physicians have been trained to talk with patients, Dr. Jacobsen acknowledged. However, the script does not intend to reach any decision or complete end-of-life paperwork.

Rather, the scripted conversations serve as a way for physicians to step back from day-to-day problem solving and discuss the patients' understanding of their illness, their hopes and worries and their disease trajectory.

Dr. Jacobsen's team suggests physicians use compassionate language to discuss a prognosis without asserting certainty. Some examples include saying, "I worry the decline we have seen is going to continue," or, "I worry something serious may happen in the next few months."

The team plans to follow up with physicians after the training to ensure they are having these conversations with patients, beginning with patients who have been deemed likely to die within three years.

Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White Health, Lowell (Mass.) General Hospital, Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania and hospitals in 34 foreign countries are also beginning to roll out the conversation guide, Dr. Bernacki said.

"Our goal is for every patient with serious illness to have a meaningful conversation about what they care about, in every place," Dr. Bernacki said.Broward Health North in Deerfield Beach, Fla., is one of three hospitals that received patients following Wednesday's shooting at Parkland, Fla.-based Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, according to a report on TCPalm.com.

The shooting left at least 17 dead and others injured. Broward Health North treated nine patients, including eight shooting victims. Two of the patients died. Four of the patients were not in life-threatening condition Thursday, and three others were in life-threatening condition, according to hospital officials.

Broward Health North also treated shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz, 19, who was reportedly taken into custody by local authorities after receiving treatment for unidentified injuries.

In addition to Broward Health North, Broward Health hospitals in Fort Lauderdale and Coral Springs, Fla., received a combined eight shooting victims, according to hospital officials. One patient received by Broward Health Coral Springs was not in life-threatening condition Thursday. Five patients received by Broward Health Medical Center were not in life-threatening condition Thursday, while two other patients received by the Fort Lauderdale-based hospital were in life-threatening condition.

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Patient, emergency attendant killed in ambulance crash in Las VegasAetna says comments a former medical director made under oath, which implied he never reviewed patients' medical records when deciding claim approvals or denials, are "a gross misrepresentation of how the process actually works."

The insurer's response comes days after CNN reported Jay Iinuma, MD, who served as medical director for Aetna for Southern California from March 2012 through February 2015, said in a 2016 deposition he followed Aetna's training by relying on recommendations from nurses when deciding whether to approve or deny care.



Dr. Iinuma's deposition occurred as part of a lawsuit filed by a 23-year-old college student, Gillen Washington. Mr. Washington, who suffers from a rare immune disorder, sued Aetna for breach of contract and bad faith after Aetna refused to cover an infusion of intravenous immunoglobulin when he was 19. He claims Aetna's "reckless withholding of benefits almost killed him," according to CNN.



Aetna says "Dr. Iinuma's deposition was taken out of context to create media and courtroom leverage" days before the trial was set to begin. Aetna added it "has paid for each and every treatment the individual suing Aetna has received since he first submitted a claim under his health plan in 2014. He remains an Aetna member today, and we continue to pay for his treatments. The only interruption in his treatment was the result of the individual defying his doctor's orders and refusing to provide necessary bloodwork. That is made clear in the CNN story."

California's insurance commissioner is investigating the insurer following the deposition. Colorado insurance officials are questioning the claims.



Ayla Ellison contributed to this article.After four children in New York City and two in New Jersey died from the flu this season, area parents expressed frustration Wednesday due to a lack of information from state officials about whether or not those children received the flu vaccine, according to a CBS New York report.

Several parents said knowing the pediatric flu victims' vaccination histories could comfort families who worry the vaccine might not be sufficient to protect their children. Additionally, some parents believe state officials should relax patient privacy rules to inform the public of the flu victims' vaccination status.

NYC Health Commissioner Mary Bassett, MD, could not say whether the children in these specific cases received the flu vaccine. "Not speaking to these individual cases, we see very few children who have fatal flu have been vaccinated," she said. "The majority are not vaccinated."

As the flu season extends into May, physicians and officials encourage people to get the vaccine.Here are 20 hospitals and health systems that posted job listings seeking nurses in the past week.

Note: This is not an exhaustive list. Job listings were compiled from job seeker websites.

1. MedStar Georgetown University Hospital (Washington, D.C.): Seeks registered nurse for the presurgical testing department

2. Sentara Virginia Beach (Va.) General Hospital: Seeks nursing leader for team coordinator position in the emergency department

3. Cleveland Clinic: Seeks registered nurse

4. Mount Sinai Hospital (Chicago): Seeks registered nurse for the surgical intensive care unit

5. Baylor Heart & Vascular Hospital (Fort Worth, Texas): Seeks registered nurse

6. Davis Hospital and Medical Center (Layton, Utah): Seeks registered nurse

7. Presence Holy Family Medical Center (Des Plaines, Ill.): Seeks registered nurse

8. Beaumont Hospital-Dearborn (Mich.): To host open interview day March 5 for nurses interested in the medical/surgical unit

9. Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center (Salem, N.C.): Seeks registered nurse for post-stroke care coordinator position

10. Duke Regional Hospital (Durham, N.C.): Seeks clinical nurse for the mother/baby unit

11. Allina Health (Minneapolis): Seeks registered nurses to enroll in operating room training program

12. John Randolph Medical Center (Hopewell, Va.): To host hiring event 22 for recent graduate nurses

13. Johnson City (Tenn.) Medical Center: Seeks registered nurse

14. Chester (S.C.) Regional Medical Center: Seeks registered nurse

15. Women's and Children's Hospital (Lafayette, La.): To host registered nurse hiring event March 7

16. Vineyard Medical Center (Ontario, Calif.): Seeks registered nurse

17. Swedish Medical Center (Seattle): Seeks registered nurse

18. El Camino Hospital-Mountain View (Calif.) Campus: Seeks registered nurse for oncology coordinator position

19. Orange County-Anaheim (Calif.) Medical Center: Seeks registered nurse for the operating room

20. St. Cloud (Minn.) Hospital: Seeks registered nurseBusinesses have described the collapse of talks to restore a working Executive as "disappointing" and said measures must now be taken to secure a budget.

Yesterday afternoon DUP leader Arlene Foster effectively said negotiations had collapsed between her party and Sinn Fein after they tried to reach an agreement to restore the Assembly.

Dr Patrice Cairns, Northern Ireland policy manager with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, said: "It is disappointing that the talks have reached a conclusion without a deal.

"As we have said on a number of occasions, there are important decisions that need to be taken around things like investing in our infrastructure, and these decisions are not being taken in the absence of an Executive.

"We firmly believe that devolution is best for Northern Ireland, and we would encourage all of those involved to continue to work to reach agreement.

"However, the Secretary of State will have to look at measures in the interim to ensure that budgetary issues are dealt with and important decisions can be taken."

An accountancy group said Northern Ireland is facing several economic challenges and a united leadership is needed to tackle businesses' concerns.

Gareth Latimer, chairman of the ACCA Ulster Members Network, was speaking following a report into the province's economic outlook. "Northern Ireland's economic challenges are accentuated by its dependence on a future Brexit deal that protects north-south and east-west trading arrangements," he said.

"The uncertainty factor this process is causing is being compounded by the absence of a functioning Assembly."

Mr Latimer said an operational Assembly "would bring an urgency to important projects that would support the local economy, stimulate industry expansion and create employment".

He added: "Brexit is the most pressing economic challenge in 10 years."Starting out: the original UB40 line-up in 1983 with Ali Campbell (far right)

At the height of their fame, UB40 topped charts across the globe as they sold more than 70 million records worldwide, cementing their position as the UK's biggest reggae band.

After forming in Birmingham in 1979, the eight-piece remarkably rejected the stereotypes surrounding bands of young musicians - not least those containing siblings - maintaining an almost identical line-up for nearly three decades.

But all that changed in 2008. Frontman Ali Campbell quit in a cloud of animosity alongside keyboardist Mickey Virtue (later to be joined by Astro).

Meanwhile, the remaining five, including Ali's brother, Robin, replaced the frontman with another Campbell brother, Duncan, and a court case ensued as both claimed the right to use the UB40 moniker.

Look closely enough and you'll see the rival groups taking small nibbles at each other.

On June 25, team Robin (UB40) will play a 40th anniversary show at the Royal Albert Hall, while next month Ali's outfit (UB40 Featuring Ali, Astro And Mickey) will play the same venue as part of a Teenage Cancer Trust gig.

Coincidental, perhaps, but for Ali the dust still has not settled.

"I keep seeing Duncan singing my songs on YouTube and words fail me," he says down the phone in a Brummie drawl.

"I think he's destroying the legacy of the band and the worst and most embarrassing thing is that people think it's me - that truly makes my skin crawl."

Ali hasn't spoken to either Robin or Duncan in almost a decade - and he can't even envision a future in which he would want to.

"F*** em ... I was betrayed by them all," he says. "There's not really any point in the me getting back in touch ... too much water has gone under the bridge really."

"We try and ignore them in the hope they go away - it's as simple as that," he adds, keen to return to a discussion about his, Astro and Virtue's new album, the provocatively titled A Real Labour Of Love.

The record is a continuation of the original band's trio of Labour Of Love albums - reggae covers of big hits.

While the last of the original three was released 20 years ago, the "dark side", as Ali calls them, recorded Labour Of Love IV in 2010.

The first three were covers of songs they had grown up listening to. Think Red Red Wine (1967) and Jimmy Cliff's Many Rivers To Cross (1969), whereas this record is largely about the tunes they enjoyed as UB40 in the Eighties.

The Everly Brothers' Ebony Eyes is in there, as is Gregory Isaacs' Once Ago and Barrington Levy's Here I Come. But the Eighties formula isn't rigid - there's room for Stevie Wonder's Sixties hit A Place In The Sun.

"Enough time has gone past that we could start covering songs that we listened to when we were in the band," Ali says.

"It's just a continuation of the first Labour Of Love really because we've gone into the Eighties and the electronic reggae age."

It was a joy for them to return to the Labour Of Love format, he adds, but acknowledges the extra pressure of trying to do songs you love justice. Most terrifying, he says, was recording Beres Hammond's She Loves Me Now.

"For me he is like the Otis Redding of reggae," Ali adds. "He's an absolute f****** genius. He's been a hero of mine for 30 years ... to go in and do a Beres Hammond cover, I'm like f***, you are sure?"

With almost four decades of performing in him, it would be easy to assume Ali had shaken off any nerves. But they were there when he covered Hammond, and he admits they still return now ahead of live shows.

"You'll always find me in the toilets before the gig. You've got to be nervous if you're going to perform properly. If you just walk on and don't give a sod, you're not going to give a very good performance," he says.

A Real Labour Of Love puts Ali and Astro at the helm of an 11-piece band, including former Simply Red member and long-serving trombonist John Johnson, who sadly died of cancer in 2017.

"Ironically he was the fittest bloke out of all of us, probably one of the fittest men I'd ever met really," says Ali in words later echoed by Astro.

"He was 50 and he had the body of a 25-year-old. He didn't have a spare ounce of fat and he spent all his time in the gym. His body was his temple and he ate all the right stuff. When we were in the bar, he was in the gym."

Ali stresses Johnson will be very much in mind at the Teenage Cancer Trust gig, which came about after The Who's Roger Daltrey - who helps organise the shows - roped him in for a reggae night.

It's a sign of the revival the genre is enjoying, Ali says, adding it is "bigger than it has ever been".

"Look, okay, at what is happening to pop at the moment - it's all reggae," he says, citing Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, Rihanna and Beyonce.

"Reggae is more influential now than it's ever been. We're not having a UB40 or a Sean Paul or a Shaggy moment ... it's bigger than that because the whole of contemporary dance music is informed by Sly Dunbar's beats and Bogle beats."

It is the type of conversation Ali could maintain all day. A true reggae fanatic, he claims part of his frustrations with his old bandmates was over the lack of interest they appeared to have in the genre they were working in.

"We were serious about our reggae and I've always been obsessed by it," he says.

"But with the dark side there's several members who literally don't listen to it."

"That's why we had two buses. My bus was the ragga bus where we just played it all day and all night.

"Then there was the librarian bus where the people who didn't particularly love reggae, that's where they sat and read books and did crosswords.

"There was a big divide in the band anyway and I'm happier now - we're a more bona fide reggae band."

A Real Labour Of Love is out on March 2Former MLA Alan McFarland and filmmaker Michael Beattie (far right) with sound recordist Christine Barker and cameraman Matt Gould at the St Louis Gateway Arch, the site of Robert Campbells first premises

I've been making television programmes and documentary films for 40 years, but I don't think I've ever come across a tale with so many twists and turns as the story of Robert Campbell from the Glenelly Valley in Tyrone.

In 1822 Campbell, a penniless teenager, sailed from Londonderry to Philadelphia. He would die aged 75 in St Louis, Missouri, a millionaire businessman and one of the city's most respected citizens.

The few photographs of him in later life show an unsmiling and besuited gent, the image of a man who perhaps led a quiet life of pen-pushing and eventually made it to the top. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Because Campbell had packed his years with excitement and adventure as a trapper and trader in the heyday of the Rocky Mountain fur trade, facing unimaginable privations in weather down to minus 40 degrees, forced to eat his dogs and horses to save himself from starvation, fighting off attacks from wild animals as well as native Indians.

He would count among his friends and fellow travellers Kit Carson, Jedediah Smith, William Sublette and Hugh Glass, the character depicted by Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant. History would remember them as the Mountain Men, and Campbell would earn the respect of every one of his colleagues.

Exploring a land few white men had ever seen, he truly was one of the real Ulster-Scots pioneers who opened up the American West for the wagon trains of settlers and the Gold Rush fortune-seekers who would follow.

I have a long-standing love of the West going back to the cowboy movies of my childhood. I've had the good fortune to make several lengthy journeys through the handful of states I'm particularly drawn to - Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona and New Mexico.

I'd learned something of the fur trade, and was aware that a few Irishmen had been involved. So I was delighted to be introduced by a mutual friend Alan Burnside to Alan McFarland, the great, great, great, great nephew of Campbell.

Alan is a former North Down MLA and before that a major in the Royal Tank Regiment.

For several years he has been researching the life of his relative and he agreed to join me on a 3,000-mile road trip to visit the key locations of Campbell's American existence, and to tell his story on film.

Alan said: "I think Campbell's upbringing in the Glenelly Valley had a profound impact on his life. He came from a devout Presbyterian family, a family who read the Bible together and were in every way decent, honourable, self-effacing people. Campbell would become involved in key moments in American history, yet he was always in the background, never seeking the limelight for himself. I'm keen to bring him out of the shadows and give him his rightful place as a true Ulster-Scots pioneer and one of the very small band of men who first opened up the West."

Our journey would begin at the Ulster American Folk Park, because the home in which Campbell was born in 1804, Aughalane House, is the centrepiece of the park outside Omagh. Aughalane was built by Campbell's father in 1786 and moved from Plumbridge to Omagh in 1985. Above the door is the crest of the Duke of Argyle, evidence of the family legend that the first Campbell ancestor to arrive in Ulster from Scotland may have been an illegitimate son of the Duke.

I learned from Alan that Campbell was the youngest of a large family. His brother Andrew would take over running the family farm, so Robert had little option but to follow another brother, Hugh, to seek his fortune in America.

From the house in which Campbell was born, Alan and I travelled to St Louis, Missouri, to the house in which he died, now the Campbell House Museum. In its day this was a palatial home - one of the first in St Louis to have piped gas, running water and a flushing loo.

From here Campbell would expand his business empire to include property in Missouri and several other states. He would become president of the bank. He owned the largest hotel in St Louis, and his riverboat company gave Mark Twain his first job as a Missouri River pilot.

But when he first arrived in St Louis aged 20, settling down was the last thing on his mind. He was destined for the mountains, and in fact when he joined a band of young men heading west under General William Ashley, he would spend four full years in the wilderness before he returned to civilisation. My "bold and dashing years", he would later say.

That very first trip was an eye-opener for the Ulster farm lad. The party left St Louis later in the year than planned and had travelled only 500 miles to Kansas before they became snowed in and most of their mules died in the extreme weather. They weren't even halfway to the Rockies! But a friendly tribe of Pawnee Indians invited them to stay in their village and that saved them. Little of the habitation remains today but the Pawnee museum in the village of Republic gave us an insight into how the Mountain Men traded and lived. Historian James C Auld reminded us that we had to imagine a time with only vague handwritten maps, Campbell and his colleagues following rivers through featureless plains, dense bush and forests in all weathers.

"We're talking snow as high as the horses' chests, freezing water that claimed many lives, in fact as many as 20% of Mountain Men died crossing rivers."

And fur trade expert Jim Hardee told us: "The summers were scorching, the winters freezing. At times food was hard to come by. There's a description of one of Campbell's brigade, Joe Meek, sticking his hand into an anthill so he could lick off the ants. Today they'd cut a vein in the neck of one man's horse to drain some blood to drink - but not enough to kill it - and tomorrow it would be someone else's horse."

Trapping in the Rockies was no easy task and we found one expert to show us how it was done. 'Doc Ivory' belongs to the American Mountain Men. More than simply re-enactors, this is an invitation-only group of dedicated backwoods experts who dress and live as closely as possibly to the original Mountain Men.

They make their own clothes, use only period weapons and know how to survive in the bush in all weathers. They study the history of the period and make long journeys together or alone on foot and on horseback for weeks or even months at a time. Doc showed Alan how to set an authentic beaver trap from Campbell's time.

Doc also told us about Rendezvous, an event at a pre-arranged point every June or July, when the trappers would emerge from the mountains to gather together for several weeks to sell their furs, resupply for the coming winter and let their hair down.

McFarland has made a study of the various Rendezvous that Campbell attended and for him the Green River Rendezvous of 1833 was the greatest. Together we visited the site in present-day Wyoming, on a flat plain near the town of Pinedale, where a festival is held each year to commemorate the Mountain Men and the fur trade.

He said: "It must have been a fantastic sight. There were thousands here, trappers, traders and Indians. They were racing horses, having shooting contests. It was the first time for a year they'd enjoyed luxuries like coffee, chocolate and whiskey. There were drunken brawls, dancing, singing. There's one report that even the normally strait-laced Campbell had more drink than he could handle!"

After 10 years in the mountains, Campbell was ready for a change. He'd had a close call in one battle with Indians when he saved the life of his friend Sublette. He'd almost drowned when his boat capsized as he ferried a season's furs down the Yellowstone River.

So he settled in St Louis and began the trading career which would expand into a whole range of businesses, although he never lost his love of the mountains and would regularly return to resupply his former colleagues at Rendezvous. He had also built up friendships with elders in a number of friendly native tribes, and had even become blood brother to a chief of the Flatheads.

In 1835 when he was 31 Campbell fell in love with a 14-year-old girl, the cousin of his brother's wife. Virginia Kyle was attractive, vivacious and outgoing and over the next few years would have a number of suitors. But Campbell persisted with his courtship, and when Virginia was 19 they married. It was an ideal partnership and they developed a deep affection for each other that lasted throughout their lives. Virginia proved herself the most able of hostesses and together they would entertain business leaders, military men, politicians and even President Ulysses S Grant.

But all their growing wealth and importance couldn't shield them from tragedy. Of their 13 children, 10 would die before reaching the age of eight. In one period of just a few weeks in 1847 when Virginia was 25, she buried two children and gave birth to another. Such were the widespread illnesses in the growing city of St Louis like measles, cholera and scarlet fever that the couple were left with only three sons.

When Campbell died his fortune passed to the boys, who by that stage were in their 20s and 30s. None of them married, and in due course the last surviving son became a recluse who reputedly didn't leave Campbell House in his final 30 years.

He died intestate, which led to a long legal wrangle dubbed the 'Campbell Millions' by the American media. Eventually after World War Two the money was dispersed amongst cousins and other relatives, much of it coming back to Tyrone.

Through researching his ancestor's life, McFarland has befriended many of the fur trade experts, writers and historians who appear in the film. One of them is Clay Landry, historical adviser to The Revenant. He has great admiration for Campbell. "He was always in the background, but he was always there. He just kept doing what needed done to make things happen. There's not one key event he didn't have a hand in."

The journey took us through some wonderful scenery in the Rockies, where my cameraman Matt Gould was in his element as an accomplished drone operator. So be prepared for some spectacular scenery and much more of the story of Robert Campbell.

Robert Campbell: Mountain Man, BBC Two Northern Ireland, Sunday, February 18, 10pm It is a Third Street Studios production for BBC Northern Ireland in conjunction with Northern Ireland Screen's Ulster-Scots Broadcast FundSinn Fein has outlined details of a draft deal to restore Stormont powersharing which it insists was struck with the Democratic Unionists before they pulled the plug on negotiations.

Party president Mary Lou McDonald accused the DUP of effectively getting cold feet and welching on an agreement that would have ended the impasse that has left Northern Ireland without a functioning government for 13 months.

We understood above all else that we had a deal, we understood we had landed on a respectful, workable accommodation, she said.

But the DUP has dismissed the claims as propaganda, with party leader Arlene Foster also rejecting suggestions she was over-ruled when she presented the mooted accord to colleagues, branding the theory as rubbish.

Mrs Foster also denied Sinn Fein claims that a free-standing Irish Language Act was part of any draft deal.

The latest acrimonious exchanges came as the Prime Minister insisted the basis of an agreement still existed. Theresa May expressed disappointment at the turn of events in phone calls to the party leaders on Thursday evening.

Insisting the Act was present in the text, Mrs McDonald accused some critics of deliberately misrepresenting its contents to whip up fears among unionists, by claiming Irish would be forced upon people.

I say shame on you for so deliberately misrepresenting a good measure, an inclusive measure in a way that would cause such levels of concern or even distress among our unionist citizens, she said.

Expand Close Sinn Feins vice president Michelle ONeill, left, president Mary Lou McDonald and Conor Murphy at a press conference at Parliament Buildings (Niall Carson/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Sinn Feins vice president Michelle ONeill, left, president Mary Lou McDonald and Conor Murphy at a press conference at Parliament Buildings (Niall Carson/PA)

While she declined to publish the full text, Mrs McDonald outlined details verbally at Stormont on Thursday.

She said there was a need to dispel mistruths and inaccuracies about what it contained.

The newly elected party president said the ill-fated draft agreement was struck late last week.

At that time we advised the DUP leadership that the deal should be closed before those opposed to it could unpick what we had achieved, said the Sinn Fein leader.

We made it clear that if there was a delay there was every chance that the package would unravel.

"In our view, there is no current prospect of these discussions leading to an Executive being formed"https://t.co/fByW2WnHTg pic.twitter.com/M9uuZL6tYz  Arlene Foster #WeWillMeetAgain (@ArleneFosterUK) February 14, 2018

Mrs McDonald claimed the DUPs attitude shifted on Monday to one of disengagement before the party crashed the talks on Wednesday when Sinn Fein challenged its negotiators on what was going on.

It was at that juncture that the DUP faltered, she said.

The republican TD claimed the deal resolved the thorny language issue at the heart of the Stormont impasse with three separate pieces of legislation  an Irish Language Act, an Ulster Scots Act and an overarching Respecting Language and Diversity Act that incorporated the provisions contained in the other two Acts.

She rubbished rumours that the Irish Language Act contained measures that would see the compulsory teaching of the language in schools or workforce quotas of speakers in the civil service.

There was no effort to enforce Irish, she said. That was never the case and that will never ever be the case.

Mrs McDonald said no consensus was reached on the regions ban on same-sex marriage, but the parties acknowledged it would come to the floor of the Assembly via a private members Bill.

I regret that we didnt reach an agreement because they were insisting on having this free-standing Irish Language ActArlene Foster

But she said the text included a review of the chambers controversial Petition of Concern  a voting mechanism used by the DUP in the past to block same-sex marriage despite a majority of MLAs backing it.

She said the deal also would have seen the establishment of a committee to look at the potential of drawing up a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.

Mrs McDonald said Sinn Fein had also secured a commitment from the UK Government to commence a public consultation on stalled mechanisms to deal with the Troubles and to release funds needed to finance legacy inquests.

She said it would be beyond cynical for the Government not to honour those commitments despite the talks collapse.

Mrs McDonald said the two parties also agreed that the Stormont Executives sensitive justice ministry would start to be allocated in a conventional manner from 2022, rather than being a jointly agreed DUP/Sinn Fein nomination.

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She said her party would give copies of the text to the UK and Irish governments and brief the smaller Stormont parties on the details, along with party leaders in the Irish Dail.

Mrs Foster insisted there had been no offer to Sinn Fein of an Irish Language Act.

I regret that we didnt reach an agreement because they were insisting on having this free-standing Irish Language Act. That is not something that I could sign up to and I was always very clear about that, she told Sky News.

Mrs Foster dismissed claims said she had lost control of her party as nonsense and said that she had kept her party officers briefed throughout the negotiations.

We have had a number of meetings so I could bring them up to date as to where we are at but I have never felt that I am in a position that I can make a recommendation and so no recommendation has been made to my officer board, she said.

Civil servants have been running Northern Irelands rudderless public services since the last DUP/Sinn Fein-led coalition imploded last January in a row over a botched green energy scheme.

That rift subsequently widened to take in more long-standing disputes over language, social issues and the legacy of the Troubles.

The DUP has said it called a halt to talks due to the need to pass a budget for the next financial year.

It contends the decision has to be taken next week and, given a deal was not possible at Stormont, it therefore has to be tabled by Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley at Westminster.

Stormonts main parties are also at loggerheads on how Northern Ireland should be governed if talks ultimately fail.

The DUP wants the UK government to reintroduce direct rule.

Sinn Fein insists direct rule is not an option and the Irish government must have a key role in the region if Stormont does not return.

They want that to be actioned through the British Irish Intergovernmental Conference  a peace process structure aimed at fostering cross-border cooperation between the governments.

As it stands Mrs Bradley is under a legal obligation to call another snap election in Northern Ireland but few observers see the merit in such an option, given it would likely return the same political make-up and not resolve any of the outstanding issues.NORTHERN Ireland's 57 Border Force officers will only be bolstered by six members after a recent recruitment exercise, a trade union has warned.

And that is unlikely to be enough to adequately police the province's air and sea ports and 335-mile border after Brexit, a powerful Westminster committee has said.

The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee said it was increasingly alarmed about the impact that inadequate resources are having on the capacity for the UK's Border Force to operate effectively.

"This is a system which has not functioned properly for a number of years, in large part due to insufficient staffing," it said. The committee pointed out that the lack of clarity on the future relationship with Ireland also poses particular challenges for Scottish and Welsh ports.

"There are real concerns that Border Force will struggle to cope with an expansion of its activities, and that airports and other points of entry to the UK lack the physical capacity to carry out additional checks on people and goods," it said.

The committee referred to written evidence given by the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), one of the largest trade unions in the UK, which said the Brexit-related Border Force complement for Northern Ireland was inadequate.

"They [PCS] explained that there are currently 57 Border Force officers in Northern Ireland covering four major sea ports, three main airports and a land border over 335 miles long, and pointed out that the workforce will increase by just six following the recent recruitment exercise," the report noted.

The committee said it is clear that a Brexit which involves leaving the customs union will have "significant impacts".

The paper urges the government to be "realistic" about the lack of time left to make substantial changes to UK border arrangements before March next year.

It added: "Rushed and under-resourced changes will put border security at risk."

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "It is ridiculous to suggest that we are not preparing sufficiently for leaving the EU.

"We will keep staffing under review as negotiations progress, but will always ensure we have the resources and workforce we need to run an effective system."Pressure is mounting on the Government to introduce direct rule after talks to save Stormont dramatically collapsed.

While Secretary of State Karen Bradley last night acknowledged that the talks had been unsuccessful, she insisted that the basis for a deal still existed.

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However, Stormont sources said Downing Street would have to take decisive action when Parliament returns from recess next week.

They stressed that a budget for Northern Ireland would have to be "imminently introduced" and that a rate would also have to be set.

Mrs Bradley said: "In the continued absence of an Executive... challenging decisions will have to be taken by the UK Government and I will update Parliament when the House returns."

While the Government is unlikely to introduce full-blown direct rule, the appointment of ministers by Westminster to run Northern Ireland will be difficult to avoid as key decisions on health and education must be taken.

The Secretary of State is also likely to move to cut MLAs' pay.

Unionists said Northern Ireland could not continue in limbo any longer while nationalists insisted Dublin must be intimately involved in the next step forward.

A war of words broke out last night between DUP leader Arlene Foster and Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O'Neill over who was to blame for the talks collapse.

Earlier, Mrs Foster pulled the plug on the discussions and said there was currently no prospect of restoring devolution.

Mrs O'Neill said: "Sinn Fein engaged, we worked in good faith, we stretched ourselves.

"We had reached an accommodation with the leadership of the DUP. The DUP failed to close the deal. They have now collapsed this process."

Nationalist sources insisted that the DUP had agreed to an Irish Language Act but that Mrs Foster and her negotiating team had been unable to sell that to other colleagues.

But Mrs Foster hit back at that claim.

"There was no deal or accommodation. It is unfortunate we could not reach a fair and balanced agreement. One language or culture cannot be elevated above others," she said.

"I was not prepared to ask the party to support a one-sided deal. Respect is a two-way street and Sinn Fein should take this time to reflect on how it fails to respect our British identity, whether that is our flag, our young people serving in the armed forces or the very name of this country."

The DUP leader also called on the Government to set a budget and "start making policy decisions about our schools, hospitals and infrastructure".

The Secretary of State maintained that "substantive progress" had been made during the discussions, but conceded "this phase of talks has reached a conclusion".

She said: "I would urge everyone to reflect on the circumstances which have led to this, and their positions both now and in the future. The position of the UK Government remains the same - devolved government is in the best interests of everyone in Northern Ireland and is best for the Union."

Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney described the DUP's announcement on the talks as "very disappointing". He insisted Dublin would be involved in the political road ahead.

"The Secretary of State and I have spoken and will remain in close contact and I am briefing the Taoiseach on developments," he said.

"As co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, the UK and Irish Governments have an obligation to uphold and protect the letter and spirit of that Agreement. We will need to reflect in the coming days on how best to do that."

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar also expressed regret at the talks ending, adding "power-sharing and working together are the only way forward for Northern Ireland".

Labour's shadow Secretary of State Owen Smith blamed the breakdown on the DUP's unwillingness to accept legislation to support the Irish language and marriage equality.

"Their lack of leadership on these issues, despite their powerful position in Stormont and Westminster, leaves Northern Ireland without an accountable government or a voice in the Brexit negotiations," he said.

He called on Mrs Bradley to explain how she hoped to "get the DUP back to the table", and if that proved impossible "how she is going to take forward issues such as equal marriage, as well as dealing with tough decisions on health, education and infrastructure".

Politicians from across the spectrum expressed deep concern about the future of Stormont last night. However, DUP MLAs said they were relieved the proposed deal was off as they had been inundated with messages from alarmed constituents and could not have sold it on the ground.The funeral of Ballymena schoolboy Kayden Fleck, who died after falling into a river in the Co Antrim town, has taken place.

The service was held at 2pm on Thursday in Ballymena Elim Church.

The little boy's coffin was adorned with pictures of his favourite superhero character, Spiderman.

Hundreds of mourners gathered inside Elim Pentecostal Church in Ballymena where Kayden went to Sunday school as dozens of residents lined the street outside.

Pastor Paul Dunn prayed for the family, members of the emergency services who were present, and a community with minds full of questions before the congregation sang Amazing Grace.

Kayden's aunt Samanha wept as she vowed to keep her nephew close to our hearts.

Before you go, we give you this, half of our hearts, and one last kiss. Well miss you dearly, that we know. But off to heaven, now you must go, she said.

Kaydens devastated father held his wife as she fought back tears to tell Kayden one last time you are our everlasting angel.

She described how her heart is full of sadness adding: In our dreams we hold you tight.

Kayden (5) died after falling into the Braid River near the Ecos Centre in Ballymena at around 1pm on Saturday, February 10.

His father, Darrel, is understood to have raised the alarm after he went looking for them.

A huge search and rescue operation was launched and Kayden was pulled from the river near Tullygarley around 45 minutes later.

He was airlifted to the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children but he passed away.

A book of condolences was opened at Harryville Primary School, which Kayden attended, on Monday.

Principal Lesley Meikle told the Belfast Telegraph earlier this week the death of the 5-year-old had ripped out the heart of his school community.The man is serving an eight-year prison sentence for the drink-fuelled attack in September 2015.

A man jailed for leaving his ex-partner with a broken back after allegedly kicking her from a first floor window has failed a bid to overturn his conviction.

The Court of Appeal rejected claims that a jury was pressurised into finding Joseph Henry Smith guilty of intentionally causing the woman grievous bodily harm at her south Belfast home.

Smyth, 33, from Hillhead Cottages on the city's Shaws Road, is serving an eight-year prison sentence for the drink-fuelled attack in September 2015.

He was cleared of a separate charge of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal - the woman's eight-month old Miniature Schnauzer puppy.

According to the prosecution Smyth turned violent after he went to put the dog out of the victim's Tate's Avenue home.

He trailed her upstairs by the hair, inflicting repeated punches to the face and hitting her on the head with a vacuum cleaner, it was claimed.

At one stage Smyth allegedly latched onto her nose with his teeth, biting in on either side.

She recalled climbing out of a first floor bedroom window onto roofing in a bid to escape.

Smyth was said to have come over and kicked her off the windowsill, causing her to fall to the pavement below.

The woman was taken to hospital for treatment to injuries including a spinal fracture, an 8cm wound to her head, a fractured hand and a broken nose.

Despite also claiming her ex-partner had thrown the puppy against a wall and down a flight of stairs, Smyth was subsequently acquitted of animal cruelty.

He agreed there had been some form of dispute, but denied kicking the woman off the balcony or forming any intent to do her serious harm.

His case was that she climbed out onto the windowsill and then fell off due to drugs consumption.

But the jury rejected that version of events, finding him guilty of attacking the woman and assaulting police during his arrest.

Appealing the outcome of the trial, Smyth's lawyers argued that an irregularity in taking the verdict rendered the conviction unsafe.

With jurors having to consider alternate offences, it was contended that they were inappropriately pressurised into coming to a verdict on the first, more serious count for which he was ultimately found guilty.

But Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan ruled that the trial judge had acted correctly.

He confirmed: "We do not consider the conviction on count one unsafe."Kevin McDaid, who was at Londonderry Magistrates Court yesterday, is said to have committed 13 offences on dates between May and October last year

A trainee solicitor has appeared in court accused of a series of assaults on the same woman.

Kevin McDaid, who was at Londonderry Magistrates Court yesterday, is said to have committed 13 offences on dates between May and October last year.

The 31-year-old faces eight charges of assault, one of false imprisonment, two of causing criminal damage to the womans mobile phones, and one of causing criminal damage to an item of her clothing.

A police officer said he was confident he could connect the defendant to all of the charges.

The case was adjourned until March 28 and the defendant, who is originally from Princes Terrace in Derry but currently lives at a bail address on the Ormeau Road in Belfast, was released on continuing bail until that date.

As part of his release conditions McDaid is banned from contacting the complainant and must reside at his bail address in Belfast.

He is banned from consuming alcohol and from possessing alcohol either for himself or for a third party.

The defendant must also submit to a breathalyser test if asked to do so by the police.

McDaid is only allowed to enter Derry for the purpose of employment, and when he arrives from Belfast by train he must walk from the train station and along Craigavon Bridge, and leave the city by the same route.

He must also observe an 11pm to 6am curfew.Theresa May has faced criticism for her intervention in the talks on Monday (Niall Carson/PA)

The Prime Minister has insisted the basis for an agreement to save Stormont still exists.

Theresa May spoke with DUP leader Arlene Foster and Sinn Fein leaders Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle ONeill on Thursday night.

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Mrs May has faced criticism for her intervention in the talks on Monday, with the DUP claiming her arrival at Stormont proved to be a distraction that stalled momentum in the process.

Prime Minister Theresa May welcomes Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to Stormont House. pic.twitter.com/YjD1UiMuKf  UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) February 12, 2018

On Thursday, a No 10 spokeswoman said: The Prime Minister spoke to the leaders of Sinn Fein and the DUP on the phone earlier this evening about the recent phase of political talks in Northern Ireland.

In both phone calls the Prime Minister expressed her disappointment that an agreement had not yet been reached despite recent progress being made by everyone involved.

She reiterated how the Government remains absolutely committed to restoring an executive and that it is still her firm belief that restoring devolved government  so that democratically elected politicians can make locally accountable decisions  is in the best interests of everyone in Northern Ireland.

The Prime Minister was clear that she still believes the basis for an agreement exists and recognised the leadership both parties had shown over past weeks and months.

She urged them both to reflect on the recent phase of talks in order to find the best way forward.

On next steps, the Prime Minister was clear that the UK Government has a responsibility to consider what needed to be done to protect the interests of Northern Ireland in the ongoing absence of an executive.

She added that the Northern Ireland Secretary would continue to work closely with the parties, and the Irish government in accordance with the three-stranded approach, to support that process.Irish President Michael D Higgins has paid tribute to "the voice of reconciliation" John Robb following his death.

The former Ballymoney-based surgeon and Irish Senator was the founder of the New Ireland Group in 1982, which set out a vision for a society accommodating both the Irish and British traditions.

Mr Higgins said he had learned of Dr Robb's death "with great sadness".

"He was a voice not only for peace, but for reconciliation, for recognising all traditions and beliefs on the island of Ireland, and the making of a future in which all in Ireland could share," he said.

"One could not but be impressed by his deep humanity, and his unstinting efforts to encourage new thinking in politics.

"At a personal level, he was a joy to meet, always optimistic, an all-islander in the best sense. To have known him as a friend and regular correspondent was a privilege."

Dr Robb was educated at Rockport School in Holywood and at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh. He made his career in medicine as a surgeon.

He was from a liberal Protestant background and was steeped in an all-Irish tradition. He became a member of the Wolfe Tone Society as early as the 1960s.

When the Troubles broke out in the late 1960s he worked with a wide team of medical experts to save lives and help victims recover from their wounds.

Outside his medical career Dr Robb lobbied strongly for a much wider vision of Irish society, where Gael and Planter could work together and live in peace.

With a number of liberal Protestants and others from different backgrounds, he formed the New Ireland Group, which promoted a vision of society that could bring together those from the main Orange and Green traditions, as well as others.

He wrote and spoke so widely on his dream of a new Ireland that he caught the attention of political leaders in Dublin.

Dr Robb served in the Republic's Senate from 1982-1989, making an eloquent and distinctly northern contribution to debates.

Despite the best efforts of him and his colleagues, the New Ireland Group had little success in shifting the tectonic plates of established political thinking.

He served for several years on Queen's University's senate and brought his characteristic sharpness, insights and humour to the sometimes stolid debates.

He was never afraid to ask questions about the various academic and administrative "elephants in the room" which no one else wanted to mention.

On a personal level, he was a most charming, warm-hearted and well-liked man with high Christian principles and great integrity, being greatly respected by everyone, including those who did not agree with his political views.

In his later professional life he worked as a surgeon in Ballymoney, always fighting hard to preserve the highest medical standards and services for the entire community, which held him in high regard.

He was one of the last of the great figures of the liberal Presbyterian tradition, and although the political icebergs began to thaw more than a little during his lifetime, he did not live long enough to see his vision becoming a reality.

South Belfast SDLP MLA Claire Hanna also paid tribute.

"John was a friend of my family, and he was staying in our home in Galway in 1982 at the time when Taoiseach Charles Haughey asked him to come to Dublin to inform him of his appointment to the Irish Senate," she explained.

"John was an outstanding representative of the liberal Presbyterian tradition in the North, which was willing to engage with all traditions on the island through his New Ireland Group.

"He was probably the leading trauma surgeon in the Royal Victoria Hospital in the awful years of the early Troubles, and he was a doughty defender of our hospitals.

"He had a remarkable intellect, and in middle-age taught himself to speak, read and, unusually, write Irish to a very high standard."Prime Minister Theresa May expressed her disappointment at the breakdown of the Northern Ireland talks.

The Conservative party leader spoke with both the leaders of Sinn Fein and the DUP on the phone on Thursday evening.

It comes after the leadership of the two parties clashed over claims a deal had been agreed.

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"In both phone calls the Prime Minister expressed her disappointment that an agreement had not yet been reached despite recent progress being made by everyone involved," a Number 10 spokeswoman said.

"She reiterated how the Government remains absolutely committed to restoring an Executive and that it is still her firm belief that restoring devolved Government - so that democratically elected politicians can make locally accountable decisions - is in the best interests of everyone in Northern Ireland."

On Monday the Prime Minister and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar visited Belfast. On leaving Mrs May urged the parties to make one "final push" at getting a deal. On Wednesday DUP leader Arlene foster pulled the plug on the process saying there was "no prospect" of a deal.

The Downing Street spokeswoman continued: "The Prime Minister was clear that she still believes the basis for an agreement exists and recognised the leadership both parties had shown over past weeks and months. She urged them both to reflect on the recent phase of talks in order to find the best way forward.

"On next steps, the Prime Minister was clear that the UK Government has a responsibility to consider what needed to be done to protect the interests of Northern Ireland in the ongoing absence of an Executive.

"She added that the Northern Ireland Secretary would continue to work closely with the parties, and the Irish Government in accordance with the three stranded approach, to support that process."Rates are set to go up for all councils in all but one of Northern Ireland's councils. (Anthony Devlin/PA)

Rates are set to go up for all but one of Northern Ireland's councils.

The only council freezing domestic rates for the year ahead is Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council.

The rates change will see most councils increase the amount by around 3%, with Newry, Mourne and Down council recording the biggest increase at 3.38%.

Other than Causeway Coast and Glens, the smallest increase was for Belfast City Council, where an increase of 1.98% was agreed upon at a council meeting.

In Belfast, the council says homeowners will see an increase of less than 1 per month, or less than 10 a year.

Almost everyone who lives in a property in Northern Ireland is required to pay rates, and the money goes towards services including schools, hospitals, roads, bin collection, parks, and leisure centres.

Rates in Northern Ireland are made up of a regional rate, which is set by the Northern Ireland Executive and is the same across all councils, and the district rate, which is set by the councils.

The regional rate for the forthcoming financial year has yet to be announced.

The following rates will come into effect from the start of April for the 2018/19 financial year:

Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council - Antrim, 2.48%; Newtownabbey, 3% (different increases for the two areas)

Ards and North Down Borough Council - 2.96%

Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council - 2.95%

Belfast - 1.98%

Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council - 0%

Derry and Strabane District Council - 2.99%

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council - 3%

Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council - 2.91%

Mid and East Antrim Borough Council - 2.32%

Mid Ulster District Council - 2.98%

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council - 3.38%Neighbours of a "quiet and friendly" father who was shot dead while making pancakes with his partner and her daughter have told of their shock following the brutal murder in west Belfast.

Raymond Johnston (28) was shot in the chest in the living room of his Poleglass home just before 8pm on Tuesday in front of his partner Eileen Robinson and her 11-year-old daughter - her 16-year-old daughter was with friends outside on the street.

It is understood the victim, who has a child from a previous relationship, only moved to the area to be with Eileen in recent years and is originally from Crumlin.

Detectives from the PSNI's Serious Crime Branch are seeking to identify a man dressed in a blue coat with fur around the hood who was seen leaving Glenbawn Avenue in a black car with tinted windows.

Police have not yet established a motive for the murder and are pursuing several lines of inquiry.

Sinn Fein councillor Stephen Magennis said Ms Robinson has been left "completely devastated" in the wake of the murder.

"All we can do is offer her help and support at this dreadful time," he said.

"Eileen has fought hard for the residents of Poleglass and has been successful in securing a housing improvement scheme to help further transform this area which we thought had already changed so much, but unfortunately this has come to her door," he added.

Residents who reported hearing gunshots and screaming rushed to the property in a bid to help but were confronted with a "bloodbath" after arriving.

One man, who stood helpless as others made futile attempts to resuscitate the victim, said Mr Johnston had been making pancakes at the time of the "sickening" attack.

Another neighbour, who described him as a "quiet but very friendly guy", said residents have been left shocked.

"It's absolutely awful - that child has to live with those images forever now, which is just appalling," they added.

One neighbour recalled watching TV when she heard a car "screeching off" down the street, before dozens of blue lights lit up her window.

"I already knew something was wrong but then it turned into complete mayhem with police everywhere - the place was swarming," she said. The woman was standing with dozens of neighbours who had gathered in the street when she learned the full extent of the horror which had unfolded just yards away.

"I was shocked, I'm still shocked, to think that something so terrifying happened right on my own doorstep," she said.

"This street is usually full of kids out playing. The fact that it happened in front of his partner and her child makes this so much more horrific."

SDLP councillor Tim Attwood said there is widespread revulsion following the killing.

"The fact that there were children involved has left many people feeling very angry," he said. "This community is totally united in its condemnation, which should send out a strong message to those who still resort to guns and violence."

Detective Chief Inspector Geoff Boyce condemned the "horrendous" murder and offered his condolences to the grieving family of Mr Johnston. "It is particularly chilling that this attack took place in front of his partner and an 11-year-old child in his own living room," he said.

Police have vowed to maintain a visible presence in the area to provide residents with reassurance and have asked anyone with information to contact detectives on 101, quoting reference 1192 of 13/02/18.Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald has laid out some of the details of the agreement, she claims, her party had reached with the DUP last week before the talks collapse.

She said it included an Irish Language Act, an Ulster Scots Act and a Respecting Language and Diversity Act. She said that while there was no "meetings of minds" on same-sex marriage, there was a recognition no one party could table a petition of concern and the matter would likely be considered by a private members bill.

There was also agreement to review the "abuse" of the Petition of Concern and establishing a committee to look at the Bill of Rights, she said.

DUP Leader, Arlene Foster, however, rejected there was a deal in place she could put to her party officers for consideration. While DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said the Sinn Fein "propaganda machine was in full flow".

The Prime Minister expressed her disappointment at the breakdown.

Read More

Mrs McDonald also said that the justice ministry would have become part of the usual d'hondt selection for the parties by 2022. It has been excluded from the usual allocation of ministries with the parties agreeing to an individual outside their groups holding the position. Alliance leader David Ford and independent unionist Claire Sugden have both been ministers since the powers were devolved in 2010.

Dublin TD McDonald said there would be no quotas on Irish speakers for jobs, nor would the language be forced on anyone. She did however, say it included official recognition of Irish, creation of an Irish Language Commissioner and the repeal of the ban on Irish in the courts to be legislated for.

She said the current phase of the talks was over.

"We advised the DUP leadership that the deal should be closed before those opposed to it could unpick what we had achieved," she said.

Read More

"We made it clear that if there was a delay there was every chance that the package would unravel.

"The DUP failed to close the deal and went on to collapse the talks process."

Mrs McDonald said they would not disclose all the details of the deal to honour any future confidentiality should the talks restart, but they would provide both the British and Irish governments with the full text.

Michelle O'Neill said had the agreement been honoured, they would have been in government today.

She called on the two governments to honour past commitments and for the British/Irish governmental conference to be re-convened.

"Given that the DUP leadership has now prevented this the two governments must now move ahead to implement existing agreements on legacy and an Irish Language Act and meet their obligations for equality, by bringing forward legislation on marriage equality."

The DUP has been asked for a comment.Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald and deputy leader Michelle ONeill speak to the media this afternoon about the break up of the talks with the DUP at Stormont. Pic: Pacemaker

Sinn Fein revealed some of the details of the deal they had made with the DUP before the collapse of the talks this week. Below is Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O'Neill's full statement to the media.

President Mary Lou McDonald said: "The DUP leader brought this phase of negotiations to a close and said there is no current prospect of these discussions leading to an Executive being formed.

Read More

"It is up to Arlene Foster to explain this given that the DUP and Sinn Fein leaderships had achieved an accommodation across the issues involved.

"In fact we had a draft agreement by the end of last week. At that time we advised the DUP leadership that the deal should be closed before those opposed to it could unpick what we had achieved.

"We made it clear that if there was a delay there was every chance that the package would unravel.

"The DUP failed to close the deal and went on to collapse the talks process.

"The first point I want to make is an obvious one; this phase of the negotiations is over.

"Sinn Fein has worked diligently with the governments, the DUP and others to restore the political institutions.

"We did so because the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement are in the best interests of all our people, our economy, our public services and building reconciliation.

"However, these institutions must operate with respect, equality and integrity.

"That was Sinn Feins approach and that remains our approach.

"There has been a lot of speculation about what was in the draft agreement between us and the DUP.

"There have been calls for it to be published.

"Sinn Fein at this time will not be publishing the draft agreement.

"This is in keeping with our obligations to ensure that any future phase of negotiations has the best chance to succeed.

"However, this will not happen unless the unionist parties embrace the need for a rights-based society and for citizens here to enjoy all those rights available across these islands.

"In keeping with our commitment to transparency we will provide copies of the draft agreement text to the two governments and we will brief the other parties in the Assembly and the Oireachtas.

"Let me also say that a lot of mistruths and inaccuracies have been peddled about the content of the draft agreement

"For the record the draft record included an Irish Language Act, an Ulster Scots Act and a Respecting Language and Diversity Act.

"The Irish Language Act included provision for official recognition of Irish, the creation of an Irish Language Commissioner. The repeal of the ban on Irish in the courts was also to be legislated for.

"It did not involve at any stage making Irish compulsory or applying quotas to public services. This was not a consideration.

"There has been no meeting of minds on Marriage Equality.

"We anticipate that this issue will be fully considered by the Assembly in the form of a Private Members Bill and it is acknowledged that no party alone can table a Petition of Concern.

"There was also agreement to review the abuse of the Petition of Concern and establishing a committee to look at the Bill of Rights.

"Separate from the agreement between the DUP and Sinn Fein we had a commitment from the British government to put to consultation the legacy mechanisms agreed at Stormont House and release the funding requested by the Lord Chief Justice for coroners courts.

Sinn Fein accepted the DUP proposals on sustainability of the institutions.

"There was agreement that the British government will legislate so that the Justice Minister is elected in the same manner as other ministers for the Assembly elections in 2022.

Sinn Fein Vice President Michelle ONeill added: If the DUP leadership had closed the deal last week the Executive would be on the cusp of being re-established to implement the agreement, set a budget and work to deliver for all.

"Given that the DUP leadership has now prevented this the two governments must now move ahead to implement existing agreements on legacy and an Irish Language Act and meet their obligations for equality, by bringing forward legislation on marriage equality.

"We will be speaking with the British Prime Minister later today and with the Taoiseach.

"We are calling upon them to establish the British Irish inter-governmental conference as soon as possible.

"We are also very conscious that the Tory government supported by the DUP are set on taking this part of Ireland out of the European Union despite the vote of the people of the north to remain and regardless of the damage this will do to the people of the island of Ireland.

"Sinn Fein will continue to oppose this and to argue for designated special status for the north.Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann last night called on Sinn Fein and the DUP to publish details of the accommodation they had reached.

"This talks process has ended in another shambles. This is what happens when you allow an exclusive two-party process to fester," he said.

Read More

"The DUP and Sinn Fein should now have no fear in publishing what they have agreed so far.

"Print it, publish it online, do it whatever way they want - but it is vitally important the people of Northern Ireland know what accommodation they did reach.

"It's time for openness and transparency and for both parties to let everyone know where they got to, outside a select few in the leadership of each party. It's time to front up. And if they won't do it, then the Government should print what it knows."

Mr Swann said the UUP was a devolutionist party but the people of Northern Ireland could no longer be "held to ransom" by those who didn't have their interests at heart.

"We have neither direct rule nor devolved government. That cannot continue. If we are at the stage where a budget has to be set again in Westminster, so be it," he added.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood expressed anger and disappointment at the DUP for pulling the plug on the talks.

"We have to get back to working together. We can't allow this moment to be the destruction of all that we have achieved," he said.

"We can't allow this British Government or this DUP to think they are going to govern Northern Ireland on their own. That cannot be allowed to happen.

Expand Close UUP leader Robin Swann Freddie Parkinson / Facebook

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"The spirit which underpins the Good Friday Agreement is one that recognises we have two communities here, two nationalities, two sets of allegiances and we have to have that recognised in anything that goes after this."

Alliance leader Naomi Long claimed Northern Ireland politics was in a "very precarious position at this point in time, essentially in uncharted territory".

She said: "We have now no prospect of a deal but also no process in place that could lead to a deal, nor do we have any indication of willingness by parties to continue any such process.

Expand Close SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood. Stephen Hamilton / Facebook

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"It is now incumbent on the British and Irish Governments to come up with a way forward, because Northern Ireland has to be governed. But a switch to direct rule does nothing but aid the DUP. Alliance has repeatedly said from the start of this talks process that without a more structured approach, we would not see a successful outcome."

Mrs Long insisted that a deal to restore devolution "is, was and remains doable". She added: "The Government has a responsibility to take some kind of control - it is not right over 20 years of political investment should be squandered by a party which represents a minority of people across Northern Ireland."

TUV leader Jim Allister said the talks failure was unsurprising as Sinn Fein was never in Stormont to make Northern Ireland work. He welcomed the DUP facing "some measure of reality".

Mr Allister added: "However, they need to go further and accept that things can only move forward by fully accepting the demonstrated reality that mandatory coalition can and will never work. This system of devolution is doomed to constant deadlock and failure. Only a coalition of the willing stands any chance of success. If such is not attainable, then we need government from the only other place it can come from, Westminster."Armed police arrive at the scene of a murder in the Glenbawn Avenue area of Poleglass in west Belfast on February 13th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Armed police arrive at the scene of a murder in the Glenbawn Avenue area of Poleglass in west Belfast on February 13th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Police have said there were two gunmen involved in the murder of Ray Johnston in Belfast on Tuesday and dissident republican involvement is suspected.

Mr Johnston was shot in the chest in the living room of his home in Glenbawn Avenue, Poleglass at around 8pm in front of his partner and 11-year-old child.

Update from PSNI on Raymond Johnston murder investigation Posted by Belfast Telegraph on Thursday, February 15, 2018

An appeal has been made for anyone with information on a male wearing a blue coat with fur around the hood made off from the scene and got into a black car with tinted windows which drove away from the scene.

Detective Chief Inspector Geoff Boyce on Thursday appealed for anyone with information as to the last movements of Ray to contact his officers.

He said the investigation now understood there to be two gunmen involved who fled the scene in a dark-coloured car.

There was also extensive CCTV footage of the front of the house, which officers are examining.

"The manner in which Raymond was murdered was particularly brutal," he said, "the gunmen had been in the house for a very short time and did this in front of an 11-year-old child and his partner.

"We are particularly keen to prevent this from happening again and to catch those responsible and to get justice for the Johnston family."

The officer said they were investigating a number lines of enquiry including a link to dissident republicans..

He said it was too early to speculate if it was related to a feud in Crumlin or if it was linked to the murder in Poleglass of Joe Reilly in October 2016 Mr Reilly, 43, was shot twice in the chest in the living room of his home while two other people in the house were forced to lie on the kitchen floor.

Detective Chief Inspector Boyce would not be drawn on if Mr Johnston had been under threat or if police were aware of a threat made against him.

Expand Close Gunned down: Joe OReilly / Facebook

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"I would ask any members of the public who have a dash cam fitted to their vehicle, and were travelling on Glenbawn Avenue, Glenbawn Square, Bryanswell Road, Bellsteel Road, Pantridge Road, Stewartstown Road or Colinwell Road between 7pm and 9pm on Tuesday, 13 February to contact detectives at Musgrave. You may have footage that could help us piece together what happened on Tuesday night and lead us to those behind this brutal act," he added.

Anyone with information should contact detectives on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference 1192 of 13/02/18 or ask to speak to Detectives at the incident room at Musgrave Street.

Information can also be provided to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.According to the TUC analysis, one in seven children living with a public sector worker in their family will be below the poverty line - an increase of 40% since 2010 (stock image)

More than 20,000 children of public sector workers in Northern Ireland will be living in poverty by the end of next month, unions have warned.

The claim came as a study said the region had seen one of the biggest rises in cases in the UK.

The TUC found the number of children of public sector workers pushed into poverty had leapt by more than 50% in the past seven years. The total is predicted to rise to 21,059 by the end of March, compared to 13,697 in 2010 - an increase of 7,362.

Across the UK, an extra 160,000 children have been pushed below the breadline during this period - from 398,283 to 557,495 - the survey claims.

According to the TUC analysis, one in seven children living with a public sector worker in their family will be below the poverty line - an increase of 40% since 2010.

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said the figures made for stark reading.

"The government's pay restrictions and in-work benefit cuts are causing needless hardship," she added.

"Public servants shouldn't have to worry about feeding or clothing their kids, but many are struggling to afford even the basics. Ministers must give public sector workers the pay rise they have earned. If they don't more families will fall into poverty."More icy conditions are expected for Northern Ireland.

An ice warning is in place for Northern Ireland for Thursday.

Forecasters have warned of freezing conditions throughout the day after issuing a weather warning for almost 24 hours.

Today's weather forecast

Experts predict the areas affected will be Antrim, Londonderry, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Armagh and County Down.

Forecaster Marco Petagna said: "There will be wintry showers throughout the day on Thursday and pretty strong winds.

"There will certainly be some wintry showers in the province, although it's an ice warning that is in place for Northern Ireland.

"Even into Friday there's a few showers to come. it's wintry turning to sleet in western areas.

"There's quite a split between west and east."

Mr Petagna added:: "There will be wintry showers throughout the day on Thursday and pretty strong winds.Former DUP leader Peter Robinson has confirmed he has turned down a nomination to the House of Lords.

In a statement on his Facebook page, Mr Robinson said he had received messages from the public, following "conflicting stories that have appeared in the print media some expressing surprise that I had not being included on a list of DUP nominees for the House of Lords".

In the post, Mr Robinson cleared up speculation around why he had not been nominated for a peerage.

It was reported at the weekend in the Sunday Life, the Belfast Telegraph's sister paper, former Mid Ulster and South Antrim MP William McCrea, and current MEP Diane Dodds were in line to be nominated for peerages.

Although no mention of Peter Robinson was made in the article, it sparked speculation about why his name was not being put forward.

Mr Robinson, who served as First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2008 to 2016, said: "Some, who have written to me, have asked if my health has deteriorated while others have asked why the party did not propose me or whether I am unhappy with the present leadership."

"Far from the party bypassing me, immediately on my retirement as Party Leader and First Minister I was asked by Arlene and Nigel if the party could nominate me for a Peerage. I thanked them for their thoughtful consideration but declined as I wanted a period to recover from my heart attack and take on new challenges," he wrote.

Mr Robinson had widely been expected to be granted a peerage following his retirement in 2016.

"Happily, I have had no re-occurrence of my heart problem though I am presently recuperating from a recent minor operation. As for my position as it relates to the DUP, I am absolutely, wholeheartedly and unalterably supportive of the party, Arlene and her leadership team."

Mr Robinson said his possible nomination to the House of Lords had been raised with him again by his party colleagues, and he had once again asked them not to proceed with the nomination for "a range of issues".

"Chief among them is that I firmly believe that the party, who are in a confidence and supply agreement with the government (which is hugely beneficial for Northern Ireland), need dedicated working Peers," he said.

"Also, given my business responsibilities and other projects in which I am presently involved including a new commitment I have just undertaken, I would be unable to fulfil this role, at this time, to the standard I believe it deserves."

Downing Street has not made it clear when the next round of appointments to the House of Lords will be made.Liam Colgan has not been seen since the early hours of Saturday in Hamburg (Find Liam Colgan/PA)

There have been potential sightings of missing Liam Colgan on CCTV, his brother has revealed.

Liam, 29, from Inverness, vanished in Hamburg in the early hours of Saturday.

His brother Eamonn said footage had been picked up of him walking alone.

Speaking to reporters in Germany, he said: There have been a couple more potential sightings that the police are currently working on and reviewing CCTV on those areas.

There is a recording of Liam in the Reeperbahn area.

It isnt actually outside the pub. Its further along the Reeperbahn towards the train and subway stations.

After that there is no other image of Liam. I dont know the exact location. Its some sort of gaming area, I think he was outside there.

He is seen walking alone, as we thought he would have been.

We dont know much more at this time.

He earlier spoke to BBC Radio 1s Newsbeat programme and pleaded with his brother to get in touch.

He said: Please, please come home. Everyone misses you.

Youre very much loved. I dont know what happened to you, just please get in touch, find a way.

Liam Colgan is missing in Hamburg  please help to find him!Scottish National, Liam Colgan (aged 29) was last seen at Posted by Help find Liam Colgan on Sunday, February 11, 2018

Eamonn, 33, was supposed to be getting married in two weeks time and Liam had organised the trip to Hamburg and was in charge of the arrangements.

The group arrived in the city on February 9. They had visited a few bars and had splintered, and the last place they were in was called the Hamborger Viermaster.

Eamonn told the programme: We thought Liam had left just a couple of minutes before us.

When he wasnt waiting for us outside, there was no reason to panic.

Hed organised the whole trip so hed researched the city and knew better than any of us how to get home.

When Eamonn woke the next morning, his brother was not there.

He added: Thats when panic set in. I was sharing a room with him.

We looked in all the other rooms but there was no sign of him.

After discovering Liam was missing, Eamonn  a policeman himself  contacted police in Hamburg who have since been in contact with hospitals and taxi companies and have interviewed witnesses.

Search dogs have also been used and Liams picture circulated online and to media outlets.

A Facebook group has also been set up called Help Find Liam Colgan, and a video plea was made by Dundee United captain Willo Flood.

HELP | United fan Liam Colgan is missing in Hamburg, Germany. Please retweet this message from Club captain Willo Flood to raise awareness as we appeal for his safe return to his family. pic.twitter.com/Qx83Fmwq5G  Dundee United FC (@dundeeunitedfc) February 13, 2018

Police in Hamburg said on Wednesday they still hope to find Liam alive.

However, Eamonn said until his family finds out what happened, the wedding will not be a priority.

He told Newsbeat: The wedding is not even a thought to me or my fiancee.

It wont be going ahead without Liam.Labour MSP Anas Sarwar has written to the First Minister outlining a series of proposals to tackle everyday racism and Islamophobia across Scotland.

Mr Sarwar wants the Scottish Government to take action on black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) representation in the public sector workforce.

He also called for a review of the legal framework surrounding racist and Islamophobic abuse on social media.

New on @LabourHame:

Full text of @AnasSarwar's letter to @NicolaSturgeon outlining steps he believes the Scottish Government should take to challenge everyday racism and Islamophobia. https://t.co/I6PP17Oboy  LabourHame (@LabourHame) February 15, 2018

The MSP spoke out last month about being subjected to racist comments during the Scottish Labour leadership contest.

He recently launched the Cross Party Group (CPG) on Tackling Islamophobia, supported by MSPs from every political party and over 50 organisations.

In his letter to Nicola Sturgeon, Mr Sarwar said his proposals were about challenging a culture that impacts on workplaces, colleges, university campuses and playgrounds across the country.

He called on the government to put in place a requirement for at least one BAME candidate  where at least one has applied  to be shortlisted for an interview for a public sector job.

His proposals also include a regular audit of the diversity of Scotlands workforce, the ability for public sector workers to report abuse anonymously, and a programme of equality and diversity training to be rolled out across the public sector.

On social media, he called for a review to ensure that the correct legal framework exists for the police to take action and that the appropriate legal framework is then enforced appropriately and correctly.

Police Scotland should also establish a formal relationship with the organisation Tell MAMA, which works on tackling anti-Muslim hatred, he said.

The launch of the CPG on Tackling Islamophobia @ScotParl, chaired by @AnasSarwar with contributions from @hopkinspeter1 and @TellMamaUK. Lots of important issues to take forward with a focus on solutions. pic.twitter.com/9BPFAPIW9P  Cross Party Group on Tackling Islamophobia (@CPGIslamophobia) January 30, 2018

Mr Sarwar, one of only four BAME MSPs to have ever sat at Holyrood, said: I want to repeat what I have said in every conversation, in every piece of communication, and in every media comment  this isnt about one individual or one party or organisation.

Its about challenging a culture that impacts on workplaces, colleges, university campuses and playgrounds across the country.

What I have set out are steps that I believe the Scottish Government should take to challenge the consequences of everyday racism and Islamophobia.

This would demonstrate to the public how seriously we  as a Parliament and a country  take this issue and help us to tackle this culture head-on.

Great turnout at Cross Party Group on Tackling Islamophobia launch. 50+ orgs, representing all faiths & none.



This is bigger than any 1 individual or organisation. Itas about challenging everyday racism & Islamophobia that impacts on workplaces, campuses & classrooms. pic.twitter.com/YzIcUKZu4f  Anas Sarwar (@AnasSarwar) January 30, 2018

A Scottish Government spokesman said: As stated in Parliament, the First Minister is committed to working constructively with the proposed cross-party group on tackling Islamophobia.

We will consider the points raised by Mr Sarwar when we receive the letter and reply to him in due course.

Everyday racism, Islamophobia or any form of prejudice and bigotry is completely unacceptable, and it is wrong for MSPs, or anyone in our society, to be the subject or victim of it.

We are resolved to do everything that it takes to ensure that Scotland is a place where there is zero tolerance of racism in any form.The International Development Secretary met with top law enforcement officials on Thursday to discuss

how vulnerable people receiving charity aid can be protected from sex abuse.

The talks came in the wake of the Oxfam sex scandal, with the charity accused of concealing findings of an inquiry into claims staff used prostitutes while delivering aid in Haiti in 2011.

Penny Mordaunt met with Lynne Owens, Director General of the National Crime Agency, and Home Office officials.

They discussed how to protect vulnerable people and how to guarantee appropriate safeguarding provisions are in place for charities involved in overseas aid, according to the National Crime Agency.

The agency said the meeting was productive.

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Later on Thursday, the Charity Commission set out the scope of its statutory inquiry, which will probe the charitys case records, its handling of the Haiti allegations and the extent of knowledge of similar allegations against staff in areas such as Chad and Liberia predating Haiti.

The inquiry will also look at the charitys communications with police and other agencies.

Michelle Russell, Director of Investigations, Monitoring and Enforcement at the Charity Commission said: Acting in the public interest as regulator, this inquiry must and will establish the facts about what the charity knew about events in Haiti in 2011, and how it responded at the time and since.

It came a day after Ms Mordaunt threatened to remove Oxfams funding, accusing the charity of failing to show moral leadership by not properly informing donors about the actions of its workers.

She said: No organisation is too big, or our work with them too complex, for me to hesitate to remove funding from them if we cannot trust them to put the beneficiaries of aid first.

On Wednesday evening, Oxfam also revealed that Damien Berrendorf, who served as the charitys country director in Haiti from 2012 to 2017, was dismissed last year following allegations of mismanagement and inappropriate behaviour.

The dismissal was not related to sexual misconduct, the charity said.

"I know that this apology is by no means enough but I want to offer it unreservedly to our supporters, volunteers, staff and the people of Haiti and Chad for the things that happened in our name. I am so sorry." Read Mark Goldring's full open letter at https://t.co/otmNiqs7ar  Oxfam (@oxfamgb) February 15, 2018

Meanwhile, Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis said he would continue to support the charity.

Speaking at the NME Awards on Wednesday evening, he told the Press Association: Weve raised millions through the years with Oxfam  six million quid and everyones said what a wonderful charity they are and we still support them.

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And for a few dodgy people  like with the NHS you get a few dodgy doctors and it doesnt discredit the NHS does it? So why should it affect Oxfam?

Former ambassador Livia Firth, the wife of actor Colin, urged Oxfam to address the abuse but continue its relief work.

She said: It is appalling to hear the news of the men that have abused the people they were there to help. Its a betrayal of all who put their faith in them: those who most needed their help.

I still believe that such programmes are necessary. It would be a tragedy to see this relief work and advocacy stopped. For its part Oxfam must address this abuse diligently and transparently.

Oxfam must do everything in its power to heal the damage to those who depend on both its work and the good faith and generosity of its supporters.The fight against terrorism has blurred the traditional lines of war and peace, the chief of Nato has said, stressing that there is a constant threat of attack.

In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with the Press Association, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also said it was very difficult to predict when the fight against Islamic State will be over.

His comments come following a two-day defence ministers meeting in Brussels where it was announced Nato plans to expand its military training mission in Iraq following the fall of IS.

Pressed on how vulnerable Europe is to the threat of Islamic militancy and returning fighters from Iraq and Syria, he said significant achievements have been made in the fight against terrorism.

There is a constant threat of terrorist attacks, we have seen that that has happened again and again against Nato allies, he added.

And the threat is present, that is the reason why we have to step up our efforts to fight terrorism and we need many different tools.

There is still a threat, there is still a danger and this is a generational fightJens Stoltenberg

He said the neighbourhoods where people are recruited need to be addressed, and that social workers, schools, police, intelligence services, border controls and military means were also important.

Mr Stoltenberg highlighted how 98% of the territory once controlled by the murderous group in Iraq and Syria when they seized vast swathes of the countries, has been liberated.

These are significant achievements in the fight against terrorism, he added, stating that due to intelligence sharing many terrorist attacks have been prevented.

There is still a threat, there is still a danger and this is a generational fight. It also illustrates that the concept of peace and war has changed, Mr Stoltenberg said.

Historically he said it has been easier to define periods of conflict, but added: The fight against Daesh or Isil  it is impossible to say exactly when it started.

It has taken place in Iraq and Syria but also in Afghanistan, North Africa and Asia, in cyber space, and I think it will be very hard to provide an exact date of when that war or that fight ends.

The fight against terrorism illustrates that it is a much more blurred line between war, conflict and non-conflict than how it was before.

That just makes it important that we continue the efforts.

Drawing attention to the rise of the extreme right in his home country of Norway, as well as the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, he said it illustrates how it is not about a fight against religion.

This is a fight against terrorist acts, acts of violence or acts or crimes, regardless of what kind of ideology or religion they try to use as an excuse for totally unacceptable actions, he added.

His comments come amid concerns of a diplomatic row between the US and the UK over the fate of two British men suspected of being members of an IS group dubbed the Beatles.

Washington is keen for militants captured by the coalition-backed Syrian Democratic Forces to be turned over to face justice in their home countries.

But Britains Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said he does not want Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh to ever step foot in the UK again.

Quizzed on what he thinks should happen, Mr Stoltenberg said it is up to individual Nato allies to decide the fate of accused extremists.

We are concerned about foreign fighters, they have been responsible for brutal violent crimes and the return of foreign fighters can pose a threat to Nato allies, he said.

Therefore we have to deal with that in a good way.

But it is for individual Nato allies to decide. Nato will not develop a common policy for the 29 allies, it will be up to each ally to decide  including Britain.The Queen has celebrated the contribution of the Commonwealth diaspora to the UK at a glittering Buckingham Palace reception attended by the Prince of Wales and Prime Minister.

Queen hosts a palace reception for Commonwealth diaspora in the UK guests include Prime Minister Theresa May, Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson pic.twitter.com/HIkzEyChgC  PA Royal Reporters (@PARoyal) February 14, 2018

Charles, Camilla, Theresa May and Boris Johnson made a surprise visit to the event which heralds the start of a series of major Commonwealth events this year culminating in a heads of government meeting for global leaders in London this April.

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Among the guests were England rugby stars Billy and Mako Vunipola, of Tongan descent but raised in the UK, and celebrity chef Monica Galetti from New Zealand.

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The heir to the thrones appearance comes a day after the BBC claimed Commonwealth officials have been discussing who might succeed the Queen as the head of the institution.

But the Commonwealth Secretariat has denied that a high level group of Commonwealth officials has met in London to consider who might follow the monarch.

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Charles spoke passionately about the potential of the family of nations to make a difference to the major challenges facing the world during his tour of south-east Asia and India last autumn.

He is likely to use the opportunity of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in April as an opportunity to meet leaders and discuss common issues.Jordan Davidson has had his sentence increased to 30 years (North Wales Police/PA)

A machete-wielding killer who brutally murdered a disabled man during a crime spree has had his sentence increased.

Jordan Davidson used the machete and a hammer to kill 67-year-old Nicholas Churton at his home in Crescent Close, Wrexham, North Wales in March last year.

The 26-year-old was jailed for life at Mold Crown Court in December after admitting murder and a string of 13 other offences including robbery.

His minimum term was set at 23 years and four months, but judges at Londons Appeal Court ruled on Thursday that was far too low and increased it to 30 years.

Wrexham murderer Jordan Davidson will spend longer behind bars after @robertbuckland challenged his original sentence a more here: https://t.co/kKceTAVRl8  Attorney General (@attorneygeneral) February 15, 2018

Davidson appeared in court over a video-link from prison, flanked by security guards, and thanked the judges after hearing his sentence had been increased.

The court heard he set upon Mr Churton, a frail former restaurateur, as he opened the door to his flat on March 23 and subjected him to a savage attack before attempting to cover his tracks by starting a fire.

In the days before and after the murder Davidson committed a number of other serious offences during a 10-day rampage after being evicted from a hostel.

He attacked a man in a park, hitting him with a hammer and leaving him with a fractured skull, and held the machete against a womans chest during an attempted robbery at a hairdressers shop.

He also attacked a police officer with a hammer during his arrest, punched a detective when he was being interviewed and slashed a prison officers neck with a makeshift weapon.

Solicitor General Robert Buckland QC urged the Appeal Court judges to increase Davidsons minimum term, arguing the crown court judge did not take enough account of these other offences.

Lady Justice Rafferty, sitting with Mr Justice Spencer and Mr Justice Morris, ruled the original term was too low.

She added: The effect of the minimum tariff identified by the judge was that, for the balance of the indictment, the offender went unpunished.

Davidson will only be released once the Parole Board is satisfied he no longer poses a risk to the public.

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Buckland said: Davidson is an extremely violent individual and his crimes deserved tougher punishment.

His actions resulted in the tragic death of a vulnerable man and have had an impact on numerous peoples lives.

I am pleased the court has now seen fit to increase the prison term.A senior naval officer in charge of teaching future submarine captains took his eye off the ball, leading his nuclear submarine to collide with a tanker, a court martial has heard.

Commander Justin Codd, 45, of UK Maritime Battle Staff, was sentenced to forfeiting a year of seniority after pleading guilty at Portsmouth Naval Base to negligently hazarding the 1.1 billion submarine HMS Ambush.

The Astute-class submarine was taken out of service for three months to undergo repairs costing 2.1 million.

Sentencing Codd, Judge Advocate Robert Hill said: You have, save for this incident, an exemplary record. It was more in the nature of a momentary aberration than a careless attitude.

Captain John Atwill, prosecuting, said that Codd was leading a group of students on the final day of the Perisher training course when the accident happened off Gibraltar on July 20 2016.

It was more in the nature of a momentary aberration than a careless attitudeJudge Advocate Robert Hill

He explained that the students were practising controlling the submarine at periscope depth observing shipping movements.

Cpt Atwill said the failure happened because, despite the submarine having two periscopes, Codd failed to carry out his own observations and relied on the images provided by his students.

He said that the students had focused on a yacht called Katharsis and had not identified the risk posed by the tanker MV Andreas, which was loitering in the nearby area.

Cpt Atwill said: Cdr Codds decision to focus on teaching, not safety, compounded the error carried out by the students.

Captain Sean Moore, defending, said that the incident was the worst day in the defendants 22 years of exemplary service.

He said: This is a failure that will live with him for the rest of his life.

No officer becomes teacher of the Submarine Command Course because they are good enough, they must be the best the submarine service has to offer.

This was a case where at the end of a long and demanding period of training with the finish line in sight, Cdr Codd took his eye off the ballCaptain Sean Moore, defending

Perisher is widely acknowledged as the toughest command course in the world.

He added: This was a case where at the end of a long and demanding period of training with the finish line in sight, Cdr Codd took his eye off the ball.

He continued: This is not a case of teacher deliberately ignoring an obvious threat or taking a calculated risk.

Cpt Moore said that Codd was highly respected by senior commanders and had been involved in learning lessons from the accident.

He added that the senior students involved in the training had gone on to pass the Perisher course.

Cpt Moore said: Not only did he remain as teacher but he revised the training procedures.

Having written the book on optronic periscopes, having learned from this incident, hes taken the lead in rewriting the book.

The court heard that the punishment would impact on Codds career progression and his salary of 78,000 a year.A series of billboards have been paraded through central London to highlight the lack of progress made since the Grenfell Tower fire.

Eight months on from the tower-block blaze, the Justice 4 Grenfell campaign group said key issues were being downplayed or ignored and that it was acting to keep this tragedy in the national conscience.

The billboards, which were driven past St Pauls cathedral, where a national memorial service was held in December, and Westminster, say 71 dead, And still no arrests?, How Come?

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They are a reference to the Oscar-nominated film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, in which a mother challenges authorities over finding the culprit for the rape and murder of her daughter.

Justice 4 Grenfell said: These three billboards are here to keep this tragedy in the national conscience, to make sure that the voices of those no longer with us are heard.

Clarrie Mendy, who lost two relatives in the fire, said she wanted to commend what the billboards represented.

Speaking in front of the posters, parked outside the charred high-rise on Thursday afternoon, she said: A lot of people have deadened, closed their minds to Grenfell.

Life goes on every day, we know, but for some of us it doesnt, its never moved on from that day.

So really, its beautiful that these billboards are going around, theyve been outside Parliament today, and as a humanitarian and seeking humanity for Grenfell, I really do hope these open a lot of peoples subconscious mind to look at this  how is this still going on eight months later?

Joe Delaney, who is still in a hotel after being evacuated eight months ago from his home neighbouring the tower, said: Im really pleased that we were up around Westminster today. I do hope that those in power saw them and took note.

He went on: People have gone from being shocked and numb initially, to being hopeful that they were getting help, to now being resentful that were not getting help and so unfortunately whats the next step from that?

Unless something dramatically changes around here were just going to move from resentment to anger.

Summer is approaching, so is the year anniversary. Those are big milestones that are approaching and they are approaching fast, so I would urge anyone thats in authority to get their skates on and get some action on this matter.Egyptian troops are carrying out an offensive against militants (Peter Byrne/PA)

Egyptian security forces have killed 53 militants since the beginning of a massive security operation, mainly in restive northern Sinai Peninsula, the epicentre of a years-long Islamic insurgency.

Armed forces spokesman Tamer al-Rifaai said on Thursday that forces also arrested five militants and 680 others including criminal elements and people suspected of supporting militants.

The operation, announced on Friday, covers north and central Sinai and parts of Egypts Nile Delta and the Western Desert, along the porous border with Libya.

It involves land, sea and air forces.

Militant attacks have generally surged since the 2013 military ousting of elected Islamist president Mohammed Morsi following mass protests against his divisive one-year rule.

The violence has been concentrated in northern Sinai Peninsula but has also spread to the mainland.Russia has acknowledged that five of its citizens have been killed by a US strike in Syria, the first time Russians have died at US hands in the war-torn Middle Eastern nation.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova emphasised that the five victims were not Russian servicemen.

According to preliminary information, five people, presumably Russian citizens, may have been killed in combat, the circumstances of which are being clarified, Ms Zakharova said in a briefing. Some others have been injured, and its still necessary to check whether they are citizens of Russia or other nations.

Until Thursday, both Russian and US officials said they had no information on Russian casualties in the February 7 clash, which came when pro-Syrian government forces attacked positions of the US-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters in the oil-rich eastern province of Deir el-Zour and faced a ferocious US counterattack.

#Zakharova: Preliminary figures indicate, that 5 people were killed, not ahundredsa  MFA Russia  (@mfa_russia) February 15, 2018

Ms Zakharova would not describe how the Russians died, saying the circumstances of the clash are still being clarified, but her statement amounted to official recognition that the victims were part of the force that advanced on positions of the US-backed fighters.

It marks the first time Russian and US operatives have become directly engaged in combat in Syria, a scenario Moscow and Washington have anxiously sought to avoid.

On the chaotic Syrian battlefield, Russian forces are supporting the Syrian government in the fight against opposition groups, some of which are backed by the United States, and elements of both sides are fighting the last remnants of the Islamic State group in Syria.

The US military has said it maintained contact with the Russian military in Syria before, during and after the February 7 clash. The Russian Defence Ministry insisted its troops were not involved in the incident, saying 25 Syrian volunteers were wounded in the US strike.

But Russian news media and social networks swirled with reports of the combat, describing how US aircraft decimated Russian private military contractors who sought to take control over an oil factory near Khusham. Some reports put Russian losses at 200 or more, and a growing chorus of politicians, commentators and bloggers slammed the Kremlin for failing to acknowledge the casualties.

#Zakharova: There are many people from all over the world, including Russia and CIS, in conflict zones. They go there for different reasons, including for taking part in the hostilities. These people do not officially apply for papers when heading for these places  MFA Russia  (@mfa_russia) February 15, 2018

President Vladimir Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has said some Russian citizens could be in Syria but the Kremlin doesnt have any information about them. Pressed by reporters in Thursdays conference call whether Mr Putin ordered information about Russian casualties kept from the public, Mr Peskov denied that.

Along with the Russian military, which has waged a military campaign in support of Syrian President Bashar Assads government since September 2015, thousands of Russians have also reportedly fought there as private contractors. The private fighters allow the Kremlin to keep the official death toll from its campaign in Syria low, helping to avoid negative publicity about Russias involvement in Syria as Mr Putin runs for re-election in the countrys March 18 presidential vote.Hundreds of British MPs, offered a chance to meet Theresa May to discuss equality, would have put the chance to better use than our local parties did on Monday.

Not that they would have changed her mind on how to make our society more equal; that would be a lot to hope for. But they would have told her straight that we have enormous problems, which most of us do not trust her Government to resolve.

In fact, the Tory leader may have thought she was getting an easy ride on her trip to Northern Ireland. Granted, that is not the common understanding. She had come to nudge through a pre-cooked agreement and found to her horror, once again, that the DUP always needs more time. That's getting through to her.

But given that she is presiding over horrendous inequalities which energise her political opponents at home, it would not be surprising if she found all this dithering over an Irish Language Act somewhat quaint.

That was Tony Blair's assessment of Northern Ireland's parties. They presented him with questions he had never come up against before and he felt that his only job was to humour them.

For example, when he understood a unionist delegation to be demanding the closure of the Murrayfield rugby ground, he was on the brink of assenting, taking time to worry later about what rugby clubs would think of that.

He was spared the need to import Northern Irish irrationality into the political field in which he operated with more passion when it was explained that the delegation was talking about the Maryfield Secretariat, which gave Irish diplomats a toehold here.

However exasperating deadlock here was, Blair found that occasionally you could only laugh.

Now imagine May, who gets harangued in Westminster over the depletion of the National Health Service, over the failure to build houses for an expanding population, over cheap and nasty employment practices like the zero hours contract, the erosion of the state pension, the generational opportunity gap - got it? I could fill the rest of the page with examples of inequality that a properly informed and competent politician would seek to nail her on.

But she was spared all that. Conservative Governments don't believe in equality; they believe in the market solving problems. They are the ultimate Millenarians, looking ahead to a golden age when capitalism has poured its bounty over us all - even as this generation turns out to be poorer than the one before.

So, there is much to talk about when you get an apologist for the fanciful myth of trickle-down in front of you.

So, annoying as wee Ulster is proving to be, it still must have felt like a comforting respite from the real world, the one in which she has to be passionate every day about how things are just getting better and better in every way, when they just aren't.

Really, you get the Prime Minister in the room and what do you want to talk about now you have her attention? An Irish Language Act. A stand-alone Irish Language Act. Insist that it can't be a part of a more comprehensive Act. And that's it.

Same-sex marriage and funding for inquests? "Well," she may well have said. "I don't see the problem." Until Arlene would have explained that she could no more get away with that than she could have got away with accepting a border down the Irish Sea back in December, when she had had to phone up Mrs May and butt into her meeting in Brussels and get her to come home and rewrite her entire Brexit policy.

Personally, I don't know whether I want an Irish Language Act, because I don't know what would be in it. I do quite fancy bilingual street names. They might intrigue tourists. I have seen them in Brittany, as in Dublin.

Then again, the danger is that they would become markers of sectarian distinction, the nationalist areas having them and the unionist areas not. We wouldn't then need murals or flags to tell us where we were.

So, perhaps we should put that on hold until we have greater cross-community affection for the Irish language.

I have heard other journalists say that the question of an Irish Language Act is the civil rights issue of today. It matters as much to nationalists as One Man, One Vote did in 1968.

I don't believe that for a minute.

If it was such a big civil rights issue, why did the Civil Rights Association not think of it at the time?

True, some issues were sidelined for the sake of not alarming the religious-minded, who had greater influence then.

There were people in the civil rights movement who wanted what was then called "homosexual equality" and formed connections to campaigning groups in England.

There were some who wanted abortion on demand, even the reform of divorce laws. And, maybe, for all I know, there was a coterie at the heart of the movement who wanted the right for Irish to be recognised as a state language on a par with English. But I doubt it.

In those days Irish wasn't as cool as it is now; it was too much associated with chauvinism. That kind of greenery was regarded as an embarrassment.

Today Irish has a much higher profile on shop fronts and even on bank lodgement slips in some parts of Belfast that still have bank branches - another equality issue worth making a fuss over. And that's great.

I just think that if you are going to go to the wire and pull down a government over a key rights and equality issue, there are bigger issues than this and more to be achieved by winning on them.

If you live in the Shankill Road, you are expected to die about seven years earlier than if you lived on the Somerton Road. Is that not an equality issue?

Ask somebody facing into the last decade of life if they would rather have more time on Earth or an Irish language translation of the report that explains why they can't.

Ask young people who can't afford a home if they feel a state whose economy depends on rising house prices is respecting them as citizens and if an Irish Language Act would ease the pain a little.

Another generation - and this one, too, if it had any sense - will look on that meeting with Mrs May as indicative of how farcical our politics has become.

This is only about inter-communal rivalry and it is driven by politicians who think - perhaps correctly - that that's what we would rather have.

And Theresa May has good reason to be content that we are not bothering her about anything that really matters.In the surreal world of Northern Ireland politics it was apt that everything fell apart on St Valentine's Day.

The DUP-Sinn Fein relationship was never a love job, but they had been developing more positive feelings for each other in recent times and a new working partnership was on the agenda.

Arlene Foster was the one who called it off yesterday, but, had she not got in first, Sinn Fein would have struck.

Republicans had indicated they weren't willing to continue talks beyond this week and it was clear from discussions between the two parties yesterday that a deal by Friday was impossible.

It had looked very different late last week. So where did it all go wrong? The visit by the Prime Minister and Taoiseach on Monday didn't help.

If the aim was to encourage progress, it had the opposite effect. The DUP felt it was being bounced into a deal.

But cracks in the relationship started before Theresa May flew in.

Senior DUP figures, and most importantly the rank-and-file, were unnerved by the Sinn Fein special ard fheis on Saturday that saw shouts of "Up the rebels!" and "Tiocfaidh ar la!" from successive republican politicians including Mary Lou McDonald.

While the new Sinn Fein president was purely playing to the gallery and attempting to enhance her own republican credentials, the timing made the DUP jittery.

It is understood that a broad agreement had been reached between the two parties by Friday.

It included an Irish Language Act (ILA), but was clothed in the three-stranded approach as opposed to standalone legislation.

But at the special ard fheis, and again in Stormont on Monday, Sinn Fein referred to a standalone ILA.

A talks source said: "Major progress had been made by Friday but there was still stuff to be tied down and preparatory work to do but that wasn't possible on Monday, which became a circus with the arrival of Theresa May and Leo Varadkar."

At two internal DUP meetings on Monday morning it became clear that the panic and opposition among unionist grassroots was so extensive that DUP negotiators couldn't sell any form of ILA to the broader party.

"There was no challenge to Arlene's leadership nor anything nasty said but people made their feelings clear," a source said. Mrs Foster knows unionist leaders are historically toppled for compromising, not for being too hardline.

The only positive for devolution to emerge from the entire fiasco is that we now know Sinn Fein does want back into Stormont. It hasn't calculated that with Tory austerity and Brexit, it's better if it stays outside.

The chemistry between the two former government partners had genuinely improved. Yet given the public nature of yesterday's spectacular breakdown, it's impossible to see a remarriage on the cards any time soon.Mary Lou McDonald (left) and Michelle ONeill lead the Sinn Fein delegation for talks this week at Stormont, where the Irish Language Act is still a stumbling block for progress

One of the arguments now being used by Sinn Fein and some other advocates for an Irish Language Act is that it is the "British" thing to do. It may seem a strange line of argument for Sinn Fein, but yesterday, a former Sinn Fein election candidate wrote that "language acts have become accepted practice across Britain".

A former Sinn Fein MLA made the same point in an interview on Radio Foyle, when he referred to language acts in the "other parts of the Union".

It is an interesting argument and one that seems to have become part of an armoury of arguments, but it is a fake argument.

Both referred to the situation in Scotland and Wales and, indeed, there is a Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act for Scottish Gaelic. There is also a Welsh Language Act in Wales.

They seem to think that this clinches the matter and, indeed, it sounds plausible, but in fact their claim about "accepted practice across Britain" is another example of what is now referred to as "fake news".

Great Britain consists of England, Scotland and Wales and language acts are not "accepted practice across Britain" - no matter how often that fake news is repeated.

Since signing up to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the United Kingdom Government has recognised four indigenous minority languages in Great Britain: Scots and Scottish Gaelic in Scotland, Welsh in Wales and Cornish in England. It has also recognised two minority languages in Northern Ireland: Ulster-Scots and Irish Gaelic.

So, if we are to follow the line of argument now being employed by Sinn Fein and others that language acts are "accepted practice across Britain", we should expect to find four language acts in Great Britain, whereas there are only two.

Of the four minority languages in Great Britain there are two languages that have a language act and there are two that don't. So, it isn't the case, as has been claimed, that it is now "accepted practice across Britain".

There is no minority language legislation for Cornish in England and, in Scotland, only one minority language has legislation.

It is an argument that is easily demolished, because it is a fake argument, but I would suggest that unionists would do well to reflect on it as evidence of the way in which the Sinn Fein Irish language strategy is evolving.

The core strategy is what it was 30 years ago, but it has been adapted and modified to take on-board changing circumstances and emerging opportunities.

Thirty years ago, it was framed - in the words of a Sinn Fein booklet - as "cultural warfare" and "a bullet in the freedom struggle". At that time, in the wake of the republican hunger strikes, it was about motivating core republicans and radicalising nationalists.

Then along came the peace process and decommissioning, and once the IRA had decommissioned their weapons, Sinn Fein had to revise their terminology and adapt their arguments.

Indeed, there have been several revisions of the strategy, with the current focus being on presenting their cultural demands as "language rights". Moreover, they want their rights written into law in an Irish Language Act, with an Irish Language Commissioner to enforce it.

Sinn Fein made those demands a "red-line" issue and collapsed Stormont in order to get their way. That shows how important it is to the Sinn Fein project.

They regard an Irish Language Act as more important than the health service, schools, the economy and everything else.

For that reason alone, if for no other, culture, language and identity have to be treated as matters of importance for the unionist parties and the unionist people. Saying "no" is not enough.

Too often, in the past, unionism was reactive and allowed Sinn Fein to frame the cultural debate. Today, unionism needs to be proactive and develop a coherent cultural strategy of its own.

It may be late in the day, but better late than never. Now is the time for that work to be done.The 1st of March marks World Book Day  a chance to inspire a generation of young readers. This year, the Belfast Telegraph and Sunday Life are offering our readers the chance to claim 1 of 10 free World Book Day book in association with Easons.

Starting from the 16th February, you can collect your vouchers in the Belfast Telegraph and Sunday Life. Then, simply take 3 tokens to your local Easons store to pick up your book between the 1st and 8th of March. Psst there is a bonus voucher in each weeks Sunday Life, so you can collect two tokens in one day. You can collect as many vouchers as you like as long as you have 3 for each book youd like to claim.

Ready to read?

Heres ten World Book Day titles you can choose from:

This year, there are 10 books to choose from many renowned authors and celebrities. From extra-terrestrial adventures to super heroes; there is something to suit every young reader!

Oi Goat

A hilarious rhyming picture book from award-wining writers Kes Gray and Jim Field. This fun book is sure to please your little ones and spur their imaginations and vocabulary.

My Book about me by Mr Silly

From the much-loved series of the Mr Men books comes a special story from Mr Silly himself! From reading to writing, this story will leave you and your bookworms in stitches.

Paddington turns detective

The loveable bear is back in his latest escapades in an extraordinary story of detectives, magic and more! This trio of stories from master storyteller Michael Bond is sure to delight young readers.

Nadiyas Bake Me a Story

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Now the hard part will be picking which of these incredible stories to choose from! Take 3 vouchers from the Belfast Telegraph or Sunday Life to your local Easons story to redeem your free World Book Day book. You can claim as many free books as you like as long as youve collected 3 vouchers for each book.

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All 3 vouchers must be collected to redeem the special offer book.

You can collect more than 1 book providing 3 vouchers are collected for each.

Only original tokens will be accepted.

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Tokens can only be redeemed between 1st & 8th March 2018.

Tokens redeemable in the following stores - Newtownabbey, Belfast Donegall Place (flagship store), Bangor, Craigavon, Lisburn, Coleraine, Londonderry, Newry, Enniskillen. Available while stocks lastSupporters and leaders of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party hold a hunger strike in front of the Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka to demand the release of party chief Khaleda Zia from prison, Feb. 14, 2018.

The imprisonment of Bangladeshi opposition leader Khaleda Zia has unified factions within her party and they will support whomever she picks as its flag bearer in an upcoming general election, if she is barred from campaigning, analysts said.

A day after the former three-time prime minister was found guilty and sentenced last week to five years in prison in a graft case, her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) named her son, Tarique Rahman, as its acting chief even though the 53-year-old who lives in exile in London was convicted alongside his mother.

Even if they both end up being disqualified by the courts from serving as the countrys next prime minister  should the opposition win in nationwide polls due in December 2018 or January 2019  Zia is a unifying figure for the opposition whose conviction has galvanized the BNP and boosted its chances to win Bangladeshs eleventh general election, according to analysts interviewed by BenarNews.

Zia can nominate any of her trusted leaders to lead the BNP in the next polls, and party leaders are expected to accept the nomination, analysts said.

Khaleda Zias imprisonment and Tarique Rahmans physical absence would not hurt the partys electoral participation, political commentator Nizam Uddin Ahmed told BenarNews. As Zia is still inside the country, it would not be a problem for her to lead the party from prison.

In January 2014, when the last general election took place, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League party won it before the polls opened because the BNP had boycotted the vote.

This time around, according to political analysts, BNP has apparently set its sights on contesting the national parliamentary polls. The party is also rejecting the path of street violence as a strategy as it tries to reorganize its leaders and activists, who had been dormant for years, analysts said.

Opposition leaders said they intended to carry on with ongoing peaceful street protests nationwide over Zias conviction. It stemmed from allegations that she embezzled 21 million takas (about U.S. $252,000) from an orphanage trust.

Tarique Rahman, who fled to London in 2008, was convicted in absentia. The court ordered him and four others to each serve 10 years in prison.

The BNP would file two petitions with the High Court  one challenging Zias conviction and the other seeking bail for her release, Moudud Ahmed, a member of the partys standing committee, told reporters over the weekend.

Even if the High Court approves her bail, the bigger question, according to legal experts, is whether Zia  the arch-rival of the incumbent prime minister  can participate in the coming election.

Bangladeshi law bars a person convicted for at least two years from participating in electoral campaigns for the next five years, according to legal experts. If the higher court allows Zia to post bail but upholds her sentence, then she will be disqualified from the polls.

But if the High Court rejects Zias petition for bail and Rahman remains abroad, the former prime minister could still nominate any of her trusted leaders to lead the party in the next general election, according to analysts interviewed by BenarNews.

Whatever may be the conditions, the BNP must contest the polls. They must not give the Awami League a walkover in the next elections, said Ataur Rahman, a former political science professor at Dhaka University.

Zia, through an aide or relative, can declare the secretary general or any member of the standing committee the next party leader in the polls, he said.

Liberal group is dominating now

Zias conviction and subsequent move to appoint her son as acting party chief exposed two factions within the BNP  one composed of liberal members and the other led by conservatives, Shantanu Majumder, an associate political science professor at Dhaka University, told BenarNews.

Ataur Rahman agreed with Majumder about the fissure within the party over Rahmans leadership but, despite that, he predicted the party would stay united under Zia going into the coming electoral season.

The seniors do not like Tarique while the juniors are in favor, he said. But at least for now, the division is dormant.

With Zia and her sons absence, the senior tier of the BNP leadership, mostly composed of standing committee members, currently dominate the party, he said.

Tariques followers are junior leaders. So, Tarique must depend on the seniors to play constructive role in the next general elections. If Tarique puts up pressure on the seniors, there could be a breakup of the party, he said.

The conservative group was in favor of putting pressure on the government while the liberals resisted this, Majumder said.

This time they refrained from the path of street violence, he said. This means that the liberal group is dominating now.

Majumder said the BNP would be expected to adopt the no-violence strategy until the election.

The government wants the BNP to resort to street violence, he said. If they do so, the ruling Awami League activists and the police would crush them, as what happened in the past.

Violent street clashes took place during the last Bangladeshi parliamentary elections on Jan. 5, 2014, after BNP and its alliance boycotted the polls in protest of the Awami Leagues refusal to step aside and allow a neutral caretaker government to lead the country during the electoral season, as stipulated in the countrys constitution.

They (BNP) know that they have good prospects in the next elections against the incumbent Awami League, which has been in office for around 10 years, Majumder said. Therefore, they would continue the peaceful street protests so that more and more leaders and activists dare to assemble in the street on the issue of Zias arrest.

The visible and peaceful demonstrations would publicly project the BNP as a constructive party, he said.

EU lawmakers hope for less confrontation

Meanwhile on Wednesday, a visiting delegation of European parliamentarians said Zias imprisonment posed a major challenge for the BNP.

I think, however, it is also important for them (BNP) as a political party to concentrate on the election, Jean Lambert, head of the delegation from the European Parliament, told a news conference in Dhaka. We would agree that the situation is a difficult one.

We hope all parties will actually be willing to stand for election to make sure that the people of Bangladesh have a real choice in the ballot box, Lambert said. This is something of real importance for the people.A jailed Indonesian cleric could face the death penalty after a court indicted him Thursday over allegations that he masterminded a deadly Islamic State-linked terror strike in Jakarta in January 2016 and other attacks from his prison cell.

Aman Abdurrahman, 46, had instructed others to use violence to create terror among the general public and cause mass casualties including the attack in Jakarta two years ago, prosecutor Anita Dewayani told the South Jakarta District Court.

Indictment documents presented Thursday said Aman had inspired terrorist acts from 2016 to 2017. These also included two bomb blasts that killed five people at a bus terminal in East Jakarta on May 24, 2017, and a November 2016 bomb attack on a church in East Kalimantan province that killed a small girl and injured three other children.

He is the intellectual actor behind all the terror attacks, Anita told the court, referring to Aman.

On Jan. 14, 2016, two of four militants blew themselves up just before the lunch hour in central Jakartas popular Sarinah shopping mall. The attack left eight people dead, including the four militants, and 23 other people injured. The attack was the first terrorist act claimed by Islamic State (IS) in Southeast Asia.

Anita later told reporters that Abdurrahman, who had pledged allegiance to IS, faced a life sentence or the death penalty, if convicted of the charges.

The handcuffed cleric, who has been described in Indonesian media as the countrys most-dangerous extremist, arrived at the courthouse under tight security with counterterrorism officers carrying rifles standing guard outside the building. Aman wore a head scarf and an orange vest commonly used by criminal suspects.

Anita told the five-judge court panel that Aman founded the IS-linked Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a militant group that the United States had designated as a terrorist organization.

The judges appointed a lawyer for Aman, who told the court that he understood the charges and did not object to the trial.

I object to some of the charges. But just continue with the trial, the defendant told the court.

Amans indictment comes more than a week after another Indonesian court sentenced Suryadi Masud (alias Abu Ridho), 45, an IS-linked militant, to 10 years in prison for smuggling handguns from the Philippines and being involved in funding terrorism and plotting attacks in Indonesia.

Since 2010, Aman has been serving a nine-year prison sentence for funding terrorist training camps in Indonesias Aceh province. His jail term was supposed to end in August 2017 as part of the governments Independence Day sentence-reduction scheme, but he was re-arrested a few days before his release after officials charged him of involvement in other terror attacks.Philippine National Police Chief Director Gen. Ronald dela Rosa inspects a machine gun during blessing rites of new equipment for law-enforcement officers in Manila, Feb. 1, 2018.

Indonesian police on Thursday defended giving the highest award to the Philippines top law-enforcement official despite criticism of a statement describing the man leading Manilas deadly drug war as a rockstar-like inspiration.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Ronald dela Rosa personally received the Medal of Honor from Indonesian Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian on Wednesday. Police chiefs of Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia and Brunei Darussalam also received the honor.

It was not clear why dela Rosa was chosen to received that medal, but a press statement from the PNP said it was bestowed because of his important role in the cooperation and contribution to the security of Indonesia and the Philippines.

Media outlets quoted Karnavian as saying that dela Rosa was a rockstar-like inspiration to the Indonesian national police and the Indonesian people on how to fight the war on drugs.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) reacted angrily to the announcement.

Thats a perverse assessment of a Philippine government official implicated in possible crimes against humanity for inciting and instigating killings linked to the governments war on drugs, said Phelim Kine, a deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch.

Setyo Wasisto, spokesman of the Indonesian National Police, told BenarNews on Thursday that the medal was given based on cooperation between the two national police institutions.

What we assess is cooperation between the [two] police [institutions] and not just now but that has existed for years, he said. We do not assess [Manilas] internal policy.

Kine said that based on figures from nongovernmental groups and Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, more than 12,000 people had been killed in Manilas drug campaign since President Rodrigo Duterte took power in June 2016.

Amid the controversy, the Philippine police announced Thursday that more suspected drug pushers and addicts were killed in sustained counter-narcotics operations during the past two weeks.

The PNP said that since Duterte reactivated the police in the country's anti-drug war in December, sixty-five died in police operations. The latest figure brings the total number of deaths to 4,033 since June 2016, according to a tally by BenarNews staff.

The government figures do not include the thousands believed to have been killed by pro-government vigilantes.

Indonesias police chief Karnavian has expressed fondness for violent extrajudicial approaches to illegal drug use previously. In July he publicly touted the shooting of drug dealers as the ideal approach, Kine said. Thats possible instigation of deadly violence.

On Aug. 17, 2017, Indonesian officials defended extra-judicial killings of suspected drug dealers one day after Amnesty International said they had tripled in the last year.

Indonesian police killed at least 60 drug suspects in 2017, compared to 18 in 2016, the rights group said, expressing alarm that Indonesia could be looking to emulate the murderous war on drugs in neighboring Philippines.

Dela Rosa, according to Manila newspapers, expressed his gratitude Wednesday to Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Karnavian.

Thank you for this award and this will inspire me more to exert more effort in our drug war, he reportedly said in a video message.

Statement could backfire

I understand that the award is given to motivate (Indonesian police) members who are in charge of drug eradication to be brave to act under two conditions, which are in accordance with the rule of law and still respect human rights, retired Indonesian Inspector General Bekto Suprapto told BenarNews,

But Muhammad Isnur, chairman of the Advocacy of Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), said Karnavian comments could backfire.

This is not in accordance with what Tito promised during his nomination as the national police chief who will apply the concept of professional, modern and trustworthy, which means also respecting human rights, Isnur said referring to Karnavian by his first name.

On Thursday during a meeting at the Mobile Brigade Command Headquarters in Jakarta, Karnavian reminded his staff not to hesitate to shoot drug dealers who fight back when they are about to be arrested.

Strict action, if there are drug dealers who fight back, shoot them, he said.

Last year, President Joko Jokowi Widodo said at least 4.5 million Indonesians had become addicted or exposed to drugs and called for lethal force against foreign drug dealers who resist arrest.

Be firm, especially to foreign drug dealers who enter the country and resist arrest. Enough, just shoot them. Be merciless, he said in a July 21, 2017, speech in Jakarta.

Widodos government has executed 18 convicted drug offenders amid protest from foreign governments and rights groups.Catholics participate in a procession to the People Power monument in Manila to call for a stop to President Rodrigo Dutertes drug war Nov. 5, 2017.

More suspected drug pushers and addicts were killed in sustained counter-narcotics operations during the past two weeks, Philippine police announced on Thursday.

At least 4,300 police operations were carried out from Jan. 29 to Feb. 14, leading to the surrender of 2,137 suspects, the national police said in a statement.

It said that since President Rodrigo Duterte reactivated the police in the country's anti-drug war in December, sixty-five died in police operations on PNPs (national police) intensified anti-illegal drug campaign.

While no breakdown was given on recent deaths, police earlier reported killing 46 drug suspects from Dec. 5, 2017, to Feb. 2. If both numbers are correct, another 19 drug suspects were killed since Feb. 2 despite pledges from national police chief Dir. Gen. Ronald dela Rosa that the reactivation of Dutertes drug war would be less bloody.

The new figure brings the total number of deaths to 4,033 since Duterte took office in 2016, according to a tally by BenarNews staff.

The government figures do not include the thousands believed to have been killed by pro-government vigilantes.

Duterte has repeatedly said that those deaths should be blamed on rival drug syndicates who were killing competitors and pinning the blame on vigilantes. Human Rights Watch and the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates, along with other rights groups, claim that at least 12,000 have been killed.

The killings of three teenagers last year during drug sweeps caused widespread anger and condemnation, forcing Duterte in October 2017 to remove police from the lead role in the drug war, only to have them resume it on Dec. 5, 2017.

There was scant evidence against the three slain teenagers, and in one case, murder charges have been filed against three officers involved in killing a 17-year-old.

Police: campaign is effective

Police have said that the number of casualties in the drug war was high because the suspects were slain as they tried to fight it out with the police.

Dela Rosa said persuasive efforts will be more active in the coming days and months.

Last week, the International Criminal Court in The Hague said it was opening a preliminary investigation into accusations that Duterte had committed crimes against humanity in the course of his governments crackdown.

The inquiry would try to gauge whether there was enough evidence to warrant charges.

Duterte, who vowed during the campaign for the presidency that he would turn Manila Bay into a dumping ground for dead bodies, has welcomed the inquiry.

At the same time, he insisted there was no evidence directly linking him to the deaths.

Felipe Villamor in Manila contributed to this report.Thai soldiers walk toward the site where a motorcycle bomb killed three civilians and injured others at a market in Yala, Jan. 22, 2018.

Thailand announced Thursday that government negotiators and insurgent groups had finally chosen a district to launch a ceasefire in the Deep South, on a day when the latest bombing in the violence-wracked region injured 10 people including three schoolgirls.

Aksara Kerdpol, the army general who leads the Thai delegation in peace talks with the MARA Patani panel that represents separatist organizations, did not reveal the name of the district selected for the so-called safety zone  or limited ceasefire  but said it could take hold in another six months.

He said he had presented the plan to Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha for his approval.

In our most recent meetings in Malaysia, [we] agreed on naming a district for a pilot safety zone, which I have informed the prime minister about. The next step is to set up a safe house, a coordination center for all parties involved in brain-storming for safety measures, livelihood development and drugs elimination in the safety zone, Aksara said in a statement.

It will take six months for the safety zone to materialize, and to assess the success of such a peaceful approach as all parties wish, he added. There may be an expansion of the safety zone into other areas but it would depend on future talks.

Late Thursday, BenarNews could not reach Aksara or his staff for clarification of the district and other details.

Meanwhile, in an article published Thursday on the website of Deep South Watch, a think-tank that promotes peace in Thailands southern border region and monitors efforts to settle the long-running insurgency, MARA Patani spokesman Abu Hafiz Al-Hakim hinted at recent progress in Malaysia-brokered talks that have gone on for three years.

In an off-table encounter in January at Kuala Lumpur, both sides struck a deal, achieved a significant breakthrough and agreed to resume the peace talk meetings. This was realized by [a] meeting on Feb. 7, 2018, whereby the teams wrapped up the remaining issues of the SZ (safety zone), Abu Hafiz said. It is just a matter of another two or three meetings ahead and both parties are ready to kick-start the SZ exercise in the agreed pilot district.

When BenarNews contacted him on Thursday night (local time) for clarification on whether he was referring to a bilateral agreement on the choice of a district for the ceasefire, Abu Hafiz, who is based in Malaysia, decline to comment. At the time, the list included two districts in Yala province, two in Narathiwat province and one in Pattani province.

The agreement, as announced by the Thai government, came nearly a year after both sides said they had agreed to a framework for a safety zone, and that they would work together to pick one district out of a list of five districts for implementing the geographically limited ceasefire.

Should it take hold one day, the truce would mark a significant step in efforts to negotiate an end to the conflict in the predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking Deep South, where nearly 7,000 people have been killed since 2004.

Some observers, however, have expressed skepticism that Thailands military government is serious about striking a peace deal with the rebels, and have raised doubts over whether MARA Patani represents hardcore insurgents who have kept up attacks in the region, such as the one that took place Thursday in Yala.

Fourth attack on school this year

Officials in the Deep South said three school girls, three defense volunteers and four civilians were injured when a roadside bomb exploded in the morning near a small road leading to the Pracha-utit school in Muang district.

The attack by suspected insurgents was the fourth one targeting a school in the Deep South since the beginning of 2018.

When defense volunteers rode a motorcycle to the site, the perpetrators triggered the improvised explosive device. Officials initially put the blame on insurgents, said police Capt. Pongsak Nuan-iedrong, the deputy investigator at the police station in Muang.

The children who complained about dizziness after the blast and two defense volunteers who suffered shrapnel wounds were sent for treatment at Yala central hospital.

There were two seriously injured volunteers: Muhammad Roni Lahama who is in an ICU and Wanchuruwan Jehmig who is receiving surgery, Lt. Gen. Piyawat Makwanich, an army regional commander, told BenarNews.

Other recent attacks on local schools included a bombing that injured two children and two civilians on Feb. 6 in Yala, and another bomb that went off near a school in the province on Feb. 11.

A Deep South analyst said the school attacks seemed to be aimed at ruining the peace talks.

The attacks are against the general principle of creation of safety zone. They seemed to be meant to destroy the atmosphere needed for creating peace, by selecting soft targets. The perpetrators do not respect peace and this may cause trouble in the future, assistant professor Srisompob Jitpiromsri, the director of Deep South Watch, which is based at the Pattani campus of Prince of Songkla University, told BenarNews.

Boonsom Thongsriplai, the president of a teachers association in the Deep South, expressed grave concerns for schools and other public places.

Certain special places like mosques, temples, schools and markets are to be specially treated as far as security goes, he told BenarNews. These places are safety zones and while the government has conducted peace talks and the situation is better than in 2004, these safety zones must be 100 percent safe.

At least 184 teachers were killed and at least 161 injured since 2004, Boonsom said. A spokesman for the military in the region said 951 children had either been killed or injured in the Deep South during the past 14 years.

Razlan Rashid in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, why Gavin Newsom is being recalled.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesNamo-Care to turn India into largest pharma manufacturer in the world in three years: Union Minister Mr. Ananth Kumar

Union minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers and Parliamentary Affairs Mr. Ananthkumar stated that the Ayushman Bharat insurance scheme announced by the Government, popularly dubbed Namo-Care, has the potential to turn India into the largest pharma manufacturer of the world in about three years.

Inaugurating the third edition of India Pharma 2018 and India Medical Device 2018 , the dual conferences and exhibitions being organized by FICCI in collaboration with Dept. of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Govt. of India, Mr. Ananthkumar said: Ayushman Bharat will fundamentally change Indian healthcare. It is laying down an ambitious framework for Universal Health Coverage. The Government will start rolling out Namo-Care in the next two months with the same speed and efficiency as highly successful initiatives like Mudra Yojana, Ujjwala Yojana, Ujala Yojana and neem coating of urea.

The minister pointed out that Namo-Care cannot be effectively implemented in the currently fragmented ecosystem of the pharma industry and the Government accordingly intended to come up with a new pharma policy which will unify and synergize its various components such as Drug Price Control Order (DPCO), manufacturing, R&D, financing, quality control, drug control, price control and medical devices.

The pharma and medical devices industry must take up the Namo-Care challenge, he said. I have given it the triple A formula  Availability, authenticity and affordability. Can we produce affordable pharma products and medical devices of global standards? That is the real challenge, added Mr. Ananthkumar.

The minister also said that the country needed a new ministry of Pharma and Medical Devices as various parts of the industry currently were under the ambit of different ministries, leading to fragmentation and lack of unity of purpose. Considering the demand of the industry, we are also going to undertake major reforms in the DPCO, he stressed.

A host of dignitaries were present at the inaugural ceremony of the three-day mega-event, including Shri Mansukh L Mandaviya, Honble Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilizers, Govt. of India, along with the Whos Who of the pharma and medical devices industry and government officials from India and abroad. Hundreds of delegates, including 50 Hosted Delegates from other nations and over 10,000 business visitors, are attending the event. Over 300 companies and 50 start-ups are showcasing their products. More than 90 eminent industry leaders would speak at various sessions spread over three days.

Addressing the audience, Shri Mansukh L Mandaviya, Honble Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilizers, said: Rapid growth in the pharma industry, especially in bulk drugs and APIs, is essential to meet the health needs of the masses. The Indian pharma market is set to emerge as the sixth largest pharma market globally by 2020. The pharma exports stood at US $16.8 billion in 2016-17 and are expected to grow by 30% over the next three years to reach US $20 billion by 2020. Indian companies received 305 ANDA approvals from the US FDA in 2017. Our focus is to promote upcoming therapies and provide a conducive environment for them to flourish. We want to regulate various complex issues related to pricing and availability of medicines at affordable prices, R&D, and protection of IPR.

Over 20 international drug and device regulators are set to meet with Indian regulators at the venue. Ministerial delegations from CIS and BIMSTEC countries are also attending the event. A key highlight of India Pharma & India Medical Device 2018 is a workshop by World Health Organization on Regulatory System Strengthening and Prequalification updated by WHO. A conference will also be organized by NASSCOM on Digital Transformation through Innovation in Pharmaceutical, Medical Devices and Healthcare Industries.

The event will see a roundtable of pharma and medical devices CEOs with the Union Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Mr. Ananth Kumar, to discuss Government policy and challenges facing the industry.

India Pharma & India Medical Device Awards were announced at the event to honour excellence and innovation in the field of pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

Themed around  Affordable, Quality Healthcare ,' the three day conference has back to back sessions to discuss topics like Discovering Innovative Medicines in India; Making India a Part of Global Supply Chain in Medical Devices; Opportunities, Challenges and Regulatory Requirements in the Development of Biologics; Opportunities & Challenges for Stem cells & Regenerative Medicine; Emerging Global Trends in Self Care and Relevance of OTC Regulatory Framework for Indian Public Healthcare System; a Sub-sectoral Approach to Make in India; and Moving towards API Self Sufficiency.

This is the third time that Karnataka is hosting this co-located conference on Medical Device & Pharmaceutical sector. The state pharma industry constitutes 264 manufacturing units, providing direct employment to 25,000 people. Karnataka stands 5th in Pharmaceuticals exports with 40% of its pharma produce being exported overseas.More than doubling the production capacity of its Portage la Prairie potato processing plant, J.R. Simplot Co. announced a $460-million investment on Wednesday.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 15/2/2018 (1307 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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More than doubling the production capacity of its Portage la Prairie potato processing plant, J.R. Simplot Co. announced a $460-million investment on Wednesday.

The increase from a 180,000-square-foot space to a 460,000-square-foot space will result in the creation of 87 full-time jobs and will necessitate the farming of an additional 18,000 acres of potatoes per year in advance of its late 2019 opening.

Theres more than adequate room within the Manitoba agricultural sector to accommodate this expansion, Keystone Potato Producers Association Inc. president Chad Berry said in reaction to yesterdays news.

Berry, a producer from the Glenboro area with 2,000 of his 12,000 acres of farmland devoted to potatoes, got into the tubers in the late 1990s and has expanded his footprint whenever either McCain Foods Canadas Carberry plant or the Portage la Prairie Simplot plant increased their capacities.

With potatoes a capital intensive industry, he said the Simplot expansion would result in the construction of infrastructure throughout the provinces farmlands.

While its more likely that producers would expand their footprints to accommodate the growing need, Berry said his hope is to see new producers enter the growing marketplace.

Fellow Westman potato farmer Paul Adriaansen said he looks forward to the security the Simplot expansion would bring producers such as himself.

Adriaansen farms 4,250 acres of potatoes alongside other crops, with his base of operations north of Carberry.

Although he said it has been a "good, steady industry" during both his childhood growing up on a potato farm and 19 years having branched out on his own, its still refreshing to see a company express such a degree of faith in the industry.

"There are lots of guys who are looking for a contract and would be bigger if they could be, so this would be a big benefit to those guys looking to expand."

The Manitoba Progressive Conservatives are supporting the expansion with tax-increment financing up to $6.31 million to assist with anticipated capital investments and road improvements. The province will also contribute $522,000 toward employee training.

Manitoba Hydro will provide $1 million in PowerSmart program funding for electrical and natural gas efficiency projects, based on the plant meeting program guidelines.

J.R. Simplot CEO Bill Whitacre flew in for the announcement and recalled the last time he visited the Portage facility with Simplot himself.

"(Simplot) was in a combination of a wheelchair and a walker and he kept saying, Boys, were going to do it big in Manitoba," Whitacre said.

"When it comes to the Simplot company, were committed to the potato. And were not just committed to it in Manitoba, were committed to it in North America and all over the world," Whitacre said.

"It just so happens that this facility rounds out our portfolio and I cant thank you all enough for the efficiency and the commitment that you made to us so that we could bring this quickly and make decisions quickly."

Founded in 1929, J.R. Simplot Co. is headquartered in Boise, Idaho, and has operations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and China.

"Simplot has long been an outstanding partner and contributor to the community of Portage la Prairie and the surrounding area," said Kam Blight, reeve of the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie, in a statement.

"We are beyond excited for them to grow their operations here and create even more economic opportunities for the region. In addition to the recent announcement of Roquette, business truly is booming for Portage la Prairie."

In September, European-based producer Roquette broke ground on a $400-million pea-protein manufacturing plant in Portage la Prairie.

 tclarke@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @TylerClarkeMBSwedens H&M cautioned that sales from its existing stores would continue to fall this year even as booming e-commerce should help lift earnings.

After decades of rapid expansion, the worlds second-largest clothes retailer behind Zara-owner Inditex, has seen sales growth stall in recent years as it has struggled to adapt to the shift online and fend off competition from other budget brands.

A secretive company still controlled by the family of Erling Persson who founded the company in 1947, H&M held its first-ever capital markets day yesterday in a bid to reassure investors, stung by a halving of the share price since March 2015.

We understand the need to be more transparent, chairman Stefan Persson, the founders son, told investors assembled in central Stockholm.

Especially since we have had a challenging year ... where we have underperformed both against our own plans and of course market expectations, he said.

The stock fell as much as 5%, increasing its discount to Spains Inditex, which was up 1%. H&M forecast growth of at least 25% in online sales and in its new brands such as Cos and H&M Home in 2018, but said sales from existing stores would fall further, noting a tough start due to high stock levels and problems with its ranges. By contrast, Inditex said sales at its more than 7,500 stores and online increased 13% at constant exchange rates between the start of November and December 11.

H&M has invested heavily in online to catch up with the likes of Asos and Zalando. It now offers e-commerce in 43 of its 69 markets, while Inditex is online in 45 of its 94 markets.

However, Inditex has a more flexible supply chain, enabling in-store deliveries and returns of online orders that its Swedish rival has been slower to introduce. Portfolio manager John Hernander at Nordea, a top-ten H&M shareholder, said: Given the negative surprises in the past quarters, H&M probably needs to show that the trend has changed before the stock comes into a positive trend for real, but the information today signals a more forward-looking H&M.

 ReutersThe UKs Jeremy Corbyn may have found a way to make good on his pledge to nationalise the British energy industry without spending almost 140bn buying up the six biggest utilities, writes Rachel Morison

The leader of the opposition Labour Party last weekend indicated he wants to bring grid companies under state ownership, including a web of 15 closely-held companies that own local power distribution cables and pipelines that feed directly into homes and businesses. He accuses the industry of ripping off consumers with excess charges to drive profits.

The alternative models of ownership suggested by Mr Corbyn are the most specific comments hes made to date about how Labour would follow through on a promise to nationalise utilities. With the next Westminster election due by 2022 and Mr Corbyn running neck-in-neck in polls against the ruling Tories, investors are only starting to take seriously his suggestions and speculate about how the industry could be reshaped.

Its going to be complicated, Keric Morris, partner in the energy practice of Oliver Wyman said. But there are ways it can be done. Its not impossible.

Mr Corbyn has his sights set on local networks responsible for bringing power and gas directly into homes, including 10 that work in electricity and five in natural gas. Power and gas travels through infrastructure owned by National Grid at a high volume or voltage before reaching substations where it enters local distribution networks to be carried to homes and businesses.

The local distribution companies are a smaller, softer target than the Big Six utilities. Theyre not household names, and they have multiple owners, many from overseas. UK Power Networks, which covers the eastern part of Britain, is owned by Hong-Kong-based CK Infrastructure Holdings; Power Assets Holdings; and the Li Ka Shing Foundation. Northern Powergrid Holdings is owned by Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway Energy.

Targeting the grid companies might sidestep the cost of buying up the UK assets of the big six utilities operating in Britain. They are: Centrica, Electricite de France, SSE, Innogy SEs Npower unit, Iberdrolas ScottishPower and EON. Mr Corbyn surprised the industry by not discussing the outlook for the Big Six in a speech in London.

Instead, he accused grid companies of being notorious for overcharging and for being slow to connect up renewable projects that might end up undermining their profits. He said grids had overcharged customers in the last eight years, citing research from the consumer group Citizens Advice.

He didnt mention National Grid, which operates the main trunk lines connecting the local distribution networks. Renewable energy isnt linked into National Grids transmission network. That makes the issues highlighted by Mr Corbyn seem aimed mainly at distribution networks and not National Grid, a view shared by the company. Mr Corbyns speech was general enough to keep the industry guessing about exactly how Labour might act.

There is no evidence that the large cost and distraction of nationalisation would deliver the stability and long-term investment our energy networks need to continue the work towards a green energy future that is already underway, a National Grid spokesman said.

Under a future Labour government, the industry could be led by local authorities, with towns or cities that consume power directing the local grid and its links with municipally-owned green power projects. This vision is best suited to a state-run grid that can prioritise preventing climate change, Mr Corbyn said.

The local grid companies rejected those thoughts. Network companies are already achieving the goals cited as being the rationale for nationalisation, a spokesman for the Energy Networks Association, which represents the local distributors.

The idea of nationalising the whole utility industry has been criticized as too expensive. The Centre for Policy Studies, a right-wing research group co-founded by former Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher, estimated buying the Big Six and National Grid would cost as much as 140bn, and that would reach to 208bn if the energy industry was nationalised. Sticking with the energy networks alone would cost 62bn, the CPS said last month, citing research by Moodys. Mr Corbyns allies dismiss those figures. John McDonnell, the Labour MP who speaks on finance, has said nationalisation can happen at zero cost.

 BloombergIrish bank shares, and in particular those of Permanent TSB face political risks of tighter regulatory controls over sales of mortgage loans in long-term arrears to vulture funds, a leading analyst has said, writes Eamon Quinn.

Owen Callan, senior analyst at Investec Ireland, said that demands for controls have increased as the main Irish mortgage lenders  AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB  pitch their plans to sell off huge amounts of their non-performing mortgage loan books amid pressure from the ECB on Irish and other banks across Europe to get a grip on the problems 10 years after the property and banking crash.

According to industry sources, PTSB is likely to seek to sell off up to 4bn in long-troubled mortgage loans in one auction block.

The lender earlier this week confirmed plans to sell its non-performing loans, which account for a large chunk of its loan book, under a pitch it calls Project Glas through accountants EY.

Weighed by its non-performing loans, its shares have dropped 20% in the past year, while those of Bank of Ireland have risen 3.5% and AIB by 8%. However, the plans of PTSB and its rivals could face political pressure for tighter controls because of the gap in the Central Bank consumer protections.

Consumer and legal advocates have long argued distressed mortgage borrowers will face more stress if their loans are sold, and question why the lenders can sell off mortgages to equity funds at huge discounts but not write down the loans in the first place.

Michael McGrath, Fianna Fail finance spokesperson, said yesterday the sales plans to unregulated and unaccountable vulture funds should be scrapped.

Recently it emerged that AIB is gearing up to sell a portfolio of distressed loans called Project Redwood and it is clear that the same funds are preparing to buy these loans as in the past. Permanent TSB also looks set to sell on loan portfolios.

We understand that the banks are getting pressure from the ECB to reduce the level of non-performing loans but in the same light the banks have done far too little by way of putting sustainable and workable solutions on the table for customers, he said.

John McGuinness chair of the Oireachtas Finance Committee earlier this month told the EU Financial Services Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis that banks here were ignoring the commissions direction to write down household and business debt, and were selling troubled loans to vulture funds instead.

Mr Callan at Investec said lenders faced a Catch-22 of the Central Bank and ECB putting pressure on them to deal with loans in arrears.The Tanaiste Simon Coveney says it is up to the Central Bank to make sure that, when loans are sold, the contractual rights of homeowners continue to apply.

It has emerged that state-backed Permanent TSB has decided to sell up to 20,000 mortgages of struggling homeowners to international investors or so called "vulture funds".

The lender earlier this week confirmed plans to sell its non-performing loans, which account for a large chunk of its loan book, under a pitch it calls Project Glas through accountants EY.

Consumer and legal advocates have long argued distressed mortgage borrowers will face more stress if their loans are sold, and question why the lenders can sell off mortgages to equity funds at huge discounts but not write down the loans in the first place.

John McGuinness chair of the Oireachtas Finance Committee earlier this month told the EU Financial Services Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis that banks here were ignoring the commissions direction to write down household and business debt, and were selling troubled loans to vulture funds instead.

Today, the Tanaiste said in any loan sale the terms and condition of borrowers remain in place.

Mr Coveney told the Dail: "Of course people are concerned as to who will be managing their loans and who they will be talking to and negotiating with in terms of debt. We're very conscious of that.

"But we are also conscious of the rules that apply and there is a significant onus on the Central Bank to make sure that, when loans are sold, the contractual rights of those who are linked to those loans continue to apply and we'll do that."by Gordon Deegan

A Co Clare woman who repeatedly stabbed another teenage girl with the heel of a stiletto below the eye has received a two year suspended jail term.

At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Gerald Keys imposed the two year suspended jail term on Shannon Jordan (19) Lios Anana, Sixmilebridge, Co Clare after she pleaded guilty to assault causing harm of Natasha Griffin McMahon on August 25th 2015.

In the case, Ms Jordan attacked her victim during a drunken row in Shannon town centre after a school debs ceremony held earlier that night at the Strand hotel in Limerick.

Ms Griffin McMahon - who was aged 17 at the time of the assault - suffered a fractured eye socket and laceration when Ms Jordan used the pointed heel of her shoe to strike her a number of times in the face.

In sentencing today, Judge Keys said that Ms Jordan has made every effort to rehabilitate herself as best she can including an offer to meet with Ms Griffin McMahon as part of a restorative justice programme if Ms Griffin McMahon wishes that meeting to take place.

Addressing Ms Jordan after he imposed the suspended prison term, Judge Keys said: Now Ms Jordan, I have no doubt that this has been a bad experience for you - also for your victim as well - but there is absolutely no reason that you shouldnt have a bright future ahead."

He said: All you have to do is comply with the conditions imposed and I dont think you will be before this court again. You must appreciate the seriousness of what took place that night.

The attack by Ms Jordan on Ms Griffin McMahon hospitalised the teenager for 10 days before she was discharged on September 4th 2015 while she also required months of post-operative care.

In her victim impact statement, Ms Griffin McMahon said that she came close to being blinded by the stiletto attack.

She said that the deepest cut from the stiletto was millimetres below my eye.

She said: If it had been even slightly higher I would have lost my eye completely or at best my sight. It terrifies me to think of how much my life would have been affected if that had happened.

Ms Griffin McMahon said that she had to undergo extensive medical treatment to deal with her facial injury after the attack.

The victim underwent surgery and it was only after four to five months that she began to regain the feeling and movement in the side of her face that was subjected to the stiletto attack.

Ms Griffin McMahon said that she feels lucky that the outcome to the altercation wasnt worse.

She said: It still un-nerves me to think how close I came to being blinded. And to how much worse this could have been. It is shocking how quickly a weapon was introduced to this altercation and how dangerous it proved to be.

In her statement read out to court, Ms Griffin McMahon said: Every time I met with the doctor, they advised me of how fortunate I had been. Fortunate not to have lost my eye and fortunate to have been under such good care at the hospital that they were able to recover the feeling in my face.

It is accepted that Ms Jordan - who was 17 at the time - did not remove her stiletto shoes for the purpose of attacking Ms Griffin McMahon on the night. Ms Jordan was carrying her shoes in her hand after the night out.

Currently employed as a waitress at a licensed premises in Bunratty, Ms Jordan has been paying compensation to Ms Griffin McMahon at a rate of 50 a week from her modest income since February of last year and has to date paid over 2,300.

In total, Ms Jordan must pay 5,000 to Ms Griffin McMahon.

Judge Keys said today that Ms Jordans conduct on the night was alcohol fuelled.

Judge Keys said that Ms Jordan has no previous convictions, was 17 at the time of the assault and comes from a respectable family.

He noted that there is a minimum risk of Ms Jordan re-offending, that she pleaded guilty, co-operated with Gardai, made admissions, has shown remorse and has apologised to Ms Griffin McMahon through her counsel.

Judge Keys said that a Probation Report on Ms Jordan has shown that she has come to realise the consequences of her actions and last August she signed up to a victim empathy programme to increase awareness of harm caused by her offending.

As part of the suspended sentence conditions, Ms Jordan has agreed to pay over the remaining 2,700 at the current rate, not to re-offend and not to be found in a public place or a pub under the influence of alcohol.By Padraig Hoare

Cork has the highest number of pubs in the country with nearly 1,000 licenced premises, while Mayo has a pub for every 323 people, a new report has found.

AIBs Pub Outlook for 2018 showed Cork had 955 pubs in 2017, or one for every 543 people.

Kerry had 435 pubs, or one for every 334 people, compared with Dublins 722 pubs  one for every 1,649 people.

The honour for the most pubs per person in the country lies with Mayo, with 373 pubs or one for every 323 people.

Galway and Tipperary both had more than 400 pubs each. Laois has the lowest amount of pubs in the Republic at 123, or one for every 713 people.

The report  which relied on data from Revenue, AIB Merchant Services, and the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland  suggests thirsty British tourists have been playing their part in turnover for publicans, even though visitor numbers from the UK are down year on year.

British drinkers are particularly fond of Donegal, with more than 16% of turnover in its 365 pubs coming from UK visitors. Laois and Roscommon are the two least popular with UK visitors, who provide less than 2% of turnover in each.

US visitors are also attached to the Irish pub experience, with a 9%-plus rise in visitors last year, according to AIBs head of hospitality and tourism, David McCarthy.

Some 85% of the turnover in pubs is from domestic customers, while 5% comes from UK visitors, 5% is from US visitors, and 5% comes from the rest of the world, he said.

Using data from the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, the AIB report says nearly 7,200 licensed pubs are operating in the country.

The Irish licenced trade is a crucial component of Irelands important hospitality sector, employing 230,000 and spending over 2.9bn annually in wages, states the report.

Having a drink and some food in the local pub delivered 6.5bn in tourism revenues in 2017, says the report.

Hard cash is no longer the only way to pay for a pint, with a 6% increase in turnover in card sales for the sector for 2017.

Pubs changing hands have returned to pre-recession levels.

Tony Morrissey, managing director of pub specialist auctioneering firm Morrisseys, said: Over the last five years, as much as 60% of all transactions in the Dublin market, for example, were insolvency-related and while there are still a few cases in the pipeline, the market is now approaching a pre-recession level of normality with around 4%-5% of stock changing hands every year.

Thats around 35 pubs a year, which is what it used to be before the downturn.

- Irish ExaminerIt is business as usual for Donegals newest multi-millionaire who plans to be back in work tomorrow after collecting a Lotto jackpot winning cheque worth 4,434,994.

The winner's lucky Lotto numbers were drawn on Saturday, January 13.

They revealed the golden ticket was kept in the glove box of the car for the past four-and-a-half weeks.

I keep all my Lotto tickets in the glove box. Once I found out I won I stored the ticket in the glove box of the car during the day while I was at work. But I took the ticket into the house at night time. That piece of paper has clocked up some mileage over the past month," said the Donegal Lotto player.

The lucky winner, who wished to remain anonymous, stated that the new-found fortune would not change me one single bit.

Its business as usual for me as I have no plans to take time off work to celebrate. I took today off to collect the cheque in Dublin and Im back in work first thing in the morning.

The Quick Pick ticket was bought at Dalys Topaz on the Letterkenny Road in Lifford, Co. Donegal and the winner spoke of the role Dalys played in how they found out they had won the jackpot.

I was driving past Dalys Topaz on the Sunday after the draw and, while I had heard on the radio that the Lotto was won, I hadnt gathered that it was won in Donegal. I saw on their huge digital sign at the filling station that they had sold the winner and I just thought straight away that it was me. When I checked the numbers I was bowled over.

The person said that they have only told family members about their lucky win and plans to share it with them.

The charitable individual also stated that they would make a number of donations to charities close to their heart.

Meanwhile, there was also joy for a lucky Mayo woman who scratched off a 30,000 win with a 3 All Cash Tripler scratch card.

Fed up with constant weather warnings and Baltic conditions in the West of Ireland, the happy winner has stated that she will book a nice long holiday in the sun to celebrate her win properly.

The delighted Mayo woman purchased her winning ticket at the Barcastle Service Station in Castlebar, Co. Mayo.

- Digital DeskBy Ann O'Loughlin

A young girl who suffered brain damage during her birth at Kerry General Hospital has secured a further interim payment under a settlement of her action against the HSE, increasing to more than 3.8m her total damages to date.

The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Peter Kelly, paid warm tribute to Skye Worthington's mother Colleen for her "admirable" care for her daughter, including moving from Kerry to Rochestown, Co. Cork, to be close to the Enable Ireland school the child attends.

It had proved very difficult to access the necessary services for Skye, now aged six, in Kerry, the court heard.

The judge expressed hope, when the family return to court for further assessment of Skye's care needs in three year's time, it will be their last such visit.

By then, he hoped, the necessary legislation to ensure the lifelong care needs of catastrophically injured people are met will finally have been commenced.

More than six years after the legislation was recommended, it was passed into law last November but has still to be commenced by the Minister for Health, he noted. He hoped that would be done soon to avoid people like Skye and her mother undergoing the "battery" of tests and assessments of care needs required every time their cases return to court.

He made the comments today when approving an application by Bruce Antoiotti SC, for Skye, for a further interim payment of approximately 1.35m to meet the child's care needs to February 2021.

The court heard the child previously in 2015 secured an interim payment of some 2.5m, including for accommodation costs. While a proposed accommodation had fallen through, Ms Worthington is hopeful of securing other appropriate accommodation, counsel said.

The judge said he had no hesitation approving the latest interim payment offer as a very good one which would meet about 100% of the cost of ensuring Skye is cared for in the manner "to which she is entitled", including for aids and appliances and various therapies.

He praised Ms Worthington for all she has done for her daughter, adding, while the child's parents had unfortunately separated since the case was last in court, he was glad Skye's father Kevin remains involved in looking after her.

Skye has dystonic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, epilepsy, is mostly peg fed, cannot speak but can communicate via eye and other gestures, the court heard.

On being told she sometimes picks her own clothes, the judge commented Skye appears to be "something of a fashionista".

When the case settled in 2015, Kerry General Hospital, Tralee, apologised unreservedly before the court to Skye, who, through her mother, sued the HSE over injuries sustained during her delivery in April 2011.

Among a range of claims, it was alleged there was mismanagement of labour and the labour accelerant drug syntocinon should have been stopped when a deceleration in the baby's heartbeat was noted.

Had she been delivered 15 minutes earlier, she would have been spared acute hypoxia, the court was told.

The baby was delivered by emergency Cesarean on April 22, 2011, but was flat and was transferred to Cork University Hospital where she received excellent care, it was stated.For the third year in a row, some of Irelands best-known buildings will be lighting up in red to mark the 2018 Chinese New Year and welcome the Year of the Dog, which begins tomorrow (Friday, 16 February).

In Dublin numerous civic buildings and other sites around will be illuminated in the fiery colour this week, including: Brown Thomas, Carmichael House, City Hall, Civic Offices in Wood Quay, The Convention Centre Dublin (The CCD), Guinness Storehouse, The Mansion House, National Concert Hall, St Stephens Green Shopping Centre, Sin E and The Westin Hotel.By Ann O'Loughlin

It is "entirely false and untrue" Sinn Fein political manager, Nicky Kehoe, was a senior member of the IRA army council and was controlling how its councillors voted on Dublin City Council, his lawyer told the High Court today.

Thomas Hogan SC was opening Mr Kehoe's action against RTE in which he alleges he was defamed in comments made by former Labour Party TD, Joe Costello, during a live "Saturday with Claire Byrne" radio programme on October 24, 2015.

RTE denies he was defamed and says it is not liable for the matters he complains of.

Mr Hogan said the comments were made during a panel debate on the radio programme about a PSNI/MI5 report claiming that the IRA army council was influencing the work of Sinn Fein.

When Ms Byrne turned to Mr Costello for his opinion, the TD said a senior element in the IRA had not gone away. He said there was a parrallel structure in place which he could see when he looked at the city council where a former army council chief of staff gives directions to councillors at every meeting.

A Sinn Fein representative on that panel, Eoin O'Broin, now a TD, said Mr Costello was talking about Nicky Kehoe who co-ordinates councillors on Dublin councils.

Mr O'Broin took issue with what Mr Costello said and that he was not a member of the army council. Mr O'Broin described it as a most bizarre and outrageous comment and a most embarrassing line of argument for him to make.

Mr Hogan said any reasonable person would have understood what was said to mean that Mr Kehoe was controlling what was happening on the council on behalf of the IRA and that he was not a fit person to be involved in the democratic process.

That suggestion was "entirely false and untrue" and RTE had not come to court to stand over that allegation, counsel said.

Mr Hogan said Mr Kehoe was born and reared in Cabra, Dublin, where following the outbreak of the Troubles in 1968, his parents took in refugees from Northern Ireland. After Bloody Sunday in 1972, Mr Kehoe joined the IRA and in 1974 was arrested, when he was 18, carrying a bag of explosives in Fishamble Street in Dublin.

He was jailed for three years an following his release continued his apprenticeship as a bricklayer and got married.

However, in 1983, he was again arrested during a foiled kidnap attempt in the grounds of the home of Galen Weston. He was jailed for 12 years for firearm offences and released after nine years, counsel said.

When he got out of prison this time, he resolved not to involve himself with the republican movement or the IRA and devoted himself to his family and community, particularly in St Finbarr's GAA club in Cabra.

He was elected to Dublin City Council in 1999 and held that seat until 2007 when he decided not to stand and go back to bricklaying. He had also narrowly missed getting a Dail seat in 2002 in Dublin Central.

He could not have picked a worse time to go back to bricklaying and found himself unemployed, counsel said. He went back to education and got a BA in history from Trinity. In 2014, he was employed as a political manager by Sinn Fein, co-ordinating councillors, and remains in that position.

Mr Hogan said his client went down the wrong path but will tell the court he was reformed by prison.

He did not hear the Claire Byrne radio programme but learned about it later and would describe the reaction of his family, friends and among young Sinn Fein councillors.

RTE had said while they were not standing over the allegations made by Mr Costello, it says there was nothing defamatory said about Mr Kehoe and a reasonable person would not think any less of him as a a result. They also say Claire Byrne intervened and challenged Mr Costello.

It also says they issued a clarification at the end of the programme.

Mr Kehoe has begun giving evidence.

The case continues before a judge and a jury.By Fiona Ferguson

A robber whose trousers fell down revealing colourful boxer shorts as he was chased from a shop by two bread delivery men will be sentenced in July.

Daragh Brown (24), who was also wearing odd shoes at the time, was later arrested nearby due to the description of his clothes, including his boxer shorts, given to gardai after the robbery.

Brown, of Allenton Avenue, Tallaght, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbery of cigarettes and making threats to kill the two bread delivery men at Old Bawn Shopping Centre, Tallaght on April 14, 2017.

Garda John Dalton told Karl Finnegan BL, prosecuting, that Brown entered the Centra shop armed with a knife just after 9am and demanded money from the tills. Staff described him making a jabbing movement towards them with the knife on three or four occasions.

After failing to get money, Brown fled from the shop with a quantity of John Player Blue cigarettes.

Brown was chased by two bread delivery men, Will Murray and Joe Daniel, who were stocking the shelves. Brown ran out into the car park but fell as his trousers came down revealing colourful boxer shorts.

Brown threatened the two men that he would stab them if they came near him. As they continued to follow him he threatened them again and told them that there were ten lads waiting in a nearby estate.

The court heard that as Brown ran into the estate, he began calling out names and the two men thought better of following him any further just in case. Gardai arrived and were given a description of the robber by witnesses.

The description was circulated to garda units and he was stopped a short distance away at Allenton Avenue. Two packets of cigarettes were recovered from his person and the rest found in the shopping centre car park. The knife was also found nearby.

Brown has 29 previous convictions including public order offences, criminal damage and violent behaviour in a garda station.

Sarah Jane O'Callaghan SC, defending, said Brown had a history of alcohol and drug misuse. She said he suffered blackouts which led to him having no recollection of his crimes. She described him as being a different person when he had consumed drugs.

She said the sudden death of his father when he was 15 had a big effect on him and the aftermath had a huge destabilising effect on his life. He has been diagnosed with depression.

Ms O'Callaghan said Brown was now drug and alcohol free and had not come to garda attention since.

Judge Martin Nolan noted Brown's previous record and said he would defer sentencing on bail until July 31 next. He said the case was to be re-entered before him if there was any trouble.A Dublin psychiatric hospital had no legal basis for preventing a voluntary patient from leaving a locked secure unit after he tried to go, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

In a significant decision concerning the rights of voluntary patients under the Mental Health Act 2001, the three judge court granted the man's appeal against the High Court's rejection of his case.

The proceedings were against the hospital and a consultant psychiatrist with the Attorney General as a notice party and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission an amicus curiae, assistant to the court on legal issues.

The core issues concerned whether the man was a voluntary patient as defined in the 2001 Act and whether there was a legal basis for preventing him leaving the hospital on November 21st 2011.

Voluntarism "remains a cornerstone of our system of medical treatment" and, while there are exceptions to that provided by statute, the legislative quid pro quo is that compulsory medical treatment and detention must have appropriate safeguards, Mr Justice Gerard Hogan stressed.

If the High Court ruling stood, its net effect meant voluntary patients may, in some circumstances, be prevented leaving an approved centre otherwise than in accordance with Section 23 of the 2001 Act and thereby left in "a form of detention without the safeguards carefully provided for detained patients".

In a judgment with which Court of Appeal President Mr Justice Sean Ryan and Ms Justice Mary Irvine agreed, he said there was "no doubt" that actions of hospital staff and the man's treating psychiatrist on November 21st 2011, when the man was restrained from leaving, were entirely motivated by "best considerations" and an understandable desire to ensure a "vulnerable and ill patient" received the best and most appropriate treatment.

He agreed with the High Court that, in many respects, the man's best overall interests were "quite probably best served by remaining within the secure care unit".

However, the issue is whether the man was legally detained, he said.

Having found the man was a voluntary patient on November 21st 2011, he was free in law to leave the secure unit that day, he said. The fact that, when he tried to leave, he was physically restrained from doing so was an interference with his personal liberty with no legal basis.

The case concerned provisions of the Mental Health Act 2001, particularly Section 23, setting out what must be done when a person detained on a voluntary basis indicates they want to leave.

It provides, if the consultant psychiatrist responsible for a patient's care is of the "opinion" the patient is suffering from a mental disorder, they may detain them for a maximum 24 hours.

Section 24 provides, where a person is detained under Section 23, their treating psychiatrist should either discharge them or arrange for them to be examined by a second consultant psychiatrist.

If the second psychiatrist is "satisfied" the person has a mental disorder, they should certify detention but, if not so satisfied, they should certify discharge.

The man first became a voluntary patient at the hospital in late August 2011 after a psychotic episode at home.

His psychiatrist considered effective management of his psychosis required he stay in a safe stable environment and also ordered a forensic assessment from another psychiatrist which was not done until November 21st 2011.

His solicitor, who said the man had told her he had asked to leave the secure unit a number of times but was refused permission to do so, secured leave on November 21st 2011 for judicial review. She was informed later that day the man had sought to leave and became violent and was restrained and sedated.

Mr Justice Hogan said a voluntary patient who expresses a desire to leave a secure unit remains free in principle to do so at any convenient time and may not be restrained except in accordance with the detention power under Section 23. While a hospital may lawfully try and persuade a patient to stay, this must involve "persuasion" and not restraint, he added.Update 5.10pm: Sinn Fein has outlined details of a draft agreement it insists it struck with the Democratic Unionists before negotiations to restore Stormont powersharing collapsed.

Accusing the DUP of pulling the plug on the deal, Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald said she needed to dispel "mistruths and inaccuracies" about what it contained.

She said the deal resolved the thorny language issue at the heart of the Stormont impasse with three separate pieces of legislation - an Irish Language Act, an Ulster Scots Act and an overarching Respecting Language and Diversity Act.

"For the record the draft record included an Irish Language Act, an Ulster Scots Act and a Respecting Language and Diversity Act .@MaryLouMcDonald pic.twitter.com/15fNqEaygW  Sinn Fein (@sinnfeinireland) February 15, 2018

Mrs McDonald said no consensus was reached on the region's ban on same-sex marriage.

She said the text included a review of the Assembly's contentious voting mechanism - the Petition of Concern - and the establishment of a committee to look at the potential of drawing up a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.

Mrs McDonald said the two parties had also secured a commitment from the UK Government to commence a public consultation on stalled mechanisms to deal with the Troubles and to release funds needed to finance legacy inquests.

She said the parties also agreed that the Stormont Executive's sensitive justice ministry would start to be allocated in a conventional manner from 2022, rather than being a jointly agreed DUP/Sinn Fein nomination.

Sinn Fein's president Mary Lou McDonald speaking at Parliament Buildings at Stormont today. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Mrs McDonald said the "draft agreement" was struck late last week.

"At that time we advised the DUP leadership that the deal should be closed before those opposed to it could unpick what we had achieved," said the Sinn Fein leader.

"We made it clear that if there was a delay there was every chance that the package would unravel.

"The DUP failed to close the deal and went on to collapse the talks process."

We are always up for dialogue but we want delivery .@MaryLouMcDonald pic.twitter.com/2rkxAvMKDp  Sinn Fein (@sinnfeinireland) February 15, 2018

- PA

Update 4.30pm: Simon Coveney criticises Fianna Fail over powersharing stance

The two largest political parties in Ireland should be working together and not criticising each other to bring about devolved government in the North, the Tanaiste has said.

Simon Coveney said Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin's criticism of the Irish and UK Governments was not helpful and demonstrated a lack of understanding about the Stormont talks.

Talks to restore powersharing at Stormont collapsed on Wednesday after the DUP pulled out of the negotiations.

"We have a tradition in this house particularly between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael of supporting each other and helping each other regardless of who is in government, in the context of protecting the fundamentals of the Good Friday Agreement and in terms of looking after the responsibilities we have towards people north of the border," Mr Coveney said.

"If Micheal Martin has an issue in terms of how we are taking on and performing those responsibilities he should talk to us about it as opposed to tweeting out within the hour of hearing the DUP statement yesterday trying to criticise two governments who are working in partnership to try to bring about devolved government again in Northern Ireland."

In a Twitter post Mr Martin said the continued failure of the two dominant political parties in the North to agree restoration of Government was "bitterly disappointing".

The continued failure of the two dominant political parties in the North to agree restoration of Government is bitterly disappointing. Politics is supposed to be about governing. The people are being badly let down. Detachment of both governments over last 6 years not helpful.  Micheal Martin (@MichealMartinTD) February 14, 2018

Sinn Fein's Pearse Doherty urged Fianna Fail to reflect on the party's position.

"Micheal Martin has trotted out the same tired two problem party line while also blaming both governments," Mr Doherty said.

He added Mr Martin was pointing the finger of blame on everyone involved in the talks without lifting a finger himself.

"It's a disgraceful attitude and one that is completely at odds with the facts," Mr Doherty said.

The Donegal TD said he wanted to acknowledge the Tanaiste's efforts.

"You have been involved, you have been engaged, and it's important for us to say that," he said.

"So have your officials and we're very grateful for that."

Mr Doherty said Sinn Fein wanted the institutions back up and running and that direct rule from Westminster was not an option.

Earlier 6.53am: Sinn Fein to set out 'fulsome response' to Stormont talks collapse

Sinn Fein is expected to outline the party's next move after powersharing talks in Northern Ireland broke down.

Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster has urged the UK Government to set a budget and make policy decisions in the absence of a devolved executive at Stormont.

The talks collapsed after the parties failed to clinch agreement on touchstone issues such as treatment of the Irish language.

Sinn Fein 's Northern Ireland chief Michelle O'Neill said the party had stretched itself and blamed the DUP for collapsing a process aimed at rebuilding coalition government at Stormont after a 13-month suspension.

The republican party wants a standalone piece of legislation to protect speakers - an Irish Language Act - but the DUP has long insisted it would only countenance new laws if they also incorporate other cultures, such as Ulster Scots.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mrs O'Neill said: "These issues are not going to go away.

"Myself and Mary Lou McDonald are engaged with both governments and will continue to do that and over the course of tomorrow we will set out a more fulsome response in relation to where we go from here."

Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley said "substantive progress" had been made but conceded "this phase of talks has reached a conclusion".

Mrs Foster said attempts to find a stable and sustainable resolution had been unsuccessful.

She said: "We cannot and will not be held to ransom by those who have refused to form an Executive for over 13 months."

She added there was no "current prospect" of these discussions leading to a ministerial Executive being formed.

"It is now incumbent upon Her Majesty's Government to set a budget and start making policy decisions about our schools, hospitals and infrastructure.

"Important decisions impacting on everyone in Northern Ireland have been sitting in limbo for too long."

Months of endless talks have been held since powersharing collapsed early last year in a row over the DUP's handling of a botched green energy scheme.

Since then divisions over issues including Irish language rights, same sex marriage and how to deal with the legacy of Northern Ireland's troubled past have proved insurmountable.

Mrs O'Neill said: "Sinn Fein engaged, we worked in good faith, we stretched ourselves.

"We had reached an accommodation with the leadership of the DUP.

"The DUP failed to close the deal.

"They have now collapsed this process."

The implosion came despite Monday's last minute intervention by British Prime Minister Theresa May and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who travelled to Stormont for talks with the parties.

The British Government faces the prospect of having to step in and take previously devolved decisions in Northern Ireland.

Stormont departments have been without ministers for months and decisions need to be made speedily about the next financial year's public spending budgets.

Proposals for dealing with Northern Ireland's violent past involving extra money for historic investigations and truth-telling processes have also been delayed by the impasse and may fall to Westminster to implement.

Ms Bradley said "substantive progress" had been made but conceded "this phase of talks has reached a conclusion".

The Irish Government, co-guarantor of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement which largely ended violence, has said there can be no return to the direct rule of the period before that landmark accord.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said in a statement: "I very much regret the statement from the DUP. Power sharing and working together are the only way forward for Northern Ireland."Sinn Fein and the DUP have held out the possibility of powersharing talks being resurrected in the future after yesterday's acrimonious collapse of negotiations.

Both parties have refused to reveal details of the mooted deal that went up in smoke on Ash Wednesday, claiming that confidentially is still required because the process could potentially be revived at some stage.

Efforts to restore devolution following a 13-month impasse currently lie in tatters after the angry Valentine's Day break up, when the DUP unexpectedly pulled the plug on talks amid a row over the Irish language.

Sinn Fein has accused its erstwhile partners-in-government of backing out of an accommodation allegedly struck last week, claiming the main unionist party baulked at criticism of the rumoured deal from some of its supporters.

The DUP has rejected the claims, insisting no final deal was on the table.

Sinn Fein has said it will set out a "fulsome" response to the latest developments after meeting with the UK and Irish governments on Thursday.

Party negotiator Conor Murphy said: "If there's any possibility, however remote, of getting back to this engagement then we are obliged to try and explore that and we will do that and we will engage with the governments and the other parties in the coming period."

DUP MP Gregory Campbell said: "I think where the future has to lie is in trying to pick up the pieces and see if agreement is doable."

The row boils down to a row over the presentation of new laws to protect Irish language speakers. Sinn Fein want a stand-alone Irish Language Act; the DUP are prepared to legislate for Irish speakers but only as part of wider legislation that incorporates the Ulster Scots culture, and not via a free-standing Irish Language Act.

It has been widely suggested that a compromise proposal that had raised expectations that a deal was close late last week - prompting the British Prime Minister and Taoiseach to travel to Stormont on Monday - involved an Irish Language Act, an Ulster Scots Act and an overarching Culture and Respect Act that incorporated the provisions contained in the other two acts.

This was seen as a potential way to bridge the divide, as Sinn Fein could have claimed to have secured a separate Irish Language Act but the DUP could have cited that the legislation was intrinsically linked to the broader Culture and Respect Act, so was therefore not free-standing.

Definite details have not been published and both parties are facing mounting calls to show their hands to the public.

Declining to do so, they contend that revealing details could jeopardise any future talks.

Mr Murphy told Radio Ulster that "good faith" that has existed during the negotiations "evaporated" with the DUP move.

"We had reached an accommodation, everyone involved in the process understood that, and the DUP failed to close the deal in relation to that and abruptly called a halt to proceedings yesterday," he said.

Civil servants have been running Northern Ireland's rudderless public services since the last DUP/Sinn Fein-led coalition imploded last January in a row over a botched green energy scheme.

That rift subsequently widened to take in more long-standing disputes over language, social issues and the legacy of the Troubles.

Mr Campbell said the DUP called a halt to talks due to the need to pass a budget for the next financial year. He said that decision had to be taken next week and, given a deal was not possible at Stormont, it therefore had to be tabled by Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley at Westminster.

He told BBC Radio Ulster: "How irresponsible would it be for any political party to allow talks to continue with those unresolved issues, that we all knew were there, that we all knew had to be closed, how irresponsible would it have been to continue that into next week in the knowledge that a budget that to be passed. That's why we had to take the responsible decision yesterday to get a budget so that those services can be maintained."

The parties are also at loggerhead on how Northern Ireland should be governed if talks ultimately fail. The DUP wants the UK government to reintroduce direct rule. Sinn Fein insists the Irish government must have a key role in the region if Stormont does not return. They want that to be actioned through the British Irish Intergovernmental Conference - a peace process structure aimed at fostering cross-border co-operation between the governments.

As it stands Mrs Bradley is under a legal obligation to call another snap election in Northern Ireland but few observers see the merit in such an option, given it would likely return the same political make-up and not resolve any of the outstanding issues.

Tanaiste Simon Coveney said the collapse of negotiations was "hugely disappointing" and insisted there was "no appetite" for a return to direct rule.

He said he understood an accommodation on the key disputes was close and the parties were just hammering out how the deal would be presented.

"We didn't see a final text from the two parties but we had a clear understanding of where this was going," Mr Coveney told RTE Radio One.

"There was a recognition that the Irish language needed to be legislated for in Northern Ireland but that should happen in the context of a basket of legislation that also dealt with issues like Ulster Scots and a broad recognition of culture and language diversity in Northern Ireland."By Tom Tuite

A teenage Dublin girl, who used a 12-year-old boy to help her and her former partner them steal almost 1,000 worth of cosmetics, has been spared a custodial sentence.

The 17-year-old girl pleaded guilty to the theft which happened on Jan. 18, 2017 at Boots in Malahide. She was on probation at the time for another theft offence. Judge John OConnor was furnished with a pre-sentence report on the teen.

He imposed another probation bond on her which remains in force for the next 12 months.

Garda Thomas Byrne told the Dublin Childrens Court that the girl entered the shop and took just under 1,000 worth of cosmetics. She had been in the shop with another male and they got a boy aged 12 to carry the stolen products out of the shop.

They were using a 12-year-old?, Judge OConnor queried.

The defence said the girl had been aged 16 at the time and had been with her former partner who was older than her and they were acting in concert. The girl had handed one thing to the 12-year-old and the young boy ran out with the cosmetics.

Judge OConnor said it was an awful example to give the boy.

The defence said the girl has not done anything like that since. The girl had been placed on supervised probation for 12 months in June 2016 for another theft offence.

Her parents were present to hear the evidence.

The order made by the judge means that for the next 12 months she must comply with the directions of her probation officer to divert her from re-offending and she must not commit any further offences.

Otherwise the case could be re-entered and she would risk facing another sanction including a possible custodial sentence.A 17-year-old teenage boy has been sent forward for trial to the Central Criminal Court accused of rape and sexual assault of a female in Dublin.

The youth appeared at the Dublin Childrens Court today when he was served with a book of evidence. The Director of Public Prosecution directed that the youth was to face trial on indictment.

Judge John O'Connor told the youth he was being returned for trial to the Central Criminal Court.

The teen, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is charged with two offences: rape and sexual assault at a location in north Dublin in April 2016.

He remains subject to bail terms compelling him to reside at his current address, abide by a curfew and to sign on regularly at his local garda station.

The boy, who was accompanied to court by family members and his solicitor, has not yet indicated how he will plead.

Judge John OConnor agreed to defence solicitor Ciara Hallinans request for legal aid to include representation of senior as well a junior counsel for the trial.

The judge also directed that copies any video evidence was to be handed over to the defence and the teen was warned that he must notify the prosecution if he was relying on an alibi.

An exact date for his next hearing has not yet been allocated, however, the judge ordered that the accuseds next appearance would be during the present term of the Central Criminal Court which ends near the end of March.A woman is due in court later after a fatal assault on her three-year-old child.

The girl was rushed to hospital on Saturday following an alleged assault at her home in Shankill, in south Co Dublin.The Iftas are taking place in Dublin tonight, and the stars on the red carpet have been speaking out.

Tonight's ceremony honours the best in film, television drama, feature documentary, live action short and animation.CIY, a youth charity based in Dublin, Belfast and locations around the world, will host the first premiere of an award-winning short film about Ireland's suicide epidemic and the effects it has on our culture and young people.

Recent studies indicate suicide is the leading cause of death in young men between the ages of 15-34 across Ireland.

Unseen was shot in Ireland in March of 2017 and has gone on to win Best Short Film in Ireland at the Richard Harris Film Festival as well as being a finalist in the Galway Film Festival.

The film features Irish actors Bob Carley and Desmond Eastwood and was developed by a mostly Irish-based crew.

Carley plays the part of Alexander, who finds his grandson, Owen (played by Eastwood) preparing to take his own life.

Jasper Rutherford, CIYs European Director says This film is an incredibly powerful tool to help young people and young adults talk about their own mental health.

"We wanted to de-stigmatise mental health and make it easier for young people to talk about.

"This film enables that to happen in a positive way, whether in the classroom, in youth groups, at University, or even in the home.

The film will premiere on March 5 in Dublin at 7.30pm with follow-up screenings on March 7 in Limerick and March 8 in Belfast.

For more information and tickets visit unseenfilm.orgThe Irish Film and Drama awards celebrated its 15th year last night and boy, did it pull out all the stops.

Embracing its new move from April to February, to be in line with the international awards season, the night started as it meant to go on, with the clattering of camera shutters, the scent of prosecco and an overall pride that the Irish Film industry is one to be reckoned with.

Did we mention we have five Irish Oscars nods this year?

Despite the bitter cold, stars such as Fionnula Flanagan, Barry Keoghan, Amy Huberman and Liam Cunningham shone brightly as they walked the red carpet, excited for the night ahead.

Amy Huberman arriving on the red carpet. Photo: Michael Chester.

Following the Golden Globes, chairwoman of the Irish Film Board Annie Donna, along with many actresses, chose to wear black in support of the #MeToo movement.

Among those was Caitriona Balfe, who decided to do so in a bid to 'keep the conversation going'.

Caitriona Balfe arriving on the red carpet. Photo: Michael Chester.

Nobody should be in fear of going to work, Ms Balfe said.

Nobody should have to give away a part of themselves to get work or feel bullied/pressured sexually - its just not ok.

Ms Balfe spoke openly about how powerful she believes the movement is and said that she hoped those abusing their power are now very scared.

All eyes were on Gabriel Byrne as he arrived to receive his Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his distinguished, decades-long career in film and television.

Dublin-born Mr Byrne is one of the most recognised screen talents in Hollywood and has appeared in more than 75 feature films.

When asked how he was feeling about accepting the award tonight, Mr Byrne said, Im honoured, its really meaningful because its full circle for me.

I used to deliver letters right across the street when I was working as an insurance messenger boy and to think Id be here one day accepting an award from the President of Ireland wouldnt have even occurred to me as a fantasy.

Fresh from the dancefloor of RTEs Dancing with the Stars, host Deirdre OKane opened the show with a tongue-in-cheek reference to criticism of the Leading Actress in a Film category.

There were only three nominees for the award, whereas all other categories featured at least five.

What a truly extraordinary year it has been for women in this industry, Mrs OKane said before name-checking a few of the actresses nominated.

If thats not enough about our women, as many as three have been nominated tonight in the leading actress category."

Deirdre O'Kane arriving on the red carpet. Photo: Michael Chester

Three actresses, three billboards and Im very proud to say, this is my third year hosting this ceremony, two more stamps and Ill get a script and a female lead.

Ms OKane then went on to say that she was wearing black not only in solidary with the #MeToo movement but to honour Irish icon, Maureen OHara.

In an interview that she gave in 1945 she spoke about the harassment she encountered on a daily basis as she just tried to do her job.

Maureen OHara didnt live to see the moment that we are all involved in today. She spoke fearlessly and her words were dismissed, after three-quarters of a century time is definitely up.

Charlie Murphy. Photo: G. McDonnell / VIPIRELAND.COM

Actors such as John O' Connor, Saoirse Ronan and Charlie Murphy took home awards beating stiff competition but the room stood-still when Gabriel Byrne broke down in tears accepting his Lifetime Achievement award.

Its a mark of my life, Im so deeply honoured."

WINNERS

FEATURE FILM: Michael Inside

DIRECTOR FILM: Aisling Walsh, Maudie

SCRIPTWRITER FILM: Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE - FILM: John Connors, Cardboard Gangsters

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE - FILM: Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - FILM: Barry Keoghan, The Killing of a Sacred Deer

ACTRESS SUPPORTING ROLE - FILM: Victoria Smurfit, The Lears

GEORGE MORRISON FEATURE DOCUMENTARY: The Farthest

SHORT FILM  LIVE ACTION: Wave

ANIMATED SHORT FILM: Late Afternoon

DRAMA: Game of Thrones

DIRECTOR  DRAMA: Dearbhla Walsh, Fargo

SCRIPTWRITER  DRAMA: Conor McPherson, Paula

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE - DRAMA: Cillian Murphy, Peaky Blinders

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE - DRAMA: Caitriona Balfe, Outlander

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - DRAMA: Liam Cunningham, Game of Thrones

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - DRAMA: Charlie Murphy, Peaky Blinders

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Seamus McGarvey, The Greatest Showman

COSTUME DESIGN: Consolata Boyle, Victoria and Abdul

EDITING: Una Ni DhonghaIle, Three Girls

MAKE-UP HAIR: Clare Lambe & Sevlene Roddy, Into the Badlands

ORIGINAL MUSIC: Stephen McKeon, Pilgrimage

PRODUCTION DESIGN: John Hand, Maudie

SOUND: Steve Fanagan, Kieran Horgan, The Farthest

VFX: Tailored Films & Bowsie Workshop, The Lodgers

Rising Star: Jacob McCarthyBritain has publicly blamed the Russian government for a cyber attack which targeted Ukraine and spread across Europe last year.

The NotPetya attack's primary targets were the Ukrainian financial, energy, and government sectors but it was designed to spread further and affected other European and Russian firms in June 2017.

Ukraine has been locked in a simmering conflict with Russian-backed separatists since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014.

Britain's Foreign minister for cyber security Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon said the UK's decision to identify the Kremlin as responsible to the attack underlines the fact the Government will not tolerate "malicious cyber activity".

He said: "The UK Government judges that the Russian government, specifically the Russian military, was responsible for the destructive NotPetya cyber attack of June 2017.

"The attack showed a continued disregard for Ukrainian sovereignty. Its reckless release disrupted organisations across Europe costing hundreds of millions of pounds.

"The Kremlin has positioned Russia in direct opposition to the West yet it doesn't have to be that way.

"We call upon Russia to be the responsible member of the international community it claims to be rather then secretly trying to undermine it.

"The United Kingdom is identifying, pursuing and responding to malicious cyber activity regardless of where it originates, imposing costs on those who would seek to do us harm.

"We are committed to strengthening co-ordinated international efforts to uphold a free, open, peaceful and secure cyberspace."

The UK's Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson added: "We have entered a new era of warfare, witnessing a destructive and deadly mix of conventional military might and malicious cyber attacks.

"Russia is ripping up the rule book by undermining democracy, wrecking livelihoods by targeting critical infrastructure, and weaponising information.

"We must be primed and ready to tackle these stark and intensifying threats."Details about one of the citys worst kept planning secrets were revealed this week, affecting a super-prominent site on the Bourke Street Mall.

The Walk Arcade in Bourke Street mall is being redeveloped.

The 38 year old Walk Arcade will be replaced with a mixed use project containing a hotel, recreation spaces including a gym, and retail on the lower level.

The project will offer more than 7600 square metres of lettable commercial area and 453 suites in structures rising to 10 storeys.

The 3500 square metre site, which stretches south to Little Collins Street, has been held by Singapore investor Hua Sin Tay since 1993, who paid $18 million for it. It was formed following the amalgamation of several smaller properties including the historic Public Benefit Bootery and The Book Building.Origin has narrowed its half-year loss to $207 million despite writedowns on the value of assets including its Ironbark coal seam gas project in Queensland as its operating earnings improved.

The $207 million loss for the six months through December came after a $1.56 billion loss in the previous corresponding period.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 51 per cent to $1.49 billion and underlying profit from continuing operations jumped 147 per cent to $428 million, the company said in a statement to the ASX on Thursday.

Origin Energy CEO Frank Calabria was positive about the results, despite the loss. Credit:AAP

Earlier this month, Origin slashed the value of Ironbark by $355 million and announced a $173 million after-tax writedown on its recently divested Lattice Energy business.Telstra chief executive Andrew Penn has blamed the national broadband network (NBN) for potential job cuts as the phone company attempts to transform itself into a tech business.

As he unveiled a 5.8 per cent fall in half-year net profit to $1.7 billion and a sharply lower dividend on Thursday, Mr Penn flagged "reducing and disappearing" jobs in parts of the business, in large part because of the NBN.

Telstra has dropped its dividend to 11 cents.

While Telstra was "always sensitive to anything that we're doing that has an impact on jobs [...], we do need to increase the efficiency of the business, the productivity of the business, because ultimately thats whats going to make us successful," he said.

This meant changing the workforce of the company, particularly due to the NBN, as Telstra moved into new technology and redefined its role in the market, he said.A family business producing wheelchairs for the elderly has become the first Australian company targeted in a criminal cartel case.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced on Thursday that criminal charges had been laid against The Country Care Group, a Mildura-based company producing continence products, mobility aids and other aged-care items.

The Country Care Group chief executive Robert Hogan.

Charges were also laid against the companys chief executive and owner, Robert Hogan, and former business development manager Cameron Harrison.

The business has been operating from its regional base for almost 20 years, and claims to provide its products to more than 70 member stores nationally and have contracts with the Department of Veterans Affairs.Employment notched up the longest streak of gains on record in January, while unemployment fell a tick and female participation in the workforce climbed to a record high.

Thursday's figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed 16,000 net new jobs were added in January, in line with forecasts and a solid result given it came on top of outsized increases in both December and November.

One soft spot was a 49,800 drop in full-time jobs, though that followed an incredibly strong run over the past year.

It was the 16th straight month of rises, the longest such run since the series began in 1978. Annual jobs growth of 3.3 per cent was more than twice the pace of US job creation.

One soft spot was a 49,800 drop in full-time jobs, though that followed an incredibly strong run over the past year.The new Holocaust and Human Rights exhibition completes the museum's refurbishment and looks at issues of disability, refugee, Indigenous and LGBTQI rights in Australia.

But Cooper's defence of Germany's persecuted Jews receives special mention in the Sydney Jewish Museum, which on Friday opens a permanent exhibition space highlighting human rights issues in the world today.

William Cooper was not admitted and his protest attracted little attention except for a small single column report in The Argus in Melbourne.

It is a little known fact that in the aftermath of the terror of Kristallnacht an elder of the Yorta Yorta nation led a delegation on behalf of the Australian Aborigines' League to the German consulate in Melbourne to protest the "cruel persecution of Jews" in Germany.

The space contains a series of tables focusing on human rights achievements and challenges while a timeline notes major human rights developments and violations. Two multimedia displays show the evolution of international human rights laws and continuing instances of genocide and mass atrocities from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day.

While the timeline notes the Rohingya crisis, the partition of India, the Howard government's 2001 Pacific Solution in which asylum seekers are processed offshore and Kevin Rudd's apology to the Stolen Generation, it makes no mention of the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Project director Avril Alba said the issue was complex for the museum and the Jewish community and a decision was taken to address it through education and public programs.

"We do realise it's a complex issue that has to be faced," she said. "That was the decision we took but one thing about this exhibition is that we do feel it's going to grow and change and if that is something that is then better served by being integrated into the exhibition, then we may well."

Dr Alba conceded the museum could be criticised for its omission but "if the criticism means we will develop and change that aspect, then that is what will happen".John Monash was a remarkable combination of a successful engineer, barrister and army reservist. Although never a full-time military officer until 1914, by early 1918 he was in command of all the Australian troops on the Western Front.

Despite the wild hyperbole of the subtitle, this book provides a detailed combined account of two Australian commanders who played very significant roles in the Great War  a conflict in which Australia lost more lives than the United States despite having less than a 20th of its population.

Because so much has been written about this theatre of the war, he is much better known than Harry Chauvel, a professional soldier, who at the same time was in charge of the Desert Mounted Corps of 34,000 men, consisting predominantly of Australians, in the Middle East campaign against the Turks.

The British commander on the Western Front, Sir Douglas Haig, seemed indifferent to the fact that developments in defensive firepower  without a corresponding evolution in offensive weaponry  had made attacking fortified positions across open ground a form of suicide, even though this had first become obvious in the American Civil War. In a letter to his wife, Monash described Haig's Passchendaele assaults of late 1917 as a "hare-brained scheme" although, as the book notes, he was nevertheless careful to keep cordial relations with Haig.

Monash's own view, again expressed privately, was that "the true role of the infantry was not to expend itself upon heroic physical effort, nor to wither away under merciless machine gun fire, nor to impale itself on hostile bayonets, nor to tear itself to pieces in hostile entanglements".

In keeping with these views, Monash continually looked for alternatives to the war of attrition pursued by Haig. One of these alternatives was the use of the tank, then very much in its infancy, but picked up by Monash and employed by him whenever the opportunity arose, most successfully in the battle of Hamel in July 1918.

The sheer scale of the conflicts in which Monash was involved can be gauged from the Germans' effort in March 1918 to win the war with one final all-out assault. Monash was instrumental in ultimately repulsing these attacks that resulted in 500,000 casualties and prisoners in a matter of five weeks.The magnificently appointed Margot Robbie is perfectly cast, even down to the physical likeness. This could be her year. Tonya was not built like her rival Nancy Kerrigan, the all-American girl she had kneecapped in late 1993, on the way to a spot on the US Olympic skating team. Or did she? This image released by A24 Films shows Saoirse Ronan, left, and Laurie Metcalf in a scene from "Lady Bird." Metcalf was nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actress on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018. The 90th Oscars will air live on ABC on Sunday, March 4. (Merie Wallace/A24 via AP) Credit:MERIE WALLACE LADY BIRD

(94 minutes) MA15+ Lady Bird is a coming-of-age story set in director Greta Gerwig's home town, Sacramento, California, where Christine McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) is about to graduate from her Catholic high school and go to college. Which college? This is the question. Her mother, Marion (Laurie Metcalf) favours somewhere both close and affordable. But Christine, who has renamed herself Lady Bird as a way of helping her to find what she imagines to be her "true identity", is set on escaping to the East Coast and a life of constant intellectual stimulation. MOLLY'S GAME

(140 minutes) M

Aaron Sorkin's first film as a director is set in the esoteric world of high stakes poker and if you're not a member, you may need a glossary to appreciate its finer points. It's a true story, based on Molly Bloom's memoir of the years in which she ran a poker game patronised by some of Hollywood and Manhattan's most famous names. PHANTOM THREAD

(130 minutes) M This is perhaps the greatest movie ever made about sewing. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the designer Reynolds Woodcock, who presides over the House of Woodcock  a fictional version of a 1950s London fashion house. Reynolds is also an artist, and that's really what the film is about, rather than fashion or design. Selected release THE POST

(116 minutes) M Steven Spielberg's film concentrates on one of The Washington Post owner and publisher Katharine Graham's most courageous acts. Played by Meryl Streep, Graham backs editor Ben Bradlee in his determination to publish excerpts from the Pentagon Papers. What happens next is a rehearsal for The Post's Watergate expose and it's all the more tantalising because we have the advantage of hindsight  unlike the main players.

THE SHAPE OF WATER

(123 minutes) MA15+ Fresh from playing the world's most devoted foster mother in Paddington 2, Sally Hawkins again shows her gift for pantomime as the mute heroine Elisa, employed as a cleaner at a high-security government laboratory in Baltimore about 1962. At the lab one day, she learns of the presence of a humanoid amphibian, a careful blend of the grotesque and the gorgeous. Part of the film's argument is that "normality" does not exist. SWEET COUNTRY

(113 minutes) MA15+ Set in 1929, Sweet Country could be described as a western  or at least the latest in a series of politically charged Australian period pieces that rework aspects of the genre, such as John Hillcoat's The Proposition and Rolf de Heer's The Tracker. Sam Kelly (Hamilton Morris) is an Indigenous man on the run with his wife Lizzie (Natassia Gorey Furber) after shooting a sadistic landowner. Pursuing the fugitives over the red sands and salt flats is a group that includes a dogged police sergeant (Bryan Brown) and a cagey tracker (Gibson John). Selected release THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

(115 minutes) MA15+Almost three years since releasing her ARIA award-winning debut album, Courtney Barnett today releases new single Nameless, Faceless, from her eagerly anticipated second album. The album is called Tell Me How You Really Feel and will be released on May 18.

Sticky was lucky enough to score a limited edition seven-inch single of the new track, available at some indie record shops from today, and it's classic Barnett.

Courtney Barnett is due to release her second album in May. Credit:Pooneh Ghana

Released on her own Milk! Records label, which also releases music from the likes of Fraser A. Gorman, Jen Cloher and Loose Tooth; Nameless, Faceless is Barnett's first new music with her own band since the worldwide, breakthrough success of her 2015 album, which placed in the top five on the Australian album charts and went top 20 in the United Kingdom and America.An up-and-coming Australian actor is set to star in the final season of House of Cards.

Cody Fern, a recipient of the prestigious Heath Ledger Scholarship, hails from rural Western Australia but will soon make an appearance in one of the most popular political dramas of all time. The actor is due to appear in all eight episodes of the Netflix original's sixth instalment.

The plum role means the Australian actor will be a series regular, starring alongside new high-profile cast members Diane Lane and Greg Kinnear. While little is known about what season six has in store, it was been revealed that Lane and Kinnear will play siblings and that House of Cards' final instalment will centre around Robyn Wright's character Claire Underwood.

The show's former lead, Kevin Spacey, was fired following allegations of sexual misconduct. While filming has resumed, the Spacey scandal cost Netflix millions of dollars after it decided to halt production and conduct expensive reshoots.Controversial Sydney barrister Charles Waterstreet has withdrawn from Q&A's #MeToo special just three days after the ABC confirmed his appearance.

The 67-year-old was last year accused of sexually harassing a 21-year-old law student. He has denied any wrongdoing.

He was due to speak on a panel on Thursday night about people's experiences with sexual assault and harassment.

On Thursday, the ABC released a statement confirming Waterstreet had withdrawn from the panel because of concerns "expressed to him by the NSW Bar Association".It was at Vancouver's Museum of Anthropology that I finally had to stump up some cash.

Since arriving in the Canadian city two days before, I'd been paying for everything via my phone using Apple Pay. It had been such a successful strategy that I still had the $CAN100 I'd arrived with in cash.

Apple Pay and other contactless payments are increasingly accepted. Credit:Josh Robenstone

Now, however, I needed to hire a locker before I enjoyed the institution's spectacular collection of First Nations totem poles. To do that, I had to break a note and put a Canadian quarter into the slot.

That need for a coin was a reminder that you still need some cash when travelling. On the other hand, it was the exception that proves the rule.Canberra police are calling for witnesses after a number of assaults and a disturbance in Civic earlier this month.

In the early hours of the morning on Saturday, February 3, police said they were called to the intersection of Mort Street and Bunda Street by reports of a disturbance between a number of people.

"Police received additional reports of three assaults occurring between 2.45am and 3am near Bible Lane, Civic," ACT Policing said in a statement on Friday.

"Police would like to speak to anyone that may have witnessed these incidents."

Members of the public were reminded to contact police if they witnessed anti-social behaviour on 131 444 or Triple Zero (000) in an emergency.Canberra is enjoying a "golden era" of affordable airline travel, according to Flight Centre, as a second international carrier touches down in town.

On Monday Qatar Airways launched a new daily route to Doha from the capital via Sydney. Flights to Europe currently start at $1025, and the service offers connections to 150 destinations, including across Africa and the Middle East.

Qatar Airways crew disembark from the first plane to land in Canberra on its new daily Doha service. Credit:karleen minney

Flight centre ACT and NSW manager Dan Heathwood said Canberra's market had become highly competitive as a price war broke out between the Middle-Eastern carrier and Singapore Airlines, who first opened Canberra up to overseas travel in 2016.

For those willing to skimp on luggage, Fairfax unearthed fares with Qatar Airways as low as $889 return to London.Canberra technology company Penten will provide secure wireless devices to the army to protect it from cyber threats under a $1.3 million contract, changing the way it shares classified information.

The federal government on Friday will announce the Australian Defence Force will adopt the 40-strong company's AltoCrypt technology, USB sticks providing secure access to information over WiFi.

A Canberra cyber security company has won a contract to provide secure wireless technology to the army. Credit:Louie Douvis

While access to classified information is limited to hard-wired computer systems, or paper files, Penten's technology is expected to change this by improving the speed information is received and reducing cabling costs.

Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne said the technology could be rapidly deployed to individual computers, which would change the way classified information was shared, used and accessed.Police Commissioner Ian Stewart has called for members of a Brisbane "Northside" youth gang to hand themselves in after their alleged teen leader fronted court on Thursday.

A 17-year-old Petrie boy was arrested on Wednesday evening and appeared in court on Thursday charged with a string of offences including two counts of burglary, two counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and the serious assault of a police officer.

The alleged teen leader of Brisbane's 'Northside' gang was arrested and charged on Wednesday evening. Credit:Seven News Brisbane.

Following reforms to youth justice on Monday, the 17-year-old will be dealt with under the Youth Justice Act and can not be identified.

Teens from the 50-member Northside gang have been charged with at least 1000 offences, including stealing cars and breaking into homes, over a two-year period, according to a 7 News investigation.Prabhath Ponnamaneni was asleep on his couch when he was woken by three men who held a kitchen knife to his throat.

They were on the hunt for drugs and money.

They told him to stay quiet or they would hurt him, as they demanded he hand over his phone and other electronics.

"They had a knife to my throat," he said.Ken Wyatt. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The national aged-care watchdog will be shutdown and replaced after it failed to detect and act on shocking cases of inadequate care, abuse and neglect.

The decision to establish a new aged-care watchdog was made by the federal government, following the release this week of a scathing report that found older people were at continued risk of harm because the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency could not be trusted to act.

The catalyst for change was a series of harrowing inquiries, including one by the federal government, into the Oakden home in South Australia, which investigated both the accreditation and complaints systems after a decade of mistreatment and mis-medication of residents at the home, as well as a sexual assault by a carer and a murder by a resident.

An interim senate inquiry report this week revealed the committee was concerned about the watchdog's repeated refusal to take responsibility for what occurred at Oakden.While carers did "a fantastic job" they were not trained nurses. They were aware of the heavy responsibility on their shoulders and were wary of causing trouble. Carers could not check every sleeping resident every 20 minutes, she said. They were afraid to say they had not checked a patient for hours, so they would say the patient had been unresponsive for less than 15 minutes. Commonly, there was either no advance care directive in existence or it was not found on the computer system in time to avert resuscitation. "I can assure you that the poor carer at 3am, whom [families] have never met, is too much in a panic to know [the family's] wishes," the paramedic said. Lovely old frail nannas who have died peacefully in their sleep, for us to inflict that on them is just going through the motions knowing there will be no positive outcome ... you feel guilty. Western Australian paramedic "One resident getting sick is the end of the world. They can't look after a sick person when there is someone needing to go to the toilet and another person wandering the corridors needing to be put back to bed. Then paramedics are called. It's a relief to them that we take them away."

She said facilities usually had just one registered nurse on at any time. Sometimes they were not even on site, just on call. Doctors, also on call, generally advised hospitalisation. Many doctors dealing with aged care facilities were risk-averse. "The family says, 'of course I want them to go to hospital'. People are afraid to say 'I want my mum to die'. They instead say 'try anything'. But if they saw what actually happens during a resuscitation they would say no. By not putting things in place, families are torturing their loved ones," she said. "It's horrible to admit but they need to be told and no one is telling them." She said it was every paramedic's dream to see an ACD posted on the wall above the bed. Recently thousands of people across Australia and New Zealand read the story of a 93-year-old grandmother, a frail woman with advanced dementia who lived in a locked dementia ward and had very poor quality of life, despite weekly visits from her family. Recently she contracted pneumonia and in the middle of the night, without contacting her family or locating her ACD, the facility hospitalised her; a traumatic experience for the woman, who fought and kicked against being taken away. She had to be restrained and sedated. She was given IV antibiotics. By the time family was called, the woman had been pulled back from the brink. Now "recovered" but in even poorer health, she is back on the ward.

The grandmother after her hospital visit. She refused to get out of bed. A month later, it is still difficult to convince her to get up in the morning. The family spoke to doctors at the hospital about how their ACD had not been found or honoured. Doctors told them they too had felt treatment was wrong. Dr Bailey, director of clinical medicine at St John Ambulance and director of emergency medicine at St John of God Hospital in Murdoch, said doctors considered futile medical treatments unethical. "This is the bit that troubles me," he said.

"We're doing some things to a group of people with close to no prospect of success ... I'm troubled that we are doing a series of interventions with very limited upside. Maybe approaching zero upside, in that select group of patients." One Perth paramedic told WAtoday she became a paramedic to save lives and knew resuscitation would be a major part of the job. But she could not have anticipated the number of elderly terminal and frail people she would be forced to resuscitate even with a slim to nil chance of a positive outcome. She said it was "very, very rare" for aged care staff to be ready with an ACD. "It's left to us to question it. Sometimes they say there will be one, but they can't find it ... or it won't be signed properly. Sometimes staff say, 'we don't do that here', which means the question, the conversation has been avoided," she said. "The things we do are aggressive, we're breaking bones, drilling holes into their bones, it's gory, it's traumatising. These lovely old frail nannas who have died peacefully in their sleep, for us to inflict that on them is just going through the motions knowing there will be no positive outcome. It sticks with you, you feel guilty.

"I knew a few paramedics who have PTSD and cited resuscitating the dead as one of the causes. "If you leave work with PTSD ... there is a period where you are helped to retrain. But some people can't work in emergency or high stress situations ever again, that triggers it. So people I know have gone and done completely different things, even working in retail. Most people I know who've left actually still aren't working." About half the people in aged care facilities have dementia. Many have lost the ability to speak by the time they have a stroke or heart attack, or get an infection such as pneumonia.

Such diseases, common bringers of death in the elderly, are often fought tooth and nail. When such patients come through the doors without an ACD  a daily occurrence  staff were "lost", said an emergency department physician of more than three decades' experience. "There is an avalanche of sick elderly people in hospital who shouldn't be there," he said. "They rush in and our hearts break. The assumption is, well, they are here; someone has decided they want something done." Some families became hostile and angry if their relatives were not given CPR and this fear committed doctors to at least start. Not doing anything was not an option, said the doctor.

Like most of us, such families must imagine doctors as people who do good and relieve pain; at least "do no harm", as the old Hippocratic Oath went. But the doctor painted a more violent picture, describing the vulnerability of the "little birdlike person" being rushed into hospital. "We crush a 90-year-old chest, their ribs splintering as we do CPR. It is vile. There are worse things than being dead," he said. "It is a horrible assault to do all that when you have no chance of doing any good anyway. This person is in a nappy, hasn't spoken for years. "As staff we are trapped. Nurses, doctors just feel we are backed into a corner. Almost no staff member would subject our own Nanna to this."

Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement, once said that "how people die remains in the memory of those who live on". The doctor being interviewed illustrated this, as he struggled to hold back tears. He said families somehow equated completing an ACD with wishing a loved one dead. So they kept turning up without forms and doctors led the discussion on the spot. Sometimes it was the first time in their lives an elderly person's adult children had had such a discussion.

"You are kind and calm and talk things through," he said. "You say, 'what do you think they would want for themselves?' Most people see that treatment is inappropriate, but sometimes ... the person has never talked about it with their GP or family." He said once it was once a common wisdom that if a frail person had dementia and a poor quality of life, advanced resuscitation was inappropriate. An infection might take two or three days to carry them off, with medication to ease pain and discomfort. There was time to call the family together to say goodbye. But aged care staff now felt uncomfortable letting someone die even in predictable circumstances. Some families, particularly highly religious families, had very strong, very unyielding love. They wanted everything done. They would not discuss what to do if Nanna got sick. "It is painful to watch someone we love struggle with a terminal infection, but it beats aggressive intervention aimed at extending life. An elderly doctor in his 80s reminded me recently that pneumonia in the elderly used to be known as 'the old man's friend'," he said.

"That phrase reminds you that as awful as it is to say goodbye to people you care about, it should not be terrifying. If you are dying of old age at the end of a good life, it's not the same as a kid dying of cancer. It should not be feared. "We seem to have forgotten that death is part of all our lives, and it's no longer seen as something natural, but something to be resisted no matter how inevitable it might be, or how dreadful a patient's existence might be. Doctors wouldn't do this to their own families." The doctor's own grandmother initiated an early discussion as dementia eroded her quality of life. In turn, his parents had made their wishes clear, and he had made his own clear to his children. When she eventually died of pneumonia she did so peacefully, surrounded by family. When she eventually died of pneumonia she did so peacefully, surrounded by family.

He implored any family with a relative entering aged care to use the move to trigger discussions. These were not threatening if done early. "We are so grateful if someone tells us what they want ... it is not horrible or unkind ... it is thoughtful and caring to set the boundaries of care." While not the provider earlier referred to by paramedics, Juniper is one of WA's leading aged care providers. Chief executive Vaughan Harding explained that procedures around unexpected illness and death in facilities could not be hard and fast, as all cases were complex and individual. Mr Harding said the number of carers and nurses rostered on would vary greatly between providers and locations, depending on the mix of residents and care needs. Carers were trained to know when they were out of their depth and seek assistance. It was the job of the "highest qualified person on the floor at that time" to decide who to call.

While he could not speculate on all providers' systems, he said it was possible not every provider had good record keeping systems. But most ACDs were recorded electronically and should be visible to carers looking at a resident's profile. "Staff should be very conscious of the presence of an ACD. I'd be disappointed to hear that emergency services are called on inappropriately [but] a service provider does have a duty of care," he said. "If they're uncertain and feel more support is needed they must do something." St John clinical services director Paul Bailey has a specific interest in the research area of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. He said bringing the dead back to life was a fantastic thing when it was successful, and in people who were younger and fitter it was getting more and more successful.

The number of survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest had increased 70 per cent over three years due to efforts by paramedics, community first aid and hospitals. More than 90 per cent went back to living independently and more than 75 per cent were able to go back to normal life with minimal long-term impairment. But it was a very different story for elderly people living in care facilities. If paramedics turned up, did a resuscitation and got a normal heartbeat back quickly, within just a few minutes, that group had survivors. But patients given 20-minute resuscitations and then transported to the ED still in cardiac arrest did not do well at all. Most were declared dead in the ED after arrival. In 22 years there had been one survivor.

But paramedics could not refuse a job. Dr Bailey said he was aware that to some people, a paramedic's function was not necessarily to restore life but to restore order. Sometimes, people knew that resuscitation was not wanted, but they just didn't know what to do. "We do know what to do. We come in and take care of it, sort things out. But the trouble is unless as we walk in, they say 'no resuscitation', we will have to start our protocol," he said. While he had had some conversations within the aged care sector, rules were hard to change. "There are rules like if you have had a fall you go to hospital regardless of how trivial it seems. We set up policies to try to cover the unusual situations with blanket rules, and maybe take human decision making out of it because from time to time, humans make mistakes," he said.

"We're a fairly intolerant society of things going 'wrong'. My challenge is to try to limit those interventions in that group of patients, without spillover in those likely to survive. "Australia is an incredibly rule-bound society and the ambulance service is a victim of this process. The very best way out is the people providing direct care to patients or loved ones is to know their wishes and to enact these wishes when something happens." Loading Take action Attend a brief Palliative Care WA workshop (metro or regional) or a short introductory meeting - visit the website or call 1300 551 704

Advance Care Planning Australia, WA and New South Wales health departments and other state and territory governments also have free and reliable resources.

Dr Cooper has also created a website that helps guide people through the creation of advance care directives and upload to GPs and hospitals.

Or just talk to your GP.Summer is a special time in Western Australia, so as it comes to an end for this year WAtoday is calling on readers to share the special things that define summer for them.

It can be a memory, an experience, a feeling, anything.

Summer is the best time in WA. Credit:Erin Jonasson

Just write it down in up to 250 (short and sweet!) words, place them in a Word document (Times New Roman font, 12 point type, 3.5cm margins) and email it to competitions@watoday.com.au with SUMMER in the subject line.

To allow fair judging, the story in the Word document must not have your name anywhere - instead, type the title, your name and a brief biography into the body of the email. Please check our Terms and Conditions for entry details.Nicholas Stuart has argued that Australian defence industry is "a bad idea" ("There's a reason Australia does not have a domestic armaments industry ... we're no good at it", February 14, p20). I don't follow his logic. 

As the leader of one of Australia's largest defence companies, Raytheon Australia, I feel obliged to outline the case for a sector of the economy that's not only an essential contributor to our national security but has the potential to be a significant driver of income and jobs for Australians.

An Australian soldier dismounts an Australian-made Bushmaster armoured personnel carrier in Afghanistan. The vehicles, made in Bendigo, are being exported. Credit:Jamie Osborne

To be clear, Australia absolutely has a need for a domestic defence industry. It is in our national security interest that Australia possesses the sovereign ability to integrate, support, update and upgrade defence capability. To do anything less would be compromise our sovereignty as a middle-ranking security power.

Second, Australia needs the ability to carry out some degree of design, and to build and manufacture selected defence capabilities. This is both realistic and attainable. This need not infer, however, that we need the ability to design, build and manufacture the full gamut of military capabilities. No one is seriously suggesting, for example, that we will ever again seek to design and manufacture combat aircraft.Authorities battled with social media giant Facebook for almost 24 hours before it removed a video of Canberra high school students from a far-right page.

The eSafety Commissioner confirmed her office had been playing a game of "whack-a-mole" since Monday in removing multiple versions of a filmed fight between two ACT teenagers from Facebook and YouTube.

The video showed two students fighting. Credit:Janie Barrett

Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said authorities continued to monitor social media for versions of the video, which was shared on a white nationalist page with an offensive caption Wednesday night and not removed until Thursday afternoon.

The students were wearing their public school uniforms.Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his wife Lucy have sat down with 60 Minutes to discuss politics, life and the secret to their successful marriage.

The special, by reporter Liz Hayes, has been in negotiation since last December and the Turnbulls did the interview earlier this year - before news broke of the Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce's relationship with his former staffer, Vikki Campion.

The interview will go to air on the Nine Network on Sunday night.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Lucy Turnbull during the 2016 election campaign. Credit:Andrew Meares

The Turnbulls will celebrate their 38th wedding anniversary in late March.I am making today, some changes to the ministerial standards. I want to say that these will not be the last ones I will make. I will be working through this rather old document and making sure that it speaks clearly about the values of respect in workplaces, the values of integrity that Australians expect us to have. Now let me read now the additional words that I am including as of today: This statement is not and cannot be a comprehensive statement of rules. Ministers need to exercise their judgement and their common sense in complying with both the principles and spirit of the standards and their letter. Ministers must recognise that while they are entitled to privacy in personal matters, they occupy positions of great responsibility and public trust. The public have high expectations of them in terms of their personal conduct and decorum. Ministers should be very conscious that their spouses and children sacrifice a great deal so they can carry on their political career. Their families deserve honour and respect. Ministers should also recognise that they must lead by example. Values should be lived.

So as you will see, I have today added to these standards a very clear and unequivocal provision: Ministers, regardless of whether they are married or single, must not engage in sexual relations with their staff. Doing so will constitute a breach of the standards. While this new standard is very specific, ministers should be acutely aware of the context in which I am making this change and the need for them always to behave in their personal relations with others. Especially their staff, the staff of other ministers or members of the Australian public service, with integrity and respect. Now, I think we all know that Barnaby's error of judgement, that is the foundation of the woes that have followed, particularly for his family and indeed for his new partner. That error of judgement is something that for a very long time, people in this building and indeed even in the Press Gallery, have regarded as being a personal or a private matter. I have no interest in prying into people's personal or private affairs, at all.

I am not here to moralise, but we must recognise that whatever may have been acceptable, or to which a blind eye was turned in the past, today in 2018, it is not acceptable for a minister to have a sexual relationship with somebody who works for them. It is a very bad workplace practice. Everybody knows that no good comes of it. Of course, you know what attitudes in the corporate world and elsewhere are, to this kind of thing. So, it is about time that this change was made. Probably should have been made a long time ago. While I have inherited this ministerial code from other authors and other Prime Ministers, ultimately, it is my signature on it and mine alone. This is the standard that I will hold, from this day forth all of my ministers to. Journalist: Why would you not urge Barnaby Joyce to resign now? Prime Minister: Well Barnaby Joyce is the leader of the National Party, the leader of the party, member of the Coalition. Our Coalition partner. Barnaby has acknowledged his fault, his error, his grief about his conduct. He has to consider his own position obviously. These are matters for Barnaby Joyce to reflect on. He has made a very grave error of judgement, in an area that traditionally I suppose, has been regarded as private and personal and you can understand the reasons for that. Everyone has been anxious - whatever they may have thought about Barnaby's conduct - everyone has been anxious to try to avoid any further hurt or distress to his wife and daughters. I mean, again, this situation is not uncommon. Marriages do break up. People do have affairs with others, of course. But we have to recognise that here in this place, we have such important responsibilities. We don't, in practical terms, have the privacy that many others do. We have to acknowledge that we must have a higher standard. So henceforth, that is why I am making this change.

Journalist: It is uncommon to create two new jobs for your girlfriend though, it isnt just a matter of an affair. Why not ask Martin Parkinson to investigate whether there has been any breach of ministerial standards, which you have previously done with other ministers like Sussan Ley and Jamie Briggs? Prime Minister: On the ministerial standards, there have been a number of claims about a breach of ministerial standards made. Barnaby has given me an unequivocal assurance that he had not breached those standards. You can see from the debate in the house today regarding for example, the apartment in Armidale, if he had asked for a gift, that would have been a breach of the ministerial standards. He says he didnt. Apparently the man who provided it to him, says he didn't. Again, those who believe he has breached ministerial standards or want to believe that, should actually make the case for where the breach has occurred. That, bluntly, is the point. Journalist: Greg MaGuire told both me and another journalist Rick Morton at the Australian, that Barnaby Joyce rang him looking for accommodation, so why not just refer it to Martin Parkinson to clear up for certain whether there has been a breach of these standards? Prime Minister: Sharri, I dont want to spend the afternoon talking about this particular matter, the breach of the standard would be if he had gone and asked for a free apartment, right? From what Barnaby has said, he did not do that. He has said that and pointed to examples of Mr MaGuire confirming that. I should also note that he said - Barnaby said and I have no reason to doubt him - that at the time he had a conversation with Mr MaGuire, he was not only not a Minister, but not a Member of Parliament. Journalist: If Mr Joyces actions are so profoundly wrong that they force a rewrite of the ministerial standards, isnt that the most powerful argument that Barnaby Joyce should not be a Minister?

Prime Minister: Well, Barnaby is the leader of the National Party, okay? They are our Coalition partners. They have a Coalition Agreement and you all know - every single one of you know - that the standard I have set out today is a big change. You all know and many of you have written it. You have said that these thing is a private matters, personal matters, right? Fair enough. And you know what? I do not want to get into a debate about whether that approach was appropriate in the past or at any time. I'm not interested in an archaeological exercise. I know there are all sorts of stories about former ministers and former leaders and colourful tales that find their way into books. I am saying that from today, this change is being made in a way that is very, very clear. It couldn't be clearer. This is a bright line. I am saying that in these workplaces here, the Minister's offices, Ministers must behave accordingly and they must not - I dont care if they are married or single, I dont care - they must not have sexual relations with their staff. That's it. Journalist: Isnt the fact that you have changed the code such that Barnaby Joyce's actions would now form a breach of the Code, show that you have lost personal confidence in him?Malcolm Turnbull looked like he might cry as he scolded Barnaby Joyce late on Thursday afternoon. In a speech that seemed a long time coming, he spoke of the "terrible hurt and humiliation" inflicted on Joyce's family by the deputy PM's "shocking error of judgment".

In abandoning his wife of 24 years for a much younger staffer, and leaving in his wake the landmines that exploded this week, Joyce "set off a world of woe for those women, and appalled all of us", Turnbull said. It was all the more dreadful because it played out in public, he added.

From his pulpit in the prime minister's courtyard, Turnbull offered a great deal of judgment and not much absolution. In Joyce's office, the Deputy PM watched on the TV and said: "Oh, really?"

Malcolm Turnbull says it is time to change the culture inside Parliament House. Credit:John Hicks

But the lecture was not just for Joyce. It was an admonishment of a pattern of behaviour that has inculcated itself in Canberra, where big personalities, power imbalances and late nights playing away from home combine to create an environment conducive to the Joyce predicament.Few people would still defend corrupt former Labor minister Ian Macdonald but in an extraordinary speech to NSW Parliament, a Liberal MP said the Premier should order a new investigation into how Macdonald came to be jailed.

Liberal MLC Peter Phelps has launched a surprising defence of a jailed former Labor minister. Credit:Jon Reid

Upper House MP Peter Phelps told Parliament this week one of the "most egregious examples of injustice" was the state government's handling of NuCoal's Doyles Creek exploration licence, which the government stripped from the company after an explosive ICAC inquiry.

Macdonald, the former mining minister, was jailed last year for 10 years for giving the lucrative coal exploration licence to former union boss John Maitland.

After the ICAC's findings that Macdonald and Maitland acted corruptly, the state government passed legislation to tear up NuCoal's licence and took the extra step to deny compensation to thousands of NuCoal investors.Queensland's unemployment rate rose to 6.1 per cent in January, the highest in the country, despite almost 20,000 jobs being created in the state during the month.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the state's seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate rose 0.1 per cent in the month, putting it above that of the next-worst performer, South Australia, where the rate was 6.0 per cent.

More Queenslanders are looking for a job.

But the rise was due to a sharp increase in the number of people looking for work, with Queensland actually recording the strongest jobs growth in the country during the month.

The number of Queenslanders with jobs rose by 19,700 during the month, with most of the growth in full-time jobs.Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says she wants more State of Origin games played in Queensland, but hasn't committed to spending any more money to ensure that happens.

There was outrage from north Queensland particularly over the NRL's announcement Adelaide would host a match in 2020, following games in Melbourne this year and Perth in 2019.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is seen during Question Time on Thursday. Credit:AAP/Darren England

Four northern crossbench MPs wore maroon armbands on the first sitting day of state parliament on Thursday in protest, believing Townsville was more deserving as a heartland area.

In response to an opposition question, Ms Palaszczuk told parliament she was "angry and shocked" about the decision.Underground car parking would be the only type allowed in most city apartment and office developments, under new rules being considered by Melbourne City Council.

And skyscrapers that cannot have underground parking because of soil conditions would instead have to ensure car spaces built on lower levels had high enough ceilings to later be converted into places for people to live.

Above-ground car parking is on the way out. Credit:Jason South

Planning Minister Richard Wynne will be asked to sign off on the proposed Central Melbourne Design Guide, released on Thursday by Melbourne City Council.

The rules aim to improve the quality of urban design of private developments across the city centre.Google, already one of the dominant players in the online advertising world, may soon have even more power in that space. It is now taking on the challenge of determining what's a good ad or a bad ad to decide which ones the majority of web users see.

Google's Chrome browser, which is used by about 60 per cent of desktop and mobile internet users, on Thursday began automatically blocking some of the web's most annoying ads. Those include video ads that autoplay with sound, pop-up ads with countdowns and "sticky" ads that take up a large portion of the screen no matter how much you scroll down to lose them.

Google's push to make the web more palatable for users will also give it even more power in the ad space. Credit:AP

These types of ads do not meet new standards set by the Coalition for Better Ads, a group of internet companies, online advertisers and publishers looking for a way to make online advertising more palatable to users.

Google's stated goal is to make the web less infuriating to navigate. "It's clear that annoying ads degrade what we all love about the web," Chrome Vice President Rahul Roy-Chowdhury said in a company blog post this week.Harare, Zimbabwe: Morgan Tsvangirai, a former labour leader and prime minister of Zimbabwe who once seemed on the cusp of defeating the country's longtime president, Robert Mugabe, only to face bloody intimidation that thwarted his ambitions, died Wednesday night. He was 65.

Elias Mudzuri, the vice president of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, confirmed the death. The cause was colon cancer, for which Tsvangirai had been hospitalised in South Africa for months.

He died less than three months after his longtime nemesis, Mugabe, was ousted by the military last November as part of a struggle within the governing party, ZANU-PF.

Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change in 2000. Credit:AP

For almost 20 years, Tsvangirai (pronounced CHAN-gih-ray) headed the Movement for Democratic Change, a party founded in 1999 to capitalise on the growing unpopularity of the autocratic Mugabe, who led Zimbabwe from its independence in 1980.What was striking in the aftermath of the carnage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is that, now, even the victims and survivors are willing to call their leaders out. "My message to lawmakers in Congress is please, take action," David Hogg, a student at the school, said as he looked directly into CNN's camera on Thursday. "Any action at this point instead of just complete stagnancy and blaming the other side of the political aisle would be a step in the right direction," he added. Melissa Falkowski, a teacher at the school, told CNN, "It's very emotional because I feel today like our government, our country, has failed us and failed our kids and didn't keep us safe." After the Las Vegas shooting, which left 58 people dead in October, there appeared to be bipartisan agreement to take some kind of narrow legislative action to ban bump stocks, an accessory that can effectively turn a semiautomatic rifle into a machine gun. The National Rifle Association even appeared to endorse restrictions.

As attention faded, that influential organisation and Republican leaders changed course, arguing that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would be best positioned to deal with the problem through existing regulation. Since then, Justice Department officials have publicly and privately indicated that they think they do not, in fact, have the authority to regulate the devices. With the department's official review still underway, that has effectively suspended the proposal. Senators once again coalesced around another modest bipartisan fix in December, after discovering a lapse that allowed the gunman in Sutherland Springs to purchase his weapons despite a domestic violence conviction. Their proposal incentivises state and federal agencies to report criminal offences and other information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The House passed the measure last December, but only after it was attached to a dramatic expansion of the right to carry concealed firearms virtually anywhere in the country  long sought by Republicans and the NRA. That concealed carry legislation is a non-starter in the Senate, and the background check bill has yet to see a vote. None was planned. Neither Speaker Paul D. Ryan nor Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said anything Thursday that suggested that would soon change.

"This is one of those moments where we just need to step back and count our blessings," Ryan of Wisconsin said. "We need to think less about taking sides and fighting each other politically, and just pulling together." Entering a hearing room Thursday morning, Cornyn did not reply to questions shouted by reporters about the measures. "Let's be honest, I have not heard anyone explain how an improved background check system would necessarily have prevented a particular incident," said Senator Patrick J. Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican who co-authored a bill mandating near-universal background checks after the slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. "And so to the extent to which we really don't have a solution for these appalling massacres, I think that makes it harder to get traction for some ideas that I think are constructive ideas." In Parkland, where students, teachers and parents gathered again on Thursday to mourn, there was little patience for such thinking. Lyliah Skinner, a student who survived the shooting, rejected politicians' thoughts and prayers and called for action. "If they're not allowed to purchase their first drink of alcohol, then how are we allowed to buy guns at the age of 18 or 19?" she asked, adding, "Obviously whatever we have going on is not working."Parkland, Florida: David Hogg stood in the Florida sun Thursday, not far from his now shuttered school, and described the events of the day before.

Hogg, 17, a lanky senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and the student news director there, was in his environmental science class when a single shot rang out, echoing down the hallways.

A student mourns the loss of her friend during a community vigil in Parkland, Florida. Credit:AP

His teacher pulled the door shut, but soon the fire alarm began to blare. Then, he said, came the sound of thousands of student footsteps, and Hogg and his classmates raced out the door, joining a giant wave of teenagers.

"There was a tsunami of people running in one specific direction away from something," he said, "and that's what we were doing. It was almost like there was a shark coming along and we were a school of fish. And we were running from that armed man."Lima, Peru: When it comes to plotting a brazen prison escape, there may be few stratagems more effective - or soulless - than swapping places with your unwitting identical twin.

That was the ploy adopted by Alexander Jheferson Delgado, a convicted sex offender and burglar, who has just been recaptured more than a year after escaping prison by drugging his twin brother and then dressing in his clothes.

Peruvian sex offender and burglar Alexander Delgado drugged his identical twin brother in his cell and escaped from jail. He said he just wanted to see his mother. Credit:Peruvian Interior Ministry

The escape happened on the morning of January 10, 2017, when Alexander's twin, Giancarlo Stuard Delgado, showed up at Piedras Gordas prison to visit his sibling and bring him food and letters from other relatives.

After meeting in a common area of the prison, which sits on a particularly bleak stretch of Pacific coastline north of Lima, the 28-year-old brothers went to Alexander's cell. There, the convict offered his unsuspecting sibling a sedative-laced soda.Latest News Big Four backs throw financial weight behind COVID relief Two of Australia's biggest banks put their money where their mouth is on COVID recovery

NAB hikes fixed rates over three and four years All long-term rates raised in major signal to market

ANZ and Westpac Group are said to have introduced confidential changes to their assessment and approval of borrowers.

The Australian Financial Review reported yesterday (15 February) that ANZ was clipping the discretion of its frontline mortgage assessors.

A spokesman for ANZ said the bank recently added "a higher level of approval for some discretions" used in its home loan policy for assessing serviceability.

The spokesman said the move was not a change to the bank's credit policy or underwriting standards and that it applies to all housing loans, not just those originated through brokers.

Mortgage brokers claim banks seem to be showing less flexibility in interpreting guidelines on such matters as irregular income when assessing loan applications, said the AFR.

The report also said that Westpac recently introduced strict tests of residential property borrowers' current and future capacities to repay their loans.

The change is said to be intended to identify scenarios that might affect borrowers' capacity to pay back their loans. These include having dependents with special needs that might require borrowers to spend on long-term care and treatment.

Brokers who make any changes to a loan application that has been submitted have to alert the bank from 26 February, said the report.

When asked for comment, a Westpac spokesperson only told Australian Broker that the AFR report was based on a note the bank sent to brokers on Monday (12 February).

Earlier this month, Westpac amended its borrowing terms, including allowing the use of desktop valuations only for a maximum LVR of 90%.

A Westpac spokesperson told Australian Broker that the bank has also updated its household expenditure measure in line with the benchmark published by the Melbourne Institute for Social and Economic Research.

This followed Westpac's announcement in December that it would require home loan borrowers to disclose what they owe on short-term buy-now, pay-later loans on digital credit platforms like AfterPay and ZipPay. The move was part of the bank's effort to bolster its assessment of borrowers' loan serviceability.

Stricter assessment of borrowers' ability to repay their loans will likely become the norm among lenders now that APRA is focusing on serviceability in its proposal that targets higher-risk residential mortgage lending.

The prudential regulator released a discussion paper on 14 February proposing changes to authorised deposit-taking institutions capital framework and addressing what it calls systemic concentration of ADI portfolios in residential mortgages.

Related stories:

Major bank to tweak borrowing terms

Major bank ditches instant mortgage plan

ANZ agrees to pay $5m for lending breachSign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC

Brooklyn was seen but not heard.

Mayor DeBlasio returned to his old stomping grounds on Tuesday to deliver his fifth State of the City address at Kings Theatre, but Hizzoner barely mentioned his home borough in the speech, except for shout-outs to the beep and the historic Flatbush playhouse.

The second-term mayor instead unveiled lofty goals to make New York City the fairest in the country by expanding free education to its youngest citizens, addressing the long-forgotten needs of public-housing residents, and strengthening police-community relationships  a renaissance similar to the once old-and-decaying Flatbush Avenue theaters 2013 transformation into a multimillion-dollar venue, according to Borough President Adams.

This theater was a gem that had to be brushed off to see its original beauty, and thats what the city is going through, he said. The mayor has done an excellent job of going into the crevices of communities that have historically been denied some basic services  doing 3-K, looking at NYCHA, and looking at the whole stop-and-frisk issue is really what we need a mayor to do.

DeBlasio spent much of his hour-long address laying out a 12-point plan dubbed Fairest Big City in America, in which he touched on other bullet-point initiatives that included the need for more affordable housing and better-paying jobs, curbing the local opioid epidemic, and advancing his plan to close the jails on Rikers Island.

The former Park Slope councilman then shifted the focus of his address to strengthening democracy in the city, blasting the Board of Elections for using an outdated system that leads to low voter turnout.

Youve heard being customer-friendly? Our voting system is about as customer-unfriendly as it could be, the mayor said. Its not modern, its not fair, and it needs to change now.

DeBlasio proposed a 10-point plan to modernize local elections that included hiring the citys first-ever chief democracy officer, who will be charged with registering 15-million New Yorkers to vote over the next four years and with engaging more youths in civic processes, he said.

Weve got to prove to our young people that theyve got the power to change the world around them. When people feel empowered, they participate, he said. When they can see the impact theyre making, they come back for more.

The pol who now holds DeBlasios old Council seat applauded the mayors push for democratic reform, but implored Hizzoner not to forget residents opinions as he works to implement his plan.

It a vital time to re-energize our democracy. I hope the conversation will be open as opposed to just, Heres the democracy agenda, I am dictating it and now you will follow it,  said Councilman Brad Lander (DPark Slope). If we can have an inclusive conversation, then I think its really promising.Shares of Gitanjali Gems fell up to 19 per cent in morning trade after the company came under the scanner of various investigating agencies following the Punjab National Bank's declaration of nearly Rs 11,400-crore fraud.

The stock opened on a bearish note at Rs 48, then lost further ground to touch a low of Rs 47.20, down 19 per cent over its previous closing price.

Similar movement was seen on the NSE as well, where the stock tanked 18.73 per cent to a low of Rs 47.50.

At 12:34 pm, the stock was trading 16.30 percent lower at Rs 49.10 on BSE.

Meanwhile, other jewellery stocks also witnessed similar fate with PC Jeweller slumping 19.50 per cent to Rs 303.00, Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri (TBZ) 4.32 per cent to Rs 110.60, and Thangamayil Jewellery 2 per cent to 558.55 on BSE. Rajesh Exports fell 1.34 per cent to a low of Rs 808.70 on BSE.

Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Wednesday disclosed it has detected some fraudulent transactions with financial implication of $1.77 billion (about Rs 11,346 crore) and the matter has been referred to law enforcement agencies for the recovery.

"Four big jewellers-Gitanjali, Ginni, Nakshatra and Nirav Modi-are under scanner. The CBI and Enforcement Directorate is looking at their arrangements with various banks and end use of money," a senior official said on Wednesday.Billionaire Nirav Modi, who is now being investigated by the CBI for the mega bank fraud, is a luxury diamond jewellery designer who figured in Forbes India's Richest People List 2016 with a net worth of $1.74 billion. State-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) has detected some "fraudulent and unauthorised" transactions worth about Rs 11,300 crore at one of its branches in Mumbai. The value of the fraudulent transactions works out to more than 8 times PNB's annual net profit of Rs 1,324 crore during 2016-17. The bank said in a regulatory filing with the BSE that the transactions were "for the benefit of a few select account holders with their apparent connivance" and that "based on these transactions other banks appear to have advanced money to these customers abroad."

9.48pm: Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha says over Rs 9000 crore exposure on Mehul Choksi's companies of Public Sector Banks could enhance the loss figure.

The INR 9000 cr approximate exposure on Mehul Choksi's firms of the various PSU banks might further enhance the loss figure of many of the 30 banks involved with #NiravModi . This is a full-blown corruption scandal. #ModiRobsIndia - Sanjay Jha (@JhaSanjay) February 15, 2018

9.33pm: The Enforcement Directorate seeks revocation of the passports of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choski, reports ABPLIVE.

Also read: PNB's Rs 11,400-crore fraud: 10 unanswered questions

9.09pm: Former RBI governor SS Mundra tells CNBC-TV 18 that there's need to do a national-level check.

8.40pm: Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi says no agency was alerted even after the 'letter' mentioning 'fraud' was received by the PMO.

A letter sent to PMO in 2016 giving details of the #ModiFraud #ModiScam, acknowledged by PMO office too but no agencies alerted.

In the meanwhile he was with PM Modi in Davos too.

All on high alert after Nirav Modi and family escape. Convenient. - Priyanka Chaturvedi (@priyankac19) February 15, 2018

Today BJP govt is caught red handed on Nirav Modi. So BJP leaders's irritation on different TV channels can be understood. Few of them are so swollen face. I am reminded of last years of UPA govt when Congress spokespersons were to defend indefensible. - ashutosh (@ashutosh83B) February 15, 2018

AAP leader Ashutosh says the BJP frustration reminds him of the days when Congress spokespersons will have to defend indefensible.

8.30pm: Actor Priyanka Chopra's spokesperson says she is seeking advice from her legal counsel to terminate her contract with the jeweller.

8.04pm: Nirav Modi was a part of the CEO delegation meeting with PM Modi in Davo WEF 2018 event on January 23, reports CNBC-TV18.

7.50pm: Finance Ministry sources say the ED and CBI officials have seized gold, diamonds, precious stones worth Rs 5,100 crore.

7.22pm: Congress leader Sanjay Jha says the Modi government can't absolve its responsibility from the Rs 11,400 crore fraud related to Nirav Modi, and the suspected fraud related to Mehul Choksi, which may also be in many thousand crores.

7.15pm: The government has already seized properties worth over Rs 5,000 crore in the case, says BJP spokesperson Amit Malviya.

7.12pm: Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha says if the fraud is of such a mammoth scale, it is likely that people at the higher level were not involved.

6.20pm: BJP national spokesperson Nitin Kohli says majority of the loans that were given to Nirav Modi were given during between 2011 and 2014. He adds that the Congress government was in power at that time not the BJP, reports Firstpost.

6.02pm: According to agency reports, the CBI has seized over 95 documents, including bills and other important documents, related to Nirav Modi's company.

5.55pm: BJP spokesperson GVL narasimha Rao says total income of Gitanjali Jewels had doubled during the Congress regime.

Congress party's #PNBScam

Total income of Gitanjali jewels (a company involved in the PNB scam and owned by Mehul Choksi) doubled between 2011 and 2013. Was it the Congress government's fraudulent help that helped Geetanjali double it's income? Investigation to probe this angle. - GVL Narasimha Rao (@GVLNRAO) February 15, 2018

5.46pm: AAP leader Sanjay Singh has alleged the BJP has tried to shelter Nirav Modi. "Nirav Modi was able to commit such a big fraud because he is somehow associated with the Ambani family, and which is why they have permission to commit any fraud."

, , IPL , " " - Sanjay Singh AAP (@SanjayAzadSln) February 15, 2018

5.32pm: Assets worth Rs 1,300 crore have been seized. Revocation of Passport has been initiated. Lookout notice has been issued, says the minister.

5.31pm: Nirav Modi was not part of the Prime Minister's delegation. He was part of the photo op arranged by CII, says Ravi Shankar Prasad.



5.30pm: "Today, India's voice is heard across the globe, and we'll not allow the taxpayers' money to be lost. The person can be probed in foreign country as well. We have shown this in case of Vijay Mallya," says the minister.

5.28pm: Jinke apne ghar aise sheeshe ke hon jo tukde tukde hochuke hai, woh dusron ke ghar par pathar na feke, says the Union minister.

5.23pm: The Congress party should stop playing Davos photo politics. We also have photos of Mehul Choksi with Congress laders, though we don't want to stoop to that level, says the minister.

Congress photo ki rajneeti bandh kare. Many good and cosy photographs of many of the Congress leaders with Mehul Choksi is available with us, but we don't want to stoop to that level: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in Delhi #NiravModi pic.twitter.com/XFczfMw9KE - ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

5.20pm: Congress leader Randeep Surjewala has tweeted Nirav'Modi Scam' has hit India the hardest.

'Loot & Escape" has become the hallmark of Modi Government.#From1MODI2another Post-escape of 'Lalit Modi' i.e. 'Chhota Modi' and 'Vijay Mallya', another '#ModiScam' has hit India's banking sector the hardest. Our Statement:- pic.twitter.com/idvUxjoOhe - Randeep S Surjewala (@rssurjewala) February 15, 2018

5.19pm: They are asking us about Vijay Mallya, though it was the Congress government that supported him, says the minister.

5.16pm: The Opposition has used derogatory language in connecting Nirav Modi with PM Modi, by calling Nirav as 'Chhota Modi'. Our party takes a strong offence of such derogatory statements, says the Union Minister.

5.15pm: No matter who's involved in the fraud, we'll bring him or her to book.

5.14pm: We will carry out a thorough probe, and no one will be spared, says Ravi Shankar Prasad.



5.13pm: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad says both the CBI and ED have taken speedy action and Nirav Modi's three stores have been sealed in Surat, four in Mumbai, and two more have been sealed in Delhi.

5.08pm: Among the 40 properties raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the alleged fraud involving Nirav Modi, nine properties belonged to Nirav himself.

5.06pm: Gitangali Gem, Ginni, and Nakshatra Jewellers are also under the CBI scanner, say sources.

4.50pm: Bengaluru-based businessman SV Hari Prasad had first written a letter to the PMO, highlighting the fraud. Prasad told India Today: "I was the franchisee of Gitanjali India Lifestyle Ltd. There we got to know these companies are taking huge loans without having substantiated assets. I shared the information with the CBI, ED, Sebi, Registrar of Companies (RoC) but no action was taken."

4.47pm: AAP has alleged that those who flee from country are first seen "hanging around the BJp office".

4.20pm: Senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan says PM Modi claims all frauds were committed during the Congress Party time.

On 24/1/18 Modiji is seen at Davos with Nirav Modi. PNB waits for 5 days to complain to CBI about Modi's 280 Cr fraud in 2017. CBI registers FIR on 31/1/18, by which time Nirav Modi had fled like Mallya. Now we learn that fraud is >11K Cr! But PM says all bank fraud in Cong time! https://t.co/PQbKmP1YEu - Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) February 15, 2018

4.00pm: CPM leader Sitaram Yechuri says the Modi government needs to clarify how Nirav Modi fled the country.

If this person had fled India before the FIR on Jan 31, then he is here, photographed at Davos with PM, a week before the FIR, after having escaped from India? Modi govt must clarify. #NiravModi #PublicMoneyLoot pic.twitter.com/gQQnKQNjDo - Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) February 15, 2018

3.49pm: Nirav Modi's brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, also left the country on January 1, while wife Ami, a US citizen, and business partner Mehul Choksi, the Indian promoter of Gitanjali jewellery chain, departed on January 6.

3.48pm: Congress leader Sanjay Jha told India Today that the alleged fraud involving jeweller Nirav Modi is a serious scam of epic proportions. Talking about Nirav Modi in a group picture with OM Modi, which was taken in Davos during WEF 2018, Jha asked how there was no background check done on those posing with the PM?

3.47pm: CPI leader D Raja says the BJP government is responsible for the biggest banking scam. Raja asks the government to form JPC to inquire the case.

3.38pm: The ED has sealed 40 properties of Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Group chairman Mehul Choksi in Mumbai in fear of leaking sensitive documents. On Wednesday, Gitanjali Group sent a release saying Gitanjali Gems has not had any 'unauthorised' dealings with PNB or its officials.

3.33pm: Delhi chief minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal alleges the 'BJP govt' might be involved helping Nirav Modi.

Is it possible to believe that he or vijay mallya left the country without active connivance of BJP govt? https://t.co/6iMFf9VAkF - Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 15, 2018

3.32pm: Nirav Modi, who has already left India, has sought 6-month time to repay the loan to PNB.

3.27pm: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has demanded a thorough inquiry into the fraud.

Look what happened at Punjab National Bank ? A scam of more than Rs 11,000 crore. People's savings are not safe. There must be a thorough, time bound enquiry - Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) February 15, 2018

3.26pm: The CBI has issued lookout notices against Nirav Modi, his wife, brother, and Mehul Choksi, reports India Today.

3.14pm: Nirav Modi's wife, who's an American citizen, left India on January 6. Nirav Modi might be in Switzerland. The CBI has already issued look out circulars against all accused on January 31. Now the Enforcement Directorate may also issue lookout circulars.

#NiravModi's wife, an American citizen, left India on 6 Jan 2018, Mehul Choksi left the country on 4 Jan 2018., #NiravModi's brother Nishal Modi, a Belgian citizen, left India on 1 Jan 2018. CBI had issued look out circulars against all accused on 31 Jan 2018: Official Sources - ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

3.13pm: The BJP says whatever is coming out is the result of the previous UPA govt.

Whatever is coming out is the result of the previous UPA govt, action will be certainly taken on it: Nirmala Sitharaman,Union Defence Minister on #PNBFraudCase in Shillong, earlier today pic.twitter.com/n7qYVaMY3K - ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

3.06pm: Surjewala asks should PM Modi have permitted such a person (Nirav Modi) to be a part of a business delegation in Davos?"

3.04pm: When PM Modi is asked a question, he starts talking about the past 70 years of the country, says Congress.

3.03pm: Famous actor Priyanka Chopra, who's the global brand ambassador of Nirav Modi's diamond jewellery brand, has reportedly sued the company for defrauding her.

3.00pm: The congress says the government needs to answer who's responsible for the biggest bank loot.

How can #NiravModi and Mehul Choksi dupe the entire banking system through forged Letters of Understanding under the nose of Modi govt? Who is responsible for biggest bank loot scam unleashed by chhota Modi?: Randeep Surjewala, Congress pic.twitter.com/ECW6auBk63 - ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

The MoS Finance SP Shukla says the BJP was not in power in 2011 when the fraud happened.

We were not in govt in 2011, if Congress is making allegations, were they sleeping from 2011-14? They should've probed it. This govt is taking cognizance of matters & probing them. Congress' was a govt of scams & they established these scamsters: MoS Finance SP Shukla #PNBScam pic.twitter.com/HfubZ01WaT - ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

The Congress says the BJP once again is trying to hide the scam, and is protecting the accused. "The BJP's is also trying to divert the issue. It's the way BJP works. It had happened during Bank of Baroda case, and it's happening once again," says Surjewala.

2.40pm: The biggest bank look scam of independent India, says Surjewala.



2.39pm: This government has mismanaged the risk management system of the banking system, says Congress leader Randeep Surjewala.



Our bank credit exposure to these two groups in question will be around Rs 1,700 crore, says Mehta.

3.27pm: Congress president Rahul Gandhi says the government has looked the other way when Nirav Modi fled the country like Mallya.

Guide to Looting India

by Nirav MODI



1. Hug PM Modi

2. Be seen with him in DAVOS Use that clout to: A. Steal 12,000Cr

B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the Govt looks the other way. #From1MODI2another - Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 15, 2018

2.37pm: Congress says the common man's money was used for bank recapitalisation, which used it to fund 'fraudsters'.

So the taxpayers' money being used for bank recapitalization was being funded to fraudsters like #NiravModi . Awesome work, Finance Ministry. #PNBScam - Sanjay Jha (@JhaSanjay) February 15, 2018

2.35pm: Nirav Modi last week gave us informal email saying he plans to repay the entire amount. We have told him to come up with repayment plan, says Mehta.

2.34pm: We have already imitated the process for recovery. We hope good amount will be recovered. We are confident to protect the interest of all the lenders.

2.32pm: We conduct forensic probe in such cases of fraudulent transactions, says Mehta.

2.28pm: Mehta says the fraud was internally detected when the customer came for renewal on January 25.

2.27pm: We detected the fraud on January 3. We got to know that 2 of our employees did some unauthorised transactions. The bank initiated criminal action against our staff members, says Mehta.

2.23pm: Two of our employees had taken some unauthorized transactions, and the probe is on. We'll update you as the probe moves forward, says Mehta.

2.21pm: PNB is perusing clean banking. We want to convey this to our investors that we'll not tolerate any lapse, says Mehta.

2.20pm: We will not tolerate any lapse on our part. We have taken suitable action against out staff, and all those involved have been made part of the criminal complaint.

2.16pm: The PNB is trying its best to take appropriate actions against the culprits, says the PNB management.

2.14pm: Our bank was the first one to detect the fraud, says Sunil Mehta, PNB Managing Director.

2.12pm: The bank has the capacity and capability to come out of this situation, says the PNB Managing Director.



Diamonds are rare, so are the chances of a diamantaire defrauding a bank of more than Rs 11,300 crore. PNB's Brady House branch, less than a kilometer away from the swanky Nirav Modi diamond boutique in Kala Ghoda has become the epicenter of one of the largest banking fraud detected in the country.

Until a few days ago, Nirav Modi, the man at the centre of biggest scam at India's second largest public sector lender could be seen hobnobbing with Hollywood A-listers or cutting ribbons to open his upmarket diamond stores at some of the priciest locations across the world.

Modi, who grew up in Antwerp, the world's diamond capital, has his eponymous jewellery store on Madison Avenue in New York. The jewellery designer also boasts Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra as his brand ambassodor. According to Forbes, Wharton-dropout Nirav Modi has a net worth of $1.73 billion. He is said to have learned the tricks of the trade from his maternal uncle Mehul Choksi who is also the CMD popular jewellery brand Gitanjali Gems.

In 2010, Modi became the first Indian jeweller to be featured on the cover of Sotheby's and Christie's auction catalogues. Modi's jewels also fetched a whopping Rs 60 crore at the Christie's auction way back in 2010. But Modi's ambitious plan to have 100 boutique retail stores worldwide by 2025 seems to have been cut short following the allegations of one of India's biggest banking fraud.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the government had seized assets worth Rs 1,300 crore belonging to Nirav Modi besides initiating revocation of his passport. A lookout notice against the Surat-born diamond jewellery designer has already been issued by the CBI.

The fraud, incidentally, is 49 times the net profit posted by PNB for quarter ending December 31, 2017 and more than twice the amount that PNB got under bank recapitalisation plan.

PNB FRAUD



Billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from one of its branches for overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted raids on jeweller Nirav Modi's properties in Mumbai, Surat and Delhi. A case of money laundering has also been lodged against Nirav Modi and others.

In a statement issued to exchanges, Punjab National Bank on Wednesday said it has detected some fraudulent and unauthorised transactions (messages) in one of its branch in Mumbai for the benefit of a few select account holders with their apparent connivance.

"Based on these transactions other banks appear to have advanced money to these customers abroad. In the Bank these transactions are contingent in nature and liability arising out of these on the Bank shall be decided based on the law and genuineness of underlying transactions," it said.

PNB has suspended 10 officers over the Rs 11,400 crore scam and referred the matter to CBI for investigation. According to media reports, Nirav Modi left the country on January 1 weeks before the CBI received complaint from PNB on January 29.

His brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, also left the country on January 1, while wife Ami, a US citizen, and business partner Mehul Choksi, the Indian promoter of Gitanjali jewellery chain, departed on January 6.

The Punjab National Bank in a letter on February 12 warned the other banks by revealing the modus operandi used by bank officials of PNB's Brady House branch.

In the letter, PNB said, "It was found through SWIFT trail that one 'junior level' branch official unauthorisedly and fraudulently issued Letter of Undertakings (LoUs) on behalf of some companies belonging to Nirav Modi Group viz. Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds and Diamond R US for availing buyers credit from overseas branches of Indian banks."

None of the transactions were routed through the CBS system, thus avoiding early detection of fraudulent activity, it added. The bank also cautioned of a similar modus operandi used by the same branch official in companies belonging to Gitanjali Gems Ltd, promoted by Mehul Choksi viz. Gitanjali Gems, Gili India and Nakshatra while issuing LOUs.

In case of LoUs, it has been found that at the time of issuing LoUs for a smaller amount by SWIFT, the transaction was routed throuth the CBS system but subsequently, amendments were made in these LoUs by substantially enhancing the amount of LoUs and transmitted through SWIFT without routing these enhancements through CBS.

LOUs were opened in favour of overseas branches of Indian banks for import of pearls for a period of one year, for which as per RBI guidelines, the total time period allowed is 90 days from the date of shipment. Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank are said to have offered credit based on letters of undertaking (LOUs) issued by PNB.

Among those named is a deputy manager, Gokulnath Shetty, who was posted at PNBs foreign exchange department in Mumbai since March 31, 2010. He had allegedly along with another official Manoj Kharat fraudulently issued LoUs to these firms without following prescribed procedure or making entries in the banking system, avoiding detection of transactions.

DETECTION

When Nirav Modi companies asked for LoUs for raising buyers' credit after the retirement of the PNB employee involved in the scam, the Punjab National Bank sought 100 per cent cash margins for issuing LoUs. This was contested by the Nirav Modi firms, saying they had availed of the facility from as early as 2010.

NIRAV MODI SAGA

Nirav Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal and Mehul Choksi are partners in Diamonds R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds, which has shops in foreign locations such as Hong Kong, Dubai, and New York.

Modi, who had figured in the Forbes list of richest Indians, moved to India in 1990. The Nirav Modi store in New York shares space with legendary brands such as Chanel, Hermes, Prada and Gucci, and the designer is known to be shelling out a whopping $1.5 million a year as rental for the store. The store launch was graced by celebrity guests such as US presidential contender Donald Trump, Hollywood actress Naomi Watts and leading model Coca Rocha. Modi even walked the Red Carpet at the Oscars alongside Kate Winslet, who was adorned in a Nirav Modi jewel. Thereafter, he has opened stores on the Old Bond Street in London, Hong Kong and Macau.A day after Punjab National Bank (PNB) alerted the stock exchanges about a fraudulent and unauthorised transaction worth $1.8 billion, the bank has informed that it has triggered the process to recover the money from the people involved in the fraud.

In a press conference held in Delhi on Thursday, Sunil Mehta, MD and CEO, PNB, said that the enforcement agencies are initiating measures to seize the assets of the accused. Without naming the persons, Mehta said that the bank is also exploring the possibility of getting the customers refund the amount after a formal request was made by the persons involved. "They have not come to us personally, but have written to us, and we have requested them to come to us and give us a plan for refund", Mehta said, denying the fact that has been any further negotiation in this regard. The bank is yet to receive a concrete plan.

The persons allegedly engaged in the fraudulent transactions include billionaire diamond trader Nirav Modi and a clutch of companies related to diamond business.

Mehta said that the incident, which involved some of the bank employees in one of its branches in Mumbai, is isolated as they have failed to find any such instances of malpractices in any other branches across the country. All transactions carried out by the employees who have been found to be guilty will be thoroughly investigated, he added.

According to Mehta, the fraud was noticed by the bank authorities on January 25 and a complaint was registered with the authorities in less than a week.

Stating that the central government is watching the development on a day to day basis, he said that it is committed to clean up the system.

On liability, Mehta said that PNB is willing to take up any liability if the investigation leads to such a conclusion. "We are already in discussion with all the lenders. On the basis of the investigation, if the entire onus is on us, we will take it up", he assured.State-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) dropped a bombshell on Wednesday with the disclosure that it has detected some "fraudulent and unauthorised" transactions worth a staggering $1.77 billion (about Rs 11,300 crore) at one of its branches in Mumbai. The value of the fraudulent transactions works out to more than 8 times PNB's annual net profit of Rs 1,324 crore during 2016-17. The bank said in a regulatory filing with the BSE that the transactions were "for the benefit of a few select account holders with their apparent connivance" and that "based on these transactions other banks appear to have advanced money to these customers abroad."

PNB, the country's second-biggest public sector bank, in its regulatory filing did not name the people involved but said it had reported the deals to law enforcement agencies and would evaluate later whether it faces any liability arising out of the transactions. The matter has been referred to law enforcement agencies to examine the case and book the culprits, the bank statement added. "These transactions are contingent in nature and liability arising out of these on the bank shall be decided based on the law and genuineness of underlying transactions," PNB said, without giving further details.

However, sources disclose that PNB has lodged a complaint with the CBI against billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and a jewellery company over fraudulent transactions worth Rs 11,300 crore. The premier investigating agency is reported to have received the complaints about the transactions detected by the public sector bank late on Tuesday night. Modi is already being investigated by the CBI on a complaint from the Punjab National Bank filed last week over a $44 million (Rs 283 crore) fraud.

This is the second incident of fraud in less than 10 days involving the same person being reported to the CBI. Nirav Modi figured in Forbes India's Richest People List 2016, with a net worth of $1.74 billion. Jolted into action by the Rs 11,300 crore fraud at PNB, the finance ministry has set a oneweek deadline for all banks to send reports involving this case or other such incidents latest. Since more than one lender is involved, all banks have been asked by the finance ministry's department of financial services to submit a status report soon on the fraud, a senior official confirmed. He said the ``letter of undertaking'' was issued fraudulently by PNB to billionaire diamond merchant Nirav Modi and associates and was encashed overseas by them from different banks, both in the private as well as public sector. Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank are reported to have offered credit based on letters of undertaking (LOUs) issued by PNB.

An LOU is in effect a letter of comfort issued by one bank to branches of other banks, based on which foreign branches offer credit to buyers. Foreign branches of these banks which have dealings with outlets of a jewellery company are understood to have taken significant exposures. All this was being carried out in connivance with PNB officials including a deputy general manager since 2011, sources added.

PNB has suspended 10 employees in connection with the fraud. The finance ministry has also asked, through the reform agenda circulated to the banks on January 24, that dubious accounts should be scrutinised and appropriate action against fraudsters be taken with zero tolerance. Banks should not dither from taking action against their own employees in case of collusion if there is sufficient ground, the directions added.



SHARE PRICE PLUMMETS

PNB shares plunged 10 per cent on Wednesday after the public sector bank disclosed the detection of the fraud. Other state-run banks were under pressure, too, and fell by up to 8 per cent after the RBI came out with new norms for recognising stressed assets. The stock of PNB settled at Rs 145.20 on the NSE, a slump of 10.29 per cent from its previous close. During intra-day trade, the scrip touched a low of Rs 145.15. On BSE, the scrip closed 9.81 per cent lower at Rs 145.80.The European Union executive set out options on Wednesday for budget cuts and new sources of revenues to plug the hole left by Britain's exit from the bloc for the period from 2021 to 2027.

At an EU summit later this month, European leaders will debate the following options, including making EU money conditional on members living up to EU values and standards on the rule of law.

With border security a priority for member states, the European Commission said implementing a full border management system of 100,000 staff comparable to the United States would cost around 150 billion euros over the seven year budget period, corresponding to about 14 percent of the current budget. Simply upgrading border and coast guard service could cost around 20-25 billion euros, while trying to maximize existing infrastructure would require a budget of around 8 billion euros, it said.

In a show of unity after Brexit, 25 EU governments signed up to a new defense pact, promoted by France and Germany to fund, develop and deploy armed forces together.

To build on the initiative, the Commission said that at least 7 billion euros would be needed to co-finance defense industry development - in order to leverage some 35 billion euros.

To make a "substantial difference" on developing new technology, the so-called European Defence Fund should have a research budget of at least 3.5 billion, it said.

The Commission also suggested creating a separate funding mechanism for the period. "Due to the limitations of the Treaties the EU budget is not able to cover all EU areas of action in the field of security and defense," it said.

The EU executive offered up an estimate for doubling the number of students who could take part in the popular exchange program, known as Erasmus. To give one in three young people the opportunity to study abroad through the program would require a 90 billion euro investment. To reach 7.5 percent of young people across the bloc would cost 30 billion euros, it estimated.

Devoting at least 25 billion euros to help realize the Commission's vision for strengthening theeuro area would "provide critical mass and help avoid a concentration of funding on a few Member States only," it said.

The stabilization function should be built "progressively over time" and rely on grants and loans guaranteed by the EU budget, loans from the European Monetary Fund and a voluntary insurance mechanism based on national contributions. The contribution from the EU budget "would not necessarily need to be very high," it said.

Setting up for what is likely to be one of the biggest budgetary battles, the Commission proposed cutting money to more developed regions including in Italy, Spain, Ireland and Sweden, by between 95 and 124 billion euros. Under the scenario of steeper cuts, it would end investments for less developed regions in France, Italy and Spain.

Another contentious issue is how much money the bloc distributes to farming under its so called Common Agricultural Policy. The Commission suggested reducing funds by between 15 and 30 percent, representing savings of from 60 to 120 billion euros. Any decrease should go hand in hand with reforms of how the funds are spent, it said.

The Commission has also proposed to leverage funds available in the long-term budget in a similar way the EU has used to boost its investment capabilities. This would mean using EUmoney only as guarantees for more risky parts of investments co-financed by private investors. Such use of budget money could "more than double the investments mobilized over the next Multiannual Financial Framework up to EUR 2 trillion" the Commission said.

The Commission proposed EU funds only be granted to member states who live up the bloc's fundamental values and standards on the rule of law. Making funds conditional would pit the Commission against member states like Poland, which has clashed with Brussels over reforms to its courts. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ieEurope's justice commissioner told Facebook, Twitter and Google on Thursday to do more to bring their user terms in line with EU law, saying proposals submitted by the tech giants were considered insufficient.

The European Union executive and consumer protection authorities said the three companies have only partially addressed concerns over their liability and how users are informed about content removal or contract terminations.

The authorities across the bloc, who requested the changes last year, have the power to issue fines if the companies fail to comply.

"EU consumer rules should be respected and if companies don't comply, they should face sanctions," European Commissioner Vera Jourova said in a statement. "Some companies are now making their platforms safer for consumers; however, it is unacceptable that this is still not complete and it is taking so much time." (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ieMinister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys joined CEO of Autodesk, Andrew Anagnost on Tuesday to announce the opening of a major new site for the company in Dublin.

Autodesk, the global design software company, will initially hire 200 people in finance, operations, localisation and sales operations by the end of this year to support its EMEA business. Autodesk is supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland.

While Autodesk hasnt had a site in Ireland for a number of years, it is present in the market. The companys technology is being used by customers to design and build some of the most iconic buildings in Ireland, such as the Central Bank of Ireland and the forthcoming Dublin Childrens Hospital, which is the largest public project in Ireland.

At an event held in Dublin on Tuesday, CEO Andrew Anagnost commented, "We selected Dublin because of its global business environment, talent, ability to support European languages, excellent long-term cost structure, and quality of life for employees. Dublin is a vibrant, multicultural and creative city. These qualities align well with our brand and culture and we think Dublin will be a great fit for us."

The Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys added, "I am delighted that a company of Autodesks international stature and expertise has decided to invest in Ireland with a project which will create 200 new jobs. We already have a strong footprint of innovative ICT businesses investing in Dublin and Autodesks decision to locate its new facility in Ireland, which will develop its cutting-edge services in computer aided design, is very good news indeed."

Source: www.businessworld.ieAer Lingus has partnered with the Fingal Dublin Chamber and the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) Fingal to launch the Aer Lingus TakeOff Foundation Start-Up Awards which will celebrate and support the talent of up-and-coming businesses based in the Fingal area on their journey to success.

The awards were launched this week at an Aer Lingus Social Media Masterclass for Start-Ups held in conjunction with Fingal Dublin Chamber and LEO Fingal that was attended by more than 100 business owners and start-ups.

This event provided start-ups from across Fingal with advice on how social media can be used to build business success, drive brand awareness, and to gain followers and new business in a really cost-effective way.

The new TakeOff Foundation Start-Up Awards will give three talented business owners the opportunity to expand their outreach to international markets for business purposes by mentoring up and coming businesses in the Fingal region and assisting with their flight needs and business profile.

The prize package received by each winning start-up will consist of an allocation of European and long-haul international flights, business mentoring with key staff across a range of Aer Lingus business departments, and exposure for each start-up within the airlines Cara Magazine.



This initiative is targeted at start-ups based in Fingal that have been trading in the Irish market for the last 18 months at least, and for no more than three years. Successful candidates will be selected following a shortlisting phase and subsequent presentation to a judging panel consisting of representatives from Aer Lingus, LEO Fingal and the Fingal Chamber of Commerce.

In addition to supporting Irish business communities, the Aer Lingus TakeOff Foundation encompasses all Aer Lingus charity and corporate social responsibility activity including continued work with chosen charity partners UNICEF Ireland and Special Olympics Ireland, additional charity fundraising activities undertaken by Aer Lingus staff and volunteers, and support of the Arts in Ireland through the Aer Lingus Irish Filmmaker Competition

The opening date for entries is 12.02.18 and the closing date is 11.03.18.

Speaking about the launch of the awards, Aer Lingus Director of Communications, Declan Kearney said, "We have established the TakeOff Foundation Start-Up Awards to help business owners during this formative period to reach their full potential by tapping into international markets and business opportunities. Successful start-ups will ultimately benefit our local and national economies and will in time become frequent business flyers with Aer Lingus."

Interested candidates can apply via the following link: https://www.aerlingus.com/about-us/takeoff-foundation/start-up-awards

Source: www.businessworld.ieModified On Jan 09, 2019 02:43 PM By Khan Mohd. for Hyundai Elite i20 2017-2020

With more features and cosmetic updates, the Elite i20 facelift revives its rivalry with the bestselling premium hatchback, the Maruti Baleno

The 2018 Hyundai Elite i20 is priced from Rs 5.43 lakh to Rs 9.23 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). At this price point the Hyundai hatchback is priced at a premium of upto Rs 70,00 over its arch-rival, the Baleno, which is priced from Rs 5.38 lakh to Rs 8.49 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).For this extra premium, the Hyundai goes gets some extra features over the Maruti such as side and curtain airbags and rear AC vents. But, is the higher price justified? Here is a comparison to know how the Hyundai Elite i20 fares against the Maruti Baleno on paper.

Specifications

Petrol engines

While the Baleno gets an automatic transmission as an option, the Elite i20 facelift misses it this time around (Though Hyundai has confirmed that itll soon add CVT with the petrol motor). Available in a sportier avatar, the Baleno RS is powered by a 1.0-litre Boosterjet engine which pumps 102PS of max power and 150Nm of max torque. It is paired to a 5-speed manual gearbox. Although the 1.2-litre petrol engines seem to be neck and neck in terms of performance, generating almost similar power and torque figures, the Baleno has an edge over the i20 in the fuel efficiency department, turning out to be more pocket-friendly.

Diesel engines

The i20 produces a healthy power figure of 90PS, a good 15PS more than the Maruti Suzuki Baleno, and a massive torque figure in excess of 200Nm. However, here as well, the Baleno triumphs over the Elite i20 in returning higher fuel economy figures of 27.39kmpl. Dimensions

The Hyundai Elite i20 facelift should have greater cabin space thanks to the longer wheelbase. However, the Baleno is wider and taller than the Korean hatchback. But theres not much difference in the two hatchbacks and both appear to be quite spacious on the inside.

Features and price

The Baleno and the Elite i20 get dual airbags, ABS and central locking as standard. Prices for the Baleno start from Rs 5.38 lakh while those of the Elite i20 start from Rs 5.43 lakh (both ex-showroom Delhi).

The prices of the most feature-loaded diesel-manual variants of these cars stand at Rs 8.49 lakh and Rs 9.23 lakh for the Baleno and the Elite i20, respectively. The Elite i20 is more feature-loaded in its top variant as it gets side and curtain airbags, clutch lock, cornering lamps, and cooled glovebox that the Baleno doesnt.

Also Read: 2019 Maruti Suzuki Baleno Facelift Spied Undisguised Ahead Of Launch

Read More on : Hyundai i20 dieselOur Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing.

You are our people. You Care. We Care2.Jharkhand Public Service Commission has released an official employment notification calling out for aspirants to apply for the posts of non-teaching Specialist Doctors. Interested candidates can check out the eligibility, salary scale, how to check and the complete details of the government job here.

Those interested to apply must complete the online registration process for the Jharkhand Civil Services Exam. The last date to apply for the posts is 31 March 2018.

Central University of Jharkhand Recruitment 2018 For Professor Posts

Jharkhand Public Service Commission Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details

General Details

CRITERIA DETAILS Criteria Specialist Doctors Category Non-teaching Educational Requirement MBBS with a PG degree in the relevant field Age Limit The maximum age of the candidates can be 40 years Salary Scale Industry standards

Also Read: West Bengal Public Service Commission Recruitment 2018 For Assistant Director!

Post-wise Details

NAME OF THE POST NUMBER OF POSTS Gynaecologist 3 Anaesthetist 3 Surgeon 7 Physician 9 ENT Specialist 1 Opthalmologist 5 Paediatrician 18 Psychiatrist 8 Orthopaedician 11

Note:

Relaxation in age and other requirement will be provided for the reserved category as per government norms.

Click Here to read the official notification.

How To Apply For Jharkhand Public Service Commission Recruitment 2018

In order to apply for Jharkhand Public Service Commission Recruitment 2018, follow the steps given here:

Step 1 Log on to the JPSC official website. Step 2 Scroll down and click on the link on the bottom of the page that reads, Click here for Specialist Doctor Recruitment. Step 3 The details of JPSC recruitment will be displayed on the screen. Read them carefully. Step 4 On the right-hand side of the page, click on the link that reads Click here for new registration. Step 5 The application form will be displayed on the screen. Fill in your particulars in the space provided. Step 6 Enter the answer for the numerical question for security check. Step 7 Click Save and Edit and follow the subsequent pages.

Meanwhile, the application process for the Union Public Service Commission has also started and the lines for the registration is open now. Check out the complete details of the UPSC prelims registration here.

UPSC Civil Services Exam 2018: Check Selection Process, Cut-off Marks, Exam Dates, Preparation Tips1. All India Institute Of Medical Sciences, New Delhi

Established in 1956, this institute works autonomously under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. A leader in cardiac and neurological studies, this institute offers its students an opportunity to witness some of the finest cardiac transplants of the world.

The Medical Toxicology Lab and the DNA Profiling Lab, that were established in 1990, rank amongst the best in the world. Thus, the students of this institute have exposure to some of the finest facilities in terms of medical education.

Visit Us At: All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi

2. Christian Medical College, Vellore

As the name suggests, this is a network of hospitals in and around Vellore, Tamil Nadu, that is run by the minority Christians and intends to provide quality training and research facilities to medical students.

A pioneer in terms of technology, this medical college holds the record of performing the first reconstructive surgery for leprosy in the world. Over the years, the college has stood tall to its promise of delivering quality education with a human touch.

Visit Us At:Christian Medical College, Vellore

3. Armed Forces Medical College, Pune

Established just after the Second World War (in the year 1948), the aim of this institution was to provide a pool of doctor-soldiers, who could be recruited either in the Army or the Air Force or even in the Navy as per the demands. Over the decades, the institution has managed to stand tall to its initial goal and deliver the quality it has always intended to.

Visit Us At: Armed Forces Medical College

4. Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi

This college has four wings - Lok Nayak Hospital, G B Pant Institute of Post graduate Medical Education & Research, Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences and Guru Nanak Eye Center. Each of the four wings is a centre of excellence in its own way.

Having an outpatient attendance of over 7000 on a daily basis, the hospital is an excellent place of learning. The 290 undergraduate students and the 245 ones who are pursuing their postgraduate degree have very good exposure to real-time patient management.

Visit Us At: Maulana Azad Medical College

5. Grant Medical College And Sir J. J. Group Of Hospitals, Mumbai

Established in 1845, this college laid the foundation for quality teaching and practise of medical science way back in 1845. The institute teaches its upcoming team of medical personnel to provide quality medical care and to work hard to make the same affordable to the poor and the needy.

Over the years, the college has remained consistent in its performance and has ensured that it stays true to the values that form the foundation of this institute of learning.

Visit Us At: Grant Medical College and Sir JJ Group of Hospitals

6. Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi

One of the pioneers of women empowerment in the country, this institute was established over a decade back in 1916. Since then it has come a long way by producing quality medical professionals for generations.

For a college that started with a mere 80 beds, the institute now has over 1200 beds and an equally well-equipped outpatient department. The alumni of this institution are well placed in almost all the top institutes of the country.

Visit Us At: Lady Hardinge Medical College

7. King Georges Medical University, Lucknow

This is another centre of medical excellence that has been the pride of the country for decades now. One thing that sets this college apart from that of all others is the fact that it has always kept itself updated in terms of medical technology while staying true to its values. The cardiology department of this college is particularly reputed at a global level.

Visit Us At: King George's Medical University

8. Kasturba Medical College, Manipal

With about Rs 3 crore worth ongoing research projects, this institute is one of the best places for pursuing academic research in the field of medical sciences. With a campus that is over 30 acre in dimensions, this college makes its way to the best in the country despite being a college that is not aided by the government. The infrastructure of this college is commendable, to say the least.

Visit Us At: Kasturba Medical College, Manipal

9. University College Of Medical Sciences (UCMS)  University of Delhi, New Delhi

This college is very selective while choosing its students and that is one of the reasons why it has been steady in holding its position as one of the top medical colleges of the country. It has eminent faculty who are a part of the expert groups of UNICEF, WHO, UNAID, World Bank, ICMR and CSIR. Other than the usual medical learning, the institute offers a number of specialised certificate courses as well.

Visit Us At: University College of Medical Sciences (UCMS) - University of Delhi

10. Bangalore Medical College And Research Institute, Bangalore

This institute has more than 2500 beds to its credit, which ensures that the students studying in this institution have a very good experience of dealing with live cases all the time.

The library of the college is also commendable with access to thousands of books and over 120 journals on a monthly basis. The teacher to student ratio here is also praiseworthy.

Visit Us At: Bangalore Medical College and Research InstitutePolish artists have supported international stop motion productions for many years, creating puppets, sets, and props for films such as Peter and the Wolf by Suzie Templeton, which won the Academy Award, Danny Boy directed by Marek Skrobecki, and Mask by Quay Brothers.

As Polish stop motion animation celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, such collaborations between Polish artists and international producers continue to grow, and one of the key companies playing a role in that growth is Momakin. In this piece, we take a look at a couple of Momakins high-profile collaborations and learn why Poland is so highly in demand by animation producers all over the world.

Polish artists on the bigscreen

Inzomnia is a fantasy-adventure stop motion animated feature being produced in Mexico by Inzomnia Animacion, and the film features several dozen animation puppets created by Polish artists.

The film is directed by Luis Tellez, with Karla Castaneda and Francesca Berlingieri Maxwell as production designers. It is Mexicos first stop-motion feature film ever made produced by Paula Astorga and Milko Luis, who have often tackled challenging projects in the past.

The main character, a girl named Camila, goes on a mission to save her parents and the rest of the city from the clutches of a wicked businessman who has created an insomnia pill that forces people to remain awake and work their whole life. Camila is the only person who can sleep, and in her dreams, she meets Cesar, a nine-year-old boy, with whom she embarks on a journey involving magical characters and mythic creatures.

The cooperation between the films Mexican crew and Polish artists started in 2016. Using the character concept designs by director Luis Tellez, as well as references and precise information about the movement of particular puppets, artists in Poland created a final design for each puppet and its armature design (as well as mechanical heads, for most puppets), before producing the final puppets.

The first test puppet created for the project was Cesar, the boy who lives in a world of dreams. On the basis of that, we made a numerous decisions, including final scale of the puppets, said Katarzyna Gromadzka from Momakin, which represents the Polish artists who worked on the project. After the character was figured out, the main character Camila was created. For the needs of the production, over 40 puppets, representing a dozen or so leading and supporting characters, will be created plus extras and background characters. And the diversity of them will be huge, added Gromadzka. The Cesars puppet is 8.6 inches, Camilas puppet is 9.4 inches, and the mythic Chimeras puppet is a giant  20 inches high and 27.5 inches long!

So far, the greatest challenge during the pre-production phase has been creating a communication system that allows for an efficient exchange of information across a distance of 6,000 miles. For example, it was necessary to create a system for how to discuss colors that are often distorted between the photos, on the screen, and when printed, explained Gromadzka.

The second challenge was the fact that the decorations which must adorn the puppets (both technically and aesthetically) are created entirely in Mexico. Consequently, Polish artists do not have access to them for comparison or testing.

There are other practical matters as well. Of course the aspect of shipping puppets matters as well, said Gromadzka. Each time they must be precisely protected and hoped that they will not be damaged in transport. Consideration must also be made between the time zones differences of Mexico and Poland. However, everything can be solved if both sides count on communication and have a task-based approach to occurring difficulties, reassured Gromadzka.

Guadalajara in Mexico, a place where Inzomnia is being created, is an important place for Mexican film and animation. It is both the hometown of famed Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, as well as a hub of stop motion production.

So why was the production of puppets handed over to artists from Poland, a country halfway around the world? Paula Astorga Riestra, a producer of Inzomnia, offered a perspective: Luis [Tellez], I, and all of the team are huge fans of the Polish animation tradition and their own aesthetics, so it was always our first option as an artistic partner. It is also true that even when their animation techniques and craft are of the highest possible quality, it is still within an approachable budget, which is always an amazing opportunity for enriching our production standards and developing a better animation industry path worldwide.

Puppets made by Polish artists are highly valued for their solidity, expert precision and attention to detail. Theyve been used in the past for Mexican productions by Jonathan Ostos Yaber (for example: Mr. Wires Nostalgia), as well as European productions, such as the Slovenian children series Koyaa by Kolja Saksida. It should be mentioned that the producers of Inzomnia are interested in extending the cooperation with other Polish members of a creative team, said Katarzyna Gromadzka.

Not only puppets

At the same time another Polish crew at Momakin is working on sequences using miniature models and figurines for a docudrama children series for German broadcaster SWR under the working title of Small Hands in World War II, directed by Matthias Zirzow and produced by German LOOKSfilm in cooperation with Polish partners TOTO Studio, EC1 odz  City of Culture, and CeTA. The series combines live-action sequences and archival footage with scenes using miniature models, creating an atmospheric visualization of historical and personal stories in the form of a three-dimensional model world. The format of the series has already been successfully used in a series about World War I.

In the new series, a huge model of a three-dimensional map of Europe will help to show the geopolitical situation at any given moment of the story. With tin soldiers, miniature tanks, and warships, it will also allow to visualize movement of armies and changes of borders and fronts. Other models will recreate places which no longer exist, such us prewar cities and towns.

The models will show the vast scale of the ghetto area or a concentration camp, helping young viewers to grasp the amount of people imprisoned and killed during World War II. The models will also help to introduce military actions into the drama, such as bombings or tank attacks.

The series demanded a diverse vareity of miniature models representing different parts of Europe, Katarzyna Gromadzka explained. The Polish crew at Momakin had to create Norwegian fjords, the ghetto in Czestochowa, the Kazakh Steppe, and other landscapes, in addition to a dozen or so figurines in 1:16 scale, almost 40 figurines in 1:35 scale, and several dozens of tin soldiers in 1:72 scale. The figurines, said Gromadzka, will serve as miniatures of the characters from live-action shots: protagonists of each episode, as well as soldiers, prisoners, and refugees. This month, they were used by a Polish crew for the realization of the effect shots at Wroclaws Audiovisual Technology Center.

LOOKSfilm is happy to coproduce the second season of Small Hands with Toto Studio and Momakin, said LOOKSFilm producer Ramona Bergmann. We worked together on the first season and want to continue the excellent cooperation. We have the great possibility to use the knowledge, experience, and unique style of Polish artists like Agata Gorzadek who is the production designer for the series.

Polands contribution in the animation world deserves to be talked about

While the artisanal quality and craft-based traditions of Polish animation are widely known, most artists who have worked on globally recognized projects remain largely anonymous. The Polish Quality project, led by Momakin, aims to change this.

Polish Quality, which is co-financed by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Association of Polish Animation Producers (SPPA), has been created to promote the contributions of Polish artists and animation industry service-providing companies to international film producers, especially stop-motion animation.

Besides having a strong focus on promoting animators, the program showcases the artistic talents of puppet makers, set builders and prop makers, not just in the sphere of animation, but also for live-action sets and special effects, as well as crew members specializing in animation and miniature capture.

Gleaning the talents of an experienced crew is a reason for many producers to sit up and take an interest in co-productions with Polish companies or to consider contracting third-party services in Poland across the range of feature film, documentary and television production.

That is why Momakin, through Polish Quality, supports foreign producers looking for partners in Poland, whether in the form of co-producers, executive producers, or finding access to Polish finance.

The Momakin team responsible for coordinating Polish Quality represents crew members who underpinned artistic successes like: Peter and the Wolf (dir. Suzie Templeton), Danny Boy (dir. Marek Skrobecki), Mask (dir. Quay Brothers), The Flying Machine (dir. Martin Clapp), plus much-loved animated childrens series such as Flapper and Friends (dir. Krzysztof Brzozowski), The Treflik Family (dir. Marek Skrobecki), Koyaa (dir. Kolja Saksida); creators of sets and props for Solan og Ludvig  Jul i Flaklypa and Solan og Ludvig: Herfra til Flaklypa (dir. Rasmus A. Sivertsen), and not forgetting the crews in the upcoming documentary tv series Small Hands in World War II and the Mexican feature Inzomnia.

To learn more about collaborating with film and animation artists from Poland, visit PolishQuality.Momakin.pl.No point in deleting, someone will always make a print! You might think every famous person would know this, but...Cemex renews Birdlife conservation partnership

ICR Newsroom By 15 February 2018

Cemex announced it is renewing its partnership with Birdlife International, the worlds largest nature conservation partnership. The renewal extends the cement producers 10-year partnership by a further three years.



Cemex and BirdLifes joint efforts have significantly improved the biodiversity of Cemexs quarries, such as its Cerrito Blanco Quarry in northwestern Mexico. As a result of this BAP implementation, Mexicos national bird, the Golden Eagle, is benefitting from a focussed conservation effort, including enhancing habitat quality, says the company in a statement.



In addition, Cemex carried out the restoration of 1000ha of priority habitat in the UK, the sector-leading conservation of highly-threatened reptiles through the Las Salinas BAP in the Dominican Republic, and the preservation of two Alliance for Zero Extinction species (AZE) as a result of the La Nacuma BAP in Colombia.



For 10 years, BirdLife International has been instrumental in helping us to protect the biodiversity that surrounds our operations and in creating environmental conditions similar to or better than those that were present at the beginning of our quarries life cycles, said Jesus Gonzalez, Cemex executive vice president of Sustainability and Operations Development. With many success stories behind us, we believe that, by partnering with organisations such as BirdLife, we are truly delivering on our commitment to build a better future for generations to enjoy.



Patricia Zurita, CEO of BirdLife International, said, Our global partnership with CEMEX demonstrates the strong positive impact we can have for nature when conservation NGOs and businesses work together. We are delighted to be able to continue our joint efforts with CEMEX to conserve high priority species and enhance biodiversity management in Key Biodiversity Areas sites of global importance for nature. We look forward to at least three more years of successful collaboration.

Published underCementir boosted by full-year results from Belgium

ICR Newsroom By 15 February 2018

Cementir Holding's turnover in 2017 increased by 25.3 per cent to EUR1287.5m and EBITDA was ahead by 11.5 per cent to 220.5m. As regards the continuing business, the turnover advanced by10.9 per cent to EUR1140.0m and EBITDA emerged 13.3 per cent ahead at EUR224.2m, while the trading profit showed a 50 per cent advance to EUR142m.

Net debt at the end of 2017 was 4.6 per cent lower at EUR536.6m, while capital investment in the year increased by 33.9 per cent to EUR92m. Since the year end, Cementir has received EUR315m for the sale of Cementir Italia to HeidelbergCement. More recently, Cementir has agreed with HeidelbergCement to acquire an additional 38.75 per cent of Lehigh White Cement Company, taking its stake to 63.25 per cent. The remaining 36.75 per cent of the equity will be held by Cemex.

Group shipments of grey and white cement, and clinker, increased by 26.6 per cent to 12.80Mt, while the aggregates shipments advanced by 109.2 per cent to 9.34Mt and ready-mixed concrete deliveries rose by 14.8 per cent to 5.08Mm. The number of employees, adjusted for the disposal of Cementir Italia, declined by 16.5 per cent to 3021.

The now disposed off Cementir Italia generated a turnover of EUR147.6m but made a EUR3.7m toss at EBITDA level. A full-years contribution from Compagnie des Ciments Belges, compared with just over two months in 2016, had a notable effect on the results and on a comparative basis the group revenue was ahead by a more modest 1.7 per cent.

In addition to changes in the scope of consolidation, cement volumes increased in Denmark, Turkey, Egypt and Malaysia. The aggregates operations, in addition to the addition of CCB, performed well in Sweden and Denmark, while ready-mixed concrete deliveries were helped by acquisitions and by good performances in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, but volumes did fall in Turkey.

Published underPPC Zimbabwe to keep Colleen Bawn plant open

ICR Newsroom By 15 February 2018

Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC), has cancelled plans to shut down its Colleen Bawn cement plant in Gwanda, Zimbabwe, following talks with the government.



Late last year PPC Zimbabwe had suggested the possibility of closing the factory in Matabeleland, citing pressure from cheap imported clinker, smuggling of cement products and high local manufacturing costs.



"We have continued to engage the Zimbabwean Government. PPC Zimbabwe appreciates the support we have so far received, as expressed in the 2018 Budget proposal, which proposed that clinker be removed from the open general import licence in order to support local production" said a PPC statement.

"PPC is committed to continue with local production as supported by Government."



The Colleen Bawn plant is the main PPC operation in Zimbabwe, but the firm also runs a factory in Bulawayo and a grinding plant in Harare. PPC is the leading cement producer in Zimbabwe and competes with Lafarge, Sino-Zim and Kwekwe-based Livetouch Cement.





Published underMoroccan cement demand declines 4% in January

ICR Newsroom By 15 February 2018

Cement consumption in Morocco fell 4.4 per cent in January to 1,114,857t from 1,166,184t in January 2016, according to the countrys Ministry of Housing and Urbanisation.



In the countrys largest market, Casablanca-Settat, sales fell 8.6 per cent to 254,328t. However, a more positive development was noted in Marrakech-Safi, which saw demand expand by 9.6 per cent to 155,173t. Rabat-Sale-Kenitra saw demand slip 1.25 per cent to 146,466t while in Tanger-Tetouan-Al Houceima the offtake was 4.5 per cent lower YoY at 142,401t. Souss-Massa and Oriental reported a 7.2 per cent decline to 101,790t and a 2.5 per cent drop to 100,232t, respectively. The small markets of Laayoun-S.Elhamra and Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab saw demand rise by 21.3 and 47 per cent to 26,722t and 10,106t, respectively.

Published underGame of Thrones fans has been busy making bold predictions for Season 8. But now that the cast is filming, they might be getting a better idea of whats in store. This is especially true for theories involving Jon Snow because Kit Harington and a few co-stars have been seen filming all over the world.

So which cities has he been visiting, and what could it mean for next season? Here are seven things we know about where he has been spotted and what it could mean for Jon Snow.

1. Kit Harington was spotted in Dubrovnik, Croatia

The television star was spotted in Dubrovnik, Croatia, which is known as the filming spot for scenes set in Kings Landing, according to Winter Is Coming. The sets and props are being set up for scenes at the Red Keep as well.

This news probably means that Jon Snow will definitely be in Kings Landing in Season 8. We already saw him and Daenerys Targaryen close to Kings Landing in Season 7, trying to convince Cersei Lannister to turn her efforts to fight the army that is building beyond the wall.

But we also need to see the new couple fight Cersei Lannister, who will want to kill them the moment she gets an opportunity. We still have to wait and see if these scenes at Kings Landing mean peace or war for the characters who are temporarily putting their differences aside.

Next: He has also been seen filming with this co-star.



2. Harington has been seen filming with Lena Headey

Jon Snow and Cersei Lannister will be facing off again. The two were pictured filming a scene with two armored men in Croatia. Neither of them looked happy inside the castle of Kings Landing.

Next: He was in this country with another co-star.



3. Harington and Clarke were also seen in Iceland, meaning Jon and Daenerys are beyond the Wall

Thats not the only location where Harington has been spotted. Fans also saw him and Emilia Clarke in Iceland, which most likely means they are filming scenes beyond the wall.

Hopefully, this means they will be fighting the big fight and figuring out how to take down that ice dragon.

Next: There might be another Stark reunion ahead.



4. Harington was also in Belfast, which could mean a Stark reunion

The actor was also filming in Northern Ireland. This most likely means Jon Snow is making it back to the North, given Winter Is Coming also claims Sophie Turner, Emilia Clarke, Maisie Williams and Hafthor Thor Bjornsson have also been seen in the city. This could mean the remaining Starks will reunite.

Next: Harington revealed he cried because of this.



5. He said he cried after reading Season 8s script

We might have to wait for the shows ending, but the actor revealed that it has been emotional for him.

We had the read through last week, so I know everything, he said on The One Show. But I cried at the end  not over anything particular that happened  but its been 8 years and no one cares about it more than we do.

Next: Harington teased Season 8 will be larger than ever.



6. He talked about the huge final season

The star has been open about the scale of the upcoming season and what that means for his schedule.

Im actually down in York, Im back in Belfast [where the show is filmed] some next week, he told Time. Its a lot of  its just bigger than its ever been! It is sinking in, its just quite emotional.

Next: Harington isnt quite sure about this in his future.



7. Harington said he isnt sure how hell feel once hes done

Although this has already been an emotional journey for the actor, he said he doesnt know about the future.

I dont know how Im going to feel sometime next year when Ive finished, he told Time. Its quite a sudden shift, I guess, but it feels like the right time.

Follow Nicole Weaver on Twitter @nikkibernice.

Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook!The family of a Malaysian pastor who was abducted a year ago in broad daylight in Petaling Jaya is still pleading for his release and hoping that they would be reunited in time for the Chinese New Year.

In a statement issued exactly a year after Pastor Raymond Koh was abducted, his wife Susanna Liew pleaded for her husband's release, saying she wished that their family could be together for the Chinese New Year. Koh, who was taken by masked men in Petaling Jaya on Feb. 13, 2017 in an incident captured by security footage, is still missing, Channel News Asia reports.

"My wish is for Raymond to be released so that he can be reunited with his family especially this Chinese New Year," said Liew in her statement. "His mother is ailing and has not seen him for over a year."

Police are investigating whether Pastor Koh's disappearance was connected with proselytization allegations against him, as it is illegal for non-Muslims to preach to Muslims in Malaysia. It is also thought that a human trafficking syndicate could have been involved in his disappearance.

The Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) also called for Pastor Koh's release on the anniversary of his abduction. Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, Julian Leow Beng Kim, urged Christians to continue praying for closure on the case of the missing pastor, the Anglican News reported.

Archbishop Kim, who serves as the chairman of CFM, encouraged the faithful to also pray that Pastor Koh would finally be reunited with his family. He also asked them to pray that the Lord would strengthen Koh's family as they endure this difficult time.

CFM called on authorities to urgently and diligently complete their investigations into the case of Pastor Koh and the other Christians who have been reported missing.In a recent interview with Religion News Service, Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, shared that he is a bit frustrated with fellow evangelicals who have hesitated or refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine.Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

We are marveling at the Olympic athletes competing in the Winter games in South Korea. Their strength, determination, and incredible feats seem to defy human limitations.

So, without detracting from the Olympic athletes, I object to honoring North Koreaa nation that allows its people to starve and be tortured for seeming non-compliance to worshipping their leader Kim Jong Un.

Citizens live in poverty and a constant state of fear. They are brutalized in ways no human should ever face.

Yet the reporters from PyeongChang are painting a beautifully serene picture of North Korean athletes. Do not be fooled. Those smiling North Korean faces are a mask. Death awaits anyone who defies the Supreme Ruler. They know this fully. Many fear their own thoughts could somehow betray them.

Listen to the testimonies of those who've escaped North Korea. They've eaten dirt to stave off excruciating hunger pains and their minds are tormented by images of their loved one's executions.

The North Korean athletes are a media front for a rogue regime that would just as soon take over South Korea, and annihilate populous cities in the United States with nuclear weapons.

Those smiling faces don't change the reality of what these athletes will return home to after the closing ceremonies.

North Korea is not a place you'd ever want to live, and its citizens know they have little hope ever leaving alive.

The North Korean athletes can't use our pity or our praise. They don't need media's false image of what's behind their curtain of darkness.

What they need is our pledge to help them defeat their oppressive government. Now that would be a real Olympic victory.Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

U. S. Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky is beginning to sound like a lone voice in the wilderness. He's decrying the recent budget deal that will add significantly to the national debt. Our politicians are spending money and racking up debts like there's no tomorrow.

Paul said on the senate floor last week: "When the Democrats are in power, Republicans appear to be the conservative party. But when Republicans are in power, it seems there is no conservative party. The hypocrisy hangs in the air and chokes anyone with a sense of decency or intellectual honesty."

Is reckless government spending going to saddle future generations with debts that can't be paid back?

In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan said, "We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much." Oh, if our national debt were only one trillion dollars. Now it's up to the astonishing and unsustainable figure of about 20 trillion plus.

This gets me to thinking: What did our nation's founders have to say on the subject of needless and reckless national borrowing?

In his Farewell Address (1796), George Washington cautioned, "As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace."

The father of our country goes on to say that "timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it." And he adds: we should be "avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertion in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned."

Why should we do this? So that we do "not ungenerously [throw] upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear." But this is exactly what we're doing. It seems to me we're stealing from our children and our children's children.

Sometimes we forget just how costly a trillion dollars is. I once heard a speaker give this illustration: If I owed you $100 and said I'd pay you in a million seconds, when would I pay you? In 12 days. If I owed you $100 and said I'd pay you in a billion seconds, when would I pay you? In 32 years. If I owed you $100 and said I'd pay you in a trillion seconds, when would I pay you? In 32,000 years.

This is mind-boggling to say the least. Our founding fathers were wise in seeing the dangers inherent in reckless spending and borrowing.

Benjamin Franklin observed, "Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones." It seems future Americans will be paying for a long time for the bad habits of many of our politicians.

The founders sacrificed so much on the behalf of those coming after them. In contrast, are we not essentially stealing from those who come after us? John Adams declared, "Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make good use of it! If you do not, I shall repent it in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it!"

Author and speaker Bill Federer once told me, "Our founders were willing to sacrifice their prosperity for their posterity. They pledged their lives and their fortunes and their sacred honor for their posterity. Today, we're sacrificing our posterity for prosperity and saddling our kids with an unpayable debt, so we can maintain our standard of living."

Thomas Jefferson warned against violating "the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it."

Notice in particular what our third president had to say about governmental debt: "I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy."

This problem of government overspending by borrowing from future generations will never be solved until the politicians (and we the people who demand money from the public trough) curb such demands. Perhaps Reagan put it best: "Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other."

Jerry Newcombe, D.Min., is an on-air host/senior producer for D. James Kennedy Ministries. He has written/co-written 28 books, e.g., The Unstoppable Jesus Christ, Doubting Thomas (w/ Mark Beliles, on Jefferson), and What If Jesus Had Never Been Born? (w/ D. James Kennedy) & the bestseller, George Washington's Sacred Fire (w/ Peter Lillback) djkm.org @newcombejerry www.jerrynewcombe.comEmail Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

The mass school shooting that took place in South Florida was a tragic act of violence that shows demonic activity is alive. This shooting was purely from Satan. It was anti-God. It was evil. We have a desperate need for God's peace.

Now is the time to turn to God in prayer. I encourage you to pray through several Psalms as you process what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Florida.

How Should You Pray, in Response to the Shooting?

1. Pray for God's peace and comfort to fall upon all affected. (Pray Psalm 86:17)

Show me a sign of your favor, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

2. Pray that this trend of school and church shootings would cease, via the power of God and wisdom of police and security experts. (Pray Psalm 11:5)

The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

3. Pray that American politicians would unite in the midst of this tragedy and work together to lead a safer country instead of fighting and blaming. Pray that politicians would not seek to destroy their "political enemies" in the heat of this proverbial summer. (Pray Psalm 32:3-4)

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

4. Pray that Christians would respond to this in compassionate ways instead of using this event to merely push opinions of gun control. (Pray Psalm 116:5)

Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful.

5. Pray for a sweeping revival to come to America. We must come back to God. (Pray Psalm 9:9)

The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.

Jeremy Roberts is the lead pastor at Brushy Creek Baptist Church in Taylors, SC.

The National Day of Prayer was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of Congress, and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the amended law designating the first Thursday of May as a day of national prayer. This year, the National Day of Prayer will be observed by millions of Americans on Thursday, May 3.21 Christian martyrs beheaded by ISIS honoured at Egyptian church inauguration

Today will see the inauguration of an Egyptian church dedicated to the 21 Christians beheaded by ISIS on the Libyan coast in 2015.

February 15, 2018 marks the third anniversary of the martyrdom of 20 Egyptian Coptic Christians and one Ghanaian believer, graphic footage of which was broadcast online. The church dedicated to their memory has been built in al-Our, near Samalut in Egypt's Minya province, the home of 13 of the Libyan martyrs, according to Independent Catholic News.

Relatives of those killed are expected to attend today's inauguration service and eventually the remains of the deceased are expected to buried together at the site.

The targeted Christians  declared to be 'martyred saints' by Coptic Pope Tawadros II  were kidnapped in January 2015, with footage of their beheading shown a month later in a video titled: 'A message signed with blood to the nation of the cross'. Permission for the vast new church at al-Our, to honour the dead, was granted by Egyptian president Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi.

In October 2017 their remains, with bodies still bound and dressed in their orange jumpsuits, were found at the coastal city of Sirte, according to World Watch Monitor.

Coptic Christians represent about 10 per cent of Egypt's majority Muslim population. The community has been subject to intense attacks in recent years, particularly from Islamist fundamentalist groups.

In December 2016, ISIS claimed responsibility for a Cairo Coptic church bombing that killed 27.

In 2017 the jihadists vocally incited violence against the community, forcing hundreds to flee their homes in northern Egypt in February. Palm Sunday bombings on two Egyptian churches, including the seat of the Coptic pope, killed at least 45 and injured over 100. An attack on a church bus in May claimed another 29 Coptic lives.Christian bookstore owners stabbed to death while walking home, neighbors heartbroken

A Christian couple has been stabbed to death by a man wearing a ski mask while they were walking home this month.

Hazel Brown and Stephenson Bonaparte, who owned a Christian bookstore called King Solomon Religious, were almost home when they were attacked by the robber, according to the New York Times. Brown was reported dead at the scene while Bonaparte was rushed to Kings County Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead.

The couple's daughter, who lives upstairs in their house, heard the attack and rushed downstairs to find her parents' bloodied bodies. She believed her parents put up a good fight to prevent the thief from entering the house.

A neighbor, who only offered the name Tony, rushed to the scene and was heartbroken over what he saw. "Good people, hardworking people, well-respected people," he said of the Christian couple. "They were very loving to each other."

The police are treating the case as a random robbery, but some detectives believe the attack was caused by the couple's money issues. Bonaparte filed for bankruptcy back in 2015, reported the New York Post. They were earning $1,100 a month but their expenses reached $2,200 monthly. Their accumulated debts have totalled to $45,000.

But despite their money woes, the couple remained positive and regularly attended church. Bevorne Scotland, who works at a nearby hair salon, cannot believe they are gone.

"They were good people," she said. "It hurts a lot 'cause just yesterday I saw them - just doing what they do, doing their routine. They were in good spirits. I still can't believe it."

Mohammad Rashed, who works at a corner deli next to the bookstore, feels the same way. Bonaparte visited his shop at least three times a day just to buy peppermint tea, and he had nothing but nice things to say about his neighbor and customer. "He is a really good guy," he said.Christian school judged 'inadequate' for teaching creationism in science lessons

A Christian school teaching creationism in science lessons has been judged 'inadequate' in a highly critical report by Ofsted.

The schools inspectorate found Kings Kids Christian School in New Cross, east London, only taught the Bible's Genesis story in science and said there was 'no evidence' pupils learnt about evolution. The children also did not know about other faiths meaning they are ill-equipped for modern British life, the report said.

The quality of the teaching was poor, Ofsted added, because of the inadequate curriculum which the school said was established on 'biblical principles'.

'Pupils do not study practical science or develop the skills to collect and evaluate scientific evidence,' the inspectors' report published earlier this month said. 'The creation story is taught in science and there is no evidence that pupils learn scientific theories about the origin of the Earth.'

Humanities subjects such as history are also inadquate because they focus on American Christian history viewed through the lives of missionaries, the report added.

'Pupils study human and social subjects linked to the stories of the Bible, the lives of Christian missionaries and the history of the United States of America,' it said.

While pupils are self-confident and well cared for, they 'do not know enough about other faiths, cultures and different groups of people with the full range of protected characteristics,' the report said. 'This means that pupils are not as well prepared for life in modern British society as they could be.'

The 6,000 a year fee-paying primary school emphasised its Christian atmosphere and influence, with its website saying: 'Jesus is to be in the centre of all learning.'

It also said the school's model is based on the ACE (Accelerated Christian Education) School of Tomorrow Programme, which has also been heavily criticised for failing to give a rounded education.

The report represents a drastic fall from the school's last report in 2014, which rated it as 'good'  the second highest mark.

Christian Today contacted the head teacher, Mrs Mary Okenwa, who is also the proprietor, for comment.Florida school shooting: America must 'call on the Lord' after 17 killed in deadly attack

At least 17 people are dead in yet another horrific school shooting in the US after a teenage gunman opened fire on Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, with an AR-15 assault rifle.

The suspect has been named as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, a former pupil who was expelled from the school. It is the 18th school shooting incident in 2018 alone and the deadliest since 26 people were killed at Sandy Hook school in 2012.

Three were shot dead outside the school when the attack began at 14.30 local time (19.30GMT) before the attacker went inside the building and killed another 12, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters. Another two later died in hospital. Some victims are still being identified and three people remain in a critical condition while three others are in stable condition.

'It's catastrophic. There really are no words,' Sheriff Israel tweeted later.

President Trump offered his 'prayers and condolences' and tweeted that 'no child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school'.

Evangelical leaders also expressed their horror in the aftermath of the shooting. Out of Trump's primary evangelical advisers, no one raised the question of whether tighter gun laws might have prevented the attack.

Paula White, who pastors New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Florida, and is Trump's closest spiritual adviser, said it was 'horrifying' to see another school shooting.

'As a mother and a grandmother, I grieve for the victims who have had their lives and futures stolen from them, and for the families who are left to cope with the aftermath of this terrible tragedy,' she said in a statement. 'We pray that God would be close to the brokenhearted, as He promises us in scripture He will be, and that the community of Parkland will be comforted in their time of need.'

Dr Ronnie Floyd, president of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, said America must 'call on the Lord' in response.

'Let us pray for the victims of this terrible attack and their families the way we would like others to pray for us,' he said in a statement. 'It's in times like these when we need God's presence and comfort the most. May God be with all of us and our nation.'

Rev Samuel Rodriguez, President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said he was 'heartbroken and deeply troubled' for America in the wake of the attack.

'Let every American stop what he or she is doing, and call out to God on behalf of all of America's students, that God would spare our nation of ever again having to mourn such a senseless loss of life at our children's schools,' he said.

The attack is the 18th on or around school premises so far in 2018 alone, according to research by by Everytown for Gun Safety, and the sixth school shooting incident in 2018 that has either wounded or killed students.

One student, Bailey Vosberg, said: 'I heard what sounded like fireworks and I looked at my friend and he asked me if I heard that.'

He added, according to the BBC: 'Immediately, I knew. I didn't say anything to him, I just hopped over the fence and I went straight to the road that our school is located on  and as I got there there was just Swat cars and police units, police vehicles just flying by, helicopters over the top of us.'Gaza: How Christians are helping keep hope alive in a stricken land

As I travelled back to Gaza for the first time in 18 months, any hopeful expectations I had were somewhat muted.

The overall picture is not one of great optimism. The Israeli blockade, which restricts imports and exports of goods to a minimum and prevents Palestinians from entering and leaving, continues to blight this small strip of land. Now into its 11th year, it shows little sign of coming to an end. Long power cuts are the stuff of daily life and the recent reconciliation deal between the two main Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, has delivered almost nothing.

Almost without exception, the first words I heard from the people I met were about the threat of war. On the one hand there are real fears that local jostling for control will lead to open conflict between Hamas and Fatah, as happened in 2007. On the other, another war between Hamas and Israel is seen by many as inevitable, bringing with it devastation like that seen in the summer of 2014.

But conversations quickly move on to the impact of the blockade; tales of refused travel permits and the challenges to normal life. The director of one local institution stated it plainly: 'The situation is very bleak, we don't know where we're going. We are lost in between  and another war will not create a solution.'

One of the biggest effects of the blockade has been on health care. Last week, 16 government clinics closed their doors as they could no longer operate due to a lack of fuel. The impact of power cuts on clinics, with the electricity on for four hours at a time and then off for 12, is really taking its toll. A senior doctor told me of the troubling lack of medicines  40 per cent of essential children's drugs have been out of stock in government clinics for some time. I heard stories of adult patients buying one tablet at a time as hospitals could not provide full courses of treatment. Many ordinary people are unable to afford the blister packs of drugs we take so easily for granted on the NHS.

The people of Gaza are buffeted by local and regional politics and, perhaps more troublingly, a general indifference from us, the international community. In the midst of this, the local Christian led organisations who work with Embrace the Middle East are making small but significant contributions to support hard-pressed people.

In spite of the blockade, the clinics and hospitals run by Embrace's partners continue to function, their staff working tirelessly to provide some of the poorest and most isolated members of the community with essential care. The Anglican-run Al Ahli Arab Hospital has a free medical mission programme that links up with 35 community-based organisations on the borders and margins of Gaza.

Together they identify women, children and the elderly who can't access good medical care and they bring them to the hospital for diagnosis and treatment. More than 2,500 people benefited from treatment in 2017 and in the coming year we anticipate 17,000 families will be reached through this programme. This is the backbone of their medical outreach work with communities. Their staff told me: 'The free medical mission is a real asset, we can reach the most deprived families by the border, places like Al Moghraqa where there is only one small clinic for 13,000 people.'

The Near East Council of Churches is also active, providing a wide-ranging service to support women  from pregnancy, through a healthy delivery and on to the first few years of their lives. Working to combat anaemia and malnutrition, they are able to support children from disadvantaged homes. In 2017 over 12,500 babies and toddlers benefitted directly from this programme, helping them get a good start in life and avoiding the irreversible damage that these deficiencies can cause. These projects are two bright spots in what is a pretty bleak outlook.

Hope for the future is certainly in short supply. Yes, the shops seemed to have more items on their shelves  but I heard quite clearly that people don't have the money to buy them. The middle-class medical professionals I met talked about getting poorer and for the many thousands who are unemployed, poverty is already a very real problem. Add to that the reduction in salaries of up to 50 per cent felt by government employees over the past twelve months and it paints a very difficult picture.

The hope I did see was in the commitment and care of the local organisations alongside which Embrace has the privilege of working. We don't know if the much-discussed threat of conflict will come soon. But now, perhaps more than ever, we need to pray for peace and an end to the blockade. Alongside this, we need to continue to do what we can to support these excellent local organisations to make their small but significant contributions to help people in need throughout Gaza.

I am particularly challenged and encouraged by the words of one doctor as we left:'We don't wish to be part of history. The organisations you support  what you help us do  is helping to keep Christianity alive here.'

Jamie Eyre is the director of programmes and partnerships at Embrace the Middle East. He and his team partner with 50 local Christian-led organisations in the Middle East, supporting their work with communities affected by poverty and working creatively to help them overcome it.'Miracle springs': What should Christians make of Fiji's healing waters?

A 'miracle spring' in eastern Fiji supposedly possesses healing properties, cited by many in the majority Christian country as a gift from God. The remedial waters have now attracted global attention  so is it real 'healing' or a hoax?

The poor town of Natadradave has become a site of pilgrimage to thousands of invalids seeking its 'miracle spring', according to the report by The Guardian today.

'In one month, maybe 50,000 people visit,' said Menausi Druguvale, the local who discovered the spring two years ago. He had sought healing after suffering conjunctivitis and losing much of his vision. He claims his eyes were cleared after showering in the source of the water, in the mountains of Fiji's Western Division, after which he spread the word to locals and soon sparked international interest.

'Some people will come in a wheelchair, some people come by ambulance. I massage the mud into people's skin after they have showered and drunk the water.'

'It works [the healing water]. Every single time.'

The Facebook group Natadrave Testimonies, which has nearly 60,000 members, documents numerous accounts of healing at the spring. One story tells of a man, physically impaired by a stroke and forced to walk on crutches, but no longer needing his crutches after just one 'session' in the bath. Claims of healing cover a range of conditions, from skin and muscle issues to mental illness, paralysis and cancer. The locals forbid the monetisation of the spring for financial gain, wary that any cash exchanges would compromise the blessing of the waters. Many who visit also bottle up the water in order to deliver its healing powers to those unable to travel.

Many in Fiji see the spring as a gift from God, particularly after the historically severe Cyclone Winston struck devastated the island in 2016. The success of the spring has prompted the Fijian government to gift housing grants to the village, only adding to the local sense of blessing.

'But being famous has made us more exposed too,' said resident Esili Tukana. 'Some people who come are not honest. We have heard stories of scammers, people have bottled and tried to sell the water in Suva, Nadi and overseas. And that is against the spirit of the water. It won't work if it's sold.'

Professor Steve E Hrudey, an expert in water, toxicology and the environment at the University of Alberta told The Guardian said that though he was sceptical of water itself having proven healing power, purified water could have 'biological effects' as a solvent (depending on what is dissolved in it), and the placebo factor remained potent.

'By definition', he said, 'claims of miracles mean just that, they rely on faith rather than scientific evidence, so I will not hold my breath in anticipation that Fiji has discovered a new cure for conjunctivitis or any other illness.'

The notion of the miraculous is obviously not foreign to the story of Christian Scripture of indeed the history of the church. In 2 Kings 5 the soldier Namaan is healed of leprosy after washing seven times in the river Jordan. The prophecy of Ezekiel 47 speaks somewhat curiously of 'healing waters', and in the New Testament John 5 depicts numerous invalids who hoped they might find healing from the pool named Bethseda in Jerusalem.

Today, several claim to have been healed by miraculous water flowing from a spring in Lourdes, France. The famous Catholic site is a common place of pilgrimage, with around six million a year making the trip.

But these miraculous springs, like the notion of healing in general, are controversial and divisive within the church. Some may be wary of superstition, applying 'magical' properties to earthly objects rather than seeking the Holy Spirit, or merely whipping up a frenzy, exacerbated by the placebo effect, that misleads the vulnerable sick and poor. Others may shy away from such scepticism, and say that if there are witnesses to contemporary healing, such as in Fiji, then it must be celebrated and sought for as long as the blessing lasts.

Peter May is a retired GP in Southampton who has spent much of his life researching the modern phenomenon of 'healing' and its place in the church  he remains open to the possibility of divine intervention but is sceptical of many modern claims to the miraculous. In the extensive 2017 Science and Belief journal article titled 'Miracles in Medicine' he covers Lourdes in particular, and challenges several of the famous 'healing' claims officially made from there. Even the most popular claimed healing from Lourdes left him, and other medical experts, unconvinced. He posits that often healing is cited when in truth the original malady was misdiagnosed (due to lack of technology, such as MRI scans, at the time), or was just recovered from naturally eg by spontaneous remission.

The debate goes on. What is clear is that 'miracle springs' present a puzzle  for scientists, theologians, or the needy, sick and lame.Pope Francis regularly meets with 'annihilated' sex abuse victims, Vatican confirms

Pope Francis regularly meets with victims of sexual abuse, the Vatican has confirmed, after a record was released of a conversation the pope had with Jesuits in Peru in which he revealed he holds the meetings with survivors on Fridays.

The Vatican's head of press, Greg Burke, said today: 'I can confirm that several times a month, the Holy Father meets victims of sexual abuse both individually and in groups. Pope Francis listens to the victims and tries to help them heal the serious wounds caused by the abuse they've suffered. The meetings take place with maximum reserve out of respect for the victims and their suffering.'

In the account of his conversation with Peruvian Jesuits which took place on January 19 and was also released today, Francis said that when it comes to sexual abuse, statistics show that roughly '70 per cent of paedophiles are in the family environment, acquaintances. Then in gyms, at the pool...The percentage of paedophiles that are Catholic priests doesn't reach 2 per cent, it's around 1.6 per cent. So it's not a lot.'

However, the pope stressed that 'it's terrible even if it were just one of our brothers!

'God anointed them for the sanctification of children and adults, and he, instead of sanctifying them, has destroyed them. It's horrible!'

Pope Francis said of victims, 'their process is so difficult, they are annihilated. They are annihilated!'

For the church, he said, abuse is 'a great humiliation...It shows not only our fragility, but also, let's say it clearly, our level of hypocrisy.'

The conversations were published in the Jesuit journal La Civilta' Cattolica.

The pope's comments have been made public as he is under fire for his reaction to accusations of abuse cover-up on the part of Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, Chile.

Having been appointed to head the Osorno diocese by Pope Francis in 2015, Barros is accused of witnessing and covering up the abuse of his friend Fr Fernando Karadima, who was found guilty of abuse in 2011. Barros has repeatedly denied the allegations.

Pope Francis faced a backlash during his recent visit to Chile for saying that the accusations were 'calumny'.

Francis then sent Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, the Vatican's senior representatives in clerical abuse appeals cases, to visit Santiago to hear victims' testimonies as well as stop in New York to meet with one of Karadima's most high-profile victims and critics, Juan Carlos Cruz.

It has emerged that in 2015 Cruz had sent an eight-page letter detailing Karadima's abuse to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Members of the commission had reportedly given the letter to the commission's president, Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, who is said to have presented it to the pope.Samsung Galaxy S9 release date, specs news: 25 percent faster performance thanks to new Qualcomm chipset

Galaxy S9, Samsung's upcoming flagship phone, is expected to be powered by the Snapdragon 845 chipset. This latest processor from leading developer Qualcomm is expected to be 25 percent better in overall performance compared to its predecessor, the Snapdragon 835.

Tests run by CNET on a Qualcomm reference phone confirm the claims of improved performance. The Qualcomm reference phone was subjected to a battery of benchmarking tests specifically made to measure the performance of the Snapdragon 845.

The tests involved simulating various aspects of smartphone use in the real world. These included web browsing, snapping and recording high definition images, video streaming, playback, and the like. The tests were also a way to gauge the Snapdragon 845's battery consumption.

All in all, there were twelve of these tests. The same tests were run on three current-gen phones: the Galaxy Note 8, Pixel 2 XL, and the LG V30. It should be noted that all three of these models are powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835.

In all but four of the tests, the reference phone with the Snapdragon 845 reportedly performed 25 percent better than the other three phones.

Samsung confirmed last month that they will unveil the Galaxy S9 at the Mobile World Congress to be held in Barcelona on Feb. 26. The company plans on using the Snapdragon 845 to power their upcoming flagship phone.

If this is the case, then fans of Samsung can expect at least a 25 percent improvement in performance compared to the Note 8.

However, the Snapdragon 845 variant of the Galaxy S9 may not be available in all countries, as Samsung also plans to use their own processor on some S9 models. Their chipset is called Exynos, and they prefer to use utilize it in selected regions.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset was first announced in December 2017. It consists of a Kyro 385 CPU, Adreno 630 GPU, and the latest X20 LTE modem.Vatican denies ex-Pope Benedict suffering 'paralysis'

The Vatican today denied a magazine report suggesting former Pope Benedict was suffering a debilitating 'paralysis' that threatened to end his life imminently.

The German magazine Neue Post had quoted Benedict's older brother, the priest Georg Ratzinger, 94, as saying: The greatest fear is that the paralysis could at some point spread to his heart. Then it could be over quickly.

He added: 'Only God knows if we will meet again.'

A Vatican statement today shot down Georg's suggestion. It said that the 'presumed news of a paralysing degenerative disease are false. In two months, Benedict XVI will turn 91, and as he has said himself, feels the weight of his years, which is normal at that age.'

Georg's comments had come alongside a public letter earlier this month in which Pope Benedict described being 'on a pilgrimage Home' in the 'final period of my life'.

In a letter to the Italian newspaper the 90-year-old pope emeritus wrote:'I was moved that so many readers of your newspaper want to know how I am spending this last period of my life.

'I can only say in this regard that, in the slow decline of physical strengths, inwardly I am on a pilgrimage Home,' he added, capitalising the Italian word 'Casa' [home].

'It is a great grace for me to be surrounded, in this rather tiring last piece of the road, by a love and a goodness that I could not have imagined.'

Additional reporting by Reuters'Winds Of Winter': George R. R. Martin confirms release schedule of latest ASOIAF installment

"Game of Thones" fans are no strangers to waiting, seeing as their favorite author George R. R. Martin always takes his sweet time in releasing new material. However, Martin did give a clue as to when he will publish "Winds of Winter," the long-awaited installment to "A Song of ice and Fire" ("ASOIAF").

In a comment section on one of his personal blog posts, author Martin conversed with his readers regarding details of his planned book releases. They touched on the subject of "Fire and Blood," a two-volume book that will detail the entire history of the Targaryens. Martin said that "Fire and Blood" volume one is about to be completed, while the second volume is "hadly begun."

In the course of the conversation, a reader asked about when "Winds of Winter" will be published in relation to the "Fire and Blood" books. Fortunately, the author gave a concrete reply. Martin said that "Fire and Blood" has two volumes, and "Winds of Winter" will be published sometime between those two.

So in the expected release timeline, "Fire and Blood" volume one comes out first, followed by "Winds of Winter," and then "Fire and Blood" volume two.

Seeing as the first volume of the exhaustive Targaryen history is about to be completed, it is a safe bet that "Winds of Winter" will be following soon after.

Martin's statement dashed the hopes of fans eagerly expecting the "ASOIAF" installment to be released this year. It seems that the awaited installment will have to give way for a 2018 release of "Fire and Blood." Knowing Martin's publishing habits, it would seem too much to ask for two books in one year.

Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" is an epic fantasy saga that was often praised for its compelling story and believable world-building. It inspired the HBO hit series "Game of Thrones" which is now filming its eighth and final season.Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S release date, specs rumors: Leaked render shows a bezel-less display and dual-lens rear camera

Xiaomi is one of the expected participants of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 later this February. According to the latest rumors, the Chinese handset maker is set to launch the updated version of the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2. Dubbed the Mi Mix 2S, the upcoming smartphone will include a handful of features of its predecessor. However, the recent leaked renders suggest that the Mi Mix 2S will sport ever thinner bezels to achieve a true all-screen front design, as well as a dual-lens camera setup.

The latest leaked renders of the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S was posted on Weibo. According to NDTV, the Mi Mix 2S is shown to have a full view display with almost nonexistent bezels. It is noticeable that the bezels on the top and bottom portions are much thinner compared with those of the Mi Mix 2. The supporting texts in the design schematic state that this all-screen display form of the Mi Mix 2S will be formally called as the Full Screen Display 3.0 feature. Furthermore, the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S is expected to have a four-sided curved ceramic build.

It also appears that the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S will make the jump to the dual-lens camera build. The leaked renders show a combination of two 12 MP camera sensors mounted at the rear. It is likely that this dual camera module is similar to the one used in Xiaomi Mi 6 smartphone.

Going to the inner hardware, the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S is revealed to boast an 8 GB of LPDDR4X random-access memory (RAM), as well as 256GB UFS built-in storage. Interestingly, the upcoming smartphone is now expected to come with faster internet connection speed through the global 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) bands.

The Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S leaks suggest that the phone will be the first from the company to feature an in-display fingerprint sensor. However, earlier leaks have shown the Mi Mix 2S with a rear-positioned fingerprint reader instead, so this part of the leaked design appears to be questionable.

The leaked design of the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S does not show the mobile processor to run the smartphone. However, it was previously rumored that the Mi Mix 2 successor will boast Qualcomm's latest high-end chipset, the Snapdragon 845. This will give the device a significant boost in performance compared with Xiaomi's older phones. If ever, the Mi Mix 2S will be the first handset in the world to be launched with the Snapdragon 845.Billionaire Charles Munger is optimistic about the future of Wells Fargo & Co. after its fake-account scandal.

"Wells Fargo will end up better off for having made those mistakes," Munger, 94, said Wednesday. "Of course, Wells Fargo had incentive systems that were too strong in the wrong direction, and of course they were too slow in reacting to bad news when it came. Practically everyone makes those mistakes."A handful of recent business closings have hit close to home for many Houston natives.

The news of Texas Cafeteria closing brought about geysers of nostalgia. Even the news of RadioShack closing its Houston outposts caused many to take pause and pour out their feelings.

Houstonians, and humans in general, don't care for change.

We played Taps for Col. Bubbies in Galveston on Christmas Eve, as the owners widow decided to close up shop after decades of supplying us with military history and MREs.

There exist more than a handful of businesses, bars, restaurants, and one giant theme park (take a guess) that live on only in our dreams. These are the places we have indelible memories attached to, even if the slab has been blown off the map or it was torn down to make way for a luxury apartment complex.

Yes, we didnt forget about you Montrose Fiesta. You had a great soundtrack while you lasted.By Ritah Kemigisa.

Government has committed itself to fully investigate and unearth all the facts behind the refugee funds scandal in the Office of the Prime Minister and bring to book all the culprits.

Addressing journalists at the media center, the minister of relief, disaster preparedness and refugees Hillary Onek said this is because government takes seriously the allegations of mismanagement of funds and other resources meant for the refugees.

Onek said the investigations which kicked off a week ago and are being carried out by local police and international investigators will be concluded in the next three weeks.

He says the investigations are probing both local and international agencies which provide aid to the refugees to find out if there was any connivance.

He has meanwhile assured all Ugandans and all partners that no stone shall be left unturned during these investigations.CROSSVILLE, Tenn. - The gravel parking lot at the Fitzgerald family's truck dealership here in central Tennessee was packed last week with shiny new Peterbilt and Freightliner trucks, as well as a steady stream of buyers from across the country.

But there is something unusual about the big rigs sold by the Fitzgeralds: They are equipped with rebuilt diesel engines that do not need to comply with rules on modern emissions controls. That makes them cheaper to operate, but it means that they spew 40 to 55 times as much air pollution as other new trucks, according to federal estimates, including toxins blamed for asthma, lung cancer and a range of other ailments.

Special treatment

The special treatment for the Fitzgerald trucks is made possible by a loophole in federal law that the Obama administration tried to close, and the Trump administration is now championing. The trucks, originally intended as a way to reuse a relatively new engine and other parts after an accident, became attractive for their ability to evade modern emissions standards and other regulations.

The survival of this loophole is a story of money, politics and suspected academic misconduct, according to interviews and government and private documents, and has been facilitated by Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, who has staked out positions in environmental fights that benefit the Trump administration's corporate backers.

Fitzgerald welcomed President Donald Trump at one of its dealerships during the campaign.

The loophole has been condemned in recent weeks by an array of businesses and environmentalists: major truck makers like Volvo and Navistar; fleet owners like the United Parcel Service; lobbying powerhouses like the National Association of Manufacturers; health and environmental groups like the American Lung Association and the Consumer Federation of America; and some Fitzgerald competitors in Tennessee, Texas and Oklahoma, Pruitt's home state.

"This just does not make any sense to me," said Christine Todd Whitman, who served as head of the EPA during the first George W. Bush administration. "Everybody breathes the same air, Democrats or Republicans."

But the Fitzgerald family has had influential allies. In addition to Pruitt, they include Rep. Diane Black, a Republican who is a candidate for Tennessee governor, and Tennessee Tech University, a state university that produced a study minimizing pollution problems associated with the trucks.

Black introduced legislation in 2015 to protect the loophole when it was first in line to be eliminated by a stricter diesel emissions rule under the Obama administration. That bill failed, but after the election of Trump, she turned to Pruitt to carve out an exemption to the new rule - scheduled to take effect last month - and presented him with the study from Tennessee Tech.

Fitzgerald had not only paid for the study, which has roiled the faculty at Tennessee Tech and is the subject of an internal investigation, but it had also offered to build a new research center for the university on land owned by the company. And in the six weeks before Pruitt announced in November that he would grant the exemption, Fitzgerald business entities, executives and family members contributed at least $225,000 to Black's campaign for governor, campaign disclosure records show.

Multiple donors

The multiple donors allowed the company to circumvent a Tennessee state law intended to limit the size of campaign contributions by corporations and political action committees. The donations - many of which came through a series of limited liability companies tied to the family - represented 12 percent of the money Black had raised from outside sources through last month, the records show.

Tommy Fitzgerald, an owner of Fitzgerald, said the actions by Black and Pruitt were good public policy and not special favors to his company.

"I don't know why anyone would want to kill all these jobs," Fitzgerald said, referring to the several hundred people he said he employs at his dealerships. "It does not make any sense."

Chris Hartline, a spokesman for Black, said the congresswoman had stood up for a constituent and was not influenced by the campaign donations, which he said complied with state law.

"There are very few companies willing to try and keep manufacturing jobs in rural Tennessee today, and Diane fights hard to support the few that do," Hartline said.

An EPA spokeswoman, Liz Bowman, said that Pruitt remained committed to protecting clean air. But, she said, he agreed with a legal argument made by Black and Fitzgerald that the agency did not have the authority to limit sales.

"EPA is acting on behalf of anyone who sees merit in upholding and perhaps even bolstering the credibility of our laws and the role of Congress," Bowman said.

She said that the money donated to Black had no impact on the decision by Pruitt.

The trucks sold by Fitzgerald are known as "gliders" because they are manufactured without engines and are later retrofitted with the rebuilt ones. Gliders are popular among small trucking companies and individual truck owners, who say they cannot afford to buy or operate vehicles with new engines and modern emissions controls.

Terry Dotson, president of Worldwide Equipment Enterprises, a Kentucky-based chain of truck dealerships that sells vehicles with modern emissions controls, said he remembered going into repair garages years ago when it was hard to breathe because of soot.

Dotson says he voted for Trump and is a strong backer of the coal industry, which relies on his trucks for mining operations. But he does not agree with the administration's carve-out for glider trucks.

"I want Mr. Fitzgerald to make a fortune and be a happy man," Dotson said outside one of his Knoxville, Tenn., dealerships. "But everybody ought to play by the same set of rules."

Permanent loophole?

Truck manufacturers, as well as shipping companies like UPS, fear that a permanent loophole would encourage other truck dealers to enter the glider business, further undermining efforts to reduce health hazards associated with diesel exhaust and creating unfair competition for them. The National Association of Clean Air Agencies, representing state regulators, and the attorneys general from 12 states have joined in protesting the rollback.

Chet France, former director of assessment and standards at the EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality, says there are enough truck engines in salvage yards to support the glider market for decades.

"We are talking about super-polluting trucks that are going to put the health of thousands of people at risk," said France, who worked at the EPA for 30 years under Democratic and Republican administrations and is a consultant to the Environmental Defense Fund. "And for what?"

The EPA estimates that over the life of every 10,000 trucks without modern emissions systems, up to 1,600 Americans would die prematurely, and thousands more would suffer a variety ailments including bronchitis and heart attacks, particularly in cities with air pollution associated with diesel-powered trains, ships and power plants.

The health threats are caused by nitrogen oxide and tiny particles of dust and soot that create haze in the air.Kyle Glanville should have been thrilled. All 70 of the outdoor seats at Go Get Em Tiger were taken, only three days after he and his partner opened the cafe in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles.

He was not. "Everybody was at a laptop wearing headphones," Glanville said. He strode inside, unplugged the device that provided free Wi-Fi and tossed it into a bin in his office.

He wanted a courtyard where people talked to one another, not a silent office for remote workers. And while anyone with a cellphone hot spot could connect without his help, he had made himself clear. On a recent weekday morning, almost a year and a half later, the courtyard was still full of people, but this time they were talking to one another. Only one was at his laptop.

Remote workers have staked out coffee shops for years, but small-business owners say their ranks are rising. In 2016, 43 percent of U.S. employees spent some time working remotely, according to a Gallup survey; the number who telecommute at least half the time has grown by 115 percent since 2005, said a report last year from FlexJobs and Global Workplace Analytics.

Add in the self-employed, and the crowd gets even bigger. And while some still embrace the home-and-pajama model, a large contingent hits the corner cafe.

Starbucks may not feel the pinch, with its multibillion-dollar revenues and legions of grab-and-go customers, but for owners of smaller businesses, the math is grim.

"Three hours for $5 worth of coffee is not a model that works," said David Wynn, co-owner of Triniti, a tiny cafe that opened two months ago east of Glanville's place, on Sunset Boulevard in the Echo Park neighborhood.

Owners face a choice: Get tough and encourage workers to move, or embrace them and hope that a combination of guilt and loyalty will inspire them to spend more or leave sooner.

It's hard to know which is the right answer. "There's no social order here to tell us how to behave," said Glanville, as if he were contemplating a newly formed nation, which in a way he is. He took a no-tolerance stance on Wi-Fi because a single ground rule seemed more hospitable than a litany of restrictions.

Rich Nieto thought he was being tough enough when he limited workers to a dedicated laptop room at his 25-seat Sweetleaf cafe in Long Island City in the Queens borough of New York City. But when all eight laptop seats were taken one afternoon, a customer simply retired to another room, tore away the wallpaper to expose a purposely covered electrical outlet, and plugged in.

"You can't win that battle," said Nieto, who had already learned his lesson the hard way. "The first time I saw someone with a laptop, I said, 'Sorry, no laptops.' Right after that, I got a one-star review on Yelp."

Even companies committed to accommodating remote workers look for ways to improve the relationship.

At Triniti, Wynn offers free Wi-Fi, but after two hours a customer must have "a face-to-face interaction" with an employee, he says, to get a new password. He relies on that interaction and the aromas from the kitchen to transform coffee drinkers into lunch customers, and has been gratified as the first wave of workers has started to order midday meals.

Jason Neroni, the chef and a partner in the Rose Cafe in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles, said he was happy to run what he called "a commissary" for the nearby offices of Google, BuzzFeed and Snapchat - this part of the neighborhood is known as Silicon Beach - and for self-employed people.

He sees them as the nascent regulars of tomorrow. And with 300 seats, he can afford to invest 85 to 90 cafe and patio seats in the future and still maintain a no-laptop policy in the main dining room.

He employs subtle means to influence the behavior of working customers. Logging in for two hours of free Wi-Fi requires the user's email address, which goes onto the Rose's mailing list. And while people can log right back in, the expiration reminds them that it might be time to order another round.

Servers circulate to ask if they can get something else for a customer tied to his electronic devices. And Wi-Fi service ends at 5:30 p.m., to signal that the workday has ended and dinner service is about to begin.

Neroni tried extending the Wi-Fi until 7 one night, "as an experiment," he said. "People looked up and figured we forgot to turn it off. And it was 'Oh, boy,' and a line of people carrying their open laptops into the dining room so they could keep working." He reminded the disappointed throng of the dining-room no-laptop policy and resumed the 5:30 cutoff.

Like most cafes, the Rose doesn't provide electrical outlets; a dwindling battery should be a sign that it's time to go.

Some remote workers have gotten the message, and try to do their part. Jocelyn Johnson, who founded VideoInk, a digital trade publication about online video, relies on remote work sites including the Rose. She has defined a code of conduct to prove herself a good citizen.

Her self-imposed rules include working in one cafe or restaurant no more than three mornings a week, for no more than three hours at a stretch. She always orders a coffee and pastry, and frequently a lunch to go. Then she packs up and heads to another spot on her preferred list.

The only casualty of the plan is her social life, which she had hoped might include the Rose as well: She tried a weekend brunch there, only to realize that it felt too much like the office.

"I couldn't enjoy myself," she said. "I kept feeling that I ought to be working."

Brian Swichkow, her frequent table mate, has no such problem.

Known to friends and colleagues as "the Rose Cafe guy" because he frequently shows up in the restaurant's Instagram photos, Swichkow, the founder of Ghost Influence, takes his regular seat six or seven mornings a week, from which he advises clients on how to develop "digital empathy" in online marketing.

He budgets $350 a month to cover coffee, frequent breakfasts and lunch to go if he's headed straight to a meeting. Business lunches or drinks are always at the Rose, and yet he figures his home away from home still costs about $100 less than a shared workspace.

But there's a big gap between a customer who invests in his remote workspace and one who rips the wallpaper to get at an outlet. Cafe owners find it difficult to define a consistent strategy without a proven, profitable relationship model.Celebrities took to Twitter to mourn and call for gun control after 17 people were left dead after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Wednesday.

Many shared their condolences to the victims' families and called on politicians to push for more gun control.

STUDENTS REACT: Students share moments during the shooting on social media

"Last night, I received a text while I slept that our friends son passed away from his gun shot wound," tweeted actor Josh Gad. "My grief for this family and the many others knows no bounds. Im so sorry this happened. Im so sorry our leaders are worthless. Im so sorry we are bound to repeat this again."

Others like Piers Morgan noted that the shooting was similar to the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

HOUSTON GUN SCARE: Lockdown at Houston Can Academy lifted after gun found at school

"After Sandy Hook, I called for America to ban AR-15s & high-capacity bullet magazines. NRA gun nuts ensured nothing was done," tweeted Piers Morgan. "Today, another deranged kid used an AR-15 & high-capacity magazines to annihilate at least 17 more people in a school."

Suspect Nikolas Cruz, 19, was arrested in connection to the shooting. Cruz was a former student at the school who was expelled for disciplinary reasons, according to the New York Times.

Scroll through the gallery above to see what Stephen King, Ellen DeGeneres, President Donald Trump and other celebrities had to say about the school shooting in the gallery above.

Will Axford is a digital reporter for Chron.com. Read more of his stories here and follow him on Twitter.Two juveniles are in custody after a police chase early Thursday in north Houston involving a Jaguar that was carjacked two days earlier.

Police are still searching for two others following the incident that began about 12:30 a.m., when a patrol officer saw a 2007 Jaguar run a red light at the intersection of Aldine Bender Road and Imperial Valley Drive.

The officer attempted a traffic stop, but the Jaguar sped away. Running the license plate, the officer realized it had been stolen at gunpoint earlier this week by seven males.

Police pursued the stolen vehicle for about 2-1/2 miles until the driver hit a dead end in the 1100 block of Goodnight Trail and the Jaguar slid into a drainage ditch. Four people jumped out of the car and fled.

READ ALSO: Apparent road rage incident in Pasadena sends one to hospital

Police detained two of them, said Lt. Larry Crowson of the Houston Police Department. The other two got away. Police found a stolen gun inside the car.

The two in custody refused to identify themselves, Crowson said, but police used a mobile fingerprint identification system to determine both were juveniles who had prior arrests. The driver, 14, was on parole from juvenile detention in Harris County. The passenger, 16, is on probation.

One of them was wearing an ankle monitor, police said, indicating that he is currently on bond or serving a probation sentence.

The 14-year-old was transported to Ben Taub Hospital with a head injury from the crash; he remained in the hospital Thursday afternoon. He faces a felony charge of evading arrest in a motor vehicle.

The 16-year-old was taken to the hospital for examination and released. He faces a misdemeanor charge of evading arrest on foot.

The Jaguar was stolen about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Humble, according to the Harris County Precinct Four Constable's Office. A woman told deputies she was collecting her mail at a community mailbox down the street from her home when seven young men robbed her at gunpoint and took her car.

Police have not determined whether the juveniles who were in the Jaguar when it crashed stole the vehicle on Tuesday. Houston police will coordinate with the Precinct Four Constable's Office to investigate.

Meanwhile, police are still searching for the two passengers who got away when the car crashed. They are described as being 13 to 16 and weighing 110 to 130 pounds. Both wore blue jeans, police said; one wore a dark hoodie, while the other wore a white long-sleeved shirt. Anyone with information about their names or location should contact Houston police at 713-884-3131.

READ ALSO: West Houston apartments damaged after fireAs if we're not already swimming in smoked meat here in Texas, a Memphis-based barbecue chain this week announced plans to come to the Houston and Dallas markets later this year.

Corky's BBQ, a Memphis, Tennessee mainstay for 35 years said in a statement this week that it had signed expansion and franchise agreements for locations in Houston and Dallas.

RELATED: Readers' choice: Pizzitola's wins Houston's best barbecue joint

Franchisee Squealing Pigs, LLC hopes to open three locations in Houston in 2018, with the first one targeting a September opening.

A total of 17 locations could open up if the demand is here in Texas.

There are four Corky's locations in Memphis and four franchises located in suburban Tennessee, Mississippi, and Little Rock, Arkansas. The brand also has a presence at two Kroger locations in Memphis. Corky's products are found at Walmart, Publix, and Costco stores across the country.

Texas' Corky's locations will also come with full bars like the ones elsewhere, according to franchisee Bruce Gingrich.

"Not only will we have full bars we will also have entertainment daily at our restaurants," Gingrich told Chron.com on Thursday.

RELATED: 2018 Houston Barbecue Festival announces lineup

The real question is how pork-dominated Memphis-style barbecue will be accepted in Houston and Dallas where beefy Central Texas barbecue styles are king.

The late Don Pelts founded Corky's in 1984 at a location where barbecue had already failed once. Soon his chain found a devoted audience in Memphis and he became known as a giant in the barbecue scene in the town.

Craig Hlavaty is a reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com.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.CHICAGO - Anti-hunger groups and retailers are lining up to blast President Donald Trump's proposed overhaul of the federal food stamp program, which would convert electronic food benefits for millions into boxes of packaged food.

The so-called America's Harvest Box program - part of the $4.4 trillion budget plan released by the White House on Monday - would dramatically alter how food assistance for the poor is delivered in the United States. The program calls for delivering boxes of shelf-stable food like cereal, peanut butter, beans and canned vegetables in lieu of half the electronic benefits for most households that depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

The other half of their benefits would still be provided electronically.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the food assistance program, said the plan would save $129.2 billion over 10 years. But questions outnumber answers as to how exactly the program would work. Where would the boxes be assembled and how would they be delivered? What will it cost Illinois to deliver boxes of food to thousands of households each year? What does the family with the nut allergy do with the jar of peanut butter in the box?

'Unworkable solution'

"We view this as an unworkable solution in search of a problem," said Matt Knott, president of Chicago-based Feeding America, a national network of food banks and pantries.

Knott and many other anti-hunger groups say the existing program works exactly as it should, contracting and expanding to help Americans in times of need.

"We continue to see deep, pressing need every day, in every neighborhood of Chicago. The proposal to cut SNAP is deeply troubling," said Kate Maehr, executive director of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, on Tuesday.

A day earlier, the Food Marketing Institute -a grocery industry trade group - issued a statement opposing the plan.

"Perhaps this proposal would save money in one account, but based on our decades of experience in the program, it would increase costs in other areas that would negate any savings," said Jennifer Hatcher, chief public policy officer for the institute, in the statement.

Under the proposal, households receiving $90 per month or more in benefits - more than 80 percent of all SNAP households - would receive the boxes of "domestically sourced and produced" food, according to the USDA. The logistics of delivery would be largely left to the discretion of the states.

It's unclear whether the proposal will gain any traction in Congress, where the federal food aid program has generally enjoyed bipartisan support for decades. In recent years, though, that's changed as Speaker Paul Ryan and other House Republicans have called for overhauling the program to give states more control.

'Bold, innovative'

In a statement, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue called it a "bold, innovative approach" that maintains the supplemental food assistance while giving states more flexibility and being responsible to taxpayers.

But former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Perdue's immediate predecessor, said the cuts would be unfair to senior citizens and working parents who make up the vast majority of SNAP recipients. Such an overhaul would also adversely affect farmers' incomes and grocery store workers' jobs, Vilsack said.

"It's the wrong program to pick on. SNAP is one of the most successful anti-poverty programs that we have. I know it's expensive, but a lot of things are expensive," Vilsack said in an interview, noting proposed increases to military spending.

Trump's proposed 2019 budget calls for cutting $216 billion in total from the food assistance program over 10 years, said Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The budget adds an additional $2.5 billion over that time period for the delivery of the food boxes - an amount that's unlikely to be enough for such an undertaking, Dean said.

"I think it's a huge unfunded mandate," Dean said.

The president's proposal did find some measure of support from the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, which has advocated for the existing program to be limited to healthier food options, given the higher health risks for conditions like diabetes among recipients. But Dr. Neal Barnard, the group's president, said the food boxes should include fresh fruits and vegetables, and he recommended forgoing the logistically cumbersome delivery model.

Still, Barnard said he considered the White House's proposal to be a step in the right direction.Brenda Bazan, the chief financial officer for Houston First Corp., was announced leader of the organization on Thursday, just two days after her predecessor was abruptly dismissed.

RELATED: Houston First chief ousted after announcing retirement plans

Houston First chairman David Mincberg said during a board meeting that Bazan has been nominated by Mayor Sylvester Turner for the position of president and CEO of the city's convention and entertainment agency.

The nomination will go before city council next Wednesday for confirmation.

Bazan will replace Dawn Ullrich, who had led the organization since its 2011 founding before she was relieved of her duties as president and CEO on Tuesday. She had announced plans last week to retire Dec. 31.

Her attorney said she may file an age discrimination lawsuit.

Turner on Wednesday described Ullrich as "a dedicated servant to the city of Houston" while at the same time saying he supported the board's decision to discharge her immediately.

Turner, who has the power to nominate members of Houston First's board, also said at the time that he did not have anyone in mind for Ullrich's replacement. But his memo nominating Bazan for the post also is dated Wednesday.

"Ms. Bazan is a capable executive and proven leader who possesses both a keen intellect and commendable dedication to fiscal responsibility," the mayor's wrote in his memo to City Council members. "I am confident Ms. Bazan has the ability, experience and integrity to succeed."

RELATED: Mayor Sylvester Turner supports decision on Houston First chief

Bazan, for three decades a certified public accountant, has served as the organization's chief financial officer since 2011.

She has been with the city since 1993.

The council will be asked to confirm her appointment at its meeting next Wednesday.

According to her biography on the Houston First website, Bazan has "been responsible for corporate finance, accounting, debt, financial reporting, human resources and procurement."

This story is developing.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the Internal Revenue Service plans on closing a loophole that hedge-fund managers had been trying to exploit to avoid paying higher taxes on carried-interest profits.

Mnuchin told the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday that a Bloomberg News story this week, which detailed how hedge funds created scores of shell companies to work around the new carried-profit rules, prompted him to instruct administration officials to issue guidance on the subject within two weeks.

"I've already met with the IRS and our Office of Tax Policy this morning as a result of that article," Mnuchin told the committee. "Taxpayers will not be able to get that loophole."

The new guidance would effectively kill hedge fund managers' plans to create numerous shell companies in Delaware - corporate America's favorite tax jurisdiction - to get around the tax law's requirement that assets must be held for three years instead of one year to qualify for a lower tax rate.

Carried interest is the portion of an investment fund's returns that are paid to hedge fund managers, private-equity players, venture capitalists and certain real estate investors. For federal tax purposes, it's eligible for a tax rate of 23.8 percent - which includes a 3.8 percent tax on investment income imposed by the Affordable Care Act - on sales of assets held for at least three years. Otherwise, it's treated as ordinary income and managers face a top federal income tax rate of 37 percent.

Big names appeared to be embracing the maneuver, which requires setting up limited liability companies for managers entitled to share carried-interest payouts.

President Donald Trump turned carried interest into a rallying cry during his populist presidential campaign, declaring that "hedge fund guys are getting away with murder." Critics from billionaire Warren Buffett on down essentially agree, saying carried interest is a fee-for-service and should be taxed at the individual rate. But money managers have successfully argued for years that carried interest is a capital gain.

Under pressure from industry lobbyists and exploiting a split among White House advisers, Congress in December failed to fulfill Trump's promise to end the tax windfall enjoyed by money managers. And lawmakers seemed to stumble in trying to narrow their tax advantage, writing the new carried-interest rule in a way that provided firms an easy escape.

Mnuchin's comments were in response to questions from Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the committee, who called the longer holding period for carried interest a "farce" given the hedge fund workarounds.

But the Treasury secretary pushed back on Wyden's comment that the legislation needed a fix, insisting that the IRS had the authority to resolve the issue through guidance.City convention officials heard a proposal this week from a developer aiming to build a W Hotel atop the parking garage of downtown's Partnership Tower, a new office building just north of the George R. Brown Convention Center.

Officials from Texas Hospitality Partners and W Hotel parent Marriott made their pitch Tuesday to the board of directors of Houston First, the city's convention and promotional arm.

A plan to add a hotel component to the Partnership Tower has been in motion since 2014 when Houston First put out a call for proposals from developers who would build the hotel. Houston First received three responses, including one from Texas Hospitality Partners. Officials from the company declined to comment.

2015: Convention center upgrades designed to improve the experience

The new hotel, which could have 400 rooms, would connect to the convention center like its neighbors, Hilton Americas and Marriott Marquis.

Within the next 45 days, staff and board members of Houston First will work with the developer to execute a term sheet that could ultimately lead to a development agreement, Holly Clapham, Houston First's chief marketing officer, said.

The agreement would require approval from the Houston First board and City Council. Houston First would not contribute any up front funds for the project, but a tax abatement could be negotiated.

Austin and Dallas have W Hotels, but Houston does not. Construction on the hotel could begin next year.

One of the presenters at this week's meeting was an executive from Marriott's luxury brands, said Peter McStravick, Houston First's chief development officer.

"She talked about the importance of Houston to the W brand," he said. "They were excited to be there."

The 10-story Partnership Tower at 701 Avenida de las Americas houses Houston First, the Greater Houston Partnership, the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Center for Houston's Future. The structure was built to support a hotel.Andrea Barnes, a Cypress Creek High School teacher who has been in the education field for 29 years, was inspired to start awarding students and others in the Cy-Creek High School community scholarships and prizes for simply being good people. It all started after she read the book The Fred Factor, which is based on being kind, helpful, going the extra mile, and striving to be best at all times. Since 2015, Barnes has awarded $2,000 in senior scholarships.

In addition to scholarships, $2,200 in $100 bills have been awarded to various students, faculty, and staff who have been deemed extraordinary in their Cy-Creek High School community.

"My parents raised my brother and I to always do our best and live each day as if it is our last. I have noticed that there are so many great educators and staff members, but usually on the news you hear the bad things that are going on in education," Barnes said. "There are so many great kids out there that they might fly under the radar. With the Fred Ambassadors, I try and recognize great kids, and it's just fun to give away money. I wanted them to be honored for being remarkable human beings."

Mark Sanborn, the author of The Fred Factor was inspired by Fred the Postman and other kind people he met who held positions throughout various professions. Sanborn was inspired by all of these people throughout communities who seemed to go above and beyond by being extraordinary people.

"When I read The Fred Factor, I thought that it was something that I totally live by. Throughout my career I've met kids and adults that are just extraordinary," Barnes said. "They are ordinary people trying to live their life extraordinary, and I wanted to honor them. I thought this was something that could really turn education around."

After Barnes contacted Sanborn about his book in Jan. 2017, the author flew down from Denver, Colo., met with Barnes, and spoke with the Cy-Creek High School staff and other invited members of the school-district.

Barnes recalls the author's visit to be a dream come true.

To raise money for scholarships, Barnes oversees the sales of F.R.E.D. shirts, which she says stand for friendly, responsible, extraordinary, and determined. So far this school year, 127 Fred shirts have been sold.

"The Fred Finders movement has had a tremendous impact on students and faculty here at Cy- Creek. One of the best things is the True Fred Senior Scholarship," said Sandra Windham, freshman teacher at Cy-Creek High School. "I think it's amazing because it's not often that a teacher consistently raises money to reward students and fund scholarships."

Barnes also keeps a Fred Jar where she stashes money and looks for people in the community who are doing great things each month. If Barnes feels the person goes above and beyond with kindness, she awards them the Fred Jar. She has given the jar to a man at the cleaners because he is always happy, a man who sold refrigerators at Sears, and Barnes even sent a Fred Jar to Ellen DeGeneres because of her displays of acts of kindness on her television show.

Fred Factor awards are open to all students and staff members in building. The Cy-Creek High School is encouraged to apply for the scholarships and awards. There are Fred ambassadors from Vietnam, Bengahli, Cuba, and Mexico. In the near future Barnes is hoping to bring in corporate sponsors.

This spring, Barnes will award four $100 bills and a senior scholarship for $750. It's not a bad deal for being a good person.

"It's important to go after your dreams, and I want kids to see that just doing little things can make a huge difference. Just setting goals and going after them is important," Barnes said. "I want them to see that they can inspire themselves and live a great life, but you have to give back to the community because there are people out there that are helping you to be who you are and you need to recognize them."

Fred Factor

http://www.fredfactor.com/Former Pasadena ISD Superintendent Kirk Lewis, serving as Crosby ISD's interim superintendent, doesn't plan to toss his name into consideration for the permanent job.

"I was happy in retirement but I think sometimes God throws an opportunity right in front of you and says, 'This is where I need you' and after visiting with the board, a really exceptional board, I just felt like maybe this is where I need to be for a short period of time," Lewis said.

Crosby ISD Superintendent Keith Moore said in late January he would resign effective June 30, citing personal reasons. Crosby ISD Board of Trustees President Carla Windfont declined to comment about Moore's current status -- if any -- with the district.

Lewis started his interim job on Feb. 7.

Crosby's board was looking for an interim superintendent and called neighboring school districts in search of a retired superintendent who could immediately step in, Windfont said. "We narrowed it down to two interviews and we asked them the same amount of questions and when it came down to the vote (Lewis) was the one that we chose," Windfont said.

The board is looking for a search firm to help in selecting a superintendent and after it retains one will decide on how wide of a net to cast for candidates, she said.

The board, with input from district staff, is also working to put together a list of characteristics and qualifications it would like in a new superintendent, Windfont said, adding that it may hold a town hall meeting to get community input.

As of last year, Crosby has about 6,000 students and one kindergarten center, three elementary schools, one middle school and one high school. The student population is expected to increase by 500 in the fall semester.

"My plan is to learn, to watch, to make sure we got everything focused the way it needs to be focused, offer suggestions and maybe nudge a little bit if I see something that can't be easily shifted," Lewis said in an interview after this week's school board meeting.

Lewis worked for Pasadena ISD for 30 years, retiring from the district in 2016. He began working in the district's public relations department in 1986 and rose to superintendent.

During his term as Pasadena Superintendent, the district's graduation rate rose from 67 to 90 percent over 10 years. In 2015, the Pasadena Board of Trustees approved renaming the Career and Technical High School as the Dr. Kirk Lewis Career and Technical High School. Lewis has also written a book titled, "Put Away Childish Things," a collection of bible stories from his childhood memories of bible study.

Although Lewis has not visited every campus in Crosby, he doesn't see any significant problems.

"If issues come up then we're going to address those issues in a proactive way and I'm one that believes in being transparent," Lewis said. "If we have a problem then let's admit that we got a problem and let's try to find a way and fix it."

Lewis expects to be in the interim role until June, he said, adding that from his experience a superintendent search can take 4 to 7 months. The district is paying him a salary of $800 a day, he said.

According to the Texas Education Agency, Moore was making $234,130 a year as superintendent as of October 2016.

"(Crosby) is very friendly," Lewis said. "A more rural environment kind of fits with my personality even though I've been in Pasadena for so long, so I don't have any kid of issue at all with coming here. I like the people I met so far. They've been down to earth (and) honest folks. They'll look you in the eye and tell you what they think."A former Houston Community College trustee who pleaded guilty to taking bribes connected to college contracts was ordered to turn himself into a Louisiana federal prison by March 6.

Chris Oliver, 54, was sentenced in January to nearly six years in prison after a judge said he accepted about a quarter-million dollars in bribes. Oliver had served on HCC's board for more than 20 years.Texas elementary school teacher, Leigha Bishop likes to change her hairstyle about once a week, so when one of her 4-year-old students came to class rocking a cute braided updo, she knew she just had to try it.

The Sugar Land teacher told Chron.com that she told the student she was going to do the same hairdo the next day, but the student just shrugged it off.

"I told her I would do my hair just like her, she brushed it off. I mean, what student would believe a teacher who said that" said Bishop. "When I opened the car door to help her out the next day, her face was priceless! Her jaw dropped and she just stared at me. I told her, 'You thought I was playing? We are going to be cute together!'"

SO COL: Sugar Land teen receives typewriter from Tom Hanks after reading 'Uncommon Type'

With the parent's permission, Bishop shared a sweet photo of herself and her student on Twitter hoping to inspire a few people, she never imagined her post would hit viral status.

"For people to feel this picture was exactly what I was hoping for, but never in million years would I have thought it had the ability to impact this many people," Bishop said. "It's truly a blessing to be able to put so much love into the world at a time like this! Our children (and adults) of this world need to love more, starting with loving themselves."

Despite her newfound internet fame, Bishop is maintaining focus on guiding her students and being a person they can look up to.

"While I am teaching them content needed to grow and move on to the next grade level, I am also teaching them to love themselves a little more for the next challenge they might face in the next stage of development, " Bishop said. "It is with the connections and relationships that I am able to help students succeed academically, and it is with those same connections and relationships that I am able to possibly save lives of children who never knew what being whole felt like."

Take a look through the images at the top of the page to see the adorable photos of Bishop and her student.

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.Even after the shooting, Kent Whitaker didn't recognize the signs  the repeated threats, the questionable burglary, the targets.

In the end, however, it all added up to one thing: His oldest son had finally made good on his sinister plans to kill his family.

But Whitaker didn't realize all that until much later - after the funerals of his wife and youngest son. After the days and nights of grief. After he'd already forgiven a killer he thought he didn't know.

Fifteen years later, that forgiveness is what propels him forward as he rails against the impending execution of his oldest son  the troubled man behind the 2003 murder-for-hire plot that left Whitaker a widower and grieving father.

Now sitting on Texas death row, that son, Thomas "Bart" Whitaker, 38, is slated for execution Feb. 22. Barring a last-minute stay, he will be the fourth man put to death in the Lone Star State this year.

"I have seen enough death  I don't want to see any more," his father told the Chronicle recently. "I'm going to have the last living member of my direct family taken from me by the State of Texas in the name of justice, and I just don't want that."

His best shot at keeping his son out of the death chamber may be a petition pending before the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

"There is only one person on Earth who is intimate with the murderous attack, the lives and deaths of the other victims, and the life of Thomas Whitaker - Mr. Whitaker's father, Kent. Kent was there," Bart's attorneys wrote in their petition to the board.

"For the rest of us, the case against commutation to a life sentence seems clear. We can't forgive; we have no sympathy. But clemency is not about something so simple as sympathy or as formidable as forgiveness."

The clemency petition tells the story of a changed man, a prisoner who's helped fellow inmates and worked to make life behind bars just a little less harsh.

Dozens of letters from teachers, pen pals, family, fellow prisoners and even death row guards bolstered the appeal to the parole board, and Kent won a face-to-face meeting Tuesday with the parole board chair.

"Texas is proud of being a victims' rights state," Kent said. "I just want the board to acknowledge that victims' rights means something even when the victim is asking for mercy instead of vengeance."

To the men who helped put him in prison in the first place, however, Bart Whitaker is beyond hope.

Fort Bend County District Attorney John Healey called him a "master manipulator of reality." Marshall Slot, the former Sugar Land detective who probed the case 15 years ago, concurred.

"There's no definitive definition of a sociopath," Slot said. "It's someone who uses people as pieces in a game. And that's what Bart is."

'Something we didn't see'

The outburst of violence on Dec. 10, 2003 shocked the tony Sugar Lakes subdivision.

Apparently motivated by the lure of a $1 million inheritance, Bart recruited two friends to help carry out the murder of his entire family during a faked robbery.

His 51-year-old mother, Patricia Whitaker, and 19-year-old brother, Kevin, died in the attack. Kent and Bart were wounded, but survived.

The killings took place just after a celebratory dinner marking Bart's supposed graduation from Sam Houston State University  a milestone that never happened. Before the ruse of a dinner, Bart had arranged for two friends to wait at the family home for a burglary set-up.

When the family of four returned home from the restaurant, gunman Chris Brashear opened fire then fled in a car driven by neighbor Steve Champagne.

At the outset, the case baffled police. But then, authorities learned  after reading an article in the Houston Chronicle, Slot said  that Bart was no longer enrolled in college. He'd been out on academic probation.

Days later, an acquaintance came forward with details about a past plot, offering eerily similar details that mirrored the actual crime. But still, police didn't have enough to arrest anyone.

They didn't even have enough to fully convince Kent, still reeling from the loss of his wife and youngest son.

"I didn't know who was telling the truth," he said. But in the meantime, he wasn't about to abandon his son.

Growing up, Bart was a good kid, according to his father. He made good grades in school, went to church and played sports.

In his teens, he had a few brushes with trouble. At one point, he burglarized his high school, rappelling in through the ceiling in what Slot described as a "'Mission Impossible-style burglary."

Looking back, his father suspects there were undiagnosed mental health problems at play  issues he believes still haven't been fully evaluated.

"There was something we didn't see," Kent said.

But he doesn't know what he could have done differently. At the time, it seemed like teenagers being teenagers.

A tough decision

In 2000, however, unbeknownst to his family, Bart recruited two friends to help in a death plot eventually called off when one co-conspirator activated the alarm system at the Whitaker residence. The true intent of the aborted break-in didn't emerge until years later.

In 2001, while attending Baylor University, Bart tried soliciting two friends there to kill his family.

But Waco police got word of the plot, and tipped off authorities in Sugar Land.

"They determined that it was a misunderstanding and there was nothing to it," Kent said. "That made more sense to me than that our son was planning to kill us."

Then, months after police zeroed in on Bart as the primary suspect in his family's slaying, he stole money from his father and fled to Mexico. Authorities captured him in Monterrey in 2005.

In the courtroom wranglings that followed, Brashear pleaded guilty to murder and took a life sentence, while Champagne took a 15-year plea deal. Over the protestations of his father and entire extended family, Bart was sentenced to death.

"It was a very, very tough decision  but in a way it wasn't. Because what he did was just so damn bad," said former Fort Bend prosecutor Jeff Strange. "You can't pick and choose because he's a nice-looking white kid."

Kent has long argued the harsh sentence was overreach, especially since his son wasn't the shooter.

"I think they made a mistake," he said.

Still, if legal options fail, Kent will be there to watch his son's last minutes.

"I know that Bart will be judged fairly and that God understands him completely," he said, "whereas nobody down here does."A San Antonio killer this month was handed his fourth execution date in less than a year.

Juan Castillo, who was sent to death row for his role in a 2003 lovers' lane slaying, is now slated to die by lethal injection on May 16, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Last year, his string of death dates were called off for everything from Hurricane Harvey to a witness who recanted.

But before the setting of the most recent date, defense attorneys say they never got to weigh in.

Instead, when the appeals court bounced the case back to the trial court in November to examine false testimony claims, prosecutors filed a brief - and the judge decided against Castillo one day later, according to court filings.

"It's really unusual and strange," said Amanda Marzullo, executive director of Texas Defender Services, which is representing Castillo. "It's a clear due process violation."

The Bexar County District Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The 36-year-old condemned man was originally convicted in 2005 of killing teenage rapper Tommy Garcia Jr. during a botched robbery.

Castillo's then-girlfriend lured the targeted man to a secluded spot with the promise of sex and drugs. But while the two were making out in his Camaro, Castillo and another man attacked.

Wearing ski masks and carrying weapons, they dragged Garcia from the car - and Castillo shot him seven times in the process.

Castillo was one of four people convicted in the crime, but the only one hit with a capital sentence. During the punishment phase, he represented himself.

He was found guilty on what would have been his victim's 21st birthday.

Last May, he was scheduled for execution, but saw the date cancelled after prosecutors failed to give 90 days notice to the defense. In September, he was scheduled to die, but the date was pushed back again, this time in light of the impacts of Hurricane Harvey.

Then in November, his December execution date was canceled and his case remanded to the trial court in light of claims of false testimony from a jailhouse snitch.

"I described what Juan Castillo supposedly told me about the capital murder," former Bexar County inmate Gerardo Gutierrez wrote in 2013, according to court records. "Juan Castillo never told me this information about this capital murder case. This testimony was untrue about Juan Castillo. I made up this testimony to try to help myself."

Although prosecutors argued that appeals based on the 2013 revelation were procedurally barred and not credible, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals looked to a 2009 decision mandating that - whether or not it's intentional - the use of false testimony violates due process. Accordingly, on Nov. 28, the appeals court sent the case back to Bexar County.

There, the trial court on Dec. 1 decided that Gutierrez's testimony wasn't what made the difference in Castillo's conviction, as everything he testified to matched statements from other witnesses. The decision came one day after the judge voluntarily recused himself and was replaced.

Although the prosecution was able to file its recommended findings before the court ruled, the defense was not able to do the same.

Now, Castillo's defense has plans to file a motion for reconsideration, Marzullo said.

The next scheduled execution in Texas is Thomas "Bart" Whitaker, a Sugar Land man convicted in a murder-for-hire plot to kill his own family. If his appeals fail, the 38-year-old will be the fourth Texas man executed this year.An appeals court Wednesday upheld most of a federal district judge's historic ruling that changed Harris County's bail practices, agreeing the previous bail system was unconstitutional and unfair to low-level indigent defendants.

The circuit court, however, ordered her to reconsider her ruling on several matters and revise an injunction it found overly broad.

The opinion by the three-judge panel affirmed the Houston lower court's conclusion in April that the county's bail process did not protect poor detainees from bail being imposed as "an instrument of oppression."

The appeals court concluded that indigent people in Harris County "sustain an absolute deprivation of their most basic liberty interests  freedom from incarceration."

BACKGROUND: Harris County bail system unconstitutional, federal judge rules

The ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes after the county mounted a $5.2 million challenge to a 2016 class action lawsuit brought by indigent defendants, whose lawyers argued their clients ended up in "wealth-based detention," often entering guilty pleas to get out of jail, while those with money could post cash bail and resume their lives pending trial.

"It's a huge deal that the 5th Circuit, one of the most conservative courts which is often the ultimate decider for this region, supports the finding of the district court," said state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, an longtime proponent of bail reform. "I just plead with Harris County officials to quit wasting taxpayer money fighting the district court and just do what's right."

The 26-page opinion by Judge Edith Brown Clement affirms the majority of Chief U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal's landmark ruling, including her finding that the county's bail policies violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution.

However, Clement and fellow judges Edward C. Prado and Catarina Haynes disagreed with Rosenthal's analysis on three matters and sent the case back for her to reconsider those elements.

They concluded Rosenthal was overly broad in her analysis of the due process violation and in extending no-cash bail to all indigent defendants. They found her demand that qualified defendants be released within 24 hours was "too onerous," opting instead for a 48-hour window.

They also ordered Rosenthal to fine tune how officials assess a defendant's ability to pay bond.

County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, a supporter of the lawsuit who traveled to New Orleans to hear the oral arguments in the case, called it "a significant victory for justice."

"With this decision, the conservative 5th Circuit is telling Harris County that it's unconstitutional to have two justice systems: one for the rich and one for the poor," Ellis said. "Yet Harris County has already spent more than $5 million defending a morally and legally indefensible bail system that violates the Constitution and punishes people simply because they are poor."

RELATED: Rosenthal rules federal courts in Houston region with firm hand



The former state senator said the court's finding provided a strong argument that Harris County should promptly settle the lawsuit and enact meaningful reforms.

Robert Soard, first assistant to Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan, said the ruling affirmed the county's concerns that Rosenthal's order diminished public safety and let judicial officers determine the terms and conditions of release of misdemeanor defendants.

"Now, instead of immediate release after 24 hours without regard for risk to the community, (misdemeanor judges) retain discretion regarding release provided a hearing for the defendant occurs within 48 hours after arrest," Soard said.

The county is working to improve its criminal justice system and reach a settlement that maximizes the number of misdemeanor detainees eligible for release from jail without posting cash bail, but also ensures the rights of victims, community safety and the independence of the judiciary, he said.

Tom Berg, first assistant at the Harris County District Attorney's Office, said the office is "substantially in agreement with everything the appeals court said in support of bail reform as we envision it for Harris County."

"It favorably resolves some concerns we had about implementation of the original order and we look forward to assisting the parties in making the additional refinements suggested by the court," Berg said. "We hold out hope that with this additional decision, the parties can finally reach resolution in this prolonged and costly case."

Alec Karakatsanis, an attorney with Civil Rights Corps, one of two justice reform groups that brought the lawsuit along with a Houston law firm, said the court's finding is a victory for the indigent defendants who sued the county after being held for days because they couldn't afford bail.

The suit was filed by Maranda ODonnell, a single mother who spent two days in jail because she couldn't post $2,500 bail after being arrested for driving with an invalid license.

"The 5th Circuit has strongly reaffirmed the central point of this case: Harris County's cash bail system is unconstitutional," Karakatsanis said. "We are reading the opinion and will evaluate the next steps for helping Harris County craft a system that does not violate the Constitution and devastate tens of thousands of human beings and their families every year."

Attorney Neal Manne, whose firm, Susman Godfrey, joined in filing the lawsuit, praised the decision.

"I am absolutely thrilled by the ruling, which is a huge and historic victory for our clients," he said.

The appeals judges found that the county had acted mechanically in reviewing bond decisions, failing to take the time to consider economic factors. The ruling summarized Rosenthal's equal protection findings by imagining the outcomes for two hypothetical misdemeanor defendants, identical in every way  facing the same charge, from the same criminal backgrounds, living in the same circumstances  except that one was wealthy and the other indigent.

While the wealthy arrestee was less likely to plead guilty and get a shorter sentence or be acquitted, and less likely to pay the social costs of incarceration, it found, the poor arrestee, "must bear the brunt of all of these, simply because he has less money than his wealthy counterpart," they wrote.

But the appeals court judges determined that Rosenthal erred in concluding that the county sheriff should be a defendant in the case. They found the top law enforcement official in the county should not be subject to the lawsuit because the sheriff does not have the same policy making authority as judges who are defendants in the case.

Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, who took office after the lawsuit was filed and formally supported the indigent defendants' claims, said he was glad to be dismissed as a defendant.

"I am encouraged by today's ruling ... upholding the trial court's finding that Harris County's old bail system is in need of change," Gonzalez said. "I am committed to continuing to work with all involved parties to ensure that Harris County's criminal justice system honors the rights of all defendants who have yet to be convicted of a crime, while also keeping all residents safe."

Another defendant in the suit, Criminal Court at Law Judge Darrell Jordan, who also supported the indigent defendants and also traveled to New Orleans to watch arguments in the October hearing, said it is time for the county to move forward.

"The most conservative court in America has found the discriminatory bail bond practices of Harris County to be unconstitutional," the judge said. "I'm calling for funding to be cut from these lawyers and this case to be settled immediately. Let's not go down in history as the county that fought for discrimination in 2018."

Gabrielle Banks covers federal court for the Houston Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter and send her tips at gabrielle.banks@chron.com.One of the central questions after the Sutherland Springs shooting was: How did shooter Devin Kelley get his guns?

He was able to legally buy the weapons, despite having a domestic violence conviction - and having been committed to a mental hospital during his time with the U.S. Air Force.

In the days after the shooting, the Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News found that the Defense Department didn't appear to be reporting domestic violence convictions to a national FBI background check database.

RELATED: Amid church shooting fallout, data shows DoD reported only 1 domestic violence conviction in 2016

In fact, at the end of 2016, an FBI report of active records as on the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, showed the military service branches and the Pentagon had just a handful of "adjudicated mental health" reports, one felony, and 10,958 dishonorable discharges.

Inspector general reports over the decades have cited repeated failures by the military to report required names to the FBI, including in 2015 and 2016, as well as a 2010 to 2012 study period and as far back as 1996.

MORE: FBI data indicate military rarely reports domestic violence

Since the Sutherland Springs shooting, the U.S. military added another 4,500 dishonorable discharges to that database, my Express-News colleagues report.

"What's disappointing about this is that for decades multiple service chiefs knew about this happening, and multiple service chiefs didn't make sure that it was corrected and not a single one of them will be held accountable for failing to ensure their service followed the law," retired Air Force Col. Don Christensen, told my colleagues. "The shooting showed the serious consequences of not doing your job."

Read the full story here.

St. John Barned-Smith covers public safety and major breaking news for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Send tips to st.john.smith@chron.com.Making good on a promise to stage town hall meetings to get people's input, Pearland ISD trustee Mike Floyd has scheduled a March public gathering at a restaurant.

But at the same time, Floyd, 19, is pushing to change a district policy on use of its facilities that he says makes it hard for individuals on the school board to communicate openly with taxpayers. The initiative comes after Floyd said he abandoned an idea to host informal town hall meetings on Pearland ISD campuses after being faced with steep rental fees and complicated meeting rules.

Floyd plans to introduce an amendment to the policy to Superintendent John Kelly and the school board at its March 6 meeting. In his proposal, Floyd wants to amend the policy to allow "local nonpartisan elected officials to hold free town halls at PISD facilities."

Pearland ISD spokeswoman Kim Hocott said on Feb. 2 that Kelly has received the proposal but "hasn't yet researched it, in terms of taxpayer cost, availability of school facilities, policy changes and other relevant considerations."

Kelly responded on Feb. 14 that he would offer his opinion on the proposal at a later time.

Because Floyd is an elected trustee, under current policy he cannot host meetings with the public on district property unless he acts in his capacity as a PISD official and only communicates district policy. Otherwise, to avoid fees for the gathering, four other members of the board would have to be present.

Floyd says those requirements don't serve the public.

"I want to make it really easy for people to understand the significant issues facing the district today," he said.

Floyd said his proposal is to allow town hall at which trustees could attend as citizens and not in their official capacity as elected officials.

He's solved the challenge for now by recruiting a Spring Street BBQ, 9005 Broadway St. in Pearland, to host his first town hall session from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. March 15 at no cost to him or the public. He said residents are invited to attend to hear his general update on the district, including finances.

"We will move to initiatives that I think will benefit the district," followed by an open question-and-answer session, Floyd said.

Floyd believes the relaxed conversations can often be more useful to the public than official board meetings where the public comment period is regulated by state laws and board members are prohibited from responding directly to residents or from addressing items not on the agenda for that meeting.

"At board meetings during public comment, we can't answer because of Open Meetings Act," Floyd said.

The Texas Open Meetings Act, passed in 1967, prohibits elected members of city councils and other boards of taxing entities such as school districts from answering questions during the public comment period of meetings other than to make statements of fact or to recite existing policy. They also may not discuss issues raised by residents or take any action on an item that is not on that meeting's agenda.

Issues raised may be referred to staff for research and possible future action.

Floyd disagrees with prohibiting officials from answering speakers during public comment, saying, "It's the worst rule ever."

He said town hall meetings will offer an opportunity for him to directly answer taxpayer questions and offer possible solutions from his personal perspective.

Floyd is a college student at University of Houston and was elected to his position in 2017 at 18 years old, when he was still a senior at Dawson High School.

To avoid politicians from using the free audience as a campaign tool, Floyd said his amendment would require that officials planning to stage a public meeting not be running for office at the time.

"We've been stalled by lack of accessibility by the district and the city," Floyd said of his efforts to find space for town hall meetings from his district and from the city of Pearland. "I asked the district, and I would have to pay an outrageous fee and a couple hundred dollars for insurance. I'm an individual and just want to host a forum for people to be informed."

Carry Capers, assistant director of the city of Pearland Parks and Recreation Department, said that a meeting space that accommodates around 120 people rents for $98 per hour and requires a refundable $140 deposit.

"Which is a bit pricey," Floyd said. "I don't have a war chest like senators and representatives."Spring ISD is moving forward with plans to build a new middle school later this spring as part of its $330 million bond approved in 2016.

Huckabee, an architectural firm based in The Woodlands, presented plans for a school to replace the current Roberson Middle School at the board of trustees work meeting on Thursday.

"Work will begin in the spring and the school will open in the third quarter of 2019," said Mark Miranda, chief operations officer for Spring ISD.

According to site plans, the new school will be located on a 22-acre site near FM 1960, on the intersection of Veterans Memorial and West Richey Road.

The future two-story middle school will feature a greenhouse, amphitheater and stage and outdoor dining area.

As part of the "package B" project of the bond, the current Roberson Middle School at 1500 Southridge Road near Ella Blvd. and FM 1960 will be converted into the Westfield High School Ninth Grade Center. The conversion project is expected to cost $12 million to house 900 students.

The new Roberson Middle School is one of the "package C" projects that is expected to cost $30 million and house 800 students.

An additional middle school located near Northgate Crossing Elementary School will also be part of the bond and is expected to cost $50 million on a 32-acre property that would have between 500 to 700 students.

The district has also unveiled plans for other construction projects, such as a new stadium and remodeling a building for a new police headquarters as its "package D" projects.

Spring ISD has already implemented other bond measures, such as $32 million in new technology upgrades that included desktop and laptop computers for teachers and classrooms as well as 60 new school buses.As Harris County continues its recovery in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, planning for projects to alleviate flooding in the northwest region continues, says Pct. 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle.

While a proposed third reservoir has been discussed by county officials to relieve the Addicks and Barker Reservoirs, no one can seem to agree on how to begin the construction.

"The third reservoir - it's been talked about, thought about, planned about," Cagle said.

In November, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett proposed a 15-point plan to lessen flooding, which also included additional building code regulations, deepening reservoirs and canals.

The county commissioners have also been supportive of a $1 billion flood control bond referendum.

After past flooding events, projects designed to improve drainage have mostly been funded by local or federal funds.

"The state has really not had a significant role in flood issues. It's been local or federal, but the state's been largely out of the picture," said James Robertson, chairman of the Cypress Creek Flood Control Coalition.

Obtaining funds from either the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the state's Rainy Day Fund could help kickstart home buyouts in areas where homes flooded, Cagle said.

Approximately, 136,000 homes and buildings in the Houston area suffered from flooding and officials have been working towards buying about 200 damaged homes located in areas where homes have flooded.

"Right now, it's about $850 million only that we need to buy out all of the properties all associated with Barker and Addicks in the county," Cagle said.

In the original plans from the 1940s, a proposed third reservoir on the White Oak Bayou could have been constructed in northwest Harris County.

A proposed plan would have made the new reservoir independent of the other two and focus on low-impact development to drain water.

"There is a plan that's in place, but it's a little dated. Plan 5 is a low-impact plan. If there's another Harvey, it would be underwater and would not help us very much," Cagle said.

Instead, tying the third structure would help relieve Barker and Addicks.

Securing funds from the state's rainy day fund for buyouts could be necessary before obtaining a reimbursement from FEMA, which could take up to 18 months.

While the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can be an option to work on a third reservoir, it could take two or three decades before it is completed.

Instead, the county could initiate construction and then seek to be reimbursed by FEMA.

Constructing additional detention ponds and drainage ditches are another strategy the county may use to absorb runoff water and replenish aquifers and ground water during droughts.

Redirecting water in hard hit areas such as Kingwood, which lies along the San Jacinto River would also benefit from additional drainage.

As the population is expected to double by the next 15 years in Precinct 4, construction drainage to prevent flooding will be necessary.

"There is a need to make sure we work together," Cagle said.Two Beaumont teenagers and a 22-year-old man have been indicted on capital murder charges in the June killing of a pregnant woman and her infant daughter.

Corey Spencer, the alleged gunman in the June 6 fatal shooting of Kera Teel, was indicted on Wednesday on one count of capital murder in the Teel shooting and one count of attempted capital murder in a July 12 attempted robbery in Beaumont's West End.

The 15-year-old was certified to stand trial as an adult in the 317th District Court in December.

Spencer said he was not involved in the Teel killing as he left the courtroom in handcuffs on Dec. 11. According to an arrest warrant released Wednesday, Spencer told police he was actually at another shooting at 2:13 a.m. June 6 on 23rd Street.

Teel, 19, was seven months pregnant when she was shot in the parking lot of the Sienna Trails apartment complex just before 2 a.m. June 6 during an attempted robbery. Kyndal Teel died after her birth at a Beaumont hospital.

Prosecutor John Nelson said in December that Spencer is the alleged "trigger man" in Teel's death. He was 14 at the time.

Johnny Phifer, 15, who was indicted on Wednesday on one count of capital murder in the Teel case and one count of attempted capital murder in the July 12 robbery case, told police that Spencer shot Teel after she refused to open her car door, according to Phifer's arrest affidavit.

Phifer also provided police with information about the June 6 shooting on 23rd Street, according to the affidavit.

Nelson said in December that Phifer and Spencer are friends and are distantly related.

According to the affidavit, Phifer told police that Dustin Bernard, 22, drove the teens to the Sienna Trails apartment complex on June 6, planning to rob people and burglarize cars.

Phifer told police that Spencer, wearing a white cloth over his face, tried to open Teel's car door.

When she refused to open the door, he forcibly opened it and shot her, Phifer is quoted in the affidavit.

He told police that he and Bernard witnessed the shooting and that all three fled in Bernard's BMW to another location, where they attempted to rob another person, according to the affidavit.

Bernard was indicted on a capital murder charge in Teel's death Wednesday. He was previously indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury in July on a charge of attempted capital murder for his alleged involvement in the July 12 attempted robbery.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed in that incident, Phifer and Spencer told police that Bernard drove them to the home on Yorktown Lane around 6 a.m., gave them guns and "collected them at the end of their activities."

Spencer told police that he and Phifer saw the homeowner standing about 10 feet away, thought he had a gun and fired at him through a sliding glass door. They "ran to the waiting car, driven by Bernard," he said, who allegedly fired two shots in the air before driving away.

Bernard was arrested in July on an outstanding probation violation warrant and four guns were found in the house, including one that was a forensic match to the weapon used in the Yorktown Lane shooting, according to the affidavit.

Attorney Bruce Smith, who represented Spencer at his certification hearing in December, said the teen was not sophisticated and mature enough to be treated as an adult, and that there was not sufficient evidence to connect him to Teel's killing.

He argued that prosecutors needed evidence other than the testimony of an accomplice to find probable cause that Spencer committed the crime.

Smith said Spencer and Phifer will both have court-appointed attorneys going forward.

Attorney Jefferson Fisher, who represents Teel's husband, Andrew, in a civil suit against the apartment complex where she was killed, said the December hearing was emotional for the family, who left the courtroom without speaking to media.

"This has been a long journey, it's going to continue to be a long journey," he said.





LTeitz@BeaumontEnterprise.com

Twitter.com/LizTeitzHouston ISD released a statement Wednesday evening outlining how schools prepare for mass shooting events like the one in Parkland, Florida.

Seventeen people died Wednesday after a 19-year-old former student opened fire on the Stoneman Douglas High School located in Broward County, about an hour north of Miami.The Harris County Precinct 6 Constable's Office's investment in a new drug-sniffing K9 is already paying off after the pup helped take a large amount of marijuana off the streets during his first day on the job.

Karo was working with his human partner in southeast Houston when they were called to assist another deputy who had pulled over a vehicle suspected of carrying marijuana around 4 p.m. Monday in the 1900 block of Garland Drive.Amarillo Police responding to a hostage situation Wednesday mistakenly shot a man who helped disarm a suspected gunman.

In a news release, Amarillo Police said they received a 911 call concerning an armed suspect holding roughly 100 people hostage at a local chapel.

When authorities entered the building and saw a man holding a gun, they opened fire, police said.

BY THE NUMBERS: What data reveals about child abuse in Houston

Upon further investigation, police said the man they had shot was not the suspected gunmen, but rather, a bystander who had managed to take away the perpetrator's firearm.

Police identified the suspect as 35-year-old Joshua Len Jones and took him into custody. The mistakenly-shot man was taken to a hospital via ambulance. Police said his injuries are not life-threatening.

See which Houston ZIP codes have the most guns licenses.

Fernando Ramirez is a reporter for Chron.com and the Houston Chronicle. You can read more of his stories here and follow him on Twitter at @fernramirez93.One promise President Donald Trump has made very clear he will keep is his border wall.

It's a strong point of contention for lawmakers who are hoping to protect American "Dreamers" or undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. Congress has until March 5 to make a decision lest there be another government shutdown.

According to an internal report seen by Reuters in 2017, Trump's wall would close the gaps between the already existing fencing on the border.

HISTORIC: Photos transport viewers to the 1930s along Texas-Mexico border

The report floated a price tag of $21.6 billion with a 3.5-year construction time.

With 654 miles of the border already fenced, and Trump's 1,250 mile wall in the pipe, only a few hundred miles of the border would remain unfortified.

While there's no telling how the wall will look, or how it will impact the communities that live directly on the border, the existing fencing might provide a good template for how people live near a highly-guarded border.

MEDIEVAL METHODS: Border agents found another catapult flinging drugs over the US-Mexico border

As an ongoing project, Agence France-Presse has sent two photographers to Mexico and America, one on either side of the border, traveling from California to Texas.



In some areas, the U.S.-Mexico border blurs and it's hard to tell what side is being photographed. Other times, the difference is as clear as day and night.



Click through above to see images of the U.S.-Mexico border.Two apartments at a west Houston complex were damaged after a fire early Thursday.

Crews came to the apartment on Panagard Drive and Westhollow Park Drive, near the West Oaks Mall, after 12:40 a.m.

Smoke was coming from an exterior wall, so firefighters pulled sections of the wall down to spray with water, Metro Video reported.

READ ALSO: Man injured in East Houston drive-by shooting

Two apartments had water damage, but no serious fire damage was reported. Firefighters said they believe the fire could have been electrical, according to Metro Video.A routine tire theft call in December 2016 led investigators this week to a northwest Houston store that police say resold thousands of wheel rims and tires stolen from vehicles across southeast Texas.

Jose Martinez-Garcia, who owns Martinez Wheel Connection at 5714 W. 34th St. , was arrested Thursday after constables connected thousands of parts at his shop on W. 34th street to what investigators said is a massive theft ring that stretched across seven Texas counties.

"They had a very good operation - a very lucrative operation - going on," said Harris County Pct. 4 Constable Mark Herman said at a Thursday press conference. "Our charges have only just started, because we found so much more stuff today that we'll be able to tie to these folks."

MUGSHOTS: Alleged chop shop raided in San Jacinto County

"It's just a matter of time before it's all brought together," Herman said, adding that he expects local tire thefts to "come to a screeching halt."

Martinez-Garcia's arrest - and the temporary seizure of his store by authorities - came 14 months after Precinct 4 deputies were called to a tire theft in progress. The suspects - named Thursday as Terry Dewayne Rogers and Frederick Santee - escaped on foot, but left behind a car full of DNA evidence that was traced to them seven months later, Herman said.

During an investigation conducted by 11 different law enforcement agencies, officers used vehicle identification numbers, witness testimony and surveillance footage to lead them to an 11-person crew that had stolen tires in Harris, Grimes, Waller, Washington, Fort Bend, Montgomery and Brazos counties, Herman said.

And while all of the suspects have been charged with felony theft and engaging in organized crime, Most were still at-large Thursday.

At times, the early-morning thefts were sporadic, Herman noted. Other times, the crew appears to have targeted specific vehicle types at homes or, in a few cases, in car dealership heists involving up to 20 vehicles. A majority of the thefts were from Chevy trucks, he said, but Ford and Toyotas were also targeted.

Many tires were then resold at Martinez-Garcias store. Herman said he expects the entire shop to be confiscated, and that investigators are now trying to contact any victims or customers who unwittingly purchased stolen items.

If you bought from the Martinez (shop), theres a possibility those are stolen tires, and we definitely want to hear from you, Herman said.

Robert Downen covers crime for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter or email him at robert.downen@chron.com.A Brazilian artist who has made her name by colorizing poignant, well-known photographs is back with a new batch of colorized photos of some of the most famous people in history.

Marina Amaral, 21, is self-taught and has managed to make photo colorization a full-time job. Since this past summer her photos have made the rounds across the internet, with fans praising her for bringing history to life all over again.

A love of history is what drew Amaral in. She chooses photos based on the power of the image and the significance of the event. You can see her continuing work on her website.

BORN AGAIN: Colorized historical photos bring black and white history to life for modern eyes

"I try to choose only pictures that represent an important historical moment, or that are able to spread a significant message for the viewers," she said.

"When I colorize a picture, I feel like I'm recreating an event that could have happened yesterday. Black and white photos are wonderful and powerful, but in colors it's easier to create this connection on a more intimate and deep level."

This latest batch features a baby-faced Winston Churchill, the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing and influential writer Virginia Woolf.

DAYS PAST: See the last remaining international boundary marker for the Republic of Texas

She sometimes has to ask historians about the color of a specific item of clothing in order to do her work, especially those seen in military photos.

Amaral told Chron.com that she is currently working on a book for release in 2017 but cant offer any further details.Mitt Romney planned to announce his long-expected U.S. Senate bid on Thursday in his adopted state of Utah with a low-key rollout intended to duck roiling Republican divisions and avoid signaling that he will play the role of foil to President Donald Trump.

Wednesday night, however, Romney said he would delay Thursday's announcement because of the Florida school shooting in which at least 17 people were killed. "Out of respect for the victims and their families, I will not be making an announcement tomorrow about the Senate race," he tweeted.

Romney's eventual rollout will set up a potentially fraught campaign path for the party's former presidential nominee as he tries to remake himself in Utah. In a Republican Party now dominated by Trump, most mainstream GOP leaders have struggled to stay neutral amid the president's controversies.

Still, Romney will try.

"This is not a Trump protest candidacy," former Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said.

Early criticism

Romney is likely to face plenty of questions from reporters - and from within his own party - about his views on Trump and his past statements criticizing the president.

In an early sign of the challenge, Utah Republican Party Chairman Rob Anderson sharply criticized the two-time presidential contender Wednesday as a political interloper who is disconnected from the state and a potential headache for Trump.

"Mitt Romney doesn't live here, his kids weren't born here, he doesn't shop here," Anderson said in an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune. He compared Romney with Hillary Clinton, who grew up in Illinois but successfully ran for a Senate seat in New York in 2000 as a high-profile newcomer.

Romney's expected soft launch includes a social media push in which the former Massachusetts governor will reintroduce himself to Utah voters by a video, running over two minutes in length, that will recall Romney's role leading the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and put an emphasis on "Utah values," according to several people close to him who were not authorized to discuss the campaign publicly.

A Friday speech in Provo, Utah, at a GOP fundraiser, is also scheduled. His remarks there will steer clear of Trump, the people said.

Support from voters

Romney's careful Utah debut, planned for months by his family and longtime aides, cannot paper over the reality of his return to politics: Many Republicans nationally are desperate for him to be a counterbalance to the president on issues including morality and Russian election interference.

Romney, 70, has been a popular figure in Utah, if not a resident, for decades. Yet even there the race for the GOP nomination is unlikely to be the sleepy stroll to victory that some Romney allies are hoping for.

"Mitt has the advantage in terms of name identification and resources, but he's got to connect with Utah," said Boyd Matheson, the opinion editor of the Deseret News and former chief of staff to Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. "He's already been putting the shoe leather in, getting around the state, and you can tell it'll be a Utah-centric campaign."

A Salt Lake Tribune poll last month showed Romney with the support of 85 percent of Utah Republicans - and 18 percent of Democrats.

If elected, Romney associates said, he would operate in the Senate as an independent-minded lawmaker but would resist being labeled as a reliable Trump critic in the model of retiring Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who regularly speaks out against the president.Crewmembers for the June flight to the International Space Station said Wednesday that training has continued smoothly even after their lineup changed abruptly last month when Jeanette Epps was bumped from the mission.

Her replacement, Serena Aunon-Chancellor, said she already had been training with the crew when she got the call that she would fly instead of Epps, who had been slated to be the first African American to live on the space station.

"We are all trained equally, so none of the training changed from my standpoint," Aunon-Chancellor said Wednesday at a news conference at Johnson Space Center. "It was a smooth transition."

READ MORE: NASA faces calls for reinstatement of first African American on International Space Station crew.

Aunon-Chancellor, a Hispanic flight surgeon who was chosen as an astronaut in 2009 alongside Epps, will be joined by Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency and Sergey Prokopyev of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos.

The trio is in the middle of being briefed on the about 300 science experiments they will conduct during their six month stint on the space station. All three said they're extremely excited about this aspect on their mission.

Gerst, who previously flew on the space station in 2014, said his favorite experiments are those that "benefit us down here on Earth in a very direct way."

He highlighted a study that will be done on his brain to look at how it changes to accommodate the significantly different environment in space. He said he's hopeful that this can help in the development of treatments for people who have strokes, for example, on Earth.

The June crew made headlines last month after Epps lost her on spot on the three-person Soyuz that transports crewmembers to the space station. NASA officials have never explained their decision, though Epps previously told the Chronicle she had no medical issue or family problems that would have prevented her from flying in June. Though she said she would be willing to talk at a later date, that date has not yet come.

The space agency's failure to offer an explanation launched a rash of charges on social media that the decision was racially motivated. An online petition calling for her reinstatement quickly garnered more than 1,000 supporters in the days following the announcement, and now stands at more than 2,500.

READ MORE: Why did NASA remove the first black Space Station crewmember? More information may be coming.

Here is more information about the three upcoming crewmembers:

Serena Aunon-Chancellor: The 41-year-old was selected as an astronaut in 2009, alongside Epps. She earned her medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston in 2001 and is board certified in internal and aerospace medicine. Currently, she handles all medical issues for the Commercial Crew and International Space Station Operations branch.

Alexander Gerst: The 41-year-old was selected as an astronaut for the European Space Agency in 2009. He is from Germany and earned his doctorate in natural sciences at the University of Hamburg's Institute of Geophysics. He last served a six-month stint on the space station in 2014.

Sergey Prokopyev: The 42-year-old was selected as a cosmonaut in 2010. This will be his first trip to the space station.

The crew's news conference comes just two days after President Donald Trump released his 2019 budget proposal for NASA. That proposal would end federal funding for the space station after 2024, the year funding for the space station is already scheduled to stop. For fiscal year 2017, NASA's budget for the space station was $1.45 billion.

Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.For the second time in three weeks, Houston will play host to a Democratic leader in Congress.

On Friday, U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will be in Houston to fire up Democratic activists and help Harris County Democrats raise money at their annual fundraising dinner. Pelosi speaks at the annual Johnson-Rayburn-Richards Dinner at 6 p.m. at the Marriott Marquis Houston.

Harris County Democrats say the theme of the dinner is "It All Starts Here," a nod to the strategic importance they say Harris County could play in turning Texas blue. They point to Hillary Clinton beating Donald Trump by more than 161,000 votes in the county in 2016, a boost in voter registration gains this year in the county and the area being home to some of the most competitive Congressional and state legislature seats in Texas.

Pelosi's appearance comes just three weeks after U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer attended a private fundraiser Houston to help Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate, like Beto O'Rourke, the El Paso Congressman challenging Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018.

Pelosi, 77, is just one week removed from delivering a record breaking 8-hour-long speech on the House floor in a bid to get Congress to address immigration reform particularly as it related to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that President Donald Trump has announced he is ending.

Pelosi's arrival also comes as the 2018 mid-term elections build. Democrats need to pick up 24 seats in Congress to regain the majority. If that were to happen, Pelosi could again become Speaker of the House. Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat first elected to Congress in 1987, was the House Speaker from 2007 to 2011 when Democrats last held the majority of seats in the House.

One of the 24 seats Democrats are focused on flipping is in Houston, just miles from where Pelosi will be speaking. U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, represents the 7th Congressional District. While he has held that seat since 2000, Hillary Clinton narrowly beat Donald Trump in the district in 2016. That has Democrats targeting Culberson for defeat in November.

Jeremy Wallace writes about state politics and government for the Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter at @JeremySWallace.WASHINGTON  An intensifying partisan stalemate stretched into its third day Wednesday as senators juggled competing plans to address the expiring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that has shielded nearly 800,000 young immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children.

Amid talk of a bipartisan breakthrough, activists on both sides of the immigration debate expressed mounting frustration as the Senate agreed to begin voting on a series of rival proposals, none of which appeared to have the 60 votes needed to overcome procedural hurdles.

Adding to the confusion, President Donald Trump threw his support behind both a Senate proposal co-sponsored by Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn that would extend a path to citizenship for DACA's so-called Dreamers, and a House plan co-sponsored by Texas U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul that wouldn't.

Whether a resolution could be reached before a March 5 deadline set by Trump  a deadline that remains under court challenge  remained unclear as the Senate prepared for Thursday's votes.

Trump, who has cast the debate as the nation's "last chance" to overhaul its immigration laws, called on the Senate to pass a bill introduced Wednesday by Cornyn and Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley that would offer citizenship to as many as 1.8 million Dreamers while investing as much as $25 billion in border security, including a wall.

While Democrats have signaled their willingness to pair more border spending with a legal fix for Dreamers, they have balked at two other Trump demands curtailing legal immigration: One would end a diversity lottery system that provides visas to citizens of many Third World countries; the other would restrict family-based immigration to spouses and minor children.

The Senate GOP bill backed by Cornyn contains all four of Trump's "pillars" on immigration: The Dreamer protections, a wall, and the new restrictions on legal immigration.

Despite Democratic objections, he called it a "good starting point...(that) actually stands a good chance of becoming law."

Democrats, however, consider the curbs on legal migration to be "poison pills" unrelated to the debate on DACA that they said they were promised to end last month's brief government shutdown.

"President Trump's contribution to this debate has been to put forward a proposal that contains a vast curtailment of legal immigration far outside the scope of DACA or border security and demanding that Democrats support it," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. "Instead of making a proposal in good faith or working with Democrats on a compromise, President Trump is trying to force his unpopular hardline immigration agenda down the throats of the American people by calling it a DACA bill."

Trump's framework setting for a path to citizenship for 1.8 million Dreamers also has run afoul of conservatives in and out of Congress, including Texas U.S Sen. Ted Cruz, who cast the lone dissenting vote against starting the immigration debate on Monday.

Cruz and his allies in the conservative base have termed Trump's plan "amnesty."

Related: Cruz, Cornyn on different sides of Dreamers debate

"They expected something much different and they're upset," said Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund Chairman Jenny Beth Martin. "They feel betrayed and they don't feel like President Trump is keeping his promise on this particular issue."

But while the Senate rushed to resolve the DACA issue this week, House Speaker Paul Ryan said that given a pair of federal court rulings questioning the legality of Trump's March 5 deadline, he's looking at a later date for action.

"We clearly need to address this issue in March," he told reporters on Wednesday. "I'll just leave it at that."

Ryan's comments came as he faces increasing pressure from House conservatives, particularly members of the House Freedom Caucus, to advance a bill sponsored by McCaul and Virginia U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte that includes all of Trump's demands  except for a path to citizenship for Dreamers.

Instead, the House bill would offer only renewable three-year visas for an indefinite period of time, a provision that its backers say would give Dreamers legal status and the opportunity to apply for citizenship by other means, such as through marriage and employment.

Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, a group the advocates for reduced immigration of all kinds, said that granting legal status to Dreamers, however limited, still amounts to "amnesty." However he called it a suitable compromise necessary to win concessions on border security and other immigration restrictions.

McCaul's bill also would crack down on so-called sanctuary cities that don't cooperate with federal immigration authorities, and institute an E-verify system for employers to check the legal status of their employees.

Neither of those provisions  popular with immigration restrictionists  in the Senate bill being pushed by Cornyn and Grassley.

Despite their contrasting approaches to Dreamers, the White House staked out a position Wednesday in favor of both the main House and Senate GOP bills. Asked for clarification, a White House official speaking on condition of anonymity said "they both support the four pillars" of Trump's framework.

Democrats, meanwhile, face continuing pressure from immigration activists resistant to any new restrictions on immigration, which make up the two most contentious pillars of Trump's plan.

"We want this debate to be about Dreamers," said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, an organization known as the communications arm of the immigration reform movement. Sharry and other immigration activists say that Trump's framework cruelly targets Dreamer families by denying legal status or citizenship to their undocumented parents.

Related: Ted Cruz cast lone vote against advancing 'Dreamer' legislation

Cornyn and other Republicans leaders signaled that they plan to hold votes Thursday on both Republican and Democratic proposals  possibly including one by a bipartisan group of senators led GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine focused on undocumented immigrants and border security.

Several senators who emerged from a closed-door meeting in her office Wednesday said it could break through the gridlock, though they remained tight-lipped about the details. According to some reports, it would set restriction on the ability of Dreamers' parents to become citizens.

Cornyn, however, suggested that it would be hard to pass any bill in the Senate or the House that didn't meet all four pillars of Trump's framework, which excludes the parents and extended family members of Dreamers.

Trump was quick to shoot down another bipartisan proposal Wednesday that was backed by Arizona Republican John McCain and Delaware Democrat Chris Coons granting a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers in exchange for security and technology upgrades on the southern border.

Patterned after a plan co-sponsored by Texas U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, a San Antonio Republican, it would provide no immediate funding for a border wall or fencing until after a mile-by-mile border strategy inventory of need.

Although Hurd is a top Democratic target in Texas, Schumer and other Senate Democrats have rallied around his proposal, which has about 50 co-sponsors in both parties in the House, including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

The Trump administration, however, panned the plan, noting in a statement from the Department of Homeland Security that it does not authorize "a single penny" for border security while allowing illegal and family "chain migration" to continue.

As different groups of senators continued to meet behind closed doors to solve the DACA puzzle, Republican leaders also announced plans to vote on another GOP proposal, sponsored by Pennsylvania Republican Patrick Toomey, that would take aim at sanctuary cities.

While the Toomey measure has little chance of attracting the Democratic votes needed to pass any DACA legislation, some analysts said it appeared designed to smoke out some of the 10 Democrats who race reelection this year in states that went for Trump in 2016.

The GOP plan also appeared to counter the Democratic strategy of peeling off Republicans sympathetic to the plight of Dreamers, who enjoy overwhelming public support in national opinion surveys.

But in a closely divided Senate, where Republicans have just a 51-49 edge, hopes of a bipartisan breakthrough appeared distant Wednesday as senator after senator took to the floor to deliver speeches that mostly stuck to partisan talking points.

The two sides have traded accusations of scoring political points rather than arriving at a bill that could win passage in the House and be signed into law by Trump.

Adding to the pressure was McConnell's plan to wrap up the Senate debate before Congress breaks next week for Presidents Day.

"I hope we'll take advantage of this opportunity this week," Corny said. "Time is wasting. It's Wednesday. We don't have any time to waste at all."WASHINGTON  The Senate came up empty-handed Thursday after a carefully-planned sequence of votes all failed on competing immigration proposals to break the impasse over the fate of so-called Dreamers.

None could garner the 60 votes needed to overcome procedural obstacles to advance.

The result continues an election-year stalemate over the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which President Donald Trump has set to expire on March 5. Efforts to forge a compromise will continue, but the constant failures so far leave little hope for a deal.

Trump's decision, however, is under court review, leaving the future of some 690,000 Dreamers in a legal limbo. There are an estimated 124,000 Dreamers in Texas, including about 80,000 in the Houston area.

Neither a last-ditch effort by a bipartisan group of centrist senators nor a GOP-backed plan mirroring Trump's more extensive immigration demands could muster the needed supermajority to proceed, leaving lawmakers at loggerheads over continued Dreamer protections.

A narrowly-drawn plan that some senators had seen as a bipartisan breakthrough came under withering criticism from the White House early in the day.

It would provide a path to citizenship for an estimated 1.8 million Dreamers in exchange for gradual border wall funding over the next decade.

Though it would deny citizenship rights to Dreamers parents, it did not include two key Trump demands on legal immigration: The end of a visa lottery system for immigrants form mostly Third World nations, and restrictions on family-based migration.

The White House had threatened to veto the alternative measure, saying it didn't go far enough and that it would encourage more illegal immigration.

In a written statement, the White House labeled it a "dangerous policy that will harm the nation." Administration officials singled out a provision that would prioritize enforcement efforts against immigrants who arrive illegally beginning in July, which they said would give carte-blanche to those already here.

Backed by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, the bipartisan plan received 54 votes, six votes short of the 60 needed. Another 45 senators voted no.

The Trump-backed measure, co-sponsored by Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, fared worse. It garnered only 39 votes, with 60 senators voting against.

It would have provided $25 billion in wall funding and a long path to citizenship for 1.8 million Dreamers. It also included the curbs on legal immigration that Democrats opposed.

Among those voting against the Trump framework was Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, an outspoken critic of citizenship offers for any immigrants living in the country illegally.

"I find myself flabbergasted at where my own party is in this debate," Cruz said in a speech on the Senate floor. He called Trump's citizenship proposal "well to the left of Obama."

Speaker Pelosi?

Earlier in the day, Cruz said Republicans will lose the majorities in both the U.S. House and Senate if they support an immigration deal that provides a path to citizenship for so-called Dreamers.

"Mark my words, if Republican majorities in Congress pass citizenship for millions of people -- an amnesty -- I think it is quite likely we will lose both houses of Congress and Speaker Nancy Pelosi will impeach President Trump," Cruz said during an interview on Fox News Channel.

While Cruz and other conservatives balked at Trump's offer of a path to citizenship for Dreamers, Democrats rejected the proposed restrictions on legal immigration, which they argued should not be part of a deal on Dreamers.

After the centrist senators' plan failed, Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, the chief co-sponsor of the White House plan, cast it as Democrats' only remaining hope of getting long-sought Dreamer protections.

"This is it, in a sense," Grassley said moments before the final vote. "This is the only plan that can become law ... This is your last chance to vote for a path to citizenship."

Cornyn called it "an extraordinary offer by the president of the United States."

Democrats, however, cast it as a crisis of Trump's own making when he announced he would end the DACA program, imperiling Dreamers and leaving it up to vagaries of a bitterly divided Congress to decide whether to extend it.

"President Trump has failed this test of leadership spectacularly," Schumer said in the run-up to the vote on Trump's plan. He accused Trump of blocking all DACA proposals that had a chance of becoming law.

Immigration activists, however frustrated by the ongoing stalemate, cheered the rejection of the Trump plan, which they derided as harshly anti-immigrant.

"It is noteworthy that the only vote to reach a supermajority of 60 votes was the resounding defeat of Trump's racist and radical immigration plan," said Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America's Voice, a national immigrants' rights group.

Some prominent Republicans who backed the main alternative to Trump's framework fended off sharp criticism from a top White House official who, speaking on condition of anonymity, called them "woefully misinformed."

One White House criticism was that it would be unworkable and possibly unconstitutional to deny legalization only to Dreamer parents who knowingly brought their children into the country illegally.

Another was that it blocked enforcement action against foreigners who have already come into the country illegally.

The Department of Homeland Security said in an statement that the bipartisan proposal would be "the end of immigration enforcement in America."

But Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of the leading GOP negotiators in the alternative plan, argued that it was the only proposal in the Senate with broad, bipartisan support.

The 'best shot?'

Also breaking with the president was Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who warned that the centrist compromise providing Trump's wall funding was the "best shot you'll ever get."

Senate Democrats had first rallied abound a plan based on a House bill co-sponsored by Texas U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, a Republican who represents a long border district in West Texas.

It would provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, border upgrades on a mile-by-mile basis, and none of the immigration restrictions contained in the other rival plans. Sponsored by Arizona Republican John McCain and Delaware Democrat Chris Coons, it failed to win a supermajority on a vote 52 in favor and 47 against.

A fourth vote focused a GOP proposal to crack down on sanctuary cities that Republicans say fail to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. It got 54 yes and 45 no votes  with mostly Democrats voting against.

Thursday's votes followed Democratic demands for Senate action to protect Dreamers from deportation, an issue that forced a brief government shutdown last month.

With both sides liking their wounds after the failed votes, GOP Majority Leader Mitch McConnell held out faint hope for a solution, but put the onus on Democrats:

"If a solution is developed in the future that can pass both the House and the Senate and be signed into law by the President, it should be considered," McConnell said. "But for that to happen, Democrats will need to take a second look at these core elements of necessary reform."WASHINGTON  Vice President Mike Pence will travel to San Antonio Friday to deliver keynote remarks at a Republic National Committee event, the White House announced Thursday.

Pence will also travel to McAllen, Texas ,with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to tour the U.S.-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley.

Pence is scheduled to meet with local law enforcement and participate in a roundtable discussion on immigration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Later in the day he will travel to Dallas, where he is scheduled to speak on Saturday at an America First Policies event and at the Dallas County Republican Party Reagan Day Dinner.LM Otero/STF

Mayor Sylvester Turner this week thanked a New York charity that distributed $1,000 gift cards to about 5,000 Houston-area children and families displaced by Hurricane Harvey.

Families from the Aldine, Alief, Spring, Sheldon, Pasadena, KIPP, Galena Park, CyFair, Spring Branch and Houston school districts, Raul Yzaguirre Charter and Young Learners charter schools, and families received aid from the the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund.The actress who helped take the #MeToo movement international is coming to Houston to help flip one Texas's most competitive U.S. House seats.

Alyssa Milano, who starred in TV programs like Who's the Boss and Charmed, will campaign with Democrat Laura Moser who is one of seven candidates battling in a March 6 Democratic Primary in the 7th Congressional District in West Houston.

Milano will join Moser on February 24 - four days after early voting starts - to meet campaign volunteers, to block walk in west Houston neighborhoods and to speak at a "Vote Your Values" rally, according to Moser's campaign. It's not the first time for the politically active Milano to get into a big political fight. In December she participated in get-out-the-vote efforts in the Alabama U.S. Senate race won by Democrat Doug Jones.

Milano and activist Tarana Burke are largely credited with invigorating the #MeToo movement on social media following the revelations about Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein.

"If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote 'Me too' as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem," Milano wrote in a Tweet on Oct. 15.

About 20 minutes later, her Tweet had already had 10,000 responses. More than 68,000 people have responded and it is seen as one of the starting points of the movement.

Milano is no stranger to political fights with Texas Republicans. Last year she got into a snarky exchange with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz after she posted on Twitter: "GROUPHUG - get in." Milano did not appreciate Cruz tweeting back to her saying "We all need a hug!"

Milano jabbed back: "Not you, @tedcruz. You're not invited."

The winner of that March 6 primary is hoping to beat U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, who is considered one of the most endangered Republicans in Congress heading into the 2018 mid-term elections. Culberson has been in Congress since winning the seat in 2000, but in 2016 Hillary Clinton won more votes in the district than Donald Trump. Democrats have made beating Culberson one of their top priorities this year.AUSTIN  Attorney General Ken Paxton sent cease and desist letters to three school districts Wednesday saying district officials or staff used social media to advocate for or against political candidates, potentially running afoul of state law.

Among the schools is Brazosport Independent School District, a 12,000-student school system on the Gulf Coast about 65 miles south of Houston. Paxton accused Superintendent Danny Massey of using his Twitter account to promote voting for Republican candidate for lieutenant governor Scott Milder over incumbent Dan Patrick.

MORE: See the cease and desist letter to Brazosport ISD here.

Paxton's office also sent letters to Holliday Independent School District outside Wichita Fallas largely for retweets of messages that contend schools are under political attack in the Texas Legislature or that House Speaker Joe Straus is supporting candidates who want to put more money into public education. The letter also pointed to a resolution passed by the district's board of trustees there encouraging a voting culture.

The attorney general's office also sent a letter to Lewisville Independent School District, northwest of Dallas, for distributing a video encouraging educators to vote for people who support public education.

MORE: See cease and desist letter to Holliday Indpendent School District.

MORE: See cease and desist letter to Lewisville Independent School District.

The letters come as Texas approaches the March 9 primary election. Voters in many Texas legislative districts vote strongly for Republicans, which means many political races are won in the primary instead of the general election in November.

School districts "may not use state or local funds or other resources to electioneer for or against any candidate, measure or political party," according to state law. Paxton's letter adds that state code bars districts and their employees from "knowingly authorize the spending of public funds for political advertising," which includes "communication supporting or opposing a candidate for nomination or election."

School districts are to send a response to the attorney general's office by Friday, Feb. 16.

The letters come after Paxton issued an opinion in January warning school districts not to provide students transportation to polling places unless the trip serves an educational purpose.

Andrea Zelinski covers politics for the Houston Chronicle. As the election season heats up, follow her on Twitter and Facebook. Send her tips at andrea.zelinski@chron.com.U.S Sen. Ted Cruz said Republicans will lose the majorities in both the U.S. House and Senate if they support an immigration deal that provides a path to citizenship for so-called Dreamers.

"Mark my words, if Republican majorities in Congress pass citizenship for millions of people -- an amnesty -- I think it is quite likely we will lose both houses of Congress and Speaker Nancy Pelosi will impeach President Trump," Cruz said during an interview on Fox News Channel Thursday morning.

If the immigration plans pass, he said conservative voters will be so upset that they will stay at home and not come out to vote for Republicans while Democratic voters turnout out in big numbers.

Cruz said the immigration reform plans before the Senate now "just don't make any sense."

The Senate began a series of votes Thursday afternoon on competing proposals, but all were expected to be rejected, with no final compromise in sight.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has been among those working on the plans that would give children brought to the country by undocumented parents a chance to stay and a pathway to become citizens. Cornyn has denied that plan is a form of amnesty.

"In America, we don't punish children for the mistakes their parents made," Cornyn said in a floor speech Tuesday.

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo also is in opposition to Cruz's hardline against any path to citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants. Acevedo took to Twitter on Wednesday night to remind Cruz that he and Acevedo have Cuban roots and are from families that came to the U.S. looking for a better life.

"With all due respect @tedcruz, members of your family fled Communist Cuba, I & my family fled Communist Cuba, & Cubans are the first boat people of the modern era; was it ok for us but not for dreamers? We need to stand up for dreamers with record of being responsible," Acevedo wrote on Twitter.

But Cruz on Thursday morning was unequivocal in his opposition to any plan to provide citizenship to those children.

"We should not be granting citizenship to people here illegally," Cruz said. "For whatever reason you have a whole lot of Republicans eager to propose granting citizenship for 1.8 million people here illegally."

Cruz said that is "dramatically to the left of where Barack Obama was."

Watch the latest video at foxnews.com

He said Obama's executive action to protect Dreamers only covered 690,000 people.

"Why on Earth are Republicans trying to more than double - nearly triple that?" Cruz said on Fox & Friends.

Cruz said under Obama's executive orders, people who qualified for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) did not get citizenship. But he said the Republican proposals before the Senate would

"Why would Republicans be galloping to the left of Barack Obama?" Cruz asked.

When pressed by Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade about polls that show Americans want protections for DACA recipients, Cruz said he doesn't believe those polls.

Cruz's comments about Pelosi come just a day before the House Minority Leader is expected to be in Houston - just miles from Cruz's home - giving a speech to Democratic activists that will almost certainly include a call for citizenship to DACA recipients.

Jeremy Wallace writes about state politics and government for the Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter at @JeremySWallace.IT is evolving rapidly, and the skills required to succeed in IT are changing quickly as well. Cloud computing, cybersecurity and data analytics are just a few of the skills employers will look for in the next few years, and several certifications are emerging to help you demonstrate your expertise.

Global Knowledges 2017 IT Skills and Salary Report identified a number of new and emerging certifications aimed at skills that are leading the charge, according to Global Knowledge.

Here are 13 IT certifications on the rise to help you get an edge on the competition in landing a lucrative role for the years ahead.

13 emerging IT certifications for 2018

Cisco CCNA Cyber Ops

CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CSA+)

EC-Council Certified Network Defender (CND)

Google Certified Professional  Cloud Architect

Google Certified Professional  Data Engineer

IBM Certified Solutions Architect  SoftLayer v1

IBM Solutions Advisor  SoftLayer v1

IBM Certified Designer  IBM Cognos Analytics Author Reports V11

MCSE: Cloud Platform and Infrastructure

MCSE: Data Management and Analytics

MCSE: Mobility

MCSE: Productivity Solutions Expert

MCSD: App Builder

Related video: 7 IT hiring and salary trends for 2018



Cisco CCNA Cyber Ops

The CCNA Cyber Ops certification from Cisco demonstrates proficiency in rapid threat detection, having a vigilant and proactive eye for security and the ability to protect organizations in a Security Operation Center (SOC) setting. At the end, Cisco promises you will be prepared for a career working with associate-level cybersecurity analysts within security operation centers.

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to take the CCNA Cyber Ops exam.

CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CSA+)

The CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CSA+) certification is designed for validating an intermediate-level of cybersecurity skills. These include risk analysis, threat detection, system configuration and data analysis and interpretation, with the end goal of securing and protecting applications and systems within an organization, according to CompTIA.

Prerequisites:

CompTIA Network+ or CompTIA Security+ skills (or equivalent knowledge).

Three to four years of hands-on security experience.

Its recommended you complete the CompTIA Security+ exam first, but not required.

EC-Council Certified Network Defender (CND)

The CND certification is a rigorous program that involves a lab-intensive, instructor-led training course that takes place over five eight-hour days. The certification course covers a wide array of security topics, validating your proficiency in areas like designing and implementing security policy, troubleshooting security software, performing risk assessment, learning to detect and respond to threats and much more.

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to complete the CND certification.

Google Certified Professional  Cloud Architect

The Google Cloud Architect certification asses your cloud architecture abilities using the Google Cloud Platform to design, manage, implement, secure and scale business solutions. The certification covers designing and planning a cloud solution architecture, designing for security and compliance, managing the cloud infrastructure and architecture and optimizing process to reach business goals.

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to complete the GCP: Cloud Architect certification.

Google Certified Professional  Data Engineer

The Google Data Engineer certification also falls under the Google Cloud Certified family and is designed to demonstrate your skills using the GCP, but it focuses on security, reliability, scalability and efficiency of the systems you build. It also ensures you know how to align cloud infrastructure to reach established business goals.

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to complete the GCP: Data Engineer certification.

IBM Certified Solutions Architect  SoftLayer v1

The IBM Certified Solutions Architect  SoftLayer v1 certification establishes your ability to understand, build and manage IBMs SoftLayer infrastructure as a service. Certified professionals will know how to analyze a clients needs or business requirements in order to appropriately plan for and design a cloud solution using a logical diagram.

Prerequisites:

Pass the entry-level C5050-101  IBM SoftLayer Solution Architect V1 exam.

Basic knowledge of IBM consulting principles.

General knowledge of concepts found in the iBM Solutions Advisor  SoftLayer v1 exam.

IBM Solutions Advisor  SoftLayer v1

The IBM Solutions Advisor  SoftLayer v1 certification is designed for Cloud and SoftLayer Sellers, Cloud Advisors and Cloud Architects. It covers the data, networking and security capabilities of SoftLayer  certifying your general skills using the technology.

Prerequisites:

Pass the entry-level C5050-100 exam.

Understanding of IBM SoftLayers offerings and capabilities.

Knowledge of SoftLayer in an e-commerce environment.

IBM Certified Designer  IBM Cognos Analytics Author Reports V11

The IBM Certified Designer  IBM Cognos Analytics Author Reports v11 certification is for professional report authors. It covers report-building techniques, creating query models, SQL, using relational data models, queries, enhancing reports with HTML, tips for creating customized reports and managing professional reports.

Prerequisites:

IBM Cognos Analytics for Consumers (v11.0) certification.

Understanding of general business requirements.

MCSE: Cloud Platform and Infrastructure

The Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE): Cloud Platform and Infrastructure focuses on Windows Server and Microsoft Azure; it demonstrates proficiency in running a modern data center. The certification covers cloud technology, identity management, systems management, virtualization, storage and networking.

Prerequisites:

An MCSA Certification in Windows Server 2016, Cloud Platform Linux on Azure or Windows Server 2012.

MCSE: Data Management and Analytics

The MCSE: Data Management and Analytics certification focuses on Microsoft data products and services both on-site and cloud-based. It demonstrates your skills in SQL administration, building enterprise-scale data solutions and leveraging business intelligence data.

Prerequisites:

An MCSA certification in SQL Server 2012/2014 or SQL 2016 Database Administration, Database Development, BI Development, Machine Learning, BI Reporting or Data Engineering with Azure.

MCSE: Mobility

The MCSE: Mobility certification is tailored for demonstrating your skills in a BYOD enterprise environment. Its focused on those working in desktop support or in any related field that deals with enterprise-level management of non-enterprise mobile hardware and software.

Prerequisites:

An MCSA: Windows 10 certification.

MCSE: Productivity Solutions Expert

The MCSE: Productivity Solutions Expert certification is designed for network and computer systems administration. It validates skills necessary for moving to the cloud, increasing efficiency and agility, improving data retention and minimizing security risks in the enterprise in a Microsoft environment.

Prerequisites:

An MCSA certification in Office 365, Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server Side 2016.

MCSD: App Builder

The MCSD: App Builder certification is for application developers. It focuses on modern and cutting-edge skills for developing the most innovative mobile and web applications and services using Microsoft software and hardware.

Prerequisites:

An MCSA certification in Web Applications or Universal Windows Platform.

Related IT certifications articles:At the direction of Bill de Blasios administration, New York City public school principals have begun filling vacancies with teachers languishing on the citys Absent Teacher Reserve. Everyone knows that this decision is lousy for city kids, especially those most in need of top instructors. In hindsight, though, it was also inevitable: the rules that govern public schools are designed to look out for the interests of adults, not children.

The ATR is an example of what happens when commonsense reforms run up against an inflexible system. Former mayor Michael Bloomberg gave principals power to hire the teachers they thought best, ending the practice of filling open slots by seniority. But the teachers contract complicated the process. Laid-off teachers could either look for a position elsewhere or join the ATR, where theyre essentially paid not to work. The ATR pool grew as the administration closed the citys worst schools, which, unsurprisingly, employed many of the citys worst teachers. The ATR numbered some 822 teachers at the end of 2016, costing the city about $150 millionthough the roster was once much larger. Those remaining on the list are still jobless even after the de Blasio administration began encouraging principals to hire teachers from the pool.

The ATR differs from the old rubber rooms, or reassignment centers, where suspended teachers accused of misconduct awaited the adjudication of their caseswhile being paid for doing nothing. ATR teachers arent dangerous; they just cant (or wont) persuade a principal to hire them. About 12 percent of ATR teachers have received either an ineffective or unsatisfactory performance rating, reserved for only the worst cases. (An absurd 97 percent of the citys teachers earned effective or highly effective ratings last year.) The administration and the teachers union argue that permanently hiring teachers from the ATRbreaking with current policy, in which these teachers are used only as long-term substituteswill bring stability to classrooms. The best way to stabilize classrooms, though, is for principals to hire effective teachers of their choice.

The original plan, announced in August, was to place about 400 ATR teachers into city classrooms, though inaccurate information on job openings and petitions from principals have limited the number to just 41 as of early December. But now that the administration has shown that its willing to reduce the ATR pool with forced teacher placements, we can expect more such placements as vacancies arise.

The administration claims that it will give ATR teachers one year to show their effectiveness and that it will follow the required legal process to remove poor performers. But the main reason that the ATR exists is because its nearly impossible to fire teachers. The city hasnt suddenly decided that the ATR teachers are competentit just needs to fill slots, especially at struggling schools, which tend to have higher turnover.

As expected, a disproportionate number of schools serving disadvantaged students have received ATR placements so far. Some struggling schools, however, wont get any ATR teachers forced on them. The administrations plan for its designated Renewal Schools94 of the citys worst schools, singled out in 2014 and given generous extra money and attentionwas to demonstrate that, with enough resources, schools in the current system could improve. Renewal Schools tend to have high teaching turnover, making them logical candidates, it would seem, for ATR teachers, especially considering the extra resources and administrative support that the Renewal Schools enjoy. Here is where the administrations political calculus becomes clear: its willing to unleash ATR teachers on schools serving disadvantaged students, as long as theyre not schools in which the administration has a vested political interest. The decision to exempt Renewal Schools from taking on ATR teachers is a vote of no confidence in these teachers abilities.

The stubbornness of the teachers union is ultimately to blame for this situation. Both the de Blasio and Bloomberg administrations bet that the union would eventually strike a deal imposing limits on how long teachers could remain on the ATR. But the United Federation for Teachers opposes any deadline, even on teachers who havent found a principal willing to hire them after five years, as is the case for one-quarter of ATR teachers. Its more important to the union that current teachers remain employed than that these teachers prove effective at their jobs. The ATR debacle is just the latest illustration of how hard it is to buck the legacy rules that govern urban public school systems.

No wonder, then, that so many parents in struggling school districts want to get their children admitted to charter schools. Operating outside collective bargaining agreements, charters dont have to hire teachers based on seniority, or pay teachers not to teach. Serving primarily low-income and minority students, charters have been significantly more successful with these students than traditional public schools. A study from the Center for Research on Educational Outcomes found that New York City charter students performed substantially better than their peers at traditional public schools. The researchers found similar results for charter school systems in other cities.

As the success of charters in New York City and elsewhere has shown, the best hope for change in urban public schools isnt to reform the current system, but to circumvent it.

Photo: Tero Vesalainen/iStockOxfam has admitted it made a serious error after it re-hired aid worker Gurpreet Singh to work on a short term contract in Ethiopia less than three months after he was sacked for sexual misconduct in Haiti.

A spokeswoman for Oxfam said Singh was one of the men fired by the charity in August 2011, following revelations of sexual misconduct while he was working for the charity in Haiti in 2011 following the earthquake.

The spokeswoman said Singh was re-hired in an emergency as a short-term consultant to respond to an emergency in Ethiopia and continued work on that contract between October and December 2011.

She said the charity were now checking whether there were any issues in Ethiopia while Gurpreet Singh was there.

The statement in full: We have identified that Gurpreet Singh who was one of those dismissed by Oxfam as a result of the sexual misconduct case in Haiti in 2011, was subsequently hired by Oxfam as a consultant In Ethiopia from October - December 2011.

Hiring Singh, even in an emergency as a short-term consultant, was a serious error and should never have happened. We are still checking how this occurred but it further highlights that we need an organization and sector-wide approach to the vetting and recruitment of both staff and consultants, especially in emergencies where there is pressure to fill posts quickly in order to help save lives.

We are now checking whether there were any issues in Ethiopia while Gurpreet Singh was there.

Oxfam's senior leaders met with the Charity Commission yesterday and a statement from the regulator is expected later today.This week on The Kicker, Meg speaks with Sarah Green Carmichael, executive editor of the Harvard Business Review, about the pubs new podcast, Women at Work, which examines the intersection of gender and the workplace. Then Pete is joined by Delacorte fellows Karen K. Ho and Jon Allsop to discuss the media news of the week, including Olympics coverage and underreported threats to journalism.



Subscribe via iTunes  Stitcher  RSS Feed  SoundCloud

SHOW NOTES:

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Meg Dalton and Pete Vernon are CJR Delacorte Fellows. Find Meg on Twitter @megdalts and Pete @ByPeteVernon.The Honolulu Advertiser doesnt exist anymore, but it used to publish a regular Health Bureau Statistics column in its back pages supplied with information from the Hawaii Department of Health detailing births, deaths, and other events. The paper, which began in 1856 as the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, since the end of World War II was merged, bought, sold, and then merged again with its local rival, The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, to become in 2010 The Honolulu Star Advertiser. But the Advertiser archive is still preserved on microfilm in the Honolulu State Library. Who could have guessed, when those reels were made, that the record of a tiny birth announcement would one day become a matter of national consequence? But there, on page B-6 of the August 13, 1961, edition of The Sunday Advertiser, set next to classified listings for carpenters and floor waxers, are two lines of agate type announcing that on August 4, a son had been born to Mr. and Mrs. Barack H. Obama of 6085 Kalanianaole Highway.

In the absence of this impossible-to-fudge bit of plastic film, it would have been far easier for the so called birther movement to persuade more Americans that President Barack Obama wasnt born in the United States. But that little roll of microfilm was and is still there, ready to be threaded on a reel and examined in the basement of the Honolulu State Library: An unfalsifiable record of Births, Marriages, Deaths, which immeasurably fortified the Hawaii governments assertions regarding Obamas original birth certificate. We dont destroy vital records, Hawaii Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo says. Thats our whole job, to maintain and retain vital records.

ICYMI: We wanted to see if major news outlets have used tweets from Russian accounts. The results werent good.

Absent that microfilmed archive, maybe Donald Trump could have kept insinuating that Barack Obama had in fact been born in Kenya, and granting sufficient political corruption, that lie might at some later date have become official history. Because history is a fight were having every day. Were battling to make the truth first by living it, and then by recording and sharing it, and finally, crucially, by preserving it. Without an archive, there is no history.

For years, our most important records have been committed to specialized materials and technologies. For archivists, 1870 is the year everything begins to turn to dust. That was the year American newspaper mills began phasing out rag-based paper with wood pulp, ensuring that newspapers printed after would be known to future generations as delicate things, brittle at the edges, yellowing with the slightest exposure to air. In the late 1920s, the Kodak company suggested microfilm was the solution, neatly compacting an entire newspaper onto a few inches of thin, flexible film. In the second half of the century entire libraries were transferred to microform, spun on microfilm reels, or served on tiny microfiche platters, while the crumbling originals were thrown away or pulped. To save newspapers, we first had to destroy them.

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Then came digital media, which is even more compact than microfilm, giving way, initially at least, to fantasies of whole libraries preserved on the head of a pin. In the event, the new digital records degraded even more quickly than did newsprint. Informations most consistent quality is its evanescence. Information is fugitive in its very nature.

People are good at guessing what will be important in the future, but we are terrible at guessing what wont be, says Clay Shirky, media scholar and author, who in the early 2000s worked at the Library of Congress on the National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Project. After the obviouspresidential inaugurations or live footage of world historical events, saywe have to choose what to save. But we cant save everything, and we cant know that what were saving will last long. Much of the modern dance of the 1970s and 1980s is lost precisely because choreographers assumed the VHS tapes they made would preserve it, he says. He points to Rothenbergs Law: Digital data lasts forever, or five years, whichever comes first, which was coined by the RAND Corporation computer scientist Jeff Rothenberg in a 1995 Scientific American article. Our digital documents are far more fragile than paper, he argued. In fact, the record of the entire present period of history is in jeopardy.

Illustration by Shannon Freshwater

On the other hand, says archivist Dan Cohen, One of the good developments of our digital age is that it is possible to save more, and to provide access to more. Fifteen years ago, he began work on Digital History, a book co-authored with Roy Rosenzweig. There was already a good sense of how fragile born-digital materials are, he explains, stressing that most archivists concerns arent new. Historians have always had to sift through fakes and half-truths. Whats gotten worse is the sheer ease of creating fake documents and especially of disseminating them far and wide. People havent gotten any less gullible.

In the 21st century, more and more information is born digital and will stay that way, prone to decay or disappearance as servers, software, Web technologies, and computer languages break down. The task of internet archivists has developed a significance far beyond what anyone could have imagined in 2001, when the Internet Archive first cranked up the Wayback Machine and began collecting Web pages; the site now holds more than 30 petabytes of data dating back to 1996. (One gigabyte would hold the equivalent of 30 feet of books on a shelf; a petabyte is a million of those.) Not infrequently, the Wayback Machine and other large digital archives, such as those in the care of the great national and academic libraries, find themselves holding the only extant copy of a given work on the public internet. This responsibility is increasingly fraught with political, cultural, and even legal complications.

We battle every day to make the truth, first by living it, then by recording and sharing it, and finally, crucially, by preserving it.

Press-hating autocrats, increasingly emboldened by Donald Trumps notorious contempt for journalists, have grown brazen in recent years. North Korean state media erased some 35,000 articles mentioning Jang Song-thaek, the uncle of Kim Jong-Un, after his execution for treason in late 2013. Turkeys president Recep Tayyip Erdogan cracked down on his countrys press after a failed coup attempt in July 2016, shuttering more than 150 press outlets. The Egyptian government ordered ISPs to block access to 21 news websites in May 2017. This is to say nothing of broader crackdowns on public information such as Turkeys ban on teaching evolution in high schools, or Chinas recent attempt to force Cambridge University Press to censor journal articles.

Now lets assume there are copies of these banned publications in public digital archives, such as the Wayback Machine. If a government wishes to remove information from the internet, but archivists believe the material in question to be of significant public interest and import, how are libraries and archives to respond? How do libraries balance the public interest against those with legitimate grounds for restricting access, such as rights holders and privacy advocates?

ICYMI: 11 images that show how the Trump administration is failing at photography

The Wayback Machine generally adheres to the standards of the Oakland Archive Policy, a template for the use of librarians and archivists in evaluating takedown requests developed at UC Berkeley and first published in 2002. When governments make such requests, the Oakland policy quotes the American Library Associations Library Bill of Rights, adopted in 1939: Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.

The Library Bill of Rights also states that books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation. When we consider that the internet is a library, and that the community it serves is all mankind, the responsibility of digital archivists acquires a gravity that is hard to overstate.

Until June 2016, when it filed for bankruptcy, Gawker provided intelligent and unrestrained commentary on events of the day to a mass audience of tens of millions. The company fell victim to a barrage of lawsuits, filed by different plaintiffs but paid for by one person, the billionaire PayPal co-founder and Trump supporter Peter Thiel, whose business, political, and personal dealings were frequently mocked by Gawker, which he once characterized as the Silicon Valley equivalent of Al Qaeda . . . . I think they should be described as terrorists, not as writers or reporters. Most people who dont care for a magazine are content to refrain from reading it. But Thiel went much, much further.

Thiels coup de grace against Gawker originated in a bizarre Florida lawsuit involving a blurry security-camera sex tape featuring the washed-up wrestler Hulk Hogan and Heather Clem, the wife of Hogans friend, radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge. Despite having discussed, in front of the vast radio audience of Howard Stern, intimate matters far too crude to recount here, Hogan was awarded a $140 million judgement for the invasion of his privacy and infliction of emotional distress by a six-person jury in Pinellas County. (Hogan and Gawker eventually reached a $31 million settlement.) Gawker Media Group was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Its websites were sold to Univision for $135 millionwith the exception of its flagship site, Gawker.com, which the publicly traded corporation did not want to bear the risk of owning.

Peter Thiel spent millions funding litigation in order to destroy Gawker and may be looking to finish the job by eradicating its archive.

The disposition of the remaining assets of Gawker Media Group, including the flagship site and its archive of over 200,000 articles, is still before a New York bankruptcy court. In January, Thiel submitted a bid for these assets, after earlier complaining to the bankruptcy judge overseeing the auction that the Gawker estates administrators were barring him from doing so. Thiel spent millions on the Hogan case alone with the express purpose of destroying Gawker, and may be looking to purchase these assets in order to protect himself from a public airing of his secret campaign of litigation; he may also intend to finish the job of ruining Gawker by eradicating their archive. Suspicion of the latter motive has been voiced repeatedly both in court and in the press.

What would be missing if the Gawker archive were to disappear, aside from years worth of mockery of Peter Thiel? Essays on the Black Lives Matter movement, on personal grief and Donald Trumps hair, on Silk Road and Reddits Violentacrez. A. J. Daulerios 2003 interview with the late Fred Phelps. A series of pieces exposing Amazons cruel treatment of its workers. Letters from death row inmates. Tom Scoccas final post on the dangers facing the free press, Gawker Was Murdered by Gaslight.

Unlike politicians or entertainers, journalists have a professional obligation to tell the truthnot only for ethical reasons, but also because they can easily be sued, fired, or publicly disgraced if they publish things that arent true. Some examples of potentially dangerous material would be the explosive accusations against Harvey Weinstein reported by Ronan Farrow in The New Yorker and by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey in The New York Times, or the Timess coverage of the sexual misdeeds of Louis C.K., or the mea culpa of Ta-Nehisi Coates, writing in The Atlantic, I believed that Bill Cosby was a rapist.

All three of these stories had earlier roots at Gawker. A blind item in 2012 described the experiences of two female comedians who were sexually harassed by Louis C.K. In 2014, Gawker reignited public interest in the allegations against Bill Cosby after years of media silence (Who Wants to Remember Bill Cosbys Multiple Sex-Assault Allegations?). A 2015 piece on the despicable open secret of Harvey Weinsteins sexual misconduct asked readers for their help in exposing the truth. Gawker took the first crack at many risky stories, thereby clearing the path for respectability. In the absence of journalists willing to take such risks, its not at all clear whether such stories would ever have come to light in the mainstream press.

But the no-holds-barred approach could prove dangerous, as it did in the summer of 2015, when Gawker published private details of the gay sex life of a married Conde Nast executive. The decision to run this story met with criticism inside the profession and out. Gawker management removed the post, and Editor in Chief Max Read and Executive Editor Tommy Craggs resigned in protest.

A company of bomb throwers cant start hiding the evidence when a bomb goes astray, Craggs tells me. There should be a record of your fuck-ups and your triumphs, too. In a similar spirit, he favors the preservation of Gawkers archive as a record of how life was lived and covered on the internet for an era. Taking that away is leaving a huge hole in our understanding.

Peter Thiel is not the only trigger-happy rich man with a media axe to grind. Joe Ricketts, the Trump-supporting billionaire owner of DNAinfo and Gothamist, peremptorily shut both publications down in November 2017 after his employees voted to unionize. Ricketts had made his feelings about unions manifestly clear in a blog post he published during the negotiations: Why Im Against Unions At Businesses I Create.

The archives of both publications disappeared in one fell swoop on the day the closure was announced, leading the justlaid off journalists to share tips on Twitter about how best to extract their clips, which would be useful at the very least in securing future employment, from Googles search engine cache. The sites were later restoredfor how long, who can say?but the point had been made yet again. All it takes is one sufficiently angry rich person to destroy the work of hundreds, and prohibit access to information for millions.

Historically, the Wayback Machine has sought to skirt legal complications, and provides explicit instructions for rights-holders and publishers who dont want their material crawled or archived, as well as tools for those who wish to facilitate preservation. I emailed the Wayback Machines founder Brewster Kahle with a description of the Gawker case, and asked what he thought might happen if a single person were to buy a large archive of historical interest with the sole aim of annihilating it. Its very disturbing, he replied, and referred me to Mark Graham, who heads up the Wayback Machine. Were looking into these things very closely, Graham tells me.

In January, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a non-profit organization affiliated with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, announced an initiative in partnership with the Internet Archive to produce and maintain archives of material threatened by the billionaire problem, including Gawker and the LA Weekly, which saw most of its editorial staff laid off last November after it was purchased by a group of investors who placed the Libertarian-leaning opinion editor of the Orange County Register in charge of the operation. Obviously, were hoping that the Internet Archive is able to host this material indefinitely, and as an organization, theyve got a very strong track record of standing up for speech, says the FPFs director of special projects, Parker Higgins. But he adds that they are already drawing up contingency plans should the new owners of the publications confront the project with takedown notices. We are working on ensuring that the Archives continued hosting isnt a single point of failure here, though were not quite ready to go into details on that, he says.

ICYMI: One of the most elaborate undercover stings in American journalism history

In addition to these efforts, theres evidence that next-generation archival strategies are already under development at the Internet Archive and elsewhere. Kahle hosted Vint Cerf and other internet pioneers at the June 2016 Decentralized Web Summit in San Francisco, a gathering dedicated to exploring the design of a far more widely distributed, decentralized internet. Decentralized networks are less vulnerable to censorship or tampering, as for example in the peer-to-peer InterPlanetary File System, which protects files by storing many copies across many computers. In combination with the blockchain technology that underpins the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, systems can be designed to produce incorruptible archives, provided the networks theyre running on are sufficiently robust.

An oft-cited feature of the new internet under discussion at the Decentralized Web Summit was this type of tamper-proof and permanent baked-in archive. Cerf, who despite his white beard and dignified presence is also playful and waggish (Power corrupts, and PowerPoint corrupts absolutely), spoke of the need for new kinds of reference space held in common by cooperating entities, the way URLs are held in common now. Kahle bounced around in characteristic style as he outlined his vision of a global peer-to-peer network with built-in archiving, all using techniques already developed. Can we lock the Web open? Kahle asked. Can you actually make it so that openness is irrevocable, so that you bake these values into the Web itself?and I would say, Yes. That is our opportunity.

Our records are the raw material of history; the shelter of our memories for the future. We must develop ironclad security for our digital archives, and put them entirely out of the reach of hostile hands. The good news is that this is still possible.

ICYMI: Abuse can manifest itself in the stories that have gone untold or unexplored by women because the risks of telling them.

Digital vs. print

By Karen K. Ho

310,000,000,000

Web pages captured over time by the Internet Archives Wayback Machine. But the figure is misleading: Information published to the Web changes so frequentlya Harvard Law School study found that 70 percent of URLs cited in law reviews are no longer functionalthat any snapshot of the internet is incomplete at best. Things stick around for much shorter and [are] changing constantly before they disappear, the Internet Archives Jason Scott told The Atlantic.

60,000,000

Newspaper pages scanned, but not searchable, in the Google News Archive. Starting in 2008, Google created one of the largest keyword-searchable archives of newspapers, going back for more than a centuryall free to use on the Web. But in 2011, with little explanation, the archive was made unsearchable. While some pages can be browsed, newspapers such as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel have pulled their content due to agreements with other digital archive providers.

1

Remaining employee in The New York Timess morgue. At its height, the papers archive once employed dozens of people who dutifully clipped, organized, and filed every story that appeared in each days edition. In 1974, when there were 28 employees, a Times editor once said, The morgue is the lifeblood of this paper. We couldnt put out a paper without the morgue. Today, the lone employee is Jeff Roth, 58, who oversees a collection of tens of millions of clippings and millions of photographic prints.

0

Number of archived complete press runs of The Washington Post.

The Post has thrown out many of its printed copies, relying instead on photographic and digital archives. Collections of the Post at major libraries, such as the American Newspaper Repository Collection at Duke University, are spotty. Such is the case for most papers: The New York Times threw out its paper archive in 2006, while a spokesman for The Wall Street Journal notes, We lost the majority of our print archive during the 9/11 attack. At the time our offices were at 200 Liberty Street, directly across from the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Maria Bustillos is the founding editor of Popula, an alternative news and culture magazine. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Harpers, and The Guardian.In November, Joe Ricketts, the billionaire founder of online brokerage firm TD Ameritrade, patriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs, million-dollar Trump donor, and father of the governor of Nebraska, shuttered DNAinfo, the local news startup he founded, and Gothamist, the network of city blogs hed purchased just a few months earlier, in a fit of pique, after editorial employees organized a union. Shuttering the company meant nothing to himDNAinfo reportedly lost money and the Gothamist network was not profitable enough to make an appreciable difference to a man with a net worth estimated at over $2 billionbut to me it meant that there was no longer a reporter assigned to cover my neighborhood in Brooklyn and its Halloween Dog Parades, community board meetings about unsafe intersections, and new tiki-bar openings.

My loss, Im aware, is small potatoes compared to that of the reporter herself, and her dozens of suddenly jobless colleagues. But I know a little bit about how it feels when a billionaire with inexplicable power over you takes your job away out of what seems like personal spite: I was the last editor of Gawker, before it went bankrupt and ceased publication, the result of years of legal warfare secretly funded by billionaire Facebook investor Peter Thiel.

ICYMI: The story BuzzFeed, The New York Times and more didnt want to publish

It is one thingan infuriating thing, grantedto lose your job because of the market. When your factory shuts down because labor is cheaper overseas or when your magazine folds because luxury watch companies shifted their marketing budgets to Instagram influencers, you may rage and despair, but you also probably saw it coming, in industry-wide economic trends that were impossible to ignore. But when your livelihood is disrupted because of the whims of one powerful personwhen the invisible hand is replaced by one very visible and shockingly capricious oneit is a much more bewildering experience. And it is one more journalists can expect to experience in the near future, as the economic power of the 0.01 percent increases and the revenue models underpinning traditional news-gathering shops break down.

Its rote at this point to observe that many of the ways the media landscape has been transformed in the 21st century have oddly caused it to more closely resemble the media landscape of the 18th and 19th centuries, from the flourishing of a more openly partisan press to the erosion of the norms of professionalism that were built up in the era of post-war prosperity and supposed national consensus. Another throwback: The press baron. Not since the 19th century have so many individuals had so much power over the press.

Its important to remember that Ricketts only had that power because no one else wanted to spend the money to do what he was doing (before he got mad and decided to stop). He thought he might eventually make money doing hyper-local reporting across the country, but he hadnt yet, and no one else is trying on his scale. That is not meant to suggest he should be considered a heroic failure, its mainly to say that an industry that relies on the Joe Rickettses of the world to sustain itself is in deep trouble.

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The press baron model works out so long as people want to be press barons. Generally, billionaires buy or start media outlets either for money or influence. There are ostensibly benevolent examples, of course. After personally purchasing The Washington Post, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has received a great deal of credit for investing in serious investigative journalism and giving the paper the resources to achieve major digital growth, as the press releases say. I worked (oh so briefly) for eBay founder Pierre Omidyars First Look Media, home to lots of great journalists given the resources necessary to do important work. I know Omidyar believes strongly and sincerely in the importance of independent journalism to a free society.

ICYMI: My editor was like, dont worry about it. But I let my husband know. I let my sister know. I let the school district know

But with Google and Facebook sucking up the majority of the ad money, going into publishing eventually only makes sense if you have particular things you want published. I have no doubt that Bezos and Omidyar believe in the missions of their organizations, but they are both quite upfront about not wanting to run them as charities. They both want to save journalism as a business. The trouble will come when the billionaires who think that way discover that, even if they once had one very good idea that made them very rich, they probably dont have the one good idea that will crack the code of making it profitable to run a large and expensive news-gathering organization. Those who initially decide to fund journalism out of a sense of selfless civic virtue will get bored or get tired of losing money, leaving only those funding it for some other, probably political purpose. (The Guardian is currently engaged in a fascinating experiment to see how long a rich mans money and the economic laws of compound interest can be used to sustain a money-losing, public-interest-serving journalism shop.)

The ones who are doing a pure influence playand have enough money stockpiled to afford not to care if it works as a businesshave the advantage over everyone else. The fact that Gawker had the readership and revenue to sustain itself didnt, in the end, make a whit of difference to the people who made the decision to kill it off, just as the Gothamist networks modest profitability made no difference to Rickettsand just as, in another sense, the financial viability of Breitbart News means little to billionaire backer Rebekah Mercer, nor that of The Federalist to whichever wealthy interests are secretly bankrolling that conservative publication. In this world it makes more sense, from the billionaires perspective, to fund Breitbart than own DNAinfo. Both will probably lose money, but one of them might help get a president elected.

In retrospect, it seems inevitable that American journalisms professional norms around fairness and ethics emerged at a time when newspapers and magazines were good investments for normal financial reasons. Safe investments attract safe corporate investors. Corporations like clear standards of conduct and dont like offending huge numbers of potential customers, which is how Yellow Journalism gave way to All the News Thats Fit to Print and the mainstream media as we knew it. The market played a big role in determining content. A big city paper could lean a little to the left or the right, but it couldnt go fullJohn Birch or allin Yippie without losing the thing that gave it power: monopolistic access to the eyeballs of the citys literate adults.

New economic rules determine new forms. Were already seeing market forces that have nothing to do with audience preferencelet alone public interestdrive changes in how news is gathered and reported. After building what resembled newsrooms of yore, Mashable, Mic, and Vocativ eliminated dozens of editorial jobs in the now familiar pivot to video, in spite of the fact that readers, being readers, prefer text: Most literate adults can read a paragraph much faster than it takes for a preroll advertisement to load and then hear that paragraph get read aloud over stock photography. But major brands have expressed their spending preferences for video inventory and thus media companies seek to satisfy their demand. No one really believes itll work, where work means preserve thousands of jobs gathering news as opposed to crafting branded content videos tailored to the latest Facebook algorithm changes.

This is the dark timeline: Journalism-agnostic media investors learn news cant scale and then jump ship just as soon as theyve finished killing off both the corporate and independent legacy press businesses, leaving the fate of the industry to ungodly rich people with very idiosyncratic personal agendas.

Whats happening to the press is reflective of the broader transformation of our society. Rule by supposedly benevolent technocratic elites is giving wayin large part due to the fecklessness of those technocratsto straight plutocracy. And really, that only makes sense in an era in which everyone feels like their lives are, in important and fundamental ways, in thrall to the whims of a few mega-rich people. Our cities promise to remake themselves to please Bezos. A few GOP donors threaten to close their checkbooks, and the entire federal tax code is sloppily rewritten. Chris Hughes sneezes, and The New Republic catches a cold.

We shouldnt romanticize the days when the nations agenda was determined in a handful of Midtown Manhattan conference rooms. (Though if you got into the industry after 2001 youre allowed to romanticize the expense accounts, catered dinners, and office bar carts.) But the mere fact that corporations were beholden to even small groups of peoplestock holders, boards of directors, Wall Street analystsmade them more accountable than our new generation of owners.

ICYMI: One question that turns courageous journalists into cowards

The force of public opinion can compel a corporation to change course. MSNBC recently hired left-wing comedian Sam Seder back on as a contributor after firing him in response to a ginned-up alt-right campaign to purposely misinterpret an old joke he made about Roman Polanski. The realization of how easy it is for an outraged and organized group to sway a massive corporation was the foundational insight of Gamergate, the right-wing online backlash freakout that created the mold for the modern bad-faith right-wing pressure campaign.

It is one thing to lose your job because of the market. It is much more bewildering when your livelihood is disrupted by the whims of one person.

But a stubborn billionaireand billionaires are frequently quite stubborncant be moved by anything but criminal prosecution or confiscatory taxation. The billionaire owner has no board or shareholders to appease. The billionaires entire existence is a constant reminder that he or she is beholden to no one.

Even if you dont directly work for the billionaire, the billionaire can determine what you work on. David Koch is a major sponsor of Americas misnomered, largely privately financed public broadcasting, and NOVA, PBSs flagship science series, has been notorious for not covering climate change. Sometimes he exerts his will more directly: A few years ago, The New Yorkers Jane Mayer reported that plans to air a documentary on PBS stations about the Koch brothers purchasing of great political influence were squashed to avoid offending such major public television donors.

In the near term, this shift largely determines what sort of journalist it is profitable to be. One promising model is to tailor your content to grant the wealthy an advantage they dont already enjoy. This includes mega-paywalls which block off reporting to only those with a (usually financial) stake in the subjectlike intelligence briefings for the C-suite class or real-time oil refinery status updates for energy traders. Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei left Politico, a pioneer of this model in political reporting, to launch Axios, a startup narrowly focused on lobbyists and those who hire them. This kind of thing began in finance, of course. Michael Bloombergs eponymous company perfected the model by which people who can afford tens of thousands of dollars in subscription fees get the best and fastest information while the rest of us are generously provided, gratis, with arguments for making public housing more flammable.

Another way to make yourself useful to the billionaire class is to literally attack their political enemies. Take, for example, James OKeefe, the would-be Michael Moore of the far right, whose hidden camera stunts have never proved particularly trustworthy, but have been tremendously useful politically. His biggest splash recently was his utterly botched attempt to entrap The Washington Post into reporting a false allegation of sexual assault against Roy Moore, then a candidate for US Senate from Alabama. By the normal standards of reporting and objective reason, the operation was a spectacular failure. He proved only that the Post was being incredibly careful and responsible in its reporting on Moore. But OKeefe wont suffer the normal blowback that a journalist would for dreaming up this fiasco, because hes playing an entirely different game, with different rules. Thanks to the generosity of his backers, including the Mercer family, OKeefe made $300,000 last year. Nearly every journalist I knoweven the very bad oneshas much higher ethical standards and makes much less money.

But this is now something that publishers, editors, and individual journalists will need to be mindful of for the foreseeable future: Billionaires will pay people to destroy you, using any underhanded tactics they can think of. And theres nothing you can do about it. (Unless, perhaps, you can convince your billionaire boss to sue theirs.)

Oddly, in their spending habits, which frequently fly in the face of traditional economic theory on rational self-interest, right-wing media investors seem to show a more sincere belief in the power of the press than many ostensibly liberal publishers. Why buy alt-weeklies in this environmentas a secretive cabal of apparently conservative investors did to LA Weeklyunless you believe that alt-weeklies, and the stories they publish, fundamentally matter? Why did casino mogul and Trump mega-donor Sheldon Adelson buy the Las Vegas Review-Journalanonymously, at firstunless he believed that controlling a newspaper in his hometown was important to his business and political interests?

When a billionaire buys a journalism outlet to shut down the critical reporting they do on politicians and businesses, or pays a dirty tricks specialist to sting your publication, it is an endorsement of the idea that journalism matters.

That might sound like a rallying cry, but in the absence of any plan to save the industry from the 0.01 percent, it can only be an observation.

ICYMI: The Wall Street Journal unleashes a bombshell report

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Alex Pareene is the politics editor of Splinter and the former editor of Gawker, Racket Teen, and Wonkette. He has been a columnist for Salon and written for publications including The Baffler and the (Minneapolis) Southside Pride.Its just catastrophic. There really are no words, said Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel. A child of God is dead, said CNN contributor Philip Mudd. Im kind of surprised it happened here, but Im not really shocked, Ryan Kadel, a 17-year-old senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, told The Washington Post. School shootings happen all the time, and then the news just forgets about them.

At least 17 people are dead following another school shooting on American soil, this one in the South Florida town of Parkland. Yesterdays tragedy is the USs third-deadliest school shooting, and one of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in modern American history. Coverage of the event followed a now-familiar pattern, with cable news shots of students being evacuated, and somber contributors speaking with anchors who seemed resigned to covering these sort of tragedies on a regular basis. Wrapping up an interview with a congressman, CNNs Wolf Blitzer said, Lets hope it stops. But clearly it wont.

ICYMI: Five ideas for more respectful media coverage after mass shootings

One notable difference from coverage of past school shootings was the prevalence of social media postings from students still in the building. Videos of students sheltering in classrooms as gunshots echoed from offscreen provided a terrifying window into the experiences of those trapped in the middle of the chaos. Several outlets also shared text messages that students sent to loved ones.

A common theme across the coverage was just how normal these mass casualty events feel. Every few months, it seems, early reports of a shootingat a school, a church, a concertlead to news bulletins and breaking coverage followed by hours of somber analysis, thoughts and prayers from some and calls to legislative action from others. But nearly two decades after Columbine, the only thing thats changed is the technology by which audiences experience the carnage. As Blitzer said, its clear we will be back here.

Below, more from the coverage of a horrifying, all-too-familiar event.

Sign up for CJR 's daily email

ICYMI: Billionaires gone wild

A somber chronicle: During Fox Newss breaking coverage, Shepard Smith listed every school shooting since Columbine.

During Fox Newss breaking coverage, Shepard Smith listed every school shooting since Columbine. Trumps response: President Trump offered his condolences to the victims and their families on Twitter, but didnt comment publicly. I remember being at the White House on Dec. 14, 2012, the day of Sandy Hook, The Washington Posts Philip Rucker noted. Obama went into the briefing room that afternoon to address the American people. A different WH approach today. Trump hasnt spoken on camera, and his staff just called a lid.

President Trump offered his condolences to the victims and their families on Twitter, but didnt comment publicly. I remember being at the White House on Dec. 14, 2012, the day of Sandy Hook, The Washington Posts Philip Rucker noted. Obama went into the briefing room that afternoon to address the American people. A different WH approach today. Trump hasnt spoken on camera, and his staff just called a lid. Can the media do better?: Following the killing of 26 people in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in November, CJRs Jon Allsop looked at ways journalists could improve their coverage of mass shooting events.

Following the killing of 26 people in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in November, CJRs Jon Allsop looked at ways journalists could improve their coverage of mass shooting events. Relevant again: The Onion once again had cause to run its story title No Way To Prevent This, Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens, but this time there was a twist. When I wrote this headline, I had no idea it would be applied to the high school a mile from my house, former Onion editor Jason Roeder tweeted.

Other notable stories

TRENDING: The cost of reporting while female

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Pete Vernon is a former CJR staff writer. Follow him on Twitter @ByPeteVernon.A video from a drone that flew within feet of an airliner over Las Vegas and prompted outrage on the internet has spurred three influential U.S. aviation lobbies to call for tighter regulations on hobby drones.

Legislation exempting certain hobbyist drone pilots from oversight by the Federal Aviation Administration has hampered the aviation agencys ability to oversee safety of drones, according to a letter sent Monday to lawmakers. The letter was from Airlines for America, a trade group representing large carriers, and the Air Line Pilots Association and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the unions that represent pilots and controllers.

We strongly urge you to remove legislative restrictions that have been placed on the FAA that limit its safety oversight of UAS, the letter said, referring to drones as unmanned aircraft systems. The likelihood that a drone will collide with an airline aircraft is increasing. By providing the FAA with the full authority to regulate all UAS operations, the safety of passenger and cargo flights will be protected.

Tense Skies

The letter is part of larger tensions within the civilian drone world as companies including Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. seek tighter controls to ensure orderly skies for delivery flights, while people who view them as high-end toys try to preserve their freedom to fly. It also comes as safety incidents reported by pilots continue to rise.

The FAA is investigating the Las Vegas incident, in which a drone with a camera apparently films an airliner flying directly beneath it at close range, according to an agency statement. The video was posted Feb. 1 by the sUASNews website, but the date it was taken isnt clear.

An FAA-sponsored study released in November found that drones weighing just a few pounds could cause significant damage to airliner engines, windshields or wings.

The exemption on FAA regulation of hobby drones was cited by a judge in May in a case overturning the agencys ability to require owners to register their devices. Congress has since reinstated FAAs drone registration, but hasnt changed the broader hobbyist exemption.

The Academy of Model Aeronautics, which represents model-aircraft flying clubs and lobbied Congress for the exemption, said in a statement that it shares the safety concerns of the other aviation groups. It called on FAA to step up enforcement and do more to educate drone users.

However, the exemption for hobbyists shouldnt be faulted for the episode, AMA spokesman Chad Budreau said. The actions of the drone operator in Las Vegas werent covered by any exemption and were illegal, Budreau added.

As we have seen with recent incidents like the Las Vegas drone video, some rogue flyers choose to operate in an unsafe manner despite existing drone laws, he said. The FAA and local law enforcement must hold these people accountable.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.However, even in a changing world it's still possible to reach your career goals, the CEO of DBS , Southeast Asia's largest bank, told CNBC. You just have to work backward.

For some, that's a great weight lifted: No more worrying that you'll be stuck doing a job you hate for the next 30 years  something else will come along, right? But for those looking to plan their career path, the shifting landscape can look daunting.

In an age of evolving industries and growing automation, the concept of a "job for life" has become increasingly elusive.

"The way to do it is to look outside in, or long to short," Piyush Gupta said in an episode of CNBC's "Life Hacks Live."

"If you say I want to be an entrepreneur at the age of 40, then there's certain skills you need to make sure you acquire by the time you're 30 or 35."

Gupta advised thinking about the kind of job you'd ultimately like to have aged 40 or 50, and then working out the role you would need to be in and the skills you would need to develop to get there. He suggested doing that in increments of around five years.

"As you work back, you start getting a range of possibilities about the exposure and experience you need to have to qualify for the next thing," said Gupta.

Those exposures and experiences can be "very disparate," ranging from subject matter expertise to working across different geographies, he noted, and they can be incorporated at various stages.

"You can't do everything at once, but you can do this in a planned way. You can be systematic about it and you can shape your own career."

"It's really more about what you need to develop in yourself over a period of time, more than exactly what role you want in a particular context."Hu Kaihong, a spokesman of State Council Information Office, shows China's new Arctic Policy at a news conference on January 26, 2018 in Beijing, China. VCG | Getty Images

China announced its official Arctic policy to the world late last month, promoting Beijing's ambitions for the region and raising fears about a Chinese takeover of the polar zone. But while the world's second-largest economy, which self-identified as a "Near-Arctic State" in its new white paper, may have it's own economic and foreign policy interests in mind, experts cautioned that doesn't mean a geopolitical standoff is coming. Still, Beijing's new document does seek to establish exactly how it believes the region should be governed and utilized. The paper explains that China's interests in the Arctic can be narrowed down to two categories. On the one hand, Beijing is "closely involved" in activities in the area like scientific research, resource exploration and exploitation, shipping and security. And separately, climate change and its potential consequences on the region are expected to affect much of the world, so China is naturally concerned.

China wants to be included in economic benefits here, that is the reason for their involvement even if they do not possess legitimate geographical reasons or logic to be considered a member of the region. Zhang Zhixing senior East Asia analyst at Stratfor

"The Arctic situation now goes beyond its original inter-Arctic States or regional nature, having a vital bearing on the interests of States outside the region and the interests of the international community as a whole, as well as on the survival, the development, and the shared future for mankind," the white paper said. Of note, China's emphasized in the white paper that countries should respect "the rights and freedom of non-Arctic States to carry out activities in this region in accordance with the law," specifically pointing multiple times to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Those references to international laws, however, aren't totally congruent with Beijing's history with such rules.

China's strategy

China  which is no closer to the Arctic than Poland is  has been working on its strategy for an extended period of time, with its induction as an observer state on the Arctic Council approved in 2013. The Arctic policy is a consolidation of the world's second-largest economy's activities in the Arctic for the past five to 10 years, according to Zhang Zhixing, a senior East Asia analyst for geopolitical intelligence firm Stratfor. According to the white paper, China wants to tie the Arctic to its Belt and Road Initiative, encouraging joint efforts to construct a "Polar Silk Road" or "blue economic passage" that would link China and Europe through the Arctic Ocean. The Belt and Road Initiative aims to connect Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa with vast logistics and transport networks. While Beijing has touted the project as a mutual economic development initiative, it's widely seen as an attempt by China to construct a massive, multi-national zone of economic and political influence that has Beijing at its core. The addition of the Arctic into the initiative has raised red flags for some, as the wider project is seen by some experts as an important component of China's foreign policy. While the Arctic hasn't always been an accessible part of Chinese policy, global warming has increased the rate of the region's ice cap melt in summer, which is raising its economic potential as a commercial maritime route in future. According to the World Trade Organization's 2017 statistical review, about 88 percent of global merchandise trade occurs between Asia, Europe and North America  some of which could conceivably pass through the Arctic Ocean in the future. "The white paper is an official statement to ensure China has a foothold in the Arctic and the activities that are ongoing," Zhang told CNBC. China wants to make sure its point of view is reflected in the region, through involvement in Arctic governance and by shaping its agenda, she said. "China wants to be included in economic benefits here, that is the reason for their involvement even if they do not possess legitimate geographical reasons or logic to be considered a member of the region," Zhang said.

A glacier is seen from NASA's Operation IceBridge research aircraft on March 29, 2017 above Ellesmere Island, Canada. Mario Tama | Getty Images

A challenge

The crux of the issue, according to many analysts, is that the Arctic could tip the already rising tensions between the U.S. and China, but the situation may have been exaggerated, according to Zhang. "Many experts are pointing to the South China Sea dispute as the eventual outcome to China's Arctic involvement, but the strategic value of the Arctic simply does not make sense for China to engage in confrontational behavior," Zhang said. This is because "even though the Arctic Circle contains large amounts of untapped resources, as well as being a potential trade route, the full potential of the Arctic to become commercially viable seems to be at least a decade away," the Stratfor analyst said. In the South China Sea, a resource-rich and strategic region where several nations have claims, China has ignored maritime law and a legally binding tribunal ruling by building islands there.

If anything, Russia poses more of a threat in the Arctic to American interest. Andrew Holland director of studies and senior fellow at the American Security Project

Another reason why fears of dispute may be unfounded is the fact that China lacks any semblance of geographical claim in the Arctic, unlike in the South China Sea, said Andrew Holland, director of studies and senior fellow for energy and climate at non-partisan research organization American Security Project. "China poses a challenge, not a threat, to the U.S." Holland said of the Arctic. "There has not been any confrontational behavior from China, and we don't expect to see it escalate to a confrontational stance at any point." "If anything, Russia poses more of a threat in the Arctic to American interest," Holland said.

Polar partnerships

Through the promise of investments and trade growth, China made sure to take diplomatic steps in courting the Arctic Council. The country entered into joint ventures with Russian gas companies, it built a large embassy in Iceland, it helped finance the Kouvola-Xi'an train in Finland, it thawed its relations with Norway and it invested into Greenland. The influx of investments is important to Greenland's goal to become less reliant on Denmark. In exchange, China wants access to the mines in Greenland, Holland said. The behavior echos the language used in the white paper, which is careful to emphasize cooperation (a word used 45 times in the English version)  allaying the international community's concerns about China's intentions in the polar region.

A gas derrick at the village of Sabetta in the Kara Sea shore line on the Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic circle on April 16, 2015. Kirill Kudryavtsev | AFP | Getty ImagesThe Lunar New Year, which kicks off on Feb. 16, is East Asia's most important holiday season. The festival, also known as Chinese New Year, can be described as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and even New Year's Eve rolled into one holiday, which marks the beginning of spring and the coming together of families. Other than China, where many go on a week-long holiday, countries like Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Vietnam also celebrate the festival as public holidays. As a result, the celebration impacts stock markets, factory production and economic activity. This year, it's also being cited by some as contributing to bitcoin's slump in January as Asian traders are perceived to be cashing out their cryptocurrencies to buy gifts for the holiday season.

Big budgets for the holidays

Last year, Singapore-based United Overseas Bank polled respondents in three Southeast Asian countries to find out their budgets for the Lunar New Year. In Singapore, a survey of about 500 revealed the average holiday budget to be $1,890 (roughly 2,500 Singapore dollars).

Chinese consumers queue up outside a time-honored grocery store to buy their Chinese New Year essentials in Shanghai. VCG | Getty Images

The same survey was also carried out in Indonesia and Malaysia, where the intended spend per person came in at about 10 million Indonesian rupiah (about $800) and 4,201 Malaysian ringgit (about $1,000), respectively. In all three countries, people intended to spend money mainly on food, travel and gift giving. Similar data for China was not available, but the country's consumption has been growing, Last year, Chinese consumers reportedly spent 840 billion Chinese yuan (just under $140 billion) in retail and catering services over the week-long holiday, an increase of 11.4 percent from 2016.

Gifting money goes digital

Red packets, also known as hongbao in Mandarin Chinese, are an important tradition of the festival. They're envelopes containing gifts of money given by married people to unmarried people  although many also have the practice of giving money to their parents. In China, digital red packets have contributed to the growth of mobile payments, notably for Tencent social media platform WeChat. The tech conglomerate only introduced e-hongbaos in 2014, but their popularity has skyrocketed. More than 16 million digital packets were sent on the eve of Chinese New Year in 2014, but that grew to 14.2 billion for the same day last year. The phenomenon hasn't quite taken off in Southeast Asia in the same fashion, but consumers are starting to bite. Singapore-headquartered bank DBS declined to reveal total digital red packet numbers, but said that there were five times more e-hongbaos sent last year compared with 2016. More importantly for consumers, DBS revealed that the average amount sent in digital red packets in Singapore last year was S$26 (about $19.60)  several times higher than the going rates of physical red packets, which is between S$6 ($4.50) and S$10 ($7.60).

Chinese tourism boomDavid Einhorn's Greenlight Capital hedge fund reported new holdings in several big retailers as of the end of December.



The fund reported new stakes in nearly two dozen companies, including a 6.2 million share stake in department store operator J.C. Penney, 125,000 shares in Nordstrom and 132,000 shares in Kohls. Greenlight also disclosed a new 103,000 share stake in Signet Jewelers, 451,000 shares in Under Armour, and 103,000 shares in Best Buy.

In the same period, Greenlight dissolved stakes in Monsanto, Rite Aid, Hewlett Packard and Kroger.



The fund also disclosed a 2.7 million share stake in Twitter. CNBC previously reported in January that Greenlight Capital had bought a stake in the social media platform.

Investment managers are required to report major stakes each quarter, though with a delay that means they may have changed their holdings since the end of the reporting period.

But if Greenlight didn't change anything, some of its new bets are already paying off. Twitter shares are up 40 percent year to date, according to FactSet. Shares of J.C. Penney are up 16.8 percent, and Under Armour up 23 percent.

Greenlight got crushed in January, dropping 6.6 percent during the best month for the S&P 500 since early 2016. That came after the fund returned 1.6 percent for 2017 versus the market's 19 percent gain. The fund's fortunes may have reversed this month after the market's sharp sell-off.

Einhorn has talked about the fund's struggle with bearish bets on stocks that went the opposite direction, including Amazon, Netflix and Tesla. The fund also lost its bid last year to gain seats on the board of General Motors in an activist push.The world of high flying jets is reachable for few, but for those willing and able to spend tens of millions of dollars, there's much that money can buy.

CNBC recently went inside three private jets manufactured by Embraer, the Brazilian aerospace giant.China Photos | Getty Images

Iran may suspect special lizards of spying, but the use of animals for intelligence purposes dates back well over 100 years and involves not just reptiles but cats, dogs, birds and even sea life. Carrier pigeons were used in ancient times for relaying messages. But interest in the use of animals has changed with the development of microelectronics and miniaturization that allowed small listening devices to be put on birds and even small mammals. More recently, technology has been catching up with dog-like robots for defense use as well as hummingbird-size drones tested by the Pentagon. The Air Force also has released video of "bugbots" or "birdbots" that could be used for surveillance and military applications, including potential swarm attacks. Iran has a long history of suspecting animals for spying, particularly accusing the West of trying to gather information about its nuclear activities. Back in 2008, two "spy pigeons" were suspected of being used to gather intelligence about Iran's uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, reported Iran's reformist paper Etemad Melli. It said one of the birds was captured not far from the heavily bunkered underground facility and had metal rings, strings and other suspicious features attached.

'Spy' squirrels busted

Iran's media also reported the case of 14 "spy" squirrels that were busted in 2007. The account at the time by the daily Resalat claimed the rodents were released along its border by Western intelligence and fitted with espionage equipment, including navigation tracking, bugging devices and a camera. As for lizards spying, the stories about the reptiles surfaced Tuesday when Hassan Firuzabadi, a senior military advisor to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told the state-run Iranian Labour News Agency about how lizards and perhaps salamanders were used by Western countries to "find out where we had uranium mines and where we were involved in atomic activities."

Desert chameleon GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/Getty Images

According to Firuzabadi, "lizard-like animal skins attract nuclear waves." He claimed Iranian authorities stumbled on suspicious cases of outsiders with reptiles in their possession and concluded it was part of a pattern of espionage conducted by environmentalists. "Probably the reason the Iranians are paranoid and jumpy is because people have used fake rocks outside Iranian nuclear facilities to monitor what they're up to," said James Lewis, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based international security think tank. Lewis, a former U.S. diplomat with experience in high technology and intelligence, said the rocks reportedly would self-destruct when they were picked up. The rocks were found by Iran's Revolutionary Guards on patrol near the country's underground nuclear enrichment facility in Fordow and reported first in 2012 by U.K.'s Sunday Times newspaper. Similarly, Iran-backed militant groups also have accused Israel of using animals for espionage.

Dolphin with arrows

In 2015, Gaza Strip's Hamas security officials reportedly captured a dolphin equipped with "video cameras" off the coast, according to the Palestinian paper al-Quds. The Iran-backed group claimed the dolphin was sent by Israel and also fitted with a weapon that could fire arrows at humans. There also was a 2016 case of a "spy vulture" captured in the southern Lebanon. Local media called it a "spy" bird because it reportedly carried transmitter equipment, but Israel claimed it was from a nature reserve and asked for it back. There have also been claims over the years from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Sudan of the Israelis using vultures or other birds for espionage. An Egyptian official in 2010 claimed sharks controlled by Israel's Mossad were responsible for attacks on tourists in the Red Sea to hurt the local economy. Meantime, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA  the R&D arm of the Pentagon  has tested controlling sharks, and the U.S. Navy does training with dolphins and sea lions. There's also been research over the decades with beluga whales. The use of the dolphins by the U.S. military focuses primarily around locating underwater mines and helping with rescues at sea. The dolphins were used by the U.S. military during the first and second Gulf wars to help clear mines. The use of marine mammals for military purposes dates to the Cold War era and involved not just the U.S. but the Soviet Union, starting in the 1960s. By the 1980s, the U.S. Navy reportedly had as many as 100 dolphins trained.

CIA's spook cat

Other U.S. agencies during the Cold War were actively involved in animal research for espionage or wartime use. For example, the CIA's so-called Acoustic Kitty project in the 1960s involved using trained cats to spy on the Kremlin and Soviet embassies, including the compound in Washington, D.C.

Westend61 | Getty Images

The CIA's cat project involved planting a small transmitter above the cat's skull and placing a microphone in the animal's ear canal. The tail served as an antenna. Acoustic Kitty reportedly didn't work so well from a technical standpoint and due to animal behavior, so it was abandoned but still cost millions of dollars. The CIA didn't respond to a request for comment for this story. "The problem with training animals is they don't always do what you ask them to do," said Lewis, the CSIS expert. The Germans also reportedly used cats as well as dogs for spying and crossing enemy lines during World War I. Documents released by the British from an intelligence briefing dating to 1915 stated: "Two cats and a dog are under suspicion as they have been in the habit of crossing our trenches at night: steps are being taken to trap them if possible." Technology in the past decade, though, has allowed the military to develop dog-like robots for possible defense use as well as hummingbird-size drones. And there's even research and development of mosquito-like unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

'Spot' robot

In 2015, DARPA and Boston Dynamics, a U.S. defense contractor, showed off a 160-pound "Spot" robot at a Marine Corps base in Virginia. The dog-like robot could be used to scout or to hold equipment on the battlefield. "During a military operation in urban terrain drill, Spot went into the building before the Marines simulating [peeking] around corners and looking for enemies and possible threats," the Marine Corps said in a press release describing the robot testing. Also, DARPA in 2011 created a camera-equipped robotic hummingbird with California-based AeroVironment, a maker of small drones used today in combat. The "Nano Hummingbird" has a 6.5-inch body and can flap its wings like the real bird but doesn't stay in flight for very long.

Jaime Saldarriaga | Reuters

Drones also have been created that resemble insects, such as butterflies and mosquitoes, that could be used for espionage or even possible weapons, including for swarm-like attacks. CIA's Office of Research and Development was out front on the research and achieved the first flight of an insect-sized drone, or "insectothopter" in the 1970s. Israel, Russia and China also have done research involving tiny UAVs. Moreover, U.S. research is currently underway that could ultimately produce what's known as nanobots for military and espionage missions. They could potentially use dust-size sensors. For one, DARPA has the Fast Lightweight Autonomy program to allow autonomous drones to enter a building and avoid hitting walls or objects. DARPA announced a breakthrough in 2016 after tests in a hangar in Massachusetts.

Fly on the wallUS President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the inter-delegation meeting in Japan on November 6, 2017.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to keep up pressure on North Korea until Pyongyang abandons its nuclear and missile programs, Japan's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

The two leaders confirmed in phone talks on Wednesday night that there would be "no meaningful dialogue" unless North Korea agreed on "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization," the ministry said in its statement.

"Dialogue for the sake of dialogue would be meaningless," Abe told reporters after the phone talks.

South Korea said its president, Moon Jae-in, who has been pushing for a diplomatic solution to the North Korea standoff, was offered a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang. The offer was made via Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, who visited South Korea last week for the Winter Olympics.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who was also in South Korea for the Olympics opening, said on Wednesday the United States was open to talks with Pyongyang, but only to convey that it must give up its nuclear weapons.

Separately, Japan reported that it had identified another suspected illegal ship-to-ship transfer involving a U.N. blacklisted vessel.

Japan's Foreign Ministry said it had reported to the United Nations that North Korean-registered tanker, the Rye Song Gang 1, was engaged in a transfer of goods with the Belize-registered tanker "Wan Heng 11", in defiance of U.N. sanctions.

The transfer took place early Tuesday in the East China Sea about 250 km (155 miles) east of Shanghai, the ministry said in a statement issued late on Wednesday.

"Japan must be united with the international community to enhance pressure on North Korea to the maximum degree," it said.

The Rye Song Gang 1 was also spotted last month in the East China Sea engaging in a suspected transfer of goods with the Dominican-flagged tanker "Yuk Tung", which Tokyo also reported to the United Nations.Microsoft subsidiary LinkedIn has figured out how to expand its key Talent Solutions business, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said at an event on Wednesday.

The strategy suggests that LinkedIn is trying out one of the mechanisms that Microsoft has sometimes looked to for growth in the past: selling software to more people within a company.

LinkedIn has developed an enterprise tier of Talent Solutions, which includes the LinkedIn Recruiter tool for finding job candidates, Weiner told Goldman Sachs analyst Heather Bellini at the Goldman Sachs technology and internet conference in San Francisco.

Here's how Weiner portrayed the change during the talk:

We're starting to gain some traction with what we call the Talent Solutions Enterprise Program, which has revisited our business model and has broadened the potential addressable opportunity within the customers already served, who may have said that they didn't necessarily have the budget to reach their entire force of recruiters and sourcers and hiring managers -- that they were purchasing products, pretty high-ticket item, for the people who use us most intensively. But we knew that everyone within the organization who is related to that process could benefit through the tool.

Weiner, who joined Microsoft's senior leadership team as part of the $26.2 billion acquisition in 2016, said the program has led to positive results for the group:

"And so we went back to the drawing board and thought through that business model and are now able to effectively reduce the cost per seat or cost per user while materially expanding the footprint within the organization, and the net result is more budget being allocated to LinkedIn," he said.

In other words, by lowering the cost per user, LinkedIn found that companies are buying access for more users, and thereby increasing the overall amount of money they're spending with the company.

Microsoft executives repeatedly called out LinkedIn growth on its fiscal second-quarter earnings call last month.

LinkedIn has now seen revenue acceleration three quarters in a row, Weiner said.Our oceans are some of the most remote and lawless spots on Earth. In a new CNBC documentary called "Oceans of Crime," Ted Kemp reports on widespread illegality in the global seafood industry  everything from slavery to murder, the depletion of our planet's fish stocks, and wholesale theft by rogue fishing operations. In this investigative report, Kemp shows how an outlaw industry is funded by unknowing consumers who buy tuna, salmon, and seafood-based pet food.

Viewers will see how our seafood supply moves from the waters of Southeast Asia to American shores. Along the way, they'll follow an eco-activist and ship captain who's chasing rogue Chinese fishing vessels in the South Indian Ocean; a satellite sleuth in West Virginia who culls signal data to help patrol the world's seas; an American aid worker struggling to help former fishing boat slaves in Thailand; and conscientious retailers and restaurant owners trying to make sense of a shadowy supply chain.

Ted Kemp, Managing Editor, CNBC International Digital, and the reporter for this hour, has long covered ocean lawlessness and piracy. In "Oceans of Crime," he presents a gripping story about a crisis that affects us all, and the food we eat. CNBC recently caught up with Kemp to discuss what inspired him to pursue the subject, and what concerned consumers can do about it.

What factors led to the investigation of the illegal seafood market as a documentary subject?

I did a story for CNBC Digital in 2014 about pirates in the Singapore Straitwhich is a big problem for the world's busiest commercial waterway. I interviewed a British captain who worked for a Hong Kong-based shipper, and I asked him who these pirates were. How did they get in that dangerous, illegal line of work? He said, "Well, they used to be fishermen," but their local fish stocks had been wiped out by "these big, commercial operations" from China and other places. I made a note to myself: Go back and check that out; these illegal fishing operations could be a big story. And it turned out they were.

What were some obstacles or challenges you had to overcome in order to get the information needed to tell this story?

Large-scale, hyper-destructive, commercial fishing is not something that the people doing it want to talk about. They won't be cooperating, because they don't want anyone to even know what they're doing. So we had to report around the edges, as they say: The scientists, the activists, the legitimate fishing industry, the US State Department, the Thai Navy.Manufacturers of the powerful and politically vilified AR-15 rifles are defending their weapons in the aftermath of a deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school.

"I think a gun's a gun," said Daniel Bogdan, a media official and graphic designer at gun maker Yankee Hill Machine. "It could be a pistol, it could be an AR-15."

"Maybe you can fire more rounds with an AR-15 versus just a pistol," Bogdan said, but "AR-15s shouldn't technically be criticized more than any other gun."

On Wednesday, a 19-year-old former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School opened fire on the school's campus, killing 17 people and injuring at least 14 more, authorities said.

The gunman used an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said at a news conference.

Proponents of gun control have long argued that such rifles have no use in hunting and are unnecessarily powerful as home defense weapons.

"An AR-15 is not for hunting, it's for killing," Democratic Florida Sen. Bill Nelson in an interview on Thursday morning on Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends."

But rifle makers strongly dispute that claim.

"It's how people use it," said Kit Cope, marketing director at Spike's Tactical, a Florida-based gun manufacturer. "It's also a great hunting weapon, home defense weapon and a great sporting rifle."

The AR-15, which the National Rifle Association describes as "America's Rifle," has been used as the primary weapon in a number of highly publicized mass shootings in recent years. The shooter at an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater in 2012 killed 12 and injured 70 using Smith & Wesson's version of an AR-15. And the 2012 massacre of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut used a Bushmaster XM15 rifle, which is functionally and aesthetically similar to the AR-15.Public school superintendents listen up.

Abington High School, outside Philadelphia, just got one of its former students, billionaire private equity titan and philanthropist Steve Schwarzman, to donate $25 million.

How did the school do it?

Schwarzman, co-founder of Blackstone Group, told CNBC on Thursday: "I was asked. That's always the way something happens."

"It starts with a phone call and ends with a visit," he said on "Squawk Box."

The school needed $100 million but could only write a check for $75 million, Schwarzman said. "They asked me to fill the difference."

Abington officials said, "The donation is considered to be the largest ever given to an individual public school."

The money will help build a new science and technology center and allow for a "full-scale renovation of the 1950s-era high school building."

Schwarzman, chairman and CEO of Blackstone, said he required a computer literacy curriculum as a mandatory condition of his gift.

"They are going to start in the seventh grade and learn all the modern skills," he said, stressing the importance of technology "whether you're doing auto repair or working at Google."

Computers will be provided to students for use in school and at home.

Schwarzman told CNBC he recognizes that his gift is out of the ordinary.

"It's not part of our culture" to give to public schools, he said. "We just assume that someone else will take care of that."

Known as much for his generosity as his business acumen, Schwarzman has made education a centerpiece of his philanthropy.The chief executives of some of the nation's biggest companies are publicly supporting a bipartisan immigration bill that the White House has threatened to veto, the latest rupture between corporate America and the pugilistic administration.

However, the measure failed to garner enough votes in the Senate to advance Thursday.

In a letter to congressional leadership, the Coalition for the American Dream  whose members include Facebook, IBM, Microsoft and Marriott  called the bipartisan proposal a "common sense" path forward for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.

"The amendment provides legal certainty for Dreamers and businesses, avoiding a loss of valuable talent and significant disruptions in the American workforce, and would ensure that these deserving young people can continue contributing to their communities and our economy," the letter states.

The National Association of Manufacturers also announced Thursday that it would support the bipartisan measure. While the influential trade group acknowledged that the proposal was not a "comprehensive solution," it lauded taking steps to address the immediate problem.

"We have repeatedly called for Washington to overhaul our broken immigration system so that it not only welcomes the contributions of those living in the shadows but also ensures we stop having these debates in the future by actually securing the border," the group said in a statement.

Under that measure, the roughly 700,000 immigrants covered under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program could apply for citizenship within 10 to 12 years. In exchange, it provides $25 billion for border security, including President Donald Trump's southern wall, over the next decade. It would also prohibit DACA recipients from sponsoring their parents for citizenship.

Backing the proposal puts the business community squarely at odds with Trump, who called it "a total catastrophe" in a tweet Thursday afternoon. The White House is even pressuring the 16 senators who sponsored the legislation to withdraw their support.

TRUMP TWEET

"This proposal would represent an unprecedented harm to immigration security and in turn to the security of the country overall," a senior administration official said.

Ending protected status for DACA recipients would push them out of the legal workforce  costing companies as much as $1.8 million a day in restaffing, according to the think tank New American Economy. America's corporate titans have cited the potential damage to the nation's labor force in urging Congress to find a solution for those workers before the program officially winds down March 5.

The administration is backing a broader immigration bill led by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa that includes stricter requirements for citizenship, further limits on family sponsorship and turning the visa lottery into a merit-based system.

"We think that has a chance of getting 60 once folks realize that these other proposals are totally and completely un-serious," the White House official said.A growing number of Coinbase customers are complaining that the cryptocurrency exchange withdrew unauthorized money out of their accounts. In some cases, this drained their linked bank accounts below zero, resulting in overdraft charges.

In a typical anecdote posted on Reddit, one user said they purchased Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin for a total of $300 on February 9th. A few days later, the transactions repeated five times for a total of $1,500, even though the user had not made any more purchases. That was enough to clear out this user's bank account, they said, resulting in fees.

"My bank account went from very comfortable to negatives balance, not to mention extra $5 charges, and overdraft fees," the user wrote. "As a result my rent check bounced, and my bank went further into negative for a NSF charge for $25. My landlord is not a nice person and is on my CASE and I have nothing to offer him. I am FREAKING OUT."

Coinbase representatives have been responding to similar complaints on Reddit for about two weeks, but the volume of complaints seems to have spiked over the last 24 hours. Similar complaints have popped up on forums and Twitter.

tweet

At the time of writing, the front page of the r/Coinbase subreddit mostly consisted of similar complaints: "You drained my bank account and now I have nothing." "Calling for a class action lawsuit." "What's going on, should I be worried?" "DOUBLE CHARGED, WITHDRAWALS POSTED WHAT THE F**K." "Coinbase randomly took 100 dollars out of my bank?" "Welp officially broke, charged 17x1000$ on my account."

The issue started after a change occurred in the way credit cards classify digital currency transactions, according to a statement on Reddit from a Coinbase employee on February 4th. At that time, Coinbase was still trying to identify the issue. Users were asked to comment publicly on the thread with information about their double charges, including their bank and dates of transactions. (The tactic was immediately criticized for being a security risk.)

Read more from The Verge:

Scientists at Russian nuclear research facility arrested for mining cryptocurrency

Nokia may dump its health tech business

Wireless chargers are out; wireless chargers with extra hubs are in

This morning, February 15th, another Coinbase employee wrote on Reddit that "the unexpected charges are originating outside of our control, and are related to charges from previous purchases." The charges are in the process of being refunded, the employee wrote, although he did not say whether resulting overdraft charges would also be refunded. "We are running joint investigations with all parties involved, and will provide updates as we receive them," he wrote.

Pete Kingree, a Coinbase user in Virginia, provided a screenshot of what he said were unauthorized charges to Coinbase totaling $931 with an additional $7.45 in bank fees. "I am writing the Coinbase CEO, OCC, Barbara Comstock (my representative), and the Governor of Virginia," he said in an email.

Another Coinbase user, Mike Baldesarra, provided a screenshot from his bank showing repeated transactions totaling nearly $300. One charge was credited back to his account after 12 days, but then his account was hit with another phantom duplicate charge, which has not been refunded yet. Coinbase also did not refund him for the overdraft charges he incurred, he said, and he received form letters in response to the complaints he filed through customer service. Others had experienced greater losses, he said in an email, but he wanted to share his story "so others like myself aren't caught off guard and left without money in their accounts."

The problem appears to be that legitimate charges are duplicated without authorization, and it appears to affect specific banks including Scotiabank and USAA, judging by user complaints. "Today I had a talk with my bank (Scotiabank) about the double charges I received from coinbase on my visa debit card," one Reddit user wrote. "They said that this trend has been going on for two weeks and they are closely monitoring it."

Coinbase, the San Francisco-based wallet and exchange startup that raised more than $225 million from venture capital investors, serves as the layman's introduction to the volatile world of cryptocurrencies. Many popular exchanges such as Binance only allow users to trade between virtual currencies, but Coinbase is one of a few reputable shops that allow users to hook up their bank accounts and buy virtual currencies with fiat (government-backed) money including the US dollar, euro, and British pound sterling. For that reason, it's the go-to site for purchasing cryptocurrencies; Google "How to buy Bitcoin," and you'll get a CNBC article explaining how to use Coinbase.

However, the company is still new, and stories about disappearing account balances could damage its reputation.

Joel Hirtle, a Coinbase customer who banks with Scotiabank, was hit with two phantom charges for $100, the first of which sent his bank account into the negative and resulted in a total of $144 in overdraft fees, he told The Verge. He opened five different support tickets with Coinbase, he said, and spoke to customer service twice. While the first $100 phantom charge was automatically refunded, the second $100 charge appeared at midnight last night. "I go to it instantly and sure enough it's Coinbase taking money from my account yet again," he said. He said he is doubtful that Coinbase will refund his overdraft fees because his experience with its customer service team was so poor. He canceled his debit card because he was afraid of being erroneously charged by Coinbase again. "I don't trust them to hold my money, that's for sure," he said. "I probably will never use their service again."

Coinbase declined to comment on how many users are affected, what the underlying cause of the problem is, and whether it will refund overdraft charges resulting from its duplicate transactions. "We're aware of the issue and will be posting updates via Reddit, Twitter and our company blog," a spokesperson said in an email. "We'll be reaching out to affected users to solve the issue as required, as well as posting updates via social channels."

This isn't the first time Coinbase has double-charged its customers. The company had a similar issue in May 2016.

The company has had a busy week: it temporarily halted PayPal withdrawals, disabled adding new credit cards as a payment option for U.S. customers, and released a new product for merchants called Coinbase Commerce  all as the price of a bitcoin hit $10,000 again after falling for almost two months.The Senate blocked multiple immigration proposals on Thursday afternoon, leaving a contentious debate on how best to protect young immigrants from deportation and boost border security measures no closer to a resolution.

In a rebuke, a measure favored by President Donald Trump got the fewest votes of all four immigration-related amendments before the Senate on Thursday. It failed to advance by a 60 to 39 margin.

The amendments' failure leaves the chamber no closer to enshrining legal protections for up to 1.8 million immigrants either protected by an Obama-era program or eligible for it. It leaves doubts about any clear path for Congress to reach an immigration agreement that Trump will sign.

Senators' next move was unclear as of Thursday afternoon. The House could pass its own Republican immigration bill in the coming weeks, which would likely fail in the Senate.

"Even though this week has been squandered, this does not have to be the end of our efforts to resolve these matters," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell following the votes. He said senators can pass an immigration bill if they "get serious about finding a solution that can actually become law."

Many Democrats appear reluctant to yield concessions to Trump and anger their energized liberal base. On the other hand, Trump has held fast to limits on legal immigration as he tries to appease the voters who put him into the White House as he pledged to crack down on immigration.

McConnell contended that Trump went "clearly more than halfway to meet the Democrats" on immigration.

Trump ended the DACA program with an original March 5 phase out date. It will likely last past that deadline amid pending lawsuits.

"This crisis isn't going away, and I won't rest until Dreamers and their families have the future in America that they deserve," Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said in a statement.

Here are the four proposals that failed. The Senate was voting to shorten debate on the measures and effectively move ahead with them, and needed 60 votes to advance.

A narrow plan put forth by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Chris Coons, D-Del., got 52 votes for as opposed to 47 votes against. McCain was not present for the votes as he fights brain cancer. The plan included protections for immigrants and border security funding, but not an overhaul of the immigration system.

The Senate then voted not to advance a proposal from Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to pull funding from so-called sanctuary cities. It got 54 votes of support, while 45 senators opposed it.

The chamber rejected a bipartisan plan originally sponsored by Sens. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Angus King, I-Maine. Fifty-four senators backed it, while 45 voted against it. It would have offered a pathway to citizenship for immigrants protected by the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and those who were eligible but did not apply. It would limit family-based visas, fund Trump's proposed border wall or other border security and instruct Immigration and Customs Enforcement to turn its focus away from immigrants without criminal records.

Finally, the chamber shot down Trump's favored plan, proposed by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. Only 39 lawmakers voted for it, while 60 voted against it. The Grassley bill aimed to capture Trump's four immigration demands: shielding up to 1.8 million young immigrants and offering a path to citizenship, funding border security, limiting extended family migration and ending the diversity visa "lottery." Democrats opposed its limits on legal immigration.

Earlier Thursday, the Trump administration repeatedly criticized the bipartisan plan and put its weight behind the Grassley proposal.

In a statement following the votes, Senate Democratic leader called it proof that Trump's plan "will never become law." Schumer added: "If he would stop torpedoing bipartisan efforts, a good bill would pass."

Schumer tweet

Trump has rejected multiple bipartisan proposals put before him. It has prompted bipartisan senators to express frustration about the difficulty of negotiating with the White House on immigration.

Trump weighed in on Twitter on Thursday afternoon, calling the bipartisan plan a "total catastrophe." He contended that backing it would be a vote AGAINST law enforcement, and a vote FOR open borders." He urged Democrats to support the Grassley bill.

Every Democrat opposed it.

 Correction: This story was updated to reflect that Pat Toomey is a senator from Pennsylvania.Cyril Ramaphosa, new president of South Africa, at parliament in Cape Town on February 15, 2018.

African National Congress (ANC) leader Cyril Ramaphosa has been sworn in as South Africa's new president, following his predecessor Jacob Zuma's departure Wednesday night after a long power struggle.

Ramaphosa, 65, was formerly Zuma's deputy president. He was elected leader of the ruling ANC in December, narrowly defeating Zuma's chosen candidate, his ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

The new president's resume includes both politics and business. Ramaphosa is one of South Africa's richest men, with an estimated net worth of $450 million.

A lawyer by profession from Soweto, Ramaphosa was detained for anti-apartheid activism twice during the 1970s. He launched South Africa's most powerful trade union, the National Union of Mineworkers, in 1982.

Ramaphosa served as the ANC's chief negotiator ahead of South Africa's transition to democracy, and chairman of the committee which facilitated former President Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1990.General view of the US Embassy in Cuba after the US government pulled more than half of its diplomatic personnel out of Cuba who suffered health problems due to an alleged sonic attack on September 29, 2017 in Havana, Cuba.

Doctors investigating "sonic attacks" against U.S. embassy staff in August have concluded that government personnel serving in Cuba appear to have "widespread" neurological damage.

Doctors from the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine found in a preliminary study that "these individuals appeared to have sustained injury to widespread brain networks without an associated history of head trauma."

Eighteen out of 21 individuals evaluated by the doctors reported hearing a "novel, localized sound" in their homes and hotel rooms in Havana. The sound was likened to "buzzing, grinding metal, piercing squeals, and humming" and lasted anywhere from 10-second pulses to more than 30 minutes long. Affected individuals perceived this sound as "directional, intensely loud, and with pure and sustained tonality."

Patients also associated the sound with a "pressure-like sensory stimuli" described as "air 'baffling' inside a moving car with the windows partially rolled down."

Both the sound and sensory stimuli seemed to stem from a distinct direction. In fact, after changing locations, patients said the sensation disappeared and associated symptoms went away.

All but one of the patients "reported an immediate onset of neurological symptoms" when exposed to the sound, according to the report.

The cause of the symptoms has not yet been identified, and it's still unclear how the noises are related to the patients' reported symptoms.

"It appears that we have identified a new syndrome that may have important public health implications," said Dr. Douglas Smith, the study's senior author and director of Penn's Center for Brain Injury and Repair, in a statement.

The patients' symptoms lasted for days and sometimes weeks after exposure and included, but weren't limited to, memory problems, mental fogginess, impaired concentration, irritability, sadness and nervousness. These symptoms were made worse by physical exertion and cardiovascular exercise.

Doctors said they didn't uncover any evidence of patients feigning their illnesses.

The State Department, which provided background information and patient referrals to the study's authors, claims its staff was specifically targeted while in Cuba. "The investigation into who or what is causing these attacks is ongoing," a State Department rep told CNBC.

Last September, the department withdrew nonemergency personnel and all family members from the U.S. embassy in Havana. In October, the State Department ordered the removal of 15 Cuban officials from its embassy in Washington, D.C., citing "Cuba's failure to take appropriate steps to protect our diplomats in accordance with its obligations under the Vienna Convention."



The State Department also issued a travel warning advising U.S. citizens to avoid travel to Cuba. Although there were no reports of private U.S. citizens being affected, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the attacks are known to have occurred in diplomatic residences and hotels frequented by American citizens.

The Cuban government has repeatedly denied responsibility for the attacks in the past year, claiming that U.S. authorities did not provide enough information in order to investigate the allegations.

The Cuban government also said the nation "rigorously" complies with all obligations under the Vienna Convention and that Cuba is "universally considered as a safe destination for both visitors and foreign diplomats, including Americans."

Follow CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera on Twitter: @MCaruso_CabreraIf you are nearing retirement, you could fall prey to common misconceptions about Medicare.

And that can lead to costly errors.

"Medicare is very complicated and confusing," said Diane J. Omdahl, co-founder and president of 65 Incorporated, a provider of Medicare software and consulting services. "The people who are turning 65 are at the biggest risk for making mistakes."

These issues are increasingly common as more people continue working past age 65. The labor force participation rate is expected to grow fastest for individuals ages 65 to 74 and 75 and older through the year 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Age 65 generally marks a key decision point for Medicare coverage.

The first mistake people make is missing that deadline, said Katy Votava, president and founder of Goodcare.com, a health care consulting firm. That is because many people think their full retirement age according to the Social Security Administration is their Medicare deadline.

For those who were born between 1943 and 1954, full retirement age is 66, according to the Social Security Administration. But the age when you typically must sign up for Medicare is 65.

You have up until you are age 65 and four months to make a decision. After that, you could face late enrollment penalties depending on your situation.

"Read the meter when you're 64," Votava said. "Do your homework, check, double check and sort it out so when you turn 65 you have a game plan."

If you failed to sign up for Medicare when you should have, there is a general enrollment period every year when you can still get in, provided you are eligible. The good news is that general enrollment period, which runs from January to March, is happening now. If you sign up, your coverage begins in July.

"Now is the time to stop the bleeding" if you do need to sign up, Votava said. "You will still have a penalty, but your penalty won't get any bigger."An aerial photo of the devastation left behind from the North Bay wildfires north of San Francisco.

Facebook said Thursday it will let businesses, aid organizations and other groups post information to the emergency pages it creates after natural disasters, terrorist attacks and other crises.

Businesses and groups that have verified Facebook pages will first be able to share information about their services to the company's Community Help feature, a spokesperson told CNBC.

Facebook first created Community Help a year ago in areas where the company's Safety Check feature has been activated. Safety Check lets users notify others that they're safe during emergencies.

"One of the things we started to see in the midst of hurricanes, attacks, wildfires, et cetera, was people trying to surface and share resources," said Asha Sharma, product lead for Facebook Social Good.

Users have written more than 750,000 posts during 500 different crises on Community Help pages, the company said.

Groups like Save the Children and International Medical Corps and businesses like Lyft and J.P. Morgan Chase have told Facebook they plan to use the feature.

 CNBC's Julia Boorstin contributed to this report.For students and teachers from preschools to colleges and universities, school shootings have become a part of American life.

The attack Wednesday on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, marks the 17th shooting on school grounds within the first 45 days of the year, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy organization.

Seventeen people were slain and 14 people were hospitalized, authorities said. The suspect, 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz, was booked on 17 counts of premeditated murder Thursday, The Associated Press reported.

The tragedy is just the latest in a series of hundreds of events over the last five years. Everytown has been tracking shootings in schools and universities since 2013. It reports any time a firearm is discharged within a school building or on campus, whether accidentally or intentionally and whether or not anyone has been harmed.

Here are the other 290 school shootings tracked by Everytown for Gun Safety."There are plenty of politicians out there willing to point fingers, but we don't draw such a crowd when it comes to boosting anti-crime and gun violence funding. But that's what it's going to take."

Thankfully, we have a few bipartisan examples in relatively recent history that prove these tactics work.

President Bill Clinton made curbing crime and specifically slowing gun violence a funding priority in his first term. More importantly, he knew where the money needed to go to get that done. In October, 1994 he kicked off a $200 million effort to put 100,000 more police on the streets.

Even though the Democrats enjoyed controlling majorities in both houses of Congress at the time, Clinton made a successful effort to get a good number of Republicans to support the added funding for more cops.

The usual suspects in politics and academia immediately began debating the pros and cons of this and other Clinton policies to boost policing and that debate rages on. But the results really speak for themselves. Violent crime fell, especially in major U.S. cities. Bipartisan anti-crime efforts worked, period.

President George W. Bush took the ball from Clinton and ran with it even further. Under Bush, the FBI got a significant funding increase and a serious new focus to find and prosecute gun criminals. In 2003, the Department of Justice brought charges against more than 13,000 offenders for Federal firearms crimes, still the highest annual figure on record.

The result? Violent crime fell even more during the Bush years, even when compared with the already falling crime numbers under Clinton.

But then prosecutions of gun-using criminals fell during the Obama years, and so did federal law enforcement's focus on gun crimes overall. Perhaps that was because of Obama's shifting priorities. Perhaps it was because after the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in 2010, they made it clear they wouldn't support increased spending. But either way, a successful focus on reducing the number of guns on the street has been greatly cut back.

Don't get too bogged down in whom to blame for this. There's plenty of blame to go around. The key thing to remember is that more money and more vigilant cops is what it takes from the government to slow crime no matter which party controls the White House and Congress.

Now let's talk about how this relates to school shootings and this most recent atrocity in Florida.

Reports say that the alleged shooter Nikolas Cruz legally bought at least one gun likely used in the incident Wednesday. It's not clear whether funding for an increased crackdown on illegal gun sales alone would have stopped this from happening.

But that does not mean adding and enhancing law enforcement isn't the best and most viable answer. It turns out the police in Florida have long been asking for more money to protect schools. Yet the total funding allocated each year for the state's Safe Schools project has remained frozen at $64.4 million for the past seven years. That's also significantly down from the $75.6 million annual budget it had in 2008.

This is where the political realities start to come into the picture. Passing and enforcing widespread gun bans or confiscation programs still seem like a political long shot. But getting a critical mass of voters to support federal grants to states and local police departments to improve school safety is a slam dunk by comparison.

Another aspect of the Clinton policing policy is very relevant. Clinton didn't just get the funding for more cops, but also to implement community policing programs where cops interacted much more closely with their local neighborhoods and achieved a better relationship with them.

With that came the added benefit of recognizing threats in those communities before they morphed into violent incidents. School safety was another major focus of the Clinton community policing program, and that part of the program remains. But the current climate proves the program needs to be expanded.

Imagine if there was more money to hire more cops with close ties and knowledge of enduring threats at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Would that have stopped Wednesday's shooting for sure? Of course not, but the odds of a safer outcome would have been a lot higher.

No one should be fooled into thinking that spending more money will always work. A culture of increased enforcement across every part of the public sector is also crucial. We learned that late last year when the Sutherland Springs, Texas, church massacre shooter was able to buy a gun because the Air Force failed to enter his name into the National Information Center database as required. The Air Force even admits that failure to report is not an isolated incident.

Even cleaning up that mess at the Air Force will likely require more funding for better training and enforcement. Our schools may not need armed troops guarding the doors and patrolling the halls, but the police departments in charge of safety still need more help. All roads eventually lead to some form of increased financial aid or another.

The most obvious place to go for this funding is the Department of Homeland Security. That's not only because the DHS mission is most closely relevant to this issue, but because critics from the right and the left have been pointing out wasteful spending at the department for years. The DHS annual budget is $41 billion. Five percent of that is about $2 billion, and that seems like a good number to start to provide states and cities with additional funding for school security.

There are plenty of politicians out there willing to point fingers, but we don't draw such a crowd when it comes to boosting anti-crime and gun violence funding. That's what it's going to take, though. Shifting money from other programs is the place to start, but more safety is going to cost us something.

So who's willing to pay up?

Commentary by Jake Novak, CNBC.com senior columnist. Follow him on Twitter @jakejakeny.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asked Congress on Thursday to consider possible solutions to gun violence following a massacre at a high school in Florida.

"I will say personally, I think the gun violence  it's a tragedy what we've seen yesterday, and I'd urge Congress to look at these issues," Mnuchin said at an unrelated House hearing on the White House's fiscal year 2019 budget request.

The Treasury Department later told Politico that Mnuchin did not refer to whether Congress should think about changing gun laws. He was responding specifically to a question from Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., about whether funds in the federal budget were set aside to address gun violence, the agency said.

Lewis pressed Mnuchin about what the White House might do in response to the latest mass shooting in the United States. While Mnuchin acknowledged that gun policy is "out of my lane of responsibilities," he said he would speak to President Donald Trump and other Cabinet members about the issue.

Trump and other Republican leaders have resisted calls to tighten federal gun laws.

Authorities believe a gunman opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle in the Parkland, Florida, high school, killing 17 people and wounding 14 others. The 19-year-old suspect, Nikolas Cruz, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

The shooting  just the latest among numerous mass killings with guns in the United States  reignited a national debate about access to assault weapons and possible changes to gun control laws. While Mnuchin urged Congress to consider possible solutions, Trump has not done so in the past.

Last February, Trump quietly signed a bill to scrap an Obama-era regulation making it tougher for people with mental illnesses to buy a gun. On Thursday morning, he tweeted that signs emerged that Cruz was "mentally disturbed" and questioned why his classmates and community did not report him to authorities.

Congress has taken few concrete steps to address gun violence after recent massacres. While some momentum built to ban a device used to increase the firing rate of rifles last year, no legislation to do so made significant progress in the GOP-controlled Congress.

A shooter who carried out the deadliest gun massacre in modern U.S. history in Las Vegas last year used the so-called bump stock tool.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a round of interviews Thursday that the Florida massacre should not lead to "taking away citizens' rights" to own guns.

"I don't think that means you then roll that conversation into taking away citizens' rights  taking away a law-abiding citizen's rights," Ryan said in one interview. "Obviously, this conversation typically goes there. Right now, I think we need to take a breath and collect the facts."

 Reuters contributed to this article.A revolver sits on display in the Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc. booth on the exhibition floor of the 144th National Rifle Association (NRA) Annual Meetings and Exhibits.

Shares of gun manufacturer American Outdoor Brands, the parent company of Smith & Wesson, closed higher on Thursday following the tragic shooting at a high school in Florida.

The company's stock rose 1.2 percent and rose as much as 4.5 percent. Sturm Ruger briefly gained 2.8 percent before closing 0.2 percent lower.

The Broward County Sheriff's Office said 17 people were gunned down Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The shooter, identified as 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz, was booked on 17 counts of premeditated murder Thursday. He allegedly used an AR-15 assault rifle in the rampage.

Shares of Sturm Ruger and American Outdoor Brands rallied Wednesday afternoon as news of the shooting spread. The stocks closed Wednesday 2.8 percent and 5.6 percent higher, respectively.

Stock prices of gunmakers often rise after mass shootings on the theory that people will stockpile weapons in anticipation of tougher gun-control laws.

History shows that Sturm Ruger and American Outdoor Brands rise 1.6 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively, five days after a mass shooting, a CNBC study using Kensho found. The study looked at their performance following mass shootings dating back five years.

Several U.S. lawmakers called for tougher gun control laws in the wake of the shooting. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., tweeted Wednesday night: "Don't tell me tomorrow isn't the appropriate time to debate gun violence. If you're a political leader doing nothing about this slaughter, you're an accomplice."

Murphy tweet

Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., said: "Another terrible school shooting, this time in Florida. At least 18 other school shootings have already happened this year. My heart breaks for those children and their parents. How many more victims until we decide gun violence is a national problem?"

Engel tweet

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, also tweeted: "Another day, another shooting, indeed, multiple shootings today, while Congress sits in the grip of the NRA, incapable of making the slightest gesture toward reasonable gun safety."

Doggett tweet

However, new gun-control laws are unlikely to be passed anytime soon. Both the Senate and the House are controlled by the Republican Party, and many of their members receive contributions from the National Rifle Association, which heavily opposes gun regulation.

President Donald Trump has resisted calls for greater gun control measures after previous mass shootings. He tweeted condolences on Wednesday.

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal, parent of CNBC, is a minority investor in Kensho.Most college graduates have one major thing in common: student debt. Today, 70 percent of college students graduate with a significant amount of loans. Over 44 million Americans collectively hold nearly $1.5 trillion in student debt. That means that roughly one in four American adults are paying off student loans. When they graduate, the average student loan borrower has $37,172 in student loans, a $20,000 increase from 13 years ago. With that money, borrowers could put a down payment on a home, purchase a new car or bootstrap their own business.

Courtesy of Comet As the size of student debt owed has increased, so have monthly payments. The Federal Reserve estimated that the average monthly student loan payment increased from $227 in 2005 to $393 in 2016.People have been taking fish out of the sea for about as long as people have existed at all. But criminal fishing has never posed the threat that it does today. The growing problem goes by the clunky name of "illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing," and it has put whole swaths of the world's fisheries in danger. Roughly a quarter of the 120 million tons of seafood that humans catch every year is stolen from countries' waters or caught with outlawed methods, according to marine biologists.

A fisherman in the Gulf of Thailand is engulfed in diesel fumes as his fishing boat comes alongside a navy patrol vessel. Ted Kemp | CNBC

Vessels are bigger than ever, and fishing techniques more effective. Consumer incomes are higher than ever  around the world. And the mechanisms and infrastructure of global trade make it possible to ship catches further, more easily. The problem is criminals who flout the regulations that legal fleets must obey. Sometimes, illegal perpetrators use small boats, slipping from their own waters to poach other countries' fisheries. Other times, the fish thieves use huge, industrial vessels that scoop up vast stretches of water, killing everything in their nets. The biggest outfits work in fleets, dropping their catches onto tremendous, refrigerated mother ships. That practice, called "transshipping," lets fishing boats stay at sea, sweeping up marine life, for years at a stretch.

Steep costs for people, economies and the world

Scientists warn that, unchecked, overfishing will eradicate whole species, and could within a few decades contribute to a total collapse of the world's fisheries. But fishing grounds from Asia to Africa and beyond are already cleaned out. Fish are swept away for sale in wealthier, far-away markets, such as China. Beijing helps its fishing fleet  the world's biggest  range far across the globe by giving government subsidies based on boat horsepower, according to risk analysis firm Stratfor and others.

Shadowy boat owners come from nations all over the world, however, even from countries like Thailand that are trying to combat fish pirates. In the meantime, traditional oceangoing villages can't compete. Fishermen lose their livelihoods. Struggling nations are stripped of economic resources. Governments are robbed of tax revenue. People lose their main source of protein. And there's another, almost unfathomable human cost: Often, these illegal fishing operations enslave their crewmen. They trick impoverished job-seekers aboard. They hold them against their will for years. And they may sell them, abuse them, or even kill them with impunity.

A fight to end the problem

There are many reasons why catching the bad guys is so hard. First, the oceans are vast almost beyond imagining. Even if authorities know where illegal fishing is happening  and they're inclined to intervene  it could take them several days to get to the scene. Second, it's often unclear just who the "authorities" are. The United States polices its own marine waters, and so do other wealthy nations. But there is no police jurisdiction on the world's gargantuan, open seas. Many countries can't afford to operate ships or pay crews to watch over even their own waters.

Ice vendors preserve shrimp for sale in an open-air, vegetable and seafood market in Yangon, Myanmar. Ted Kemp | CNBCAn Indian man walks past a sign for the state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) in Mumbai on February 14, 2018.

India's Enforcement Directorate, a government agency that fights financial crime, will probe the possibility of money laundering in a $1.77 billion fraud case at the state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB), a finance ministry official said on Thursday.

PNB, the country's second-largest state-run lender with assets of $120 billion, said in a regulatory filing that the fraud benefited "a few select account holders," and that it has reported the matter to law enforcement agencies.

This was an isolated case of banking fraud and would be investigated by federal agencies, the finance official told Reuters. He declined to be named as he was not authorized to speak to media.

Separately, India's Axis Bank said on Thursday that it had dealt in transactions that had been guaranteed with letters of undertaking from Punjab National Bank, but has since sold those transactions.

Shares in PNB, which fell 10 percent on Wednesday, were down more than 5 percent in early trading on Thursday.J.C. Penney is anticipating closing eight of its department stores across the U.S. this year, a spokesman told CNBC.



It's part of the company's ongoing plan to right-size J.C. Penney's store fleet as more sales move online. J.C. Penney operates roughly 875 department stores today. That's after the retailer shuttered nearly 140 stores throughout 2017.

Earlier this week, J.C. Penney said it would also close one of its fulfillment centers in Wisconsin this summer, eliminating more than 600 jobs as a result.

The eight store closures are estimated to result in about 480 job cuts, the company said, and operations at those locations should be completely wound down by May.

Here's where Penney is closing stores:

Hampton Village Plaza in St. Louis, MO

Garden State Plaza in Paramus, NJ

Sandburg Mall in Galesburg, IL

Viking Plaza in Alexandria, MN

Washington Park Mall in Bartlesville, OK

Cascade Mall in Burlington, WA

Calexico Store in Calexico, CA

Knox Village Square in Mt. Vernon, OH



"We continually evaluate our store portfolio to ensure our locations offer the best expression of the JC Penney brand and can function as a seamless extension of our omnichannel experience," a spokesman told CNBC. "During this review, the decision was made to close eight stores across the country."

Meanwhile, J.C. Penney is betting big on its beauty department and is pouring resources into beefing up make-up and hair services. Earlier this week, the company announced it would be hiring 6,500 stylists for its hair salons across the country, which are branded as "The Salon by InStyle."

J.C. Penney is set to report fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on March 2, when it will share more details on these initiatives and any impacts from new U.S. tax legislation.Facebook apologized and reversed course after supporters of an Ethiopian activist, whose page it had blocked, flooded CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Valentine's Day photo with comments.

Zuckerberg on Wednesday had posted a picture of himself and his older daughter sharing pizza on the roof of the company's headquarters with the caption, "Lunch date with my Valentine."

While some Facebook users responded with warm wishes, the post was quickly filled with comments calling on the company to unblock the account of Jawar Mohammed, an Ethiopian who lives in Minneapolis and is followed by more than 1.2 million people, according to his Facebook profile.

A user with the account name Brook Michel, for example, whose profile says he is from that country's capital of Addis Ababa, posted this:

"Dear Mark you are violating the right of expression by blocking #JawarMohammed prominent human rights activist with followers of more than 1.2 millions..He is the voice of more than 100 million Ethiopia, # UnblockJawarNow or #BlockUsAll."

The comment got 168 reactions, putting it on top of the comments section for Zuckerberg's Valentine.

And there were many other posts like it.

CNBC late Wednesday counted more than two dozen comments with identical or nearly-identical wording that were posted within two hours of Zuckerberg's Valentine photo.

Many such posts had dozens of shares and reactions. See a screen shot here:WASHINGTON  Last April, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, led the charge for his agency to approve rules allowing television broadcasters to greatly increase the number of stations they own. A few weeks later, Sinclair Broadcasting announced a blockbuster $3.9 billion deal to buy Tribune Media  a deal those new rules made possible.

By the end of the year, in a previously undisclosed move, the top internal watchdog for the F.C.C. opened an investigation into whether Mr. Pai and his aides had improperly pushed for the rule changes and whether they had timed them to benefit Sinclair, according to Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey and two congressional aides.

For months I have been trying to get to the bottom of the allegations about Chairman Pais relationship with Sinclair Broadcasting, Mr. Pallone, the top Democrat on the committee that oversees the F.C.C., said in the statement to The New York Times. I am grateful to the F.C.C.s inspector general that he has decided to take up this important investigation.

It was unclear the extent of the inspector generals investigation or when it might conclude, but the inquiry puts a spotlight on Mr. Pais decisions and whether there had been coordination with the company. It may also force him to answer questions that he has so far avoided addressing in public.

The inquiry could also add ammunition to arguments against the Sinclair-Tribune deal. Public interest groups and Democratic lawmakers, including Mr. Pallone, are strongly opposed to the deal, arguing that it would reduce the number of voices in media and diminish coverage of local news.

More from The New York Times:

AT&T is said to want antitrust official on witness list for trial

Bill and Melinda Gates tackle 'tough questions' and Trump

As the streaming wars heat up, Ryan Murphy cashes in

Sinclairs chief executive, Chris Ripley, has called Mr. Pais relaxation of media ownership rules a landmark development for his company and the industry. A union of Sinclair and Tribune would create the nations biggest television broadcaster, reaching seven out of 10 American homes. The F.C.C. and Justice Department are widely expected to approve the merger in the coming weeks.

The office of F.C.C. inspector general, which is a nonpartisan role that reports to the agency and regularly updates Congress on some investigations, said it would not comment on the existence or the nonexistence of an investigation.

Mr. Pais office and Sinclair declined to comment. When the legislators called for an investigation in November, a spokesman for the F.C.C., representing Mr. Pai, said the allegations of favoritism were baseless.

For many years, Chairman Pai has called on the F.C.C. to update its media ownership regulations, the F.C.C. spokesman said. The chairman is sticking to his long-held views, and given the strong case for modernizing these rules, its not surprising that those who disagree with him would prefer to do whatever they can to distract from the merits of his proposals.

A New York Times investigation published in August found that Mr. Pai and his staff members had met and corresponded with Sinclair executives several times. One meeting, with Sinclairs executive chairman, took place days before Mr. Pai, who was appointed by President Trump, took over as F.C.C. chairman.

Sinclairs top lobbyist, a former F.C.C. official, also communicated frequently with former agency colleagues and pushed for the relaxation of media ownership rules. And language the lobbyist used about loosening rules has tracked closely to analysis and language used by Mr. Pai in speeches favoring such changes.

In November, several Democrats in Congress, including Mr. Pallone, called on the inspector generals office to explore all communications  including personal emails, social media accounts, text messages and phone calls  between Sinclair and Mr. Pai and his staff.

The lawmakers also asked for communications between Mr. Pais office and the White House. They pointed to a report in March 2017 from The New York Post, in which Mr. Trump is said to have met with Sinclairs executive chairman, David Smith, and discussed F.C.C. rules.

Some members of Congress have asked Mr. Pai for such communications, but he has not responded.

The F.C.C. inspector general, David L. Hunt, and other officials in his office met with aides in the House and Senate, including those for Mr. Pallone, in December. The F.C.C. officials told the aides that they would open an investigation, according to four people with knowledge of the meetings.

In later conversations, F.C.C. officials said that an investigation was underway, according to two other aides.

The aides, all of whom work for Democratic lawmakers, would speak only on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is private.

The investigation could put the F.C.C. inspector generals office in a high-profile situation.

Mr. Hunt was promoted to lead the office in 2011 by Julius Genachowski, a Democrat and the F.C.C.s then-chairman, after working in the agency for about five years. The office investigates potential violations of civil and criminal laws by agency staff members and companies that receive money from the agency. On Wednesday, the inspector general for veterans affairs, a similar position, released a scathing report about travel spending by the departments secretary, David J. Shulkin.

The F.C.C.s inspector general does not make public all of its investigations. But details of some investigations have been disclosed through Freedom of Information Act requests and through the offices reports to Congress.

In 2015, the inspector generals office looked into possible coordination between the Obama administration and the F.C.C. chairman at the time, Tom Wheeler, on the creation of so-called net neutrality rules. The rules prevented broadband providers from blocking or slowing traffic to consumers. The inspector general said its investigation could not find clear improper conduct.

Antitrust experts said this new investigation may complicate the reviews of the Sinclair-Tribune deal by the F.C.C. and the Justice Department. Even if the deal were approved, they said, any conclusions of improper conduct by Mr. Pai could give fuel to critics to challenge the review in courts.

An investigation could cast a cloud over the whole process, said Andrew Schwartzman, a senior fellow at Georgetown Law Centers Institute for Public Representation. For the review, knowledge of an investigation could generate caution and even delay completion of the deal."Recent reports have shown that money continues to move into Trump-branded properties from obscured sources like anonymous LLCs and shell companies."

However, money is also laundered to facilitate future crimes, particularly where the source of the funds would reveal an illegal purpose, or where money would otherwise be subject to a state or federal disclosure requirement.

Because it is illegal for foreign nationals to spend money in U.S. campaigns, obscuring funds coming from, say, an agent of the Russian government  by funneling them through an organization like the NRA  would be akin to money laundering.

Growing evidence is showing that money from hidden sources could be influencing current political leaders via two avenues: through the obscured personal finances of the president, and other public officials; and through secret contributions to political organizations.

It has been widely reported that a vast amount of Russian money is tied up in President Donald Trump's assets and business interests  interests which Trump, breaking with longstanding precedent, refused to divest or put into a blind trust upon assuming office. Recent reports have shown that money continues to move into Trump-branded properties from obscured sources like anonymous LLCs and shell companies.

One such report found that since Trump secured the Republican nomination in 2016, the fraction of anonymous purchases of his properties through shell companies has "skyrocketed" from 4 to 70 percent. The public can only guess at the source of these funds, whether they be foreign governments or wealthy domestic interestsand to what extent unknown sums pouring into other Trump businesses are being used to curry favor with the president.

Moreover, in the case of the NRA, the FBI is now investigating whether illicit funds were spent in support of Trump's political campaign. We have long warned that our broken system of campaign finance disclosure creates opportunities for foreign governments to illegally influence American elections, undetected.

The NRA is among the largest "dark money" organizations, reporting the greatest amount of campaign spending without revealing the source of the funds  over $35 million in the 2016 election cycle alone. Still, this amount was just a fraction of the over $175 million in reported campaign-related spending that came from unknown sources.

As these examples demonstrate, the Russia investigation is not just relevant to allegations of collusion, or even just to Russia. It is revealing a fundamental vulnerability in our political system  one that is being exploited by Russia, but that is also being exploited by others, foreign and domestic, who want to see American government serve their interests instead of the interests of the American public.

Fortunately, we know how to expose these bad actors. There are simple, commonsense steps that Congress, and even individual states, can take to restore transparency, accountability, and trust in how our country is run.

For example, legislators should require tax returns and other financial disclosures from presidential candidates and other high-ranking public officials; enhance campaign finance disclosure and eliminate conduits for foreign money by passing the DISCLOSE Act and the Honest Ads Act; and require greater corporate transparency in secrecy-prone jurisdictions like Delaware, Nevada, and Wyoming.

These are only some of the ways to fight back against political money laundering, more of which are detailed in a new Center for American Progress report. The Trump campaign proved that these safeguards must be codified into law, rather than accepted as "norms" that candidates voluntarily comply with.

The thing all these solutions have in common is that they ask politicians and campaign organizations to answer a simple question: where is the money coming from? If they cannot or will not answer that question, then they do not deserve the public's trust.

But if civic leaders and politicians are willing to answer this call, they have a real opportunity to restore confidence in an American public that, though divided on many issues, is united on at least one: that American democracy is in need of a shot of reform.

Commentary by Alex Tausanovitch and Diana Pilipenko. Tausanovitch is the associate director, democracy and government reform at the Center for American Progress. Pilipenko is the associate director, anti-corruption and illicit finance at the Center for American Progress.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.A new biotech start-up Celularity is mining the human placenta for stem cells to use in new applications, including helping cancer patients and extending human life. The start-up, which launched in September and is headquartered in Warren, N.J., announced Thursday it has raised $250 million in venture capital from global biopharmaceutical company Celgene, biotechnology company United Therapeutics Corporation, biopharmaceutical company Sorrento Therapeutics, DNA sequencing and machine learning company Human Longevity, Inc. and a collection of venture capitalists. The company also has a star-studded board of directors: Apple and Pepsi-Cola executive John Sculley, Google Ventures founder Bill Maris and the former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Andrew Von Eschenbach. Celularity harvests the particularly potent stem cells from the placenta to make a number of medical products. "Think about what we do as a form of a refinery business. Think of the placenta as biological crude oil. We do the discovery and drilling, if you will," says Dr. Robert Hariri, a co-founder and the CEO of Celularity, tells CNBC Make It. Hariri is an engineer, surgeon, jet pilot and entrepreneur. He first started working with placental stem cells in 1998. His co-founder for Celularity, Peter Diamandis, is a well-known serial entrepreneur who founded the XPRIZE Foundation and another company in the longevity space, Human Longevity Inc.

Peter Diamandis (L) and Robert Hariri. Photo courtesy Elizabeth Lippman for Celularity "My goal is to make it so the next generation grows up in a world where cancer is managed just like the common cold, and the body's natural regenerative engine remains empowered throughout our lives," says Hariri, in a written statement. Stem cells are special cells found in the human body that are capable of dividing into and morphing into any number of specialized cells, like brain, blood or muscle cells. Other therapies using stem stells from places like bone marrow are already in use. Banking the stem cells from umbilical cords, for example, has been around for decades  Waltham, Mass.-based ViaCord has been banking umbilical cord stem cells for 25 years, according to the company's website. But placenta stem cells are more valuable because they are more versatile, says Hariri. "Placental cells are the source that eventually become umbilical cord blood," he tells CNBC Make It. "We discovered placental stem cells and our intellectual property is vast. We have some 800 issued patents in this area," Hariri adds. His first company, Anthrogenesis Corp., announced its ability to derive stem cells from the human placenta in April, 2001. The Wall Street Journal and Reuters covered the news at the time. There are other companies working with placenta  for example, New York City-based Americord banks placental tissue, and Israeli company Pluristem Therapeutics sells products derived from placental cells  but Hariri says what Celularity is doing with placental stem cells is unique. Celularity has three main varities of medical products: biological repair products to help treat wounds, immunotherapy products to augment the immune system of patients with complex diseases and placental cell therapy products that augment a patient's longevity.



Xiaokui Zhang, the chief scientific officer at Celularity, performing molecular characterization of placenta-derived stem cells. Photo courtesy Dave Kotinsky, Getty Images for Celularity

The start-up is already selling the biological repair products to hospitals. Its biological "Band-Aids" are used to accelerate the treatment of wounds and burns resulting from injury or any manner of reconstructive surgery, and its injectable stem cell products can accelerate the repair of a tissue or organ. These restorative products cost from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per unit, according to Hariri. Celularity bought its stem cell bandage business earlier in January when it acquired Alliqua BioMedical for $29 million, according to a press release. Celularity's immunotherapy products are still in development. They will augment the immune system of patients fighting any number of complicated diseases, from cancer to Crohn's disease, according to the company. Currently, there other immunotherapy products on the market, like those offered by companies including Juno and Kite, which use various other cells and methods of attacking cancer. Those therapies cost $300,000 to $500,000 per patient, according to Hariri. They are expensive treatments because such products require cells be engineered specifically for each patient, says Hariri. However, according to Hariri, Celularity is engineering placental cells that can be administered to any patient. "Our approach is very different. We take placental T and natural killer cells, engineer those, so that they are available off the shelf, one size fits all, for cancer patients at the time of their diagnosis," says Hariri. "It is an inevitability that cancer will be treated by engineering immune cells. What we are simply saying is that the placenta as a source of those immune cells allows us to democratize this technology in a way that previously were not possible," he adds. That universality will also make the treatments less expensive. "The potential is to bring the price down significantly lower because it is not a bespoke treatment for every person. It is a treatment that is created that can be provided to a multitude of people," Diamandis tells CNBC Make It. Celularity also currently has the technology to harvest and bank placental stem cells. However, injecting the cell material to increase longevity in humans is still in development, according to a spokesperson for the company. Stem cells are ubiquitous in babies and children but, as we age, they slowly disappear, says Hariri. "In a child or young adult, these stem cells are in large supply, acting as a built-in repair system," explains Diamandis in a 2017 blog post. "A useful analogy is to imagine your stem cells as a team of repairmen in your newly constructed mansion. When the mansion is new and the repairmen are young, they can fix everything perfectly. But as the repairman age and reduce in number, your mansion eventually goes into disrepair and eventually crumbles."

Placenta derived stem cell cultivation at the Celularity lab. Photo courtesy Dave Kotinsky, Getty Images for Celularity

According to Diamandis, "the company's ultimate vision is to make 100 years old the new 60, providing people with maximal cognition, mobility and aesthetics as they age." The potential market for products that increase people's lifespan is nascent but has the potential to be huge, according to Diamandis. "The potential for this longevity business of adding an additional 20 to 30 years on your lifespan at the end of the day? It is a massive business because it is ultimately, people will desire to use their hard earned capital to not only live longer but live longer and healthier," Diamandis tells CNBC Make It. Indeed, the global anti-aging market was worth $127.9 billion in 2015 and is expected to be worth $237.8 billion by 2022, according an August 2017 report from Orbis Research. And the global market for cancer immunotherapy treatments was valued at $40.7 billion in 2016, according to an October 2017 report from Grand View Research. But commercializing the science behind treatments for cancer and longevity run the risk of making them only available to the wealthiest individuals. That's how most innovative technology infiltrates society, says Diamandis. "I deal with this a lot and the reality is, at the beginning of any technology like the cell phone, [It] is available for the wealthiest first. If you remember the first cell phones in the 1980s were briefcase-sized, then brick-sized and they were extraordinarily expensive and they didn't work very well. "And what we see in every single market over and over and over again is, as they get better, they get cheaper, and so those cell phones that were paid for by the wealthiest in the beginning were extraordinarily expensive and didn't work well and now you can buy a feature phone for under $40 and you can microfinance it and children of Tanzania have those phones," says Diamandis. "And so every one of these medical treatments starts expensive and inefficient and gets cheaper over time and becomes available to everybody." Of course, a cellphone is not the same as a life-saving cancer treatment. But Diamandis stands firm that the process of commercializing a product is ultimately good for society. "There is a huge amount of capital going in to do this and to make this available. That is what business does. It makes it cheaper faster better," Diamandis tells CNBC Make It. "This is what capitalism and commercial industry and entrepreneurship is about making services better cheaper faster and that is what the company is doing."

Placenta derived stem cell isolation at Celularity. Photo courtesy Dave Kotinsky, Getty Images for CelularityInvestor Peter Thiel is moving his residence and business operations from San Francisco to Los Angeles, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The decision underscores a growing divide between the outspoken tech industry conservative and Silicon Valley.

Thiel has also considered resigning from the Facebook board, sources familiar with his thinking said, according to the Journal. His motivation reportedly stems from a perception of the valley's intolerance for right-leaning politics as well as concerns around the financial impacts of regulatory scrutiny on the tech industry.

The billionaire investor is expected to stay on the board in the near term, while investment firms Thiel Capital and Thiel Foundation will relocate to Los Angeles later this year, according to the report.

Thiel's representatives did not respond to CNBC's request for comment.Danish renewable energy business Orsted has signed a five-year research agreement with the U.K.'s University of Oxford.

The agreement will see the company and university team up to optimize the design of foundation structures used for offshore turbines.

Orsted is working with a number of universities to boost both the performance and design of offshore wind turbines. It is already, for instance, involved in a "major collaboration" relating to wind turbine design with Durham University, also in the U.K.

Regarding the agreement with Oxford, Orsted Wind Power's head of R&D, Christina Aabo, said that the partnership would allow the business to "further mature our foundation designs to support even bigger turbines in even deeper waters, lowering costs and risk level at the same time."

The research agreement between Orsted and Oxford will focus on cyclic loading. Orsted described this as being the repeated loading that occurs from the action of both wind and waves on the structure and operation of the turbine.

"This exciting new phase of collaboration with Orsted will put the next generation of offshore wind farms on more secure and cost-effective foundations through robust design methods for cyclic loading," Byron Byrne, professor of engineering science at the University of Oxford, said. "This will be challenging, but essential if the cost of offshore wind energy is to be further reduced."

Orsted is involved with several major offshore wind projects. These include Hornsea Project Two, an offshore wind farm in the North Sea that, when operational, will be the world's largest.It's a great time to ask your financial advisor if there's anything they'd like to reveal about the mutual fund shares they put you in. The Securities and Exchange Commission this week said investment advisory firms will get a pass on fines if they come clean about failing to disclose conflicts of interest when they bought high-fee shares of mutual funds for clients. They would also need to reimburse clients for those higher fees and any gains they missed out on. "These concerns are not new at the SEC, but they've moved up the priority list," said Jim Lundy, a partner with law firm Drinker Biddle in Chicago. "Many firms have already heeded the warnings  and apparently there are some that haven't heeded that message yet."

skynesher | Getty Images

At issue are so-called 12b-1 fees, which are attached to some mutual fund shares and technically cover distributional and marketing expenses. In practice, most of those fees go toward commissions for the broker or advisor who sold the shares to the investor. The fee typically ranges from 0.25 percent to 1 percent (the maximum allowed). For firms with a legal obligation to put clients' interests ahead of their own, putting an investor's assets in shares with 12b-1 fees when less expensive shares are available presents a conflict of interest and must be disclosed. About 80 percent of mutual fund purchases are made by investors through intermediaries such as brokers, advisors and employer-sponsored retirement plans like 401(k) plans, according to the Investment Company Institute.

The SEC's invitation to self-report failures in disclosing those 12b-1 fee conflicts supports the agency's stated goal of better protecting retail investors. Part of that is reining in complex or hidden investment costs that often are little understood by customers. The SEC's initiative "is another loud bang of the drum," Lundy said. In the past several years, the SEC has charged nine firms with failing to disclose conflicts of interest related to putting clients in high-fee mutual fund shares. For instance, in a settlement last year, the SEC ordered Credit Suisse and one of its advisors to reimburse clients more than $2 million. That was on top of more than $3.6 million in penalties and interest. The SEC's enforcement division, in announcing its self-reporting program, said there is "significant concern that many investment advisors have not been complying with their obligation" to disclose conflicts related to high-fee shares and that "investor harm involving this lack of disclosure may be widespread."Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump's former chief strategist, has met with the special counsel overseeing the Russia probe multiple times this week, NBC News reported Thursday, citing sources.

Bannon met with Robert Mueller for about 20 hours, according to the NBC report, which cited two sources familiar with the proceedings.

Bannon, who also ran Trump's campaign during the final stretch of the 2016 presidential race, left the White House in August. He returned to his position heading up the right-wing online news outlet Breitbart afterward, but he departed the organization after his quotes in an explosive tell-all book went public earlier this year.

In the book, "Fire and Fury," author Michael Wolff quotes Bannon from his time in the White House as insulting Trump's adult children Ivanka and Donald Jr.

Last month, Bannon reportedly struck a deal with Mueller's team after he was subpoenaed, sparing him from testifying before a grand jury.

Mueller is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election and any potential ties between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Trump has repeatedly denied colluding with Russia in the election.

Read the full report from NBC News here.Check out which companies are making headlines before the bell:

Cisco Systems  Cisco beat estimates by 4 cents a share, with adjusted quarterly profit of 63 cents per share. The networking equipment and software company's revenue also came in slightly above forecasts with its first year-over-year rise in revenue in more than two years. Cisco also announced a $25 billion addition to its stock buyback program.

Amazon.com  Amazon is partnering with Bank of America for its lending program, sources said. The program is aimed at small businesses that sell on Amazon's websites.

Waste Management  The company reported adjusted quarterly profit of 85 cents per share, 2 cents a share above estimates. Revenue also topped forecasts. The environmental services company said it was aided by controlling costs and by adding "profitable volume in a disciplined manner."

US Foods  The food distributor beat estimates by a penny a share, with adjusted quarterly profit of 44 cents per share. Revenue also beat forecasts and US Foods gave a full-year outlook that is above current consensus. The results were helped by increasing sales to independent restaurants, among other factors.

Avon Products  The cosmetics company earned an adjusted 12 cents per share, 5 cents a share above estimates. Revenue was slightly below forecasts, however. Avon said it has the capacity to reach its long-term goals, but that the effort will take time.

Applied Materials  Applied Materials reported adjusted quarterly profit of $1.06 per share, compared to the consensus estimate of 98 cents a share. Revenue was above estimates, as well. The maker of semiconductor manufacturing equipment also gave strong guidance for the current quarter, doubled its quarterly dividend to 20 cents per share, and announced a $6 billion share buyback program.

Shopify  The provider of e-commerce platforms for businesses beat estimates by 10 cents a share, with adjusted quarterly profit of 15 cents per share. Revenue beat estimates by a comfortable margin. Shopify said that sales by merchants using its platforms have been increasing significantly.

TripAdvisor  TripAdvisor fell 8 cents a share shy of forecasts, with adjusted quarterly profit of 6 cents per share. The travel website operator's revenue topped estimates, however, and the company announced a $250 million stock buyback and gave a more upbeat forecast for the current year than analysts were expecting.

Teva Pharmaceutical  Teva shares are getting a boost following news that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway took a new stake in the drugmaker. That news comes from Berkshire's quarterly SEC filing.

Apple  Apple is now Berkshire's largest holding, after that same filing showed the firm bought more Apple shares during the first quarter and has now sold nearly all its stake in IBM.

Marriott  Marriott reported adjusted quarterly profit of $1.12 per share, 12 cents a share above estimates. Revenue also beat forecasts. Like rival Hilton, which reported earlier in the day, Marriott saw increased booking volume at higher prices.

NetApp  NetApp came in 8 cents a share above estimates, with adjusted quarterly profit of 99 cents per share. Revenue was very slightly above estimates. The data management company did report an overall loss due to a one-time charge of $856 million related to the new tax law.

Nestle  Nestle reported its weakest organic sales growth on record for 2017, and forecast modest growth for this year. The snacks and coffee maker has been under pressure from activist investor Daniel Loeb to overhaul its strategy.

Qualcomm  Qualcomm and Broadcom gave no details about what transpired when the two chipmakers met Wednesday to talk about Broadcom's revised $121 million takeover bid for its rival. Qualcomm issued a statement saying its board would now determine its next step.

Popular  Popular is acquiring the Puerto Rican auto finance business of Wells Fargo for $1.7 billion. Popular is the parent of banking company Banco Popular de Puerto Rico.Senior Advisor Jared Kushner waits for a meeting with Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak, US President Donald Trump and others in the Cabinet Room of the White House September 12, 2017 in Washington, DC.

Federal investigators reportedly are seeking documents from lenders and investors in New York and New Jersey real estate projects managed by the family of Jared Kushner, the son-in-law and senior advisor of President Donald Trump.

Bloomberg News, citing a source familiar with the inquiry, reported Wednesday that both the IRS and the Justice Department issued subpoenas within the past year to people who loaned money and assembled investors for the Kushner Cos. projects.

It is not clear whether officials are eyeing Kushner Cos. or its associates in the real estate ventures, according to Bloomberg.

The report said that the probe appears unrelated to two other investigations related to Jared Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump, and to his family's business.

One of those investigations, being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller, is looking at Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible Trump campaign collusion with Russians. Mueller's investigators reportedly questioned Kushner in November.

The other probe is looking into the Kushner Cos.' use of a program that grants visas to rich overseas investors.

CNBC has reached out to the Justice Department and the IRS for comment.

A lawyer for the Kushner Cos., Charles Harder, told Bloomberg: "Kushner Cos. is not under investigation for any tax issues. It has had no contact with anyone at the IRS or Justice Department Tax Division. It has received no subpoenas or audit requests about its taxes. It is not in tax court on any audits."

"If there is an investigation about others' taxes, it has nothing to do with Kushner Cos. or its businesses," Harder said.

Chris Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Kushner Cos., told CNBC in an emailed statement, "In a rush to publish unsubstantiated information from unnamed sources Bloomberg has admitted in its own story that they are not clear on the facts."

"There's a good reason that they are not clear on the facts  they got it wrong. If there is an audit of a third party, it has nothing to do with us," Taylor said.

"Bloomberg's 'so-called reporting' is irresponsible and actionable. We never been contacted about our taxes or an audit and to our knowledge, neither have any of our investors."Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov AOP.Press | Corbis | Getty Images

Woody Levin left his gig as vice president at software company DocuSign in early February to start a crypto hedge fund. As a full-time cryptocurrency investor, he now has one primary source of information: Telegram. With close to 200 million users worldwide, the Russian-created secure messaging service Telegram has become the universal communications hub for crypto enthusiasts like Levin, whether for sharing news and tips or marketing a token sale for a new niche project. "Telegram is my crypto world," said Levin, whose San Francisco-based firm has about $25 million in assets. He used to have Facebook open constantly in a tab on his web browser and would check it periodically throughout the day. Telegram has replaced it. "It's one of the first things I check in the morning and one of the last things I do at night." After serving as the communication platform for token sales and ICOs, Telegram is now gearing up to take full advantage of its popularity in the crypto world. The company is planning a 2018 ICO that may be almost 10 times the size of the biggest crypto deal to date. Investors who follow the deal tell CNBC that it's aiming to raise up to $2 billion.

Imagine there's no Facebook

It's a highly ambitious endeavor  and one of the most polarizing topics in technology. Supporters see the Telegram ICO as the blockchain investment of the century and an opportunity to back a product that poses an existential threat to Facebook. But skeptics believe the company is bilking investors out of billions of dollars based on marketing fluff and a heavy dose of FOMO  fear of missing out. "You could see how people would say this one checks all the boxes  amazing team, a market set up for them and a good product," said Travis Scher, vice president of investments at Digital Currency Group in New York. But Scher said that his firm isn't investing because "the numbers are totally out of whack." A Telegram representative didn't respond to requests for comment. Unlike an IPO, which gives investors stock ownership in a company, ICOs provide tokens that their sellers promise will be useful in a new digital network, once it gets built. Virtually non-existent until last year, ICOs raised over $4 billion in 2017, according to Autonomous Next. The biggest offerings  Filecoin and Tezos  each brought in over $200 million.

Telegram was founded in 2013 by Russian brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov, who previously started Russian social network VKontakte, sometimes called the "Facebook of Russia." Today, it's a messaging platform like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp or WeChat and is known as an easy place to create group chats and for its focus on encryption and privacy, protecting conversations from being viewed by outsiders. The service gained popularity following the Edward Snowden revelations about U.S. government surveillance and has since been used by ISIS and other terrorist groups to disseminate information. It's moved headquarters several times, according to its website, and is now housed in Dubai because of Russia's heavy-handed approach to online censorship. It is "ready to relocate again if local regulations change," the site says. Many people in the crypto community have flocked to Telegram because of its libertarian roots and because it spurns advertising  the business model that drives Facebook, Twitter and Snap. "Telegram users are really at the epicenter of the whole crypto boom," said Ryan Gilbert, a partner at Propel Venture Partners, which invests in financial technology. Now, it's selling investors on the idea of a futuristic blockchain-based messaging system that, if all goes as planned, will be up and running by 2021 and create a "VISA/Mastercard alternative for the new decentralized economy," according to a primer published online. Telegram's development team is slated to receive 4 percent of the tokens with a four-year vesting period.

The future, according to the company's marketing materials, is the Telegram Open Network (TON). It will be built on blockchain's distributed ledger technology, and will allow app developers, publishers and content creators to earn coins  called grams  and use them to transact. Grams, which have a finite supply, will theoretically rise in value as more people use them on the network and as demand for the currency increases. The vision is compelling to many in the tech industry who think that centralized giants such as Facebook have way too much control over the online experience. They imagine a new virtual world with a wide range of digital and physical goods being bought and sold, but with no controlling institution in the middle selling your data and tracking your every move across the web. No bots sending fake news. No ad retargeting.

Facebook, Amazon and Google "are really just collecting rent on our information," said Levin, who sold his former start-up to DocuSign in 2015. "At some point, that's going to shift and people are going to demand to be included in that rent collection. You can incentivize individuals to participate in the ecosystem and reward them financially." It has the aura of a digital utopia. But Telegram's ability to get us there is very much in dispute.

An 'opportunistic ploy' based on a 'wishlist'

To date, Telegram has been funded by Pavel Durov, who four years ago sold his 12 percent stake in VKontakte for reportedly around $300 million. His development team has a proven ability to build and scale large social platforms. But creating a whole new blockchain, with all the encryption, security and infrastructure required, is an entirely different undertaking. Because it's decentralized, a critical component to crypto development is something called a consensus mechanism, an automated way of maintaining order and establishing and enforcing rules within a blockchain. For example, bitcoin has a consensus algorithm called "proof of work" that ensures a single version of the truth. "The teams that will win are teams with deep historical context who have been tinkering with consensus mechanisms and scalability for several years. It's more like science than entrepreneurship," said Nick Tomaino, the founder of a crypto fund called 1confirmation. Of Telegram, he says, "In my mind, they don't have the talent to do that." Charles Noyes of Pantera Capital is similarly skeptical  and far less polite. In a recent blog post, Noyes, a quantitative trader, called the Telegram ICO an "opportunistic ploy" and described the project's 132-page technical whitepaper as "essentially a wishlist of things they want to have, and how it will work assuming that their wishlist doesn't crash and burn." Noyes wrote that Telegram's approach is "incompatible with blockchain technology," and said that as an investor, "I certainly would not put a single cent I care more than nil about losing into this." Despite such warnings, Telegram is having no problem raising money. Most investors who spoke to CNBC for this story said the offering is oversubscribed and could value TON at up to $5 billion. According to a story last month in Recode, big-name venture firms including Sequoia Capital, Benchmark and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers are participating in the deal. However, Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures, which made early bets in the crypto space, have taken a pass.

Their limited partners are calling them saying, `What are you doing? This is the biggest airball in venture history.' Spencer Bogart partner at Blockchain Capital

Telegram has already raised institutional capital in what's called a presale, luring big investors who are willing to commit at least $20 million. Those backers, who will put in up to $850 million in total, are getting in at a steep discount (40 to 60 percent) to what it will cost retail investors when the public sale begins in coming months. But unlike a typical venture deal with a corporate governance structure in place, investors don't get a board seat, voting control or shareholder protections, and they hold no equity. To avoid a regulatory tussle with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has essentially defined ICOs as offerings of unregistered securities, several investors told CNBC that Telegram may make the retail piece available only to people outside the U.S. Blockchain Capital, among the first crypto venture firms, is steering clear of the ICO. Spencer Bogart, a partner at the San Francisco-based firm, said a representative from Telegram met with his team in December and walked them through the whitepaper. He said there's an "illusion of exclusion" to the offering. "It was an absurd valuation for something that's effectively field stage," said Bogart. He said the pitch is having more success with traditional venture firms who've missed out on crypto to date  particularly bitcoin, ethereum and companies such as Coinbase  and are feeling the pressure to get in on the craze. "Their limited partners are calling them saying, `What are you doing? This is the biggest airball in venture history,'" he said.

There's also a more cynical reason to stay away from Telegram. In 2017, the company's annual budget was $70 million, bringing its expenses over four years to $171 million, according to the ICO primer. That's almost all coming out of Pavel Durov's pocket, and the figure is only getting bigger, rising to $100 million this year and $220 million by 2021. Telegram said the funds raised will go toward the "development of Telegram and TON and for the ongoing expenses required to support the growth of the ecosystem." In other words, investors in the ICO will hold tokens in a network that's yet to be developed. But in the meantime, they're paying for the wages, office space, infrastructure and legal fees that go into the upkeep and growth of the existing Telegram service. Telegram could grow from 200 million users this year to 675 million in 2021, its marketing material suggests. But if TON fails to spawn a vibrant marketplace, the grams that investors purchased will quite likely be worthless. And all the equity in the company will still be owned by the founding team. "It really felt like it was one of these start-ups that's burning through cash and needs a way to bring money in to keep funding their operations," said DCG's Scher. "This is how they decided they're going to do it."  CNBC's John Shinal contributed to this report.

WATCH: If you own bitcoin, here's how much you owe in taxesThe early, astronomical success of the 22-year-old Timothee Chalamet can be attributed in part to a conversation he had backstage at a concert in Montreal with rapper Kid Cudi.

The breakout star is featured in two Best Picture contenders this year: Chalamet's lead role as the heartthrob in "Call Me by Your Name" earned him an Oscar nomination, and he also plays an aloof boyfriend in Greta Gerwig's indie darling "Lady Bird." In GQ's March 2018 cover story by Daniel Riley, Gerwig calls him "a unicorn" and Riley calls him a "once-in-a-generation talent"  but he still once needed, and got, some advice from Cudi.

The rapper, a "personal god" to Chalamet, also rose to the height of his industry in his early 20s and faced hurdles along the way. He has opened up to the public about stints of depression. Yet his drive and his passion for his work has sustained him.

During his conversation with Chalamet, Cudi "described his own lows and the single-minded determination that forced him to double down on his efforts to perform his way out of trouble," writes Riley. Chalamet reportedly ran home to write down everything he had learned.

"The takeaway was: Are you, Timothee, the sort of person who can't possibly live any other way? 'F--- yeah.'"

He still keeps notes of the conversation in his phone.David Yeung, the CEO of Green Common, on the left with Josh Tetrick, the CEO of JUST, on the right.

One of the fastest growing segments of the $8 trillion global food and agricultural market is the multi-billion dollar egg industry. China produced over 30 percent of the 1 trillion eggs that were laid last year which has raised numerous environmental concerns on the continent. To disrupt this, Tetrick introduced Just Scramble at the flagship location of Green Common, a plant-based dining and shopping store that has chains across Hong Kong. Just Scramble is made from mung bean which is one of Asia's most familiar beans. It looks and tastes just like an egg, it is high in protein, has zero cholesterol and sold over 800 orders of "Just Scramble Teriyaki" and "All Day Just Scramble" in the first six days.

"We need to answer the question of how can we produce enough food for a planet which will see 70 percent growth in food demand between now and 2050," says Tetrick, whose company has attracted high-profile investors such as Hong Kong business magnate Li Ka-shing.

More people are eating today than yesterday. The majority of these people live in Asia, a continent which has an intense cultural connection to food. Securing a better way to feed Asia's growing population is what motivates JUST CEO Josh Tetrick to challenge the status quo of the food industry.

Just Scramble requires less water and emits fewer carbon emissions than conventional eggs, but Tetrick knows that this does not drive consumers. "I think far less than 1 percent of the 7.4 billion people on earth are driven by the environmental benefit of plant-based food. People just want to feed their family with something they have confidence in. They want food that tastes amazing and makes them feel amazing," says Tetrick.

Green Common founder David Yeung is redefining the whole experience of selling plant-based products. "The product has to be good, innovative and fit the brand. If so, we can make foreign brands become an overnight success," says Yeung "We know what people crave in Hong Kong, that makes us so valuable to translate these products for the Asian palette." Green Common is already seeing great sales from the American made Beyond Burger, the world's first plant-based burger that looks, cooks, and tastes like a fresh beef burger. Providing an option for consumers to tweak their habits is what both CEOs believe will lead to wholesale change.

Yeung is confident Hong Kong can serve as a gateway into mainland China and the rest of Asia. Yeung believes China is desperate for a healthy brand people can trust, and is using the Starbucks strategy to expand. "For 5,000 years China never drank coffee. Now, after Starbucks sold it as a lifestyle, there are over 2,500 Starbucks in mainland China. That is not supposed to happen, but Starbucks became people's second living room," Yeung said.

Yeung's goal is not to open a thousand Green Commons in Hong Kong but rather grow business to business in order to make impactful change throughout Asia. By introducing plant-based options through restaurants and catering companies, an entire office building, school, or hospital can drastically reduce meat consumption. By doing this, a fair market is being created where people from all demographics have access to sustainable foods.

Josh Tetrick also envisions a world where everyone is enjoying "just" food, but he knows they cannot do it alone either. "I want to inspire other companies to do this," Tetrick continued "For the institutions and the companies, who are thinking about what's next? Take a look at food, because we need help and Asia needs help. But we can't wait, we have to do it now."

Much of the energy surrounding the plant-based movement in Hong Kong started in 2011 when Sonalie Figueiras began the personal blog Green Queen which quickly turned into a trusted media source for healthy eating.

From this loyal following, Figueiras co-founded Ekowarehouse, the world's first online global trade platform for sourcing certified organic products and is now available in over 140 countries. "We want to become the Alibaba of organic food, and connect the organic world," said Figuerias. "Here in the East, the sustainable conversation does not work. Personal health and safe eating for children is the conversation we need to have moving forward."The Trump administration offered venomous criticism of a bipartisan immigration plan Thursday, as senators struggled to reach a consensus on a bill to protect young immigrants from deportation and boost border security.

The Senate later blocked that measure and another favored by President Donald Trump.

The White House and Department of Homeland Security eviscerated the proposal put forth by 16 bipartisan senators, threatening a veto from Trump if it would have passed Congress. Trump had put his weight behind a separate GOP bill before the Senate, which mirrors the president's immigration demands. Republican leaders argued the president's framework has a better chance of passing the House.

The contentious back-and-forth came as the Senate moved no closer toward its goal of passing an immigration bill this week and protecting up to 1.8 million immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

The Senate voted on the competing proposals on Thursday afternoon, deciding whether to advance four amendments. The chamber blocked a narrow immigration plan by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Chris Coons, D-Del, and a proposal by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to withhold funding from so-called sanctuary cities.

They also blocked the bipartisan plan and a proposal championed by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

The Grassley bill aimed to capture Trump's four immigration demands: shielding up to 1.8 million young immigrants and offering a path to citizenship, funding border security, limiting extended family migration and ending the diversity visa "lottery."

The bipartisan bill, originally sponsored by Sens. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Angus King, I-Maine, also would have offered a pathway to citizenship for immigrants protected by the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and those who were eligible but did not apply. It would limit family-based visas, fund Trump's proposed border wall or other border security and instruct Immigration and Customs Enforcement to turn their focus away from immigrants without criminal records.

Trump weighed in on Twitter on Thursday afternoon, calling the plan a "total catastrophe." He contended that backing it would be a vote AGAINST law enforcement, and a vote FOR open borders." He urged Democrats to support the Grassley bill.

Trump tweet 1

Trump tweet 2

In addition to veto threat, the White House asked the bill's sponsors to withdraw their support for it, calling the measure "grievously misinformed" and "catastrophically bad." Administration officials, who declined several requests from reporters to speak on the record, did not indicate to reporters which lawmakers the White House pressured.

"We're just hoping that some of the people who sponsored it were completely unaware of what was in it," one official said. "Maybe it can be chalked up to a long series of drafting errors compounded on top of one another."

One lawmaker called out by name was Sen. Lindsay Graham, whom the officials repeatedly called an "obstacle" to immigration reform.

The public should question "whether Lindsey Graham's presence on those bills is the problem," one person said. "If he wants to be part of the solution, he should work with not against the rank-and-file professionals at the Department of Homeland Security."

Graham has repeatedly criticized White House officials, particularly policy aide Stephen Miller, for the difficulty of reaching an immigration deal with Trump. The president has rejected multiple immigration proposals put before him.

At one point last month, Trump told bipartisan lawmakers he would sign whatever they passed and take the political heat for it. He then retrenched and insisted on Congress passing the policies he desired.

Trump, who ended DACA with an original phase out date of March 5, has said he wants to protect the young immigrants and treat them with "heart." The program will likely last longer than that deadline because of pending lawsuits.

In a remarkable statement Thursday, the DHS argued the Rounds-King bill "would be the end of immigration enforcement in America and only serve to draw millions more illegal aliens with no way to remove them." The department called it "an egregious violation" of Trump's demands and invoked the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in claiming it "increases the risk of crime and terrorism."

In his own statement, Graham said DHS was "acting more like a political organization intent on poisoning the well." The agency seems intent on all of the immigration proposals failing, he said.

"Statements like this undermine confidence in DHS and make one question whether they can rationally engage with the Congress on this issue," the South Carolina Republican said. "They lost credibility with this release and that's not good for those of us concerned about protecting our border and making sure DHS has the tools they need to best protect our nation."

The Trump administration doubled-down on its full-throated support for Grassley's broader bill, calling it a "very balanced approach."

"We think that has a chance of getting 60 once folks realize that these other proposals are totally and completely unserious," an official said.People protest in front of the U.S. Capitol to urge Congress to save the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program on December 6, 2017, in Washington, D.C.

The Trump administration remained insistent on hardline immigration measures on Thursday as the U.S. Senate prepared to vote on various legislative proposals to protect young "dreamer" immigrants and to tighten border security.

In a statement overnight, the Department of Homeland Security dismissed what some thought was the bill most likely to win enough bipartisan support to pass the chamber, saying it failed to meet minimum criteria set out by President Donald Trump.

The plan, crafted by a bipartisan group of senators led by moderate Republican Susan Collins, would protect from deportation 1.8 million young adults who were brought to the United States illegally as children and who are known as dreamers.

It also includes a $25 billion fund to strengthen border security and possibly even construct segments of Trump's long-promised border wall with Mexico.

The immigration issue has become a matter of urgency for lawmakers after Trump in September ordered an Obama-era program that protected Dreamers to end by March 5, telling Congress it should come up with a solution by then.

The Department of Homeland Security blasted the Collins-led plan, saying it destroyed the ability of DHS officers to remove millions of undocumented immigrants from the country, and "is an egregious violation of the four compromise pillars laid out by the Presidents immigration reform framework."

Trump's four provisions are for any bill to include funds to build the border wall, to end the visa lottery program, to impose curbs on visas for the families of legal immigrants, and to protect Dreamers.

The Republican president has backed a bill by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley that embraces Trump's wish list but is unlikely to win support from enough Democrats in the closely divided chamber.

A narrower third bill, by Republican John McCain and Democrat Chris Coons, has been dismissed by Trump.

Trump on Thursday urged lawmakers to consider a "merit-based" solution to immigration. "While the Republicans and Democrats in Congress are working hard to come up with a solution to DACA, they should be strongly considering a system of Merit Based Immigration so that we will have the people ready, willing and able to help all of those companies moving into the USA!" he tweeted.

Donald Trump tweet

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was expected to bring forward all three measures on Thursday to gauge which has enough support to move toward a vote in the Senate ahead of a Friday deadline he has imposed for the legislation.

Despite backing from several Republicans for the Collins-led plan, it was unclear if enough Democrats would get behind it to muster the 60 votes needed in the 100-member Senate that Republicans control 51-49.

Democratic U.S. Senator Tim Kaine told MSNBC on Thursday he thought lawmakers were "very close" to the 60 votes needed on the Collins-led measure. Republican Senator Marco Rubio told Fox News he was unsure whether any Senate plan would move forward.

Even if one of three bills passes, it must still win over the U.S. House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a larger majority and are pushing a more conservative proposal that is closer in line with Trump's framework.

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan has said he will support only legislation backed by Trump, who has carried his tough law-and-order stance toward immigrants from his 2016 campaign into his administration.

CNBC contributed to this report.The committee also paid $25 million to another event planning firm, Hargrove Inc., a Maryland-based company that produces trade shows and conventions. Other top vendors were Texas-based political consulting firm Cavalier Consulting, which made $4 million; New York party planner David Monn, who was paid $2.7 million; and Production Resources Group, a company that designs event scenery, which also received $2.7 million.

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a New York society events planner, also serves as a senior advisor to the first lady, although she is not paid for her White House work. The inaugural committee reported paying $26 million to WIS Media Partners, a limited liability company that Wolkoff set up in late 2016.

The committee responsible for organizing President Donald Trump 's inaugural events paid a friend of first lady Melania Trump $26 million, part of more than $90 million the group spent on the festivities, according to a tax form filed to the IRS earlier this month and released Thursday.

Event planners typically pay most of their fees to subcontractors such as florists, caterers and venues. A committee source told The New York Times that Wolkoff's share of her $26 million fee was $1.62 million.

A total of $5 million was given to charities, including $1 million dollars each to the Salvation Army, the American Red Cross, and Samaritan's Purse, intended to aid in relief efforts following Hurricane Harvey. A donation of $1.75 million was given to groups that preserve and refurbish the White House and the Naval Observatory, the vice president's official residence. The Smithsonian Institution received the remaining $250,000.

Trump's inaugural committee reported having raised $106 million, or twice what the inaugural committee for President Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration raised. Obama limited individual donations to $50,000, and corporate contributions to $250,000. Trump imposed no such limits.

"This inauguration represented the hallmark of American democracy in the unique and cherished American tradition of a peaceful transfer of power," Tom Barrack, chairman of the 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee, said in a statement Thursday. He said the inaugural committee planned and executed more than 20 separate events surrounding Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration.

Barrack, a longtime friend of Donald Trump's, has been mentioned recently as a possible replacement for White House chief of staff John Kelly.

The committee's latest tax filing contains a long list of the donations made to the inaugural committee, but does not include the names of the donors. Nonprofits are not legally required to disclose their donors.

These names were disclosed, however, in filings submitted to the Federal Election Commission in 2017. That list revealed that scores of individuals and corporations gave $1 million or more to the committee, including a $5 million donation from Republican mega-donor and casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.

The committee also received an in-kind donation of $729,217 from casino and hotel company Wynn Resorts. The founder and CEO of the company, Steve Wynn, resigned from his company earlier this month following allegations of sexual misconduct. Wynn also quit his post as finance chief for the Republican National Committee.

A Wynn Resorts spokesman confirmed to CNBC that the donation was for a musical performance by the band Alabama and the Las Vegas act "Showstoppers." The concert was part of an exclusive Chairman's Global Dinner, held on the Tuesday before the inauguration for fewer than 200 guests. Trump praised Alabama's performance on Twitter the following day.

TRUMP TWEETA lock screen from a cyber attack warns that data files have been encrypted on a laptop computer in this arranged photo.

Britain blamed Russia on Thursday for a cyber-attack last year, publicly pointing the finger at Moscow for spreading a virus which disrupted companies across Europe including UK-based Reckitt Benckiser.

The so-called NotPetya attack in June started in Ukraine where it crippled government and business computers before spreading around the world, halting operations at ports, factories and offices.

Britain's foreign ministry said the attack originated from the Russian military.

"The decision to publicly attribute this incident underlines the fact that the UK and its allies will not tolerate malicious cyber activity," the ministry said in a statement.

"The attack masqueraded as a criminal enterprise but its purpose was principally to disrupt," it said.

"Primary targets were Ukrainian financial, energy and government sectors. Its indiscriminate design caused it to spread further, affecting other European and Russian business."

Moscow has previously denied being behind the NotPetya attack.

Reckitt, a consumer goods maker, as well as Danish shipping company AP Moller-Maersk S/A, were amongst those affected with the total cost of the attack running into hundreds of millions of pounds.

British defence minister Gavin Williamson said the attack was part of a new era of warfare and Britain had to be ready to respond. "We must be primed and ready to tackle these stark and intensifying threats," he said in a statement.

Britain has recently become more vocal about the threat posed by Russia at a time when some members of the ruling Conservative Party have expressed concern about the impact of cuts to defence spending.

Last November, Prime Minister Theresa May accused Russia of meddling in elections and planting fake stories in the media.President Donald Trump's travel ban targeting people from six Muslim-majority countries violates the U.S. Constitution by discriminating on the basis of religion, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday in another legal setback for the policy.

The Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, on a 9-4 vote, became the second federal appeals court to rule against the ban, finding that the Republican president's own words demonstrated that bias against Muslims was the basis of the policy.

The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the ban, put in place by Trump with a presidential proclamation in September, to go into effect while litigation challenging it continues.

The 4th Circuit ruling went further than the earlier decision by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which found the ban violated federal immigration law but did not address the question of whether it also violated the Constitution. The Supreme Court already has said it will consider both issues in deciding the legality of the ban in the coming months.

The justices are due in April to hear arguments over the ban and issue a ruling by the end of June.

"Examining official statements from President Trump and other executive branch officials, along with the proclamation itself, we conclude that the proclamation is unconstitutionally tainted with animus toward Islam," 4th Circuit Chief Judge Roger Gregory wrote in the ruling.

The travel ban challengers "offer undisputed evidence of such bias: the words of the President," Gregory wrote, noting Trump's "disparaging comments and tweets regarding Muslims."

As a candidate, Trump promised "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." The court also took note of the fact that Trump in November shared on Twitter anti-Muslim videos posted by a far-right British political figure.

In the main dissenting opinion, Judge Paul Niemeyer said the courts should be deferential to the president on matters of national security. Niemeyer criticized the majority, saying his colleagues applied "a novel legal rule that provides for the use of campaign-trail statements to recast later official acts of the president."

Trump's policy, the third version of the ban that he has issued since taking office in January 2017, blocks entry into the United States of most people from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen. Trump has said the policy is needed to protect the United States from terrorism by Islamic militants.

Thursday's ruling upheld a Maryland-based district court judge's decision in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents several advocacy groups including the International Refugee Assistance Project.

"President Trump's third illegal attempt to denigrate and discriminate against Muslims through an immigration ban has failed in court yet again. It's no surprise," ACLU lawyer Cecillia Wang said.David Banks, White House Special Assistant, attends an event titled: 'The Role of Cleaner and More Efficient Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Power in Climate Mitigation' at the COP 23 United Nations Climate Change Conference on November 13, 2017 in Bonn, Germany.

When the phone rang in George David Banks' office at 4:30 Tuesday afternoon, the White House counsel's office was on the line: Could Banks come to a meeting at 6 p.m.?

The call was the first indication that something had gone very wrong for Banks, an environmental policy advisor in the Trump administration. Later, he would resign after finding out that he did not qualify for a permanent security clearance because of past marijuana use.

It was the third White House resignation within a week which centered on an aide's security clearance.

Staff secretary Rob Porter quit last week after reports emerged that his two ex-wives accused him of domestic abuse. Speechwriter David Sorensen, meanwhile, resigned Friday after his ex-wife said he had abused her. Both Porter and Sorensen denied the accusations.

Banks, on the other hand, had voluntarily disclosed that he smoked marijuana a few years prior, according to a source familiar with the situation who declined to be named.

Banks, who was a special assistant to the president for international energy and environmental policy on the National Economic Council, had been one of the key figures in developing the Trump administration's policy on the Paris climate accord.

In his year at the Trump White House, Banks had been operating on an interim security clearance. He had followed the typical procedures for new employees after starting work in February 2017, filling out an SF-86 form detailing his personal background.

The source told CNBC that Banks disclosed on the form that he had smoked marijuana as recently as 2013. In the spring of 2017, FBI agents visited Banks in his office to go over the information on the form. The meeting lasted about an hour, a source said.

But it wasn't until this week that the marijuana disclosure apparently came back to haunt Banks. The source said the White House counsel's office told Banks he had been denied a permanent security clearance, and could not do his job without one. The marijuana use, the counsel's office said, was simply too recent to permit a permanent security clearance.

Banks was left with little choice but to resign. The source familiar with the events describes him as "shocked" by what happened.

A White House official declined to comment.

In the wake of the Porter firing, several other administration officials may be just as shocked in coming weeks, as the White House struggles to deal with officials who have not been able to qualify for a permanent security clearance for a variety of reasons.

It's not clear what will happen next for Banks. The source said he was told the administration would still be able to hire him elsewhere and encouraged to apply for jobs that do not require a security clearance.Mayors come and go in small towns, usually with little fanfare and few momentous achievements. Not so with Gerald "Gene" Ulrich. Gene, who served Bunceton as mayor for a quarter of a century, retired in April. His 13 consecutive terms alone are a novelty, his contributions impressive, but his resume also includes ownership of a porn shop and a claim to fame as the nation's first openly gay mayor.The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission formFoster calls for direct rule as Ulster devolution talks collapse again

DUP leader says she will not be held to ransom  News Letter

May blamed as power-sharing talks fail  The Times

Prime Minister humiliated by DUP partners  The Sun

Blame game begins in earnest  Belfast Telegraph

DUP leader Arlene Foster today ended talks on restoring devolution in Northern Ireland, accusing Sinn Fein of trying to hold her to ransom. Mrs Foster called on the Westminster government to intervene to set a budget and start making policy decisions held over during the 13-month stalemate. The decision to collapse the talks comes a day after Mrs Foster blasted Theresa May for making a distracting intervention in a visit to Belfast on Monday. The Prime Minister raised hopes of a deal by travelling to Stormont to meet the parties alongside Irish premier Leo Varadkar. But Mrs May left empty handed and Mrs Foster today said the latest round of talks had failed.  Daily Mail

More:

Adams loses appeal over IRA prison breakout convictions  The Guardian

Redwood destroys Barniers Irish warnings  Daily Express

Comment:

Fiasco shows that 2006 Agreement was nothing of the sort  Jon Tonge, Belfast Telegraph

Editorial:

Ulster must avoid a return to bitter sectarianism  Daily Telegraph

Remainers dismiss Johnsons appeal for unity

Boris Johnsons hopes of uniting Leavers and Remainers appeared to have failed today as he was branded a charlatan by EU supporters and praised by Brexiteers. The Foreign Secretary launched his vision for quitting the EU in the first of a series of major speeches by Government ministers to set out the road to Brexit. Mr Johnson hailed Brexit as a cause for hope not fear and rejected claims it was a great V-sign from the cliffs of Dover or a plague of boils on the nation. But it was immediately dismissed by Remain supporters. Labour peer Andrew Adonis accused Mr Johnson of being a charlatan while Tory rebel Anna Soubry said the speech would drive British business to despair.  Daily Mail

Foreign Secretary sets out areas of post-Brexit divergence  FT

Softer tone raises hopes of a dinner deal  The Times

Rees-Mogg says UK will not roll over  Daily Express

Prime Minister abandons plan to create new peers to smooth Brexit  The Sun

More:

May and Barnier accused of hiding true extent of Brexit bill  The Sun

EU seeks power to raid financial firms post-Brexit  Daily Telegraph

Businesses want customs union, survey shows  The Times

Pro-Brexit artists form union to stop themselves being denied work  The Sun

Brexiteers focus on the Commonwealth  FT

Japan alarmed by act of self-harm, former ambassador warns  The Guardian

Cameron apologised to Juncker for trying to block him  The Sun

>Today: Martyn Rady in Comment: The Prime Minister should replace the negotiating team and follow Barniers tough-talking example

>Yesterday: MPs Etc.: It is our stubborn attachment to running ourselves that will end up making our society fairer and more prosperous. Johnsons Brexit speech  full text

Nick Timothy: A key Brexit opportunity is now in peril

Can any of us believe a word Johnson says?  David Aaronovitch, The Times

A Brexit which embodies the best of British ideals  Andrew Lilico, Daily Telegraph

Does Soubry or Rees-Mogg speak for the Tories?  Noah Carl, Times Red Box

A liberal and profoundly persuasive vision  Peter Oborne, Daily Mail

Foreign Secretary struggles to woo remainers  Anushka Asthana, The Guardian

Johnson articulated a coherent vision with real conviction  Janet Daley, Daily Telegraph

A bad Brexit would threaten workers rights  Frances OGrady, Times Red Box

We will soon be able to prioritise services as well as goods in deals with the worlds fastest-growing economies: 90 per cent of future economic growth is forecast to come from outside Europe, with one third coming from China alone. Yet the EU has no trade agreement with China, nor with the United States. This opportunity is now in danger, however, because a cross-party group of MPs has tabled amendments to force ministers to maintain the United Kingdoms participation in the EUs customs union. If we did this, we would expose ourselves to extraordinary risk. No country outside the EU, other than Monaco, is a member of the customs union. Not even Norway, which is in the single market, has joined it. This is because if they did so, EU negotiators would surrender access to their markets in return for trading rights with third countries that suit the EU, but not them.  Daily Telegraph

Editorial:

Foreign Secretary is a welcome, upbeat ambassador for Brexit  Daily Telegraph

Johnsons withered olive branch to Brexit opponents  FT

The Cabinet need some of Boris mojo  The Sun

>Today: Daniel Hannan MEPs column: Johnson  a Tigger among Eeyores  is right to restate the positive, uplifting vision of Brexit

>Yesterday: ToryDiary: Why our European neighbours think were a basket case

Mordaunt calls in the police over Oxfam

Britains aid minister last night called in the police over the Oxfam scandal amid new claims the charity hushed up sex abuse allegations to spare its reputation. As the backlash intensified, Penny Mordaunt told global aid bosses that she would hold meetings today with the National Crime Agency. The NCA will also meet under-fire regulator the Charity Commission to make sure it is doing enough to bring sex abusers to justice. It raises the prospect of prosecutions against aid workers accused of abuse overseas. The meetings come as a senior Oxfam manager admitted last night that she had been aware of past claims of sexual abuse involving the charitys staff in Asia.  Daily Mail

Patel wont give to Oxfam again  The Sun

Dont use scandal to shut charities, warns UN  The Times

David Milibands charity accused of hushing up allegations of fraud, abuse, and bribery  Daily Mail

Comment:

There are laws against what Oxfam did, I know because I drafted them  Sir Bill Cash, Times Red Box

Unless charities rediscover their moral core, they wont survive  Larry Elliott, The Guardian

Politicisation and lax controls made charity a disaster waiting to happen  Allister Heath, Daily Telegraph

Williamson says UK will not follow Frances lead on Syria

Defence Secretary denies rift with Washington over fate of British jihadists  The Times

Fury as Iraqi refugee admits to fake abuse racket targeting British troops  Daily Mail

as he accuses Russia over destructive cyber attack

Gavin Williamson risked igniting a diplomatic storm yesterday by claiming there is no point in Britain listening to Emmanuel Macron. The Defence Secretary took aim at the French president amid growing concerns in London at his increasingly hostile Brexit strategy. The intervention came after Mr Macron threatened to launch strikes on the Syrian government for allegedly using chemical weapons against civilians. But the senior Cabinet member, who is tipped to be a future Prime Minister, said that the UK felt no need to copy decisions in neighbouring countries. What is the point in listening to French politicians, he said. We have our own foreign policy, we dont need to copy [others]. The comments will raise concerns about tension between the UK and France, who are close military allies and the only European countries with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.  Daily Mail

Britain has blamed President Putins military for a global cyberattack that cost businesses hundreds of millions of pounds, in an unprecedented public rebuke. Raising tensions between the countries, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the foreign office minister for cybersecurity, accused Russian military intelligence of launching the NotPetya attack last June that crippled government IT systems in Ukraine. The malware spread across 64 other countries, including the UK. It is thought to be the first time that the government has publicly blamed Russia for a specific global cyberattack. The Foreign Office said that the decision underlined the fact that the UK and its allies will not tolerate malicious cyberactivity. Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary, said: We have entered a new era of warfare, witnessing a destructive and deadly mix of conventional military might and malicious cyberattacks.'  The Times

Ministers too politically correct to enforce school hijab bans, former Ofsted head claims

T

he Government is too politically correct to enforce rules on hijabs in schools, leaving teachers alone, isolated and vulnerable, the former head of Ofsted has warned. Sir Michael Wilshaw said a lack of formal policy from the Department for Education on whether children should be allowed to cover their heads in lessons has led to angry clashes. He also highlighted concerns that there are 150 schools around the country which make it compulsory for children to wear hijabs, adding that the country has enormously changed and some communities hold very conservative views which cannot easily be challenged. It follows a public outcry after a primary school in east London announced it was banning children from wearing hijabs but was forced to reverse the decision after complaints from parents.  Daily Telegraph

>Yesterday: ToryDiary: After his success on reading, Gibb gets his way on times tables

Barwell apologises over pornographic tweet

Theresa Mays chief of staff has apologised after he responded to a Twitter account which posted pornographic images and videos. Gavin Barwell, the Prime Ministers right hand man in Downing Street, said he regrets the embarrassment caused when he inadvertently replied to an x-rated image online. It comes after Mrs Mays former deputy prime minister Damian Green was forced to stand aside after he was accused of watching porn on his office computer. Mr Barwell replied to a tweet from the account @twinkystar_69 which posts graphic adult videos and pictures. A Number 10 source said: Gavin Barwell replied to this tweet, which was in his timeline, in error. He has deleted the reply and regrets the embarrassment this has caused.  Daily Telegraph

MPs call for action on rough sleeping after Westminster death

Council drops plan to fine rough sleepers after outcry  The Guardian

A homeless man was found dead on Parliaments doorstep this morning  prompting MPs to call for tougher action to tackle rough sleeping. The man was discovered in Westminster underground station by the back entrance to the Palace of Westminster, which politicians and their staff walk through every day. Temperatures plunged to -2.1C in the areas last night, and many homeless people use the station to get shelter from the freezing temperatures outside. Politicians said they were horrified at the news of the tragedy, and said it should serve as a wake-up call to do more to combat the rising numbers of rough sleepers. Members of Jeremy Corbyns office said they knew the man  who has not been named  and laid flowers at the scene tonight.  Daily Mail

More:

Ministers complicit in womans overdose death  The Times

Wishart warns Sturgeon against rushing a second independence vote

Pete Wishart has urged Nicola Sturgeon not to hold a second independence vote until at least 2021 unless she is certain a vote in the next few years would provide a victory. Writing in his column in the National today, titled Why we need to be like Wallace in Braveheart the SNP MP wrote: It would be unthinkable to lose another indyref and almost reckless to proceed without good evidence it could be won. The suggestion from Wishart follows on from suggestions made by MSP James Dornan that a new vote should be held as early as next year. However, Wishart, who could be a possible contender in the forthcoming contest for depute party leader, said that he would be against an earlier vote unless there was evidence that a Yes vote would win.  The Scotsman

News in Brief:This article was originally published on 14th February 2017. A year and a day later, we republish it following todays reports of Jeremy Corbyns meetings with a Czech spy during the Cold War.

We must always be bold enough to acknowledge and criticise moral failures on our own side of politics. As I wrote on Monday [13th February 2017], its shameful that some of my fellow Eurosceptics have become apologists for the tyranny of Vladimir Putin. Crow if you wish when your opponents sin (I certainly have at times), but when your own are getting something horribly wrong you have a duty to pull them up on it.

Over at The Guardian, Owen Jones has perfected the crowing part. Inspired by the resignation of Mike Flynn, the now ex-adviser to Donald Trump who has resigned after misleading the Vice-President over his discussion of sanctions with Moscow, Jones rightly highlights the hypocrisy of self-proclaimed patriots cosying up to the Kremlin. But then he goes on to make an extraordinary claim:

For much of the 20th century, the left was relentlessly smeared for supposedly being in league with Moscow, thus posing a threat to national security. Even leftists who passionately opposed the Soviet regime were portrayed as being the accomplices of Moscow. Now the national security adviser of a hard-right Republican president has resigned for actually being in league with Moscow. Flynn not only discussed lifting sanctions on Moscow  he lied about it.

A smear, of course, is something that isnt true  to read Joness account youd think the British Left was entirely free of apologism, fellow-travellerism or outright collusion with the Soviet Union, and was wrongly tarred just by virtue of being on the moderate end of the same side of the political spectrum.

That would be an interesting rewriting of history. It isnt a smear to say that chunks of the 20th Century Left were far too close to the Kremlin. Sidney and Beatrice Webb, the parents of British Fabianism, ardently denied the Ukrainian famine on the say-so of Soviet propagandists, despite the eye-witness accounts of their own family members. Jack Jones, one of the most powerful union barons of the 1970s, was later revealed by Oleg Gordievsky to be in the pay of the KGB. For years, the Morning Star was heavily subsidised by mass subscriptions on the part of Soviet institutions.

Then there were the useful idiots  the people always willing to think the worst of NATO and the best of the Warsaw Pact, and who pressed for the West to abandon its defensive alliances and nuclear deterrent in the hope that the USSR would transform into a lamb in response. They may have genuinely and innocently believed what they were saying, but they were helping the Kremlin by saying it all the same.

Throughout the Cold War there were many good people on the Left who held to what was right, and stood opposed to the Evil Empire. Indeed, the establishment of NATO and the development of Britains nuclear deterrent came about thanks to some of them, for which we should be eternally grateful. But to pretend there was no problem on the Left in terms of others who served the purposes of the Soviet Union  unwittingly, deliberately or even under direct orders from a hostile power  is to rewrite history.

Jones should have the courage to acknowledge the facts rather than wish them away. If by some odd circumstance he has forgotten that dangerous beasts like NATO-bashing useful idiots and outright Stalinists were a troubling feature of the 20th Century British Left, he need only look at todays Labour Party  Jeremy Corbyn and Seumas Milne are relics of each respective tradition.Shaun Bailey is a member of the London Assembly.

I grew up on the streets of London  Ive spent my adult life volunteering and helping young people improve their life chances. Many vulnerable people I have worked with feel afraid that they could become victims of knife crime or know somebody who already has. Things have got to change  Sadiq Khans record of failure on policing knife crime is appalling.

Under Khans leadership, London is undergoing a surge in violent crime. Since the beginning of his mayoralty, acid attacks are up 65 per cent, knife crime is up 44 per cent, homicide is up 16 per cent, GBH is up 7.9 per cent and rape is up 36 per cent. Statistically, New York is now a safer place to live than London.

This is very much a problem of leadership. The Mayors response so far has been severely inadequate. Whenever he receives bad publicity in the media regarding his knife crime epidemic, his standard response is to issue a press release re-announcing old initiatives that have so far, failed to reverse the trend. A good example of this was the Mayors response to the five new year stabbings, when he issued a press release re-asking more schools to take up his knife wand policy  which only had a take rate of 2.4 per cent of all London schools.

There are lots of things the Mayor can do to tackle knife crime  better community engagement, better use of stop and search, and providing preventative initiatives. But one area that has not been explored is the use of emerging technologies  the world is changing, we now have voice-activated smart homes run by Alexa, augmented reality and 3D printers. I want to see how we can take advantage of this changing world, how the police can innovate to tackle all sorts of crime, in particular, high harm crime such as violence and knife crime.

In my recent report on knife crime, Londoners Lives Matter, I have made a number of recommendations: one of the most innovative of which is the use of Smart CCTV.

The Metropolitan Police Service should be a world leader in embracing innovative technology, but sadly, its often years behind other law enforcement agencies  its still using Windows XP.

Smart CCTV is an example where the Metropolitan Police Service should be taking a leading role  it polices one of the most heavily-surveilled cities in the world. The problem is, its often not used until a major crime has taken place. What if it could be monitored, all the time without the need for huge numbers of staff?

Emerging artificial intelligence technology can be used to aid the fight against crime by detecting it as it takes place. Algorithms now exist that can monitor CCTV and look for suspicious and criminal behaviour in a way that does not infringe on civil liberties. This can also be used to identify objects, therefore can be used to detect knives when shown in a public place. Smart CCTV will help in times of tight budgets as it can free police officers and staff from searching through video footage for evidence. This can also detect crime that may otherwise go unreported or get reported when the perpetrators have left the scene.

The Mayor needs to take an innovative approach to fighting knife crime  indeed, all crime. My report does this. Its recommendations set out a series of modern and upcoming ideas that can be embraced by the Mayor and Metropolitan Police Service. Smart CCTV is an example where London can lead the world in fighting crime  detecting crime as it happens, allowing for an immediate response before a criminal flees the scene, or worst, someone dies. This is an issue for all Londoners and all races. We, as the Conservative Party need to solve this issue, otherwise we risk being an irrelevant force in London.Martyn Rady is Masaryk Professor of Central European History at University College London.

As the Irishman said, I wouldnt be starting from here. Instead of deciding at the outset what Britains future relationship to the EU would be, other than the empty Brexit is Brexit, the UK has negotiated Micawber-style. It has waited for something to turn up while piling on debts to Brussels40 billion at the last count plus a good deal more should the UK decide to pay for market access. The Government could have said in June 2016 that it wanted to remain in the European Economic Area or join EFTA, and used the narrow vote for Leave as justification for a half-way house. But that would have split the Conservatives and not answered calls for a halt to immigration, so it was deemed a political non-starter.

Bereft of any clear idea as to what it wanted, the Government drifted and let the EU set the agenda  divorce bill before trade talks, and premature discussion of the Irish border and citizens rights before trade talks, too. And now, it is into a messy Brexit, which will require item by item negotiation over the future commercial relationship. Already the EU negotiators have ruled out any special arrangements for the service sector, stating that the City will deal with the EU just like any other non-EU country, based on regulatory equivalence. Meanwhile President Macron has confirmed that the UK will have no differentiated access to financial services. If it wants anything more, then it will have to pay and submit to the EU courts. Since Theresa May has already ruled this out, an impasse prevails.

Maybe the Government can save something for manufacturing industry. The issue here will be regulatory convergence. Everything marketed in the EU has to bear the CE (Conformite Europeenne) stamp, which means for pillow cases that they have to adhere to 40 separate regulations. At present, companies can self-certify, but there is no guarantee that the same regime will apply after Brexit. The new arrangements will be thrown, alongside tariffs, into the negotiating pool. The only way to obtain friction-free movement for manufacturers will be a further contribution to the EU budget. Norway (population: five million) pays just under a billion a year for this, so the eventual UK sum is likely to be many times that.

Given their complexity, negotiations will have to go beyond the two-year transition, with sectoral agreements on cars and aerospace implemented in slow stages alongside agreements on access charges. Political changes in both the EU and UK will further delay resolution. But whatever the timeline, the overall deal will be a poor one for the UK. To their credit, the Commission and Council have never hidden their ambition to leave the UK worse off outside than inside.

Time is short and the prospect of a delayed, messy and damaging Brexit looms increasingly large. Perhaps there is a plot worked out by a Remainer Cabal to achieve Brexit in name only. But if not, the Government needs to get a grip on negotiations and to signal now that its approach has changed. The bumbling troika of Davis, Fox and Johnson should be dismissed (along with Hammond) and replaced by some hard men and women. They should signal that the UK will trade with the EU on WTO terms and invite sector-by-sector concessions. This is a tough call since the lazy Fox has so far done nothing to make sure that the UK preserves the benefits within the WTO that the EU has negotiated around the world.

There are, however, three aces that a new team can play, which taken together will force the EU into rapid compliance.

First, the UK should state that it will trade mostly tariff-free, and lower Corporation Tax to five or ten per centcertainly below Irelands 12.5 per cent. It might additionally grant the same sorts of tax exemptions that makes Luxembourg so attractive to multi-nationals. When Hammond merely hinted at this last year, the EU reaction was one of furious alarm, with much talk from Schauble and Tusk of a race to the bottom (left-wing speak for competition and the market). A business-friendly UK will leech jobs and companies from Europe, more than making up for the tax cut. Plenty of firms will choose to be just brass-plated in the UK if they can pay their corporation tax here instead of in Ireland or Luxembourg.

Secondly, UK negotiators should say there will be no customs posts on the Ulster border. Since the UK will be trading mostly tariff-free there will be no need for them and the facts of logistics make it unlikely that the open border will provide a route to the mainland for agricultural produce (on which some tariffs will have to remain given that the EU unfairly subsidises its farmers). So it will be the Republic of Ireland and the EU that will be putting up the customs posts, to stop the flow of cheap UK imports. In view of their previous posturing, will they dare?

Thirdly, the UK should make it clear that once it has assumed its new global  as opposed to narrowly European  role, its strategic imperatives will shift. It will leave NATO, which is preoccupied with European defence against Russia, and seek a new bilateral partnership with the United States, while developing the already-existing Five Eyes intelligence pooling with Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. After America, NATO has only two serious membersBritain and France, which both spend about two per cent of their GDP on defence. Germany spends proportionally only half of what France does. Unsurprisingly, of Germanys 42 Eurofighter Typhoons, all but eight were at the last count grounded, while most of its combat vehicles were deemed unfit for service.

With the UK leaving NATO, the member states of the EU will face the prospect of having to fork out for the military defence they have so far left others to pay. Their defence budgets will have to double and they will have to develop intelligence capacities of their own. UK negotiators should make it clear that, once outside the EU, there will be no residual strategic reason why British boys should die for the Polish or Baltic borders or why the UK should prioritise tanks for combat on the North European Plain over a navy to guard its global seaways.

Recent talk by Michel Barnier of sanctions and grounding aircraft indicates that the EU is willing to talk tough. Time is moving on, but it is not too late for the UK to respond with equal clarity and menace. In fact, it is probably now the only way forward.Daniel Hannan is an MEP for South-East England, and a journalist, author and broadcaster. His most recent book is What Next: How to Get the Best from Brexit.

What do you read, My Lord?

Words, words, words.

Shakespeare knew a thing or two about words. Words can inspire or quell. Words can convince people to desist from one course of action and begin a different one. Words can lift a nations temper. When people tell me, You politicians are all talk, I respond that there is no dishonour in talking: talk is what elevates and ennobles our species.

Much of the criticism of Boris Johnsons uplifting speech, proposing a liberal and internationalist Brexit, has taken a huffy form. Its just words, say his detractors. He can talk all he wants about global engagement and compromise and meeting the concerns of Remainers. But if were leaving the single market and the customs union, what are his words worth?

Well, words set the mood. The most irreconcilable opponents of Brexit tend to be those who see it as a Kulturkampf, a clash of values. The people whose chief worries were about short-term dislocation (a not unreasonable concern) have, by and large, accepted the outcome, not least because the economic contraction that the Treasury said would happen immediately after we voted Leave failed to materialise.

There are other Remainers, though, generally younger and more engaged if less numerous, for whom the referendum was primarily about identity. They believe that the Leave vote has made Britain insular, nostalgic, chauvinist. Its not exactly that they see EU membership as a talisman against xenophobia: they dont, by and large, argue that Norway or New Zealand are intolerant by virtue of being independent states. Its something more inchoate than that  a sense that Brexit is, as our wordsmith Foreign Secretary puts it, a giant V-sign from the cliffs of Dover.

It is Johnsons duty to soothe these concerns. He was the public face of Vote Leave and, in that curiously snobbish form that British politics sometimes takes, has become a particular hate-figure for those Remainers who see him as a class traitor. Its easier, for at least some Europhiles, to overlook the concerns of UKIPers, whom they dismiss as dupes led astray by demagogues. But Johnson, they feel, should have been one of them. Clever, multi-lingual and partly educated in Brussels, he has throughout his career defended the principle of controlled immigration. He agonised, publicly and privately, about which way to go, finally deciding only when the utter poverty of the renegotiation made clear that the EU was not prepared to reform. His Euroscepticism, precisely because it is open and internationalist, affronts those who want to explain away the vote as being all about immigration.

Johnson cannot, in conscience, leave the field. He made the case for a liberal Brexit during the campaign, and he is right to repeat it now. Not just because the 48 per cent ought to be listened to, but also because the constant portrayal of Brexit as inward-looking and bigoted is in danger of catching on internationally. European newspapers habitually pick up and exaggerate stories about rising intolerance in Britain  stories which usually turn out to be nonsense. More than one of my MEP colleagues, for example, blamed the tragic death of Arek Jozwik in Harlow after the vote on Brexit. When it eventually emerged that there was no Brexit connection, and that the only xenophobic element in the case had been the other way around  racist comments coming from Jozwik and his companion  no-one noticed.

Several overseas media, taking their cue from the FT, have got it into their heads that the only reason anyone voted Leave was immigration, and that the Leave campaign was somehow run by Nigel Farage. The New York Times has become demented on the subject, running almost weekly columns about the meaner, narrower nation we have supposedly become.

Johnson is our Foreign Secretary. It is his job to correct these misapprehensions. The truth is that, on almost every metric, Britain is among the most tolerant countries in Europe. Far from ushering in Nigel Farages Britain, as David Cameron predicted during the campaign, Brexit prompted the collapse of UKIP. There is now no significant populist anti-immigration party in the UK  something that cannot be said of most EU states.

I have argued since the day of the referendum  literally  for moderation and compromise. The two sides are not nearly as far apart as is often suggested, even on the subject of immigration. As Sunder Katwala of British Future has shown, most Leavers and most Remainers are in favour of skilled workers and students coming to the UK, and most Leavers and most Remainers want controls over unskilled immigration. It shouldnt be beyond us to construct a policy that accommodates the concerns of both sides.

Its fair to say that this hasnt always happened. In the days following the vote, we saw some unfortunate over-compensation by ministers who had voted Remain, including a wince-making proposal to make companies list their foreign workers. Even now, there is a strange reluctance to remove students from the immigration figures. Johnson is right to remind us that legal immigration makes Britain richer.

Compromise means finding a solution that everyone can live with, which is not always the same thing as finding a middle way. As Lord Hill, our former Commissioner, put it, the reason he voted Remain was because he didnt want Britain to follow rules it had had no say in setting, and, now that we were leaving, that logic applied even more strongly. Allowing the EU to dictate our trading relationships while having no say over those relationships would not be a compromise; it would be an absurdity. A good test of whether someone wants a moderate Brexit or whether they just want to lash out is whether they accept that logic.

Johnson has a vast personality and a fine way with words. A Tigger among Eeyores, he approaches Brexit in a spirit of boldness rather than of clingy timidity. There are opportunities to be grasped, but only once we stop trying to salvage every bit of the existing deal.

You know what really is introverted and backward-looking? The dreich prospect of yet another referendum campaign. Lets raise our eyes. Theres a whole world out there.May under fire after Northern Irish talks collapse

The Prime Minister has come under fire after claims that her visit to Ulster earlier this week undermined the latest round of talks to re-establish the Northern Ireland Assembly, according to The Times.

Although not blaming Theresa May directly, sources from the Democratic Unionists have suggested that her visit  alongside Leo Varadkar, her Irish counterpart  was a distraction and that she had ignored advice to steer clear.

This comes as Arlene Foster, the DUP leader and former First Minister, has for the first time joined calls from elsewhere in her party for the introduction of direct rule from London. This is a significant development: although her MPs may have been talking up direct rule for a while, Foster and the MLAs have much more to lose if power shifts decisively back to Westminster.

Predictably enough it appears to be the fate  and contents  of a stand-alone Irish Language Act on which the talks foundered, with the DUP leader saying that she wont be held to ransom on the issue. Sinn Fein have set it out as a red line but such an Act commands virtually no support amongst unionists, hard-line or otherwise.

Thus it appears that although the DUP leadership were prepared to countenance such an Act if it were matched by parallel legislation for Ulster-Scots and British culture, they were unable to take their activists and voters with them.

Whilst there is still time for a deal to be done, if Foster cant persuade grassroots unionists to endorse that deal (and no effort has been made to prepare them for it) then it may not be possible. As journalist Eamonn Mallie puts it in his account of the collapse: The Unionist people have shown their politicians their teeth.

As Karen Bradley concedes that this phase of the talks is over, the Government must now take seriously the prospect of having to govern the Province from London at a time when the parliamentary agenda already runneth over with Brexit legislation and the Northern Irish Office employs fewer than 150 people. That will really test the Secretary of States mettle.

SNP depute candidates clash over Indyref2

The internal debate amongst the Scottish Nationalists about how quickly to seek a re-run of the 2014 independence referendum is getting an airing in their deputy leadership contest, the Scotsman reports.

On the one hand James Dornan, an MSP, insists that Nicola Sturgeons push for one in the aftermath of Brexit has not damaged the partys fortunes and that the separatists should seek another as soon as possible.

Yet today Pete Wishart, the outspoken and sometimes controversial MP, said that it would be unthinkable to lose a second vote and warned the First Minister not to rush into a referendum unless there was clear evidence of majority support for independence.

Wishart came only 21 votes short of losing his seat to the Tories in June, when 21 SNP MPs were ousted by resurgent unionist parties (a result which seems to belie Dornans rosy assessments), which explains why he may be striking such a cautious note. Nor is this the first issue on which he has done so: last week he launched a veiled attack on Sturgeons overtly pro-EU stance, which he warned was alienating pro-Brexit voters.

Not everybody is convinced by Wisharts latter-day conversion to speaking his mind, however.

Jones demands soft border between Ireland and Wales post-Brexit

The First Minister of Wales has called for Welsh ports to qualify for whatever customs arrangements are made to prevent physical checks at the Irish border, according to Wales Online.

Carwyn Jones made the comments after a planned meeting between himself and Varadkar were cancelled on Monday. He insists that Wales wants continued access to both the customs union and the single market.

However, the First Ministers capacity to speak for Wales on the subject should be treated with some scepticism: prior to the Brexit vote  wherein a majority of Welsh voters backed Leave  Jones was insisting that leaving the European Union might push his country towards independence.

Wales is, however, a vital link between Ireland and continental markets. WO claims that: about 80 per cent of goods carried in Irish-registered HGVs between the Republic of Ireland and Europe pass through Welsh ports.

So its not hard to see why Dublin would want to cultivate Cardiff Bay as an ally in their bid to bind the Government to the softest-possible Brexit  but less clear that Leave-voting Wales wants it.Hunt followers do not blame May for backing away from a free vote on the ban

The Kimblewick Hunt met on Tuesday at Cholsey Grange Farm in the Chiltern Hills. How sane they were about the politics of hunting, and how hospitable to an unknown journalist.

Port, chocolate brownies, cocktail sausages and small pieces of tandoori pheasant were handed round in the yard; the Huntsman and Master, Andrew Sallis, wearing the tawny yellow coat of the Old Berkeley (one of the predecessor packs of the Kimblewick), removed his hat and delivered a short speech of thanks to our hosts, Jackie and Ted Howard-Jones; and a mounted field of about 20 moved off with the hounds.

A larger number of foot followers, including your correspondent, walked after them to a point of vantage, where a glorious prospect of chalky fields, wooded hills and narrow valleys opened before us. The weather was cold and wet, but that did not dim the spirits of the followers, who included small children who rejoiced to stump along in the mud. Rob Truscott, Kennel Huntsman at the Kimblewick, who is from Hull, said he was first taken hunting on a pony by his mother when he was four.

Two quad bikes swept past, red kites sailed to and fro above us, and a dozen deer crossed a distant field in single file. Someone recalled a hunt saboteur who had berated them for bringing children to see foxes being ripped to pieces.

A child replied: Im enjoying myself. Leave us alone.

And that in a nutshell is what other followers said too, when asked what they thought about Theresa Mays announcement that she will not hold the vote on the repeal of the Hunting Act which had been promised in the Tory Manifesto. They feel, as one of them said, that they are making the best of a bad job, that the attention of an uncomprehending world will only make matters worse, that the Government just now has quite enough to attend to with Brexit, and that to engage in recriminations at the Prime Ministers expense would be futile.

In the depths of the country, politics are less frenetic than at Westminster and judgments calmer, which is perhaps one reason why the Conservatives poll ratings are so far from disastrous.

Sallis himself remarked of Mays announcement before moving off: Its not a surprise. The mathematics dont add up. I think its disappointing it had to be made so public. None of us expected it after the disappointment with the general election in the summer.

He added that in the current situation itll be a challenge to motivate the vast army of hunt supporters who helped at recent elections to campaign for pro-hunting candidates in marginal seats, voluntary work with which he himself was involved in 2010 and 2015 as the South-East Director of Vote-OK.

Were all living in the Corbyn Peoples Republic, someone said.

Not yet, ConHome objected.

Some people think they do, Sallis said. The Conservatives need to get ahead of the curve rather than behind.

How? ConHome asked.

Ive got absolutely no idea, he replied with a wry smile.

Jackie Howard-Jones, South Oxfordshire Secretary of the Kimblewick, said: We want to try to get the law changed. But with Theresa May it doesnt look very likely.

Her son Harry, who is studying land management at Reading University, suggested of May: She pandered slightly to the young vote.

He observed that among students, Nobody who has a non-rural background is pro-foxhunting. Social media are still really violently against fox-hunting. And theres not much you can do about it. Ive tried, I had great debates with my house-mates.

Guy Portwin, who lives locally and drove me from Princes Risborough station to the meet, is a Director of the Countryside Alliance and said of Mays decision not to hold a vote: It was pretty obvious. I never thought we should have pushed for repeal when there wasnt a large majority. Its such an emotive subject for socialists and some liberals. The fact that there were nine Conservatives saying theyd vote against us, it was a no-brainer.

The mood among hunt followers was realistic rather than bitter. They do not want to pick a parliamentary battle which would be lost. These remarks were made before Labour called for a ban on trail hunting, in which hounds follow a pre-laid scent, which was what the Kimblewick was doing on Tuesday.

Several people said Labour is motivated much more by hatred of toffs than love of foxes. Foot followers come from all walks of life (a point I made at length some years ago in a piece for The Daily Telegraph), and as one of them put it: Thats the trouble with the antis. Its more a class thing for them. And now theres so many youngsters going vegan.

Christopher Harbord, aged 73 and retired from running his own business, said: I think the great mistake is to fight the battle on animal rights. We should fight it on culture. My children feel very strongly their culture has been taken away from them. My daughter is a university tutor, and she always makes sure shes got a nice calendar in the office from the Devon and Somerset Staghounds. You mustnt be frightened.

The French just say its a bit of our culture and thats the end of it. Mind you, theyve loads of rules about hunting, but at least you know where you are.

We saw hounds working their way down the side of a wood, and some time later riders in the distance almost on the skyline and not far short of the M40, but at length there was nothing to be seen, and Harbord kindly offered me a lift in his car. In our hunt for the hunt, we saw Fingest Church, with its amazing Norman tower, passed close to Hells Corner Farm, where Barbara Castle, fiery Labour politician and strong opponent of fox hunting, once lived, and caught up with hounds and riders on the edge of the Getty estate at Wormsley.

Harbord, who had followed the hunt first on foot, then for 15 years on a horse, and now mainly by car, said of the political situation: I thought wed given up on the Conservatives. Theyve given up on us. Because theyre not Conservative.

And yet this day with the Kimblewick was not depressing. It is invigorating and refreshing to be out in wonderful country with people who love their sport so much and who are so free and resourceful yet also so ordered. They keep up one of our greatest traditions, immortalised on the signs of innumerable pubs and in the novels of Surtees, and can say, with Mr Jorrocks:MORRISBURG, Ontario  Two companies were convicted of violating the Environmental Protection Act (EPA). Morrisburg Terminal Inc. (MTI) and Les Terminaux Rideau Bulk Terminals Inc. (RBTI) were accused of dumping salt in the environment.

According to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC), MTI owns a wharf on Concession 1 in Morrisburg that is operated by RBTI that is used for unloading bulk salt shipments from cargo vessels.

On Oct. 5, 2015, ministry staff received two complaints from residents adjacent to the site, a statement from the MOECC reads. They complained that on Oct. 3 and 4, 2015, a high wind event caused an uncovered salt pile stored outdoors at the site to blow off and impact their properties. One resident witnessed a salt plume coming off the salt piles at the site and onto her property.

The MOECC goes on to state that after a brief investigation by ministry staff, the ministry referred the case to the MOECCs Investigations and Enforcement Branch who laid charges against the two companies and obtained convictions.

On Feb. 13, 2018, RBTI was convicted of one offence under the EPA and was fined $55,000 plus a Victim Fine Surcharge (VFS) of $13,750 and was given 12 months to pay the fine.

MTI was also convicted of one offence under the EPA and was given a suspended sentence.AKWESASNE  On Friday, Jan. 19, 2018, the Hogansburg-Akwesasne Volunteer Fire Department (HAVFD) and the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service (AMPS) were dispatched to a fire in one of the locker rooms at Anowarakowa Arena located in Phillip Hopps Memorial Rd. Kawehn:ke, Cornwall Island.

There was smoke and soot throughout most of the arena that will take several weeks to months to repair. However, the building was thankfully evacuated safely, and fire and crew members acted quickly to contain the fire.

The Mohawk Council of Akwesasne (MCA) unfortunately announced that the Anowarakowa Arena will be closed until further notice.

We are extremely grateful that those inside the building were quickly evacuated and no injuries occurred, said Grand Chief Abram Benedict.

We are also very appreciative of the quick response of both local and surrounding first responders who helped to ensure the fire was contained quickly, ultimately saving the arena from irreparable damage. Our partnerships and working relationships with these agencies is vital to the safety of our community members and buildings.

The MCA wishes to thank the fire department, MCAs Dept. of Technical Sevices staff, Hogansburg-Akwesasne Volunteer Fire Department and AMPS as well as, Akwesasne Mohawk Ambulance, Bombay Fire Department, Fort Covington Fire Department and Cornwall City Fire Department for responding to the fire.

AMPS believe they have a lead on this traumatic fire and have identified a person of interest. The fire is deemed to be suspicious and the investigation is ongoing.

Akwesasne Police are continuing to ask members of the public who have information about the January 19, 2018 fire to please contact them at 613-575-2000 or Crime Stoppers at 613-575-2255.While a massive patching effort is underway to protect servers and PCs against the Spectre and Meltdown processor vulnerabilities, mobile devices containing business data pose a significant risk that few enterprises are focusing on, according to enterprise mobility specialists.

"Most organisations simply have not considered the mobile aspect," said Jason Holloway, managing director at Bridgeway Security Solutions, a solution provider based in Cambridge, U.K., that has analysed smartphone and tablet patch data. "A few are waking up to that and starting to conduct internal audits to appreciate the scale of the risk. Very few have begun the process of mandating the updates and pushing those through."

[Related: Microsoft Updates Windows Analytics To Aid Spectre And Meltdown Response]

Based on Bridgeway's research, which includes multinational companies along with many organizations in Europe, only about 14 percent of enterprise mobile devices have been patched against Spectre and Meltdown  up from 4 percent a month ago.

"I would postulate that a similar issue is probably occurring across the world," Holloway told CRN. "The mindset of the IT department perhaps hasn't quite caught on readily to the risk when it comes to these devices. Traditional laptops, desktops and servers have so far been prioritized in terms of applying the patches, and being able to measure the exact impact and risk that these attacks provide."

At mobile device management vendor MobileIron, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer Ojas Rege said he agreed with the assessment.

"These kinds of processor vulnerabilities, they don't care about form factors," Rege told CRN. "Most phones should be patched, but I bet they're not."

In a CRN poll, meanwhile, just 42 percent of respondents said that customers have completed all Spectre and Meltdown updates available to date. CRN conducted the online poll of 190 members of the CRN Channel Intelligence Council, a panel of solution providers representing the broad channel ecosystem in North America.

In terms of mobile devices, part of the issue is that many IT departments don't have a handle on what devices contain corporate data and what operating systems are being run on them, he said.

"Where enterprises are at a big risk is if they don't have visibility into what devices their employees are using," Rege said. "There are more than half a billion smartphones with business data on them, and less than 20 percent of those today have a solution like MobileIron.

"Over 80 or 90 percent of the devices out there with business data are just kind of floating around, and IT has no visibility into the operating system and the patches," Rege said. "There's no ability to secure against these kind of vulnerabilities. That's a big risk."

Holloway said another issue is that many mobile devices used for mission-critical functions have mostly outlived their life expectancy and can't even be updated with security patches against Spectre and Meltdown. He estimated that 25 percent of enterprise mobile devices might be "unpatchable" against the processor vulnerabilities.

"We're seeing a growing realization that many of the devices that are currently being used or mission-critical apps and service delivery are fundamentally unable to be patched, and have to be physically replaced in order to mitigate this risk," Holloway said.

In the case of one Bridgeway customer, a hospital that uses iOS devices to collect crucial patient data, upgrading to the latest operating system is not supported because of the age of the devices, he said. "The only options are either to accept that risk, or to invest in new devices," Holloway said.

Patching Android devices poses a particular complication because "patches might come from different sources," and because devices running operating system versions prior to Android 6.0 are not eligible for monthly security updates, Rege said.

"If you have older Android devices you're going to have more risk attached to those devices," he said.

Solutions such as MobileIron enable IT professionals to see what operating system versions and patches exist on mobile devices in the enterprise, Rege said.

The situation also creates opportunities for solution providers to provide value to customers.

"These kinds of vulnerabilities provide guys like us the ability to assist our clients in becoming the trusted advisor to their mobile enterprise," said Paul Troisi, chief customer officer at Peabody, Mass.-based Troy Mobility. "I think the challenge that many enterprises face is the balance between usability of applications that may not be ready for the newest OS version, in lieu of assuring their devices are running the recent patch or version to assure any vulnerabilities are negated."

The Spectre and Meltdown processor exploits were revealed at the beginning of January. The vulnerabilities affect chips from multiple vendors, including Intel, AMD and ARM.

The flaws account for three variants of a side-channel analysis security issue in server and PC processors, and could potentially enable hackers to access protected data.

While Intel continues to work on software mitigations for the vulnerabilities, the company has acknowledged that it will take a hardware fix to fully solve the issue for its processors, which is expected to be available toward the end of 2018.

In the CRN poll, solution providers ranked the vendor responses to the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerability issue on a scale of one to five, with five being the top mark, or "excellent." Sixty-two percent of respondents that use Google gave the vendor a rating of four or five, while 54 percent of Apple-using respondents gave the same ratings to Apple.Cisco Systems plans to bring some $67 billion in cash back to the United States as a result of the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and has plans to pump the lion's share of it into dividends and share buybacks for shareholders.



Cisco Chairman and CEO Chuck Robbins said the bringing the cash home from overseas would have little impact on the San Jose, Calif., company's mergers and acquisitions strategy.



"Cash outside the U.S. had no impact on our ability to do M&A," Robbins said in response to a question during a conference call with Wall Street analysts Wednesday to discuss the company's second quarter results. "We continue to look for M&A targets that line up with what we're trying to do strategically. It's about the strategic fit. We've kept plenty of powder dry, and we have the ability to take on debt if necessary."



[Related: Cisco Completes Blockbuster $1.9B BroadSoft Acquisition]



CFO Kelly Kramer said the repatriated cash would fuel a $25 billion increase to Cisco's share repurchase program, and would be used over the next 18 to 24 months. Kramer also said the company is "very pleased" with the tax rate reduction Cisco realizes. The company's tax rate now stands at about 20 percent, Kramer said.

"We're going to be consistent," Kramer said. "We're going to be continuing to look for acquisitions that drive value and drive growth with. We're going to give back cash, drive dividends. We're going to be giving back through a healthy buyback."



Kent MacDonald, vice president at Long View Systems, a Calgary, Canada, solution provider that works with Cisco said he wouldn't be surprised to see Cisco make a major acquisition in the coming year, regardless of the cash stockpile the company plans to bring stateside.



"They could look at a storage partner like NetApp or Pure," MacDonald said. "Storage would complement the data center play, as well as the software model. It would simplify the world. It wouldn't be without its trials and tribulations. It would be a challenge to maintain those ecosystem partners if they made that move. Some partners would align very well, but other would find it challenging."



Dan Serpico, CEO of FusionStorm, a San Francisco, Calif., solution provider that works with Cisco said he expects the lower corporate tax rate and ability to repatriate cash to help Cisco drive innovation across its portfolio. "There are a number of very nice features, aside from simply lowering the tax rate," Serpico said. "Things like accelerated depreciation on infrastructure purchases and incentives to bring cash back, from overseas, and the overall tax cut, are reasons to believe that investments in technology will be positively affected. I see no reason why Cisco wouldnt enjoy as much of a lift, from this, as anyone else."



Cisco shares surged 6 percent to $44.61 in after-hours trading Wednesday, its highest level since late 2000, after the company reported second-quarter revenue of $11.9 billion, compared to $11.6 billion in the same period a year ago and halting six consecutive quarters of revenue declines.

The revenue figure beat Cisco's guidance, as well as Wall Street's expectations, and lent some black-and-white support for Robbins strategy to transform the legacy networking giant into a software and applications powerhouse that relies on subscription revenue for a greater share of its growth. Kramer said recurring revenue accounted for about a third of Cisco's sales during the quarter. Recurring revenue accounted for about six percent of sales less than three years ago.What is threat modeling?

Threat modeling, according to OWASP, is a structured approach for identifying, quantifying and addressing the security risks associated with an application. It essentially involves thinking strategically about threats when building or deploying a system so proper controls for preventing or mitigating threats can be implemented earlier in the application lifecycle.

Threat modeling as a concept certainly isn't new, but few organizations have implemented it in a meaningful way. Best practices for threat models are still emerging says Archie Agarwal, founder and CEO of ThreatModeler Software. "The biggest problem is a lack of understanding of what threat modeling is all about," he says. There are multiple ways to do threat modeling and companies often can run into trouble figuring out how to look at it as a process and how to scale it. "There is still a lack of clarity around the whole thing."

Here, according to Agarwal and others, are seven mistakes you are likely making when doing threat modeling:

1. Being too application centric

One of the most common mistakes that organizations make when building a threat model is to focus only on the application itself, Agarwal says. With threat modeling you should try to understand the overall landscape and not just a single application in isolation, he says.

Consider the infrastructure, the database, shared components, third-party interactions and the deployment environment. Threats can vary based on whether an application is on-premises or is running in the cloud or can be accessed by mobile devices and other computing endpoints.

If you are moving to the cloud, you need a threat model for the cloud. Will your applications and data run on a dedicated infrastructure or shared servers and databases? It's critical to remember that when threat modeling, you need to look not just at the application but everything that touches it, Agarwal says. Developers need to think about some fixes when building an application and the operations they need to handle when the application is deployed.

2. Focusing on the vulnerabilities and not the threats

One mistake organizations can make is to focus too much on the vulnerabilities and not enough on threats, says Pete Lindstrom, an analyst with IDC. It's certainly important to look at your data flow and control flow and know what vulnerabilities might exist in your apps. In addition, you need to look at threats more explicitly and identify inputs and output where you might be at risk. You need to think about all the opportunities for an attacker to thwart your controls to affect the confidentiality, integrity, availability, productivity, and the proprietary nature of your data.

"Right now we are talking about Meltdown and Spectre being attacks against confidentiality," Lindstrom says. "But what about integrity or availability? Are there ways for attackers to manipulate those memory tables or insert data?" Just because you have controls against a specific exploit doesn't mean an attacker won't find new ways of taking advantage of a flaw.

3. Focusing too much on the threat of the day

Don't rush after the latest threats or pay too much attention to specific threat actors or types of actors when building threat models, says John Pescatore, director of emerging security trends at the SANS Institute. Ransomware and cryptomining software might present the biggest current threats to your security. Rather than modeling specifically against these threats, focus instead on controls for mitigating any threat to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of your systems.

Similarly, it doesn't really matter if the threats against you are coming from Chinese, Russian, or Serbian actors, Pescatore says. The focus on attribution and state-sponsored hackers and criminal gangs is less important that knowing how to protect against the threats they represent. "Being told that Chinese actors are coming after you is less important than knowing what to do about it."

Your focus should be on building repeatable processes so every time something changes you are prepared for it. The key is having a standard process or methodology that is done the same way each way time, regardless of the newness of a threat. You need to know what it is you are trying to protect and begin from there, Pescatore says.

4. Mistaking threat mapping for threat modeling

If your idea of building a threat model is working off a list of threats and seeing if your app has any of them, all you are doing is threat mapping, Agarwal says. "Let's say you have an online banking application and you ask a set of questions like 'are you using Flash?' or 'are you using Java?' or 'are you doing authentication?'," Agarwal says. What you are doing here is not threat modeling because you really have no context around the threats. You don't know how you are using Flash or where you are using it.

Similarly, just because you have a database doesn't automatically mean you have to worry about SQL injection as an attack vector. SQL injection becomes a potential concern only if you also have a web app that accepts input from an external source. This kind of nuance is easy to miss when you take a checklist approach to assessing threats, Agarwal says.

To build a proper threat model, an architecture diagram is critical. It should show you the database, the web server, the operating system layer, and the infrastructure on which the app will be running and through which it is accessed. It should show where all the data and the communication are flowing, where the entry points are, and what sort of input is coming from those entry points. An architecture diagram shows you the big picture and also the edge cases, Agarwal says.

5. Not bringing the user into the threat model

There's such a thing as focusing too much on how an adversary might attack your code and not enough on other ways they can get at your applications and data. "It's a really good idea to threat model how bad guys attack code," Pescatore says. "But protection against a phishing attack is not something you can build into the application."

You need to bring the user into the threat model and consider the different ways that user actions can impact security. You need to look at things like privilege management and roles based access. You need to consider potential threats when users access the application in the cloud or via a mobile app that might be part of a bigger e-commerce scheme, Pescatore said.

6. Taking a once and done approach to threat modeling

A threat model cannot be static. You can't take a critical application, do a threat model on it once, and assume you are done, Agarwal cautions. If your organization is like most, continuous development activity is going on. As your application changes, its threat profile does as well. That means your current threat model will be obsolete in three months. "Your threat model should be a living document," Agarwal says. "You cannot just build a threat model and forget about it. Your applications are alive."

7. Not taking into account how your systems impact others

When building a threat model it's a good idea to consider how digitally trustworthy you are. Once you have accounted for all the threats you face and figured out controls or mitigations for them, look at how your organization's systems might potentially impact others that come in touch with them.

You need to pay attention to how your outputs might affect the security posture of others, Lindstrom says. "You could, for example, be housing a black market site or someone could be squatting on your domains or bouncing DDoS packets off your IoT systems." You might not accept ad blockers, but what happens if a malicious ad on your site infects customer systems? As you put stuff online, it's your responsibility for keeping them clean so downstream uses don't get impacted from using your systems. Such diligence needs to be part of your threat modeling, both from a digital trustworthiness and liability standpoint, Lindstrom says.

As part of the threat modeling exercise, make sure you understand the risks associated with open source software and third-party components, not just to your organization but downstream users of your services as well. If you are offering mashups for instance, you need to be thinking about how your data or services might impact some one else's outputs. "If someone else is relying on GPS data coming from you, you need to be thinking about the integrity and reliability of that data," Lindstrom notes.DANBURY - Peter P.J. Prunty will have to think outside the CityCenter box.

Prunty, who has served as director of CityCenter Danbury for the last two and a half years, has been named as president and CEO of the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce. Prunty will wrap up his duties at CityCenter by March 2 and assume his new role on March 5.

Its truly an honor and Im humbled the board selected me to take the chamber into the future, Prunty said. Im grateful for this opportunity. The chamber is an institution in this city.

The Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce has more than 800 members, which employ about 100,000 people. It serves Danbury and the surrounding communities.

CityCenter Danbury, which has 190 property owners as members, is a public entity dedicated to the revitalization of the citys downtown area.

I see a lot of natural synergy between CityCenter and the chamber of commerce, he said. There is a lot we can do in regards to collaborative initiatives. Im not moving out West. Ill still be involved with what happens downtown.

The chamber office is in downtown Danbury.

Prunty replaces Stephen Bull, who served as the organizations president for 20 years before being let go by the board last fall. JoAnn Cueva has served as acting president since last October.

The staff has done a tremendous job in this transition period, Prunty said. I look forward to continuing the great work the chamber has done.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton praised the work Prunty did at CityCenter Danbury and expressed confidence in his ability to run the chamber. Under Prunty, CityCenter initiated a street fair, a seasonal weekly Downtown Chow-Down and aesthetic improvements to Main Street. Several new businesses have opened in downtown over the last two years as well.

Im happy to see a Danbury guy move up through the ranks, Boughton said.

Prunty was born and raised in Danbury and attended the citys public schools. He graduated from Hartwick College and earning a masters degree from Marist College in public administration with a concentration in ethical leadership.

Prunty is a board member for the Danbury & New Milford Hospital Foundation, Regional YMCA of Western Connecticut and United Way of Western Connecticut Community Council. He lives in Danbury with his wife and son.

We believe that (Pruntys) local roots, work experience, and education will be tremendous assets to the chamber and its members, James Arconti, chairman of the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, said.

Arconti also thanked Cueva and Amelia Anderson, director of office operations at the chamber, for their dedication and commitment to our chamber members during the transition period.

Prunty, who will turn 30 next month, is ready for people to question whether he is old enough for the demanding and high-profile position. He said he faced the same scrutiny when he was named the CityCenter director in 2015.

With my work ethic, Ive been able to offset some of those concerns, Prunty said. Im a consensus-builder. I want everyone to have a seat at the table.

Prunty said he will begin his tenure with a listening tour of current and potential chamber members to hear their thoughts and concerns about the local business community.

Danbury is seen as a bright spot in an otherwise slow-to-recover state economy. It has the lowest unemployment rate of any city in the state and is regarded as having a business-friendly environment.

Over the last several years, through the leadership of the chamber of commerce and mayors office, weve seen businesses flourish here, Prunty said. There is a great, diverse group of industries that have set a high standard, but its always good to strive to improve and enhance the business community. That will be our challenge.

The writer may be reached at cbosak@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3338A funny thing about interviewing people based on recipes theyve submitted to this website is that you never know who youre going to be talking to. When I reached out to Rhonda Thomson, a.k.a. Rhonda35, about her recipe for Spaghetti with Fried Eggs and Pangratatto for One, I really only knew a handful of things about her.

1. She was the author of a truly extraordinary recipe that prizes the rare pleasure of eating alone, so I suspected she was a lovely person. (Was I jumping to conclusions? Maybe. Was I wrong? Read on to find out.)

2. Her recipe headnote and instructions (including the bit about pouring yourself a glass of wine at the end) were written with a capable humanity, so I guessed she had quite a bit of experience in a home kitchen.

3. Her husband was in the Air Force when she developed this recipe, and she has a sister named Amanda.

Thank you, Rhonda! Photo by Ren Fuller

After speaking with Rhonda at 11:00 at nightshes a night owlI learned that I was correct about my first assumption. Rhonda is lovely; so lovely, in fact, that even though she was thousands of miles away in Colorado, I felt as if we were in the same room. She was funny and articulate, and before I knew it, I found myself talking about my grandmother and what Id made for dinner that night (a cauliflower curry from Meera Sodha, if you must know), as though we were old pals.

I was also correct about my second assumption: She has experience cooking. We have a long line of good cooks in our family, she told me.

My grandmother, whos 101, lived through the Great Depression, and I have a lot of memories of her looking around the house and saying, I have this much bread and this much milk and an egg and a tomato...okay, I can serve 8 people. She had a real kind of creativeness with whats available, and we inherited that.

When her sister Amanda was living in France and writing a cookbook, she turned to Rhonda to help her test the recipes. Id get these airmailed manila packets full of these recipes that shed typed out, and Id test the recipes, she said. Aside from the experience of helping someone that I really cared about and doing what I could for her, it was the first time I ever cooked all the way through a cookbookand boy did I become a better cook. She learned new techniquesboth in cooking and recipe writingand after the project with her sister, she went on to help with special projects for the National Chicken Council.

Rhonda lived with her husband in England while he was deployed in the Air Force; that's when the inspiration for this recipe struck. I was eating it a lot because it was really comforting, she told me. I was missing my husband and worried about him because he was at warwell, it wasnt called a war, it was called a conflict, but he was being shot at. She was emailing her sister about this dish she was making and tweaking and loving, this pasta with soft bits of egg and crispy, seasoned breadcrumbs. Amanda called me one night and I was totally being rude, eating while talking to her. She goes, Rhonda, are you eating that spaghetti again? Youve had that every night for 2 weeks; youre going to have a coronary! Rhonda laughed. What could her sister possibly know? Was Amanda some sort of cooking expert? Some kind of recipe authority? Had she authored numerous cookbooks or co-founded a website like, say, Food52? Yes. I had walked into a conversation about cooking with Amanda Hessers sister. But Rhonda (and her recipe) are so much more than that.

Sarah Whitman-Salkin: You posted this recipe in 2010. When was the last time you made this dish?

Rhonda Thomson: 2010? Wow! At that point, Id been making it for about a decade, so now Im feeling a little old. The last time I made it was about three weeks ago. My husband and son, both bolognese fans, do not crave this pasta dish as much as I do, so I tend to make it when I am eating alone, just as I did back in the late 90s. Before that, the last time I made this was in the Food52 kitchen in the fall of 2016. I was visiting my sister at the Food52 office and she casually mentioned we were going to cook my recipe and make a Facebook Live video. I was a bit panicked, definitely fiddled with the breadcrumbs too much, and have no idea if the viewers learned anything new or not. I hope they did. I know I learned something very important: When it comes to the internet, never read the comments!

SWS: In the headnote, you mention that you tweaked Arthur Schwartz's recipe to fit your own tastes. What were some of the tweaks you made?

RT: Its been close to 20 years, so I had to pull Naples at Table off the shelf to refresh my memory. The page was marked with a 5000 lire note, which made me feel semi-cosmopolitan for a moment. My version uses less fat, more garlic, and has the additions of Italian parsley and capers. Also, Schwartzs recipe doesnt use any pangrattato. It's perfect as a finish for roasted fish or vegetables, too.

SWS: What changes have you continued to make to this recipe over the years?

RT: Sometimes I change up the herbs in the pangrattato, add some crisped pancetta, or substitute minced preserved lemon rind for the capers. It really depends on what I have on hand.

SWS: Lots of commenters mentioned adding in all sorts of other ingredients, from golden raisins to walnuts to greens to anchovies. Have you ever tried any of these variations?

RT: Yes, there have been so many great suggestions! I love Hilarybees idea to add greensso good!and I especially like adding anchovy paste along with the garlic when Im using greens. Ive also tried golden raisins and crushed red pepper flakes and I like the contrast between the sweet and the heat. I have not tried adding walnuts, but I do like that idea and really need to give it a go. And I have to give a shout-out to Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen who features her version of the recipe in her latest book, Smitten Kitchen Every Day. She adds heat to the pangratatto with red pepper flakes and crisps the eggs, serving them on top of each portion instead of mixing them into the pasta. They seem like such small changes, but they solidly make it her own.

SWS: Your recipe is for a single serving. Have you ever made it for a crowd? Does that change the preparation method at all?

RT: I have not made it for a crowd. Four people has been my max. It gets to be a lot of eggs. I use two frying pans and, for me, it transforms from an easy, no-thought-needed recipe to a precarious balancing act as I try to fry all those eggs without under- or over-cooking them. Someone else might find it easy to increase the servings for this recipe, but it just throws off my rhythm.

SWS: What about this dish is most comforting to you? What's your favorite element of the dish?

RT: Oh, its 100% the eggs! Eggs are the ultimate comfort food for me and a healthy egg-laying chicken would be one of my desert island must-haves. What I especially love about this recipe is how it takes simple pantry ingredients and transforms them into something special enough to share with others.

SWS: Any tips for someone making this for the first time?

RT: Make the pangratatto first. In fact, make it ahead of time and store it in your fridge because you are going to want to sprinkle it over many things. Put a bowl or measuring cup under your colander in case you forget to save some of the pasta water (something I have been known to do more than once). Have your frying pan ready to go, but dont start cooking the eggs until about halfway through the pasta cooking time. And, most importantly, pour yourself a glass of wine, put on your favorite tunes, and relaxdelicious as the final result may be, its really just eggs and spaghetti, so chill.

Rhonda's Spaghetti with Fried Eggs and Pangratatto for One

By Rhonda35

Pangratatto 2 tablespoons olive oil

1/3 cup fresh or stale coarse breadcrumbs

2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary leaves

zest from half a lemon Spaghetti and Eggs 4 ounces spaghetti

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley

1 teaspoon small capers, drained

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese

View Full Recipe

What's your go-to recipe for one? Let us know in the comments!BRIDGEPORT  Clearly Police Lt. Stephen Shuck did not want to be at work.

But the 34-year veteran of the Police Department was not averse to collecting his pay and overtime when he was not there, according to his arrest warrant affidavit, obtained Wednesday by Hearst Connecticut Media.

Shuck has a well-established pattern, over a period of more than eight months, of working only a small portion of the time in which he is being paid for, often working just minutes a day, and this equates to well over a $2,000 loss to the city of Bridgeport, the affidavit states.

The 64-year-old Shuck was arrested at his Stratford home Tuesday and charged with first-degree larceny. Police said Shuck turned over an assortment of guns, including several handguns, a shotgun and a couple of rifles.

He was released on a promise to appear in court pending arraignment in Superior Court on Feb. 23. If convicted of the charge, Shuck, who earned $128,972 including $23,737 in overtime in 2017, could be sentenced to 20 years in prison and lose his pension, which at this point would be 75 percent of his pay.

No show job

On Jan. 22, Police Chief Armando Perez ordered an investigation of Shuck based on accusations by co-workers of Shuck in the detective bureau where Shuck served as a supervisor. The chief authorized the use of a GPS tracking device on Shucks car.

Investigators were immediately able to corroborate the accusations - that day Shucks take-home police car was spotted sitting in his driveway from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. when he was supposed to be at work, the affidavit states, according to the affidavit.

The investigation found 11 subsequent incidents in which Shuck was home when he was supposed to be at work.

On Jan. 26, Shuck was off duty but was approved by Capt. Roderick Porter to run the detective bureau operations for the day, which the affidavit states was significant because the chief had ordered an emergency alert due to anticipated street protests.

The demonstrations were expected in response to the release of the state prosecutors decision regarding the Bridgeport police shooting of 15-year-old Jayson Negron. Each police shift was extended to maximize police manpower in the city.

Shuck was paid $900 in overtime to work 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. that day. But the affidavit states that after arriving at the Police Department at 8:17 a.m., Shuck went home 45 minutes later. He returned to work at 4:52 p.m.

On Jan. 30, Shuck was scheduled to work from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., additionally, he accepted overtime work as the detective bureau lieutenant from 4 p.m. to midnight.

At 5:30 p.m. 19-year-old Eric Heard was shot in the head on Price Street. Heard would later die from his wound. As the highest ranking detective bureau supervisor on duty, Shuck was in charge of the investigation.

Earlier in the day Shuck had arrived at work at 8:24 a.m., stayed at work 11 minutes before driving home, the affidavit states. He returned to work at 3:14 p.m., left at 4:28 p.m., stopping at several stores before arriving home.

The affidavit states he arrived at the crime scene from home at 5:47 p.m., leaving at 7:08 p.m. for home. He did not return.

At the time he left, detectives had not even begun processing the evidence at the crime scene, the affidavit states.

Shuck was paid $1,007.60 for this days work.

During a 10-day period in June 2017, the affidavit states Shuck earned $4,163.88 in overtime.

During that time he made 57 calls from his department-owned cell phone but 94.7 percent of those calls were made at or near his Stratford home, the affidavit states.

Chief on hot seat

Perez on Wednesday indicated that he will be looking out for other similar abuses of what the chief called a (pay and overtime) system that is based on trustworthiness.

When you get something like this, it would be remiss at the very best of me not to do anything about it, Perez said. Internal Affairs will be looking. I dont want to create a reign of terror. But if you are breaking the law and you are stealing time, get ready, because Im coming after you.

If Perez sounds angry, that is because the chief is under constant pressure to keep costs  particularly overtime  down.

On Monday night, hours before Shucks arrest, Perez was briefing the City Councils Budget Committee on why he expects to run $2 million over his $5.2 million overtime budget when the fiscal year ends June 30.

Perez at that time emphasized that all overtime requests now need to go through him, and any officers who fail to abide by that policy will be punished and potentially fired.

Police overtime has long been a strain on the citys budget before Perez became chief in March, 2016. For an example of just how much officers earn, consider that seventeen of the top 20 highest paid Bridgeport employees last year were cops who earned a combined $892,506 in overtime.

Perez, like top cops before him, is often stuck between the competing pressures of reducing crime and overtime. For example, some of the best paid cops in 2017 were part of special task forces that work long hours but, Perez has argued, keep the city safer.

And not only does the chief get pushback on overtime from the mayor and City Council, but from the men and women under his command. State labor officials are investigating 13 complaints filed last year by Bridgeport cops alleging Perez was too slow to pay out overtime.

Councilman Ernest Newton attended Mondays budget committee meeting. Newton on Wednesday after reading about the allegations against Shuck said that as a member of the councils public safety committee, he was going to call for an independent audit of police overtime.

Ive gotta believe hes not the first one to do it. He just got caught, Newton said. We need an outside, independent person to really look at it. How is it supervised? Whos in charge of overtime? Who says you can have overtime?

Sgt. Chuck Paris, head of the police union, in response to Newton emphasized Shucks offenses are still just allegations.

We feel that our officers work very hard, put in a lot of hours and we have accountability within this department, Paris said. I think this is a single issue that was brought to the chiefs attention. Were very confident in our men and women who work here that if they are putting in the time, that theyre doing the work.

Perez said he understood Newtons concerns.

My job is to watch the store, and I am, the chief said. People pay a lot of taxes. This is a poor city. A city of working people. And they deserve better.Two people were in federal custody Wednesday, and a third person was recovering from injuries after authorities said the driver of a rented sport utility vehicle tried to enter a secured area of the top-secret National Security Agency.

Authorities quickly concluded the incident was not terrorism. In late afternoon, an FBI spokesman said one theory being investigated is whether the driver mistakenly turned onto a restricted parkway exit and panicked when he saw heavily armed police.

"Until we complete all the interviews, we just can't say definitively," said David Fitz, the spokesman.

Other aspects of the inquiry were either not divulged or not yet known, including who fired gunshots into the SUV's windshield and how the vehicle crashed into a concrete barrier and wound up facing oncoming traffic headed into a parking lot.

Authorities said they do not believe any of the people injured were struck by bullets. In addition to the hospitalized driver, whose condition officials did not reveal, an NSA police officer and a bystander were hurt, although not seriously.

Those injuries occurred shortly before 7 a.m. during the final confrontation at a visitors gate to the sprawling listening post on Fort George G. Meade, off the Baltimore Washington Parkway and Md. Route 32. Television images showed a black SUV with bullet holes in its windshield.

Gordon Johnson, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Baltimore field office, said that "preliminarily, gunfire was directed at the vehicle." He declined to say whether any NSA police officers fired at the SUV. Fitz said authorities ran the names of the three occupants of the SUV through databases and came up with no link to terrorism.

Johnson said agents were in the process of interviewing the occupants and searching the SUV. "This is part of our investigation, to understand what happened here today," he said. "We are trying to talk to them to find out why they were here."

It is not uncommon for motorists to take an exit in error from the Parkway and end up at the NSA. A brown sign at the exit, similar to those used to mark national parks, says "NSA" and has an arrow pointing up the ramp to the site. Below the "NSA", in large type, the sign states "Restricted Entrance."

Most drivers who wrongly take the exit are turned back by heavily armed police. In March 2015, a 27-year-old man died after the stolen SUV he was in crashed outside the NSA. Ricky S. Hall was one of two men that police fired on as vehicle he was in hit a police cruiser before he made it on to the NSA campus.

Officials in that incident said the driver may have mistakenly taken a restricted exit to an NSA security post and ignored police orders to stop, possibly because there were drugs inside the SUV and they had just left a motel and the vehicle's owner, who had picked them up in Baltimore for an overnight tryst.

Johnson told reporters that the origins of Wednesday's incident remain unclear. The vehicle was pointed against the direction of traffic flow into an entry gate lined with vehicles waiting clearance to reach the parking lot. The SUV abutted a fence after crashing into a white concrete Jersey barrier - labeled "NSA" - that had been knocked askew by several feet.

It appeared from television video that the passenger-side air bag in the SUV had deployed,and several bullet holes were in the windshield. Fitz, the FBI spokesman, said the SUV "came on campus and tried to leave."

At least one person was seen in handcuffs shortly after the incident ended.

---

The Washington Post's Ellen Nakashima contributed to this report.NEW HAVEN  Southern Connecticut State University President Joe Bertolino has repeated his intention to commit the university to the principles and tenets of social justice since being hired about two years ago.

Following an incident at the university last week in which Eric Triffin, a white adjunct faculty member, allegedly sang a racial slur in class, the framework of that social justice university is being tested prominently for the first time in Bertolinos tenure.

Student leaders with SCSUs Black Student Union held a rally Wednesday afternoon, with about 150 students, faculty and administration marching about half the length of the campus before giving the community a space to air their thoughts, grievances and concerns individually.

Our students feel comfortable enough to speak up and confront issues head-on, Bertolino said. It allows truth to be expressed, and we have all come together to say this is not OK.

Bertolino reemphasized that the cavalier use of a racial slur is impermissible.

SCSU spokesman Patrick Dilger said the incident remains under investigation and Triffin on paid suspension.

Although Triffins alleged use of a racial slur made headlines, locally and nationally, students used the rally to share unseen stories of an often hostile racial campus climate.

More News SCSU adjunct faculty member suspended after a racial slur in...

Katia Bagwell, a sophomore and vice president of the BSU, said in the year since she transferred from the University of New Haven, shes encountered three racial incidents, including her work supervisor remarking on the number of black students employed by the schools library.

We are all aware a lot of people are unaware of whats going on, she said.

Eric Clinton, president of the BSU, said the theme of the march would be solidarity.

If it happened to you, it happened to me, he said.

Several individuals who spoke did so representing other campus groups and communities, including Zain Seyan, president of the Muslim Student Association.

Im proud of our diversity, he said, but the communication skills on campus could use work. We need to do more face-to-face conversations.

Julie Gagliardi, president of the student government, told the faculty that students need help and support.

Some members of the faculty also spoke on the issue following the march, supporting students and their safety.

Siobhan Carter-David, assistant professor of history and co-adviser to the BSU, said she knows the black faculty supports students.

We do not think you should pay for the right of being insulted in class. We have your backs 100 percent, she said.

Another recurring theme through about one hour of speakers was the need for conversation, no matter how uncomfortable it is.

Justin Farmer, a Hamden city councilman and a part-time student at SCSU, said a traditional jail and bail fundraiser at the school for several campus organizations was quietly discarded, but there had not been any campus-wide discussion on the reason for its disappearance: its uncomfortable parallels with the prison industrial complex and its intersection with racist policing.

Farmer also said any movement needed to be intentional with its work, and the focus during Black History Month should be on the history of radical movements but also the future.

Before the march, Steven White, the student who confronted Triffin on his discomfort with his use of a racial slur, called the rally a beautiful thing, acknowledging that the ensuing conversations would be uncomfortable, but necessary.

White said he chose to apologize to Triffin because he felt he did not express himself in the right way, although he was resolute that there were problems on campus in need of addressing.

For the majority of the march, Clinton led a chant of no justice, no peace. When asked by a student what justice and peace would look like, Clinton said it would involve making demands of the administration and not relenting until those demands are met.

Bertolino said he expected no less of the students.

Just because we have degrees and are in charge of stuff, it doesnt mean were all smart. We have to keep learning, he said. Keep our feet to the fire, but dont burn down the house.

brian.zahn@hearstmediact.comInvestigations into Northeast nursing homes ongoing as COVID deaths rise

State and federal investigations are ongoing into COVID-19 outbreaks at nursing homes in NY, NJ and PA. What we know about push for accountability.BASF SE operates as a chemical company worldwide. It operates through six segments: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care, and Agricultural Solutions. The Chemicals segment provides petrochemicals and intermediates. The Materials segment offers advanced materials and their precursors for applications and systems, such as isocyanates and polyamides, as well as inorganic basic products and specialties for plastic and plastic processing industries. The Industrial Solutions segment develops and markets ingredients and additives for industrial applications, such as polymer dispersions, pigments, resins, electronic materials, antioxidants, light stabilizers, oilfield chemicals, mineral processing, and hydrometallurgical chemicals. The Surface Technologies segment offers chemical solutions and automotive OEM which include refinish coatings, surface treatment, catalysts, battery materials, and base metal services for the automotive and chemical industries. The Nutrition & Care segment provides nutrition and care ingredients for food and feed producers, as well as pharmaceutical, cosmetics, detergent, and cleaner industries. The Agricultural Solutions segment offers crop protection products and seeds, such as fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, and biological crop production products, as well as seed treatment products. The company has a strategic partnership with IntelliSense.io. BASF SE was founded in 1865 and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of The Western Union: Banco Western Union do Brasil S.A., Coins, Custom House, Custom House (Online) Ltd., Custom House Currency Exchange (Australia) Pty. Limited, Custom House Currency Exchange (Singapore) Pte. Limited, Custom House Financial (UK) Limited, Custom House Financial Ltd., Custom House Holdings (USA) Ltd., Custom House ULC, E Commerce Group Products Inc., First Financial Management Corporation, Global Collection Services S.A., Global Corporate Real Estate Advisors LLC, Grupo Dinamico Empresarial S.A. de C.V., MT (Bermuda) 1 Ltd, MT (Bermuda) 2 Ltd, MT Caribbean Holdings SRL, MT Financial Holdings Ltd., MT Global Holdings Ltd., MT Group Investment Holdings Ltd., MT Group Ltd., MT Holdings (Bermuda) Ltd., MT Holdings Limited, MT Holdings Switzerland GmbH, MT International Holdings Ltd., MT International Operations Partnership, MT International Operations SRL, MT Network Holdings Ltd., MT Payment Services Ltd., MT Payment Services Operations EU/EEA Limited, MT Worldwide Holdings Ltd., Money Transfer Financial Services Limited, Operaciones Internacionales OV S.A. de C.V., Opus Software Technologies Private Limited, PT Western Union Indonesia, Paymap Inc., RII Holdings Inc., Red Global S.A., Ruesch Holding LLC, Ruesch International (Delaware) LLC, Ruesch International L.L.C., Servicio Electronico de Pago S.A., Servicio Integral de Envios S. de R.L. de C.V., Servicios de Apoyo GDE S.A. de C.V., SpeedPay Inc., Speedpay, The Western Union Real Estate Holdings LLC, Transfer Express de Panama S.A., Travelex, Union del Oeste de Costa Rica SRL, Vigo Remittance Canada Company, Vigo Remittance Corp., WU BP Peru S.R.L., WU Technology Engineering Services Private Limited, WUBS Financial Services (Singapore) Pte Limited, WUBS Payments Limited, Western Union (Bermuda) Holding Finance Ltd., Western Union (Hellas) International Holdings S.A., Western Union Acquisition Partnership, Western Union Benelux MT Ltd., Western Union Business Solutions (Australia) Pty Limited, Western Union Business Solutions (Hong Kong) Limited, Western Union Business Solutions (Malta) Limited, Western Union Business Solutions (SA) Limited, Western Union Business Solutions (Singapore) Pte Limited, Western Union Business Solutions (UK) Limited, Western Union Business Solutions (USA) LLC, Western Union Business Solutions Japan KK, Western Union Chile Limitada, Western Union Communications Inc., Western Union Consulting Services (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Western Union Corretora de Cambio S.A., Western Union Financial Holdings L.L.C., Western Union Financial Services (Australia) PTY Ltd., Western Union Financial Services (Canada), Western Union Financial Services (Hong Kong) Limited, Western Union Financial Services (Korea) Inc., Western Union Financial Services (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., Western Union Financial Services Argentina S.R.L., Western Union Financial Services Eastern Europe LLC, Western Union Financial Services GmbH, Western Union Financial Services Inc., Western Union Financial Services International (France) SARL, Western Union GB Limited, Western Union Global Network Pte. Ltd, Western Union Holdings Inc., Western Union International Bank GmbH, Western Union International Holdings LLC, Western Union International Limited, Western Union International Services LLC, Western Union Ireland Holdings Limited, Western Union Ireland Partnership, Western Union Japan K.K., Western Union LLC, Western Union Luxembourg Holdings 1 S.a.r.l., Western Union Luxembourg Holdings 2 S.a.r.l., Western Union Luxembourg Holdings 3 S.a.r.l., Western Union MT (Australia) Pty. Ltd., Western Union MT East Ltd., Western Union Malta Holdings Limited, Western Union Malta Limited, Western Union Morocco SARL, Western Union Network (Canada) Company, Western Union Network (France) SAS, Western Union Network (Ireland) Limited, Western Union Network Belgium SPRL, Western Union Northern Europe GmbH, Western Union Online Limited, Western Union Overseas Limited, Western Union Payment Services (India) Private Limited, Western Union Payment Services GB Limited, Western Union Payment Services Ireland Limited, Western Union Payment Services Network (Canada) ULC, Western Union Payment Services Network EU/EEA Limited, Western Union Payment Services UK Limited, Western Union Payments (Malaysia) SDN. BHD., Western Union Peru S.A., Western Union Processing Limited, Western Union Processing Lithuania UAB, Western Union Processing Services Inc., Western Union Regional Panama S.A., Western Union Retail Services Belgium, Western Union Retail Services GB Limited, Western Union Retail Services Ireland Limited, Western Union Retail Services Italy S.r.l., Western Union Retail Services Norway AS, Western Union Retail Services RO SRL, Western Union Retail Services Spain S.A., Western Union Retail Services Sweden AB, Western Union Services (Philippines) Inc., Western Union Services (Spain) S.L., Western Union Services India Private Limited, Western Union Services S.L., Western Union Services Singapore Private Limited, Western Union Singapore Limited, Western Union South Africa (PTY) Limited, Western Union Support Services (Nigeria) Limited, Western Union Support Services Cote dlvoire, Western Union Turkey Odeme Hizmetleri Anonim Sirketi, Western Union do Brasil Participacoes Limitada, and Western Union do Brasil Servicos e Participacoes Ltda..Wall Street analysts have given VanEck Egypt Index 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 VanEck Egypt Index ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.Bank of Montreal provides diversified financial services primarily in North America. The company's personal banking products and services include checking and savings accounts, credit cards, mortgages, and financial and investment advice services; and commercial banking products and services comprise business deposit accounts, commercial credit cards, business loans and commercial mortgages, cash management solutions, foreign exchange, specialized banking programs, treasury and payment solutions, and risk management products for small business and commercial banking customers. It also offers investment and wealth advisory services; digital investing services; financial services and solutions; and investment management, and trust and custody services to institutional, retail, and high net worth investors. In addition, the company provides life insurance, accident and sickness insurance, and annuity products; creditor and travel insurance to bank customers; and reinsurance solutions. Further, it offers client's debt and equity capital-raising services, as well as loan origination and syndication, balance sheet management, and treasury management; strategic advice on mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and recapitalizations, as well as valuation and fairness opinions; and trade finance, risk mitigation, and other operating services. Additionally, the company provides research and access to markets for institutional, corporate, and retail clients; trading solutions that include debt, foreign exchange, interest rate, credit, equity, securitization and commodities; new product development and origination services, as well as risk management advice and services to hedge against fluctuations; and funding and liquidity management services to its clients. It operates through approximately 1,400 bank branches and 4,800 automated banking machines in Canada and the United States. The company was founded in 1817 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

Read MoreUniFirst Corp. engages in the design, manufacture, personalization, rental, cleaning, delivery, and sale of a range of uniforms and protective clothing. It operates through following segments: U.S. Rental and Cleaning, Canadian Rental and Cleaning, Manufacturing, Specialty Garments Rental and Cleaning, First Aid, and Corporate. The U.S. and Canadian Rental and Cleaning segment purchases, rents, cleans, delivers and sells uniforms and protective clothing and non-garment items in the United States and Canada. The Manufacturing segment designs and manufactures uniforms and non-garment items primarily for the purpose of providing these goods to the U.S. and Canadian Rental and Cleaning reporting segment. The Specialty Garments Rental and Cleaning segment sells specialty garments and non-garment items primarily for nuclear and cleanroom applications and provides cleanroom cleaning services at limited customer locations. The First Aid segment provides first aid cabinet services and other safety supplies as well as maintains wholesale distribution and pill packaging operations. The Corporate segment consists of costs associated with its distribution center, sales and marketing, informatio

Read More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. Ltd., Aetna ACO Holdings Inc., Aetna Asset Advisors LLC, Aetna Behavioral Health LLC, Aetna Better Health Inc., Aetna Better Health Inc., Aetna Better Health of California Inc., Aetna Better Health of Florida Inc., Aetna Better Health of Kansas Inc., Aetna Better Health of Michigan Inc., Aetna Better Health of Missouri LLC, Aetna Better Health of Nevada Inc., Aetna Better Health of North Carolina Inc., Aetna Better Health of Oklahoma Inc., Aetna Better Health of Texas Inc., Aetna Better Health of Washington Inc., Aetna Capital Management LLC, Aetna Card Solutions LLC, Aetna Corporate Services LLC, Aetna Dental Inc., Aetna Dental of California Inc., Aetna Financial Holdings LLC, Aetna Florida Inc., Aetna Global Benefits (Asia Pacific) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Bahamas) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Bermuda) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Europe) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Middle East) LLC, Aetna Global Benefits (Singapore) PTE. LTD., Aetna Global Benefits (UK) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits Limited (DIFC UAE), Aetna Global Holdings Limited, Aetna Health Holdings LLC, Aetna Health Inc., Aetna Health Insurance (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Aetna Health Insurance Company, Aetna Health Insurance Company of Europe DAC, Aetna Health Management LLC, Aetna Health and Life Insurance Company, Aetna Health of California Inc., Aetna Health of Iowa Inc., Aetna Health of Michigan Inc., Aetna Health of Ohio Inc., Aetna Health of Utah Inc., Aetna HealthAssurance Pennsylvania Inc., Aetna Holdco (UK) Limited, Aetna Holdings (Thailand) Limited, Aetna Inc., Aetna Insurance (Hong Kong) Limite, Aetna Insurance (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Aetna Insurance Company Limited, Aetna Integrated Informatics Inc., Aetna International Inc., Aetna Ireland Inc., Aetna Korea Ltd., Aetna Life & Casualty (Bermuda) Ltd., Aetna Life Assignment Company, Aetna Life Insurance Company, Aetna Medicaid Administrators LLC, Aetna Multi-Strategy 1099 Fund LLC, Aetna Network Services LLC, Aetna Partners Diversified Fund LLC, Aetna Pharmacy Management Services LLC, Aetna Resources LLC, Aetna Risk Assurance Company of Connecticut Inc., Aetna Rx Home Delivery LLC, Aetna Services (Thailand) Limited, Aetna Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Aetna Student Health Agency Inc., Aetna Ventures LLC, Aetna Workers Comp Access LLC, Alabama CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Alaska CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Allina Health and Aetna Insurance Company, Allina Health and Aetna Insurance Holding Company LLC, American Continental Insurance Company, American Drug Stores Delaware L.L.C., American Health Holding Inc., Arbor Drugs, Arizona CVS Stores L.L.C., Arkansas CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Badger Acquisition LLC, Badger Acquisition of Kentucky LLC, Badger Acquisition of Minnesota LLC, Badger Acquisition of Ohio LLC, Banner Health and Aetna Health Insurance Company, Banner Health and Aetna Health Insurance Holding Company LLC, Banner Health and Aetna Health Plan Inc., Beauty Holdings L.L.C., Best Care LTC Acquisition Company LLC, Busse CVS L.L.C., CCI Foreign S.a R.L. (R.C.S. Luxembourg), CCRx Holdings LLC, CCRx of North Carolina LLC, CHP Acquisition LLC, CP Acquisition LLC, CVS 2948 Henderson L.L.C., CVS 3268 Gilbert L.L.C., CVS 3745 Peoria L.L.C., CVS AL Distribution L.L.C., CVS AOC Corporation, CVS AOC Services L.L.C., CVS Albany L.L.C., CVS Bellmore Avenue L.L.C., CVS Care Concierge LLC, CVS Caremark Advanced Technology Pharmacy L.L.C., CVS Caremark Indemnity Ltd., CVS Caremark Part D Services L.L.C., CVS Caremark TN SUTA LLC, CVS Foreign Inc., CVS Gilbert 3272 L.L.C., CVS Health Solutions LLC, CVS Indiana L.L.C., CVS International L.L.C., CVS Kidney Care Advanced Technologies LLC, CVS Kidney Care Health Services LLC, CVS Kidney Care Home Dialysis LLC, CVS Kidney Care LLC, CVS Manchester NH L.L.C., CVS Media Exchange LLC, CVS Michigan L.L.C., CVS Orlando FL Distribution L.L.C., CVS PA Distribution L.L.C., CVS PR Center Inc., CVS Pharmacy Inc., CVS RS Arizona L.L.C., CVS Rx Services Inc., CVS SC Distribution L.L.C., CVS State Capital L.L.C., CVS TN Distribution L.L.C., CVS Transportation L.L.C., CVS Vero FL Distribution L.L.C., Campos Medical Pharmacy LLC, Canal Place LLC, Care Pharmaceutical Services LP, CareCenter Pharmacy L.L.C., Carefree Insurance Services Inc., Caremark Arizona Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Arizona Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark California Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Florida Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Florida Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Hawaii Mail Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Hawaii Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark IPA L.L.C., Caremark Illinois Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Illinois Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Irving Resource Center LLC, Caremark Kansas Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark L.L.C., Caremark Logistics LLC, Caremark Louisiana Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Maryland Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Massachusetts Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Michigan Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Minnesota Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark New Jersey Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark North Carolina Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Ohio Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Pennsylvania Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark PhC L.L.C., Caremark Puerto Rico L.L.C., Caremark Puerto Rico Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Redlands Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Repack LLC, Caremark Rx L.L.C., Caremark Tennessee Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Texas Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Texas Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Ulysses Holding Corp., Caremark Washington Specialty Pharmacy LLC, CaremarkPCS Alabama Mail Pharmacy LLC, CaremarkPCS Health L.L.C., CaremarkPCS L.L.C., Central Rx Services LLC, Claims Administration Corp., Cofinity Inc., Compscript LLC, Connecticut CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Continental Life Insurance Company of Brentwood Tennessee, Continuing Care Rx LLC, Coram Alternate Site Services Inc., Coram Clinical Trials Inc., Coram Healthcare Corporation of Alabama, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Florida, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Greater D.C., Coram Healthcare Corporation of Greater New York, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Indiana, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Massachusetts, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Mississippi, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Nevada, Coram Healthcare Corporation of North Texas, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Northern California, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Southern California, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Southern Florida, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Utah, Coram LLC, Coram Rx LLC, Coram Specialty Infusion, Coram Specialty Infusion Services L.L.C., Coventry Consumer Advantage Inc., Coventry Health Care National Accounts Inc., Coventry Health Care National Network Inc., Coventry Health Care Workers Compensation Inc., Coventry Health Care of Illinois Inc., Coventry Health Care of Kansas Inc., Coventry Health Care of Missouri Inc., Coventry Health Care of Nebraska Inc., Coventry Health Care of Virginia Inc., Coventry Health Care of West Virginia Inc., Coventry Health Plan of Florida Inc., Coventry Health and Life Insurance Company, Coventry HealthCare Management Corporation, Coventry Prescription Management Services Inc., Coventry Rehabilitation Services Inc., Coventry Transplant Network Inc., D & R Pharmaceutical Services LLC, D.A.W. LLC, Delaware CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Delaware Physicians Care Incorporated, Digital eHealth LLC, District of Columbia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., E.T.B. INC., Echo Merger Sub Inc., Eckerd Corporation of Florida Inc., Employee Assistance Services LLC, Enloe Drugs LLC, Enterprise Patient Safety Organization LLC, EntrustRX, Evergreen Pharmaceutical LLC, Evergreen Pharmaceutical of California Inc., Express Pharmacy Services of PA L.L.C., FOCUS HealthCare Management Inc., First Health Group Corp., First Health Life & Health Insurance Company, First Script Network Services Inc., Florida Health Plan Administrators LLC, Garfield Beach CVS L.L.C., Generation Health L.L.C., Geneva Woods Health Services LLC, Geneva Woods LTC Pharmacy LLC, Geneva Woods Management LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Alaska LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Washington LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Wyoming LLC, Geneva Woods Retail Pharmacy LLC, Georgia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., German Dobson CVS L.L.C., Goodhealth Worldwide (Asia) Limited, Goodhealth Worldwide (Global) Limited, Goodyear CVS L.L.C., Grand St. Paul CVS L.L.C., Grandview Pharmacy LLC, Group Dental Service Inc., Group Dental Service of Maryland Inc., Health Care Management Co. Ltd., Health Data & Management Solutions Inc., Health Re Inc., Health and Human Resource Center Inc., HealthAssuance Pennsylvania Inc., Healthagen LLC, Highland Park CVS L.L.C., Holiday CVS L.L.C., Home Care Pharmacy LLC, Home Pharmacy Services LLC, Hook-SupeRx L.L.C., Horizon Behavioral Services LLC, Idaho CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., IlliniCare Health, Indian Health Organisation Private Limited, Innovation Health Holdings LLC, Innovation Health Insurance Company, Innovation Health Plan Inc., Interlock Pharmacy Systems LLC, Iowa CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., JHC Acquisition LLC, Kansas CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Kentucky CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., LCPS Acquisition LLC, Langsam Health Services LLC, Lo-Med Prescription Services LLC, Lobos Acquisition LLC, Longs Drug Stores, Longs Drug Stores California L.L.C., Louisiana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., MHHP Acquisition Company LLC, MHNet Life and Health Insurance Company, MHNet Specialty Services LLC, MHNet of Florida Inc., Managed Care Coordinators Inc., Managed Healthcare LLC, Martin Health Services LLC, Maryland CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Med World Acquisition Corp., Medical Arts Health Care LLC, Medical Examinations of New York P.C., Melville Realty Company Inc., MemberHealth LLC, Mental Health Associates Inc., Mental Health Network of New York IPA Inc., Meritain Health Inc., Merwin Long Term Care LLC, MetraComp Inc., Minor Health Enterprise Co Ltd., MinuteClinic, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Alabama L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Arizona LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Florida LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Georgia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Hawaii L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Illinois LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Kentucky L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Louisiana L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maine L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maryland LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Massachusetts LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Nebraska L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Hampshire L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Mexico L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Ohio LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oklahoma LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oregon LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Pennsylvania LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Rhode Island LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of South Carolina L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Texas LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Utah L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Virginia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Washington LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Wisconsin L.L.C., MinuteClinic L.L.C., MinuteClinic Online Diagnostic Services LLC, MinuteClinic Physician Practice of Texas, MinuteClinic Telehealth Services LLC, Mississippi CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Missouri CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Montana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NCS Healthcare LLC, NCS Healthcare of Illinois LLC, NCS Healthcare of Iowa LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kansas LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kentucky Inc. (Oh, NCS Healthcare of Montana LLC, NCS Healthcare of New Mexico LLC, NCS Healthcare of Ohio LLC, NCS Healthcare of South Carolina LLC, NCS Healthcare of Tennessee LLC, NCS Healthcare of Wisconsin LLC, NIV Acquisition LLC, Navarro Discount Pharmacy, Nebraska CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NeighborCare Holdings Inc., NeighborCare Inc., NeighborCare Pharmacy Services Inc., NeighborCare Services Corporation, NeighborCare of Indiana LLC, NeighborCare of Virginia LLC, New Jersey CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Niagara Re Inc., North Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., North Shore Pharmacy Services LLC, NovoLogix LLC, OCR Services LLC, Ocean Acquisition Sub L.L.C., Ohio CVS Stores L.L.C., Oklahoma CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Omnicare, Omnicare Holding Company, Omnicare Inc., Omnicare Indiana Partnership Holding Company LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of Pennsylvania East LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of Pennsylvania West LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of the Great Plains Holding LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy and Supply Services LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of Tennessee LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of the Midwest LLC, Omnicare Property Management LLC, Omnicare of Nebraska LLC, Omnicare of Nevada LLC, Omnicare of New York LLC, Oregon CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., PE Holdings LLC, PHPSNE Parent Corporation, PP Acquisition Company LLC, PRN Pharmaceutical Services LP, PT Aetna Management Consulting, Pamplona Saude e Beleza LTDA, Part D Holding Company L.L.C., PayFlex Holdings Inc., PayFlex Systems USA Inc., Pennsylvania CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Performax Inc., Pharmacy Associates of Glenn Falls LLC, Pharmacy Consultants LLC, Phoenix Data Solutions LLC, Precision Benefit Services Inc., Prime Net Inc., ProCare Pharmacy Direct L.L.C., ProCare Pharmacy L.L.C., Prodigy Health Group Inc., Professional Risk Management Inc., Pt. Aetna Global Benefits Indonesia, Puerto Rico CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Red Oak Sourcing LLC, Resources for Living LLC, Rhode Island CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Roeschens Healthcare LLC, RxAmerica, Schaller Anderson Medical Administrators Incorporated, Scrip World LLC, Sheffield Avenue CVS L.L.C., Shore Pharmaceutical Providers LLC, Silverscript Insurance Company, Soma Intimates, South Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., South Wabash CVS L.L.C., Specialized Pharmacy Services LLC, Spinnaker Bidco Limited, Spinnaker Topco Limited, Stadtlander Drug Company, Stadtlander Pharmacy, Sterling Healthcare Services LLC, Superior Care Pharmacy LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Administrative Services LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Company, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Holding Company LLC, T2 Medical Inc., TCPI Acquisition LLC, TargetPharmacy, Tennessee CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Company, Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Holding Company LLC, Texas Health + Aetna Health Plan Inc., The Vasquez Group Inc., Thomas Phoenix CVS L.L.C., Three Forks Apothecary LLC, U.S Healthcare Holdings LLC, U.S. Healthcare Properties Inc., UAC Holding Inc., UC Acquisition LLC, UNI-Care Health Services of Maine LLC, Universal American - Medicare Part D Business, Utah CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., VAPS Acquisition Company LLC, Value Health Care Services LLC, Vermont CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virtual Home Healthcare L.L.C., Warm Springs Road CVS L.L.C., Washington CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Washington Lamb CVS L.L.C., Weber Medical Systems LLC, Wellpartner LLC, West Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Westhaven Services Co LLC, Williamson Drug Company LLC, Wisconsin CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Woodward Detroit CVS L.L.C., Work and Family Benefits Inc., ZS Acquisition Company LLC, Zinc Health Services LLC, Zinc Health Ventures LLC, bSwift LLC, and iTriage LLC.FBL Financial Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, sells individual life insurance and annuity products. The Annuity segment sells various traditional annuity products that primarily consist of fixed rate and indexed annuities, and supplementary contracts. The Life Insurance segment offers whole life, term life, and universal life policies. It also involved in the property-casualty business; and provision of wealth management, investment advisory, and marketing and distribution services for the sale of mutual funds and insurance products, as well as leasing services. The company markets its products to Farm Bureau members, and other individuals and businesses through exclusive agents and agency managers under the consumer brand name of Farm Bureau Financial Services in the Midwestern and Western sections of the United States. The company was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa.

Read Morefreenet AG provides telecommunication, radio and multimedia, mobile communications, mobile Internet, and digital lifestyle services in Germany. It provides a portfolio of services and products primarily in the area of mobile voice and data services. The Mobile Communications segment engages in distribution and sales of mobile communications devices, and additional services, such as marketing and digital lifestyle; mobile phone accessories, home entertainment, which includes music and video offering, and services, applications, and devices connected to internet; and offers mobile tariff portfolio, which comprises Telekom, Vodafone, and Telefonica Deutschland. This segment also provides postpaid, no-frills, landline, internet, and digital TV services. The TV and Media segment offers planning, project management, installation, operation, services, and marketing of broadcast-related solutions for business-clients in the radio and media sectors, and DVB-T2 services for end users. It offers Freenet TV for terrestrial TV and waipu.tv for IPTV. The Other/Holding segment provides e-commerce/advertising services; digital products and entertainment formats for downloading, displaying, and use on mobile devices; develops and provides communication and IT solutions, and other services; and payment services. The company provides its services under mobilcom debitel, freenet.de, GRAVIS, media broaadcast, klarmobile.de, freenet energy, EXARING AG, callmobile, vitrado, freenet BASICS, freenet MOBILE, CHECKTECH, CARMADA, THE CLOUD, and freenet Business brands. It operates approximately 560 mobilcom-debitel stores, as well as operates GRAVIS stores for digital lifestyle products. The company sells its products through approximately 420 electronic stores; and online platforms. freenet AG was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in BAdelsdorf, Germany.

Read MoreThe Hershey Co. engages in the manufacture and market of chocolate and sugar confectionery products. The firm operates through the following geographical segments: North America; and International and Other. The North America segment is responsible for the traditional chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery market position of the company, as well as its grocery and snacks market positions, in the United States and Canada. The International and Other segment is the combination of all other operating segments which are not individually material, including those geographic regions where the company operates outside of North America. Its brands include Hershey's, Reese's, and Kisses. The company was founded by Milton S. Hershey in 1894 and is headquartered in Hershey, PA.

Read MoreSaga plc provides general insurance, package and cruise holidays, and personal finance products and services in the United Kingdom. The company operates in three segments: Insurance, Travel, and Other Businesses and Central Costs. It offers car, home, health, travel, landlord, boat, motorhome, caravan, pet, and personal accident, breakdown cover, building, content, renter, holiday, and holiday home insurance. The company also operates and delivers package tours and cruise holiday products; and provides equity release and care funding advice, savings accounts, credit cards, and wealth management services, as well as shares ISA and share dealing services. In addition, it offers mailing house services; retirement benefit schemes; and publishes Saga Magazine, as well as repairs automotive vehicles. The company was formerly known as Saga Limited and changed its name to Saga plc in May 2014. Saga plc was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Folkestone, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Centene: APS Parent Inc., AWC of Syracuse Inc., Absolute Total Care Inc., AcariaHealth Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy #11 Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy #12 Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy #13 Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy #14 Inc., AcariaHealth Pharmacy Inc., AcariaHealth Solutions Inc., Access Medical Acquisition LLC, Access Medical Group of Florida City LLC, Access Medical Group of Hialeah LLC, Access Medical Group of Lakeland LLC, Access Medical Group of Miami LLC, Access Medical Group of North Miami Beach LLC, Access Medical Group of Opa-Locka LLC, Access Medical Group of Perrine LLC, Access Medical Group of Tampa II LLC, Access Medical Group of Tampa III LLC, Access Medical Group of Tampa LLC, Access Medical Group of Westchester LLC, Accountable Care Coalition Direct Contracting LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Chesapeake LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Community Health Centers II LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Community Health Centers LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers II LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers III LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers IV LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers V LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers VI LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Elite Providers VII LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Florida Partners LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Georgia LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Maryland LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Maryland Primary Care LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Mississippi LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of New Jersey Inc., Accountable Care Coalition of North Texas LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Northeast Georgia LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Northeast Partners LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Northwest Florida LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Prime Health LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Quality Health II LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Quality Health III LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Quality Health LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Partners LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Physician Partners LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Texas Inc., Accountable Care Coalition of Southeast Wisconsin LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Tennessee LLC, Accountable Care Coalition of Texas Inc., Agate Resources Inc., AirLogix, Ambetter of Magnolia Inc., Ambetter of North Carolina Inc., Ambetter of Peach State Inc., America's 1st Choice California Holdings LLC, American Progressive Life and Health Insurance Company of New York, Apixio, Apixio Inc, Arch Personalized Medicine Initiative LLC, Arkansas Health & Wellness Health Plan Inc., Arkansas Total Care Holding Company LLC, Arkansas Total Care Inc., B2B Gestion Integra S.L.U., B2B Salud S.L.U., Bankers Reserve Life Insurance Company of Wisconsin, Blackcrow Asistencia Medica S.L, Bridgeway Health Solutions LLC, Bridgeway Health Solutions of Arizona Inc., Buckeye Community Health Plan Inc., Buckeye Health Plan Community Solutions Inc., CCTX Holdings LLC, CMC Real Estate Company LLC, CT Poprad s.r.o., CT Presov s.r.o., Calibrate Acquisition Company, California Health and Wellness Plan, Cantina Laredo Clayton LP, Cardium Health Services, Care 1st Health Plan of Arizona Inc., Care1st Health Plan Administrative Services Inc., Carolina Complete Health Holding Company Partnership, Carolina Complete Health Inc., Casenet LLC, Casenet S.R.O., CeltiCare Health Plan Holdings LLC, CeltiCare Health Plan of Massachusetts Inc., Celtic Group Inc., Celtic Insurance Company, Cenpatico Behavioral Health LLC, Cenpatico Behavioral Health of Arizona LLC, Cenpatico of Arizona Inc., Centene Center I LLC, Centene Center II LLC, Centene Center LLC, Centene Company of Texas LP, Centene Europe Finance Company Limited, Centene Health Plan Holdings Inc., Centene Institute for Advanced Health Education LLC, Centene International Ventures LLC, Centene Investments LLC, Centene Management Company LLC, Centene Venture Company Alabama Health Plan Inc., Centene Venture Company Florida Inc., Centene Venture Company Illinois Inc., Centene Venture Company Indiana Inc., Centene Venture Company Kansas Inc., Centene Venture Company Michigan Inc., Centene Venture Company Tennessee Inc., Centro Inmunologocia De La Comunidad Valenciana S.L., Centurion Correctional Healthcare of New Mexico LLC, Centurion Detention Health Services LLC, Centurion LLC, Centurion of Arizona LLC, Centurion of Delaware LLC, Centurion of Florida LLC, Centurion of Kansas LLC, Centurion of Minnesota LLC, Centurion of Mississippi LLC, Centurion of New Hampshire LLC, Centurion of Pennsylvania LLC, Centurion of Tennessee LLC, Centurion of Vermont LLC, Centurion of West Virginia LLC, Centurion of Wyoming LLC, Chrysalis Medical Services LLC, Clinica Santo Domingo De Lugo S.L., Collaborative Health Systems IPA LLC, Collaborative Health Systems LLC, Collaborative Health Systems of Maryland LLC, Collaborative Health Systems of Virginia LLC, Comfort Hospice of Missouri LLC, Comfort Hospice of Texas LLC, ComfortBrook Hospice LLC, Community Medical Group, Community Medical Holdings Corporation, Comprehensive Health Management Inc., Comprehensive Reinsurance Ltd., Coordinated Care Corporation, Coordinated Care of Washington Inc., Country Style Health Care LLC, Discare CZ a.s., District Community Care Inc., Dr Magnet s.r.o., Elche-Crevillente Salud, Envolve Benefits Options Inc., Envolve Captive Insurance Company Inc., Envolve Dental IPA of New York Inc., Envolve Dental Inc., Envolve Dental of Florida Inc., Envolve Dental of Texas Inc., Envolve Health, Envolve Holdings Inc., Envolve Inc., Envolve Optical Inc., Envolve PeopleCare Inc., Envolve Pharmacy IPA LLC, Envolve Pharmacy Solutions Inc., Envolve Total Vision Inc., Envolve Vision Benefits Inc., Envolve Vision IPA of New York Inc., Envolve Vision Inc., Envolve Vision of Florida Inc., Envolve Vision of Texas Inc., Essential Care Partners LLC, Exactus Pharmacy Solutions Inc., Family Nurse Care II LLC, Family Nurse Care LLC, Family Nurse Care of Ohio LLC, Fidelis Care, Forensic Health Services LLC, Foundation Care LLC, Godgrace Asistencia Medica S.L., Golden Triangle Physician Alliance, Grace Hospice of Austin LLC, Grace Hospice of Grand Rapids LLC, Grace Hospice of Illinois LLC, Grace Hospice of Indiana LLC, Grace Hospice of San Antonio LLC, Grace Hospice of Virginia LLC, Grace Hospice of Wisconsin LLC, Granite State Health Plan Inc., Growly Asistencia Sanitaria S.L., HHS Texas Management Inc., HHS Texas Management LP, Hallmark Life Insurance Company, Harmony Behavioral Health IPA Inc., Harmony Behavioral Health Inc., Harmony Health Management Inc., Harmony Health Plan Inc., Harmony Health Systems Inc., Health Care Enterprises LLC, Health Net Access Inc., Health Net Community Solutions Inc., Health Net Community Solutions of Arizona Inc., Health Net Federal Services LLC, Health Net Health Plan of Oregon Inc., Health Net LLC, Health Net Life Insurance Company, Health Net Life Reinsurance Company, Health Net Pharmaceutical Services, Health Net of Arizona Inc., Health Net of California Inc., Health Plan Real Estate Holdings Inc., HealthSmart Benefit Solutions Inc., HealthSmart Benefits Management LLC, HealthSmart Care Management Solutions LP, HealthSmart Information Systems Inc., HealthSmart Preferred Care II LP, HealthSmart Preferred Network II Inc., HealthSmart Primary Care Clinics LP, HealthSmart Rx Solutions Inc., Healthy Louisiana Holdings LLC, Healthy Missouri Holdings Inc., Healthy Washington Holdings Inc., Heritage Health Systems Inc., Heritage Health Systems of Texas Inc., Heritage Home Hospice LLC, Heritage Physician Networks, Home State Health Plan Inc., HomeScripts.com LLC, Hospice DME Company LLC, Hospinet S.L., Hospital Polusa S.A., Hospital Povisa S.A., Hudson Accountable Care LLC, IAH of Florida LLC, Illinois Health Practice Alliance LLC, Infraestructuras y Servicios de Alzira S. L., Integrated Care Network of Florida LLC, Integrated Mental Health Management LLC, Integrated Mental Health Services, Interpreta Holdings Inc., Interpreta Inc., Iowa Total Care Inc., Kentucky Spirit Health Plan Inc., LBB Industries Inc., LifeShare Management Group LLC, LiveHealthier Inc., Louisiana Healthcare Connections Inc., MH Services International Holdings (UK) Limited, MHM, MHM Correctional Services LLC, MHM Health Professionals LLC, MHM Services Inc., MHM Services of California LLC, MHM Solutions LLC, MHN Government Services LLC, MHN Services LLC, MHS Consulting International Inc., MHS Travel & Charter Inc., MR Centrum Melnick s.r.o., MR Poprad s.r.o., MR Zilina s.r.o., Magnolia Health Plan Inc., Managed Health Network, Managed Health Network LLC, Managed Health Services Insurance Corporation, Maryland Collaborative Care LLC, Maryland Collaborative Care Transformation Organization Inc., Mauli Ola Health and Wellness Inc., Medicina NZ spol s.r.o., Meridian Health Plan of Illinois Inc., Meridian Health Plan of Michigan Inc., Meridian Management Company LLC, Meridian Network Services LLC, MeridianRx IPA LLC, MeridianRx LLC, MeridianRx of Indiana LLC, Michigan Complete Health, Mid-Atlantic Collaborative Care LLC, Nebraska Total Care Inc., Network Providers LLC, New York Quality Healthcare Corporation, Next Door Neighbors Inc., Next Door Neighbors LLC., North Florida Health Services Inc., Northern Maryland Collaborative Care LLC, Novasys Health Inc., OB Care, OB Klinika, Ohana Health Plan Inc., Oklahoma Complete Health Inc., One Care by Care 1st Health Plans of Arizona Inc, Operose Health (Group) Ltd., Operose Health (Group) UK Ltd., Operose Health Ltd., OptiCare Health Systems - Managed Vision Business, PANTHERx Rare Pharmacy, Panther Pass Co LLC, Panther Specialty Holding Co LLC, Pantherx Access Services LLC, Pantherx Specialty LLC, Parker LP LLC, Peach State Health Plan Inc., Penn Marketing America LLC, Pennsylvania Health and Wellness Inc., Phoenix Home Health Care LLC, Pinnacle Home Care LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Illinois LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Indiana LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Kalamazoo LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Missouri LLC, Pinnacle Senior Care of Wisconsin LLC, Premier Marketing Group LLC, PrimeroSalud S.L., Pro Diagnostic Group A.S., Pro Magnet CZ s.r.o., Pro Magnet s.r.o, Pro RTG s.r.o, Progress Medical A.S., Prowl Holdings LLC, QCA Healthplan Inc., Qualchoice Life and Health Insurance Company, Quincy Coverage Corporation, R&C Healthcare LLC, RMED LLC, RX Direct Inc., Rapid Respiratory Services LLC, Ribera Lab S.L.U., Ribera Salud II, Ribera Salud Proyectos S.L., Ribera Salud S.A., Ribera Salud Tecnologias S.L.U., Ribera Slaud Infraestructuras S.L.U., Ribera-Quilpro UTE, Salus Administrative Services Inc., Salus IPA LLC, Secure Capital Solutions 2000 S.L.U., SelectCare Health Plans Inc., SelectCare of Texas Inc., Seniorcorps Peninsula LLC, Servicios De Mantenimiento Prevencor S.L.U., SilverSummit Healthplan Inc., Social Health Bridge LLC, Social Health Bridge Trust, Specialty Therapeutic Care GP LLC, Specialty Therapeutic Care Holdings, Specialty Therapeutic Care Holdings LLC, Specialty Therapeutic Care LP, Sunflower State Health Plan Inc., Sunshine Health Community Solutions Inc., Sunshine Health Holding LLC, Sunshine State Health Plan Inc., Superior HealthPlan Community Solutions Inc., Superior HealthPlan Inc., The Practice Properties Limited, The WellCare Management Group Inc., Torrejon Salud S.A., Torrevieja Salud S.L.U., Torrevieja Salud UTE, Traditional Home Health Services LLC, Trillium Community Health Plan Inc., U.S. Medical Management Holdings Inc., U.S. Medical Management LLC, UAM Agent Services Corp., US Script, USMM Accountable Care Partners LLC, Universal American Corp., Universal American Financial Services Inc., Universal American Holdings LLC, WCG Health Management Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of America, WellCare Health Insurance Company of Kentucky Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Louisiana Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Nevada Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of New Hampshire Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of New Jersey Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Oklahoma Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Washington Inc., WellCare Health Insurance Company of Wisconsin Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Arizona Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Connecticut Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Hawaii Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of New York Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of North Carolina Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Southwest Inc., WellCare Health Insurance of Tennessee Inc., WellCare Health Plans, WellCare Health Plans of Arizona Inc., WellCare Health Plans of California Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Kentucky Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Massachusetts Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Missouri Inc., WellCare Health Plans of New Jersey Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Rhode Island Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Tennessee Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Vermont Inc., WellCare Health Plans of Wisconsin Inc., WellCare National Health Insurance Company, WellCare Pharmacy Benefits Management Inc., WellCare Prescription Insurance Inc., WellCare of Alabama Inc., WellCare of Arkansas Inc., WellCare of California Inc., WellCare of Connecticut Inc., WellCare of Florida Inc., WellCare of Georgia Inc., WellCare of Illinois Inc., WellCare of Indiana Inc., WellCare of Kansas Inc., WellCare of Maine Inc., WellCare of Michigan Holding Company, WellCare of Mississippi Inc., WellCare of Missouri Health Insurance Company Inc., WellCare of New Hampshire Inc., WellCare of New York Inc., WellCare of North Carolina Inc., WellCare of Ohio Inc., WellCare of Oklahoma Inc., WellCare of Pennsylvania Inc., WellCare of Puerto Rico Inc., WellCare of South Carolina Inc., WellCare of Texas Inc., WellCare of Virginia Inc., WellCare of Washington Inc., Wellcare Health Plans Inc., Western Sky Community Care Inc., Windsor Health Group Inc., Winning Security S.L., Worlco Management Services, and nirvanaHealth LLC.Mettler-Toledo International, Inc. is a supplier of precision instruments and services. The firm manufactures weighing instruments for use in laboratory, industrial, packaging, logistics, and food retailing applications. It also manufactures several related analytical instruments and provides automated chemistry solutions used in drug and chemical compound discovery and development; and also, metal detection and other end-of-line inspection systems used in production and packaging and provides solutions for use in certain process analytics applications. Its operations are conducted by the following segments: U. S. Operations, Swiss Operations, Western European Operations, Chinese Operations and Other. The U.S. Operations segment represents certain of the company's marketing and producing organizations located in the United States. The Swiss Operations segment includes marketing and producing organizations located in Switzerland, as well as extensive R&D operations that are responsible for the development, production, and marketing of precision instruments, including weighing, analytical, and measurement technologies for use in a variety of industrial and laboratory applications. Th

Read MoreMidSouth Bancorp, Inc., a bank holding company, through its subsidiary MidSouth Bank, N.A., provides various community banking products and services to commercial and retail customers in the United States. The company offers various deposit products, including interest-bearing and noninterest-bearing checking accounts, money market, savings accounts, investment accounts, and NOW account deposits, as well as time deposits, such as certificates of deposit; and commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, and consumer loans, as well as other loans secured by real estate. It also provides cash management services; and electronic banking services comprising remote deposit capturing services, Internet banking, and debit and credit cards. As of March 1, 2019, the company had 42 offices located in Louisiana and Texas, as well as a network of approximately 55,000 surcharge-free ATMs. MidSouth Bancorp, Inc. was incorporated in 1984 and is headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Read MoreSherritt International Corporation engages in the mining, refining, and sale of nickel and cobalt from lateritic ores primarily in Canada and Cuba. The company operates through Moa Joint Venture and Fort Site, Metals Other, Oil and Gas, Power, and Technologies and Corporate segments It produces and sells agriculture fertilizers in Western Canada; and provides additional fertilizer storage and administrative facilities in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Canada. The company also explores for and produces oil and gas primarily from offshore reservoirs located in the north coast of Cuba. It has interests in three production-sharing contracts in Cuba; and working-interests in various oil fields and related production platform located in the Gulf of Valencia in Spain. In addition, the company generates and sells electricity from natural gas and steam facilities with a generating capacity is 506 megawatts, as well as provides technical support, process optimization, and technology development services. It operates two combined cycle plants at Varadero and Boca de Jaruco. Sherritt International Corporation was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Read MoreSpectris plc manufactures and sells measuring instruments and controls worldwide. The company provides products and services, which enable customers to determine structure, composition, quantity, and quality of particles and materials during their research and product development processes, when assessing materials before production, or during the manufacturing process; various range of life science services; products for measurement and control of temperature, humidity, pressure, strain, force, flow, level, pH, and conductivity; and data acquisition, electric heating, and custom-engineered products. It also supplies test, measurement, and analysis equipment, software, and services for product design optimization and manufacturing control; and designs and manufactures tooling and monitoring system for installation and acquisition services, data processing services, 24/7 monitoring, and advanced analytics consulting. In addition, the company offers various industrial automation products, including IIoT controllers and gateways, data acquisition and protocol converters, human machine interface operator displays and panel meters, visualisation software products, proportionalA-integralA-derivative controllers, remote terminal units, input/output products, and signal conditioners and sensors; and industrial networking products, which include ethernet switches, wired and wireless routers, and network and device management software products. Further, it provides on-line and off-line measurement and control solutions for the dimensional monitoring of diameter, ovality, wall thickness, eccentricity, length and speed, and other parameters; particle measuring systems; and supplies gas analysis solutions and various related product and services. The company was formerly known as Fairey Aviation Company Ltd. and changed its name to Spectris plc in May 2001. Spectris plc was founded in 1915 and is headquartered in Egham, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreRolls-Royce Holdings plc operates as an industrial technology company in the United Kingdom and internationally. The company operates in four segments: Civil Aerospace, Power Systems, Defence, and ITP Aero. The Civil Aerospace segment develops, manufactures, and sells aero engines for large commercial aircraft, regional jet, and business aviation markets, as well as provides aftermarket services. The Power Systems segment provides high-speed and medium-speed reciprocating engines, and propulsion and power generation systems for the marine, defense, power generation, and industrial markets. The Defence segment offers aero engines for military transport and patrol aircraft applications; and naval engines and submarine nuclear power plants, as well as aftermarket services. The ITP Aero segment engages in the design, research and development, manufacture and casting, assembly, and testing of aeronautical engines and gas turbines. It also provides maintenance, repair, and overhaul services for regional airlines, as well as business aviation, industrial, and defense applications. Rolls-Royce Holdings plc was founded in 1884 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

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01 (3) Mar 31 (1) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (4) Mar 28 (3) Mar 27 (4) Mar 26 (2) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (6) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (5) Mar 21 (4) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (4) Mar 17 (4) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (4) Mar 14 (3) Mar 13 (4) Mar 12 (4) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (3) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (4) Feb 28 (2) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (3) Feb 25 (3) Feb 24 (4) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (3) Feb 21 (4) Feb 20 (4) Feb 19 (3) Feb 18 (3) Feb 17 (3) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (4) Feb 14 (3) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (3) Feb 11 (3) Feb 10 (4) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (3) Feb 07 (4) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (3) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (3) Jan 29 (4) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (2) Jan 26 (4) Jan 25 (3) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (3) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (3) Jan 12 (6) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (4) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (4) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (4) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (5) Jan 02 (4) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (2) Dec 29 (2) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (3) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (3) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (4) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (5) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (2) Dec 11 (6) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (6) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (4) Dec 03 (3) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (4) Nov 30 (2) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (5) Nov 24 (4) Nov 23 (6) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (4) Nov 20 (2) Nov 19 (5) Nov 18 (7) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (4) Nov 15 (6) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (3) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (3) Nov 07 (2) Nov 06 (2) Nov 05 (2) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (4) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (2) Oct 31 (3) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (3) Oct 25 (2) Oct 24 (2) Oct 23 (2) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (2) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (2) Oct 17 (2) Oct 16 (2) Oct 15 (2) Oct 14 (4) Oct 13 (2) Oct 12 (3) Oct 11 (2) Oct 10 (2) Oct 09 (4) Oct 08 (4) Oct 07 (4) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (5) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (6) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (7) Sep 26 (4) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (5) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (7) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (4) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (5) Sep 10 (5) Sep 09 (7) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (2) Sep 06 (7) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (4) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (2) Sep 01 (2) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (3) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (4) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (4) Aug 21 (4) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (2) Aug 16 (2) Aug 15 (5) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (10) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (5) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (5) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (5) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (5) Jul 30 (5) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (3) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (5) Jul 23 (5) Jul 22 (7) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (5) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (3) Jul 12 (2) Jul 11 (2) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (2) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (3) Jul 02 (2) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (6) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (6) Jun 27 (6) Jun 26 (6) Jun 25 (6) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (5) Jun 18 (8) Jun 17 (6) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (5) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (4) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (5) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (2) May 30 (2) May 29 (2) May 28 (2) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (3) May 24 (2) May 23 (2) May 22 (3) May 21 (5) May 20 (4) May 19 (2) May 18 (3) May 17 (3) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (5) May 13 (3) May 12 (4) May 11 (3) May 10 (4) May 09 (4) May 08 (4) May 07 (3) May 06 (2) May 05 (3) May 04 (4) May 03 (2) May 02 (3) May 01 (3) Apr 30 (3) Apr 29 (4) Apr 28 (2) Apr 27 (3) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (2) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (2) Apr 22 (2) Apr 21 (4) Apr 20 (4) Apr 19 (5) Apr 18 (7) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (10) Apr 15 (5) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (7) Apr 08 (4) Apr 07 (7) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (7) Apr 04 (5) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (5) Mar 31 (5) Mar 30 (5) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (6) Mar 27 (5) Mar 26 (5) Mar 25 (6) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (5) Mar 21 (4) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (6) Mar 18 (6) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (5) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (5) Mar 12 (5) Mar 11 (4) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (2) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (4) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (4) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (2) Feb 23 (3) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (2) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (2) Feb 16 (3) Feb 15 (6) Feb 14 (6) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (9) Feb 11 (5) Feb 10 (3) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (7) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (4) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (3) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (3) Jan 28 (2) Jan 27 (2) Jan 26 (3) Jan 25 (4) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (2) Jan 22 (2) Jan 21 (5) Jan 20 (4) Jan 19 (5) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (4) Jan 16 (3) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (3) Jan 12 (3) Jan 11 (2) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (2) Jan 07 (2) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (2) Jan 04 (2) Jan 03 (2) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (2) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (3) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (2) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (2) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (2) Dec 21 (2) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (2) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (2) Dec 16 (2) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (2) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (3) Dec 10 (5) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (2) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (5) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (4) Nov 29 (4) Nov 28 (2) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (2) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (2) Nov 22 (2) Nov 21 (2) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (3) Nov 18 (2) Nov 17 (2) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (4) Nov 13 (2) Nov 12 (2) Nov 11 (2) Nov 10 (2) Nov 09 (2) Nov 08 (2) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (6) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (5) Nov 03 (5) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (5) Oct 31 (7) Oct 30 (5) Oct 29 (4) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (2) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (4) Oct 24 (4) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (2) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (2) Oct 18 (2) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (5) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (2) Oct 13 (2) Oct 12 (4) Oct 11 (5) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (2) Oct 05 (5) Oct 04 (5) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (5) Sep 30 (2) Sep 29 (2) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (6) Sep 26 (2) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (2) Sep 22 (2) Sep 21 (2) Sep 20 (2) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (2) Sep 15 (4) Sep 14 (3) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (6) Sep 10 (2) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (5) Sep 06 (4) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (3) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (2) Aug 30 (2) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (2) Aug 25 (2) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (2) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (5) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (3) Aug 18 (2) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (5) Aug 13 (2) Aug 12 (2) Aug 11 (2) Aug 10 (2) Aug 09 (2) Aug 08 (5) Aug 07 (5) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (2) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (2) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (2) Jul 31 (4) Jul 30 (2) Jul 29 (2) Jul 28 (2) Jul 27 (2) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (2) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (2) Jul 21 (3) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (2) Jul 18 (3) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (2) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (2) Jul 12 (3) Jul 11 (2) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (2) Jul 06 (2) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (2) Jul 03 (2) Jul 02 (2) Jul 01 (3) Jun 30 (3) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (2) Jun 26 (3) Jun 25 (1) Jun 24 (2) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (3) Jun 20 (2) Jun 19 (2) Jun 18 (2) Jun 17 (2) Jun 16 (2) Jun 15 (2) Jun 14 (2) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (3) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (4) Jun 08 (2) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (5) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (2) Jun 02 (2) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (2) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 27 (2) May 26 (2) May 25 (2) May 24 (2) May 23 (2) May 22 (3) May 21 (3) May 20 (2) May 19 (2) May 18 (4) May 17 (7) May 16 (2) May 15 (3) May 14 (4) May 13 (3) May 12 (4) May 11 (4) May 10 (4) May 09 (3) May 08 (2) May 07 (2) May 06 (2) May 05 (1) May 04 (2) May 03 (4) May 02 (3) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (1) Apr 29 (3) Apr 28 (2) Apr 27 (3) Apr 26 (2) Apr 25 (2) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (2) Apr 22 (2) Apr 21 (2) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (5) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (3) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (4) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (2) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (3) Apr 04 (1) Apr 03 (1) Apr 02 (1) Apr 01 (2) Mar 31 (2) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (2) Mar 28 (3) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (3) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (2) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (3) Mar 21 (4) Mar 20 (2) Mar 19 (3) Mar 18 (1) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (2) Mar 15 (1) Mar 14 (3) Mar 13 (1) Mar 12 (2) Mar 11 (1) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (2) Mar 08 (1) Mar 07 (1) Mar 04 (2) Mar 02 (2) Feb 28 (1) Feb 24 (1) Dec 31 (4) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (4) Dec 28 (5) Dec 27 (3) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (3) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (3) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (3) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (3) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (3) Nov 23 (3) Nov 22 (3) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (3) Nov 18 (3) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (2) Nov 15 (3) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (3) Nov 10 (4) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (4) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (3) Nov 05 (5) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (3) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (4) Oct 30 (3) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (4) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (4) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (3) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (4) Oct 20 (4) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (4) Oct 17 (4) Oct 16 (3) Oct 15 (3) Oct 14 (3) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (3) Oct 11 (3) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (4) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (5) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (4) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (4) Sep 26 (3) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (3) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (3) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (4) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (4) Sep 08 (4) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (3) Sep 05 (3) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (4) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (4) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (5) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (3) Aug 20 (3) Aug 19 (3) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (3) Aug 12 (3) Aug 11 (4) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (3) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (5) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (3) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (3) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (5) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (3) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (4) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (3) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (4) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (3) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (5) Jul 11 (4) Jul 10 (4) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (3) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (4) Jul 02 (3) Jul 01 (6) Jun 30 (4) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (4) Jun 25 (5) Jun 24 (4) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (4) Jun 18 (5) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (3) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (3) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (5) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (4) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (5) Jun 05 (4) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (4) Jun 02 (5) Jun 01 (3) May 31 (4) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 27 (3) May 26 (4) May 25 (4) May 24 (4) May 23 (4) May 22 (3) May 21 (3) May 20 (4) May 19 (3) May 18 (3) May 17 (4) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (3) May 13 (4) May 12 (1) May 11 (3) May 10 (3) May 09 (3) May 08 (3) May 07 (4) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (4) May 03 (3) May 02 (3) May 01 (6) Apr 30 (3) Apr 29 (3) Apr 28 (3) Apr 27 (5) Apr 26 (3) Apr 25 (3) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (3) Apr 22 (3) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (3) Apr 17 (4) Apr 16 (3) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (3) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (3) Apr 09 (3) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (3) Apr 04 (3) Apr 03 (3) Apr 02 (3) Apr 01 (3) Mar 31 (3) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (3) Mar 28 (4) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (3) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (3) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (3) Mar 21 (3) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (3) Mar 18 (3) Mar 17 (3) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (3) Mar 14 (3) Mar 13 (3) Mar 12 (4) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (4) Mar 08 (3) Mar 07 (3) Mar 06 (4) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (3) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (3) Mar 01 (3) Feb 28 (3) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (3) Feb 25 (3) Feb 24 (2) Feb 23 (3) Feb 22 (3) Feb 21 (3) Feb 20 (3) Feb 19 (3) Feb 18 (3) Feb 17 (3) Feb 16 (3) Feb 15 (3) Feb 14 (3) Feb 13 (3) Feb 12 (3) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (3) Feb 09 (3) Feb 08 (3) Feb 07 (4) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (3) Feb 04 (4) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (3) Jan 29 (3) Jan 28 (5) Jan 27 (4) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (3) Jan 21 (4) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (5) Jan 18 (5) Jan 17 (4) Jan 16 (3) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (5) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (4) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (3) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (3) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (3) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (3) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (3) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (3) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (4) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (3) Dec 06 (4) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (3) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (3) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (4) Nov 23 (6) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (5) Nov 20 (4) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (4) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (2) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (2) Nov 11 (3) Nov 10 (2) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (2) Nov 05 (2) Nov 04 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(3) Jun 08 (1) Jun 07 (1) Jun 06 (1) Jun 04 (2) Jun 03 (1) Jun 02 (2) Jun 01 (1) May 31 (3) May 30 (1) May 29 (1) May 28 (2) May 26 (1) May 25 (1) May 18 (1) May 17 (1) May 15 (1) May 09 (1) May 07 (2) May 02 (1) May 01 (1) Apr 30 (1) Apr 27 (1) Apr 26 (2) Apr 23 (1) Apr 22 (1) Apr 19 (1) Apr 18 (1) Apr 12 (1) Apr 11 (1) Apr 09 (1) Apr 07 (1) Apr 05 (1) Apr 01 (1) Mar 30 (1) Mar 27 (1) Mar 25 (1) Mar 22 (2) Mar 19 (1) Mar 18 (1) Mar 16 (1) Mar 15 (2) Mar 13 (1) Mar 12 (1) Mar 11 (1) Mar 10 (1)Posted Thursday, February 15, 2018 11:19 am

HE ATE

By MARK NIXON

We have several fine restaurants in Greater Lansing whose kitchen artistry deserves our appreciation. What of the rest? Doomed to exist among the rabble of restaurant losers?

Well, yes and no. There are some really crummy restaurants around here, with no apparent path to redemption.

Yet, there are places in town that daily redeem themselves with solidly built menus that eschew cutting edge sizzle.

I give you Athenas on Lansings south side. Its a friendly place, tidy and unpretentious, usually busy and boasting a globe-spanning menu.

On our first visit, I knew beforehand I was going for comfort food. The meatloaf special with mashed potatoes, gravy and steamed vegetables and a roll ($7.95) fit the bill. The portions were generous and, while this didnt knock my socks off, its just what I wanted.

Judy and I shared tastes of her gyro plate ($11.25). I thought the gyro meat  a mix of seasoned lamb and beef  was a bit on the tough side. But the fresh pita and the tzatzki sauce more than redeemed the entire dish.

Our meals came with a choice of a side.

We asked for the lemon rice soup. I was disappointed. Im used to avgolemono with the rice still intact, and bits of chicken and a pronounced lemon pop to finish it off. The rice in this soup was mushy from being overcooked.

On our second visit I went straight to the Coney Island ($3.75). The coney sauce had the requisite cumin crackle, and the hot dog the proper snap when I bit into it. This coney is in the Detroit style, meaning the sauce is soupier than the drier Flintstyle coney. I prefer the Flint coney (Spartys in Frandor has the best locally) but Athenas version is as good as any Detroit coney Ive tasted.

Judys fish and chips ($10.95) were spot on; crisp and properly fried on the outside, still tender and moist within.

My favorite taste on this visit was the cheese and tortilla soup. Its what we call at our house refrigerator soup  a little of everything. Given the chance, I would steal this Athenas recipe.

Our final meals consisted of a chicken dinner with rice pilaf ($10.75) and spinach pie ($6.99). The chicken was adequate, akin to what you could get out of a supermarket deli. The rice pilaf was fluffy and sturdy without being overcooked, a la the lemon rice soup.

Now to the spinach pie, where we agreed to disagree. I love a good spanakopita, the Greek word for this dish. Ive had some amazing tastes of this dish in Detroits Greektown.

Athenas version was hit and miss. The phyllo pastry was light and flaky. A hit. The interior was a wad of spinach that was essentially tasteless.

Thats my take. Judy begged to differ.

Either my taste buds are shot, or hers are akin to a dogs keen sense of smell. (And I am now officially in the doghouse for that analogy).

The servers are either genuinely happy or are outstanding actors. They are funny, efficient, smiling and full of blarney. Note to servers: That last part is a compliment. Im part Irish, dont you know?

SHE ATE

By GABRIELLE LAWRENCE

On our first visit to Athenas, complete with one bundled-up newborn who snoozed in his car seat the entire time, we were hungry for breakfast. When I dont have particularly strong feelings over what I want to eat, I frequently choose something that is denoted as being a house special or a favorite item. With this in mind, I chose the House Hash with my eggs sunny side up. The menu claimed that the hash is served with homemade hash brown and topped with grilled onions, tomatoes, green peppers, mushrooms, spinach and feta cheese.

I dont know how to soften this blow, and I dont think the blow deserves a feathery landing. This hash was one of the worst meals I have ever paid for.

The hash browns were so completely overcooked that they were essentially impossible to eat. Ever chipped a tooth on a potato? I didnt want to risk it.

The problem with previously frozen spinach is that it is waterlogged, and unless you thaw it and squeeze the water out of it, youll have the sensation of gnawing on a wet sponge. I tired of that feeling quickly and ate the eggs, after covering them in the salt and pepper that had apparently been missing from the kitchen. After I made quick work of those I concentrated on my coffee, which was excellent. Im not saying that with tongue in cheek, the coffee was exceptional.

Mr. She Ate ordered one of his favorites, a Monte Cristo sandwich. What is supposed to be a battered and fried ham and cheese sandwich had been reimagined as simply a ham and cheese sandwich made on French toast. Whether the reinterpretation of the Monte Cristo we are familiar with was intentional or not, we will never know, because he is not interested in ordering it again. His side of bacon was, in a word, cold.

After the first visit and before the next one, I crowd-sourced my experience. I asked a limited group of people if they had been to Athenas, if they had enjoyed it, and what we should try next time. It gives me little joy to lambast local businesses, and if theres something great on the menu that Ive missed, I always want to know about it. I was told to go there for lunch, not breakfast, and to eat the Coney dogs, since the sauce was to die for. With that in mind we again packed up Baby She Ate and headed in for lunch.

After hemming and hawing over gyros and spinach pies, I chose the Chicken Kabob on Pita. What arrived at the table was a generous serving of char-grilled chicken breast, skewed with peppers and onions on top of a piece of pita bread. Mr.

She Ate took a bite of chicken before I did and looked at me wide-eyed, and his reaction paired with the actual appearance of the chicken let me know that I was in for something good. This chicken was juicy, and flavorful, and had texture to it because it was cooked on a grill. The vegetables still had a snap to them, and I proceeded to slather the pita bread with the accompanying tzatziki and rip off pieces to scoop up pieces of chicken and green pepper. If youve never understood how people can get excited about a grilled chicken breast, which I happen to love, this one will make a believer out of you.

Because we know how to take direction, Mr. She Ate ordered a Coney dog combo with fries. The dogs were appropriately topped with only chili sauce, mustard and chopped onion, and while they lacked the snap that makes people flock to Lafayette Coney Island in Detroit, they were the best you can find in Lansing. The sauce was mildly spicy and thick, which we appreciate, because is there anything worse than a hot dog bun becoming soaked through and disintegrating into your hand right when you have to go back to work?

3109 S. Cedar St. Lansing Monday - Saturday 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Sunday 8 a.m. - 3 p.m.

(517) 394-0072 athenasdiner.comTechnology tandems arent very common but occasionally you do find two techs that cant live without each other. The relationship between operating systems and CPUs is entirely co-dependent because they both need each other.

Another example of that is the simultaneous growth of edge computing, sometimes called fog computing by people trying to be clever, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Due to the design of IoT, it needs edge computing to maximize its potential, and both techs are in their very early stages.

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Both edge computing and fog computing are strongly on the rise for the same exact reasons: an IoT data deluge. A report by Hitachi Vanata estimates that connected cars, with their continuous monitoring of all systems, will generate 25GB of data every hour.

IoT is the next generation of endpoints, said Lazarus Vekiarides, CTO of cloud storage provider ClearSky Data. If you think about the sheer volume of things out there that could be generating data the number is enormous, much larger than the number of humans or cell phones.

Mind you, at least a car has the power (via the engine) to at least handle some compute functions. A wearable device or remote sensor wont because computation means power consumption and if it is operating on a battery, that means a shorter battery life.

So for the sake of the IoT devices, computing needs to be moved off the device and onto the server. While there are some truly massive data centers around the U.S. and a growing number around the world, they would be overwhelmed with data coming in from cars all around the country.

Edge computing, therefore, serves a second purpose  offloading the load on central data centers. Car data generated in Los Angeles can be processed on edge computing centers in Los Angeles rather than sending it to a Utah or Iowa data center. That means latency and even with the fast data centers and private backbones many are building, latency is still an issue.

When you need to process data from millions of devices you do it in the cloud. The problem is the cloud is usually far away so that presents a fair amount of latency, and the volume of data doesnt lend itself well to going up to the cloud, said Vekiarides.

The design of the Internet is the inverse of IoT. The use case today is downloading something from an origin, like watching a movie on Netflix. Your home broadband connection is likely 10mbits to 20mbits down but 1-2mbits up. You click on a link on YouTube, which sends a few bits to a server, and a multigigabyte video is sent down to you.

The structure of IoT works in reverse. The endpoints are sending up massive amounts of data rather than receiving it. So the very design of the Internet is not in IoTs favor.

Then theres the third issue: storage. A wearable device like Fitbit is not going to store much. Even a few flash memory chips will add up to take up a lot of space and consume power. Plus, Vekiarides notes, storage has a much higher failure rate than CPUs and memory, and he would know given his business.

For something like IoT, where you collect huge volumes of data, you need to do two things: a local analysis component and central storage. So again, this is where edge computing fits the bill for IoT.

What Is Edge Computing Anyway?

Edge computing is defined by Wikipedia as a method of optimizing cloud computing systems by performing data processing at the edge of the network, near the source of the data. So it is about creating a sort of landing platform thats nearby to the endpoints where all the data can be staged for some amount of computation and the latency problem can be addressed.

This means many more locations than most cloud providers have now, and for private firms it means more remote servers outside of their data center(s). Even a large scale data center provider like Equinix has only a dozen locations around the U.S. and 44 worldwide.

In many ways it looks a lot like a standard data center and uses all of the same hardware. The only real difference is its higher rate of distribution. Major data center providers like Equinix, CoreSite, Digital Reality and others are setting up dedicated hardware in their co-location centers specifically for edge computing use, and its the same hardware.

For business users, Amazon is about to one-up the colo providers with Greengrass, which puts an edge computing center in your remote office or location. You can deploy it on something as small as a Raspberry Pi or an x86 tower server. Amazon developed it with a number of partners, including Intel, Qualcomm, and Samsung, and uses its Lambda serverless service to deliver local machine-to-machine communication. So a remote office or factory floor can deploy their own private edge computing server for local devices.

No Standard Design

IoT and edge computing have something in common: they are both works in progress. IoT was defined fairly early but it took a little while to catch on. Early attempts, like wearables, didnt go over well because they werent very good and people didnt like wearing them. With further development, embedded devices have gotten better. Each new generation of cars become more computerized. Smartphones gain new sensors and some wearables are actually useful.

However, IoT and edge computing remain a work in progress. Vekiarides notes that its difficult to generalize use cases or core apps. Every single one of these IoT apps is a snowflake, with its own unique requirements, there is no standard for IoT or edge computing yet because GM cars are unique to Ford, and factories have their own sensors, he said.

Platforms are starting to emerge that are similar to the messaging middleware that first emerged in the 1990s, like CORBA and SOA. They are little more than standards for passing messages back and forth between devices and where the processing is done, but its a start.

And like every emerging standard there are lots of contenders for the crown. Gartners Hype Cycle for IoT Standards and Protocols lists 30 would-be standards, half of them expected to deliver some kind of business benefit. They cover IoT security, device management and sensor input.

The Future

Obviously a great deal of buildout is needed. Even with a dozen major cities covered, Equinix has a way to go, as do its competitors. For smartcars to work in major metropolitan areas, significant edge computing will be needed, whether its from the car makers themselves, Equinix, Amazon, or emerging micro data centers like Vapor IO and Schneider Electric.

They offer ruggedized data centers about the size of a car placed at a cell tower with a wired connection to the tower to take in 4G data sent from local devices and process it there, or forward it on to a data center. The research firm Markets and Markets believes that the micro data center sector could be worth a $32 billion over the next two years.

And more compute is needed in the data centers as well. Vekiarides said hes heard anecdotally of some cloud customers not being able to get the compute resources they need. The problem will only worsen when millions of cars are sending data in to the data centers.

And of course, the network itself needs to get faster. Some of the major cloud providers like Google and Amazon have built their own networks for maximum throughput but for the masses, you are competing with Netflix and YouTube, which combined consume more than 40 percent of Internet bandwidth, and Netflix during peak hours is as much as 70 percent of Internet traffic.

That can be solved in part with the advent of 5G, which will be up to 10 times faster than 4G. That will take a lot of the load off the edge networks. Its scheduled for testing starting this year, and rollout will take several years because these networks are not cheap to build.

So overall, edge computing and IoT are still in their infancy but growing together.Mumbai: The quarter ended December 2017 has turned out to be one of the worst periods for state-owned banks as majority of them had reported a steep loss due to higher provisions against bad loans and absence of profits from treasury operations.

Out of 21 public sector banks (PSBs) that have announced their quarterly performance till date, five banks have reported drop in net profits while 16 banks have posted significant losses for the period when compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year.

Among the five banks that reported profits include Punjab National Bank, which reported a massive fraud on Wednesday, which could lead to recalculation of the banks profits.

There are two important factors that have impacted the quarterly numbers of state-owned banks. Most of them did not generate any profit from treasury operations, which previously used to account for a major chunk of their operating profits. While growth in deposits remained strong, loan growth remained tepid.

The banks had to suffer mark to market losses on the surplus liquidity parked in non-held to maturity portfolios, said Ashutosh Kumar Mishra, senior research analyst at Reliance Securities.

He also said that higher provisions for accounts referred under the Insol-vency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and fresh slippages also contributed for their dismal performance during the last quarter. The total losses reported by 16 public sector banks amount to Rs 18,947 crore.

Of them, State Bank of India (SBI) suffered the biggest loss amounting to Rs 2,416 crore, as it had to set aside Rs 3,400 crore as a mark-to-market provision on account of rising bond yields in addition to a loan loss provision of Rs 17,760 crore. Bank of India reported the second steepest loss at Rs 2,341 crore.

Central Bank of India, Corporation Bank, IDBI Bank, Oriental bank of Commerce, UCO bank and Union Bank of India are other lenders, which reported net loss in excess of Rs 1,000 crore.

While there were some good numbers from banks such as Bank of Baroda (BoB) and Indian Bank, others suffered due to the absence of treasury profits and ageing led NPA provisions amid tepid loan growth. Moreover, the pace of recovery and upgradation also slowed down impacting their overall numbers, said Siddharth Purohit, research analyst at SMC Institutional Equities.Scientists have identified a molecule that can rapid kill tumour cells and could potentially be used to develop new cancer therapies.

Humans need the chemical element selenium for good health. The selenium-containing enzyme thioredoxin reductase 1 (TrxR1) can be used to support the growth of cells and to protect them from harmful forms of oxygen radicals that cause oxidative stress.

Selenium intake has long been connected with cancer, although the correlation between selenium and cancer growth is extremely complex and not fully understood.

Raised levels of TrxR1 can be seen in several forms of cancer and are linked to worse prognoses in head and neck, lung and breast cancers.

Researchers analysed almost 400,000 molecules in the search for new and more specific TrxR1 inhibitors than those previously available.

They discovered three molecules that met their search criteria. Sure enough, when tested, these same molecules also proved to be active as cancer medicines.

The researchers were able to treat over 60 types of cancer cells under laboratory conditions. Normal cells were, however, much less sensitive to these molecules.

"This effectiveness against cancer may be a result of cancer cells' seemingly greater sensitivity to oxidative stress when compared to normal cells, which in turn can be utilised in cancer therapy," said Elias Arner, from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

Researchers also found that rapid tumouricidal effects when treating head and neck or breast cancers in mice, without obvious side-effects.

The new molecules have yet to be tested on humans, but it is already known that several different cancer medicines currently in use, including cisplatin and melfalan, inhibit TrxR1, researchers said.

Thus far, whether or not this inhibition of the enzyme is important to the effectiveness of these medicines has remained unknown, but this study suggests that this might well be the case.

Researchers now intend to further develop the new TrxR1 inhibitors to offer a new form of cancer therapy.

"My hope is that we will be able to develop new treatments, effective against multiple forms of cancer but with few side-effects," said Arner, who led the study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

"This seems to work in mouse models and we are therefore hopeful that this principle for treatment can be developed for humans, even if this will require many years of further research," he said.P. Lavanya, a native of Vijayawada, was working in Global Infotech in Navalur on Rajiv Gandhi Salai.

Chennai: A day after a woman software professional was waylaid by an armed gang, police secured a 20-year-old youth in connection with the case. The womans two-wheeler, stolen by the gang, led cops to Surya of Semmenchery.

P. Lavanya, a native of Vijayawada, was working in Global Infotech in Navalur on Rajiv Gandhi Salai. She was found unconscious on a deserted stretch along Thalambur-Perumbakkam road during the early hours of Tuesday.

The gang, police said fled with the womans 3 sovereign gold chain, her iPhone and the scooter she was riding before dumping her amidst the bushes by the roadside.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, around midnight, police found her scooter - a blue Honda Activa - abandoned near a Tasmac bar in Semmenchery.

Pallikaranai police who were investigating the case identified the bike owned by Lavanya. Based on investigations, police secured local rowdy Surya and are investigating him.

He has been detained on suspicion. Investigations are still underway, a senior police officer said. Five special teams headed by St Thomas Mount Deputy Commissioner have been formed to trace the suspects. Police suspect that more than three persons may have been involved in the attack.

Victim in critical condition

Techie Lavanya is still in a critical condition at the private hospital in Perumbakkam. Her sister Nisha Jaiganesh reportedly told the investigators that she was not aware that her sister was visiting her. We have to wait until the victim becomes conscious to find out why she took the stretch, a police officer said.

Lavanya lived in a rented accommodation in Thalambur, a few kilometres away from her office. Her family members have arrived from Andhra Pradesh. Further investigations are on.

The woman, police said, left the office around 2 am on Tuesday after her shift and was riding along the Thalambur-Perumbakkam road.

The gang who had trailed her scooter had attacked her from behind leading to her fall. They then took her to the deserted stretch of the road and took her valuables including her scooter and fled.

Pallikaranai police had registered cases under at least five sections of IPC including 307 (attempt to murder) and are investigating.Hyderabad: A group of eight post-graduate students from Universidad Catolica del Maule, Chile, visited the Centre for Study of Foreign Languages (CSFL) at University of Hyderabad (UoH) to interact with the students who are learning Spanish.

The students, on an educational trip to India, are working professionals from different backgrounds. They are also doing their Magister from the University in Chile.

In an interactive session, students of CSFL got a chance to practice the language with the native speakers and know more about Chilean society and culture and vice versa.

The educational trip was a follow-up to the recent visit of Mr Ranjeeva Ranjan, who teaches Spanish at CSFL in UoH, to the Universidad Catolica del Maule in Chile.

The Chilean students also met professor J. Prabhakara Rao, head of CSFL, who briefed them about the activities at the centre and invited them to come to the UoH on the student mobility programme.Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao met Union finance minister Arun Jaitley in Delhi on Thursday and sought early establishment of AIIMS and IIM in Telangana as promised by the Centre earlier. He offered to allot the required land and provide all the infrastructure facilities if the Centre sanctions the AIIMS. The Chief Minister also recalled then Union minister of HRD Smriti Iranis promise that an Indian Institute of Management would be set up in Telangana.

The Chief Minister thanked Mr Jaitley for extending Rs 450 crore grant every year to nine backward districts by enlisting them among the backward districts among the old 10 districts in the state. The Chief Minister noted that the Centre had sanctioned Rs 450 crore in the Budget to backward districts for the last three years but in the ongoing fiscal, it did not release the amount though 2017-18 was coming to an end next month.

The CM also sought Rs 19,000 crore for Mission Bhagiratha, Rs 5,000 crore for Mission Kakatiya as recommended by Niti Aayog two years ago, and national status and funds for the Kaleshwaram irrigation project. The TRS floor leader in the Lok Sabha A.P. Jithender Reddy, chief advisor to the government, Rajiv Sharma, CMP principal secretary Narsing Rao, and finance secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao accompanied the Chief Minister. The CM did not manage to get an appointment with the Prime Minister on Thursday as Mr Modi was campaigning in the North Eastern states, but hopes to meet him on Friday evening after meeting home minister Rajnath Singh on Friday morning.Hyderabad: President of Iran Dr Hassan Rouhani urged different Muslims sects to stay united and fight the Western forces. Addressing a meeting of religious leaders belonging to different schools of thoughts here on Thursday, the President of Iran who is on a three-day visit to India, said the community should put an end to internal differences.

The enemy does not see the sect of Muslims before targeting. They only see that they are fighting the Muslims and target the community in large, he said.

Rouhani advised the gathering to emphasize more in resolving their issues and strengthening relationships between the Muslim communities. He said Iran wants peace across the world and friendly relations with not only Islamic countries but other countries as well. It believes that there is no military solution to problems.

The problem is only diplomatic in nature. More efforts and unity are only solution to the world problem, Rouhani said. The President said that Iran wants Unity, consolidation, independence and support towards the east.

He said Iran has plan for the fraternity for India. We do not want to have any difference with other countries, he said adding how Iran stood against the nations, and regions, in order to stop war conflict and violence.

He exclaimed that War is in fact started by defending the rights of the nations. He added that the western world didnt justly reciprocate to the courteous behaviour of the Muslim world.

When we Muslims possessed universities and technologies, and others did not possess, we as Muslims without any possessions transferred our teachings and science to them, we promoted academics and zakat. Iran is looking forward to a strengthening relationship with India and it will go beyond the political goals," said Rouhani.

Rouhani said the people in the countries consider the relationship between Iran and India more for its historic links and ties dating back to several centuries.

We are looking towards a more closer relationship with India, he said.The KRS dam in Mandya, the main source of water supply for districts like Bengaluru and Mysuru.

Bengaluru: Security has been beefed up in Bengaluru, Mysuru and Mandya with a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Dipak Mishra likely to deliver its final verdict on a batch of petitions filed by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu questioning allotment of water by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, on Friday.

Home Minister R Ramalinga Reddy told Deccan Chronicle that a large number of policemen have been deployed in all sensitive areas in Bengaluru city which witnessed arson last year over release of water to neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

Besides, sufficient police force has been deployed in Mandya district-the hotbed of the Cauvery agitation and also Mysuru city as a precaution. All senior officers have been asked to be on the rounds in linguistic minority areas from Friday morning.

Security personnel of Karnataka Industrial Security Force, District Armed Reserve and City Armed Reserve police had been deployed at Krishna Raja Sagar reservoir in Srirangapatna taluk of Mandya district. Apart from this, security would be high at Kabini Dam, Hemavathi and Harangi reservoirs.

"Having identified trouble-prone spots, we have stationed policemen in large numbers to prevent any untoward incident," Bengaluru City Police Commissioner T Sunil Kumar said. "As many as15,000 police personnel, 70 KSRP platoons and 30 CAR platoons have been drafted for security duty in Bengaluru city on Friday. The cops will deal with anyone who tries to take the law into their hands with an iron hand,"Rescue work being carried out after an under-construction building collapsed at Kasavanahalli near Sarjapura in Bengaluru on Thursday  PTI

Bengaluru: A five-storey half-finished building collapsed, leaving three men dead and 11 injured and many trapped in the debris Thursday evening near Jail Road in Kasavanahalli, close to Sarjapura.

The dead have been identified as Anwar Ansari and Sher Ahmed, painters from Uttar Pradesh, and Raju from north Karnataka. Eleven labourers were rescued and rushed to nearby hospitals for treatment. All are between 25 and 35 years of age and hail from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and North Karnataka.

A senior police officer, who visited the spot, said the building tilted to the left and fell on a provision store, but fortunately its owner was not indoors at the time.

With more people believed to be trapped under the debris, 100 fire fighters along with the city police and National Disaster Rescue Force (NDRF) are continuing the rescue operation.

While two bodies have been recovered, the police suspect there may be more dead. They have no idea as yet about how many could be trapped either.

Going by the locals, the foundation for the building was laid around six years ago and the owner recently sold it to a Kerala businessman, who resumed its construction . The building was almost complete, when it collapsed. It is believed the foundation had weakened owing to stagnant rain water.

It was reportedly built for commercial establishments to begin with, but the owner now wants to reportedly convert it into a paying guest accommodation.

Mayor Sampath Raj said the police had been told to take action against the owner and contractor, but for now the priority was to rescue the trapped labourers.

City police commissioner, T. Suneel Kumar, who visited the spot, directed the jurisdictional DCP to ensure that the owner was booked. The police are currently on the lookout for him.

DCP (Whitefield), Abdul Ahad said BBMP executive engineer, Mahadevapura zone, Muneer Reddy and the owner of the building, Sameera had been detained and the investigation was in progress.

The building belongs to Mr Kunji Mohammed, a Kannur businessman , who owns a departmental store in Kasavanahalli. He reportedly bought it for his daughter, Sameera and was planning to turn it into a paying guest accommodation.The party is also planning alliances with some farmer organisations, and transporters' associations, that are not affiliated to any political outfit, going by sources.

Bengaluru: While the Congress and BJP are busy drawing up their own strategies for the coming elections to the state assembly, the Janata Dal(S) has almost completed formalities for a tie-up with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the NCP, and its talks with the CPI and CPI (M), old allies of party supermo, H D Deve Gowda, are said to be in final stages. The party is also planning alliances with some farmer organisations, and transporters' associations, that are not affiliated to any political outfit, going by sources.

State JD(S) chief, H D Kumaraswamy, who announced its alliance with the BSP and its decision to share 27 seats with it on Thursday, later held talks with NCP leader, Sharad Pawar. The NCP is reportedly interested in contesting the coming poll from five to seven constituencies, including those bordering Maharashtra and which are the strongholds of the MES like Khanapur and Belgaum (South).

By forging an alliance with the NCP, the JD(S) is hoping to appeal to Marathi voters across the state, according to party sources. Mr Deve Gowda and JD(S) leader, PGR Sindhia, a Marathi himself, are said to keen on the tie-up with the NCP, which has no base in Karnataka as yet. The CPI and CPI(M), meanwhile, could be given around five seats to contest, sources reveal.

These would include Bagepalli, once a CPI(M) stronghold, and constituencies in Dakshina Kannada and Udipi, that are close to Kerala. Although the party reportedly tried to woo pro-Kannada organisations, most are already backing either the Congress or BJP.

So JD(S) is now working with taxi, lorry and autorickshaw drivers' and owners' associations, which are not affiliated to any political party in the hope to win them over.The general election in Bangladesh is due in December this year and the leader of the main Opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, has been jailed for five years on corruption charges. Unless this conviction is overturned, the BNP may be forced to go into the election without her at the helm.

India has chosen not to react publicly to the developments in Bangladesh. This is likely to be interpreted as continuing support for Sheikh Hasinas Awami League government.

India tacitly supported the one-sided general election of 2014 which was boycotted by the BNP. More than 50 per cent of the seats in that election (154 out of 300) were won uncontested. With a mere 22 per cent polling, that election was legitimised by Indias backing.

Under Sheikh Hasina, much has been achieved in India-Bangladesh ties which could not be accomplished in the BNPs tenure. Hoping to continue the uptick in bilateral relations, New Delhi may be tempted to go along with the legal machinations of the Awami League to grab the coming general election. If it gives in, India would be making the same mistake  backing a particular party or leader  that has caused it so much grief in Nepal and in the Maldives.

The allegations against Begum Khaleda Zia date back to 1991 and the case itself was filed 18 years late. The trial has been hastened to ensure a conviction virtually on the eve of the general election in order to disqualify her from contesting.

In 1991, the Emir of Kuwait made a donation of $1,255,000 (Taka 4.5 crores) to set up an orphanage in the name of late President Zia-ur Rehman after his assassination. The grant came in the name of Prime Ministers Orphanage Fund, while no such fund existed in the Prime Ministers Office. In 1993, the Kuwaiti grant (including the interest accrued) was split equally and Taka 2.33 crores each was credited to two newly-created private trusts  the Zia Orphanage Trust in Bogra and the Zia Memorial Orphanage Trust in Bagerhat. The first was set up by Zias sons Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman, and the second by a former BNP foreign minister, Mustafizur Rahman. No documentary evidence has been produced to show that Begum Khaleda Zia had any role in setting up these trusts. The money lies unspent till today due to the continuous litigation and is now estimated to be over Taka 6 crores.

Begum Zia, her son Tarique and four others have been convicted in the Zia Orphanage Trust case involving the measly sum of Taka 2.33 crores. While the legal issues will have to be settled by Bangladeshi legal experts, the political significance of the case is undoubted.

The cases were instituted by the Army-backed caretaker government which held power in 2006-2008. It was working on the so-called Minus Two formula to oust both former Prime Ministers  Begum Zia and Sheikh Hasina  from public life. Corruption cases were launched against both  four against the former and 15 against the latter.

The cases against Sheikh Hasina were dropped for being politically motivated when she assumed power in 2009. However, those against Begum Zia remained and new ones were instituted, adding up to 36. Since then, 78,000 cases have been filed against an astounding 800,000 BNP leaders and cadres across the country. The political nature of the lawsuits is quite apparent.

The conviction of Begum Zia may have several objectives. It could serve to provoke the BNP to keep out of the elections or split it or at any rate ensure that the party goes to the polls without its star campaigner.

It is already clear that the BNP will not boycott the polls. By declaring Tarique Rahman as acting chairman of the party, the BNP seems to be preparing for the worst case scenario in which Begum Zia is denied bail.

As of now it may seem advantage Sheikh Hasina. Her credibility is high internationally because of her sheltering nearly 700,000 Rohingya refugees who poured into Bangladesh after August 25, 2017. The country has also witnessed unprecedented development under her rule  economic growth is expected to be consistent at above seven per cent, consumption and income levels have risen and the average annual growth in the Human Development Index has been the best in South Asia.

Yet there is considerable disquiet among the people about increasing executive control of the judiciary (the last Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was chased out of the country on trumped-up charges of corruption), the increasing reliance on the security forces  specially the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)  for governance, the states stranglehold over the media, the threat to civil society and free speech as well as the enforced disappearances of dissidents. In a free and fair election, therefore, the outcome may be uncertain.

India is more than happy with the Awami League government and may like to see it return to power. Indian apprehensions about the BNP arise from its past record of going against Indian interests and the suspicion of Pakistans influence on the party and its ally, the Jamaat-e-Islami. This alliance is also seen as worryingly ideological by India despite the BNPs protestations that it is only an electoral arrangement.

Some Bangladeshis, therefore, believe that India will be comfortable if a hobbled BNP participates in the election. Sheikh Hasina would then likely come back to power with greater legitimacy.

Such a surmise may be incorrect. It is unlikely that India would contribute to a distortion of the political process in Bangladesh yet again. It can ill-afford to support the Awami Leagues machinations as in 2014 without inviting international criticism and turning the Bangladeshi people hostile. India may, therefore, desist from any overt or covert interference. If its advice is sought, India should aim to promote only such actions which will strengthen the integrity of the democratic process and allow the peoples will  whichever way it goes  to manifest itself in a free and fair manner.Indias Left in general, and particularly the CPI(M), which has experience of running governments in West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala, has never really known whether it is fish or fowl or plain red herring. This is an important reason why the Communists, who formed the largest Opposition bloc in Parliament after the first general election, today find themselves hugging the margins of Indian politics.

The changing texture of politics across the country would appear to have passed them by. In West Bengal, they have been relegated to the third spot by the BJP. In Tripura, their highly respected chief minister Manik Sarkar appears to be under inordinate pressure from the saffron party. Its only in Kerala that Leftists have been able to keep their head above water, where the principal challenger is still the Congress, not the BJP.

This last fact, and that the CPI(M)s clash for supremacy in West Bengal and Tripura until recently was with the Congress, has traditionally clouded the Marxists vision on the all-India plane. Anti-Congressism is in the vein of the Indian Communist movement, and it is of special virulence in case of the CPI(M) variant of the movement, although the Congress Party has long ceased to be hegemonic. This may be among the key reasons why the party has nearly folded up in Alimuddin Street, its once much-vaunted state headquarters in Kolkata.

But this hasnt dawned on those who call the shots. The draft political resolution of the CPI(M), to be presented at the partys triennial congress in Hyderabad in April, nods to todays reality by declaring the BJP as enemy number one. At the same time, however, it calls the Congress a bourgeois-landlord party (the formulation is as old as the hills and hasnt changed although India has changed in basic ways) that is incapable of fighting communal forces although it calls itself a secular party.

The CPI(M) bosses appear supremely silly and self-destructively arrogant when they proclaim in the draft that the main task is to defeat the BJP, although this magic is to be performed without having an alliance or electoral understanding with the Congress, as reported by this newspaper. The CPI(M) proposes to rally all the secular and democratic forces. It assumes such elements are ready to march under its banner.

It is highly doubtful that the CPI(M)s dubious political gymnastics will affect Opposition unity as that party is in todays configuration practically inconsequential. Opposition unity will, really, turn on other, and larger, issues. But the CPI(M)s rank opportunism is evident as it speaks of appropriate electoral tactics to maximise the pooling of anti-BJP votes. This is the narrow window to revel in the shadow of the Congress wherever necessary. The Congress shouldnt mind if its mission is to take like-minded parties along.Elon Musks SpaceX, fresh off the successful launch this month of the worlds most powerful rocket, won an endorsement on February 14 from the top US communications regulator to build a broadband network using satellites. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai proposed the approval of an application by SpaceX to provide broadband services using satellites in the United States and worldwide.

Satellite technology can help reach Americans who live in rural or hard-to-serve places where fibre optic cables and cell towers do not reach, Pai said in a statement. SpaceX told the FCC in a February 1 letter that it plans to launch a pair of experimental satellites on one of its Falcon 9 rockets. That launch, already approved by the FCC, is set for Saturday in California.

The rocket will carry the PAZ satellite for Hisdesat of Madrid, Spain and multiple smaller secondary payloads. SpaceX was not immediately available for comment. On February 6, the company launched the worlds most powerful rocket, SpaceXs Falcon Heavy, from Florida. The 23-story-tall jumbo rocket carried a Tesla Roadster from the assembly line of Musks electric car company.

Pai said after a staff review he was urging approval for SpaceX, saying: it would be the first approval given to an American-based company to provide broadband services using a new generation of low-Earth orbit satellite technologies.

Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said satellite internet service shows great promise.

They will multiply the number of satellites in the skies, creating extraordinary new opportunities ...The FCC should move quickly to facilitate these new services while underscoring our commitment to space safety, she said.

Musk said in a speech in 2015 in Seattle that SpaceX planned to launch a satellite-internet business that would help fund a future city on Mars. He said the company wanted to create a global communications system that he compared to rebuilding the internet in space. It would be faster than traditional internet connections, he said.

Over the past year, the FCC has approved requests by OneWeb, Space Norway, and Telesat to access the US market to provide broadband services using satellite technology that, the FCC said, holds promise to expand Internet access in remote and rural areas across the country. The approvals are the first of their kind, the FCC said, for a new generation of large, non-geostationary satellite orbit, fixed-satellite service systems. It said it is also processing similar requests.

In January, Telesat launched a satellite operated by the Indian Space Research Organization to deliver high-performing, cost-effective, fibre-like broadband anywhere in the world and will conduct trials this year. The initial deployment will consist of approximately 120 satellites by 2021, said privately held Telesat, principally owned by Canadas Public Sector Pension Investment Board and Loral Space & Communications. The US government is working to try to bring high-speed internet access to rural areas that lack service. About 14 million rural Americans and 1.2 million Americans on tribal lands lack mobile broadband even at relatively slow speeds.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.Nokias first 18:9 display smartphone  the Nokia 7 Plus and the companys first Android Go powered Nokia 1 renders have been surfaced online. The Nokia 7 Plus leaked image suggests that the phone is to be released as Android One powered smartphone.

According to famous tipster Evan Blass, who revealed these images on his Twitter account also uncover the phones rumoured specifications.

On the design front, the leak suggests that Nokia 7 Plus features an 18:9 display (with rounded corners) along with Carl Zeiss dual cameras at the rear and also a fingerprint scanner mounted below these sensors. According to earlier leaks from GSM Arena, this phone is rumoured to have a Snapdragon 660 chipset, along with 4GB of RAM. As this phone is powered by Android One program, we can expect this phone to ship with Android Oreo 8.0 out-of-the-box. This Nokia 7 Plus  Android One might be sold in two different variants, one for China and other to be an International variant.

Nokia 1 compact smartphone (photo: evan blass)

Further, a compact designed Nokia 1 renders have also been showed up in his tweet, which suggests that this phone might be Android Go powered smartphone. Android Go is a lighter version of Android Oreo designed for phones which sport less than 1GB of RAM. The rendered Nokia 1 images suggest a single camera lens at the rear along with an LED flash and a smaller 4-inch display in the front.

Both these renders also feature front-facing cameras and also reveal their launch dates on the lock screen, which happens to be 25th and 26th of this month. These dates mean that this Nokias first 18:9 display phone might launch at MWC 2018.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.Iranian-American Muslim fashion blogger Hoda Katebi was told during a segment on local Chicago's WGN News' morning show that she 'does not sound American' because of her views, on live television. (Photo: Twitter/Screengrab)

London: American TV hosts have sparked controversy after they made Islamophobic remarks in an interview with a Muslim fashion blogger, who grew up in Oklahoma City of United States.

Iranian-American Muslim fashion blogger Hoda Katebi was told during a segment on local Chicago's WGN News' morning show that she 'does not sound American' because of her views, on live television.

The chat show host Robin Baumgarten asked Katebi about her opinion on Iran and nuclear weapons and she was laughed at for growing up in Oklahoma.

She was on the show to talk about bridging the gap between America and the Middle East through fashion and being an American hijab wearing Muslim and discussed being physically assaulted for wearing her hijab starting in the sixth grade in Oklahoma.

However, soon she was asked, 'Let's talk about nuclear weapons,' to which Katebi responded while laughing uncomfortably with, 'Okay.'

After which, Baumgarten's co-anchor Larry Potash said, "Some of our viewers say, We can not trust Iran."

"I don't think we can trust this country... I am a pacifist, I don't believe in violence," Katebi responded.

Katebi was called for an interview on her book, Tehran Street Style, and her blog. It was aired live on January 31.

After the interview, Katebi wrote a post on her blog Joo Joo to share her ordeal.

"So hindsight is always 20/20, and I honestly should have just stopped him right there and questioned why he thought it was okay to make this ridiculous comment and pose it as a question..." she wrote.

Katebi also took to Twitter explaining that the host called to apologize, and as a response, Katebi requested for another interview to discuss how to prevent such occurrences in the future.

(Photo: Twitter/Screengrab)

(Photo: Twitter/Screengrab)SALT LAKE CITY  Mitt Romney abruptly canceled the online launch of his U.S. Senate campaign scheduled for Thursday, citing the deadly shooting at a Florida school Wednesday.

"As a father and grandfather, my heart aches for the victims of todays tragic events. My prayers go out to all of the families and loved ones affected by this senseless act of violence," he tweeted.

"Out of respect for the victims and their families, I will not be making an announcement tomorrow about the Senate race."

Out of respect for the victims and their families, I will not be making an announcement tomorrow about the Senate race. (2/2)  Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) February 15, 2018

Romney didn't say when he would reschedule what was to be a video message announcing his candidacy.

The 2012 GOP presidential nominee planned to make an "all-digital" announcement, said Romney's longtime supporter Kirk Jowers, adding many candidates are choosing that route because that's how voters get their news.

"It kind of allows everyone to a part of it, whereas the more traditional way, it feels a little more confining," he said.

Romney is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the Utah County Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner in Provo on Friday.

Utahs adopted favorite son would become the instant front-runner to replace retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, when gets into the race.

Since telling the Deseret News a year ago this month that he was leaving the door open for another run for political office, Romney has been coy about his future. Speculation that he would run amped up after Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, announced his retirement in early January.

Romney, 70, has not faced the media during that time, and has deflected questions about running when reporters have caught up to him. He spoke at two conventions in Salt Lake City last month but didn't address or joked about the lingering question. His commentary on political issues, including criticizing President Donald Trump, has come via Twitter or Facebook.

Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, an ardent Trump supporter, said he and Romney talked last fall and he supports his candidacy. He said government doesn't work well when there's infighting.

"I'd like to hear from Mitt how do we navigate things like that given that nobody's perfect and there's criticism we can all have for elected officials," he said.

Hughes said Romney expressed "strong desire" to work with Trump to get things done.

"My comfort level really rose as we discussed that," he said.

Romney, who spent much of his professional life in Massachusetts, where he served as governor, is best known in Utah for turning around the scandal-ridden 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. He now lives in an upscale neighborhood in Holladay.

Democratic Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson has been campaigning for Hatchs seat since last summer. Democrat Mitchell Vice and Libertarian Craig Bowden are also running.

"I frankly don't understand the arms-length approach. I think Utahns deserve somebody who is willing to engage," said Wilson, who started campaigning last June.

Wilson, who earlier chided Romney about which state he would declare his candidacy from, said she jumped into the race not knowing who she would face or the odds of winning because Utahns' voices aren't being heard.

"Utah families deserve a Utahn as their senator, not a Massachusetts governor who thinks of our state as his vacation home," she said.

Jowers said the notion that Romney isn't a Utahn is "hilarious" and that he's "obviously a fixture" in the state going back to childhood visits, college and the Olympics.

"Rommey is not an ousdier to Utah. His whole life has been tied to Utah," he said.

Utah Republican Party Chairman Rob Anderson said it didn't to matter to voters in New York that Hilary Clinton ran for Senate there nor did they seem unhappy with their representation.

"If he meets the criteria, he should be allowed to run," he said.

But Anderson said he's a "little disappointed" that other GOP candidates feel like they can't run because of the organization and clout Romney brings to the campaign. Romney has deep pockets and vast fundraising network.

That apparently hasn't dissuaded everyone, at least from thinking about it.

Republican State Auditor John Dougall said he's seriously considering running for the seat. He told U.S. News he's driven by "the importance of having a conversation rather than a coronation."

Dougall did not return messages left by the Deseret News.

"We need to talk about what we want our U.S. senator to be rather than talk about who it should be," Dougall said. "And as an auditor, I know that single-source bidding is no way to do business."

Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, said he considers Dougall a good friend from the days they served together in the Legislature. But he said taking on Romney won't be easy.

"I just think it's a big challenge. Romney's name and approval rating is going to be very high," Niederhauser said.

Still, he said "it's good for everybody, bar none," to face competition.

Sen. Dan Hemmert, R-Orem, who was behind an online petition encouraging Romney to get in the Senate race, also said the race will benefit from additional GOP candidates.

"Now, I think Romney would win," he said. "But I think our election process works better with people running."

Contributing: Lisa Riley RocheSALT LAKE CITY  Utah schoolteachers would undergo training for child sexual abuse prevention every other year under HB228, which was unanimously approved Wednesday by the Utah Legislature's House Education Committee.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, requires school districts and charter schools to conduct the training and "provide, upon the request of the State Board of Education, certain evidence of compliance."

Deondra Brown, a member of the classical piano sibling quintet The 5 Browns and a survivor of child sexual abuse, said HB228 is also important to her as a parent of a daughter who is in the first grade.

"I see the importance her teachers play in her life. I see their influence for good every day, and I trust we're working together to watch out for her every day," Brown said, noting that her daughter would be late to school Wednesday because she wanted to watch her mom testify before the committee.

"I'm proud to be from a state where we make the protection of children a very high priority, and I ask you to support HB228 to help continue this very important work," Brown said.

Adults need to "step up to the plate" to reduce numbers of child sexual abuse cases statewide, she said.

"It's our responsibility to be educated on how to prevent abuse. It's our responsibility to protect children, and it's our responsibility to act," Brown said.

Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, said when she was a public schoolteacher, such training was not available, and when students confided in teachers they had been molested, teachers were unclear what to do.

"This is really, really important. Kids often will confide in a trusted teachers before they will tell a parent or someone in their family," Moss said.

The bill, as drafted, called for annual training, but it was amended by the committee to be required biennially. Romero said she considered the change "a friendly amendment."

Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper, said lawmakers must also be mindful of teachers who act out inappropriately with vulnerable students.

"The definition of a child is under 18. You can't turn 18 in the middle of your senior year and think all of a sudden you're having a consensual relationship. There can't be grooming. There's been a half-dozen or so highly publicized incidents. I wish it never, never happened, and I wish it never, never even had to be discussed," he said.

The instruction for teachers must also include "the same training internally with their educators so it's widely known and recognized that it just can't happen and it must not happen," Christensen said.SALT LAKE CITY  A former South Jordan police officer who recorded himself on his own body camera talking about attempts to extort his ex-wife pleaded guilty Friday.

Jonathan Mangum, 31, of Eagle Mountain, pleaded guilty to one count of theft by extortion, reduced from a second-degree felony to a class A misdemeanor.

Mangum's plea will be held in abeyance while he completes 14 months of court ordered probation. If he has no new violations, the charge may be dismissed. But if he does not comply with the terms of his probation, he could face jail time.

According to plea documents, Mangum's probation may be shortened if he is able to secure a new job in law enforcement.

Mangum admitted in plea documents that he had "attempted to exercise control over property rights of his ex-wife by threatening to accuse her of a crime or expose her to hatred, ridicule or contempt during the course of a divorce."

Charges filed in November by the Utah Attorney General's Office allege that on Aug. 27, six days after his divorce became final and while employed with the South Jordan Police Department, Mangum responded to a domestic violence situation and told the suspect in that case about an incriminating picture he had of his own ex-wife.

Mangum told the suspect that he had used the picture "to force her to back off pursuing a share of his pension during divorce proceedings," the charges state.

"Jonathan Mangum also stated he threatened her by saying, 'I'll get (Utah Division of Child and Family Services) involved. I'll throw this up on Facebook.  I'll show it to your parents. I'll (expletive) ruin (you),'" charges indicate.

The conversation was discovered by South Jordan police officials reviewing body camera video in their office. At the time of the incident, Mangum had already given his two weeks' notice to pursue another job, but South Jordan police said the department felt it had a duty to report the findings.

Mangum's ex-wife told investigators that while she had been considering several different factors, it was the "risk" that Mangum could use the picture against her that prompted her not to seek any of his pension in the divorce. The woman said she was "scared" and "embarrassed," charges state.

In text messages, Mangum threatened to use the picture at least three times, according to investigators, in addition to threats to take away her kids and withhold child support or insurance money.

The woman had filed for divorce from Mangum in April. A divorce decree was issued on Aug. 21 stating that Mangum "shall be awarded his pension in full, free and clear of any claim by petitioner," according to court documents.SALT LAKE CITY  Start packing your bags Philo T. Farnsworth, because Martha Hughes Cannon might be moving in.

The Utah House overwhelmingly passed a resolution Wednesday to replace Farnsworth with Hughes in National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol, where each state is allowed to display two notable people in their histories. The other Utah statue is of Brigham Young.

"She is the right person to be honoring at the right time," said Rep. Becky Edwards, R-North Salt Lake, the House sponsor of SCR1.

Rep. Patrice Arent, D-Millcreek, said Cannon is one of her role models and the perfect person to memorialize in the nation's Capitol.

"Sending her statue back to Washington sends a clear signal to Utahns and to people across the country that the accomplishments of women are just as important as the accomplishments of men," she said.

A polygamous wife, doctor, women's rights advocate and suffragist, the Welsh immigrant was the first woman elected to a state senate in the United States, defeating her own husband for the seat in 1896.

The resolution asks the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress to approve the change. Another bill would create a group to oversee commissioning a Cannon statue for the hall in 2020. Private donations, not tax dollars, would fund the project.

The House passed the bill 66-3 with an amendment, prompting cheers from the gallery packed with supporters of the legislation. It now goes back to the Senate, which passed the previous measure 21-7 late last month.

Rep. Christine Watkins, R-Price, said there are a lot of negative things happening between men and women right now, and honoring Cannon is a positive move.

"The timing is perfect," she said. "Let us celebrate the opportunity that we as women have been given and let that shine for our children and our grandchildren, no matter whether they're a young man or a young woman."

The resolution calls for the statue to be placed in the U.S. Capitol in August 2020 in commemoration of the month of the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote.

Wyoming was the first state to grant women the right to vote, but Utah was the first state in which a woman cast a vote. State lawmakers are considering special license plates commemorating women's suffrage in Utah.

A school class in the 1980s petitioned the Utah Legislature to place Farnsworth, the inventor of television, in the hall after it discovered the state only had one statue at the time.

Farnsworth will always be remembered in science and history books, said Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay.

"Martha Hughes Cannon not so much," she said.

Rep. Brad Daw, R-Orem, unsuccessfully tried to amend the resolution to revisit the choice of Cannon in 10 years. He said the statue designations aren't meant to be permanent but placed in the hall on a rotating basis.

Rep. Eric Hutchings, R-Kearns, urged his colleagues to pass the resolution without strings attached. He said it celebrates and recognizes a critical time in the nation's history and critically important person in Utah history.

"We are doing the resolution to make a statement in writing to the world," he said.Utah is a state where its citizens enjoy celebrating this countrys rich history both locally with Pioneer Day and nationally with Independence Day. It speaks volumes about the people who choose to call this state home. This month, the nation celebrates Black History Month. Its a time to remember the important achievements and contributions of blacks or African-Americans throughout our nation's history.

According to the United States Census, Utah has an estimated 1.4 percent of people who report themselves as black or African-American. Its obviously low compared to the estimated 78.8 percent who reported themselves as white, not Hispanic or Latino. This means that one out every 71 people in Utah is black or African-American. Having recently returned to the state, I have become more aware of this fact. These numbers are visually represented through my personal experience at work, in church, in the grocery store and generally in the community, where Im typically the only black person at a given time. Even with this small number, there is still cause for the citizens of this state to pause and celebrate black history.

There are multiple ways I think about celebration  celebrating as a black community, including others in that celebration and providing opportunities for education. The black community takes pride and joy in the month of February as it unites our community nationwide around a singular focus. It gives us an opportunity to celebrate men like Dr. Carter G. Woodson who is considered the Father of Black History. Woodson earned a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University in 1912 and later used his passion for black history to establish the Negro History Week, the predecessor to Black History Month. We celebrate other well-known figures like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall, to name a few. We celebrate this month through food, music, art and increasing our understanding of our heritage.

Inviting others to celebrate can be a little more daunting. If youre not black or have no association with the culture, you may feel uneasy about celebrating. If this is you, find an opportunity to gain exposure to the culture. After exposing yourself to the culture, then find an opportunity to have a dialogue with someone you may know who is black. Ask them about their life and their familys history. Learn about their experiences as a black person. With exposure and dialogue, you will find out details about that individual and the black culture that will create a deeper level of understanding. Ultimately, finding ways to identify with the black culture will open opportunities for those who desire to celebrate with us.

Increasing your knowledge of black culture and history is an important part of celebrating. Last year, I read the autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr., and it left an indelible imprint on my mind and soul. He embraced his calling as one who worked anxiously to provide blacks with the freedoms of every man in America. We can all find ways to increase our knowledge of black culture and history through literature, documentaries, articles, movies and online academic courses.

There may be under 44,000 blacks or African-Americans in Utah, but I believe through education and inclusion of the greater population and as a black community, the citizens of this state can add that number to the 3.1 million Utahns uniting to support and celebrate Black History Month.SALT LAKE CITY  This year's Sundance Film Festival has come and gone, but that doesn't mean film buffs  especially the budding ones  have to wait until next year to enjoy a good film festival.

Young moviegoers can attend back-to-back local film festivals geared toward young audiences, the first on Feb. 24 with the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival and then from March 2-4 with the Tumbleweeds Film Festival. Both festivals are in their seventh year and offer very different viewing experiences for their young  and old  audiences.

90-Second Newbery Film Festival

This is the first year the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival will visit Utah, giving fledgling storytellers a chance to retell Newbery Award-winning books in their own way.

The festival is exactly as it sounds: Young filmmakers can submit a film that is 90 seconds or less and based on the storyline of either a Newbery Medal winner or a Newbery Honor book. As festival's founder James Kennedy told the Deseret News, it's a chance to to get kids reading and thinking about books in an engaging way.

It's not just a report that you're going to put away and nobody's ever going to read or enjoy," Kennedy said, "It's something that you can kind of show around and people can get excited by it.

Kennedy encourages the participants to stray from straightforward adaptations and instead reinterpret the story. He likes to see contestants play with claymation, musicals and other unique styles  such as one entry, a horror adaptation of the classic childrens novel Charlottes Web.

The whole premise of Charlotte's Web is this pig is afraid that he might get killed, and this terrifying spider shows up and puts messages in the web and then the spider dies at the end but has laid all these eggs and thousands of spiders hatch all over the countryside  that's a horror movie, Kennedy said.

Heather Stewart, who teaches sixth grade at Orem Elementary, used the project in her accelerated learning classroom. One of Stewarts students, Jada Anderson, was on a team that adapted the Madeleine L'Engle's classic (and soon-to-be big-budget feature film) A Wrinkle in Time.

"I was just surprised how long it took to film scenes and how much you had to redo and how easy it is to make a mistake  especially when you film out of order," Jada said.

Jada wasn't alone in realizing how difficult filmmaking can be. Student Lydia Taggart worked on an adaptation of the young adult dystopian novel The Giver by Lois Lowry.

"My hardest part was probably that our group originally wrote a script and then changed the whole thing so  we kind of improved on a few of the scenes," she said. "We filmed multiple themes multiple times because we would mess up."

Despite the difficulties, the students said they enjoyed the process and learned a lot  even if what they learned wasn't necessarily about filmmaking or the book.

"My favorite part was probably just kind of bonding with my group," Lydia said. "I got to know people a lot better and I like that."

As a teacher, the projects allowed Stewart to see her students in a new light, as several of them who are normally reserved in class, blossomed in front of the camera.

"I was a little hesitant going in, saying, 'What have I gotten myself into?' but it was it was well worth it," she said. "I think the kids learned lessons and learned some real-life skills that you just can't teach in a classroom."

Tumbleweeds Film Festival

Just a week after the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival wraps up in Utah, Salt Lake's Library Square and the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center will host Utah Film Centers Tumbleweeds Film Festival. Designed for kids of all ages, Tumbleweeds will feature workshops, as well as a clubhouse with crafts and technical activities and, of course, films. Festival founder and Salt Lake City resident Patrick Hubley said their audience is more discerning that some might suppose.

Kids are sophisticated movie watchers," Hubley said in an interview with the Deseret News. "They're sophisticated media consumers more so than when I was a kid, and I think that they can recognize good storytelling when they see it. Our goal is to show films that engage and films that take them on a journey not only through the film, to a different country, but maybe to explore new ideas or new concepts that they may not have been introduced to.

Hubley will watch anywhere from 60-100 films to order build a cohesive program. He highlighted three standout films for this year's festival that attendees shouldn't miss: The animated The Big Bad Wolf and Other Tales, from French animator and filmmaker Benjamin Renner ("Ernest and Celestine"); Into the Who Knows, a film that centers on a young boy named Thomas, his invisible fox Felix and their travels into the woods; and the Swedish thriller "Room 213," the last film on the schedule, which follows a 12-year-old Elvira to summer camp where she encounters the supernatural.

When Hubley and his wife, Sarah Pearce, started the youth film festival seven years ago, they named it "Tumbleweeds" to encompass the spirit of the West and not just one state or city. He said that the festival  unique to the Intermountain West  has grown every year and continues to give young people an opportunity to enjoy good films. According to Hubley, the movies are all meant to transcend language and boundaries.

The films are just telling stories that young audiences can relate to," he said, "and they're providing a glimpse into other cultures.

While multicultural education is a big part of Tlumbleweeds, there's a lot to also learn from the festival's activities and workshops.

This year marks a big change for the festival as the main weekend activities will move from the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center to Library Square. According to Hubley, the change allows for more clubhouse programming  from crafting moving picture devices and junk sculpture marionettes to experiencing virtual reality  as well as expert-taught workshops that will focus on special effects and Hollywood makeup.

It's really trying to illustrate that film is an important piece of arts and culture," Hubley said. "Not only for adults but also for young audiences, and there's a world of art of artistic endeavors that go into making a film and storytelling.

If you go ...

What: 90-Second Newbery Film Festival

When: Feb. 24, 2-4 p.m.

Where: Salt Lake City Public Library, 210 E. 400 South

Web: 90secondnewbery.com

Notes: Early registration can be found online

Also ...

What: Tumbleweeds Film Festival

When: March 2-4

Where: Library Square and Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center

How much: Prices vary

Web: utahfilmcenter.org/twds2018SALT LAKE CITY  Utah's final plan to comply with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act comes with one caveat  a request to opt out of student testing requirements.

Failing to comply with federal requirements could imperil $123 million in federal funds the state receives for programs that assist children experiencing homelessness, live in poverty or whose parents are migrant farmworkers, among other initiatives. The funding also supports professional development for teachers.

The plan is essentially an application for those federal funds. Utah submitted its final plan to the U.S. Department of Education on Wednesday.

The waiver request could impact some or all of the funding, although top state officials say funds for program administration are more vulnerable than funding for the programs themselves should federal officials determine Utah is out of compliance.

Utah receives about $1 million in administrative funds each year.

Earlier this month, the Utah State Board of Education voted to seek a waiver from an ESSA provision that would require the state to count students who opt out of statewide testing as zero scores for school accountability purposes.

Were hopeful that the U.S. Department of Education will understand that in granting a waiver from this provision, Utah will be able to more accurately identify schools in need of improvement, State School Board vice chairwoman Brittney Cummins said in a statement.

We look forward to those conversations and anticipate discussions on how to ensure our accountability system is reliable and meaningful, she said.

Counting scores of students who don't take the test as zeros would "further erode confidence in the validity of Utahs accountability system," the State School Board statement issued on Feb. 1 said.

According to the waiver request, different groups of students opt out of testing at disproportionate rates. Students who are native English speakers and those who are non-low-income students choose to opt out of statewide assessments at higher rates than other student groups. On average, these students score proficient on statewide assessments in higher rates than many of the other student groups.

"Counting the scores of students who are non-low-income and non-minority is likely to interfere with identifying the lowest performing schools and student groups," the waiver request states.

State law permits parents, guardians or students over the age of 18 to request to be excused from tests administered statewide.

In 2017, 5.9 percent of eligible students opted out of statewide testing, up from 3.1 percent in 2015.

The opt-out rate among charter schools was 13 percent in 2017, and averages about 36 percent among virtual schools, according to state data.

Federal law requires a 95 percent participation rate.

The waiver request notes "Utah policymakers strongly support parental rights in directing and overseeing a students education. State law authorizes parents to excuse a student from taking a statewide assessment."

If granted, the waiver "would enable the state to maintain one coherent accountability system ... and avoid undermining the transparency of our accountability system, including the ability of policymakers, educators, parents, and students to make informed decisions," the request states.

Federal reviewers of an earlier version of Utah's plan raised concerns about state policies that make it difficult to discern teacher effectiveness. The policies may conflict with federal law, particularly at schools that serve high percentages of children from low-income families and receive Title I federal funds.

In Utah, school districts are not required to report educator evaluation ratings to the state.

According to the plan, very few Utah teachers - less than 1 percent - "have been deemed ineffective by the Utah evaluation system, and only seven of those are in Title I schools. Because there are no more than four ineffective teachers in any one district, Utah has determined that minority and low-income children are not served at disproportionate rates."

However, the State School Board is concerned that the low number "might indicate an unwillingness to identify ineffective teachers at the local level so (the Utah State Board of Education) will develop a plan for ongoing monitoring of effectiveness data and equitable distribution to ensure equitable access to effective teachers for all students," the plan states.

Presently, charter schools are not subject to state law on teacher evaluations. That may change, according to the final plan.

"(Utah State Board of Education) will consider requiring charter schools to report the numbers of ineffective teachers through the statewide (Comprehensive Administration of Credentials for Teachers in Utah Schools) system beginning in Spring 2018 to better analyze data for equitable distribution within and among the charter schools," the plan states.

Some members of the State School Board contend federal funding accounts for less than 7 percent of the state's overall funding for education so the state should not be boot-strapped to federal laws that conflict with state law, rules or priorities.

But other board members say the federal title programs assist some of Utah's most vulnerable children and help ensure equity. The attached federal funds enable schools to carry out those objectives.SALT LAKE CITY  A proposed pilot project overseen by the Utah State University's county extension offices aims to boost rural online job opportunities in struggling areas of the state, where county leaders bemoan their biggest export is young adults who can't find jobs.

The measure by Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, HB327, is in support of Utah Gov. Gary Herbert's rural jobs initiativethat seeks to grow 25,000 new jobs in rural Utah in five years.

Victor Iverson, a Washington County commissioner and a public lands official with the Utah Association of Counties, told members of the House Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Standing Committee that online opportunities can keep young adults in their home communities, if the state gets creative.

"We need to find a way to keep our young families here."

Darin Bushman, a Piute County commissioner, said his area lacks the necessary infrastructure to draw traditional economic development such as big interstates, a rail spur or even sufficient water.

He added that many people are either unemployed or underemployed, pointing to a school secretary with a master's degree.

"For every teacher position that comes open, there are 15 qualified teachers who want that job."

The measure directs USU to work with selected areas of the state over a three-year period for online job training at the high school and college level, picking those regions that particularly struggle with high unemployment but have access to high-speed internet.

USU is to particularly focus on scholarships and job recruitment training that includes freelance or remote opportunities.

Noel's bill comes with a $2.1 million allocation from the education fund and another $120,000 from the general fund and would require a report on progress by Nov. 1, 2020.

Rep. Carl Albrecht, R-Richfield, has companion legislation, HB390, which creates the Rural Employment Expansion program within the Governor's Office of Economic Development. That measure would allow "post-employment incentives" to companies for every job created in targeted areas if certain conditions are met.

Multiple commissioners from throughout rural Utah testified at the early Thursday meeting in support of the rural online initiative.

"We are 100 percent on board with this. We are exporting our kids, and we need to figure out how to keep them and start thinking outside the box," said Beaver County Commissioner Tammy Pearson.

"Don't take this wrong, this is a nice place to visit," she said, referencing Salt Lake City. "But I can only handle about three days.  Our hearts are at home in southern Utah."SALT LAKE CITY  The Utah Legislature unanimously passed a resolution Thursday honoring the late LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson.

"He is one of the most prominent public figures in the state of Utah over the past 50 years," said Rep. Merrill Nelson, R-Grantsville, sponsor of HCR5.

Nelson related a story about President Monson, who served as president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for nearly 10 years, giving a blessing to man who he had made one of the first patriarchs in American Samoa years earlier and later moved to Grantsville.

"President Monson never forgot a friend," he said.

Praising his leadership, care for the poor and needy, and work with Boy Scouts of America, Nelson said President Monson, who died Jan. 2 at age 90, lived the principles that he taught.

"As a young scoutmaster, I often was inspired by his example and his counsel to teach young men their duty to God and country and how to apply the principle of the Scout Law to transform boys into honorable young men," Nelson said.

President Monson's three children, Ann Monson Dibb, Thomas Lee Monson and Clark Spencer Monson, watched from the House and Senate galleries as lawmakers recognized their father's lifelong service.

Sen. Don Ipson, R-St. George, who handled the resolution in the Senate, recalled President Monson presiding over a marriage ceremony for a family member.

"I remember how comfortable he made us feel. He was very engaging," Ipson said, not letting his busy schedule interfere with the sacredness of that day.

Ipson talked about "how honored we all are that President Monson guided us and was such an example to all faiths and all walks of life."

"I, for one, am very grateful about what he has done for us," he said.

After the resolution passed unanimously, senators gave President Monson's family members a standing ovation. House members did the same.SALT LAKE CITY  Mitt Romney has been making calls to Utah Republican lawmakers over the past couple of days seeking their support for the U.S. Senate campaign he now intends to launch Friday.

Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, announced in a tweet Thursday he'd talked to Romney.

"I think he's been calling a lot of legislators to let us know he is going to run and would appreciate our support," Weiler said. "I told him he has it, so I'm excited he's running."

Romney canceled plans to announce his Senate bid in an online video message Thursday in light of the deadly school shooting in Florida. He now intends to release the video Friday morning and make a public appearance with Utahns before heading to a Utah County Republican Party fundraising dinner in Provo.

Weiler said he brought up comments made recently by Utah GOP Chairman Rob Anderson about Romney's ties to the state. Anderson compared Romney's run in Utah to Hillary Clinton's successful bid in 2000 to be New York's senator.

Romney "said he'd talked to Rob and that he would be sitting with him tomorrow night at the Lincoln Day Dinner in Provo," Weiler said. "I just said I hoped he'd give (Anderson) a second chance because I think he's a great guy."

Anderson released a statement apologizing for comments that he said "came across as disparaging or unsupportive," even though that wasn't his intent.

"Ive no doubt that Mitt Romney satisfies all qualifications to run for Senate, and as chairman of the Utah Republican Party, I will treat all candidates equally to ensure their path to the party nomination is honest and fair," he said.

The Republican Party leader said he spoke Wednesday to Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee.

"He was extremely gracious. In a time when many choose to react without knowing all of the facts, I am grateful he reached out to me to discuss this matter, and even more so that he accepted my apology without hesitation," Anderson said.

Utah House Majority Leader Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, said it's "silly" to say Romney isn't a Utahn. He recalled having lunch with Romney two years ago where they talked about Silicon Slopes, air quality, transportation and other issues. He said Romney was well-versed but also brought a national perspective.

Wilson said the two more recently spent a couple of hours in his office talking about public policy in Utah.

"He had a lot of questions, but more importantly, he had a lot of insight that was helpful for me," Wilson said.

GOP State Auditor John Dougall, who said he's seriously thinking about getting into the race, said Utahns ought to think about what they want from their senator.

"We need to understand where Mr. Romney stands before we decide where hell sit," he said.

Dougall said if he gets in the race, he can "100 percent guarantee" that conversation would be had. But he also said he knows his odds of winning are slim given Romney's name recognition, likeability among Utahns and "piles of money."

Senators were checking their phones for missed messages as news spread of Romney's calls to lawmakers Thursday.

"I was impressed with the fact he was reaching out for my input," said Senate Majority Whip Stuart Adams, R-Layton, who wasn't able to answer his phone when Romney called because he was presenting a bill on the Senate floor.

Adams said he's "got a list of what the federal government might do" that he plans to share with Romney, who is looking to replace retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

"Hatch was very, very helpful to Utah," Adams said. "We need someone who will follow up."

Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, said he received a call from Romney, who "wanted to say hello and that he would be in my district tomorrow night."

"I believe Mitt has the temperament and skills to effectively represent Utah in the U.S. Senate, and I shared that opinion with him," Bramble said.

Advisers to Romney say he intends to run a hyperlocal campaign and carefully skirt questions about President Donald Trump, whom he criticized during and after the 2016 election.

"I think the most important thing for Mitt is to run a Utah-centric campaign," longtime Romney supporter Kirk Jowers said, adding that Romney has longstanding ties to the state and is now a full-time resident. "He has such a national name that I think Utahns will want to see his fluency with Utah issues and his passion for representing Utah."

Romney has named MJ Henshaw, a veteran of Utah politics who worked for former GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz, as his communications director. He also hired Salt Lake-based Y2 Analytics as his polling firm.

As for Trump, Jowers said the president on "several, maybe most issues," represents conservative Republican values.

"Where I feel like Trump strays the most from Republican values are not necessarily policies but tone and temperament and tweets. The three Ts of Trump are very terrible to me. I think Romney will not define himself at all via Trump," he said.

Jowers said if Trump enacts policies in line with conservative Utah values, Romney would be next to him on the frontlines.

"But when Trump becomes unnecessarily divisive or offensive, I think he'll probably see Mitt continue to be the voice of reason and conscience for the Republican Party," he said.

Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, also received a call from Romney.

Hughes, a strong Trump supporter, earlier said that in a conversation last fall, Romney expressed a "strong desire" to work with Trump to get things done.

"My comfort level really rose as we discussed that," he said.

Gov. Gary Herbert said he expects Romney would try to earn Utahns' votes, and show he understands and respects the election process in the state, "so I would think he would probably go to convention and present his case of why he will be a good, by the way remember this, United States senator from Utah."

"We have people making all kinds of comments as if somehow he wont represent Utah," the governor said. "But as you know, our senators represent the nation. They happen to reside here in Utah."

Romney understands national issues, "so he's certainly well-prepared," Herbert said.

Senate Minority Assistant Whip Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, said she's excited for a race between Romney and Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson, a Democrat.

"Jenny has not only been in Utah, she's lived here her entire life," Escamilla said, joking during the Senate availability about whether Romney was calling lawmakers from a Massachusetts phone number.

"People may underestimate constituents. They can see through it," she said of the questions raised about Romney's connections to the state. "I think constituents in Utah want something different."The HP Elitebook 1030 G2 is a brilliant thin and light convertible laptop for business users. It delivers on all the key aspects that a business laptop should deliver on while offering top class build quality and elegant design that makes it stand out.

HP Elitebook x360 1030 G2 detailed review

Specifications:

CPU: Intel Core i7-7600U

GPU: Intel HD 620

Display Size: 13.3-inch

Display Resolution: 1920 x 1080p

RAM: 8GB DDR4

Storage: 512GB SSD M.2

Battery: 57Whr





The Elitebook 1030 G2 is the commercial counterpart of the much loved Spectre x360 laptop from HP. Hence this is a business thin and light with the capabilities of a touchscreen convertible.

The HP Elitebook packs a 7th gen Intel Core i7 processor, 512GB storage, a 13.3-inch display and a large 57Whr battery. Does it all come together nicely? Well, the short answer is a big Yes, but if you want to know more then go ahead, this is my full review of the machine, which I believe is currently amongst the best convertible business laptops you can buy.

Build and Design

Flaunting CNC Aluminum panels on both the front and the back, milled from a single metal block, the Elitebook looks elegantly premium while delivering the underlying feel of robustness. The incisive industrial design incorporates subtle highlights around the edges which add to the premium look of the machine.

However, the beauty is not just skin deep, the Elitebook 1030 G2 is one of the most sturdy machines I have laid my hands on in recent times. The machine is MIL-810G certified which translates to its ability to sustain extreme weather.

On a more practical note, there is no flex whatsoever in the machine. The aluminum chassis just wont budge under normal pressure. There is a sense of continuity in design all around, which is only broken by the single antenna line running across the top panel. This serves as the antenna for the Wi-Fi and is also used for the optional 4G if you were to opt for it. The robust all-metal build does not really impact its weight profile, the machine weighs just 1.3 kilograms. Which makes it an easy to carry yet a tough business thin and light. Continuing on the build and design, the hinge on the EliteBook is so well calibrated that you can open the laptop with just one hand when kept flat on the table. More importantly, the hinge has enough resistance keeping the display in the desired position while typing with the machine on your lap.

Display and I/O

The laptop features a 13.3-inch 1080p touchscreen display, which supports HPs Active pen, but unfortunately, that is not bundled with the machine, it needs to be purchased separately. Nonetheless, you can still use a non-active stylus to mark and draw if you like. The display itself is quite nice although it is not as bright as the HPs own Spectre x360, the colour fidelity is also not as well calibrated out of the box. The touch response is smooth and accurate. The Elitebook also offers HP Sure View technology, a privacy feature that can be simply activated with a single button press (F2). Sure View makes the display look washed out to the person sitting next to you, giving you privacy while you work. The display will appear normal to you when Sure View is at work. Itll just seem slightly dimmer than usual. Sure View is an effective way of keeping sensitive information away from snooping eyes. A nifty feature that should be offered in most premium business laptops.

HP has also given little reason to complain about the port selection, starting on the left side, the laptop offers a standard (Type-A) USB 3.1 port, a microphone/headphone jack combo, a SIM card slot and last but not the least, a security card slot. While the SIM card slot on our review machine is just a dummy slot, HPs official page does mention that the SIM card capability is available on the two units available on its website. The right side of the machine features a microSD card slot, USB 3.1 Type-C Thunderbolt 3 capable port, HDMI 1.4 out, another USB 3.1 port and the standard barrel power port. That said, I want to point out two things. Firstly the Kensington lock is right in the middle of the ports on the right, which seems out of place on a machine, which at least from a design point of view, is so precise. Also, HP could have easily powered the unit with a standard USB Type-C port, which would have added another port to the machine when not in charge.

Keyboard and touchpad

HP has been updating its keyboards, essentially making them better over each iteration. I liked the typing experience on the Spectre x360 and with the 1030 G2, HP has taken that a notch higher. The keys are firm, have good travel and offer a precise feedback. They press down with an audible click and come with two-step backlighting. Since the laptop is meant for business users, it comes with a dedicated calendar button, call receive and call disconnect keys. This means the prt sc key is moved to the right-hand shift key. Hence, now to take a screenshot, instead of pressing Windows key + prt sc, you have to press fn + Windows key + prt sc, which can get confusing during the initial period.

The touchpad is consistent and precise as well. Measuring 11 x 6.5 cm, it is a glass touchpad which means it is quite smooth from edge-to-edge. HP is using Glidepoint drivers here which works just as well as Windows precision drivers while adding some extra tweaks. Although, our unit came with Windows Precision drivers as default and I would recommend sticking with it. All windows gestures work fluidly and the two left and right keys press down with an audible click and have a rather smaller travel.

The laptop also features a fingerprint scanner which works with Windows Hello without any issues. In addition, HP has also added two IR sensors on both sides of the camera, for recognition based Windows Hello security, just in case you prefer that.

Performance

In the past year, I saw most thin and light laptops powered by the Intel Core i7 - 7500U processor at best. Even the Spectre had that, but the Elitebook 1030 G2 is powered by the Intel Core i7 - 7600U processor. It is still a dual-core part but the base clock is higher at 2.8GHz and thus the boost clock is also higher. This is paired with 8GB DDR4 RAM clocked at 2133MHz. This is a welcome change since most thin and light machines still use DDR3 RAMs. Then you have the 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD drive from Toshiba, which offers inferior read/write speeds compared to some of the faster Samsung SSDs available today.

The laptop is quick to boot, fast in tasks and does allow 4K video output over Thunderbolt 3. It doesn't matter whether you are browsing heavy web pages in multiple tabs or just going over a massive excel sheet, the laptop remains buttery smooth throughout. I even tried running Prime95 blender test on the machine which pushes all available CPU cores to run at their best clock speed and observed only a minor throttling issue which does not impact performance. This also speaks well of the cooling solution that HP has implemented on the Elitebook.

Audio output is handled by a pair of dual speakers on either side of the laptop. The bottom-mounted speakers perform well if you have a hard surface underneath. However, with bottom-mounted speakers, the sound output will suffer when you have the laptop on your lap. Tuned by Bang & Olufsen, the speaker system on the Elitebook 1030 G2 is fairly loud and does not get distorted even at the highest volume. Although dont expect the Elitebook to sound fuller in terms of mid and low frequencies, it is still a thin and light laptop that has to deliver sound through compact(tiny) drivers.

Since this is a business laptop, you also get a standard set of security features like HP SureStart which works at the BIOS level and ensures that your BIOS remains safe in case it gets attacked by any malicious software or if there is a security breach in the network. It is part of HP BIOSphere technology which works with HP Client Security that provides enhanced security by adding two-factor authentication including fingerprints and secure PINs. You get all this besides the Intel-enabled TPM 1.2/2.0 security.

Battery life

On an average, you can expect 9-10 hours of battery life from the HP Elitebook. Which isnt class leading but it does fall under the realm of good battery life in the thin and light category. The laptop can be charged with the supplied charger in around two hours, which is just as good as any other premium thin and light laptop out there.

Bottomline

All-in-all then, the HP Elitebook 1030 G2 is one of the best thin and light convertible business laptops out there. It has the design, the build quality, the performance, the security features, the battery life, best-in-class keyboard, a fine touchpad and a good port selection. The display is the only key area where the HP Elitebook 1030 G2 could have done better. Priced at Rs 1,61,496, the HP Elitebook G2 does seem to be asking for a rather stiff premium. However, once you consider that price points for business focussed convertible ultraportables are around the same range, and the fact that HP offers a 3-year warranty on the machine, it doesnt come across as an overpriced machine.The Donegal Democrat has been informed of the following deaths:

- Joe Kelly, Ballyness, Falcarragh

- Eileen O'Donnell, Tullygay, Letterkenny

- Peggy Quinn nee Tourish, Letterkenny Road, Lifford

- Packie Coll, Doaghbeg, Fanad

- Seamus Crumlish, 58 Lower Main Street, Letterkenny

- Paddy McGee, Glenleighan, Fintown, Donegal

- Mary Teresa (Teasie) Harkin, late of Falmore, Gleneely

- Nancy (Cassie) McBride, White Cross Road, Ranafast

- Leo O'Flaherty, Tonragee, Rossnowlagh Road, Ballyshannon

- Laurna Beirne, Elmwood Terrace, Killybegs

Joe Kelly, Ballyness, Falcarragh

The death has taken place at his home of Joe Kelly, Ballyness, Falcarragh of Kellys Furniture Shop Falcarragh.

His remains will repose at his house in Ballyness, Falcarragh from 6pm on Thursday 15th February, with rosary nightly at 9pm.

Removal from his home on Saturday 17th February going to St Finians Church Falcarragh for 1pm Requiem Mass with burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery.

Family time from 11pm until 10 am and on the morning of the Funeral.

Enquiries to Mc Clafferty Gortahork Funeral Directors.

Eileen O'Donnell, Tullygay, Letterkenny

The death has occurred at Letterkenny University Hospital of Eileen ODonnell, Tullygay, Letterkenny.

Her remains will be reposing at her late residence from 4pm this afternoon, Thursday 15th February.

Funeral Mass in St Eunans Cathedral at 11am on Saturday morning, 17th February with interment afterward to Conwal Cemetery.

Family flowers only. Donations in lieu to ICU Patient Comfort Fund Letterkenny University Fund c/o Con McDaid & Sons Funeral Directors or any family member.

Peggy Quinn nee Tourish, Letterkenny Road, Lifford

The death has taken place at Archview Lodge, Letterkenny of Peggy Quinn (nee Tourish)

Letterkenny Road, Lifford.

Reposing at Quigleys Funeral Home, Strabane on Thursday, February 15th from 7pm to 9pm and on Friday, February 16th from 3pm with removal at 4.30pm to St Patricks Church, Murlog, Lifford.

Requiem Mass on Saturday at 11am. Interment afterwards in the the adjoining cemetery.

Packie Coll, Doaghbeg, Fanad

The death has taken place at Ramelton Community Hospital of Packie Coll, Doaghbeg, Fanad.

Removal from Ramelton Community Hospital at 5.30pm on Thursday Feburary 15th, going to his late residence.

Funeral from there on Saturday February 17th at 11.30am for Requiem mass in St Patricks Church, Ballinacrick at 12 noon, with burial afterwards in Fanavolty cemetery.

Family flowers only please, donations in lieu if desired to the Ramelton Respite Fund & Fanad Day Centre c/o Mc Ateer Funeral Director or any family member.

Seamus Crumlish, 58 Lower Main Street, Letterkenny

The death has occurred at Letterkenny University Hospital of Seamus Crumlish, 58 Lower Main Street, Letterkenny.

His remains will repose at his late residence from 6pm this evening, Thursday 15th February.

Funeral from there on Saturday 17th February going to St Eunans Cathedral for Requiem Mass at 3pm with burial afterwards in the family plot in Conwal Cemetery.

Family flowers only please. Donations in lieu to Friends of Letterkenny University Hospital c/o Paschal Blake Funeral Director, Stoney Arch, Newline Road, Letterkenny.

Family time from 10pm to 11am.

Paddy McGee, Glenleighan, Fintown

The death has taken place of Paddy mcGee, Glenleighan, Fintown. Paddy's Remains will repose at his home in Glenleighan, from 4pm on Thursday. House private, family, friends and neighbours welcome. Removal on Friday at 6.15 p.m going to St. Colmcille's Chapel, Fintown, to repose overnight. Requiem Mass at 11 o'clock on Saturday with burial afterwards in the adjoining Churchyard.

Mary Teresa (Teasie) Harkin, late of Falmore, Gleneely

The death has taken place at her late residence of Mary Teresa (Teasie) Harkin, late of Falmore, Gleneely.

Her remains are reposing at her nephew George McLaughlins residence, Falmore, Gleneely.

Funeral from there on Friday February 16th at 10.30am for 11 o clock Requiem mass in St Columbas Church, Ballinacrea, Lecamey followed by burial in the adjoining cemetery.



Family time please from 11pm to 11am.

Nancy (Cassie) McBride, White Cross Road, Ranafast

The death has taken place at Letterkenny University Hospital of Nancy (Cassie) McBride, White Cross Road, Ranafast.

Her remains will repose at her late residence.

Removal from there on Friday at 10.30am for requiem mass at 11am at the Star of the Sea Church Annagry with burial afterwards in Magheragallon cemetery.

Rosary both nights at 9pm.

House private from 11pm to 10am.

Donations in lieu of flowers to the ICU Surgical One, Letterkenny University Hospital c/o any family member or Stephen ODonnell and Sons Funeral Directors.

Leo O'Flaherty, Tonragee, Rossnowlagh Road, Ballyshannon

The death has taken place of Leo O'Flaherty, Tonragee, Rossnowlagh Road, Ballyshannon, after a short illness at Sligo University Hospital.

Funeral leaving the family home on Friday at 1.30pm to arrive at Saint Anne's Church of Ireland, Ballyshannon, for 2.00pm Funeral Service, followed by committal in adjoining churchyard. Family flowers only, please. Donations in lieu, if so desired, to Saint Anne's Parish Church Fund c/o Patsy McCauley funeral director or any family member.

House Private to family and close friends.

Very fondly remembered by his parents, brother, sisters, partner, brother-In-law, uncles, aunts and extended family circle.

Laurna Beirne, Elmwood Terrace, Killybegs

The death has taken place of Laurna Beirne, Elmwood Terrace, Killybegs. Remains reposing at her daughter Marina Doherty's residence.

Removal from there on Wednesday evening at 6pm to St. Mary's Church, Killybegs for 6.30pm. Funeral Mass on Thursday at 11am with burial afterwards in the local cemetery. Family flowers only please. Family time from 11pm to 11am.



Should you wish to have a death notice included on our website, contact us with the details via this email address: editorial@donegaldemocrat.com Please include a contact number for verification.Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.

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Support our mission and join our community now.The king of Tory, Patsy Dan MacRuaidhri, has thanked all those who came to support the islanders during a protest which was held outside of Dail Eireann yesterday (Wednesday).

Islanders believe the vessel the Queen of Aran which is to begin servicing the island on April 1st, is not up to standard. The Queen of Aran was built in 1976.

Members of Conradh na Gaeilge from across the country supported the protesters outside Leinster House yesterday.

Mr. MacRuadhri said: We enjoyed great support. People came from Belfast, Dublin, Galway and Sligo to join us. We are hopeful that our message has been heard.

Island families have threatened to leave Tory should the vessel be allowed to service the island. They have also said they will not allow the ferry dock at the pier on April 1st.

The population of the island has increased in recent years.



MEETINGS

Meetings relating to the issue have been held between the islanders, the Government Chief Whip Joe McHugh and officials from the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. However, a resolution to the issue continues to be sought.

During 2017, the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht ran an open tender competition for the provision of a passenger and light cargo ferry service for Toraigh Island to come into effect from April 1st. Following evaluation of tenders received, the contract for this service was awarded to the company, Realt na Maidne Teo, using the vessel, MV Queen of Aran. The contract was allocated for five years.

A statement from the department said that at a meeting which was held on February 2nd, it was indicated that they were open to looking at a range of options for future ferry services to the island, including the possibility of purchasing a new vessel, building a bespoke vessel, subsidising the provision of a separate fast ferry service for the island to supplement both the new service scheduled to commence on 1st April 2018 and the islands subsidised weekly winter air service.

Funding for any of these proposals would have to be evaluated in accordance with the Public Expenditure Code as set down by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

The manager of Comharchumann Thorai, Marjorie Ui Chearbhaill said she hopes that a resolution can be met .Very deeply regretted was the recent death of Columba McPaul, late of Maghery and Cois Locha Housing Estate, Gweedore Rd, Dungloe.

He was 67. Born on 11 June 1950, he was the youngest of three boys born to Hugh and Rose McPaul, Maghery. He attended Roshine N.S. and, after completing his primary education, he went to work on the family farm.

The king of Maghery

He later worked in construction. Like so many in his native area, he joined the ranks of the Maghery Band when he was a wee boy. He became the leader of the Youth Band, affectionately known as the wee band, when it was founded in 1959 and remained the leader for the length of time it lasted, until the mid sixties. He gradually rose through the ranks over time until he eventually became the leader of the Senior Band, enjoying good success in his time at the helm,leading the Band to 3-in-a-row success at the Mary from Dungloe Festival during the '70s.

When the Maghery Festival started and the Maghery King competition was introduced, Columba entered and was elected the King of Maghery. He was the last King of Maghery over 20 years ago, and was the undisputed King of Maghery for 26 years until the competition was revived during the Maghery Festival of the Summer of 2017.

Fianna Fail

Columba was a big Fianna Fail man all his life. He attended no less than 15 Fianna Fail Conventions since 1979, accompanying Pat the Cope Gallagher, T.D., Leas Cheann Comhairle, on each occasion. He was also one of the first to accompany Pat to the European Parliament in Brussels when he was first elected as an M.E.P.

Columba was a Maghery man through and through and remained in his home area of Maghery for most of his life until he moved into Dungloe and the Cois Locha Housing Estate on the Gweedore Rd in recent times.

He spent the final week of his life in Letterkenny University Hospital. During the wake many mourners called to pay their last respects to Columba and to sympathise with his sorrowing family and extended family.

Funeral Mass



His funeral Mass was celebrated in St Crona's Church by Fr Aodhan Cannon, P.P. Interment took place in St Crona's cemetery in Maghery. Pat the Cope Gallagher, T.D., Leas Cheann Comhairle, on behalf of the Fianna Fail Party, placed a wreath on Columba's grave.

Columba was predeceased by his parents, Hugh and Rose, and his brother, Charlie, who died on the very same date as Columba in 2009. He is survived by his brother, James, Maghery, sister-in-law, Brid, niece, Geraldine, nephews, Damien, Hugh and Mark, cousins, other relatives and in-laws and many friends and neighbours to whom the deepest, heartfelt sympathy of the whole community is extended. May his gentle soul rest in peace.Though the C-segment category in the Indian automotive market has some strong competitors, the comfort and safety features of the Toyota Yaris can give it an edge. Here are some of the top features of the Toyota Yaris:

Roof-Mounted AC Vents

Recommended Video - Watch Now! Toyota Yaris India Walkaround; Specifications, Features, Details

Although rear AC vents are common in most recent cars, Yaris has added it in a different way. The Yaris gets segment-first roof-mounted AC vents for the rear passengers. Roof-mounted AC vents are unusual in sedans, but they are much more efficient than conventional rear vent-units placed at the bottom.

In addition to this, the Toyota Yaris also gets ambient lighting beside the roof-mounted AC vents.

Infotainment System With Gesture Controls

The 7-inch touchscreen infotainment system in the Toyota Yaris gets gesture controls. Until now, the feature was limited to upmarket sedans such as the BMW 7-Series and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. You can just swipe your palm in front of the infotainment system, to change the music or increase the volume.

The system supports satellite navigation. However, it misses out on both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

Front Parking Sensors

While most cars get rear parking sensors and reverse camera, the Toyota Yaris gets front sensor units too. This means that the Yaris will give you extra assistance in a tight spot. Another thing worth noting is that front parking sensors are usually seen only on cars costing above Rs 20 lakh.

Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)

The Yaris comes with a lot of segment-first features; both big and small. One such feature is the Tyre Pressure Monitoring System or TPMS. The feature is limited to just an indication on the instrument console, but it avoids the need to get out of the car and check each tyre.

Seven Airbags As Standard

Many manufacturers claim that they provide airbags as standard on each model. However, the number of airbags is limited to just two or maybe even one on base variants. This is not the case for the Yaris. The Toyota Yaris gets seven airbags as standard across all variants. This proves Toyota's commitment towards the safety of their customers.

Driver-Assist Features

In addition to common systems such as ABS, EBD and BA, the Toyota Yaris offers a lot more driver-assist features. The sedan comes with disc brakes on all four wheels. Advanced features such as Vehicle Stability Control, Hill-Start Assist and Cruise Control adds more to Toyota's equipment list.

Other Top Features Of The Toyota Yaris

The Toyota Yaris ticks a lot of boxes when it comes to features. The number of functionalities available in the car had made the Toyota Yaris desirable even before the launch.

Here are some noticeable features of the Toyota Yaris:The pot-holed state of the road in Willow Grove off the Carrick Road in Dundalk has been called a "disgrace" by one resident.

On a Facebook post this afternoon Darren Murphy called for more to be done to fix the road.

"More needs to be done than talk about the problem the picture posted is a pot hole outside my drive way - you cant avoid going into it out of my drive.

"The housing estate is like a ghost town. No kids can play on their bikes because of the state of the roads. Cars drive on the wrong side of the road to avoid the pot holes and the foot paths are no different.

"It really feels like a third world street. Im sure if any councillors lived here, the remedial works would be carried out.

"Its a total disgrace the state this street is in. We were promised so much during the elections but then ignored."

Red Cross Climate Centre welcomes the statement by the UN Security Council recognising the impact of climate change on West Africa and the Sahel region, including drought, desertification, land degradation and food insecurity, and the call for strategies by governments and the UN to manage associated risks.

The statement underpines ICRCs warning for the precarious security situation in the Sahel region that overshadowed a massive humanitarian crisis affecting 12 million people in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

A statement read by the council president Kairat Umarov was adopted on 31 January, centred on the consolidation of peace in West Africa, expressed concern over the overall humanitarian situation in the region.

UN recognises that drought plays an important role in conflicts and migration in Sahel countries.

Precarious situation

In a statement last November, the ICRC said a precarious security situation in the Sahel region was overshadowing a massive humanitarian crisis affecting 12 million people in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

Conflicts in the Lake Chad region and Mali, combined with the activities of armed groups across borders, had serious consequences for neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mauritania, said Patrick Youssef, the ICRCs Deputy Director for Africa.

The regions challenges are exacerbated by climate change, poverty and food shortages, he added.

The ICRC is helping more than 1.5 million people in these five countries by providing seeds, tools, fertilizers, fodder and animal vaccinations.

UN Security Council adopted the statement on the critical situation in the Sahel on the last day of the councils presidency by Kazakhstan.

Fitting all pieces together

Climate Centre Director Maarten van Aalst also welcomed the UN references to humanitarian innovations to address rising risks, saying discussions under the Paris Agreement, on the SDGs, in the Security Council, and in humanitarian forums all now overlapped.

We cannot close our eyes to the fact that people in fragile and conflict-affected countries are also the most vulnerable to rising climate-risks, said Van Aalst.

This cannot be solved simply as a climate problem, a security problem, or even a question of humanitarian response  we have to fit the pieces together.

New approach on peace

In reaction to the adaption of the statement Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom tweeted that it was an important step; contemporary challenges to peace and security required new approaches, she argued, and in recognizing the adverse effects of climate change the council was also illustrating the need to tackle root causes of crises.

Netherlands Climate Envoy Marcel Beukeboom tweeted that for the Security Council to link climate change and security was a significant step, and something the Netherlands had argued for through  among other channels  the Planetary Security initiative.

PSI-conference in The Hague in December 2017 addressed the effects of climate change as one of the root causes for conflicts.

Bridging knowledge and policy

The Planetary Security Initiative (PSI) is a multi-year initiative run by a consortium of think tanks, including the Center for Climate and Security, to strengthen the knowledge-policy interface on global security. The consortium and the community of practice is coordinated by Dutch-based research institute Clingendael.

In December last year the imitative held a conference in The Hague, the Netherlands, where forty high level representatives signed a declaration that calls for a special UN climate security envoy for the coordination on international migration issues by addressing the effects of climate change such as water scarcity.

In March, the Netherlands will chair the UN Security council and will have the issue of a special envoy for climate security high on its agenda.

This news item was originally published on the website of ICRC Climate Centre.

Read also on this website

 SNV and ACF join in EU-funded projects to halt migration in Northern Cameroon, 19 December 2017

 High level representatives sign The Hague Declaration for concerted action on climate security, 13 December 2017

 Stockholm World Water Week 2017: Many reasons for conflicts, water shortage is one of them, 30 August 2017



More information

ICRC Climate Centre

The Hague, the Netherlands

+31 70 445 58 86

www.climatecentre.org

Planetary Security Initiative

c/o The Clingendael Institute

The Hague, the Netherlands

+31 70 374 66 94

www.planetarysecurityinitiative.org

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Online retail has been booming, with consumers flocking to the Internet to shop for almost anything. Online retail revenues in the U.S. would reach a projected US$445 billion in 2017 and jump to $600 billion by 2020, according to a report FTI Consulting released last fall.

The U.S. government has begun developing a program that would allow agencies to utilize e-commerce portals for purchases of commercial off the shelf (COTS) products.

The program could impact e-commerce in two significant ways.

First, it could provide a major boost to Internet marketing in general by putting a huge amount of federal government purchases in play for online procurement versus standard paper and contract-based purchasing. For example, office supplies could be acquired via Amazon, suggested Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, a key supporter of the program. However, other early reactions to the idea reflect concerns about concentrating federal e-commerce with a dominant provider.

Second, it could affect the way information technology providers market their offerings to federal agencies. It appears that government e-commerce purchasing eventually could include IT offerings, but a number of federal requirements would have to be addressed before any substantial volume of IT business would move through a digital procurement channel.

How the Program Would Work

The federal General Services Administration has begun developing the e-commerce purchasing program in conjunction with the White House Office of Management and Budget. GSA was directed to implement the system through a provision of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, which became law last month.

As originally proposed by Thornberry, the program was limited to the Defense Department, but the NDAA expanded it to cover all federal agencies -- both military and civilian. Government-wide spending for commercially available products and services amounts to more than $50 billion per year, according to GSA estimates.

The law stipulates that federal e-commerce purchasing be phased in through several steps. While program development could extend into 2020, the first phase already is under way and must be completed this March.

In the first phase, GSA is required to create an implementation plan and a schedule for launching the online marketplace program. Within a year of implementing the first phase, GSA must prepare recommendations for any changes or exemptions to existing laws that would be necessary for making the online program operational. Lastly, OMB and GSA must create guidance for the program within a year of implementing phase two.

GSA has been making a major effort to obtain input from the private sector during the program development process. The agency conducted a town meeting forum earlier this month. During the NDAA enactment process, drafts of the e-commerce proposal changed significantly, partly as a result of comments from private sector parties who were asked for feedback by congressional staff.

For example, the Coalition on Public Procurement provided a background paper contending that the draft under consideration last fall embodied "the most consequential procurement policy change in a generation." The draft language would result "in only one or two providers" having "the capability and potential regulatory compliance" to be selected as an e-commerce portal, the coalition cautioned. "Thus, the proposal could result in monopoly or duopoly control over access to the federal market for commercial items."

Law Requires Competitive Platforms

The final version enacted into law addresses that issue. The law "makes clear that GSA must enter multiple contracts with multiple commercial e-commerce portal providers, thereby allaying fears that the bill could lead to a monopolistic online marketplace provider capturing a substantial portion of the government's needs," according to a commentary by Holland and Knight attorneys Robert Tompkins and Rodney Perry.

In addition, the law specifies that all existing laws, including federal procurement restrictions, apply to the online marketplace program.

"GSA therefore will have to enter contracts with commercial e-commerce portals through full and open competition," Tompkins and Perry observed.

At the GSA forum, attendees presented various ideas for constructing a federal e-commerce acquisition program.

"One model that was discussed would require a portal provider to contract with GSA to provide an online interface. Under this approach, suppliers would then sign up to use the portal, potentially via a contract with the portal provider. Next, government purchasers would select suppliers from the portal, entering prime contracts with suppliers directly," wrote Susan Cassidy, a partner at law firm Covington and Burling, in an online post.

Another approach would require online portal providers to sell directly to the government, providing a user interface for online purchases and the end items of supply, she noted.

"Consistent with the text of the statute," numerous attendees said that multiple online portals would "encourage competition among a larger pool of potential contractors and deliver better value to the government," Cassidy said.

"It is still very early in the process, and it was clear at the industry day that GSA has many questions to answer and decisions to make," said Eminence Griffin, director of federal procurement at the Information Technology Industry Council.

"That being said, we continue to advocate for adequate competition for the marketplace contracts and a level playing field for government e-commerce sites as well as guidance on how this will impact supply chain and cybersecurity requirements," she told the E-Commerce Times.

Tricky E-Commerce Landscape

Despite the scope of commercial off the shelf products involved in the GSA program, it is not related to a different federal effort to utilize commercial off the shelf software, Griffin noted.

"For COTS software, that generally means shrink-wrapped software, which is not often a candidate for government software needs," she said.

"At the federal level, the focus is usually commercial software solutions for large institutions. We don't see substantial changes to the market for COTS software, and this statute has no impact on the acquisition of commercial software," Griffin explained.

"While part of the first two phases of implementation will involve determining what products -- or types of products -- are appropriate for the government to purchase through digital marketplaces, we believe the government will start with simple items that don't require configuration," said Steve Charles, founder of immixGroup.

"This could exclude laptops, for example, because the government requires its own software install," he told the E-Commerce Times.

It appears that use of the e-commerce program for procurement faces numerous hurdles, when it comes to commercial off the shelf software.

"We view COTS as any software that is commonly sold in substantial quantities to the general public, such as individual consumers and commercial enterprises and companies," Charles said.

However, "the acquisition of software is quite unlike buying paper towels or paper clips. For instance, there are additional terms such as software license agreements, that must be reviewed and agreed upon," he pointed out.

"In the government's case, only a warranted contracting officer can bind the government. Whereas, when a consumer could simply click 'agree,' the government cannot," Charles said.

Other factors, such as integration services or the use of cloud associated software, also would have to be addressed when considering the use of online platforms for software procurement.

The situation can get even more complicated in the case of software resellers. The potential impact there "is getting cut out of the government's supply chain if just any third-party reseller is allowed to place products on e-commerce portals without authorization from the OEMs," Charles noted.

"A critical factor is that only resellers that have been authorized by and have a relationship with the OEM can stand behind a warranty and guarantee to deliver only genuine products," noted Jeff Ellinport, division counsel at immixGroup.

Furthermore, reseller arrangements can often involve multiple intermediaries.

"Only OEM authorized entities should be able to place an OEM's products for sale on a portal," Ellinport told the E-Commerce Times, "and the portal should then be required to validate that such entity is authorized to resell the OEM's products."

John K. Higgins has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2009. His main areas of focus are U.S. government technology issues such as IT contracting, cybersecurity, privacy, cloud technology, big data and e-commerce regulation. As a freelance journalist and career business writer, he has written for numerous publications, including The Corps Report and Business Week. Email John.



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Google's Chrome Web browser on Thursday began blocking some of the Net's most annoying types of ads.

Chrome's built-in ad filter blocks ads based on standards devised by the Coalition for Better Ads, an industry group whose membership roster includes Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and The Washington Post.

The group was formed to do something to blunt consumers' bad experiences with advertising on the Web, said CBA spokesperson Brendan McCormick.

"A big symptom of that was ad blocking around the world where consumers were trying to get rid of these annoying ads," he told the E-Commerce Times.

The Web is an ecosystem composed of consumers, content producers, hosting providers, advertisers, Web designers and many others, noted Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, Google's vice president for Chrome, in an online post.

"It's important that we work to maintain a balance -- and if left unchecked, disruptive ads have the potential to derail the entire system," he wrote.

"We've already seen more and more people express their discontent with annoying ads by installing ad blockers, but blocking all ads can hurt sites or advertisers who aren't doing anything disruptive," Roy-Chowdhury pointed out.

"By focusing on filtering out disruptive ad experiences, we can help keep the entire ecosystem of the Web healthy, and give people a significantly better user experience than they have today," he added.

Surfer Interruptus

After extensive research involving 40,000 consumers worldwide, the coalition identified a dozen ad types that consumer found the most annoying.

"They're things that tend to interrupt content -- auto-playing video ads with sound, and pop-up ads, for example," CBA's McCormick said.

The ad types Chrome will block are divided into two groups: mobile and desktop.

Types of mobile ads that will be blocked:

Pop-up ads

Prestitial ads

Mobile pages with more than 30 percent ad density

Flashing animations

Poststitial ads that require a countdown to dismiss

Fullscreen scrollover ads

Large sticky ads

Ads that auto-play videos with sound

Desktop ad types blocked by Chrome:

Pop-up ads

Ads that auto-play videos with sound

Prestitial ads with a countdown

Large sticky ads

How It Works

Here's how Chrome ad blocking works: Sites are evaluated by examining a sample of pages from them. Depending on the number of violations of the Better Ads Standards that are found, the site will be given a status of Passing, Warning or Failing.

After a user lands on a page, Chrome's ad filter checks if that page belongs to a site that fails the Better Ads Standards. If so, the network requests on the page -- such as those for JavaScript or images -- are checked against a list of known ad-related URL patterns. If there is a match, Chrome will block the request, preventing the ad from displaying on the page.

When at least one network request has been blocked, Chrome will show the user a message indicating that ad blocking has occurred and provide an option to disable the setting by selecting "allow ads on this site."

For desktop users, the notification in Chrome's address bar will look similar to Chrome's existing pop-up blocker. Android users will see a message in a small infobar at the bottom of their screen and can tap on "details" to see more information and override the default setting.

Ad Blockers Not Going Away

By building ad blocking into Chrome, Google wants to enhance the consumer's experience with advertising, noted Josh Crandall, CEO of NetPop Research.

"They want to support an advertising experience that's beneficial to consumers," he told the E-Commerce Times. "If it's beneficial to consumers, it will ultimately be beneficial to advertisers."

Google's action is a "cleanup move," remarked Sean Blanchfield, CEO of PageFair.

"Chrome, as the majority browser, is going to block the worst of the worst of ads, which mostly low-quality websites tend to deal in," he told the E-Commerce Times.

While including ad blocking in Chrome may be an effort to slow down consumer adoption of ad blocking extensions, that may not happen, Blanchfield noted.

"People use ad blockers for all kinds of reasons," he said. "They're concerned about security and privacy, bandwidth and page performance. Google's move doesn't speak to any of those at all."

Safari, Firefox Will Follow

Now that Chrome, which has about 60 percent of the browser market, has built-in ad blocking, other browser makers will be taking notice, NetPop's Crandall noted.

"Google, as the leader in the browser space, is sending a signal to other browser makers and technology providers in the market, and they will take that into consideration," he said.

Other browser makers already have gone further than Google when it comes to building anti-tracking features into their software, Blanchfield added.

"Safari and Firefox will do, at a minimum, what Google has done to block annoying ads," he said, "but it's very unlikely that Google is going to block tracking, because Google's business model depends on it."

John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John.



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A group of former Facebook, Google and Mozilla executives have joined forces with the Time Well Spent advocacy group to establish the Center for Humane Technology (CHT), a new organization dedicated to combating the growing problem of addictive behavior among social media users.

The new center, along with the children's advocacy group Common Sense, on Monday announced a campaign to help change the social media model. Its goal is to lessen the negative impact of automation and other technologies on the development of children and young adults, who are considered highly vulnerable to the most damaging aspects of social media.

"Tech companies are conducting a massive, real time experiment on our kids, and at present, no one is really holding them accountable," James Steyer, CEO of Common Sense.

Teenagers polled in a 2015 survey used social media for an average of nine hours of per day, Common Sense found. Half of the teens admitted to feeling addicted to their mobile devices, and 60 percent of parents felt that their kids were addicted.

Campaign Launch

CHT and Common Sense will kick off the campaign Wednesday at a Washington conference called "The Truth About Tech: How Tech Has Kids Hooked."

Social media companies -- Facebook, Twitter, Google, Snapchat, YouTube and others -- have been microtargeting users with millions of specific advertisements, images, videos and other elements that are aimed at driving engagement, argue the campaign's backers, led by CHT Executive Director Tristan Harris, former design ethicist at Google.

Social media organizations aim to satisfy the goals of their advertisers, maintain support from investors, and create a model to monetize the information they gather, according to the campaign.

CHT hopes to encourage changes in mobile phone design that will help minimize screen time, unhook users from their devices, and get customers to spend more time interacting with real people instead of constantly checking for the next post. They also will push for better consumer protection policies that protect users from abuses.

Along with Harris, the CHT leadership team includes Founding Advisor Roger McNamee, cofounder of Elevation Partners and an advisor to Mark Zuckerberg in Facebook's early days; Chief Strategy Officer Aza Raskin, former head of user experience at Mozilla; and COO Randy Fernando, former executive director of Mindful Schools.

Capitol Hill Reaction

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., has been working to address the impact of social media on children. He is the cosponsor of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, a communications constitution, of sorts, for protecting children who use the Web.

Markey also has given his support to the Do Not Track Kids Act, a bipartisan bill that bans Internet companies from using behavioral targeting methods for tracking children and teens. It also would require parental permission for collecting personal information and location data.

"Sen. Markey recognizes that children are immersed in a digital world that may detrimentally impact their health, development and emotional well-being," said Giselle Barry, a spokesperson for Markey.

Markey intends to sponsor legislation to fund a study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, examining the role of electronic media on the growth of children, she told TechNewsWorld.

Growing Concerns

Social media abuse has become an increasingly serious problem for children, who typically have trouble controlling their impulses, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

This is not a brand new issue, as smartphones underwent design changes back when distracted driving became a major concern, he told TechNewsWorld, and when online activities fueled violent behavior in society.

"We desperately need to moderate this behavior, as it is having an adverse impact on virtually everything we see and touch, ranging from personal priorities to who runs our government," Enderle told TechNewsWorld.

"We are currently largely unable to tell bad actors from good, or fake from real news," he added, "and the very young and old are most vulnerable."

The move toward advanced automation and robotics makes addressing this issue even more urgent, Enderle said.

On the other hand, the center's concerns appear a bit misguided to Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, who argued that social media has been blamed for human behavioral issues.

"I believe CHT's argument misses the boat in a couple of key ways," he told TechNewsWorld. "The first is blaming and then agitating to 'fix' technologies for apparently related cultural and behavioral changes."

It's unrealistic to expect companies to change or abandon qualities that make them successful, King said.

However, CEO Mark Zuckerberg last week acknowledged that some of the changes Facebook had made, particularly to the News Feed, were designed to help improve users' overall emotional well being.

David Jones is a freelance writer based in Essex County, New Jersey. He has written for Reuters, Bloomberg, Crain's New York Business and The New York Times.

Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D.-Ore.), alongside Representative Jim McGovern (D.-Mass.) and conservation, farmworker, farmer and consumer groups, on Wednesday reintroduced the Saving America's Pollinators Act, which aims to suspend the registration of certain neonicotinoid insecticides until the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducts a full scientific review.

In addition, 16 environmental and conservation groups have collected more than 100,000 public comments urging the agency to rein in the rampant overuse of neonicotinoid pesticidesa leading cause of pollinator population declines.

Thousands of scientific studies implicate neonicotinoid pesticides, or "neonics," as key contributors to declining pollinator populations. EPA's own scientists have found that neonics pose far-reaching risks to birds and aquatic invertebrates.

Last week, at the request of industry, the EPA extended its comment period on preliminary ecological and human health risk assessments for the neonicotinoids clothianidin, thiamethoxam and dinotefuran, and a preliminary ecological risk assessment for the neonicotinoid imidacloprid. The EPA's risk assessments found deadly impacts to birds from neonic-treated seeds, poisoned insect prey and contaminated grasses.

"EPA's recent assessment confirms what the science has already shown: that neonicotinoids are highly toxic not just to bees, but to aquatic species and birds," said Nichelle Harriott, science and regulatory director at Beyond Pesticides. "To protect our waterways and pollinators it is imperative that action be taken on these chemicals."

"Our nation's beekeepers continue to suffer unacceptable mortality of 40 percent annually and higher," said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of Center for Food Safety. "Water contamination by these insecticides is virtually out of control. Wild pollinators and wetland-dependent birds are in danger. EPA must recognize the vast scientific literature showing the hazards of these chemicals and act to protect bees and the environment."

University researchers have found that tiny amounts of neonics are enough to cause migrating songbirds to lose their sense of direction and become emaciated. A recent study by USGS researchers found neonics widespread in the Great Lakes at levels that may potentially harm aquatic insectsthe foundation of healthy aquatic ecosystems.

"By harming pollinators like bees and butterflies, and natural pest control agents like birds and beneficial insects, neonicotinoids are sabotaging the very organisms on which farmers depend," said Cynthia Palmer, director of pesticides science and regulation at American Bird Conservancy.

These chemicals have become ubiquitous in our food supply. Testing carried out by American Bird Conservancy and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found neonicotinoids in 9 out of 10 bites of food from House and Senate dining halls, with some foods containing as many as five types of neonics.

Europe has instituted a temporary ban on neonicotinoids based on their harms to pollinators. Canada's pesticide regulatory agency has recommended banning the most widely used neonicotinoid based on harms to aquatic ecosystems.

"When presented with the science about neonics and bees, the question becomes 'In what imaginary world could this astoundingly efficient bee-killing, persistent insecticide, used countrywide in extreme overkill quantities, not be harming our pollinators?' said Dr. Luke Goembel, chemist and legislative vice chair with the Central Maryland Beekeepers Association. "The only thing that is keeping the U.S. from joining other nations in banning the use of these devastating poisons is the immense profit that fuels PR campaigns, intense lobbying efforts, and questionable studies designed to mislead us on the harm these poisons do."



Given the ongoing obstruction by EPA leadership, however, Representatives Blumenauer and McGovern are offering a legislative remedy to address the national pollinator crisis.



"Scientists at EPA are treated as irrelevant now because they are no longer part of the decision-making process," said Betsy Southerland, former director of EPA's office of Science and Technology. "All environmental decisions come out of Administrator Pruitt's private meetings with industry and agribusiness."

"The EPA has an important missionprotecting people and the environment from harm," said Genna Reed, science and policy analyst for Union of Concerned Scientists. "The EPA's leadership can't do their job unless they listen to their own scientists and make decisions that reflect the facts. At a time when EPA staff is shrinking and science advisors at the agency are underutilized, it is critical that the agency act to enforce safeguards that really protect people, informed by the evidence."By Miranda Fox

The Swiss multinational Nestle has been facing increasing scrutiny in Michigan. Outside of the small town of Evart, a mere 128 miles from Flint, Nestle is attempting to increase how much spring water it is taking for water bottling. Nestle submitted an application with Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) late last year to increase pumping from 250 to 400 gallons per minute at its White Pine Springs well No. 101 in Osceola County. However, local residents and Michiganders across the state came together in droves at the last public meeting to speak out against Nestle's proposal. More than 500 attended the meeting, and nearly everyone opposed the application.

I spoke with Jim Maturen, a local police force retiree and avid trout fisherman, who rejected Nestle's presence in his county when it first appeared in Michigan nearly 20 years ago. Jim served on the Osceola County Board of Commissioners at that time and continues to oppose Nestle's water grab today.

Jim told me that, originally, Nestle wanted to establish two well sites in the neighboring state of Wisconsin but the people in New Haven and Newport saw that they were on the receiving end of a raw deal. Nestle ultimately got the boot thanks to citizen action and a lawsuit. And that's about the time Nestle successfully approached city and county officials in Osceola and Mecosta Counties, Michigan.

Jim recounted that the zoning laws weren't set up in a way that allowed his board to intervene, and they unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate with the company. The members tried to get water levels monitored by an independent group, a fund set aside to pay for any future damages, and a small percentage of the proceeds to support Evart. Nestle refused.

Jim reminded me that Nestle's mode of operation is the same no matter where it goes: the corporation targets small, rural communities, promises that no one will see the effects of its water take, and claims to bring jobs. In spite of Nestle's promises, the community does see the effects of Nestle's water grab, and they don't like what they are seeing.

Evart's zoning board recently denied Nestle the approval it sought for a critical piece of water pipeline infrastructure. This pipeline upgrade would allow more water to move from Nestle's wellhead (the source) into production for its local bottled water brand: Ice Mountain.

The company quickly appealed the zoning board's decision in court but then asked to put the case on hold pending the DEQ's decision regarding its application to increase pumping to 400 gallons/min. If the DEQ denies Nestle's request to pump more water, the pipeline expansion would be unnecessary. This seems to indicate that Nestle is no longer confident that its increased pumping permit is a sure thing.

In Evart, Jim and other members of the community have taken it upon themselves to monitor the conditions of the environment surrounding Nestle's well sites at Twin and Chippewa Creeks. What he's found spells trouble for the trout and the future of the entire creeks' ecosystems. Trout require cold water temperatures, and with less spring water to cool the creek from the bottom up, Jim found that the water is nearing temperatures that will be too warm for trout if nothing changes soon. But Jim hasn't actually found any trout here this season anyway, probably because he could hardly find enough water to submerge his thermometer. Some areas of the creeks have less than four inches flowing.

Nestle, as far as Jim's concerned, is killing the creek. And he's frustrated because the DEQ has been relying on computer modeling and Nestle's internal reports of the creek's condition, when a site visit by any qualified biologist would reveal the lack of water, the warmth of water, and the near-total absence of fish. But, at the very least, public pressure is forcing the state of Michigan to take further action.

Twin Creek in June 2017 with low water levels, Evart, MI The Story of Stuff Project

Last week, the Michigan DEQ told Nestle to reexamine how its proposal to take more water would impact the local wetlands, streams and natural springs. As a DEQ supervisor put it in his letter, the information provided by Nestle is just plain insufficient.



While these victories may seem small, our collective citizen muscles are building a movement too powerful to ignore. People have come together, written letters, held town meetings, gone door-to-door, and are taking it upon themselves to protect their most important local resource: water.

This fall we will be releasing our next movie, all about the importance of clean, safe water. We're going to show the bigger story here: the struggle to protect and provide drinking water for all Michiganders, and really for all people. While Nestle bottles spring water in Evart, thousands have lost access to tap water in nearby Flint and Detroit, ironically forced to rely on that very same bottled water from corporations like Nestle, just to survive. It's time to speak out against the big-business politics that fuel water privatization, and make a bold claim for clean, safe public water for everyone, everywhere. Join us!Behind barbed-wire fences at this camp in northern Jordan, about 33,000 Syrianshalf of them childrenexist uneasily, housed in rows of rudimentary shelters that barely protect them from the winter cold.

Drinking water must be brought in daily by dozens of tanker trucks or pumped from desert boreholes that overexploit Jordan's largest groundwater basin.

As in Jordan, the world's refugee crisis, which is intimately linked with water availability both in the homelands that people escape and in the camps where they find shelter, is large and growing. Some 66 million peoplea France-sized populationare displaced.

An estimated 28,300 refugees a day across the globe flee conflict and persecution, the relief agency UNHCR said. Fifty-five percent come from just three countries: Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Syria, which the World Bank says has endured the largest refugee crisis since World War II with more than half the country's pre-war population having left their homes since 2011.

Now, with many Syrians in their seventh winter of displacement, hosting and supporting 650,000 registered refugees costs the Jordanian government almost $900 million a year, according to Oxfam. To help, non-governmental organizations supply water and relief groups visit to offer aid. Celebrities and royalty tour the camps on occasion.

Zaatari is the biggest refugee camp in Jordan, opening in 2012 close to Syria's border and now housing 79,000 Syrian refugees. Azraq, 50 miles southeast, was built on unused desert land after Zaatari swelled beyond capacity just a year after opening, to more than 156,000 people. With high summer temperatures, cool winters and blowing desert sand, conditions at both camps challenge the mind and body.

Zaatari's corrugated shelters take a beating in the sun and heat while its water supply and wastewater disposal are constant concerns. The UN said at least 82 water trucks a day fill the camp's water tanks so that 950,000 liters of water a day can flow to some 76 taps. Boreholes also provide 3.2 million liters of drinking water a day, giving camp residents access to about 20 liters a day, or 5 gallons per person. This allotment is used for bathing, cooking, cleaning and drinking.

Built as a temporary camp, Zaatari now functions like a city with 12 districts, hundreds of shops, a police station, mosque, schools, and health clinics. Water and wastewater networks were constructed by the humanitarian group ACTED.

A treatment plant purifies about 80 percent of the wastewater generated in the camp. A UNICEF grant led to the upgrading of 1,300 private toilets by ACTED. Hand-washing sinks and toilets for the disabled were also built to address complaints of unsanitary living conditions.

Both camps were visited in November by the non-profit Atlantic Humanitarian Relief group led by its Syrian-American founder, Humam Akbik, a Harvard-trained pain-management specialist from Damascus now based in Cincinnati. The international group of physicians, nurses, dentists and pharmacists worked almost without stop from morning to sundown. They came at their own cost, brought their own instruments and supplies to refugee camps and clinics that sometimes lacked sinks with running water or a clean toilet. They provided free exams, minor operations, dental services, medicine, and even psychiatric help to traumatized orphans.

Two sisters wait for care at the health clinic in Al Azraq. Randall Hackley

"Water was a big problem," said Rowena Milligan, a physician who took part in the humanitarian mission and traveled from the UK. "You couldn't wash your hands before/after examining patients so could only use alcohol gel, which isn't ideal."

At refugee camps, clinics and random camps in northern Jordan from Ajloun to the outskirts of Amman and Azraq, volunteers played with the children, painting their faces and engaging in games. Play activities "help take their mind off things," Akbik said. "Helps these kids feel like kids again."

Worrisome Trends for Climate and Migration

Security experts have warned for years that a drying climate in the Middle East, Sahel, and other mid-latitude regions will set up conditions of environmental stress for the countries least capable of managing the strain. At least 25 percent of the planet, including Jordan, will experience serious drought and desertification within three decades if attempts by the Paris agreement to curb global warming aren't met, according to the journal Nature Climate Change.

Those who choose to leave face peril on the journey. The International Organization for Migration says more than 3,100 migrants lost their lives last year drowning in the Mediterranean Sea, and 390 more from Jan. 1 to Feb. 4, 2018, compared with 257 for the same period in 2017, as they attempted the dangerous crossing from North Africa to southern Europe. It's the fourth year in a row that the death toll surpassed 3,000.

And in Asia, Rohingya Muslims have drowned trying to escape state-sponsored violence in their homeland of Myanmar. At least 670,000 men, women and children have fled to Bangladesh by boat and foot since August in what the UN calls "the world's fastest-growing humanitarian crisis."

The Rohingya crisis even prompted a UN video that ended with a plea to better address the refugees' urgent needs of clean water.

The pleas are founded on evidence of infection. At the informal Rohingya camps in southeast Bangladesh, water pumps next to open sewers have stoked fear of disease outbreaks, and led to vaccination, clean water and sanitation drives. At the Kutupalong refugee camp extension, 20 tube wells were added. So were almost 120 latrine chambers.

The World Health Organization reports that diptheria is "rapidly spreading among Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar," a city in Bangladesh. Six deaths were reported in December. Diptheria is a highly infectious respiratory disease that often appears in overcrowded areas with no proper sanitation system. Haiti endured similar cholera outbreaks in recent years related to contaminated water issues.

Sometimes small improvements in water technology can mean big lifestyle improvements for refugees.

In southwestern Algeria, Sahrawi refugees exiled by Morocco more than three decades ago are using what little water they have in newly efficient ways: growing soil-less hydroponics in solar-powered container units. At five remote camps near Tindouf, trays of barley are now grown for Sahrawi livestock in the Sahara desert through a World Food Programme project.

The Sahrawis have come a long way since eight years ago, when water was trucked in via UNHCR tankers and outhouses were crude holes beside mud-brick homes.

For those in Al Azraq, the hope is that they do not have to put down roots, that they can go home again.

Reporting contributed by Randall Hackley, a former AP and Bloomberg correspondent who has reported from 18 countries and visited refugee camps in Jordan, Algeria, Haiti, Peru, and the U.S.

Reposted with permission from our media associate Circle of Blue.Taiwan's Environmental Protection Agency, in cooperation with a number of environmental organizations, proposed an ambitious 12-year timeline Tuesday to eliminate four types of single-use plasticstakeaway beverage cups, drinking straws, shopping bags and disposable tablewareby 2030 to tackle plastic pollution.

Taiwan, the birthplace of bubble tea, is famous for its unique food and drink culture, but the plastic vessels that come with the treats make up the vast majority of the country's beach litter. Additionally, the Tamsui River in the north was declared the 16th dirtiest river in the world for leaching 14,700 tons of plastic debris into the ocean every year.

Now, under the government's new " Sea Waste Management Platform," the four environmentally pervasive plastic products will be phased out in several stages, with a priority on drinking straws.

As Taiwan News detailed:

Starting in 2019, food and beverage stores will be restricted from providing plastic straws for in-store use. In 2020, free plastic straws will be banned from all food and beverage establishments.

Starting in 2025, even plastic straws for carryout will be banned and customers will need to pay a fee to use them. In 2030, the goal is to have a complete blanket ban on the use of plastic straws at all establishments in Taiwan.

As for plastic shopping bag phase, the EPA will implement a ban on all stores that issue uniform invoices in 2020. In 2025, prices on plastic shopping bags will be raised, and by 2030 such bags are to be completely banned.

Starting in 2020, food and beverage businesses will not be allowed to provide customers inside their establishments with disposable utensils. In 2025, a price system will be implemented on disposable tableware, and by 2030 a complete ban will be imposed on disposable utensils.

In 2020, plastic beverage cups will be restricted and by 2025 users will have to pay an extra fee to use them. By 2030 take-away beverage cups will be completely banned.

At a press conference announcing the plan, Environmental Protection Agency Minister Lee Ying-yuan advised that single-use plastics can be switched with reusable or biodegradable items.

Along with the phase-out of plastic items, the Sea Waste Management Platform also involves dozens of initiatives to clean up existing plastic litter and to stop its flow from the source. Programs include raising public awareness, river trash removal, a microfibers and microplastics survey program, and a "public-private cooperation" model of cooperation.

McDonald's Taiwan has already said it will cooperate with the government regulations and promote green consumption.

Taiwan Today further reported:

"EPA Minister Lee Ying-yuan said protecting the ocean necessitates cooperation among all segments of society. The plan is a strong step forward in this regard and a milestone in tailoring responsive policies through input from the public and private sectors, he added.

According to Lee, rubbish-strewn oceans are a pressing global issue and Taiwan, as a responsible member of the international community, is committed to playing its part in rectifying the situation. As identified in the plan, the best way of addressing this problem is slashing the number of debris sources, he said."

A number of countries around the world have taken big steps to cut plastic waste. Chile prohibits the sale of single-use plastic bags in 102 coastal villages and towns. Kenya introduced a serious law that slaps a fine or even a jail sentence on anyone who manufactures, sells or even carries a plastic bag. And just last month, Scotland announced plans to ban the manufacture and sale of plastic-stemmed cotton buds.Updated: Jan. 31, 2016

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Maeci

Seventy years of diplomatic relations between Italy and India. Diplomatic relations between Italy and India were celebrated today at a meeting at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. Some of the greatest experts in the area attended, with the Italian Ambassador to India, Lorenzo Angeloni, and the Indian Ambassador to Italy, Reenat Sandhu. Closing remarks were made by the honourable Sandro Gozi, Undersecretary of European Affairs and President of the Italy-India Association.

The event follows the official visit to India by Prime Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, in October, on the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It reopened a vital new stage in relations between the two countries whose peoples are linked by traditional ties of friendship and empathy. This is borne out in a book that recounts 70 years of Italian-Indian experiences called "Qualcosa e accaduto / Theres Something in the Air - 70 storie di vita tra Italia e India", edited by Lorenzo Angeloni, ambassador, and Maria Elettra Verrone, first secretary for innovation and internationalisation at the Italian embassy in India.2018-02-15

Maeci

The Italian Cultural Institute in Madrid presents the first personal exhibition by the artist Raffaela Mariniello in Spain as part of the ARCO International Contemporary Art Fair.

La deriva del paesaggio is a retrospective exhibition by the Neapolitan artist and photographerand includes a rich sampling of her varied photographic and light box work.This dynamic, diachronic excursion through her work during the last 20 years is part of an international debate on the development of the urban landscape.The work from the 1990s features highly evocative black and white photographs as she investigated suburbs and industrial parks, especially Naples where she concentrated on the famous steelworks at Bagnoli. She also captured similarities and differences along the shores of the Mediterranean (Beirut, Tunis, Naples), fixing her gaze on these marginal, interstitial places, and their contemporary ruins.At the beginning of the millennium, she moved from black and white photography to the ironic, intriguing use of colour in her Souvenirs dItalie project. She changed her focus to urban centres, especially the most representative cities of Italy that were once obligatory destinations in the Grand Tour, but have now become quick stops in an omnivorous tourism that seldom ventures beyond substitute culture as a commodity.The artist concentrates her disenchanted gaze on the alienating elements that border on kitsch inhabiting squares of historic centres and that have become icons of mass tourism with their superficially festive appearances. The effect is emphasised with garish colours and dynamic shots.The sarcasm running as a common thread through this trip through time and civilisation reaches an apex in the shots taken at the Italia in miniatura theme park in Romagna.Reflections on mass tourism and the changes wrought by this modern phenomenon on the landscape also form the subject matter of her recent Capri Teorema project. Here, the artist gives us a Capri devoid of veneer and glamour as she visits some of the most secret areas of the island where tourists seldom venture. As always with her work, they are areas where humans are just passing though, but we can see their traces, for better or worse.The island becomes the subject matter of a story told by the light of the moon as it traces the change of seasons. Between surreal landscapes and abandoned paths, the incredible spontaneous installation still life images emerge, captured along the sea-shore and countryside trails, micro forays into a reality that seems to betray the mythical appearance of Capri, the land of dreams beloved to so many visitors.Raffaela Mariniello (Naples 1962) is one of Italys best-known photographers. In 1991, she began a project which is still the only historical record of the activities at the steelworks, Bagnoli, una fabbrica [factory]. The project has been shown in Naples, Nantes, Calais, Paris and Milan. The Souvenirs dItalie series, focusing on the historical centres of Italian cities shows the transformation of places preyed on by mass tourism, was exhibited in Villa Pignatelli Casa della Fotografia in 2011.In 2014, she produced a project on the terrible fire at the Citta della Scienza [city of science] with a poetic and silent account called Still in Life. Her work is in public and private collections, including: Bibliotheque National de Paris; Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, Paris; Banca Commerciale di Milan; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Fond National dArt Contemporain, Paris; Museo Madre, Metropolitana di Naples; Maxxi di Roma; Collezione Cotroneo. She works with the Studio Trisorio gallery in Naples.Her catalogue was produced by the Madrid Italian Cultural Institute, in Italian and Spanish, and includes essays by critics Achille Bonito Oliva and Adriana Rispoli. The exhibition was organised by the Italian Cultural Institute of Madrid with the Studio Trisorio Gallery.Linda Sealy, director of the Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity at Vanderbilt University, has been selected to receive the 2018 Lifetime Mentor Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The distinction honors her work in recruiting and mentoring underrepresented minority students.

Sealy serves as associate dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Basic Sciences at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. During her career as a faculty member in molecular physiology and cancer biology, Sealy mentored more than 55 underrepresented students through completion of their PhDs at the university. She has also mentored 13 students who have gone on to complete doctoral degrees at other institutions. Under Sealy's leadership, the IMSD program adopted holistic admissions to biomedical graduate training over a decade ago. Upon acceptance, minority students become part of a supportive community of diverse IMSD scholars that eases their transition to graduate school and ensures their success.

Sealy was nominated by Lorena Infante Lara, a Ph.D. candidate studying biochemistry at Vanderbilt University, who has known Sealy since arriving at the university in 2013. In a nomination letter, Infante Lara wrote that Sealy has been "extensively involved in the expansion of diversity at Vanderbilt." She added that, with Sealy's help, Vanderbilt was the school with the highest number of African American doctoral graduates nationwide in the biological and biomedical sciences during 2014-2015.

Karinna Almodovar, a postdoctoral fellow at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, participated in the IMSD program and was mentored by Sealy. In a letter of support, Almodovar wrote that she has received "invaluable support, suggestions, continuous encouragement and guidance" from Sealy throughout her doctoral and postdoctoral training. "I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to benefit from her exceptional mentoring," Almodovar wrote. "She is truly everything I look for in a mentor."

In 2016, Sealy became the first recipient of the Joseph A. Johnson Jr. Distinguished Leadership Professor Award, honoring her efforts to promote equity, diversity and inclusion at Vanderbilt. Sealy, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, was one of more than 1,800 indigenous scientists and allies who signed a statement endorsing the 2017 March for Science.

Sealy earned her bachelor's degree in chemistry from Illinois Wesleyan University, and completed her Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Iowa in 1980. She also completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California, San Francisco and the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

"As a minority graduate student," Infante Lara wrote, "I have come into close contact with Linda and have seen firsthand the support and mentoring that she provides to her students." Infante Lara added that "it is clear that [Sealy's] interactions have huge impacts in all our lives."

The AAAS Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement honors AAAS members who have mentored significant numbers of underrepresented students working toward completion of a Ph.D. in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and/or are significantly affecting the climate of a department, college or institution, or field in such a manner as to significantly increase the diversity of students pursuing and completing PhDs in STEM fields. To be considered for the Lifetime Mentor Award, candidates must demonstrate scholarship, activism and community building. Nominees must have more than 25 years of mentoring experience. The award includes a $5,000 prize, a commemorative plaque and complimentary registration to the AAAS Annual Meeting, as well as reimbursement for reasonable travel and hotel expenses to attend the meeting.

The award will be bestowed upon Sealy during the 184th AAAS Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas on Feb. 18, 2018.

###

About the American Association for the Advancement of Science

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science, as well as Science Translational Medicine; Science Signaling; a digital, open-access journal Science Advances; Science Immunology; and Science Robotics. AAAS was founded in 1848 and includes nearly 250 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world. The nonprofit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, public engagement and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, the premier science-news website, a service of AAAS.

For more information on AAAS awards, see http://www.aaas.org/aboutaaas/awards.Dust that blew into the North Pacific Ocean could help explain why the Earth's climate cooled 2.7 million years ago, according to a new study published in the journal Science Advances.

One of the co-authors was Alex Pullen, an assistant professor of environmental engineering and earth sciences at Clemson University.

"Why study the past? It's a great predictor of the future," he said. "The findings of this study were both interesting and very unexpected."

Researchers were interested in dust because when it blows off land and into the ocean, the iron in it fertilizes the water like farmers do their fields. Through photosynthesis, tiny organisms that live in the ocean surface waters pull carbon-dioxide out of the atmosphere, which usually means cooler temperatures.

The biggest surprise in the study was that precipitation, rather than dryness, was the most important factor for adding East Asian dust to the atmosphere and oceans leading up to the ancient climate change, Pullen said.

It may seem counterintuitive, he said, because "most people associate dust emission with aridity and deserts, not with precipitation."

But researchers believe they have an idea of what happened.

The monsoon precipitation intensified, and the increase caused erosion along the Tibetan Plateau and lower elevation areas nearby in what today is China, researchers found. Wind carried the relatively loose sediment into the North Pacific Ocean, where it likely helped spur photosynthesis.

The research focused on a time that marked a change between a period of high carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere similar to modern day and much lower levels similar to the period before the industrial revolution, Pullen said.

The research helps explain what caused the Earth to go into the glacial and interglacial periods that have dominated ever since, he said.

But the findings do not suggest humans are off the hook on warming global temperatures, Pullen said.

Researchers were dealing in geologic time-- millions of years-- and the geologic record isn't always detailed enough to reflect what might have happened in the span of a few hundred years, he said. That would be enough to melt the ice caps and put islands and coastlines underwater, Pullen said.

The future climate could look like the Pliocene Epoch, which was 5.3 million to 2.5 million years ago, said Pullen, who is a geologist.

"Now we just have to figure out what the Pliocene looked like everywhere on Earth," he said. "That's going to be difficult because the Pliocene rock record doesn't exist everywhere. But we need to collect as much information from the Pliocene as we can to improve climate models and have a better understanding of what is in store for our future."

The study was an international collaboration between Junsheng Nie, Wenbin Peng, and Zhao Wang of Lanzhou University in China; Pullen; and Carmala N. Garzione of the University of Rochester.

The team's findings were drawn from detailed analysis of sedimentary rock in the Chinese Loess Plateau, an area of East China that has been collecting dust for at least the past 8 million years.

David Freedman, chair of Clemson's Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences, congratulated Pullen and the team on their work.

"Publishing in Science Advances is a significant accomplishment," he said. "Dr. Pullen is helping draw positive attention to the department, boosting our reputation for excellent research."

###

Science Advances is a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary, open-access scientific journal established in early 2015 and published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The article is titled, "Pre-Quaternary decoupling between Asian aridification and high dust accumulation rates."COLUMBUS, Ohio - An international survey of genetic testing labs shows that - despite the availability of BRCA1 and BRCA2 testing for more than two decades - global protocols and standards are surprisingly inconsistent when it comes to analyzing cancer susceptibility genes and their many variations.

A multi-institutional team led by Amanda Toland, PhD, of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC - James) surveyed 86 genetic testing laboratories around the world to better understand their testing practices for BRCA1/2, known cancer susceptibility genes linked the types of breast and ovarian cancer passed down through families.

The vast majority of responding labs -- 93 percent -- used modern next-generation sequencing technologies that allow for simultaneous screening of multiple genes in a single, advanced test. Just six relied on Sanger sequencing methods, the traditional approach used for genetic testing prior to the availability of advanced genomic testing tools like next-generation sequencing.

Overall, researchers found that laboratories differed widely in their approach to analyzing BRCA -- including in the extent of variant confirmation, whether non-coding DNA regions were sequenced and the techniques used to detect large genomic rearrangements that could provide clues about future cancer risk.

"This is important because it means that patients could be getting a different level of accuracy in their genetic results, based on the level of testing beyond baseline BRCA1/2 testing - there are variants of these cancer susceptibility genes that could be missed by some approaches and which are important to know about in terms of overall cancer risk," says Toland. "Global best-practice guidelines for BRCA testing are needed to ensure consistency in testing for patients, regardless of where they obtain their testing."

###

Survey results are reported in the Feb. 15, 2018, edition of the scientific journal, NPJ Genomic Medicine. Collaborators in the study: Andrea Forman, Fergus J. Couch, Julie O. Culver, Diana M. Eccles,William D. Foulkes, Frans B. L. Hogervorst, Claude Houdayer, Ephrat Levy-Lahad, Alvaro N. Monteiro, Susan L. Neuhausen, Sharon E. Plon,Shyam K. Sharan,Amanda B. Spurdle, Csilla Szabo and Lawrence C. Brody. The study was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Human Genome Research Institute, the Intramural Research Program, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation, the Australian National Health and Medical Research Center (NHMRC) the Morris and Horowitz Families and the Canadian Institute for Health Research.New Rochelle, NY, Feb. 15, 2018 -- The CRISPR Journal, a groundbreaking new peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers, announces the publication of its inaugural issue. The issue features an exciting array of cutting-edge international original research papers as well as a compelling mixture of frontmatter content from luminaries in the field of CRISPR technology, including Rodolphe Barrangou, who also serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal, Fyodor Urnov, Qin Liu, Francisco Mojica, Eduard Akhunov, Luke Wiley, and Jacob Sherkow, among others. The complete first issue of The CRISPR Journal is available to read on the Journal website.

"This is obviously a very momentous time for the field, and this inaugural issue fittingly captures its breadth and depth, spanning plant editing, gene drives, and therapeutic applications, as well as an IP landscape review and historical insight into the genome editing revolution" says Rodolphe Barrangou, PhD, Editor-in-Chief The CRISPR Journal and Associate Professor, North Carolina State University. "The cover illustrates the ceremonial ribbon cutting in a relevant manner, and our content showcases our commitment to a diverse readership."

While CRISPR has become almost synonymous with genome editing technology, it is important to remember that there were several other robust genome editing technologies, including zinc fingers and TALENs, developed before the application of CRISPR to gene editing in 2012-13. In a beautifully written, informative, colorful, and compelling review article titled "Genome Editing B.C. (Before CRISPR): Lasting Lessons from the 'Old Testament'," Fyodor Urnov, Altius Institute for Biomedical Sciences (Seattle, WA), presents the essential timeline of advances in basic research of DNA repair, using a Noah's Ark of model organisms, that have already enabled one version of genome editing to enter the clinic in the United States.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (Harvard Medical School, MA) led by Qin Liu report progress in developing a method to specifically target the mutant copy of a gene responsible for a dominantly inherited form of retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a hereditary condition which affects 1 in 3,500 people. In the article "Allele-Specific CRISPR-Cas9 Genome Editing of the Single-Base P23H Mutation for Rhodopsin-Associated Dominant Retinitis Pigmentosa," the Harvard team describe a proof-of-concept in a mouse model of RP in which they successfully targeted the mutant rhodopsin gene, with beneficial physiological results.

Batten disease (juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis) is a rare recessive neurodegenerative disorder caused by mutations in several genes, the most severe of which is a gene called Battenin (CLN3). Progressively worsening symptoms include retinal degeneration, epilepsy, cognitive decline leading to premature death. In "CRISPR-Cas9-Mediated Correction of the 1.02 kb Common Deletion in CLN3 in Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from Patients with Batten Disease," Luke Wiley and co-authors at the Stephen A. Wynn Institute for Vision Research, University of Iowa report the successful use of CRISPR-Cas9 homology dependent repair of the most common CLN3 mutation in induced pluripotent stem cells from two Batten patients. These CRISPR-corrected isogenic cell lines, say the authors, represent "a powerful step towards treatment of the vision loss and thus extension of quality of life in individuals with Batten disease."

There has been much discussion about the potential of CRISPR-based gene drives to tackle the vectors responsible for major infectious diseases such as malaria and Zika. With the notable exception of the woolly mammoth, less attention has been paid to the potential use of gene editing to help in conservation efforts around the world. As Ryan Phelan, Tom Maloney, and Ben Novak from the California non-profit Revive & Restore discuss in the Perspective "Advancing a New Toolkit for Conservation: From Science to Policy," there are many interesting examples where CRISPR and gene editing could save endangered species, including the black-footed ferret and the Hawaiian honeycreeper.

"The debut issue of The CRISPR Journal features a wonderful breadth and overall quality that fully measures up to our hopes and expectations when we announced the Journal nine months ago," said Kevin Davies, PhD, Executive Editor of The CRISPR Journal and Vice President of Strategic Development at Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. "From CRISPR patents to conservation, gene therapy to plant gene editing, immune responses to bioinformatics, and a stunning review on the history of genome editing 'before CRISPR,' we think the launch issue captures the excitement and importance of this remarkable field."

###

Other articles in the inaugural issue of The CRISPR Journal include:

Dr. Barrangou, Dr. Davies, and the senior authors are available for press inquiries and interviews. Please contact Kathryn Ryan at the publisher for scheduling.

About the Journal

The CRISPR Journal is an international, multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal publishing outstanding research on the myriad applications and underlying technology of CRISPR. Led by Editor-in-Chief Rodolphe Barrangou, PhD, the Journal provides is a high-profile forum for cutting-edge international original research papers, review articles, perspectives, profiles, and commentary spanning not only matters of research but the many social, ethical, and business issues confronting the field. The CRISPR Journal is published bimonthly online and in print with flexible open access options. Visit the full journal website for more information.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Human Gene Therapy, Stem Cells and Development, Cellular Reprogramming, and OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology. The CRISPR Journal adds an exciting and dynamic component to the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. portfolio, which includes GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News) and more than 80 leading peer-reviewed journals. A complete list of the firm's journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 140 Huguenot St., New Rochelle, NY 10801-5215 http://www.liebertpub.com Phone: 914-740-2100 800 M-LIEBERT Fax: 914-740-2101WOODS HOLE, Mass. -- Wouldn't it be useful to suddenly erect 3D spikes out of your skin, hold them for an hour, then even faster retract them and swim away? Octopus and cuttlefish can do this as a camouflage tactic, taking on a jagged outline to mimic coral or other marine hiding spots, then flattening the skin to jet away. A new study clarifies the neural and muscular mechanisms that underlie this extraordinary defense tactic, conducted by scientists from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, and the University of Cambridge, U.K. The study is published in iScience, a new interdisciplinary journal from Cell Press.

"The biggest surprise for us was to see that these skin spikes, called papillae, can hold their shape in the extended position for more than an hour, without neural signals controlling them," says Paloma Gonzalez-Bellido, a lecturer in neuroscience at University of Cambridge and a former staff scientist at the MBL. This sustained tension, the team found, arises from specialized musculature in papillae that is similar to the "catch" mechanism in clams and other bivalves.

"The catch mechanism allows a bivalve to snap its shell shut and keep it shut, should a predator come along and try to nudge it open," says corresponding author Trevor Wardill, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge and a former staff scientist at the MBL. Rather than using energy (ATP) to keep the shell shut, the tension is maintained by smooth muscles that fit like a lock-and-key, until a chemical signal (neurotransmitter) releases them. A similar mechanism may be at work in cuttlefish papillae, the scientists found.

Gonzalez-Bellido and Wardill began this study in 2013 in the laboratory of MBL Senior Scientist Roger Hanlon, the leading expert on cephalopod camouflage. Hanlon's lab had been the first to describe the structure, function, and biomechanics of skin-morphing papillae in cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis), but their neurological control was unknown.

Hanlon suggested the team look for the "wiring" that controls papillae action in the cuttlefish. As reported here, they discovered a motor nerve dedicated exclusively to papillary and skin tension control that originates not in the brain, but in a peripheral nerve center called the stellate ganglion.

Surprisingly, they also found that the neural circuit for papillae action is remarkably similar to the neural circuit in squid that controls skin iridescence. Since cuttlefish don't have tunable iridescence, and squid don't have papillae, this finding raises interesting questions about the evolution and function of the neural circuit in different species.

"We hypothesize that the neural circuit for iridescence and for papillae control originates from a common ancestor to squid and cuttlefish, but we don't know that yet. This is for future work," Gonzalez-Bellido says.

"This research on neural control of flexible skin, combined with anatomical studies of the novel muscle groups that enable such shape-shifting skin, has applications for the development of new classes of soft materials that can be engineered for a wide array of uses in industry, society, and medicine," Hanlon says.

###

Citation:

Gonzalez-Bellido, Paloma T., Alexis T. Scaros, Roger T. Hanlon, and Trevor J. Wardill (2018) Neural control of dynamic 3-dimensional skin papillae for cuttlefish camouflage. iScience doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2018.01.001

The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is dedicated to scientific discovery - exploring fundamental biology, understanding marine biodiversity and the environment, and informing the human condition through research and education. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution and an affiliate of the University of Chicago.Death rate due to overdose is high in this population compared to the general public

Hamilton, ON (February 15, 2018) - A study from McMaster University suggests more can be done to improve access to and delivery of opioid dependence treatment in adult correctional facilities in Ontario.

Researchers say collaboration between the health-care and correctional systems is needed to close the gaps, and to benefit and improve the health of those in custody.

The recommendation is based on surveys completed by physicians working in more than half of Ontario's provincial correctional facilities. The study results were published today in PLOS ONE.

"In Canada, research has consistently identified high rates of substance use disorders among people in prison," said Lori Regenstreif, study co-author and assistant clinical professor of family medicine at McMaster.

"Evidence from Ontario, in particular, reveals that the death rate due to overdose is high in this population compared to the general public, especially at the time of release from jail."

The study included completion of an online survey by 27 physicians, who reported working in 15 of 26 provincial correctional facilities for adults in Ontario. This included 10 of the 13 facilities with a population of more than 200.

The study identified that about half of the physicians prescribed methadone and half prescribed buprenorphine/naloxone to treat opioid dependence.

Among physicians who reported prescribing methadone in custody, all 14 reported that they continued methadone treatment if it was initiated in the community but only five (36 per cent) reported they also started patients on this treatment in the correctional facility.

Of the 13 physicians who reported that they prescribed buprenorphine/naloxone, 10 (77 per cent) reported they continued patients on this treatment if they started in the community and only three (23 per cent) started patients on this treatment in the correctional facility.

The most common reasons physicians provided for not prescribing these treatments were not having an exemption to prescribe methadone, other physicians being responsible for the service in the institution, not being interested in adding this treatment to clinical work and not having adequate knowledge about these treatments.

Among the identified barriers to starting patients on these treatments while in prison were concerns about medication diversion and safety, and challenges to care continuity with community-based providers.

"While no published research in Canada has explored these issues, our findings are consistent with the limited research from the United States regarding access to treatment for opioid addiction in prisons," said Regenstreif.

Among the suggestions from the physicians to overcome the barriers for treatment were support from institutional health care and administrative staff, adequate resources for program delivery, and access to linkage with community-based opioid treatment providers.

"Incarceration presents a unique opportunity to offer prevention and treatment to people who use substances and who may otherwise be hard to reach," said Regenstreif.

"The World Health Organization has recommended that all prisoners with opioid use disorders have access to methadone or another related treatment."

The researchers note opioid dependence treatment is a way to reduce harms associated with opioid use, and has been shown to positively impact treatment retention, illicit drug use, drug-related HIV risk behaviours, criminal activity and death in those with an opioid dependence.

###

Additional authors for this study were from St. Michael's Hospital, the University of Toronto, Dalhousie University and the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.

There was no external funding for this study.

Note to Editors: A photo of Lori Regenstreif, study co-author and assistant clinical professor of family medicine at McMaster, is available.

For more information:

Veronica McGuire

Media Relations

Faculty of Health Sciences

McMaster University

905-525-9140, ext. 22169

vmcguir@mcmaster.caFor smokers considered at risk of developing lung cancer, a new technology-based clinical trial may help them quit once and for all

Alana Rojewski, Ph.D., was awarded a nearly $900,000 grant, Tobacco Treatment in the Context of Lung Cancer Screening, from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The career development award will support Rojewski's clinical research exploring tobacco treatment in an oncology setting. Rojewski is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC).

Specifically, she'll be examining the benefits of a technology-based tobacco treatment intervention in a new clinical trial for smokers in the Lung Cancer Screening Program at the MUSC Hollings Cancer Center.

The Lung Cancer Screening Program helps diagnose patients at earlier, more treatable stages. Annual screening includes low-dose computed tomography, or LDCT, for eligible patients between the ages of 55 and 77 and who have a 30 pack-year smoking history. Rojewski's primary mentor, Benjamin Toll, Ph.D., serves as co-director of the program.

Traditional quit methods include counseling and/or nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), like gum and the patch. Rojewski will utilize a new tailored intervention for screening patients in an effort to minimize cancer occurrence and mortality rates for those at higher risk of developing lung cancer.

The study will have two arms, with one group receiving a brief counseling session at time of lung cancer screening, which is the standard intervention. In addition to counseling, the other group will receive NRT and "gain-framed" text messaging which emphasizes the benefits of quitting opposed to the harmful effects of smoking.

"Engaging high-risk individuals, like those in screening programs, with a tobacco expert and making cessation resources available after screening is crucial to the effectiveness of tobacco treatment," says Rojewski. Continued smoking, particularly for groups at higher risk of developing cancer, can cause worse clinical outcomes and lower survival rates.

Rojewksi hopes the study will identify which methods are most effective in supporting high-risk smokers who are trying to quit and to expand tobacco treatment services among screening programs.

Eventually, she wants to broaden the reach of her research even further, "Ideally, we would like to establish a treatment protocol for those at greater risk that can be implemented in cancer centers across the country," says Rojewski.

###

About Hollings Cancer Center

The Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina is a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center and the largest academic-based cancer research program in South Carolina. The cancer center is comprised of more than 120 faculty cancer scientists with a research funding portfolio of $44 million and a dedication to reducing the cancer burden in South Carolina. Hollings offers state-of-the-art diagnostic capabilities, therapies and surgical techniques within multidisciplinary clinics that include surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation therapists, radiologists, pathologists, psychologists and other specialists equipped for the full range of cancer care, including more than 200 clinical trials. For more information, please visit http://www.hollingscancercenter.org.The 2018 Szent-Gyorgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research will be awarded to Douglas R. Lowy, M.D., and John T. Schiller, Ph.D., of the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). They are being recognized for their contributions toward the development of vaccines for the human papillomavirus (HPV).

Drs. Schiller and Lowy "have made monumental impacts in the field of cancer sciences and could not be more deserving of this award," said Sujuan Ba, Ph.D., co-chair of the 2018 prize selection committee and president of the National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR), which awards the annual prize.

Dr. Lowy, who is also deputy director of NCI, and Dr. Schiller have co-authored more than 150 papers over the last 30 years. Most notably, their work to understand and prevent HPV infection has led to the approval of three preventive HPV vaccines by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). HPV infection causes almost all cases of cervical cancer, the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide, as well as several other cancers.

"We at NCI are very proud to see Dr. Lowy and Dr. Schiller awarded this prestigious prize for their important work in cancer research," said NCI Director Ned Sharpless, M.D. "Their receipt of the Szent-Gyorgyi Prize for their extraordinary research recognizes how important discoveries come from building on earlier work, and how those efforts can lead to major breakthroughs in public health."

Every year, more than 500,000 women around the world are diagnosed with cervical cancer and more than 275,000 women die from the disease. HPV infection also causes other types of cancer, including about 70 percent of oropharyngeal cancers in the U.S., about 95 percent of anal cancers, and many cases of vulvar, vaginal, and penile cancer.

In the 1990s, a team led by Drs. Schiller and Lowy discovered that proteins that form the outer shell of HPV can assemble into noninfectious virus-like particles (VLPs). They found that VLPs could trigger the immune system to produce high levels of protective antibodies. The VLPs became the basis of three FDA-approved vaccines: Gardisil, Gardisil 9, and Cervarix.

Drs. Lowy and Schiller attribute their breakthrough to building on earlier scientific findings and say it demonstrates the importance of basic research.

"We are greatly honored by this award, and to be included with the exceptional group of scientists who have also received it," said Dr. Lowy. "Our work that it recognizes is indebted to decades of publicly supported research, as well as to the culture of collaboration in the NIH Intramural Research Program that allowed us to learn from experts across many different disciplines."

Continued research into HPV includes finding ways to encourage vaccination by lowering costs and simplifying the process, especially in the developing world. It has been estimated that widespread uptake of current HPV vaccines could reduce the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer by more than two-thirds.

"We are especially pleased to be recognized with this award because it highlights the great importance of research into cancer prevention," said Dr. Schiller. "These vaccines have the potential to cause HPV infection to go from common to uncommon, and the ability to eliminate cervical cancer and other HPV-associated cancers as major worldwide health problems."

Drs. Schiller and Lowy have been frequently honored for their work. In September 2017, they received the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, the nation's most prestigious biomedical research prize, for their HPV research. They received the Federal Employee of the Year Service to America Medal from the Partnership for Public Service in 2007 and the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal Award from the Sabin Vaccine Institute in 2011. They were presented with the 2012 National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Barack Obama in November 2014.

NFCR established the Szent-Gyorgyi Prize in 2006 in honor of its cofounder, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, M.D., Ph.D., who received the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his study of vitamin C and cell respiration. According to NFCR, the annual prize honors scientists "who have made an original discovery or breakthrough in scientific understanding that has had a lasting impact on the cancer field and a direct impact on saving people's lives." The award highlights the essential role basic research plays in understanding cancer.

The prize will be presented at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on May 5, 2018.

###

About the National Cancer Institute (NCI): NCI leads the National Cancer Program and NIH's efforts to dramatically reduce the prevalence of cancer and improve the lives of cancer patients and their families, through research into prevention and cancer biology, the development of new interventions, and the training and mentoring of new researchers. For more information about cancer, please visit the NCI website at cancer.gov or call NCI's Contact Center (formerly known as the Cancer Information Service) at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit nih.gov.Three billion miles away on the farthest known major planet in our solar system, an ominous, dark storm - once big enough to stretch across the Atlantic Ocean from Boston to Portugal - is shrinking out of existence as seen in pictures of Neptune taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

Immense dark storms on Neptune were first discovered in the late 1980s by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft. Since then, only Hubble has had the sharpness in blue light to track these elusive features that have played a game of peek-a-boo over the years. Hubble found two dark storms that appeared in the mid-1990s and then vanished. This latest storm was first seen in 2015, but is now shrinking.

Like Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS), the storm swirls in an anti-cyclonic direction and is dredging up material from deep inside the ice giant planet's atmosphere. The elusive feature gives astronomers a unique opportunity to study Neptune's deep winds, which can't be directly measured.

The dark spot material may be hydrogen sulfide, with the pungent smell of rotten eggs. Joshua Tollefson from the University of California at Berkeley explained, "The particles themselves are still highly reflective; they are just slightly darker than the particles in the surrounding atmosphere."

Unlike Jupiter's GRS, which has been visible for at least 200 years, Neptune's dark vortices only last a few years. This is the first one that actually has been photographed as it is dying.

"We have no evidence of how these vortices are formed or how fast they rotate," said Agustin Sanchez-Lavega from the University of the Basque Country in Spain. "It is most likely that they arise from an instability in the sheared eastward and westward winds."

The dark vortex is behaving differently from what planet-watchers predicted. "It looks like we're capturing the demise of this dark vortex, and it's different from what well-known studies led us to expect," said Michael H. Wong of the University of California at Berkeley, referring to work by Ray LeBeau (now at St. Louis University) and Tim Dowling's team at the University of Louisville. "Their dynamical simulations said that anticyclones under Neptune's wind shear would probably drift toward the equator. We thought that once the vortex got too close to the equator, it would break up and perhaps create a spectacular outburst of cloud activity."

But the dark spot, which was first seen at mid-southern latitudes, has apparently faded away rather than going out with a bang. That may be related to the surprising direction of its measured drift: toward the south pole, instead of northward toward the equator. Unlike Jupiter's GRS, the Neptune spot is not as tightly constrained by numerous alternating wind jets (seen as bands in Jupiter's atmosphere). Neptune seems to only have three broad jets: a westward one at the equator, and eastward ones around the north and south poles. The vortex should be free to change traffic lanes and cruise anywhere in between the jets.

"No facilities other than Hubble and Voyager have observed these vortices. For now, only Hubble can provide the data we need to understand how common or rare these fascinating neptunian weather systems may be," said Wong.

The first images of the dark vortex are from the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, a long-term Hubble project that annually captures global maps of our solar system's four outer planets. Only Hubble has the unique capability to probe these worlds in ultraviolet light, which yields important information not available to other present-day telescopes. Additional data, from a Hubble program targeting the dark vortex, are from an international team including Wong, Tollefson, Sanchez-Lavega, Andrew Hsu, Imke de Pater, Amy Simon, Ricardo Hueso, Lawrence Sromovsky, Patrick Fry, Statia Luszcz-Cook, Heidi Hammel, Marc Delcroix, Katherine de Kleer, Glenn Orton, and Christoph Baranec.

Wong's paper appears online in the Astronomical Journal on Feb. 15, 2018.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington, D.C.

For additional imagery, visit: http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2018-08

For NASA's Hubble web page, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

###Tropical Cyclone Gita remained a powerful hurricane in the Southern Pacific Ocean when NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite passed overhead and captured a visible image of the storm.

On Feb. 15 at 0224 UTC (Feb. 14 at 9:24 p.m. EST) the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite showed well-rounded circulation center with bands of powerful thunderstorms wrapping into the eye. The VIIRS image showed a symmetrical system with a well-defined 40 nautical mile-wide eye. Infrared imagery revealed that cloud tops were warming, so the uplift within the storm was weakening.

At 10 a.m. EST (1500 UTC) on Feb. 15 Gita's maximum sustained winds were 115 mph (100 knots/185 kph). Gita is still a major hurricane and a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. It was centered near 22.5 degrees south latitude and 171.1 degrees east longitude. That's about 339 nautical miles east of Noumea, New Caledonia. Gita was moving to the west-southwest at ~14 mph (12 knots/22 kph).

New Caledonia is on pre-alert for Gita. The North Island of New Zealand looks likely to be affected by Gita on February 19 and 20. Residents should monitor output from Met New Zealand: http://www.metservice.com/warnings/tropical-cyclone-activity.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecast calls for Gita to gradually turn southwestward then southeastward after 24 hours. The extended forecast out 5 days calls for Gita to weaken to a tropical storm after it crosses New Zealand near Wellington.

###CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Old, complex tropical forests support a wider diversity of birds than second-growth forests and have irreplaceable value for conservation, according to an Oregon State University-led exhaustive analysis of bird diversity in the mountains of southern Costa Rica.

During their surveys, researchers found similar numbers of bird species in secondary stands compared to stands comprised entirely or in part of old-growth forest. However, the bird community in secondary forest was clearly shifted towards non-forest species, and only old-growth forest stands tended to include rare birds and to benefit biodiversity across the entire landscape. Scientists reported their results this week in the Journal of Applied Ecology.

The findings are important because in some cases, conservation programs have focused on the potential benefits of secondary forests. Although secondary forests do have value for conservation, the study suggests that primary forests are necessary as sources of biodiversity and as a refuge for species that can colonize other sites that are being restored. Thus, these results suggest that a strategy focussing only on second-growth forests may not benefit conservation-relevant species. Indeed, such stands tend to support only a few common species that can survive in highly disturbed areas.

To reach their conclusions, a team led by Urs Kormann, a post-doctoral scientist in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University, surveyed bird communities in 49 forest fragments near the Las Cruces Biological Station in Costa Rica. They analyzed diversity within each fragment as well as from one stand to another. Much of the old-growth forest in the area has been cleared for pasture in the last 50 years, but about 30 percent of the old-growth remains in patches ranging from less than two to more than 2,500 acres. The study was conducted in the Coto Brus region, which borders Panama and varies from rolling hills to mountains more than 10,000 feet high.

Previous studies have focused only on bird diversity within a tropical forest stand and not analyzed how the community changes from one stand to another. "We show that there are always the same few common species in small, isolated secondary forest fragments, so each time you go to another piece of forest, you will encounter the same common birds, a phenomenon called biotic homogenisation. In contrast, you will often see new, rare species with each new piece of primary forest you visit," said Kormann, lead author of the paper.

"We add to the growing evidence that both the amount of forest and the way it is arranged matters for tropical birds. In addition, we are among the first, to my knowledge, to show that it is really important to distinguish between primary and secondary forest. Landscapes with only secondary forest may not represent a panacea for the conservation of tropical biodiversity."

Effective conservation efforts should include maintenance of large old-growth forest tracts, the scientists wrote, and insure that human activities in the forest do not drive away species that depend on such areas. The results also suggest that restoring forests is likely to be most effective for forest birds if such efforts are performed in the vicinity of primary forest. This is likely because primary forest will provide a source for forest birds that may colonize the restored forest. Relying on secondary forests alone may create "potentially misleading expectations," researchers wrote, that landscapes significantly modified by people can still accomplish conservation goals.

In other studies, scientists have documented the ecological functions that birds perform, such as seed dispersal, pollination and herbivore control.

###

Contact:

Nick Houtman

541-737-0783

nick.houtman@oregonstate.edu

Source:

Urs Kormann

541-908-0359

urs.kormann@oregonstate.edu

The story is available at http://bit.ly/2EqTi32

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation and by the German Research Foundation. It was conducted by scientists from Oregon State and Georg-August University and the Institute of Landscape Ecology in Germany.

Editors, photos are available on Flickr to accompany this story:

About the OSU College of Forestry: For a century, the College of Forestry has been a world class center of teaching, learning and research. It offers graduate and undergraduate degree programs in sustaining ecosystems, managing forests and manufacturing wood products; conducts basic and applied research on the nature and use of forests; and operates 14,000 acres of college forests.As globalization and climate change spread tropical diseases around the globe, not all populations are equally susceptible to infection. Gene variants common in people of Asian and European ancestry, for instance, make them more prone than those of African origin to developing severe dengue shock syndrome, according to a new study in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Dengue fever is endemic to tropical and subtropical regions of East Asia and the Americas, but the dengue viruses have recently spread to North America and Europe. Dengue can lead to a wide spectrum of illness, ranging from classic dengue fever (DF) to dengue shock syndrome (DSS). Ethnic diversity has long been considered as one of the factors explaining why the severe forms of dengue are more prevalent in Southeast Asia than elsewhere.

In the new work, Luisa Pereira of the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health-University of Porto (i3S), Anavaj Sakuntabhai of Institut Pasteur-Paris and colleagues studied the genetics of 411 patients admitted with dengue virus infection to three hospitals in Thailand between 2000 and 2003. 290 healthy individuals admitted to the same hospitals during the time period were used as controls.

The researchers identified two genes related to blood vessel inflammation that confer risk of DSS, and four genes related to drug metabolism that affect risk of DF. Further experiments showed that variations in the genes led to observable changes in cellular dynamics. Moreover, the prevalence of the genetic variations varies based on ancestry.

"The particular genetic risk conferred by these genes indicates that Southeast and Northeast Asians are highly susceptible to both phenotypes, while Africans are best protected against DSS and Europeans best protected against DF but the most susceptible to DSS," the researchers say.

###

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: http://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0006202

Citation: Oliveira M, Lert-itthiporn W, Cavadas B, Fernandes V, Chuansumrit A, Anunciacao O, et al. (2018) Joint ancestry and association test indicate two distinct pathogenic pathways involved in classical dengue fever and dengue shock syndrome. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 12(2): e0006202. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0006202

Funding: The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme [FP7/2007-2013] for the DENFREE project under Grant Agreement no. 282378. MO has a PhD grant from FCT (The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology - SFRH/BD/95626/2013). I3S is financed by FEDER - Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional funds through the COMPETE 2020 - Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Programme (POCI), Portugal 2020, and by Portuguese funds through FCT/Ministerio da Ciencia, Tecnologia e Inovacao in the framework of the project "Institute for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences" (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.Using a computational model of the human immune system, scientists have shown that efforts to combat sepsis might be more effective if they targeted multiple steps in the molecular processes that drive the illness. This finding is presented in PLOS Computational Biology.

Sepsis is a dysregulation of the body's normal inflammatory response to injury and infection. People with sepsis may receive oxygen and intravenous fluids, as well as antibiotics to fight the underlying infection, but the condition kills 28 to 50 percent of affected patients. So far, drugs developed to attack the molecular processes that underpin sepsis have not shown clinical success.

To explore the molecular challenges of sepsis treatment, Chase Cockrell and Gary An of the University of Chicago employed a computational model of the human immune system, which they had previously developed specifically to investigate systemic inflammation. The model simulates how immune system cells and signaling molecules behave during sepsis, as well as the effects of disrupting various parts of these processes.

Using their model, the researchers showed that disrupting a single signaling process at a single point (or just a few points) in time would not be adequate to treat sepsis. This may explain why previous attempts that employed such a strategy have not been effective. Instead, the simulation showed, successful treatment would require drugs that frequently target multiple immune system processes.

The model also showed that a "one-size-fits-all" multi-target approach would still be inadequate, and true "precision medicine" would require a treatment to adapt itself based on each patient's individual response. The researchers concluded that computational modeling is necessary to generate the amount of data required by machine-learning algorithms to aid development of effective sepsis drugs.

"This project provides a reality check on how people are currently thinking about trying to treat sepsis at a drug-design level," Cockrell says. "It will hopefully help focus research into those areas that will actually provide a path towards effective therapy, such as high-resolution diagnostics and sampling, and realizing that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' answer."

###

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Computational Biology: http://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005876

Citation: Cockrell RC, An G (2018) Examining the controllability of sepsis using genetic algorithms on an agent-based model of systemic inflammation. PLoS Comput Biol 14(2): e1005876. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005876

Funding: This research used high performance computing resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. Additionally, this research was supported in part by NIH through resources provided by the University of Chicago Computation Institute (Beagle2) and the Biological Sciences Division of the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory, under grant 1S10OD018495-01. This work was also supported by funds from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Award #B616283. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.Hurricanes spawn most of the largest storm surges in the northeastern U.S., right? Wrong, according to a study by Rutgers University-New Brunswick scientists.

Extratropical cyclones , including nor'easters and other non-tropical storms, generate most of the large storm surges in the Northeast, according to the study in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology. They include a freak November 1950 storm and devastating nor'easters in March 1962 and December 1992.

In a first, the Rutgers scientists found intriguing trends after searching for clusters of, or similarities among, storms, said study coauthor Professor Anthony J. Broccoli, chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. It's a new way of studying atmospheric circulation.

Understanding the climatology of storm surges driven by extratropical cyclones is important for evaluating future risks, especially as sea-level rise continues, the researchers said.

"The clusters are like rough police artist sketches of what surge-producing storms look like," Broccoli said. "Like facial recognition software, clustering is trying to find storms that look like one another."

"We wanted to understand the large-scale atmospheric circulation associated with storm surges," said Arielle J. Catalano, the study's lead author and a doctoral student in the Graduate Program in Atmospheric Science at Rutgers-New Brunswick. "It's an atmospheric approach to the surge-producing storms."

The study covered the 100 largest storm surges driven by extratropical cyclones at Sewells Point in Norfolk, Virginia, The Battery in southern Manhattan in New York City, and Boston, Massachusetts. It excluded hybrid systems, like Superstorm Sandy, that shifted from tropical to non-tropical or were tropical up to 18 hours before peak surges.

The Rutgers scientists examined tide gauge records from the early 20th century through 2010. They analyzed atmospheric circulation during storms to look for clusters, and studied climate variability patterns that influenced circulation in the Northeast. They also looked at the probability of surges linked to much larger-scale atmospheric patterns that cover vast areas.

They found that the biggest surges develop when slowly moving extratropical cyclones (low pressure systems) encounter a strong anticyclone, or high pressure system. That scenario leads to a tighter pressure gradient (the contrast between low and high pressure) and longer-lasting onshore winds, the study says.

This favorable environment for large storm surges is influenced by large-scale atmospheric patterns, including El Nino, the Arctic Oscillation, the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Pacific-North American pattern.

Though Superstorm Sandy in 2012 led to the largest storm surge on record at The Battery, extratropical cyclones spawned 88 of the 100 largest surges there.

The November 1950 "Great Appalachian Storm," with wind gusts exceeding 140 mph in the mid-Atlantic region, generated the highest extratropical cyclone surge at The Battery: nearly 7.9 feet. That's only 20 percent smaller than Sandy's surge - 13 percent smaller if sea-level rise is not considered, the study says.

The water level during the 1950 storm was lower than during Sandy because the surge peaked at close to low tide. Future extratropical cyclones could cause Sandy-like flooding and coastal damages.

At Sewells Point, the highest surge was 5.4 feet in November 2009, while the highest surge at Boston was nearly 6.3 feet in February 2010. Of the 100 largest surges at those locations, extratropical cyclones were responsible for 71 at Sewells Point and 91 at Boston.

"The elephant in the room is sea-level rise," Broccoli said. "That will likely matter more than how storms may change in the future, but what happens will be a combination of the two factors."

###Amyloid beta pathology - protein deposits in the brain - might have been transmitted by contaminated neurosurgical instruments, suggests a new UCL-led study.

For the paper, published today in Acta Neuropathologica, researchers studied the medical records of four people who had brain bleeds caused by amyloid beta build-up in the blood vessels of the brain.

They found that all four people had undergone neurosurgery two or three decades earlier as children or teenagers, raising the possibility that amyloid beta deposition may be transmissible through neurosurgical instruments in a similar way to prion proteins which are implicated in prion dementias such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Amyloid beta is best known for being one of the hallmark proteins of Alzheimer's disease, but the researchers did not find evidence of Alzheimer's in this study.

"It is well known that the abnormal proteins seen in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease have been transmitted between patients by certain medical and surgical procedures. We have been investigating whether the same can be true for amyloid beta," said the study's lead author, Professor Sebastian Brandner (UCL Institute of Neurology).

The researchers looked in the pathology archive at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery for biopsy and autopsy materials of young adult patients with confirmed amyloid beta pathology, which can lead to brain bleeds or harmful plaques, in the brain's blood vessels. These deposits of the amyloid protein occur increasingly frequently in older individuals but only very rarely in younger people.

Four cases were identified - three of them were in their 30s, and one was aged 57 - all of whom had experienced brain bleeds caused by amyloid deposits in brain blood vessels. None had any known genetic causes that predispose to this pathology in younger people.

A separate review of the medical literature supported the discovery by identifying four other case studies with similar pathology and past surgical history. As these patients were all men with a history of head trauma, research teams had previously speculated that those were correlated.

The new study suggests otherwise, as all patients had a history of childhood neurosurgery, three were women and only one had a history of head trauma.

In a comparison group of 50 people of similar ages from the same archives, the researchers did not find any amyloid beta pathology and only three had a recorded history of childhood neurosurgery.

Previous work in laboratory animals has shown that tiny amounts of abnormal amyloid beta protein can stick to steel wires and transmit pathology into the animals' brains, but this paper is the first to suggest the same may be possible in humans.

The new study follows reports in recent years of amyloid beta pathology in brain blood vessels following treatment with cadaver-derived human growth hormone in childhood.

"We have found new evidence that amyloid beta pathology may be transmissible. This does not mean that Alzheimer's disease can be transmitted, as we did not find any significant amount of pathological tau protein which is the other hallmark protein of Alzheimer's disease," said Professor Brandner.

"Our findings relate to neurosurgical procedures done a long time ago. Nevertheless, the possibility of pathological protein transmission, while rare, should factor into reviews of sterilisation and safety practices for surgical procedures," he said.

"Neurosurgery is becoming increasingly common in older individuals. As amyloid beta pathology increases in brains with age, this raises the potential for onward transmission of protein pathology to other individuals in the same hospital," said the study's first author, Dr Zane Jaunmuktane (UCL Institute of Neurology).

As this study was small and retrospective, the authors hope their findings stimulate others to explore these ideas further. They are currently expanding their study by looking at more archives across the UK.

"There are several reasonable alternative explanations for our findings that we cannot yet rule out. Further research is required to clarify things. A large epidemiological study would be particularly useful," said co-author Professor Simon Mead (MRC Prion Unit at UCL).

###

The study was conducted by researchers at UCL, UCLH, Centro Hospitalar Universitario do Porto, Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Ocidental and the University of Leuven, and was funded by the National Institute for Health Research University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre and the Queen Square Dementia Biomedical Research Unit.University of Alberta led guideline warns health risks may outweigh benefits, provides guidance on when (and when not to) prescribe.

A new medical guideline published today suggests Canada's family physicians should take a sober second thought before prescribing medical cannabis to most patients.

Published in Canadian Family Physician, "Simplified Guideline for Prescribing Medical Cannabinoids in Primary Care" states there is limited evidence to support the reputed benefits of medical marijuana for many conditions, and what benefits do exist may be balanced out or even outweighed by the harms.

"While enthusiasm for medical marijuana is very strong among some people, good-quality research has not caught up," said Mike Allan, director of evidence-based medicine at the University of Alberta and project lead for the guideline.

The guideline was created after an in-depth review of clinical trials involving medical cannabis and will be distributed to roughly 30,000 clinicians across Canada. It was overseen by a committee of 10 individuals, supported by 10 other contributors, and peer reviewed by 40 others, each a mixture of doctors, pharmacists, nurse practitioners, nurses and patients. The review examined cannabinoids for the treatment of pain, spasticity, nausea and vomiting, as well as their side-effects and harms.

Researchers found that in most cases the number of randomized studies involving medical cannabis is extremely limited or entirely absent. The size and duration of the studies that do exist are also very narrow in scope.

"In general we're talking about one study, and often very poorly done," said Allan. "For example, there are no studies for the treatment of depression. For anxiety, there is one study of 24 patients with social anxiety in which half received a single dose of cannabis derivative and scored their anxiety doing a simulated presentation. This is hardly adequate to determine if lifelong treatment of conditions like general anxiety disorders is reasonable."

According to the guideline, there is acceptable research for the use of medical cannabinoids to treat a handful of very specific medical conditions. They include chronic neuropathic (nerve) pain, palliative cancer pain, spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis or spinal cord injury, and nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy. Even in those specific cases, the benefits were found to be generally minor.

For nerve pain, 30 per cent of patients given a placebo saw a moderate improvement in their pain while 39 per cent experienced the same effect while on medical cannabinoids. In patients with muscle spasticity, 25 per cent of those taking a placebo saw a moderate improvement compared to 35 per cent on medical cannabis. The use of medical cannabis was best supported in its use for chemotherapy patients experiencing nausea and vomiting. Just under half of patients using cannabinoids for their symptoms had an absence of nausea and vomiting compared to 13 per cent on placebo.

"Medical cannabinoids should normally only be considered in the small handful of conditions with adequate evidence and only after a patient has tried of number of standard therapies," said Allan. "Given the inconsistent nature of medical marijuana dosing and possible risks of smoking, we also recommend that pharmaceutical cannabinoids be tried first before smoked medical marijuana."

While the researchers found evidence supporting the use of medical cannabinoids to be limited, side-effects were both common and consistent. About 11 per cent of patients were not able to tolerate medical cannabinoids, versus three per cent of those taking placebo. Common effects included sedation (50 per cent versus 30 per cent), dizziness (32 per cent versus 11 per cent) and confusion (nine per cent versus two per cent).

"This guideline may be unsatisfactory for some, particularly those with polarized views regarding medical cannabinoids," said Allan.

He added that those who oppose the use of cannabinoids for medical therapy may be disappointed that the guideline considers medical cannabinoids in specific cases. Others, who feel cannabinoids are highly effective and don't pose any risk, may be frustrated that the guideline doesn't advocate their use sooner or for a broader range of conditions.

"Better research is definitely needed--randomized control trials that follow a large number of patients for longer periods of time. If we had that, it could change how we approach this issue and help guide our recommendations."

###The Australian fire beetle is attracted to freshly burnt wood. Experts also call this pyrophilia ("love of fire"). This behavior is not very common in insects. Merimna atrata however has a good reason for this. The dead wood provides plenty of food for the larvae of the beetle, so it uses the wood for oviposition.

But how does Merimna find a freshly burned area? For some time it has been known that the fire beetle has heat sensors with which it can detect infrared radiation. In a sense, it "sees" hot places in its environment against a cooler background. It was originally believed that the insects use this ability to detect forest fires.

"However, the IR organs in Merimna atrata are relatively insensitive", Dr. Helmut Schmitz emphasizes. Schmitz is a lecturer at the Institute of Zoology at the University of Bonn; he has investigated thermo and infrared reception in the black insects for nearly two decades. "This actually contradicts the assumption that the IR organs enable the beetle to detect fires from a greater distance."

Beetles on a pin

Together with his colleagues, Schmitz has now been able to demonstrate for the first time that these doubts are justified. The scientists designed an ingenious experiment for this purpose. Put simply, they stuck the beetles with their backs to the end of a pin and used this to hang them up. This left the experimental animals with the ability to fly continuously, but without moving forward. "More importantly, they were able to navigate in any direction, i.e. turning right or left", emphasizes Schmitz.

Then the scientists stimulated the flying beetles with weak infrared radiation from the side. The beetles changed their flight direction in response, but always away from the source and never towards it.

"Merimna's IR organs are located on both sides of its abdomen; incidentally, this is unique in the animal kingdom", explains Schmitz. "When we occluded the IR receptors with aluminum foil, the animals no longer reacted to the radiation, but always carried on flying straight ahead. As soon as we removed the foil they displayed their original behavior again." This observation suggests another use of the heat sensors. "Presumably they help the fire beetles avoid hot spots when approaching an oviposition site such as a freshly burnt branch; these hot spots are not visible with the naked eye to humans and animals during the day," says Schmitz.

How the animals detect forest fires remains unclear. Even visual stimuli seem to play no role in fire detection, despite Merimna atrata having good eyesight. The researchers tested this hypothesis by showing the beetles slides of large clouds of smoke rising above a forest area. But the insects were completely unimpressed and they never changed their flight direction.

Following their nose

"We therefore assume that Merimna atrata gets its information about an ongoing fire from the smell of smoke", concludes Helmut Schmitz. This is also important for another reason. Odors can tell you exactly what is actually burning. In contrast, this information cannot be inferred from the heat development or the appearance of a smoke plume. Merimna is very picky, it only lays its eggs in burnt eucalyptus wood and avoids other trees. If the insect was to rely on its IR sense, it would risk being lured into the wrong kind of fires.

Something quite different can be seen with a close European relative; the fire beetles of the genus Melanophila. Their larvae develop in a variety of trees. Heat perception would be quite worthwhile for them. In fact, Melanophila also has infrared sensors, but they are completely different. They can presumably detect infrared radiation even from a long distance. According to measurements and theoretical calculations, Melanophila heat sensors are at least 500 times more sensitive than those of Merimna atrata.

###

Publication: Marcel Hinz, Adrian Klein, Anke Schmitz and Helmut Schmitz: The impact of infrared radiation in flight control in the Australian "firebeetle" Merimna atrata; PLOS ONE; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0192865

Contact:

PD Dr. Helmut Schmitz

Institute of Zoology at the University of Bonn

Telephone: 0228-73-20-71

Email: h.schmitz@uni-bonn.deURBANA, Ill. - Whether children think their peers' intentions are benign or hostile, and how those children experience and express their own emotions, may influence the quality of their friendships, according to a new study from the University of Illinois.

Friendships play an important role in children's psychological and behavioral adjustment, especially during the transition to adolescence. Some friendships may even provide positive support and act as buffers against stress at home. Others may have negative features such as conflict or rivalry.

Child development researchers at U of I wanted to look at what predicts the quality of children's friendships. In a recent study published in the journal Child Development, the researchers measured a child's cognitions about negative but ambiguous peer events (attribution biases) and the child's tendency to experience and express strong emotions (emotional intensity).

"We were most interested in understanding how children's cognitions and emotions worked together to predict whether child-friend interactions were more cooperative and positive or more negative and conflictual," says Nancy McElwain, a professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at U of I.

Xi Chen, a doctoral student in the department and lead author of the study, explains that it was an interest in emotion that drove her to do the study. "But emotion doesn't stand by itself. It comes together with cognition in a social context when a child is interacting with others."

For the study, Chen and McElwain examined data from 913 study children (50 percent were boys; 78 percent were non-Hispanic white) and their friends who were participants in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Children and their friends were observed during a series of interactive tasks at grades 4 and 6.

Children's attribution biases were assessed during interviews at grade 4, during which children were presented with scenarios depicting negative but ambiguous peer events (e.g., your radio is broken by a peer) and asked how they would interpret the peer's intention in each scenario (e.g., Did the peer mean to break your radio, or was it an accident?).

Responses that the peer intended to cause harm indicate a hostile bias. Responses that the peer did not intend to cause harm indicate a benign bias. Teachers also reported on children's emotional intensity at grade 4.

Children's biases predicted child-friend interaction quality at grade 6, but only when children had high levels of emotional intensity. For instance, a more hostile attribution bias, combined with high emotional intensity, predicted more negative child-friend interaction. But in contrast, a more benign attribution bias, combined with high emotional intensity, predicted more positive child-friend interaction.

"Emotional intensity may act as 'fuel' that motivates or spurs behavior," Chen explains. "At the same time, biases may act as the 'compass' that points children's behavior in a certain direction. Children who hold a more hostile bias, for example, may be more likely to act out and engage in negative interactions with friends when the hostile bias is fueled by intense emotions."

"Likewise, children who hold a more benign bias may engage in more positive behavior with friends, especially when this bias is again fueled by intense emotions," McElwain adds.

Though they did not address specific behaviors in the study, Chen adds that for children who tend to perceive peers' intentions as benign, and also tend to experience intense emotions, they might be more emotionally engaged when playing together with a friend, may initiate more pro-social behaviors, and share more laughter and positive interactions.

For children who tend to perceive their peers' intentions as hostile and also who tend experience intense emotions, Chen says they may be more likely to act out, to "fight back" or attack their friends, or withdraw from interactions with friends.

There are ways that parents and teachers can help children develop quality relationships.

"One take-home message for parents and teachers is recognition that intense emotions can be beneficial. When paired with positive cognitions, intense emotion can promote positive interaction with friends," says McElwain.

Chen adds, "A challenge is helping children who show negative cognitions. Adults can help by modeling positive views about negative events when the situation warrants. An example would be telling the child, 'I don't think he meant to spill the milk on your homework. It was an accident.' A trusted adult might also ask - in a nonjudgmental way - about the child's thoughts about unintended negative events."

Often, a first good step in minimizing biases is recognizing they exist. "During adolescence, children are increasingly able to discuss and reflect on their own cognitions. So, this period of development, in particular, may be one in which negative cognitions and biases are open to change," McElwain explains.

###

The paper, "Interactive contributions of attribution biases and emotional intensity to child-friend interaction quality during preadolescence," is published in Child Development. Co-authors include Xi Chen and Nancy McElwain, both of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at U of I, and Jennifer E. Lansford of Duke University. McElwain is also a part-time faculty member at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at U of I.

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) was directed by a steering committee and supported by NICHD through a cooperative agreement (U10) that calls for a scientific collaboration between the grantees and the NICHD staff.

Xi Chen was supported by the Illinois Distinguished Fellowship while working on this manuscript, and she wishes to express thanks to University of Illinois Graduate College, who provides this fellowship.Doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals could soon be wearing uniforms brushed with tiny copper nanoparticles to reduce the spread of bacterial infections and viruses, such as Escherichia coli (E. coli), at hospitals.

Material scientists at The University of Manchester, working in collaboration with universities in China, have created a 'durable and washable, concrete-like' composite material made from antibacterial copper nanoparticles.

They have also developed a way of binding the composite to wearable materials such as cotton and polyester, which has proved a stumbling block for scientists in the past.

Bacterial infection is a major issue in hospitals across the UK and has been rising due to its spread on surfaces and clothing. E. coli infections alone killed more than 5,500 NHS patients in 2015 and Government estimates put the cost of such infections to the NHS at 2.3 billion this year alone.

Precious metals, such as gold and silver, have excellent antibacterial and antimicrobial properties, but their commercial use in textiles is prohibitive due to extremely high costs. That means copper is the material of choice for researchers as it has very similar antibacterial properties to gold and silver but is much cheaper. That's why material chemists are focussing their attentions on exploring the possibility of using copper as the ultimate antimicrobial agent.

However, prior to this breakthrough, techniques for binding copper to materials like cotton for medical and antimicrobial textile production had limitations. Now, using a process called 'Polymer Surface Grafting', the research team has tethered copper nanoparticles to cotton and polyester using a polymer brush, creating a strong chemical bond. The researchers say it is this bond which has led to excellent washable properties and durability. These developments could finally see copper-covered uniforms and textiles commercialised in the future.

Lead author, Dr Xuqing Liu, from the School of Materials, said: "Now that our composite materials present excellent antibacterial properties and durability, it has huge potential for modern medical and healthcare applications."

The researchers tested their copper nanoparticles on cotton as it is used more widely than any other natural fibre and polyester as it is a typical polymeric, manmade material. Each material was brushed with the tiny copper nanoparticles which measure between 1-100 nanometres (nm). 100nm is the equivalent to just 0.0001 millimetres (mm).

The team found their cotton and polyester coated-copper fabrics showed excellent antibacterial resistance against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and E. coli, even after being washed 30 times. When compared with the traditional process of copper coating the polymer brush technique developed at the University is far more effective.

Dr Liu said: "These results are very positive and some companies are already showing interest in developing this technology. We hope we can commercialise the advanced technology within a couple of years. We have now started to work on reducing cost and making the process even simpler."

###

Notes to Editor

For any media enquiries please contact Jordan Kenny on 0161 275 8257 and jordan.kenny@manchester.ac.uk

Reference, "Durable and Washable Antibacterial Copper Nanoparticles Bridged by Surface Grafting Polymer Brushes on Cotton and Polymeric Materials," Journal of Nanomaterials, Xuqing Liu. doi:10.1155/2018/6546193. vol. 2018, Article ID 6546193, 2018.

Advanced materials

Advanced materials is one of The University of Manchester's research beacons - examples of pioneering discoveries, interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector partnerships that are tackling some of the biggest questions facing the planet. #ResearchBeacons

About The University of Manchester

The University of Manchester, a member of the prestigious Russell Group, is the UK's largest single-site university with more than 40,000 students - including more than 10,000 from overseas.It is consistently ranked among the world's elite for graduate employability.

The University is also one of the country's major research institutions, rated fifth in the UK in terms of 'research power' (REF 2014). World-class research is carried out across a diverse range of fields including cancer, advanced materials, addressing global inequalities, energy and industrial biotechnology.

No fewer than 25 Nobel laureates have either worked or studied here.

It is the only UK university to have social responsibility among its core strategic objectives, with staff and students alike dedicated to making a positive difference in communities around the world.

Manchester is ranked 38th in the world in the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2017 and 6th in the UK.

Visit http://www.manchester.ac.uk for further information.

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News and media contacts: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/Optical highways for light are at the heart of modern communications. But when it comes to guiding individual blips of light called photons, reliable transit is far less common. Now, a collaboration of researchers from the University of Maryland's Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), led by Associate Professor Mohammad Hafezi and Professor Edo Waks, has created a photonic chip that both generates single photons, and steers them around. Hafezi and Waks are both JQI Fellows with affiliations in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics and Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics.

The device, described in the journal Science, features a way for the quantum light to seamlessly move, unaffected by certain obstacles.

"This design incorporates well-known ideas that protect the flow of current in certain electrical devices," says Hafezi. "Here, we create an analogous environment for photons, one that protects the integrity of quantum light, even in the presence of certain defects."

The chip starts with a photonic crystal, which is an established, versatile technology used to create roadways for light. They are made by punching holes through a sheet of semiconductor. For photons, the repeated hole pattern looks very much like a real crystal made from a grid of atoms. Researchers use different hole patterns to change the way that light bends and bounces through the crystal. For instance, they can modify the hole sizes and separations to make restricted lanes of travel that allow certain light colors to pass, while prohibiting others.

Sometimes, even in these carefully fabricated devices, there are flaws that alter the light's intended route, causing it to detour into an unexpected direction. But rather than ridding their chips of every flaw, the JQI team mitigates this issue by rethinking the crystal's hole shapes and crystal pattern. In the new chip, they etch out thousands of triangular holes in an array that resembles a bee's honeycomb. Along the center of the device they shift the spacing of the holes, which opens a different kind of travel lane for the light. Previously, these researchers predicted that photons moving along that line of shifted holes should be impervious to certain defects because of the overall crystal structure, or topology. Whether the lane is a switchback road or a straight shot, the light's path from origin to destination should be assured, regardless of the details of the road.

The light comes from small flecks of semiconductor--dubbed quantum emitters--embedded into the photonic crystal. Researchers can use lasers to prod this material into releasing single photons. Each emitter can gain energy by absorbing laser photons and lose energy by later spitting out those photons, one at time. Photons coming from the two most energetic states of a single emitter are different colors and rotate in opposite directions. For this experiment, the team uses photons from an emitter found near the chip's center.

The team tested the capabilities of the chip by first changing a quantum emitter from its lowest energy state to one of its two higher energy states. Upon relaxing back down, the emitter pops out a photon into the nearby travel lane. They continued this process many times, using photons from the two higher energy states. They saw that photons emitted from the two states preferred to travel in opposite directions, which was evidence of the underlying crystal topology.

To confirm that the design could indeed offer protected lanes of traffic for single photons, the team created a 60 degree turn in the hole pattern. In typical photonic crystals, without built-in protective features, such a kink would likely cause some of the light to reflect backwards or scatter elsewhere. In this new chip, topology protected the photons and allowed them to continue on their way unhindered.

"On the internet, information moves around in packets of light containing many photons, and losing a few doesn't hurt you too much," says co-author Sabyasachi Barik, a graduate student at JQI. "In quantum information processing, we need to protect each individual photon and make sure it doesn't get lost along the way. Our work can alleviate some forms of loss, even when the device is not completely perfect."

The design is flexible, and could allow researchers to systematically assemble pathways for single photons, says Waks. "Such a modular approach may lead to new types of optical devices and enable tailored interactions between quantum light emitters or other kinds of matter."

###

The A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland serves as the catalyst for high-quality research, innovation, and learning, delivering on a promise that all graduates will leave ready to impact the Grand Challenges (energy, environment, security, and human health) of the 21st century. The Clark School is dedicated to leading and transforming the engineering discipline and profession, to accelerating entrepreneurship, and to transforming research and learning activities into new innovations that benefit millions. Visit us online at http://www.eng.umd.edu and follow us on Twitter @ClarkSchool.A free online kidney atlas built by USC researchers empowers stem cell scientists everywhere to generate more human-like tiny kidneys for testing new drugs and creating renal replacement therapies.

"Stem-cell based technologies hold great promise for developing kidney replacement and regeneration therapies," said Nils Lindstrom, first author of three new studies and a research associate in Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. "Getting there requires detailed knowledge of how kidneys normally form so the process can be replicated in cell cultures in the lab. Our data will help us and other scientists improve current techniques to make better tiny functional kidneys."

Over the past four years, USC Stem Cell researchers and USC Viterbi School of Engineering computer scientists have documented the molecular, cellular and genetic similarities and differences between human and mouse kidney formation so they can find treatments for kidney disease, which affects about 30 million Americans or 15 percent of U.S. adults.

The three-study series, published on Feb. 15 in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, provides the first cellular and molecular characterization of how the human kidney develops in a mother's womb, said Andrew McMahon, study senior author and W.M. Keck Provost Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and Biological Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine.

Kidney research has been a focus of the McMahon Lab for the past quarter century.

"Our research bridges a critical gap between animal models and human applications," McMahon said. "The data we collected and analyzed creates a knowledge-base that will accelerate stem cell-based technologies to produce mini-kidneys that accurately represent human kidneys for biomedical screening and replacement therapies."

The new, open-source data, available at http://www.gudmap.org, provides the first systematic, high-resolution atlas or databank for human kidney genesis.

How human and mouse kidneys are similar

The kidney plays a central role in controlling the body's ecosystem by regulating blood pressure and removing waste products.

The smallest functional unit that helps remove blood waste from the body are nephrons. Nephrons are formed in the human kidney only during fetal life, before the stem cells that generate them are exhausted.

USC Stem Cell researchers analyzed the developmental differences in scale, timing and basic structure between human and mouse kidneys. They gained insight into the regulatory processes that maintain, expand and turn kidney stem cells into mature, functional kidney structures by examining human kidneys at different stages of development and juxtaposing their observations with mouse kidneys.

Researchers compared 26 human kidney "anchor genes" with their mouse equivalents. Kidney anchor genes are required for organ development. Only three genes (11 percent) have comparable expression between mouse and human kidneys: SLC22A6, ENTPD5 and UMOD.

"If the goal is to treat human kidney disease, clearly, it's better to focus on genes that are also active in human kidneys," McMahon said.

Intractable problems require multidisciplinary collaboration

The median wait time for a kidney transplant is 3.6 years, meaning people have to put their lives on standby for years as they go to three dialysis appointments per week.

Kidney disease is a big, intractable problem, so it requires a multidisciplinary approach. That's why McMahon teamed up with Carl Kesselman, study co-author and Dean's Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at USC Viterbi.

Kesselman and his team at the Information Sciences Institute at USC Viterbi built software that automated many of the tasks researchers needed to perform, such as recording data observed by a high-resolution microscope. The tool not only fast-tracked one of the three studies but also created an online, searchable library to help other stem cell scientists in their kidney disease research.

"If you think of data as the modern version of a book, we gave the researcher tools to write the book, made the library where the book is stored and created a catalog system so others can find the book and check it out," said Kesselman, a principal investigator at the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience.

To achieve this, Kesselman's team created DERIVA (Discovery Environment for Relational Information and Versioned Assets), a software program that collected data from microscopes and organized them and other study data into virtual photo albums that easily can be shared with other researchers.

"It's the difference between taking a photo with film or taking it with your smartphone and using the metadata that is automatically generated to organize your photos," Kesselman said. "At some point, you have so many photos that they become unmanageable. You can't find the one you want. DERIVA automatically catalogs your data so you can analyze massive amounts of data with Zen-like calm and share them with all of your friends throughout the world."

###

Jill McMahon, Jinjin Guo, Tracy Tran, Qiuyu Guo, Elisabeth Rutledge, Riana Parvez, Gohar Saribekyan, Christopher Liao, Albert Kim, Ahmed Abdelhalim, Seth Ruffins and Andrew Ransick from the Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine; Robert Schuler from the Information Sciences Institute at USC Viterbi; Matthew Thornton, Brendan Grubbs, Guilherme De Sena Brandine and Andrew D. Smith from USC; and Laurence Basking from the University of California, San Francisco also contributed to this study.

The research was supported by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM LA1-06536), National Institutes of Health (NIH DK107350, DK094526, DK110792, 5F32DK109616-02), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (F31DK107216, 1U24DK110814) and Joint Medical/Research Council/Wellcome Trust (099175/Z/12/Z) as well as by a USC Stem Cell Hearst Fellowship and a USC Research Enhancement Fellowship.

ABOUT USC STEM CELL

USC Stem Cell is a collaborative, multidisciplinary effort working to translate the potential of stem cell research to the clinical imperative of regenerative medicine. Centered at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC, the initiative brings together nearly 100 research and clinical faculty members from the Keck School of Medicine of USC, Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, the USC Davis School of Gerontology, the Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC, the USC School of Pharmacy, and the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

ABOUT THE USC MICHELSON CENTER FOR CONVERGENT BIOSCIENCE

The USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, located in Michelson Hall, brings together a diverse network of premier scientists and engineers from the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, USC Viterbi School of Engineering and Keck School of Medicine of USC to solve some of the greatest intractable problems of the 21st century - from cancer, to neurological disease, to cardiovascular disease. With a generous $50 million gift from Gary K. Michelson, a retired orthopedic spinal surgeon, and his wife, Alya Michelson, the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience occupies the largest building on campus, a state-of-the-art facility for USC to transform and influence the course of scientific discovery and biomedicine for generations to come. Information about the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience is available at https://michelson.usc.edu/.Every year, thousands of people become members of Exit, the largest assisted suicide organisation in Switzerland. Last year was no exception, with 10,078 new members signing up. If they fulfil certain criteria, members can use the organisations services when they decide the time is right to end their life.

Exit has 110,391 members in German-speaking Switzerland and in Ticino, according to December 2017 figures.

734 people ended their lives using Exits services in 2017, compared to 723 the year before.

What is an assisted suicide organisation?

The first organisations supporting people in exercising their right to die were set up around 35 years ago in Switzerland. They include Exit, Dignitas, Ex International und lifecircle. The groups campaign for and directly support people who want to die at a time of their own choosing.

Whats the law on assisted suicide in Switzerland?

Swiss law tolerates assisted suicide when patients commit the act themselves and helpers have no vested interest in their death. Assisted suicide has been legal in the country since the 1940s.

What are the conditions a person must fulfil to qualify for assisted suicide?



The person who wishes to die must:

know what they are doing

not be acting on impulse

have a persistent wish to die

not be under the influence of any third party

commit suicide by their own hand

While Dignitas will assist people from abroad, Exit will only support a citizen or permanent resident of Switzerland in taking their own life.

Furthermore, both Exit and Dignitas impose other restrictions. They will only provide their services to people with a terminal illness, those living with extreme pain or unbearable symptoms, or with an unendurable disability.

But some people want to change this.

What kind of people are members?

In Exit, for example, most people who choose assisted suicide are women (60%). The average age is 78.1 years, up from 76.7 years in 2016.

The most common conditions for which people sought Exits help were terminal cancer, age-related multiple illnesses as well as chronic pain.

Most of Exits patients came from the Zurich area (where the organisation is based), followed by the cantons of Bern, Aargau, St Gallen, Basel City and Basel Country.

How common is assisted suicide?



The number of requests Exit received in 2017 from people thinking about assisted suicide was about 3,500  thats 1,000 more than in 2014. Exit considered 1,031 of those requests, compared with 991 in 2016.

Assisted suicides remain rare, however, accounting only for about 1.5% of all 66,000 deaths in Switzerland each year, according to Exit.

You can contact the author of this article on Twitter or Facebook.



The Federal Office of Topography, swisstopo, has unveiled a newly-developed 3D model of the geological features of the vast central regions of Switzerland. New views of the underground landscape will help future extraction and planning.

The GeoMol project charts the under- and over-ground geological features of Switzerlands central region,a flattisharea stretching between Lake Geneva in the southwest and Lake Constance in the northeast, swisstopo announced on Thursday.

While the upper surfaces of the 3D model were built using existing topographical data and digital models, the underground geological features were modelled according to data acquired from various hydrocarbon extraction companies over the past 50 years.

In total, swisstopo said, information from over 60 deep drilling sites, combined with the data from about 5,000 kilometres of seismic sections, decisively contributed to the successful development of the 3D model, allowing us to show the various layers and fault-lines under the ground.

The 3D model comes with several uses for underground organisation.

For example, the statement said, a reliable representation of the subsoil helps the exploration and exploitation of raw mineral materials, as well as planning the underground disposal of radioactive waste.

Further research and mapping of underground temperatures will also help in the harnessing of geothermal heat.

The government-funded GeoMol project  an earlier video of which can be viewed here  was the result of widespread collaboration between swisstopo, various Swiss cantons, universities, and energy advocate groups.













SDA-ATS/dos





Poland's right-wing Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki suggested Thursday, on the eve of a visit to Berlin, that Germany is a NATO "free rider" that spends too little on collective defence.

Without naming Germany itself, Morawiecki criticised alliance members that spend less on defence than the targeted two percent of GDP repeatedly insisted upon by US President Donald Trump.

A country that benefits from NATOs collective defence but spends just one percent of GDP, Morawiecki told Germanys Die Welt daily, is a free rider which threatens the unity of the West.

Germanys military spending amounts to 1.2 percent of gross domestic product.

Morawiecki also charged that Europe isnt taking defence seriously and living under the umbrella of Pax Americana, according to the German-language article.

But for Europe, too, the saying goes: If you want peace, prepare for war.

He also voiced disbelief that many Germans trust Russian President Vladimir Putin more than Trump, exclaiming that it made him think run while you can! Its an upside down world.

Poland has sparred with Germany and the European Union over a range of issues, including its refusal to take in an EU quota of refugees, and controversial judicial reforms.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel days ago welcomed Morawieckis upcoming visit as a chance to open a new chapter in relations despite divergent views on some issues.

However, Morawiecki pointed to other areas of friction, including plans for a Russia-Germany gas pipeline called NordStream 2 that would run through the Baltic Sea and bypass Poland.

He argued that if the new pipeline replaced one now carrying Russian gas through Ukraine, then Russia could escalate the conflict with Ukraine, attack all of Ukraine.

The Polish prime minister also defended a controversial Holocaust bill that would penalise statements attributing Nazi crimes to the Polish state, notably by referring to Polish death camps.

Poland, which had lost half a century to war and communism, had long been treated as a whipping boy, he said, adding that it must now be able to tell the truth about this time.A journalist at Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta left Thursday for Germany after risking deportation to his native Uzbekistan where he said he had endured torture, the newspaper's editor told AFP.

Khudoberdi Nurmatov  who writes under the pen name Ali Feruz  is in the plane on the runway and is set to fly out to Germany any minute now, Novaya Gazetas editor Dmitry Muratov told AFP.

Earlier this month a Moscow court had ruled that the openly gay journalist could leave to a third country, not to ex-Soviet Uzbekistan, after a long-running immigration case that saw Nurmatov spend more than six months in a detention centre.

His lawyers said at the hearing that Nurmatov had already bought a ticket to Germany and had the necessary travel documents.

The journalist left on Thursday accompanied by Red Cross officials, lawyers and journalists, Muratov said, confirming that all the formalities have been sorted out.

He thanked Russian rights ombudswoman Tatiana Moskalkova for doing a huge amount of work to help the journalist.

Nurmatov arrived in Russia in 2011 and repeatedly tried to claim asylum.

He said he had endured torture in Uzbekistan at the hands of the security services for refusing to inform against his associates, according to Amnesty International.

He also said his sexual orientation would put him at risk of ill-treatment if he returned to Uzbekistan, Amnesty said.

Novaya Gazeta reported that Nurmatov fled the country to Russia in 2008 soon after agreeing to cooperate.

Nurmatov was arrested in Moscow last year and ordered to return to Uzbekistan for violating immigration laws. His deportation was postponed pending a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.

He said in court he would face a slow torturous death in Uzbekistan.

Amnesty International said last year that Nurmatov faced a real risk of persecution and torture in Uzbekistan, where consensual gay sex between men is a criminal offence.The Syrian government on Wednesday denied it possessed chemical weapons and branded the use of such arms "immoral and unacceptable", following a French warning of punitive strikes.

Syrias government categorically denies possessing chemical weapons. We consider the use of such arms as immoral and unacceptable, whatever the context, said Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, quoted by state news agency SANA.

On Tuesday, Frances President Emmanuel Macron warned his country would launch strikes if proof emerged that the Syrian regime had used banned chemical weapons against its civilians.

According to Washington, at least six chlorine attacks have been reported since early January in rebel-held areas, resulting in dozens of injuries.

Damascus last month also denied carrying out chemical attacks and its ally Moscow denounced such charges as a propaganda campaign, stressing the perpetrators had not been identified.

France, like the United States, suspects the Syrian regime but says it does not yet have concrete evidence on the nature and origin of the attacks.

Damascus has repeatedly been accused of using chemical weapons, with the United Nations among those blaming government forces for an April 2017 sarin gas attack on the opposition-held village of Khan Sheikhun that left scores dead.

In retaliation for that alleged attack the US carried out cruise missile strikes on a Syrian regime airbase.Privacy Settings

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NOTE: These settings will only apply to the browser and device you are currently using.The United States and Britain on Thursday blamed the Russian military for last year's devastating "NotPetya" ransomware attack, calling it a Kremlin effort to destabilize Ukraine which spun out of control.

Statements from Washington and London said Russia would face ramifications for the attacks that crippled computer networks in the United States and Europe, including those of some big corporations.

A White House statement, echoing one from Britains Foreign Office hours earlier, pointed the finger at the Russian military for the June 2017 attack and called it the most destructive and costly cyber attack in history, resulting in billions of dollars in economic losses.

It was part of the Kremlins ongoing effort to destabilize Ukraine, the US statement said.

The White House added that NotPetya, which hit thousands of computer systems and caused damage across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, was a reckless and indiscriminate cyber attack that will be met with international consequences.

Earlier in London, Foreign Office Minister for Cyber Security Tariq Ahmad said the British government decided to publicly attribute the blame, underscoring that Britain and its allies will not tolerate malicious cyber activity.

Primary targets were Ukrainian financial, energy and government sectors, the British statement said, adding that NotPetyas indiscriminate design caused it to spread further, affecting other European and Russian business.

British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said the attack was further evidence of a new era of warfare, with a destructive and deadly mix of conventional military might and malicious cyber attacks.

Russia is ripping up the rule book by undermining democracy, wrecking livelihoods by targeting critical infrastructure and weaponizing information, he said.

The accusation was immediately denied by the Kremlin.

We categorically reject such accusations. We consider them unsubstantiated and groundless, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

This is nothing but a continuation of a Russophobic campaign that is not based on any evidence, he said.

 More sophisticated attack 

The attack blocked thousands of computers worldwide, particularly affecting multinational companies and critical infrastructure, such as radiation monitors at the old Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the ports of Mumbai and Amsterdam.

Companies hit included the Russian oil group Rosneft, Danish shipping company Maersk, US pharmaceutical giant Merck, French construction specialist Saint-Gobain and the British advertising firm WPP.

Ukraine, which is battling Russia-backed rebels in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people, was the worst affected country.

Banking operations were compromised in what authorities said was an unprecedented attack, which even disrupted arrivals and departures informations at the capitals main Boryspil airport.

The virus, which demanded a payment worth $300 as it locked up files at companies and government agencies, was reminiscent of the WannaCry ransomware attack that swept the world a month earlier in May 2017, hitting more than 200,000 users in more than 150 countries.

Britain and the United States have blamed North Korea for the WannaCry attack, saying it may have been an attempt by the isolated communist regime to access foreign currency.

The NotPetya attack appeared smaller in scale, with global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab estimating there were thousands of victims.

Comparing it to WannaCry, the director of European police agency Europol, Rob Wainwright, said at the time that NotPetya showed indications of a more sophisticated attack capability intended to exploit a range of vulnerabilities.

 Cyber-diplomatic tensions 

The public accusations come amid rising tensions over Russias cyber activities, amid fears of a disinformation effort led by Moscow aimed at disrupting the 2016 US election and stoking political divisions.

Social media automated accounts or bots believed to be directed from Moscow have been blamed for efforts to manipulate public opinion in the United States and elsewhere.

Some British politicians have accused Russia of attempts to disrupt the democratic process in Britain by online interference in political campaigns such as the 2016 Brexit referendum and a 2017 general election.

Speaking on Wednesday, John Chipman, director of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, said Russia was engaged in capabilities beyond conventional military force that are easier to develop and deploy unaccountably.

There is still no effective response from the West either in the form of countermeasures or sanctions, he said.

bur-rl/chBritain on Thursday accused the Russian military of being behind last year's "NotPetya" cyber-attack, which started in Ukraine and Russia before spreading globally, affecting thousands of computers.

The UK Government judges that the Russian Government, specifically the Russian military, was responsible for the destructive NotPetya cyber-attack of June 2017, Foreign Office minister Tariq Ahmad said.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said the attack was further evidence of a new era of warfare with a destructive and deadly mix of conventional military might and malicious cyber attacks.

Russia is ripping up the rule book by undermining democracy, wrecking livelihoods by targeting critical infrastructure and weaponising information, he said.

The accusation was immediately denied by the Kremlin.

We categorically reject such accusations. We consider them unsubstantiated and groundless, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

This is nothing but a continuation of a Russophobic campaign that is not based on any evidence, he said.

 More sophisticated attack 

The attack contaminated thousands of computers worldwide, particularly affecting multinational companies and critical infrastructure, such as radiation monitors at the old Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the ports of Mumbai and Amsterdam.

Companies hit included the Russian oil group Rosneft, Danish shipping company Maersk, US pharmaceutical giant Merck, French construction specialist Saint-Gobain and the British advertising firm WPP.

Ukraine, which is battling Russia-backed rebels in the east in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people, was the worst affected country.

Banking operations were compromised in what authorities said was an unprecedented attack, which even disrupted arrivals and departures informations at the capitals main Boryspil airport.

The virus, which demanded a payment worth $300 as it locked up files at companies and government agencies, was reminiscent of the WannaCry ransomware attack that swept the world a month earlier in May 2017, hitting more than 200,000 users in more than 150 countries.

Britain and the US have blamed North Korea for the WannaCry attack, saying it may have been an attempt by the isolated communist regime to access foreign currency.

The NotPetya attack appeared much smaller in scale, with global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab estimating there were thousands of victims.

Comparing it to WannaCry, the director of European police agency Europol, Rob Wainwright, said at the time that NotPetya showed indications of a more sophisticated attack capability intended to exploit a range of vulnerabilities.

 Seeking to weaponise information 

The British government on Thursday said the attack masqueraded as a criminal enterprise but its purpose was principally to disrupt.

The UK and its allies will not tolerate malicious cyber activity, it added.

Minister Ahmad said the Kremlin had positioned Russia in direct opposition to the West, but that the country could still be the responsible member of the international community that it claims to be rather than secretly trying to undermine it.

London has taken an aggressive stance against Moscow, with Prime Minister Theresa May last year accusing it of seeking to weaponise information.

British army chief Nick Carter later said that Russian cyber-warfare presented a direct threat to Britain. He called for more investment in the armed forces to be able to deal with it.

Carter said Russia was engaging in information warfare at its best.

Some British politicians have accused Russia of attempts to disrupt the democratic process in Britain by online interference in political campaigns such as the 2016 Brexit referendum and a 2017 general election.

Speaking on Wednesday, John Chipman, director of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, said Russia was engaged in capabilities beyond conventional military force that are easier to develop and deploy unaccountably.

There is still no effective response from the West either in the form of countermeasures or sanctions, he said.

jwp-dt/rlpThe Kremlin on Thursday denied an accusation by Britain that the Russian military were behind last year's "NotPetya" cyber-attack that started in Ukraine and Russia before spreading globally, affecting thousands of computers.

We categorically reject such accusations. We consider them unsubstantiated and groundless. This is nothing but a continuation of a Russophobic campaign that is not based on any evidence, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

The malware attack in June last year contaminated thousands of computers worldwide, particularly affecting multinational companies and critical infrastructure, such as radiation monitors at the old Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the ports of Mumbai and Amsterdam.

Ukraine was the worst-affected country, with banking operations compromised in what authorities said was an unprecedented attack.

The Kremlin has also dismissed allegations that Moscow was behind cyberattacks aimed at getting Donald Trump elected as US president in 2016.Thursday, February 15, 2018

Could Bipartisan Immigration Bill Encourage Illegal Immigration?

By Peggy Sands

Last week, Feb. 8 Congress passed and President Trump signed a two year 4.4 trillion dollar budget after weeks of contention and two brief government shutdowns. The budget only became law because Congressional leaders promised to debate this week how millions of illegal immigrants could be given legal status.

As of Thursday morning there were four Republican proposals (officially amendments to a shell bill HR2579 don't ask!) circulating around the Senate. They range from more or less parroting the president's four pillars, to pushing broad immigration reform and legalizing the parents of DREAMERS. All the Senate proposals would offer permanent legal status (the green card) leading to citizenship after five years to the DREAMERs. Only one would offer it to their parents.

But many of the proposals could be seen as encouraging illegal immigration  especially by overstaying a temporary visa. I have been covering immigration in the U.S. Congress  the lawmaking sausage factory  for over ten years. A bill introduced last night by the Common Sense bipartisan coalition has some propositions that could be seen to welcome more illegal immigration.

The Common Sense coalition  a group of 8 Republicans, 7 Democrats and 1 Independent led by moderates Republican Susan Collins (Maine) and Democrat Joe Manchin (WV) probably is the most serious contender. That's because it is bipartisan and because that coalition was the force behind passage of the budget. Their bill would legalize 1.8 million DREAMERS including the 700,000 DACA recipients, with an eventual at least five year pathway to citizenship.

It would budget $25 billion for a wall during a ten year period  a kind of a trust fund arrangement that could be changed. It offers a limited family reunification program: that is, DREAMERS who became citizens could not sponsor their parents for permanent or temporary visas, as other green card holders can. And it doesn't end the annual 50,000-green cards diversity lottery visa program  although talk of replacing diversity qualifications for merit-based immigrants could still be on the table later.

But the most controversial provision is one that would give a broad new deferment from deportation for millions of foreign nationals who are currently living and working illegally in the country  especially those who came in initially legally. The legislation would require deferment from deportation for any one presently illegally in the country, who did not commit a serious felony and who came in BEFORE JUNE 30, 2018 (yes 2018!).. It's really an amnesty  a Congressional class action forgiveness - for millions.

DACA already is an open invitation for any foreign national who came into the country legally before the age of 16 (may be changed to 18) to overstay their visa. They could come in on a temporary legal status of any kind  with their H1B temporary visa parents, as an exchange student or even as a tourist.

That includes the over one million foreign students currently studying in the United States under the F1 and J1 foreign student and scholar visas. There is no limit to the number of foreign student visas that are given out. The time limits for degrees and for practical training afterwards have been extended by years and are not enforced anyway While foreign students are very sympathetic potential immigrants, the foreign student visa is and always has been a temporary, non-immigration one. It does not have to heed nationality, race, religion or creed caps established under the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. Many universities depend on foreign students who pay fill tuition.

While the number of unauthorized (aka "undocumented") immigrants crossing into the United States from Mexico has decreased considerably, the total number of illegal immigrants is growing slowly because of millions of people who overstay their temporary non-immigration visas with impunity. Any broad deferment from deportation will only encourage that.

The new law would extend impunity to all who came in illegally supposedly as teens, and could encourage a surge before June 30

The bill is contentious. But it would only need three more Republicans to pass. Would the House pass it? Leader Paul Rand (WI) may be sympathetic. Would the President sign it? He says no, but who knows.

The whole immigration debate could be delayed however. Since U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn NY ruled that the President could not end DACA as he did, the whole debate could be put off till the Supreme Court decides the constitutionality of DACA itself.

# # # # # #Jurors in state Sen. Carlos Urestis criminal fraud trial could begin deliberations as early as Friday afternoon after prosecutors and defense lawyers give their closing arguments.

The jury was excused early Thursday on day 16 of the trial after lawyers for co-defendant Gary Cain rested their case.

Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra and the lawyers spent Thursday afternoon reviewing more than 30 jury instructions that hes expected to read aloud in court Friday morning.

After Ezra instructs jurors on how the law applies to the evidence in the case, closing arguments will be presented. The judge has said he will give prosecutors a total of 90 minutes for their closing, while Uresti and co-defendant Gary Cains defense teams will each have 45 minutes.

Uresti is fighting for his political career, his livelihood and his freedom. He faces the potential of years in prison and millions in penalties if convicted.

The San Antonio Democrat and Cain are on trial over their involvement in now-defunct oilfield company FourWinds Logistics. Prosecutors allege the company, which bought and sold sand used in fracking for oil production, was a Ponzi scheme before it collapsed into bankruptcy in 2015.

Uresti served as outside legal counsel, a 1 percent owner, and he recruited investors for FourWinds. He is fighting 11 charges, including securities and wire fraud and money laundering.

Urestis lawyers contend he did not not have knowledge of the inner workings of FourWinds and was unaware that investors money was being misused. The lawmaker did not testify in his own defense

Cains testified that he did not learn of the fraud at FourWinds until after he left the company, a few months before it entered bankruptcy.

A third man indicted along with the pair, FourWinds CEO Stan Bates, last month pleaded guilty to eight felony charges rather than stand trial. Three other company officials pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and cooperated with federal investigators.

If jurors dont reach a verdict Friday, Ezra has said they wont resume deliberations until Tuesday because Monday is a federal holiday, Presidents Day, and the courthouse is closed.

Ezra said Thursday he canceled plans to attend a separate court-related matter in New Orleans starting Wednesday so that he could be here throughout jury deliberations.

The judge previously said that if a verdict was reached while he was away, there were instructions for the verdict to be sealed and placed in a safe until his return.

On Thursday, lawyers for Cain called their third and final witness  attorney Ron Smeberg, who represented FourWinds investors Richard and Sharlene Thum in pursuing Bates by dragging the FourWinds executive into bankruptcy court in 2015  less than two months after the company filed for Chapter 11 reorganization.

Smeberg testified that Cain was part of the litigation team in going after Bates, who misused investors money to support a lavish lifestyle and pay personal expenses.

Cain gave to Smeberg the names of some of Bates creditors and the lawyer rounded up a few of them to force Bates into bankruptcy to try to prevent him from spending any more money. One of the creditors was a Chicago car dealership that claimed it was stiffed by a defunct direct-mail business that Bates ran. At a court hearing in 2015, Smeberg told the court that there are millions of dollars out there that have been stolen by this gentleman, a transcript of the proceeding shows.

Smeberg testified Thursday they were able to recover about $300,000 from Bates by forcing him into bankruptcy.

Lead prosecutor Joseph Blackwell challenged Smebergs credibility by asking if he had a conflict of interest because he was representing both the Thums and Cain. Smeberg represented Cain in his 2013 personal bankruptcy and was the registered agent for Trinity Global Funding & Consulting, Cains consulting company that contracted with FourWinds to assist in finding financing.

Richard Thum was referred to Smeberg by Cain, both Thum and Cain have said. Smeberg testified that he told the Thums he represented Cain.

Smeberg didnt have the Thums sign a waiver of conflict of interest because he said there was no conflict.

Blackwell said in court that he wanted to recall Richard Thum as a witness to rebut Smebergs testimony, but Thum, president of Five Star Cleaners, was traveling.

Noting that Cain received $120,000 in payments from FourWinds from February to May 2015, after the oil market tanked, Blackwell asked why Smeberg didnt seek to recover those payments from Cain.

Richard Thum never directed Smeberg to look at Cain, the lawyer testified. The Thums directed Smeberg to zero in on Bates, Smeberg said. FourWinds had a bankruptcy trustee to recover assets belonging to the bankruptcy estate, the lawyer added.

Stan Bates had a bunch of money and I wanted to lock it down as quickly as possible, Smeberg said.

In July 2016, a bankruptcy judge entered an order holding Bates personally liable for FourWinds debts. Bates didnt bother to contest the action, resulting in a nearly $14.7 million default judgment  a debt that cant be discharged by his personal bankruptcy.

Smeberg, on behalf of the Thums, also initiated a court action to convert FourWinds bankruptcy to a Chapter 7 liquidation so a trustee could pursue all assets pilfered by Bates, a court document shows.Note: This is a full Taste Test review, with a star rating based on multiple visits.

When the Alamo Heights bar Hanzo opened in May with just five Tiny Meals on the menu, it was a cocktail retreat at heart, a speakeasy with an Asian lilt.

Pork dumplings, fried chicken katsu, crispy squid, edamame dip, some raw fish. Nothing terribly challenging. Hanzo was all Godzilla flash and inventive cocktails with names like Shiso Thursty and The Bride. The Quentin Tarantino Kill Bill kitsch was hard to miss.

The kitsch is still there, a fetishized ramble of pan-Asian design elements and inescapable cocktail puns, a flight of fancy from Steve Mahoney, who also owns Blue Box Bar, Georges Keep and the Irish pub Francis Bogside.

The original menu has tripled, embracing both bar bites and dinner-size bowls of ramen, tuna poke and sticky pork ribs. And the cocktail bar continues to evolve, dropping and adding drinks that challenge the cocktails historical formula of spirits, sugar and bitters, with modern concessions to spice and heat.

That classic cocktail formula suggests a kind of balance, a balance that Hanzo hits and misses in equal measure with both food and drinks. A balance of ... unbalance.

More Information Hanzo * 7701 Broadway, Suite 124, 210-826-1488, hanzobar.com Quick bite: Asian fusion-style cocktail bar and restaurant with a relaxed lounge vibe. Hit: Cocktails, pork gyoza, Japanese deviled eggs, sticky pork ribs Miss:Mealy sushi, oversauced poke, hit-or-miss ramen Hours: 4 p.m.-2a.m. daily. Price range: Small bites, $9-$11; larger plates and bowls, $12-$16; ice cream, $6. Alcohol: Cocktails, beer, wine and sake **** Superior. Can compete nationally. *** Excellent. One of the best restaurants in the city. ** Very good. A standout restaurant of its kind. * Good. A restaurant that we recommend. (no stars) We cannot recommend this restaurant at this time. See More Collapse

When Hanzo finds its balance, its a thing of beauty.

Pork gyoza were pinched together like little beggars purses, fried clean and dry for charming bite-sized dumplings. Crispy lotus root chips lined up beside a whimsical guacamole-style dip with edamame, wasabi and avocado. And fresh tuna sashimi was folded like the overlapping petals of a rose over a smooth gazpacho of avocado and pineapple with generous spoonfuls of tiny fish eggs called tobiko.

Dyed electric pink with beet juice, Hanzos Japanese deviled eggs took a simple concept and made it special with salmon skin for crunch and tobiko for a salty pop over a smooth, tangy filling. It was the most balanced, playful and satisfying thing I ate at Hanzo.

Sticky pork ribs worked, somehow finding a balance between a sugary caramel glaze and petite ribs that went from the sous vide bath to the deep fryer and emerged both tender and crisp, plated over rice enriched with eggs and edamame.

The same caramel threatened to overwhelm a bowl of chicken wings. I didnt care. Because eating in a bar sometimes means you order bar candy, and bar candy tastes great on a two-drink buzz.

Even dessert found its balance, especially with a double scoop of green tea matcha ice cream that was equal parts sweet, creamy and tannic.

Hanzos balance wobbled with a sloppy, unfocused salad of kimchi Brussels sprouts and an otherwise crisp and light chicken katsu over a wet slurry of cucumber and dressing.

But Hanzo lost its balance and fell all the way down with room-temperature tuna, stringy salmon and gelatinous eel on a sushi sampler. It stayed down with off-tasting salmon in a poke bowl that looked like a firecracker had gone off in a sloppy sushi roll.

And it still couldnt get up with a $16 bowl of ramen with pork that tasted old, overly sweet pickled mushrooms and noodles that were pasty and overcooked. On another night, both the noodles and pork picked themselves back up, but $16 is more than I want to gamble on soup.

The balance remained steady at the cocktail bar, with variations on the old-fashioned like the Sesame Street (bourbon and plum wine), Black Lodge (rye and cherry liqueur) and Asian Old Fashioned (bourbon, toasted sesame honey).

For something light and sweet to cut the oil and spice of the food, Hanzo conjured up a gin-and-cucumber fizz called the Far East Side and an apple sake sparkler called Fuji Five-O.

And because even cocktail bars enjoy the occasional bender, Hanzo created a chimera of mezcal, tequila and carrot juice called the Southern Root that drinks like a boozy spa elixir and Dont Be Koi, the wildest of the bunch, with Kinsman apricot brandy from Dorcol Distilling Co., turmeric-infused vodka and yuzu-ginger syrup that crackled like a boozy, grownup snowcone.

All the drinks and food at Hanzo take place in a kind of stylized kabuki theater. Geishas and Godzilla share the bathroom with American punk rock idols and anime icons.

Hanzo is both a sword and a character in the Kill Bill franchise. And sometimes Hanzo feels like youre in a movie about an Asian bar instead of an actual bar. The decor of Japanese calendar prints, the fringed lamps, the fish-scale walls, the hand-thrown ceramic bowls  the whole thing feels a little like setpieces and props.

But the best bars are a modern means of escape. And Hanzos a stylish, comfortable place to escape. For food, for drinks, for whatever the real world throws at you.

msutter@express-news.net | Twitter: @fedmanwalkingA destitute woman with two young children in tow, being transported to her parents house because she had nowhere else to go.

Two hundred people in need of food and other help.

Their stories were among those that students and staff at Trinity University read  in 19th century handwriting  as they combed through copies of correspondence and other documents Wednesday from the Freedmens Bureau, the agency formed to support former slaves and poor white people in the wake of the Civil War.

Over the course of three hours in a computer lab in the basement of the universitys Coates Library, close to 50 people squinted at digital uploads of the documents, trying to decipher and transcribe the vintage cursive lettering.

Organized by the Colored Conventions Project, the Smithsonian Transcription Center and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in honor of the 200th birthday of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, the collaborative archival effort drew participation from dozens of institutions, including four in San Antonio.

The University of the Incarnate Word, St. Marys University and Texas A&M University-San Antonio also participated in the transcribe-a-thon of the bureaus nearly 2 million documents.

The event at Trinity was hosted as part of the universitys celebration of Black History Month. Claudia Stokes, chair of Trinitys English department, said the project offered students an opportunity to work directly with primary documents and contribute to a larger effort to preserve American history. The transcriptions will give researchers and those looking to learn more about their family history the ability to access and search the records online.

I hope they will learn that the work of history is an active, ongoing enterprise, said Stokes, who specializes in 19th century literature. So much of American history is still undocumented and untranscribed. The record is still partial and unthorough. All Americans can have an investment and participate in the creation of American history.

Trinity sophomore Joy Umoekpo said she attended the transcription session because she wanted to get involved with Black History Month. The pre-med psychology major said typing up the documents gave her a glimpse of the past and a chance to study a subject outside her main courses of study.

Its really cool to just see the history and be able to interact in some way, she said.

For Cheyne Minto, a junior English major, the work made him realize how much he took for granted primary documents that have already been transcribed and analyzed for him in his classes and textbooks.

In his transcription of one document, Minto marked several places where he could not make out the words. Figuring out distinct handwriting from another century was like completing a puzzle, he said.

I have a lot of respect for the people who do this, Minto said. Its an incredibly difficult process.

lcaruba@express-news.netBlacks and Latinos were significantly more likely than non-Hispanic whites to be denied conventional mortgage loans to buy houses in the San Antonio-New Braunfels metropolitan area in 2015 and 2016, according to a nationwide, yearlong analysis by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting.

The nonprofit news organizations analysis found the same disparity toward both blacks and Latinos in a dozen other metro areas, including New Orleans; Little Rock, Arkansas; Atlanta; Orlando, Florida; Washington, D.C.; and Tacoma, Washington, based on a review of 31 million Home Mortgage Disclosure Act records. Lenders were more likely to deny such financing to at least one minority race or ethnicity in 61 metros across the nation, Reveals investigation concluded.

The findings were published today by the Associated Press, which reported it had independently reviewed and confirmed Reveals analysis.

Two banking industry trade groups and one mortgage expert criticized the analysis, calling it misleading and incomplete.

Three things were not part of Reveals examination: applicants credit scores, their total debt-to-income ratios and their loan-to-value ratios, all considered critical factors in the mortgage underwriting process. Those were not released to the news organization because theyre not considered public information under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.

The data analyzed by Reveal offers only a partial picture and doesnt prove lenders engaged in discrimination, critics said.

Certainly the analysis ... does not on its face prove discrimination, said mortgage expert Laurie Goodman, co-director of the Urban Institutes Housing Finance Policy Center.

Were not accounting for all the factors. So you cant label something discrimination until youve ruled out absolutely everything else.

The American Bankers Association slammed Reveals work, saying it misrepresents the realities of the mortgage market and misleads readers.

It is troubling that Reveal decided to report on such a serious issue without providing the necessary context and background needed to explain why some borrowers may not qualify for mortgages, the trade group said in a statement emailed to the San Antonio Express-News.

Mortgage Bankers Association Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni said the analysis appears incomplete. The Federal Reserve and other experts have repeatedly noted that the HMDA data  does not include sufficient data to make a determination regarding fair lending, he said.

Reveal stood by its work Wednesday, noting it conveyed in its stories the industrys perspective that credit scores and other risk factors may explain some of the disparities it discovered.

That does not, however, erase the underlying problem exposed by our work: In dozens of cities across America  including San Antonio  people of color are not getting equal access to conventional home loans, Reveal Editor in Chief Amy Pyle said in an email to the Express-News.

We appreciate the industrys concern about being perceived as discriminatory. We hope that they will shift their focus from keeping credit scores and other risk factors secret to instead addressing the many factors that keep people of color from sharing in the American dream.

The Associated Press did not respond to a request for comment.

Read the methodology behind the analysis here. Or the blog post from Reveal about it.

Reveal looked at 31 million mortgage records spanning a two-year period. It zeroed in on almost 6 million conventional mortgage loans for housing in which applicants planned to live.

The data were controlled for loan applicants races or ethnicities, income, loan amount and neighborhoods where those prospective borrowers wanted to buy, along with other economic and social factors.

This map shows the percent of black and Latino mortgage applicants who were denied mortgages at a rate that a Reveal and Associated Press analysis determined made them "significantly more likely to be denied" in 2015 and 2016. The numbers on this map reflect the percent of applicants of color who were denied a mortgage in 2016.

The San Antonio-New Braunfels metro area was one of 13 nationwide  and the only one in Texas  where both blacks and Latinos were significantly more likely to be denied such loans than non-Hispanic whites in 2015 and 2016, the analysis showed.

Lenders showed disparities toward just one race or ethnicity in four other areas of Texas. Blacks were significantly more likely to be denied conventional mortgages than non-Hispanic whites in the Killeen-Temple metro area in that two-year period, while Latinos were more apt to be rejected than non-Hispanic whites in the Corpus Christi, Waco and Longview metro areas during that same time frame, Reveal concluded.

In the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro area, blacks were almost 1.6 times more likely to be denied such mortgages than non-Hispanic whites in 2016 alone, according to Reveals analysis; Latinos were 1.5 times more likely to be rejected than non-Hispanic whites here that year.

San Antonio Board of Realtors Chairwoman Lorena Pena said she was surprised and deeply disturbed by the findings.

We try to make sure that (applicants) are treated equally from lenders or anyone else that they come in contact with trying to achieve their American dream  because we are firm believers that home ownership builds communities, Pena said.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg also expressed concern.

Our city, just as our nation, must strive for equity and fair treatment for all, he said.

The Fair Housing Council of Greater San Antonio receives few, if any, complaints about lending discrimination, said executive director Sandra Tamez. The city of San Antonios Fair Housing Program received no such complaints in the 2017 fiscal year.

I think its an area that goes underreported, Tamez said.

The HMDA data should not be cast aside just because it doesnt contain credit scores or other factors considered by lenders, some said.

When youre matching other factors like income, for example, the denial rate is much higher for certain groups  blacks and Latinos, for example  than for white borrowers with the same income. I dont think there has really been a great deal of examination of why that is, just based on that factor alone, said Odette Williamson, a National Consumer Law Center staff attorney specializing in housing and other economic issues.

These disparities are really too great for us to ignore and to kind of sweep under the rug. Its the tip of the iceberg and we need to dig deeper to understand what is driving these denial rates.

Disparate treatment of prospective borrowers based on race or ethnicity could cement or worsen the economic segregation that already exists in San Antonio, said Genevieve Hebert Fajardo, a clinical professor of law at St. Marys University School of Laws Civil Justice Clinic.

Those denied mortgages may turn to the subprime market or be forced into rental property, said Christine Drennon, an associate professor of urban studies at Trinity University who focuses on income segregation and neighborhood change. With the steep rise in housing costs and rents, many will pay more than 25 to 30 percent of their income toward housing, she said.

That means they have less disposable income, which often means they become dependent on credit cards and short-term debt to get through the day, which means their credit score takes a hit, which means they are even further from accessing capital  getting a mortgage  than they were even before, Drennon said in an email to the Express-News.

pohare@express-news.netA Laredo social media personality and citizen journalist arrested for publishing information about a suicide and a car wreck is challenging the constitutionality of the Texas law under which she was charged.

Priscilla Villarreal, who is best known as her online personality, La Gordiloca, was arrested in December on a charges of misuse of official information after she published on Facebook the name of a suicide victim and the name of a person who died in a car wreck.

Media law experts said at the time the arrest likely violated her First Amendment rights.

On Wednesday, Villarreals lawyers filed a writ of habeas corpus in a Webb County district court alleging the law police used to charge their client, a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, is unconstitutional. Villarreal is free on bond.

The law punishes anyone who solicits or receives from a public servant information that has not been made public and does so with intent to obtain a benefit. Police say Villarreal benefited by receiving more Facebook followers after she published the names online before police released them publicly.

The law police used to arrest Villarreal makes it a crime to obtain government records potentially exempted from disclosure under the Texas Public Information Act, her lawyers said. However, the law doesnt expressly prohibit the release of those documents, they said, and the statute making it a crime to obtain them is unconstitutionally vague and a violation of the First Amendment.

Theres a specific section in (the Texas Public Information Act) that says when in doubt, release the information, said Oscar O. Pena, one of the lawyers representing Villarreal. But by criminalizing the release of information that doesnt need to be released, it stifles free speech.

Rather than arguing that Laredo police misapplied the law when they arrested Villarreal, the lawyers are challenging the law in its entirety. In their filing, Tellez and Pena argue that there are other statutes punishing the misuse of government information and theres no need for a law making it a crime to ask for or obtain records.

The offense itself is an over-reactive, disproportional, prophylactic measure that criminalizes people  for seeking information to benefit themselves, they wrote. After all thats what we send our kids to college for  acquire knowledge, ask questions, benefit yourself.

Pena added in an interview, If youre looking at the statute and it seems ridiculous, thats because you understand it.

The Webb County district attorneys office declined comment, citing the pending case.

Their filing challenges the Texas Public Information Act as well, arguing that its list of more than 40 exemptions are vague and very easy to weaponize.

Daxton Stewart, an associate dean and associate professor of journalism at Texas Christian University, said the Supreme Court previously ruled that journalists can publish information obtained illegally by a third party as long as the journalists didnt break any laws and what they publish is truthful and in the public interest. Under that ruling, Villarreal is likely to succeed in getting her charges thrown out, Stewart said. But it might be harder to get the entire law declared unconstitutional.

I think they make a plausible argument here that, as drafted, this law is flawed, it has constitutional problems, he said. But in the alternative, a judge does not have to find the whole law invalid to find it invalid as applied to these circumstances. A judge could look at it and say, even if this law has flaws, it may be valid in some circumstances, but its not being used validly here  that police and prosecutors are violating her rights under the First Amendment.

The challenge to the Texas Public Information Act is less likely to succeed, Stewart said.

One of the things we open-records, open-meetings advocates would love is a constitutional right to know, he said. Its not there. The only right to know we have has been passed by legislatures in public information acts.WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump rejected bipartisan efforts to address immigration Wednesday, compounding efforts by the Senate to reach agreement in a week set aside to solve the crisis facing so-called Dreamers.

In a new bipartisan deal taking shape, some Democrats appeared ready to give the president the $25 billion he wants for a border wall in exchange for restoring protections for young undocumented immigrants set to expire with the Trump-ordered end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

But the presidents demand that Republicans heed his criteria for any legislation he would sign, including dramatic cuts in legal immigration, created new doubts about whether the Senate could reach consensus.

We cant hide, we cant run away from it and Im hopeful well do it this week, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the Senates No. 2 Republican, told reporters.

Trump, who said last month hed sign any immigration bill Congress sent to his desk, moved even farther away from that assertion by threatening a veto of legislation that doesnt meet his demands.

He called on the GOP-run Senate to support legislation he has proposed giving 1.8 million DACA-aged immigrants. In return, he would get the $25 billion over 10 years for the wall, an overhaul in the family migration system and an end to a visa lottery process that favors immigrants from Africa and Asia.

An administration official speaking on condition of anonymity asserted the president had made dramatic concessions already and wouldnt compromise further.

Yet the White House legislation is unlikely to get the required 60 votes in the Senate and, with opposition from 49 Democrats, probably wont draw 50 votes in the GOP-run Senate because of Republican defections.

The president also declared in a statement that hes encouraged by an even stricter proposal in the House that would include punishment for so-called sanctuary cities and an E-Verify system requiring employers to determine work eligibility of workers.

The Trump administration delivered a withering rebuke of narrowly drawn legislation authored by San Antonio Republican Rep. Will Hurd and offered in the Senate by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Chris Coons, D-Del.

The headline of a Homeland Security news release Wednesday asserted the proposal Would Increase Illegal Immigration, Surge Chain Migration, Continue Catch and Release and Give a Pathway to Citizens to Convicted Alien Felons.

The Hurd-drawn bill is designed to win passage by avoiding the controversial cuts in legal immigration that Democrats and some Republicans reject. It directs Homeland Security to conduct a mile-by-mile survey of the border and report back in two years if, and where, sections of border wall might be needed.

But the Homeland Security release argued it does not authorize a single penny in appropriations for border security and is an insult to the expert men and women who spent thousands of hours putting together an existing border plan.

McCain, who is battling brain cancer, isnt in Washington. But Coons said he and McCain hope to get a vote on Hurd plan in part because of its broad support in the House with 27 Republicans and 27 Democrats as sponsors.

He said theyre open to amendments that could address concerns, including an appropriation for wall spending.

It doesnt solve every immigration issue we face and it doesnt try to. What it does is address the two issues in front of us, Coons said.

He added his hope that if the plan gets a vote, senators would support it in recognition of (McCains) lifetime of service and his commitment to bipartisanship.

Two other bipartisan proposals that provide DACA-styled protections and address border security could come up on the floor today if the Senate can resolve a dispute over the order of amendments that has stalled the chamber.

One plan, offered, by Colorado Sens. Cory Gardner, a Republican, and Michael Bennet, a Democrat, would provide $25 billion for border security and a path to citizenship in 12 years for 1.8 million DACA-aged immigrants, including about 120,000 in Texas.

Bennet called it a reasonable solution to break through Washington gridlock.

A similar proposal from the so-called Commonsense Caucus, a bipartisan alliance of about two-dozen senators, goes even farther by addressing the family-based visa system that enables sponsorship of relatives.

That plan would prohibit citizens or lawful permanent residents from petitioning for legal status for their parents.

But the future of any bipartisan proposal remained uncertain because of Trumps demand that legislation include the pillars he has outlined, and none thus far has included an end to the Diversity Immigrant Visa program that he wants.

Cornyn, asked about the emerging bipartisan consensus, said: My concern is that if it doesn't touch all four pillars of what the president is requiring for his signature, it wont pass the House and he wont sign it.

Both parties began laying the blame for failure.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer referred to George Orwells famous book when he argued that the president is in a dream world if he believes Democrats could be blamed for failure in Congress to protect Dreamers.

Only in the 1984 world where up is down and black is white would would the American public blame Democrats for this. They know where Trump stands, he said.

White House officials accused Democrats of siding with corporate interests who they say oppose immigration limits in order to assure a reliable supply of low-wage workers.

Democrats are now saying that needs of donors are more important than the needs of Dreamers, one senior administration official said. That is a striking evolution for a party that once prided itself about caring for American workers.

blambrecht@express-news.netRe: Firefighters death preventable; State report says SAFD in need of a cultural change, front page, Saturday:

The lack of situational awareness put these firefighters at undue risk, resulting in the catastrophic events. The cause and effect of each finding must be focused to prevent recurrence. The safety and health of the firefighters must remain the highest priority.

Procedures must be followed, and violations of those procedures must be noted and corrected. Firefighters are part of a loyal team and will do anything their superiors dictate. There are no lone heroes; firefighting is a team effort to reduce the risk of every individual of that team.

David Brady

Thugs in sports

Nick Foles and the Philadelphia Eagles deserve congratulations and admiration for their hard work, which led to their first Super Bowl win.

But Philadelphia fans need to be boycotted from enjoying this victory. For decades, they have been the most vile, disgusting reprobates in the history of fandom. As a former Dallas Cowboy fan, I have witnessed Philly fans throwing snowballs with batteries at players, opponents and fans. I have also seen them urinate on opposing fans, bullying them with what I considered felonious intent. Philly fans even threw battery-filled snowballs at Santa Claus! Malice with aforethought is their creed. A felony.

Foles is an Austin-Westlake graduate. To celebrate his great achievement as MVP, Philadelphia fans in Austin desecrated and vandalized the memorial statue of Stevie Ray Vaughn with green paint and trashed his legacy. This is par for Philly fans. The worst in the nation. They dont deserve this win.

Craig C. Budreau, Austin

Diversity overrated

I keep on hearing and reading that diversity makes us stronger.

Really? How exactly? Certainly, diversity can apparently make us stronger. The integration of like-minded immigrants willing to embrace American values, work to support themselves and their families, strengthen our workforce and add to our collective priorities of remaining the strongest and most prosperous country in the world undeniably makes us stronger.

However, there is no data, no unbiased proof whatsoever that unchecked and illegal immigration will do anything other than flood the country with thousands  indeed millions  of questionable, and in many cases dangerous, people. The integration of social justice ideologues, with no ability to engage and accept co-workers with differing viewpoints, certainly does not add any value in terms of diversity.

At the end of the day, diversity makes us stronger is simply code for we are going to slam our minoritys views down your throat.

David Saenz

Try a second bite

Re: The Taste Test Review; Burgerteca; Best things on the menu are, sadly, not the burgers, Taste, Sunday:

I am visiting San Antonio and happened to visit Burgerteca and had a delightful experience.

Your reviewer seemed to have an entirely different experience. He also missed the opportunity to note the burger buns are made in-house, along with the ice cream. The beef is fresh, the veggie beet burger exceptional, and the mole fries were amazing and unique.

They have been in operation for two months I was told. This place deserves a second bite.

Barry Infuso, Tucson, Arizona

Sad farewell

Re: Public affairs show still up in air; KLRN slot not filled months after Caseys exit, front page, Feb. 4:

Rick Caseys Texas Week was a jewel among the thorns in our local media. We are overrun with parrot radio, where the hosts are rude, crude and ill-informed, not wishing to be confused by evidence-based facts.

Rick Caseys measured responses to issues, with his institutional history, in a thoughtful, sometimes witty but always civil discourse with these guests, was a highlight in my week. He asked hard questions, but in a polite manner.

It seems quite strange that the historical supporters of the program (John Chico Newman, William Scanlan and others) were not contacted with an update regarding the imminent loss of Texas Week. Surely Rep. Lamar Smith does not want his reputation soiled with the link to the petty dismissal of Casey. Had Caseys many fans known, Im quite sure we would have risen to the occasion to support him before it was too late.

Sandra Moody, Bulverde

Larson for governor

Re: Governor disguises revenge as political principle, Gilbert Garcia, Friday:

We have read and enjoyed most of Gilbert Garcias columns. We believe he has hit a new high with this column and hope that everyone in Texas House District 122 reads it and gives it serious thought.

Lyle Larson is one of the most critical members of the Legislature. We desperately need people with the wisdom and courage of their convictions to stand tall on all important matters. Larson has those traits and obviously uses them.

It is disappointing to see what a small, insecure man Gov. Greg Abbott seems to be. Instead of listening to, and learning from, Rep. Larson, he is trying to run him out of town. It was particularly humorous for the governor to call Lyle a liberal and that he should be a Democrat. Considering Lyles position on all the issues he addresses, could the governor actually be that ignorant?

Hopefully, everyone in District 122 will vote for Larson and against Abbott. We are.

In the next election, maybe we can encourage Larson to run for governor.

Chuck and Katie ChaseGREENWICH  As a new dealership prepares for its spot on Greenwichs million dollar mile, residents and town officials are caught in a struggle between the old and the new.

Ford Lincoln is set to roll out its new brand design  for the first time in the country  at 366 West Putnam Ave. A 26-foot, two-story glass building was presented to the Architectural Review Committee this week, and some residents are upset about the trend car dealerships have jumped on in recent years: building large, all-glass structures with showrooms visible from the street.

Many, many people who I have spoken to are very upset about what has been allowed to go up in the western part of Greenwich, Margaret Freiberg, a District 7 RTM member, told members of the committee. We have the new CVS that looks like an airport terminal, then we get the glass Chase building in all its glory ... this thing looks like a space ship taking off.

Auto dealerships along the stretch of Post Road used to be modest, she said.

Now what do we get? ... Three-dimensional billboards. Buildings that are billboards, an advertisement for the product, she said. We want what we had that is going away ... consistent with the historic nature of the town. You folks must be out of touch.

Another District 7 RTM member, Henry Orphys, said at the meeting the dealerships should be more stone-like.

Several of my constituents said theyd like to preserve the character of the town, he said.

Obviously its a commercial section, Orphys said after the meeting. It shouldnt be operated as a 16th century town. But I thought Freibergs comment about billboard advertising  shes onto something there.

ARC member John Conte said he understands the interest residents have in keeping Greenwichs character as it always has been. But, he said, the review committees power is limited in that regard.

We all wrestle with the historic nature of our town, Conte said, yet we are in a forward moving world. Its not possible to stop the architectural advancements. We do hear you. But its not our job to hold Greenwich to 16th century architecture. If the town wants it, they need to (ask us to prioritize that). But they havent.

He recommended Freiberg and other residents opposed to the kinds of changes that have occurred to make their voices heard at Planning and Zoning meetings where the next Plan of Conservation and Development is being worked on. A new plan is due in 2019.

Tom Heagney, attorney for 366 West Putnam Managers, said he recognized the concerns of residents opposed to the changes.

I think its good to be talking about the POCD, Heagney said. But this is our primary commercial zone that moves along West Putnam Avenue ... the size of the buildings can be 30 feet, three stories. You need to take into context some of the buildings are more modern in their appeals. Thats where (trends) in auto dealerships are going. If you dont like where theyre going, wait six or seven years and then theres something completely different theyll want to see there.

Planning Director Katie DeLuca said this week that it is encouraged for residents to attend meetings and voice their opinions, but also to recognize that each section of town has its own appeal and identity.

Although Greenwich is well known for its historic downtown and villages, each with their own sense of place and distinct character, it would not be accurate to characterize Greenwich as conforming to one architectural style or period, she said. The POCD addresses the downtown, villages, and Putnam Avenue as separate areas each with distinct issues.

The overriding goal is recognizing and celebrating the diversity of the built-environment, preserving community character, and enhancing the economic base, said DeLuca. That goal is implemented through specifics found within the zoning regulations, of which (developers must comply)  366 West Putnam Avenue is currently going through that process now. Public comment is very important in this process.

ARC member Heidi Brake Smith said town officials in the past have had some success asking car dealerships to make logos smaller.

Theres a real tug and pull, of the global branding of many car dealerships you see on West Putnam Avenue, she said. (The Ford Lincoln design) is the first of a new rollout, but its new and probably still in its infancy and Id like to see more.

ARC members requested that the application come back for a full review of the landscape and exterior design. There were also concerns raised about potential brightness of the sign lighting and how late lights would stay on. One member suggested motion-activated lights if they are to be used at night for safety.

E: jturiano@greenwichtime.com; T: @jturianoGT; IG: @greenwichgreenWhen I was in high school, we had the joy of having an international visitor, an exchange student from Switzerland.

Christine was like no one I had ever met, and she gave me the opportunity to see our world through new eyes.

When I feel overwhelmed by a changing world, I try to see things through that open-eyed vantage point.

What do you mean you do not need a key to get into your house after school? she asked after inquiring if I wanted her to get the key out of my purse as we neared home, while I drove our beat-up old Ford.

No, we dont lock our doors, I explained as her eyes widened in disbelief.

We are in and out of the house all day long, and it would be a nuisance to have to unlock the door each time, I tried to explain. Christine looked at me as though she had landed among Martians.

Security

Since her mother was often in Italy or France as a fashion designer, and her father traveled with his international commerce position, their home at the foot of the Swiss Alps was locked down with great security, the likes of which sounded incredibly foreign.

Long before anyone I knew had a home security system, Christine carried three different keys, and described a sensor which had to be deactivated when she and her sister arrived home.

How is it you have any single thing left in your home? Christine asked. It saddens me to know that our own community now has to consider such things.

Break in

Theft is greatly on the rise in suburban and rural communities. We had a terrible taste of it this past week when our sons home was broken in to  the lovely original front wooden door cracked at the deadbolt.

The thief or thieves even swept up after themselves so that no splintered wood was visible.

Since my son and his wife entered through a different door, it might have been days until they discovered the robbery since nothing appeared disturbed, and valuables sitting in plain sight were not touched.

The thief went straight to a hidden safe, robbed old, sentimental silver coins and emergency cash, but walked past other cash sitting out.

The swept-up wood splinters and the deadbolt were thrown deep into the closet, and items that surely were moved to get to the safe were put back perfectly in place.

Police said these actions all point to the robber being someone they know, someone they likely have welcomed into their home. It turns the stomach to consider this.

It has taken lots of labor of friends and family, in freezing cold temperatures, to replace a front door, to secure a home that once felt safe and tranquil.

A thief takes more than what can be carried away. What has become of our civility?

Neighborhood watch

It feels as though we have returned to the old Wild West mentality, one in which the roughest, toughest go for what they want without a bit of conscience.

We all need to reactivate old neighborhood watch programs. Banding together with a common cause, lets see to it that the good guys prevail.One hundred years ago, during World War I, the U. S. Army was busy drafting men to train for new units and to replace the mounting casualties among the troops that were already fighting in Europe.

As a result, farm help was scarce and expensive so gasoline tractors were becoming more and more popular on American farms. This was great, but many new tractor owners had no idea why they went when they went or stopped when they stopped.

These tractor owners were therefore dependent upon tractor experts, some of whom were shady characters.

For example

An article in the October, 1918 issue of Tractor World magazine, by L.R. Van Volkenburg, who was then a service engineer at the Avery Company in Peoria, Illinois, after pointing out to its dealer readers that the greatest service you can render customers is to teach them how to handle and properly care for their machines, uses the following story of one of these men to illustrate his point.

(Farmer) Jones bought a new tractor (presumably an Avery although the make is never identified) which he was capable of operating himself. After being used for some time, the tractor refused to start and Jones, who had had some prior experience with gas engines, worked on it for a day or two with no success.

Finally, he called for help from some of his neighbors who professed to be gas engine men. Well, they couldnt figure it out either, and the lifeless tractor sat there. At last, the frustrated Jones called in a tractor expert, who of course charged a hefty fee for his services.

This guy came and quickly located the trouble, a simple matter of a governor spring having come unhooked. However, to maintain his status as a tractor expert, he spent a lot of time tinkering with this and that.

Then the owner, who had been keenly watching the expert in hope of learning something, was called away for a moment. Mr. Expert quickly reconnected the spring and when Jones came around again the repairman told him that the problem was solved and the tractor would be fine, which of course it now was.

The engine started right up and ran perfectly, Jones was satisfied and gladly paid the bill, and the serviceman left with a flowery reputation in that neck of the woods for having some superhuman knowledge which it was not possible for a mere dirt farmer to attain.

Problem continued

This should have been the end of it, and it was, for a while. Then that pesky spring came loose once more and again the tractor wouldnt start. Jones didnt waste his or his neighbors time trying to fix the trouble this time; he just called for the expert, believing that individual was the only person in the world who could fix the thing, and out of desperation willing to pay his time and expenses, which werent cheap.

As the summer wore on the same scenario was repeated two or three times and Jones was always kept in the dark as to what was really wrong with his machine. Mr. Jones, at last, wearied of this ritual and wrote to the Avery Co. to complain.

The letter was referred to Mr. Van Volkenburg, who made a personal visit to examine the offending tractor and to try to pacify a somewhat angry Jones. Well, it took the company man only about a minute to see and repair the problem, but he spent another minute or two showing Jones what hed found and how to easily correct it should it again happen.

Van Volkenburg wrote, This same tractor ran a number of years, to the writers personal knowledge, without an expert again visiting it. The article concludes with, The farmer doesnt want to know about the principles of combustion or the technicalities involved in valve timing, air velocity, air friction, or carburetion, neither does he need to know about magnetism, eddy currents, watts, volts and amps.

He simply wants to be told in a few simple words how to adjust his carburetor, test his magneto, and what care his machine requires to stay in top running condition.

Similar situation

Apparently, farmers havent changed much in the past century, based on the controversy taking place today about the farmers right to work on and repair his own machinery. The difference is that Jones had an owners manual of perhaps thirty or so pages, along with a monkey wrench, a screwdriver and a pair of pliers.

The farmer today needs expensive test instruments, a computer, and a well-equipped shop, along with specialized knowledge of computer software and dozens of other things.CHAZY, N.Y.  The 2017 corn harvest in Northern New York is providing data to researchers with a grant from the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program to compare forage quality and yield between two distinct types of corn.

We are interested to see if yields for the 2017 crop will continue to show no consistent difference between the BMR and non-BMR hybrids grown for silage, said project leader Eric O. Young, research agronomist at the William H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute, Chazy.

In our regional trials to date, the BMR hybrids have had a distinct advantage in fiber digestibility and, therefore, milk production potential, Young said.

Brown MidRib, or BMR, corn has a naturally-occurring genetic variation that producers higher fiber digestibility that, in turn, increases the milk production potential of dairy cows.

Yields

However, farmers are concerned that BMR corn may not yield as well as non-BMR corn hybrids.

Until this project funded by the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program there has been relatively little research evaluating performance among brown midrib hybrids and non-BMR hybrids with respect to yield and forage quality, Young said.

The research in Northern NY includes two commercially-available BMR hybrids currently on the market.

Data from the 2017 harvest will be compared with trial results with five corn hybrids grown at two farm sites in 2015 and 2016.

Crop samples are evaluated for yield, digestibility, percent dry matter, acidity, starch and other components, silage fermentation and quality after harvest.

The differences in yield, starch, and fiber digestibility all have important implications for dairy ration formulation and farm economics. Our early results in the Northern New York trials have shown clear differences in fiber digestibility related to corn hybrid genetics, he said.

This research provides a data foundation for analyzing the potential milk production impact of using BMR and non-BMR hybrids in the dairy cow total mixed ration.

The 2015 and 2016 NNY BMR evaluation reports are posted on the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website.Livestock and dairy farmers advised not to file any emissions reports until the legal issue is resolved

WASHINGTON  Bipartisan legislation introduced Feb. 13 would exempt livestock farmers from reporting to the U.S. Coast Guard emissions from the natural breakdown of manure on their farms.

Sens. Deb Fischer, R-Nebraska, introduced the Fair Agricultural Reporting Method (FARM) Act. Cosponsors of the bipartisan legislation include Sens. John Barrasso, R-Wyo.; Pat Roberts, R-Kan.; Mike Rounds, R-S.D.; Joe Donnelly, D-Ind.; Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.; Chris Coons, D-Del.; and Tom Carper, D-Del. (Read the legislation.)

It would exempt farmers from reporting routine farm emissions under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA).

A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule, CERCLA is more commonly known as the Superfund Law, and is used to clean hazardous waste sites but also includes a mandatory federal reporting component.

Because of a recent appeals court decision, the CERCLA law could require farms to generate emissions reports unless Congress legislates a change to the underlying law.

The threshold translates to farms with roughly 200 head of cattle or a pig farm with two swine finishing barns could potentially be subject to the reporting requirement.

Routine emissions from hog manure do not constitute a hazardous emergency that requires the Coast Guard to activate a national cleanup response, said National Pork Producers Council President Ken Maschhoff, a pork producer from Carlyle, Ill.,

EPA exempted farms from CERCLA reporting because it knew responses would be unnecessary and impractical. Frankly, the court created a problem where none existed.

Background

In 2008, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) exempted most farms from reporting the release of manure-related ammonia and hydrogen sulfide under both CERCLA and the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA), deeming such reports unnecessary.

However, in April 2017, the D.C. Court of Appeals directed the removal of this exemption for dairy and other livestock operations from the two federal laws.

Related story: Livestock farmers face emissions deadline

In October 2017, EPA filed a motion requesting that the court extend its stay on requiring livestock farm compliance with CERCLA and EPCRA until January 2018.

It also issued its interpretation that reporting under EPCRA was not necessary because the air emissions are associated with routine agricultural operations, which are exempt.

EPA plans to address the interpretation further via a rulemaking process.

The court was expected to issue its mandate after Jan. 22, but on Jan. 19, EPA filed a request to delay the compliance date for an additional 90 days. The court granted EPAs request.

Filing woes

According to the National Pork Producers Council, some farmers tried filing reports Nov. 15, but the system was overwhelmed. In one case, an operator sent notices to more than 20 state and federal response authorities, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a state police agency, after receiving a report.

The National Milk Producers Federation continues to recommend that producers do not file any emissions reports until the legal issue is resolved. In the meantime, it has been preparing preliminary materials to assist dairy farmers in calculating emissions and filing reports if it becomes necessary.

Related articles:

Will you have to report livestock emissions? Its up to Congress March 19, 2018

Court extends livestock emissions reporting deadline Dec. 4, 2017

Livestock farmers face emissions deadline Nov. 14, 2017

Superfund not meant for farms March 15, 2007

Commentary: Is that a Superfund site or a farm? Nov. 23, 2005SALEM, Ohio  Its no secret that crop farmers need to be as efficient as possible in todays market. Whether theyre selling cash crops or making their own feed, they need the highest yield for their dollar. And they have a lot of other issues to be concerned about  like nutrient placement, the weather and the environment.

Reporter Chris Kick talked with a Certified Crop Adviser from Ohio and Pennsylvania, to hear about the biggest challenges facing crop farmers, and what a crop adviser can do to help.

Jonah Johnson

Chairman of the Ohio Certified Crop Adviser Board and field agronomist with DuPont Pioneer (Xenia, Ohio):

Profitability

According to Johnson, the top concern on most crop farmers minds is making a profit. The low commodity prices ($3 corn, $9 beans) have made this more difficult. The profit margin has been tight for several years in a row, and it keeps getting more intense.

Crop farmers have to pencil everything out and watch their investments, if they want to be profitable, he said. The technology is constantly changing, which includes the seed varieties and the farm equipment.

Making the right choices

Seed is probably one of the biggest decisions to make and it is so complex, Johnson said. The days of when a corn hybrid was around for 10 years and everyone planted that hybrid are gone, he said. Theres always something better and greater coming.

Farmers can work directly with seed and fertility companies, but sometimes it makes more sense to work with a crop adviser.

It really all boils down to the credibility and the knowledge, Johnson said. Theyre (advisers) usually unbiased and have to sign a code of ethics stating theyll be ethical with the farmer.

Perhaps the biggest reason to work with a crop adviser, he said, is because they are required to have continuous education. Crop advisers need 40 credit hours every two years, which helps keep them up to date on the latest trends and issues.

Soil fertility

The soil is always the farmers greatest resource and the healthier the soil, the greater the potential for a good crop. But as farmers know, soils differ significantly from one field to another, and from one county to another. Johnson serves about 40 counties and keeps an eye on the different conditions that affect different counties, including environmental issues. He said environmental stewardship is at the top of farmers minds, and that good seed and nutrient placement is good for yield and the environment.

Dean Collamer

Field agronomist with GROWMARK FS (Hanover, Pennsylvania):

Making money

Much like Johnson, Collamer said the biggest issue facing farmers is profitability.

The typical refrain at this point in time is keep your input costs under control, he said. It looks like we have continued low crop prices in the forecast.

His company serves Pennsylvania and surrounding states, and he works in an area that includes a lot of dairy farmers. One of the biggest things farmers want to do  and that crop advisers can help them do  is prioritize their crop needs and maximize their yield potential.

Nutrient management

Collamer has also been helping farmers and agribusinesses follow the 4Rs of Nutrient Stewardship  a program that educates farmers on how to apply nutrients at the right rate, right source, time and place.

Using nutrients wisely is obviously important for crop uptake and production, but its also essential for a healthy environment and clean water. The western portion of Pennsylvania typically flows to the Ohio River, while eastern Pennsylvania flows to the Chesapeake Bay. Both of these watersheds have nutrient issues that are making national and international news, and farmers can do their part by controlling what happens on their individual farms.

The right decision

Even though times are tight, Collamer said it still makes sense for a farmer to weigh all of his or her options and make the most of their decisions. Sometimes, that process is best done with the help of a crop adviser, because its the advisers job to be educated and up to date with the best solutions.

It appears that even at this time, when weve got low commodity prices, the growers who are going to be in business 10-20 years from now are continuing to go forward and advance and expand their use of precision farming and precision ag, Collamer said.HARRISBURG, Pa.  After receiving reports that some Pennsylvania livestock producers have not received payments for animals sold through the Westminster Livestock Auction in Westminster, Maryland, state Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding provided contact information for the U.S. Department of Agriculture where those producers may file a claim.

Redding said the USDA advises that any affected producers should file a claim with their agency as soon as possible.

USDAs Packers and Stockyards Division has jurisdiction on this matter, and they stress that time is of the essence.

Unpaid livestock sellers have 60 days from the date of the transaction to file a valid claim. Packers, market agencies, and dealers are all subject to the Packers and Stockyards Act, which requires them to pay promptly for all livestock they purchase.

File a claim

Instructions on how to file a bond claim are available through USDAs Agricultural Marketing Service website.

To file a claim, contact the Eastern Regional Office of the Packers and Stockyards Division, part of the USDAs Agricultural Marketing Service Fair Trade Practices Program, at 404-562-5840 or toll-free at 1-800-998-3447, or visit ams.usda.gov.DES MOINES, Iowa  In 2017, U.S. pork exports recorded the largest year ever in volume, with sales to more than 100 countries around the world.

U.S. pork and pork variety meat exports totaled 5.399 billion pounds valued at $6.486 billion, up 6 percent and 9 percent respectively from 2016.

Exports continue to be an important piece of the puzzle for adding to producers bottom line, said Craig Morris, vice president of international marketing for the Pork Checkoff. Recognizing the importance of exports, the National Pork Board recently approved nearly $8.7 million for 2018 export market activities, the most significant financial investment of Checkoff dollars in international marketing efforts to date.

Variety meats

Pork variety meats were the shining star during 2017. Exports tied the 2011 record, with 82 percent of edible variety meat exported. Pork variety meat exports totaled $1.17 billion, setting a new total value record and surpassing $1 billion for the first time.

Together, China and Mexico accounted for 86 percent of U.S. pork variety meat exports. In 2017, total edible pork variety meat exports added $9.67 in value to every hog marketed, according to the U.S. Meat Export Federation. U.S. pork and pork variety meat exports accounted for 26.6 percent of total pork production, with 22 percent of muscle cuts exported, in 2017.

Export value returned an average $53.47 per head back to producers, up 6 percent from 2016.

The top six markets by volume were Mexico (1.768 billion pounds), China/Hong Kong (1.09 billion pounds), Japan (868 million pounds), Canada (459 million pounds), South Korea (382 million pounds) and South America (229 million pounds).Place Your Advert

Thousands of Active jobseekers are looking for new agricultural positions in 2020. Call us now to discuss the options for advertising your vacancy in our job section.Children have a "huge lack of knowledge" when its comes to knowing how and where their food is produced, the NFU has said.

National Farmers' Union Deputy President Minette Batters said the industry "believes passionately" about educating young people, and food production should be part of the national curriculum.

The comment follows research which shows children across the UK exhibiting serious flaws in their knowledge of food and farming.

A survey of more than 27,500 children conducted by the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) found that nearly a third of children believe cheese comes from plants, tomatoes grow underground and fish fingers are made of chicken.

However, children do have an appetite to learn more about food and farming. In 2015, a survey showed that more than four in five primary age school children said they would visit a farm to find out more about where their food comes from.

To get children learning more, the NFU has this week created a new education initiative which links agriculture with the national science curriculum in England.

Teachers will be able to show their children science and farming under a new 'Science Farm' series to support classroom lessons. They will explain how carrots are produced, the food chain of a school dinner and a sensory trail  exploring the farm with five senses.

'Huge lack of knowledge'

NFU Deputy President Minette Batters said there appeared to be a "huge lack of knowledge" among children of all ages about how and where their food is produced.

We believe passionately about educating young people and we feel strongly that food production should be a core part of the national school curriculum, Ms Batters explained.

Were really excited with these new educational digital tools that will allow teachers to provide truly memorable lessons where children will get the opportunity to explore where their food comes from and how its grown.

The job of a farmer is not just to grow food, but to engage and reconnect with the public, including children, Ms Batters said.

Learning about British food and farming from a young age will ultimately help our future generations make informed choices, she added.

As Defra Secretary of State Michael Gove said at the Oxford Farming Conference, we need to educate children about where food comes from and how to make healthy choices about buying, preparing and enjoying food.

The education initiative follows news of a North Yorkshire MP receiving widespread media attention after calling for a GCSE in agriculture to encourage the "serious need" of fresh talent.

Television personality and farmer Adam Henson has also called for its introduction.Nearly 200 migrant farm workers have demanded an apology from the police after the arrest of their bosses over modern slavery allegations.

The farm, near Helston in Cornwall, was raided last week by police. The migrant workers, mainly from Lithuania, Romania and Bulgaria, now say they feel like "victims".

Specialist officers executed a warrant at Bosahan Farm, which is a flower picking farm on the suspicion that modern slavery and gangmaster offences were taking place against migrant workers.

Three men were arrested on suspicion of the offences after the raid.

The letter, signed by 189 workers, defends the bosses of the farm, and say "morale has been affected".

The letter reads: "As workers, we contest this statement. We have come here voluntarily to work and are being treated well."

It says the "incorrect information" has made the workers feel like their bosses are being treated "badly".

The letter says the workers are being "treated well" and "the farmer has always been good to us and we feel that he has been treated very badly".

The release of the letter follows news of more than 100 migrant workers turning up at the police station to protest against their farm boss's arrest.

However, fourteen of the workers chose to leave the farm prior to the police raids, after they were spoken to by police and other agencies.

Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer explained the raid, saying: "There were reports into police of alleged labour abuse, alleged offence of modern slavery.

"Therein lies the dilemma - you have to at some point intervene and you just sift your way through the evidence."Eight sheep have died and one alpaca injured following a dog attack on livestock in north Wales yesterday.

The attack happened on a farm between Brynford and Pentre Halkyn, Flintshire overnight on the 13th and 14th of February.

Eight sheep died following the attack, with 2 dying at the vets. An alpaca sustained bite mark injuries on its back.

The farmer is a "repeat victim" of livestock worrying (Photo: NW Rural Crime Team)

North Wales Rural Crime Team says the farmer is a "repeat victim" of livestock worrying.

The team tweeted: "This (main story photo) is the aftermath of today's attack in Brynford.

"The unknown dog has trapped and killed some of the sheep in the corner on the left and down an old mine shaft on the right. The white you can see is the remnants of sheep fleece."

North Wales Police are now appealing for witnesses to the attack.

New figures by NFU Mutual how that the cost of dog attacks on livestock rose by 67 percent across the UK in the past two years.

The record level of claims cost the farming industry an estimated 1.6m in 2017, according to the rural insurer.More than one agricultural worker commits suicide a week, according to a leading farming charity which aims to highlight mental health awareness in the industry.

The Farm Safety Foundation, the charity behind Farm Safety Week, has advised the farming industry to start looking after themselves mentally as well as physically.

Poor mental health is the biggest health topic in the UK at present - one in four people have been diagnosed with a mental illness and in farming, mental health issues continue to be of great concern.

The leading cause of death for people aged between 20 and 34 is suicide - and approximately, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), more than one agricultural worker a week in the UK dies by suicide.

The Farm Safety Foundation has thus launched a week-long initiative called 'Mind Your Head' to raise awareness of mental health amongst the farming community.

International rugby referee and former president of the Wales Federation of Young Farmers Clubs Nigel Owens for the campaign.

Struggling beef farmer

Levels of depression in the industry are thought to be increasing and suicide rates in agricultural workers are among the highest in any occupational group.

Figures show risk of suicide was also higher amongst those working in specific agricultural roles such as harvesting crops and rearing animals, almost twice the national average.

Struggling beef farmer Stephen ran a 200-acre beef farm with his wife, Rachel for 15 years. When Rachel decided to file for divorce and custody of the children, it came as a devastating shock to Stephen.

Not only did he have to carry on running the farm on his own, he had to adjust to a new life at home, without his family close by.

Suddenly things got too much for Stephen. The farm began losing money and he slowly sank into a deep depression.

Thankfully, he recalled being given a helpline card by somebody from the Farming Community Network (FCN), with whom he met at a local show earlier in the year.

He called the helpline and discussed his issues over the phone, before being referred to a local volunteer. The volunteer met with Stephen to go through his situation.

Over the next few months, the volunteer helped Stephen get his paperwork and finances in order  and even signposted him to a local mental health service to help him with his depression.

Increasing depression

Charles Smith, Chief Executive of the FCN explains: When it comes to important farm safety equipment, people usually think of tractor roll bars, shedding gates for livestock and high-vis clothing. But there is another piece of kit, which when used properly, is even better  the mind.

It is very easy to underestimate just how important the mind is when it comes to farming. Along with the body, it is, without doubt, the best bit of kit a farmer can have.

However, if your mind and body are not well-maintained, as well as your machinery, it is very easy to become less conscious of the dangers around you.

British-based rural charities such as the the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (R.A.B.I), the Farming Community Network (FCN) and the Addington Fund all aim to shine a light on this hidden issue.

Addington Fund

The Addington Fund provides homes for farming families who have to leave their farm and by doing so will lose their home.

In times of emergency, and where hardship prevails, Addington may be able to support a farm business through its Trustees' Discretionary Fund with a short term grant.

In certain counties the Fund may be able to accommodate farm workers through its Affordable Rural Housing Scheme.

Farming Community Network

The Farming Community Network is a UK network of volunteers from the farming community and rural churches.

FCN provides a Helpline and a visiting service to farming people and families who are facing difficulties.

FCN's volunteers provide pastoral and practical support for as long as it is needed, helping people to find a positive way through their problems. Callers to the Helpline who need FCN support are put in touch with a local volunteer.

A farmers wife from Devon said about FCN: "I never realised what help was available until FCN listened to my problems and signposted me to the support I needed. I only wish I'd called sooner."

R.A.B.I.

R.A.B.I is a grant-making charity that provides confidential help to retired and working farming people in financial difficulty.

Support covers all ages and is tailored to the individual, including one-off and regular grants, replacing essential household items, funding for disability equipment, care home fees, relief farm staff and training grants to help people develop skills to bring in off-farm income.

A farming family from Yorkshire said about R.A.B.I.: "A big thank you to the Addington Fund and R.A.B.I for helping us with our housing and financial problems. One call made all the difference and gave us hope."

All three charities have teamed up to create a singular hotline, called Farming Help. It's website states: "Struggling to get by and not sure where to turn? Times can get hard for everyone but the good news is that farmers can reach three farming charities, with just ONE CALL."A survey of Scotlands horticultural sector has highlighted the urgent need for a new seasonal worker scheme to be put in place for 2018.

In 2017, shortfalls in recruiting seasonal workers to pick soft fruit or veg saw some Scottish crops go unpicked.

NFU Scotland's survey has highlighted that, without a UK scheme to address the issue, Scottish production of these high value crops could decrease.

More than 30 specialist growers responded to the survey, accounting for most of the soft fruit and vegetables grown in Scotland.

The union will be in Westminster later this month to raise the subject again with the Home Office and, at the same time, a wider paper on immigration and Scottish food and farmings labour requirements post-Brexit will be issued.

'Barely a punnet'

Scotlands soft fruit and veg sectors is seen as a success story, recording year on year growth and generating more than 300 million in income  10 percent of Scottish farm production.

The unions Political Affairs Manager Clare Slipper, who organised the survey said: There is a barely a punnet of strawberries or a head of broccoli that isnt picked by non-UK workers.

Scotlands horticultural industry saw a shortfall in seasonal workers of between 10 and 15 percent last year and our survey of the sector, shows how deep the worry is.

Every one of the 32 specialist growers who responded are concerned or very concerned about labour shortages this year, three-quarters of them expect the situation to have got worse when compared to 2018 and almost two-thirds are considering downsizing their business as a result."

NFU Scotland believes the UK Government must commit to a new Seasonal Workers Scheme for 2018 or it runs the risk of undermining the horticultural sector.

NFU Scotland will be in London in next week to hold meetings with the Home Office on the issue.Tackling TB in wildlife must be a "top priority" in ridding Northern Ireland of the devastating disease, according to the local farming industry.

"Radical and ground-breaking" thinking is needed on all sides to rid Northern Ireland of bovine TB, according to the Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU).

The call for the new approach by the UFU was made after a lengthy consultation on the devolved government's proposals to tackle the disease.

The consultation was around a Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs' (DAERA) plan to implement some of the recommendations of the TB Strategic Partnership Group.

UFU president, Barclay Bell said farmers were ready to back some of the thinking, but not all.

TB has plagued the countryside for over 60 years and we are no closer towards eradication. This is despite huge efforts by industry and government to control it and costing both farmers and taxpayers millions of pounds annually, Mr Bell said.

Incidences of bovine TB have reached their highest level in ten years and farmers are beyond frustration. Something has to change.

TB in wildlife

While there was a range of views on the ways ahead, one message from UFU members across Northern Ireland was that tackling TB in wildlife must be a "top priority".

Tackling TB in wildlife, the other major element of the continuation of this disease, must be a top priority - and it must be done in a meaningful and robust way, Mr Bell added.

We cannot accept any changes on compensation or testing when DAERA is only taking tough action on one side of the TB equation.

In its consultation response, the UFU has suggested the establishment of a compulsory levy, controlled by farmers and held by an industry body such as Animal Health and Welfare NI.

It says this would help to address bovine TB, with the initial focus specifically on tackling TB in the wildlife reservoir.

We believe this is the fairest and fastest way to see action where it is needed, said Mr Bell adding, Everyones ultimate goal is to have healthy cattle and healthy wildlife. All our members are in agreement that radical and ground-breaking measures are required on all sides.

The countryside can no longer be held to ransom by this disease.UV light reduces foodborne illnesses from eggs, study says

New US study says it is an effective alternativeTaapsee Pannu surely has come a long way! After building a solid fan-base down the south, the actress charmed us all with her powerful performances in films and soon we saw her sharing screen space with some of the leading stars of the industry.

Recently while speaking to Times Of India, Taapsee revealed that she likes to break the ice with her co-stars during the first day of the shoot itself.

She was quoted as saying to the leading daily, "It's important for me to share a good camaraderie with my co-actor otherwise I can't perform. For completely selfish reasons, I am the one who goes ahead and breaks the ice with them. I make the first move, as it helps me get comfortable."

Taapsee further said, "There are some people who are introverts, but I don't blame them as you never know who might try to take advantage of you. I am pretty shameless about striking up a conversation to ensure that through the shoot I can work comfortably with my co-star."

Earlier, when a media agency asked the actress if she would like to do glamorous roles like she did in Judwaa 2, she had replied, "I want to maintain that. I am an actor and versatility is the part of being an actor. I wouldn't want to closet myself in one type of role."

She had also revealed that she intends to go about it one film at a time. "My aim is to see how every film of mine fares, and to accordingly use my strengths in the next film. I also intend not to repeat the mistakes I've made in the past. I see the result of one film, and then choose what I do next," she had said.

On the work front, Taapsee recently wrapped up Soorma. She will soon begin shooting for Anurag Kashyap's Manmarziyan co-starring Abhishek Bachchan and Vicky Kaushal.BA Club World Dining: Same Food Arranged Differently on New China

When British Airways announced a change for their in-flight meal service, it was expected that a shift in caterers would be among the most noticeable improvements. Now, a British Airways crewmember is speaking out about the food options from behind the scenes, calling it the same food arranged differently on new China.

Has the emperor truly received new clothes, or has British Airways announced a new shift on the same old food items? Discovered in a thread on the FlyerTalk forums, a crew member for the flag carrier claims the airline is simply shuffling plates around on customers.

In November 2017, British Airways announced a $5.9 billion fleet overhaul, including 72 new airframes and upgraded catering provided by Austrias Do&Co. Three months later, a FlyerTalker who claims to work for the airline says that what was promised is far from the truth.

Do&Co. will only be supplying the food for the LHR-JFK route plus from a few outstations and this will be of a much higher quality, FlyerTalker Can I help you wrote on the forums. This wasnt what we were told during training and speaking as crew I feel let down.

Now that we have seen what [Gate Gourmet] are supplying we can see that its the same food arranged differently on new china.

In addition to the improved catering options limited to the flights between London Heathrow Airport (LHR) and John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York, the crew member also claims that food choices will also get new limitations. Starters will allegedly be limited to cabin capacity, while salads will be swapped out for soup options. Meanwhile, main course salads may also get dropped in favor of other products.

Main course salads have been removed and replaced but extra hot meals, no increase, the FlyerTalker wrote. I have not been able to work out if we have more desserts and cheese but Im guessing that we have.

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson from British Airways told FlyerTalk: The new Club World catering launched on our London to New York services and is now being rolled out on our longhaul services. The spokesperson did not provide additional details or a timeline on the roll out plans.

This isnt the first time British Airways has received scorn from flight attendants this year. In January, cabin crews accused the airline of flying bedbugs alongside passengers aboard long-haul flights.

[Photo: Shutterstock]Norwegian Unveils Plans for Cheaper Flights to London and Australia

In an announcement made on Wednesday, the carrier not only revealed that it has commenced a direct LGW-EZE service, but said that the route marks a milestone for Norwegian, which aims to offer further international flights from London in the future. This will bring it into competition with BA.

Low-cost carrier Norwegian appears to be positioning itself to go head-to-head with U.K. flag carrier British Airways by revealing its plans to launch an array of long-haul routes from London, the Telegraph reports.

In a statement on Wednesday, Norwegian announced that it has commenced a direct London Gatwick (LGW) to Buenos Aires service. Prior to Norwegians announcement, BA was the only other carrier to offer direct flights to the Argentinian capital.

In addition to being the low-cost carriers first South American route, Norwegian CEO Bjorn Kjos indicated that the introduction of this service marked something of a watershed moment for Norwegian. Today we have marked the start of our new expansion into South America by bringing a taste of Argentina to London Gatwick. I am delighted to bring our high quality long-haul flights to another continent as we launch the only direct flight from London Gatwick to Buenos Aires, giving leisure and business passengers affordable access to South America, he said.

Further explaining, Kjos added, Our first flight to Buenos Aires from the UK marks another milestone for Norwegian. As our first South American route takes off, it is also a first step towards ambitious plans for international and domestic growth in Argentina, ahead of flights to Chicago and Austin from London Gatwick next month.

Offering his comments, Stewart Wingate, CEO of LGW, said, The launch of Norwegians first ever South American route is another exciting landmark in Gatwicks ongoing mission to connect the UK to more and more long-haul destinations. The airport now offers 63 long-haul connections  with many, including Buenos Aires, operated by low-cost carriers  making Gatwick the busiest departure airport for low-cost long-haul services in the world.

As an adjunct to this news, the outlet also reports that the carrier is to acquire its very first Airbus by 2020, a purchase that will enable it to further expand its long-haul ambitions.

[Photo: Shutterstock]Last October, Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) announced that it would start selling tickets for flights to Hawaii during 2018. This came after years of rumors that the U.S. airline giant would expand to this popular tourist market, potentially bringing lower fares.

However, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association -- the union representing Southwest's mechanics -- has threatened legal action to halt the carrier's plans to fly to Hawaii. Southwest Airlines wants to use outside contractors to do necessary maintenance work in Hawaii. The union claims that this would violate its contract, although the company disagrees.

The main barrier to Southwest's Hawaii flights

Flying from the West Coast to Hawaii involves traveling more than 2,000 miles over the Pacific Ocean, with no diversion airports in between. The FAA has strict "ETOPS" rules for operating routes that involve flying more than an hour from the nearest diversion airport. These include special certifications for the airline as a whole and the specific airplanes operating those routes.

Maintenance procedures are particularly important for airlines operating ETOPS routes. Given the importance of avoiding aircraft problems in the middle of the ocean, the FAA has special rules beyond what is normally required for commercial airlines.

The ETOPS certification process is currently the primary sticking point preventing Southwest Airlines from beginning flights to Hawaii. Depending on how quickly it can complete the approval process, Southwest may be able to launch its first flights to Hawaii in late 2018 or it may have to wait until 2019.

Why maintenance is a challenge for Hawaii flights

For Southwest Airlines, flying to Hawaii introduces some complications from a maintenance perspective. Most flights from the West Coast to Hawaii leave in the morning and arrive in the early afternoon, in time for hotel check-in. Return flights typically leave in the afternoon and arrive back on the West Coast in the late evening.

Southwest hasn't released any flight schedules for Hawaii, but it isn't likely to deviate from this general pattern. One of the main alternatives would be an evening departure from the West Coast and a red-eye return flight. However, Southwest has never operated red-eyes -- although it could change that policy.

As a result, it's entirely possible that there would never be Southwest Airlines planes on the ground in Hawaii outside of the hours of noon to 4 p.m. HST (roughly speaking). That would make it extremely inefficient to hire local staff to carry out ETOPS maintenance inspections in Hawaii, as there would only be a few hours of work each day.

The solution gets caught up in bargaining

Rather than hiring local maintenance staff in Hawaii, Southwest Airlines wants to use outside contractors to perform ETOPS checks on its aircraft there. On the West Coast, it would use its own staff.

This plan doesn't sound unreasonable on its face. However, Southwest's mechanics are still working under a contract that became amendable more than five years ago. (Airline labor contracts never formally expire.) The mechanics are seeking raises and job protections, and they aren't inclined to do any favors for management until a new contract is implemented.

Ideally, Southwest Airlines and the mechanics would sign a new contract during 2018 that would directly address the issue of outsourcing maintenance in Hawaii. However, if they don't reach an agreement, the courts may have to decide whether Southwest's plan violates the existing contract. That would raise a risk of the carrier having to postpone its Hawaii service.

Not much reason to worry -- yet

Despite all of the tough talk from the mechanics union, management and the union aren't very far from one another on most contract issues. The differences in the two sides' pay proposals are extremely small in comparison to Southwest Airlines' annual earnings. Instead, the main issue of contention appears to be the "scope" section that determines what work must be performed by Southwest's in-house maintenance staff.

Reaching an agreement on this issue won't be easy, but there's still time to make a deal. It should be possible for Southwest Airlines to trade some combination of job protections and pay raises for the flexibility to outsource maintenance at far-flung airports where it would be prohibitively expensive to rely on full-time staff.

Given Southwest's history of relatively peaceful labor relations, investors shouldn't worry too much about this contract dispute derailing the carrier's Hawaii plans.Duff Lake Fen restoration project opens public access in Indiana

February 15, 2018



Sedge wrens are one bird species that has benefited from the Duff Lake restoration project. Photo courtesy of Brian Wulker/Creative Commons.

The Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program assists voluntary landowners to transform unused and degraded property into desirable habitat that provides food, shelter and water for wildlife. These restored areas are often designed to provide a place for outdoor recreation activities. In 2015, the program and LaGrange County Parks and Recreation Department got their boots on the ground to start the Duff Lake Fen Restoration Project in northeast Indiana.

The Duff Lake Fen site was used for cattle grazing by previous landowners. As time lapsed, the landowners saw a decline in cattle grazing and the property become available for purchase. LaGrange County Parks and Recreation saw this as an opportunity to acquire acreage adjacent to their existing Pine Knob County Park. The goal was to provide the community with public land for additional hiking, sightseeing, bird watching and outdoor education opportunities. Though, LaGrange County Parks and Recreation knew what the community wanted, they needed technical and financial assistance to complete the project.

When LaGrange County called to inform us they were acquiring the Duff Lake Fen property, we were eager to collaborate and provide assistance, because the site is located in our Glacial Wetlands and Grasslands Priority Focus Area, said Scott Fetters, Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program Biologist. By assisting LaGrange Parks Department in creating a high quality outdoor area, we are restoring a historic grassland and wetland site that provides wildlife much needed resources.

When collaboration first started on the restoration project, a visit to the property revealed the potential to restore 76 acres of fen wetland and 28 acres of oak savanna. These habitat types are essential for migratory birds and federally threatened Eastern massasauga rattlesnake. An assessment indicated invasive species removal and restoring wetland hydrology as the main restoration goals. For Fetters and LaGrange County Parks and Recreation Department, the first step was to remove the invading phragmites, purple loosestrife and reed canary grass. These invasive species outcompete desirable native wetland species and degrade wetland habitat. Coincidentally, because the site was previously grazed by cattle, the invasive species didnt fully establish, and the native upland and wetland seed bank was still intact waiting for the opportunity to grow. The second goal was to restore the wetland hydrology that had been removed via over 14,000 lineal feet of agricultural ditches that were installed to make the area suitable for agricultural production.

A month after filling the ditches, the groundwater table started to rise and the site started to change into a desirable wildlife habitat. After 2 years of invasive species removal efforts, Duff Lake Fens native plant species have flourished and established themselves once again. With the completion of this park, LaGrange County is able to provide a quality natural area for the public to access for outdoor recreation and improved habitat for mallards, blue-winged teal, American woodcock, sandhill cranes, sedge wrens and marsh wrens.

Restoration sites like these are great! Seeing people and wildlife utilizing this area demonstrates the need for habitat restoration projects, said Fetters. This project has been extremely valuable for the public and for the federally threatened Eastern massasauga rattlesnake which has been found twice on site.

Our Partners for Fish and WIldlife Program has worked with LaGrange County Parks and Recreation Department for over 20 years and we have built a trusting relationship by working on projects beneficial to the public and wildlife. We look forward to future projects that will provide valuable habitat for wildlife and opens access to public lands.



A dedication sign highlights project partners in front of the restoration site. Photo by Scott Fetters/USFWS.Facebook to launch two smart speakers in July this year; codenames and features leaked News oi-Chandrika Reports of Facebook working on smart speakers first came up in July last year.

Facebook is rumored to have been working on a smart speaker with a touchscreen since last year. A latest DigiTimes report now suggests the company plans to enter the consumer electronics market with not one but two smart speakers; Aloha and Fiona. The report also reveals that the smart speakers could launch as soon as mid-2018. Do note that, Alone and Fiona are the codenames, and the devices will be called by different names when launched.

According to the report, Aloha and Fiona will come with 15-inch touchscreens manufactured by LG. While the smart speakers were initially scheduled to launch in May, Facebook has decided to take some more time "for perfecting the acoustic quality of the gadgets and software modification." The company now aims to release the devices in July this year. The news comes from supply chain sources.

Aloha and Fiona are reportedly being manufactured by Facebook's secretive Building 8 lab. The former is said to be a more advanced model and it could be launched with the official name Portal. It will probably come with the ability to follow voice commands. Further, the smart speaker is also likely to be equipped with facial recognition technology to identify users.

Last month, there was a report claiming that Facebook could be prepping the launch of a home video chat device dubbed as "Portal". Interestingly, its features described in the previous report match with that of Aloha. Portal is rumored to carry a price tag of $499 (approximately Rs. 31,735).

Coming back to the DigiTimes report, it says Aloha aka Portal will offer more social networking functions. The company seems to have signed deals with Sony and Universal Music, which may add more features into the smart speakers.

If you are wondering about the Fiona smart speaker, unfortunately the report has not mentioned much. This is why we come to conclusion that it could be more focused on video calling.

How to Encrypt your Facebook Message with Secret Conversation - GIZBOT

The news of Facebook's sudden entry into the foray of voice activated devices doesn't really come as a surprise. In recent time, AI-powered smart speakers have been generating a lot of interest among the customers. While currently, Amazon's Echo is dominating the market, Google Home is not far behind. Apple has also launched its own smart speaker called HomePod which is powered by Siri.

Best Mobiles in IndiaSamsung suddenly stops the rollout of Android Oreo update for Galaxy S8 and S8+ devices News oi-Samden Sherpa Samsung has temporarily stopped the update following a limited number of cases where Galaxy S8 and S8+ devices have rebooted unexpectedly with the Android 8.0 Oreo.

Samsung just started rolling out the much-awaited Android 8.0 Oreo update for its 2017 flagships the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+. The update was first rolled out to beta members and later was rolled out to other devices or users a few days back. However, in a rather surprising development, Samsung has reportedly stopped the rollout of Galaxy S8 Android 8.0 Oreo update.

According to SamMobile, who have also confirmed the news after conducting an extensive research has stated that Samsung has indeed pulled out Oreo for the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+ smartphones.

Further, the G950/G955-FXXU1CRAP Android 8.0 firmware files for the two handsets that were present before seem to be no longer available for download on Samsung's servers.

As of now, no official statements have been issued as to why the rollout was stopped and nothing is clear. Nonetheless, when Samsung does provide a comment on the matter we will update you with the same.

UPDATE: Samsung has now stated, "Following a limited number of cases where Galaxy S8 and S8+ devices have rebooted unexpectedly with the Android 8.0 Oreo, we have temporarily stopped the rollout of the update. We are investigating the issue internally to ensure that the impact to the affected devices is minimized and the rollout of the update can resume as quickly as possible."

While this is a bad news for the device owners as they were looking forward to the update but those who have already updated their devices to Android 8.0 Oreo won't be impacted much. They can basically still use Oreo in a normal fashion as nothing changes for them.

Meanwhile, the publication has also noted that the reason for pull out could be that Samsung is working on a new firmware version for the Galaxy S8 Android 8.0 release. If that is true then hopefully it will be rolled out soon. Samsung users have been waiting for it for a long time.

Just to recall, Samsung had started the Galaxy S8 Android 8.0 Oreo release a couple of days ago in markets like Turkey, Norway, the UAE, India, Belgium, Germany, France, Poland amongst others. The company was scheduled to roll out the update in the Netherlands next week.

Best Mobiles in IndiaVivo V7, V7+ to be discontinued in India; two new 18:9 smartphones coming soon News oi-Abhinaya Prabhu Looks like Vivo is planning to change its strategy in India.

Chinese smartphone brands such as Xiaomi and Vivo are highly popular in India. Given that Xiaomi is a market leader in the country, the other manufacturers are coming up with new strategies to compete with it. One such brand is Vivo that has carved a niche for itself in the Indian market with its selfie-centric smartphones.

Back in the last quarter of 2017, Vivo announced the Vivo V7 and V7+ smartphones as its first full-screen smartphones. Also, these devices came with a 24MP Moonlight selfie camera for the first time. Now, it looks like the company is in plans to improve its presence in the country with the launch of new models.

As per a report by PhoneRadar, it is believed that Vivo will discontinue the V7 and V7+ in favor of the two new models those are yet to be launched. Given that the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 and Redmi Note 5 Pro were launched in India on Wednesday with a full-screen design and 18:9 display, it looks like Vivo will also announce two smartphones with FullView 18:9 display. For now, there is no word on the other details about these upcoming smartphones but the reports speculate that these could be exclusive to the Indian market though the possibility for the same seems to be unlikely.

Recently, Vivo announced price cuts on the Vivo V7 and V7+. Also, the company came up with limited edition models of these smartphones to increase the sales. Vivo even slashed the profit margins for the offline retailers by more than 40% leading to a loss of over 10,000 retailers in a very short span of time, claims the report.

The discontinuation of the Vivo V7 and V7+ in India could be due to the uninspiring performance of these smartphones in the country. Lately, we have been coming across leaked renders of an upcoming Vivo smartphone with a very high screen-to-body ratio. We can expect this smartphone to be one of two new devices those are expected to be launched in India in the near future.

Vivo V7 Plus First Impressions

Notably, Vivo has not come up with an official confirmation regarding the discontinuation of these smartphones or the launch of the two new smartphones as the speculation.

Best Mobiles in India

Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow NotificationsNATO Defense Ministers Approve New Alliance Commands

By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 2018  NATO defense ministers have approved plans to form two new alliance commands, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said today in Brussels.

The secretary general spoke at a news conference at the end of the first day of the NATO defense ministerial.

The ministers approved plans to modernize the NATO command structure. The alliance command structure allows the 29 member nations to operate in sync and perform missions and operations as an alliance.

"At the end of the Cold War, NATO had 22,000 staff working in 33 commands," Stoltenberg said. "Today, the command structure is reduced to fewer than 7,000 staff in seven commands."

The threat emanating from Russia, out-of-area operations and concerns about the alliance's southern flank mean NATO must respond, the secretary general said.

The changes will place greater focus on maritime security; logistics and military mobility; and cyber defense.

New Commands

"We will establish a new joint force command for the Atlantic, to help protect sea lines of communication between North America and Europe," Stoltenberg said. "We will establish a new support command for logistics, reinforcement and military mobility -- improving the movement of troops and equipment is essential to our collective deterrence and defense."

The U.S. has volunteered to house the joint force command and Germany has offered to host the logistics command.

NATO will designate some additional land component commands in Europe. "We will also set up a new cyber operations center at our military headquarters  to further strengthen our defenses," the secretary general said.

The next move is for defense ministers to decide on the timelines, locations and staffing for the headquarters. Stoltenberg expects those decisions in June.

Defense ministers also discussed burden-sharing. "We all agreed that we have made great progress but there is still much work to be done," he said.

At the Wales Summit in 2014, the allies agreed to spend 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense. "In other words: more cash, capabilities and contributions," he said.

After years of decline, the alliance has seen three years of increased defense spending across Europe and Canada. This amounts to an additional $46 billion.

"In 2014, only three allies spent 2 percent of GDP or more on defense," Stoltenberg said. "This year, we expect eight allies to meet or exceed the target. And by 2024, we expect at least 15 allies will spend 2 percent of GDP or more on defense."

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Taiwan asserts sovereignty over Diaoyutais following Japan's directive

ROC Central News Agency

2018/02/14 23:07:50

Taipei, Feb. 14 (CNA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Wednesday reaffirmed the Republic of China's sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands, following reports that students in Japan will be taught that the disputed island group are an integral part of Japanese territory.

"The Diaoyutai Islands are part of the Republic of China's territory," MOFA Spokesman Andrew Lee () said. "That is the government's unwavering stance on the issue." He said the Taiwan government is urging that peace and stability in the region be maintained.

"We call on all parties concerned to settle the dispute by peaceful means and avoid unilateral actions that will escalate tensions," Lee told CNA.

Lee's statement came after Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported that the Japanese government has amended its textbook guidelines, asking high school teachers of history and geography to teach that the Senkaku Islands - as they are called in Japan - and Takeshima, or Korea's Dokdo island, are an integral part of Japanese territory.

Korean authorities have expressed regret over Japan's decision, and have demanded an immediate reversal of the directive, according to Yonhap. China also claims sovereignty over the uninhabited Diaoyutai Islands that lie 170 km northeast of Taiwan, which it calls the Diaoyus.

(By Elaine Hou and S.C. Chang)

Enditem/pc

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Belgium joins Allied effort to deliver air-to-air refueling capacity

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

14 Feb. 2018

On Wednesday (14 February 2018), Belgium joined a multinational effort to acquire a European multinational fleet of Airbus multirole tankertransport (MRTT) aircraft. At a signing ceremony at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Defence Ministers from Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway celebrated Belgium's official accession to this effort.

The initiative has been supported by NATO and the European Union. It is an example of effective cooperation between the two organizations when delivering critical capabilities for its members.

Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller said: "Increasing our ability to keep our planes flying - for longer periods and farther distances - has a direct bearing on our ability to defend our citizens and our territories."

The project was launched in July 2016 through an order of two Airbus A330 MRTT aircraft by the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and has expanded steadily. With Belgium joining, the multinational fleet will now grow to eight aircraft, which are scheduled for delivery between 2020 and 2024. The aircraft can be configured for air-to-air refuelling, the transport of passengers and cargo, as well as medical evacuation missions. The multinational fleet will be operated from a Main Operating Base in Eindhoven (Netherlands) and a Forward Operating Base in Cologne (Germany).

This multinational fleet arrangement will substantially increase European capacity in air-to-air refueling and reduce the over-reliance on the United States in this area. It remains open to other participants.

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China, ASEAN to begin consultation on Code of Conduct in South China Sea in March

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 11:23, February 14, 2018

MANILA, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will start consultation on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea in early March, according to a consultative meeting between China and the Philippines on Tuesday.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou and Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Enrique Manalo held the second meeting of the Bilateral Consultation Mechanism on the South China Sea (BCM) in Manila on Tuesday.

"With the objective of maintaining and promoting peace and stability in the region, both sides discussed ways to manage and prevent incidents at sea, promote dialogue and cooperation on maritime issues, and enhance mutual trust and confidence," said a statement issued after the one-day meeting, adding they "had a positive, fruitful and productive meeting."

The technical working groups identified a number of possible cooperative initiatives that can be explored in the future, with both sides reaffirming that contentious maritime issues are not the sum total of the China-Philippines relationship.

"Both sides reaffirmed the importance of maintaining and promoting peace and stability, freedom of navigation in and overflight above the South China Sea, freedom of international commerce and other peaceful uses of the sea, addressing territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means, without resorting to the threat or use of force, through friendly consultations and negotiations by sovereign states directly concerned, in accordance with universally recognized principles of international law, including the Charter of the United Nations and the 1982 UNCLOS," the statement said.

UNCLOS refers to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

It said both sides also agreed to continue discussions on confidence-building measures to increase mutual trust and confidence, and exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities in the South China Sea that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability.

"There were intensive discussions on mutually beneficial joint initiatives and consensus on the convening of technical working groups in the areas of fisheries, oil and gas, marine scientific research and marine environmental protection, and political security, in the framework of the BCM," it said.

Both sides highlighted the importance of the BCM as a consultation mechanism that would continue to contribute to the stable growth of bilateral relations.

Taking off from the discussions during the inaugural meeting of the BCM in May 2017 in China's southwestern city of Guiyang, it said both sides had a frank, cordial exchange of views on issues of concern on the South China Sea during the meeting.

Both sides "had productive exchange of views on ways to strengthen cooperation in areas such as marine environmental protection, fisheries, marine scientific research, and oil and gas, without prejudice to their respective positions on sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction."

The third meeting of the BCM will be held in China in the second half of 2018.

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UK seeks to grab attention with planned South China Sea mission: China

Iran Press TV

Wed Feb 14, 2018 06:49AM

A leading Chinese newspaper has criticized Britain's decision to sail one of its warships through the disputed South China Sea next month.

Media reports said on Wednesday that British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson had said in remarks published a day earlier during a visit to Australia that the UK was to send a warship through the South China Sea to assert Britain's purported right to freedom of navigation.

Chinese newspaper The Global Times reacted on Wednesday, saying Britain was trying to grab attention by sending the military ship to the South China Sea, where territory is disputed between China and smaller neighbors, including Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

The widely read state-run tabloid demanded that British officials state clearly the objective of the mission.

"If not provocation, the Royal Navy should behave modestly when passing through the South China Sea," it said in editorials published in its English and Chinese-language editions. "By acting tough against China, Britain's Ministry of Defense is trying to validate its existence and grab attention."

The paper went on to question Britain's military and financial power, asking whether the Royal Navy could actually complete the tour, considering budget cuts and problems with a new aircraft carrier that has a leak.

"As the Royal Navy has been hit by news such as a leaky aircraft carrier and the UK government has a tight budget, it appears a difficult mission for the Royal Navy to come all this way to provoke China," it wrote.

China has repeatedly accused countries outside the region  the United States in particular  of trying to stir tensions in the South China Sea and exploit territorial disputes by sending warships there under the pretext of exercising self-proclaimed freedom of navigation rights.

This is while Beijing has been involved in peaceful diplomacy with its neighbors to address the territorial disputes.

Billions of dollars in trade commodities pass through the South China Sea each year.

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Afghanistan's Neighbors Pledge Cooperation On Security

RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan February 14, 2018

NATO's Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan says regional military chiefs vowed to cooperation in the fight against terrorism and the narcotics trade during a two-day conference in Kabul.

Mission spokesman Captain Tom Gresback told RFE/RL on February 14 that the defense officials from Central and South Asian countries "reiterated their commitment to fighting terrorism throughout the region and discuss ways of working together to counter drug trafficking and other cross-border security concerns."

Participating nations in the February 12-13 gathering included Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and the United States.

"We have the shared interest of preventing Afghanistan from ever again becoming a safe haven for terrorism," said the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, according to a statement by the Resolute Support mission.

"There will be no safe haven for any terrorist group," Nicholson also said. "We continue to strike them wherever we find them. We continue to hunt them across the country."

Those attending the meeting also included the chief of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), General Joseph Votel, and Pakistan's chief of army staff, General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

Pakistan has been under increasing pressure from both Afghan and U.S. officials to take action against militants operating in the country. Islamabad denies harboring militant groups that carry out attacks in Afghanistan.

"I believe that at last Pakistan will bow to international pressure and will join the fight against terrorism," Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Daulat Waziri said on February 13.

Meanwhile in Brussels, the U.S. ambassador to NATO called on Pakistan to "work with the United States, with NATO to stop the treacherous activities of the Taliban."

The Western-backed government in Kabul has been struggling to fend off the Taliban and other militant groups since the withdrawal of most NATO troops in 2014.

Afghanistan is also the world's top producer of the poppy from which opium and heroin are produced.

In a report released in November, the Afghan Ministry of Counternarcotics and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said opium production in the country increased by 87 percent to a "record level" of 9,000 tons last year, compared with 2016 levels.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-neighbors- pledge-cooperation-on-security/29039494.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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NATO Says More Members Plan To Reach Spending Goal By 2024

RFE/RL February 14, 2018

Fifteen of NATO's 29 members have laid out plans to meet the alliance's defense spending goal by 2024, overall increasing spending by $46 billion, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.

"This is substantial progress, and a good start," he said on February 13 ahead of a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels this week. "After years of decline, since 2014 we have seen three years of increasing defense spending across European allies and Canada."

Stoltenberg's comments come as U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is expected to pressure U.S. allies in Europe to increase military spending to levels targeted by NATO, fulfilling a key commitment sought by U.S. President Donald Trump.

NATO has set a goal of each member spending 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense, but until recently only a few of NATO's 29 members met that target.

Stoltenberg said that in 2014, only three allies met the goal, but the number has increased to eight this year. The increase in the last four years has added $19 billion to spending on weapons and equipment for the alliance, he said.

An additional seven NATO members have laid out plans to meet the goal by 2024, he said.

"This should lead to significant improvements in our forces and their readiness," he said, "but we still have a long way to go."

According to NATO, Britain, Greece, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have met the 2 percent goal, while France and Turkey are among the countries set to reach it soon.

France is envisioning a dramatic increase in spending of more than one-third by 2025. But important NATO members remain far short of the goal.

A large projected increase in military spending by Germany will not be enough to take Berlin up to 2 percent by 2024. Spain, Belgium, and Italy also have said they will not meet the target by 2024.

Trump has since taking office last year pushed hard for greater burden-sharing by Europe and Canada. The United States for decades has borne the biggest defense budgets and accounted for the lion's share of NATO spending.

U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison said on February 13 that Washington will continue to push for higher spending by NATO partners.

"We talk 2 percent, but that's because in the overall, that is what we need to have the capabilities and the ability to withstand any kind of threat," Hutchinson said.

Mattis is also expected to take a tough stance at the NATO gathering, said Katie Wheelbarger, principal U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.

"He will address those who don't have national plans to meet 2 percent and suggest they really need to develop those plans," she told reporters on February 13.

U.S. officials say Trump set an example this week by proposing a $1.7 billion increase in U.S. military spending in Europe in his 2019 budget.

With reporting by dpa and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/fifteen-of-29-nato-members-meet- defense-spending-goal-2-percent-gdp-by-2024- stoltenberg-says-mattis-pressure- brussels-meeting/29038749.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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Kosovo's President Criticizes International War Crimes Court

RFE/RL's Balkan Service February 14, 2018

Kosovo's president has called an international war crimes court with jurisdiction over potential Kosovar suspects a "historical injustice" and said the government only reluctantly accepted it as the "price for its liberty."

Hashim Thaci, speaking to the Associated Press on February 14 ahead of the 10th anniversary of Kosovo declaring independence from Serbia, criticized the Netherlands-based court, saying it was akin to establishing a tribunal to judge Jews who were persecuted by the Nazis in World War II.

"Kosovo held a defensive war for its existence as a nation and attacked no one," he said. "We have nothing to hide."

Kosovo's bloody war for independence ended with a 78-day NATO air campaign in June 1999, which curbed a bloody Serbian offensive against ethnic Albanian separatists. The war left 13,000 dead and 20,000 Albanian women raped, according to Thaci.

Under U.S. and European pressure, Kosovo's government agreed in 2015 to set up the Kosovo war crimes court, known as the Special Chambers, to confront allegations that fighters with the Kosovo Liberation Army committed war crimes against ethnic Serbs from 1998 to 2000. The court, located in The Hague, has yet to hear any cases.

U.S Ambassador to Kosovo Greg Delawie said on February 14 the court was meant to provide justice to the victims.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008, and was recognized by 115 countries but not Serbia.

With reporting by AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/kosovo-president-thaci- attacks-war-crimes-court/29040035.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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South African President Zuma Offers Resignation

Sputnik News

23:53 14.02.2018(updated 00:30 15.02.2018)

In a speech on Wednesday, South African President Jacob Zuma announced his resignation effective immediately after losing the support of his party, the African National Congress (ANC). He has been president since May 2009, but has been significantly pressured to resign under allegations of corruption.

Zuma, the fourth president of the young republic, announced his resignation (with protest) after a 30-minute speech. He is the second president of South Africa to resign. In the past, the 75-year-old Zuma has been referred to as "The Teflon President" for constantly being embroiled in corruption scandals but holding onto his power, and the support of the dominant ANC.

But he lost that support earlier in February, when ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa publicly stated that the ANC would hold a vote of no confidence on Thursday.

"It is now public knowledge that the ANC resolved to recall me as the president of the republic," Zuma said during his resignation speech. "I have now been compelled to resign after a promise for a vote of no confidence [in the National Assembly] tomorrow."

"The ANC is indeed the party on whose nomination I became a candidate for the presidency it was on the ANC's nomination that I was later elected by the majority in the National Assembly as the president of the republic. I am forever indebted to the ANC, the liberation movement, which I've served almost all my life. I respect each member and leader of this glorious movement. I respect its gallant fight against sanctuaries of white minority brutality whose relics remain today and continue to be entrenched in all manner of sophisticated ways in order to ensure the continued survival of white privilege."

"I was also elected in terms of section 86 of the constitution, and from that moment pledged my loyalty to the constitution of the Republic of South Africa it has been a mammoth task, one that can never be done without difficulty and learning along the way. None of us, no matter how perfect, can claim that the building of a new society and the marshaling of a liberation movement into a political party is a straightforward task."

"All my life, I've served and will continue to serve the ANC in pursuit of the objectives of the national democratic revolution. I've served within the prism of our much-acclaimed constitution, whose foundation of values I've fully subscribed to. I understand fully that while I serve at the pleasure of my party, the ANC I [ultimately] serve the people through the National Assembly."

"We tend to place the political party above the supreme law of the country, which is the rulebook of the country's political engagement. I do not make this reference because I am above reproach. Nor do I wish to proclaim that my understanding of my political responsibilities, I have been the epitome of integrity. If truth be told, none of us are. However, I respect the prescripts of the constitution and how we stay in and exit political office."

"There has been much speculation about how the president of the republic should exit his or her office I did not agree to leave with perks and benefits as my capacity as president. It is my party that availed me to serve on the basis of the constitution as the supreme law of the land. Make no mistake, no leader should stay beyond the time determined by the people they serve. Most importantly, no leader should seek an easy way out simply because they could not face life without the perks that come with their political office."

"I do not fear exiting political office I've served the people of South Africa to the best of my ability. I am forever grateful that they entrusted me with the highest office of the land." However, Zuma added that he wished to be presented with a list of transgressions that would detail why he was being asked to leave office.

 Sputnik

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Chinese Paper Says British Navy is Only Attention Seeking Over South China Plan

Sputnik News

20:33 14.02.2018

Plans by Britain to sail a Royal Navy warship through the disputed South China Sea later this year is merely an attention-seeking exercise, according to China's state media that could have potentially damaging trade implications between the two countries.

China has now responded to the news that the UK plans to sail its anti-submarine Type 23 frigate, HMS Sutherland, will make the passage on her return from Australia later this year to assert freedom of navigation rights and challenge Beijing's increasing dominance in the region.

In an article in the widely read state-run tabloid Global Times, published in its English and Chinese-language editions, it warned: "If not provocation, the Royal Navy should behave modestly when passing through the South China Sea. By acting tough against China, Britain's Ministry of Defense is trying to validate its existence and grab attention."

The editorial continued: "As the Royal Navy has been hit by news such as a leaky aircraft carrier and the UK government has a tight budget, it appears a difficult mission for the Royal Navy to come all this way to provoke China.

Am i seriously reading people suggesting that China will sink HMS Sutherland, and moreover that it is what the UK government wants as a "distraction" from Brexit? Seriously? Do you guys really exist?

Freedom of navigation in South China Sea is not a problem. If HMS Sutherland sails through the South China Sea without provocation, Chinese will have no objection to its passage.

Speaking of Britain's controversial plan, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang reasserted China's insistence that its territorial claims do not conflict with international law when it comes to freedom of navigation and overflight.

"Thanks to the concerted efforts by China and littoral countries in the South China Sea, there is no problem with freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea at all," Geng said on Tuesday, February 13, adding he hoped "relevant sides don't try to create trouble out of nothing".

Mr. Williamson has not revealed, however, whether Sutherland would, in fact, sail within 12 nautical miles of any of the islands claimed by China. Such cruises, known as freedom of navigation operations, have routinely drawn protests from Beijing.

He signalled support for the United States approach, however, that has resulted in the country sending navy destroyers within the 12-mile marker of territorial waters. After one such freedom of navigation operation last summer China said it was a "serious political and military provocation".

Speaking on Australia's ABC network on Tuesday, February 13, the UK defence chief said: "It's very important that we demonstrate that these are seas anyone can pass through and we'll be making sure that the Royal Navy will protect those rights for international shipping.

"We've got to ensure that any form of malign intent is countered and we see increasing challenges  it's not just from China, it's from Russia, it's from Iran  and we've got to be constantly making sure that our security measures, our critical national infrastructure is protected," he said.

During his trip to Oz, Mr. Williamson, said the United States could "only concentrate on so many things at once." He added: "The U.S. is looking for other countries to do more. This is a great opportunity for the U.K. and Australia to do more, to exercise leadership."

China and five other governments all claim territory in the South China Sea, home to vital sea lanes, rich fishing grounds and a potential wealth of undersea oil and gas. Along with building and militarizing its artificial islands, China in 2016 rejected an international tribunal's ruling that largely invalidated its claims and has steadily increased naval missions and aerial patrols in the area.

Despite the foreign ministry's relatively mild comments, the British navy's actions could cause a rift in relations and lead to economic retaliation from Beijing, according to Shi Yinhong, professor of international relations at Beijing's Renmin University.

China has long touted what it calls a "golden era" in ties with Britain, and two weeks ago hosted a visit from British Prime Minister Theresa May. "If this happens, it would be really serious," Shi said. "The relationship between China and Britain will be significantly harmed for a period of time."

 Sputnik

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Canada Rejoins NATO Airborne Warning and Control System Program  Armed Forces

Sputnik News

18:19 14.02.2018

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Canada has decided to participate in a NATO airborne early warning system six years after a strategic review prompted the nation to announce it was pulling out of the program, Canadian Armed Forces announced in a press release on Wednesday.

"NATO is a cornerstone of Canada's international security policy and today the government announced its intention to rejoin to the Alliance's Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) program," the release said.

Canada decided to withdraw from the AWACS program in 2011 following the Department of National Defense's 2010 Strategic Review. At the time, Canada characterized the decision as a cost-cutting move.

NATO operates a fleet of Boeing E-3 AWACS aircraft, which provide the alliance with airborne command and control (C2), air and maritime surveillance and battle-space management capability, a NATO website said.

The aircraft was heavily involved in fighting against the Daesh terrorist group (banned in Russia) in Syria and Iraq, according to NATO.

 Sputnik

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MOD submits final Typhoon proposal to Belgium

The UK Ministry of Defence has today submitted its final Eurofighter Typhoon offer to Belgium.

14 February 2018

The proposal comes with the full support of the governments of the four Eurofighter nations - Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK - as partners in Europe's largest collaborative military aircraft programme.

The proposal includes 34 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, underpinned by the offer of a deep strategic, defence and industrial partnership between the Governments of Belgium and the UK.

Speaking in Brussels, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

"These proven jets offer Belgium a formidable capability which forms the backbone of European air power, as well as a comprehensive long-term defence and industrial partnership with the UK. A unique partnership with the RAF and integration with our world-leading support service mean Belgium's selection of the Typhoon would be a powerful demonstration of us working together to support security across the continent in the face of intensifying threats."

Speaking at the press conference in-country, Air Vice Marshal Keith Bethell said:

"Our world-class Typhoon has led the way in combat air power and this demonstrates the continued confidence in the capability the Typhoon has to offer. With more than 20,000 flying hours on global operations to date, the Typhoon offers unparalleled reliability and proven interoperability with our allies"

As well as the jets, the UK are offering Belgium the opportunity to benefit from the RAF's experience of over ten years operating the Typhoon, and to further strengthen over 70 years of co-operation between the two forces. It proposes integration with the RAF's Typhoon support arrangements which is considered the most cost-effective next generation combat aircraft support service. The proposal also includes a comprehensive package including a training partnership which would see personnel from Belgium and the UK jointly train and exercise together.

The UK MOD is leading the proposal on behalf of the Eurofighter Typhoon partner nations and companies. The invitation from Belgium to submit a final offer demonstrates the strong confidence in the jet. The proposal to Belgium represents the most inclusive international equipment partnership presented to another European partner by the Eurofighter Typhoon programme.

The proposal also offers Belgium the opportunity to establish a National Network Cyber Centre, a Cyber Innovation Centre and a Cyber Research Partnership, all underpinned by a partnership between the UK and Belgian governments.

As 'the true European solution to meet Belgium's Air Combat Capability Program', the selection of the Typhoon would also act as a catalyst for greater aerospace and defence industrial cooperation across Europe. There would be opportunities for Belgian industry to work more closely with the Eurofighter Typhoon industrial partners which include some of Europe's largest defence companies. Through closer industrial cooperation Belgium and Belgian industry would also be positioned for partnership in the development of next generation combat air capabilities.

The Typhoon is a highly capable, combat proven, air defence and ground attack aircraft with full swing-role capabilities. In addition to supporting RAF operations protecting the UK in the skies above Britain and globally, the Typhoon has already been purchased by nine nations around the world. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson was in Qatar at the end of last year to witness Qatar's purchase of 24 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft which will help sustain thousands of jobs in the UK and across Europe.

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Afghan Taliban Pen Open Letter to Americans, Call for Dialogue

By Ayaz Gul February 14, 2018

The Taliban, in an "open letter" to the American people has called for dialogue to end the prolonged Afghan war, claiming increased U.S. military airstrikes have not "retaken even a single inch of land" from the insurgency.

Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, released copies of the 10-page document Wednesday in several languages, detailing insurgent gains and so-called failures of the "illegitimate" U.S.-led invasion, now in its 17th year.

The insurgent group has written the letter with the hope American people, independent groups and "the peace loving Congressmen" will read it "prudently" to evaluate the future of their military mission in Afghanistan.

The U.S. undertook the "felonious act" to eliminate the "single unified" Taliban and al-Qaida, but it "merely paved the way for anarchy" and emergence of multiple groups in the country, the letter alleged. It apparently was referring to, among others, the rise of Islamic State in the country.

Loyalists of the Middle East-based terrorist groups have lately increased attacks in parts of the country, particularly in the eastern and northern provinces.

The insurgent letter also cited recent U.N. surveys to note record levels of opium-poppy production in Afghanistan, saying it is fueling insecurity, though U.S. officials estimate 65 percent of Taliban funding comes from the illegal narcotics trade.

The Taliban reiterated U.S. and Coalition countries have lost thousands of their citizens and spent billions of dollars to establish a legitimate Afghan government, but their efforts have instead led to a politically divided and financially corrupt ruling system in the country.

"If you want peaceful dialogue with the Afghans specifically, and with the world generally, then make your president and the war-mongering congressmen and Pentagon officials understand this reality and compel them to adopt a rational policy towards Afghanistan," the letter said.

The Taliban has released the letter at time when the United States has stepped up airstrikes in support of anti-insurgent ground and air operations by Afghan forces under President Donald Trump's new war strategy to break the military stalemate with the Taliban and push insurgents to the negotiating table.

During a visit this week to eastern Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, who commands the U.S. and NATO's Resolute Support mission in the country, said the intensified offensive is yielding results.

"The success of the Afghan operations around the country, supported by Resolute Support and U.S. forces, has caused the enemy high casualties everywhere. This has caused them to stop their attempts to seize provincial capitals, to stop trying to seize districts," Nicholson said.

The American general asserted a recent wave of Taliban suicide bombings against Afghan civilians stemmed from insurgent battlefield setbacks and losses.

The Taliban's letter, however, questioned those assertions.

"Only in past September  in accordance with Trump's new strategy  American forces used all their new powers and carried out 751 airstrikes. You should ask your generals that despite using such force, have you retaken even a single inch of land from the Taliban, or have they become even more powerful."

The insurgent group insisted the presence of American forces in Afghanistan and the "inexperienced policies of President Trump and his warmonger advisers" will mean more hostility for and beyond the region.

The Taliban has long wanted direct talks with Washington, saying they are the final authority to determine the fate of the war and dismissing Afghan rulers as "mere American puppets."

U.S. officials maintain any peace process involving insurgents has to be initiated under the leadership of the Kabul government and within the Afghan constitution, requiring the Taliban to renounce violence and ties with al-Qaida terrorists.

The Afghan government has not commented on the Taliban letter.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has been calling on insurgents to engage in a peace process to end the war. But in the aftermath of deadly bombings in Kabul late last month, Ghani vowed not to engage in talks with those who publicly took credit for plotting the violence.

Afghan ambassador to Washington, Hamdullah Mohib, has claimed the Taliban's open letter is an admission of defeat and a "face saving" attempt to seek a "truce."

The Afghan government has always had an "open arms approach" to peace talks and it will be happy to "reintegrate all those Taliban that repent their actions and seek forgiveness from the Afghan people for their atrocities," wrote Mohib on his official Twitter account.

The attacks, including a suicide car bombing, targeted the Intercontinental hotel in the Afghan capital and the city's old interior ministry building, killing around 140 people, mostly civilians. The hotel attack also left at least four Americans dead.

Taliban spokesman Mujahid claimed responsibility for both the attacks, saying they were aimed at Afghan and U.S. security personnel.

The violence has since fueled anger against the Taliban in Kabul and prompted Trump to close doors for peace talks with the insurgents.

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As Nigeria's Regional Task Force Strengthens, Pressure Mounts on Boko Haram

By Salem Solomon, Salihu Garba February 14, 2018

On February 2, more than two dozen Boko Haram fighters emerged from a hideout in Sambisa Forest and surrendered to authorities. Their defections were a key victory for Nigerian forces and regional allies in their battle against the diminished, but still deadly, terrorist group.

Maj. Gen. Rogers Nicholas of the Nigerian Army told VOA's Hausa service that he believes there are more defections to come.

"Now they have repented. They surrendered voluntarily. They are now with us. We have provided them with clothes to wear, food to eat and drugs for their health," said Nicholas, the theater commander for Operation Lafiya Dole, Nigeria's effort to defeat Boko Haram.

"We will hand them over to the state government to decide what to do next. We are calling on those still hiding in the forest to come out and surrender. We will accept them and take care of them," he said.

One of the defectors said he and the other fighters were struggling with a lack of food, water and medical supplies.

"We were just suffering in the bush. Thank God we were accepted by the authorities and provided for. I want to call on those still in the forest to come out and surrender with their weapons. Nothing would happen to them," the fighter told VOA.

But lasting peace has been elusive in the fight against Boko Haram. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and top officials have declared the group defeated multiple times, only to see more attacks. The group killed more than 900 people in 2017, a slight increase from the previous year, according to BBC Monitoring. They remain among the most deadly terrorist groups on the continent.

Hit and run terrorists

Vincent Foucher, senior consultant for the International Crisis Group, recently returned from a research trip to northeast Nigeria and said the group is weakened but still dangerous.

"Boko Haram has basically gone rural," he said, pointing to marshy areas in and around Lake Chad and mountainous areas along the border with Cameroon as the group's strongholds. "They don't seek anymore to control large chunks of territory. They just go for hit and run. They mix guerilla and terrorism basically. And they are still there."

Foucher said life inside Maiduguri, the largest city in Borno State, has mostly returned to normal, with busy commerce and significant activity by nongovernmental organizations. Other cities in the northeast have been turned into garrison towns with trenches dug around them for protection, he said.

"The military are, you know, a bit more corrosive  are sort of trying to push people to flock to those towns to sort of control what's going on. This is classical counterinsurgency policy," said Foucher. "You want to take the water away from the fish, as the saying goes."

Foucher said the Nigerian Army has made some advances in counterinsurgency through its specially trained mobile strike teams and via air strikes. He said he also is heartened to see the Nigerian Army taking claims of abuse or human rights violations seriously, and in some cases, issuing court-martials to those suspected of crimes.

Regional cooperation

Perhaps most significantly, the Multinational Joint Task Force has made gains. The 10,000-person force is headquartered in N'Djamena, Chad, with regional bases in the four countries surrounding Lake Chad. In addition to the affected nations of Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon, Benin also contributes troops to the effort.

The task force marks a major step forward in regional military cooperation, Foucher said, with bilateral missions, intelligence sharing and countries granting permission for neighboring forces to cross borders in pursuit of Boko Haram fighters.

"It's not perfect, but the level of cooperation, actually, between the four countries, whether in the framework of MNJTF or whether actually outside  there are also some bilateral links that are working, and it is actually quite remarkable," he said.

The task force embodies the ideal of "African solutions to African problems," an often-cited approach to tackling military, political and societal issues without relying too heavily on Western support.

"I think, for once, an African regional security mechanism that is building, you know, that is not just a mimicry of what Europe has been trying to do," Foucher said. "It is really based on a need that states feel for some sort of coordination, so it's an interesting thing."

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South African President Zuma Resigns

By Anita Powell February 14, 2018

South African President Jacob Zuma has resigned after more than a week of intense pressure from his party to step down.

With just an hour left ahead of a Wednesday midnight deadline to resign or face a no-confidence vote, Zuma finally did what he swore he would not do: He quit.

Had he not done so, he would have faced what was likely to be an embarrassing, messy no-confidence vote in parliament Thursday, bolstered by the African National Congress, the party that brought him into the presidency in 2009.

On Tuesday, the party recalled him, a move they expected to provoke his immediate resignation. When that didn't happen, ANC lawmakers lobbied for a planned no-confidence vote to be moved earlier, to Thursday.

Zuma rendered that unnecessary in his 20-minute address to the nation.

"I have, therefore, come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect," he said. "Even though I disagree with the decision of the leadership of my organization, I have always been a disciplined member of the ANC. As I leave, I will continue to serve the people of South Africa as well as the ANC, the organization I have served all of my life, in it."

However, he retained the tone of defiance he had exhibited earlier in the day, when he accused the party of being "unfair."

"I do not fear exiting political office," he said. "However, I have only asked my party to articulate my transgressions and the reason for its immediate instruction that I vacate office. This was important in view of the discussions I had with the president of the ANC and the secretary-general of the party that were aimed at uniting our organization, the ANC."

ANC response

The ANC welcomed the resignation and thanked Zuma for his nine years as president.

Zuma's final presidential term was set to end in mid-2019. The ANC leadership has argued in the past week, though, that he needed to leave sooner. The party has lost ground in recent elections, largely due to Zuma's growing unpopularity.

ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte praised Zuma's efforts in bringing key developments to the nation still riven by inequality less than three decades after the end of apartheid.

"While we acknowledge mistakes that may have been committed, President Zuma leaves a legacy of delivery in many critical areas," she said.

Duarte also encouraged lawmakers to support Zuma's deputy and successor as leader of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa. Parliament has said they hope to swear-in a new president by Friday morning at the latest, and have the new leader deliver the State of the Nation address Friday night.

Corruption scandals

But Zuma also leaves behind bitterness and many questions. Zuma had maintained that the ANC has never told him what he did wrong to deserve a recall from his party or a no-confidence vote.

When asked directly after his resignation, Duarte did not specify what Zuma's "mistakes" may have been. But for years, Zuma has been mired in ever deeper, ever wider corruption scandals. For years, members of the party  including Duarte  vociferously defended him in the face of criticism and against eight no-confidence votes in parliament.

But those allegations are threatening to be resurrected in court, and make a quiet retirement unlikely for Zuma: He could face numerous corruption investigations, including a pending case that includes 783 charges of corruption.

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Hailemariam Desalegn

Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced 15 February 2018 that he had submitted his letter of resignation as prime minister and chairman of the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) party. The government had released thousands of opposition supporters from jail, but the protests have continued. The country had witnessed repeated violent clashes since 2015, with protesters calling for political and economic reform and an end to state corruption. Some of Ethiopia's powerful elites had come to see the prime minister as weak and lacking in direction. The resignation followed a reshuffle in ruling party that began in November 2017 and sidelined a number of senior members, including the widow of former prime minister Meles Zenawi.

Lemma Megersa, the charismatic new leader of the Oromo Peoples Democratic Organisation, was the clear favourite among Oromos to lead the EPRDF coalition. Others propose that Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen should take the helm, at least until national elections in 2020. Workneh Gebeyehu, the foreign minister who is an Oromo, was mentioned as a candidate for Prime Minister. This might placate some of the Oromo who believed Ethiopia should to be led an Oromo. But many Oromos saw him as too close to the TPLF, and the security services.

Hailemariam said that he decided to resign from both posts so as to contribute to the ongoing efforts towards bringing solution to the current situation in the country. The Premier noted in his speech that people have been displaced and injured, as well as investment and properties are damaged due to the recent unrest. Hailemariam believed that his resignation was important to carry out reforms that lead to sustainable peace and democracy. Hailemariam was the titular head of the party and government, but real power was in the hands of Tigrean subordinates in the political, military, and intelligence services.

Hailemariam's position was described by analysts as that of a figurehead. The announcement was not entirely unexpected, as rumors that Hailemariam would step down after the ruling party congress in March 2018 were widespread. But the resignation came sooner than most had expected. Figures within the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) had been at odds, and mass protests in the country's restive Oromia region and elsewhere, calling for greater freedoms, had increased pressure on Hailemariam's government. Hailemariam is said to have tried to resign more than once over the previous year, though colleagues persuaded him to stay until the 2018 party congress,

After serving as deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, Hailemariam Desalegn was appointed prime minister of Ethiopia on 20 August 2012. Hailemariam Desalegn was the first Ethiopian prime minister to belong to his countrys neo-Protestant minority. It is worthy to note that, in a country dominated by major ethnic groups, Hailemariam Desalegn hails from the minority Wolaita people in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region.

Hailemariam Desalegn was born on July 19th, 1965, in Boloso Sore in southern Ethiopia. He took a BA in Civil Engineering at Addis Ababa University, an MSc in Engineering at Tampere University of Technology, Finland, and MA in Organizational Leadership at Azusa Pacific University, California. Ato Hailemariam taught for 12 years at the Arbaminch Water Technology Institute where he held the positions of Registrar, Vice-Dean, and of Dean (1996-2000), and at Arbaminch University. He also attended courses on Training Approaches for Environmental Management in Industry (University of Mauritius) and Higher Education Management (University of Warwick, UK).

Ato Hailemariam served as President of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional States (2001-2006) and as Vice-President 2000-2001, and was a member of the SNNPR House of Representatives Council between 1995 and 2008. He was Chairman of the Southern Ethiopian Peoples Democratic Movement and Deputy Chairman and member of the Executive Council of the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front. Ato Hailemariam served as a Member of the House of Federation (1995-2008) and as Member of the House of Peoples Representatives since 2008.

He became Public Organization and Participation Advisor to the Prime Minister in October 2005. In early 2006 as ethnic tensions in southern Oromiya and the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR) began to erupt, the Sidamo people -- numbering roughly seven million -- began expressing frustration within the SEPDM and EPRDF about not having adequate representation in government. To placate the Sidamo, the federal government orchestrated the removal -- officially a resignation -- of ethnic Welayta SEPDM Chairman Hailemariam Desalegn as SNNPR Regional President in March 2006, allowing ethnic Sidamo SEPDM Politbureau member Shiferaw Shikute (alternate spelling "Shigute") to take over the post.

Hailemariam moved into the national political scene in 2006 and as adviser to Meles Zenawi, was appointed as the Government's Chief Whip in the House of Representatives. While Hailemariam's move to an Advisor position, with the rank of Minister, within the Prime Minister's Office in April 2006 and as EPRDF Chief Whip in Parliament in November 2008, maintained him in prominent positions, many Welayta allegedly still felt aggrieved by the TPLF for his 2006 removal from the regional presidency.

Hailemariam Desalegn, then chairman of the Southern Ethiopia People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM), argued in 2008 that due to poor education and illiteracy the Ethiopian public is too underdeveloped to make a well reasoned, informed decision, and so Revolutionary Democracy is the political bridge by which the "enlightened leaders" can lead the people to democracy.

He was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister in 2010.

Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn sustained economic progress in Ethiopia after the sudden death of his predecessor in 2012. Acting Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said the Government was ready to realize the dreams of the late Prime Minister Meles. He said the policies that helped the country contribute to peace in neighboring countries will continue to be strengthened. "Meles was a leader that established a strong developmental state; and he devoted his life to the peace and security of African continent especially the Horn of Africa," he said.

Prime Minister Hailemariam played a role in bolstering the peace process in old and new Sudan since he came to power in 2012. He visited both Sudan and South Sudan in in 2013, as part of the efforts to co-ordinate and facilitate face-to-face entente between the presidents of the two countries" and to encourage the two countries "to complete consultations on outstanding issues. He emphasized Ethiopia's strategic importance in ensuring the stability of the Horn of Africa with its soldiers remaining integral to the ongoing fight against Al-Shabaab in Somalia. Ethiopia joined AMISOM in January 2014 and AMISOM's presence in Somalia is playing a major role in the fight against Al-Shabaab and in helping the country to create an effective federal state as part of Somalia's Vision 2016.

Prime Minister Hailemariam's administration moved Ethiopia ahead in other sectors apart from regional security and international diplomacy. The bilateral and internal projects that are helping position Ethiopia as a major target for direct foreign investment in Africa. The Prime Minister led Ethiopia to partner Kenya in the ambitious 24.5 billion dollar Lamu Port Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor project, a project that includes a railway, highways, and an oil pipeline. This will provide the landlocked countries of Ethiopia and South Sudan with a new export pathway and reduce Kenya's dependence on the heavily congested port of Mombasa. Ethiopia was also partnering with Djibouti to sign an agreement for a $1.55 billion fuel pipeline. The framework agreements were signed in September 2015 for construction of the 550-kilometer (340-mile) line to transport diesel, gasoline and jet fuel from port access in Djibouti to central Ethiopia, a joint project construction scheduled for completion in two years.





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The Dangerous Illusion of "All the News that is Fit to Print"

February 13, 2018

In the mastering by the master of political spin to feed the beast of circulation, the New York Times editorial board serendipitously posted a distortion of illusion on their version of missile defense, the day prior to the release of the Presidential Budget Request to Congress for Fiscal Year 2019. This opinion piece used unsupported facts and mislaid them for sensationalism, blatant conjectures, false assumptions, and uneducated statements along with obvious misreporting. In these eleven paragraphs, the intent comes across that the United States is inept compared to North Korea, which has been headlined by the New York Times regularly for follow on successes from an abundance of failures in ballistic missile testing, and that current U.S. missile defenses are not a deterrent to North Korea and do not bring stability, thereby the United States should do nothing to defend ourselves but rely solely on diplomacy and sanctions.

Since North Korea flew its first ballistic missile over Japan in 1998, 20 years of sanctions and diplomacy have failed. North Korea does have nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, displayed just last week, with ranges of up to 8,000 miles to threaten, hold hostage, and strike the United States of America. Moreover, the nuclear and ballistic missile weapon systems from North Korea are much more a threat to the international community as a proliferator and a real contested threat to the U.S. allies in region, South Korea and Japan, who rely on their defense and stability from some of these same missile defense systems that the New York Times is doubting as effective and "riddled with flaws."

Taking a further examination of riddled flaws, the eleven paragraphs are skewed with dangerous illusions of missile defense desperate to distort the American public.

First Paragraph An unsupported anecdotal statement.

Third Paragraph  Shot doctrine and test record of the three GBI generations deployed today shows 97%, with five successful tests out of the last six tests using the configurations of GBIs deployed today defending the United States. No other nation in the world can defend themselves against an ICBM attack like the United States. No other nation in the world can protect their allies against ballistic missiles like the United States.

Fourth Paragraph  Ignores what was accomplished by this test; successful detection, tracking, engage on remote, functionality of the total system. Also looks over the fact this test was of the SM-3 Block IIA, which is a variant of the Standard Missile-3 family that is still under development in an attempt to smear the currently deployed SM-3 variants, SM-3 IA and SM-3 IB, that have had 13 successful intercepts in 15 tests and 8 successful intercepts in 10 tests respectively. The SM-3 program has more than 30 exo-atmospheric intercepts. Further, this SM-3 Block IIA and the other SM-3 interceptors are not reflective of homeland missile defense, since GMD is the only missile defense system to currently defend against long-range ballistic missile threats targeting the U.S. homeland. And to note one of the two failures of the SM-3 Block IIA was not a failure as the missile was directed to perform another function by a U.S. Sailor in flight. Sensitivities to Japan, who has invested half in the partnership to develop the SM-3 Block IIA and does not allow disclosure by the United States at this point on the failure of the last test.

Fifth Paragraph  Assumes the United States learns nothing and makes zero improvements on its testing. Although the headlines from news outlets around the world say North Korea learns and improves through failed testing. This is the reason why the United States tests and continue research and development with the goal to achieve a system with a high probability of intercept. These are sophisticated systems and the United States does not test to show off a simple perfect solution. The United States tests to put these systems in the most stressing and most realistic scenarios to push the limits of the systems. As of note, the last six GMD tests reflecting the configurations of the operational fleet of GBIs have been successful five of the six times because we have learned from previous failures.

Sixth Paragraph  Ignores the most recent Department of Defense's Director of Operation Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) report which characterizes the system as effective and suitable. "The Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) element has demonstrated capability to defend the U.S. Homeland from a small number of intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) or intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) threats with simple countermeasures when the Homeland Defense Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) employs it full sensors/command and control architecture."  FY2017 DOT&E Annual Report released on January 23, 2018.

Seventh Paragraph  North Korea gets credit for previous failures and follow on successes while the United States is static. North Korea has made great progress in their ballistic missile capabilities by not being afraid to test/fail/test/fail/test/succeed. Unlike North Korea, the United States is not testing to show that the systems work, the United States are testing to stress the systems and advance them.

Eight Paragraph  No credit for any improvements to the U.S. missile defense systems throughout the testing and development.

Ninth Paragraph  Predicting and assuming that the Missile Defense Review, which is not out yet, will be negative towards missile defense. Better results have already been achieved. The system has continuously and steadily improved in capability and reliability since the original test bed deployment.

Tenth Paragraph  Missile defense is always part of the deterrent and is inseparable from all of the other elements that add to deterrence, it does not act alone as the deterrent. The NYT omits that the Reagan Strategic Defense Initiative missile defense program and the United States investment in it was a significant contributor to the fall of the Soviet Union.

Eleventh Paragraph  Let's do nothing to defend our populations from nuclear ballistic missiles from North Korea and rely on tough sanctions from major powers that we have not been able to convince to do in 20 years. Missile defense systems allow an ability to negotiate from strength, not from weakness. Tightening up sanctions against North Korea could also potentially increase Kim Jong-un's motivation to strike.

Today, limited in capacity, U.S. missile defense systems are deployed and operational defending the 300 million plus of the United States population, 120 million plus of the Japanese population, and 80 million plus of the Republic of Korea population from North Korean ballistic missiles, providing stability and peace.

Without United States investment, testing, development and deployment of missile defense systems  Israel, Japan, South Korea, NATO, the GCC would not have current missile defense systems defending their countries and populations today.

Missile Defense makes the world a safer place.

Source: http://missiledefenseadvocacy.org/alert/the-dangerous- illusion-of-all-the-news-that-is-fit-to-print/

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Iran develops missile program as part of defensive doctrine: Leader's adviser

Iran Press TV

Wed Feb 14, 2018 06:54PM

A senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says Iran's development of missiles does not concern any countries as it is totally a matter of domestic policy.

Iran, like any other country, acts according to its conditions, and the manufacturing and development of missiles do not concern foreigners, Ali Akbar Velayati told reporters on Wednesday, after a meeting with European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman David McAllister in Tehran.

Emphasizing that each country chooses its own defense system in proportion to its needs, Velayati said missiles are "defensive means" in Iran's doctrine.

"To defend our country, we take measures to develop missiles in line with our national interests, and this is no business of foreigners and we do not allow others to interfere [in this issue]," he said.

Iranian officials have repeatedly warned that the country's missile program is not open to any negotiations amid efforts by the US specifically to link the Islamic Republic's missile program to the Iran nuclear deal that was reached between Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries in July 2015.

Washington has insisted that Iran's missile program be put under international surveillance. Tehran says it will not negotiate over the issue under any circumstances.

During his meeting with the EU official, Velayati also talked about Iran's policies in the Middle East and North Africa, saying the Islamic Republic sought cooperation with all regional countries to help establish stability, security and peace, and stressed that Tehran was opposed to any foreign meddling in the region.

He also highlighted Iran's contribution to the anti-terrorism battle, saying if it were not for Iran's support, Daesh would spread its militancy to many parts of the world.

Velayati also called on European countries to adopt "more independent policies" vis-a-vis the Middle East region.

For his part, McAllister praised Iran's active and cooperative foreign relations.

He also called for further cooperation between the Iranian and the European Parliament, saying the Iranian parliament could play an instrumental role in improving Iran-Europe relations.

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Iraq war against Daesh left 18,000 people dead, minister says

Iran Press TV

Wed Feb 14, 2018 06:19PM

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari says the war with the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group has killed 18,000 people since 2014.

Jafari said at a news conference on Wednesday that 36,000 people were also injured since the terrorist group began a terror campaign in Iraq in 2014.

He said the pledges made at an international aid conference to reconstruct Iraq were less than the amount needed.

The Kuwaiti capital is hosting an international conference aimed at raising funds for reconstructing the war-torn country.

World leaders and senior politicians attended the event, dubbed the Kuwait International Conference for Reconstruction of Iraq.

Speaking at the same press conference, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres hailed the conference "an enormous success".

Iraq is seeking $88.2 billion in aid from donors to fund its reconstruction efforts.

Daesh unleashed a campaign of death and terror in Iraq in 2014, overrunning vast swathes in lightning attacks. Iraqi army soldiers and allied fighters then launched operations to eliminate Daesh and retake lost territory.

It took over three years for Iraqi armed forces to fully liberate the country's territory from the clutches of Daesh terrorists.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over the Takfiri outfit in December 2017.



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Netanyahu Says Government Stable Despite Bribery Scandal

By Robert Berger February 14, 2018

Israel's longtime leader is defiant in the face of a deepening corruption scandal that has sparked calls for his resignation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his coalition government is stable, a day after police recommended his indictment in two corruption cases.

He described the allegations as "biased, extreme, and full of holes like Swiss cheese" and vowed to remain in office.

Police accuse Netanyahu of bribery and breach of trust in two corruption cases and say there is sufficient evidence to indict him. Police investigators allege Netanyahu accepted nearly $300,000 in gifts from two billionaires, including fine Cuban cigars, champagne and jewelry. He also allegedly bargained with an Israeli newspaper publisher for more positive news coverage. Police say that in exchange, he promised to advance the interests of his benefactors.

Israeli opposition leaders are demanding Netanyahu's resignation, saying he is corrupt and unfit to lead the nation.

"This is a very sad day for the Israeli people. It's not a pleasant day when the police recommend such recommendations against the prime minister of Israel," said Isaac Herzog of the Zionist Union party.

But Netanyahu is in no immediate danger of being toppled from power, says Israeli analyst Avraham Diskin.

"From a political point of view, all the members of the present coalition support Netanyahu; and because of that, for the time being, as far as changes in the political arena, I don't see that yet," said Diskin.

From a legal point of view, Netanyahu is not required to resign. The final decision on an indictment rests with the attorney general, and that could take up to a year. Until then, Netanyahu is poised to live up to his image as a political survivor.



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US Intelligence: Pakistan Expanding Nuclear Program, Drawing Closer to China

Sputnik News

22:00 14.02.2018

The US intelligence community has warned that they believe Pakistan is developing more advanced nuclear weapons, which could erode regional security. Washington also continues to claim Islamabad has been complicit in accommodating Islamic terrorist and militant groups.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told lawmakers during a major hearing of US intelligence leaders before the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday that Pakistan was in the midst of expanding their arsenal of short-range tactical nuclear weapons, cruise missiles to be launched from planes and watercraft and longer-range intermediate ballistic missiles.

Pakistan is thought to have a modest (insofar as nuclear weapons go) arsenal of 160 warheads. That arsenal consists entirely of tactical and intermediate-range missiles, as Pakistan is not a global power and doesn't have any real need for ICBMs.

"Pakistan will continue to threaten US interests by deploying new nuclear weapons capabilities, maintaining its ties to militants, restricting counterterrorism cooperation and drawing closer to China," Coats said.

China came up many times in Coats' testimony. He described Beijing as a primary source of tension due to its tacit support of North Korea and clashes with other nations over territorial disputes in the East China Sea and South China Sea. Coats even ranked China over North Korea while listing "regional threats" in East Asia.

Coats added that the expansion of Pakistan's nuclear program could cause relations with its nuclear neighbor and rival, India, to continue to deteriorate. Although the two nations have been at odds since they were partitioned in 1947, relations have bottomed out recently as both sides repeatedly violate the ceasefire by attacking one another across the disputed border in Jammu and Kashmir.

Most recently, six Indian soldiers and one civilian were killed on their side of the border. New Delhi blamed the attack on Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), a Pakistan-based militia that they say has the support of Islamabad. The Pakistani Foreign Ministry said the charges carried "no credibility" and were "premature and inopportune."

Coats also complained that Pakistan harbors Islamic militant groups within its borders, a drum that the US has continuously beat since US President Donald Trump condemned Pakistan during his August speech on US strategy in neighboring Afghanistan.

"Militant groups supported by Islamabad will continue to take advantage of their safe haven in Pakistan to plan and conduct attacks in India and Afghanistan, including against US interests," Coats said.

Pakistan has denied sheltering Islamist radical groups and has pointed to their own operations against such organizations. But Coats claimed that this was performative, meant to alleviate pressure on Islamabad rather than a sincere commitment to stamping out Islamic militant groups in Pakistan's borders.

"Ongoing Pakistani military operations against the Taliban and associated groups probably reflect the desire to appear more proactive and responsive to our requests for more actions against these groups." However, Coats said, such actions "do not reflect a significant escalation of pressure against these groups and are unlikely to have a lasting effect."

On Tuesday, Pakistani Finance Minister Miftah Ismail told Reuters that the US, UK, France and Germany were pushing to add Pakistan to a global terrorist-financing watchlist that could make it tougher for Islamabad to receive foreign loans.

 Sputnik

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Kremlin Not Ruling Out Presence of Russian Citizens Apart From Military in Syria

Sputnik News

11:04 14.02.2018(updated 12:47 14.02.2018)

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that he didn't rule out that Russian nationals, who do not belong to the Russian Armed Forces, could be in Syria.

"We do not have specific detailed information that would allow us to draw any conclusions. It cannot be ruled out that citizens of the Russian Federation may be in Syria. They do not belong to the armed forces  this is all that can be stated. But in any case, they remain, citizens of the Russian Federation," Peskov told reporters.

At the same time, a source from the Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier in the day that the information circulated by media outlets about "hundreds" of Russian citizens killed in the US-led coalition's strike in Syria was a classic example of disinformation.

"The information disseminated by Bloomberg and other [media outlets] about dozens and hundreds of [Russian nationals] killed in Syria is a classic disinformation," the source told reporters.

Last week, US Central Command announced that the coalition conducted what it described as "defensive airstrikes" against pro-government forces near the Euphrates River as a response to an alleged attack against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) headquarters. The airstrikes have reportedly resulted in the death of at least 100 pro-government troops.

Damascus has slammed the attack as "a new act of aggression that constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity," while the Russian Defense Ministry said that the attack showcased that the real goal behind Washington's "illegal military presence in Syria" was control over the country's economic assets rather than defeating Daesh.

At the same time, media reports emerged the day before, alleging that a large number of Russian mercenaries had been killed in airstrikes. So far, the death of one Russian citizen Kiril Ananyev from an activist group "Another Russia" has been reported by the organization's coordinator.

 Sputnik

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First UN aid convoy reaches Syria's Eastern Ghouta

Iran Press TV

Wed Feb 14, 2018 05:56PM

An aid convoy has for the first time this year reached the Eastern Ghouta region near Syrian capital of Damascus.

The UN humanitarian affairs office said Wednesday that the convoy, carrying medicine and food, entered Nashabiyah, a town about 19 kilometers (12 miles) east of Damascus, earlier in the day.

"First UN and Syrian Red Crescent inter-agency convoy this year crossed conflict lines to Nashabieh in Eastern Ghouta to deliver food, health and nutrition supplies for 7,200 people in the besieged enclave," said the office.

Nashabiyah is one of several towns controlled by anti-government militants in the Eastern Ghouta region since 2012. The government has imposed restrictions around the Ghouta, which is populated by around 400,000 people.

The UN aid was the first to reach to Eastern Ghouta this year. it comes amid an intensified government offensive to neutralize terrorist threats in the region where scores have been killed in the fighting over the past weeks.

The UN said the Syrian government only allowed the convoy to reach Nashabiyah and there was no report about similar measures in other towns of Ghouta.

Ghouta is among few places still controlled by militants in Syria as the government has managed to retake many territories in north and east. Many in those territories suffer from malnutrition and lack of basic medical supplies and are in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions have been displaced in more than seven years of militancy which Syria blames on certain foreign governments. Damascus insists if it was not for those governments' support, the war could not have such devastating impacts.

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Nothing To See Here: Moscow Tight-Lipped On Russian Deaths In Syria

Carl Schreck February 14, 2018

As details continue to emerge about multiple Russian fighters killed in U.S. air and artillery strikes in Syria last week, the Kremlin and senior Russian officials are choosing their words carefully.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has yet to publicly address the February 7 air strikes on Syrian government forces near Deir al-Zor that the Pentagon says killed around 100 fighters who attacked a base housing Syrian opposition and U.S. forces.

Russian media reports have confirmed that several of those killed in the strikes were Russian mercenaries, though the Kremlin is publicly emphasizing that any of its citizens who may have been killed in the U.S. operation had no formal connection to Russian military operations.

"Here in the Kremlin we don't have detailed information that would allow us to make any conclusions," Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying on February 14.

"We can't exclude the possibility that Russian citizens may be present in Syria. They are not connected to the [Russian] armed forces," Peskov said, adding that Russian citizens "remain Russian citizens no matter what."

The Russian Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, attacked what it called "disinformation" about the deaths in Western media reports, which quoted unidentified Russian and Syrian sources as saying that dozens of Russian mercenaries may have been killed in the incident.

"Reports disseminated by several Western media outlets about hundreds, dozens of dead in Syria is classic disinformation," Russian state news outlets quoted an unidentified ministry official as telling journalists on February 14.

The official, however, did not deny that Russian fighters were killed in the air strikes, according to the agencies' reports.

Moscow and Washington are backing different sides in the war in Syria. Russia has propped up its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while the United States and its allies are supporting rebel groups seeking Assad's ouster.

Donbas To Damascus

The incident has brought renewed focus on the role of Russian soldiers of fortune in the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine.

Several of the Russian fighters reportedly killed in the air strikes had previously fought against Kyiv's forces in eastern Ukraine, according to interviews with their relatives and associates in the Russian media this week.

Russia denies backing armed separatists in eastern Ukraine despite substantial evidence of such support in a conflict that has killed more than 10,300 since April 2014.

In an interview with the Russian news site Znak.com this week, the wife of one of the Russians reportedly killed in the air strikes said that his former fellow fighters in eastern Ukraine, an area commonly referred to as the Donbas, had informed her that her husband had died.

Yelena Matveyeva said in the interview that her husband, Stanislav Matveyev, had coordinated with a St. Petersburg firm known as PWC Vagner, a prominent private military company whose fighters have served alongside the Russian military.

Zakhar Prilepin, a Russian writer who fought against Kyiv's forces in eastern Ukraine, said in a February 14 Facebook post that another Russian reportedly killed in the U.S. air strikes -- Igor Kosoturov -- had served in his battalion in the conflict.

Prilepin described Kosoturov as a former Russian military intelligence captain who had retired by the time he fought in eastern Ukraine and Syria.

'Mountain Out Of A Molehill'

Russian lawmakers who frequently rail against Washington have been largely silent on the reported deaths of the Russian mercenaries.

Vladimir Shamanov, the head of the Defense Committee in the lower house of parliament, has previously called the U.S. presence in Syria "arrogance of the highest degree."

But he refrained from attacking Washington on February 14, saying there was not enough "verifiable information yet" about the U.S. air strikes and the deaths of Russian mercenaries. "There are many signs that someone is intentionally trying to make a mountain out of a molehill," the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

Another lawmaker in the lower house of parliament, Mikhail Yemelyanov, said on February 14 that draft legislation on regulating private military firms was being examined in parliament.

Writing for Bloomberg View, Leonid Bershidsky said Putin could face mounting pressure from nationalist corners of Russia's political landscape over the deaths of Russian fighters at the hands of the United States amid the ongoing tensions between the former Cold War foes over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.

"They will...draw attention to Putin's inability to respond to carnage unleashed on Russian citizens by the U.S. -- the country now seen in Russia as its biggest enemy," Bershidsky wrote in a February 14 column.

The incident has also injected an unexpected sliver of drama into the Russian presidential campaign ahead of a March 18 election in which Putin is expected to easily secure a new six-year term.

Liberal candidate Grigory Yavlinsky said in a February 12 statement that the Russian leadership's taciturn response to reports of the Russian deaths in Syria last week was "absolutely unacceptable."

"Statements about the noninvolvement in the government with the actions of private military structures is reminiscent of how the government washed its hands of the deaths of Russian soldiers sent into wars in Chechnya" and eastern Ukraine, Yavlinsky said.

Peskov on February 13 pushed back against that call by Yavlinsky, an opponent of Russian military involvement in Syria and Ukraine whose candidacy is seen as posing little threat to Putin's reelection. "We are operating on information published in the media. I don't think that Mr. Yavlinsky has sources that are any more reliable. But in this particular case, we nonetheless ask that media reports not be used as a primary source," Peskov said.

"Let's all be realistic about the fact that there are quite a few of our compatriots in many countries of the world," he added.

Vladimir Frolov, a well-connected political analyst in Moscow, said on February 14 that the Kremlin's reticence regarding the Russian deaths was less driven by domestic political considerations than the prospects of escalation with Washington. "No one wants to start a war with the U.S.," Frolov told RFE/RL.

The U.S. military has also said that it does not have information about private Russian soldiers killed in the air strikes.

Peskov told reporters in Moscow on February 14 that Putin did not discuss the incident with U.S. President Donald Trump two days earlier, the Interfax news agency reported.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-syria- mercenaries-moscow-tight-lipped- on-deaths/29040048.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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Kremlin Distances Itself From Reports Of Mercenary Deaths In Syria

RFE/RL February 14, 2018

The chief Kremlin spokesman has suggested that if any Russians were killed by U.S. air strikes in Syria last week, they were not regular soldiers, continuing to distance President Vladimir Putin's government from reports that several Russian mercenaries -- and possibly dozens -- died after staging an attack on U.S. forces and their allies in the Middle Eastern country on February 7.

"We in the Kremlin do not possess detailed information that would enable us to draw conclusions," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on February 14, amid mounting evidence that Russian contract soldiers fighting on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's side were killed in the incident in Deir al-Zor province.

"It cannot be ruled out that there may be citizens of the Russian Federation [fighting] in Syria. They are not connected to the armed forces of the Russian Federation,'' Peskov said in a conference call with journalists. His comments echoed previous statements from the Defense Ministry, which has said no Russian servicemen were in the area at the time.

The Pentagon has said its air strikes in Deir al-Zor last week targeted Syrian government troops that had attacked a base housing U.S. and Syrian opposition forces, killing about 100 of the attackers. U.S. officials say they do not know whether Russian mercenaries were among the casualties.

"There is now reporting in the press," U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on February 13. "I don't have any reporting that some Russians, non-Russian Federation soldiers, but Russian contractors, were among the casualties. I can't give you anything on that. We have not received that word at Central Command or the Pentagon."

"I will not speculate on the composition of this force or whose control they were under," said Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigian, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command.

U.S. forces are "focused on" fighting Islamic State (IS) militants, he said, adding: "We're not looking for a fight with anyone else, but as Secretary Mattis said last week: 'If you threaten us, it will be your longest, and your worst, day.'"

The U.S. Defense Department said the air strikes, which included fighter and ground-attack aircraft and Marine artillery, were launched after as many as 500 attackers waged a coordinated assault on a base housing Syrian opposition forces, along with U.S. military advisers in Deir al-Zor.

In recent days, news reports, open-source researchers, and relatives and colleagues of Russian mercenary soldiers have said that multiple Russians may have died in the exchange on February 7.

Citing an unnamed U.S. official and three Russians it said were familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported on February 13 that "U.S. forces killed scores of Russian contract soldiers" in the incident.

Bloomberg cited two of its Russian sources as saying that more than 200 mercenaries, most of them Russians, were killed, and The New York Times cited a Syrian military officer as saying about 100 Russians were killed.

The Moscow-based Conflict Intelligence Team, which monitors Russian involvement in the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, on February 12 identified eight Russians it said were among those killed.

A Cossack organization in the Kaliningrad region posted on social media that one of its members had also been killed, and the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, citing unnamed sources, reported that 13 Russians were killed and another 15 wounded.

The reports of Russian deaths in the incident in Deir al-Zor come amid persistent tension in U.S.-Russian relations, which are strained by disputes over Syria and several other issues.

They also come weeks ahead of Russia's March 18 presidential election. Putin is widely expected to secure a fourth term in the controlled political environment, but analysts say he wants high turnout and a convincing victory to bolster his mandate as he heads into what may his last term.

Asked on February 14 whether Putin had canceled trips and meetings that had been scheduled in the past few days in order to discuss the reports of Russian deaths in Syria, Peskov said that was not the reason. Peskov said on February 13 that Putin's schedule was changed because he had a head cold.

Russia has given Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government crucial support throughout the seven-year war in Syria, which began with a government crackdown on protests. Moscow helped turn the tide of the conflict in his favor by launching a campaign of air strikes in 2015 and stepping up its military presence on the ground.

In a surprise trip to Russia's air base in Syria in December, Putin said that Russian and government forces had "crushed" terrorists and ordered a partial withdrawal of the Russian contingent there.

Grigory Yavlinsky, a liberal politician who is running in the election, called on Putin on February 13 to report publicly about "the actions of Russian troops in Syria at present and the number of deaths of Russian citizens regardless of their military status."

"I also think it is essential to account publicly on interactions with the United States, since the danger of an accidental or intentional direct military engagement between Russia and the United States is growing," Yavlinsky said in a statement.

With reporting by Bloomberg, AP, Interfax, Reuters, The New York Times, Novaya Gazeta, and CBS News

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/mattis-russia- mercenaries-syria-killed- us-strikes/29038814.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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Russia Plans To Help Syria Rebuild Devastated Oil, Power Industries

February 14, 2018

Russia plans to help Syria rebuild energy facilities that have been devastated by years of war, Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak has said.

"We have signed a road map, not only in the field of electricity but also oil and gas, covering the restoration of oil fields and the development of new deposits," Novak was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies on February 13.

As the main international backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia has become deeply involved in helping the war-battered country rebuild as fighting against Syrian Sunni rebels has subsided in recent months.

Last week, an agreement was signed on the "rehabilitation, modernization, and construction of new energy facilities in Syria," Russia's Energy Ministry said on its website.

"We attach great importance to restoring the Syrian economy, especially the oil and gas sectors which will certainly contribute to the normalization of the economic and social situation in the country," Novak said.

In December, a Russian delegation visited Damascus to discuss investment and reconstruction with Assad, including oil and gas projects but also electricity, phosphates, transportation, and trade.

"Syria is a land of unlimited riches," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who led the delegation, said at the time.

"Russian companies have the moral right to develop large-scale economic projects here," Rogozin said.

Russia launched an air campaign to back Assad's ground forces in September 2015. Since last year, Russia and Syria have trumpeted their success in regaining control of about 55 percent of Syrian territory.

The gains led President Vladimir Putin in December to order a partial withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria, but since that time fighting has flared up again among various factions that remain in the deeply divided country.

Based on reporting by AFP and TASS

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-plans-help -syria-rebuild-devastated-oil-gas-power -facilities-novak/29038665.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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Tillerson: Iran Should Withdraw 'Destabilizing' Forces From Syria

RFE/RL February 14, 2018

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has reiterated a U.S. call for Iran to withdraw from Syria, saying its military presence there is destabilizing the region.

"We are quite concerned about the recent incident involving Israel and Iranian assets inside of Syria. And I think this again illustrates why Iran's presence in Syria is only destabilizing to the region," Tillerson said on February 14 at a news conference in Amman.

Speaking alongside Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, he added that "Iran needs to withdraw its military, its militia from Syria, and allow a hope for the peace process to take hold in Geneva."

The comments follow a series of Israeli air strikes in Syria on February 10, which the military said targeted both Syrian and Iranian targets.

During the offensive, an Israeli warplane was shot down, crashing in northern Israel.

The Israeli strikes came after the military said it had intercepted an Iranian drone crossing the Syria-Israel border.

Syria denied that any of its drones had entered Israel's airspace. Tehran rejected Israel's version of the events as "ridiculous" and "lies," saying Syria had the right to defend itself in response to the strikes.

Reacting to Tillerson's latest comments, a top aide to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran's military presence in Syria was legitimate and based on the invitation of Damascus.

"Those should leave Syria who are there without the permission of the Syrian legal government," Ali Akbar Velayati, senior foreign policy adviser to Khamenei, was quoted as saying by the semiofficial ISNA news agency.

Iran, along with Russia, has given President Bashar al-Assad's government crucial support throughout Syria's nearly seven-year civil war, in which hundreds of thousands of people have been killed since it began with a crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011.

The United States is backing Syrian rebel groups.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on February 11 that the Israeli air strikes in Syria dealt "severe blows" to Iranian and Syrian forces.

Netanyahu also told his cabinet that Israel "clarified unequivocally" that it will "continue to strike any attempt to strike us."

Israeli warplanes have bombed Syrian targets in the past.

Israel, Iran's archenemy, has pledged to prevent Syria's territory being used for Iran to set up bases or transfer high-quality weaponry to Lebanon's Hizballah group, which is fighting alongside Assad's forces.

Tehran has reportedly sent hundreds of military advisers and fighters from its Quds Force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' (IRGC) overseas arm.

With reporting by Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/tillerson-iran-should- withdraw-destabilizing-forces-from-syria/29039461.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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French President Macron Threatens to Strike Syria if Chemical Attacks Proven

Sputnik News

09:41 14.02.2018(updated 18:53 14.02.2018)

Despite being repeatedly accused of using chemical weapons, Damascus has strongly denied having them; it destroyed its arsenal several years ago, and their complete destruction was subsequently confirmed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

French President Emmanuel Macron, who had previously threatened to respond immediately to any use of chemical weapons in Syria, once again made it clear that France would launch strikes if the fact that the Syrian government had used weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against its civilians was proven.

"We will strike the place where these launches are made or where they are organized. But today our services have not established proof that the prescribed chemical weapons have been used against civilian populations. As soon as such proof is established, I will do what I said," Macron told France's presidential press corps.

Responding to reporters' questions, Macron said that "the priority was the fight against the terrorists, the jihadists," and as for Bashar al-Assad's regime, he elaborated that "it would be answerable to international justice."

The French President held a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, where he expressed his concerns "about indications suggesting the possible use of chlorine on several occasions against the civilian population in Syria these last few weeks."

Earlier this week, the Russian Center for Syrian Reconciliation received information from a local resident in a village in Idlib that Tahrir al-Sham (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra) terrorists and White Helmets, the so-called Syrian Civil Defense, were preparing to stage a provocation involving the use of chemical weapons and blame it on Damascus.

"On the evening of February 12, the Russian Center for Reconciliation received a telephone call from a resident of a settlement in Idlib province, informing about a forthcoming provocation, using poisonous chemicals, and intentions to air it on a foreign television channel. According to the person, on the afternoon of February 12, the al-Nusra Front militants delivered more than 20 bottles of chlorine and personal protective equipment in three cars," the Russian military stated.

Last week, addressing the matter of Syria's chemical weapons' use, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said "all indications" suggested that government forces used chlorine weapons against rebel forces throughout the civil war, although cautiously added that they "hadn't completely documented that."

Florence Parly, France's Defense Minister, was more reserved while expressing her views on whether Damascus had crossed the "red line."

"At the moment because we don't know what happened and the consequences of what happened; we can't say we are where you say we are. We have some indications of the use of chlorine, but we do not have absolute confirmation, so it is this confirmation work that we are doing with others because obviously, we have to establish the facts," she said.

On April 4, 2017, the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, backed by the United States, blamed Damascus for the Khan Sheikhoun incident that took place in Idlib province. Western governments accused Bashar Assad of being responsible for the use of sarin gas, an allegation he has repeatedly denied, reiterating that Syria did not possess a chemical weapons arsenal, the full destruction of which was confirmed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Reacting to the incident, the United States, having no proof of the use of chemical weapons by Damascus, launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Syria-government airfield in Ash Sha'irat on April 7.

 Sputnik

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Syria: Civilians killed on 'horrific scale' as conflict begins spilling across borders

14 February 2018 - The conflict in Syria is now spilling over the country's borders amid increased military intervention from multiple sources, a senior United Nations mediator said on Wednesday, warning that civilians are being killed on a horrific scale and the crisis is at one of the most "dangerous and worrying moments" in over four years.

"The last several weeks have seen a new cross-border conflict in Afrin with yet no clear end in sight," Staffan de Mistura, the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Syria, told the Security Council, referring to the northern Syria enclave near the Turkish border, which has become a major front in the ongoing Syria crisis.

He also noted that there have been reports of exchanges of fire between Turkish and Syrian Government forces, and also between the United States-led coalition and pro-Syrian Government forces, with major loss of life.

After having served in his current position for more than four years, "this is as violent and worrying and dangerous a moment as any that I have seen in my time as Special Envoy," Mr. de Mistura said.

He said the country has seen a string of dangerous and worrying escalations, including inside the de-escalation zones, or enclaves where hostilities are supposed to be eased, established by the three guarantors of talks in Astana  Russia, Iran and Turkey  as well as outside those areas.

There has been a gradual return to back-and-forth competition over territory in Idlib and Hama, as well as heavy and sustained airstrikes across the north-west and in besieged Eastern Ghouta.

Civilians have been killed on a horrific scale, with reports suggesting more than 1,000 people killed in the first week of February alone. Strikes continue to hit hospitals, schools and markets, and there are several allegations of chlorine attacks.

At least 320,000 people have been displaced due to fighting in Idlib in just two months, while there were reports of heavy mortar shelling falling across residential Damascus, wounding and killing civilians and damaging infrastructure, he said.

"There has not been a single United Nations humanitarian convoy to reach any besieged area since the end of November 2017," he underscored.

"We urgently need genuine de-escalation [of the violence] to protect civilians, evacuate the sick and wounded and allow humanitarian aid to reach nearly three million people in hard-to-reach areas," he added.

What is taking place in Syria not only imperils the de-escalation arrangements and regional stability, it also undermines efforts for a political solution, he said, stressing that the UN-facilitated Geneva process is the only sustainable path towards that solution.

Mr. de Mistura told the Council that since the Vienna and Sochi meetings, held in late January, he has been consulting on the establishment of a constitutional committee for Syria. His team is in touch with a wide array of Syrians and he also continues to pursue the convening of Syria talks dealing with all four baskets of issues concerning Syria.

A secure, calm and neutral environment must be created if any constitutional progress is to unfold, he said. He intends to strike "while the iron is hot" and move the Geneva process of intra-Syrian talks ahead, but the Syrian people need the Council's support now more than ever, he stressed.

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Russia eyeing contract with Turkey for next batch of S-400s: Informed source

Iran Press TV

Wed Feb 14, 2018 04:57PM

Russia is considering signing a contract with Turkey to provide the NATO military alliance member with another batch of advanced S-400 missile defense systems, a government source has revealed.

Much to the disappointment of its Western allies, Ankara decided to push ahead with a $2.5 billion deal with Moscow last year to purchase four batteries of the cutting-edge anti-aircraft system.

A Russian military diplomatic source told the TASS news agency Wednesday that while the first batch was already being delivered, the two sides were already in talks for the second batch's delivery.

"After the delivery of the first batch concludes in May or June 2020, the parties plan to sign a new contract on the delivery of the second batch of the S-400 systems in 2021. The list of supplies will be similar to the one included in the first contract," the source said.

According to the source, the second contract would address Turkey's demands for technology transfer.

Apparently, Russia has agreed to allow some Turkish companies produce certain components of the S-400 systems, which the source said "are not of crucial importance."

Sergei Chemezov, the head of Russian conglomerate Rostec, said in December that Turkey would pay 45 percent of the cost in advance while Russia would provide loans to cover the remaining 55 percent.

The system, which entered service in 2007, is designed to destroy aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles 400 km away and can simultaneously track 300 targets at a maximum altitude of 30 km. The S-400's missiles can also be used against ground targets.

In April, Russian Aerospace Force Deputy Commander-in-Chief Viktor Gumyonny said Russia had started to equip the system with missiles capable of destroying targets in outer space.

There is growing international interest in S-400 systems and China, Saudi Arabia and India have been named as the next buyers.

Belarus, Vietnam, Egypt, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Syria, Sudan and a number of other countries have also expressed interest.

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Turkey imposes curfews in Diyarbakir ahead of anti-PKK operation

Iran Press TV

Wed Feb 14, 2018 10:38AM

Turkey has imposed curfews in several areas in Diyarbakir in preparation for a new operation against the Kurdish militants active in the southeastern province.

The Diyarbakir governor's office said in a statement on Wednesday that a total of 176 curfews had been imposed across Diyarbakir.

"A curfew is in place from Wednesday 0800 (0500 GMT) until a second announcement is made" in the villages and towns in the Diyarbakir districts of Silvan, Kulp, Lice and Hazro, the statement read.

The curfews, the statement added, will allow Turkish security forces to "neutralize" members and collaborators of the "separatist terrorist organization," referring to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Turkey has banned the PKK as a terrorist organization. The militant group has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984. The three-decade conflict has left more than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, dead.

A shaky ceasefire between Ankara and the PKK that had stood since 2013 was declared null and void by the militants in 2015 in the wake of a large-scale Turkish military campaign against the group.

Turkish air force has been carrying out operations against PKK positions in the country's troubled southeastern border region as well as in northern Iraq and neighboring Syria.

Turkey has also been waging "Operation Olive Branch" in Syria's Afrin since January 20 in a bid to eliminate the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara views as the Syrian branch of the PKK.

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Turkey Not Receiving Enough NATO Support in Anti-Terror Fight - Defense Minister

Sputnik News

16:04 14.02.2018(updated 16:11 14.02.2018)

ANKARA (Sputnik) - Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli on Wednesday reiterated Turkey's decisiveness in clearing out terrorists from Syria's northwestern Afrin region.

"We are decisive about clearing Afrin of terrorists in order to protect security along our borders. Turkey will go to any length  However, NATO countries are not giving enough support to Turkey in its fight against terror elements threatening its territorial integrity," Turkish Defense Minister, Nurettin Canikli said at the ministerial meeting of the Global Coalition Against the Daesh (banned in Russia) in Rome, as quoted by Anadolu news agency.

Canikli emphasized that Turkey had been contributing to NATO alliance for over 60 years.

He also stated that Ankara's goal was to secure its borders from militants linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), designated as a terrorist organization in Turkey and several other countries.

"I met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels," Nurettin Canikli posted on Twitter.

On January 20, the Turkish Armed Forces started Operation Olive Branch against the Kurdish forces in Afrin, an area in northern Syria commanded by the US-backed Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which are considered by Ankara to be affiliates of the PKK.

The operation has been conducted jointly with the Free Syrian Army forces and against the US that turned from helping Syrian Kurds to backing Turkey against them.

Previously, explaining its decision to start the operation in the region, Ankara stated that the motion was aimed at destroying terrorists on the country's border with Syria, referring to the Kurdish formations operating in the area.

Damascus has firmly condemned the operation as an assault on Syria's sovereignty. Moscow, in its turn, has urged all the parties to exercise restraint and called for respect of Syria's territorial integrity.

 Sputnik

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Putin Personally Ordered Crimea Annexation, Ex-Duma Deputy Testifies

RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service February 14, 2018

KYIV  A Russian former lawmaker has testified before a Kyiv court that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered the annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region in 2014.

Speaking at the trial of Ukraine's ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, Ilya Ponomaryov said on February 14 that he "knows for sure" Putin pushed forward the seizure of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in the night of February 22.

That's when Russia-friendly Yanukovych fled from Ukraine to Russia amid massive pro-European protests known as Euromaidan or Maidan.

According to Ponomaryov, many Russian officials were against the March 2014 annexation of Crimea but Putin pressured them to support the idea.

"Putin watched the Maidan events and realized that the man he was supporting was losing. And therefore he had to personally take care of his evacuation and save his life. Putin saw all of that as a betrayal by the international community, as an interference into his personal interests," the ex-lawmaker said.

Ponomaryov, the lone State Duma representative to vote against the March 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, has been living in the Ukrainian capital since 2015.

Ukrainian prosecutors are seeking life imprisonment for Yanukovych, who is accused of treason, violating Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and abetting Russian aggression.

After he fled, Russia seized control of Crimea and fomented opposition to the central government in eastern Ukraine, where an ensuing war between government forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 10,300 people since April 2014.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/putin-personally- ordered-crimea-annexation/29039553.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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Saakashvili Arrives In Netherlands After Expulsion From Ukraine

February 14, 2018

Mikheil Saakashvili has arrived in the Netherlands, his wife's home country, after being expelled from Ukraine into neighboring Poland.

Asked upon his arrival on February 14 how long he planned to stay in the Netherlands, Saakashvili said, "We will see. But for sure, it's due to the circumstances I'm here because of what happened in Ukraine."

"But, obviously, it's a country I come to very often anyway," he told Dutch national broadcaster NOS.

In a Facebook post, Saakashvili said he received an ID card shortly after arrival that allows him to live and work in the European Union.

"But I am decisively intent, as never before, on restoring my Ukrainian citizenship," he wrote.

Saakashvili, 50, was hired in 2015 by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to head Ukraine's Odesa region but fell afoul of his friend over corruption allegations and calls for reform and was stripped of his citizenship in July 2017.

After beginning an opposition campaign to Poroshenko, Saakashvili was detained at a Kyiv restaurant on February 12 and taken to the airport and flown to Poland, the country from which he returned to Ukraine in September 2017 eluding a border blockade.

Ukrainian authorities have accused Saakashvili of abetting an alleged "criminal group" led by Viktor Yanukovych, the Moscow-friendly former president who fled the country in 2014 amid massive protests known as the Euromaidan.

The authorities also alleged that the street protests he led were part of a Russian plot against the government in Kyiv.

Saakashvili has denied all the charges, calling them "absurd" and politically motivated.

Saakashvili was also the president of Georgia in 2004-2013 and is wanted in the Caucasus country after being convicted of abuse of power in connection with a 2006 murder case. He has been sentenced in absentia to three years in prison.

He also denies the charges of wrongdoing in Georgia.

Saakashvili's wife, Sandra Elisabeth Roelofs-Saakashvili, was born in the Netherlands and has Dutch citizenship.

Saakashvili said he planned to "go on a tour of Europe" to raise support for his campaign to topple Poroshenko and his government in Kyiv.

"We will defeat him for sure, we will prevail over him thorough the peaceful resistance of the Ukrainian people," Saakashvili on February 13 told Current Time Television, a project of RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.

With reporting by Current Time TV, AP, AFP, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-georgia-saakashvili-arrives-netherlands-from-poland/29039803.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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Now, Naidu Also Supports Pawan Mission!

For the last few days, actor and Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan is trying to create an impression among the people that he is fighting for the cause of Andhra Pradesh, especially with regard to achieving special category status to the state and implementation of promises made in AP Reorganisation Act.

He is talking to senior leaders like Vundavalli Arun Kumar, Konathala Ramakrishna and Jayaprakash Narayan to form a joint action committee to fight on the issues confronting the state.

On Thursday, Pawan even had a talk with Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee chief N Raghuveera Reddy to join hands with him.

It is nothing but natural to think that Pawan will fight against the ruling Telugu Desam Party in the state and also the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre for failing to address the issues concerning the state.

But surprisingly, Pawan got the support even from TDP president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

At the coordination committee meeting of the TDP, Naidu was all praise for Pawans efforts.

There is a meaning in Pawan Kalyans struggle, which is fully justified. He is struggling in his own way for the legitimate rights of the state, rather than seeking petty political gains. We are also endorsing his fight, Naidu told the party leaders.

The TDP chief asked the party leaders and cadre to appreciate Pawans efforts and react cautiously to his demand for a white paper on the Central assistance to the state.

We dont have any problem with the joint fact finding committee constituted by Pawan Kalyan. We are ready to share any information that he wants. But, at the same time, the Centre should come out realistic figures, Naidu said.

Click Here for Latest Direct-to-OTT Releases (List Updates Daily)While Greenwich town officials spar over contrasting visions for economic development, one of First Selectman Peter Teseis cardinal initiatives is facing a crucial appraisal.

More than a $100,000 has been collected over the last year to fund the town marketing campaign called Think Greenwich, a private-public partnership that has received $30,000 of town money. The 2018-19 municipal budget includes another $30,000, pending the Representative Town Committees continued support.

Last year, funds for the marketing campaign were nearly cut from the budget. This year, the campaign is set to face renewed skepticism during upcoming budget talks.

Newly elected Selectman Sandy Litvack has already branded himself a vocal critic. What new businesses have relocated or plan to relocate to Greenwich because of the campaign? The answer seems to be none. What has it generated in terms of interest in the town of Greenwich? Apparently precious little, Litvack wrote in a recent opinion column.

Initial results

In early budget talks, the Economic Advisory Committee, which consists of local businesspeople appointed by Tesei, has presented the campaigns preliminary results along with anticipated outcomes.

New York City-based public relations firm Lou Hammond Group runs the marketing campaign and recently produced a series of metrics for the town to use in assessing its value. Lou Hammonds contract for the account began in September, and the campaign is in its toddler stage, according to EAC member and local Realtor Sabine Schoenberg, whos been a driving force behind the initiative.

Were just starting to build momentum, she said.

Lou Hammond has interviewed scores of local organizations and residents to establish Think Greenwichs messaging, as well as picked a logo, made several social media accounts  Facebook, Instagram and Twitter  and created a process for collecting photos to use on social media. The firm has touted its work with a number of media outlets to place stories. A PowerPoint presentation shared with Hearst Connecticut Media shows mostly stories about local real estate, but Schoenberg said other types of press coverage are in the works.

The presentation says Lou Hammond is working with more than 50 media outlets, citing Architectural Digest, CNN, The Wall Street Journal and more. We expect to secure three to five visits in the next two months. This is more than the average for similar clients, the presentation reads.

The firm describes the goals of Think Greenwich as threefold: influencing people considering the tri-state area to choose Greenwich when buying a home, attracting new businesses and talent to town, and framing Greenwich as the go-to destination for high-end shopping and dining.

Uncertainty ahead

Through establishing and funding Think Greenwich, the town has taken a leadership position in Connecticut, according to Phil McIntyre, a Greenwich resident and marketing professional who has helped advise the effort. We now have a vehicle to deploy an offensive campaign to remind the outer world about the litany of great things the town has to offer, he said.

Success on social media goes beyond a count of followers, he said. The yardsticks of how you judge success of social media certainly include the number of likes and shares and engagement, he said. But getting the right message out is of equal importance.

Many observers remain skeptical. I give First Selectman Tesei credit for going on offense to find growth in a state thats woefully lagging behind, said Greenwich resident and advertising professional Mike Duda.

But, he added, The campaign goals of attracting new homeowners, business and being looked at as a shopping leader are far too widespread. The initiative needs greater focus, especially on business, which will drive the other two. Theres no magic wand for businesses to move here overnight, but the initiative needs to make tangible progress on business and be measured accordingly.

Contact the writer at mbennett@greenwichtime.com; Twitter @Macaela_GREENWICH  Nominations are being accepted for the Greenwich Public Schools next Distinguished Teachers Awards.

Distinguished Teacher Awards will be given to six Greenwich educators by a committee of school board members, teachers, administrators and community members.

The recipients are selected based on their ability to inspire enthusiasm, achievement and respect from their students. They must be strong collaborators and communicators who are masters of the subject they teach. They also must make contributions outside their classroom to improve their school or district.

A distinguished teacher considers teaching neither a job nor a duty; its a calling. Its a passion, said Cynthia Sherwin, chair of the Distinguished Teacher Awards Committee. They go beyond the Smartboard. Hardworking  there is no other way to put it.

To be eligible for nomination, a candidate must be a full-time staff member who is currently teaching in Greenwich Public Schools and has been an educator for at least five years with at least three years in Greenwich. School psychologists, social workers and guidance counselors can also be nominated.

Parents, students, teachers and community members are encouraged to submit nominations, which are due by March 1 at 5 p.m. Nomination packets are available at each of the schools and online on the district website.

The six distinguished teachers will be announced April 18.

To know that a parent, student or a colleague has recommended you for this honor is huge, said Sherwin, who taught at Cos Cob and North Mianus schools for 22 years and was chosen as distinguished teacher in 2012. It is an award that really stays with you forever.

Each year, one of the six distinguished teachers is selected to represent Greenwich in the Connecticut Teacher of the Year Program. Greenwich distinguished teachers have been selected as Connecticut Teacher of the Year semifinalists or finalists in six of the last 10 years.

Windrose program teacher Anthony Mullen, the 2008 Greenwich Distinguished Teacher, was selected as the 2009 CT Teacher of the Year and the 2009 National Teacher of the Year.John Woike / Hartford Courant via AP

Ben Barnes, secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, told members of the Appropriations Committee last week that the number of state employees under Gov. Dannel P. Malloys control in the Executive Branch, has fallen by 12.5 percent since he took office in 2011.

We are now, as of the end of calendar year 2017, at our lowest level since the 70s, and as expressed as employees per thousand population, we are at our lowest level since the 1950s.Who among us wouldnt want Bill and Melinda Gates or Lin-Manuel Miranda as mentors?

This week, the trio headlined a talk at New Yorks Hunter College to, as Melinda Gates described it on her Facebook page, have a conversation about why we think the world is getting better.

The event was streamed on Facebook, and at one point, a commenter by the name of Mark Zuckerberg chimed in with the question.

Related: How Billionaire Philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates Settle Disagreements

"If you could go back and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be? Asking for a friend, the Facebook co-founder and CEO said.

The Gateses and Miranda were happy to oblige.

"Trust yourself. You probably know more than you think you do," Melinda advised, noting that trust extends to believing that you can learn anything.

Bills advice was also from the vantage point of learning new things.

Related: 12 Inspiring Tweets From 'Hamilton' Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda

"I was so naive about different skill sets. I thought if somebody had a high IQ, they could be good at everything. And the idea that you needed to blend these different types of skills together, that always continued to surprise me," Bill shared. "There was this simple idea of smartness and it could go and solve everything -- I wish I had known better than to think that."

And Miranda said he would tell his teenage self to be a little kinder to himself.

"If I could look at high school me and just say, 'it is not that deep,'" he said. Everything feels like the biggest deal in the world at all times, particularly socially. There is a day when it feels like everybody hates you and it feels like the world is going to end that day." But he said to remember that the stakes are not nearly that high and to think about things with a longer perspective.

What advice would you give your younger self? Let us know in the comments.

Related:

The Founder of Squarespace Explains Why You Don't Want to Raise As Much Money as Possible

They're Doing It: Awe-Inspiring African American Female Entrepreneurs

Learn This Navy SEAL's Plan to Survive an Active Shooter Attack



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com

Cathy Zuraw / Hearst Connecticut Media

There is no love lost between state union leaders and the states conservative think tank/lobbyists at the Yankee Institute, an organization that appears to be an arm of the ultra-con American Legislative Exchange Council. During a recent meeting of the business executives studying ways to make the state more fiscally stable, Lori Pelletier, president of the AFL-CIO, growled at a Yankee Institute official, charging that the conservatives were trying to mislead the panel.

During last weeks meeting of the Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Growth, in which a group of labor leaders made their cases to the panel, there was no interaction with the Yankee Instituters, who seemed to be elsewhere, perhaps putting the finishing touches on their latest report, an attack on state unions that came out Monday.These are the best offers from our affiliate partners. We may get a commission from qualifying sales.Press release

WHITEFISH  BNSF Railway Company announced that its 2018 capital expenditure program in Montana will be approximately $135 million.

This years plan in Montana remains focused on maintenance projects to ensure BNSF continues to operate a safe and reliable rail network. The largest component of this years capital plan in the state will be for replacing and upgrading rail, rail ties and ballast, which are the main components for the tracks on which BNSF trains operate.

Maintaining a safe and reliable network is one way BNSF works to keep Montanas economy moving. Freight rail connects Montanas farmers and lumber producers with the major U.S. markets, and with exports facilities ready to move their products overseas. Rail is also a vital component of getting the people of Montana the consumer products they need, said Jon Gabriel, general manager of operations, Montana Division.

Over the past five years, BNSF has invested approximately $850 million to expand and maintain its network in Montana. This year, the maintenance program in Montana includes approximately 820 miles of track surfacing and/or undercutting work as well as the replacement of nearly 60 miles of rail and about 200,000 ties. Multiple projects are scheduled on the Kootenai River Subdivision, which runs between Sandpoint, Idaho and Whitefish. BNSF will signalize various sidings on the subdivision between Sandpoint and Whitefish to enable Centralized Traffic Control and make improvements to the Flathead Tunnel, the 7-mile long railroad tunnel in northwest Montana.

The 2018 planned capital investments in the state are part of BNSFs $3.3 billion network-wide capital expenditure program announced last month. These investments include $2.4 billion to replace and maintain core network and related assets, approximately $500 million on expansion and efficiency projects and $100 million for continued implementation of Positive Train Control, or PTC. BNSF is the only Class I freight railroad to have completed the installation of PTC on all its federally mandated subdivisions and is currently running hundreds of trains daily with PTC as it tests revenue service across its mandated territory. Another element of its capital plan will be $300 million for freight cars and other equipment acquisitions.A banker warned the "walls have ears" as Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Life and Permanent executives talked about arranging a 750m inter-bank loan during the 2008 financial crisis.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that one banker said they had to keep the transaction as "tight as a duck's arse" because of fears of what would happen if it got out to the market.

As the amounts to be transferred between the two banks increased to 6bn, another executive said "you might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb".

Phone calls between the bankers were played back to the jury in the trial of Anglo's former chief executive David Drumm (51).

Mr Drumm has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to defraud Anglo investors in 2008 by dishonestly creating the impression the bank's deposits were 7.2bn larger than they were.

Transactions

He is alleged to have conspired with former Anglo officials Willie McAteer and John Bowe, as well as the then chief executive of Irish Life and Permanent (ILP), Denis Casey, and others. Mr Drumm also denies false accounting.

The case centres on a series of circular billion-euro interbank transactions between Anglo and ILP, routed through ILP-owned Irish Life Assurance (ILA).

Mr Drumm admits he authorised the transactions but denies there was anything dishonest or fraudulent. He was not involved in any of the phone calls played back to the jury yesterday.

Anglo's former treasury director Matt Cullen explained what was taking place in the conversations.

The first call, on March 25, 2008, was between Anglo executives including Peter Fitzgerald, Mr Bowe, Mr Cullen and Ciaran McArdle. A proposed transaction of 500m with ILP was discussed.

Another conversation, on March 27, was between Mr McArdle, Paul Flynn from Bank of Ireland (BOI), another man from BOI and Mr Cullen.

"We want to put out there from everybody's point of view to show the best picture that we have," Mr Cullen said to Mr Flynn.

Also on March 27, there was a conversation between Mr Bowe, ILP's then treasury director David Gantly and Mr Cullen.

Mr Gantly said: "You put the stuff into us and we put it straight back through the other boys."

After laughter is heard, he added: "I'm purposely not using names here. The walls have ears in this climate."

Paul O'Higgins SC, prosecuting, asked Mr Cullen about the concern for using names.

"If someone had heard him discussing what was discussed  he was afraid it would get out to the market," he replied.

In a March 28 call between Mr McArdle and Mr Gantly, Mr Gantly said they were "approved to do" and "things have to be kept, just absolutely sat on".

Mr Gantly said he didn't know whether there needed to be different payments "just to make sure it doesn't look very obvious".

Hung

Mr Cullen told the court he understood this to mean "one big amount" of 750m going from ILA to Anglo when the biggest payment before was 57m. "Obviously there would be questions," he said.

Another call was between Mr Bowe and Mr Cullen on September 16, 2008. Mr Cullen said he spoke to Dave (Gantly) and 5bn was "not going to be a problem for them".

Mr Cullen said: "You might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, you know," adding that those were "David's exact words".

Mr Cullen also told the jury there was a meeting in which Mr Drumm was asked if the Financial Regulator was aware of the proposed transaction.

The trial continues.The officer was taken to University College Hospital to be treated for non-life threatening lacerations

Foreign criminals are being flown into Ireland to smuggle high-powered stolen cars out of the country, the Herald can reveal.

A massive international scam has been uncovered after eagle-eyed gardai seized a top-of-the-range Audi A6 worth almost 50,000 at Rosslare Europort last weekend.

The Polish driver was snared when gardai working at the Co Wexford port noticed an "old false number plate", which did not match the high spec nature of the car.

Cloned

The Audi had been fitted with cloned licence plates from a hire car, although the vehicle's insurance and tax discs were legitimate.

The suspect has since been arrested but the Herald can reveal that gardai are working on the theory that he had been paid 500 "expenses" to fly here and then pick up the stolen car before immediately leaving the country with it.

"The plan was for him to then drive the car out of the country in an Irish Ferries boat to Cherbourg in France where the vehicle would get picked up by an organised crime gang based in continental Europe," a source said.

"The reality is that it is far too easy for stolen cars like this to be taken out of the country," the source continued.

"Gardai believe the seizure of the car that occurred last weekend may only be the tip of the iceberg in relation to how many cars have been smuggled out of the country and that there are specific locations where dozens of high-end cars are being stored for this purpose."

The car which was seized last Saturday had been stolen in Trim, Co Meath, last November, and officers believe there are many more just waiting to be smuggled out of the country to the continent.

Burglaries

Last August, gardai announced that they had seized 3.3m of stolen cars under Operation Waste since it was set up in 2015.

At the time officers said they had confiscated 275 vehicles, which in many cases had been taken during domestic burglaries.

The garda operation was originally set up to tackle criminal gangs who were exporting stolen cars to west Africa and Eastern Europe via shipping containers.Bus driver unions want more toilet facilities in isolated parts of city. Photo: PA

Union bosses representing Dublin Bus staff are to meet the company next week amid claims that drivers have had to urinate in bottles because of a lack of toilets.

National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) chief Dermot O'Leary wants the company to provide toilets along routes.

He is also calling for other measures to be introduced to ensure drivers do not get caught short.

He said drivers have had to use bottles when no toilet was available.

Industry sources confirmed that some drivers had been left with no choice but to urinate in bottles when their journeys ended in isolated parts of the capital.

Frustrated

Mr O'Leary told the Herald that the drivers wanted a combination of three solutions to meet their needs as they go about their daily shift:

Permanent toilets to be built along some routes, exclusive to bus drivers.

Access and time to use toilets at Dublin train stations.

Pre-arranged agreements to allow drivers to use toilets in shops and pubs.

It is understood that such issues have been raised with Dublin Bus on a number of occasions over the years.

However, drivers are getting increasingly frustrated with the current state of affairs and want the company to acknowledge the problem.

It is understood that the NBRU has sent emails to Dublin Bus, expressing its concerns over the issue.

A Dublin Bus spokeswoman said drivers were encouraged to use other toilets at the end of their routes.

"It is not possible to provide our own toilet facilities across the city due to our extensive route network," she said.

"However, drivers are advised to use the toilet facilities of local amenities."

The spokeswoman did not comment on reports that drivers were having to urinate in bottles.

"The lads have said that enough is enough," said Mr O'Leary.

"They need the company, through discussions, to come up with appropriate facilities that they can use at the termini across the city.

"There is a demand from the membership to provide adequate facilities either directly or through a third party, such as pubs or shops."

Mr O'Leary added that drivers did use shops and pubs, but there was no official agreement between Dublin Bus and the businesses involved, with drivers having to ask for permission each time.

"It's not a solution and it's not fair either," he said.

Evidence

"Ultimately, the way to deal with this is to have a mixture of the three different types of facilities."

Asked about reports of drivers using bottles to urinate in, Mr O'Leary said: "Anecdotal evidence would suggest that people are having to resort to that."

Next week's meeting comes on the back of London mayor Sadiq Khan investing 6m (6.8m) in toilets for bus drivers in the city.

Earlier this week, Mr Khan announced that permanent toilets would be built along 40 routes across London that presently have limited access to facilities.

"It can't be right that a bus driver can be stuck behind the wheel and not know where they can access a toilet," he said.

It is understood that next Tuesday's meeting between the NBRU and Dublin Bus is unrelated to the development in London.The mother of innocent plumber Anthony Campbell, who was shot dead in the house where crime kingpin Marlo Hyland was murdered in 2006, has said she thinks she will never see justice for her son.

Christine Campbell was speaking as she paid tribute to Detective Superintendent Colm Fox who was laid to rest yesterday after taking his own life in Ballymun Garda Station on Saturday night.

"After 11 years I don't think I will ever get justice," she told the Herald. "I will fight for it like I always have, but I don't think it will ever happen."

Despite extensive investigations, nobody has ever been charged with the murders of Anthony and Hyland.

Christine said she was shocked and saddened to learn of Det Supt Fox's death, and added that whoever took his place would have "big shoes to fill".

Calculated

She said he worked tirelessly on the murder case of young Anthony, who was shot because Hyland's killers feared he would be able to identify them.

The hit team had gone to a house in Scribblestown Park, Finglas, on December 12, 2006, where they knew drug boss Hyland was in hiding.

But they did not know that the owner of the house was getting some plumbing work done.

The plumber had dropped apprentice Anthony off and gone to get supplies, but while he was gone the killers arrived.

In a cold and calculated move, they killed both Hyland and Anthony.

Ever since that day Christine has campaigned for justice for her son, but in the 11 years since the murders nobody has been convicted.

"Colm would ring me to update me on the investigation, even if there wasn't anything new to report. He was good like that," said Christine from her home in the UK where she has since built a new life.

"He was a very professional man, but he had empathy too. He was a nice guy and I had confidence in him.

"Colm was considerate, a lovely man, he knew how to comfort you," she added.Historic Jonathan Street cabin renovation completed

A look at the ribbon cutting for the Jonathan Street cabin after its restoration and renovation.In a strategic move to expand its footprint in the Indian Ocean region, India has secured access to the key Port of Duqm in Oman for military use and logistical support, top sources have told The Indian Express. This is part of Indias maritime strategy to counter Chinese influence and activities in the region. This was one of the key takeaways of Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Oman over the last two days. He met Sultan of Oman Sayyid Qaboos bin Said Al Said and an annexure to the Memorandum of Understanding on Military Cooperation was signed between the two countries. Sources said following this pact, the services of Duqm port and dry dock will be available for maintenance of Indian military vessels.

The Port of Duqm is situated on the southeastern seaboard of Oman, overlooking the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. It is strategically located, in close proximity to the Chabahar port in Iran. With the Assumption Island being developed in Seychelles and Agalega in Mauritius, Duqm fits into Indias proactive maritime security roadmap.

Recently, Duqm has seen a rise in Indian activities. In September last year, India deployed an attack submarine to this port in the western Arabian Sea. A Shishumar-class submarine entered Duqm along with naval ship INS Mumbai and two P-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft. India gets access to strategic Oman port for military use, reconnaissance aircraft. The naval units were on a month-long deployment with the aim of enhancing surveillance and cooperation.

Following Modis visit to Oman, the joint statement said the two sides noted that the MoU on Military Cooperation, signed in 2005 and renewed in 2016, has provided the general framework to strengthen bilateral defence ties. India and Oman noted that the MoUs on cooperation in maritime security and between Coast Guards of the two countries, signed in May 2016, have provided a firm foundation for deepening institutional interactions. Both sides expressed satisfaction at the signing of an annexure to the existing MoU on Military Cooperation between the defence ministries, it said.

In August 2017, Oman signed an MoU with the United Kingdom that allowed the Royal Navy to use the Port of Duqm. The agreement allows UK access to facilities at Duqm, and among the vessels that will be allowed to dock at the port is the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier, the largest ship in the British Navy.

The joint statement said the Indian side thanked Oman for facilitating operational visits by Indian Naval ships and aircraft as well as Indian Air Force aircraft to various ports and airports. Recognising their common responsibility towards promoting regional peace and security, the two sides underlined the importance of further cementing bilateral strategic engagement, especially in the areas of security and defence, it said.

It also said that the two sides expressed satisfaction at the ongoing bilateral security collaboration in the fields of counter-terrorism, information-sharing and capacity-building, and the Prime Minister appreciated the support extended by Omani security agencies on specific issues of security concern to India.

They agreed to provide further impetus to the robust defence relations, including through regular joint exercises by the three defence forces, training of Navy, Air and Army officials, as also cooperation in the area of coastal defence and through participation in defence exhibitions, the statement said.

The Port of Duqm also has a special economic zone, where about $1.8 billion investments are being made by some Indian companies. The Adani group had signed an MoU with Duqm port authorities last year, but no investments have been made so far. The Prime Minister expressed his admiration at the ongoing efforts and plans the Sultanate of Oman is making to diversify its economy and welcomed the invitation to Indian companies to invest in various sectors in the special economic zones of Oman, including SEZs in Duqm, Sohar and Salalah. He offered Indias partnership and cooperation in areas of priority, such as minerals and mining, manufacturing, logistics, infrastructure, tourism, agriculture and fisheries, IT and IT enabled-services, skills development, innovation, said the joint statement.

In the context of strategic oil reserves near Duqm, it said the Prime Minister reiterated Indias invitation to Oman to participate in building strategic oil reserves in India. Sultan briefed the Indian Prime Minister on Omans own initiative to create its strategic oil reserves in Ras Markaz near Duqm. The two sides agreed that there is broad scope for mutual cooperation in building their strategic oil reserves, the statement said.

Besides Sultan Qaboos, the Prime Minister met Deputy Prime Minister Sayyid Fahd bin Mahmoud al-Said, and Deputy Prime Minister for International Relations and Cooperation Affairs Sayyid Asaad bin Tariq Al Said.

He also visited a Shiva temple and the Grand Mosque, besides addressing the business community, before leaving for Delhi. During his meeting with Modi, Sultan Qaboos shared his views on turmoil in the region, especially in Yemen. The Prime Minister thanked him for his efforts in securing the release of captured priest, Father Tom, from Yemen last year.

The two sides acknowledged the common threat posed by terrorism to peace and security and agreed to continue working together bilaterally, regionally and globally to counter this menace. They reiterated their strong condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, wherever committed and by whomever, and declared that there could be no justification for any act of terrorism anywhere, said the joint statement.

The two sides also emphasised the need to isolate the sponsors and supporters of terrorism and agreed that the international community should take urgent action against all entities which support terrorism and use it as an instrument of policy.

Source : Indian ExpressHello, recruit. Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Learn about the elements of spying, its history, and find out what kind of spy you could be.

Thats the order of the day at SPYSCAPE, a new attraction opening Friday in Manhattan, where visitors can get a glimpse of spyings past and present, from the code-breaking machines of World War II to the most famous names in espionage and their deeds of daring or in some cases, dastardly deception.

Visitors can also take a series of tests that gauge everything from their powers of observation to their willingness to take risks, to see what spy role theyd be suited for. (Dont worry, theres no secret agency recruiting station at the exit).

People are going to come here and find out spies are actually like we are, said Shelby Prichard, chief of staff at SPYSCAPE. Theyre probably the closest thing you can get to superheroes in the real world but theyre people. With training, with tools, definitely intelligence, but I think, at the end of the day, well all discover we each have our own kinds of spy skills and aptitudes.

The exhibition space is divided into different galleries. They focus on specific areas  encryption, deception, hacking, cyberwarfare, intelligence, surveillance and special ops. In each of the galleries, visitors can see artifacts related to that area, like an actual Enigma machine used by the Germans to encrypt messages during World War II, or masks worn by members of the global hacking group Anonymous with some signed with the code name of the person who wore it.

In the surveillance section, part of the exhibition showcases how tools used by governments can also be used by other organisations, by incorporating material from The Associated Press Pulitzer Prize-winning expose , Seafood from Slaves. The stories traced how fish caught by slave labour in Southeast Asia ended up on American plates.

Reporting it involved using satellite technology to track a cargo ship that was moving the seafood caught by the enslaved men, as well as surveillance of the fish as it was offloaded and moved to other facilities. The exhibit at SPYSCAPE features the tools of the trade like a reporters notebook and laptop, as well as video from the journalists involved. Were really focused on showing how every person uses spy skills in everyday life, Prichard said.

The exhibits dont just focus on the past, either  theres a segment talking about messaging programs like WhatsApp, and how long messages on it will remain encrypted, as well as an area offering tips on how to limit your cyber exposure. An art exhibit is made up of video cameras representing some of the most well-known and widely used social media sites, like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The interactive tests that visitors can take to build up their profiles are varied. In one section, theyre asked to answer logic puzzles to rate their IQ, while in the deception section theyre taught about different physical signs of lying and asked to determine whether someone being questioned is being truthful or not. In the surveillance section, they have a set amount of time to look at a range of screens and answer questions about what theyre seeing.

The most physical interactive is the Special Ops area, where people take a run through a laser beam maze, trying to hit targets along the way. Several years in the making, SPYSCAPEs advisers and consultants included former spies and members of intelligence agencies, as well as hackers-turned-security consultants.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreNew York Citys Metropolitan Museum of Art says its recently concluded Michelangelo exhibit is the 10th-most visited exhibition in the museums history.

Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer ended Monday after drawing 702,516 visitors over its three-month residency. The New York Times reports it surpassed attendance for the 2011 exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, which drew 661,609 visitors.

One of the paintings at the exhibition. (Youtube)

However, the Michelangelo exhibit did not come close to surpassing the attendance records set by the museums top two exhibits. Treasures of Tutankhamun, a five month-exhibition of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs artifacts in the 1970s, and Leonardo Da Vincis Mona Lisa broke the million visitor mark.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreIn 2016, Kannada films Kirrik Party not only won the hearts of the audience, but swept major award shows too. The film directed by Rishabh Shetty is not getting a Telugu remake starring Nikhil Siddharth Simran Pareenja, Simran Hegde and others.

Now, we hear that Bollywood is coming up with its own remake of the campus-comedy. The industry grapevine suggests that Aiyaary actor Sidharth Malhotra will play the role originally essayed by Rakshit Shetty.

According to a report in Mumbai Mirror, sources close to the actor claimed that he loved his part in the film. Sidharth has had meetings with producer Ajay Kapoor, who holds the remake rights of Kirrik Party, and loved his part. He is yet to sign on the dotted line but is looking forward to start work on this one.

The writer of Kirrik Party Rishab Shetty and actor Rakshit Shetty have both been sharing reports about Siddharth being a part of the project, adding more fuel to the speculations.

In the meanwhile, Siddharths Aiyaary is releasing world wide on February 16, and the actor plays the role of a rogue soldier who goes head to head with his trainer played by Manoj Bajpayee. The Neeraj Pandey directorial also stars Naseeruddin Shah in a pivotal role. The movie is finally releasing on the silver screen after being postponed twice.

Follow @htshowbiz for morePriyadarshans upcoming film in which actor Abhishek Bachchan will play the lead role, will commence its shoot in Dharamsala on June 5, said the director.

The script is ready. We are considering a few to play the heroines role. We have a few options and will be finalised soon. Then we will move on to others in the cast line, Priyadarshan told IANS over phone from Chennai about the family comedy.

This will be the 93rd film of his career that has entered the 36th year.

In Bollywood, this is going to be his 27th film as a director.Nirav Modi, Haut Diamantaire, and the person at the centre of the $1.77 billion ( Rs 11,400 crore) banking fraud at Punjab National Bank, is a regular on the pages of some of the worlds leading international financial dailies and fashion magazines advertising for stores located at high street locations  31 Old Bond Street, London, and 727 Madison Avenue, New York. In Mumbai, his store will soon replace the iconic Rythm House at Colaba which shuttered in 2016. Besides, billboards of the brand with brand ambassador Priyanka Chopra are plastered all across the maximum city.

But that was then.

In recent times , life for the 47 year-old billionaire has been anything but sunny. Since 2014, a year after he first appeared on the Forbes billionaire list, he has been under the scanner, chased by various law enforcement authorities  the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and even the tax department for illegal transactions and alleged frauds. In 2014, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) called him out for alleged diversion of imported, duty-free, cut and polished diamonds and pearls to the domestic market. The DRI called it a violation of import-export norms. Currently, he is the focus of a CBI enquiry for cheating Punjab National Bank (PNB) of Rs 280 crore. The ED has registered a case against him for money laundering.

Modi did not respond to emails seeking comment.

Born in India but raised in Antwerp in Belgium, the diamond capital of the world, third generation diamantaire Modi grew up as an integral part of the diamond business with the dinner table conversation at home often about the size and cut of the latest rock the family had acquired. Yet, this was not the profession that he wanted to be in during his growing up years. Modi, who is described as soft-spoken, and unassuming by those who know him, aspired to be a music conductor. That also explains his love for hi-fi music systems. He would scout the world for the best from companies like Bang and Olufsen.

Music, though, was not meant to be. He joined the family business of his maternal uncle at Gitanjali Gems Ltd, at 19 having dropped out of University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School. His uncle Mehul Choksi, chairman, Gitanjali Gems, is also one of the four accused in the ongoing CBI investigation, although he has denied being associated with any of Modis companies.

It was these initial nine years at Gitanjali Gems that laid the foundation for Modis own jewellery business. According to a caution note sent by Punjab National Bank to the chiefs of 30 other lenders, Gitanjali Gems group companies used the same methods as the Modi companies to avail guarantee or comfort letters. On February 7, Gitanjali Gems informed the stock exchanges that Choksi had no dealings with the Modi firm in the centre of the scams and he had retired as partner in one of them in 1999.

Read: ED searches multiple locations over Rs 280-cr money laundering probe against Nirav Modi

Modis tryst with jewellery design also happened by chance. It started with the designing of a pair of earnings for a friend and that too after a lot of persuasion. This was in 2009. There has been no looking back since.

Within a year he went on to become the first Indian to feature on the cover of a Christies auction catalogue in 2010 for his Golconda diamond necklace that fetched $3.56 million at its auction in Hong Kong. In October 2012, his Riviere Diamond Necklace was sold for $5.1 million at a Sothebys auction in Hong Kong. In 2013, Modi entered the Forbes list of billionaires for the first time. Today, the brand manages to hold its own among rivals like the century-old Van Cleef and Arpels and Richemont SAs Cartier and his clients include Hollywood actress Kate Winslet who wore diamond creations by the jewellery designer for her red-carpet arrival at the 2016 Academy Awards. In addition, many of Indias biggest business families have been buying diamonds from him for years.

Modi is ranked 1,234 in Forbes worlds billionaires list for 2017, and 85 in India. His financial worth is estimated at $1.73 billion through his jewellery design and retail businesses, according to the Forbes website. The Nirav Modi brand is owned by Firestar Diamond International Pvt. Ltd, a diamond trading and jewellery firm founded by Modi which also owns A Jaffe, another jewellery brand, and produces jewellery for other labels in the US.

The father of three speaks in Gujarati with his wife and children and is committed to family customs and tradition, he had told Mint in an interview in 2016. His interests include reading  about a dozen global newspapers every day, magazines, literature and poetry. An avid traveller he appreciates visiting museums, a habit inculcated by his mother, an interior designer.

For all this, his future for now looks clouded and heavy.Billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi and other members of his family, who fled the country last month, allegedly made fraudulent transactions of over Rs 11,400 crore through 150 letters of undertaking issued by the Punjab National Bank, officials said.

Nirav Modi, who holds an Indian passport, left India on January 1, while his brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, also left the country on same day. However, whether they travelled together has to be probed, they said.

Nirav Modis wife Ami, a US citizen, left on January 6 and his uncle and business partner Mehul Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali jewellery chain, left on January 4, the officials said.

The bank became suspicious only on January 16 when the accused companies  Diamond R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds (all accused in the CBI FIR)  approached it with import documents and a request to issue Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) for raising buyers credit for making payments to the overseas suppliers.

The bank, however, could not find any past entries in the system, the FIR has alleged.

It approached the CBI on January 29 with a complaint of Rs 280 crore fraud, officials said.

Nirav Modi, who is believed to be in Switzerland, was also present in a group photograph of Indian CEOs with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, issued by the Press Information Bureau, during the World Economic Forum on January 23, six days before the bank sent its first complaint against him to the CBI, according to the officials.

The agency immediately swung into action registering an FIR on January 31 followed by searches at 20 locations in Mumbai and Surat and issued a look out circular on February 4 against Nirav Modi and three absconding accused, they said.

A look out circular is issued by enforcement agencies to all exit and entry ports to inform them about the movement of an accused.

Nirav Modi, a regular on the lists of rich and famous Indians since 2013, was booked by the CBI, along with wife, brother and business partner Choksi on January 31, for allegedly cheating the state-run Punjab National Bank to the tune of Rs 280 crore.

The bank again approached the CBI within a fortnight of the first complaint giving details of more transactions which were over Rs 11,400 crore.

The question why the PNB did not send a complaint to the CBI and decided to give it in tranches is also under the scanner of the agency, they said.

An LoU is a letter of comfort issued by one bank to branches of other banks, based on which foreign branches offer credit to buyers.

The bank has claimed in three complaints to the CBI that so far it has detected 150 LoUs which were fraudulently issued by its officials in connivance with Nirav Modi and the other accused in the case, officials said.

The agency is analysing the fresh complaints and will take a call whether to register fresh FIRs or expand the ambit of the existing FIR related to fraudulent transactions of worth Rs 280 crore, they said.

In these cases, the bank has alleged that the LOUs were issued to Hong Kong based branches of Allahabad and Axis bank, they said.

The PNB has claimed in the complaint that overseas branch of banks used the funds to clear their own liabilities, the officials said.

During searches conducted by the agency which included the residences of Nirav Modi and the other accused along with companies, the CBI recovered 95 crucial documents related to import bills, they said.

The agency has also seized computers and other digital devices and has completed mirror imaging of computers seized during the searches, the officials said.A special court for Prevention of Corruption Act on Wednesday, discharged former Maharashtra home minister Kripashankar Singh in a disproportionate assets case.

Singhs wife Maltidevi, son Narendramohan, daughter Sunita, daughter-in-law Ankita and son-in-law Vijaykumar Singh will, however, have to face the prosecution for aiding and abetting the minister.

Singh, a former president of the Congress Mumbai unit, has been discharged as the prosecution failed to produce sanction to prosecute him, from the speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. Special judge Dilip K Gudadhe, however, said that rest of the accused booked in the case will be tried in accordance with law.

The special court has posted the case on March 9 for framing of charges against Singhs family members.

Singh had filed a plea for discharge on November 28, 2016 claiming that the prosecuting agency had not obtained necessary sanction to prosecute him. During the course of investigation, the agency had approached the speaker of the house twice for sanction to prosecute Singh. However, on both the occasions, the sanction was refused by the speaker with a detailed order, said Singhs lawyer KH Giri.

Singh has cited observations made by the speaker in his October 13, 2014 order refusing sanction to prosecute the Congress leader.

The Speaker, on going through the said material, found serious discrepancies in the record of the prosecuting agency and found that the disproportionate asset were only to the extent of (-) 0.4% and on that basis refused to grant sanction sought by the investigating officer, stated Singhs discharge plea.

The speaker had refused sanction to prosecute Singh once on June 14, 2014 and later on October 13, 2014.

The prosecution on the other hand, claimed that the charge sheet was filed in April 2015 when Singh was not holding any government position and therefore, sanction to prosecute him was not required.

The court however, accepted arguments put forth on behalf of the Congress leader and discharged him for lack of sanction.

Singh and his family members were chargesheeted on April 4, 2015 for possessing 19.95% more assets than their known sources of income.

The Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau had booked his wife, son, daughter, daughter-in-law and son-in-law for aiding and abetting him.

A case was registered against Singh and his kin pursuant to an order of the Bombay high court in a public interest litigation (PIL), alleging that the Congress leader and his family members had amassed huge assets. The PIL claimed that Singhs, who came from a humble background, had collected assets worth Rs320 crore.February is arguably the nicest month weather-wise in the national capital. The icy Himalayan wind gives way to a gentler breeze signalling a gradual change of seasons. This time, it also marks a possible shift in political temperature ahead of a big election year with the Congress suddenly finding its voice on a range of issues from the economy to the Rafael aircraft deal even as the aura of invincibility around the ruling leadership is eroded.

Two by-election results in Rajasthan appear to have been the immediate trigger for the shift in political momentum. Resounding victories for the Congress in the Lok Sabha seats of Alwar and Ajmer (the party led in all 16 assembly segments) suggest that 2019 may not quite be 2014. Remember, the BJP swept all 25 seats in Rajasthan in the 2014 general elections, part of a north-west India wave stretching from Goa to Jharkhand that propelled the party to a remarkable majority on its own. Now, the defeat in Rajasthan suggests that the saffron surge of 2014 may be beginning to slow down.

But is Rajasthan a mirror to the rest of India, or merely an aberration? The BJPs mascot in the twin Rajasthan elections was not Narendra Modi, but the state chief minister Vasundhara Raje. To that extent, the by-election results would suggest mounting anti-incumbency against the state government. Rajasthan, after all, has a history in recent times of voting out the incumbent government every five years.

And yet, the BJP leadership can no longer be complacent. The agrarian distress is real and nationwide. Farmers have been temporarily placated with budgetary promises but translating the promise into delivery is this governments biggest challenge. The promise of 10 million new jobs a year is clearly not happening, and wrapping it up in a plate of pakodas is not going to address the ambitions of Indias young. So far, the growing disillusionment of the unrealised achche din has not turned to anger, but that, too, can change in the next 12 months if there is no visible improvement on the ground.

One sign of the shifting mood is reflected on social media, the echo chamber of contemporary urban political discourse. Where once the BJP and Modi in particular ruled cyberspace, now there are Modi jokes that are going viral. The union budget, far from stemming the tide, has only aggravated the sense of disquiet. For the urban middle class in particular, the budget offers little hope that their wallets will have a distinct bulge in the immediate future.

Which might also explain the growing belief that the Modi government is seeking to quickly shift the political narrative away from the economy to more emotional issues revolving around religious nationalism. That the East Delhi BJP MP Mahesh Giri has chosen to launch a Rashtriya Raksha Yagna in a week when there has been yet another major terror attack in Jammu is not without significance: the maha-yagna is a conscious attempt to stir a religio-national fervour ahead of the election season. The RSS chief has already offered his swayam-sevaks for border protection if the constitution permits. The VHP has also announced its plans to reignite the Ram Mandir issue even as the Supreme Court hears the contentious dispute. The early signs from Karnataka too suggest that the BJP is looking to create a Hindu consolidation by raising the familiar bogey of Muslim appeasement.

And yet, whether an unapologetic old-style Hindutva politics can deliver the spectacular results of 2014 for a new India is uncertain. That election triumph was driven by strong public anger against the ruling Congress-led UPA with Modis muscular image embodying the face of change. That image has been dented but remains well ahead of what Rahul Gandhi and the opposition have to offer so far. A fragmented opposition may well be Modis ticket to a second term in power. He is still the consummate election campaigner who will determinedly make the general elections a presidential contest between him versus Rahul and the rest. And yet, while the prime ministers supporters seek to keep his larger than life image intact, the Indian voter has a history of eventually slicing through the rhetoric. Indeed, what appeared a done deal just months ago is no longer guaranteed. The battle for 2019 has only just begun.

Post-script: A senior Congress leader in parliament insisted before a large group of journalists that Modi would not be prime minister unless the BJP got 220 seats on its own in 2019. That the remarks were made within earshot of several MPs from the BJPs increasingly restive allies was interesting. Is 220 the new 272 and can Modi lead a genuine coalition government? Those are the questions that are still blowing in the February wind.

Rajdeep Sardesai is a senior journalist and author

The views expressed are personalWith the slow pace at which carbon stock is increasing, India will not be able to achieve its target of 2.5 million tonne by 2030, warn environmentalists.

To meet the target, they suggest two options that of planting trees with better survival rate and lesser dependence on forest, to achieve the target.

The Forest Survey of India (FSI) report released on February 13, in New Delhi by Union forest minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, shows that the carbon stock has increased by 38 million tonne between 2015 and 2017. The carbon stock, calculated in the report, was 7,082 million tonne up from 7,044 million tonne in 2015.

Going by the average, FSI officials said the country will be able to achieve between 1.9 million tonne and 2 million tonne of carbon stock by 2030--a shortage of 0.5-0.6 million tonne, some of them said.

To bridge the gap, officials have suggested ways of augmenting the difference.

Fifty-six percent of carbon is locked in the soil, which is a major source of carbon stock, Saibal Dasgupta, director general of FSI, told media persons here on Thursday.

We suggest that planting more trees with better survival rate and also lesser dependence of people on forest, he said.

The report states that Arunachal Pradesh has the highest stock of carbon with 994.5 million tonne, followed by Madhya Pradesh with 695.5 million tonne, Chhatisgarh-560.9 million tonne and Maharashtra with 493.0 million tonne.

Union forest minister during his visit to Dehradun last year, had admitted that there will be a shortage of carbon stock against the target and said the ministry of environment, forest and climate change is pinning its hopes on community forestry and farming.

Andaman and Nicobar islands reported the highest per hectare carbon stock with 170.68 tonne followed by Arunachal Pradesh with 148.52 tonne, Sikkim with 145.14 tonne and Karnataka with 126.52 tonne.

Emphasizing the importance on treatment of catchment areas that will solve a number of problems in ecology, Dasgupta said: The treatment of catchment area will help in checking wastage of water collected through streams and rain.

It will also increase the water table, check forest fires and also help in mitigating man-animal conflict.

BOX

In Uttarakhand, a marginal increase of 23 sqkm of forest cover was reported. But, out of the 13 districts, eight, including Bageshwar, Chamoli, Champawat, Haridwar, Nainital, US Nagar and Uttarkashi reported a decline in the forest cover.

Of the district, Nainital reported the highest decline of 36 sqkm followed by Uttarkahsi with 26 sqkm and Chamoli with 15 sqkm.The sprawling fields in front of Sultan Chauhans 20-room house in Hauz Khas village doubled up as playground when he was a child. But today, the fields have been replaced by a congested row of buildings that has cropped up in the last three decades.

At 75, the frail old man with a flowing white beard reminisces the good old days even as he witnesses open spaces swallowed by urbanisation, inch by inch.

Now, every time I step out, I fear I am going to run into an accident, Chauhan said, explaining the gentrification that his ancestral village has undergone ever since his birth in 1942.

Swallowed by metropolis

Hauz Khas Village lies tucked in a backyard that consists of a medley of boutiques, plush restaurants and noisy pubs. It is one of the 135 urban villages of the National Capital where the unplanned and unrestricted boom of residential and commercial establishments and the absence of adequate amenities attracted no authoritys attention.

If I walk towards Aurobindo Marg from my house, I cant see the skyline over my head. It is now hidden under building floors, said Chauhan, sitting in House Number 43, perhaps the only unaffected building among the 80-odd households in the village. As fate would have it, his only son Liyakat Ali is also into the property business.

Be it Hauz Khas Village or the five urban villages in Kotla Mubarakpur  sandwiched between Defence Colony and South Extension  the situation of urbanised villages remains more or less the same across Delhi.

Agricultural land of these villages was acquired from farmers after 1911 to set up the National Capital in Delhi.

Now, narrow unpaved roads form a maze bisecting rows of multi-storey buildings where even three-wheelers struggle to navigate. Tangled electricity wires hover overhead and garbage can be seen flowing out of sewer lines.

Due to its proximity to Delhis urban centres, cheap rentals and shopping centres, people with business interests entered the villages and now tenants outnumber original residents.

Read: Multiple agencies hamper implementation of Master Plan rules

Sitting on a cot on the narrow alley leading to his double-storey house in Jood Bagh, Chaudhary Prem Singh said he cannot see his great-grandchildren suffocating in the shrinking neighbourhood where he was born 70 years ago.

Look at the unending market that has come up to Arya Nagar. There are cars piled up on both sides of the road. Is this place even worth living anymore? Singh said between puffs of smoke from the long-stemmed hookah. A retired government official, Singh lives with his family of 15 in the six-room house built in 1989. With a population of 2,000, Jood Bagh is one of the five urbanised villages of Kotla Mubarakpur.

Lado Sarai in New Delhi. (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

Unplanned development

When Delhi was being set up as the national capital in 1911, the population of its urbanised villages was included within Lal Dora  a term that referred to the boundary of villages within which laws of corporations or urban authorities were not applicable.

But as human settlements expanded, the extended population was included in a new peripheral boundary called Phirni, while the area between the Lal Dora and Phirni was termed Extended Lal Dora.

They (authorities) marked Lal Doras and let all illegal developments take place inside, said Dunu Roy of the Hazards Centre. As we move towards master plan 2041, many things in the 2021 plan like monitoring have not even been touched.

According to a 1957 notification, Lal Doras were exempted from the building bylaws and other regulations of Delhi Municipal Act. On August 24, 1963, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) passed another notification saying no building permission was required for construction in Lal Doras.

While the previous two master plans (1962, 2001) left out the villages, the existing Master Plan Delhi 2021 has laid down norms that say these villages would be governed by special regulations but will remain exempt from sealing.

For villages which have been notified as urbanised, any construction has to be carried out in conformity with the building bylaws of the local bodies and Master Plan of Delhi 2021, said JP Agrawal, principal commissioner, housing, DDA.

According to Tejinder Khanna Committee report submitted in 2006, special building bylaws were supposed to be framed for these villages.

Congress leader Ajay Maken, who was Union minister of state for urban development when 2021 Master Plan was

being implemented in 2009, said civic amenities have not reached the villages for want of space.

Agricultural land was acquired from farmers at low compensation. And in return, the development done was insufficient. Livelihood problems are acute as the compensation that most of them got has been exhausted. So, their means of livelihood is rental income because of which the villages have been converted into rental units and small scale industries, he said.

In these villages, water, sewer and electricity are the responsibility of the Delhi government while the local bodies maintain drains and lanes.

Irreversible growth

The haphazard growth in these villages appears largely irreversible.

Time and again the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has made different announcements on sealing or demolition of illegal constructions.

Officials said properties in urbanised villages that were constructed before 2007 have been given protection under the Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act for Urbanised Villages 2008. But any property which has been constructed after that is liable for sealing and demolition, they said.

The Master Plan 2021 provides protection to properties in urbanised villages as building regulations for these areas had not been notified. But confusion persists over buildings constructed after 2007. So, we cannot do much, said an official who did not want to be named.

Recently, the Union cabinet cleared the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (NCTD) (Special Provisions) Second (Amendment) Act, 2017.

The Act provides immunity of three more years (beyond the December 31, 2017 deadline), to all properties with unauthorised constructions including commercial establishments in residential areas, high-end boutiques and showrooms in urbanised villages such as Shahpur Jat and Hauz Khas Village. Unless Delhi has a town planning department like other states, we should stop hoping for improvement in these hubs of illegal construction, said AK Jain, former DDA planning commissioner.

Pilanji Village in New Delhi. (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

No record of population

In Pillanji, the only urban village in New Delhi area, rows of multi-storey buildings have come up after the land of dairy farmers was acquired in 1911. However, no one knows how many people have been added to the original 4,000 residents of the area.

Pillanji saw some development in terms of sewer lines and roads as part of an initiative by MP Meenakshi Lekhi, who adopted the village for development.

There is no record of how many people live here, said Harish Chand, a 60-year-old resident who is the fourth generation resident of the 600-year-old village. There was a time when we were fascinated if a car passed by. Today, there is no space for humans to walk.

Parts of this urbanised village were acquired for housing government employees in Sarojini Nagar. Today, like any other urbanised village, it is more commercialised than residential.

Some people stayed back, some have left. The original inhabitants, who were largely dairy farmers, exhausted the compensation money as families grew in size. There were no resources and they kept adding floors to the buildings, said Chattar Singh, an old resident of the village.New Delhi

Jawaharlal Nehru University students, led by the students union members, allegedly confined some university officials in the administrative block since 11 am on Thursday.

The JNUSU, however, denied the allegation and claimed that they were only peacefully waiting outside the building to have a meeting with the vice chancellor and raise questions about compulsory attendance policy.

Till the filing of this report late on Thursday night, the officials were reportedly still confined inside the building.

A statement released by the registrar claims that the students had blocked the way of two rectors when they had tried to step out for lunch earlier in the day. The students apparently also chased rector I back into the building when he tried to leave for a class around 4pm.

The administration has repeatedly requested the students to let the officials get out. But they have confined them and are not letting them go out. They fear for their safety. The rectors were not allowed to go for lunch. Now rector I is feeling giddy and may require medical attention, read a statement released by the JNU administration.

We have not called the police yet. We are still trying to appeal to the students and sort this out amicably, said Pramod Kumar, the registrar, who also added that top officials including the chief proctor and the first and third rectors were confined in the building. He, however, could not confirm whether the V-C was inside the building or not.

JNU vice chancellor, M Jagadesh Kumar, did not respond to calls or text messages. He, however, tweeted saying that Despite high court order not to hold any protests near JNU admin building, not only there is a huge gathering since morning, JNUSU led students have even confined the top officials of JNU within admin building since 11 AM... Taking the university to ransom and confining the top officials in admin building since morning is highly condemnable. Let us raise our voice against such unwelcome behaviour.

The high court had banned protests within 100 metres of the administative building of JNU, after students had confined officials during protests following first year student Najeeb Ahmeds disappearance.

The JNUSU, however, called the allegations lies and released a statement saying that they were peacefully waiting to meet JNU V-C and raise questions about compulsory attendance.

They dont want any dialogue and are spreading lies. All university officials are freely moving in and out of the administration building, reads their statement.

However, the president and the joint secretary of the union, both said that the students would wait outside the building until the V-C meets them.

We are just waiting here. (The officials) can have a dialogue and then go. We just want the V-C to clarify their position and rationale behind the attendance policy.

Students had started assembling at freedom square outside the administrative block of the university from around 11am on Thursday and had demanded that the V-C meet the students and the office bearers, as part of the ongoing agitations against the new attendance policy on campus. The movement had gained momentum, after a new circular issued on Thursday said that students could claim their scholarships, appear for exams, or register for the new semester, only if they maintain the minimum required attendance.The Indian fashion runway is witnessing a revolution. And spearheading it are the gender-neutral models whove carved a niche for themselves, with designers approaching them for campaigns, runway shows, and catalogues. They model for menswear, womens clothing, and androgynous attire.

Talking about this shift, designer Nikhil Mehra says, Every 10 years, the modelling industry sees a shift. In the 90s, it was Milind Soman who revolutionised the Indian fashion scene with his masculinity. Now, the norms are changing  we have models like Rabanne Jamsandekar and TJ Singh, who represent the new India by being who they are. Well see more demand for these androgynous models in the days to come. Weve now got models shouting individuality and not masculinity.

Picture by @heytambe. #blackeye A post shared by Rabanne Jamsandekar (@itsrabannebitch) on Nov 2, 2015 at 12:55am PST

The interesting thing is that TJ is gender-fluid mainly for the purpose of modelling. He says, I go to gender fluidity when it comes to makeup or like just wearing a womens top or something like that. I love to try and work on different things.

Rabanne, who has been doing gender-neutral modelling for three years now, says that the trend is gaining pace, with designers categorically wanting androgynous models for their campaigns and ramp shows. The demand has certainly increased a lot and Im lucky that I joined modelling at a time when were required to showcase their clothes in the best possible way. In fact, the other male models look up to us when it comes to style.

Designer Anvita Sharma, who showcased her genderless collection at Lakme Fashion Week, believes that gender fluidity is permeating the fashion scenario in India. People have slowly but visibly started accepting gender-fluid fashion, she says. Androgynous models, trans models and skinny males with feminine features are becoming popular  with their camouflage character, they fit into these kinds of looks. Fashion reflects the mood of society; hence, its easier now for people to relate to them.

Delhi-based model Malkeet Singh, who has also been doing androgynous modelling says, The only place where you accept and celebrate all kinds of people is the fashion world. Getting major catwalk shows and campaigns validates the fact that were appreciated.James Bond is parting with his personal Aston Martin. Actor Daniel Craig, who has played the British spy known as 007 in four films, is auctioning for charity the limited-edition vehicle made for him by Aston Martin four years ago, Christies auction house said on Thursday.

Aston Martin cars have appeared in Bond films over nearly 50 years, beginning with 1964s Goldfinger in which Sean Connery drove a silver Aston Martin DB5. The brand has appeared in all four Bond films starring Craig.

Craigs personal car is a 2014 Vanquish that Aston Martin produced just 100 examples of to celebrate its 100th anniversary. Craigs vehicle is, naturally, number 007.

It was an homage, really, to his career, Becky MacGuire, director of Christies The Exceptional Sale, said in an interview. What hes brought to the Bond character has been so appreciated by the company and, of course, zillions of fans.

The vehicle has a midnight blue exterior and dark blue luxury leather interior chosen because of Craigs preference for denim and dark colours, Christies said.

Actor Daniel Craig's limited edition centennial 2014 Centenary Edition Vanquish, numbered 007, is seen in an undated photo released by Christie's auction house February 15, 2018. (REUTERS)

Proceeds from the sale will benefit New York-based charity The Opportunity Network, which helps students from disadvantaged communities achieve their college and career goals. Craig and his wife, actor Rachel Weisz, both sit on the organizations board of directors.

The cars value is estimated at $400,000 to $600,000. It will be displayed at Christies showroom in Los Angeles from Feb. 27-March 3 before moving to New York, where it will be auctioned on April 20 as part of Christies annual decorative arts masterpiece sale called The Exceptional Sale.

Last year, Craig said he will reprise the role of James Bond one last time. The film is expected to be released in US cinemas on November 8, 2019.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreHeavy security arrangements were in place across Hisar, Sirsa and Fatehabad in Haryana on thursday ahead of

BJP national president Amit Shahs rally in Jind.

The Hisar administration deployed additional forces at the Narnaud area, which is close to Jind district and is considered a stronghold of the leader of Opposition Abhay Singh Chautala.

Hisar deputy commissioner (DC) Nikhil Gajraj met duty magistrates, asking them to keep a strict vigil throughout the day. Gajraj has also imposed Section 144 of the CrPC in the area.

Several BJP leaders from the state began their journey to Jind at early in the morning to reach the rally spot on their registered motorcycles. Pawan Beniwal, a BJP leader from Sirsa, said, We have told every rider to follow the traffic rules. The rally of Amit Shah is a one-of-its-kind rally.

BJP leaders from Sirsa preparing to go for Amit Shahs rally in Jind. (HT Photo)

No invitation to Saini?

BJP MP from Kurukshetra Raj Kumar Saini did not reach Jind to attend BJPs state level rally in Jind. Saini said he was not invited in time for the rally, in which about 1 lakh party workers are expected to attend. They did not give me an invitation and I have decided to not attend the rally, Saini told HT.

Yashpal Malik (president of All-India Jat Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti) will run the government as the chief minister has been accepting all his demands, he added.

Saini is a vocal critic of the BJP government in the state for giving reservations to Jats and has previously slammed Manohar Lal Khattar for accepting demands of protesting Jat leaders.A severe fund shortage has forced the Congress to withdraw five candidates for the February 27 assembly elections in Nagaland, leaving 18 contestants from the party in the fray.

The party had on February 6 released a list of 23 candidates for the 60-member assembly but five contestants -- Limawati Jamir (Aonglenden), Hobeto Kiba (Zunheboto), Shami Angh (Longleng), Choakpa Konyak (Tobu) and Aimong Lam (Noklak)  later withdrew their papers.

They did so due to lack of financial resources, said a Congress leader familiar with the developments.

There is a realisation in the Congress that noting much could be done and hence no point pumping resources. The general secretary in-charge of northeast, CP Joshi, seems to be least interested in the partys affairs in the region, said the leader who refused to be quoted.

I think a party which is in opposition for 15 years cannot fight against a corrupt government without enough resources.

Nagaland Congress president Kewe Khape Therie also confirmed that the huge cash crunch had forced the party to initially field candidates on 23 seats only.

The AICC (All India Congress Committee) cannot fund us. This was conveyed to us by the general secretary (CP Joshi), he said. I think a party which is in opposition for 15 years cannot fight against a corrupt government without enough resources.

The Congress has for long been cash-starved. Several Congress candidates had admitted to severe fund crunch during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The crisis reportedly continued through subsequent assembly elections in several states.

Reports of the financial crisis had prompted questions about the role of Congress fund managers and the status of donations and funds from the partys 10-year rule at the Centre and in many money-spinning states.

They also claimed that the candidates withdrew their nomination due to pressure from their constituents and the insurgent groups.

Some candidates were asked to withdraw by the villagers and one pulled out because of pressure from the insurgents. In Nagaland, a village plays an important role in elections and a candidate cant go against the wishes of the villagers, he said.

The Congress has been out of power in Nagaland for the past 15 years with SC Jamir being its last chief minister from 1993 to 2003.Both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka hope that the Supreme Court, which will rule on the Cauvery river water sharing dispute on February 16, will do justice to them.

While Tamil Nadu hopes that the apex court will save the delta from turning into a desert, Karnataka wants it to correct what it sees as a wrong award by the tribunal on river water sharing in 2007. It believes that award perpetuated the injustice meted out to Karnataka (the erstwhile Mysore state) during the British rule.

But while hoping for the best, both are preparing for the worst  in view of the violence which marked events related to the sharing of Cauvery water in the past, the two states are strengthening security near their borders.

Karnataka home minister Ramalinga Reddy said he is hopeful that the judgment would be in the states favour.

However, as we cannot take any chances we have put in place adequate security arrangements in Mysuru, Mandya and Bengaluru districts, he said.

Tamil Nadu chief minister Edapaddi Palaniswami who has asked Karnataka to release Cauvery water for saving the Samba (August-January rice) crop in Cauvery delta region has also asked the police to be on alert.

Karnataka refused to release any water citing its own requirements and low water availability due to deficit rainfall.

The Tamil Nadu CM has said he hopes the apex court will direct Karnataka to honour the tribunals final award that ordered 192 tmcft of water to Tamil Nadu.

Karnataka believes that its own needs are now more or less equal that of Tamil Nadu and wants a new sharing formula to be devised. The Karnataka irrigation minister MB Patil has said that according to the states submission to the Supreme Court, around 50-60 tmcft of water has to be reduced from Tamil Nadus share of 192 tmcft. Besides, the state has sought an additional 20 tmcft to provide drinking water to Bengaluru.

We hope the verdict will be in our favour. We have argued that the Cauvery tribunals award should be set aside as it was based on pre-Independence agreements between the Maharaja of Mysore and the British, Patil said.

While the politicians spar, farmers in Tamil Nadu were apprehensive and even cynical.

The reason is politics. There are elections in Karnataka and this will surely make a difference, say many farmers in the Cauvery delta region.

One such farmer, KC Kannan of Nagapattinam district, whose field has dried up as Cauvery water has not reached there, said, Firstly, elections in Karnataka will rob us our share of water. But even if court orders it to give water, Karnataka will ignore it.

Tamil Nadu farmer leaders have already threatened to launch an agitation if the order goes against their state. It is likely Karnataka farm groups will do the same.China on Thursday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims as part of south Tibet, and warned of lodging a diplomatic protest.

The ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) said China does not recognise so-called Arunachal Pradesh and India should not complicate the festering boundary row. Our position on the China-India boundary question is consistent and clear-cut, said MFA spokesperson Geng Shuang.

The Chinese government has never recognised the so-called Arunachal Pradesh and is firmly opposed to the Indian leaders visit to the disputed area, Shuang was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua news agency. We will lodge stern representations with the Indian side, he said.

The Chinese side urges the Indian side to honour its commitment and abide by the relevant consensus, and refrain from taking action that may complicate the boundary question, he said.

In November, China had similarly criticised President Ram Nath Kovinds visit to the state, saying China-India relations were at a crucial moment and New Delhi should not complicate the dispute.

On Thursday, Shuang said China and India had reached consensus on managing disputes and the two sides were working to resolve territorial discord through negotiation. He urged India to cherish the hard-won momentum of improvements in ties and create enabling conditions for boundary talks.

Tibetan leader Dalai Lamas visit to Arunachal in April had also riled China, which sees him as a separatist. In April, it also standardised the names of six places in the state in Chinese pinyin or the system of official romanisation of Chinese.The process to give out-of-turn promotion to constable Raghunath Gaith, who foiled the attack by militants on a CRPF camp in Karan Nagar, has been initiated, a senior officer said on Thursday.

On Monday, a gunfight broke out between security forces and militants after their attempt to strike the CRPF camp in Srinagar was foiled. Mujahid Khan, a jawan of the paramilitary force from Bihar, was killed in the incident.

We have started the process of out-of-turn promotion for Raghunath Gaith. He foiled the suicide attack on our Karan Nagar Battalion headquarters. The jawans who foiled the suicide attack at Sumbal (in Bandipora district) last year, will also be given out-of-turn promotions, director general of CRPF RR Bhatnagar said.

He also congratulated the CRPF personnel for a clean operation at Karan Nagar as there was no collateral damage.

Our jawan, Mujahid Khan, gave the best example of bravery and sacrifice by laying down his life while fighting the terrorists at Karan Nagar. I salute his bravery and sacrifice. I also congratulated the jawans for their quick response to the fidayeen (suicide) attack and ensuring that the terrorists did not get away, the DG CRPF said.

Read | Tale of 2 CRPF bravehearts: Alert soldier raised alarm on militant attack in Kashmir, another fell to enemy bullets

Bhatnagar said that he has also awarded personnel who took part in the successful operations against militants in the Valley in this and last year.

He said the successful run of security forces against militants would continue as all agencies  the CRPF, the police and the army  were working in excellent coordination.

The operations (against militants) will continue, he said.

Asked if the CRPF will share its strategy for successfully foiling two suicide attacks within eight months with other forces such as the army, Bhatnagar evaded a direct reply saying all security forces are working with alertness and success. They will continue to do so.

The DG said that the CRPF will provide the compensation due to Khans family within the next few days.

We take care of the families of our martyrs. They (Khans family) will get compensation within two to three days. We have taken an initiative Bharat Kay Veer in which Rs 25 crore has been collected for the jawans, he said.

As far as (Khans family) returning the compensation that was from the Bihar government... we are in touch with the Bihar government on that (issue), he said.

The family members of Khan on Wednesday refused a cheque of Rs 5 lakh from the Bihar government, saying it was demeaning as army personnel killed in such incidents get Rs 11 lakh.

Asked if there was possibility of more suicide attacks in Kashmir, Bhatnagar said security agencies were acting on all intelligence inputs. What all intelligence inputs we have, I can share it, he said.The Supreme Court of India on Thursday asked the Punjab and Haryana High Court to decide on the appeals filed by the three accused in the Jindal University gang-rape case within the next five months, even as it clarified that two of the three accused would continue to stay in jail.

Ruling on a petition filed by the victim, a bench of justice SA Bobde and justice L Nageshwar Rao said Hardik Sikri and Karan Chabra, the main convicts in the case who were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment by a trial court in May 2016, will continue to be in jail till their appeal is decided by the high court.

However, the third convict Vikas Garg, who was handed a 7 year jail term, will continue to be out on bail.

The victim, a junior management student at OP Jindal Global university at the time of incident, approached the Supreme Court challenging the Punjab & Haryana High Court order that didnt just grant bail to the three convicts, but also suspended their sentences.

On appeal by the trio, the high court in September last year suspended their sentence on the grounds that the woman was promiscuous and had casual sexual escapades and directed Sikri and Chhabra to be released on bail. Garg was already out on bail.

Following the victims petition, the Supreme Court cancelled the high court order and directed the two convicts back to jail.

During the course of hearing in the apex court, the victim also expressed the fear and possibility of blackmail by the convicts as they still had her photographs on their iCloud.

Last week, the court ordered the students to share the iCloud password of their laptops with the victim so that her pictures were not circulated over the internet. Justice Bobde had remarked, we find it difficult to accept and tolerate the continuing blackmail of the victim. 

On Thursday, senior advocate Shanti Bhushan informed the court that Karan Sikri did not remember the password as he has been in jail for more than 2 years and not accessed his iCloud account in this time.In 2004, Mittal Patel hopped off a state transport bus at Necknaam, a nondescript intersection an hour away from Rajkot, where her parents believed she was working with a local NGO. It was the site of a large basti of nomadic tribes. Then a 20-year-old journalist and aspiring civil servant who thought the only difference between urban living and nomadic living would be the use of tents, she had brought just two changes of clothes.

As she stepped into the settlement, two bloodied men ran in. They were father and son. They had been beaten by two men on a motorcycle, who had abducted the mans wife.

There was chaos and uncertainty in the settlement. Mittal says she kept waiting for the police to be called, an FIR to be registered, and the culprits to be found. But the tribe was too afraid to go to the police, and having no identity cards to prove who they were, believed they would be locked up instead. So everyone returned to their homes to wait helplessly. The woman came back the next morning, raped and assaulted. And thats where the matter ended.

Horrified, Mittal who had initially thought of going home the next day, made giving tribals identity cards and making them a vote bank that mattered her lifes mission. She stayed in the settlement for the next two months, in one of the tents, eating what food was available, bathing in the dirty gutter water they used. Today Mittalben  Ashoka Fellow and multiple award-winner  is a major influence on the denotified tribes of Gujarat. For the first time, in December 2017 prior to the Gujarat assembly elections, the leaderships of both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress held meetings with the denotified tribes to seek their votes. For the first time, there were enough of them registered as voters to swing an election, Mittal Patel said. The denotified tribes had finally started to count.

It was not been easy getting here. Patels first step was to insist that the then chief electoral officer Vinod Kumar Babbar accompany her to the bastis. On seeing how many people lived undocumented, with no access to rations and not part of any Census, Babbar was moved enough to suggest relaxing stringent address-proof norms for the tribals. However, for cards to be issued, they still needed to show a place of residence, a constituency in which to cast votes. As nomads, they had none and were prone to repeated evictions.

Babbar agreed to start the process on the basis of a letter issued by a gram panchayat that stated these tribals camped in the vicinity of their villages or were known to the villagers. Most panchayats refused out of fear that the land would be usurped and temporary bastis would become permanent ones. Patel went back to Babbar, who modified the norms to say that anyone who knew the tribals could vouch for them through a letter saying they knew they lived in a certain area.

Patel personally signed over 20,000 letters over the next decade, she says. Even so, she quickly realised that when submitted at the gram level, office bearers from the local panchayats held the paperwork up. When she moved to get the tribals Below Poverty Line (BPL) ration cards, on the basis of whatever voter cards had come through, getting approvals from panchayats proved to be an obstacle as well.

In 2009, the state government empowered district collectors to assign plots for tribal settlements. Babbar had resigned in 2008, but Anita Karwal, who replaced him, continued to support the cause. By then, officials such as the district collector of Mehsana, Ajay Bahadur, had stepped in to ensure all the tribals in his district were found and documented. Within the government, IAS officers such as Raj Kumar began to move to issue permanent residential plots to the nomads. There was slow but systemic change.

Ten years after the fight began, however, the process was still painstaking. You could force paperwork on villages but, Patel found, you could not enforce acceptance. The tribals, allocated plots and voter cards, were often shunned by panchayats and banned from using anything from water to shops to transport. When a nine-year-old boy died because none of the village auto-rickshaws would take him to the hospital, Mittal realised the fight needed to be a different one  for inclusion, not enforcement.

Though not particularly devout, she decided to use religion, and approached the famous Gujarati preacher Morari Bapu. She briefed him about the plight of the denotified tribes, and took him to various sites through the state. Moved by what he saw, he began to mentions the tribes in his discourses. In 2011, Morari Bapu did an entire series on the denotified tribes. Given his large TV audience, public empathy began to grow. What was a trickle became a flow.

The battle for the enfranchisement of the denotified tribes in Gujarat is considered a landmark in electoral inclusion. Former chief election commissioner SY Qureshi says that it reinforces the dharma of inclusive democracy. Not one person should be left out is our effort. Its not easy to locate denotified tribes but special efforts have been taken by the commission to mainstream them in the electoral process, Qureshi said.

In his book, An Undocumented Wonder: The Making of the Great Indian Election, he writes how the state election commission coordinated with Gujarats social justice ministry to ensure that welfare officers accompanied district election officers to register denotified tribes where they could be found. A system was devised under the directions of the commission for fulfilling the requirement of being an ordinarily resident of a place to be enrolled as a voter. Grassroots-level officers were empowered to do panchnamas of such persons wherever located on the day this exercise was done, he said. Just before the 2007 elections, says Qureshi, 3,393 members were registered as voters. In 2011, when about five thousand assembled for a Ram Katha, they were all registered too.

The process, however, is limited in the hands of the Election Commission of India (ECI), which does not record caste, community or tribe data. Since the last census of denotified tribes was done as far back as 1931, the government does not know how many denotified tribals there are in any given state, and the ECI cannot know how many have been excluded. With the 2018 Idate Commission Report estimating 15 crore denotified tribals in India, several of whom have never been enfranchised or counted in a census, it means an estimated 12 per cent of Indias population may deprived of basic rights.

What happened in Gujarat inspired others in different parts of the country. In Delhi in 2013, chief electoral officer Vijay Dev worked with local NGOs to ensure the homeless had a methodology that would allow them to get their names on the electoral lists -- election officers could identify their belongings in any public space. The rule was then extended to include the homeless across India.

Today Patel is using a quid-pro-quo system to give eight villages what they need in exchange for accepting denotified tribal bastis in the vicinity.

In Gujarats Banaskantha district, where the alleged misuse of the Narmada river has left lakes and ponds dry, Mittals organisation has invested Rs 1.5 crore in building water management reservoirs for villages in exchange for the paperwork and social inclusion that will allow the tribes settled on their outskirts to become an integral part of the village ecosystem.

Read | Hard battle to put an end to virginity tests within the Kanjarbhat community

The Supreme Court in 2017 asked the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to explain how the homeless would get Aadhar cards. In Gujarat, an estimated 60 lakh tribals, are better prepared than most thanks to two decades of work done by the ECI. The voter cards have opened the doors to BPL ration cards, and nomadic ration cards that give them grain and aid, along with access to the public distribution system and other welfare schemes.

In most other parts of the country, the tribes remain at the mercy of local panchayats, tehsils and the police. Haryana has now announced ration cards unique to nomads, but unless the tribes have a system by which they can establish their identity, and become a valid vote bank, they will never quite count.

It may not be a bad idea to replicate the Gujarat model, at least in this instance, across the country.Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar flagged off a convoy of bikers from his constituency of Karnal for BJPs Jind rally, where party president Amit Shah will be the chief guest.

Khattar also rode a bike for three kilometres from the PWD guest house to a marriage palace on the outskirts of Karnal, where thousands of bikers were gathered. This is the beginning for the 2019 elections. Lakhs of people from all 90 assembly segments will reach Jind to attend the rally, Khattar said during a brief media interaction.

In the rally, people will show their support for the developmental works carried out by BJP in the past three years, he added.

After flagging off the bike rally, the Haryana chief minister left for the Karnal airport from where he will reach Alewa village in a helicopter and the ride a bike for about 25 km to reach the venue.

Bikers lined up for free fuel at a petrol pump in Karnal on Thursday. (HT Photo)

Traffic chaos

The bike rally resulted in traffic jams across Karnal. In fact, long queues of bikers could be seen at fuel pumps to get the promised free fuel worth Rs 200 per bike. Besides food packets, bikers were also given a saffron helmet and jackets.The move to transfer its non-Hindu employees by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, which manages the countrys richest temple of Lord Venkateshwara at Tirumala in Andhra Pradeshs Chittoor district, has run into legal troubles.

The Hyderabad high court on Wednesday stayed the transfer of 44 non-Hindu employees, initiated by the TTD on the ground that they were recruited in violation of the service rules of the institution.

The court also questioned the constitutional validity of the TTD service rules that prohibit recruitment of non-Hindu employees in the institutions run by it.

When non-Hindus can have the darshan of Lord Venkateshwara, why cant they work in the TTD-run institutions like hospitals and educational institutions? questioned a division bench comprising Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K Vijaya Lakshmi.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by as many as 36 non-Hindu employees of the TTD, challenging the recent show-cause notices issued to them by the trust.

The court will hear the case again on Monday.

The TTD on January 5 issued show-cause notices to 44 non-Hindu employees, seeking an explanation as to why they cannot be shifted out of the TTD for not declaring their faith at the time of recruitment.

The presence of these non-Hindus came to the light during an inquiry conducted by a TTD vigilance officer, following a sting operation by a local channel on a senior woman officer going to church regularly in the official vehicle.

Prior to 1988, there was no ban on recruitment of non-Hindus in the TTD. In 1988, the TTD issued an order banning the recruitment of non-Hindus in temple administration, except in the educational institutions run by it. Again in 2007, another government order was issued banning recruitment of non-Hindus even in the educational institutions.

The official inquiry revealed that as many as 35 non-Hindus were recruited between 1988 and 2007 in various cadres. Even after the issuance of the order in 2007, another seven non-Hindus got recruited in TTD against the guidelines.

TTD executive officer Anil Kumar Singhal said, including two appointed before 1988, as many as 44 non-Hindus were working in the TTD- run institutions deviating the guidelines.

Majority of them were employed under compassionate category while some contract employees from other religious faiths also got regularised. We shall now send them to various other government departments, so that only Hindus work for the Tirumala temple, Singhal said.A Hyderabad-based Islamic seminary on Thursday issued a fatwa seeking the removal of a controversial song titled Manikya Malaraya Poovi from Malayalam film Oru Adaar Love before its release.

In its fatwa, Darul Ifta Jamia Nizamia from Shibli Gunj in the Old City took exception to the songs objectionable references to a love story between Prophet Mohammad and his wife, Khadijah Bivi, in Mecca. It asked the filmmakers to release the film only after removing the song.

Our objection is not for the film, but a song that references the Prophet and his wife. The director should have used some other characters to depict the couples relationship. Why did he take the name of the Prophet? That is why we issued this fatwa seeking that the song be dropped from the film, said Jamia Nizamia secretary Ahmed Ali.

The song, which features overnight Internet sensation Priya Prakash Varrier, has gone viral since its launch a few days ago. The fatwa was issued against the backdrop of some Muslim youngsters from the Old City lodging a complaint with the Falaknuma police on Wednesday, stating that the song had hurt their religious sentiments.

The police have registered an FIR against the filmmakers under Section 295a (deliberately hurting the religious sentiments) of the Indian Penal Code.Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will arrive in India on Thursday as part of his three-day India visit during which the two countries will discuss regional and international issues of mutual interest.

The external affairs ministry had said earlier that during the visit of the president of Iran, both sides would review the progress achieved in bilateral relations and also exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Rouhani will land at the Begumpet Airport around 4pm on Thursday where Union Minister of State for Power RK Singh will welcome him.

He is scheduled to address Muslim intellectuals, scholars and clerics at 6.30pm, an official source said.

Read: Amid US pressure, Iran President Rouhani to seek investment during India visit

Telangana Chief Secretary Shailendra Kumar Joshi, who held a coordination meeting on Wednesday at the state secretariat, directed officials of different departments to make foolproof arrangements for Rouhanis visit.

During his two-day visit to the city, the Iranian president will be accompanied by 21 delegates.

He will also interact with the Iranians settled in Hyderabad, the source said.

Rouhani will address a congregation at the historic Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad after offering Friday prayers, the source said, adding that religious scholars from different schools of thought will also participate in the session.

He is also scheduled to visit the Salar Jung Museum on Friday.

The president of Iran is also expected to visit historic sites here, including the Qutub Shahi tombs at Golconda, the source said.

This is the second time Rouhani will be visiting Hyderabad, but it is his first visit after assuming charge as the president. He will leave for New Delhi on Friday, the source added.Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan said on Wednesday he will soon unveil a governance model that will give special attention to farmers, and hit out at successive governments in Tamil Nadu for the existing farm crisis in the state.

In his column, published by a Tamil magazine, Ananda Vikatan, Haasan said the present as well as past governments had neglected farmers over the years and ensured the death of traditional farming practices, with their indifferences.

To fight against such indifferences, the superstar said, he was starting his political journey from Ramanathapuram on February 21 with a rally in the evening in Madurai, where he would unveil his governance plans.

Tamil Nadu reported a 29% year-on-year drop in overall crop sowing till February 2017, according to an agriculture ministry report. Thirty farmers have committed suicide across the state in 2016-17, the state government told the Supreme Court in an affidavit last year.

Instead of motivating farmers, the agriculture department, which works only on paper, makes plans that help no one, Haasan said, adding the agricultural engineering department has turned into a scrap yard.

If there is any development work being carried out like building toilets or libraries in villages, it is just for the sake of tenders, he alleged, adding the current status of these buildings and their dilapidated existence is a proof of the governments intentions as also competence.

My journey towards making villages prosperous has begun, said the 63-year-old actor, who is in the process of forming a new political party.

He is expected to announce name of his party and its guiding principles this month.

He had earlier announced that he would adopt a village and turn it into a model village that can be replicated elsewhere in the state and beyond.

Haasan alleged that the incumbent AIADMK government headed by Edapaddi Palaniswami, as well as all the previous state governments, did not develop rural infrastructures, which led to migration of people from villages.

He would soon come out with a workable solution to the problem with the help of investors from different parts of the world, the actor claimed.

Indian entrepreneurs in the US are ready to invest their expertise in TN villages, Haasan said referring to his current visit to the United States, where he addressed students and the NRI community.

What is needed is blending of traditional knowledge, technology with the modern ones to sustain rural development and to transform villages into heaven, Haasan said.

He said his visit to the US was aimed at seeking help from the people of Indian origin to transform the rural Tamil Nadu and gave a call to prevent the current trend of converting agricultural lands into real estate properties and engineering colleges.The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday got the custody of the five men arrested for allegedly helping Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Naveed Jhatt escape from a hospital in Srinagar earlier this month.

The court of Srinagars chief judicial magistrate granted the agency a transit remand of two days of Shakeel Ahmed Bhat, Tika Khan, Syed Tajamul Islam, M Shafi Wani and Jan Mohammad Ganai  all residents of Pulwama in south Kashmir.

The central agency will produce the five accused before the special court in Jammu on Friday.

We will seek police remand of the five accused for further interrogation, NIA inspector general Alok Mittal said.

The accused were arrested a day after the dramatic escape of Jhatt from state-run Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital where he was taken for a medical checkup on February 6. According to the police, some accused took positions in and around the hospital on the day of the attack, mingled with patients and attendants and even allegedly handed over a pistol to Jhatt.

Jhatt was arrested in 2014 and managed to get a stay order on his transfer from Srinagars central jail to another jail outside the Valley in 2016 and subsequently in 2017.

Police believe that LeT was desperate to get Jhatt out as all top brass of the outfit was killed.

First Abu Dujana was killed and later Abu Ismail. After this LeT has not named any other commander, their desperation to get Naveed Jhatt out can mean he is a potential commander, Muneer Khan, additional director general of police, said after the arrests.Dinesh Arora, director (health) at federal policy think tank Niti Aayog, was on Tuesday appointed director of the prime ministers flagship healthcare programme, Ayushman Bharat, in the health ministry, people familiar with the matter said.

A government official involved with the project described Aroras appointment as the formalisation of a working arrangement ahead of two-day consultations involving nearly 150 officials from the states and the Centre that will give a final shape to the National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS)  which envisages a Rs 5 lakh floating cover for nearly 100 million families or 500 million citizens.

The 41-year-old Arora, who had been working on the programme for more than a month before it was announced in the budget speech by finance minister Arun Jaitley on February 1, is a qualified doctor and has worked in public health in the past, heading the National Rural Health Mission in Kerala from May 2006 to September 2009. He moved to Niti Aayog in July.

Asked about lessons from his Kerala days spent in public health, which can be applied to the NHPS, Arora said, Insurance became the fulcrum for health reforms in the state. The public health sector started earning money from the insurance cover, which was then used to upgrade the government run health centres and hospitals.

The NHPS will require close coordination between the health ministry and the federal policy body, which will coordinate with states. Kerala was adjudged the best state in the country on health indicators in a national ranking index released by the Centre and World Bank last Friday.

Arora began his career as a sub-collector in Ottappalam (Palakkad district) where he took on the powerful sand mafia exploiting Keralas largest river Bharatapuzha, his former colleague in Kerala recalled. During his tenure in NRHM, he took special initiatives to achieve health for all tapping telemedicine and FM radio programmes to reach people staying in remote and inaccessible areas, the official said.

Described as a go-getter by at least two officers who worked with him, Arora earned his spurs by expediting Indias rural electrification drive during his stint as executive director at state-run Rural Electrification Corporation. Industry experts and former colleagues credit him with the work done under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), which is now being leveraged for the marquee Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (Saubhagya) to provide electricity connections to over 40 million families in rural and urban areas by December 2018.

Aroras former colleagues and industry veterans describe him as the anchor for Indias quest for reducing energy poverty.

He was always pushing to get results and is a good team leader, said a former colleague at the state-run firm, requesting anonymity, while crediting him with the schemes performance.

The efforts have borne results. According to the National Democratic Alliance governments 2015 plan, 18,452 un-electrified villages will be electrified by May 1, 2018. Of these, 16,341 villages have been electrified, helping 99.8% or 5,96,465 of the countrys census villages get electricity access.

His clarity, focus, and commitment ensured the rural village electrification programme achieved the aggressive targets with appropriate monitoring, verification and transparency through the usage of latest IT tools and apps, said Sambitosh Mohapatra, partner, power and utilities, PwC India.

Union health ministrys additional secretary, Manoj Jhalani, has been appointed mission director of the project. Both Arora and Jhalani in different capacities have been involved in governments flagship programme  National Health Mission (NHM)  which has several key health initiatives under it, including Mission Indradhanush.

He believes in delivering and at times hes unmindful of consequences, said Viswas Mehta, Kerala additional chief secretary and residential commissioner in Delhi.

(With inputs from Ramesh Babu in Thiruvananthapuram)The lawyer of Rajasthan IPS officer Dinesh MN, named by the CBI as an accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, told the Bombay High Court on Thursday the trial court discharged him because there was no prima facie evidence.

Raja Thakre also pointed out that the CBI chose not to challenge the lower courts discharge order.

While discharging Dinesh last year, the special CBI court not only cited lack of official sanction for his prosecution, but also noted that there existed no prima facie evidence against him, the lawyer said.

The same court rejected the discharge applications filed by three junior police officers who were alleged to have accompanied me (Dinesh) to the encounter site. That is because the CBI had claimed they were the ones who shot at Sohrabuddin, Thakre said.

The CBI failed to ascribe any distinct role to me and said merely that I had conspired to have Sohrabuddin and (his aide) Prajapati killed. However, the CBI court held that there was no prima facie evidence to suggest I had been part of the conspiracy, much less that I had a role to play in the actual killings, he said.

Therefore, Dineshs discharge was akin to acquittal, the lawyer claimed.

According to the CBI, Dinesh was involved in the fake encounters of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, a gangster who allegedly had terror links, and his associate Tulsiram Prajapati.

Dinesh travelled, on November 24, 2005, from Udaipur to Ahmedabad for executing the encounter, the agency had said, adding that he was accompanied by three junior officers of Rajasthan Police -- Rehman Abdul Khan, Kartar Singh and Yudhvir Singh.

Dineshs contention is that he had gone to Ahmedabad to attend an official training program.

I had the permission of the director general of Rajasthan Police, I stayed at the government circuit house. That proves that I had gone to Ahmedabad on official duty, his lawyer told the high court.

The high court is hearing, on a daily basis, applications filed by Sohrabuddins brother Rubabuddin Shaikh, challenging the discharge of former deputy inspector-general of Gujarat D G Vanzara, Dinesh M N and Gujarat IPS officer Rajkumar Pandiyan.

The court is also hearing applications filed by the CBI challenging the discharge of Rajasthan Police constable Dalpat Singh Rathod and Gujarat Police officer NK Amin.

Meanwhile, three more prosecution witnesses turned hostile in the fake encounter cases trial before the special CBI court here today.

The three witnesses refused to identify two farmhouses near Ahmedabad where Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi were allegedly kept before they were killed in fake encounter.

The panch witnesses said they had never been to the farmhouses, and had been just made to sign the panchnama (inspection report) by Gujarat Police.

A total of 33 witnesses has turned hostile in the case so far.

Sohrabuddin and Kausar Bi were killed in an alleged fake encounter by Gujarat Police in November 2005, while Prajapati was killed in another alleged fake encounter by the Gujarat and Rajasthan police in December 2006.

Of the 38 people charged by the CBI in the case, 15, including Vanzara, Pandiyan and Dinesh MN, and BJP president Amit Shah were discharged by the special CBI court.The last three weeks since the 1983-batch IPS officer OP Singh joined as the DGP of Uttar Pradesh have been eventful.

Soon after he assumed charge on January 23 a gap of 23 days after his appointment was announced  Singh had to ensure the peaceful release Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Padmaavat. A day after its release, communal clashes broke out in Kasganj, resulting in the death of a man during a Tiranga Yatra on Republic Day.

Now, Singh faces another challenge of convincing industrialists and entrepreneurs attending the Uttar Pradesh investors summit from February 21 that the state is safe as an investment destination.

In an interview to Hindustan Times, he spoke on the spate of police encounters of late and the challenge of presenting the friendly face of police before investors. Excerpts:

Q: Do you feel the pressure of controlling crime ahead of the summit? Is that the reason for the trigger-happy policing of late?

A: You cannot time such operations depending on your objectives. Police operations had started even before I took over. My predecessor had prepared a list of wanted criminals. Our plan was clear  arrest criminals who are at large. What can we do if criminals start targeting the police?

Q: Is it that simple? Large scale encounters are raising a question mark on its authenticity.

A: I will give you the figures and you decide. At least 39 criminals have been neutralised in police action since March 20 last year. You call them encounters but that seems to carry a negative connotation. Please note that 37 criminals out of 39 carried a reward on them. From March 20 to January 31, we carried out 1,142 operations in which 2,744 criminals were arrested and 1,853 had reward on them.

Q: But police encounters have angered human rights groups.

A: In all police operations carried out since March last year, 265 criminals were injured. In these operations, 247 policemen were also injured. I have lost four brave policemen during encounters. I know there are some who call the encounters fake. Let them come to us. We have records with us. I have told police to be soft with the common man but aggressive with criminals. For the first time, 167 criminals have been booked under the National Security Act in a year. Under the Gangster Act, we have seized the property of criminals in 169 cases. Property worth 146 crore has been seized, which shows our intent. We will respond if we get notices. There has not been any fake encounter and there isnt anything to hide. We have learnt that some people are claiming policemen were carrying out encounters to get out-of-turn promotions. That policy stands scrapped for the last three years.

Q: Do you agree it has been an action packed three weeks?

Dacoits had been striking when I took over. There were incidents on January 18 and 22. I took over on January 23. There were problems in Mathura too. So, yes, I started with a slight handicap. But the good thing was we successfully supervised Padmaavats release on January 25 and our efforts were widely appreciated. Many people felt that in comparison to other states, we did a splendid job. We were able to persuade people not to take law into their hands. Karni Sena protested in a peaceful manner by distributing flowers, urging cinema hall owners not to put up the movie.

Q: Then Kasganj happened on Republic Day.

That was the bad part. However, we swung into action immediately. The Rapid Action Force (RAF) and Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) were deployed and peace committee meetings organised by getting people from both sides to hear the voice of reason. Within a day, normalcy was restored in Kasganj. Since then, the journey has been more professional as I began touring the state to galvanise my men.

Q: As you have been travelling across the state, what was your message to the police struggling on the law and order front?

I told them I mean business. The message was simple  perform or perish. Thats what I have said, from Lucknow to Kanpur and Meerut.

Q: How would you change the general negative perception about the police?

We are going all out against land mafia. Members of the anti-Romeo squad have undergone behavioural training. We have reduced response time of Dial 100 from 23 minutes to 14 minutes and 53 seconds. So, we are trying to improve service.

We also decided to have a policeman of the month at each station, where performers will be honoured and their photographs displayed. The system of online FIRs is being strengthened further.

Q: UP Board examinations are on and police are also dealing with the copying mafia

That is a part of social policing. We have identified vulnerable exam centres. In Jaunpur, we busted a gang publishing fake answer sheets, we arrested some education department officials in Hardoi, and acted against copying mafia in Ballia.

Q: Are policemen being trained for investors summit?

We want our men to have good communication skills. That is why I have picked people who are presentable and give a good picture of our policing. There will be some kind of model deployment. Instead of quantitative, we are going in for qualitative deployment. I will not divulge full details as it is related to security but my emphasis is broadly on smart and communicative policing for the summit. We are choosing personnel from all over the state, not only from Lucknow. We are creating an effective traffic system. We would like to present ourselves as a modern police force and showcase our achievements.Seven workers of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) were arrested on Thursday for assaulting a pregnant woman, who lost her baby, in January over a land dispute in Kozhikode district of north Kerala, police said.

Josna Baby alleged that the men were arrested only after her family staged a sit-in in front of the Kodenjery police station on Wednesday, seeking action. She said the police refused to lodge their complaint the first time they approached them due to political pressure.

The 28-year-old woman said a group of people led by the CPI(M) branch secretary barged into their house and started beating her husband over a dispute regarding a boundary. She said when she tried to save her husband, she was pulled down and kicked on her stomach.

Earlier, we had filed a complaint with the police about the land dispute and they had warned CPI(M) leader Saidalavi and others not to disturb or threaten. Despite this, they barged into our house on the night of January 28 and started attacking my husband, she said.

Baby said she started bleeding after the attack and gave birth to a still-born baby a day later in the hospital. She added that the accused surrendered in the police station only after the incident was highlighted in the media.

A senior police officer said the arrested men were booked for unlawful assembly, causing the death of an unborn child and trespassing criminally.The accused were later remanded in judicial custody. However, the CPI(M) distanced itself from the incident, saying it was a private dispute and the party would look into it if any leaders were involved in the incident.

The Opposition condemned the attack. Under the Marxist regime, it seems even babies are not safe in wombs. Law and order is precarious and party workers are ruling the state, said BJPs state chief Kummanam Rajasekharan.

Rajasekharan was referring to the Youth Congress leader, who died on Tuesday after he was attacked by unidentified men in north Keralas Kannur district a day earlier.Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot , 40, is upbeat over the partys prospects after its victories in by-elections (to two Lok Sabha seats and one assembly seat) in the state and says the tide is turning in favour of the Congress across India. Pilots optimism is understandable  his party broke a four-decade long tradition of no opposition party winning by-polls in the state. In an interview to Aurangzeb Naqshbandi, Pilot said the people of Rajasthan have given a befitting reply to divisive forces and that a rainbow coalition with the Congress as a pivot is feasible and will certainly defeat the BJP-led NDA in the next Lok Sabha elections.

Q: The recent victory in by-elections has given a big boost to the Congress in Rajasthan. What are the factors that went against the ruling BJP?

Two things are clear. One is that there has been complete rejection of the Vasundhara Raje government and the BJP in Rajasthan. These elections were held in three geographically different parts of the state  Alwar is in National Capital Region and part of eastern Rajasthan, Ajmer is central part and Bhilwara is in southern side and we won in all the three regions and 17 assembly segments. The BJP used money power and state machinery but despite that our workers held their own. It is also the acceptance of the principled stand taken by the Congress on various issues such as unemployment, agrarian distress and corruption. The BJP blatantly tried to polarise and communalise the by-elections.

Q: The assembly elections are some months away and there is also speculation that the Lok Sabha polls could be advanced. Would you be able to sustain the momentum till the next elections?

We should remember that after Vasundharaji became chief minister, there were by-elections to four assembly seats and Congress won three of them. We have done exceedingly well in local bodies elections, panchayat and zila parishad polls in the past four years. We dont win elections in the last two weeks of campaign. It is a sustained effort and (takes) months and years of hard work. The recent by-elections have shown that the tide, sentiments and undercurrent are in favour of Congress. People across regions and communities are supporting the Congress. As far as the organisation is concerned, we have been in election mode from day one. It does not matter when the elections take place. We are ready and the people of Rajasthan are ready and we are definitely going to form the next government in Rajasthan. We will work with double the humility and twice the strength and try to reach out to the people with mass contact programmes that we are launching very soon.

Q. We saw a partial revival of Congress in Gujarat but one of the reasons identified for the grand old partys inability to dent the BJPs support base was the lack of a credible face as its leader in the state. In Rajasthan, that doesnt seem to be a case. Should the Congress announce its chief ministerial candidate ahead of the polls to clear any confusion on the leadership issue?

Traditionally, the Congress party has not announced the names of chief ministerial candidates in any state barring few exceptions. We believe in fighting the elections as a joint team. People are endorsing the Congress partys stand on different issues. But this question is more pertinent to BJP which has not announced Vasundharaji as its CM candidate in Rajasthan in contrast to Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka where they have already (announced chief ministerial candidates) .

Q. But to ensure its victory in upcoming elections, the Congress needs to set its house in order in the state. The by-polls saw the party fighting as one unit. Have you been able to address the issue of infighting to some extent?

The so-called talk of infighting in Congress is a propaganda spread by the BJP. The Congress is strong and united, was united and will always remain united. If we were not working as a team, the party would not have performed so well in (the state) the past four years.

Q: The Congress has been unable to stem the electoral slide that set in just before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains the most popular leader in the country. Is Rahul Gandhi an alternative to Modi and can he be a face of the united opposition in next Lok Sabha elections?

Congress is the only party that can challenge the BJP nationally. There are other parties which have competing interests with Congress in certain states. The aggressive stand taken by Mr Gandhi by challenging the motives and actions of the ruling BJP, holding them accountable and taking them on fearlessly has galvanised not only the Congress party but the opposition as well. In the last few months, Mr Gandhis aggression, his questions to the government on various issues be it jobs, corruption, defence deals, agrarian crisis, etc, has strengthened the opposition camp. In the time to come, you will see a rainbow coalition with Congress as the pivot. We have to think of the national interest and everyone has to sit down together to form that rainbow coalition for the next Lok Sabha elections.

Q: Do you think that is possible given that in the past, the opposition parties have never come together on one platform?

All the political parties that are against the policies of the BJP government have to come together at the national level.we and they all have to unite. Third fronts and fourth fronts that you talk about have not worked but as long as the Congress remains the pivot and other parties come on that platform I think that sort of a coalition is certainly feasible. But the question is of the NDA. The BJP has parted ways with Shiv Sena; the TDP is on the verge of walking out and even other allies (are not happy). Despite being in government, the BJP has been unable to hang on to its own allies.

Q: What are the issues on which the Congress will go to the people in next general elections?

The BJP government came to power in 2014 promising the moon and have now , belatedly, in their last full budget come up with something that is allegedly pro-farmer. Had they been sympathetic to the farmers, this government would have come up with something in its first budget itself. They had given a lot of slogans whether getting back black money, job creation, increasing farmers incomes, improving economy and investments but on the ground the execution is almost zero. Congress party will go to the people of India with a blueprint of what the BJP had failed to do and what we stand for. This government is not the one that has made the common people stakeholders, or lived up to its promises. The people are looking for a government that actually delivers as opposed to giving assurances and promises. Speeches and stage management is not what the people of this country want.The Supreme Court directed the Punjab and Haryana High Court to dispose of an appeal in a case related to a gang rape in a Haryana private university within five months.

A bench of Justices SA Bobde and L Nageswara Rao said its earlier direction, staying the order on suspension of the sentence in the case, will continue till the high court disposes of the appeal.

The court was hearing a plea by the woman, challenging the bail granted to the convicts in the case by the high court.

The trial court had awarded 20 years imprisonment to two of the convicts for various offences under the Indian Penal Code, including gang rape and criminal conspiracy, and the provisions of the Information Technology Act.

The third accused was awarded a seven-year jail term after being convicted in the case.

However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had suspended their sentences on the pleas filed by them and granted them bail.

The apex court had on February 7 said it cannot tolerate continuous blackmail and asked the convicts to share the password of iCloud, where they had allegedly stored obscene photographs of the woman.

iCloud is a mobile application used for storing data, including photographs, videos, documents and music, and it is tough to hack it without a password.

The apex court had earlier stayed the high courts order suspending the sentence awarded to three convicts by the trial court.

The woman had claimed in the FIR that she had taken admission in the private university in Sonepat in August 2013 and got acquainted with one of them.

She alleged that the convicts, who became good friends, raped and forced her to send her obscene pictures and blackmailed her.

The woman claimed that the two others also raped her at the university campus after which she lodged an FIR in April 2015.A classification by the ministry of home affairs (MHA) on areas affected by left-wing insurgency is likely to include two districts from Kerala for the first time in the states history, a senior home ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

The assessment is conducted by the MHA to determine which states are eligible for reimbursement (by the federal government) of funds incurred by them to counter Left Wing Extremism (LWE).

According to the MHA, a total of 106 districts across 10 states see active left wing insurgency; of these, 35 are categorised as worst LWE affected districts. The home ministry official said Palakkad and Malappuram in Kerala have now been recommended by the state government to receive funds under the federal reimbursement scheme owing to increased ultra-left wing activity in both.

Names of some districts in the worst affected list have been excluded because of the improved law and order situation there.There are some new districts that have been added including two from Kerala but the total number of worst affected districts is most likely to remain at 35, this person said.

The inclusion and exclusion of districts in the scheme is based on their violence profile and other parameters such as intensity of violence over a period of five years, the organisational strength of various naxal outfits, the presence of armed naxal dalams (brigades) and their free movement, and finally, the extent of pro-active measures initiated by the police or administration to counter the insurgents

The MHA official did not divulge details of the other districts that have been included in or excluded from the list.

K Durgaprasad the former Director-General of the Central Armed Police Force said that there have been regular intelligence inputs for several years of attempts by Maoists to establish a base in the Kerala-Karnataka-Tamil Nadu tri junction .

The district police chief of Palakkad Dr. Srinivas A said over phone said the request for receiving central funds is not based on the law and order situation in the district but purely to strengthen the internal security mechanism.

Though no violent incident has been reported from the two districts in 2017, there have been multiple sightings of Maoist cadres in the area coupled with intelligence reports that suggest that the insurgents are close to establishing a base in the region, he added.A letter written in Persian on gold paper brought the Australian John Lang, who studied law in England and had made India his home, face-to-face with the Rani Jhansi Laxmi Bai whose life will soon be depicted on silver screen by Bollywood star Kangana Ranaut.

The year was 1854. The order for annexation of Jhansi had been passed the previous month.

The Rani was interested in Lang being her representative before East India Company and fighting the case against the annexation.

Lang devoted a full chapter to The Ranee of Jhansi in his 1861 book Wanderings in India  Sketches of Life in Hindostan that was first published in 1861.

Three years back, the book was republished by Har-Anand publications.

In recent years, there has been renewed interest in John Lang and his life in India, especially after Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 gifted his then Australian counterpart Tony Abbott a copy of the petition filed by Lang on behalf of Laxmi Bai.

Lang writes that the total revenue of little province of Jhansi was around Rs 6 lakh per annum and after disbursing the government expenses and paying the troops in her late husbands service, Rani Laxmi Bai used to be left with around Rs 2.5 lakh in profit. Troops, mainly horsemen, were less than 1000 in all. When Jhansi was annexed, the East India Company decided to pay her a yearly pension of Rs 60,000 which would be paid monthly.

The queen wasnt keen on the annexation, a decision that Lang attributes partly to the financial aspects of it. That made Laxmi Bai summon Lang, who died at the age of 48 in Mussoorie in 1864.

The queen, Manikarnika or Manu was born in 1828 into a family of Maharashtrian Brahmins. She took the name of Laxmi Bai following her marriage to Jhansi king Raja Gangadhar Rao Newalkar who died without a biological heir; weeks prior to his death he had adopted a six-year-old boy from his extended family.

Lang writes that the Jhansi Raja was particularly faithful to the British and Governor General William Bentinck had presented his brother a British ensign and letter giving him title of Rajah and also assured him that the title and the independence attached to it would be guaranteed by the British to him, the Rajah and his heirs and successors (by adoption).

That that treaty (for such it purported to be) of Lord William Bentinck was violated without the slightest shadow of a pretence, there cannot be any doubt, he adds.

Lang writes that the British may have had a problem with the title of Rajah passing on, more than anything else.

Laxmi Bai sent a large comfortable palanquin carriage to fetch Lang from Agra to Jhansi, a journey of two days.

The palanquin was fitted with every convenience including a punkah (fan) which was pulled form outside by a servant who sat upon a foot board. In the carriage, besides myself and the minister and vakeel (who were sent to bring Lang) there was a khansamah or butler who with apparatus between his knees, kept cooling water, wine and beer, in order that, whenever I felt thirsty, I might be supplied at a moments notice. The enormous carriage was drawn by a pair of horses of immense strength and swiftness. The horses were imported from France, he writes.

In the palace he met the young son of the Rajah and caught a glimpse of the queen although she spoke to him from behind a purdah.

Lang told Laxmi Bai that the Governor General had no power to restore the title and recognize the claim of the adopted son without a reference to England and prudent course would be to petition the British throne and meanwhile draw the pension under protest. Rani refused to do this and said, Mera Jhansi nahin dengee (I will not give up my Jhansi).

Lang said her opposition might end of up jeopardising her liberty. Finally at Langs persuasion, she relented but said she would not draw any pension from the British. Lang lost her case and the rest is history.A spurt in cases of dengue has put the state health department in a quandary with January witnessing a total of 478 cases of the vector-borne disease reported across Rajasthan, up from 56 in the corresponding period in 2017.

Jaipur is the worst affected district with 266 cases of dengue reported in January this year, while Bharatpur reported 28 case, Alwar 26, Sikar 22, Jhunjhunu 18, Kota 16, Dausa 15, Ajmer 13, Nagaur and Sawai Madhopur 10 each, Dholpur and Karauli nine each, Churu and Tonk reported eight cases each, Jodhpur five and Bundi four cases of the vector-borne disease, officials said.

The rise in cases in dengue was due to the high day-time temperature due to which breeding of mosquitoes took place. Now we are focussing on anti-larval measures to curb the increase in dengue cases, director of state public health department Dr VK Mathur.

State health department figures show that between January 2017 and December 2017, there were 8,427 dengue cases and 14 deaths.

This year, until now no deaths have taken place, but the number of people with the symptoms of the disease has increased, the date revealed.

Until February 11, 130 positive cases of dengue have been reported, an official said.

The maximum number of dengue cases has been reported from Jaipur district and all measures are being taken to control it, said chief medical officer Jaipur(1) Dr Narrotam Sharma.

From January 1, until now a total of 886 cases of H1N1 have been reported in Rajasthan and 76 deaths have taken place, health department officials said.

State additional chief secretary Veenu Gupta on Wednesday through a video conference reviewed the situation of seasonal diseases in the districts and directed officials to seriously screen the neighbouring houses of people who tested positive for seasonal diseases to control the infection from spreading.

Gupta also directed district officials to carry out field monitoring and conduct cross checking of house-to-house screening.

After finding a number of gaps in the field visits, officials moved people who tested positive for the H1N1 virus, to healthcare facilities in Jaipur and Jodhpur that has help in reducing the number of case of the disease, she said.This year Bengalis will have the opportunity of wishing each other on Bijoya Dasami with rosogolla -- rasgulla in North India -- made by a university and branded by the state government under a logo designed by chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

Bijoya Dasami is celebrated on the last day of Durga Puja with sweets in and beyond Bengal.

Read: Postal dept to honour its rosogolla inventor with stamp

The department of dairy technology is setting up a unit to make rosogolla at the Mohanpur campus of West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery Sciences in Nadia district. The product will be marketed under the Biswa Bangla brand, an umbrella concept, the name and logo of which was developed by Mamata Banerjee.

Students of B.Tech (Dairy Technology) course will be working in the plant.

The state government has already formulated a rosogolla branding policy setting nutrition parameters for exporting this item. Each sweet will have a minimum of 269 calories, 40 grams of carbohydrate, six to eight grams of fat and 200 kilograms of calcium.

Read: Biopic on rosogolla inventor to hit theatres next year

After GI registry recognised Bengal being the origin of the white syrupy dessert on November 14, 2017, the Mamata Banerjee administration has taken up a project of popularising the product beyond India. The initiative is a part of this strategy to brand the sweet for the world.

Last year, the GI recognition triggered widespread enthusiasm in Kolkata, where Nabin Chandra Das (1845-1925), a sweetmeat maker invented rosogolla in 1868.

The Departments of Posts that functions under the ministry of communications and information technology is going to publish a stamp and special cover on Das this year

A biopic on him is also on the shooting floor and is scheduled to be released next year. The film Rosogolla is being produced by Windows Productions and directed by young director, Pavel, whose low budget film Babar Naam Gandhiji (Fathers Name is Gandhiji) in 2015 received critical appreciation.

Read: Rosogolla originated in West Bengal, rule GI authorities, rejecting Odishas claim

Our target is to launch the product in October to coincide with Durga Puja when the demand for sweets peaks. The product will be available in outlets of state food & supplies department and state agriculture marketing department, said Swapan Debnath, minister of animal resource development department.

The state government also has plans to export the item. In the domestic market, the price of each piece has been fixed at Rs 10.

The product will be available in sealed containers. It will also be sold loose.

A government official said the project will entail an investment of about Rs 3 crore.

Rosogolla will be the main item to be manufactured there. But in due course, other popular sweets such as rabri and sandesh will also be made. We also have plans to train sweetmeat makers here, said the official.A 17-year-old boy, out on bail after his alleged Facebook post triggered days of communal unrest in West Bengals Basirhat last year, was arrested along with Hindu Samhati leader Tapan Ghosh on Wednesday.

They were arrested with two other members of Samhati, a right-wing outfit, after some journalists were assaulted during an event organised to present 14 members of a Muslim family who had returned to the Hindu fold.

The minor is one of the four arrested. We will produce documents in the court and plead for transfer of the case to the juvenile justice board, said Hindu Samhati president Debtanu Bhattacharya said.

The four, booked for attempt to murder, causing grievous hurt and other charges, will be produced in a city court on Thursday afternoon.

A 65-year-old man was killed as communal violence swept Basirhat in the North 24 Parganas district bordering Bangladesh after Muslim mobs went on a rampage, angered by a controversial Facebook post by the Hindu boy.

Dozens of houses and shops were vandalised and police vehicles set on fire before the situation was brought under control.

A police probe later found that the post was not put up by the teenager but his friend, also a Hindu and 17, with whom he had fallen out.

Both were arrested but were moved to a juvenile home after a Hindu Samhati lawyer produced papers in support of them being minors.

Minors in conflict with law are kept in juvenile homes and their cases heard by juvenile justice board.

The two were granted bail on December 16 and released from a juvenile shelter two days later. They had been staying in Ghoshs house ever since, sources said.

Police have challenged the bail and a hearing is scheduled for February 21.The Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat, which has been held by priests of Gorakhnath temple since 1989, is set to see a different representative this time when the bypolls are held for the constituency on March 11.

With the mutts current chief Yogi Adityanath moving to the state after he quit the seat on becoming UP chief minister, opposition parties are looking to exploit the opportunity and wrest the seat from the BJP.

District president of the Samajwadi Party, Prahlad Yadav said the absence of the temples mahant (head priest) from the fray will be an advantage to us. Yogi Adityanath drew votes by polarising but now he is the UP CM. It will be the first time since 1962 that the sitting mahant of Gorakhnath mutt will not be contesting the election.

Since 1967, mahants of Gorakhnath mutt have represented the seat for a total of 32 years. While mahant Digvijaynath held the seat for three years, mahant Avaidyanath and Yogi Adityanath represented Gorakhpur for 9 and 20 years respectively.

Adityanath held the seat for five consecutive terms from 19982017. Before him, his mentor and then mahant of Gorakhnath temple, Mahant Avaidyanath represented the constituency for four terms  1970 (Independent), and continuously from 1989 (Hindu Mahasabha), 1991 and 1996 (BJP). Avaidyanaths predecessor Mahant Digvijaynath, who had installed Ram Lalla at the disputed site in Ayodhya in 1949, won once in 1967 as a Hindu Mahasabha candidate.

Mahant Digvijaynath was the first temple head to win the seat in 1967 after his failed debut in 1962 as an independent candidate.

Yogi Adityanath, who took over as chief priest of the temple after the demise of his mentor Mahant Avaidyanath in 2014, continues to perform rituals even after becoming the state chief minister. Although the BJP has not announced any names for the bypoll, it is widely believed that the candidate will have Adityanaths blessings.

Vinay Gautam, public relations officer of Gorakhnath temple, said it would be odd to have someone other than the mahant to contest election on the seat.

We dont know whether the BJP candidate will be someone associated with the temple or not. But whosoever is announced as the BJP candidate would be acceptable to all as the name would be decided after getting the nod of Adityanath, he said.

BJP spokesperson Satyendra Sinha voiced similar views. The BJP candidate will have the stamp of Yogi Adityanath and voters will support the candidate. The CM has gifted development projects to his constituency after taking over as chief minister, he said. According to sources, the names of BJP office-bearer Upendra Dutta Shukla and Ganesh Shankar Pandey, nephew of gangster-turned-politician Vinay Shankar Tiwari, are doing the rounds. Political observers say irrespective of the candidate, voters in Gorakhpur have been extending support in the name of Gorakhnath temple for long.Mega event, mega plans! The state traffic directorate has chalked out an elaborate master plan with special arrangements on 19 corridors covering 150 kilometres of the state capital to ensure smooth movement of over 5000 delegates and VVIPs, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the UP Investors Summit on February 21-22.

Nearly 3000 police officers and personnel will be deployed on these corridors, 10 outer corridors and nine within the city, during the summit, said Ravi Shanker Nim, additional superintendent of police (ASP) Lucknow traffic.

He said rehearsals will be carried out on Feb 15, 16, 17 and 19 to ensure its proper enforcement from February 20 to 23. He said the plan will be in force a day before the summit as delegates will start arriving from February 20 and continue till their departure on February 23. Traffic diversions for heavy vehicles will be enforced from February 20.

Nim said the directorate would ensure special arrangements on 10 outer corridors and was putting in place traffic signals, extra personnel for traffic management and interceptor vehicles for the purpose. Officials had already identified encroachments and the authorities concerned had been asked to remove them. Traffic bottlenecks and other problems in enforcing the plan, if any, would be removed during rehearsals, he emphasised.

Additional director general (ADG), Traffic, MK Bashal said approximately 500 CCTV camerasfixed cameras as well as Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras were also installed on these corridors. He said all police personnel involved in traffic duty will be equipped with handheld wireless sets to continuously remain in touch with one another in case of any urgent diversion or change in plan. For it, at least 1000 handheld wireless sets had been provided by the top authorities, he added.

At least 25 police response vehicles and 150 motorcycle squads will also be pressed into service as only four interceptors were available with Lucknow traffic police at present.

The traffic corridors within the city originate from 35 different hotels, where delegates will stay, to the summit venue Indira Gandhi Prathisthan. At least 50 travellers vehicles and nearly 500 cars of various categories will be pressed into service for the movement of delegates from hotels to the venue.

For security reasons, verification of drivers of each and every vehicle deployed for the event are being done, a police officer said and added, The drivers will be apprised about the route in advance during the rehearsal period.Expressing confidence that the UP Investors Summit to be held in Lucknow on February 21-22 would usher in development, chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said the governments one district, one product scheme would create lakhs of jobs in the state.

Addressing media persons at Gorakhnath temple, the CM said a conducive environment would be created for industrial growth in UP through the investors summit.

Over 20 lakh unemployed youth will get jobs in the next three years, he said.

The Prime Minister and the President of India will be joined by hundreds of investors in the summit. Our entire team is working round-the-clock to make the event a success. At least 20 lakh youths will be directly linked to the one district, one product scheme to help them stand on their feet, Yogi said.

He added special attention was being given to MSMEs. For Gorakhpur, terracotta products will be included under the scheme. Plans are afoot to work on citys handloom products and brass utensils, the CM said.

After the investors summit, our government will organise a global summit in which businessmen and industrialists from India as well as abroad will be invited to invest in UP, Yogi added.

Evading a query on the BJP candidate for Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat which is going to poll on March 11, Yogi said: I have a direct connection with everyone in Gorakhpur. I have been visiting here for development. The party has given me the responsibility to take the reins of state after which the ambit of my work has increased. The seat cannot remain vacant. Somebody has to come here.

He said the government was trying to set up an ethanol factory in Gorakhpur at a cost of Rs 1,200 crore. Efforts are on to give a push to tourism industry in Gorakhpur, he said.

The CM said the BJP was getting tremendous support in election-bound Tripura and claimed the lotus would bloom there. Whenever a government starts discriminating, corruption takes place. In Tripura, the benefit of government-run schemes reaches only to CPM workers. The people want change. An amount of Rs 1,500 crore was given to Tripura under the MNREG schemes but it did not reach the poor, he said.

YOGI HOLDS JANTA DARBAR, PERFORMS MAHABHISHEK OF LORD SHIVA

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday held a janta darbar at Gorakhnath temple which was attended by a large number of people from the city.

As per temple authorities, more than 200 complainants from Gorakhpur and adjoining districts met Yogi who directed the officials for early disposal of their problems.

They said most of the complaints were related to help for treatment and land or family disputes.

The CM also visited Pipiganj where he performed mahabhishek of Lord Shiva at Pitteshwarnath temple.

On Tuesday night, the CM had also performed rudrabhishek of Lord Shiva on Mahashivratri at Shakti Mandir inside Gorakhnath mutt.

Over 25 litres of mahadravya (sacred liquid )  comprising 11 litres of milk, 5 litres of Gangajal, 5 litres of kush juice, 5 litres of sugarcane juice, honey and curd  was used to perform the mahaabhishek which lasted over two hours.

A team of 11 priests led by acharya Ramanuj assisted Yogi in the rituals.Insisting that the practice of issuing higher court orders in English created difficulties for the litigants, President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday said there was a need to provide orders in Hindi.

He was speaking at the Barrister Narendrajeet Singh Lecture series at the VSSD College in Kanpur.

The Chhattisgarh high court has made arrangements of providing certified Hindi version of court decisions and I am told that many other high courts have started taking initiative in this respect, said Kovind.

He said advocates played a significant role in the freedom struggle and were now contributing in ensuring justice to the poor.

Expressing concern over legal system becoming expensive and complicated, Kovind said there was a need to introduce judicial reforms for expediting the cases.

It is encouraging to see that some of the high courts have started reducing pendency of cases in the wider interests of the litigants, said Kovind.

Kovind also paid tributes to late Shyam Lal Gupta alias Parshad, who is credited with composing famous patriotic song, Jhanda Uncha Rahe Hamara.

He said informed that the state government has agreed to ensure the development of Guptas village to pay real homage to him.

The President also inaugurated the new building for law classes in the college.

He also exhorted the students of five-year integrated law course to strive towards strengthening the legal profession.BLACK PANTHER Direction: Ryan Coogler Actors: Chadwick Boseman, Letitia Wright Rating: 2 / 5

This will go down as one of the rare comic-book adaptations by the Marvel movie factory to fail.

Yes, Black Panther finally brings the first Black comic-book superhero to the screen. But sadly thats about it.

Introduced in Captain America: Civil War (2016), the prince of the mythical African nation of Wakanda has ascended the throne following the murder of his father. The vibranium-rich region now faces a fresh challenge  an American mercenary aptly named Killmonger is determined to unseat the new king.

The ensemble cast features Angela Bassett as the Queen Mother and a stunning Letitia Wright (above), as the tech-whiz younger sister of the king.

The rest of the two-hour-plus narrative is mostly frenetic action set pieces  swords and spears, car chases, an armoured rhino.

The ensemble cast features plenty of African-American talent, including Chadwick Boseman, Angela Bassett (as the Queen Mother) and best of all, Letitia Wright, as the tech-whiz younger sister.

To the credit of the film, the crew is predominantly Black. Besides writer-director Ryan Coogler (Creed), theres also production designer Hannah Beachler.

The stunts are feeble, though; the special effects fail to wow. Even the end-credit teasers arent fun. Expect to leave the theatre more exhausted than entertained.

ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktopA 24-year-old woman committed suicide on Saturday after a three-year long dispute with her parents over her marriage that was declared illegal by a court in 2017.

The woman, Bhavna Subash Sabal, a resident of Lal Chakki, had tried to commit suicide last year by drinking phenyl.

Sabal, who was preparing for MBA entrance exams, met Swamy Babu Shirkhe in 2015, who worked at an egg shop. Their relationship was not accepted by Sabals family but the couple got married in a temple in 2016. Vinod Tejale, assistant police inspector, Vitthalwadi police station, said, After Sabal informed her family about her marriage, they filed a case against the couple. The Kalyan court declared their marriage illegal in July, 2017. Sabals parents allege she was often tortured by Shirkhe.

On Saturday, when Sabal was alone, she took some poisonous pills. She was declared dead in a hospital. The family lodged a case against Shirkhe on Wednesday, who is yet to be arrested, said Tejale.Megha Sood

A 27-year-old civil engineer, who works with a multinational company in Powai, was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly molesting a 32-year-old woman in a share cab.

The complainant said the incident took place on Friday, when she visited a mall in Goregaon. As I was leaving the mall around 11pm, I booked a share cab. I didnt want to travel with the driver alone, said the woman. When the car reached outside the mall, a man was sitting on the back seat. When we reached the entrance of Aarey in Goregaon, the driver got another pick-up call. He took a left for Aarey Milk Colony Road. I told the driver I did not feel safe entering the desolated stretch.

In her statement, the woman said, The driver didnt listen to me. The car then halted in front of a bar. I asked the passenger sitting on the front seat to let the drunk man [the accused] sit in the front. Before the cab exited Aarey, the accused pulled the lever below the seat. As the backrest went behind, the man

touched me inappropriately. I then told the driver to drop off the man and take me to the MIDC police station.

The police registered a case against the accused and transferred it to the Aarey sub-police station. We traced the accused with the help of the number he used to call the cab driver to book his ride, said Sunil Jadhav, senior inspector of crime branch unit 12.

The accused, Omprakash Behra, was arrested from his house at Kurar.The occurrence of hailstorms during harvesting months has become a common phenomenon for the farmers in Marathwada.

Followed by three droughts in three years between 2012 and 2015, the unseasonal rains and hailstorm in parts of Marathwada has ruined hopes of better a harvest.

Raghunath Golde, a farmer from Ravegaon in Jalna, cultivates wheat and soyabean on the five acres he holds. He was expecting to earn Rs1.40 lakh from his yield of 35 quintals of wheat from the standing crops. The hailstorm, that lasted for just 10 minutes, ruined all his hopes as the crop was smashed to ground. Days before, his cotton was attacked by the pink bollworm that resulted in the loss of Rs3.50 lakh that he was expecting from the crop. He says he has been hit by natural calamities consecutively for past few years.

With satisfactory rains in past two years, I was expecting to make up for the losses I incurred during the drought years. For last two years, it has been either unseasonal rains or hailstorm that has been destroying our standing crops. Delayed rains last year had damaged Kharip and rabi crops of soyabean, pulses, and wheat, among others. The insurance cover given by the state does not work, as many farmers have not taken cover due to the bad experience over past few years. Few crops such as grape are not eligible for the insurance cover, as its area under cultivation at the block level is below the average of the insurance parameter, said Raghunath Golde, a farmer from Revgaon in Jalna district.

Malhari Pathade, a farmer from Thar village in Jalna, sustained heavy losses as his grape orchard on 10 acres was destroyed. He had sold his orchard with about 2,400 quintal grapes against the advance money of Rs15,000 from a trader. He was expecting to earn at least Rs50 lakh. I will now end up getting a compensation of about Rs50,000 from the government, he says.

Tryambak Jadhav, a social worker who is involved in counselling the farmers in Jalna, said, Hailstorm is a common phenomena in Marathwada over past few years. But the hail stones that poured in February were bigger in size - around 20 mm - against the 6-mm stones in May or June. Secondly, the hailstorm in February proves disastrous as it destroys crops ready for harvesting. It is time to adopt technology to minimise the effect of the hailstorm. China has done it effectively.

Almost a fourth of the tehsils in Marathwada have been affected by the hailstorm and unseasonal rainfall over the past three days. Standing crops on about two lakh hectares of land has been damaged, which has led to loss of crops of thousands of crores of rupees. The standing crops of wheat, jowar and grapes have been badly-hit in almost all the districts of Marathwada.

The farmers have also complained of huge losses to the seed plants of onion and cotton in villages of Waghrul and Revgaon in Jalna.

Eight districts have reported three deaths and injuries to 17 farmers in the hailstorm in three days in Marathwada. 46 cattle have reportedly died, while thousands of chickens have also been killed.

The district administration has begun conducting the punchnamas of the losses to the farmers in all the eight districts. We expect the punchnamas to be completed in next few days. Our village and tehsil level officials have been on the field from Sunday, assessing the losses. The reports in the villages with higher losses may take some more time. The final decision about the compensation has to be taken by the state government, said a top level officer from the divisional commissioner office.Italian car manufacturer Tonino Lamborghini is likely to invest in Maharashtra and its chairman, Antonio Lamborghini will attend the three-day Magnetic Maharashtra global investors summit, which begins on February 18.

Lamborghini is expected to invest in the state and their key interest is electric vehicles, said Sanjay Sethi, chief executive officer, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) .

This Italian firm is a different entity from the well-known luxury car manufacturer Automobili Lamborghini Group.

State industries minister Subhash Desai said the department will meet the company delegates. Senior MIDC officials said they will meet the company on Friday. The state recently announced an electric vehicle policy.

In Make in India summit we signed Memorandum of Understandings worth Rs8 lakh crore. Now our target is to get investment of Rs10 lakh crore, said Desai.

Honchos of global companies such as Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic, Edward Monser, the president of Emerson Electric Co, Cho Hyun-Joon, chairman of Hyosung Group, and Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd, will attend the summit.With less than a month to go before the Maharashtra government presents its budget, a group of non-governmental organisations  under the Right to Life banner presented Peoples Budget on Wednesday.

The Peoples Budget for Maharashtra demanded an additional Rs32,500 crore for the social sector, by increasing budgetary allocation for food security through the public distribution system, agriculture, education, public health and provisions for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Sscheduled Tribes (STs) .

The key demands for food security included a subsidy of Rs5,695 crore to supply 2kg of rice, dal and sugar, and 2 litres of oil to all card holders

The Peoples Budget demanded re-inclusion of 1.77 crore saffron card holders into the PDS system, maternity benefit of Rs6,000 per child, and making Aadhaar card optional for PDS system. In the education sector, the NGOs demanded an additional allocation of Rs15,666 crore for schools, of which Rs7,420 crore will be used to bring back 23 lakh out-of-school children, and Rs8,246 crore to give government school students quality education on the lines of Kendriya Vidyalay. They also called for an end to concessions to new private unaided schools to discourage private education. In the agriculture sector, the NGOs have demanded a budgetary provision for 16 hours of continuous and free electricity to all farm lands; Rs5,000 pension for farmers; and fast track courts over land dispute.

According to the Right to Life movement, the government can mop up Rs1,09,000 crore by increasing taxes on alcohol, tobacco, mining and graded professions tax, and collecting of unpaid taxes. However, this demand comes despite underspending the allotted funds for these sectors. According to official figures obtained by Right to Life movement, the Maharashtra government has spent about 40% of the 2017-18 budget as of February 14. However, economists have refuted these expectations. Economist Abhay Pethe said, It is unwise to raise taxes. For example, if the tax on mining is raised, it will have a cascading effect on other commodities. Mining provides raw material to industries, which produce everyday goods also. Taxes on alcohol are already high. He said that the problem lies with under-utilisation of budgetary provisions for social sectors.

We need really good policies and ensure their implementation.

42% of ICDS funds remain unspent

The state government is yet to utilise 42% funds allotted to Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), claimed activists from Right to Live, a social movement of experts and activists from various fields across Maharashtra. Activists targeted Rs1,443 crore reduction in fund allocation for ICDS in past three tears and proposed a raise of Rs4,521 in the Maharashtra budget 2018-19.

ICDS run by the state and central governments provides food, preschool education and primary healthcare to children below six years of age and their mothers. As per the July 2017 report of ICDS, 10% of 60,26,397 children are underweight; 83,500 of them severely underweight; and 5,51,134 moderate underweight.

After studying the scheme, its reach and lapses, we realised that the ideal budget allocation for the scheme should be Rs7,368.39 crore. The amount will address severe issues such as pending honorarium to Aasha workers, helpers, supplementary nutrition, non-formal education and training material of the scheme providers and rent for urban Anganwadis, said Vinod Shende, a nutrition expert who presented the Peoples Budget.

Experts attributed the under-utilisation of funds to the government failure to effectively implement the scheme. In 2015-16, the scheme was allotted Rs3.607 crore which was reduced to Rs2,947 crore in 2016-17. The year 2017-18 witnessed further deduction in budget allocation at Rs2,164 crore. Despite budgetary cuts in 2015-16, state officials spent Rs230 crore from the proposed budget of year 2016-17 to balance the deficit of that year, said Subhash Shamin from Aanganwadi workers association.

Shamin added that they are also demanding an extension in the timings of Aanganwadis.Farmers of the state have been badly hit, as the damage to crops due to the hailstorm and unseasonal rains has now reached around 2 lakh hectares of land in Marathwada and Vidarbha.

The state has also sought financial assistance of Rs200 crore from the Centre to compensate farmers for the losses. The numbers are likely to rise, as the state is still awaiting the final figures of the damage done. The affected farmers will get compensation as per the norms of National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), which states that farmers who cultivate crops on non-irrigated land will get compensation of Rs6,800 per hectare, up to two hectares, for damage due to natural calamities.

For irrigated land, they are entitled to get compensation of Rs13,500 per hectare, while for horticulture or perennial crops they get Rs18,000 per hectare, said Pandurang Fundkar, state agriculture minister.

Hailstorm and untimely rains have hit the state badly, as crops on around 2 lakh hectares have been damaged as per the preliminary estimates. Maximum damage of 1.28 lakh hectares was done on February 11, the first of hailstorm and unseasonal rains. On February 12, it was around 60,000 hectares. We are still waiting for figures from some districts, as damage was also caused on February 13, Fundkar said.

The natural calamity affected a total of 1,800 villages from 16 districts, of which a majority are from the Marathwada and Vidarbha region. The state is awaiting damage figures from around 10 districts, which is likely to be received by Thursday evening, the officials from agriculture department said.

Facing serious financial stress, the state has also asked for financial assistance from the central government to provide monetary relief to the farmers.

The central government has been informed about the status of damage in the state due to hailstorm and unseasonal rains. We have sought Rs200 crore for providing financial relief to the farmers affected with crop damage, Fundkar said.

The most-affected districts were Jalna (Marathwada), Buldhana and Amravati (Vidarbha), where crop damage was calculated as 32,000 hectares, 32,700 hectares and 26,598 hectares respectively, according to the preliminary estimates.

Meanwhile, state Congress has demanded monetary assistance of Rs50,000 per hectare to the affected farmers. State Congress president, Ashok Chavan, said, Around 13,000 farmers have committed suicide since 2014. They are coming to Mantralaya, to commit suicide. The BJP government is doing nothing for them. This situation needs to be changed, Chavan said.The Maharashtra Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Thursday told the Bombay high court that it had identified more number of accused in the killing of rationalist Govind Pansare, but was unable to arrest any so far.

The HC told CID and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing the killings of Pansare and Pune-based rationalist Narendra Dabholkar respectively that they have to outsmart the accused, because if such crimes go unpunished, other criminals feel emboldened.

Appearing for the state CID, advocate Ashok Mundargi said while some new persons had been identified as accused, the probing authorities were facing difficulty in tracing them, as some had changed residential addresses and phone numbers.

The CBI also told the HC that several of the accused in the Dabholkar case had illegally obtained new numbers.

The CBI counsel, additional solicitor general Anil Singh, said while the probing agency was trying to sift through phone conversations for a clue on the whereabouts of the accused, it was a mammoth task.

However, a bench of Justices SC Dharamadhikari and Bharati Dangre told the probing agencies that they must not refrain from securing the assistance of experts and accessing latest technology in their investigation due to lack of funds.

Singh also said the CBI director was kept in the loop of the progress in both cases.

The submissions came while the bench was hearing a plea filed by the family members of Dabholkar and Pansare seeking that the court monitor the probe into both the cases.Alleged Islamic State (ISIS) recruit Areeb Majeed will defend himself. On Wednesday, the special court for National Investigating Agency (NIA) allowed him to fight his case without a lawyer.

Majeed is facing the charge of having participated in terrorist attacks against Iraq and Syria as an ISIS member. Last week, he moved a plea before the special court seeking permission to conduct the case on his own and to discontinue the services of his lawyer.

In his application, Majeed cited the case of Saquib Nachan, who was convicted in connection with the 2003 blast case. Nachan had studied while he was lodged in jail, eventually presenting his case on his own before the same court. He had cross-examined all the witnesses and made his final arguments before the court on his own.

Majeed had appointed former chief public prosecutor and the NIAs special public prosecutor, Rohini Salian, to fight his case. However, following his plea, Salian withdrew from the case on Wednesday.

According to NIA, the 22-year-old engineer had left to join ISIS in May 2014, along with three other youths from Kalyan  Aman Tandel, 27, Fahad Maqbool Sheikh, 24 and Shaheen Tanki, 25  on the pretext of a pilgrimage. The investigators said that Majeed wanted to return and made several attempts to do so. On November 24, he approached Indian Embassy in Turkey, claiming that he needed to go back to India and had lost his passport.The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has invited technical and financial bids from shortlisted contractors by end of March for the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway, putting Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis dream project back on track.

The construction of the access-controlled expressway, also called the Samruddhi Corridor, has been divided into 16 packages. Last week, bids were invited for 13 of the 16 packages, officials said.

Evaluation and selection of bids will take another month after March, said senior official from the MSRDC, who did not wish to be named.

The MSRDC, its executing authority, has already missed two deadlines to begin on-ground work for the ambitious Rs46,000 crore project  October 2017 and January 2018  owing to strong resistance from farmers over land acquisition. Work is now expected to start by May.

Officials claim that more than 60% of the land acquisition for the project is complete.

The project is mired in controversy, with Opposition parties alleging that several bureaucrats have bought land closer to the proposed expressway so as to make money by selling it to the state.

The plan includes a 701-km expressway and industrial clusters and townships along the route.When 74-year-old Neena Sadarangani finalised the deal for a flat in Malwani, she did not contemplate the possibility that the Shrikant Gaikwad she met and paid Rs33 lakh to was not the real Shrikant Gaikwad, the acutal owner of the flat.

Sadarangani and her two sons went to see the apartment at Shivaji Nagar Complex in Ekta Nagar area, Malwani.

They finalised the deal for the apartment with the real estate agent on January 6.

Following this, the agent arranged a meeting between Sadarangani and one Shrikant Gaikwad, who had the same name as the real owner of the flat.

The woman paid the accused a token amount of Rs5 lakh in cash, and transferred the balance of Rs28 lakh to a private bank account.

Sadarangani approached the police once she realised that she had been duped of Rs33 lakh.

On February 3, the Charkop police registered a case of cheating and forgery against the imposter and the real estate agent.

Investigating officials approached the bank authorities, and learnt that the imposter had used his own photos but the documents of the real flat owner while opening the bank account.

The photograph on the documents was not of the actual owner but of the impostor. We have booked the agent, Jagjit, and the imposter, Srikant Gaikwad, said Pramod Dhavare, senior inspector at Charkop police station.

A third accused, Raj Raghuvanshi, who is acquainted with the real owner of the flat has also been booked. The police require his custody to investigate the extent of the fraud.

Raghuvanshi has approached the Dindoshi sessions court for anticipatory bail. He has been in the real estate business for several years and has never been charged with complaints like this in the past, said his lawyers.

The accused have been booked under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (Punishment for forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).Mumbais biggest municipal blood bank at KEM Hospital has been reeling under blood shortage since Monday and patients are being sent to other government-run hospitals.

Hospital officials said the shortage was temporary and would be resolved in a couple of days with fresh supplies expected to come from donation camps. While the hospitals daily requirement of blood is about 150-200 units, it collects more than 35,000 units of blood every year.

Two months ago, the blood bank had faced a similar problem along with several other blood banks in the city. The hospital had to put up a notice board with numbers of blood banks in the city, asking patients and their relatives to get blood from other sources.

Vinod Kumar, 41, whose anaemic wife needed blood transfusion, said he was told to get blood from Sir JJ Mahanagar. Officials told me to wait and eventually said there was no blood. There was no one to attend to my wife. I had no option but to travel to Byculla to get B+ blood units for her, said Kumar.

Patients from Tata Memorial Hospital who are referred to KEM Hospital were sent to Sir JJ Mahanagar, Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital, Sion and other public hospitals.

A blood bank employee of KEM Hospital said it had been battling the shortage since Monday. We dont have stock of any blood group and all patients are referred to other civic-run hospitals, said the employee.

Dr Jayashree Sharma, head of department of hepatology at KEM Hospital, said that supplies of certain blood groups were hit, but overall there was no major shortage. Patients might have been referred to Sir JJ Mahanagar because we have a debit-credit system where we have to maintain the balance between blood units shared amongst us, said Dr Sharma.

A social worker attached to the hospital repeated Sharmas claims and added that the hospital conducts over 15-16 blood donation camps and collect over 3,000 units of blood every month.

Experts said that the solution to deal with shortage was better management.

They said January is usually not a month when blood banks face shortage of blood as many blood donations camps are organised in the month. The city needs about 900 units of blood daily. But we usually face shortage after Diwali and summer vacations since a number of donors travel out of the city and blood donations reduce during these two periods, said Vinay Shetty, Think Foundation, an NGO that runs a structured programme for collection of blood units.

Blood transfusion officers from Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital said that the problem should not arise in January as donation camps are organised on the Republic Day and Bal Thackerays birth anniversary (on January 23).

A medical social worker from KEM Hospital said the scarcity may have been caused owing to the high demand from patients.

Another issue is lack of government blood banks which provide blood at concessional rates to patients. Of the 24 municipal wards, only 12 have a municipal or government-run blood bank. Heavily populated wards such as R-South, P-North, H-West and G-North that record a high number of medical emergencies do not have municipal or government-run blood banks. Of the 18 municipal blood banks in the city , five are battling staff shortage.Demanding the triple talaq bill which suggests a prison term for men who use the custom to divorce their wives be withdrawn, Muslim women protested at Nagpada and Crawford Market on Thursday. They even submitted a memorandum to the police, in which they sought governors intervention.

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017, has been passed in the Lok Sabha and requires an approval from the Rajya Sabha to be made into a law. The centre is keen on getting the bill passed at the earliest.

The memorandum says the women members of All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), a consultative group, have demanded the paragraph on Muslim women be deleted from the address made to parliament as it hurts the sentiments of the community and have asked for an expert committee to modify the bill.

The bill was proposed without consulting top religious scholars and intellectuals of the community. We thus reject the bill as it goes against the Constitution of India, womens right and gender justice, and appeal that it be taken back, said Munisa Abidi, member of womens wing of AIMPLB.

Male members of the community are of the opinion that the draft prepared by the government does not abide by the order of the Apex Court, as it would put husband behind the bars in case he opts for talaq-e-biddat or triple talaq to divorce his wife. The custom refers to the practice of instant talaq by uttering the words thrice in succession.

Female members of our community have the right to demand talaq, but as per the bill a man will be put behind bars, in case of talaq-e-biddat too. How can the government claim that protecting womens right, when they are taking away her right here, said Mahmood Daryabadi, member, AIMPLB.

As per the draft bill, a Muslim man would face imprisonment up to three years and a fine for pronouncing instant triple talaq. Triple talaq has classified as cognisable and non-bailable offence.After an in-house survey exposed the high instances of burking of crimes and lessening of offences by police stations across the state, the Maharashtra police have come up with a comprehensive scheme to address the problem.

The Visitor Management System (VMS), as the scheme has been named, is being implemented at 294 police stations in the police commissionerate areas, including the 94 police stations in Mumbai, and district headquarters on a priority basis.

HT was the first to report (December 9, 2017) about the outcome of the discreet survey which was conducted over a period of three months last year, wherein it was found that while in 50% cases the police had refused to register FIRs, the same was the case with lessening of offences.

This is not only a step towards providing better service, but it will also help bringing about qualitative and perceptional change about the police in the eyes of the common man,  Director General (prisons) Bipin Bihari said, adding, The internal vigilance mechanism to assess professionalism in our men.

The survey was conducted by sending decoy complainants to police stations across 7 police ranges. It brought to light the rampant refusal by officers to register cognizable offences while in other cases to scale down the gravity of offences by applying lighter penal sections. It came as a validation for the consistency in the annual crime figures of the state for the last decade or so. We had registered a total of 2.08 lakh cases in 2017 as compared to 1.91 lakh cases in 2016, thus achieving 8 per cent annual increase. However, the figures look fudged, given that fact that the frequency of refusal to register an FIR is 50 per cent, sources in the Director General of Police (DGP) office said.

Now with the VMS the state police aim at curbing the instances of refusal by the staff at the station house of police stations to attend to complaints.

What hurts an aggrieved person more is when he is not heard or his complaint not entertained, said Dr. Mahesh Patil, Superintendent of police, Thane rural who has already implemented the scheme at three police stations (Kashimira, Mira Road and Bhayandar). Under the new scheme, the duty staff at the police station would be held responsible for not attending to visitors.

Elaborating, he said, under the scheme, a head constable rank police man would specifically be appointed to keep records associated with the visitors. The information would be maintained in a register in tabular format. The tables would have finer details like-- the name of the visitor, the timings of his visit to the police station and time of exit. Most importantly, records like the purpose of his visit and status of his work/complaint (for second timers) would also be maintained in the register along with his photograph and contact number.

While the senior inspector of the respective police station/s would be keeping watch on the daily entries into the register, periodic reviews would be conducted by the Assistant Commissioners of Police (ACPs) and Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCPs) every fortnight.

The reviews by the senior officials would be random in nature. For example, the seniors would go through 10-30 per cent of the entries in the register to check if appropriate attention was given to the visitor/s at the respective police stations. It would also be checked if the officer concerned had acted properly on the complaint through application of law. The seniors have also been asked to contact complainants randomly to check if they were satisfied with the treatment they had received at the police station and action taken on their complaint, Bihari said.

Defaulting officials caught during the review would face disciplinary action that will range from warning, reprimand to stoppage of increment/promotion to transfer and suspension: depending on the gravity of delinquency. The punishment will be harsh for repeat offenders, Bihari said.

With the government earmarking funds for acquisition of computers and the requisite software, the VMS would be computerized in their respective units soon, sources said.

Old timers in the department said that burking of complaints or lessening of offences has a long history that is often associated with shortage of staff and a demand by seniors (and political dispensation) to keep the crime statistics under control. In rural areas, it is more so on account of lack of awareness among complainants.

Much depends on the supervisory officers for the success of the new scheme, said a former Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) while requesting anonymity.

WHAT IS VMS?

Every police station will have a staff dedicated to keep record of the visitors to the police station in a register. Those include:

Serial Number of the visitor

Name

Mobile phone number

Photograph

Scanned copy of identity proof

Time of arrival and exit

Purpose of visit (or nature of work)

These details would be fed into a computer and additional details could also be added.

Review of the fed data to be taken by senior officers every fortnight (or month)

1.91 lakh Total number of FIRs registered in Maharashtra in 2016

2.08 lakhTotal number of FIRs registered in Maharashtra in 2017

Instances of refusal to register FIRs across police stations: 50 %Gold and diamond merchants fear the Nirav Modi banking fiasco could lead to stricter norms for loans and credit facilities for them.

Modi, his brother, wife and a business partner have been booked by the CBI for allegedly cheating Punjab National Bank (PNB) of more than hundreds of crores in 2017. They have been accused of fraudulent issuance of letters of undertaking (LOU) to avail credit for making payment to overseas suppliers.

Mahendra Gandhi, president, Mumbai Diamond Merchants Association, said that traders have now become wary. We fear banks will become stricter in loan disbursal, said Gandhi.

Mumbai is one of major diamond export and trading hubs in India and contributes significantly to the exchequer.

Diamond or gold traders submit a copy of export orders to banks to get credit. This amount is utilized to buy diamonds and polish them. The amount is returned after the transaction.

Kumar Jain, vice-president, Mumbai Jewellers Association, said, We fear banks will now stay away from disbursing loans. This will affect the cash flow. The paperwork will increase significantly and getting loans will become tougher.

Diamond industry expert Hardik Hundiya said the scam was bad news. The banks will start forcing traders to pay back the loans, said Hundiya.The police raided a dance bar that was masquerading as an orchestra bar in the early hours of Wednesday, and found 16 young women hidden in a crammed, closet-like space with no ventilation. Thirty men, including 10 staffers and 20 customers, were arrested from the bar. The police have also charged the owner with culpable homicide.

They are now looking for the owner of the bar, known as Nityanand bar, as also Champion bar, on SV Road in Jogeshwari (west).

They have an orchestra bar licence, but they were running a dance bar, said Subhash Khanvilkar, senior inspector of Oshiwara police station.

Inspector Arjun Rajane, who led the raid, said: When we went in and started searching, we saw a well-hidden cavity on the floor of the kitchen at the first level, which led down into a small room on the ground floor, and that led further into another even smaller 4x4 feet room. We went in, and found 16 women crammed tightly inside the room.

If the raid had gone on for three to four hours, they would have suffocated as the room had no other exit, Rajane said, adding: In case of a fire, that place is disastrous.

The women, all between 20 and 25 years of age, were already faint from the lack of ventilation and had to be given water after they were found. They have been sent to a womens shelter in the city.

The owner has been booked for attempt to commit culpable homicide and obscenity under the Indian Penal Code, as well as relevant sections of the Maharashtra Prohibition of Obscene Dance in Hotels, Restaurants and Bar Rooms and Protection of Dignity of Women Act, 2016.Two separate incidents of fires reported in the early hours of Thursday  at Andheri in Mumbai and Airoli in Navi Mumbai  have claimed a total of three lives.

A mother and daughter died after fire broke out in their building in Airoli in the early hours of Thursday, while a 30-year-old man was killed in a fire in a shop in Andheri (east).

The two victims in Airoli lived on the first floor of a row house in Sector 3, the police said, adding that the ground floor was occupied by a cosmetics shop, where the fire began. The smoke filled their house on the first floor, and the women died of suffocation. They did not have any burn injuries, said a police officer from Rabale police station, who did not wish to be named.

Three fire tenders were rushed to the spot, and firemen managed to douse the blaze in an hour, after which they found the two bodies.

The reason behind the fire is not yet known. We suspect that a short circuit may have caused it. We are investigating the matter, said another police officer, requesting anonymity.

In Andheri (east), the fire started around 1.15am in a 1,200 sq ft gala at Mittal Industrial Estate, Andheri-Kurla Road. It took fire officials close to three hours to put out the flames and recover the body of Pradeep Vishwakarma, 30, who was sleeping in the shop and suffered burn injuries.

The fire was brought under control at 2.50am and doused finally by 3.50am, said a fire official, who did not wish to be named. Four fire engines and four water tankers were sent to the spot to douse the blaze.The resignation of senior Shiv Sena leaders, Ashish Chemburkar and Mangesh Satamkar, from the civic standing committee on Wednesday underscored the partys internal dispute.

Party insiders have said that the party heavyweights were asked to resign owing to their unsatisfactory performance in the civic body.

The resignation comes a few days before the anticipated committee reshuffle. Each year, the parties in the civic body can replace members of the standing committee.

A senior Shiv Sena leader said that the decision had been taken by the party chief Uddhav Thackeray as Chemburkar and Satamkar did not toe the party lines on several issues in the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation).

By asking for their resignation, Thackeray was sending a signal to the party cadre that even senior functionaries need to abide by his decisions.

The decision has been taken by Uddhavji, and the decision comes after deliberation. These two leaders can head other BMC committees if Uddhavji deems it fit, he said.

The rift began in 2017, when Satamkar and Chemburkar were bypassed for the roles of group leader and standing committee chairman in favour of Yashwant Jadhav and Ramesh Korganokar, respectively.

The demand for resignation could be a political strategy to sideline two key office-bearers of the Sena. Satamkar and Chemburkar are both Vibhag Pramukhs, a key post in the party hierarchy.

When asked about the resignation, Satamkar said, We dont ask questions when orders are given by the party. This is partys character and discipline. I was asked to resign from the post and I did that without asking for a reason.

Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray is expected to take the final call on who will replace the two leaders.

The decision comes on the day when six former Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) corporators formally joined the Shiv Sena at the 227-member general body meeting.

Chemburkar and Satamakar could be offered the chairman positions for the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport and the education committee, said party insiders

The standing committee is a 26-member statutory body which handles the allotment of tenders and controls the treasury.Just before Dilip Gaikwad, a cotton farmer from Chinchghat village in Yavatmal district of Vidarbha, 190km from Nagpur, consumed pesticide on his 12-acre farm, the 45-year-old sent his personal belongings, a mobile phone, motorcycle keys and odd-change, back to his house, which was barely 700 metres away.

There was no letter left behind for his family  wife, two sons and mother  explaining why he took the extreme step. He, however, did leave behind 10 quintals of sub-grade cotton and a bank debt of Rs1.18 lakh.

He was visibly upset for over a week, said Vanita, his 37-year-old widow. The past two-three years have been difficult and they have been an almost unending struggle to make money from our farm. Last years losses just broke his back. We got only 10 quintals of cotton from a 5-acre field, instead of the usual 50 to 60 quintals. The pink bollworm attack destroyed the crop and even him.

Gaikwad had spent Rs1.25 lakh to cultivate the crop and he would have made Rs40,000 after selling it in the market. He never got to selling it though.

His wife said he also filed an online application for a farm loan waiver, but until December-end, there was no confirmation about whether he had been found eligible for it.

In January, 104 farmers with plights similar to Gaikwads committed suicide in Vidarbha, continuing the more than a decade-long trend of despair and distress in the face of agrarian uncertainties. While there could be several reasons behind the suicides, the pink bollworm attack, which has destroyed standing cotton crop across nearly 15 lakh hectares in the region, is being seen as the latest trigger in the vicious cycle, said experts and officials.

So far, only two cases in January have been found to be eligible for the compensation of Rs1 lakh offered by the government for farmers suicides. The remaining cases are under various stages of inquiry by the tehsildars offices across 11 districts.

Between 2001 and 2017, 16,912 farmers committed suicide in Vidarbha, as per records maintained by the district administration.

There is no doubt that the substantial losses of standing cotton crop is one of the reasons for the suicides in Vidarbha now, and we will continue to see a spurt in these numbers, until the government speedily disburses the compensation announced by it, said Vijay Jawandia, a well-known farmers leader and activist.

HT has reported that the latest data from Vidarbha and Marathwada, submitted to the state government by the divisional commissioners offices, reveal that nearly 40 lakh cotton farmers have suffered losses in this pest outbreak  the worse since the advent of BT cotton in the country and the state in 2002.

The many faces of grief

Even as the Gaikwad family grapples with its loss, Vanitas eldest son, 17-year-old Vishal, who could not pass his Class 10, has already stepped into his fathers shoes.

I used to help my father with farming. Ill continue with farming with the help of some elder relatives. We dont have any other options, said Vishal, dismissing queries about continuing his studies. My younger brother, Vivek, is in Class 7 and he will continue with studies. I was never too bright.

Vishal and his mother also plan to work as agricultural labourers and use the familys few assets, including a pair of bullocks and a motorcycle, to earn a living this year.

Just 132km away from where the Gaikwads live  in Shendurjana Bazar village in adjoining Amravati district  the Asode family has been grieving too.

Bhaskar and Devku Asode lost both their daughters  Madhuri, 24, and Swati, 21  in the span of three months between October 2017 and January 2018. Swati, who had passed Class 12 and was pursuing a dress-making course at the local Industrial Training Institute, committed suicide on January 5 by consuming a pesticide. Her sister had committed suicide in October.

The family blames their struggle to survive with depleted farm income as the main reason behind the suicides.

Its such an unfortunate case. We had not found Madhuris case eligible for compensation under farmers suicides. In her sisters case, we think it is eligible because she used to keep the familys farm accounts. This year, the family didnt earn any proper income owing to the pest attack on their cotton crop, said an official from the Tiwasa tehsildars office who has been tasked with inquiring into the suicide cases.

At the Asodes home, inside the villages Dalit alley, there is a full-size photo of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar on the door. The brick house, a ground-plus-one structure with three rooms, was built using the government subsidy of Rs1 lakh that the family received under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana.

The Asodes lost their two daughters in a span of three months. Madhuri, 24, and Swati, 21, committed suicide by consuming pesticide in October 2017 and January 2018, worried about how their family would make ends meet. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

Swati kept our farm accounts earlier it was done by her elder sister, Madhuri, said Bhaskar. This year, we only made losses. We cultivated cotton over three acres, but got yield of only 10 quintals owing to the pink bollworm attack. The inferior quality cotton was sold for Rs4,200 and some for Rs3,500. After six months of our labour in December, our income was as good as nothing... there was no money for sowing this year; forget a possible wedding or education.

The mother feels Swati feared that like their elder daughter, they wouldnt be able to get her married too this year. There was no money. We were in talks with a family [for the marriage]. We would have borrowed money to get her married. I wish she had just confided in us. But, we didnt know till the end, said Devku.

The Asodes survive on their one-acre land and their income as agricultural labourers. Last year, they took on lease another two-acre land, under an informal system, to cultivate cotton for the year. In such agreements, the understanding is that the input cost is borne by the tiller and crop produced gets shared in a 50-50 ratio with the original land owner.

The pink bollworm attack has left at least 20 per cent of such cultivators in Vidarbha without recourse to government compensation. The compensation will go to the land owner and not the tiller of the land, said Maroti Chaure, a farmer and a social worker with Kisan Mitra, an NGO that works with farmers in Amravati.

Circumstances have also forced the Asodes son, Sagar, to give up on aspirations of pursuing a commerce degree course in college. He will, instead, focus on his job as a worker in a thermal power company to earn Rs8,000 a month for a 12-hour shift. The youngest in the family, Rahul, a school student, will continue his education, for now.

In the nearby village of Mamdapura, also in Amravati district, 50-year-old Ashok Kadu, too, is just another number on the list of farmers committing suicides. Kadu killed himself by drinking an insecticide in his farm on January 10. He had a debt of Rs34,000, but was more worried about the losses incurred on his four-acre farm after cultivating two of Vidarbhas main cash crops, cotton and soyabean.

Thirty-seven-year-old Vanita Gaikwads husband, Dilip, a cotton farmer from Yavatmal, committed suicide by consuming pesticide in January. Vanita has to now look after her two sons and her ageing mother-in-law. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT Photo)

We got a yield of just three quintals on our two-acre cotton farm instead of the usual 25 quintals owing to the pink bollworm attack, said Aniket, Kadus 17-year-old son. On the other two acres, we had planted soyabean and we got literally no yield owing to poor and untimely rains. My father was clearly worried. He had been quiet for a few days, but didnt share his tension.

Aniket will now take over farming as his elder brother, 19-year-old Harish, is said to be a simpleton by the family.

Harish doesnt understand accounts. Ankit has cleared his Class 10 and there were plans to take admission for him for further studies, but thats not possible now. How will he get the time? I am not of much help, as I suffer from low sugar, said Anita, Kadus widow.

Kishore Tiwari, veteran farmers leader and chairman of the Vasantrao Naik Shetkari Swavlamban Mission, said: Across Vidarbha and Marathwada, you will witness suicides and the next few months threaten to be even worse. I am with farmers when they say the government is insensitive about their issues. But the agriculture department failed to do enough to protect farmers. The mission focuses on the 14 suicide-prone districts of Maharashtra and recommends measures to reduce the farm hardships.

Tiwari said he had cautioned the government earlier about this disaster, but for a long time, the state administration was on the defensive and refused to accept the scale of the pest attack.While attention over the past month has focused on the aftermath of United States President Donald Trumps broadside, three separate issues loom over Pakistan: one domestic; and two external. Trumps tweet, accusing Pakistan of lies and deceit, was followed by a suspension of security assistance, but evidently this is only the beginning of a process.

Since the dramatic presidential announcement of no more, Afghanistan, through January, witnessed a wave of violence. There were three major attacks in Kabul  on the Intercontinental hotel (January 21), an ambulance bomb (January 27) and the attack on an Afghan army base (January 29). These, at the very least, underline that whatever the ultimate prognosis of the US new Afghanistan-Pakistan policy, the grind will remain a very hard one. These high-profile attacks get so much attention that there is a relative obscuring of the Afghan armys fierce fighting with the Taliban also taking place in the provinces.

While it may be tempting to see this cluster of major attacks as a direct response to Trumps tweet, the fact also is that in Afghanistan linear explanations are not always the only ones. This latest wave of terrorist violence begun before the tweet with the attack on a Shia education centre in Kabul on December 28 and on a funeral in Jalalabad three days later. The tweet itself was only the hardest of a series of US statements on Pakistan in 2017 as the security situation in Afghanistan steadily deteriorated.

How Pakistan will respond remains an open question, but one track which it is trying is to reduce the current levels of friction in the relationship with Afghanistan. This is through the negotiation of an Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS). This idea emerged with the current wave of attacks and following Afghanistans accusations that it was from bases in Pakistan where these attacks were planned and launched. The point evidently is of Pakistans keenness to engage with Afghanistan as a means of convincing the US of its bona fides. Predictably, two rounds of talks on the APAPPS have failed to make progress.

Internally, former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif continues on his path of defiance against the judiciarys verdict that unseated him. His main point is reiterated constantly in public meetings and rallies: The higher judiciary in Pakistan has always played a partisan role against civilian politicians. The subtext is pointedly the interventions of the army in the domain of politics. This, of course, is hardly new given the history of military coups in Pakistan. What is also possibly being alluded to is that unlike in the past when a coup was followed by swift judicial vindication the army now acts more constitutionally with the growing convergence between it and the judiciary or through the mainstreaming of extremist groups to put up electoral challenges to more centrist parties.

Some of the Sharifs supporters have spoken on this with even greater abandon. How sensitive the judiciary is to this is illustrated by the one-month imprisonment awarded to a senator from the ruling party for contempt of court. There are other ongoing contempt proceedings as well.

However, all this is accompanied by mounting evidence that Sharif is receiving a groundswell of support at the grassroots as he tours Pakistan, especially in the Punjab province. Notwithstanding the history of what is called Pakistans 20 year coup cycle (1958, 1977, 1999) the fact is that enough has changed to give the forthcoming general election great significance.

Finally, 2017 is increasingly being described as the year that saw the most intense clashes along the LoC since the 2003 ceasefire was declared. The most obvious reason ascribed for this is that at a time when there is a diplomatic freeze, the situation along the LoC is no more than symptomatic of the state of bilateral ties. But there are other reasons also, the most prominent being the Pavlovian conditioned approach of the Pakistan army to do what it can to keep the situation in Kashmir hot.

These factors create an environment where ceasefire violations are inevitable and local and tactical considerations have a major role in explaining flare-ups. There is nevertheless a third regression that historically has underwritten flare-ups along the LoC over the past decade. Domestic turbulence in Pakistan, and in particular poor civil-military equations, have impacted the ceasefire and put it under severe strain  as is the situation today.

TCA Raghavan is a former high commissioner to Pakistan

The views expressed are personalThe parents of a 27-year-old man, who died of a brain tumour in 2016, used his cryopreserved semen to have grandchildren through a surrogate pregnancy.

The preserved semen of Punes Prathamesh Patil was used to fertilise the eggs from a non-family anonymous donor with matching features and the embryo was then implanted in a close relative.

Semen cryopreservation, which is commonly called sperm banking, is a process of freezing sperm cells to preserve them so that they can be used in the future.

The woman, who is Prathameshs aunt, delivered twins on February 12.

Prathameshs mother Rajashree Patil said he was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour in 2013 in Germany, where he went to pursue his masters degree in 2010 after graduating from Sinhgad College of Engineering, and also lost his sight during treatment.

... health experts in Germany suggested Prathamesh to start chemotherapy and radiation. They also asked him to preserve his semen to avoid any negative circumstances post the treatment, Rajashree said.

... I brought him back to India and took him to a hospital in Mumbai where he was operated upon and things began to improve. However, in between, he got another convulsion and was detected with a recurring tumour. This time, he succumbed to the malignant tumour, the private school teacher said.

Prathamesh had lost his speech and was bedridden before he died on September 3, 2016.

My daughter stopped talking. I walked around with my sons photo, kept it at the dinner table and served food. Thats when I thought, why not have some part of him that is live and can be with us, Rajashree was quoted as saying by the Indian Express.

Rajashree contacted the sperm bank in Germany where Prathamesh had preserved his semen and she completed the formalities to bring it back. She then approached Sahyadri Hospitals for the in vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedure to get her son back.

I am menopausal, so doctors ruled me out for the pregnancy. A married relative offered to be the surrogate mother and she handed over the twins to me the minute they were born, the Indian Express quoted her as saying.

Rajashree has named them Prathamesh and Preesha or Gods gift, according to the Express.

Dr Supriya Puranik, head of the IVF department at Sahyadri Hospital, said Rajashrees case was different than other women delivering babies through the artificial procedure.

Being an IVF specialist, I am happy that science and new technologies are adding cheerful moments in peoples lives... But here, in this case, it was about a grief-stricken mother whose son was away for studies when he faced health issues, Dr Puranik said.

We appreciate the kind of spirit she has shown in this entire process and we congratulate her for having her son back in the form of these twin healthy babies, she added.After doling out heavy discounts to officials, past and present, of the UT administration, Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation (CITCO) has now purchased a luxury Toyota car for the use of UT administrator, adviser and other senior officers on their visits to Delhi.

As per the agenda approved in December 2017, CITCO has purchased a Toyota Corolla Altis worth 20 lakh for the UT guesthouse in New Delhi, which is managed by the UT hospitality department.

MDs personal ride costs just 50p/km Even though petrol costs around Rs 70 per litre, the CITCO managing director continues to enjoy personal rides on his official vehicle at 50 paise per kilometre. The agenda was approved around 25 years back, but to date, no change has been made to the rates.

Interestingly, CITCO has no office in Delhi, nor is it expected to play a role in the UT guesthouse in the national capital.

But CITCO first bought an Ambassador for Delhi in 2009. Three years later, it scaled up the expenditure to buy a Honda City, and now its bought a Toyota Corolla worth Rs 20 lakh. Interestingly, being the governor of Punjab, the UT administrator is being provided all the facilities, including transportation, by the Punjab government.

When contacted, CITCO board of directors chairman Anurag Aggarwal said the agenda was approved in the board meeting. It is not the first time that a vehicle has been bought for senior officers. Its been going on for several years now, he said.

But Baldev Raj, president of CITCO workers union, said they had opposed the agenda when it was taken up by the board for the first time. This expenditure is of no use to CITCO. This money should be utilised for promoting the corporation, he said.

On January 23, HT had highlighted how around 100 former members of the corporation have been enjoying 40% discount on food and beverages at its hotels  Mountview, Shivalikview and Parkview  since 1995. When in service, they were entitled to a discount of 50%.Apart from his family, six of his ministers  including the four Sikh members of Punjabi origin in the cabinet of 30  and 18 MPs from his country will accompany Canadas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he visits the Golden Temple here on February 21 as part of his India visit (February 17-23).

The ministers of Punjabi origin are Harjit Singh Sajjan (defence), Navdeep Singh Bains (innovation, science and economic development), Amarjit Singh Sohi (infrastructure and communities) and Bardish Chagger (small business and tourism), who is also the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons. A 35-member media delegation from Canada will also be with Trudeau.

This information was shared by officials of the local administration after a visit by a Canadian team to review arrangements at the primary Sikh shrine on Thursday. The team comprised at least 12 officials from security agencies, the Canadian high commission and the office of the Canadian PM. It is learnt that this was the third such visit by Canadian officials, though the earlier visits earlier this month were kept secret.

Accompanied by police and other officials, a Canadian team takes stock of arrangements ahead of PM Justin Trudeau to the Golden Temple, in Amritsar on Thursday. (Sameer Sehgal/HT)

Officials of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which manages this and other Sikh shrines, showed the team how Trudeau will be received and the route inside that he will take for the sanctum sanctorum. Led by SGPC chief secretary Roop Singh, the officials also took the team to the langar hall where Trudeau is likely to partake of a community meal. It depends on his will if he performs sewa (voluntarily service) too for the langar, said Roop Singh. The Canadian delegation later held a meeting with SGPC and district officials and the police.

Confirming the date, deputy commissioner Kamaldeep Singh Sangha said Trudeau will come in the morning and stay at the shrine for around an hour.

May visit Partition Museum too

PM Trudeau, who will be accompanied by chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, is also likely to visit the partition Museum recently established in the colonial-era building of Town Hall in the vicinity of Golden Temple. The Canadian team inspected the museum too, it is learnt.

Canadas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (R) with defence minister Harjit Sajjan (L) in Ottawa. (Reuters File)

The CMs accompanying Trudeau is notable as, earlier, when Sajjan visited Punjab last year, he had not met him over alleged support to pro-Khalistan separatist elements in Canada, though Sajjan and other ministers recently denied favouring the secessionist movement in a statement just ahead of Trudeaus visit.

It must also be mentioned that the SGPC wants to set up a special stage at the entrance of the Golden temple for Trudeau, such as the ones set up for Queen Elizabeth II (1997) and the then prime minister Manmohan Singh (2004). For Sajjan, the SGPC had set up a tent at the entrance plaza, though its size was relatively small.Sarpanch of Khurdan village Satnam Singh was killed after he refused to step down as witness in his brothers murder case, Manjit Singh alias Bobby told police during his interrogation.

Bobby, 27, is a resident of Rana village in Garhdiwala. He is in a five-day police remand for his involvement in the murder of sarpanch Satnam Singh.

Bobby was driving the car  white Hyundai i20  in which the shooters had come to the gurdwara. Bobby surrendered before the Punjab police in January and was brought to the city on production warrants.

Satnam Singh was a witness in the murder case of his brother  Nishan Singh alias Shana  who was shot dead by his rivals in Garhdiwala town in July 2013. Bobby is also accused in the murder case of Nishan Singh, while Satnam is the complainant and as well as eyewitness in the case. Satnam was with his brother Nishan in a car when he was killed in July 2013.

As per the sources, Bobby had hired men to shoot Satnam and drove them to gurdwara for helping them in identifying sarpanch. According to the sources, sarpanch was scheduled to testify before the court on April 11, two days after he was killed.

Driver made the last call to Satnam

Police investigations have revealed that Satnam Singh, who was attending a religious congregation in the Sector 38 gurdwara, was called by his driver Nirmal Singh before his killing. Satnam was shot dead when he had stepped out of the gurdwara. Nirmal, who hails from the village of the accused, was hired three months prior to the murder. However, Nirmal is also the complainant in the case.

Shooters still at large

The three shooters  Dilpreet Singh Baba, Harjinder Singh alias Akash and Harvinder Singh alias Rinda  who are dreaded criminals wanted by Punjab police, are still at large.

All the accused had fled to Barwala after the incident and Bobby escaped to Kolkata from there.

In broad daylight

Satnam Singh, sarpanch of Khurd village in Hoshiarpur district, was shot dead in broad day light by three assailants outside a gurdwara in Sector 38 (West), Chandigarh, on April 9, 2017. Sarpanch was rushed to Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), where he later succumbed to injuries. Satnam, along with his family and devotees, had come to Chandigarh to pay obeisance at the gurdwara.

Later, a video that made by a woman on her mobile phone was received by the police and it was established that the three assailants who shot the victim were Dilpreet, Harjinder and Rinda. They are still at large. Police had arrested two persons Tirath Singh and Arshdeep Singh in the case, who have now moved application seeking discharge from all the charges.A division bench of the Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday stayed the operation of a single-bench order that had set aside the appointment of retired IAS officer Suresh Kumar as the chief principal secretary to Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh.

Kumar is likely to rejoin the chief ministers office next week, said officials who dont want to be named. Kumar had announced that he will never join back after the single-judge quashed his appointment on January 17, ruling that he was holding the public office without authority and overriding powers were given to him without any accountability. However, Kumar could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

Amarinder aide Suresh Kumar is back :HC stays single judge order quashing Chief Principal secretary Suresh Kumar appointment.@htpunjab  Capitol Wanderer (@sharmasurender) February 14, 2018

A 1983-batch IAS officer, Kumar was appointed immediately after the Congress government took over reins in Punjab on March 16 last year. The post created for the first time in Punjab was stated to be equivalent to a cabinet secretary of the Government of India. Kumar was being paid Rs 2.5 lakh per month minus pension.

Former Union finance minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram and states advocate general Atul Nanda appeared for Punjab. Earlier, former solicitor general of India Ranjit Kumar had defended the government decision before the single judge.

The court on Wednesday dealt with technical issues and has not gone into merits of the appointment. The primary argument raised was that petitioner Ramandeep Singhs plea was in violation of high court rules. The division bench, presided over by justice Mahesh Grover and justice Rajbir Sehrawat, stayed the single-judge order and issued notice for April 16.

It recorded: ..at best, even if the locus of the petitioner to file a writ of quo warranto is accepted, the same would necessarily espouse a public interest as the petitioners interest does not conflict with that of state or the incumbent assigned the status of a chief principal secretary. Since the single judge, who dealt with the matter, was not bestowed with the subject roster, the judgment under these circumstances could possibly be construed as coram non judice (without jurisdiction). Even otherwise, the matter needs deeper deliberation.

Quo warranto, as per high court rules, is filed to challenge an appointment to public office where it is continuous and statutory in nature.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate Gurminder Singh pointed out that the issue was not raised before the single judge. They allowed the single judge to decide the matter and are raising this issue here, he said. Chidambaram and Nanda objected to it and argued that it was deliberated upon by the single judge. Following this, the division bench orally said it had correctional powers and was exercising the same.

It has serious pitfalls, if we start accepting (what happened in this case). He (petitioner) is not even an affected party, the bench orally said. As the court ordered stay, the petitioners lawyer pointed out that Kumar was not even appellant. Why should he come? The government wants him to join, the bench said, observing that it was a welcome change that there was someone who is not running for a post after retirement.

On merit of appointment, the appeal says Kumar did not possess the power to pass orders on any file and he neither took any decision nor recorded it.A true-blue Punjabi at heart, this Bhavan headgirl loves Indias diversity.

Name: Roohani Bhasin

Born: August 26, 1999

Badge of honour: Head girl, Bhavan Vidyalaya, Sector 15, Panchkula

What turning 18 means to me

It means freedom with responsibility. Though Indian parents dont consider their kids grown up till they join college, we get the right to vote and drive.

What I want to be and why

Im studying humanities and want to become a communications director of a luxury fashion brand. I hope to get a scholarship to the London College of Fashion. In case I dont, Ill opt for graduation in fashion media in Mumbai. My parents are supportive. My father, Arvind Bhasin, is a businessman who deals in air-conditioners and my mother, Renu, runs a beauty parlour.

My idea of India

India is a vibrant democracy caught in unnecessary controversies sometimes. I look forward to an India that is safe for all citizens irrespective of religion or gender. I like the cultural diversity but believe we should accept and welcome each others culture.

What makes me happy

Dogs. I couldnt keep one as a pet so I feed five in the street. Dancing also lifts my mood. I like contemporary western dance and have been adjudged the best dancer of the school.

What makes me angry

Anything that restricts girls from doing something that boys are doing. Why cant we roam around freely like boys after dark?

Fear and fantasy

I fear reptiles and cockroaches. Besides, a day before a dance performance, I fear that I may injure myself. It happened once so that fear still lurks in my mind. As for a fantasy, Id want to dance at Broadway, New York. Well, Ive lived one of my fantasies of judging a dance competition this year.

Am I happy where I am?

Yes. The idea is to be content in the present than keep waiting for something better to happen.

What money means to me

I want to be able to go shopping without having to care about looking at the price tags. I want to open an NGO that looks after dogs. So, money is a means of realising my dreams.

What makes me proud of India

India is a country of many cultures and the world admires us for that. Of all the communities, Im proud of Punjabis who are open-hearted, warm and help everyone. If only we were open-minded, too.

What I cant live without

I cant live without my mother. She motivates me, believes and stands by me. Four months on, Ill be leaving for college. The thought of not having her around scares me.

What social media means to me

Social media is a good connector for all age groups. It is a platform for voicing opinion and sharing thoughts. Im active on Instagram and have a fashion blog. Though my exams are coming up, I havent given it up because I believe I dont need to leave one thing to achieve something else. I can be focused and prioritise.

The change youd like to see in your city

Chandigarh is the only Indian city on the New York Times list of 52 must-visit destinations this year. We should maintain public places so that our city is worth coming to. Tourists should not return disappointed.

What religion means to me

Humanity is my religion. Its sad to see people killing and resorting to violence in the name of religion. Why do we forget we are humans first? The aim should be to help one another.

My role model and why

Pakistani activist Malala Yousufzai inspires me. She has not stopped working for the education of girls despite the attack on her life and threats. Her determination and compassion to help others despite the consequences is inspiring.

Change I want to see in India

We have laws but they need to be implemented strictly. How do we justify the destruction of public and private property during the violence by the Sirsa dera supporters in Panchkula last August? How can people get away? I also feel that society should adopt an open mindset. Judging others even on the basis of attire is wrong. We should accept differences.Actor Pushkar Jog admits that he is a typical Punekar and his love for the city cannot be compared to anything else. In the city, to shoot for his Marathi film, Ti & Ti, Pushkar caught up with us at the renowned theatre Yashwantrao Chavan Natyagruha, Kothrud. The films protagonist and his wife are from Pune. So, we picked areas in the city to back the story line. I shifted to Mumbai a few years ago, but now I am planning to come back. I recently became father to an adorable baby girl. I want her to be able to live the life I led. And, what better place than Pune. No city in the world can beat Punes vibe.

He adds that the city has definitely seen some major changes but the essence has remained. I dont know why, but you can never have enough time in a city like Mumbai. On the other hand, no matter what you do or not do in Pune, you never feel guilty or saturated.

The film is being directed by veteran actor-director Mrinal Kulkarni and features Sonalee Kulkarni and Prarthana Behere, and according to Pushkar, about 80% of the project has been shot in London. He says, It is an urban rom-com set in London. Marathi films have had love stories, unlike this, but most of them are set against a rural backdrop.

The actor adds that he loves the genre of films that Saif Ali Khan does, for example Salaam Namaste (2005) and Hum Tum (2004). These are fun, family entertainers with a dash of romance, comedy and drama. I wanted to bring this essence in Marathi films. So, this is an urban set-up with a very contemporary story line. Mrinals son Virajas and I brainstormed and came up with a story base and we liked that fact that we were on the same page. He has written the script.

ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktopRachakonda police on Thursday cracked a sensational case involving the decapitation of a three-month-old baby in the outskirts of Hyderabad late last month.

The police arrested 40-year-old cab driver Kerukonda Rajasekhar and his wife, K Srilatha (35), for allegedly sacrificing the infant to appease evil forces on the night of January 31, which coincided with a lunar eclipse.

Rajasekhar allegedly kidnapped the girl child while she was sleeping with her parents on a pavement in Secunderabads Bhoiguda area. The babys severed head was recovered from the terrace of his residence at Chilkanagar on February 1.

Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagawat said Rajasekhar, a superstitious person, had been worried about his wifes health for the last four years. In February 2016, the couple went to the Sammakka Saralamma tribal festival at Medaram in Warangal district, where they met a koya dora (or sorcerer) who advised them to conduct a girl childs narabali (human sacrifice) to dispel the evil spirits tormenting Srilatha.

Rajasekhar went on to consult a few more supposed practitioners of black magic, but to no avail. On the night of January 31, he found the infant sleeping on a pavement in Bhoiguda with her parents. After midnight, he kidnapped her in his cab and headed towards Musi river near Pratapa Singaram village in the outskirts of the city.

Around 2 am, Rajashekar beheaded the girl child, threw the torso and his knife into the river, and waited for about half an hour for the bleeding to stop. He then returned home with the severed head in a polythene bag, Bhagawat said.

Later that night, he and Srilatha allegedly performed the kshudra puja  a ritual for warding off evil spirits  with the severed head placed on a makeshift altar in his living room. After the puja was done, Rajashekar took the severed head of the infant to the terrace and kept in its southwest corner to ensure that the moonlight and early morning rays fall on it, Bhagawat said.

Rajashekar left for work as usual early the next morning. However, his mother-in-law  Bala Lakshmi  saw the childs severed head around 11 am and raised the alarm. Neighbours alerted the police, who reached the spot and commenced an investigation.

After a thorough probe that involved questioning of several people and DNA profiling of blood samples collected from the terrace as well as the living room, police arrived at the conclusion that the crime was committed by Rajasekhar.

We have taken the accused and his wife into custody. It was only after interrogating them that we managed to crack the case, Bhagawat said.A lone gunman on Wednesday opened fire at a high school in the US state of Florida, killing at least 17 people and injuring a further 15.

The shooting took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland city, Broward County, at around 2:30 pm, minutes before school was to end. The assailant was identified as 19-year-old Nikolaus Cruz, a former student of the school who had been expelled a year ago for disciplinary problems.

Investigators said Cruz was carrying an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and multiple magazines. There was no word yet on what motivated him to carry out the deadly shooting. He has been charged with 17 counts of murder.

The firearm in question has a bloody past  it has been used in several mass shootings across the US.

This is catastrophic, said Sheriff Scott Israel, whose three children graduated from the same school. There really are no words.

Read: For gun control, Trump must focus on socio-economic challenges of poor Whites

Witnesses and local leaders briefed by investigators indicated the assailant had planned the shooting meticulously with the intention to maximize casualties  he came wearing a gas mask and was carrying smoke grenades. He then set off a fire alarm to draw students into the schools hallway as he waited for them at the entrance.

People were halfway down the stairwell, it just stopped, the alarm stopped... And we heard gunshots coming from the first floor, the second floor and people were running upstairs, a student identified as Alex told a CNN affiliate station.

As (my teacher) was closing the door he was actually shot and killed right there. The door was left open the whole time so as (the shooter) walked by, the door was open. He could have walked in at any time. 

Most of Cruzs victims were shot inside the school building. He was apprehended without incident after an hour, and is said to be cooperating with investigators.

Rescue workers prepare to transport a victim on a stretcher near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following a shooting incident in Parkland, Florida, US. (Reuters)

Robert Runcie, the superintendent of Broward County schools, told reporters: We received no warning. Potentially there could have been signs out there. But we didnt have any warning or phone calls or threats that were made.

But a teacher of the school told the Miami Herald that Cruz had been identified as a potential threat to fellow students in the past and that school authorities had sent out an email warning teachers of the assailants threats to other teenagers.

The massacre was the 30th mass shooting  a gun violence related incident with four or more victims  in 2018, according to gun violence trackers. And as happens after any major shooting in the US, gun rights and easy access to firearms will be fiercely debated by politicians, pundits and the media over the next few days

President Donald Trump  a supporter of gun rights  on Wednesday tweeted: My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.

On Thursday, he tweeted, So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again! (sic)

In an address to the nation later that day, he said he will discuss the issue of safety at schools and mental health at an upcoming annual meeting with state governors.A scandal over sexual abuse in the foreign aid industry that began with Oxfam spread Wednesday, as French group Doctors Without Borders revealed it had fired 19 staff last year for harassment or abuse.

The Paris-based group, known by its French acronym MSF, said it had received 146 complaints or alerts last year, of which 40 were found to be allegations of harassment or sexual assault.

It said in a statement that it had acted on 24 of these cases, firing 19 employees as a result.

With 40,000 staff around the world, MSF is one of the worlds largest aid groups, best known for its work offering medical aid in conflict zones.

Even though reports of abuse have steadily increased, MSF is aware that abuse goes under-reported, the charity said.

The revelations came as Oxfam grapples with allegations that it was not transparent about a scandal involving some of its staff for using prostitutes in Haiti following a devastating 2010 earthquake.

The scandal has led to the resignation of Oxfams deputy head and has thrown into question British government funding for the charity, which amounted to around 32 million (36 million euros, $44 million) last year.

Britain warned on Wednesday it would cut off ties with foreign aid charities that cover up sex scandals.

Unless you report every serious incident or allegation, no matter how damaging to your reputation -- we cannot be partners, Britains international development secretary Penny Mordaunt told a conference in Stockholm, according to extracts of her speech released by her ministry.

Mordaunt called the Haiti prostitution allegations horrifying.

An Oxfam spokesperson on Wednesday said the aid agency had received 1,270 cancellations of donations by direct debit between Saturday and Monday -- compared to a normal monthly average of 600.

Goes around the system

The allegations revolve around Oxfams then head of mission in Haiti, Belgian national Roland van Hauwermeiren, whose behaviour had already led to complaints when he worked for the charity in Chad.

After resigning from Oxfam, he went on to work for French charity Action Against Hunger in Bangladesh.

There were reports on Wednesday that there had already been complaints about Van Hauwermeiren and his use of prostitutes when he was working for the British medical charity Merlin in Liberia before joining Oxfam.

Swedish former aid worker Amira Malik Miller told the humanitarian news agency IRIN that she had made a complaint about him in 2004 when she was working alongside him in Liberia.

When she saw an initial report about Van Hauwermeiren in The Times newspaper last week, she remembered thinking: Oh my God, hes been doing this for 14 years.

He just goes around the system... from Liberia to Chad, to Haiti, to Bangladesh. Someone should have checked properly, Malik Miller was quoted as saying.

Oxfam confirmed reports late Wednesday that another Haiti country director, Damien Berrendorf, was dismissed in 2017 after five years in the post.

The dismissal was not related to sexual misconduct and was not connected to the case in 2011, however, there were allegations of inappropriate behaviour, an Oxfam spokesperson said.

Actress devastated by response

Oxfams internal investigation into the use of prostitutes in Haiti led to the dismissal of four employees and three others being allowed to resign, including Van Hauwermeiren.

They let perpetrators go. They did not inform donors, their regulator or prosecuting authorities, Mordaunt said.

It was not just the processes and procedures of that organisation that were lacking but moral leadership.

CAFOD said Wednesday it had fired an employee after learning he was involved in the Haiti scandal.

He was hired in 2014 and provided two references, including one sent from a private email account by someone who said they had been his manager at Oxfam.

We requested and yesterday received a reference from Oxfam GB headquarters which confirmed the allegations against him, CAFOD director Chris Bain said in a statement.

British actress Minnie Driver quit her role as an Oxfam ambassador late Tuesday, saying she was devastated by the charitys response to the scandal.

Several sponsors and partners of Oxfam including Visa and the retail chain Marks and Spencer have also said they are examining the situation.Argentina announced a $5 million reward Wednesday for information leading to the recovery of the missing submarine San Juan, which disappeared without a trace in the South Atlantic in November with the loss of 44 crew.

The defence ministry said the reward will be granted to those persons who provide information and useful data that will allow us to find the whereabouts and precise location of the submarine.

President Mauricio Macris center-right government said it is seeking to generate adequate incentives for private companies to participate in the ongoing search with the Argentine navy.

At the peak of search operations in an area off the Argentine coast, more than a dozen countries provided military assets, oceanographic vessels and planes.

Macri told victims families about the reward in a meeting on February 7, though the amount still had to be fixed.

The families have long pleaded with the government to increase resources and expand the search area.

The navy has been fiercely criticised for its handling of the operation since first reporting the submarine overdue at its base in Mar del Plata on November 16.

It was only several days later that the navy acknowledged the San Juan had reported a problem with its batteries in its final communication on November 15.

Even later the navy said there had been a likely devastating explosion on board, which experts said was probably linked to the battery problem.

Macris government sacked naval chief Admiral Marcelo Srur and several top naval officials over the disaster, and opened an inquiry to determine what happened and who ultimately bears responsibility.Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Thursday banned sex between ministers and staff and rounded on his deputy for a shocking error of judgment by having an affair with a press secretary.

Deputy Australian prime minister Barnaby Joyce, a Catholic who campaigned on family values and married for 24 years, is expecting a child with his former staffer in April.

Turnbull denounced the affair at a press conference in Canberra after a week in which the scandal threw his centre-right government into turmoil and strained the alliance between his Liberal Party and Joyces National Party.

He stopped short of sacking Joyce, which would have put the governments narrow one-seat majority at risk were he expelled from parliament.

But Turnbull said the scandal had prompted overdue changes to ministerial conduct rules, and announced new standards broadly similar to a ban on relationships between lawmakers and staffers adopted last week by US Congress.

In 2018, it is not acceptable for a minister to have a sexual relationship with somebody who works for them. It is a very bad workplace practice. And everybody knows that no good comes of it, he said.

Ministers, regardless of whether they are married or single, must not engage in sexual relations with staff. Doing so will constitute a breach of the standards.

He said the changes take effect as of today and that Joyce will have to consider his own position as leader of the National Party.

Turnbull said earlier Joyce would take a weeks break next week, which avoids the need for him to fill in as acting prime minister during Turnbulls scheduled visit to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington next week.

The week off comes after an opinion poll showed support for Joyce, a plain-spoken small-town accountant turned politician, had tumbled in his rural electorate.

The percentage of voters backing him crashed to 43%, according to the ReachTEL poll published in Fairfax newspapers on Thursday, down from the 63% margin he won at a by-election in December.

He also faces intensifying pressure over his failure to declare the relationship with his former press secretary, Vikki Campion, when she was hired for two highly-paid government positions outside his office.

And there are questions about Joyces acceptance, rent-free, of a townhouse belonging to a wealthy friend, Greg Maguire, and whether Joyce broke ministerial rules forbidding asking for gifts. Joyce denied asking for the townhouse.

Most people would realise that at the time of a marriage break-up, it is not unusual for those who you are close to, to offer support, he told Parliament.

Mr Maguire approached me...he said: Youre living out of a suitcase, and this is basically something that I should try and help you with. I took him up on the offer but I offered to pay for it.

He has also said he did not break any rules over Campions employment because she was not his partner at the time.The Maldives government on Thursday ruled out any role for India or other countries in resolving the political crisis triggered in the island nation by President Abdulla Yameens decision to impose emergency after refusing to implement a Supreme Court order for freeing imprisoned opposition leaders.

Economic development minister Mohamed Saeed, who was one of three special envoys dispatched by Yameen to China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to lobby for support after the imposition of emergency on February 5, said in an interview that Beijings growing economic presence in the Indian Ocean archipelago was a reality.

Asked whether India and other countries could facilitate a dialogue between Yameens regime and the opposition to defuse the political crisis, Saeed said: Look, this is an internal affair, this is a domestic issue and we are fully capable and equipped to solve our domestic issues by ourselves. Maldives is an independent country, we have our own Constitution, we have our own institutions, we have our own people.

Saeed sidestepped a question about Indias concerns on Chinas growing presence in the Maldives, including the signing of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and support for Beijings Maritime Silk Route, and said the Maldives was open to the world for trade and business.

Of course, China today is a major economic power, so its no surprise their investments will spread into the neighbours (in) Asia and the globe. These are realities we all see as we speak, he said.

He sought to play down the signing of the FTA with China last December  a development that caused considerable heartburn in New Delhi  by saying free trade negotiations are nothing new.

We do not invent free trade, its a global concept. Look, among Saarc countries, we have what we call SAFTA, the Saarc free trade area. We have extended our invitations to EU, the US, Japan to be FTA partners. We are trying to do business here, he said.

Saeed rubbished a call by former president Mohamed Nasheed, currently in self-imposed exile in Sri Lanka, for intervention by India, saying: Nasheed is a fugitive, he should come and serve his (prison) sentence first He has his freedom to defend himself.

We have three-tier court processes to defend himself. Why cant he come (back)? If he is a patriot, if he loves his country, why cant he come to this country?

India had snubbed Yameens move to send a special envoy to New Delhi, with officials saying that Maldives had not acted on the global communitys concerns about the undermining of the democratic set-up through the imposition of emergency.

However, Saeed said the Maldives had remained in contact with our Indian friends.

We have 52 years of relationship with India. India is our nearest and dearest and oldest partnerWe always promote dialogue, we always communicate. We are friends, you know, he said.

Saeed also dismissed allegations by opposition leaders that Yameen was targeting opposition parties, curtailing basic freedoms and cracking down on opponents. He said the opposition leaders should furnish evidence to back up their accusations.South African President Jacob Zuma resigned on Wednesday as the ruling ANC party finally turned against him after nine years of corruption scandals, economic slowdown and falling popularity.

Zuma railed against the African National Congress (ANC) for recalling him from office and threatening to oust him via a parliament no-confidence vote due on Thursday.

In a 30-minute national television address, Zuma said he had come to the decision to resign as President of the republic with immediate effect.

Zuma has been in a power struggle with multi-millionaire former businessman Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy president who now becomes interim president.

Ramaphosa, who won control of the ANC when he was elected as its head in December, is set to be voted in by lawmakers as South Africas new president on Thursday or Friday.

Zuma, whose reputation has been stained by years-long allegations of graft, complained that the ANC party had never explained to him why he had to leave office.

In an earlier TV interview on Wednesday he said he had received very unfair treatment from the party he joined in 1959 and in which he had fought for decades against apartheid white-minority rule.

He said he was angered over the manner in which the decision is being implemented... I dont agree as there is no evidence of if I have done anything wrong.

Police raids

The partys national executive committee ordered his recall from office on Tuesday, after a 13-hour meeting at a hotel outside Pretoria.

ANC officials had said that if Zuma did not resign on Wednesday, the partys lawmakers in the Cape Town parliament would vote out Zuma on Thursday.

But senior party official Jesse Duarte said after the resignation that we are not celebrating.

We have had to recall a cadre of the movement that has served this organisation for over 60 years, its not a small matter, she added.

On Wednesday morning, police had raided the Johannesburg home of the Gupta business family, which is accused of overseeing a web of corruption under Zumas rule.

Police said three unidentified people had been arrested in investigations into Vrede Farm -- allegations that millions of dollars of public money meant for poor dairy farmers were syphoned off by the Guptas.

Local media reported that Zuma had been pushing for an exit deal that included covering his legal fees fighting multiple criminal charges -- but he denied the allegations in his resignation speech.

One case against him relates to 783 payments he allegedly received linked to an arms deal before he came to power.

Many other graft allegations have centred on the three Gupta brothers, who are accused of unfairly obtaining lucrative government contracts and even being able to choose Zumas ministerial appointments.

Zuma has admitted he is friends with the Guptas, originally from India, but has denied any wrongdoing.

The political wrangling in recent weeks plunged South Africa -- the continents most developed economy -- into confusion over who was running the country, with last Thursdays annual State of the Nation address cancelled at the last-minute.

Decline of Mandelas party

Zumas presidency was marred by slow economic growth, continuing racial inequality and record unemployment that fuelled public frustration.

He was scheduled to stand down next year after serving the maximum two terms since coming to power in 2009.

In local polls in 2016, the ANC recorded its worst electoral result since coming to power in 1994 with Nelson Mandela at the helm as white-minority rule fell.

A man holds a placard picturing South African president Jacob Zuma as he takes part in a demonstration with tens of thousands of opposition parties and civil society organisation members, in Pretoria. (AFP File Photo)

Ramaphosa, 65, the deputy president, must revive the economy and crack down on what he has admitted is rampant government corruption if he is to boost the partys tarnished reputation before a tricky election next year.

He is a former trade unionist and Mandela ally who led talks to end apartheid in the early 1990s and then became a hugely wealthy businessman before returning to politics.

Zumas hold over the ANC was shaken in December when his chosen successor -- his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma -- narrowly lost to Ramaphosa in a vote for the new party leader.W hile the big fashion brands strut their stuff at London Fashion Week, launching tomorrow, British and Italian designers are also launching their homeware collections.

Gucci has charming but pricey chairs  about 1,800 each  and velvet cushions at 895 apiece. Versace has gone for limited-edition teacups.

For your kitchen, Dolce & Gabbana offers toasters, kettles and juicers printed with saucy swirls of Sicilian folk art, from 399. Find them at Smegs swish new flagship in Regent Street, St Jamess, SW1, near the D&G hand-painted fridges, 30,000.

Armani Casa  known for rooms you can wear  will reopen in New Sloane Street in Chelsea next month, while Rosita Missoni  decking out homes since 1981  freshens up her signature stripes and florals this spring.

A key stockist for her is the ever-expanding online store Amara, which has also secured exclusive lines from Versace and Roberto Cavalli, along with Britains Mulberry Home.

Home fashion does not have to cost a fortune, however. It can be edgy, fabulous, affordable and easily available in our big shops. At John Lewis, theres Patternity  a daring pair of London women, Anna Murray and Grace Winteringham. Theyve made big monotone abstracts for fashion and home in one seamless edit: wear the tights and Airtex tee as you lounge on the cushions and rugs.

In Oxford Street, Debenhams was a pioneer, offering homewares by a loyal fashion team for 20 years.

Each designer has a strong individual aesthetic and weve nurtured that, says Sophia Ridley, the stores head of design for home. In at the beginning was Jasper Conran, now putting upscaled mustard minimalist motifs from his spring/summer 2018 catwalk on to linens, with a duvet set at 80, and copper cookware from 16.

From 399: Smeg kitchen gadgets designed by Dolce & Gabbana at Smeg in SW1, Selfridges and Harrods www.smeglondon.com

John Rocha is washing watercolours on to duvets, inspired by Japan, while Star by Julien Macdonald is all glam and glint, with cushions from 25.

Matthew Williamson layers rich embroidery, tropical prints, pompom trim and sequin pineapples. Pick up an embroidered duvet set for 70. He does wallpapers, too, at Osborne & Little in Chelsea. We often rework Matthews fashion prints for furnishing, says Sue Hardie, the companys head of design.

Emma J Shipley has a fervent fanbase for her exotic scarves and loungewear. Now there are wallpapers at 49 a roll and fabrics from 39 a metre, laden with the London graphic artists signature animal motifs, including fine pencil drawings of mythical jungle beasts.

Browns fashion boutique snapped up her first collection of scarves at her graduation show at RCA and she won emerging fashion brand at the WGSN Global Fashion Awards 2013.

London fashion designer Peter Pilotto is doing crazy furniture and distorted glassware by his maverick designer pals, plus racy rugs made from recycled workroom scraps.

South London fashion duo Eley Kishimoto now do their trademark spiky geometrics on wallpaper for Kirkby Design.

Behind the popular printed tees and dresses of Ted Baker is founder Ray Kelvin, former Glasgow menswear store owner. This season brings bed linens from 35 to 115, rugs from 185, tiles from 36 a square metre, and crockery from 25.

Christian Lacroix Maison at Designers Guild: fabrics from 85 to 230 and wallpapers from 75 to 235

Arriving soon is Ikeas outrageous Omedelbar edit, meaning instant, by Swedish costume designer Bea Akerlund.

Part Hollywood, part Goth, its very red and black. Find all the kit for a fashionistas wardrobe from a golden rack with velvet coathangers, to a clothes stand with a corset torso.

At newly expanded Designers Guild in Kings Road, founder/director Tricia Guild has an ongoing collaboration with Maison Lacroix.

This spring sees inky backgrounds for fine-detailed birds and flowers by creative director Sacha Walckhoff, who says: Weve always done our own fabrics, both for couture and ready-to-wear, so fabrics and papers are a natural for us.Kettners Townhouse, Soho

An extravagant art collection is inspired by the buildings rumoured reputation for liaisons and affairs, with site-specific installations by Danny Augustine and Sara J Beazley.

Urban myth has it that King Edward VII courted his mistress, actress Lillie Langtry, via a tunnel from the restaurant to The Palace Theatre where she performed.

> Scroll right for more A-list homes...

Soho HouseAppointment

15 February 2018

McKibbon Hospitality is pleased to announce the promotion of Erik Rowen to President of Development and Renovation Services. In his new role, Rowen will be responsible for McKibbon Hospitality"s development and renovation services divisions and will focus on third-party development opportunities. A registered architect who joined McKibbon Hospitality in 2003 as a Project Manager, Rowen most recently served as Vice President of Development.

Under Rowen"s leadership, McKibbon"s development and renovation services teams will be more closely aligned, allowing the company to better leverage resources, relationships, and scale to provide value for customers. His teams will also be well-positioned to pursue new third-party development opportunities by building on decades of experience and industry relationships with contractors, vendors and franchisers.

"Erik has played a critical role in McKibbon Hospitality"s growth and success over the years," said John McKibbon, chairman of McKibbon Hospitality. "Under his leadership, our teams have overcome complex site challenges and implemented the kind of design innovations that hotel guests, business partners, and investors seek. We look forward to Erik continuing to help us grow our portfolio through the continued pursuit of strategic development and renovation opportunities."

During his career with McKibbon, Rowen has supported the development of more than 30 projects. He has been recognized for developing award-winning hotels in Little Rock, Arkansas; Greenville, South Carolina; and Pensacola, Tallahassee and Tampa, Florida. Over the course of his career, Rowen has supported the successful development of half a billion dollars in developed projects. He earned his Bachelor of Architecture from Syracuse University and an MBA with a concentration in Real Estate from Georgia State University. Rowen is a member of the American Institute of Architects and the past president of the Association of Real Estate Alumni at Georgia State University.

McKibbon Hospitality is currently developing the AC Hotel and Residence Inn Charlotte City Center; Hotel Arras and the Arras Residences in Asheville, NC; and the Hampton Inn & Suites Atlanta Buckhead.1995-2021 Hospitality Net All rights reservedHospitality Net is powered by HsyndicateSupplier News

14 February 2018

The EyeforTravel San Francisco Digital Summit 2018 (April 9-10 Hotel Nikko), just over two months away will tackle the role of emerging technologies in travel, and help travel brands benchmark their digital strategy from some of the best in the industry.

The event is perfectly positioned to address the all-important question currently on the minds of travel brands now: What technologies should they invest in to enhance their digital strategy and how? The summit will provide the perfect platform to ascertain the real tech strategy from the hype, to truly come to grips with the opportunities of these technologies for digital marketing campaigns; and to successfully engage and get closer to the customer.

We have so much to talk about, and have split the event into two dedicated tracks:

Tech Innovation Strategies: Mobile, Emerging Trends, and Travel Technology

Case studies to be discussed in this track include:

A Choice Hotels Case Study: A Holistic Approach to Emerging Tech & Enhancing the Physical Experience with the Right Digital Technology

Case Study: A Holistic Approach to Emerging Tech & Enhancing the Physical Experience with the Right Digital Technology A Marriott

Case study: The Power of Mobile to Drive Interaction and Develop Unique Digital Experiences to Stay Top of Mind and Engage with Your Customer

Case study: The Power of Mobile to Drive Interaction and Develop Unique Digital Experiences to Stay Top of Mind and Engage with Your Customer Blockchain Demystified: How Can It Be Applied in Travel and How Will It Change Your Business?

Demystified: How Can It Be Applied in Travel and How Will It Change Your Business? Leveraging Data Driven Insights & Technology: Keep Up with The Shifts in Customer Behaviour to Deliver Relevant and Personalized Products

Marketing Strategies: Content Marketing, Social media and Data

Case studies to be discussed include :

Hilton Case Study: Brand Building in the Digital Age: The Role of Storytelling in Today's Customer Journey

Case Study: Brand Building in the Digital Age: The Role of Storytelling in Today's Customer Journey Cathay Pacific Case Study: Incorporating Virtual Content and Mobile Video into Cathay Pacific Airways' Marketing Strategy

Case Study: Incorporating Virtual Content and Mobile Video into Cathay Pacific Airways' Marketing Strategy Air Canada Vacations Case Study: An Air Canada Vacations Case Study: Keep Your Customers Clicking by Delivering Smarter, Personalized, More Dynamic Content

Case Study: An Air Canada Vacations Case Study: Keep Your Customers Clicking by Delivering Smarter, Personalized, More Dynamic Content Melia Hotels International Case Study: Redefine and Rebuild Your Social Media and Digital Strategy Using Data, Personalization & Hyper-Segmentation

Click here to see the full agenda and the confirmed speaker line up

Here is a snapshot of experts taking the stage in San Francisco in 2017!

Amy Ziegenfuss, VP  Global Marketing Focused Brands, Hilton

Tim Goodwin, Chief Technology Officer, Vacasa

Sam MacDonnell, Chief Technology Officer, HotelTonight

Todd Henrich, SVP  Corporate Development, Priceline Group

Robecta Ma, VP  Marketing, Cathay Pacific Airways

Angel Llull Mancas, Senior Director  North America, Booking.com

Amir Amidi, Managing Partner  Travel & Hospitality Center of Innovation, Plug and Play Tech Center

Reda Berrehili, Chief Technology Officer, OneFineStay

Dan Christian, Chief Digital Officer, The Travel Corporation

Pedro Renaud Anderson, Founder, Winding Tree

Will Farnan, Client Partner  Travel Suppliers, Facebook

Will your digital strategy stack up in 2018 and beyond? Click here to learn more and don't miss your chance to be a part of the West Coast's largest digital travel event!

Contact the team directly at  [email protected]Supplier News

15 February 2018

ALPHARETTA, GA  The Rainmaker Group (Rainmaker), a leading provider of cloud-based hospitality revenue and profit optimization software, announced today that Amy Forss, senior sales director, and Mike Pavicich, director of hospitality sales, will be featured speakers at the Hotel Revenue Conference 2018. The conference will be held Feb. 21-22 at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle. Rainmaker is a gold-level sponsor of the event.

Forss and Pavicich will speak on optimizing group business for higher conversion rates and increased revenue. Their presentation, entitled FOMO: Fear of Missing Out, will include topics such as: leveraging data and technology; streamlining revenue management processes; proactive selling; and empowering the team.

Forss, who has more than 15 years' experience in the hospitality industry, joined Rainmaker in January 2015. Her expertise is in group sales and revenue management. Pavicich, who joined Rainmaker in August 2017, has held leadership roles in hotels, casino companies and travel technology businesses. Both executives are focused on helping hotels and resorts increase profitability through the use of technology and are frequent speakers on a variety of revenue management topics.

Rainmaker offers best-of-breed revenue and profit optimization solutions to hotels, resorts and casinos. Its product suite includes:

guestrev , an intuitive and easy-to-use revenue management solution that analyzes total guest value across a hotel or casino property to forecast and price rooms;

, an intuitive and easy-to-use revenue management solution that analyzes total guest value across a hotel or casino property to forecast and price rooms; grouprev , an innovative group pricing solution that streamlines the process of responding to group RFPs by analyzing historical data, future demand and price sensitivity to recommend the best pricing for group business;

, an innovative group pricing solution that streamlines the process of responding to group RFPs by analyzing historical data, future demand and price sensitivity to recommend the best pricing for group business; revcaster , a powerful rate shopping tool that gives hoteliers access to real-time actionable market data, so that rates can be set against the competitive landscape; and

a powerful rate shopping tool that gives hoteliers access to real-time actionable market data, so that rates can be set against the competitive landscape; and revintel, an intuitive business intelligence solution that improves day-to-day revenue management by mining various data sets and providing deep insights at a granular level.

"We are thrilled to participate in this year's Hotel Revenue Conference, both as thought leaders and as a gold-level sponsor," said Tammy Farley, president of The Rainmaker Group. "We continue to experience significant growth within the hotel market and have a strong commitment to the success of our customers in this sector. We understand the importance of technology to a hotel's success, and we look forward to sharing information and insights that can help attendees win more group business at their own properties."

The Hotel Revenue Conference is a premier event that gives hoteliers an opportunity to meet with industry leaders, subject matter experts and technology vendors. Focused on revenue generation, the event incorporates leading content for revenue management, digital marketing and management audiences.

To sign up for a one-on-one meeting with Rainmaker during the Hotel Revenue Conference, contact Brenna Needham at 470-440-7917 or [email protected].Supplier News

15 February 2018

Phoenix -- ILES: A Year of Learning Webinar Series is quickly gaining traction in the independent hotel space. Developed and hosted byIBC Hospitality Technologies, the next event, titled "Driving Direct Booking with Google," will be held February 21 at 11:00 a.m. Led by Pablo Ruiz, Google travel vertical search specialist, the webinar will identify new ways hotels can be profitable through driving direct reservations. Ruiz will unveil some of the Google product launches for the travel world. In addition, IBC's Pamela Barnhill will discuss acquiring full guest information and driving more direct bookings. To register, click here.

"Google is constantly adapting to the new reality of users having much more complex conversion paths," Ruiz said. "In this webinar, we will discuss how hoteliers can grow revenue, capture high quality leads and have more effective conversations using Google Hotel Ads. Hoteliers must adapt to the new user paradigm, and Google Hotel Ads is a profitable and scalable solution to drive direct bookings."

In this online session, Ruiz will explain what Google Hotel Ads are and how they differ from  and complement  AdWords. With GHA, hotels can show live room prices and availability with a link to complete booking . . . connect the hotel directly with travel shoppers wherever they are searching on Google . . . and work like a distribution channel to better control inventory. The end result is higher conversion rates, stronger overall ROI, growth in new customer bookings, stronger return on ad spend, and lower cost per acquisition.

Ruiz joined Google nearly four years ago, first as an analyst for the biggest global travel companies, then as a product specialist for Google Hotel Ads in EMEA, helping Google hoteliers drive their revenues in a profitable manner. His background as an electrical engineer and his career debut in strategy consulting in Monitor Deloitte, drive his interest in shaping the future of travel at Google.

"We are thrilled that Pablo is participating in our new and in-demand Webinar series," said Barnhill, IBC president and COO. "Google is constantly adapting and launching new products to provide travelers with the best experiences throughout their entire travel journey. We encourage anyone who wants to take a closer look at Google and learn how to better own their relationship with guests to participate in this 45-minute session next week."Supplier News

15 February 2018

NAVIS, the #1 sales and marketing platform for hotels, resorts, management companies and vacation rentals, today announced that Michelle Marquis will move into the newly formed position of Vice President of Strategic Development. In her new role, Michelle will identify and evaluate new market opportunities as well as play a key role in assessing evolving trends and future demands as part of the company's growth strategy.

"Michelle's proven success at NAVIS and her deep understanding of the hospitality landscape will serve as invaluable assets as we further differentiate our company and serve new and existing markets," said Kyle Buehner, NAVIS CEO. "She possesses the strategic insight, industry savvy and operational experience that will enable us to accelerate our vision. I am enthusiastic about the possibilities that lie ahead for our company and the new relationships that we will form."

Over the last 11 years at NAVIS, Michelle has been an integral part of the executive team, leading sales, business development, client advocates, and marketing. Michelle joined NAVIS after serving as Director of Sales and Marketing at Mount Bachelor Village Resort in Bend, Oregon. As a previous power user, she successfully utilized NAVIS to help her property increase their business. She is a sought-after expert speaker at industry events around the U.S., including the Google Travel Conference, HSMAI events, VRMA, Cornell University Hospitality Research Summit, and the Preferred Hotel Group Conference. With more than two decades of hands-on experience, her career is marked by notable achievements while bringing the highest value to her clients, partners, and colleagues.

"This is an especially exciting time to be part of the hospitality industry, and NAVIS is well positioned to leverage the latest technologies while building on 30 years of experience to evolve naturally into new markets," explains Marquis. "The commitment from everyone at NAVIS to delivering high-value innovative solutions is inspiring. I am thrilled to have this door open for me to anticipate and address the unmet needs of our industry on so many different fronts."

To learn why leading lodging providers and management companies rely on NAVIS technology and services to help them maximize direct booking revenue and guest service, please visit TheNavisWay.com or call 866-712-3439.Supplier News

15 February 2018

At Triptease, know better than most that hoteliers are busy people juggling a multitude of demands. But there is one thing you must find time in your diary for this year  the Direct Booking Summit.

The event series, which focuses solely on increasing hotels' direct bookings, will be bigger than ever in 2018/19, with three editions. The first takes place in Amsterdam in June, the second in Dallas in September and the third, the inaugural Asia-Pacific summit, in Singapore in early 2019. Hospitality Net is an official media partner of the summit.

Here's five reasons why you and your hotel should be part of it this year.

Get practical, relevant advice that you'll actually use

From the very beginning, the Direct Booking Summit has had one clear goal: to provide hoteliers with tangible, take-home strategies they can put in action immediately. The entire event is designed with that in mind and in the years it's been running, we've always delivered.

It's not just us that think so. Last year's post-event survey was full of responses about "valuable takeaways", "helpful new insights" and the "extremely relevant and useful knowledge" shared.

So if you want to know about conversion, Google AdWords, chatbots, OTA tactics, CRM, metasearch and more, and more importantly, what your hotel should be doing about them, sign up now.

Spur on the Direct Booking Movement

Last week Expedia boss Mark Okerstrom admitted that there is a "new equilibrium" in hospitality following hotels' book direct campaigns. Each campaign, such as Hilton's "Stop Clicking Around" has had its effect, but we're pretty sure the fact that so many hotels united behind one message has been the true driver of the shift Okerstrom acknowledged.

The Direct Booking Summit is another opportunity to bring together hoteliers around that same, powerful movement, and re-energize and expand it. Joining us there will give you the chance to put your stamp on it, as well as meet a community of like-minded people you can call on for support. We've succeeded in creating a "new equilibrium", so what will we achieve together next?

An agenda designed by you

We have been crafting our agenda of thought-provoking keynotes, fiery panel debates and enlightening roundtables for some time now and believe us, you won't be disappointed. But given that our main objective is to make this as practical and relevant as possible for delegates, we've left a little room to make sure you get to talk about the topics you care about most.

So be it wholesale, search engine marketing or artificial intelligence, if you have a bright idea for a session, we want to know about it. Email your suggestions to [email protected] and look out for them on the schedule in a few weeks' time.

You get bang for your buck

We are committed to making the Direct Booking Summit as accessible as possible. Our theory is the more people that come, the better quality the discussion and the greater the learning opportunities for everyone. We make sure our tickets are reasonably priced for exactly that reason.

But it's not just a conference you get for the modest price, you also get a serious party. Last year's involved jalapeno-infused tequila, epic skyline views, prosecco pong, flamenco dancers, people-sized paellas, after-parties and after-after-parties. All were worth the price tag on their own.

And because we are just that generous, we're even offering a massive 50% off ticket prices until February 23. It's a no-brainer!

Tell your story and raise your profile

As you may have guessed, we love talking about all things hospitality. But there's actually something we love more than that  listening to hoteliers on all things hospitality. The Direct Booking Summit reflects that; each year we recruit an eclectic line-up of speakers, representing hotels of all shapes and sizes, that our delegates both identify with and get inspired by.

With that in mind, we have a proposition for you. How about joining that line-up? We'd love to hear your story. What's more, it's a great opportunity to raise both your and your hotel's profiles, put the subjects you care about most on the agenda and get out of your comfort zone. As summit chairman and Chief Tease Charlie Osmond explains in our preview video, we're an open and friendly crowd looking to learn from our peers so you're guaranteed a very warm welcome. Again, just email [email protected] if you're interested in taking to the stage.

So what are you waiting for? Register for the Direct Booking Summit today to secure your place at a juicy discount and join the hundreds of hoteliers on one mission: to increase direct bookings.Opinion Article

15 February 2018

I remember when I started my career in the early 90's. As the Sales & Marketing Manager for an Airport Hotel in Europe, I had been tasked to figure out what this GDS business really was  High yield, and some 20% of our bookings, and we had no idea! I had just finished hacking into Fidelio's database, so we could build better reports on what our business actually was, where it was coming from, and maybe figure out how we could improve on it. With some seven years of data, even for that relatively small hotel with just under 230 rooms, the way we needed to connect to the PMS was often overwhelming for Excel. Friday evenings just before leaving the office, I would reboot my computer and then launch the data extraction.

The next morning, I would return, in the hopes my machine hadn't crashed in the process. It was incredibly cumbersome, but it was also superbly worth it. From what had started as an analytics project, we created what we would refer to as the 'market segment positioning and pricing tool'  a real mouthful. It computed weekday-based pace patterns and apply them to what we had on the books for the next 90 days. Along with that forecast came a basic pricing recommendation per market segment, which still had meaning then. For the week, we would use this print output as a cheat sheet for sales and reservations.

We certainly did improve on our revenue KPIs. But the 'system' was burdensome, took hours to process the raw data, and then the same number of hours to compute through it. And with enough luck, it would occasionally even do all of it in a single attempt. After all that, it still required an informed interpretation and manual adjustments of the output. Rings a bell? It should  today, we call much better systems like this RMS or Revenue Management Systems  we had no concept of where we were going. But we allowed the data to inform our next steps.

A year or so later, when the first RMS vendors came to see me at that hotel, I had the knee-jerk reaction that is unfortunately all too common in not just our industry  'I don't need what you're doing, I can do this better already,' I would say. Much later, I went to work for Optims, which is now part of Amadeus. By then their RMS had evolved into simply amazing; the stuff it could do was perfect for what I could have ever imagined. Reactions in the market were by-and-large still the same:

"We do the same thing in Excel"

"How can you prove this is better"

"I don't need this, I've been in this market for over 'however many' years!"

These days are now firmly in the past. Fast forward 20 or so years later, we have finally come to accept that our experience is best used when dealing with exceptions, not repetitive pricing tasks that require significant computations and near real-time reactivity.

When we talk about operations at a hotel, and about the complexity of room assignment, I am reliving the same situation. It is just human nature  we have performed a certain task in the same way for decades. We have trained ourselves on it, and so we seek out the comfort of what we know. However, what we are achieving is truly limited. When speaking of Revenue Management Systems, we like using the analogy of 'Rocket Science'. It is truly fitting - these systems predict the future with an often-impressive degree of accuracy. Actually I should take that back because rockets are not that complicated. Room assignment on the other hand? That would be more like particle smasher complicated. Don't believe it because your front desk staff does it every day? Well, 25 years ago we were pricing based on our gut feelings. Provided we had real experience in our market - we were getting decent results too. In hindsight? Surely not the best results.

There are hidden profit potentials in your operation! With increasing size and complexity of the hotel, the amounts can be staggering. I understand it is hard to believe that we have been missing out on something right under our noses. Unnerving even! And yes, just like pricing based on our gut, provided our staff has the right experience, intuition, and expert knowledge of the hotel rooms, they are indeed achieving much better results than if they didn't.

Here's the advantage over Revenue Management  we don't need to predict a still uncertain future. We just work with the same data that is already in your Property Management System. We can truly measure the efficiency of your operation. We want to give you (Yes, I said GIVE) insights, an operations BI tool that truly allows you to see where you are losing money. Just by understanding room status turning patterns, you can now manage towards an improvement. By seeing how many free upgrades are applied and understanding which of these are warranted and which aren't, you can start improving things. Understanding which check-ins take particularly long allows you to uncover process issues. Just knowing how many, and which guests are not seeing their requests fulfilled, or not getting their loyalty-based upgrades, gives you a different appreciation of the difficulties involved.

With insights, you get all that and more  because every operation and organization is different, and management styles differ based on personal preferences, YOU get to adapt insights to you. Create and change reports, graphs, and dashboards to fit YOUR hotel. And you can run roomPulse, our self-organizing room rack, in the background so that you can evaluate its potential benefits to your operation. Because we just don't think that you should be buying something based on the words of a salesperson you 'feel' you can trust. We think you have a right to understand what is really happening at your hotel without resorting to surveillance cameras. And IF you like the benefits that roomPulse could add to your operation, then add it, if not, don't  it's that SIMPLE!

Because we think WE are the ones that need to prove our value to you every day, there are no long-term commitments to any paid subscription services. If for whatever reason you decide to discontinue a service, you just stop paying  no questions asked!

So head to www.hospitalityPulse.com and start tapping your hidden profits!Performance

15 February 2018

PORTSMOUTH, NH -- According to Lodging Econometrics (LE), the total Construction Pipeline in Canada currently has 244 Projects/32,170 Rooms, up 17% by projects Year-Over-Year (YOY).



There are 87 Projects/11,286 Rooms Under Construction, up 19% by projects YOY. Projects Scheduled to Start Construction in the Next 12 Months are at 91 Projects/10,536 Rooms, up 15%, while those in Early Planning are at 66 Projects/10,348 Rooms, up 18%.



The top hotel companies in Canada's Construction Pipeline by projects are: Marriott with 54 Projects/7,764 Rooms, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) with 43 Projects/4,436 Rooms, and Hilton with 37 Projects/4,218 Rooms. The largest brands in the Pipeline for each of these companies are: Courtyard by Marriott with 110 Projects/1,597 Rooms, IHG's Holiday Inn Express with 30 Projects/3,129 Rooms and Hilton's Hampton Inn & Suites with 12 Projects/1,231 Rooms.



Cities in Canada with the largest pipelines are: Toronto with 36 Projects/5144 Rooms, Calgary with 14 Projects/2,221 Rooms and Edmonton with 12 Projects/1,825 Rooms.It pays to be a stylish rapper. With increased exposure comes the opportunity to be a brand ambassador and in some cases, the chance at hands-on work in a prominent design house. Following in the footsteps of Rihanna, Big Sean sets the stage for his 2nd collaboration with Puma

Puma has been boldly tapping into the youth demographic by carefully choosing musical artists to carry their brand. Big Sean current Puma collaboration has him putting a signature on the classic Puma Suede, in celebration of 50 years of implementation. Other celebrities have had Suedes designed in their honor but few have had artistic license. Big Sean is in select company.

The Puma Suede 50s pictured below, feature tougher lines and higher ankle support. According to XXL, They will be available in family sizes as of March 22nd, for $110 at select Puma retailers.

Big Sean will embark on his "Unfriendly Reminder" tour with invited guests Playboi Carti, Shy Glizzy and GASHI, starting in April.Nikolas Cruz is the latest suspect behind the 18th school shooting in America in only the second month of 2018. After killing 17 innocent people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida yesterday, new reports prove that the FBI was warned about Nikolas' plans for the shooting.

YouTuber Ben Bennight contacted the authorities after a user by the name of Nikolas Cruz left a comment on his account saying "I'm going to be a professional school shooter."

"[The police] came to my office the next morning and asked me if I knew anything about the person," Ben told Buzzfeed News. "I didn't. They took a copy of the screenshot and that was the last I heard from them."

Ben was contacted again yesterday, five months since hearing from the authorities, after Nikolas Cruz open fired at the Florida High School. It hasn't been confirmed if the YouTube comment was made from Nikolas. BBC reports that teachers were warned about Nikolas as he was not allowed on campus with a backpack, and had been expelled.

Since hearing the reports, President Donald Trump tweeted a statement urging people to "always report such instances."In terms of song releases, Valentine's Day was not dry as we have another drop from today via Chicago artist Frank Leone. "Huffing Paint" premiered on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 radio show today and it does not disappoint. Singing about the suicide of a close friend, Leone emotionally connects with his fans. For anyone that has lost someone recently, this one hits home insanely hard.

The Chicagoan, who released his album EnterWILD nearly three years ago in 2015, self-produced "Huffing Paint," and we can hear the artist switching up his flow, singing and rapping interchangeably. Leone has worked with fellow Illinois rapper Vic Mensa in the past, and we look forward to seeing what he has up his sleeve for the future.

Quotable Lyrics:

Nowadays I cry even when I'm in the bank

Getting money through the night ain't ever brighten my day

So namaste, my body, apologies for all the dank

Imma stain my body with my dead brother's nameIggy Azalea, looking every bit the part of a silver vixen, seemed pleasantly occupied by the crowd forming around her in New York yesterday. The marquee moment, captured by paparazzi, involved a young boy marching to the head of the line to present Iggy with a red rose. This single gesture although cliched to nausea, looks to have been a bright spot in her day and simply put, kids get away with anything through their innocence.

The rapper who has been toying with the single life since her split with Golden State Warrior Nick Young, himself a juvenile at heart, has probably seen her standards for grown men take a nosedive. The record states that she was once wooed in spite of his naivety. Young hearts run free.

During her visit to New York, she found time visit MTV's TRL, she was asked to share her "fair" sexual expectations to which she responded that she needed men to last a little longer.

I think you should make it last longer than the radio edit of the song,

Hopefully her subliminal reaches the individuals to whom it may concern.

[via TMZ]Its been a minute since we last heard from Murs. In fact, the last time the Strange Music rapper impacted out site was back in March of last year when he dropped off his Captain California project, featuring Rex Life Raj, Krizz Kaliko, and more, but thankfully thats all about to change soon. With a new project on the way called A Strange Journey Into The Unimaginable, dropping March 16th, Murs decides to come through today and share a new single from it called Same Way featuring Tech N9ne.

Produced from Michael "Seven" Summers, whos handling the entire project, take a listen to the new Strange Music collab and lets know what you think. Pre-orders available now right here. (Included below is the song's accompanying video as well)

Quotable Lyrics:

I got a thing for you baby girl

But I don't seem to fit up in your crazy world

I'm that square peg in a round hole

I know what you're family sayin' on the down low

And all your homegirls highkey hate me though

They still use my login for the HBO

Amazon, Netflix, and some mo' shit

Don't even know why you listen to them broke chicks

- MursRittz is back with a new smooth sounding single titled, "As You Are." The beat is produced by The Colleagues and hears Rittz rapping about a certain gyal who is perfect the way she is. The track is definitely one that needs to be added your V-day playlist if you're just creating one now.

Rittz's last album titled Last Call was all about giving fans "something positive" that follows the same theme as his new track.

"No matter what's going on, whatever you're going through, you're going to overcome it. Through all of the darkness, there's a light at the end of the tunnel. A lot of the records have that theme to them," he said.

The Atlanta rapper most recently joined forces with Tech N9ne, KXNG Crooked, Chino XL, and Statik Selektah on "Terminally Ill" laying down some heavy bars among rap veterans.

Quotable Lyrics

She said she needs to lose weight

I think she looks great

She puts fake eyelashes on

But without them, her eyes can be mesmerizedXXXTENTACION might be dealing with his own set of issues but that hasn't stopped him from trying to give back. After the tragic Florida shooting yesterday, the Broward County native sent out his condolences to the families and those that were affected. Now, he's planning on using his platform to provide direct help to the families of the victims.

XXXTENTACION hit Instagram earlier to announce plans that to host a benefit show for the victims families of the yesterday's Florida shooting. The rapper hasn't revealed where it'll take place or on what day but it looks like he's doing anything he can to help out especially since the shooting took place in his area of Broward County.

"going to be hosting a show in broward county and all of the money will go to the family's of the shooting in broward county." He wrote on his Instagram story, "more information soon, please attend."

Earlier today, the rapper shared his condolences on his Instagram story. While the shooting occurred in his stomping ground of Broward County, he also revealed that his cousin goes to the middle school in that area as well. You could read more what he said here and check his announcement for the benefit show below.Officials offered few explanations Wednesday on their move to oust Houston's convention and tourism bureau chief or what they have in mind for the now leaderless Houston First Corp., which is charged with promoting the nation's fourth most-populous city to tourists and conventioneers.

Mayor Sylvester Turner distanced himself from the dismissal but said he supported the decision behind it. Dawn Ullrich was relieved of her duties as president and CEO on Tuesday after announcing plans last week to retire Dec. 31.

"It was unfortunate, but I wish Dawn well," Turner said during a press conference. "She's been with the city a long time, and she's been a dedicated servant to the city of Houston. But, ultimately, I support the decision of the board."

Last week, Turner had commended Ullrich, a 40-year city employee, for her service.

Houston First chairman David Mincberg, who dismissed Ullrich on Tuesday without a board vote, called Ullrich a "fine employee" who had done a "fine job," but he refused to answer whether her performance played a factor in her dismissal.

"We are focused on not having any downtime and moving the organization and the city of Houston forward," Mincberg said. "That's my answer."

Houston First's board of directors, scheduled to meet Thursday, plans to move expeditiously to fill the leadership vacuum and may discuss a replacement candidate during a closed executive session, Mincberg said.

"Our hope would be to find an internal candidate," he said, "someone who could pick up the mantle of leadership immediately."

Turner, who has the power to nominate most members of Houston First's board, said he does not have anyone in mind for Ullrich's replacement.

Meanwhile, Ullirch is considering her legal options. Her attorney, David Feldman, said on Wednesday she may file a lawsuit over age discrimination and violations of the state's open meetings act.

Ullrich had been in talks with Houston First's board for months about her plans to retire. However, Ullrich felt increasingly pressured by the board to retire, Feldman said.

"The board, communicated by the chair of the board, kept pushing her, 'When are you going to retire?'" Feldman said. "They obviously had a timeline in mind and she had a different timeline."

Mincberg, who said he did not discuss Ullrich's retirement with Turner, countered that allegations of age discrimination are baseless because Ullrich first gave notice of her intent to leave the organization. Additionally, Mincberg said he was surprised Ullrich gave 11 months notice.

Feldman, however, said it's not unusual for a high-level executive to give a year's notice to help facilitate plans for succession.

Moreover, Feldman took issue with the way Ullrich was dispatched.

As a local government corporation, Houston First is subject to the open meeting law, which mandates that actions regarding executives of high public interest must be specified on public meeting agendas. The posted agenda for Tuesday's and Thursday's board meeting only states the board will hold a closed executive session to discuss "compensation, evaluation and/or duties for specific individual employees."

Mincberg reiterated that the board discussed Ullrich at its Tuesday meeting but did not vote to relieve her of her duties.

If that's the case, the board likely violated the state's open meeting law, said Joe Larsen, an attorney and open meetings law expert with the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.

"I am still trying to figure out how the chairman has the authority to dismiss Ms. Ullrich unless the board voted to give him authority to do so," Larsen said. "I don't believe he has the authority under a local government corporation to do that. If the board acted in the closed session, that of course is even worse and is a violation apart from the notice violation."

David Robinson, an at-large city councilman, said he thought Ullrich's departure was unfortunate but not a big deal. Robinson, who sits on Houston First's board as an nonvoting ex officio member, said he thought Ullrich's dismissal was done by the books.

"Change is sometimes a hard thing, and in this case it is going to involve a little grinding of the gears, but I think moving forward is something that, as a board, we have focused on," Robinson said.

Ric Campo, former chairman of Houston First, said Ullrich will be missed.

"She's put together a great team, but you need a great leader."

Rebecca Elliott contributed to this story.The U.S. is soon expected to become a dominant player in the global market for liquefied natural gas as Gulf Coast companies build massive terminals to serve overseas markets and the federal government considers looser regulations for small-scale exports closer to home.

Officials, executives and consultants at the S&P Global Platts annual LNG conference in Houston agreed that the production boom in West Texas and other shale basins throughout the country has already begun to transform the LNG market by increasing competition and trading. They said the U.S. will need to increase exports in the coming years as increasingly efficient drilling methods create a domestic supply glut of natural gas.

"We're going to have too much gas with nowhere to go," said Renato Pereira, vice president of business development and marketing for Houston's Tellurian Inc., an LNG venture

The interest in LNG exports, pioneered by Houston's Cheniere Energy in 2016, has intensified with the renaissance in U.S. energy production. In West Texas, energy companies have found cheap and effective ways to tap the rich Permian Basin, creating a steady supply of oil and gas for Gulf Coast refiners and exporters.

Steven Winberg, the U.S. Energy Department's assistant secretary for fossil fuels, said the nation has six projects underway in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and Maryland that will support LNG exports in excess of 10 billion cubic feet per day. Already, the U.S. exports LNG to at least 20 foreign markets, the largest of which are in Asia.

Winberg said U.S. LNG exports are also ramping up in Europe, notably in Lithuania and Poland. Those countries have historically relied on natural gas from nearby Russia.

"U.S. LNG exports are expanding and reshaping the international gas markets," Winberg said.

Last fall, Winberg's office proposed a rule that would loosen regulations for small-scale LNG exporters shipping less than 140 million cubic feet per day, potentially expanding U.S. LNG shipments to smaller markets in the Caribbean, Central America and South America.

"This administration is committed to expanding the reach and the markets for American energy," Winberg said.

Cheniere's Sabine Pass facility in Louisiana, now the nation's only LNG terminal in operation, has already shipped more than 800 billion cubic feet, or roughly 225 cargoes, of natural gas since it began exports in 2016, according to the Energy Department. The company last week announced two long-term agreements to export LNG to China's state-owned oil company through 2043.

Other companies have invested millions of dollars in large-scale LNG processing and export terminals on both the Gulf Coast and the East Coast. Houston companies Freeport LNG and Kinder Morgan are expected to begin exports this year, the former out of its Quintana Island terminal and the latter out of its Elba Island project in Georgia.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects that the nation will become a net exporter of natural gas this year for the first time since 1957 as production outpaces domestic demand. By the end of next year, it anticipates U.S. companies will have the capacity to process 9.5 billion cubic feet of LNG per day, the equivalent of roughly three cargoes.

Tellurian, which is working to develop a Louisiana export terminal, is banking on an uptick in global gas demand as markets in Asia and elsewhere accelerate a shift from coal to cleaner-burning natural gas. Pereira said the company anticipates demand could jump to 408 billion cubic feet per day in 2025, up from 353 billion cubic feet per day last year.

"LNG has the potential to serve part of that demand," he said.Michael Skelly seemed like thousands of other people when he arrived in Houston in the late 1990s to work for energy companies. But Skelly stood out for one reason: He had come to nation's oil and gas capital to help build a wind farm business.

"And it was a little bit lonely," he said.

Two decades later, Houston's renewable businesses are still overshadowed by the city's lineup of oil, gas and chemical companies, but Skelly is far less lonely. Houston has become home to wind project developers, renewable energy transmission companies and residential solar firms that together employ thousands - solar companies alone employ more than 2,000 alone, according to industry estimates - and many in the renewables business only expect it to grow into a larger, more critical component of Houston's energy industry.

Major oil companies such as Exxon Mobil, Shell and BP, looking at a future of declining oil demand and tougher greenhouse gas rules, are investing more in renewable energy technologies and projects. Last month, the Greater Houston Partnership, a nonprofit economic development group, convened executives of the renewable energy firms to help develop a strategy to expand the sector over concerns that Houston, the energy capital of the world, could miss out on a global energy transition.

"If renewables get as big as they could be, then that affects Houston," said Skelly, CEO of Clean Line Energy Partners, a Houston company that builds transmission lines for wind and solar projects. "Silicon Valley is coming after us."

More Information List of some companies in Houston that work in renewables EDP Renewables Pattern Energy Clean Line Energy Partners Sunnova Solar Energy Quanta Services Clean Energy Capital See More Collapse

RELATED: Is Houston missing the next energy wave?

Houston, while leading innovations in the oil and gas industry, has lagged in embracing wind, solar, batteries and other renewable technologies. The city has fewer local tax incentives to encourage rooftop solar systems than Austin and San Antonio, and few of its large energy companies do renewable energy research here, preferring tech hubs like Silicon Valley and Boston.

Austin is home to most of the state's clean energy start-ups, and Lubbock the location for most of the wind energy research done in Texas.

But Houston is finding a niche, attracting renewable energy companies with the regions's deep pools of talent skilled at putting together large energy projects and managing electricity supplies on the grid, the legacy of the region's cluster of oil and power companies. The San Francisco wind energy company Pattern, for example, established its operating center on the 32nd floor of a downtown Houston skyscraper, from where it monitors electricity production at 17 wind farms from the Texas Panhandle to Santiago, Chile.

The Portuguese company EDP Renewables, a wind and solar project developer, established its North American headquarters here in part because of access to workers adept at finding productive land, putting together parcels, negotiating with property owners and navigating permitting processes. EDP, which employs about 250 people in Houston, operates 45 wind and five solar farms in Canada, the United States and Mexico.

"California has lots of political support for renewables, and it has dot com-type talents, and Google and Facebook gobble up talent," said Chris Shugart, Pattern's senior vice president for operations. "But we've generally not found it to be great source of talent."

RELATED: How Texas blew to the top in wind power

Houston's renewable energy industry traces its heritage to oil and gas wildcatters. EDP, for example, set up in Houston after acquiring a company that has its roots in Houston-based Zilkha Renewable Energy, a venture founded in the 1990s by Houston's Zilkha family after selling its oil and gas company. Pattern Energy, which employs around 100 in Houston, was co-founded in 2002 by John Calaway, a Houston oil and gas man who launched Edge Petroleum in the 1980s and later sold the company to the large Houston independent Apache Corp.

Other companies have grown from these early shoots. In 2009, Skelly founded Clean Line, which employs 30 people in Houston. Another Houston firm, Quanta Services, founded 1997, helped build a network of transmission lines in West Texas designed to connect rural wind farms with cities. In 2012, John Berger, a former Enron energy trader co-founded the solar power company Sunnova, which employs nearly 300 in Houston.

Today, more than 100 companies involved in some aspect of solar power have offices in Houston, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, an industry trade group. Companies like Pattern have successfully recruited oil and gas workers, particularly after the oil bust, said Shugart. Since the last oil boom turned bust in 2014, Pattern has more than doubled its Houston workforce from 44 employees to more than 100 by the end of 2017.

Shugart recalled people with oil and gas backgrounds coming to interviews anxious about the future of their jobs and looking for an industry that had less of an impact on the environment. Shugart, who came to Pattern from the power company Calpine Corp. more than a decade ago, said his success in recruiting workers from oil, gas and power companies is an indicator that Houston is taking renewables seriously.

"There are still hard core oil and gas people who kind of turn their noses up to it," he said. "I'm seeing less and less of that. People are really impressed by the scale of the business - and how competitive it is."

MORE: In Oklahoma, a war over wind powerHouston is a great place to start a biotech company, says Harpreet Singh, founder and managing director of Immatics, based in Tuebingen, Germany, and CEO of Immatics US, its Houston-based subsidiary.

He is an immunologist born in Frankfurt to Indian-immigrant parents and is developing immuno-therapies with MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Q: What is your vision for Immatics?

A: Houston, with the Texas Medical Center, is one of the best places in the U.S. to build a biotech company. Our vision is to build one of the leading biotech companies in the U.S., even globally, in cancer immunotherapy.

We are not looking just for a short extension of life by a few weeks or a few months. We're looking for something that will last years. Or even, and I am reluctant to use the c-word, maybe a cure.

Q: How did you get interested in immunology?

A: I remember when I was 6 years old, I had a very high fever and was lying in bed with my mother next to me, and she told me about the policemen in the body that were taking care of the pathogen. And I was fascinated by the idea that there are these little policemen in my bloodstream that were going after the evil guys. That was a picture I never forgot.

I was incredibly fortunate that one of the leaders in immunology, Hans-Georg Rammensee, was from Tuebingen and came back to Tuebingen to open a large new institute for immunology. I applied and got a Ph.D. position with him.

Q: How did Immatics come to be?

A: Toni Weinschenk, who became a co-founder of Immatics, was looking very closely at tumors and how the immune system differentiates between normal tissue and tumors. I was working on proteins, and we came up with the idea of creating a company that focused on immunology. That was back in 2000.

The question was, what are the right targets for the immune system on a tumor that are different from normal tissue? We had access to those targets because they had been discovered in Tuebingen.

In 2004, if you asked pharmaceutical companies what they thought of t-cells, or the immune system, they thought it was like homeopathy, not real medicine.

Q: What sets Immatics apart?

A: Antibodies were the craze back then, but they only work on targets on the surface of the tumor cells. But only a fraction of all the targets that are really tumor-specific are on the surface.

The question was, how can we go after the targets that are inside the cell? What Rammensee discovered is that the immune system actually takes proteins from inside the cell, degrades them to shorter fragments called peptides, which are then shuttled back to the surface of the cell to special receptors. In this way, the inside of the cell is displayed on the outside, where the immune system can recognize these targets.

We're making use of that system to fight cancer. In 2004 we got our first funding, and since then we've raised approximately $230 million.

Q: What brought you to Houston?

A: There was a scientific conference in Copenhagen. Also there was Patrick Hwu, who is now head of cancer medicine at MD Anderson. He is one of the rock stars. He's done both vaccine and cell therapy successfully.

He invited me to lunch and said they had all of these fantastic capabilities at MD Anderson to do clinical trials at a single institution. If you think about Immatics having the best nails, MD Anderson has the best hammer.

The vision that was presented to me by MD Anderson's leaders was to go beyond collaboration and have a joint venture  but they said I had to commit to coming to this town. I said deal.

Q: What's next?

A: Right now, cell therapy companies are focused mostly on blood cancers, because those kinds of cancers have surface proteins that are easily differentiated from normal cells. But they have trouble going after the majority of other cancers, so-called solid cancers. Targets for solid cancers are often hidden inside the cell, and that's where we come in.

We've brought some of our best people from Germany, and here in Houston we've hired 50 people. Steffen Walter, our chief scientist in the U.S., was the first to move here with his family in 2015. I live here now with my family.

We have just opened two clinical trials at MD Anderson, and a third one is about to open. The fourth will likely open at the end of this year.Mayor Sylvester Turner on Wednesday distanced himself from the dismissal of Houston First Corp. CEO and president Dawn Ullrich a week after she announced plans to retire at year's end.

However, the mayor said during a press conference that he fully supports the board chairman's decision.

"I'm familiar with what they did and I support it," Turner said. "I support the decision of the board and the chair."

Ullrich, a nearly 40-year city employee who has led Houston First since it was founded in 2011, was abruptly dismissed Tuesday, a week after she tendered a letter announcing she would retire Dec. 31. She has retained a lawyer and plans to challenge the decision made by Board chairman David Mincberg and announced following a closed-door session with other board members Tuesday.

RELATED: Houston First chief ousted after announcing retirement plans

Turner, who commended Ullrich for her long service in an email response to her retirement announcement last week, said on Wednesday that Ullrich acted unilaterally in announcing her retirement.

"It was not done in conjunction with the decision that had been worked out by the board," Turner said. "It was a unilateral action, knowing full well there were discussions or negotiations that were taking place.

"It was unfortunate, but I wish Dawn well," Turner continued. "She's been with the city a long time, and she's been a dedicated servant to the city of Houston. But, ultimately, I support the decision of the board."

Turner, who has the power to nominate members of Houston First's board, said he does not have anyone in mind for Ullrich's replacement.I've been reviewing restaurants for more than four decades now, and usually my decision about whether to write one up is instinctive: the matter of a few minutes' reflection, a quick balance of pros and cons, a speedy mental arithmetic of how much my readers might benefit, or care.

Not so with my choice to review Aqui, the new Southeast Asian restaurant from the well-known chef Paul Qui. The former Houston resident, who lived here during his early college days, went on to make his name in Austin: first working under the celebrated Tyson Cole at the contemporary Japanese Uchi; later heading up Cole's sister concept, Uchiko; and finally  after winning a James Beard Award and triumphing on "Top Chef"  going on to launch several Austin projects of his own.

I admired Qui's work at both Uchiko and at his eponymous restaurant Qui when it opened in 2013. I was particularly thrilled by the Filipino currents that ran through Qui's menu, a reflection of Qui's family background. I had had an interest in Filipino food since I encountered my first wild halo-halo sundae at a bakery/cafe on West Holcombe, back in the late 1970s; and I had wondered over the years, as I got a taste for sisig, calamansi juice and banana turon, whether a new generation might emerge to push the cuisine forward here.

It hadn't happened, but there at Qui in Austin, I began to sense the possibilities. I nursed the hope that Qui would return to his old stomping ground here to open a restaurant based on his roots.

What I never imagined was that he would do so under highly fraught circumstances.

Indeed, in the years following his victory on "Top Chef," he had seemed to float with his then-girlfriend, the glamorous Deana Saukam, on a rarefied cloud of luxury travel and international culinary events. From Norway to the tropics, Saukam's carefully curated Instagram account, which has over 27,000 followers, showed a glossy fairytale of spectacular food, cool culinary friends, stunning hotels and restaurants, dramatic landscapes. I thought of the pair, from a distracted distance, as the couple who had everything.

I failed to notice that Qui disappeared from Saukam's Instagram timeline about the time of Qui restaurant's second birthday and the 2015 Aspen Food and Wine Classic. So I was shocked, in March of 2016, to read that Qui had been arrested on suspicion of domestic violence against a new girlfriend.

The account of a drug- and alcohol-fueled fight set forth in a police affidavit wrenched my stomach: blood left on the walls; contusions to the woman; and perhaps worst of all, the presence of her young son as the struggle took place.

As a woman, and as a survivor of male violence myself  in the form of a sexual assault by a knife-wielding stranger when I was in my twenties I was horrified. I knew immediately I would never look at Qui in the same way. I wished desperately that it weren't true, that there were extenuating circumstances, that it hadn't happened.

I was angry, too, because no matter what the courts ultimately decided, whatever the exact circumstances turned out to be, it was obvious there was damning evidence of malfeasance.

When Aqui opened here in mid-August, I still felt unsettled, and in no rush to get in. Hurricane Harvey happened right afterwards, which postponed my moment of truth even further.

Ordinarily, I might check into a significant new restaurant a month-and-a-half to two months into its life  two months being the earliest I feel comfortable reviewing. Yet I didn't visit Aqui until December 8, nearly four months after it opened, most likely (I believe in retrospect) because I was trying to put off the inevitable moment of moral reckoning. I thought long and hard about what to do.

When I finally did go in, it was out of respect to chef de cuisine Gabriel Medina and pastry chef Jillian Bartolome, whose careers I had been following with admiration for years.

READ ALISON COOK'S FULL REVIEW OF AQUI

Like Qui, both are of Filipino extraction. I knew both of them as thoughtful people who had displayed integrity as well as talent. That they had decided to work for Qui said something to me in the restaurant's favor.

And I was curious, which is my default mode as a human being and as a professional. "You probably won't make a lot of money, but you're paid to be curious!" is how I have encouraged students who are interested in journalism over the years. That curiosity is a blessing and occasionally a curse, but it's at the heart of what I do and who I am. Walling myself off from a complex phenomenon like Aqui just felt wrong in my bones.

Still, as I ate my way through my first visit, I was worried as well as exhilarated. Course after course, the food was terrific. The staff fairly vibrated with intelligence and esprit de corps, and together, the front and back of the house resembled the kind of miniature United Nations that perfectly reflects Houston. Working the raw bar was a guy from Colombia and another from Guatemala. Further back in the kitchen, I could see Medina, Bartolome and sous chef Niki Vongthong, who is Thai, working their stations. Steven Lo, whom I knew from Kata Robata, seemed to be everywhere at once at the front of the house, as proud as a mother hen.

Qui was nowhere is sight, as was the case on two subsequent visits. I was told he comes in from Austin to taste, consult and plan every week or so. Otherwise, Aqui is in the hands of his Houston team, who have the latitude to contribute dishes from their own cultural backgrounds. While the food hopscotches through Southeast Asia  incorporating ideas from Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Japan, China and Korea  I was fascinated to see elements from Latin America sneaking in. A Colombian cook inspired the tuna arepa; and a tostada topped with crudo and avocado seemed like a surprisingly apt nod to the Mexican staffers.

"We try to be as worldly and inclusive as our staff," Medina told me when I asked him about the menu, which constantly undergoes tweaks and changes.

THE #METOO MOVEMENT AND THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY

The food made a vibrant, eclectic kind of sense in precisely the way I have come to prize in latter-day Houston. Was it Paul Qui's cuisine? In a way, sure: the modular look of the menu reminded me of Uchi and Uchiko; the concentration on "perfect bites" (tiny dishes at single-digit prices) conjured up the sushi mode in which he made his name. But the more I ate, the more I realized Medina, Bartolome, Vongthong et alia had shaped the character of the menu, its flavors and textures. It was theirs; and it was Houston's.

This struck me as a good thing. I was happy to see Medina and Bartolome in particular stepping into the first tier of Houston culinary talents. Medina first came to my attention at Kata Robata, where he worked with Manabu Horiuchi and Seth Siegel-Gardner after a skills-setting stint under Master Chef Fritz Gitschner at the Houston Country Club. After he left to head up the kitchen at Soma, Kata Robata's sister sushi restaurant, I had been intrigued by his monthly menus spotlighting various Southeast Asian cuisines. He did Vietnamese. He did killer ramen. You never knew.

Then Medina went off for a year to travel and work at Narisawa, where the modern Japanese cuisine had earned two Michelin stars. When I dined there in the spring of 2016, staff there spoke respectfully of him. I wondered how he would bring all this experience to bear back home and whether he would eventually accomplish his dream of opening a Filipino restaurant here.

Well, Aqui is close. The Filipino currents are strong and compelling. Bartolome is a big part of that, too. She did a spectacular job opening up Common Bond bakery and cafe under the late, lamented Roy Shvartzapel regime, working in a French-American mode gleaned from her experience at Thomas Keller's Bouchon, among other places.

Yet Bartolome's work at Aqui is a great leap forward, and  as she herself has indicated publicly  it's hard to imagine where else in Houston (or indeed the country) she could have gotten the opportunity to expand in such a personal direction. To taste her thrilling green banana sorbet, with its flanges of sugared green-banana tostones, is to experience something new under the sun. It tastes like Houston, with all its wildly diverse promise. And it feels like a good thing for Houston  to me, anyway.

I can't turn away from that. But I respect my friends and acquaintances and readers who can. The choice is an individual one. I don't feel qualified to tell anyone else whether they should patronize Aqui; I can only explain why staying away ultimately didn't feel right to me. We're all kind of wandering in the wilderness at this fraught moment in America, and in the hospitality business, trying to think our ways through the revelations of the #MeToo movement to something better.

For himself, Medina rejects the notion that he should never have gone to work for Qui. He notes that Qui's situation has been conflated with the kinds of systemic kitchen and front of the house abuses that have been alleged at the restaurants of John Besh, Mario Batali and others. "My staff wouldn't be okay with those things and I wouldn't be okay with those things," he says. He says he has made his peace with his own understanding of what happened that night.

I haven't really. But I believe in Medina, and Bartolome, and Vongthong, and Lo, and the rest of the Houstonians who are making Aqui work so well.

In the end, restaurants are complex organisms. For too long, they've been treated and written about as extensions of a chef-auteur's ego. I'm as guilty as the next person of that sin. And of forgetting to look sharply at the fairytale. But I'm still learning as I go, and my inner wrestling over whether to patronize and write about Aqui is part of that. Uncomfortable, yes; but in the end, healthy."What, you speak Spanish?" It's a question Scarlet Moreno gets a lot, because of the way she looks and, maybe, because of what she does.

The Laredo native has a fair complexion and blond hair color befitting a Scandinavian. Yet, her background is, as she puts it, almost completely Latino/Hispanic. Excusing the ill-informed idea that all people of a particular heritage have to look a certain way, it's a query she hears quite a bit as she navigates Los Angeles, trying to score acting roles in Hollywood while making her own short films.

But it's what came after one of those questions that changed how she viewed her role in La La Land. While working on one of those short films, her director of photography suggested Moreno make a film where she only speaks Spanish.

The result is "Delores," a short film that explores Latino identity and colorism through a Hispanic character who presents as "white." Moreno wrote, directed and stars in the film. While the short allowed her to conceptualize the frustrations that come from that oft-repeated question, it also led Moreno to be picked along with five other filmmakers for a docuseries created by the El Rey network, the cable channel created by Austin auteur Robert Rodriguez.

The upcoming "Rebel Without a Crew" television series is being made in collaboration with the streaming app go90 that marks the 25th anniversary of Rodriguez's first film, "El Mariachi."

Moreno has to be tight-lipped about the details of her upcoming film made for the television series, but she describes it as a disco psychological thriller set in 1975. The movie, "Phaedra," has a female protagonist who follows the line of strong female characters that Morena created for her other films.

Moreno said she was surprised that Rodriguez was present throughout the making of the docuseries. She called him a moviemaking guru. "It was incredible every time we would have a one-on-one with him. He would impart wisdom and you would just float away, inspired," she said. "He knew exactly what to say, when you needed to hear it. He cared a lot."

For a lot of aspiring filmmakers, Rodriguez is the epitome of the self-made moviemaker. He's part of the '90s era of independent film that birthed guys like Kevin Smith and Quentin Tarantino. Rodriguez's legend hinges on "El Mariachi," which he filmed in Mexico for $7,000. It went on to make $2 million. His subsequent book, "Rebel Without a Crew," documented the process of making his movie.

And now, Rodriguez and his El Rey channel has given his book and life story the reality-TV treatment, giving participants the same financial parameters and time constraints Rodriguez faced when he made his 1992 action film.

Moreno says the vision for the series wasn't your typical reality-show affair.

Don't expect brawls a la "Jersey Shore" or any of the other reality-TV tropes. This cast, Moreno says, was troublemaker free. She says what helped was that none of the participants were on the show to be reality-TV stars, they were focused on their movie projects. "It was an experience of seeing these amazing artists do their thing, there was never any drama between anybody."

And the experience wasn't easy. "It's difficult," Moreno says with a laugh. It was also tough being on camera every day for two weeks. "It's a strange experience to be watched constantly."

Now she's looking forward to next month, when an audience at the SXSW festival in Austin will be able to check out "Phaedra." "It will be somewhat bittersweet, closing the chapter that was the making of this project."

Moreno says she hopes her time working on the series will be a springboard for making more films in Hollywood. She wants to help change how people think about women directors and stories with female characters. But, regardless of what happens with "Phaedra," she'll be a Texas girl who just wants to make Laredo proud.The Chinese Lunar New Year, which begins Friday, comes in with a bang, or, more literally, a series of bangs.

At Lunar New Year Houston, the holiday will be marked with the explosions of 1 million lucky red firecrackers over a two-day event that features more than 600 performers - including authentic lions and dragons who, by dancing in procession, will welcome in the year of the dog and chase away the evil spirits of the past year, event organizer Glenda Joe says.

The annual event, taking place Feb. 24-25, has drawn crowds as large as 55,000 in the past.

"Lunar New Year is every holiday you can imagine in the Western world rolled into one," Joe says. "It's very important to us."

Red envelopes will be provided to attendees. In a special ceremony, elders can hand out lucky envelopes to children who then "feed" the envelopes to the dancing lions. Interacting with the crowds, the lions fight with one another to grab the money, a tradition that brings good luck in the new year, Joe says.

The envelopes at this ceremony, however, will contain certificates.

There also will be a kids' zone with bounce houses and food vendors selling Chinese crepes, Indonesian noodles, other Asian dishes and American-style carnival food.

More Information 2018 Lunar New Year Festival When: 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday Where: Chinese Community Center, 9800 Town Park Drive Details: Free; ccchouston.org Lunar New Year Bash When: 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturday Where: Children's Museum of Houston, 1500 Binz Details: Free with museum admission; cmhouston.org Lunar New Year Houston When: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Feb. 24-25 Where: Viet Hoa Center, 8388 W. Sam Houston Parkway S. Details: Free; lunarnewyearhouston.com See More Collapse

It's not uncommon for four or five generations of a single family to attend the event together to watch the fireworks and lion and dragon dances, which are meant to scare away spirits.

"You have to drive away the evil spirits to make room for the good fortune of the new year," Joe says.

"Lion dancers, to me, have always been very mythical creatures," says Henry Yau, who handles public relations for the Children's Museum of Houston, which will have costumed dancers as part of its Saturday celebration. "To have the opportunity to get really close to them is pretty exciting. You hear the beat of the drums, and it's so colorful and vivid. It really captures what Lunar New Year is."

The celebration introduces traditions from different cultures by exposing them to performances like Polynesian dancing and offering hands-on activities, including making leis, decorating lanterns and practicing Chinese calligraphy.

Located in southwest Houston, the Chinese Community Center is expecting 12,000 people Saturday to attend its Lunar New Year Festival, the largest one in the festival's history, says Mei Li, who handles the center's marketing.

Construction of a new building has allowed for more outdoor event space, and organizers have leased out nearby lots to allow for easier parking, she says.

The lions and dragons are the major attraction each year, Li says. This year, the dances will take place on stages both inside and out, to allow more guests to watch.

There are more games and activities, too, including a photo booth, traditional paper cutting, a calligraphy workshop, origami, ukulele performances and traditional South Korean dancers.

Pop-up restaurants and food trucks will be on-site making pot stickers, egg rolls, dumplings and "American" food, like turkey legs. One of the things that makes the Lunar New Year special is the sign of the upcoming spring season, Li says. Other dishes will be served with fish, which represents a bounty and good harvest in the upcoming year.

The event has become a tradition for residents of all ethnic background in southwest Houston, she says. "We don't want to target just Asian-Americans. We want all communities to come join us."The new portraits of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled this week were the most anticipated commissions in years by the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery.

The Obamas' choice of artists ensured that not only would African-American faces finally hang among all the portraits of powerful whites, painted by white men, in the galleries; but that African-American painters also would be represented there for the first time. Their selection was stylistically bold: Artists Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald each focus on black identity in their work but paint with distinctive, conceptual languages that upend stodgy, traditional portraiture.

Social media lit up for several days as people reacted to the portraits: Most viewers, without taking much time to learn the artists' intent, seemed to either love the paintings or hate them. And ultimately, years from now, the paintings do need to stand on their own, without explanation.

Kehinde Wiley, the photo-realist who painted Barack Obama's portrait, places his subjects in poses that reference art history, against baroque backgrounds that often call to mind floral wallpaper or tapestries, as a way to suggest shifts in power. Amy Sherald, Michelle Obama's portraitist, paints in a more stylized mode, giving her subjects a grayscale skin tone to suggest that race is irrelevant and placing them against flat, monochromatic backgrounds that reference folk art.

Obama's portrait is exactly what Wiley's fans would expect. He seats the former president in a Federal-style chair, echoing a portrait of George Washington, floating in a dense screen of greenery. Flowers sprinkled among the leaves symbolize places significant to Obama's personal history - Chicago, where he built his career and family; Hawaii, where he grew up; and Kenya, his father's ancestral home. The figure's slightly furrowed brow and pursed lips capture the wonky, intense side of the former president. His skin glistens, as if he's sweating. He could be in a hothouse.

Sherald, in contrast, seems to have placed Michelle Obama in a deep freeze, thanks to the grayish skin and cool blue background. Posed with a hand under her chin, like August Rodin's "The Thinker," the subject looks pensive and a tad defiant. Her somewhat generic facial features are younger than those of Michelle Obama's, more like her daughters'.

And compositionally, her dress dominates. As meaningful as the flowers in her husband's portrait, the gown adapted from the 2017 spring collection of the American label Milly (Michelle Smith) exemplifies the spirit of the Obama presidency: It recalls both Gee's Bend quilts made by the descendants of American slaves and the modern art of Piet Mondrian.

"The act of Michelle Obama being her authentic self became a profound statement that engaged all of us. What you represent to all of us is an ideal: A human being with integrity, intellect, confidence and compassion," Sherald said, during her remarks. She also suggested that her paintings are about "something bigger, more symbolic, an archetype" than their subjects.

"I paint things I want to see," she said. "I paint as a way of looking for myself in the world." In other words, her portrait of Michelle Obama is a fantasy vision.

All paintings, really, are fantasies. But when an artist is commissioned to create an official portrait, is that appropriate? Members of Houston's art community mostly said yes, although Sherald's painting drew mixed reviews.

"There needs to be a seamless weaving between both subject and style," painter Ellen Orseck said. "Wiley has done that, placing a well-rendered President Obama in nature.  Sherald is not equally successful. Even comparing this portrait to her other works; the color is not as saturated or confident, and the likeness is more about the dress. Her other work really speaks to the personality of her subjects, and it's sad that she came only close for the former first lady."

David McClain, who teaches art appreciation at Houston Community College, devoted an entire class Tuesday to the new portraits. "They both look like jewels compared to the paintings typical of the genre," he said.

Caitlin Durer, who teaches at Lamar University in Beaumont, liked the "quietness" of Sherald's painting. "The sitter, artist's vision and style and timing all wrapped up perfectly to create a kind of intimacy that I haven't felt yet in the Wiley portrait," she said.

Sculptor Patrick Renner, who consider's Wiley's painting a masterpiece, said both portraits express "the paradigm shift" that the Obamas exemplify, as well as their grace, style, poise, self-possession.

Multidisciplinary artist Nathaniel Donnett, whose work also concerns black identity, noticed that a number of comments on social media spoke of Wiley (who is a superstar with a huge studio) and Sherald (an up-and-comer) as "outsiders." He hopes the exposure helps fix black artists more firmly within the art canon.

If they were disappointed in any way during Monday's unveiling, the Obamas didn't show it.

Michelle Obama said she was "honored, humbled and proud" to be the first person in her family to sit for a portrait. Barack Obama joked about asking Wiley to make his ears smaller and his hair less gray.

"It's hard to judge something that is a portrait of you, but I am in awe of Kehinde's gifts," he said.

His portrait has been added to the 50-year old exhibition "American Presidents." Michelle Obama's is on temporary view, in the "Recent Acquisitions" corridor, until November.

Like them or not, the new portraits should draw new audiences into the galleries, open a few eyes to black artists and contemporary art, and provide a more interesting - and meaningful - viewing experience.In the urban megapolis that is the Houston region, not everyone has the means, the environment or the desire to raise livestock. So for 50 years, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has encouraged students who are more apt to pick up a paint brush or a chisel.

The organization's Student Art Program is thriving - and growing. Especially since last year, when elementary and junior high class and reserve class champions were added to the big auction.When filmmaker Alexandra Dean first heard that Hedy Lamarr - considered one of the most beautiful actresses of the 1940s - was also an inventor who held a patent on an antijamming device for radio-controlled torpedoes, she wasn't quite sure if she could believe it.

How could the same person celebrated for her looks in such films as "White Cargo," "Her Highness and the Bellboy" and "Samson and Delilah" also have a starring role in devising the concept behind frequency hopping, a method for foiling enemies in World War II who wanted to jam our signals, and the basis for much of the technology used in the country's defense communications system?

"I had training as an investigative journalist, so you have to have a really strong skeptical streak to take that on as a career," Dean said by phone from New York. "I was aware of how much we wanted as a culture to have her having done that."

After some digging, Dean, who cut her journalistic teeth as a documentary producer at PBS and Bloomberg Television, discovered this rare fact to be true. Now, she has put the story on screen in the documentary "Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story," the kickoff movie for this year's Bechdel Film Festival on Thursday night at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

More Information 'Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story' When: 7 p.m. Thursday Where: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1001 Bissonet Details: $10; mfah.org See More Collapse

Agony and 'Ecstasy'

Apart from her contributions to science, which have only been widely publicized in the past couple of decades, Lamarr led a fascinating life that was far more than champagne and celebrity.

While Lamarr, born Hedwig Keisler, had achieved some success as an actress in her native Austria, Adolf Hitler took a personal dislike to her and berated her publicly for her religion and one of her movies. She was Jewish, though she didn't particularly identify with her Jewish heritage, and starred in the 1933 film "Ecstasy," a movie that shocked German audiences of the day with what was considered explicit sexuality.

Even though she was married to well-connected munitions manufacturer Friedrich Mandl, who supplied Hitler with arms, and who was part Jewish himself, Lamarr figured it was only a matter of time before the late-night knock on the door was for her. She fled her country and marriage under the cover of darkness, ultimately landing in Hollywood, where she became part of Louis B. Mayer's MGM acting stable. Studio execs liked everything about Lamarr - except for her religion, even though Mayer was Jewish himself.

Dean believes all this subterfuge left her psychologically scarred.

"I can't think of any other way to describe it because I've talked to many people about what it would cause when you are singled out by Hitler for your religion when he's about to annihilate your people," she said. "He publicly called out that she was Jewish when she made 'Ecstasy' and then banned the film because of her Judaism.

"She had to flee in the middle of the night (from) her Nazi collaborator husband. She had to leave behind everyone she loved and watched them struggle to get out of Europe. And then she had to pretend that wasn't who she was because when she got to Hollywood, they handed her a new biography, which said she was Catholic."

All the while, she liked to tinker with inventions in her off hours, earning her the admiration and friendship of Howard Hughes. While others in Hollywood didn't quite understand her, composer and fellow techie George Antheil, got her immediately. According to Forbes, when they first met at a Hollywood dinner party, they spoke of technology all night and she laid out her ideas for a jamming system. A couple of years later, their sketches earned them a patent for a "secret communication system" though they received no financial compensation and little recognition for their work, something that long rankled Lamarr until her death in 2000.

The more things change ...

It's tempting to think that if Lamarr were coming along now in Hollywood, she would be feted as much for brains as for beauty. But Dean isn't so sure.

"We would pay her a lot of lip service. There would be a lot of articles and enthusiasm about this young girl, and she'd probably have a huge viral following on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram," said Dean, who has produced news reports about the troubles of female entrepreneurs and inventors in Silicon Valley. "But, at the same time, she would have a hard time raising money for her actual brilliant ideas. She would go to Silicon Valley and have the same problem I saw all those young inventors have."

Dean also isn't sure what Lamarr, who married six times and briefly lived in Houston when she was married to oil man W. Howard Lee in the '50s, would think of the #MeToo and#TimesUp movements.

"People are so much of their times, and Hedy was conflicted when it came to the role of women," Dean said. "But if she were born today, I think she would be a product of our times. And, with her bravery, I think she would have been leading the movement. I think she would have been championing Rose McGowan. I think she would have been right there on the barricades."In a case of selling snow to the Eskimos, "Detective Chinatown 2" is an action movie imported from China.

As we already have that aspect of cinema covered many times over, it would be hard to make a case for why anyone, or at least anyone who doesn't speak Mandarin, should run out to see this movie.

However, there is one thing that will be of particular interest to American viewers, and that's seeing America through another culture's eyes. The film takes place, for example, in New York City, and something about the physical portrait of New York is just a little different from anything I've ever seen. The buildings and the bridges look beautiful, bathed in an unnatural kind of sunlight, while the streets are menacing.

There are guns everywhere, and stereotypes, as well. One of the characters teaches a Chinese language class to African-Americans, who all turn out to be heavily-armed gang members. At one point, someone goes into a biker bar, and the bearded white bikers all have machine guns. Meanwhile, the chief of police is a big, heavy guy with weird hair, a Trump lookalike, who says that the president should build a wall on the West Coast to keep the Asians out.

But some things are universal. For example, the detective duo consists of a funny guy, Tang (Baoqiang Wang) and a more laid back, handsome guy, Feng (Liu Haoran). They're in New York, along with a consortium of other detectives, to find the perpetrator of a series of ritualistic murders. If they crack the case first, they'll win a five million dollar prize. There to provide occasional assistance is a Chinese-American NYPD detective, played by the very poised Australian actress, Natasha Liu Bordizzo.

More Information 'Detective Chinatown 2' Rated R: for brief language Running time: 121 minutes 3 stars out of 5 stars 'DetectiveChinatown 2' Rated R: for brief language Running time: 121 minutes xxx See More Collapse

The pace is quick, very quick by American standards. The script blasts through reams of plot with lightning dialogue, and even if you have a fast eye for subtitles you may come to the end of the movie with no clear idea what happened.

Still, there's a nice fluidity to director Chen Sicheng's filmmaking, as when the characters discuss the various crime scenes and we suddenly find ourselves moving seamlessly from location to location. The special effects are first rate. The original, "Detective Chinatown," grossed more than $100 million in China, and money was clearly lavished on the sequel.The Houston bar scene is full of personalities - bar stars, if you will. Each week in Preview, we'll feature one of these mixologists to let you know more about them, aside from how good they are at making you feel good.

Length of time working at current place?

A little over a year and a half. I came on a little green, and my role to start off was as a bar back. About six months in, I transitioned to full-time bartender.

Nickname?

Pixie

NICE TRY: Houston bartenders reveal the cheesiest pickup lines they've heard

Most famous person you've ever served a drink to?

Michael Stipe from R.E.M came by Beaver's once for brunch. It was great. We quickly made an Orange Crush Special (named for one of the band's songs).

Becoming friends with customers: yes or no?

It has never personally worked out for me. I am actually really shy in person. But it's easy to be outgoing behind the bar for some reason. It's like being onstage.

Lauren Sponberg Find her behind the bar at: Captain Foxheart's Bad News Bar & Spirit Lodge Hours: 5 p.m.-2 a.m. daily See More Collapse

Most common customer complaint?

"Is there an elevator to take me down?" Second-floor bar problems.

Song you've gotten sick of at work?

I went through a big Fleetwood Mac "Rumors" phase.

What's the sloppiest, drunkest thing you've ever seen on the job?

A woman unbolted our stuffed fox and brought it to a table to take Snapchat pictures with him.

Where do you like to go have a drink when you're not at work?

Big Star in the Heights is my favorite bar in Houston. I love taking friends from out of town there. It just instantly feels like home.

What's your specialty drink, and how do you make it?

We have an ever-changing cocktail menu, but my favorite drink from my time here would be the breakfast Daiquiri, inspired by my start as a barista. It's Jamaican rum, cold-brew coffee, banana liqueur and lime.

What's something your customers may not know about you?

I was in safety patrol in elementary school. And yes, I did it for the sash.Three dishes into my first meal at Aqui, I realized I was eating the most exciting food in Houston right now.

First came a tiny black bowlful of smoke-cured sea trout, the slippery fish pooled with a tart, surprising blend of buttermilk and blood orange. Gold drops of olive oil and a sweet cherry-tomato half hugged the margins. Fat pearls of the salmon roe called ikura rode on top, and when you bit them, they exploded with a rush of sake, soy and brine. At the end, exhilarated, I picked up the bowl and drank the last of the liquid shot-style.

Next up: a spring-green ceramic bowl holding yellowfin tuna kinilaw, the Filipino cousin of ceviche. Crisp, pale hearts of palm and meaty slips of jackfruit met the satin slide of raw tuna, and a twinge of hot chile caught my throat. A milky fermented coconut sauce added a kicker of funky tang.

This was lightning in a bottle. By the time my crudo tostada was set before me, I was agog, ready for anything. The tortilla crisp sat high on a thick daikon pedestal, spangled with yellowfin, avocado, bright yuzu emulsion and translucent sheets of jamon Iberico, sliced from a countertop haunch. Brittle, soft, citric, salty, oceanic, earthy, chile-hot ... my palate cycled through the sensations in a dizzy rush.

These are the moments for which a restaurant critic lives. And yet, sitting at my raw-bar counter seat, I felt uneasy. Apprehensive, even. I knew people I respected wouldn't want to hear how good the restaurant was  and that some wouldn't want to set foot in the place.

More Information Aqui

Four stars

520 Westheimer, 713-360-7834

Hours: 5-10 p.m. Sundays-Wednesdays; 5-11 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays

Credit cards: all major

Prices: starters $

Must-orders: yellowfin tuna kinilaw; mushroom salad; blood orange masu (smoked sea trout); crudo tostada; tapioca dumpling; madai (sea bream) with A5 Wagyu fat; chili crab and fried bao; tom yam noodles with cracklings and peanuts; Bibingka dessert; green banana sorbet with sugared tostones

Reservations: vital on weekends; walk-ins welcome at bar and on patio

Noise level: moderate

Parking: valet only

Website: aquihtx.com Four stars: superlative; can hold its own on a national stage. Three stars: excellent; one of the best restaurants in the city. Two stars: very good; one of the best restaurants of its kind. One star: a good restaurant that we recommend. No stars: restaurant cannot be recommended at this time. See More Collapse

Aqui is the latest project from chef Paul Qui, the James Beard Award and "Top Chef" winner who was famously charged with domestic violence in Austin in March 2016 after a drug- and alcohol-fueled fight with his girlfriend ended with a police call.

WHY I CHOSE TO REVIEW AQUI: READ ALISON COOK'S ESSAY

The report cited injuries to the woman and blood on Qui's apartment walls. Worse, the woman's child was there. The charges remain pending, and a trial was on the docket in Austin this week.

In the meantime, Qui has closed his namesake Austin restaurant, Qui; reopened the space as Kuneho and then closed it again last fall.

He's been keeping a low profile. The answering machine at Aqui announces the restaurant as "the new project from Paul Qui," but he has not been a frequent presence at his Houston venue, dropping in to taste and consult with his team about once a week. I never saw him there over the course of three unannounced visits.

That's smart. In this season of #MeToo, when harassment allegations have rocked the restaurant world and brought down some of the biggest figures in the business, it's no longer business as usual. Though nobody contends Qui's sins extended to the kind of systemic abuses now being exposed in some kitchens, he's a reminder of poisoned male/female relations at a time when sensibilities  including mine  are rubbed raw.

Yet there I sat. Why? Most important, I've been following the careers of Qui's chef de cuisine at Aqui, Gabriel Medina, and the pastry chef, Jillian Bartolome, with great admiration for years now. They're not just wildly talented. They're both thoughtful, sensitive and resoundingly nice people who deserve the break Qui has given them and the chance to do work that is deeply meaningful to them  and to our city.

Like Qui, both Medina and Bartolome come from families of Filipino extraction. They've gathered a kitchen and front-of-the-house team that is a microcosm of modern-day Houston: Thai, Vietnamese, Guatemalan, Mexican, you name it.

The menu, too, reflects that mini United Nations. Though the focus is Southeast Asian, weaving together threads of Filipino, Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Lao, Japanese and even Korean cuisines, that crudo tostada that wowed me is a nod to the city's Mexican ties. And a festive little arepa of tuna with radish and fish sauce came from cook Alejandro Betancourt, who helped open the restaurant before returning to his native Colombia.

That's how things work here. So I'm not inclined to judge this staff for choosing to work with Qui. I trust their judgment as much as I trust their cooking, and their palpable esprit de corps in the face of the inevitable controversy.

I'm a fan of the prompt, welcoming front-of-the-house team; the well-informed service; the smart wine list; the well-made cocktails. I like the space, too, with its steep wooden roof gables and beams suggesting indigenous Filipino construction made very, very modern. I love the counter seats at the well-lit cold bar, where you can really see the beautiful plating take shape  a pleasure that the dim murk of the dining room does not afford.

And the food has kept me entranced throughout, almost without exception. The Spanish-Filipino riff on ensaymada, a brioche-type bun topped with jamon and a snowdrift of grated manchego cheese, never quite came together for me; and twin garnishes for a beautifully glazed Cornish hen, its meat supple and its skin savory, left me puzzled. Between the cupful of very salty chile broth and a ferocious rubble of raw chopped garlic and ginger, the appeal of these elements escaped. (Bonus points for a gripping cache of crusty black glutinous rice, though.)

Other than those minor quibbles, Aqui's food sparkled all the way through. Chewy little tapioca dumplings popped with umami-rich ground pork, nearly caramelized with salted radish and crunchy peanut. Like many of the so-called "perfect bites" on the menu  most priced between $3.50 and $5  the dumpling was served singly.

Though there are larger-format crudos, vegetable and meat dishes on the menu, a succession of these small bites can provide the drama and pleasure of a mulitcourse sushi omakase, summoning up Qui's formative years at Uchi and Uchiko in Austin. It's a good introduction to the restaurant.

You might gravitate to luminous slices of Japanese sea bream glossed with A5 Wagyu fat and a bit of hot Thai fish sauce, a combination both elemental and expansive. Or a pristine shigoku oyster jeweled with cold-smoked trout roe, lime and shallot. Or an intricate lattice of shaved, colorful beets, both raw and pickled, meshed with Norwegian mackerel, then splashed with honey, wasabi and calamondin juice from the tiny sour oranges beloved in the Philippines. It's a thrilling conjunction of earth and sea.

From the plant kingdom, there's an eventful mixed-mushroom salad in a serious Thai chile vinaigrette, and a gentler bowl of Chinatown Market Vegetables that combines bitter melon, okra, shiitake, napa cabbage and Calabash squash in a rounded soy bean sauce.

The few bits of luxury-priced foodstuffs on order might include a simple, sultry crudo of fatty tuna dressed with house-smoked tamari soy; or, earlier in the restaurant's life, a delicate torchon of foie gras, its richness countered by pickled pears and mustard seeds.

Just as lush, in its way, is the Singaporean chili crab, presented as a tomatoey stew shot through with galangal root and astringent rau ram leaf, plus plenty of crab fat. Squeeze on a bit of lime to brighten the flavors and scoop it up with orbs of fried bao, the Chinese steamed bread. It's not for sissies.

A neat twist of skinny tom yam egg noodles arrives with a dark, shiny pool of pork demiglace for dipping, sided by the crackliest little cubes of pork skin and a fleet of peanuts. The textures are as much fun as the flavors.

That's the case with much of the menu, even unto the desserts. Bartolome, who did such a fine job at Common Bond, is doing brilliant work at Aqui. Her unusual green banana sorbet displays a beguiling tartness and tannic grip, and its sidekicks of candied cashews and sugared green-banana tostones made my eyes roll back in my head.

Filipino bibingka, a pillowy coconut bread, is baked in a banana leaf with salted duck egg so that it acquires an elusive smokiness. With its counterpoints of salt and sweet, it is unforgettable.

So, too, is a single "dessert bite" of Tsampurado, the Filipino chocolate rice pudding, that can send you home marveling. Bartolome makes a tiny chocolate dome and covers it with avocado cream, then places miniature fried anchovies on top.

It's a thrill, like so much at Aqui. Though I certainly understand diners who feel they must stay away, I've approached the restaurant as a complex organism that's not dependent on a single auteur chef. And with each visit, I've come away happier, more at ease with my choice and more hopeful about the future.Houston police caught two men breaking into a Sharpstown nightclub late Wednesday - with an assist from a homeless man who saw the burglary and used his cell phone to report the crime, authorities said.

About 11:30 p.m., police responded to a burglary in progress at the El Zorro nightclub in the 7600 block of De Moss Drive. They found an SUV backed up to the club's back door and two men trying to load a stolen ATM into the back of it. They had loaded up several flat-screen TVs and a laptop computer already.Chris Young has a voice that was made for country music.

His is a commanding, gritty twang that often echoes Randy Travis and other genre greats. It's put to good use on singles "Voices," "Who I Am With You" and "Sober Saturday Night."

Audiences have responded well to Young's brand of country. He's released seven albums and earned eight No. 1 country singles. Several of those songs have gone gold or platinum. This will be his fifth time on the RodeoHouston stage.

Young honed his skills on reality TV. He was the 2006 winner of "Nashville Star," a now-defunct, country version of "American Idol." The show's roster included Miranda Lambert and Kacey Musgraves.

Last year, Young became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Add that to the illustrious list of stages he's graced with that classic voice.Jason Aldean has described his sound as "kind of like Guns N' Roses meets Hank Jr. And George Strait's hangin' around at the party, too." It's country with a kick.

That blend has made him one of the genre's biggest stars. His 2010 effort, "My Kinda Party," sold more than 3 million copies. He's teamed up with everyone from "American Idol" winner Kelly Clarkson to rapper Ludacris.That Julie Howard would sell her art at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo was inevitable.

Back in high school, she won the school art competition, and through her life, the naturopathic doctor-turned-artist has served on a number of RodeoHouston committees. This year she's on the scholarship committee and the Ladies' Go Texan committee, which handles educational exhibits such as Agventure.

This year, she'll be at the rodeo on double duty, as a vendor in the new Lone Star Market that's set up between NRG Stadium and the big NRG Center, where dozens of vendors will be selling everything from ranch equipment to western-style furniture, clothing and accessories.

While the vendors in NRG Center are open until 11 p.m., the new outdoor tents will be staffed from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

DRESSING: Rodeo fans, complete your look with turquoise or fringe

Much of Howard's artwork is western, inspired by cowboys, the landscape and the rodeo itself.

Her figures are strong and her colors bold: a noble buffalo stands in a field of almost-neon green, yellow and orange. Riders guide their horses through a riverbed reflecting emerald green foliage nearby.

She also has a water collection, inspired primarily by her former mental health patients and their survival stories. There's a face barely emerging from swirling waters and another showing a muscular swimmer splashing sheets of water.

She'll staff a tent booth from Feb. 27 through March 7, when her rodeo volunteer duties kick in full time.

She's thrilled to show her work at the annual event that's meant so much in her life.

"My art is a symbol of how I feel about how God blesses our world and what we have to share," she said. "My volunteer work at the rodeo is near and dear to me, and it may be crazy that someone takes off three weeks from what they do professionally to support kids, but I think it's the greatest thing."

Jane Thompson is another new vendor, taking her addiction-inducing cheesecakes from her nearly brand-new business - the Great White Cheesecake - to a booth in the Lone Star Market.

Years ago Thompson was a caterer, and her white chocolate cheesecakes were always in demand. She started up a new business and sold them at the DASH market and at the Nutcracker Market in 2017.

She has thousands of cheesecakes - which range in price from $7.95 for an individual dessert you can eat on the spot to $79.95 for a 9-inch frozen one you can take home with you - ready for rodeo visitors. For anyone who doesn't like white chocolate or traditional cheesecake, she has a milk chocolate version, too.

"The funnest thing is to see somebody take a bite. The words and the look and the smile and the 'wow' - I get 'wow' all of the time - that's more rewarding to me than anything," Thompson said. "I love it. I really, really love it."Religious leaders spent roughly three hours Wednesday morning administering ashes in a Friendswood Dairy Queen parking lot in celebration of the start of Lent.

Among the leaders on South Friendswood Drive early Wednesday morning were Reverend Geoffrey C. Gwynne of Good Shepherd Episcopal Church and Peter Gilmour, junior warden.

Nearly 100 people stopped by to receive ashes and a blessing before wrapping up around 10 a.m., Amanda DeViney, parish administrator for Good Shepherd, told Chron.com Wednesday morning.

READ MORE: Things Houstonians should give up for Lent

Now Playing: Catholic priests travel outside the church to a light rail station to give Ash Wednesday blessings to Sacramento area commuters. Video: KCRA

"We all have busy lives. It was very convenient for people," Gilmour said. "I was totally amazed. I didn't know how many people would turn out."

The decision to stand outside Wednesday was inspired by the national Ashes To Go program, Gilmour said.

Theresa Massad was one of the Friendswood community members who drove by the Dairy Queen Wednesday morning.

"I was surprised to see them out there giving 'ashes to go' even in the rain. Great way to reach out to the community!" Massad said over email.

Fernando Alfonso III is a digital reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on twitter at @fernalfonso.<After my daughters were asleep and our house settled into the stillness of night, I cried.

The tears, held back as we talked about Valentine's Day parties and sorted through candy and cards, as we wrangled over a research paper on Stevie Wonder due the next day, as we danced in the kitchen and kissed each other good night, flowed down my cheeks.

I thought of the 17 high school students and teachers who did not come home from school that day. Of the 17 families whose ordinary day had turned into unfathomable grief. Of futures wiped away and lives forever destroyed by gunfire.

Again, I thought.

Again.

Again.

How many more times will we be saying "again"?

This time, police say, a troubled former student with a history of violence and a frightening fascination with weapons stalked the campus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and opened fire with an assault weapon.

After pulling a smoke alarm, the 19-year-old, expelled from the school last year, allegedly lobbed smoke bombs and shot people as they fled.

As news of the shooting spread across social media, so did posts of "thoughts and prayers" from politicians whose campaigns are funded by gun lobbies. The president, who rolled back a regulation that would have made it harder for people with mental illness to buy guns, tweeted "prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting."

The same cycle. Again.

Just as it was a few months ago, when a shooter turned a Texas church into a scene of death and bloodshed. As it was, only a month before that, when another gunman mowed down dozens of concertgoers in Las Vegas.

As it has been at a Colorado movie theater, an Orlando nightclub, a Virginia college campus, a San Bernardino office party, a Charleston church.

An elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

I was teaching high school the day a 20-year-old man stormed Sandy Hook Elementary School and slaughtered 20 first-graders and six adults.

I remember gasping at the first news alerts and scanning my classroom, a quick inventory of hiding places and escape routes registering in my mind. The old darkroom? No, it didn't have an emergency exit. The storage closet behind my office? A tight fit, but behind two solid doors and with a window we could crawl through.

I worried about how to protect my students, how to tell the teenagers in my charge that  in this country  schools are not always safe.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: Run, hide, fight? After Sandy Hook, we need a new motto

Surely, I thought then, something will change. Surely, the murders of 6- and 7-year-olds will push politicians beyond thoughts and prayers and into action. Surely, now, we will do everything we can to make this stop.

Five years later, news alerts again stopped the breath in my throat. But this time, no expectation of change followed.

Since Sandy Hook, 438 people have been injured in 239 school shootings, and 138 have died.

I know now that even the deaths of children are not enough to move some elected officials beyond a carefully word tweet. I know that so many of those with the power to change laws and stem the tide of gun violence are too cowardly to act.

For them, a moment of silence will be enough.

For me, for so many parents, in so many homes, silence is not an option.

Not after we have had to face our young children, still giddy from holiday parties and Valentine's treats, and explain that something terrible had happened in a school.

Not after I looked into my 9-year-old's eyes, which widened with confusion and uncertainty after spotting a headline about the Florida shooting. I tried to reassure her. The bad man had been caught. She and her sister were home safe and sound. There is nothing to worry about.

She gazed at me and listened. I hugged her tight, then pulled my 8-year-old close as well. I inhaled the smell of their skin, still sticky-sweet from Pixy Stix, and nuzzled into the warmth of their small arms.

RESILIENT FUTURE: Sutherland Springs residents hope tragedy doesn't define their town

My heart keened for all the parents who will never feel their child's embrace again, for the backpacks scattered in a hallway filled with bodies and blood, for the cell phones ringing unanswered.

I wondered how I would ever send my girls back to school, how I would ever let them out of my sight again. I knew a shudder of panic would run through my spine this morning, as I slipped pink rain jackets over their shoulders and heard their squeaky voices say "See you later!"

"I bet a lot of high school kids are scared tonight," my 9-year-old observed. "They will probably sleep in their Mommy and Daddy's bed."

A lot of mommies and daddies are scared too. Scared and soul-sick  and tired of the excuses.

We can't stop at thoughts and prayers. Or, soon enough, God help us, we will be here again.

Bookmark Gray Matters. Again.A routine tire theft call in December 2016 led investigators this week to a northwest Houston store that police say resold thousands of wheel rims and tires stolen from vehicles across southeast Texas.

Jose Martinez-Garcia, who owns Martinez Wheel Connection at 5714 W. 34th St. , was arrested Thursday after constables connected thousands of parts at his shop on W. 34th street to what investigators said is a massive theft ring that stretched across seven Texas counties.

"They had a very good operation - a very lucrative operation - going on," said Harris County Pct. 4 Constable Mark Herman said at a Thursday press conference. "Our charges have only just started, because we found so much more stuff today that we'll be able to tie to these folks."

MUGSHOTS: Alleged chop shop raided in San Jacinto County

"It's just a matter of time before it's all brought together," Herman said, adding that he expects local tire thefts to "come to a screeching halt."

Martinez-Garcia's arrest - and the temporary seizure of his store by authorities - came 14 months after Precinct 4 deputies were called to a tire theft in progress. The suspects - named Thursday as Terry Dewayne Rogers and Frederick Santee - escaped on foot, but left behind a car full of DNA evidence that was traced to them seven months later, Herman said.

Now Playing: Latest Local And State News Video: Houston Chronicle

During an investigation conducted by 11 different law enforcement agencies, officers used vehicle identification numbers, witness testimony and surveillance footage to lead them to an 11-person crew that had stolen tires in Harris, Grimes, Waller, Washington, Fort Bend, Montgomery and Brazos counties, Herman said.

And while all of the suspects have been charged with felony theft and engaging in organized crime, Most were still at-large Thursday.

At times, the early-morning thefts were sporadic, Herman noted. Other times, the crew appears to have targeted specific vehicle types at homes or, in a few cases, in car dealership heists involving up to 20 vehicles. A majority of the thefts were from Chevy trucks, he said, but Ford and Toyotas were also targeted.

Many tires were then resold at Martinez-Garcias store. Herman said he expects the entire shop to be confiscated, and that investigators are now trying to contact any victims or customers who unwittingly purchased stolen items.

If you bought from the Martinez (shop), theres a possibility those are stolen tires, and we definitely want to hear from you, Herman said.

Robert Downen covers crime for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter or email him at robert.downen@chron.com.Authorities are still trying to determine exactly what happened Wednesday in a double shooting that left one dead and one injured in Cypress.

The shooting occurred about 2:45 p.m. in the Copperfield neighborhood, according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office. A 56-year-old woman died at the scene, and a member of her family was shot multiple times.A Humble man charged with murder in the death of 14-year-old Layla Ramos now faces an additional charge of indecency with a child, accused of exposing himself more than 10 times to another teenaged victim, according to court records.

Anthony Valle, 43, is also a suspect in at least three sexual abuses cases and is suspected of sexually abusing Ramos, according to court records. He remains in Harris County jail in lieu of a $105,000 bail.

Valle told officials he did not recognize the 14-year-old he is accused of killing in a late-night shooting at his home in July. He was charged last month with indecency with a child for an incident in May 2010.

Now Playing: Texas News & Crime Video: Houston Chronicle

State prosecutors filed a a motion to raise Valle's bail, noted he is charged with exposing himself to a different victim who is still alive. They said he is a suspect in at least two other sexual abuse cases.

MORE: Family pushes for answers in death of 14-year-old Houston-area girl

Valle was scheduled to appear Thursday before state District Judge Brad Hart, but was not brought to court because neither prosecutors nor the defense expected to take any action in the case.

Afterward, Valle's attorney Sam Cammack said his is still investigating all of the allegations, and he had not yet received much information from prosecutors.

The defense attorney did say he expects to invoke the controversial Castle Doctrine to claim self-defense, referring to the legal doctrine that a resident is entitled to use deadly force against someone who is in their home unlawfully.

"This is a Castle Doctrine case, pure and simple," he said, "It's appears to me that he was defending himself from what appeared to him to be an intruder."

Cammack said it was pitch black and about 5:00 a.m. on July 20 when Valle was awakened by what sounded like a break-in. He fired a shotgun into the darkness and hit 14-year-old Layla Ramos, a troubled teen who often spent time at his home. As he walked toward the body, Valle told authorities, he stumbled and shot the body again.

MORE: Homeowner charged with murder in 14-year-old girl's death

It's a story that changed over time and one that the victim's family does not believe.

"He lured her over there and killed her," said Alana Mock, Ramos' mother. "That's not going to work because he admitted he picked her up and she was at his house."

Mock pointed out that Valle changed his story during police interviews and finally acknowledged he spent most of that July night with Ramos.

Valle met Ramos a few years earlier after she became friends with his daughter, according to court records.

Investigators believe Valle had been helping Ramos get marijuana and pills, court records show. Prosecutors said in court that cell phone information showed he frequently looked at simulated father-daughter pornography.

Days before her death, the teen reportedly threatened to disclose an allegation that Valle had previously raped her, prosecutors said.

In initial interviews with authorities, Valle described his relationship with the girl as a "father-daughter bond." He told investigators Layla eventually abused their relationship by accusing him of sexually assaulting her. He said she began blackmailing him for money.

MORE: Details revealed about homeowner and teen's relationship in court hearing

Valle first said he spoke with Layla the night before she was killed, when they met in her neighborhood several miles from his house. He said kicked her out of his car after an argument because Layla wanted Valle to give her his car, court records show.

Her family told the Houston Chronicle that Valle had promised the teen a car the night she died.

Valle said he returned to his house without Layla and she threatened to come to his residence with her "homeboys" and "f--- him up."

Valle later acknowledged he had not kicked the teen out of his car. He said he took Layla back to his house the morning she died. He said the teen left the house about 90 minutes before he killed her, prosecutors said.Two Kingwood residents and one Montgomery resident have been appointed to the San Jacinto River Authority board of directors by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

The appointments of Kingwood residents Mark Micheletti and Kaaren Cambio, and Montgomery County resident Charles "Ed" Boulware were announced Monday, Feb. 5.

The authority maintains the water resources in the San Jacinto River watershead, including Lake Conroe.

Appointing SJRA board members from the Lake Houston area was one of the requests outlined in the Lake Houston Chamber of Commerce's Plea for Three letter writing campaign through their Recover Lake Houston initiative.

"Governor Abbott's action in response to the thousands of Plea for Three Lake Houston letters and emails sent to the governor's office and to other state officials from area residents is proof that the capitol is hearing the Lake Houston Area loud and clear," according to a chamber press release.

"We look forward to meeting them and beginning the orientation process," said Jace Houston, SJRA general manager. "It is a learning curve. It's not just a new entity, but most people are just entering in to the water business, so it's a new area for them. So, we have an organized process of sitting down, getting them oriented to the operations and welcoming them to everything we do and we're excited to start the process."

Houston said having both upstream and downstream perspectives represented on the board is valuable.

"It is very valuable to for everyone to have not just a say in the process, but a deep understanding of the process so there is less chance of misunderstanding," Houston said.

Armstrong believes that a key way in which having Lake Houston residents represented on the SJRA board may benefit the community is by enhancing communication between the SJRA and other entities.

"The communication process is a huge point  communicating with other communities, other offices, making sure all affected areas know what's coming," Armstrong said.

The decision to appoint Lake Houston area residence to the SJRA board gives a boost to the task force's efforts, according to Armstrong.

"We have finally gotten the attention of Governor Abbott and it's good to know we're being heard," Armstrong said. "I think we finally have a voice and it's a good time for us to move forward toward a long-term strategy."

Abbott addressed the Lake Houston area regarding the SJRA appointments in a Facebook post Feb. 6, stating "To all affected by Hurricane Harvey along the San Jacinto River from Lake Houston to Kingwood and Montgomery County. I heard your Plea for 3. More will be announced soon to help you with remediation."

Houston City Council Member Dave Martin approached the chamber with the Plea For Three concept, including the push to get Lake Houston area residents appointed to the SJRA. State Rep. Dan Huberty and state Sen. Brandon Creighton were other elected officials who have been supporting the cause.

"I fully intend to continue working with the entire board of directors and the general manager as well as all stakeholders to ensure that SJRA fulfills their duties to the highest degree," Creighton said in a press release. "I believe the new board members will add much needed representation from different parts of the river basin."

MARK MICHELETTI

Micheletti is the executive director of Berkeley Eye Center. He was a certified public accountant and helped begin the Lake Houston Economic Development Partnership, for which he is the board chair.

He has also been on the boards of area nonprofits and performs charitable work with St. Martha's Catholic Parish and an annual Christmas toy drive.

His term on the SJRA board will be for six years.

"(Micheletti) has been involved with our Long-term Recovery Task Force from the beginning," said Jenna Armstrong, Lake Houston chamber CEO. "His house flooded, so he has a vested interest in moving forward. He has a great understanding of what happened and ideas as far as improving."

The recovery period will continue for a long time, Micheletti said. Even on his street in Kingwood, there are only a few neighbors who are fully back in their homes as some are still forced to live upstairs while awaiting contractors, or for financial situations to be resolved.

"The recovery period is going to go on for months and months and it's extremely critical to be out there as a voice for however long it takes until we feel comfortable we've done all we can to mitigate this from happening in the future," Micheletti said. "It's going to take a community effort  not just the residents and businesses who flooded  everyone in the community will be impacted if this happens again because home values will go down, there will be infrastructure no longer in place, so regardless of whether people flooded or not, it's important we're all on the same page for prevention."

The chamber's long-term Recovery Task Force helped gather letters of support from officials and dignitaries on behalf of Micheletti.

"One of the things that was important to us was that they're forward-thinking and able to say, 'The past is the past, but what can we improve moving forward?' That's hard to do if somebody is angry and accusatory and goes in looking to cause problems," Armstrong said. "It's all about taking the right approach and working collaboratively."

From working with him for several years she is confident in his fairness and ability to question things in a respectful way that encourages problem solving.

As with any new position, Micheletti said, he will first work to get a good understanding of the SJRA's policies, procedures and operations.

He believes critical elements in finding solutions are communication and collaboration.

"Communication is a key element," Micheletti said. "I think it comes back to a regional solution involving multiple agencies working together. Communication needs to happen not just at the time we've got a rain or flood event."

KAAREN CAMBIO

Cambio received 37 inches of floodwater in her home and though its restoration is nearly complete, she said many in her community are not even planning to return to their flood damaged homes.

"Many people just can't afford to rebuild," she said.

But the main motivator behind Cambio's desire to help find a solution to future flood prevention is the lives that were lost.

"People died in this and we can't have that happen again," Cambio said. "That should motivate everyone to find a solution, whether they flooded or not."

Cambio is a deacon at the First Presbyterian Church of Kingwood and is a USO volunteer at Bush Intercontinental Airport.

She just retired from being the Caymus Resources president. She's a member of both the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo's Scholarship and Tours Committee, as well as the Kings Trails Chapter of the National Charity League, where she is a past president.

She graduated San Diego State University with a bachelor of business administration.

She intends to contribute her professional experience coordinating with multiple different authorities to accomplish projects.

"I've worked with permitting and government agencies to find out of the box solutions to address challenging issues throughout my whole professional career," Cambio said. "I really believe people with a shared mission should be able to find solutions that mutually benefit all parties."

Cambio's game plan going in is to learn more about the SJRA's procedures and delegation of responsibilities. From that information, she plans to isolate opportunities for improvement and propose solutions, which will need to address both the short and long-term, she said.

She looks forward to the formal orientation on Feb. 14, and to the new appointees' first board meeting on Feb. 22.

Cambio's term on the SJRA board will last until Oct. 2019.

Charles "Ed" Boulware

Boulware lives on a lakefront property on Lake Conroe.

"Being a lakefront property owner, I am aware of the issues and qualified to represent the Lake Conroe area," Boulware said. "Second, my wife is a director on the local Municipal Utilities District and has been for five years or more. Due to that, I'm aware of all the issues with water in the region."

Boulware graduated Texas A&M University with a bachelor's degree in computer science and was formerly the April Sound Men's Club president.

He worked for Shell Oil Co. for nearly four decades and is now retired and said his responsibilities during his time with Shell gave him leadership experience.

While at Shell, he ran a variety of projects including those involving geophysics, staffing, financial, capital projects, and global projects.

During the hurricane, water rose to his deck, but did not enter his home.

In his role on the SJRA board of directors, Boulware believes changes must be made in response to the flood, but said it's too early for him propose any solutions.

He is against lowering Lake Conroe's water level by three feet  one of the Plea For Three requests  because he said it would be detrimental both recreation and business standpoints.

"It depends where they are on the lake, but there would be people who can't get to their boat any longer, and businesses they can't boat to, so it would have a widespread affect," Boulware said. "But, I also understand massive downstream flooding was caused and something needs to be done."

Ultimately, Boulware said his focus will be on safety and improving communication and transparency.PARKLAND, Fla. - The 19-year-old accused of killing 17 people at his former high school admitted to police he carried out one of the country's deadliest school shootings, authorities said Thursday. But what may have motivated Nikolas Cruz remained unknown, even as investigators delved into his troubled, violent life and the red flags that littered his path back to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Wednesday afternoon.

As Cruz remained held without bond on murder charges, authorities scoured the high school where they say he aimed his AR-15 and fired round after round into classroom after classroom, leaving a trail of blood and agony before trying to elude police by hiding among those running to escape the carnage.

On the first full day after the school was transformed into a war zone, this idyllic suburb north of Fort Lauderdale grappled with a massacre that added its name to the ever-growing roster of places synonymous with tragedies in public spaces: Columbine (Colorado). Newtown (Connecticut). Aurora (Colorado). Charleston (South Carolina). Las Vegas (Nevada). Sutherland Springs (Texas). And, now, Parkland (Florida).

"This community is hurting right now," Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said Thursday. "Today's a day of healing. Today's a day of mourning."

Now Playing: Nikolas Cruz as ordered held without bond and booked into jail. Video: Time

The country mourned with Parkland, living through what has become a grim routine. Names slowly emerged on Thursday, revealing that the bullets cut down the young and old alike, including a student who had recently gotten into the state's flagship college, a senior who had just gained U.S. citizenship and a football coach who was working at his alma mater. Those killed ranged in age from 14 to 49, police said. Most were teenagers, just one of them old enough to vote. Three were staffers.

The familiar response played out as the shooting again cracked open fissures in American politics and culture over guns, a debate that seems ever more immovable. President Trump, in brief remarks at the White House, echoed Florida Gov. Rick Scott, R, in emphasizing a response focused on mental health, eschewing the calls for stricter gun control that follow every attack without any changes being made. In this case, some of the loudest pleas came from students who survived the attack as well as grieving parents.

"President Trump, please do something!" Lori Alhadeff, who lost her daughter Alyssa, said in emotional remarks broadcast on CNN. "Do something. Action! We need it now! These kids need safety now!"

In Florida, Cruz's past revealed a pattern of disciplinary issues and unnerving behavior. People who knew him said that for years, Cruz had a habit of attacking animals like squirrels and chickens. When he got older, he became isolated, angry and withdrawn, losing his parents and eventually moving into friends' houses.

More for you Florida shooting suspect had a history of explosive anger,...

At Douglas, his problems began with suspensions. A teacher said administrators had sent out a message suggesting they keep an eye on him. Cruz was expelled last year. On Wednesday, he came back.

New details about the shooting emerged Thursday in court documents and from police officials. Cruz took an Uber to the school, police said in a probable-cause affidavit, wearing a black backpack and carrying a black duffel bag. A staffer recognized him and radioed a co-worker to say that Cruz was approaching. Within a minute, he heard gunshots and called a "Code Red," which announced an emergency.

He began firing into rooms, returning to two of them as he continued pumping round after round inside at the huddled, terrified teachers and students. Cruz went up the stairs, firing at another room as he traveled through the school building.

As students began to flee the carnage, Cruz dropped his rifle and bag of extra ammunition and joined "others who were fleeing and tried to mix in with the group . . . fearing for their lives," Israel, the sheriff, said Thursday. He went to a Walmart, bought a drink, sat at a Subway, and eventually left on foot.

Michael Leonard, a police officer from nearby Coconut Creek who came to assist with the police response, spotted him walking down a residential street not far from the school.

"He looked like a typical high school student," Leonard said Thursday.

A day after being arrested, Cruz made his first court appearance, facing 17 counts of premeditated murder. He mostly looked down at his hands and answered the judge in a low voice. His attorneys did not specifically say Thursday that he had confessed to the shooting, nor did they explicitly deny his involvement, describing him as a "broken young man " who is "very saddened" by what happened.

"This is an emotionally broken young man," Gordon Weekes, the public defender, told reporters, adding that Cruz was on suicide watch. "He has been through a lot of trauma. He has suffered significant mental illness, and significant mental trauma."

Israel, the sheriff, vowed that authorities would make sure that "justice is served." More than a dozen people had been wounded, and some remained in critical condition Thursday, hospital officials said.

Investigators have already interviewed more than 2,000 people as part of the probe and hope to speak to unnamed people who "might enlighten us as to why he did what he did," Israel said, though he emphasized that a day into the investigation, police did not believe Cruz had any accomplices.

Cruz bought the AR-15 himself legally in Coral Springs, officials said. So far, it is the only gun authorities have recovered as part of the investigation, said Peter Forcelli, special agent in charge of the Miami field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The court filing Thursday said Cruz bought the gun about a year before the rampage.

Federal authorities were facing questions about whether they had missed a chance to encounter the gunman before. The FBI was contacted last fall about a comment left on YouTube that mentioned becoming "a professional school shooter." The YouTube user's name was Nikolas Cruz. FBI agents spoke to the person who submitted the tip, searched law enforcement databases and were unable to determine who posted the comment, said Robert Lasky, special agent in charge of the FBI's Miami division. Officials now believe Cruz posted that message.

FBI investigators looking into the shooting were pursuing information Thursday suggesting that Cruz might have been associated with a Florida-based white supremacist group, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the probe. But agents were still trying to determine the extent of his involvement with the group, if any, according to the official, who asked not to be identified discussing an ongoing investigation. A spokesman for the group told the Anti-Defamation League that Cruz had participated in some of its training exercises; the group could not be reached for further comment.

While investigators sought to figure out Cruz's movements and actions leading up to his arrival at the school, others struggled with what he left behind in his wake. At Broward Health North, where some of the injured were being treated, police escorted a tearful group of young people wearing Stoneman Douglas High School T-shirts into the hospital. False alarms about shootings rattled nerves at another school in Broward and at a vigil in Parkland for the victims.

Others were left worried about returning to normal life in the coming days. Judy Weiss, whose 17-year-old son Justin goes to Douglas, was uneasy about sending him back to school when it reopens. Her anxieties were compounded because her son is disabled and unable to communicate. Because of that, he is taken outside by nurses before the flood of students leaving at the final bell, which meant he was already arriving at the handicap bus when panicked students fled the gunfire.

"My biggest fear is that if my son had not left 10 minutes early, he would have been stuck in a four hour lockdown," she said. "If he didn't have to leave 10 minutes early, he can't run, he can't hide, he can't crawl under a desk. . . . It's just very frightening. My son is a sitting duck."

Weiss said she and her husband bought a home in Parkland 20 years ago because it was considered so safe. Now she has to face sending her son back to Douglas when the doors reopen.

"The public schools here have the best program for my son," Weiss said Thursday. "I don't feel comfortable but I have no choice."

- - -

Berman reported from Washington. Tim Craig in Parkland, Florida, and Devlin Barrett, David Nakamura, Brian Murphy, Moriah Balingit, Justin Jouvenal, Julie Tate and William Wan in Washington contributed to this report.Just a bit after sunrise Tuesday, sleeping bodies lay cocooned in bedspreads and blankets on block after block beneath the Pierce Elevated, the stretch of Interstate 45 that cuts through the southern edge of downtown.

Preston Witt walked up to a lump in a turquoise sleeping bag and leaned in.

"Good morning! How are you, sir?"

The sleeping bag stirred. A man poked his head out. He looked at Witt and said hello, but he didn't want to have a conversation.

That's OK. Witt merely needed to count the man, along with everyone else sleeping unsheltered in the blocks of Houston where downtown melts into Midtown.

The annual Homeless Count and Survey, which started Tuesday, is a three-day census that tallies the homeless in the Houston area. More than 300 volunteers fan out across Harris, Montgomery and Fort Bend counties, counting and - when possible - interviewing people who are sleeping on sidewalks and in cars, sheltering in tents or under piles of blankets.

The federally mandated census, coordinated by the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County, helps secure funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It also helps local agencies figure out where and how they are needed.

Last year's assessment located 3,605 homeless people in Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties - 2,287 of them sheltered and 1,318 unsheltered. In Houston, Harris County and Fort Bend County, that's a 60 percent decline since 2011, when the number was higher than 8,500.

But those who work with the homeless worry that something might have upset that downward trend: Hurricane Harvey.

"That's why I'm out here," said a 24-year-old man who sleeps on Austin Street.

"I had a pretty good job just before Harvey," he said.

But he said he lost his transportation after the flood and things snowballed from there. He spent the month after Harvey in the George R. Brown Convention Center shelter and has been out on the streets ever since.

Years of promises

That interview information is invaluable, said Eva Thibaudeau-Graczyk, Coalition for the Homeless director of programs.

"We're trying to capture the number, but we're also really trying to capture the experience," she said. "And, it's an incredible opportunity to detect really vulnerable people and get them immediately connected to assistance."

Betty Thornton, 62, said she's been on the streets for 13 years. She had a deep, wracking cough and was interested in going to rehab for drug abuse.

Witt, who works as chief services officer at the nonprofit Harmony House, told Thornton he should be able to get her help. He could do a housing assessment on the spot.

"Are you really for real?" she asked. She's been promised some things before.

He nodded. "We don't want you out here," he said.

Using an iPad, Witt searched for Thornton in a regional database and frowned: She'd been on the list for housing before. But without a phone number or an address, no one could ever locate her when her number came up.

"They haven't been able to get in touch with you," Witt told Thornton.

"Because I'm homeless!" she said, exasperated.

Witt took the woman to a McDonald's in the next block and bought her an Egg McMuffin and a large coffee.

'Somebody's situation is always worse than mine'

The official tally will be published in May.

Everyone acknowledges that the annual homeless tally is likely on the low end of reality. But the census methodology has remained the same since 2012, and that provides a consistent annual snapshot, Thibaudeau-Graczyk said.

"When you compare that year after year, you can get a sense of the trends," she said.

Harvey might have an impact on this year's numbers, but on Tuesday morning, everyone on the streets seemed to have a different story.

Outside the El Expreso bus company, volunteer Amy Jo Davison interviewed a man who said he's been on the streets for about a month.

She peppered him with survey questions: What's your age? Any disabilities? Mental health issues? Substance abuse? Are you a veteran?

The man nodded.

"Meg, he says he's a vet," Davison called out.

"Really?" said volunteer Meg Pohodich, who's CEO of Harmony House. She approached the man.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked.

A military veteran like him should fall into one of HUD's priority groups for housing, she explained.

He looked at her.

"I've got some anger issues right now," he said.

On Austin Street, a woman in a black hooded sweatshirt sat on a pile of blankets with her hands tucked into her pockets. "The last time I was in a shelter was 2014, 2015," she told Pohodich.

Why hadn't she tried to get more of the services available? Pohodich asked.

"I always feel like somebody's situation is worse than mine," she said. "That's why I never do anything - I feel like somebody's situation is always worse than mine."The bride wore floral-print leggings and a turquoise T-shirt dress with beaded flats she bought for the occasion.

The groom wore khakis and a red-and-blue striped shirt.

It was the culmination of a 20-year romance that started on the ground outside a Mexican restaurant closed for remodeling, where the couple had huddled behind construction fencing to spend the night.

"We both kind of woke up, I don't know, 6:30, 7 in the morning," Amy Graham recalled Wednesday. "We rolled over and looked at each other and I just smiled at him. He said, 'Will you marry me?'"

Since then, Graham and James Spicer have lived in tents, camping in wooded areas along FM 1960 in northwest Houston. They've done odd jobs and held signs at intersections to get by. They've gotten sporadic hot showers and frequent help from friends.

But with the help of the non-profit HOPE Haven, their lives are changing. They just moved into their first apartment last month. And on Valentine's Day, they made good on that long-ago, early morning promise: Graham and Spicer got married.

"She looks so beautiful right now," her friend Rochelle Rosario said before the ceremony. "You look beautiful, baby!"

Graham turned and saw Rosario sniffling. She smiled.

"Stop! Rochelle, you're going to make me cry."

ON THE STREETS: Volunteers help count, survey Houston-area homeless

Long-ago promises

Graham, 50, and Spicer, 57, met nearly 20 years ago. But this is not a story of love at first sight.

"I didn't like him," Graham said. "He didn't like me."

Fairly new to living on the streets then, she had starting flying a sign, asking for money at the intersection of FM 1960 and T.C. Jester. Spicer, who pretty much ran the show on that block, decided she was encroaching on his territory.

"I pretty much had an attitude (that) I run the whole four corners," he said.

But proximity forced the two to tolerate each other - and eventually, cold weather forced them to warm up to each other. One dangerously cold weekend many Decembers ago, a friend gave Spicer a room for the night at a motel on FM 1960. Spicer wanted to share the wealth with someone - it was bitterly cold - and when a close friend couldn't take him up on the offer, he invited Graham to share the room.

"He said, 'Amy, look. I promise I'll keep my hands to myself. I'll put pillows down the middle of the bed,'" Graham said. "What's a girl to think?"

But it was just as Spicer promised. Graham took a long, hot shower, she said, and "I come out and he literally had pillows stretched out down the middle of the bed."

They soon became an on-again, off-again couple, and, eventually, a serious one, finally moving into a single big tent together - a red-and-gray one that held a bed, a couch and a 55-gallon barrel that they used to build fires to keep warm.

They did drugs. They drank alcohol. They lived outside, earning money on street corners and doing odd jobs in the neighborhood.

About 10 years ago, they had an informal wedding ceremony in the woods. There was no marriage license, so it wasn't a legal marriage, but a friend who had left the streets to become an ordained minister volunteered to officiate. Only one other person showed up, Spicer said.

"My drug dealer who was selling us crack, he was the maid of honor and the best man," Spicer said.

HELPERS: Groups make push to limit panhandling in northwest Houston

'We try our best'

That was before Spicer and Graham found HOPE Haven, before they cleaned up their lives and got off the streets.

In 2010, Graham met Kristyn Stillwell, who was starting a nonprofit to help the homeless. It took some time, but Stillwell and her team worked to get Spicer and Graham into a real home.

Ray Walker became their HOPE Haven caseworker about a year ago.

"They're very good people," he said. "There's a social network out there, and they're not the ones who are stealing from other homeless. They're the ones who are looking out for other people, kind of the leadership out there."

Walker helped Graham and Spicer get their state ID cards, Social Security cards and birth certificates replaced - not an easy task, but a crucial one for anyone who hopes to get off the streets.

Without that material, "you can't get a job, you can't get a place to live, you can't get a vehicle, you can't, you can't, you can't," Graham said. "They have just helped us so much. It's almost insane."

The two haven't dropped all their vices altogether, Walker said. But "they have a willing heart and they're listening and they're really trying to move forward," he said. "They have responsibilities now."

Getting into a real home took some patience. But once they were in the system, there was good news: Graham, who has seizures, qualified for permanent supportive housing for her disability.

She and Spicer moved into an apartment in January, a one-bedroom place in northwest Houston. It has a cushiony beige couch, a solid wood kitchen table and a sparkling clean blue-and-white shower curtain.

The couple is responsible for paying the electric bill each month. For now, they're out every day doing odd jobs to collect money to live on.

"He and I have both flown a sign, and I hate doing that and he hates doing that," Graham said. "So we try our best, left and right, to work: Want me to mop your floor, want me to clean your bathroom, want me to clean your windows? I'd rather work for it than beg for it."

And with a new apartment and a new outlook, the two wanted to marry again and make it official.

"I want to make it legal, I want to make it upright," Graham said. "I want it to stand in the arms of God. I want it to be what it is."

Exchanging vows

On Wednesday morning, two dozen people crowded into a small suite at Champion Forest Baptist Church.

Spencer Littlejohn, HOPE Haven's chaplain, married the couple, and guests celebrated afterward with punch and red velvet cake.

Before they exchanged vows, Littlejohn gave the couple a short sermon on marriage.

"The person standing next to you will likely fail and disappoint you at times, and you may likely fail and disappoint your spouse," he said.

A giggle rose up in the crowd, and Graham laughed, too.

"That's highly possible," she said with a roll of her eyes.

Graham and Spicer have already been through the worst. Now they're ready for the best - or, at least, a fresh start and a clean slate.

"It's been a travel," Graham said, looking back at their two decades together. "But I've had him and he's had me."Like most people who attended Texas public schools, I know a few things about Texas history.

Mrs. Kimball was the teacher who introduced me to the subject. Her enthusiasm for Texas history was such that she volunteered at the Institute of Texan Cultures, in San Antonio, on the weekends.

And her expertise greatly exceeded that of the activists associated with Empower Texans, and its derivative 501(c)(4), Texans for Fiscal Responsibility.

The group describes itself, piously, as a "non-profit service organization," which aims to "educate and inspire Texans to exercise effective citizenship." But the only thing ET has inspired lately is a backlash, after word got out about their latest half-baked scheme. And in a somewhat amusing irony, the "ISD Whistleblower Project" targets the Texans who are actually committed to educating and inspiring people.

In a letter sent earlier this month, ET's president, Michael Quinn Sullivan, asserted that "school districts around the state are unconstitutionally and illegally proposing to use taxpayer dollars to intervene in the 2018 Republican primary."

Empower Texans had therefore set up an email address, Sullivan explained, so that any conservatives who caught an educator promoting "a culture of voting" - or suspected an educator might be doing such a thing - would be empowered to snitch, anonymously.

The project, Sullivan noted, was "confidential." But needless to say, his letter leaked. And thousands of Texans responded accordingly, using social media to explain why they were #blowingthewhistle on the educators they know, who have gone above and beyond the call of duty, in various ways.

I'd like to do some whistleblowing, too. But before I do that, let me try summarize why Sullivan and his stooges in state government are targeting Texas teachers, of all people.

In 2015, after the 84th Legislature adjourned, public education advocates decided to set up a website, called Texas Educators Vote.

"We're telling people to be educated about who you're voting for, and then to vote," explained one of them, Laura Yeager, who called me after a long day of meetings, during her evening commute.

She is, she confirmed, the director of the organization. But it's a volunteer position, and Texas Educators Vote isn't actually a organization; just "this little website."

"It's not subversive," Yeager added.

Having educated myself by using the internet to visit the website in question, I knew Yeager was telling the truth about that. Texas Educators Vote invites visitors to sign "the educator's oath to vote," and provides a sample "culture of voting" resolution, for school boards that might be interested in adopting such a thing. Neither idea is nefarious, or even controversial.

But a handful of Republicans have a different view of such things. In December, state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, whose district includes parts of Harris County, asked Attorney General Ken Paxton to weigh in on whether it would be kosher for a school to, for example, organize a field trip to the polls. In January, Paxton responded with a letter, explaining why he suspects a court "would likely" take issue with such a thing.

This provided Empower Texans with a pretext for accusing Texas educators of behaving lawlessly. In his letter to would-be whistleblowers, Sullivan refers to Paxton's letter as a "ruling." And Sullivan didn't even need a pretext, really. He is among the right-wing activists who have been empowered, by Texas's Republican leaders, to target his fellow Texans on any basis, and with impunity.

Sullivan will remain empowered, I suspect, for the time being. He's never been elected to anything, or even made a compelling case for whatever his perspective is, but for some reason our current crop of leaders are scared to stand up to him.

With that said, Empower Texans clearly wasn't prepared for the backlash we saw on social media. And Sullivan has no good response to the many Texans who are #blowingthewhistle in defense of Texas educators, or those who point out any of the many brazenly false statements he made about them.

Perhaps Sullivan never had a teacher like Mrs. Kimball. Still, he is a grown man who has access to a computer, which he could use to educate himself about Texas history, rather than composing incoherent and inflammatory screeds.

Meanwhile, I did listen to Mrs. Kimball when she taught my class about the heroism that the defenders of the Alamo showed in the face of Santa Anna's villainy. So I would like to formally blow the whistle on her for that, and also for the fact that she took the time to attend San Antonio's citywide spelling bee the year I was competing in it. I can't remember if I got knocked out in the first round, or if I made it to the second, but I remember that Mrs. Kimball was there. Like most teachers, she cared about her students, and wanted to see us succeed.

And I've learned even more about Texas history in the years since graduating from Randolph Elementary. So I would also like to blow the whistle on the authors of the Texas Constitution, which was ratified in 1876.

"A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools," they wrote.

That being the case, Texans who sign the "Educator's Oath," and check the box that asks if they will vote "in support of the more than 5.4 million Texas school children," aren't taking a partisan stance. They're casting a vote that is consistent with our state's long-standing commitment to public education, which is actually a conservative priority, even if it's been abandoned by the contemporary right wing. As the Texas Constitution says, a general diffusion of knowledge is essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people.

Nor are Texans who sign the "Educator's Oath" committing to vote in the Republican primary, as Sullivan claims. Here is what the oath actually says:

"I am a Texas educator and I commit to vote in the March primary and in the November general election."

To be clear, many Texas educators will vote in the Republican primary. They have the right to do so, for any reason, as do all registered voters in Texas. That's another fact about this state: our primaries are open.

And some Texas educators, incidentally, will vote in the Republican primary simply because they're Republicans, and were planning to exercise their rights as citizens - even before Empower Texans accidentally promoted the culture of voting, by targeting Texans like them.Police are seeking felony charges against a 17-year-old who is accused of bringing a gun to a southeast Houston charter school where he is a student.

The Houston Can Academy Hobby campus was on lockdown for several hours Thursday after a security guard found the gun in the student's jacket about 7:50 a.m., said Houston Police Department spokesman John Cannon.

The student, identified by HPD as Jaquinn Alani Smith, fled but was detained and questioned by police. Smith will be charged with exhibition of a firearm on school grounds, police said.

The school, at 9020 Gulf Freeway, was placed under a lockdown as a precautionary measure. All students are safe and the school is secure, school spokeswoman Allison Rhodes said.

"Due to the swift response of our security staff, students and staff were not in any immediate danger," Rhodes said. "The safety of the students is always our top priority. Our security process worked this morning, keeping all students and staff safe."

Now Playing: Texas News & Crime Video: Houston Chronicle

The security guard found the gun during a routine screening of students that occurs each morning as students walk into school, Rhodes said. The school uses metal detectors, and the security guards are armed.

The student had enrolled at Houston Can Academy two weeks ago, Rhodes said.

The gun was not loaded, Houston Police Capt. William McPherson said. The lockdown and chase of the suspected student didn't result in any injuries.

The school is offering counseling to students who need it.



Jose R. Gonzalez contributed to this report.

This story is developing.A two-year, multimillion-dollar battle over Harris County's bail practices may be headed toward a settlement after a federal appeals court affirmed core elements of a landmark ruling that held the county's system discriminated against poor defendants arrested for misdemeanor offenses.

Both legal teams were scrambling Thursday to assess their next moves as the trial judge behind the historic opinion ordered them to suggest revisions in accordance with the order from a three-judge appeals court panel, according to sources on both sides of the lawsuit.

Chief U.S. Dist. Judge Lee H. Rosenthal gave the parties until Feb. 26 to find common ground and lay out areas of dispute.

The county has a variety of options in responding to the higher court's remedies and its conclusion that the county's previous cash bail practices were unconstitutional. The lawyers could appeal to the full circuit court, appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, proceed to trial before Rosenthal or reach a settlement with the indigent defendants who brought the lawsuit.

Legal insiders said the county's stance on those scenarios will likely become clear in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, lawyers on both sides of the lawsuit Thursday proclaimed the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling a victory for their clients.

RULING: Appeals court OKs most of ruling that Harris County's bail system unconstitutional

Robert Soard, first assistant to Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan, was optimistic that the ruling provided a solid blueprint for reaching a resolution without a trial.

"We hope that this opinion will lead to a fair, prompt and comprehensive settlement of the lawsuit," Soard said.

Soard added that the county was pleased the appeals court had instructed Rosenthal to give the county judges more leeway about bail decisions, extending the deadline for a defendant to appear before a judge from 24 hours to 48 hours.

Nationwide effects

The county has spent $5.2 million in fighting the suit, which was initially brought by Maranda ODonnell, a single mother who spent two days in jail on a driving infraction because she couldn't afford $2,500 bail.

Lawyers who brought the class action on behalf of indigent misdemeanor defendants also feel the end is in sight.

"We hope that Harris County and the county judges will finally drop their senseless opposition to creating a fair pretrial system," said attorney Alec Karakatsanis, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Civil Rights Corps, which brought the suit along with another criminal justice reform group and a Houston law firm. "The fate of tens of thousands of impoverished Harris County families and tens of millions of dollars in county funds depends on them promoting equal justice rather than defending what two federal courts have now found to be indefensible."

Karakatsanis' group has brought bail challenges in multiple jurisdictions nationally, including a recent federal lawsuit in Dallas. But the group states on its website that Rosenthal's opinion on the merits in ODonnell v. Harris County is "the most consequential and impressive judicial ruling that we have been a part of" and says it will have "sweeping effects across the entire country."

BACKGROUND: Harris County bail system unconstitutional, federal judge rules

Sandra Guerra Thompson, director of the Criminal Justice Institute at the University of Houston Law Center, has followed the ODonnell case closely and foresees the case having a broad ripple effect in criminal justice.

"This lawsuit exposed fundamental problems with the money bail system, but it is one in line of cases now around the country that have similar outcomes," she said. "Federal courts around the country are in unison on this: Harris County, like jurisdictions around the country, is going to have no choice but to address these unfair practices."

The appeals court Wednesday upheld most of Rosenthal's ruling, agreeing the bail system in place for years was unconstitutional and punished low-level indigent defendants. The bail policy violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution, forcing poor defendants into "wealth-based detention," where many felt compelled to enter guilty pleas just to get out of jail.

In contrast, defendants with cash could post bail and resume their lives.

RELATED: Rosenthal rules federal courts in Houston region with firm hand

But the panel of judges ordered Rosenthal to reconsider several matters and revise an injunction it found overly broad. They said her order for qualified defendants be released within 24 hours was "too onerous," opting instead for a 48-hour window and directed Rosenthal to re-evaluate how officials assess a defendant's ability to pay bond.

'End of the road'

Houston City Councilman Michael Kubosh, a bail bondsman, said the system Rosenthal implemented burdens police and communities and gives too much weight to statements by people under arrest, who can simply declare they are indigent even if they aren't.

"It's causing public safety problems," he said. "People are being arrested and arrested again and there's no incentive to show up for court."

As for the affidavits of poverty, Kubosh said last week eight families hired him to bail out their loved ones, only to discover that all eight had been released on indigent affidavits and he had to give them back their money.

Tom Berg, first assistant at the Harris County District Attorney's Office, said the appeals court decision is "kind of the end of the road" for Harris County and offers a compelling opportunity to settle the costly lawsuit.

"The case could still be tried and appealed just to keep the litigation alive for a couple more years but would be unlikely to change the outcome we have now," Berg said. "It would, however, bleed more millions from the county's coffers."

He said the reforms should include repurposing the pretrial services division so it can personally interview, assess and effectively supervise everyone released on bail.

He also thinks the Legislature needs to weigh in on bail reform and preventive detention early in the next session in a way that addresses public safety for the Houston and Dallas regions, which are both facing federal lawsuits.

Berg said it's vital that the county not detain people because of their poverty but that the public's safety is considered when deciding bail conditions "so that the most predatory are not released simply because they have the funds to buy their way out."

County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, a former state senator, also wants the county to settle quickly, and said, "I'm hopeful that we can save the taxpayers' money, comply with the U.S. Constitution and reform our criminal justice system on our own and not continue to come into this century kicking and screaming."

Gabrielle Banks covers federal court for the Houston Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter and send her tips at gabrielle.banks@chron.com.Another 40 flood-prone homes in Houston will be elevated with the help of federal dollars, after City Council agreed to receive $12.4 million in grant funds Wednesday.

The homes in Meyerland, Westbury, Spring Branch and other neighborhoods will be raised with, on average, $309,100 drawn from FEMAs Flood Mitigation Assistance Program, with the homeowners each chipping in an average of $13,370 per property. All but $22,052 of the citys costs will be covered by the federal grant.

Initially the Texas Water Development Board said that we could only do 10 at a time, but since Harvey theyve waived that requirement. So to the extent -- based on the contractors -- we can do as many of those 40 as we possibly can, then weve been given the green light to proceed, Mayor Sylvester Turner said.

Read more: More Houstonians may be forced to raise their Harvey-damaged homes

Houston does not determine eligibility or set maximum elevation costs for the FEMA program. The citys role is to seek out interested homeowners -- who must have valid flood insurance policies to qualify -- and submit applications for the funds annually, competing with other flood-prone cities and counties.

City Council approved elevation contracts for individual homes last month as part of FEMAs 2015 round of funding. The vote Wednesday was the first step in spending funds received as part of the 2016 round of grants; the citys 2017 application is pending with FEMA. Similar funding tied directly to Hurricane Harvey is expected to help significantly more homeowners elevate in the coming months.

The mayor and some city council members have questioned the efficiency and cost effectiveness of the federal elevation program, including last month, when they approved a series of contracts that were part of $14.8 million in 2015 grant dollars that will lift 42 homes. In some cases, the elevation costs exceed the value of the homes.

Read more: Houston City Council reprises concerns about home elevations

City Councilmen Greg Travis, Michael Kubosh, Jack Christie and Dave Martin voted against several of the contracts last month, and Christie and Travis did so again Wednesday, though four of Travis constituents are among those who will receive grants from the 2016 funds.

This is a federal program using federal dollars. If we dont use the money, it goes somewhere else, said Councilwoman Ellen Cohen, in whose district 27 of the 40 homeowners being helped with the 2016 funds live. We need to elevate these homes and we need to do it with the funds that we have.

Read more: Council, civic leaders call for more time on Mayor Turner's flood control rules

This 2016 round of funding includes 25 "severe repetitive loss" properties and 15 "repetitive loss" properties, a key factor in FEMAs analysis of which properties it will help elevate. In short, the agency  which underwrites the national flood insurance program  looks to reduce the risk of future flood insurance payouts.

Severe repetitive loss homes are those where four or more separate claims of $5,000 or more have occurred, or where two or more claims add up to more than the market value of the home. Repetitive loss homes are those where the cost of repairs is equal to or greater than a quarter of the homes market value.

These are homes that have repeatedly flooded. Youre talking about six, seven, eight times theyve been flooded, Councilwoman Brenda Stardig said of the 2016 grant funds; two of her constituents will benefit. There are infrastructure projects that in the queue that should have been moved up. Weve got to make sure we keep those on track, as well while were doing these other things to recover.

Read more: City, County could target buyouts, home elevations, drainage projects with new federal aid

In the case of the 2015 funding, some homeowners on that list applied for the program, only to watch their homes fill up with water during the Tax Day flood in 2016, and then again in Harvey.

Contracts with the 40 individual homeowners attached to the 2016 funding are expected to come back for council approval this summer, with the elevations themselves wrapping up, if all goes well, by November, near the end of the 2018 hurricane season.County Judge Ed Emmett and Mayor Sylvester Turner are asking the state of Texas to advance Harris County and Houston $200 million to pay for damage to local bayous and detention basins incurred during Hurricane Harvey.

Officials already were working on repairs to the Harris County Flood Control District's infrastructure when Harvey hit.

Eroding bayous or crumbling concrete can hamper the ability of the bayous and detention basins to quickly funnel floodwaters out of the region into Galveston Bay.

Read: Flood control district seeks to repair damage from Tax Day storms

Now Playing: Aerial imagery from Addicks and Barker Dam and Reservoirs captured on Aug. 31 2017. The imagery shows the structures functioning as expected after receiving 32-35 inches of rainfall produced by Hurricane Harvey. (Video by Jay Townsend) Video: Houston Chronicle

The district allocates half of its roughly $120 million annual budget to operation and maintenance -- the damage far exceeds this $60 million number.

"It is imperative the process to begin repairing this vital infrastructure start as soon as possible," the letter reads.

The district has sought reimbursement from the federal government, but it is unclear when that will arrive, the letter states.

"Meanwhile, the damaged infrastructure remains exposed and vulnerable to the next flood, which is only a matter of when, not if, it comes," the letter reads.

Read the letter: Sylvester Turner, Ed Emmett pen letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott seeking $200 million to repair flood control infrastructure.

As of Wednesday, county officials said the request had not been answered. A spokeswoman for Gov. Greg Abbott did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Mayor Sylvester Turner's press secretary resigned Friday afternoon, three weeks after news broke that she had been suspended for routinely conducting personal business on city time and failing to release public records.

Ward sent or received roughly 5,000 pages of emails about personal business from her government account over the last four years, many of which dealt with reality shows she was pitching to television networks or a charity for which she serves as an advisor.

Ward, who earned $93,712 annually, was suspended for 10 days without pay in late December.

Her resignation came hours before new emails showed Ward again had tried to block the release of a portion of the personal business documents she sent on city time. The Houston Chronicle and other news outlets sought the emails under the Texas Public Information Act.

"I believe many of the documents which include show concepts, treatments, etc. are protected through the Writers Guild Association's registration. Legal needs to be advised," Ward wrote to colleagues two weeks ago.

Assistant City Attorney Danielle Folsom replied last week, saying the city attorney's office "does not believe that registration with the Writer's Guild of America makes information confidential under the TPIA."

Ward still wanted to seek an opinion from the Texas attorney general's office, emails show. Pamela Ellis, founder of a charity Ward was promoting on city time, also asked the city to withhold documents.

As a result, the city released roughly 2,500 pages of Ward's emails on Jan. 19.

With the release of that first batch, Ward expressed confusion that her attempt to intervene had not fully halted the city's records release.

"How were emails released when I'm waiting to write the AG's office?" she wrote to coworkers that evening.

READ ALSO: Emails show Turner aide repeatedly used city resources for personal business

Now Playing: Mayoral Press Secretary Darian Ward used her city email to promote a reality show she was developing as a private business venture

The city distributed nearly 1,200 additional pages Thursday, accompanied by a letter to the attorney general's office.

"The city takes no position with respect to the public availability of the requested information and will not raise any arguments on behalf of any third party," Folsom wrote in requesting a ruling from the attorney general's office.

Kelley Shannon, executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, called Ward's request absurd.

"It was done on public computers. It's something somebody was reprimanded for," Shannon said. "Now, there's this effort to twist and turn the Texas Public Information act to prevent the public from seeing what was being done on its watch."

Ward did not respond to requests for comment, but said in her resignation letter that she was stepping down "with great sadness."

"My job is to get the city's and your message out, not to be a distraction," she wrote to the mayor. "Therefore, I think it is in the best interest of the city that I resign effective immediately."

Ellis, in a brief interview Friday evening, said she sought to withhold records related to her charity and private business because the nonprofit should not be sullied by a scandal it did not cause.

"We have no connection with the city of Houston, and so I just think for our own good name and the good we do in the community there's no reason to involve us in the story," Ellis said.

Turner wished Ward success after accepting her resignation Friday.

"Ward served the city as a key communicator for many years and has our thanks for working in public service," he said in a statement.

The mayor tapped Mary Benton to replace Ward on an interim basis. Benton previously served as spokeswoman for former Precinct 1 Harris County Commissioner Gene Locke and, prior to that, worked for the Harris County Toll Road Authority and was a longtime reporter at KPRC Channel 2.

"The addition of Mary Benton to our team brings even more experience and expertise to our work of keeping Houstonians informed about their government's many actions on their behalf, such as reducing flooding, restoring the city's financial health, leveraging our status as a welcoming community that is the nation's most diverse, and much, much more," Turner said.

Benton declined comment.

Meanwhile, Joe Stinebaker, communications director for Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, lauded Turner's choice.

"In my dealings with Mary, both when she was a reporter and when she's worked with the county, she has been extremely professional in everything she's done," Stinebaker said. "Frankly, I look very forward to working with her when she's over at the city because I think it will help continue fostering better relationships between the county and the city."

Benton is set to start Monday.

Ward joined former mayor Annise Parker's staff as press secretary in 2014. Turner kept her on in the same role.

Though he signed off on Ward's two-week suspension, Turner initially brushed off criticism of Ward's behavior.

"She's done her job extremely well since I've been here, over and above," the mayor told reporters three weeks ago. "I have no question with regard to her work performance."

Beyond conducting personal business from her city email, Ward in 2015 used Houston's publicly-funded television station, HTV, to promote contestants in a reality show she was developing.

Ward also did not pay full price when she rented HTV's studios that year to film a pilot for another show, records show.

Turner responded to those revelations by calling Ward's actions "unacceptable and against policy," adding that subsequent violations of city rules "could result in termination."

The Harris County District Attorney's Office has asked the city's Office of Inspector General to share information regarding Ward's behavior.Early voting is a week away in Texas' primaries, but don't expect to see many neighbors in line at the polls.

That's the takeaway from a new study from The University of Texas at Austin, which finds that Texas remains among the most apathetic states in the nation when measured by civic engagement.

"This report highlights the compelling need to work together to support civic engagement across Texas to strengthen our communities and increase citizen involvement in public life," said Susan Nold, director of the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life, one of the study's authors. "Due in part to our size and in part to our growth, Texas continues to fall behind the bulk of the nation when it comes to measures such as voting and civic involvement."

CHANGE OF TUNE: Democrats seem to like a lot of each others' ideas

Now Playing: Ed Espinoza from Progress Texas and GOP Consultant Edward Getterman discuss the upcoming race. Video: Fox7

The report, which also was produced with help from the National Conference on Citizenship and the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service, essentially refreshes the Texas Civic Health Index, a nonpartisan review of political engagement that uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau and other sources.

The report consistently has found dismal civic participation across Texas, and 2016 was no exception.

The state ranked 47th in voter turnout and 44th in voter registration in 2016, the study found, though distaste for the candidates on the ballot jumped ahead of "too busy" or "conflict with work" as the top reason voters listed for not going to the polls.

Just 23 percent of Texans surveyed said they regularly discuss politics, which ranked the state 50th in the nation. Texans also donate (40th in the nation) and volunteer (39th) less often than peers in other states.

CEASE AND DESIST: Disability rights group threatens to sue Texas over voter registration

In contrast, Texas ranked in the middle of the pack, 24th in the nation, in the portions of respondents who exchange favors with neighbors a few times a week or more; that sense of community was particularly pronounced among those with lower incomes.

"This report sheds light on the necessity of teaching and practicing civic engagement in Texas, and not all of it is bad news," Nold said. "Our goal in publishing this report is to keep this important conversation on the minds of all Texans and to recognize that small, simple actions taken by each of us  such as voting and doing a favor for a neighbor  contribute to stronger, more vibrant communities across Texas."

Above: See why Texas is lagging behind other states when it comes to politics.Sanctions and Russia

Regarding "US intel sees signs of Russian meddling in midterms" (Chron.com, Tuesday), this president has failed to implement the sanctions on Russia that both houses of Congress passed nearly unanimously. Is this because he hopes to get Russian help again in 2018 and 2020? This is a question he must respond to for the good of our country and it's people. Failure to respond would mean he has even more reason to explain his lack of actions.

R.K. Entrekin, Houston

No friend of Dreamers

Regarding "Ted Cruz cast lone vote against advancing 'Dreamer' legislation" (Chron.com, Tuesday), what a shame that Texas has a senator who consistently votes on the wrong side of history simply to pander to his ultra-conservative base.

Millions of young adults were brought to this country as children of parents seeking to escape poverty and oppression, just as Cruz's parents did when they fled Cuba for Canada. They no longer have ties to their countries of origin just as Cruz has no ties to Cuba. Yet, without a sense of irony, Cruz would condemn these now productive would-be Americans to a life in the shadows and a lifetime of suffering.

It is not the Dreamers' fault their parents were allowed into this country so easily. With so many employers looking for cheap labor, the politicians they elected were happy to put border security on the back burner.

With immigration officials focusing on the true bad guys and leaving the working immigrants alone, these children were allowed to flourish, with many already excelling in their chosen professions. That is apparently not good enough for Cruz and his base.

Robert Rodriguez, Houston

Fighting diseases

Regarding "The odds of a pandemic go up" (Page A11, Tuesday), I'm not a socialist, but I do believe creating a level playing field is a legitimate function of government. This has less to do with the Marxist phrase, "to each according to his need," than with the first half of that mantra, "from each according to his ability."

Healthy people have more ability. And they are more productive.

Defenders of our current socio-economic structure idealize it as a meritocracy. In reality, it's far from it. The poor are disproportionately hobbled by the ravages of disease. As a result, the beneficiaries of wealth rise to the top (including to positions of political leadership), regardless of intelligence or hard work.

Virtually all of us have something to gain from government programs that fight disease.

Paul Hornick, Houston

Put off by carry-on pets

Regarding "Passenger blames airline over pet's death" (Page B8, Friday), it seems the fad nowadays is trying to drag assorted animals on board airlines as a need for emotional support. My experience is, you can find a doctor willing to accommodate requests from patients that seem reasonable without research.

Why should one passenger be catered to when many passengers do not feel comfortable knowing snakes, hamsters, rats and other animals are occupying a small space with them with no escape before landing?

There are many other ways to travel if you must have a pet with you. As for the Texas State University student with the pet not having any other options, why not have the agent appeal to the thousands in the airport for a good home for the hamster? I bet my IRA someone would have responded.

Anne King, Missouri CityDuring the primary election, Democratic and Republican voters across the Houston region will have the opportunities to cast their ballots for their congressional candidates. Some races have become so heated that they're attracting national attention. In other races, well-heeled incumbents face underfunded challengers and the outcomes seem practically predetermined. In the middle are those primary races in which candidates compete to become their party's nominee for a tough assignment in an unfriendly, gerrymandered district. Nevertheless, Republican and Democrats alike should aspire to put forward their best candidates. Early voting runs from Tuesday, Feb. 20 through Friday March 2. Election Day is March 6.

ENDORSEMENTS: See which candidates have been backed by the Houston Chronicle editorial board

Republicans

United States Representative,District 29: Phillip Aronoff

The seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Gene Green may not look like fertile territory for the four candidates in this Republican primary - the largely Hispanic 29th Congressional District is one of the most Democratic-leaning in Texas. However, the district's low turnout creates an opportunity for an ambitious Republican to hit the pavement, activate non-voters and win in November.

Based on his knowledge and political experience, Phillip Aronoff would be the best choice.

Aronoff, 72, has spent decades involved in local government, including as executive secretary for the Consular Corps of Houston, on Mayor Annise Parker's International Trade and Development Council and as a member of the Harris County Housing Authority. He is fluent in Spanish and has an extensive record within the Republican Party that spans from George W. Bush's gubernatorial campaign through Jack Kemp's run for the presidency. His work in the import business and international relations would make him a prime representative for a district that includes the Port of Houston and circles north from Pasadena through Jacinto City to cover northside neighborhoods.

Aronoff told the editorial board that he is running to help recruit conservative Hispanic voters and prevent Texas from going the way of "Pete Wilson's California" - referencing the anti-immigration governor whose policies have been cited as a key factor behind the decline of the Republican Party on the West Coast.

We were also impressed by Carmen Maria Montiel, 53, who is originally from Venezuela and has worked for Telemundo. She spoke passionately about her desire to save the United States from the political fortunes that befell her home nation, and about her admiration for President Ronald Reagan - especially his decision to grant amnesty to undocumented immigrants.

Also running are Jaimy Z. Blanco, a rental agent and political activist; and Robert Schafranek, who ran for this position in 2016.

Democrats

United States Representative, District 10: Mike Siegel or Tami Walker

Seven candidates are running for this sprawling rural and suburban district that stretches from Austin to (almost) Houston. We recommend that Democratic voters send representatives from those two urban poles to compete in the almost-inevitable runoff: Austin assistant city attorney Mike Siegel and Katy-area attorney Tami Walker.

Siegel, 40, who graduated from Cornell Law School, said his boss once jokingly described Siegel's job as waking up, suing Gov. Greg Abbott and going home. He is involved in Austin's lawsuit against SB4, which abrogates local law enforcement discretion on immigration issues. Siegel has the passion of a professional politician, and we mean that as a compliment. However, his focus on renewable energy might fit well in Austin, but will likely run into a few bumps in Houston's oil and gas enclaves.

Walker, 53, lives in Katy and after graduating from the University of Texas School of Law spent nearly three decades working as an attorney or general counsel in different industries. Her soft-spoken style embodies the moderate position of the suburban, oil patch Democrat.

Siegel, a former teacher, appears better versed on the legislative process; Walker, who earned an accounting degree, possesses an appealing common-sense approach.

We were also impressed by Madeline K. Eden, a Bastrop-based chief technology officer with a passion for everything cyber, including blockchain technology, net neutrality and election security.

The other candidates are Matt Harris, who has valuable insights about how to address the concentration of wealth in this country through tax policy, and Kevin Nelson, who has a doctorate in philosophy and is unemployed. Tawana Walter-Cadien and Richie DeGrow did not meet with the Houston Chronicle editorial board.

It will be an uphill battle for Democrats in this traditionally Republican district which includes all of Austin, Colorado, Fayette, Waller, and Washington counties, and parts of Bastrop, Harris, Lee, and Travis counties. Walker or Siegel offer the best opportunity for a real campaign against Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul.

United States Representative, District 22: Sri Preston Kulkarni

Incumbent Republican Congressman Pete Olson has attracted a total of eight challengers on both sides of the partisan divide to represent this diverse, suburban district that covers part of Harris County, most of Brazoria County and Fort Bend Counties, including Sugar Land. In the five-way Democratic primary, Sri Preston Kulkarni stands out as the most impressive candidate. As a foreign service officer in the U.S. State Department, Kulkarni served in Russia, Jerusalem and Iraq. He also worked as a foreign policy advisor to U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. All that international experience doesn't mean Kulkarni, 39, ever lost his Houston roots. Kulkarni was quick to discuss flooding problems in Cinco Ranch when he met with the Houston Chronicle editorial board. He talks like a real Texan when it comes to energy policy, focusing on the reality of how market forces promote natural gas over coal, and how renewables threaten to do the same for our oil and gas economy. Kulkarni also keeps a focus on the district's diversity - nearly a quarter Asian - and is promoting his campaign in Spanish, Chinese, Hindi and Vietnamese.

That's not to say the other candidates weren't impressive in their own right. Letitia Plummer is a dentist who was inspired to run because of her passion for adoptive parents' rights and has had significant success in fundraising; Steve Brown served two terms as chairman of the Fort Bend County Democratic Party and has run previously for state representative and Texas Railroad Commission; Mark Gibson is a retired Army colonel with 30-years service and was the Democratic nominee for this race in 2016. Margarita Ruiz Johnson did not meet with the editorial board.

United States Representative, District 36: Dayna Steele

Back when she had a talk radio show, Dayna Steele had one rule: Never talk about politics, religion or cats. All that changed with the 2016 election. After taking part in the Women's March, the former KLOL disc jockey decided to run to represent the massive 36th Congressional District, which sprawls from Galveston Bay to the Louisiana border, including the Johnson Space Center. Despite the district's size, Steele, 58, has the natural ability to rattle off the specific challenges facing cities and towns that often go ignored in the deep-red district's traditionally non-competitive races. Those challenges includes the job cuts in the lumber industry, the lack of broadband internet access, and the limited health care services.

"There is a hospital in Orange County, they call it the Band-Aid station, because that's about all you can get there," Steele told the editorial board. She says that's why she supports Medicare for All.

Steele also points out that Congress needs to provide oversight on post-Hurricane Harvey recovery funds to ensure they end up in the poor towns that need help the most.

"It never gets down to the people in Winnie and Rose City and Bridge City and Orange and West Orange," she said.

In this friendly primary, Steele is running against her former mayor, Jon Powell, who has a master's degree from Brown University and spent his career in science consulting and management. He served one term as mayor of Taylor Lake Village in the Clear Lake area and is a compelling candidate as well. If Steele embodies the women's movement that arose after the 2016 election, then Powell is a representative of the science-minded activists frustrated with a disdain for facts, lack of expertise in government and threats of budget cuts to NASA and other federal research outlets.

Powell would make for a fine nominee, especially when he talks about federal investment in infrastructure, but he cannot match Steele's genuine charisma - and that will make her the stronger candidate for Democrats come November.

Whoever wins will have to inspire voters from NASA and throughout Newton, Jasper, Tyler, Polk, Orange, Hardin, Liberty, and Chambers Counties in order to defeat incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Babin.Brazilians honor sea goddess Yemanja

by ERALDO PERES

February 07,2018 | Source: Associated Press

Thousands of Brazilians flooded beaches around the northeastern city of Salvador to pay tribute to the sea goddess Yemanja and ask for her protection ahead of Carnival celebrations.



Even before dawn broke, devotees dressed in white and blue clothing brought offerings to the Praia Rio Vermelha, or Red River Beach, and then later to nearby Itaparica Island. They paraded toward the sea with baskets filled with red, white and yellow roses and other gifts, including ornately dressed dolls, mirrors, perfume and bottles of Champagne. Some carried fishing nets and images of the goddess who is depicted in blue flowing robes.



The baskets were loaded onto boats so fishermen could "deliver" the gifts to Yemanja, a goddess in the Afro-Brazilian Candomble faith. Candomble was developed by Brazil's slave populations, who associated the Yoruba gods of their native West Africa with the Roman Catholic saints they encountered in the New World.



Yemanja is important for all of those who make a living from fishing, said Nivanilson Silva, a Candomble follower.



"She is our mother," he said. "She is the one who governs these waters, which sustain us."



As dusk fell earlier this month, a fireworks display signaled that it was time for the boats to take off  and for the dancing to begin.

 2018 The Associated Press

Theme(s): Communities and Organisations.South Africa activists angry over fishing rights

February 12,2018 | Source: IOL

Activists in the fishing community of South Africa have accused the government of not being serious about transformation after a large fishing company was granted Patagonian Toothfish rights.



Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Senzeni Zokwana announced that he had accepted an appeal by Irvin & Johnson Ltd (I&J) and had decided to give the company the rights.



Irvin & Johnson Ltd is allocated 13.4% of the Patagonian Toothfish total allowable catch. Accordingly, a total of five fishing rights have now been allocated in this fishery and two vessels are authorised to exploit the South African catch allowance, he said.



In 2016 I & J were refused fishing rights by the Deputy Director-General, Fisheries Management and only four companies were given rights. They are valid for 15 years.



Patagonian Toothfish fishery is an extremely capital intensive, high risk offshore fishery that targets toothfish in the waters around Prince Edward Island, said Zokwana.



But Pedro Garcia of the South African United Fishing Front said the department was not acting in accordance with the constitution. It was not promoting food security and job creation for local fisherfolk.



I dont think they are serious about transformation. Our people are entitled to have access to offshore rights so that they too can benefit. Somewhere along the line there has to be a balance between the industrial sector and fishing communities, said Garcia.



He said although local fisherfolk did not have the resources for offshore, they could have benefited by having the rights.



The situation is dire; its deteriorating as people are suffering. People living on the West Coast have no alternative apart from fishing to make an income. Fishing is what they know and that is being taken away from them, he said.



Linda Moss of the ANC Fishing Desk said local fishermen were suffering because they could not afford lawyers and take this issue to court.



We had discussions with the minister that fisherfolk feel excluded. Big companies think the industry belongs to them. Fishing rights belong to the state.



The state should do the right thing and look at those who are packing the fish; consider the livelihood of those in fishing communities, she said.



She called for other departments to assist in upskilling and training fisherfolk so that they too can compete with the big companies.

 2018 Independent Media and affiliated companies

Theme(s): Others.Papua New Guinea's parliament told about fisheries observers who disappear

February 15,2018 | Source: RNZ

Papua New Guinea's government has been asked to investigate the disappearance of nationals aboard foreign fishing vessels in recent years.



Parliament has been told that 18 Papua New Guineans working as fisheries observers in seas around PNG have disappeared in the past five years.



The Post Courier reports that it was the Governor of East Sepik province, Allan Bird, who drew attention to the ongoing problem of disappearing observers.



The latest observer lost was James Numbaru, an employee of PNG's National Fisheries Authority, who went missing in mysterious circumstances in the sea near Nauru last year.



Mr Bird asked what the government is doing about such disappearances, and whether any fishing companies have been held accountable for deaths of observers.



He has called for an immediate investigation into the disappearances, to which the Deputy Prime Minister Charles Abel said the government was open.

 Radio New Zealand 2018

Theme(s): Others.Karan Mehra Says He's Not Seen Son Kavish for More Than 100 Days: 'It's Been Painful Time'Peter Thiel, one of the few high-profile conservative figures in Silicon Valley, is packing his bags to leave.

Thiel reportedly is planning to move his home and investment firms Thiel Capital and Thiel Foundation to Los Angeles, where he will also create a new media outlet focused on conservative topics. A libertarian, he has long been vocal about his distaste for the political climate of the Northern California tech community. During a debate at Stanford University last month, he described Silicon Valley as "a one-party state" and said, "That's when you get in trouble politically in our society, when you're all in one side."

Thiel faced heavy criticism last year after backing Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election and serving on his transition team. Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix and a fellow Facebook board member, called Thiel's support of Trump "catastrophically bad judgment," according to an email obtained by the Journal.

While Thiel plans to keep some of his ventures, including Founders Fund and Mithril Capital, in San Francisco, he's considering leaving the board of Facebook, where he's been a director since 2005, according to the Journal.Rorke Denver is a bear of a man. Not because he's a decorated Navy SEAL. Or that he served tours of duty in some of the most intense and treacherous battle spaces in recent U.S. warfare (Al Anbar province, 2006). Or that he ran all elements of the legendary SEAL training program.

He literally resembles a bear.

Into his mid-forties, Denver is hardly settling into middle age. Barrel chested with arms that otherwise loose fitting flannels can barely contain, he still looks the part.

If the apocalypse occurs, I'm angling hard to be included on Team Denver.

However, don't let the warrior exterior fool you. Beneath it all lies a strategic mind with keen insights into the ethos of leadership. As the author of two books on leadership, he's been one of the few veterans to transition from decorated battlefield leader to corporate consultant and speaker.

He's been known to quote his idol Winston Churchill, who he credits with the spark to join the SEAL Teams and serve his country.

His newest project is called Campfire Sessions, part of his Ever Onward platform that he describes as "a brand designed to use Navy SEAL principles to call leaders to action, to suffer, and to be bold so they can perform at their very highest levels." Campfire Sessions is just what it sounds like: A select few get to hang out around a campfire and listen to a Navy SEAL talk battlefield stories, leadership, bourbon, cigars and America.

I got an invite to the first session. Another several thousand joined on a webcast. As we gathered around the fire in the chilly Colorado foothills, Denver opened with a gripping story from his time leading troops in Iraq. A team of SEALS, a unit of Iraqi troops, an ambush and a gun fight. We were all on the edge of our camp chairs.

The evening had a mix of stories and off-the-cuff Q&A. You didn't have to try too hard to buy in to his message of character, leadership, bravery and service. There were 100 lessons. Some stories and their lessons you'd label unbelievable save for the storyteller.

Here are three that really stood out:

1. Trust your junior leaders.

Denver's unit was on patrol in the outskirts of Habbiniyah when his point man called him to the front. "I don't like this. Something's not right," he said.

Denver had spent countless hours in training with his team. He'd been on daily patrols and missions. He'd developed a level of trust over time, blood, sweat, and tears. He immediately halted the patrol and deployed to cover. As it turned out, there was an ambush planned.

Developing trust with your junior leaders on the battlefield multiplies the eyes and ears on scene. And, allows senior leaders to accomplish more by seizing opportunities and, in this case, avoiding disaster.

2. Use training as inoculation.

The rigor in training among SEAL Teams is legendary. From Hell Week to the ongoing evolutions and workups, a SEALS' training program is never finished and always tough. Perhaps the toughest. It's been described as brutal. This, according to Denver, is very intentional.

The program is designed to "inoculate" SEALS for the super human demands of their missions. It goes beyond the physical hardships of training. Training should create thinkers.

"We'll send SEALS on a training mission and almost from the start throw monkey wrenches at them to see how they handle it," Denver says. And the idea that you can step up at game time? False, he says. "You'll most likely fall back to your level of training."

3. Earn it every day.

Embedded within the Navy SEAL ethos is this powerful line: "By wearing the Trident I accept the responsibility of my chosen profession and my way of life. It is a privilege I must earn everyday."

This syncs with this more famous SEAL line: "The only easy day was yesterday."

You get the sense from Rorke Denver, even with all he has accomplished, that he views himself as unfinished. He has not declared victory on his journey. This perhaps personifies his code more than any idea. There's always a new mission.

As leaders, we should be bound to this idea of being unfinished, the product of which is the quality that all great leaders possess: Humility.

If you get the chance to hang by a campfire with a decorated Navy SEAL, you probably should. You might find three lessons or one hundred.

In the quest to earn it every day, one lesson just might be enough.Poachers have killed more than four elephants a day since 2011 in a Mozambique nature reserve, cutting the population from 12,000 to as few as 1,500, according to a conservation group.

Fauna and Flora International (FFI) said it feared surviving elephants in the Niassa National Reserve may be wiped out if heavily-armed poaching gangs are not shut down.

In the last two months, the group said, up to five per cent of the reserves remaining elephants had been killed for their ivory.

Its chief executive, Mark Rose, said: The value of Niassa as one of the continents last great wildernesses should endure beyond a short-term scramble for ivory and other illicit goods, such as minerals.

Its long-term economic, social and cultural significance cannot be overstated.

The Mozambican government must take immediate action to curb this poaching crisis before it is too late.

Niassa had been home to 70 per cent of Mozambiques elephants, FFI said. The reserve covers more than 16,000 sq mi.

Matt Rice, a conservationist who runs the Chuilexi tourism concession inside Niassi, told The Independent he believed the areas poaching crisis had begun in 2009 and only escalated since then.

Poachers carrying large-calibre hunting rifles and illegal AK-47 assault rifles outgunned the teams trying to disrupt their activities, he said.

We ... can only get access to pump-action shotguns [which are only effective at short range]. We struggle to get licences for shotguns, so many of our scouts are unarmed.

Chuilexi employs some 60 scouts in its conservation effort, which is required by its contract and was a key reason he signed it, Mr Rice said. He added that he believed Mozambique had been identified as a softer target, a country where the law enforcement regime is less robust than elsewhere on the continent.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. 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In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. 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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. 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Mr Rice said: The consensus is that its largely being driven by Chinese syndicates. This goes hand-in-hand over the last decade with a substantial increase in Chinese investment and Chinese nationals that are living and working in these African countries.

Its fantastic that China are making the moves that they are [against the ivory trade]. However, theres still a burgeoning illegal trade.

The syndicates are also involved in trading the scales of highly endangered pangolins, he said.

At the end of January Hong Kong politicians voted to outlaw the sale of ivory in the region by 2021. Hong Kong is thought to be the worlds biggest retail ivory market.

Mainland China, the biggest source of global ivory demand, banned sales at the start of the year after shutting all carving factories and shops last March.

The World Wildlife Fund called for governments in other Asian countries such as Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Japan to institute similar bans, saying there was evidence those markets were increasingly catering to Chinese visitors.

China and the UK unveiled a joint effort against illegal wildlife trading during Theresa Mays recent visit and pledged to share expertise in tackling the trade with southern African nations.

Wildlife campaigners believe 30,000 African elephants are killed by poachers every year.

In neighbouring Zimbabwe earlier this month, four elephants died of cyanide poisoning after poachers contaminated their water sources.

Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority spokesman Tinashe Farawo said poachers were increasingly turning to poison instead of using noisy rifles as police and park rangers increased joint patrols.

Mr Farawo added that poachers were also injecting cyanide into oranges and pumpkins, which are favourite foods of elephants.

Additional reporting by agenciesA woman has been found dead in a house in south Dublin.

Gardai said the body was discovered at a property on Ranelagh Road in Dublin 6 at 3.45pm on Thursday.

The scene has been sealed off to allow for a technical examination and the State pathologist has been notified.

An appeal has been issued for anyone with information to contact gardai at Donnybrook station or call the confidential line on 1800-666-111.Sinn Fein is expected to outline the partys next move after powersharing talks in Northern Ireland broke down.

Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster has urged the UK Government to set a budget and make policy decisions in the absence of a devolved executive at Stormont.

The talks collapsed after the parties failed to clinch agreement on touchstone issues such as treatment of the Irish language.

Sinn Feins Northern Ireland chief Michelle ONeill said the party had stretched itself and blamed the DUP for collapsing a process aimed at rebuilding coalition government at Stormont after a 13-month suspension.

The republican party wants a standalone piece of legislation to protect speakers  an Irish Language Act  but the DUP has long insisted it would only countenance new laws if they also incorporate other cultures, such as Ulster Scots.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mrs ONeill said: These issues are not going to go away.

Myself and Mary Lou McDonald are engaged with both governments and will continue to do that and over the course of tomorrow we will set out a more fulsome response in relation to where we go from here.

Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley said substantive progress had been made but conceded this phase of talks has reached a conclusion.

Mrs Foster said attempts to find a stable and sustainable resolution had been unsuccessful.

She said: We cannot and will not be held to ransom by those who have refused to form an Executive for over 13 months.

She added there was no current prospect of these discussions leading to a ministerial Executive being formed.

It is now incumbent upon Her Majestys Government to set a budget and start making policy decisions about our schools, hospitals and infrastructure.

Important decisions impacting on everyone in Northern Ireland have been sitting in limbo for too long.

"In our view, there is no current prospect of these discussions leading to an Executive being formed"https://t.co/fByW2WnHTg pic.twitter.com/M9uuZL6tYz  Arlene Foster #WeWillMeetAgain (@ArleneFosterUK) February 14, 2018

Months of endless talks have been held since powersharing collapsed early last year in a row over the DUPs handling of a botched green energy scheme.

Since then divisions over issues including Irish language rights, same sex marriage and how to deal with the legacy of Northern Irelands troubled past have proved insurmountable.

Mrs ONeill said: Sinn Fein engaged, we worked in good faith, we stretched ourselves.

We had reached an accommodation with the leadership of the DUP.

The DUP failed to close the deal.

They have now collapsed this process.

.@moneillsf - aWe had an accommodation - DUP failed to close that deala. Said agreement included stand alone Irish Language Act. pic.twitter.com/ysY2TGE6YW  David Young (@DavidYoungPA) February 14, 2018

The implosion came despite Mondays last minute intervention by Prime Minister Theresa May and Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who travelled to Stormont for talks with the parties.

The British Government faces the prospect of having to step in and take previously devolved decisions in Northern Ireland.

Stormont departments have been without ministers for months and decisions need to be made speedily about the next financial years public spending budgets.

Proposals for dealing with Northern Irelands violent past involving extra money for historic investigations and truth-telling processes have also been delayed by the impasse and may fall to Westminster to implement.

Ms Bradley said substantive progress had been made but conceded this phase of talks has reached a conclusion.

SoS Karen Bradley - aI believe basis for accommodation still existsa. Statement without fielding media questions. pic.twitter.com/LbpKnFlcMg  David Young (@DavidYoungPA) February 14, 2018

The Irish Government, co-guarantor of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement which largely ended violence, has said there can be no return to the direct rule of the period before that landmark accord.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said in a statement: I very much regret the statement from the DUP. Power sharing and working together are the only way forward for Northern Ireland.A woman has been found dead in a wardrobe in south Dublin.

The woman, aged in her 30s, was discovered by gardai at a house on Ranelagh Road, Dublin 6 at 3.45pm on Thursday.

It is understood officers were following up on a missing persons case.

The scene was sealed off to allow for a technical examination and the State pathologist was notified.

Independent Dublin city councillor Ruairi McGinley said it was a horrible end to a persons life and his thoughts were with the family of the young woman.

The situation is beyond imagination, Mr McGinley said.

Its your worst nightmare.

An appeal has been issued for anyone with information to contact gardai at Donnybrook station or call the confidential line on 1800-666-111.Google's acquisition of the entire Boland's Quay scheme in Dublin's docklands has moved a step closer to completion.

The Irish Independent understands heads of terms for the deal have been agreed between the US tech giant and Nama-appointed receiver Savills Ireland, which is currently presiding over the development of the 170m project by BAM Ireland.

While both Google and Savills declined to comment on the matter, the expected completion of the sale will represent the company's most significant investment in the Dublin property market to date.

Upon completion, Boland's Quay will include three new landmark buildings, with the tallest rising to 53 metres (173 ft). There will also be a 15-storey apartment block rising to 47.8 metres (157 ft) and a 13-storey office block of 49 metres (161 ft).

Capable of accommodating 2,500 workers, the scheme will comprise some 36,851 sq m of office, residential, retail and cultural space. This will be made up of 25,455 sq m (274,000 sq ft) of office space, 41 waterfront apartments, and retail and commercial space of 1,394 sq m (15,000sq ft). The project will also include a new pedestrian bridge, two new civic plazas with water frontage to Grand Canal Dock and a cultural/community space of 549 sq m (5,910 sq ft).

Separately, the Irish Independent understands that Google remains in negotiations with the owners of the Treasury Building on Dublin's Grand Canal Street, with a view to acquiring the property for a figure in excess of 120m. It is understood the parties first held talks in relation to the sale of the building in February of last year.

Both the Boland's Quay and Treasury Building transactions are in keeping with Google's preference for owning its own premises. In 2011, the company bought its European headquarters on Barrow Street and the nearby Montevetro building for 100m and 99m respectively.

The US web giant hasn't confined its search for office accommodation to properties it might buy, however. Indeed, only this week, it emerged that the company has reached an agreement to lease new offices from US real estate investment firm Kennedy Wilson at the Chase Building in Sandyford in south county Dublin. Google will occupy the remaining 52,900 sq ft of vacant space at the property.

The agreement of the deal represents Google's second foray within six months into the Sandyford Business District (SBD). Last August, the company reached an agreement with Irish Life to lease four floors at the nearby Blackthorn Building.

Last week, Google formally opened its latest offices in the Dublin docklands area, inviting Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to cut the ribbon on the newly-constructed Velasco Building on Grand Canal Street.

The 51,000 sq ft property, which is within walking distance of Google's Barrow Street headquarters, will be home to an Advanced Solutions Lab where Google Cloud's enterprise customers can co-create and develop customised solutions for their business on-site in conjunction with Google Cloud experts.Troubled Chinese conglomerate HNA is unlikely to recoup the 413m it paid for the two London buildings in Canary Wharf

Troubled Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co has held initial talks with investors about selling a pair of office buildings in London's Canary Wharf district, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Private-equity firms including Brookfield Asset Management Inc are considering making bids after HNA asked suitors to submit letters of intent before it would allow access to view the buildings, the people said, asking not to be identified because the process is private.

Toronto-based Brookfield, which is one of the owners of the buildings' original developer, Canary Wharf Group Plc, is weighing an offer that could also include other properties from HNA's global portfolio, the people said. Spokesmen for Brookfield and HNA declined to comment.

HNA, the aviation-to-hotels conglomerate, plans to sell about 100 billion yuan (13bn) of assets in the first half of this year as it attempts to stave off a liquidity crunch, people with knowledge of the matter said last month.

The company, which started as a regional Chinese airline before buying stakes in everything from Deutsche Bank AG to Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc, is also looking to offload assets to conform with a campaign by its government to stem capital outflows.

No single adviser has been mandated to conduct a formal global sales process, and HNA is engaged in piecemeal discussions with bidders interested in multiple buildings around the world, the people with knowledge of the talks said. A deal has yet to be agreed upon for the Canary Wharf properties at 30 South Colonnade and 17 Columbus Courtyard, and there's no certainty a transaction will take place, they said.

HNA is unlikely to recoup the Stg366m (413m) it paid for the two buildings because the tenants of both properties intend to leave and prices have fallen in the district since the Brexit vote, the people said. One potential hurdle to a deal is that Canary Wharf Group, owned by Brookfield and the state of Qatar, retains some redevelopment rights over 30 South Colonnade, which will soon be vacated by Thomson Reuters Corp, according to the people.

HNA has amassed about $14.5bn of property over the past decade, estimates by Real Capital Analytics show.

The conglomerate is also in the process of selling $4bn of US properties.Blackstone could take advantage of Anbangs distress to secure ownership of the Waldorf Astoria for a second time

Blackstone Group LP, which scored big four years ago when a company it owned sold New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel for a record-setting price to a little-known Chinese insurer, may soon get a chance to own the iconic landmark again.

The US private equity firm has held initial discussions about bidding for Anbang Insurance Group Co assets in a sale overseen by the Chinese government, people with knowledge of the matter said. The assets include the Waldorf as well as Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc, which Blackstone sold to Anbang in 2016, said the people.

Blackstone's deliberations are at an early stage and the firm could refrain from bidding for any assets, one person said.

Anbang is among a crop of Chinese serial acquirers that spent tens of billions of dollars snapping up trophy assets over the past few years, only to lurch into turmoil once their strategies backfired. Blackstone was one of the biggest beneficiaries of Anbang's largesse, selling at least a combined $9.5bn of assets to the insurer, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

China's government has cracked down on its most prolific dealmakers, bringing their overseas acquisitions to a screeching halt. Anbang's chairman Wu Xiaohui was detained by authorities in June and a working team that included China's insurance regulator was subsequently dispatched to Anbang to oversee the company's operations and ensure its stability, people familiar with the matter said in January.

In addition, the government is seeking to broker the sale of a stake in the insurer.

Last year, China asked the insurer to sell its overseas assets, people with knowledge of the matter said, an account that Anbang and regulators disputed at the time. An Anbang representative reiterated on Monday that the company doesn't have plans to sell its overseas assets.

Charlotte Bilney, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Blackstone, declined to comment.

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission didn't immediately return a request seeking comment.

Record deal

Anbang acquired the Waldorf for $1.95bn from Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc, the highest price for a single existing US hotel, translating into a huge windfall for Blackstone - then the majority owner of Hilton.

The hotel company was approached by Anbang and two other potential buyers before the property was officially up for sale, a person with knowledge of the process said at the time. Blackstone executive Tyler Henritze worked on the transaction, Bloomberg News reported in 2015.

Less than two years later, Blackstone sold its stake in Hilton to HNA Group Co, another Chinese mega-acquirer which is now trying to offload assets to alleviate financial pressures.

In 2016, Blackstone agreed to sell Strategic Hotels to Anbang for about $6.5bn, about $450m more than what it paid for the US luxury-resort company just a few months earlier.

Blackstone can point to other China connections too: China's sovereign wealth fund invested in the private equity firm's 2007 initial public offering, and last year purchased Blackstone's European logistics property business Logicor for $13.8bn.

Anbang also acquired the office portion of 717 Fifth Avenue in New York from Blackstone in 2015, months after its Waldorf purchase. That building, located at the corner of 56th Street in Midtown's Plaza district, serves as Anbang's US headquarters.

Blackstone's winning formula in Europe

Even as many property investors were shunning Portugal during its bailout years, the Blackstone Group LP was buying.

The New York-based private equity firm began shopping for malls in 2013 and that bet is now paying off: it agreed last month to sell three shopping centres around Lisbon to Groupe Auchan SA. It's currently completing the sale of a fourth mall to Spain's Merlin Properties Socimi SA for as much as 450m, about twice the amount it paid, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

"Some funds that bought shopping centres during the crisis at a discount are now selling these assets to other foreign funds as the economy recovers," said Pedro Coelho, chief executive officer of Lisbon-based Square Asset Management, which has about 1bn in real estate investments.

"It was a calculated risk, but it was still a risk. Now it's a more core investment with less risk and less return."

After Portugal sought a bailout in 2011, several mall operators struggled with sales amid a recession and an unemployment rate that peaked at 17.5pc in 2013.

It was then that Blackstone began acquiring the first of four malls on the outskirts of Lisbon. A few years later, when the economy started to show signs of a solid recovery, other funds followed suit.

Portugal's economy expanded an estimated 2.6pc in 2017, the fastest growth since 2000. Unemployment dropped to 7.8pc in December, the lowest since 2004, according to Eurostat.

The year has barely begun and deals or possible transactions involving malls have already surpassed 1bn, more than the total invested in 2017, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Broker Jones Lang LaSalle forecasts investment in commercial real estate in Portugal will reach a record 2.5bn this year, up from 1.9bn in 2017.

In January, Paris-based AXA Investment Managers-Real Assets acquired the Dolce Vita Tejo mall for 230m from Baupost and the Eurofund Group. They'd paid 170m for the property two years earlier.

With additional reporting by Henrique AlmeidaThe industrial market is a sector that I worked in for many years, and it is no surprise to see a well-worn pattern repeating itself again; industrial property is usually the last to suffer in a downturn, but is also the slowest to respond in a recovery. And agents have had a tough decade, as values collapsed and construction ground to a halt. Now, however, the market has finally turned and developers are back building speculatively. But what are the factors influencing this upturn, and can it last?

Take-up and rents have been slowly improving over the last five years, and now, for the first time in over a decade, there is a small wave of speculative construction, with over 50,000 sq m of new space likely to be completed around Dublin this year. And there is an interesting mixture of familiar developers and investors and some significant new players coming through.

The new developers include companies like The Exeter Property Group, a real estate investment management company from Philadelphia, USA who are building a 10,000 sq m building at Greenogue, Rathcoole, Co Dublin. Nearby, UK developer MountPark is building a 12,000 sq m facility at Baldonnel Business Park.

Another of the new developers is Green Reit, who are to build approximately 7,500 sq m at Horizon Business Park, on the southern boundary of Dublin airport.

Stalwarts of the market, Rohan Holdings, are busy at the Dublin Airport Logistics Park, where they have just let a 4,000 sq m property. The company is now in the process of finishing a 3,000 sq m building and has just started a 5,000 sq m facility - all developed speculatively. The quoting rent for the latter building is 95 per square metre. Rohan Holdings is also starting two 2,000 sq m properties at the North City Business Park on the N2/M50 junction.

Other developers with industrially-zoned land, such as Harcourt Holdings and Park Developments, have been applying for planning permission for new schemes to meet the improving demand. Most of the new supply will be larger buildings as small unit schemes still appear to be unviable.

Industrial specialist, Gavin Butler, a director at Savills, told me that another new dynamic is a very strong crop of 'design-and-build' enquiries, for buildings of over 10,000 sq m, a factor which also hasn't been seen for over 10 years.

Design-and-build enquiries are where an occupier engages a developer to both design and construct their building - often because it is somewhat specialised and is unlikely to be found on a speculative scheme. Butler expects "a handful" of these deals to be done this year.

The phrase 'industrial market' is really a misnomer by now, as the majority of demand is for 'logistics' facilities, and there is very little 'industry' or manufacturing as originally described by the term. Logistics buildings can be operated by owner-occupiers but are usually operated by specialist companies, to whom warehousing and distribution has been outsourced.

Most of the enquiries for new space are to lease, with the majority of sales taking place in the second-hand market. While office and retail investments became expensive, prime industrial yields almost halved to 5pc, and anyone brave enough to back that cycle in the depths of the recession, has been richly rewarded.

Another factor, Butler told me, is that there are several international institutional investors looking for deals here in excess of 30m but that buildings of that scale (excess of 20,000 sq m) are very rare.

The boom in the construction of Data Centres kept several contractors alive during the downturn, and that phenomenon looks set to continue.

Another old favourite of developers was breaking up large plants into smaller units and it looks as if the former Hewlett Packard facility at Leixlip, Co Kildare, may be heading that way.

The property comprises over 100,000 sq m on 79 hectares and selling agent, CBRE director Willie Norse, told me that he is in discussions with a preferred bidder, described as an asset manager, investor and developer. The price is between 40m and 50m.

Agents report a healthy crop of new enquiries through IDA Ireland and Gavin Butler says there is a new wave of interest from UK manufacturers exporting to Europe and looking to establish satellite operations here, post-Brexit.

True to form, just as other sectors of the market appear to have peaked, the industrial market is gathering momentum.

With CBRE predicting double-digit rental growth this year, it looks like there is plenty to play for in the industrial sector.Ken Murnaghan is not afraid of change. The head of commercial lending at Finance Ireland, the rapidly-expanding non-bank lender, found himself in a storm when the crash hit.

After jumping ship from a plum posting in Paris, where he led AIB Capital Markets' real estate finance arm, he accepted a role at Ulster Bank in 2007 - as head of commercial property lending.

To some it must have looked like a staggeringly unlucky career move. Rather than overseeing an expansion, as he had hoped, his job became one of acute crisis management.

Yet Murnaghan, tall, softly-spoken and meticulously polite, says he's always relished the shock of the new.

"I had no experience of managing a mass market business and certainly none in downsizing. I do now," he says with characteristic understatement.

Ulster's commercial property loan book totalled close to 15bn when Murnaghan took the reins. By the time he left five years later it had shrunk by over 75pc.

After that stint staunching the bloodletting in commercial real estate, Murnaghan was parachuted into the next red zone - business banking. In 2012 the financial tsunami that had engulfed the banks was ripping through small to medium enterprises.

Ulster Bank threatened to buckle under the strain.

Murnaghan settled down to another stretch of intense restructuring. This time he had ventured in with his eyes wide open. "At that stage it was clear the wider SME sector had been impacted. It also looked like there was going to be an impairment problem in the wider bank and we were probably going to have to very significantly restructure and downsize business banking."

Two years later, the man who had grappled with some of the biggest challenges facing Ulster, and as head of its business banking unit, seemed poised for another leap up the institutional ladder, veered off course and charged headlong into the unknown.

He claims he pursed the opportunity because it offered him the chance "to start a business from scratch".

True to form, Murnaghan downplays the work required in conjuring a business out of air. He does point out that the new division in Finance Ireland did not have the advantage of an existing balance sheet. "As well as building up the team, the franchise and the customers and all that, we also had to build up the capital and funding".

In that context, "every loan counts".

The painstaking growth has paid off. Murnaghan's business, launched in 2017, now controls a 150m-plus loan book and is racing towards the 200m mark. In three years he expects that figure to expand to 500m and is targeting 1bn in five years.

The upswing in momentum however is likely to hinge on a successful maiden securitisation or bond issuance. Murnaghan cut his banking teeth at AIB's leveraged finance unit, a riskier form of finance, typically relied upon by private equity firms to back a takeover deal. Shepherded by Robert Gallagher, head of AIB's corporate markets division and now the chief executive of Activate, a private equity and State-backed lender, Murnaghan turned his hand to securitisation and collateralised loan obligations, an esoteric corner of the market but similar to other securitisation vehicles in that it issues multiple tranches of debt.

In 2015, Dublin-based lender Dilosk forced open a window in the mortgage-backed securitisation market with a 206m bond deal secured against a book of former ICS mortgages.

Murnaghan wants to launch something similar, which would mark a major milestone, and, he says, enable the firm to raise funds at lower rates.

It's all a far cry from the relentless slicing and dicing at Ulster. While Murnaghan is keen to present that experience as a valuable lesson, he conceded "it is wearisome making things smaller and of course it is emotionally draining".

After seven years of restructuring, the entrepreneurial chutzpah of Billy Kane's new venture must have seemed a breath of fresh air.

The two hit it off in 2014 over a cup of coffee. Murnaghan maintains the meeting was intended as a routine "social catch-up". "As head of business banking my job was to talk to people all the time". Kane was scouting for opportunities. He was convinced the retreat of the banks presented an opportunity for more nimble players.

By that stage global distressed debt investors were already piling into the soured loan market, carting off vast portfolios of toxic debts. Kane thought the feeding frenzy offered opportunities further down the food chain.

Murnaghan, whose cautious, often quaint phrases belie a more adventurous spirit, seized upon the idea. "I said well, gosh, that is interesting. If I was looking at that, I would look at it this way and this way, and literally thought no more about it until he called a day or two later."

The next challenge was finding a backer. Murnaghan claims he pitched the idea at "least 50 times" to numerous private equity and institutional funds in London. But even Kane's strong reputation failed to soothe anxieties.

"Our story was credible." But asking for a pile of money that could be "lent out to Irish people to buy property, well that was a hard sell in 2014 London. We had a lot of our doors closed in our faces".

Murnaghan argues the negotiations may have taken longer too because "we wanted to raise the money but lend it out ourselves. A lot of hedge funds and private equity firms were of the view they should have a veto right on lending decisions. In other words you are acting a little like a broker or a middle man".

Eventually they hooked a whale. US-based funds giant, Pimco, signed up in 2015, committing 25m of equity; cash that was matched by a further 30m from the national sovereign wealth fund, ISIF.

The following year, and with wholesale funder HSBC on board, although Murnaghan, with typical reticence refuses to confirm the bank's involvement, Finance Ireland, set out its stall as a niche commercial property lender. The new division - aimed at small-time investors requiring 1m to 10m in debt financing - formed a vital third strand to the organisation's existing motor-finance unit and debt-servicing arm.

More importantly, the firm, established in the 1990s by Kane and then resuscitated by the prominent entrepreneur in the post-crash years, remains on course to eventually grow to challenger bank status.

Kane has spoken of this ambition in the past. Murnaghan reiterated an initial public offering of takeover remain the "likely exit routes" for investors.

But the whiff of animal spirits extends across the board. All the directors, including Murnaghan hold equity stakes. So too do the senior lending managers. "We're all invested in how to make this bigger and better for all of us."

So far the business has issued over 80 loans at an average size of 1.75m. Murnaghan calls it "granular", meaning, he explains in measured tones that even at this soft pitch seem to echo through in the firm's elegant boardroom.

"We all had to roll up our sleeves and remind ourselves of how to lend".

Finance Ireland is housed in a prominent period house, opposite the former Burlington Hotel. It was snapped up by Kane in 2014, for 4.65m, who buttressed the deal with a 3m loan from AIB. Ironically, the partially nationalised bank sold the 10,000sq ft to an investment firm in 2013 for 4.75m. It forked out 3m to break its lease.

Each successful mortgage deal is celebrated by the team. Murnaghan points out the financial evisceration triggered by the crash was not limited to the banks. Borrowers also took a hammering. The experience taught them "how to manage a lender". In this 'new environment' businessmen eager to escape the clutches of a distressed debt or private equity fund have become particularly skilled in navigating a financial tightrope. "They know how to manage their loan relationship sufficiently well so they are still in control of their assets, and I suppose not so sufficiently well that they have encouraged their lender to foreclose against them," says Murnaghan.

So it has been an "education" for us. "We have had to figure out how to lend safely" in this market.

Murnaghan, clean-shaven, clad in a sharp suit, and exuding the rectitude the public, long ago, once associated with the banking profession, swiftly shuts down the conversation when asked about the anticipated loan default rate on the book. Instead he bemoans the industry's patchy data on this front, pointing out this paucity of meaningful information remains a key obstacle for international investors.

But at the end of this year Murnaghan, who once chucked in a Green Card for the US after becoming enthralled by the fast-paced life in Hong Kong where he wound up working as a tax consultant for EY, will have spent the guts of four years at Finance Ireland.

The question is will this small, rapidly maturing business manage to confine the restless ambition of a banker that by his own admission has thrilled at the opportunity to pursue sharply diverting paths.Dublin accounted for 28pc of the republics population at the last census in 2016. That was identical to the 1966 census.

In an age of so much readily available information, it is astounding so many people believe things that are completely untrue.

It is even more astounding that myths are allowed to persist for so long without being punctured by available facts and evidence.

In this country, a widely held view is that rural Ireland is dying as its inhabitants leave the countryside in droves. This is bunkum.

Cold, hard, incontrovertible facts show the rural population has been on the up for almost half a century. People who say otherwise  and they will be queueing up to do so in the coming days  should not be allowed to get away with it.

Lets start with what we actually know about rural population and why rural depopulation is a myth.

Every five years, tens of millions of euros of taxpayers money is spent carrying out a countrywide census. As readers will know, a form is delivered to every home in the State. We are all obliged to fill it out. As anyone who doesnt can be prosecuted, nearly everyone complies.

As such, the census gives us massive amounts of important and very accurate data on many aspects of life and society. The information gleaned is the basis for decisions taken by individuals, businesses, organisations and government.

Census figures are foundational for the infrastructure and spatial plans to be unveiled tomorrow, because where the State invests 115bn of taxpayers money in the years ahead will be based to a very large extent on where people live.

What we know from the census is that the number of people living in rural areas, defined as a place outside a conurbation of at least 1,500 people, has increased by more than a quarter of a million over the past 20 years.

That is worth repeating: 1.75 million people live in rural areas, up from 1.5 million in just 20 years. In 1971, rural Irelands nadir, the population living in the countryside, villages and small towns was 1.4 million (see graphic).

From available European data, no other country across the continent has experienced the rates of rural population growth Ireland has registered in recent years. Many countries have recorded rural depopulation.

Perhaps the reason the tale of woe is so readily believed is because of what happened before the 1970s.

All the way back to the Famine, rural Irelands population had been shrinking. Such a long period  130 years  probably burned its way into the collective consciousness, making us a nation of pessimists when it comes to rural Ireland and its prospects.

If that is the case, we need to move on. Rural population decline stopped in the early 1970s. Apart from a period before the Celtic Tiger era when it dipped a little, the country population has been growing for almost half a century.

Whats more, the revival of country living is happening nationwide. Every single county in the republic has seen its number of rural dwellers rise over the past two decades.

It is also the case that urban populations in every county grew more rapidly, so none of this is to deny Ireland is gradually becoming more urban.

As of the last census, more than 37pc of people lived in rural areas. But that still means Ireland remains one of the most rural countries in western Europe.

The corollary of that is we are among the least urbanised. That brings us to another part of the demographic myth that is also worth puncturing.

Dublin is not becoming ever more dominant. Nor is it the case that everyone is moving eastwards and piling into the counties around the capital while those elsewhere are denuded of inhabitants.

Dublin accounted for 28pc of the republics population at the last census in 2016. That was identical to the 1966 census.

Over the past 50 years, the capitals relative demographic has been remarkably stable, always hovering just below 30pc.

Now consider Leinster as a whole. While it is true the counties around Dublin have grown more than others, the difference has not been transformative.

The census of 1971 showed the countrys most populous province accounted for half of the total population for the time.

Over four decades it has inched up, reaching 55pc in 2016. If the country is lopsidedly populated on its eastern flank, that has been the case for many decades.

Trying to run a country without the sort of information provided in the census (and other figures) would be akin to driving a car with both the dashboard and the windscreen blacked out.

Despite this, some people, especially some rural politicians, seem hell-bent on ignoring the hard facts in favour of fictional assertions worthy of the current inhabitant of the White House.

Rural Ireland is not dying. The falsehood that it is must be challenged. If there is criticism of the long-term development plans to be unveiled tomorrow, let it not be based on false claims about the state of rural Ireland.European quotes for butter are holding strong and remain at a historically high level in the mid 4,000 per tonne range.

Following the publication of the January 2018 Ornua PPI and the series of January milk price announcements, the Chairperson of ICMSAs Dairy Committee said that the stability of the index at 111.3 shows the improved resilience in dairy markets and demonstrates again ICMSAs belief that milk price can and must be held current levels.

Ger Quain said that all three GDT Auctions in 2018 have been positive while Dutch dairy quotations firmed notably in recent weeks:

The 5.9pc increase in the most recent GDT auction was achieved by increases in all products sold with butter, SMP and WMP achieving over 7pc gains.

He also said European quotes for butter are holding strong and remain at a historically high level in the mid 4,000 per tonne range.

"Dutch quotations for the butter/SMP mix have rallied in the last four weeks while WMP price has increased by over 2cpl since the start of the year and has regained some of the ground lost in the run-up Christmas.

"Demand for dairy products is positive across Europe and globally and we still see the traditional link between strengthening oil prices and demand for dairy.

"Processors and Co-ops can - and must - hold milk price into Q2 and towards our peak production, said Mr. Quain.

Meanwhile, the boss of LacPatrick Dairies remains optimistic on the prospects for milk prices this year, saying he doesnt expect a repeat of the collapse in prices seen two years ago.

Gabriel DArcy, who oversees the cross-border milk pool, said there were encouraging signs on the market side with the global economy.

The recovery in oil prices is a big factor as well, it will take a little while to feed through. In the past theres been a correlation between oil prices and dairy prices, he said.

There might be a little bit of imbalance at the start of the year that might moderate prices, but I suspect as the year progresses that will iron out. Id be optimistic.

LacPatrick currently handles more than 600 million litres of milk with more than 500 suppliers in the North and the remainder of its 1,000-plus farmers in the Republic, around the border region.

He said last year was good in terms of milk prices. On average, farmers came away with 27 or 28 pence per litre, early 30 cents per litre. Certainly if you were to look at where product returns are today, youd be lucky to get 25 pence per litre.

Do I think we are heading into a collapse like what happened two years ago? No.

He said over the past few months there has been too much milk produced, which far exceeded what was expected. Mr DArcy pointed out this has had a moderating effect on the main commodity, butter and cheese.

Pricing is going to be difficult. The overall milk output across the main milk producing regions has recovered very strongly, much more strongly than most commentators would have expected.

Globally, the milk output is probably increasing year on year about 1.5pc. In Europe, its higher and looking like the first half of the year could be exceptionally strong, particularly in Germany and France and Britain.

There were strong price increases of almost 6pc reported in the last Global Dairy Trade auction. EU dairy prices remain stable, with butter prices slightly up and SMP at 140 /100 kg for the fourth week.Farmers and less affluent regions face swingeing cuts in EU subsidies post-Brexit unless the bloc can raise fresh cash.

With Brexit set to blow a 14bn annual hole in the EU budget, the European Commission is pressing governments to stump up more or allow the bloc to raise new taxes, including on corporate profits.

Farm bodies reacted with concern to a commission document that outlined a number of options for the new seven-year budget post-2020.

It includes cutting by up to 30pc the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funding which provides vital payments to farmers.

Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said he did not want "broad cuts" in farm and regional (or "cohesion") spending - which together make up 70pc of the bloc's budget.

"I think we do have to operate cuts in the field of Common Agricultural Policy and in the field of cohesion if we want to meet all the new priorities we have to meet, but I'm not in favour of broad cuts," said Mr Juncker.

Ireland gets around 2bn a year in farm subsidies and less than 500m a year in cohesion funding, most of which goes to the Border, Midlands and West.

In an options paper, the commission suggested ending regional subsidies to well-off countries, including Ireland, trimming an estimated 95-124bn off the budget.

And in a worst-case scenario, the commission warned agriculture could face a 30pc spending cut, which would lead to a 10pc drop in average farm incomes. It stated CAP mobilises 400bn with 80pc of direct payments going to 20pc of farmers.

It pointed out maintaining the same expenditure would account for 37pc of the EU budget. A 15pc cut would save 60bn - with a noticeable impact in certain sectors.

EU agriculture commissioner Phil Hogan defended CAP, warning his colleagues that an attack on farm spending would be strongly resisted.

And Irish Farmers' Association president Joe Healy said Ireland cannot agree to the cutbacks "as they would shut down agriculture and rural Ireland". The ICMSA also described the cuts as a "disaster".

The commission's ideas paper is intended to prod national governments into boosting their budget contributions, with EU sources saying the worst-case scenario will not materialise.

"I don't think anybody seriously thinks they are going to cut the agriculture budget by 30pc, but there will be cuts and everybody knows it," said a senior EU official.

Contribution

EU sources say the bloc's new seven-year budget should ideally measure 1.2pc of total GDP, which could mean an increase of up to 200bn over the 2020-27 period.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said Ireland is "open to contributing more" to the EU as long as cohesion and agricultural spending are ringfenced, and money is set aside for priorities such as research, education and European Investment Bank loans.

EU leaders will meet on February 23 to discuss the CAP ahead of a budgetary proposal in May.A study by Teagasc found 90pc of farmers in the north-west are facing serious fodder shortages. Stock Image

The fodder crisis is now turning into an animal welfare crisis. That's according to Silgo Councillor Jerry Lundy who said farmers were telling him their animals were losing weight.

He told the Silgo Champion that less than half the farmers have the fodder they need.

"This is not sustainable," he said, asking the Council to urge the Minister for Agriculture to provide financial supports to help farmers buy feed for livestock.

"The Government is turning its back on the rural areas. It's time for a Minister for Agriculture from the West," he told members.

Prices for fodder have also surged in some cases as farmers in the north-west reported being charged up to 50 or double the usual price for a round bale of silage.

The weather has also added to pressures on farmers with parts of the country under water, Met Eireann forecaster Pat Clarke said rainfall in recent weeks hit three times the normal level in the worst impacted areas.

Expand Close Hughie Duignan from Mount Allen, Co Roscommon pictured at a recent INHFA protest outside the Department of Agriculture offices in Drumshambo, Co Leitrim / Facebook

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Whatsapp Hughie Duignan from Mount Allen, Co Roscommon pictured at a recent INHFA protest outside the Department of Agriculture offices in Drumshambo, Co Leitrim

Hardest hit were north Munster, parts of the midlands and east Connacht suffered the worst.

Rainfall levels recorded at Gurteen were 316pc ahead of the normal readings for the time of year, with 68mm over the past week.

Farmers have warned they must not be caught up in red tape as they avail of the new transport subsidy for fodder-stricken areas in the west and north-west.

Meanwhile, Farm organisations are calling for a "more workable" and less restrictive scheme.

The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) protested outside the Department of Agriculture office in Drumshanbo, Co Leitrim yesterday calling for a more practical fodder scheme that would include a meal voucher and that the 100km zone to source fodder outside the region should be changed.

Speaking at the protest, INHFA president Colm O' Donnell called for the Fodder Action Group to reconvene.

"This package was not what was proposed by the stakeholders' action group. Minister Creed must now call those stakeholders back to adjust elements of the package to make it workable for affected farmers."

Following a meeting with Teagasc officials in Longford on Friday, the ICSA is urging farmers to complete a Forage Budget form through their local Teagasc office or FAS-approved advisor in order for the scheme to be fully activated in all affected counties.

The ICSA claimed farmers who wish to access the scheme can only do so if enough of their county neighbours also expressed an urgent need for fodder supplies.

ICSA Sligo chairman Gabriel Gilmartin said: "The Department needs to reconsider the overly restrictive parameters of the scheme and open it up to any farmer who needs fodder."

Agriculture Minister Michael Creed told the Farming Independent that the fodder scheme is nationally available and that he doesn't believe there is a national fodder crisis.

"It's nationally available. I don't believe there is a national fodder crisis. I believe there are pockets where there are issues and we said we'd provide a transport subsidy and people have to be approved as having a need," he said.Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) is to invest in around 33pc of the new shares

Dublin-listed Mainstay Medical has raised 30m in funding.

The medical device company, which is focused on bringing ReActiv8, an implantable restorative neurostimulation system to treat disabling chronic lower back pain to the market, raised the funds through the issuing of just over two million new ordinary shares.

Funds raised will be used for a number of corporate purposes including to complete the US Pivotal ReActiv8-B Clinical Study in support of an application for pre-market approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

"Our goals for the next two years are clear: complete the ReActiv8-B clinical study, file the PMA for ReActiv8 with the FDA, and build our commercial presence in 2018 for more meaningful commercial expansion starting in 2019," Jason Hannon, CEO of Mainstay, said.

As well as this, the funding will go towards advancing the initial commercialisation of ReActiv8 in Germany and additional markets, and to invest in early commercial activities in preparation for launch in the US, a statement from the company said.

Investors in this financing were primarily institutions in Europe and North America, at a price of 14 per new share.

In addition, the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) is to invest in around 33pc of the new shares, for an amount of approximately 10m.

The companys existing long-term investors, Sofinnova Partners, Fountain Healthcare Partners and KCK, as well as several individual investors, are also participating in the financing.

The company also today announced its full year results for 2017.

Revenue during the year ended 31 December 2017 was $0.3m, and the company had cash on hand of $10m at the end of the year.

Operating expenses related to on-going activities were $27.9mn during the year, up from $16.8m in 2016, as the company continued with its research and development, clinical trials, and commercial expenditure.

The company had $7.8m cash on hand at 31 January 2018.The 2pc increase in exports contributed to a trade surplus of 45bn.

Irish exports reached a record high of 122bn in 2017, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The 2pc increase in exports contributed to a trade surplus of 45bn.

The largest increase was in exports of medical and pharmaceutical products, which increased by 5bn (17pc) to 35bn in 2017 compared with 2016.

Exports of food and live animals also increased by double digits to 11bn.

Despite concerns around Brexit and the weakening of sterling, exports to the UK increased by 1bn or 8pc to 14bn in 2017.

The increase in exports to the UK was driven by exports of chemicals and related products, and food and live animals, with exports from these categories increasing by 22pc and 8pc respectively.

Imports also grew to record levels last year, increasing by 2.7bn or 4pc to 76.8bn.

During the year imports of chemicals and related products increased by 2bn or 16pc to 17bn, while imports of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials increased by almost a quarter to 4.7bn.

Imports from the UK also increased during the 12 months, up 10pc to 17bn. The main increases in imports from the UK were of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials which grew by almost a third to 2.7bn and of chemicals and related products which increased by just over a quarter to 2.3bn.

During the year exports to EU countries increased by 4pc to 63bn  reaffirming the Blocs position as the biggest customer for Irish exports.

Imports from EU countries also increased during the period to 45bn, a 3pc increase on 2016.The pay bonanza for high fliers at the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) and the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) increased last year as the number of employees on salaries over 100,000 jumped by six to 246.

New figures provided by the Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, show that at the end of last year there were 103 Nama employees paid over 100,000. There were 143 people in that earning bracket at the NTMA.

The number of high earners at the two State agencies increased in spite of numbers employed at both bodies declining last year.

Numbers employed by Nama and the NTMA last year declined from 828 to 744. Numbers employed at Nama declined from 302 to 264 while numbers employed at the NTMA went from 526 to 480.

According to figures provided by Minister Donohoe, one person at the NTMA was earning over 400,000 with one individual at Nama in the same bracket.

In his written Dail response to Fianna Fail's Michael McGrath, Minister Donohoe revealed that the numbers of staff at the NTMA on remuneration between 300,000 and 400,000 in 2017 was four with zero in that earning bracket in Nama.

Minister Donohoe revealed that 12 staff members at the NTMA were on remuneration between 200,000 and 300,000 with four at Nama in the same earning bracket. The Finance Minister also confirmed that there are 98 staff at Nama earning between 100,000 and 200,000 last year with 124 NTMA staff in the same earning bracket.

Mr Donohoe said that the NTMA figures includes staff assigned to the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland and staff from the Banking Unit seconded to the Department of Finance.

Minister Donohoe stated that "total remuneration includes base salary and any taxable benefits paid including performance related payments, paid in 2017 in respect of 2016 and retention payments if any. The inclusion of taxable benefits may move individuals into the next relevant band".

The latest figures show that the very competitive pay rates available at the NTMA and Nama have made sure that job vacancy rates at the agencies are at a minimum.

At the end of November last from a then headcount of 790, the number of open positions at the NTMA and its various subsidiaries - including the State Claims Agency, Nama, the Strategic Banking Corporation, the National Development Finance Agency - stood at just 14.

Mr Donohoe has previously confirmed that 41 staff at Nama last year took up voluntary redundancy in the agency-wide scheme. The cost to Nama of funding the redundancies in 2017 was 3.9m and this followed a spend of 3.6m in 2016.Support for Central Bank Governor Philip Lane's bid for the European Central Bank's second highest post is building, the Department of Finance has said.

This is despite the fact that Portugal, Malta, Slovakia and Latvia already have said they intend to support Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos over Mr Lane to be the next vice-president of the ECB.

Officials from Austria, Cyprus and Finland told Bloomberg they are leaning toward supporting Mr Guindos.

"Minister [Paschal] Donohoe is fully supportive of Governor Lane's nomination to the VP position in the ECB and is confident that there is solid support for Ireland's candidate, which is building.

"We will continue to outline Philip's qualities and his exemplary track record to all member states who will have a vote, across the coming days."

And yet none of the currency bloc's remaining governments signalled an intention to vote for Mr Lane, declining to comment when asked by Bloomberg.

A German government official said that Ireland has hardly lobbied at all for its candidate and that Dublin's intention may be to push instead for the ECB chief economist job when Peter Praet's term expires next year.

But a Department spokesman said Mr Donohoe and Irish diplomats have been "actively lobbying" since the nomination of Mr Lane to the VP position

Countries can still change their minds before the Eurozone finance ministers decide on the matter at a meeting on Monday in Brussels.

Heavyweights including Italy are refusing to show their cards, and informal hearings for the candidates at the European Parliament on Wednesday could yet shift the mood.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire "has always made clear that Guindos has excellent qualities", a French government official said.

While the European Parliament quizzed Mr Guindos and Mr Lane yesterday in Brussels, the assembly has no power to block the appointment.

The final decision is taken by an enhanced majority of the Eurozone's 19 national governments.

Finland will officially decide which candidate it will support on Friday, Finance Minister Petteri Orpo said in a message relayed by his spokesman, adding that Mr Guindos's experience makes him a strong candidate.

Spain has grounds for increasing its representation in European institutions, he added.

Mr Guindos has a history of pushing through the economic restructuring that the ECB says is vital to the currency bloc's long-term health.

In his memoir, he described sleepless nights and bust-ups with the European Commission in 2012 as he negotiated Spain's 41bn bailout and reform package.

Unlike Mr Lane, he lacks an economics PhD. (Bloomberg)On Wednesday, Mr Justice Gerard Hogan, in a unanimous decision on behalf of the three-judge Court of Appeal, overturned the High Court ruling

The Court of Appeal has overturned a High Court decision lifting an automatic suspension on the awarding of a contract for the supply of interpreters for the State's immigration service and Legal Aid Board.

The suspension came into effect after a company which has been supplying interpreters for several years, Word Perfect Translation Service Ltd, brought a legal action against the Minister for Pubic Expenditure and Reform challenging the integrity of the award process.

The Minister applied to have the suspension lifted and last month the High Court's Mr Justice Seamus Noonan granted the Minister an order lifting it.

On Wednesday, Mr Justice Gerard Hogan, in a unanimous decision on behalf of the three-judge Court of Appeal, overturned the High Court ruling.

He said damages would not be an adequate remedy for Word Perfect should it win its case.

Mr Justice Hogan said if Word Perfect was to lose the business, there seems little doubt but that it would hamper its ability to retain specialist translators of languages such as Farsi, Albanian and Ga.

Irrespective of whether Word Perfect's director, Agim Gashi, raised this concern somewhat belatedly, there must be "a real risk of significant reputational damage to the company which might possibly prove to be terminal".

These competing factors are admittedly rather finely balanced on both sides, he said.

In this context, the fact that damages have not been shown to be an adequate remedy (should Word Perfect win its main case), this has an important and perhaps even a decisive impact on the appeal, he said.

The right to an effective remedy is a constitutional fundamental, he said.

In this case, the adherence to a "standstill clause", whereby the awarding of the contract is put on hold pending legal proceedings, is in reality the only real remedy Word Perfect has, he said.

If that protection was lifted, Word Perfect would enjoy no real remedy even it the case went to full trial and a material breach of the public procurement regime, under which the contract was awarded, was established.

Mr Justice Hogan said a condition of the appeal court was an undertaking by Word Perfect to prosecute its main proceedings in the High Court without any further delay.Unilevers Keith Weed has hit out at transparency in the digital supply chain and has warned it will not spend with platforms which fail to meet standards. Photo: Getty Images

The chief marketing officer of one of the world's biggest consumer goods companies had some pretty harsh things to say about the world of online advertising.

Keith Weed of Unilever, whose brands include Lyons Tea, Hellmanns, HB and Lynx, said his company will not invest in platforms that do not protect children or which create division in society and promote anger and hate.

His comments were the latest in an international debate about how Google and Facebook primarily, manage advertising and whether particular ads end up running alongside inappropriate content.

Mr Weed didn't mince his words when he told a conference in California that Unilever cannot continue to prop up a digital supply chain, "which at times is little better than a swamp in terms of transparency".

This is music to the ears of anyone who toils in more traditional media platforms like newspapers, TV or radio. It is equally true for those who work for the online arms of these media companies which still have to invest in generating content, while increasing levels of ad revenue are hoovered up by the likes of Facebook and Google.

Together those two companies mop up around 84pc of global spending on digital advertising, excluding China, according to GroupM, the WPP-owned media buying agency.

GroupM predicts that global ad spending will increase by about $23bn (18.6bn) this year, with digital accounting for most of that.

But before those of us who work in journalism go cheerleading Mr Weed's comments we should look at the context of the remarks.

Unilever spends around 25pc of advertising on online platforms - not that high really. If Mr Weed believes swathes of the online world a little more than a swamp, why has his company spent billions advertising on these platforms in recent years? After all, it didn't become a swamp overnight.

At the heart of the problem is the simplicity of the advertising platform that technology developed by Google and Facebook can provide, combined with a lack of adequate regulation in regard to content they facilitate.

As a competitive tool, these companies can provide targeted advertising to global or finely-tuned local audiences. That is why they have been so successful.

But they are competing with other platforms and content providers who have to play by a totally different set of rules when it comes to content provision, as well as advertising standards.

Advertisers jumped on to this bandwagon, as a commercial decision, without question. Now there is something of a backlash and tech giants are less worried about short-term loss of revenue as they are about politicians finally waking up to the need for longer-term regulation.

Mr Weed's comments are to be welcomed but it would be even stronger if they came from the chief executive and were backed by the board.

US tech groups face increasing scrutiny of their impact on society, from politicians and consumer groups.

So it is particularly important to have that criticism of the digital ad market from a major customer.

Mr Weed has spoken about these issues before and has raised questions about whether consumers not only trust what they see online, but if they even see these ads at all.

There is a sense that politicians are beginning to respond. But they have been as slow as advertisers to really step up.

Germany is introducing fines for companies that fail to remove hate speech or fake news. The European Commission has set up its own commission into fake news.

The tech groups are stepping up their efforts to police content, in response to growing public concern. But none of it fundamentally changes their business model. They will never do that voluntarily anyway.

Google announced last year that it has an army of 10,000 human monitors who check the suitability of content. Clearly, Unilever doesn't think that is enough or it simply isn't working.

But regulation of the internet isn't just about advertising. Facebook has faced questions in the US over how Russian entities were able to run ads and other content aimed at swaying the outcome of the presidential election.

In France and Germany there are questions about targeted interference. In Britain, a parliamentary committee is seeking information from social networks over the extent of Russian account activity during the Brexit referendum campaign.

There are clearly enormous issues at stake. And there are difficult questions to be answered along the way. These companies are tremendously successful and financially powerful. They argue they are adhering to the principles of a free internet while giving consumers what they want.

Regulating them a lot more has its attractions but who regulates the regulators? They are global businesses and questions arise about how much individual countries can do.

The issues raised touch on everything from hate crimes and child safety, on the one hand, to freedom of expression and the future of the internet on the other.

When it comes to advertising some very straightforward suggestions have been put forward.

In the UK a group of its largest advertisers have called on Facebook and Google to set up an independent body to regulate and monitor content on both of their platforms.

The Incorporated Society of British Advertisers, wants the two technology companies to adopt common policies over the detection, monitoring and removal of inappropriate content. The group's members include Lloyds Banking Group, Unilever and Procter & Gamble.

They would like to see removal of content enforced by an independent body, which the tech companies would fund.

It looks like a focused and workable proposal as long as independence could be assured.

Sometimes there are fundamental tensions between the financial goals of a large global business and the social goals of wider society.

A voluntary accommodation cannot always be found and therefore regulation comes into play.

Take another look at the predictions for growth in online advertising. Within two years some estimates put Google and Facebook sharing around $130bn (105bn) in advertising revenues a year.

Before Christmas, GroupM said it expected spending on television advertising to have increased by 0.4pc in 2017 and 2.2pc in 2018. Digital ad investment is expected to grow by 11.5pc in 2017 and 11.3pc in 2018.

GroupM expected digital ad investment spending to exceed spending on traditional television by the end of last year in 17 markets, including the UK and Germany.

So there are questions about the future of independent journalism itself and content provision from newspapers to TV and radio.

One answer is to subsidise content providers and make tech companies pay for it. Another is to regulate the online space a lot more. Both options have merit but some problems attached too.

Subsidising content providers involves a subsidy which is a recipe for either lack of competition or endless rows about how it is divided up.

Equally, the tech companies themselves will argue they are moving more into provision of content and this is likely to happen more.

The second option involves journalists working for tech companies in one guise or another with regulation in place to ensure their independence. This is hardly ideal either and would raise questions about genuine independence.

Mr Weed's comments are welcome in furthering this debate but they aren't new either.

At least these issues are now being discussed but politicians have to step up here. Google now employs 7,000 people in Ireland. Facebook is not that far behind it.

That makes them significant players in the Irish economy.State-backed Permanent TSB sparked outcry yesterday when it was revealed that it was to sell a 4bn portfolio of non-performing loans. But what does this mean for people who have such loans?

What are non-performing loans?

A non-performing loan is a loan that is in default or close to default.

What is the level of non-performing loans that PTSB has on its books?

Non-performing loans represent 28pc of the banks loan book  the highest among Irish lenders. A successful deal would reduce that figure to close to 10-12pc.

How many households could be impacted?

As many as 20,000 mortgages of struggling homeowners will be affected, with the move potentially leaving vulnerable borrowers at the mercy of global private equity funds and distressed debt investors.

Will other banks follow suit?

The move by PTSB paves the way for other banks, such as part-nationalised AIB to follow suit.

Did the Government know about the decision?

It is understood that the Government was aware of this politically sensitive loan sale ahead of its formal launch by the bank yesterday.

Sources told the Irish Independent yesterday that Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe had warned Cabinet colleagues to expect a major story relating to a bank selling off loans to break in the coming days.

Who is expected to buy the loans?

A number of private equity firms, investment banks, and domestic lenders are shifting through the assets, with Bank of Ireland understood to be among the long list of potential suitors.The government has been urged to intervene immediately and protect family homes and farms after Permanent TSB sold 20,000 mortgages linked to struggling homeowners.

Fianna Fail public expenditure spokesperson Dara Calleary said the time for the government to act was now to prevent families affected by the sell-off being left vulnerable and at the mercy of vulture funds.

He warned this was only the first step and that the move by the nationalised Permanent TSB will be repeated by other banks in the sector.

Speaking during Leaders Questions today, Tanaiste Simon Coveney said the Government would be meeting with PTSB in due course.

However, Mr Calleary warned urgency is required.

PTSB is only the first. Family farms and family homes will be sold with no regard for those living in them, he said.

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The vulture funds are not regulated by the Central Bank. They have no regard for the law.

The notion that in due course the government will engage with PTSB... now is the time to engage with them, not in due course.

Mr Coveney said the Government was briefed on the matter in cabinet on Tuesday and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe will be meet with the bank.

However, he criticised Fianna Fail for the role the party played in the banking collapse when it was in government.

As of last June PTSBs non-performing loan ratio was one of the highest in the EU, the Tanaiste said.

The bank will be requested to consult with the minister and will do so in due course.

It is difficult to take this lecture from Fianna Fail on loan books given what your party is responsible for.

That banking collapse is what we have spent the last six and a half years fixing.Our startup is building a social network for conference speakers and organisers. In this weekly diary I write about our decisions, why we make them, and what happens afterwards. The idea from the start has been to write about the startup experience as it happens. Now it's time to talk about the launch of our system. We're going to have a soft launch, and there won't be any outrageous parties, but it's still a big deal for us.

We're going to launch on March 13, a Tuesday. That's four working weeks from now. We started development work with a full team about three weeks ago. The timescale is deliberately short because we are following the basic principles of the lean startup approach: release early and often.

I've written previously about the process we use to make this short development cycle work. The most important element is your weekly demo meeting, where you show your latest work to the whole company. That's been going very well. To survive the weekly demo each week you need to adopt a certain ruthlessness to your work. It's much better to have something to show, something that works on the day, than to try to squeeze in an extra feature, and end up with nothing working, and nothing to show.

My role as founder is to make it safe for people to do this. It's okay to deliver fewer features than planned, so long as what you do deliver actually works properly. Taking this to its logical limit, it is, in fact, OK to deliver nothing. That's far better than delivering broken features that hurt the user.

This ruthlessness is a mentality that has to be actively learnt. It's one of those mistakes people have to make a few times before it really sinks in. It's so tempting to try to squeeze in one last feature. As a founder, if you want to follow this path with your team, you have to reinforce this message. Praise working code, even if features are missing. Remind everybody that the number one priority is a live system. Features come second.

You can apply this principle to your entire system to ensure that you go live on time with minimal stress. You have to cut features. This is a universal law of software development. There's an old project manager's saying: "correct, cheap, or on-time" - pick any two. Unfortunately, in a startup, you need all three. The way you get all three, is to make "correct" very small - cut features!

This is a mistake I have seen all too often. A founder is desperate to have a great launch and get good write-ups in the press, so they try to shove as many features into the launch as possible. Or they have a limited budget, so they push the development team to produce as much as possible. This gives you a bad outcome. You end up with a half-baked system that will lose users quickly, if even you do get good press coverage.

Worse, your development team will suffer from burn out, and you've damaged your relationship with them. This is bad. The only way a startup can be successful is to keep improving the product day by day and week by week. You can't do that it you don't have a healthy team that trusts you not to over-commit. It's much better to launch something that is minimally useful but works well. Everybody can agree that under-promising and over-delivering is a good thing, but it's surprisingly hard to do in practice.

We are deciding to put this into practice. A full professional social network connecting speakers and organisers will have user profile pages, messaging, sharing, discussion forums - all the good stuff you're used to on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. We won't have any of that. In fact, you won't even be able to log in.

In our first plan for the minimum viable product that we're launching in four weeks time, you could log in. You could even upload a profile picture. But that was last year. The more we spoke to people in the industry, the more we realised that search was a key problem. Just finding speakers and conferences turns out to be quite hard. There is no Google for the events industry. So that's going to be our first, and only, feature. We've decided to strip away everything else, and focus on getting search right.

You've used Google, so you know what search is. We're talking about: a free text search bar, and a list of search results. In our case, clicking on a result takes you to a page with more information about that conference or speaker. And from there, you can also list all the conferences that speaker spoke at, or all the speakers at that conference. And that's it. That's the entire system at launch.

But we want this to work really well. We want it to have a great user interface, and provide a smooth experience. And we want the launch to be just another demo day, like all the rest, because we want to be able to keep building out all those other features, sustainably. Eventually, you might even be able to log in. You might think search is simple. But think about all the elements that will go into running a live system. First, we have to deploy a search engine, and build up an initial database of conferences and speakers. We did a lot of exploratory work on this last year. Second, we need a software system that can handle lots of small changes on a weekly basis - this is known in the trade as a microservice architecture, and it needs quite a bit of upfront effort to put in place. Third, we need a cloud platform to run the system. We've chosen the Google cloud for the moment. Fourth, we have to build a web application with a nice user interface. Fifth, we have to build mobile apps that offer the same search functionality, but designed for mobile. Sixth, we need a proper company website (at present we only have a website for the newsletter). And last but not least we need a blog with the beginnings of some decent content.

There's not much time left over for "features" is there?

Some would argue that the list above is too much, and we should just concentrate on the product itself for the MVP. That is a fine strategy for a consumer-focused business. But when your customer is another business, or when you intend to help people with their professional activities, the standard is higher.

Strategically we will be working closely with early adopters, building features just for them, and learning exactly how to solve their business pain points. But if you don't have a credible website, it's harder to build those partnerships. If you present as a professional business, then you are credible as an organisation that can deliver new features over time, and meet custom requirements.

We're going to find out soon enough if that line of thinking is correct!

Our newsletter for speakers continues to grow. We have 711 subscribers and a 23pc open rate. Our open rate has been pretty consistent so far, coming in between 20pc- 25pc. One interpretation is that our newsletter content has good utility for the general audience of conference speakers. If the content was too narrow, and only interesting to a small audience, we would see the open rate continue to fall. The fact this it has stabilised is good validation.Last year saw a 6pc increase in turnover in card sales for Irelands pub sector, according to AIBs 2018 Pubs Outlook.

Food was a key driver of growth for the period, with food service in pubs reaching a market size of 982m in 2017, up 3pc year-on-year.

And increasing numbers of Irish publicans are accepting card payments, with some city centre pubs now achieving 80pc of their turnover from credit and debit cards, according to Visa.

However in order to keep their doors open pubs need to be turning over between 8,000 and 13,000 a week, according to Tony Morrissey, MD of Morrisseys, the Dublin-based auctioneering and consultancy firm that specialises in the pub and hotel sector.

"If a pub is not turning over 8,000-9,000 a week in rural areas, then its going to be very difficult for them to survive," Mr Morrissey said.

He went on to say that the same is true of pubs in the capital.

"If a pub [in Dublin] is not turning over between 12,000 and 13,000 a week, its in trouble."

Despite the high level of turnover needed, David McCarthy, head of hospitality & tourism, at AIB Retail & Business Banking maintains that the pub sector in Ireland, which is made up of nearly 7,200 pubs across the country, is performing strongly.

"Strong economic growth, customer sentiment, falling unemployment and a record year for tourism means that the Irish pub sector is performing strongly and there is a sense of optimism within the sector that we havent seen in many years," Mr McCarthy said.

Despite a decline in visitor numbers from the UK last year, the number of UK visitors visiting pubs in Ireland actually increased during the period.

However the report warned on the level of exposure to UK visitors, and the implications of further sterling devaluations.

"As many of the wholesalers currently import goods cross border, there may be indirect exposure to additional costs coming because of Brexit. This may erode margins for publicans across the country," Mr McCarthy said.They lack the cachet of entrepreneurs, or rock star tech developers, but data protection officers are suddenly the hottest properties in technology.

When Jen Brown got her first certification for information privacy in 2006, few companies were looking for people qualified to manage the legal and ethical issues related to handling customer data.

But now companies across the globe are scrambling to comply with a European law that represents the biggest shake-up of personal data privacy rules since the birth of the internet. Jen Brown's inbox is being besieged by recruiters.

In Ireland there were 98 vacancies listed on jobs website Indeed.com for data protection officers (DPOs) yesterday, including with global technology giants Twitter, Microsoft, AirBnB and Facebook as well as domestic firms and the public sector.

"I got into security before anyone cared about it, and I had a hard time finding a job," said the 46-year-old, who is the data protection officer (DPO) of analytics startup Sumo Logic in Redwood City near San Francisco.

"Suddenly, people are sitting up and taking notice."

Ms Brown is among a hitherto rare breed of workers becoming sought-after in the global tech industry ahead of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which goes into effect in May.

The law is intended to give European citizens more control over their online information and applies to all firms that do business with Europeans. It requires that all companies whose core activities include substantial monitoring or processing of personal data hire a DPO.

And finding DPOs is not easy.

More than 28,000 will be needed in Europe and US and as many as 75,000 around the globe as a result of GDPR, the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) estimates. The need for DPOs is expected to be particularly high in any data-rich industries, such as technology, but demand is likely to percolate through the economy. (Reuters)This week saw the launch of one of the Web Summit's fastest-growing conferences, MoneyConf, as it nears a return to Dublin. To be hosted in the RDS over three days in June, the 5,000-strong event will feature financial technology speakers such as Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin and Square's Tyrone-born chief financial officer Sarah Friar.

Ahead of the launch, our technology editor sat down with Web Summit co-founder Paddy Cosgrave to talk about tech, politics and Ireland.

Adrian Weckler [AW]: You're about to launch MoneyConf in Dublin this June. What about the Web Summit, is it staying in Lisbon? Your deal there was for three years, with a possible extension. This will be the third year. Will you stay next year?

Paddy Cosgrave [PC]: Hopefully. But we always have our eyes open to every possibility. We'll do everything to figure out how to stay there, really forever. The constraint for us now is that we're building a lot of temporary structures. So in an ideal world, the UN Secretary General would be able to check in inside a secured building.

But, you know, we're building big tents and marquees. That's fine and we could decide that maybe that's the right decision to make, that we'll just keep the event at about 60,000 give or take.

But there seems to be demand to make it even bigger, to cover more industry verticals. We've added a car conference that's internal to Web Summit called Auto Tech. All the big German manufacturers, not just Mercedes, have become partners. And I'd love to do something in agriculture which requires more space again to have John Deere and these other companies participate. So it just depends on a number of factors.

But Lisbon is an incredible city. It's gone from kind of being off the radar for a lot of the world to becoming a really important tech city, almost overnight. Farfetch [luxury fashion website founded by Jose Neves] is about to go public, which is the first Portuguese unicorn to do so. Google also just opened up offices there and are going to build out.

AW: Is it that you've proven the Web Summit can be a movable event? Was that always a goal for you, especially when looking at moving from Dublin to Lisbon?

PC: Well, we've proven that more with Rise and Collision, [our] events in Asia and in the United States that are very similar to Web Summit. Both are growing faster than Web Summit did in the past and Collision may be larger than South by Southwest this year. So what the team - and there's 170 of us, almost all based in Dublin - has proven is that we can take this formula and scale other events anywhere in the world, not just move events around.

AW: You were on RTE's 'Late Late Show' a couple of weeks ago and suggested that when it came to the Web Summit, especially around the time it was moving from here to Lisbon, the Irish press coverage was more hostile and different than international press coverage. Why did you think that?

PC: Well, aside from it being a fact, there are lots of interesting anecdotes. There was this huge kerfuffle attacking the food at Web Summit and the expense of it. The BBC, a very credible organisation, went to investigate. They went over to the Food Summit and they couldn't replicate what an [Irish] journalist had reported. Instead they stumbled upon Darina Allen and the Ballymaloe Cookery School, the Burns Smokehouse and they had an incredible three-course meal which was represented at all in these reports about a 10 burger.

There was, of course, a sign that said 'quick and dirty', where you could just go and grab something that was quick and dirty from a small section of music festival, burger-flipping vans. But [the critical stories] had no mention of the fact that Darina Allen was marshalling all of these incredible chefs and food providers from all over Ireland under the umbrella of Good Food Ireland. That was just removed from even any mention in any of these stories.

AW: What was your perception as to why? Begrudgery? A blood sport?

PC: No, I don't think so. I think there are two components. We pay millions of euro a year to be propagandised by government spin doctors with their salaries of a hundred grand. And their job is to protect the perception of the party, the government of the day, at all costs.

On the other side, if you're a journalist in Ireland, you're focused on domestic issues. That means that your bread is buttered by access to either political sources or business sources domestically. So, if something is leaving the country, you're no longer going to be reliant on these people for access ever again. So if you've been around the block and you're getting pressurised by a government spin doctor to portray a story in a certain way, it's not illogical.

In fact it's very good practice, it's smart and mature of you as a journalist to take out a hatchet. There's nothing wrong with that.

AW: So you're suggesting the bad press was about protecting the future of patches and sources?

PC: Yeah, of course. I mean, to a degree. But you've got to depersonalise these things. You've just got to step back and say this was very normal. It was the right thing by the government of the day to do. I would have done it if I was in government and this had happened on my watch. And if I'm a journalist who relies day-to-day on access to government ministers and getting leaks for stories...

AW: I feel obliged to step in and defend my profession here. I can't agree with you.

PC: No, I see it as journalists having huge integrity in that they protect their sources in almost all instances.

But they're also realistic in that their sources in many cases are the lifeblood upon which they survive. And they look after them over time and they build up good relationships with people that they rely on to break stories. And then occasionally, of course, they might hang out the odd source out to dry. That's just the nature of the beast.

AW: There's another topic you've been bringing up quite a bit recently, which is corruption and legislation surrounding that. Why is this topic one you've picked to focus on?

PC: I'm 34. I grew up in a generation where most of my friends left Ireland. As to the underlying reasons why they left, some would maintain it was because the entire country partied too hard and we crashed the economy.

But I think a small group of insiders played a little bit too fast and loose and brought unimaginable risk on the country.

Then the entire country stepped in and bailed out the misdeeds of maybe 50 people for the most part and effectively none of those people have ever been held to account.

It really boils down to the fact that there are very few laws here that these people appear to have broken.

If the United Nations is to be believed, and the OECD, that's largely down to the fact that Ireland is the only western nation yet to implement some very basic kind of anti-corruption legislation which was ostensibly a requirement of the IMF bailout.

The legislation was supposed to be rushed through in 2012 as emergency legislation. It was drafted. Emergency legislation is designed as emergency legislation to be just rushed through and implemented but, six years later, we're still waiting for it.

That being said, I think there are some indications that this legislation might come to pass in the coming months. If you think 'Look, there's no corruption at all in the country', that's fine. Then you should also have no objections to at least just bringing in some basic rules of law in the event that some corruption might arise.

AW: A lot of people might agree with much or all of that. But they'd still be wondering why you're putting yourself forward in this role. Why are you taking this on?

PC: I don't think it's an issue on which I'm alone. There are many other people in the private sector who feel that this is a good thing to do. I'm unusual in that I and my team have built a business and less than 1pc of our revenues globally come from Ireland. It means that I'm freer, I think, than many other people to say things that do upset certain people in Ireland.

I appreciate it really rankles with certain people in, let's call it the establishment, that feel in some way I am saying that you are corrupt if you are anybody who is a member of the establishment in Ireland.

But that's not at all what I'm saying. I'm just more interested in implementing some legislation. And the legislation is good to implement even if there isn't any corruption whatsoever. You know, if there are no road traffic accidents, does that mean we need no rules of the road? No. We should have some basic rules of the road. You know, just because nobody's been killed using semi-automatic weapons doesn't mean that we shouldn't have legislation in Ireland against the ownership of kind of semi-automatic or fully automatic weapons.

AW: I remember asking you at a press conference when you first brought this up, whether you might be considering some sort of wider career in politics. You said no. But you still appear to be very interested in politics and civic life.

PC: For people that are politicians, it's amazing that they sign away their lives. But these are just things that I'm interested in. Maybe I just grew up in a generation where essentially all of my friends left Ireland, mostly because of the recession. For a generation of people in Ireland, it's very difficult to not be politicised by that experience and to not ask why did that happen or to see whether we have corrected things and put in place all the necessary kind of buffers to make sure that we don't go anywhere near that experience again. Because it's still hurting us. Our health system is still completely on its knees. So, yeah, I think I'm just political by circumstance.

AW: Do you think that by the time you retire that you will have stood for office at least once?

PC: No, I don't think so.

AW: One last issue on which you've had some interesting things to say recently is the prospects for tech multinationals in Dublin and Ireland. You've written that we may be putting too many eggs into one basket with regard to multinational firms. What's behind that?

PC: I think you can never know for sure whether this generation of multinational companies is going to do something that no generation of multinational companies has really done in the past.

Fifty years ago, a lone civil servant, TK Whitaker, pushed some very significant changes to how the Irish economy was structured.

We started introducing very competitive tax opportunities to multinational companies and over a number of generations, from textile manufacturing to electrical equipment assembly and computer assembly, these companies have come to Ireland.

We've benefited hugely, they've created vast employment and some have subsequently left to go elsewhere. It may be the case that this generation of companies might not do that. We just have to be certain, or at least in some way sure, that they're not going to leave and then we can continue to do what we're doing.

But the Central Bank for many, many quarters in a row have warned that there are significant risk factors to the Irish economy because of the huge dependence that we have on this singular sector.

AW: Do you see any warning signs that any of these companies might be considering it at some point in the future?

PC: It's very difficult for me to say. We do work with all of these technology companies at a global level. We have partnerships, at our events all over the world. People should at least look at the office openings of some of these companies elsewhere in Europe.

Look then at the roles they're hiring for. Ask is the fact that they are offering relocation bonuses to mid to senior staff in their Dublin offices indicative of something greater?

They should ask does the change in how Facebook and other companies coming down the road - which hasn't been announced yet - account for their tax on global sales?

Will the fact that they're changing that have a material impact on Ireland? Is the IMF and our own Central Bank correct in saying it will have a material impact or should we dismiss that? These are just kind of some of the factors.

AW: What about the narrative that we're a skilled work-base, English-speaking and all the rest of it?

PC: Yeah. These are the largest, most successful companies to have ever existed in the history of the world.

They're continuing to expand at such a pace that maybe it'll become almost kind of irrelevant that Ireland is used less and less for booking of tax on global earnings. Maybe they will just double down here and it's almost like a rounding error, that it's slightly more expensive to have a large office here than Poland or Berlin or Madrid.

AW: Did you ever get an offer to sell the Web Summit?

PC: Yeah, lots.

AW: Not one that you considered?

PC: Lots of offers. And no. I'm really proud to have, along with a really amazing team of people, built what we've built. And I still feel that we're only just kind of getting started.

It's kind of bootstrapped from the very start and we're really just beginning to find our groove. We had another 14 or 15 people join us in January. There are about 170 people now full-time, most in Dublin.

Moneyconf will be held in the RDS between June 11 and June 13. To hear an extended version of this interview, download or stream The Big Tech Show podcast from Soundcloud, iTunes or independent.ie/podcastsIt was in January 2016, after a slide in cocoa prices, that Mr Ward decided the days of traditional commodity investors doing well from taking positions based on fundamentals such as supply and demand may be numbered. Stock photo

'Chocfinger" made his name and his money by taking bold bets on cocoa markets. But after nearly four decades of trading, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, Anthony Ward threw in the towel.

Mr Ward blames the rise of computer-driven funds and high-frequency trading for forcing him and some other well-known commodities investors to close their hedge funds and look for opportunities where machines can't make a difference.

While computerised trading is not new, Mr Ward and others argue its steady rise has reached a tipping point that is distorting prices and creating uncertainty not only for investors, but for chocolate firms, carmakers and others who rely on commodities.

It was in January 2016, after a slide in cocoa prices, that Mr Ward decided the days of traditional commodity investors doing well from taking positions based on fundamentals such as supply and demand may be numbered.

"It was just too big, too quick, too dramatic. And completely against the fundamentals," Mr Ward told Reuters.

Commodity markets fell across the board that month after weak factory data in China raised fears of lower demand from the world's top consumer of raw materials.

Ward blamed the slide in cocoa on what he regarded as misplaced selling by computer-driven funds reacting to the Chinese data, given China has scant impact on the cocoa market.

"The actual fundamentals in cocoa were extraordinarily bullish in January 2016. We were forecasting the largest harmattan in history, which is exactly what happened," he said.

His prediction that a hot, harmattan wind from the Sahara desert would hit harvests in Ivory Coast and Ghana and drive cocoa prices higher did come to pass - but not before the fund had been forced to cut its losses when the market slumped.

At the end of 2017, Mr Ward closed the CC+ hedge fund that had invested in cocoa and coffee markets for years.

And at the end of January, commodity hedge fund Jamison Capital Partners run by Stephen Jamison closed. He told investors that machine learning and artificial intelligence had eliminated short-term trading opportunities, while commodities did not offer obvious benefits in the long term.

Also in 2017, renowned oil trader Andrew Hall, who earned $100m (81m) in 2008, called time on his main Astenbeck Commodities Fund II.

He had said in an earlier letter to investors that extreme volatility caused by "non-traditional investors and algorithmic trading" made it difficult to hold onto long-term positions when the market moved against them.

In 2016, Michael Farmer, founding partner of the Red Kite fund that specialises in copper, also accused high-frequency traders using super-fast computers of distorting the market and getting an unfair advantage.

Other investors have taken refuge in related sectors or left commodities altogether, exasperated by the automated trading that drives about half of US commodity futures trading.

A study by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission last year showed computerised trading on the world's largest futures exchange, CME Group, accounted for 49pc of the volume in agriculture contracts and 58pc for some energy contracts.

At the same time, data from industry tracker Hedge Fund Research shows the average hedge fund returned 8.64pc in 2017 but commodity hedge funds eked out returns of just 0.43pc. Mr Ward estimates that while in the past automated trading would distort the market by 10pc to 15pc from prices justified by fundamentals - which he said was irritating but often manageable - it can now reach 25pc to 30pc.

Algorithmic, or systematic, funds use computers to make decisions after processing vast amounts of data, or trade on signals such as market momentum or when prices hit key levels.

Those who run automated funds argue that they inject much-needed liquidity while capturing the dynamics of the market more efficiently than traditional trading strategies.

Mr Farmer and others say, however, that it is unfair for exchanges to allow high-frequency trading (HFT) groups to have co-location platforms, allowing them to put super-computers in the same data centre as the exchange servers.

They say that gives HFTs the tiny advantage they need to jump ahead of incoming orders, effectively piggybacking. Traditional investors say this exacerbates market moves and in turn makes it more costly for them to take out hedges when price moves go against them.

Systematic fund managers see the rise of their sector as a part of a trend that is transforming not only financial markets but wider society with the advent of artificial intelligence, robots and machine learning.

"I don't feel too sorry (for traditional fund managers)," said Anthony Lawler, co-head of GAM Systematic, the quantitative part of Swiss money manager GAM Holding, which had assets under management (AUM) of SFR148.4bn at the end of September.

"Information, which used to be expensive, difficult to get, not easily shared, is now ubiquitous," Lawler said.

"That means it's much more difficult to have an information edge and advantage to the player who can digest and analyse the data the quickest."

GAM Systematic, which had $4.3bn of assets at the end of September, regards commodities as one of many markets it monitors for opportunities by crunching data such as weather forecasts and shipping data that shows how full a vessel is.

He acknowledged that algorithms can lead to mistakes and over-generalisation, but said that should just open up opportunities for traditional fund managers.

Systematic funds also make decisions based on the structure and technical levels of markets. Some analysts argue that markets absorb fundamental information before many analysts are aware of it and automated funds are simply more efficient.

"I used to do a lot of fundamental analysis when I was in equities and I realised it doesn't really matter, it was a waste of time," said Guy Wolf, global head of market analytics at commodities broker Marex Spectron.

"The truth is fundamental analysis is effectively the work of a historian, seeking to provide explanation for what has already occurred," he said.

Some fund managers and analysts say computerised trading has been amplified in commodities because other participants such as banks and pension funds have cut exposure to the sector.

Ever the risk taker, Mr Ward still plans to trade cocoa and coffee - but only with his own money - while looking for opportunities in the underlying physical commodities markets. And he's keeping a close eye on computerised trading.

"In the end the whole thing will blow up because when there's a big problem, a black swan event, they won't be able to get out. It will be very messy," said Mr Ward. (Reuters)Gabriel Byrne attends the "Louder Than Bombs" Photocall during the 68th annual Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2015 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

A galaxy of stars will descend on the Mansion House for this evening's glittering Irish Film and Drama Awards.

Some of the industry's best-known faces will don their glad rags and head to the Dawson Street venue in the hope of taking home a coveted gong.

The annual event - hosted by comedian Deirdre O'Kane in a Clementine MacNeice dress - will recognise talent in 28 categories.

Attendees will include President Michael D Higgins and the Irish In Treatment actor Gabriel Byrne, who will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his illustrious career.

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Byrne said he was "deeply honoured" to receive the accolade.

Top actress Victoria Smurfit has jetted into Ireland from Los Angeles after being nominated in the Best Support Actress category for her work on The Lears.

Also due to attend is Sarah Bolger, who has been nominated Best Actress for her part in comedy Halal Daddy, which co-stars Deirdre O'Kane.

But she is in for some stiff competition - Hollywood superstar Saoirse Ronan has been nominated for her starring role in Lady Bird.

Ronan has already picked up a Golden Globe and has been nominated for an Oscar.

It is not known if she will be attend tonight's ceremony - organisers are keeping tight-lipped on the guest list.

Former Love/Hate star Barry Keoghan has been given the nod for Best Support Actor for his turn in The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, starring Colin Farrell.

Another Love/Hate actor, John Connors, has been nominated for Cardboard Gangsters.

He will be going head-to-head in the Best Actor category with yet another Love/Hate star, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, for his part in Maze.

Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards has received five nominations including Best International Picture.Returning RTE presenter Fionnuala Sweeney says she intends to look beyond Trump and Brexit in her new role as a presenter of RTE Radio 1's The Late Debate.

Fionnuala's first show airs tonight (Thursday) at 10pm and, with several years as an anchor at CNN in London and Atlanta, she intends bringing an international slant to the slot.

Her experience is vast. The role at CNN saw her host live coverage in the field from locations including Abu Dhabi, Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank on stories including Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank and Operation Cast Lead in late 2008.

The Belfast-born journalist also anchored special coverage from Cairo on the start of the uprising against Colonel Moammar Gadhafi in Libya. In 2006, she anchored and reported from Haifa during the Israel-Hezbollah Conflict, which earned CNN an Edward R. Murrow award.

This experience will inform her take on The Late Debate: "National stories on the day that are big stories need to be covered but I think what I can bring to the table is the international experience and stories that are relevant to Ireland," she tells Independent.ie.

However, while our focus on international news has become somewhat fixated on Donald Trump and Brexit in the past 18 months or so, Fionnuala is keen to cast a wider net.

"I think there are other stories as well, what is happening in the rest of Europe with Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, for example. I think we are caught between - situated physically between - America and Britain so we're dominated by Trump and Brexit stories but there is other stuff going on around the world that we need to be cognisant of."

Fionnuala is one of three new presenters - with Sarah McInerney, formerly of Newstalk, and Katie Hannon - taking the helm at The Late Debate on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights.

While the debate about gender representation and the gender pay gap in media across the UK and Ireland rages at the moment, the appointment of three talented women to these roles is something to be celebrated.

However, there is a sense that they are not issues with which Fionnuala has particularly had to wrestle thus far in her career.

"In my case I've clearly been a woman who always got jobs in broadcasting in RTE and CNN being female, before any of the transparency of this debate," she says.

Fionnuala's arrival at RTE comes in the wake of a gender pay review which found that the pay gap at the State broadcaster as just 4 per cent, significantly less than the national average of 14 per cent.

Of the pay gap, she says, "I have no problem with somebody earning more money or being on a higher salary based on their experience and body of work and clear, obvious seniority in terms of years of experience, but where it is problematic is where there might be two people on the same programme, on at the same time, doing the same job, doing the same heavy lifting in terms of interviews, and quality of interviews, and there being a substantial pay difference."

It has been three years since Fionnuala departed her high profile role at CNN. She says she "took a year off" and then went to Washington where she became Vice President & Executive Editor of The Cipher Brief, a Washington-based digital, security-based conversation platform where she determined editorial coverage of intelligence and security.

By the time Donald Trump had been elected at the end of 2016 she had already applied for a fellowship with the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) at Trinity College and decided, just before his inauguration, that she would move back to Dublin rather than do the fellowship remotely from Washington.

The GBHI is funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies which was established in 1982 when Chuck Feeney committed almost all of his assets to the foundation. The Institute works to tackle dementia, which directly afflicts over 48 million people as well as family members and caregivers globally.

Fionnuala heard co-director of the GBHI and chair of psychology at Trinity, Dr Ian Robertson, speak in Dublin in 2015. She arranged a meeting with him in January 2016, expressed her interest in the area, and asked if she could contribute.

Asked what prompted her interest in this area, she speaks in general terms, "I see people who are getting older. And people think dementia or Alzheimer's is a normal part of ageing. It's not."

Many people diagnosed with dementia in their 60s, 70s, or 80s exhibit changes in their brain at the age of 40 or 50 and Fionnuala says "there are things you can do about that - you can alleviate by 30 per cent the potential risk of getting it".

"It's like a tsunami," she continues. "It doesn't just affect the person, it affects the whole community, the family, it causes a lot of personal grief, a lot of ripples, but it also costs a lot to the healthcare system, not just in Ireland, but everywhere.

"In Ireland we have a dementia strategy and people are very committed. With something like cancer 30 years ago, when you said you had cancer to somebody they didn't really know what to say whereas now I think we can have a conversation with someone."

The hope is that we can soon have the same conversations about dementia. Although Fionnuala has taken a role on The Late Debate, she says her work on dementia is "actually always going to be a part of my life" and she will continue to work on research projects and advocacy.

Although it might seem a million miles away from broadcasting, she says she's "still a journalist", adding, "It's just a different form of journalims, more long form journalism, more than writing a package under three minutes or interviews that last six minutes."

It's clear she's thrilled to return to radio, which she describes as a "very pure form of broadcasting because you can focus on what's being said without any distractions".

Prior to her start news reporting for 2FM and RTE, Fionnuala had worked at Energy Power 103FM, a pirate Dublin station.

"I think it's great to be able to try different mediums but I've always loved radio, listening to radio, " she says. "Even when I was travelling anywhere in the world, the advances in technology meant I'd be able to listen to radio from Ireland to keep in touch.

"So for me, in terms of coming full circle, [coming back to radio at RTE] in some ways is 'coming home'."

People of a certain vintage in Ireland may best remember Fionnuala as the host of the Eurovision Song Contest 1993. We hosted in Dublin as we had won the previous year with Linda Martin's Why Me. The year Fionnuala presented we won again with Niamh Kavanagh's ballad, In Your Eyes.

Fionnuala has hugely fond memories of that time.

"I am just really proud that I as a part of that, that I got to be a part of that," she says. "I know personally it was a really exciting and exhilarating time in my life and there's a certain quiet, proud, humble satisfaction that I was considered for that role and got to play a part and present it in Ireland at a time when Ireland had just won it.

"We won that year and we won again the following year and when I see it now I just think I was very proud to be a part of it. It gives me great satisfaction because it touches so many people by how diverse it is but also how inclusive. It touches whole continents of people."

The Late Debate airs on RTE Radio 1 Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10pm.Fionnuala Flanagan arriving on the red carpet at the IFTA Film and Drama Awardss 2018 at the Mansion House, Dublin. Photo by Michael Chester.

Barry Keoaghan arriving on the red carpet at the IFTA Film and Drama Awardss 2018 at the Mansion House, Dublin. Photo by Michael Chester.

Deirdre O'Kane arriving on the red carpet at the IFTA Film and Drama Awardss 2018 at the Mansion House, Dublin. Photo by Michael Chester.

Gabriel Byrne and Hannah Beth King arriving on the red carpet at the IFTA Film and Drama Awards 2018 at the Mansion House, Dublin. Photo: Michael Chester

Ireland's leading film and television stars hit Dublin's Manion House to celebrate the fifteenth annual IFTA Film and Drama Awards.

Celebrating the best in Irish film and television, the event was hosted by actress Deirdre O'Kane, while President Michael D. Higgins presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to actor and director Gabriel Byrne.

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Byrne said it was an honour to receive the recognition, after more than three decades in the film industry.

"I can't believe that starting off in Dublin with no expectation of anything and just taking one mad courageous journey despite everybody else saying 'don't do that, it's, crazy, don't go to London.' And doing that led to that and that and that," he said.

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"And that moment - even though I didn't know it when I left Dublin that night - I had no idea that that journey would end in a place like this, in a ceremony like this."

Many of the female attendees including Charlie Murphy, Caitriona Balfe, Amy Huberman and host Deirdre all wore black in support of the Times Up movement against sexual harassment in Hollywood.

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Balfe, who was nominated for Lead Actress in a Drama for Outlander, told how she hopes the movement carries on for the rest of award season

"I thought it would be nice to continue the message throughout the award season and keep the conversation going. I think it's important that we dont just make this a one-night thing," she said.

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Whatsapp Catriona Balfe arriving on the red carpet at the IFTA Film and Drama Awardss 2018 at the Mansion House, Dublin. Photo by Michael Chester.

The Monaghan woman (38) got engaged to her boyfriend of two years Tony McGill recently, debuted her ring on the Golden Globes red carpet last month.

The couple both have busy work schedules and have yet to make any plans for the ceremony.

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Whatsapp Victora Smurfit arriving on the red carpet at the IFTA Film and Drama Awardss 2018 at the Mansion House, Dublin. Photo by Michael Chester.

"We have went straight back into work. I have not had a chance to even think about it yet," she said.

With a wealth of talent in Ireland, Caitriona is hoping to work at home more in the future.

"I've never really worked here as an actor so it's nice to meet everyone in the business. The show that I'm on, we shoot in Scotland so I'm there most of the time and then when I'm not I'm back in LA," she said.

Attending the IFTAs has become a tradition for RTE broadcaster Miriam O'Callaghan who presented the George Morrison Feature Documentary award.

Speaking about some of her memorable sartorial choices on Prime Time, like a choker and a leather biker jacket, Miriam believes viewers focus too much on how female presenters look.

"The first time you see a female on telly, you critique how they look. It's just a bad habit. I try not to do it," she said.

Along with Byrne, some of the other big winners on the night included Barry Keoghan who won for Lead Actor in a Film for his work in The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Liam Cunningham who was honoured with Best Supporting Actor in a Drama for Game of Thrones and Charlie Murphy who won Best Supporting Actress in a Drama for Peaky Blinders.

Perhaps hinting at his future success at the Academy Awards this year, Martin McDonagh won Best Film Script for the acclaimed Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

His fellow Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan won for Lead Actress in a Film for Lady Bird, although she was absent from the ceremony.

John Connors was honoured with the award for Lead Actor in a Film for his work on Cardboard Gangsters.

Winners of the IFTA Film & Drama Awards 2018

FEATURE FILM

Michael Inside

DIRECTOR FILM

Aisling Walsh, Maudie

SCRIPTWRITER FILM

Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE - FILM

John Connors, Cardboard Gangsters

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE - FILM

Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - FILM

Barry Keoghan, The Killing of a Sacred Deer

ACTRESS SUPPORTING ROLE - FILM

Victoria Smurfit, The Lears

GEORGE MORRISON FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

The Farthest

IRISH FILM BOARD RISING STAR

Jacob McCarthy, The Drummer and the Keeper

SPOTLIGHT CASTING DIRECTOR AWARD

Ros Hubbard

SHORT FILM  LIVE ACTION

Wave

ANIMATED SHORT FILM

Late Afternoon

INTERNATIONAL FILM

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

INTERNATIONAL ACTOR

Ethan Hawke, Maudie

INTERNATIONAL ACTRESS

Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

DRAMA

Game of Thrones

DIRECTOR  DRAMA

Dearbhla Walsh, Fargo

SCRIPTWRITER  DRAMA

Conor McPherson, Paula

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE - DRAMA

Cillian Murphy, Peaky Blinders

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE - DRAMA

Caitriona Balfe, Outlander

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - DRAMA

Liam Cunningham, Game of Thrones

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - DRAMA

Charlie Murphy, Peaky Blinders

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Seamus McGarvey, The Greatest Showman

COSTUME DESIGN

Consolata Boyle, Victoria and Abdul

EDITING

Una Ni DhonghaIle, Three Girls

MAKEUP & HAIR

Clare Lambe & Sevlene Roddy, Into the Badlands

ORIGINAL MUSIC

Stephen McKeon, Pilgrimage

PRODUCTION DESIGN

John Hand, Maudie

SOUND

Steve Fanagan, Kieran Horgan, The Farthest

VFX

Tailored Films & Bowsie Workshop, The LodgersGardai have launched an investigation following an assault on the Chief Justice's driver.

The incident happened yesterday morning at Smithfield Square, in Dublin, not far from the Four Courts.

It is understood an altercation occurred after the driver, a male Garda detective in his 50s, attempted to park his car around 9.30am.

Chief Justice Frank Clarke was not present at the time.

It is believed the driver, who was on duty, had either just dropped him off for a meeting or was on his way to pick him up from one.

The Irish Independent understands that while the garda was parking the car, words were exchanged with a passing pedestrian.

A confrontation occurred during which the garda was punched in the face.

Sources said the driver sustained a cut to his right cheek, but was otherwise unharmed. He did not require hospital treatment.

The assailant fled the scene and is now being sought by gardai from the Bridewell Garda station.

Officers have appealed for any witnesses to come forward.

It is believed the incident was a random attack - and the assailant would not have known the garda was the Chief Justice's driver.

The car did not have markings which would have made it immediately obvious that it was a Garda vehicle.

Mr Justice Clarke is one of a small number of judges who are driven by armed members of the force for security reasons.

Similar arrangements are in place for members of the Special Criminal Court, which deals with gangland and terrorism cases.A banker warned the "walls have ears" as Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Life and Permanent executives talked about arranging an inter-bank loan during the 2008 financial crisis.

A jury heard one banker warn they had to keep the transaction as "tight as a duck's arse" because of fears of what would happen if it got out to the market.

As the amounts to be transferred between the two banks increased to 6bn, another executive said: "You might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb."

Phone calls between the bankers were being played back to the jury in the trial of Anglo's former CEO David Drumm (51).

Mr Drumm is pleading not guilty to conspiring to defraud Anglo investors in 2008 by dishonestly creating the impression the bank's deposits were 7.2bn larger than they were.

He is alleged to have conspired with former Anglo officials Willie McAteer and John Bowe, then-CEO of Irish Life and Permanent (ILP), Denis Casey and others. Mr Drumm also denies false accounting.

The case centres on a series of circular billion-euro inter-bank transactions between Anglo and ILP, routed through ILP-owned Irish Life Assurance (ILA).

Mr Drumm admits he authorised the transactions but denies there was anything dishonest or fraudulent. He was not involved in any of the calls played yesterday.

Anglo's former treasury director Matt Cullen explained what was taking place in the conversations.

The first call was on March 25, 2008, between Anglo executives including Peter Fitzgerald, John Bowe, Matt Cullen and Ciaran McArdle.

A proposed transaction of 500m with ILP was discussed.

Mr Cullen said this was a conversation about the back-to-back deal with ILP.

Another conversation was on March 27, between Ciaran McArdle, Paul Flynn from Bank of Ireland (BOI), another man from BOI and Matt Cullen.

"We want to put out there from everybody's point of view to show the best picture that we have," Mr Cullen said to Mr Flynn.

With "all the turmoil we have still got that would be a very positive thing to put out there".

On March 27, 2008, there was a conversation between Mr Bowe, ILP's then-treasury director David Gantly and Mr Cullen. Mr Gantly said: "You put the stuff into us and we put it straight back through the other boys."

After laughter is heard, Mr Gantly said: "I'm purposely not using names here. The walls have ears in this climate."

Mr Gantly said it would be "basically an overnight transaction through both ends".

Paul O'Higgins SC, prosecuting, asked Mr Cullen about the concern for using names.

"If someone had heard him discussing what was discussed  he was afraid it would get out to the market," he replied.

Another conversation played to the jury was between John Bowe and Matt Cullen on September 16, 2008.

Mr Cullen said he spoke to Mr Gantly and 5bn was "not going to be a problem for them". Mr Cullen said:"You might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, you know," adding they were "David's exact words".

He added there was a meeting in which Mr Drumm was asked if the Financial Regulator was aware of the proposed transaction.

Mr Drumm had replied: "What choice do we have?"

The trial continues.The courts service received 500,000 from asset realisations generated by the liquidator of Treasury Holdings - one of Ireland's best-known Celtic Tiger building companies - according to company filings.

The money paid as court duty was to bankroll related administration costs incurred by the courts during the liquidation headed by Michael McAteer and Paul McCann of accountancy firm Grant Thornton.

At the time, the courts service received fees during liquidations based on asset realisations.

However, that mechanism no longer applies to new liquidations.

Treasury Holdings, once controlled by Johnny Ronan and Richard Barrett, was a major player in the construction frenzy that gripped the country more than a decade ago.

The company was placed into liquidation in 2012 at the downturn's nadir.

That followed legal efforts by Mr Ronan and Mr Barrett to prevent the collapse of what was described as a "hopelessly insolvent" business.

Their Treasury venture was once valued at 4.8bn, but was brought down by a toxic combination of collapsing property values and 2.7bn of debt.

Having battled with Nama, the company was finally undermined by a 70m debt to the Belgian lender KBC Bank, which went to court to have the business shut.

Previous filings show that KBC Bank Ireland received 345,000 in petitioner fees as a disbursement from Treasury's liquidators.

The most recent liquidator filings reveal that 666,000 in legal fees were disbursed between April and October last year.

An additional 484,000 in professional fees were also paid out by the liquidators, while almost 46,000 in fees was paid to a firm called Burlington Real Estate Management.

Burlington Real Estate Management is the asset management firm headed by John Bruder, the former managing director of Treasury Holdings.

The liquidators' previous statements also show that the liquidators received fees of just under 2m in two years from October 2012 to October 2014.

During that time, the liquidators also made a 910,000 disbursement to international law firm Maples & Calder to cover legal fees.

In 2015, it was reported that by that time, Nama had paid receivers' fees of almost 77m to 68 accountancy firms in a four-year period.A former Swords, Co Dublin, local election candidate has failed to overturn a decision of the Workplace Relations Commission that he had not been discriminated against on grounds of religion.

Mark Savage, a carpenter of Lioscian, Swords, claimed he had been ignored by the former Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Dr James Reilly, with whom he had raised an issue about an alleged paedophile having been given a job in a non-government agency.

I was ignored in regard to concerns I raised to make him aware of that, Savage told the Circuit Civil Court Thursday. He alleged that the non-government agency may have been infiltrated without any background checks having been carried out and claimed a letter he had received from the then Ministers private secretary had been a classic fobbing off.

Savage told Circuit Court President, Mr Justice Raymond Groarke, that when he had made a complaint of religious discrimination to the Workplace Relations Commission under the Equal Status Acts, the Ministers name had been deleted from his formal action.

He told the court that while not disclosing his religion to the Commission he had described himself as a Man of God opposed to the LGBT lifestyle and same sex marriage which, he claimed, should have been sufficient to ground his complaint in which he had drawn the Ministers attention to paedophiles coming down here from the North.

Mr Savage claimed the attitude taken by the Minister had treated him less favourably than that adopted in relation to the LGBT community. His complaint was that a paedophile had been appointed to a particular position despite knowledge of him having seven previous convictions in the UK.

He said that in the letter from the Ministers private secretary in May 2015 it had been stated the concerns he raised had previously been addressed by the former Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Ms Frances Fitzgerald. He was not satisfied with this and had decided to pursue the matter.

The court heard that the Ministers private secretary had stated that Mr Savage should have referred any concerns he had to Tusla and other agencies and bodies that had been appointed to investigate and pursue child protection concerns.

Kevin Banaham, the equality officer appointed to deal with Mr Savages issues, found that Mr Savages complaint, calling for the Minister to raise the issue in Dail Eireann, had been misconceived.

Judge Groarke, dismissing Savages appeal with costs against him, said he had failed to put any evidence of religious discrimination before the court. The court did not have the power to direct that any issue complained of to a Minister had inevitably to be put before Dail Eireann.A robber whose trousers fell down revealing colourful boxer shorts as he was chased from a shop by two bread delivery men will be sentenced in July.

Daragh Brown (24), who was also wearing odd shoes at the time, was later arrested nearby due to the description of his clothes, including his boxer shorts, given to gardai after the robbery.

Brown, of Allenton Avenue, Tallaght, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to robbery of cigarettes and making threats to kill the two bread delivery men at Old Bawn Shopping Centre, Tallaght on April 14, 2017.

Garda John Dalton told Karl Finnegan BL, prosecuting, that Brown entered the Centra shop armed with a knife just after 9am and demanded money from the tills. Staff described him making a jabbing movement towards them with the knife on three or four occasions.

After failing to get money, Brown fled from the shop with a quantity of John Player Blue cigarettes.

Brown was chased by two bread delivery men, Will Murray and Joe Daniel, who were stocking the shelves. Brown ran out into the car park but fell as his trousers came down revealing colourful boxer shorts.

Brown threatened the two men that he would stab them if they came near him. As they continued to follow him he threatened them again and told them that there were ten lads waiting in a nearby estate.

The court heard that as Brown ran into the estate, he began calling out names and the two men thought better of following him any further just in case. Gardai arrived and were given a description of the robber by witnesses.

The description was circulated to garda units and he was stopped a short distance away at Allenton Avenue. Two packets of cigarettes were recovered from his person and the rest found in the shopping centre car park. The knife was also found nearby.

Brown has 29 previous convictions including public order offences, criminal damage and violent behaviour in a garda station.

Sarah Jane O'Callaghan SC, defending, said Brown had a history of alcohol and drug misuse. She said he suffered blackouts which led to him having no recollection of his crimes. She described him as being a different person when he had consumed drugs.

She said the sudden death of his father when he was 15 had a big effect on him and the aftermath had a huge destabilising effect on his life. He has been diagnosed with depression.

Ms O'Callaghan said Brown was now drug and alcohol free and had not come to garda attention since.

Judge Martin Nolan noted Brown's previous record and said he would defer sentencing on bail until July 31 next. He said the case was to be re-entered before him if there was any trouble.Foreign criminals are being flown into Ireland to smuggle high-powered stolen cars out of the country, it has been revealed.

A massive international scam has been uncovered after eagle-eyed gardai seized a top-of-the-range Audi A6 worth almost 50,000 at Rosslare Europort last weekend.

The Polish driver was snared when gardai working at the Co Wexford port noticed an "old false number plate", which did not match the high spec nature of the car.

Cloned

The Audi had been fitted with cloned licence plates from a hire car, although the vehicle's insurance and tax discs were legitimate.

The suspect has since been arrested but gardai are working on the theory that he had been paid 500 "expenses" to fly here and then pick up the stolen car before immediately leaving the country with it.

"The plan was for him to then drive the car out of the country in an Irish Ferries boat to Cherbourg in France where the vehicle would get picked up by an organised crime gang based in continental Europe," a source said.

"The reality is that it is far too easy for stolen cars like this to be taken out of the country," the source continued.

"Gardai believe the seizure of the car that occurred last weekend may only be the tip of the iceberg in relation to how many cars have been smuggled out of the country and that there are specific locations where dozens of high-end cars are being stored for this purpose."

The car which was seized last Saturday had been stolen in Trim, Co Meath, last November, and officers believe there are many more just waiting to be smuggled out of the country to the continent.

Burglaries

Last August, gardai announced that they had seized 3.3m of stolen cars under Operation Waste since it was set up in 2015.

At the time officers said they had confiscated 275 vehicles, which in many cases had been taken during domestic burglaries.

The garda operation was originally set up to tackle criminal gangs who were exporting stolen cars to west Africa and Eastern Europe via shipping containers.Three new hospitals designed to deal exclusively with the surgery waiting lists are included in the National Development Plan, the Irish Independent can reveal.

A multi-billion euro package aimed at improving the health service will also see 2,600 extra hospital beds by 2027 and hundreds of community nursing home beds. The Department of Health will get a substantial share of the 115bn give-away.

Targets set in the recently-published Bed Capacity Review will be moved forward by four years to 2027.

The new hospitals catering solely for patients on public waiting lists for surgeries such as hip replacements or cataracts are likely to be based in Dublin, Galway and Cork.

The idea was broached by Health Minister Simon Harris last September and is based on a similar system in Glasgow.

Figures released yesterday by the National Treatment Purchase Fund put the total number of people on waiting lists in January at almost 694,000.

Ninety state nursing homes are also to receive money for refurbishment and there is "a significant" figure for investment in primary care services.

Well-placed sources say the plan will also place a massive emphasis on investment in IT, with the HSE and An Garda Siochana to be given modernised computer systems.

At least 23 counties are in line for new schools, although many were announced by the Department of Education as far back as 2014.

Rural Affairs Minister Michael Ring is to have 1bn for rural improvement schemes over the next decade.

The Irish Independent understands Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe will also announce:

12,000 new social houses annually from 2021;

A new control centre for Dublin Airport;

A series of national road upgrades;

The Metro North;

The DART expansion.

In housing, it aims to pick up where the existing Rebuilding Ireland plan leaves off in 2021.

Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy has said that his ambition is to put a plan in place to succeed the current strategy and maintain it targets.

It is understood this amounts to in the region of 12,000 new social houses each year.

Meanwhile, gardai are to replace the existing Pulse system, which Assistant Commissioner Michael Finn yesterday described as "not fit for purpose".

He said the 20-year-old IT network is "at the root" of issues including the reclassification of homicide figures because it was not designed for modern demands.

"Technology has moved on massively in 20 years," he told an Oireachtas Committee.

Waterford is expected to be awarded funding for the redevelopment of the city's North Quays following representations from Independent Alliance Minister John Halligan.

Sources admitted there is a "level of nervousness" in Government ahead of the launch after Opposition parties united to attack both the development plan and National Planning Framework.

Collectively the plans are to be known as 'Project Ireland 2040'.

The housing minister yesterday held a private briefing for some TDs, amid accusations of "skulduggery" and "strokes".

At that meeting it was alleged the Government was being disingenuous by not allowing a Dail vote on the final plan.

Legislation currently moving through the Oireachtas sets out that "draft" frameworks should be approved by the Dail - but Mr Murphy insists there has already been widespread consultation with elected representations.

Labour's Alan Kelly also raised concerns that a fresh Environment Impact Assessment should be completed, given that the plan underwent rewriting in recent weeks.

This was disputed by the minister, who said all the legal requirements have been fulfilled.

Mr Kelly told the Irish Independent he initiated the process while in government, and the intention was that it would be voted on by the Dail.Gardai form a guard of honour for Detective Superintendent Colm Fox, who died at the weekend Photos: Mark Condren

One of the country's most experienced criminal investigators has been remembered as a man whose pursuit of the truth was both forensic and relentless.

Detective Superintendent Colm Fox, from Malahide in Dublin, was the lead detective overseeing the Regency Hotel murder probe.

He was discovered fatally injured in Ballymun Garda Station on Saturday.

Gardai and the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission launched separate investigations, and the death is being treated as a personal tragedy. At his funeral mass in the Church of the Sacred Heart in Seabury, in Malahide, Assistant Commissioner Barry O'Brien said it was with a "total sense of disbelief and shock and devastation that all of us learned of the death of our dear friend and colleague".

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As a policeman, he stands out "among a very small group of individuals who stand head and shoulders above all others in the area of crime investigation," he said.

"This is self-evident in the legacy of successful investigations conducted by Colm over the past 15 to 20 years, all of which are still very much in the public consciousness."

Fr Sean Donohoe, who is also a brother of Det Supt Fox's wife Edel, said the life and death of each of us has an influence on others.

"Colm always influenced for the good. He had an enormous influence on his neighbours and friends here in Seabury, and on his work colleagues, and also on the victims of crime he helped through his investigations."

Before calling a minute's silence in prayer, Fr Donohoe asked that mourners pray for family and gardai.

After requiem mass, hundreds of gardai formed a guard of honour as the hearse was driven to Dardistown Cemetery.The mother of innocent young plumber Anthony Campbell, who was shot dead in the house where crime kingpin Marlo Hyland was murdered in 2006, has said she thinks she will never see justice for him.

Christine Campbell was speaking as she paid tribute to Detective Superintendent Colm Fox who took his own life in Ballymun garda station on Saturday night and was laid to rest yesterday.

After 11 years I dont think I will ever get justice. I will fight for it like I always have, but I dont think it will ever happen, she said.

Despite extensive investigations, nobody has ever been charged with the murders of Anthony and Marlo Hyland.

Christine has said she was shocked and saddened to learn of Mr Foxs death, and said whoever takes his place will have big shoes to fill.

Det Supt Fox worked tirelessly on the murder case of young Anthony, who was deliberately shot because the killers of drug boss Marlo Hyland feared he would be able to identify them.

The murder team had gone to a house in Scribblestown Park in Finglas on December 12 2006 where they knew Hyland was in hiding.

But they did not know that the owner of the house was getting some plumbing work done that same morning.

The plumber had dropped apprentice Anthony off and gone to get supplies, but while he was gone the killers arrived.

In a cold, callous and calculated move, they killed both Hyland and Campbell.

Ever since that day Christine Campbell has campaigned for justice for her son, but in the eleven years since the murders nobody has been convicted.

Colm would ring me to update me on the investigation, even if there wasnt anything new to report. He was good like that. He wouldnt just ring when there was something to say - he would ring regardless, even if there was no developments, said Christine from her home in the UK where she has since built a new life.

He was a very fair man, and very considerate. He kept me in his thoughts, said Christine.

He was a very professional man, but he had empathy too. He was a nice guy and I had confidence in him, she added.

Colm was considerate, a lovely man, he knew how to comfort you.

Christine said that while the reason as to why Det Supt Fox took his own life is not yet clear, she hopes that if the stress of his job proved to be a contributory factor then she hoped more would be done to implement supports for gardai.

He must have seen a lot in his time, and the pressure must be intense. If it turns out that he was under a lot of pressure then something needs to be done for others in those positions, said Christine.

I want to offer my condolence to his wife and children, and let them know that Colm helped me in my hour of need. He was a good man, and I hope whoever takes over his role will be as diligent in keeping all those investigations open.

Christine also said she no longer keeps tabs on who is who in Dublins gang wars, but chooses to focus on her family instead.

After Anthony was murdered I learned who was who and where they were in the gangs in Dublin, but Ive built a new life now and I just concentrate on my family, she said.

I was an ordinary girl that brought up my family the right way. Anthony was innocent. That day changed my life forever. My life will never be the same again, Christine added.15/02/2018 - Former CEO of Anglo Irish Bank, David Drumm (51), with an address in Skerries, Co Dublin, leaves the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today where he is charged with conspiracy to defraud. Pic Collins Courts.

Transactions that moved billions of euros out of and back into Anglo Irish Bank during the financial crisis were useless for the struggling banks cash flow, a court has heard.

A former Anglo banker said the only rationale he could see for the cash transfers with Irish Life and Permanent was to replace the inter-bank funding figure with customer funding.

Stephen Fox, who was head of liquidity reporting and analysis at Anglo and was not involved in the transactions, gave his explanation in a statement to gardai.

It was read out to the jury in the trial of David Drumm, who denies charges of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting.

Mr Drumm is pleading not guilty to conspiring to defraud Anglo investors in 2008 by dishonestly creating the impression that the banks deposits were 7.2bn larger than they were.

He is alleged to have conspired with former Anglo officials Willie McAteer and John Bowe, as well then-CEO of Irish Life and Permanent (ILP), Denis Casey, and others.

Mr Drumm also denies false accounting, by providing misleading information to the market.

The case centres on a series of circular billion-euro inter-bank transactions between Anglo and ILP, routed through ILP-owned Irish Life Assurance (ILA). The money was placed back in Anglo and treated as customer deposits, which are considered a better measure of a banks strength. Mr Drumm admits he authorised the transactions but denies there was anything dishonest or fraudulent in them.

Stephen Foxs statement was was read out to the court by Sinead McGrath BL, prosecuting.

He said he was responsible for making daily liquidity reports and conducting stress tests, measuring the banks ability to withstand losses.

The liquidity crisis began in Summer 2007, he said; interbank lending was scarce and only available on a very short term basis.

Banks were forced to replace unsecured funding with customer deposits or more secure funding.

Throughout 2008, both the cash flow and stress test reports he was involved in were circulated widely in Anglo and were sent to David Drumm.

There were constant rumours about what was happening in the markets and pressure on the bank on a daily basis.

Liquidity got tighter and funds were leaving the bank, his statement continued. A number of funding target reports emailed by him to senior executives including Mr Drumm were seen by the jury.

Mr Fox said he had no material involvement in the transactions in March 2008 with ILP to improve the funding figures.

As far as managing the liquidity of the bank was concerned, they were useless and not productive, he said in his statement.

He said he had no knowledge of the transactions happening at the time, but saw the deposits being taken in for a short period and leaving. He did not recall the ILP transactions being discussed. He was aware that the funding target reports were being discussed on a daily basis in meetings in Mr Drumms office.

Funding target and funding initiative reports from July and August were then read out.

Mr Fox stated he was asked to comment on a short term placement called ILAC with a corresponding best case figure of 3 million. He could not comment on it because he was not aware of the nature of it at the time.

In mid September, Mr Fox recalled that events were getting worse and funding was leaving the bank post the collapse of Lehman Bros in the US.

As things got worse and worse, he said, the e-mail distribution list got smaller and smaller and he was not included.

The days leading up to Sept 30, 2008 were some of the most stressful days and the flows leaving were unprecedented for a bank of their size, his statement continued.

The bank lost 5 to 6bn in the day or two leading up to Sept 29.

Around 3.5bn was recovered when the bank guarantee initiative came in on September 30.

I was under enormous pressure at what was a desperate time, he said, adding that his focus was on the banks survival.

We were hours from complete collapse, he said.

In October 2008, he was asked by senior management to try to provide movements on the bank leading up to the guarantee.

The purpose of the exercise was to try to explain the actual funding movements in and out of the bank. This was difficult because (the figures) included the ILP transactions of 7.2bn.

On October 29, Mr Drumm asked Mr Fox to email him a summary of daily movements since September 30.

Mr Fox said in his statement he did not directly discuss the ILP transactions with anyone in the Central Bank or the Financial Regulator.

The ILP transactions in March 2008, he said, had zero impact on liquidity. Gardai asked him to explain the commercial rationale for them.

He said the rationale was to put up a higher customer funding figure, to replace interbank funding with customer funding.

Emma Hiller of Anglos Isle of Man division said in a statement she received a direct email from a Mike DArcy in the banks Dublin headquarters on September 25, 2008.

He asked for STG 978 million to be transferred from the Isle of Man to ILP.

She did not know who he was and thought it was unusual and not normal practice because they would normally spread funding out to three financial institutions to reduce risk.

The money was transferred in three transactions of 475m, 253m and 250m.

In her statement, read out by Diana Stuart BL, prosecuting, Ms Hillier said she was not aware of any meetings being held prior to the transactions.

The usual procedure was not followed and because she had been contacted by someone directly to whom she had not spoken before, she did find that strange.

This afternoon, the jury heard Brian Lynch, from Anglos Treasury division was among the recipients of a mail from Chief Financial Officer Matt Moran on September 15, 2008.

In light of events over the weekend, it would be useful to get a snapshot of where we are with the balance sheet initiatives, the mail said.

Mr Lynch gave evidence that he was also requested to attend an Asset and Liability Committee (Alco) meeting, where there were a number of updates given.

Mr Lynch said he was aware of transactions in 2008, even though he had no part in them.

Mary Rose Gearty SC, prosecuting asked what drew his attention to the March transactions.

I was in the dealing room at the time and I recall some cause for celebration in another part of the dealing room. I asked a colleague the reason, he said. Peter Fitzpatrick and his team were celebrating that they had achieved a customer funding target number.

However, he said, Ciaran McArdle told him they hadnt really achieved it but he said nothing more.

Mr Lynch was not aware of the specific mechanism of the transactions but he was aware there was a customer deposits number, which was a target.

He said he recalled David Drumm indicating that there was a 10bn lending target and he wanted to get 7bn in funding. The year end customer funding target was 55 to 56bn.

Mr Lynch said the loan to deposit ratio was one of the metrics to assess the health of a bank. Customer funds were the most stable, particular the retail end, he said, so the customer number was a good health indicator of a bank.

Mr Lynch said he went to many of the Friday meetings in Mr Drumms office, and Mr Drumm was always there.

The main purpose of these meetings was to get a snapshot, or forecast of the balance sheet, and to get updates of the customer funding position and other initiatives that were in play at the time.

The meetings began in June 2008 until early September, after which they became redundant because the market was very volatile and everything was done by email.

Mr Lynch said at the start of those meetings in June, there were I guess around 10 or so initiatives on the agenda.

By August and September, only Irish Life was left, he said.

The impact this had was it increased the pressure to do more from Irish Life, he said.

Earlier, the Irish Life initiative had only been around 1bn but it got up to 7bn.

Matt Cullen and Ciaran McArdle had specific responsibility for the Irish Life initiative, he said.

He was aware of the 7bn ILP initiatives on September 30, 2008.

Asked by Ms Gearty how it was recorded, he said he was aware it was coming through ILA and treated as a customer deposit.

Liquidity risk manager Steven Hiles said group funding reports were sent every morning to 20 to 50 people internally up until the financial crisis and after that up to date information was also provided to the financial regulator.

Speaking about an analysis for the end of the half-year provided to the regulator in May, 2008 he said the ILP March transactions were not factored in.

On August 27, 2008, Mr Hiles wrote to colleagues saying the regulator queried how the corporate deposit retention rates remained high despite the large outflows we experienced in early April due to certain transactions which were simply to boost customer funding at reporting dates.

On September 15, Mr Hiles wrote to Mary Elizabeth Donoghue in the Financial Regulators office saying larger ticket corporate deposits were excluded from the behavioural model analysis because it was known when the funds were received that they would be leaving the bank on maturity.

On November 4, 2008, Mr Hiles emailed Ciaran McArdle, attaching a funding strategy.

As you can see, the corporate deposit side is pretty hammered due to the over-reliance on large ticket corporates but they would improve if we remove the IL&P 7bn form it, the mail said.THE Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) have appealed for lifestyle information including details of luxury cars, powerful motorbikes, designer clothing and exotic foreign holidays in a bid to track down crime gangs.

The public appeal for lifestyle data came as CAB officers are now focusing multiple operations outside the greater Dublin area.

Detectives believe that some gang members have deliberately switched their personal bases outside Dublin in a bid to avoid the spotlight.

Now, CAB have appealed to the public to report any lifestyle issues that they might consider suspicious ranging from individuals who don't have any specific means of income and yet who drive powerful, expensive cars and enjoy multiple foreign holidays each year.

In other cases, detectives have asked people to report anyone who may appear to have a job but whose spending appears vastly greater than their likely wages.

The primary target of the operation is drug operations - but CAB are also determined to crackdown on burglary gangs, smugglers and organised prostitution networks.

CAB are also concerned at reports of an upsurge in illegal money-lending.

"If people have unexplained wealth, we want to hear about it," a CAB source said.

"The only way we can target these criminals is with information which helps us to focus our investigation resources."

CAB monitor individuals known to be associated with major criminal gangs.

However, that monitoring now extends to social media in a bid to determine the cars, clothing, jewellery, holidays and general spending of individuals.

Despite the obvious risks, some Irish criminals have been foolish enough to post photos on social media which involved elements of their lifestyle - and found themselves facing CAB queries as to the source of the funds involved.

CAB works closely with key Garda units and is briefed on all relevant data from PULSE, the Garda computer system.

Roughly six out of ten CAB operations are now focused on the greater Dublin area - but the bureau is determined to crackdown on criminals trying to hide their wealth in other cities including Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.

Both senior Gardai and CAB officers stressed that all information received from the public will be treated in the strictest confidence.

The Gardai have local profilers which are trained by the bureau to assist in CAB enquiries," Chief Supt Ger Dillane said.

"But we depend on information - and the public are vital to assisting us with these vital investigations. People need to know that a tip-off will not result in them appearing in court and most information taken by us is on an anonymous or confidential basis," he said.Members of the Gardai at the scene where a womans body was found on the Ranelagh Road, Dublin. Photo Gareth Chaney Collins

Gardai are investigating if the death of a woman whose body was found in a property in south Dublin is suspicious.

The grim discovery was made at a house in Ranelagh, south Dublin, at approximately 3.45pm today.

Gardai were called to the address in the course of their investigation into a missing person.

Shortly after the call was made a man jumped from a third-storey window of the property and seriously injured himself.

The scene at Ranelagh Road is sealed off this evening and has been preserved for a technical examination.

It is understood a man has been taken to hospital after being discovered at the scene with severe leg injuries.

Anyone who may have any information is asked to contact Donnybrook Garda station on 01 666 9200, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station.

More to follow...The so-called game of 'Dail bingo', which involves TDs taking numbered cards in order to gain speaking time, is facing the axe.

Scenes of uproar in the Oireachtas have led to a general acceptance among the main political parties that the practice will have to end.

It was introduced on a trial basis after Ceann Comhairle Sean O Fearghail was accused of not adequately taking lists of TDs who had used hand signals to indicate they wanted to ask questions of the Taoiseach.

However, the new system has seen a number of TDs repeatedly arriving up to 20 minutes before Dail sittings in order to ensure they get near the top of the speaking list.

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The Dail's Business Committee has discussed reverting to the old system - or devising a new one - after the Easter break. A source told the Irish Independent there was a "general consensus that the numbered cards is unbecoming of the parliament and needs to change".

It is understood Independent TD Mattie McGrath was a lone voice in defending the system, although Mr O Fearghail is thought to have reservations about further change.

Marc MacSharry, who was involved in the shouting match with the Healy-Rae brothers, a video of which went viral globally, has circulated all TDs with a document calling for widespread reform of 'new politics'.

He said Dail procedure "is terminally flawed and requires urgent reform".

In an email to TDs, Mr MacSharry highlighted five issues including the reality that speaking time is not allocated based on party size.

The Sligo TD also criticises the Government for ignoring motions such as the one last week calling for a National Broadband Plan review.

Mr MacSharry also argues that Oireachtas committee recommendations should have binding outcomes.

He said in his email: "We think we live in a democracy but without the necessary reform I am afraid it is a mirage.

"The reform proposals outlined above are necessary and can easily be introduced.

"Will it make the business of Government more difficult? Yes it will, but it will ensure a truly democratic process."There is no prospect of Stormont's main parties agreeing to restore devolved government, the DUP said as it called on Britain to take further financial control of the North.

The breakdown of talks aimed at restoring power-sharing in Northern Ireland sparked anger, disappointment and frustration.

The British government now faces the prospect of having to step in and take previously devolved decisions in Northern Ireland.

But the Irish Government, as co-guarantor of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, has said there can be no return to the direct rule of the period before that landmark accord.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said in a statement: "I very much regret the statement from the DUP. Power-sharing and working together are the only way forward for Northern Ireland.

"The Tanaiste and the Secretary of State are in close contact and we will continue to confer with the British government about the next steps."

Tanaiste Simon Coveney last night described the announcement from the DUP as "very disappointing".

He has held phone talks with Secretary of State Karen Bradley and briefed the Taoiseach on developments.

"As co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, the UK and Irish governments have an obligation to uphold and protect the letter and spirit of that agreement.

"We will need to reflect in the coming days on how best to do that," he said

The talks ended in acrimony as DUP leader Arlene Foster said there was no current prospect of restoring devolved government - after failing to clinch agreement on touchstone issues such as treatment of the Irish language.

Sinn Fein's Northern Ireland leader Michelle O'Neill said that the party had stretched itself, and blamed the DUP for collapsing a process aimed at rebuilding coalition government at Stormont after a 13-month suspension.

Her party wants an Irish Language Act - but the DUP has long insisted it would only countenance new laws if they also incorporate other cultures, such as Ulster Scots.

Ms Foster said attempts to find a stable and sustainable resolution had been unsuccessful.

"We cannot and will not be held to ransom by those who have refused to form an executive for over 13 months," she said.

"It is now incumbent upon her majesty's government to set a budget and start making policy decisions about our schools, hospitals and infrastructure.

"Important decisions impacting on everyone in Northern Ireland have been sitting in limbo for too long."

Months of exhaustive talks have been held since power-sharing collapsed early last year in a row over the DUP's handling of a botched green energy scheme.

Since then, divisions over issues including Irish language rights, same-sex marriage and how to deal with the legacy of Northern Ireland's troubled past have proved insurmountable.

The implosion last night came despite Monday's last-minute intervention by UK Prime Minister Theresa May and Mr Varadkar, who travelled to Stormont for talks with the parties.

Northern Ireland Secretary Ms Bradley yesterday said that "substantive progress" had been made.

But she conceded "this phase of talks has reached a conclusion".Leo Varadkar, Model Waris Dirie, Susanne Thier and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz pose prior the opening of the Opera Ball 2018, the sumptuous highlight of the Austrian capital's ball season, on February 8, 2018 at the State Opera House in Vienna. / AFP PHOTO / APA / ROLAND SCHLAGER / Austria OUTROLAND SCHLAGER/AFP/Getty Images

DOES Fine Gael have a posh problem? It doesn't help when Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is snapped in full white-tie regalia among Vienna's high society at the glitzy Opera Ball.

Of course, he couldn't turn down an invitation from the Austrian Chancellor with whom he'd earlier discussed important matters like Brexit and the EU Budget.

However, much more problematic for Fine Gael than photographs of the Taoiseach in the penguin suit are remarks made by some of the party's politicians this week.

Take, for instance, junior finance minister Michael D'Arcy.

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He was asked about property rental website Daft's report showing spiralling rental prices.

His response to the headline figures in Dublin was that there are cheaper homes elsewhere in the city with rent "for a fraction of what's being quoted".

He said these could be found "a couple of streets towards the river and the other side of the river."

According to Mr D'Arcy, the high end of Dublin's property market is expensive, as it is in other cities he's been to that also have issues rental sector issues.

He gave the far-flung examples of San Francisco, Singapore and Shanghai.

Barry Cowen of Fianna Fail called his comments "truly remarkable" and accused Mr D'Arcy of being "detached from reality".

Labour's Alan Kelly said if they were "a reflection of the general views across the party, then certainly they're out of touch".

Mr D'Arcy didn't respond to that criticism last night.

The Irish Independent contacted his department to see if it could provide us with some examples of what Mr D'Arcy was talking about. It didn't provide us with any. Mr D'Arcy won't win fans among those who are struggling to find accommodation they can afford - in the midst of a housing crisis - by telling them to look elsewhere for cheaper rent.

Another example of an attitude that won't win Fine Gael any new support were somewhat astonishing remarks made by Senator Catherine Noone about the scrapping of most 'ministerial Mercs' during the economic crash.

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She told the Seanad this week that ministers shouldn't have lost their State cars and politicians "get no gratitude for that kind of thing."

Cost-cutting measures in 2011 saw all politicians bar the President, the Taoiseach, Tanaiste and Justice Minister lose the cars and Garda drivers. Ministers now use their own cars and can hire civilian drivers paid for with taxpayers' cash.

Ms Noone's remarks came as she was speaking in favour of better pay and conditions for councillors.

She said politicians had "degraded" themselves over the years and "made populist moves to try and endear ourselves to a public" who aren't interested in such moves. Perhaps there are ministers who would agree with her view about the now long-gone State cars, but try finding any who would be willing to say that publicly.

And last month there was Mr Varadkar - causing trouble for himself that he really didn't have to - in remarks about prospective house-buyers trying to fund deposits on houses.

He told the Dail that some people go abroad to earn money or live in the family home to save cash while "others get money from their parents" adding: "Lots of us did." While many do go to the 'bank of mam and dad', it's an option that's not open to large sections of the population.

Mr Varadkar later clarified that he himself took out a 100pc mortgage but not before accusations from Mr Cowen that Mr Varadkar had "put his posh boy credentials on display".

Political opponents will never be slow to take advantage of these kinds of slips. Fine Gael would do well to remember that if they're to avoid a repeat of their 2016 election disaster with its tone-deaf slogan 'Let's keep the recovery going'.Transport Minister Shane Ross has accused former Communications Minister Eamon Ryan of being dramatic during a Dail row after the Green Party TD said he had no faith in the delivery of plans to improve commuting in Dublin.

Mr Ross claimed Mr Ryan was "a little histrionic" and the government he was part of left behind a transport legacy that was an absolute and utter disaster.

He also said; "I just wish to know what pills this man is taking. This man must be smoking amnesiac."

It came after Mr Ryan asked the minister if a proposed underground rail interconnector linking Heuston Station and Spencer Dock will be included in the new national capital plan.

Mr Ross said such a tunnel was estimated to cost 3bn and the proposal was being redesigned in search of a low cost solution.

The Green Party leader took issue with Mr Rosss response and said he had no faith in him.

I am clear on what the Minister is saying; it is not going to happen, said Mr Ryan.

I have no faith in the Minister's ability to protect public transport or deliver public transport in this city. Our city is grinding to a halt and he is sitting back and watching it happen.

Mr Ross said Mr Ryan was being dramatic and questioned his record when he was in government between 20017 and 2011.

When you were not so busy deferring bankrupting the country, bankrupting the banks and propping up Brian Cowen and Bertie Ahern, which he did with alacrity, I do not know what you were doing about transport but we inherited a situation in transport from you guys which was an absolute and utter disaster," he said.

You get up here day in, day out wanting to spend money like water, as you did the time you were in government. I will not sit here and take that as though money comes out of the sky when you are in opposition but when in government you just spent it and bankrupt the country.Annie Dunne was injured while working in Australia in 2015

Prosecutors are calling for a tougher penalty to be handed down to an Australian packing company after an Irish backpacker's scalp and ear were torn off by a conveyor belt.

Tipperary native Annie Dunne suffered extensive injuries when her hair got caught in a mechanical conveyor belt at a packing shed in Shepparton Victoria in November, 2015.

Packing company Kalafatis Packing pleaded guilty to failing to provide a safe system of work and was fined $50,000.

According to News.com.au, prosecutors are now appealing the sentence.

Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Gavin Silbert QC, who lodged an appeal on Wednesday, said that the sentence was manifestly inadequate.

It is understood Ms Dunne - originally from Kilkeary outside Nenagh - was working to fulfil the 89 days of regional work required to extend her working holiday visa for a second year at the time.

'The Age' newspaper in Australia reported at the time that Ms Dunne was cleaning the conveyor belt which was used to deliver pears for distribution when her hair became entangled in a rotating drive shaft.

She suffered extensive damage to her scalp and one of her ears in the incident.

In January, WorkSafes health and safety executive director Marnie Williams said the circumstances of the incident were appalling, according to News.com.au.

It's believed that workers were required to clean the conveyors while they were energised and moving.

This truly was a shocking incident that has changed this young womans life in a split second, Ms Williams told News.com.au.

Its staggering that workers were expected to clean machines which were still in operation.

She said the labour hire business engaged workers for the packing shed and left them exposed to risk of serious injury and death.

Ms Williams said there was a blatant risk of serious injury from entanglement, crushing or entrapment with both conveyors in the shed.The head of Garda Analytics did not sign off on a report into homicide figures that was presented to the Policing Authority last year.

Gurchand Singh twice requested access to the report but did not see it until after it was presented as a completed document in April last year.

He told the Oireachtas Justice Committee it was "quite difficult" to sit at a meeting of the Policing Authority while senior officers answered questions on the report.

It outlined that a review of homicide statistics had taken place and management was satisfied all cases were properly investigated.

But Mr Singh said that if he had been asked to review the report in advance, he "couldn't sign off on it".

"I didn't agree with the classifications being suggested," he said.

Assistant Commissioner Michael Finn told the meeting the initial review of homicide statistics gave special attention to 41 cases of which 12 were reclassified.

He said the review found that proper investigation did take place although this conclusion was largely based on consultation with officers in the regions where the incidents took place.

On foot of a request from the Policing Authority, a peer review of cases dating as far back as 2003 will now take place.

A new working group has been established to carry out this task but Garda management is unable to put a time frame on its completion.

Mr Singh said it would take his department five or six months to analyse the statistics for anomalies.

Some cases will then need to be further reviewed by an investigative team who will study the original file and whether the investigation carried out was appropriate.

Mr Finn blamed some of the problems with the Garda records on the Pulse IT system, which is 20 years old.

"We have an IT system that's 20 years old, that's not fit for purpose. That's at the root of a lot of issues we have here," he said.

But he admitted: "It's not just all about systems, we need to convince and change the hearts and minds of our people. Data is important."A Trinity professor who hit headlines after appearing to advocate for female circumcision has apologised for his comments.

Dr Ali Selim of the Islamic Cultural Centre in Clonskeagh was on TV3s The Pat Kenny Show last night discussing his comments on female circumcision.

Mr Selim made headlines last week when he appeared to advocate for female circumcision in certain circumstances.

Mr Selim called female circumcision "an inherited practice" and said parents should be allowed to have it carried out on their daughter if a doctor says it's necessary.

He also said that you "cannot control people" and people will travel overseas for the procedure.

Female circumcision, also known as female genital mutilation (FGM), is defined as the partial of total destruction of female genitalia for non-medical reasons and was made illegal here in 2012.

FGM has been carried out on an estimated 200 million girls around the world, including nearly 6,000 in Ireland.

Dr Selim has faced widespread criticism from doctors, from other Islamic leaders and students.

Speaking on The Pat Kenny Show, Dr Selim said he "condemns FGM in the strongest terms".

"I admit that I caused confusion based on my misunderstanding of the term [circumcision] and I do apologise for this.

I'm not a medical doctor. I'm not a native speaker of English either. My English is really good but definitely sometimes it lets me down.

"I was out of my comfort zone and I misunderstood the terms as the medical experts would use them.

Mr Selim went on to say that FGM "has no religious foundation".

"It is a cultural practice practiced by Muslims and non-Muslims in the past and until today's time. I definitely support the ban of that.

On the issuing of a "fatwa" against FGM by Dr Umar Al-Qadri of the Islamic Centre of Ireland, Dr Selim said:

My understanding of fatwa is an Islamic rule issued by an Islamic scholar and Muslim scholars if they issue a fatwa we have to ask questions about that  Are they qualified to issue a fatwa and their qualification means they have to be qualified, i.e. have a degree in Islam.

When asked if he would issue a "fatwa" against FGM as Dr Al-Qadri has done Mr Selim said he sees FGM as an "un-Islamic practice and I condemn it".

Earlier this week, there were calls for Mr Selim to resign as a lecturer in Trinity College Dublin following his comments.

I have received a number of emails and phone calls from my students and also from academics from Trinity who expressed their support because they knew I did not mean that truly.

I think Trinity college is run by very wise people and I think they will take the right decisions in the best interests of our students and anything in the best interests of our students I support.

Mr Selim said he would be not be resigning as spokesperson for the Islamic Cultural Centre.Tech that: Samantha Kelly and her fiance Andy Kehoe are poles apart when it comes to social media Photo: Patrick Browne

Can love survive if two people have completely different opinions on major social issues or if they just 'don't get' what the other person does?

After many years and having interviewed hundreds of couples, renowned relationship guru Dr John Gottmann identified four negative factors that can predict divorce and seven positive principles that predict marital success.

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Gottmann says he looks for certain kinds of negativity, which he calls the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse", to predict a relationship's failure. Criticism, contempt, defensiveness and stonewalling are the four harbingers of doom, according to Gottmann who says that accepting the differences between you and your partner and compromise are among the core principles of making a marriage work. That message of acceptance may not be stamped on any Hallmark cards today, but it's something Samantha Kelly (46) completely understands.

She is busy planning her wedding later this year to her partner Andy Kehoe (57). The couple, who met five years ago and live in Rosslare, Co Wexford, love many of the same things - a bracing walk on the beach or a good movie in front of the fire.

But their attitudes to social media make them polar opposites. Samantha is a new breed of tech entrepreneur. She's known as the 'Tweeting Goddess' and runs an online platform for women in business to support each other called the Women's Inspire Network.

Andy, a taxi driver, has a phone which he uses to make calls and send texts. He doesn't have a social media presence or want one either. Samantha says when it comes to what's on TV, they are also polar opposites. While Andy likes what she calls "nerdy" programmes like Wheeler Dealers about buying and restoring cars, she likes anything with "razzle dazzle".

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But it's the stance on social media that leaves them poles apart. "He really doesn't get it. He might send a text message and that's about it. He just doesn't understand social media," says Samantha, who is mum to Leah (18) and Abi (11).

She says Andy didn't really understand her role in the social media world until he drove her to an event where she was speaking and she was inundated with requests from people trying to discover social media for themselves. "He said to me after 'you really know your stuff, don't you?'."

While Samantha is, as she says herself, "always on" organising big events like her forthcoming Women's Inspire conference on April 11 or working on a client's Twitter feed, Andy is happy to remain blissfully unaware about her online world.

However, Samantha says she couldn't do any of it without him. "If he didn't pick up the slack at home, the house would be in a mess. If I need to travel to an event, I know he's there for the girls. By nature, he loves a clean house but I'm more messy," she says.

"He doesn't do WhatsApp. I take videos for my followers and while he doesn't get it, he knows it's important to me and he's fully supportive of me. I could be speaking at an event and Andy will come and sit outside and read the paper. I think acceptance is a huge part of it.

"I could be doing a webinar from the kitchen and he'll come in and put the kettle on or he might put the washing on. He wouldn't get the fact that I'm doing a webinar and that does drive me mad sometimes. I have to accept that too - maybe it's time to get that home office. I have to accept he's not interested in social media, that it's just not part of his world. But we're very united in the big things like being kind to people and doing the right thing. He lets me do my thing even if he doesn't understand what I'm talking about."

Despite this gulf between them, she says Andy looks after her. "We know each other's stories and we accept each other for our past. Trust is really important. I love hanging out with him, just sitting by the fire having a cup of tea," she says.

Sarah Sproule, originally from Melbourne in Australia, and her husband John, from Dublin, have been together for 17 years and have three children aged between 10 and 14 years old.

Sarah is a supporter of the campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment while her husband believes abortion shouldn't be allowed in Ireland except in exceptional circumstances.

Sarah says while they often joke at the cultural gulf separating them, when it comes to something as serious as the views they hold on abortion, she and John - who live in Dublin - have learned over time to be respectful of the other's position. "To be able to live with and love someone who has different views on something so important to me has been a journey. I wouldn't say it's easy. I have learned that it is possible to sit with someone's different opinion and my world doesn't end.

"I know I've had to slowly develop this ability to sit with difference. It's been a huge learning experience. I started to realise I've got better at this - by understanding that he's still the same person, I'm able to listen," she says.

Sarah, an occupational therapist who provides sexuality and relationship education for families, says she is still firm in her own opinions on abortion, but has learned to listen.

"I used to get so upset and angry when we would try to discuss it that I would have to walk away, and I can really listen now. By listening, it helps me learn," she says.

"The priority is the relationship and not the issue. All of the cultural messages we have around being in a relationship are that love is not about having conflict. But to be in a relationship is complex. Repealing the Eighth is just one of many issues we don't see eye to eye on, but our relationship is a valid form of being together and the family we are raising together is strong. It's been challenging, but the learning that has come from it all has been a great gift to me.

"Our differences - it's been a slow unrolling. I don't think I fully realised how different we were when we first got together. We laughed at our cultural differences. John is Catholic, I'm non-religious. We were fine with these differences until the kids came along. We trawled all the churches in our area trying to find a community of faith we were comfortable with, but we never succeeded. As each new difference comes along, it's a surprise each time."

Sarah says there have been times when she's wanted to run away from the hard work of it all.

"Maybe some people don't have the big obvious conflicts we have. But your partner is their own person, and I don't think necessarily that we are taught how to benefit from differences in other people. Conflict is part of the fabric of being human and instead of running away, we can learn to sit with it and treat the other person with respect."

Relationship therapist and psychotherapist Bernadette Ryan says while fundamental differences can make or break a relationship, the key is respecting difference.

"We don't necessarily have to agree on everything. You can't change the other person but you can be responsible for your own reactions. People spend a lot of wasted energy trying to change (their partner) but we don't have the right to change another person. People come into a relationship as they are," says Bernadette. She quotes Gottmann, who points out that, for most couples in long-term happy relationships, 65pc of their differences never get resolved.

"He found that those who are happy learned to give and take. They learn to communicate around their issues respectfully. Respect for difference is the key," she says.

Perhaps that's the message we should be taking to heart this Valentine's Day. And when the roses have lost their bloom and the fancy meal is long forgotten, we might do well to remember that this is key to going the distance.HAIKOU, CHINA: Aerial view of a crowded at beach in Haikou, Hainan Province of China during the Dragon Boat Festival. Photo: Getty

Last summer, 'over-tourism' became the big story in travel, when, in popular destinations around the world, local residents took to the streets to protest against being deluged by tourists.

They concluded that the benefits of tourism simply weren't worth the hassle. Tourists too, 100-deep trying to see the Mona Lisa from 30m away, or unable to get into St. Mark's Square in Venice, complained they came to see the sights - not just other tourists.

Parts of the UK have experienced the same problems, with complaints from Bath residents that tourism has ruined the city and councillors proposing to introduce a tourist tax to fund public services in times of austerity.

More than 10 countries in Europe now charge a tourist tax.

So what is a traveller to do? In essence, there are a couple of options. The first is to find unfamiliar ways to see familiar places; the second is to seek out unfamiliar places. Here are some suggestions on how to do this:

1. Local guides know how to avoid the crowds

They know when the daily cruise ship excursions start and finish. They know the lulls during the day, the different viewpoints, and the inside track on how to experience things in different ways.

From these guides, you'll also learn local people's perspectives and relationship to their heritage, not just what everybody else is reading in their guidebook. Plus, you'll be helping her or him earn a living.

2. If you can, travel outside of peak season

This is not always possible, especially for families, but over-tourism is partly caused by everyone wanting to go to the same places at the same time.

In southern Europe , the winter and autumn light can be magical and more bearable than the summer heat as global warming takes hold.

3. Travelling with respect earns you respect

Travelling responsibly also means that a little more of your money reaches local hands. Think local in all that you do and avoid big international chain hotels when you can.

It makes sense that residents and workers who are treated well and who see the benefits of tourism directly, might offer you new and different ways to experience their culture and heritage to that offered to the hordes.

4. It's convenient for the tourism industry to focus its marketing and operations on a few 'big name' places

No doubt many of these places are remarkable and unique, but as any traveller will know, sometimes there are other, more off-the-beaten-track places that are just as good or better. They will also be less crowded and much more in need of visitors. You'll often get a warmer welcome there than in places fed up with tourists.

5. Local protesters have a point

Imagine your home town being overrun by tourists and how you would feel. Support those affected by feeding back ideas, or over-tourism complaints, to your holiday company, or make a point of travelling with a company that feels the same way about travel as you do.

- Justin Francis is CEO and co-founder of Responsible Travel.

Read more:Times Square and 42nd Street is a busy tourist intersection of neon art and commerce and is an iconic street of New York City and America

New York is now doable as a daytrip from Dublin. But is it worth it? David Walsh takes a flying visit.

Just how quick is a 'New York minute'?

I've never really given it much thought. At least, not until I emerge from the subway in Lower Manhattan, greeted by the blare of car horns and hundreds of besuited figures scurrying in all directions in the stifling, sticky midday heat.

Now it's all I can think about.

Standing in the frenzy of Fulton Street, the magnitude of the challenge facing me suddenly dawns. Peering at my wrist, I have roughly five or so hours to explore one of the world's most populated cities before checking in for my return flight to Dublin. That's 300 minutes, give or take - all of them 'New York minutes', and all of them slipping away at a rate of knots as I stand gazing at my watch.

There's a method to my madness. Aer Lingus has recently reintroduced its 7.50am flight from Dublin to JFK for summer, boldly claiming that passengers can be in downtown New York by 11.20am - just in time for brunch - and jetting home again at 9pm. Travelling 5,000km for a daytrip may be folly, but it may also suit business travellers and well-heeled shoppers, and it certainly appeals to my adventurous side. I arrived at Dublin with just a backpack and a change of T-shirt.

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Having clawed back some time after an hour-long delay, I set off apace into the foray of stockbrokers and tourists in the direction of the One World Trade Center, its lofty glass glinting at me in the sun like a beacon. The lift to my first stop, the One World Observatory (oneworldobservatory.com), glides to the tower's 102nd floor in 60 seconds flat. Another minute gone (I'm obsessing, I know).

Rooted to the edges of glass, throngs armed with selfie sticks are all equally transfixed by the view, and rightly so. The world as they know it is mapped out below their feet. Manhattan island, knitted together by some 70,000 Tetris-like towers, sprawls out towards the curve of the horizon. Muscling in amongst them, I feel like I'm standing on the shoulders of a giant - including its spire, the tower is the highest structure in the western hemisphere at 1,776 feet.

By 1.10pm, I'm back down to earth, watching small craft bob on the swell of the leaden Hudson River as I devour a bento box at the Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar (blueribbonrestaurants.com), a few paces from the observatory tower. On the adjacent side of the bar, the itamae maintains zen-like concentration as he slices sashimi amid a chorus of takeaway vendors baying order numbers at ravenous office workers in their New York drawl.

Time check: 2pm. With the risk of indigestion ever-menacing, I ask for the bill and cut a dash for the subway. It's another 30 minutes or so before I'm strolling through the lush oasis of the High Line (thehighline.org).

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Once the 'lifeline of New York', this used to be an arterial railway for the warehouses and factories of the industrial West Side - falling out of grace with city authorities by 1980. Its skyward rails and sidings were gradually reclaimed by a wilderness, but now sculpted long grasses and flowering blooms bend and sway in a welcome breeze as I brush past, high among the rusting fire escapes of red-brick tenements and skyscrapers. The 1.45-mile linear park has become an intrinsic part of one of the world's most recognisable skylines.

New Yorkers slouch in the glorious sunshine on wooden recliners or kick around in water features nearby, but there's no rest for the wicked. By 3.20pm, I'm winging my way to one of my favourite NYC haunts, Williamsburg.

I wasn't convinced that I'd have the time... until a chance encounter over sushi. "I would have recommended all those things myself if I only had a day", said the diner lunching beside me. His name was Jeff Goldberg, and he lives not far from here on the West Side. Jeff clearly approved of my itinerary so far. "What with the rise in rents, Manhattan has become a shopping mall. Brooklyn is where it's interesting now," he confided.

Emboldened, I leave the High Line behind on 23rd Street and find myself sat - albeit sweating after a sprint and a subway change - on a creaking L train to Bedford Avenue, the nucleus of Brooklyn's hipster stronghold. A short walk in either direction from the strip here leads you down side streets to hip boutique shops amongst the crumbling, graffitied apartment blocks. A sandwich board outside one promises the best vintage shoes in New York. On the other side of the street, the black and gold-fronted Catbird (catbirdnyc.com) proffers jewellery wares handmade by in-demand local designers. A ceaseless evolution of street art murals plays out across disused lots, on decaying warehouses and gable ends.

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I'd heard wonders about the fried chicken and waffles at Pies 'n' Thighs (piesnthighs.com) on South 4th Street, but it's a matter of minutes to spare before my airport train - so a moreish pastrami and mustard bagel from the Bagel Store (bagelstoreonline.com) it is. To go, of course.

If you're looking for a quick - albeit, rushed - fix, then New York in a day is certainly doable, and definitely fun. But buyer beware. Any number of factors - from flight delays to traffic - could scupper your trip. Next time, I'll take days over minutes to really savour the Big Apple.

Getting there

Aer Lingus (aerlingus.com) operates its 7.50am Dublin to JFK flight until August 31. US Preclearance is realistically the only thing that makes NYC viable as a daytrip  you can walk straight to a cab or train on your arrival. 7.50am prices from 370 each-way as we publish; other JFK sale fares from 209.

For more to do and see in New York, check out nycgo.com.

What to pack

Summer in New York is a scorcher, so be prepared for the weather. Sunscreen is a must, especially if you are outside. As you won't be showering before you get home the next morning, I definitely recommend a quick and light wardrobe change to freshen up for the return leg!

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3 must-dos...

Beat a path to Broadway

If you travel either on a Wednesday or Saturday, you could conceivably pre-book tickets to a matinee (2pm) on Broadway after brunch.

A bite in Brooklyn

Head to Brooklyns waterfront for the outdoor Smorgasburg food market on Saturdays. Its a feast for the eyes and the stomach. Youll want to eat everything in sight. See smorgasburg.com.

The Whitneys wow factor

The Whitney Museum of American Art (whitney.org) is a must for lovers of contemporary art. It boasts a funky new building next to the start of the High Line, too.

Read more:The Aran Islands are to take part in an EU study into the viability of producing hydrogen through renewable energy

The Aran Islands will form part of an EU study to see if hydrogen can be produced using renewable energy to power cars, boats and heat buildings.

The 3.5m project led by NUI Galway will also see construction of a hydrogen plant on the Canary Islands, where up to 25kg of hydrogen gas a day will be produced, sufficient to power up to 10 commercially-available cars with a maximum range of 600km.

The hydrogen will be generated using seawater and solar panels, and if successful, similar plants could be installed in offshore and isolated communities, including the Aran Islands.

The project is also being piloted in Madeira in Portugal.

Seafuel project lead, Dr Pau Farras Costa from the School of Chemistry at NUI Galway, said the project was aimed at establishing a business model to help offshore communities reduce energy imports.

"The plan for the project is to study if this model is a viable business model to export to other places within the islands and other regions," he said.

"The Aran Islands already has electric vehicles, and we are looking at other possibilities including heat, but also for boats and ferries. We are focused on the islands because they are so dependent on imports.

"This is a carbon-free fuel which will be good for the island and will break the dependency."

Hydrogen is used to power vehicles in parts of the US, Japan and Germany, and a number of manufacturers have commercially-available cars including Toyota, which only emit water. Japan plans to create an emission-free 'hydrogen society' over time.Ireland needs to hike carbon taxes on fossil fuels by at least 50pc to drive a move towards cleaner forms of energy and help tackle climate change.

The OECD says carbon taxes are not reducing energy consumption, improving energy efficiency or helping to tackle climate change - because they are too low across most countries.

A report on energy taxes says that countries including Ireland impose taxes on road transport - but not enough on coal and electricity generation, and that the levies imposed do not compensate for the environmental damage caused.

It also points to lower tax rates for diesel compared with petrol, despite diesel being more polluting and having a greater impact on air quality.

Data from the Department of Finance shows that environmental taxes amounted to 3.35bn in 2016. Carbon taxes are currently levied at 20 per tonne of emissions, but the OECD says the "minimum" figure should be 30.

If the Government hiked the tax to 30 per tonne, this would still not be high enough to encourage behavioural change, according to the OECD. But it would result in price hikes across petrol, diesel, home-heating fuels and coal, ranging from 2pc for a litre of petrol to 6.6pc on a 40kg bag of coal.

The rate of excise on a litre of petrol here is 58.7c, including a 4.6c carbon charge. This is the 11th highest rate in the EU. For diesel, it's 47.9c, including the 5.3c carbon tax, and we are ranked seventh.

The OECD study of 42 countries which account for 80pc of global energy use, says almost all climate taxes are "too low" and are falling "well short" of their potential to improve the climate and environment. Between 2012 and 2015, there has been little progress on implementing the "polluter pays" principle.

"Comparing taxes between 2012 and 2015 yields a disconcerting result," said OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria. "Efforts have been made, or are underway, in several jurisdictions to apply the polluter-pays principle but, on the whole, progress towards the more effective use of taxes to cut harmful emissions is slow and piecemeal. Governments should do more and better."

The 'Taxing Energy Use 2018' report says that governments had "joined forces" to fight climate change under the Paris climate deal, with deep cuts required to reduce emissions and prevent average global temperature rises above 2C.

"A bird's eye view of effective taxes per ton of CO2 across all countries reveals that there is hardly any change in the tax rates on emissions outside the road transport sector," it says, "Taxes continue to be poorly aligned with environmental and climate costs of energy use, across all countries."

It says that countries including Ireland impose "relatively high" taxes on oil, but practically none on coal, which is considered to have a more profound impact on emissions and air quality.

In 2015, outside of road transport where "meaningful" tax-rate increases have been imposed, 81pc of emissions were untaxed. Tax rates were below the low-end estimate of climate costs at 30 for 97pc of emissions.Who said romance is dead?

I think Ill be like an old cat lady whos just .. like .. alone

Disgusting. Oh my God please stop kissing.

Family life is full of firsts, including First Love, so what do Irish children think of it all?

Every family has their own unique make up, no matter what their circumstances and everyone has a particular opinion about the L-word.

Flowers, cards, chocolates, surprise proposals .. Ireland has a world-famous connection with Valentine's Day as couples from far flung destinations flock to visit the relics of Saint Valentine every year at Whitefriar Carmelite Church in Dublin.

What is love? Are your parents in love? What does love feel like? Vodafone Ireland asked Irish families to tell all. From butterflies in your stomach to helping out, doing stuff like cleaning, heres what they think ...

Vodafone Ireland is celebrating Family Firsts, looking at the constant changes (big and small) that make up family life. Whatever Family Firsts you experience, embrace them all. Go to Vodafone.ie for the latest offers for all the family.

Sponsored by:Kai Rooney on today's front page of The Sun

Kai Wayne Rooney, son of England's Wayne Rooney in the stands before the Round of 16 match at Stade de Nice, Nice

Coleen Rooney, wife of England's Wayne Rooney and their son Kai Wayne Rooney in the stands before the Round of 16 match at Stade de Nice

Coleen Rooney, wife of England's forward Wayne Rooney, attends the Euro 2016 round of 16 football match between England and Iceland at the Allianz Riviera stadium in Nice

Coleen Rooney has expressed her outrage at today's front page of The Sun - featuring her son Kai crying over England's Euros defeat.

The mother-of-three, who is married to English superstar Wayne, brought her eldest son to England's clash against Iceland on Monday.

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After his father's team lost, the six-year-old was pictured with his head in his hands visibly upset.

Coleen took to Twitter to comment on today's front page after facing a barrage of comments on the social media site.

Yes I've seen that front page and it's absolutely shocking!!  Coleen Rooney (@ColeenRoo) June 27, 2016

"Yes I've seen that front page and it's absolutely shocking," she said.

England's Euros campaign was a memorable one for Coleen, who last week was forced to defend her decision to take Kai out of school for a few days in order to see his dad play.

She said because he attends a private school, there is no fine for taking him out for the day, only saying they had "extra work to take with us" at the time.

She was pictured soaking up the sun in Nice earlier this week. Coleen and Wayne have three children together - Kai, Kaly (3) and Kit (five months).Kanye West and Lloyds of London have amicably resolved their 10 million dollar (7.1 million) row over the musicians cancelled tour.

The rappers firm, Very Good Touring, sued the London-based insurer and its syndicates claiming they were refusing to pay out by alleging his marijuana use was responsible for his medical condition.

Lloyds of London counter-sued, claiming it did not owe the musician a penny and pointed to drink and drugs clauses in its contract.

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But a judge in California dismissed the case on Wednesday after being requested to do so by lawyers from both sides.

Wests lawyer Howard King and the insurers attorney Paul Schrieffer both said they were unable to comment, other than to say the matter had been amicably resolved.

West, 40, cancelled the remaining 21 dates of his Saint Pablo tour and was treated at a psychiatric centre in Los Angeles in November 2016 after falling ill.

The initial lawsuit detailed how West quit while playing in Sacramento, California, because of his strained, confused and erratic behaviour.

He then spent eight days in a neuropsychiatric centre at UCLA where it was decided he could not go on with the tour, it added.

His behaviour also included pledging his support to then US presidential candidate Donald Trump and making controversial statements about Jay-Z and Beyonce.

The artist spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on insurance with Lloyds to cover the costs of a cancellation but was yet to receive a payment when he launched the action in August.

Mr King had dismissed the allegation that cannabis use led to his serious, debilitating medical condition.

Lawyers for Lloyds of London denied implying Wests use of marijuana provides the sole basis to deny the claim and said there were substantial irregularities in his medical history.

Los Angeles federal court Judge Charles Eick dismissed the case and ordered both sides to pay their own fees and costs.

Very Good Touring had sued for more than 9,861,000 dollars (7,034,000) in damages and demanded interest over the allegation of breach of contract.Victoria Smurfit has opened up about a family holiday in South Africa where a local gang opened fire on her car.

The Irish actress (43) is spending time on our shores before returning to her adopted home of Los Angeles and popped into RTE studios to chat to The Ray D'Arcy Show on Wednesday. Smurfit, who will be appearing on BBC drama Marcella and attending tonight's IFTA Awards, detailed the trip with her ex-husband Doug Baxter, her mother Caroline, her brother and sister-in-law when the incident happened.

"We were driving this very dark, quite empty street, but a man street, and I saw a wine shop with my mother's name on it and said jokingly, 'Jaysus, we'll leave you here'. As I pop my head out the window, I could see a couple of fellas out the corner of my eye and suddenly all the air got sucked outside the car - a bullet came in the window to my right behind my head and shot right through behind my husband's head, missed a balloon and went straight out the other window," she explained.

At the time, she said she could see her arm was bleeding, but was too scared to look behind her in case her mother had been hit.

"I shouted, 'is everyone okay?' and my brother shouted, 'Driver, go, go, go!' like they do in the films because the taxi driver slowed up," she said. "We sped back to where we were staying and as we got out of the car, the windows shattered around us and all you could hear around us ws Happy New Year."

The experience left her shook, saying it was, 'Kill a Tourist Day' and "probably part of a gang initiation."

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The mother-of-three has been uncharacteristically vocal in recent interviews as she normally prefers to keep details of her private life away from prying eyes, but shared last month that she and her boyfriend of two years, filmmaker Alistair Ramsden, had split.

"I am not with Al any more. We haven't been together since the start of the summer. It came to a natural conclusion. But he doesn't live far away, so he's still a great pal. There was no drama whatsoever. I could write a book on how to stay friends with your exes. I am brilliant at it," she said.It began with an early morning police raid and ended with the resignation of the president, who finally bowed to pressure in front of the cameras.

South Africa woke up to news that an elite police team had arrested three people at the home of the Guptas, a family linked to corruption - which they deny - engulfing Jacob Zuma's final year in office.

By the afternoon, Mr Zuma had appeared on television in a planned interview in which he seemed to defy an ultimatum from his party to step down before a vote of no confidence.

But in a stunning U-turn, he later returned to face the cameras and resigned from office late yesterday, saying that though he did not agree with his party's decision to recall him, he would abide by their instruction.

"I have served the people of South Africa to the best of my ability. I am forever grateful they trusted me with their highest office of the land," Mr Zuma said in a televised statement in Pretoria late last night.

Mr Zuma added that he was concerned about violence breaking out between ANC members as the party grew more divided. "No life should be lost in my name, and also the ANC should never be divided in my name," he said. "I have therefore come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect."

At his earlier television appearance he had said he didn't know why South Africa's ruling party had ordered him to step down from his job before his term is up next year, and warned that the leaders forcing him out would regret their actions.

"It's the first time I've felt an African National Congress decision is not right," the long-time ANC member and anti-apartheid struggle veteran said. "I don't think it is fair."

On Tuesday, the ANC announced they had ordered Mr Zuma to leave his office, and that party officials expected the president to respond the next day. But as yesterday morning passed with no word from the Union Buildings in Pretoria, the party issued an ultimatum: Mr Zuma could resign voluntarily by the end of the day, or the party planned to vote him out in a motion of no confidence today.

"We are all in agreement that the president must go," said Jackson Mthembu, the chief whip, said after a meeting of ANC lawmakers in Cape Town.

The Johannesburg home of the Guptas, a wealthy business family whose relationship to Mr Zuma has been under national scrutiny, was raided by the Hawks, a special police unit.

Three business associates were arrested in the raid and two others handed themselves in to police later.

A lawyer for the Guptas said that the brothers had not been among those arrested. ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Zimbabwe's veteran opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has died aged 65, bringing an end to his long campaign to lead his country. He had been having treatment for colon cancer in neighbouring South Africa.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]An animal shelter in Canada is going viral after creating Tinder profiles for its feline residents.

Overpopulation of cats in Saskatchewan is a huge problem, says Jasmine Hanson of the Saskatoon SPCA.

Usually we see our volume of cats at its peak around springtime with stray cats having litters of babies, but this hasnt let up, and we are right full to capacity with cats available for adoption.

To help find these cats a new home, the Saskatoon SPCA has set up Kittinder, showing off their best headshots and pithy quotes about their likes and dislikes.

Feeling lonely this Valentines Day? Theres no better friend than a feline friend check out some of our current Posted by Saskatoon SPCA on Wednesday, February 14, 2018

OK, it isnt a real app, but merely mock-ups of profiles, but that doesnt make them any less adorable.

Hansons colleague Tricia McAuley came up with the idea to release the Kittinder profiles on Valentines Day.

We know that Valentines Day can be lonely for some, and we wanted to do something fun that reminded people about the benefits of animal companionship, said Hanson.

We spend a lot of time with these cats, as some of them spend upwards of a month on our adoption floor before finding their forever homes, and we wanted to create something that would help illustrate the big personalities we see in our feline friends.

The profiles of the cats in their custody include snappy quotes like started as a stray now Im here and I LOVE conspiracy theories and reading true crime novels.

The best thing about the profiles is that they appear to be working already  less that 24 hours after the charity posted them on social media.

Weve had a ton of interest in these cats on Facebook, and were getting lots of attention on Instagram, Twitter, and Imgur as well, said Hanson.

(3/4) Feeling lonely this Valentineas Day? Thereas no better friend than a feline frienda check out some of our current adoptablesa aKittindera profiles! You might just find your perfect matcha #yxe #adopt #swiperight ai pic.twitter.com/prgsHMcMc8  Saskatoon SPCA (@SaskatoonSPCA) February 14, 2018

We are seeing adoption applications coming in for some of the cats, and were confident that we will be able to find wonderful homes for them all, eventually.

None of our adoptable animals ever have a time limit, so we will continue to do everything we can to find them happy forever homes, no matter how long that may take.

Fingers crossed this lovely lot find new homes fast!Australian Deputy Prime Minster Barnaby Joyce, right, listens to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, center, during a session in the Australian Parliament in Canberra, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. Joyce survived a Parliamentary vote that threatened his political career after the opposition Labor Party called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to fire his deputy for breaching standards of behavior demanded of government ministers. (AP Photo/Rod McGuirk)

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Thursday banned sex between ministers and staff and rounded on his deputy for a "shocking error of judgment" by having an affair with a press secretary.

Deputy Australian Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, a Catholic who campaigned on "family values" and married for 24 years, is expecting a child with his former staffer in April.

Turnbull denounced the affair at a press conference in Canberra after a week in which the scandal threw his centre-right government into turmoil and strained the alliance between his Liberal Party and Joyce's National Party.

He stopped short of sacking Joyce, which would have put the government's narrow one-seat majority at risk were he expelled from parliament.

But Turnbull said the scandal had prompted overdue changes to ministerial conduct rules, and announced new standards broadly similar to a ban on relationships between lawmakers and staffers adopted last week by U.S Congress.

"In 2018, it is not acceptable for a minister to have a sexual relationship with somebody who works for them. It is a very bad workplace practice. And everybody knows that no good comes of it," he said.

"Ministers, regardless of whether they are married or single, must not engage in sexual relations with staff. Doing so will constitute a breach of the standards."

He said the changes take effect "as of today" and that Joyce will "have to consider his own position" as leader of the National Party.

Turnbull said earlier Joyce would take a week's break next week, which avoids the need for him to fill in as acting prime minister during Turnbull's scheduled visit to meet U.S President Donald Trump in Washington next week.

The week off comes after an opinion poll showed support for Joyce, a plain-spoken small-town accountant turned politician, had tumbled in his rural electorate.

The percentage of voters backing him crashed to 43 percent, according to the ReachTEL poll published in Fairfax newspapers on Thursday, down from the 63 percent margin he won at a by-election in December.

He also faces intensifying pressure over his failure to declare the relationship with his former press secretary, Vikki Campion, when she was hired for two highly-paid government positions outside his office.

And there are questions about Joyce's acceptance, rent-free, of a townhouse belonging to a wealthy friend, Greg Maguire, and whether Joyce broke ministerial rules forbidding asking for gifts. Joyce denied asking for the townhouse.

"Most people would realise that at the time of a marriage break-up, it is not unusual for those who you are close to, to offer support," he told parliament.

"Mr Maguire approached me...he said: 'You're living out of a suitcase, and this is basically something that I should try and help you with.' I took him up on the offer but I offered to pay for it."

He has also said he did not break any rules over Campion's employment because she was not his "partner" at the time.Australias prime minister has banned his ministers from having sex with staff as his deputy battled for political survival over revelations that he is expecting a baby with a former press secretary.

Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull accused Barnaby Joyce of making a shocking error of judgment by having an office affair which had hurt his wife, his four daughters and his new partner, who is due to give birth in April.

He has set off a world of woe for those women and appalled all of us, Mr Turnbull told reporters.

Ministers, regardless of whether they are married or single, must not engage in sexual relations with their staff, he said, stating a new rule that his cabinet must now adhere to.

LIVE now making a statement from Parliament House https://t.co/JGgQXBtFAn  Malcolm Turnbull  (@TurnbullMalcolm) February 15, 2018

Since news of the impending birth broke last week, Mr Turnbull has supported Mr Joyce and declined to comment on his personal circumstances out of respect for his estranged wife of 24 years and children.

Last week, the PM talked down the prospect of Australia following the US House of Representatives by banning legislators from having sex with staff, saying they were entitled to private lives.

But with the opposition questioning whether Mr Joyce had breached the governments guidelines for ministerial conduct, Mr Turnbull announced on Thursday that his deputy will not serve as acting prime minister when Mr Turnbull travels to the US next week.

Motions to have Mr Joyce fired were defeated in the Senate and House of Representatives on Thursday.

Mr Turnbull had said as recently as Wednesday that Mr Joyce would act as prime minister, which is the usual role of his deputy, but the PM said the government would be led in his absence by its Senate leader, Mathias Cormann, because Mr Joyce was taking leave for a week.

He has set off a world of woe for those women and appalled all of usMalcolm Turnbull

Mr Joyce has said his marriage breakdown and his current relationship with Vikki Campion are private matters.

But questions have been raised about her employment in two government jobs after working in Mr Joyces office and the rent-free apartment owned by a wealthy political donor where Mr Joyce and Ms Campion now live.

My personal circumstances have been up hill, down dale in this last week. I accept that and that is the price of a political life, Mr Joyce said in his first speech in parliament discussing the relationship since the reports surfaced.

His National party, the junior coalition partner, held a crisis meeting on Wednesday over whether he should continue as its leader.

Party president Larry Anthony said it had resolved to give him more time to ride out his controversies.

Its been an extraordinarily difficult time for the  party and clearly for Barnaby Joyce and his family and for the government, Mr Anthony told reporters.

Its important people think very carefully about making any significant decisions. You are never wise to make decisions in the heat of the moment. Barnaby should be given time.The role of heavyweight City banks and law firms in the collapse of Carillion has come under scrutiny by MPs investigating the construction giants demise.

Parliaments Business and Pensions Committees have written to investment banking giants Morgan Stanley and Lazard, as well as Magic Circle law firm Slaughter & May, as part of a joint inquiry into the debacle.

The Square Mile companies have been asked to provide information regarding advice they gave to Carillion executives before the companys collapse in January, and detail fees that were received.

MPs Frank Field and Rachel Reeves, who are leading the inquiry, have also asked if the fees charged were contingent on certain outcomes and if their advice was acted upon.

Carillions collapse left in its wake a 900 million debt pile, a 590 million pension deficit, and hundreds of millions of pounds in unfinished public contracts.

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The investigation of banks and law firms comes after Britains big four accountancy firms were savaged by the MPs, who accused them of feasting on the carcass of Carillion and collecting more than 70 million in the process.

In a breakdown of fees collected by KPMG, PwC, Deloitte and EY, the committees claimed the professional services firms pocketed a total of 71.6 million in Carillion-related work over 10 years.

Former Carillion directors have also been ordered to answer further questions following a grilling in front of MPs earlier this month.

Former finance chief Zafar Khan has been asked to clarify the terms of his departure, including whether a non-disclosure agreement was attached to it.

Ex-chief executive Richard Howson has been further probed over a Carillion contract in Qatar, which was cited as a contributory factor in the firms collapse, and asked how much he was paid for work in the Middle East state after he was removed as CEO.

Keith Cochrane, who was at the helm in January, must clarify his interaction with the institutional investors and provide clarification about a contradiction over negotiations with the main pension schemes trustee.

Among others to receive requests for further information are Qatari contractor Msheireb and organisations that were left stranded by Carillions failure.

They include the Royal Liverpool Hospital, Aberdeen Road, The Hospital Company and the Crown Commercial Service.President Donald Trump struck a solemn tone after the deadly school shooting in Florida, describing a scene of terrible violence, hatred and evil and promising to tackle the difficult issue of mental health, but avoiding any mention of guns.

Taking up the now-familiar ritual of public consolation after terrible violence, Mr Trump spoke from the White House Diplomatic Room. In a slow, deliberate style, he sought to reassure a troubled nation as well as students families and shooting survivors in Florida.

We are all joined together as one American family, and your suffering is our burden also, Mr Trump said. No child, no teacher, should ever be in danger in an American school.

The presidents address came a day after a former student opened fire at the Parkland, Florida, high school with an AR-15 rifle, killing 17 people and injuring 14 more. It was the nations deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, more than five years ago.

At the Capitol, the usual divisions over gun laws were evident.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said in a statement it was time for action. Congress has a moral responsibility to take common-sense action to prevent the daily tragedy of gun violence in communities across America, she said. Enough is enough.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, did not mention guns as he said the Senate would observe a moment of silence at noon. To say that such brutal, pointless violence is unconscionable is an understatement, he said.

Before he was a candidate, Mr Trump at one point favoured some stricter gun restrictions. However, early in his administration, he told the National Rifle Association he was their friend and champion. He signed a resolution passed by the Republican-led Congress blocking an Obama-era rule designed to keep guns out of the hands of certain mentally disabled people.

Mr Trump, who owns a private club in Palm Beach, Florida about 40 miles from Parkland, said on Thursday he was making plans to visit the grieving community. He praised teachers and emergency personnel and also offered a direct message to children.

I want you to know that you are never alone and you never will be, Mr Trump said. You have people who care about you who love you and who will do anything at all to protect you. If you need help, turn to a teacher, a family member, a local police officer or a faith leader. Answer hate with love, answer cruelty with kindness.

Mr Trump pledged that his administration would work with state and local officials on improving school safety, saying: It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference, we must actually make that difference.

Mr Trump, who did not speak publicly immediately after the shooting, weighed in on Twitter early Thursday, calling the suspect mentally disturbed and stressing it was important to report such instances to authorities, again and again! He tweeted about the shooting twice on Wednesday, expressing condolences and saying he spoke with Floridas governor.

The president also issued a proclamation mourning the victims and ordering American flags at public buildings across the country flown at half-mast.

His predecessor Barack Obama tweeted to reiterate his belief that gun laws needed to be addressed.

Mr Obama tweeted: We are grieving with Parkland. But we are not powerless. Caring for our kids is our first job. And until we can honestly say that were doing enough to keep them safe from harm, including long overdue, common-sense gun safety laws that most Americans want, then we have to change.

We are grieving with Parkland. But we are not powerless. Caring for our kids is our first job. And until we can honestly say that we're doing enough to keep them safe from harm, including long overdue, common-sense gun safety laws that most Americans want, then we have to change.  Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 15, 2018

The 19-year-old suspect, Nikolas Cruz, is a troubled teenager who posted disturbing material on social media. He had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for disciplinary reasons, Broward County, Florida, Sheriff Scott Israel said.

A Twitter account apparently from a student at the school had earlier reacted angrily to Mr Trumps initial suggestion of prayers in response to the tragedy.

The account @chaddiedabaddie, which says it belongs to the girl attending Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, near Fort Lauderdale, replied: I dont want your condolences you f****** price (sic) of shit, my friends and teachers were shot.

Multiple of my fellow classmates are dead. Do something instead of sending prayers.

Prayers wont fix this. But Gun control will prevent it from happening again.

She had earlier tweeted: Today has been the worst day of my life. Ive been crying helplessly for hours. Thank you to everyone for your support. Im going to try to sleep now.

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Morgan Williams described on Twitter how her friends were killed as the gunman roamed through the school corridors.

She said: I cannot stop hearing the sound of the gun as he walked down my hallway. I cannot unsee my classmates who were shot get carried out by police. I cannot unsee the bodies on the floor. Please keep in mind the horror of what weve gone through today. #prayfordouglas

I cannot stop hearing the sound of the gun as he walked down my hallway. I cannot unsee my classmates who were shot get carried out by police. I cannot unsee the bodies on the floor. Please keep in mind the horror of what weave gone through today. #prayfordouglas  Morgan Williams (@morganw_44) February 15, 2018

She added: Never in a million years did I think I would have ever gone through this. There is no reason why I should have had to run past deceased friends and classmates to get to safety because there isnt a control on how easy it is to get a gun.

Never in a million years did i think i would have EVER gone through this. There is NO reason why i should have had to run past deceased friends and classmates to get to safety because there isnat a control on how easy it is to get a gun. #stonemandouglas #parkland  Morgan Williams (@morganw_44) February 14, 2018

Other students posted social media footage of the siege under way.

One user, Aidan Minoff, appeared to be taking shelter under tables alongside his school mates.

He wrote on Twitter: My school is being shot up and I am locked inside. Im f****** scared right nowGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel talks to Andrea Nahles, who is expected to be named as the SPDs new leader in April. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) must seize the opportunity to reform the EU in a new governing alliance with Chancellor Angela Merkel, the party's interim leader said yesterday in appealing to members to back their coalition deal.

The SPD's 464,000 members vote in a postal ballot beginning next Tuesday on whether the party should go ahead with the agreement its leaders clinched last week to renew their power-sharing alliance with Ms Merkel's conservative bloc.

Olaf Scholz, appointed SPD interim leader on Tuesday, said EU reform plans included in the coalition agreement were a strong reason to back the deal.

"The window of opportunity is now, not in five or 10 years - maybe then it won't be there any more," he told party members in Vilshofen, Bavaria. "We need to act now."

The coalition deal envisages stronger Franco-German co-operation, allocating budget funds for economic stabilisation in Europe, and increased German contributions to the EU budget.

But EU reform is an issue that fails to resonate with many party members who are more concerned with jobs.

Many within the SPD harbour misgivings about sharing power with Ms Merkel, believing the party should rebuild in opposition after suffering its worst result in last September's election since Germany became a federal republic in 1949.

Results of the ballot are due on March 4.

A "no" vote would likely lead to new elections, prolonging uncertainty in Europe's most populous country.

The SPD has slid into disarray since its leaders struck the coalition deal, blighted by bitter divisions over whether to join the coalition, a loss of confidence in outgoing leader Martin Schulz, and discontent over the succession process.

Seeking to restore order, Mr Schulz resigned with immediate effect on Tuesday and party leaders installed Mr Scholz as caretaker SPD chairman. They also confirmed that they recommended parliamentary floor leader Andrea Nahles as Mr Schulz's longer-term successor.

The manner in which Mr Schulz originally anointed Ms Nahles as his successor - without broad consultation - rankled with many in the party and resulted in Mr Scholz being appointed as interim leader.

An extraordinary party congress will be held on April 22 to pick a new leader, likely Ms Nahles.Benjamin Netanyahu is the dominant Israeli politician of his generation. On the domestic and international stage, no rival comes close to the veteran Likud Party leader known widely as "Bibi".

Israeli police on Tuesday recommended that the 67-year-old, four-term prime minister be indicted for bribery in two cases.

It is by no means certain that Netanyahu will be indicted. The police can only make recommendations. It is now up to Israel's attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, to decide whether to press charges. That decision could take months.

But the very fact the leader of Israel's ruling right-wing coalition is being scrutinised by prosecutors will likely affect the political calculations of his supporters, rivals and opponents within his own coalition, and across the political spectrum.

Netanyahu is under no strict legal obligation to quit following the police recommendations. Indeed, he has given every indication that he intends to remain in office while pursuing a legal battle.

There has been little public pressure from coalition partners for him to step down, although that could change as fellow politicians and the Israeli public study details of the cases.

There was speculation before the police recommendations were made public on Tuesday that Netanyahu might call early elections, seeking a public mandate that would make a prosecutor think twice before moving against him.

However, several polls in recent months have shown his popularity ebbing. Netanyahu said in a televised address on Tuesday night that he was "certain" the next elections would be held on schedule. They are not due until November 2019.

Hawkish

Netanyahu has been in power on and off since 1996. The son of a hawkish Israeli historian, he was born in Tel Aviv in 1949 and moved to the United States in the 1960s when his father got an academic job there.

He is the middle of three brothers, all of whom served in elite Israeli commando units. The eldest, Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu, became a national hero after he was killed in 1976 leading an assault team that stormed Entebbe Airport in Uganda to rescue Israelis and other airline passengers taken hostage by radical Palestinian and West German hijackers.

Netanyahu says his brother's death "changed my life and directed it to its present course".

Telegenic, and speaking fluent American-accented English, he first gained domestic and international attention as Israel's ambassador to the United Nations during the first Palestinian intifada (uprising) that broke out in 1987. He used this as a springboard to secure the leadership of the right-wing Likud party, running on a platform of opposition to the 1993 Oslo interim peace accords that were spearheaded by then-US president Bill Clinton, Israel's then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. But Rabin was assassinated in 1995 and Netanyahu was elected prime minister the following year, the youngest-ever Israeli to hold the position and the first to be born in Israel.

A cloud over Netanyahu's political future would compound the uncertainty surrounding prospects for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that collapsed in 2014.

If Netanyahu steps down, a successor from within Likud would need the support of the party's hardline central committee, which passed a non-binding resolution in December calling for annexation of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, captured by Israel in a 1967 war and which Palestinians want for a future state.

Recent tensions along the Syrian and Lebanese borders have not so far proved to be a major factor in domestic political calculations, as even Netanyahu's political opponents say they do not believe his legal troubles would affect his decision-making on security matters.A protester holds a sign bearing a cartoon of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara sitting in a jacuzzi tub holding a cigar and a bottle of champagne respectively, during a demonstration calling upon him to resign in front of Netanyahus residence in Jerusalem yesterday. Photo: Menahem Kahana/Getty

A defiant Benjamin Netanyahu vowed last night to continue to lead Israel faithfully.

He was speaking as the Israeli police recommended that he be charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

The police decision was long expected but it still landed like a bombshell and many Israeli commentators are saying openly that Mr Netanyahu's 11 years in power are coming to an end.

But Mr Netanyahu has forcefully denied any wrongdoing and said he will not resign, so there is still a long process ahead on both the legal and political fronts.

The recommendations made by Israel's police are just that - recommendations. The final decision on whether or not Mr Netanyahu will be charged lies with Avichai Mandelblit, Israel's attorney general.

Mr Mandelblit was appointed by the prime minister and previously served as Mr Netanyahu's cabinet secretary. Before that he was a military prosecutor and a judge.

Expand Close Israeli attorney general Avichai Mandelblit (l), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (c) and the chief of the Israeli police, Commissioner Roni Alsheikh / Facebook

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He has tried to keep a low profile in government but that became impossible as the public realised he would eventually hold Mr Netanyahu's fate in his hands.

Mr Mandelblit and his lawyers will now study the police recommendations.

If they feel there is sufficient evidence they will announce they are considering an indictment. There will then be a hearing and Mr Netanyahu will have a chance to try to convince prosecutors not to charge him.

After that the decision on whether to charge is up to Mr Mandelblit.

The decision process could take weeks or months, although politicians have urged the attorney general to move quickly to settle the uncertainty hanging over Israel's leadership. Mr Netanyahu has been in this situation twice before. In 1997, amid a scandal over political appointments, and in 2000, after being accused of illegally taking items from the prime minister's residence when he left office, police recommended that he should be prosecuted. Both times prosecutors declined to bring an indictment.

Even if Mr Netanyahu is formally charged with a crime, there is no legal requirement for him to resign. Whether he can survive politically is another matter.

Investigations

The Israeli leader said that the police investigations were simply the latest of 15 different probes that had been launched against him to try to force him from power.

"Every single one of these attempts, without exception, led to nothing. I know the truth, so I can tell you, this time it will also lead to nothing," he said.

But while Mr Netanyahu says he is confident he will be exonerated on the legal front, he has a complex political task ahead to hold on to his job.

The first threat is from the leaders of his partner parties within his coalition government. Mr Netanyahu heads the Likud, the largest party in Israel's parliament, but he relies on five smaller parties for his majority. So far, the other party leaders have said they will not pull out of the coalition and bring down the government. They said they will wait instead for the attorney general's final decision.

Naftali Bennett, the education minister and head of the right-wing Jewish Home Party, said Mr Netanyahu was "not living up" to moral standards but said he would wait for prosecutors to decide.

Moshe Kahlon, the finance minister and head of the centrist Kulanu party, called for the legal process to be allowed to play out "in an orderly, professional and level-headed manner".

But Mr Netanyahu's partners could change their stance as the Israeli public digests the news of the police recommendations. They could decide it was damaging them to stay in government with a man accused of accepting bribes.

Or they might see a political opportunity for themselves if Mr Netanyahu's poll numbers sink and they come to believe that they could benefit at his expense during an early election.

If the attorney general does decide to charge Mr Netanyahu, then his position becomes perilous and probably untenable.

His coalition partners are likely to walk out, triggering new elections.SWAT and police are seen in Coral Springs, Florida, U.S. February 14, 2018 in this image obtained from social media. Credit: TWITTER / @GRUMPYHAUS via REUTERS

The school where a gunman opened fire shortly before class was dismissed for the day had only recently had a meeting about what to do in the event of such an attack.

The violence erupted shortly before dismissal at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, about 72 km north of Miami. Live television footage showed students streaming out of the building as dozens of police and emergency services personnel swarmed the area.

Staff and students told local media that a fire alarm went off around the time the shooting started, sparking chaos as some 3,000 students at the school first headed into hallways before teachers herded them back into classrooms, to seek shelter in closets.

Kyle Yeoward, a 16-year-old junior, told Reuters he was in the bathroom on the second floor of the building on the campus where most of the shooting took place, when he heard two shots.

Expand Close A firetruck is seen near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following a shooting incident in Parkland, Florida, U.S. February 14, 2018 in this still image from a video obtained by social media. Instagram/@Dann_Edu/via REUTERS / Facebook

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Whatsapp A firetruck is seen near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following a shooting incident in Parkland, Florida, U.S. February 14, 2018 in this still image from a video obtained by social media. Instagram/@Dann_Edu/via REUTERS

"He let loose on the freshman building," Yeoward said.

The school had recently held a meeting to discuss what to do in such an attack, Ryan Gott, a 15-year-old freshman told CNN.

McKenzie Hartley (19) who identified herself as the sister of a student at the school described the scene in a text message to Reuters: "She heard him shooting through the windows of classrooms and two students were shot."

Panicked parents checked on their children.

Read More

"It is just absolutely horrifying. I can't believe this is happening," Lissette Rozenblat, whose daughter goes to the school, told CNN. Her daughter called her to say she was safe but the student also told her mother she heard the cries of a person who was shot.

"She was very nervous. She said that she could hear the person who was shot crying out for help," she said.

Televised images showed dozens of students, their arms in the air, weaving their way between law enforcement officers with heavy weapons and helmets, and large numbers of emergency vehicles including police cars, ambulances and fire trucks.

"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting," U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter. "No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school."

Parent John Obin said his son, a student at the school, was in class when he heard several shots.

The father said his son advised that teachers quickly rushed students out of the school.

"This is a really good school, and now it's like a war zone," Mr Obin said.

The suspected shooter, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, was an ex-student of the school who was expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons.

Additional reporting by Press AssociationPolice and rescue workers attend the scene near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following a shooting incident in Parkland, Florida, U.S. February 14, 2018 in a still image taken from a video. WSVN.com via REUTERS.

Students released from a lockdown embrace following following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

Students released from a lockdown are overcome with emotion following following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

Students hold their hands in the air as they are evacuated by police from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, after a shooter opened fire on the campus. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

The man accused of opening fire at a Florida high school on Wednesday, killing 17 people, was a troubled former student who loved guns and was expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons, police and former classmates said.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, was arrested about an hour after a shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters.

Expand Close Students released from a lockdown are overcome with emotion following following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Students released from a lockdown are overcome with emotion following following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

Cruz, who had been expelled from the school for reasons that have not been made public, was found with multiple ammunition magazines and one AR-15-style rifle, Israel said.

"We already began to dissect his websites and the things on social media that he was on and some of the things that came to mind are very, very disturbing," Israel said.

Chad Williams, 18, a senior at Stoneman Douglas High school, remembered Cruz as a troubled classmate from middle school. He said Cruz would set off the fire alarm, day after day, and finally got expelled in the eighth grade.

More recently, Williams saw Cruz carrying several publications about guns when they ran into each other at the high school. Williams thought Cruz was there to pick up a younger sibling.

"He was crazy about guns," Williams told Reuters by the side of the road near the high school. "He was kind of an outcast. He didn't have many friends. He would do anything crazy for a laugh, but he was trouble."

Jillian Davis, 19, said she was in a school Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps with Cruz in the 9th grade. She remembered him as a quiet and shy young man who would almost change personality when angry. He talked a lot about guns and knives but no one took him seriously, she told Reuters.

Expand Close Students released from a lockdown embrace following following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Students released from a lockdown embrace following following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

"I would say he was not the most normal or sane kid in JROTC. He definitely had a little something off about him. He was a little extra quirky," said Davis, who graduated from the school last year.

Math teacher Jim Gard told the Miami Herald Cruz had been banned from returning to campus while carrying a backpack.

"There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus," Gard told the newspaper in an interview.

Administrators sent an email to teachers warning them about Cruz, Gard told the paper.

Expand Close Police and rescue workers attend the scene near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following a shooting incident in Parkland, Florida, U.S. February 14, 2018 in a still image taken from a video. WSVN.com via REUTERS. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Police and rescue workers attend the scene near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following a shooting incident in Parkland, Florida, U.S. February 14, 2018 in a still image taken from a video. WSVN.com via REUTERS.

Another student, 17-year-old junior Dakota Mutchler, told reporters at a hotel in nearby Coral Springs that he hadn't spoken with Cruz in more than a year. Students were reuniting with their parents and friends at the hotel.

Mutchler said he declined to communicate with Cruz, a former friend, after the suspect contacted him two weeks ago on Snapchat.

"Everybody that knew of him had a sort of suspicion about him," Mutchler said. Cruz had once told him he had used a pellet gun in his backyard for target practice, he said.

Travis Julmice, an 18-year-old senior, said he had not been in a class with Cruz since middle school.

"You could tell he was a little off," Julmice told Reuters at the Coral Springs hotel. "He was always like a troubled kid, getting in-school suspension a lot. And detentions."

However, Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters outside the school after the shooting that the school had no indication Cruz was a danger.

"Typically, you see in these situations that there potentially could have been signs out there," he said. "But we didn't have any warnings, there weren't any phone calls or threats that we know of that were made."

Runcie later said Cruz was still a student at Broward County Public Schools but declined to provide further details.

Israel said earlier Cruz may have been enrolled at Taravella High School in Coral Springs after his expulsion but the sheriff did not know if Cruz still attended Taravella.

Swat teams swarmed the school, and the gunman was arrested without incident off campus.

Television footage showed police putting a person in the back of a police car outside the high school.

The sheriff said the gunman had at least one rifle and multiple magazines, and most of the fatalities were inside the building though some were found outside.

The suspect was later identified as Nikolas Cruz.

There were scenes of students frantically running from the building and ambulance crews treating people outside the school on Wednesday afternoon.

Broward County Superintendent Robert Runcie said: "There are numerous fatalities. It is a horrific situation."

He added: "It is a horrible day for us."

The White House cancelled its daily press briefing following the news and President Donald Trump has spoken with Florida governor Rick Scott.

The president tweeted: "My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting.

"No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school."

Parent John Obin said his son, a student at the school, was in class when he heard several shots.

The father said his son advised that teachers quickly rushed students out of the school.

"This is a really good school, and now it's like a war zone," Mr Obin said.

Coral Springs Police said earlier on Twitter that the school had been locked down and that students and teachers inside should remain barricaded until police reached them.

Outside, television footage showed two people on stretchers and another person being treated on the ground near the school.

Paramedics were treating those who appeared to be students with injuries.

Len Murray, whose 17-year-old son attends the school, was stopped by authorities within view of the building.

He said: "I'm scared for the other parents here. You can see the concern in everybody's faces.

"Everybody is asking: 'Have you heard from your child yet?'"This photo provided by passenger Haley Ebert shows damage to an engine after parts came off the jet during the flight. Photo: AP

Passengers on a United Airlines flight to Hawaii have described hearing a "bang" before the plane "really started shaking", with one calling it the "scariest flight of my life".

Flight 1175, which was on a scheduled five-and-a-half-hour flight to Honolulu from San Francisco, landed safely on Tuesday in Hawaii after an engine cover had come off during the flight from California, the airline said.

"Our pilots followed all necessary protocols to safely land the aircraft," United said in a statement.

It added that all the passengers had departed the Boeing 777 normally at the gate.

The airliner landed as emergency responders were waiting nearby, said Hawaii Department of Transportation spokesman Tim Sakahara.

Images were posted on social media showing an engine with the exterior cover missing as the plane was approaching Honolulu.

Video shows the engine shaking back and forth, with pieces of the cover flapping in the wind.

"There was a loud bang ... and then the plane really started shaking," one of the passengers, Allison Sudiacal, told Hawaii News Now.

"There was a loud boom and then it was like rattling, and the plane was kind of shaking, like boom, boom, boom," she told the news outlet.

Ms Sudiacal was travelling with her four-month-old son, her husband, Tim, and his parents.

"They let us know that we had to brace for impact in case there was a rough landing," she said. "It was scary. But they did a really good job," Ms Sudiacal added.

Scariest

Erik Haddad, a Google engineer who was on board the flight, posted a picture of the exposed engine on Twitter.

He jokingly tweeted: "I don't see anything about this in the manual."

Another of the passengers, Maria Falaschi, said that the crew did a "great job" but it was the "scariest flight of my life".

"You could tell everyone was scared. But the crew and pilots did a great job," she added.

Passenger Haley Ebert told the 'New York Times' that she heard a "huge bam" as part of the casing came away from the engine.

"Everyone on our side flung open their windows, just to see what it was," Ms Ebert said. "The casing to the engine had sort of flown off. There were pieces flying into the ocean, nuts and bolts flying out a little bit. A bolt hit the wing, and it just made this huge bam."

An emergency was declared due to a vibration in the right engine, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor.

In an email, he added that the agency will investigate the incident.Police officers arrest a suspect after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida. Photo: WSVN.com via REUTERS

A gunman opened fire at a Florida high school killing 17 people.

Sheriff Scott Israel of Broward County said the 19-year-old suspect is in custody.

The suspect, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland was previously expelled for disciplinary reasons.

Swat teams swarmed the school, and the gunman was arrested without incident off campus.

Television footage showed police putting a person in the back of a police car outside the high school.

The sheriff said the gunman had at least one rifle and multiple magazines, and most of the fatalities were inside the building though some were found outside.

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The suspect was later identified as Nicholas Cruz.

There were scenes of students frantically running from the building and ambulance crews treating people outside the school on Wednesday afternoon.

Broward County Superintendent Robert Runcie said: "There are numerous fatalities. It is a horrific situation."

He added: "It is a horrible day for us."

Expand Close A student is overcome with emotion after being released from a school lockdown. (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp A student is overcome with emotion after being released from a school lockdown. (John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

The White House cancelled its daily press briefing following the news and President Donald Trump has spoken with Florida governor Rick Scott.

The president tweeted: "My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting.

"No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school."

Parent John Obin said his son, a student at the school, was in class when he heard several shots.

The father said his son advised that teachers quickly rushed students out of the school.

"This is a really good school, and now it's like a war zone," Mr Obin said.

Coral Springs Police said earlier on Twitter that the school had been locked down and that students and teachers inside should remain barricaded until police reached them.

Outside, television footage showed two people on stretchers and another person being treated on the ground near the school.

Paramedics were treating those who appeared to be students with injuries.

Len Murray, whose 17-year-old son attends the school, was stopped by authorities within view of the building.

He said: "I'm scared for the other parents here. You can see the concern in everybody's faces.

"Everybody is asking: 'Have you heard from your child yet?'"Nikolas Cruz appears in a police booking photo after being charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder following a Parkland school shooting, at Broward County Jail in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S. February 15, 2018.

The 19-year-old suspect in the deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school is being held on 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Nikolas Crus is being booked into jail after being questioned for hours by state and US federal authorities.

Television footage showed Cruz being escorted by sheriff's deputies from the Broward Sheriff's headquarters to the county jail in Fort Lauderdale early on Thursday morning.

Seventeen people were killed as gunfire erupted at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School just before classes ended on Wednesday afternoon.

Cruz was captured in a quiet neighbourhood about two miles from the school. Sheriff's officials said in an email that Cruz was initially taken to a hospital for laboured breathing before being questioned at sheriff's headquarters.

President Donald Trump tweeted: "So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!"A firetruck is seen near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following a shooting incident in Parkland, Florida, U.S. February 14, 2018 in this still image from a video obtained by social media. Instagram/@Dann_Edu/via REUTERS

Students are evacuated from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during a shooting incident in Parkland, Florida, U.S. February 14, 2018 in a still image from video. WSVN.com via REUTERS

A former student at a Florida high school opened fire in the school on Wednesday, leaving 17 dead before he was arrested by police, authorities said.

The Broward County Sheriff's Department there were 17 people killed in the shooting.

Twelve of the dead were killed inside the school building, two others just outside, one more on the street and two other victims died of their injuries at a hospital, Israel said. He said the victims comprised a mixture of students and adults.

The violence erupted shortly before dismissal at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, about 72 km north of Miami. Live television footage showed students streaming out of the building as dozens of police and emergency services personnel swarmed the area.

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The suspected shooter has been identified as 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz. He surrendered to police in the aftermath of the shooting without a struggle.

"It's catastrophic," Sheriff Scott Israel. "There really are no words."

Expand Close Police escort a suspect into the Broward Jail after checking him at the hospital following a shooting incident at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, U.S. February 14, 2018 in a still image taken from a video. WSVN.com via REUTERS / Facebook

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Whatsapp Police escort a suspect into the Broward Jail after checking him at the hospital following a shooting incident at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, U.S. February 14, 2018 in a still image taken from a video. WSVN.com via REUTERS

The sheriff said the gunman had at least one rifle and multiple magazines

The suspect was expelled from the school due to disciplinary reasons but it was not clear if he was a student at another school at the time of the shooting the sheriff said.

US President Donald Trump was briefed on the shooting and expressed his condolences to those affected.

In a tweet he said "no child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school"

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The shooting marks the 18th shooting in a US school so far this year, according to gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety. That tally includes suicides and incidents when no one was injured, as well as the January incident when a 15-year-old gunman killed two students at a Benton, Kentucky, high school.

More than five years have passed since a gunman killed 20 first graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, stirring the long US debate about gun rights, which are protected by the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.

SCENES OF FEAR

Staff and students told local media that a fire alarm went off around the time the shooting started, sparking chaos as some 3,000 students at the school first headed into hallways before teachers herded them back into classrooms, to seek shelter in closets.

Kyle Yeoward, a 16-year-old junior, told Reuters he was in the bathroom on the second floor of the building on the campus where most of the shooting took place, when he heard two shots.

"He let loose on the freshman building," Yeoward said

McKenzie Hartley, 19, who identified herself as the sister of a student at the school described the scene in a text message to Reuters: "She heard him shooting through the windows of classrooms and two students were shot."

Panicked parents checked on their children.

"It is just absolutely horrifying. I can't believe this is happening," Lissette Rozenblat, whose daughter goes to the school, told CNN. Her daughter called her to say she was safe but the student also told her mother she heard the cries of a person who was shot.

"She was very nervous. She said that she could hear the person who was shot crying out for help," she said.

Televised images showed dozens of students, their arms in the air, weaving their way between law enforcement officers with heavy weapons and helmets, and large numbers of emergency vehicles including police cars, ambulances and fire trucks.

The school had recently held a meeting to discuss what to do in such an attack, Ryan Gott, a 15-year-old freshman told CNN.

"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting," U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter. "No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school."Jaime Guttenberg was named as one of the 17 victims of the Parkland massacre

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks about the mass shooting at a Florida high school in a national address from the White House in Washington, U.S., February 15, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis

President Donald Trump struck a solemn tone after the deadly school shooting in Florida, describing a "scene of terrible violence, hatred and evil" and promising to "tackle the difficult issue of mental health", but avoiding any mention of guns.

Taking up the now-familiar ritual of public consolation after terrible violence, Mr Trump spoke from the White House Diplomatic Room. In a slow, deliberate style, he sought to reassure a troubled nation as well as students' families and shooting survivors in Florida.

"We are all joined together as one American family, and your suffering is our burden also," Mr Trump said. "No child, no teacher, should ever be in danger in an American school."

The president's address came a day after a former student opened fire at the Parkland, Florida, high school with an AR-15 rifle, killing 17 people and injuring 14 more. It was the nation's deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, more than five years ago.

Expand Close Jaime Guttenberg was named as one of the 17 victims of the Parkland massacre / Facebook

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At the Capitol, the usual divisions over gun laws were evident.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, said in a statement it was time for action. "Congress has a moral responsibility to take common-sense action to prevent the daily tragedy of gun violence in communities across America," she said. "Enough is enough."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, did not mention guns as he said the Senate would observe a moment of silence at noon. "To say that such brutal, pointless violence is unconscionable is an understatement," he said.

Before he was a candidate, Mr Trump at one point favoured some stricter gun restrictions. However, early in his administration, he told the National Rifle Association he was their "friend and champion". He signed a resolution passed by the Republican-led Congress blocking an Obama-era rule designed to keep guns out of the hands of certain mentally disabled people.

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Mr Trump, who owns a private club in Palm Beach, Florida about 40 miles from Parkland, said on Thursday he was making plans to visit the grieving community. He praised teachers and emergency personnel and also offered a direct message to children.

"I want you to know that you are never alone and you never will be," Mr Trump said. "You have people who care about you who love you and who will do anything at all to protect you. If you need help, turn to a teacher, a family member, a local police officer or a faith leader. Answer hate with love, answer cruelty with kindness."

Mr Trump pledged that his administration would work with state and local officials on improving school safety, saying: "It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference, we must actually make that difference."

Mr Trump, who did not speak publicly immediately after the shooting, weighed in on Twitter early Thursday, calling the suspect "mentally disturbed" and stressing it was important to "report such instances to authorities, again and again!" He tweeted about the shooting twice on Wednesday, expressing condolences and saying he spoke with Florida's governor.

The president also issued a proclamation mourning the victims and ordering American flags at public buildings across the country flown at half-mast.

The 19-year-old suspect, Nikolas Cruz, is a troubled teenager who posted disturbing material on social media. He had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for "disciplinary reasons", Broward County, Florida, Sheriff Scott Israel said.

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A Twitter account apparently from a student at the school had earlier reacted angrily to Mr Trump's initial suggestion of prayers in response to the tragedy.

The account @chaddiedabaddie, which says it belongs to the girl attending Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, near Fort Lauderdale, replied: "I don't want your condolences you f****** price (sic) of shit, my friends and teachers were shot.

"Multiple of my fellow classmates are dead. Do something instead of sending prayers.

"Prayers won't fix this. But Gun control will prevent it from happening again.

She had earlier tweeted: "Today has been the worst day of my life. I've been crying helplessly for hours. Thank you to everyone for your support. I'm going to try to sleep now."

Morgan Williams described on Twitter how her friends were killed as the gunman roamed through the school corridors.

She said: "I cannot stop hearing the sound of the gun as he walked down my hallway. I cannot unsee my classmates who were shot get carried out by police. I cannot unsee the bodies on the floor. Please keep in mind the horror of what we've gone through today. #prayfordouglas"

She added: "Never in a million years did I think I would have ever gone through this. There is no reason why I should have had to run past deceased friends and classmates to get to safety because there isn't a control on how easy it is to get a gun."

Other students posted social media footage of the siege under way.

One user, Aidan Minoff, appeared to be taking shelter under tables alongside his school mates.

He wrote on Twitter: "My school is being shot up and I am locked inside. I'm f****** scared right now"The scene in Rome after a sinkhole opened up, engulfing parked cars (Massimo Percossi/ANSA via AP)

Authorities in Rome have launched an investigation after a 30ft-wide sinkhole swallowed half a dozen cars on a residential street.

No one was injured in Wednesday evenings collapse in the Balduina neighbourhood, but families in nearby buildings were evacuated as a precaution.

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The ANSA news agency said prosecutors had placed a property owner and the company handling construction along the road under investigation.

Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi visited the site and stressed that the sinkhole, which appeared to shave off the entire side of the road, occurred at an active construction site, and that the situation is under control.Opposition supporters in Zimbabwe listen to Nelson Chamisa's speech following the death of Morgan Tsvangirai (Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP)

Zimbabwes president has expressed condolences over the death of longtime opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and said upcoming elections must be free and fair in tribute to him.

Mr Tsvangirai, who was the boldest opponent to longtime leader Robert Mugabe, died Wednesday in a Johannesburg hospital at age 65 after a long battle with cancer.

His death leaves Zimbabwes opposition in disarray with the first post-Mugabe elections approaching. Mr Tsvangirais Movement for Democratic Change party met on Thursday on the way forward while thousands of supporters gathered, singing songs of tribute.

Rest in peace Dr. Morgan Richard Tsvangirai. pic.twitter.com/cufRt2YS4k  President of Zimbabwe (@edmnangagwa) February 15, 2018

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a longtime Mugabe ally, said in a statement that consultations were under way about what the government can do to accord the late departed befitting honour.

Mr Mnangagwa has repeatedly promised fair elections as he seeks to attract foreign investment after years of international sanctions over alleged human rights abuses.

The MDC-T party said it has appointed Nelson Chamisa, a charismatic 40-year-old official, as acting leader. The party said it will meet again to choose a candidate for upcoming elections.

Mr Chamisa said Mr Tsvangirais legacy is very much in safe hands. He also criticised Mr Mnangagwas government as a militarily junta futilely disguised as a civilian administration.

The military was instrumental in pressuring Mr Mugabe to resign in November after 37 years in power, prompting the ruling party to turn against him amid anger that Mr Mugabes unpopular wife appeared to be positioning herself to succeed him as president.Delhis restaurant industry is marked by intense competition, an unclear legal structure, and rental rates comparable to New York city. If these factors were not challenging enough for businesspeople, authorities in Delhi have now doubled down on their enforcement of regulations.

To open a restaurant in Delhi  Indias capital  businesses must procure formal government permissions from multiple regulatory agencies and emergency services, known in India as no objection certificates. These notoriously convoluted procedures, coupled with inadequate online resources and portals is a recipe for malpractice: encouraging restaurateurs to shirk regulations through a melange of willed ignorance and petty bribery.

But, since February 2017, a battalion of regulatory bodies in Delhi have targeted restaurants for non-compliance of rules which have been rarely  if ever  enforced. The sudden attention for regulatory compliance has led to the closure of nearly 120 restaurants, restro-bars, and eateries in upscale areas of the capital, including Defence Colony, Khan Market, Connaught Place, and Hauz Khas village.

Authorities are quick to defend the compliance drive, stating that only a few hundred establishments, out of over 5,000 registered restaurants in Delhi, are impacted. Many of the affected market locations, while popular, suffer from ageing infrastructure; non-compliance of regulatory safeguards, such as fire and safety norms, present significant safety hazards.

Delhis compliance crackdown on restaurants

In February 2017, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) shut down all open air and rooftop dining areas in Connaught Place, a heritage business center in the heart of the Delhi. This was in response to the partial collapse of a rooftop restaurant in the area.

The incident precipitated a knee-jerk response from regulatory agencies in the Delhi government, leading to several hundred closures. Authorities demolished illegal structures in central and south Delhi, cut-off their power supply, and refused to renew licenses to restaurants found violating regulatory norms.

The recent round of regulatory raids in Delhi come in the wake of a fire which killed fourteen people in a luxury rooftop restaurant in Mumbai, Indias commercial capital. The now destroyed premise was never meant for commercial use because it lacked proper exits; the fire could spread so quickly due to the cheap, inflammable materials used to cover the rooftop terrace.

Since the start of the compliance and closure drives, regulatory authorities have found several establishments guilty of similar fire safety violations  principally related to illegally constructed extensions.

Observers expect the next round of regulatory enforcement to focus on the unorganized sector. At least 63 percent of the restaurant industry is unorganized, and many of these establishments are in serious violation of food safety standards.

In December, 2017, the South Delhi Municipal Council (SDMC) announced a ban on the open display of meat products. Many vendors and butchers, however, continue to flout the new rule. Is a new round of regulatory raids already in the making?

Uncertainty a risk for businesses owners

Organizations representing restaurant owners complain that regulatory agencies do not inform them of the impending closures. The organizations also note that while municipal agencies have yet to implement redevelopment measures outlined in the citys Master Plan for 2021, they have been quick to enforce the Plans punitive measures. The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) developed the Master Plan for Delhi (MPD) 2021 under guidance from the federal Ministry of Urban Development & Poverty Alleviation. The Master Plan seeks the sustainable and planned development of Delhi over the next five years.

To protest this perceived injustice, several representative bodies have called for organized shutdowns. The SDMCs regulatory raids have cut deeply into the restaurant industrys profit margins. The Christmas season is normally marked by increased revenue for restaurants. This season, however, many establishments are failing to break even.

However, there is some relief to be had for restaurateurs. The Delhi Development Authority has passed several amendments to the Master Plan 2021, including: the reduction of penalties imposed on violators and permission for commercial operations in basements for businesses that pay conversion charges. More recently, the DDA introduced new changes to the Plan by clarifying a uniform Floor Area Ratio (FAR) and enabling builders to develop properties relative to the available size of the plot.

Licenses  A checklist

In order to operate a restaurant in Delhi, the following licenses/No Objection Certificate (NOC) are mandatory:

No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the landlord proving tenancy;

Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) license;

Bar/liquor license from the Department of Excise;

Trading license from the municipality (permission to conduct business);

NOC from the Fire Service Department;

NOC from the Municipal Health Officer;

Eating House License from the Police Department;

Proof of insurance;

License for a lift (in case of a multistoried establishment) from the electricity department and labor commissioner;

GST registration;

Registration under the Shop and Establishment Act with the municipality (labor license);

Undertaking in the case of music/live performances/disco;

Approval from the Weights and Measures Department for certifying tools used in the restaurant;

Certificate of Environmental Clearance from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee; and,

Signage license for advertising from the municipality.

The time taken to obtain all necessary licenses and permits is approximately three months.

Regulators catching up to market growth

Dining out and food habits in India have significantly changed in the last decade due to rising personal disposable incomes and the aspirations of an upwardly mobile and growing middle class. This is reflected in the countrys dynamic hospitality sector, which, according to the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), employs about 5.8 million people, contributes US$35 billion in taxes, and was valued at US$47 billion in 2016.

While the compliance crackdowns appear to be impulsive and inconsistent, regulatory authorities will continue to reinforce surveillance; accidents due to health and safety hazards have mounted in various metropolitan cities across India in recent years.

Industry observers in Delhi expect authorities to expand the scope of their inspections, using tax compliance with the GST as well as labor and food safety laws in 2018. Ultimately, the compliance raids will move the restaurant industry towards greater transparency and safety.DFA-Kuwait talks on OFWs' plight set today

posted February 15, 2018 at 11:54 am by Arlene Lim February 15, 2018 at 11:54 am

Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano is set to hold a consultation with the ambassador of Kuwait this afternoon. This is to tackle the alleged abuses being experienced by OFWs in the gulf state. The holding of the talks was announced by Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque in a news briefing today in Malacanang. Cayetano is in the palace talking with labor officials. Roque said the DFA secretary's marching order is to get a concrete commitment from Kuwait on how its government will protect Filipino workers.He stressed that it is the duty of all states to protect aliens. He said Filipinos living in Kuwait are entitled to the same rights, treatment and laws that Kuwaitis have in their country. He noted that failure of Kuwait to ensure the safety and well-being of OFWs will result in outrage from the Philippine government. He said Philippines see this as bad faith and willful neglect of duty on the part of Kuwait.

COMMENT DISCLAIMER: Reader comments posted on this Web site are not in any way endorsed by Manila Standard. Comments are views by manilastandard.net readers who exercise their right to free expression and they do not necessarily represent or reflect the position or viewpoint of manilastandard.net. While reserving this publications right to delete comments that are deemed offensive, indecent or inconsistent with Manila Standard editorial standards, Manila Standard may not be held liable for any false information posted by readers in this comments section.The third edition of Tax, Accounting and Audit in India is updated for 2017, and provides an overview of the f...The absence of modern e-commerce regulations in India has setback app-based Uber. While disruptive innovators regularly maintain that their businesses help develop regulatory environments, the risks of disruptive innovation can outweigh the rewards in countries where the rule of law is unpredictable and regulatory conditions are fluid. These conditions make due diligence a necessity.

When Uber began India operations in September 2013, the company rode a wave of positive customer reviews and glowing media exposes. Tech savvy consumers happily abandoned unreliable municipal and radio taxi services; Uber quickly expanded to eleven cities across India, growing at an average of 35 to 40 percent a month. Indeed, Uber grew so rapidly that it struggled to contract enough drivers  the company began training inexperienced drivers and even provided individual loans for drivers to buy vehicles.

Ubers innovative operating model allowed it to keep pace with high levels of demand. However, the rapid expansion of the service created liabilities that Uber did not anticipate.

Ubers deteriorating legal and public position

Recently on December 5, 2014, an Uber-contracted driver sexually assaulted a female passenger in Delhi. Within days, the media, public, and government turned hostile to Uber. While Uber has successfully managed similar incidents in Western countries, the company learned that their liabilities in India were more extensive than they imagined.

Local government in Delhi moved with uncharacteristic speed: authorities banned Uber from operating in the National Capital Region three days after the sexual assault. The federal governments Home Minister swiftly advised state governments across the country to ban app-based taxi services; many state and municipal governments tightened regulations around the private taxi industry. Meanwhile, media outrage against Uber fuelled the public rumor mill: word spread throughout the country that Uber was unsafe.

Uber suspended its Delhi operations indefinitely from 11 December. Instead of consolidating and expanding its share of the US$8 billion private taxi market in India  which is expected to grow to at least US$15 billion in the next five years  Uber is now likely to be tied up in a legal, regulatory, and public relations nightmare for the next year.

Compliance 101

Uber sleepwalked into a perfect storm. Whether it is because of ignorance, or a bull-headed zeal for disruptive innovation, Uber sidestepped regulatory and tax laws that now threaten to reshape its business model in India.

Local authorities in Delhi openly admitted that they were unaware of Ubers services until the December 5 assault. Following the assault, however, these authorities found Uber in violation of Delhis 2006 Radio Taxi Scheme, which mandates operational, fleet, and vehicle regulations. The fact that Uber does not consider itself a radio taxi service is a moot point; authorities in Delhi are set to settle the debate, while industry experts expect authorities in other localities to follow suit.

Shilpa Goel, Associate at Dezan Shira and Associates in Delhi, notes, banning Uber ignores the obvious elephant in the room  laws in India have simply failed to keep pace with technological developments. In contrast to many developed markets, where Uber has bent local regulations to its will, the absence of e-commerce regulations means that Indian authorities will create a new regulatory playing field for Uber in 2015. Unfortunately for Uber, this new regulatory environment will likely be informed by the federal governments reactionary warnings.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) have also been hounding Uber. In August 2014, the RBI banned Ubers user payment model for violating online credit card transactions regulations and foreign exchange laws. Although Uber is now using a new payment system based on domestic best practices, the CBEC recently began investigating Uber for service tax violations.

Uber apparently believed its business model sheltered them from paying Indias 12.36 percent service tax, but the CBEC clearly disagrees. The issue is not new; other e-commerce vehicles  such as Amazon  have also grappled with Indias indirect tax system. As Tarun Manik, Senior Associate for Dezan Shira and Associates in Mumbai, points out, the laws are out there in the open; companies should do due diligence before entering the Indian market.

Radio Uber?

Instead of disrupting the Indian taxi market, Indian authorities are disrupting Uber. Less than a month after the December 5 assault, authorities in Delhi have amended the Radio Taxi Scheme to target Ubers operation. Uber must now create on-the-ground infrastructure, a permanent vehicle fleet, and adhere to rigorous employment standards to operate Delhi. In short, Uber must become a radio taxi service.

Regardless of whether Uber adapts, these regulations are antithetical to Ubers business model. Uber has encountered similar problems in other countries. The company has proven flexible; observers should expect Uber to modify their India model and remain an important player in the domestic taxi industry. However, Uber could have saved itself, and its clientele, from a lot of trouble.

When a company plans to invest its resources in a new market, it must consider how its business model fits into the local regulatory environment. No industry is exempt from due diligence  business leaders need to evaluate their legal and tax liabilities in target markets during the pre-investment phase. Many companies are mentally prepared to assume a number of risks to deepen their involvement in emerging Asian markets. However, there is little sense in shouldering risks that businesses can anticipate and manage.Mumbai, Feb 15 (IBNS): Indian industrialist RatanTata reiterated on Thursday that the reports in the media, mainly the Israeli media, of a partnership with Mr. Arnon Milchan and the claim of a huge profit are both factually incorrect and appear to be motivated.

His office issued a formal statement on Thursday to counter the allegations by a section of the Israeli media, which claimed that the name of Ratan Tata figures in the Israeli police recommendations seeking to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on graft charges.

Excerpts from the statement:

"The office of Mr. Ratan N. Tata wishes to make a statement on his behalf to put out correct facts in relation with the reportage yesterday [Wednesday] in a section of the Israeli media.

The Tata project, being referred to by the Israeli media, was a proposal received by Mr. Tata in 2009 from the Israeli establishment seeking the assistance of the Tata organisation in preparing a concept plan, as part of a broader peace initiative with Palestine, for a low volume automotive assembly plant on the banks of the Jordan river. The intention was to provide skilled employment to Palestinians. To be viable, the plan envisaged the establishment of a free trade corridor to Haifa to facilitate exports and offset higher logistics costs in Israel.

These discussions on the project were directly held between a Tata team and the Israeli authorities, and not with Mr. Arnon Milchan, as stated by the Israeli media. Mr. Tata wishes to clarify once again that there has never been any partnership in any such project with Mr. Milchan.

A broad concept plan for a low output automobile assembly plant was prepared by Tata Motors. It never reached the stage of detailed planning or costing, as the peace initiative itself was not put in place. The car project died a natural death.

During Mr. Tatas visit to Tel Aviv, on November 1, 2017, to address a conference on Mobility, he met a team of Israeli investigators at their request, and enunciated these facts to them.

Mr. Tata reiterates that the reports in the media of a partnership with Mr. Arnon Milchan and the claim of a huge profit are both factually incorrect and appear to be motivated."New Delhi, Feb 15 (IBNS): India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) Ltd, a public sector undertaking under the Union Ministry of Tourism, posted its third quarter results for the year financial year 2017-18 on Thursday.

The company said that its total turnover in third quarter ending December 2017 stood at Rs. 108.01 crore.

The company that its Profit Before Tax (PBT) stood at Rs. 18.30 crore in the latest reported quarter compared to Rs. 13.14 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year, an increase of 39.27 per cent as compared to the last financial year.

The company said it completed 51 years with multiple offers at its flagship property, The Ashok.

In the reported quarter, ITDC organized a round table with state tourism officials to boost tourism

It also hosted Vigilance Study Circle (VSC) NCR meet at Hotel The Ashok, New Delhi to discuss various vigilance related issues

The company said that it also participated in the new initiative Paryatan Parv announced by Ministry of Tourism.

Ashok Institute of Hospitality and Tourism Management (AIH&TM), the Human Resource Development division under ITDC, got certified with ISO 9001:2015 certification for imparting quality education in hospitality and tourism management, according to the company release.

The company said that its Ashok International Trade Division (AITD) is growing its presence in seaports across the country, setting up duty-free outlets in Mumbai, New Mangalore, Chennai, Goa, Paradeep, Kolkata, Haldia, Vishakapatnam, Cochin, Kakinada Tuticorin and Krishnapatnam ports.

ATT, A travel solutions unit of ITDC tied up with the Controller General of Defense Accounts (CGDA) to provide e-ticketing solutions, the company said in its release.



Image: ITDC/TwitterKolkata, Feb 14 (IBNS): The Union Budget 2018 is a balanced one with focus on affordable housing; but, without any direct impact on the sector, feels Laxman Jaiswal, Chairman & Managing Director,Ascon Infrastructure (India) Ltd.

The Budget seems to be heading to have minimal direct impact on the Real Estate industry.



This is a departure from the last three years. The sector grappling with the reforms-driven new order is without any meaningful interventions in the budget.

The sector was reeling for a while; and was expecting major announcements to revive it.



This from the perspective that the real estate greatly contributes by contributing 7.7 per cent to GVA, employing 15 million job creation over 5 years and the exchequer.



The setting up of a dedicated affordable housing fund under the National Housing Bank for priority sector lending will provide a further impetus to the development of housing.



The continued focus on smart city projects is expected to boost real estate activities further. Real estate is a function of multiple parameters and bearing of the overall economy. So if there is an overall boost to the economy through farm spending and so on; then we will see a spin-off effect on the real estate sector

Post demonetisation, the secondary market was turbulent due to lack liquidity, furthermore in major cities, the circle rates were increased and had become more than the market rates.



This resulted in a gap between the two rates, which was counted as income in hands of both buyer and seller.

One more positive out of Union Budget 2018 is the clear focus on pushing up farmers income thereby kick starting consumption in the economy.

Dedicated Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) in National Housing Bank, funded from priority sector lending shortfall and fully serviced bonds authorized by the Government of India.

Finally there should be parity between the Central and the State tax rates and regulations for the benefit of the real estate industry.New Delhi, Feb 15 (IBNS): Small and marginal farmers, who are unable to meet agriculture expenditure, can switch to organic farming as it is cost-effective and profitable.

This was stated by Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Radha Mohan Singh while addressing a gathering of CIARI representatives, government officials and other stakeholders at Raj Niwas in Port Blair, Andaman Nicobar Islands.

Singh said he was pleased to discuss important aspects of organic farming with the stakeholders on the Island.

He said that Organic farming is highly favourable in dry and lowly-irrigated regions, hilly states, north-eastern states and islands.

In fact, Sikkim has been declared 100% organic state and many states are now following its footsteps.

Singh said that his aim is to make Andaman Nicobar Islands an organic island.

The Minister said that Andaman and Nicobar Island has been adopting organic farming at a small-scale (321 hectares) and that the Island has immense potential and is favourably placed for organic farming due to less use of chemical fertilizers and abundant species.

He said that Organic soybean occupies the top slot in organic exports with 70% followed by food grains and Bajra at 6% and chemical fertilizer at 5%. Apart from them, organic spices, tea and cloth etc., also have immense potential.

Singh said that ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute (CIARI) Port Blair study of fertilizer and ecology has found acceptable limits of pesticides and most of the samples used for analysis were acceptable.

He further said that the Directorate of Agriculture, Andaman and Nicobar Administration, Southern Andaman have taken up organic projects and have been assessing the opportunities and challenges.

An exhibition of organic production will be held in Organic Farm, a body established by Andaman and Nicobar administration. Besides this, organic coconut farms have been developed in Sippighat Farm, a body established by CIARI. Such model/exhibitions will help win farmers confidence.

Highlighting the authenticity of organic produce in these islands as a major challenge, the Union minister said that the authorities have been working to train employees and to implement a partnership guarantee model.

Singh said that Organic markets are being developed through Local Marketing Programmes so that organic produce can be made available to household consumers.

In order to ensure sale of organic produce, the administration is working to develop Andaman Bazaar. Besides, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has taken the responsibility of organic exports.

Singh further added that Coconut and its produce in these Islands will be marketed on a large scale to cater to exports and APEDA may provide assistance in this activity.

The Port Blair regional office of Coconut Development Board has been providing assistance for organic farming.

The Minister asserted that Organic farming should be promoted with the same spirit as Green Revolution.

He said that the country should progress to be an organic nation and fulfil Prime Ministers vision of being a chemical-free country.

He urged all stakeholders to join hands to make this mission successful.New Delhi, Feb 15 (IBNS): Prime Minister has set a target to double farmers' income by 2022 and the Ministry is constantly working to achieve this goal.

This was stated by Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Radha Mohan Singh while addressing farmers at the three-day Regional Agriculture Fair (RAF) for Southern Region in Port Blair.

The Minister said that the Ministry has outlined a new program to provide necessary technical and agricultural related information to the farmers.

Under this scheme, Agriculture Fairs are being organised in all the five regions of the country. He said, for the first time, this fair is being organised in the southern region of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which shows this governments commitment towards the development of the island.

Considering the limited resources on the Island, ICAR-CIARI was established on June 23, 1978, by merging different Regional Research Stations of the ICAR Institutes with an aim to make the farmers self-reliant.

This institute caters to various needs of agricultural research and development and is willing to do various innovative research works to increase productivity and product quality of crops, horticulture products, livestock, and fishery.

Shri Singh said during 2016, CIARI activities have been extended to Lakshadweep Islands by bringing KrishiVigyan Kendra under its flagship. From April 2017 onwards, CIARI is running its regional centre at Minicoy islands Lakshadweep.

He said he is happy to see farmers from Lakshadweep at the fair.

The minister said besides tourism, agriculture is contributing to the livelihoods of people in the region. CIARI is entrusted with the task of developing technologies to promote agriculture and crops that are more productive for farmers.

Singh further added that the institute has made several significant achievements during the past four decades of its service despite several constraints including its remote location in islands.

Appreciating the development work by the Andaman & Nicobar Administration, he said that the administration and CIARI are working in tandem and this coordination will be beneficial for the farmers.

Earlier in the day, Agriculture Minister participated in the Organic Farming Conference in Port Blair. On this occasion, he said that 22.5 lakh hectares of land has been brought under organic farming through various schemes so far and out of them ParamparagatKrishiVikasYojana (PKVY) and Organic Value Chain are important schemes.

The Minister also said that the Ministry launched PKVY to promote organic farming in cluster mode. Under the scheme, farmers are given Rs 50,000 per hectare for the 3-year turnaround time for organic farming, PGS certification, packaging, branding, and marketing. During the year 2015-16, 10,000 clusters were formed and 2-lakh hectare area was brought under organic farming in different parts of the country.

The Minister said he was happy to be in Port Blair at the ICAR- CIARI and sharing information related to organic farming with the stakeholders. He said that small and marginal farmers, who cannot bear the agricultural production cost, may consider organic farming, which involves low cost and high profit. Andaman Nicobar islands are suitable for organic farming and it is gradually adopting organic farming (321 hectares).Kolkata, Feb 15 (IBNS): Were you celebrating Valentines Day at or around Park Street on Feb 14? Chances were, you had an opportunity to taste a special batch of chocolate chip cupcakes baked by Kirti Bhoutika, the winner of Masterchef India 2017, Indias biggest culinary battle!

After having won over the taste buds of celebrated chefs including Michelin-star Chef Vikas Khanna, Kirti Bhoutika is now all set to win our hearts by contributing to the cause.



I have always wanted to combine my love for baking with the joy of giving. Thank you CRY for helping Sugarplum Cakery to spread smiles in its own way, shared a beaming Kirti.



While bakery sales are known to sore on special occasions like Valentines Day, Bhoutika and 6 other notable bakeries in Kolkata donated lip smacking eatables to help CRY send children back to school!



CRY has always believed that every individual is an agent of change and this initiative is a way for people to change lives while doing what they love. When all that love goes into ensuring lasting change for children, you can be sure that the outcome will be great.

We believe that every individual cares and wants to do their bit for ensuring that children lead happy, healthy and creative lives. Bake for CRY seeks to create opportunities for the citys bakers to bake for a cause. Over the years this has grown and become a much awaited event for the city dwellers. Baked products would be available at important landmarks in the city and you can mark your passion for children by contributing for the well being of children and get your favourite cookies and cakes, said Mr. Atindra Nath Das, Regional Director of CRY East..Mumbai, Feb 15 (IBNS): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the home, offices and showrooms of Nirav Modi, the globally acclaimed diamond jeweler, with regard to the alleged Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, according to media reports on Thursday.

The raids were conducted across Delhi and Mumbai, media reported.

Reportedly, ED has filed Rs 11,300 crore case against Nirav Modi.

On Wednesday, India's second largest government bank, PNB said that $1.8 billion or over Rs. 11,000 crore of taxpayers' money had been illegally transferred abroad to select customers from a single branch in Mumbai, reported NDTV.

The news channel also reported that Nirav Modi, 48, is already being investigated by the CBI in connection with fraud worth Rs. 280 crore. The diamond merchant was raided by Income Tax officials on January 31; his offices in Delhi, Surat and Jaipur were searched.

According to some media reports on Thursday, Nirav Modi has written to banks saying that he will repay the loans.

Reports say that he is ready to pay Rs 5,000 crore, reported CNN-News18.

The news channel also quoted ED as saying that Nirav Modi is in Switzerland now.

Randeep S Surjewala, Communications in Charge of All India Congress Committe tweeted, "Who is Nirav Modi? The new #ModiScam? Was he tipped off like Lalit Modi & Vijay Mallya to escape by someone within the Govt? Has it become the norm for letting people run away with public money? Who is responsible?"

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, "Is it possible to believe that he or vijay mallya left the country without active connivance of BJP govt?"

Details on the jeweler's whereabouts are awaited.

New Delhi/Kolkata, Feb 15 (IBNS): Congress President Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other opposition leaders targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government over the alleged Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam on Thursday.

Attacking the PM, Congress supremo Rahul Gandhi said diamond merchant Nirvav Modi's Rs 11,500 crore fraud in the country's second-biggest state-run bank was a guide to "looting India".

He said the 'guide' involved 'hugging' Narendra Modi and then escaping the country.

"Guide to Looting India by Nirav MODI 1. Hug PM Modi 2. Be seen with him in DAVOS Use that clout to: A. Steal 12,000Cr B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the Govt looks the other way. #From1MODI2another," Gandhi tweeted attacking Narendra Modi and his government over the alleged scam.

He tweeted after Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi shared an image on social media where the PM could be seen with Indian CEOs at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January.

Nirav Modi could be seen in the group photo which also features PM Modi.

"What criteria does the Prime Minister use to select the CEOs accompanying him on foreign trips? #NiravModi #PNBScam," Gogoi tweeted.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said people's savings were no more safe and demanded for a thorough, time bound enquiry into the alleged scam.

"Look what happened at Punjab National Bank ? A scam of more than Rs 11,000 crore. People's savings are not safe. There must be a thorough, time bound enquiry," Banerjee tweeted.

Randeep S Surjewala, Communications in Charge of All India Congress Committe tweeted, "Who is Nirav Modi? The new #ModiScam? Was he tipped off like Lalit Modi & Vijay Mallya to escape by someone within the Govt? Has it become the norm for letting people run away with public money? Who is responsible?"

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, "Is it possible to believe that he or vijay mallya left the country without active connivance of BJP govt?"

Details on the jeweler's whereabouts are awaited

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the home, offices and showrooms of Nirav Modi, the globally acclaimed diamond jeweler, with regard to the alleged Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, according to media reports on Thursday.

The raids were conducted across Delhi and Mumbai, media reported.

Reportedly, ED has filed Rs 11,300 crore case against Nirav Modi.

On Wednesday, India's second largest government bank, PNB said that $1.8 billion or over Rs. 11,000 crore of taxpayers' money had been illegally transferred abroad to select customers from a single branch in Mumbai, reported NDTV.

The news channel also reported that Nirav Modi, 48, is already being investigated by the CBI in connection with fraud worth Rs. 280 crore. The diamond merchant was raided by Income Tax officials on January 31; his offices in Delhi, Surat and Jaipur were searched.

According to some media reports on Thursday, Nirav Modi has written to banks saying that he will repay the loans.

Reports say that he is ready to pay Rs 5,000 crore, reported CNN-News18.

The news channel also quoted ED as saying that Nirav Modi is in Switzerland now.REACHING OUT. President Rodrigo Duterte interacts Monday with returning overseas Filipino workers from Kuwait who availed themselves of the governments amnesty program who were all welcomed by the Chief Executive on arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City. Malacanang Photo

KUWAITS foreign minister on Tuesday night condemned what he called an escalation by Manila after the Philippines expanded a ban on its nationals working in Kuwait.Manila on Monday announced a total ban on new employment in Kuwait, including Filipinos who had already obtained employment permits but had not yet left for the Gulf country. The measure came after President Rodrigo Duterte angrily lashed out at Kuwait over reports of Filipino workers suffering abuse and exploitation. This escalation will not serve the relationship between Kuwait and the Philippines, Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah told reporters in Kuwait City. We condemn the statements of the Philippine president, especially since we are in contact with the Philippines at the highest level to fully explain the state of the Filipino workforce in Kuwait, he said.Duterte on Friday brandished photos purporting to show a Filipina maid found in a freezer, saying she had been roasted like a pig. He also alleged Arab employers routinely raped their Filipina workers, forced them to work 21 hours each day and fed them scraps. He asked Kuwait: Is there something wrong with your culture? Is there something wrong with your values? Authorities say 252,000 Filipinos work in Kuwait, many as maids. They are among over two million employed in the region, whose remittances are a lifeline to the Philippine economy. Domestic workers in Kuwait are not covered by ordinary labor legislation. Human Rights Watch and other rights groups have documented widespread abuses, including non-payment of wages, long working hours with no rest days, physical and sexual assault, and no clear channels for redress. The Department of Foreign Affairs said Monday authorities were repatriating 10,000 overstaying Filipinos from Kuwait, taking advantage of an amnesty program arranged with the Kuwaiti government. Officials added they were eyeing China and Russia as alternative markets for overseas workers. The Department of Labor and Employment on Wednesday issued guidelines governing the total deployment ban that exempted workers returning from vacation so they could finish their contracts. The ban covers all types of workers being deployed for the first time for overseas employment in Kuwait, without distinction as to skill, profession or type of work. The major concern of the President is safety and the welfare of our [workers]. The ban is our way to send a strong message to the government of Kuwait and other Arab countries that the protection and security of our OFWs is foremost in our policy, said Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III. The department earlier suspended the processing and issuance of overseas employment certificates to all Kuwait-bound workers following the deaths of seven Filipino workers there. He added that some 2,000 more workers in Kuwait have already applied for amnesty and are ready to be repatriated. The President ordered them repatriated within 72 hours.As of Feb. 8, 2018, a total of 1,124 Filipino workers in Kuwait were issued travel documents stamped with exit visas while 800 are now scheduled to return home. Aside from financial and livelihood assistance, President Duterte said the government is also willing to give land to repatriated overseas Filipino workers from Kuwait, who are interested in agriculture. In his speech at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1, the President told newly arrived overseas Filipinos not to lose hope because his administration is ready to assist them. We are here to see to it that every Filipino is treated decently, he said. Duterte said the government is willing to give land to those who are interested in agriculture, adding that the Department of Labor and Employment also has livelihood program for returning workers. Underscoring the necessity and urgency to act now to protect Filipino workers, the President said the government has enough resources to cover their needs as they return. The President said the government could also look for other markets for Filipino workers. China, for example, was opening up for Filipino workers, particularly English teachers. Japan is also another Asian destination for Filipino workers, particularly caregivers and nurses, given its aging society, he said. At the same time, the President said that to create more jobs locally, he is beefing up efforts to encourage foreign businesses to come to the Philippines. He thanked the countrys major airlines, Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific, for offering their planes to repatriate workers from Kuwait. Id like to just say to Mr. Lucio Tan and the Gokongwei family, Lance, on behalf of our countrymensalamat po and I will remember you for all time, the President said. The minority bloc in the House of Representatives on Wednesday backed the decision to ban the deployment of Filipino workers to Kuwait. The Minority condemns the inhumane treatment of foreign employers towards Filipino migrant workers, all over the world. Filipinos are one of the worlds most preferred workers because we are skilled, hardworking, dedicated, and competitive, said House minority leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez at a news conference. But the painful truth is that they look down and mistreat many of our countrymen who work abroad. But he also said the deployment ban might trigger a surge in the illegal recruitment of workers. Senator Sherwin Gatchalian called on the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to come up with a comprehensive plan to reintegrate more than 10,000 workers who are expected to be repatriated from Kuwait. As the government agency primarily tasked to the safeguard the welfare of OFWs, the OWWA needs to be proactive in steering the governments efforts to reintegrate these repatriated workers into Philippine society, Gatchalian said. The Department of Foreign Affairs said 116 Filipino workers who were granted amnesty for overstaying in Kuwait arrived in Manila this week.She said action will be taken against those responsible for the crime.

"This happened in UPA's time," Nirmala told reporters.

"In fact, we have brought it out. Definitely, there will be action," she said.

Punjab National Bank (PNB) finally came out with their version of the Nirav Modi scam on Thursday with the bank's Chief, Sunil Mehta, addressing a media conference.

PNB MD & CEO Sunil Mehta has said that the bank has the capability to come out of the situation, they just need some "breathing time".

Mehta said that the fraud began in 2011. "The scam was first detected by our officials at first in 2011 and we had reported it to the concerned agencies," he said.

But he also insisted that "PNB is committed in clean banking" and that is why they reported it immediately to the regulators.

"You are fully aware that we have kept the members involved in the developments. We have kept all the bankers aware of this situation," Mehta said in the conference.

He also said that the PNB employees who were involved in the fraud, have also been reported to the regulators, along with the creditors.

Replying to a query, Mehta said, "We detected the fraud on January 3. We got to know that two of our employees did some un-authorised transactions. The bank initiated criminal action against our staff member."

He also said, "This is a standalone incident. It has taken place only in one of our branches."

Replying to a query on what took the bank so long to find out about the fraud, Mehta said that the fraud was internally detected when a customer came for renewal on January 25.

The PNB scam has affected other Indian banks, according to media reports, because these banks had lent money on the basis of Letter of Understanding (LoU) issued by PNB.

Mehta said at the press conference that mainly the international branches of Indian banks were involved.

According to a TOI report, initial investigations suggest that Allahabad Bank, Axis Bank and Union Bank funded close to Rs 7,000 crore on the strength of the LoUs, with Allahabad Bank having the largest exposure.

PNB share prices plummeted on ThursdayJind, Haryana, Feb 15 (IBNS) : BJP chief Amit Shah on Thursday claimed that the party will form governments in two more states in the next two elections.

Addressing "Hunkar rally' of the party's youth brigade at Pandu Pandara village, Shah said the BJP will soon take its tally of states in which it is in power to 21 from 19.

He also said that the BJP was not against any caste and would ensure sabka vikas.

As the party organised the rally to kickstart its campaign much ahead of next year's state Assembly elections, the BJP chief said, ""The Congress has said that when Amit Shah comes, he should come with a progress report of four years. There is no need to give a report card to Congress, but we need to give details to the public of Haryana."

He alleged that the Previous Congress government did not provide farmers 50 percent profit to farmers on their input cost, and claimed that after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power, he has fulfilled this demand of farmers.

Shah lauded Khattar for giving a corruption-free government in Haryana after decades.

He said that Haryana is a land of warriors, youths, farmers, martyrs. He said that he offers his respects to them. "It is the land that has given foodgrains and soldiers to defend the country."

He said the Centre and state had floated several welfare schemes and there was emphasis on improving the financial condition of farmers.

Shah said the provision of new crop pricing is due to the consistent efforts by Haryana Agriculture Minister OP Dhankar.

He said the Centre and state had floated several welfare schemes and there was emphasis on improving the financial condition of farmers.

Earlier, amidst heavy security for the rally, Shah was given a warm welcome on his arrival.New Delhi, Feb 15 (IBNS): Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said no person will be spared who will be found guilty in the alleged Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam.

"I wish to make it very clear and this I can also convey on the behalf of the govt that no shall be spared in the banking system who has sought to derail ordinary banking system to help Nirav Modi," Prasad told media.

He said allegations made by the Congress over the issue were 'baseless'.

"Using term like Chota Modi is not acceptable," he said.

He said Nirav Modi was not part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's delegation that visited World Economic Forum in Davos.

"He had no interaction with the PM," Prasad said.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other opposition leaders targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government over the alleged Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam on Thursday.

Attacking the PM, Congress supremo Rahul Gandhi said diamond merchant Nirvav Modi's Rs 11,500 crore fraud in the country's second-biggest state-run bank was a guide to "looting India".

He said the 'guide' involved 'hugging' Narendra Modi and then escaping the country.

"Guide to Looting India by Nirav MODI 1. Hug PM Modi 2. Be seen with him in DAVOS Use that clout to: A. Steal 12,000Cr B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the Govt looks the other way. #From1MODI2another," Gandhi tweeted attacking Narendra Modi and his government over the alleged scam.

He tweeted after Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi shared an image on social media where the PM could be seen with Indian CEOs at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January.

Nirav Modi could be seen in the group photo which also features PM Modi.

"What criteria does the Prime Minister use to select the CEOs accompanying him on foreign trips? #NiravModi #PNBScam," Gogoi tweeted.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said people's savings were no more safe and demanded for a thorough, time bound enquiry into the alleged scam.

"Look what happened at Punjab National Bank ? A scam of more than Rs 11,000 crore. People's savings are not safe. There must be a thorough, time bound enquiry," Banerjee tweeted.

Randeep S Surjewala, Communications in Charge of All India Congress Committe tweeted, "Who is Nirav Modi? The new #ModiScam? Was he tipped off like Lalit Modi & Vijay Mallya to escape by someone within the Govt? Has it become the norm for letting people run away with public money? Who is responsible?"



The Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the home, offices and showrooms of Nirav Modi, the globally acclaimed diamond jeweler, with regard to the alleged Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, according to media reports on Thursday.

The raids were conducted across Delhi and Mumbai, media reported.

Reportedly, ED has filed Rs 11,300 crore case against Nirav Modi.

On Wednesday, India's second largest government bank, PNB said that $1.8 billion or over Rs. 11,000 crore of taxpayers' money had been illegally transferred abroad to select customers from a single branch in Mumbai, reported NDTV.

The news channel also reported that Nirav Modi, 48, is already being investigated by the CBI in connection with fraud worth Rs. 280 crore. The diamond merchant was raided by Income Tax officials on January 31; his offices in Delhi, Surat and Jaipur were searched.

According to some media reports on Thursday, Nirav Modi has written to banks saying that he will repay the loans.

Reports say that he is ready to pay Rs 5,000 crore, reported CNN-News18.

The news channel also quoted ED as saying that Nirav Modi is in Switzerland now.New Delhi, Feb 15 (IBNS): Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said PNB fraud accused luxury diamond jeweller Nirav Modi did not interact with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Davos.

He said Nirav Modi was not a part of Prime Minister Modi's delegation to Davos.

"He went to Davos on his own.. He was present at CII group photo event ," Prasad said.

"He was not part of the delegation," he said.

"Nirav Modi had no private meeting with the Prime Minister," Prasad said.

Prasad made the statement amid allegation by the Congress that Nirav Modi was part of a picture that was taken during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Davos with his delegation.

Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi shared an image on social media where the PM could be seen with Indian CEOs at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January.

Nirav Modi could be seen in the group photo which also features PM Modi.

"What criteria does the Prime Minister use to select the CEOs accompanying him on foreign trips? #NiravModi #PNBScam," Gogoi tweeted.

Prasad also attacked Congress over using the word "Chhota Modi".

"Congress using words like 'Chotta Modi' is not acceptable. BJP takes strong offence to the language used. It is derogatory," Prasad said.

Meanwhile, attacking the PM, Congress supremo Rahul Gandhi said diamond merchant Nirvav Modi's Rs 11,500 crore fraud in the country's second-biggest state-run bank was a guide to "looting India".

He said the 'guide' involved 'hugging' Narendra Modi and then escaping the country.

"Guide to Looting India by Nirav MODI 1. Hug PM Modi 2. Be seen with him in DAVOS Use that clout to: A. Steal 12,000Cr B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the Govt looks the other way. #From1MODI2another," Gandhi tweeted attacking Narendra Modi and his government over the alleged scam.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the home, offices and showrooms of Nirav Modi, the globally acclaimed diamond jeweler, with regard to the alleged Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, according to media reports on Thursday.

The raids were conducted across Delhi and Mumbai, media reported.

Reportedly, ED has filed Rs 11,300 crore case against Nirav Modi.

On Wednesday, India's second largest government bank, PNB said that $1.8 billion or over Rs. 11,000 crore of taxpayers' money had been illegally transferred abroad to select customers from a single branch in Mumbai, reported NDTV.

The news channel also reported that Nirav Modi, 48, is already being investigated by the CBI in connection with fraud worth Rs. 280 crore. The diamond merchant was raided by Income Tax officials on January 31; his offices in Delhi, Surat and Jaipur were searched.

According to some media reports on Thursday, Nirav Modi has written to banks saying that he will repay the loans.

Reports say that he is ready to pay Rs 5,000 crore, reported CNN-News18.

The news channel also quoted ED as saying that Nirav Modi is in Switzerland now.Srinagar, Feb 15 (IBNS): Police on Thursday evening said some heavily armed terrorists attacked a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp at Panzgam in Awantipora of south Kashmirs Pulwama district.

According to police official, some terrorists opened fire on the Central Reserve Police Force camp near railway station Awantipora this evening.

Firing continued for few minutes from both sides without causing any damage to our camp. However, taking advantage of the darkness, terrorists fled from the area, CRPF official said.

Following the attack, forces personnel comprising Jammu and Kashmir police, army's Rashtriya Rifles and CRPF rushed to the spot and conducted searches to nab the terrorists.

On Monday, two terrorists attempted to sneak into a CRPF camp in Srinagars Karan Nagar but the effort was foiled by security forces. Later two terrorists were killed in a 30-hour-long battle.

The attack came amid heightened security in Jammu and Kashmir following Saturdays JeM attack at the armys Sunjuwan camp. At least 11 people, including civilians, were injured in the attack.



(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)Mumbai, Feb 15 (IBNS): When actress Priyanka Chopra asks her fans to be her Valentine, its is always going to be special.

On Wednesday, it actually happened when the Quantico star, dressed in a sequinned red dress, wrote on Instagram: "Will you be my Valentine? ai ."

Will you be my Valentine? ai A post shared by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on Feb 14, 2018 at 5:20am PST

Priyanka looked ravishing in the image.

Priyanka Chopra, who is currently busy with her projects in the USA, had shared recently that she is single for almost a year.

Priyanka, who has worked in several popular Bollywood movie like 'Barfi' and 'Mary Kom', said she was previously in a 'committed relationship'.

In an interview to Filmfare magazine, the actress had recently said, "No, I havent. Im a serial monogamist. I was in a very committed relationship. But since almost a year, Ive been single. Ive met a bunch of people. Ive gone out with people. I let someone woo me but no... My mind hasnt exploded, not yet!."

She also told the magazine that she dated someone in the US.

"No! Otherwise you would know about it!," Chopra said.

She did not name anyone.

Priyanka is currently busy filming third season of American TV series Quantico.

It was Quantico that had brought her fame internationally.

She will also be seen in two Hollywood movies A Kid Like Jake and Isn't It Romantic?.

She had made her Hollywood debut in 2017 with Baywatch.

Image: Priyanka Chopra Instagram pageFlorida, Feb 15 (IBNS): A 19-year-old man opened fire on students and teachers at a high school campus in Parkland area of Florida in the US on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people, media reports said.

The suspect has been identified as Nikolas Cruz. He has been taken into custody.

He is a former student of the school.

BSO Joy, Public Information Officer at Broward County Sheriff's Office tweeted: " suspects name is spelled Nikolas Cruz #StonemanShooting."

"I'm saddened to say that 17 people lost their lives," Sheriff Scott Israel told media.

"It's catastrophic. There really are no words," the Sheriff said.

Scott Israel told media that the suspect had killed three people outside the school campus and then entered the building to kill another 12.

Israel said two people later died in the hospital.

Broward Schools tweeted: "Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School will be closed Thursday, February 15 and Friday, February 16, 2018, (for the rest of this week). All school activities are also cancelled."

President Donald Trump has condoled the loss of lives in the incident.

"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school," Trump tweeted.

A shooting incident in Connecticut school in 2012 had killed 26 people.

Image: Internt GrabBrampton, Feb 15 (IBNS): The process of spouse sponsorship by the Government of Canada had significantly improved over the past year, helping Canadians and permanent residents to reunite faster with their spouses, media reports said.

When I opened my office in Brampton North, I had constituents waiting over two years to be reunited with their spouse. I am proud to have been able to raise this concern in Ottawa and work with the Minister and the Government to improve the process and reunite spouses faster under a more efficient and easier to navigate process, Ruby Sahota, Member of Parliament for Brampton North was reported to state.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) had announced in Dec 2016 that the backlog of spousal applicants would be reduced by 80 percent and shorten processing times to 12 months.

IRCC also announced that sponsorship application process would reportedly become more efficient and easier to navigate.

Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced on Wednesday that the government has successfully met these commitments.

The Government of Canada is committed to family reunification. We understand how important it is to reunite couples. It also makes for a stronger Canada. Canadians who marry someone from abroad shouldnt have to wait for years to have them immigrate or be left with uncertainty in terms of their ability to stay. Hussen was quoted as saying by media.

More than 80 percent of applications in the global spousal sponsorship backlog on Dec. 2016 have now received final decisions for their applications.

IRCC was also reportedly successful in reducing the spousal inventory from 75,000 applications to 15,000 as of Dec 31, 2017.

In addition, after reportedly introducing a new spousal sponsorship application package in December 2016, IRCC continued to respond to client and stakeholder feedback to further improve the application process, making it simpler and easier for sponsors and applicants to understand and navigate.

As a result IRCC reportedly made a number of improvements to the application package in June 2017.

More updates were reportedly introduced yesterday to the application kit to improve both the client experience and make sure we can process applications as quickly as possible.



(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)Washington, Feb 15 (IBNS): Analysts from Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) highlighted in their recent weekly report that U.S. president Donald Trump's tax reform package has caused Canadian businesses to lose their competitive advantage to their U.S. peers, media reports said.

"Canada's formerly favourable position in corporate taxation has eroded considerably, with the U.S. now holding the edge," said economists at TD.

"[Tax reforms] along with growing NAFTA uncertainties, increases the likelihood of a slow bleed of investment from Canada to south of the border," they said.

Strategists at CIBC, meanwhile, pointed out that a lower tax rate in the U.S. could impact Canada's economic activity by making U.S. peers more competitive on mergers and acquisitions.

"With a revitalized tax code, CEOs have another reason to locate in, or worse yet, relocate to the US," Ian de Verteuil of CIBC was reported to state.

U.S. lawmakers' $1.5-trillion U.S. tax reform bill, known as the tax cuts and jobs act (TCJA), had reduced the U.S. corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.

This is the biggest change to the U.S. tax code in over 30 years and gives other business owners a 20 percent deduction on business income, among other changes.

Prior to this law, U.S. had reportedly one of the highest business tax rates among G7 countries, which had not declined over the past 20 years.

Canada, meanwhile, had one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the group and rates had been in consistent decline for several years.

"For Canadian companies, the focus has so far been on companies that win from the lower overall level  because they have large U.S. operations and were accruing taxes at a higher rate," Verteuil was reported to state.

Derek Burleton, economist at TD said that present circumstances has necessitated Canadian government to take action in the upcoming budget.

"We do not believe that a tit-for-tat reduction in tax rates is necessary to guard against these risks, since taxes form only one part of the competitiveness equation," Burleton was reported to state.

"Maintaining longer term fiscal sustainability, increasing the efficiency of tax systems through revenue-neutral tax reforms and well-thought-out investment in human capital and skills training can achieve the similar aim of improving competitiveness," he added.

Canada's Finance Minister Bill Morneau is expected to meet with leading economists in Toronto on Friday for a pre-budget consultation.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)"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.THE Philippines called Kuwaits failure to protect Filipino workers a breach of the latters international obligations which amount to an outrage, bad faith or willful neglect of duty. Id like to remind Kuwait authorities of the standards by which aliens should be treated in their territory. And under international law, each country is bound to give to the nationals of another country in its territory the benefit of the same laws, the same administration, the same protection and the same redress for injury which gives its own citizens neither more or less provided the protection which the country gives to its own citizens conforms to the established standard of civilization, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said in a press briefing Thursday. He said the basis for state liability when it fails to protect aliens in its territory was that they would be recognized in international standards as an insufficient government in protecting foreign migrants. However, Roque declined to react on the condemnation by the Iraqi Foreign Minister, saying the secretary of Foreign Affairs was the right agency to react on such matter. We can only hope that pursuant to established international standards, the Kuwaiti government will accord the victims the same rights enjoyed by its nationals. Meaning, they will conduct an investigation, a speedy and honest investigation, they will prosecute and punish the perpetrators, Roque added. In related developments:  The remains of domestic helper Joanna Daniela Demafelis, murdered and her body stuffed in a freezer in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait, will arrive today at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. In its advisory sent to members of the media Thursday, the Manila International Airport Authority-Media Affairs Division said Demafelis remains would be carried from Kuwait to Manila via Gulf Air flight GF 154 and scheduled to arrive at Naia Terminal 1 around 10 a.m. Demafelis death triggered the Philippine government to declare the total ban on the deployment of overseas Filipino workers to Kuwait. The decision, as instructed by President Rodrigo Duterte, was made official by Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III during a press conference last Monday. Late last month, the agency suspended the deployment to Kuwait on the heels of reports that seven Filipino workers there died for alleged maltreatment.  In the Senate, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon believes the total ban on the deployment of OFWs in Kuwait was a remedy necessary due to the abuses committed on migrant Filipino workers. But the longer-term objective, he said, should be to come up with a labor agreement between Kuwait and the Philippines to define strictly the status and the protection to our workers. I support the ban but there are consequences that we must be prepared to handle particulalry in the area of trade, said Drilon. I do not know what the trade relationship is, the details of the trade relationship between the two countries but certainly from my experience before, these accepting countries would resort to all kinds of pressure on the Philippines, said Drilon.He said we should be able to stand whatever pressure Kuwait will put on us in terms of trade relationship. Roque is confident the diplomatic and trade relations between the two countries would not be affected. Id like to think that the long-term Filipino-Kuwaiti relations will not be affected. However, this consultation between the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and the Kuwaiti Ambassador, as we all know, is a very important consultation, he said. I will not speculate but the Presidents primary objective is to protect the OFWs, he said. He said it would be premature for the government to mull any legal actions against Kuwait considering current talks with Kuwait officials. Whether or not we will actually resort to any action, anything is premature, Roque said. Meanwhile, Roque assured the governments commitment to provide assistance to the family of Demafelis. stored in a freezer. Reports showed that Demafelis was allegedly abused by her employers, reportedly a Lebanese and a Syrian. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration stated that Kuwait was included in the top 10 destinations for OFWs, with 86,019 working there in 2015. In 2016 around 105,000 OFWs were deployed to Kuwait. Drilon said there must be a definition of the banwould it cover only domestic workers or would it cover other skills, otherwise, he said, there could be a confusion of coverage. Two, does it cover only future deployment or does it cover those who are presently there because they also have contracts? asked Drilon. He said these are areas which must be defined clearly. otherwise there can be confusion in the implementation.A bill introduced in the U.S. Congress last week affirms that the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe and the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo , also known as the Tigua Tribe, can engage in gaming on their homelands.

The tribes have been hindered by a provision in existing law that subjects them to the jurisdiction of the state of Texas. H.R.4985 , the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo and Alabama-Coushatta Tribes of Texas Equal and Fair Opportunity Settlement Act, confirms that both can follow the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act

The bill was introduced on February 8 by Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), whose district includes the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe. A day prior, a federal magistrate ruled that the tribe's Naskila Gaming facility was violating Texas law.

The tribe is taking the case to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in order to keep the facility, which offers Class II games like bingo and electronic versions of bingo, up and running. Passage of H.R.4985 would benefit the tribe with the lawsuit.

The bill has three co-sponsors at this point, all of them Republicans. It has been referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources , which has jurisdiction over Indian issues in Congress.

During the last session of Congress, Babin co-sponsored a bill to restore the tribe's gaming rights . In exchange, the tribe would have dropped a $270 million land claim against the United States.

H.R.4985 notably does not require the tribe, or the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, to do anything. instead, it's a clean fix that addresses the gaming issue that arose after the tribes were restored to federal recognition in 1987.

During the disastrous termination era , Congress had essentially transferred the tribes to the state of Texas. The Ysleta del Sur Pueblo and Alabama-Coushatta Indian Tribes of Texas Restoration Act (Public Law 10089; 101 Stat. 666) restored their relationship with federal government.

Read More on the Story: Lawmaker proposes bill that could keep local bingo hall open (The Beaumont Enterprise February 14, 2018) Bill introduced to allow Alabama-Coushatta Tribe to continue operating of its electronic bingo facility (The Lufkin News February 15, 2018)

Join the Conversation

Related StoriesWe all hear stories about certain people who become an overnight sensation. It's always hard to believe and we sometimes assume it could be pre-planned but when Priya Prakash Varrier rose to fame, courtesy her wink and eyebrow dance, we somehow understood that all this is way too unpredictable.

Twitter

The 18-year-old starlet tasted success with a 25 second screen presence and since then there has been no looking back. However, 'Manikya Malaraya Poovi', the song that features the young Malayalam actress has run into trouble.

According to reports, the complainants have claimed that the song insults the Prophet when translated into English. An FIR has been registered against the makers of the film.

Twitter

When I first saw the viral video, I fell in love with it I wanted to know the meaning of the song so I got the Malayalam lyrics translated I found that the song referred to the romance between the Prophet and his wife Khadija. It is inappropriate and an insult to the Prophet. I showed it to our elders and we decided to lodge a complaint. I am not against the film or the actors. I am not against the films release also. We are only protesting against this song because it hurts sentiments of Muslims, complainant Mukit Ali spoke to a leading daily.

However, Priya declined to comment on the row over the song. "'I don't know much about it, I think I'd rather keep shut about it," she said, according to news agency ANI.

Twitter

Priya Prakash Varrier had earlier told NDTV that the director wanted to capture "something cute between me and my hero". So she was told to gesture with her eyebrows and wink at him.



"That's how it worked out. It was spontaneous and we hadn't planned anything," she added.

Muqeeth Khan, complainant against the Priya Varrier song, speaks to TIMES NOW pic.twitter.com/y3FShaFOf3  TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) February 14, 2018

Meanwhile, people are still crushing over her. Take a look

Now thats a #wink ;-) #PriyaPrakashVarrier

3rd highest twitter follower gainers in a day Worldwide! Wow. https://t.co/rVW9MqtFzT  kunal kohli (@kunalkohli) February 15, 2018

Dear Media - Manikya Malaraya Poovi is a magical lilting song, beautifully sung. Priya Varriers wink and Roshans swooning is endearing. It left us all with a smile. With a warm fuzzy feeling. Please, please ignore the jokers. Focus on the love ignore the hate   Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) February 14, 2018If you are in your late 20s, I am sure, the thought of retirement hasnt even struck you yet. Its probably a decision you need to make twenty years down the line, right? Well, I dont blame you. Even I didnt think it was possible for a 20-something person to plan their retirement until I read about Travis and Amanda, a couple from San Francisco.

Freedom With Bruno

According to Forbes, this couple retired in their mid 30s with $1 million, and I was just shocked as you are. Now, to think of it, it seems practically impossible to do that, right? Well, maybe its not completely impossible. After reading Travis and Amandas retirement story, I chalked out a plan to figure out how you and I could do the same.

1. Set An Objective

Back in 2012, Travis lost his job in the Information System industry, and during his new job search, he realised he liked being unemployed while Amanda was working as a chemical engineer. By then, they had $350,000 as savings; however, letting go a paycheck was a big decision. And so they set their objective. Different people want different things from life. For Travis and Amanda, their objective was to retire and travel. You might have a different interest, or hobby you might want to take up. Now whats important here is that you set it as your objective and gradually work towards it.

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2. Speculate

After Travis left his job, the couple pulled together their finances situation and thats when it struck them - if they could save $1 million, by living on 3% to 4% of their portfolio a year, they wouldn't have to work again, ever. Its extremely important to assess your current financial situation and speculate the costs youll be earning in the future, while you work and save and also, the cost youll incur once you quit your jobs. Take into account - taxes, fees, medical or emergency expenses while you are at it.

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3. Save, Save, Save

Travis and Amanda, after taking this life-changing decision, moved towards a lower cost of living setup, so as to ascertain that their investments would grow at least 7% per year. They saved money on whatever possible. Cost cutting is a vital decision you need to make when it comes to planning an early retirement. The money you save, no matter how big or small the amount is, all eventually adds up to your total savings and helps you have a stable life even after you quit your job.

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4. Be Practical

When you are speculating your spending and expenses, its extremely crucial that you take all the decisions practically. You need to be self-aware of your needs as well as your incomes. If you arent practical in making those decisions, youll end up losing money and your retirement plan might just not work out. According to Forbes, Travis and Amanda saved as much as 65% of their income by halving their spending, opting to ride bicycles instead of driving and hanging laundry outside instead of using the dryer, for instance.

Unsplash

5. Work Till You Drop Dead

You need to understand that while your aim is to get retired early, right now, your job is what pays for all your current as well as future expenses. Working hard is an eternal part of an early retirement plan. Anything thatll help you get a better income, or raise - you should always work in that direction. Travis switched his jobs three times in three years to get salary hikes. Amanda, though stuck to her job as a chemical engineer. The couple soon started making a $200,000 combined, in one year.

Unsplash

6. Low-Cost Lifestyle

A prerequisite to having an early retirement is switching to a low-cost lifestyle. Now a lot of you might not want to spend their peak age in a low-cost lifestyle, but thats a conscious decision you need to make. If you think about it, its not too tough. Take a look around your apartment and count the things you genuinely need. When you are out shopping, buy the things you need to sustain a proper life and dont hoard. Travis and Amanda sold their expensive Bay Area home costing $270,000 house in Asheville, NC and chose to live in the mountain town because of the low-living cost.

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7. Focus On Whats Important

Travis and Amanda say they were never really into pricey, touristy spots during their vacations and most of the times, they cooked their own meals instead of eating out. When you are planning an early retirement, its important to focus on whats most important to you and your partner.

UnsplashEvery now and then we are bombarded with news of celebrity pregnancies and baby announcements. But what we seldom hear  or talk about  is the women who chose not to become mothers and were unapologetically honest about it.

From Rekha to Jennifer Aniston, we look at 11 women who made it big in life and chose not to have kids of their own.

1. Rekha

In a candid chat with Anupama Chopra, Rekha once said, My calling in life is to be not just a provider or wife or mother. My calling is to be a true fellow human being. I am not alone. I am every woman and, may I add, I am every man too. It goes to prove that not only is Rekha self-sufficient, she is more than comfortable being her own self.

afp

2. Oprah Winfrey

In a Hollywood Reporter interview, Oprah said, "If I had kids, my kids would hate me...because something (in my life) would have had to suffer and it would've probably been them." Winfrey turned her life around from abuse as a child to something so big, there may be not one woman who doesnt idolise her.

afp/getty images

3. Chelsea Handler

In one of The Conversation With Amanda Cadenet episodes, Handler said, "I don't have the time to raise a child. Childhood was heartbreaking enough for anybody. I don't know that I could handle my own child, especially if I had a girl, going through what I went through growing up. Not that it was so traumatic, but in many ways, it was in your own way." And, so what if she doesnt want to be a mother? By being a comedienne, actress, writer, television host, and producer, she is so much more!

afp/getty images

4. Cameron Diaz

This Charlies Angel knew exactly why she didnt want children of her own. Not having a baby might really make things easier, but that doesn't make it an easy decision. I like protecting people, but I was never drawn to being a mother. I have it much easier than any of them, said Diaz, as reported by Esquire.

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5. Ellen DeGeneres

Funny gal Ellen just turned 60 and that may make you wonder she decided to not have kids. "Honestly, we'd probably be great parents. But it's a human being, and unless you think you have excellent skills and have a drive or yearning in you to do that, the amount of work that that is and responsibilityI wouldn't want to screw them up! We love our animals, she told People.

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6. Betty White

There is perhaps no one wiser than Betty White. Her career meant the world to her and thats why having children of her own was out of the question. "No, I've never regretted it. I'm so compulsive about stuff. I know that if I had ever gotten pregnant, of course, that would've been my whole focus. But I didn't choose to have children because I'm focused on my career and I don't think as compulsive as I am that I could manage both, she told CBS Sunday Morning.

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7. Condoleezza Rice

Whether a woman is a powerful American diplomat or a celebrity or a commoner, the decision to not have kids is one that she owns. Ladies Home Journal quoted Rice as saying, "Yeah, I will. I won't have kids [laughs] but I may still get married. But I would have lived a very fulfilled life if I had gotten married and had kids, too. But I'm very religious and I at some very deep level believe that things are going to work out as they're supposed to. The key is to be open to that and to appreciate the life that you've been given."

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8. Helen Mirren

The Oscar, Emmy, and Tony-winning actor was never interested in having children. She told British Vogue that procreating was not my destiny. I kept thinking it would be, waiting for it to happen, but I never did, and I didnt care what people thought." Later, she told AARP Magazine, I never felt the need for a child and never felt the loss of it...Id always put my work before anything.

afp/getty images

9. Jennifer Aniston

In her interview with Allure, Aniston shut everyone up for good when she said, I don't like (the pressure) that people put on me, on women  that you've failed yourself as a female because you haven't procreated. I don't think it's fair. You may not have a child come out of your vagina, but that doesn't mean you aren't mothering  dogs, friends, friends' children.

afp

10. Renee Zellweger

London Times quoted Bridget Jones aka Zellweger as saying, "Motherhood has never been an ambition. I don't think like that. I never have expectations like, 'When I'm 19 I'm going to do this, and by the time I've hit 25 I'm going to do that.' I just take things as they come, each day at a time, and if things happen, all well and good."

afp

11. Ashley Judd

American actress-cum-political activist, Judd believes its more important to care for the children who are already here. In her book, All That Is Bitter and Sweet: A Memoir, she writes, "I figured it was selfish for us to pour our resources into making our 'own' babies when those very resources and energy could not only help children already here, but through advocacy and service transform the world into a place where no child ever needs to be born into poverty and abuse again. My belief has not changed. It is a big part of who I am."

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It may not be the norm, but we dont see anything wrong in women choosing to not have children of their own. They are happy without them and we are happy for them!KABULNearly 2,300 civilians were killed or wounded in suicide bombings and attacks in Afghanistan in 2017, more than any previous year of the conflict on record, a UN report said Thursday. The figures come as militants ramp up their assaults on urban areas, after US President Donald Trump said last August the American presence in Afghanistan would remain open-ended and Washington stepped up air strikes on rural militant strongholds. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan reported that civilian deaths across the country dipped by nine percent in 2017, with 10,453 total civilian casualties including 3,438 deaths and 7,015 wounded. But as the Taliban and the Islamic State group have come under more pressure they have increasingly carried out indiscriminate assaults in cities. As a result, casualties from suicide bombings and attacks jumped by 17 percent. 2017 recorded the highest number of civilian casualties from suicide and complex attacks in a single year in Afghanistan, the report said, with 605 killed and 1,690 wounded from such incidents. The capital remained a top target, with 16 percent of all casualties during the yeara total of 1,831 people killed and woundedoccurring in Kabul alone. Afghan civilians have been killed going about their daily livestraveling on a bus, praying in a mosque, simply walking past a building that was targeted, Zeid Raad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, was quoted as saying in the report. When we see civilians being deliberately targeted, you wonder how long that this [has] to go on, Tadamichi Yamamoto, the UNs special representative in Afghanistan, told a press conference in Kabul Thursday.Militants claim to represent Afghan interests but are killing people in the most appalling manner, creating terror and suffering, he said. Things have not improved so far in 2018, and he warned the UN is concerned it will see greater harm this year. 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 majority of the victims in 2017 were killed or wounded by anti-government insurgents, according to the report. However pro-government forces, including international troops, were responsible for 20 percent of the civilian casualtiesa seven percent increase from 2016. The casualties by pro-government forces were mainly caused by the increase in aerial bombings by Afghan and foreign forces, the UNAMA said. The US is the only international force known to be carrying out air strikes in Afghanistan. More than 28,000 civilians have been killed and over 52,000 wounded in Afghanistan since 2009 when officials started documenting the casualties, according to the UN.Your dream bike Harley Davidson may soon get cheaper as US President Donald Trump has called the import duty by India and asked the authorities to cut it by 50 per cent. The US Presidents termed Indian policies unfair.

Trump, during a discussion with members of the Congress over steel industry, also threatened to increase the tariff on import of Indian motorcycles to the US.

Twitter

He said the recent decision of the Indian government to reduce the tariff from 75 per cent to 50 per cent was not enough and asked that it should be reciprocal, as the US imposes "zero tax" on the import of motorcycles.

"We have so many countries where we made a product, they make a product, ..We pay a tremendous tax to get into their countries  motorcycles, Harley Davidson  it goes into a certain country. I won't mention the fact that it happens to be India, in this case," Trump said amidst laughter from the audience.

In fact, he also indirectly referred to the recent conversation he had with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard.

BCCL

"And a great gentleman called me from India and he said, we have just reduced the tariff on motorcycles, reduced it down to 50 per cent from 75, and even 100 per cent," Trump said in an apparent reference to his last week's conversation with Prime Minister Modi.

"We have  if you are Harley Davidson, you have 50 to 75 per cent tax, tariff to get your motorcycle, your product in. And yet they sell thousands and thousands of motorcycles, which a lot of people don't know, from India into the United States. You know what our tax is? Nothing," he told the lawmakers and his other Cabinet colleague.

Trump once again pitched for a "reciprocal tax" on countries that he says abuse their trade relationships with the US.

BCCL

"So, I say, we should have reciprocal taxes for a case like that. I'm not blaming India. I think it's great that they can get away with it. I don't know why people allowed them to get away with it. But there's an example that's very unfair. I think we should have a reciprocal tax," he said.

Trump has floated the idea of a reciprocal tax in the past, promising to slap it on countries, including allies, that take advantage of the United States.

"That's called fair trade. It's called free trade. Because ultimately, what's going to happen  either we'll collect the same that they're collecting, or, probably, what happens is they'll end up not charging a tax and we won't have a tax. And that becomes free trade," Trump said.

BCCL

Imported motorcycles from high-end brands such as Harley-Davidson and Triumph are set to get cheaper in India with the reduction in the tariffs.

Earlier, import of motorcycles with engine capacity of 800cc or less used to attract 60 per cent duty, while those with the capacity of above 800cc, attracted 75 per cent duty.Fugitive tycoon Vijay Mallya need not worry about conditions in Indian jails, which he has cited in the Westminster Magistrate's Court as a reason why he shouldn't be extradited to India, a senior Indian government official told TOI.

Once in an Indian jail, Mallya will get facilities like a private toilet in his cell and home-cooked food, said the official.

Also Read: UK Court To Hear Vijay Mallya Extradition Case Soon, But It Has Already Rejected 2 Indian Extradition Request

Citing "torture in Indian jails", Mallya had informed the court that a woman convict, Manjula Shetye, was murdered by jail staff inside Byculla prison on June 23. Mallya had reportedly said that he feared for his life in an Indian jail in case he was sent back.

ap

A top government official associated with Vijay Mallya's extradition case told TOI on Thursday that "nothing will happen to Mallya in jail" and there was no reason for him to worry. "Undertrial food in Indian jails is better," the official said, adding, "He could even have food brought from home as per the jail manual."

Also Read: Extradition Trial Of Fugitive Business Tycoon Vijay Mallya To Resume In UK Court

The official said that the problem with getting Indians extradited from the UK to India was the "overseas perception about prison conditions in India". "People think Indian prisons are hell. All the overseas media coverage is negative and we are trying to change that," he added.

The official said that Arthur Road jail in Mumbai had been fitted with a special cell for extradition cases, and one or two people had been put there so far. "He (Mallya) will have his own toilet and there will be a TV... Nothing will happen to Vijay Mallya in jail. The government will make sure of that," he said.

ap

The official said the government was confident of winning the case against Mallya in London as it has established a watertight case against him.

Also Read: India Seeks Extradition Of Vijay Mallya, Lalit Modi, And Twelve Other Fugitives From The UK

"We have established a prima facie case against Mallya under the Fraud Act 2006 in the UK, otherwise this hearing would not be happening. We sent our case to the UK home office and they decided there was a case. It was also passed to the Crown Prosecution Service extradition unit. We are confident we will win," the official said.

ap

When questioned about defending barrister Clare Montgomery's assertions on Tuesday that much of the CBI evidence was inadmissible, the official said: "Montgomery is dramatising the case." He said that this was just a hearing to extradite Mallya to India  it was not his trial. He said there are two warrants out for Mallya's arrest (one from the CBI and one from the ED).

Mallya has been declared as a "proclaimed offender" and there is a third notice from the SC about contempt proceedings. "We believe he has committed offences under the Indian Penal Code," he said. He said once in India, Mallya would face a trial. It would be up to the special CBI court to decide whether he would be released on conditional bail, as he has been in the UK, or remanded in custody whilst waiting his trial.The family of Mujahid Khan, a CRPF personnel who was killed in the terror attack in Srinagar on Monday has turned down the compensation of Rs 5 lakh by the Bihar government. Returning the cheque given to the family by acting Bhojpur district magistrate Shashank Shubhankar, they said the compensation given was not adequate.

PTI

According to the Bihar government's policy, the kin of army soldiers killed in operation will get a compensation of Rs 11 lakhs, while in the case of paramilitary like CRPF it is just Rs 5 lakhs.

PTI

"It's not about money but respect. When you pay another martyr Rs. 11 lakh, why less than half of it to someone who died in a similar situation," a family member said.

Questioning the state government's compensation policy, the family said Mujahid died fighting terrorists and not by drinking hooch. As per government policy, families of those killed in hooch tragedies are paid Rs. 4 lakh each.

Mujahid, a resident of Piro Tehsil who was injured in the attack died in the hospital on Monday.

PTI

Despite the Nitish Kumar government promising full state honours for the martyr, no minister or elected representative attended his last rites, causing anger among his family and villagers.Jeweller Nirav Modi, had finished fraudulent transactions worth Rs 11,300 crores from the Mumbai branches of Punjab National Bank (PNB) second-largest money lender in India.

It is not just PNB that has been affected by the fraud, six other lenders including Allahabad Bank, Axis Bank and Union Bank which lent money based on PNB's letters of undertaking have also been hit. After the PNB FIR he is said to have fled India. Read more

Govt Gives Rs 6,000 To Save Drying Groundwater Resources Across The Country

Fast depleting ground water in nearly 30% of the assessed blocks in the country has pushed the Centre to fast-track its Rs 6,000 crore ambitious plan aimed at efficient management of available water resources and strengthening of recharge mechanism through community participation.

Half of the total cost of this central scheme - named Atal Bhujal Yojana - will be supported by the World Bank as loan while the remaining half (Rs 3,000 crore) will be funded by the government through budgetary support to deal with the deepening crisis of water scarcity in many parts of the country. Read more

Family Of 1962 War Hero Jaswant Singh Rawat Moves Court Against His Biopic

The family of rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat, who was martyred in the India China War in 1962 has filed a complaint in the Delhi High Court, against an upcoming film which is based on his life story.

The family members of Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat, who was posthumously awarded the Maha Vir Chakra for gallantry, have been opposing the making of a film about him, saying the story was a violation of copyright as well as breach of their privacy. Read more

Robots Will Clean Sewage Instead Of Men In Kerala, Something That Rest Of India Must Follow

Technology is considered as both boon and a bane for humans. We cannot deny the fact that technology has made our lives much easier. In a recent technological development, students in Kerala have come up with a robot that will make the life a lot more better.

Almost everyday, we get to hear news about the deaths of several people who clean manholes. To solve this problem of manual scavenging, a group of students tested a one-metre-tall robot near a manhole in Kerala's capital Thiruvananthapuram. Read more

Indian Army Colonel Compromised, Suspected To Have Been Honey-Trapped By Pakistan's ISI

In a major operation, the Armys counter-intelligence (CI) wing and Military Intelligence (MI) carried out searches at the official premises of a Lieutenant Colonel posted at a base headquarters in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, on Wednesday, on suspicion that he may have fallen prey to a honeytrap or spear phishing by Pakistans ISI.

Officials remained tight-lipped on the operation, but sources say that the officer is posted at the Army base workshop and was on the radar for the last two months. He has been detained, they said. CI and MI officers moved in on him on Monday, said an officer. Read more

Kin Of CRPF Man Killed In Srinagar Reject Compensation, Say He Didn't Die Drinking Hooch

The family of Mujahid Khan, a CRPF personnel who was killed in the terror attack in Srinagar on Monday has turned down the compensation of Rs 5 lakh by the Bihar government. Returning the cheque given to the family by acting Bhojpur district magistrate Shashank Shubhankar, they said the compensation given was not adequate.

According to the Bihar government's policy, the kin of army soldiers killed in operation will get a compensation of Rs 11 lakhs, while in the case of paramilitary like CRPF it is just Rs 5 lakhs. Read moreAt least 50 people died early on Monday and 200 were hospitalised with suspected gunshot wounds in Las Vegas, a local hospital spokesman said.

The shooting happened during a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip, raining down rapid fire from the 32nd floor of a hotel for several minutes before he was shot dead by police.

AFP

Massive amounts of gunfire & many casualties in #LasVegas @MandalayBay concert tonight. Feels like I'm watching a repeat of Bataclan attack. pic.twitter.com/nAeFdWr20K  Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) October 2, 2017

The reports emanated from the Mandalay Bay Casino on the city's famous strip.

AFP

"We're investigating reports of an active shooter near/around Mandalay Bay Casino," police said on Twitter. Several people including a police officer had been shot at a nearby outdoor concert.

AFP

Witnesses heard numerous gunshots at the casino hotel, where police tactical teams were searching for the attacker, according to reports on CNN and in the New York Times.

"We have no idea what his belief system was," Lombardo said. "Right now, we believe he was the sole aggressor and the scene is static."

LISTEN TO THIS! Im so scared for everyone on the #LasVegas Strip...  pic.twitter.com/5tH9NQCK3o  James Wagner (@JamesWagnerTW) October 2, 2017

The death toll, which police emphasized was preliminary and tentative, would make the attack the deadliest mass shooting in US history, eclipsing last year's massacre of 49 people at an Orlando night club.

Thousands of panicked people fled the scene, in some cases trampling one another as law enforcement officers scrambled to locate and kill the gunman. Shocked concertgoers, some with blood on their clothes, wandered the streets after the attack.

The suspect was a local Las Vegas man who acted alone and was not believed to be connected to any terrorist group, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters.There was a shootout at the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Centre in Quebec City, Canada that left five people dead, confirmed the president of the centre, Mohamed Yangui on Sunday.

AFP

Authorities did not confirm the number of fatalities. Quebec City police spokesman Constable Pierre Poirier said two suspects were arrested.

Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard termed the act barbaric violence and expressed solidarity with the victims' families.

AFP

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau quickly took to social media to express his condolences.

Tonight, Canadians grieve for those killed in a cowardly attack on a mosque in Quebec City. My thoughts are with victims & their families, Trudeau tweeted.

He later said on Twitter that he spoke to Quebec's premier and was being briefed by officials. The prime minister said the government had offered ``any & all assistance needed.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said on Twitter Sunday that he was deeply saddened by the loss of life. His office says no motive had been confirmed.

AFP

In the summer of 2016 a pig's head was left on the doorstep of the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre.

Since US President Donald Trump placed an indefinite ban on the refugees and immigrants from certain Muslim countries, Canada has been active in providing temporary shelter to new arrivals in America that have been stranded as a result of the ban.Six major US intelligence agencies have warned Americans not to use devices made by Chinese tech giants Huawei and ZTE. According to reports, the heads of FBI, CIA and NSA made the recommendations during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday.

So why are the heads of the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, US national intelligence and other so dead set against Huawei and ZTE? Well, thats because theyre worried about the way these companies function and its something India probably needs to think about as well. FBI Director Chris Wray said the government was deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that dont share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks.

According to Wray, Chinese tech companies have the capacity to steal or modify information gained from citizens, and could allow them to act as international spies. These arent really new warnings of course, the US intelligence community has previously also posted warning signs on Huaweis forehead. The company was founded by a former engineer in Chinas Peoples Liberation Army for one, which they feel might be cause enough to worry.

In addition, Chinese tech companies rely on servers based in their own country, so all your data is technically filtering back to them. And the layout of the Chinas laws are such that, it can demand access at any point, similar to how Kaspersky is supposedly beholden to Russian oversight.

Huawei, meanwhile, has responded to the US' claims, saying it's "aware of a range of US government activities seemingly aimed at inhibiting Huaweis business in the US market," according to a company spokesperson. "Huawei is trusted by governments and customers in 170 countries worldwide and poses no greater cybersecurity risk than any ICT vendor, sharing as we do common global supply chains and production capabilities. We are committed to openness and transparency in everything we do."

How worried should Indians be?

The thing is Huawei is a major player in the smartphone industry, it just surpassed Apple to become the second biggest manufacturer in the world, behind Samsung. And while the company hasnt gained any traction in the US, their smartphones are pretty popular here in India. While Huawei won't comment anything on India specifically, we are currently awaiting a response from the government on their stand on this issue of user data privacy.

REUTERS

Given the public outrage against Aadhaar related leaks and instances of data leaking out of India to another country in the past, it's heartening to see that data security isn't a frivolous topic as far as the public stakeholders are concerned.

Other popular Chinese phone manufacturers like OnePlus and Xiaomi have also been accused of sending user data back to Chinese servers in the past. Where OnePlus has denied these accusations, Xiaomi has admitted to siphoning user data once in the past. Furthermore, the Indian government has also accused a number of prominent apps of being Chinese spyware.

Chinese phonemakers or not, if our data is in fact vulnerable to some sort of abuse, we need to develop better systems to protect it, especially if citizens are required to place their data and consequently their lives in an increasingly digitally dominated world.Thanks to the recent cryptocurrency craze, a lot of regular people are now turning to cryptocurrency mining. Because of that, people have been buying graphics cards left right and centre (computers needing that processing power to carry out the calculations to mine crypto) creating a shortage in the market.

Now, the BBC says that shortage isnt just hurting gamers looking to upgrade their PCs. In fact, its also slowing down our efforts to find signs of alien life out in the universe.

Researchers from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) group are busy studying data from telescopes and satellites, looking for clues to a possible extraterrestrial civilization, but cryptocurrency miners are hogging the key component they need. Wed like to use the latest GPUs and we cant get em, Chief Scientist at the Berkeley SETI Research Center Dan Werthimer told the BBC. This is a new problem, its only happened on orders weve been trying to make in the last couple of months.

Thats limiting our search for extraterrestrials, to try to answer the question, Are we alone? Is there anybody out there?

The thing is, mining cryptocurrency takes a lot of processing power, which is where the GPUs come in. Unfortunately searching for alien life, while also not knowing if and where it exists and how they would possibly communicate with us, also requires beefy computers. At SETI we want to look at as many frequency channels as we possibly can because we dont know what frequency ET will be broadcasting on and we want to look for lots of different signal typesis it AM or FM, what communication are they using? said Werthimer.

To do that, the group is trying to widen its operations in West Virginia and Australia. Some of their telescopes require close to 100 GPUs to pick up frequencies from across the universe, and SETI just cant get their hands on enough units to outfit them. But its not just a shortage of products, the few available have also skyrocketed in price. That means scientific groups like SETI, which have strict budgets, are now faced with massive cost increases they couldnt anticipate. If the prices for GPUs get any higher, these organisations may just have to cease operations.

Try explaining that to the crypto miners.

ALSO READ: Over 6 Crore Android Users Hit By Malware That Forces Your Phone To Secretly Mine CryptocurrencyAs a member of the "Axis of Evil", North Korea is perhaps the single most demonized country on Earth in Western eyes. The headlong rush into a totally unjustified nuclear confrontation adds to the urgency. Realizing that another reality is possible, Sharat G. Lin traveled to North Korea to see firsthand what the country is really like. He presents an eye-opening visual and verbal picture of the real North Korea and finds a viable road to peace and reunification for Korea.



Raging Grannies will open and close the meeting.

Light refreshments at 6:45 pm.



Info: 408-297-2299 | wilpfsanjose.org | sanjosepeace.org



Sponsored by Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) San Jose Branch

Co-sponsored by the San Jose Peace and Justice Center For more event information: http://www.sanjosepeace.org/calendar_event...

Added to the calendar on Tuesday Feb 13th, 2018 8:51 PMFox told Insurance Business that while the industry may face an unprecedented scale of transformation across the globe in technology and automation, as the workforce changes alongside customer expectations and regulation, a simple focus can help guide the industry.

The simple answer is to listen and observe your customers and what they need and focus on your strengths, Fox said. Enable your people by promoting innovation, purpose, new ways of working and leveraging technology/data to deliver agility & build knowledge. Dont lose sight of the basics to deliver quality.

Having worked in Europe, Australia and New Zealand in a career spanning insurance, reinsurance, underwriting and strategy, Foxs current role has seen her roll out transformation initiatives where it matters most, at the time of a claim.

Fox came into the industry in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in Computing and originally focused on the construction and engineering space. Since then, Fox has been able to progress her career and last year worked alongside Raj Nanra, Zurichs CEO of general insurance, to develop the firms 2017-2021 strategy for Australia and New Zealand.

With this experience, Fox knows all about the scale of the transformation that the industry could face.

From a people perspective I think we will see outcome driven, smaller, more highly skilled (more aptitude than knowledge-based skill set) and pro-active teams that leverage technology to work differently, she explained.

In the market we will see even more customer control, with the expectation of exceptional and personalised service that will rapidly change. The need to work collaboratively across the organisation to deliver bespoke solutions extremely quickly will be paramount.

While Fox may have fallen into the industry some 15 years ago, she said that it was the principle of insurance that has seen her thrive throughout her career.

Insurance is crucial to all industries and to individuals. For me, like most people, I want to feel I add value, Fox said. Insurance at its core is about protecting people and the things most dear to them and is a foundation on which the world operates, which resonates with me.





Related stories:

The firm bringing Silicon Valley to insurance  and giving away its profits

Industry veteran dishes out advice for young generationISRAEL recently launched raids against Iranian targets after saying it had intercepted an Iranian drone crossing the Syria-Israel border. Iran denies the allegation. During the offensive an Israeli F-16 fighter jet was shot down by Syria air defenses, crashing in northern Israel. It is believed to be the first time Israel has lost a jet in combat since 2006. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israels policy to defend itself against any attempt to harm our sovereignty was absolutely clear. Iran brazenly violated Israels sovereignty, he said, adding: They dispatched an Iranian drone from Syrian territory into Israel... Israel holds Iran and its Syrian hosts responsible. Mr. Netanyahu said Israel would oppose any attempt by Iran to entrench itself militarily in Syria. In other news, Iran has warned that it could have enriched uranium within days if the US pulls out of the Iran nuclear deal. Why are so many people with so many different perspectivesfrom the Prime Minister of Israel, to the King of Saudi Arabiaso worried that Iran might build a deliverable nuclear weapon? Or to put it even more simply: why do we have to stop Iran from getting the bomb? The reason is painfully obvious: They might actually use it. France has nuclear weapons. So does the United Kingdom. But nobody worries that they will use them. Its not nuclear weapons that are the problem. Its who has them and what they might do with them. We do not worship Iran, we worship Allah, said Iranian Leader Ayatollah Khomeini in 1980. I say let this land burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam remains triumphant in the rest of the world. A militant nation that does not fear its own destruction is a sure threat to its enemies. And that threat is taken to a whole new level if the militant nation arms itself with nuclear weapons. Who are the enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran? There are three: The first enemy of Iran is the United States of America. A common slogan chanted by Iranians at public rallies is Death to America. But its not just a slogan. Iran has been committing actual acts of war against what it calls The Great Satan for over three decades.There was Irans seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American servicemen, and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed another 19 Americansnot to mention the War in Iraq, during which Iran did little to disguise the fact that it supplied anti-American militias with sophisticated, armor-piercing munitions responsible for the maiming and death of hundreds of US soldiers. A nuclear Iran could greatly expand its efforts to harm American interests, secure in the knowledge that its possession of nuclear weapons would make any military retaliation extremely unlikely. And over time, and not much time, a nuclear Iran could develop the sort of intercontinental ballistic missiles that would bring American and European cities within range of its weapons. A second enemy of Iran, which is a Shiite Muslim nation, are the Sunni Muslim nations of the Middle East. An Iranian bomb would instantly spark a nuclear arms race in the region as Arab statesnearly all of which have majority Sunni populationsmove to defend themselves against aggression from Iran. As these regimes and dictatorships race to become nuclear powers, the chances that nuclear weapons might be used, either directly or through terrorist proxies, grow exponentially. And the third and ultimate enemy of Iran is Israel. Only around a thousand miles separate the Islamic Republic from The Jewish State. Iranian leaders have called Israel a rabid dog, a cancerous tumor that needs to be cut away, and have called publicly and repeatedly for Israels annihilation. They wage a continuous terrorist war against Israel through their proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas. Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjania man often described as a moderate and a pragmatist in the Western pressarticulated the Iranian position this way: If one day, the Islamic world is also equipped with weapons like those that Israel possesses now, then the imperialists strategy will reach a standstill because the use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel will destroy everything. However, one bomb will only harm the Islamic world. Hes right. Thats why the civilized and sensible leaders of the world cannot allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons. Because once the Iranians do, they will pose a severe threat to the security of America and Europe, spark a regional arms race that could see the worlds worst players acquire the worlds worst weapons, and threaten the Jews with extermination for the second time in a century. Or to put it more simply: Iran cannot be allowed to get the bomb because they might actually use it.Hirdes also serves as a senior researcher for interRAI, an international researcher network dedicated to improving the care and quality of life for vulnerable populations.

According to a release from the university, the algorithm utilizes data from interRAIs home care assessment to generate a list of vulnerable adults receiving home care services. The algorithm takes into account disability, health status, social isolation and the amount of support a particular individual receives from informal caregivers.

Eight provinces/territories have already required the use of the interRAI assessment for long-stay home care clients.

Older adults living on their own are more difficult to locate and assist than those living in healthcare facilities, explained Region of Waterloo emergency management coordinator Sandy Van Solm. This algorithm helps us to plan for disasters in advance and allows responders to quickly generate an accurate list of those who may need help during a disaster.

Van Solm also helped develop the algorithm as part of her PhD at Waterloo, the university noted.

Both Hirdes and Van Solm are collaborating with the Canadian Institute for Health Information to roll out the algorithm into interRAI home care software used across Canada, beginning this year.

Data from the World Health Organization suggests that the elderly face considerably high fatality rates during natural disasters, citing that when Hurricane Katrina struck, 71% of the deaths that occurred during the weather event involved persons over 60 years old.CMS is projecting that healthcare spending will, on average, rise 5.5% annually, from 2017 to 2026. The industrys spending will comprise 19.7% of the US economy in 2026, up from 17.9% in 2016. The agency is also predicting that, by 2026, health spending will reach $5.7 trillion.

The report noted that prescription drugs are expected to experience the fastest annual growth over the next 10 years, jumping an average of 6.3% per year. This mounting increase is driven by higher drug prices and the more prevalent use of specialty drugs.

Increased Medicare and Medicaid spending are also expected to contribute to rising health spending, as the population ages and relies more on both healthcare programs.

Notably, the report also forecasted that a slightly higher share of the US population will be uninsured in 2026. CMS said that the insured rate is anticipated to drop to 89.3% from 91.1% in 2016 after the GOP overturned Obamas healthcare plan, aka Obamacare.

Reuters reported that the healthcare industrys spending for 2017 increased by 4.3%  faster than 2016s. This was driven by higher Medicare spending, rising prices for healthcare goods and services and increases in premiums for health insurance purchased through the Obamacare individual market.

Related stories:

Aetna under fire after shocking testimony by former medical director

Revealed: The three major pain points of IoT healthcare devicesI would say the most popular job searches are for claims, sales and customer service, he says, and that matches the most job categories posted by employers.

Yet the industry continues to shift. The specter of automation remains the biggest cause for concern, but companies investments in tech efficiencies and automation havent resulted in the expected job losses.

More than a quarter of respondents to the Mid-Year US Insurance Labor Outlook Study said that automation of roles will be the primary reason for reductions in staff during the next 12 months. That isnt actually happening, though, says Jeff Rieder, partner and head of Ward Group. Despite the industrys new focus on automation and data analysis, traditional brokering positions dont seem to be in jeopardy.

The reality is that despite the massive investment [in tech efficiencies], its making companies smarter about their policyholders and smarter about how to settle a claim efficiently  but its not necessarily eliminating people to do [those roles].

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment in the US insurance industry remains almost nil, at just 2%. Plenty of baby boomers continue to retire at the top end of the spectrum, and there are a lot of people jumping ship throughout the industry, but the ranks keep filling.

Greg Jacobson, CEO of The Jacobson Group, attributes this to a tightening of the market. The low unemployment, he says, is something that has long been predicted.

Were in a long trend, according to our study, of increasing employment in the insurance industry, Jacobson says. Whats not talked about a lot is that the insurance industry has been growing substantially. Since the recession, the insurance carrier market  not including brokers  has grown about 6.5%, and its actually now almost at the employment level of the [highest point] of the last 20 years. And if you look at the insurance industry as a whole  insurance carriers and related activities, which includes sales, producers, brokers  were at an all-time high  since 2000. I think a lot of that is growth in salespeople  with more competitors out there.

Since 2015, the groups labor market studies have consistently seen around 65% or 66% of companies predicting theyll be recruiting more staff. That number actually dipped slightly to 62% in the most recent study, Jacobson says, although he acknowledges that thats still a very high rate.

But weve also seen an increase in the number of companies that plan on reducing staff over the next 12 months, he says. I am not in any way predicting a downturn in employment in the insurance industry. Its just interesting that the numbers seem to be waning a little bit. I dont think this is a big trend, but it might be a slight slowing down of a really, really hot market.

At the individual level, Jacobson points out that employees today are more prone to skip from one job to another. Voluntary resignation numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics back up that claim. For the finance sector, including insurance, the voluntary resignation figure in 2009 was 9.8%; today, it has jumped to 13.2%.

I think people define loyalty to their employer in a different way than they used to, Jacobsen says. They define their loyalty [now] as giving all they have when theyre there. But if other opportunities come up that might be better, that might advance their career, then people are more open to that.

Jacobson predicts this trend could grow as boomers continue to retire. Once older workers who were more inclined to spend their entire careers at one firm are gone, he says, they will be replaced by younger professionals who are more apt to move around.Sunoco has agreed to a $12.6 million fine over problems with a massive natural gas pipeline project, but work will resume under a consent agreement, Pennsylvania regulators said.

The Department of Environmental Protection said Sunoco Pipeline has made changes since work on the $2.5 billion Mariner East 2 pipeline was halted Jan. 3.

The 350-mile project has been plagued by spills and leaks of drilling fluid and improper construction methods.

Sunoco has demonstrated that it has taken steps to ensure the company will conduct the remaining pipeline activities in accordance with the law and permit conditions, and will be allowed to resume, Environmental Protection Secretary Patrick McDonnell said in a statement. DEP will be monitoring activities closely to ensure that Sunoco is meeting the terms of this agreement and its permits.

In stopping the work last month, the state agency said Sunoco demonstrated it could not or would not comply with Pennsylvanias clean streams law and other regulations.

The company said it agreed to the deal to avoid litigation and resume construction on a major pipeline project.

While we strongly disagree with their legal conclusions that our conduct was willful or egregious, we felt it was important to our unit holders and to the commonwealth of Pennsylvania that we move forward rather than engage in continued litigation, according to a statement released by spokesman Jeff Shields.

The consent agreement specifies that Sunoco will withdraw an appeal of last months order filed a few days ago with the state Environmental Hearing Board.

The state agency called the fine one of the largest civil penalties it has ever imposed and said the money will be deposited into funds for clean water and dams and encroachments.

The 20-inch pipeline will move liquid natural gas products from Marcellus Shale drilling fields in western Pennsylvania to a terminal in Philadelphia. It is scheduled for completion by summer, and a companion 16-inch pipeline is expected to begin operation later in the year.

Environmental groups have vigorously opposed the pipeline, citing concerns about deforestation, crossings of hundreds of streams and wetlands and the impact on farms and drinking water.

Food & Water Watch organizer Sam Rubin called the settlement an outrageous deal that put corporate profits ahead of safety.

Make no mistake, Rubin said in a statement. The communities threatened by this pipeline will protect themselves from this danger, with or without Gov. Wolfs support.

Sunoco Pipeline LP, based in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, is a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners LP. Energy Transfer companies own and operate about 71,000 miles of pipeline.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Pollution PennsylvaniaIndependent Lloyds broker AFL Insurance Brokers Ltd. hired re/insurance professionals Barry Rowland and Chris Cavani to augment its wholesale property team.

Formerly a facilities and binder partner at JLT Re, Rowland joins AFL as director, Property & Casualty. Cavani joins from Alston Gayler where he was head of Property. He takes on the role of director in AFLs Property Practice.

Prior to JLT Re, Rowland was a producer at CGNMB Specialty from April 2014 to September 2015. Over the past 30-plus years, he has worked on both the retail and wholesale side of the business, on both sides of the Atlantic, AFL said.

Prior to his tenure at Alston Gayler which began in July 2015, Cavani also worked for brokers Faber Global Ltd. and Glencairn, according to his LinkedIn profile. In a career spanning 16 years, Cavani has specialized in providing solutions to clients through binder, lineslips and stand-alone placements, focused on the U.S. and Canadian retail and wholesale business.

With their retail and wholesale experience, Rowland and Cavani excel at the development of innovative products and placement of multi-layered, complex risks, said AFL CEO Bob Finch. They join a team committed to removing inefficiencies and modernizing the way the London market does business.

I believe 2018 will be a year of significant change for the property and casualty business, with fresh opportunities for independents like AFL to present a real alternative as choice becomes more limited elsewhere, said AFL Chairman Toby Esser.

Source: AFL Insurance Brokers

Topics Agencies PropertyA former insurance agent in Bettendorf, Iowa, has been sentenced to five years supervised probation for insurance fraud, the Iowa Insurance Division reported

Billie J. Holmberg pleaded guilty in Scott County District Court to the charge of Ongoing Criminal Conduct, a class B Felony.

Holmberg was charged in July 2017 following an investigation conducted by the Iowa Insurance Divisions Fraud Bureau that began in April of that year. The Fraud Bureau concluded that Holmberg altered and endorsed a series of checks that totaled more than $7,000.

The checks were from American National Property and Casualty Insurance Co. policyholders and were intended to pay their insurance premiums. Holmberg deposited the checks into her own bank accounts and ultimately used the funds for personal use, the Iowa Insurance Division said.

Hombergs insurance license was revoked by the division on April 4, 2017.

The criminal prosecution was the result of a collaborative effort of the Scott County Attorneys Office and the Iowa Insurance Divisions Fraud Bureau.

Source: Iowa Insurance Division

Topics Agencies Fraud IowaAs climate-change lawsuits against the oil industry mount, Exxon Mobil Corp. is taking a bare-knuckle approach rarely seen in legal disputes: Its going after the lawyers who are suing it.

The company has targeted at least 30 people and organizations, including the attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts, hitting them with suits, threats of suits or demands for sworn depositions. The company claims the lawyers, public officials and environmental activists are conspiring against it in a coordinated legal and public relations campaign.

Exxon has even given that campaign a vaguely sinister-sounding name: The La Jolla playbook. According to the company, about two dozen people hatched a strategy against it at a meeting six years ago in an oceanfront cottage in La Jolla, Calif.

Its an aggressive move, said Howard Erichson, an expert in complex litigation and a professor at Fordham University School of Law in New York. Does Exxon really need these depositions or is Exxon seeking the depositions to harass mayors and city attorneys into dropping their lawsuits?

At Stake

Experts say Exxons combative strategy  an extraordinary gambit to turn the tables  is a clear sign of whats at stake for the fossil-fuel industry. So far, New York City and eight California cities and counties, including San Francisco and Oakland, have sued Exxon and other oil and gas companies. They allege that oil companies denied findings of climate-change scientists despite knowing that the use of fossil fuels posed grave risk to the planet.

Attorneys general Eric Schneiderman of New York and Maura Healey of Massachusetts, are investigating whether Exxon covered up information on climate change, defrauding shareholders and consumers.

Exxon, the worlds 10th biggest company, has denied the allegations and says its defense is intended to show that its being punished for not toeing the line on climate change, even though it agrees with the scientific consensus.

The attorneys general have violated Exxon Mobils right to participate in the national conversation about how to address the risks presented by climate change, said Dan Toal, a lawyer who represents Exxon. That is the speech at issue here  not some straw man argument about whether climate change is real.

Scare Tactic

Plaintiff lawyers and legal experts contend the oil giants tactics are meant to intimidate while shifting the spotlight away from claims of environmental damage. And they say theres nothing improper with lawyers discussing legal strategies together.

Its crazy that people are subpoenaed for attending a meeting, said Sharon Eubanks, a lawyer who was at the La Jolla gathering. Its sort of like a big scare tactic: reframe the debate, use it as a diversionary tactic and scare the heck out of everybody.

Exxon has focused on the La Jolla meeting as ground zero for its conspiracy claim. Ironically, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a nonprofit run by descendants of John D. Rockefeller who are pressing Exxon to address climate change issues, has funded organizations that led the La Jolla conference (Exxon, which grew out of John D.s Standard Oil, also subpoenaed the fund to testify.)

At the gathering, participants met to discuss litigation strategies that could be applied to climate change, according to a 35-page summary that was later made public. Eubanks, a former Justice Department lawyer, talked about how the U.S. government used the racketeering law against cigarette makers, for example.

More than four years after the meeting, Eubanks got a subpoena from Exxon to testify about it. The subpoena is pending.

Document Request

Exxon has also aimed its legal firepower at Matthew Pawa, whose firm represents Oakland, San Francisco and New York in their suits against Exxon. Last month, Exxon asked a state judge in Fort Worth, Texas, to order Pawa to turn over documents and testify under oath about the La Jolla conference and other conversations with lawyers and activists. Hes also been subpoenaed to testify in a federal action Exxon has brought against the state attorneys general.

Pawa declined to comment.

The company is also seeking testimony from 15 municipal lawyers and officials in California. Exxon said its seeking evidence for an anticipated suit claiming civil conspiracy and violation of its First Amendment and other Constitutional rights.

Routine Meetings

Experts in litigation say that lawyers in big lawsuits, including those targeting tobacco, guns and pharmaceuticals, routinely meet to share information and coordinate strategy.

I dont think theres anything wrong with plaintiffs lawyers and attorneys general strategizing together, said Fordham professor Erichson, just as I dont think theres anything wrong with lawyers for oil companies strategizing together.

But Linda Kelly, general counsel of the National Association of Manufacturers, said the climate litigation is really a play for money and votes.

Its a coming together of plaintiffs lawyers who have a profit motive and a liability theory, environmental activists who have a political agenda and politicians who are looking to make a name for themselves with this issue, Kelly said.

Contingent Fees

San Francisco has promised 23.5 percent of any settlement to its lawyers. New York is working on a contingent-fee deal like San Franciscos, according to a spokesman for the citys Law Department.

In recent years, the most notable attack on a plaintiff lawyer came in 2011 when Chevron Corp., claiming it was target of an extortion scheme, successfully pursued a civil racketeering suit against Steven Donziger, the attorney behind a $9.5 billion Ecuadorian judgment against the company over pollution in the Amazon.

Some experts say Exxons strategy goes beyond mere litigation tactics.

People often try to use litigation to change the cultural conversation, said Alexandra Lahav, a professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, pointing to litigation over guns and gay rights as examples. Exxon is positioning itself as a victim rather than a perpetrator.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics Lawsuits New York Climate Change Energy Pollution Oil GasA group of 13 automakers will contribute as much as $130 million to compensate those injured by faulty Takata Corp. air bag inflators as part of a deal to resolve the Japanese companys bankruptcy, a U.S. plaintiffs attorney told Reuters.

The agreement clears the way for the sale of Takatas non-inflator business to Key Safety Systems, a unit of Chinas Ningo Joyson Electric Corp., for $1.6 billion, helping to ensure a steady supply of car parts for the worlds biggest automakers.

Takata and its U.S. unit, TK Holdings Inc., filed for bankruptcy last year in the wake of the worlds largest automotive safety recall, triggered by air bag inflators that can explode with excessive force, unleashing metal shrapnel inside cars and trucks.

Attorney Joe Rice of Motley Rice, who represents dozens of personal injury plaintiffs in the bankruptcy, said the deal, which was disclosed in court papers on Saturday, was aimed at keeping Takata operations afloat so it could make replacement inflator kits.

Tens of millions of air bags with the inflators have been recalled but not yet replaced.

In an interview late on Monday, Rice said the group of 13 automakers would contribute about $80 million to $130 million to Takatas bankruptcy estate to help compensate those injured by the Takata inflators.

In return for the automakers contribution, a committee of injured drivers dropped their objection to TK Holdings proposed bankruptcy exit plan. The plan will be presented to a U.S. judge on Friday for approval.

Victims of the faulty inflators will also be able to collect from a separate $125 million compensation fund created as part of a plea deal Takata entered with the U.S. Department of Justice early last year. As part of that plea, automakers will receive their share of an $850 million restitution fund.

Rice said funds from the Justice Department settlement and the bankruptcy are likely to fall short of full compensation for injured drivers, but they will still be able to sue the car manufacturers.

The one exception is Honda Motor Co., which agreed to create a trust to ensure injuries linked to its vehicles will be compensated in full, according to Rice. He said Honda also will not contest fault for the injuries.

At least 22 deaths and hundreds of injuries worldwide are linked to the Takata inflators.

Honda has faced the greatest number of air bag-related claims of the automakers, and 20 of the deaths have occurred in Honda vehicles, most of which were in the United States. In return for funding the trust, Honda will be shielded from further lawsuits. That also means it will not face the risk of punitive damages.

Last year, plaintiffs said an internal Honda email showed Honda was long aware of the risks of Takata air bags, the type of allegation that could have opened the way to punitive damages.

Honda has said it was a victim of deception by Takata, and noted in a statement Tuesday that the $850 million fund created as part of the plea deal was meant to compensate automakers for Takatas scheme.

Honda said it is committed to swiftly and fully compensating those injured caused by defective inflators in its vehicles, according to the statement, and said claimants could still opt into the court system.

The 12 other carmakers that were involved in the settlement, including Ford Motor Co., Toyota Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Volkswagen AG, have 18 months to opt into the trust, if they agree to compensate drivers in full.

Until then, they will continue to defend personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits. They will be able to offset any judgments with payments made to claimants from the Justice Department fund and the bankruptcy.

The automakers trust being funded by Honda is similar to arrangements used by manufacturers driven into bankruptcy over asbestos-tainted products. While the asbestos trusts have often been underfunded, the automakers trust will be a pay-as-you-go system, helping to ensure it remains solvent.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Tom Brown and Diane Craft)

Topics USAInsurance complaints decreased again in 2017 and remained last of the top 10 consumer complaint categories, according to the Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurances (TDCI) Division of Consumer Affairs.

The number of consumer complaints in 2017 related to insurance  172 of a total of 3,599 total complaints  was a slight improvement from the 177 insurance complaints TDCI assisted with in 2016.

TDCI said the insurance category relates to pet insurance, consumer health insurance, and unlicensed insurance companies. Most consumers complained about policy coverage and claims. These complaints are often referred to TDCIs Insurance Division. In 2015, insurance complaints ranked eight of the top 10 with 213.

Taking the No. 1 spot Tennessee for consumer complaints again in 2017 was the home improvements category with more than 400 consumer complaints.

TDCIs Division of Consumer Affairs total of 3,599 complaints in 2017 was significantly lower than the 4,432 complaints reviewed by Consumer Affairs in 2016. TDCI also recovered both services and funds for Tennessee by working with consumers and businesses.

For 2017, the top 10 complaint categories and number of complaints per category included:

1. Home improvements: 412 complaints

This category includes home warranties, as well as hiring a contractor for services to repair or improve the quality of your home. The most common complaints related to quality of work, incomplete work after receiving payment, and structural damage caused by employed individuals or businesses. Many of these complaints are referred to the Board for Licensing Contractors, Tennessee Housing Development Agency (THDA) as well as the Tennessee Regulatory Authority (TRA).

2. Personal/Professional Services: 292 complaints

This category relates to services offered by licensed professionals working in the State of Tennessee, including hair stylists, massage therapists, nail technicians, and others. Common complaints include the quality of service, charges for service not received, and problems redeeming gift certificates for services offered. Some agencies these complaints could be referred to include TDCIs Division of Regulatory Boards and Board of Professional Responsibility.

3. Utilities: 289 complaints

This category includes gas service, water service, sewer, electricity, landline phone service, mobile phone service, Internet service, and cable. Problems with billing and maintenance were the most common complaints. Often, these complaints will be referred to the TRA or the investor-owned utility.

4. Timeshares/Vacation Clubs: 274 complaints

This category relates to consumers purchasing property under a timesharing agreement and the sale of these agreements. The most common complaints reported high-pressure sales tactics, misrepresentation of the contract, and resale scams. The Division will often refer these complaints to the Tennessee Real Estate Commission and the Board of Professional Responsibility.

5. Landlord/Tenant: 216 complaints

This category relates to consumers leasing rental property in the State of Tennessee. The most common complaints related to security deposits and the conditions of the rental property. These complaints are most often referred to the THDA, city and county building codes enforcement, and TDCIs Fire Prevention/State Fire Marshals Office.

6. Motor Vehicle: 202 complaints

This category often includes consumer dissatisfaction with the sale of the used vehicle they purchased. Problems with used vehicle sales and advertising were the most common complaints. Consumer Affairs often works closely with the Tennessee Motor Vehicle Commission when handling these types of complaints. In addition, these complaints may be referred to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Tennessee Department of Revenue.

7. Debtor/Creditor: 196 complaints

This category includes matters related to debt collection companies, payday loans, credit

repair companies, and check-cashing services. Consumer complaints often related to harassing phone calls or billing issues. These complaints are often referred to the Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions.

8. Health Services and Products: 191 complaints

Consumers most common complaints include being misquoted for services and inaccurate billing. The Division will refer appropriate complaints to the Tennessee Department of Health.

9. Motor Vehicle Repair: 184 complaints

This category refers to companies offering services to repair vehicles. Most consumers report auto repair companies that return vehicles not fully repaired. The Division will refer to and work with the Tennessee Motor Vehicle Commission, the NHTSA, and the Tennessee Department of Revenue.

10. Insurance: 172 complaints

This category relates to pet insurance, consumer health insurance, and unlicensed insurance companies. Most consumers complained about policy coverage and claims. These complaints are often referred to TDCIs Insurance Division.

Source: Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance

Topics Trends Auto TennesseeA white West Virginia police officer who was fired after he refused to shoot a black man who had a gun has settled a lawsuit for $175,000.

The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia announced the settlement with the city of Weirton on Monday.

In the lawsuit, Stephen Mader said he did nothing wrong in May 2016 when he tried to persuade 23-year-old R.J. Williams of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, to put down his weapon. Another officer later saw Williams with his gun raised and fatally shot him. Williams gun was unloaded. Mader said he determined Williams wanted to die by suicide by cop.

Mader still maintains his firing was unjustified. In the statement, he said he was happy to put this chapter of my life to bed. My hope is that no other person on either end of a police call has to go through this again.

Weirton City Manager Travis Blosser said Monday that the city stands by Maders firing. Officials in Weirton, an Ohio River community of 19,000 residents 36 miles west of Pittsburgh, had said Mader was fired eight weeks after the shooting for conduct unbecoming of an officer in three separate incidents.

We still feel we made the correct decision, Blosser said in a telephone interview. We dont regret that decision. We feel we made the correct decision for the community.

Blosser said the decision to settle the lawsuit was made by the citys insurance carrier.

The lawsuit contended Mader was fired specifically for the Williams incident. Mader had said he would have done nothing differently. The lawsuit cited the state constitution, which prohibits a police officer from using deadly force unless the officer has reason to believe the target of such force poses an immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or others.

According to the lawsuit, Mader responded to a call from Williams girlfriend that he was threatening to hurt himself with a knife. Mader said his Marine Corps and police officer training taught him to assess a threat level. He said Williams was visibly upset but not aggressive or violent.

Mader believed Williams did not pose a risk of death or serious bodily injury to himself or others. After Mader ordered Williams to drop his unloaded gun, Williams responded, I cant do that. Just shoot me, according to the lawsuit.

Two other officers arrived and when Williams raised his gun, one of the officers fatally shot Williams in the head. Investigations found the officer did nothing wrong.

Maders lead attorney, Timothy OBrien of Pittsburgh, said in the statement that Maders attempt to de-escalate the situation should have been praised, not punished. Simply put, no police officer should ever feel forced to take a life unnecessarily to save his career.

Maders personnel file, previously obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request, included an investigative report by a Weirton police captain who wrote that Williams presented a clear and present danger to others and recommended Maders firing for several incidents.

In March 2016, Mader was issued a verbal warning for opening a car door to place a parking ticket inside without having a search warrant and cursing at the car owners wife. A disorderly conduct charge against the owner was later dropped.

A month later, Mader responded to a call about a cardiac arrest and found a woman dead on a stairway. Mader determined the victim died of natural causes. He didnt fill out a police report, collected no evidence and the body was sent to a funeral home. Police Chief Rob Alexander called the handling of the suspicious death unacceptable, and an autopsy determined the victim sustained blunt force trauma to the neck and upper torso.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Law Enforcement VirginiaPosted Thursday, February 15, 2018 7:15 am

I hope this note finds you well! It has been a busy week in our State Capitol. As always, I continue to focus on ensuring that your constitutional liberties are protected so that your family can have the best and brightest future in front of them. As I write this, your elected officials in Washington are working against the clock to fund our federal government for a couple more months, the Missouri Senate is still filibustering legislation which started last night and is still going this afternoon.

In the Missouri House, we called session to order, addressed bills from the legislative calendar, had lively debate from both sides of the aisle, and took care of the peoples business.

It was a pleasure to meet with Webster Electric, Intercounty Electric and Webster County Commissioners. I also met with our Missouri Supreme Court Justices, Advance Practice Registered Nurses and Joan Twiton, CEO of the Fordland Clinic. I particularly enjoyed having Noah McAllister shadow me on Wednesday, I always enjoy having the students visit.

I am happy to report that I have a number of my bills advancing through the committees this week:

HB 2040  Relating to child abuse investigations

HB 1608  Review of Fiscal Notes for bills

HB 1486  Work requirements for SNAP recipients

HB 2286  Updating the statutes for logging transport

I also want to remind you that you can easily log on to House.mo.gov to follow these bills, or any bills in the Legislature, or to listen to live debate while we are in session.

House gives first-round approval to HB 1413

The bill is designed to increase transparency by requiring public labor organizations to maintain financial records identical to those required by federal law. The reports must be made available to employees in a searchable electronic format. The bill increases transparency within public sector unions by holding them to private union disclosure standards. The language in the bill also protects the political viewpoints of public sector union members who may disagree with union leadership, and may accordingly wish to not have their dues or membership pay for the union's political activities.

House approves change to Abortion Parental Notification Law (HB 1383)

Current Missouri law requires that a minor seeking an abortion and one parent or guardian of that minor give written consent before the procedure is performed. House Bill 1383 would require that the parent or guardian giving consent notify any other custodial parent or guardian in writing before the minor gives her consent. The bill contains exceptions for an emergency, or for custodial parents or guardians who have been found guilty of certain crimes, are listed on the sex offender registry, are the subject of an order of protection, have had parental rights terminated, or cannot be located. The goal of the bill is to make all parents aware of the medical procedures being performed on their minor children.

BILLS MOVING TO THE SENATE

HB 1370 would require every school district and charter school to maintain an accountability portal for the public. Supporters say the bill will help citizens look up basic financial information on their school district and enable them to ask questions at board meetings or gain additional information from the department.

HB 1446 would expand the existing exception for small cities, towns and villages that allows candidates for election to assume office without holding an election if a particular election is uncontested and the number of candidates available equal the number of open positions. The exception currently applies to cities, towns, or villages with 1,000 or less persons, and the bill would expand it to apply to those with 2,000 or less persons. Supporters say that the bill will help save money in approximately 44 percent of instances while not changing any electoral results.

HB 1744 would modify the A+ Schools Program by removing the requirement that the student's attendance of public high school occur in the three years immediately prior to graduation. Supporters say the bill removes a technical requirement that should not prevent students from being eligible for A+ benefits.

HB 1880 declares the expansion of broadband services to be within the best interests of the citizens of Missouri and a public purpose. In furtherance of expanding broadband throughout Missouri, the bill states the intent of the General Assembly to encourage agreements between various parties and rural electric cooperatives to expand rural broadband services.

FFA state officer team visits State Capitol

In what has become an annual tradition for lawmakers, the members of the FFA State Officer Team visited the State Capitol building last week to talk about the importance of agricultural education in Missouri. Their visit was highlighted by a speech made in the House Chamber by FFA President Abby Bertz. Bertz discussed the organizations origins in Kansas City, and focused her comments on the importance of preparing the next generation of leaders. FFA prepares the next generation to meet the challenges of feeding a growing population by helping its members to develop their own unique talents and explore their interests in a broad range of career pathways through their experiences in agricultural education. We were honored to have them.

Lawmakers participate in Wear Red Day at the State Capitol

Lawmakers and staff were decked out in red on Tuesday, Feb. 6, as they worked to raise awareness of cardiovascular disease.

By wearing red, participants hope to raise awareness of the fact that cardiovascular disease kills approximately one woman every 80 seconds. Ninety-five percent of adult women have at least one risk factor for heart disease, and almost half of women are not aware of the risks. Awareness is important because 80 percent of cardiac events can be prevented with education and lifestyle changes.

Raising awareness of teen dating violence

The month of February is set aside each year in Missouri to raise awareness of teen dating violence. Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month was created with the passage of SB 921 by the Missouri General Assembly in 2016.

The awareness month encourages Missourians to participate in appropriate activities and events to raise awareness of abuse in teen relationships.

Rep. Hannah Kelly represents the 141st District in the Missouri House of Representatives. The 141st District includes the eastern half of Webster County and all of Wright County.After Idahos Republican governor promised to find creative ways to get around Obamacare, one health plan in the state plans to offer skimpy coverage that may violate many of the laws protections for patients.

Blue Cross of Idaho said Wednesday that it will offer insurance plans that dont comply with some Affordable Care Act requirements. The Freedom Blue coverage is a way to give some people lower premiums upfront in exchange for less comprehensive coverage.

Others will pay more  the plans have limits on annual medical spending and will charge sicker people higher premiums or deny them coverage in some cases. Those policies are specifically forbidden by the 2010 law.

The move sets up a potential conflict with the federal government. While President Donald Trump has said he opposes the law and has taken steps to undermine it, the administration will have to decide whether to enforce legal requirements that remain on the books.

Trumps Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, was asked about the Idaho plans during a congressional hearing on Wednesday in Washington. He said hed uphold the law, without indicating what specific actions he might take.

There are rules and theres a rule of law that we need to enforce, Azar said at the hearing. An HHS spokesman said the department was monitoring the situation in Idaho.

If the department doesnt act, it could be up to the courts to resolve whether Idaho is violating the law.

Both in terms of federal penalties and in terms of potential private lawsuits, they are taking on tremendous liabilities here, said Tim Jost, an emeritus professor at the Washington and Lee University School of Law who has been critical of efforts to unwind the law. What theyre doing is completely illegal. Its kind of jaw-dropping.

In early January, Idaho Governor Butch Otter directed the states insurance regulator to find creative ways for health insurers in the state to offer more affordable coverage. Otter said the state planned to use flexibility offered by the Trump administration in an executive order, and that it had authority to do so. The insurance regulator issued guidelines for the plans later that month.

The door is open for states to pursue our own reasonable solutions, Otter said. We believe Idaho will lead the way in states taking back control of their insurance markets.

The Idaho plan believes its following the flexibility it has under the law.

What we see is our regulator is giving direction for how to make more choices available in the marketplace that are affordable for those who are uninsured and our direction is to follow our local regulators guidance, said Dave Jeppesen, executive vice president of consumer health care at Blue Cross of Idaho.

Jeppesen estimates the plans will appeal to about 110,000 people in the state who dont have coverage because its too expensive for them. The plans are designed as an additional option, he said, and the insurer will continue to offer coverage that complies with the ACA.

Those that are healthy and without subsidies have exited, and the best thing we can do is bring the healthy folks back into the pool, Jeppesen said. This isnt meant to undermine the ACA products, its meant to stabilize.

The proposed plans have a $1 million annual per-person limit to how much care the insurer will pay for. The plans have many of the same general benefits as ACA plans, though one wont cover maternity care. They can also charge more to people who are sicker after asking them extensive questions about their health.

While such policies were banned by the Affordable Care Act, Idaho plans to use the law as a backstop. If individuals end up with medical expenses that exceed the $1 million limit in the non-Obamacare plans, Idaho will require insurers to help them move into ACA plans, which dont have limits on medical spending.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.The family of Bill Paxton has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a Los Angeles hospital and the surgeon who performed the actors heart surgery shortly before he died.

The suit filed against Cedars-Sinai Medical Center alleges the surgeon, used a high risk and unconventional surgical approach that was unnecessary and that he lacked the experience to perform, and that he downplayed the procedures risks.

And it alleges the hospital knew the surgeon, Dr. Ali Khoynezhad, tended to engage in maverick surgeries and show suboptimal judgment.

The misguided treatment caused Paxton to suffer excessive bleeding, cardiogenic shock and a compromised coronary artery, the suit alleges.

Paxtons death certificate says he died Feb. 25, 2017, from a stroke, 11 days after surgery to replace a heart valve and repair aorta damage. He was 61.

Bill Paxton and his family trusted the physicians and staff at this medical facility but instead Cedars-Sinai betrayed their trust, the familys attorney Bruce Broillet said in a statement. The surgeons actions resulted in this tragic and preventable death.

Paxtons widow, Louise, and children, James and Lydia, brought the lawsuit. It seeks unspecified damages and reserves the right to add more defendants who work for the hospital as their roles and names become clear.

Cedars-Sinai said it could not offer public comment about Paxtons case.

State and federal privacy laws prevent us from commenting about patient care without written authorization, a statement said. Nothing is more important to Cedars-Sinai than the health and safety of our patients. These remain our top priorities. One of the reasons for our high quality is that we thoroughly review concerns about any patients medical care. This process ensures that we can continue to provide the highest quality care.

Khoynezhad has since left Cedars-Sinai for another hospital. An after-hours message left seeking comment from him was not immediately returned.

The lawsuit comes just before the first anniversary of the death of Paxton, who played major supporting roles in the films Apollo 13, Titanic, and Aliens, and starred in the HBO series Big Love.

Paxton, who was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, was among the industrys busiest actors, with nearly 100 credits, and was starring in the CBS drama Training Day when he died.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits CaliforniaThe Montana Board of Investments approved the transfer of $14.7 million from the Montana State Fund to the states firefighting fund by April 1.

During a special legislative session in November, lawmakers set a temporary 3 percent management fee on a portion of Montana State Fund assets to help pay for Montanas record fire season. The fee was expected to bring in about $30 million over two years.

Businesses with workers compensation policies through the state fund have filed a lawsuit challenging the fee.

The Great Falls Tribune reports the boards executive director, David Ewer, did not believe the resolution was technically necessary, but that staff felt it was appropriate for the public record.

Officials noted there was no court order preventing the transfer, which follows state law passed in November.

Related:

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics MontanaThe Oregon State Senate has confirmed Cameron Smith as director for the Department of Consumer and Business Services.

Smith has served as acting director for the department since Gov. Kate Brown nominated him in December 2017.

Smith previously was director of the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs, and a senior policy advisor to both Gov. John Kitzhaber and Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

In one of his first official decisions as director, Smith appointed Andrew Stolfi as the states insurance commissioner. Stolfi joined the department earlier this month to serve as the administrator for the Division of Financial Regulation.

Stolfi spent six years in Switzerland at the International Association of Insurance Supervisors, most recently serving as chief operating officer and chief counsel. Before joining the association, Stolfi served in senior management roles at the Illinois Department of Insurance.

Topics Oregon PoliticsWhen the story of McDonald's is told, it often begins with Ray Kroc, the native Chicago milkshake mixing machine salesman who had the vision to see what the business model deployed by one of his clients, Speedee Service System, could become. Speedee Service System, launched in 1948, was the brainchild of two brothers, Richard James (Dick) and Maurice James (Mac) McDonald, who successfully utilized the "drive-in" concept to food delivery and, ultimately, franchising opportunities. Impressed by what he saw, Ray Kroc became their franchise agent in 1954, opened up the first McDonald's franchise in 1955 and, in 1961, bought out the McDonald brothers for the, then hefty, sum of $2.7 million. The rest is part of the entrepreneurial lore that is the hallmark of iconic businesses.  

Key Takeaways McDonald's makes money by leveraging its product, fast food, to franchisees who have to lease properties, often at large markups, that are owned by McDonald's.

According to the data from their latest annual report, approximately 93% of total capacity are franchises, which is still below McDonalds long-term goal of 95%.

Franchisees are lured by the impressive margins that make McDonald's franchises an almost guaranteed moneymaker.

McDonald's remains committed to growth, continuing its aggressive deployment of the three growth accelerators  EOTF, Delivery, and Digital  in 2019 and beyond.

Almost 80 years later, the enterprise has grown to about 38,000 restaurants globally that serve close to 70 million customers  roughly 1% of the world's population  per day, all wanting a burger, fries, and/or chicken nuggets as quickly as possible.  It has, effectively, morphed into the most popular family restaurant that appeals to children and adults alike and emerged as the dominant force in the "Quick Service Restaurant (QSR)" end of the market.

The QSR category contains a number of popular franchises, including McDonald's Corp (MCD), KFC and Taco Bell (YUM), and Wendys (WEN). In 2019, McDonald's emerged as the most valuable QSR (i.e., fast-food) chain with a brand value nearing 130.36 billion USD and total assets worth 47.5 billion USD.  McDonald's has, consistently, led this market segment in terms of overall sales and number of restaurants worldwide, followed by Starbucks (SBUX) and Subway.

On the way to serving hundreds of billions of people, McDonald's has blazed multiple corporate trails since its 1955 incorporation, such as franchising and institutionalized training. McDonald's even had a mission statement long before mission statements were a thing. "Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value" is self-explanatory, and McDonald's has set standards for at least the first and fourth of those qualities. As legendary Michelin chef, Ferran Adria, once said of the Big Mac: "Ferran Adria and the 100 best chefs in the world cannot do better for the price."

In 2018, McDonald's emerged as the most valuable QSR chain with a brand value nearing 130.36 billion USD and total assets worth 47.5 billion USD.

Business Model

Essentially, McDonald's makes money by leveraging its product, fast food, to franchisees who have to lease properties, often at large markups, that are owned by McDonald's. As reported in their 2019 10-K, 36,059 of the 38,695 restaurants were franchised with McDonald's operating the remaining 2,636 restaurants. So, approximately 93% of total capacity are franchises, which is still below McDonald's long-term goal of 95%.

The advantage of this model is that the revenue stream (rent and royalty income received from franchisees) is far more stable and, most importantly, predictable, while the operating costs are measurably lower, allowing for an easier path to profitability. McDonald's, because it has control over the land and long-term leases, can leverage its market position to negotiate deals. As has been noted by analysts, this is akin to a subscription, where the subscriber (the franchisee) pays a fixed amount each month.

According to industry analysts, McDonald's keeps about 82% of the revenue generated by franchisees, compared with only about 16% of the revenue from its company-operated locations, which is further trimmed by the costs incurred in operating these units. This would explain their pursuit of getting to the 95% franchise mark.

Why Are McDonald's Franchises in Demand?

McDonald's has notoriously strict criteria for its franchisees (net worth, liquidity, etc.). Additionally, the franchisees are also responsible for paying salaries, ordering supplies, and paying rent/owning the premises. So, why become a franchisee? The lure is that McDonald's provides them with an almost guaranteed moneymaker due, in large part, to the impressive margins.

The restaurant industry is infamous for its turnover, and as any restaurateur will tell you, one major reason for this is that the margins can be thinner than a slice of processed American cheese. Yet, McDonald's operating margins are Double Quarter Pounder thick  north of 40%! How is that possible in a business whose very purpose is providing inexpensive food?

The answer lies in the fact that the food is even cheaper to prepare than one might think. Some menu items  coffee, for instance  sell for dozens of times their cost. Note to people who think nothing of paying $5 for an iced mocha  youre drinking a few pennies worth of beans, boiled in water that's too cheap to measure, and some chocolate syrup.

93% Franchised 35,085 of the 37,855 restaurants were franchised, with McDonald's operating the remaining 2,770 restaurants.

Markets & Business Segments

As per their recent 10-K, effective May 14, 2020, McDonald's is operating with the following global business segments: U.S., International Operated Markets, and International Developmental Licensed Markets and Corporate. Each sector accounts for 37.2%, 54%, and 8.7% of revenues, respectively, as of the company's most recent annual report.

U.S.: The largest segment, with revenues of $7.843 billion in 2019. International Operated Markets: Markets including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, and the U.K. This segment had $11.398 billion in revenues in 2019. International Developmental Licensed Markets & Corporate: Comprised of developmental licensee and affiliate markets, plus corporate activities. This segment had $1.836 billion in revenues in 2019.

Financial Statements

According to McDonald's 10-K, 2019 free cash flow was $5.7 billion, a 36% increase over 2018, and global comparable sales increased 45.9% and global comparable guest counts increased 1%.The cost of a four-year education at most private universities is enough to make just about any student blanch. But the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is proof that some of the schools with the highest price tag also represent a tremendous value.

For the 2021-2022 academic year, the average cost of tuition and fees at MIT, located just outside of Boston, was $55,510. Add in room and board and other fees, and the price tag reaches $77,020 annually.

While those numbers look scary at first glance, its important to consider what students get in return. Ranked No. 4 among national universities by U.S. News & World Report as of June 2021, MIT is widely regarded as one of the finest institutes of higher learning in the world.

Key Takeaways Ranked fourth among U.S. universities by U.S. News & World Report, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is especially known for its science, math, and engineering programs.

For the 2021-2022 school year, the cost of tuition at MIT was $55,510 annually; when you add in room and board, the cost of attending the school rises to $77,020 annually.

Having an MIT diploma usually correlates with a high salary, according to research firm PayScale, with the average professional seeing an early career salary of $93,700.

About MIT

Perhaps best known for its superb science, math, and engineering, the illustrious school also offers business and economics programs that are among the most prestigious in the country. It also offers much more personal interaction than many universities, with a desirable 3:1 student-faculty ratio.

In other words, the universitys sticker price might be on par with the expensive Ivy League schools it competes against, but it certainly holds its own academically.

The combination of a superlative education program and the school's concentration on the sciences and related fields makes it no surprise that alumni typically enjoy great starting salaries once they graduate. According to the salary research firm PayScale, the average professional with an MIT diploma can expect an early-career salary of $93,700. Even with its hefty tuition costs, PayScale puts MIT at No. 1 among private U.S. colleges in terms of return on investment.

Even by private school standards, MITs base tuition cost is steep, but when you factor in the schools generous financial aid and the future earning potential of its graduates, it could be seen as a very good deal.

Financial Aid

When looking at MITs tuition cost, its also worth considering the substantial financial aid that it doles out each year. It doesnt hurt that the school, which educates more than 11,500 undergraduate and grad students, has an endowment of more than $18 billion, as of September 2020, from which it can draw.

The admissions process is need-blind, and 59% of its students receive an income-based MIT scholarship, as of March 2020. That means the average cost for a year's educationincluding tuition, fees, books, and housingis a more modest $23,442.

MIT is especially helpful to families making less than $90,000 a year. Consequently, 31% of the student body attends tuition-free. So if youre on the lower end of the economic spectrum but demonstrate excellent academic potential, dont assume that an MIT education is out of reach.

Heres another important measure of the schools financial aid: The average graduate has substantially less student-loan debt than the national average. Twenty-four percent of MITs alumni have loans, with an average balance of $23,226 at graduation, for 2020. By contrast, the average debt load across the country was $28,950 in 2019, according to the Institute for College Access & Success.

Over 100 private U.S. colleges and universities charge at least $50,000 per year in tuition costs, according to the annual report from U.S. News, which surveyed 876 private schools.

How to Qualify

To qualify for assistance, MITs financial services department requires a completed FAFSA as well as the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE. In most cases, parents will have to submit their most recent tax returns as well as any W2 forms to obtain consideration.

International students are also eligible for aid in the form of scholarships, loans, and work-study opportunities. However, unlike U.S. students, they can skip the FAFSA and submit only a CSS PROFILE and tax returns, if applicable.For prospective graduate students, comparing master's degree programs in the United States versus the United Kingdom requires thoughtful consideration of factors such as time, cost, and effort. Regardless of which side of the Atlantic you are on, whether you should go to grad school after college depends on your goals.

For many, an advanced degree can lead to better career opportunities or a step toward obtaining a Ph.D. or other advanced degree. Here we compare master's degrees in the U.S. and the U.K., highlighting the key differences that could impact your decision.

Key Takeaways Universities in the U.S. and U.K. consistently rank among the top ten in the world.

There are three types of master's degrees in the U.K.: taught masters degrees, postgraduate diplomas, and research-based masters degrees.

A British master's degree can take as little as nine to 12 months to finish, compared with two years in the U.S.

Master's Degrees in the U.K.

Attending the most prestigious universities can be important to some people. The U.K. is home to renowned institutions such as the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. Times Higher Education ranks these two schools, along with the Imperial College London, among the top ten from the nearly 1,400 universities across 92 countries it surveyed. The rankings consider the school's teaching environment, resources devoted to research, and the international outlook of its staff and students.

One reason Americans choose to study in the U.K. is that the time to finish a degree is significantly shorter (and therefore less expensive) than American universities. In the U.K., there are three types of masters degrees: taught masters degrees (one year), postgraduate diplomas (two semesters, no thesis), and research-based masters degrees (12-24 months, used as an entry to Ph.D. programs).

If your goal for obtaining a masters degree is professional advancement, then it is often quicker to study for nine to 12 months (between two and three semesters) in the United Kingdom than it is to pursue a two-year masters degree in the United States.

Costs vary considerably based on program type. The average cost of tuition for a non-British or EU passport holder working toward a British masters degree is about 15,000 per year, or $18,500. A business degree is more than 20,000 per year, or $24,700.

However, these amounts do not factor in living costs. According to visa requirements, students must have access to 1,265 per month if they plan to study in London, or 11,385 over a period of nine months. If they plan to study outside of London, they must have access to at least 1,015 per month, or 9,135 over nine months.

Master's Degrees in the U.S.

In that same Times Higher Education survey, the remaining seven universities in the top 10 were in the U.S., and not just the east coast Ivy League schools you might expect. The California Institute of Technology and Stanford University placed higher in the rankings than Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Princeton University. In short, there are good schools on both sides of the Atlantic. Universities in the U.S. and U.K. account for 85 of the top 200 schools in the world.

For the 201819 academic year, annual current dollar prices for undergraduate tuition, fees, room, and board were estimated to be $18,383 at public institutions, $47,419 at private nonprofit institutions, and $27,040 at private for-profit institutions. The cost to attend Harvard Business School is significantly higher: expect to pay more than $111,000 per year for combined tuition and living expenses.

Though tuition in the U.S. can be lower if attending a public school, and the cost of living lower if living in a small town, the time to finish a graduate degree is potentially longer. This means the overall cost of an American masters program is equal to or slightly more expensive than in the U.K.

Following a four-year degree, American masters degree programs typically require two years of study and thesis work. Some degrees can be completed in one year, depending on the course load. American masters degrees can be professional or research-based. Research degrees are good starting points for Ph.D. degrees.

Special Considerations

International attendance to graduate programs in both countries has been reduced due to world events. In the United Kingdom, the residency barriers and increased tuition as a result of Brexit caused the number of EU students to drop by two-thirds.

Universities were also affected by the coronavirus pandemic. In the United States, enrollment of new graduate students fell by 39% in the fall of 2020, according to surveys of higher education institutions.French foods group Danone is to sell a 1.5bn stake in Japanese company Yakult in its latest initiative to boost shareholder returns.

Leading consumer groups including Danone, the worlds largest yoghurt maker, as well as Nestle and Unilever, have come under pressure from some shareholders who say they should be producing better returns. Danone, whose brands include Activia and Actimel as well as Evian water, said it would sell 14% of Yakult, and hold onto 7%, as part of a strategy to have a more disciplined approach to how it invests its capital.The vast majority of oil exploration options awarded by the Government, in its last licensing round two years ago, are set to be taken up and progressed despite the threat of a ban being imposed on offshore drilling in Ireland, writes Geoff Percival.

The first deadline for the acceptance, or otherwise, of 14 licensing options awarded to 11 companies over two tranches in 2016 is imminent. While it is believed at least two recipients are handing back their options, the majority are understood to be planning to take up the options.The government has been called on to safeguard Irish jobs after Brexit.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) said the government must immediately develop a clear strategy to counter the real threat to the jobs and economic well being of tens of thousands of workers arising from Brexit.

"From the outset Congress has consistenly warned that workers and their families would bear the brunt of the UK's decision to exit the European Union and our fears appear to be confirmed by findings of a new study from Copenhagen Economics on the likely impact of Brexit on the Irish economy," said ICTU's general secretary Patricia King.

"This report should set alarm bells ringing in government. They now have a clear responsibility to put in place a clear, coherent and properly-resourced strategy to offset the threat to jobs and living standards across the economy, from Brexit.

"In the absence of such an overarching strategy, Brexit has the potential to inflict serious damgae on the economy, which will in turn impact on the incomes, living standards and livelihoods of workers."

The study from Copenhagen Economics showed that up to 30,000 jobs in the agri-food, pharma and chemical sectors could be at risk, when the UK exits the EU.

Brexit would also impact negatively on wages for lower-skilled workers, it revealed.

"Congress has been persistently argued that government has an obligation to protect the security of these 'at risk' jobs. Retraining and upskilling programmes are vital and should be instigated immediately," Ms King added.

Read the Copenhagen Economics report here:

- Digital DeskPledges by donors at the Iraq reconstruction conference held in Kuwait this week have failed to meet up the governments close to $90-billion budget needed to rebuild the country in the aftermath of victory over the Islamic State group (IS).

Turkey appeared as the largest contributor. Ankara pledged $5 billion in the form of credit line and investment in Iraq.

Saudi Arabia, which has just begun thawing ties with its neighbor following decades of suspicion and apprehension, pledged $1 billion earmarked for project investment. The kingdom would also give $500 million to support Iraqi exports.

Gulf gas-rich country, Qatar pledged $1 billion in the form of loans and investments while United Arab Emirates (UAE) promised to draw a check of $500 million. Abu Dhabi also mentioned $5.5 billion investment in the Iraqi private sector.

Conference host, Kuwait according to its ruler, Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, will give Iraq $1 billion in loans and will commit to another $1bn as investments.

Australia pledged $18 million as a contribution to the reconstruction program having as main focus housing.

The widespread destruction of peoples homes, hospitals, schools and other critical infrastructure is a significant barrier to Iraqis returning home and resuming their lives said the Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop.

According to the Iraqi ministry of planning estimates, nearly $90 billion are needed to implement the reconstruction program that seeks to give life to devastated cities and areas in the three-year fight against IS, which took control of most Sunni majority cities in 2014. Of the $90 million, $22 billion were required immediately.

In total, according to the host country, $30 billion were pledged on the final day of the conference, which was attended by 76 countries, numerous international funds and organizations and hundreds of investors.Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald and Hollywood stars Gabriel Byrne and Caitriona Balfe lead the line-up for this Fridays Late Late Show.

Following her election as the new president of Sinn Fein, Mary Lou McDonald will join Ryan Tubridy to discuss taking over the leadership of the party after 35 years with Gerry Adams at the helm.

Mary Lou McDonald.

As talks to break the stalemate in Stormont flounder, she will be sharing her vision for the Sinn Fein party, north and south of the border.

She will also be telling viewers the highs and lows of her rise up through the party ranks having first come to prominence in the early 2000s.

President Michael D Higgins presents Gabriel Byrne with the LIfetime Achievement Award. Photo: Kyran O'Brien

Gabriel Byrne will be live in studio to chat about a career that has taken him from Bracken to Bel Air.

He will be telling viewers about his new film, Hereditary, already being described as one of the scariest horror movies in years, and picking up a lifetime achievement award at the IFTAs.

Golden Globe nominated actress, Caitriona Balfe joins Ryan to talk about how she went from growing up in Monaghan to finding international fame with hit series Outlander.

Caitriona Balfe

Irelands favourite architect Dermot Bannon will be on the couch to chat about the new series of Room to Improve, and what happened when he took on the challenge of renovating the Donegal home of Daniel and Majella ODonnell.

He will also be joined by a past client who had the entire nation talking.

There will also be a celebration of the best of press photography in Ireland, showcasing some of the winning shots from the Press Photographers Association of Ireland Awards.

Music will be provided by Feeder.

- Digital DeskUpdate 6.40pm: A senior executive at Anglo Irish Bank said that the plan to source a funding shortfall from another bank grew from 1bn to 7bn in the weeks leading to the bank's year end, writes Sarah-Jane Murphy.

Brian Lynch, former head of treasury at the bank, was giving evidence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on day 24 of the trial of David Drumm (51). It is alleged the bank's former chief executive authorised deals that lead to the falsification of the banks balance sheet.

Mr Drumm, of address in Skerries, Co Dublin, has pleaded not (NOT) guilty to conspiring with former bank officials Denis Casey, William McAteer, John Bowe and others to defraud depositors and investors at Anglo by dishonestly creating the impression that deposits in 2008 were 7.2 billion larger than they were.

He has also pleaded not guilty to false accounting on December 3, 2008, by furnishing information to the market that Anglo's 2008 deposits were 7.2 billion larger than they were.

Mr Lynch said that despite the pretty bad times at Anglo in 2008, Mr Drumm had indicated that he wanted a year end figure of 55/56bn in customer deposits. He said there was a shortfall of around 7bn to meet this figure.

Asked who came up with this figure, he told Mary Rose Ms Gearty SC, prosecuting, that Mr Drumm was never specific about the target figure that needed to be sourced.

Mr Lynch said his role at the bank was to calculate the level of customer funds, both retail and corporate, using a metric known as a loan deposit ratio. His reports were circulated to senior management.

He said as liquidity dried up a number of funding initiatives were considered. He said that by September 2008 all other ideas had fallen away, and only one remained, which he described as the Irish Life one.

Mr Lynch said he regularly attended the Friday afternoon meetings held in Mr Drumm's office. Mr Lynch told the jury he first became aware of the deal during these meetings in August 2008. At the point the intended figure to be sourced from ILP was 1bn.

He said he understood that Anglo would give money to the banking arm of ILP in return for receiving money from Irish Life Assurance in the same amount.

The reason for the transaction, he said, was that money from ILA would be treated as a corporate deposit on the balance sheet, so it would make the corporate deposit numbers better.

He said that by mid September 2008, as the bank neared its year end, the Irish Life idea had ended up at the 7bn mark.

Last week the trial heard that Mr Drumm accepts the facts of the 2008 transactions between Anglo and ILP but he disputes that they were fraudulent or dishonest.

The trial continues in front of Judge Karen O'Connor and a jury.

David Drumm pictured arriving at an earlier sitting of the court

Earlier: Central Bank didn't query report on liquidity of Anglo, witness tells trial

The Central Bank didn't query a report on the liquidity of Anglo Irish Bank, discussed with them by David Drumm at a meeting during October 2008, a witness has told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, writes Sarah-Jane Murphy.

Stephen Fox, former head of liquidity reporting at Anglo said Mr Drumm (51) asked him to draft an ad hoc liquidity report in advance of a meeting with the Central Bank in October 2008.

The Central Bank didn't query it with me, and if they did I can't recall, he said.

He said Mr Drumm asked him several questions on the report which showed the bank's corporate and retail funding figures, after he sent it to him by email.

Sinead McGrath BL, prosecuting, read Mr Fox's evidence to the jury at Mr Drumm's conspiracy to defraud trial today as the witness is currently resident outside the jurisdiction.

Mr Drumm, with an address in Skerries, Co Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to conspiring with former bank officials Denis Casey, William McAteer, John Bowe and others to defraud depositors and investors at Anglo by dishonestly creating the impression that deposits in 2008 were 7.2 billion larger than they were.

He has also pleaded not guilty to false accounting on December 3, 2008, by furnishing information to the market that Anglo's 2008 deposits were 7.2 billion larger than they were.

In his evidence, Mr Fox said he was aware of transactions between Anglo and Irish Life and Permanent, but didn't know the details and had thought they were customer deposits.

He said the commercial rationale for the transactions was to put up a higher customer funding figure, replacing interbank funding with customer funding.

Mr Fox's role within the bank was to conduct stress tests and prepare customer funding reports for senior Anglo executives, the court heard.

He explained that these reports depicted both corporate and retail deposits received from clients.

Mr Fox described the very tough market environment in the Irish banking sector during late 2007 into 2008.

Liquidity had dried up. Banks and trading positions had totally changed. Interbank lending was scarce, he said.

The jury heard that Mr Fox participated in up to five conference calls daily during September 2008.

He said these were necessary as it was a time of great stress, and therefore vital for management to be aware of liquidity ratio.

The most stressful days were those leading up to September 30, 2008, the flows out were unprecedented for a bank our size, he said.

The jury then heard the evidence of Emma Hillier, a former supervisor at Anglo's Isle of Man subsidiary. Diane Stuart BL, prosecuting, read Ms Hillier's evidence to the jury.

The witness described a transaction in which almost stg1 million was transferred from the Anglo Isle of Man branch to IL&P on 25 September 2008.

She said the request to carry out this transaction came in a direct email from Mike D'Arcy, someone in Anglo's office in Dublin, whom she had never heard of before.

Ms Hillier said she had never been contacted directly about such a transaction before. She also said she did not get the regular group email, and instead Mr D'Arcy emailed her directly.

I thought it was strange I didn't know Mark D'Arcy. Also, it wasn't usual to place the funds with one bank only, they were usually spread to reduce the risk, she said.

Last week the trial heard that Mr Drumm accepts the facts of the 2008 transactions between Anglo and ILP but he disputes that they were fraudulent or dishonest.

The trial continues before Judge Karen O'Connor and a jury.By Ann O'Loughlin

A Galway city primary school has launched High Court proceedings against a local business in a dispute over the operation of a car park on the school's playground.

St Patrick's School at Lombard Street in Galway city centre is seeking an injunction requiring Eoghan O'Neachtain Ltd to deliver up vacant possession of the playground to the school and remove any of the company's belongings on the site.

The school's board of management claims the defendant company has refused to vacate the playground and that it has asserted it has a lease on the site.

This, the school contends, is incorrect and in a sworn statement to the court Brother Niall Coll of the Patrician Order which runs the school says the defendants assertion of a lease would have a very chilling effect on the operation and management of the school" which has 200 pupils.

At the High Court today Michael O'Connor Bl for the school said it had a licence arrangement where for a monthly fee it allowed the playground be used as a car park from 3pm to 9pm on school days, from 8am to 9pm on holidays and weekends.

The licence, which was renewed annually, was first with Mr Mairtin O'Neachtain in 1999 and then with his son Mr Eoghan O'Neachtain. Counsel said that in recent years the school had an agreement with Mr Eoghan O'Neactain's company.

Counsel said in January the company did not renew the licence and through it's solicitors has asserted the firm has a lease on the site.

No lease was ever entered into with the company. An offer to renew the licence was not taken up.

The court also heard that the school has planned several new initiatives to boost student numbers including a preschool and after school services.

It fears the defendant's actions could disrupt those plans.

Ms Justice Caroline Costello granted the school, on an ex parte basis, permission to serve short notice of the proceedings on the company.

The matter was adjourned for a week.When it came to casting for the role of a free-spirited older woman, it isnt surprising Celia Imrie got the call, writes Esther McCarthy.

IN THE latest role in her lengthy career, Celia Imrie plays a free-spirited woman who refuses to bow to societys norms and conventions.

It comes as little surprise to discover the writers wrote the character with Imrie in mind. For this 65-year-old star of stage and screen has always marched to a different beat.

Its a very clever piece of casting, I think, all round. Weve all got something that we share from our work and our lives, she says of the role, in new British drama Finding Your Feet.

Imrie plays Bif, a women who lives a free and unhindered life in London, who takes in her sister, Sandra (Imelda Staunton). Her cosy life has been thrown into chaos by the discovery that her husband has been having an affair. The sisters, who are very different, have become estranged over the years.

I love dancing for a start and thats a very big part of the joy of the film. Also I loved that shes not following the rules of what youre supposed to do. And I guess people would say thats sort of what Ive done in my life.

Imrie has never married, although there has been romance in her life. She resolutely vowed never to wed, and even remembers asking her mother, as a seven-year-old girl, what she and her husband would talk about if it were only them in the house.

My horror, my absolute horror! she says of the mere idea. I said to (fellow actor) Eleanor Bron once: Id be so frightened that he would think I was boring. And she said: Wouldnt you be frightened that you would find him boring?

Its got me into trouble, by the way. Its not necessarily been a smooth path to not play by the rules. Im quite glad Ive stuck to my guns.

And although sometimes I might think: Oh it would be nice to have somebody there all the time, most of the time Im jolly glad Im free.

When she wanted to have a child, she again took the road less followed, becoming pregnant (much to her mothers dismay) at the age of 42 following an agreement with actor Ben Whitrow. She set out her plans with him in advance, including that she would not look for money and would raise the child alone. When news of the arrangement became public, it caused quite a hoo-ha.

Im very grateful that I have my wonderful son, she tells me. Sadly Ben, Anguss dad, has died now. We did have a romance, but I was very straightforward, because I was 42 when I had Angus, and so I knew it was my last chance, really, having left so many things to the last moment.

But I was quite straightforward about I wouldnt ever ask for a penny and Id bring the child up on my own. Angus adored his father, his father adored him. We all had a very nice time and it wasnt conventional but thats not always the best way either. I dont like to judge people, and youll always be criticised, but then blah blah blah. Thats life! she laughs.

She and Withrow remained great friends and she still misses the actor, who passed away last September. Its very sad, and Im childlike in that I find it very difficult to believe that someone you loved is no longer in the world. It sounds so simplistic but it is very difficult.

Finding Your Feet, a charming comedy/drama, sees her getting to work with actors she has known for years, including Staunton and Timothy Spall.

Everybody goes on a journey in the film, dont they? They dont stay where they are. Thats very attractive, and also to be with my friends onscreen, that really helps. We all know each other from various different parts of our lives. Thats a wonderful sort of velvet carpet to the whole film in a way, because we dont have to play the familiarity of being sisters, or being best friends.

We dont talk about it very much, thats the joy. You do work much quicker, because you sort of dont mind making a fool of yourself in front of them, and you trust each other, and you can have a joke, send each other up.

I just think that as Ive gone on, Ive realised that, particularly on film actually, you have not to be afraid to show your soul. That sounds a bit dramatic, but you have not to be afraid to show the inner part of you. You want to not be afraid to expose yourself.

Shes very much on board with the movies seize the moment ethos and given recent life experiences, its not difficult to understand why.

In 2016, she was strolling along the Promenade Des Anglais in Nice  a city where she spends much of her time  when a terrorist ploughed a lorry into the crowd during Bastille-Day celebrations, killing 86 people and injuring hundreds more. Im really lucky to be alive, actually, thats no exaggeration.

It was ghastly and it was really why I couldnt write my third book (she is also a successful novelist) about Nice, because it was too sad, too horrific actually.

They call it a catastrophe and thats putting it mildly, it was completely grim.

On the evening of the attack, she was soaking up the atmosphere while planning her birthday celebrations.

I was literally seconds away. Ive always been in the fantasy land of thinking that Nice puts on a firework display especially for me, because its Bastille Day and my birthdays the next day. So I always love the fireworks over the sea. And I was right there.

Nice city is immensely dignified and graceful, the way it seems to have gone forward. Its just another reason why, personally speaking, I want to grab every second of every day.

She feels its quite wonderful that son Angus, who has followed his parents into acting, has a number of movie roles on the way, and is happy for him to take his own path.

I think thats important. And the great thing is we wont be going up for the same parts, she laughs. Im immensely proud of him.

Imrie turned 65 this year, but is busier than ever, with a new series of TVs Better Things and her first horror film on the way.

You get the impression that retirement is not her bag.

Actors dont really, if you think about it. I have a theory in a way that we do live on this magic drug called adrenaline, which I think keeps us young.

- Finding Your Feet opens on Friday, February 23ELLA Van Pouckes career took a big leap forward last July when she emerged as the Golden Star of the prestigious Premio Chigiana held in Siena in Italy, writes Cathy Desmond.

The roll call of former winners includes the biggest names on the international concert scene such as Russian violinist Maxim Vengerov and Austrian pianist Andreas Schiff.

At only 23, the win established the Dutch cellists standing among the top rank of classical musicians of her generation.

Although young, she is well used to the big occasions and has the rare privilege for a teenage musician of having had a concerto written specially for her. She has performed the work by Finnish composer Uljas Pulkkis with major orchestras in Germany and the Netherlands.

Born into a family of musicians in Amsterdam, Van Poucke has played all over the world since her debut in one of Amsterdams grandest halls at the tender age of 10. Later this month, she arrives in Cork to join the roster of performers for the third Ortus Festival, a weekend of music events dedicated to music for small ensembles directed by Cork School of Music alumni Mairead Hickey and Sinead O Halloran.

There is something very special about the atmosphere at the [Amsterdam venue] Concertgebouw but equally I enjoy playing in smaller more intimate venues that suit the smaller forces of chamber music. I loved playing in the church in Bantry when I came to the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in 2016.

Van Poucke struck up a friendship with Mairead Hickey when both were studying at a music academy in Kronberg, Germany.

The Cork violinist has been to Amsterdam to perform with Ella and her brother Nicholas, a concert pianist at the festival the siblings themselves direct.

For the Ortus Festival, Van Poucke will join musicians in Kinsale, Cobh and Cork city to play quintets by Brahms and Shostakovich with Ellen Jansson on piano. There are a clutch of works for flute and strings, with Cork native Fiona Kelly bringing her flute to the party.

Among the more unusual works programmed is a rarely heard string trio composed by a little known Czech composer while he was interned in Terezin near Prague, one of the few concentration camps that permitted musical activity.

Gideon Klein was later deported to Auschwitz and died in his twenties but passed his manuscripts to a girlfriend who survived to preserve them for posterity. The middle movement has elements of Russian folk music that are very appealing, says Van Poucke.

As well as a busy concert schedule which includes a return to Bantry this summer, Van Poucke is recording her debut CD, the Schumann piano & cello duos and concerto.

Although dedicated to classical music, Van Poucke has her ears open to the sounds of music from around the world. My mother is Cuban and last year I was very excited to visit Havana for the first time. I listen to the music of the Buena Vista Social Club. They really brought the sound of Cuban music to an international audience.

Mairead Hickey has introduced her to Irish music. When I was in West Cork, it was fun to sit with a beer listening to Mairead playing Irish music at a session in the local pub. It is such a different form of expression. I loved the freedom of it.

Pressed for advice to aspiring young musicians she says, You have to figure out what your strengths are and commit to it wholeheartedly. There is no room for fear in the concert hall.

- The Ortus Festival runs from Friday, Feb 23, to Sunday (25) with concerts in Cork, Kinsale and Cobh. Several of the musicians will be giving a free performance at the FarmGate Cafe in the English Market in Cork on the Monday afternoon at 3pm. www.ortusfestival.ieEsther N McCarthy gets a front-row seat in tonights episode of Ros na Run. She talks to some of its key players.

Im sitting in Bernies cafe in Ros na Run, having a fake cup of tea. Ive got my brightest scarf on, so you wont miss me in the background. (The episode airs tonight and Im fierce excited.) Being an extra is hard work, the tea isnt even hot. Two old hands at it, Rebecca Fisher agus Austin McGreal, are giving me some tips.

Just mouth the words, dont really say them, advises Austin.

But what if I panic and cant think of words to pretend to say? His go-to move is to have a look at the menu, raising an eyebrow quizzically. You cant teach this stuff.

Rebecca lives close by and is a student, its handy extra money and Austin is an older gentleman and gets the bus in from Galway; he does it because he enjoys the atmosphere.

Its about the fifth take now, floor manager Niall OConnor is setting up the scene and making little changes to where the actors are standing and the way they deliver the lines. Theres only so much mockeyah menu-perusing an amateur can take so I concentrate on the storyline.

So, Brian and Bernie are totes getting it on and hes, its fair to say, a bit younger than her. They met because hes friends with her son, Evan. Whos not going to be too happy about the fact that they locked lips last night. During a break in filming, I get the low down from Fionnuala Ni Fhlatharta, who plays Bernie.

Sean Misteal, Fionnuala Ni Fhlatharta, and Colm Mac Gearailt on set.

Its a nice storyline for Bernie because she was with the priest, he left the priesthood for her, and they had some tough times, but that didnt work out, and her last partner, Cathal, tried to kill her in a murder-suicide, so shes totally gone for a different type this time. (The non-murdering kind, I hope, I want to see Bernie make it to next season).

Hes just a bit of fun, she concludes.

Oh really? Is that all it is? interjects Kerryman, Colm Mac Gearailt, who plays Brian, the bit on the side.

Sean Misteal joins in the laughter. Sean plays the aforementioned priest, David O Laoire, whos also Brians cousin in the soap. From Dun Chaoin, hes still known as An Sagartin at home, even though his characters a postman how. Hes been working on the show for 13 years and says he was thrown in at the deep end. I was an altar boy so I based the character on the priests at home.

But playing a philandering priest has its drawbacks in the west of Ireland. I was in Dunnes Stores in Eyre Square during the time that the relationship between me and Bernie was going on and an old lady came up to me and was giving out mad about Bernie  that Bernie one is wicked! and she was giving out me about being a bad priest, he laughs at the memory.

The great thing about working on Ros na Run though is, the door is always open with the writers and the producers. You can always go in and talk about your character, like when I heard youre going to get married and be a postman  I was a bit in shock but it really worked well.

Pol and Maire Eilis Ni Fhlaithearta getting ready for filming

Seans favourite storyline so far? Well, the poor Sagartin got shot last year  that was a very dramatic scene: There was a stuntman, we were shooting until 2am in the morning, I enjoyed that. It worked really, really well.

The director comes down and hushes us, ciuinis anois, its time for the first real shoot. I take my place back at the table for the role I was born to play, baby: Chatty tea drinker number three.

And Im in good company, my cameo may have no lines and quite possibly no screen time, once the editing was done, Ill have to wait and see tonight at 8.30pm on TG4 but still, Alan Hughes, Nathan Carter, Francis Brennan, and the inimitable Stephen Fry have all walked onto the Ros na Run set. Fry even learned a cupla focal for his guest appearance back in 2010.

Next stop, the IFTAs.

From Cork to Connemara

Steve Downing (left)

Steve Downing from Douglas, Cork, works as the sound editor on TG4s Ros na Run.

I studied Arts in UCC after school. For some inexplicable reason, I selected philosophy and geography. Quite the combination. I then did a Masters degree in sound design at the University of Edinburgh.

This is my fourth season with the soap. My first I spent mixing sound on set, then moved into audio post production, So its my third season as sound editor.

There were several factors that attracted me to Ros na Run. I really wanted to live and work around Galway and Connemara. I also wanted to work in Irish, having attended a Gaelscoil as a kid. Its also great to work on a long serial drama as you get to know the ins and outs of the show in great detail.

As regards speaking Irish,I was certainly fluent as a child. These days, I mostly hear Irish, as my job doesnt really entail too much interaction! But I am making an effort to speak as much as possible.

My job is kind of all-encompassing. For each episode, I edit the dialogue, cut out background noises and unwanted sounds, and replace some lines in a process known as ADR. Following this, I add in all the background sounds that are required: People chatting in the pub, traffic and pedestrians on the streets, music in the shop or cafe, then I add all the spot effects: people getting punched, cars driving off, I replace most of the door sounds and a lot of footsteps too.

At the time that I was offered a job on Ros na Run, I had just finished a contract as head of the sound department at a TV studio in Berlin, creating content about E-sports (competitive video gaming) for a Korean media company. I was planning my next move, and was considering either a job in Rio, or in Nairobi. Thats when I was offered a job as a sound mixer on Ros na Run. I decided to come back to Ireland just for six months before moving on again, and am still here three years later. It was the best decision I ever made, and it was all because of Ros na Run!

What makes Ros na Run so special?

Our intrepid reporter Esther on set.

Walking around the set of the only rural soap opera on Irish TV, going strong for 22 seasons in the stunning village of An Spiddal, Co Galaimh, theres real camaraderie between everyone from the onscreen stars to the crew. Theres joking about the pints had at a birthday party last night, theres a really friendly vibe and shockingly, there appears to be an obvious absence of egos.

Everyone works really hard but they have great craic doing it. The other thing that really resonates is the deep affection everyone displays when they talk about EO Teilifiss founder and the original creator of Ros na Run, Maire Ni Thuaithail. She sadly passed away of cancer in 2016 and everyone has a special story about her. Her legacy is the largest independent artistic production outside of Dublin, employing up on 160 people. Sos sa tsiochain.

- Ros na Run airs on TG4 on Tuesday and Thursday at 8.30pm with an omnibus at 7pm on Sundays.Gurchand Singh, head of the Garda Analysis Service, said the report was the work of an internal review he recommended be set up to examine 41 homicide cases and which comprised both gardai and civilian analysts.

He told the Oireachtas Justice Committee his two analysts had been very frustrated on that review group and both they and himself had expected to see, and sign off on, any report being submitted to the authority before a public meeting on April 27, 2017.

Fianna Fail justice spokesman Jim OCallaghan said he was concerned it was a deliberate attempt to exclude analysts and push through the report and that, in a worst-case scenario, represented a bid by Garda HQ to hoodwink the authority.

Sinn Fein justice spokesman Donnchadh O Laoghaire said it was almost impossible to understand Mr Singh had not been granted sight of the report.

Controversies surrounding the classification and investigation of 41 homicide cases gathered apace this month when the authority expressed frustration at the Garda response and requested a peer review to ensure all cases were investigated in line with legal requirements. It is being led by experienced detective Chief Supt Brian Sutton.

Separately, two Garda civilians have sent correspondence to the Justice Committee alleging that some homicides were not classified, and investigated, properly.

Independents4Change TD Mick Wallace identified the positions and gender of those two people at the committee, describing them as protected disclosers, although committee chair Caoimhghin O Caolain disputed the description.

Acting Garda Commissioner Donall OCualain could not appear before the committee yesterday as he was attending the funeral of Detective Superintendent Colm Fox who died tragically last weekend.

Deputy OCaolain led tributes to the officer. Mr Singh said his unit had done great work with Det Supt Fox and wished he could have attended the funeral.

Assistant Commissioner Mick Finn told the committee that, in July 2016, the Garda National Protective Services Bureau asked the GAS to examine homicides where domestic abuse may have been a motive.

The GAS studied State Pathologists reports for 2013-2015 and compared them to Pulse records, resulting in 41 cases warranting further examination.

Mr Singh said that in November 2016 he asked Garda management for a review, saying the missing piece was the investigation files. This was set up in January 2017, comprising gardai and analysts. Mr Singh that prior to the April meeting he twice sought its report, which neither his analysts or he saw, but never got it.

Asst Commissioner Finn said it was an error and that Mr Singh should have seen it.

After the meeting, Mr Singh said he wrote to Garda chiefs expressing his concern and again seeking the report, which he got a week-and-a-half later. He was not happy when he saw it and told bosses more work needed to be done.

This resulted in a September report to the authority which GAS signed off on. It said 12 of the 41 cases required reclassification.

Mr Finn said while classification was an issue all the cases had been investigated.

Deputy O Caolain said the organisation was in a maelstrom and he asked Mr Singh if there was a them-and-us attitude between senior gardai and civilians.

Mr Singh said: Like any large organisation, I dont think An Garda Siochana is a coherent whole. Gardai argue with each other, civilians argue with each other and civilians and gardai argue with each other.

Mr Singh said his unit had an excellent working relationship with "operational officers".Fr Peter McVerry and David Hall made the claim after a new report found a minimum of 30 of the Dails 158 TDs are receiving private rental income from properties they own  including a quarter of the current Cabinet.

According to the 2017 Dail declarations of interest report, which is published every 12 months by the Oireachtas and includes a full breakdown of TDs assets, politicians across almost all parties have properties they are renting to the public.

And while the situation is broadly in line with previous years, the reports publication just 24 hours after a daft.ie survey found rents are now surging beyond boom-era levels, has led to renewed concern over why the crisis has yet to be fully addressed.

According to the Dail declarations report figures:

30 of Irelands 158 TDs are also landlords, including four out of 15 of the current Cabinet.

The Government landlords include Tanaiste Simon Coveney, Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty, Agriculture Minister Michael Creed, Minister for Older People Jim Daly, Fine Gael chair Martin Heydon, Sean Canney, John Paul Phelan, Paul Kehoe, Pat Deering, Alan Farrell and John Deasy.

Among those in Fianna Fail are Robert Troy, Eamon Scanlon, Margaret Murphy OMahony, Sean Haughey, Marc Mac Sharry, Stephen Donnelly, Sean Fleming, Billy Kelleher, Timmy Dooley, Bobby Alyward, John McGuinness and John Curran.

And in other parties TD landlords include Labours Alan Kelly, Independent Michael Healy-Rae, Independent Noel Grealish and Independent Michael Harty.

Long-time homelessness campaigner Fr Peter McVerry last night told the Irish Examiner while it has been known for a number of years that a number of politicians are also landlords, the growing concern is that this could create a conflict of interest mindset.

While suggesting individual TDs may not be deliberately blocking new laws to lower rent prices for personal gain because theyre paid very well anyway, Fr McVerry said the scale of Dail landlords means they be suffering from group-think and only approaching the issue from one perspective.

Citing an example of the problem, the campaigner said rent pressure zones are simply not working and that if the tenants voice was more strongly heard in the Dail, politicians would accept we need to declare an emergency.

That emergency should be called now, and I would actually go so far as to say there should be a rent freeze for three years, but that would be anathema to the Government, he said.

David Hall, chief executive of iCare Housing and the Irish Mortgage Holders Association, agreed, saying that while it cannot be proven politicians are conflicted because they are landlords, there should be increased scrutiny of potential lobbying by individual TDs to block landlord law changes.Demonstrators in shia-dominated Bahrain locked horns Wednesday with security forces as they marked the seventh anniversary of the 2011 uprising that was clamped down by the ruling Sunni family.

Dozens demonstrators took to the streets in capital Manama. They chanted anti-regime slogans and paid tribute to those detained in the Gulf states jails, AFP reported.

Security forces responded with tear gases and live ammunitions, reports say.

There has been no estimate of the number of casualties.

The ruling Sunni family has always finger-pointed Iran for fomenting opposition and masterminding terror acts in the Kingdom.The council is currently in the process of implementing the County Wide Differential Rent Scheme, a programme put in place following the abolition of Town Councils that aims to standardise rental rates for tenants.

Some tenants have received notifications that their rents will rise next month because they have failed to provide information on their household incomes, which the council says it requested under the scheme.

However Cork East Labour TD Sean Sherlock says he has received a number of representations in the past week from tenants facing a rent hike who say they were never told the council was seeking such information.

Tenants of the council are receiving letters out of the blue informing them that their rents are increasing by 84% in certain situations, said Mr Sherlock.

This is, as correspondence outlines, that documentation is still pending on household incomes, yet many residents have contacted me to say this is the first communication of its kind they have received from Cork County Council.

It is quite upsetting to tenants who have been paying their rent on time for years and have no arrears currently outstanding, just to be told here is a larger-than-life rent hike, he said.

Some tenants have had their new rental rate set at 170 a week for failing to supply the council with information, according to a letter to one tenant seen by the Irish Examiner.

Cork County Council insists it told tenants of the need to provide the information requested.

Tenants were written to in April 2017 seeking up to date household income and household formation, a spokesperson said.

Tenants that did not respond or who provided incomplete information were written to on two further occasions.

Thereafter when a tenant did not provide the required information they were contacted by their Area Officer.

In cases where the required information has not been provided on time a penalty rent of 170 has now been applied, pending receipt of the required complete up to date information. On receipt of the required information a new rent calculation will be made and a balancing position will be determined on a case by case basis, the council said.It is the 25-year plan that will see billions of euro pumped into transport, jobs, education, health, roads, railways and airports.

Tomorrow the Government, through its Ireland 2040 initiative will outline how it wants the country to look in the decades ahead when the population is expected to have grown by one million people.

In that time an extra 550,000 homes will be required, while there will be a need to create an additional 660,000 jobs.

And so the Government, in a bid to answer where we will live, how we will travel, where we will be taught, and what services will be available for the sick and elderly, has come up with a national planning framework dubbed Ireland 2040  Our Plan.

In the first 10 years of this forward-thinking plan, 115bn will be invested in infrastructure, including a new national childrens hospital, an expansion of the Dart as well as the building of schools, social housing and Garda stations.

And what for rural Ireland? Country dwellers have already seen the boarding up of post offices, Garda stations and smaller bank branches.

They have been stymied by a lack of connectivity and the reneging on the introduction of broadband. They have seen farmers seek part-time work elsewhere out of necessity and the young generation move away to third-level education never to return.

It is unsurprising that this exasperated group is not holding out much hope for what could simply become an updated version of many failed strategic plans of past governments.

However, rural Ireland is also a vibrant place to live, full of people who have a deep attachment to the land, the soil, the village, the town where in many cases generations of their family have eked out a living.

All they ask for is a little support to allow them access education, healthcare and jobs.

Under-investment, many warn, will simply lead to a vicious circle which encourages abandonment of areas and in turn leads to further reductions in funding.

Some of the details of the Governments long-term initiative have been well flagged ahead of tomorrows grand unveiling. The plan can be divided into two parts, the 10-year development plan and the longer-term national framework which will extend out to 2040.

Cork, for example will get a new acute hospital and there will be three elective-only facilities created  one in Dublin, one in the west and one in the south. The national childrens hospital and the national maternity hospital have also been brought into the package.

The much-anticipated 850m motorway linking Cork with Limerick is expected to get the green light under the 10-year plan.

Other proposals expected to be in the plan are an extension of Dart services to Drogheda and Dublin Airport will be given a second runway.

However, many TDs, including some rural Fine Gael backbenchers, after getting sight of the Governments draft version of the National Planning Framework when it was published in the autumn, expressed shock that an imaginary line had been drawn from Dublin to Galway and everything above that line had been ignored.

Those under the line and living in rural areas also claimed that they had been forgotten about with a focus on larger regional centres and the main cities.

Indeed, in recent months it has been acknowledged that Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy have significantly tinkered with the plan to give it more of a regional edge.

Such was the furious response to the draft plan, that Independent TDs and members of several political parties set up the National Planning Framework Coalition led by Alan Kelly, Eamon O Cuiv, Michael Fitzmaurice and Eoin O Broin.

Mr Kelly said: This plan has taken three years to write, it has had much consultations, views etc and we believe that is all a very important process.

How can in the space of three to four weeks the whole plan be, to quote the Taoiseach, substantially changed, how can all the components, all the research all the population analysis, all have changed so quickly in the space of a couple of weeks?

Mr O Cuiv called for the establishment of a cross-party committee similar to the one which examined the future of the healthcare service through the Slaintecare report.

We have to remember that we are talking about a 23-year plan and whatever happens in that period there is one thing certain  there will be changes of government, there will be changes here in Leinster House and what we need to do is get the biggest consensus we can and to ensure that all of the largest parties and others are bought into the plan, said Mr O Cuiv.

Whether enough has been done to dispel the notion that the Cabinet  led by two Dublin ministers  has taken the usual Dublin-centric view of the country when devising the plan remains to be seen.

The decision to bring the Cabinet on a jaunt to Sligo tomorrow to announce the plan signals that the northwest has been drafted back into the framework.

However, speaking in Dublin last week, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar warned that the plan must be realistic.

When I hear people talking about turning every town into a city and every village into a town, and railways to everywhere, that would not be viable and would require massive subvention at the expense of our health budget and our education budget, said Mr Varadkar.

However, Seamus Boland CEO of Irish Rural Link says those living outside major cities and towns simply want balanced regional development and believes rural dwellers are realistic about what can be delivered.

We dont need a hospital in every town and village, for example. In fact what we need is a comprehensive hospital system linked to the best hospitals in the world, he said.

Mr Boland says population hubs of 30,000 to 40,000 must be created which would allow for the creation of centres of employment for those living in rural areas, but this would also require a significant investment in rural transport links.

Any plan cannot be orientated towards the bottom line as people living in rural Ireland are tired of hearing the crudest cost/ benefit arguments employed against investing in rural infrastructure and access.

This is the view of Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association president Pat McCormack who says that a strategy of underinvestment can become a self- fulfilling argument for further under-investment.

Its nonsensical to hear someone say that it doesnt make sense to invest in a rural area because the population base there doesnt justify that. That non-investment then leads to more people deciding not to live in the rural area and to live in the urban or suburban environment instead.

That leads to another fall in the rural population and so the next time we come to decisions or a review about a capital spending plan the same economist says But the population in County X has fallen again so were throwing good money after bad  lets build another multi-billion Luas line in Dublin, said Mr McCormack.

Rural Ireland is dead and gone, its with OLeary in the grave cannot become the lament of those living outside urban areas.

A small bit of imaginative thinking, targeted supports and a realisation that rural Ireland is a vital part of the fabric of this country would easily prevent an updating of the famous line penned by a Sligo poet more than 100 years ago.

Transport: Infrastructure outside capital not up to scratch

By Fiachra O Cionnaith, Political Correspondent

All roads, as Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said at the weekend, will no longer lead to Dublin if and when the national framework plan promises are introduced.

However, that doesnt mean the countrys transport infrastructure outside the capital is anywhere near up to scratch right now.

And far from being a minor inconvenience for rural communities, the issue is posing real difficulties for the country as a whole, curtailing future economic growth and was squarely blamed for Ireland losing out on the right to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

While diverse, the rural transport problems ultimately amount to three issues  lack of investment, lack of a large enough base of users to justify funding injections, and as a result a lack of opportunities to encourage job and community growth in areas badly hit by the recession.

Whether it is on the roads or along the railways, the problem remains the same, and is something the Government must ensure is properly tackled in the framework plan when it is published in Sligo on Friday.

The roads difficulties will be nothing new for anyone who has travelled by car throughout Ireland since the Celtic Tiger came to a shuddering halt a decade ago.

Outside of Dublin, the network of regional and local roads spans almost 91,000km, accounting for 94% of the national network and taking in more than half of all road users.

However, according to the latest National Oversight and Audit Commission report, almost three in every four of these roads have serious structural or surface defects, an issue acknowledged by Department of Transport officials at a Dail public accounts committee meeting late last year.

Separately, the long-term problem of linking cities outside of Dublin to each other is also affected by the existing road system, hampering hopes of spreading economic growth to all regions and satellite towns and communities near cities outside the capital  an issue that is vital to ensuring long-lasting job prospects for all parts of Ireland and, as the failed 2023 Rugby World Cup bid showed, encouraging high-profile investment opportunities for this country.

While the Government has made it clear it intends to address this issue in the framework plan by committing to building the 850m Cork to Limerick motorway, the fact that this project has been criticised by a key research from the framework plan is unlikely to instil confidence in rural Ireland that there is as much commitment to addressing its transport problems as is officially claimed.

The situation for the railway network outside of Irelands urban centres is not much better, with repeated friction between communities which insist investment is needed and equally legitimate concerns from Iarnrod Eireann bosses that such investment cannot be justified due to the small number of people using certain services.

Of particular concern is the lack of a joined up rail network in the western corridor, with commuters unable to travel direct between Cork and Galway  and further north  severely curtail opportunities for investment in Irelands second and third largest cities.

In addition, a lack of footfall on some rail lines such as the Limerick to Ballybrophy line has led to repeated claims Iarnrod Eireann may need to cut some tracks in order to resolve an expected 103m company shortfall in the next five years  an issue that has led to significant concern parts of rural Ireland are being left behind instead of having their public service needs catered for.

In the Dail this week, with one cynical eye firmly on the framework plans publication tomorrow and the need to highlight the existing rural transport problems to counteract the Governments PR-garnished solutions, Fianna Fail transport spokesperson Robert Troy insisted action is needed now on addressing the glaring gaps in rural Irelands transport system.

While the opposition partys claims need to be seen in the frame of political jousting, to ignore them completely would be a mistake.

Whether all roads lead to Dublin or not, it is an issue the Government will be acutely aware of when it launches its national framework plan on Friday  and, crucially, as it looks ahead to the next general election hurtling towards them along their transport promises.

Rural Affairs: Brief is still toothless and badly financed

By Daniel McConnell, Political Editor

How goes the new department? Rural Affairs Minister Michael Ring was asked a few weeks before the budget.

Dont mention the war, he said, with a stressed look on his face, as he continued past me on the long, narrow corridor of Leinster House.

On his elevation to Taoiseach, last summer, Leo Varadkar decided to promote Ring to Cabinet and to establish a new department of rural affairs.

Flagged as a sign that the Government was taking rural Ireland seriously, in truth it was a political sop to the West, on Enda Kennys exit from the Cabinet.

For all of the positive talk and potential success of the new, embryonic department, its first seven or so months have been less than stellar.

With little or no devolved functions, a minuscule budget, and no permanent home (it has moved from Kildare Street to Clare Street and will finally end up on Nassau Street), it has been dismissed as a token by Mr Rings opposition counterparts.

Staffing has been a real issue and, like any new department, there is a real sense of people not knowing what it is really about and for, one senior official told me.

It was only last month, when he took his first question time as Minister for Rural and Community Development, in the Dail, seven months after he was appointed to the role, that Mr Ring finally got to answer questions on his portfolio.

It followed the lengthy resolution of legal and administrative changes required in untangling his remit from the old Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs to create the first dedicated Department of Rural and Community Development.

Mr Ring, who is as canny a political operative as they come, has been sensitive to those criticisms. He was said to have let fly at Mr Varadkar and Finance Minister, Paschal Donohoe, at Cabinet, on the morning of the budget.

He was displeased at the lack of progress in the formal establishment of his newly created department, and was a lone dissenting voice at Cabinet on the morning of the budget.

While most ministers offered comments in support of the 1.2bn budget package, Mr Ring broke ranks and let fly and made known his displeasure at the lack of meaningful financing for his department. It got 19m, or 12% of an increase.

When Leo went around the table to ask for views on the budget, everyone said happy, happy and then it came to Ringer, who let fly. He was very angry, said one minister.

It is not that rural Ireland is not a priority, but when you are putting out fires in other areas, they have to be the priority. They are health and housing.

He made the point that if he is not being looked after, he is being thrown to the wolves of the opposition, such as Fianna Fails Eamon O Cuiv and Roscommon Independent, Michael Fitzmaurice.

Fitzmaurice told the Irish Examiner: Michael Ring was right to give out. He has the smallest budget for a department that covers most of the country. It is a token gesture to rural Ireland, with the budget he has. Nothing else.

O Cuiv said Mr Rings department is a Cinderella department, because of the tiny budget it has and very limited functions.

What can he do for rural Ireland, with a tiny budget and little or no delegated functions? he said.

More recently, Mr Ring made his unhappiness known over the original final draft of the National Planning Framework, which is to be launched this Friday in all its glory.

Deeply unhappy with its Dublin bias, Mr Ring sought for a much more equitable split in the 115bn spend over the next decade.

Housing Minister, Eoghan Murphy, had to politically proof the budget by running it past Ring for his approval.

Now, he is said to be fully on board and satisfied, with the North West, including Mayo, likely to do quite well out of the large capital spend.

His handlers, too, will point to the success of local rejuvination schemes, like money for greenways and village renewal projects, but all of that, in truth, is tinkering around the edges of a far greater problem.

Ultimately, if the department is to be taken seriously, it will need more than a passionate minister. It needs proper staffing, a proper budget, and proper powers.

Until that occurs, the accusations stand of the department being a mere sop or token to rural Ireland.

Post offices: Time to stamp action on future of network

By Elaine Loughlin, Political Reporter

Speaking in the Seanad recently, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar blamed the online world we now live in for the demise of post offices.

If we are to judge the success or failure of rural Ireland, we should not base our view on the number of post offices and Garda stations, said Mr Varadkar.

The number of post offices is going down everywhere, including in the cities, because people now have bank cards and use the internet. There is no future in selling stamps  postmasters have long accepted this.

What those serving communities up and down the country cannot accept is a lack of support for the many diversification options put forward by postmasters themselves and the mothballing of numerous reports drawn up with recommendations to forge a future for the network.

Postmasters, many of whom supplement their income with secondary businesses and see the social and community element of their position as just as important as the official postal service they provide, are willing to get on board with online business and want to extend the services they provide.

The countrys post offices want to be given the chance to deliver remote health checks with hospital and GP link-up via technology; become a drop-off point for prescriptions; a local transport service hub; and tourist information point.

They also want clarity around the number of post offices that will be in operation in the coming years. They accept that the number will dwindle further but are demanding more certainly around this so they can plan for the future and ensure isolated and rural communities are catered for.

In the past 25 years the number of post offices has steadily dwindled from 1,907 in 1992 to around 1,130 now  between 2007 and 2010 alone there were 198 post office closures.

Far from allowing the slow death of the rural post office to continue, Irish Postmasters Union general secretary Ned OHara said the network can provide a major opportunity for the Government to transform citizens access to services and become a social hub in the community.

For instance, in Ballymore Eustace, Co Kildare, VideoDoc, the first ever online GP postmaster service, now provides locals with a virtual medical consultation.

From a private booth in the post office, a doctor is able to triage, treat, diagnose, prescribe, and follow up with patients via video link.

There isnt a one-size-fits-all answer to this. Some areas might benefit from a tourist information service, others might use the VideoDoc, others could take on banking, said Mr OHara, adding that the important thing is that post offices are given the scope to change.

What is most needed to protect rural post offices, which in many cases act as the only social outlet elderly and isolated people have, is action.

It is now more than two years since businessman Bobby Kerr published his report recommending immediate action to tackle serious challenges facing the network.

The report found many rural and isolated post offices are not viable and must adapt to remain open in the coming years, but little in the way of new services has been rolled-out.

Last year, the Public Banking Forum of Ireland suggested post offices should become the primary mortgage providers for first-time buyers  again there has been little movement on this.

Before Christmas, the Government announced a 30m investment plan in the post office network to support the continuation of a five-day week postal service and allow for an expansion of its parcel delivery service. However, there are still question marks over what amount, if any, will go towards other network-saving measures.

There is no doubt that post offices are no longer about the sale of stamps, postmasters are enthusiastic about their future, but they must get the backing to continue on the vital role they play in communities.

Crime and policing: Communities crying out for Garda stations

By Juno McEnroe, Political Correspondent

Recent political debate and charges of cronyism over the reopening of Stepaside Garda station in south Dublin have focused minds on the level of cutbacks in policing.

Rural communities felt the blunt of reduction in garda numbers, specifically when the last Fine Gael government closed 113 stations.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, echoing comments by ex-Justice Minister Alan Shatter who made the cuts, said stations closed as they were built before there was a fleet of Garda cars.

However, what comfort is that for isolated families or elderly residents who come face to face with a robber?

Rural crime and Garda station closures have haunted this and the last Fine Gael government. Gangs are increasingly mobile.

Thieves come off major routes, rob homes and then drive away. And rural communities affected by the closure of Garda stations in towns and villages are feeling vulnerable.

Last year was dominated by a number of high-profile rural crimes and aggravated burglaries, with some particularly disturbing cases.

In February, Paddy Lyons, 90, suffered a violent death at his rural home in Ballysaggart, Lismore, Co Waterford.

The reality of rural crime was also brought into focus in May when 94-year-old Jimmy Campion was beaten around the head by burglars in front of his 87-year-old wife Maura. The attack happened late on a Sunday night at their cottage on Old Dublin Road, Roscrea, Co Tipperary.

Both of these horrific attacks are a reminder of the problem of rural crime.

There have been calls for the reopening of Garda stations in rural areas that are vulnerable to criminal activity and without a nearby 24-hour Garda presence; for increases in funding and support for Garda-controlled CCTV and the promotion of GPS tracking devices to help protect against the robbery of farming machinery.

So what is the Government and gardai doing to tackle the incidents and vulnerabilities?

Statistics released last month by the Garda press office show an increase in burglaries last year was reversed by the years end, where nationally rates fell by 23% in November and December under the Winter Phase of Operation Thor, which targets burglary gangs.

Under new legislation, repeat offenders or prolific burglars will also be targeted in the courts. Bail can be refused while electronic monitoring may be imposed under bail conditions.

The implementation of these measures is under way. Furthermore, the Government wants to increase the force to 21,000 by 2021.

Also, six Garda stations, including Stepaside, will be reopened after Garda recommendations. These also include stations in Rush, Co Dublin, Leighlinbridge in Co Carlow, Donard in Co Wicklow, Bawnboy in Co Cavan and Ballinspittle in Co Cork.

Addressing the Seanad recently, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar responded to concern about the closure of post offices and Garda stations. He told the upper house that post offices are closing because people have bank cards and internet, while Garda stations are closing because they were built before there was a fleet of Garda cars. The remarks triggered criticism.

One problem in addressing these issues is verifying what level of rural crime actually exists.

Unfortunately, the Central Statistics Office has stopped publishing crime data since the last quarter of 2016 because of differences with gardai over the compilation of the data.

However you look at it, rural Ireland feels under attack, robbed of its security and in fear of its future.

Even the issue of rural crime is being considered by the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland. At public meetings, commission members say common themes being raised include rural crime, with rural joint-policing committees reporting increasing rates of burglaries among incidents.

Expect this issue to be a big debating point in any general election.

Health and education: Fears over downgrading of rural services

By Fiachra O Cionnaith, Political Correspondent

Among doctors with a flair for a phrase, it is called the medical apartheid of Ireland.

And while the claim does not always ring true, fears over the downgrading of rural health services and the lack of supports compared to major urban areas is a constant bone of contention  something any politician will know all too well after any constituency canvass.

Due in part to the 2002 Hanly report plans to downgrade services in rural hospitals, a similar attempt by PDs TD and former health minister Mary Harney in 2007, and the deep cuts imposed on public services during the economic crash, there is a legitimate belief in rural Ireland that its medical needs come second to those of large areas.

This is where the medical apartheid claim comes into play, with the allegation repeatedly made that if someone was to draw a line from Dublin across the country, they would see a severe shortage of trauma services above the line, with a similar lack of substantial supports apparent outside of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Galway.

The Department of Health has been at pains to counter the claim in recent years, creating centres of excellence for various conditions in hospitals nationwide and reforming hospital structures to create hospital groups that link facilities with each other to speed up access to care.

Such moves  alongside last weeks trauma services announcements and plans to build a new acute hospital in Cork in addition to elective-only hospitals in Dublin, Cork, and Galway  are to be welcomed.

However, the concerns are added to by further health problems in rural areas, in particular an ageing population, a dearth of new GPs to replace those retiring and leaving villages and towns without any general practice cover, and ongoing concerns over serious gaps in ambulance care for isolated parts of the country.

A similar difficulty is apparent when it comes to schools in rural areas, with dozens being shut or effectively shut through mergers due to their size in recent years.

As with almost all rural issues, the Government claims its national framework plan will promise to address it when it is revealed in Sligo tomorrow, the rural schools issue has its roots in the darkest years of the economic crash.

In 2011, then Labour TD and education minister Ruairi Quinn controversially sought to reform the small schools system by changing the threshold for small rural schools to be given an extra teacher based on their pupil ratios.

The situation led to a large number of small school closures in the subsequent years and, while the threshold has now been reversed, there remains an ongoing suspicion in rural communities that their schools are being encouraged to merge  effectively seeing one or more close  in order to save costs and better accommodate dwindling local population numbers.

The Irish National Teachers Organisation has recently warned it is unfair and short-sighted to push small schools to amalgamate with each other, openly questioning the Governments approach to the issue.

In a statement after its latest annual congress in Belfast last year, the cross-border union said that there are currently 588 schools with less than 50 pupils in Ireland, and that small schools need to be valued  both for the education system and the impact a school closure can have on a rural community itself.

While noting the political taboo phrase school closures is rarely used by Government representatives, the INTO congress said this is the reality of what is happening, adding rural areas are being unfairly affected by the issue.

With such legitimate health and education concerns affecting all households in rural Ireland, the Cabinet will do well to address the fears  whether legitimate or not  in tomorrows high-profile national framework plan announcements.

Broadband: Talks rumble on in search of connections

By Juno McEnroe, Political Correspondent

Up and down the country, internet blackspots disrupt daily life: Families cannot bank online, students cant file assignments; farmers cant access grants, and shops cannot trade.

It is an indictment of a modern country, where high-speed broadband access is now being equated to the electrification of homes in the 1950s.

The shock withdrawal of Eir from tendering for the national broadband plan has raised fresh concerns about proposals to connect 540,000 mainly rural homes.

Just one provider, Enet, remains in play. Amid clamour for a review, the Government insists the plan is on track for full rollout by 2023 and that a contract will be signed by September.

How does Enets bid stand-up, particularly now Eir and Siro (the latter a Vodafone/ESB venture) have jumped ship? And what does this mean for the national broadband plan and taxpayers?

Enet is a consortium, made up of SSE  owner of Airtricity  Granahan McCourt, and the John Laing Group.

SSE and Granahan McCourt last year unveiled plans to bring fibre broadband to 115,000 homes and businesses not covered by the national broadband plan. In other words, it already has involvement in the sector.

It is also worth considering the market spread of and funding for Enet.

Of the original three bidders, Enet is the only wholesale operator. A state-backed fund also bought two thirds of Enet. The two issues strengthen Enets position.

Existing questions linger about Enets ability to do the job, especially given that ESB and Eir both have existing connections into homes nationwide.

Essentially, Enet, if it is the winning bid, will have to negotiate access to Eirs polls and ducts, to hook up the high-speed broadband.

Eir could insist on a price of up to 20 a pole annually. That is a huge cost with 1.3m poles under the national broadband plan. But can the Government legislate to cap these costs? The crunch issue could end up in court.

The success of Enets national broadband plan venture may come down to how it cuts a deal for rural infrastructure already owned by Eir, formerly Eircom.

So all of this is in part a gamble, a jump into the unknown.

Communications Minister Denis Naughten says any delays have not been under his watch. The national broadband plan was promised back as far as 2012. Furthermore, there is strict overview of this plan, insists Mr Naughten.

Enet might be the sole bidder, but its bid will go through several tests.

The national broadband plan is subject to a steering group and procurement board, including national and international experts. The final subsidy for the winning tender will be go through a value-for-money assessment by the National Development Finance Agency. National broadband plan spending is also subject to an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Mr Naughten maintains that the Enet-led consortium has vast international experience across telecoms, engineering, and infrastructure sectors. Nonetheless, a fear among opposition benches is that Siro and Eir backed out of the bid because of onerous bidding terms dictated by Mr Naughtens department.

Questions raised include why Eir was allowed cherry-pick 300,000 homes out of the 850,000 intervention target, leaving the more isolated premises in the national broadband plan. This made the project less attractive for bidders, it is claimed, and now just one consortium is left in control  Enet.

Nonetheless, Enet has rejected accusations that it is not big enough or equipped to do the job. It says that in the US it has spent $100m a month on projects.

Furthermore, Enets partner for the national broadband plan is SSE, which has injected 2bn since 2008 in energy projects in Ireland.

Overall, the reality is there just isnt a plan B, at least not one to release publicly.

This could be the best deal to give rural homes the same type of connection speeds around the country that match those in any big city.

Furthermore, a strict vetting process is there to protect the States interest.

It is now down up to Mr Naughten to ensure there is no slippage on the timeline, loose ends in the terms for Enet, and, most importantly, the needs of 540,000 homes who need this remain at the top of the plan.County-by-county breakdowns for 2017 show 327 IDA visits out of 682 were in Dublin. Only 51 were in Cork, 62 in Galway, and 42 in Limerick. There was only one IDA visit in the whole year in Monaghan and just two in Cavan, Donegal, and Wicklow.

The figures were provided in a Dail reply to Fianna Fail TD Niall Collins, who said: Fine Gaels claim that it is actively supporting well-paying jobs outside Dublin is nothing more than hot air and bluster. The reality is that its efforts are focused predominately on Dublin, to the detriment to the rest of the country.Dane Ring, aged 26, pleaded guilty to charges arising out of this incident at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday.

Judge Brian OCallaghan said: These are most serious charges no matter who they are.

Whether you know them or not makes no difference.

You had in your possession, when making the threats, a kitchen knife. You picked up that serious weapon for no good reason.

You made a conscious decision to get this weapon. You had nothing in mind but to use it in the way that you did.

They were in serious fear. That is a seriously aggravating factor in this case which the court cannot avoid emphasising.

If everybody took up a knife every time they lost a girlfriend or a boyfriend you can imagine what the world would be like.

The fact that you have stayed away from these two indicates it was spur of the moment, albeit premeditated.

You are so lucky to have probation officer Maria Ahern. To describe her report as impressive is an understatement. It is important you return that trust to her.

The judge imposed a total sentence of three years, with half of it suspended.

Dane Ring pleaded guilty to attempted robbery of a young woman of a handbag containing personal items on July 12, 2016, at Pearse Square in Youghal.

Ring also pleaded guilty to making a threat to kill her on the same occasion and making a threat to kill the young man with her.

Detective Garda Cormac O Bric said Ring, with an address at St Vincents hostel, Anglesea Terrace, Cork, approached his ex-girlfriend in Youghal on the day and produced a knife.

He made threats to the two of them. He attempted to grab her handbag.

He pushed her to the ground and made more threats to her.

He eventually left the scene empty-handed.

Helen Boyle, defence barrister said: He has accepted responsibility for these offences.

He has stayed away from the victims since this occurred. He was upset that his ex-girlfriend had moved on, which she was perfectly entitled to do.

He apologises. He accepts he puts them in fear. He says that what he did was utterly unacceptable.

In the background he had had a suicide attempt and self-harm.

He has a chaotic lifestyle and addiction issues leading to him appearing before the district court on a regular basis.

He has had periods of detox where he has weaned himself off drugs.

He is taking methadone in prison. He was remanded in custody. He did engage with the probation service on his release.

The only hope for this young man is to engage with services for his addiction.

He has asked me to communicate his remorse for this incident.

Judge OCallaghan said the headline sentence on the charges without mitigation would have been four years.

He imposed a sentence of three years, to commence on termination of a sentence the accused is presently serving for an unrelated crime. That sentence is due to end in June.

The judge also suspended the last 18 months of the three years on condition that he would comply with the directions of the probation service post-release for a period of two years.A new poll, conducted for Early Childhood Irelands first-ever Childcare Barometer, also found that a similar percentage of respondents believe childcare should be free in Ireland.

In the poll of 1,000 people, one-quarter agreed that parents should be fully responsible for the cost of childcare.

It also showed that three-quarters of people believe the education of children aged under five is now every bit as important as the education of those aged over five, echoing calls from groups, such as Early Childhood Ireland, for an increased focus on the needs of the youngest children in the State.

The poll comes after the Childrens Rights Alliance issued its annual report card on the Governments performance over the past 12 months, including in the provision of childcare, and three months after an EU Social Justice Index placed Ireland last among 22 EU member states for investment in early-years care and education.

The poll showed that while 56% of respondents agreed that staff in childcare services are qualified professionals, like teachers and nurses, a much smaller percentage  24%  agreed that the current, average hourly wage, of 11.93, paid to staff reflected the value of their work.

It also found that 57% of those questioned agreed that parents should only pay towards childcare in line with their overall income, versus the 23% who believe parents should be fully responsible for the cost of childcare, with 65% agreeing childcare should be free and 69% agreeing that all parents should be financially supported to stay at home for the first year of their childs life.

Frances Byrne, director of policy and advocacy with Early Childhood Ireland, said: Early Childhood Ireland has long advocated for paid parental leave, stronger supports for staff, and greater funding for the early-years sector.

Substantially increased investment is needed to bring Ireland in line with the Unicef international benchmark of 1% of GDP. The barometer shows a clear public mandate for Government to act on these issues, she said.

Ms Byrne welcomed the progress of the Childcare Support Bill, currently before the Dail, but said several significant challenges remained, including recruitment, low pay, and insufficient funding.

The barometer underlines a broad, public desire for meaningful and urgent action on these issues, she said.Rural Independent TD Mattie McGrath hit out at Mr Rosss plans to significantly increase the severity of penalties for the offences after the changes were signed off by cabinet yesterday.

Under existing rules, a learner driver who is driving alone in a vehicle can be prosecuted for putting other people at risk. However, the person who owns the vehicle escapes punishment.

However, under an amendment set to be made to the Road Traffic Bill later this month, motorists who allow their vehicles to be used will be penalised with a 2,000 fine and a potential six-month jail sentence, in addition to having their vehicle seized.

The likely amendment to traffic laws comes after a series of fatal road crashes, in recent years, involving unaccompanied learner drivers. It has been strongly backed by the Road Safety Authority.

However, speaking to reporters yesterday, rural TD Mr McGrath said the road safety clampdown is utterly disproportionate, claiming it will generate massive amounts of resentment in rural Ireland and shows Mr Ross has gone off the deep end in his road safety campaign.

If Minister Ross is seriously suggesting a new regime whereby critical farmyard vehicles can be confiscated and the farmer can be jailed then he has truly gone off the deep end in terms of a detachment from rural life. How does the minister intend to put this bizarre proposal into practice? It is completely unworkable and has the potential to ruin farm and working families that are barely surviving as it is, Mr McGrath said.

The Tipperary TD repeated his comments in the Dail yesterday, accusing the Government of ignoring the reality that some unaccompanied learner drivers will travel short distances in rural areas. He claimed the new road safety rules shows the national framework plan, to be published tomorrow, is missing the point of rural life.

I am all for restrictions to assist in road safety. I sympathise with the relatives of those who have lost lives as a result of L-plate drivers but this is bizarre. Someone needs to rein in the minister, Deputy Ross, lock him into the house in Wicklow where he lives and keep him away from rural people. He has a vendetta against rural people, Mr McGrath stated.

The Department of Transport has repeatedly called for improvements in road safety standards, in part due to the potential dangers caused by learner drivers getting behind the wheel of a vehicle unaccompanied by an experienced driver.

Of the fatal road crashes last year, 25% involved a learner driver, despite learner drivers accounting for only 12% of all drivers.The Egyptian army said it has foiled an infiltration attempt by an armed group on the Libyan borders and destroyed ten 44 vehicles in the operation.

The air force succeeded in foiling an infiltration attempt by 10 44 vehicles loaded with arms and ammunition on the western [i.e., Libyan] border, the army announced in a televised statement.

The army did not give details on the death toll or the identity of the alleged infiltrators.

The porous western borders are often the theatre of clashes between the Egyptian army and armed groups including smugglers and terrorist organizations.

Meanwhile, on its eastern borders, Egypt has launched a massive military operation to end a bloody conflict that has killed hundreds of civilians and soldiers in recent years. In November 2017, militants attacked a Sufi mosque killing 311 worshipers, the deadliest attack Egypt has witnessed so far.Judge Brian OCallaghan had adjourned the sentencing hearing so that the prosecuting garda could enquire into another member of An Garda Siochana providing character evidence.

I am surprised to see it, Judge OCallaghan said of the character evidence, written by a member of An Garda Siochana.

This evidence was presented in the form of a letter, which defence barrister, Niamh Stewart, handed in to Cork Circuit Criminal Court, on behalf of Kenneth ODonoghue, 35, of 59 Fairfield Avenue, Farranree, Cork, who pleaded guilty to having cocaine for sale or supply on October 15, 2016.

Ms Stewart, said: He had addiction problems in the past, but he is doing well now.

Detective Garda Eoin OToole did not agree with the contents of the letter written by the other garda, as character evidence for the accused.

The detective said Kenneth ODonoghue was a longstanding target of the drugs unit.

After the adjournment of sentencing, yesterday, to look into the letter written by the other officer, Det Garda OToole returned to court to say that he was unable to reach the garda by phone, but could not dispute that it was written and stamped from a garda station and was genuine.

All I can say is that the member (who wrote the letter) is not attached to the divisional drugs unit.

I would not agree with his opinion that he (ODonoghue) will not reoffend, Det Garda OToole testified.

Judge OCallaghan put the letter to one side on the bench, during the imposition of sentence on ODonoghue, and said it was not a report a judge would rely upon, in the absence of the particular guard attending court to support its contents.

Det Garda OToole said ODonoghue was stopped by gardai, after driving from Dublin to Cork with 10,000 worth of cocaine concealed in the steering wheel column of the Toyota Avensis. He was stopped on a side road around Fermoy, having driven from Dublin on the motorway. The detection followed a period of surveillance.

He was caught six months earlier with 1,200 worth of cannabis, for which he got a suspended jail term and 200 hours of community service.

Ms Stewart, BL, said of ODonoghue: He started using hash at a young age. He is drug-free now.

He has not come to the attention of the guards since 2016.

There was a level of co-operation, in that he said where the drugs were concealed.

Judge OCallaghan said of this co-operation, on arrival at Mayfield Garda Station, following his arrest in the Fermoy area: He must have known his goose was cooked.

UPDATE: Judge Brian OCallaghan imposed a sentence of two and a half years on Kenneth ODonoghue, with the last year suspended.

This article was amended on February 16, 2018.Researchers working on a project with the Department of Agriculture and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) tagged badgers and then discovered that some male badgers, typically younger males, did not adhere to the previously understood territories occupied by groups of badgers.

Instead, these super rangers travelled far beyond the marked out territories that other badgers in the group can occupy and seldom stray from for years, making them more likely to end up with other badgers cetes (group of badgers) and increase the risk of spreading TB.

Super ranging is a newly discovered behavioural phenomenon and the research has just been published in international journal Plosone.

Aoibheann Gaughran, PhD researcher in Trinitys School of Natural Sciences and lead author on the paper, said the researchers used GPS satellite trackers to follow where 50 badgers went over a period of time.

The research project had started because the department and the NPWS were concerned as to whether construction of a new roadway in Co Wicklow would disturb existing badger populations and thereby increase the risk of spreading TB to cattle.

Ms Gaughran said: We do know that badgers are involved [in the spreading of TB] but the issue is we cant say to what extent they are responsible. Our research shows that badgers actively avoid cattle and farmyards. The way the disease is transmitted is probably environmental.

Badgers are protected species and any culls of the badger population must be done according to strict criteria and only after derogation to do so is provided by the NPWS.

However, a vaccination programme has also been underway, luring badgers into stopped restraints or cages with peanuts, and Ms Gaughran said the new research on super ranging could mean younger adult males could be specifically targeted for vaccination, which in turn might limit the likelihood of TB being spread over wider areas.

Farmers now are really welcoming the idea of vaccination. Nationally the problem of TB in badgers has declined over the years which is probably in line with culling, she said

However, she said badgers can be the victims of unregulated and illegal activity.

There is a culture in this country of badger baiting and badger digging and that tends to be for sport, pitting them against dogs. That happens more often than you would think, she said.

Professor of Zoology at Trinity, Nicola Marples, said: This research on badger movement should help to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of the impending badger vaccination programme, which is great news.The details are revealed in the latest Dail declarations of interest report for 2017, published yesterday.

According to the report, 30 TDs and a quarter of the Cabinet are renting out properties to the public.

The file also shows that 29 of the 158 TDs hold shares in firms including Bank of Ireland, the German stock exchange, Jersey-based insurance firms, and multinationals.

The 30 landlord TDs include Tanaiste Simon Coveney, who is renting a property in Hartys Quay in Rochestown, Cork; and Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty, who is letting office space in Ashbourne, Co Meath, and has student accommodation in Limerick City.

Other ministers renting out properties include Agriculture Minister Michael Creed, who is letting two properties at the Railway View and The Lodge in Macroom, Co Cork; junior minister John Paul Phelan, who is renting two properties in Rathmines, south Dublin; and backbencher John Deasy who rents a holiday home in Sardinia.

A number of Fianna Fail TDs are also landlords: Marc MacSharry rents a property in Galway in which he has a 50% stake; Robert Troy is involved in three properties in Mullingar and Dublin; and Eamon Scanlon rents four apartments in Ballymote, Co Sligo, in addition to a number of other properties.

The 2017 declarations list includes a breakdown of shares and directorships owned by TDs, with one in five confirming they hold shares in a variety of companies.

Among the most notable declarations are those of former finance minister Michael Noonan who has SPDR gold shares, and shares in the Ftse 100, Iseq index, and Germany stock exchange index fund.

The report also confirms that Independent TD Mattie McGrath was brought to the US by the pro-life Family and Life group in March last year.

In his declarations of interests gifts category, Mr McGrath confirms to the Oireachtas that his flights and accommodation were paid for by the Dublin-based group while he was in Washington DC and New York City last March.

The private visit coincided with then-taoiseach Enda Kennys meeting with US President Donald Trump during the St Patricks Day festivities.

The Family and Life group, which is registered with the Standards in Public Office, has held a number of fact-finding visits to the US in the past, while its accounts show it has regularly brought in over 1m in donations in previous years.

The declarations of interest list is drawn up by Oireachtas officials every year in order to provide transparency on potential conflicts of interests for national politicians.

Under the system, politicians are asked to volunteer information on their private interests so as to prevent any misunderstandings over the matters.The four-bedroom, three-bath house is listed for sale on Daft.ie for 830,000.

Rudi Neuman, counsel for Shoreline Residential DAC, told Judge Jacqueline Linnane, in the Circuit Civil Court, the couple had made an offer to pay 275,000 off their debt of 380,000 and the bank would have to consider it.

Mr Neuman, who appeared with Beauchamps Solicitors, said the offer had been made just before he had come into court, an increase of 125,000 on an offer made to the bank on Monday last, which had been rejected.

When Judge Linnane asked if the offer involved a refinancing agreement or an offer from a different individual, Aoife Beirne, counsel for the Gilsons, said it was a separate loan, from a separate financial institution.

Ms Beirne told the court she had been instructed to make a substantial offer, at 9.45am yesterday, but she was reluctant to go into the details. She was seeking an adjournment, as the defendants were in the process of raising short-term finance.

Currently, a solicitor, back in the office, is making arrangements for the payment to be made to Beauchamps Solicitors as soon as possible, Ms Beirne said.

Mr Neuman said there had been engagement with the bank, late in the day, and an offer received on Monday had been rejected Tuesday. A new offer, of 275,000, had been made before he came into court, against the total outstanding debt of 380,000.

It is reasonable that the bank should consider this offer, which I would estimate may take between four and six weeks, Mr Neuman said.

Judge Linnane said negotiations had taken place and definite proposals were being made to reduce the substantial arrears in the case. She said counsel for the defendants had yet to furnish clarity about the source of the funding, which would seem to have been borrowed from a third party.

The judge said she would put the matter in for further consideration, by the court, in early March, and if the proposal to the bank was not satisfactory, the application for possession would go ahead. The court would probably adjourn the matter, if it had been progressed in some shape or form and if the money had been received by the bank.

The court had already been told that Mr Gilson, now a retired painting and decorating contractor, had bought the site, at 16 College Gate, Castleknock, Dublin 15, in 1992, and had built the house himself.

He and his wife, both of whom are now pensioners, had borrowed 300,000 in May 2008, to be paid back over a period of 10 years. The purpose of the 2008 loan had been to refinance an existing mortgage and clear an outstanding liability in respect of his business.

Jeffrey Johnston, a director of Shoreline Residential, told the court that as of July 4, 2017, the outstanding debt was 382,746, which included arrears of 353,553.

Two legal companies, OGradys Solicitors and M E Hanahoe Solicitors, were listed as representing the defendants. Mr and Mrs Gilson, both of whom the court learned were suffering stress as a result of their financial difficulties, did not attend court.Arts Artist Doesnt Hesitate to Change the World With Her Brushes

Nu Nus bold depictions of Inle Lake and its surroundings can be viewed at 43 Art Gallery from Feb. 17-21.Burma KNPP Mulls Army's Request to Question Alleged Witness to Executions

Mourners prepare to bury the bones of four men the KNPP claims were executed by the Tatmadaw in December in Karenni State. / KNPP

YANGON  The Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) says it is considering a request from the Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw, to question a member of the groups armed wing who claims to have seen government troops execute four people in Karenni State in December.

The KNPP claims that Tatmadaw soldiers executed three of its fighters and a civilian when they raided the ethnic armed groups base in Loikaw Township on Dec. 20. The Tatmadaw has claimed that the four were killed in a firefight during the raid but has formed a special commission to investigate the deaths and is seeking the alleged witness testimony.

They want to hear from him. They want his testimony for their investigation, said Khu Daniel, a member of the KNPPs central committee.

We will make a decision after we are able to meet with the government and the NRPC, he added, referring to the government-run National Reconciliation and Peace Center

The KNPP says it has already asked the government and NRPC for a meeting to discuss the deaths and the broader peace process and was still waiting for a reply.

According to the KNPP, Maung Lar, a member of its armed wing, witnessed the executions and managed to escape.

At a press conference in Loikaw in late December, the KNPP played what it said was a recording of Maung Lar. The man in the recording says the Tatmadaw soldiers, after raiding the armed groups base, told him and the other four to line up for a photo but started shooting them instead and that he only just managed to run away.

The KNPP and other local sources say the Tatmadaw has sent an investigating team from Naypyitaw to Loikaw three times already and met with people living near the scene of the alleged crime during its last visit earlier this month.

The team includes four members of the Tatmadaws top military court and a colonel from its Eastern Command base in Shan State.

They told us they would investigate first, then take the case to court, then take action, Khu Daniel said.

The investigation team even told us that if they found rights violations they would take action according to the rule of law. They even gave us the example of how they took action against their soldiers in the Kachin case, he said.

A military court sentenced six soldiers to 10 years in prison last month for killing three Kachin men from a camp for internally displaced people in Mansi Township.

The KNPP says it has asked the Tatmadaw for a joint investigation, but so far to no avail. Khu Daniel said the party was worried for Maung Lars safety if he were to meet with the Tatmadaw.

He is the most important person as the eye witness, so we are worried he might disappear. We will let them see him when we feel the conditions for him are safe and secure, he said.Burma Myanmar Policeman Who Detained Reuters Pair Did Not Know Arrest Procedures

Detained Reuters journalist Wa Lone escorted by police after a court hearing in Yangon, Myanmar, Feb. 6, 2018. / Reuters

YANGON  A police officer who said he was part of the team that detained two Reuters reporters in Myanmar in December told a court on Wednesday that he was not familiar with police procedures for recording arrests.

Second Lieutenant Myo Ko Ko was the latest prosecution witness to give evidence in proceedings to decide whether reporters Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, should be charged under Myanmars colonial-era Official Secrets Act.

Defense lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told reporters after the hearing that Myo Ko Ko had conceded during cross-examination that he was not familiar with procedural rules in Myanmars police manual. So he cannot be a reliable witness for the prosecution, Khin Maung Zaw said.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested on Dec. 12 for allegedly obtaining confidential documents, after they had been invited to meet police officers over dinner in Yangon.

The pair have told relatives they were arrested almost immediately after being handed some papers at a restaurant by two officers they had not met before.

Asked about the location where the arrests took place, Myo Ko Ko said it was on a street lined by factories. That contradicted a map previously produced by police and entered in the court file, which showed stores and tea shops, but no factories.

Myo Ko Ko told the court he was part of the arresting team, but did not see the documents police have said the two reporters were holding in their hands.

At a previous hearing, police Major Min Thant had agreed during cross-examination that the information in the documents that Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were holding had already been published in newspaper reports.

Earlier in Wednesdays proceedings the prosecution had opposed a defense request that the police station logbook in which the arrests had been recorded should be shown to the court as evidence, arguing that it was still in daily use and could not leave the police station.

Judge Ye Lwin refused the defenses request, saying the defense did not have the right to see the record at this stage of the proceedings.

Mass Grave Report

The two reporters had been working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men who were buried in a mass grave in northern Rakhine State after being hacked to death or shot by ethnic Rakhine Buddhist neighbors and soldiers.

After Reuters published its report on the killings on Feb. 8, calls have mounted for the release of the two reporters.

The United States said at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday that Myanmar had the gall to blame the media for the situation in Rakhine and demanded that the reporters be freed.

For the crime of reporting the truth, the Burmese (Myanmar) government arrested and imprisoned the reporters, said Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Unhindered media access is vitally important. Journalists like the two imprisoned Reuters reporters are an indispensable source of information.

Britain, France, the Netherlands and Kazakhstan also called at the meeting for the release of the reporters.

Myanmar UN Ambassador Hau Do Suan said Myanmar recognizes freedom of the press and the journalists were not arrested for reporting a story, but were accused of illegally possessing confidential government documents.

Nearly 690,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine and taken refuge in neighboring Bangladesh since the Myanmar military launched a crackdown on insurgents at the end of August, according to the United Nations.

The United Nations has said the military campaign against the Rohingya may amount to genocide. Myanmar says its security forces mounted legitimate counter-insurgency clearance operations.

The next hearing at the Insein District Court in Yangon was set for Feb. 21.Guest Column International Community Fails to See Myanmar for What It Is

Rohingya refugees walk along the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, January 21, 2018. / Reuters

The intercommunal conflict in Rakhine in 2012 saw the issue of the Rohingya resurface. Following the exodus of some 690,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh since last August, it has intensified again. There have been a lot of international conferences held around the globe in an effort to find a proper solution. Some are well thought out while others have taken sides to advocate for one particular group. Media reporting on the issue has regained momentum internationally.

Most of these discussions  I have had the privilege of participating in some of them  have been used to advance certain propositions as to the cause of this tragedy. Many so-called international experts have drawn the conclusion that Muslims are discriminated against and targeted in Buddhist-majority countries, and that Rohingya are being victimized because of their racial and religious background. The Myanmar government, led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has been accused of not speaking out on behalf of the minority group because it fears losing the political support of the Buddhist majority. This is a fundamentally flawed and misleading conclusion, but it might explain the international communitys misjudged response to recent events in Myanmar.

I dont deny that anti-Muslim and nationalist threads run through Myanmars history, but I do question how significant they really are, and point out that Myanmar citizens are responding to and challenging those ultra-nationalist ideologies. On that point in particular, the international community has largely failed to see the other side of the coin.

As the international community tries to address the underlying causes of discrimination, it only widens the faultline between the religious minority and the Buddhist community, which is really trying to make its voice heard against intolerance. Indiscriminate use of the term Buddhist extremism, unnecessarily differentiating between Buddhist and Muslims in their reporting, and attacking Buddhism without adequate knowledge sends the wrong signals and strengthens the xenophobic view.

I would offer two examples  small in number but enormous in terms of the impact on the countrys mindset: the widespread demand for justice following the murder of Muslim lawyer U Ko Ni, and the rejection of hate speech from the celebrity monk Wirathu. The assassination of the prominent Muslim lawyer drew public attention and calls for justice from all walks of life in Myanmar. Strong evidence of this can be seen in the pictures taken at his funeral, condolence posts on social media, and support from people at the trial of his accused killers. Regarding Wirathu, the Myanmar government has done a good job of containing hateful discourse by restricting his speech. Not only official action has been taken against him, but youth and interfaith groups are also organizing activities to foster mutual understanding among groups. This is a sign of an emerging democratic society whose members care for each other and which can find an equilibrium within itself.

Seeing Buddhists as a homogenous group is also a misapprehension. The Buddhist community in Myanmar comprises Rakhine, Shan, Mon, Burmese and others. They dont agree on everything, and oppose each other in many instances.

Although there have been many studies of the recent trend of nationalism, most of them have focused on how anti-Muslim sentiment developed in Myanmar, looking for new victims while ostensibly asking who was responsible for it. Dramatizing victimhood is the typical mentality of the rescuer. The point is not to reject analyses of social movements; what is missing are social activists and netizens with an awareness of the politicization of religion.

Respecting the non-discrimination principle, we should be very careful not to generalize about one religion. While majorities have to respect minorities, minorities do not have the right to discriminate against majorities. In this regard, hate speech is neither directed from larger groups to smaller, nor from powerful to powerless; rather it goes from one group to another. The concept of the Karpman Drama Triangle explains this, using the model of persecutor, victim and rescuer. The persecutor can turn into the victim and vice versa, while the rescuer dramatizes victimhood to play up his role. No one benefits from trapping others inside a role and pointing fingers. Caution is very much needed. In this sense, the Buddhist community is becoming the victim of generalized accusations in their own country without receiving any acknowledgement for their courageous acts of change.

Moreover, advocacy groups are not willing to talk about how Myanmar is a diverse country trying to be inclusive in its nation-building through the peace process. Myanmar is currently trapped in a structural problem, which is at the root of many problems today. At the base of the problems, the general population has never had a quality liberal education that encourages diversity, or an opportunity to engage with the international community, or a robust judicial system. It has lived in poverty for a long time. On top of that, the political system has never allowed meaningful participation. Under the Constitution, when political power was devolved in 2010, the power elites maintained control of 25 percent of the legislature, full control of the armed forces and authority over three key ministries: Defense, Home Affairs and Border Affairs. Limited liberalization of the political system has allowed two elections. The power elites have discovered that social media can be used to strengthen their position, and have successfully used it on different occasions. Religious ideas are cherry-picked to manipulate the mostly traditional community of Myanmar. A scholar from Lund University confirmed in her recent thesis that it is not so much Buddhism itself that has led to the current anti-Muslim narratives and inter-religious clashes, but rather the use of its teachings and symbols, by the monkhood and the state, to gain legitimacy and to justify vehement discourses and actions.[i] Actually, all factors point to a development crisis, political crisis and, in part, a human rights crisis as well.

Grounded in faulty assumptions, the international communitys position can ultimately be expressed as one question: How can the international community convince Myanmars Buddhist majority to accept the Rohingya as part of its community? Anyone can feel the sense of hegemony in this question. This misleading question will undoubtedly have limited impact. They would do better to ask how religion is being used by nationalist and some groups for their political and popular gain. Actually, this is still not enough. We should also ask how Myanmar is struggling to contest the politicization of religion in its democratization process by defying established power elites? Stereotyping of the Buddhist community of Myanmar will definitely be counterproductive and weaken progressive endeavors.

Arguing from this perspective, I dont mean that any people should suffer the nightmare we are seeing today. Definitely, no one should be subject to violence of any kind. We must show our humanity. I wish to do so with a long-term view, oriented toward genuine change for the whole country that will yield real benefits for all groups of people. Envisioning long-term change requires courage and wisdom not only from people inside the country, but from the outside world as well.

Ye Min Zaw is a scholar of international development studies focusing on peace processes, transitional issues and Rakhine affairs.

[i] Emilie Biver (2014) Religious Nationalism: Myanmar and the role of Buddhism in anti-Muslim narratives. An analysis of Myanmars ethnic conflicts through the lens of Buddhist nationalism, Lund UniversityThursday, February 15th, 2018 (5:38 pm) - Score 1,824

Openreach today confirmed they will deploy their superfast fibre broadband (FTTC/P) network to cover a further 7,200 homes and businesses in the UK counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire (completion by the end of 2019), which comes after BT signed a new 5.1m contract under the Fastershire project.

The Herefordshire County Council has already signed one Phase 2 roll-out deal with Gigaclear, which will deploy Gigabit capable FTTP to an additional 8,000 premises in the region by 2020 (here). Todays announcement reflects a second Phase 2 signing, albeit with BT.

Phase 1 of the original project enabled 83% of premises (35,000) in Herefordshire, and 82% in Gloucestershire, to gain access to speeds of 30Mbps+. By comparison the Phase 2 project is expected to increase coverage in Herefordshire to 95% (97% in Gloucestershire) through various contracts with both Gigaclear and BT.

Apparently the Herefordshire side of this deal will extend to a further 2,200 premises, while the rest will go to Gloucestershire.

Councillor David Harlow, Herefordshire Cabinet Member for Economy, said: We are striving to enable as many properties in Herefordshire to access faster broadband. By working with BT in Hereford, Fastershire will ensure that more homes and businesses will be able to benefit from superfast speeds.

Steve Haines, Openreachs MD of NGA, said: This major expansion of the Fastershire programme means more great news for people living and working in Hereford and were delighted to be playing such a key role. Just two years ago, Britons used less than half the data they do now on their home broadband and this pace shows no signs of slowing. Consumers are doing more and more online and at the same time, from streaming high definition movies and TV, gaming, online shopping to using mobile devises over wireless broadband. Every day the number of services delivered to us online, whether designed to entertain, educate or meet our daily needs, is growing. Content and applications will only get more sophisticated making high speed broadband vital for doing all your essential tasks online, so I hope that communities take full advantage of the technology as it arrives.

We should point out that the funding split for the new contract is a little confusing. The council says the 5.1 million deal includes around 908,000 from Gloucestershire County Council, Herefordshire Council and the Governments Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme, plus just over 5 million from BT (we may make that nearly 6m *shrug*).

We do at least know for sure that the Herefordshire side of this is funded by 218,000 from the council and 668,000 from BT, although it would be nice if such projects could publish figures that actually made sense.

Between both counties the Fastershire programme has so far reached an additional 96,516 premises, including upgrades at 99 exchanges, 702Kms of new fibre optic cable and the installation of 407 new street cabinets. The project claims that it will help to boost the local economy by 420m over the next ten years.

UPDATE 16th Feb 2018 @ 2:53pm

Updated the article to include Gloucestershires side of the contract.Thursday, February 15th, 2018 (12:01 am) - Score 1,633

Little known UK ISP Hotchilli, which offered a mix of website hosting and some very out-of-date up to 8Mbps ADSLMax based copper broadband packages, has finally kicked the bucket and will discontinue the services it provides on 30th March 2018.

The ISP hasnt really done anything noticeable in the broadband market since they launched their ADSL packages some years ago and since then theyve failed to keep pace with modern changes, which means that most of you probably wont have any idea who they are (despite them having been around since the early years). The following statement has been posted on their website (as spotted by The Register).

Service Statement Dear Customer, At Hotchilli, we have always strived to bring our customers the best range of product and service offerings whilst endeavouring to provide value and the quality of service customers expect to receive. Part of ensuring we are able to provide this value involves comparing our service offerings and pricing against other service providers. Following our most recent review, the results have unfortunately shown we have fallen behind our competitors. This has resulted in an in-depth look at our costs, service pricing and the investment required to maintain and indeed enhance the high level of customer service and range of offerings we believe our customers are looking for. It is only following this most recent review that we have arrived at the very difficult decision to inform our customers of our intention to discontinue the services we provide. We are therefore sorry to notify you that we will discontinue the services we provide you on 30/03/18. We will of course be happy to assist you migrate any services you take from us to another service provider where possible. We deeply regret notifying you of these intentions and would like to thank you sincerely for your custom. Yours faithfully Stephen Rees

Services Director

The closure will also impact Hotchillis resellers, such as ADSL4Less.Induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, are a keystone of regenerative medicine. Outside the body, they can be coaxed to become many different types of cells and tissues that can help repair damage due to trauma or disease. Now, a study in mice from the Stanford University School of Medicine suggests another use for iPS cells: training the immune system to attack or even prevent tumors.

The results suggest it may one day be possible to vaccinate an individual with his or her own iPS cells to protect against the development of many types of cancer.

The iPS cells work as an anti-cancer vaccine because, like many cancer cells, they resemble developmentally immature progenitor cells, which are free from the growth restrictions built into mature cells that make up the bodys tissues. Injecting iPS cells that genetically match the recipient, but that are unable to replicate, can safely expose the immune system to a variety of cancer-specific targets, the researchers found.

Weve learned that iPS cells are very similar on their surface to tumor cells, said Joseph Wu, MD, PhD, director of Stanfords Cardiovascular Institute and professor of cardiovascular medicine and of radiology. When we immunized an animal with genetically matching iPS cells, the immune system could be primed to reject the development of tumors in the future. Pending replication in humans, our findings indicate these cells may one day serve as a true patient-specific cancer vaccine.

Wu is the senior author of the study, which was published online Feb. 15 in Cell Stem Cell. Former postdoctoral scholar Nigel Kooreman, MD, is the lead author.

These cells, as a component of our proposed vaccine, have strong immunogenic properties that provoke a systemwide, cancer-specific immune response, said Kooreman, who is now a surgery resident in the Netherlands. We believe this approach has exciting clinical potential.

Similarities between cancer, iPS cells

To make iPS cells, researchers collect cell samples from an easily accessible source like skin or blood. The cells are then treated with a panel of genes that make them rewind their developmental clock to become pluripotent, allowing them to become nearly any tissue in the body. One key test of pluripotency is the ability of the cells to form a tumor called a teratoma, which is composed of many different cell types, after the cells are injected into animals. (IPS cells used in regenerative-medicine therapies are grown in the presence of other proteins to encourage them to specialize, or differentiate, into specific cell populations before being used clinically.)Telecommunications networking equipment, software, and services provider Ciena says it has developed 5G Network Solutions that will aid companies to scale their existing 4G networks and also prepare for the move towards 5G.

In a statement, the company said that compared to 4G LTE, 5G was expected to offer 100x faster speeds, 100x more devices, 10x lower latency, and 1000x higher data volumes.

These features would make possible the use of fixed wireless access, mobile broadband, augmented/virtual reality, IoT and other applications.

This, in turn, would generate traffic that needed to be stored, accessed, and shifted across the network.

New deterministic packet capability that will support 4G/5G converged fronthaul/midhaul networks offering digital radio transport over standards-based Ethernet;

New IP functionality that will provide the necessary connectivity features required for IP-based network infrastructures; and

Programmable Network Slicing capabilities that will allow network operators to logically partition and virtualise network resources from Layer 0 to Layer 3.

Ciena's solutions are made up of its converged packet optical (6500 and Waveserver) and packet networking (3900 family, 5100 family, 8700 Packetwave) platforms  as well as new products and capabilities, including:

Operators would also gain from Cienas Blue Planet Manage, Control and Plan and Multi-Domain Service Orchestration software that provides enhanced network orchestration, analytics, and end-to-end SDN-based network control.

Apart from this, Cienas Design, Deploy, and Manage Professional Services is claimed to help maximise network infrastructure investment throughout the entire evolution from 4G to 5G.

With expected 5G performance gains ranging from 1,000 times the volume of data to 10 times the reduction in latency, operators need to prepare their end-to-end wireline network now, said Steve Alexander, chief technology officer, Ciena.

"As the industry leader in coherent optical, edge packet platforms, automation, and multi-domain service orchestration, Ciena is uniquely positioned to support operators through every step of their multi-year journey to a common wireline infrastructure that supports 4G and beyond.

Ciena will demonstrate these solutions during the Mobile World Congress which is scheduled to be held in Barcelona from 26 February to 1 March.Germany-based open source provider SUSE Linux has expanded the relationship it has with Amazon Web Services to allow the latter to sell its enterprise server from the AWS Marketplace.

This means that AWS customers who are running SAP workloads on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications  a leading platform for SAP HANA and SAP S/4HANA  will receive support from AWS and SUSE.

A statement from SUSE said AWS customers could buy the SUSE Linux Enterprise solution on demand, paying for what they used.

It said this expanded collaboration allowed SUSE and AWS to meet growing customer demand for the benefits that came as a part of running business-critical applications on the cloud.

Tens of thousands of enterprises around the world, spanning major industries, count on SUSE for their mission-critical computing environments, including those running SAP workloads, said Naji Almahmoud, SUSE vice-president of Global Alliances.

Our commitment to those enterprise users is unwavering, and this expanded collaboration demonstrates how AWS and SUSE are continually finding ways to enhance the customer experience for business-critical applications on the cloud using SUSE Linux for SAP HANA and SAP S/4HANA.

"The marketplace can expect continued collaboration, which will enable us to meet and surpass customers demanding requirements for SAP workloads on AWS.

Bas Kamphuis, general manager, AWS, said, We are excited to extend our relationship with SUSE to offer SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications on AWS Marketplace. Our customers will receive Amazon Business support by default, providing a single point of contact.

"Further, the collaboration is designed to help customers deploy and scale SAP HANA workloads on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications more easily and at a more compelling price point.

AWS certified its platform for SAP applications in 2012 and since then customers have used SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to run SAP workloads on AWS.

In 2014, when AWS certified its instances for SAP HANA, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications was also made available on AWS.

Until now, customers have used SUSEs bring-your-own-subscription programme to deploy SAP workloads on AWS. With the expanded collaboration, they can use on-demand pricing and Reserved Instances to increase their SAP footprint on AWS.Removing administrator rights would mitigate 80% of the critical vulnerabilities found in Microsoft products in 2017, the security firm Avecto claims.

And this percentage rose to 95% when one considered only the browsers made by Microsoft, the company said in its annual evaluation of flaws in software made by the Redmond behemoth.

Despite claims being made about improved security in Windows 10, it was found that the number of flaws in this version rose by 64% in 2017. As with all other Microsoft products, removing admin rights would mitigate almost 80% of these flaws.

Avecto makes privilege management and application control software and has been issuing these evaluations since 2013. The figures are all taken from the security bulletins issued by Microsoft throughout the year.

Among the key findings in the latest report, was a rise of 111% in the number of reported vulnerabilities over the five-year period (2013 to 2017). Microsoft Office vulnerabilities rose by 89% over the same period.

Avecto found a 54% increase in the number of critical Microsoft vulnerabilities since 2016; that figure was 60% if one took the whole five-year period into account.

The browsers made by Microsoft showed an increase in vulnerabilities since 2013, with Avecto registering a rise of 46%.

Clarifying its findings, Avecto said: "Security vulnerability and update information issued by Microsoft contains a summary with general information regarding that vulnerability.

"For this report, a vulnerability is classed as one that could be mitigated by removing admin rights if the sentence 'Customers/users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights' or 'If the current user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker could take control of an affected system' is found within the summary of that specific vulnerability."

In its report, Avecto classifies vulnerabilities into categories: remote code execution, elevation of privilege, information disclosure, denial of service, security feature bypass, spoofing and tampering.

In 2017, there were 587 vulnerabilities found across Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows RT, Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10.

"This is a record high, coming in 232 vulnerabilities more than last year's report, and marking a 132% increase from five years ago," the report said.

There were 48 critical flaws found in Internet Explorer (versions 8 to 11) in 2017 and 45 of these could have been mitigated by the removal of admin rights.

As far as Edge was concerned, 140 critical vulnerabilities were found in 2017, a rise of 140% since the browser made its debut two years ago. All but six of these could have been mitigated by removing admin rights.

Microsoft Office vulnerabilities also continued to show a year-on-year rise, hitting a record high of 87 in 2017. Critical vulnerabilities had doubled compared to 2013, though the numbers were small  from 6 to 12.

Sixty percent of the vulnerabilities in all Office components (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio, Publisher and others) would have been mitigated by the removal of admin rights.

Windows Server had a total of 501 vulnerabilities in 2017 with Microsoft grading 176 of these as critical. Avecto said 74% could be mitigated by the removal of admin rights. Flaws doubled over the five years from 2013, when 252 were found, with the biggest rise being this year, a 65% increase over the 303 found in 2016.

Commenting on Avecto's findings, Jake Williams, the head of security firm Rendition Infosec, said: "Removing admin rights from your users is one of the most important things you can do to mitigate vulnerabilities. Some organisations believe that user account control will protect them, but attackers know of many methods to silently bypass UAC popups."

Williams, a former member of the NSA's elite Tailored Access Operations hacking unit, added: "Even Microsoft says that UAC is not a security control. By removing administrative rights from your users, you ensure that the attacker cannot take full control of a machine even if a vulnerability is exploited."

The Avecto report is available here as a free download after registration.Britain has formally blamed Russia for the NotPetya ransomware attack in June last year, with Foreign Office Minister Lord Ahmad saying the decision "underlines the fact that the UK and its allies will not tolerate malicious cyber activity".

A statement from the Foreign Office on Thursday said the attack, which took place on 27 June 2017, tried to disguise itself as the work of a criminal enterprise but was meant mainly to disrupt.

It claimed that the primary targets were Ukrainian financial, energy and government sectors, but the indiscriminate design of the malware caused it to spread further, affecting other European and Russian businesses.

Update: Overnight, the White House also laid the blame for NotPetya on Russia. "In June 2017, the Russian military launched the most destructive and costly cyber-attack in history," a statement said.

"The attack, dubbed 'NotPetya', quickly spread worldwide, causing billions of dollars in damage across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. It was part of the Kremlins ongoing effort to destabilise Ukraine and demonstrates ever more clearly Russias involvement in the ongoing conflict. This was also a reckless and indiscriminate cyber-attack that will be met with international consequences."

Original story continues: Among some more prominent victims of the ransomware, which came to be known variously as Petya (nomenclature given to ransomware that already existed at the time), NotPetya, ExPetr, Nyetya and GoldenEye, were the US pharmaceutical company Merck, Russia's state oil company Rosneft, the shipping conglomerate Maersk and the UK-based advertising and public relations firm WPP.

Also badly hit were the banking, electric and gas sectors in Ukraine, with the malware spreading to the UK, Denmark and Spain.

The notice that appeared on Windows computers that were hit by the NotPetya ransomware in June last year.

The Russian security firm Global-IB said at the time that in Ukraine, large banks and enterprises, namely, Oschadbank, Ukrgasbank, Pivdenny Bank, OTP Bank, TASKombank, The Epicenter chain store, Kovalska industrial and construction group, three major Ukrainian telecom operators, Kyivstar, LifeCell, Ukrtelecom, were among those affected.

Lord Ahmad said: "The UK Government judges that the Russian Government, specifically the Russian military, was responsible for the destructive NotPetya cyber-attack of June 2017.

"The attack showed a continued disregard for Ukrainian sovereignty. Its reckless release disrupted organisations across Europe costing hundreds of millions of pounds.

"The Kremlin has positioned Russia in direct opposition to the West, yet it doesnt have to be that way. We call upon Russia to be the responsible member of the international community it claims to be rather then secretly trying to undermine it.

"The UK is identifying, pursuing and responding to malicious cyber activity regardless of where it originates, imposing costs on those who would seek to do us harm. We are committed to strengthening coordinated international efforts to uphold a free, open, peaceful and secure cyber space."

In a statement, Russia said it "strongly rejected" the "groundless accusations" by the UK that it was behind the NotPetya attack.

"We strongly reject such accusations, we consider them to be groundless, they are part of the similarly groundless campaign based on hatred against Russia," Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Ransomware affects Microsoft Windows systems in the main. Mac ransomware is very rare.

Graphic: courtesy Kaspersky LabDigital Commons @ IWU Exceeds 3 Million Downloads

Oct. 18, 2017

An interactive graphic illustrates work in 368 disciplines available for download from the Digital Commons @ IWU.

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. Research conducted primarily by Illinois Wesleyan University undergraduate students has been downloaded more than 3 million times over the past decade  by scholars around the world  from the Digital Commons @ IWU (DC@IWU).

Reaching the 3-million download mark is a true testament to the quality of student work at Illinois Wesleyan University, and it clearly demonstrates the high standards our faculty have for our students' work, said IWU Scholarly Communications Librarian and Professor Stephanie Davis-Kahl.

Launched in January of 2008, the DC@IWU exceeded 3 million downloads in September. Its top-10 downloads of all time primarily consist of student honors research across diverse disciplines.

The variety of materials included in DC@IWU  including honors papers from all disciplines and majors, performances and artwork from our annual John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference, and peer-reviewed, open access undergraduate journals  speak to the opportunities students have at IWU to engage in independent research and establish themselves as scholars, artists, and performers, Davis-Kahl said.

The DC@IWU is a unique resource because of its focus on undergraduate work in all forms. Not only is DC@IWU a platform for sharing student work, but it is also utilized as a tool for teaching students about publishing, peer review and open access.

I'm especially proud that support for DC@IWU comes not only from The Ames Library, but also from the Mellon Center, the Office of the Provost, and the Office of the President, Davis-Kahl said. Our partnership sends a clear message that undergraduate research is valued at IWU.

Illinois Wesleyan faculty research and scholarship is also available for download via DC@IWU, including the WGLT Collection, which complements articles, book chapters and links to faculty publications by featuring interviews with IWU faculty on the local National Public Radio affiliate in partnership with Illinois State University.

The DC@IWU can be accessed at: digitalcommons.iwu.edu.

By John TworkAmes Library Additions Highlight Social Justice

Sculptors Jeffrey and Anna Koh Varilla pose with a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr., which they donated to The Ames Library.

Feb. 15, 2018

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.  Two new additions to The Ames Library collection were unveiled in a dedication Wednesday in conjunction with Black History Month.

Illinois Wesleyan University officials unveiled a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr., donated by renowned sculptors Jeffrey and Anna Koh Varilla, and a first edition of A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade , written in 1807 by British politician and abolitionist William Wilberforce, purchased at a generous discount from local non-for-profit organization Books to Benefit.

University Librarian Karen Schmidt expressed gratitude for both additions to The Ames Library. The Martin Luther King, Jr. bust is an exceptional rendering of Dr. King. We are very honored to share this with the IWU community, as it reflects Dr. Kings connection to IWU and celebrates his vision, she said. The Wilberforce first edition is a significant contribution to the librarys Tate Archives and Special Collections. It connects directly with our Universitys long-standing commitment to social justice, and will be an important centerpiece in our students research on historical struggles with slavery.

The Martin Luther King, Jr., bust will be permanently displayed in The Ames Library First Floor Rotunda. The sculptors, Jeffrey and Anna Koh Varilla, are a husband-and-wife team that has worked on public monuments for nearly 30 years. They are the parents of a current IWU student Adam Varilla 18.

Wednesdays dedication coincides with the anniversary of Kings first of two speeches on Illinois Wesleyans campus. Kings first speech, to 500 attendees of the Religious Emphasis Banquet, took place Feb. 14, 1961.

Our son will be graduating from Illinois Wesleyan this spring and weve been very grateful for the support and academic scholarships the University has provided him. We have been impressed with the progressive direction Illinois Wesleyan has displayed for many years, especially given the fact it welcomed Dr. Martin Luther King twice during the 1960s, Jeffrey Varilla said. As sculptors, we want to express our appreciation to Illinois Wesleyan in the best way we know how by donating a life-size portrait bust of Dr. King we created based on our over-life-size full figure Dr. King monument on the University of Texas campus in Austin. Thank you, Illinois Wesleyan, for accepting our gesture of appreciation.

Books to Benefit representatives (from left) Ginny Schmult, Dr. Mary Ryder and Jackie Langhoff, and IWU archivist Meg Miner pose with A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade.

A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade will be kept in Ames Tate Archives and Special Collections along with other prominent abolitionist texts, including a first-edition copy of Harriet Beecher Stowes Key to Uncle Toms Cabin .

The book was acquired from Books to Benefit, a Normal, Illinois-based non-for-profit that collects and resells books to support local literacy programs. Representing the organization Wednesday were Jackie Langhoff, Ginny Schmult and Dr. Mary Ryder.

Wilberforces book played an important part in influencing American history. Finding a local home at Ames Library ensures its preservation for future generations, said Langhoff, president of Books to Benefit. "We are passionate about literacy and preserving scholarly works like this one that have such significant historical content.

Opened in 2002, The Ames Library features five levels and 103,000 square feet of space. The library is named in honor of B. Charles Ames 50 and Joyce Eichhorn Ames 49. Special spaces within the building include the Bates & Merwin Reading Room, Beckman Auditorium, John Wesley Powell Rotunda, Thorpe Center, Tate Archives and Special Collections, along with stained glass windows from Pembroke College, Oxford.

The Ames Library is open to all students, alumni, faculty, staff, visiting scholars and retirees. For more information, visit The Ames Library online.

By Matt WingThe controversial leader of the terrorist Boko Haram group, Abubakar Shekau, has reportedly succeeded to escape as the Nigerian army on Tuesday cleared out a key base of the insurgent group at the Sambisa forest, the last known hideout of the insurgents, the army said in a statement.

Abubakar Shekau was last seen dressed as a woman in a black hijab, the Army said.

While concerted efforts are ongoing to track and apprehend the fugitive terrorist leader, the army implored members of the public, especially the residents of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States to be more vigilant, security conscious and be on the lookout of Abubakar Shekau and other terrorists that might disguise as women to escape.

According to the statement signed by Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu, the deputy Director of Public Relations of Theatre Command Operation LAFIYA DOLE, the army dislodged Boko Haram terrorists from one of their highly fortified hideouts at around S-Shape part of the Sambisa forest.

The troops have also rescued 46 captives held by the insurgents in its Operation Deep Punch aimed at clearing remnants of Boko Haram elements.

President Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday in Abuja said with the narrowing of the recruitment base of insurgents and the renewed onslaught on Boko Haram by the Nigerian Army, the days of the terror group were numbered.

Buhari, who made the remarks while receiving the letters of credentials from Apostolic Nuncio of the Holy See to Nigeria, said the terror group had lost host of its initial strongholds, which according to him, had forced it into a steady retreat.Mauritania and Senegal last week signed an intergovernmental cooperation agreement on the joint exploitation of the cross-border offshore gas field Turtle/Ahmeyin.

The Greater Turtle Complex, which straddles the maritime boundaries of the two countries, is estimated to harbor more than 25 trillion cubic feet of gas.

The inter-governmental cooperation accord, signed on the sidelines of Senegalese President Macky Salls visit to Nouakchott, was welcomed by British Petroleum (BP) and Kosmos Energy.

According to a statement released by BP, the agreement is a milestone for the gas project that reflects the strong partnership and cooperation between Mauritania and Senegal.

The agreement initialed in Nouakchott provides for the development of the gas field through cross-border equity with an initial allocation of 50% of resources and revenue for a fair future, the British firm said.

Kosmos Energy congratulated the governments of Senegal and Mauritania for working together to reach an agreement to develop their shared gas resources quickly and efficiently.

Like BP, the Houston-based Kosmos Energy expressed its determination to continue working with other partners to make a final investment decision (FID) on the project in 2018, with first gas expected to be exploited in 2021.

Kosmos Energy said the agreement provides for development of the gas field through cross-border unitization, with a 50-50 initial split of resources and revenues.Summerville, SC (29483)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms. High 86F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Cloudy. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable.A fiber manufacturing plant in Summerville is expected to have all equipment installations complete by the end of the month to prevent any morReddit Email 524 Shares

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

Revised

A lot of smoke is being generated to cover up the fact that the horrific Florida school shooting that has left at least 17 dead results from a virtual absence of meaningful gun controls in the US, such that a few gun manufacturers are allowed to make powerful military-style weapons available to the homocidally insane and to gangbangers etc. The Las Vegas shooter, whom the US press has buried long ago, was not an immigrant. And, Britain has a lot of immigrants, too, but it has almost no gun murders.

The US policy of constantly endangering our children is enacted by a bought-and-paid-for Congress on behalf of 10 major gun manufacturers with an $8 billion industry. Most Americans dont have or want a gun, and 50% of all guns in the US are owned by 3% of Americans, i.e. some 6 million people out of 320 million. That three percent would survive better security checks and a ban on assault weapons.

Last year, there were 1,516 mass shootings in 1,735 days in the United States. (This statistic covered just part of the year).

Youll note you dont hear about mass shootings in Australia, Japan or for the most part the United Kingdom, or other civilized countries whose politicians have not been bought by 10 major gun manufacturers.

The United States continues to be peculiar in handing out powerful magazine-fed firearms to almost anyone who wants one and not requiring background checks on private purchases even if these are made at gun shows or by persons with a history of mental illness. 80% of civilian-owned firearms world-wide are in the US, and only Yemen vaguely competes with us for rates of firearm ownership; Yemen is a violent mess with Shiite insurgencies, al-Qaeda taking over cities from time to time, tribal feuding, southern separatism and US drone strikes. And even it has fewer guns per person than the USA.

It has gotten to the point where the increasing epidemic of mass shootings now threatens law enforcement.

The US is downright weird compared to civilized Western Europe or Australia (which enacted gun control after a mass shooting in 1996 and there have been no further such incidents).

In 2015-16 (the twelve months beginning in March), there were 26 fatalities from gun-related crimes in England and Wales (equivalent to 130 because Great Britain 1/5 the size of the US).

Police in the UK fired their guns 7 times in 2015.

Number of Murders by Firearms, US, 2016: 11,004

Percentage of all Murders that were committed by firearms in 2016 in US: 73%

Suicides in US 2015: 44,193

Gun Suicides in US, 2015: ~22,000

Percentage of suicides where the method was guns in 2015: 49.8

Percentage of all murders in England and Wales that were committed by firearm: 4.5 percent.

Academic research shows that more guns equal more suicides.

Number of suicides in England and Wales, 2016: 5,668 (equivalent to about 28,330 in US or 36% lower)

Number of suicides by firearam in England and Wales, 2011: 84 (this is the most recent statistic I could find but the typical percentage is given as 1.6% of all suicides; that would be the equivalent of 707 suicides by firearm in the US instead of 22,000).

For more on murder by firearms in Britain, see the BBC.

The US has the highest gun ownership in the world and the highest murder rate in the developed world.

It seems pretty clear, as well, that many US suicides would not occur if firearms were not omnipresent.

There is some correlation between high rates of gun ownership and high rates of violent crime in general, globally (and also if you compare state by state inside the US):



h/t Christopher Majka

In the case of Britain, firearms murders are 53 times fewer than in the US per capita. [Dont bother with flawed citations of Switzerland or Israel, where most citizens are the equivalent of military reservists.]

Do hunters really need semi-automatic AR-15 assault weapons? Is that how they roll in deer season? The US public doesnt think so.

PS this is a revised version of an older column; if they keep refusing to legislate rationally and go on causing these massacres, I can keep writing a similar column.

-

Related video added by Juan Cole:

CBS: Sheriff: At least 17 dead in Florida school shooting

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Middle East Monitor |  

The record low rate of permits issued by Israel for Palestinians seeking vital medical treatment to travel outside the Gaza Strip underlines the urgent need for the Zionist state to end its decade-long closure of the enclave, a group of Palestinian and international rights groups have said in a joint statement. Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) confirmed that 54 Palestinians from Gaza died while they were waiting for Israeli travel permits. They added that a record level of delays by the Palestinian Authority in issuing required approvals last year, as well as Egypts continued closure of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza have further restricted movement and caused additional suffering to the Palestinian people.

According to the NGOs report, the Israeli authorities approved travel permits for medical reasons for only 54 per cent of those who applied in 2017, the lowest rate since the World Health Organisation (WHO) began collecting statistics in 2008. The WHO reported that 54 Palestinians, 46 of whom had cancer, died last year following the rejection or delays in their travel permit applications.

Were seeing Israel increasingly deny or delay access to potentially life-saving cancer and other treatment outside Gaza, with shockingly high numbers of Palestinian patients subsequently dying, explained Aimee Shalan, the CEO of MAP. Gazas healthcare system, meanwhile, having been subjected to half a century of occupation and a decade of blockade is increasingly unable to meet the needs of its population.

Read:16 medical centres cease work due to lack of electricity, fuel in Gaza

The NGOs insisted that Israel should lift the unlawful sweeping restrictions on the freedom of movement of people from Gaza, most critically those with significant health problems.

For the past two decades, and especially since 2007 when Israel imposed a land, air and sea blockade on Gaza, Israel has kept Gaza mostly closed, unlawfully depriving its population of basic rights. The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), among others, have declared this policy collective punishment and called for Israel to lift its closure. Israel controls all access to and from Gaza, with the exception of the Rafah Crossing via the Egyptian border, and all transport between Gaza and the occupied West Bank, as well as the border between the West Bank and Jordan. The Israeli authorities will not allow the Palestinians in Gaza to rebuild and open their airport  destroyed by Israel in 2001/2  or build a functional seaport, leaving Palestinians dependent on foreign ports for travel abroad.

Travel through the Erez Crossing, Gazas pedestrian route to Israel, the West Bank and the outside world, is limited to what the Israeli military calls exceptional humanitarian cases, meaning mainly those with significant health issues and their companions, as well as prominent business people. The gradual decline in Israels issue of medical permits, from 92 per cent approval of applications in 2012 to 88.7 per cent in 2013; 82.4 per cent in 2014, 77.5 per cent in 2015, 62.07 per cent in 2016 and 54 per cent in 2017 indicates that Israel has increasingly restricted travel even for exceptional humanitarian cases, said WHO. In 2017, travel via Erez accounted for less than 1 per cent of the travel recorded in September 2000.

Palestinians from Gaza missed at least 11,000 scheduled medical appointments in 2017 after the Israeli authorities denied or failed to respond in time to applications for permits. Research by Al Mezan, supported by MAP, into the cases of 20 Palestinians who died after missing hospital appointments due to denied or delayed travel permits found that 14 had cancer, nine of whom were women. PHRI has highlighted how women in Gaza with cancer have faced heightened obstacles to accessing medical care and consequently expended energy fighting bureaucracy rather than their illness.

#GazaHealthCrisis

The significant decline runs counter to the ever-increasing health needs in Gaza. The besieged territorys 2 million people endure what the UN labels a protracted humanitarian crisis. Amid widespread poverty and unemployment, at least 10 per cent of young children are stunted by chronic malnutrition; up to half of all medicines and medical disposables in Gaza are completely depleted or below one months supply; and chronic electricity shortages have caused officials to cut health and other essential services.

The three Israeli military offensives on Gaza since 2008 have also taken a heavy toll on essential infrastructure and further debilitated Gazas health system and economy. In light of the control Israel effectively exercises over the lives and welfare of the people of Gaza, the Zionist state continues to maintain ultimate responsibility for ensuring their well-being under the laws governing military occupation, as the ICRC and UN, among others, have recognised.

Its unconscionable that Israel prevented so many critically ill people from accessing care that might have saved their lives, said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. Israels continued control over movement into and out of Gaza creates obligations to facilitate  not thwart  humanitarian access.

Palestinians in Gaza require referral permits to access the more advanced health care in East Jerusalem and elsewhere in the West Bank, as well as in Israel. The health services most commonly requiring referral outside of Gaza are for oncology, paediatrics, cardiology and heart problems, and haematology. The Israeli authorities state that they can process priority permits in one day, although the typical waiting time averages two weeks, while regular cases require 23 days, and often fail to meet this timetable.

The WHO has deemed the ensuing process neither transparent nor timely, and the UN coordinator for humanitarian aid and development activities in the occupied Palestinian territory has stated that a minefield of interviews, paperwork, opaque procedures and logistical hurdles stand between a cancer patient and his or her urgent treatment.

The Palestinian Authoritys financial approval of referrals for those in need of essential medical treatment in Gaza also fell in 2017, with at least one subsequent death reported. While the PA approved about 2,000 applications in each of the first three months, this fell to under 500 in June, before increasing to more than 2,000 later in the year amid efforts at Fatah-Hamas reconciliation, according to the WHO. Additionally, the PAs reduction of essential services to the Gaza Strip between July and December 2017  including electricity and medical supplies  also undermined Palestinians right to health.

Egypt has kept the Rafah Crossing mostly closed for the population in Gaza since 2013, which contributed to restricting access to health care. Before July 2013, more than 4,000 Palestinians travelled monthly via Rafah for health-related purposes. As a state bordering a territory with a protracted humanitarian crisis, Egypt should facilitate humanitarian access for the population. Nevertheless, ultimate responsibility remains with Israel, the occupying power.

The Israeli governments restrictions on movement are directly connected to patient deaths and compounded suffering as ill patients seek permits, Issam Younis, Director of Al Mezan, pointed out. These practices form part of the closure and permit regime that prevents patients from a life of dignity, and violates the right to life. The closure system must be abolished so that patients have safe access to healthcare in Palestinian hospitals in the occupied Palestinian territories and elsewhere, he added. The victims and their families must have their right to justice and redress upheld.

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:

RT America: Israels blockage of Gaza continues to have dire consequences for PalestiniansVANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Tajiri Resources Corp. (the "Company") (TSXVENTURE:TAJ) is pleased to announce that, subject to TSX Venture approval, it has entered into an Agreement with Australian-listed Middle Island Resources Limited (or MDI), that will see it acquire, through option, an 100% interest in the advanced Reo Gold Project, located in Burkina Faso, West Africa. The Reo Project is of regional scale, covering 1,002km2 at the confluence of the prolific Hounde and Boromo greenstone belts which are hosts to several substantial gold deposits of including: Karma 3.8Moz, Bissa 6.6Moz, Hounde 4.9Moz and Mana 8.6 Moz (reported inclusive of all P&P reserves and all M,I&I Resources)1

The Reo Project, which has had approximately USD$8 million spent on exploration since the mid 2000s, contains two advanced prospects: The Morley Prospect - where shallow Reverse Circulation (RC) and Aircore drill intercepts include: KRAC011-aircore: 34m @16.48g/t, KRAC128-aircore: 39m @2.62g/t, KR020-RC: 38m @2.33g/t, KRC022-RC: 10m @7.55g/t, MRRC0005-RC: 10m @9.63g/t, and the K4-K5 Prospect - where RAB, aircore, RC and diamond drill intercepts include MRRB0076-RAB: 44m @1.48g/t, including 12m @ 4.11g/t, MRRB009-RAB: 8m @ 8.20g/t, MRRB1611-RAB: 8m @ 4.68g/t, MRRB0062- RAB: 12m @4.99g/t, NAC037-aircore:- 18m @2.5g/t, NAC027-aircore: 18m @ 2.51g/t, MRRC0081-RC: 16m @ 1.95g/t, and 13m @ 2.19g/t, MRRC0091-RC: 10m @ 3.47g/t, MRRC0047-RC: 13m @2.33g/t, MRDD001-diamond: 3m @ 11.5g/t including 1m @ 23.2g/t and MRDD003-diamond: 2m @ 16.8g/t including 1m @ 31.9g/t. These mineralised intercepts and all others reported in this press release including those shown in figures are reported as down hole intervals not true widths, which are yet to be determined.

Summary commercial terms involve aggregate cash payments to MDI of USD$335,000 and issuance of 5 million Tajiri shares over a period of 21 months. The agreement also includes a 2% net smelter return royalty in favour of MDI, which may be purchased by Tajiri for USD$5 million.

Tajiri considers the exploration upside at the project to be of the highest order, with immediate well-defined drill targets at the K4- K5 Prospect to be followed on from past drilling, combined with a large regional land package that hosts the smaller drilled Morley Prospect and several remaining auger geochemical targets yet to be tested by drilling.

Information contained in this press release relies on information provided by Middle Island, other public and unpublished documents which include technical reports from previous explorers and Middle Island. including all figures which were prepared by Middle Island. Tajiri has used reasonable efforts to review the technical information but until it conducts further due diligence, as envisaged by the Heads of Agreement, including site visits and independent data verification it relies on information supplied by Middle Island. However, it is Tajiri's opinion that historical exploration and assay procedures were executed to a high standard consistent with industry best practices in effect at the time and that these practices conform to acceptable standards for further use, albeit subject to inherent risks.

Details of the Agreement

The reader is referred to the release made by Middle Island on 11/2/2018 which is attached to this news release.

The terms of the agreement are as follows:

Pay MDI USD$35,000 to secure a 3 month period of due diligence. Pay MDI USD$150,000 and issue 2.5 Million shares at any time during the due diligence period to enter into the option representing 4.139 % of the listed shares of Tajiri on a fully diluted basis. Pay to MDI USD$50,000 within 12 months of entering into the option, if the option has not been exercised. Pay MDI USD$100,000 and issue MDI 2.5 Million* shares of Tajiri within 18 months if the payment made under 2) above to exercise the option and acquire 100% of the Project. Maintain the REO project licences in good standing during the Option Period and meet mandated exploration expenditures. MDI will retain a 2% NSR on any future production and Tajiri may acquire the NSR at any time after the exercise of the option for USD$5 million.

*The stipulated number of shares to be issued to Middle Island in each Tranche are calculated on a fully diluted basis, based on Tajiris current capital structure. The number of shares to be issued to Middle Island at the time a tranche is issued shall be fixed at, and adjusted accordingly to, 4.139% of the fully diluted equity of Tajiri. All shares issued to MDI will be subject to any mandatory minimum TSX-V restriction periods.

Reo Project highlights:

Large regional 1,002km 2 gold project of 6 contiguous tenements located astride 50km strike of highly prospective West African greenstone belt geology (Figure 1). Two tenements are granted and four are subject to extension applications. Importantly the tenement overlying the K4-K5 prospect is in good standing and the second granted tenement, Nebya in the south west of the project is granted but has not yet been transferred to MDI from the original vendor.



gold project of 6 contiguous tenements located astride 50km strike of highly prospective West African greenstone belt geology (Figure 1). Two tenements are granted and four are subject to extension applications. Importantly the tenement overlying the K4-K5 prospect is in good standing and the second granted tenement, Nebya in the south west of the project is granted but has not yet been transferred to MDI from the original vendor. Project located 150km west-northwest of the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, has good infrastructure - bitumen road from the capital, process water (15km from the Black Volta), grid power to the centre of the project and a rail line at Koudougou (35km).



Burkina Faso is favourable to mining with a sound Mining Act in West Africa and a competitive fiscal regime. The 2016 Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies ranks Burkina Faso as third most attractive mining jurisdiction in West Africa in both its Policy Perception Index survey and Investment Attractiveness Index and fourth in all of Africa



USD$8 million prudently expended since mid-2000s by both Newmont Mining's subsidiary Newmont Ventures and Middle Island, with past work including 70,666m of geochemical auger drilling in 9,543 holes, 67,148m of RAB drilling in 1,918 holes, 22,150m of aircore drilling in 439 holes, 12,791m of RC drilling in 146 holes and 1,649m of diamond drilling in 11 holes. In addition, a high resolution 100m line spaced airborne magnetic and radiometric survey covers the entire Project along with 128km 2 coverage by ground magnetic surveys 8km 2 of IP/Resistivity surveys.



coverage by ground magnetic surveys 8km of IP/Resistivity surveys. The Project hosts numerous untested auger geochemical targets and the smaller, drilled Morley Prospect (see Figure 2).



The Project hosts the substantial and advanced K4-K5 prospect where a gold in auger anomaly with a strike of 4.5km and width of 3km has returned robust grade drill intersections from multiple targets (further detailed below).



Excellent local community relations have been established by MDI. Since it began work at Reo MDI has sponsored a water supply project that now supplies potable water to some 1,000 residents and a market gardening project.

Figure 1: Project location and Simplified Geology - NB the most NE tenement, Bissou, has been relinquished by MDI and no longer forms part of the Project

Geological Summary

The geology of the Project is dominantly covered by transposed to transported ferruginous laterites, interspersed with minor outcrops of granite and granitic gneiss. Outcrop over the volcanic and meta-sedimentary units is extremely limited. Thus, regional geological information on the Project largely relies on interpretation of a high resolution (100m line spacing) aeromagnetic and radiometric survey conducted by Middle Island in 2011.

The project area is interpreted to comprise volcanic, sedimentary and felsic intrusive rocks of the Boromo and Hounde greenstone belts that come close to intersecting, and are in thrust contact with the major central Burkina granitoid massif to the east.

Known gold mineralisation styles are largely hosted within greenstone belts and at granitoid contacts, and are of orogenic style (quartz vein and shear zone related).

Regional Exploration

In addition to several phases of stream sediment, lag and soil geochemistry, the Project was subject to extensive auger drilling by MDI between 2011-2012. This work was completed on grids ranging from 1,600 x 200m, down to a 400 x 100m pattern, which defined four main prospects- K4-K5, Morley (formerly Didyr), Dassa and East Prospect. Of these, the most significant prospects are K4-K5 and Morley, which were both identified and subject to scout drilling by Newmont.

Follow-up RAB/Aircore drilling on mostly 400m spaced lines (25m -100m spaced holes) at the other auger geochemical targets (Dassa and East targets) produced limited intersections above 1g/t Au. A series of Auger geochemical anomalies stretching SW from the Dassa target have not yet been tested by any form of drilling (see Figure 3).

The Morley Prospect

The Morley prospect was a blind discovery by Newmont identified via drainage sampling and subsequent lag and soil geochemistry. This was followed with an initial 120 hole aircore drilling program, producing an exceptional intercept of 34m at 16.48g/t Au from 3m depth (KRAC011) and follow up drilling (83 holes) produced 39m @ 2.62g/t Au from 5m (KRAC 128), drilled in alternate directions toward the NW and SE. Better intercepts were derived from holes oriented toward 345 degrees. 2

Newmont then drilled six diamond core holes behind significant aircore intercepts (-55 to -65 towards 345). These holes were generally disappointing and did not intercept targeted mineralisation. Subsequently Newmont completed trenching, RAB (66 holes) and a final RC program (37 holes). Selected significant intercepts from RC included 38m @ 2.33g/t Au from 3m depth (KRC020), 10m @ 7.55g/t Au from 16m (KRC022) and 10m @ 2.32g/t Au from 78m (KRC029bis) (reported as down hole intercepts not true widths).3

Figure 3: Regional auger gold geochemistry (Au ppb) over aeromagnetic geophysics. NB Bissou tenement has been relinquished. Major geochemical targets include K4/K5 (labelled Dassa Sud), Morley, a cluster of higher geochemical results NE of the Dassa label, Dassa the anomalous geochemistry stretching for 10km to the southwest of the Dassa label which has not been subject to any further exploration, and East target (cluster of higher geochemical results located to the east of the label Pouni 2).

MDI completed 12 trenches for 550 metres and 58 RC holes for 4,931m at the Morley Prospect. All holes were drilled at -60 toward grid 180. Mineralisation intercepted in Newmont drilling was interpreted to dip at approximately 50 to the north, with a shallow plunge to the east. MDI drilling was planned to test down dip and along strike extents of known mineralisation. Drilling intercepted numerous robust intercepts (Table 1), notably 2m at 18g/t Au including 1m at 32.5g/t Au (MRRC001), 10m at 9.63g/t Au including 1m at 43g/t Au (MRRC0005), 6m at 2.47g/t Au (MRRC0006), 5m at 4.72g/t Au including 1m at 10.1g/t Au (MRRC0016) and 1m at 75.5g/t Au (MRRC0040)4

Host rocks at the Morley Prospect are granodiorite with rafts of mafic rocks. MDI RC Drilling confirmed the interpretation of stacked, east-west trending and moderately north dipping lodes, and delineated two lodes at Morley approximately 100 metres apart.

Exploration at the Morley Prospect has traced the mineralised structure over 1,000m in an east-west direction. However, it appears that mineralisation at the peripheries is relatively thin and low grade and that thicker higher grade zones are confined to a 200-300m zone straddling the granodiorite contact. Exploration results for the central part of the of the Morley Prospect are shown in Figure 4 below.

It is recognised that Morley represents a smaller, albeit high grade, potential satellite deposit to a more a substantial resource if identified elsewhere on the property, and that further work will be readily justified if this proves the case.

Figure 4: Showing summary Trench and RC drilling results over the central part of the Morley Prospect. (5)

The K4-K5 Prospect

The K4-5 Prospect, located in the southeast of the tenement package, is the most significant Prospect located at the Reo project. Although no geology is exposed, as the area is veneered by transported laterite, an extensive auger geochemical anomaly of 4.5km strike and 3.5km width has been defined, with numerous values exceeding 100ppb and a peak value of 1,577ppb.

A large artisanal mining pit (c.500m x 250m) exists in the central part of the prospect, where up to 5,000 miners have worked palaeo-alluvial material at the interface between laterite and saprolite.

The K4-K5 Prospect was initially defined by soil sampling by Newmont and later Auger geochemical sampling by Middle Island, and since has been variously assessed by rotary air blast (RAB), aircore, reverse circulation (RC) and limited diamond core drilling.

The geology comprises a package of meta-sediments and felsic volcanics irregularly on-lapping a shallowly south-plunging granodiorite. Mineralisation is interpreted to be associated with the Madi Shear and hosted in all lithologies, but is structurally controlled, with quartz veining and strong shearing developed around the brittle ductile contacts between the granodiorite and volcano-sedimentary rocks. Alteration observed is outwardly zoned, variously dominated by silica/pyrite, sericite and chlorite assemblages, with more distal carbonate alteration.

K4-K5 Exploration Summary

After conducting both lag and soil geochemical sampling, Newmont completed ground geophysics at the prospect and drilled several aircore fences on a 400m line spacing and a 50m to 100m hole spacing, completing 193 holes for 10,319m. The best intercept for the program was NAC027 at the K5 Prospect, which returned 18m at 2.5g/t Au, however numerous other broad lower grade intercepts were returned.6

After defining the K4-K5 anomaly by auger geochemistry, Middle Island conducted several phases of RAB, RC and diamond drilling, completing 825 holes for 34,953m of RAB drilling, 26 holes for 2,627m of RC drilling and 5 diamond drill holes for 724m.

Shallow RAB drilling (sampled as 4m composites), performed predominantly on 400m spaced lines to better investigate anomalous auger geochemistry, succeeded in defining a broad, 2.5km long, open ended zone of continuous gold mineralisation lying along the southeast margin of the K4/K5 geochemical anomaly, coincident with the Madi Shear.

Better 4m RAB composite sample intercepts included 13m at 2.47g/t Au. 44m at 1.48g/t (including 12m at 4.11g/t), 16m at 1.95g/t, 13m at 2.19g/t and 10m at 3.47g/t Au., 12m at 4.99g/t (including 4m at 14.0g/t) and 8m at 8.20g/t (including 4m at 16.2g/t Au). 36m at 1.25g/t, 16m at 2.66g/t (incl. 12m at 3.23g/t), 20m at 1.65g/t (incl. 8m at 3.17), 8m at 4.68g/t (incl. 4m at 8.21g/t), 8m at 1.70g/t, 4m at 3.54g/t, 4m at 2.25g/t, 6m at 1.24g/t, 18m at 2.51g/t, 44m at 1.48g/t (incl. 12m at 4.11g/t), 12m at 4.99g/t (incl. 4m at 14.0g/t) and 8m at 8.20g/t (incl. 4m at 16.2g/t), 8m at 2.25g/t, 20m at 1.73g/t, 4m at 8.54g/t, 18m at 1.59g/t and 4m at 12.2g/t Au (see Table 2).7

RAB drilling was followed up by a 5-hole program of diamond drilling with holes designed to assess the geological and structural framework, alteration and host rock lithologies. As such holes were planned at four distinct mineralised areas across the prospect. Significant results were 2m at 16.8g/t Au from 160m depth including 1m @31.9g/t and 3m @11.5g/t from 48m depth including 1m @23.2g/t (see Table 4).8

RC drilling was largely completed after the completion of RAB and Diamond drilling and RC drilling was planned to in to confirm RAB intercepts and test down dip extensions. Significant intercepts include; 13m at 2.47g/t Au., 16m at 1.95g/t, 13m at 2.19g/t and 10m at 3.47g/t Au. (See Table 3).9

Drill results and geology are summarised visually in Figure 5.

Based on the presence of strong silica-pyrite alteration encountered in drilling, an IP survey was conducted comprising 58 line kilometres of gradient array and 4km of pole-dipole IP. The survey defined the major structural controls along the Madi Shear and identified a new parallel trend to the southeast, which remains untested by drilling.

Middle Island also conducted initial bottle roll cyanidation metallurgical test work on 17 individual samples derived from diamond core which strongly suggests that mineralisation tested to date is amenable to conventional CIP/CIL extraction. The metallurgical samples tested various oxidation states, rock types, gold grades and alteration styles. Samples were prepared at a nominal grind-size of 80% passing 75 microns and subjected to 72 hour bottle roll tests, with cyanide solution readings taken at 12, 24, 36, 48 and 72 hour intervals. Final solution readings (72 hours) against calculated head grades generated average indicative recoveries of 93%, 97% and 95% from oxide, transitional and primary mineralisation types respectively.

K4-K5 Exploration Potential

Tajiri believes that the K4-K5 prospect presents excellent exploration potential evidenced by the combination of processed IP results with historic drilling as presented in Figure 6. This shows that the inference pattern between resistivity and chargeability, believed to be consistent with zones of silica-pyrite alteration, is often associated with the better drill intersections and that these zones to date have only been tested by wide spaced drilling.

Evident, upon a close inspection of Figure 6, is that the majority of significant drill intersections are spatially associated with the resistive-chargeable zones. Further that drill line spacing has resulted in seven resistive-chargeable zones of between 400-700m being tested by only one or two lines of drilling and where those zones have been tested, significant drill intercepts have mostly been returned. There is therefore a large strike of each resistive-chargeable zone as yet untested by drilling. Furthermore, the largest resistive-chargeable zones, located to the south of drilling and east of UTM 533,500 remain completely untested by drilling.

It is Tajiri's opinion that the K4-K5 project offers substantial potential to move quickly from drill testing both the along strike potential of historic drill intersections, guided by IP, and drill testing the undrilled largest resistive-chargeable zones into a resource definition drill program.

Figure 5: K4-K5 Prospect summary drill results over geology. RAB intersections - grey and white call outs, RC intersections - yellow call outs.(10)

Figure 6: Which shows the inference pattern between resistivity and chargeability believed to be consistent with zones of silica-pyrite alteration and significant drilling results. Auger geochemistry lines thin N-S ticked lines, RAB results in grey text boxes, diamond drill results in white text boxes, RC results in yellow text boxes, interpreted shear zones (predominantly NE-SW trending - thick black lines) and resistive-chargeable zones in red. All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths

Of Particular Significance:

1) The largest resistive-chargeable zones of the Prospect in the south and east of 533,500 are untested by drilling.

2) The majority of significant drill intersections are associated with resistive-chargeable zones.

3) Most of the drilled resistive-chargeable zones that have returned significant intersections are untested by drilling for 200-400m of strike.

Tajiri President Mr. Graham Keevil stated:

"Tajiri looks forward to beginning Project due diligence as early as possible and conducting in country reviews in early March. We look forward to working closely with Middle Island during the due diligence period in order to complete the transaction and subsequently continue building on the excellent work that Middle Island have completed to date."

"The board of Tajiri believes that the Reo Project offers compelling upside, at an attractive entry price, and gives shareholders exposure to an advanced gold project, located in an excellent mining jurisdiction that with minimal work can become subject of a resource definition drilling program. The agreement also further validates the Companys growing portfolio of Guyana based Gold Projects and the potential value they represent."

John Higgins, a Member of the AusIMM is an independent consulting geologist and has practiced for 14 years. He is a qualified person with respect to the technical information contained within this press release as define by NI43-101 and has reviewed and approved this press release.

On Behalf of Tajiri Resource Corp,

John Higgins, MAusIMM #202299

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on assumptions and judgments of management regarding future events or results. Such statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to revise or update such statements.



Neither Tajiri, nor the author of this report, is qualified to provide extensive comment on any legal issues associated with the tenure of the Reo Project. Assessment and reporting of these aspects relies on information provided by Middle Island and has not been independently verified by Tajiri or Mr. Higgins.



No warranty or guarantee, be it express or implied, is made by Tajiri or Mr. Higgins with respect to the completeness or accuracy of the legal aspects of the tenure of the Reo Project. Neither Tajiri, nor Mr. Higgins accepts any responsibility or liability in any way whatsoever to any person or entity in respect of these parts of this document, or any errors in, or omissions from it, whether arising from negligence or any other basis in law whatsoever.

Contact Information:

Tajiri Resources Corp.

Graham Keevil

President, CEO

604-642-0115 or Toll Free 866-345-0115

604-642-0116 (FAX)

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Tables of Results Table 1: Morley Prospect -Selected MDI Significant RC drill intercepts





Hole



Prospect



East (m)



North (m) RL

(m) Total

Depth (m) From

(m) To

(m) Width

(m)



Au (g/t) MRRC0001 Morley 540,261 1,388,183 299 84 17 19 2 18.0 including 17 18 1 32.5 26 27 4 2.85 MRRC0002 Morley 540,240 1,388,220 301 86 31 32 1 3.54* 36 37 1 21.9 44 45 1 3.35 69 71 2 2.11 MRRC0003 Morley 540,263 1,388,219 299 72 39 45 6 2.37 including 40 41 1 4.66* and 44 45 1 3.26* MRRC0004 Morley 540,430 1,388,195 313 102 96 97 1 3.74 MRRC0005 Morley 540,440 1,388,155 299 84 33 34 1 2.05 74 84 10 9.63 including 74 75 1 43.0 and 82 83 1 13.5 MRRC0006 Morley 540,400 1,388,200 305 106 90 96 6 2.47 including 93 94 1 8.78* MRRC0008 Morley 540,200 1,388,185 300 84 29 30 1 2.00 46 47 1 7.41 MRRC0009 Morley 540,202 1,388,230 298 114 70 71 1 2.90 MRRC0010 Morley 540,396 1,388,236 307 126 101 102 1 2.49 MRRC0015 Morley 540,498 1,388,246 298 84 24 25 1 2.30 MRRC0016 Morley 540,400 1,388,160 303 88 60 65 5 4.72 including 60 61 1 10.1 MRRC0027 M -Satellite 3 539,155 1,387,125 293 90 32 33 1 3.01 MRRC0028 M -Satellite 4 539,200 1,387,100 295 84 23 24 1 2.87 MRRC0033 Morley 540,160 1,388,200 294 90 34 36 2 3.08 MRRC0036 Morley 540,256 1,388,257 304 132 78 80 2 5.9 MRRC0040 Morley 540,400 1,388,120 306 82 33 34 1 75.5 37 38 1 7.13 45 50 5 2.15 MRRC0043 Morley 540,436 1,388,236 314 54 33 35 2 2.51 MRRC0062 Morley 540,360 1,388,170 302 84 77 78 1 5.44 MRRC0067 Morley 540,380 1,388,170 300 80 29 30 1 5.32

NB: All holes drilled to grid 180o and inclined at -60o

Initial significant intercepts calculated at a 1 g/t cutoff including 2m of internal waste

* Denotes calculated using 3g/t cutoff and no internal waste.

 Denotes calculated at a 10g/t cutoff and no internal waste.

Table 2: K4-K5 Prospect Selected significant MDI RAB intercepts Hole Prospect East North RL Dip Azi From To Width

(m) Au g/t MRRB0009 K5 532,470 1,371,406 282 -50 360 0 8 8 8.20 including 4 8 4 16.2 MRRB0030 K5 532,630 1,371,235 289 -50 360 4 40 36 0.87 including 12 16 4 2.83 and 28 32 4 1.78 MRRB0037 K5 532,706 1,371,311 288 -50 360 56 60 4 0.98 MRRB0044 K5 532,790 1,371,352 291 -50 360 32 36 4 1.88 MRRB0049 K5 532,787 1,371,144 289 -50 360 48 52 4 1.59 MRRB0062 K5 532,946 1,371,054 297 -50 360 28 40 12 4.99 including 28 32 4 14.0 MRRB0076 K5 532,470 1,370,948 288 -50 360 4 48 44 1.48 including 4 16 12 4.11 MRRB0256 K5 532,638 1,371,305 282 -50 180 40 44 4 5.83 MRRB0256 and 52 56 4 1.1 MRRB0268 K5 532,652 1,370,776 296 -50 360 12 16 4 1.07 MRRB0268 and 20 24 4 1.12 MRRB0277 K5 531,816 1,370,118 290 -50 360 52 56 4 1.63 MRRB0278 K5 531,815 1,370,158 309 -50 360 16 20 4 1.68 MRRB0281 K5 531,812 1,369,869 299 -50 360 20 24 4 8.54 MRRB0287 K5 531,529 1,370,281 285 -50 360 0 4 4 1.6 MRRB0290 K5 531,531 1,370,378 279 -50 360 36 44 8 1.135 MRRB0389 K5 532,047 1,372,817 288 -50 360 76 80 4 3.16 MRRB0390 K5 532,044 1,372,875 289 -50 360 24 28 4 1.26 MRRB0412 K4 531,701 1,372,669 276 -50 360 20 24 4 12.2 MRRB0423 K4 533,303 1,372,097 277 -50 360 12 16 4 3.92 MRRB0427 K4 533,306 1,372,196 272 -50 360 48 56 8 2.745 MRRB0427 and 360 64 66 2 1.14 MRRB0428 K4 533,305 1,372,237 275 -50 360 16 20 4 1.29 MRRB0515 K5 533,378 1,371,292 296 -50 360 28 32 4 1.16 MRRB0535 K5 532,012 1,370,563 296 -50 360 32 36 4 1.44 MRRB0575 K4 531,406 1,371,465 263 -50 360 0 4 4 1.57 MRRB0585 K5 530,059 1,370,590 287 -50 360 16 20 4 3.4 MRRB0610 K4 532,709 1,372,128 274 -50 360 20 24 4 2.38 MRRB0671 K5 533,566 1,374,915 275 -50 360 8 12 4 1.38 MRRB1551 K4 532,014 1,370,673 292 -50 360 52 54 2 2.82 MRRB1588 K4 531,296 1,370,132 292 -50 360 12 20 8 1.475 MRRB1588 K4 531,296 1,370,132 292 -50 360 24 28 4 1.65 MRRB1588 and 360 36 48 12 1.69 MRRB1591 K4 532,304 1,370,315 298 -50 360 12 16 4 1.19 MRRB1595 K4 532,302 1,370,456 300 -50 360 44 48 4 1.66 MRRB1596 K4 532,303 1,370,491 301 -50 360 20 28 8 1.7 MRRB1607 K4 532,663 1,370,998 286 -50 360 12 16 4 1.5 MRRB1608 K4 532,664 1371,016 283 -50 360 4 16 12 3.23 MRRB1611 K4 532,667 1,371,063 282 -50 360 20 26 6 1.24 MRRB1624 K5 531,702 1,372,742 286 -50 360 60 68 8 3.16 MRRB1625 K5 531,702 1,372,794 291 -50 360 68 76 8 4.68 MRRB1649 K5 532,042 1,373,237 280 -50 360 16 24 8 1.06 MRRB1663 K4 532,970 1,370,877 293 -50 360 44 48 4 3.54 MRRB1664 K4 532,972 1,370,908 271 -50 360 4 8 4 2.25 Calculated using Micromine, 1ppm trigger

Table 3: K4-K5 Prospect Selected significant MDI RC intercepts



Hole



Prospect



East (m)



North (m) RL

(m) Total Depth

(m) From

(m)



To (m) Width

(m) Grade

(g/t) MRRC0073 K5 532,039 1,373,219 284 80 36 42 6 2.73 53 55 2 1.19 MRRC0074 K5 532,040 1,373,182 284 120 73 77 4 1.65 88 89 1 2.66 MRRC0076 K5 531,692 1,372,710 287 120 64 68 4 2.82 including 64 66 2 4.6 100 102 2 8.04 MRRC0077 K5 531,701 1,372,770 287 123 46 50 4 3.20 79 80 1 2.23 97 98 1 1.06 109 112 3 4.52 including 110 112 2 5.68 MRRC0081 K4 532,661 1,371,008 290 102 7 23 16 1.95 54 60 6 2.27 including 55 56 1 5.3 80 81 1 1.03 85 98 13 2.19 including 86 87 1 9.31 MRRC0082 K4 532,664 1,370,973 290 102 94 96 2 1.59 MRRC0083 K4 532,646 1,370,767 297 23 19 20 1 9.41 MRRC0084 K4 532,653 1,370,732 298 86 19 20 1 4.19 27 28 1 2.33 59 60 1 2.50 MRRC0085 K4 532,474 1,370,943 289 123 5 11 6 2.23 including 7 8 1 5.96 33 34 1 1.00 46 50 4 1.11 53 54 1 1.54 61 64 3 3.48 including 62 63 1 7.64 MRRC0087 K4 532,009 1,370,538 296 94 69 70 1 1.50 76 77 1 2.95 MRRC0089 K4 532,302 1,370,406 301 141 22 23 1 2.14 36 37 1 2.16 104 105 1 2.26 131 132 1 1.10 MRRC0090 K4 532,474 1,370,901 290 124 56 57 1 1.24 MRRC0091 K4 531,815 1,370,144 297 100 20 23 3 1.70 MRRC0091 25 35 10 3.47 including 25 28 3 7.70 38 39 1 1.57 43 44 1 1.20 MRRC0092 K4 531,815 1,370,016 299 123 63 64 1 1.41 70 71 1 1.21 MRRC0093 K4 531,525 1,370,010 296 116 62 63 1 1.05 82 83 1 1.42 94 95 1 1.35

Table 3: K4-K5 Prospect Selected significant MDI RC intercepts (continued)



Hole



Prospect



East (m)



North (m) RL

(m) Total Depth

(m) From

(m)



To (m) Width

(m) Grade

(g/t) MRRC0094 K4 531,524 1,370,054 296 90 27 31 4 1.47 including 30 31 1 3.53 39 40 1 1.17 69 71 2 2.29 89 90 1 1.66 MRRC0095 K4 531,308 1,369,943 295 121 51 52 1 2.56 MRRC0097 K4 532,658 1,371,051 290 93 13 17 4 2.62



including 15 17 2 4.32 19 24 5 1.82 Including 19 20 1 4.80 28 30 2 1.25 32 33 1 1.12 34 35 1 1.29 38 39 1 1.38 MRRC0098 K4 532,634 1,370,764 296 69 18 19 1 1.23 30 36 6 1.87

Notes: Significant intersections calculated at a 1g/t cut-off, including 2m of internal waste.

Included intervals calculated using 3 g/t cut-off and no waste.

Table 4: K4-K5 Prospect - Significant MDI Diamond Drilling Intercepts



Hole_ID



Prospect



East (m)



North (m)



RL (m)



Dip (o) Azimuth

(o) From

(m) To

(m) Width

(m) Grade

(g/t) MRDD0001 K4-5 532635 1371340 277 -60 180 18 19 1 2.16 MRDD0001 K4-6 26 28 2 1.54 MRDD0001 K4-7 33 34 1 1.49 MRDD0001 K4-8 48 51 3 11.5 including 48 49 1 23.2 MRDD0001 K4-5 58 59 1 1.1 MRDD0002 K4-5 531815 1370069 299 -50 360 43 47 4 1.13 MRDD0002 K4-5 67 68 1 1.28 MRDD0002 K4-5 126 127 1 6.14 MRDD0003 K4-5 532469 1370858 288 -60 360 55 56 1 3.37 MRDD0003 K4-5 66 67 1 5.41 MRDD0003 K4-5 149 150 1 3.03 MRDD0003 K4-5 160 162 2 16.8 including 161 162 1 31.9 MRDD0004 K4-5 532630 1371172 282 -60 360 41 43 2 1.05 MRDD0005 K4-5 533306 1372160 281 -60 360 148 149 1 1.42

Notes: Calculated using Micromine software at a 1g/t Au cut -off, with included intervals calculated at a 5g/t Au cut-off.

Middle Island Resources Ltd ACN 142 361 608 ASX code: MDI www.middleisland.com.au

ASX Release  13 February 2018

Heads of Agreement executed for option over Reo gold project in Burkina Faso, West Africa

 Middle Island today executed a Heads of Agreement with Tajiri Resources Corp. (TSX-V:TAJ, Tajiri) for Tajiri to be granted an option to acquire a 100% interest in the Reo gold project in Burkina Faso, West Africa.

 Summary commercial terms involve aggregate cash payments to Middle Island of US$335,000 and the issue of 5 million shares, representing 8% of Tajiris then post-issue expanded capital, plus a 2% net smelter return (NSR) royalty, which can be purchased by Tajiri for US$5 million.

 Via the equity and royalty components, the transaction structure allows Middle Island to retain a significant indirect interest in the upside potential of the Reo project. The equity component also offers considerable exposure to Tajiris significant gold project interests in Guyana, South America.

 On completion, the Reo project transaction would represent the divestment of Middle Islands remaining gold interests in West Africa, allowing the Company to fully focus on its advanced Sandstone gold project development in Western Australia.

 The Company looks forward to working closely with Tajiri to finalise the transaction.

REO GOLD PROJECT (West Africa)

Heads of Agreement for an Option to Purchase

Middle Island Resources Limited (Middle Island, MDI or the Company) is pleased to advise that it has executed a Heads of Agreement (HoA) relating to divesting its 100% interest in the Reo gold project in West Africa to Tajiri Resources Corp. (TSX-V:TAJ, Tajiri) via an Option to Purchase Agreement.

Transaction Terms

Tajiri will pay MDI US$35,000 on execution of the HoA in return for a three-month exclusivity period in which to complete its due diligence.

On satisfactory completion of due diligence and signing of a formal Option to Purchase Agreement, the essential terms of which are set out in the HOA, Tajiri is required to pay a further US$150,000 and issue to Middle Island 2.5 million Tajiri shares. By that agreement, Middle Island will grant Tajiri an exclusive option to purchase MDIs entire interest in the Reo project (the Option). The term of the Option is 18 months. During the Option term Tajiri must pay all expenses associated with maintaining the Reo Project permits in accordance with Burkinabe law.

Should Tajiri elect to exercise the Option, it will pay a further US$150,000 and issue Middle Island with a further 2.5 million Tajiri shares.

If Tajiri has not exercised the Option within 12 months, it will be required to pay US$50,000 to Middle Island as a non-refundable advance on the Option exercise cash consideration, with the balance of US$100,000 payable if the Option is exercised during the remaining six months of the Option term. If the Option is exercised within the first 12 months the full US$150,000 is payable on exercise.

The stipulated number of shares the subject of the two tranches to be issued to Middle Island were calculated on a fully diluted basis based on Tajiris current capital structure, with additional shares to be issued to Middle Island at no cost if Tajiri issues further shares or options prior to exercising the Option. All shares issued to MDI will be subject to any mandatory minimum TSX-V restriction periods.

If the Option is exercised by Tajiri, Middle Island will retain a 2% net smelter return (NSR) royalty on any minerals derived from the Reo project. Tajiri will have the right to acquire that royalty from Middle Island for US$5 million.

If the Option is not exercised by Tajiri, Middle Island will retain all consideration already paid to Middle Island and it will continue to own its 100% interest in the Reo Project.

Middle Island Managing Director, Mr Rick Yeates:

The transaction structure allows Middle Island shareholders to retain a significant indirect interest in the upside potential of the Reo project via the Tajiri equity and royalty components. The full equity component, which will represent some 8% of Tajiris issued capital on a fully diluted, post issue basis, also offers shareholders considerable exposure to Tajiris highly prospective gold project interests in Guyana, South America.

On completion, the Reo project transaction will represent the divestment of Middle Islands remaining gold interests in West Africa, allowing the Company to fully focus on its advanced Sandstone gold project development in Western Australia.

Middle Island looks forward to working closely with Tajiri to facilitate remaining aspects of the due diligence and documentation, in order to complete the transaction and progress the Reo project towards feasibility.

Middle Island will keep shareholders updated on progress with the Reo project transaction during 2018.

ASX Release  13 February 2018

COMPANY CONTACTS:

Rick Yeates  Managing Director +61 (0)401 694 313

MEDIA CONTACT:

Kevin Skinner Field Public Relations +61 (0)8 8234 9555 / +61 (0)414 822 631

WEBSITE: www.middleisland.com.au

Forward Looking Statements

Statements contained in this release, particularly those regarding possible or assumed future performance, costs, dividends, production levels or rates, prices, resources, reserves or potential growth of Middle Island, industry growth or other trend projections are, or may be, forward looking statements. Such statements relate to future events and expectations and, as such, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward looking statements depending on a variety of factors.

We Seek Safe Harbour.

1 All Resources noted in paragraph 2 above have not been independently verified by Tajiri and rely on publicly reported and referenced Resource and Reserve statements of other public listed companies as noted below. The Resources reported in paragraph 2 are totals of Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resources inclusive of Proven and Probable Reserves.

Karma - Endeavour Mining Corporation MI&I resources, inclusive of P&P Reserves of 3.772 Moz (Click Here)

Bissa - Nord Gold - Bissa and Bouly deposits MI&I resources, inclusive of P&P Reserves of 6.577 Moz (Click Here)

Hounde - Endeavour Mining Corporation MI&I resources, inclusive of P&P Reserves of 4.90 Moz (Click Here)

Mana- Semafo MI&I resources, inclusive of P&P Reserves of 8.581 Moz (Click Here)

2 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths

3 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths

4 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths

5 All mineralised intercepts shown as down hole intercepts and not true widths

6 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths

7 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths

8 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths

9 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widths

10 All mineralised intercepts reported as down hole not true widthsVANCOUVER, B.C., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. (Peregrine or the Company) (TSX:PGD) is pleased to report that the Companys successful 2017 Resource Development Program has resulted in a substantial increase in the Inferred Mineral Resource at the high-grade CH-6 kimberlite pipe at Peregrines 100%-owned Chidliak Diamond Project, Nunavut, Canada.

Drilling in 2017 delineated the high-grade CH-6 kimberlite pipe to a depth of 540 metres below surface (mbs) and the kimberlite remains open below that depth. Key results include:

CH-6 updated Inferred Mineral Resource of 17.96 million carats in 7.46 million tonnes to 525 mbs;

in 7.46 million tonnes to 525 mbs; Inferred Mineral Resource tonnage increased by 61% from 4.64 million to 7.46 million tonnes;

CH-6 contained carats increased by 58% from 11.39 million to 17.96 million carats;

from 11.39 million to 17.96 million carats; High-grade KIM-L domain with a grade of 4.49 carats per tonne (cpt) comprises 17% by volume of the updated CH-6 resource; and

(cpt) comprises 17% by volume of the updated CH-6 resource; and Total Phase One Diamond Development resource now exceeds 22 million carats.

Additional tonnage, considered a Target for Further Exploration (TFFE) of 1.09 to 2.35 million tonnes, has also been identified for a portion of the CH-6 kimberlite pipe at depths between 300 and 590 mbs. The CH-6 kimberlite pipe remains open for expansion to depth.

Tom Peregoodoff, Peregrines President and CEO said Since we announced our maiden inferred resource at CH-6 in May 2014, we have grown this resource by an incredible 140%, from an initial 7.5 million carats to the 18 million carats we are proud to announce today. The growth of the CH-6 resource is remarkable and together with the CH-7 kimberlite resource, brings the Phase One Diamond Development resource at Chidliak to an impressive 22 million carats. Simply put, there is no other Canadian development-stage diamond project that compares with Peregrines flagship project in terms of resource value or upside potential. This Phase One resource is based on only two of the 74 currently known kimberlites at Chidliak providing significant resource expansion possibilities which the Company intends to pursue in 2018.

In April 2016, the Company announced a CH-6 Inferred Mineral Resource of 11.39 million carats in 4.64 million tonnes, which, combined with an Inferred Mineral Resource of 4.23 million carats in 4.99 million tonnes at CH-7, formed the foundation for the 2016 Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the Chidliak Phase One Diamond Development (see release dated July 7, 2016). The 2016 PEA Phase One development envisages a 10-year mine life at an annual average production rate of 1.2 million carats with an after-tax Net Present Value (NPV) of C$471 million, an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 29.8% and a capital payback period of two years.

JDS Energy and Mining Inc. (JDS) has commenced work on a revised PEA of a Phase One Diamond Development, with results expected in the second quarter of 2018. The 2018 PEA is based on aggregate Inferred Resources at CH-6 and CH-7 of 22.19 million carats contained in 12.45 million tonnes of kimberlite.

Mr. Peregoodoff added The PEA we announced in 2016 clearly established Chidliak as a unique diamond development opportunity. Todays announcement of the significant expansion of the diamond resource should have a material, positive impact on the forthcoming economic analysis and I look forward to sharing the results of the updated Phase One Diamond Development PEA with all of our stakeholders as soon as possible.

CH-6 INFERRED MINERAL RESOURCE UPDATE

The 2017 Resource Development Program at Chidliak focused on expansion of the Inferred Resource at CH-6. As announced on September 21, 2017, approximately 5,288 metres of diamond core drilling was completed during this program. Drilling results demonstrated geological continuity of the CH-6 kimberlite to 540 mbs, established additional pipe margin pierce-points deeper than 260 mbs, the base of the 2016 Inferred Resource, and obtained spatially representative kimberlite samples for caustic fusion diamond analysis.

Microdiamond results by caustic fusion for 1,936.45 kilograms of kimberlite collected during the 2017 program were announced on November 28, 2017. The results support a coarse diamond size distribution for all material sampled and reproduce diamond recovery rates for the previously defined KIM-L and KIM-C geological units at the CH-6 kimberlite.

Updated geological and block models for CH-6 were generated by Peregrines staff geologists, all of whom are Qualified Persons under National Instrument (NI) 43-101. Their work comprised a comprehensive review of geological attributes, pierce-point distribution, rock densities, delineated kimberlite volumes and diamond size frequency distributions and abundances for the entire CH-6 kimberlite.

The updated resource model was provided to JDS in order to establish an envelope within which reasonable prospects for economic extraction may exist, in accordance with NI 43-101 standards and Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy guidelines. JDS created a first-order Whittle open pit shell and integrated appropriate open pit and underground mining and related costs, as well as the average life-of-mine diamond price of US$175 per carat for CH-6 diamonds, all as stated in the 2016 PEA (see news release dated July 7, 2016). JDS concluded that the updated CH-6 resource model satisfies the reasonable prospect of economic extraction criterion to a depth of 525 mbs.

As a result of this work, the updated Inferred Mineral Resource estimate for the CH-6 kimberlite is as stated in Table 1 below.

TABLE 1: INFERRED MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATE FOR THE CH-6 KIMBERLITE*

Tonnes

(millions) Grade

(carats per tonne)** Carats**

(millions) Tonnage Increase***

(%) Carat Increase***

(%) CH-6 Total 7.46 2.41 17.96 61 58

* Numbers may not add due to rounding.

** Stated at +1.18 mm square-mesh sieve bottom cut-off and diamond recoveries as experienced in the 2010 and 2013 CH-6 bulk sampling programs. The updated CH-6 Inferred Resource extends from surface to 525 metres depth below surface.

*** Relative to the April 7, 2016 CH-6 Inferred Resource of 11.39 million carats in 4.64 million tonnes.

Inferred Mineral Resources are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that the PEA will be realized.

CH-6 UPDATED RESOURCE GRADE DOMAINS

The updated resource includes the previously identified KIM-L High Grade (KIM-L.HG) and KIM-L Normal Grade (KIM-L.NG) domains (see news release April 7, 2016). Updated grade estimates of these KIM-L grade domains are 4.49 cpt and 2.07 cpt respectively. As shown in Table 2, KIM-L.HG is now estimated to contain 5.80 million carats in 1.29 million tonnes to a depth of 470 mbs, a significant increase in terms of tonnage and carats contained compared to the previous 2016 Inferred Mineral Resource. The updated resource also includes a portion of the modeled KIM-C unit, all of which was previously considered as TFFE (see news release dated April 7, 2016).

KIM-C is now classified as an Inferred Mineral Resource as a result of the acquisition of pierce-points and drill information from the 2017 Resource Development Program that constrains the distribution, continuity and depth extent of KIM-C to 300 mbs, integrated with additional rock density and microdiamond data also acquired during the 2017 drill program. The breakdown of updated resource grade domains is stated in Table 2.

TABLE 2: CH-6 KIMBERLITE INFERRED MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATE* BY GRADE DOMAIN

Domain Tonnes

(millions) Grade

(carats per tonne) Carats**

(millions) Tonnage Increase***

(%) Carat Increase***

(%) KIM-L.NG 5.18 2.07 10.73 33 30 KIM-L.HG 1.29 4.49 5.80 72 86 KIM-C 0.99 1.45 1.43 -- -- CH-6 Total 7.46 2.41 17.96 61 58

* Number may not add due to rounding.

** Stated at +1.18 mm square-mesh sieve bottom cut-off and diamond recoveries as experienced in the 2010 and 2013 CH-6 bulk sampling programs. The updated CH-6 Inferred Resource extends from surface to a depth of 525 metres below surface.

*** Relative to the April 7, 2016 CH-6 Inferred Resource of 11.39 million carats in 4.64 million tonnes.

CH-6 TARGET FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION (TFFE)

Five core holes have intersected some 82 metres of kimberlite, dominantly KIM-L, in a portion of the CH-6 kimberlite body between 300 to 590 mbs, and situated adjacent to the CH-6 kimberlite resource identified above. This portion is considered as TFFE and is estimated to comprise 1.09 to 2.35 million tonnes of kimberlite. Limited microdiamond sample results confirm the TFFE is diamondiferous and the modeled TFFE comprises approximately 95% KIM-L. Insufficient exploration has been completed to date to delineate any portion of the CH-6 TFFE as a mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in conversion of the TFFE to a mineral resource.

Peregrine will file an NI 43-101 technical report covering the Chidliak Inferred Mineral Resource update within 45 days of this news release.

QUALIFIED PERSONS

Catherine Fitzgerald, P.Geo., Dr. Herman Grutter, P.Geo., and Dr. Jennifer Pell, P.Geo., all of Peregrine Diamonds Inc., prepared the CH-6 Inferred Mineral Resource estimate. Mr. Dino Pilotto, P.Eng. and Mr. Michael Makarenko, P.Eng., both of JDS Energy and Mining Inc., are consultants to Peregrine and expressed opinion on reasonable prospects for economic extraction of the CH-6 Inferred Mineral Resource.

Ms. Fitzgerald, Dr. Grutter, Dr. Pell, Mr. Pilotto and Mr. Makarenko are Qualified Persons in terms of NI 43-101 standards of disclosure and have reviewed this release and approve of its contents.

About Peregrine Diamonds

Peregrine Diamonds is a TSX-listed diamond exploration and development company with its primary assets located in northern Canada.

Peregrines core asset is its 100-percent-owned, 315,123-hectare Chidliak Project, located 120 kilometres from Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, where 74 kimberlites have been discovered to date, with eight being potentially economic. A Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) of a Phase One Diamond Development (CP1D) has been completed. The PEA highlights that the CP1D represents a robust, high-margin, ten-year, open-pit mining project with very attractive economics, including after tax NPV of C$471 million, IRR of 29.8% and a two-year payback. An Inferred Mineral Resource of 11.39 million carats in 4.64 million tonnes of kimberlite at an average grade of 2.45 carats per tonne has been defined for a portion of the CH-6 kimberlite. An independent diamond valuation by WWW International Diamond Consultants, of a 1,013 carat parcel of diamonds from CH-6, returned an average market price of US$213 per carat and modeled prices that range from a minimum of US$162 per carat to a high of US$236 per carat, with a base model price of US$188 per carat (all using the February 24, 2014 price book). In addition, a Target for Further Exploration (TFFE) of 2.34 to 3.75 million tonnes of kimberlite to a depth of 380 metres below surface has been identified at CH-6. An Inferred Mineral Resource of 4.23 million carats in 4.99 million tonnes of kimberlite at an average grade of 0.85 carats per tonne has been defined for a portion of the CH-7 kimberlite. An independent diamond valuation by WWW International Diamond Consultants of a 735.75 carat parcel of diamonds from CH-7, returned an average market price of US$100 per carat and modelled prices that ranged from a minimum of US$94 per carat to a high of US$155 per carat, with a base model price of US$114 per carat (all using the February 1, 2016 price book). In addition, TFFE of 0.90 to 2.36 million tonnes for a depth range of 240 to 320 metres has been estimated for the CH-7 kimberlite. A TFFE of 1.27 to 3.19 million tonnes to 250 metres depth has been estimated for the CH-44 kimberlite pipe.

Additional details of the Chidliak 2016 PEA are available in a National Instrument (NI) 43-101 technical report titled Preliminary Economic Assessment Technical Report on the Chidliak Project, Nunavut, Canada and dated effective July 7, 2016, available on SEDAR and the Companys website.

The Chidliak 2016 PEA is preliminary in nature and includes Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that the PEA will be realized.

Peregrine also controls the 8,494-hectare Lac de Gras Project in the Northwest Territories, located approximately 27 kilometres from the Diavik Diamond Mine. The nine-hectare, 72.1%-owned DO-27 kimberlite located at Lac de Gras hosts an Indicated Mineral Resource of 18.2 million carats of diamonds in 19.5 million tonnes of kimberlite at a grade of 0.94 carats per tonne, and it is open at depth.

For information on data verification, exploration information, and resource estimation procedures, see the NI 43-101 technical reports entitled Mineral Resource Estimate for the Chidliak Project, Baffin Island, Nunavut and dated effective June 3, 2016 and Peregrine Diamonds Limited Lac de Gras Project, Northwest Territories, Canada NI 43-101Technical Report dated effective July 15, 2014, which are available on SEDAR and the Companys website. Peregrine will file an NI 43-101 technical report covering the Chidliak Inferred Mineral Resource update within 45 days of this news release.

The potential quantify and grade of TFFEs identified above are conceptual in nature as there has been insufficient exploration to define a Mineral Resource. It is uncertain whether further exploration will result in any of these tonnages being delineated as Mineral Resources.

For further information, please visit www.pdiam.com or contact Mr. Eric Friedland, Executive Chairman; Mr. Tom Peregoodoff, President and CEO; Dr. Herman Grutter, Vice President, Technical Services; or Peregrine Diamonds Investor Relations at 604-408-8880 or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, that address activities, events, or developments that the Company believes, expects, or anticipates will or may occur in the future including, without limitation, proposed exploration and development programs, funding availability, anticipated exploration results, grade of diamonds and tonnage of material, resource estimates, anticipated diamond valuations, and future exploration and operating plans are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect the current expectations or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company.

Forward-looking statements are made based upon certain assumptions by the Company and other important factors that, if untrue, could cause the actual results, performances, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from future results, performances, or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the price of diamonds, anticipated costs, and ability to achieve goals. Certain important factors that could cause actual results, performances, or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: receipt of regulatory approvals; anticipated timelines for community consultations and the impact of those consultations on the regulatory approval process; market prices for rough diamonds and the potential impact on the Chidliak Project; and future exploration plans and objectives.

Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements and, even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, the Company. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things: availability and cost of funds; timing and content of work programs; results of exploration activities; interpretation of drilling results and other geological data; risks relating to variations in the diamond grade and kimberlite lithologies; variations in rates of recovery and breakage; variations in diamond valuations and future diamond prices; the state of world diamond markets; reliability of mineral property titles; changes to regulations affecting the Companys activities; delays in obtaining or failure to obtain required project approvals; operational and infrastructure risk; and other risks involved in the diamond exploration and development business. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, or otherwise. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly, undue reliance should not be put on such statements, due to their inherent uncertainty.VANCOUVER, B.C., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Midas Gold Corp. (TSX:MAX) (OTCQX:MDRPF) today updated its mineral resource estimates for the Stibnite Gold Project (the Project), located in the historic Stibnite-Yellow Pine mining district in Idaho, USA. These updated estimates incorporate: (1) additional drilling completed since 2014 that was focused on converting mineral resources from the inferred to the indicated category within the limits of mineral reserve limiting pit in the 2014 Preliminary Feasibility Study (2014 PFS), (2) additional data collected and recovered from pre-Midas Gold activities, and (3) more detailed geological modelling supported by relogging Midas Gold core, rock geochemistry, mapping, alteration modeling and other information. While overall totals and averages have seen modest changes since 2014, key highlights include:

First time definition of a measured resource at Yellow Pine, located at surface, with a grade of 2.5 g/t gold and 0.25% antimony, which would be the first area to be mined under the development plan proposed in the 2014 PFS. An overall 6% increase in gold grade and a 22% increase in antimony grade in the Yellow Pine deposit, which would be the first deposit to be mined under 2014 PFS, which should benefit project economics as compared to the 2014 PFS. A 31% increase in antimony contained in the mineral resources for the Project, split between the Yellow Pine and Hangar Flats deposits, potentially increasing production of this critical metal. On a total project basis, a 2% increase in measured and indicated gold grade and a 3% increase in gold contained in the measured and indicated mineral resources. The West End deposit saw a 6% increase in gold contained in indicated mineral resources, and a 49% increase in gold contained in inferred mineral resources. These increases in measured and indicated mineral resources are partially offset by reductions in inferred mineral resources as a result of the updated model and conversion of inferred resources.

Details of the above highlights are provided, below.

Table 1: Consolidated Mineral Resource Statement(1,2,3,4,5,6) for the Stibnite Gold Project

Total(5) Open Pit Oxide + Sulfide Mineral Resources  Base Case Estimate

Classification Tonnage Gold Contained Silver Contained Antimony Contained (000s) Grade Gold Grade Silver Grade Antimony (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000s oz) (%)(5) (000s lbs) Measured 4,623 2.53 377 3.91 581 0.25 25,821 Indicated 100,289 1.62 5,234 2.47 7,955 0.08 178,016 M & I 104,912 1.66 5,610 2.53 8,536 0.09 203,838 Inferred(6) 23,174 1.29 959 2.04 1,518 0.04 20,524

All mineral resources have been estimated in accordance with Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) definitions, as required under National Instrument 43-101 (NI43-101). Mineral resources are reported in relation to a conceptual pit shell in order to demonstrate potential for economic viability, as required under NI43-101; mineralization lying outside of these pit shells is not reported as a mineral resource. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability  see Compliance with NI43-101 below. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate and therefore numbers may not appear to add precisely. Open pit sulfide mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.75 g/t Au. Cut-off grades are based on a price of US$1,050 per ounce of gold and a number of operating cost and recovery assumptions, plus a contingency (see details below). Open pit oxide mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.45 g/t Au. Cut-off grades are based on a price of US$1,050 per ounce of gold and a number of operating cost and recovery assumptions, plus a contingency (see details below). Total project mineral resources include those resources from the Yellow Pine, Hangar Flats, West End and Historic Tailings deposits. Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.

The updated mineral resource estimate for the Stibnite Gold Project represents another milestone in the path towards completion of a feasibility study, said Stephen Quin, President and CEO of Midas Gold Corp, The successful execution of a focused drilling campaign combined with extensive geological modelling has resulted in a refined and enhanced mineral resource estimate that has confidence levels sufficient to support the completion of a feasibility study, he said. While the overall changes to the mineral resource estimates are relatively modest, the positive changes are concentrated in the Yellow Pine deposit, and particularly the upper portions of that deposit, which should provide enhanced margins in the early years of the operational life, since the Yellow Pine deposit would be the first deposit to be mined.

Highlighted Changes to Mineral Resource Estimates

The principal changes in the 2018 mineral resource estimates (relative to the 2014 PFS consolidated mineral resource statement) are a 2% increase in Measured and Indicated (M&I) gold grade and a 3% increase in M&I gold contained in mineral resources, as well as a 31% increase in indicated antimony contained in mineral resources. These changes are largely driven by a 6% increase in M&I gold grade at Yellow Pine, a 10% increase in indicated mineralized tonnage in the West End deposit and increased antimony contained in mineral resources in both the Yellow Pine and Hangar Flats deposits. Positive changes are slightly offset by a 2% decrease in indicated gold contained in mineral resources at Hangar Flats.

The change in grade at Yellow Pine is the result of additional drilling and a more detailed geological model, which better segregates mineralized and unmineralized materials on the basis of newly identified fault zones defined based on re-logging, oriented core data from the 2016-2017 drilling program and surficial pit mapping from pre-Midas Gold activities. Similarly, increased tonnage in the West End deposit is the result of a more detailed geological model which subdivides metasedimentary formations into individual lithotypes and models stratigraphic offset along post-mineralization faults. Another principal change in the West End model is the definition of more oxide resources following a thorough comparison of cyanide recoverable to total gold ratios against distribution of logged oxidation in drill logs.

All models use sub-block or partial-block percentage reporting to accurately report in-situ mineral resources, which will allow for quantitative forecasting of mining dilution in the feasibility study.

Increases in antimony contained in mineral resources at Yellow Pine are due to new drilling in the antimony resource area, definition of an antimony grade shell using indicator methods, and re-evaluation of legacy data used in the estimate on the basis of reconciliation against historic production records. Similarly, the increase in antimony contained in mineral resources at Hangar Flats is the result of new drilling in the antimony resource area and different treatment of legacy drillhole data following assessment of the impact of this data. Additional details for each deposit are provided below.

2018 Updated Mineral Resources within the 2014 PFS Mineral Reserve Pit

Since the 2014 mineral resource update, Midas Golds efforts have almost exclusively been focused on optimizing mineral resources located within the mineral reserve limiting pit defined in the 2014 PFS. In order to more clearly illustrate the results of these efforts, the table below compares the updated mineral resources within the same 2014 PFS mineral reserve limiting pit. This comparison is provided for information purposes only and is only intended to allow a direct comparison of mineral resources within that 2014 PFS mineral reserve limiting pit. This comparison should not be interpreted as a statement of mineral reserves; mineral reserves will only be defined in the pending feasibility study, due for completion in later 2018.

Table 2: Comparison of 2018 and 2014 Consolidated Mineral Resource Statement(1,2,3,4,5,6) for the Stibnite Gold Project Located Within the 2014 PFS Mineral Reserve Limiting Pits + Historic Tailings

Classification Tonnage Gold Contained Silver Contained Antimony Contained (000s) Grade Gold Grade Silver Grade Antimony (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000s oz) (%)(5) (000s lbs) 2018 Update Measured and Indicated 85,999 1.70 4,693 2.31 6,392 0.08 155,500 Inferred(6) 7,134 1.22 279 1.41 324 0.01 1,218 2014 Estimate Indicated 83,224 1.67 4,476 2.50 6,684 0.07 132,660 Inferred(6) 7,203 1.33 308 2.02 467 0.06 9,671 2014-2018 Change Indicated +2,775 +0.03 +217 (0.19) (292) +0.01 +22,840 Inferred(6) (69) (0.11) (29) (0.61) (143) (0.05) (8,453) Percentage Change Indicated +3% +2% +5% -8% -4% +14% +17% Inferred -1% -8% -9% -30% -31% -83% -87%

For footnotes 1-6, see Table 1.

Antimony Sub-Domains

The Yellow Pine and Hangar Flats deposits contain zones with substantially elevated antimony-silver mineralization, defined as containing greater than 0.1% antimony, relative to the overall mineral resource. The existing historic tailings resource also contains elevated concentrations of antimony. These higher-grade antimony zones are reported separately in the table below, in order to illustrate the potential for antimony production from the Project and are contained within the overall mineral resource estimates reported herein. Antimony zones are reported only if they lie within gold mineral resource estimates.

Table 3: Antimony Sub-Domains Consolidated Mineral Resource Statement(1,2,3) at a 0.1% Sb cut-off within the Total Mineral Resources in Table 1

Classification Tonnage Gold Contained Silver Contained Antimony Contained (000s) Grade Gold Grade Silver Grade Antimony (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000's oz) (%) (000s lbs) Measured Yellow Pine 2,141 2.76 190 5.79 398 0.52 24,440 Indicated Hangar Flats 6,423 2.02 416 8.26 1,705 0.57 80,987 Yellow Pine 6,705 2.32 500 5.46 1,178 0.52 76,557 Historic Tailings 2,583 1.19 99 2.95 245 0.17 9,648 Total M & I 17,852 2.10 1,205 6.14 3,526 0.49 191,632 Inferred (3) Hangar Flats 1,031 1.78 59 11.74 389 0.84 19,166 Yellow Pine 12 1.24 0 3.35 1 0.25 68 Historic Tailings 140 1.23 6 2.88 13 0.18 563 Total Inferred 1,183 1.71 65 10.60 403 0.76 19,797

Antimony mineral resources are reported as a subset of the total mineral resource within the conceptual pit shells used to constrain the total gold mineral resource in order to demonstrate potential for economic viability, as required under NI43-101; mineralization outside of these pit shells is not reported as a mineral resource. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability  see Compliance with NI43-101 below. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate. Open pit antimony sulfide mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade 0.1% antimony within the overall 0.75 g/t Au gold cut-off. Cut-off grades are based on a price of US$1,050 per ounce of gold, $4.00/lb antimony and a number of operating cost and recovery assumptions, plus a contingency (see details below). The antimony subdomain is further limited to discrete zones of mineralization with grades that exceed 0.1% antimony. Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.

Mineral Resource Estimates by Deposit

The mineral resource estimate for the Project encompasses four separate deposits: Yellow Pine, Hangar Flats, West End and Historic Tailings. Each deposit was modelled based on a combination of Midas Gold and pre-Midas Gold drilling, with the latter information being used only where sufficient confidence was obtained to support its use. Details of each of the mineral resource estimates are summarized below.

Yellow Pine Mineral Resource Estimate

The mineral resource estimate for the Yellow Pine deposit is summarized in the table below and is based on 69,753m of drilling in 629 holes, including 43,814m of drilling in 223 holes by Midas Gold and the balance drilled by others. Additional work, including oriented core drilling by Midas Gold since the 2014 PFS, relogging of core, rock geochemistry and alteration modelling, mapping, surface sampling and other information, has made possible a significantly improved and more detailed geologic model, resulting in improved understanding of controls on mineralization. The principal changes in the 2018 updated mineral resource estimate for Yellow Pine versus that in the 2014 PFS are (1) use of additional geostatistical estimation domains and search strategies reflecting the improved geological model, and (2) constraint of the antimony shell using a combination of geological boundaries and indicator kriging. An additional minor change was to remove some additional Bradley-era (1939-1953) drill holes that were used in the PFS and eliminate the range restrictive search strategy applied to this data. This estimation plan was adopted following additional confirmatory drilling in the high-grade central part of the deposit by Midas Gold, a review of legacy data relative to structural boundaries and model reconciliation against historic production. The net result of the mineral resource estimate for Yellow Pine is a 3% increase in gold contained in indicated mineral resources, a 6% increase in gold grade and an 62% reduction in gold contained in inferred mineral resources, the latter is a result of the conversion of ounces to the indicated category and reduced grade extrapolation based on improved geologic controls and more restrictive search strategies. Within the PFS Mineral Reserve Pit, the result is a 6% increase in indicated gold grade and a 2% increase in indicated contained gold resources. Other significant changes to the model include more accurate reconstructions of the Bradley and Hecla legacy pit-bottoms, use of partial block percentage reporting, and removal of some low-precision silver assays from the estimation plan.

Table 4: 2018 Updated Yellow Pine Mineral Resource Statement (1,2,3)

Classification Tonnage Gold Contained Silver Contained Antimony Contained (000s) Grade Gold Grade Silver Grade Antimony (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000s oz) (%) (000s lbs) Sulphide (1) Measured 4,623 2.53 377 3.91 581 0.25 25,821 Indicated 38,598 1.99 2,469 2.31 2,863 0.10 81,406 M & I(2) 43,221 2.05 2,845 2.48 3,444 0.11 107,228 Inferred(3) 3,814 1.18 145 0.72 88 0.00 76

Mineral resources are reported in relation to a conceptual pit shell in order to demonstrate potential for economic viability, as required under NI43-101; mineralization lying outside of these pit shells is not reported as a mineral resource. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability  see Compliance with NI43-101 below. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate. Open pit sulfide mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.75 g/t Au. Cut-off grades are based on a price of US$1,050 per ounce of gold and a number of operating cost and recovery assumptions, plus a contingency (see details below). Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.

Hangar Flats Mineral Resource Estimate

The Hangar Flats mineral resource estimate tabulated below is based on 39,181m of drilling in 217 holes, including 26,583m of drilling in 106 holes by Midas Gold and the balance drilled by others. The updated Hangar Flats resource model incorporates additional drilling by Midas Gold since the 2014 PFS with only minor changes to the block estimation strategy and geological model but a more restrictive classification methodology. The net result of the updated mineral estimate for Hangar Flats is a 2% decrease in gold contained in indicated mineral resources and an 7% reduction in gold contained in inferred mineral resources, the latter a result of the conversion of ounces to the indicated category and the results of additional drilling. Within the PFS Mineral Reserve Pit, the result is a 3% increase in indicated gold grade and a 1% decrease in indicated contained gold resources.

Table 5: 2018 Updated Hangar Flats Mineral Resource Statement (1,2,3)

Classification Tonnage Gold Contained Silver Contained Antimony Contained (000s) Grade Gold Grade Silver Grade Antimony (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000s oz) (%) (000s lbs) Sulphide (2) Indicated 19,697 1.71 1,080 4.80 3,041 0.20 86,962 Inferred(3) 7,654 1.37 336 3.95 971 0.12 19,885

Mineral resources are reported in relation to a conceptual pit shell in order to demonstrate potential for economic viability, as required under NI43-101; mineralization lying outside of these pit shells is not reported as a mineral resource. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability  see Compliance with NI43-101 below. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate. Open pit sulfide mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.75 g/t Au. Cut-off grades are based on a price of US$1,050 per ounce of gold and a number of operating cost and recovery assumptions, plus a contingency (see details below). Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.

West End Mineral Resource Estimate

The updated West End mineral resource estimate tabulated below is based on 73,695m of drilling in 857 holes, including 11,767m of drilling in 50 holes by Midas Gold and the balance drilled by others. A more detailed geological model was constructed based on 50 digitized legacy bench maps which better constrains mineralization within the West End Fault Zone corridor, models offset along important post-mineralization faults and subdivides key stratigraphic horizons within the thicker metasedimentary units. The new geological model, coupled with new drilling, newly digitized blast hole assays and 448 new gold fire assays obtained for pulps from pre-Midas Gold drill holes, led to improved modeling of controls on mineralization and an updated mineral resource estimation strategy based on the geologic model. In addition, Midas Gold re-evaluated the spatial distribution of oxide resources on the basis of oxidation logging and cyanide-recoverable to total gold block ratios resulting in an 115% increase in oxide resource tonnage. The net result of the mineral resource estimate for West End is a 6% increase in gold contained in indicated mineral resources, and a 49% increase in gold contained in inferred mineral resources. Within the PFS Mineral Reserve Pit, the result is a 2% decrease in indicated gold grade and a 14% increase in indicated gold contained in mineral resources, largely resulting from definition of additional lower grade oxide mineral resources.

Table 6: 2018 Updated West End Mineral Resource Statement (1,2,3,4)

Classification Tonnage Gold Contained Silver Contained (000s) Grade Gold Grade Silver (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000s oz) Oxide (3) Indicated 18,765 0.92 557 1.37 827 Inferred(4) 3,907 0.92 115 0.96 121 Sulphide (2) Indicated 20,645 1.55 1,029 1.48 980 Inferred(4) 7,659 1.45 357 1.32 325 Total Indicated 39,411 1.25 1,586 1.43 1,806 Inferred(4) 11,566 1.27 472 1.20 446

Mineral resources are reported in relation to a conceptual pit shell in order to demonstrate potential for economic viability, as required under NI43-101; mineralization lying outside of these pit shells is not reported as a mineral resource. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability  see Compliance with NI43-101 below. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate. Open pit sulfide mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.75 g/t Au. Cut-off grades are based on a price of US$1,050 per ounce of gold and a number of operating cost and recovery assumptions, plus a contingency (see details below). Open pit oxide mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.45 g/t Au. Cut-off grades are based on a price of US$1,050 per ounce of gold and a number of operating cost and recovery assumptions, plus a contingency (see details below). Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.

Historic Tailings Mineral Resource Estimate

No additional data has been collected in respect of the historic tailings, and the mineral resources stated below are the same as those reported in the 2014 PFS and are repeated here for the sake of completeness.

Table 7: Historic Tailings Mineral Resource Statement (1,2,3)

Classification Tonnage

(000s) Gold

Grade

(g/t) Contained

Gold

(000s oz) Silver

Grade

(g/t) Contained

Silver

(000s oz) Antimony

Grade

(%) Contained

Antimony

(000s lbs) Indicated 2,583 1.19 99 2.95 245 0.17 9,648 Inferred(3) 140 1.23 6 2.88 13 0.18 563

Mineral resources are reported in total above cut-off since all the spent heap leach ore stacked on top of the tailings will be removed for construction purposes and the tailings full exposed. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability  see Compliance with NI43-101 below. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate. Open pit sulfide mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.75 g/t Au. Cut-off grades are based on a price of US$1,050 per ounce of gold and a number of operating cost and recovery assumptions, plus a contingency (see details below). Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.

Sensitivity to Cut-Off Grade

As show in the Table 8 below, the mineral resource estimates for the Project are not particularly sensitive to gold cut-off grade.

Table 8: Combined Sensitivity to Cut-Off Grade (Base Case Highlighted) (1,2)

Sulfide Oxide Yellow Pine Hangar Flats West End Historic Tailings Total Cutoff Cutoff (sulfide) (sulfide) (oxide + sulfide) (sulfide) (oxide + sulfide) Grade Grade (g/t Au) (g/t Au) Gold Contained Gold Contained Gold Contained Gold Contained Gold Contained Grade Gold Grade Gold Grade Gold Grade Gold Grade Gold (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000s oz) (g/t) (000s oz) Measured and Indicated 0.6 0.3 1.89 2,964 1.55 1,153 1.02 1,818 1.16 102 1.45 6,037 0.65 0.35 1.95 2,923 1.61 1,128 1.10 1,737 1.17 102 1.52 5,890 0.7 0.4 2.00 2,884 1.66 1,103 1.18 1,659 1.17 101 1.60 5,747 0.75 0.45 2.05 2,845 1.71 1,080 1.25 1,586 1.19 99 1.66 5,610 0.8 0.5 2.10 2,806 1.75 1,056 1.32 1,516 1.21 96 1.73 5,474 0.85 0.55 2.14 2,769 1.80 1,031 1.39 1,450 1.24 92 1.79 5,342 0.9 0.6 2.18 2,732 1.85 1,006 1.46 1,388 1.26 89 1.85 5,215 Inferred(2) 0.6 0.3 1.06 172 1.19 392 1.04 545 1.21 6 1.09 1,115 0.65 0.35 1.10 163 1.25 373 1.12 519 1.21 6 1.16 1,061 0.7 0.4 1.15 153 1.31 353 1.20 494 1.22 6 1.23 1,006 0.75 0.45 1.18 145 1.37 336 1.27 472 1.23 6 1.29 959 0.8 0.5 1.22 138 1.43 316 1.33 452 1.27 5 1.35 911 0.85 0.55 1.26 129 1.49 301 1.39 433 1.3 5 1.40 868 0.9 0.6 1.30 121 1.54 287 1.44 416 1.31 5 1.45 829

Mineral resources are reported in relation to the base-case conceptual pit shell in order to demonstrate potential for economic viability, as required under NI43-101; mineralization lying outside of these pit shells is not reported as a mineral resource. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability  see Compliance with NI43-101 below. All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate. Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.

Cut-Off Grade and Prospects for Economic Extraction

The updated mineral resources are reported within the same pit-shells and at the same cut-off grades as Midas Gold used in 2014. The cut-off grades of 0.75 g/t gold for sulphides and 0.45 g/t gold for oxides are equivalent to a conservative gold price assumption of approximately $1,050/ounce, based on updated cost estimates from ongoing feasibility level engineering studies (Table 9, below). Prospects for eventual economic extraction of the mineral resources, as required by NI43-101, were demonstrated in the 2014 PFS by developing conceptual pit shells using a Lerchs-Grossman algorithm and input parameters derived from preliminary cost estimates associated with pre-feasibility level engineering studies, as outlined in the press release dated September 10, 2014. Only mineral resources above these cut-offs and within the mineral resource-limiting pits are reported; mineralization falling below this cut-off grade or outside the resource-limiting pits is not reported, no matter what the grade. Antimony and silver are considered by-products and were not utilized in pit optimizations or for establishing likelihood of economic extraction. Sensitivity to cut-off grade is reported in Table 7 above.



Table 9: Gold Cut-off Grade Calculation Parameters

Input Parameters Units Cost Notes Mining Cost - Resource $/tonne mined 2.00 Includes mining G&A Mining Cost  Waste $/tonne mined 2.00 Includes mining G&A Oxide Processing Cost $/tonne mined 7.00 Excludes G&A costs Oxide Au Recovery % 86 Oxide / Sulfide Boundary (1) CN Au : FA Au 0.6 Sulfide Processing Cost $/tonne milled 16.00 Excludes G&A costs Sulfide Au Recovery % 91 Dore Transport Cost $/oz Au 1.15 Dore Refining Cost $/oz Au 1.00 G&A and Rehabilitation Cost $/tonne milled 4.00 Pit Slopes degrees 48 Au Payability % 99.5 Au Selling Price - Base Case $/oz 1,050 Mining dilution % 0 Mining recovery % 100 Net Smelter Return Royalty on Au % 1.7

AuCN is cyanide leachable gold, AuFA is total gold.

Assumptions used to derive the cut-off grades and define the resource-limiting pits are estimated in order to meet the NI43-101 requirement for mineral resource estimates to demonstrate reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction. The cut-off grades to be used in the upcoming feasibility study may vary from those used to limit the mineral resources reported herein, as the inputs to that study are determined. No inference is implied in the changes to the assumptions used in the cut-off grade calculations from the prior mineral resource estimates as to what will be used in the upcoming feasibility, as those assumptions remain to be determined.

Updated Technical Report and Upcoming Feasibility Study

The details of four mineral resource estimates for Yellow Pine, Hangar Flats, West End and Historic Tailings will be provided in a NI43-101 Technical Report to be filed in conjunction with the completion of the feasibility study scheduled for later in 2018.

With the completion of the mineral resource estimates contained herein, the results of the metallurgical test programs and the other engineering, design and baseline work completed, Midas Gold and its consultants are currently completing mine planning, estimates of capital and operating costs, and other components of the planned feasibility study. The feasibility study is anticipated to be completed in late 2018 and results will be announced when appropriate and will be detailed in the required Technical Report.

2018 Mineral Resource Estimate Methodology

The mineral resource estimates for Yellow Pine, Hangar Flats and West End were prepared to industry standards and best practices using commercial mine-modeling and geostatistical software. Garth Kirkham, P.Geo. is the Qualified Person responsible for the Yellow Pine and Hangar Flats mineral resource estimates for the purposes of NI43-101. Bart Stryhas, C.P.G. and former Chief Geologist of the Stibnite Mine, is the Qualified Person responsible for the West End mineral resource estimate and West End geologic model for the purposes of NI43-101. The Yellow Pine and Hangar Flats geologic models and mineral resource estimates were completed under the supervision of Midas Golds Senior Resource Geologist Austin Zinsser, SME-R.M., and Exploration Manager Chris Dail, C.P.G. Each deposit was segregated into multiple estimation domains based on geologic models with the majority of mineral resources estimated using ordinary kriging interpolation of capped composites in multiple estimation passes. Search ellipse orientation and anisotropy were based on structural and geological controls and/or variogram models with first pass major axis search distances generally 40-60m, and subsequent pass distances generally 100-150m.

Midas Gold and its consultants conducted extensive statistical analyses to assess the quality of the pre-Midas Gold legacy drill hole data in preparation of 2014 PFS mineral resource estimates. Confirmatory drilling has generally shown the data to be of good quality but use of historical data still presents certain risks in mineral resource estimation due to historical drilling, sampling and assaying methodologies. The improved constraints on mineralization provided by the updated geological model at Yellow Pine have reduced the variance of resource sensitivities run with and without Bradley Mining Company pre-1953 data to within 2%. Based on these sensitivity studies, and on good reconciliation against historic production records from the Yellow Pine and Homestake pits, a limited set of pre-1953 drillholes was used in all estimation passes to improve local accuracy of the estimates rather than limiting the influence of this data through range-restricted searches, as was done in the 2014 PFS. Similarly, antimony mineral resources were estimated using some pre-1953 drilling but were limited to areas where confirmatory Midas Gold drilling established continuity of this mineralization.

Mineral Resources are classified under the categories of Measured, Indicated and Inferred according to Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) guidelines. Mineral resource classification for gold was based primarily on drillhole spacing and on continuity of mineralization. Measured resources were defined at Yellow Pine as blocks with an average distance to three drillholes of less than ~15m (50 feet) and occurring within the Central Yellow Pine or Homestake estimation domains where historic production occurred. Indicated resources were defined as those with an average distance to three drillholes of less than ~36m (120 feet) at Yellow Pine and ~30m (100 feet) at Hangar Flats. Indicated resources at West End were defined as those with an average drillhole spacing of less than ~30m (100 feet) and meeting additional requirements. Final resource classification shells were manually constructed on sections. Antimony and silver are not classified separately and are reported based on gold classification. A full description of the modeling methodologies for each deposit will be included in a technical report scheduled for release in conjunction with completion of feasibility study for the Project. Modeling methodologies for the Historic Tailings mineral resource estimates are discussed in a news release dated October 28th, 2013.

Illustrations

Diagrams illustrating the locations of each of the mineral deposits for which mineral resource estimates are reported herein, including plans and sections showing changes from the 2014 mineral resource estimates, can be viewed by clicking here.

For further information about Midas Gold Corp., please contact:

Liz Monger  Manager, Investor Relations

(t) 778.724.4704

(e): This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/midasgoldidaho

Twitter: @MidasIdaho

www.midasgoldcorp.com

Compliance with National Instrument 43-101

The technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 (NI43-101) and reviewed and approved by Stephen P. Quin, P.Geo., President and CEO of Midas Gold Corp., and a Qualified Person. The exploration and drilling activities at Stibnite carried out by Midas Gold were undertaken under the supervision of Richard Moses, C.P.G., Field Operations Manager for the Stibnite Gold Project, Chris Dail, C.P.G., Exploration Manager for the Stibnite Gold Project, Austin Zinsser, SME-R.M., Senior Resource Geologist for the Stibnite Gold Project, and Kent Turner, SME-R.M., all Qualified Persons.

Garth Kirkham, P.Geo., of Kirkham Geosystems Ltd. is the Qualified Person, as defined in National Instrument 43-101, responsible for the Yellow Pine and Hangar Flats mineral resource estimates as reported herein. He has read and approved the relevant technical portions of this news release related to the mineral resource estimates for which he is responsible. Bart Stryhas, C.P.G. and former Chief Geologist of the Stibnite Mine (part of the West End deposit), is the Qualified Person responsible for the West End mineral resource estimate and West End geologic model for the purposes of NI43-101. He has read and approved the relevant technical portions of this news release related to the mineral resource estimates for which he is responsible.

Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Mineral resource estimates do not account for mineability, selectivity, mining loss and dilution. These mineral resource estimates include inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied.

The Project mineral resources are contained within areas that have seen historic disturbance resulting from prior mining activities. In order for Midas Gold to advance its interests, the Project will be subject to a number of Federal, State and local laws and regulations and will require permits to conduct its activities. However, Midas Gold is not aware of any environmental, permitting, legal or other reasons that would prevent it from advancing the Project.

About Midas Gold

Midas Gold Corp., through its wholly owned subsidiaries Midas Gold Idaho, Inc., Idaho Gold Resources, LLC and Stibnite Gold Company, is focused on the exploration and, if warranted, development of deposits in the StibniteYellow Pine district of central Idaho. The principal gold deposits identified to date within the Project are the Hangar Flats, West End and Yellow Pine deposits, all of which are associated with important structural corridors, as well as a mineral resource contained in Historic Tailings.

Forward-Looking Information

Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "Forward-Looking Information") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward Looking Information includes, but is not limited to, disclosure regarding possible events, conditions or financial performance that is based on assumptions about future economic conditions and courses of action including actions taken with the goal of improving, expanding and de-risking previously defined mineral resources; the timing and availability of future drill results; the potential for antimony production from the Project; the anticipated completion of a feasibility study and filing of a NI 43-101 technical report in conjunction therewith; potential sites for additional drilling that could result in potential improved confidence, enhanced economic returns and/or extending higher grade areas. In certain cases, Forward-Looking Information can be identified by the use of words and phrases such as once, estimates", "potential", "confirm", if or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" "be achieved". In preparing the Forward-Looking Information in this news release, Midas Gold Corp. (the Corporation) has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to, that pending drill results will be available in a timely manner without undue delay; that areas identified as potential sites for additional drilling will yield results consistent with management's expectations based on the 2014 PFS; any additional financing needed will be available on reasonable terms; the exchange rates for the U.S. and Canadian currencies will be consistent with the Corporation's expectations; that the current objectives concerning the Stibnite Gold Project can be achieved and that its other corporate activities will proceed as expected; that the current price and demand for gold will be sustained or will improve; that general business and economic conditions will not change in a materially adverse manner and that all necessary governmental approvals for the planned activities on the Stibnite Gold Project will be obtained in a timely manner and on acceptable terms; the continuity of the price of gold and other metals, economic and political conditions and operations. Forward-Looking Information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Corporation to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the Forward-Looking Information. Such risks and other factors include, among others, the industry-wide risks and project-specific risks identified in the 2014 PFS and summarized above; risks related to the availability of financing on commercially reasonable terms; operations and contractual obligations; changes in exploration programs based upon results of exploration, including drill results; changes in estimated mineral reserves or mineral resources; future prices of metals; availability of third party contractors; availability of equipment; failure of equipment to operate as anticipated; accidents, effects of weather and other natural phenomena and other risks associated with the mineral exploration industry; environmental risks, including environmental matters under US federal and Idaho rules and regulations; impact of environmental remediation requirements and the terms of existing and potential consent decrees on the Corporation's planned exploration and development activities on the Stibnite Gold Project; certainty of mineral title; community relations; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing; fluctuations in mineral prices; the Corporation's dependence on one mineral project; the nature of mineral exploration and mining and the uncertain commercial viability of certain mineral deposits; the Corporation's lack of operating revenues; governmental regulations and the ability to obtain necessary licenses and permits; risks related to mineral properties being subject to prior unregistered agreements, transfers or claims and other defects in title; currency fluctuations; changes in environmental laws and regulations and changes in the application of standards pursuant to existing laws and regulations which may increase costs of doing business and restrict operations; risks related to dependence on key personnel; and estimates used in financial statements proving to be incorrect; as well as those factors discussed in the Corporation's public disclosure record. Although the Corporation has attempted to identify important factors that could affect the Corporation and may cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in Forward-Looking Information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that Forward-Looking Information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Information. Except as required by law, the Corporation does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to Forward-Looking Information contained in this news release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.



Note to US Investors

This news release has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the securities laws in effect in Canada, which differ from the requirements of United States securities laws. The terms mineral resource, indicated mineral resource and inferred mineral resource are defined in and required to be disclosed by NI 43101; however, these terms are not defined terms under SEC Industry Guide 7 and are normally not permitted to be used in reports and registration statements filed with the SEC. Investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of mineral deposits in these categories will ever be converted into reserves. Inferred mineral resources have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or prefeasibility studies, except in rare cases. Investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource exists or is economically or legally mineable. Disclosure of contained ounces in a resource is permitted disclosure under Canadian regulations; however, the SEC normally only permits issuers to report mineralization that does not constitute reserves by SEC Industry Guide 7 standards as in place tonnage and grade without reference to unit measures. Indicated mineral resource and inferred mineral resource have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and a great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an indicated mineral resource or inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of mineral deposits in these categories will ever be converted into reserves. Accordingly, information contained in this News Release contain descriptions of the Companys mineral deposits that may not be comparable to similar information made public by U.S. companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements under the United States federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder.TORONTO, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HARTE GOLD CORP. (Harte Gold or the Company) (TSX:HRT) (OTC:HRTFF) (Frankfurt:H4O) is pleased to announce an updated Mineral Resource Estimate and significant increase over the NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate contained in the Companys Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA), dated July 12, 2012.

Using a 3.0 g/t Au cut-off, which will form the basis of the Companys new mine plan, the Mineral Resource Estimate dated February 15, 2018 contains an Indicated Mineral Resource of 2,607,000 tonnes grading 8.52 g/t for 714,200 ounces of contained gold and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 3,590,000 tonnes, grading 6.59 g/t for 760,800 ounces of contained gold. Please see the table below for a sensitivity analysis.

Stephen G. Roman, President and CEO of Harte Gold Corp. commented, We are very pleased with the results of the Mineral Resource update based largely on the 2017 drill program. With the Middle Zone discovery and the extension of the Sugar Zone down dip we have now delineated 1.5 million ounces and have demonstrated this Deposit has significant size potential. As we have been mining at the Sugar Zone property for the last two years, we have confirmed the grade, continuity and mining method. We will continue to develop this Mineral Resource at depth and along strike.

Mineral Resource Estimate Update

Harte Gold retained P&E Mining Consultants Inc. (P&E) to update the Mineral Resource Estimate to incorporate an additional 185,000 meters of diamond drilling at the Sugar and Middle Zone areas. Harte Gold will file an NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate Update and Technical Report (Updated Technical Report) on SEDAR within 45 days of this news release.

Mineral Resource Estimate Sensitivity

Category Cut-off Grade (g/t Au) Tonnes Grade

(g/t Au) Contained Gold

(ounces) Indicated 4.00 2,110,000 9.71 658,600 3.75 2,218,000 9.43 672,100 3.50 2,338,000 9.13 686,100 3.25 2,466,000 8.83 700,000 3.00 2,607,000 8.52 714,200 2.75 2,763,000 8.20 728,600 2.50 2,908,000 7.92 740,800 Inferred 4.00 2,781,000 7.49 669,900 3.75 2,966,000 7.27 692,900 3.50 3,164,000 7.04 716,000 3.25 3,404,000 6.78 742,100 3.00 3,590,000 6.59 760,800 2.75 3,825,000 6.36 782,500 2.50 4,128,000 6.09 808,000

Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues. The Inferred Mineral Resource in this estimate has a lower level of confidence than that applied to an Indicated Mineral Resource and must not be converted to a Mineral Reserve. It is reasonably expected that the majority of the Inferred Mineral Resource could be upgraded to an Indicated Mineral Resource with continued exploration. The Mineral Resources in this report were estimated using the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves, Definitions and Guidelines prepared by the CIM Standing Committee on Reserve Definitions and adopted by the CIM Council. Advanced Exploration Bulk Sample mined out area removed from the model. The 3g/t Au cut-off was derived from US1250 Au price, US$0.80 exchange rate, C$86/t mining cost, C$28/t processing cost, C$10/t sustaining Capex, C$5/t G&A cost, US$5/oz refining cost, 96% processing recovery and USD115/oz shipping, smelting and royalty charges (averaged across total production).

Approximately 50% of the Mineral Resource classified in the Indicated Category is located in the upper 500 meters of the Sugar Zone Deposit and a portion of the Middle Zone Deposit. The Company believes the gold grade is continuous at depth and will improve as infill drilling continues. The Company is targeting approximately 30,000 meters of infill drilling at both the Sugar and Middle Zones for 2018.

Mineral Resource Estimate, at 3.0 g/t Au Cut-Off1-6

Zone Classification Tonnes Grade

(g/t Au) Contained Gold (ounces) Sugar Indicated 2,148,000 8.61 594,700 Middle Indicated 460,000 8.09 119,500 Total Indicated 2,607,000 8.52 714,200 Sugar Inferred 1,802,000 6.37 369,300 Middle Inferred 1,788,000 6.81 391,500 Total Inferred 3,590,000 6.59 760,800

Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues. The Inferred Mineral Resource in this estimate has a lower level of confidence than that applied to an Indicated Mineral Resource and must not be converted to a Mineral Reserve. It is reasonably expected that the majority of the Inferred Mineral Resource could be upgraded to an Indicated Mineral Resource with continued exploration. The Mineral Resources in this report were estimated using the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves, Definitions and Guidelines prepared by the CIM Standing Committee on Reserve Definitions and adopted by the CIM Council. Advanced Exploration Bulk Sample mined out area removed from the model. The 3g/t Au cut-off was derived from US1250 Au price, US$0.80 exchange rate, C$86/t mining cost, C$28/t processing cost, C$5/t G&A cost, C$10/t sustaining Capex, US$5/oz refining cost, 96% processing recovery and USD115/oz shipping, smelting and royalty charges (averaged across total production).

Mineral Resource Estimate and Updated PEA

The updated Mineral Resource Estimate will form the basis of a the updated PEA, which includes mining at both the Sugar Zone and Middle Zones with key cost and operating inputs derived from the 70,000 tonne Advanced Exploration Bulk Sample and 30,000 tonne Phase I commercial programs. The Company expects to release the updated PEA by the end of April.

Mr. Roman commented, With all major capital components either paid or contracted, project economics are well defined. Process plant construction is on schedule and we expect to start commissioning by the beginning of H2 2018.

About Harte Gold Corp.

Harte Gold Corp. is focused on the exploration and development of its 100% owned Sugar Zone property where it has recently completed a 70,000 tonne Advanced Exploration Bulk Sample at the Sugar Zone Deposit and mined 30,000 tonnes under its Phase I Production Permit. The Sugar Zone property is located 80 kilometers east of the Hemlo Gold Camp. Using a 3 g/t Au cut-off, the Mineral Resource Estimate dated February 15, 2018 contains an Indicated Mineral Resource Estimate of 2,607,000 tonnes grading 8.52 g/t for 714,200 ounces of contained gold and an Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate of 3,590,000 tonnes, grading 6.59 g/t for 760,800 ounces of contained gold. The mineral resource was prepared in compliance with NI 43-101 guidelines. Robert Kusins, P. Geo. and Harte Golds senior Mineral Resource geologist, is the Company Qualified Person for Harte Gold and has prepared, supervised the preparation, or approved the scientific and technical disclosure in this news release. Independent Qualified Person, Eugene Puritch, P.Eng., FEC, CET of P&E Mining Consultants Inc. has reviewed and approved the technical contents of this news release.

Harte Gold also holds the Stoughton-Abitibi property located on the Destor-Porcupine Fault Zone adjacent and on strike of the Holloway Gold Mine.

QA/QC Statement

The company has implemented a quality assurance and control (QA/QC) program to ensure sampling and analysis of mine and exploration work is conducted in accordance with industry standards. Drill core is sawn in half with one half of the core shipped to Actlabs Laboratories located in Thunder Bay, ON, while the other half is retained at the Companys core facilities in White River, ON, for future verification. Certified reference standards and blanks are inserted into the sample stream on a regular interval basis and monitored as part of the QA/QC program. Gold analysis is performed by fire assay using atomic absorption, gravimetric or pulp metallic finish.

For further information, please contact: Stephen G. Roman Shawn Howarth President and CEO Vice President, Corporate Development Tel: 416-368-0999 Tel: 416-368-0999 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Toronto Stock Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Indicated and Inferred Resource DistributionAt least 10 suspected jihadists have been killed in a raid conducted by French air force on Wednesday in northeast Mali near the border with Algeria, Le360 Afrique portal reported.

The offensive was part of Frances Operation Barkhane, near Tinzaouaten at the Algerian border, military sources were quoted as saying.

The raid lasted for about an hour, according to witnesses interviewed by the correspondent of Le360 Afrique in Mali.

Vehicles targeted by the raid were visible with at least 10 dead and two vehicles destroyed, a Malian military source told AFP.

France intervened in 2012 against Islamist militants that seized northern Mali. Around 4,000 of its troops remain in West Africas Sahel region as part of Operation Barkhane, a cross-border anti-terrorism operation.

The 4,000-strong force is supporting the five-nation G5 Sahel force, designed to beef up security across the terrorism-stricken region south of the Sahara.

The G5 Sahel made up of troops from Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania launched its campaign late last year amid growing unrest in the desert, where al Qaeda and Islamic State-affiliated groups roam undetected.VANCOUVER, B.C., Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Balmoral Resources Ltd. (Balmoral or the Company) (TSX:BAR) (OTCQX:BALMF) today announced that the winter 2018 drill program on its Martiniere Gold Property in Quebec is underway, and that visible gold mineralization has been intersected in the first hole of the program. This first hole targeted the down-plunge extension of the recently discovered, near-surface Horsefly Gold Zone, which is located approximately 450 metres east of the main Bug Gold Trend on the Property.

The Company announced the discovery of the Horsefly Zone in 2017 with an intercept of 10.51 g/t gold over 5.80 metres (see NR 17-01, Jan. 11, 2017) and expanded on the discovery with subsequent drilling, including an intercept of 4.69 g/t gold over 8.38 metres (see NR 17-09, June 7, 2017). The Zone remains open down plunge and additional winter drill testing will be in order following receipt of assay results.

You cant ask for a much better start to a drill program than seeing visible gold in the first hole, in particular when you are looking to expand a recent near-surface high grade gold discovery, said Darin Wagner, President and CEO of Balmoral Resources. With the continued growth of the Bug gold deposits, the potential for expansion of a number of new gold discoveries within the broader system - including the Horsefly Zone - and the initial resource estimate from the Martiniere gold system all on tap over the next few months, there is a great deal to look forward to from our Detour Gold Trend Project. Add to that the continued recovery of the nickel price which should bring our Grasset Ni-Cu-Co-PGE deposit back into focus, and a strong treasury, and we believe Balmoral is well positioned for a strong 2018.

At Martiniere, approximately 5,000 metres of drilling is planned and underway as part of the winter 2018 exploration campaign. The winter program will be the first phase of what is expected to be a minimum $6.5 million dollar exploration expenditure on the Detour Gold Trend Project in 2018. Initial drill testing will focus on several near-surface high-grade gold discoveries proximal to the Bug Gold Trend, and two new target areas, before returning to expansion drilling on the Bug South deposit. The early focus on exploration targets will allow for additional winter drilling on these targets should results warrant.

In addition to drilling, Balmoral will undertake a large IP (induced polarization) survey in the area between its recent Lac du Doigt gold discovery, where the Company reported its strongest intercept to date in October of 2017 (7.05 g/t gold over 2.21 metres within a broadly anomalous zone of 26.33 metres grading 0.73 g/t gold - see NR 17-19, Oct. 26, 2017) and the LAM (Norbug) gold discovery located approximately 1,500 metres to the north (See Figure 1). Surface sampling in the fall of 2017 returned gold values ranging from 0.16 g/t to a high of 7.98 g/t gold in quartz-veined gabbro outcrop and boulders in the LAM area. Both the Lac du Doigt and LAM gold discoveries are interpreted to be proximal to east-west trending structural zones which parallel the regional Sunday Lake deformation zone. The multi-million ounce Detour Lake Gold mine occurs proximal to the Sunday Lake deformation zone 45 kilometres to the west.

Martiniere - Initial Resource Estimate

Work continues on the preparation of an initial resource estimate for the Martiniere gold system. This report will provide an estimate of the gold content in the near-surface portions of the four largest deposits within the system: Bug North, Bug South, Bug Lower Steep and Martiniere West. Results up to the end of the summer/fall 2017 drill season will be incorporated into the resource estimate. All of the deposits within the system remain open for expansion to depth, as do numerous proximal and secondary zones of gold mineralization.

Balmoral currently anticipates receipt of the initial resource estimate prior to the end of the first quarter of 2018.

Grasset Ni-Cu-Co-PGE Deposit

With the recent strengthening of the nickel price, and the growing interest in Class I nickel supplies to feed the anticipated demand from the electric vehicle battery market, the Company has fielded a number of enquiries regarding its near term plans for the Grasset Ni-Cu-Co-PGE deposit. Grasset is the largest undeveloped nickel sulphide deposit in the Abitibi region and remains open for expansion, as do a number of other nickel sulphide discoveries made by the Company within the Grasset Ultramafic Complex. Balmoral published an initial resource estimate for the Grasset deposit in 2016 (see NR16-04, March 7, 2016) which demonstrated very strong leverage to higher nickel prices.

The nickel price has increased substantially since work ceased on the Grasset project in 2015, having significantly outperformed the precious metals complex over the last several months. It is now approaching the nickel metal price assumption of $6.56/lb used in the Companys 2016 resource estimate. The current open market prices for all other payable metals contained within the Grasset deposit, save platinum, exceed, to greatly exceed in the case of cobalt, the price assumptions from the 2016 resource estimate, as does the current USD/CAD exchange rate.

The Company will continue to closely monitor the nickel market, including the evolving electric vehicle battery demand stream, and the larger global outlook for nickel production, and could return to active exploration and delineation at Grasset as early as the summer of 2018 if market conditions continue to stabilize and improve. The report containing the initial resource estimate for the Grasset deposit is available on the Companys website at Click Here

Quality Control

Mr. Darin Wagner (P.Geo.), President and CEO of the Company, is the non-independent qualified person for the technical disclosure contained in this news release. Mr. Wagner has supervised the work programs on the Companys properties since inception, visited the properties on multiple occasions, examined the drill core from the holes summarized in this release, discussed, reviewed the results with senior on-site geological staff and reviewed the available analytical and quality control results.VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / December 2, 2020 / Torq Resources Inc. (TSXV:TORQ) (OTCQX:TRBMF) ("Torq" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has appointed a highly experienced exploration and logistics team in Chile. This is an important step for the Company as it builds a portfolio of high... Read MoreIn a historic decision regarding crimes against humanity committed by the military dictatorship (1964-1985) against the indigenous Kinja people (also known as Waimiri-Atroari), the Brazilian Federal Justice of the state of Amazonas put out restraining orders against the Federal Government and the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), opening the way for an unprecedented judicial acknowledgement of the violence suffered by the Kinja Indigenous during that period.

In this first writ on 01.19.2018 the court obliged the Federal Government to present in the next 15 days all the documents concerning the military operations carried out between 1967 and 1977 in Amazonas and determined that FUNAI shall immediately protect the sacred sites still threatened by the invasion of Kinjas land. Containing 1,500 pages of documentation, the judicial proceeding might be the first in history where a national court holds the Brazilian State accountable for genocide.

Amazon Forest

After the military coup in 1964, the government developed an official strategy for the occupation and exploitation of the North of Brazil, where the Amazon Forest and the ancestral land of many indigenous people are located. As part of the plan that longed for a Great Brazil, from 1968 to 1977 the federal government has built the road BR-174 connecting Manaus (Amazonas) to Boa Vista (Roraima), splitting the Kinjas land and authorizing the use of force to discourage their historic resistance in having their sacred places occupied by outsiders.

According to the National Truth Commission and the Truth Committee of the State of Amazonas the construction of the BR-174 by the militaries claimed the lives of thousands of the Kinja, whose population was reduced from 3,000 individuals (in the 70s) to 332 individuals (in the 80s), as a result of comissive and omissive acts by the Army and the National Indian Foundation (Funai, in Portuguese initials). In addition, testimonies collected by the Federal Prosecutors Office (MPF, in Portuguese initials) reported that many corpses were buried in mass graves opened on the side of the road and that airstrikes were conducted over the Kinjas villages, also reporting the use of chemical substances similar to napalm.

(Airplanes, helicopters, bombs, machine guns, electric cables and weird diseases  a Kinjas drawing shows the attacks during the genocide in the 70s)

Torture

Other episodes of abuse committed by the dictatorship against indigenous groups in Brazil are known and some are being investigated. In 2012, for exemple, Marcelo Zelic, from Grupo Tortura Nunca Mais, have disclosed images of individuals of the group Krenak, from Minas Gerais, attending to a military parade as members of a Rural Indigenous Guard and being victims of a public demonstration of the use of torture instruments. On the parade a Krenak individual was tied to a Pau-de-Arara. The Krenak were also victims of cultural genocide trough military attacks, occupation of their land and confinement on public reformatories, for instance. Another group directly affected by the Brazilian dictatorship is the Surui, from Para, recognized in 2015 by the Amnesty Commission of the Ministry of Justice as victims of attacks conducted by the Army during the Araguaia Guerrilla. Finally, in 2000 the case of the Panara people, which was also affected by the construction of a new road in the North from Cuiaba to Santarem (Para) during the dictatorship, the Federal Justice have condemned the State to repair the damages caused by the interethnic contacts, for spreading diseases between the Panara, and for the displacement of their people.

Following legal channels, the acknowledgment of the genocide and other gross human rights offenses would be especially remarkable considering the wide effects that a self-amnesty law (approved by the dictatorship in 1979) still represents to transitional justice in Brazil. The law is widely applied by criminal courts, raising obstacles to criminal investigations, convictions and frustrating all charges against offenders brought to Justice by the MPFs prosecutors over the last decades. This legal understanding was validated by the Federal Supreme Court (STF, in portuguese initials) in 2010, just before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights declares that Brazils self-amnesty law was incompatible with the American Convention of Human Rights.

Although the criminal way remain blocked, making the State accountable for the Kinjas genocide and other gross human rights violation would be an important non-criminal precedent for those who struggle against obstacles to accountability in cases of human rights violations where public policies have severely harmed social groups, especially political minorities like indigenous, afro-brazilians, slum residences etc. As said in MPFs suit the violation committed by the State have permanent effect on the Kinjas people, what can be observed in different situations across the country were people affected by inhuman policies and acts are not yet declared victims of the military dictatorship. But the findings in the Kinjas case might be wider than the transitional justices achievements concerning the military period. In fact, it would be the first court decision ever to ensure accountability of the Brazilian State for genocide, country were genocide is a practice that travels across the centuries to the present. In 2006 the STF upheld the conviction of genocide against four miners who murdered 16 Yanomami Indians in 1993, what represented an important warning at the time to those individuals who continue to commit crimes against indigenous people in Brazil.

Sacred sites

The Amazonas Federal Court will meet again on the 02.14.2018 to listen to the Kinja Indigenous, when they will point their sacred sites out to be protected by Funai. Beyond the exclusive accountability of the government that have set up a conscious and global program oriented for the genocide and ethnocide of that people the MPF requests the creation of a Memory Site regarding the human rights violation against the indigenous people in Brazil, the collective reparation in the amount of R$ 50 millions (U$ 15.400.255,00), official apologies for all the losses suffered by the Waimiri-Atroari, among other measures.Fifteen Russians employed in Syria by a private security company were killed when an unexplained explosion rocked an arms depot at their base in the war-torn country, a monitor said Wednesday.

The incident happened at the companys weapons storage facility at Tabiya Jazira a few days ago in the northeastern province of Deir Ezzor, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Observatory directory Rami Abdel Rahman said the company in question was in charge of protecting the oil and gas fields controlled by the Syrian regime.

Fifteen Russians working for a Russian private security company were killed in an explosion at a weapons depot of the company in Tabiya Jazira in Deir Ezzor province, he told AFP.

Seven other people, mostly pro-regime Syrian fighters, died in the blast, he added.

The Russian workers had been at the site when regime forces were trying to take the Coneco gas field controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters.

Their reported deaths come after the US-led coalition against jihadists struck the Coneco plant on Thursday in retaliation for an attack on an SDF base near the gas field on the eastern bank of the Euphrates river.

The US-led coalition said Thursday it killed at least 100 pro-regime fighters to fend off an attack on its allies in eastern Syria, in one its deadliest confrontations yet with forces backing Damascus.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground in Syria, said 45 pro-regime fighters were killed.

The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad denounced the strikes as a war crime.

The US-led coalition was established in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, but it has bombed troops loyal to Damascus on several occasions.South Africa is the continents most industrialised economy and among its most developed, but marked by gaping inequalities rooted in years of racist white-minority rule that ended in 1994.

 Apartheid 

Black South Africans, around 80 percent of the population, voted for the first time only in 1994.

It was a moment of jubilation after a bitter decades-long struggle against white-minority rule.

British and Dutch settlers arrived at Africas southern tip from the 17th century, first using it as a stopover on the shipping route to Asia and later claiming colonies.

They imposed discriminatory laws early on, restricting non-whites to unskilled jobs and limiting land ownership and free movement.

This developed into the radical system of apartheid, institutionalised in 1948, which kept the races apart with a host of discriminatory laws that disadvantaged black people in particular.

 Mandela 

Anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela became South Africas first black president in 1994 after spending 27 years in jail when even his image was banned.

His release in 1990 heralded the transition to democracy for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize with the last white president, F. W. de Klerk.

Mandelas death in December 2013 unleashed a wave of public emotion around the world.

 Rainbow Nation 

Post-apartheid South Africa painted itself as an example of democracy and tolerance, adopting 11 official languages, pledging free homes and education, and establishing a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

But nearly 25 years on, much of the goodwill has been lost in corruption scandals and weak governance.

With a population of 55.7 million (2016), the country still has a dual economy with one of the highest inequality rates in the world, the World Bank says.

Despite the emergence of a black middle-class, 47 percent of blacks lived in poverty in 2015 compared to 0.4 percent of whites, Statistics South Africa says.

Most of the countrys arable land remains in the hands of white farmers.

 Economic woes 

South Africa accounts for 70 percent of the world production of platinum and is among the leading suppliers of gold, diamonds and coal. Manufacturing and agriculture are also key sectors.

Growth resumed in April 2017 after six months of recession but is estimated at only 0.7 percent in 2017.

Unemployment is at a record level of 27.7 percent, rising to 50 percent among youths, and business confidence is at its lowest level since the end of apartheid.

 Sunny SA 

With unspoiled beaches, winelands and animal reserves, the country was the continents leading tourist destination behind Morocco in 2016.

There were more than 10 million visitors in 2016, a near 13 percent rise from the previous year, and the sector employs one in 22 people with jobs.

 Crime, HIV 

South Africa suffers high levels of crime, including 34 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015/16, according to police, higher than other countries considered dangerous such as Colombia and Brazil.

It also has the largest HIV epidemic in the world, with 19 percent of the global number of people living with HIV, 15 percent of new infections and 11 percent of AIDS-related deaths.

Sources: Statistics South Africa, UNAIDS, UNESCO, World Bank, World Tourism Authority.344 Shares Share

On September 5th, 2017, the Trump administration denounced the further implementation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and called for its revocation in 6 months. Opponents quickly voiced their concerns towards the unjust decree. Now, the deadline is near and a heightened urgency to act is imperative. To encourage advocacy and help legislators understand the vitality of DACA-recipients, the following displays the power of the undocumented.

Days after news of the intended repeal, hundreds of Harvard Medical School (HMS) students convened in moments of solace to commiserate over the impending repercussions. One event at HMS gathered a crowd that exemplified vast heterogeneity, despite the largely homogenous demographic (~80% Mexican) of DACA recipients. Although I felt ebullient of the rallys attendance, my feeling of elation juxtaposed that of confusion.

My reason to stand for DACA felt clear. I grew up with Nicaraguan immigrant parents in an impoverished area of Los Angeles where most lacked American documentation. The disparities we faced resulted in my unabated passion to advocate for this vulnerable group. I wondered why some of my colleagues mobilized to represent marginalized individuals they did not resemble in class, race or socioeconomic status. If their attitudes towards undocumented immigrants were adaptive rather than innate, then the fragment of our countrys leaders and the quarter of our nation who agree to abrogate DACA might be malleable to a change in disposition.

To investigate the value of undocumented immigrants, I interviewed five of my classmates. First, I spoke with Katie Schaffer from suburban Ohio. Her formative years were spent in an affluent community where roughly 96 percent of the population identified as white and non-immigrant. Following Trumps election, Katie met a pregnant patient under temporary protected status seeking help to finance her medical care. The woman adamantly inquired more about her immigrant status and its interplay with her health insurance qualifications than she did about her childs health. This previously intangible episode helped Katie cultivate a familiarity to the deplorable obstacles immigrants experience. She credits her current DACA fervor to this momentous interaction.

For Suhas Gondi, similar moments of introspection arose from analyzing magnified inequities concomitant to the repeals negative implications on medical students and the overarching health care system. In 2015, only 4.6 percent of graduating medical students identified as Latinx, while a marginal proportion of current physicians indicated DACA status. The booming Latinx population demands similarly cultured physicians who can help educate their colleagues and effectively communicate with this patient subset. Suhas appropriately fears that attenuating class diversity will unequivocally hurt students clinical development and adversely alter the physician demographic.

Katie and Suhas recollections demonstrate the feasibility of broadening non-immigrants perspectives by identifying and responding to human suffering. This level of learning is not exclusive to non-immigrants. If DACA is abolished, immigrants granted amnesty or documentation via other routes may also face injurious repercussions. Furthermore, DACA students may lose their impetus for success without an inclusive political climate. The depiction of wide-ranging viewpoints is crucial to evoke DACAs boundless impact.

In the 1990s, Peter Kalugin and his family fled Russia, ultimately assimilating in the United States. After leaving a scholarly area of Texas for New Mexico, Peter noticed rampant disparities insidiously affecting his fellow peers. To curtail related inequalities, he helped compile a state-mandated annual report on partner violence-related deaths. Scant records and shoddy police reports on disenfranchised populations were ominously pervasive. The absence of perspicacious data stunned Peter. Reflecting on these inequities served as the catalyst for his support of DACA.

Mexican native Blanca Morales immigrated to California in the early 90s. In grade school, Blancas teachers placed posters in opportunistic locations to remind students of the self-alluring American dream. Unfittingly, one component conducive to success failed to present on her path: the political agenda at the time precluded Blanca from becoming a doctor. Introducing DACA materialized her goal of serving the needy. She credits her success to opportunity and unrelenting familial support, which invariably resulted in Blancas robust work ethic and tenacity.

While Blanca ethnically represents ~80 percent of DACA, recipients, the ostensibly forgotten 20 percent comprise settlers from South Korea, Brazil, El Salvador and other countries. DACAs repeal, therefore, manifests as a pervasive reduction of diversity throughout the United States. Jamaican DACA student Anthony Tucker-Bartley represents one of these smaller, but no less important, ethnic groups.

Anthony emigrated to New York at age seven and rapidly bonded with his classmates through sports, childhood antics and the pledge of allegiance. Inexorable hardships complicated his transition to America. His inability to receive educational federal funding prevented him from attending certain colleges. Undaunted, he visualized the barriers as challenges rather than a hindrance. The support of his family and mentors resulted in his enrollment at Wagner College, and subsequently HMS. As it did for Blanca, DACA pillared Anthonys dream.

These poignant and inspiring conversations draw two conclusions: One, undocumented immigrants positively contribute to individuals from all walks of life. The repeal will, therefore, produce irreparable damage to the entire spectrum of American communities. Certainly, this dismal prediction is one reason why DACA supporters from distinct backgrounds unite on this issue. Secondly, my classmates inculcated lessons demonstrate the malleability of perspective. This point is most relevant for those who support the Trump Administrations decision to nullify DACA. I urge these individuals to interact with undocumented immigrants or to introspect after identifying a biased injustice. Change will only come through action.

DACA is not the most comprehensive solution for empowering our undocumented allies. It is simply the bare minimum required from a nation built by the calloused hands of immigrants. The future of America stands tenuously without a vital segment of society. We must voice our impassioned opinions, congregate with fortitude, widen our perspectives and shed light on the inhumanity of this repeal. Avoiding the deportation of approximately 800,000 individuals with promising futures and innocent children relies on our response. Lets expose the potential of DACA recipients and value their positively marked effect on our nation. Only then will we overcome this nearing travesty.

David Velasquez is a medical student.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com7K Shares Share

As a boy growing up in a small town in Pennsylvania, I never gave much thought to the concept of a kiss. My family gave and received kisses without hesitation. I continue to give and receive kisses from my wife and kids in the same nonchalant manner.

Until one night  on shift.

I work in the ER of a medium-sized town in southern Oregon. It was late into my shift. The call came in: Helicopter en route, 32-year-old male, gunshot wound to the head, self-inflicted, airway is a nightmare, ETA 3 minutes.

The usual prep ensues. Respiratory therapists arrive to help set up. Nurses pull the trauma packet and prep IVs and monitors. And then, we wait.

Ive always found in these moments, when all physical preparation is complete, that there is an opportunity. The unknown can make even the best medical staff feel angst. I use these opportunities to remind the staff of a few key points. First, we cant control everything. Second, the staff is skilled and need to remain confident of those skills. Third, speak only when necessary. And, most importantly, I tell the staff that I believe in them. And I do.

The patient rolls in. He looks horrible. His head has an entry wound on the right temple area and an exit on the opposite side. Blood caked his head and hair. His mouth was full of blood. The primary survey is straightforward. Airway, breathing, and circulation followed by neuro assessment and exposure. The airway stops us. He has an endotracheal tube in place, but its not functioning and needs to be replaced with a tube that will stay secure. While trying to visualize the vocal cords and suctioning blood, I removed the defunct endotracheal tube. The coagulated blood was sticky, and the ET tube wouldnt initially pass. I used the largest one available. I passed it blindly, hoping I was still in the appropriate location.

Next, I was anxious to get the patient to CT. However, his vital signs deteriorated. First, his blood pressure rose to a very high level, and his heart rate decreased  known as the Cushing response. There are steps you can take to treat this phenomenon, but its presence signifies imminent death.

I ordered the usual treatment. It didnt matter. His heart began to slow further, and we lost his pulse. Ultimately, we got his heart rhythm back to a sinus rhythm, but despite this, his pulse didnt return. He received a lot of medicine but didnt experience a perfusing pulse.

Just then, nursing staff told me that the family had arrived. I froze. A wave of nausea came over me as I envisioned the drama that might occur. In 2000, the American Heart Association recommended the option of Family Presence During Resuscitation (FPDR). Although the studies showed that families want to be present, it has been only slowly adopted in the medical community.

I decided to talk to the family just outside the curtain of the trauma bay. The wife was in her early 30s, brown hair, combed in a straight style. Despite her tears, she appeared determined. The parents were in their mid 50s and dressed in business attire. After a short interaction, it was clear that the wife may be able to enter the trauma bay, but the parents may do better outside the room.

I opened the curtain to the trauma bay and led her in. She was trying to remain strong, and I noticed that she was holding on to stationary objects as she passed them. She went to the head of the bed and was visibly searching for a way to touch her husband. He was underneath a tangle of IVs, cardiac telemetry wires, ventilator tubing and pacemaker pads. It was apparent that she didnt quite know how to connect with her husband  but needed to  in a concrete, physical way. Her eyes scanned his body looking for a way to interact, but, finding none, had a perplexed, sad appearance. She leaned over her husbands face and whispered, Im here, I love you.

As time went on, it became clear that it was futile. The patient had been without a pulse for some time now and had undergone extensive treatment without success. I asked my usual, preparatory inquiry: Does anyone object to terminating the resuscitative efforts? At this moment the patients wife turned to me. She realized that the moment was imminent. She knew that this would be the last time on this earth that her husband would be officially alive. She turned to her husband and positioned her head nose to nose with him. She whispered, Im here. I love you. Then, with blood caking his face and lips, she leaned in and kissed him on the lips. It was genuine, affectionate and not burdened by what others thought. She made that connection with him that she had been attempting since she entered the trauma bay. She did it on her terms despite the insanity of the circumstances. This was a genuine sign of affection that was unencumbered by societal norms. The room was silent with the exception of the ventilator hum. No one dared speak. We were all sanctified by the same spirit. It was a holy moment. You could tell that she wanted it to last forever, and in some small way  we did too, but she realized the impracticality of that unverbalized request. She finished her kiss and turned toward me. She looked at me and nodded her head slightly  acknowledging the inevitable.

I called the code at 0131 hours. I thanked everyone for their efforts.

Ill never know what events led this man to take his life. What I do know is that he was loved on this earth by at least one person. And now, as I kiss my wife or kids goodnight or just because, I do it with a slightly different tenor. I understand, with a little more depth, what a kiss can signify.

Lee David Milligan is an emergency physician.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com832 Shares Share

I am a physician in recovery and just celebrated my fifth-year anniversary on October 11, 2017.

While in active addiction, my drugs of choice were benzodiazepines and opioids that I washed down with top-shelf alcohol. Near the end of my usage, I was diverting scheduled drugs in order to feed my addiction. After an unsuccessful suicide attempt, I finally admitted myself for treatment.

As part of the treatment process, I enrolled with our states physician help program (PHP). Because of my diversion, they were obligated to report me to the medical board who in turn suspended my license for six months. After that time period, the suspension was stayed, but it still meant that my license was restricted. The difference is moot since you cant work in clinical practice either way.

The board restrictions led to my board certification with the American Board of Family Medicine being revoked.

The diversion led to a DEA investigation, subsequent charges and a conviction for obtaining controlled substances by fraud. When the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services learned of the conviction, I was placed in the Office of the Inspector General exclusion list, meaning that federal payors will not enroll me in their programs. That exclusion cascades down to private insurers as well.

My addiction and subsequent recovery lifestyle changes led to a divorce. Legal defense and DEA fines led to my having to withdraw, with a 10 percent penalty since I was under 59 and a half, over $150,000 from my retirement account.

When I returned from treatment, I became a pariah among my physician colleagues in the health care corporation where I had worked for 22 years. What I needed at that fragile early recovery stage were kudos and a pat on the back. What I got were cold shoulders. I was quickly escorted to the exit and asked never to return. They said it was something to do with protecting the companys reputation and image. Having one of me there would be tarnishing.

Despite all of this, there is good news. Through hard work my license has been returned to an unrestricted status, my board certification reinstated and a restricted DEA certificate granted. I have remarried and am fortunate to have a woman in my life who understands and supports my recovery lifestyle. I have a new career in health informatics which pays as well as clinical medicine.

Though life has slowly returned to some semblance of normalcy, there are painful wounds that remain; ones that serve as a reminder of my past as well as how fragile recovery is. The legal conviction will be there for life, reminding me of the consequences of my disease. On August 15, 2017, I lost a daughter to suicide after a long battle with mental illness and addiction. Why Ive remained in recovery while she failed will forever haunt me. I would have gladly put the rope that snuffed her life out around my neck to save her. In a heartbeat. Without a second thought.

I accept the consequences of my addiction and am learning to live with the grief of my daughters death. I fight the demons, some of whom inhabit human bodies, whispering among themselves that her death was further punishment for my actions.

I dont feel sorry for myself. Frankly, Im glad to be alive. Physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, Ive never been healthier. My life experiences make me better equipped to practice clinical medicine than ever before. Though health informatics is interesting, I miss the patient care. There is a drug epidemic in our society, and Im standing on the sidelines. Im far more compassionate and empathetic than I was before my recovery.

My desire to return to clinical practice is like a soldier whos fought a difficult battle wanting to return to the trenches. Why in the world would they do that? Because its not about them. Its about their brothers and sisters who are still fighting the war.

Stories like mine are not unusual among those in my profession. Seeking help for substance use disorder can mean huge consequences for physicians. Fair or not, its the price we pay for getting better.

Ive witnessed the lack of understanding that many physicians have regarding how to treat those suffering from addiction as well as those in recovery. Substance use disorder is a chronic disease and needs to be treated as such. Diabetes needs to be at the top of a diabetic patients problem list because maintaining good glycemic control can decrease the severity of complications such as retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy. Likewise, recovery needs to be at the top of a patient in recoverys chart for if it fails, so too does physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.

With rare exceptions, doctors shouldnt prescribe controlled substances to a recovering addict with the advice to fill it if you need it. Our brains dont work that way. Well fill those prescriptions, more than likely abuse them and potentially return to the hell of addiction. Ive experienced this type of clinical scenario as have many friends of mine in recovery.

I share my story freely to anyone who will listen. I imagine some of those in my audience are physicians struggling with their own substance use disorder. They are among the estimated 10 percent of impaired doctors in active practice. After hearing my story, will they get the help they need or hide further in their addiction closet? The former could subject them to journeys like mine; the latter could endanger their lives as well as those of their patients.

Many have said that I deserve what happened to me; that I should never return to clinical practice. In todays social media society, those type of judgments are rendered in anonymity. Its like water off of the back of a duck to me. Insert your feet into my shoes, walk in them for five years and then get back to me.

The cost of recovery has been great professionally and personally. The reward is a renewed life. Though I walk with scars and a limp, overall it has been worth the pain. Sometimes I wonder, though, who else out there would pay this hefty price for recovery.

Luther Philaya is a family physician.

Image credit: Shutterstock.comA trawl through times past is the treasure trove on offer in the latest edition of The Old Kilkenny Review.

The new edition, which was launched last Thursday, features articles on the archaeological site discovered on the Callan Road during the road realignment there, a bronze age hill fort in North Kilkenny and the story of the Shea brothers from Chapel Lane in the city but with strong links to Firoda, Castlecomer.

In a story very similar to Saving Private Ryan, the article by James OKeeffe chronicles the military careers of the five Shea boys who fought in World War I.

Only one - Michael - survived. The four other brothers are buried across the Continent.

After being wounded, Michael returned home after the war to his maternal grandparents lands in Firoda where he farmed with his youngest brother, James.

Persecution and Deliverance in 16th Century Kilkenny is another excellent piece. The cover alludes to a never-before-published account of a visit to Dunmore Caves in 1806 in the Kilkenny Archaeological Society publication.

However, the most controversial paper, even almost 100 years later, is the one by Michael ODwyer on the compensation claims following on from the Irish Civil War.

One that stands out is a claim made in 1924 by a Michael J OBrien, Callan for 2,500. This was for being driven from his home with his wife and family and being evicted.

Lord Desart was awarded 19,000 for the burning down of Desart Court, of which, 12,000 was conditional on it being rebuilt.

In a letter unearthed by Michael, we learn from Lord Dysarts daughter that: As it was impossible for my father to undertake the rebuilding of Desart, he handed the property over to his niece, Lady Kathleen Pilkington who rebuilt the house which was completed in 1936.

However, it has now vanished. To find out why, youll have to buy the Review, which is excellently edited by Coilin ODrisceoil.

The other major compensation claim to stand out was made successfully by Mary Murphy, Club house and Kilmogar for residence damaged and lands grazed 3,000.

The review was launched by Muiris OSullivan, Associate Professor of Archaeology at UCD and is a must-read for anyone interested in their own place and its history.A local councillor says he has identified at least 30 vacant properties, not including above-the-shop units, in Kilkenny City centre alone, which are potentially suitable for housing.

Cllr Malcolm Noonan is calling on the Government to tackle the vacancy and dereliction rates in County Kilkenny, as the Green Party launches its Living Cities Bill 2017, aimed at bringing life back to city and town centres, discouraging land hoarding, and tackling dereliction and vacancy.

Among the locations with multiple vacant properties Cllr Noonan lists are Wellington Square, Patrick Street, Ballybought Street and Friary Street.

It is absolute madness that we have a situation in Ireland where we have 27 empty homes for every one person in emergency accommodation, he said.

We also have significant issues with dereliction, and land hoarding by developers. This needs to change, and change fast.

We have 9% of our housing stock empty here in County Kilkenny, with 198,358 empty nationwide, according to the CSO. This number doesnt include derelict buildings, and doesnt measure the potential housing units that could be developed on vacant land in city and town centres.

The Green Party councillor said the the aims of the Bill are simple, and have the potential to instigate meaningful change.More and more people are shopping online and it is having a devastating impact on our shops, the people we know that work in them and on the fabric of commercial life in the citys core.

Soon, we will be able to order everything from home and have it delivered there as well.

There will be no interaction and it will lead to social exclusion. I think this is coming and no one is doing anything to address it.

Anthropologists have told us that the more connected people are with their community and the more interaction they have within that community, the better quality of life they enjoy and the longer they live.

As the number of vacant shops increases in the city, it looks as if the lovely shopping core of the city will disappear within a short few years and with it the money generated by them for the local authority through commercial rates. And in a few years time, the very people who shop online will be bemoaning the fact that a certain shop closed or that a particular outlet is no more.

One shop closed recently in large part because people were walking in to the shop, trying stuff on and then going off and buying the same items online at a reduced price. Short term thinking. Now they cant do that any more with this particular boutique shop run by the most wonderful woman.

Retail Ireland have said that 2017 was notable for a rapid increase in online shopping by Irish consumers with last Christmas showing record online sales with the Irish consumer now more comfortable than ever shopping in the virtual world. This lays the challenge squarely at the door of the traditional Irish retail sector.

Retail Ireland boss Thomas Burke pointed out that the majority of online trade leaves the State on a daily basis, with some putting an estimate of 70% of all digital purchases transacted on websites based outside of Ireland.

For some retail categories we have reached a critical point, where failure to act in the short term will lead to closures and the gradual disappearance of certain retail formats from our high street. A clear digital strategy will be crucial in ensuring the future of such businesses who must embrace the challenge at all levels of the organisation, he said.

So what can we do to arrest this development. At Council level, at regional level and at government level we must protect what we have.

The fact that 70% of all digital purchases made in Ireland are going overseas is a disaster.

Is it time to go back to Guaranteed Irish, especially if Britain is going down that road post Brexit?

Mr Burke highlighted the role the Government will have to play in the required transformation. He said that bricks and mortar retailers continue to carry all the burden of costs associated with retailing in the State.

A growing cost base linked to increasing local authority rates, insurance premiums, regulatory red tape and Government mandated wage rates, all give an undue advantage to their competition, most likely based in a warehouse in a city or town in England. Such an imbalance in the respective competitive positions is not sustainable and requires a creative approach by Government in the short term.

Mr Burke said: We must ask ourselves, as a country are we happy to lose large swathes of commerce providing rural employment and contributing to their local communities? We must face the challenge head on and seek to level the playing field for our retailers.

This is the kind of leadership we need and there needs to be a national debate on this issue. Do we just sit back and let technology take over and destroy our city centre?Tracy Watkins writes:

Nationals next leader may not even have put his hand up yet. Former police officer and hostage negotiator Mark Mitchell is emerging as the dark horse in what is currently a three-way race, even though he hasnt yet declared his intentions. 

First elected to Parliament in 2011, Mitchell is a candidate in the mold of former prime minister Sir John Key, though they have very different backgrounds.

Mitchell arrived at Parliament with a successful career behind him and a to-die-for back story  hes had violent confrontations with gangs and criminals as a police dog handler and member of the Armed Offenders Squad.

He was stabbed in the line of duty but after leaving police he sought out even more danger as a top international hostage negotiator, surviving a five-day siege in Iraq.Death of Workers Stir Demonstration

By Tea Mariamidze

Another fatal incident happened at the construction site in Tbilisi, when a 26 year old worker Jarji Janjalashvili fell off the fifth floor and died allegedly due to the breach of safety norms at the construction site.A student movement has announced a demonstration this week to protest the continued death of workers at the workplace.The other workers employed at the site, explain that the deceased was tasked to take construction materials inside the building, noting what the worker was doing on the balcony was strange.Janjalashvili is the third construction worker who died while performing his work this year. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has already launched an investigation into the case.The Labor Inspection Service of the Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs is also studying the case.Beka Peradze, the Head of the Labor Inspection Department, stated the company was using non-factory made fall protection equipment and barriers. He added the deceased worker was not wearing a special safety helmet.The final results of our investigation will be released after we speak to all the witnesses and study all circumstances in the case, Peradze added.The Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) believe the government is responsible for such fatal cases and added they linger adoption of already submitted Labor Safety Bill, which envisages tightening of safety norms at workplaces.The Chair of the NGO Georgian Young Lawyers Association, Sulkhan Saladze, says the labor inspectors go to the construction sites only after such fatal incidents. Saladze noted all the sites must be checked regularly in order to prevent such cases in the future.Due to the absence of proper labor law, people die and the government has no response to this, he stressed.Lia Ghvinianidze, the representative of the NGO Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center  EMC, says the country has no real mechanism which would help to prevent such fatal cases.Unfortunately the government is incapable to make a decision and adopt such a law which would help us avoid such incidents, she added.The draft Law on Labor Safety was submitted to the Parliament on June 1, 2017. It was approved by MPs during the first hearing; however, on February 5, 2018, when the Parliamentary Health Committee should have had a second hearing, the government did not present the draft and asked for an additional time for internal discussions.Last week EMC and GYLA released a joint statement and called on the parliament of Georgia to timely adopt the Labor Safety Law.The Parliament of Georgia should adopt a law on labor safety, in the shortest possible term that will adequately respond to the existing challenges of labor safety in the country, the NGOs said.On February 14, students movement Auditorium 115 will hold a protest rally and a march in solidarity with the deceased or injured workers in Georgia.From 2011 to 2017, 1209 workers died or got injured due to lack of state economic policies and labor safety. This is a war between the people and the pro-business elite state, the movement stated.The protesters will march from Tbilisi State University main building to the old parliament.Hyderabad (Telangana), February 15: Iran President Dr. Hassan Rouhani will arrive here on Thursday evening on a three-day visit to India. Rouhani will address the Muslim congregation at Makkah Masjid, after performing the Friday prayers at the historic mosque before leaving for Delhi. Religious scholars from different schools of thoughts will also participate in the session. This is the second time that the Rouhani will be visiting Hyderabad, and the first visit after assuming charge as the President in 2013.

The Iran President holds a doctorate in Constitutional Law (with the thesis titled- Flexibility of Shariah and Islamic Law) from Glasgow's Caledonian University in the United Kingdom. He is considered an authority on law and has published over 100 books and scientific papers on subjects including National Security, Nuclear Diplomacy, Economic System, Islamic Political Thought, Islamic Revolution, Environment and Islamic Legislative Power among others.

It is pertinent to mention that the architect of Hyderabad, Mir Momin, was an Iranian national and the magnificent Charminar is a replica of Hazrath Imam Raza shrine in Mashhad, Iran. President Rouhani will be accorded a ceremonial reception on February 17. He will call on President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During the visit of the President Rouhani, both sides would review the progress achieved in bilateral relations and also exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual interest.* Colombia and Brazil have signed an agreement to fight against corruption and international bribery. The bilateral accord was signed by Colombias corporate regulatory body, the Superintendencia de Sociedades, and Brazils national ombudsman, the Controladoria Geral da Uniao (CGU), which is linked to the ministry for transparency. This facilitates the exchange of information to investigate and sanction white collar crimes.Third round of consultations between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Belarus and the UAE

15-02-2018

On February 14, 2018 Abu-Dhabi hosted the third round of political consultations between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates.

The Belarusian Side at the consultations was headed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andrei Dapkiunas, the Emirati Side was headed by the Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for Human Rights and International Law, Ahmed Abdul Rahman Al Jarman.

During the consultations, the parties considered the full range of issues on bilateral agenda. Special attention was paid to the development of Belarusian-Emirati cooperation in political, trade and economic spheres, activization of the exchange of visits, as well as to the widening of the legal basis of cooperation. The parties stated the high level of trust between Belarus and the UAE and fruitful cooperation on the international arena especially in the field of Human Rights.

A.Dapkiunas and A.Al Jarman exchanged views on the development of the situation in the Middle East and the Northern Africa regions, considered ways to resolve regional and international conflicts, as well as discussed main trends of development of bilateral and multilateral relations on the post-Soviet space.

   

print versionFeb 15, 2018, 4:30am ET

MINI planning "bigger changes" for next Hardtop

We expect to see the fourth-gen model in 2020 or 2021.

It's difficult to describe MINI's design language as anything but evolutionary. Stylists have honed the Hardtop over the course of three generations but it has never drastically changed. The BMW-owned brand is taking a different approach as it develops the next-generation model.

"Our thoughts about the Mini brand are the same as for the BMW brand. We're going to pick up the speed of change," Adrian van Hooydonk, BMW Group's design boss, told Canadian website Driving. "Bigger changes are around the corner, but it will still be a little bit retro," he added.

He stopped short of describing what the model will look like, though he pointed out he doesn't feel the least bit constrained by the heritage-laced lines that have characterized the model since its BMW relaunched it. In some ways, the Hardtop will evolve; it will be more tech-focused, for example, and electrification is a must. In other ways, it will go back to its roots.Feb 14, 2018, 3:48pm ET

Tesla hits pause on China factory over joint-venture rules

Tesla doesn\'t want to play by China\'s rules.

A spat between Tesla and the Chinese government over ownership of a proposed factory is jeopardizing the electric automaker's foothold in the world's largest plug-in market, a new report finds.

It's been seven months since Tesla started negotiations with the Shanghai government to open a factory there, but little headway has been made on the subject since. Insiders say that's due to a rift between Tesla and Chinese authorities over a law that requires foreign automakers to jointly run any new plants with a local partner; Tesla wants to maintain full control of its proposed production facility.

Tesla desperately needs local production in China in order to capitalize on the country's growing demand for electric vehicles. Without a Chinese factory, all Tesla vehicles sold in the country are subject to a 25 percent import tax. As a result, Tesla is quickly falling behind its Chinese rivals.

While Tesla was the leading EV seller in the U.S. with around 55,000 sales last year, the company only delivered 14,883 units in China in 2017, ranking 10th overall. Meanwhile, Beijing Electric Vehicle Co. led the segment with more than 100,000 sales of battery-powered vehicles.

That disparity is at least partially due to price. China's most popular electric vehicles sell for between 130,000 yuan and 448,000 yuan, while a Tesla Model X retails for 835,000 yuan. A local factory would go a long way in lowering Tesla's prices.

"It's a market they need to get a foothold in, Jeffrey Osborne, a New York-based analyst for Cowen & Co., told Bloomberg.

Tesla previously stated that it would give an update on its China plans by the end of 2017, but the company's year-end report made no mention of the world's largest auto market.A Prosperous woman is in the running for the IFTAs which take place this evening, for an amazing documentary that she spent five years making.

Katrina Costello grew up on a farm in the 1960s and 70s, and left Ireland in the late 80s to work in trading room computer software.

I contracted on mostly six months on, six months off periods  working in some of the major stock exchanges and banking capitals of the world, she explains.

That allowed me the opportunity to do what I love; to go alone photographing and living in the far off reaches of the world  from the mountains of Asia to the basin of the Amazon.

I was especially drawn to rural communities, to the people who live close to the soil or the water. I am always compelled by the elders, for their stories, their honesty, acceptance and knowledge of themselves.

The Silver Branch is her first documentary film and she says it took many years to craft.

Primarily it grew out of my desire to give our unique Irish landscape and the stories of our agrarian culture a place in our modern society. I miss farming so much, and the moments of magic witnessed as a child farming with my father in Prosperous.

At that time, Prosperous was a different village and we used to walk the cows home through the village for milking twice a day, a memory that will resonate with many Prosperous residents of an older vintage.

"If youve seen cows walking, youll know their pace is slow and easy. I am saddened to observe that in the short 20 years that I was away from Ireland, we have lost much of our agrarian culture. I think many of us, who were born in the 60s had some small vegetable patch, maybe some hens or animals at the back of the house, or their granny or cousins had a farm with a sick lamb or calf that needed to be bottle fed by the fire.

The best of Clare's stunning scenery is on display in this lovingly shot film.

The documentary is a form of eulogy to all that  to that time  to communities, when people called to each other and helped each other in the fields and bogs; to those people that we grew up with and are dying away. It is so sad and unfortunate, (at least I feel) that we live in a society now where we dont have time for these things, our relationship with food and the land has changed, we buy food cheaply and packaged nicely and farmers are squeezed commercially into intense farming methods  which is more about yield and quantity.

However, I have been fortunate enough to share some time with some of Clares unique stronghold of traditional farmers.

I think in many other parts of the world, weve lost or are in a state of losing something rich and beautiful, and that living close to nature teaches us so much more  it is what made us Irish  it gave us an understanding of work, acceptance, patience, nurturing, love and death.

The Silver Branch - Trailer from Sea Fever on Vimeo.

And the more we understand the power and the fragility of nature, landscape and community, the more we realise that we cannot separate humanity from nature and that each of us are responsible for our children and our childrens children future.

The documentary focuses on Patrick Mc Cormack, a farmer, an incredible storyteller, poet, an agrarian philosopher and a visionary.

Incidentally, his house was used in one of the worlds most popular sitcoms ever, Fr. Ted.

I have been privileged that Patrick has shared his life story, philosophy and poetry in this film, which I believe he did, to honour this ancient landscape and his cast of friends  the past, present and future, says Katrina.

Patrick reveres the natural world and offers us profound insights into his thoughts on people and place. Filtered through his poetic spirit and vision, his philosophy is born from a deep relationship with the earth and the story of our ancestors. Voices like Patrick are voices in the wilderness literally he is our guide through the journey of this film.

The film star Brendan Gleeson described the documentary as film making as it should be in Ireland, finding the universal in the local  with a sure footedness that is most unusual, magical; a unique and important cinematic gift.

The film is beautiful. Stunning visually and the sensibilities are so vividly expressed. A true gaisce. Amazing work, well done yourself, said the Irish film legend.Kildare has the second highest number of people per pub in Ireland.

A new report has revealed where you can get the quietest pint in Ireland  and which county has the most pubs per head of population.

Kildare has 183 drinking establishments, according to the AIB Pub Outlook report released today. However, with the countys large and booming population, that translates to one pub per 1,261 people.

That figure is beaten only by Dublin, which has one pub per 1,649 people, with a total of 772 hostelries.

If you want  statistically  the quietest pint in Ireland, you should head to Mayo, which has one pub for every 323 residents.

Laois has 123 pubs in total, or one for every 713 people. Wicklow has 151 pubs in total, which is one for every 934 people and Offaly has 126 pubs, or one for every 126 people.

Todays report looks at the economic circumstances facing the pub trade in Ireland.

Tony Morrissey of Morrisseys, the consultancy which compiled the report, said that there is pent-up demand in the market for pub premises in well-developed urban, suburban and mid-town areas that have a solid footfall throughout the day and that offer food, while also being near offices and with public transport.

However, he added: If a pub is not turning over 8,000 to 9,000 a week in rural areas, then its going to be very difficult for them to survive. The same is true of Dublin, and if a pub is not turning over between 12,000 and 13,000 a week, its in trouble.

Meanwhile, Irish pub goers are becoming more and more choosy about their tipple of choice, with craft beer sales up 47% in 2016, which then accounted for a 3% share, worth 59m, of the beer market. Gin sales increased by 32% domestically in that year.

WIN: A ROMANTIC TWO-NIGHT STAY IN A FIVE-STAR HOTEL AND SPA IN DONEGALFianna Fail TD for Sligo-Leitrim Eamon Scanlon says continual cuts to home care packages across the Sligo-Leitrim region cannot be allowed to continue. The latest figures reveal a 17% reduction in the number of home care packages available in the region  down from 361 in 2015 to 301 last year.

Deputy Scanlon explained, Home care packages provide essential services for people across the two counties. The majority of patients who are well enough to be discharged from hospital want to be at home, and home care packages help to make that a possibility. They get the care they need from the comfort of their own home, providing peace of mind for patients and their families.

The fact that the number of packages has been falling over the past number of years is a cause for concern. Especially when the national figure shows an increase. Why are people in Sligo and Leitrim seeing their packages cut? There is now a situation where even if people are approved for a home care package, they are placed on a waiting list until one becomes available. This is deeply unfair.

The Health Minister has confirmed that a new statutory scheme is designed and that a report is due to be handed over to Minister Jim Daly in the next few weeks. We need to see an increase in the number of home care packages that are made available and a reduction in waiting lists for patients who have been approved.

Home care packages are extremely popular because they allow people to receive the care they need in the comfort of their own homes. It also frees up beds in hospitals and nursing homes, and reduces the cost of care to the State.

I am urging Ministers Harris and Daly to ensure that this new scheme is progressed without delay and that the necessary resources are allocated to these package to ensure that everyone who qualifies for a home care package has access to one and that capacity is substantially increased here in Sligo and Leitrim to cater for the demand.Author and journalist Valerie Cox has written a new book, ALONE: The First 40 Years, telling the inspiring story of ALONE, the charity that supports older people to age at home.

From Willie Berminghams selfless dedication in the early years to the new challenges and issues faced by the charity today, ALONE: The First 40 Years is a memory of the poverty, isolation and housing conditions endured by many throughout the last forty years.

The book records the founding of the charity in 1977 by young fireman Willie Bermingham after he discovered the bodies of three older people in their homes. It also chronicles the charitys achievements including the housing complexes it built and the thousands of people who have been befriended by the charitys inspiring volunteers.

Sean Moynihan, CEO of ALONE, commented, ALONE was founded in 1977 as a response to the desperate issues faced by older people in the city. Today, ALONE continues to provide a very valuable service to older people throughout Ireland who find themselves isolated and alone. Valeries book records both the challenges and achievements of our organisation. It is also a story of the joy and laughter between people, which friendship and support brings.

Valerie Cox said, Working on this book gave me a firsthand account of the issues faced by older people in Ireland - whether it is loneliness, a lack of support, or housing. A lot has changed since 1977, but ALONE is still needed today more than ever. This book is dedicated to the unsung heroes of ALONE, those who continue to volunteer, donate and work to support the older members of our communities.

ALONE: The First 40 Years is available to purchase from all Veritas bookshops and their website and selected Easons stores nationwide and their website. Priced at 15, all proceeds will go directly to ALONEs services.The nervous system is a complex collection of nerves and specialized cells known as neurons that transmit signals between different parts of the body. It is essentially the body's electrical wiring.

Structurally, the nervous system has two components: the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. According to the National Institutes of Health, the central nervous system is made up of the brain, spinal cord and nerves. The peripheral nervous system consists of sensory neurons, ganglia (clusters of neurons) and nerves that connect to one another and to the central nervous system.

Functionally, the nervous system has two main subdivisions: the somatic, or voluntary, component; and the autonomic, or involuntary, component. The autonomic nervous system regulates certain body processes, such as blood pressure and the rate of breathing, that work without conscious effort, according to Merck Manuals. The somatic system consists of nerves that connect the brain and spinal cord with muscles and sensory receptors in the skin.

Description of the nervous system

Nerves are cylindrical bundles of fibers that start at the brain and central cord and branch out to every other part of the body, according to the University of Michigan Medical School.

Neurons send signals to other cells through thin fibers called axons, which cause chemicals known as neurotransmitters to be released at junctions called synapses, the NIH noted. There are over 100 trillion neural connections in the average human brain, though the number and location can vary. For example, a new study published January 2018 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that out of the 160 participants studied, the brains of highly creative people have more connections among three specific regions of the brain than less creative thinkers.

"You have these three different systems that are all located in different parts of the brain, but they are all co-activated at once," said lead study author Roger Beaty, a postdoctoral fellow studying cognitive neuroscience at Harvard University. "People who are better able to co-activate them [came] up with more-creative responses."

A synapse gives a command to the cell and the entire communication process typically takes only a fraction of a millisecond. Signals travel along an alpha motor neuron in the spinal cord 268 mph (431 km/h); the fastest transmission in the human body, according to Discover magazine.

Sensory neurons react to physical stimuli such as light, sound and touch and send feedback to the central nervous system about the body's surrounding environment, according to the American Psychological Association. Motor neurons, located in the central nervous system or in peripheral ganglia, transmit signals to activate the muscles or glands. [Here's What You'd Look Like as Just a Nervous System]

Glial cells, derived from the Greek word for "glue," are specialized cells that support, protect or nourish nerve cells, according to the Oregon Institute of Health and Science University.

The brain's connections and thinking ability grew over thousands of years of evolution. For example, a virus bound its genetic code to the genome of four-limbed animals, and the code can still be found in humans' brains today, according to two papers published in the January 2018 journal Cell. This code packages up genetic information and sends it from nerve cells to other nearby nerve cells, a very important process in the brain. [An Ancient Virus May Be Responsible for Human Consciousness]

Find out about the workings of the brain and nerves. (Image credit: Ross Toro, Livescience.com contributor)

Diagnosing nervous system conditions

There are a number of tests and procedures to diagnose conditions involving the nervous system. In addition to the traditional X-ray, a specialized X-ray called a fluoroscopy examines the body in motion, such as blood flowing through arteries, according to the NIH.

Other standard neurological exams include an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), CT scan, and an electroencephalogram (EEG), which records the brain's continuous electrical activity. Positron emission tomography (PET) is a procedure that measures cell or tissue metabolism and brain activity to detect tumors or diseased tissue or tumors, the NIH noted.

A spinal tap places a needle into the spinal canal to drain a small amount of cerebral spinal fluid that is tested for infection or other abnormalities, according to the NIH.

Diseases of the nervous system

"Of all the diseases of the nervous system, the most common difficulty that people have is pain, and much of that is nerve-related," according to Dr. Shai Gozani, founder and CEO of NeuroMetrix, a medical device company. "There are 100 million people who live with chronic pain."

According to the Mayo Clinic, patients with nerve disorders experience functional difficulties, which result in conditions such as:

Epilepsy, in which abnormal electrical discharges from brain cells cause seizures

Parkinson's disease, which is a progressive nerve disease that affects movement

Multiple sclerosis (MS), in which the protective lining of the nerves is attacked by the body's immune system

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a motor neuron disease which weakens the muscles and progressively hampers physical function

Huntington's disease, which is an inherited condition that cause the nerve cells in the brain to degenerate

Alzheimer's disease, which covers a wide range of disorders that impacts mental functions, particularly memory.

Mayo Clinic also noted that the nervous system can also be affected by vascular disorders such as:

Stroke, which occurs when there is bleeding on the brain or the blow flow to the brain is obstructed;

Transient ischemic attack (TIA), which are mini-type strokes that last a shorter period of time but mimic stroke symptoms; and

Subarachnoid hemorrhage, which is specifically bleeding in the space between your brain and the surrounding membrane that can be the result of a trauma or rupturing of a weak blood vessel;

Infections such as meningitis, encephalitis, polio, and epidural abscess can also affect the nervous system, the NIH noted.

Treatments vary from anti-inflammatory medications and pain medications such as opiates, to implanted nerve stimulators and wearable devices, Gozani said. "Many people also turn to herbal and holistic methods to reduce pain, such as acupuncture."

Study of the nervous system

The branch of medicine that studies and treats the nervous system is called neurology, and doctors who practice in this field of medicine are called neurologists. Once they have completed medical training, neurologists complete additional training for their specialty and are certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN).

There are also physiatrists, who are physicians who work to rehabilitate patients who have experienced disease or injury to their nervous systems that impact their ability to function, according to the ABPN.

Neurosurgeons perform surgeries involving the nervous system and are certified by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.

Editors Note: If youd like more information on this topic, we recommend the following book:

You use your eyes to see, your ears to hear and your muscles to do the heavy lifting. Well, sort of. In fact, most body parts are far more complicated than that, while some seem to have no business being inside there at all.

Ready for Med School? Test Your Body Smarts

Additional reporting by Alina Bradford, Live Science contributor.

Additional resources

Related pages

Systems of the human body

Parts of the human bodyMoney may not buy you love, but it turns out that the green stuff can bring happiness, to a point: New research finds that there's a limit to how beneficial a lofty income is to an individual's well-being.

And that sweet spot in income, the new study revealed, is largely related to where a person lives.

"That might be surprising, as what we see on TV and what advertisers tell us we need would indicate that there is no ceiling when it comes to how much money is needed for happiness, but we now see there are some thresholds," lead study author Andrew Jebb, a doctoral student in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University, said in a statement.

Jebb and his colleagues used survey data from the Gallup World Poll collected from more than 1.7 million adults ages 15 and older from 164 countries. Participants answered questions related to life satisfaction and well-being, as well as purchasing power. Whereas emotional well-being refers to a person's day-to-day feelings of happiness, excitement, sadness and anger, overall satisfaction in life is largely influenced by higher goals and a comparison of one's belongings with others' stuff. [5 Wacky Ways To Quantify Happiness]

On average, the research revealed the ideal income point, or "satiation," is $95,000 for overall life satisfaction and $60,000 to $75,000 for emotional well-being. The highest satiation income related to one's overall life evaluation was found in Australia and New Zealand, where happiness increased up until about $125,000. By contrast, the satiation income in Latin America and the Caribbean, was $35,000. In North America, however, the threshold for happiness was reached with an income of $105,000. This data suggests that income matters more to individuals living in wealthier nations, according to the study.

"Again, this amount is for individuals and would likely be higher for families," Jebb said in the statement. "And there was substantial variation across world regions, with satiation  the point beyond which no more happiness is gained and, in fact, satisfaction goes down  occurring later in wealthier regions for life satisfaction. This could be because evaluations tend to be more influenced by the standards by which individuals compare themselves to other people."

However, once an individual reaches that threshold of happiness, additional increases in income resulted in reduced life satisfaction and a lower level of emotional well-being, according to the study. The researchers said this is likely because money fulfills basic needs, such as purchasing necessities and paying bills, but after people's needs are met, they are driven by material gains and social comparisons that may ultimately lower their well-being.

"At this point, they are asking themselves, 'Overall, how am I doing?' and 'How do I compare to other people?'" Jebb said in the statement. "The small decline puts one's level of well-being closer to [that of] individuals who make slightly lower incomes, perhaps due to the costs that come with the highest incomes."

The researchers also examined the influence of gender and education on an individual's optimal income. Overall, there was no significant evidence suggesting the link between income and happiness was stronger for men or women. However, income satiation did vary based on an individual's level of education. Specifically, individuals with a higher education reported a more positive life evaluation and emotional well-being in relation to a higher income. This is likely due to income aspirations and social comparisons with different groups of people, the researchers said.

The study builds on previous findings that suggest people with higher incomes devote more time to working, commuting and/or child care and, as a result, feel more stress and tension in their daily lives than those in lower income brackets.

"These findings speak to a broader issue of money and happiness across cultures," Jebb said. "Money is only a part of what really makes us happy, and we're learning more about the limits of money."

The research was published Jan. 8 in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

Originally published on Live Science.A photo of Dun Briste  a layered, chunky tower of rock rising off the western coast of Ireland skyrocketed to the top of Reddit last week. But the post's captivating title  "What millions of years look like in one photo"  isn't exactly accurate, a geologist told Live Science.

The sea stack is old, but "almost certainly doesn't represent millions of years" of geological processes, Maria McNamara, a paleobiologist at the University College Cork, in Ireland, told Live Science in an email. "Rather, [it likely formed in] tens to hundreds of thousands of years," she said.

Its rapid formation (geologically speaking, at least) doesn't make this structure any less marvelous. The view of the sea stack from Ireland's County Mayo is stunning, which may explain why the picture has received about 57,300 up-votes on Reddit since its posting on Feb. 9. The layered, sedimentary rock formed during the Carboniferous, a 60-million-year-long period lasting from about 359 million to 299 million years ago. That's long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth. (In other words, the sea stack formed millions of years ago, but it formed very quickly.) [In Photos: The UK's Geologic Wonders]

It's unclear whether Dun Briste has any fossils from the Carboniferous period. But if it does, they would likely be the remains of creatures that lived during that time period, including corals, brachiopods (clam-like creatures) and crinoids (sea animals that look like flowers), McNamara said.

When it formed, Dun Briste was still connected to the mainland. Looking at the sea stack's layers and edges, McNamara noticed that the structure shows evidence of onlapping strata, or layers. This indicates there was a rise in sea level long ago, she said.

"As the land surface was flooded [as sea levels rose], sediments were laid down progressively inland," McNamara said.

In 1393, an arch leading to the 150-foot-tall (45 meters) sea stack collapsed during a storm, according to Dunbriste.com. This may explain why it was named Dun Briste, which is Gaelic for "broken fort," according to the website.

In 2016, daredevil Iain Miller climbed the cliff, according to the Daily Express, a news outlet in the United Kingdom. That's the first time a person had set foot on top of the sea stack since 1990, when a group of climbers summited the stack, the Daily Express reported.

Before that, a team of scientists helicoptered to the top of Dun Briste in the 1980s. They reportedly found the remains of a medieval house and a broken quern stone, that is, a stone used for grinding corn, according to Castlebar.News, a news publication in west Ireland.

Original article on Live Science.So, you've died. Your heart's stopped pumping, your brain's stopped thinking and, yes, your hair and nails have stopped growing. And yet, despite all this, your genes are still hard at work. Why?

Gene expression  the process by which information stored in DNA is used to create proteins and other molecules  has been shown to continue in the human body after blood stops flowing, sometimes for several days, according to previous research. This cellular skeleton-crew is responsible for shutting down your immune system, metabolism, cell production and other key processes.

And, according to a new paper published Feb. 13 in Nature Communications, watching the activity of these genes in the dead could reveal valuable insights to the living. In the paper, an international team of researchers suggests that monitoring gene expression in various tissues of recently deceased bodies can provide a shockingly accurate timestamp of when that person died. [The Science of Death: 10 Tales from History]

"We found that many genes change expression over relatively short post-mortem intervals, in a largely tissue specific manner," study author Pedro G. Ferreira, a researcher at the Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology at the University of Porto in Portugal, said in a statement. By learning to recognize when and where these gene changes occur after an individual dies, researchers may be able to develop models that can accurately estimate time of death.

Scientists can monitor gene expression in various cells by looking at molecules called RNA transcripts, which copy segments of DNA to create proteins. In the new study, researchers analyzed RNA transcription data from more than 7,000 tissue samples collected from 540 deceased donors, including samples from donors' brains, skin and most major organs. The researchers also compared blood samples taken before and after death from select donors, providing the researchers opportunities for direct comparison between pre- and post-mortem gene expression.

"Immediately following death (and up to seven consecutive hours) we observe an increase in the expression of many genes, and a decrease in the expression of a few," the researchers wrote. Most changes occurred between 7 and 14 hours after death, and stabilized significantly within 24 hours.

Using this RNA transcription data, the researchers developed tissue-specific models to predict how much time had elapsed since an individual's death  also known as the post-mortem interval. By averaging the results from each tissue, the researchers found their model could accurately predict the post-mortem interval within about 10 minutes of the actual time, the researchers wrote.

"We conclude there is a signature or a fingerprint in the pattern of gene expression after death that could eventually be used in forensic science, but we don't pretend we have now a method that can be used in the field," lead author Roderic Guigo, a coordinator of the Bioinformatics and Genomics Program at the Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona, told the BBC. "Longer post-mortem intervals, not only 24 hours, the age of the individual, the cause of death  all of these will need to be taken into account if we are to convert this into a useful tool."

Originally published on Live Science.Last year  in a scenario that could double as the plot of a sci-fi flick  U.S. embassy workers in Cuba reported unexplained cognitive problems after hearing strange noises, with some initially saying that a "sonic weapon" was at play.

Now, the mystery deepens, as a new report reveals that while the embassy workers do indeed have symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury, the cause of the injury remains unknown.

In the report, published Feb. 15 in the journal JAMA, a team of doctors at the University of Pennsylvania examined the 21 embassy workers, documenting symptoms similar to those of a concussion, including cognitive impairment, balance issues, hearing problems, sleep issues and headaches. But their findings suggest that none of the proposed causes for these mass brain symptoms (including sonic weapons) really make sense. [The 7 Biggest Mysteries of the Human Body]

As Live Science previously reported, the workers heard loud, strange noises and felt movement in the air around them  even as others in the room sensed nothing amiss. The noises would stop when an afflicted worker moved even a few feet, according to The Washington Post. But afterward, serious concussion symptoms would emerge.

When the cases were originally reported in the press last year, it was widely suggested that the symptoms might be the result of some sort of "sonic weapon." However, the researchers said that this is unlikely: "Sound in the audible range (20 Hz to 20,000 Hz) is not known to cause persistent injury to the central nervous system," they wrote.

The cases also don't fit the typical patterns of a mass delusion they wrote. Mass delusions typically involve benign symptoms that resolve quickly and appear mostly in older patients. These symptoms were not benign, the patients were broadly distributed in age, and the symptoms did not quickly disappear despite the patients' demonstrated "high levels of effort and motivation" to treat them.

And although the researchers couldn't rule out viruses or chemical agents as the cause, no typical symptoms of viral infections, such as fevers, accompanied the symptoms. And it's "unlikely," they wrote, that a chemical agent could damage neurological systems without involving other organs  or cause symptoms within 24 hours of arrival in Havana, as was the case for some patients.

The researchers did clarify that the patients' symptoms don't exactly match typical concussions, as the most unusual symptom that they documented was inner-ear damage  something not typically associated with concussions. But an answer to what exactly happened to the affected workers doesn't seem much closer.

Originally published on Live Science.Michael-in-Norfolk disclaims any and all responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, completeness, legality, reliability, operability, or availability of information or material displayed on this site and does not claim credit for any images or articles featured on this site, unless otherwise noted. All visual content is copyrighted to it's respectful owners. Information on this site may contain errors or inaccuracies, and Michael-in-Norfolk does not make warranty as to the correctness or reliability of the site's content. If you own rights to any of the images or articles, and do not wish them to appear on this site, please contact Michael-in-Norfolk via e-mail and they will be promptly removed. Michael-in-Norfolk contains links to other Internet sites. These links are provided solely as a convenience and are not endorsements of any products or services in such sites, and no information or content in such site has been endorsed or approved by this blog.Some of the biggest names in San Antonios food world received good news today.

Chefs Rico Torres and Diego Galicia of Mixtli and Steve McHugh of Cured have earned semifinalist nods in the Best Chef: Southwest category of the 2018 James Beard Awards. Its the first nomination for Torres and Galicia. McHugh was a semifinalist in 2016 and a finalist last year.

RELATED: Botanica music fest unveils chef lineup for VIP guests

No other San Antonio businesses, restaurateurs, chefs, bakers or bartenders were nominated in any of the more than 20 categories this year, although Texas performed respectably overall. Kemuri Tatsu-ya in Austin and Xochi in Houston are both up for the nationwide Best New Restaurant title, and Torres, Galicia and McHugh are joined by nine other Texans in the regional best chef category.

The field of semifinalists will be whittled down on March 14, with winners announced May 7. To see the full list of nominees, visit JamesBeard.org.

pstephen@express-news.net | Twitter: @pjbites | Instagram: @pjstephenPORT ARANSAS  When the annual Whooping Crane Festival here kicks off Thursday, Feb. 22, the center of attention will, of course, be the last naturally occurring flock of migratory whooping cranes, which came close to extinction in the 1940s.

As they do annually, the statuesque cranes, still endangered but now numbering more than 400, flew thousands of miles from their summer nesting grounds in far northern Canada to kick back for the winter around Port Aransas.

But theirs is not the only comeback story to celebrate this year; plucky Port A and its neighbors have their own version.

A near-death encounter with the formidable Hurricane Harvey walloped the Coastal Bend in late August. Now, after months of debris removal, rebuilding and cleaning on a mass scale, Port A is ready and eager for tourism once again.

Some of the thanks for the recovery goes to the hordes of volunteers from all over Texas and the U.S. who stepped up, physically and financially, to help after an estimated 80 percent of residences and businesses were damaged or destroyed in Port A alone.

Because of tireless efforts by local residents and others, many businesses in town are now operating; and the list of reopened hotels, condos, restaurants and bars grows by the day, according to the Port Aransas Chamber of Commerce. Portaransas.org provides a constantly updated list. As for the beaches, they remain as inviting as ever.

In a way, the crane festival marks the towns coming-out party, as one Port A resident put it, with more events to follow, including the popular Port Aransas Texas SandFest, April 27-29.

To the cranes, nothing much has changed post-hurricane. If anything, they stand to benefit from Harvey, which dropped tons of fresh water on wetlands, boosting the food sources at the cranes favorite buffet spot. As they munch away on a robust supply of blue crabs and other goodies, they are ready to be viewed, photographed and revered.

More Information Whooping Crane Festival When: Feb. 22-25 Online: Whoopingcranefestival.org Where: Headquarters is the Port Aransas Civic Center, 710 W. Avenue A, for registration, information booths and vendors. Boats, guided walks and van trips leave from various places. Cost: $20 registration fee covers some activities. Workshops, boat trips and guided tours are extra, and prices vary and space is limited, so book in advance. Lodging: Some favorites, like the historic Tarpon Inn, won't reopen until March or later. The best way to check on reopened accommodations is this site: https://business.portaransas.org/list/category/accommodations-re-opened-203 For reopened restaurants:https://business.portaransas.org/list/category/restaurants-re-opened-205 Port Aransas has helped raise more than $890,000 to directly help its residents and businesses rebuild from Harvey. To donate, go to newdayportafund.com. See More Collapse

The schedule of the four-day festival, Feb. 22-25, is chock-full of guided tours, speakers, workshops and other events. The registration fee is $20, with additional charges for some outings, such as boat trips and field tours, which are best booked in advance through www.whoopingcranefestival.org. Some are already full.

Not to be missed is speaker George Archibald, who discovered decades ago that his mission in life was to save the imperiled cranes. He established the International Crane Foundation, introduced breeding techniques and traveled the world to study and protect cranes of all sorts and spread the conservation message. He shares fascinating stories about cranes  from their courtship dance to their distinct whooping sound  and collected some in his 2016 memoir, My Life With Cranes.

The festival attracts other crane experts and some die-hard fans, whose enthusiasm is infectious as you join them on a boat trip to the prime crane-viewing areas. Some give themselves away by their gear  high-tech cameras and spotting scopes  but a decent pair of binoculars is sufficient to see cranes in the wild. Some stand almost seven feet tall and are usually found in pairs.

Its wise to bring a stout windbreaker, a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen.

Newcomers to birding will find the festival a great introduction to this habit-forming pastime. Besides the cranes, festivalgoers can observe a constantly changing array of birds of all colors, shapes and sizes in the skies and along the shores. The boat trip itself is a peaceful way to enjoy the waters around the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and let nature cast its spell.

The headquarters of the festival remains the Port Aransas Civic Center, but the hurricane forced one change this year: With the University of Texas Marine Science Institute building still closed because of damage, some events were moved to the Port Aransas Community Center on Alister Street.

New to the festival this year is the Sunset Wine and Birding Cruise from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Feb. 23.

At the Civic Center, visitors will find information booths about cranes and conservation plus a marketplace of vendors offering all things crane  from stunning large-scale photographs to gift cards and charms. You can pick up a sticker that says I Give a Whoop and display it proudly.

alee@express-news.net

Twitter: @mindstuffAlbany

Geography is destiny. It might also be responsible for opinions you come to regret.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said as much when profiled Sunday by "60 Minutes." She faulted the "lens of upstate New York" for positions she once held but now finds inconvenient and embarrassing.

Take gun control.

As a congresswoman from a district that included much of Rensselaer and Saratoga counties, Gillibrand was such a staunch Second Amendment supporter that she earned an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association. The Democrat even boasted that she and her husband kept rifles under their bed.

Gillibrand's position flipped when David Paterson appointed her to the Senate. Why?

"I went down to Brooklyn to meet with families who had suffered from gun violence in their communities," Gillibrand told interviewer Sharyn Alfonsi. "And you immediately experience the feeling that I couldn't have been more wrong  you know, I only had the lens of upstate New York."

Gillibrand's family property along Noonan Lane is a rock toss from Albany's South End, where gun violence is not uncommon. She had to go to Brooklyn to understand its impact?

More Information Contact columnist Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse

Those upstate lenses must have been blinders.

Later in the interview, Alfonsi asked Gillibrand to account for a similar flop on immigration. When Gillibrand was in the House, you could mistake her positions for xenophobia.

She was against sanctuary cities. She opposed amnesty of any kind for illegal immigrants. She wanted to make English the country's official language. She supported deputizing local police officers to enforce federal immigration law.

But when she joined the Senate, Gillibrand immediately ditched those positions. Why?

You guessed it. She lived upstate. She couldn't know any better, until her lens changed.

"I came from a district that was 98 percent white," she told Alfonsi. "We have immigrants, but not a lot of immigrants. And I hadn't really spent the time to hear those kinds of stories about what it's like to worry that your dad could be taken away at any moment."

Gillibrand makes it seem as though she dropped out of Podunk High School in East Adirondack, then took a waitressing job at the town diner. You would think she had no exposure to the world beyond some little upstate hamlet.

Her experiences and resume say otherwise.

Albany is more diverse now than when Gillibrand was growing up, but it was hardly homogeneous. She went on to Emma Willard and Dartmouth, top-notch schools where her instructors presumably taught her about the broader world.

From there, she attended law school in Los Angeles  the nation's immigration capital  before spending a decade in polyglot New York City. Gillibrand was fairly new to her upstate district and its apparently parochial voters when she ran for Congress.

"I just didn't take the time to understand these issues because they weren't in front of me," Gillibrand said on the CBS show. "And that was my fault. It was something that I'm embarrassed about and I'm ashamed of."

That Gillibrand admitted to feeling ashamed brought significant attention. It seems like refreshing candor.

But if it's true that Gillibrand didn't take the time to understand immigration issues, it was nothing less than a dereliction of her duties.

For one thing, the many farms in Gillibrand's old district depend on migrant labor. Immigration policy is a hugely important in places such as Columbia County and a frequent topic of debate.

Second, Gillibrand cosponsored important immigration legislation while in the House  including the SAVE Act, which, among other measures, would have hastened deportations of illegal immigrants. The bill could have impacted millions of lives, and Gillibrand didn't bother to really grasp the issue? That's the excuse she's choosing?

Much of "60 Minutes" profile focused on President Trump, with whom Gillibrand has publicly sparred. The conflict, along with Gillibrand's laudable work combating sexual assault in the military and elsewhere, has elevated her 2020 presidential profile.

Her looming candidacy was why she was on "60 Minutes," of course.

During the interview, Gillibrand said Trump's immigration policies are racist, even though, as we've discussed, many of her pre-2009 views were just as harsh. So I asked Gillibrand's office if it would be accurate to also describe her former positions as racist, and if she risked insulting some of her constituents by blaming those stances on "the lens of upstate."

I didn't receive an answer by deadline.

Of course, Gillibrand's claims about why she flopped are preposterous. Really, she just made the cynical calculation common to politicians, one they are loathe to admit.

When Gillibrand ran for Congress, she adopted positions that gave her the best chance to win. When she was appointed to the Senate and faced a new set of voters, those same positions became a liability. So she changed them.

It's no more complicated than that.

cchurchill@timesunion.com  518-454-5442  @chris_churchillOne of the six Houston men who allegedly robbed a Chase Bank ATM in north Laredo is facing an additional charge, according to police.

Paul Roosevelt Banks, 23, was charged Monday with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Police said he was charged with the offense because the getaway Jeep Cherokee had been reported stolen from Harris County.A second federal appeals court on Thursday struck down President Donald Trump's latest version of the immigrant travel ban, saying it "is unconstitutionally tainted with animus toward Islam."

The 9 to 4 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, took a deep dive into Trump's statements and tweets since he became president and concluded that the third iteration of his proclamation, like the first two, was motivated not by national security concerns but by antipathy toward Muslims.

"The government's proffered rationale for the proclamation lies at odds with the statements of the president himself," wrote Chief Judge Roger Gregory.

"Plaintiffs here do not just plausibly allege with particularity that the proclamation's purpose is driven by anti-Muslim bias, they offer undisputed evidence of such bias: the words of the president."

The ruling has no immediate effect. The Supreme Court is already scheduled to decide the legality of the travel ban, holding oral arguments in April and deciding by the term's conclusion at the end of June.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco has also struck down the ban, saying the president violated limits put in place by Congress. As it did in striking down an earlier version of the ban, the 4th Circuit's opinion issued Thursday said the ban violated the Constitution's prohibition on religious discrimination.

Seven of the 13 judges wrote separately to explain their reasoning.

Judge Paul Niemeyer, one of the dissenters, denounced his colleagues' "bold effort to second-guess U.S. foreign policy and, in particular, the president's discretionary decisions on immigration, implicating matters of national security."

He added: "Our constitutional structure forbids such intrusion by the judiciary."

One judge, William Traxler, was in the majority when the 4th Circuit ruled that Trump's second travel ban was illegal. But he sided with the dissenters this time.

The third version must be judged based on the "context of the investigation and analysis that the agencies acting on the president's behalf have completed, the consultation that has taken place between the president and his advisers, and the logical conclusions and rationale for the proclamation that are documented therein."

Traxler was referring to the government's argument that a long investigation had gone into deciding which countries did not properly vet those leaving their shores for the United States. Based on that investigation, it said, the administration decided to have the ban cover a slightly different list of countries than in the first two versions.

The current version affects various travelers from Syria, Libya, Iran, Yemen, Chad, Somalia, North Korea and Venezuela.

Two federal judges - in Maryland and Hawaii - had blocked implementation, at least in part. In December, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld the Hawaii ruling, although it said it would allow the administration to enforce the ban on travelers without close U.S. ties, such as relatives. That appeals court ruling also was put on hold in a nod to the Supreme Court.

In early December, the high court had lifted injunctions issued by the judges in Hawaii and Maryland and allowed the ban to fully take effect while the legal challenges continue.

In an opinion concurring with the majority, Judge Pamela A. Harris said that deciding the ban violated the Constitution might in the end be a more narrow decision than deciding thorny questions about the president's powers under federal statutes governing immigration.

In essence, she wrote, there was no reason to believe that future presidents will take the tack Trump has taken.

"The principle that government decision-making should not be informed by religious animus is so well and deeply understood in this country that there are few violations recorded in the case law," she wrote. "Though we must today add one more to the list, we have every reason to expect that future occasions for application of this fact-specific holding will be few and far between."

The Justice Department had no immediate reaction to the ruling.

ACLU Deputy Legal Director Cecillia Wang, who argued the case before the 4th Circuit in December, said the court once again got it right.

"President Trump's third illegal attempt to denigrate and discriminate against Muslims through an immigration ban has failed in court yet again," she said in a statement. "It's no surprise. The Constitution prohibits government actions hostile to a religion."A national atheist organization that advocates the separation of church and state has accused the City of Beaumont of promoting religion by adding "In God We Trust" decals to city emergency vehicles, citing comments made by council members about religious motives.

The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation wrote in a letter to the City Council this month that "declaring that the entire city trusts in God unequivocally conflicts with the beliefs of many of its residents."

The foundation said a "concerned city employee who objects to being compelled the display the phrase on their work vehicle" contacted them about the council's decision.

Council members decided at a Jan. 30 meeting to add the decals with the national motto to the city's 185 police, fire and EMS vehicles.

In the letter, Foundation lawyer Madeline Ziegler pointed to comments made by Ward 4 council member Robin Mouton, who proposed the decals, and at-large member Get Williams-Wright, who supported them, as evidence that they have religious reasons for the decision.

Mouton has made conflicting statements about the decals, telling The Enterprise after the Jan. 30 meeting that they are patriotic rather than religious. She said in an interview before the meeting that they would be beneficial because they reflect "the true pursuit of honor and God."

"God is first in my life," she said when asked why she proposed the stickers to council.

Williams-Wright said in an interview with The Enterprise that the motto is a "forceful positive statement."

"When you go out and work, when you go out and investigate, you go out with the hope that you'll come back safe, and trust in God," she said.

Those statements give "the appearance of government endorsement of religion," Ziegler wrote in the letter, citing Enterprise coverage of the January meeting.

The $1,200 needed to buy the stickers will be paid for by Ward 2 council member Mike Getz, who said he supported the idea but strongly opposed using taxpayer money to buy the decals.

He said Thursday that he offered to pay for the stickers because, "I didn't want the discussion of taxpayer money being used to pay for these to be used as an argument not to go forward with this."

Ward 1 representative Virginia Jordan called herself "a pretty big proponent of separation of church and state" but said she won't fight the decision as long as city funds are not used.

Ziegler referenced the distinction drawn by the council about paying for the decals in the Foundation's letter, writing that the decision "indicates that the council recognizes it is inappropriate for the government to fund religious statements.""It is just as inappropriate for the government to display them on government property," Ziegler wrote. "Statements about a god have no place on government-owned cars."

Attorney General Ken Paxton ruled in 2015 that displaying "In God We Trust" on patrol vehicles "is a passive use of a motto steeped in our nation's history that does not coerce citizen approval or participation."

The motto does not force people who disagree with it to participate in prayer or religion, he said, and is allowed under the U.S. Constitution.

"The Freedom From Religion Foundation has no confidence in the Texas Attorney General's Office to make measured, unbiased decisions on the separation of church and state," attorney Sam Grover said, because the office has expressed "a lack of sympathy for religious minorities and non-religious people in the past, and entangled themselves with Christian rights organizations."

After discussing the letter in a closed session meeting this week, the council has decided to take a formal vote on the decals at an upcoming meeting, Mayor Becky Ames said.

Council members initially discussed the decals in a work session and agreed to buy the stickers without voting, because they were not using city money.

Ames said the council decided this week that the decision would be clearer if their reasoning was "spelled out" in a resolution.

"It's good for deliberating bodies to put things on the record," Getz said. "Any formal resolution will state the reasons why the council thinks this is an appropriate action."

Getz said that it "would be different if we were putting a cross or a Star of David," because that would be "emoting government support of a particular religion."

"God is whatever you choose God to be," he said. "For those people that don't believe in a deity, they may be offended, but being offended and being violative of the Constitution are two different things."

LTeitz@BeaumontEnterprise.com

Twitter.com/LizTeitzEthiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn submitted his resignation as the leader of one of Africa's fastest-growing economies after failing to end months of unrest in the Oromia region.

Hailemariam, 52, made the request to the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front on Thursday and will stay in the post until a transition is agreed, the state-funded Fana Broadcasting Corp. reported. His announcement comes days after the government said it would drop charges against top dissident Bekele Gerba and other opposition figures, and a month after he ordered the release of hundreds of political prisoners.

"There have been efforts to dial back some of the problems that they've had, but the problems aren't going away," Abdullahi Boru Halakhe, East Africa researcher at Amnesty International, said in a phone interview. "Hailemariam doesn't represent a big ethnic constituency within the party. The EPRDF has decided they'd rather lose him now than lose the whole country."

Ethiopia had seen sporadic, often deadly protests since late 2015 and temporarily enacted a state of emergency due to the unrest that was mainly in the central Oromia region. The violence damaged the country's reputation as an investment destination and posed one of the biggest challenges to the ruling coalition since it came to power in the early 1990s. Groups including Amnesty regularly accuse authorities of cracking down on human-rights defenders, the media and peaceful protesters.

Yields on Ethiopia's $1 billion Eurobonds due in 2024 climbed five basis points to 6.41 percent by 5 p.m. in the capital, Addis Ababa, the highest level since August.

Hailemariam, who took office in 2012, said his resignation was "based on my own wishes and desires" and he's certain it will be accepted and a new premier elected. In a televised press briefing posted online by Fana, he described Ethiopia as being "in a very worrying place" and urged citizens to "accommodate and respect each other and continue with the development work."

His resignation and the recent release of prisoners mark a "watershed moment for the EPRDF," according to Ahmed Salim, a Dubai-based analyst with Teneo Intelligence.

The ruling coalition's "control over the country is under threat with only two options available, a disintegration of the party or political reforms," he said in an emailed note.

Jared Jeffery, an analyst at NKC African Economics in Paarl, South Africa, said that while the EPRDF's previous gestures "hint at a concerted effort to truly open up the political space," the "symbolism of a change at the very top of the hierarchy was needed to convince people that it is serious."

The move may be "the EPRDF trying to appease and forestall any real concessions," he said in an emailed response to questions, adding that the freeing up of the media and reviewing the electoral system would show genuine reform.

"It is undoubtedly a big, symbolic move to make, but it does not address the underlying causes of dissent," Jeffery said.WASHINGTON - Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said Thursday that he intends to run for Senate against Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, setting up a tough race for the incumbent in a state President Donald Trump won by a huge margin.

Cramer, who had announced just a month ago that he was passing on the race, told reporters at the Capitol that he had a change of heart in part because of witnessing important legislation, including the tax cut bill, squeak through the closely divided Senate.

"It's more the significance of the United States Senate and the fragility of the majority that motivates me to give greater weight to that larger issue than just simply my family," he said.

With signs that the $1.5 trillion tax cut bill is growing in popularity, Cramer predicted that Heitkamp's vote against it could prove "fatal" for her, and he said he'd probably be making it a focus of his campaign.

"The vote that mattered, she failed on," he said.

Cramer's kickoff announcement is scheduled for Friday evening in Bismarck.

Cramer has been a strong supporter of Trump, and the president encouraged him to run. His entry into the race is good news for Republicans as they seek to defend and expand their narrow 51-to-49 majority in the Senate.

Heitkamp is a top target, along with a handful of other Senate Democrats up for reelection in states Trump won big, including Missouri, West Virginia and Indiana.

In a statement, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee dismissed Cramer's candidacy.

"Washington Republicans are in for a rude awakening now that they've tipped the scales for a congressman who has shown time and again he'll do what's best for his own interests," said DSCC spokesman David Bergstein. "Voters will see right through Congressman Cramer and hold him accountable for a self-serving record that has hurt North Dakotans."

Cramer said that Heitkamp's recent vote against moving forward on a late-term abortion ban "lit up the phones, frankly," especially after news coverage in North Dakota showed that Heitkamp had high-fived Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

"Her sort of celebratory motions afterward on the floor with Leader Schumer just sent hundreds of North Dakotans to contact me and encourage me," Cramer said. "So Kris and I just decided we have to reconsider in light of that call, and so that's what prompted us to take another look at it."

Kris Cramer is Kevin Cramer's wife.

A PolitiFact investigation determined that rather than a high-five, the encounter between Heitkamp and Schumer on the floor during the vote was simply an awkward greeting.The phone alerts began to pop up early in the evening. The police, Israelis were informed, were about to reveal their recommendations as to whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be indicted on accusations of fraud and bribery. By 8 p.m., Israelis were glued to their televisions and computers, waiting to hear what the police would say. Netanyahu had sought to block the police from making such public recommendations, but the Supreme Court overruled him and now the police were about to address the public.

The recommendations were clear. Netanyahu, the police said, should be charged with bribery and breach of trust in two matters. The first investigation, known as Case 1000, alleges that Netanyahu accepted lavish gifts from wealthy businessmen in exchange for influence. Case 2000, known as the Yediot Achronot affair, alleges that the prime minister offered the editor of that newspaper, Arnon Mozes, support for a bill that would weaken Israel Hayom, the newspaper owned by casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and Mozes's biggest competitor, in exchange for favorable coverage in the press. The police also recommended that Mozes be indicted. Attorney General Avihai Mandelblit will now consider the charges.

Netanyahu, as expected, denied any wrongdoing, and equally predictably, the opposition in the Knesset called on him to resign immediately. Israeli law does not require a prime minister to step down simply because the police recommend he be indicted. He may not have to resign even if he is indicted, unless he is eventually convicted. The indictment could take a year to come; a conviction could take even longer.

What could bring Netanyahu down would be the collapse of his coalition. At least for now, though, his important coalition partners are sticking by him. Moshe Kahlon, head of the Kulanu (All of Us) Party, could topple the coalition by leaving it, but he has no plans to do so. Naftali Bennett, head of the right-wing, nationalist Jewish Home party and Netanyahu's primary political worry at the moment, agreed that Netanyahu did not have to resign, but seemed to leave his options open by chastising the prime minister for failing to serve as a model of ethical behavior.

And what about the public? If one were to judge by the morning papers, it would seem that large swathes have had enough. Yediot Achronot (the same paper Netanyahu allegedly sought to influence) ran a New York Post-style front cover with a photograph of the prime minister and the word BRIBERY in large letters. The paper's columnists, many of Israel's most-widely read, took care to praise their editor (also accused in the affair), but were clear that Netanyahu has lost their trust. "Disgrace." "Beginning of the End." "No Way Back." "Days of Crisis" were the sub-headlines on the front page, each a reference to a different column.

Is the prime minister thus headed to the political desert? It is far too early to know. Although there have been, in recent weeks, large protests in Tel Aviv in opposition to political corruption, the sad reality is that Israelis are no longer shocked by such accusations and the zero-tolerance culture that was (at least in theory) in effect has long since faded. When, in 1977, the press revealed that then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's wife, Leah, maintained a small overseas bank account (left over from their years when he had served as Israel's ambassador to the United States), a practice then prohibited by Israeli law, the country exploded in fury. Rabin had to resign.

Since then, however, corruption has become widespread. Ehud Olmert resigned as prime minister in March 2009 after allegations of corruption. In February 2016, he became Israel's first former prime minister to go to jail (he was released a few months ago). He joined Moshe Katsav, who had resigned as president in July 2007 after he was accused of raping members of his staff. Katsav was also convicted and entered prison in December 2011. Katsav shared a cell with Shlomo Benizri, former minister of labor and social welfare, who had also been convicted of fraud. Several dozen former ministers, members of Knesset and other public officials have been convicted of fraud or other crimes and a former chief rabbi is now on his way to jail - a serious blow to the social ethos once prevailed in Israel. Although the country can still take some comfort in the fact that the judiciary has been successful in prosecuting even the country's highest officials, the corruption trend has not been reversed.

Yet one major factor may well weigh in favor of Netanyahu, the ultimate political survivor. The Israeli version of "the urgent trumping the important" is security trumping everything else. This week, Israel shot down an Iranian drone that had entered its airspace, which led to an Israeli bombing raid on Syrian and Iranian installations in Syria in which an Israeli F-16 was shot down (the first since Ron Arad was shot down in 1986). Israel followed up with an intense attack on more Syrian and Iranian installations, which the army thinks took out nearly half of Syria's air defense system.

As both pilots parachuted to safety (one suffered serious injuries but is in an Israeli hospital and expected to make a full recovery), the day ended with a sigh of relief. But a low level of dread prevails. In some of the Israeli press, the day is being called the first battle of an all but inevitable Israel-Iran war. The question on many Israelis' minds is, "When will the next war begin?"

That may help Netanyahu, for Israelis want to know who will protect them best. And they trust Netanyahu to fight when needed, but not to do so recklessly. Ultimately, more than any other Israeli politician, in times of war (which have been few during his administrations), he proves to be the grownup in the room. In a country that has never known a day of peace since its founding in 1948, no matter how distasteful they may find the corruption allegations, having a strong but level-headed leader matters more to Israelis than anything else.

- - -

Gordis is senior vice president and Koret distinguished fellow at Shalem College in Jerusalem. Author of 11 books, his latest is "Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn."

For more columns from Bloomberg View, visit http://www.bloomberg.com/view.Invoking the regions can-do spirit, Houston ISD Superintendent Richard Carranza delivered an impassioned pitch Thursday for the sweeping proposals that he says will create a more equitable district while trimming $208 million from the budget.

Carranza lauded the successes of Texas largest school district during his annual State of the Schools address and tried to assuage growing fears among teachers, parents and community groups about the dramatic changes he has outlined for the district.

Now you might be reading or hearing that theres no possible way for us to be successful in the face of our challenges. I defy that, Carranza said. But I have seen first-hand the strong spirit of the Houston community, and I know that we can live up to the promise of equity.

Carranza and his staff have proposed a series of changes that could affect school-level funding, magnet schools and 10 long-struggling campuses that are facing possible closure  in addition to the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Harvey.

The proposed changes have led concerned parents to crowd into the Houston Independent School Districts board chambers and community meetings over the past month, where they have spoken out against the scope of the proposals and how the district is presenting them.

RELATED: Hundreds criticize HISD proposals to close schools, cut spending

Among the most controversial proposed changes: reinventing HISDs magnet and school choice programs, and dramatically changing the 10 struggling campuses to avoid closure.

Bob Sanborn, president and CEO of the nonprofit Children at Risk, said Carranza painted a rosy picture of HISD during the State of the Schools address but may not have eased everyones fears.

Unfortunately, I think the reality is very different, Sanborn said. I think a lot of parents understand that right now and are worried, whether their kids go to a magnet program or a community school. I think when they see changes like that, theres a lot of anxiety.

Many schools affected

Proponents of magnet programs said the districts current system has created some of the best schools in the country, including two high schools ranked among the top 20 in the nation by the U.S. World and News Report. Changing it, they fear, would destroy some of Houstons best academic programs.

Carranza, who once served as a magnet school principal at another district, said he understands the concerns but worries the current system has exacerbated inequality in the citys schools. He said a committee formed in June 2017 to study the districts magnet programs found wide chasms between opportunities available in lower-income and minority neighborhoods and those in whiter and more-affluent areas.

Much of what they reported back to me and my staff does not surprise me, he said. Our magnet and school choice program, as it exists right now, has inequities. It has inequities in funding. It has inequities in staffing, It has inequities in where our top programs are located.

No matter what part of Houston they live in, (students) deserve access to quality school choice programs at HISD, he said.

RELATED: How do Houston ISD's magnet schools and programs work, anyway?

He also expressed sympathy for community advocates and parents upset about proposed changes to 10 of the districts longest-struggling schools.

A 2015 state law mandates state intervene in any district that contains one campus that has been rated as improvement required by the state for five or more years. The law gives the TEA two options: close the low-performing school or appoint a board of managers to replace the districts elected board of trustees.

State law says school districts can stave off the state action by partnering with an outside group to run the schools or by closing and immediately reopening campuses  two options that are unpopular with parents.

Carranza has recommended a combination for the 10 schools. Four  Blackshear Elementary, Highland Heights Elementary, Wesley Elementary and Woodson PreK-8  would be closed and reopened initially with fewer students and grade levels. Six schools would be run by outside groups still to be determined. Those schools include Dogan Elementary, Mading Elementary, Henry Middle, Kashmere High, Worthing High and Wheatley High.

RELATED: Houston ISD removes 3 more campuses from list of struggling schools facing makeover

During his speech Thursday, Carranza reiterated his pledge to take all necessary steps to keep the schools  all of which are in minority areas  from closing.

We want our communities from those historically under-served schools to know this: We hear your voice. We hear your pain. We hear your struggles, Carranza said. We, too, share the same vision: Provide whats best for these schools and the communities surrounding them. We want the community to control the destiny of these schools, not the Texas Education Agency.

State blame

Carranza blamed for HISDs budget shortfall on Texas unpopular school finance system.

He said HISD will have to write a check for as much as $260 million to the state due to recapture, a method by which the state collects money from so-called property wealthy school districts to redistribute to districts with lower property values, including Aldine ISD in north Houston.

We have lawmakers in the room right now who want to fix this, and we urge them to support a system that provides a better education for our children in the 21st century, Carranza said.

In response, his administration has proposed overhauling the way HISD funds its schools. Moving from the districts current funding system, which gives principals a pot of money based on student enrollment and wide latitude on how to spend it, to a model that standardizes staffing across the district will ensure every school in HISD has the staff and resources it needs, he said.

RELATED: HISD officials say closing $208.8M budget gap will require deep cuts

Carranza said the changes are necessary to equitably serve students in an austere budget environment.

Some small schools, which are literally right next to refineries and the Ship Channel where asthma is not an uncommon challenge that our students face, share nurses under the current funding model, Carranza said. That is not acceptable but, unfortunately, inequity still exists in Houstons schools. We are determined to change that.

Board of Education Trustee Jolanda Jones said she agreed with Carranzas statements on inequity in HISD, particularly as it relates to how schools in minority neighborhoods are treated compared to those in whiter and more-affluent areas. But selling change in communities that have been denied adequate resources and attention is difficult, Jones said.

Theyre so angry at HISD because we have totally failed them, Jones said. People have so much mistrust.

RELATED: Residents skeptical, frustrated at 1st meeting on proposed changes in Houston ISD1 Suspected poacher killed: Managers of a wildlife area in South Africa say a pride of lions killed a suspected poacher. The Umbabat Private Nature Reserve says the man was killed last week and that two sets of human tracks were found nearby, suggesting the alleged poacher had companions who escaped. The Umbabat reserve is near Kruger National Park, whose rhino population has been heavily targeted over the years. Umbabat managers say they implement costly security measures in an effort to thwart poachers who regularly target rhinos, elephants, lions, hyenas, pangolins and vultures in the private reserve.

2 Opposition leader: Ukrainian opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili flew to the Netherlands, his wifes home country, on Wednesday after being ejected from Ukraine into neighboring Poland. It was not immediately clear how long he planned to stay or what he will do in the Netherlands. Saakashvili was Georgias president from 2004 to 2013 and later was given a governorship in Ukraine by then-ally President Petro Poroshenko. He has since criticized Poroshenko for failing to stem corruption and has led antigovernment protests. Saakashvili said he planned to seek support for his political activity by meeting European leaders and lawmakers.Gardai have launched a manhunt after thieves made off with up to 1600 worth of equipment during a weekend raid on a national school in Ballymahon.

In what was a crime fuelled couple of days for the south Longford town, at least five laptops and several classrooms were ransacked by burglars who broke into St Matthews National School between 4pm on Saturday afternoon and 9am on Monday.

Investigators are satisfied entry to the school was gained after a side window was smashed with those responsible making their getaway via a classroom door at the rear of the building.

Among the items reported missing were two Acer laptops, together with a Hewlett Packard, Fujitisu and Dell models.

The past weekend also saw a botched raid being reported at Ballymahons St Matthews Church.

Its understood thieves had attempted to break into the church through a back door but were unable to do so.

In their attempts to gain access, gardai have confirmed significant damage was caused to the door, which is the main point of entry to the sacristy.

Separately, gardai are investigating the circumstances behind an attempted burglary at a house along the main Edgeworthstown road entering Ballymahon.

At around 9:20pm on Saturday evening, the occupier of the house reported hearing a doorbell sound on at least three occasions.

Upon closer inspection, the injured party reported seeing a man peering through a back window before fleeing the scene on foot.

Gardai in Longford, meanwhile, are investigating a suspected shoplifting offence which occurred at a retail unit at Longford Shopping Centre last Friday.

In excess of 30 of items were taken in the incident at around 2:20pm.

Anyone with information in relation to any of these incidents is asked to contact Longford Garda Station at (043) 3350570.

ALSO READ:

Gardai investigating attempted burglary at St Matthew's Church, BallymahonThe Minister paid tribute to the great work that the organisation did in the community and pointed to the importance of diversity and inclusion in all walks of life.

She also spoke about the need for empowering women.

I am very impressed with the quality and ambition of this plan, she added.

Longford Womens Link is an organisation that sets its sights high and is clearly embedded in the community.

It is also an organisation that sees itself as a broader global movement.

Meanwhile, at the heart of the new Plan is a focus on crisis and practical support; economic and social choice and opportunity; leadership, networking and influence as well as governance and sustainability.

This plan aims to build on the success of the last 22 years by continuing to work in collaboration locally, regionally and nationally to highlight the perspective of rural women and the access and inclusion barriers that they face as stark differences continue to develop between urban and rural living in Ireland, said Louise Lovett, CEO Longford Womens Link.

It is important to celebrate our achievements but equally the achievements of women that we work with, and to hold their stories.

It is also important to highlight our contribution to the local economy because we now directly employ in excess of 110 people, so the vast majority of our annual income of 22m goes back into the local economies.

During the launch, the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation also pointed to Longford and the wider midland region, which she said, had traditionally fallen behind other areas in terms of economic recovery.

As someone who lives in rural Co Monaghan, I understand the challenges that rural Ireland faces, Minister Humphreys continued.

Much as been accomplished to date through initiatives like the Regional Action Plan for Jobs and through the hard work being done in the community by organisations like Longford Womens Link.

In my new role I will be putting a particular focus on creating the conditions for increased jobs creation in areas such as the one here tonight.

She went on then to speak about the role the new plan at Longford Womens Link will have in Co Longford.

This organisation will focus on important and wide ranging work including counselling, support for victims of domestic violence and childcare.

She added; I was particularly interested in the work the organisation is doing in relation to female entrepreneurship - the rate of female entrepreneurship in Ireland is the seventh highest in Europe with one in every 14 women running their own business.

However, the rate of entrepreneurship among men in Ireland is the fourth highest in Europe, so is is clear that work needs to done in the area.

Minister Humphreys then concluded proceedings by reiterating a very apt quote from former first lady of the US, Hillary Clinton.

There has never been a more important woman than the woman who stands up and says, not just for herself, but for everybody else, we want diversity and inclusion in everything we do in our country.

ALSO READ:

Planning for a diverse and inclusive world at Longford Women's Link launchThere are hopes this week that the Government is to revise its 20 year blueprint for the country by announcing the proposed upgrade of the N4.

Fine Gael Cllr Micheal Carrigy and local TD Peter Burke both expressed profound confidence that an agreement was in the offing.

The latter insisted he was assured of the upgrade while his party colleague in Longford said the likelihood of the announcement this week was in keeping with recent state backed funding announcements to have come the county's way.

We (Fine Gael) were asked the question and we have stepped up and delivered, said Cllr Carrigy, as he referred back to a business breakfast he organised last May and which was attended by then Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar.

The Taoiseach delivered on what he said he would do and what I said when I became a (general election) candidate.

You only have to look at the commitments given to St Joseph's, St Christopher's, the gas pipeline, the Town and Village Renewal funding which Longford received.

Cllr Carrigy's remarks and calls for Longford's 40,000 plus inhabitants to start talking ourselves up comes on the back of sustained publicity attached to one of the most significant plans to come before the Dail in recent times.

The new National Planning Framework is widely viewed as one of the most significant plans to come before the Dail in recent times and lays out a framework which will inform planning and infrastructure for the next 20 years.

The draft document however, has come in for much cynicism from local politicians who say the plan is too concentrated on Dublin and large urban areas.

One of those leading that charge has been Independent Cllr Gerry Warnock.

The non party representative attended a a public meeting in Athlone last week organised by a like minded group of cross party coalition of rural TDs.

In the wake of that debate, Cllr Warnock said there was a growing confidence the clamour in counties like Longford was beginning to sway the minds of government chiefs.

Listening to their contributions brought home the real challenges facing rural communities in this Ireland of ours, he said.

It also gave me hope that this can be reversed.

The TDs leading the charge on this issue realise this, and have put aside their political differences to shout stop.

 Stop the social engineering policies of unelected and unaccountable officials.

Stop the rot which has seen thousands of Irish families struggle to make ends meet.

No stranger to relaying his feelings concerning topical issues on social media, Cllr Warnock took to Facebook where he issued a rallying cry to constituents to ensure this treason goes to the legislative scrapheap.

I am calling on you all to put pressure on your local TDs to support this campaign, he said, adding the drive required the support of 80 TDs to ensure those efforts become a reality.

 Make it an election issue.

Remind them that they represent you and not The Party.

Cllr Warnock's local authority colleague Cllr PJ Reilly has been another to highlight the importance of the National Planning Framework taking on a more considered stance of rural Ireland.

As chair of the Eastern, Midland and Regional Assembly, Cllr Reilly lambasted Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy for so far refusing to meet the body despite two recent attempts to faciliate a meeting.

I am very disappointed that he has not met a regional assembly that represents 12 counties, he said.

Cllr Reilly also expressed his fears that Longford and the midlands would be left out in the cold unless a revised National Planning Framework was published.

ALSO READ:

Longford is being neglected in national plan, say local councillorsA father of two died when a wound inflicted with a 7.5cm blade pierced his heart, State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy told a murder trial at the Central Criminal Court today (Thursday, February 15).



Professor Cassidy told prosecuting counsel Patrick McGrath SC that she found three stab wounds in total when she examined the body of Akadiusz 'Arek' Czajkowski who died after being stabbed at Rue Noyal Chatillon in Longford on November 1, 2016.

One was a defensive type injury to the left ring finger and another a superficial injury to the arm. The wound that caused death was a stab wound to the chest that went through the rib cage into the pericardial sac and ended in the left ventricle of the heart.



A toxicology report also showed that the deceased had consumed valium, amphetamines and alcohol. Professor Cassidy said it is difficult to say what effect this combination would have had on the deceased's behaviour.



Professor Cassidy said the knife used, a brown-handled folding knife, looked to have a blade of about 7.5cm.



Rihards Lavickis (25) has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Czajkowski (31). His plea was not accepted and he is on trial at the Central Criminal Court in front of Justice Una Ni Raifeartaigh and a jury of six men and six women.

The trial as it happened:

Day 1, Thursday, February 8 (morning):

Longford manslaughter plea rejected at Central Criminal Court

Day 1, Thursday, February 8 (afternoon):

Jury sworn in for Longford murder trial

Day 2 Friday, February 10 (morning):

Longford murder trial hears man was stabbed after dispute over smashed window

Day 2, Friday, February 10 (afternoon):

Longford murder trial hears accused stabbed victim three times

Day 3, Tuesday, February 13 (morning):

Longford murder accused told garda he was going to 'sort out' deceased

Day 3, Tuesday, February 13 (afternoon):

Accused had blood on his trousers when he informed partner he stuck knife in victim's 'belly'

Day 4, Wednesday, February 14 (morning):

Partner of accused in Longford murder trial feared revenge

Day 4, Wednesday, February 14 (Afternoon):

Longford murder accused owed deceased money for cannabis he received 'on tick'The new owners of Longfords vacant shopping centre have set their sights on bringing a state of the art multi-million euro cinema, retail and leisure complex to the county town within the next 18 months.

The Leader spoke exclusively to Omniplex director Mark Anderson this afternoon, some 24 hours after the cinema chains acquisition of the centre was confirmed.

During a walkabout of the 80,000 sq ft premises, Mr Anderson said the group had set their sights on replicating the successes enjoyed by its 173,000 sq ft Swan Centre in Rathmines.

In Northern Ireland, Ominplex as a group is mainly leisure but the Swan Shopping Centre in Rathmines does mirror a lot of the similarities to what we plan and hope to achieve here in having a cinema as one of the anchor tenants and having a lot of businesses feeding off the footfall the cinema will generate, he said.

In the Swan there are other major anchor tenants, there is a Dunnes Stores, Fallon and Byrne and in the backdrop is a nine screen modern multiplex cinema.

Mr Anderson, while keen to avoid going into the finer points of the companys deal with Nama, did admit his firms purchase of the building exceeded the centres mooted 950,000 price tag.

He also confirmed the group were keen to expand its current six cinema complex by offering a larger, more grandiose movie experience to customers.

The current cinema has been there since it was built around the turn of the Millenium but I think Longford could do better than a six screen cinema complex and we do have an interest in moving the cinema within the second story of the development, he said.

The cinema trades very well where it is so we are not under any time constraints in that regard. We want to do it right rather than do it quickly but do see it as between 12 and 24 months (in terms of being fully functional).

The Dublin based businessman said Longford County Councils ongoing regeneration plans to uplift the lower end of town were welcome but were not key to the firms decision to secure the centre.

Passing reference too was aired in the direction of Center Parcs anticipated arrival and the additional footfall the UK leisure giant is expected to bring in around 18 months time.

The draw of having 150,000 sq ft of car parking space on site allied to Omniplexs long established presence beside the centre had provided a perfect fit for the cinema giant to secure a deal with Nama, he said.

It will take a lot of investment on our side, added Mr Anderson.

The purchase price was only one aspect of it.

There are a lot of other hurdles to overcome in order to make this a success and thats going to take a lot of capital investment from the Omniplex Group but its a complex that deserves the best chance to succeed.

I think we are in the prime position to make sure that this complex succeeds.

ALSO READ:

Omniplex to turn vacant Longford Shopping Centre into 'massive entertainment and activity centre'A mother of one has been found guilty of staging her housemates suicide to impede the prosecution of her boyfriend for strangling her.



The killer was never charged because he sustained a traumatic brain injury months later while fleeing after a car he had hijacked crashed. He is currently living in a care facility, where he is spoon fed.



However, his 34-year-old former partner was on trial at the Central Criminal Court, charged with impeding his apprehension or prosecution, knowing or believing him to have murdered Antra Ozolina (49), or committed some other arrestable offence.



Egita Jaunmaize, of no fixed abode, admitted placing a blue cord around her fellow Latvians neck so as to simulate her suicide in order to make it more difficult to establish that her death was suspicious.



However, she pleaded not guilty to carrying out the offence, without reasonable excuse, at their home at The Old Post, Main Street, Kilnaleck, Co Cavan on or about June 27 or June 28 2014.

The mushroom picker told gardai that she was in fear for her life and acting on her boyfriends orders at the time, having just seen him strangle Ms Ozolina.



MORE TO FOLLOW

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Jury out in trial of woman accused of simulating housemate's suicide in Cavan

Single stab wound to the heart caused death of Longford father of twoThe developers behind a proposed whiskey storage facility which was refused planning permission by Westmeath County Council, have not ruled out looking at Longford as a possible alternative destination.

Vault Storage had been seeking approval to undertake a multi-million euro development at a site at Moyvore, close to the border with Longford.

Those plans were dealt a major setback last week when it emerged Westmeath County Council had decided against giving the green light to the project.

In the immediate aftermath of that decision, there were fresh calls locally for Longford County Council to step in and market Longford as a possible quick-fix solution.

The Council, for their part, confirmed no approach has been made to the Moyvore promoters despite the appeals.

Cllr Joe Flaherty said he had since made contact with Longford County Council Chief Executive Paddy Mahon in a bid to open up talks between Vault Storage officials and the local authority.

The development would fit perfectly with Co Longford's fledging tourism and food sector, he said, making reference to ongoing expansion efforts at local food producer Panelto Foods.

Cllr Flaherty said despite the Moyvore plans coming unstuck, the developers, as part of their planning application made it known that they had also scoped a possible site for the project in Edgeworthstown.

"The message for the developers is that Longford is open for business, he added.

Less than 48 hours after that appeal, Vault Storage issued a public statement in which they noted their obvious dismay at Westmeath County Councils decision.

What the developers did add, however, was their appreciation to Longford political representatives in sounding out the county as a prospective alternative location.

Understandably we are extremely surprised and disappointed at the decision by Westmeath Co Co to refuse planning permission, the firm said in a statement.

We feel this decision gives out a negative signal for new business opportunities in this region.

However, while this delays us in supporting the existing and new Irish Whiskey ventures currently thriving in Ireland we still believe that this project is of National Strategic interest and will be a major loss for the midlands region should it not go ahead.

The company said it would take time to take stock of the setback before setting about its next move.

Our decision was to concentrate on development and job creation for Westmeath however, we are very grateful to Longford for expressing an interest.

Our focus now is to re-evaluate our options and take some time to explore our next move.

The Leader has made contact with Longford County Council to determine whether any approaches had been made to Moyvore about possibly switching their sights to Longford.

Also read: Flaherty wants whiskey storage project promoters to explore Edgeworthstown siteCrime, Local Experts, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: February 15 2018

Arkady Goldin, Owner of Value Pharmacy, Inc in Lynbrook Allegedly Paid Kickbacks and Billed Medicaid for Cancer Medications Never Dispensed.

New York, NY - February 15, 2018 - Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli today announced the arrest and indictment of, as well as a civil asset forfeiture action against, Arkady Goldin, 39, of Brooklyn, and Value Pharmacy, Inc. (Value), located at 257 Broadway in Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli today announced the arrest and indictment of, as well as a civil asset forfeiture action against, Arkady Goldin, 39, of Brooklyn, and Value Pharmacy, Inc. (Value), located at 257 Broadway in Lynbrook, New York , for allegedly defrauding the New York State Medicaid program out of millions of dollars. Goldin, an owner of Value, is charged with Grand Larceny in the First Degree and other crimes for having allegedly paid kickbacks to a hospital employee for the referral of prescriptions for costly cancer medications. Additionally, prosecutors allege that Value billed Medicaid for over a million dollars of prescription medication it did not have in stock to dispense.

The Attorney Generals Medicaid Fraud Control Unit ("MFCU"), working with the Comptrollers Office, also filed an asset forfeiture and civil recovery action against Goldin, Value, and Goldins co-owners seeking over $8.7 million in damages and penalties, alleging that Values owners made millions from these schemes that they funneled through shell companies to purchase personal expenses such as travel, luxury cars, and a high-end country club membership.

We allege that the defendant engaged in an elaborate kickback scheme to line his pockets by defrauding Medicaid and pretending to dispense cancer medication he never actually distributed. Medicaid is meant to be a healthcare safety net for New Yorkers  not a bank account for criminals, said Attorney General Schneiderman. My office will continue to fight for the integrity of the Medicaid program to ensure that our tax dollars are not wasted  and instead put towards helping our most vulnerable citizens, as intended.

Goldin and his accomplices allegedly capitalized off the treatment of others' suffering to steal millions," Comptroller DiNapoli said. "Through kickbacks and sham billing, Goldin and his partners diverted millions meant to provide treatment to those in need to fund their lifestyles and real estate investments. Attorney General Schneiderman and I will continue to root out public fraud and protect taxpayer funds."

During the course of this scheme, which dates back to at least 2012, Goldin allegedly paid thousands of dollars in kickbacks and other benefits to a former hospital employee. As a result of this illegal kickback scheme, the Attorney General alleges that Goldin, through Value, submitted at least $700,000 in false claims for reimbursement to Medicaid. Medicaid prohibits all providers, including pharmacies, from securing services or patients through the payment of kickbacks. Prosecutors additionally allege that Goldin submitted over $1.2 million dollars in claims to Medicaid certifying that Value had dispensed Neupogen, a high-dollar cancer treatment medication, to patients when Value never possessed sufficient quantities of Neupogen to support the claims it submitted.

Today, Queens County Supreme Court Justice Peter F. Vallone, Jr. unsealed an indictment against Goldin and Value and arraigned Goldin on six counts charging him with Grand Larceny in the First Degree, Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, Health Care Fraud in the Second Degree, and a violation of Social Services Law prohibiting the payment of kickbacks related to the provision of services under the States Medicaid program. Justice Peter F. Vallone, Jr. also arraigned Goldin on two counts of Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree. Value, the corporation, will be arraigned at a later date.

Grand Larceny in the First Degree is a Class B felony with a maximum term of incarceration of twenty-five years in state prison. Grand Larceny in the Second Degree and Health Care Fraud in the Second Degree are each Class C felonies with a maximum term of incarceration of fifteen years. Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree and Social Services Law 366(d) are each Class E felonies with a maximum term of incarceration of four years. If convicted on the top count, the defendant faces up to 25 years in state prison.

In connection with todays arrest, the Attorney Generals Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, working with the Comptrollers Division of Investigations, also filed an asset forfeiture and civil recovery action against Goldin, Value, and other defendants, including Values two other owners, Arik Yershov and Barry Beshkin, seeking over $8.7 million in damages plus penalties. Court papers unsealed today allege that Values owners made millions from the schemes described above and funneled the proceeds through shell companies through which they paid for personal expenses, including travel, luxury car payments, and a high-end country club membership. Values owners also allegedly pooled more than $2.3 million of proceeds to invest in a potentially lucrative real estate opportunity  a newly constructed condominium building in Brooklyn with units listed for as much as $1.75 million. As part of the civil action, the Attorney General obtained an order freezing the bank accounts and other property held by the defendants and related entities and individuals, as well as attaching up to $4,530,000 of those assets to preserve money wrongfully obtained from Medicaid.

The Attorney General and the Comptroller would like to thank the Office of New York State Medicaid Inspector General, MFCUs partner in combatting fraud against the Medicaid program, for its assistance.

Since 2011, Attorney General Schneiderman and Comptroller DiNapoli have worked together to fight corruption through their Joint Task Force on Public Integrity. They have brought charges against dozens of individuals implicated in public corruption schemes around the state  resulting in the return of over $11 million in restitution to taxpayers through these convictions.

The Comptrollers investigation was led by his Division of Investigations, working with his Division of State Government Accountability.

The Attorney Generals investigation was led by MFCU Investigators Joseph Mendez and Daniel McCarron, with the support of Supervising Investigators Victor Maldonado, Dominick DiGennaro and Ronald Lynch, under the supervision of MFCU Deputy Chief Investigator Kenneth Morgan. The audit investigation was led by Auditor-Investigator Edgar Romero, with the support of Senior Auditor-Investigator Olga Sunitsky, under the supervision of MFCU NYC Regional Chief Auditor Thomasina Smith. Investigative support was provided by Supervising Legal Assistant Wendy Dorival and Confidential Legal Analysts Nicole Maher and Victoria Sepe.

The criminal case is being prosecuted by MFCUs Special Assistant Attorneys General Megan Friedland and Michael Leigh with the assistance of NYC Deputy Regional Director Twan Bounds and Regional Director Christopher M. Shaw. Thomas OHanlon is MFCUs Chief of Criminal InvestigationsDownstate. The civil case is being handled by Special Assistant Attorneys General Elizabeth Kappakas and Diana Elkind, with the assistance of MFCU Civil Enforcement Chief Carolyn Ellis. MFCU is led by Director Amy Held and Assistant Deputy Attorney General Paul J. Mahoney. The Criminal Justice Division is led by Executive Deputy Attorney General Margaret Garnett.Local News, Crime, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: February 15 2018

Yury Baumblit and Rimma Baumblit Will Each Serve State Prison Sentences For Medicaid Fraud Scheme that Forced Residents to Attend Treatment Programs Regardless of Medical Need.

Brooklyn, NY - February 15, 2018 - Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced the guilty pleas and expected prison sentences of Yury and Rimma Baumblit, the operators of three-quarter homes in New York City for a scheme to defraud Medicaid through kickbacks. Kings Country Acting Supreme Court Justice Daniel Chun accepted the guilty pleas of both defendants on two counts each of Grand Larceny in the Third Degree. Three-quarter homes in New York City are private entities that provide housing to indigent, formerly homeless individuals and those transitioning out of periods of incarceration.

Both defendants were indicted in 2016 by the Attorney Generals Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for having defrauded the State Medicaid program through a systematic scheme whereby, in exchange for money, Yury Baumblit and Rimma Baumblit mandated that the residents of their three-quarter homes attend substance abuse treatment at designated treatment programs regardless of medical need. At a later date, Yury Baumblit will be sentenced to concurrent terms of 2  to 5 years in state prison for each crime; Rimma Baumblit will be sentenced to concurrent terms of 2 to 4 years in state prison for each crime.

Yury Baumblit and Rimma Baumblit lined their pockets by preying on our most vulnerable New Yorkers, said Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman. This should serve as yet another reminder that my office will aggressively pursue and prosecute those who seek to get rich by taking advantage of New Yorkers.

In addition to their guilty pleas, Yury Baumblit and Rimma Baumblit each executed civil settlement agreements with the Attorney Generals Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Under the terms of those agreements, each of them agreed to forfeit assets, including two properties they own in Brooklyn: a 5,000 square foot home in Manhattan Beach and a cooperative apartment in Brighton Beach. Each of them also agreed to forfeit luxury goods seized in connection with the civil action against them, including jewelry, watches, over 200 designer handbags, and 21 fur coats. The sale of assets is projected to realize between $1.5 and $2.5 million dollars in civil restitution for the State Medicaid program.

As part of their guilty pleas, Yury Baumblit and Rimma Baumblit admitted they had engaged in a kickback scheme with Medicaid-enrolled drug treatment providers Narco Freedom Inc., NRI Group, LLC, and Canarsie A.W.A.R.E. Inc. In exchange for monthly payments, the two individuals forced the residents at their three-quarter homes to attend treatment at these three drug programs, irrespective of the residents actual medical need for drug treatment services, and in violation of numerous State laws. Had the patients refused, they would have been evicted by the Baumblits and left homeless. The payments that Yury Baumblit and Rimma Baumblit received were based on the number of substance-abuse treatment sessions attended by residents of their three-quarter homes. During the course of the scheme dating back to 2010, the Baumblits received over $1.5 million in illegal kickbacks through five corporations they controlled: #1 Marketing Service, Inc., R Y B Realty, LLC, Steps to Better Living Inc., Orbit Management Group Inc., and Back on Track Group, Inc. As a result of this kickback scheme, the Medicaid program also paid over $2 Million to Narco Freedom Inc., NRI Group, LLC, and Canarsie A.W.A.R.E. Inc.

In 2016, the Attorney Generals Medicaid Fraud Control Unit also indicted NRI Group, LLC, Canarsie A.W.A.R.E. Inc., and the owner of both treatment programs, Anthony Cornachio, for their participation in the kickback scheme to which the Yury Baumblit and Rimma Baumblit pled guilty. Criminal charges remain pending against NRI Group, LLC, Canarsie A.W.A.R.E. Inc., and Anthony Cornachio. A trial is expected later this year. Narco Freedom was convicted last year of Enterprise Corruption for defrauding the Medicaid program in a related scheme. The charges against the remaining defendants are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

Four of the Baumblits corporate entities  #1 Marketing Service, Inc., R Y B Realty, LLC, Steps to Better Living Inc., and Orbit Management Group Inc.  were previously convicted of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree. The other charged corporate entity, Back on Track Group, Inc. was previously convicted of Grand Larceny in the First Degree. All the corporate entities were sentenced to a conditional discharge.

Yury Baumblit and Rimma Baumblit were each previously convicted in 2009 by the Attorney Generals Automobile Insurance Fraud Unit for having participated in a no-fault insurance scam.

Throughout this investigation, the Attorney Generals office has worked closely with the various City, State, and Federal Agencies. The Attorney General would like to thank the New York City Human Resources Administration for its cooperation, partnership and valuable assistance throughout the investigation and especially note the work of its Medicaid Provider Investigations and Audit Unit. In addition, the Attorney General thanks the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, the Office of the Medicaid Inspector General, and the United States Department of Homeland Security for their assistance.

The investigation was led by Senior Investigator Albert Maiorano, with the support of Investigator David Ryan and Supervising Investigator Dominick DiGennaro and Supervising Investigator Michael Casado; all under the supervision of Deputy Chief Investigator Kenneth Morgan. The audit investigation was led by Principal Auditor-Investigator Investigator Patricia Iemma, with the support of Senior Auditor-Investigator Nicholas Thottam and Auditor-Investigators Jillian White and Megan Scott, under the supervision of NYC Regional Chief Auditor Thomasina Smith. Investigative support was provided by Supervising Legal Assistant Wendy Dorival and Confidential Legal Analyst Kelvin Caraballo.Local News, Crime, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: February 15 2018

Cuomo: "There is never an excuse for violence and discrimination."

Albany, NY - February 15, 2018 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced a 30-day budget amendment will be advanced to prohibit the so-called gay and trans panic defenses from being used in New York State to blame LGBTQ people for the violence committed against them. The current gay and trans panic defenses allow those responsible for violent crimes against LGBTQ people to receive a lesser sentence, and in some cases, even avoid being convicted, by placing the blame on a victim's actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

"As the federal government attempts to roll back progress we have made, this administration will continue to stand up for the LGBTQ community and ensure the civil rights of all New Yorkers remain protected," Governor Cuomo said. "With this action, New York will uphold our continued commitment to deliver equal rights, forbid discrimination of any kind, and remain true to the principles this state and nation were founded upon - fairness and justice for all."

"There is never an excuse for violence and discrimination, especially with defenses as ridiculous and outdated as gay and trans panic," Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul said. "New Yorkers proudly stand with our LGBTQ community, and we will not tolerate the blatant hatred that is at the root of this alleged defense. I'm proud to be a member of an Administration that always has and always will fight for equal protections for everyone, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity."

The Governor's action to advance this amendment will close a loophole in state law that currently allows individuals to use the gay and trans panic defenses after attacking another based upon a perception, or discovery of, that victim's gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

Although these defenses have appeared in court opinions in approximately half of the states, including New York, gay and trans panic defenses are not currently recognized by any state as freestanding defenses. To reduce a murder charge to manslaughter or to justify homicide, defendants have used concepts of these panics in three ways:

A defense theory of provocation, arguing the discovery, knowledge, or potential disclosure of a victim's sexual orientation or gender identity was a sufficiently provocative act that drove them to violence in that moment.

A defense theory of diminished capacity or insanity, arguing the discovery, knowledge, or potential disclosure of a victim's sexual orientation or gender identity caused them to have a temporary mental breakdown, driving them to violence, or a so-called homosexual panic.

A theory of self-defense, arguing they had a reasonable belief they were in immediate danger based on the discovery, knowledge, or potential disclosure of a victim's sexual orientation or gender identity.

In 2013, Islan Nettles, a transgender woman died on a New York City street after falling and hitting her head as a result of being punched in the face by James Dixon, who later pleaded guilty and was sentenced for the crime in 2016. Legal experts have said Dixon was given a lenient 12-year prison sentence in a plea deal because of the Trans Panic defense.

The American Bar Association unanimously approved a resolution in 2013 calling for state legislatures to eliminate the gay and trans panic defenses through legislation. The ABA believes these defenses have no medical or psychological basis and their use to make a case for either insanity or diminished capacity is inappropriate.

This 30-day budget amendment will ban the gay and trans panic defenses, making New York the third state in the nation to affirm this rule once the legislation is passed. This action builds on legislation previously advanced by Senator Brad Hoylman and Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell.

Since taking office in 2011, the Governor has been a national leader in championing LGBTQ rights in New York State, including the passage of the historic Marriage Equality Act. In 2015, regulations were implemented by the Governor to affirm that transgender individuals are protected under the State's Human Rights Law, and that all public and private employers, housing providers, businesses, creditors and others should know that discrimination against transgender persons is unlawful and will not be tolerated in New York State. The Governor established a Hate Crimes Task Force and a hotline for individuals to report bias or hate crimes in 2017.Local News, Crime

By Long Island News & PR Published: February 15 2018

William McCoy, 55, who falsely represented himself as an attorney, has been convicted of scamming clients who were purchasing a party boat business.

Mineola, NY - February 15, 2018 - Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced that a Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced that a Huntington business consultant, who also falsely represented himself as an attorney, has been convicted of stealing $192,000 from clients who were purchasing a party boat business.

William McCoy, 55, was convicted yesterday by a jury of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree (a C felony) and Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree (an E felony). The trial, before Acting Supreme Court Justice Helene Gugerty lasted 11 days and the jury deliberated for approximately an hour and a half. The defendant is due back in court March 13 for sentencing and faces a maximum of five to 15 years in prison.

This unscrupulous defendant was not only a fake lawyer but a thief, and he scammed those who trusted him out of their hard-earned money, DA Singas said. While the only blame here falls on the shoulders of this con man, this case serves as a reminder to anyone hiring an attorney that they should verify their lawyers registration and good standing with the Office of Court Administration.

DA Singas said in June 2014 the defendant was hired by the victims to assist them in the purchase of a Freeport -based charter/party boat business. The deal included the purchase of two vessels and business assets. At the time of their first meeting, the defendant represented to the victims that he was an attorney, though he was not. The defendant graduated from law school, but failed the New York State bar exam numerous times and was never licensed to practice law.

As part of his scheme, the defendant used a business checking account that he nicknamed escrow account so that checks were printed out with the word escrow on top. His clients, believing this was a lawful escrow account, wrote a check for $200,000 to the account that would be used at closing. There was an authorized expenditure of $8,000 for the transaction.

When it came time to close the deal in March 2015, the defendant, having stolen $192,000, was unable to produce the required funds. Unbeknownst to the victims, there was only $78.00 left in the business checking escrow account. At the time, McCoy claimed that he still had the escrow money. He later claimed that the money was used for his fees, but separate checks introduced during the trial proved the defendant had already collected fees from the victims. The defendant used the victims money to pay rent, car loans and for other personal expenditures.

The NCDA received the case in March 2015 and the defendant was later indicted by a Nassau County Grand Jury. He was arrested by NCDA investigators on March 27, 2017.Tech & Science, Nature & Weather, Local News, Business & Finance

By Long Island News & PR Published: February 15 2018

Customers offered $10,000 off the best negotiated price for a new BMW i3 electric car.

Uniondale, NY - February 15, 2018 - PSEG Long Island today announced a joint promotion with BMW of North America to offer PSEG Long Island customers $10,000 off the best negotiated price for a new BMW i3 electric car. The promotion is open to customers of PSEG Long Island and is available from February 15 until April 30, 2018.

Electric cars like the new BMW i3 reduce air emissions compared to gasoline vehicles and actually cost less to operate, said Michael Voltz, Director of Energy Efficiency at PSEG Long Island. Every electric car model has its own specifications to suit the needs of different consumers. If the 2018 i3 is right for our customers driving needs, then they can save money on a new car and help the environment at the same time.

In addition to the $10,000 discount from BMW, customers could also be eligible for up to $7,500 in federal tax credits. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority also offers a $1,700 rebate on electric vehicles.

The BMW i3 is the best-selling premium electric vehicle in the world, said Magnus Aspegren, Strategy Manager, Electromobility at BMW of North America. With a range of up to 114 miles on a single charge and the same uncompromised driving performance typical of every BMW model, the BMW i3 is also proof that driving electric is as practical as it is fun.

The BMW incentive and potential federal tax credit equal roughly one-third of the base i3 model price. The BMW incentive is off the best offer negotiated with a dealer and is given at the time of sale.

To take advantage of this offer, PSEG Long Island customers must download a PSEG/BMW Customer Information Form at www.psegliny.com/goelectric and take it to any authorized BMW dealership (the dealer can be outside PSEG Long Islands service territory) along with a copy of their PSEG Long Island bill.Local News, Crime

By Long Island News & PR Published: February 15 2018

Officials: Eddie Parker was caught as a result of 15-month-long investigation into local heroin distributors.

Nassau DA Singas: Eddie Parker of Roosevelt was sentenced of 24 years in prison for heroin trafficking.

Mineola, NY - February 15, 2018 - Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced that a Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced that a Roosevelt man was sentenced yesterday to the maximum sentence of 24 years in prison for his role in a heroin trafficking ring that operated in Nassau, Queens and Brooklyn.

Eddie Parker was convicted on January 16 of Criminal Sale of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree (a B felony), Three Counts of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Third Degree (a B felony), Criminally Using Drug Paraphernalia in the Second Degree (an A misdemeanor).

The trial, before Acting Supreme Court Justice Terence Murphy, lasted for four days and the jury deliberated for one hour.

This 24-year prison sentence should send a clear message that anyone dealing drugs in Nassau should expect to face serious consequences for their actions, DA Singas said. We have no tolerance for those with any role in the trafficking operations that make dealers rich while leaving our neighbors drug-addicted or dead.

On May 5, 2017, DA Singas announced the indictment of 14 people for their roles in a large-scale heroin trafficking ring that operated in Nassau, Queens and Brooklyn. The defendants allegedly distributed more than 23,000 doses of heroin a week and conservatively sold approximately $170,000 a week of the narcotic.

The indictment was the result of 15-month-long investigation into local heroin distributors by the NCDA, the Nassau County Police Department and the FBI Long Island Gang Taskforce, with the assistance of the Hempstead Police Department, Rockville Centre Police Department, Nassau County Sheriffs Office, the New York State Police, Suffolk County Police Department, New York Police Department and other agencies.

Defendant Parker was arrested on February 8, 2017 as part of Operation Tri-County Traffick for selling crack-cocaine from a Hempstead business. At the time of his arrest 60 grams of crack-cocaine, scales and several thousand dollars in cash was recovered. Over the course of the investigation, the defendant was observed taking part in numerous drug sales.

To date, 11 of the 14 defendants indicted as part of Operation Tri-County Traffick have pled guilty.by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, February 14, 2018

A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit by Playboy alleging that Boing Boing infringed copyright by linking to an outside site that displayed photos of centerfolds.

But the dismissal order, issued Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Fernando Olguin in the Central District of California, granted Playboy permission to amend its complaint and refile it.

The dispute stems from Boing Boing's February 2016 blog post titled "Every Playboy Playmate Centerfold Ever."

"Some wonderful person uploaded scans of every Playboy Playmate centerfold to imgur," the post reads. "Kind of amazing to see how our standards of hotness, and the art of commercial erotic photography, have changed over time."

Below that was a link to imgur, and a link to a YouTube video featuring the photos. The images on imgur and the YouTube clip are no longer available.

advertisement advertisement

Playboy alleged in its lawsuit that Boing Boing's post infringed copyright. Boing Boing argued that the case should be dismissed on several grounds, including that the site has a fair use right to link to outside content and offer commentary. The site also argued that merely linking to material posted by outside parties doesn't infringe copyright, and that the allegations don't support the conclusion that Boing Boing contributed to copyright infringement by web users who may have visited the imgur and YouTube pages with the images.

Olguin said in Wednesday's brief dismissal order that Playboy should "carefully evaluate the contentions set forth" by Boing Boing. He added that he was "skeptical" that Playboy's allegations could support claims that Boing Boing induced or contributed to copyright infringement.

The judge set a February 26 deadline for Playboy to file an amended complaint.Most of us know from experience that stress seems contagious; being around stressed people often causes us to feel the same way. But are our brains also affected? If so, how? New research investigates.

Share on Pinterest Being around a stressed partner may cause alterations in your brain that youre not even aware of, suggests a new study in mice.

It is a fact that stress can leave lasting marks on the brain. For example, studies have shown that those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) lose volume in their hippocampus, or the brain area responsible for learning and creating new memories.

Additionally, we know from anecdotal evidence and personal experience that stress can be transferred.

For instance, the partners and relatives of traumatized soldiers reportedly also experience symptoms of PTSD, despite never having been on a battlefield.

Furthermore, a study that Medical News Today reported on showed that simply observing fear in others can rewire the brain.

So, does simply being around stressed people cause our brains to change as well? Researchers at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, set out to investigate.

Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs, Giorgos Katrougalos, represented Greece at the International Conference held on 13 and 14 February, in Kuwait, for the complete neutralization of ISIS/Daesh and the Reconstruction of Iraq. The Conference was attended by dozens of states, UN Secretary-General A. Guterres, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, F. Mogherini, and U.S. Secretary of State R. Tillerson. In tandem with the political talks, an economic forum, whose attendees included Greek companies, was held for enterprises wanting to become active in Iraq.

In his remarks, Mr. Katrougalos stressed that the military victory over ISIS/Daesh does not mean that the root causes of terrorism have been eradicated. This will not happen unless conditions of prosperity, security and justice prevail in the region, and in Europe itself we need to deal with the recent phenomena of intolerance and xenophobia. In this context, Greece has undertaken important initiatives for interfaith dialogue and, through the Rhodes Conference, institutionalization of a regional system for security and stability in the region.

The Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs highlighted that Greece supports the efforts of the government of Iraq towards reconstruction and peace in the region, encouraging it to reach agreements, through dialogue, on mutually acceptable solutions with the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. In spite of the financial crisis, from 2002 to 2016 Greece provided $25 million for the reconstruction of Iraq, particularly in the sectors of education, health, infrastructure and humanitarian assistance. Greece is committed to being present in Iraq in the future, especially through scholarships and the provision of expertise in restoring antiquities and building democratic institutions.SEBEWAING -- This past fall, students from Christ the King Lutheran School entered a poster contest sponsored by the local Soil Conservation Office in Bad Axe.

The theme for the 2017 Michigan contest was, "Healthy Soils are Full of Life."

The emphasis of the program was to educate the public of the importance of conserving one of our greatest resources: Land.

Students utilized their creative talents and their passion for education to inspire the community and teach them about the importance of respecting soil and conserving this precious resource. Two students, sixth-grader Kayla Eremia and eighth-grader Brooklynn Kuhl had their artwork entered into the Michigan Association of Conservation Districts competition. This is the state competition.

The artwork created by Kuhl has received first place at the state level and will not be entered into the national competition. Kuhl was honored at the Conservation Office in Bad Axe with a certificate and a monetary award for her poster.SEBEWAING  Authorities remain on the scene of what's being referred to as a double homicide and suicide in the Sebewaing area.

Three people were found dead in a home in the 500 block of Beach Street earlier this morning. Sebewaing Police Chief Bill Owens told the Tribune the victims have been identified as a father, mother and daughter.PORT AUSTIN  Port Austin officials were both happy and cautiously optimistic about the villages finances in discussions at this months meeting.

Following a public hearing on the villages proposed 2018-19 budget, council wound up approving it at its regular meeting.

Discussion focused on the overall health of the budget. While the village is currently awaiting the results of its latest audit report to officially confirm, the village believes it is in decent shape, based on the numbers and projections.

If youve had a chance to look at Michigan Community Financials, our general fund budget  the health of it  is in the 95th percentile, said board member Fred Kendall. So were right in the top 5 percent in terms of our budget and the finances that we have for our general fund. So I think were in pretty good shape and hopefully we can continue that going forward.

Michigan Community Financials is a new website from the Department of Treasury that offers quick access to information on the fiscal health of communities across the state. The latest numbers reflect a municipalitys 2016 fiscal year.

However, fellow board member John Brecht urged caution. He said the numbers are only compared to other villages in the state, and the village still has some large expenses coming up, such as street projects.

The general fund, at least, appears to be healthy, Brecht said. At least compared to other locations.

Added Brecht: You can look at it as really good or you can look at it as cautiously good, knowing that there are other factors that may or may not contribute to that ranking. But compared to some other villages, it looks like we are in OK shape.

The villages 2017 proposed budget shows a surplus of $62,483. Its 2018 projected budget reflects a break-even scenario.

However, without the results of its audit, those 2017 numbers are not yet set in stone. And due to the fluidity of the budget, the 2018 numbers could change considerably.

A lot of things are still up in the air, Brecht said. Depending on the audit report, hopefully next year things will be a lot smoother and a lot more concrete as to how we stand and what we have.

Also this week's meeting, Kendall spoke to the board about some water issues in the village.

In January, the village suffered two major water line breaks, which resulted in 140 percent over its normal usage rate. To fix the large cracks, workers had to tear up portions of road, but the issues have been resolved.

Kendall said since the fix, the village has seen an 18 percent decrease in water usage over the first 11 days of February, compared to last year over that same period.

In other business, the board approved:

 The purchase of a new LifeRing and cabinet to replace the old one at the end of the break wall.

 A special events request from the Port Austin Chamber of Commerce for a Friday night program that runs through the summer at the Village Green.HARTFORD  The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities is demanding Gov. Dannel P. Malloy release $30 million in road aid owed to cities and towns across the state.

But in a telling sign of the states precarious financial condition, the Malloy administration said the check is not in the mail.

We do not feel we can authorize that additional $30 million in bonds and obligate that debt at this time, said Chris McClure, a spokesman for the state Office of Policy and Management.

CCM maintains the money was promised to towns and cities last fall when a bipartisan budget was adopted. Malloy, faced with tens of millions in mandated cuts and an ongoing deficit, instead eliminated the second distribution of road aid.

For CCM, thats not only a broken promise but a bad omen for the future.

The ultimate cost of poor road conditions is significantly more over time than the cost to maintain those same roads in good condition, said Kevin Maloney, a spokesman for CCM.

After 25 years, the cost per lane-mile for reconstruction can be more than three times the cost of preservation treatments over the same time period, which can lead to a longer overall life span for the infrastructure, Maloney said.

CCM on Thursday demanded the money be authorized by the State Bond Commission on Friday. The item is not on the commissions agenda.

More Information Money owed Here is some of the road aid due to towns and cities: Bridgeport: $695,389 New Haven: $622,752 Stamford: $614,393 Norwalk: $447,147 Danbury: $431,244 Greenwich: $374,371 Middletown: $295,205 Torrington: $230,103 See More Collapse

The money includes $431,244 for Danbury, $695,389 for Bridgeport, $622,752 for New Haven and $614,393 for Stamford.

McClure said the Malloy administration agrees repairing and maintaining roads is vital to the state.

We are optimistic that we will be able to act on the additional funding later this spring once the Legislature has taken needed steps to strengthen the Special Transportation Fund to provide a sustainable and predictable path forward for Connecticuts transportation infrastructure, McClure said.

McClure said $30 million in road aid has already been forwarded to municipalities and the request for another $30 million comes when we just canceled or delayed $4.3 billion worth of projects.

Malloy canceled hundreds of transportation projects due to a lack of money. The governor has proposed installing electronic highway tolls to raise revenue and wants to increase the gas tax by seven cents a gallon and place a $3 fee on tires.

Av Harris, a spokesman for Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim, said road aid is important to towns and cities.

We need the money, and it is crucial that the state live up to its obligations to fund these infrastructure improvements for our communities, that we have a realistic expectation that when the state allocates funding to municipalities that it will actually implement the budget it passes, Harris said.

Bridgeport, like other municipalities, is reliant on town road aid to fund crucial infrastructure improvements and basic costs of keeping our roads in good condition as we recover from the winter and work to make sure our streets are safe for our residents and can aid in commerce and economic development, Harris added.

CCM said the road aid is a longstanding core grant from the state to towns that provides for critical repairs of Connecticut local roads and bridges.

CCM added local government is responsible for maintaining the majority of Connecticuts roads and bridges. Seventy-three percent of Connecticuts roads are in poor or mediocre condition, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.MIDDLETOWN  Three individuals were arrested Feb. 9 after copious amounts of marijuana were allegedly found in their possession, according to an arrest report.

Police executed a signed narcotics search-and-seizure warrant on Angel Santiago, 37, and his Trolley Crossing Lane residence. Upon searching the residence, officers reportedly found 42 grams of marijuana, 1.8 grams of marijuana extract, 14 5-milligram oxycodone pills, 9 alprazolam pills, eight cyclobenzaprine hydrochloride pills, a digital scale, packaging material and unidentified clear pills, the report said.

Santiago was charged with possession of narcotics, possession of narcotics with intent to sell, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana and possession of marijuana with intent to sell, the report stated.

Through an investigation, police learned Santiago was reportedly selling marijuana from his apartment but kept the majority of his drugs at a secondary location to prevent being robbed of his narcotics or in the event the police searched his residence. In this case, the secondary location was a Ridgewood Road residence, where Holly Damboise, 39; Scott Balch, 38; and two juveniles live, the report said.

Police executed a signed narcotics search-and-seizure warrant Feb. 9 on Balch, a 2004 GMC Yukon and the Ridgewood Road residence. Upon searching the bedroom shared by Balch, Damboise and the two juveniles, as well as searching the 2004 GMC Yukon, officers reportedly found smoking pipes, rolling papers, marijuana containers, 335.5 grams of marijuana, 23 grams of marijuana extract, 325 grams of THC candy, 3.8 grams of psilocybin mushrooms and a digital scale, according to the report.

Damboise and Balch were each charged with possession of more than 4 ounces of marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to sell, possession of drug paraphernalia and two counts of risk of injury to a minor, the arrest report said.

Balch claimed the reason he had such a large amount of marijuana in his possession was because he works construction and gets laid off. He asserted that, with no paycheck, he cant afford marijuana, so he has been stocking up in preparation for getting laid off. However, police believe the amount of marijuana seized and the manner it was stored is indicative of Balch and Damboise selling marijuana and using the 2004 GMC Yukon to transport the marijuana to Santiagos residence, the report said.

Santiago was released on $150,000 bail and will appear next in court Feb. 21. Damboise was held in lieu of $50,000 bail while Balch was released on $75,000 bail. Both will appear in court Feb. 27.Journal Register Co.

MIDDLETOWN  A man was arrested Feb. 12 after he reportedly tried to pick up a package full of marijuana from the Wesleyan University mailroom, according to an arrest report.

Zachary Obstfeld, 21, of San Diego Road, Berkley, Calif., was charged with possession of marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to sell, possession of marijuana within 1,500 feet of a school zone, and possession of marijuana with intent to sell within 1,500 feet of a school zone, the report said.What Is ISIS-K? Two Experts on the Group Behind the Kabul Airport Attack and its Rivalry with the Taliban

By 2018, the group had become one of the top four deadliest terrorist organizations in the world.An FBI official acknowledged on Thursday the bureau received a tip months before the Florida high school massacre about a social media comment by a Nikolas Cruz, who aspired to be "a professional school shooter."

Special Agent Rob Lasky, in charge of the FBI's Miami division, confirmed during a Thursday morning news conference the agency investigated a comment made on a YouTube video in September that matched the remark reported by vlogger Ben Bennight. After conducting database reviews, however, the FBI said it could not identify the user who made the comment.

"No other information was included in the comment which would indicate a particular time, location or the true identity of the person who posted the comment," the FBI said in a subsequent statement.

The comment, made by user Nikolas Cruz, stated: "I'm going to be a professional school shooter."

Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, is accused of a bloody rampage that killed 17 people at the school.

Bennight, a Mississippi bail bondsman who goes by the name "Ben The Bondsman" on YouTube and social media, said in a new video posted Wednesday he immediately reported the threatening comment to YouTube and contacted the FBI. Bennight also included a screenshot of the comment.

Bennight said Wednesday he was again contacted by FBI agents from the Mississippi and Miami field offices -- after alleged gunman Cruz shot and killed at least 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

"I would like to think that they were already investigating this guy and they had him on the top of their radar and that's how they ended up contacting me so quickly," the vlogger said. "I wish I could have given them more information."

Bennight told BuzzFeed News that Special Agent Ryan Furr from the FBI's Miami field office contacted him and left a voicemail.

"I think we spoke with you in the past about a complaint that you made about someone making a comment on your YouTube channel," Furr said in the message that was detailed in a transcription Bennight posted. "I just wanted to follow up with you on that and ask you a question with something that's come up, if you wouldn't mind giving me a ring."

The FBI did not immediately comment when reached by Fox News asking about Cruz's YouTube account, which has since been taken down. Bennight also did not immediately return Fox News' request for comment.

Cruz was charged Thursday with 17 counts of premeditated murder. He was booked into Broward County Jail after federal and local investigators questioned him. Cruz allegedly walked into the school with a gas mask, smoke grenades and multiple magazines of ammunition before firing an AR-15 at students and faculty members.

Details about Cruz's troubled past have emerged hours after the deadly shooting. The 19-year-old was a former student at the high school, but was expelled in the last school year after getting into a fight with the boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend, a student told The Associated Press.

Katherine Lam is a breaking and trending news digital producer for Fox News. Follow her on Twitter at @bykatherinelamThe Navy this week released a new document showing its plan to get from its current fleet of 280 to 355 ships by sometime in the 2050s, and to 342 three decades from now.

But at an annual meeting of the Amphibious Warship Industrial Base Coalition, a number of lawmakers criticized the plan, and the fiscal 2019 budget proposal that accompanied it, as inadequate to meet the requirements of a Navy that needs more grey hulls today to meet global requirements.

Rep. Rob Wittman, a Virginia Republican and chairman of the Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee under House Armed Services, said the plan "falls well short" of what the service needs, adding that 355 ships within the 30-year time period should be considered a floor for Navy end strength.

On amphibious ships in particular, Wittman took issue with a "dip" in production in the plan that takes place between fiscal 2035 and 2043. The Navy is set to buy only four amphibious ships inside that span, compared with 11 in the preceding nine years.

"We get back up, but we can't be taking those dips on industrial base issues," Wittman said. "We must have 38 amphibious ships. That's the requirement; let's stand by the requirement."

He also said there should have been funding for amphibious ships in the president's fiscal 2019 budget request, whether to invest in the new LX(R) class of amphibious ship, or reduce the space between purchases of LHA(R) amphibious assault ships from the current pace of one every seven years.

Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican whose district includes Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, agreed.

The Navy, he said, needs to accelerate the procurement of the 9th America-class LHA.

"Ingalls Shipbuilding launched [LHA-7] Tripoli three months ahead of schedule," Wicker said. "[LHA-8] Bougainville is ready to start fabrication. And yet the Navy is planning for a seven-year production slowdown between LHA-8 and LHA-9? This makes no sense, and the decision should be reconsidered."

Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Republican from Wisconsin and a former Marine Corps intelligence officer, said getting the Navy to 355 ships is a matter of law, thanks to the Securing the Homeland by Increasing our Power on the Seas (SHIPS) Act, championed by Wicker and Wittman. It was signed into law as part of the Fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act.

"A 30-year shipbuilding plan that ignores that law and does not get us to 355 in as practical and as timely a manner as possible is quite frankly inadequate," he said.

The commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Robert Neller, did sound a note of caution, saying at the event that building high volumes of ships without adequate survivability, command-and-control functions, and warfighting capacity would not meet the nation's needs.

"I think I would trade numbers of ships for capability, if that was the trade," he said.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.The Air Force is giving the green light to launch at least 24 flights of the T-6 Texan II trainer aircraft next week to test new maintenance procedures after officials halted operations earlier this month for hypoxia-related issues, a top general said Wednesday.

Lt. Gen Chris Nowland, the service's deputy chief of staff for operations, says the service is making progress in dealing with a cluster of unexplained physiological events that occurred with the trainer at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi; Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma; and Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas.

"We have two technical change time orders that are being executed right now that we expect to be done" by Friday, Nowland said during a House Armed Services Committee on Air Force readiness.

"Next week we expect to start flying 24 [sorties] to start flying the airplane to test our Onboard Oxygen Generation System to see if we have the appropriate repairs and get back to flying operations," the general said.

Nowland did not disclose where the 24 flights will occur, or if the flights would be spread out across at all three bases impacted by physiological events.

Related content:

"When we maintain an airplane, it's a maintenance action," Nowland told reporters after the hearing, referring to the technical maintenance change.

Before pilots take to the air, "the time change technical order allows you to go through and perform maintenance on it, so the system, the first [change] is checking the valve, the second [will] check the overall system looking for leaks, how's the system's overall performance," he said.

Once in the air, teams in place will also begin testing a backup method: Pilots will disconnect from the OBOGS, Nowland said, flying at a restricted altitude, which he did not specify.

These flights will help "determine how's the system working, and what's the ambient air," or what a pilot experiences when he or she isn't connected to the system, he said.

Pilots can breathe free flowing air in the cockpit when flying under 10,000 feet, but need to hook up to an OBOGS above that altitude. If pilots experience hypoxia -- disorientation, shortness of breath, confusion, wheezing -- at lower altitudes, it could be an indication something else is erratic in the aircraft.

The latest grounding has forced the Air Force to cancel one class of pilots going through the pipeline, backlogging 82 pilots until they can resume flight training when the next class begins, Nowland said.

"Most important, is safety of the air crews and trusting confidence of the aircrews and their families," Nowland said, echoing statements he made last week before the House Armed Services Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee. Nowland's comments did not resonate well with some members of the subcommittee, notably Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, who argued looking to the aircraft first is a mistake.

Citing a recent NASA report commissioned by the Navy to investigate physiological incidents in F/A-18s, Turner, the panel's chairman, said these physiological episodes "do not happen to planes, they happen to people."

While the T-6 system mimics the OBOG system made by Cobham in the F/A-18, Nowland demurred when asked if the Air Force, like the Navy, will pursue a new request for proposal to issue a new OBOGS concentrator.

"We're working with the Navy and taking lessons from the Navy [and] as we work through this decision tree, we'll take lessons from the Navy and we'll see how we move," Nowland said Wednesday.

The service on Feb. 1 ordered an indefinite operational pause for all T-6 aircraft.

There have been 22 hypoxia-related incidents in the T-6A in fiscal 2018 alone, Nowland told lawmakers in his written testimony at the separate HASC hearing last week.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.The Air Force has long made clear it wants to conduct rapid research and testing on new equipment that can give it a competitive edge against near-peer adversaries, such as China and Russia, while also prototyping weapons for the advanced fight.

And it plans to start investing heavily in that goal soon, its new budget request for Fiscal 2019 shows. The service asked for $504 million next year for its next-generation air dominance research, development, test and evaluation program, according to the document.

And that's not all: In its future years defense program [FYDP], showing the next five years of planned spending, the Air Force shows a planned investment of roughly $11 billion over the course of five years for RTD&E on next-gen air dominance.

But what will the end product be?

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"Under next-generation air dominance, we're investing in a family of systems," Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told Military.com on Tuesday. "We're going through the analysis of alternatives now, and that will help define the capabilities of the future."

The service in 2016 debuted its Air Superiority 2030 roadmap, which includes the sustainment of old fighters and new jets such as the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, but also outlines next-gen air dominance, defined as advanced fighter aircraft, sensors or weapons -- or all of the above -- in a growing and unpredictable threat environment.

Officials say the Air Force's next-generation platform may defy traditional categorization.

"As we went through the [study], we specifically precluded ourselves from using the word fighter," said Air Force Brig. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, deputy director of global operations at the Pentagon. Grynkewich served as the lead chief of strategic planning for the Air Superiority 2030 Enterprise Capabilities Collaboration Team.

"Air combat is not all about fighter aircraft dogfighting anymore ... it's about bringing a network to bear, and attributes [penetrating counter air] needs in terms of range, persistence, survivability, lethality," Grynkewich said in July.

Next-generation air dominance was once synonymous with penetrating counter air, or PCA. To many, the concept of an advanced, stealthy and hypersonic fighter aircraft came to mind.

But the Air Force is keen on moving away from a "one-size-fits-all" idea and toward a family of systems approach. Officials have said it helps when the service turns to the defense industry for contributions to the program.

While munitions, lasers, sensors and speed are on the table, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson this week said the air superiority focus coincides with a renewed emphasis on electronic warfare, networked capabilities, and control of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Wilson highlighted China's recent push to modernize in these areas.

"[China] is modernizing very quickly -- they're modernizing their air defenses, but also their air-to-air capability is really modernizing across the board. It is the pacing threat for the U.S. Air Force because of the pace of their modernization," she told reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday.

Wilson said China's quick pace is driving the Air Force to react. There has been explicit recognition "of the re-emergence of great power competition," she said.

"China seeks to be a regional power in this area," Wilson said.

For the Air Force, the effort now "is across-the-board modernization to be able to operate in a highly contested environment," she said.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.Military Update: When asked about the current level of savings for commissary shoppers in an era of sweeping reforms, the interim director of Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA), retired Navy Rear Adm. Robert Bianchi, referred to results of a price comparison survey conducted in 2016 and released in late January last year.

It showed average savings at commissaries globally were 23.7 percent compared to prices at commercial grocery stores. More specifically, patron savings averaged 20.2 percent at stateside commissaries and 44.2 percent overseas.

The same survey also showed average patron savings varied widely across U.S. regions, from a high of 32.6 percent in Alaska and Hawaii to a low near 18 percent for commissary shoppers across the South Central and Mountain states.

Bianchi and staff said it is the regional cost saving targets that DeCA monitors monthly and, in finer detail, quarterly, to ensure that steps to transform commissaries into more business-like stores are not diluting patron savings.

Price savings by region are being tracked on a monthly basis via our syndicated data and [on] a quarterly basis via manual shops [of local stores] and using syndicated data, a DeCA spokesman explained.

The larger price comparison survey released a year ago established a new method for calculating savings that included a proportion of prices for private label or store brands. This irked patron advocacy groups because, at the time, commissaries didnt sell their own private label goods. The concern was that the timing served to dampen the baseline savings targets set, which DeCA, by law, must sustain forever more.

This occurred long before Bianchi become interim DeCA director last November to lead commissary transformation while also serving as chief executive of the Navy Exchange Service. Bianchi said he believes the baseline for savings, which use regional price comparisons and private labels, more accurately reflects the real value of the benefit. The previous method, which led to claims that patrons saved more than 30 percent, compared commissary prices against average commercial prices for brand goods only nationwide, ignoring popular private labels.

Steps transforming commissaries include: replacing the traditional cost-plus-a-surcharge pricing with variable pricing based on regional markets; offering DeCA-brand or private label goods as low-priced alternatives to name brands; cutting the assortment of national brands on shelves and negotiating more competitive pricing for surviving brands with brokers and manufacturers.

Patron savings are real and substantial, Bianchi said. But messaging that, connecting that for the customer, becomes important, and variable pricing is key.

Commissary savings can get distorted, Bianchi said, when, for example, a shopper walks into a commercial supermarket and the first item seen are bananas selling for 39 cents a pound versus 52 cents seen at the commissary.

Even though we may be saving them lots of dollars on chicken or other commodities, they get that initial impression and say Hum, am I really saving money or not? We know they are. So, part of what I have our team looking at are image items. As we introduce variable pricing, it will give us the capability to compete with those other retailers and manage pricing in the market.

Patrons need to be made more aware of average savings, Bianchi said.

So, the part I have to do is message that so they arent dissuaded when they see a loss leader item in a commercial market and think their commissary benefit has lost value. The value proposition has got to be real and clear to them.

Readers of last weeks column, which described a sharp decline in commissary sales, reacted with emails. Many blamed falling sales on a perceived narrowing of savings. Other criticized empty shelves and popular items out of stock.

Manufacturers and brokers shared recent scanned sales data from commissaries that, they contend, show variable pricing and private labeling accelerating the sales drop as patrons discover favored brand names are gone.

One industry analysis noted how Duracell batteries were removed from commissaries last year. While sales data show Energizer battery sales climbing, as would be expected, battery sales overall in the commissaries have fallen.

Bianchi said its premature to be sounding alarms over variable pricing or the introduction of DeCA brands Home Base, Top Care and Freedoms Choice.

Every commissary now has some variably priced items and initial data suggest customers are responding positively, Bianchi said. In fact, we are beginning to get more competitive on the items that are most relevant to our patrons, which we expect will only help our sales performance.

However, we still have a relatively small portion of the total assortment variably priced. In mid-January that total was only 7000 of 38,000 stocked items.

It is, therefore, too early to draw conclusions about how this will impact commissary-wide sales trends. Initial item-level sales data and customer input make us confident this is the right approach.

Initial private label results on bottled water, cheese, health care products, paper towels and more also are encouraging, said Bianchi. The goal is to sell 3000 to 4000 items with commissary labels.

We continue to see sales growth and penetration levels increase, and our customers regularly tell us they are happy to have these low-cost, high-quality alternatives on the shelf. None of the items introduced to date give us any concern for the acceptance of our brands, and we will continue to roll out these products aggressively given the very positive response from patrons.

In fact, he added, many product categories with private labels have seen an uptick in sales relative not seen in product categories without private labels.

Bianchi said he came to DeCA with a lot of retail experience and a fresh set of eyes. He found shortfalls in customer service, expense control and sales planning, all critical for shifting to a profit and loss environment.

You just have a different perspective when store expenses are covered by appropriated dollars, he said.

He found commissary shoppers uncomfortable with having baggers handle groceries for tips, Bianchi said, which might explain the popularity of self-checkout.

How many people carry cash nowadays, he said. And if you go to an ATM machine youre only getting 20s. So, were kind of looking at the bagger issue.

Bianchi said he spent his first months at DeCA focused on patrons, employees and having store partner with commands and local communities. He will turn soon to repairing relationships with brokers and manufacturers who might have felt bulldozed by all the recent changes at commissaries tied to profit and loss.

Quite honestly, as these initiatives were rolled out, there was probably a lack of transparency, which created some concern and doubt on industrys part [and] some bad feelings, said Bianchi. Some folks are still remaining critical, which I think is a carryover from that.

Industry reps who also dealt with base exchanges, which have long generated profits, likely were less startled by mindset shift at DeCA, he said.

The reality is the business model does have to change as we move to a profit and loss environment. We want to create a win-win situation. But I will tell you, from walking floors at commissaries, we [need] an assortment rationalization, meaning more cuts to the number of brand goods. So, there may be winners and losers but thats not any different than the private sector goes through every day.

To comment, write Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, 20120 or email milupdate@aol.com or twitter: @Military_Update.

# # # # Tom Philpott has been breaking news for and about military people since 1977. After service in the Coast Guard, and 17 years as a reporter and senior editor with Army Times Publishing Company, Tom launched "Military Update," his syndicated weekly news column, in 1994. "Military Update" features timely news and analysis on issues affecting active duty members, reservists, retirees and their families. Visit Tom Philpott's Military Update Archive to view his past articles. Tom also edits a reader reaction column, "Military Forum." The online "home" for both features is Military.com. Tom's freelance articles have appeared in numerous magazines including The New Yorker, Reader's Digest and Washingtonian. His critically-acclaimed book, Glory Denied, on the extraordinary ordeal and heroism of Col. Floyd "Jim" Thompson, the longest-held prisoner of war in American history, is available in hardcover and paperback. Buy Glory Denied from AmazonOK, OK ... so no one at this event is building actual ships. But they are built at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum in Virginia, and they are built by kids.

The Lego shipbuilding competition, which has annually every year since 2012, this year drew 3,000 people to the museum.

"What do Legos have to do with Naval history? In the big scheme of things, nothing. But there are people here today who ... are seeing things that they normally would never have seen," said one museum official. "It's an outreach to get one more chance to put the message out and show them that the Navy's cool."

The museum features what one attendee called "every Mom's living room nightmare" -- a giant 'mosh pit' of legos, or what we like to think of as "instruments of extreme foot pain."

Top shipbuilders, such as they are, receive prizes at the end of the event. Check out this video for more!

Judges examine an entry during the Brick-by-Brick Lego Shipbuilding Competition at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum.As part of efforts to address their citys housing affordability issues, Cambridge officials are reportedly planning to make it easier to retrofit homes with a legal secondary suite.

According to CBC News, current applications must go through an official city planning process, which includes holding a mandatory public meeting. This could take as long as half a year to complete.

Hardy Bromberg, deputy city manager of community development told CBC's The Morning Edition that the new plan would recognize secondary residential units as acceptable modification under the zoning bylaw, thereby eliminating the need to go through the planning process.Jersey Boys at the Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center.

See the story of how four unassuming young men would become music sensations. In this Tony- and Grammy-winning jukebox musical, the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons is told through the groups biggest hits such as Big Girls Dont Cry and Cant Take My Eyes Off of You, which made them one of pop musics biggest sensations at the time. Jersey Boys -- The Story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons won four Tony awards in 2006, including Best Musical.

7:30 p.m. today and Friday at 1310 N. Farm-to-Market Road 1788. $56-$81.20. Broadwayinthebasin.com.

Unleashed Reunion Tour with Bruce Robison, Jack Ingram and Charlie Robison

In 2000, these three Texas musicians released a concert album recorded at Gruene Hall. Each took the helm of the band that became a now-iconic album in the Texas country music continuum. The three have reunited for a tour that heads to West Texas tonight. See these three legends all do their own thing together.

8 pm. Today at Dos Amigos, 4700 N. Golder Ave., Odessa. $20 advance, $25 door. dosamigos.com.

O'Reilly Auto Parts Outlaw Nationals Monster Trucks at Ector County Coliseum

You may be used to huge trucks spewing black smoke on Loop 250, but they dont compare to the real stuff. See monster truck superstars battle each other in this demonstration of metal and machinery. As if thats not enough mayhem, then the three-story-tall, fire-breathing dinosaur Transaurus should add to the excitement.

Friday Pit Party, 5:30 p.m., show time 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday at 4201 Andrews Highway, Odessa. $23 adults, $13 children. motorsports.oreillyauto.com.

Girls Night the Musical at the Wagner Noel.

Youve seen the Bad Moms movies or Girls Trip, so why not have a night out with your own girlfriends? Girls Night the Musical is a comedy where five girlfriends share their happiness and broken hearts over a night of karaoke. OK, men arent excluded, but this is going to be a night of girl power on full throttle.

8 p.m. Saturday. $35-$45. wagnernoel.com.

The Wizard of Oz at the Wagner Noel

This story is so familiar through seeing it on screen or reading Frank L. Baums books. Enjoy this opportunity to see Dorothy and her dog Toto head down the yellow brick road live and in person. She may be somewhere over the rainbow, but she and her friends the lion, the scarecrow and the tin man have to get to the wizard and past a wicked witch to get home.

7 p.m. Sunday. $47-$90. broadwayinthebasin.com.The Midland County Public Library downtown branch is set to close to the public this week in preparation for a renovation project. Friday is the last day the building will offer services before it reopens months later with a new layout and entrance.

If patrons check out materials from the downtown library before it closes, they can bring them to the bookmobile or the Centennial branch. Library Director John Trischitti III said the downtown branch also will have a drive-up deposit box for returns.

Even if you get something at Centennial, youll still be able to return downtown, he said.

Library staff is scheduled to clear the buildings first floor before the start of the construction period. During the renovation, some materials will be stored on the second floor or offsite.

While thats an inconvenience and we acknowledge that, a significant portion of the downtown collection will not be accessible, Trischitti said.

Two factors weighed into the decision to close the downtown library during the renovation, according to Midland County Judge Mike Bradford. He said one consideration was safety because of structural modifications. The other factor for closing during the renovation was mentioned in staff and contractor discussions.

When you have people in the facility youre remodeling, your service goes down, and we dont like that, Bradford said. Your time and cost goes up.

After the downtown branch closes, Trischitti said he anticipates an increase in the volume of patrons at the Centennial branch.

He said the library will add shelving and support staff to the Centennial building. That location is expected to offer exhibitions, summer reading and other programming while the downtown branch is under construction.

For the renovation project, the architecture and engineering firm Parkhill, Smith & Cooper created design concepts, according to a previous Reporter-Telegram article.

Midland County commissioners last month approved awarding a request for proposal for construction and remodeling of the downtown library. The contract with MW Builders is about $2.8 million.

Trischitti said the goal is for the library to reopen to the public before the holiday season. He said the renovation could start four to six weeks after the librarys closing, but the timing depends on other projects.

Were waiting for those dominoes to fall, Trischitti said. There are other projects that are ahead of us that were waiting [for].

Those projects include moving the Midland County Historical Society into the North Main Street building that housed the adult probation department. That department has a new facility west of the county jail.

Plans for the downtown library include an open layout and an entrance that faces the buildings parking lot, according to the Reporter-Telegram report.

Trischitti said he anticipates the start of the project.

Im excited about what the plan is, Trischitti said. I think itll be another great asset for this community and another way that Midland County continues to be at the forefront of public library service in Texas.Not long after reporting the number of requested class-size waivers was adjusted to 114, Midland ISD officials were unanimous in their public comments that the district is not looking to put more kids in the classroom.

Class-size waivers was part of the discussion on at least three occasions during Monday nights meeting. The first came when MISD officials reported that the net number of waivers dropped by two from Januarys total of 116.

A school district must request a waiver from the Texas Education Agency when a classroom exceeds the required 22-student-to-1-teacher ratio that is required by the Texas Education Agency for grades kindergarten through fourth. This year, the number of waivers has spiked. The 114 waivers is more than the previous two years combined --72 in 2016-17 and 41 in 2015-16. In 2014-15, Midland ISD requested 18.

The most recent group of waivers included first-grade classes at Bonham, Greathouse, Santa Rita and Yarbrough and third-grade classes at Fannin, Greathouse and Scharbauer.

After breezing through the class-size waivers report with little discussion, the topic came up when MISD staff presented a report on mid-year goal progress measures related to student achievement in kindergarten through second grades. In both cases, MISD students trailed the expectations of leadership. During the discussion, one trustee asked if there was any correlation between student performance and the number of class-size waivers. Trustee Bryan Murry said that 54 percent of all class-size waivers impacted those three grades.

MISD officials also mentioned waivers during a discussion of the District of Innovation plan. One of the exemptions the district is seeking as part of its DOI plan is an exemption from asking for class-size waivers.

MISD leaders in the past have said such an exemption will provide local flexibility and give the community and school district control to make the decisions that best meet the needs of students, teachers and community. They also said even though the district wouldnt have to work through the bureaucracy of asking the state for a waiver, the staff would continue to be transparent to ensure the school board remains informed.

It was at this point that several MISD officials, including Superintendent Orlando Riddick, said it was important to clear up any misunderstanding. District leaders dont want to put more kids in a classroom. They expected any waiver would mean no more than 23 or 24 students (in grades kindergarten through fourth grade). And while a DOI status can help in the districts ability to be innovative, they understand it is not the will of the community to have bigger classes.Ghana claims to have $25million for ...The annual Plainview Black Awareness Community Celebration returns later this week with a number of events based upon the theme of Keeping the Dream Alive: Honoring the Past, Celebrating the Present, Anticipating the Future.

The event has been mainstay in the Plainview community for over three decades since it was started by the late Elder Walter Jackson and Clarice Fennell, according to Black Awareness Committee member Yvonne Franklin.

The annual event is sponsored by five Plainview Churches and the committee is currently lead by President Apostle David Gardner, with Sandra Gardner leading the Youth Committee.

The events kick off with the second annual Evening of Excellence, which will be held at 7 p.m. at the McClung Building on the Wayland Baptist University Campus Friday. According to information presented by the committee, the purpose of the Evening of Excellence is to recognize individuals and organizations who have impacted the local community in the past or present. Second, the event is held to help raise funds for Black Awareness scholarships that are awarded annually to deserving college-bound students in the community. Tickets for the event are $15 per person and can be purchased from any Black Awareness Committee member.

Saturday at 1 p.m. at the James Hearn Activity Center, located at 210 E. Bullock St., will be the Black Awareness Youth Celebration. Franklin said the event will consist of praise dancing and presentations by area youth ranging in age from four-years-old to high school age. Franklin said that adults are welcome at the event as well to support area youth.

The Grand Finale of the community celebration will be held on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. at Happy Union Baptist Church, located at 210 E. Bullock St.

The speaker for this years Grand Finale will be Pastor J. Jerome Johnson of the New Jerusalem Baptist Church. Johnson is the Senior Pastor of New Jerusalem Baptist Church. He formally pastored Mount Gilead Baptist Church, located in Lubbock, Texas since 1995.

He was born in El Paso, Texas to Stella P. Johnson and the late Dr. H.B. Johnson Sr. Pastor Johnson received his calling into the ministry at the age of 13 and was preaching under his fathers supervision and guidance by age of 16. Though, not the eldest of the twelve siblings, Pastor Johnson was the first to preach. There are currently ten of the twelve siblings that have embraced their call into the ministry. He is the proud father and grandfather of four grown children and a host of grandchildren. Pastor Johnson has also been afforded the pleasure of seeing his eldest son follow in his footsteps as a minister and is now pastoring the church. (His other children assist and are active members of Mount Gilead as well.)

After graduating from Andress High School in El Paso, Texas, Pastor Johnson entered the U.S. Navy where he served four years of active duty and was honorably discharged. During his tenure in the U. S Navy he married his wife Carolyn J. Williams Johnson. Upon completion of his military service, he embarked upon a degree in Psychology from Midland College, Howard College in Big Spring, Texas. Later, he went on to attend Wayland Baptist University in Lubbock, Texas and obtained a Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate Degree from World Institute of Religious Education, in Farmington, New Mexico. Pastor Johnson has also obtained his BSW degree from Lubbock Christian University in Social Work and his Masters in Counseling from Wayland Baptist University.

Currently Pastor Johnson continues to teach ministers and pastor in His Iron Sharpen Iron classes, he is a member of the African American Fellowship and He also served as a board member of the Lubbock area Coalition for Literacy. the Zone Director, Director General Vice- President and Congress President of the Original West Texas Baptist District. District Overseer of Central West Texas District.

The finale will also include singing and an excerpt from one of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s speeches.Midland Reporter-Telegram Publisher Jeff Shabram has announced the appointment of David Robbins as vice president of marketing and advertising.

We are extremely pleased to welcome David Robbins to the MRT Media Group and Hearst West Texas Newspapers, Shabram said. He brings a great deal of experience and knowledge to our team. David will benefit both our company and our community.

Robbins comes to Midland from St. Augustine, Florida, where he was vice president of sales for the St. Augustine Record for three years.

His previous positions include vice president of advertising for a Georgia media company; group advertising manager for the News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, and advertising director for the N&Os twice-weekly Cary News; and general manager and advertising director for the Wake Weekly in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

I am excited to join the Midland Reporter-Telegram team and look forward to getting to know the people and businesses that make Midland and West Texas a great place to work and live, Robbins said. The opportunity to bring my years of experience in digital and print advertising to a growing market like Midland was very appealing to me.

Robbins, who originally is from Richmond, Kentucky, has a bachelor of business administration from Eastern Kentucky University. He has one son, Noah, 20, who attends college in Georgia.

His community involvement includes membership on the marketing committees of United Way of Central Georgia and Macon (Georgia) Cultural Arts Council. He is a graduate of Leadership Macon, Leadership Cary and Leadership Wake Forest.

Robbins can be contacted at drobbins@mrt.com or 687-8808.Houston's stadiums topped the list of businesses with the most beer, wine and liquor sales in 2017.

At the very top was the Toyota Center, home to the Houston Rockets, with more than $11 million worth of spirits sold in 2017, according to a Chron.com analysis of mixed beverage receipts from the Texas comptroller's office.SAN ANTONIO (AP)  A federal appeals court panel says a San Antonio businessman convicted of tax and wire fraud scheme may not tap personal funds forfeited and reserved for restitution payments to hire an attorney for his appeal.

The three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal ruled unanimously in New Orleans on Wednesday that Robert Warren Scully may not use any of the $220,000 from the sale of a home in Florida to hire an attorney.

The former owner of San Antonio-based skillet meals producer Gourmet Express was sentenced in November 2016 to 15 years in prison for a $5.3 million tax and wire fraud scheme. He also was ordered to pay more than $1.2 million in restitution.

A federal jury found Scully guilty of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud in November of 2015, according to Express News archives.

Scully, who lives in California, was one of three original founders of Gourmet Express, which began its operations in 1997. One of the founding partners was Ken Sliz of San Antonio.

Prosecutors Bill Harris and Jay Hulings alleged that between April 2001 and July 2009, Scully brought in his nephew, Kevin Scully, now deceased, as a minority partner after one of the founders left and that the Scullys used shell companies in Thailand to inflate the prices Gourmet Express paid for shrimp and other ingredients. They also siphoned off a cut of those excess costs, or profits, but did not declare them on taxes, the prosecutors alleged.

The IRS alleged that Robert Scully had an agreement with his sister-in-law, who lives in Thailand and controls one of the companies, that benefited her and the Scullys.

Sliz was not aware that the trio were splitting the profits, the prosecution said.

Kevin Scully, 48, who was indicted with his uncle, killed himself in 2013 at his home in Illinois.

Robert Scully's lawyer, Mike McCrum, told jurors that his client simply tried to rescue a company that was in serious financial trouble: In 2000, it lost more than $500,000.

In 2001, Robert Scully used a broker in Florida to forge a deal with exporters in Thailand to get ingredients cheaper than for what U.S. traders were giving the company. He later began dealing directly with Thailand, using his sister-in-law and her business partner there to get better prices and product.

McCrum argued that Sliz, who dealt with sales, was unaware of what went on because he was not involved in the day-to-day operations and was usually not around the factory warehouse.

McCrum also showed the jury figures that showed how the company rose from $5.9 million in sales in 2000, when it was in the red, to $48 million in 2005, when it generated nearly $1.6 million in net income.

Scully "paid approximately half a million dollars (in taxes) every year," McCrum said.

Gourmet Express, which is now based in Kentucky, filed for bankruptcy protection in March 2015.GREENWICH  When Tiffany Fontana walked up the steps to the fashion showroom Carlisle on Greenwich Avenue, she didnt even own a winter coat.

A lot of times victims, we leave with nothing, she said. We certainly escape these relationships and have severely damaged self-esteem.

Dressed in a new luxury wardrobe at Carlisle, Fontana  months after getting out of an abusive marriage  gazed at herself in the mirror and felt a change.

When I came here I had a lot of lies in my head about who I was, she said. Looking in the mirror, that image of me in the mirror just shattered all those lies. It was really empowering.

Fontana was invited to Carlisle by the YWCA Greenwich Domestic Abuse Services and Noelle Bosak Ward, fashion consultant for the clothing store. The two have formed a partnership to offer some domestic violence survivors a free stylist-aided shopping trip.

This extraordinary collaboration between the YWCA and Carlisle is the kind of community response that survivors, like myself, of domestic violence really need, said Fontana, who has four children and is working on a book about her experience.

Carlisle has provided shopping trips to three Greenwich survivors so far and intends to continue donating the service on a regular basis.

Ward came up with the idea in May, after becoming increasingly involved with the YWCA Greenwich Domestic Abuse Services.

In 2016, she completed a training with the YWCA to become a certified domestic abuse counselor. She works the YWCA domestic violence hotline on Wednesday nights, fielding questions and offering support to anyone who calls in. She also can act as a court advocate for victims.

I was trying to figure out what I can do to bring what I do, which is this, Ward said, indicating around the Carlisle showroom, fashion, to help.

With the YWCA, she came up with the shopping program which she named E3: Empower, Elevate, Elegance.

The empower word for both of us  the Y and Carlisle  is so special because thats what we do, she said.

Carlisles location on the second floor of a Greenwich Avenue retail building and its appointment-only requirement means survivors can be assured of their safety and privacy while shopping. Wards training lets survivors be comfortable that whatever they share with her will be confidential.

Survivors, who are recommended by the YWCA Greenwich, complete a detailed questionnaire about their height, size, hair color and style and silhouette preferences  the same questionnaire that paying Carlisle clients fill out.

Then Ward selects clothing options based on the survivors tastes from the Carlisle showroom in New York for the survivor to try.

They feel so special when they are here, she said. They are so amazed by the generosity and they feel so good when they wear my things.

Meredith Gold, director of Domestic Abuse Services for YWCA Greenwich, said a shopping experience like this can really help survivors get back on their feet.

Many of our clients are moving beyond their relationship where they experienced abuse and have been put down, she said. They are rebuilding their self-esteem, their social networks, maybe entering the workforce and to have the opportunity to be dressed in some of the finest, most beautiful clothing is really a unique opportunity that we are so thrilled to be able to offer.

Carlisle is offering 10 percent of its proceeds from now until March 7 to support the YWCA Greenwich Domestic Abuse Services. Appointments at the Greenwich location can be made by calling 203-422-2464.

emunson@greenwichtime.com; Twitter: @emiliemunsonSTAMFORD  Its not often that school board or city hall budget increases come in under 2 percent.

But Schools Superintendent Earl Kim managed to do the not-quite-impossible last month when he presented the Board of Education with a draft operating budget up only 1.48 percent.

The increase was considered so conservative that board members asked him to beef it up by nearly $1 million, notching the increase to 1.83 percent. Satisfied, they voted Tuesday to send it to the Board of Finance  where it usually sustains a round of cuts  at around $274.7 million.

While we appreciate when theres fiscal discipline, we felt the number might be a little tight and we wanted to express our commitment to try and wrest the maximum amount of funding for our schools, school board president David Mannis said.

In recent years, the board has requested increases as high as 5 percent. City legislators last year approved a 2.2 percent increase in the school operating budget.

This is a pretty conservative request, Mannis said. Its exceptional in our history and in relation to other school districts.

The biggest drivers of any municipal budget are salaries and benefits. Kim and school board members said the low increase was largely because of a new employment agreement with teachers that moved them from a private insurance plan to the states, providing savings for both teachers and taxpayers.

The state plan, which had not previously been available to teachers, could become more expensive as more districts join, Kim said. But for this year at least, the change has provided some relief in an uncertain economic climate.

The local conditions as well as the federal conditions presented a case for restraint, Kim said. Im hopeful that next year will be different, but I expect that soon after well be back in restraint mode.

A challenge in preparing a budget that authorizes spending in the next fiscal year is uncertainty about funding from the state as it stares down a projected deficit of more than $200 million.

Anyone who says they have an idea of how education is going to be addressed in the next legislative session is being creative, Mannis said. We just hope for the best.

While many smaller communities were hit hard, Stamford retained the current level of its Education Cost-Sharing Grant. In some towns, the ECS grant is the only school funding handed down from the state. In Stamford, it accounts for about half of state aid. Despite the ECS win, Kim said the city has lost another grant, reducing its total state aid by up to 10 percent.

When the school year began without a state budget yet approved, Kim eliminated several positions in the central office and shifted media center paraeducators to other roles to save more than $1 million, he said. The paraeducators were later reinstated.

Besides contractual salary hikes, the 2018-19 proposed increase is driven largely by rising special education and transportation costs.

Also reflected in the budget are boosts to curriculum planning and enrichment programs, Kim said.

The final budget request was approved by the board in an 8-1 vote. Board member Andy George, chairman of the fiscal committee, voted against it because he didnt like what was added to raise the increase to 1.83 percent, he said. It includes several contingency positions  an extra body that may be needed later on due to fluctuating enrollment.

Once you approve it and say OK, then even if those positions arent filled youve essentially approved the position, George said. It would be different if they were proposing increasing programs or direct stuff for the kids.

He said his vote was not based on the number but what was requested.

The Board of Finance will review the school budget in the coming weeks.

eskalka@stamfordadvocate.comHAMDEN  Love bloomed for longtime sweethearts on Valentines Day Wednesday as two couples said I do at the Government Center.

Bride and groom Jessica Vespoli and William Leonardo have known each other since elementary school and started dating when Vespoli was in eighth-grade and Leonardo was a freshman in high school. Both are from Hamden.

Leonardo and Vespoli exchanged the vows they had written, in front of friends, family and, most importantly, their 4-year-old son, William.

Im glad our son can say his family is complete, she said. Vespolis grandmother, sister, father and cousin attended the ceremony, along with Leonardos brother, mother, grandmother, aunt, uncle and father. Justice of the Peace Sharon Drumm performed the marriage.

It felt like its the holiday of lovers and I love her and she loves me, Leonardo said of why they chose Valentines Day to mark their wedding.

Whats better than showing your love on Valentines Day and marrying the love of your life? Vespoli said, adding she was grateful the town put the ceremony together Its such a generous idea.

The justices of the peace waived their nuptial fee and the marriage license fee was waived by Town Clerk Vera Morrison. This is the 20th year the town has held Valentines Day wedding ceremonies since Morrison started the tradition.

What better way to reach out to the community than to offer free Valentines Day weddings? she said. As the tradition continued, more and more people wanted to donate items such as cakes, decorations and flowers. For the weddings Wednesday, Cakeworks Etc. donated cakes; General Rental gave the heart-shaped arch under which the couples stood; Mt. Carmel Wine & Spirit supplied wine; and two Whitney Avenue Walgreens employees personally donated candy hearts, punch supplies and picture frames for both couples.

I love it. I wish I could perform it, Morrison said.

Another couple to tie the knot on Valentines Day were Ilona Daniels and Napoleon Perry, who have known each other since she was in third and he was in fourth grade, but they werent sweethearts just yet.

He was liking me, Daniels said. He tried to date me but I wanted to take a couple steps back. But they remained close friends for more than 30 years even as they saw other people, she said.

I never gave up, Perry said. Eventually, they began dating and on Daniels birthday in 2016 Perry proposed in Washington, D.C.

I had to wear her down, he said. They both live in Hamden and were married by Justice of the Peace Gaynell Martin in front of their best friends and closest family members.

Our main goal was our children, Daniels said. Even if nobody else could take off of work, as long as our children were here. Her three children and Perrys two daughters celebrated with their parents, along with Perrys aunt and Daniels co-workers and best friends.

Its special, so we wont forget our anniversary, Perry said, explaining why they chose Valentines Day to get married. They were deciding between either of their birthdays or Valentines Day to have their wedding because they wanted it to fall on a special day, adding that the ceremony was a long time overdue. They will be going on a cruise for their honeymoon in July.

Morrison said one of her favorite moments of the ceremonies happens when the bride pins the boutonniere on the groom because theyre usually all thumbs, but also after the ceremonies when the family and friends attending gather under the arch.

Its a great family event, Morrison said. The town clerks office is kind of the heart of town hall. We have so many responsibilities that we have to do with the vital records and why not provide this service to the community. People come to us when theyre buying a house. They come to use when somebodys passed on. They come to us when theres the birth of a child, so why not have them come to us on the joining of a couple. Its a special day and we have the ability to do something very special for the community.

mdignan@hearstmediact.com1 NSA shooting: Though authorities havent said who opened fire when an unauthorized vehicle tried to enter the National Security Agencys campus, an FBI official says it appears all the gunfire was directed toward the vehicle. Three people were injured in the Wednesday morning incident outside Fort Meade, Md., though authorities say none of the injuries was caused by gunfire. The three injured people were the driver of the vehicle, an NSA police officer and a civilian onlooker. Two other people who were in the vehicle have been taken into custody and were being questioned.

2 Romney to run: Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney will announce Thursday that hes running for the Utah Senate seat held by retiring Orrin Hatch, three people with direct knowledge of the plan confirmed Wednesday. The 70-year-old Romney, once a harsh critic of President Trump, will release an online video announcing his Senate bid.An art maven's weekly fix of the local arts scene: what to see, what to hear, what to do, who to meet and musings about how art makes people feel-their ArtFeel.

ArtFeel: "What Inspires You?" during The Inspire Film Festival this weekend. Then cast your vote for your favorite film, because this year the first annual Inspire Award will be presented Sunday afternoon, Feb. 18, by Howard Hughes and The Woodlands Development Company to the filmmaker whose film inspires the audience the most. Check out www.inspirefilmfest.com to learn the results. Thank you Howard Hughes and The Woodlands Development Company for sponsoring The Inspire Film Festival and creating this stunning looking and meaningful award.The decision about where to shoot and kill was based on the flip of a coin.

Authorities said a Washington state teen had been writing about his plans for a mass shooting, and said in his journal that he was deciding between two separate schools, according to probable cause documents.

The court records state that his own school, ACES Alternative High in Everett, Washington, "won" the toss.

"I'm preparing myself for the school shooting. I can't wait," he wrote in his journal, according to the court records. He added: "I can't wait to walk into that class and blow all those f-- away."

Joshua Alexander O'Connor, 18, was arrested Tuesday after police said his grandmother found his journal and dialed 911 to report "credible threats" by her grandson to shoot students at the high school.

During a search at the house, authorities said that investigators seized a rifle that had been hidden in a guitar case, as well as military-style inert grenades.

"This was a student that nobody would have suspected," Mukilteo School District spokesperson Andrew Muntz told Fox affiliate KCPQ following the news.

O'Connor is being held on charges of attempted murder in the first degree, robbery and assault on an officer, according to online booking records.

It was not immediately clear whether he has an attorney in the case.

Police said in a statement Wednesday that dispatchers received a call early Tuesday morning from a grandmother who said she believed her teenage grandson had plans to launch an attack on his school.

She told police she had read about the plans in his journal.

In his writings, according to the probable cause documents, O'Connor said he was preparing for a school shooting, boasting, "My aim has gotten much more accurate."

"I've been thinking a lot," he added, according to the court records. "I need to make this shooting/bombing at Kamiak infamous. I need to get the biggest fatality number I possibly can. I need to make this count.

"I've been reviewing many mass shootings/bombings (and attempted bombings) I'm learning from past shooters/bombers mistakes, so I don't make the same ones."

The journal then mentions the coin flip between Kamiak High School in Mukilteo, Washington, and nearby ACES Alternative High School, according to the court records.

Officers met with O'Connor's grandmother and were "alarmed at the statements and detailed plans to shoot students and use homemade explosive devices," according to the statement from police.

Officers alerted administrators at ACES Alternative High School on Tuesday and had O'Connor pulled from class, according to the court records. The records state that officers found marijuana and a knife in his possession and took him into custody.

At the police station, O'Connor "managed to pull his hand from one of his cuffs" and "spun away" from an officer, running through a parking lot, according to the court records. When the officer caught up to him, the court records state, he "spun around on the ground and 'mule kicked' " the officer.

O'Connor was booked into the Snohomish County Jail on charges of attempted murder "due to planning and taking substantial steps toward executing a school shooting," according to the police statement.

He was also booked on charges of assault on an officer.

The incident unfolded just miles from Marysville, Washington, where another teenager opened fire in 2014 at Marysville Pilchuck High School. Freshman Jaylen Fryberg lured students around a lunch table and then gunned them down, killing four before killing himself, police said.

Following the news of a thwarted attack, Muntz, the spokesman for the Mukilteo School District, praised O'Connor's grandmother for calling the police and turning in her grandson.

"Her actions may have saved many lives and underscores the importance that if you see or hear of something suspicious, you need to notify authorities," he said in a statement to The Washington Post.

"The school district is also very grateful to the Everett Police Department for their fine work in preventing what would have been a major tragedy."

O'Connor's robbery charge stems from an incident Monday in which police were called about two suspects who were robbing a convenience store, according to a separate probable cause document.

Police were told that one of the suspects was armed with an AK-47 and both of them were wearing masks, court records state.

When officers searched O'Connor's home Tuesday, they found two masks and a rifle that matched the description, police said.

"Officers also viewed and collected a journal entry from the room that noted that O'Connor admitted robbing an AM/PM. He talked about how powerful he felt and how scared the female cashier was at him pointing his gun at her," according to the court records.

His bail has been set at $5 million, according to booking records.WASHINGTON - The House is set to approve a bill Thursday that advocates for the disabled fear would weaken the Americans With Disabilities Act by removing incentives for business owners to comply with the 27-year-old law mandating equal access to public accommodations.

But proponents of the bill, which has the backing of House Republican leaders and a handful of Democrats, say it would stem a tide of "drive-by lawsuits" brought by predatory lawyers seeking to collect payouts from noncompliant business owners without actually improving access for the disabled.

The ADA Education and Reform Act would require those who sue businesses in federal court to first deliver a specific written notice to that business detailing the illegal barrier to disabled access, and then give that business 60 days to come up with a plan to address the complaints and another 120 days to take action.

That, backers say, would keep small business owners from being targeted for legal shakedowns. But the bill's opponents say it would in effect gut the ADA by removing any incentives businesses have to comply with the law before a complaint is filed.

"Right now the way the ADA is structured, the reason why businesses are going to comply is that they might be sued," said Jennifer Mathis, director of policy and legal advocacy for the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington. "Once you take that away, that's it, there's no consequence. If you're a business, there's no reason why you need to worry about making yourself accessible."

More than 200 disability-rights groups have signed a letter opposing the bill, and tensions over the bill have run high at times.

Activists interrupted a House Rules Committee meeting on Tuesday where lawmakers were considering the bill for floor action. They chanted "Don't take our rights away. Hands off the ADA!" Capitol Police arrested 10, a department spokeswoman said, after they refused an order to leave the premises; five were in wheelchairs.

Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, the bill's lead sponsor, said at the committee meeting that the bill was a common-sense measure meant to address a "cottage industry" in which serial litigants - who often haven't actually visited the property - demand $3,000 to $7,000 to drop their claims without requiring any improvements to disabled access.

Poe said the bill would not prevent bona fide complainants from suing: "If there is no substantial progress within the time limit, then file the lawsuit. Go after 'em. Get you a good lawyer, and pay 'em well. I'm in favor of that."

The bill has the backing of business groups, including the influential National Federation of Independent Business, and support crosses party lines to some extent. Eleven of the 108 co-sponsors of the bill are Democrats, and six of those are from California, which has been particularly fertile ground for serial ADA litigants.

"We don't think the first-time business owners should hear about how they're out of compliance is when they're served with a lawsuit," Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., said. "They ought to be given a little bit of time to remedy it."

"I think if we as the Democratic Party want to say we support small businesses," he added, "we ought to find a way to help protect small business owners."

Senior Democratic leaders in both congressional chambers have issued statements opposing the bill. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, this week called it a "huge step backwards for disability rights" and an "absolute nonstarter" in the Senate, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Wednesday that the bill "sets a troubling precedent that would harm the rights of all who rely on civil rights laws."

Two members of Congress who use wheelchairs on a daily basis, Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., have come out strongly against the bill.

Duckworth, a former Army National Guard pilot who lost her legs in 2004 while fighting in Iraq, said in an interview that the House bill sends the message to disabled Americans "that your civil rights don't matter."

"I'm not saying that drive-by lawsuits are not an issue, but they are a very small segment of the problem, and this is gutting the ADA and civil rights in order to address a very specific issue which we can still address," she said. "There are ways to fix that problem without actually taking away the civil rights of everyone who has a disability."Austrian authorities are asking Interpol to help them track down suspects in an alleged bitcoin scam that blew up last year and may have hit hundreds of investors in the country and abroad.

The prosecutors' office in Vienna is consolidating "hundreds of complaints" about a scheme known as "Optioment" that have been filed at police stations across the country, and which add to a warning by financial watchdog FMA, spokeswoman Christina Ratz said by telephone. Die Presse earlier reported that the total number of victims could exceed 10,000 and that as many as 12,000 Bitcoins ($115 million) may have been lost.The tabloid tale of money paid to an adult-film star to keep quiet about an alleged affair in 2006 with President Donald Trump gained renewed momentum Wednesday after Trump's longtime personal attorney acknowledged paying a six-figure settlement to the actress, and her representative said she now felt free to tell her story.

If Trump and others had hoped the story might die down, the admission by attorney Michael Cohen that he "facilitated" a payment of $130,000 to Stormy Daniels at the height of the 2016 presidential campaign assured that the drama would continue to play out for weeks to come.

This marked the latest chapter in the strange saga of Trump, a reality television star turned president, and Daniels, an adult film star who said she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. Cohen's explanation that he paid Daniels $130,000 from his own resources - or at least financed the payment - raised the question of whether campaign finance laws governing disclosure requirements and how much individuals may contribute to campaigns could have been violated, a watchdog group said.

Cohen pushed back against charges that the payout should have counted as a campaign contribution, but experts were split on his argument. His comments about the payment "strongly suggests he's not doing it on his own accord" and, instead, seeking to benefit Trump, said Karl Sandstrom, a former commissioner with the Federal Election Commission.

"I'd want to discover what prompted it," he said. "Who's having conversations with whom? This is not just a matter of a person writing out a check. Someone's drafting the agreement, someone's signing the agreement, someone may have prompted the agreement by informing Michael Cohen the state of play with respect to potential [news] stories."

Cohen's statement came a month after the Wall Street Journal first reported that he had arranged a payment to Daniels in 2016. The Journal also reported that he used a Delaware corporate entity to pay Daniels. Cohen and the White House initially dismissed "rumors" around Trump and Daniels after the first story, and the lawyer also released a statement bearing Daniels' signature denying an affair.

Daniels, who had previously given interviews detailing an affair with Trump, more recently played coy when asked about another statement issued under her name denying the affair. In her public appearances since the story broke, Daniels has been avoiding directly answering key questions about Trump.

All told, it was a saga with no apparent end in sight, lingering around the White House as the administration confronts questions about Trump's treatment of women and struggles to respond to the #MeToo movement.

Cohen's confirmation of the payment to Daniels was apparently prompted by a complaint that Common Cause, a watchdog group, filed last month with the FEC. Common Cause said that the payment to Daniels - whose real name is Stephanie Clifford - violated campaign finance laws.

In a statement Tuesday, Cohen called the allegations "factually unsupported and without legal merit."

Paul S. Ryan, Common Cause's vice president for litigation, said that Cohen's statement does not get rid of the legal issue for him and the Trump campaign.

"There's no doubt in my mind, given the timing and the other circumstances around this, that this was a payment intended to influence the election," Ryan said Wednesday.

Campaign finance experts were split on whether the payment would be deemed a violation by the FEC. Some saw parallels to the case of former senator John Edwards, D-N.C., who was indicted by federal authorities in 2011 on charges that he took payments from wealthy donors and used them to hide an extramarital affair. The jury acquitted him on one charge and deadlocked on five other counts.

"It's exactly the same principals, and they're remarkably similar in terms of the facts," said Jan Baran, an elections and finance lawyer and former general counsel for the Republican National Committee. "It involved a private relationship with a woman and expenses related to that relationship. So that is personal, it's not campaign, even though it happened while the campaign was going on."

Baran said that Cohen's statement made the situation look "even more like the John Edwards incident than it did before" and said that it did not appear campaign finance laws were broken.

Ryan said that the cases were different because the Daniels payment was reportedly made shortly before the 2016 election in an effort to keep her from telling her story to national news outlets, while in Edwards's case, there was no evidence the situation involved keeping his mistress from speaking to the media.

Key elements of the payment to Daniels remain unknown - in large part fueled by what Cohen did, and didn't, say.

"In a private transaction in 2016, I used my own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Ms. Stephanie Clifford," Cohen said. "Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly."

His statement left unsaid why, exactly, Daniels would have received this payment. And while he denied being reimbursed by the Trump business or campaign, he notably did not address whether he was paid back by the president himself.

Cohen did not respond to that question and others, including whether Trump was aware of the payment or whether he had made similar payments in the past. In his statement, Cohen said he would not speak further on the issue, and he reaffirmed that to The Washington Post on Wednesday.

While Cohen dismissed the story of Daniels' alleged sexual encounter with Trump, Daniels had told at least two journalists over the years her accounts of it. In one of those cases, she spoke to Slate in the months before the 2016 election but cut off contact about a week before Trump was elected. Reporters from other outlets were also said to be chasing the story.

This may factor into how commissioners view the payment, Sandstrom said.

"Given their apparent knowledge that certain press outlets were likely to write a story, that was motivation for the payment to prevent those stories from being run, and therefore to ensure they didn't have a negative impact on the election," he said.

The FEC said it received the Common Cause complaint, but the agency otherwise intends to remain silent until the situation is resolved. It is unclear how long it will take for the FEC to determine whether the potential violation needs to be investigated. Once the matter is closed, redacted files involved will be released publicly, which would include any responses submitted by the Trump campaign or the Trump Organization, both of which are named in the complaint.

Daniels has not publicly commented on Cohen's statement. Her representatives did not respond to requests for comment, though one of them told the Associated Press that even with the reported nondisclosure agreement, she felt free to speak out after Cohen's statement.

"Everything is off now, and Stormy is going to tell her story," Gina Rodriguez, Daniels's manager, told the AP.

- - -

The Washington Post's Tom Hamburger, Anu Narayanswamy and Frances Stead Sellers contributed to this report.Mitt Romney plans to announce his long-expected U.S. Senate bid on Thursday in his adopted state of Utah with a low-key rollout intended to duck roiling Republican divisions and avoid signaling that he will play the role of foil to President Donald Trump.

Wednesday night, however, Romney said he would delay Thursday's announcement because of the Florida school shooting in which at least 17 people were killed. "Out of respect for the victims and their families, I will not be making an announcement tomorrow about the Senate race," he tweeted.

Romney's eventual rollout will set up a potentially fraught campaign path for the party's former presidential nominee as he tries to remake himself in Utah. In a Republican Party now dominated by Trump, most mainstream GOP leaders have struggled to stay neutral amid the president's controversies.

Still, Romney will try.

"This is not a Trump protest candidacy," former Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said.

Romney is likely to face plenty of questions from reporters - and from within his own party - about his views on Trump and his past statements criticizing the president.

In an early sign of the challenge, Utah Republican Party Chairman Rob Anderson sharply criticized the two-time presidential contender on Wednesday as a political interloper who is disconnected from the state and a potential headache for Trump.

"Mitt Romney doesn't live here, his kids weren't born here, he doesn't shop here," Anderson said in an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune. He compared Romney with Hillary Clinton, who grew up in Illinois but successfully ran for a Senate seat in New York in 2000 as a high-profile newcomer.

If Romney's expected soft launch Thursday is any indication - a social media push in which the former Massachusetts governor will reintroduce himself to Utah voters by video - he is not seeking out those questions as he begins his campaign.

The video, produced by veteran Romney advisers and running over two minutes in length, will recall Romney's role leading the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and put an emphasis on "Utah values," according to several people close to him who were not authorized to discuss the campaign publicly.

A Friday speech in Provo, Utah, at a GOP fundraiser, is also scheduled. His remarks there will steer clear of Trump and focus on how Congress could learn from the conservative state, the people said.

Romney's careful Utah debut, planned for months by his family and longtime aides, cannot paper over the reality of his return to politics: Many Republicans nationally are desperate for him to be a champion for the party's traditional beliefs and a counterbalance to the president on issues including morality and Russian election interference.

Romney, 70, has been a popular figure in Utah, if not a resident, for decades. Yet even there the race for the GOP nomination is unlikely to be the sleepy stroll to victory that some Romney allies are hoping for.

Former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon said in recent months that he would like to draft a populist candidate to oppose Romney in the Utah GOP primary race, but his falling out with Trump over journalist Michael Wolff's book "Fire and Fury" stalled that project. A number of little-known Republicans have announced Senate campaigns ahead of Romney.

"Mitt has the advantage in terms of name identification and resources, but he's got to connect with Utah," said Boyd Matheson, the opinion editor of the Deseret News and former chief of staff to Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. Matheson flirted with his own Senate campaign last year and spoke with Bannon about the possibility but decided against it.

"He's already been putting the shoe leather in, getting around the state, and you can tell it'll be a Utah-centric campaign," Matheson said.

A Salt Lake Tribune poll last month showed Romney with the support of 85 percent of Utah Republicans - and 18 percent of Democrats.

Other Utah Republicans have encouraged Romney to run. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who announced in January that he would not seek reelection this year, has done so for months.

If elected, Romney associates said he would operate in the Senate as an independent-minded lawmaker but would resist being labeled as a reliable Trump critic in the model of retiring Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who regularly speaks out against the president.

More often, these associates privately compare Romney to Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who is reconsidering his retirement plans and leads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Corker has fiercely criticized Trump and recoiled at Trump's behavior, but he also has at times seemed torn about his leanings and worked with Trump on the party's big agenda items.

"Mitt Romney is not running for Senate merely to be a critic of Trump. I don't think he'd do this just to poke Trump in the eye. The call to service matters to Romney regardless of who's in the White House," said GOP operative Rick Wilson, who opposes Trump. "There are broader conservative movement questions that will fall to him naturally, but that's not the motivation."

Foreign policy is one area where Romney could clash with Trump and join the ranks of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has been ill, as one of the party's more hawkish leaders on that front. While Trump considered Romney during the presidential transition as a possible secretary of state, Romney is far more hostile toward Russia and supportive of international institutions.

"The governor believes America cannot be withdrawn on the world stage," Williams said. "He is much more of a hard-liner when it comes to dealing with a thug like Vladimir Putin," the Russian president.

Salt Lake County Council member Jenny Wilson, D, is also running for the seat and has said the victory of Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., would bring attention to her candidacy in a ruby-red state.

Romney's campaign leadership team will deliberately remain small to avoid criticism that the Utah campaign is simply a way of restarting the Romney political machine that boosted him during his bids for the White House in 2008 and 2012.

Matt Waldrip, a Utah-based aide who worked on Romney's presidential efforts, will manage the campaign. M.J. Henshaw, a former aide to a Utah congressman, will be the spokesman; consultant Will Ritter, who is close with Romney and his family, is handling media and digital activities through his firm Poolhouse, which produced the campaign's kickoff video. Romney confidants, such as strategist Beth Myers and financier Spencer Zwick, also will be involved.

"Gone are the days of worrying about the 99 counties in Iowa," said former Romney campaign adviser Kevin Madden. "This time, it all comes down to crucial Salt Lake County."PARKLAND, Fla. - A heavily armed 19-year-old who had been expelled from a South Florida high school opened fire on campus shortly before classes let out Wednesday, killing 17 people while terrified students barricaded themselves inside classrooms, police said.

The violence unfolded at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, a school of more than 3,000 students in a tony suburb northwest of Fort Lauderdale where houses sit on broad lots.

The Broward County sheriff identified the suspect as Nikolas Cruz, who had recently attended the school but had been kicked out for "disciplinary reasons." He was captured after a manhunt that transfixed the region and forced a nearby school into a lockdown, said Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel. Students recalled terror and confusion in the aftermath of the shooting.

"It's catastrophic. There really are no words," said Israel, whose own triplets graduated from the well-regarded high school. The victims included several students and adults, authorities said.

In an English class, students were reading Shakespeare's "Macbeth" when the shooting began, and a Code Red was declared.

"We had a fire drill early in the day, so we really didn't know what was going on," said Ryan Kadel, a 17-year-old senior. "We went outside, and we saw a security guard on a golf cart driving really fast and yelling at us to run."

He and two dozen other students fled to the nearest building, piling into a large closet, where they stayed for more than 90 minutes.

"People were texting, trying to find out what was going on. Kids were crying; some people were freaking out," Kadel said. "I'm kind of surprised it happened here, but I'm not really shocked. School shootings happen all the time, and then the news just forgets about them."

The gunman started firing before even entering the school, leaving a trail of carnage across the sprawling campus, Israel said. A dozen of the dead were found inside the school, and three were found outside. Two others succumbed to their injuries at a hospital. A football coach was among those killed, the sheriff said Wednesday night.

"It is a day you pray every day you don't have to see," said Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie, reflecting on one of the nation's deadliest school shootings.

The shooter came to the school armed with weaponry that evoked a battlefield, not a school located down the street from an equestrian park. He carried "countless magazines" and an AR-15 rifle, Israel said. It was unclear if the shooter had a second weapon, the sheriff said.

Just after 3 p.m. Wednesday, Michael Nembhard - a retiree who lives in Coral Springs, which is just south of Parkland - was sitting in his garage watching the TV news when he heard an officer yell, "Get on the ground!"

He said he looked out and saw police arrest the suspect in the school shooting. The teenager was on the ground, wearing a burgundy hoodie and dark pants.

"The cop had his gun drawn and pointed at him," Nembhard said in a phone interview. "The kid's face was turned away, so I couldn't see anything."

Jim Gard - a math teacher at Stoneman Douglas High, which is named for an icon of the South Florida environmental movement - said he taught the shooting suspect last year.

"I had him almost all year. He just looked like a regular high school kid. Nothing outstanding. He didn't act up in class, wasn't loud or boisterous," Gard said.

But at some point during the school year, Gard said, the school administration sent out a note with a vague suggestion of alarm, asking teachers to keep an eye on Cruz. "I don't recall the exact message, but it was an email notice they sent out."

Authorities who were beginning to analyze his motives had unearthed social media postings that "are very, very disturbing," Israel said.

An Instagram account that appeared to belong to the suspect showed several photos of guns. One appeared to show a gun's holographic laser sight pointed at a neighborhood street. A second showed at least six rifles and handguns laid out on a bed with the caption "arsenal." Other pictures showed a box of large-caliber rounds with the caption "cost me $30." One of the most disturbing appeared to show a dead frog's bloodied corpse.

After the shooting, Ryan Gutierrez, 18, a senior, walked the 2 miles from the school to a 7-Eleven in Coral Springs - the nearest spot where his parents could meet him. Every other road leading to the school was blocked by police cars.

His parents had already been reunited with his sister, Nicole, a freshman at the school.

As Gutierrez approached, his mom ran up, hugged him hard and started crying. Gutierrez held her tight, comforting her. His father came up and hugged them both.

"This has been so horrible, the most horrible day anyone can imagine," Gutierrez's mother, Diana Gutierrez, said, trying to stop her tears. "It's unreal, just unreal. I still don't believe it. You don't think it will ever happen to you and your children."

Nicole said the incident was made all the more confusing because the school had recently held an assembly on emergencies.

"They were telling us what to do in a Code Red, a Code Yellow and all that stuff," Nicole said. "And then we had a fire drill in the morning, and that was normal. And then this afternoon I was in one of the portables, and they said it was a Code Red. Nobody knew what to believe."

Adding to the confusion, security officers had told the students at the assembly that they might have a drill during which police would fire blank shots, to simulate gunfire, Ryan said.

"So when we were hiding in the room, people were saying they heard gunshots, and we didn't know if it was real," Ryan said.

This is at least the third school shooting this year, and one of the deadliest on record. Beginning with Columbine 19 years ago, more than 150,000 students attending at least 170 primary or secondary schools have experienced a shooting on campus, according to a Washington Post analysis of online archives, state and federal enrollment figures, and news stories. That doesn't count dozens of suicides, accidents and after-school assaults that have also exposed children to gunfire.

It is likely to revive a debate over gun control, though efforts to legislate restrictions on firearms following previous school shootings largely proved fruitless.

President Donald Trump said he had been briefed on the shooting and tweeted, "My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school."

Janet Hughes was meeting with her son, Justin, 16, a junior, and his pre-college guidance counselors at the school when the Code Red was announced.

"They grabbed my arm and dragged me one way, and they took him in another direction," Hughes said. "I ended up lying on the floor with the seven other adults in office for 2 1/2 hours. I had to keep asking for the WiFi code, try to find out what was going on. Nobody knew anything."

Justin was corralled into a small room where he spent the next 2 1/2 hours crammed with 70 other students.

"There was a lot of crying, a lot of sobbing going on. People were really scared. We were whispering, trying to keep it quiet," Justin said. "People were trying to get the news on their phones, and they started reading that there were 20 kids dead somewhere at the school."

The school, which opened in the early 1990s, had more than 3,000 students in the 2015-2016 school year, according to federal data.

Denise Loughran was reunited with her 17-year-old son, Liam, within a few hours of the shooting. But they still hadn't heard from his sister, Cara, a freshman.

"Her phone must be in her backpack, and they made them drop their backpacks when they ran out," Loughran said. "This has just been chaos. I couldn't get near the school. My husband took a bike to try to get there, and they ended up sending him to the hotel where they said they were taking the kids.

"But she's not there."

---

The Washington Post's Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.Community members and a Houston ISD trustee on Wednesday advocated suing the state over a recently passed education law that could lead to a state takeover of the district's school board.

Several speakers and Trustee Jolanda Jones called for filing a lawsuit during a community meeting at Cullen Middle School, the second such gathering held to address proposals for major changes at 10 low-performing Houston ISD schools. Those proposals were made in response to a law commonly known as HB 1842, which gives the Texas Education Agency an option to wrest control from school boards if they don't improve academic performance at long-failing campuses.

Residents addressing a crowd of about 100 people urged HISD or community members to embrace a legal fight, arguing the state has taken too much control from locally-elected leaders.

HoustonChronicle.com: Residents skeptical, frustrated at 1st Houston ISD community meeting

"These meetings don't mean a doggone thing if we don't take a stand and put our money where our mouth is," said Carolyn Evans-Shabazz, the NAACP Houston Branch's education committee chairwoman.



Those community members were backed by Jones, whose district includes Cullen. Jones has been critical of the Texas Legislature for enacting HB 1842, which passed with 85 percent support. Supporters of the law have argued it gives districts added incentive to address low-performing campuses after years of neglect.

"I believe there are constitutional violations and that we will win if we sue them with the right causes of action. I believe the law supports it," Jones said in an interview after Wednesday's meeting. She declined to divulge why she believes the district would be successful in litigation.

HoustonChronicle.com: Potential Houston ISD takeover rooted in widely supported law

It's not clear, however, whether there's widespread political support for potentially costly litigation. Houston ISD administrators and most trustees have not advocated suing the state over HB 1842, and no district leaders have laid out legal arguments for why HB 1842 violates the state or federal Constitution.

The district is also working on a tight timeline for making changes to the 10 campuses, which must be enacted in the next several weeks to avoid a potential state takeover of the board.

HISD administrators initially proposed drastic changes at Cullen, which has failed to meet state academic standards for three straight years. Plans called for closing and re-opening Cullen with limited grade levels, an entirely new staff and a new curriculum.



But HISD leaders scrapped those plans because Cullen isn't in danger of triggering the state takeover law for another year, giving the district time to implement less drastic changes. Those fixes include installing a new principal, who took over in January, and implementing an International Baccalaureate academic program.

Lauren Simmons-Mitchell, who's debating whether to send her fifth-grade son to Cullen next year, said she's skeptical of the recent changes after attending Wednesday's meeting.

"I just feel like I need more action after that," Simmons-Mitchell said. "I need to see how we're prioritized in this new budget before I decide how we're situated. I feel like you can come to our neighborhood and be educated, but there needs to be an investment from the district."The San Antonio Zoo has officially adopted the two Asian elephants who had been on loan from the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation, making Luckys new friends permanent residents of the Alamo City.

Karen and Nicole were previously companions at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, so not only were we able to keep the two of them together, but we also helped them welcome Lucky into their circle, zoo CEO Tim Morrow said. This was a critical point of evaluation for us to ensure a healthy emotional connection for all three elephants.Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled Friday to deliver keynote remarks at a Republican National Committee donor luncheon in San Antonio for the Trump Victory political action committee.

Pences address, to begin shortly before 1 p.m. at the Westin Riverwalk downtown, is the vice presidents first stop before he tours the border in McAllen with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Sen. Ted Cruz, according to a White House official.The San Antonio City Council voted 9-0 Thursday to award a 15-year, $106 million public-safety radio contract to Dailey-Wells, the company that won a similar contract from the city to build the current radio system thats been in use since 2004.

The council grilled city staff and representatives from both Dailey-Wells and Central Electric Enterprises & Co., the second local company seeking the contract, asking a series of questions about how city executives arrived at their recommendation to contract with Dailey-Wells, which uses equipment manufactured by Harris Corp.

Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran said that because of the blackout period that prevents council members from speaking with the bidding companies, she and her colleagues have had less than a week to dig into the matter and ask detailed questions. She said from the dais that she continues to have many unanswered, specific questions and asked the council to delay the vote until March. That motion failed 3-8.

RELATED: H-E-B buys Austin-based food delivery company Favor

From the get-go, Mayor Ron Nirenberg set a tone in chambers that he expected the council to back the staff recommendation.

I do not want the City Council to rescore from the dais, he said before opening up the meeting for council members to speak.

Several council members said they believed the process was a fair one. It began in December 2015 and included two teams that scored proposals submitted by Dailey-Wells and Central Electric.

They also emphasized the fact that the buck stops with them and demanded guarantees from Dailey-Wells and city staffers that the system that will be built and maintained by Dailey-Wells will meet the citys expectations.

Nirenberg and Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales did not vote on the contract; after speaking during the session Thursday, they left for a trip to Mexico on city business.

Josh Baugh is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | jbaugh@express-news.net | @jbaughAUSTIN  The Texas Department of Public Safety is launching a new drone program, roughly eight years after scrapping its first effort due to challenges posed by federal restrictions and maintenance costs, according to an agency news release issued Thursday.

Over the last few months, the department has quietly spent roughly $70,000 to purchase 17 drones. The most expensive, an Aeryon SkyRanger equipped with a high-tech camera, cost $48,000 and can fly for up to 50 minutes, according to department purchase records.

The (drone) is an excellent tool to deploy when DPS aircraft are unavailable; if a mission is too dangerous for manned aircraft to be deployed; or when deemed more cost effective than conventional aircraft, said the news release.

Known formally as unmanned aerial systems, the new drones will aid in search and rescue, disaster support, aerial observation and crime scene photography, among other uses, according to DPS. The SkyRanger, equipped with specialized software and an extended battery life, will mostly be used by highway patrol for crash scene reconstruction, DPS spokesman Tom Vinger said.

So far, three agency officials have passed the 10-hour training needed to fly the drones, which can only be operated during daylight hours.

The departments 18-page policy guide says that division directors will establish protocols to prevent violations of policy, law, and public privacy, but those arent detailed in the document.

The drones add to a growing fleet of DPS aircraft that already include 15 helicopters and nine planes. The Express-News reported last year that two high-altitude surveillance planes DPS bought recently for more than $15 million to help secure the Mexican border regularly circle over San Antonio. Details about their missions are scarce.

Its not clear why DPS is adopting drones now; the agency didnt immediately respond to questions.

When asked recently why the department uses planes over drones, a spokesman said their missions and capabilities are not comparable. There are also numerous limitations placed on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles by the (Federal Aviation Administration).

DPS first deployed drones in 2008, one of the first state and local law enforcement agencies to use the devices. Within two years, however, the department scrapped the program over concern with complicated Federal Aviation Administration restrictions, battery life of the device, maintenance costs and deficient video quality, according to the agency.

This story will be updatedWhile serving in Vietnam, Glen Houston McCrory Jr. volunteered to become part of the Brown Water Navy, the term referring to sailors on gun boats patrolling the small canals of the Mekong Delta and other inland waterways.

Searching for Viet Cong smuggling arms and other contraband while working 12-hour night shifts as an engine man, McCrory was in constant danger.

Just about every night we were in a firefight, said Randolph Randy Prunty, who served with McCrory in River Division 553 in 1970. There was always somebody out there who shouldnt be out there.

Although he received numerous medals and commendations for his service, including the Navy Commendation with Combat V and the Navy Unit Commendation, McCrory returned rarely revealed anything about his service after returning home.

I was aware of him being over there, and it being an ugly thing, said his wife, Susan Sue McCrory. But we didnt know Glen had all these commendations and medals. He kept them locked in his desk drawer.

McCrory died Jan. 4 at 71.

More Information Glen Houston McCrory Jr. Born: June 3, 1946, Smithville Died: Jan. 4, 2018, San Antonio Preceded by: Stepdaughter Cari McCallister; parents Eula Brown and Glen H. McCrory; two sisters Survived by: Wife Susan "Sue" McCrory; son Sam McCrory; stepdaughter Michelle Christopher; two grandchildren; two great-granddaughters Services: Graveside service at 1:45 p.m. Feb. 27 at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, 1520 Harry Wurzbach Road See More Collapse

While growing up, McCrory spent at least a few days a week at his familys cattle ranch.

They raised cattle down around Flatonia  on the original McCrory land, his wife said. His descendents came here in covered wagons  passed the land down through the family.

Even as an adult, visiting the family ranch was one of his favorite things to do.

Although he lived in Alamo Heights, McCrory graduated high school from Edison because he refused to cut his hair.

Joining the Navy in 1966  he knew he would soon be drafted and wanted to have some control over which branch in which he would serve  McCrory was soon sent to Vietnam. He ended up serving two tours.

Volunteering to serve on a river patrol boat was typical for many sailors.

We got a chance to go into the fight, Prunty said. Nobody was there who didnt want to be there; we worked with SEAL Team 1 and 2.

Like so many who served in Vietnam, McCrory was exposed to the defoliant Agent Orange, which later ruined his health, his wife said.

They bathed in it; they drank it; they were sprayed with it, Sue McCrory said.

Returning to the U.S. in 1971, McCrory started a 36-year career as an engineer with the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads and married in 1973.

I was single mom  had two little girls, Sue McCrory said. From the day we married, they were his girls. He was the most gentle human being  was always a peace maker.

mheidbrink@express-news.netThree people were newly charged with murder in January, according to Bexar County Records.

Ernest Albert Flores, 62, was the first person charged with murder in 2018. He is accused of fatally stabbing Mark Kemp, 27, with a sharp object on Jan. 15 in the 1000 block of Gillette Boulevard.A former Sharyland Pioneer High School teacher was arrested Monday after a student accused her of having sexual contact with him, according to a ValleyCentral.com report.

The boy came forward to McAllen police in January, according to the report, about the incident. He told them he made out with Vanessa McManness, 31, on "numerous occasions" during the summer of 2017.Hundreds of residents in Corpus Christi received letters this month warning them they lived on an old defense site and may find old bombs and ammunition, city officials confirmed Thursday.

Corpus Christi residents living near a Formerly Used Defense Site (FUDS) on Padre Island were warned of its existence by the U.S. Army Corps Engineers. The defense site, considered a low risk area, spans 162 miles and could contain leftover items from wartime.

RELATED: 70 years ago, Padre Island was nearly the site of nuclear weapons testing in the United States

The letter warned residents that munitions from the former "B-1 Bombing site" found on their property are not live, but could still hold a charge, Tracie Fambrough, from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, told the city of Corpus Christi.

Fambrough said 222 letters were sent out, the majority of which were to condominiums or apartments. Fambrough did not return a request for additional comment.

Corpus Christi is home to a massive naval air station made up of 977 buildings and bridges. It was one of many military bases constructed during World War II and still stands today as an active base.

Photos from World War II featured in the slideshow above capture the scene at the Corpus Naval Air base as workers prepared munitions and equipment for the front lines.

READ ALSO: Tool shows what would happen if a nuclear weapon detonated in San Antonio

The site on Padre Island is one of nearly 400 FUDS across Texas and there could be more than 10,000 sites across the country, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers website.

The Department of Defense is slowly working to clean up each site used before October 1986, as most have "hazardous, toxic and radioactive waste," reads the website. Sites that are considered riskier than others because they pose a potential threat to human health or the environment, are cleaned up first, according to the website.

It could take until 2085 for every Formerly Used Defense Site to be cleaned up, according to the site.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could request permission to visit a Corpus Christi resident's home if they find munitions on their property. The munition could be used in a study, and enough are found, a surface cleaning could take place, Fambrough said.

Kelsey Bradshaw is a digital reporter for mySA.com. Read more of her stories here.| kbradshaw@express-news.net | Twitter: @kbrad5LONDON - A judge upheld a British arrest warrant for Julian Assange on Tuesday, saying the WikiLeaks founder should have the courage to come to court and face justice after more than five years inside Ecuador's London embassy.

Judge Emma Arbuthnot rejected arguments by Assange's lawyers that it is no longer in the public interest to arrest him for jumping bail in 2012 and seeking shelter in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden. Prosecutors there were investigating allegations of sexual assault and rape made by two women.WASHINGTON - One week after Rob Porter, his staff secretary, resigned amid spousal abuse allegations, President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he was "totally opposed to domestic violence," his first condemnation of the alleged conduct behind a scandal that has engulfed the White House.

His statement, which members of both parties had said was long overdue, came as John F. Kelly, Trump's chief of staff, faced new questions about his handling of Porter's case, including how Porter could have held a temporary high-level security clearance for more than a year in light of the allegations.

Kelly told senior aides last fall to put an immediate end to granting new interim security clearances like the one given to Porter and directed them to resolve any issues preventing employees who then held them from receiving a full clearance, according to two people familiar with the discussion.

At the meeting in the West Wing, Kelly said he was assigning his deputy at the time, Kirstjen Nielsen, with enforcing the new policy, the people said. But it is not known whether Kelly, Nielsen or any other senior officials sought to delve into why Porter was operating with an interim clearance and had not received full clearance.

Investigation by House

Porter resigned last week after allegations that he had abused his two ex-wives were reported by The Daily Mail. On Wednesday, during a tax event in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Trump broke his silence on the issue, saying: "I'm totally opposed to domestic violence of any kind. Everyone knows that, and it almost wouldn't even have to be said."

The FBI learned about the allegations from the two women soon after Trump was inaugurated. But spokespeople for the White House have insisted that no senior White House officials knew of the spousal abuse allegations against Porter until last week. They have said the career government employees at the White House personnel security office who processed the clearances did not tell them about the allegations uncovered by the FBI.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., the chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Wednesday that he was beginning an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Porter's security clearance, while six Democratic senators said they were concerned about whether there had been "any mishandling of classified information" because of them. They asked Christopher A. Wray, the FBI director, for the names of other employees at the White House who were working "without being able to obtain a permanent security clearance."

Gowdy, who sent letters to the FBI and Kelly seeking information Wednesday, said in an interview that he would examine the executive branch process of granting of interim security clearances generally and Porter's case specifically.

"I am interested in how someone with credible allegations of domestic abuse, plural, can be hired," he said. Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, called domestic abuse "a particularly insidious crime" that bears serious consideration in both the hiring and clearance process. He also said he had questions about an interim clearance process that "necessarily is not and almost by definition cannot be as fulsome as a full background check."

He added he was interested "in what the FBI learned and, perhaps connected with that but also perhaps separately from that, who at the White House knew what, when did they know it and what, if anything, was done about it."

Kelly on the way out?

The scandal has placed Kelly's job in jeopardy, leading Trump to complain privately about him and sound out confidants about potential replacements, including Gary D. Cohn, the director of his National Economic Council, and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the majority leader.

Trump is said to seem more favorable toward McCarthy in some of his discussions, seeing him as someone who would be a more willing subordinate than Cohn might be, according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions. Yet in other conversations, Trump has indicated that Cohn is his pick.

Several of Trump's advisers believe the president, who has a long history of quizzing aides about one another behind their backs without taking action, might just be venting. And his interactions with Kelly have remained mostly positive, according to two West Wing advisers who have witnessed them together.The beauty queen wife of cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman appeared in a federal courtroom Thursday to support her husband.

While Guzman's lawyers said the former Sinaloa Cartel leader was ready and wanting to go to trial, he blew kisses to his wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, who sat in the court gallery with the pair's twin 6-year-old girls, the New York Post reported.

This is not the first time Coronel Aispuro, who was born in California, has made a public appearance supporting her husband, who was extradited to the U.S. in 2017 on charges involving money laundering, murders and kidnappings.

READ MORE: Beauty queen wife of "El Chapo" Guzman visits him in prison near Texas border

In May 2016, Coronel Aispuro paid a visit to the Cefereso No. 9 prison located outside of Ciudad Juarez near El Paso along the border to visit her husband.

The pair were given 45 minutes together and Guzman was mostly quiet during the meeting, she told the media at the time.

On Thursday, officials set Sept. 5 for jury selection in Guzman's case. If Guzman is convicted, he could face life in prison.

RELATED: New report shows how Mexican cartels are infiltrating Texas

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Kelsey Bradshaw is a digital reporter for mySA.com. Read more of her stories here.| kbradshaw@express-news.net | Twitter: @kbrad5When Texas House Speaker Joe Straus announced he would not seek relection, this sparked a scramble to fill the House District 121 seat, attracting six candidates in the GOP primary.

This is a district that includes Alamo Heights and juts northward from there.

We recommend business attorney Steve Allison.

On the Democratic side, Celina D. Montoya is running unopposed.

EDITORIAL: 18 hopefuls vying for seat vacated by Rep. Lamar Smith  here's who we recommend

In losing Straus, the district  and the state  will be losing a reasonable voice in what has been a highly partisan, deeply divided legislative environment. It is reasonable for the next person to be the GOP standard bearer in this district to be as reasonable and principled a voice. By repeatedly returning Straus to office, the district has certainly demonstrated that sentiment.

To do otherwise would be to give a win by other means to the forces long seeking to oust Straus for allegedly being insufficiently conservative. It is a bogus charge. It is code for not being in mindless lockstep with those seeking draconian fiscal and social policies, of the kind Straus helped derail.

The person among the candidates most likely to be Strausian, we believe, is Allison, known in Alamo Heights as a 12-year board member in that communitys independent school district, serving as president for three terms.

Others conservatives in this race can credibly claim to be Strausian in views and temperament, but Allison, who has also served on the VIA board, gets the nod for experience. And still others on this ballot, we believe, would not be the independent voice that Straus has been.

Also in in the race are Marc Whyte, a business attorney; Matt Beebe, business owner and two-time Straus opponent; Carlton Soules, former San Antonio Councilman for District 10 and an unsuccessful Bexar County Judge candidate in 2013; Charlotte Williamson, a St. Mary's Law School graduate who recently worked for her family's oil and gas LLC; and Adrian Spears, an attorney who has represented various local cities.

READ MORE: Voters can stick with controversial Sid Miller for ag commissioner  or they can go in new direction

As a longtime school board member, Allison has direct knowledge of school financing issues  arguably the states biggest problem. As with others in this race, he does not favor the so-called Robin Hood method of funding public schools, in which wealther districts have to contribute to help fund lower-property-wealth districts.

His background suggests that he would be best able to help the Legislature work through to a credible alternative. One is desperately needed  also to help stem high property taxes.

And his time on the VIA board gives him some transportation insights  an added plus.

Allison in the House District 121 GOP primary.When Houston company Parkview Capital Credit took over the Lone Star Brewery last summer, residents of nearby neighborhoods hoped it was a sign that the vacant industrial complex would finally be redeveloped after so many false starts.

But the South Side brewery remains in financial turmoil as its owner, a subsidiary of Parkview, faces foreclosure for the third time in four months.

The 32-acre property will be sold on the steps of the Bexar County Courthouse on March 6 after the subsidiary, Lone Star Brewery Development Inc., defaulted on a $7.4 million loan, according to county property records and foreclosure listing service RexReport.

RELATED: San Antonio's 20 most expensive construction projects

The brewery previously faced foreclosure in November, but NCC Financial, the Houston firm that made the $7.4 million loan, instructed local lawyer Dale Weyand to pull the sale for reasons that remain unclear. Weyand and NCC didnt respond to requests for comment.

A 3.1-acre property that Parkviews subsidiary owns on the western border of the brewery was scheduled to be sold at foreclosure action earlier this month, but county property records indicate that it wasnt sold after all.

Parkviews CEO, Keith W. Smith, didnt respond to requests for comment.

Despite intense local interest in the brewery, Parkview doesnt seem to have made any public statements about it since taking control last June, apart from mentioning its ownership in federal securities filings.

RELATED: Time-lapse photos show construction progress on San Antonio's $142 million Frost Bank Tower

In December, apartment developer NRP Group sued Parkviews subsidiary for not refunding a $550,000 deposit after a deal to buy land for an apartment complex at the site fell through. In its lawsuit, NRP mentioned that it hadnt even been able to get the subsidiary to respond to demands that it refund the deposit payments.

Construction was supposed to start last summer on a highly-anticipated $300 million project to rehabilitate the graffiti-strewn brewery into retail shops, office space, apartments and a hotel, but the effort collapsed.

The brewerys troubles started around June, when national retail developer CBL & Associates withdrew from the rehabilitation project after learning that its partner, Mark Smith of San Marcos-based Aqualand Development, had a history of legal and financial troubles. Parkview took control of Lone Star Brewery Development  and, as a result, the Lone Star property  from Aqualand that month, according to federal securities filings.

The 35-acre brewery, which was valued at $12.3 million last year by the Bexar Appraisal District, has been the subject of at least four failed revitalization projects since it brewed its last beer in 1996.Parliament has summoned Home Affairs minister Obert Mpofu and other high-ranking bureaucrats who served under former president Robert Mugabes administration as the legislative assembly continues to seek answers to the controversy surrounding the missing diamond revenue estimated at a staggering $15 billion.

The Daily News can report that Mpofu, who was the minister of Mines and Mining Development from February 2009 to September 2014, will appear before the parliamentary portfolio committee on Mines and Energy, chaired by independent legislator for Norton, Temba Mliswa, on Monday.

Also scheduled to appear before the same committee is Mpofus successor Walter Chidakwa who served in the same portfolio between September 2014 and November 2017, along with former Finance minister Ignatius Chombo and ex-commissioner-general of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, Augustine Chihuri.

Mliswa confirmed yesterday that Mpofu, along with Chidakwa, Chihuri and Chombo would give evidence on Monday.

We have invited the minister to come on Monday to appear before the committee to give an insight into what could have transpired not only regarding the missing $15 billion but also to explain issues around how licences were given to mining companies and what the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC)s role was in all this, said the independent legislator for Norton constituency.

After him, Chidakwa will also appear along with (officials from) the diamond mines (that operated in Chiadzwa) and people such as Ignatius Chombo and others, including Chihuri whose names have been mentioned regarding diamond money, he added.

There are many people who were involved in diamond mining and the responsible ministers during this time were Mpofu and Chidakwa . . . and they should be able to help shed light on the diamond operations, Mliswa said.

In 2016, Mugabe made startling claims that his government could not account for a jaw-dropping $15 billion lost through nefarious activities by players involved in the extraction of the gems in Chiadzwa.

Weve not received much from the diamond industry at all. I dont think weve exceeded $2 billion, yet we think more than $15 billion has been earned, Mugabe told the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation television on the occasion of his 92nd birthday.

Long before Mugabe had made the claims, an international diamond watchdog campaigning against blood diamonds had released a damning report in 2012 alleging that more than $2 billion worth of diamonds had been salted away from the Chiadzwa fields.

Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) also claimed that Mugabes inner circle, together with some international dealers and a large network of criminals, had connived in the biggest single plunder of diamonds the world has seen since Cecil Rhodes.

Maranges potential has been overshadowed by violence, smuggling, corruption and most of all, lost opportunity.

The scale of illegality is mind-blowing and has spread to compromise most of the diamond markets of the world, PAC alleged in its report titled: Reap What You Sow  Greed and Corruption in Zimbabwes Marange Diamond Fields.

The fields in Chiadzwa or Marange are considered to be one of the worlds biggest deposits of diamonds.

They are located in Manicaland Province, a few kilometres outside the mountainous City of Mutare.

While the gems were discovered decades ago, a diamond rush only ensued in 2006, resulting in Mugabes government deploying the military to restore order.

There were reports that several lives were lost during clashes between the army and diamond panners.

At the height of organised mining in Marange, Mbada Diamonds, Marange Resources, Anjin Investments, Diamond Mining Company, Kusena and Gye Nyame were some of the companies that were involved in the extraction of the gems in conjunction with ZMDC.

These were later forced to vacate the diamond fields after their licences had expired.

Some of the companies took their cases to the courts while the rest were collapsed into the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company, owned by government.

During a recent debate in the National Assembly on the National Budget, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa dismissed Mugabes claims saying it was impossible that Zimbabwe could claim to have lost $15 billion when the whole worlds diamond sector produces $15 billion worth of diamonds annually, with Africas biggest diamond producer, Botswana, producing about $2 billion worth of the gems annually.

As far as he was concerned, Mugabe spoke figuratively and any analytical or scientific mind should have dismissed his claims as a non-issue.

Earlier, presidential spokesperson George Charamba had heaped the blame on the media for not appreciating the metaphor used by Mugabe to express his disgust at the

opaque nature of diamond operations in Chiadzwa.

Despite spirited attempts by government bureaucrats to dismiss claims that Zimbabwe lost $15 billion worth of diamond revenue through underhand deals, Parliament is not giving up on its attempts to get to the bottom of the matter.

The planned appearances before Parliament of Mpofu, Chihuri, Chombo and Chidakwa come as President Emmerson Mnangagwas government is upping the ante in its fight against corruption.

In December last year, Mnangagwa gave a three-month moratorium to those who externalised funds and assets to bring them back into the country or face prosecution.

Many however, doubt if the new administration has the political will to follow through leads relating to the leakages blamed for the missing diamond revenue.

These fears seemed to have been confirmed by Chinamasa when he ruled out that $15 billion could have slipped through governments fingers, suggesting Mugabe could have mentioned the figure as part of figurative speech.

One of Mugabes closest allies, former Higher and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo sarcastically applauded Mnangagwas pledge to fight corruption as a good start but went on to encourage him and his deputy (Retired) General Constantino Chiwenga to return the missing $15 billion from China.

Posting on his micro blogging Twitter account Moyo said, Good start indeed. So let him & Chiwenga lead by example by returning the $15 billion from China!

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Related Zimbabwe Latest NewsSOUTH Africa readied to welcome wealthy former businessman Cyril Ramaphosa as its new president Thursday after scandal-tainted Jacob Zuma resigned under intense pressure from his own party.

Zuma announced he had stepped down in a late-night television address in which he took some digs at the African National Congress (ANC) party that had threatened to oust him via a parliament no-confidence vote.

In a 30-minute speech, Zuma said he had come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect.

I have only asked my party to articulate my transgressions and the reason for its immediate instruction that I vacate office, he said.

Zuma, 75, has been in a lengthy power struggle with Ramaphosa, the deputy president.

Ramaphosa, who won control of the ANC when he was elected as its head in December, is likely to be voted in by parliament as South Africas new president on Thursday or Friday.

Zuma, in an earlier TV interview on Wednesday, said he had received very unfair treatment from the party that he joined in 1959 and in which he had fought for decades against apartheid white-minority rule.

He said he was angered over the manner in which the decision is being implemented I dont agree, as there is no evidence of if I have done anything wrong.

Forced out

The partys national executive committee ordered Zuma recall from office on Tuesday, after a 13-hour meeting at a hotel outside Pretoria, but he at first refused.

ANC officials said that if Zuma did not resign, the partys lawmakers in the Cape Town parliament would vote out Zuma on Thursday.

But senior party official Jesse Duarte said after the resignation that we are not celebrating.

We have had to recall a cadre of the movement that has served this organisation for over 60 years, its not a small matter, she added.

Zuma, who had no formal education, was jailed alongside Nelson Mandela under apartheid and rose through the ranks of the ANC to take power in 2009.

But his rule was dominated by graft scandals, economic slowdown and falling popularity for the celebrated liberation party.

In a day of high drama, police on Wednesday morning raided the Johannesburg home of the Gupta business family, which is accused of overseeing a web of corruption in Zumas government.

Police said three unidentified people had been arrested in investigations into Vrede Farm  allegations that millions of dollars of public money meant for poor dairy farmers were syphoned off by the Guptas.

Local media reported that Zuma had been pushing for an resignation deal that included his legal fees to fight multiple criminal charges  but he denied the allegations in his resignation speech.

One case against him relates to 783 payments he allegedly received linked to an arms deal before he came to power.

Other graft allegations have centred on the three Gupta brothers, who are accused of unfairly obtaining lucrative government contracts and even being able to choose Zumas ministerial appointments.

The political wrangling of recent weeks plunged South Africa  the continents most developed economy  into confusion over who was running the country, with last Thursdays annual State of the Nation address cancelled at the last-minute.

Decline of Mandelas party

Zuma was scheduled to stand down next year after serving the maximum two terms since coming to power in 2009.

In local polls in 2016, the ANC recorded its worst electoral result since coming to power in 1994 with Mandela at the helm as white-minority rule fell.

Ramaphosa, 65, must revive the economy and crack down on what he has admitted is rampant government corruption if he is to boost the partys tarnished reputation before a tricky election next year.

He is a former trade unionist and Mandela ally who led talks to end apartheid in the early 1990s and then became a hugely wealthy businessman before returning to politics.

Zumas hold over the ANC was broken in December when his chosen successor  his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma  narrowly lost to Ramaphosa in a vote for the new party leader

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Related Zimbabwe Latest NewsSpeaking through his official Twitter account, popular Nigerian cleric and founder of the Synagogue Church Of All Nations (SCOAN), Temitope Balogun (T.B.) Joshua expressed his condolences to the family of Morgan Tsvangirai and the nation of Zimbabwe. Below is the press statement:

We at Emmanuel TV and The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations offer our heartfelt condolences to the family of Morgan Tsvangirai and the nation of Zimbabwe. It is important to realise that the manner in which a person dies does not matter; what counts is the life you live.

Because of Jesus Christs death and resurrection, we who place our faith in Him can look at death not as a period but a comma. Therefore, whether we die young or old, what matters is the grace to continue living hereafter.

Continuing to trust God is the only way to get ready for the things you are not ready for. You need not fear where you are going when you know God is going with you. If you are prepared to die, you are prepared to live.

May the Almighty God console the people of Zimbabwe at this time and give them courage and strength to bear the loss. Our God is faithful and true, a Rock against which you can lean your faith, even as the winds of mourning howl around you.

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Related Zimbabwe Latest NewsYves here. As much as the guest writer, Shepherd Bliss, gives important advice, I have mixed feelings about it, since Im the just about last person to follow it. I took a very bad fall last year, on January 1 in the Atlanta airport, stupidly tripping over my shoelaces. I landed so hard on the linoleum over concrete floor that if hadnt been weight training for 30 years, I would have broken my hip. Instead I tore my labrum and resprained an ankle.

Im not as badly impaired as Bliss became, but without boring you with details, this is a pretty bad injury, and with my daily peregrination and exercise as my big ways of reducing stress (and yes, I do meditate), this is an even bigger deal than it might appear (as in even using the accelerator and brake on those occasions when I drive often bothers both injuries). Please dont offer advice; Ive been contending with orthopedic issues all my life and have spent the better part of 25 years since I sustained a bad knee injury experimenting with treatments and practitioners to find what might make a difference.

Even though Bliss has had to make difficult adjustments, he seems to have the personal and financial resources to reduce the pain. As we all know too well, that is becoming less and less true for the aging in America. Im sure readers know of stories like this one: I have a friend who relocated to Oklahoma about a decade ago who is now 71. She moved with a partner that she discovered had stolen a lot of her savings. She took a very bad fall about a year and a half ago and shattered one leg. She can get around, not well, with a cane, and the meds she is taking have led her to gain a lot of weight. The worst is her sister, with whom she had been close, recently cut her off, with no apparent provocation. She at least can still work, but she also has to work. When I speak to her, I can too often hear the exhaustion and despair in her voice.

This is a long-winded way of saying while it would be far better to be evolved, as the New Age types like to put it, I am of the Dylan Thomas school:

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I now tell everyone I see with dangling laces to tie them ASAP.

By Dr. Shepherd Bliss (3sb@comcast.net), a retired college teacher, farmer, and writer in Sonoma County, California

The organic Kokopelli Farm has been my home, as well as my main work, identity, and love, for the last two-dozen years. Then I fell into a badger hole in the ground, covered by grass, on Jan. 15 this year. I crawled painfully uphill back into the house, as if I were a baby. This unwelcome anniversary will remain in my now 73-year old body and memory.

The fall plunged me into deep reflections, followed by life-changing behavior. You must change your life is a poetry line from Rilke that kept emerging as I spent hours each day in bed, no longer able to provide the farmers shadow with daily walks on the land, so essential to good farming.

Growing up is not always easy, even for elders like myself, closer to my death date than my birth date. Maturing can be sparked by a sudden, unexpected incident, like falling. What to do, other than feel sorry for ones self? How can one turn an apparent loss into a learning experience and gain knowledge from it for ones self and others?

I began by lightening my load. I decided to give away hundreds of books, DVDs, records, furniture, luggage, dog things, etc., which I had been collecting for decades.

I call that essentializing, commented Alexandra Hart of Transition Sebastopols monthly Elders Salon, which has been happening since 2010. Aging makes one slower, so it means simplifying and seems to require letting go of stuff.

Weve noticed in the Elders Salon that loss almost inevitably brings some kind of gain, Hart added.

Ive appreciated the smiles of friends and strangers as they load up books and other things, taking them on a journey into their lives and homes. Im even asked to autograph some of the 24 books to which I have contributed, reminding me that I can at least still write, even though my body has been diminished. I can still grab a pen, which is how this old-fashioned writer starts every article or book chapter, only using the computer for revisions.

The fall, though deeply painful into my vulnerable knee and neck, became a blessing in disguise. Many friends brought me chicken soup, other food, and helped lessen my isolation. I listened to their stories of having fallen, being sick, and experiencing excruciating pain. I now appreciate even more living in the small town of Sebastopol with its caring community.

Loss, Identity, Function, and Control

Loss can be conceptualized along three intersecting axes: loss of control, loss of identity, and loss of relationships, writes Dr. Barbara Sourkes in her book The Deepening Shade: Psychological Aspects of Life-Threatening Illness.

My identity as a farmer has considerable importance to me. I farm most days of the year. After my fall, I have been unable to farm for weekssuch a loss. Among my losses have been many basic body functions and control. I have also had to change my self-image and body-image. Being more dependent on others than usual has been a stretch. Ive had identities other than as a farmer, especially as teacher and writer.

Im used to having a good, solid bowel movement every morning, on schedule, which I looked forward to. Yet for two weeks after my fall I had no bowel movements and lost 15 pounds, which is 10% of my weight. What a relief when I began gaining weight and had my first bowel movements, though they came out mainly as liquid.

When Im physically drained, I often dont feel like talking, a client told Dr. Sourkes. As an introvert, though also a public person, I sometimes feel the same. Some friends have worn me down by their needs to talk, talk, talk. Im all talked out, I say at times, which can make me feel like the bad guy.

My fall dramatically changed my self-image and body-image. I now consider myself temporarily (hopefully) disabled. I notice others with canes and am more cautions with my movements, which have been limited. As my friend David Goff writes, Falling is scary.

Friends Tell Their Stories

Instead of hiding my fears, I have been sharing them with friends, some of whom report their own stories. You strike a familiar chord of vulnerability that we all face, especially in our later years, observed body-worker Jeff Rooney. I work with many people now older than I and a big theme is falling and fear of falling. People know from observing others that falling is often a step away from dying. A hip breaks and before you know it, the person is gone.

Being in bed alone for hours can be boring, oh so boring. Add some pain and it can be even worse, with sleep being difficult. At times I have felt distant and even absent from this now-broken body.

With my long illness I have had to reevaluate what I can do, which is tied to who I am, writes my friend Janus Matthes. Passing along our worldly goods is a positive action as we round third base.

I chose to embrace and not fight age and what goes with agingless energy, more simplicity, enjoy what things truly feed my soul, she added. We are such a youth culture in this country. As I age, I realize we all have our day in the sun and hope the youthful generations take full advantage of their time on this most amazing planet.

Reflecting on my upcoming April hip replacement and the 3 surgeries Ive had in the past 4 years has put me through many changes and changed the way I look at life, see myself and look at the world, said my neighbor Robert Teller. It has taken me on many journeys, altered my life style, challenged my spiritual core and offered me an inner peace that I have not known before.

One date stands out in my recovery: Jan. 27, which was my most painful day. Ive never contemplated taking my life, except on that day. That extreme pain, accompanied by crying and screaming, educated me about why some people commit suicide. Fortunately, I had a strong painkiller. I took it reluctantly and was finally able to sleep. Blessed Be!

One means of taking some control of ones life as a person feels loosing it because of sickness or something else is to do what I am doing here  write it down.

So what have I been learning from my fall and the subsequent shut-in? Now I know, in my body, that one day its going to all be over and now I am a step closer to death. Ive been here before, in my mind, but now I feel it in my soul and in the core of who I am.

Humans are so fragile, my brother Steve Bliss recently reminded me about we two-footeds. I am actually now three-footed, since I walk with a cane, to stabilize myself, but that should eventually change. Tomorrows a new day, my brother reminded me, as Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote.

This learning experience is still evolving. So where do I go from here? Im not sure. I feel suspended between the no-longer and the not-yet.

Or as the elder Doug von Koss recently quoted a Sufi saying, We have three days to live, and two of them are gone.Ants nurse wounded warriors back to health: study PhysOrg (Robert M)

Cryptocurrency craze is hampering search for extraterrestrial life RT (Kevin W)

Resilc: The brilliance of the private sector:

Not enough ignition fluid to light the outer two engines after several three engine relights. Fix is pretty obvious.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 12, 2018

Quantum computers one step closer BBC (David L)

Why Broadband Competition at Faster Speeds is Virtually Nonexistent Motherboard (resilc)

Lambert featured this tweet earlier this week but it appears some readers missed it. Please click through and read the entire tweetstorm:

1/ Suffering from disorientation and cognitive dissonance around blockchain and Bitcoin. Its time to stop the craziness.  Tim Bray (@timbray) February 12, 2018

Sony now has a Koov robotics learning kit for US classrooms TechCrunch (David L)

SCIENTISTS KNOW HOW YOULL RESPOND TO NUCLEAR WARAND THEY HAVE A PLAN Wired (David L)

This Is the Link Between Processed Foods and Cancer Time (David L)

Consumption of ultra-processed foods and cancer risk: results from NutriNet-Sante prospective cohort British Journal of Medicine (UserFriendly)

In televised address, Jacob Zuma resigns as South Africas president PBS (Kevin C)

Currency War: Trumps Games Pose Threat to European Economy Der Spiegel (resilc)

European officials: Virtual currencies are no way to pay Associated Press. Bundesbank and ECB say nein.

Brexit

Ad hoc Working Party on Article 50 European Council. Summary per Politicos daily e-mail:

The European Councils Brexit working party met Wednesday and will meet again today. The key result so far: watering down footnote number 4 on the mechanism to sanction London if it breaks EU rules during the Brexit transition. The new text, according to POLITICOs source, would say that if the U.K. were to breach EU law during the transitional period, the Commission would be obliged to start an infringement procedure against it under Article 258 of the EU treaty. That is standard EU operating procedure. Only if the U.K refuses to comply (against a judgment on the matter) would unilateral measures of suspension may be considered.

Syraqistan

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Gunz

Elections Still Matter: Virginia Democrats Stun State Energy Monopoly in Late-Night Rejection Intercept (Kevin W)

Trump Transition

Fake News

How Establishment Propaganda Gaslights Us Into Submission Caitlin Johnstone, Consortium News

I have reached an amicable settlement with the Nation, an organization whose work I have held in high regard. I wish them success in their future endeavors. I am happy this matter could be resolved. pic.twitter.com/q9SGuG8CtC  Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) February 14, 2018

This Anonymous Instagram Account is Outing Sexual Harassers in Advertising MEL. Oregoncharles: Not that we feel too bad for advertising executives, but its still a dangerous precedent.

California cities pension bills may rise with CalPERS move Bloomberg

Wells Fargo Fumbles Efforts to Repay Aggrieved Customers and Wells Fargo Customer-Repayment Efforts Questioned Wall Street Journal. Managed to miss the first story yesterday

Hedge Funds Are Dumping Facebook and Google Bloomberg

Guillotine Watch

The discreet terror of the American bourgeoisie Ed Luce, Financial Times (Li). From last week, still germane. Jeff Bezos, Amazon: Why Charity Is Wrong Solution Rolling Stone. Resilc: Says the man who built amazon on tax free sales and subsidized shipping.

Class Warfare

Seeing Like a Neoliberal, Part 1: Blinded by the Data Medium (UserFreindly). Important.

Antidote du jour (Tracie H):

And a bonus from Richard Smith. Dunno what this kittens name really is, but I did know someone with a tiny dog called Kali. And if you are a Terry Pratchett fan, Death is a sympathetic character. From Sourcery:

I meant, said Ipslore bitterly, what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile? Death thought about it. CATS, he said eventually. CATS ARE NICE.

And I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And its riders name was Death. pic.twitter.com/wlFYyoF4fT  Paul Bronks (@BoringEnormous) February 13, 2018

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.Smart and comfortable new nanocomposite textiles for high-tech clothing (Nanowerk News) Uncomfortable, rigid, with low air permeability: textile materials capable of conducting electricity can be awkward for day-to-day use. However, researchers at the University of Bayreuth, Donghua University in Shanghai, and Nanjing Forestry University have now developed new nonwoven materials that are electrically conductive as well as flexible and breathable. This paves the way for comfortable high-tech clothes which, for example, convert sunlight to warmth, supply wearable electronic devices with electricity, or contain sensors for fitness training.

The scientists have published their findings in the journal npj Flexible Electronics ("Polymer nanofibre composite nonwovens with metal-like electrical conductivity").

Prof. Dr. Andreas Greiners team of researchers at the University of Bayreuth and their Chinese partners have succeeded in producing electrically conductive nonwovens which have all the other characteristics you would expect from clothing that is suitable for daily use. The materials are flexible, and thus adapt to movements and changes in posture. In addition, they are air-permeable, meaning they do not interfere with the natural breathing of the skin.

Prof. Dr. Andreas Greiner (left) and Prof. Dr. Seema Agarwal (right) with equipment for electrospinning at the University of Bayreuth. With backlighting, one can see the thin fibres from which nonwoven materials are formed.

The combination of these properties is based on a special production process. In contrast to common methods of production, metal wires were not inserted into finished textiles. Rather, the scientists modified classical electro-spinning, which has been used to produce nonwovens for many years: short electro-spun polymer fibres and small amounts of tiny silver wires with a diameter of only 80 nanometres are mixed in a liquid. Afterwards, they are filtered, dried, and briefly heated up. If the composition is right, the resulting nonwoven material exhibits a very high degree of electrical conductivity.

This opens up a whole range of possibilities for innovative applications, especially in the area of smart clothes (i.e. wearables). Everyday clothing, for example, can be equipped with solar cells such that the captured sunlight is converted to warmth, heating up the textiles themselves. Mobile phones, cameras, mini-computers, and other wearable electronic devices could be charged by plugging them into the textiles. Sensors installed in the clothes could provide athletes and trainers with important fitness and health data or could give family and friends information on its location.

In addition to articles of clothing, similar functions could also just as easily be installed in textile materials for use in seats and instruments in cars or airplanes, explained Prof. Dr. Andreas Greiner, Chair of Macromolecular Chemistry II at the University of Bayreuth.

Our approach, which takes the production of conductive textiles as its basis, can in principle be applied to many different systems, added Steffen Reich, doctoral researcher and lead author of the new study. As an example, he cites current Bayreuth research projects on microbial fuel cells, which could eventually be used as electrodes in such nonwoven materials.Demonstration of a single molecule piezoelectric effect (Nanowerk News) Researchers from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS (IOCB Prague), Institute of Physics of the CAS (IP CAS) and Palacky University Olomouc demonstrated for the first time a single molecule piezoelectric effect.

The study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society ("Large Converse Piezoelectric Effect Measured on a Single Molecule on a Metallic Surface") represents a breakthrough in understanding the electromechanical behavior of individual molecules and provides a new concept of the design of molecular motors, sensors and electricity generators at nanoscale.

The converse piezoelectric effect in single heptahelicene-derived molecules. (Image: Pavel Jelinek / Institute of Physics of the CAS)

The piezoelectric effect emerges in some materials in which the mechanical and electrical properties are coupled. Either the electric field can be generated if a mechanical stress is applied (direct piezoelectric effect) or, conversely, the mechanical deformation can arise if the electric field is applied (converse piezoelectric effect).

These effects have reached numerous practical applications in automotive, smartphone, computer, medical and military industries. In our everyday life, we meet the piezoelectric effect in smartphones, microphones or lighters, it is also widely employed in airbag systems, sonars or scanning microscopes. Possible applications of the piezoelectric effect to nanotechnology are currently under the spotlight and intensively studied. However, the single molecule piezoelectric effect, which is essential for envisioned electromechanical molecular devices, has so far remained elusive.

"In a close collaboration with physicists, it was proved for the first time that a strong converse piezoelectric effect can be observed at individual molecules of the heptahelicene derivative, which is a screw-like carbon molecule resembling a spring," said Ivo Stary, the leader of the group of chemists at IOCB Prague preparing the compound.

The effect was experimentally demonstrated by the group of physicists at IP CAS at individual molecules on a silver surface using scanning probe microscopy. The group leader Pavel Jelinek explains: "The magnitude of the piezoelectric constant calculated from the experimental data is significantly higher than that one of known piezoelectric polymers and is comparable to the magnitudes measured at some inorganic materials such as zinc oxide. Moreover, we explained the origin of the single molecule piezoelectric effect by employing quantum mechanics calculations."Scientists create functioning kidney tissue

(Nanowerk News) Scientists have successfully produced human kidney tissue within a living organism which is able to produce urine, a first for medical science.

The study led by Professors Sue Kimber and Adrian Woolf from The University of Manchester, signifies a significant milestone in the development of treatment for kidney disease.

The Medical Research Council and Kidney Research UK funded project is published in the journal Stem Cell Reports ("Generation of Functioning Nephrons by Implanting Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Kidney Progenitors").

Kidney glomeruli - constituent microscopic parts of the organ- were generated from human embryonic stem cells grown in plastic laboratory culture dishes containing a nutrient broth known as culture medium, containing molecules to promote kidney development.

They were combined with a gel like substance, which acted as natural connective tissue - and then injected as a tiny clump under the skin of mice.

After three months, an examination of the tissue revealed that nephrons: the microscopic structural and functional units of the kidney - had formed.

The new structures contained most of the constituent parts present in human nephrons - including proximal tubules, distal tubules, Bowman's capsule and Loop of Henle.

Tiny human blood vessels - known as capillaries- had developed inside the mice which nourished the new kidney structures.

However, the mini-kidneys lack a large artery, and without that the organ's function will only be a fraction of normal.

So, the researchers are working with surgeons to put in an artery that will bring more blood the new kidney.

To test the functionality of the new structures, the team used Dextran - a fluorescent protein which stains the urine-like substance produced when nephrons filter the blood, called glomerular filtrate.

The Dextran was tracked and detected in the new structures' tubules, demonstrating that filtrate was indeed being produced and excreted as urine.

"We have proved beyond any doubt these structures function as kidney cells by filtering blood and producing urine - though we can't yet say what percentage of function exists," said Professor Kimber.

"What is particularly exciting is that the structures are made of human cells which developed an excellent capillary blood supply, becoming linked to the vasculature of the mouse.

"Though this structure was formed from several hundred glomeruli, and humans have about a million in their kidneys - this is clearly a major advance.

"It constitutes a proof of principle- but much work is yet to be done."

The University of Manchester's School of Biological Sciences and Manchester Regenerative Medicine Network (MaRM) as well as Kidneys for life have also supported the work.

Professor Woolf, who is also Consultant in Paediatric Nephrology at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Worldwide, two million people are being treated with dialysis or transplantation for kidney failure, and sadly another two million die each year, unable to access these treatments.

So we are tremendously excited by this discovery - we feel it is a big research milestone which may one day help patients.Chemists develop motion capture-like technology for tracking protein shape

(Nanowerk News) In many modern animated movies, the trick to achieving realistic movements for individual characters and objects lies in motion-capture technology. This process often involves someone wearing a tracking suit covered in small, colored balls while a camera captures the position of those colored balls, which is then used to represent how the person is moving.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are developing a similar technology to obtain atomic-resolution "movies" that track how proteins fold and change shape. To generate these movies, the scientists label the protein with probes at many positions and observe the movement of those labels. The fluorescence data on the relative positions of the probes can then be used to construct computational models of the protein structure in atomic detail. This research could lead to improvements in drugs used to treat neurodegenerative diseases, as well as new methods of imaging that could lead to their earlier detection.

The research was multi-disciplinary effort led by E. James Petersson, associate professor of chemistry in Penn's School of Arts and Sciences, and graduate student Jack Ferrie. Elizabeth Rhoades and Zahra Fakhraii, both associate professors of chemistry at Penn, as well as Abhinav Nath of the University of Washington, Seattle; Penn undergraduate Jimin Yoon; postdoctoral fellow Conor Haney; and graduate students Buyan Pan and Yi-Chih Lin also contributed to the study. The paper was published in Biophysical Journal ("Using a FRET Library with Multiple Probe Pairs To Drive Monte Carlo Simulations of -Synuclein").

"One of the big fundamental questions in biochemistry is how proteins fold into a certain shape," said Petersson, "and this is dictated by the sequence of amino acids in the protein. The information in all of the interactions of the amino acid side chains somehow leads to it folding into a proper shape."

In healthy scenarios, Petersson said, that proper shape allows the protein to have different functions, such as transporting oxygen in the blood or becoming "molecular machines" that ultimately lead to muscle movements, such as those required for walking and running.

But in certain disease states, particularly in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, the proteins misfold into an unhealthy shape, which can cause multiple copies of the proteins to aggregate into "spaghetti-like tangles or long fibrils." These fibrils, Petersson said, are toxic to neurons, which underlies Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

"Since all of these involve protein folding into a certain shape, then what we'd like to do is to track the changes in shape of proteins," he said. "There are a number of different techniques that can be used to do this, but we like fluorescence because you can acquire fluorescence data fast enough that you can actually watch proteins fold in real time. Ultimately we'd like to try to watch proteins folding in cells."

To get information about protein shape using fluorescent probes, researchers use a technique called fluorescence resonance energy transfer, which requires them to measure many distances between different points on the protein and then use that information to understand its shape, similar to motion-capture technology.

In this paper, the researchers made about 30 measurements of different distances within the protein alpha-synuclein under different states where it's changing shape. They then used that collection of distance measurements in combination with complex computational modeling to get atomic resolution structures of the protein's shape.

Ferrie received a fellowship from the Parkinson's Disease Foundation to spend the summer in David Baker's laboratory in the University of Washington, where Rosetta, one of the most commonly used programs for modeling proteins, was developed.

"Rosetta is designed to model stable well-folded proteins," Petersson said, "not disordered proteins that can change shape, so Jack had to do a lot of rewriting of the code himself to be able to model these unruly proteins."

Ferrie and Yoon made a series of experimental measurements that could be used to direct the protein folding to be consistent with the experimental measurements, which allowed him to model protein shape.

Since it was a new approach, the researchers wanted to demonstrate that the structures coming out of the computational models were consistent with reality. In order to do this, they conducted three types of experiments to match real data with the models coming out of these fluorescence experiments.

They collaborated with Rhoades' group to validate the modeled structures using single molecule fluorescence measurements made by Pan. Working in Fakhraii's group, Lin, used a different type of technique called atomic force microscopy to image the protein and validate the models. Chris Dobson, a professor of chemistry at Cambridge University, shared nuclear magnetic resonance data about alpha-synuclein that provided further confirmation of the accuracy of the computer models.

The paper represents one of the largest libraries of proteins labeled with synthetic fluorophores yet reported. According to Petersson, the researchers needed to make a lot of distance measurements over different regions of the protein to have enough data to generate computational models. Ferrie and Haney had to come up with a streamlined approach to attaching different sets of probes that would function over different distance ranges.

The researchers are now working to apply this technique to model protein structure in the aggregated forms that are toxic to neurons and to model its response to drugs that would cause it to change shape, preventing this aggregation.

"The ability to watch a protein as it changes shape," said Petersson, "and to actually get structures out of that is a really important basic science goal that we've been working towards for 10 years. There have been some very impressive breakthroughs in getting structures of proteins in neurodegenerative diseases, but the fluorescence technique has the potential to do that in living cells, which no other technique has the ability to do."

According to Petersson, proteins adopting multiple shapes, stacking different copies upon each other and aggregating, as they do in neurodegenerative diseases, are an important basic biochemistry problem that other structural biology techniques can't really tackle. A better understanding of how that works and what those shapes are has the potential to make an impact on diseases such as Parkinson's and to give researchers an opportunity to figure out how drug or diagnostic models interact with the protein.

"We're working on being able to generate model structures that actually show what is the effect of these drugs," Petersson said. "We take the protein with the fluorescent labels, add the drug, allow the protein to change shape, make fluorescence measurements and then take those back to the computational modeling so we can actually see the structural effect of these drugs. Hopefully this will lead to more of a rational understanding so that better second and third generation drugs can be made."

The researchers are also collaborating with Robert Mach, the Britton Chance Professor of Radiology in Penn's Perelman School of Medicine. Mach's group is interested in developing positron emission tomography imaging probes that can be used to bind to the aggregated forms of proteins and image them in patients.Suiker's equations prevent 3-D-printed walls from collapsing or falling over

(Nanowerk News) 3D-printed materials commonly are soft and flexible during printing, leaving printed walls susceptible to collapse or falling over. Akke Suiker, professor in Applied Mechanics at Eindhoven University of Technology, had a Eureka moment and saw the solution to this structural problem. He developed a model with which engineers can now easily determine the dimensions and printing speeds for which printed wall structures remain stable. His formulae are so elementary that they can become commonplace in the fast growing field of 3D printing.

Conventional concrete deposited in formwork typically is allowed to harden over period of several weeks. But 3D-printed concrete is not. With no supporting formwork, it almost immediately has to bear the weight of the subsequent layers of concrete that are printed on top of it. Everybody can feel the tension rising in their body as the structure gets higher. Is it already stiff and strong enough to add yet another layer on top? It is one of the most important issues in the new field of 3D printing.

These are rectangular shapes printed at the TU Eindhoven 3-D-concrete printer. Suiker elaborated his equations for rectangular layouts like these. (Image: Rob Wolfs/Eindhoven University of Technology)

This issue was not part of the package of tasks of Professor Akke Suiker, who regularly saw the king-sized concrete printer of his university in action on the way to his office. But on a Saturday morning last March he woke up with an exciting idea how to solve the problem, already jotting down the first mathematical equations on paper during breakfast. In the six months that follow Suiker is completely occupied by the problem, working feverishly on the details. The results are published this week in the International Journal of Mechanical Sciences ("Mechanical performance of wall structures in 3D printing processes: Theory, design tools and experiments").

Using his equations, Suiker is able to calculate how quickly he can lay down printing layers, given the material curing characteristics and wall dimensions - of course without the structure collapsing. But he can also calculate how to make the structure with as little material as possible, and what the influence of structural irregularities is. Or what happens when he makes a wall slightly thicker or increases the material curing rate, or uses a completely different material. Or if the wall has a tendency just to fall over or also pulls the connecting structure with it. In the latter case, the consequential damage that occurs clearly is considerably greater. In fact, there are about 15 to 20 factors that one has to take into account, but because Suiker has conveniently scaled his equations, he was ultimately left with just five dimensionless parameters. Hence the problem is tackled with a very elegant and insightful model.

When asked whether his results will be important for the field of 3D printing, Suiker is without doubt. "They should be. The insights provided by the model create essential basic knowledge for everyone who prints 3D structures. For structural designers, engineering firms but also, for example, for companies that print thin-walled plastic prostheses of small dimensions, because that is where my equations also apply." The first interest is already there: he has been invited by Cambridge University to give a seminar lecture about his work.

Suiker validated his model with results of tests done with the 3D concrete printer at Eindhoven University of Technology, carried out by PhD student Rob Wolfs. He developed a computer model at the same time as Suiker, with which he can also calculate the structural behavior during the printing process, but based on the finite-element method (Cement and Concrete Research, "Early age mechanical behaviour of 3D printed concrete: Numerical modelling and experimental testing"). It is great for both researchers that the results from their independently developed models confirm each other.

The Expert Workshop Report, "Materials Acceleration Platform: Accelerating Advanced Energy Materials Discovery by Integrating High-Throughput Methods with Artificial Intelligence", was released in Mexico City today. This work is the result of a September 2017 workshop that convened more than 55 leading scientists from around the world to define the challenges, opportunities, and fundamental research needs related to materials discovery. The workshop was sponsored by the Mexican Ministry of Energy (SENER), the U.S. Department of Energy, and CIFAR.



This Report is an important milestone of the Clean Energy Materials Innovation Challenge of the global initiative Mission Innovation (MI) of 22 countries and the European Union that aims to accelerate global clean energy innovation. The Report calls for integrating material sciences with next-generation computing (high-throughput), artificial intelligence (machine learning) and robotics to accelerate the pace of materials discovery. Among the recommendations are development of "self-driving/autonomous laboratories" that automatically design, perform and interpret experiments in the quest of new high-performance, low-cost materials.



"The performance, efficiency and affordability of clean energy technologies can be increased by finding materials with the properties you need. At the moment, we're very much like Edison looking for filaments for his light bulb, testing them one by one in a sequential fashion, by trial-and-error, until we find the one that works. This report lays out a road map for methods that will let us quickly discover and design materials with exactly the properties we need. The key is to create fully integrated MAPs from beginning to end that enable humans to accelerate their pace of discovery," said Alan Aspuru-Guzik from Harvard University, co-chair of the workshop and lead author of the report.Researchers build alien ocean to test NASA outer space submarine

(Nanowerk News) Building a submarine gets tricky when the temperature drops to -300 Fahrenheit and the ocean is made of methane and ethane.

Washington State University researchers are working with NASA to determine how a submarine might work on Titan, the largest of Saturn's many moons and the second largest in the solar system. The space agency plans to launch a real submarine into Titan seas in the next 20 years.

The researchers re-created a Titan ocean in a laboratory. They have published a paper on their work in the journal, Fluid Phase Equilibria ("Experimental Pp&pT-x measurements of liquid methane-ethane-nitrogen mixtures").

Sunlight glints off of Titan's northern seas this near-infrared, color mosaic from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. (Image: NASA/JPL/Univ. Arizona/Univ. Idaho)

Titan is of particular interest to researchers because it is similar to earth in one important way, it holds liquid. Unlike almost anywhere else in the solar system, the moon's surface includes oceans, rivers and clouds, and like on earth, it can rain. But, instead of water, the hydrological cycle is based on methane.

Because of the possible lessons it could provide here on Earth, NASA has been studying Saturn and its moons for more than a decade with data collected from the Cassini spacecraft.

The submarine that the agency is designing will have to operate autonomously. It will need to study atmospheric and ocean conditions, move around sea beds, and hover at or below the surface. The engineering is even trickier because, unlike the nearly homogeneous water in earth-based oceans, the concentration of ethane and methane can vary dramatically in the Titan oceans and change the liquid's density properties.

NASA invitation

Ian Richardson, a former graduate student in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, got the chance to tackle how NASA might build a submarine for the extreme conditions. In WSU's cryogenic lab, which studies materials at very cold temperatures, Richardson re-created the atmosphere of Titan and tested how a small heated machine might work under such conditions.

Richardson, who holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from WSU, has had a longtime interest in space and space exploration technologies. He was WSU's first-ever recipient of a NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship, which included an internship at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. It was while working as an intern on a separate problem that a NASA scientist approached him with the problem of designing a submarine for Titan.

"My research just took a right turn, and I went with it," said Richardson. "It's a crazy experiment, and I never thought I would have had this opportunity. It's been a very fun and challenging experimental design problem."

Simulating Titan seas

The WSU research team built a test chamber that housed the liquid mixture at very cold temperatures to simulate the seas of Titan. They added a two-inch, cylinder-shaped cartridge heater that would approximate the heat that a submarine would create.

One of the biggest challenges for researchers was understanding bubbles in the Titan seas. Add a submarine powered by a heat-producing machine into the very cold Titan liquid, and nitrogen bubbles will form. Too many bubbles would make it hard to maneuver the ship, see, take data and manage ballast systems.

This is a WSU Methane-ethane Titan effervescence diagram. (Image: Washington State University)

Shooting video at -300 degrees

The next big problem, said Richardson, was getting a video in difficult conditions. Their study was conducted at 60 pounds per square inch of pressure and nearly -300 degrees Fahrenheit. Richardson's group engineered a solution using an optical device called a borescope and video camera that could withstand the low temperatures and high pressures to visualize what was going on within the test chamber.

"Those aren't the friendliest conditions," he said. "You have to come up with creative solutions."

The researchers succeeded and took video footage of ethane-methane rain and snow. The group also studied the freezing temperatures for methane and ethane lakes and determined that, because of a small amount of nitrogen in the liquid, the lakes freeze at lower temperatures than would be expected: 75 Kelvin, or -324 degrees Fahrenheit, instead of 90.5 Kelvin.

"That's a big deal,'' said Richardson. "That means you don't have to worry about icebergs."Controlling the kinetics of ion-capturing/ion-releasing regimes in liquid crystals by means of nanoparticles

(Nanowerk Spotlight) Liquid crystal devices such as laptops, TV screens, mobile phones, smart watches and tunable lenses are ubiquitous in daily life. Most of these liquid crystal displays have one thing in common: they are driven by electric fields (recall how critical is to check the battery of your laptop prior to doing an important work).

An ideal operation of the afore-mentioned liquid crystal devices assumes that liquid crystals do not conduct electricity and behave as anisotropic dielectric liquid. This means the device is based on the so-called field effect when the voltage applied across the liquid crystal layer re-orients elongated liquid crystal molecules along the electric field.

The reorientation of liquid crystals under the action of the applied electric field results in changing the optical properties of liquid crystal devices (for example, we can switch between bright and dark states of the image).

This electric-field induced driving of liquid crystal devices can be severely altered by ions typically present in liquid crystals. Even small traces of ions in liquid crystals can lead to the so-called screening effect, causing such negative things as image sticking, image flickering, and overall slow response of the device.

All these negative effects compromise the performance of liquid crystal devices. That is why the reduction of the concentration of ions in liquid crystals is among the grand challenges facing the modern liquid crystal industry, spanning display and emerging non-display applications.

One promising way to solve this challenge can be found by merging nanotechnology and liquid crystals. In short, nano-objects immersed in liquid crystals can capture ions thus reducing the concentration of mobile ions and improving the performance of liquid crystal devices.

This idea has been tested by many research groups around the globe (for more detail please refer to a recent review paper in Crystals: "Nano-Objects and Ions in Liquid Crystals: Ion Trapping Effect and Related Phenomena" ).

Indeed, existing experimental and theoretical studies indicate a high promise of nanomaterials to provide a permanent purification of liquid crystals from ions. In other words, under certain conditions nanomaterials can act as ion capturing agent in liquid crystals.

In previous Nanowerk Spotlights we have already discussed some tricky behavior of nanomaterials and ions in liquid crystals:

So far, the majority of existing reports on the behavior of ions and nanomaterials in liquid crystals were focused on the steady-state ion capturing properties. In other words, these studies were performed assuming the equilibrium state is reached.

A very practical question is the kinetics of ion-capturing/ion-releasing processes in liquid crystals doped with nanomaterials.

"Imagine, we want to purify liquid crystals from ions using nanomaterials," says Yuriy Garbovskiy, PhD, a researcher at the UCCS BioFrontiers Center & Department of Physics, University of Colorado. "We mix our nanomaterials with liquid crystals. How much time is required to achieve the expected ion capturing effect? Should we wait for an hour or for a month? Moreover, can we control this time by any means?"

Garbovskiy has provided an answer to this set of important practical questions in a paper published in Nanomaterials ("Kinetics of Ion-Capturing/Ion-Releasing Processes in Liquid Crystal Devices Utilizing Contaminated Nanoparticles and Alignment Films").

This paper provides an analysis of the kinetics of ion-capturing/ion-releasing regimes in liquid crystals doped with nanoparticles.

A very important aspect of this study is an explicit consideration of the effects of the ionic contamination of nanoparticles on the kinetics of ion-capturing/ion-releasing effects in liquid crystal nanocolloids.

"In short, 100 % pure nanoparticles dispersed in liquid crystals result in the ion-capturing regime," explains Garbovskiy. "However, if nanoparticles are contaminated with ions prior to dispersing them in liquid crystals, three different regimes are possible, namely, the purification regime (nanodopants capture ions in liquid crystals); ion releasing regime (liquid crystals are enriched with ions desorbed from the surface of nanoparticles); and no change regime (nothing happens)."

Typical examples of these regimes is shown in the figure below.

Ion-capturing/ion-releasing regimes in liquid crystals doped with nanoparticles as a function of time. Ion capturing regimes are represented by dashed (blue) and short-dotted (black) curves while ion releasing regimes are shown as dotted (red) and short-dashed (navy) curves (Source: MDPI, Nanomaterials, DOI:10.3390/nano8020059, Creative Commons Attribution License)

Another important aspect of this paper is the consideration of the combined effect of both nanoparticles and substrates on the kinetics of ion-capturing/ion-releasing regimes in liquid crystals  recall, in all devices liquid crystals are sandwiched between two substrates so the consideration of interactions of ions with substrates is equally important.

As a result, the kinetics of ion-capturing/ion-releasing process in liquid crystals doped with contaminated nanoparticles and sandwiched between two substrates is characterized by several time constants. These time constants originate from the presence of nanoparticles and substrates.

"An interesting thing is that these time constants can be controlled by changing the concentration of nanoparticles, their size, the type of ion capturing materials, and the thickness of the liquid crystal cell," Garbovskiy points out. "For example, we can shorten time needed to achieve a steady-state by increasing the concentration of nanoparticles and decreasing their size. As a result, it enables the control over the kinetics of ion-capturing/ion-releasing process in liquid crystal nanocolloids by changing the afore-mentioned parameters."

The results presented by Garbovskiy in this work are very important for scientists and R&D engineers trying to transition the concept of nanoparticle-enabled control of ions in liquid crystals from academic to industrial domain.

In addition, this paper highlights the importance of considering the purity of both nanoparticles and substrates used in liquid crystal devices.

Finally, the presented results due to their quite general nature can guide the selection of the most efficient and very 'fast' ion-capturing nano-objects.

"From a more general perspective, the presented results can enable emerging applications of liquid crystals doped with nanoparticles such as microwave devices and flexible electronics," Garbovskiy concludes. "As a result, future research directions are very broad and can include extensive experimental studies of time-dependent ion-capturing/ion-releasing properties of various types of nanomaterials, liquid crystals and alignment layers."A man who came before Tipperary district court on a charge of threatening to kill was refused bail after gardai lodged an objection to bail being granted.

Before the court was Philip McCarthy, 26 Glen Court, Emly who was charged with threatening to kill Lorraine Doyle at Glen Court, Emly on 15th October 2017.

Bail was refused and he was returned for trial to sittings of Clonmel Circuit Court.

Judge Elizabeth MacGrath, who was informed that the defendant was fully contesting the charge, refused bail after hearing objections from the gardai and hearing Philip McCarthy outline his willingness to adhere to whatever conditions for bail the court might impose.

Det.Sgt Kevin O'Keeffe told the court that the nature of the charge against Philip McCarthy was threatening to kill or cause harm.

It is alleged that Lorraine Doyle, who lived in Glen Court, was driving in the estate when Philip McCarthy drove his car towards her and stopped.

It is alleged he got out of the car and threatened Lorraine Doyle telling her to get out of the estate or he would kill her.

He tried to open her car door. She had three children in the car under ten years old. Two of the children ran home and the other stayed on the side of the road. Lorraine Doyle reversed the car ,went out of the estate and immediately rang for help.

Det.Sgt. OKeeffe said gardai were objecting to bail because they believed Philip McCarthy would not turn up.

Lorraine Doyle lives in the same estate as the defendant and she believes he would intimidate her if he was granted bail and she was still in fear of him.

Detective Sgt. O'Keeffe said gardai were objecting to bail.

Philip McCarthy told Judge McGrath that he would be contesting the charge. He said he had no problem turning up in court because he was completely innocent. He was prepared to sign on three times daily, to live in Thurles with family members and to abide by a curfew if he was given bail.

Solicitor Colin Morrissey said Philip McCarthy would stay away from Emly and would live with family members in Thurles if granted bail. He would be fully contesting the allegations made against him.

Judge MacGrath said arriving at a decision was a balancing act taking into consideration the rights of those concerned.

She was aware of decisions taken in the High Court and the district court to refuse bail on this matter and it was her opinion that the situation had not changed to any material extent and she was not prepared to go beyond the view of the decision in the High Court to refuse bail.Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller welcomed Defence Minister Ron Mark to NATO Headquarters on Thursday (15 February 2018) to discuss deepening cooperation between NATO and New Zealand. New Zealand recently concluded a new Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme (IPCP) with the Alliance, which sets out an ambitious roadmap for continued partnership.

The Deputy Secretary General thanked Minister Mark for New Zealands contributions to NATO operations and deployments, including in Afghanistan and in fighting piracy. The two also discussed the security situation in the Asia-Pacific region, and welcomed possibilities to deepen cooperation in the years ahead.

New Zealands new partnership agreement with NATO lays the groundwork to deepen joint work in areas of common interest, including science and technology, maritime security, and potentially in training missions for partner countries. The IPCP also focuses on areas such as cyber defence, counter terrorism, and the women, peace and security agenda.(Natural News) As an Internet-based publication, we certainly believe it is important  crucial even  that the online world remains completely free and open, immune to censorship in any form or fashion.

Thats why were extremely supportive of a legal effort aimed at busting up the Webs biggest information monopoly after a series of very credible reports have documented how that company  Alphabet Corp.s Google  has been attempting to control the flow of information that browsers can (and cant) see.

Google dominates Internet search with over 75 percent of the market. If you disappear on Google, your ability to voice your opinion disappears too. You will be silenced, says StopOnlineCensorship.com, a legal effort sponsored by PragerU.com which has seen more than 40 of its educational videos suppressed by Google-owned YouTube.

The videos have been placed in restricted mode making it difficult or impossible for many young people to access the videos  simply because Google doesnt agree with the point of view presented, the site noted further.

This is not just about PragerU being silenced. Its about another point of view thats being silenced by Google and YouTube, the site continued. Tomorrow it could be your point of view that is being silenced.

As further reported by The Gateway Pundit, in 2016 The Wall Street Journal brought attention to the PragerU censorship, but after the story was picked up by a few outlets, the entire case seemed to disappear for a few years. (Related: GOOGLE CENSORSHIP BOMBSHELL: Supposed Natural News violation of Google webmaster rules also found running on Googles own Blogspot network!)

But not really; it rages on and should absolutely not be ignored.

In the October 2016 report, the WSJ noted:

Tech giants like Google and Facebook always deny that their platforms favor some viewpoints over others, but then they dont do much to avoid looking censorious. This week a conservative radio host and author is wondering why YouTube classifies his educational web clips as potentially objectionable material.

But more than 15 videos are restricted on YouTube, a development PragerU announced this month. This means the clips dont show up for those who have turned on filteringsay, a parent shielding their children from explicit videos. A YouTube spokesperson told us that the setting is optional and based on algorithms that look at a number of factors, including community flagging on videos. Yet its easy to imagine a flood of users reporting a political videomicroagressed college students have a lot of free timeand limiting a viewpoints audience.

PragerU produces short videos on a range of subjects important to understanding American values that range from the motivations of the Islamic State to the skyrocketing cost of a higher education. The channel has nearly 1.24 million followers and the videos have been viewed hundreds of millions of times. They mostly include an expert guest and background animation to make particular points.

Some recent subjects include, Can Climate Models Predict Climate Change?, Trophies are for Winning, The Inconvenient Truth about the Republican Party, and Everyone Should Stand for the National Anthem.

How controversial!

Granted, as a free enterprise, YouTube and Google have a right to make their own rules. But limiting content or practicing any form of censorship on any level undercuts their pledge to be platforms for free expression, which of course does not stop and start with Alt-Left Marxist points of view. And that seems to be the basis of the PragerU legal effort to end the censorship of conservative ideas by the worlds largest information company.

If we dont win this fight, theres no telling where  or if  this online censorship will stop, says a fundraising message from PragerU, which adds that the organization has already assembled an all-star legal team in its lawsuit against Google.

If you value an open Internet and freedom of speech, you might consider donating to the PragerU effort at StopOnlineCensorship.com. I did.

J.D. Heyes is also editor-in-chief of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

NaturalNews.com

YouTube.com/PragerU(Natural News) Between 2013 and 2017, the town of Fruithurst in Cleburne County, Alabama, has had eight leukemia diagnoses. Four of those cases were boys under 18 years of age, one of whom has since passed away. Figures have shown that the people of Fruithurst  who number no more than 280 residents  have a greater chance of developing leukemia than other Alabamians. The exact reason why remained unknown for years, though a team of researchers believe that the answer lies in the water.

According to AL.com, the team uncovered a surprising abundance of dangerous substances in water and soil samples collected from the home wells of past and current cancer patients. The most prominent of these was radon, a gaseous chemical element that can dissolve and accumulate in water. Radon exposure typically occurs through inhalation, though it can happen when drinking contaminated water. Consuming radon through water has been linked to various internal cancers, and 168 cancer deaths in the United States per year. (Related: Home-based silent killer: Radon gas, known to be the leading cause of lung cancer after cigarette smoke, is found in surprising number of homes.)

Speaking to a crowd of 150 during a meeting at Fruithurst Elementary School, Auburn University hydrology professor, Ming-Kuo Lee explained that some well water samples exhibited signs of radon contamination. Four out of 13 groundwater well samples displayed elevated radon levels that exceeded what was recommended for drinking water. Municipal water, on the other hand, was deemed relatively safe.

The good news is the municipal water is safe. The recommendation we made is that, if financially possible, [Fruithurst residents] should switch to the safe, city municipal water as soon as possible, he said.

In addition to radon, Lee and his colleagues also found:

Arsenic

Barium

Bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate

Cadmium

Chloroform

Lead

Mercury

Nickel

The team has pinpointed a number of potential sources of these radioactive materials and heavy metals. One is the multitude of illegal dump sites around Fruithurst, specifically because many of them are littered with discarded tires. Another is the rubber production facility that was in operation from 1987 to 2015. The facility is located no more than 250 feet from an artesian well. One [particular] artesian well is a renewal source point for all the ground water for miles from this area, Dr. Christy Hiett, principal of Fruithurst Elementary, told ABC3340.com.

Until more evidence has been gathered, residents are advised against drinking the water. We dont have enough data yet to show how far the contaminants would travel away from these sites. We need to get more soil samples near the facility to find the level of distribution for both heavy metals and some organic compounds, explained Hiett.

In addition to this, Hiett stated that their biggest concern and the next step is to provide residents with access to clean water. To that end, Hiett and her group, Cleburne Cancer Concerns, have already purchased reverse-osmosis water filtration systems for the homes that have no connection to municipal water.

Hiett added that an ongoing survey is being carried out to assess the prevalence of additional diseases among Fruithursts residents and people in the surrounding areas. We want to see how far reaching the cancer is and to look at other areas because some of the things we discovered cause more than just leukemia and lymphoma, she said.

To read up on more news about the environment and how it can affect your health, simply visit Environ.news today.

Sources include:

ABC3340.com

AL.com

WIAT.com(Natural News) Good intentions havent been enough to convince both patients and doctors in the U.K. that online consultations are the way of the future, according to a new study. In one report that goes over the studys details, it is revealed that the use of technology to increase the efficiency and productivity of general practitioners (GP) has actually resulted in increased doctors workloads and worse, patient dissatisfaction.

What exactly is happening? The use of technology thats meant to augment the work being done by GPs has evidently resulted in negative effects that have only made matters worse for both the patients and the GPs themselves. Instead of making the work of GPs easier, it has given them extra work that they now have to be responsible for. And as for the patients, they often end up feeling unsatisfied with the service, mainly because slow and unreliable internet connections get in the way of proper diagnosis, much less proper medical advice.

This is according to researchers from a group of universities which includes Bristol, Warwick, and Oxford, who altogether found evidence that there are a number of factors affecting the negative results in online-based webcam GP consultations. As a result of their awful experiences, patients are often given the option to do telephone appointments instead, which then becomes extra work that the GPs need to worry about.

The idea to do online consultations was first implemented a few years ago in 2015, when GPs were said to be strongly encouraged to take full advantage of webcam technologies as an added option to telephone appointments for their patients. This was based on a directive from the National Health Service (NHS) England, which let private firms take care of the work entailed in some areas. One such firm is Babylon Health, which has a total of 7,000 patients signed up to a GP at Hand online service thats based out in West London.

According to professor Chris Salisbury, from the University of Bristols Center for Academic Primary Care, there are a few clear reasons why the idea hasnt been a resounding success. For one thing, people are just different, and many may require or simply respond better to certain forms of treatment compared with others. Practices are introducing the technologies for different reasons and a one-size-fits-all approach will not work, said Salisbury. In particular, we identified a tension between the desire to make access to health care easier and more convenient while at the same time aiming to reduce GP workload.

In the end, as the study mentions, the new ways of accessing health care advice for patients resulted in an increase rather than a decrease in the GP workload.

According to Dr. Helen Atherton from the University of Warwick, the lead author of the study, perhaps the case is simply that not everyone can benefit from this sort of fixed type setup, and that some people should be given custom-made consultation plans. The availability of a wider range of options for consulting could be very helpful for some patient groups but has the potential to reduce the time the doctor has available for face-to-face consultations, she explained, which could disadvantage other patients.

Whether its really the inability of technology to keep up with the demands of the new GP consultation option, or the GPs themselves just not being capable of handling the added workload of taking online-based webcam consultations, remains unclear. Whats clear is that a lot of work still needs to be done if GPs will continue to have a place in peoples lives  because theyre not the only ones who are too busy; the patients are likely swamped as well. And it would be in the best interest of everyone if some form of this webcam-centric setup somehow starts working.

Learn other ways in which modern medicine could be improved in Medicine.news.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

TheGuardian.com(Natural News)

A sixteen year old boy from Franklin Township, Indiana committed suicide after taking Tamiflu for his flu. The teen, named Charlie Harp, was found by his aunt and uncle, who were also his guardians, in the garage. His family believes that it was the medication that drove him to commit suicide.

Jackie Ray, the teens aunt, said that her nephew never mentioned suicide or had mental health issues. She also said that as soon as he got the flu, they took him to the doctor, and he started taking the drug right after. After a day, she texted him but he did not reply. Thats when she got suspicious. They found him in the garage.

And it clicked, he just started new medicine, Brad Ray, Harps uncle, said.

Harp only had a total of two doses of Tamiflu within 24 hours after prescription.

Roche, the manufacturer of Tamiflu, insists that the side effects of Tamiflu are not fatal. The informational packet of Tamiflu include a warning about neuropsychiatric events. However, the label indicates that the contribution of Tamiflu to these events has not been established, which dismisses them as potential symptoms of the flu itself.

This is not the first incident that Tamiflu is believed to have cause neurological side effects, such as hallucination or suicide attempts. According to Daily Mail Online, a girl aged six from Texas attempted to jump out of a window in early January. Another incident reported that an 11-year-old girl, also from Texas, told her father that the devils voice was in her head. In late January, a two-year-old boy from Texas was reported to be hallucinating, twitching, and picking at imaginary pains on his arms after taking Tamiflu. (Related: More young people being seriously afflicted with hallucinations and self-abuse after taking TAMIFLU  why wont the FDA recall the dangerous drug?)

According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Tamiflu, with the generic name oseltamivir phosphate, is an antiviral drug that works by attacking the flu virus to prevent it from multiplying in the body and reducing the symptoms of flu. It is also written in the FDA website that children and teenagers with the flu may have a greater risk for seizures, confusion, or abnormal early behavior during their illness. Furthermore, these serious side effects may occur shortly after taking Tamiflu.

People who take Tamiflu should be watched for signs of unusual behavior and a healthcare provider should be contacted right away if the patient shows any unusual behavior while taking Tamiflu, the FDA writes.

Study finds side effects of oseltamivir

A study published in the Journal of Infection and Chemotherapy found that anti-influenza drugs, particularly oseltamivir and zanamivir, can cause several side effects. A team of researchers from the Aichi Medical University Hospital in Japan examined the compliance and the tolerability of oseltamivir and zanamivir among medical staffs who took Tamiflu for prevention after being exposed to influenza in order to understand the side effects of anti-influenza agents. In conducting the study, the research team carried out a survey on 382 medical staffs who received either a 75 milligrams (mg) of oseltamivir two times a day for five days or zanamivir twice a day for five days. The findings of the study showed that 86 participants or 22.5 percent experienced side effects caused by oseltamivir. The most common side effects were gastrointestinal side effects, followed by systemic and local diseases, diseases of the nervous system, and a neuropsychiatric reaction.

If youd like to read more news stories on the side effects of prescription drugs, go to DangerousMedicine.news.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

FDA.gov

NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov(Natural News) Is Bitcoin on the down and out? The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) seems to think so, as writers Steven Russolillo and Kenan Machado recently published an article entitled Bitcoin Is Falling Fast, Losing More Than Half Its Value in Six Weeks. The article sends a doomsday message to readers about the future of the popular digital currency.

Released on February 2, the article notes how Bitcoins value plunged to below $8,000 per coin after just weeks earlier reaching an all-time high of nearly $20,000 per coin. This represents a more than 60 percent plunge in value over the course of less than a month  and extreme level of volatility that some believe spells future collapse for the crypto coin.

Increasing regulatory burdens in some areas of the world coupled with online exchange thefts and other issues are believed to be contributing factors to Bitcoins dramatic value swings. Fears about central bank interference with Bitcoin is also a growing concern among some investors who a wary of potential changes to e-currencys anonymity structure.

Policymakers and regulators are getting worried, commented New York University (NYU) economics professor Nouriel Roubini to the UKs The Guardian during a recent interview. Roubini believes that Bitcoin is the mother of all bubbles, and that its favored by charlatans and swindlers.

Pretty much every G20 policymaker is talking about a crackdown. We cant allow it to become the next Swiss bank account for use by criminals and people evading tax. (Related: Keep up to date with all cryptocurrency news at BitRaped.com)

Nobel prize winner says Bitcoin is a really clever idea thats not a permanent feature of our lives

Roubini is also critical of the 1,300 some-odd other cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs) that have landed in the crypto-sphere since the advent of Bitcoin. Many of them, he says, are even worse [than Bitcoin] and dont have any intrinsic value like Bitcoin.

So if Bitcoin is a bubble, he adds about the crypto-world at large, its a bubble to the power of two or three.

Nobel prize-winning economist Robert Shiller takes a slightly more positive view of Bitcoin, believing it to be a really clever idea. However, he doesnt believe that it will remain a permanent part of the financial world.

I tend to think of Bitcoin as an experiment, he told a group of listeners at the recent World Economic Forum that took place in Davos, Switzerland. It is an interesting experiment, but its not a permanent feature of our lives.

At the current time, neither the private Federal Reserve nor any other central bank that controls any financial system recognizes Bitcoin as a valid currency, despite the fact that everyday people have been using it as such for at least the past half-decade. These same central banks have been working hard to paint Bitcoin in a negative light, claiming that its only used to launder money and facilitate online crime.

At the same time, others say Bitcoin is too small to actually pose a risk to these longstanding financial control mechanisms, seeing as how its current adoption is rather small. Neil Wilson, an analyst at ETX Capital group, told the media recently that he believes the wheels are coming off the Bitcoin bandwagon, and that a regulatory crunch is what could potentially lead to Bitcoins undoing.

Selling pressure at the moment is intense as there has been nothing but bad news for Bitcoin bulls of late, he says. Trying to catch the falling knife is a risky game.

As of this writing, the going rate for Bitcoin is right around $9,300 per coin, while Litecoin (Bitcoins cousin) is back up to around $210 per coin, after having plummeted from an all-time high of around $400 per coin back in December.

Sources for this article include:

WSJ.com

NaturalNews.com

TheGuardian.comPoliticians with Bay Area and California ties took to social media demanding stricter gun laws in the wake of the deadly mass shooting at a South Florida high school Wednesday.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Sen. Kamala Harris and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom all took to Twitter expressing their disgust with the lack of action being taken when it comes to gun violence and gun control.

How to Help the Victims of the Florida High School Shooting



"Another mass shooting," Feinstein wrote on Twitter. "Reportedly another AR-15. My bill to ban assault weapons is ready for a vote. How long will we accept weapons of war being used to slaughter our children?"

The following day, she pressed for members of Congress to take action, tweeting, "We can't let this continue. #GunReformNow"

[MIA-NATL] 'My School Is Being Shot Up': Images Show Panic at Stoneman Douglas High

Her fellow California senator expressed a similar sentiment.

"Our leaders need to lead," Harris tweeted. "Stand up to the gun lobby and do what's right to keep our children safe from gun violence."

Newsom took to Twitter to say that he's "running out of words to describe my anger, frustration, and sadness" when it comes to school shootings.

"Our children are dying and we're doing nothing to stop it," he tweeted. "So today I have one message: If you're unwilling to step up and demand reform, get out of office. #GunControlNow"

Newsom also quote-tweeted a number of other politicians, including President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and Sen. Marco Rubio, and wrote "Then do something about it" in response to their initial statements about the shooting.

Trump struck a solemn tone Thursday after the deadly school shooting, saying that the suspect had created a "scene of terrible violence, hatred and evil" and promising to "tackle the difficult issue of mental health," but avoiding any mention of guns.

At the Capitol, the usual divisions over gun laws were evident.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said in a statement that it is time for action.

"Congress has a moral responsibility to take common-sense action to prevent the daily tragedy of gun violence in communities across America," she said. "Enough is enough."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, did not mention guns as he said the Senate would observe a moment of silence at noon.

"To say that such brutal, pointless violence is unconscionable is an understatement," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A San Francisco supervisor and mayoral candidate unveiled Wednesday the "San Francisco Loves Clean Streets Initiative," a plan to help fix the problem of needles, feces and other flotsam on the city's streets.

Supervisor Jane Kim is running for mayor in the city's June 5 election against seven other contenders including Board of Supervisors president London Breed, former state Sen. Mark Leno and former Supervisor Angela Alioto.

Kim, whose District 6 includes the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods, has long been an activist on the issue of clean streets. District 6 piloted the city's Pit Stop program, which provides mobile, monitored public toilets for homeless people.

The initiative is part of her mayoral campaign platform and has three elements: expanding neighborhood street teams employing homeless people to clean the streets, doubling the number of mobile public toilets in problem areas, and appointing a clean streets director to coordinate efforts.

"There is a crisis on our streets," Kim said, noting that the number of calls for service about street cleaning doubled from 20,000 calls in 2013 to 40,000 in 2016.

The calls testify to the increased amount of human feces, glass and trash on the city's streets, she said.

In her supervisoral role, Kim is hoping to get $2.5 million in unspent city funds from the first six months of the 2017-18 fiscal year to deploy a flexible, manual street cleaning team to areas in the city "where the data says it's needed the most," she said.

Kim cited the San Diego hepatitis A outbreak, a local health emergency that was declared in September 2017 and ended in January, as a reason for her concerns. The outbreak was spread person-to-person and through contact with environments contaminated by feces, according to the city of San Diego.

San Francisco's Department of Public Health has taken "strong preventive action" against a possible Hepatitis A outbreak, including vaccinating about 5,500 people in the at-risk group, department spokeswoman Rachael Kagan said.Immigrant rights groups are organizing a new network of neighborhood watch teams in California and elsewhere in response to threats by the Trump Administration of a deepening crackdown against those living in the country illegally.

Religious groups and migrant rights activists are training hundreds of volunteers across the country to be part of a Rapid Response Network, a sort of emergency reaction team whose purpose is to have observers document the arrests of immigrants, find them legal counsel and support them and their families as they navigate the court system.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, fears of massive detentions have increased this year amid reports that immigration agents are planning to arrest as many as 1,500 people who are in the country illegally. Agents earlier this month also delivered immigration inspection notices to 77 restaurants and other businesses in Northern California.

"The silver lining of this crisis is that all the outrage is turning into solidarity across race and class in our country," said Lorena Melgarejo, a community organizer with the San Francisco nonprofit Faith in Action, who helped launch the networks.

Melgarejo said more than 1,500 people have been trained in San Francisco and San Mateo counties alone.

Immigrants can call phone hotlines in many parts of the country if they are being detained by federal authorities. When someone calls to report a detention, volunteers are immediately dispatched to verify the report and if an immigrant is being arrested, they act as legal observers and offer moral support to their detainees.

Armed with notebooks and cellphones, the teachers, priests, retirees, tech workers and others have been trained to take notes, record video and take photographs during the detentions. They also learn about the basic rights of immigrants and how to stay out of the way of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Hotline staffers post information about the detentions on social media and contact immigration attorneys who are sent to detention centers. Immediately providing legal advice ensures immigrants "are not summarily removed in the middle of the night without any witnesses from the community," said Sofia Corona, an attorney with the Los Angeles-based Immigrant Defenders Law Center, part of a rapid response network in Southern California.

"Many folks dont know that unless there is a warrant with their name, they can walk away," she added.

ICE spokesman James Schwab warned against anyone interfering with apprehensions.

"Individuals who intervene in or seek to impede ICE officers while they are carrying out their mission recklessly endanger not only the enforcement personnel, but also the individuals targeted for arrest and potentially innocent bystanders," he said in a statement. "Those who engage in such actions run the risk of harming the very people they purport to support."

Immigrant rights groups first organized hotlines in 2008 during President George W. Bushs administration, when worksite raids led to massive arrests. They went mostly dormant during the Obama administration, when deportations reached an all-time high but arrests were focused on criminals and people considered a threat to public safety.

Now, Californias rapid response teams are much more coordinated between different groups and include neighbors who can respond more quickly if a raid happens. They also accompany families to legal proceedings.

David Crosson said it was a visit last June to an immigration detention center near the border with Mexico that opened his eyes to the plight of people who are living in the United States illegally. That prompted him to volunteer.

"If I weren't doing this, I would be angry all the time," said Crosson, 69.

Crosson said he was once part of a group of volunteers who sent letters of support to a woman at a detention center awaiting deportation. When she went before a judge, she brought dozens of the letters and about 80 volunteers packed the courtroom.

The judge released her pending a trial because she had members of her community there, he said.

"We can no longer allow these proceedings to happen in the dark and we need to show immigrants they are not alone," Crosson said.Gov. Bruce Rauner took the carrot-and-stick approach during his budget address to state lawmakers Wednesday, promising a billion dollar tax cut to the people of Illinois a month before the GOP gubernatorial primary in exchange for comprehensive pension reform.

Our guiding principle is this: Spend only the money we have, and dont increase the tax burden on the people of Illinois, Rauner told the Illinois General Assembly after meeting wit hthe legislature's four top leaders for the first time in 14 months.

But the governors proposed reforms have already sounded the alarm with groups like the Chicago Teachers Union, part of whose pensions costs would be shifted away from the government to their school districts if the governor gets his way.

Bruce Rauners budget proposal is as offensive as Jeanne Ives TV commercials, the Chicago Teachers Union said in a statement. Its offensive to logic, equity, students and families in public schools, and hard-working school staffoverwhelmingly womenwho work with children every day.

All told, the governors budget contains $37.6 billion in spending. Of that figure, $1.3 billion is expected to come the cost relief of shifting pension burdens onto Illinois school districts.

While House Minority Leader Rep. Jim Durkin praised the governor for a fair, reasonable and balanced budget, Senate Preisident John Cullerton said the budget was about $1.5 billion short of that mark.

In the Democrats' official response to the budget address, state Rep. Greg Harris accused Rauner of pursuing a pension scheme that would take more than one billion dollars out of our classrooms.

At the same time, House Speaker Michael Madigan has suggested in the past that such a maneuver is inevitable and going to happen.

On top of that, while Rauner has promised to cut property taxes on the campaign trail and for years prior, the Chicago Tribune pointed out his budget would result in school districts raising property taxes to pay for the teacher pension costs he wants to offload on them.

State Rep. Jeanne Ives, Rauners rival for the Republican primary nomination, slammed the sitting governor in a statement for presenting a budget she said would make the 32 percent income tax hike permanent and raise property taxes.

The Democrats running for governor also took aim at Rauners budget.

In a statement, Democratic frontrunner and billionaire J.B. Pritzker attacked the plan for the devastating impact it would have on the people of Illinois.

Today, we saw a failed governor propose another unbalanced budget as he doubles down on his all-out assault on workers and the social services they need to build better lives, he said.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Daniel Biss's campaign accused Rauner of pushing tax burdens onto the middle class. In a statement, the state senator said Rauner had abdicated responsibility in favor of advocating for himself and his wealthy friends, and today's budget address shows he's willing to put our state through another hostage negotiation in order to keep the status quo.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Kennedys campaign lambasted Rauners speech for using the governors mansion as a financial parable at one point.

He is so out of touch with how families across Illinois live, he even complained about his own utility bills for his taxpayer-funded mansion while thousands can barely afford to heat their homes this winter, the campaign said in a statement.

The governors budget wont be going anywhere soon without support from Madigans Democratic supermajority in Springfield. But if the two years Illinois went without having a budget shows anything, its that the two political nemeses are no strangers to waiting.A former student opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at a Florida high school Wednesday, killing at least 17 people and sending hundreds of students fleeing into the streets in the nation's deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.



The shooter, who was equipped with a gas mask and smoke grenades, opener fire on one of the state's largest schools, officials said.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, was arrested Wednesday and charged Thursday morning with 17 counts of murder. Authorities have offered no immediate details on any possible motive, except to say that Cruz had been kicked out of the school, which has about 3,000 students.

[[474088553, C]]

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said the suspect was expelled from the school "for disciplinary reasons," and that Cruz had an AR-15 and multiple magazines in his possession.

Broward County Schools superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters on Thursday that Cruz did not set off the school's fire alarms as originally thought - instead, it was the powder and smoke from the guns that set them off.



The suspect was taken into custody without resistance a mile away from the scene of the shooting. Investigators later learned the suspect had concealed himself in the crowd and was among those running out of the school.

He was wearing what appeared to be a Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps shirt from the school with an eagle logo on the arm. Students told NBC Miami that Cruz was a part of the JROTC when he attended the school.

https://twitter.com/CStewartWPTV/status/963930937330425863

Twelve of the victims were found dead inside the school. One of the victims has been identified as the school's football coach, Israel said.

The sheriff said they've begun to investigate the suspect's social media and described it as "very disturbing."

He called the shooting a "horrific, homicidal and detestable act."

[MIA-NATL] 'My School Is Being Shot Up': Images Show Panic at Stoneman Douglas High

Five of the victims are in critical condition, said Benny Menendez, chief medical director at the Emergency Department of Broward Health North.

"Most of the victims we've had here have had gunshot wounds," Menendez said.

Multiple students confirmed that there was a fire drill early in the morning, and when the fire alarm rang again later in the afternoon, "no one expected anything that was gonna happen," one student told NBC 6.



School board officials said staff and students heard what sounded like gunfire shortly before dismissal and the school went on an immediate lockdown.

Footage posted on social media showed students cowering under desks in one classroom as gunshots rang out.

[[474091433, C]]

NBC 6 spoke to the older brother of one student, who said his sister, a sophomore, was safe but trembling in shock at the scene unfolding at her high school.

Its just complete chaos out there, he said a short distance from the school. She was numb.

NBC 6 also spoke with a father who was able to communicate with his child inside the school. "I'm relieved that [the suspect] has been captured, at least that part of its over. The stress from this is too much." He said his child is safe.

"This is just the worst kind of tragedy," said U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, who represents the district that includes parts of Parkland. "It's a great community and it's just so awful to see the images coming out of there."

Congressman Ted Deutch, who represents the district that includes parts of Parkland, discusses the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The school will remain closed for the rest of the week, and all school activities have been canceled, Broward City Public Schools tweeted.

Broward School Superintendent Robert Runcie said Wednesday night that grief counselors will be available at locations across the area for students, staff and families.

A prayer vigil will be held on Thursday at 2:35 p.m. at Pine Trails Park. All are invited to attend.

Another vigil is being held at noon on Thursday at the Parkridge Church.

The FBI is asking the public for information related to the shooting. Anyone with information on this incident can submit it directly to the FBI by clicking here.

Check back with NBC 6 for updates.

Broward Sheriff Scott Israel discusses the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy has ordered that flags be lowered in honor of the 17 people killed in a school shooting in Florida Wednesday afternoon.

Malloy said his order is in accordance with a presidential proclamation directing flags to be lowered to honor the victims of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

U.S. and state flags in Connecticut will fly at half-staff until sunset on Monday, Feb. 19.

A news release from the Newtown Action Alliance says this is the 18th school shooting in 2018 and the 231st since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Dec. 14, 2012, where 20 first grade students and six faculty and staff members were killed.The fire at the Grantmoor Motor Lodge on the Berlin Turnpike in Newington early Wednesday morning was set, according to Newington Fire Marshal Chris Schroeder, and the case has been turned over to the Newington Police Department.

Officials said the fire started around 4 a.m. in room 104 in the 93-room motel at 3000 Berlin Turnpike and firefighters contained it to the room where it started.

It took firefighters about half an hour to get the flames under control and a parent, a child and four Newington police officers needed to go to the hospital.

The four police officers were evaluated for because of smoke inhalation concerns, but are expected to be OK.

The parent and a child who were transported might have been in the room where the fire started, officials said. Their conditions were not immediately clear.

An investigation revealed major structural problems unrelated to the fire spread and the building has been condemned.

The lodge's management refunded its customers for a week. The company has not returned NBC Connecticut's inquiries.

Its not clear how the fire was set. Newington Police are investigating.A Farmington woman who is suffering from the flu was supposed to be deported to China Friday with her husband, but U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal said a stay has been granted.

Xiang Jin "Kris" Li and Zhe Long "Tony" Huang, the parents of two sons who were born in the United States, were supposed to be deported on the first day of Chinese New Year, which State Rep. William Tong said is a "day almost like Christmas or Hanukkah" that Asian-Americans and Asian people around the globe spend with family.

The news came a couple hours after Gov. Dannel Malloy held a news conference announcing he was calling on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to grant the couple a stay.

Xiang Jin "Kris" Li and Zhe Long "Tony" Huang, of Farmington, entered the country illegally in 1999 and had been ordered to return to China on Feb. 16 under the Trump administration's tougher immigration policies.

They are parents of 5- and 15-year-old sons were born in the United States and are U.S. citizens.

"I stand before you today with Tony and his wife would otherwise be here, but she is suffering from the flu, which is interesting since the government wants to put her on a plane with hundreds of people tomorrow to fly to China, Malloy said before the stay was granted.

Again, I raise the question of why our government would put sick individuals on a plane for an extended period of time, given the severity of the flu epidemic that is being affected around the country, Malloy said.

Between Aug. 27 and Feb. 10, 1,638 people have been hospitalized in Connecticut with confirmed cases of the flu. There have been 77 flu-related deaths in the state over the same timespan, including 14 reported in just the last week, according to the state Department of Public Health.

In their nearly 20 years in the United States, the couple has established the small business of Deco Nails in Simsbury and neither has a criminal record, officials said.

The family's attorney, Erin O'Neil-Baker, said the couple was asking to be able to stay in the U.S. while their motions are pending.

She said they could be persecuted should they return to China for perceived political views, in part because of their ethnicity and the amount of time they have lived in the United States.

From Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang:Connecticut residents know shoveling snow is a part of life.

Like many people in the state, John Provini turned to a removal company for help, but he had no idea the service would be as unpredictable as the weather. Shortly after signing a seasonal contract with the snow removal company, they went out of business.

I was kind of struck. How can that happen? Things like that just dont happen, Provini said.

Provini admits that he waited until the last minute to hire a snow removal service for his elderly parents so they could get to and from their front door safely. While it was last minute, he said he wanted to make sure his parents didnt get stuck having to deal with the snow themselves.

Theyre in their 90s, their health isnt that great and they need to be able to get in and out of the house when we need to get access to them, Provini said.

Provini searched online and found a snow removal service called Snow Angels. He signed a $478 service contract with the company for his parents Newington home that promised snow would be removed from the homes the driveway and front walkway between October 1, 2017 through May 31, 2018.

The part I shouldve picked up on was the pay ahead, Provini explained.

Other companies said they would bill Provini for the service after it was completed and he admits the pay in advanced policy was a bit of a red flag, but said I was a little desperate at that point.

Snow Angels responded to two snowstorms before Provini received a message from the company.

I get an email saying they were out of business. Thank you very much. And I never heard from them again, Provini said.

He tried calling the company but said the phone number was disconnected.

NBC Connecticut Responds tracked down Snow Angels and they emailed us this statement which reads in part:

Regrettably, our company does not have the financial ability to continue providing service this season. We have managed to make it half way through winter, providing service to our customers.

They added: There are no remaining assets nor is there any future for the company. Things don't always go the way we like.

NBC Connecticut Responds wanted to see if we could get Provinis money back so we went to the West Hartford address listed on the website for Snow Angels but discovered it was a post office box inside of a UPS store.

NBC Connecticut Responds made multiple attempts to reach Snow Angels to find out if customers would be reimbursed. Were still waiting to hear back from the company.

The State Department of Consumer Protection says consumers in a similar situation should:

Make sure you have all of your records between you and the company.

Find out if they have a refund policy.

If you cant reach the company or feel your contract has been breached, file a complaint with the Department of Consumer Protection here.

Provini said hes learned a few valuable lessons from this experience.

Start a little earlier and do a little more due diligence in my search for something like that. Never again will I pay up front, Provini said.What to Know NBC 6 captured Nikolas Cruz being taken into jail just before 6 a.m., where he was later charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Cruz was captured by officers less than an hour after he allegedly brought a weapon  believed to be an AR-15  into the Parkland school.

In addition to the 17 fatalities, more patients remain at hospitals across Broward County  including five in critical condition.

President Donald Trump struck a solemn tone Thursday after the deadly school shooting in Florida, saying that the suspect had created a "scene of terrible violence, hatred and evil" and promising to "tackle the difficult issue of mental health," but avoiding any mention of guns.

Taking up the now-familiar ritual of public consolation after terrible violence, Trump spoke from the White House Diplomatic Room. In a slow, deliberate style, he sought to reassure a troubled nation as well as students' families and shooting survivors in Florida.

"We are all joined together as one American family, and your suffering is our burden also," Trump said. "No child, no teacher, should ever be in danger in an American school."

The president's address came a day after a former student opened fire at the Parkland, Florida, high school with an AR-15 rifle, killing 17 people and injuring 14 more. It was the nation's deadliest school shooting since a gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, more than five years ago.

At the Capitol, the usual divisions over gun laws were evident.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said in a statement that it is time for action. "Congress has a moral responsibility to take common-sense action to prevent the daily tragedy of gun violence in communities across America," she said. "Enough is enough."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, did not mention guns as he said the Senate would observe a moment of silence at noon. "To say that such brutal, pointless violence is unconscionable is an understatement," he said.

Former President Barack Obama called, as he often did after mass shootings during his presideny, for "common common-sense gun safety laws that most Americans want."



Before he was a candidate, Trump at one point favored some stricter gun restrictions. However, early in his administration, he told the National Rifle Association he was their "friend and champion." He signed a resolution passed by the GOP-led Congress blocking an Obama-era rule designed to keep guns out of the hands of certain mentally disabled people.

Trump, who owns a private club in Palm Beach, Florida about 40 miles from Parkland, said Thursday he was making plans to visit the grieving community. He praised teachers and first responders and also offered a direct message to children.

"I want you to know that you are never alone and you never will be," Trump said. "You have people who care about you who love you and who will do anything at all to protect you. If you need help, turn to a teacher, a family member, a local police officer or a faith leader. Answer hate with love, answer cruelty with kindness."

Trump pledged that his administration would work with state and local officials on improving school safety, saying: "It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference, we must actually make that difference."

Trump, who did not speak publicly immediately after the shooting, weighed in on Twitter early Thursday, calling the suspect "mentally disturbed" and stressing it was important to "report such instances to authorities, again and again!" He tweeted about the shooting twice on Wednesday, expressing condolences and saying he spoke with Florida's governor, who also avoided directly discussing gun control in his own remarks Thursday.

The president also issued a proclamation mourning the victims and ordering American flags at public buildings across the country flown at half-staff.

Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky reacted to Trump's tweet in an interview on MSNBC, saying it's not clear what police can do if someone doing something suspicious hasn't done anything wrong.

"That's great, if you see something, you say something," she said. "I don't know what the police are able to do if you tell them there is somebody who has suspicious behavior but they havent done anything yet."

Hunschofsky also wanted to keep attention on "the people who really need our help right now" rather then getting "so caught up in politicizing debates, one way or another."

Trump has offered consolation before after horrific violence. A mass shooting in Las Vegas last year was the deadliest in modern history, with a gunman killing 58 people and injuring hundreds more, before killing himself. And a shooting in a Texas church in November left more than two dozen dead.

He has largely focused on mental health as a cause for mass shootings, dismissing questions about gun control.

After the Texas church shooting, the president said, "This isn't a guns situation." When he visited Las Vegas to mourn with the families of those victims, Trump called the shooter "demented" and a "very sick individual," though he added that "we'll be talking about gun laws as time goes by."

The 19-year-old suspect, Nikolas Cruz, is a troubled teenager who posted disturbing material on social media. He had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for "disciplinary reasons," Broward County, Florida, Sheriff Scott Israel said.

Mayor Beam Furr said on CNN that the shooter was getting treatment at a mental health clinic for a while, but that he hadn't been back to the clinic for more than a year.

The extent to which Cruz was under investigation before the shooting is unclear.

Buzzfeed reported that the FBI was warned that a YouTube user named Nikolas Cruz commented on a video that he is "going to be a professional school shooter." But an FBI special agent said at a news conference Thursday that it is still not clear if they are the same person.

Melissa Falkowski, a journalism teacher at Douglas High School who hid her students in a closet during the shooting, said on MSNBC Wednesday night that she followed active shooter training protocol, but despite that, "we still have 17 casualties, 17 people that aren't going to return their families."

She said that was unacceptable, and called on the government to address such shootings. "From my personal viewpoint, it's time for Congress, the government, somebody to do something and its' time to talk about what the problem is and to try to fix it," Falkowski said.

NBC's Liz Lane and Asher Klein contributed to this report.

It's every parent's worst nightmare, and for Joel Leffler it came in the form of a phone call from his son Wednesday afternoon.

"You could tell he was panicking and running. He said there had been about eight shots," Leffler said.

Leffler's 16-year-old son, Bryce, is a sophomore at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and his 14-year-old daughter, Cloe, is a freshman.

In the moments after the call from his son, Leffler says he was able to get his daughter on the phone.

"She was talking to me, she was whispering and then the phone went dead," Leffler said.

More than 30 agonizing minutes would pass before Leffler would again hear from his daughter, who by then had been rescued from the school by SWAT officers.

Leffler says he's thankful his two children are safe, and his thoughts are with parents whose children have yet to be accounted for.

"Fortunately my daughter is safe, but there are other families out there that are not," Leffler said.

Broward County, Florida, sheriff's officials say 17 people have died following the shooting at the school.Tuesday night, a short video featuring school scenes and girls in hijabs with the words "Share if you think Trump should ban Islam in American schools" was shared by Plano City Councilman Tom Harrison's Facebook page.

The video stayed on the page for most of the day Wednesday, even as Plano Mayor Harry LaRosiliere says he and the city manager tried to reach the councilman for an explanation.

"I waited to hopefully see some type of retraction that his account was hacked," LaRosiliere said. "I'm not sure why that was there, but that didn't happen."

At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, LaRosiliere publicly called on Harrison to resign.

"Mr. Harrison's position indicates that he is unfit to represent this richly diverse city. This conduct is inconsistent with the values of the city of Plano," LaRosiliere said.

LaRosiliere said Harrison had not previously expressed any views about Islam to the mayor or during official city meetings.

Harrison was elected to the city council in 2015 for a four-year term. His Facebook page shows consistent posts about city business and his views on city issues.

NBC 5 tried to reach Harrison Wednesday afternoon by calling his city phone and emailing his city email account. A reporter left a voicemail on his mobile phone, a note on his door at home and sent him a Facebook message. NBC 5 reached his adult son by phone who said his dad was in doctors' appointments and the message would be passed on.

Later Wednesday afternoon, the Facebook post was taken down, and by Wednesday evening Harrison posted an apology but did not address the mayor's call for him to resign.



The video shared on Harrison's page was from a Facebook group called "Joined Hands Across America for Trump." The video doesn't specify what is meant by banning Islam from schools, whether that means banning world religion lessons, prayer or Muslim students.

"I'm a mom, I'm a city of Plano resident, I'm also a Muslim, so the post kind of struck a chord in many ways for me," said Suzanne, who declined to give her last name publicly.

She said a friend sent her a screenshot of the post early Wednesday morning. It upset her enough to begin emailing the city and then make the trip to city hall to hear directly from the mayor.

"When it comes to public servants voicing their opinions in the public sphere that can easily be accessed by everyone  children and adults alike  I think that bears with it some kind of responsibility," Suzanne said.

Imam Omar Suleiman, of Faith Forward Dallas and an Irving resident, said the sharing of the video on Facebook is concerning coming from a public official.

"When an entire group of people are targeted either by a teacher or an elected official, then those people are unfit to educate or to lead," Suleiman said. "I think that's what the post is really all about."

He says if Harrison does not resign, he expects the community will continue to look for political consequences for the post.

"We're going to stage protests, we're going to continue to mobilize to make sure that the councilman is replaced," Suleiman said.

Nafis Pathan, of the Islamic Association of Collin County, says his community has been active with the city of Plano and that he was disappointed in Harrison but pleased with the mayor's response.

"I hope the city councilman understands the consequences and accepts the demand from Mayor Harry [LaRosiliere]," Pathan said.

Some in the Muslim community say they plan to attend Thursday's planned State of the City, where typically citizens can meet with the city council.

Harrison would be up for election next year unless he resigns or enough signatures are gathered to force a recall election. The city requires at least 30 percent of the number of votes cast in the municipal election the official won to trigger a recall election. In Harrison's election, a city spokesman said 9,301 votes were cast in the 2015 municipal election, and a recall petition would require 2,791 signatures.

Harrison's full apology follows:

"I want to sincerely apologize to the Plano Muslim Community for the unintentional hurt I caused by reposting something on my personal Facebook page that wrongfully implied I am anti-Muslim. My intent on inputting this on my personal Facebook page was to emphasize that Christianity is not the only religion being targeted for exclusion in our public school. It was not meant as a personal attack against the Islamic faith. As a Christian, it is my belief that all should be free to worship as they choose, but we live in a time where any practice of religious expression in public schools is rarely tolerated. My hope is that due to the rightful negative response to my post, that it will spark a renewed discussion about all religions and their place in our public schools. My other regret is that my personal action has reflected poorly on the City of Plano. My action was personal in nature, but I should have remembered this past Monday nights Council discussion . none of us are ever truly off duty. None of us are perfect, and we will all be judged one day by the highest authority. Until then, I ask for forgiveness within the community and acceptance of my sincere apology."At least five North Texas students were arrested on Thursday, either for allegedly having a gun at school or over alleged threats, a day after 17 people were killed in a school shooting in Florida.

Officials with Flower Mound Marcus High School and Plano West High School both confirm students were taken into custody without incident Thursday after school resource officers at both schools were warned a student brought a gun on campus.

In Flower Mound, police said the student was in possession of an unloaded small-caliber handgun and ammunition. The student was removed from school and remains in police custody facing felony charges for possessing a firearm in a prohibited place.

In Plano, police and school officials confirmed a gun was confiscated from a student and that the gun was not loaded and the student had no ammunition. Plano said they will follow district policies and procedures and take appropriate action to the fullest extent of the law.

And Garland police said a South Garland High School student was arrested without incident at about noon Thursday after he allegedly had a gun on campus. The gun was not loaded, and nobody was hurt, police said.

Police said Kerry Guery, 19, was found to be in possession of a handgun, marijuana and a stolen cell phone. He also had two Dallas County warrants for theft. Guery was transported to the Garland Jail.

Officials said no threats were made in these incidents, however a 16-year-old girl was arrested at Weatherford High School on Thursday for making a vague threat on social media, officials said. The school says the girl did not have a weapon.

And Arlington police arrested an eighth grader on similar charges Thursday. They say he threatened to bring a gun to class at Nichols Junior High School.

Multiple school districts, including Lewisville ISD and Plano ISD, indicated they would have extra security in place on Friday.

In an impromptu speech Thursday, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said America should be outraged by gun violence and that something must be done to stop the wave of mass murder.



Check back and refresh this page for the latest update.

Authorities in Florida say the shooter opened fire at a high school Wednesday afternoon, killing at least 17 people. The shooting sent frightened students running out into the streets and SWAT team members swarming the building.



Here's a look at some recent U.S. school shootings, and some of the deadliest of years past:

Jan. 23, 2018: Two students were killed and 14 wounded by gunfire when a student opened fire before classes began at Marshall County High School in west Kentucky, authorities said. A grand jury is meeting to consider charging the 15-year-old boy as an adult.

Dec. 7, 2017: Two students at Aztec High School in New Mexico were killed by a gunman disguised as a student. Police said the shooter later killed himself.

Sept. 13, 2017: A 15-year-old boy was killed at Freeman High School in Rockford, Washington, and three female students were wounded when authorities say another 15-year-old boy opened fire with a handgun. A suspect was arrested.

April 10, 2017: A gunman opened fire in the special education classroom of his estranged wife at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, California, killing her and an 8-year-old boy, and wounding another child. The gunman then fatally shot himself.

Sept. 28, 2016: A 6-year-old boy was fatally shot on the playground of Townville Elementary School in South Carolina by a 14-year-old boy who had just killed his father, authorities said. Another child and a teacher were struck by bullets but survived. The teen was charged with murder.

Sept. 8, 2016: A 14-year-old girl died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after shooting and wounding another female student at Alpine High School in West Texas.

Dec. 14, 2012: A 20-year-old gunman killed 20 first-grade children and six educators inside Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and then killed himself. He also fatally shot his mother before entering the school.

Feb. 27, 2012: Three students were killed and two wounded in a shooting that started in a school cafeteria in Chardon, Ohio, as students waited for buses to other schools. Police charged a suspect, 17 at the time, as an adult.

April 16, 2007: Twenty-three-year-old Seung-Hui Cho fatally shot 32 people in a dorm and a classroom at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, and then killed himself.

April 20, 1999: Students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, opened fire at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, killing 12 classmates and a teacher and wounding 26 others before killing themselves in the school's library.

Dec. 1, 1997: Three students were killed and five wounded at a high school in West Paducah, Kentucky. Michael Carneal, then 14, later pleaded guilty but mentally ill to murder and is serving life in prison.The shooting at a high school in South Florida is one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history. At least 17 people were killed and over a dozen people were taken to the hospital, according to authorities.

Here is a list of some of the worst mass shootings in recent years:

Mass Shootings in the U.S.

Single attacks in a public place in which four or more victims were killed. The data does not include shootings stemming from crimes such as robberies and gang violence. More on the data source.

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58 Killed - Las Vegas, Nevada (Oct. 1, 2017) - A gunman on the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas strip casino fired down on a country music festival below, killing at least 58 people and wounding 515, according to authorities. The suspected gunman, Stephen Paddock, killed himself at the scene, police said.

49 Killed - Orlando, Florida (June 12, 2016) - Forty-nine people were killed and 53 wounded in a shooting at the Pulse nightclub. Gunman Omar Mateen was killed after taking hostages.

32 Killed - Blacksburg, Virginia (April 16, 2007) - Thirty-two people were killed and 17 wounded in a shooting on the Virginia Tech campus by gunman Seung-Hui Cho, who also fatally shot himself.

26 Killed - Newtown, Connecticut (Dec. 14, 2012) - Twenty-six people, including 20 children, were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Gunman Adam Lanza killed his mother before the shooting and later fatally shot himself.

23 Killed - Killeen, Texas (Oct. 16, 1991) - Twenty-three people were killed and 20 injured when George Hennard crashed his pickup into Luby's Cafeteria then opened fire on customers before fatally shooting himself.

21 Killed - San Ysidro, California (July 18, 1984) - Twenty-one people were killed and 19 injured at a San Diego McDonald's. James Huberty was killed by police.

17 Killed - Austin, Texas (Aug. 1, 1966) - Thirteen people were killed and more than 30 others wounded when student Charles Whitman opened fire from the 28th floor of the University of Texas campus tower then was killed by police. Seventeen deaths were ultimately attributed to the shooting.

[MIA-NATL] 'My School Is Being Shot Up': Images Show Panic at Stoneman Douglas High

14 Killed - San Bernardino, California (Dec. 2, 2015) - Fourteen people were killed and 22 wounded at a gathering of San Bernardino County employees. Husband-and-wife suspects Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik were killed in a gunfight with police.

14 Killed - Edmond, Oklahoma (Aug. 20, 1986) - Postal worker Patrick Sherrill killed 14 co-workers and wounded six others before fatally shooting himself.

13 Killed - Fort Hood, Texas (Nov. 9, 2009) - Thirteen people were killed and more than 30 wounded by Maj. Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist. Hasan was sentenced to death.

13 Killed - Binghamton, New York (April 3, 2009) - Thirteen people killed and four wounded at a citizenship class by gunman Jiverly Antares Wong, who then killed himself.

13 Killed - Littleton, Colorado (April 20, 1999) - Twelve students and one teacher were killed and 20 wounded at Columbine High School. Attackers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed themselves.

12 Killed - Aurora, Colorado (July 20, 2012) - Twelve people were killed and 70 wounded at a movie theater during a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises." Gunman James Holmes, arrested outside the theater, had booby-trapped his home with explosives. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

12 Killed - Washington, D.C. (Sept. 16, 2013) - Twelve people were killed and eight injured at the Washington Navy Yard. Gunman Aaron Alexis, of Texas, was killed.

9 Killed - Charleston, South Carolina, (June 18, 2015) - Nine people were killed at a prayer meeting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historic African-American church. Gunman Dylann Roof, a white supremacist, was sentenced to death.

[NATL-LA] Mass Shooting at Las Vegas Concert Leaves 58 DeadA former student accused of killing over a dozen of students and injuring more at a Florida high school Wednesday showed signs of erratic behavior, according to students who spoke to NBC 6.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, was captured by police about three-quarters of a mile from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shortly after he opened fire.

https://twitter.com/CStewartWPTV/status/963930937330425863

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said Cruz carried out the attack with at least one AR-15 rifle as well as multiple magazines. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson said the suspect had smoke grenades and a gas mask as well.

There were signs of trouble in Cruz, students said, with some guessing he was responsible for the attack before his identity was confirmed.

Israel said investigators were dissecting the suspect's social media posts, saying that "some of the things that have come to mind are very, very disturbing." He didn't elaborate.

Cruz is one of two sons of Roger and Lynda Cruz, who are both dead, according to records obtained by NBC Miami.

Lynda died in November 2017 and Roger died in August 2004. They were married in July 2002, according to records. It wasn't clear whether Cruz is their biological son.

A man opened fire at a high school in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday. At least 17 people were killed.

Authorities are searching a home about 5 miles away from the school that belongs to the family that took Cruz in after his mother died, NBC 6 has learned.

The family's attorney James Lewis spoke to a reporter and said they saw no signs that Cruz was going to shoot up the school. The family also said they have a son that attends Douglas High School. The family asked not to be identified.

He was just erratic," senior Sebastian Toala told NBC 6. "He was always talking about doing crazy things. He was just never right in the head.

Senior Eddie Bonilla said he met Cruz his sophomore year and described him as "a little bit off" and "troubled."

[MIA-NATL] 'My School Is Being Shot Up': Images Show Panic at Stoneman Douglas High

Cruz used to show off his guns, brag about shooting them "for fun" and "threatened to bring the guns to school multiple times," Bonilla said.

"I never really got close to him because I always had a feeling there was something wrong," Toala said.

Students "threw jokes around that he'd be the one to shoot up the school," Bonilla said.

Israel said Cruz was expelled for disciplinary reasons, but was unsure of the specifics. Bonilla said that he Cruz often got in trouble for threatening other students.

Toala said Cruz was teased and bullied for his "erratic behavior," but would also laugh and go along with it. Bonilla said it wasn't teasing, but Cruz pushed people to comment on his unusual behavior.Attorney General Ken Paxton has sent cease-and-desist letters to three Texas school districts, including the Lewisville Independent School District, citing unlawful election engineering.

The attorney general's office believes the districts used taxpayer resources to advocate for or against certain candidates.

"My office fully encourages Texas schools to educate their students on civic duties and assist them in registering to vote. But pushing faculty or others to vote for a particular person is a clear violation of the Texas Election and Education Codes," Paxton said.

He continued, "These school districts must understand that they are responsible, as all state agencies are, for refraining from spending public funds on advocating for or opposing political candidates. The electioneering of these school districts is unacceptable and a poor example of the civic responsibility, integrity, and honesty that Texas educators should model for our students."

In addition to Lewisville ISD, Paxton also sent letters to the Holliday and Brazosport independent school districts.

ONLINE: Read the AG's letter here.



In Lewisville, the attorney general is calling for the district to take down a tweet and video on the district's homepage. The video is called "Let Your Voice Be Heard."

The attorney general's office pointed to one part of the video, where the superintendent says, "It is time for you and me to choose legislators that serve us as constituents, instead of being worried about the fringe of their party," as problematic.

ONLINE: See the district's video here.



In a statement released to NBC 5, the Lewisville ISD said:

"Lewisville ISD believes a culture of voting is vital to the future of our state and country. The right to freely elect leaders is the very definition of American Freedom and we are asking students and staff to vote and understand what impact a legislator may have on their daily lives. The district respectfully disagrees with the Office of the Attorney General on this matter.

"The tweet referenced in the letter was taken down on Feb. 7, one day after it was posted, when we became aware our intent may have been misinterpreted.

"We dispute any characterization of the districts get out the vote campaign as anything other than an effort to engage the LISD staff and community in their constitutional right to vote and advocate for themselves. The district will reiterate again with staff that they alone can make the decision to support a candidate and measure, and the district does not wish to impose the beliefs of its Board or Superintendent."

[[474099133,C]]Part I: The Kidnapping



This is the second in a six-part series.



A marijuana dispensary owner and his roommate are abducted in the middle of the night at gunpoint from their Newport Beach home by three masked men.

Driven to the Mojave Desert while the man was tortured, the disturbing events of that night became known as one of Orange County's most horrific crimes.

This article contains language and content that may be disturbing to some readers.

The kidnapping took place in a part of Newport Beach known as the Balboa Peninsula. It's a narrow strip of land with the Pacific Ocean on one side and the harbor on the other, home to multi-million dollar beachfront houses that compete for views of the ocean.

It's a popular area with weekend beach-goers who flock to the Balboa Fun Zone with its Ferris wheel, arcades, restaurants and bars.

Police there occasionally see rowdy, drunken fights and DUIs, but the most common crime is petty theft.

The kidnapping case, investigators said, was one of the worst crimes in the area's history.

Newport Beach police were now tasked with trying to find three violent kidnappers bent on finding, in the words of veteran prosecutor Matt Murphy, "Ali Baba's treasure" buried in the desert.

'Genuinely Nice Man'

The morning the two victims were found, detectives drove the 142 miles north into the Mojave Desert to see what they could learn from the crime scene where the pair had been rescued and to talk to them in the hospital.

"Who would do such a thing to you?" investigators asked the man.

NBC4 is not identifying the male victim because of the nature of the crime.

He said he had no idea. He had never been in trouble. He had no criminal history. He had no enemies that he knew of.

People who knew him couldn't say anything bad about him.

He rented the room in the Newport Beach house where he and his roommate had been kidnapped for about $1,000 a month. He drove an older pickup truck. He was popular and well-liked, prosecutors would later tell the jury during the trial of one of his accused assailants.

At first, cops thought a mysterious man who had befriended the victim and had taken him out to the Mojave Desert to talk about a dubious gold mining scheme in the weeks before the kidnapping was the clue to solving the crime.

But a tip about three suspicious-looking men who had been seen near the house just before the kidnapping took them down a different path  one that can be traced back to a 1996 California ballot initiative.

Medical Marijuana

California voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996, allowing patients to use medical marijuana. People with medical issues can get a medical marijuana card from a doctor and legally buy pot. They buy it for glaucoma, anxiety, cancer, and pain management.

While it is now legal in California for recreational use, it wasn't yet allowed at the time of the kidnapping.

The victim's medical marijuana dispensary in Orange County employed many people and catered to high-end clientele.

All-cash businesses like his, police say, are often targets for robbery because of the nature of their revenue. Theyre shut out of federal banking systems because the federal government still considers marijuana an illegal drug, so they often have cash on hand.

Because of the stigma of buying weed, most people pay in cash.

"Not a lot of people want 'Sky High' or 'Elevated Dreams' on their credit card statements," according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Heather Brown.

The Neighbor

The morning after the kidnapping, police cordoned off the home on 25th Street with police tape. Investigators followed a trail of blood from the alley to the bedroom.

Inside, blood stained the base of the stairs. Large blood stains splattered a comforter that was stuffed in a closet. The house had been ransacked.

A woman drove up to the edge of the police tape. She told Newport Beach police Detective David Syvok that she had a friend who might have information and gave him a phone number.

The woman who answered the phone told Syvok she saw three "suspicious looking" men next to the garage of that home on the afternoon of Oct. 1, 2012, less than 24 hours before the kidnapping.

She said the men hoisted an extension ladder up against the wall of the home. A white pickup truck was angled next to the garage.

The woman thought their behavior was odd. They looked like construction workers, but didnt appear to be doing any work on the house.

She said that two men stood near the side of the house while a third man held the ladder. She heard the ladder retract and extend a couple of times, but never saw anyone go up or down it.

She described one man as possibly Hispanic and between 30 and 40 years old with a medium build. He wore a hard hat and tan shirt with a collar. She described him as good-looking.

The second man also was possibly Hispanic and between 30 and 40 years old. He was shorter, stockier and wore a red or orange shirt. She couldnt see the third man very well.

She didnt see everything the men were doing. She was worried they'd spot her, so she said she would duck, then stand to watch some more. She wrote down the pickup trucks license plate number.

Investigators found that the white 1998 Dodge Ram 1500 was registered to Kyle Handley, a Fresno transplant who lived in Fountain Valley, a suburban city in Orange County. He had been convicted of illegally growing marijuana out of a rental in Fresno in 2007.

'Seemed Like a Cool Guy'

It turned out, the victim knew Handley.

They were both in the marijuana business. They first met in early 2012 when Handley showed up at the victim's collective with pot that he had grown and that he wanted to sell.

Over the course of their relationship, Handley had sold him up to five pounds of marijuana as many as nine times. Each time the victim paid him up to $2,800 cash for a pound of marijuana.

"He had nice product," the victim later said.

Handley seemed like a cool guy so they struck up a friendship. They even talked about going into business together.

But when the victim stopped buying, they ended their professional relationship, although they remained friends and began hanging out socially.

The victim took Handley and a few others on trips to Las Vegas, once in March 2012 and again in May 2012.

During the May trip, the victim splurged  $12,000 for the weekend penthouse at a Vegas hotel, $5,000 on gambling. He paid for prostitutes and cocaine.

They hung out at the pool during the day and partied at the strip club at night.

"We just went to Vegas to have fun," the victim told jurors.

After the May trip, Handley disappeared. The victim said he tried calling him a few times, but Handley's phone was out of service. It wasn't unusual to lose touch with marijuana vendors, he said. They lose their inventory in seizures by local or federal authorities. They get shut down by building departments if they dont have permits. They get out of the business or move.

But he figured Handley would come back one day and he'd get his new number.

When detectives asked if the victim remembered hearing Handley during the kidnapping, he said one of the voices sounded familiar. But he never saw any of their faces, and he was blindfolded, tortured and scared to death.

"I definitely didnt think he wanted to kidnap me."

An Arrest

After staking out Handley, police moved in for an arrest at 2 a.m. Oct. 6, 2012, four days after the kidnapping.

Orange County Sheriff's deputies pulled him over in his dad's blue Lexus in a 7-Eleven parking lot in Huntington Beach.

He was held on a charge of possession of an illegal switchblade while police searched his Fountain Valley home and his pickup truck for evidence in the grisly crime.

In a trash bag in his backyard, police seized a used zip-tie that looked identical to the ones found on the victims in the desert. On the floorboard of his pickup truck, police found a blue latex glove. In the house, police found a sweatshirt splattered with white bleach spots. The evidence was submitted to the crime lab for DNA testing.

When the crime lab came back with a hit on the DNA from the latex glove found in Handley's pickup truck in January 2013, police got a second name  Hossein Nayeri.

Twisted, Part III: The Testimony

What to Know New York City will move forward with the closing of Rikers Island and create a borough-based jail system, which will include new facilities

City officials identified four sites to hold new, modified or renovated facilities in Manhattan, Queens, The Bronx and Brooklyn

The sites will provide off-Island space for 5,000 detainees

New York City officials announced Wednesday an agreement to move forward with the closing of Rikers Island and create a borough-based jail system, which will include new facilities.

City officials identified four sites to hold new, modified or renovated facilities: Manhattan Detention Center, Brooklyn Detention Center, Queens Detention Center and the NYPD Tow Pound in The Bronx.

The sites will provide off-Island space for 5,000 detainees, and will include three existing Department of Correction facilities in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, as well as a new site in the Mott Haven section of The Bronx that was formerly used by the NYPD.

This agreement marks a huge step forward on our path to closing Rikers Island. In partnership with the City Council, we can now move ahead with creating a borough-based jail system thats smaller, safer and fairer, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement.

These sites will need to go through a public review process, which includes hearings and recommendations by the local community board, borough president, the City Council and the City Planning Commission.

The news comes the same day as the State Commission of Correction delivered a report to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state legislatures naming the five worst jails in New York. Rikers Island was among the facilities named in the study.

Last year, de Blasio unveiled a $30 million plan to close Rikers Island. The mayor announced last month that one of the nine jails on the island will close this summer.What to Know Five people were killed when three cars and a truck collided on Long Island

Four of the victims were in one car, which burst into flames during the crash; their identities have not been released

Police said one of the sedans was stolen; a person in that car was also killed

Five people are dead after four vehicles collided in a fiery crash involving an oil truck and a stolen car on Long Island Wednesday morning, police said.

The driver of the stolen car caused the violent crash, which completely destroyed two sedans and heavily damaged a third sedan and an oil truck, according to Suffolk County police.

Pieces of the vehicles still littered the roadway hours after they collided on Route 25 in Ridge shortly before 11:30 a.m.

A woman whose car was involved in the crash said one of the cars crossed the center line before overturning and bursting into flames, according to a witness named Loretta Burns.

She said she was just driving. A car careened over into her lane, Burns said. Somehow she got hit in the back and the car like flipped and went on fire.

Burn said she saw a man trying to rescue the driver from the burning car but that there was just too much of a fire and he couldnt be saved.

All four people in the burning car were killed, police said.

The driver of the stolen car, 23-year-old Jamel Turner was injured, according to police. His passenger, 19-year-old Lonidell Skinner, died. It wasnt immediately clear if the theft of the car played a role in the crash; police said they don't believe the vehicle was being pursued at the time.

A person in a third sedan was not injured, police said, while the driver of the oil truck suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Video from the scene shows firefighters hosing down the smoking, charred wreckage of a car as police investigate on a road littered with auto parts and debris.

Neither the names nor ages of the victims have been released.



Several family members said they were related to a teenage male who was killed in the stolen car. The teens mother had to be restrained by police after she tried to reach the crash site.

Police continued to investigate at the scene after sunset as a stretch of Route 25 remained closed.Police say a New York woman intentionally ran her car into a concrete highway barrier  causing head injuries to her three children.

WHEC reports that 30-year-old Christina Clinton was held on bail after appearing before a Rochester judge on Wednesday.

Investigators she said she was driving under the influence of marijuana.

The children's grandmother, who has custody of the children, told police that she and Clinton had argued in the car.

The grandmother said Clinton threatened suicide and drove into the center median.

The children  ages 2, 5 and 7  were not in car safety seats.

The grandmother told police that the 5-year-old said in the emergency room, "Mommy tried to kill us."

There was no information on a lawyer who could comment on Clinton's behalf.Students in Broward County, Florida, locked inside their high school during an active shooting situation took to social media Wednesday to document the frightening situation. As students posted to Twitter and Snapchat during the lockdown, authorities tended to multiple victims. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel later reported 17 people died.

A tweet posted by a user named Heather read: "I JUST WANT TO KNOW IF EVERYONE IS SAFE CAUSE IM SHAKING THERE WAS LIKE PEOPLE IVE SEEN BEFORE JUST DEAD IN THE HALLS I CANT CALM DOWN AT ALL THIS WAS THE MOST TERRYFYING THIS IVE EVER SEEN"

Another student, self described as a freshman, live-tweeted from the scene.

Under the Twitter handle @TheCaptainAidan, the freshman tweeted photos of classmates crouched under tables in a classroom. One student could be seen checking a mobile phone.

The tweet was captioned: "My school is being shot up and I am locked inside. Im ----ing scared right now."

Students also posted to Snapchat to share updates. In one snap, blood can be seen on the classroom floor.

Israel described the mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland as "catastrophic."

The shooting suspect, Nikolas Cruz, was taken into custody less than a mile from the scene. The 19-year-old former Douglas student was expelled for disciplinary reasons, according to Israel.

Heather tweeted again to share she was safe.

"THE SWAT EVACUATED US AND LIKE 3 PEOPLE I KNOW WERE SHOT IN OUR BUILDING AND THERE WAS BLOOD EVERYWHERE I CANT BREATH RIGHT NOW BUT IM SAFE"

[MIA-NATL] 'My School Is Being Shot Up': Images Show Panic at Stoneman Douglas HighPresident Donald Trump at last broke his silence Wednesday to explicitly denounce domestic violence in the wake of allegations that a top White House aide had abused two former wives. Chief of staff John Kelly, under fire for mishandling the matter, stayed largely out of sight, his future in doubt and the White House in tumult.

The chaos surrounding the departure of aide Rob Porter put a harsh spotlight on Kelly, the retired general who was brought on last summer to instill military-like discipline in the free-wheeling West Wing. Questions persisted about what and when Kelly knew about the abuse allegations against Porter, who resigned as staff secretary last week after the accusations became public.

West Wing aides have had their faith in the chief of staff shaken, and morale has plunged to levels not seen since last spring's firing of FBI Director James Comey and the August uproar over Trump's refusal to denounce white supremacists after the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

This White House scandal erupted initially without the president's involvement. But Trump fed the fury last week when he defended Porter and questioned the #MeToo movement that sprang up in recent months to protest the mistreatment of many women.

In Trump's first comments after Porter resigned, he praised his former aide. Next, he appeared to cast doubt on the ex-wives' allegations by tweeting: "Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation." Finally, on Wednesday, Trump said the words that Democrats and Republicans alike had been listening for:

"I am totally opposed to domestic violence and everybody here knows that," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I am totally opposed to domestic violence of any kind. Everyone knows that, and it almost wouldn't even have to be said. So now you hear it, but you all know it."

The denunciation of domestic violence was greeted with relief by some West Wing aides. But a sense of unease about Kelly's fate persisted.

For months, Kelly  with help from Porter  had established a semblance of stability in a White House often rattled by an unpredictable president. That has eroded in a week's time, as accounts about the handling of the Porter matter continue to shift and some aides come to believe Kelly lied to save face and save his job.

Trump has complained to confidants that Kelly let the scandal spin out of control and that the constantly shifting narratives make the White House  and, by extension, Trump himself  look amateurish and incompetent, according to one person familiar with the discussions but not authorized to discuss them publicly.

The president has floated names of possible replacements for Kelly, including National Economic Council head Gary Cohn, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and businessman and GOP heavyweight Wayne Berman.

There was no sign that a move was imminent, according to four people with knowledge of Trump's recent conversations. The president is known to frequently poll his advisers about the performance of senior staff but is often reluctant to actually fire aides.

McCarthy tried to douse speculation about a possible change, saying: "I have not spoken to the president about anything about a job, and I never have. And there is no job opening."

Berman has not been approached about the job, according to a person familiar with his thinking but not authorized to discuss it publicly. Mulvaney has previously denied angling for the post.

Kelly has indicated he would step aside if he lost the faith of the president. But he has not offered to resign, according to a White House official and an outside adviser. Neither was authorized to discuss personnel matters publicly and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Kelly, a dark cross on his forehead to mark Ash Wednesday, kept his distance from reporters as he helped manage the White House response to the mass shooting at a Florida school. And many questions about the matter went unanswered, as the daily press briefing was postponed repeatedly until, in the wake of the shooting, it was cancelled completely.

And while Trump himself tweeted condolences about the shooting, he did not go on-camera or address the nation, a marked contrast from the emotional appearance by President Barack Obama following the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.

A retired four-star Marine general, Kelly took the post last July and immediately tried to rein in a West Wing that was riven by rivalries and plagued by inexperience He fired attention-seeking aides such as Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka, curtailed access to Trump for outside advisers and insisted that even powerful West Wing staffers, like Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, receive his blessing to reach the president.

But as Kelly shook up the West Wing and had some success at clamping down on public backstabbing, he also made some enemies inside and outside the building. They were quick to pounce on a vulnerable chief of staff, leaking negative stories about him this week.

A number of aides who earlier had rallied around Kelly were dismayed and disillusioned by his handling of the domestic abuse allegations. Officials, up to press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, took to couching their comments with the caveat they did not have firsthand knowledge of some of the details.

At a senior staff meeting last Friday, Kelly tried to press his own timeline concerning Porter in a way that played up his decisiveness once he learned the details of allegations, according to some aides. But Kelly, aides said, had encouraged Porter to try to weather the initial allegations.

But White House officials had known for months of at least the broad charges of abuse against Porter by his ex-wives, as revealed Tuesday by FBI Director Christopher Wray. Wray's testimony to lawmakers contradicted the accounts of West Wing officials.

The Porter drama has placed a renewed focus on the role of White House Counsel Don McGahn, who first informed Kelly about Porter's situation last fall.Police are searching for two men accused of attacking and stabbing their stepfather inside a Bensalem, Pennsylvania home Tuesday night.

On February 6 at 8:37 p.m. Bensalem Police responded to the Berkeley Trace Apartments on the 3800 block of Bensalem Boulevard for the report of a stabbing and shots fired. When they arrived they found Luis Calderon inside suffering from several stab wounds on the back, upper torso and arm areas. They also found a large amount of blood throughout the apartment they believed to be of Calderons.

Calderons wife told police her son, Christopher Alvarado, 20, who lives in the apartment, opened the door to let her other son Alberto Alvarado-Rodriguez, 21, of Philadelphia as well as an unidentified man inside prior to the stabbing. She said the three men then went upstairs to the master bedroom where Calderon was sleeping. According to Calderons wife, Alvarado was holding a knife. The three men then allegedly attacked Calderon who fought back.

Alvarado, Alvarado-Rodriguez, and the third suspect then ran down the steps and fled out the door as Calderon chased after them while carrying a handgun, Calderons wife told police. His wife said Calderon then ran outside and fired two to three shots at the fleeing suspects before coming back inside the apartment.



Calderon was taken to Aria-Torresdale Hospital where he is being treated for four stab wounds. One of the stab wounds punctured his left lung and he had to have a breathing tube inserted. He also received a large amount of blood due to low blood pressure and had to be intubated. He is currently in critical condition.

Calderons wife told police her two sons were not happy about her relationship with Calderon.

Police issued arrest warrants for Alvarado-Rodriguez and Alvarado. They are both considered armed and dangerous, investigators said. If you have any information on their whereabouts, please call Bensalem Police at 215-633-3719.

Authorities say seven members of a gun trafficking ring that transported illegal firearms from Ohio to New Jersey have been indicted on numerous charges, including racketeering and conspiracy.



New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewel announced the indictment Wednesday. He says at least 30 guns made their way between the two states from April 2016 through July 2017.



Authorities say 25-year-old Chucky Scott, of Columbus, Ohio, was the ringleader. They say another Columbus resident, 26-year-old Anthony Hammond, bought guns for Scott in Ohio and helped him deliver some of the weapons to Camden, New Jersey.



The other five defendants are New Jersey men who allegedly served as middlemen to help arrange gun sales in Camden. Police identified them as Eduardo Caban, 40, of Camden, New Jersey, Eric Moore, 47, of Camden, New Jersey, Tymere Jennings, 35, of Marlton, New Jersey, Jamar Folk, aka Ibraheem Abdullah, 33, of Camden, New Jersey, and Darren Harville, 51, of Camden, New Jersey.

Officials say the investigation began when they determined Caban was trafficking heroin and guns to Camden. Caban allegedly illegally sold 10 guns, including assault rifles and 9mm pistols. Caban was obtaining the guns from Scott, according to investigators. New Jersey State Police traced the weapons to Hammond in Ohio, officials said.

Hammond and Scott allegedly went together to stores where Hammond would buy several guns for Scott. Scott would then take photographs of the guns and text them to his middlemen in Camden who would then find people to purchase the guns for prices set by Scott, according to officials. Investigators say the middlemen added a "tax" to Scott's price and kept the tax as their profit.

Once the orders were in place, Scott would drive to Camden to deliver the weapons to the middlemen, officials said.

Investigators say a total of 17 guns linked to the weapons trafficking ring were recovered, including 14 handguns, two AK-47 assault rifles and an AR-15 assault rifle.

"Simply put, each gun that we seize or take off the street is a life or multiple lives that we save in the process," said New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.

Caban and Baron Coleman, 38, of Philadelphia, were also indicted on separate drug charges, officials said.



It wasnt known Wednesday if any of the defendants have retained attorneys.Travel writer Rick Steves' next trip is happening far from Europe and is focused on helping people in New Jersey and Delaware get high.

The public TV host was to visit Dover, Delaware, and Princeton, New Jersey, Wednesday as part of a regional tour to advocate for legalizing and regulating marijuana. He's a board member of the marijuana law reform group NORML and a long-time supporter of overhauling drug laws.

Steves says adults in New Jersey deserve the "civil liberty" of enjoying marijuana use. His trip comes as Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy pushes for decriminalization and legalization in the state.

Eight states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana.

Steves operates Rick Steves' Europe, based in Washington state, producing guidebooks on European travel. He also hosts a public television series.

He is scheduled to make appearances in Maryland and Vermont as part of the effort as wellWhat to Know NBC 6 captured Nikolas Cruz being taken into jail just before 6 a.m., where he was later charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Cruz was captured by officers less than an hour after he allegedly brought a weapon  believed to be an AR-15  into the Parkland school.

In addition to the 17 fatalities, more patients remain at hospitals across Broward County  including five in critical condition.

Nineteen-year-old Nikolas Cruz was booked into jail and charged with murder Thursday, less than 24 hours after he allegedly went on a deadly rampage at South Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in what became one of the deadliest mass school shootings in U.S. history.

A judge ordered that Cruz be held without bond, at a hearing Thursday afternoon. Cruz was wearing an orange jumpsuit with his hands cuffed at his waist during the hearing. His public defender Melisa McNeill did not contest the order and had her arm around Cruz during the brief court appearance.

McNeill told reporters Thursday that Cruz is fully aware of what's going on but he's also just a "broken human being." She became emotional while speaking to reporters, saying she's fully aware of the impact the shooting has had on the community.

According to an arrest affidavit, Cruz confessed to the shooting and said he brought extra loaded magazines for his AR-15 to the school and kept them hidden in a backpack until he got on campus.

"Cruz also admitted that as students began to flee the campus on foot he decided a plan to discard the AR15 and vest with the additional magazines so he could blend into the crowd," the affidavit said.

NBC 6 cameras captured Cruz being taken into the Broward County Jail just before 6 a.m., where he was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder  one count for each victim  after being questioned for hours by state and federal authorities.



At the hearing, Cruz only spoke when he was asked to confirm his identity, telling the judge, "Yes, ma'am." He has no juvenile or adult record, the Broward County Clerk of Courts said.

The shooting plunged the nation back into a familiar but nevertheless deeply painful conversation about how to prevent innocent children their losing lives. Students from the school have brought up the need to talk about gun control, but President Donald Trump didn't mention guns when he addressed the nation about the massacre.



"Our entire nation, with one heavy heart, is praying for the victims and their families," Trump said, adding "your suffering is our burden also."

He said plans were being developed to visit Parkland, home to the mourning school.



Cruz was captured by officers less than an hour after he allegedly brought a AR-15 into the school he once attended and started shooting. Officials say Cruz was expelled from the school last year for unknown disciplinary reasons. An arrest affidavit said Cruz purchased the gun in February 2017, and ATF officials said it was purchased lawfully.

Broward Sheriff Scott Israel said Cruz took an Uber to the school and carried the AR-15 in a soft black case. Officials say he was equipped with a gas mask and smoke grenades when he entered one of the state's largest schools, officials said.

He fired into five classrooms on two floors before dropping the weapon and fleeing, Israel said.

Cruz was wearing what appeared to be a Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps shirt from the school with an eagle logo on the arm. Students told NBC 6 that Cruz was a part of the JROTC when he attended the school.

Cruz tried to blend in with a group of students who were fleeing the scene, Israel said. He went to a nearby Walmart where he bought a drink at Subway, then walked to a McDonald's, Israel said. He was taken into custody by a Coconut Creek Police officer about 40 minutes after leaving the McDonald's, Israel said.

Twelve of the victims were found dead inside the school while three more died outside the building and two more died at an area hospital.

Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters on Thursday that Cruz did not set off the school's fire alarms as originally thought - instead, it was the powder and smoke from the guns that set them off.

Israel said an armed school resource officer was at the school during the shooting but never encountered Cruz.

"This community is hurting right now," Israel said at a news conference Thursday.

Israel later released the names of the victims of the shooting. He said BSO is working with the FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement in the shooting investigation.

"These families are going through the most horrific time in their lives," Israel said.



The FBI said they investigated a 2017 comment made on a YouTube channel possibly connected to the suspect that said "I'm going to be a professional school shooter." Officials said they were unable to identify the person who made the comment.

Cruz purchased the AR-15 at a store in Coral Springs, Israel said. Federal law allows people 18 and older to legally purchase long guns, including this kind of assault weapon.



In addition to the 17 fatalities, more patients remain at hospitals across Broward County  including five in critical condition according to officials at Broward Health North Hospital.

Multiple students confirmed that there was a fire drill early in the morning, and when the fire alarm rang again later in the afternoon, "no one expected anything that was gonna happen," one student told NBC 6.

School board officials said staff and students heard what sounded like gunfire shortly before dismissal and the school went on an immediate lockdown.

Footage posted on social media showed students cowering under desks in one classroom as gunshots rang out.

NBC 6 spoke to the older brother of one student, who said his sister, a sophomore, was safe but "trembling in shock" at the scene unfolding at her high school.

"It's just complete chaos out there, he said a short distance from the school. "She was numb."

The school will remain closed for the rest of the week, and all school activities have been canceled, Broward County Schools tweeted.

Runcie said Wednesday night that grief counselors will be available at locations across the area for students, staff and families.

"As we rise this morning let us pray for the victims and families of this horrific tragedy that has fallen on our community," Runcie tweeted Thursday morning. "Let us find the courage to transcend fear, greed, hatred & divisions and collaborate to achieve a new level of consciousness to find real solutions that include investments in mental health services for our youth and common sense gun control for this nation."

Prayer vigils will be held on Thursday at 2:35 and 6 p.m. at Pine Trails Park. All are invited to attend. Another vigil is being held at noon on Thursday at the Parkridge Church.

NBC 6 also spoke with a father who was able to communicate with his child inside the school. "I'm relieved that [the suspect] has been captured, at least that part of its over. The stress from this is too much." He said his child is safe.

"This is just the worst kind of tragedy," said U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, who represents the district that includes parts of Parkland. "It's a great community and it's just so awful to see the images coming out of there."

Meanwhile, the leader of a white nationalist militia on Thursday said Cruz was a member of his group and participated in paramilitary drills in Tallahassee.

Jordan Jereb told The Associated Press that he didn't know Cruz personally and that "he acted on his own behalf of what he just did and he's solely responsible for what he just did."

Jereb also said he had "trouble with a girl" and he believed the timing of the attack, carried out on Valentine's Day, wasn't a coincidence. Officials haven't confirmed that he was a member of the group, and Lt. Grady Jordan, a spokesman for the Leon County Sheriff's Office in Tallahassee, where the white nationalist militia known as the Republic of Florida is based, said he knows of "no known ties" between Cruz and the group.A music teacher who lost his Florida teaching license for sending inappropriate text messages to a female student avoided detection in Maryland and twice secured positions in Maryland school districts, according to an investigation by the News4 I-Team.

The case reveals breakdowns and weaknesses in some of the most important safety nets designed to prevent troubled teachers from slipping through the cracks.

The I-Team uncovered the problems in a review of the case of music instructor Eric Greco. Florida suspended Grecos teaching license in January 2016, after he acknowledged sending text and social media messages with inappropriate, sexual language to a student while teaching in St. Augustine, Florida.

The teacher himself told the I-Team he knew he was eluding detection.

Although the Florida license suspension should have triggered action against Grecos Maryland teaching license, Maryland state education officials did not begin the process of revoking the license until 10 months later, in November 2016.

During the delay, Greco worked a full-semester as a music instructor at Patuxent High School in Calvert County. He then spent nearly a full semester teaching music at Eastern Middle School in Montgomery County.

The I-Team investigation found the Maryland State Department of Education stopped using a national license check database for at least eight months in 2016. The database called NASDTEC is a decades-old voluntary partnership of all 50 states. The system alerts state departments of education when teacher licenses are revoked anywhere in the country. The Maryland State Department of Education acknowledges the blackout period contributed to the delay in revoking Grecos Maryland license.

According to officials with three Maryland school districts, the state department of education did not notify school districts they had stopped using the license check system.

A state department of education spokesman said Maryland was also not reporting to the NASDTEC database the names of Maryland teachers from whom licenses were revoked for misconduct during the eight-month span in 2016.

The I-team also found the background check systems used by Calvert County and Montgomery County Public Schools failed to red flag Eric Greco before he was hired.

Calvert County Public Schools superintendent Daniel Curry and Montgomery County Public Schools spokesman Derek Turner acknowledged their school districts did not call the Florida school from which Greco was fired when they conducted background reviews of Greco. Both also acknowledged the school districts do not always call all prior employers when screening prospective hires.

Calvert County and Montgomery County Public Schools both said they depend on the state department of education to flag out-of-state license revocations against their teachers.

We rely on the state department of education for that process," Curry said.

Turner said, We didnt know until early November 2016 that [Grecos] license was revoked. And its concerning because this was something that was available earlier in the year to Maryland state officials.

The Maryland State Department of Education declined requests for an interview from the I-Team. In a written statement, the agency said, The hiring of local educators is the responsibility of each local school system.

The agency said it stopped using the NASDTEC national license database system in 2016 because of concerns about its impact on data security in the state licensing system.

The Maryland State Department of Education statement said, Local school systems are required to perform background checks on all staff, and follow local protocols on reference checks.

Child safety advocate Jennifer Alvaro, a Montgomery County parent who also provides counseling and treatment to people convicted of sexual crimes, said the state department of education should have proactively notified school districts that it was not using the national license database in 2016.

"We need all safety nets to be used. And if one is not being used, all stakeholders should be made aware," Alvaro said. "Did other cases slip through the cracks?"

In an interview with the I-Team, Greco said he knew he was eluding detection when he successfully applied for the Eastern Middle School music teacher position in August 2016 and when he was not removed from his position earlier in 2016 at Patuxent High.

At some level, the school districts didnt do their due diligence with background checks," Greco said.

Greco said he pursued the Eastern Middle School job despite his Florida license revocation out of financial need.

I wanted a job. Theres a sense of desperation that comes in. You do whatever it takes," he said.

Greco said the text messages he sent to the student at St. Augustine High School in 2013 were not illegal, but they were unethical. The messages included sexual language and references.

It was an ethical mistake," he said. "Deep down, a good-hearted teacher cares about the kids. Thats one of the things Ive always been proud of. Ive always cared about the kids.

No police or child protective services investigation was initiated in Grecos case. Investigations were conducted by the Florida Department of Education.

Montgomery County Public Schools applied in January for direct access to the NASDTEC license database to conduct its own searches of license revocations for future hires. The NASDTEC system, which previously was accessible only to state departments of education, recently approved access from local school districts.Two brothers have been convicted in federal court of using stolen identities to obtain about $2 million in fraudulent airplane loans from several banks across the nation.

The Telegram & Gazette reports that Ryan Miller and Dusten James Miller were convicted Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Worcester of bank fraud, money laundering and identity theft-related charges.

Prosecutors say the brothers, from Chicago, used the identities of other people and doctored documents to obtain loans, including a nearly $400,000 loan from Worcester-based Commerce Bank.

Authorities say they then laundered the money through shell companies and used it to buy luxury cars and other high-end items.

The brothers represented themselves in court. They questioned some of the evidence and argued technicalities.

They are scheduled to be sentenced May 9.Eric Omondi needs to be stopped!! And someone needs to report him immediately to the self-styled President of the Boychild Welfare in Kenya, blogger Nyakundi.

The top funny man has once again made Kenyan men feel inadequate and women green with envy after pulling off another romantic masterstroke.

It was just last month when he welcomed his Italian beauty, Chantal Grazioli, back to the country with a huge billboard after her five-month hiatus in Italy.

And even before we could catch a break, Eric Omondi on Valentines Day yesterday gifted the ever smiling Chantal a brand new BMW X6 M Sport.

Once again, the funnyman had the backing of a business entity in automobile trader, Prestige World Motors, who helped make the surprise a success.

Taking to social media, Eric Omondi simply captioned a picture of his beauty and her beast, HAPPY VALENTINES MY LOVE, along with some heart emojis.

Erics extravagant public display of affection left in its trail an internet storm comprising of dispirited fellas who sought Nyakundis intervention, envious hunnies who wondered where they went wrong with their men, and haters who are always there to hate.

The photos.

HAPPY VALENTINES MY LOVE [email protected] A post shared by Eric Omondi (@ericomondi) on Feb 14, 2018 at 2:01am PST



Haverhill, Massachusetts held an emergency clinic offering free flu shots Wednesday following the death of a 6-year-old girl.

The states department of public health announced late Tuesday afternoon the first influenza-associated death of a child in Massachusetts this season that had been confirmed by clinical tests and the symptoms shown.

Delilah Lovelace was a first grade student at Golden Hill Elementary. Lovelace was remembered in her obituary as a tom boy in a princess dress, someone who enjoyed pretending to be a fairy and dreamed of one day being a mermaid.

While the elementary school has been disinfected and grief counselors will be available all week, many parents are still wondering how they can protect their own children from the deadly flu.



"That makes me a nervous wreck because I don't want anything to happen to my kids," said Haverhill parent Donna Lampe.

The school district sent a letter home to parents, outlining steps parents and students can take to protect themselves, saying, "get a flu shot, it's not too late."

"Usually we get the flu shot. This was the first year I didn't get it and I actually did get the flu," said Haverhill parent Andrew Murray.

School officials are taking precautions to prevent other cases, with the the superintendent of the district saying they were going to "throroughly clean and sanitize" all schools as a precaution.

All of the schools in Haverhill will be disinfected over the February winter break.

"I hope we can all join together and keep this beautiful young lady and her family in our thoughts and prayers," James Scully, Haverhill superintendent, said in a statement.

The calling hours for Lovelace are on Friday.

As of Feb. 3, 63 children nationwide had died from the flu this season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"This is a tragic reminder of how serious the flu can be for some people," DPH Commissioner Monica Bharel said in a statement. "Every flu season is different, but every flu season is bad. This one arrived early and continues to spread, leading many people throughout the Commonwealth to get sick."

The DPH says there have been more than 8,000 confirmed cases of the flu in Massachusetts so far this year, in what's been a particularly severe season. Officials say 250 to 1,100 people die from complications of the flu in the state every year.

Dr. Alfred Demaria with Mass. DPH said officials don't know why the flu is so bad this year, but they are focused on spreading the word about how to reduce the risk of spreading the virus by reminding people to cough into their sleeve and avoid going to work or school if they're sick.

The department is urging people to get flu shots and to seek treatment if they think they have the flu.

Common symptoms of influenza include fevers, coughs, sore throats, body aches, headaches, chills and runny noses, the DPH noted.

For those who could not attend Haverhill's emergency clinic at the Citizens Center Wednesday but are still interested in receiving the Influenza vaccine, you can do so by calling the citys Community Health Coordinator, Mary Connolly, at 978-374-2309 x15.

The U.S. Coast Guard says it has rescued four people from a sinking boat about 18 miles (29 kilometers) off the coast of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.

Officials say the captain of the Sea Star called for help around 6:20 p.m. Wednesday, saying the boat was taking on water and the crew was wearing immersion suits.

A helicopter arrived, and the aircrew determined the boat could not be saved. The fishermen were ordered into the water, and a rescue swimmer helped airlift the crew to safety.

The fishermen were brought to Cape Cod, where officials say they appear to be in good health.

Scott Backholm, command duty officer at Sector Southeastern New England, says the suits helped protect the crew from the cold water.A community in Downeast Maine is running out of options to keep a prison, and its jobs, in the area.

Governor Paul LePage abruptly shut down the Downeast Correctional Facility in Machiasport last week. He said at $5 million annually, the prison was becoming too expensive to operate, and in the middle of the night, sent buses to pick up inmates and gave pink slips to employees.

"I am the Chief Executive of the state of Maine," said the governor the day after the closure. "I saw an opportunity to save the state money."

Dozens of employees are without work, and surrounding businesses are now short-staffed without inmate labor.

"I feel how LePage did it was wrong, very wrong," said Megan Galligin, a Machias resident concerned about the impact the closure will have on the community.

"Washington County is the poorest county in Maine," she said. "We're already in economic hardship and we don't need it anymore."

Lawmakers debated an emergency bill Thursday that would have funded the Downeast Correctional facility for another year, but the vote fell short of the 2/3 majority needed in the House.

Citing the same reasons as Gov. LePage, House Republicans said the conditions of the facility was poor and the cost too high to continue.

"The time has come to finally close the Downeast Correctional facility so we can start a new chapter," said Assistant Minority Leader Ellie Espling, R-New Gloucester. "We need to do the right thing now. I know it's not easy."

Washington County Commissioners have filed an injunction in Kennebec County Court, attempting to halt the LePage administration's move.

While the effort to restore funding in the legislature appears to have ended, some are still hopeful the court case can help their cause.

"We in Washington County have never given up, and we will not give up until it's done," said Senator Joyce Maker, R-Calais.

There is some talk of creating a new pre-release center in Washington County, but employees from Downeast Correctional say it will take time. For the immediate future, they say there's little hope.

"It's sad," Ann Grange, a teacher at DECF for 20 years. "It's the end of an era."Travel writer and television host Rick Steves, well-known for his years of exploring Europe, took a trip to Montpelier, Vermont this week to discuss marijuana policy reform.

"Im not pro-pot," the host of "Rick Steves' Europe" on PBS told the Vermont Senate Judiciary Committee. "Im anti-prohibition."

The board member of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, told the panel of lawmakers about the new jobs and revenues his home state of Washington has seen through regulating and taxing legal marijuana sales.

Steves said Washington recently collected $310-million in revenues from marijuana in a 12-month period, some of which helped fund state initiatives into prevention and health care. Much of the money spent on the black market in Washington has now entered the regulated system, Steves said.

The knowledgeable European traveler also pointed to some of his observations from Portugal and the Netherlands.

"Theyre saving a lot of money by not putting law enforcement against petty marijuana crimesand diverting it to hard drug challenges," Steves told committee members.

Steves also said he believes reforming marijuana laws would have a powerful racial and economic justice component, arguing that marijuana enforcement has disproportionately affected non-white and low-income suspectssending people behind bars for non-violent marijuana charges.

Starting this summer, Vermonters will be able to legally grow a handful of marijuana plants at home for personal use, under a new law recently authorized by Republican Gov. Phil Scott which takes effect July 1.

Possession of small amounts of pot will also be allowed in Vermont, but that new law did not authorize retail sales of recreational marijuana.

"It is coming to us, whether we like it or not," observed judiciary committee chairman Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington County, referencing the fact neighboring Massachusetts has authorized the creation of legal marijuana shops. "My constituents will be buying it and paying a tax in Massachusetts, instead of Vermont."

When asked by necn if he believes more travelers would come to Vermont if marijuana retail operations were legal, Steves said he doesnt like to encourage marijuana legalization as a tourism promotion tool.

"If anyone is concerned that if you legalize in this state, you would dampen interest in coming here, they're wrong," Steves said.

The idea of legal pot shops has been met with opposition from Gov. Scott, many members of law enforcement, and some representatives in the Vermont House, who have worried if the state would see side-effects, such as more drugged driving.

"Im not convinced yet that its the right thing for Vermont," said Rep. Kurt Wright, R-Burlington. "Theres a lot at stake here, and I dont think we need to rush into this."

Despite that strong pushback, marijuana policy reform advocates plan to keep pressing the issue, saying it's time for Vermont to embrace a taxed and regulated system.A 15-year-old South Portland High School student in Maine is under house arrest after he allegedly made threats of "shooting up the school" on social media.

Police said the student, whose name was not released because of his age, made the threats via Snapchat Wednesday night, but the threats were later retracted.

Officers were able to find the student before he had arrived at the high school and took him into custody.

Police said that the suspect was found carrying a knife, but did not have any firearms.

He's being charged with terrorizing and carrying a concealed weapon. The student was placed on house arrest and police say that he has not been involved in any prior incidents. It's unclear if he has an attorney.

Police were sent to the school this morning for added security, but the school was never shut down at any time.

The incident remains under investigation and police plan to search the student's home.

The social media threats were made on the same day as the nation was shaken by yet another deadly high school shooting, this time in Parkland, Florida. A 19-year-old former student is accused of killing 17 and injuring more than a dozen others.Police are investigating a fatal shooting in Lowell, Massachusetts on Thursday afternoon.

The Middlesex District Attorney's Office said preliminary investigation shows that the victim, an adult male, was shot in the area of the train terminal in Lowell.

Following the shooting, he entered his vehicle and drove a short distance before crashing in the area of the YMCA near Thorndike Street.

He was taken by ambulance to Lowell General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The investigation is ongoing.Police have made an arrest in connection with a threat directed toward a school in Exeter, New Hampshire earlier this week.

The Exeter Police Department confirmed on Friday that a 16-year-old juvenile from Hampton, New Hampshire had turned himself into police.

Exeter police said they received a complaint around 10 a.m. Thursday regarding a past tense threat made toward the Seacoast School of Technology. The department said that it does not appear the threat was directed at any specific students, teachers or faculty.

School officials told Seacoastonline.com they received information from a student about a comment another student had made in a classroom. According to that report, the juvenile had told friends he was "going to shoot up the school."

The Seacoast School of Technology is a regional career and technical center serving high school students from six area towns.

School officials said the student who made the comments was not being allowed on school property.

Exeter Police performed multiple interviews and ultimately issued a warrant for the juvenile accusing him of misdemeanor criminal threatening.

The juvenile was released and is awaiting a date to appear in the Brentwood Family Court.Republican Gov. Chris Sununu says nothing else matters if children can't be sent to school safely.

In his State of the State address Thursday, Sununu mentioned the school shooting that left 17 dead the day before in Florida. He says his goal is to make New Hampshire's schools the safest in the nation and highlighted his support for a new Public School Infrastructure Fund.

The fund is investing nearly $20 million toward overdue infrastructure and security upgrades, such as securing the main entrance of the high school and preschool program in Berlin, installing card readers at entrances to the Salem middle school, and adding a surveillance system to a Dover campus.

Sununu says close to 300 schools across the state are benefiting from the program.

He said New Hampshire is becoming a model of civic engagement, community service, and economic opportunity because it embraces policies that put people first.

Sununu, in his second-year office, opened his State of the State address by saying life in New Hampshire is better than it was a year ago, and that's no accident.

He says despite the dysfunction in Washington, New Hampshire's leaders are focused on individuals, not systems, and putting people above politics.

He cited lower taxes, fewer regulations and increased educational opportunities such as full-day kindergarten and a school voucher proposal among the highlights of the last year.

Meanwhile, New Hampshire state workers say the state of the state isn't strong if the government workforce isn't treated fairly.

The State Employees Association held a news conference Thursday morning ahead of Sununu's address. Members pointed out that Thursday marks 230 days that state employees have been without a contract.

Dan Brennan, who works for the Department of Transportation, said when the contract expired, so did reimbursement for workers' boots. He says that has left workers slogging through snow and other dangerous conditions without safe gear.

Among the guests invited to the address were veterans, the parents of murder victim Lizzie Marriott, an advocate for people with mental illness, and inventor Dean Kamen.New England lawmakers took to social media Wednesday afternoon to share their reactions to the horrific school shooting in at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left at least 17 people dead and many injured.

"Boston's heart breaks as we support Florida during this horrific time," Mayor Marty Walsh said. "My thoughts and prayers are with each and every person suffering from this tragedy. Our children, our schools, and our families should never have to experience this devastation and loss."

Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton invited President Trump to take action on gun control.

I agree with every word @realDonaldTrump said here. I invite him to get off his ass and join me in trying to do something about it. https://t.co/XV0hRENr4B  Seth Moulton (@sethmoulton) February 14, 2018

"Heartbreaking news from Florida," Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed said. "Yet another community in America is experiencing the shock of a crime that should not be possible anywhere in the world. Grateful to the brave & reliable first responders on the scene."

"Horrified by the news of the school shooting in Florida," Maine Sen. Susan Collins said. "Grateful for first responders' action to protect & help students, school employees, & all those in the community."

"Learning of the tragic events unfolding at a Florida high school and keeping all of the students, teachers, and their families in our thoughts," added Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree. "We, in Congress, must do better to prevent these horrific tragedies that happen too often."

[MIA-NATL] 'My School Is Being Shot Up': Images Show Panic at Stoneman Douglas High

"Saddened and frustrated by the images coming out of Parkland," Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro said. "Keeping these students & their families in my thoughts. This is not normal."

"No. Not again," said Connecticut Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty.

"The events in Parkland are hitting far too close to home. I'm sick for the students. I'm sick for their parents. I'm sick for the community, for the first responders who once again are forced to treat an American school as a war zone... We think of America as an exceptional country. We are - we are the exception to the rule that mass shootings do not occur in schools, churches, concerts, and other public locations on an alarmingly regular basis. I was on a phone call this afternoon when I looked up to see images of children running out of schools, hiding under desks, and walking past armored vehicles parked outside their school. I am beyond sick. Nobody should want this for our country. No one."

"Closely following reports of a school shooting in Parkland, Florida  my thoughts are with the victims, loved ones, and all affected," Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said. "Thankful for the swift action of courageous first responders on scene."

"My heart goes out to the Parkland community as they endure this horrific tragedy," New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said. "We cannot allow this to continue to be the status quo. Congress has a responsibility to take action and help keep guns out of the wrong hands."

"Oh no. Again," said Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy. "Sending every good thought I have to Parkland right now."

"Another horrific shooting. Another unspeakable horror," Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said. "My thoughts are with everyone at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after this terrible day. Maybe, just maybe, after 18 school shootings in America in just 43 days of 2018 the Congress might want to consider common-sense gun safety legislation and save innocent lives."Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Wednesday that President Donald Trump is disrespecting Native Americans by referring to her as "Pocahontas." She also said that while she's not enrolled in any tribe, she never used her family tree "to get a break" or advance her career.

In a surprise appearance before the National Congress of American Indians, the Massachusetts Democrat said her mother's family was part Native American and her father's parents "were bitterly opposed to their relationship." Her mother was born in Oklahoma in 1912 and married her father in 1932, Warren said.

[READ SEN. WARREN'S WRITTEN REMARKS]



"The story they lived will always be a part of me. And no one - not even the president of the United States - will ever take that part of me away," she said.

Trump frequently refers to Warren as "Pocahontas" to mock her claim about being part Native American.

Warren said she understands why Trump and other political opponents "think there's hay to be made here," adding: "The joke, I guess, is supposed to be on me."

In her most expansive public remarks on her ancestry, Warren told the Native American group that she respects the distinction between Native American heritage and membership in a tribe.

"I understand that tribal membership is determined by tribes - and only by tribes," she said.

But contrary to claims by opponents, "I never used my family tree to get a break or get ahead," Warren said. "I never used it to advance my career."

Questions about Warren's ancestry first surfaced during her 2012 Senate run, when she ousted Republican Sen. Scott Brown to claim the seat once held by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy.

During the campaign, law school directories from the Association of American Law Schools from 1986 to 1995 surfaced that put Warren on the association's list of "minority law teachers" when she was teaching at the University of Texas and the University of Pennsylvania. Warren said she listed herself with Native American heritage because she hoped to meet people with similar roots.

In a 2012 interview with The Associated Press, Warren, then a Harvard Law School professor, said she and her brothers were told of the family's heritage by their parents, the late Don and Pauline Herring.

Warren, who was raised in Oklahoma, said her father's parents objected to her parents' marriage, because her mother "was part Cherokee and part Delaware."

The family dispute was "something my brothers and I grew up with. We always understood the difference, between our father's family and our mother's family," she told the AP.

Warren repeated much of that family history on Wednesday, although she did not mention any specific tribes in referring to her mother.

Warren told the Native American group that Trump's taunts had led her to a decision: "Every time someone brings up my family's story, I'm going to use it to lift up the story of their families and communities."

She said the story of Pocahontas - "the Native woman who really lived" in Virginia in the early 1600's - has long "been taken away by powerful people who twisted it to serve their own purposes."

While Pocahontas played a key role in mediating relations between the tribes ruled by her father and early white settlers, she later was abducted, imprisoned and held captive and died at about age 21, Warren said.

Warren called it "deeply offensive" that Trump keeps a portrait of former President Andrew Jackson hanging in the Oval Office, "honoring a man who did his best to wipe out Native people."

The type of violence Jackson and his allies perpetrated on Indian tribes "remains part of life today" for Native Americans on and off Indian reservations, Warren said, noting that more than half of Native American women have experienced sexual violence.The Oakland Museum of California rings in the Year of the Dog during its 17th annual Lunar New Year Celebration and Other Asian Traditions on Sunday, Feb. 25 from noon to 4:30 p.m.

The event features activities for the entire family, celebrating the many time-honored traditions of diverse cultures represented in California, including Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Tibetan and other Asian cultures with an array of arts, crafts, food, demonstrations, live music, dance, martial arts, and more.

The days performances and activities include: students from the Developing Virtue Secondary School performing traditional lucky lion and dragon dances; a magic show by illusionist Calvin Kai Ku; Japanese imperial court music by Northern California Gagaku Group; taiko drumming by Jiten Daiko; a colorful Philippine folk dance by American Center of Philippine Arts; a martial arts demonstration by Vovinam America; Chinese yo-yo tricks by Foothill High School; modern K-Pop dance by Korean Performance Group; and more traditional music, dance, and drumming.North Norfolk charity Aid Africa tells of a new toilet in Malawi, and invites everyone to a monthly on-line prayer meeting to pray for their work in that country.

North Norfolk charity Aid Africa tells of a new toilet in Malawi, and invites everyone to a monthly on-line prayer meeting to pray for their work in that country.

Integrate Youth for Christ hiring in South Norfolk Integrate Youth for Christ currently have two vacancies which could be combined if the applicant has suitable skills, one based in Thetford and one in Diss. Both roles are to commence as soon as possible. Read more

New air ambulance HQ in Norwich is blessed Faith leaders from across East Anglia took part in an official blessing at the official opening of the extended and renovated East Anglian Air Ambulance operational base and HQ at Norwich Airport on September 10. Read more

Communications Manager for Diocese of Norwich The Diocese of Norwich has an exciting opportunity for a dynamic Communications Manager to be responsible for the development and implementation of a multiplatform communications strategy, supporting the vision to be Transformed by Christ. Read more

Care Assistant at Corton House Corton House, a 42 bedded care home with a mission to provide excellent loving care and support for older people, is looking for a day care assistant to work a mixture of evenings and day shifts Read more

Marketing and Fundraising Co-ordinator Corton House are looking for an experienced individual to fill a newly created role working with Senior Management to develop and implement new marketing and fundraising strategies to further develop and grow the organisation. Read more

Norfolk gives generously to Afghan refugee fund Thanks to the generosity of people across Norfolk and Waveney, the Bishop of Norwichs Refugee Fund has received nearly 36,000 in the past fortnight, to help the arriving and expected new refugees from Afghanistan. The Diocese of Norwich is administering Read more

Norwich Christian leaders invited to meet together The Transforming Norwich steering group are inviting Christian leaders to meet together in-person for the first time in 18 months to share lunch and to encourage and pray for one another. Read more

Norfolks baking expert Chris serves up a treat After clocking up many years of experience as cafe manager at the Kings Church Centre in Norwich, Chris Bottomley has now launched his own business creating masterpiece cakes. Read more

Heritage events at secret Norwich chapel The Old Meeting House Congregational Church in Colegate will be open during the weekend of September 18 and 19, and will use the occasion to kick start its popular monthly 'Big Sing' event. Read more

A dinosaur roar of hope for Gods creation Andy Bryant, who has been project managing the current Dippy attraction in Norwich Cathedral, points out that the Diplodocus skeleton represents far more than a display of old bones. Read more

Relocation for Norwich Healing Rooms Norwich Healing Rooms returns every Thursday evening at a new venue in Heartsease as well as monthly on Saturdays Norwich city centre. Read more

An African mission for South Norfolk churches An empowering mission for a struggling community in Zimbabwe struck an immediate chord with Carolyn Skittrall who supports several South Norfolk churches to bring change and growth through practical initiative and insight. Read more

Gorleston church thanks Covid volunteers St Mary Magdalene church in Gorleston has hosted a Big Thank You afternoon tea to thank the volunteers who had supported the community during the COVID pandemic. Read more

Fulmerstons Christian footballer celebrates 30 years on the pitch Tim Lovejoy from Fulmerston Christian Fellowship has clocked up over 500 games in a three-decade career with his local football club. Read more

St Martins memorial garden officially open A memorial garden to remember people experiencing homelessness who have died was opened on September 6 by the Rt Rev Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich. The garden is in the grounds of Bishopbridge House, the direct access hostel run by St Martins. Read more

Loving care and Christian ethos at Corton House Excellent loving care and support is provided at Corton House, a care home with a Christian ethos located in the heart of Norwich. Read more

Norma's sponsored walks for Christian charities Norma Broadest is embarking on two walking challenges to raise funds for Christian charities Street Child and Restoration of Hope in Burundi. Read more

Lent prayer vigil for life outside Norwich abortion clinic Lent prayer vigil for life outside Norwich abortion clinic

A 40 Days for Life vigil is taking place outside the BPAS abortion clinic in Norwich during Lent as part of a co-ordinated international campaign and supporters are being urged to join it.

Growth, change and new house for Norwich charity Growth, change and new house for Norwich charity

The Norwich branch of Christian charity Hope Into Action is in its fifth year and are delighted to be opening their ninth house this month, this one is in partnership with Norwich Cathedral. The team is growing and there are current vacancies.

HARTFORD  Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Wednesday pledged to restore funding for Planned Parenthood if President Donald Trump makes good on his plan to block federal money for the health care clinics.

"If the Republicans who control our federal government are intent on rolling back access to quality health care and reproductive rights  and they have shown repeatedly that they are  it is our job as state leaders to stand up for our residents," Malloy said.

Trumps budget proposal does not single out Planned Parenthood by name; instead it prohibits funding to abortion providers. That includes no money for family planning, birth control and other services provided by the clinics.

During a tour of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Hartfords North End, Malloy laid out an ambitious plan to shore up funding for the clinics, provide free birth control for women and replace the main provisions of the Affordable Care Act if the Republican controlled Congress repeals that program as well.

The price tag to taxpayers to continue Planned Parenthood funding would be about $6 million annually, Malloy said.

We must make sure health care remains viable and affordable regardless of what happens, and birth control remains available, Malloy said.

Trumps proposed budget wipes out Medicaid reimbursement for Planned Parenthood  a long held goal of Republicans. About 72,000 patients a year receive health care at Connecticuts 17 Planned Parenthood clinics.

Amanda Skinner, president of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, said most of their patients cannot find health care elsewhere, in part because not all providers accept Medicaid.

"If we lost funding there would be an impact on maintaining access to services," Skinner said. "That access would be in doubt. Planned Parenthood is often the only health provider our patients have."

J.R. Romano, state Republican Party chairman, said Malloys priorities are wrong, noting taxes are rising in towns and cities across the state and teachers are worried about their jobs.

"You dont think New Britain or Derby wouldnt like that money?" Romano said, referring to the $6 million. "We are in a complete fiscal crisis. And hes tossing up blue meat for Democrats."

State Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, said Republicans are willing to look at Malloys proposal but added the governor is being disingenuous on the issue.

There is certainly bipartisan willingness to look at any issue such as this on the state level should we face federal cuts, Fasano said.

Still, Fasano said Malloy last year threatened to veto a bill that allowed women to enroll in health insurance before giving birth.

Its disingenuous for Gov. Malloy to make promises for more funding to one organization when he has previously outright rejected legislation to enhance access to womens health care because of costs, Fasano said.

Health care battle

Planned Parenthood last year received $533 million in reimbursement payments from Medicaid and other public programs, or about 40 percent of its $1.3 billion in revenue. The federal money is used to provide routine health services, such as screenings and tests, and cannot be used to pay for abortions.

Nationally, about two-thirds of Planned Parenthood patients rely on programs like Medicaid for their health care.

The remainder of Planned Parenthoods funding comes from a variety of sources, including contributions, private insurance payments, endowments and fees for educational programs, annual reports show.

Health care is under attack, Malloy said. We should take the steps to protect ourselves and women in particular.

Malloy also pushed legislation to "enshrine" key provisions of the Affordable Care Act into Connecticut state statute and prohibit cost-sharing for reproductive health care, including birth control.

The governor is also proposing to keep health care costs down by creating a shared responsibility penalty of $500 per person for those who does not carry minimum health insurance.

The money would go into a new health care assistance fund to help people buy insurance through the state exchange.STRATFORD  This town has a few forlorn neighborhoods  and near the top of the pitiful list is Sidney Street.

Everyone in Stratford knows about Sidney Street, even if the name is unfamiliar. Its the dead-ender thats wedged between the parking lot of Stop and Shop and Interstate 95. Its fronted on East Main Street by a long-abandoned gas station painted entirely in battleship gray to make it look even more melancholy than it needs to be.

Now, a developer hopes to bring some cheer to Sidney Street. Urstadt Biddle Properties, which owns The Dock shopping center nearby, is seeking the OK from Town Hall to build a five-story self-storage facility that would provide about 120,000 square feet  about 2.7 acres  of storage space and a retail building. The company is in negotiations with prospective upscale chain restaurants for the retail site.

The company is also in the process of purchasing the homes on the street.

The $14-million-plus idea also would mean relocating the huge two-sided billboard to another spot on the triangular plot to make more room for the self-storage building. Thats a major undertaking in itself; the billboard mast also serves as a cell phone tower, and that move alone will cost developers about $250,000.

The street is disgraceful now, said Barry Knott, the attorney representing Urstadt Biddle. All of that awfulness in and around Sidney Street would be gone.

Urstadt Biddle owns and operates about 80 small- to mid-sized shopping plazas in Fairfield County, New York and New Jersey. The company is listed as a REIT, or a real estate investment trust  a company that owns or finances income-producing real estate. The Dock is one of the companys larger properties.

Some urban planners have looked askance at the self-storage industry because its buildings produce few jobs and they are not seen as businesses that attract economic development. Still, there are more than a dozen such operations on the stretch of I-95 between Fairfield and West Haven.

Theyre taking over everywhere, said Lauren Sardi, a sociology professor at Quinnipiac University. And its because we live in a consumer-driven society  were buying stuff that we dont need and we didnt even know existed, and its all piling up.

She said that another driver to the plethora of storage facilities dotting the area is the nomadic nature of society. Children, when they reach adulthood, find work in places far-flung from their parents homes.

So their collection of stuff cant be stashed in their parents attics, she said, noting that the storage business has even resulted in storage bin reality shows, in which junk dealers bid on stuff left behind in unpaid-for storage cubicles.

Often, people have to rent these units not because they have too much stuff, but because theyve moved a number of times, Sardi said.

jburgeson@ctpost.comWASHINGTON  Months after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, the island is still trying to recover and restore services, including access to drinking water.

Students at Rumsey Hall School saw the images of devastation on the news and learned of what was happening from those with relatives there. They decided they wanted to help and used the money collected at the annual Valentines Day fundraiser for Puerto Rico instead of local charities.

Abby Butler, a fourth grader involved in the fundraiser, watched the news with her parents and learned families had to purchase fuel instead of food because many residents didnt have electricity. Many also didnt have drinking water.

It looked really horrible, she said.

On Wednesday, students cheered as they gathered in the cafeteria and learned they had collected enough money to provide clean drinking water to an entire school in Puerto Rico by purchasing LifeStraws, filtration devices that makes dirty water potable.

You can make a difference, Abby said. I really hope people will see that they can do stuff too.

More Information Want to help? Email cmaxwell@rumseyhall.org or call 860-868-0535 to donate. See More Collapse

The first LifeStraw was created in 2005, though parent company Vestergaard, has been working on filtration since 1994. The filtration devices range from a single straw, which costs about $20 and filters up to 1,000 liters, to the community size, which costs about $330 and filters 70,000 to 100,000 liters.

Nearly five months after the hurricane, roughly 99 percent of Puerto Ricos population has drinkable water, though the whole territory is being urged to boil their water before use. This is up from the 69 percent at the 30 day mark and 86 percent 90 days after the hurricane hit, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The idea to purchase LifeStraws is months in the making. A fifth grader shared the technology with her peers as part of a class project in the fall. Teachers and students then began testing it out on the pond on the grounds, discovering it really worked.

In the months following Hurricane Maria, the student council researched what was happening in Puerto Rico, sharing the information with the rest of the school. They, in connection with the parent group, decided the best way to help was to purchase LifeStraws so that more people could have drinking water.

Im hoping to assist Puerto Rico until they can help themselves, said David Block, a fourth grader on student council.

Teachers were able to use existing connections and set up a partnership with Escuela Intermedia Juana Rosario Carrero, a middle school with about 450 students in Aguada, Puerto Rico.

Students were especially convinced that their gift would make a difference when they learned FEMA was withdrawing support on Jan. 31.

At first, the group hoped to raise enough to purchase one community jug and several straws. The fact that they can now purchase a jug for each floor of the school far exceeds their expectations.

It can take care of a mass of people, said Karen Saxe, one of the teacher advisers for the student council.

For four days, students purchased paper hearts for a dollar, generating more than $1,000 - the most this fundraiser has ever collected.

It really touches people and makes them aware that Puerto Rico is still in need and theres something you can do about it, said Anne Block, one of the parents that helps run the fundraiser. The kids see that impact.

The teachers said the students really got behind the fundraiser, especially because they were able to help other students.

We thought it was important to have that school to school connection, said Jaymie Naclerio, one of the teacher advisers for the student council. It made it more real for the kids that they could be in that situation.

She hopes the schools will also be able to develop a relationship beyond this and possibly become pen pals.

It was neat that it was a student-driven initiative and the idea to think outside of themselves, said Carol Maxwell, the schools director of development. Were a boarding community and some, theyre not just giving a dollar. Its a good chunk of their weekly allowance to make a donation.

kkoerting@newstimes.com; 203-731-3345It provides for monitoring and measuring to contemporary standards, and agrees upon the course of further scientific investigation by proposing a stream study that will be used to create the final bypass plan, Reynolds wrote. Bravo!

Water Audits lawsuit claimed that the citys failure to bypass sufficient water into Bell Creek contributed to the decline of steelhead, which havent been found in the creek downstream of the reservoir since before 1990. Reynolds and Water Audit have pursued similar litigation against the city of Calistoga and the California Department of Veterans Affairs, which operates Rector Reservoir outside Yountville.

The interim plan approved Tuesday requires the city to bypass more water from the reservoir to the creek between Nov. 15 and April 15. The citys permit already prohibits the city from storing water that enters the reservoir between April 16 and Nov. 14.

A biologist hired by the city recommended the bypass flows contained in the interim plan. According to a staff report, hydrologists concluded that the flows would have a minimal impact on the storage volume of the reservoir and would not require the City to tap any other sources of water to make up for the difference.Barbara Branagan-Mitchell is celebrating the 25th anniversary of her business, Branagan Communications Consultants, in New Milford.

The business is a public relations, publicity placement, marketing communications and writing/editing consulting agency.

Specializing in public relations, publicity placement and marketing communications have been my singular professional focus for more than two decades, Branagan said. My career began in large public relations agencies in Manhattan and took me around the world representing large national and international travel-oriented clients.

Since 2004, the company has been providing awareness-building public relations, publicity placement and marketing communications campaigns for small to medium-sized businesses in the New Haven, Litchfield and Fairfield county regions of the state.

The consulting agency, which has its website at www.branagancommunications.com, also offers services in writing and editing of content for websites, branding and sales materials, newsletters, brochures, and presentations.

Prior to launching her consulting firm in Katonah, N.Y., in 1993, Branagan-Mitchell served as the public relations manager for the Heritage Hills condominium community in Somers, N.Y.

From 1994 to 2004, she was a business owner in the Westchester County community and was chairperson of the Advertising Club of Westchesters annual Big W Awards. She served on its board of directors for four years.

She was also a recognized member of the Westchester County Business Association.

During the past 14 years in Connecticut, Branagan-Mitchell has been recognized and awarded for her many contributions to business organizations. An active member of the Waterbury Regional Chamber since 2008, she received the chambers Volunteer of the Year Award in 2010 and was named Ambassador of the Year in 2016.

She has volunteered as a Chamber Ambassador since 2009, and in 2010 she graduated as a team leader from the chambers Leadership Greater Waterbury program.

For information, call Branagan-Mitchell at 860-210-0149.Conservation groups in Sherman and Washington are among the 23 organizations awarded state matching grants this week to further protect land in towns across the state.

In Sherman, the Naromi Land Trust will receive $76,500 from the state to purchase nearly 38 acres of land off Evans Hill Road. The Steep Rock Association in Washington will get $886,500 to purchase nearly 51 acres of land on West Mountain Road.HARTFORD  The states third annual attempt to boil academic success to a single number shows progress being made in the college readiness arena but on the reading, math and science front, not so much.

Nearly three quarters of districts and charter schools statewide  146 out of 201  scored worse on this years index than they did a year ago.

Individual student improvement over time  something the state pushed to include in its Next Generation Accountability system  is what in many cases held schools and school districts from seeing overall improvement.

Released Friday by the State Department of Education, the states grade, or index, remains flat, rising one tenth of one percent to 73.2 points in 2016-17.

Each school and district also earned an index number based on the same compilation of 12 indicators. Included are not only scores on state standardized tests but absentee rates, graduation rates, access to arts and physical fitness.

What is measured is how well schools are living up to goals set for them by the state.

Locally, Region 9 was the only district to see an increase, from 84 to 86.4 percent.

New Milford, Ridgefield, Brookfield and Bethel each saw their scores decline from 2015-16 to 2016-17, but stayed above the state average. New Fairfield, Redding and Region 12 also remained above the state average, but saw larger declines. Each saw their scores drop by at least 4 percent.

More Information School system scores District 2015-16 index 2016-17 index Ansonia 65.7 64.9 Bridgeport 56.4 59.3 Derby 63.0 63.3 Easton 83.5 75.8 Fairfield 84.0 83.0 Milford 78.1 80.5 Monroe 82.9 80.6 Oxford 78.0 76.0 Region 9 84.0 86.4 Seymour 76.1 77 Shelton 77.6 76.4 Stratford 73.6 72.4 Trumbull 88.7 83.6 See More Collapse

In New Milford, Superintendent Joshua Smith said he was happy to see the district at or above the state average in the majority of criteria. He specifically pointed out that the districts 97.2 percent graduation rate exceeds the state average by almost 10 percent.

We have worked hard as a district to increase access to college-level courses and open enrollment to Advanced Places courses that really has influenced our college and career readiness, Smith said. We really started working as early as ninth grade in areas of math and language arts to make sure theyre succeeding and can graduate on time.

Danbury fell a few points below the states 73.2 grade, dropping from 72.6 percent in 2015-16 to 70.6 percent in 2016-17. Superintendent Sal Pascarella said he is still fine with the score from a numbers standpoint, since its within 2 percent of the state average, but he still thinks the numbers in some ways arent an accurate reflection of the district.

He said he has advocated for the state to change the criteria to more accurately reflect programs like Danburys Alternative Center for Excellence, an alternative high school for at-risk students.

ACE kids are making gains and yet the numbers are so low it looks as though theyre not making progress, Pascarella said. (Comparing them) to state mainstream students that are on graduation paths in a normal program, those are apples and oranges.

Pascarella added that he is happy to see the districts physical education scores improve and a drop in its chronic absences. He said the number of students taking college-level or Advanced Placement courses has increased, but he plans to drill down on that more to improve it further.

In its index reporting, the state makes note of schools that improve, show growth or just have overall high numbers. A list of 124 Schools of Distinction were reported including a dozen locally.

Eight elementary schools from the Danbury area made the 2016-17 list, including three in Danbury, two in Ridgefield, two in Bethel and Redding Elementary School.

In addition, 16 schools on a watch list for poor performance gained enough ground to leave the list. One of them was the BioTech School that is part of Bridgeports Fairchild Wheeler Magnet Campus.

Ajit Gopalakrishnan, chief performance officer for the states Department of Education, said the state was pleased that more students are taking Advanced Placement courses and tests. All juniors now take the SAT as their state assessment.

Overall, some indicators are showing positive movement and some are not, Gopalakrishnan said. We know there some areas where we have a lot of work to do.

On the positive side was a 3.6 percent jump in the number of high-needs students  English language learners, students with disabilities or from low income families  who graduated in six years or fewer.

Physical fitness levels also jumped 35 percent. The state had no explanation as to why.

On the downside was some backsliding on the percentage of growth, or how well underperforming students do from one year to the next in matching state averages. In language arts, the growth slipped 8.5 percent and in math, 3.7 percent.

Growth carries the largest weight in the index and in many cases is what caused many school districts to decline, Gopalakrishnan said.

In measuring growth, the district excludes students who relocate to new districts  2,194 between the two years  so that the same students are being compared one year with the next.

Also down were science scores. The index dropped nearly 3 points statewide.

The federal government requires the state to compile the index and use the information to help schools to better education their children.About a dozen years ago, Dr. Woodring Wright, a UT Southwestern Professor of Cell Biology, sneezed.

It broke one of his vertebrae, the interlocking bones that make up the spinal column.

It turned out Dr. Wright  who studies the end caps of chromosomal DNA, called telomeres, hoping to find ways to fight aging and cancer  had multiple myeloma. Multiple myeloma is a blood cancer involving plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that is a part of the immune system. One of its effects is to weaken bones.

So the researcher, who had spent decades studying and learning the intricacies of cancer, became the subject.

Dr. Wright started on traditional chemotherapy, becoming resistant to the first chemo treatment and switching to a second, then to a third.

"My myeloma cells went through the Darwinian selection of 11 chemotherapies, becoming resistant to them all. Basically, I was at the end of my rope," said Dr. Wright, who holds the Southland Financial Corporation Distinguished Chair in Geriatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center. "Fortunately, I had a professional colleague who was also in the telomere field who told me there was a clinical trial that was about to begin if I could hold on."

The clinical trial was for a groundbreaking new "living drug" called chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy or CAR-T therapy. CAR-T is a technique that involves gathering T cells (a type of immune cell) from the cancer patient's blood, re-engineering them in a lab so they will recognize cancer cells as an "enemy," then reintroducing these weaponized T cells to the patient's body.

Dr. Wright was placed on the list for the clinical trial of CAR-T therapy for multiple myeloma at the University of Pennsylvania. His condition was becoming critical by this time. There were two individuals ahead of Dr. Wright to be treated in the clinical trial, but both dropped out and Dr. Wright ended up being their first multiple myeloma patient to be treated with CAR-T.

Dr. Wright said he didn't have a moment's hesitation about participating. "I was all in. There were risks but I had basically run out of options. I know enough immunology to understand what they were trying to do and I thought it had a good chance of success," said Dr. Wright, also Professor of Internal Medicine who holds an M.D. and Ph.D. from Stanford.

The risk turned out to be real. The clinical trial he was in called for participants to get their CAR-T cells in three doses. The first dose went well. But when he received the second dose there was a reaction. You might say the CAR-T therapy worked too well: His body had so many cancer cells and they were being attacked so effectively by the CAR T-cells, that his body was overwhelmed by the immune response. It's what happens when you get the flu  the fever, the chills, the body aches are caused by the body's immune system fighting the viral invader. But in Dr. Wright's case, the immune response was so great that he was hospitalized for two weeks, receiving supportive therapy.

But all the while, the cancerous B cells were being beaten back. By the time the crisis was over, Dr. Wright's "light-chain numbers"  the indicator of cancer  had dropped from 6,725 to an astonishing 5.

He remains cancer-free more than two years after the treatment.

"I considered myself cured," said Dr. Wright, who has been with UT Southwestern, which is recognizing its 75th anniversary this year, for 40 years.

While his physicians are more cautious  they prefer to call it a "sustained complete remission"  his success is inspiring for oncologists like Dr. Larry Anderson, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, who recently began enrolling patients for a CAR-T multiple myeloma trial at UT Southwestern. "Dr. Wright's story is an example of why it's so thrilling to be part of this pioneering effort," Dr. Anderson said.

Dr. Wright has now returned to the lab, jointly run with colleague Dr. Jerry Shay, Professor of Cell Biology, who also holds The Southland Financial Corporation Distinguished Chair in Geriatrics. The two have authored hundreds of highly cited scientific papers on telomeres, while helping train new generations of cancer researchers at the medical school. Dr. Wright is a popular figure known for reinforcing lessons about challenging scientific concepts with songs.

One of the projects he hopes to sing the praises of is an idea he has to potentially broaden the effectiveness of CAR-T therapy.

A small percentage of blood cancer patients who get CAR-T are not helped by the therapy.

"What I've been wondering is whether some of these mostly elderly patients have T cells with terminally short telomeres," he said. "If so, telomerase, the enzyme that lengthens telomeres, might help CAR-T therapy work in that small group."

He and Dr. Shay are now looking into that idea.

"I don't know if it's because of what I went through or if it's a normal part of aging," Dr. Wright said, "but I have a strong desire to give back."Chagas Disease (caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi) and strongyloidiasis (caused by the helminth S. stercoralis) are neglected tropical diseases that share a similar epidemiological burden and result in chronic infections with high morbidity and mortality.

In this retrospective study, the authors evaluated the association between Trypanosoma cruzi infection and strongyloidiasis in a cohort of Latin American migrants screened for both infections in the Hospital Clinic at Barcelona between January 2013 and April 2015. The results obtained with 361 individuals show that 14% of them were positive for strongyloidiasis and 49% were positive for T. cruzi. Factors associated with T. cruzi infection included being of Bolivian origin, coming from a a rural area and having lived in an adobe house. A higher percentage of patients with strongyloidiasis was infected by T. cruzi, and viceversa. The statistical analysis shows that T. cruzi infection was associated with a two-fold increase in the odds of strongyloidiasis in Latin American migrants attending a tropical diseases unit, even after adjusting for other epidemiological variables.

"Both diseases are strongly influenced by socioeconomic factors and poor healthcare systems" says Jose Munoz, ISGlobal researcher and coordinator of the study.

"We have already demonstrated the cost-benefit of performing systemic Chagas screening in asymptomatic Latino American adults living in Europe" explains Joaquim Gascon. Given the high prevalence of strongyloidiasis in T. cruzi infected patients, the authors recommend implementing a combined screening program for both infections among Latin American adults living in Europe.In the first study of its kind, Cambridge biological anthropologists have shown that muscle mass is able to predict the rate of heat loss from the hands during severe cold exposure, while body mass, stature and fat mass do not.

According to Stephanie Payne, lead author of the study published this week in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, "Hands have a large surface area-to-volume ratio, which can be a challenge to maintaining thermal balance in cold conditions. We wanted to study the influence of body size and body composition on heat loss and rewarming in the hands to determine whether they affect hand temperature and dexterity in cold conditions."

These results are important for understanding our thermoregulation (the body's ability to regulate its temperature), according to Payne. "We always thought that fat (acting as insulation) was the most crucial factor in thermoregulation, but it's actually muscle playing the vital role. The body is this amazing, dynamic system which uses muscle to generate heat to keep the rest of the body warm, including your hands."

Volunteers from around Cambridge, including University students and local residents, took part in the study. After having their vital statistics taken and body composition analyzed to measure the amount of fat and muscle, each volunteer plunged their hands into ice cold water for three minutes. The rate at which volunteers' hands heated up again was measured and recorded using a thermal imaging camera.

Volunteers were of European origin and aged between 18 and 50. Payne further explains, "Many populations across the globe have developed vasoregulatory adaptations to deal with severe cold. Some populations lose blood flow to the hands very quickly to make sure they retain their body heat internally, whilst others, for example the Inuit, have periodic pulses of blood to the hands to combat frostbite."

As a National Geographic Young Explorer, Stephanie is currently researching human populations from across the globe with her next study focusing on body proportions from Himalayan populations.

Payne also predicts possible commercial uses for this type of study. "Being aware of the effects of body composition on how cold your hands get is crucial. For example, women and children are less likely to have a high muscle mass so cold-weather gear, such as gloves, should be produced and marketed with that in mind."

Source: http://www.cam.ac.uk/Mothers and babies belong together -; which is why Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City has launched a rooming-in program to support early bonding between mothers and newborns.

"Rooming-in means babies will stay in the room with their parents," said Kristie Earnhart, RN, MSN, nurse manager in Maternity at Intermountain Medical Center, which is part of the Intermountain Healthcare system. "The time together in the first days of the baby's life increases bonding and newborn health, reduces crying, and establishes healthy routines. The nursery will be available for those with medical needs."

Many women welcome the idea of getting as much sleep as possible after labor, and it can be tempting to send their baby to a hospital's nursery to get some rest. But research shows they're likely to get the same amount of rest with their baby in the room.

"Having the baby with the mother right from the beginning is shown by research to be the best way for mother and baby to rest and establish a routine," said Earnhart.

Rooming-in helps parents prepare to go home with their new baby. It provides an opportunity for parents and other caregivers to provide total care for the baby in a home-like environment while in the hospital. While rooming-in, the parents or caregivers provide all of the physical care and supervision for their infant, including giving medications, changing diapers, and feeding.

"The best advice we can give new parents is to learn how to rest when your baby sleeps day and night in the first days, and rooming-in supports that learning," said Angela Anderson, RN, nurse midwife at Intermountain Medical Center.

"Early in the newborn period, babies eat frequently and find comfort and security in being close to you," she added. "Learning how to feed your infant can be easier when you learn to read your baby's early hunger cues and sleep/wake states. Keeping baby with you helps you learn how to feed and care for them while our expert staff is close by to assist you."

Rooming-in benefits for mother:

Better quality sleep

Increased confidence in handling and caring for baby

Ability to learn your baby's cues (sleepy, stressed, in need of quiet time, or hungry)

Earlier identification of early feeding cues (rooting, opening mouth, and sucking on tongue, fingers, or hand)

Improved breastfeeding experience

Less infant crying and distress (they love to be near you)

Less "baby blues" and postpartum depression

Parents are better-rested and more relaxed by the end of the first week home

Rooming in benefits for baby:

Better quality sleep. Your baby will develop a more regular sleep-wake cycle earlier, and rooming-in may help ease the transition to day/night routines

More stable body temperatures

Generally more content, less crying

More stable blood sugar

Breastfeed sooner, longer, and more easily

Lower levels of stress hormones

Babies are exposed to normal bacteria on mother's skin, which may protect them from becoming sick due to harmful germs.

Intermountain Medical Center has a nursery nurse available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for infants and mothers with medical need. When a medical need is deemed appropriate by the bedside nurse, the baby can go to the nursery for up to three hours twice in 24 hours, but the baby won't be fed formula unless the stated feeding preference is formula. A baby is always welcome in the nursery while mom showers or attends the breastfeeding class.

"Rooming-in helps set the stage for the routine of home life," Earnhart said. "Habits begin in the hospital. We want to encourage parents to limit distractions while they're here. Moms can take this time to focus on themselves and getting to know the baby."

For more than two years, Intermountain Medical Center has been enrolled in the Stepping Up for Utah Babies program, along with 20 other hospitals in Utah. Stepping Up is a 10-step program designed to support moms that encourages breastfeeding on demand and rooming-in.

The practice of rooming in and allowing mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day is one of the evidence-based practices developed by a team of global experts. Other steps include educating expecting mothers about breastfeeding, helping to initiate breastfeeding within one hour of birth, and teaching women how to maintain lactation.

The Centers for Disease Control has documented the many short- and long-term benefits of rooming in and breastfeeding for both mothers and babies. These include lowered risks of ear and respiratory infections, atopic dermatitis (eczema), type 2 diabetes, sudden infant death syndrome, and childhood obesity.

Additionally, by protecting against these and other illnesses, medical costs are lowered, since babies who are fed formula tend to require more doctor visits, hospitalizations, and prescriptions.Texas Biomedical Research Institute and The Children's Hospital of San Antonio have joined forces to cure a mysterious condition called Kawasaki disease. The illness which affects young children is named after the Japanese doctor who first described it more than 50 years ago. However, researchers still do not know what causes the rashes, fever, and artery damage. Some type of infectious agent is suspected.

Dr. Mark Gorelik, a pediatric rheumatologist with The Children's Hospital of San Antonio and Baylor College of Medicine, is focusing his research on the role of a specific protein in creating the coronary artery aneurysms in Kawasaki disease patients. He treats patients with Kawasaki disease in an outpatient clinic at the downtown hospital.

When he needed a place for his mouse-animal model and experiments, he approached Scientist Jean Patterson, Ph.D., of Texas Biomedical Research Institute. She agreed to be his mentor and help him secure funding for the project.

"Most virologists, maybe bacteriologists, have always sort of had a passing interest in Kawasaki disease just because nobody knows what causes it," Dr. Patterson said. "It seems like by now we should have been able to figure it out. There's some mystery here that keeps it really tantalizing and frustrating."

Drs. Gorelik and Patterson secured funding from the Voelcker Fund Young Investigators Award, the William and Ella Owens Medical Research Foundation and the Vasculitis Foundation.

Gorelik started with just a few mice. Now, there are about 120 animals housed in a Biosafety Level 2 facility at Texas Biomed. He's using new technology to manipulate a gene and look at its impact on one particular protein that may be involved in damage to blood vessels.

"It's amazing the kind of technology that exists nowadays that you can actually sort of turn on something to clip out a very precise set of DNA and then the protein goes away," Dr. Gorelik commented.

With the animals, labs, technology and personnel in place, Dr. Patterson said Texas Biomed is a good fit for a collaboration with The Children's Hospital of San Antonio, crediting the veterinarians and veterinary care along with Dr. Gorelik's mouse model.

"Research institutes like the Texas Biomedical Research Institute bring all of the necessary factors together that allow researchers to spark combustion in science," Dr. Gorelik stressed.

Source: https://www.txbiomed.org/news-press/news-releases/texas-biomed-childrens-hospital-san-antonio-team-tackle-kawasaki-disease/Michael Nelson, assistant professor of kinesiology at The University of Texas at Arlington, has received a new five-year, $3.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the link between fat storage in the heart and cardiovascular disease, as well as the influence of gender on the development of cardiac dysfunction.

"You're not supposed to store fat in the heart, but patients who suffer from obesity, diabetes or heart disease tend to store more fat in the heart," Nelson said. "This excess fat is often linked to structural and functional abnormalities. Interpretation of these data is always difficult however, because these patients also tend to have other cardiovascular abnormalities, such as insulin resistance and hypertension. Our study attempts to address this previous limitation."

Nelson and his team will study the effects of excess fat in isolation of cardiovascular or metabolic risk factors. Their preliminary data shows that men may respond differently than pre-menopausal women, who appear to be protected despite similar levels of fat in the heart. Nelson and his team of researchers will spend the next five years studying 60 healthy subjects - 15 men and 45 women - between the ages of 18 and 30 to better understand the links between different factors.

"The incidence of heart disease in premenopausal women is much less than their age-matched male counterparts," Nelson said. "After menopause, however, women quickly catch up to men, and in some cases, surpass them."

This major new grant in UTA's College of Nursing and Health Innovation is one of many new awards in the area of heart health over the last year, and reflects on the success of the College's strategic hires in kinesiology, a department whose research expenditures have grown significantly during the last four years.

"UTA's kinesiology department specializes in examining health and disease across the lifespan, with specialized research clusters looking at cardiovascular health, bone and muscle health, fighting cancer, and motor control development in children," UTA President Vistasp Karbhari said. "This new NIH grant builds on ongoing research within the department and across UTA under our strategic plan theme of health and the human condition and highlights the research leadership and expertise of our renowned faculty. I'm pleased to see them serve as lead principal investigators on collaborative projects with researchers representing leading universities and major medical research centers from around the country."

Nelson, principal investigator on this project, will work with a team of researchers that includes Mark Haykowsky, professor of nursing at UTA and the Moritz Chair of Geriatrics, and Daisha Cipher, associate professor of nursing. Other co-investigators include researchers from UT Southwestern, Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and the University of Colorado in Denver.

Collaborative projects are a hallmark of health science research at UTA, with highly regarded faculty members from the College of Nursing and Health Innovation routinely partnering with talented colleagues from UTA's other schools and colleges, as well as outside institutions, to facilitate fundamental and high-impact clinical translational research.

"Health science research requires an interdisciplinary focus to take innovation to the next level, and we at the College of Nursing and Health Innovation are proud to be at the forefront as the University continues to excel in cutting-edge research," said Anne Bavier, dean of the College of Nursing and Health Innovation.

Opportunities for interdisciplinary research will be further enhanced when the state-of-the-art Science & Engineering Innovation & Research, or SEIR, Building opens in July 2018. In addition to supporting impressive campus-wide enrollment growth, the 220,000-square-foot building will feature research neighborhoods in which scientists from various health science disciplines will work together in 12 collaborative laboratory spaces focusing on thematic areas like cardiovascular health, brain health, cancer and tissue engineering. SEIR also will provide new opportunities for the university's focus on the study of human genomics as it relates to improving health and finding solutions for disease.

Earlier this year, the NIH also awarded Nelson a $441,000 grant to build new imaging technology to study blood vessel function in patients with heart failure. This technology could lead to quicker diagnosis and life-saving treatment. Nelson is collaborating with colleagues from UTA's Department of Biomedical Engineering on this grant. Since joining UTA two years ago, Nelson has helped bring in more than $4 million in grants.

"Over the last four years, UTA has received $11.5 million from the NIH, which speaks to the university's growing reputation as a major health science research institution," said Duane Dimos, UTA vice president for research.CALISTOGA  Tales told in cemeteries conjure up thoughts of Halloween or ghost stories, but on Valentines Day this year a walk through Pioneer Cemetery was all about love, not spooks.

For some reason, I thought it would be neat to highlight some of the Love Stories in the Pioneer Cemetery and what better day to do this than Valentines Day, said Calistoga Recreation Manager Rachel Melick, who led the Great Love Stories of Calistoga walk on Wednesday. About 20 people traversed the uneven cemetery to hear the stories.

Ive always thought it would be neat to do a cemetery walk, my grandmother took me to a bunch when I was little and have liked them ever since. I have also always been very interested in history and throughout my childhood and teen years studied the Donner-Reed Party and California history quite a bit, Melick said.

And when she heard that there were Donner-Reed Party descendants buried in the cemetery, she pursued the history and the Valentines Day concept by working with Kathy Bazzoli, board member of Sharpsteen Museum and local historian who did the research and provided the background for the stories Melick told in the cemetery on Wednesday.

Calistoga history is alive and well at Pioneer, Bazzoli said. Many of the Cyrus family are there (Lovina Graves Cyrus was a survivor of the Donner-Reed Party), as well as Civil War veterans.

The Cyrus family love story was just one of the stories Melick shared.

The coolest thing Ive learned through this process is how rich and varied Calistogas history is. From pioneers that traveled in one of the most iconic group of pioneers, to Europeans that relocated and were involved in the early days of winemaking, to finally a woman who was proposed marriage by Abraham Lincoln, Melick said. Its been awesome to read their stories and have a glimpse of what early life was like in Calistoga and how they essentially started this quirky little town.

The woman who turned down Lincolns marriage proposal was Susan Reid, the subject of Melicks first story. With the group gathered around the grave site, Melick read the story about how Reid was born in Mason County, Kentucky to a well-to-do farmer and his wife. Her father befriended a young man with whom he felt a political kinship and who would later propose marriage. But Reid did not love this man, Abraham Lincoln, and turned down his proposal.

She later married William Putnam Boyce, with whom she had three children. They moved to Calistoga after living in Texas, Placerville and Knights Valley. William was elected to the office of Constable and also held the office of Deputy Sheriff for three consecutive terms.

Susan was known for her quilt work, and while living in Calistoga she made a prize quilt made in the Touching Star pattern. By way of passing this quilt through descendants, it was donated in 2015 to the Sharpsteen Museum, where it is now on permanent display.

There was also the story of a Danish couple who survived an enemy occupation of their homeland and an ocean-wide separation before they would again be together.

In Denmark, Lorenz Petersen, born on Feb. 15, 1843, grew up with Maria Catherina Ipsen, who was born Feb. 17, 1846, and they fell in love. But in 1864 when the Allied German and Austrian forces advanced into their lives in Schleswig, their lives changed.

Petersen fled to avoid conscription into the German Army and wound up sailing for several years in and out of ports all around the world, navigating Cape Horn five times. He never gave up on Ipsen writing to her regularly.

Petersen, by July 1870, had finally saved enough money to send for Ipsen  it cost him $128.48 in gold  to come to America and become his wife. They were married in October that year and through a series of financial and personal hardships found their way to Calistoga and purchased a 160-acre ranch in the foothills three miles west of Calistoga.

Here, they planted apples, peaches, cherries and apricots, pears, figs, olives, and grapes. Acres were cleared and vineyards of Zinfandel, Carignon, Alicante, Burgher and Malvasia were planted.

Perhaps one of the more famous names associated with historic Calistoga is that of the Cyrus family and their trek across the country with the ill-fated Donner-Reed Party.

John Cyrus, born March 20, 1831 and died Dec. 5, 1891, and his wife Lovina Graves Cyrus, born July 3, 1834 and died July 27, 1906, are buried together in Pioneer Cemetery. Lovina  Lovina is pronounced with a long I sound. Close friends and family called her Vine, Bazzoli said  now has a restaurant named after her; the former Calistoga Kitchen at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Cedar Street.

The family homestead is located at the bottom of the Petrified Forest turnoff. Cyrus Creek runs through that property to this day. Descendants of John and Lovina can still be found in Napa and Sonoma counties, Bazzoli said. The Sharpsteen Museum displays the large cast-iron pot carried over the Sierras by Lovinas family as well as the bookcase, books and spectacles of John Cyrus, which he brought west in 1846.

In 1846, the Cyrus and Graves families headed west from Illinois with John, then 15, known to have already taken a liking to Lovina, 12. Each traveled with their respective families, though due to the slow-moving nature of wagon train travel of the day, crossing rivers and mountains, they were not always in close proximity. They were able to see each other from time to time, and when Lovinas family was among those trapped in the Sierra Nevada during a harsh winter storm, John volunteered in the first relief party. He would find Lovina alive and they would marry in June of 1856.

They lived and raised their children in Calistoga; six children born, one died, sadly, Melick said.

I hope others are able to enjoy learning about the varied and rich past as well. I think it is unique to live in a town where the roots run this deep and you still have descendants that are directly linked to some of these families. I also hope they gain an appreciation for these types of cemeteries, because they are truly special, Melick said.Are the deaths of Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange connected? We think so (and here's how)

Two of Marvel's most prominent magic users are dead - is there something bigger going on here?Jacob Zuma resigns as President of South Africa: Timeline of his political carrier

New Delhi : Jacob Zuma has resigned as the President of South Africa with immediate effects. He gave his resignation via television speech. Here is timeline of his almost two decade long journey.

1997: Mr Zuma was elected as deputy president of the ANC at a national conference held in December.

1999: He became deputy President of South Africa.

2000: Jacob Zuma and Tony Yengeni - the chief whip of the ANC  face investigation under charges of misusing their powers. Tony was found guilty while case against Jacob was dropped after nothing substantial came against him.

2004: He faces corruption charges over a purchase by South Africa of some Valour-class patrol corvettes, a proposed waterfront development in Durban and lavish spending on Zumas residence in Nkandla.

2005: His financial advisor Schabir Shaik gets 15 years in jail after being found guilty in the corruption charges. Later in June, Zuma gets relieved from his duties as deputy President of South Africa bur remains Deputy President of the ANC.

In December, he faced rape charges by a woman who had allegedly slept at his residence for a night.

2006: The rape trial begins against Jacob Zuma. He was acquitted of raping the HIV-positive family friend in May - although the fact he told the court he had showered in order to avoid catching HIV would continue to haunt him throughout his presidency.

2007: Zuma becomes President of ANC after a brutal campaign with his predecessor Thabo Mbeki. Zuma won by a large difference after rumours claiming that Mbeki tried to tarnish Jacob image to regain President post.

2008: Charges of corruption gets levelled against Zuma.

2009: The National Prosecuting Authority withdraws all 16 charges against Zuma in the Durban High Court. Zuma is inaugurated as President of the Republic of South Africa at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

2010: Zuma files a R5 million suit against a cartoonist who shows Jacob preparing to rape a lady justice.

2012: He was re-elected as ANC leader at the ANC conference in Mangaung, defeating challenger Kgalema Motlanthe and remained president of South Africa after the 2014 general election.

2015:

March 3 - MOTION OF NO CONFIDENCE 1: A motion of no confidence in Zuma was proposed by Agang SA member of Parliament Molapi Plouamma. Plouamma asked the speaker of the National Assembly Baleka Mbete to recuse herself from presiding over the debate, but she refused and so the motion was withdrawn.

March 17 - MOTION OF NO CONFIDENCE 2: A motion of no confidence in President Zuma was brought by the leader of the Democratic Alliance Mmusi Maimane. The motion was defeated by 221-113.

2016:

March 1 - MOTION OF NO CONFIDENCE 3: Zuma survived a motion of no confidence by another comfortable margin  225  99.

He kept on surviving the Motion of no confidence till 2017.

2017: The Public Protector recommended that Zuma should appoint a judicial inquiry into allegations he profited from his relationship with the wealthy Gupta family - he denies the allegations, as have the Guptas

2018: Zuma appoints a commission of inquiry into allegations of state capture and names Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo to head the inquiry.

Now, in February he has resigned from his post.Warner Bros. Pictures / TNS / Contributed photo

Call it an Academy Award or call it an Oscar. Either way, Christopher Nolans Dunkirk has been nominated for eight of those honors, including Best Picture.

Dunkirk tells the true story of the heroic evacuation of some 338,000 Allied soldiers in May and June of 1940. The soldiers were trapped on the English Channel shoreline by an advancing German army. Under air and ground cover from British and French forces, troops were gradually evacuated, using every naval and civilian vessel that could be found.You can stop trying to imagine the future of A.I. because, believe it or not, the future is here. While robots arent yet walking our dogs or doing our grocery shopping, A.I. certainly is a growing presence in the business world. The growth in this industry is astounding.

In fact, most of the top 100 artificial intelligence startups are based in the US. This means that the trends for intelligent automation are becoming increasingly visible. But what is intelligent automation?

It is specially designed software that detects products or objects in images, pulls data from documents or manipulates information. These software robots have been trained to complete tasks that have a human quality. They can adapt and learn the more they work.

Now that you know what it is, lets talk about three ways intelligent automation can help your business:

1. Increase productivity

Imagine a 25-percent increase in staff productivity. Thats what a restaurant in labor-short Singapore expected when they implemented their new flying waiters. These drones are designed to deliver plates to diners while the employees perform other tasks.

This is just one example of the opportunities to increase your employees productivity using RPA, or robotic process automation. Using these software robots, your basic business computing can be done efficiently, freeing up your employees for the non-repetitive and more creative tasks.

While you are imagining the many ways you can increase your businesss productivity, dont forget about the common human errors you can avoid.

Related: AI Is Taking the Art Out of Sales

2. Reduce common human errors

As more businesses turn to automation in an effort to relieve their human workers of repetitive tasks, they are also avoiding many common human errors, making these businesses much more efficient.

Software robots can learn and adapt far more efficiently than most human workers. In chatbot programs, for example, this feature is especially helpful for standard customer service needs.

The chatbots continuously gather information as they are used, and they use that information to help your customers.

With the increasing availability of intelligent automation, what return can you expect to see on your investment?

Related: Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg Are Arguing About AI -- But They're Both Missing the Point

3. Improve your ROI

Now that you have implemented software robots for tasks that you no longer need employees to do, imagine the possibilities for the return on your investment.

You hire fewer employees and pay less in salaries, wages, training, and benefits.

You invest in the automated software and equipment and outsource your maintenance.

With increased productivity and reduced human errors, your average costs for the same work will be much less, which can exponentially increase your return. What business owner wouldnt want that?

Related: Elon Musk Says Mark Zuckerberg's Understanding of AI Is 'Limited' After the Facebook CEO Called His Warnings 'Irresponsible'

Now that youve learned how these trends can help grow your business, whats next? To move forward, discover ways to adapt intelligent automation into your business. Do your research, invest in the technology and watch your business grow.

Related:

3 Ways Intelligent Automation Can Help Grow Your Business

Be My Valentine: Robotics Relationships 101

5 Technology Trends that Will Dominate the Consumer Electronics Market in Coming Years



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com

Californias political leaders dont have to look very far to find a stark example of the pension cost crisis facing the states 482 cities.Three blocks from the Capitol, in Sacramentos city hall, Mayor Darrell Steinberg  a former leader of the state Senate  and other officials are seeing pension costs skyrocket.

Over the past nine years, the citys pension expense has increased by 28 percent or $14.5 million, says a passage in the citys 2017-18 budget. Over the next eight years, the citys pension cost is expected to more than double what is currently paid.

The California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), which handles pensions for virtually all Sacramento city employees, says in its most recent actuarial evaluations that the citys costs will rise from $92.8 million in 2018-19 to $159.4 million by 2024-25, a $66.6 million increase.

Keep that number in mind, because it bears an uncanny resemblance to another figure.

Immediately after explaining the rising pension costs, the citys budget talks about Measure U, a half-cent increase in the sales tax that city voters approved in 2012 and that will expire next year.

Based on current retail sales activity in the city  $6.4 billion in 2016, the last year for which complete data are available  the half-cent tax now generates about $32 million a year, mostly dedicated to police and fire services.

City officials not only want to ask voters to renew that tax, but Mayor Steinberg and other officials may ask them to double it to a full cent, which would raise at least $66 million a year as taxable sales rise.

Sound familiar? Its very close to the projected increase in the citys annual pension costs, driven primarily by those for police officers and firefighters. By 2024, CalPERS projects, Sacramento will be paying 61 cents into the pension fund for every dollar of police and fire salaries, up from 43 cents in 2018-19. For non-safety miscellaneous employees, payments will rise from 19 cents per $1 of payroll to nearly 28 cents.

Of course, rising pension costs arent being mentioned as a reason why the city may be asking its voters to pay more taxes.

During his State of the City address in January, Steinberg talked about creating a multibillion-dollar fund to pay for infrastructure, affordable housing, cultural amenities and incentives to attract new business.

With more capital, we can direct and lead more of the change we want to see, Steinberg said.(tncms-inline)2da607aa-459b-43cb-96c1-fe542ad80da0[0](/tncms-inline)

He said money for the new city improvement fund would come from a new tax and/or sale of unneeded city property.

Facts, however, are facts.

CalPERS is making ever-increasing demands on Sacramento and other local governments for more money to prop up its trust fund, which has scarcely two-thirds of the money it needs to meet current pension promises.

The city of Sacramentos two CalPERS accounts are similarly short, with the police/fire system just 66.5 percent funded and the one for other employees only slightly better at 70.8 percent, its actuarial statements say.

Renewal of Sacramentos expiring half-cent tax would cover perhaps half of the projected increase in annual pension costs, but crowd out other services the tax now finances. Were voters to double it to a full cent, virtually every new dollar it generated would be needed to pay increased CalPERS demands.

Asking voters to raise taxes for popular services without mentioning rising pension costs has become a common tactic in Californias cities.

The League of California Cities has raised the alarm about unsustainable levels of pension costs. Isnt it time for the cities themselves to be truthful when they ask voters for new taxes? And isnt Sacramento the right place to begin the truth-telling?

Rising pension costs arent being mentioned as a reason why Sacramento may be asking its voters to pay more taxes.As the mother of a daughter soon attending Bethel High School, I find myself thinking hard about her future. I have been increasingly amazed by the roadblocks she would face here, as compared to students just like her a few miles away in New York.

Ive heard a lot of rhetoric about millionaires fleeing the state. But as I put my own education to use, a little research proves that is false. In fact, Connecticuts millionaire and billionaire populations are growing, 1, 2, 3 But what IS real is that young people are leaving, and Connecticut is losing tomorrows educated workers and entrepreneurs.

As I look toward a future of skyrocketing student loans for my daughter here in Connecticut, I have to consider that we could move her mere miles to the west and enjoy tuition-free public college in New York. Once there, she could focus on a great education and graduate without being encumbered in debt. Thanks to a $15 minimum wage, she could worry a bit less about paying her bills and staying afloat through college. And once she graduates there, it makes more sense for her to raise a family in a state where she could rely on paid family and medical leave to protect her own familys income and health.

Plus, she would love to experience a great city environment with a multitude of public transportation options, funded in part by a higher tax on millionaires who can afford it.

Thirty-five years ago, the middle-class income of my parents in New York was enough to put me and my sister through good state schools. That education opened me up to an exciting career in computing that brought me to Connecticut. Today in New York, thanks to tuition-free college, that reality is better than ever. Meanwhile in Connecticut, my husband and I have to worry about affording school for our only daughter.

I love Connecticut, and I want to keep my family here. The economic reality makes that difficult for us. It is past time that our legislators step back and do something to help our young students and families.

We cant keep investing in millionaires and losing, while neighboring states are winning by investing in education and working people.

Cyndie McGuire is a resident of Bethel. Santa Clara County is home to the largest Jewish population  73,000  among the 10 counties.

 An estimated 42 percent have a graduate degree in the Bay Area, far more than for Jews elsewhere.

This is a highly dynamic community and we had reason to think that there may be some changes we need to be aware of, said Federation CEO Danny Grossman.

The report includes Napa County, but does not break it out specifically. It estimates there are about 47,000 Jewish people in the North Bay, including Napa, Sonoma and Marin counties.

Rabbi Niles Goldstein, who took over leadership at Napas Congregation Beth Shalom last year, said the results of the survey square with what hes seen in the countythe Jewish community is diverse and decentralized and is generally reflective of the broader community.

Much like Napa County generally, while we have some young families, he said, our Jewish community skews a little older than the Bay Area.EDMONTON, Feb. 15, 2018 /CNW/ - At the Canadian Franchise Show in Calgary, soon-to-be nationwide cannabis retailer Canndara is pleased to announce that it has received and accepted more than 100 cannabis dispensary franchise applications in Western Canada.

Founder Tom Doran and CEO John Radostits discuss the Canndara Cannabis Retail Franchise concept with an enthusiastic crowd at the Canadian Franchise Show in Calgary (CNW Group/Canndara)

Founder Tom Doran said: "In the new era of legalization in Canada, our goal is to introduce successful cannabis retailer locations nationwide. Our turnkey retail and distribution model will seamlessly integrate into each participating province's private distribution model. Strategic partnerships and community focused initiatives will best position us for success."

The Canndara Founders Group has a collective experience of more than 50 years, spanning various industries including hospitality, retailing and healthcare, and are experts at scaling successful businesses.

Tom Doran took over his families Jupiter brand and became a member of the Canadian Franchise Association in 2009. There are now eight locations in Western Canada with plans for continued growth. With extensive experience in the retail and cannabis industry, Tom brings invaluable insight with regards to consumer appetite, market demands and evolving trends.

Ray Yue is a Clinical Pharmacist, serial entrepreneur, investor and healthcare innovator. As Chairman and Co-Founder of Imagine Health, Ray is responsible for the strategic growth of medical centres, dispensaries and both public and private health practices in Canada. Ray has received multiple leadership awards including Canada's Top 40 Canadian Entrepreneurs in 2017 and Top 40 Under 40 in Edmonton.



John Radostits joined the family business at a young age and grew it to the largest franchisee group in Canada under the Sobeys banner, with 5 stores and over 650 employees. John also has 20-plus years in hospitality and is a now a partner in ArcView -- the global leading Cannabis investment platform. He is the winner of many Canadian National retail excellence awards.



Striving to become a company that sets the benchmark high in Cannabis based apothecary, Canndara upholds the very highest standards when it comes to client experience, product education and the experience of cannabis retailing as a whole.

CEO John Radostits said: "After accepting more than 100 applications at the Canadian Franchise Show, we have gathered significant momentum and will be ready for the July 2018 legalization."

The Canndara team can be contacted directly in order to discuss location applications. As applications add up quickly, it's imperative to get in touch in order to secure a location.

SOURCE Canndara

For further information: Tom Doran, 780-916-7274, [email protected], Canndara.com

Related Links

www.canndara.com

The US is moving ahead with deployment of combat lasers up to 300 kilowatts in power over the next 3-5 years versus 32 megajoule railguns. Only one megawatt of power is needed for combat lasers versus tens of megawatts for railguns.

* China has deployed a demo railgun

* the US thought about a demo railgun in 2015 and 2016 but deferred it for probably 5 years

* China has claimed to have made a breakthrough with medium voltage integrated DC power

* US Navy presentations indicate that medium voltage DC power distribution is the key to making affordable power for railguns and electromagnetic launchers

Chinas destroyer program was copying the goals of the US Zumwalt destroyer but the US program went way over budget and failed. The US will only make three Zumwalts. China appears to have better basic electrical engineering and chose more pragmatic options for lower cost.

Medium voltage (about 12000 volt) DC power distribution that is reliable and affordable is the key to having the power for futuristic technology like railguns and electromagnetic launchers.

The US tried to make super-advanced destroyers with a lot of electrical power but they are buggy and cost about 4 times more.

The US has three advanced Zumwalt destroyers that have 78 megawatts of power generation to fire high energy railguns. However the Zumwalts cost $7.5 billion versus the Arleigh Burke class destroyer at about $1.9 billion.

The most recent Burke class destroyers are 9600 tons.

The existing Japanese Atago-class destroyer is over 9,000 tons, the American Zumwalt-class destroyer (only three are built) is over 12,000 tons, and the Russian Udaloy-class destroyer is over 8,000 tons.

Burke Installed power: 3  Allison AG9140 Generators (2,500 kW each, 440 V)

Propulsion: 4  General Electric LM2500 gas turbines each generating 26,250 bhp (19,570 kW);

coupled to two shafts, each driving a five-bladed reversible controllable-pitch propeller;

Total output: 105,000 bhp (78,000 kW)

The US has analyzed the use of medium voltage power distribution in order to affordable integrate electrical power on ships.

There was a 2015 presentation on medium voltage power for ships.

MVDC Voltage Standards

 Proposed MVDC nominal voltages based on IEEE 1709

 6000 VDC

 12000 VDC

 18000 VDC

 Current levels and Power Electronic Devices constrain voltage selection

 4000 amps is practical limit for mechanical switches

 Power electronic device voltages increasing with time (SiC will lead to great increase)

 For now, 12000 VDC appears a good target 

 4000 amps per bus enables 96 MW on 2 busses

Chinas type new 055 destroyers are 12000-14000 tons. The cost is 6 billion yuan or about $900 million.

Type 055 Propulsion:

COGAG 4  QC-280 gas turbines (27 MW (36,000 hp) each)

Total: 112 MW (150,000 shp)

Speed: In excess of 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph)

The second batch of Chinese Type 055 destroyers will likely feature railguns, starting in the 2020-2025 timeframe. A 32 megajoule railgun on the Type 055 destroyer would be able to launch a ten-kilogram projectile over a 100 nautical miles, with the impact energy of medium artillery. Railgun ammunition can be guided, and programmed to explode over a target, destroying soft targets like parked aircraft and missile launchers.

China would have to build the 055 with integrated electric power distribution systems. They would need intelligent distribution system of the ship power, when the electromagnetic gun needs a large amount of electric energy, electric power control system can provide adequate power.

China has claimed success with electrical power management for its aircraft carrier magnetic launch systems and for their submarine propulsion. Integrated Electrical Propulsion System (IEPS) turns all the output of the ships engine into electricity, unlike traditional propulsion designs, which convert engine and reactor output into mechanical action to turn the propeller shaft. The high electrical output can also be used to power motors for the propellers or potentially high-energy weapons.

Rear Adm. Ma Weiming, has developed a medium-voltage, direct-current transmission network to replace an earlier system based on alternating current.

Forming part of an integrated propulsion system, the new system would allow a conventionally powered aircraft carrier to operate an Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, or EMALS, which conveys a number of advantages over traditional steam catapults that include increased efficiency, precision and shortening aircraft launch cycles.

Chinas EMALS technology is claimed to be more advanced and more reliable than the system used on the U.S. Navys aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford.

Reliable and affordable delivery of electrical engineering projects could be a huge advantage for Chinas Navy.Like China, South Korea has used and plans to use high-speed rail for economic development.

South Korea and China both have plans to create high-speed rail and cargo links to Europe.

The South Korea connection would require rail lines through North Korea.

The alternative is an $88 billion undersea train tunnel from South Korea to China.

The undersea tunnel plan was earlier reviewed by some South Korean organizations, but the plan has not been implemented due to exorbitant construction costs worth up to 100 trillion won ($88 billion).

The tunnel will link Incheon and Weihai of Shandong Province, about 340 kilometers apart. It is not clear whether the subject of the review would be for container ships or undersea tunnels.

The Bohai undersea tunnel is 125 kilometers long, which connects Penglai, Shandong Province, and Lushun, Liaoning Province. Crossing the tunnel at 250 kilometers per hour takes 40 minutes. The construction is estimated to cost 200 billion yuan.

In August 2014, it was reported that work is likely to commence during the 13th Five-year plan (2016-2020) and construction would take ten years to complete. The current discussion is for the Bohai tunnel to be completed in 2026.

The British-French Channel Tunnel is 31.4 miles long, making it the 11th longest tunnel in use (the longest is the Delaware Aqueduct, at 85.1 miles), and the fourth longest used by rail passengers. It has the longest undersea portion of any tunnel in the world (23.5 miles.In the 1970s, Princeton physicist Gerard ONeill led two Stanford/NASA Ames Research Center summer studies that supported the feasibility of kilometer-scale orbital cities. These studies assumed that the NASA space shuttle would operate as expected, a flight every week or two, $500/lb. to orbit, and one failure per 100,000 flights. The studies also assumed that a more efficient follow-on heavy-lift launcher would be developed.

Now the SpaceX BFR being developed over the next 5 years or so could deliver low-cost launch that did not happen with the Space Shuttle. The SpaceX Falcon Heavy with reusable first stages could achieve the $500 per pound to orbit target. A fully reusable SpaceX BFR should be able to get well below $500 per pound. SpaceX BFR has a target of $5 to 10 million per launch of 150 tons. A cost of $30 million per launch would enable $100 per pound. SpaceX BFR plans more redundant engines to improve the safety and reliabilty.

* 10,000 launches at $10 million a piece is $100 billion which is half the cost of the 135 Space Shuttle launches and program

* Over $200 billion was spent on the International Space Station which only has from about 3-8 people

* Once SpaceX BFR is proven safe and reliable it could transport 200-400 people at $25K to $50K per ticket

* A $20 billion per dedicated space colonization, industrialization budget could afford this build out by 2040. The US has been spending $62 billion in space for NASA, spy satellites and defense.

* 50-80% of the space stations could be sold to foreign markets and customers

Using the latest space designs and analysis from the National Space Society

Al Globus at the National Space Society has proposed putting space stations in Equatorial Low Earth Orbit would eliminate the need for radiation shielding. Radiation shielding is 95% of the weight of many space station designs.

1. space radiation computations suggest that orbits below about 500 km and close to the equator have radiation levels so low that little or no radiation shielding is required [Globus 2016].

A computational data for a 500 km circular ELEO using polyethylene shielding. Even at 10 kg/m2 shielding, the equivalent of which is very likely to be provided by any reasonable hull, the 20 mSv/yr and 6.6 mGy/yr are met. Indeed, with no shielding at all the general population limit is met and the pregnancy limit is very nearly met. This has an interesting consequence: spacewalks in ELEO may be safe enough from a radiation point of view to be a significant recreational activity.

2. a careful examination of the literature suggests that permanent settlers can tolerate much higher rotation rates (4 to 6 rotations per minute are tolerated to get 1g) than was commonly thought, allowing much smaller settlements to provide 1g artificial gravity

135 Falcon Heavy launches could place a 490 person Kalpana style space station into equatorial orbit with 4 rotations per minute and a diameter of 56 meters. The Falcon Heavy without reusability could launch 63 tons into low earth orbit.

57 launches of a fully reusable Falcon BFR (150 tons per launch) could place the space station into orbit.

A 4 rotation per minute unshielded Stanford Torus would need 4 times fewer launches and one-quarter of the Kalpana population.

14 or 15 launches of a Falcon BFR could place a space station without gravity and radiation issues.

Using lunar mining or near earth asteroids could lower the cost for orbital fuel and other materials by 2 to ten times.

Once a few ELEO settlements have been built and successfully operated we will be able to fill ELEO with an industrial civilization. A 500 km altitude circular orbit at the equator is about 43,000 km long. Assuming a spacing of 1,000 km, that means there is room for 43 settlements. If we assume we can populate orbits every 50 km in altitude from 400 to 600 km we get about 200 settlements. While the first settlements should be as small as possible to take advantage of space hotel development experience, most people, particularly technical people, are accustomed to living in cities with large populations. Thus, it is probably desirable to build larger settlements as quickly as possible and decommission the early small ones once the slots fill up. If each settlement has at least a population of 10,000 that makes for a total ELEO population of over two million.

About 500 Falcon BFR launches to build a 10,000 person space station in ELEO with no gravity or radiation issues. There would also need to be regular flights to provide supplies.

200 settlements would need 10,000 Falcon BFR flights. If each BFR flew four times per week then 50 Falcon BFR could transport the materials to build those settlements.

Starting in 2023 with the first BFR and building about 10 Falcon BFR per year then full orbital production rate could be achieved by 2028. Around 2040, all the settlements in ELEO could be completed.The standard russian Su-35 jet is able to match performance characteristics of a fifth-generation fighter  with the sole exception of its lack of stealth capabilities. A fifth-generation variant of the Su-35 could mean just adding stealth modifications.

Boeing has extensively modified the airframe of its F-15E strike fighter to develop the F-15SE Silent Eagle  a variant of the fighter with a reduced frontal radar cross section and radar absorbing paints. While the F-15E lacks the upgraded avionics, advanced missiles, and supermaneuverability of the Su-35, and cannot be considered fifth generation even with stealth capabilities, its stealth variant allows U.S. allies to field low observable heavy fighters.

Pakistan developing its own light stealth fighter. China has the J20 and other stealth planes.

India needs about 100 somewhat stealthy high-performance fighters.

The SU-35 has more range and speed than a F-18 Super Hornet

There has been talk about making a stealth modified Advanced Super Hornet.Pacific Gas & Electric Co. is taking the unusual step of making proactive phone calls to several thousand customers whose properties were devastated by the October wildfires.

The utility initiated the effort about one week ago to give customers a chance to ask questions about their bills or other aspects of the rebuilding process PG&E might be able to help with, according to spokeswoman Deanna Contreras.

In the wake of the wildfires, PG&E temporarily stopped billing thousands of Northern California customers in fire-affected areas, causing some frustration among residents whose bills accumulated for months even after they started service at a different address. As PG&E began releasing those suspended bills, the company was at first only calling customers whose bills were $500 or more.

Now, PG&E has decided to contact about 7,000 customers in Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and Lake counties whose properties were rendered uninhabitable by the wildfires, Contreras said. PG&E doesn't normally make such widespread proactive calls -- and warns an alleged phone call like that can signal a scam -- but the company deemed this effort necessary due to the disaster, according to Contreras, though she stressed the utility won't ever ask for personal information such as Social Security numbers or demand payment immediately.Nextbigfuture wrote about Nautilus Minerals several times since 2010. Nautilus Mineral is scaling up ocean floor mining.

In January 2016, Nautilus Minerals took delivery of the three Seafloor Production Tools (SPTs) from SMD. The SPTs were shipped to PNG in April 2017 to undergo submerged trials. The trials are due to be completed in Q1 2018. The submerged trials are designed to provide a submerged demonstration of the fully assembled SPTs and will involve submerged testing of:

Control systems operations and feedback

Hydraulic functions

Collection system functions

Survey and visualization systems

They plan to start production mining early in 2019.

How Oceanfloor mining will work

Rock is disaggregated on the seafloor by two large robotic machines that excavate material by a continuous cutting process, not unlike coal or other bulk continuous mining machines on land. The Auxiliary Cutter (AC) is a preparatory machine that deals with rough terrain and creates benches for the other machines to work. It will operate on tracks and has a boom mounted cutting head for flexibility.

The second machine, the Bulk Cutter has higher cutting capacity but will be limited to working on flatter areas and benches created by the AC. Both machines leave cut material in temporary positions on the seafloor for collection by the third machine, the Collecting Machine (CM). The CM, also a large robotic vehicle, will collect the cut material by drawing it in as seawater slurry with internal pumps and pushing it through a flexible pipe to the Riser and Lifting System (RALS).

The RALS comprises a large pump and rigid riser pipe supported from the vessel which delivers the slurry to the surface. The pump is supported on a solid vertical (riser) pipe suspended beneath the support vessel.

On deck of the Production Support Vessel (PSV), the slurry is dewatered. The dewatered solid material is stored temporarily in the PSVs hull, and then discharged to a transportation vessel moored alongside. Filtered seawater is pumped back to the seafloor through the riser pipes and provides hydraulic power to operate the RALS pump. Discharge of the return water at the seafloor from where it came eliminates mixing of the water column, and minimizes the environmental impact of the operation.

700 foot long support ship

Nautilus has chartered a 700 foot long Production Support Vessel (PSV). It will provide a stable platform for operations using world-class dynamic positioning technologies to ensure it stays on location at Solwara 1 irrespective of wind and wave conditions. The PSV will be designed for use in offshore construction and seafloor mining

The PSV will be equipped with a moonpool through which the Subsea Slurry and Lift Pump (SSLP) and riser system can be deployed. On deck of the PSV, the slurry is dewatered. The dewatered solid material is stored temporarily in the PSVs hull, and then discharged to a transportation vessel moored alongside the PSV about every 5 to 7 days. Filtered seawater is pumped back to the seafloor through the riser pipes and provides hydraulic power to operate the SSLP.

Discharge of the return water at the seafloor from where it came eliminates mixing of the water column, and minimizes the environmental impact of the operation.

When completed, the PSV will measure 227 meters in length and 40 meters in width with accommodation for up to 180 people and generate approximately 31MW of power. All of the below deck mining equipment will be installed on the PSV during the build process to minimize the equipment integration to be completed following delivery of the PSV.

The Company has entered into an agreement for the charter of the PSV with Marine Assets Corporation (MAC), a marine solutions company based in Dubai which specializes in the delivery of new build support vessels for the offshore industry. MAC will own and provide the marine management of the PSV. The PSV will be chartered to Nautilus for a minimum period of five years at a rate of US$199,910 per day, with options to either extend the charter or purchase the PSV at the end of the five year period.

They are using various 250-310 ton machine for the seabed mining.

Oil rigs and oil ships are even largerPresident Trump has delegated more authority to the US military. The US has pushed the Taliban back from several district centers and two provincial capitals.

Col. Stephen Joker Jones is commander of the 451st Air Expeditionary Group, in charge of the airfield at Kandahar and all Air Force flying operations in Afghanistan.

The US military chain of command are convinced that President Donald Trumps new South Asia strategy can work.

Heres why: Up to now, as senior U.S. military leaders in Afghanistan see things, theyve never really had the chance to win. As they see it, past years have brought only fits and starts on the battlefield and in the Situation Room, troop surges that won hard-fought gains and drawdowns that gave them up again, early overestimations of Afghan capabilities and more recent failures to build on successes. But now, they say, they have the strongest and most capable Afghan force theyve worked with, led by a combat-seasoned generation of Afghan senior officers and NCOs. And they say that Trumps plan gives them permission to wage a sustained, offensive air and ground campaign against whats left of the Taliban. Afghanistan, they believe, finally has a chance to win.

Afghanistans corruption remains a top problem. Another concern is ensuring that economic progress matches up with security progress.

The Afghanistan Taliban has just released a letter that says they wanted to end the 17-year conflict through peace talks with President Donald Trump. The letter also warned that the pacifist tack shouldnt be perceived as a sign of weakness and its fight against the U.S. troops in Afghanistan will persist until they leave the premises.

The leash is off [the US military]. Since 2014, when President Barack Obama declared the end of combat operations, the U.S. military basically has been restricted to defending against Taliban attacks. No more. The coalition has new U.S. attack planes, ground groups, a target list, and the authorities to strike them.

This is all part of our overarching strategy to continue to put pressure on the Taliban until they realize theyve basically got a binary choice: they can negotiate and reconcile, or live in irrelevance and die, said Brig. Gen. Lance Bunch, who directs future operations at Resolute Support headquarters and is the lead for the strategic air campaign. Well continue to go until the Taliban reconcile.

 even more aircraft are arriving from the ISIS war in Iraq and Syria: JSTARS, Rivet Joints, and tankers flying from al-Udeid Air Base, Qatar.

Air strikes are already underway targeting the Talibans financial and drug networks, just as the anti-ISIS campaign targeted oil production, banks, and cash stores in Iraq and Syria.

In Afghanistan, there are 400 to 500 suspected drug labs.

US Military Operations in 2018

February 6, 2018 press release: United States Forces-Afghanistan launched a series of precision strikes in Northern Afghanistan in a direct effort to destroy insurgent revenue sources, training facilities, and support networks.

Over the past 96 hours, U.S. forces conducted air operations to strike Taliban training facilities in Badakhshan province, preventing the planning and rehearsal of terrorist acts near the border with China and Tajikistan by such organizations as the East Turkistan Islamic Movement and others. The strikes also destroyed stolen Afghan National Army vehicles that were in the process of being converted to vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices.

During these strikes, a U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress dropped 24 precision guided munitions on Taliban fighting positions, setting a record of the most guided munitions ever dropped from a B-52. The aircraft has played a leading role in Air Force operations for decades, and was recently reconfigured with a conventional rotary launcher to increase its reach and lethality.NEW HAVEN  The judge in Bobby Griffin Jr.s trial on a murder charge Wednesday ruled that an expert on false confessions will be allowed to testify on behalf of the defense.

Griffins attorneys argued the jury should hear about false confessions because the two lawyers contend police detectives coerced Griffin into saying he fatally shot Nathaniel Bradley during a robbery attempt five years ago on Ella T. Grasso Boulevard.

Griffin, 25, of Peck Street, is charged with felony murder, murder, attempted first-degree robbery and conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery. Bradley, 36, of Hamden, was shot as he stood outside his car on the night of Oct. 14, 2013.

Superior Court Judge Elpedio N. Vitale Wednesday listened to preliminary testimony from the false confessions expert, Williams College professor Alan Hirsch, while the jury was absent. Vitale held that hearing to determine whether to let Hirsch testify with the jurors present.

Prosecutors Sean McGuinness and John P. Doyle Jr. objected to having Hirsch testify. McGuinness said, He is an academic who has never himself participated in or watched an interrogation, except on videotape. I dont think hes qualified.

McGuinness also noted that during the voir dire process, when the jurors were questioned before being selected, they were asked about confessions and said they understood some such statements can be false. It wont help the jury to have him (Hirsch) come in and re-state it.

McGuinness said such testimony would be prejudicial. Its speculative, as he admits. Its wink, wink, this happens all the time, dont convict this guy.

But defense attorney Wade Luckett said Hirschs testimony would be relevant, especially since the states case is built on his confession.

It would assist the jury, Luckett added. You cant be sure they understand this this (false confessions) always happens across the country.

During the hearing, Hirsch said people find it hard to accept the idea of false confessions. They find it counter-intuitive.

But Hirsch cited statistics from the Innocence Project, whose lawyers began testing the DNA of convicted persons and the evidence in those cases starting in the late 1980s. They found that hundreds of people had been wrongly convicted and about one-quarter of them had confessed.

Hirsch called those cases just a sliver of the universe of false confessions.

Hirsch described the Reid technique, commonly used by police during interrogations. He said the nine-step process uses confrontation. He quoted what police or detectives say: You did it; we know you did it. We have the evidence; youre done.

Hirsch said this is followed by minimalization, in which the police tell the suspect: If you confess, it wont be so bad. Somebody else was the main guy. Your punishment wont be that severe.

Under this technique, Hirsch said, The suspect is told confession is the only way out and its not a particularly bad way out.

But Hirsch added, The problem with the Reid technique is it breaks down the innocent as well as the guilty.

Griffins attorneys have asserted that during his interrogation by two detectives, which lasted 3 to 4 hours, the detectives lied to him about the evidence they had against him and told him he needed to confess. Detective David Zaweski acknowledged during his testimony Tuesday that he and Detective Nicole Natale did lie about the evidence they had, which police are allowed to do in such situations.

Luckett told Vitale Wednesday during arguments about Hirsch testifying that if people watch the videotape of Griffins interrogation, you can tell it (Reid) is the method that was used. He said the jury will be able to study this during its deliberations. They have seen the videotape already and have the option of watching it again.

When Vitale announced his ruling late Wednesday afternoon, again with the jury absent, he specified Hirsch will not be allowed to discuss the interrogation of Griffin and his confession. Instead he will be permitted to talk generally about the techniques of confrontation and minimalization.

Vitale summoned the jurors into the courtroom at about 4:30 p.m. and instructed them to report back to hear testimony Thursday morning. Hirsch will be the first to testify.

Earlier Wednesday the state rested its case. The prosecutions final witness was Ryan Rosozinski, a corrections officer for the state Department of Correction. He testified about recorded phone conversations of calls Griffin made from prison and a letter he wrote which authorities intercepted. Those materials appeared to depict Griffin asking friends to give police a version of events that would show he was not the one who shot Bradley.

The jurors listened to several of the phone calls and the court clerk read the letter to them.

randall.beach@hearstmediact.comNEW HAVEN  As grassroot advocates for entering Connecticut into the National Popular Vote Compact work with state legislators to bring the measure to a vote during this session, they are also drumming up support among the people.

As part of this effort, supporters of the measure have been knocking on doors and speaking to audiences about the idea, which seeks to have state legislatures, in collaboration with other states in the compact, have their electors vote for the winner of the national vote. The system does not abolish the electoral college, but uses the electoral college to be more representative of peoples individual votes nationwide, advocates say.

The electoral college can only be abolished through constitutional amendment, which has incentivized activists to work around the issue. However, state legislatures are the only body that can determine how a state selects its electors, so the Connecticut General Assembly has become crucial to the strategy for a national popular vote movement.

On Thursday, advocates took the campaign to the Yale Law School, hosted by the Yale Law Democrats, with former Democratic Wisconsin U.S. Senator Russell Feingold delivering a keynote address.

Feingold, now a lecturer at the law school, said the issue is bipartisan and is intended to closer reflect the spirit of one person, one vote. Presently, the system reflects a mindset of winner takes all.

The electoral college is obviously seriously flawed, he said. And this is a good way to fix it.

Jonathan Perloe, a spokesman for National Popular Vote Compact CT, said the aim of the compact is to create a coalition of states and territories with 270 or more electoral votes, or what is necessary to elect a president under the current election system. As of today, the signatories  10 states and Washington D.C.  represent 165 votes. Connecticut has seven electoral votes.

Connecticut is at the absolute core to the success or failure of this movement, Feingold said. The seven electoral votes would offer momentum to securing the other 98, he said.

American foreign policy has involved a lot of lecturing other nations on holding democratic elections, he said, yet the American system itself leads to voters in safe states  reliable Democratic or Republican strongholds  to feeling disengaged from the process, and disincentivizes national politicians from campaigning outside of swing states.

Democratic Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney of New Haven said the issue has become partisan in the General Assembly, as two of the last five presidential elections have favored Republican candidates who lost the popular vote but won the electoral college.

Looney said he expects a full and aggressive debate during this legislative session.

Jonathan Bell, director of the Making Every Vote Count, said poll results in Connecticut are favorable for a national popular vote. Although the measure was brought up in the Connecticut General Assembly in 2017, it did not make it to a vote. The energy in the room during public hearings, he said, was unmatched in passion and organization compared to elsewhere.

Steve Winter, a New Haven alderman from Ward 21 and a national popular vote activist, said the margin in Hartford is razor thin, and advocates have launched a postcard writing campaign.

We really do have an opportunity to send a message to the whole country about how our president is elected, he said. The campaign has also tried to pressure Republicans in competitive districts, making it a wedge issue.

Charlotte Schwartz, a co-president of the Yale Law Democrats, said the organization opted to host the discussion because of its progressive intent.

Were interested in ensuring the legitimacy of government institutions, she said. Equality is a value within the Constitution, and counting the votes nationally would reflect that.

Perloe said some view the movement as an attempt to have states with large populations  California, New York and Texas  dominate national politics, but he views it as a miscalculation. Although California and New York are safe for Democrats and Texas for Republicans, there are Republicans in New York and California who are frequently shut out from the presidential electoral process just for being in the minority, as are Democrats in Texas.

Additionally, he said, a small percentage of the national population determines presidential elections under the current process, as only a handful of states  many of them small in population  are seen as electorally movable by candidates.Bannon, Brand and Porter are each examples of the extremely high turnover in senior positions, and Wray has his job because of turnover. It may be more taxing to work amid the ambient chaos of this administration than it usually is to hold a senior position in the executive branch - which adds to the turnover. Brand was reportedly unhappy in her job in part because the administration had not gotten enough other appointees confirmed to the Justice Department. Her departure will add to the vacancies.

The work can be grueling in any administration, and people take the jobs anyway because there are also rewards. But working for Trump presents special challenges.

The latest news illustrates some of them. The president inspires no loyalty, as Bannon shows. The top aides spend a lot of their mental energy figuring out how to leak to their advantage and to the disadvantage of their internal enemies, as we have seen in the days since Porter left the White House. Being employed there can lead others to associate you with low ethics, including callousness about domestic abuse. And the president feels it appropriate to criticize his own appointees in public rather than simply replace them if they have lost his confidence (as Brand's superior, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has experienced).As Friends of the Napa River prepares for the ongoing efforts to complete the Napa River Flood Control Project, we held a small celebration last weekend to express our immense gratitude to our political leaders who have helped to make this ongoing project such a resounding success and a global example of enlightened flood protection and river restoration.

Thanks to the innovation, collaboration, and dedication of the Napa River community and our leaders, our river is rebounding. We have major flood control improvements, hundreds of acres of wetlands and miles of river restored. We are enjoying a revitalized Napa Waterfront, with improved access to the river, water trails and new parks. The community is embracing the Oxbow Preserve, Oxbow Commons and Trancas Crossing Park, to name a few. Fish and wildlife are returning to the Napa River, too, including waterfowl, wading birds, salmon, osprey, beaver and river otters.

Although the current Flood Control Project protected our community at least three times last year, there is more to do: Flood walls and pumping stations must be built to protect neighborhoods still vulnerable to flooding, and additional restoration projects are needed. Measure As half-cent sales tax is expiring in 2018, and we will need to find funding to complete the project.SEYMOUR  First Selectman Kurt Miller has officially kicked off his campaign to run for state comptroller, saying hes ready to tackle the role as chief fiscal guardian to help Connecticut climb out of massive debt.

Miller, 48, a Republican, filed paperwork this week after spending weeks contemplating a decision to seek higher office, and getting the go-ahead from his main boss at home, wife of 20 years, Tara.

The State of Connecticut is not going in the right direction, and if all were going to do is complaint about it, why not get involved and help fix it? Miller said.

Miller spent the last six years putting Seymours finances on sound, financial ground, and along with his team, managed to stabilize the mill rate, nab a near perfect AA+ bond rating, increase the fund balance, lower the debt ratio, land several awards for excellence in financial reporting all while managing to make upgrades to the towns infrastructure.

The father of two said his professional 20-year background prior to getting elected first selectmen in 2011 qualifies him for the state job. Miller worked as a financial services consultant for Diversified Investment Advisors, specializing in pension plan investments, and was also an account relationship manager for CUNA Mutual Group, providing financial services to credit unions across New England. Hes also a licensed funeral director for the family business, Miller-Ward Funeral Ward, and also served as chairman of Seymours Board of Finance.

Miller is prepared to take what hes done right for Seymour and bring that knowledge and expertise to Hartford to help undo all thats been done wrong.

I have a proven track record in Seymour and I take finances very seriously, he said. While Seymour has been going in a very positive direction over the past six years, the state has been going in the wrong direction for the past eight years. Im tired of the hard work and efforts of our towns and cities being ruined by massive cuts because the state cant keep its fiscal house in order.

Miller said if hes lucky enough to land the state office, he vowed to keep peoples purse strings his top priority.

The comptrollers office is responsible for the states checkbook, Miller. I will make sure our money is being spent effectively and efficiently and be the peoples voice in the process  and I will not be a rubber stamp for the governor or the legislature even if its my own party.

The Seymour High School Class of 1988 graduate plans to keep Seymour his priority, while striking a balance between his day-to-day work in town with his campaign.

The Town of Seymour comes first, he said.

So far, Miller looks to face a challenge from Republican businessman, Mark Greenberg, along with current Democratic State Comptroller Kevin Lembo. Party conventions will take place in May to nominate and select a candidate. If more than one candidate from the same party is selected, a primary will take place in August to select the candidate for the November ballot.

More information about Miller, along with a video he released about his decision to run, can be found on his Facebook page.

jean.sos@snet.net.A 75-year-old woman dubbed "Kingpin Granny" by authorities was arrested after more than 1,000 illegally-obtained prescription pills and cash were seized at her Parsons, Tenn., home, according to WVNS-TV.

Betty Jordan was taken into custody Feb. 9 by the Decatur County Sheriff's Office following a "lengthy investigation" into illegal prescription drug sales, the department said. Investigators accused Jordan of distributing morphine, oxycodone and Xanax.

In addition to the drugs, authorities also seized more than $12,000 in cash and assets, the Sheriff's Office said. Jordan was booked with three counts of manufacturing, delivery, sale or possession of drugs, illegal possession of a legend drug and two counts of possession of a legend drug with the intent to distribute.

Jordan was released from jail on a $50,000 bond. Investigators expect more arrests.



MELBOURNE, Florida - Parents are upset because they were not notified by Brevard Public Schools that bullets struck Stone Magnet Middle School while students were still on campus for extracurricular activities just after 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, February 13, 2017.





Stone Middle School is located at 1101 East University Boulevard in Melbourne, Florida. The bullets are presumed to be strays from a shooting that occurred around the same time at Lizzy's Restaurant which is located less than a quarter-of-a-mile from the school at 1301 East University Boulevard.



More than 50 rounds were fired at Lizzy's without anyone being seriously injured, police say.





Brevard Times. "Yes, bullets struck a school building at Stone Middle after school hours. No students or staff were affected," Brevard Public Schools spokesman Matt Reed told





"The case is still under investigation by Melbourne P.D., So, I cant provide further comment on it. However, we always recommend that parents share their concerns and seek answers directly with their school principals."LIBREVILLE, Gabon  Gabons constitutional court on Saturday upheld President Ali Bongo Ondimbas victory last month in a disputed election, raising fears of continued unrest as the Bongo family extends its political dynasty of nearly half a century in Gabon.

The announcement read by the courts president, Marie-Madeleine Mborantsuo, put an end to the legal challenges available to the opposition candidate, Jean Ping. Mr. Ping had sought a recount of the votes after provisional results showed him losing by less than two percentage points.

The courts announcement indicated that Mr. Bongos margin of victory was in fact larger than previously announced  50 percent of the vote, up from the provisional result of 49 percent.

I will make this victory one for all Gabonese, Mr. Bongo said in a statement posted on his Twitter account.Theres a potentially ideal merger partner for the $104 billion Goldman Sachs. The Wall Street firms chief executive, Lloyd C. Blankfein, told shareholders on Tuesday that it was already having some success turning around its stumbling fixed-income, currency and commodities trading unit. But buying $56 billion Bank of New York Mellon could be a better fix  if only the asset-management and custody specialist werent in a different league.

If the two were to combine, Goldman would get hold of more than $33 trillion in assets under custody and supervision  think clearing, cash management, global payments and the like. Goldman may be able to sweet-talk Bank of New York Mellon clients into sending more trades its way.

JPMorgan and Citigroup already use similar businesses to great effect, helping to explain why their F.I.C.C. traders rake in twice as much revenue or more. The match could also help Goldman meet Mr. Blankfeins goal, laid out in September, of broadening its reach with both investors and corporations.

Marrying Bank of New York Mellon also would reduce Goldmans reliance on trading. The F.I.C.C. unit, for example, would account for just 11 percent of revenue, down from 17 percent. A union would also more than double assets under management to $3.4 trillion and take that divisions share of the top line to more than 45 percent. On top of that, if Goldman could cut as much as 20 percent of its targets expenses, those would be worth some $17 billion once taxed and capitalized  enough to justify paying a 30 percent premium to Bank of New York Mellons current market value.James Dashner, the author of The Maze Runner young-adult series, has been dropped by his literary agent amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

Mr. Dashners agent, Michael W. Bourret, said in a statement to The Associated Press on Wednesday that under the circumstances, he could no longer represent Mr. Dashner.

I couldnt in good conscience continue working with James, and I let him go yesterday, Mr. Bourret said.

Comments left on the website of School Library Journal, a monthly magazine for librarians, included allegations about Mr. Dashner, 45; Jay Asher, the author of Thirteen Reasons Why; and other popular writers of young-adult novels.For allegations of criminal sexual conduct, the boards memo called for a new policy allowing the board to notify the appropriate district attorneys office  a step beyond its current practice of only notifying the Internal Affairs Bureau  though it said the high burden of proof in such cases means prosecutors often cannot or will not pursue them.

Andrew Case, a lawyer who was a spokesman for the review board, said he worries that if these cases, particularly forcible assaults, fall to C.C.R.B., then that would be a sign that D.A.s are not doing all they can to investigate truly criminal acts.

New York state law does not explicitly forbid sexual contact between police officers and people in their custody, though it forbids such conduct by correction and parole officers. The New York State Assembly last week passed legislation to prevent police officers from escaping legal consequences of an alleged sexual assault by saying arrestees consented, and the State Senate is now considering the same measure. The New York City Council is also considering legislation that would make it a misdemeanor crime for police officers to have sexual contact with people in custody.

The 117 allegations of sexual misconduct the board referred to the Internal Affairs Bureau between January 2016 and June included a variety of allegations, from catcalls and sexual propositions to unwanted touching and rape, the memo said. It summarized three of them to provide a range of cases the board receives.

In one, a woman questioned by a Bronx detective in 2014, at a shooting scene, went on to repeatedly encounter the same man around the neighborhood and recalled that he would regularly lick his lips and make lewd expressions toward her, the boards memo said. In 2016, as she was held in a station house jail cell on a driving charge, the same detective entered her cell and made a profane gesture and a reference to oral sex.

In another, a man alleged that an officer twice squeezed his genitals during a frisk last year that followed a street stop for jaywalking.

The Police Department declined to answer questions about any discipline handed down to officers in the 117 complaints referred to its Internal Affairs Bureau, how the cases were decided or what the complaints alleged. It said it would work with the review board to implement the new procedure.

For all review board referrals to the Internal Affairs Bureau, a huge issue is that the police dont tell us what happens with any of them, Mr. Case said. One of the things this speaks to, a broader issue, is reporting from I.A.B. to C.C.R.B. about all referrals.Mayor Bill de Blasio offered a bleak view of civic life in New York and the nation on Tuesday night. If put to canvas, his State of the City speech setting forth an agenda for his second term might well be colored in 50 shades of charcoal gray. He spoke about the decline of democracy, about a country at risk of becoming a pseudo-democracy, about how we are so far from what the norm should be of an active and inclusive democracy, about how I have never felt our democracy as imperiled as I do today. The grim litany was almost enough to make one reach for the bottle.

Were in sync with him on the perils of social and economic inequality and on the need for vigilance in the face of this White Houses routine flouting of democratic norms. But its hard to escape the sense that Mr. de Blasio is an imperfect messenger for some of the reforms he advocated to redemocratize a society that is losing its way.

His call for broader public financing of local elections and getting big money out of politics sounded good. But it might have resonated more had it come from someone who did not rely on big money in his campaigns, and was criticized by federal prosecutors for blurring pay-to-play ethics  and has no doubt run his last race for local office.

The mayor pledged to create a commission to revise City Charter provisions on campaign financing. Every New York mayor in the last quarter-century has favored this sort of panel to achieve a specific goal, usually stocking it with loyalists. Why bother with a process that may well run a tortuous course? Nothing stops Mr. de Blasio from immediately drafting legislation to get the same result, and persuading the City Council to pass it.The answer has to do, I think, with a lack of integrity, an absence of a moral compass, a narcissism in which the all-consuming need becomes to protect oneself and ones boss.

Lack of integrity may also be the best way to capture the morphing scandal of the pre-election $130,000 payoff to a porn star to apparently keep quiet about an affair with Trump. Its bad enough that Trump appears to have been cheating on Melania right after she had their baby (Oh, dont worry about her, he is said to have told the actress). But with the payoff and reported cover-up, Trump is betraying all of us.

When The Wall Street Journal first reported the porn-star payout by Michael Cohen, Trumps longtime lawyer, Cohen denounced the report as a false narrative of outlandish allegations.

Oops. Take two. This week, Cohen confirmed the payment in a statement saying that he facilitated the transfer with his own cash. It doesnt seem quite true, as some news organizations reported, that Cohen precisely denied that he had been reimbursed. Cohens statement was artful. He denied that he had been reimbursed by either the Trump Organization or the Trump presidential campaign, but not that he had been reimbursed by someone else  say, by Trump himself. (The White House did not respond to my inquiry about whether Trump had personally paid the $130,000.)

Sometimes politicians, liberals and conservatives alike, are unprincipled in pursuit of principles they are passionate about. But Trump aides dont seem to believe in any cause larger than themselves or their leader.

Thats alarming because of the risks that even worse might lie ahead. When self-absorbed people are caught in a growing scandal, they overreach. In this case, that might mean the firing of Robert Mueller or Rod Rosenstein, or some military clash that changes the subject. To be clear, I dont think officials would deliberately turn to war as a solution to political problems, but we all have a remarkable ability to persuade ourselves that what is good for us is also good for the country.

Every administration suffers embarrassments. But when there is a basic lack of integrity at the top, these do not easily self-correct; rather, they build upon themselves because of an impulse to cover up and layer new deceptions on top of old deceit. That seems to be what is happening in both the Rob Porter and porn-payoff scandals.

The risk is that this stain continues to spread, metastasizing and bringing down everything around it. And to me, it looks as if the Trump administration is now metastasizing.They testified that the president has never asked them to take measures to combat Russian interference and protect democratic processes.

Mr. Trump isnt completely oblivious about Russia, of course. He fired Mr. Wrays predecessor, James Comey, to derail the F.B.I.s investigation of possible Trump campaign involvement with the election hacking, and reportedly asked Mr. Coats and Mr. Pompeo to help end the investigation of his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and Mr. Flynns contacts with Russians.

With the midterm elections only nine months away, the federal government is taking some defensive measures. It is trying to get at least one election official in each state a security clearance to make them aware of threats, and is providing states with enhanced online security to ensure that Americans votes will not be manipulated.

Nevertheless, absent Mr. Trumps commitment, there can be no robust mobilization to take all measures needed to confront an insidious problem that strikes at the heart of the democratic system. These would include a comprehensive and well-funded plan for protecting critical infrastructure, countering cyberattacks and mitigating propaganda.

The president should not only be strengthening electoral defenses, but also pushing back against Russia, instead of ignoring a law Congress adopted overwhelmingly to impose sanctions for election meddling and aggression against Ukraine. The list of potential activities meriting sanctions covers weapons deals, human rights abuses and Russian cyberattacks against the United States and other democracies.FRONT PAGE

An article on Tuesday about the contingent of North Korean cheerleaders at the Olympics misstated the title of an Avril Lavigne song that South Koreas cheerleaders danced to. It is Girlfriend, not Boyfriend.

INTERNATIONAL

An article on Wednesday about Rohingya refugee camps that are vulnerable to flooding, quoting the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, misstated the start of the monsoon in Bangladesh. It begins in June, not March. (March is the start of cyclone season, which can also produce severe flooding.)

NATIONAL

An article on Wednesday about state legislatures attempts to punish courts for controversial rulings misstated the date that the United States Supreme Court refused to review a lower court ruling on the drawing of a Pennsylvania congressional district. It was Feb. 5, not Feb. 12.

THE ARTS

The Here to Help column on Jan. 31 about three books on El Salvador misstated the year the Salvadoran poet Roque Dalton was killed. The year was 1975, not 1973. The article also misidentified Mr. Dalton as a guerrilla soldier. He was a member of the armed movement, but did not participate in combat.People are still going to go out and do their thing and have fun  maybe just in different ways. You cant ban love.

OBAID MALIK, a businessman in Islamabad, Pakistan, where a court banned Valentines celebrations, deeming them against the teachings of Islam and a sign of growing Western influence.Brandon Minoff, a student at Stoneman Douglas High School, said in an interview with CNN that a teacher assigned him to work with Mr. Cruz on a group project two years ago. Mr. Cruz was quiet in class but opened up during their project, Mr. Minoff said, telling him that he had been kicked out of two private schools, had been held back twice and aspired to join the military.

He was always to himself and never tried to associate himself with anyone, Mr. Minoff said. As far as I know, he didnt have any friends.

School officials declined to say why Mr. Cruz no longer attended Douglas High School. But Amanda Samaroo, whose daughter, Elizabeth, attended the school while he was a student there, said he had been expelled for bringing knives on campus. Her friends have said he was known to always be mentally ill and would kill animals, Ms. Samaroo said.

Helen Pasciolla, who is retired, lives on an elegant street in the Pine Tree Estates development in Parkland, three houses down and across from where the Cruz family resided until about a year ago. Ms. Pasciolla said that Mr. Cruz told her that the family had to move out of their one-story beige house and sell it because they could no longer afford it.

She said that Mr. Cruz has a brother, Zachary, and that both boys were adopted. Their adoptive father died some years ago, she added.

Ms. Pasciolla said that the boys mother, Lynda Cruz, had regular problems with their behavior. On occasion, she said, the mother would resort to calling the police to have them come over to try to talk some sense into her sons.

Image The suspect arrested in connection with Wednesdays shooting at a Florida high school, which left at least 17 people dead, was identified by the sheriff as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz. Credit... via Social Media

I think she wanted to scare them a little bit, Ms. Pasciolla said. Nikolas has behavioral problems, I think, but I never thought he would be violent.

When she saw his picture on TV on Wednesday after the shooting, Ms. Pasciolla said that she thought to herself, Oh, my God, thats the kid who lived down the street.

Sheriff Israel said that the authorities did not yet know the motive for the killing, but were learning more about Mr. Cruz through his social media pages, which he described as very, very concerning.

Screen shots of an Instagram page said to belong to Mr. Cruz show many photos of a man holding firearms and ammunition used in a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle. One photo shows several guns, including rifles with scopes, lying on a bed. Another appears to show a frog that had been killed.

After Mr. Cruz left Douglas High School, he took a job at a Dollar Tree store about a mile and a half from the school. A person who answered the phone at the store on Wednesday evening said that Mr. Cruz worked as a cashier and was well liked by his colleagues.

He was a great guy, the person said.

He added that he last saw Mr. Cruz about a year ago before he transferred to another Dollar Tree store closer to his home.

Another student at Douglas High School, Ocean Parodie, told The Daily Beast that he visited the store after Mr. Cruz was expelled to check on him. He said he was expelled and was happy that he was thrown out, Mr. Parodie said. I felt bad for him.Imagine classes that provide students with the technical skills for the emerging field of connecting smart devices to the internet  known as the internet of things from refrigerators to lights to cars.

To ready students for this workforce, Cal State Fullerton is at the forefront of developing an interdisciplinary, undergraduate internet of things elective track, supported by a nearly $300,000 grant from Cisco Systems Inc.

The funding, awarded through the Silicon Valley Community Foundation in collaboration with Cisco Corporate Social Responsibility, supports a new foundational curriculum within the universitys computer science and computer engineering programs.

The internet of things is a set of computing technologies that promises to bring intelligence to devices that are used in everyday life, said Anand Panangadan, assistant professor of computer science, who is co-leading the effort with Kiran George, professor of computer engineering.

Susamma Barua, interim dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science, hailed Cisco for investing in the universitys students, faculty and programs that support innovative curriculum and new opportunities for the local and global economy.

As a result, our faculty members will develop an interdisciplinary curriculum to help students and industry professionals build new skill sets to be competitive in the workplace for the rapidly evolving internet of things, Barua said.

The new curriculum is being developed in partnership with representatives from Orange County technical industries, Panangadan added.

Our world is changing every day, and technology is a driving force. At Cisco, we believe educational institutions and organizations focused on emerging entrepreneurs can be instrumental in enabling local economic development, said Tae Yoo, Ciscos senior vice president of corporate affairs/corporate social responsibility.

Public universities such as Cal State Fullerton have the capacity to produce a digitally skilled workforce in the Southern California region, shaping new ideas and industries to fuel the local economy.

The new elective track brings together students from multiple degree programs, allowing them to take elective courses to become knowledgeable in the internet of things, George said. The first course, Rapid Prototyping for IoT, will debut this summer, with additional courses offered in subsequent fall and spring semesters as they are developed and approved by the college.

Students will learn to collect measurements from sensors, analyze the data for patterns, build Internet applications using these sensors, and understand the differences of computing using tiny embedded processors versus regular desktop computers, George explained.

Additionally, students will be exposed to the entrepreneurship potential of the internet of things, with computer science and business students collaborating on real-world projects and creating business plans. A speaker series featuring industry experts and outreach programs for high school students also is planned.To that end, Ms. Warren, an Oklahoma native, used a recounting of her roots to not just tell her familys ethnic story but to present a tale of Dust Bowl hardship that has the makings of a stump speech aimed at inoculating her against charges of being a member of the coastal elite.

My mothers family was part Native American, she said on what would have been her moms 106th birthday. And my daddys parents were bitterly opposed to their relationship. So, in 1932, when Mother was 19 and Daddy had just turned 20, they eloped.

She recalled how, after her father had a heart attack and lost his job, her mother put on her best dress and walked to the Sears and got a minimum-wage job  a job that saved them from foreclosure until her dad found work as a janitor.

Ms. Warren, who also met privately with some tribal leaders while they were in town, offered the group a promise.

Each time, she said, someone brings up my familys story, Im going to use it to lift up the story of your families and your communities.

She vowed to draw attention to health care and environmental inequities on reservations as well as startling statistics, noting that more than half  half  of native women have experienced sexual violence.

Ms. Warren was plainly hoping to respond to an article last month in The Boston Globe that raised questions about her commitment to tribal issues.WASHINGTON  The admission by President Trumps longtime personal lawyer that he sent $130,000 to a pornographic film actress, who once claimed to have had an affair with Mr. Trump, has raised potential legal questions ranging from breach of contract to ethics violations.

The lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, told The New York Times on Tuesday that he had used his own funds to facilitate the payment to the actress, Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, adding that neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign had reimbursed him for the payment. He insisted that the payment was legal.

The Wall Street Journal first reported last month that Mr. Cohen had arranged the payment soon before the 2016 election, as Ms. Clifford was considering speaking publicly about the purported affair.

But Mr. Cohens assertions left many questions unanswered, including whether the payment was truly a personal gift by him or whether he was reimbursed by some other party, like Mr. Trump or an associate of Mr. Trump.RIO DE JANEIRO  Muggings, armed robberies and confrontations during Carnival celebrations in Rio de Janeiro are underscoring the deteriorating security situation in the city.

The television network TV Globo on Wednesday showed video of gunfire between rival drug gangs, teenagers punching tourists in areas usually considered relatively safe and a police officer narrowly escaping after several people attacked him in front of his home.

Gov. Luiz Fernando Pezao of the state of Rio acknowledged there were not enough police officers on hand during the first couple days of Carnival, though more than 17,000 officers worked in Rio State each day during the festivities.

We were not prepared, Mr. Pezao said. There was a failure on the first two days, and then we brought backup for police. I think there has been a mistake in our part.OTTAWA  In the midst of a growing and sometimes angry debate over how the judicial system treats Canadas Indigenous people, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Wednesday that his government would ask them in a series of formal meetings how to fundamentally change the laws to better protect their rights.

The exact nature of the measures will be worked out through talks with all of Canadas Indigenous groups, Mr. Trudeau told the House of Commons, rather than be determined by his government.

We need to get to a place where Indigenous peoples in Canada are in control of their own destiny, making their own decisions about their future, he said. Based on the outcome of the talks, the government would enact legislative and regulatory changes, he added.

Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Canadas largest Indigenous group, called the announcement a paradigm shift because previous governments have not acted as if our rights existed.LINZ, Austria  A long-lost pencil drawing of two reclining women by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt has resurfaced in a former secretarys home here, tucked away in a closet.

The secretary, whose name is not being released for legal reasons, worked in Linzs Neue Galerie (now the Lentos Museum) until 1977. She died in December 2017, leaving details of the artworks location. On Jan. 15, the secretarys lawyer returned the drawing to the City of Linz.

We were very surprised at this discovery, said Julius Stieber, the director of culture and education for the City of Linz. Wed received a letter, but no one expected the drawing to be returned.

In Austria and Germany, finding missing art is rarely simple. The drawing, along with three works by Klimts contemporary Egon Schiele, was part of a long legal battle and an even longer back story.Nearly 18 years have passed since the artist and activist Tania Bruguera first mounted  or attempted  Untitled (Havana, 2000) at the 7th Havana Biennial. Critical of the post-revolutionary politics of Cuba, it was shut down by censors within hours. Much has changed in the interim. Fidel Castro, the revolutionary turned authoritarian leader whose image is at the center of her installation, which includes black-and-white video images, died in 2016. And art institutions have fully embraced the kind of performance and participatory art Ms. Bruguera makes, which uses live human bodies as a medium.

Visceral, sensorial and immersive are words Ms. Bruguera or MoMA have used to describe Untitled (Havana, 2000), which is recreated here. These have become keywords to describe not just art works, but arguments for how art itself should be experienced. Ms. Bruguera also claims that she is not representing the political but provoking the political and that we as viewers need to stop looking and start thinking.

To experience the work youll probably start by standing. The wait for viewing is about 45 minutes. Four people at a time are allowed into the dark space. You approach an arch and a faux-cement atrium with rust stains, simulating the old fort in Cuba where Untitled was originally mounted. You walk on sugar cane, which crunches underfoot. As your eyes adjust, you see four naked men along the wall, bowing and brushing themselves off, as though brushing off history. A museum guard stands in the corner, like a sentry.GRAZ, Austria  One summer day in 1965, a small car stopped on Viennas central Heldenplatz or Heroes Square. Out climbed a slender man of average height, his suited figure covered from head to toe in white paint.

A black line ran up his body, as if splitting him in two. But his grinning face gave an air of mischief as he walked with a spring in his step right in front of the balcony of the Hofburg imperial palace, where, in 1938, Hitler was greeted by cheering crowds after the Third Reichs annexation of Austria.

The man was Gunter Brus, known for his artistic actions, which were sometimes irreverent and sometimes violently confronting. In the 1960s and 70s, these artistic performances challenged deeply conservative social attitudes and a culture of forgetting in postwar Austria.The AR-15-style rifle has become a common weapon for consumers, but its also become a weapon of choice for mass shooters. Gunmen have used them to kill dozens in horrific rampages across the country. Some of the factors that make the AR-15 popular with consumers may also help explain why mass murderers have opted to use them too. Theyre capable of firing rounds that can go straight through a human body and penetrate a wall behind it. Theyre lightweight and easy to use. Since the muzzle doesnt rise up much, it doesnt take a lot of effort to bring it back down, acquire a proper sight line and to fire again. A weapon thats already deadly can potentially be made more dangerous by adding things like foregrips, scopes and red dot sights. The guns are expensive. But theyre within reach. They cost between $500 and $900. The AR-15 model is basically a consumer version of military-grade assault rifles such as the M-16 or the M-4 carbine. They look almost identical. The big difference: The AR-15 and its variants are semiautomatic; the M-16 and M-4 can be switched to automatic or burst. AR-15-style rifles were prohibited under the assault weapons ban from 1994 to 2004. But since that ended, sales have surged. These weapons have been branded under the term modern sporting rifle, which gives a weapon designed for war a consumer-friendly label. The gun is also marketed for home defense. But although theyre clearly strong enough to stop an intruder, critics say AR-15-type rifles could also cause unintended damage or even death in untrained hands. One thing is clear: No matter whos using it, it can be an extremely lethal weapon.When Lee Victorian was looking for an upscale car to complement his wifes BMW last year, he was leaning toward an Audi A6  a sedan whose acceleration, refinement and dazzling array of advanced technologies, like automatic braking and radar-based cruise control, he found alluring.

But what he drove off the lot was an entirely different kind of premium vehicle, and one more luxury buyers are choosing: a pickup truck.

Mr. Victorian, a retired Michigan state trooper, bought a Raptor version of the Ford F-150. The Raptor is a truck with the soul of a racecar: It has a 450-horsepower engine, a 10-speed transmission, electronic ride settings for seven different road surfaces, big chrome wheels, a power tailgate, cameras at all four corners and an adaptive cruise control system similar to the Audis. With all those options, the sticker price came to about $80,000.

Man, this truck is so slick, Mr. Victorian said. I stop at a light and people give me the thumbs up and take pictures of it. The truck is the celebrity.The founders of Harrys turned their company into a fast-growing competitor to established giants like Gillette in the $2.4 billion shaving industry.

Now they want to take on Gillettes parent company, Procter & Gamble.

Harrys plans to announce as soon as this week that it has raised $112 million in a new round of financing, money that its leaders said would help the company develop brands beyond mens grooming.

Weve built a lot of infrastructure at Harrys that we think we can leverage into new categories, Jeff Raider, one of Harrys founders, said in a telephone interview. Its something that weve been excited about for a long time, and were now at a point in our business where we can act on it.

It is the latest effort by the companys founders and co-chief executives, Mr. Raider and Andy Katz-Mayfield, to build out their business at a time when younger, internet-savvy consumer companies are taking market share away from incumbents like Procter & Gamble and Unilever.Our culture of ethics and integrity demands that we do better, he said.

The action against U.S. Bank was modest compared with cases involving banking giants like HSBC and Standard Chartered that the authorities found had done business with drug gangs and countries like Cuba and Iran that had been barred from the United States financial system under international sanctions. In 2012, for instance, federal prosecutors settled a money-laundering case against HSBC for $1.9 billion.

Unlike the earlier cases, the one involving U.S. Bank focused mainly on warning signs that the bank was ignoring.

For about five years, senior bank employees tried to balance their security systems constant alerts about suspicious customer activity against internal staffing limitations, the authorities said. In a late-2009 memo, court documents show, U.S. Banks anti-money-laundering officer warned the chief compliance officer that employees responsible for investigating the alerts were stretched dangerously thin.

But senior bank officials knew they should not be curtailing money-laundering inquiries just because they did not have enough employees, so they hid the practice from federal bank examiners, according to prosecutors. One U.S. Bank employee left references to the staffing problem out of the minutes of internal meetings, fearful of what regulators would think, the Justice Department said. Tests of the alert system were halted after they showed that the bank had failed to report suspicious customer activity to regulators.

Dana Ripley, a U.S. Bank spokesman, said that most of the senior employees involved in the practices at issue had left by 2014, when the bank overhauled its anti-money laundering program.A committee of 18 food writers, editors and producers is charged with sifting through 23,000 nominations  from regional judges, restaurants and the public  to create the semifinal list. In a sometimes contentious meeting in Honolulu last month, they grappled with how best to apply the foundations new standards for personal and corporate behavior. Because members signed nondisclosure agreements, they would not publicly discuss why certain restaurants did or did not make the list.

Obviously, the names in these categories are presented without context, but we hope that they reflect the foundations desire to present awards that will more accurately represent the nations true wealth of culinary talent, Mr. Addison said.

It has been a challenging year for the Beard Foundation, which welcomes Clare Reichenbach, its first new chief executive in 11 years, on Tuesday. Some of its marquee award winners, like the chefs Mario Batali, John Besh and Mr. Friedman, have been accused of sexual harassment or worse, and the organization has been criticized for not taking enough action against race and gender imbalances in the restaurant industry.

There have been calls to strip medals from previous winners, which the foundation has declined to do. Instead, past winners who have faced public charges of sexual harassment or abuse have been barred from voting from now on. (Previous winners make up the bulk of the 600 or so voters who will use the semifinalist list as a ballot to pick the finalists in each category. The same voters then choose the winners.)

Clark Wolf, a food business consultant who has been honored by the foundation and who was a friend of James Beards, said the group needed to be more forceful. The fact that they didnt make a clear and definitive statement and didnt take away those medals is a problem, he said. We want to know where every leaf and bone comes from, but we dont care that chef is a douche?

Others said the guidelines for both the larger group that nominates contenders and the committee that selects the semifinalists were too open to interpretation.

During a radio talk show on WGBH in Boston last week, the food journalist Corby Kummer, a former longtime member of the restaurant committee, said instructions to bar people if there are doubts about behavior or the culture of a restaurant are really shaded and difficult.BORDEAUX, France  Bordeaux, the region, is unrivaled historically as the greatest, most prodigious producer of fine wine in the world.

Bordeaux, the port city on the Garonne river, has played a crucial role as the center of the wine trade. Historically, though, it has lacked charm and lovability, and paradoxically, beyond its commercial ties, Bordeaux has had little connection with the wine producers in the growing regions that define the region and practically surround the city.

But an ambitious wine museum that opened in the city of Bordeaux on the west bank of the river in 2016 is working to change that. While capturing the worldwide culture of wine in a modern, immersive, multimedia style, La Cite du Vin hopes to serve as a critical link between the urban center of the wine trade and the myriad producers who have historically stood apart.

Simply as a cultural center, the City of Wine succeeds brilliantly in many ways. As a symbol, the curvaceous, contemporary building designed by XTU, a Parisian architecture firm, swirls up from the riverside not unlike the Guggenheim Museum flowing upward on staid Fifth Avenue. As a statement, it says that hidebound, conservative Bordeaux is no more.Mr. Downtons elegant sketches of glamorous women decorated dresses, a coat and some ladylike handbags. When I was a kid, growing up, I worshiped all the illustrators, Mr. Kors said. What I love about Davids work is he really captures the essence of people, but these arent photographs. Theres something about them that captures a mood and a spirit.

During his toast Mr. Downton drolly downplayed his role in the partnership. Michael calls this a collaboration, which I love, but this was the easiest thing Ive done in my life, he said. Michael knows what he wants and how to give direction. When you have that, its simple.

Among the guests were the models Jourdan Dunn, Alek Wek and Sabina Karlsson; the fashion flaneur Derek Blasberg; the cosmetics heiress Aerin Lauder and the actress Cush Jumbo. Nina Garcia, the newly installed editor of Elle, was seated across from Mr. Kors at a long table covered in green-and-white-checkered tablecloths, Mason jars filled with red roses, and votive candles that gave the room a warm, flickering glow. The two have history as former judges on Project Runway, and also through the bonds that come with lasting careers in the ever-changing fashion industry.

Michael has been in business for a very long time, but hes not jaded, said Ms. Garcia, wearing a sharp-shouldered jacket. Part of his personality is that curiosity, and thats what keeps him young, interesting and current. I love just talking to him about movies, about fashion, about life, about the theater. He has so many interests. Being a cultural omnivore feeds his work, she said.

After the burgers were cleared away, chocolate cake and cheesecake were brought out, as well as heart-shape cookies  it was Valentines Day, after all. While the toned-down vibe of Mr. Korss dinner reflected the generally laid-back feel of fashion week this season, he said that this is how he always entertains.The studys lead author, Dr. Douglas H. Smith, director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania, emphasized that there is much more to learn.

This is a preliminary report, he said. We thought it was important to get it out from a public health standpoint.

But, he added, the patients symptoms were notable. Uniformly, everyone who saw these patients was absolutely convinced, he said. It looked like concussion pathology. Processing speed, inability to remember  those are such classic symptoms we see in concussion.

We all believe this is a real syndrome, Dr. Smith added. This is concussion without blunt head trauma.

Like concussion patients, some of the diplomats improved on their own, while others recovered only after therapy to regain balance or cognition. Many went from being miserable to returning to work, Dr. Smith said.

Dr. Smith and his colleagues do not think audible sound caused the injuries, as sound in an audible range does not damage the brain. Perhaps, they speculated, a device that produced another sort of harmful energy also produced an audible sound. Low-frequency infrasound, high-frequency ultrasound and microwaves have all been shown to damage the brain, the researchers noted.

One drawback to the report is that there was no comparison group, said Karen Postal, immediate past president of the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology.Its out there on internet forums, but theres a lot on the internet thats true or untrue to varying degrees, he said in an interview with the weekly magazine New Scientist. Its a very big deal to have this recorded in a reliable document.

Others were skeptical about the study and what it could mean for transgender women.

We all want to have the same experiences as women, Maria Clifford, 38, a British transgender mother who has been using a surrogate to breast-feed her child, said on Thursday. We need further testing and evidence to show that these drugs arent going to cause harm to the baby.

Breast milk is the most important product for the development of a child, Ms. Clifford added. We need to make sure its pure and hormone free.

The transgender woman in the experiment  she, her partner and their hometowns were not identified  approached the medical professionals for hormonal medications in 2011 as part of transgender treatment. She had been receiving it for several years before she began breast-feeding, according to the study. She had not had gender-reassignment surgery nor breast augmentation.

She took on the responsibility of breast-feeding because her partner, who was five months pregnant when they approached the hospital, did not want to.

As part of the lactation treatment, the woman stimulated her chest using a breast pump. The studys authors prescribed progesterone and estradiol, hormones that can influence lactation and that normally occur in pregnant women. They discussed with the couple using domperidone, an anti-nausea drug known to increase breast milk production.

The couple obtained it on their own in Canada, and Ms. Goldstein and Dr. Reisman advised them on the dosage. Though used in many countries, including in Britain, domperidone has been banned in the United States because of Food and Drug Administration concerns about its associations with cardiac arrest and sudden death.First, read the first three paragraphs of todays article:

Russia is already meddling in the midterm elections this year, the top American intelligence officials said on Tuesday, warning that Moscow is using a digital strategy to worsen the countrys political and social divisions. Russia is using fake accounts on social media  many of them bots  to spread disinformation, the officials said. European elections are being targeted, too, and the attacks were not likely to end this year, they warned. We expect Russia to continue using propaganda, social media, false-flag personas, sympathetic spokespeople and other means of influence to try to exacerbate social and political fissures in the United States, Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee at its annual hearing on worldwide threats.

What have you heard in the news or on social media about Russian attempts to meddle in elections in the United States?

What do you know about bots spreading disinformation on social media? What questions do you have?

Now, read the entire article, Russia Sees Midterm Elections as Chance to Sow Fresh Discord, Intelligence Chiefs Warn, and answer the following questions:

1. What did Mr. Coats and the other intelligence chiefs at the annual hearing on worldwide threats say are the central challenges facing the United States?

2. What is President Trumps position on Russian meddling, according to the article? How does it differ from Mr. Coatss position, as well as that of Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director, and Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director?

3. What have bot armies done so far to spread information that deepens political division, according to the article?Pierre Thiam, an American chef from Senegal, still remembers how when he was growing up in Dakar, some families in the countryside sent their children off to school with a little fonio tucked into their bags for luck. An ancient, sandy-colored grain, fonio was cultivated for thousands of years across West Africa and still is. Thiam remembers eating the grain too, though it wasnt really prized, at least not in the way it used to be.

Standing barefoot in a friends apartment in Manhattan, where we met before a recent snowstorm to make lunch, Thiam explained how local grains like fonio lost some cultural currency around the time of French colonization. Thats when the country began importing broken rice  fragmented grains, kept aside during the milling process  from Vietnam and other parts of Asia. We make so many amazing dishes from broken rice, it absorbs all the flavors, it tastes good, Thiam said, but weve been independent for more than 50 years. Why are we the largest importer of broken rice in the world?

As the U.S. market for ancient grains has grown, Thiam has become a champion for fonio. In New York, he cooks fonio to serve under whole roasted fish and meaty stews, in warm vegetable salads, mashed into fritters and in oatmeal-like bowls with fruit and yogurt. He hosts multicourse feasts, centered on the grain, eager to expand its audience and fuel its demand, and he talks about it with devotion and authority at conferences. Fonio is considered country-people food, he said, shooing away a cat that had tiptoed into the kitchen. Traditionally, fonio was pounded in a large mortar and pestle, to remove its armorlike husk, then washed and dried outdoors. And because it was so difficult to process, it became unpopular.

Though fonio is often referred to as a forgotten grain in marketing materials, it wasnt forgotten by everyone. Women-run cooperatives put fonio back on the map, Thiam told me. He recently founded Yolele Foods, which imports the grain, grown and processed by these cooperatives, to the United States, and he plans to open a large-scale mill in Dakar. Thiams dream is that as fonio finds more fans in the U.S., it will do the same in Senegal, and that one day in Dakar, fonio will be just as easy to find as a baguette.Blues, dark teal and deep purple. Black. The colors of night and dreams. A fully clothed woman sleeps in bed, her arms in the uncalculated attitude of the unconscious. Another woman stands on a ledge, on the verge of endangering her life or of saving it. Then the same figures, fragmented and rearranged, their colors flowing into one another, repeat across the five sections of a nearly 21-foot span, intensifying the sensation of physical precarity and dream logic. Montage, Lorna Simpsons new work of photography, screen print and painting, is one of the featured pictures in her forthcoming London gallery show, Unanswerable. Its an apt title. Simpsons work, which often suspends meaning even while seeming to promise that resolution is close, has long had something productively elusive about it.

Simpsons first notable successes were photographs paired with texts. The photos were black and white, simple and direct, usually of a single female figure, often seen from the back. The texts, far from resolving the image, were suggestive and inconclusive. In Waterbearer (1986), a woman in a plain white shift dress pours water from two vessels, a plastic jug in one hand, a metal ewer in the other. Shes turned away from us. The text below the photograph, rendered in all caps, reads: SHE SAW HIM DISAPPEAR BY THE RIVER, THEY ASKED HER TO TELL WHAT HAPPENED, ONLY TO DISCOUNT HER MEMORY. What is the incident here? Who is she and who him and who they? It is as though weve been thrust into a detective story containing only the faintest trace of the original incident. All that remains is a parable of a woman who is not believed. Waterbearer, in its radical simplicity, crosses a distance of more than three decades to comment on current affairs.Reviewing his 1845 memoir, a Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, in The New York Tribune, Margaret Fuller gushed: We wish that every one may read his book and see what a mind might have been stifled in bondage  what a man may be subjected to the insults of spendthrift dandies, or the blows of mercenary brutes, in whom there is no whiteness except of the skin, no humanity except in the outward form, and of whom the Avenger will not fail yet to demand  Where is thy brother?

But Brooklyns loudest voice was The Daily Eagle, a Democratic newspaper whose editorials advanced the Southern sympathies of New Yorks financiers, manufacturers and maritime moguls.

The Eagle, in its own policies and the letters it published, at worst demonized Douglass, declaring in 1856 that the doctrines of this fellow are that slaves should not only run away but murder their employers before starting, and at best dismissed him, describing the known writer and social reformer as possessed of extraordinary shrewdness for one of his race.

In 1858, following the death of Dred Scott, namesake of the Supreme Court ruling declaring that slaves were property rather than people, The Eagle all but predicted that Douglasss legacy would be forgotten.

Fred Douglass, the smartest darkey we have produced, will leave no name beyond his generation, but Dred Scott, a poor simple minded old Negro, The Eagle said, will live in the annals of this great nation, as connected with a great constitutional principle.

Once the Civil War began, however, The Eagle was a bit more accepting of Douglass, saying that he discusses the slavery question in a far more rational manner than most of his white co-laborers of the cause.

By 1895, the year Douglass died, The Eagle was beyond forgiving. It was not because he advanced the interests of the Negro that men will honor his memory today, The Eagle editorialized, but because by advancing the interest of the Negro he raised the level of all mankind and made the whole world better by living in it.Dear Diary:

On a cold, clear Saturday morning in January 1961, I and a few of my friends from Junior High School 180 took the Green Bus Line from Rockaway Beach to Flatbush and Nostrand Avenues for a day of bowling and pizza.

When our adventures were done, we headed back to the same intersection to catch the bus home. Across Nostrand Avenue, I spotted my Grandpa Izzy, who lived nearby, walking against the powerful wind. His hands were busy securing his hat to his head and protecting his newspaper (The Jewish Daily Forward, no doubt) from the oncoming gusts.

I considered running across the avenue to say hello, but it was bitter cold and the bus was due to arrive soon. And how much could I get across in a few seconds to a man who barely spoke English and probably didnt want to delay getting to his warm apartment on Farragut Road.

So onto the bus I went for the return trip across the Marine Parkway Bridge.

It was the last time I saw Grandpa Izzy. He died two weeks later.A man who ran flophouses that preyed on poor addicts and the mentally ill faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to Medicaid fraud and illegally removing tenants from their homes, law enforcement officials said on Thursday.

Yury Baumblit, 67, was part of a 2015 New York Times investigation into so-called three-quarter houses, unregulated residences in a gray area between regulated halfway houses and permanent homes. Three-quarter houses cater to people who struggle with addiction and mental illness, and to poor people who cannot afford to live in the city.

The homes were often filled with vermin, mold and even the very drug abuse that some tenants were seeking to escape. Operators crammed bunk beds into tiny rooms and blocked fire exits. Dozens of men often stayed in what had been single-family homes, usually in neglected pockets of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.

Mr. Baumblit and his wife, Rimma Baumblit, 61, each pleaded guilty to two counts of grand larceny, the state attorney generals office said. The couple admitted that they ran a kickback scheme with the Medicaid-funded treatment providers Narco Freedom, the NRI Group and Canarsie Aware, which paid the Baumblits every month for providing clients.For giving somebody the shivers, brushes are tools of choice. A January performance of Whisperlodge begins in a dimly lit Brooklyn living room, where a man and a woman dressed in white run fat makeup brushes in slow circles over another womans bare back. Spacey synthesizer chords drone from speakers at the front of the room while the four audience members watch from armchairs or a cream-colored sofa.

Performers then lead participants individually into private rooms for various one-on-one sensory experiences during the 90-minute show. Scenes include sitting at a table while someone crinkles paper in your ears, visiting a doctors office, having your face stroked with makeup brushes, and a hair-brushing encounter.

Whisperlodge is an unusual mixture of theater and therapy. Every few months, usually in a rented or borrowed apartment, audience members show up and pay $90 to $120 to experience scenes presented by a semiregular cast of performers and designed to elicit autonomous sensory meridian response, more commonly known as A.S.M.R., the suddenly popular phenomenon in which gentle sounds or touch make some people feel relaxing tingles at the back of the skull.

A.S.M.R. has a huge following online, where hundreds of thousands of fans watch videos of people performing soothing activities to help them sleep or relax or to ease anxiety. Whisperlodge, founded by Melinda Lauw, 25, an artist, and Andrew Hoepfner, 35, who creates immersive theater, is one of the first in-person A.S.M.R experiences in the world, and its starting to draw crowds, one intimate audience at a time. The group says it has sold out all 16 runs of performances since launching in Brooklyn in 2016, including six events in California and a few whispers on demand sessions that are more spa treatment than performance, where people pay $150 and up for one-on-one customized relaxation sessions. Its creators hope to tour Whisperlodge internationally.Ruud Lubbers, the youngest and longest-serving prime minister of the Netherlands, who helped lay the groundwork for the European Union and revive the Dutch economy, died on Wednesday in Rotterdam. He was 78.

His death was announced by the Dutch government. No cause was given, but he had been ailing for several years.

After serving as prime minister from 1982, when he was only 43, until 1994, Mr. Lubbers (pronounced LEW-burs) lost bids for his two dream positions: secretary general of NATO and director general of the European Commission.

In 2001, he was named the United Nations high commissioner for refugees. He held that job for four years until he was forced to resign in a sexual harassment scandal.They would come to us for a Darvon pain pill or foot rot powder, or simply to share a cigarette or a warm beer with the docs. We gave lidocaine for itching groins, tetanus shots, and emulsions for head lice and crabs. We scolded them for not taking their anti-malaria pills. We reprimanded them for bad hygiene, too much pot smoking, or carelessness at a village brothel. We were their male moms.

The camaraderie beguiled me, especially as a Hispanic man. Many of the soldiers were from the Deep South and couldnt understand why a guy from a Caribbean paradise would volunteer for the Army. They laughed at my accented English, but they warmed to the rum I carried in my duffel bag. They gave bro-hugs when I treated them. Sometimes they faked a malady. When we declared them fit for battle, they bore silent grudges  until the next firefight.

Rank mattered little. During and after combat, the officers, sergeants and privates consulted and consoled one another. Of course, with the intimacy came broken rules  as when an infantry sergeant ordered me into a tunnel hole to see if a guerrilla was lurking. I protested that I was a medic, but he insisted. Luckily, the lair was empty.

Another time, a green lieutenant saw us giving plasma to a wounded Vietcong suspect. He ordered me not to waste medical supplies on the enemy. But at Fort Sam Houston I had been taught that in combat, a medic could override an officer in any lifesaving situation. I paid no heed to his order. The court-martial he threatened me with never materialized.

When I enlisted, I was no peacenik. But what I experienced during those first five months washed away any ignorance about the degradations of war.

I cannot forget the many times we would arrive in a village with tanks, shows of force and Zippo lighters with which to torch humble peasants homes. I can still see a sad old farmer, kneeling and crying in his trampled rice field, broken seedlings in his hands.

I remember a monsoon rain during which we had only two litters with which to carry the bodies of a half-dozen of our dead buddies to the nearest chopper landing zone. With time short, we resorted to dragging bodies unceremoniously through the thickening mud  a scene of horror that disturbs me even now. These had been my brothers in combat. What would their kin have felt, watching this?This article is part of the Opinion Today newsletter. You can sign up here to receive the newsletter each weekday.

Its hard to imagine a worse distinction for a country to hold. A recent study in the journal Health Affairs concluded that the United States has become the most dangerous of wealthy nations for a child to be born into.

Perhaps most damning, our country didnt used to hold this status. In the 1960s, the death rate of American children was slightly lower than in other affluent nations. But three factors have changed that:

1. Other countries have had far more success reducing infant mortality. The reasons arent fully known, but the uneven American social safety net seems to play a role.The Trump administration is seeking to withdraw the United States from the international accord reached in Paris in 2015 to fight climate change. It is trying to rescind regulations on the issue. It has even scrubbed mentions of global warming from government websites. Yet its attempt to suppress the facts has not entirely succeeded, with federal agencies continuing to issue warnings, including in a major climate report published last year.

The latest climate alarm came this week in a Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Here is what the document, issued by Daniel R. Coats, the director of national intelligence, said about climate change and other environmental problems, with my annotations:

A real problem

The impacts of the long-term trends toward a warming climate, more air pollution, biodiversity loss, and water scarcity are likely to fuel economic and social discontent  and possibly upheaval  through 2018.

Only six weeks into the year, this is already coming true. Cape Town, the second-largest city in South Africa, is so low on water after an extended drought that it may be forced to shut off the taps in early April. Water scarcity is a factor in the violent conflicts in Syria and Yemen, and in both countries, control of water supplies is being used as a weapon of war.

Social disruptions

The past 115 years have been the warmest period in the history of modern civilization, and the past few years have been the warmest years on record. Extreme weather events in a warmer world have the potential for greater impacts and can compound with other drivers to raise the risk of humanitarian disasters, conflict, water and food shortages, population migration, labor shortfalls, price shocks, and power outages. Research has not identified indicators of tipping points in climate-linked Earth systems, suggesting a possibility of abrupt climate change.

After running through an accurate summary of the warming trend and the risk it poses, the document appears  though the language is ambiguous  to suggest the possibility of sudden climate change of the sort that might cause global upheaval. Most scientists say that over the next few decades, at least, the likely prospect is a gradual worsening of climate-related problems. But beyond a few decades, they are less willing to rule out catastrophes like the disappearance of polar sea ice, which could potentially cause profound climatic disruption.

Threats to political stability

Worsening air pollution from forest burning, agricultural waste incineration, urbanization, and rapid industrialization  with increasing public awareness  might drive protests against authorities, such as those recently in China, India, and Iran.

The document does not explicitly mention the burning of fossil fuels, but that is a main cause of the poor air quality the plagues many cities in the developing world, and has even caused deteriorating air quality in places like London. Burning coal and oil not only causes climate change, it throws particles into the air that can cause asthma, heart attacks and other health problems. The World Health Organization estimates that three million people die prematurely every year because of outdoor air pollution, and over four million more because of indoor exposure to dirty fuels used for heating and cooking.South Africa is a country saturated in the politics of race. A measure of the impact Mr. Zumas tenure had on relationships between black and white South Africans is necessary. The white minority lost political power nearly a quarter-century ago, but its influence in the economy, in the professions and in the culture of the countrys institutions is immense. White political power is gone, but the white gaze remains pervasive.

Some argue that the abhorrence of the Zuma presidency has broken the spell of race. Almost all of those who led the campaign to bring him to account were black, like Thuli Madonsela, the former public protector, who played a heroic role in exposing Mr. Zumas corruption. South Africas judiciary, which is majority black, defended the independence of the courts with extraordinary courage and under great pressure. After this display of black courage, why would it matter what white people think?

But South Africa is too fraught and complex a place for such a simple story to ring true. More plausible is that each pinprick penetrating Mr. Zumas skin is felt by black South Africans, even those who are horrified by what he has done.

Beneath the surface of public life, one can detect a strange, subliminal to-and-fro. Last year, for instance, a superb book describing in meticulous detail the deep corruption of the late apartheid years, Apartheid Guns and Money, by Hennie van Vuuren, was a runaway best seller. It deserved to be widely read, but the scale of its success is partly a function of its utility as a weapon against white arrogance. However bad Zuma is, its many black readers could say to themselves, you people were worse.

To shrug and say that we are all equally capable of stealing public money is to miss what is distinctive about the mess Mr. Zuma has made. For the truth is that Mr. Zuma and his allies were corrupt partly because they felt a sense of grievance intimately connected to their experience of race.You, responsible gun owners, are the only voice left that can make a difference, the only ones who can put a stop to the madness. But you need to be outraged and not afraid to show it. You need to speak out, and you need to admit reality.

You need to know that in doing so, you will not be less of a person, but more because admitting your outrage against children being shot in school shows that you are more.

You will not appear weaker, but stronger, because standing up for what is right takes strength and courage, especially for gun owners like you who fear that speaking up will somehow diminish you in the eyes of other gun owners. It wont.

NANCY OHALLORAN

CUMBERLAND, R.I.

To the Editor:

If Sandy Hook did not change the minds of Republicans about an automatic weapon ban, the Florida shooting will certainly have no effect. Our only hope is for the Democratic Party to put forth a presidential candidate who fearlessly and relentlessly champions an assault weapon ban. The Democrats had better get it right this time. They have a lot to make up for.

CARA SCHIRRMEISTER, NEW YORK

To the Editor:

Time to do something serious about guns. Time to get some momentum on the scourge of gun deaths. Suggestion: What if celebrities and other public figures publicly turned in their guns? Imagine the impact. The moral courage could start a movement. Its time.

OWEN CYLKE

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.

To the Editor:

You can keep your thoughts and prayers. Those of us who want to be safe at school, church, the movie theater, nightclubs and elsewhere in public apparently dont matter to lawmakers who continue to take the National Rifle Associations money and vote against common-sense gun laws.

We need but will not get mandatory background checks, bans on automatic weapons, and prohibitions on where guns can be carried.'Security Dawgs' look to earn collegiate cybersecurity berth

by Pete Rosenbery

CARBONDALE, Ill.  Southern Illinois University Carbondales Security Dawgs will host a section of the annual Illinois Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition on Saturday, Feb. 17.

SIU is one of two sites to host the statewide, 11-team competition, which mirrors what students will see in the corporate technology world. The Security Dawgs will seek a third state title in six years. Also competing at SIU will be teams from John A. Logan College, Lake Land College Southeastern Illinois College.

Teams work to keep their site secure from hackers and unwanted cyberattacks, and are responsible for system maintenance, upgrades, and completing other requests, such as installing or upgrading a website in the simulated competition. Teams earn points based upon how successful they are at accomplishing the business tasks, in addition to identifying and stopping hacker attacks, and writing incident reports.

Media Advisory

Reporters, photographers and camera crews are welcome to cover the event from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The optimum time for interviews with participants and faculty begins about noon. Go to Room 204B in the College of Applied Sciences and Arts Building C. For more information, contact Tom Imboden, associate professor, Information Systems and Applied Technologies and team faculty adviser, at 694-1297 or timboden@siu.edu.

Team built on camaraderie, chemistry

The Security Dawgs return four members from last years team and have been practicing since the start of the fall 2017 semester. Several of the squad members were on the team that finished fifth out of 179 teams in the National Cyber League last fall.

A big part of our plan for success is our camaraderie as a team, Belle Woodward, an associate professor in the School of Information Systems and Applied Technologies and faculty adviser for the registered student organization, said. Weve gotten really close as a team over the last year. I think that really helps when it comes down to that last rush of constant, daily practice. I couldnt be more proud of how much work these guys have put in to learning for this competition, and not being afraid to embrace more things to do beyond it.

Competition enhances students academic experience

Woodward said the event gives SIU students a chance to receive a practical look into many of the skills they learn in class, defend against attackers in the competition, and reminds them that the end goal is making sure a businesses network is not interrupted.

This is also a valuable experience in teamwork and commitment, she said. Many students who participate learn enough to be more than ready for even the hardest classes theyll face at SIU, and have a leg up in real-world experience.

Cybersecurity event expects strong field

The Security Dawgs have a strong reputation in collegiate cybersecurity competitions. The team has won three state competitions, most recently in 2014, and finished second in 2015, 2016, and 2017. The team has advanced to the Midwest regional competition in seven of the last 10 years, including a wildcard berth in 2017.

The other state competition site is Moraine Valley Community College, which is hosting six more teams.

The top team in the state will advance to the Midwest regional competition, March 23-24, at Moraine Valley Community College. There they will face the top teams from Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Second-place in the respective state competitions will compete for a wildcard slot on March 10. The Midwest regional winner advances to the 11th annual National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition April 13-15 in San Antonio, Texas.

The Team

Security Dawg team members are:

ILLINOIS

Benton: Steve Osborn, information systems technologies, junior (alternate)

Centralia: Ronald DeBernardi, information systems technologies, senior

Hoffman Estates: Christian Scott, information systems technologies, senior

Marion: Trenton Taylor, information systems technologies, senior

Mattoon: Mark Blume, information systems technologies, senior

Northbrook: Ben Fairbanks, information systems technologies, junior

Oak Lawn: Jacob Kupres, information systems technologies, senior (alternate)

Pittsburg: Curtis McRoy, information systems technologies, senior (alternate)

FLORIDA

Naples: Thomas Birch, information systems technologies, senior

MINNESOTA

Sauk Centre: Brianna Yagow, information systems technologies, junior

MISSOURI

Imperial: Jesse Frawley, information systems technologies, junior (alternate)

TEXASMONTEVERDE, Costa Rica  Its catastrophic. There really are no words.

I read that statement from the Broward County sheriff, Scott Israel, on the morning after Ash Wednesday  and Valentines Day  on a computer screen more than a thousand miles from Parkland, Fla., in a rented house on a mountainside in Costa Rica. On that day, my 19-year-old daughter came home from the Quaker school where she is living out a gap year, and before she or I had heard the awful news, said: Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. The president of Costa Rica visited the school today. It was after Meeting.

On Wednesday mornings, the school gathers in silence for 45 minutes. It is an open Meeting, so theres a scattering of the old among the young. In our seven months here, Ive attended a handful of Wednesday Meetings. Those moved to speak, even the smallest, say their words in either Spanish or English. A bilingual student from the upper grades is always assigned to translate. The youngest, kindergartners and first graders, come for only a short time. Those in the grades just above are given Play-Doh  something to do with their hands. The older students have little siblings. My daughter has my wifes magnetism for kids, and so she often has her little sib sitting on her lap and a small group of girls around her.

This Wednesday, she sat with a small gaggle of girls as President Luis Guillermo Solis, who had arrived as a special guest just after the meeting, spoke to the children, wearing his hiking clothes. Hed come to inspect the roads that had been damaged by Tropical Storm Nate and had apparently hiked a bit in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve. The children sang him a song they all know by heart. Paz y libertad, they sang. Para los ninos de todo el mundo/queremos paz y libertad. For the children of all the world, we want peace and freedom. They also sang their wish to end hunger and war.

Image A box of bullets on Nikolas Cruzs Instagram account. Credit... Instagram, via Associated Press

While these children sang, took selfies and posed for a group picture with their outgoing president, a massacre was happening at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.BOZEMAN, Mont.  In 1937, Maurice Hilleman had a job lined up as the assistant manager of the J. C. Penney in Miles City. In Depression-era Montana, Penneys was top-notch employment, especially to a senior at Custer County High who grew up raising chickens on the outskirts of town.

But Hillemans older brother pointed out there was that college in Bozeman and suggested Maurice should at least try to get a scholarship. He did, finished first in his class and went on to a graduate program in microbiology at the University of Chicago. Of the 14 standard recommended vaccines  including those for measles, mumps, meningitis, pneumonia and both hepatitis A and B  Hilleman developed eight of them. In a century soaked in genocide, his work saved millions of lives, including, potentially, yours and mine. J. C. Penneys loss was humanitys gain.

Hillemans college in Bozeman, Montana State University, turns 125 this month. It is one of the government-supported land-grant colleges established by the Morrill Act, which Abraham Lincoln signed into law in 1862 to educate the children of farm and factory workers, the sons of toil. A statue of Lincoln sculpted by the alumnus Jim Dolan is to be unveiled on campus on Friday for the anniversary.

Like Hilleman, I might not have attended college but for M.S.U. It was what I could afford. And Ive come to appreciate the E pluribus unum implications of having been thrown together with 10,000 Mormons, Crow, Future Farmers of America and flower childrens children whose only shared experience was that we all graduated from high school within a 400-mile radius of Great Falls. No surprise, Oprah Winfrey and Johnny Carson attended land-grant colleges in Tennessee and Nebraska  you do learn how to talk to anyone.With all the noise coming out of Washington, its been easy to forget about the Supreme Court. The court has been very quiet: during a recess of nearly four weeks, only the peripatetic Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has made news, of a sort.

But once the justices get back to business on Friday, that interlude of near invisibility will end. On the agenda for their closed-door meeting Friday morning is an urgent and highly unusual request from the Trump administration for the courts intervention in the continuing debate over the fate of nearly 800,000 Dreamers, the young people brought to this country by their undocumented parents. They have been shielded from deportation since 2012 by the Obama administrations Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, which President Trump wants to phase out beginning less than three weeks from now.

Blocked by a lower court from carrying out that plan, the administration seeks to vault over the normal appellate process, asking the Supreme Court for prompt relief from what Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco calls an institutional injury to the United States. The justices response  which may come as early as Monday  will tell us more clearly than anything since Inauguration Day what stance the rule-bound court is prepared to take toward the norm-breaking president. Will the Roberts court serve as Donald Trumps enabler? Or will the court see itself, as it has on rare occasions at other troubled times in the countrys history, as a firewall between the president and the rule of law? With its overheated language and repeated reference to the ongoing violation of federal law by more than half a million people, the petition the administration filed last month reads not so much as a legal document but as a recruiting brochure, aimed at a very small but immensely powerful audience of nine.

In freezing the DACA program in place last month while lawsuits against its termination proceed, Judge William Alsup of Federal District Court in San Francisco ruled that the plaintiffs, who include individual DACA recipients, the University of California, and a group of states and California counties, were likely to succeed on their claim that the order to terminate DACA was arbitrary and capricious and therefore violated the Administrative Procedure Act. (On Tuesday, a second federal district judge, Nicholas G. Garaufis, in Brooklyn, issued a similar ruling. Cases are also pending in the federal courts of Maryland, Virginia, Florida and the District of Columbia.) Because Judge Alsup sits in San Francisco, any appeal would go to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Thats President Trumps least favorite court, the court that rejected the his bans on immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries, including the current version that is now before the Supreme Court. The morning after Judge Alsups ruling, the president tweeted: It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is when the opposing sides in a case (such as DACA) always come to the 9th Circuit and almost always win before being reversed by higher courts.The administrations focus is not random. Nor is it illogical, if ones goal is to maximize the influence of white people. Since the passage of the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act, the chromatic composition of the countrys population has undergone a fundamental transformation. People of color used to make up 12 percent of the United States population in 1965, and that percentage has more than tripled over the past several decades to the point where nonwhite people are nearly 39 percent of the residents of the United States (it is no accident that the countrys first African-American president was elected when he was elected). Mr. Trumps team understands that the specific laws it seeks to eliminate have played a significant role in that demographic revolution.

As distasteful as many people find unapologetic advocacy for public policies that favor white people, the truth of the matter is that immigration laws have been among the longest-standing and most strongly defended cornerstones of our government. The very first immigration law passed, the Naturalization Act of 1790, declared that to become a citizen, one had to be a free white person. That demarcation was the explicit law of the land for the next 162 years, until 1952. There are 20th-century Supreme Court cases explicitly holding that Asian immigrants could not become United States citizens because they were not white. Even after 1952, the practical effect of immigration policy continued to promote white people above others through mechanisms such as the Asia Pacific Triangle, which restricted immigration from Asian countries.

Most people would probably like to believe that the era of widespread public support for white supremacist policies is over, but you wouldnt know it from the timidity and rhetorical reticence of progressive and Democratic leaders. When they had the leverage to demand a vote on protections for the Dreamers, Democrats surrendered that influence because they feared the electoral consequences of being seen as fighting for the rights of immigrants. The assessment was that white voters in swing states would retaliate against Democratic candidates, imperiling the prospects for taking back Congress.

Setting aside the morality of the matter, these Democratic electoral calculations are flawed in two fundamental respects. First, they underestimate the capacity of white people to rise above racism and stand for justice and equality. Mr. Trumps presidential campaign was a very thinly veiled appeal to racial anxiety and grievances of white people in America. Study after study has confirmed that racial anxiety, sometimes described as cultural discomfort, was the motivating factor among many of Mr. Trumps supporters. And yet the fact that Mr. Trump still needed to speak mostly in code shows that there are limits to the effect of explicit racial appeals. In the 2017 elections in Virginia and Alabama, the increase in support among white voters for Ralph Northam for governor and Doug Joness Senate candidacy affirmed that racial pandering also alienates whites.So why the relative silence? Part of the reason is that campus activism is a left-wing phenomenon, making it awkward to target left-wing villains.

A larger reason is that, until a few years ago, the Venezuelan regime was a cause of the left, cheered by people like Naomi Klein, Sean Penn and Danny Glover. Left-wing publications such as Glenn Greenwalds The Intercept have gone out of their way to make excuses for the regime and treat its critics as Washington stooges. Jeremy Corbyn, who could yet be Britains next prime minister, memorialized the late dictator Hugo Chavez in 2013 for his massive contributions to Venezuela & a very wide world.

Even today, the criticism is amazingly muted. If Klein has seriously come to terms with Maduros tyranny or Venezuelas catastrophe, she has not done it in The Nation, The Guardian, or anywhere indexed by LexisNexis or Factiva. Corbyns response to Maduros repression has been to voice his condemnation of the violence thats been done by any side, by all sides  a piece of obfuscatory equivalence worthy of Donald Trumps Charlottesville remark. Penn and Glover seem to have moved on to other causes, like bashing Trump. Such courage.

That leaves the cause of Venezuelas deliverance from evil in the hands of  Mike Pence. The vice president may not be the ideal spokesman for the rights of a Latin American country, at least in the eyes of the typical undergraduate political activist. And some of the Trump administrations policy prescriptions, such as broad sanctions on the Venezuelan economy, may do more to tighten Maduros grip than to crush it. (More effective are U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan government officials, which target the guilty and spare the innocent.)

Still, it says something about the moral dereliction of too many liberals that Pence has been a clarion voice of attention and outrage at the unfolding catastrophe, while they mostly remain silent. When youve ceded the moral high ground to the Trump administration, youve ceded a piece of your soul.

It would be nice to suppose that Venezuelas agonies will soon be at an end, on the theory that it cant go on like this much longer. People said that about Syria several years ago, too. How many more Venezuelans have to starve or drown before Western liberals do something more than merely shake their heads?On todays episode:

 Caitlin Dickerson, a national immigration reporter for The New York Times.

 Catherine Porter, Canada bureau chief for The Times.

Background reading:

 A bipartisan group of senators reached an agreement Wednesday on immigration even as President Trump suggested he would veto any plan that does not adhere to his hard-line approach.

 Canadas merit-based immigration program is part of a system that promotes both the economy and a multicultural society.

 A heavily armed young man barged into his former high school on Wednesday, opening fire on terrified students and teachers and killing at least 17 people. Heres what we know about the suspect.

Tune in, and tell us what you think. Email us at thedaily@nytimes.com. Tweet me at @mikiebarb. And if youre interested in advertising with The Daily, write to us at thedaily-ads@nytimes.com.She resolved to follow through. Luckily, I love the thrill of the hunt, she said.

Ms. Lewis knew she would get a small place in a no-frills building, probably a walk-up. Her biggest priority was a laundry room or the ability to add a washer-dryer. I didnt really have a grasp on what I could afford or what I needed to put down, she said. I was looking at the cheapest of the cheap.

Then she discovered Neighbors Helping Neighbors, a counseling agency sponsored by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, and was connected with Robert McCool, the director of homeownership programs, who explained things like debt-to-income ratio, closing costs and flip taxes.

Craigslist, which Ms. Lewis checked daily, led her not to a studio but to a dilapidated H.D.F.C. two-bedroom on South Second Street in South Williamsburg for $310,000.

I could see my vision, she said. I showed the photos to friends, and they were horrified. I was O.K. with that because I didnt have much of a choice.Some 2,000 years ago, perhaps, ancient artists in the Arabian desert climbed tall rock outcrops and carved life-size camels into the stone.

Now, archaeologists exploring a site in northwest Saudi Arabia have discovered about a dozen of the humped sculptures. Although camel art has been found in other parts of the Arabian Peninsula, the newly uncovered engravings at the so-called Camel Site are stylistically unique.

The findings, which were reported Tuesday, could help provide insight into the history and development of rock art on the Arabian Peninsula.Black characters are rarely central to the imaginary worlds that fill the pages of comic books, which often depict them as sidekicks or villains rather than the superheroes.

That means the cosplay community, made up of fans who dress in character at conventions, movies and just for fun on weekends , is overwhelmingly white.

That is perhaps why black cosplayers in particular have been excited about the Black Panther film since Marvel Comics announced its release in 2014 and Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote a new series of the comic in 2016. Its hero, TChalla , the Black Panther, lives in a fictional advanced nation called Wakanda. There, black characters can be both the hero and the villain, a three-dimensional portrait of people of African descent often left out of comic books and movies. There is a strong sense of African pride for the nation set in East Africa, one that is permeating black American culture.

The Black Panther character first appeared in Marvel Comics in 1966, but this film is Marvels first featuring a leading black superhero and a predominantly black cast , including Lupita Nyongo and Chadwick Boseman, directed by an African-American, Ryan Coogler, with a soundtrack by an African-American, Kendrick Lamar.Every few years, with the regularity, if not quite the frequency, of the full-moon cycle, Southwestern style comes back in fashion. The look, which is composed of Native American, Spanish and Anglo influences (Spanish colonizers arrived in the American Southwest in the 1500s, and white ranchers and farmers came three centuries later), mixes cowboy boots, bolo ties, bolero hats, concho belts, Western shirts, silver and turquoise jewelry, Navajo prints, suede moccasins and fringe and leather everything. The line between cool and corny, chic and costumed, is treacherously fine.

The modern iteration of the look has its origins in early 20th-century Taos, N.M., which had become an artists mecca that attracted a number of eccentric, independent women who popularized the regions sartorial customs. Among them was Mabel Dodge Luhan, the Lady Ottoline Morrell of the Southwest, who lived with her Taos Pueblo husband in an adobe house, entertaining guests such as D.H. Lawrence, Aldous Huxley and Georgia OKeeffe. A 1949 Louise Dahl-Wolfe photo shows Standard Oil heiress Millicent Rogers, an advocate for Native American rights and a collector of Native American art and jewelry, with an armful of silver bracelets, a turquoise necklace as thick as a lei and a long, crinkly-pleat broomstick skirt, which was likely designed by Martha Reed, whose Martha of Taos label and shop was responsible for mainstreaming  or, well, appropriating  this classic Navajo style. The look spread beyond the region after World War II, when Americans began to travel cross-country, bringing souvenirs home with them. But it was Dennis Hopper  he moved to Taos in 1970, and bought the Dodge Luhan property three years later  who did much to promote the styles hippie outlaw spirit, wearing a fringe buckskin jacket in Easy Rider and a Chimayo vest in American Dreamer.

Image From left: Tods and Versace spring/summer 2018. Credit... Firstview

In its current incarnation, Southwestern style has been reimagined not by the usual homegrown suspects, like Ralph Lauren, but by European designers: Celine, Gucci, Chloe, Louis Vuitton. On the spring runway, Tods showed cowhide prints, clay-colored clothing and white leather moccasin booties. At Versace, regional elements were gilded with Euro glamour: gold belt buckles, gold-trimmed leather and a black Western-style pantsuit edged in gold filigree. The overall vibe was cowgirl meets Aspen divorcee. In the design world, too, Southwestern accents, which were everywhere after the 1986 publication of Santa Fe Style  the best-selling Rizzoli coffee table design book  are once again ubiquitousWASHINGTON  Last April, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, led the charge for his agency to approve rules allowing television broadcasters to greatly increase the number of stations they own. A few weeks later, Sinclair Broadcasting announced a blockbuster $3.9 billion deal to buy Tribune Media  a deal those new rules made possible.

By the end of the year, in a previously undisclosed move, the top internal watchdog for the F.C.C. opened an investigation into whether Mr. Pai and his aides had improperly pushed for the rule changes and whether they had timed them to benefit Sinclair, according to Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey and two congressional aides.

For months I have been trying to get to the bottom of the allegations about Chairman Pais relationship with Sinclair Broadcasting, Mr. Pallone, the top Democrat on the committee that oversees the F.C.C., said in the statement to The New York Times. I am grateful to the F.C.C.s inspector general that he has decided to take up this important investigation.

It was unclear the extent of the inspector generals investigation or when it might conclude, but the inquiry puts a spotlight on Mr. Pais decisions and whether there had been coordination with the company. It may also force him to answer questions that he has so far avoided addressing in public.Neil LaBute, a prominent American playwright and screenwriter known for his portraits of misanthropic and misogynistic men, has been abruptly cut off by one of New Yorks leading nonprofit theaters.

MCC Theater, a prestigious Off Broadway company, announced Thursday that it was canceling an upcoming production of Mr. LaButes latest play and terminating his tenure as its playwright-in-residence, effective immediately.

The theaters leadership repeatedly declined to explain the reason for its action, but on Friday, Blake West, its executive director, said, Were committed to creating and maintaining a respectful and professional work environment for everyone we work with.

Mr. LaBute did not respond to a request for comment.

The action is a startling development in the 15-year relationship between the nonprofit theater and the polarizing playwright: MCC has been a longtime champion of Mr. LaButes work, which often raises uncomfortable questions about sex and power and leaves viewers debating whether Mr. LaBute was critiquing or reveling in the bad behavior of some of his protagonists.Our guide to plays and musicals coming to New York stages  and a few last-chance picks of shows that are about to close. Our reviews of open shows are at nytimes.com/reviews/theater.

Previews and Openings

AT HOME AT THE ZOO at the Pershing Square Signature Center (in previews; opens on Feb. 21). In this darkly comic Edward Albee diptych, the outside world has its uncertainties and terrors. So does the inside one. For the Signature Theater, Lila Neugebauer directs the twinned one-acts Homelife and The Zoo Story, which star Katie Finneran, Robert Sean Leonard and Paul Sparks.

212-244-7529, signaturetheatre.org

ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE at the Marquis Theater (previews start on Feb. 16; opens on March 15). That frozen concoction that helps us hang on comes to Broadway. The Jimmy Buffett jukebox musical, with the book by Greg Garcia (My Name Is Earl) and Mike OMalley (Shameless), interweaves porch-rock classics with a story of a womans vacation romance with the resorts showman. Director Christopher Ashley salts the rim.

877-250-2929, escapetomargaritavillemusical.com

FROZEN at the St. James Theater (previews start on Feb. 22; opens on March 22). Brave the slush for the Broadway adaptation of the beloved, blizzardy Disney flick. Writer Jennifer Lee and composers Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez have expanded their tale of sisterly love and subzero conditions, adding a flurry of new songs. Michael Grandage directs a cast that includes Caissie Levy as a snow queen and Patti Murin as her melting sibling.

866-870-2717, frozenthemusical.comSpeak with Your Hands and Head

Pointing with your hands and nodding or shaking your head, Mr. Thibault said, are an easy way to communicate with locals in the country youre in. Gestures are almost all universally understood, he said.

There are exceptions however. In many of the countries in the Balkans, for example, nodding means no, and shaking your head means yes. Also, although a smile usually conveys friendliness, in some countries such as Russia, locals dont smile at people they dont know. A quick web search for the country youre visiting and gestures or body language will turn up anything you need to be aware of before you go.

Learn a Few Key Words

Knowing basic words and phrases like hello, thank you and Im sorry, I dont speak [insert the language of the country youre visiting], do you speak English? are a must, Mr. Thibault said. Showing that you care enough to learn some of the language before you went, and at least enough to acknowledge that you dont know more, is a form of respect and will go a long way to endear you to locals.

He suggested going on YouTube to find a tutorial on how to spell and say basic words and phrases, ideally from native speakers eager to teach would-be visitors. Itll take five minutes of your time and is well worth it, he said.

Work with a Local Travel Agent

If you feel particularly uncomfortable in the country youre headed to, and you have to go anyway, relying on a local travel agent who knows both your and your destinations language can be incredibly useful.It was easily adapted for civilian use, with one major difference: Military versions can fire fully automatically  or in bursts of several shots  by depressing the trigger once. The civilian semiautomatic version requires a pull of the trigger for each shot.

But other features that make the AR-15 so deadly on the battlefield remain. It is light, easy to hold and easy to fire, with a limited recoil. Bullets fly out of the muzzle more than twice as fast as most handgun rounds.

Equally important for a gunman looking to do a lot of damage in a hurry: AR-15-style weapons are fed with box magazines that can be swapped out quickly. The standard magazine holds 30 rounds. Equipped in this way, a gunman can fire more than a hundred rounds in minutes.

The man accused of the killings in Parkland had countless magazines for his AR-15, the local sheriff said.

And there is still one more reason the weapons are so popular in states like Florida: They are very easy to buy  and for a 19-year-old like Nikolas Cruz, the shooting suspect, far easier to obtain than a handgun.For the latest news in the wake of the Florida school shooting, read Thursdays coverage.

PARKLAND, Fla.  The suspect in one of the deadliest school shootings in modern American history confessed to the police that he began shooting students that he saw in the hallways and on school grounds, according to a police arrest report released Thursday.

The suspect, Nikolas Cruz, 19, carried a black duffel bag and backpack, where he hid loaded magazines, the report said. He arrived at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in an Uber at 2:19 p.m. on Wednesday and pulled out a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, according to details described by the authorities at a news conference on Thursday.

Mr. Cruz also shot people inside five classrooms on the first and second floors of the freshman building. He eventually discarded the rifle, a vest and ammunition in a stairwell, blended in with fleeing students and got away, the authorities said.

After leaving the school, Mr. Cruz walked to a Walmart, and bought a drink at a Subway. He also stopped at a McDonalds. He was arrested by the police without incident as he walked down a residential street at 3:41 p.m.

He looked like a typical high school student, and for a quick moment I thought, could this be the person who I need to stop? said Officer Michael Leonard.

Here are the takeaways:

 Mr. Cruz faces 17 counts of premeditated murder  one for each of the people he is accused of killing on Wednesday in a shooting that was captured on cellphone video by terrified students. He is being held without bond at the main Broward County jail, where he has been placed on suicide watch, according to Gordon Weekes, the countys chief assistant public defender.

 The AR-15 rifle used in the attack was purchased legally, at Sunrise Tactical Supply in Florida, according to a federal law enforcement official. The arrest report said Mr. Cruz purchased it in February 2017. No laws were violated in the procurement of this weapon, said Peter J. Forcelli, the special agent in charge for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Miami.

 The F.B.I. said on Thursday it received information last year about a comment made on a YouTube channel which has been attributed to the gunman, but was unable to identify the person.

 In Florida, an AR-15 is easier to buy than a handgun. Read more on how the AR-15 became one of the weapons of choice for mass killers, and the research that tries to explain the high rate of mass shootings in the United States.

 With this shooting, three of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in modern United States history have come in the last five months. Here is a graphic that records the grim toll of school shootings across the nation.

 A huge crowd gathered at Pine Trails Park in Parkland for an emotional vigil to commemorate the victims, 14 of whom were students. Read more about the victims here. The football team gathered separately nearby, forming a circle and locking hands before praying for a coach and an athletic director who were killed.

 Sign up for the Morning Briefing for news and a daily look at what you need to know to begin your day.The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a habeas corpus lawsuit challenging the mans detention, winning a right to speak with him and gain his consent to represent him. It is asking a Federal District Court judge to order the Justice Department to either charge him with a crime or release him.

People familiar with the case have said that the government lacks sufficient courtroom-admissible evidence to charge the man. Although he spoke freely during an initial interrogation conducted for intelligence purposes  a summary of that conversation is attached to the new court filing  he stopped talking and asked for a lawyer after being warned of his Miranda rights for a law-enforcement interrogation.

The Trump administration is now trying to persuade Saudi Arabia to take custody of him, according to officials familiar with internal deliberations. A judge has ordered the government to give the A.C.L.U. three days notice before any such transfer so that he could challenge it, if he wants  an order the Justice Department is appealing.

Meanwhile, the underlying case is continuing. In a filing rebutting the governments factual account, the A.C.L.U. argued for a more favorable interpretation of the disputed facts about the scope and meaning of his involvement with the Islamic State, which is also called ISIS.

Contrary to the thrust of the governments contentions that petitioner is an ISIS fighter, and as petitioner told the government, he sought to understand firsthand and report about the conflict in Syria; was kidnapped and imprisoned by ISIS; and tried numerous times to escape  and not even the government alleges that he ever took up arms against the United States or anyone else, the A.C.L.U. rebuttal said.

In an interview on Thursday, Jonathan Hafetz, the lead A.C.L.U. lawyer on the case, maintained that the Trump administration lacked the legal authority to keep holding his client indefinitely in military custody.

The government has made numerous allegations which are inaccurate and misleading in many respects, he said. But the fundamental flaw in its position is that it has no legal authority to hold this citizen in military custody. If the government wants to detain him, it needs to charge him with a crime. Otherwise it must release him.WASHINGTON  After a gunman in Las Vegas slaughtered country-music fans with assault weapons that mimicked a machine gun, lawmakers from both parties said they would move quickly to ban so-called bump stocks.

After a mass shooter massacred churchgoers in Sutherland Springs, Tex., the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, John Cornyn of Texas, was stirred to action, pledging legislation to bolster the nations instant background check system for would-be gun buyers.

Congress has effectively done neither.

That inaction sank in on Thursday, as lawmakers confronted yet another mass shooting, this time with some of the survivors imploring Congress to finally take action. Republicans called for prayers, but argued that no single fix to the nations gun laws would deter a shooting like the one on Wednesday in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 people dead, many of them children.

This is one of those moments where we just need to step back and count our blessings, Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin said. We need to think less about taking sides and fighting each other politically, and just pulling together.WASHINGTON  In 2006 and again in 2013, Republican moderates joined Democrats in the Senate to pass sweeping overhauls of the nations immigration laws with a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, only to see the compromises torpedoed by a wave of angry activism in the conservative news media and grass roots.

This time, as senators again search for a way forward on immigration, a revolt from the right has so far failed to materialize, in large part because of the intransigence of a different player: a man in the White House who has mostly satisfied immigration hard-liners.

President Trumps gamble was risky. And at first his plan struck many conservatives as too generous because it would offer 1.8 million young immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children the opportunity to become citizens. But by coupling his offer with demands to sharply reduce legal immigration  a trade-off many Democrats say they cannot accept  then threatening to veto anything that does not meet those demands, the president has made a bipartisan compromise exceedingly difficult.

That may have been the point, as it sits just fine with many on the right who never wanted a deal in the first place.WASHINGTON  The Senate summarily blocked three measures on Thursday  including one backed by President Trump  to resolve the fate of the so-called Dreamers, leaving hundreds of thousands of them facing an uncertain future.

As senators struck down measure after measure, a week that began with the promise of a rare open, free-ranging debate on the issue crashed headlong into the same divisions that have prevented Congress from fixing the nations immigration system for decades. The lack of consensus left in question whether any solution on the Dreamers can be reached.

In a rebuke to the president, senators voted overwhelmingly, 39 to 60, against the White House-backed bill, which would have committed $25 billion for a wall along the border with Mexico, placed strict limits on legal immigration, ended the diversity visa lottery and offered 1.8 million Dreamers an eventual path to citizenship.

Senators were 21 votes short of the 60 required to open debate, and the rejection of the presidents plan was bipartisan: Democrats refused its get-tough approach to legal immigration, while many conservative Republicans derided it as amnesty.The Senates top education leaders will consider reinstating Pell grants for incarcerated students, a move that would restore a federal lifeline to the nations cash-strapped prison education system.

Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee and the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said the committee would consider reinstating the federal financial aid grants in the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act currently underway.

The move would reverse a decades-old decision to strike the benefit from the higher education law and signal a shift toward recognizing education as a centerpiece in efforts to overhaul criminal justice law. The federal student aid could be used to cover the cost of college courses taught in prisons, online or both.

Mr. Alexander said that he was open to re-examining Pell grants for prisoners, which were banned in the 1994 crime bill passed under President Bill Clinton. In 2015, President Barack Obamas Education Department piloted an experimental program that allowed 12,000 incarcerated students to be eligible for the financial aid. If reinstated, millions of dollars would be made available to eligible students in the United States prison population of 1.5 million.WASHINGTON  In terms of rip-roaring debates, it certainly didnt rival Calhoun versus Webster. It definitely was not in the pantheon with Lincoln and Douglas. In fact, it really didnt even measure up to Biden meets Palin.

The promised freewheeling, take-on-all-comers Senate showdown over immigration policy never really materialized before it all collapsed Thursday with the defeat of four proposals, including President Trumps, which suffered the worst loss of them all. After raising expectations of an elevated, old-school clash of ideas, the Senate delivered a dud, a major disappointment to those hoping to see a revived Senate confront the tough, politically charged issues by hashing them out on the floor.

Over four days of what was supposed to be a rare, open-ended fight, the Senate chamber was often empty, save the lone Republican forced to preside over the inactivity. In the end, the showdown came down to a series of votes on four doomed proposals rather than a daily competition between lawmakers offering a series of defining amendments as in the past. In the run-up to the final decision, the number of dramatic votes on such amendments reached exactly zero.

I think its safe to say this has been a disappointing week, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said in the aftermath of the legislative failure.This is not the first White House where that has happened, of course, but lessons from past experience suggest why it can be corrosive. Frustrated that he was not being fully informed during the early days of the scandal resulting from President Bill Clintons sexual relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky, Michael McCurry, then the White House press secretary, famously referred to his strategy as telling the truth slowly.

Indeed, much like Mr. McCurry, current White House officials are frustrated that they have not gotten a full accounting of the episode involving Mr. Porter either, with many of them angry at John F. Kelly, the chief of staff, and Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel. In individual conversations with reporters, some White House officials warn that the information they have just provided may not be true and that they themselves do not know.

Still, some Republicans said the shifting stories were not the main reason it has been hard for the White House to move on. Ari Fleischer, a White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, said a bigger factor was that the presidents team accepted Mr. Porters denials until photographs were published showing one of his ex-wives with a black eye.

And then, Mr. Fleischer noted, the presidents only public comments at first seemed sympathetic to Mr. Porter and included no concern for the accusers or an acknowledgment of the seriousness of domestic abuse. Only on Wednesday, a week after the story broke, did Mr. Trump personally condemn violence against women, and then sounded aggrieved that anyone would make an issue of the fact that he had not said anything about it until then.

It wouldnt have made this story go away, Mr. Fleischer said of the White House failure to produce a clean and consistent explanation. This story was launched because the president didnt address the issue of domestic violence and the White House believed Rob Porter. If they had done everything else perfectly since then, it still would have been a similar controversy.

Representative Elijah Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, has pressed for months for a look at the process for White House security clearances. Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina and the committee chairman, said on Wednesday that the panel would investigate the White House handling of Mr. Porters case.

This is an administration that has consistently not been truthful with the American people and so when you start going down that road where your leader goes, that is President Trump, then you are constantly trying to get your story straight, said Mr. Cummings. Every time they go down one road, either a story comes out in the newspapers or something happens that causes them to say, Oh, weve got to change course. Other members of his party echoed Mr. Trumps sentiments. In a brief news conference, Speaker Paul D. Ryan said that there may be some mental health issues with this shooting, adding that it was not the time to jump to conclusions about tightening gun laws. In an address to a conference in Washington, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said law enforcement officers should look for warning signs in their communities.

You and I know we cannot arrest everybody that somebody thinks is dangerous, Mr. Sessions said. But I think we can and we must do better. We owe it to every one of those kids crying outside their school yesterday and all those who never made it out of that school.

As a presidential candidate, Mr. Trump enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with the National Rifle Association. The organization provided at least $30 million in support during his campaign. Receiving a heros welcome at the groups annual convention last April, Mr. Trump said he would return the favor.

Only one candidate in the general election came to speak to you, and that candidate is now the president of the United States, standing before you, Mr. Trump said at the time. You came through for me, and I am going to come through for you.

But as with many issues, the president has had a complicated relationship with  and history of comments about  gun control.

Mr. Trump had a concealed weapon permit in New York when Rudolph W. Giuliani was mayor. It is not clear whether he maintained it. He also has spoken favorably about gun rights over the years. However, he has made clear that he is not a game hunter, as his two older sons are.

In 2000, as he considered running for president, he wrote in his book, The America We Deserve, that I generally oppose gun control, but I support the ban on assault weapons and I also support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun.WASHINGTON  A second federal appeals court ruled on Thursday against President Trumps latest effort to limit travel from countries said to pose a threat to the nations security.

The decision, from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., will have no immediate practical impact. The Supreme Court agreed last month to hear an appeal from a broadly similar decision from the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco.

In December, in a sign that the Supreme Court may be receptive to upholding Mr. Trumps latest order, the court allowed it to go into effect as the two cases moved forward.

The cases concern Mr. Trumps third and most considered effort to make good on a campaign promise to secure the nations borders. But challengers to the latest ban, issued as a presidential proclamation in September, said it was tainted by religious animus and not adequately justified by national security concerns.Ms. Winston Wolkoff is not paid for her work in the first ladys office, according to Ms. Grisham, who said Ms. Winston Wolkoff is classified as a special government employee and has specified duties as outlined in her contract.

Special government employees are a category of federal worker created to allow the government the flexibility to hire specialists to fill discrete roles, usually on a temporary basis.

Ms. Grisham did not respond to follow-up questions about the particulars of Ms. Winston Wolkoffs work in the first ladys office, or her relationship with Mrs. Trump. Ms. Winston Wolkoff could not be reached for comment.

Mr. Barrack praised Ms. Winston Wolkoff, saying she executed her duties well.

But Craig Holman, an official with the government watchdog group Public Citizen, which had called on the inaugural committee to release more details about its finances sooner, described the payments to Ms. Winston Wolkoffs firm and other expenditures as fiscal mismanagement at its worst.

Much of the money paid to Ms. Winston Wolkoffs firm and other event production companies was probably passed through to other vendors that provided goods or services on a subcontractor basis.

An operative who worked with the inaugural committee, who was not authorized to speak for attribution about its spending, said Ms. Winston Wolkoffs firm handled everything from securing venues and table settings to arranging Instagram filters and satellite feeds, as well as the transportation of heavy equipment. The operative said Ms. Winston Wolkoff personally received $1.62 million for her work through her consulting firm, although committee officials said she used that money to help pay other inaugural workers who reported to her.

An inaugural committee official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the details publicly, said Ms. Winston Wolkoffs firm also paid the team used by Mark Burnett, the creator of The Apprentice, whose involvement in the inaugural festivities was requested by Mr. Trump.After Dr. Blaus myeloma was diagnosed in 2015, he decided to apply this approach to himself. I had 22 biopsies of the tumor in my left pelvis, as well as bone marrow biopsies, he said, and we compared the genomic profile of the myeloma cells in my pelvic tumor with that of myeloma cells in my bone marrow. In the process, he learned about a molecular feature that kicked him out of the most favorable prognostic category.

Because he still had a tiny percentage of myeloma cells in his bone marrow after an arduous autologous stem cell transplant, which uses the patients own cells, he rejected the advice of specialists and underwent an allogeneic stem cell transplantation, using cells from a genetically matched person. His donor, a brother and a Methodist minister, believes that he infused Dr. Blau with the Holy Spirit.

With (possibly related) zeal, Dr. Blau soon started All4Cure, a knowledge-sharing platform for clinicians, researchers and myeloma patients who register (without cost) to allow their medical records to be accessed. Once names are replaced by numbers, these files can be tapped to create a personalized dashboard: a graph depicting all treatments, tests and responses as well as tumor sequencing. Beneath the graph, a discussion panel enables participants to comment on the particular patients situation. To date, about 150 myeloma patients, 30 clinicians and 20 researchers have enrolled.

Personalized medicine depends upon information technology and knowledge sharing. Since every cancer contains a singular collection of mutations that can vary significantly across patients or over time within a single patient, computational analysts map how mutations interact within a specific individual, Dr. Blau explains. When a physician reviews data about a faraway patient, that doctor may draw upon her experience  for example, with the synergy of combining three drugs in a similar case  to propose an alternative approach.

Such global networking has the capacity to break down geographic and institutional barriers to communication. It also enables patients to report outcomes immediately so that protocols with deleterious side effects can be quickly changed. Patients can compare their treatment with those of others; researchers can broadcast breakthroughs. The growing database should help predict which regimens might be most effective for a particular person.

Of course maintaining and extending the platform could be expensive. When I asked Dr. Blau how his for-profit company was financed, he said that the initial investment came from a house he and his wife sold three years ago. He hopes that future revenue might come from pharmaceutical companies. All4Cure could accelerate the approval of investigational drugs and provide feedback on approved drugs.He said the government and members of the opposition, especially the political party of the Oromia people, had disagreed about the conditions for releasing prisoners.

To accelerate the process, Oromia opposition members inside and outside Ethiopia called for a boycott on Monday. Shops and banks in the province of Oromia were closed, and those who did not join the street protests largely stayed home, residents said. Activists said as many as 20 people were killed.

The boycott was officially canceled after Mr. Bekele was released on Tuesday, but Mr. Hallelujah said the protests had continued in many places.

Its easy to call a protest, but its very difficult to call it off, he said. It takes its own life and its own course.

That is precisely what appears to have spooked the most powerful member of the four-party coalition, which has been facing down more than two years of demonstrations in the countrys most sensitive regions. The government cracked down against the protesters, and at least 669 people have been killed, according to the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission.

The ruling coalition, which has run the country since 1991 and controls every seat in Parliament, is also fracturing from within. Two of its marginalized members, representing the regions where the protests began, joined forces to contest the power of the coalitions dominant member  an unexpected alliance of former enemies that, observers say, appears to be succeeding in challenging power.JOHANNESBURG  Cyril Ramaphosa, who was sworn in Thursday as South Africas president, recently did what many politicians do at pivotal points in their careers.

He released a book.

The book told of one of his passions  his love for a Ugandan breed of royal cattle that he imported to South Africa at great expense. Anticipating criticism of his wealth in a country where millions still live in shacks, Mr. Ramaphosa argued at his book launch that the cattle were not meant as trophies for the elite like him, but to help struggling black farmers in South Africa.

Now, Mr. Ramaphosa, the former labor leader who Nelson Mandela had hoped would succeed him as president, has an even trickier argument to make as the nations new leader replacing Jacob Zuma, who was forced to resign this week.JOHANNESBURG  As Parliament took just eight minutes on Thursday to elect Cyril Ramaphosa as South Africas new president, the governing African National Congress rushed to put the era of Jacob Zuma behind it, showing little appetite to grapple with the central problem afflicting the party, and the country  a culture of corruption.

Mr. Zuma, who was found guilty of violating the Constitution and led a nine-year presidency rife with corruption, may have come to symbolize misconduct to most South Africans. But corruption permeates the government, and it is unclear whether the country can move on without first looking back.

During brief comments on Thursday after his election, Mr. Ramaphosa said he would serve with humility, with faithfulness and with dignity as well  words that drew an immediate contrast with Mr. Zumas style and conduct.

He also broached the subject of corruption more directly when he responded to an opposition members comments about widespread graft across Mr. Zumas government.The report put a spotlight on complex attacks, a type of suicide assault that is becoming more deadly, United Nations officials say. These involve two or more commandos with suicide vests seizing a building or taking hostages, fighting for hours and detonating their explosives only when security forces close in.

Such attacks have recently become a hallmark of the war. The ensuing mayhem sends a clear message: that the Taliban can strike at will, even in ostensibly safe cities like Kabul, where the ring of steel security cordon around the capital has been looking more like a colander.

Deaths from complex attacks and other suicide bombings rose to 605 last year from 398 in 2016, according to the report, with the highest number of civilian casualties in Kabul.

One of the deadliest single episodes of the war for civilians took place last May, when a gigantic truck bomb estimated to contain two metric tons of high explosives went off on a Kabul street during rush hour, killing 92 and wounding 491 people.

The Taliban have also stepped up assassinations in the countryside, targeting doctors delivering polio vaccinations, workers on demining teams and religious leaders who preach against the group, among others, the United Nations said.

The report blamed the Islamic States Afghan branch for 1,000 civilian casualties  399 killed and 601 wounded.

In a statement that the United Nations included with the report, the Taliban denied targeting civilians and blamed the United States and its allies for waging war in Afghanistan in the first place. For the past 17 years, hundreds of thousands of innocent Afghans were killed after the influx of foreigners, and they are still being killed, it said.BANGKOK  A senior cabinet minister and army general from Myanmar arrived in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Thursday to discuss a trouble-plagued scheme to repatriate Rohingya Muslims who fled military assaults and now are in camps in Bangladesh.

In less than half a year, around 700,000 Rohingya escaped attacks in their home state, Rakhine, and what the international community has called ethnic cleansing by Myanmars security forces.

The Myanmar government insists it is committed to the repatriation of those Rohingya who can prove they recently left Rakhine. The Bangladeshi side says the same.

But few expect that the two days of meetings between Lt. Gen. Kyaw Swe, Myanmars home minister, and Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, his Bangladeshi counterpart, will elicit much action. Over months of sporadic talks, each side has blamed the other for failing to put in place a voluntary repatriation agreement signed in November.SYDNEY, Australia  Australias deputy prime minister, under fire over his affair with a former staff member, defied pressure to resign on Friday and said Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbulls sharp criticism of him had been inept and unnecessary.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyces remarks came a day after Mr. Turnbull banned sex between government ministers and their subordinates in response to the scandal. Mr. Turnbull said on Thursday that Mr. Joyce  head of the National Party of Australia, the junior partner in his coalition government  had made a shocking error of judgment by having an affair with an aide, who is now pregnant.

In doing so, he has set off a world of woe for the women involved, Mr. Turnbull said, including Mr. Joyces wife and daughters. The prime minister stopped short of asking Mr. Joyce to resign, but said he would take a leave.

On Friday, Mr. Joyce rebuked Mr. Turnbulls criticism and said the prime ministers remarks had caused further harm.LONDON  For Lent, many Christians give up indulgences like tobacco, alcohol or sweets, or transgressions like lying and swearing. And for Anglicans, dont forget synthetic fabrics, wet wipes, and those little boxes that hold dental floss.

The Church of England has asked people to add a new culprit to the list of ills they forsake for the six weeks of penance that begin on Ash Wednesday: plastics. Specifically, the church wants people to avoid the plastic consumer products and packaging that have become a major environmental problem, polluting oceans and rivers, fouling beaches, killing wildlife and clogging landfills.

I think it might well be a first for us, to have an entire Lent program on an environmental issue, but it is very much an integral part of what the church is about, said Ruth Knight, the Church of Englands environmental policy officer. In fact, environmental stewardship to safeguard the integrity of creation is one of the five marks of mission the church lists in describing its purpose.

The churchs Lent Plastic Challenge arrives on a wave of anti-plastic sentiment and legislation in Britain and across Europe, as more people conclude that the first element of the motto reduce, reuse, recycle should take precedence. In December, the European Union announced binding waste-reduction targets for member nations, with particular emphasis on plastics.MOSCOW  The Russian authorities blocked the website of a prominent opposition leader Thursday after he refused a court order to remove a posted video accusing a high-ranking official of accepting a bribe from a rich businessman.

The order against the opposition leader, Aleksei A. Navalny, extended to the American service providers Instagram and YouTube, with Instagram coming under criticism from Mr. Navalny after some content was deleted from its accounts.

Instagram decided to comply with Russian illegal censorship requests and deleted some content about oligarch Deripaska, Mr. Navalny said on Twitter. Shame on you, Instagram!

By Thursday afternoon Google, the parent company of YouTube, had yet to remove Mr. Navalnys video.

Last week, a politically connected aluminum tycoon, Oleg V. Deripaska, filed a lawsuit against a 21-year-old model and blogger, Anastasia Vashukevich, accusing her of sharing details of his private life. In 2017, Ms. Vashukevich posted video material and photographs from 2016 on her Instagram account that showed Mr. Deripaska sailing on his yacht with a deputy prime minister, Sergei E. Prikhodko.JERUSALEM  In a trio of new polls, Israelis have declared what they think of the bribery case against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the answer is roughly the same as what they think of Mr. Netanyahu himself: About half think he should step aside. His right-wing supporters overwhelmingly think he should stay.

Mr. Netanyahus Israel is as polarized as it has been in generations, and under his lengthy tenure, the national conversation has become steadily more toxic. Now, as the prime minister awaits a possible criminal indictment, his efforts to cling to power could pose even greater strains on a society that already seems at risk of tearing itself apart.

Imagine if, in the next few weeks, there is a justified case for Israel to go to war, said Shlomo Avineri, a professor emeritus of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Half of this country would think Netanyahus position was impacted by his legal situation. That is unacceptable. Political decisions are sometimes existential in Israel. If we had to go to war, the decision would be contaminated for a lot of people.

Mr. Netanyahu has dismissed the police recommendations to charge him as slanted and full of holes, like Swiss cheese. The attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, praised the police on Thursday, in his first public remarks on the recommendations. The state prosecutors and the police, he said, had worked with the goal of preserving the rule of law in Israel, turning over every stone in order to bring the truth to light.1 2:21 p.m. Gunman enters building.

2 Shoots into four classrooms repeatedly, killing 11 people.

3 2:23 p.m. Goes to second floor.

4 Fires into two classrooms.

5 2:24 p.m. Goes to third floor.

6 Shoots at people in the hallway and the stairwell, killing six.

7 2:25 p.m. Tried to set up a sniper position from the windows, but couldnt shoot through hurricane-resistant windows.

8 2:27 p.m. Drops rifle and backpack. Runs back downstairs and leaves building.Lawmakers have until March 5 to extend legal protections for Dreamers, the undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. But the battle over their fate has expanded to include other potential changes to the nations immigration system, and lawmakers have not come to a consensus.

On Thursday, the Senate voted to advance three different plans, but each failed.

Proposal by: Senate vote to advance (60 needed to pass) House Republicans No vote scheduled White House 39-60 3 Democrats Yes, 14 Republicans No Senator Flake No vote scheduled Gang of Six No vote scheduled McCain-Coons 52-47 4 Republicans Yes, 1 Democrat No Common Sense Coalition 54-45 8 Republicans Yes, 3 Democrats No Senate vote to advance (60 needed to pass) Proposal by: House Republicans No vote scheduled White House 39-60 3 Ds Yes, 14 Rs No Senator Flake No vote scheduled Gang of Six No vote scheduled McCain-Coons 52-47 4 Rs Yes, 1 D No Common Sense Coalition 54-45 8 Rs Yes, 3 Ds No

Complicating matters, President Trump said Wednesday that he would not support a proposal that did not include the four pillars of his own plan: a path to citizenship for Dreamers, a border wall, and an end to the visa lottery system and family-based migration that he calls chain migration. On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security released a scathing critique of the latest bipartisan plan, which Mr. Trump vowed to veto.

Here is how different proposals address the Dreamers protections and five other critical issues:

Protections for Dreamers

MORE GENEROUS MORE RESTRICTIVE Path to citizenship for Dreamers and renewable legal status for parents 3-year renewable legal status for DACA recipients (a subset of Dreamers) Path to citizenship for Dreamers MORE GENEROUS MORE RESTRICTIVE Path to citizenship for Dreamers Path to citizenship for Dreamers and renewable legal status for parents 3-year renewable legal status for DACA recipients (a subset of Dreamers)

About 700,000 undocumented immigrants are currently shielded from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. An additional 1.1 million Dreamers were eligible for the program, but they did not apply. Mr. Trump announced plans to phase out the program by March 5.

Most of the major proposals in Congress include a path to citizenship for Dreamers. One, a more moderate bipartisan Senate proposal introduced by Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, and Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, along with four other senators in the so-called Gang of Six, would also allow parents of Dreamers to obtain three-year renewable legal status.

(That proposal was rejected during a White House meeting in which Mr. Trump reportedly derided people from African nations.)

Path to citizenship and parent benefit Path to citizenship No citizenship Proposal by: House Republicans White House Senator Flake Gang of Six McCain-Coons Common Sense Coalition The Senate voted down the proposals in yellow. Path to citizenship and parent benefit Path to citizenship No citizenship Proposal by: House Republicans White House Senator Flake Gang of Six McCain-Coons Common Sense Coalition The Senate voted down the proposals in yellow.

A more conservative approach, written by the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia, and supported by other Republicans in the House, does not provide a path to citizenship for Dreamers. Instead, it offers three-year renewable legal status for a smaller subset of immigrants who were DACA recipients.

The proposals also differ on who would qualify, potentially expanding protections for more than the 1.8 million immigrants who were eligible for DACA. A narrow bipartisan Senate plan, introduced by John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, includes more expansive thresholds for qualification, potentially expanding the number of eligible immigrants to 3.2 million. That plan was voted down Thursday.

In 2001, the Dream Act was introduced to provide a pathway to citizenship for these immigrants without additional immigration measures. Democrats still favor that approach, but it does not have enough support in the Republican-controlled Congress.

Border Wall

NO MONEY MORE MONEY Limited funding for a border wall No funding for a border wall More funding for a border wall NO MONEY MORE MONEY Limited funding for a border wall No funding for a border wall More funding for a border wall

Mr. Trump has called for full funding, an estimated $25 billion over 10 years, to fulfill his campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border with Mexico, which Democrats have generally opposed. The White House plan has been introduced as legislation by Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa. It would appropriate $25 billion for a border security trust fund, of which $18 billion would go toward a wall and other physical barriers. It was also voted down Thursday.

The House Republican plan authorizes about $25 billion for border security, designating $9.3 billion of that for physical barriers like a wall. An authorization is a step taken before an appropriation, which is actual funding.

Small amount of money More money No money Proposal by: House Republicans White House Senator Flake Gang of Six McCain-Coons Common Sense Coalition The Senate voted down the proposals in yellow. Small amount of money More money No money Proposal by: House Republicans White House Senator Flake Gang of Six McCain-Coons Common Sense Coalition The Senate voted down the proposals in yellow.

The Common Sense Coalition, a bipartisan group of senators led by Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, and Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, released a proposal late Wednesday that would appropriate $25 billion for border security overall. On Thursday, the White House released a statement saying that if that plan came to the presidents desk, his advisors would recommend that he veto it. Later, the Senate voted against a motion to advance the plan.

A compromise plan developed by Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, addresses the White Houses four priorities, including $25 billion for a border security trust fund.

The Gang of Six plan would appropriate a total of just $1.6 billion for a border wall. A similar plan has been introduced in the House by the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.

Other Border Security

LESS AGGRESSIVE MORE AGGRESSIVE Significant funding for border security Limited funding for border security Significant funding for border security and new bio-metric exit-entry system LESS AGGRESSIVE MORE AGGRESSIVE Limited funding for border security Significant funding for border security Significant funding for border security and new bio-metric exit-entry system

Republicans want to beef up security along the border as a condition for other reforms. The House Republican plan takes the most aggressive approach, including a new biometric entry-exit system at all air, land, and sea ports of entry, with a $15.7 billion authorization for border security on top of money for a wall.

Limited funding More funding Most aggressive Proposal by: House Republicans White House Senator Flake Gang of Six McCain-Coons Common Sense Coalition The Senate voted down the proposals in yellow. Limited funding More funding Most aggressive Proposal by: House Republicans White House Senator Flake Gang of Six McCain-Coons Common Sense Coalition The Senate voted down the proposals in yellow.

The narrow McCain-Coons plan authorizes (but would not appropriate) a small amount of money ($550 million over 10 years) for border security. That plan is nearly identical to a House bill that has more than 50 bipartisan co-sponsors, but it is not likely to have enough Republican support to pass.

Even the most expensive plans fall short of the border security funding included in the 2013 immigration bill that was passed in the Senate but was never taken up in the House. That compromise bill devoted roughly $40 billion to border security. In exchange, the bill also included a path to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country, with an expedited path for Dreamers.

Interior Enforcement

STATUS QUO MORE ENFORCEMENT Heavier enforcement of immigration laws No increased enforcement of immigration laws Heavier enforcement of immigration laws, crack down on sanctuary cities, implement E-Verify STATUS QUO MORE ENFORCEMENT Heavier enforcement of immigration laws No increased enforcement of immigration laws Heavier enforcement of immigration laws, crack down on sanctuary cities, implement E-Verify

Mr. Trump, along with hard-line Republicans, wants to crack down on unauthorized immigrants with more arrests and faster deportations. The White House plan introduces harsher criminal penalties for deported criminals who re-enter the country and expands the criminal activities that would result in removal for unauthorized immigrants.

The House Republican plan includes many of the same provisions but goes further. It would implement mandatory E-Verify systems for employers, authorize the Justice Department to crack down on so-called sanctuary cities and make visa overstays a federal misdemeanor.

A separate vote to advance an amendment that would withhold federal grants from sanctuary cities failed in the Senate on Thursday. Four Democrats joined the Republicans in supporting it, but they did not reach the 60 votes needed to proceed.

Status quo Heavier enforcement Most aggressive enforcement Proposal by: House Republicans White House Senator Flake Gang of Six McCain-Coons Common Sense Coalition The Senate voted down the proposals in yellow. Most aggressive enforcement Status quo Heavier enforcement Proposal by: House Republicans White House Senator Flake Gang of Six McCain-Coons Common Sense Coalition The Senate voted down the proposals in yellow.

None of the other major plans include increased interior enforcement measures.

Family-Based Migration

STATUS QUO FEWER VISAS Scale back family-based migration and reallocate visas No change to current visa system Scale back family-based migration and not reallocate visas STATUS QUO FEWER VISAS Scale back family-based migration and reallocate visas No change to current visa system Scale back family-based migration and not reallocate visas

Another one of the administrations four priorities is ending chain migration  migration that allows legal immigrants to sponsor extended family members.

The hard-line plans by the White House and by House Republicans would limit family-based migration to spouses and children and would not reallocate those visas (or would only reallocate a limited number), resulting in less legal immigration over all.

Status quo Redistribute visas Fewer visas Proposal by: House Republicans White House Senator Flake Gang of Six McCain-Coons Common Sense Coalition The Senate voted down the proposals in yellow. Status quo Redistribute visas Fewer visas Proposal by: House Republicans White House Senator Flake Gang of Six McCain-Coons Common Sense Coalition The Senate voted down the proposals in yellow.

Other plans, from the bipartisan Gang of Six and Senator Flake, also limit family-based migration to spouses and children but redistribute the remaining visas to highly educated and skilled workers or qualifying family.

The Common Sense Coalition plan prohibits green card holders from sponsoring adult children. The McCain-Coons plan does not make changes to the visa system.

Diversity Visa Lottery

STATUS QUO FEWER VISAS End diversity lottery and reallocate visas No change to current diversity lottery visa system End diversity lottery and not reallocate visas STATUS QUO FEWER VISAS End diversity lottery and reallocate visas No change to current diversity lottery visa system End diversity lottery and not reallocate visas

Like the family-based migration changes, ending the diversity visa program is a priority of the Trump administration. The White House plan and the House Republican plan would eliminate the program without redistributing its visas. The Migration Policy Institute, a research organization, estimates that both plans would result in a drop of 30 percent in legal immigration because of their family-based visa and diversity lottery provisions.

Status quo Redistribute visas Fewer visas Proposal by: House Republicans White House Senator Flake Gang of Six McCain-Coons Common Sense Coalition The Senate voted down the proposals in yellow. Status quo Redistribute visas Fewer visas Proposal by: House Republicans White House Senator Flake Gang of Six McCain-Coons Common Sense Coalition The Senate voted down the proposals in yellow.

Under Senator Flakes plan, diversity lottery visas would be partially reallocated, but the number available would eventually drop off. The Gang of Six plan would also end the program, but would redistribute all of the visas, with some going to vulnerable populations that are in the country under Temporary Protected Status.But Shanshan, 7, and her family are no longer welcome in the Chinese capital. The government is kicking out tens of thousands of families with roots in rural China to beautify the Communist Partys flagship city.PM Modi, Biden and over 100 world leaders to address UNGA in person next week

UP was run by gangsters before 2017, but now such elements are behind bars, says PM Modi in Aligarh

After 'Modicare', West Bengal govt says no to PM Modi's 'Pariksha Pe Charcha'

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

West Bengal government on Thursday refused the Centre's proposal to make arrangements for schools to listen to Prime Minister Narendra Modi 's 'Pariksha par Charcha' on Friday.

PM Modi will connect with lakhs of students and thousands of schools across the country and will discuss exam-related issues through a video conference from Delhi's Talkatora Stadium at 11:00 am.

Speaking to News18, State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, said, "No we are not going to follow the CBSE circular. It is not mandatory that we have to follow such instructions or circular from the Centre."

"Examinations are close by and students are busy in their studies. Not possible to follow the circular," he added.

According to reports, students from Class 6 to 12 have been asked to watch on Doordarshan, All India Radio, YouTube and all government websites the telecast of what has been dubbed the "Pariksha Pe Charcha" - a twist on his famous "Chai Pe Charcha" campaign during the 2014 general elections.

Schools have been asked to submit a two-minute video of students watching 'Pariksha Pe Charcha' or four paragraphs about it by the very next day.

Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar had asked all states to make provisions for live telecast of the interactive session in schools irrespective of boards."It is exam time and we don't think it is appropriate to disturb children for receiving exam tips.

To help the students in exams, a book by PM Modi was launched recently which offered '25 mantras' to the students as he urged them to treat examinations as "a festival" and "celebrate it". Modi's book called the "Exam Warriors", hit the bookstores last weekend on the verge of final examinations in schools.

This is not for the first time that the Bengal government has said no to Centre's proposal.

On Wednesday, West Bengal became the first state to withdraw from the ambitious programme National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) announced in the Union Budget 2018 as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced the decision to opt out of the scheme.

Mamata Banerjee claimed that the Bengal government had already enrolled 50 lakh people under its own 'Swasthya Sathi' programme. This scheme was officially launched by CM Mamata Banerjeeon 30th December 2016.

In September Mamata had directed all the universities and colleges under its jurisdiction to ignore the directive of University Grants Commission (UGC) to arrange live telecast of Modi's speech (on September 11) on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda's address to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.

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Story first published: Friday, February 16, 2018, 2:44 [IST]Had BJP ruled for 70 yrs you would have been sitting on silver chairs: Ananth Kumar

Ananth Kumar Hegde calls Rahul Gandhi a Khota Hindu

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

With Rahul Gandhi visiting temple after temple in Karnataka ahead of the assembly elections, BJP leader and Union Minister Ananth Kumar Hegde has called the Congress president a "Khota Hindu" (Fake Hindu).

Gandhi had on Tuesday concluded his four-day tour in north Karnataka districts in the first leg of his campaign in the poll-bound state, during which he visited temples, mutts and Dargahs. The Congress President will begin his second phase of tour in the state from February 24.

No stranger to controversies, Hegde had earlier kicked up a row for reportedly linking Islam with terrorism and recently, for his views on changing the Constitution, inviting a sharp attack from the Congress. After a furore over his remark on changing the Constitution, Hegde had tendered an apology in Parliament.

Karnataka BJP chief BS Yedyurappa had earlier this week accused Gandhi of hurting Hindu sentiments by visiting a temple after allegedly consuming meat.

Gandhi had, however, defended his visits to temples and religious places, asserting that he would continue them.

Karnataka Assembly Election dates Date of notification April 17 Last date to file nominations April 24 Last date to withdraw nominations April 27 Date of polling May 12 Date of counting May 15

OneIndia NewsAyodhya dispute: Former AIMPLB member Salman Nadvi denies bribery charges

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Former All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) member Salman Nadvi denied allegations over the issue of bribery in Ayodhya dispute case levelled against him by mediator in the politically sensitive dispute. Amarnath Mishra, mediator in Ayodhya dispute, alleged that Salman Nadvi for Rs. 5000 crore bribe and a Rajya Sabha seat for changing his stand on Ayodhya dispute.

Salman Nadvi said, "I don't remember him. There are so many people who meet me. He (Amarnath Mishra) shouldn't spoil environment by speaking lies. He is a man who doesn't want matter to be resolved.I ask govt to take action against him."

Amarnath Mishra, the key mediator in Ayodhya dispute, lodged an FIR against Salman Nadvi. Mishra accused Nadvi of asking for a bribe from him for changing his stand on Ayodhya. Also, Mishra demands police inquiry in this episode.

Bribery allegation against Salman Nadvi surfaced after he was expelled from AIMPLB for refusing to set aside his "out of court settlement" suggestion to solve the Ram janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board made their decision public on their official twitter handle. A disciplinary committee was formed by the board to look into the matter. With the rift out in the open, the board had earlier hinted that Nadvi would be removed from the board.

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Story first published: Thursday, February 15, 2018, 14:54 [IST]Bihar: 1 injured after blast at Arrah dharamshala; 4 suspects at large

India

oi-Madhuri

An explosion hits at Harkhen Kumar Jain Dharamshala in Bihar's Arrah injuring at least one person on Thursday. The police reached the spot and arrested the one injured person.

According to Avkash Kumar, Arrah SP said,''There were 5 people in the room, out of which one is injured and has been sent to hospital. Their purpose can only be identified after investigation. One aadhaar card & pistol have been recovered from room.''

According to police sources, five suspected terrorists reached at 5 am in a train from Kolkata.

Later they checked into Harkhein Kumar Dharamshala. As soon as these suspects got into their room in the dharamshala, there was a low intensity blast in their luggage.

According to a report in Hindi daily Amar Ujala said the police suspect the injured man was involved in the explosion. Four of the suspect's accomplices fled the spot soon after.

All five men had come to stay at the dharamshala and the explosive was in a bag that one of them had brought.

OneIndia NewsPM Modi, Biden and over 100 world leaders to address UNGA in person next week

UP was run by gangsters before 2017, but now such elements are behind bars, says PM Modi in Aligarh

BJPs last-ditch effort to win Tripura polls: Modi to campaign in left bastion, once again

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Agartala, Feb 15: Within a week's time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be once again visiting poll-bound Tripura to campaign for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday. On February 8, Modi attended two public rallies in the northeastern state.

On Thursday, Modi will address two election rallies in Shanti Bazaar and Agartala, the state capital.

Before visiting Tripura, the PM will first visit Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday, where he will participate in three programmes, including the inauguration of the Dorjee Khandu state convention centre in Itanagar.

Modi will also dedicate the state civil secretariat building and lay the foundation stone of the academic block of the Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Science in Itanagar.

The election for the 60-member Assembly will be held in Tripura on February 18 (Sunday) and results would be announced on March 3.

A galaxy of leaders from the BJP, including PM Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh and BJP MP Hema Malini, among others had campaigned in Tripura.

The BJP has formed an alliance with the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) for the upcoming elections. Tripura has been under the rule of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M))-led Left Front government since 1993. Tripura is one of the last two bastions of the left parties. The other state is Kerala.

During his recent visit to Tripura, Modi called for a change in the state. The PM without mincing any words directly targeted the CM Manik Sarkar by stating that Tripura no longer need "Manik" but wanted 'hira' (highways, i-ways, roadways and airways) at rallies in Sonamura and Kailashahar.

Tripura Assembly Party 2013 Current Standing CPIM 49 50 Election Date : Feb 18 2018

Counting : Mar 03 2018 CONG 10 02 CPI 01 01 BJP 00 06 OTHERS 00 00 Total 60 59 (1 Vacant)

OneIndia NewsBJP shouldnt impose on religion, culture, says Nagaland CM Zeliang

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Kohima, Feb 15: In poll-bound Nagaland, there is a palpable apprehension regarding the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Reason: the saffron's party alleged "communal agenda" and "blind support for Hindutva". The Nagaland Assembly elections are scheduled on February 27.

The incumbent chief minister TR Zeliang also expressed the same concern regarding the BJP while stressing that otherwise his party, the Naga People's Front (NPF), has no problem having an alliance with the saffron party.

In fact, the NPF and the BJP were having an alliance till recently. However, for the upcoming polls, the BJP has stitched an alliance with the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP).

In an interview to The Indian Express, Zeliang said, "You see, as a political party we have an alliance with the BJP, and we welcome the alliance with the NPF in terms of governance system, and to have the government. See, there is no difference between the BJP and the NPF."

"But as far as culture and religion is concerned, if they try to dominate, it is the wrong agenda and is the wrong concept. But as a political party there is no problem to have alliance or to continue the alliance.

"Only the concept to dominate the religion should not come in, the culture should not be disturbed. If they try to impose on the culture and religion, then things will go wrong. I don't think they should do that and we believe that our alliance will continue," the CM added.

Recently, in the Christian-dominated state, the all-powerful Nagaland Baptist Churches Council (NBCC) had launched a scathing campaign against the BJP.

In an open letter, the NBCC had appealed to all other political parties not to support the saffron party and its "brand of Hindutva politics" as India had experienced the worst persecution of minority communities in 2015-2017 under the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-backed BJP government at the Centre.

The BJP is facing several challenges in Meghalaya--where the Assembly elections are also due on February 27--and Nagaland, both Christian-dominated states. In both the poll-bound states, the BJP is seen as a party which is anti-minority (and thus anti-Christians).

The saffron party's alleged support for pan-India "beef ban" and silence over attacks on minorities (especially against Christians in states like Madhya Pradesh) have put the ruling BJP on the backfoot in these two states.

However, what is interesting is that the BJP is also witnessing its political rise in both these states ahead of the elections. The elections results of both the states along with Tripura will be declared on March 3. Tripura is voting for Assembly elections on February 18 (Sunday).

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No one can sever our ties with BJP, DMK holding unnecessary protests, says AIADMK

Cauvery: You are in contempt, SC tells Centre

Cauvery verdict: Security beefed up in Bengaluru, Mandya

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

With the possibilities of Supreme Court giving a verdict on the century-old Cauvery river water sharing issue on Friday, security has been beefed up in Bengaluru, Mandya and Mysuru region.

Cauvery water dispute verdict: Karnataka gets more water due to drinking water crisis in Bengaluru

Bengaluru city police have tightened security, with additional forces deployed at sensitive and hypersensitive areas.

All senior officers have been asked to be on the rounds in linguistic minority areas from Friday morning.

"A large number of policemen have been deployed in all sensitive areas in Bengaluru city which witnessed arson last year over release of water to neighbouring Tamil Nadu", said Home Minister R Ramalinga Reddy.

As many as 15,000 police personnel, 70 KSRP platoons and 30 CAR platoons have been drafted for security duty in Bengaluru city on Friday.

KRS on high alert

The Police are on high alert and security has been beefed up at Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) dam in Srirangapatna taluk.

Security has also been stepped up at Cauvery Neeravari Nigam's office at KRS. Around 85 personnel of Central Industrial Security Force, five SI's have been deputed.

All vehicles are being checked at checkposts. CCTV cameras have been installed at sensitive areas. Mandya SP G Radhika held a meeting on Thursday evening in this regard.

Security personnel of Karnataka Industrial Security Force, District Armed Reserve and City Armed Reserve police had been deployed at Krishna Raja Sagar reservoir in Srirangapatna taluk of Mandya district.

Apart from this, security would be high at Kabini Dam, Hemavathi and Harangi reservoirs.

OneIndia NewsCPM leader kicks pregnant woman in womb, she loses baby

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

A woman had to undergo forced an abortion after being allegedly kicked in the stomach by a CPM leader in Kerala's Kozhikode. Police have arrested seven people in connection with the case.

{image-pregant-women-1518666912.jpg www.oneindia.com}

The woman was kicked badly when she intervened in the tussle between her husband and the a local CPI(M) leader named Thamby. She started bleeding incessantly. She was rushed to a hospital nearby, where she had to undergo a forced abortion, reported Times Now.

One person has been arrested in the case but the main accused is still absconding. The victim's family has held protests outside a police station to pressurize the cops to arrest the main culprit.

"The local party workers are coming here daily, asking me to withdraw the complaint against Thamby," woman's husband said referring to the CPM leader. "My decision is to fight the case till the end. I have decided to sit in front of the police station demanding justice," he was quoted as saying by Times Now.

OneIndia NewsAttack on CRPF jawans in Jammu and Kashmir: One martyred, four injured in terror attack

Disrespect to martyr: Family of CRPF jawan returns compensation to Bihar government

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

As Bihar bade a tearful farewell to Mujahid Khan who was martyred in an encounter at the CRPF camp in Srinagar, his family refused to accept the cheque of Rs 5 lakh handed out as compensation.

The family members said that it was an insult to a martyred soldier who laid down his life for the country.

After his body was brought down to his village in Piro in Bhojpur district of Bihar, the cheque was handed out to the family members by administrative officials. However the family returned the cheque immediately.

The family members were visibly upset over the absence of political leaders during the last rites.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expressed grief over Khan's death and had announced that his funeral would be accorded with full police honours.

Khan's father Abdul Khair Khan told media persons that his son wanted to die for the nation and was stalling his marriage saying "it was time to serve the country." His family members and friends have demanded the construction of some memorial for his fond remembrance.

The family members though have turned down the ex-gratia of Rs five lakh announced by the state government saying Khan has not died of liquor consumption but was martyred. "What will we do with the money? He has sacrificed his life for the country," his father said.

The family members were upset that no senior leader, official or minister turned up for the funeral. Even when the body arrived at the Patna airport, only CRPF personnel were present.

The Opposition targeted the government over none of the state or central ministers paying last respect to the martyr saying it was disrespectful to him. The Bhojpur district magistrate and superintendent of police reached to pay their respect to Khan's mortal remains after some local media highlighted their absence.

OneIndia NewsHow Priya Prakash Varriers winks are saving us from untimely deaths due to Modi govts shocks

'Jobs near me', 'Priya Prakash Varrier'- and other things Indians asked Google this year

Fatwa issued against Priya Prakash Varriers viral song Manikya Malaraya Poovi

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

The Jamia Nizamia Seminary in Hyderabad has issued a fatwa against the lyrics of the viral song 'Manikya Malaraya Poovi' featuring Priya Prakash Varrier for allegedly hurting Muslim sentiments.

"The song should be banned and the government should also not allow the film to be released, until the song is removed from the film," the statement says.

On Wednesday, a group of Muslims in Hyderabad has lodged a complaint with the police against expressions of actor Priya Prakash Varrier in a song inMalayalam film ' Odu Adaar Love ' that is to be released soon.

In a written complaint to the Falaknuma police, the group said the picturisation of the song has hurt the sentiments of the Muslim community. The complaint was filed with signatures of at least 57 people with their telephone numbers, and addresses provided to the police.

"It is not acceptable for us to see a romantic song picturised on some actors with lyrics of the song linked to the Prophet," Mohd Abdul, an engineering student in Hyderabad who lodged the complaint with the police.

The police have registered a case based on the complaint under Section 295 of the IPC, which deals with deliberately hurting religious sentiments. The case has been registered against director Omar Lulu and others.

Priya Varrier's expressions in the song ' Manikya Malaraya Poovi ' have become hugely popular on the social media.

OneIndia NewsIM operative Ariz Khan sent to 25 days police custody

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Ariz Khan, the Indian Mujahideen operative has been sent to 25 days police custody by a court. Khan alias Junaid was arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi police on Wednesday and produced before a court today.

In its remand application, the police said that they had to question Junaid in connection with several cases which included blasts in Delhi and other places. The court granted the police custody of Junaid for 25 days.

Junaid was arrested by the police after a chase that lasted ten years. He had fled from India following the Batla House encounter.

Details regarding the elusive Junaid came up when the police questioned Abdul Subhan one of the founding members of the Indian Mujahideen who was arrested last month.

Junaid was part of the core team of the Indian Mujahideen during 2008. The IM was involved in a series of blasts which included the ones at Ahmedabad, Delhi and Bangalore. The Batla House Encounter code named Operation Batla House took place in the backdrop of five blasts carried out by the IM.

The Indian Mujahideen story and why its revival is so 'damn' dangerous

The police had picked up information about key operatives Mohammad Atif Ameen, Mohammad Sajid and Junaid being present at the spot. While the police gunned down Sajid and Ameen, Junaid however managed to escape. Encounter specialist and Delhi police inspector, Mohan Chand Sharma was however martyred in the incident.

The arrest is an important one as Junaid would help the police understand the IM further. When Subhan was arrested, he had told the police that he had come down to India from Nepal to revive the outfit. He also said that he was in touch with several other operatives who had fled the country in a bid to strengthen and revive the IM.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, February 15, 2018, 10:29 [IST]Masarat Alam will remain a non-starter in J&K thanks to Centres zero tolerance towards separatism

J&K: Infiltration bid foiled in Poonch sector; 6 terrorists killed

India

oi-Madhuri

The Indian Army on Thursday foiled a major infiltration attempt along the Line of Control in Poonch's Balakot sector, killing six terrorists.

Earlier on Feb 11, in the worst attack on an Army camp after Uri terror attack, at least five soldiers and one civilian got killed while several others got injured in a gunbattle that went on for over 30 hours in Sunjwan in Jammu and Kashmir. The forces also gunned down four terrorists after an intense encounter that went on for more than a day.

The incident came two days after Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists attacked an Army camp in Sunjuwan area of Jammu, killing seven people, including six Army soldiers. Three terrorists were also killed in retaliation by the Army.

OneIndia NewsKarnataka polls: BJP readies two-pronged Suraksha Yatra in communally sensitive regions

India

oi-Anusha

In a bid to highlight incidents of communal violence in Karnataka, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to launch a yatra in communally sensitive parts of the state. Divided into two groups, BJP leaders will undertake a padayatra- 'Karnataka Suraksha Yatra'- from Kushalnagara and Ankola simultaneously.

Similar to the padayatra that the party undertook in Kerala against political killings, Karnataka Suraksha Yatra is aimed at highlighting the party's opposition to killings of purported Hindu activists ahead of Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018. The BJP has alleged that more than 24 Sangh/Hindu activists have been murdered during the Siddaramaiah regime- a claim that the Congress has vehemently opposed.

Karnataka Suraksha Yatra is BJP's two-pronged padayatra spread over four days, starting March 3, 2018, and will conclude on March 6, 2018, at Suratkal. Incidentally, Suratkal saw the murder of Deepak Rao- a Bajrang activist. Basheer, a trader was murdered in retaliation adding to the number of communal incidents in coastal Karnataka.

Karnataka Suraksha yatra will include public meetings as well as padayatra along the route. While the first group is scheduled to begin the yatra at Ankola, the yatra will pass through Kumta, Honnavar, Bhatkal, Byndoor, Kundapura, Udupi, Kapu, Mulki and conclude at Suratkal.

The second Yatra, which will also begin on March 3, 2018, will pass through Kushalnagar, Madikeri, Suliya, Puttur, Kalladka, Bantwal, Mangaluru before converging with the first group in Suratkal. The BJP has carefully picked coastal Karnataka and Kodagu- two regions that have witnessed communal clashes over the last five years. The yatra is likely to further the Hindutva agenda being pushed by BJP leaders in Karnataka ahead of the assembly elections.

Karnataka Assembly Election dates Date of notification April 17 Last date to file nominations April 24 Last date to withdraw nominations April 27 Date of polling May 12 Date of counting May 15

OneIndia NewsLoot & Escape' has become the hallmark of Modi Government, says Congress

India

oi-Shreya

By Shreya

Addressing the media on Nirav Modi, the Congress said, "Post-escape of 'Lalit Modi' and 'Vijay Mallya', another 'Modi Scam' has hit India's banking sector the hardest. First, Lalit Modi escaped India. Vijya Mallya escaped India. ABG's Rishi Agarwal escaped India. Now, we are told that 'Nirav Modi' has also escaped India."

The Congress said even as a complaint was filed to PMO about the entire fraud being perpetuated as early as on July 26, 2016, no action was taken either by PMO or any other authority and the bank lost the money while the accused escaped.

India's "biggest 'bank loot scam'" as the Congress said, stands exposed involving over 30 banks, including Punjab National Bank, Allahabad Bank, Axis Bank, State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Indian Oversees Bank, Corporation Bank, Andhra Bank, Vijaya Bank, Canara Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, Export Import Bank of India.

The Modi Government faced a sharp remark as the Congress claimed that, "Under Modi Government, entire Banking Sector's 'Risk Management System', 'Fraud Detection Ability' and the 'Regulatory Mechanism' have been severally compromised."

The Opposition party pointed out that complaint dated January 29, 2018 by PNB to CBI itself reflects as to how from February 9 to February 14, 2017; eight LoUs worth crores of rupees were issued. On February 14, 2017; Punjab National Bank had reported this quantum of loss to be US$ 1771.69 million or Rs.11,400 crore approximately to SEBI.

The Congress said, "What the Modi Government has not told us is that there is also an exposure of Rs.9,872 crore of various banks with Gitanjali Gems Limited, a company promoted by Shri Mehul Choksi. The entire system was bypassed. All regulatory mechanisms broke down. Everything escaped the eyes of auditors and investigators. 'Risk Management' and 'Fraud Detection Ability' came to a naught. Yet, the Modi Government would have us believe that this entire fraud was being perpetrated by two employees."

They also alleged that Prime Minister, Narendra Modi was made aware of this entire fraud by one Hari Prasad by way of a written complaint filed on July 26, 2016 and acknowledged by PMO. Multiple documents, including a list of 42 FIRs that were pending, were also in the knowledge of the Prime Minister.

Despite all this, Nirav Modi traveled in the business delegation to Davos in January 2018 with the Prime Minister.

Here are the questions the Congress demands answers to:

1. How did Nirav Modi/Mehul Choksi dupe the entire banking system through forged Letters of Understanding under the nose of Modi Government? Who is responsible for the biggest 'Bank Loot Scam'?

2. Why did Prime Minister not take any action to protect the interests of the banking sector despite a written complaint having been received and acknowledged on July 26, 2016? Why were all the authorities, including Finance Ministry, its financial intelligence units and all other authorities sleeping on their job?

3. DGM of Zonal Office, PNB had written to Joint Director, CBI on January 29, 2018 (Annexure A-1) requesting the CBI for a lookout notice against Nirav Modi, so that he does not leave the country. Despite all this, how was Nirav Modi permitted to escape the clutches of law and leave the country?

4. How was the entire system bypassed? How did the fraud escape the eyes of all the auditors and investigators? Does it not point to active complicity at the highest level? Who is protecting Nirav Modi/Mehul Choksi?

5. How did the entire Banking Sector's 'Risk Management System' and 'Fraud Detection Ability' come to a naught?

OneIndia NewsCan cash cause coronavirus? Should you stop using it

Fake: People in Italy are not throwing their money on the streets due to COVID-19

Indian man and nine of his associates win 20 million dirham jackpot in UAE: Report

Meghalaya Assembly elections: How money is flowing like water to woo voters

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Shillong, Feb 15: In poll-bound Meghalaya, money is flowing like water, literally. Like in other parts of the country, in Meghalaya too, political parties distribute money, booze and other goodies to entice voters during the election times. It's illegal and an open secret.

However, this time, the rate at which money has been exchanging hands is unprecedented, state various reports.

The state is going to vote for the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly on February 27. Along with Meghalaya, two other states in the Northeast India too are going for polls.

While the Assembly elections in Tripura are scheduled on February 18, Nagaland is voting with Meghalaya on February 27. The counting of votes in all the three states will take place on March 3.

Authorities in poll-bound Meghalaya have seized over Rs 17 lakh cash from six persons in two occasions, officials said on Wednesday. A sum of Rs 4.62 lakh was seized in the Garo Hills region and the rest from a vehicle in Shillong, the state capital, late Tuesday evening, they said.

In poll-bound Meghalaya, carrying cash over Rs 50,000 is prohibited unless officially proven, chief electoral officer (CEO) FR Kharkongor said.

A sum of Rs 4.62 lakh was seized from five persons carrying hard cash at Ronipara village in Tikrikkilla constituency, West Garo Hills deputy commissioner Ram Singh told PTI.

Meanwhile, sector officers deployed in the state capital seized Rs 13 lakhs in cash from a private vehicle and the person carrying could not produce evidence, officials said.

Residents of the state admit that political parties do distribute money and booze among voters before elections. "This is an open secret. Political parties give money, booze and gifts to people to buy their votes.

"Both the political parties and voters are to be blamed for rampant distribution of money and gifts before elections. Money power is the biggest malice killing the whole democratic process of elections," said a youth from Shillong.

He added that officials of the Election Commission (EC) should take adequate measures to check distribution of money during the election times. "We hope the steps taken by the EC will help restrict rampant distribution of money, this time," said another youth from Shillong.

In fact, the cash flow in the northeastern state has come under the radar of the EC.

The Meghalaya Election office has asked all the banks in the State to monitor and submit reports on "unusual" and "suspicious" cash transactions exceeding Rs 1 lakh by candidates and their spouse to check cash flow in the February 27 poll.

Meghalaya Assembly Party 2013 Current Standing CONG 29 24 Election Date : Feb 27 2018

Counting : Mar 03 2018 IND 13 09 UDP 08 07 HSPDP 04 04 NPP 02 02 NCP 02 02 BJP 00 02 GNC 01 00 NESDP 01 01 OTHERS 00 00 Total 60 51 (9 Vacant)

OneIndia NewsRaviji, the same thing just happened to me: Shashi Tharoor to seek explanation from Twitter

What is itat e-dwar the new e-filing portal of the IT appellate tribunal

Social media companies free to do business, but should be accountable to Indian laws: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Big step towards transparency: Prasad on first compliance report by Google, FB under new IT rules

If over 45 countries use Pegasus, why target just India?, asks Ravi Shankar Prasad

No one will be spared: Govt on PNB-Nirav Modi fraud

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

The government on Thursday slammed Congress for using 'chhota Modi' remark to target the government over Rs 11,400-crore Nirav Modi fraud case.

Addressing the media here, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the allegations made by the Congress over the issue were 'baseless'.

"I wish to make it very clear and this I can also convey on the behalf of the govt that no shall be spared in the banking system who has sought to derail ordinary banking system to help Nirav Modi," Prasad told media.

"What is this word 'Chhota Modi'? BJP takes strong offence to the kind of language being used by describing someone like that. It is derogatory, scandalous and demeaning," he said.

Prasad also rejected Congress' charge that Nirav Modi was a part of a delegation that accompanied PM Narendra Modi during his Davos visit recently.

"Nirav Modi did not meet PM Modi at Davos. Nirav Modi had arrived in Davos on his own and was present at CII group photo event," he clarified.

He said Nirav Modi's passport has been revoked and Look Out Circular issued against him. Nirav Modi's assets worth 1,300 crore have been seized, he added.

Congress targets PM

Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the presence of PNB (Punjab National Bank) fraud accused celebrity jewellery designer Nirav Modi in the Indian business delegation at Davos, Congress president Rahul Gandhi has said "being seen with the Prime Minister helped the businessman flee the country."

"Guide to Looting India by Nirav MODI. 1. Hug PM Modi 2. Be seen with him in DAVOS Use that clout to: A. Steal 12,000Cr B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the Govt looks the other way. From1MODI2another," tweeted Gandhi moments before the Congress held a press conference on the issue.

OneIndia News'PM Modi did not meet Nirav Modi in Davos'

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

With Rahul Gandhi highlighting that Nirav Modi was part of a delegation of Indian businessmen that went to Davos, news agency ANI has reported that Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not meet the billionaire diamond merchant at the World Economic Forum.

Nirav Modi, accused of possibly India's biggest bank fraud, posed for a photo with PM Modi and other key bureaucrats and top Indian CEOs at Davos.

No official business delegation travelled with PM Modi. There was no meeting between #NiravModi and PM Narendra Modi in Davos, it was just a photo opportunity at an event: Sources  ANI (@ANI) February 15, 2018

The Enforcement Directorate today conducted multiple searches in connection with a Rs 280 crore money laundering case against billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi and others following a complaint by Punjab National Bank. On Wednesday, PNB, the country's second-largest state-owned lender, informed stock exchanges that it had detected a massive $1.77 billion fraud at one of its branches in Mumbai. The Central Bureau of Investigation first filed a case in this regard on Jan. 31.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi took a jab at PM Modi with a tweet titled "Guide to Looting India", in which he alleged that Nirav Modi had wielded his influence with the PM to get away with the Rs 280 crore fraud.

Guide to Looting India

by Nirav MODI



1. Hug PM Modi

2. Be seen with him in DAVOS



Use that clout to:



A. Steal 12,000Cr

B. Slip out of the country like Mallya, while the Govt looks the other way.



#From1MODI2another  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 15, 2018

Nirav Modi (46), who had figured in the Forbes' list of richest Indians, was booked by the CBI for cheating after PNB sent a complaint to it alleging that the jewellery firm owner, his brother, wife and Choksi entered into a criminal conspiracy with the officials of the bank and cheated it, causing a "wrongful loss".

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Thursday, February 15, 2018, 17:03 [IST]Benjamin Netanyahu says he spoke to Biden about COVID, Iran

Exit polls indicate no clear winner in Israeli elections: Will it end the Netanyahu era?

Probe against Netanyahu: 'References about Ratan Tata incorrect'

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

With reports claiming that Ratan Tata's name features in the graft case against Isreali PM Benjamin Netanyahu, the top Indian Industrialist's office has said the references about Ratan Tata are "grossly incorrect".

Israeli police on Tuesday recommended indicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for bribery in two criminal investigations. Netanyahu is accused of receiving illegal expensive gifts from Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and Australian businessman James Packer.

Israeli media outlet Ynetnews had reported that Tata was part of the project that Netanyahu tried to push to help Milchan.

The news report is "grossly incorrect in its references about Mr Ratan N Tata", the industrialist's office told news agency Press Trust of India (PTI).

Last year, the Israeli media had reported that Tata "testified" before the Israeli police in connection with these allegations during his trip to Tel Aviv in the end of October-November on the sidelines of a business event, an NDTV report said.

However, Netanyahu, prime minister for nearly 12 years has claimed innocence. Netanyahu has dominated Israeli politics for the past 10 years, and is known as an implacable survivor of Israel's rough-and-tumble leadership fights.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, February 15, 2018, 9:22 [IST]Shiv Sena chief Uddhav to meet Fadnavis; talks on future of coalition likely

India

oi-Madhuri

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will on Thursday meet Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis with delegation of locals from Ratnagiri district who are opposing an upcoming oil refinery in the area. He is expected to talk on future of coalition.

Earlier there were reports that the Shiv Sena, a long-time ally of the BJP, will fight the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls on its own. The decision was taken at its national executive meeting in Mumbai on Tuesday.

As of now, the Shiv Sena has 63 seats while the BJP has 122 seats in 288-member Maharashtra Assembly. As per the current numbers, the BJP needs Sena's support to cross the majority mark at 144.

This is the second time in four years that the Shiv Sena has decided to go it alone in Maharashtra.

In the October 2014 assembly elections, the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance had broken down and both parties fought the elections independently. However, barely six months before April 2014, both parties had contest the Lok Sabha polls as allies with spectacular results.

During the 2017 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, the Shiv Sena contested separately and emerged as the single largest party to capture the countrys biggest and richest civic body, pushing back its NDA ally to the second slot. It was a neck-and-neck fight between the two as Sena won 84 seats while the BJP was a close second with 82.

OneIndia News[February 14, 2018] Speedcast Expands Relationship with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines Speedcast International Limited (ASX: SDA), the world's most trusted provider of highly reliable, fully managed, remote communication and IT solutions, today announced it has extended its relationship with the largest consumer of satellite bandwidth in the cruise industry, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL), which will be further increasing the bandwidth delivered across 37 ships. "Speedcast has been an integral part of our long-standing efforts to implement the latest connectivity solutions that allow us to provide enhanced communications for everyone, from our guests onboard to our employees onshore," said Guillermo Muniz, director, Network and Satellite Engineering, Royal Caribbean. "We are consistently raising the bar on ship innovation and increasing requirements, and Speedcast is right there with us, collaborating to make sure that we have the infrastructure and support to deliver the best experience." Speedcast's experience with Royal Caribbean dates back to 2006, when the company installed RCCL's first Ku-Band VSAT antenna on board a vessel to satisfy peak seasonal communication demand in the Brazil region. The Speedcast network now delivers fully managed communications solutions and value-added services to 37 Royal Caribbean brand ships for shipboard administration, and guest and crew usage. Multiple antennas on each ship with seamless automatic failover between Ku-Band and C-Band ensures high availability and Service Level Agreements (SLAs). "We have a true partnership approach to our relationship with Royal Caribbean," said PJ Beylier, CEO, Speedcast. "As one ofthe largest cruise line brands in the world and one of our largest customers, we are proud that they continue to trust our expertise in designing and deploying reliable solutions that connect their ships to shore and provide a premier onboard guest experience. Over the past 11 years, we have seen tremendous growth in Royal Caribbean's business, and we look forward to helping them continue to develop their brands as they introduce new ships and look for innovative ways to enhance guest and crew experiences." For more information about Speedcast's capabilities for the cruise market, visit www.speedcast.com. For information about Royal Caribbean cruises, visit www.royalcaribbean.com. About Speedcast International Limited Speedcast International Ltd (ASX: SDA) is the largest provider of remote communications and IT services in the world. Speedcast's fully managed service is delivered via a leading global, multi-access-technology, multi-band and multi-orbit network of 70+ satellites and an interconnecting global terrestrial network, bolstered by extensive on the ground local support from 40+ countries. This global "network of networks" allows customers to fully rely on the most robust, integrated infrastructure available in the market for their mission critical applications. Speedcast is uniquely positioned as a strategic business partner, tailoring communications, IT and digital solutions to meet unique customer needs and enable business transformation. Speedcast extends its managed services through differentiated technology offerings including cyber-security, crew welfare, content solutions, data and voice applications and network systems integration services. With a passionate customer focus and a strong safety culture, Speedcast serves more than 2,000 customers in over 140 countries in sectors such as Maritime, Energy, Mining, Enterprise, Media, Cruise, NGOs and Government. Learn more at www.speedcast.com. Social Media: Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook Speedcast is a trademark and registered trademark of Speedcast International Limited. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective owners.  2018 Speedcast International Limited. All rights reserved. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180214006010/en/

[ Back to the Next Generation Communications Community's Homepage ]The Indian Mujahideen story and why its revival is so damn dangerous

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The Indian Mujahideen, one of the most dreaded terrorist groups in India is back in the news. The back to back arrests of two of its top men- Abdul Subhan and Ariz Khan are without a doubt a major breakthrough for the security agencies.

Both Subhan and Khan had fled India in 2008 and it took the agencies a decade to get to them. Subhan was arrested in January while Khan was picked up on Wednesday.

While scores of officers would rush to Delhi to quiz the IM operative, the more important aspect of these arrests are related to the revival of the group. The outfit has seen many births and deaths over the past decade and a half. Let us look into the journey of the IM.

Students Islamic Movement of India:

The SIMI was formed in Aligarh Uttar Pradesh in April 1977. The prime objective was the liberation of India from Western materialistic cultural influence and also to convert the Muslim society to live according to the Muslim code of conduct.

While for long it continued with the slogan, "Allah is our Lord and Quran is our Constitution," the thought process turned radical after a couple of years. A few communal riots in the 1990s changed the perspective of some within the outfit. A bunch of radical elements within the outfit started directing their thoughts towards Pakistan. The Intelligence Bureau was keeping a watch on its activities.

It repeatedly sent out reports to the Ministry for Home Affairs. After much deliberation and consideration, the outfit was banned in 2001. While the ban was renewed from time to time, in the year 2008 a special tribunal lifted the ban. It was however restored by the Supreme Court on August 6, 2008. As of today, the ban is still in force.

The split:

Following the ban, there was a two way split in the SIMI. The moderate faction led by Shahid Badr Falahi decided to fight the ban legally. However there were an equal number of members who felt wronged and targeted.

This led to the birth of a radical faction within the SIMI which was led by Safdar Nagori. He opposed Falahi tooth and nail and said that the only way to fight this out was with arms. However Nagori's stint was a short one and he was arrested at Indore, Madhya Pradesh on 26 March 2008.

The Indian Mujahideen is born:

Nagori however oversaw the transformation of the SIMI into the Indian Mujahideen. The first announcement was made following the court blast at Uttar Pradesh. A note stating, "we are the Indian Mujahideen,' was found at the crime scene.

Following Nagori's arrest in 2008, his followers, Riyaz Bhatkal, Iqbal, Abdul Subhan among others decided to run the show. There were highly qualified operatives such as Mansoor Pheerbhoy who were part of the outfit. Their attacks were brazen in nature. Such was the brazen nature of the attack that during the Gujarat blasts, they had even announced that they would strike prior to the blast.

The collapse:

Between 2007 and 2008 the IM had a successful run. It carried out deadly blasts at UP, Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Delhi. However with the heat raising, Riyaz, Iqbal and Subhan fled the country. Pheerbhoy and members of his dreaded Pune module were arrested. Subhan it may be recalled was arrested in January 2018.

Then came the Batla House encounter in which the IM was dealt with a severe body blow. Two operatives were killed in the encounter while another Ariz Khan fled from the spot for Nepal. Khan was arrested on February 14, 2018. This led to a collapse of the IM as the top leadership was literally wiped out.

The revival and the deadly four:

Between 2008 and 2010 there was a lull in the activities of the IM. The outfit was in re-grouping mode. It was reduced to four members, but in the next two years they turned out to be lethal in nature. The deadly four comprised, Yasin Bhatkal, Tehseen Akthar, Waqas and Assadullah Akthar. They operated as a group of four and added no new member to the group.

The small number turned out to be their deadliest weapon and it had become almost impossible to track them. They never used cell phones or emails unlike their predecessors who were all tech savvy. All communication was in person and they always moved around together.

In the year 2010, the outfit carried out three attacks- Pune, Jama Masjid and Varanasi. While the Pune blast was high in intensity the strikes at Varanasi and Jama Masjid were damp squibs. It was clear that they were on revival mode and were testing the waters.

However the blasts after were deadly in nature. The same group of four struck outside the Chinnaswamy stadium which is considered to be a high profile attack. The group then carried out the deadly serial blasts in Mumbai in 2011. Then came the Dilsukhnagar blasts in Hyderabad.

The fall of the IM:

After many hits and misses, the agencies finally caught up to Yasin Bhatkal on August 28, 2013. The rest of the three too were arrested in quick succession. Following this there have been attempts to revive the outfit, but all have been failed attempts.

The jailbreak in Madhya Pradesh by some members of the SIMI was one such attempt to revive the group. These persons had escaped from jail and were involved in a spate of bank robberies aimed at raising funds. However for them luck ran out and they were either nabbed or killed in encounters.

The final revival:

The questioning of both Subhan and Ariz Khan have revealed that they were in revival mode. They were in constant touch with Riyaz and Iqbal based out of Karachi in Pakistan.

They felt that there was need to have a strong homegrown outfit. They felt that they needed the experience of the old cadre and hence were roping in all those who had fled in 2008. For now the agencies have managed to get the better of them. However looking at the journey from 2001, one could say that each time the IM has attempted a revival it has succeeded and hence it is never wise to write them off.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Thursday, February 15, 2018, 10:23 [IST]To ban PFI deliberations begin at the highest level in Delhi

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The Union Home Ministry is deliberating on how to go about the ban on the Popular Front of India. Following a detailed presentation on the activities of the PGFI made by Kerala during a recent DGP meet held at Tekanpur, Madhya Pradesh, top officials of the Union Home Ministry are deliberating on how to go about the ban.

While Kerala made a detailed presentation and cited four cases relating to the PFI, the ministry is also studying the report submitted by the National Investigation Agency on the same issue. The Home Ministry will now collect more details before deciding on whether to ban the outfit or not.

The PFI ban has become a political issue in poll bound Karnataka. It has been found that in several cases in Karnataka, the PFI allegedly had a hand in them. The BJP has been demanding that the Congress-led government seeks a ban on the outfit. However, the Congress has remained tight-lipped on the issue. The BJP had also accused the Congress of withdrawing several cases against members of the PFI.

The NIA which submitted a detailed report spoke about the killing of RSS worker Rudresh in Bengaluru. Further it detailed the professor's hand chopping case at Idukki. While giving details about a Kannur training camp from where country made bombs and swords were seized, the NIA report to the Home Ministry also speaks about an Islamic State module case.

The NIA says that the approach of the PFI is radical in nature. It speaks about recruiting only committed Muslims into its fold. It also states that the cadres train with clips of the Babri Masjid demolition and this is clearly a sign that it is trying to radicalise its cadres.

The PFI is trying to run a parallel administration the NIA states. It speaks about the Darul Khada an outfit comprising Muslim scholars, social workers and advocates. This was set up in 2009, by SDPI national chief E Aboobacker. The NIA says that they run a parallel judiciary which settles a host of issues. The NIA dossier also states that in July 2009, a Kerala level declaration was passed by the Darul Khada in Mallappuram in which it had called upon the Muslim community not to attend civil courts, but get all issues sorted out by it.

The NIA also cited the most recent case it is probing in connection with Love Jihad. It speaks about the Sathyasarani Islamic Dawah an affiliate of the PFI. It says that this organisation is running an Islamic conversion centre and also details the rigorous religious training it is imparting.

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Story first published: Thursday, February 15, 2018, 6:45 [IST]Uproar in Rajasthan Assembly over question on illegal mining

India

pti-PTI

Jaipur, Feb 15: Rajasthan Assembly on Thursday witnessed an uproar after Congress boycotted the Question Hour following the suspension of a question related to illegal gravel mining.

The question about action against illegal gravel mining, asked by ruling party MLA Prahlad Gunjan, was part of a list of questions.

When it was the time to take up the question, Speaker Kailash Meghwal said that it had been suspended and would be answered later. The Congress members then created an uproar, saying the government did not want to answer an important question and also boycotted the Question Hour.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rajendra Rathore said the government was willing to answer. He requested the speaker to include the question on the day when questions for the mines department would be taken up. The speaker said that it was suspended on technical grounds and would be answered later.

PTIVenkaiah Naidu hits out at those suggesting talks with Pakistan

India

oi-PTI

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday hit out at those suggesting dialogue with Pakistan, saying talks with countries who train guns at India are not possible.

His remarks came days after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had suggested that talks with Pakistan are necessary to end bloodshed in the state.

"It is baffling that some educated leaders are suggesting that we have to engage in a dialogue with one of our neighbours who is by all accounts fomenting trouble and encouraging cross-border terrorism...we can t have talks with countries that have trained their guns at us," Naidu said without naming Pakistan.

He was addressing a gathering at the Indian Council of World Affairs here.

Naidu said India s love for peace is more out of a concern for the welfare of humanity and not because it is weak and incapable of fighting.

"So, our diplomacy relies on building bridges across the world with dialogue as the sole sustainable method to resolve disputes.

"We are open to conflicting views but we are not so open to senseless violence and irrational terrorism...we have been the pioneers in the non-aligned movement. Our alignment is with the forces of peace and non-violence," he said.

PTI

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Story first published: Thursday, February 15, 2018, 22:37 [IST]With Pak implementing, death by 1,000 cuts, it is foolish to talk

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Pakistan has made it clear that its policy towards India would be, " death by a thousand cuts." The number of terror related incidents are on the rise in Jammu and Kashmir and this has been coupled with increased cease fire violations.

There appears to be no solution in sight and on the face of it, the situation appears to be worsening. 2018 alone has seen 11 security personnel being martyred. Adding to the grim picture was a statement by Lt General Anbu who said that over 300 terrorists are waiting in the south and the north of Peer Panjal to infiltrate.

The signals from the political leadership in Kashmir is mixed. Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister has called for talks with Pakistan and says that this is the only solution. Farooq Abdulla of the National Conference calls for war while his MLA Akbar Lone shouts Pakistan Zindabad slogans in the J&K assembly.

While India has always maintained that talks must be initiated, the question is who does one speak with. The manner in which the problem has escalated in Kashmir makes it very clear that it is the army there which is calling the shots. The political leadership in Pakistan... well it is just there.

The escalation by Pakistan was seen during the Pathankot attack. National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval had in fact given out pin pointed intelligence to the three military chiefs about the attack. He had also told his Pakistani counterpart Nasir Januja to stop the Jaish from carrying out the attack. All this fell on deaf ears and Januja was unable to impress anyone back at his home thanks to the army calling the shots there.

The aim of a death by a thousand cuts policy of Pakistan is to inflict maximum damage. The cease fire violations will continue, the terrorist attacks will increase and the infiltrations would be enhanced. C D Sahay, the former chief of the Research and Analysis Wing says that Pakistan's only aim is to keep inflicting damage with the hope that India would ask it to stop and call for talks. How can that be possible. Don't we have any self-respect, Sahay asks.

The experts say that the J&K government needs to take a consistent stance. Mehbooba cannot on one hand ask for talks and on the other go soft on the separatists. One may recall she questioning the NIA's probe into the terror funding by Hurriyat leaders. It is the Hurriyat which has been inciting the youth to take up arms. The money they get is from Pakistan to keep the Valley on the boil.

Hence backing them and questioning a legitimate probe does no good to the cause. Reigning in on these separatists is what is needed. An Asiya Andrabi cannot be left to walk the streets openly after attending a rally in Pakistan addressed by Hafiz Saeed. Action ought to be initiated against Mirwaiz Umar Farooq for openly hobnobbing with officers of the Pakistan army. A Yasin Malik cannot get shelter in Kashmir after openly claiming that he killed four personnel of the Indian Air Force.

High casualty rate:

In the midst of all this political talk, it is the Indian soldier who ends up making the sacrifice. He is in the line of fire and the lack of decision making clubbed with a confused political leadership in J&K, it is the soldier who loses his life.

Between 1998 and 2018, 6,368 security personnel have lost their lives in Kashmir. In the year 2017, 83 personnel lost their lives while in 2016 it was 88. In the years 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, the fatalities were, 41, 51, 61, 17 and 30 respectively, data compiled by satp.org shows.

The number of civilian deaths reported in 2018 is 5 while the previous year was 57. In 2016 it was 14 while in 2015 the number was 20. For the years 2014, 2013, 2012 and 20111, the number of civilian deaths were 32, 20, 16 and 34 respectively.

However the number of terrorist killings too has risen. 2018 and 2017 witnessed 13 and 218 deaths respectively. 2016 and 2015 witnessed 165 and 113 terrorist killings. For the years 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011, the number of terrorist deaths were 110, 100, 84 and 119 respectively.

OneIndia NewsIndian faces jail, caning for attempt to murder student nurse in Singapore

International

pti-PTI

Singapore, February 15: An Indian national faces life or 20 years in prison with possible caning in Singaore for the attempted murder of a student nurse who had spurned his advances, according to a media report.

The 34-year-old man, whose name has been redacted from court documents, denied he had any intention to kill her in December 2013 but claimed he had taken a knife with him to meet her as he intended to commit suicide in front of her, The Straits Times reported today. But he could not recall what had happened when he stabbed her at the void deck of an apartment block where the student nurse lived.

Justice Woo Bih Li found that the accused had intended to kill the victim, who was 20 at the time, pointing to her testimony, the accused's statements to the police, and the way he had "repeatedly, relentlessly and forcefully" attacked her. He will be sentenced a later date. He faces life imprisonment or up to 20 years in prison, and possible caning or a fine.

The man got to know the student nurse in February 2013, while she was attached to the hospital where he worked as a healthcare assistant. He wooed her even though she had a boyfriend. She initially played along but later apologised, telling him "it was a joke all along".

He refused to accept the rejection and even turned up outside her flat to ask for her hand in marriage. On 19 Dec, 2013, he again went to her home to propose marriage. He behaved aggressively on being rebuffed but left after the police were called. He went home, hid a knife in his sock and returned, sleeping at the void deck to wait for her.

At about 8.30am the next day, he confronted her and demanded she go with him to talk. When she refused, he stabbed her in the lower back. She tried to push him away but he stabbed her in the abdomen. After she fell to the floor, he continued stabbing and slashing her on her head, neck, body and arms.

The woman's parents rushed down upon hearing her screams. When her father saw the accused with a knife in his hand on top of his daughter, he pushed the assailant away.

The knife dropped and the accused fled after a brief struggle. He was detained by two passers-by and arrested by the police. Justice Woo accepted the victim's account, who said that as the accused was stabbing her, he shouted "saavudi" in Tamil, which meant "die".

He also told her: "If I can't have you, no man should have you." The judge noted the accused had told the police after his arrest that he wanted to kill the victim because she cheated on him.

The number and nature of the injuries, as well as the way the accused had attacked the victim, reinforced his view that the man had intended to kill her, the judge said.

PTIPIA flight lands in Kabul, becomes first commercial airline to do so since Taliban takeover

On Afghanistan, Pak has to line up on broad majority of international community: Blinken

Memogate case: Arrest warrant against former ambassador of Pakistan to the US

International

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has issued arrest warrant for former ambassador of Pakistan to the US, Husain Haqqani, in connection with 2011 Memogate scandal, according to media reports. A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar issued the warrants against the former envoy for violating the oath.

Hussain Haqqani, said, "Sad that highest court of #Pakistan persists with such antics for local TV news coverage. Such political 'warrants' have not been honored abroad in the past, won't work now."

The Memogate controversy, also Mullen memo controversy, revolves around a memorandum (addressed to Admiral Mike Mullen) ostensibly seeking help of the Obama administration in the wake of the Osama bin Laden raid to avert a military takeover of the civilian government in Pakistan, as well as assisting in a civilian takeover of the government and military apparatus.

The memo was delivered in May 2011; Mansoor Ijaz wrote a Financial Times article in October 2011 bringing initial public attention to the affair. The memo, which at first was questioned to even exist, was published in November, leading to the resignation of Ambassador Haqqani and the continuing Pakistani Supreme Court investigation.

The judicial commission inquiry found that the memo was written by the former ambassador and was authentic.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Thursday, February 15, 2018, 15:28 [IST]Since 2000, the one who won Florida has gone on to become US President

Florida: 17 dead after expelled student opens fire

International

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Florida School Shooting 17 Dead | OneIndia News

17 people have died after a former student at a Florida high school opened fire in the school on Wednesday. The shooter has been arrested by the police. The expelled student has been identified as Nikolaus Cruz, 19.

The attack took place before dismissal at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. The terrified students fled into the streets even as dozens of police and emergency service personnel swarmed the area.

It is a horrific situation, there are numerous fatalities, Broward Country Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie had told reporters. He said the school district had gotten no warning of a potential shooter and that there was no evidence of more than one shooter.

The gunman surrendered to the police quietly, Scot Israel, the Broward County Sherif said. The 14 persons who were wounded were taken to hospital.

On the shooter, Israel said that there was a time. When he did attend the school. I do not know why or when he let, he further said.

The students hid in the classrooms until they were rescued by the police. Live television showed dozens of students, weaving their way between law enforcement officers with heavy weapons and helmets, and large numbers of emergency vehicles including police cars, ambulances and fire trucks.

The shooting was the latest in a deadly series of attacks at U.S. schools. A 15-year-old gunman in January killed two students at a Benton, Kentucky, high school.

The school had recently held a meeting to discuss what to do in such an attack, Ryan Gott, a 15-year-old freshman told CNN.

OneIndia NewsPIA flight lands in Kabul, becomes first commercial airline to do so since Taliban takeover

On Afghanistan, Pak has to line up on broad majority of international community: Blinken

Pakistan government refuses to put names of Nawaz Sharif, family on Exit Control List

International

oi-Madhuri

Pakistan Interior Ministry on Thursday refused to put names of Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family on the Exit Control List. Persons listed in the ECL are barred from leaving Pakistan.

The move came a day after the Sharif family filed an application in an anti-corruption court seeking a fortnight's exemption from personal appearances from February 19 onwards on the ground that the treatment of Sharif's wife, Kulsoom Nawaz, in London is in the final stages and the family needs to be with her. Sharif's wife is being treated for cancer in the British capital.

Earlier on Wednesday, Pakistan's Supreme Court reserved its judgment in a case related to the duration of the disqualification of former premier Nawaz Sharif even as the anti-graft watchdog asked the government to bar the PML-N chief, his daughter and son-in-law from leaving the country.

Sharif had contended in the Supreme Court earlier this month that his disqualification under constitutional provisions "is confined only to the election in question, and is not perpetual".

The three-time premier was forced to resign last July after the apex court disqualified him for dishonesty while hearing a case related to allegations in the Panama Papers leaks.

What is Exit Control Lists?

The Exit Control Lists (ECL) is a system of border control maintained by the Government of Pakistan under the Exit from Pakistan (Control) Ordinance. Those persons on the list are prohibited from leaving Pakistan.

OneIndia News[February 15, 2018] Shaw Communications Announces CFO Transition as Part of Total Business Transformation CALGARY, Alberta, Feb. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Shaw Communications Inc. (TSX:SJR.B) (TSX:SJR.PR.A) (TSX:SJR.PR.B) (NYSE:SJR) (TSXV:SJR.A) today announced that current Chief Financial Officer Vito Culmone will be leaving the organization effective May 4, 2018, and that Trevor English will be assuming the role of Executive Vice President, Chief Financial & Corporate Development Officer. This move is part of the companys previously announced Total Business Transformation initiative and consolidates a number of functions under Mr. Englishs leadership. Mr. English will continue to report to Brad Shaw, Chief Executive Officer, Shaw.

It has been an absolute privilege working alongside Brad, the Shaw family and the Shaw leadership team over the last three years, Mr. Culmone said. We have made bold decisions to reposition Shaw for growth and recognized that, in parallel with this transformation, Shaw will require a leaner, more integrated and agile workforce all in service of executing more quickly, operating more effectively and providing greater value for Canadians. I congratulate Trevor on his appointment and have no doubt that both he and Shaw will be successful. Vito served with distinction and led a talented Finance team, Mr. Shaw said. He made a significant contribution to our business performance and under his stewardship we have transformed our financial management approach, including business partnerships, planning and resource allocation. It is always difficult to see someone of this quality move on. We thank him for his service, leadership and friendship. Mr. English was previously Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer for Shaw, and has 20 years of experience in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, investor relations, capital markets, business development and financial analysis. In his 14 years at Shaw he has held a number of positions of increasing responsibility within the Finance organization and played a key leadership role with respect to Shaws significant corporate development activities, including the acquisition of CanWest (2010), ViaWest (2014), Wind Mobie (2016) and Quebecor spectrum (2017); and the disposition of Shaw Media (2016) and ViaWest (2017). Prior to joining Shaw, Mr. English held various positions in the investment banking industry in both Canada and England. Trevor has been an integral part of Shaws senior leadership team for a number of years having most recently led the repositioning of Shaw as a leading enhanced connectivity provider through the execution of a series of highly strategic and transformational transactions, Mr. Shaw said. We are excited to have his energy and depth of experience as we continue our journey to become Canadas leading connectivity Company. I am grateful to Brad, the entire Shaw family, and our Board of Directors, for the opportunity to take on an expanded leadership role within the company and lead our Finance organization, said Mr. English. I look forward to collaborating with my colleagues throughout the organization as we focus on execution of our strategic initiatives. Shaw previously announced a multi-year and enterprise-wide Total Business Transformation initiative, designed to reinvent its operating model to better meet the changing tastes and expectations of consumers and businesses. The program is intended to make Shaw a leaner, more integrated and agile company that can execute quicker, function more efficiently, and connect Canadians to the world around them better than ever before. About Shaw Shaw Communications Inc. is a leading Canadian connectivity company. The Wireline division consists of Consumer and Business services. Consumer serves residential customers with broadband Internet, Shaw Go WiFi, video and digital phone. Business provides business customers with Internet, data, WiFi, digital phone, and video services. The Wireless division provides wireless voice and data services through an expanding and improving mobile wireless network infrastructure. Shaw is traded on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges and is included in the S&P/TSX 60 Index (Symbol: TSX - SJR.B, SJR.PR.A, SJR.PR.B, NYSE  SJR, and TSXV  SJR.A). For more information, please visit www.shaw.ca. For investor inquiries, please contact:

Shaw Communications Inc.

Investor Relations

investor.relations@sjrb.ca

www.shaw.ca For media inquiries, please contact:

Shaw Communications Inc.

Chethan Lakshman, VP External Affairs

(403) 930-8488

chethan.lakshman@sjrb.ca Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Statements included in this news release that are not historic constitute forward looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such statements include, but are not limited to: statements related to Shaws Total Business Transformation initiative. These statements are based on assumptions made by Shaw that it believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances, including without limitation, there is no significant market disruption or other significant changes in economic condition, competition or regulation; that Shaws Total Business Transformation initiative will result in a leaner, more integrated and agile company improving efficiencies and execution to better meet its consumers needs and expectations (including the products and services offered to its customers). There is the risk that one or more of these assumptions will not prove to be accurate. Undue reliance should not be placed on any forward-looking statement. Except as required by law, Shaw disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

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EVERY EMPIRE NEEDS a scary external threat, led by a singular menacing villain, to justify its massive military expenditures, consolidation of authoritarian powers, and endless wars. For the five decades after the end of World War II, Moscow played this role perfectly. But the fall of Soviet Union meant, at least for a while, that the Kremlin could no longer sustain sufficient fear levels. After some brief, largely unsuccessful auditions for possible replacements -- Asian actors like China and a splurging Japan were considered -- the post-9/11 era elevated a cast of Muslim understudies to the starring role: Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, ISIS and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and "jihadism" generally kept fear alive.

The lack of any 9/11-type catastrophic attack on U.S. (or any Western) soil for the past 17 years, along with the killing of a pitifully aged, ailing bin Laden and the erosion of ISIS, has severely compromised their ongoing viability as major bad guys. So now -- just as a film studio revitalizes a once-successful super-villain franchise for a new generation of moviegoers -- we're back to the Russians occupying center stage.

That Barack Obama spent eight years (including up through his final year-end news conference) mocking the notion that Russia posed a serious threat to the U.S. given their size and capabilities, and that he even tried repeatedly to accommodate and partner with Russian President Vladimir Putin, is of no concern: In the internet age, "2016" is regarded as ancient history, drowned out by an endless array of new threats pinned by a united media on the Russkie Plague. Moreover, human nature craves a belief in an existential foreign threat because it confers a sense of purpose and cause, strengthens tribal unity and identity, permits scapegoating, shifts blame for maladies from internal to external causes, and (like religion) offers a simplifying theory for understanding a complex world.

One of the prime accusations sustaining this script is that the Kremlin is drowning the West in "fake news" and other forms of propaganda. One can debate its impact and magnitude, but disinformation campaigns are something the U.S., Russia, and countless other nations have done to one another for centuries, and there is convincing evidence that Russia does this sort of thing now. But evidence of one threat does not mean that all claimed threats are real, nor does it mean that that tactic is exclusively wielded by one side.

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Ahed Tamimi's father, Bassem Tamimi, and the Free the Tamimis Campaign are calling on allies and supporters around the world to protest the ongoing incarceration and systematic targeting of members of the Tamimi family and the village of Nabi Saleh.

The global day of action is Sunday Feb. 18, 2018.

The Facebook event page notes:

On Tuesday the 19th of December 2017, 17-year-old Ahed Tamimi was arrested from her family home in Nabi Saleh by the Israeli army under the cover of darkness. (Note; She was 16 at that time, she turned 17 in prison.) Ahed is one of over 300 Palestinian children in Israeli military detention. Her mother, Nariman Tamimi was arrested later on the same day when she went to inquire about her daughter. On Thursday the 11th of January 2018, Mohammad Tamimi, Ahed's cousin, was arrested from his home in Nabi Saleh. 11 days later, his brother Osama was also arrested on his way home from work. All of them remain incarcerated and have been subjected to sleep deprivation, emotional abuse and inhumane interrogation. The Tamimi family and the village of Nabi Saleh are targets of a political campaign that aims to crush their resistance to the Israeli settler colonial regime. The Free the Tamimis Campaign calls on Palestine's allies, comrades and supporters around the world to take action and demand the release of Ahed, Nariman, Mohammad and Osama, as well as all Palestinian prisoners.

The Free the Tamimis Campaign offers several ideas for participants to choose from (or do them all!):

Organize marches and sit-ins in front of the Israeli embassies and consulates. 2. Organize vigils in your towns, neighborhoods, and streets. 3. Call and email your political representatives and demand they take action. (For instance, you can ask them to support House Resolution 4391 - Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act, sponsored by Betty McCollum (D-MN-4). More info on that here. 4. Take it to social media and use #FreetheTamimis.

You can download and print the posters pictured in this article, and share on social media or events.

EVENTS

(check under "recent posts" here for additional events as they are added.)

* 17 February, Manchester: Stand with Ahed Tamimi -- Stand with Palestinian Prisoners

* 17 February, Dundalk, Ireland: Free Ahed Tamimi and Palestinian Child Prisoners

*18 February, NYC: Free The Tamimis New York City Action

Next Page 1 | 2

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From Consortium News



U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meets with Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, at the Department of State, March 21, 2017.

(Image by [State Department photo/Public Domain]) Details DMCA



For weeks following its stolen election, the corrupt right-wing, neo-fascist government of Juan Orlando Hernandez in Honduras has been terrorizing its people. Street protests and spontaneous blockades have been met by extreme violence. Dozen have already died on the frontlines and many more have been arrested and brutalized in detention, while often being held incommunicado.

I spoke to Jesse Freeston, who has been based in Honduras for the last eight years working as a video-journalist and documentary filmmaker, ever since the US supported/Hillary Clinton sustained 2009 coup d'e'tat that purged the duly elected president, Manuel Zelaya. Freeston, who has reported for the Real News Network and Democracy Now en Espanol, is the producer of the feature documentary "Resistencia: The Fight for the Aguan Valley."

Freeston reports that, among other crimes against the people, "this regime has: stolen an election; ignored calls from the Organization of American States to hold a new election; passed a law prohibiting the prosecution of all former and current members of Congress in the midst of a series of massive corruption scandals [and has] appointed a new national police chief who has clear evidence against him of drug trafficking..."

I spoke to Freeston on February 7.

Dennis Bernstein: We continue our drumbeat coverage of Honduras and the recent stolen election there, an attempt to suppress the will of the people who, by all accounts, want to have a more progressive government. It has been a very violent situation since the election. We are hearing that dozens of people have been killed and that the atrocities being perpetrated by the government have resulted in a nightmare. Could you put this in the context of the last two recent election cycles in Honduras?

Jesse Freeston: On June 28, 2009, there was a vote on a non-binding resolution put forward by President Manuel Zelaya, who had taken up the call of various indigenous groups in the country to rewrite the constitution. When people went out to vote on that day, the military staged a coup d'etat and Zelaya wound up in Costa Rica.

This led to the most organized national resistance movement Honduras has ever seen. Assemblies were held, which brought together all these people who stood to gain from a new constitution. Just about every sector of the society were represented, except perhaps the oligarchy.

This led to the formation of the Libre Party, which participated in the 2013 elections [with Manuel Zelaya's wife, Xiomara Castro, running as the party's presidential candidate]. The election was officially won by Juan Orlando Hernandez but there was massive fraud. The November, 2017 elections were even more of a farce.

Despite all that, when the electoral tribunal released its first results, the Oppositional Alliance were up by 5% with 60% of the votes counted. One of the magistrates on the tribunal described it at the time as an "irreversible trend." Then, counting stopped for over a day when the computer system supposedly crashed. When it was back up again, the tendency had completely flipped and Hernandez ended up winning by one percentage point.

This led to another massive uprising. On one day of action there were 48 blockades of highways and major boulevards in the country. During the last two months, this has been happening a couple times a week.

Even international observers such as the European Union Commission and the Organization of American States -- who have been discredited here after turning their back many times in the last eight years to the crimes of this regime -- even they have said that they have to redo the election or there has to be a recount.

Nevertheless, the members of those organizations, like Canada, like the United States and the countries of the European Union, went ahead and validated the election.

DB: We have heard that activists and members of the resistance have been arrested.

JF: Yes, there are dozens of political prisoners behind bars right now. One of the most worrying cases is that of Edwin Espinal. He is someone who has consistently paid a price for his resistance against the ongoing coup d'etat.

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In earlier articles we have studied problems with the most commonly used voting system, plurality voting, and we have offered even more extensively criticisms regarding the most widely known alternative system, instant-runoff voting. Various articles have shown faults in other systems of voting. There is no reason that balanced-voting systems should be exempt from such scrutiny, but as someone who has spent so much time thinking about what is right with balanced voting, I could well be blind to its faults. Still I do recognize some of the possible reasons for resistance to balanced voting and those seem worth mentioning.

Few of us have ever voted in election using anything but first-choice (plurality) voting and so few people have even considered whether there are good alternatives. Inertia is surely a barrier to adoption of any alternative system, but a few alternatives, mostly ranked-voting systems, have been used in elections here and there. So far as I am aware, the first real-world application of balanced system is yet to occur; that is unless you consider plurality voting as balanced when there are just two candidates. That particular balanced system has been widely tested and found to work fairly well. But serious problems arise when plurality elections (especially primary elections) involve more than two candidates.

I find it surprising that a source of resistance to changing our voting system comes from the very people who would most immediately benefit from balanced voting. Balanced voting, in particular, would greatly improve the opportunity for election of minor-party candidates, but people from third-party movements often seem to be locked into a competing notion that nothing at all is wrong with plurality voting. In their view, the spoiler effect is only an imagined problem, and the only real problem (from their viewpoint) is that too many voters foolishly believe in this fiction.

This thinking seems to be rooted in understandable annoyance within these smaller parties at their candidate being characterized as a spoiler. When plurality voting is used, the spoiler effect is an all-too-frequent problem that in fact does often spoil elections when there are more than just two candidates. But choosing a particular candidate to paint as the spoiler is surely a misplaced personal attack for a problem that is properly understood as the failure of the plurality-voting system.

These barriers to exploring a variety of alternative-voting systems must have a much wider target than just the balanced systems. An objection that might be raised specifically against the balanced systems is that a candidate can, using a balanced system, win election despite receiving a negative vote total. This is what it seems, at least superficially, would have happened in the 2016 presidential elections if balanced voting had been used, since both Clinton and Trump appeared to have greater opposition than support. But if this is considered a problem with balanced voting, it amounts to a worry that the flaws in a defective election would be made all too apparent (by the winning candidate receiving a negative vote count); this is akin to blaming the messenger for the bad news.



Image from page 171 of .A classical dictionary of Greek an. | Flickr890 -- 682 - 198k - jpg

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But a closer look suggests that if balanced voting had been in widespread use for the 2016 election then neither of these two major-party candidates would have won nomination, much less gained office. With balanced voting (so long as ballot access is reasonably open) it would be unlikely for a candidate to win with a negative vote count. One reason is that with open-ballot access there will likely be at least one candidate who is not at all widely known to the voters; such a candidate will likely have some support but little if any opposition and in this context that is a winning combination.

The election of a little-known candidate may likewise seem objectionable, but even this would seem to be a quite unusual situation once politicians have had time to adapt to the realities of balanced voting. With experience, serious politicians would learn how important it is to avoid antagonizing significant blocks of voters simply to gain enthusiastic support of some other blocks of voters. And political parties would not likely nominate a candidate with widespread opposition. With balanced voting, politicians will have to be just as concerned with avoiding negative votes as they traditionally have paid only to pursuing positive ones. Politicians would have to focus more on their overall acceptability to voters at large rather than just building a substantial base of enthusiastic supporters. The prospect of this change in the behavior of politicians is surely an important argument supporting the adoption of balanced voting.

This seems to be an opportunity to consider why ballot access is so restricted today. The easy answer is that this is just a tactic that the two major parties agreed on so as to reduce competition. No doubt there is at least some merit to this notion, but neither major party sees such competition as entirely a bad thing. Surely Republicans are quite happy to see Democrats face such competition just as Democrats are quite happy to see Republicans in that same predicament. So perhaps there is some other motivation at work.

The original considerations for restricting ballot access was likely, at least in part, the more noble impulse to achieve a democratic outcome, despite the spoiler effect. Efforts to restrict ballot access have surely been motivated at least in part by the observation of how poorly democracy is served in three-candidate elections using plurality voting. Somehow, it seems the alternative of turning away from plurality voting was not considered.

Opening ballot access to more candidates is important for achieving the full benefits from a voting system that avoids the spoiler effect. Our mainstream media, given its addiction to the horse-race aspects of our elections, would likely resist these kinds of changes, perhaps by explaining how unmanageable elections with many candidates might be. But there are other ways to manage the difficulties that arise with large numbers of candidates than through acceptance of undemocratic outcomes.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.

Stop now and go directly to the OpEd comment section on this page!

In the comment section: 1) Jot down your meaning for the words "public citizen."

2) Answer these questions: Have you heard of an organization titled "Public Citizen?"? If so, how?



Make better citizen-driven legislation

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Now, return and read the rest of this OpEd...

Recently, I googled what is a "public citizen?"

Most of the time, the answer revolved around, "Public Citizen is a nongovernmental organization founded in 1971 by Ralph Nader and currently run by its president Robert Weissman. It fights "for openness and democratic accountability in government, for the right of consumers to seek redress in the courts; for clean, safe and sustainable energy sources; for social and economic justice in trade policies; for strong health, safety and environmental protections; and for safe, effective and affordable prescription drugs and health care."

Does fighting for those issues make one "a public citizen"? Does that make Public Citizen's (PC) 400,000 members, 0.12% of the nation's 325,000,000, public citizens?

If so, then I am among this elite PC corps, self-recruited shortly after Nader's first book, Unsafe at Any Speed, and after the auto industry failed to sully Nader's reputation by planting hookers in his path, which prompted Nader's boomerang lawsuit that provided foundational funding for today's Center for Auto Safety and Public Citizen.



Ralph Nader builds citizens...

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Are those who honorably serve in our active 1.1 and reserve 1.4 million military, and Veterans for Peace organizations, or .77% of the nation, public citizens?

Are those like Sister Joan Chittister "public citizens", who lives her belief that:

Our morality, in fact, depends on what we do for the poor, the elderly, the children, the men who find themselves caught in an industrial-era job in a computer-era world, the women without health care to sustain them, without day-care services to enable them to raise their children, without the equal pay, the decent pay -- not the minimum pay -- it takes to support a child, and without the government aid it takes to have a life, have the medical care they need and get an education that will get all of them out of the pit into which they have fallen while we all, citizens and government alike, uphold them as they climb.



Joan Chittister Life is not meant to be a burden. Life is not a problem to be solved. It is a blessing to be celebrated

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In my five+ decades of adult life, I've come to question whether this elite PC corps is too elite. Are there enough other public citizens working to bring dignity and health to the world's 7+ billion? As the richest and most militarized nation in the world, are our public policies becoming smarter or dumber?

If we had more citizens doing humanitarian and enlightening public service, would we implement more effective and less costly public policies at home and abroad that would provide the hands-up development that produces more sustainable fishermen and builds more health and dignity worldwide?

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Article originally published in the Austin American-Statesman

By Robert Weiner and Kyle Fleck

Ten thousand of the nation's leading scientists are gathering in Austin, Texas this week (Feb. 16-19) to discuss the state of science in the country. High on the list of concerns for the American Association for the Advancement of Science at their annual meeting is the Trump administration's antagonism to language used widely in the scientific community -- "Science based" and "evidence based". These words are so anathema apparently that the current administration has banned CDC from using them on its websites and in agency directives.

When we informed the AAAS that we were working on a piece regarding the bans on "science-based" and "evidence-based" language, the organization's press office offered a had a single word reply: "Yeah!" Susan Hockfield, the new president of the AAAS, has said that "working together to clearly articulate the value and importance of scientific research and innovation is more than ever the imperative of AAAS."

Those in attendance will include former Vice President Joe Biden, who will give a Sunday evening concluding plenary talk on advancements in cancer research, NASA Houston Johnson Space Center expert Kimberly Hambuchen who well tell about "NASA's Bipedal Humanoid Caretaker Robot ", and researchers like Dr. Patricia Berg of George Washington University, AAAS Fellow who discovered a protein activated in 80% of breast cancers and 70% of prostate cancers.

It makes a sort of twisted sense that an administration who came out of the gate touting their use of "alternative facts" regarding the crowd size at President Trump's inauguration is now engaging in hostility against scientifically provable, objective reality. A clear pattern has emerged: "evidence-based" and "science-based" facts are of no use to Trump or his agency heads. Responding to recent directives from these agencies, the CEO of AAAS, former congressman and physicist Rush Holt (D-NJ), had this to say: "Among the words forbidden " 'evidence-based' & 'science-based', I suppose one must not think those things either. Here's a word that's still allowed: 'ridiculous'."

The upcoming conference has several panels regarding issues like "What Citizens Think About Science: Survey Data and Implications for Communicators," "Understanding and Responding to Climate Change Denial", and "Facts and Value in Public Policymaking". It's clear these scientists recognize the importance of communicating objective facts to the public. The thrust of the conference can be seen as an implicit rebuke to the current administration's hostility to science.

Some alarming changes went into effect at the Center for Disease Control in December. In addition to "evidence based" and "science based", senior staff was briefed on still more language that is "forbidden" for budget documents. They include medical terms like "fetus" and "transgender."

The Department of Health and Human Services has introduced language that demonstrates a shift from science and toward ideology as well. The EPA, Department of Energy, and Department of Transportation have seen language about climate change removed. The head of the EPA, Scott Pruitt, personally led removal of wording emphasizing human activity's role in climate change, according to e-mails discovered by the Environment Defense Fund last month.

Apparently, the planet must just suffer through incredibly destructive droughts and wildfires in equatorial regions, staggering glacial melt at the poles, an increasing number of disruptive weather events such as last year's hurricanes, and levels of carbon dioxide that contributed to making the five hottest years on record on earth occur since 2010, which in turn causes oceans to rise and crops to falter. Nonetheless, "climate change" has all but disappeared from the United States' official view.

When medical language is prohibited in health agency documents, it detracts from the ability to care for people. When the United States is the only country in the world to pull out of the Paris Accord and our national agencies are instructed to turn their backs on evidence, it can only put America further behind. Far from making America great again, it puts us on a purposeful backslide in international relevance.

On February 10, Floyd Abrams, the constitutional rights attorney who was co-counsel for the New York Times during the Daniel Ellsberg-Pentagon Papers release case, keynoted the Inaugural of the New National Press Club President, Andrea Snyder, in Washington, DC. He called the Administration and the President's regular purposeful omissions "preposterous." Snyder responded by emphasizing the importance of journalists "every day"defending the vital role of a free and fair press, free of government interference."

"Evidence" and "Science" are not dirty words despite the Administration's ban.

Robert Weiner was a spokesman for the Clinton and Bush White Houses, the House Government Operations Committee, and the House judiciary Committee. Kyle Fleck is a policy analyst for Robert Weiner Associates.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

Happy Valentine's Day and Church Night!

I've been trying for days to write something about the unbelievable hypocrisy and repugnant misogyny of our Republican elected leaders, pundits, and public officials. Every time I try to write, I am so angry and have so much to say I can't put words to screen.

Evangelicals and women who support Trump are especially vile in my opinion. I wish Kelleyann and Sarah H. Sanders would just switch genders -- we don't want them anymore. What horrible, horrible examples for our young women today. If a man abuses you, suck it up. Nobody is going to believe you anyway. Just evil. How can any woman be a Trump supporter and still retain a modicum of self respect? These victims are daughters, mothers, sisters, granddaughters, wives. And this is how we value them. Shameful.

But I digress ...

I have never seen such a 180 flip in my life as I have witnessed in the last 18 months and still cannot fathom why these career politicians, some of them up-and-comers like Devin Nunes, would trash their lives and reputations for this tangerine con man? And why? To protect him from collusion with a foreign enemy who is hell-bent on destroying our representative democracy and global standing in the world?

Seriously?

They will believe this walking hairflap who lies about everything from the size of his crowds to the size of his "button," over career public servants who have led morally upstanding lives and often put life at risk to defend our citizens from terrorism? And still, Paul Ryan and Grassley and Hatch and McConnell and Sessions and a whole crew of veterans who should know better have decided to give The Don a mulligan. Or rather, an entire notebook full of mulligans he can rip off like "get out of jail free" coupons.

He faces no consequences, why would he change? Why apologize for insulting Gold Star families? Or victims of deadly Neo-Nazi car attacks? Or piss off our greatest allies in the world -- the UK -- to the point where our American President isn't welcome on British soil!

This list of atrocities is too long to even calibrate. And we face a daily barrage of Trumpian BS, so the plot twists in the new episodes of "The Apprentice: White House Edition" start to bleed into each other.

Or deny the victims of his sexual assaults, forgive his phony university, he's been a plaintiff in at least 1,900 lawsuits and a defendant in 1,450 more, the "shithole" remarks, the "fine people" in the NeoNazi Party, the Muslim travel ban, firing Comey and Sally Yates over Flynn, the Kid Rock/Ted Nugent kiss up, the inaction and non-response to disasters in Puerto Rico, multiple mass school shootings, the Hawaiian nuclear false alarm, the innuendos he's made about sex with his daughter, wink at a $130K (possibly taxpayer funded) payoff to a porn star, the p*ssy grabbing tape, calling Mexicans rapists and murderers, the payola for Uncle Ben's family and Steve Mnuchin's wife, the money laundering, fat-shaming a former Miss Universe contestant, mocking a handicapped reporter, exploiting his office for personal (or Kushner Family) profit, selling access to Mar a Lago, the Don Jr. email forgery, the Executive Time, the Alternate Facts, his wife-beating secretary, giving national intel secrets to visiting Russians, the Jerusalem embassy move, Tom Price, Anthony Scaramucci, Steve Mnuchin, Steve Bannon, Steve Miller, General Kelly, Omarosa, Lewandowski, Manafort, Gates, Gorka, Moore the Molester, the endless assault on the press for shining a light on his misdeeds.

Geezus, and still they snuggle up to him like he's some Svengali King Midas, all taking their turns at the Cabinet meeting to kiss his ring and touch his hem and sing his praises..."thank GOD for you, Mr. President," said Orrin Hatch as Uncle Ben bows his head and prays for him.

Does Putin have pee-pee pictures of ALL of them?

Come on Back, Jesus. Pick up John Wayne on the way. I'm ready for all these freaks to rapture the hell outta here. Leave the planet for the sane people. Hell, I'll buy them all new white sneakers.

There are 248 Republicans (aka Flying Monkeys) in the House of Representatives surrounding the president like sentry guards in order to preserve their power and their crumbling, rotten party. Facts be damned. Atrocities be damned. Our international reputation be damned. It's shameful. Worse, it's reckless. There are no checks and balances anymore, so who will stop this monster from totally destroying our nation? And I don't think that's hyperbolic at all.

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ONE OF THE MOST IGNORANT TESTS EVER--NOT MY PHOTO

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Photo of nuclear mushroom cloud from nuclear test in the 1950's.

How do the American people deal with those in charge who are mad, psychotic, criminally insane?

Because here in the US the crazies are not on the fringe. They are at the epicenter. Call them what you will. The "deep state", the elites, neo-cons, military/industrial/political complex, heads of the CIA, NSA, FBI et al. They're all an integral part of the un-elected power which "official" Washington follows regardless of who sits in the White House or which party controls Congress. "Official" Washington are just stooges carrying out orders.

The latest madness they've come up with is the "Nuclear Posture Review" which is a blueprint for nuclear war, though inversely it purports to lowering the threshold for a nuclear conflagration.

Finian Cunningham put it, "the explicit go-ahead by Washington... is the development of so-called 'low-yield nuclear warheads'. The dangerous consequence? The notion that a limited nuclear war may be feasible. Thus a greater risk of 'low-yield' nuclear weapons being deployed in action. But the real danger is that the threshold will then be lowered for escalation to strategic weapons of mass destruction."

Think about it. A war where the US initiates the use of "low-yield" nuclear weapons against states with huge nuclear weapons arsenals with the expectation this won't escalate to a full-fledged nuclear conflagration.

The assumption being "MAD", mutually assured destruction the cold war understanding recognized by the US and the Soviet Union that any first use of nuclear weapons assured massive nuclear retaliation by the other side, doesn't apply any longer.

So "MAD" has become anachronism. That is madness. There is no other way to put it.

Once nuclear weapons are used in a war, even these so called "low-yield" nuclear weapons, escalation would be impossible to contain. There would be thousands dead immediately on the battlefield, untold thousands more dying from radiation poisoning. All this occurring and the other side particularly Russia-which is the primary focus in the crosshairs of the NPR- wouldn't retaliate? And not only that; they wouldn't retaliate directly on US soil. That is absolutely absurd.

The American people need to understand, any use of nuclear weapons no matter how "low-yield", against another nuclear power will bring a certain retaliatory nuclear strike on American soil.

Are the elites who gave us this NPR so naive or are they crazy? What are they planning to do once nuclear war escalates? Live in underground bunkers for a few years until the nuclear dust settles then emerge as "survivors". Is this what they are planning and preparing for?

The American people could stop the madness. The question is will they?

Because first they have to fully comprehend the danger.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 Palestine Chronicle

Despite massive sums of money spent to channel public opinion in the United States in favor of Israel, unmistakable trends in opinion polls are attesting to the changing dynamics of Israel's support among ordinary Americans.

Not only is Israel losing its support and overall appeal among large sections of American society, but among young American Jews, as well -- a particularity worrying phenomena for the Israeli government.

The trend promises to be a lasting one, since it has been in the making for years, starting some time after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

It was on that date that the affinity between Israel and the US purportedly grew to unprecedented levels, since both countries claimed to be fighting "Islamic terror." In reality, the attacks, the ensuing media discourse and subsequent wars have all coagulated the support of Christian Evangelists behind Israel, as they saw the widening conflict in the Middle East as part of a long-awaited prophecy.

It was precisely then that the support of Israel by American Liberals, especially those identifying with the Democratic Party, began to weaken.

With time, supporting or not supporting Israel became a partisan issue, which is, itself, unprecedented.

While the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, exploited every opportunity to maximize support for Israel in order to achieve objectives deemed important by the Israeli rightwing, ultra-right and religious parties, Netanyahu's conceited and confrontational style has alienated many Americans, especially Democrats.

Worse, Netanyahu's policies of entrenching the Occupation, blocking any peace efforts and expanding illegal Jewish settlements, also began to shift the kind of support that Israel has historically taken for granted, that of American Jews.

A comprehensive Pew poll published in October 2013 indicated that a growing number of US Jews question the sincerity of the Israeli government in its alleged efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Palestine. Only 38% thought Tel Aviv was sincere, and only 17% agreed that the illegal Jewish settlements are conducive to Israel's security. 44% thought otherwise.

The Israeli government, aware of the generational gap within the US Jewish communities, seemed more fixated on maximizing the unprecedented trend of support it was receiving from US Republicans and religious conservatives, especially Christian Evangelists.

Fast forward to January 2018 and Israel's ratings among American Jews has plummeted even further.

According to a recent Brand Israel Group study, "support for Israel among Jewish college students in the United States has dropped 32% between 2010 and 2016," reported the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

The report was accompanied by stern warnings from the CEO and director-general of the influential Jewish Agency, Alan Hoffman, who described the findings as "extremely worrisome."

However, no contingency plan is likely to reverse these numbers any time soon, since they are consistent with the overall perception of Israel among the US population.

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From Common Dreams

The assertion by establishment Dems (echoed by corporate media) that progressive populism is not a winner is -- in two words -- bovine excrement.

In the past year, we've seen a burst of audacious political assertiveness coming out of Old Dixie, and I'm not talking about those Trumpeteering, tiki-torch-brandishing, tinhorn KKKers the media focuses on. The real story is that a fresh, "Reclaim the South" movement of young African-American populists is emerging, kindling long-suppressed hope in the racially scarred Deep South and offering the possibility of real economic and cultural progress.

Guess who's mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, the state's capitol city? Chokwe Antar Lumumba -- a black, 34-year-old lawyer who was raised in Jackson in a family and community of longtime Black Power activists. Last June, backed by Our Revolution and Working Families Party, Lumumba was elected with 93 percent (!) of the vote, and he promptly pledged to make Jackson "the most radical city on the planet." By radical, he means aggressively innovative in developing policies and programs focused directly on lifting up Jackson's middle-class and poor residents, rather than adopting the failed trickle-down model of nearly every other city. For example, instead of giving away government subsidies to lure rich corporations, Lumumba is trying to make the city a national showcase of home-grown cooperative enterprises owned by the people themselves.

In August, the incumbent mayor of Birmingham, Alabama -- an old-style, don't-rock-the-boat politico favored by the city's power brokers -- thought he was cruising to an easy re-election. Then wham! -- an underdog populist challenge by 36-year-old African-American attorney, Randall Woodfin, stunned the city powers with a first-place showing that forced the mayor into an October runoff. Woodfin, a city prosecutor and school board member, went on to defeat Birmingham's corporate and political establishment by winning the mayorship with 58 percent of the vote. He did it by proposing an all-out populist agenda, building a broad coalition of local progressive activists and running a dogged ground game with the full support of Our Revolution, Working Families Party, and other national groups. Our Revolution, for instance, deployed some 70 volunteers to help in the runoff and sent more than 11,000 text messages to voters urging support for Woodfin.

Likewise, other full-bore, African-American populists won big in races for local offices across the South, including:

--Khalid Kamau, a Black Lives Matter activist and national Democratic convention delegate for Sanders, won a South Fulton, Georgia council seat with 67 percent of the vote.

--Braxton Winston, a young community activist and battler against rampant inequalities in the enforcement of justice in Charlotte, NC, won a City Council seat.

--And La'Shadion Shemwell, a 30-year-old barber and Black Lives Matter proponent, pulled 57 percent of the vote in his extraordinary run for a City Council seat in McKinney, Texas. The suburban city on Dallas's north side had long been considered a safe Republican bastion.

The nationwide progressive offensive in 2017 produced other ground shifting results such as many victories by millennials (five elected to the State House in Virginia alone); victories by immigrant candidates, including in Somerville (MA), Helena (MT), and Minneapolis; a rebellion in previously red suburbs; and (4) several wins by openly transgender men and women including House of Delegate (VA), several City Council seats and even a few seats on local school boards. Victories like these are proliferating because immigrant populations are growing, the LGBTQ community has become more readily excepted, Trumpism and GOP extremism are turning voters off, a rapid and relentless downsizing of the middle class is altering attitudes, and serious grassroots political organizing by Our Revolution, Democratic Socialists of America, Working Families Party, and other progressive groups is making a difference.

We can draw two big lessons from these wins in the "red" South and victories by others previously counted out of the status quo: progressives with a full-throated populist message (Medicare for All, a $15 minimum wage, corporate money out of politics, etc.) can win nearly anywhere; and the assertion by establishment Dems (echoed by corporate media) that progressive populism is not a winner is -- in two words -- bovine excrement.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.

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

When it comes to America's wars, more than 16 years later our generals are victorious. Not, of course, in the distant lands where those conflicts grind on unendingly, but in the one place that matters: Washington, D.C. Could there be a more striking sign of that than the elevation of three of those generals to key positions in the Trump administration? If any of them are going down any time soon, the wars this country has been conducting abroad won't be responsible, though one retired commander, John Kelly, now White House chief of staff, was wounded only last week fighting a rearguard action against the #MeToo movement.

If anything, recent weeks have offered remarkable evidence of just how victorious this country's losingest commanders and their colleagues really are in our nation's capital. In the bipartisan style that these days usually applies only to the U.S. military, Congress has just settled on giving an extra $165 billion to the Pentagon over the next two years as part of a formula for keeping the government open. As it happens, the 2017 Pentagon budget was already as large as the defense spending of the next seven nations combined. And that was before all those extra tens of billions of dollars ensured that the two-year military budget (for 2018 and 2019) would crest at a total of more than $1.4 trillion.

That's the sort of money that only goes to winners, not losers. And if this still seems a little strange to you, given that military's dismal record in actual war-fighting since 9/11, all I can say is: don't bring it up. It's no longer considered polite or proper to complain about our wars and those who fight them or how we fund them, not in an age when every American soldier is a "hero," which means that what they're doing from Afghanistan to Yemen, Syria to Somalia, must be heroic indeed.

In a draft-less country, those of us not in or connected to our military are expected to say "thank you" to the warriors and otherwise go about our lives as if their wars (and the mayhem they continue to generate abroad) were not a fact of global life. This is the definition of a demobilized public. If you happen to be that rarest of all creatures in our country these days -- someone in active opposition to those wars -- you have a problem. That means Stephanie Savell, who co-runs the Costs of War Project, which regularly provides well-researched and devastating information on the spread of those wars and the money continually being squandered on them, does indeed have a problem. It's one she understands all too well and describes vividly today. Tom

The Wars No One Notices

Talking to a Demobilized Country

By Stephanie Savell I'm in my mid-thirties, which means that, after the 9/11 attacks, when this country went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq in what President George W. Bush called the "Global War on Terror," I was still in college. I remember taking part in a couple of campus antiwar demonstrations and, while working as a waitress in 2003, being upset by customers who ordered "freedom fries," not "French fries," to protest France's opposition to our war in Iraq. (As it happens, my mother is French, so it felt like a double insult.) For years, like many Americans, that was about all the thought I put into the war on terror. But one career choice led to another and today I'm co-director of the Costs of War Project at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. Now, when I go to dinner parties or take my toddler to play dates and tell my peers what I do for a living, I've grown used to the blank stares and vaguely approving comments ("that's cool") as we quickly move on to other topics. People do tend to humor me if I begin to speak passionately about the startlingly global reach of this country's military counterterrorism activities or the massive war debt we're so thoughtlessly piling up for our children to pay off. In terms of engagement, though, my listeners tend to be far more interested and ask far more penetrating questions about my other area of research: the policing of Brazil's vast favelas, or slums. I don't mean to suggest that no one cares about America's never-ending wars, just that, 17 years after the war on terror began, it's a topic that seems to fire relatively few of us up, much less send us into the streets, Vietnam-style, to protest. The fact is that those wars are approaching the end of their second decade and yet most of us don't even think of ourselves as "at war." I didn't come to the work that's now engulfed my life as a peace activist or a passionate antiwar dissenter. I arrived circuitously, through my interest in police militarization, during my PhD work in cultural anthropology at Brown University, where the Costs of War Project is housed. Eventually, I joined directors Catherine Lutz and Neta Crawford, who had co-founded the project in 2011 on the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan. Their goal: to draw attention to the hidden and unacknowledged costs of our counterterror wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and a number of other countries as well. Today, I know -- and care -- more about the devastations of Washington's post-9/11 wars than I ever imagined I would. And judging from public reactions to our work at the Costs of War Project, my prior detachment was anything but unique. Quite the opposite: it's been the essence of the post-9/11 era in this country. Numbers to Boggle the Mind In such a climate of disengagement, I've learned what can get at least some media attention. Top of the list: mind-boggling numbers. In a counterpoint to the relatively limited estimates issued by the Pentagon, the Costs of War Project has, for instance, come up with a comprehensive estimate of what the war on terror has actually cost this country since 2001: $5.6 trillion. It's an almost unfathomably large number. Imagine, though, if we had invested such funds in more cancer research or the rebuilding of America's infrastructure (among other things, Amtrak trains might not be having such frequent deadly crashes). That $5.6 trillion includes the costs of caring for post-9/11 veterans as well as spending to prevent terrorist attacks on U.S. soil ("homeland security"). That figure and its annual updates do make the news in places like the Wall Street Journal and the Atlantic magazine and are regularly cited by reporters. Even President Trump, we suspect, has absorbed and, in his typical fashion, inflated our work in his comment at the end of last year that the U.S. has "foolishly spent $7 trillion in the Middle East" (which just months earlier, more in line with our estimate, he had at $6 trillion). The media also commonly draws on another set of striking figures we issue: our calculations of deaths, both American and foreign, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. As of 2016, about 14,000 American soldiers and contractors and 380,000 inhabitants of those countries had been killed. To these estimates, you have to add the deaths of at least 800,000 more Afghans, Iraqis, and Pakistanis from indirect causes related to the devastation caused by those wars, including malnutrition, disease, and environmental degradation. Once you get past the shocking numbers, however, it becomes far harder to get media (or anyone else's) attention for America's wars. Certainly, the human and political costs in distant lands are of remarkably little interest here. Today, it's difficult to imagine a devastating war photo making the front page of a mainstream newspaper, much less galvanizing protest, as several now-iconic images did during the Vietnam era. In August, for instance, the Costs of War Project issued a report that revealed the extent to which immigrant workers in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan are exploited. From countries like Nepal, Colombia, and the Philippines, they work for the U.S. military and its private contractors doing jobs like cooking, cleaning, and acting as security guards. Our report documented the kinds of servitude and the range of human rights abuses they regularly face. Often, immigrants are stuck there, living in dangerous and squalid conditions, earning far less than they were promised when recruited, and with no recourse to or protection from the American military, civilian officials, or their home governments.

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Kudos to the 1941 W.C Fields comedy film "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break" for the inspiration. Well, this certainly does fit with what is transpiring now in our Amerikan Empire. This writer lives in an area I have always labeled as Death Valley USA, this Daytona Beach area. For the most part it is a place of low political and cultural sophistication. As with most areas of low repute there are lots of us who are 'exceptions to this rule'.

Yet, so many of those who live here or visit here are what old W. C. would call suckers. The month of February is NASCAR month in Daytona. We have that infamous Daytona 500 race that draws lots of Trump and rightwing loving folks to our doorstep. Of course, we have our own natives with lots of Northern transplants in the mix singing the mantra of 'Making Amerika Great Again'. In addition to those infamous Trump stickers on the many SUVs and pickup trucks, we have the seemingly countless license plates celebrating either the Marines or Army (not too many Navy or Air Force ones though). Do any of these people realize that, contrary to the right wing rhetoric, WE ARE NOT AT WAR!? The last time we were really 'At War' was December, 1941. All the rest of them were propaganda spins that, sadly, so many suckers kept falling for. Well, the Bush SR. and Bush Jr/Cheney gangs got away with this fraud, and then Mr. 'Hope and Change' signed on, and of course Mr. President with the orange hair and tan continues the magic trick.

So, many of the aforementioned NASCAR fans and gung ho license plate carrying warriors are getting that fat tax break. You know, perhaps $900 a year, while the super rich and corporate hacks get upwards of tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars each! Meanwhile, the right wing will continue to cut away at Medicaid and even Medicare. So, that white haired senior citizen who was driving an old pickup truck in front of me with his 'Marines' license plate and Trump sticker had better beware. Why? Well, he looks like he may be in line for going into a nursing home in the not too distant future. With those Medicaid cuts happening he may not even be able to get placed in one! Or, until that day comes, he will most likely have to go deeper into his pockets for medications, because his Medicare will be stricter on what is covered etc.

What really both angers and saddens this writer is the whole topic of what the empire's stooges (in both major parties) like to call 'Defense Spending'. No, it is simply 'Military Spending' and it has been slowly bankrupting our nation to the tune of over 50% of our federal taxes. Now, those Trump loving and Gung HO Marines & Army lovers applaud the fact that Trump and the 'Swamp' want to increase the spending! So, while our towns and cities are teetering on insolvency, along with our states, more money is NOT going to help them fiscally. Instead, it is going to subsidize the 900+ foreign bases, overkill weapons systems and overall deployment of our military personnel to places they have NO business (and had NO business) being in! Our cherished 'Safety Net' is being torn apart with this insanity and the suckers still think THEY are the patriots! The real patriots are we folks who do NOT wish to send our young soldiers to all those places overseas to either kill or be killed for strictly the purposes of this Military Industrial Empire!Showcasing our Best for You, The finest

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A recent study on the Cutting Tools market applies both primary and secondary research techniques to accumulate vital statistics about the competitive business landscape of the Cutting Tools market for the forecast period 2017 - 2022. The latest market intelligence report provides business owners, stakeholders and field marketing executives critical insights about the opportunities as well as strengths to help keep up with the dramatic shift in the consumer behavior and consumption power.Get the Free Sample Copy of Report@The study methodologies used to examine the Cutting Tools market for the forecast period, 2017 - 2022 further classifies the industry by type, geography, end-use and end-user to add more precision and bring to light factors responsible for augmenting business development.The research methodologies used for evaluating the Cutting Tools market are inventive and also provides enough evidence on the demand and supply status, production capability, import and export, supply chain management and investment feasibility. The investigative approach applied for the extensive analysis of the sale, gross margin and profit generated by the industry are presented through resources including tables, charts, and graphic images. Importantly, these resources can be easily integrated or used for preparing business or corporate presentations.In market segmentation by manufacturers, the report covers the following companies- Sandvik Kennametal Iscar OSG Mitsubishi Kyocera Sumitomo Mapal Nachi-Fujikoshi LMT ZCCCT YG-1 Shanghai Tool Korloy Union Tool More+Market Segment by Countries, covering United States Canada MexicoIn market segmentation by Type, covers - Cemented Carbide High Speed Steel Ceramics Diamond OthersIn market segmentation by Applications, can divided into - Milling Turning Drilling Grinding OthersInquiry about the Report@The market intelligence study for the Cutting Tools market further provides an inside-out overview of necessary aspects associated with the product classification, important definitions, major orders and other industry-centric parameters. An underlying part of the study also maps the important factors associated with the recent events such as mergers and acquisition, collaboration and new product launches.In addition, the research lays down a robust groundwork for obtaining a vast amount of information that potential customers can use to increase their profits and reduce costs. The inclusion of data on market segmentation by type, application, and geography offers clarity presents an analytical picture of, what manufacturers are aiming for.There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the North America Cutting Tools market.Chapter 1 covers the Cutting Tools Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2 talks about the top manufacturers and analyses their sales, revenue and pricing decisions for the duration 2017 and 2022;Chapter 3 displays the competitive nature of the market by discussing the competition among the top manufacturers. It dissects the market using sales, revenue and market share data for 2017 and 2022;Chapter 4, shows the North America market by regions and the proportionate size of each market region based on sales, revenue and market share of Cutting Tools, for the period 2017- 2022;Continue...The research provides answers to the following key questions: What is the estimated growth rate of the Cutting Tools market for the forecast period 2017 - 2022? What will be the market share and size of the industry during the estimated period? What are prime factors expected to drive the Cutting Tools industry for the estimated period? What are the major market leaders and what has been their winning strategy for success so far? What are the significant trends shaping the growth prospects of the Cutting Tools market? What are the key challenges expected to restrict the progress of the industry for the forecast period, 2017 - 2022? What the opportunities product owners can bank on to generate high profits?Browse the full Report @Follow Link Twitter:Follow Link LinkedIn:Follow Link Google Plus:Follow Link Facebook:About US:Planning to invest in market intelligence products or offerings on the web? Then marketexpertz has just the thing for you - reports from over 500 prominent publishers and updates on our collection daily to empower companies and individuals catch-up with the vital insights on industries operating across different geography, trends, share, size and growth rate. There's more to what we offer to our customers. With marketexpertz you have the choice to tap into the specialized services without any additional charges.Contact US:40 Wall St. 28th floor New York City,NY 10005 United Statessales@marketexpertz.com+1-800-819-3052Drip Coffee Makers Market Trends, Strategies, Emerging Growth and Forecast By 2022

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A new market assessment report on Drip Coffee Makers market brings to light a detailed statistics on the dramatic shift in the competitive landscape and business environment of the Drip Coffee Makers market for the forecast period 2017 - 2022. The comprehensive study offers an overview of the current state of development of the business as well as predicts the course of progress across different regions. A large number of factors including the major driving forces, threats and opportunities are taken into account to present an analytical picture of the industry portrayed in the report.Get the free Sample Copy of Report@The study is a professional probe into the revenue generated and capacity estimates for the Drip Coffee Makers market for the forecast period 2017 - 2022 empower the business owners to maintain a competitive edge over their rivals. The research further examines and provides data on the market by type, application and geography interspersed with illustrations and other graphical representations.The market analysis not only determines the attractiveness of the industry but also the evolving challenges and opportunities and their association with the weaknesses and strengths of prominent market leaders. Other factors taken into consideration when studying the industry include profitability, manufacturing capability, distribution channels and industry cost structure and major success factors.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers Electrolux Conair Corporation Bonavita Philips Technivorm Melitta NACCO Jarden Delonghi Bosch BUNN Black & Decker Krups Illy Morphy RichardsMarket Segment by Countries, covering United States Canada MexicoIn market segmentation by Types, covering - Manual Drip Coffee Makers Automatic Drip Coffee MakersInquiry about the Report@The study segments the complete Drip Coffee Makers market on the basis of different application, end-use, end-user, and production capability. From a business standpoint, the industry has been thoroughly examined across various countries located in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and others. The size of the industry for the forecast period 2017 - 2022 is evaluated on the basis of current sales figures and past financial report can be used to forecast the future sales.There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the North America Drip Coffee Makers market.The report is distributed over 15 Chapters to display the analysis of the North America Drip Coffee Makers market.Chapter 1 covers the Drip Coffee Makers Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2 talks about the top manufacturers and analyses their sales, revenue and pricing decisions for the duration 2017 and 2022;Chapter 3 displays the competitive nature of the market by discussing the competition among the top manufacturers. It dissects the market using sales, revenue and market share data for 2017 and 2022;Chapter 4, shows the North America market by regions and the proportionate size of each market region based on sales, revenue and market share of Drip Coffee Makers, for the period 2017- 2022;Continue...Browse the full Report@Follow Link Twitter:Follow Link LinkedIn:Follow Link Google Plus:Follow Link Facebook:About US:Planning to invest in market intelligence products or offerings on the web? Then marketexpertz has just the thing for you - reports from over 500 prominent publishers and updates on our collection daily to empower companies and individuals catch-up with the vital insights on industries operating across different geography, trends, share, size and growth rate. There's more to what we offer to our customers. With marketexpertz you have the choice to tap into the specialized services without any additional charges.Contact US:40 Wall St. 28th floor New York City,NY 10005 United Statessales@marketexpertz.com+1-800-819-3052Global Password Management Software Market SWOT Analysis, Benefits, Forthcoming Developments, Outlook, Research & Future Investments to 2022

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A password manager is a software application that helps users to organize and manage their passwords. Password management is not just beneficial for individuals but also for enterprises. Often companies require that the passwords are reset after regular intervals which may be tedious for some employees.Global Password Management Software Market Research Report to its vast depository. The report serves as a professional study, which provides a detailed analysis of production and demand/supply of the global market. It offers intuitions into all the vital aspects of the market, including its dynamics, application and geographical segmentation, and competitive landscape.Get Sample copy of this Report @:The report covers all the major trends and technologies playing a major role in the market growth over the forecast period. 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Besides this, information is obtained from their financial reports and strategies they adopted over the last couple of years.The stages of development of Password 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.Table of ContentsGlobal Password Management Software Market Research ReportChapter 1 Password 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 Password Management Software Market ForecastAbout IT Intelligence Markets: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 relentlesslyfor obtaining the most updated scenario of the market.Contact:Vijay TannaIt Intelligence MarketsSurvey No-9/4, Flat# 6, Panchshil Park, Ganpati Marg, Nigidi, Pune 411044sales@itintelligencemarkets.comContact No: +91 705-760-0700Global cloud-based digital asset management (DAM) market will grow significantly at a CAGR of +21% during forecast period 2017-2021

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Global cloud-based digital asset management (DAM) market will grow significantly at a CAGR of +21%.A key factor driving the growth prospects for this market is the recent shift from on premise to software-as-a-service (SaaS). Recently, it has been observed that many vendors have started moving from on premise to cloud-based solutions that offer drag-and-drop functionality, mobile accessibility, and intuitive services. 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(U.S.), Widen (U.S.), Bynder (Netherlands), Northplains (Canada), Mediavalet, Inc. (Canada), and Cognizant (U.S.).The report presents a thorough analytical overview of the past and present state of the market and, with the help of present data, trends, competition, and regulatory framework gives a forward-looking perspective of the way the market will develop over the course of the next few years. Along with qualitative and qualitative details pertaining to the markets key elements, an overview of the chief macro and micro economic factors that will enable companies to the market to surmount competition are also examined in great details.The global Cloud-Based Digital Asset Management market is gaining pace and industry have started understanding the benefits of analytics in the present day highly dynamic environment. The market has witnessed several important developments over the past few years, with mounting volumes of data and the shift from traditional analysis platforms to self-service analytics being some of the most prominent ones.Get Sample Copy of this Report:This study report on global Cloud-Based Digital Asset Management market throws light on the crucial trends and dynamics impacting the development of the market, including the restraints, drivers, and opportunities. The report talks about the competitive environment prevailing in the Cloud-Based Digital Asset Management market worldwide. The report lists the key players in the market and also provides insightful information about them such as their business overview, product segmentation, and revenue segmentation. Further, the report studies the market share held by the key players and forecast their growth during the next couple of years. The report also looks at the latest developments among the key players in the Cloud-Based Digital Asset Management market such as partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions.For more information/ Ask your queries:Table of Contents:Global Cloud-Based Digital Asset Management Market Research Report 2017-2021Chapter 1 Cloud-Based Digital Asset Management Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic ImpactChapter 3 Competition by ManufacturersChapter 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 (2017-2021)Chapter 13 AppendixBrowse the entire report in detail on the below link:About 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.Contact us:Mr. Sunny DenisContact No. +1-888-631-6977sales@researchnreports.com(ResearchnReports)Metalworking Machinery Manufacturing 2018 Global Industry Key Players - TRUMPF Group, Amada Co Ltd, Kennametal Inc, Komatsu Ltd Market Analysis And Forecast To 2023

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Global Metalworking Machinery Manufacturing MarketMetalworking Machinery Manufacturing Market Global Report 2018 from The Business Research Company provides the strategists, marketers and senior management with the critical information they need to assess the global metalworking machinery manufacturing market.Request a Sample Report @Reasons to PurchaseReasons to Purchase Outperform competitors using accurate up to date demand-side dynamics information. Identify growth segments for investment. Facilitate decision making on the basis of historic and forecast data and the drivers and restraints on the market. Create regional and country strategies on the basis of local data and analysis. Stay abreast of the latest customer and market research findings Benchmark performance against key competitors. Develop strategies based on likely future developments. Utilize the relationships between key data sets for superior strategizing. Suitable for supporting your internal and external presentations with reliable high quality data and analysis Gain a global perspective on the development of the market. Report will be updated with the latest data and delivered to you within 3-5 working days of order.Description:Where is the largest and fastest growing market for the metalworking machinery manufacturing? How does the market relate to the overall economy, demography and other similar markets? What forces will shape the market going forward? The metalworking machinery manufacturing market global report from the Business Research Company answers all these questions and many more.The report covers market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional and country breakdowns, competitive landscape, market shares, trends and strategies for this market. It traces the markets historic and forecast market growth by geography. It places the market within the context of the wider Machinery Manufacturing market, and compares it with other markets. The market characteristics section of the report defines and explains the market. The market size section gives the market size ($b) covering both the historic growth of the market and forecasting the future. Drivers and restraints looks at the external factors supporting and controlling the growth of the market. Market segmentations break down market into sub markets. The regional and country breakdowns section gives an analysis of the market in each geography and the size of the market by geography and compares their historic and forecast growth. It covers all the regions, key developed countries and major emerging markets. It draws comparisons with country populations and economies to understand the importance of the market by country and how this is changing. Competitive landscape gives a description of the competitive nature of the market, market shares, and a description of the leading companies. Key financial deals which have shaped the market in recent years are identified. The trends and strategies section highlights the likely future developments in the market and suggests approaches companies can take to exploit this. The metalworking machinery manufacturing market section of the report gives context. It compares the metalworking machinery manufacturing market with other segments of the Machinery Manufacturing market by size and growth, historic and forecast. It analyses Expenditure Per Capita, The Metalworking Machinery Manufacturing Indicators Comparison.Complete Report Details @ScopeMarkets Covered: Special Die and Tool, Die Set, Jig, and Fixture Manufacturing; Machine Tool Manufacturing; Industrial Mold Manufacturing; Rolling Mill and Other Metalworking Machinery Manufacturing; Cutting Tool and Machine Tool Accessory ManufacturingCompanies Mentioned: TRUMPF Group, Amada Co Ltd, Kennametal Inc, Komatsu Ltd, Okuma CorporationCountries: Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, Russia, UK, USA and Australia.Regions: Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East And AfricaTime series: Five years historic and forecast.Data: Ratios of market size and growth to related markets, GDP, Expenditure Per Capita, The Metalworking Machinery Manufacturing Indicators Comparison.Data segmentations: country and regional historic and forecast data, market share of competitors, market segments.Sourcing and Referencing: Data and analysis throughout the report is sourced using end notes.Metalworking Machinery Manufacturing Market CharacteristicsMetalworking Machinery Manufacturing Market Size And Growth2.1. Historic Market Growth, Value ($ Billion) and Volume (Million Units)2.1.1. Drivers Of The Market2.1.2. Restraints On The Market2.2. Forecast Market Growth, Value ($ Billion)2.2.1. Drivers Of The Market2.2.2. Restraints On The Market;Metalworking Machinery Manufacturing Trends And Strategies;Pestle Analysis4.1. Political4.2. Economic4.3. Social4.4. Technological4.5. Legal4.6. Environmental;Continued..Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaCore HR Software Market - Detailed Analysis and Forecast 2017-2025

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Global Core HR Software Market: OverviewAlso known as human resource (HR) information systems (HRIS), core HR software consist of a central record system that can store employee data such as benefits and payroll information. HR managers engage such software to report key trends of their organization and track employee records. Without interrupting the workflow of HR department, employees can update their corporate information with self-service options of core HR software. In order to improve their value across various HR functions, companies adopting the software could integrate them with third-party HR applications and incorporate them in integrated HR management suite.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Core HR Software Market: Key TrendsThe world core HR software market is prognosticated to receive a strong impetus from numerous factors such as increasing adoption of automation for executing HR processes and furtherance in mobile and cloud deployment. Participants wanting to establish their position in the world core HR software market could find lucrative opportunities from several verticals boosting growth, such as healthcare, consumer goods and retail, energy and utilities, manufacturing, and government. Out of all these verticals and more, the government vertical is anticipated to secure a larger market size during the course of the forecast period.Vendors offering a single point of contact and range of services, including on-premise deployment or deployment on the cloud, for companies to perform different business activities are expected to operate on the greener pastures of the world core HR software market. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) could provide significant opportunities for growth in the world core HR software market on account of their augmenting investments in business software and need to adopt quick and efficient strategies for securing business growth. Vendors looking to increase demand in the world core HR software market are predicted to capitalize on the requirement of SMEs to ease resource crunch and improve cost optimization.Request TOC of the Report @Global Core HR Software Market: Market PotentialApproximately 23,000 employees at Life Care Services will be using the Oracle HCM Cloud human resource management software in a couple of phases, i.e. November 2017 and January 2018. A highlight global feature of Oracle HCM Cloud assists HR departments to administer employee payroll in several countries. However, the software also includes other vital core HR functions. Life Care Services expects to enhance its data and scale integrity by integrating functions presently managed by a set of diverse HR products. The company thinks the move to replace its Oracle on-premises software and other bolt-on systems will prove to be a game changer for keeping ahead of competitors in the industry.Global Core HR Software Market: Regional OutlookNorth America is prophesied to win the race of achieving a higher share in the international core HR software market during the forecast period. The dominance of the North America core HR software market could be attributed to a telling adoption of cloud platforms, smartphones, and newer technologies. Most emerging players making a mark in the core HR software market for North America are envisaged to achieve success by meeting the requirements of HR professionals by offering flexible, customized, and differentiated products. Other regions that could be important for the growth of the international core HR software market are Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Core HR Software Market: Competitive LandscapeWith a view to extend their offerings in the worldwide core HR software market, industry players are envisioned to take to inorganic and organic growth strategies that include acquisitions and mergers, collaborations and partnerships, and new product launches. Some of the major companies projected to impact the worldwide core HR software market could be IBM Corporation, EmployWise, CoreHR, Ceridian HCM, Inc., and ADP.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comBlood Group Typing Market - Impressive Pace of Growth during 2017 - 2025

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Global Blood Group Typing Market: OverviewBlood group typing consists of various methods and techniques that are used to detect the group of blood. The correct and reliable grouping of blood is vital to fulfil a variety of clinical ends, especially for safe blood transfusion and in organ donation processes. In recent years, there have been marked developments in the conventional detection methods. Constant technological advancements in microarray, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and other assay-based techniques have improved detection methods. As a result, the market has seen the advent of high-throughput devices that enable clinicians in multiplexed and quantitative detection of various blood group antigens. Advanced methods such as quantum dots (QDs) and magnetic beads in assays improve identification and enhance clinical safety of blood transfusion.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Blood Group Typing Market: Key TrendsThe rising number of blood donations and increasing number of patients needing transfusion due to accidents and trauma are the primary factors driving the blood group typing market. The growing demand for blood group typing for pregnancy and prenatal testing has boosted the market. Blood typing is also crucial to detect the condition of hemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN) in pregnant women, thereby stimulating the demand for such tests. Increasing application of blood group typing in forensic sciences is further expected to catalyze the market growth.The advent of novel molecular diagnostic tools that help in reliable and rapid identification of group in a large blood samples is expected to provide abundant opportunities to market players. For instance, the molecular genotyping of ABO blood groups in large populations can be accomplished with the help of these methods.Request TOC of the Report @Global Blood Group Typing Market: Market PotentialA recent clinical study published in International Journal of Nanomedicine reveals that scientists have developed a novel multiplexed method for the identification of ABO blood groups. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, a prominent military institution of higher learning in China. Researchers conducting the study, quantified blood group A and B antigens with QD fluorescence assay (QFA). The assay integrates the traditional QD labeling with magnetic beads to make high throughput and quantitative method for rapid detection of antigens present in the ABO blood groups of fairly large volume populations. The scientists evaluated the efficacy of the method by testing the blood samples for 791 people and they confirmed that the accuracy was 100%; in addition, they asserted that when the conditions were optimized, even detection in weak samples produced satisfactory results.An estimate by the researchers states that the multiplexed detection can be completed within the short span of 35 minutes with over 105 RBCs (red blood cells). This study holds marked significance for blood transfusion safety. The findings of the study show promising prospect for the blood group typing market, since the testing process can be used to devise an effective clinical strategy to improvise on the identification methods for ABO blood groups.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Blood Group Typing Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, North America is a prominent market for blood group typing devices and consumables. The regional market is expected to witness substantial growth in the coming years. The growth of the market is attributed to the constant technological advancements in PCR and assays for blood grouping leading to the design of cost-effective and novel blood-grouping platforms.Meanwhile, Asia Pacific is expected to provide lucrative avenues over the forecast period from 2017 to 2025. The impressive pace of growth of the Asia Pacific market for blood group typing is driven by some promising clinical studies in high throughput devices, increasing healthcare spending, and the growing number of blood transfusions.Global Blood Group Typing Market: Competitive AnalysisSeveral players are making innovations in their offerings and using advanced technologies to discover novel methods for blood group typing. Key companies operating in the blood group typing market are Novacyt Group, Day medical SA, Rapid Labs, Quotient, Ltd., AXO Science, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Inc. Immucor, Inc., and Grifols, S.A.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comHospital Lighting Market - Significant Opportunities for Players 2017 - 2025

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Global Hospital Lighting Market: OverviewLighting in healthcare plays a critical role not only in enhancing the patient experience but also in improving the healthcare staffs ability of catering to the various levels of care required by the patients. As a result, the global market for hospital lighting is likely to reach new heights.By application, the global hospital lighting market can be segmented into dentistry, operating room, doctors offices, kitchen, maternity ward, patient rooms, laboratory, library, bathrooms, first aid ward, corridors and staircases, and waiting areas. Based on technology, the LED, CFL, florescent, and renewable energy. By product, the global market for hospital lighting systems can be segmented into surgical lights, surface-mounted lights, and troffers.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Hospital Lighting Market: Key TrendsSince good illumination ensures the safety of patients, allows smoother operation of activities, creates an amiable environment, and promotes a sense of well-being among the patients, the global healthcare lighting market holds vast potential for growth. The LED lighting is expected to emerge as the leading segment by technology, thanks to the growing deployment of LED based fixtures across various parts of hospitals.The florescent lighting systems are also gaining traction. They are being increasingly installed across hospitals by virtue of their relatively lower costs and power saving capabilities. By product, troffers are likely to claim the largest share in the global market for hospital lighting. By application, the patients wards segment might represent the largest share in the global market for hospital lighting.Global Hospital Lighting Market: Market PotentialEnhancement of user experience is increasingly being acknowledged by some leading hospitals. For instance, the new Beacon Childrens Hospital in South Bend (US), features a two-story atrium that has pleasant, soft-green lights. These firefly lights give a splendid appearance to the entire ambience of the hospital. The nature and healing theme of the hospital is designed to aid patients recover faster. With a forest mural, interactive games, and tree sculptures along with these lights, the hospital aims at boosting interaction between fellow patients, staff, family, and the physical space itself. The hospital welcomed its first patients in May 2017.Request TOC of the Report @The global market for hospital lighting has been witnessing collaborations, partnerships, and mergers. For instance, an emerging non-profit, Market Driven Community Corporation (MDCC) made an announcement in April 2017 pertaining to its signing a contract for installing LED lighting systems at Rochester General Hospital (New York, US).Global Hospital Lighting Market: Regional OutlookThe global market for hospital lighting can be segmented into Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and North America. North America currently holds the dominant position in the global market for hospital lighting. Beneficial government initiatives and technological advancements in the area of lighting solutions have been the key factors driving the growth of the market.The countries such as India, China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan are witnessing an increase in the number of hospitals. This can create significant opportunities for the growth of the market. The expanding healthcare infrastructure in Asia Pacific and growing preference for efficient lighting solutions in the region have also been accelerating the expansion of the hospital lighting market in the region. The Middle East and Africa and Latin America are also bursting forth with opportunities.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Hospital Lighting Market: Competitive AnalysisKoninklijke Philips N.V., Acuity Brands Lighting Inc., KLS Martin Group, Eaton Corporation PLC, Hubbell Incorporated, General Electric Company, Cree Inc., Zumtobel Group AG, and Trilux Lighting Ltd are some of the leading companies operating in the global market for hospital lighting.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comMammography Market - Rising Number of Breast Cancer Cases 2017 - 2025

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Global Mammography Market: OverviewThe global mammography market is growing at a significant pace, owing to the increasing cancer cases worldwide. The key players in the market, government organizations, and NGOs are making notable efforts to create an awareness and offer treatment to patients, which is expected to enhance the growth of the market in the near future. Thus, the market is likely to register a strong growth rate in the forecast period.Global Mammography Market: Key TrendsThe high prevalence of breast cancer worldwide and the rising number of innovations concerning screening and diagnostics are estimated to offer lucrative opportunities for key players operating in the market. The improving healthcare facilities in the developing economies are projected to supplement the markets growth in the coming years. Furthermore, governments across the globe are making efforts to provide treatments at low cost in order to reach a large number of audience in the near future.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Mammography Market: Market PotentialTechnological advancements in the healthcare sector and the emergence of innovative devices and effective therapeutics are the key factors projected to fuel the growth of the global mammography market throughout the forecast period. In addition to this, the rising number of cancer cases across the globe is expected to accelerate the growth of the overall market in the near future.On the other hand, the lack of awareness among patients in several developing economies and the high cost of treatment are estimated to curb the growth of the global mammography market in the next few years. Nonetheless, the use of digital mammography devices is predicted to generate promising growth opportunities for the key players in the market.Global Mammography Market: Regional OutlookIn the previous years, the North America market for mammography held a major share of the global market and is estimated to retain its position over the forecast period. The rising number of breast cancer cases and the increasing women population are the key factors anticipated to encourage the development of the North America market in the coming years. In addition, the availability of advanced therapeutics and healthcare infrastructure are predicted to accelerate the markets growth in the near future.Request TOC of the Report @On the other hand, the development of the economy and the rising popularity of medical tourism are projected to augment the growth of the Asia Pacific market in the next few years. The increasing contribution from China and India and the rising awareness among patients are predicted to supplement the markets growth in the forecast period. Moreover, the favorable government initiatives and the enhancement of the healthcare sector are likely to contribute towards the growth of the Asia Pacific market in the near future.Global Mammography Market: Competitive AnalysisThe global market is projected to grow progressive throughout the forecast period. The rising emphasis of the leading players on introducing new therapeutics and devices to offer enhanced products to patients is likely to encourage the growth of the overall market in the coming years. As a result, several new players are predicted to participate in the market in order to create a brand name across the globe.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Some of the leading players operating in the mammography market across the globe are I.M.S. Srl, GE Healthcare, Hologic, Planmed Oy, Phillips Healthcare, Fujifilm, Siemens Healthcare, Mindray Medical International Limited, Toshiba Medical Systems, and Metaltronica. The research study provides a detailed overview of the competitive landscape and throws light on the key strategies and policies that have been adopted by them in order to sustain in the global market.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comHigh-resolution Melting Analysis Market - Robust Adoption of Advanced Technology 2017 - 2025

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Global High-resolution Melting Analysis Market: OverviewHigh resolution melting analysis is a powerful and strong methodology in molecular biology for the purpose of detecting epigenetic differences, polymorphisms, and mutations in double-stranded DNA samples. It was first discovered and developed by the Idaho Technology and University of Utah. High resolution melting analysis has several advantages over genotyping technologies such as cost effectiveness, it is powerful and fast as compared to genotyping technologies, and it is comparatively simple. Based on products and services, the global high-resolution melting analysis market can be segmented into software and services, consumables and reagents, and instruments. In terms of application, it can be segmented into epigenetics, pathogen identification, species identification, mutation scanning, and SNP genotyping.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The global market for high-resolution melting analysis is likely to have a fruitful future owing to ongoing research and developments in this field sponsored by several leading companies operating in this particular field. For instance, FDA in the U.S. approves many treatments which are made for addressing a specific genomic profile or genetic makeup of the tumor of the patient.Global High-resolution Melting Analysis Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe prime factors that are boosting the growth of the market comprise the growing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, COPD, chronic diseases such as cancer, and other different infectious diseases. The prime benefits associated with high-resolution melting analysis are optimization of therapies, patient compliance, drug safety, cost savings on several treatments, and disease diagnosis. In return, these are also expected to propel the demand for DNA testing services. Moreover, rising awareness pertaining to the applications of high resolution melting analysis technologies for HLA typing, mutation discovery, and DNA mapping are additional aspects that are anticipated to propel the growth of the high-resolution melting analysis market during the forecast period. High resolution melting analysis is a technology employed for assessing melting curve plots of amplified gene. This particular technology is basically used for gene mutation scanning, microbial species identification, methylation profiling, and other different diagnostics based on PCR. Thus, mutation scanning and other applications are likely to gain prominence over time owing to rising prevalence of advancements in technology of molecular biology, genetic disorders, and growing awareness pertaining to SNP typing.Request TOC of the Report @Global High-resolution Melting Analysis Market: Market PotentialGrowing government budget provision for research and development in the field of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and applied life sciences is a crucial factor heightening the demand for numerous diagnostic techniques and tools. For instance, in 2015, the Obama led administration announced the introduction of the Precision Medicine Initiative with a huge investment of US$216 mn in the Presidents budget of 2016. This initiative is further expected to have positive impact on the growth of the high resolution melting analysis market.Global High-resolution Melting Analysis Market: Regional OverviewRegion-wise, the market can be segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Rest of the World. North America is expected to perform extremely owing to factors such as robust adoption of advanced technology in healthcare, numerous genetic testing centers, strong biotech and pharmaceutical industry, prevalence many academic universities, and high prevalence of diseases. Asia Pacific has also been identified as one of the potential regions where the market can grow steadily owing to dynamics such as rising prevalence of chronic diseases such as HIV, COPD, and cancer, growing cases of genetic disorders, and rising private and public expenditure on genetic testing and molecular diagnostic.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global High-resolution Melting Analysis Market: Competitive LandscapeThe top drawer companies operating in the market are Thermo Fisher Scientific, Kapa Biosystems, Idaho Technology Corporation, and Roche Molecular Systems.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comOffshore Decommissioning Market - Rising Use of Techniques during 2017 - 2025

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Global Offshore Decommissioning Market: OverviewOffshore decommissioning is the process of disassembling offshore oil platforms, which also includes burying the holes drilled into the ground for exploration and extraction purposes. Mature oil platforms can have an adverse impact on the surrounding environment, which necessitates their removal. The global offshore decommissioning market is likely to remain a key sector of the global oil and gas industry in the coming years, as the latter is likely to emphasize increasingly on offshore petroleum extraction. Well plugging and abandonment is likely to remain the key segment of the global offshore decommissioning market in the coming years, with the extensive scale of the operation key in ensuring a steady dominant share for the segment in the global market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Offshore Decommissioning Market: Key TrendsThe global offshore decommissioning market is likely to exhibit steady growth in the coming years due to the rising number of mature oilfields, which no longer remain commercially viable. The high number of aging platforms in shallow water is also likely to remain a key driver for the global offshore decommissioning market in the coming years.On the other hand, the high cost of offshore decommissioning projects could hinder the growth of the global offshore decommissioning market. Due to the large scale of offshore oil and gas platforms, significant expenditure needs to be dedicated for effective offshore decommissioning projects. Since the expenses go toward removing a nonfunctional asset rather than expanding the existing capacity, many players in the global oil and gas industry have remained reluctant about offshore decommissioning. The technology required to carry out offshore decommissioning efficiently are also lacking in several regions, as is systemic support from the regulatory framework. This is also likely to restrain the global offshore decommissioning market in the coming years.The rising use of techniques to maximize and prolong the viability of oilfields is also likely to restrain the growth of the global offshore decommissioning market in the coming years. Refilling and other techniques can help extend the operational lifespan of oilfield by a few years, and result in further profits for the oil and gas operator. This remains a key challenge for the offshore decommissioning market in the coming years, as offshore decommissioning remains unprofitable both economically as well as logistically compared to these techniques.Request TOC of the Report @Global Offshore Decommissioning Market: Market PotentialOil and gas operations in the North Sea are likely to be vital to the global offshore decommissioning market in the coming years. The U.K. and Norway are among the leading oil producers operating in the North Sea and are likely to remain among the key consumers of offshore decommissioning technology in the coming years. As a result, Europe is likely to be the leading regional offshore decommissioning market over the coming years.Global Offshore Decommissioning Market: Geographical DynamicsFollowing Europe, North America is also likely to retain a significant share in the global offshore decommissioning market due primarily to the rising role of the U.S. in the global oil and gas sector. The U.S. has traditionally been a major player in the oil and gas industry and is a leading operator of offshore oilfields at present. The rising prominence of Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia in the global oil and gas sector is also likely to drive the Asia Pacific market for offshore decommissioning in the coming years.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Offshore Decommissioning Market: Competitive DynamicsThe leading players in the global offshore decommissioning market include AF Gruppen ASA, Amec Foster Wheeler Plc, John Wood Group Plc, Ramboll Group, Aker Solutions ASA, and Tetra Technologies Inc.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comPharmaceutical Packaging Equipment Market - Competitive Analysis and Forecast 2017-2025

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Pharmaceutical Packaging Equipment Market: OverviewThe global pharmaceutical packaging equipment market is estimated to witness a healthy growth in the coming years. Some of the key factors encouraging the growth of the market include cost containment in pharmaceuticals, rise in the funding for generics, and growing investments in biopharmaceutical research. The technological advancements in labeling and serialization solutions are anticipated to boost the growth of the global pharmaceutical packaging equipment market. Rising emphasis on labeling and serialization to counter the problem of counterfeiting of medicines will fuel the demand for pharmaceutical packaging equipment. The market however faces one challenge. The threat from being substituted by refurbished packaging equipment is present in the market. Refurbished packaging equipment is a viable alternative to new packaging equipment, which costs high. This is likely to restrain the growth of the market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Pharmaceutical Packaging Equipment Market: Key TrendsSome of thy key trends observed in the market are increasing investments in the manufacturing sector by players and consistent technological innovation taking place in the global pharmaceutical packaging equipment market. The flourishing pharmaceutical industry is directly responsible for the growth of the pharmaceutical packaging equipment market. Rising incidences of diseases and infections are pushing the pharmaceutical industry to grow, which in turn is pushing the demand for pharmaceutical packaging equipment. The market for pharmaceutical packaging equipment is especially slated to witness a high growth in developing nations such as China and India as these countries do not have high import duties. The need for inexpensive manufacturing facilities is making developing nations in Asia Pacific, a potential market for pharmaceutical packaging equipment.Request TOC of the Report @Pharmaceutical Packaging Equipment Market: Market PotentialPackaging of pharmaceutical product is extremely vital for the pharmaceutical industry as packaging enables safety and quality of drugs. Thus, there will always be a demand for pharmaceutical packaging equipment in the pharma industry. In contrast with conventional packaging systems, pharmaceutical packaging equipment are automated, modern, and flexible, including primary packaging and secondary equipment, and labeling and serialization equipment. This helps in reducing the time for packaging, boosting production.Companies such as Robert Bosch Gmbh participate in innovation and develop new products, which is creating a positive outlook for the market. The company recently launched a new Sigpack VPF vertical flat pouch machine and also a HML horizontal flow wrapping machine. The former is developed to pack powders by producing sachets that can pack pain killers in powder form. The machines enables the production of sealed packages and can fill up to 1500 sachets per minute.Pharmaceutical Packaging Equipment Market: Regional OutlookThe report segments the global pharmaceutical packaging equipment market on the basis of geography into Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. North America led in the global pharmaceutical packaging equipment market on account of advancements in the pharmaceutical industry and economic growth of the region. The patent expirations of a number of drugs will also help the market in the region to grow.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Pharmaceutical Packaging Equipment Market: Competitive LandscapeThe global pharmaceutical packaging equipment market is highly fragmented. The market is characterized by the presence of several local, regional, and multinational players. Some of the players in the market are: IMA S.p.A. (Italy), Robert Bosch GmbH (Germany), Korber AG (Germany), Multivac Group (Germany), Marchesini Group S.p.A. (Italy), Romaco Pharmatechnik GmbH (Germany), and OPTIMA Packaging Group GmbH (Germany). Key players in the market are striving for innovation so as to maintain their shares in the competitive market.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comDental Unit Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2018  2025

Global Dental Unit Industry

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Global Dental Unit IndustryLatest Report on Dental Unit Market Global Analysis & 2022 Forecast Research StudyGeographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Dental Unit in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Dental Unit market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingSironaA-decPlanmeca OyCefla DentalKaVO DentalOsada-electricShinhung Co., Ltd.YoshidaMORITATakara BelmontQuen Lin InstrumentKuang Yeu MedicalSinolJoin ChampFonaSigerRunyesBeingAjaxDingrui Medical TreatmentFoshan AnleHiwonHongke Medical InstrumentTry Sample Report @On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoHigh-classMiddleLow-endOn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, includingGeneral HospitalDental ClinicSome points from table of content:Global Dental Unit Market Research Report 20171 Dental Unit Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Dental Unit1.2 Dental Unit Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Dental Unit Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Dental Unit Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 High-class1.2.4 Middle1.2.5 Low-end1.3 Global Dental Unit Segment by Application1.3.1 Dental Unit Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 General Hospital1.3.3 Dental Clinic1.4 Global Dental Unit Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Dental Unit Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Dental Unit (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Dental Unit Revenue Status and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Dental Unit Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2012-2022)2 Global Dental Unit Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Dental Unit Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global Dental Unit Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Dental Unit Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Dental Unit Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global Dental Unit Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers Dental Unit Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Dental Unit Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Dental Unit Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Dental Unit Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, ExpansionFor Detailed Reading Please visit WiseGuy Reports @3 Global Dental Unit Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Dental Unit Capacity and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Dental Unit Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Dental Unit Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.4 Global Dental Unit Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.5 North America Dental Unit Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.6 Europe Dental Unit Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.7 China Dental Unit Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.8 Japan Dental Unit Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.9 Southeast Asia Dental Unit Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.10 India Dental Unit Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)4 Global Dental Unit Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)4.1 Global Dental Unit Consumption by Region (2012-2017)4.2 North America Dental Unit Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.3 Europe Dental Unit Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.4 China Dental Unit Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.5 Japan Dental Unit Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.6 Southeast Asia Dental Unit Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.7 India Dental Unit Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)5 Global Dental Unit Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Dental Unit Production and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.2 Global Dental Unit Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.3 Global Dental Unit Price by Type (2012-2017)5.4 Global Dental Unit Production Growth by Type (2012-2017)Continued.For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comAbout UsWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available.Contact Us:Norah Trent+1 646 845 9349 / +44 208 133 9349Follow on LinkedIn:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdPune  411028Maharashtra,Ph: +91 841 198 5042Almond Global Market Top Key Players  Wonderful Pistachios & Almonds , Blue Diamond , Panoche Creek Packing , Spycher Brothers , Select Harvest and Forecast to 2021

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Global Almond MarketWiseGuyRerports.com Presents Global Almond Market Report 2017 New Document to its Studies Database. The Report Contain 126 Pages With Detailed Analysis.DescriptionWith the slowdown in world economic growth, the Almond industry has also suffered a certain impact, but still maintained a relatively optimistic growth, the past four years, Almond market size to maintain the average annual growth rate of 1.63% from 824 million $ in 2013 to 865 million $ in 2016, Bis Report analysts believe that in the next few years, Almond market size will be further expanded, we expect that by 2021 , The market size of the Almond will reach 934 million $.This Report covers the manufacturers data, including: shipment, price, revenue, gross profit, interview record, business distribution etc., these data help the consumer know about the competitors better. This report also covers all the regions and countries of the world, which shows a regional development status, including market size, volume and value, as well as price data.Get sample Report @Besides, the report also covers segment data, including: type segment, industry segment, channel segment etc. cover different segment market size, both volume and value. Also cover different industries clients information, which is very important for the manufacturers. If you need more information, please contact Bis ReportSection 1: FreeDefinitionSection (2 3): 1200 USDManufacturer DetailWonderful Pistachios & AlmondsBlue DiamondPanoche Creek PackingSpycher BrothersSelect HarvestMariani Nut CompanyWaterford Nut CoTreehouseBelehris EstatesCalifornia Gold AlmondsHilltop RanchThe Almond CompanyD.V.EnterpriseHarris Woolf California AlmondsPatrocinio LaxSran Family OrchardsSection 4: 900 USDRegion SegmentationNorth America Country (United States, Canada)South AmericaAsia Country (China, Japan, India, Korea)Europe Country (Germany, UK, France, Italy)Other Country (Middle East, Africa, GCC)Section (5 6 7): 500 USDProduct Type Segmentation (Shelled Type, Inshell Type, , , )Industry Segmentation (Direct Edible, Food Processing, Kitchen Ingredients, , )Channel (Direct Sales, Distributor) SegmentationSection 8: 400 USDTrend (2017-2021)Section 9: 300 USDProduct Type DetailSection 10: 700 USDDownstream ConsumerSection 11: 200 USDCost StructureSection 12: 500 USDConclusionComplete Report Details @Table of Contents -Major Key PointsSection 1 Almond Product DefinitionSection 2 Global Almond Market Manufacturer Share and Market Overview2.1 Global Manufacturer Almond Shipments2.2 Global Manufacturer Almond Business Revenue2.3 Global Almond Market OverviewSection 3 Manufacturer Almond Business Introduction3.1 Wonderful Pistachios & Almonds Almond Business Introduction3.1.1 Wonderful Pistachios & Almonds Almond Shipments, Price, Revenue and Gross profit 2013-20163.1.2 Wonderful Pistachios & Almonds Almond Business Distribution by Region3.1.3 Wonderful Pistachios & Almonds Interview Record3.1.4 Wonderful Pistachios & Almonds Almond Business Profile3.1.5 Wonderful Pistachios & Almonds Almond Product Specification3.2 Blue Diamond Almond Business Introduction3.2.1 Blue Diamond Almond Shipments, Price, Revenue and Gross profit 2013-20163.2.2 Blue Diamond Almond Business Distribution by Region3.2.3 Interview Record3.2.4 Blue Diamond Almond Business Overview3.2.5 Blue Diamond Almond Product Specification3.3 Panoche Creek Packing Almond Business Introduction3.3.1 Panoche Creek Packing Almond Shipments, Price, Revenue and Gross profit 2013-20163.3.2 Panoche Creek Packing Almond Business Distribution by Region3.3.3 Interview Record3.3.4 Panoche Creek Packing Almond Business Overview3.3.5 Panoche Creek Packing Almond Product Specification3.4 Spycher Brothers Almond Business Introduction3.5 Select Harvest Almond Business Introduction3.6 Mariani Nut Company Almond Business IntroductionSection 4 Global Almond Market Segmentation (Region Level)4.1 North America Country4.1.1 United States Almond Market Size and Price Analysis 2013-20164.1.2 Canada Almond Market Size and Price Analysis 2013-20164.2 South America Country4.2.1 South America Almond Market Size and Price Analysis 2013-20164.3 Asia Country4.3.1 China Almond Market Size and Price Analysis 2013-20164.3.2 Japan Almond Market Size and Price Analysis 2013-20164.3.3 India Almond Market Size and Price Analysis 2013-20164.3.4 Korea Almond Market Size and Price Analysis 2013-20164.4 Europe Country4.4.1 Germany Almond Market Size and Price Analysis 2013-20164.4.2 UK Almond Market Size and Price Analysis 2013-20164.4.3 France Almond Market Size and Price Analysis 2013-20164.4.4 Italy Almond Market Size and Price Analysis 2013-20164.4.5 Europe Almond Market Size and Price Analysis 2013-20164.5 Other Country and Region4.5.1 Middle East Almond Market Size and Price Analysis 2013-20164.5.2 Africa Almond Market Size and Price Analysis 2013-20164.5.3 GCC Almond Market Size and Price Analysis 2013-20164.6 Three Global Almond Market Segmentation (Region Level) Analysis 2013-20164.7 Global Almond Market Segmentation (Region Level) AnalysisSection 5 Global Almond Market Segmentation (Product Type Level)5.1 Global Almond Market Segmentation (Product Type Level) Market Size 2013-20165.2 Different Almond Product Type Price 2013-20165.3 Global Almond Market Segmentation (Product Type Level) Analysis..CONTINUEDAbout UsWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, Industry research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available.NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Micro-Miniature Co-axial Adapter Market Volume Forecast and Value Chain Analysis 2015-2025

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Micro-Miniature Coaxial Adapter Market: OverviewMicro-miniature coaxial (MMCX) adapter provides an interface between dissimilar radio frequency based components which are to be connected. These adapters prove useful while connecting unlike cables and equipment. Micro- miniature coaxial adapters are at about 50% the size of the SMB adapters, thus offering a compact solution to space critical radio frequency (RF) applications. Moreover, the micro-miniature coaxial adapters have high density and are lightweight in comparison with other adapters in the same domain. Micro-miniature coaxial connectors and adapters comply with European CECC 22000 specifications. This is handy tool to solve all interconnection problems in wireless, broadband and testing applications in RF and microwave industry.Request For Report Sample:Micro-Miniature Coaxial Adapter: Market SegmentationMicro-miniature coaxial adapter market is classified on the basis of type, vertical, application area and region. On the basis of type, micro-miniature coaxial adapters can be segmented into MMCX to AMC, MMCX to MMCX, MMCX to N, MMCX to SMA, MMCX to BNC and MMCX to MCX. These adapter types can be further sub-segmented according to their gender design jack to jack, jack to plug, plug to jack and plug to plug. On the basis of vertical, the micro-miniature coaxial adapter market can be segmented into sector, healthcare sector, manufacturing sector, public sector and other. On the basis of application area, the micro-miniature coaxial adapter market can be segmented into test & measurement equipment, antenna mounts, panel transitions, radio boards and system bulkhead applications. Region wise, micro-miniature coaxial adapter marketis segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), and Middle East and Africa (MEA). Among all the regions, APEJ is expected to create huge market opportunity for major players operating in the Micro-miniature coaxial adapter marketduring the forecast period.Micro-Miniature Coaxial Adapter Market: DriversEver increasing popularity of smart and inter-connected devices in personal as well as professional usage is expected to be the key driver for the global micro-miniature coaxial adapter market during the forecast period. Also, further enhancement in wireless and radio frequency communication technologies will further support the micro-miniature coaxial adapter market globally.Micro-Miniature Coaxial Adapter Market: RestraintsLack of awareness across industries especially in emerging markets such as India, Africa, Brazil and Argentina, regarding adoption of micro-miniature co-axial adapter market. Emergence of regional rival companies is expected to affect the growth of micro-miniature coaxial adapter market on a global scale during the forecast period. The increasing raw material prices can be further expected to hinder the growth and cause concerns for micro-miniature coaxial adapter market.Micro-Miniature Coaxial Adapter Market: Competitive LandscapeKey players in the global micro-miniature co-axial adapter market focus on introduction of advanced product and services in order to improve their offerings and strengthen position in the market. For example Amphenol RF introduced an adapter i.e. APH-SMAJ-MMCXJ, which offers SMA jack to MMCX jack connection and a resistance of 50 ohm.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Micro-Miniature Coaxial Adapter Market: Key PlayersThe key players in the global micro-miniature coaxial adapter market includes Amphenol RF Asia Corp., Emerson Network Power Inc., Huber+Suhner Inc., Cinch Connectivity Solutions LTD., RF Industries LTD, Dynawave Inc., Tyco Electronics Corporation, Bomar Interconnect Products Inc. and other.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Native Advertising Market Volume Analysis, Segments, Value Share and Key Trends 2015-2025

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In recent years, growth has been observed in the native advertising market which is emerging quickly and still a new concept. Native advertising is different from content marketing. The word "native" refers to the content's consistency with other media on the platform. Native advertising is a type of online advertising that matches function and form of the platform on which it seems. In other words, it is a form of brand advertising which will enable marketers to better utilize digital marketing (to meet communication need) from branding to direct marketing. For instance, to promote product an article is written by an advertiser, but using the same form as an article written by the editorial staff. Native Advertising format includes images, articles, promoted videos, music, among many others. Example of the technique include twitters promoted tweets, search advertising and facebooks promoted posts. In 2015, as per survey conducted by the association of national advertisers revealed that almost two-thirds of marketers will increase their native advertising budgets.Request For Report Sample:Native Advertising Market: Drivers & RestraintsIn digital media, native advertising is one of the newest topic and therefore publishers and advertisers are closely monitoring it. The Native Advertising is expected to register a steady year-on-year growth throughout the forecast period. The native advertising background is evolving rapidly, through publishers working with advertisers to create increasingly effective ad experiences. For these ad products, changing consumer perceptions is escalating the growth in the native advertising market. Particularly on mobile devices, native advertising has proven higher click rates than to banner ads. However, some consumers consider these ads as annoying instead of useful could pose a restraint to the growth in native advertisement market.Native Advertising Market: SegmentationOn the basis of types, the global native advertising market is segmented as:In Feed Ad Units (Forbes, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter)Search Ads (Yahoo, Google, Bing, Ask )Recommendation Units (Outbrain, Taboola, Disqus, Gravity)Promoted Listings (Etsy, Amazon, Foursquare, Google)In-Ad (IAB Standard) - ( Appssavvy, Martini Media, EA, Onespot, Federated Media)Custom / Can't be Contained (Hearst, Flipboard, Tumblr, Spotify, Pandora)On the basis of platform, the global native advertising market is segmented as:Closed PlatformsOpen PlatformsHybrid PlatformsNative Advertising Market: Region-wise OutlookThe global native advertising market is anticipated to register a favourable growth for the forecast period, 2015?2025. On the basis of geographic regions, global native market is segmented into seven key market segments namely North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. Among the aforementioned regions, Asia Pacific is expected to witness a relatively faster CAGR during the forecast period. The remaining regions are expected to grow at a steady rate over the forecast period.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Native Advertising Market: Key PlayersSome of the key market participants in the global native advertising market areIAB Playbook,Outbrain, Taboola, Sharethrough, AdsNative, TripleLift, Nativo, Instinctive, Polar, OneSpot and Livefyre among many others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Beta Carotene Powder Sales Market: Global Industry Size, Share, Growth, Strategies, Analysis and Forecast to 2018 - Acute Market Reports

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In this report, the global Beta Carotene Powder market is valued at USD XX million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2017 and 2025.Browse Full Report with Toc Visit:Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (MT), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Beta Carotene Powder for these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), covering United States China Europe Japan Southeast Asia IndiaGlobal Beta Carotene Powder market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Beta Carotene Powder sales volume, Price (USD/Kg), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players including DSM BASF Allied Bictech Chr Hansen LYCORED FMC Corporation DDW Zhejiang Medicine HJ-Rise International Zixin Wuhan StarsOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Natural Product Extraction Chemical Synthesis Fermentation MethodOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate for each application, including Food and Beverages Feed Supplement Cosmetic Additives OthersIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Content:1 Beta Carotene Powder Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Beta Carotene Powder1.2 Classification of Beta Carotene Powder by Product Category1.2.1 Global Beta Carotene Powder Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Beta Carotene Powder Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Natural Product Extraction1.2.4 Chemical Synthesis1.2.5 Fermentation Method1.3 Global Beta Carotene Powder Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Beta Carotene Powder Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Food and Beverages1.3.3 Feed Supplement1.3.4 Cosmetic Additives1.3.5 Others1.4 Global Beta Carotene Powder Market by Region1.4.1 Global Beta Carotene Powder Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 United States Beta Carotene Powder Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 China Beta Carotene Powder Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 Europe Beta Carotene Powder Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Beta Carotene Powder Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Beta Carotene Powder Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India Beta Carotene Powder Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Beta Carotene Powder (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Beta Carotene Powder Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Beta Carotene Powder Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2025)2 Global Beta Carotene Powder Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Beta Carotene Powder Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Beta Carotene Powder Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Beta Carotene Powder Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Beta Carotene Powder (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Beta Carotene Powder Sales and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.2.2 Global Beta Carotene Powder Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.3 Global Beta Carotene Powder (Volume and Value) by Region2.3.1 Global Beta Carotene Powder Sales and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)2.3.2 Global Beta Carotene Powder Revenue and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)2.4 Global Beta Carotene Powder (Volume) by Application3 United States Beta Carotene Powder (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Beta Carotene Powder Sales and Value (2013-2018)3.1.1 United States Beta Carotene Powder Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)3.1.2 United States Beta Carotene Powder Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2018)3.1.3 United States Beta Carotene Powder Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)3.2 United States Beta Carotene Powder Sales Volume and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)3.3 United States Beta Carotene Powder Sales Volume and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)3.4 United States Beta Carotene Powder Sales Volume and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)Browse Full Reports with Toc:Latest Reports:Hybrid Switchgear Sales Market:Humidity Meter Sales Market:About UsAcute Market Reports is the most sufficient collection of market intelligence services online. It is your only source that can fulfill all your market research requirements. We provide online reports from over 100 best publishers and upgrade our collection regularly to offer you direct online access to the worlds most comprehensive and recent database with expert perceptions on worldwide industries, products, establishments and trends. Our database consists of 200,000+ market research reports with detailed & minute market research.Contact usName: Chris PaulDesignation: Global Sales ManagerAddress: 105 N 1st ST #429, SAN JOSE, CA 95103, United StatesEmail: - sales@acutemarketreports.comToll Free (US/CANADA): +1-855-455-8662Website: -Supercapacitors Market Value Share, Supply Demand, share and Value Chain 2016 - 2026

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A supercapacitor or an ultracapacitor, is a high-capacity electrochemical capacitor with capacitance values as large as thousand farads. Supercapacitors combines the properties of traditional batteries and capacitor in a single component.Request For Report Sample:Supercapacitors find their usage in applications requiring rapid charge/discharge time rather than long term energy storage. They are used for regenerative braking, burst-mode power delivery or short-term energy storage within trains, cranes, cars, buses, elevators and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). Smaller units of supercapacitors are utilized as memory backup for static random-access memory (SRAM). Additionally, supercapacitors are also used in applications involving solar power, batteries, battery back-up, and flash-lights.Market Overview:A supercapacitor differs from the normal capacitor in two basic ways: the plates of a supercapacitor have a larger surface area and the distance between them is much smaller, as compared to the conventional capacitors. The separator between these plates works in a different way than the conventional dielectric. A supercapacitor act like an ordinary capacitor, however, it can store extremely large amounts of energy. Capacitors used in audio circuits have capacitances in the ranges of 470 or 680 micro farads and those used in RF applications are as small as 1 pico farad. In contrast to this, a normal supercapacitor can store a charge upto several thousand farads.Although, the large amount of charge represents only a small fraction of the electrical energy that can be stored into a battery, its ability to charge and discharge instantaneously as compared to other lithium-ion and lithium polymer battery offers it a competitive edge. . This is because a supercapacitor builds up static electric charges on solids, while a conventional battery charges slowly through chemical reactions.With the upsurging demand of the storage systems used in wide range of devices, there is a dire need of product research developments which would store large charge and at the same time charges quickly. Currently, supercapacitors are also used along with conventional batteries, with the characteristics which are different in behavior and performance from the conventional batteries in order to meet technical and economic aspects of various applications. Major adoption of supercapacitors has been witnessed in the developed economies such as U.S, Germany, South Korea and Japan.Market Segmentation:Supercapacitors are mainly classified on the basis of type of materials, applications, technology and geography.On the basis of materials, Supercapacitors can be segmented into:ElectrodesElectrolytesSeparatorsElectrodes are further sub-segmented into: electrolyte double layer capacitor (ELDC), Pseudocapacitor, and hybrid capacitor materials.Electrolytes are subdivided into: aqueous electrolyte and organic electrolyte.Separators are subdivided into: polymeric film, poly acrylonitrile (PAN) and kapton.Global market of supercapacitors by applications is segmented into:Consumer electronics (Laptops, Digital Cameras, Portable Speakers and Mobile Computing )Industrial automation (Memory Storage, Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) and Automatic Meter Reading)Power & Energy (Actuators, Wind Turbines and Photovoltaic)Medical (Defibrillators)Transport (Trains, cranes, cars, buses, elevators, aircrafts and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV))Global market of supercapacitors by technology is segmented into:Organic Electrolyte Super CapacitorAqueous Electrolyte Super CapacitorOn the basis of geography, global market of supercapacitors is segmented into 6 key regions:North AmericaLatin AmericaWestern EuropeEastern EuropeAsia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ)JapanMiddle East & AfricaMarket Dynamics:Revolution in the storage technology with the introduction of new market segments such as hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), smart grids, and renewable energy systems, and capability of supercapacitors to provide emergency shutdown power or backup to low-power equipment such as RAM, SRAM, micro-controllers and PC Cards are driving its adoption globally. Additionally, supercapacitors has higher life period than conventional batteries. Increasing demand for stabilized power supply in applications with fluctuating loads, such as laptop computers, GPS, portable media players, hand-held devices is also one of the factors contributing to the market growth.However, factors such as high cost, customer traditionalism and competition from the established high capacity batteries vendors is restraining the market growth. As supercapacitors act as a substitute to lithium-ion and lithium polymer batteries, major players dealing with lithium-ion and lithium polymer are expected to exploit the socio-economic political scenario to curb the adoption of supercapacitors in the near future.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Key Market PlayersThe leading players in the industry includes Advanced Capacitor Technologies, Inc., Axion Power International, Inc., CAP-XX Ltd., EEStor Corporation, ELTON, Inc., FastCAP Systems, Inc., Graphene Energy, Inc., Maxwell Technologies, Inc., and Nesscap Energy, Inc.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Global Clover Leaf Oil Market Analysis, Trend, Size, Share, and Forecast 2017 - 2022

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Medicinal advantages of clover leaf oil continue to drive their adoption in production of food & beverage products. However, growing inclination towards organic substitutes for clover leaf oil products is dissipating the consumer base in the global clover leaf oil market. The report focuses on the provision of in-depth research and detailed insights about the global clover leaf oil market for the forecast period 2017 to 2022.Request For Sample Report-ScopeThe prime focus of Fact.MRs report is to provide readers with an unbiased and accurate analysis of current market status of clover leaf oil, along with future growth estimations. Clover leaf oil manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors in the global market will benefit from the insights offered in this report. A detailed discussion guide has been formulated in this report, which can attract the interest of top trade magazines and journals related to clover leaf oil.To offer readers with latest information about advancements in the global clover leaf oil market, updates about opportunities benefitting leading clover leaf oil manufacturers are offered in the report. Continuous evolution of the food & beverage sector necessitates keeping record of upcoming and recent developments and trends which are fundamental for manufacturers of clover leaf oil to formulate and adopt key business strategies. The detailed analysis pertaining to list of distributors, pricing analysis, raw material sourcing, cost structures, and supply chain are offered in this section.By considering the global clover leaf oil market, and provide an in-depth analysis, Fact.MRs report provides segment-wise analysis and forecast. The clover leaf oil market is categorized on the basis of source type, form type, applications, distribution channels, and region. Segmentation analysis offered is comprehensive, along with the detailed country-wise forecast offered on all parameters.Browse Full Report With TOC-Key Insights from the Report include:1- Through 2022, the demand for clover leaf oil in its absolute form is expected to remain closely equal to the demand for concentrated form of clover leaf oil. Both forms are anticipated to procure more than one-third share on global revenues, individually. Meanwhile, blended clover leaf oil products will lose traction in terms of demand, reflecting a sluggish growth at lowest CAGR.2- In 2017 and beyond, eight out of ten clover leaf oil products sold in the market will be sourced from natural clover plants. The demand for naturally sourced clover leaf oil will be high in Europe, while global demand for organically procured clover leaf oil will witness a considerable decline towards the end of the forecast period.3- Proactive lifestyles of consumers in European countries are pegged to influence the sales of clover leaf oil products. In Europe, the demand for clover leaf oil is expected to gain traction owing to prevalent inclination of consumers towards health-benefiting products. Consumers in this region are likely to be aware about the benefits of clover leaf oil in boosting energy, improving blood circulation and being a natural anti-inflammatory ointment. The report projects that through 2022, Europe will remain the largest market for clover leaf oil in the world.4- North America, on the other hand, is expected to witness lowest growth in its clover leaf oil market. The sales of clover leaf oil in the US and Canada will reflect a sluggish growth by exhibiting a 2.5% CAGR throughout the forecast period. Low on-shelf availability of clover leaf oil products and a relatively less awareness regarding benefits of clover oil are expected to contribute to the moderate growth of North Americas clover leaf oil market during the forecast period.5- On the basis of application, therapeutic use of clover leaf oil products will witness a significant upsurge. The report also predicts that use of clover leaf oil in aromatherapy, production of fragrances, and production of food products & beverages will also witness impressive growth in the years to come.6- Modern trade outlets are expected to contribute to more than two-fifth of global market value throughout the forecast period. These outlets will be observed as largest distribution channel in the global clover leaf oil market, while online sales of clover leaf oil products are expected to procure more than US$ 80 Mn revenue by the end of 2022.Manufacturers of clover leaf oil products that are expected to remain active in the expansion of global clover leaf oil market through 2022 are also profiled in the report, which include companies such as Plant Therapy Essential Oils, Green Fields Oil Factory, Lionel Hitchen Essential Oils, Aromaaz International, IL Health & Beauty Natural Oils Co. Inc., Aksuvital, Shaanxi Guanjie Technology Co., Natures Natural India, Young Living Essential Oils LC, Greenleaf Extractions Pvt Ltd., Biolandes, The Lebermuth Company, doTerra, Synthite Industries Ltd., and Bio Extracts (Pvt) Ltd.Request For Discount On This Report-About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; thats why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFact.MRSuite 988427 Upper Pembroke Street,Dublin 2, IrelandTelephone: +353-1-6111-593Email: sales@factmr.com/Web:Digital Tattoos Market Globally Expected to Drive Growth through 2026

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Digital tattoo is a speculative application of the flexible electronics. Flexible electronics is utilized in various areas of consumer electronics, allowing manufacturers of electronic devices to attain some amount of packaging flexibility for years. With the developments in materials science and circuit printing technologies, the circuit boards have become circuit films, some of which are sufficiently thin to be employed as temporary tattoo. These digital tattoos are general circuits at a high level, but are realised with the utilization of wire structures that can deform, on very thin substrate, so that it can cling to human skin by the Van der Waals forces.Request For Report Sample:The digital tattoo concept is created by NewDealDesign - the same company that created the Fitbit activity tracker. The digital tattoo can be implanted or printed on the hand, enabling the wearer to exchange information with a mere contact like a handshake. The tattoo would utilize the electro-chemical energy of the body, staying permanently activated and allowing the user to activate technology by merely touching it. For instance, Doors can be unlocked just by touching and credit cards can be used by holding them.Digital Tattoos: ApplicationsThe digital tattoos are expected to mark the next major step in transforming the wearable technology market. Major application of digital tattoo is generating a response from a radio signal; for instance a RFID transmitter is used to store an exclusive digital code. This exclusive code is then used in cases such as unlocking smart phones and for authentication purposes during digital payments.Further development in the flexible electronics, with increasing complexity, would expand the applications of the digital tattoos to the venue admission by identification of digital details, smart payments, and social media networking such as check-ins and acquiring contact information. In the near future, the skin printed sensors (successors of digital tattoos) will be utilized for medical purposes including monitoring the skin hydration, temperature, and any type of electric signals from muscles and brain activity.Digital Tattoos: Market DynamicsIn July 2014, Motorola Corporation launched the digital tattoo for identification of its Moto X handset. The digital tattoo sticker unlocks the smartphone without the need of any passwords or patterns. Created to work solely with Motorola Corporations Moto X smartphone, the small circular tattoo utilized the near field communications technology (NFC) to interact with the mobile device. This technology behind the digital tattoo was originally developed by ATAP (Advanced Technology and Projects group) research and development team of Google Inc.Several researchers are continuously engaged in the developments of digital tattoo technology so that they can measure electrical activity from the body more efficiently. This could allow healthcare experts to monitor and diagnose critical health conditions such as heart arrhythmia, heart activities of premature babies, sleep disorders and brain activities noninvasively. In addition, the digital tattoo would also assess physical movements, enabling it to distinguish between distinct social modes of interaction, expressed via hand.Initially created digital tattoos were either stretchable but not flexible or flexible but not stretchable. With the advancements in flexible and stretchable electronics, the digital tattoo currently available in the market achieve mechanical properties of skin, and are capable of withstanding twists.The market for digital tattoos is currently at the nascent stage and possess high potential to improvise the interaction between human and smart devices. Additionally, it has promising prospects for the patients in the healthcare industry at lower healthcare expenditures. However, digital tattoo technology is still very much in its early stages of development and commercial availability and is expected to bring technical anomalies acting as a challenge foe the growth of the market in the near future.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Digital Tattoos: Key Players:Major players engaged in the development and marketing of digital tattoo technology are NewDealDesign, Motorola Corporation, Google Inc., and VivaLnk Inc. Presently, the companies are targeting only the smart phone authentication application of digital tattoos; however with the development of IoT platforms, these players aim to expand horizon of applications to other smart devices.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:BFSI Security Market 10-Year Market Forecast and Trends Analysis Research Report

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In past one decade, electronic banking platforms have been implemented as an efficient channel to process banking transactions remotely. These banking transactions are executed from web based applications over the internet network, thus creating security risk by exposing users data to hackers. Apart from this, the banking, financial and insurance industry is continuously witnessing threat from global terrorism, cyber-crimes, and espionage which are leveraging the loopholes in the critical infrastructure. With the increase in cyber-crimes activities, security of sensitive data including, personably identifiable information, personal banking details, commercial banking details, and confidential corporate information is at high risk, due to which, the demand for BFSI security solutions has witnessed traction in the past couple of years.Request For Report Sample:Bank and financial institutions are operated in highly regulated environment. Data breach incidences in these cases occur mainly due to non-compliance to various operational standards.. Therefore, there is increasing need of BFSI security to ensure the long term visibility of banking and financial institutions and their data. BFSI security includes cyber security and physical security of banking and financial institutions.Component and Technologies Used in BFSI SecurityAccess Control SystemsCloud Based ServicesPhysical Security SoftwareSurveillance SystemsBFSI Security Market: Drivers and RestraintsIn the current changing world of information technology, banking and financial institutions are facing privacy issues due to increased data theft and unauthorized accesses. In BFSI sector, there is always existence of both internal and external threats with increased adoptions of ATMs and online banking solutions. As security breach of customers financials can hamper brand image of a particular financial institution, there necessity of safeguarding physical assets and continuous monitoring of banking data driving the growth of the market. However, the initial investment required to set up the security infrastructure is one of the challenge for the growth of this market.BFSI Security Market: SegmentationSegmentation of business BFSI Security market on the basis of systems and components:Video Surveillance:Video surveillance is used for monitoring activities inside out of the organization. Physical security has become necessary for banking and financial institutions to combat pilferage to theft related activities. This has created increase in demand for video surveillance solutions in the BFSI industry.Access Control :Access control is deployed for both physical security as well as information security. Access control systems seamlessly work against any unauthorized access. Access control solutions includes web-based access control, managed access control, control panel, visitor management systems, readers, and credentials.Intrusion and Fire Detection:Intrusion detection systems inspect all the inner and outer network activities and identifies suspicious pattern to indicate data breach attempt in the system. Fire detection system is a combination of various devices which work seamlessly to counsel end-users from any threat of fire.Physical Security Information Management (PSIM):Physical security information management is a software that act as a standalone platform for integrating multiple unconnected security application and devices. It controls them using single user interface.Regional OverviewAsia-Pacific is witnessing rapid growth in the adoption of BFSI security solutions. With respect to this trend, various security vendors such as Honeywell International Inc. and Cisco System Inc. are expanding their business in this region in order to increase its market share in this market. Besides, the Asia-Pacific market is worlds fastest growing economy and soon is expected to be largest wealth market with the increase in private banks and financial instructions in countries such as China and India. In India, according to the data released by The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the total number of bank accounts in India are around 600 million, out of which 25 million bank accounts holder are active users for mobile banking applications. North America has observed increased data breach attacks against BFSI industries in the recent past. The banking and financial institutions are promoting the use of digital wallet which is in turn is raising the risk of security for consumers data.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Cisco Systems Inc., Honeywell International Inc., Computer Science Corporation (CSC), IBM Corporation, and Symantec Corporation are some of the key players of global BFSI security market.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Global Coconut Oil Market Analysis with Growth Forecast During 2017-2022

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In its recent report, Fact.MR offers a comprehensive perspective on the global coconut oil market across few targeted regions. The booming demand for coconut oil, coconut sugar, and coconut water has led to a huge imbalance wherein the supply is unable to keep pace with the demand. Coconut oil is used in a number of snacks in both emerging and developed markets but the dwindling coconut supply could be a major challenge to overcome in the days ahead. The report focuses on the provision of in-depth research and detailed insights about global coconut oil market for the forecast period 2017 to 2022.Request For Sample Report-ScopeThe prime focus of Fact.MRs report is to provide readers with an unbiased and accurate analysis of current market status of coconut oil, along with future growth estimations. Coconut oil producers, suppliers, and distributors in the global market will benefit from the insights offered in this report. A detailed discussion guide has been formulated in this report, which can attract the interest of top trade magazines and journals related to food & beverages.To offer readers with latest information about advancements in the global coconut oil market, updates about opportunities benefitting leading coconut oil producing companies are offered in the report. Continuous evolution of the food & beverages sector necessitates keeping record of upcoming and recent developments and trends which are fundamental for coconut oil producers to formulate and adopt key business strategies. The detailed analysis pertaining to list of distributors, pricing analysis, raw material sourcing, cost structures, and supply chain are offered in this section.By considering the global coconut oil market, and provide an in-depth analysis, Fact.MRs report offers segment-wise analysis and forecast. The coconut oil market is categorized on the basis of product type, end-user, distribution channel, and region. Segmentation analysis offered is comprehensive, along with the detailed country-wise forecast offered on all parameters.Browse Full Report With TOC-1- Some of the forecasts of Fact.MRs report on the global coconut oil market have been given below to help you understand the current and future prospects in the coconut oil market which should grow with a CAGR of 3.9% from 2017 to 2022 2- The process segment dominates the coconut oil market with a revenue share approaching 3/4th by product type. A market opportunity of crossing US$ 2.2 billion makes it extremely lucrative and key stakeholders would do well to take note. Europe accounts for a 1/3rd of the revenue contribution and it is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR when compared to other regions.3- The virgin segment represents a niche in the coconut oil market that can be targeted by companies with customized solutions to cater to the needs of discerning customers. Along with Europe, APEJ is the only other region that is predicted to be worth more than US$ 200 million by the end of the forecast period.4- The food processor segment accounts for slightly over a quarter of the revenue in the coconut oil market by end user segment in 2017 and Europe is poised to be worth almost US$ 240 million by end of 2022. Major players could target North America as the snack market there is worth billions of dollars and the health-benefits of coconut oil are already known.5- The retail segment alone is over a third of the revenue by end-user segments in the coconut oil market which amounts to a market that exceeds US$ 1.1 billion in 2022. It will be interesting to see if retailers can hold their own against the e-commerce wave that has swept across the world. Latin America, in particular, holds immense promise in the retail segment as the region is quite under-penetrated, especially when compared to the developed countries in Europe and North America.6- Franchise outlets are a little over half the size of the modern trade segment in the coconut oil market. However, companies that adopt a unique differentiation strategy may be able to tap this segment as the competition has the bulk of its attention on the modern trade segment that is a much larger opportunity.7- The coconut oil market is rife with competition and some of the biggest players active in it are Adani Wilmar, Ruchi Soya Industries, Associated British Foods, Cargill Inc., Archer Daniels Midland Company, Bunge Limited, Adams Group Inc., and American Vegetable Oil Inc.Competition AnalysisThe main competitors in the coconut oil market are Adani Wilmar, Ruchi Soya, Associated British Foods, Cargill, and Archer Daniels Midlands Company.Request For Discount On This Report-About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; thats why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFact.MRSuite 988427 Upper Pembroke Street,Dublin 2, IrelandTelephone: +353-1-6111-593Email: sales@factmr.com/Web:Spunbond Nonwoven Market Analysis, Trends and Key Players

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Spunbond nonwoven refers to porous flat sheets and fabrics like materials, made from molten plastic or plastic films or long fibers bounded together by hot-press. They are different from other fibers, as they are not made by knitting or weaving and they do not require conversion of fibers into yarn. Bonding is applied to raw material, which is thermoplastic in nature, such as polypropylene, polyesters, etc. Spunbond nonwoven have various properties, such as they are resistant to heat and chemical, porous, burst strength, elongation to break, and have gram per square meter (GSM) range from 10 to 150.Request to View Table of Content:One of the major factor influencing the demand for spunbond nonwoven market is increasing awareness about the usefulness and benefits of polypropylene spunbond nonwoven fabrics. Medical and hygiene industry is the key segment with spunbond nonwoven fabrics, which is being used in manufacturing of various products, such as facemask, sanitary napkins, and surgical gowns. Owing to the advances in agricultural and farming techniques, spunbond nonwoven is being widely used to protect the crops from extreme weathers conditions and create a microclimate, which has controlled humidity and heat. Furthermore, increased consumption of spunbond nonwoven fabrics in the household, automotive, and packaging industry is also driving the growth of spunbond nonwoven market.However, high cost of spunbond nonwoven end products such as baby diapers is the major restraining factor for the growth of the spunbond nonwoven market.Spunbond Nonwoven Market Taxonomy:On the basis of material type, the spunbond nonwoven market is segmented into:Polyester Spunbond NonwovenPolypropylene Spunbond NonwovenPolyethylene Spunbond NonwovenPolyurethane Spunbond NonwovenPolyamide Spunbond NonwovenOthersOn the basis of functions, the spunbond nonwoven market is segmented into:Non-disposableDisposableOn the basis of application, the spunbond nonwoven market is segmented into:AgricultureCrop CoverFruit NetShade NetAnti-Hail NetBale Wrap NetMedical & HygieneFace MasksDiapersGownsHand warmersSanitary NapkinsUnder PadsBed LinenCosmetic Applicators and RemoversWipesAutomotiveAir FiltersAirline HeadrestsDash InsulatorsSide LinersFlood CoversHouseholdsCarry bagsDust CoversCoat CoversMattressMopsPillowcasesTable DecorativeWall CoveringPackagingNonwovenRice BagShopping BagsAgro BagsOthersBooks CoversCD disk linersPoster & BannersOn the basis of end user industry, spunbond nonwoven market is segmented into,AgriculturePersonal Care & HygieneAutomotiveMedicalPackagingOthersSpunbond Nonwoven Market Outlook:Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region in the spunbond nonwoven market with China, India, and Japan being the major economies in this region. One of the primary growth factor in the market is its increasing use in agricultural activities. Since the use of pesticides pose harmful threats, farmers are now using nonwoven fabrics to cover crops, root control bags, biodegradable plants pots, greenhouse shading, and seed blankets leading to the growth of the spunbound nonwoven market in this region.North America was the largest region for the spunbond nonwoven market in 2016. One of the major driving factors for spunbond nonwoven products is its increasing use in the healthcare, automotive, and personal care and hygiene industry. For instance, Kimberly-Clark, one of the leading players in the personal care and hygiene market extensively uses spunbond nonwoven for wiping applications.View More Information @Key players in the Spunbond Nonwoven Market:Some of the major players operating global spunbond nonwoven market include Pegas Nonwovens SA (Luxembourg), Avgol Nonwovens (Israel), Johns Manville Corporation (U.S), Mitsui Chemicals Inc. (Japan), RadiciGroup SpA (Italy), Kimberly-Clark Corporation (U.S), Berry Plastics Group, Inc. (U.S), Asahi Kasei Corporation (Japan), Kolon Industries, Inc. (South Korea), E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (U.S), Kuraray Co., Ltd. (Japan), Schouw & Co. (Denmark), Toray Industries, Inc. (Japan), Mogul (Turkey), and Fitesa S.A. (Brazil).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 UsMr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Research Offers 10-Year Forecast on Distance Measurement Sensor Market

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Sensor is an object or a device made for a purpose to detect an occurrence of any event or change in the environmental condition and if found, provide a corresponding output. Broadly, Sensor is a transducer which intakes one kind of energy (mostly optical & electrical) to operate & gives different types of output. Today sensors are used in everyday life in every electronic product & with the advancement in technologies, the demand of instrumentation and automation has been increasing over the years and expected to grow further in the upcoming future with highest possible demand. One such product from this category is the distance measurement sensor. As the name itself defines that it is used in detecting or tracing the distance between two objects. In the present days, a sensor with high sensitivity is more preferred, the term sensitivity is used to find out the quality or the accuracy of the sensor. Currently, the distance measurement sensors are the combination of different technologies as ultrasonic, optical, capacitive, inductive and many more, selection of sensors are done as per the requirements which is usually based on the application, need for the accuracy, cost, size, distance of operation and life time. As for the short distance measurement application, proximity sensors are more suitable, LASER distance sensors are used for the application of long distance measurement purpose.Request For Report Sample:The consistent increasing demand of distance measurement sensor market has continuously been increasing globally and expected to grow with CAGR in double digits & the same scenario might be seen for next six to seven years in global distance measurement sensor market.Distance Measurement Sensor: Market DynamicsFor last some years distance measurement sensors have been integrated in the automobile vehicle like Cars, trucks, buses in order to provide the information of the surrounding of the vehicle to the driver which increases the safety factor and hence it is coming out as a new trend for distance measurement sensor market. The key growth drivers of global distance measurement sensor market are increased adoption of distance measurement sensors in automation and robotics, need for advanced security solutions in the automobiles, drastic rising demand of distance measurement sensor in construction industries to trace the distance in various applications, increased demand in military application for target detection as in drone and aircrafts are some other drivers support the growth of this market. On the other hand high sensitivity towards environmental factors affects its accuracy, as the accuracy of ultrasonic sensors reduces in high noisy environment & accuracy of proximity sensor decreases in brighter environment.Distance Measurement Sensor: SegmentationSegmentation of distance measurement sensor market is done on the basis of technology, operation type, applications& geography. Based on the technology, segmentation of distance measurement sensor is done as infra-red led, capacitive sensor, inductive sensor, ultrasonic, laser diode, photo electric, draw wire, image sensor & others. On the basis of operational type distance measurement sensor is segmented as time of flight, LASER triangulation, confocal chromatic imaging & photoelectric sensor. Further photoelectric sensor segments is sub segmented into retro-reflective, diffuse reflection sensing & through beam sensing,By application type distance measurement sensor is segmented into following segments such as; manufacturing, robotics, defense aerospace & intelligence, automatic identification, packaging, consumer electronics, automobiles and others.Geographically, distance measurement sensor is segmented into seven regions which are ; North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), and Middle East and Africa (MEA). Among all the regions Asia Pacific is the highest contributor in term of revenue in global distance measurement sensorRequest For Report Table of Content (TOC):Distance Measurement Sensor: Key PlayersThe key players of global distance measurement sensor market are Honeywell International Inc., Eaton, Balluf Inc., Baumer & others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Subsea Well Access System Market : Projected to Witness Vigorous Expansion by 2025

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Global Subsea Well Access System Market: SnapshotSubsea well access system are critical equipment employed for carrying out subsea drilling and production operations successfully. The safety and reliability of subsea equipment is critical for the development of subsea oil and gas field.In the life of a field, interventions and workovers are needed to improve and optimize field recovery. This requires scientific technologies for facing challenges pertaining to augmenting oil recovery from subsea wells. This includes Riserless Light Well Intervention that enables cost-effective intervention operations in existing subsea wells, which results in additional output from mature subsea fields.The use of subsea well access system enhances production efficiency and safety measures. Subsea well access systems are available in a number of configurations. For instance, Slimbore subsea well access system provide smaller bore diameter for slender well designs. Slimbore wellhead allows the use of diameter riser systems of reduced size for drilling and production operations. Thus, early generation drilling vessels can drill in deep water and floating production facilities can augment the quantity of production risers held back to the host platform.Request Sample Copy of the Report@Subsea well access system are primarily of two types, viz. rig based well access system and vessel based well access system. The former is used for subsea tree installation and for well completion and for heavy well intervention activities. Moreover, rig based well access system are also used for providing open water tree on wire installation along with intervention workover control and support services for Well Plug and Abandonment for deep as well as shallow waters. Vessel based well access systems is one of the most cost-effective intervention techniques.Global Subsea Well Access Systems Market: OverviewThe worldwide market for subsea well access systems is growing at a healthy rate while riding on the advantage that the systems provide with regard to the relatively easy and efficient execution of subsea activities. This aids in attaining maximum safety and reliability, which in turn promises maximum output during production. The global market is gaining a strong foothold at a significantly rapid pace because of the heavy investments by exploration and production companies with a view to minimize capital and operational expenditures.Request TOC of the Report @Global Subsea Well Access Systems Market: Trends and SegmentationOn account of the competitive characteristic of the oil and gas industry, there has been a bright focus on the improvement of production efficiency. Out of all the primary drivers of the world subsea well access systems market, rising safety concerns and improvised production efficient equipment as a requisite have topped the list. The global market has a couple of restraints, i.e. lack of technical expertise and high installation and operational costs, which could hamper its growth. Howbeit, the adoption of subsea well access systems has elevated considerably in the event of strict safety regulations and penalties for non-compliance implemented across the industry. The market growth is expected to be enhanced by the need to maintain and surge recovery rates.On the basis of technology, the global subsea well access systems market could be classified into rig-based intervention and vessel-based intervention. Rig-based systems which are used for heavy intervention may be segmented into completion workover riser system and landing string system. Vessel-based intervention, also known as riserless light well intervention, is mainly used for medium to light intervention.The growth rate for rig-based intervention systems is predicted to decline due to their cost and time-consuming attribute. Contrastingly, the adoption of riserless light well intervention is foretold to increase exponentially.Global Subsea Well Access Systems Market: Geographical StudyWith the continued advancement of the exploration of reserves by oil and gas operators in deep water areas, the international subsea well access systems market is progressing at a rapid pace. Europe and South America, in particular, have expressed their rising requirement for intervention in subsea wells. This has further stimulated the adoption of subsea well access systems. On the back of a massive number of wells existing historically, which require significant overhaul, Europe has been the leader in the global subsea well access systems market. Furthermore, the market in the Europe region is anticipated to spread its wings even more expansively, especially in the U.K. and Norway.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @The demand in Asia Pacific and Africa regions is predicted to augment with the boosting amount of deep water discoveries in emerging countries. Likewise, subsea well access systems are likely to find application in the deep water discoveries of South and Central America.Some of the important players existing in the global subsea well access systems market are Weatherford Solutions, FMC Technologies, UZTEL Ltd., National Oilwell Varco, Proserv, Tenaris, Cameron International, Schlumberger, and Aker Solutions.About UsTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comFeb 15, 2018: Charcoal Water Filters Market Forecast 2018-2025 Qingdao Clear, Shanghai Xianeng

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A market study "Global Charcoal Water Filters Market" examines the performance of the Charcoal Water Filters market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Charcoal Water Filters market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Charcoal Water Filters market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Charcoal Water Filters Market 2018 report includes Charcoal Water Filters market Revenue, market Share, Charcoal Water Filters industry volume, market Trends, Charcoal Water Filters Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Charcoal Water Filters Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Charcoal Water Filters Market 2018 : Far Eastern New Century Corporation Qingdao Clear Tai An Xinhuanneng Shanghai Xianeng Zhong Guo Shi Hua Qingdao VertCharcoal Water Filters Market : By ApplicationPower Plant BoilersIndustrial Boilers & FurnacesIndustrial KilnsCharcoal Water Filters Market : By TypePolyacrylonitrileOilPhenolic FibersFirstly, the report covers the top Charcoal Water Filters manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Charcoal Water Filters report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Charcoal Water Filters industry, Charcoal Water Filters industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Charcoal Water Filters Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Charcoal Water Filters research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Charcoal Water Filters market revenue worldwide.Finally, Charcoal Water Filters market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Usqyresearchstore.com is a leading market intelligence team which making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact US:5001 Spring Valley Rd #400,Dallas,TX 75244, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Email: sales@qyresearchstore.comSodium Propionate Market is Expected to Represent US$ 44.7 Mn by 2021

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According to the latest market report published by Persistence Market Research, titled Global Market Study on Sodium Propionate: Driven by Increasing Application of Antimicrobial Food Preservatives, the global sodium propionate market was valued at US$ 31.1 Mn in 2014. Revenue is further expected to expand at a CAGR of 5.4% during the forecast period (2015 - 2021).As sodium propionate is a chemical ingredient, it is included in the list of artificial preservatives for food, which is a factor limiting its usage as a food ingredient in a variety of edible products. However, it is an integral component in bakery items, meats and cheese, and FDA as well as EFSA have recognized sodium propionate as a Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) ingredient for use in food. Sodium propionate enhances the color of processed meat and acts as a tenderizer, inhibits the growth of microorganisms, thus making it increasingly shelf-stable.Request to Sample of Report @The global sodium propionate market is mainly driven by factors such as adoption of animal feed additives in factory farming in order to increase production of milk, meat, and eggs, increased consumption of meat and meat products coupled with growing disposable income and increased spending on food, among others. Furthermore, the growth of the retail and foodservice sectors in emerging countries has given rise to the demand for ready to eat meat products, which in turn has increased uptake of food preservatives. As a result, adoption of sodium propionate as an antimicrobial agent along with propionic acid is expected to surge globally over the next five to six years.Request Report For TOC @In terms of revenue share contribution, North America is expected to dominate the global sodium propionate market during the forecast period. However, Asia-Pacific market is expected to record highest CAGR during this period. The market in Asia Pacific accounted for US$ 6.3 Mn in 2014, which is expected to increase to US$ 9.4 Mn by 2021.Report Overview @Key players profiled in the global sodium propionate market report include Prathista Industries Ltd., Fine Organic Industries Private Ltd., Niacet Corporation, Macco Organiques Inc., Foodchem International Corporation, Tengzhou Tenglong Chemical Co. Ltd. and Dr. Paul Lohmann GmbH KG.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:The United States Copper Carbonate Market is Projected to Grow at a Substantial Rate

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Copper Carbonate to its huge collection of research reports.The report on the United States Copper Carbonate market is an in-depth analysis taking a critical look at various factors and key trends shaping the markets trajectory during the forecast period of 20172022. The growth of the market is driven by various regional and United States developments, influenced by changing regulations and governmental policies. The study strives to offer comprehensive assessment of these factors and evaluates their impact on the business landscape of the market. In addition, the study presents elaborate insights into the various types of region-specific business risks faced by industry players and the prevailing strategic dynamics to allay these. Making a granular assessment of demand dynamics, the study takes a closer look at paradigmatic and mild shifts in the United States Copper Carbonate market made by various players to gain a better foothold in the market. Furthermore, the research analyzes the impact of these shifts on emerging prospects and the lucrative avenues they will likely lead to in the years to come. The study tries to give clear signals into imminent investment pockets and offers insights into new revenue streams in the United States market.Get Sample Report of the Research Study at:The report is prepared by gleaning over vast volumes of historic data assessed through reliable primary sources and a wide spectrum of secondary sources. Using SWOT analysis and Porters Five Forces Analysis, the study tries to evaluate the level of competition. Complementing with several industry-wide quantitative tools and enabled by qualitative methods, the study makes estimations and projections of key segments in the United States Copper Carbonate market. This helps various market participants get a clearer picture of the markets growth. The study also highlights the views of various opinion leaders and major policy makers in various countries, in a bid to paint a holistic picture of the overall outlook of the Copper Carbonate market.United States Copper Carbonate market competition by top manufacturers/players,with Copper Carbonate sales volume,price,revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingEastmen ChemicalsJost Chemical Co.William BlythePan-Continental ChemicalSuzhou Canfuo NanotechnologyPOWDER PACK CHEM...Table of ContentsUnited States Copper Carbonate Market Report 20171 Copper Carbonate Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Copper Carbonate1.2 Classification of Copper Carbonate by Product Category1.2.1 United States Copper Carbonate Market Size (Sales Volume) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 United States Copper Carbonate Market Size (Sales Volume) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Normal Copper Carbonate1.2.4 Ultrafine Copper Carbonate1.3 United States Copper Carbonate Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 United States Copper Carbonate Market Size (Consumption) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Process Chemicals1.3.3 Chemical Catalysts1.3.4 Food & Feed Additives1.3.5 Pigment Precursors1.3.6 Agriculture Chemicals1.3.7 OtherRead Complete Table of Content of the Report at:2 United States Copper Carbonate Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1 United States Copper Carbonate Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 United States Copper Carbonate Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.3 United States Copper Carbonate Average Price by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.4 United States Copper Carbonate Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.4.1 United States Copper Carbonate Market Concentration Rate2.4.2 United States Copper Carbonate Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Players/Suppliers2.4.3 Mergers & Acquisitions,Expansion in United States Market2.5 United States Players/Suppliers Copper Carbonate Manufacturing Base Distribution,Sales Area,Product Type3 United States Copper Carbonate Sales (Volume) and Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 United States Copper Carbonate Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 United States Copper Carbonate Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 United States Copper Carbonate Price by Region (2012-2017)4 United States Copper Carbonate Sales (Volume) and Revenue (Value) by Type (Product Category) (2012-2017)4.1 United States Copper Carbonate Sales and Market Share by Type (Product Category) (2012-2017)4.2 United States Copper Carbonate Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)4.3 United States Copper Carbonate Price by Type (2012-2017)4.4 United States Copper Carbonate Sales Growth Rate by Type (2012-2017)...About QYResearchReports.comQyresearchreports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from Qyresearchreports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact US:Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comDifferential Scanning Calorimetry Systems Market: Analysis of Company Profiles, Industry Trends and Corporate Strategy

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Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) is the most regularly used technique for thermal analysis. It works by measuring the enthalpy changes in various samples because of the changes in their physical and chemical properties as a function of temperature or time. It measures heat of the sample relative to a reference at the time of physical transformation such as phase transition. Digital Scanning Calorimetry is one of the widely accepted technique in analytical chemistry. With this technique, it becomes possible to detect fusion, crystallization events, glass transition temperatures and study about oxidation as well as other chemical reactions. With this technique, one can learn a lot more than just a polymers heat capacity. Researchers and scientists are able to gather critical data before, during and after creation of different products for industries including the pharmaceutical industry, food science and more.Request for Table of Contents @Digital scanning calorimetry systems are most often used thermal analysis method, because of their speed, simplicity, availability, low noise and compact furnace. Only a few mg of material are required to run the analysis. These systems are available with a wide range of temperatures.A large number of industrial base and requirement for quality control in every industry are the driving factors for this technique. Applicability in almost every type of industry is also growing its market. Usage in advance material research, analytical services, multipurpose analysis in various industries increases its demand. Continuous advancement in the technology also runs the market. With the development of new complex formulations, characterizing them becomes very difficult, the development of more precise, sensitive and durable differential scanning calorimetry systems have helped in finding out the solutions and keep its market growing. Limiting factors include the dependence of operational efficiency on too many aspects for checking the results such as sensitivity for changes, lack of operator efficiency and others. High cost and maintenance also restricts the growth.Differential Scanning Calorimetry is a commercially available instrument extensively used in many industries as one of the quality control instrument because of its applicability in evaluating sample purity. In chemical industry, during general chemical analysis, differential scanning calorimetry assists in different procedures, including purity analysis. Additionally, recent advances in this field have made it possible to evaluate the purification yield of various pharmaceuticals such as antibodies. It is widely used to evaluate the stability of a protein or other biomolecule in its native form. The design, resolution, temperature range, calibration and adjustment, automation are some of the key factors that vary the price range of instruments. Many patents in the technology provides an edge to the innovation and progress. Other innovations in the technology such as large range of temperature, high measurement 3D technology, micro calorimetery, performance, interchangeable modularity by the industry fuel its market and increase competitiveness. Greater sensitivity and accuracy is the requirement of market for these instruments.A geographic condition regarding the Differential Scanning Calorimetry Systems Market, it has been segmented into five key regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East & Africa. With large number of research organizations and a number of quality control standards in various industries in North America depicts an established market for these instruments. Asia Pacific is the growing market because of establishment of more industries and increasing need of quality checks. Japan and China are the leading markets in the Asia Pacific region.Request to View Sample of Research Report @Some of the global players in the market in the differential scanning calorimetry system market include Perkin Elmer, Hitachi, Shimadzu, Malvern, Linseis, Setaram, TA Instruments, NETZSCH-Geratebau GmbH, Rigaku, Mettler Toledo and many others.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Global Elderly Care Market Analysis & Technological Innovation by Top Industry Experts - Econ Healthcare Group, Epoch Elder Care, Extendicare Inc., Gentiva Health Services Inc., Genesis HealthCare, Kindred Healthcare, Inc.

Global Elderly Care Market  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024

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Elderly Care Market Report 2018 added by Data Bridge Market Research explores Global Elderly Care Market size, share, key companys analysis and growth with forecast to 2024.Global Elderly Care Market accounted for USD 863.7 billion in 2016 growing at a CAGR of 8.4% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024.Global Elderly Care Market Company Analysis:Global elderly care market is dominated by Amedisys, Brookdale Senior Living Solutions, Japan Senior Living Investment Corporation. , Econ Healthcare Group , Epoch Elder Care, Extendicare Inc.,Gentiva Health Services Inc. , Genesis HealthCare, Kindred Healthcare, Inc.,NTUC HEALTH CO-OPERATIVE LTD, ST LUKES ELDERCARE LTD, Samvedna Senior Care and Goldencare among others.Get Free Sample Report @Key Topics Covered:1. INTRODUCTION2 MARKET SEGMENTATION3 MARKET OVERVIEW4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY5 PREMIUM INSIGHTS6 GLOBAL ELDERLY CAREMARKET, BY PRODUCT TYPE7 GLOBAL ELDERLY CAREMARKET, BY SERVICE8 GLOBAL ELDERLY CARE MARKET, BY GEOGRAPHY9 GLOBAL ELDERLY CAREMARKET: COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE10 GLOBAL ELDERLY CARE MARKET, COMPANY PROFILES10.1 EXTENDICARE10.2 BROOKDALE SENIOR LIVING SOLUTIONS10.3 KINDRED HEALTHCARE INC.10.4 GENESIS HEALTHCARE10.5 MILLENNIA PERSONAL CARE SERVICES10.6 ALMOST FAMILY10.7 BAYADA HOME HEALTHCARES10.8 AMEDISYS10.9 ENCOMPASS HOME HEALTH10.10 TRINITY HEALTH10.11 LHC GROUP, INC.10.12 INTERIM HEALTHCARE10.13 BENESSE STYLE CARE CO., LTD.10.14 ECON HEALTHCARE GROUP10.15 EPOCH ELDER CARE10.16 ST LUKE'S ELDERCARE LTD.10.17 NICHIIGAKKAN CO. LTD.10.18 ROSEWOOD CARE GROUP10.19 KAIJIAN HUAZHAN SENIOR CARE SERVICE10.20 UNITED MEDICARE PTE LTD.11 APPENDIX12 ABOUT DATA BRIDGE MARKET RESEARCHGlobal Elderly Care Market, By Type ({Home Care (Health Care, Non-Medical Home Care), Adult Day Care, Institutional Care (Nursing Homes, Hospital Based, Assisted Living, Independent Senior Living)}), Product Type (Pharmaceuticals, Housing & Assistive Devices, Technology); Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East, Africa) and Forecast to 2024.Definition of Global Elderly Care Market:Senior citizens need assistance with daily activities as well as healthcare requirements. Elderly careis the fulfilment of the special needs and requirements in terms of medical support that are unique to senior citizens.Have Any Query? Ask Ours Expert @Scope of the Report: On the basis of type, global elderly care market is segmented into home care, adult day care, and institutional care. On the basis of product types, global elderly care market is segmented into pharmaceuticals, housing and assistive devices, and technology. On the basis of geography, global elderly care market report covers data points for 28 countries across multiple geographies such as North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. Some of the major countries covered in this report are U.S., Canada, Germany, France, U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, China, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Brazil among others.Competitive Analysis:The global elderly care market is highly fragmented and is based on new product launches and clinical results of products. Hence the major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, clinical trials, market initiatives, high expense on research and development, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market. The report includes market shares of global elderly care market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and South America.Summary of Market Drivers and Restraints: Rising geriatric population Increased life expectancy Prevalence chronic illness among aged population Growth in health expenditure by senior citizens Rise of technology-enhanced senior care Easy reimbursement policies Lack of qualified employee Cost affordabilityRead more about the Global Elderly Care Market Visit @Related ReportGlobal Healthcare IT Market  Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Healthcare IT Market, By Product (EHR, RIS, PACS, VNA, CPOE, MHealth, Telehealth, Healthcare Analytics, Supply Chain Management, Revenue Cycle Management, CRM, Claims Management, Fraud Management), By End User (Providers (Hospitals, ASCs, Home Healthcare, Diagnostic Centers, Pharmacies), Payers (Private, Public)), By Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Rest of the World)  Trends and Forecast to 2024Report Access:About Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Vishal DixitData Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: Sales@databridgemarketresearch.comWebsite:Building Automation System Market 2018 by Global Leaders: Lutron Electronics, Honeywell International, General electric, Rockwell Automation, Delta controls, Siemens AG, Crestron Electronics

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Market Research Future published a research report on Building Automation System Market Research Report - Global Forecast to 2022  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2022.Market Synopsis of Building Automation System Market:Smart buildings are a growing trend and a need of the future due to the vertical growth pattern of the real estate industry. The building automation system also called as intelligent building, smart building is a control system used to monitor & control the security, mechanical, illumination, climate and ventilation, access and movement and others in the infrastructure. The globally Building Automation System Market is expected to grow at a handsome CAGR rate of more than ~13% from 2016 to 2022.Globally the Building Automation System Market is expected to grow at the rate of more than ~13% from 2016 to 2022.Key Players:Some of the major players in Global Building Automation System Market includes ABB Ltd. (Switzerland), Cisco Systems, Inc. (U.S.), Robert Bosch GmbH (Germany), Siemens AG (Germany),Crestron Electronics, Inc. (U.S.), Delta controls, Inc. (U.S.), Rockwell Automation (U.S.), Schneider electric SE (France), General electric (U.S.), Honeywell International Inc. (U.S.), Lutron Electronics Co., Inc. (U.S.) and others.Get Sample of Report @Segments for Building Automation System Market: Network connectivity: Wired and Wireless network. Product: HVAC control systems, Light control systems, fire protection systems, surveillance systems, and, management software. End-Users: Commercial, Industrial and residential.Key trends and developmentsGrowing cloud interfaces  the advantages of cloud such as no need of installation and maintenance, remote access through connected device is expected to be the chief driver.Big data and machine learning - big data provides insights from a larger sample which can then be fed to machine learning algorithms to find patterns and commonalities. Thus it is expected that big data will provide more analytical power resulting in greater efficient operations. For example, music optimized to the liking of the crowd can be played by using data from previous and current interest of the customers of a mall. In fact Pandora music streaming application makes automated recommendations based on the music listeners likes and interests.Regional Analysis of Building Automation System Market:Geographically, the report is differentiated in regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East and Africa.North America is expected to lead the market with the U.S. to be the largest due to enlarging adoption of building automation system. Europe is expected to be the second largest market which is expected to be led by Germany and France. However the Scandinavian region countries are expected to be the fastest growing market in European region. Asia-Pacific is anticipated to be the fastest growing building automation system market over the forecast period. Japan is expected to be the largest market in the Asia Pacific region, while China is expected to be the fastest growing market. South Korea and India are other regions of high growth.The development of a large industrial base in China and India and the growing cost of noncompliance of building regulations and workplace hazards in these industries are expected to be a strong driver of the market.The Middle East and Africa market for is expected to be led by the Gulf. The Gulf economies such as Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and others are expected to be very rich markets due to their high revenues and per capita income and their service led economies. The African market is expected to yield moderate growth due to lack of urbanization and poor socio-economic conditions.Get Complete Report @Target Audience: OEMs Network service providers Real estate Software vendors Suppliers & distributors Research & consultancy End-users Technology providers Cloud and network service providersAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comFood Grade Phosphoric Acid Market - Industry Analysis, Growth Factors and Top Key Players Forecast to 2025

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The latest market intelligence study on the Food Grade Phosphoric Acid market performs an extensive analysis of the competitive landscape and growing investment pocket of the Food Grade Phosphoric Acid market for the forecast period, 2018 - 2025. The tailor-made study probes into the current and future trends of that are likely to shape the development of the Food Grade Phosphoric Acid industry to give the business owners a competitive edge and help them stay ahead of their rivals. The best of both research techniques including qualitative and quantitative are applied to gauge the market size, share, and growth rate.Get a free sample of this research report:Scope of the Report:The specialist consulting approach adopted to study the Food Grade Phosphoric Acid market by size, share. and growth form an important part of this market intelligence report. Expertise research specialist not only weight upon the company profiles of the major vendors but also significant aspects such as import and export status, supply chain management, demand and supply and distribution channel. Vital statistics on product positioning, consumption volume, a dramatic shift in consumer preferences, spending power and other are explained through resources including charts, graphs, and infographics.Key Players:The Mosaic CompanyAditya Birla ChemicalsDevdhar ChemicalsGuangxi Qinzhou Capital Success ChemicalGuizhou U-Share MaterialsOCP GroupAgrema PolandModern Leen For Marketing & TradingThe Potash CorporationICL Food SpecialtiesIsrael ChemicalsWengfu GroupYTHICQinzhou Rongde ChemicalExplore report at:In market segmentation by types of Fiberscopes, the report covers-Purity 75%Purity 85%OtherIn market segmentation by applications of the Fiberscopes, the report covers the following uses-Food AdditiveFragrancesBeverage IndustryBakeryOtherImportant the study on the Food Grade Phosphoric Acid market takes a closer look at the top market performers and monitors the strategies that have enabled them to occupy a strong foothold in the market. Performance of the product and services across different segments and geography are thoroughly assessed during the research. Apart from this, the research brings to light real-time data about opportunities that will completely transform the trajectory of the business environment in the coming years.The report segments the Food Grade Phosphoric Acid market as:United StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaMake enquiry before buying the report:The research provides answers to the following key questions: What will be the growth rate of the Food Grade Phosphoric Acid market for the forecast period, 2018 - 2025? What will be the market size for the estimated period? What are the prominent factors driving the Food Grade Phosphoric Acid market across different regions? Who are the major vendors dominating the Food Grade Phosphoric Acid industry and what are their winning strategies? What are the major trends shaping the development of the industry in the coming years? What are challenges faced by the Food Grade Phosphoric Acid market? What are potential opportunities for the industry for the forecast period, 2018 - 2025?The report is distributed over 15 Chapters to display the analysis of the global Food Grade Phosphoric Acid market.Chapter 1 covers the Food Grade Phosphoric Acid Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2 talks about the top manufacturers and analyses their sales, revenue and pricing decisions for the duration 2018 - 2025;Chapter 3 displays the competitive nature of the market by discussing the competition among the top manufacturers. It dissects the market using sales, revenue and market share data for 2018 and 2025;Chapter 4, shows the global market by regions and the proportionate size of each market region based on sales, revenue and market share of Food Grade Phosphoric Acid, for the period 2018- 2025Continue..Follow us on LinkedIn:Follow us on Twitter:Follow us on Google Plus:Follow us on Facebook:About UsPlanning to invest in market intelligence products or offerings on the web? Then marketexpertz has just the thing for you - reports from over 500 prominent publishers and updates on our collection daily to empower companies and individuals catch-up with the vital insights on industries operating across different geography, trends, share, size and growth rate. There's more to what we offer to our customers. With marketexpertz you have the choice to tap into the specialized services without any additional charges.Contact Us40 Wall St. 28th floor New York City,NY 10005 United States+1-800-819-3052Plaque Psoriasis Treatment Market: Comprehensive Analysis, Growth and Outlook Report 2025

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Plaque psoriasis is a chronic, autoimmune inflammatory disorder which leads to overproduction of skin cells. The skin is characterized by inflamed, raised, scaly, red plaques and lesion. The intensity and frequency of psoriasis are affected by environmental factors such as sun exposure, smoking, HIV infection, and alcoholism. Metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease are common in psoriasis patients. Psoriasis increases the chances of myocardial infarction in younger psoriasis patients by three folds.Request Report for TOC @Moreover, severe psoriasis leads to 3.5 years reduced life expectancy in males relative to individuals without psoriasis. Psoriasis arthritis is a distinct syndrome which occurs in one-third of psoriasis patient with the onset of rheumatic arthritis.Psoriasis plaque are distinguished by three features, an infiltrate featuring T-cells, the extravagant growth of poorly differentiated keratinocytes and the presence of dilated dermal blood vessels. Most of the introduced therapies for psoriatic were developed as to target T-cells or their inflammatory mediators including cytokines, receptors, and ligands.The demand for plaque psoriasis treatment market is expected to boom with the increasing number of pipeline psoriasis molecule and the number of biologics being launched. Janssen Biotec is seeking for the market approval of Guselkumab. The molecule is in the Phase III trial as a subcutaneous administered therapy for the treatment of plaque psoriasis.Moreover, Gelantin Therapeutics Inc. announced positive data from its phase 2 study of its drug GR-MD-02 to treat moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. The company is now seeking for strategic partnership for its drug development program.The advent of biologics has also shifted the preference from systemic therapy to meet the existing need. The systemic therapy suppresses the entire immune system as the clinician needs to do routine laboratory monitoring because of myelosuppression, hematologic side effects and increased renal and liver toxicity. Moreover, the systemic therapy is also contraindicated in nursing mothers, pregnant women, and individuals with kidney and liver diseases.Around 125 million people worldwide have psoriasis out of which 80%, have plaque psoriasis. The need for safe plaque psoriasis therapy in children is essential as about one-third of the psoriasis cases are in children. Etanercept was approved by the DA as an extended indicated for children of age 4 and above.Request to Sample of Report-Company manufacturer is converting innovative research into a new therapy by constantly investing in research activities. The number of drugs approved for plaque psoriasis is constantly increasing the number of treatment options for the physician and patients. Eli Lillys interleukin inhibitor was approved by the FDA, second molecule to be approved after Novartis Cosentyx.Some of the plaque psoriasis treatment market contributors are Allergan, Johnson and Johnson, Amgen, Abbvie, Eli Lilly, Dermira Inc., Novartis, Galectin Therapeutics, Cellceutix Corporation and Biogen Inc., Bayer.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Fiercely Competitive Scenario to Boost Global Syngas and Derivatives Market in Coming Years

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Syngas and Derivatives to its huge collection of research reports.The report on the global Syngas and Derivatives market is an in-depth analysis taking a critical look at various factors and key trends shaping the markets trajectory during the forecast period of 20182025. The growth of the market is driven by various regional and global developments, influenced by changing regulations and governmental policies. The study strives to offer comprehensive assessment of these factors and evaluates their impact on the business landscape of the market. In addition, the study presents elaborate insights into the various types of region-specific business risks faced by industry players and the prevailing strategic dynamics to allay these. Making a granular assessment of demand dynamics, the study takes a closer look at paradigmatic and mild shifts in the global Syngas and Derivatives market made by various players to gain a better foothold in the market. Furthermore, the research analyzes the impact of these shifts on emerging prospects and the lucrative avenues they will likely lead to in the years to come. The study tries to give clear signals into imminent investment pockets and offers insights into new revenue streams in the global market.Get Sample Report of the Research Study at:The report is prepared by gleaning over vast volumes of historic data assessed through reliable primary sources and a wide spectrum of secondary sources. Using SWOT analysis and Porters Five Forces Analysis, the study tries to evaluate the level of competition. Complementing with several industry-wide quantitative tools and enabled by qualitative methods, the study makes estimations and projections of key segments in the global Syngas and Derivatives market. This helps various market participants get a clearer picture of the markets growth. The study also highlights the views of various opinion leaders and major policy makers in various countries, in a bid to paint a holistic picture of the overall outlook of the Syngas and Derivatives market.Global Syngas and Derivatives market competition by top manufacturers,with production,price,revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingThe Linde GroupSyngas TechnologySiemens AGSasol LtdHaldor TopsoeChicago Bridge & IronBASF SEAir Products & ChemicalsAMEC Foster WheelerAir LiquideTable of ContentsGlobal Syngas and Derivatives Market Research Report 20181 Syngas and Derivatives Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Syngas and Derivatives1.2 Syngas and Derivatives Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Syngas and Derivatives Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Syngas and Derivatives Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Partial Oxidation1.2.4 Steam Reforming1.2.5 Biomass Gasification1.3 Global Syngas and Derivatives Segment by Application1.3.1 Syngas and Derivatives Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Chemicals1.3.3 Power Generation1.3.4 Liquid Fuel1.3.5 Gaseous FuelRead Complete Table of Content of the Report at:2 Global Syngas and Derivatives Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Syngas and Derivatives Capacity,Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Syngas and Derivatives Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Syngas and Derivatives Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Syngas and Derivatives Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Syngas and Derivatives Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Syngas and Derivatives Manufacturing Base Distribution,Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Syngas and Derivatives Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Syngas and Derivatives Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Syngas and Derivatives Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions,Expansion3 Global Syngas and Derivatives Capacity,Production,Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Syngas and Derivatives Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Syngas and Derivatives Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Syngas and Derivatives Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.4 Global Syngas and Derivatives Capacity,Production,Revenue,Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.5 North America Syngas and Derivatives Capacity,Production,Revenue,Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.6 Europe Syngas and Derivatives Capacity,Production,Revenue,Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.7 China Syngas and Derivatives Capacity,Production,Revenue,Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.8 Japan Syngas and Derivatives Capacity,Production,Revenue,Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.9 Southeast Asia Syngas and Derivatives Capacity,Production,Revenue,Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.10 India Syngas and Derivatives Capacity,Production,Revenue,Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)4 Global Syngas and Derivatives Supply (Production),Consumption,Export,Import by Region (2013-2018)4.1 Global Syngas and Derivatives Consumption by Region (2013-2018)4.2 North America Syngas and Derivatives Production,Consumption,Export,Import (2013-2018)4.3 Europe Syngas and Derivatives Production,Consumption,Export,Import (2013-2018)4.4 China Syngas and Derivatives Production,Consumption,Export,Import (2013-2018)...About QYResearchReports.comQyresearchreports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from Qyresearchreports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact US:Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comImmunofluorescence Assays Market: Global Industry Analysis and Growth over the Forecast Period, 2017 - 2025

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Immunofluorescence is the specific antigen and antibody reaction where the antibodies are labeled with a fluorescent dye and the antigen-antibody complex is visualized using fluorescent (UV) microscope. Some of the commonly used fluorochromes include Acridine Orange, Lissamine, Rhodamine, and Calcofluor white. Various factors determine the type of immunofluorescence assay used such as time consumed, cost, complexity, flexibility, sensitivity, cross reactivity and many others. It is used in all disciplines of biology including medicine for diagnostics and research. Immunofluorescence assays are used to detect specific proteins in cells that may be in specimen, in culture, in tissues, on microbeads and microarrays, etc. Two types of immunofluorescence assays are usually performed: Direct and Indirect immunofluorescence.Request for Table of Contents @Direct immunofluorescence used less often as the antibody against the molecule of interest is conjugated chemically to a fluorescent dye, so to spot every antigen, the specific antibody will have to be conjugated with FITC. In indirect immunofluorescence assay, the antibody specific for the molecule of interest i.e. the primary antibody is not labeled, and the second anti-immunoglobulin antibody focused toward the first antibody i.e. the secondary antibody is tagged with some fluorescent dye. Indirect fluorescence is used more commonly as the tagged secondary antibody and can be used to detect many different antigens. However, the primary antibody will have to be specific for the antigen to be detected.The fluorescence can be read as a qualitative result or quantitative result using fluorescence microscopy. The fluorescence can also be quantified using a flow cytometer, array scanner or automated imaging instrument.The improved versions of kits and reagents increases its demand. Increase in the number of cancer incidences and various infectious diseases rising the demand. Investments in research by various governmental and non-governmental organizations is upsurging the demand for these kits. Some of the restraining factors include the potential of cross reactivity, lower signal and higher costs of kits. Introduction of more safer and cost effective tests which diverting the preference of clinicians and researchers from immunofluorescence assays.Immunofluorescence assays has demand in both the research as well as clinical diagnostics purposes. Market includes various antibodies, regents, kits, microscopes, labeling dyes etc. Immunofluorescence preparations can be analyzed by various microscopy techniques such as Epifluorescence, TIRF, and GSDIM depending on the type of application it is used for. Thus, with the increase in immunofluorescence assay, need of fluorescence microscopy increases. Technological development, expansion in the field of immunofluorescence assays, commoditization of products and strong network of distributors at global and regional level also contributing to the growth of market.Request to View Sample of Research Report @A geographic condition regarding the Immunofluorescence assays market, it has been segmented into five key regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East & Africa. High incidences of chronic and infectious diseases, laboratory automation, improved technology and favorable reimbursement scenario are some of the factors which have led North America dominating the immunofluorescence assay market. It is followed by Europe and most of the market in Germany. Asia Pacific is increasing in the immunofluorescence assay market because of the increasing number of market players and rising demand of improved products in diagnostics as well as academic purpose. India, China and Japan are the countries with highest growth rate in Asia Pacific region and increases the chances of business opportunities in these sectors.Some of the global key players in the Immunofluorescence assays market for manufacturing kits and reagents for diagnosis are Thermofischer, Biorad, Universla Biologicals, Perkin Elmer, Maxvision Biosciences Inc., Euro Diagnostica, Sigma Aldrich and others. Some companies involves in the fluorescence microscope market includes Olympus lifescience, Leica Microsystems, EuroImmun AG.View Report Preview @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Ambient Light Sensor Market 2018 by Global Leaders: ams AG, Texas Instruments, ON Semiconductor, Broadcom Limited, Rohm Semiconductor, Intersil, Maxim Integrated, Panasonic

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Market Research Future published a research report on Ambient Light Sensor Market Research Report- Global Forecast 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Market ScenarioMajor giants like Texas Instruments, ON Semiconductor and Broadcom Limited are investing into the ambient light sensor market due to increasing demand from various industry verticals like retail, automotive, consumer electronics, medical among others. Increasing adoption of ambient light sensors in smart homes is one major factor fueling the growth of ambient light sensor market. Ambient light sensors are gaining importance owing to the increasing adoption in consumer electronics.North America region holds the largest market share of global ambient light sensor market followed by Europe and Asia Pacific regions. The growth is North America region is mainly dominated by U.S. and Canada and is attributed to the increasing demand for cloud computing applications and in the region. The region also has a well-established infrastructure which allows implementation of advanced technologies.Get Sample of Report @Ambient light sensor market has been segmented on the basis of sensor type, output type, mounting style and application. The sensor type segment is further bifurcated into light to current, light to digital, light to frequency and light to voltage. Ambient light sensors respond to the outside light and adjust it according to the human eye. These sensors strictly rely on outside environment for adjusting themselves according to the changing lighting conditions.Ambient light sensors are basically used for backlighting controls for display devices. They are commonly used to adjust display brightness of a certain device based on the brightness of the outside environment. Major factor driving the growth of ambient light sensor market is the growing demand for energy efficient solutions. Increasing demand for ambient light sensors in smartphones and other consumer electronics is another major factor driving the growth of ambient light sensor market. Increasing adoption of ambient light sensors in automotive sector is another major factor driving the growth of ambient light sensor market.The global Ambient Light Sensor Market is expected to grow at approx. USD 822 Million by 2023, at 10% of CAGR between 2017 and 2023.Key Players:The prominent players in ambient light sensor market are  ams AG (Germany), Texas Instruments (U.S.), ON Semiconductor (U.S.), Broadcom Limited (U.S.), Rohm Semiconductor (Germany), OSRAM Opto Semiconductor (U.S.), Intersil (U.S.), Maxim Integrated (U.S.), Panasonic Corporation (Japan), Vishay Semiconductor (U.S.) among others.Regional Analysis:The regional analysis of ambient light sensor market is being studied for regions such as Asia Pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. It has been observed that North America is estimated to account for the largest share of the market, whereas Asia-Pacific is projected to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period. The major growth in ambient light sensor market in North America is attributed to technical advancements and increasing demand for energy efficient solutions in lighting applications across various industry verticals in that region.Segments:Ambient light sensor market can be segmented on the basis of following:By Sensor Type Light to Current Light to Digital Light to Frequency Light to VoltageBy Output Type Analog DigitalBy Mounting Style SMD/SMT Through Hole OthersBy Application Consumer Electronics Automotive Robotics Medical Devices Security Lighting Sunlight Harvesting OthersGet Complete Report @Intended Audience Technology Investors Research/Consultancy Firms Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) Technology Providers Government Bodies Automobile Companies ConsumersAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comGlobal Feed Probiotics Market Trends, Regulations and Competitive Landscape Outlook to 2023

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Infinium Global Research has published a new report on global feed probiotics market. The report presents analysis global as well as regional markets of feed probiotics market over the period of 2015 to 2023. Moreover; the IGR-Growth Matrix given in the report provides key focus areas and investment areas the market players can focus on. The market size is presented both in terms of value and volume for the historic year 2015 and estimated for forecast period of 2017 to 2023.Get Sample Pages of This Report:Probiotics are the microorganism that are linked with the health benefits particularly digestion to human and animals. One of the key reasons for augmented demand for probiotics in the animal feed is the animal disease occurrence in the recent past year. According to the report published by Infinium global research, the global feed probiotics market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.5% over the projected period 2017-2023. In addition, with raising awareness about the microorganism aiding in digestion, particularly to ruminants and swine, the global market is expected to experience significant growth over the next few years.Get 15% discount for early purchase of global feed probiotics market by region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and RoW) report onThe global feed probiotics market is driven by the key factors such as Growing demand for probiotic based animal feed among developed regions, rising awareness about the probiotics and Demand for high quality animal produce. Though, one of the principle challenges of this market is Lack of awareness in under developed regions and developing regions and likely to trouble the growth of this market.Among the applications in livestock feed, Swine Feed segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR over the Forecast period from 2017 to 2023. Geographically, North America evaluated to be the largest market share holder of feed probiotics market over the forecast period 2017-23. This report identifies the drivers, opportunities and restraint that affect the global feed probiotics market over the forecast period. In addition, report provides deep insights on market demand and forecasting, recent market trends and micro and macro indicators regionally and globally. Moreover, market attractiveness analysis given in the report brings an insight on the investment areas that existing or new market players can consider, also analysis further highlights the key investment markets globally.Companies Profiled:The report provides profiles of the companies in the global feed probiotics market such as, Provita Eurotech Ltd., Novus International Inc., Life Products Inc., Novozymes A/S, Evonik Industries AG, Calpis Co., Ltd., Alltech, Mitsui & Co., Ltd, Schouw & Co. and Kemin Industries Inc.Browse full Report:Table of Contents1. Preface1.1. Report Description1.2. Research Methods1.3. Research Approaches2. Executive Summary3. Global Feed Probiotics Market Overview3.1. Introduction3.2. Market Dynamics3.2.1. Drivers3.2.2. Restraints3.2.3. Opportunities3.3. Porter's Five Forces Analysis3.4. IGR-Growth Matrix Analysis3.5. Competitive Landscape in the Global Feed Probiotics Market4. Global Feed Probiotics Market by Type4.1. Bifidobacteria4.2. Lactobacilli4.3. Others5. Global Feed Probiotics Market by Livestock5.1. Aquaculture5.2. Horses5.3. Poultry5.4. Pets5.5. Ruminant5.6. Swine5.7. Others6. Global Feed Probiotics Market by Region 2017-20236.1. North America6.1.1. North America Feed Probiotics Market by Type6.1.2. North America Feed Probiotics Market by Livestock6.1.3. North America Feed Probiotics Market by Country6.2. Europe6.2.1. Europe Feed Probiotics Market by Type6.2.2. Europe Feed Probiotics Market by Livestock6.2.3. Europe Feed Probiotics Market by Country6.3. Asia-Pacific6.3.1. Asia-Pacific Feed Probiotics Market by Type6.3.2. Asia-Pacific Feed Probiotics Market by Livestock6.3.3. Asia-Pacific Feed Probiotics Market by Country6.4. RoW6.4.1. RoW Feed Probiotics Market by Type6.4.2. RoW Feed Probiotics Market by Livestock6.4.3. RoW Feed Probiotics Market by Sub-region7. Company Covered7.1. Provita Eurotech Ltd.7.2. Novus International Inc.7.3. Life Products Inc.7.4. Novozymes A/s7.5. Evonik Industries Ag7.6. Calpis Co., Ltd.7.7. Alltech7.8. Mitsui & Co., Ltd7.9. Schouw & Co.7.10. Kemin Industries Inc.About Us:Infinium Global Research and Consulting Solutions is started with a single motto of being business partner of first choice. We at Infinium work on the strengths of our clients to ensure we help them consolidate their market position. We firmly believe in the fact that if you are able to develop newer opportunities then you find there is no dearth of opportunities for you.Contact Us:Infinium Global ResearchGoyal Shinde Park, Bhau Patil Road,Bopodi, Pune-411 020.U.S. + Canada Toll Free: 1-800-638-0796Email: sales@infiniumglobalresearch.comFiber Optic Cable Assemblies Market 2018 by Global Key Players: RF industries, Finisar, Fiber connection, TE Connectivity, Delphi Automotive PLC, Molex Incorporated

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Market Research Future published a research report on Fiber Optic Cable Assemblies Market Research Report - Global Forecast to 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Fiber Optic Cable Assemblies Global Market - OverviewThe global Fiber Optic Cable Assemblies market is growing at the rapid pace owing to various market aspect such as the growing importance of cloud computing, data transfer & storage and IoT is driving the use of Internet, which is further driving the Fiber Optic Cable Assemblies Market, as it acts as the significant medium for data transmission. The demand for the Internet is driven by several factors such as increase in the number of connected devices in homes, increase in the demand for Over-The-Top (OTT) video content, and the increasing Internet access. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, The global market of Fiber Optic Cable Assemblies is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period. The market is projected to demonstrate a spectacular growth by 2022, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR during the anticipated period (2016  2022).It is observed that the emergence of Internet of Things (IoT) technology is one of the major trends that will gain traction in this global Fiber Optic Cable Assemblies market in the forecast years. IoT involves machine to machine communication (M2M) that enables devices to exchange and act upon information by eliminating human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. Advancements in networking technologies have aided the evolution of IoT devices subsequently increased their adoption. This will encourage network operators to build new data centres to support the growing data rates, which will in turn, drive the growth of the fiber optics market.Get Sample of Report @Key PlayersThe prominent players in the global fiber optic cable assemblies market are  RF industries (U.S.), Finisar Corporation (U.S), Optec Technology Limited (Hong Kong), Fiber connection Inc. (Canada), TE Connectivity (Switzerland), Carlisle Companies Incorporated (U.S), Molex Incorporated (U.S), Amphenol Fiber Systems International (U.S), Delphi Automotive PLC (U.K) and among others.Global Fiber Optic Cable Assemblies Market SegmentationThe global fiber optic cable assemblies market are bifurcated on the basis of cable length, product types, mode types, end users and region. The cable length are segmented into custom, standard. The mode types are segmented into single mode, multiple mode and others. The product types are segmented into connectorized assemblies, long length assemblies, high complex breakout assemblies, fibre jumpers and others. The end users are segmented automotive, IT & telecommunication, government & defense, industries and others. The region includes North America, Europe, Asia pacific and rest of the world.Fiber Optic Cable Assemblies Global Market - Regional AnalysisThe Fiber Optic Cable Assemblies market is divided into four regions, namely North America, Asia Pacific Europe and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). North America is one of the leading region across the world in terms of market share in fiber optic cable assemblies market as it has huge demand as it provides much greater bandwidth. The fiber optic cable assemblies market in Europe region is expected to witness rapid growth in the forthcoming period. Whereas, Asia-Pacific countries like China, Japan and India is an emerging market for fiber optic cable assemblies market and expected to be the highest CAGR in the coming years.Industry News17 September 2017 - Optec Technology Limited, a leader of fiber termination and cabling solutions, announced the launch of its new MTP PRO Fiber Assemblies, which extended the product portfolio with enhanced features of Optecs MTP/MPO Cabling System. By utilizing the innovative MTP PRO Connector with Optecs well-versed manufacturing experience, the MTP PRO Fiber Assemblies support simple and reliable polarity and gender reconfiguration, at the same time fulfilling the requirements of high flexibility, high speed and high density as per current MTP/MPO Multi-fiber Cabling System.April 4, 2017 - Fiber Optic Centre, Inc., (FOC), an international leading distributor specializing in helping their customers make the best cable assemblies in the world, announces the FOC Cleaving Station, booth 455, at ECOC 2017 with demonstrations of three key pieces of equipment: 1) Phenix Fibersect Mechanical Connector Cleaver, 2) Cometx Laser Cleaving System and 3) OptiSaber MT Laser Cleaver.December 20, 2017 - TE Connectivity (TE), a provider of connectivity and sensors in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is releasing new optical flex circuit cable assemblies that are ruggedized for the harsh environments of aerospace, commercial and military aircraft, and defence systems. These compact, robust fiber-optic circuits offer a multitier management solution for high-speed electronic packaging and are fully customizable for both card-to-card and backplane applications.Get complete Report @Intended Audience Fiber optic cable assemblies companies Fiber optic cable assemblies providers Fiber optic cable assemblies distributors Research organizations Professional service providers Research and development companies Market research and consulting firms Solution providers Technology standards organizations Technology investors System IntegratorsAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.comMobile Accessories Market 2018 by Global Leaders: Samsung Electronics, Griffin Technology, Bose, Plantronics, JVC Kenwood, Panasonic, Sony

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Market Research Future published a research report on Mobile Accessories Market Research Report- Global Forecast 2022  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2022.Mobile Accessories Global Market - OverviewThe mobile accessories market has seen rapid surge in the past few years. As the companies are coming up with new technologies such as fast charging, demand for the portable mobile products are increasing rapidly. Portable mobile accessories help to enhance the mobile experience of the customer by providing additional products which can be attached with their smartphones and can be used in various application areas such as enhancing music experience or protecting the mobile by use of protectors. Portable speaker, power banks and Bluetooth earphones and headphones are some of the highest revenue generating product for mobile accessories.Rich supply chain and growing reach of e-commerce in terms of making the product availability and delivery is expected to play a major role in the growth of Mobile Accessories Market whereas easy affordability products is also expected to help in the demand creation of the product. Other major driving force of mobile accessories includes urbanization across regions such as Latin America and Asia-Pacific is also expected to fuel the market of mobile devices as well as mobile accessories.Mobile Accessories Global Market - Segmentation Segmentation by Products: Headphone/earphone, Protective Cases, Power Bank, Portable Speakers among others Segmentation by Distribution Channel: Online and Offline Segmentation by Price: Premium, Medium and Low Segmentation by Region: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the WorldKey PlayersThe prominent players in the market of Mobile Accessories are- Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (South Korea), Sony Corporation (Japan), Panasonic Corporation (Japan), Apple Inc. (U.S.), JVC Kenwood Corp. (Japan), Plantronics, Inc. (U.S.), Bose Corporation (U.S.), Griffin Technology (U.S.), Otter Products, LLC (U.S.), Sennheiser Electronics GmbH & Co. KG (Germany) among others.Get Sample of Report @Mobile Accessories Global Market - Regional AnalysisIndia and China are some of the major demand generators for the mobile accessories market on the global scale. Increasing number of mobile phones in Asia Pacific region is one of the major region which helps the region to create huge demand for the mobile accessories products. Also, huge number of manufacturing companies in China, Taiwan and Japan is also helping the market of mobile accessories in Asia Pacific to hold the top position in the market. North America stood second highest market for mobile accessories due to high per capita income and presence countries such as of U.S and Canada in the region. U.S. being a technology leader creates huge demand for the products such as Bluetooth earphones and headphones, high capacity power banks and portable speakers. Europe is expected to be the third largest market for the mobile accessories. Presence of huge number of developed countries in Europe region and increasing number of smartphone users in the region is creating the demand for mobile accessories in Europe. Major demand from European countries for mobile accessories includes power banks, wireless connectivity enabled earphones and headphones and display protectors.Industry NewsDecember, 2017, Samsung recently announced the launch of its new product Samsung Icon X 2018, which is a wireless headphones competing with Apples air pods. The Icon X 2018 is a wireless headphone in nature and provide superior comfort to their users without degrading the quality of the music. The headphone has touch controls and comes with quick charge technology via USB C Type charging.November, 2017, Recently, Sony India announced the launch of four new wireless noise cancellation headphones and earphones for the Indian consumer. The company claims that the headphones are truly wireless and are designed to provide experience which has never been achieved. Sony is also working on several other mobile accessories products including development of high capacity power banks to provide interruptible charging supply to smartphones and tablets.September, 2017, In the month of September, Sony India has launched its two power banks 15000mAh power bank and 20000mAh power bank in India. These power banks by Sony comes with the new Lithium-ion Polymer battery cells providing last longing life and high efficiencies. The company have also stated that the power banks are capable of charging multiple devices in the single given time multiple times. The power banks are also equipped with fast charging technologies which is generally available to wall chargers. Another noticeable thing of these power banks are that these support pass-through charging which allows the user charge the smartphone while charging the power bank.Get complete Report @Intended Audience Accessories Manufacturers Smartphone Accessories Suppliers Phone case and display protector manufacturers E-commerce and Retail Portable battery manufacturersAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.comGlobal Ride-on Power Trowel Market Forecast for Incremental CAGR Growth by 2026

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The global ride-on power trowel market is projected to register a moderate expansion through the forecast period (2017-2026), according to a report recently developed by Fact.MR. Global sales of ride-on power trowels will surpass 30,000 units by 2026-end. Global volumes are expected to grow at a CAGR of 2.7% during the assessment period.Request For Sample Report @The scope of the Fact.MRs report is to analyze the global ride-on power trowel market for the forecast period 2017-2026 and offer accurate and unbiased insights to the readers. Ride-on power trowel manufacturers, suppliers, and stakeholders in the global industry can benefit from the analysis offered in this report.This report offers an overview of the global ride-on power trowel market. This section comprises definition of the product  ride on power trowel, along with key insights on dynamics playing an important role towards the growth of the market. The overview also includes market value and year-on-year growth defining the future progress and decline of the global ride on power trowel. Data on the year-on-year growth provides readers with an overall view on expected progress reshaping growth during the forecast period.In the next section, the report provides insights on major drivers, key trends, and retrains on the basis of demand, supply and macro-economic factors. The report also talks about an impact analysis of drivers and restraints that helps in decision-making and becoming more efficient.4 Key Future Prospects of Ride-on Power trowel Market for Forecast Period 2017-20261) Of all the regional segments included in the report, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) has been projected to register a relatively faster expansion in the global ride-on power trowel market through 2026. In addition, sales of ride-on power trowels in APEJ will account for the largest market share through the forecast period. Europe and North America are also anticipated to remain remunerative regions for the market growth. Sales from ride-on power trowel sales in these two regions will collectively exceed 15,000 units by 2026-end.2) Mechanical ride-on power trowel is anticipated to remain sought-after among contractors and other end-users in the market, with over two-third volume share of the market by 2026-end. However, demand for hydrostatic ride-on power trowel is expected to witness a rapid growth and their sales will reflect a relatively higher CAGR than that of mechanical ride-on power trowel through 2026.3) As heavy load operations related to smoothening and flattening large concrete surfaces, on the back of robust infrastructural development in developing and developed economies, are mounting in number, high load sustaining ride-on power trowels with larger diameters are in huge demand currently. 36 inch trowelling diameter of ride-on power trowel will remain preferred in the market. However, ride on trowel with 48/49 inch trowelling diameter will witness a relatively faster expansion in the market through 2026. Ride-on power trowels with trowelling diameter of 59/60 inch are anticipated to account for the lowest market volume share during the forecast period.4) Leading players in the ride-on power trowel market are enhancing their product portfolio that feature ergonomic user-friendly control systems for a wide range of applications. These players are increasingly focusing on improving their sales strategies, in a bid to consolidate their market shares in various regions. Key players actively supporting the market expansion include Roadway, Masterpac, Shenhua, MBW, Dynamic, Bartell, Parchem Construction, Dragon, Atlas Copco, Allen Engineering, Wacker Neuson, and Multiquip.APEJ to Remain Dominant Market for Ride-on power trowelBurgeoning infrastructural development in countries such as India and China, along with rising gross household disposable income of the population will stoke demand for ride-on power trowels in Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ). In terms of revenues as well as sales expansion, APEJ is estimated to remain the dominant market for ride-on power trowels, trailed by Europe and North America. Middle East & Africa (MEA), on the other hand, is expected to be the least lucrative market for ride-on power trowels through the forecast period.Facilitated use and relatively lower cost of mechanical ride-on power trowels have made them preferred product for finishing of concrete surfaces in various construction sites. Revenues from mechanical ride-on power trowel sales will account for nearly three-fourth market share by 2026-end.Ride-on power trowels with 36 inch and 48/9 inch trowelling diameter are anticipated to remain financially rewarding in the global market. In contrast, 59/60 inch diameter ride-on power trowels will remain less lucrative through the forecast period.Browse Full Report with TOC @Competition TrackingMany prominent players are focusing on engineering products, which enable more convenience in operations for extended durations. Emerging players are making significant investments in research & development activities for eating into shares of the market. Opportunities exist for market players with regard to development of advanced ride-on power trowels providing user-friendly controls, optimum operational requirements, and easy maneuverability.Fact.MRs report profiles key players supporting expansion of the global ride-on power trowel market, which include Multiquip, Allen Engineering, Wacker Neuson, Atlas Copco, Parchem Construction, Dragon, Bartell, MBW, Shenhua, Dynamic, Masterpac, and Roadway.Check Discount @About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFact.MR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comWeb:B2C Legal Services Market 2018 Global Key Players: Baker & McKenzie, DLA Piper, Latham & Watkins LLP, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Clifford Chance LLP.

B2C Legal Services Market

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B2C Legal Services Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds B2C Legal Services Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2023reports to its database.Executive SummaryB2C Legal Services Market Global Report 2018 from The Business Research Company provides the strategists, marketers and senior management with the critical information they need to assess the global b2c legal services market.Where is the largest and fastest growing market for the b2c legal services? How does the market relate to the overall economy, demography and other similar markets? What forces will shape the market going forward? The b2c legal services market global report from the Business Research Company answers all these questions and many more.The report covers market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional and country breakdowns, competitive landscape, market shares, trends and strategies for this market. It traces the markets historic and forecast market growth by geography. It places the market within the context of the wider professional services market, and compares it with other markets. The market characteristics section of the report defines and explains the market. The market size section gives the market size ($b) covering both the historic growth of the market and forecasting the future. Drivers and restraints looks at the external factors supporting and controlling the growth of the market. Market segmentations break down market into sub markets. The regional and country breakdowns section gives an analysis of the market in each geography and the size of the market by geography and compares their historic and forecast growth. It covers all the regions, key developed countries and major emerging markets. It draws comparisons with country populations and economies to understand the importance of the market by country and how this is changing. Competitive landscape gives a description of the competitive nature of the market, market shares, and a description of the leading companies. Key financial deals which have shaped the market in recent years are identified. The trends and strategies section highlights the likely future developments in the market and suggests approaches companies can take to exploit this. The b2c legal services market section of the report gives context. It compares the b2c legal services market with other segments of the b2c legal services market by size and growth, historic and forecast. It analyses Expenditure Per Capita, The B2C Legal Services Market Indicators Comparison.Request Sample Report @ScopeMarkets Covered:Companies Mentioned: Baker & McKenzie, DLA Piper, Latham & Watkins LLP, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Clifford Chance LLPCountries: Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, Russia, UK, USA and Australia.Regions: Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East And AfricaTime series: Five years historic and forecast.Data: Ratios of market size and growth to related markets, GDP, Expenditure Per Capita, The B2C Legal Services Market Indicators Comparison.Data segmentations: country and regional historic and forecast data, market share of competitors, market segments.Sourcing and Referencing: Data and analysis throughout the report is sourced using end notes.Table of Content1. B2C Legal Services Market Characteristics2. B2C Legal Services Market Size And Growth3. B2C Legal Services Trends And Strategies;4. Pestle Analysis5. B2C Legal Services Market Customer Information;6. B2C Legal Services Market Regional And Country Analysis7. B2C Legal Services Market Segmentation8. B2C Legal Services Market Segments9. Global B2C Legal Services Market Comparison With Macro Economic Factors10. B2C Legal Services Market Comparison With Macro Economic Factors Across Countries11. Asia-Pacific B2C Legal Services Market12. Western Europe B2C Legal Services Market13. Eastern Europe B2C Legal Services Market14. North America B2C Legal Services Market15. South America B2C Legal Services Market16. Middle East B2C Legal Services Market17. Africa B2C Legal Services Market18. B2C Legal Services Market Competitive Landscape18.1. Company Profiles18.2. Baker & McKenzie18.2.1. Overview18.2.2. Products And Services18.2.3. Strategy18.2.4. Financial Performance18.3. DLA Piper18.3.1. Overview18.3.2. Products And Services18.3.3. Strategy18.3.4. Financial Performance18.4. Latham & Watkins LLP18.4.1. Overview18.4.2. Products And Services18.4.3. Strategy18.4.4. Financial Performance18.5. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP18.5.1. Overview18.5.2. Products And Services18.5.3. Strategy18.5.4. Financial Performance18.6. Clifford Chance LLP18.6.1. Overview18.6.2. Products And Services18.6.3. Strategy18.6.4. Financial Performance19. Key Mergers And Acquisitions In The B2C Legal Services Market20. Market Background: Legal Services Market21. AppendixReasons to Purchase Outperform competitors using accurate up to date demand-side dynamics information. Identify growth segments for investment. Facilitate decision making on the basis of historic and forecast data and the drivers and restraints on the market. Create regional and country strategies on the basis of local data and analysis. Stay abreast of the latest customer and market research findings Benchmark performance against key competitors. Develop strategies based on likely future developments. Utilize the relationships between key data sets for superior strategizing. Suitable for supporting your internal and external presentations with reliable high quality data and analysis Gain a global perspective on the development of the market. Report will be updated with the latest data and delivered to you within 3-5 working days of order.ContinuousFor further information on this report, visit Contact Us:Norah Trentsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042Global Earthmoving Equipment Tyres Market by Manufacturers, Types, Regions and Application Research Report Forecast to 2026

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https://www.factmr.com/report/379/earthmoving-equipment-tyres-market

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Growing need for constructing buildings, roads and highways has led to surge in demand for the earthmoving equipment globally. Surge in demand for earthmoving equipment such as loaders and crawlers is expected to impact growth of the global earthmoving equipment tyres market positively.Request For Sample Report @The scope of the report is to analyze the global earthmoving equipment tyres market for the period 2017-2026 and give readers an accurate, unbiased analysis. Earthmoving equipment tyres manufacturers, suppliers, and stakeholders in the overall automotive market can benefit from the insights offered in this report. The comprehensive analysis offered in the report can also be of interest to leading automotive journals and trade magazines.5 Forecast Highlights on Global Earthmoving Equipment Tyres Market1) Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ) is likely to lead the global market for earthmoving equipment tyres between 2017 and 2026. By the end of 2026, APEJ is projected to reach nearly US$ 4,800 million revenue. In APEJ region, China is one of the leading manufacturers of off-road-vehicles and also accounts for maximum sales. Meanwhile, India, Malaysia, and Thailand are also witnessing increasing sales of off-the-road vehicles and tyres.2) Backhoe loaders are expected to emerge as the highly preferred vehicle type between 2017 and 2026. By the end of 2026, backhoe loaders are estimated to bring in close to US$ 4,400 million revenue.3) Compared to the bias tyre type, radial tyre type is expected to gain maximum traction in the global earthmoving equipment tyres market. Radial tyres are estimated to reach nearly US$ 10,900 million revenue by 2026 end.4) Rim size of 35-50 inch is expected to be used on a large scale in the global market for earthmoving equipment tyres. Towards 2026 end, 35-50 inch rim size is estimated to exceed US$ 5,800 million revenue.5) Sales of earthmoving equipment tyres through aftermarket sales channel is likely to be the highest during 2017-2026. Aftermarket sales channel is projected to create an incremental opportunity of over US$ 3,200 million between 2017 and 2026.Browse Full Report with TOC @Radial Tyre to Represent a Leading SegmentGrowing need for tracked vehicles for moving large objects or digging purposes has led to surge in demand for crawler excavator in the construction industry. On the basis of vehicle type, the backhoe loaders segment is expected to represent a significant revenue growth, accounting for a value of over US$ 4,400 Mn by the end of 2026. Also, the backhoe loaders segment is expected to register a healthy CAGR throughout the forecast period.Based on tyre type, the radial segment is expected to generate significant revenues, recording a value of over US$ 7,100 Mn by the end of 2017. In addition, the radial tyres type segment is expected to register a robust CAGR during the forecast period.By rim size, the 35-50 segment is expected to witness the highest revenue growth, accounting for a value of over US$ 5,800 Mn by the end of 2026. Moreover, the 35-50 rim size segment is expected to register the highest CAGR throughout the forecast period.On the basis of sales channel, the aftermarket segment is expected to represent a robust revenue growth, recording a value of over US$ 6,300 Mn by the end of 2017. On the other hand, the aftermarket sales channel segment is expected to register a significant CAGR during the forecast period.Competition TrackingLeading market players operating in the global earthmoving equipment tyres market include Zodiac Aerospace Group, RECARO Aircraft Seating GmbH & Co. KG, B/E Aerospace, Inc, JAMCO Corporation, Aviointeriors S.p.A, Acro Aircraft Seating, Geven S.p.A, Mirus Aircraft Seating Ltd, Thompson Aero Seating Ltd, and ZANKER PROMOTION GMBH.Check Discount @About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFact.MR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comWeb:Worldwide Cervical Dystonia Market : Top Key Players are ALLERGAN, Solstice Neurosciences LLC , Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals Inc., Merz Inc , US WorldMeds, LLC, Addex Therapeutics, Revance Therapeutics

Cervical Dystonia Market

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Cervical dystonia is a neurological movement disorder associated with involuntary movement of neck. It is also known as spasmodic torticollis. As per study it was estimated that women are more prone to get this disorder.According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future analysts, the global cervical dystonia market is currently dynamic and growing at a moderate pace. The growth of the market is mainly due to increase in prevalence of Parkinsons disease, development of new drugs and therapies by players, and greater involvement of the companies in research and development. Besides that, current unmet needs for the cervical dystonia also presents great opportunities for the market players to enter into this market.That being said, there are few hurdles in the growth of this market such as high cost involved in the research and development leading to the increased cost of the drug, less awareness about the severity of the condition in developing and under developed regions. These factors hinder the cervical dystonia market growth. Global cervical dystonia market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5% during forecasted period 2017-2023.Get a sample report atExperts say, exciting times are ahead for the cervical dystonia market, as the market events noted above are due to occur against the backdrop of a steadily growing cervical dystonia prevalent population. With the clinical unmet need for better diagnostic tools and treatment options for the affected population, cervical dystonia remains an attractive neurological disorder for drug developers.Global Cervical Dystonia Market - Competitive AnalysisThe global market consist of players such as ALLERGAN (Ireland), Solstice Neurosciences LLC (U.S.), Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals Inc. (France), Merz Inc (U.S.), US WorldMeds, LLC (U.S.) Addex Therapeutics (Switzerland), Revance Therapeutics, Inc.(U.S.), and many other. These are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the global cervical dystonia market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis report.The global cervical dystonia market is a dynamic market with number of drugs and therapies available in the market. There are few number of companies involved in the development of the drugs which are now widely used all across the world for the treatment of cervical dystonia. There are great developments happening in cervical dystonia therapeutics space.Due to increasing prevalence of cervical dystonia globally many of the companies are in the race to introduce better oral treatment for cervical dystonia. Companies are using a trend of strategic alliance and acquisition to gain the market and minimize the competition in the market.Revance Therapeutics Inc. in 2016 initiated a Phase II study of RT002 for the treatment of cervical dystonia. The Company completed its Phase II program recently. In November 2017, the company announce the completion of its Phase II program with a positive results. The company now plans to carry out Phase 3 Program for RT002 Injectable to treat Cervical Dystonia.ALLERGAN has introduced BOTOX (onabotulinumtoxinA) for treatment of cervical dystonia. It is prescribed to 16 and older people suffering from cervical dystonia. It is an intramuscular drug.Solstice Neurosciences LLC has introduced MYOBLOC (rimabotulinumtoxinB), which was the first FDA-approved treatment for cervical dystonia. It is used for the treatment of cervical dystonia in adults to reduce the severity of abnormal head position and neck pain associated with cervical dystonia.Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals Inc. a French company introduced Dysport (abobotulinumtoxinA) for the treatment of adults with cervical dystonia.Browse Complete Report atGlobal Cervical Dystonia Market - Regional AnalysisAmericas has the largest cervical dystonia market. Increasing people suffering from cervical dystonia in America has help to increase the market in this region. Beside this, rise in neurotoxin market, increase in treatments for muscle movement disorders and increasing aging population in this region has fuelled the growth of this market in American region. Due to a huge aging population in Canada the market is developing at a significant rate in this region. As per study, women are more prone to cervical dystonia than men.Europe has the second largest market which majorly contributed by UK, Germany and France. Well-developed healthcare sector, improved infrastructure and increase in healthcare spending have increased the market in this region.Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing region for the cervical dystonia market. Asia Pacific is the developing region and a huge population base in this region is the major factor for the growth of the market. Beside this continuous development in healthcare sector and increasing aging population in Asia Pacific has provided fuel for the growth of the market. India and China are the major market of the cervical dystonia. Due to less development in medical and healthcare sector, Middle East and Africa region contributes least in the cervical dystonia market at present.About usAt Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Market Research FutureP: +1 646 845 9312W:sales@marketresearchfuture.comPressure Relief Valve (PRV) Market size in terms of volume and value 2017-2025

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Pressure Relief Valves Market: OverviewPressure Relief Valves are used to control the pressure in a system in case of a process upset, or equipment failure. The extra pressure in the systems is relieved through an auxiliary passage. A typical pressure relief valve is designed to operate at a predetermined set pressure to assist in protecting other vessels and equipment from being subjected to unsafe pressure. If the pressure in the system exceeded the relief valve automatically becomes the passage of least resistance and helps retain the pressure. Pressure relief valves finds application in a variegated range of industries ranging from F&B, Pharmaceuticals, Oil & Gas, Power and Paper & Pulp.Request Report for TOC @Due to sluggish growth rate among most of these industries, the global pressure relief valves market is expected to expand with a moderate CAGR over the forecast period.Pressure Relief Valves Market: Drivers & RestraintsThe prime factor boosting the growth in the global pressure relief valves market is the reviving oil & gas and chemical industry, coupled with the rapidly growing industrialization efforts in the developing world. As companies relocate their manufacturing plants and set up new units across different geographies as per supply-demand scenario, demand for pressure relief valves is bound to increase. Increasing preference towards nuclear power generation particularly from countries such as India and China will also drive the demand for pressure relief valves.Furthermore, as most of the refineries showing plans for capacity expansion in near future, demand for pressure relief valves is anticipated to significantly increase. Rapidly increasing health and safety concerns across all industry verticals is another factor that is pushing existing industries to replace their legacy systems and upgrade to the new ones, thus fuelling more demand in the global pressure relief valves market.Pressure Relief Valves Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, pressure relief valves market has been categorized into seven key regions including North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, APEJ, Japan, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. North America is anticipated to dominate the global pressure relief valves market, amid, large number of chemical processing industries, and the rapidly expanding oil and gas production in the region. As oil and gas companies in the region explore more and more unconventional energy resources such as shale gas extraction, demand for pressure relief valves in the region is expected to remain high.Further, Western Europe being a global leader in chemical production is also anticipated to continue providing vast opportunity for pressure relief valves manufacturers. As, Asia Pacific Exc. Japan (APEJ) countries focus more on their domestic chemical production in turn relying less on western imports, demand for pressure relief valves in the region is expected to rise significantly. Moreover, on the backdrop of upcoming power generation projects inclusive of nuclear power plants in APEJ, the pressure relief valve market of the region is expected to grow throughout the forecast period. The Middle East and Africas pressure relief valves market is also anticipated to contribute significantly to the overall demand.Further, as oil prices revive demand for pressure relief valves in the region is expected to grow gradually. Japan is also a prominent region in terms of demand for pressure relief valves, however the growth rate is expected to remain moderate throughout the forecast period.Request to Sample of Report @Pressure Relief Valves Market PlayersSome of the key players identified in Global Pressure Relief Valves market are:-Pentair Ltd.Weir Group PLCGE CoCurtiss Wright Corp.LESER GmbH & Co. KGIMI plcAlfa Laval ABFlow Safe, Inc.Conbarco IndustriesVelan Inc.Watts Water Technologies, Inc.Goetze KG ArmaturenAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Global View of Agriculture Robots Market, By Offering, Type, Application - Trends, and Analysis, 2017-2025

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Agriculture robots are utilization in agricultural purposes for application at harvesting stage. Robots can be utilized in agriculture for sensing, actuation, and computation of the requirement of plants, which is difficult for a humans. Robots have wide applications in agriculture, which includes soil analysis, cloud seeding, weed control, planting seeds, environmental monitoring, and harvesting. Rosphere, Merlin Robot Milker, harvest automation, and orange harvester are some of the prototypes of robots in this field.Rising demand for high yields and better quality of harvest is a factor for driving growth of the market. Agriculture robots plays an important role in plantation, fertilizing, and harvesting of crops. Robots helps in better decisions making by providing detailed data at every stage of agriculture. This technology is used for monitoring the quality of crops and helps to enhance production. These are expected to boost growth of the global agriculture robots market over the forecast period.Request Table of Content of this Report :In addition to this, another major application of robots in agriculture is horticulture. Manufacturers are focusing on launching products for application in horticulture. This is another factor for aiding in growth of the market. For instance, Harvest Automation Inc. manufactures RV100, which is designed to organize and handle plants including collection of plants, spraying, and monitoring. Driverless sprayer, driverless tractors, and fruit picking robots can be utilized to automate manual work such as washing.However, high initial investment cost and lack of technical awareness in agricultural robotics technology are two major factors expected to restraint growth of the global agriculture robots market over the forecast period.Agriculture Robots Market: Regional InsightsThe global agriculture robots market is segmented on the basis of regions into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East, and Africa. The market for agriculture robots in North America accounted for the largest share of global agriculture robots market in 2016. This growth is attributed to the presence of global players in the region is another factor for growth of the market. Deere & Company, Trimble, Inc., Ag Junction, Inc., and AGCO Corporation, are the key global players present in the U.S., which is expected to have a positive impact on regional agriculture robots market.According to International Federation of Robotics Organization (IFR), Mexico is an important emerging market for industrial robots. From 2014, robot sales doubled, to about 5,500 units in 2015, by far the highest sales volume registered in the country. In Canada, robot sales surged by 49% to about 3,500 units in 2015 with compared to 2014. In 2015, robot sales in Brazil recovered by 11% to 1,400 units compared to 2014.Agriculture Robots Market: Competitive BackgroundMajor players operating in the global agriculture robots market include Deere & Company, Trimble Inc., Agco Corporation, Agjunction, Inc., DJI, Boumatic Robotics, B.V., Lely Holding S.A.R.L, AG Leader Technology, Topcon Positioning Systems, Inc., AG Eagle LLC, Agribotix LLC, and Autocopter Corp.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:Worldwide Dental Anesthetic Market : Top Key Players are Astra Zeneca, Septodont, Dentsply, Sirona, GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Gilead Sciences Inc., Johnson & Johnson

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Market Research Future published a Half-Cooked research report on Global Dental Anesthetic Market Research Report - Forecast to 2027  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2027.The Global Dental Anesthesia Market is growing exponentially owing to the increasing dental healthcare base, increasing trend towards dental health checkup, growing economy are the factor contributing to the growth of the market. The dental anesthesia market is expected to register a CAGR of about 8.9% over the forecast period (2017-2027).Anesthetics are drugs that has the ability to induce reversible sensation loss. Local anesthesia (vasoconstrictors) are different from analgesic or pain killers which relives pain without loss of sensation. They are usually administered to facilitate surgery. In U.S., the two vasoconstrictors are levonordefrin and epinephrine. Epinephrine used for dental anesthetics include lidocaine, articaine, prilocaine, and bupivacaine. Dental anesthetic consists of both local anesthetic and general anesthetic. These anesthetics are used in nonsurgical periodontal therapy (NSPT) procedures.Get a sample report atThe dental anesthetics are injected into the gum or inner cheek before performing any dental surgery. Rising cases of cancer, periodontitis, and gingivitis are expected to increase dental procedure, thus increasing the demand for dental anesthetics, globally. Increasing use of cigarettes and tobacco and changes in eating habit is anticipated to increase dental disorders related to maxiofacial and oral.The color-coding system empowered by the ADA Council on Scientific Affairs in 2003 is labelled on injectable local anesthetic that carried the ADA seal of acceptance. The system was developed as a result of the growing concern of difference in color coding from manufacturer to manufacture. The rising awareness about importance of dental health among the population and government initiatives to provide better dental facilities is expected to boost the market for dental anesthesia.Industry UpdatesSepember, 2017 AstraZeneca entered into a collaboration agreement with Aspen Global Incorporated (AGI) to acquire the rights for anaesthetic medicine outside U.S. The anaesthetic medication portfolio include EMLA, Xyloproct /Xylocard/ Xylocaine, Diprivan, Marcaine, Naropin, Citanest and Carbocaine. The agreement will imply AstraZeneca to manufacture and supply medication to AGI over a period of 5 years.Feb, 2017 Septodont Healthcare India Pvt. Ltd. acquires DLA, a leading injectable dental anesthetics manufactures. The leading dental anesthetics includes Lidostesim (Lidocaine), Mepivalem (Mepivacaine) and Citanest (Priolocaine). This acquisition will strengthen their presence throughout the Latin American region.2017 GlaxoSmithKline plc divested nearly all their anesthetics portfolio to Aspen Pharma. By this acquisition Aspen has strengthened its drug portfolio and increased its customer base. GSKs anaesthesia portfolio consists of Anectine, Ultiva, Mivacron Tracrium, and Nimbex. In addition, Aspen and GSK has entered into parallel agreements to terminate their collaboration in Africa and further exercise an option to acquire GSK's remaining thrombosis business.July, 2016 Kitron signs supply agreement with Dentsply Sirona. This agreement will add Kitron as a new supplier for Dentsply Sirona.March, 2016 Johnson & Johnson released the Sedasys anesthesia device. By this acquisition Aurora Diagnostics will strengthen consultancy in Laboratory Medicine.February, 2016 DENTSPLY International Inc. and Sirona Dental Systems, Inc. announce completion of remaining regulatory milestones for proposed merger.June, 2014 Inibsa Dental started marketing The Wand STA in June a new system for delivery of dental anaesthesia that allows for a painless process and with less collateral numbness after the intervention.Browse Complete Report atGlobal Dental Anesthesia Market - Regional AnalysisNowadays the injectable dental local anesthetics available in North America amide based local anesthetics. North America holds the largest market share for Dental Anesthesia Market and is anticipated to dominate the market forecast period.The European healthcare industry is flourishing owing to the increasing number of medical professionals and growing awareness. The steady increase in the number of dentists in Europe specifically France, Germany, and Italy. Increased awareness about healthcare due to the high literacy rate in Europe is ultimately going to boost the growth of the dental market further boosting the dental anesthetics market.Asia Pacific is a fastest growing dental consumables market. The dental consumables market comprises of large and small entities which provides a platform for healthy competition and scope for growth. With already established players such as Shuguang and J Morita in the dental consumables market, the dental anesthesia market is going to witness a high growth rate. The region is also considered as one of the largest exporter of dental consumables around the world due to the rising demand for higher standards and quality, the regions proved to be a huge market for anesthetics as well as dental consumables.More inquire atGlobal Dental Anesthesia Market - Competitive AnalysisThe well-established market players in Europe such as DENTSPLY, Septodont, and Astra Zeneca in the market are contributing to the increasing demand for better standards of healthcare and products which will further result in the growth of dental anesthetics market.of the key players in this market are Astra Zeneca, Septodont, Dentsply, Sirona, GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Gilead Sciences Inc., Johnson & Johnson and others.About usAt Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Market Research FutureP: +1 646 845 9312W:sales@marketresearchfuture.comTwo new 3-phase inverters from KACO new energy: blueplanet 3.0 TL3 and 4.0 TL3

The blueplanet 3.0 TL3 and 4.0 TL3 inverters for small solar PV systems

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www.kaco-newenergy.com

Neckarsulm, 15. February 2018  The well-known blueplanet inverters from Neckarsulm are now available with an output power starting at 3 kilowatts. So far, the blueplanet 5.0 TL3 opened the entry into the world of three-phase devices: Now, it is the blueplanet 3.0 TL3 and blueplanet 4.0 TL3. Good news for installers operating in markets where photovoltaic systems of this performance class and above have to be connected in three phases, for example in Switzerland or Austria.Single-phase or three-phase? For a long time, in the early growth phase of solar electrification, grid operators considered photovoltaics to be irrelevant or, at best, a small disturbance. The growing penetration of the grids by decentralised solar power plants, however, led to the awareness that the energy turnaround will not be stopped. As a result, the pressure to feed in three-phase for reliable load distribution increased. In Germany, this has always been compulsory from 4.6 kVA upwards. Countries such as Austria or Switzerland decided for such a limit later on, and drew it at 3.0 kVA. In addition, this performance range has meanwhile established itself as a typical "package size" for solar power systems  with a pack of ten modern high-performance modules.Consequently, KACO new energy has opened up the product range of inverters with an AC output of up to ten kilowatts to lower outputs. In addition to the six larger units from five kVA upwards, customers can now also plan with the new units with three and four kVA: a handsome selection of inverters for residential PV systems and for small commercial applications.The new blueplanet 3.0 TL3 and blueplanet 4.0 TL3 inverters come with "full performance" in terms of equipment features: Both have two MPP trackers, each of which can process the full DC power; they start from 200 volts of applied voltage; and they operate stable up to 950 volts. These features allow for optimal PV system design with these inverters and rank them among the most flexible three-phase inverters of their performance class on the market. Thanks to fast cabling of the DC and AC peripherals by means of plug connectors and quick menu selection via the graphic display, installation is easy  even outdoors, because of the compact housing with IP65 protection. And as always, data logger and web server are already integrated.Michael Humburg, Sales Manager D.A.CH. is convinced: "With these all-rounders we will further expand our good standing in the area of private photovoltaic systems. I am particularly looking forward to new and well-known customers in our southern neighbouring countries, to whom we can now offer the full range of our three-phase inverters."About KACO new energy:KACO new energy, headquartered in Neckarsulm, Germany is one of the worlds largest manufacturers of inverters for grid-feed solar power. The product line-up covers the full power range, from single units designed for a family home up to complete systems for solar parks producing megawatts of electricity. Since 1999, KACO new energy has supplied inverters with a cumulative power output of 12 gigawatts. This offering has been extended to include solutions for PV self-consumption and energy storage, devices for grid management, as well as products and value-added services for utility-scale projects. KACO new energy is the first company in the photovoltaic industry to achieve CO2-neutral production and in 2014, celebrated the 100th birthday of the original parent company which, at the end of the 1930s, was one of first ever inverter manufacturers. More atContact:KACO new energy GmbHKornelia LauserDirector Global Marketing & Power Plant SolutionsCarl-Zeiss-Str. 174172 NeckarsulmGermanyTel. +49 7132 3818-0Fax +49 7132 3818-703pr@kaco-newenergy.deAmerica Commercial Refrigeration Equipment Market Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast to 2025

MRRSE

https://www.mrrse.com/sample/951

https://www.mrrse.com/commercial-refrigeration-equipments

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Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has been serving as an active source to cater intelligent research report to enlighten both readers and investors. This research study titled Commercial Refrigeration Equipment MarketRequest a Free Sample Report@The market for commercial refrigeration equipment in Latin America is highly dynamic and derives much of its growth from the growing need for energy efficient equipment, continual advancements in refrigeration technologies, and the expanding tourism sector in the region.The increasing implementation of several regional environmental and energy regulations, such as Energy Efficiency Program for Latin America and the Caribbean (PALCEE) and Regional Energy Information System (SIER), by Latin America Energy Organization (OLADE) is also expected to boost this regional market substantially. Furthermore, the demand for new and more units, boosted by the economic growth and the augmenting consumerism, is likely to support this market over the forthcoming years.The Latin America market for commercial refrigeration equipment is characterized by the increasing demand for new product installations against the replacement demand observed in developed markets in Europe and North America. In 2016, the total opportunity in this market stood at US$927.4 mn. Progressing at a CAGR of 6.50% between 2017 and 2025, the market expects to attain a value of US$1,619.0 mn by the end of 2025.Brazil to Continue Leading Latin America Commercial Refrigeration Equipment MarketThe Latin America market for commercial refrigeration equipment is spread across Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and the Rest of Latin America. Among these, Brazil has surfaced the key contributor to this regional market. With a share of 38%, Brazil led the overall market in 2016 and is anticipated to continue as the dominant domestic market for commercial refrigeration equipment in Latin America.Outlook Complete Report with Table of Content @With Brazil being a prominent exporter of fruit juices, soy beans, fresh and frozen chicken, poultry meat, meat preparations, and oil cakes, the exuberant export of perishables from this country has been driving the adoption of commercial refrigeration equipment here. The growing demand for stored and refrigerated food items, thanks to the rise of the countrys travel and tourism industry, is likely to boost the Brazil commercial refrigeration equipment market in the near future.Brazil is closely followed by Mexico in terms of the uptake of commercial refrigeration equipment, thanks to the significant growth of the processed and packaged food industry in this country. The presence of a robust food processing industry with renowned Mexican brands such as Bimbo, Lala, Gruma, and Herdez, with a well-distributed network across Latin America, reflects greatly on the usage of commercial refrigeration equipment in this country, leading to a phenomenal growth of this Mexican market over the next few years. The augmenting demand for ready-to-eat and frozen foods is also expected to propel the commercial refrigeration equipment in this country in the years to come.Demand for Refrigerators and Freezers to Remain Strong in Latin AmericaTransportation refrigeration equipment, refrigerator and freezer, beverage refrigeration, and commercial refrigeration equipment parts are the main products available in the Latin America market for commercial refrigeration equipment. Refrigerators and freezers witness a higher demand from end users. In 2016, this segment led the market with a share of 37.4% and is projected to continue doing so over the forthcoming years.Food services, food and beverage retail, food and beverage distribution, and food and beverage production are the prime application areas of commercial refrigeration equipment in Latin America. The demand for these refrigeration devices has been greater from the food and services segment. Analysts anticipate this scenario to remain same in the near future.Send an Inquiry @Lennox International Inc., Hussmann International Inc., United Technologies Corp., Daikin Industries Ltd., Dover Corp., Illinois Tool Works Inc., Beverage-Air Corp., and Metalfrio Solutions SA are the key manufacturers of commercial refrigerator equipment in Latin America.About MRRSEMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:Silver Sulphate Market to Rear Excessive Growth During 2017 - 2027

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Silver Sulphate Market: IntroductionSilver Sulphate is an ionic compound, with a chemical formula of Ag2SO4 and can be used as a substitute for silver nitrate. Silver sulphate is odorless in nature and is white to gray solid, which can sink with water and is soluble. It is more soluble in comparison to the silver halides. Additionally, silver sulphate is stable under the ordinary conditions or room temperature, but when it is exposed to direct light and air it gets dark in color. Therefore, the best way to keep silver sulphate is in the dark colored and airtight bottles.Silver sulfate has weak reducing or oxidizing powers, however, redox reactions are sometimes possible up to some extent. Most of the compounds, which falls in this category, are slightly insoluble or soluble in water. If they are soluble in water, then the solutions are generally neither strongly basic nor strongly acidic. Therefore, these compounds such as silver sulphate are not water-reactive. Additionally, there are some harmful effects of silver sulphate such as when one gets direct contact to it, silver sulphate can cause serious irritation or damage to eye and skin, and it has the hazardous impact on aquatic life and cause long-term effects.Furthermore, there are numerous uses of silver sulfate such as it can be used or silver plating process, for medicinal purposes, water treatment, solar cells, fuel cells, etc. As it is an antibacterial agent and has high ability to kill bacterial cells, silver sulphate is used as bandages. In Food industry silver Sulphate is used in very less amount due to the rules and regulations defined by Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Silver Sulphate is also used to remove tarnish from aluminum as it reacts with other metal leaving behind the silver.A sample of this report is available upon request @Silver Sulphate Market: DynamicsSilver is attributed as the antibacterial element, thus finds its application in the pharmaceutical industry for example in the treatment of skin wounds, skin abrasions, serious lacerations which are impregnated with silver Sulphate and provide relief to the patients, thus owing to this property exhibited by silver Sulphate it is expected to drive the silver Sulphate market. Chemical industry is expected to be one of the major consumer of Silver Sulphate as it is used as an antioxidant, lubricant, catalyst, in silver plating etc. thus fueling the growth of silver Sulphate consumption during the forecast period.Presence of many suppliers across the globe such as Molepedia, 1717 CheMall Corporation, AKos Consulting & Solutions, Aurora Fine Chemicals LLC, Finetech Industry Limited etc. indicates that market is growing at a significant rate.High cost of silver Sulphate due to the high cost of silver coupled with high cost involved in the production of high purity of silver Sulphate for various applications is expected to pose restraint towards the growth of silver Sulphate market.Silver Sulphate Market: SegmentationSilver Sulphate Market can be segmented on the basis of Form SolidPowderSilver Sulphate Market can be segmented on the basis of end use industry:Agriculture industryFood IndustryPharmaceutical IndustryChemical IndustryOthers (Military, optical etc.)To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Silver Sulphate Market: Regional OutlookAsia Pacific region is expected to grow at significant rate during the forecast period which can be attributing to the growing population in the emerging countries like India, China etc. which is leading to the growth of the agriculture industry, food industry, pharmaceutical industry etc in region which is expected to drive the market.North America and Europe region are expected to have increase in consumption silver Sulphate during the forecast period which can be attributed to the increase in disposable income of people which is leading to the increase in consumption of products containing Silver Sulphate for example in bandage which prevents the growth of bacteria, does not sticks to the skin thus accelerating the growth of silver market in both the regions.Latin America and Middle East & Africa region is expected to grow at steady rate during the forecast period which can be attributed to the growing food industry in Latin America and agriculture industry in Middle East and Africa region is expected to fuel the silver Sulphate consumption during the forecast period thus leading the growth of silver Sulphate market.Silver Sulphate Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants in the Silver Sulphate market are:Merck kGAaEastman Kodak CompanySCHWITZ BIOTECHSanta Cruz Biotechnology, IncLabChemVWR INTERNATIONAL Ltd.Silver shine chemicalsRicca Chemical CompanyHiMedia Laboratories.Pheonix IndustriesABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Abhishek BudholiyaFuture Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Global Port Equipment Tire Market 2018 - Camso, Titan, Continental, Trelleborg

Global Port Equipment Tire Market

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The statistical surveying information incorporated into the Port Equipment Tire report is the aftereffect of significant essential and optional research exercises. The report fragments the worldwide market for Port Equipment Tire based on makers, item compose, applications, and Region. In this report, each fragment is contemplated completely and measurements are introduced in detail. The report offers an exact outline of the worldwide Port Equipment Tire advertise covering key factors, for example, drivers and restrictions affecting the development.Get the sample report :Top manufacturers of Port Equipment Tire Market Report :CamsoTitanContinentalTrelleborgMichelinAichiMitasAdvanceHankookThe worldwide Port Equipment Tire advertise report is the result of the intensive investigation of the market, which will help showcase players to manage and develop exponentially in the gigantically aggressive market.Enquire before buying Port Equipment Tire Market report :The Port Equipment Tire report is set up after essential and auxiliary levels of research exercises. Essential research speaks to the heft of research endeavors, supplemented by a broad optional research. Auxiliary research incorporates investigation of late exchange, web sources, and factual information from government associations, exchange affiliations and offices. This has ended up being the most dependable, powerful and fruitful approach for getting exact Port Equipment Tire advertise information, catching industry member's bits of knowledge and perceiving business openings. The write about the worldwide Port Equipment Tire showcase likewise talks about a portion of the main players display in the market, winning rivalry, key procedures received and their current advancements.About UsApex Market Reports offers elevating market research globally. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different categories. Apex Market Reports provides you to best services, weather youre searching for new trends in market or competitive scenario in emerging market.Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank ValadezCorporate Sales Specialist155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Phone: +17739042683Email id - sales@apexmarketreports.comWebsite -We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription.Ethylene Glycol Market : Competitive Landscape & Growth Opportunities 2025

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https://www.tmrresearch.com/china-ethylene-glycol-market

Ethylene Glycol Market: SnapshotOne of the key factors boosting the growth of the Chinese ethylene glycol market is the increasing demand for PET bottles from the packaging industry. As food brands are seeking safer and healthier packaging alternatives, demand for PET packaging is increasing, which in turn is driving the growth prospects of the Chinese ethylene glycol market. PET containers can help retain the food aroma, flavor, and appearance. As PET bottles are easy to handle, light in weight, and can be re-sealed without any inconvenience, their demand will continue to grow, which in turn will boost the growth of the ethylene glycol market. The lead author of the report has stated that the flourishing growth of the automotive industry will also be a driving factor for the growth of the ethylene glycol market in China.The demand for polyesters fibers for coated fabrics, seat belts, conveyor belt fabrics, in China will boost the growth of the market. This is because ethylene glycol is required for the manufacturing of polyester fibers. The Chinese ethylene glycol market is fragmented with the presence of small and large players. This is expected to create intense market competition among players. China has feedstock advantages and closer proximity to end-user markets, and this will drive the ethylene glycol in the country. The demand for ethylene glycol will rise from the downstream applications and textile industries. Fabrics made using polyester are extensively used in home furnishings, apparels, blankets, computer mouse pads, bed sheets, and upholstered furniture.Request Sample Copy of the Report@China Ethylene Glycol Market: OverviewThe China ethylene glycol market is likely to experience a tremendous growth, primarily due to the burgeoning demand for polyester fibers across the globe. Polyester fibers are widely used in the textile industry in the manufacturing of carpets, upholstery, conveyer belts, and seat belts. Ethylene glycol is an organic compound primarily used in the manufacturing of polyester fibers and polyethylene terephthalate. Globally, Asia Pacific is one of the key consumer as well as manufacturer of ethylene glycol. China is one of the important growth sites of the Asia Pacific market.At present, China uses conventional processes for the production of ethylene glycol. Manufacturers are shifting their focus from conventional petrochemical route to coal. The country is expected to commercialize its coal-based manufacturing processes in the forthcoming years across all projects. Several manufacturers in the country produce ethylene glycol using syngas, a mixture of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide.Request TOC of the Report @The report is a complete, professional study for existing as well as new manufacturers in the China ethylene glycol market. It provides essential insights into the industry chain structure along with an extensive understanding of the upstream raw materials and downstream demand chain and import and export statistics. It also sheds light on the currently available production capacities and the efficiency at which they are utilized. The competitive landscape of the market has been derived using tools such as Porters five force analysis and market attractiveness analysis. It offers a detailed overview of drivers, restraints, opportunities, and trends of the China ethylene glycol market.China Ethylene Glycol Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe growing demand for PET resin from the food and beverage industry for the manufacturing of water bottles and food containers is driving the China ethylene glycol market. The rising demand for antifreeze agents is also bolstering the growth of the market. Ethylene glycol is used as antifreeze in the automotive industry. Moreover, it is extensively used in medical sterilization and as heat transfer agent and coolant in geothermal pumps and air conditioning systems. The increasing production capacity for ethylene glycol is favoring the growth of the market.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @On the flip side, the efficiency of the existing production setups is low and therefore, the output has not increased as significantly as production capacities have increased. Volatile prices and transportation of raw materials, particularly ethylene dioxide are primary concerns for players in the market.China Ethylene Glycol Market: Regional SegmentationEast China will be a prominent regional segment during the forecast period. Zhejiang, Anhui, and Jiangsu are the major revenue contributors to the growth of the region, primarily due to high ethylene glycol consumption in these provinces. Hebei province located in North China also serves as a major hub for the China market. Shijiazhuang Lanyang Chemicals Co. Ltd. and Shijiazhuang Panjiang Chemicals Ltd. are among the major producers of ethylene glycol in the province.China Ethylene Glycol Market: Key Manufacturers Mentioned in the ReportSome of the prominent players in the China ethylene glycol market are Jiangsu Tianyin Chemical Co. Ltd., Hebei Qilong Chemicals Co. Ltd., Royal Dutch Shell, Sinopec, China National Petroleum Corporation, and Anhui XinYuan Chemical Co. Ltd.About UsTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comGlobal Chloromethane Market Size, Share, Outlook & Forecast 2018-2022

Global Chloromethane Market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/chloromethane-market-2417

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Global Chloromethane Market 2018 to 2022|Information-by Types (Methylene Chloride, Methyl Chloride, Carbon Tetrachloride, Chloroform), by Application (Pharmaceuticals, Silicone polymers, Agrochemicals, Chemical intermediate, Personal-care, Medical, Others) and by Region - Forecast till 2022Top 10 Global Chloromethane Key Players:The Dow Chemical Company, Asahi Glass Co. Ltd, Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd, Alfa Aesar, Akzonobel N.V., Solvay SA, INEOS Group, Tokuyana Corporation, Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd., Occidental Chemical Corporation among others are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the Global Chloromethane Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Request for complete report @Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:May 2017- AkzoNobel and Gujarat based Atul chemical announced plans to set up a Monochloracetic acid (MCA) plant and the production is expected to commence by 2019. MCA plant is set to start with initial capacity of 32,000 tons per year. With this AkzoNobel strengthen its position in global chloromethane market.March 2017- GFL is planning to restructure its chemical segment and separate its chemical business into a separate business group.February 2017- Meghmani Finechem Ltd, a subsidiary of Meghmani Organics Ltd announced to setting up chloromethane plant of 40,000 metric tonne per annum at Dahej, Gujarat. With this expansion, the unit will manufacture chloroform, carbon tetra chloride, and methylene dichloride. The company will be able to meet the growing demand of agrochemical and pharmaceutical for methylene dichloride.January 2016- AkzoNobel and Evonik Industries will start production for chlorine and potassium hydroxide solution in Germany. With this joint venture, the company expand its business and strengthen its position in chloromethane market.November 2016- GACL will set up a chloromethane plant with annual capacity of 105,000 TPA or 315 MT per day at Dahej location. With this expansion the company expand its business and further increase its presence in chloromethane market across the Asia Pacific.March 2016- The Olin Corporation took the decision to reduce the capacity of chlor alkali capcaity by 433,000 tons across three different locations namely, Henderson, Niagara falls, Freeport. The company will restructure its business segment and will shift their focus on other business areas.Access Complete Report @Competitive LandscapeThe Chloromethane report analyses the degree of competition among the key manufacturers as well as industry growth and market scenario. The global Chloromethane market consist of various players operating in the market including large scale and medium size producers. The key market players operating in the global Chloromethane industry is concentrating towards growth association specifically by Asia Pacific as medium scale and key operating players are from this region specifically from China, South Korea, India, and Japan. Moreover, the company is focusing on enhancing their product portfolio by strategic acquisition and mergers, joint ventures, and exclusive agreements. Some of the companies are expanding their production capacity of chloromethane to meet the growing demand for chloromethane.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.ContactMarket Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comFeb 15, 2018: Cooking Oil Market Forecast 2018-2025 Unilever, ConAgra Foods, Associated British Food

Cooking Oil Market 2018

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A market study "Global Cooking Oil Market" examines the performance of the Cooking Oil market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Cooking Oil market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Cooking Oil market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Cooking Oil Market 2018 report includes Cooking Oil market Revenue, market Share, Cooking Oil industry volume, market Trends, Cooking Oil Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Cooking Oil Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Cooking Oil Market 2018 :1. Unilever2. Wilmar International3. ConAgra Foods4. Associated British Food5. Bunge6. Cargill7. CHS8. Archer Daniels Midland9. Ajinomoto10. United Plantations BerhadCooking Oil Market : By ApplicationSupermarketGrain and Oil ShopsConvenience StoresCooking Oil Market : By TypeSunflower OilCorn OilPalm OilPeanut OilOlive OilFirstly, the report covers the top Cooking Oil manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Cooking Oil report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Cooking Oil industry, Cooking Oil industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Cooking Oil Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Cooking Oil research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Cooking Oil market revenue worldwide.Finally, Cooking Oil market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Usqyresearchstore.com is a leading market intelligence team which making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact US:5001 Spring Valley Rd #400,Dallas,TX 75244, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Email: sales@qyresearchstore.comHydrogel Market Growth  Key Futuristic Trends And Competitive Landscape 2018-2023

Hydrogel Market

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Hydrogel Market  OverviewHydrogel is a hydrophilic network of polymer chains which are often found as colloidal gel. Hydrogel possess enhanced absorbent properties and can contain around 90% of water. The growing demand for hydrogel in baby care and personal hygiene products coupled with the growing use of contact lenses are the major factor driving the market. The advantages of hydrogel such as water retention efficiency, ease of use and time efficiency during wound closure and other medical procedures is also contributing to the market growth.Get Sample of Report @The Global Hydrogel Market is segmented on the basis of type, composition, form, application and regions. On the basis of type the market is bifurcated into natural, synthetic and hybrid hydrogels. On the basis of composition the market is bifurcated into polyacrylate, polyacrylamide, and silicon hydrogel. On the basis of form the market is categorized into amorphous, crystalline and semi crystalline hydrogels, and on the basis of application the market is further differentiated into agriculture, healthcare and hygiene, contact lenses, drug delivery systems, tissue engineering, and others.According to MRFR analysis, the global market of Hydrogel is a lucrative market and is expected to witness a considerable growth and develop at an encouraging CAGR during the forecast years. The growing demand of hydrogel from the personal care and agricultural industry is the major factor driving the global market. Hydrogel is highly demanded from the agricultural industry owing to its ability to promote robust growth in plants, improve soil permeability and reduce soil erosion among others. Moreover, the growing health awareness among the population throughout the globe coupled with the increasing demand for baby diapers, sanitary pads and contact lenses is also expected to add to the growth of the market. In addition to this, the growing application in wound care dressings, and treatment of necrotic wounds and burns are other factors surging the market growth.Make an Enquiry before buying @Competitive LandscapeThe Global Hydrogel is a lucrative market and is expected show an increasing CAGR during the forecast period. Johnson & Johnson Private Limited (U.S.A), Cardinal Health (U.S.A), The Cooper Companies, Inc. (U.S.A), Dow Corning Corporation (U.S.A), R&D Medical Products Inc (U.S.A) are some of the major players operating in the market. These players are adopting various key strategies of market growth. These key players are adopting innovation, product launch, merger and acquisition, collaboration, increased investment in research and development activities and other market survival techniques to cater to the large consumer base and strengthen their position in the market. The best long-term growth opportunities for this sector can be captured by ensuring ongoing process improvements and financial flexibility to invest in the optimal strategies.North America is expected to be a dominant region in the market of hydrogel. The growing demand of hydrogel in agriculture, medicine, biotechnology, tissue engineering among others is driving the market growth. Moreover, the growing adoption of the product coupled with the increasing demand for contact lenses mainly in U.S. and Canada are other factors positively effecting the growth of the market.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:27 June, 2016- The engineers of MIT has developed a new product, a hydrogel hybrid. This new product prevents the dehydration of hydrogels and helps in enhancing the durability of contact lenses, flexible bioelectronics and artificial skin among others. This new product is expected to surge the market demand during the forecast period.17 October, 2017- Scientists from the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) has developed a hydrogel that has the ability to treat rheumatoid arthritis by the process of absorption of extra fluids and from the infected area and releasing drugs. This new development is set to augment the demand for hydrogels from the pharmaceutical industry.Get Complete Report @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comGlobal Car Dashcam Market Is Set To Grow At a Remarkable Pace in the Coming Years

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Car Dashcam Market Research Report 2018 to its huge collection of research reports.The international market for Car Dashcam has been researched on with every detail in the publication with increased emphasis on various significant factors such as growth drivers, restraints and market opportunities. Each of the elements that pertain to the shaping of the market dynamics that has been analyzed and studied in detail by the research analysts, so as to offer the best and most evaluative and exhaustive study to the report buyers. The snapshot or the executive summary that has been provided in the market intelligence study has been designed in such a way so as to give a quick overview of the market for receiving information on the go. This could help readers with hands-on data needed to make quick decisions anytime during their growth journey in the market.Fill the form to gain deeper insights on this market @The major players in global Car Dashcam market includeBlackviewFirst Scene360 (QIHU)PhilipsNextbase UKPAPAGODODOn the basis of product, the Car Dashcam market is primarily split intoSingle Channel DashcamMulti-Channel DashcamOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report coversPassenger VehicleCommercial VehicleThe study of market segmentations that has been offered with the publication that explores some of the most significant categories of the world Car Dashcam market is deemed significant for the growth of industry participants. All of the segments that have been studied elaborately in the said publication have been deeply evaluated with assistance from best of the research techniques. The analysts have dissected each of the segments and have shed light on vital factors that influence the growth of the various segments. Using this crucial information, market players could rightly shape their business plans in favor of the betterment of their growth in the world market. Segments that have been analyzed in the publication could be related to product, end use, application, and geography.A group of experienced analysts who have prepared the said report delves deep into the various factors that hinder or fuel the global market for Car Dashcam. It also discovers and mentions the important trends that are emerging in the said market. Banking upon all these information that has been gathered so far, it has come up with the best course of action for all the stake holders of the market.To Browse a Full Report with TOC:Table of Contents1 Car Dashcam Market Overview11.1 Product Overview and Scope of Car Dashcam11.2 Car Dashcam Segment by Types (Product Category)21.2.1 Global Car Dashcam Production by Types21.2.2 Global Car Dashcam Production Market Share by Types in 201731.2.3 Single Channel Dashcam31.2.4 Multi-Channel Dashcam42 Global Car Dashcam Market Competition by Manufacturers132.1 Global Car Dashcam Production and Share by Manufacturers (2016-2017)132.2 Global Car Dashcam Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2016-2017)152.3 Global Car Dashcam Average Price by Manufacturers (2016-2017)172.4 Manufacturers Car Dashcam Headquarters and Established Date192.5 Car Dashcam Market Competitive Situation and Trends213 Global Car Dashcam Production by Regions (2013-2018)233.1 Global Car Dashcam Production and Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)233.2 Global Car Dashcam Revenue and Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)243.3 Global Car Dashcam Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)253.4 North America Car Dashcam Production (2013-2018)26To Get Discount Of This Report Click here @About USQYResearchReports.com is an unimpeachable source of market research data for clients that comprise acclaimed SMEs, Chinese companies, private equity firms, and MNCs. We provide market research reports on various categories such as Energy, Chemicals, Alternative and Green Energy, Manufacturing, Machinery, Pharmaceuticals and Materials, and Glass.We provide a variety of syndicated studies and hold the potential of assisting our clients with their specific market research needs by offering insights based on extensive primary interviews, market surveys, company profiles, and competitive landscaping. Our far-sighted ideas have been successful in igniting a number of startups, investment programs, technology breakthroughs, and new product development projects.Contact US1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comBlog:Feb 15, 2018: Metal Working Fluids Market Forecast 2018-2025 Houghton, BP, Quaker, FUCHS

Metal Working Fluids Market 2018

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A market study "Global Metal Working Fluids Market" examines the performance of the Metal Working Fluids market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Metal Working Fluids market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Metal Working Fluids market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Metal Working Fluids Market 2018 report includes Metal Working Fluids market Revenue, market Share, Metal Working Fluids industry volume, market Trends, Metal Working Fluids Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Metal Working Fluids Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Metal Working Fluids Market 2018 :1. Houghton2. BP3. Quaker4. FUCHS5. Yushiro Chemical6. ExxonMobil7. Henkel8. Chevron9. Blaser10. PETROFER11. Master Chemical12. Buhmwoo Chemical13. JX MOE14. Dow15. Francool16. OtherMetal Working Fluids Market : By ApplicationAutomotive IndustryGeneral IndustryMetal Working Fluids Market : By TypeRemoval FluidsTreating FluidsForming FluidsProtecting FluidsFirstly, the report covers the top Metal Working Fluids manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Metal Working Fluids report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Metal Working Fluids industry, Metal Working Fluids industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Metal Working Fluids Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Metal Working Fluids research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Metal Working Fluids market revenue worldwide.Finally, Metal Working Fluids market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Usqyresearchstore.com is a leading market intelligence team which making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact US:5001 Spring Valley Rd #400,Dallas,TX 75244, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Email: sales@qyresearchstore.comModified Atmospheric Packaging Market Global Size, Segments, Growth and Trends by Forecast to 2022

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Global Modified Atmospheric Packaging Market Overview:The Modified Atmospheric Packaging market is a very dynamic market and is expected to witness high growth over the forecast period. The growth of such packaging is influenced by increased demand from food & beverage industry, and stringent government policies regarding food safety.Food & Beverage industry has adopted Modified Atmospheric Packaging extensively across the world due to the some additional functionalities such as retention of textural, visual, and nutritional appeal, along with increased shelf life. There is seen an increased demand for Modified Atmospheric Packaging from the growing food & beverage industry, which has driven the market for global Modified Atmospheric Packaging. According to Institutional Repository of the Pan American Health Organization, global volume sales of processed food & beverages increased from 328,005 K Tons in 2010 to 471476 K Tons in 2013.The stringent regulation, makes innovation and quality paramount to the pharmaceutical industry. Legislative changes, new drugs and advances in technology have required appropriate changes in packaging. Such regulations ensure the companies increase sustainability and use environmentally friendly materials, while responding to the multiplying opportunities presented by globalisation, making packaging more crucial than ever. Furthermore the increasing investment by the companies in the technological advancement has further opened doors for the market growth.There is seen an expanding role of government and other agencies to ensure food safety on a global platform. Government agencies are responsible for setting food safety standards, conducting inspections, ensuring that standards are met, and maintaining a strong enforcement program to deal with those who do not comply with standards. The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), enables the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to better protect public health by strengthening the food safety system. The government policies have become stringent in the emerging economies due to increased awareness about food safety. This acts as a driver for the growth of Modified Atmospheric Packaging market.Request a Sample Report @Major Key Players:Linde AG (Germany), CVP Systems Inc. (U.S.), Total Packaging Solutions, LLC (U.S.), Berry Plastics Corporation (U.S.), Hayssen Flexible Systems (U.S.), Dansensor A/S (Demark), Praxair Inc. (U.S), Ilapak Packaging Machinery (Switzerland), Sealed Air Corporation (U.S.), and Bemis Company Inc. (U.S) are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the global Modified Atmospheric Packaging market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Global Modified Atmospheric Packaging Market Competitive Analysis:Modified Atmospheric Packaging Market has seen significant growth in last few years due to its application across industries, and supportive government policies on food safety. The companies such as Paksense Inc., American Thermal Instruments, Stora Enso, Huhtamaki and Smartrac N.V. have adopted the strategy of product development and partnership across the supply.Such key strategies adopted by the major players in the global Modified Atmospheric Packaging market has been adopted to cater to the technological requirements of the Modified Atmospheric Packaging market for both active and intelligent packaging segment. The market is highly technology driven across all applications and thus demands regular product innovation and increased investment in R&D. Furthermore the partnerships with other players across the supply chain ensures the expanding client base as well as the market share for the companies.Linde LLC introduces a fast and more reliable process to detect leaks in Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP). The high-speed, inline MAPAX LD leak-detection system will be introduced to the North American market. The patented MAPAX LD system is ideal for packaged meat, poultry, seafood and prepared foods packaged with tray sealers or thermoforming machines. It tests packages inline and can achieve 100 percent sampling at speeds up to 120 packages per minute.The Middleby Corp. acquires CVP Systems. CVP Systems manufactures highspeed packaging systems for the meat processing industry. The addition of CVP further deepens the capabilities of the companys food processing group with a highly complementary technology to their product portfolio.Global Modified Atmospheric Packaging Market Segments:Global Modified Atmospheric Packaging Market is segmented in to 3 Key dynamics for an easy grasp and enhanced understanding.Segmentation by Material : Comprises  Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Ethylene Vinyl Alcohol, Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), Polyproylene (PP) and Polyethylene (PE)Segmentation by Gases: Comprises  Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon-Dioxide, and othersSegmentation by Application: Comprises  Dairy Products, Bakery & Confectionery, Convenience Food, Fruits & Vegetables, & OthersSegmentation by Regions: Comprises Geographical regions - North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the WorldAccess Report Details @Global Modified Atmospheric Packaging Market - Regional AnalysisGlobal Modified Atmospheric Packaging market is projected to grow at a faster pace due to the increasing demand across food & beverage packaging industries. The MAP solution in these sector is demanded across the supply chain and is thus driving the market globally for such technology.North America accounts for the largest share in the global Modified Atmospheric Packaging market. The region has witnessed increased investment in the R&D and product innovation as far as packaging is concerned. Furthermore, the stringent food safety policies in the countries of the U.S. and Canada drives the demand of Modified Atmospheric Packaging in the food & beverage sector.APAC is expected to experience the fastest growth during the forecasted period due to the economic growth of China and India. The region offers flourishing market for such technological advanced packaging solutions. The FDI in retail has further widened the scope of Modified Atmospheric Packaging and attracts the foreign players to enter the market with new packaging solutions. This is backed by the increasing demand of packaged food and beverages in countries of Asia Pacific.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comRelease Agents Market Expected to Dominate Worldwide by 2025

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With change in people lifestyle, busy schedule, and health concern worldwide, people are inclining towards processed foods for food safety and storage. Processed food such as cooked, dried, canned, frozen food need some release agents that aid in the separation of food from pan, tray and other packaging materials. Now a days for food production release agents are indispensable. Release agents are substances that eliminate the bonding between two surfaces.Release agents have a moist surface and tendency of stickiness. Release agents are used for release of rolls and breads, high sugar baked food, dry baked goods, perforated sheets, and baking sheets. Moreover, release agents are also used for moulds coated with teflon which will increase the service life of coating. Release agents such as white mineral oils, acetylated, monoglycerides, stearic acid, and polyethylene glycols are applied for food processing equipment especially for assemblies that directly contact with food substances. In baking process, the release agent is an essential component with diverse physical properties that are used for different stages of baking process. It is important to have a proper selection of a release agent to provide a thin, consistent, and oil film around the processed food.Request Sample Report @Release Agents Market: Drivers and RestraintsRelease agents market are witnessing maximum growth owing to good physical stability, release agents are easy to apply by spraying, increasing use of natural or organic agents which have a favorable impact on release agents and demand for bakery products. Moreover, changing in the eating habits, and growing industrial food productions are some other factors expected to flourish the Release Agents market. However, risk of release agents reaction with the food or surface of the pan, detrimental effect on the taste and odor of food, allergenic substances in release agents and stringent government regulations for health & safety may hamper the growth of release agents market in near future.Release Agents Market: OverviewBased on application, bakery release agent is classified into various categories such as trough grease, divider oil, bread pan oil, pan grease and specialty release agents which helps to eliminate sticking points, make the mould or tray hydrophobic, and form an uninterrupted film between the surfaces. The use of fatty acid in vegetable oil helps in oxidation stability and has a propensity to polymerization. Moreover, hydrogenated and animal fats are hardly used in release agents. Based on composition, waxes & emulsified waxes have a good release action which controls the viscosity of release agents, and improved distribution of the release agents on the surface. It also reduces the risk of resinification and avoid turbidity of oil.Request to Browse Full Table of Content, figure and Tables @Release Agents Market: Region-wise OutlookDepending on geographic region, Release Agents market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. Asia Pacific dominates the Release Agents market followed by Europe, Japan and North America owing to food technological advancement, high awareness, and high consumption of processed foods. Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa hold huge potential and shows substantial growth in terms of rising demand for bakery products such as pastries, breads, cakes and biscuits, growing stand of living, increasing health awareness along with increasing disposable income and rising demand for processed food.Release Agents Market: Key PlayersKey players of Release Agents market are Par-Way Tryson, AAK AB, Associated British Foods Plc, Avatar Corporation, Archer Daniels Midland Company, and Mallet & Company.ABOUT US:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Global Teleradiology Market Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast to 2023

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Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has been serving as an active source to cater intelligent research report to enlighten both readers and investors. This research study titled Teleradiology Market Request a Free Sample Report @Teleradiology is a comprehensive part of telehealth services. Teleradiology refers to electronic transmission of radiology images between two locations via technology for emergency services or second opinion. This service bridges the gap between the imbalance of demand and supply of expert radiologists and diagnostic services. Initially, the image transfer process was tedious, time consuming, and provided unreliable image clarity and quality. Currently, teleradiology shows the rapid progression in image processing and transmission tools and technologies. Hence, radiology experts believe that the teleradiology market will provide lucrative business opportunities in the near future.Western Europe is a developed market and accounts for about 70% to 75% share of the teleradiology market in Europe. Consistent evolution of information and communication technologies and shortage of expert radiologists across Europe are likely to drive the market during the forecast period. Furthermore, cost effective solutions, emergency coverage, and increasing number of imaging procedures are anticipated to boost the teleradiology market in Western Europe. However, complex regulations, language barrier, and high cost of technology (initial investment) are expected to restrain the teleradiology market in the region.Send an Inquiry @The teleradiology market in Western Europe has been segmented based on modality into X-ray, ultrasound, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and nuclear imaging. X-ray teleradiology was the largest segment in 2014. The segment is likely to maintain its market share during forecast period owing to increasing number of X-ray procedures and need for expert radiologist advice because of complexity of images due to advanced technology. Ultrasound teleradiology accounted for the second largest share of the market due to development of 3-D and 4-D ultrasound platforms, absence of ionizing radiation, and increasing reliability of receiving clear images. However, CT teleradiology is considered a highly lucrative segment during the forecast period from 2015 to 2023 due to its ability to visualize complex body parts such as brain, lungs, and cardiac abnormalities, and favorable reimbursement policies.Geographically, the teleradiology market in Western Europe has been segmented into six regions: the U.K., Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, and Rest of Western Europe. The U.K. and Germany together accounted for the largest share of the market. The U.K. accounted for the largest share of the teleradiology market in Western Europe in 2014. The market in the country is likely to witness the highest growth during forecast period owing to rapid development in digital image processing technology, high implementation of picture archiving communication systems (PACS), and presence of major market players along with a number of other domestic service providers. Germany was the second largest market in 2014 due to lack of expert radiologists and government initiatives to encourage the teleradiology market. However, the market in Germany is anticipated to expand at a slow growth rate as compared to that in the U.K. due to stringent cross-border regulations and high cost associated with teleradiology.The teleradiology market in Western Europe is highly fragmented market. Key players in the teleradiology market in Western Europe include Agfa-Gevaert N.V., Cybernet Medical Corporation, ONRAD, Inc., Sectra AB, Telemedicine Clinic, and Global Diagnostics Ltd. Several other domestic players play an important role in the teleradiology market in the region.Outlook Complete Report with Table ofOC @About Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:Towbars Market: In-depth market segmentation by 2025

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Towbars Market: IntroductionTowbars are used for towing vehicles, when an engine breakdown occurs or whenever the vehicle is not in a working condition. Towbars aid in effectively moving the broke down vehicle to the nearby service station with the help of a vehicle on to which the tow is attached. The towbars find applications in the transportation of aircrafts and other heavy vehicles as well. The towbars are attached to chassis of the vehicles so that it gets enough pulling force and it can be dragged easily by the vehicle at a constant speed. Moreover, the attachment of two bars to the chassis also ensures that the chances of accidents or mishaps while towing the vehicle is negligible. The towbars should be designed and manufactured in such a way that it should have good tensile strength and should not deform due to the pulling force while in operation.Towbars are also known as tow hitches. They are designed and produced mainly in two basic types; the towbars that can be attached to the vehicles, which are to be towed by the driving vehicles and the towbars that can be attached to the driving or the towing vehicles itself. Both the types are equally beneficial and effective for towing any vehicle. However, for towing heavy bodies such as aircrafts or boats, metal towbars need to be attached to their bodies itself. There are several types of towbars such as fixed towbars, detachable towbars, swivelling systems and electric systems, which are currently available the market.Request Sample Report @Towbars Market: DynamicsResearch and development on towbars and the materials used for its manufacturing are progressing, with an aim to develop more sophisticated towbars, which can be mounted with perfection on vehicles. Moreover, the advancement in material science and technology has enabled the manufacturers to use metals and polymers, with high tensile strength, which increases the operational life of the towbars considerably. Furthermore, novel manufacturing processes, such as additive manufacturing, have enabled manufacturers to produce complex towbars components easily within a shorter time. Also, the market for towbars has witnessed growth as a result of the development and growth in the global automotive sector. The market comprises of rental companies that offer services to the vehicles in case of emergency situations.Towbars Market: Regional OutlookPeople in North America and Europe lead a high standard of living along with significant disposable incomes, this has led to a substantial rise in the number of automobiles in these regions, which signifies the demand for towbars. The consumers are readily accepting the services from rental towing companies when struck in emergency situations. The state traffic and highway agencies in almost all the countries proffer services to the consumers.These factors are expected to act as catalysts for the growth of the global towbars market over the forecast period. Towbars, which are essential for towing the vehicles to service stations, usually possess a good replacement rate in automobiles, thus the global towbars market is expected to witness rapid growth. Developing nations such as India and China in the APAC region, which are the target markets for a majority of automobile manufacturers will play significant roles in the growth of towbars market over the forecast period.Request to Browse Full Table of Content, figure and Tables @Towbars Market: Market ParticipantsSome of the examples of market participants in the global towbars market identified across the value chain include:BOSALWestfalia-AutomotiveSTEINHOF Sp. z o.o. Sp.K.Witter TowbarsPCT LimitedCamex AutomotiveDavid Murphy TowingNorth Shore TowbarsCavotec SAMcCabe TowbarsABOUT US:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Global Data Telecom Connectors Sales Market 2025 - Adam Tech, Halo Electronics, TE Connectivity, Hirose Electric, Morris Products

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"The Latest Research Report Global Data Telecom Connectors Sales Market Report 2018 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"In this report, the global Data Telecom Connectors market is valued at USD XX million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2017 and 2025. Data including (both global and regions): Production (K Units), Sales (both volume and value-million USD), Market Share, Consumption, Import, Export, Price (USD/Unit), Cost, Gross Margin etc.The study provides a detailed view of the global Data Telecom Connectors market, by segmenting it based on by types, key players, by end-user, by application and regional demand. These segments are further subdivided into smaller categories, which are further explained in detail in the report. Regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. The segmentation also includes by types, by key players and application in all regions. These include different business strategies adopted by the leading players and their recent developments.Get Sample Copy of this report @Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Data Telecom Connectors for these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Data Telecom Connectors market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Data Telecom Connectors sales volume, Price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingAdam TechASSMANN WSW ComponentsHalo ElectronicsTE ConnectivityHirose ElectricMorris ProductsRCAAmphenol3MBeldenGC ElectronicsTesscoOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoFiber Optic AdaptersFirewire ConnectorsModular JacksModular PlugsUSB ConnectorsOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate for each application, includingElectronicsCommunicationOthersBrowse Complete Report with TOC @Table of ContentsGlobal Data Telecom Connectors Sales Market Report 20181 Data Telecom Connectors Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Data Telecom Connectors1.2 Classification of Data Telecom Connectors by Product Category1.2.1 Global Data Telecom Connectors Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Data Telecom Connectors Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Fiber Optic Adapters1.2.4 Firewire Connectors1.2.5 Modular Jacks1.2.6 Modular Plugs1.2.7 USB Connectors1.3 Global Data Telecom Connectors Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Data Telecom Connectors Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Electronics1.3.3 Communication1.3.4 Others1.4 Global Data Telecom Connectors Market by Region1.4.1 Global Data Telecom Connectors Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 United States Data Telecom Connectors Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 China Data Telecom Connectors Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 Europe Data Telecom Connectors Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Data Telecom Connectors Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Data Telecom Connectors Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India Data Telecom Connectors Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Data Telecom Connectors (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Data Telecom Connectors Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Data Telecom Connectors Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2025)2 Global Data Telecom Connectors Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Data Telecom Connectors Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Data Telecom Connectors Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Data Telecom Connectors Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Data Telecom Connectors (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Data Telecom Connectors Sales and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.2.2 Global Data Telecom Connectors Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.3 Global Data Telecom Connectors (Volume and Value) by Region2.3.1 Global Data Telecom Connectors Sales and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)2.3.2 Global Data Telecom Connectors Revenue and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)2.4 Global Data Telecom Connectors (Volume) by ApplicationView Sample PDF @3 United States Data Telecom Connectors (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Data Telecom Connectors Sales and Value (2013-2018)3.1.1 United States Data Telecom Connectors Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)3.1.2 United States Data Telecom Connectors Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2018)3.1.3 United States Data Telecom Connectors Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)3.2 United States Data Telecom Connectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)3.3 United States Data Telecom Connectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)3.4 United States Data Telecom Connectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)4 China Data Telecom Connectors (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China Data Telecom Connectors Sales and Value (2013-2018)4.1.1 China Data Telecom Connectors Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)4.1.2 China Data Telecom Connectors Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2018)4.1.3 China Data Telecom Connectors Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)4.2 China Data Telecom Connectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)4.3 China Data Telecom Connectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)4.4 China Data Telecom Connectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)5 Europe Data Telecom Connectors (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5.1 Europe Data Telecom Connectors Sales and Value (2013-2018)5.1.1 Europe Data Telecom Connectors Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)5.1.2 Europe Data Telecom Connectors Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2018)5.1.3 Europe Data Telecom Connectors Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)5.2 Europe Data Telecom Connectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)5.3 Europe Data Telecom Connectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.4 Europe Data Telecom Connectors Sales Volume and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)Buy Now This Report From Here @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizWax Market : Candles application set to reach US$ 4,500 million by 2026

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The global wax market is segmented into the industry, application, product type, and region. Based on the product type, paraffin wax is expected to emerge as the largest product in the market. By the end of 2026, paraffin wax is estimated to surpass US$ 3,700 million revenue.Based on the industry, plastic & rubber industry is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period 2017-2026. By the end of 2026, plastic & rubber industry is estimated to bring in more than US$ 2,400 million revenue.Based on the application, the global wax market is segmented into rheology/surface applications, candles, polish, rubber, cosmetics, hot-melt adhesive, soap wax, and other. Among these, candles are expected to emerge as the largest application segment in the wax market. Candles are estimated to create an incremental opportunity of more than US$ 900 million between 2017 and 2026.Request Sample Report@Geographically, the global wax market is segmented into Latin America, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan, and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). Among these, APEJ is expected to emerge as the most attractive market in the global wax market during the forecast period 2017-2026.The report by Persistence Market Research (PMR) expects the global wax market to witness sluggish growth. It is also anticipated to register CAGR of 2.9% during the forecast period between 2017 and 2026. The global wax market is also expected to bring in US$ 11,017.7 million revenue towards the end of 2026.There are different types of waxes being used for various applications. For instance, the fossil-based wax is being largely used for making candles, coatings and polishing, and in packaging. Meanwhile, paraffin wax which is derived from various processes of crude oil refining is being used in beauty and cosmetic care industry as it is safe to use. However, the demand for paraffin wax is declining as the demand for bio-based wax is growing, especially in the various countries in Asia-Pacific.Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @The fully refined waxes are also widely used for candle making and as wax coatings for paper, film and foil substrates used in the packaging. The global wax market has also become highly volatile in the recent years owing to the price volatility of crude oil.Strengthening economy in the developed nations is supporting the manufacturing sector. Hence, the industrial wax is witnessing a rise in demand for adhesives, inks and coatings, and plastic and rubber processing. Meanwhile, these processing mostly uses cost-effective wax. The wax is expected to witness strong demand in the manufacturing sector and in construction activity.However, owing to the closure of some wax producing plants in North America and Europe is resulting in the decline in the wax market. Meanwhile, the demand for vegetable and synthetic wax has increased. Moreover, it is also becoming inevitable for wax producing companies to shift from petroleum wax to natural vegetable and synthetic wax. These companies are therefore adopting innovative technologies in their production facilities.The report provides a detailed profile of various companies operating in the global wax market. Some of the leading players in the market are Exxon Mobil Corporation, Royal Dutch Shell plc., BP plc., Akzo Nobel NV, The Lubrizol Corporation, Honeywell International Inc., Cargill, Inc., Archer Daniels Midland Company, BASF SE, and Evonik Industries AG. The leading players are entering into a partnership and merger and acquisition to expand their reach and improve market share.Report overview @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Automotive Ignition System Market 2017-2023: Key Findings, Regional Analysis, Top Key Players Profiles and Future Prospects

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Automotive Ignition System Global Market Overview:Ignition system is used to generate high voltage from car battery to flow through the spark plug's gap. In order to generate high power from fuel or air mixture, the spark must fire at the right moment during the compression stroke. Owing to these factors, the demand for ignition system is predominantly increasing in automotive applications. The global market for automotive ignition system has seen a potential growth over the last few years owing to the increasing demand for vehicles and it has been estimated that the global market will retain the same market during forecasted period. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, The global market of automotive ignition system is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period. The market is forecasted to demonstrate a stunning growth by 2023, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR during the estimated period (2017  2023).Vehicle emissions is one of the major source of global pollution and the Automotive Ignition System Market is investing and implementing innovative ways to curb the emissions. The ignition systems play a major role in automobile fuel burning and engine performance. Automotive market players are innovating and developing new ways to enhance the overall efficiency of the automobiles. The growing vehicle production across the globe has resulted in environmental impacts which have led to technological advancements like electronic ignition which improves the efficiency and fuel economy of the vehicle.Aluminum is widely use in the automobile industry as the light weight of aluminum helps in increasing the fuel-efficiency of the vehicles. Various policies such as green car incentive policy in Japan is undertaken to promote eco-friendly vehicles which would help in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. All these kinds of policies along with various government initiatives is driving the growth of the market. However, the growth of the market is expected to be hampered by the high cost required for the manufacturing of the aluminum extruded products.Various government regulation have been set up in order to reduce the emission. EPA has developed emission standard in order to control the exhaust and evaporative emission that is generated from small spark-ignition engines. This will enable high standard use of ignition system in the vehicles which will result in the growth of the market during the forecast period.Compression ignition is also commonly referred to as diesel engine, largely because it is a staple of a diesel ignition. Gasoline requires the spark ignition in order to start, but diesel can be started through this alternative means of ignition. Automotive spark and glow plugs is influenced by a number of factors such as increasing automotive production and vehicle parc, upcoming stringent emission norms and rising demand for high fuel efficiency.Request a Sample Report @Major Key Players:Delphi Automotive, Robert Bosch, DENSO, Borgwarner, Federal-Mogul Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Continental AG, Hitachi Automotive Systems, Diamond Electric and among others are some of the prominent players profiled in MRFR Analysis and are at the forefront of competition in the global automotive ignition system market.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:The key strategies followed by most companies within the global automotive ignition system market are that of new product development.In Jan 2015, Borgwarner produced plug top ignition coils with integrated electronics at its plant in Mexico, for Volkswagens third generation 2.0- and 1.8-liter DOHC I4 engines.In July 2014, Borgwarner had developed multi-spark ignition coils in Germany.Automotive Ignition System Market Segmentation:The global Automotive Ignition System market is segmented in to 3 key dynamics for the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding;Segmentation by Type: Comprises Conventional, Electronic and Distributor-less.Segmentation by Component: Comprises Ignition Coil, Ignition Switch, Condenser, Spark Plug, Ignition Resistor and Others.Segmentation by Regions: Comprises Geographical regions - North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the World.Access Report Details @Automotive Ignition System Market: Regional AnalysisThe Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow the highest in the ignition system Market owing to the availability of low cost labor in the region. The rapid advancements in the industrial sector of the region is leading to an increased use of aluminum extruded products across various industries such as aerospace, mass transportation, automotive and construction among others. The large scope of FDI in the emerging economies of the region such as India and China is also contributing to the growth of the aluminum extruded products in the region.North America is expected to be the second largest market in ignition system due to increase technology innovation in the vehicles. The increased innovation in technology will lead to reduce emission from the vehicle which will drive the market in future.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune  411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comMHealth Market Recent Trends by Google INC, Jawbone INC, Johnson & Johnson, Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings and More by 2022

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The Global mHealth Market is growing at an explosive pace due to the factors such as increasing awareness of mobile technology applications, surging focus on patient-centric healthcare deliver, technological innovations, concerns over the rising cost of healthcare delivery, growing integration of wireless technologies, convenience of medical devices, falling prices and growing affordability of mobile devices and others.Mobile health or mHealth is the practice use of mobile devices for the purpose of health services, information, and data collection. mHealth has emerged as a booming field due to advancements in the use of information and communication technology (ICT), for health services and information. mHealth applications include the use of mobile devices such as mobile phones, tablet computers and wearable devices such as smart watches, in collecting health data, delivery of healthcare information, real-time monitoring, and direct provision of care via mobile telemedicine. The Global mHealth Market is projected to reach USD 21.71 billion by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 35.65% during the forecast period.Get Exclusive Sample Report @mHealth Market is segmented by devices, services, technology and applications. The device segment is sub segmented into blood glucose meters, BP monitors, pulse oximetry, neurological monitoring, wearable fitness sensor device, heart rate meters and others. The services segment is sub segmented into diagnosis, monitoring, prevention, treatment, and others. The application segment is sub segmented into cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, genetic diseases and others.The largest players in the mHealth market are Apple, AT&T, AirStrip, Boston Scientific, CardioNet, Athena health, Sanofi, Fitbit, Telcare, Zephyr Technology and othersRegional outlookWhile mHealth grew out of industrialized nations, the field has shifted in favour of the developing countries, stemming from the rapid rise of mobile phone penetration in low-income nations. The largest growth has been reported from large emerging economies such as Malaysia, Brazil and China. The comparative figures in 2015 were 87% for advanced economies such as U.S. and Canada, major Western European nations, Australia, Japan etc.Another example can be seen in the falling divide for smartphone ownership between developing and developed economies. Smartphone ownership rates in emerging and developing nations climbed from a median of 21% in 2013 to an eye watering 37% in 2015. There also is an effect of the demographic dividend that is paying well for the market as in nearly every country, millennials are much more likely to be internet and smartphone users compared with those ages 35 and older. Other findings reveal that smartphone ownership rates have skyrocketed in many countries since 2013. This includes increases of over 25 percentage points among the economies of Turkey, Malaysia, Chile and Brazil.In a number of emerging and developing countries, more people have access to the internet and are also using it more frequently. In 12 emerging nations surveyed in 2014 and 2015, there were significant increases in the share of adult internet users who say they access the internet several times a day, including in Nigeria (+20 points), Ghana (+19) and China (+13). Thus developing region nations are likely to be the leaders in mHealth market in the near future.However Africa remains a dark continent for the mhealth market due to its poor socio economic conditions. The countries with the least smartphone ownership rates are Tanzania (11%), Uganda (4%) and Ethiopia (4%).Get Discount @Major TOC of MHealth Market:1 REPORT SCOPE1.1 SCOPE OF THE STUDY1.1.1 MOBILE HEALTH (MHEALTH): REPORT COVERAGE1.1.2 XX RESEARCH METHODOLOGY1.1.3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY FOR THE GLOBAL MARKET STUDY1.1.3.1 Geographical Analysis1.1.3.2 Demand Side & Supply Side Analysis1.1.3.3 Data Synthesis & Bridging1.1.4 GLOBAL MOBILE HEALTH (MHEALTH): RESEARCH METHODOLOGY1.1.5 KEY DATA POINT SOURCES1.1.5.1 Data Points taken from Secondary Sources1.1.5.2 Data Points taken from Primary Sources1.1.6 REPORT DESCRIPTION2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY3 MARKET OVERVIEW3.1 INTRODUCTION3.2 MARKET DYNAMICS3.2.1 MARKET DRIVERS3.2.1.1 Patients Involvement in personal healthcare3.2.1.2 Proliferation of Smartphones and wearable devices into healthcare.TOC ContinuedAsk Questions to Expertise @About US:Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact Us:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com .New Opportunities to Fuel the Expansion of Automotive Heated Seat Market by FMI

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Automotive heated seat use the same concept as used by the electrical blankets, or other appliances or gadgets that use electricity for generating heat. Automotive heated seats use long strip of a heating element of the car seat called a resistor that heats up when electrical current is run through it. Automotive heated seat systems are generally accompanied by thermostat systems for installation in the passenger or commercial vehicles. It is used for adjusting the heat temperature of the seats and to prevent overheating of seats. Vehicles generally have individually controlled, electrically heated front seats as a factory installed option. Usually a heated system consist of a heated seat switches, heated seat module, heated seat elements and heated seat sensors. Heated seats are predominantly used in colder regions where the temperature inside the vehicle needs to be increased significantly as compared to the ambient temperature. This increases the comfort of the driver and passengers so as to accommodate with the surroundings. Moreover, heated seat cushions are also available in the market which have the same function as that of the heated seats. They have added benefits as they have play and plug concept and are much cheaper than heated seats.Request for Sample @Automotive Heated Seat Market: DynamicsAutomotive heated seat market is driven by the increasing demand of alternative seating options for increasing the driver and passenger safety in colder regions. In colder regions across the globe OEMs are increasing their emphasis on improving the conditions inside the vehicle. This is done by increasing the inside temperature of the vehicles so that the driver and passengers can accommodate to the conditions. One of the most popular ways of doing it is the use of heated seats. Such increasing demands of improved comfort level inside the vehicle would certainly fuel the demand of heated seats over the forecast period. Moreover introduction of advanced technology heated seat cushions which work in the same way as the heated seats but have additional plug on and off features would further increase the demand of automotive heated seats over the assessment period. Furthermore, many OEMs are focusing on adding new features in the automotive heated seats such as massager feature. This would further promote the OEMs to invest in innovations regarding the automotive heated seats. Furthermore, automotive production has increased considerably over the years and this trend is anticipated to continue over the years. This would further increase the demand of automotive seats, which will further have positive effect on the demand of automotive heated seats over the forecast period.Automotive sector is witnessing a shift from the use of conventional technologies to innovative automotive systems and components for increasing the efficiency and performance of vehicles. This has led to decrease in the technology lifecycle of the automotive heated seats. The OEMs have to constantly engage themselves to innovate new technologies and techniques for sustaining their market position. This sometimes increases the investment on research & development of automotive heated seats and has a negative impact on the anticipated growth of the automotive heated seats market.Automotive Heated Seat Market: SegmentationOn the basis of vehicle type, automotive heated seat market can be segmented into:Passenger CarsLight Commercial Vehicle (LCV)Heavy Commercial Vehicle (HCV)On the basis of sales channel, automotive heated seat market can be segmented into:Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)AftermarketOn the basis of material, automotive heated seat market can be segmented into:FabricSynthetic LeatherGenuine LeatherAutomotive Heated Seat Market: Regional OutlookThe demand of automotive heated seat are anticipated to increase in the European region over the forecast period. This can be attributed to the cold climatic conditions in the region which will increase the demand of advanced seating technology in the region which will increase the driver and the passenger comfort. Along with the cold climatic conditions in North America region, increasing use of vehicles for long distance travel in the North American region will further fuel the demand of automotive heated seats over the forecast period.Request for Table of Contents @Automotive Heated Seat Market: Key ParticipantsContinental AGRostra Precision ControlsG BauerhinSeat Comfort SystemsII-VI IncorporatedGentherm IncorporatedSargent Cycle ProductsKongsberg AutomotiveHeated Seat KitsChampion Seat SystemsTrimTechnik Automotive Styling GroupCheck CorporationABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Upcoming Webinar: How Cloud Email helps Deliver Security, Reliability, and Speed to Indian Oils Critical Tendering Process

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Data security, control and access is of primary concern for any government institution and regulatory authority. So one of the key requirement of migrating sensitive and critical data onto the cloud has been around data residency.So far government agencies have been reluctant to move their data to the cloud. The same holds true for businesses needing to meet stringent regulatory compliance. Thankfully the recent announcements by major cloud players to provide cloud services with data residency in India has eased the concern around data access. And with the recent announcement of a public cloud policy by the Maharashtra State Government, the needle has moved in favour of the cloud.The Maharashtra Government recently unveiled public cloud policy that instructs all its departments to shift their data to the cloud.The above developments will accelerate the adoption of the cloud by public institutions like Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), Central, State, and Local Governments Statutory Bodies and Public Sector Banks, to take advantage of the benefits cloud technologies has to offer.To help public institutions get a feel of the benefits a cloud based software deployment has to offer, Mithi Software is organizing a webinar () on how its cloud email solution Mithi SkyConnect () delivers security, reliability, and speed to Indian Oil Corporations (a major Government PSU) Critical Tendering Process.This webinar brings together an expert panel from IOCL, Amazon, and Mithi:* Mr. Alok Khanna, Executive Director  Information Systems (Indian Oil Corporation Limited)* Mr. Durga Prasad Kakaraparthi, Solutions Architect (Amazon Internet Services Pvt Ltd)* Mr. Ashok Malaviya, Co-founder and Director Sales (Mithi Software Technologies Pvt Ltd)Speakers from IOCL will share the core benefits they derived from their experience using Mithi SkyConnect.Speakers from AWS will cover why the shared security model on the cloud platform makes the whole solution so secure and how PSUs and Governments can now move their critical workloads to the cloud in the India region.BACKGROUND ABOUT IOCL'S TENDERING PROCESSTo charter a ship, IOCL uses a tendering process driven by email. The process deals with extremely high-value transactions and is very sensitive to Reliable and ON TIME delivery of email. Any delay or loss of email could mean a loss of huge sums of money, besides the loss of face for IOCL.The sensitive and classified nature of these emails and attachments implies the need for a very SECURE platform to ensure that these emails are stored SAFELY and accessible only by AUTHORISED personnel.The WEBINAR DETAILS how Cloud Email Solution Delivers Security, Reliability, and Speed to Indian Oil Corporations Critical Tendering Process.Date: February 28th, 2018 (Wednesday)Time: 3PM-4PMIN THIS WEBINAR, WE WILL COVER:* The best practices, how tos and key criteria while choosing and deploying a business email solution for your organisation* How email archiving and ediscovery can help with business intelligence, supervision, improving quality of communication, and more* IOCLs story of using email for ship chartering* Why the cloud is secure and how PSUs/Governments can benefit from the cloud* Question and Answer sessionWHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE?Recommended for all CXO and top-level executives from PSUs who are considering moving to the cloud.For more details about the webinar, visit our website (ABOUT MITHI SOFTWAREMithi (an award-winning software product company and maker of products such as Vaultastic, SkyConnect, Ideolve, ClrStream, ConnectXf etc. distinguishes itself as a provider of Cloud Email, Collaboration, Security and Archiving products that help substantially lower costs & improve productivity.Its software has been powering organisations of all sizes and spread across many enterprise segments such as healthcare, R&D establishments, financial services, education, government, BPOs, software, defence, manufacturing, banks, NGOs, Agro-industries, logistics, media, Internet Service Providers, infrastructure, retail, energy & power, transportation etc.Company Address and Contact:Mithi Software TechnologiesNachiket Park, Dr. Pai Marg, Baner Road, Pune 411045, IndiaAshok Malaviya+91-982-205-3099ashok@mithi.comNanocellulose Market by Product & Data Validation, Analysis and Outlook to 2022

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According to Publisher, the global nanocellulose market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 19.5% by 2022. The factors driving the market include rising requirement for sustainable products with better material science and emerging inventive nanocellulose applications. An additional factor that contributes to the impressive growth of nanocellulose market is the ability and structure of nanocellulose. However, low consumer awareness and shortage of commercial scale machineries and tools are the major restraints inhibiting the market growth.Nanocellulose market is growing by the increasing demand for the end-user industries. Nano-fibrillated cellulose segment commanded the largest share of more than 40% of the global market in 2015 followed by nano-crystalline cellulose segment. Nano-crystalline cellulose market is strongly driven by its wide usage in packaging industry that exhibits its most demand. The strong economies such as Europe and North America are expected to preserve their top positions during the forecast period led by the demand for nanocellulose.For more informationSome of the key players in the market include American Process Inc., Axcelon Biopolymers Corporation, Borregard ASA, CelluForce Inc., Diacel Finechem Ltd., FPInnovations, Innventia AB, J. Rettenmaire & Sohne Gmbh (JRS), Kruger Inc., Melodea Ltd., NanoQuebec, Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd., Oji Holdings Corporation, OMYA Canada Inc., Sappi Ltd., Stora Enso Oyj, UPM-Kymmene Oyj, and VTT Technical Research Center.Products Covered:-Bacterial Nanocellulose (BNC)-Biocellulose-Bacterial Cellulose-Microbial Cellulose-Nanocrystalline Cellulose/Cellulose Nanocrystals (NCC/CNC)-Rodlike Cellulose Microcrystals-Cellulose Nanocrystals-Whiskers-Microfibrilated & Nanofibrillated Cellulose (MFC & NFC)-Nanofibrillated Cellulose-Microfibrils-Nanofibrils-Other ProductsApplications Covered:-Water-treatment-Paints and Coatings-Aerospace-Biomedical & Pharmaceutical-Oil Spills-Composites & Packaging-Pulp & Paper-Automotive-Electronics & Sensors-Other ApplicationsEnd Users Covered:-Paints & Coatings-Personal Care-Composites-Paper Processing-Food & Beverages-Oil & Gas-Other End UsersRequest Sample CopyRegions Covered:-North America-US-Canada-Mexico-Europe-Germany-France-Italy-UK-Spain-Rest of Europe-Asia Pacific-Japan-China-India-Australia-New Zealand-Rest of Asia Pacific-Rest of the World-Middle East-Brazil-Argentina-South Africa-Egypt10 Company Profiling10.1 American Process Inc.10.2 Axcelon Biopolymers Corporation10.3 Borregard ASA10.4 CelluForce Inc.10.5 Diacel Finechem Ltd.10.6 FPInnovations10.7 Innventia AB10.8 J. Rettenmaire & Sohne Gmbh (JRS)10.9 Kruger Inc.10.10 Melodea Ltd.10.11 NanoQuebec10.12 Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd.10.13 Oji Holdings Corporation10.14 OMYA Canada Inc.10.15 Sappi Ltd.10.16 Stora Enso Oyj10.17 UPM-Kymmene Oyj10.18 VTT Technical Research CenterMake an enquiry:Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Comprehensive Industry Report Offers Forecast and Analysis on Mobile Enterprise Application Development Platform Market 2016 - 2026

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Mobile enterprise application development platform is an integrated development environment that provides tools, and client/server middleware for creating and managing mobile applications. These platform addresses the challenges of mobile application development related to diverse sets of devices, platforms, networks, and users. Mobile enterprise application development platforms allows easier integration of mobile applications with the features and capabilities of mobile devices. It interfaces with client management server and backend infrastructure to provide high visibility and control via web-based console over the entire network. This makes it easy for the businesses to centrally manage devices and applications, install and update mobile software over the entire company network.Mobile Enterprise Application Development Platform Brings Following Capabilities for Mobile SoftwareComplete Integrated Development EnvironmentSupport for Design, Develop, Test, Deploy, and Manage Mobile ApplicationsRun-Time Middleware Server to Handle Back-End Systems of the EnterprisesRobust Security CapabilitiesLocal and Remote Data Handling CapabilityAbility to Integrate External Devices like Credit Card Readers, Scanners, Printers etc.Request For Report Sample@Mobile Enterprise Application Development Platform Market: Drivers and ChallengesThe increasing trend of bring your own device (BYOD) and mobility amongst the enterprises are driving the growth of the market. Enterprises around the world are aiming at creating agile platforms and increase their mobility capabilities. Mobile devices and applications are changing the way enterprises interact with their processes, customers, and employees. An important element in any mobility adoption process is the platform that host the mobile application. Enterprise need to select a platform which provides an optimum mix of features and security.However, mobile enterprise application development platforms are in-house software, and therefore requires in-house expertise for development, maintenance, and troubleshooting. This means higher cost in training and personnel, and recruiting mobile enterprise application development platform experts. Moreover, expenses towards licensing, maintaining mobile enterprise application development platforms are significant thus, restraining its adoption across enterprises with limited financial resources..Mobile Enterprise Application Development Platform Market: SegmentationMobile Enterprise Application Development Platform market on the basis of Deployment Model:On-Premises:On-Premises mobile enterprise application development platform are deployed the computers in the premises an organization using the software as against at remote facility such as remote servers..Hosted :Hosted mobile enterprise application development platform are provided by cloud service providers. In hosted environments, cost associated with mobile enterprise application development platform is relatively low.Regional OverviewIn North America, enterprise mobility is the top priority for the business enterprises to stay ahead in the competitive business environment. Due to this business organizations are increasingly deploying the mobile enterprise application development platforms.In China, enterprise mobility is becoming one of the top technology issues for enterprises. SMEs are expected to propel the market growth in this region. While in India, most of the business organizations are still reluctant to adopt enterprise mobility solutions due to security related concerns.Huge spending by business enterprises in middleware software is driving the growth of the market in Europe. U.K. and Germany, and Italy are major players in the middleware software market, and are expected to drive mobile enterprise application development market in this region.Visit For TOC@Limited resources with the early stage startups is inhibiting the growth of market in Latin America and Middle East Africa regions. However, with the advent of cost effective cloud solutions, the market is expected to observe substantial growth during the forecast period.IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, MobileIron, Oracle Corporation, SAP SE, and Apple Inc. are some of the major players of the market.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACTFuture Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: http.futuremarketinsights.comOff Highway Tires Market to Witness Widespread Expansion During 2017 - 2027

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Off Highway Tires are most commonly employed in vehicles used in off the road applications such as construction, mining and industrial sectors. They are popular alternative of the conventional on road tires for the vehicles which are generally used in terrains with uneven topography. Increasing demand off highway vehicles such as cranes, dozers, excavators, loaders, telescopic handlers, is driving the off highway tires market across the globe. Advancing technologies will create opportunities for the off highway tire manufacturers to augment their product offerings and meet the increasing customer demand. Moreover, new compounds, integrated value-added technologies such as tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) would help the manufacturers to manufacture more durable, efficient and long lasting tires. Manufacturers are constantly focusing on improving tire attributes, such as cut resistance, load puncture and durability. The growth of off highway tires market is significantly dependent on the developments in the construction, mining and agriculture industries. In most of the situations pneumatic tires find increasing use, which are available in two variants cross-ply and radial tires. With advancements in the tire technologies, solid off highway tires are anticipated to be increasingly used in the coming years.Request for Sample @Off Highway Tires Market: DynamicsThe Off Highway tires market shares a synergic relationship with many industries including construction, and mining. Increasing use of the off highway tires in mining industry will create opportunities for the augmentation of the off highway tires market over the forecast period. Moreover, manufacturers are emphasizing on increasing the strength, durability and performance characteristics of the tires. This will further increase the demand of the off highway tires in the coming years and promote the growth of off highway tires market over the forecast period. Moreover, anticipated increase in production of off highway vehicles will increase the demand of off highway tires in the coming years, which will further create opportunities for the augmentation of off highway tires market in the coming years. Off highway vehicles are increasingly employed in aggregate quarries for transport and material handling purposes, growth in construction aggregate mining sector will further fuel the growth of the off highway tires market over the assessment period. The demand of construction equipment has also increased considerably in the years. This will have a positive impact on the sales of the off highway tires over the coming years.Tumbling oil prices across the globe has certainly affected the mining and construction industry. This could have a negative impact on the demand of the off highway tires in the coming years. Moreover, with increasing implementation of environmental regulations by the government would increase pressure on the manufacturers, which will certainly restrain the growth of the off highway tires market over the coming years.Off Highway Tires Market: Market SegmentationOn the basis of end use industries the off highway tires market can be segmented as follows:-ConstructionMiningAgricultureIndustrialOn the basis of sales channel the off highway tires market can be segmented as follows:-OEMReplacement TiresOff Highway Tires Market: Regional OutlookThe off highway tires market is anticipated to witness a significant growth in the Asia Pacific region over the coming years, this can be attributed to the increasing use of off highway vehicles for mining and construction purposes. Furthermore, increasing rate of urbanization in BRIC countries will increase the demand of the construction activities which will further increase the demand of off highway tires in the region. Furthermore, the off highway tires market in the North American and European is driven by the presence of numerous OEMs in the region which promote innovations in the tire technology for catering to the increasing demand of the customer.Request for Table of Contents @Off Highway Tires Market: Key ParticipantsMichelinBridgestone CorporationApollo Tyres LtdToyo Tire & Rubber Co.Yokohama Rubber CompanyGoodyear Tire and Rubber CompanyContinental AGJK Tyre & Industries LtdCMA, LLC.Nokian Tyres Plc.Trelleborg ABGiti Tire CompanyBalkrishna Industries (BKT)ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Global Demand For Potassium Hydrogen Sulfite Market Size & Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025

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"The Report Potassium Hydrogen Sulfite Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global Potassium Hydrogen Sulfite market on the basis of types of applications, major sectors, deployment models, organization size, and regions. The report contains an analysis of the major factors influencing the growth of the market (drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges). It aims to strategically analyze the micromarkets with respect to individual growth trends, prospects, and their contribution to the market. The report attempts to forecast the market size for 5 major regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America. It contains key vendor profiles and comprehensively analyzes their core competencies. The report also tracks and analyzes competitive developments, including partnerships, collaborations, acquisitions, new product developments, and R&D activities in the market.Get Sample Copy of this report @Potassium hydrogen sulfite is also known as potassium bisulfite (KHSO3). This colorless to white hygroscopic crystalline powder is used as a sterilizing agent in the production of alcoholic beverages. Potassium bisulfite is end product by the reaction of sulfur dioxide and potassium carbonate salts. The sulfur dioxide is passed through a solution of the potassium carbonate to completely eliminate the carbon di oxide from the salt solution. The concentrated solution is allowed to crystallize to give it a powdered form. Potassium hydrogen sulfite is used to preserve foods & beverages such as fruit juices, squashes, and several types of fruits.The use of the potassium hydrogen sulfite is approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. In the food & beverage industry potassium hydrogen sulfite acts as an antioxidant and is used as a preservative. In the pharmaceutical industry, large doses of potassium hydrogen sulfite are acceptable as they get rapidly oxidized to sulfates. Potassium hydrogen sulfite is used in oenology (study of wines)The global potassium hydrogen sulfite market has been segmented based on grade, type, application, and region. In terms of grade, the global market has been segregated into food grade, photo grade, and technical grade. Based on type, the market has been divided into liquid and powders. Potassium hydrogen sulfite in solution form containing more than 15 pp 100 (m/v) of sulfur dioxide; therefore it must not be stored at low temperatures to avoid the risk of crystallization. In terms of application, the potassium hydrogen sulfite market has been categorized into chemicals, pharmaceutical, leather, photography, food & beverage, wastewater, textiles, and paper & pulp.View Full Report @In terms of region, Europe is the dominant region which is using potassium hydrogen sulfite in the beverage industry. Countries such as Italy, Spain, France, and Germany are popular for their wine. Increasing demand for ready-to-eat food products is propelling the potassium bisulfite market in North America. The potassium bisulfite market in Latin America is expected to expand in the near future. The leather industry in Brazil and Argentina has made an overall development being responsible for 4.4% of world leather production. This, in turn, is increasing the demand for potassium hydrogen sulfite as a leather processing chemical. Potassium hydrogen sulfite is used to make the leather products softer, wearable, waterproof, and long-lasting. The potassium hydrogen sulfite market in Asia Pacific is expand due to its use in the beverage industry. Demand for potassium hydrogen sulfite is increasing in countries such as Australia, India, and China owing to the increasing usage in the food industry.Key players operating in the global potassium hydrogen sulfite market include Aditya Birla Chemicals Thailand, Akos Consulting & Solutions, Tractus, Wubei-Biochem, Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC., Chemtex Speciality Limited, and BASF SE.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Request For Enquiry @The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.Highlights of the report:A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsAn objective assessment of the trajectory of the marketRecommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the marketCheck Discount @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact usMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizGlobal Quartz Fiber Market Size & Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025

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"The Report Quartz Fiber Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global Quartz Fiber market on the basis of types of applications, major sectors, deployment models, organization size, and regions. The report contains an analysis of the major factors influencing the growth of the market (drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges). It aims to strategically analyze the micromarkets with respect to individual growth trends, prospects, and their contribution to the market. The report attempts to forecast the market size for 5 major regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America. It contains key vendor profiles and comprehensively analyzes their core competencies. The report also tracks and analyzes competitive developments, including partnerships, collaborations, acquisitions, new product developments, and R&D activities in the market.Get Sample Copy of this report @Quartz is a mineral found in the earths surface. It is the second most abandoned material present in the Earths continental crust. Quartz fiber is low-density, high-strength fiber, which possesses qualities such as high temperature resistance, high elongation, high dielectric strength, and almost zero coefficient of expansion (CTE). These qualities make it a preferred choice of material for applications where high temperatures are involved and durability is the priority. These fibers are made by extruding pure silica through a stream of hot air. Quartz fibers are used in aircraft radomes, electromagnetic windows, fireproof cables, blankets for firewalls, and aircraft fuselage fire barriers.Increase in demand for quartz fibers in the aerospace & defense industry and extensive use of these fibers in making filters for air purifiers are factors expected to boost the quartz fiber market in the near future. This is prompting companies to increase the production of quartz fiber. Additionally, easy availability of raw materials is anticipated to augment the demand for quartz fiber in the next few years.The global quartz fiber market is witnessing technological advancements. Companies are constantly striving to develop new and better quartz fibers. Development of new manufacturing process of quartz fiber and applications is estimated to propel the quartz fiber market. However, implementation of stringent environmental regulations and volatility in prices of raw materials are projected to adversely affect market growth.Based on product, the quartz fiber market can be classified into yarns, rovings, felts, sewing thread, and others. Yarns is the commonly used product; it is extensively employed in manufacture of aircraft radomes.View Full Report @Quartz fiber is used in a wide range of applications due to its excellent physical & chemical properties. Based on application, the market can be segmented into textile, aerospace & defense, electronic & semiconductors, chemicals, healthcare, and others. The aerospace & defense segment accounted for significant share of the quartz fiber in 2016 owing to the high demand for these fibers in civil aircraft radomes across the globe.In terms of geography, the quartz fiber market can be divided into North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Middle East & Africa. North America is anticipated to constitute key share of the market during the forecast period. Asia Pacific is estimated to be a rapidly growing region of the quartz fiber market, owing to the increase in demand from the automotive industry in the region. Middle East & Africa is also likely to be an attractive region of the quartz fiber market during the forecast period due to the rise in demand from the packaging industry in the region.Prominent players operating in the global quartz fiber market include Saint-Gobain Ceramics & Plastics, Inc., JPS Industries Inc., Hong Kong Datang Industrial Trade Co., Ltd, and Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass Co., Ltd.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisRequest For Enquiry @The regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.Highlights of the report:A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsAn objective assessment of the trajectory of the marketRecommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the marketCheck Discount @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact usMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizNuclear Decommissioning 2018 Global Market Key Players - AECOM, Areva Group, Babcock International Group, Bechtel, CH2M, NDA....

Nuclear Decommissioning Market

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Nuclear Decommissioning Market 2018Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Nuclear Decommissioning  Global Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Manufacturers, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2023 To Its Research Database.Description:This report mainly introduces volume and value market share by players, by regions, by product type, by consumers and also their price change details. As a Detailed Analysis report, it covers all details inside analysis and opinion in Nuclear Decommissioning industry.This report splits Nuclear Decommissioning market by Reactor Type, by Site Capacity, by Strategy, which covers the history data information from 2013 to 2017 and forecast from 2018 to 2023.This report focuses Global market, it covers details as following:Major CompaniesAECOMAreva GroupBabcock International GroupBechtelCH2MHitachi  GEStudsvikWestinghouse ElectricEnergySolutionsNuviaMagnox Ltd.Sellafield Ltd.RosatomEDF-CidenJavysEnresaGD Energy ServicesNDARequest for Sample Report@Main RegionsNorth AmericaUnited StatesCanadaLatin AmericaMexicoBrazilArgentinaOthersEuropeGermanyUnited KingdomFranceItalySpainRussiaNetherlandOthersAsia & PacificChinaJapanIndiaKoreaAustraliaSoutheast AsiaIndonesiaThailandPhilippinesVietnamSingaporeMalaysiaOthersAfrica & Middle EastSouth AfricaEgyptTurkeySaudi ArabiaIranOthersMain Product TypeNuclear Decommissioning Market, by Reactor TypePressurized Water ReactorGas-cooled ReactorsPressurized Heavy-Water ReactorBoiling Water ReactorLight Water Graphite ReactorNuclear Decommissioning Market, by Site CapacityBelow 100 MW100  1000 MWAbove 1000 MWNuclear Decommissioning Market, by StrategyImmediateDeferred DismantlingOthersMain ApplicationsCommercial Power ReactorsPrototype Power ReactorsResearch ReactorsComplete report details @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Contents:Global Nuclear Decommissioning Detailed Analysis Report 2018-2023Chapter One Nuclear Decommissioning Market Overview1.1 Global Nuclear Decommissioning Market Sales Volume Revenue and Price 2013-20231.2 Nuclear Decommissioning, by Reactor Type 2013-20231.2.1 Global Nuclear Decommissioning Sales Market Share by Reactor Type 2013-20231.2.2 Global Nuclear Decommissioning Revenue Market Share by Reactor Type 2013-20231.2.3 Global Nuclear Decommissioning Price by Reactor Type 2013-20231.2.4 Pressurized Water Reactor1.2.5 Gas-cooled Reactors1.2.6 Pressurized Heavy-Water Reactor1.2.7 Boiling Water Reactor1.2.8 Light Water Graphite Reactor1.3 Nuclear Decommissioning, by Site Capacity 2013-20231.3.1 Global Nuclear Decommissioning Sales Market Share by Site Capacity 2013-20231.3.2 Global Nuclear Decommissioning Revenue Market Share by Site Capacity 2013-20231.3.3 Global Nuclear Decommissioning Price by Site Capacity 2013-20231.3.4 Below 100 MW1.3.5 100  1000 MW1.3.6 Above 1000 MW1.4 Nuclear Decommissioning, by Strategy 2013-20231.4.1 Global Nuclear Decommissioning Sales Market Share by Strategy 2013-20231.4.2 Global Nuclear Decommissioning Revenue Market Share by Strategy 2013-20231.4.3 Global Nuclear Decommissioning Price by Strategy 2013-20231.4.4 Immediate1.4.5 Deferred Dismantling1.4.6 OthersChapter Three Nuclear Decommissioning by Players 2013-20183.1 Global Nuclear Decommissioning Sales Volume Market Share by Players 2013-20183.2 Global Nuclear Decommissioning Revenue Share by Players 2013-20183.3 Global Top Players Nuclear Decommissioning Key Product Model and Market Performance3.4 Global Top Players Nuclear Decommissioning Key Target Consumers and Market Performance..Chapter Five Global Top Players Profile5.1 AECOM5.1.1 AECOM Company Details and Competitors5.1.2 AECOM Key Nuclear Decommissioning Models and Performance5.1.3 AECOM Nuclear Decommissioning Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast5.1.4 AECOM Nuclear Decommissioning Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin5.2 Areva Group5.2.1 Areva Group Company Details and Competitors5.2.2 Areva Group Key Nuclear Decommissioning Models and Performance5.2.3 Areva Group Nuclear Decommissioning Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast5.2.4 Areva Group Nuclear Decommissioning Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin5.3 Babcock International Group5.3.1 Babcock International Group Company Details and Competitors5.3.2 Babcock International Group Key Nuclear Decommissioning Models and Performance5.3.3 Babcock International Group Nuclear Decommissioning Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast5.3.4 Babcock International Group Nuclear Decommissioning Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin5.4 Bechtel5.4.1 Bechtel Company Details and Competitors5.4.2 Bechtel Key Nuclear Decommissioning Models and Performance5.4.3 Bechtel Nuclear Decommissioning Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast5.4.4 Bechtel Nuclear Decommissioning Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin5.5 CH2M5.5.1 CH2M Company Details and Competitors5.5.2 CH2M Key Nuclear Decommissioning Models and Performance5.5.3 CH2M Nuclear Decommissioning Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast5.5.4 CH2M Nuclear Decommissioning Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin5.6 Hitachi  GE5.6.1 Hitachi  GE Company Details and Competitors5.6.2 Hitachi  GE Key Nuclear Decommissioning Models and Performance5.6.3 Hitachi  GE Nuclear Decommissioning Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast5.6.4 Hitachi  GE Nuclear Decommissioning Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin5.7 Studsvik5.7.1 Studsvik Company Details and Competitors5.7.2 Studsvik Key Nuclear Decommissioning Models and Performance5.7.3 Studsvik Nuclear Decommissioning Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast5.7.4 Studsvik Nuclear Decommissioning Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin5.8 Westinghouse Electric5.8.1 Westinghouse Electric Company Details and Competitors5.8.2 Westinghouse Electric Key Nuclear Decommissioning Models and Performance5.8.3 Westinghouse Electric Nuclear Decommissioning Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast5.8.4 Westinghouse Electric Nuclear Decommissioning Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin5.9 EnergySolutions5.9.1 EnergySolutions Company Details and Competitors5.9.2 EnergySolutions Key Nuclear Decommissioning Models and Performance5.9.3 EnergySolutions Nuclear Decommissioning Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast5.9.4 EnergySolutions Nuclear Decommissioning Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin5.10 Nuvia5.10.1 Nuvia Company Details and Competitors5.10.2 Nuvia Key Nuclear Decommissioning Models and Performance5.10.3 Nuvia Nuclear Decommissioning Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast5.10.4 Nuvia Nuclear Decommissioning Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin5.11 Magnox Ltd.5.12 Sellafield Ltd.5.13 Rosatom5.14 EDF-Ciden5.15 Javys5.16 Enresa5.17 GD Energy Services5.18 NDAContinued..Contact US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:: Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltd: Pune  411028: Maharashtra,: Ph: +91 841 198 5042New Released Report on Propylene Oxide Market Size & Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025

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"The Report Propylene Oxide Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global Propylene Oxide market on the basis of types of applications, major sectors, deployment models, organization size, and regions. The report contains an analysis of the major factors influencing the growth of the market (drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges). It aims to strategically analyze the micromarkets with respect to individual growth trends, prospects, and their contribution to the market. The report attempts to forecast the market size for 5 major regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America. It contains key vendor profiles and comprehensively analyzes their core competencies. The report also tracks and analyzes competitive developments, including partnerships, collaborations, acquisitions, new product developments, and R&D activities in the market.Get Sample Copy of this report @An oxide is a binary compound combined with an electropositive element or a group. Propylene, which is a colorless gas, belongs to the alkene group. It is obtained by thermal cracking of ethylene and has a faint odor similar to petroleum. Propylene oxide is a chemical compound of propylene and oxygen. It is organic and behaves as a chemical intermediate in various chemical synthesis processes. Propylene oxide with chemical formula of CH3CHCH2O is a colorless, volatile liquid and highly flammable substance. It immediately evaporates from dry surfaces, while it is moderately volatile on wet surfaces. Propylene oxide reacts with compounds having active hydrogen atoms (amines or acids) to form chemical intermediaries, which are used in many end-use industries.The global propylene oxide market is primarily driven by the increase in demand for propylene oxide in various end-use industries such as automotive, construction & furniture, footwear, and packaging. Polyurethanes, which possess wide characteristics of hardness, rigidity, and density, are manufactured from polyether polyols. Propylene oxide is primarily used as an intermediate to produce polyether polyols. Polyurethanes are widely used in furniture, flooring materials, automobile seating, bedding, carpet underlay, and thermal industries. Therefore, rise in demand for propylene oxide is anticipated to boost the market. Increase in consumption of products which produced using propylene glycols, polyalkylene glycols, and propylene glycol ethers is also expected to propel the propylene oxide market. Rise in disposable income of consumers and rapid industrialization are estimated to drive the demand for furniture and interior goods, ultimately leading to high demand for propylene oxide and its derivatives. Expansion in the medical sector and rapid technological advancements are projected to offer lucrative opportunities to the propylene oxide market. However, volatility in prices of feedstock and regulations against transportation of propylene oxide are likely to hamper market growth.Based on production process, the propylene oxide market can be divided into chlorohydrin process, styrene monomer process, TBA co-product process, hydrogen peroxide process, and cumene-based process. The chlorohydrin process segment holds significant share of the propylene oxide market. The chlorohydrin process is a reaction between propylene and chlorine atoms in the presence of water. This process is followed by dehydrochlorination to produce propylene oxide and salt.View Full Report @In terms of application, the propylene oxide market can be segmented into polyether polyols, propylene glycols, propylene glycol ethers, and others. The polyether polyols segment accounts for key share of the propylene oxide market owing to the rise in usage in the production of polyurethanes. Demand for polyurethanes is high in automobile, construction, textile, and packaging industries. Others application segment includes flame retardants, fumigants, textile surfactants, and modified starch.Based on end-use industry, the propylene oxide market can be segregated into automotive, building & construction, chemical & pharmaceutical, electronics, packaging, textile & furnishing, and others. Expansion in the building & construction industry is estimated to the boost the propylene oxide market. Propylene oxide is used extensively in adhesives, sealants, paints, grouts, waterproofing materials, and coatings.In terms of geography, the propylene oxide market can be split into North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Middle East & Africa. The market in Asia Pacific is anticipated to expand rapidly due to the easy availability of raw materials in countries such as China, Japan, and India. North America and Europe also hold significant share of the market owing to the increase in demand for propylene oxide in automobile and construction sectors.Key players operating in the global propylene oxide market include The Dow Chemical Company, BASF SE, Huntsman Corporation, Lyondellbasell Industries Holdings, Royal Dutch Shell Plc., and Sumitomo Chemicals Co.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisRequest For Enquiry @The regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.Highlights of the report:A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsAn objective assessment of the trajectory of the marketRecommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the marketCheck Discount @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact usMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizResearch Focused On the Flexible X-ray Imaging Market Size & Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025

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"The Report Flexible X-ray Imaging Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global Flexible X-ray Imaging market on the basis of types of applications, major sectors, deployment models, organization size, and regions. The report contains an analysis of the major factors influencing the growth of the market (drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges). It aims to strategically analyze the micromarkets with respect to individual growth trends, prospects, and their contribution to the market. The report attempts to forecast the market size for 5 major regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America. It contains key vendor profiles and comprehensively analyzes their core competencies. The report also tracks and analyzes competitive developments, including partnerships, collaborations, acquisitions, new product developments, and R&D activities in the market.Get Sample Copy of this report @X-rays are a part of natural electromagnetic spectrum and are formed artificially by reducing the speed of high-velocity electrons with the help of X-ray tube. X-rays have been used in medical and industrial applications since a long time. However, X-ray image sensors that are produced on glass substrates limit their application outside controlled environments such as hospital or doctors clinic without extensive reinforcement. Furthermore, the reinforcement considerably increases the weight and cost of the device, making it more unfeasible for far-forward applications in remote diagnostics. As glass substrates are intrinsically rigid, their usage in conformal and bendable X-ray imaging applications such as non-destructive testing (NDT) of oil pipelines is low. Therefore, by implementing low-temperature thin-film transistor technology on plastic substrate-based OLED and electrophoretic flexible displays, manufacturers are designing light-weight and durable flexible X-ray imaging detectors.Key factors driving the growth of the flexible X-ray imaging market include rise in demand of thin, light-weight, and robust X-ray detectors in general radiography, non-destructive imaging, and dental applications. Flexible X-ray imaging detectors are anticipated to be increasingly deployed in hospitals and remote locations in the future owing to their smaller and lighter structure, than conventional amorphous silicon-based X-ray detectors that are based on glass substrates. Furthermore, as flexible X-ray imaging does not require film processing or additional handling, it yields enhanced quality images within couple of seconds.Restraints in the flexible X-ray imaging market include stringent regulatory requirements for its global approval and the associated health risk owing to exposure to radiation. However, with further commercialization of flexible X-ray devices and consistent efforts in research and development, the impact of these restraints is expected to decrease in the long run.New opportunities estimated to boost the flexible X-ray imaging market include the increasing demand for flexible X-ray imaging devices in the medical field. Flexible X-ray imaging is expected to be largely used in the future in static as well as dynamic imaging such as live surgical procedures and in pipe scrutiny to inspect fractures or cracks through dense objects. Several institutions have been consistently investing in research and development of flexible X-ray imaging in the field of medicine. In 2014, Holst Centre in association with Philips Research confirmed the world's first flexible X-ray detector model for X-ray imaging in medical applications.View Full Report @The flexible X-ray imaging market can be segmented based on detector panel size, application, and geography. In terms of detector panel size, the flexible X-ray imaging market can be classified into small area detectors and large area detectors. Based on application, the flexible X-ray imaging market can be divided into medical, dental, veterinary, security, and industrial. The medical segment can be further categorized into static imaging and dynamic imaging. The static imaging sub-segment can be further classified into general radiography and mammography. Similarly, dynamic imaging can be further divided into general fluoroscopy, surgical imaging, and others. In terms of geography, the flexible X-ray imaging market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East & Africa (MEA), and Latin America. North America is expected to be a highly attractive region contributing to the flexible X-ray imaging market owing to the rapid technological developments in the region.Players operating in the flexible X-ray imaging market include the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and research and development firms. Sirona Dental Systems Inc., FlexEnable Limited, Trident Labs, Inc., Plastic Logic, Inc., and Isorg SA are manufacturers of flexible detectors or sensors who design and supply components for X-ray imaging applications. Research and development firms aiding the growth of X-ray imaging applications include the Holst Centre, Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute, Imec Group LLC, Flexible Electronics and Display Center (FEDC) (Xerox Company), and Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Request For Enquiry @The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.Highlights of the report:A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsAn objective assessment of the trajectory of the marketRecommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the marketCheck Discount @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact usMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizResearch Focused On the Molded interconnect devices (MIDs) Market Size, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025

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"The Report Molded interconnect devices (MIDs) Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global Molded interconnect devices (MIDs) market on the basis of types of applications, major sectors, deployment models, organization size, and regions. The report contains an analysis of the major factors influencing the growth of the market (drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges). It aims to strategically analyze the micromarkets with respect to individual growth trends, prospects, and their contribution to the market. The report attempts to forecast the market size for 5 major regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America. It contains key vendor profiles and comprehensively analyzes their core competencies. The report also tracks and analyzes competitive developments, including partnerships, collaborations, acquisitions, new product developments, and R&D activities in the market.Get Sample Copy of this report @Molded interconnect devices are three-dimensional electromechanical components. In addition, these devices are major components for various mechanical and electrical engineering application that are used in automotive and telecommunication industry. Molded interconnect devices can minimizes the number of parts in circuit saving space & reduce assembly time along with cost effective for complex electromechanical functions which in turn is predicted to increase the usage of MID deices in various end use application. Additionally, molded interconnect devices combine with various internal parts that includes circuit board, connectors and cables among others. Moreover, automotive and telecommunication manufactures are now focusing to develop their product by integrating electrical & mechanical functions in a single product. This helps manufactures in saving production costs along with reducing their production time. Even though MIDs have been around for many years but these production adoption has not been widespread. Across the globe, increasing the adoption of smart devices has been observed in last couple of years. Thus, the molded interconnect devices market is likely to witness stable growth during the forecast period from 2017  2025 owing to frequent inventions in telecommunication and consumer electronics application are expected to increase in coming years.The global molded interconnect devices market has been segmented on the basis of manufacturing process, end use industry and geography. Based on manufacturing process, the market for molded interconnect devices has been bifurcated into various types which includes laser direct structuring, two components injection molding and film back injection molding others. Laser direct structuring (LDS) begins with a single shot molding to generate the physical part of component. In 2016, the laser direct structuring segment hold the major market share among the other process segment. Additionally, laser direct structuring is anticipated to grow at a high CAGR rate during the forecast period. Based on end use industry, global molded interconnect devices market has been fragmented in various types which includes telecommunication, automotive, industrial and healthcare among others. Over the past few years, there has been a significant growth in the growing number of smart phones, tablets and smart devices which is favoring adoption of molded interconnect devices. Moreover, factors such as increasing use of molded interconnect devices in growing penetration of various automotive applications such as sensors, switches, antennas and LED lighting among others are expected to further bring significant growth in the overall market. This complete research study of the global molded interconnect devices market provides a comprehensive review of growth, trends, restraints, drivers, and demand projection, market size and forecast among others. In last couple of years, telecommunication industry accounted for maximum market share, and also predicted to expand at a healthy CAGR during the forecast period. However, automotive and healthcare industry is forecasted to witness steady growth during the forecast period. Across the globe, design flexibility of the products and less auxiliary parts along with eco-friendly features technologies in automobile industry has helped fuel major demand for this market. Furthermore, the demand of molded interconnect devices is foreseen to gain a strong momentum is growth due to rising application in the telecommunication and automotive sectors. On the flip side, high tooling costs, high cost chemical element during production process and low circuit density is hindering the growth of the global molded interconnect devices market in coming years.View Full Report @Geographically, the global molded interconnect devices market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and South America. In coming years, Asia Pacific is expected to hold the maximum market share due to primarily attributed to increasing usage in consumer electronics. In Asia Pacific, China is expected to be the major contributor for the growth of molded interconnect devices market over the forecast period. A range of research and development applications including the usage of developments of molded interconnect devices product could provide opportunity to the market growth. North America, is forecasted to witness strong growth rate due to the U.S. based technological giant companies such as Google, Apple, others are upgrading and expanding their product line. South America and Middle-East & Africa are expected to showcase slower growth in the molded interconnect devices market when compared with other regions.The global molded interconnect devices market is dominated by players such as Molex, MacDermid, Siemens, LPKF Laser & Electronics, Fujitsu, TE Connectivity, Harting, Select Connect Technologies among others.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisRequest For Enquiry @The regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.Highlights of the report:A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsAn objective assessment of the trajectory of the marketRecommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the marketCheck Discount @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact usMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizGlobal Taxi And Limousine Services Market 2018 Key Players: Uber, Lyft, Yellow Cab, Limo City, Eti Taxi Service.

Taxi And Limousine Services Market

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Taxi And Limousine Services Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Taxi And Limousine Services Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2023reports to its database.Executive SummaryTaxi And Limousine Services Market Global Report 2018 from The Business Research Company provides the strategists, marketers and senior management with the critical information they need to assess the global taxi and limousine services market.Where is the largest and fastest growing market for the taxi and limousine services? How does the market relate to the overall economy, demography and other similar markets? What forces will shape the market going forward? The taxi and limousine services market global report from the Business Research Company answers all these questions and many more.The report covers market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional and country breakdowns, competitive landscape, market shares, trends and strategies for this market. It traces the markets historic and forecast market growth by geography. It places the market within the context of the wider transportation services market, and compares it with other markets. The market characteristics section of the report defines and explains the market. The market size section gives the market size ($b) covering both the historic growth of the market and forecasting the future. Drivers and restraints looks at the external factors supporting and controlling the growth of the market. Market segmentations break down market into sub markets. The regional and country breakdowns section gives an analysis of the market in each geography and the size of the market by geography and compares their historic and forecast growth. It covers all the regions, key developed countries and major emerging markets. It draws comparisons with country populations and economies to understand the importance of the market by country and how this is changing. Competitive landscape gives a description of the competitive nature of the market, market shares, and a description of the leading companies. Key financial deals which have shaped the market in recent years are identified. The trends and strategies section highlights the likely future developments in the market and suggests approaches companies can take to exploit this. The taxi and limousine services market section of the report gives context. It compares the taxi and limousine services market with other segments of the taxi and limousine services market by size and growth, historic and forecast. It analyses Expenditure Per Capita, The Taxi And Limousine Services Market Indicators Comparison.Request Sample Report @ScopeMarkets Covered: Mobile Application Based Taxi Services; Other Taxi ServicesCompanies Mentioned: Uber,Lyft,Yellow Cab,Limo City,Eti Taxi ServiceCountries: Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, Russia, UK, USA and Australia.Regions: Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East And AfricaTime series: Five years historic and forecast.Data: Ratios of market size and growth to related markets, GDP, Expenditure Per Capita, The Taxi And Limousine Services Market Indicators Comparison.Data segmentations: country and regional historic and forecast data, market share of competitors, market segments.Sourcing and Referencing: Data and analysis throughout the report is sourced using end notes.Table of Content1. Taxi And Limousine Services Market Characteristics2. Taxi And Limousine Services Market Size And Growth3. Taxi And Limousine Services Trends And Strategies;4. Pestle Analysis5. Taxi And Limousine Services Market Customer Information;6. Taxi And Limousine Services Market Regional And Country Analysis7. Taxi And Limousine Services Market Segmentation8. Taxi And Limousine Services Market Segments9. Global Taxi And Limousine Services Market Comparison With Macro Economic Factors10. Taxi And Limousine Services Market Comparison With Macro Economic Factors Across Countries11. Asia-Pacific Taxi And Limousine Services Market12. Western Europe Taxi And Limousine Services Market13. Eastern Europe Taxi And Limousine Services Market14. North America Taxi And Limousine Services Market15. South America Taxi And Limousine Services Market16. Middle East Taxi And Limousine Services Market17. Africa Taxi And Limousine Services Market18. Taxi And Limousine Services Market Competitive Landscape18.1. Company Profiles18.2. Uber18.2.1. Overview18.2.2. Products And Services18.2.3. Strategy18.2.4. Financial Performance18.3. Lyft18.3.1. Overview18.3.2. Products And Services18.3.3. Strategy18.3.4. Financial Performance18.4. Yellow Cab18.4.1. Overview18.4.2. Products And Services18.4.3. Strategy18.4.4. Financial Performance18.5. Limo City18.5.1. Overview18.5.2. Products And Services18.5.3. Strategy18.5.4. Financial Performance18.6. Eti Taxi Service18.6.1. Overview18.6.2. Products And Services18.6.3. Strategy18.6.4. Financial Performance19. Key Mergers And Acquisitions In The Taxi And Limousine Services Market20. Market Background: Transit And Ground Passenger Transportation Market21. AppendixReasons to Purchase Outperform competitors using accurate up to date demand-side dynamics information. Identify growth segments for investment. Facilitate decision making on the basis of historic and forecast data and the drivers and restraints on the market. Create regional and country strategies on the basis of local data and analysis. Stay abreast of the latest customer and market research findings Benchmark performance against key competitors. Develop strategies based on likely future developments. Utilize the relationships between key data sets for superior strategizing. Suitable for supporting your internal and external presentations with reliable high quality data and analysis Gain a global perspective on the development of the market. Report will be updated with the latest data and delivered to you within 3-5 working days of order.ContinuousFor further information on this report, visit Contact Us:Norah Trentsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042Global Fungicides Market gaining big growth in the coming years, market worth USD 16.1billion by 2024, According to Research Nester

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Fungicides are defined as a type of biological organism that controls fungal disease by killing the fungus. It is widely used for the prevention of fungal disease that affects plants. Fungicides help to enhance the quality of the crop. It is also used in animals to prevent them from fungal infection. Fungicides are gaining popularity among the farmers due to their various properties such as high crop yield, better quality crop production and others.Global fungicides market is anticipated to post a noteworthy CAGR of 6.1% during the forecast period i.e. 2017-2024. Moreover, the global fungicides market is projected to account sales of USD 16.1 Billion by the end of 2024. Additionally, mounting demand for fungicides which can control genetically modified crops (GMO) is projected to foster the growth of fungicides market.On the basis of synthetic type, the triazoles segment is expected to project a highest CAGR by the end of 2024 owing to low cost. Furthermore, cereals & grains by crop type segment accounted for the largest market share in 2016. Likely, cereals & grains are estimated to grow at a highest CAGR by the end of 2024 owing to the increased awareness regarding their nutritional benefits.Rising Food Security ConcernsGrowing population all across the globe along with rising demand for food grains, vegetables and other agricultural products and increasing concern for food security are believed to be the major factor behind the rapid growth of fungicides market. Moreover, rise in crop loss due to fungal diseases is also impacting the growth of fungicides market.Request Report Sample@Rising AwarenessRising awareness among the farmers about the benefits of fungicides in developing and developed nations such as U.S., China, Japan, India and others is augmenting the demand for fungicides which is predicted to be the key factor behind the positive growth of fungicides market. Furthermore, high demand for crop protection along with upsurge adoption of fungicides to enhance quality and quantity of production of grains is projected to boost the demand for fungicides.On the contrary, environmental concerns and health concerns are believed to hamper the growth of fungicides market across the globe.The report titled Fungicides Market: Global Demand Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2024 delivers detailed overview of the global fungicides market in terms of market segmentation by type, by crop type and by region.Further, for the in-depth analysis, the report encompasses the industry growth drivers, restraints, supply and demand risk, market attractiveness, BPS analysis and Porters five force model.Request Table of Contents:This report also provides the existing competitive scenario of some of the key players of the global fungicides market which includes company profiling of Syngenta, Monsanto, Nufarm Ltd, Adama Agricultural Solutions Ltd, FMC Corporation, Cheminova A/S, Bayer AG, BASF SE, DOW Agroscience LLC, Pesticide Company Consolidations. The profiling enfolds key information of the companies which encompasses business overview, products and services, key financials and recent news and developments. On the whole, the report depicts detailed overview of the global fungicides market that will help industry consultants, equipment manufacturers, existing players searching for expansion opportunities, new players searching possibilities and other stakeholders to align their market centric strategies according to the ongoing and expected trends in the future.Request Buy Now:Read More Information:Research Nester is a leading service provider for strategic market research and consulting. We aim to provide unbiased, unparalleled market insights and industry analysis to help industries, conglomerates and executives to take wise decisions for their future marketing strategy, expansion and investment etc. We believe every business can expand to its new horizon, provided a right guidance at a right time is available through strategic minds. Our out of box thinking helps our clients to take wise decision so as to avoid future uncertainties.For Table of Content & Free Sample Report Contact:Name:-Ajay DanielEmail: ajay.daniel@researchnester.comU.S. +1 646 586 9123U.K. +44 203 608 5919Website:-Biosimilars Market By Product Types, Application, Regions and Key Manufacturers - Astra, Zeneca, Pfizer, Biocon, Novartis, Teva Pharma and STADA

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Global Biosimilars Market - Industry Analysis, Share, Trend, Market Size and Forecast was estimated to be around US$ 6.45 billion in 2017 and is anticipated to grow with 55.0% of growth rate during the future period. This report segments the global Biosimilars Market by product type, application and geography. Biosimilars are the biologics pharmaceutical drugs which are similar to the reference biologic products. These drugs are an interchangeable biological product that contains synthetically developed protein molecules. When the patent of branded drug is expired, pharmaceutical companies are planning to develop off-patent biologics i.e. biosimilars that offer similar biological activity. The biosimilars market offers many growth opportunities and driving factors as compared to the restraining factors. It is stated by various research scientists that development of biosimilars will drastically reduce the price of pharmaceutical drugs.FREE | Request Sample Copy is Available atIn terms of product types, the market for recombinant glycosylated proteins continue to dominate during the forecast period, while the market for recombinant non-glycosylated proteins biosimilars will see a huge potential during the forecast period. On other side, oncology was the largest application segment in 2016, and expected to be the fastest growing application segment in the forecast period. The rise in the aging population, increasing cancer patients, and rise of hospital acquired infection patients globally are factors responsible for the growth of this application segment. The market size and forecast for each segment has been provided for the period 2014 to 2025, considering 2016 as the base year. The report also provides the compounded annual growth rate (% CAGR) for the forecast period 2017 to 2025 for every reported segment.The report aims at estimating the market size and future growth potential of market across different segments, such as product types, application and regions.The years considered for the study are:Historical Year - 2014 & 2015Base Year - 2016Estimated Year - 2017Projected Year - 2025Companies reported in this report are: Amgen, Inc, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Inc., BIOCON Limited, Novartis AG, STADA, Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Others. For company profiles in the report, 2014 has been considered. Where information is unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Inquire about this Report atTARGET AUDIENCEHospitalsManufacturersTraders, Distributors, And Suppliers of BiosimilarsGovernment and Regional Agencies and Research OrganizationsConsultantsDistributorsSCOPE OF THE REPORTThe research report categorizes the Biosimilars Market in each of the following submarkets to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends:GLOBAL BIOSIMILARS MARKET, BY PRODUCT TYPESRecombinant Glycosylated ProteinsRecombinant Non-Glycosylated ProteinsRecombinant PeptidesGLOBAL BIOSIMILARS MARKET, BY APPLICATIONOncologyBlood DisordersInfectious DiseasesAutoimmune DiseasesOthersGLOBAL BIOSIMILARS MARKET, BY REGIONNorth AmericaEuropeAsia PacificRest of the WorldComplete Report is Available atGLOBAL BIOSIMILARS MARKET, GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSISFurther Breakdown of The North America Biosimilars MarketU.S.CanadaFurther Breakdown of The Europe Biosimilars MarketGermanyFranceRest of EuropeFurther Breakdown of The APAC Biosimilars MarketIndiaChinaRest of APACFurther Breakdown of The Rest of the World Biosimilars MarketMiddle East and AfricaLatin AmericaContact Us:Phone: +1-646-491-9876Email Id: sales@reportsweb.comAbout ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers.533, 5th Floor, Amanora Chambers,Amanora Township, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Fungicide Active Ingredients Market Intelligence with Competitive Landscape 2016 - 2026

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Fungicides are first found chemical compounds utilized by people to preserve the plants from infections and pollutions. This chemical compound reduces the fungal growth in crops and thus plays a significant role in protection of crops. It has been observed that, diseases are the key source for damage of crop and plant that can be caused by number of organisms. Fungi is the topmost cause for infection of plants all across the globe. Apart from this, other diseases that hamper the growth of crops include nematodes, bacteria and viruses. Fungicides have become a significant component for the management of plant diseases for agrarian crops. Fungicides are utilized both in agriculture as well as to kill fungal infections in animals. Fungicides are utilized as a formulated product comprising of an active ingredient and as well as inert ingredients that enhance the functioning of the product. The global fungicide active ingredients market has grown at a rapid pace over the past few years and is anticipated to expand at a significant CAGR over the forecast period.Global Fungicide Active Ingredients: Market SegmentationGlobal Fungicide Active Ingredients market is segmented on the basis of type of active ingredients such as azoxystrobin, boscalid, chlorothalonil, cyazofamid, etridiazole (ethazole), fenarimol, fludioxonil, fluoxastrobin, flutolanil, fosetyl-Al, iprodione, mancozeb, mefenoxam, metconazole, myclobutanil, PCNB (quintozene), phosphites, polyoxin D zinc, propamocarb, propiconazole, pyraclostrobin, tebuconazole, thiophanate-methyl, triadimefon, trifloxystrobin, triticonazole and vinclozolin. The global fungicide active ingredients can also be bifurcated on the basis of application in crops such as cereals, grains, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits and others.Request For Report Sample@Global Fungicide Active Ingredients Market: Growth DriversRising population leading to increase in food production which encourages the farmers to adopt optimum type fungicide for protection of crop in order to maximize the production and to minimize the risk related to crop infections. This is anticipated to expand the growth of global fungicide active ingredients market over the forecast period. Apart from this, robust demand for fungicides in major applications such as vegetable and fruit crops and in ornamental and turf grass is also likely to foster the growth of worldwide fungicide active ingredients market from 2016-2026. Expansion in population especially in developing countries such as India and China is expected to impel food related security concerns in the region which is likely to fuel the growth of global fungicide active ingredients market during the forecast period.Global Fungicide Active Ingredients Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the Global Fungicide Active Ingredients industry can be divided by major regions which include North America, Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific region, Japan, Middle East and Africa. Europe captured the maximum market share in the total revenue of global fungicide active ingredients market in 2015. Rising population along with increasing the education level in developing countries is anticipated to bolster the growth of Asia Pacific fungicide active ingredients market over the forecast period. Besides this, Latin American fungicide active ingredients market is also expected to observe robust growth during the next few years.Visit For TOC@Global Fungicide Active Ingredients Market: PlayersSome of the leading players identified across the value chain of the global Fungicide Active Ingredients market include BASF, Bayer Cropscience, DuPont, Dow AgroSciences, Syngenta and Monsanto. In 2015, BASF marked the highest market share in terms of revenue in global fungicide active ingredients market. Most of players also function regional research and testing centers across all the geographic locations in order to keep the product market oriented as per the need. The companies are entering into widening their product portfolio and focusing on merger and acquisition in order to gain the competitive edge in global fungicide active ingredients market. Significant investment in research and development activities is expected by the companies over the coming few years in order to maintain the dominance in global fungicide active ingredients market in future.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACTFuture Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: http.futuremarketinsights.comEgyptian Security authorities announced Wednesday the arrest of Moneim Aboul-Fotouh, an ex-presidential candidate and vocal critic of President al-Sisi whom he urged step down for failing to address the countrys challenges.

The candidate in the 2012 post revolution election was arrested upon his return from London where he gave an interview criticizing President al-Sisi and his regime.

Aboul-Fotouh faces charges of communicating with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and calling for the removal of the regime.

Cairo banned in 2013 the Islamist organization following the ouster of first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi, himself a senior member of the movement.

Aboul-Fotouh lashed out at President al-Sisi in the Sunday interview with Doha-based al-Jazeera. He accused the Egyptian leader of preventing challengers from running against him in next month presidential election.

Egypt has banned Qatar-based news network that it accused of inciting uprising.

Aboul-Fotouh is leader of Strong Egypt Party; an opposition party that joined other prominent political movements last month in calling for March election boycott. The parties criticize the coming elections as a one-horse race.

President al-Sisi is sure to win the polls almost unchallenged, as his only opponent stepped in just to credit the elections.

Six aides of Aboul-Fotouh have been also detained, one week after the partys deputy leader Mohamed al-Qassas was held.

Aboul-Fotouhs arrest occurred amid ongoing crackdown on dissent. Authorities Tuesday rounded up Hisham Geneina, the former head of the anti-corruption watchdog.

Geneina has been remanded in prison after he suggested that ex-general and former candidate in March election, Sami Anan, has secret documents that implicate regime officials.

Anan abruptly scrapped his candidacy for next month elections after the army arrested him for violating military law, for failing to inform the army of his presidential bid.Healthcare Informatics and Patient Monitoring Market Players Focus on Inexpensive and High-performance Formulations-2018  2025

Healthcare Informatics and Patient Monitoring

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15 Feb 2018"Healthcare Informatics and Patient Monitoring Market - India Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" with coming years Industries Trends, projections of Global Growth, Major key player and Case study, Review, Share, Size, Effect.. .Report Description-' 'Global Healthcare Informatics and Patient Monitoring Market: OverviewThis report on the healthcare informatics and patient monitoring market studies the current and future prospects of the India market. Healthcare informatics and patient monitoring devices enables monitoring of patients health and assists medical practitioners in deciding the treatment regimen as well as track the disease progression during treatment. Patient monitoring is effective in the management of post-acute care and chronic disease. Geriatric population is observed to be at a high risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases. Thus, rising geriatric population propels the prevalence of chronic diseases leading to accentuate the growth of healthcare informatics and patient monitoring market in India.. . Get Sample Report' 'The healthcare informatics and patient monitoring market report comprises an elaborate executive summary, which includes a market snapshot that provides information about various segments and sub-segments of the market. It also provides information and data analysis of the healthcare informatics and patient monitoring market with respect to market segments based on the type and demography of end-users and their geographic analysis.Global Healthcare Informatics and Patient Monitoring Market: SegmentationBased on demography, the healthcare informatics and patient monitoring market has been segmented into two major categories: metropolitan and urban hospitals and healthcare facilities and rural hospitals and healthcare facilities. Based on type, the market has been categorized into three segments: Ambulatory care, hospitals and home health care. The market segments have been extensively analyzed based on usefulness, efficacy, revenue, and geographical coverage. The market size and forecast in terms of US$ million for each segment has been provided for the period from 2015 to 2025. The report also provides the compound annual growth rate (CAGR %) for each market segment for the forecast period from 2017 to 2025, considering 2015 as the base year.Global Healthcare Informatics and Patient Monitoring Market: Regional Outlook and Drivers and RestraintsGeographically, the healthcare informatics and patient monitoring market has been categorized into four major regions: North, East, West and South. The market size and forecast for each of these regions has been provided for the period from 2015 to 2025, along with their respective CAGRs for the forecast period from 2017 to 2025, considering 2015 as the base year. The research study also covers the competitive scenario in these regions.A detailed qualitative analysis of factors responsible for driving and restraining the growth of the market and future opportunities has been provided in the market overview section. This section of the report also provides market attractiveness analysis, value chain analysis, Porters Five Forces analysis, and market share analysis by key players, thus presenting a thorough analysis of the overall competitive scenario in the healthcare informatics and patient monitoring market.Global Healthcare Informatics and Patient Monitoring Market: Competitive DynamicsA list of recommendations has been provided for new entrants as well as existing market players to assist them in taking strategic initiatives to establish a strong presence in the market. The report also profiles major players in the healthcare informatics and patient monitoring market based on various attributes such as company overview, financial overview, product portfolio, business strategies, and recent developments. Major players profiled in this report include Philips India Ltd., Wipro GE Healthcare, Mindray Medical India Pvt. Ltd., Nihon Kohden India Pvt. Ltd., Schiller Healthcare India Pvt. Ltd., Drager India Pvt. Ltd., BPL Medical Technologies Pvt. Ltd., India Medtronic Pvt. Ltd.The Indian market for Healthcare Informatics and Patient Monitoring has been segmented as follows:Global Healthcare Informatics and Patient Monitoring Market, by DemographyMetropolitan and Urban Hospitals and Healthcare FacilitiesRural Hospitals and Healthcare FacilitiesGlobal Healthcare Informatics and Patient Monitoring Market, by TypeAmbulatory Care CentersHome HealthcareHospitalsGlobal Healthcare Informatics and Patient Monitoring Market, by RegionNorthEastWest. . More Clear Details get Table of ContentsResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074Asparagus Market revenues are projected to soar sluggishly at 3.1% CAGR during the forecast period 2017-2027

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Key excerpts from Future Market Insights latest report on the global asparagus market project that by the end of 2027, around 10,300,521.7 metric tonnes (MT) of asparagus will be consumed across the globe. The sales of 10 million MT of asparagus are estimated to bring in revenues worth over US$ 37 Bn. Rising awareness among consumers regarding benefits of consuming asparagus is expected to instrument the growth in global consumption. By helping consumers boost their immunity, enhance brain function, and at certain extent, fight cancer, asparagus will continue to be an essential vegetable rich in nutrients.In terms of production, China is expected to remain the worlds largest asparagus producer throughout the forecast period, 2017-2027. In 2014, China recorded production of half a million metric tonnes of asparagus. Chinas contribution to the asparagus market in Asia-Pacific will remain significant. However, brimming demand for asparagus makes Western Europe the largest market, procuring over 40% share of global revenues. North America is also expected to be at the forefront of expansion of the global asparagus market, recording consumption of nearly 2 million MT of asparagus by 2016-end.Request For Report Sample@In spite of ample production and growing awareness regarding benefits of asparagus, the market is poised to grow at a moderate place. In terms of volume, the market is projected to showcase a 2.2% CAGR, while global asparagus revenues are projected to soar sluggishly at 3.1% CAGR during the forecast period. The report, titled Asparagus Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2017-2027, has identifies key restraints for the growth of global asparagus sales, which include:Farmers Opting for Direct Marketing  Farmers cultivating asparagus sell their produce by themselves, through traditional village bazaars and roadside outlets. Large and small restaurants as well as common consumers are also preferring to purchase this farm-fresh asparagus through direct marketing of farmers. This practice is impacting the global asparagus sales, but at a moderate extent.High Costs for Processing & Storage of Asparagus  The most crucial inhibitor for growth of global asparagus sales is the need for higher capital investment in storage and processing of asparagus. Cost of packaging, cooling and transportation is relatively high, which reduces the price per pound of asparagus. Reduction in price per pound further leads to monetary losses for manufacturers. Processed asparagus, such as asparagus in brine, soups, mixed vegetable products etc., being sold at higher cost price, is expected to result in lower uptake among some sections of consumers in the world.Leading manufacturers of asparagus include: Altar Produce LLC, Sociedad Agricola Viru, DanPer Trujillo S.A.C., Limgroup B.V., TEBOZA BV, THIERMANN SPAGEL FARM, ILIOS - The Greek Asparagus Company, BEJO SEEDS LTD., Spargelhof Elsholz Gbr, Cutter Asparagus Seed, JERSEY ASPARAGUS FARMS, INC., Consorzio Associazione Produttori Ortofrutticoli Foggia, Mazzoni Vivai, and California Asparagus Seed and Transplants, Inc.Visit For TOC@Additional Highlights from the Report -By the end of 2017, the report estimates that over 8.2 million MT of asparagus will consumed globally, raking in US$ 27.7 Bn revenuesTowards the end of 2027, over three-fourth of global revenues will be accounted by sales of fresh asparagusLikewise, green asparagus will also hold 75% share of global revenues throughout the forecast period, registering revenue growth at 3.3% CAGRABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACTFuture Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: http.futuremarketinsights.comInsulated Packaging Market Competitive landscape By 2022

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Insulated Packaging Market 2018MarketResearchFuture adds Insulated Packaging Market 2018: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, Forecast to 2022reports to its Database.Key PlayersThe key players of global insulated packaging market are Deutsche Post DHL (Germany), E.I. Du Pont De Nemours and Co. (U.S.), Huhtamaki OYJ (Finland), Sonoco Products Company (U.S.), Exeltainer (Spain), American Aerogel Corporation (U.S.), Thermal Packaging Solutions (Australia), TemperPack (U.S.), Insulated Products Corp (U.S), and Davis Core & Pad Co.(U.S.)Request For Sample Report @Market ScenarioAn insulated material is the combination of materials that have low thermal conductivity and reduce or prevent the transmission of heat. Various industries such as food & beverages, pharmaceutical, chemicals, cosmetics depend heavily on insulated packaging to protect the product from fire or explosion. Products in these industries needs proper packaging because they are subjected to extreme weather conditions, and pressure while transportation.The key driver for the growth of insulated packaging market is the rising disposable income, and the growth in packaging industry. This has led to a rise in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) and their safety. Other growth drivers for this market are the retailers who mainly focus on the delivering the product safely to the local market. The growth in the packaging industry will result in the increased use of insulated packaging, which will indirectly result in the growth of this market.Study Objectives of Insulated Packaging MarketTo provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 5 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the global insulated packaging marketTo provide insights about factors affecting the market growthTo analyse the global insulated packaging Market based on various tools such as Supply Chain Analysis, and Porters Five Forces AnalysisTo provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to regions and their respective key countriesTo provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospectiveTo provide country level analysis of the market segmented by material, by packaging type, by application, and by regionTo provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analysing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the marketTo track and analyse competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global insulated packaging market.Regional Analysis of Insulated Packaging MarketThe Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow during the forecast period due to rising middle class population, increase in disposable income, and increase in FMCG sector. The growth of countries such as Japan, India, U.K., and Brazil is mainly due to the improved condition of economy and increasing concern for the product safety. Europe is the second largest market due to the rapid growth in the parent packaging market.Intended AudienceInsulated packaging manufacturersDistributer & Supplier companiesEnd Usersconsultants and Investment bankersGovernment as well as Independent Regulatory AuthoritiesProduct AnalysisProduct matrix which gives a detailed comparison of the market for different recycled product typesAdditional InformationRegulatory LandscapePricing AnalysisMacroeconomic IndicatorsGeographic AnalysisGeographical analysis across 15 countriesCompany InformationProfiling of 10 key market playersIn-depth analysis including SWOT analysis, and strategy information of related to report titleCompetitive landscape including emerging trends adopted by major companiesThe report for Insulated Packaging Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.Complete Report Details @Table of Contents1... Executive Summary2 Research Methodology2.1 Scope of the Study2.1.1 Definition2.1.2 Research Objective2.1.3 Assumptions2.1.4 Limitations2.2 Research Process2.2.1 Primary Research2.2.2 Secondary Research2.3 Market size Estimation2.4 Forecast Model8... Competitive Analysis8.1 Introduction8.2 Competitive Scenario8.2.1 Market Share Analysis8.2.2 Market Development Analysis8.2.3 Material/Service Benchmarking8.3 Deutsche Post DHL (Germany)8.3.1 Overview8.3.2 Material/Service Offering8.3.3 Strategy8.4 E.I. Du Pont De Nemours and Co. (U.S.)8.4.1 Overview8.4.2 Material/Service Offering8.4.3 Strategy8.5 Huhtamaki OYJ (Finland)8.5.1 Overview8.5.2 Material/Service Offering8.5.3 Strategy8.6 Sonoco Products Company (U.S.)8.6.1 Overview8.6.2 Material/Service Offering8.6.3 Strategy8.7 Exeltainer (Spain)8.7.1 Overview8.7.2 Material/Service Offering8.7.3 Strategy8.8 American Aerogel (U.S.)8.8.1 Overview8.8.2 Material/Service Offering8.8.3 Strategy8.8 Thermal Packaging Solution (Australia)8.8.1 Overview8.8.2 Material/Service Offering8.8.3 Strategy8.10 TemperPack (U.S.)8.10.1 Overview8.10.2 Material/Service Offering8.10.3 Strategy8.11 IPC Pack (U.S)8.11.1 Overview8.11.2 Material/Service Offering8.11.3 Strategy8.12 Davis Core & Pad (U.S.)8.12.1 Overview8.12.2 Material/Service Offering8.12.3 StrategyContinued.About UsAt Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR) and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have the prime objective to provide optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies depending on products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments enables our clients to know more consequently do more, which gives them answer for their each and every important question. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industryCONTACT US:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312salse@marketresearchfuture.comPhilippines Power Market 2017: Key Players: San Miguel Corporation, First Gen Corporation, Aboitiz Power Corporation, National Power Corporation and More

Philippines Power Market

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WiseGuyReports published new report, titled Philippines Power MarketSummaryThis report elaborates Philippines' power market structure and provides historical and forecast numbers for capacity, generation, and consumption up to 2030. Detailed analysis of the Philippines power markets regulatory structure, import and export trends, competitive landscape, and power projects at various stages of the supply chain is provided. The report also gives a snapshot of the power sector in Philippines on broad parameters of macroeconomics, supply security, generation infrastructure, transmission infrastructure, degree of competition, regulatory scenario, and future potential. An analysis of the deals market scenario in the countrys power sector is also included in the report.GET SAMPLE REPORT @Companies mentionedSan Miguel Corporation;First Gen Corporation;Aboitiz Power Corporation;National Power Corporation.Scope- Snapshot of the countrys power sector across parameters - macro economics, supply security, generation infrastructure, transmission infrastructure, degree of competition, regulatory scenario and future potential of the power sector.- Statistics for installed capacity, power generation and consumption from 2000 to 2016, forecast for the next 14 years to 2030.- Break-up by technology, including thermal, hydro, renewable and nuclear- Data on leading current and upcoming projects.- Information on grid interconnectivity, transmission and distribution infrastructure and power exports and imports.- Policy and regulatory framework governing the market.- Detailed analysis of top market participant, including market share analysis and SWOT analysis.Key points- Identify opportunities and plan strategies by having a strong understanding of the investment opportunities in the countrys power sector- Identification of key factors driving investment opportunities in the countrys power sector- Facilitate decision-making based on strong historic and forecast data- Develop strategies based on the latest regulatory events- Position yourself to gain the maximum advantage of the industrys growth potential- Identify key partners and business development avenues- Identify key strengths and weaknesses of important market participants- Respond to your competitors business structure, strategy and prospects...CONTINUEDFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially checkFor updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially checkWise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available. We also provide COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) business sector reports as custom exploration agreeing your particular needs.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaCigarettes, Cigars and Cigarillos Market Outlook to 2021 - Altria Group, Imperial Brands, Habanos S A, Swisher International and British American Tobacco

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Cigarettes, Cigars And Cigarillos Market Global Report 2018 from Publisher provides the strategists, marketers and senior management with the critical information they need to assess the global cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos market.FREE | Request Sample Copy is Available atReasons to Purchase-Outperform competitors using accurate up to date demand-side dynamics information.-Identify growth segments for investment.-Facilitate decision making on the basis of historic and forecast data and the drivers and restraints on the market.-Create regional and country strategies on the basis of local data and analysis.-Stay abreast of the latest customer and market research findings-Benchmark performance against key competitors.-Develop strategies based on likely future developments.-Utilize the relationships between key data sets for superior strategizing.-Suitable for supporting your internal and external presentations with reliable high quality data and analysis-Gain a global perspective on the development of the market.-Report will be updated with the latest data and delivered to you within 3-5 working days of order.Global Cell Line Development Market Top Players List Altria Group Inc Imperial Brands Habanos S A Swisher International Inc British American TobaccoWhere is the largest and fastest growing market for the cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos-How does the market relate to the overall economy, demography and other similar markets-What forces will shape the market going forward-The cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos market global report from Publisher answers all these questions and many more.The report covers market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional and country breakdowns, competitive landscape, market shares, trends and strategies for this market. It traces the markets historic and forecast market growth by geography. It places the market within the context of the wider Food And Beverages market, and compares it with other markets.Inquire about this Report at-The market characteristics section of the report defines and explains the market.-The market size section gives the market size ($b) covering both the historic growth of the market and forecasting the future. Drivers and restraints looks at the external factors supporting and controlling the growth of the market.-Market segmentations break down market into sub markets.-The regional and country breakdowns section gives an analysis of the market in each geography and the size of the market by geography and compares their historic and forecast growth. It covers all the regions, key developed countries and major emerging markets. It draws comparisons with country populations and economies to understand the importance of the market by country and how this is changing.-Competitive landscape gives a description of the competitive nature of the market, market shares, and a description of the leading companies. Key financial deals which have shaped the market in recent years are identified.-The trends and strategies section highlights the likely future developments in the market and suggests approaches companies can take to exploit this.-The cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos market section of the report gives context. It compares the cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos market with other segments of the Food And Beverages market by size and growth, historic and forecast. It analyses Expenditure Per Capita, The Cigarettes, Cigars And Cigarillos Indicators Comparison.Complete Report is Available atScopeMarkets Covered: Cigarettes; Cigars And CigarillosCompanies Mentioned: Altria Group Inc, Imperial Brands, Habanos S A, Swisher International Inc, British American TobaccoCountries: Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, Russia, UK, USA and Australia.Regions: Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East And AfricaTime series: Five years historic and forecast.Data: Ratios of market size and growth to related markets, GDP, Expenditure Per Capita, The Cigarettes, Cigars And Cigarillos Indicators Comparison.Data segmentations: country and regional historic and forecast data, market share of competitors, market segments.Sourcing and Referencing: Data and analysis throughout the report is sourced using end notes.Contact Us:Phone: +1-646-491-9876Email Id: sales@reportsweb.comAbout ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers.533, 5th Floor, Amanora Chambers,Amanora Township, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Global Site Remediation Consulting Services Market 2018 Key Players: AECOM, CH2M Hill, Tetra Tech Inc, Arcadis, Environmental Resources Management.

Site Remediation Consulting Services Market

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Site Remediation Consulting Services Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Site Remediation Consulting Services Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2023reports to its database.Executive SummarySite Remediation Consulting Services Market Global Report 2018 from The Business Research Company provides the strategists, marketers and senior management with the critical information they need to assess the global site remediation consulting services market.Where is the largest and fastest growing market for the site remediation consulting services? How does the market relate to the overall economy, demography and other similar markets? What forces will shape the market going forward? The site remediation consulting services market global report from the Business Research Company answers all these questions and many more.The report covers market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional and country breakdowns, competitive landscape, market shares, trends and strategies for this market. It traces the markets historic and forecast market growth by geography. It places the market within the context of the wider professional services market, and compares it with other markets. The market characteristics section of the report defines and explains the market. The market size section gives the market size ($b) covering both the historic growth of the market and forecasting the future. Drivers and restraints looks at the external factors supporting and controlling the growth of the market. Market segmentations break down market into sub markets. The regional and country breakdowns section gives an analysis of the market in each geography and the size of the market by geography and compares their historic and forecast growth. It covers all the regions, key developed countries and major emerging markets. It draws comparisons with country populations and economies to understand the importance of the market by country and how this is changing. Competitive landscape gives a description of the competitive nature of the market, market shares, and a description of the leading companies. Key financial deals which have shaped the market in recent years are identified. The trends and strategies section highlights the likely future developments in the market and suggests approaches companies can take to exploit this. The site remediation consulting services market section of the report gives context. It compares the site remediation consulting services market with other segments of the site remediation consulting services market by size and growth, historic and forecast. It analyses Expenditure Per Capita, The Site Remediation Consulting Services Market Indicators Comparison.Request Sample Report @ScopeMarkets Covered: Air Remediation Services; Soil Remediation Services; Water Remediation ServicesCompanies Mentioned: AECOM, CH2M Hill, Tetra Tech Inc, Arcadis, Environmental Resources ManagementCountries: Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, Russia, UK, USA and Australia.Regions: Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East And AfricaTime series: Five years historic and forecast.Data: Ratios of market size and growth to related markets, GDP, Expenditure Per Capita, The Site Remediation Consulting Services Market Indicators Comparison.Data segmentations: country and regional historic and forecast data, market share of competitors, market segments.Sourcing and Referencing: Data and analysis throughout the report is sourced using end notes.Table of Content1. Site Remediation Consulting Services Market Characteristics2. Site Remediation Consulting Services Market Size And Growth3. Site Remediation Consulting Services Trends And Strategies;4. Pestle Analysis5. Site Remediation Consulting Services Market Customer Information;6. Site Remediation Consulting Services Market Regional And Country Analysis7. Site Remediation Consulting Services Market Segmentation8. Site Remediation Consulting Services Market Segments9. Global Site Remediation Consulting Services Market Comparison With Macro Economic Factors10. Site Remediation Consulting Services Market Comparison With Macro Economic Factors Across Countries11. Asia-Pacific Site Remediation Consulting Services Market12. Western Europe Site Remediation Consulting Services Market13. Eastern Europe Site Remediation Consulting Services Market14. North America Site Remediation Consulting Services Market15. South America Site Remediation Consulting Services Market16. Middle East Site Remediation Consulting Services Market17. Africa Site Remediation Consulting Services Market18. Site Remediation Consulting Services Market Competitive Landscape18.1. Company Profiles18.2. AECOM18.2.1. Overview18.2.2. Products And Services18.2.3. Strategy18.2.4. Financial Performance18.3. CH2M Hill18.3.1. Overview18.3.2. Products And Services18.3.3. Strategy18.3.4. Financial Performance18.4. Tetra Tech Inc18.4.1. Overview18.4.2. Products And Services18.4.3. Strategy18.4.4. Financial Performance18.5. Arcadis18.5.1. Overview18.5.2. Products And Services18.5.3. Strategy18.5.4. Financial Performance18.6. Environmental Resources Management18.6.1. Overview18.6.2. Products And Services18.6.3. Strategy18.6.4. Financial Performance19. Key Mergers And Acquisitions In The Site Remediation Consulting Services Market20. Market Background: Environmental Consulting Services Market21. AppendixReasons to Purchase Outperform competitors using accurate up to date demand-side dynamics information. Identify growth segments for investment. Facilitate decision making on the basis of historic and forecast data and the drivers and restraints on the market. Create regional and country strategies on the basis of local data and analysis. Stay abreast of the latest customer and market research findings Benchmark performance against key competitors. Develop strategies based on likely future developments. Utilize the relationships between key data sets for superior strategizing. Suitable for supporting your internal and external presentations with reliable high quality data and analysis Gain a global perspective on the development of the market. Report will be updated with the latest data and delivered to you within 3-5 working days of order.ContinuousFor further information on this report, visit Contact Us:Norah Trentsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042Civic Services 2018 Global Key Players  Southern Baptist Churches, World Food Programme, UNICEF, The Salvation Army, Feeding America....

Civic Services Market

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Civic Services Market 2018Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Civic Services  Global Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Manufacturers, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2023 To Its Research Database.Description:Civic Services Market Global Report 2018 from The Business Research Company provides the strategists, marketers and senior management with the critical information they need to assess the global civic services market.Description:Where is the largest and fastest growing market for the civic services? How does the market relate to the overall economy, demography and other similar markets? What forces will shape the market going forward? The civic services market global report from the Business Research Company answers all these questions and many more.The report covers market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional and country breakdowns, competitive landscape, market shares, trends and strategies for this market. It traces the markets historic and forecast market growth by geography. It places the market within the context of the wider Services market, and compares it with other markets. The market characteristics section of the report defines and explains the market. The market size section gives the market size ($b) covering both the historic growth of the market and forecasting the future. Drivers and restraints looks at the external factors supporting and controlling the growth of the market. Market segmentations break down market into sub markets. The regional and country breakdowns section gives an analysis of the market in each geography and the size of the market by geography and compares their historic and forecast growth. It covers all the regions, key developed countries and major emerging markets. It draws comparisons with country populations and economies to understand the importance of the market by country and how this is changing. Competitive landscape gives a description of the competitive nature of the market, market shares, and a description of the leading companies. Key financial deals which have shaped the market in recent years are identified. The trends and strategies section highlights the likely future developments in the market and suggests approaches companies can take to exploit this. The civic services market section of the report gives context. It compares the civic services market with other segments of the Services market by size and growth, historic and forecast. It analyses Expenditure Per Capita, The Civic Services Indicators Comparison.Request for Sample Report@Scope:Markets Covered: NGOs And Charitable Organizations; Political Organizations, Unions And Associations; Religious OrganizationsCompanies Mentioned: Southern Baptist Churches, World Food Programme, UNICEF, The Salvation Army, Feeding America.Countries: Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, Russia, UK, USA and Australia.Regions: Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East And AfricaTime series: Five years historic and forecast.Data: Ratios of market size and growth to related markets, GDP, Expenditure Per Capita, The Civic Services Indicators Comparison.Data segmentations: country and regional historic and forecast data, market share of competitors, market segments.Sourcing and Referencing: Data and analysis throughout the report is sourced using end notes.Complete report details @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Contents:1. Civic Services Market Characteristics2. Civic Services Market Size And Growth2.1. Historic Market Growth, Value ($ Billion)2.1.1. Drivers Of The Market2.1.2. Restraints On The Market2.2. Forecast Market Growth, Value ($ Billion)2.2.1. Drivers Of The Market2.2.2. Restraints On The Market;3. Civic Services Trends And Strategies;4. Pestle Analysis4.1. Political4.2. Economic4.3. Social4.4. Technological4.5. Legal4.6. Environmental;5. Civic Services Market Customer Information;6. Civic Services Market Regional And Country Analysis6.1. Global Civic Services Market, 2017, By Region, Value ($ Billion)6.2. Global Civic Services Market, 2013 - 2021, Historic And Forecast, By Region6.3. Global Civic Services Market, Growth And Market Share Comparison, By Region6.4. Global Civic Services Market, 2017, By Country, Value ($ Billion)6.5. Global Civic Services Market, 2013 - 2021, Historic And Forecast, By Country6.6. Global Civic Services Market, Growth And Market Share Comparison, By Country7. Civic Services Market Segmentation7.1. Global Civic Services Market, 2017, Segmentation By Type, Value ($ Billion)NGOs And Charitable OrganizationsPolitical Organizations, Unions And AssociationsReligious Organizations7.2. Global Civic Services Market, 2013 - 2021, Historic And Forecast, Segmentation By Type, Value ($ Billion)..Civic Services Market Competitive Landscape18.1. Company Profiles18.2. Southern Baptist churches18.2.1. Overview18.2.2. Products And Services18.2.3. Strategy18.2.4. Financial Performance18.3. World Food Programme18.3.1. Overview18.3.2. Products And Services18.3.3. Strategy18.3.4. Financial Performance18.4. UNICEF18.4.1. Overview18.4.2. Products And Services18.4.3. Strategy18.4.4. Financial Performance18.5. The Salvation Army18.5.1. Overview18.5.2. Products And Services18.5.3. Strategy18.5.4. Financial Performance18.6. Feeding America18.6.1. Overview18.6.2. Products And Services18.6.3. Strategy18.6.4. Financial Performance........Reasons to Purchase:Reasons to Purchase: Outperform competitors using accurate up to date demand-side dynamics information. Identify growth segments for investment. Facilitate decision making on the basis of historic and forecast data and the drivers and restraints on the market. Create regional and country strategies on the basis of local data and analysis. Stay abreast of the latest customer and market research findings Benchmark performance against key competitors. Develop strategies based on likely future developments. Utilize the relationships between key data sets for superior strategizing. Suitable for supporting your internal and external presentations with reliable high quality data and analysis Gain a global perspective on the development of the market. Report will be updated with the latest data and delivered to you within 3-5 working days of order.Continued..Contact US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:: Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltd: Pune  411028: Maharashtra,: Ph: +91 841 198 5042Glass Fiber Blanket Market Trends, Key Players, Drivers and Restrains

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This report describes the development of the industry by upstream & downstream, industry overall and development, key companies, as well as type segment & market application and so on, and makes a scientific prediction for the development industry prospects on the basis of analysis, finally, analyzes opportunities for investment in the industry at the end of the report.Company: Owens Corning, Saint-Gobain, Nippon Electric Glass, Binani Industries Limited, Taiwan Glass Ind Corp., Taiwan Glass Ind Corp., Superior Composites Co., LLC, China Beihai Fiberglass Co., Ltd, Jiangsu Changhai Composite Materials Co., Ltd., Jushi Group Co., Ltd., Chongqing Polycomp International Corporation, Texas Fiberglass Group, Jiangsu Jiuding New Material Co., Ltd, Nitto Boseki Co., Ltd etc.Company ProfileProduct & ServiceBusiness Operation DataMarket ShareInvestment Analysis:Market FeaturesInvestment OpportunityInvestment CalculationRequest Sample Copy At:Industry ChainRaw MaterialsCostTechnologyConsumer PreferenceIndustry Overall:HistoryDevelopment & TrendMarket CompetitionTrade OverviewPolicyRegion (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East, Africa):Regional MarketProduction DevelopmentSalesRegional TradeRegional ForecastInquire For Discount At:Table of Content1 Industry Overview2 Industry Overall3 Glass Fiber Blanket Market by Product4 Key Companies List5 Market Competition6 Market Demand by Segment7 Region Operation8 Market Investment9 ConclusionFor More Information About This Report:Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Banana Flour Market is expected to reach a market value of US$ 730 Mn by the end of 2027

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Banana flour is a powdered ingredient generally made from green banana or plantains. It is often used as a gluten free ingredient and added in various baked goods. Flour has a moisture content of about 4%-6%. A new research report by Future Market Insights, highlights the current scenario of the banana powder market and its demand and consumption in various applications. The report is titled Banana Flour Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016) and Opportunity Assessment (2017-2027), and presents a brief about every aspect of the global market. According to this comprehensive research report, the global banana flour market is expected to reach a market value of US$ 730 Mn by the end of 2027. The global banana flour market is anticipated to witness a growth at a sluggish CAGR of around 3.8% during the forecast period. The betterment in the market scenario with increasing adoption of banana flour in bakery and other end uses, will encourage the manufacturers and key businesses to be more innovative.Global Banana Flour Market: DynamicsThe global banana flour markets growth is helped by the increase in production of green bananas or cooking bananas. Banana production has grown rapidly, registering a performance of +15 percent since 2008. Though dessert bananas account for 60% of the total production, the cooking banana sector has witnessed a steady growth in terms of production, indicating a rise in the demand for green bananas. There has also been a rise in the awareness about banana flour being a gluten free product. There will be a rise in the demand for gluten-free products in countries like the U.K., Italy, U.S., Spain, Germany, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and India. In most of the countries, banana flour is being used as a gluten-free replacement for wheat flour. This rise in the consumption of gluten-free products helps drive the demand for banana flour.Request For Report Sample@Global Banana Flour Market: Segmental AnalysisOn the basis of distribution channel, direct channel is expected to reflect higher contribution to the growth of the global market. The indirect channel segment is expected to register a relatively higher CAGR of 4.2% during the forecast periodOn the basis of application, food industry leads the market with high market value. Moreover, the pet food and feed industry segment is projected to grow at a significant rate throughout the period of assessmentIn terms of source, conventional segment has a much higher market size and is expected to lead the global market during the forecast period. But organic source is projected to grow at a faster pace in the years to followBased on region, MEA is expected to dominate the market with an estimated market value of over US$ 300 Mn by the end of 2027. Whereas North America is expected to register the highest growth rate to register a value CAGR of 6.5% during the forecast periodVisit For TOC@Global Banana Flour Market: Competitive LandscapeThe research report covers details about major players in the industry. It provides the readers with a brief profile of the key players. Some of the major companies mentioned in the report are Zuvii, NuNatural Inc., Diana Foods, NOW Health Group Inc., Paradisefrucht GmbH, Kanegrade Ltd, ADM Wild Europe GmbH & Co. KG, International Agriculture Group, Stawi Foods and Fruits Limited etc.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACTFuture Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: http.futuremarketinsights.comGlobal E-Book Reader Market - E-Commerce sub segment is estimated to be valued at US$ 275.1 Mn by the end of 2020

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According to a recent market report published by Persistence Market Research titled E-Book Reader Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012  2016) and Forecast (2017  2020) the global e-book reader market was valued at US$ 1401.4 Mn in 2016. Demand for e-book readers is expected to be supported by an increasing adoption of online content in the educational curriculum, an increasing adoption of e-books, a growing e-learning market and increasing availability of free e-books on the internet.Request to sample report @Persistence Market Research RecommendationsE-book reader manufacturers can focus on expanding their businesses across countries in APAC and MEA where the regional governments are taking initiatives pertaining to digital education systems and are also investing heavily on the e-education system. North America and Europe could be potential growth regions for e-book reader vendors, owing to the growing adoption of e-books across countries in these regions. E-book reader manufacturers can focus on advanced and new technologies such as Text-to-Speech, Audiobooks, and Music to increase their market share in various regions.Global E-Book Reader Market: Segmentation & ForecastThe global e-book reader market is segmented on the basis of screen type, connectivity type, distribution channel, price range and region. On the basis of screen type, the market is segmented as E Ink screen and LCD screen. The E Ink screen sub-segment was valued at US$ 1009.1 Mn in 2016. On the basis of connectivity type, the market is segmented as Only Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi and 3G. The Wi-Fi and 3G sub-segment is projected to be valued at US$ 303.0 Mn by the end of 2020. On the basis of distribution channel, the market is segmented as Organized Retail store, Unorganized Retail store and e-Commerce. The E-Commerce sub segment is estimated to be valued at US$ 275.1 Mn by the end of 2020. On the basis of price range, the market is segmented into Below US$ 100, US$ 101  US$ 200, and Above US$ 200. In terms of value, the US$ 101  US$ 200 segment was valued at US$ 619.3 Mn in 2016.Request Report for TOC @Global E-Book Reader Market: Regional ForecastPersistence Market Research tracks the performance of the global e-book reader market across the five key geographies of North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. According to Persistence Market Research analysis, the Asia Pacific regional market is expected to witness relatively good demand for e-book readers over the forecast period. Revenue from the e-book reader market in Asia Pacific and North America is estimated to collectively account for over 50% of the global e-book reader market revenue in 2017.Global E-Book Reader Market: Key PlayersThe report profiles some of the companies operating in the global e-book reader market such as Amazon.com, Inc. Rakuten Kobo, Inc., Barnes & Noble, Hanvon Technology Co. Ltd., Onyx International Inc., PocketBook International SA, Aluratek Inc., Bookeen, ECTACO Inc., Ematic, Arta Tech and Wexler Flex.Report overview @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated re-search, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Con-sumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comMoroccan and Indian authorities are preparing the launch of the Casablanca-New Delhi air route as part of an effort to bolster business and tourist ties, a diplomatic source told le360.ma.

The air link will be operated by Moroccos and Indias flag carriers, Royal Air Maroc (RAM) and Air India, the news portal said.

The two weekly flights between Morocco and India are expected to start later this year, it added, recalling that Moroccos tourism promotion agency (ONMT) opened an office in New Delhi, the second in Asia after Beijing.

As it ambitions to expand in Asia, Africa and Latin America, RAM seeks to increase its fleet two-fold from 50 planes currently to 120 by 2020.

To that end, RAM ordered last January four Boeing 787-9 Dream-liners for a total cost of $1.1 bln.

In addition to five 787-8 Dreamliners, RAM has a fleet that includes Boeing 737s, 767s and a 747 jumbojet. In total, the airline operates a fleet of 47 mainly Boeing aircraft.Charcoal Water Filters 2018 Global Industry Key Players - Qingdao Clear , Tai An Xinhuanneng , Shanghai Xianeng , Zhong Guo Shi Hua , Qingdao Vert Market Analysis And Forecast To 2025

Global Charcoal Water Filters Market

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Global Charcoal Water Filters MarketIn this report, the global Charcoal Water Filters market is valued at USD XX million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2017 and 2025.Global Charcoal Water Filters market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingFar Eastern New Century CorporationQingdao ClearTai An XinhuannengShanghai XianengZhong Guo Shi HuaQingdao VertRequest a Sample Report @Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Charcoal Water Filters in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoPolyacrylonitrileOilPhenolic FibersOn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, includingPower Plant BoilersIndustrial Boilers & FurnacesIndustrial KilnsComplete Report Details @Table of Contents-Key Points CoveredGlobal Charcoal Water Filters Market Research Report 20181 Charcoal Water Filters Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Charcoal Water Filters1.2 Charcoal Water Filters Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Charcoal Water Filters Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Charcoal Water Filters Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Polyacrylonitrile1.2.4 Oil1.2.5 Phenolic Fibers1.3 Global Charcoal Water Filters Segment by Application1.3.1 Charcoal Water Filters Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Power Plant Boilers1.3.3 Industrial Boilers & Furnaces1.3.4 Industrial Kilns1.4 Global Charcoal Water Filters Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Charcoal Water Filters Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Charcoal Water Filters (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Charcoal Water Filters Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Charcoal Water Filters Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)..7 Global Charcoal Water Filters Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Far Eastern New Century Corporation7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Charcoal Water Filters Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Far Eastern New Century Corporation Charcoal Water Filters Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 Qingdao Clear7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Charcoal Water Filters Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 Qingdao Clear Charcoal Water Filters Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Tai An Xinhuanneng7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Charcoal Water Filters Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Tai An Xinhuanneng Charcoal Water Filters Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 Shanghai Xianeng7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Charcoal Water Filters Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 Shanghai Xianeng Charcoal Water Filters Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 Zhong Guo Shi Hua7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Charcoal Water Filters Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 Zhong Guo Shi Hua Charcoal Water Filters Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 Qingdao Vert7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Charcoal Water Filters Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product B7.6.3 Qingdao Vert Charcoal Water Filters Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.6.4 Main Business/Business OverviewContinued.Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaMaxim Creation : The Latest In Wedding Dresses & Bridal Gowns

Established in the year 1990, we, Maxim Creation are one of the foremost organizations engaged in offering a wide gamut of Islamic Clothings. All these products are designed using supreme quality cotton and fabrics under the assistance of our skilled professionals. Known for their perfect stitching and comfortable to wear, our entire range of products are highly demanded by Muslim ladies. Moreover, available in various sizes and types, these garments are offered to the clients at market-leading prices.Backed by skilled work force, we offer quality products to our clients. For this we make use of quality fabrics and latest technology in our fabrication process. Moreover, our quality experts strictly check the entire range, right from the procurement of the raw material till the final dispatch of the products. Owing to our quality centric approach and ethical business practices, we have been able to stay ahead over our competitors. Apart from this, for the convenience of our patrons, we offer various easy payment options like cash, cheque and DD.Henna Party Dress, Soiree Gown, Cocktail Party Dress, Walima Gown, Takchita, Byzantine Nikkah Dress, Djellaba, Princess Wedding Gown, haute Coutre, Luxe Thobe.Unit No 65,Municipal Industrial Estate Gandhi Nagar , Worli West, Mumbai -18, IndiaApple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Market 2018 Analysis and Forecast to 2025

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In this report, the global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) market is valued at USD XX million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2017 and 2025.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingVermont VillageBraggVivaSpectrum NaturalsHeinzWhite HouseKevala...Request a Sample Report @On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoOrganic ACVNon Organic ACVOn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, includingDaily DrinksSeasoningsHealthcare DrinksOtherIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of ContentsGlobal Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Market Research Report 20181 Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV)1.2 Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Organic ACV1.2.4 Non Organic ACV1.3 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Segment by Application1.3.1 Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Daily Drinks1.3.3 Seasonings1.3.4 Healthcare Drinks1.3.5 Other1.4 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)2 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.4 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.5 North America Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.6 Europe Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.7 China Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.8 Japan Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.9 Southeast Asia Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.10 India Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)4 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018)4.1 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Consumption by Region (2013-2018)4.2 North America Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.3 Europe Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.4 China Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.5 Japan Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.6 Southeast Asia Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)4.7 India Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2013-2018)5 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Production and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.2 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.3 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Price by Type (2013-2018)5.4 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Production Growth by Type (2013-2018)6 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Consumption and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)6.2 Global Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2013-2018)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/CountriesContinuedAccess Complete Report @ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRES:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaIn-Vitro Diagnostics Market Development Outlook to 2021 - Siemens Healthineers, F. Hoffmann-La, Roche, Danaher, Abbott Laboratories and Thermo Fisher Scientific

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In-Vitro Diagnostics Market Global Report 2018 from Publisher provides the strategists, marketers and senior management with the critical information they need to assess the global in-vitro diagnostics market.FREE | Request Sample Copy is Available atReasons to Purchase-Outperform competitors using accurate up to date demand-side dynamics information.-Identify growth segments for investment.-Facilitate decision making on the basis of historic and forecast data and the drivers and restraints on the market.-Create regional and country strategies on the basis of local data and analysis.-Stay abreast of the latest customer and market research findings-Benchmark performance against key competitors.-Develop strategies based on likely future developments.-Utilize the relationships between key data sets for superior strategizing.-Suitable for supporting your internal and external presentations with reliable high quality data and analysis-Gain a global perspective on the development of the market.-Report will be updated with the latest data and delivered to you within 3-5 working days of order.Global In-Vitro Diagnostics Market Top Players List Siemens Healthineers F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd Danaher (Beckman Coulter Inc) Abbott Laboratories Inc Thermo Fisher Scientific IncInquire about this Report atWhere is the largest and fastest growing market for the in-vitro diagnostics-How does the market relate to the overall economy, demography and other similar markets-What forces will shape the market going forward-The in-vitro diagnostics market global report from Publisher answers all these questions and many more.The report covers market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional and country breakdowns, competitive landscape, market shares, trends and strategies for this market. It traces the markets historic and forecast market growth by geography. It places the market within the context of the wider Healthcare market, and compares it with other markets.-The market characteristics section of the report defines and explains the market.-The market size section gives the market size ($b) covering both the historic growth of the market and forecasting the future. Drivers and restraints looks at the external factors supporting and controlling the growth of the market.-Market segmentation's break down market into sub markets.-The regional and country breakdowns section gives an analysis of the market in each geography and the size of the market by geography and compares their historic and forecast growth. It covers all the regions, key developed countries and major emerging markets. It draws comparisons with country populations and economies to understand the importance of the market by country and how this is changing.-Competitive landscape gives a description of the competitive nature of the market, market shares, and a description of the leading companies. Key financial deals which have shaped the market in recent years are identified.-The trends and strategies section highlights the likely future developments in the market and suggests approaches companies can take to exploit this.-The in-vitro diagnostics market section of the report gives context. It compares the in-vitro diagnostics market with other segments of the Healthcare market by size and growth, historic and forecast. It analyses Expenditure Per Capita, The In-Vitro Diagnostics Indicators Comparison.Complete Report is Available atScopeMarkets Covered: Point-of-Care Diagnostics; Immunochemistry; Clinical Chemistry; Molecular Diagnostics; Microbiology; Hemostasis; Hematology; ImmunohematologyCompanies Mentioned: Siemens Healthineers,F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd,Danaher (Beckman Coulter Inc),Abbott Laboratories Inc,Thermo Fisher Scientific IncCountries: Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, Russia, UK, USA and Australia.Regions: Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East And AfricaTime series: Five years historic and forecast.Data: Ratios of market size and growth to related markets, GDP, Expenditure Per Capita, The In-Vitro Diagnostics Indicators Comparison.Data segmentations: country and regional historic and forecast data, market share of competitors, market segments.Sourcing and Referencing: Data and analysis throughout the report is sourced using end notes.Contact Us:Phone: +1-646-491-9876Email Id: sales@reportsweb.comAbout ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers.533, 5th Floor, Amanora Chambers,Amanora Township, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Power Metering Market Overview, Top Key Players and Growth Analysis by Forecast to 2022

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Market HighlightsA power meter is an electric device which measures energy consumption and enables communication between the meter and the central system. The device reads and stores data of the number of units of electricity consumed and communicates that information back to the utility for billing and monitoring purposes. In addition, numerous government regulations to replace aging digital meters with smart meters are expected to push the sales in the market. Rising environmental concerns and introducing smart meters for residential and non-residential sector as well as high operating efficiency helps to boost the power metering market.Residential is the major applicationThe major market is captured by residential sector due to utilization of meters in all households. Increasing construction and industrial activities along with the replacement market of old and technologically outdated meters is the key driver of the market. Moreover, numerous government regulations to replace aging digital meters with smart meters are pushing the market towards growth. Whereas, issues related to privacy and standardization of the power meter act as barriers for the residential segment.Get Sample of Report @Key PlayersThe key players of global power metering market include General Electric (U.S.), Itron (U.S.), Toshiba Corporation (Japan), Melrose Industries plc. (U.K.), Wasion Group Holdings Ltd. (China), ABB(Switzerland), Eaton Corporation Plc (Dublin), Siemens AG (Germany) Holley Metering (China)Market Research Analysis:Asia-Pacific is expected to dominate the market of power metering in the forecast period. High investments and growing demand for technological upgraded items are some of the factors, which drive the demand for power metering market. Moreover, features such as low maintenance cost and high operating efficiency are pushing the market towards growth. Aging digital meters have to be replaced by technologically advanced smart meters and technological up graded grid infrastructure, giving a new way for the growth of power metering market.Regional Analysis of Global Power Metering MarketAsia-Pacific is projected as the emerging market for power metering. Government project such as smart city in India contributes to the growth of the global power metering market. Major factors such as increase in construction spending, rise in industrial activities, and enhancement of the grid infrastructure of the region give new ways for the growth of the region. Emerging economies such as China and Japan are focusing on grabbing major market.Whereas, North America is one of the leading markets for power meter in the global market. Growing infrastructure and government projects boost the global power metering market.Get Complete Report @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comGlobal Composites Market Expected To Reach A Valuation Of US$102 Bn By 2025 At A Healthy CAGR Of 8.9%: Rapid Automotive Industry Growth Benefits Demand

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Composites Market Expected To Reach A Valuation Of US$102 Bn By 2025 At A Healthy CAGR Of 8.9%: Rapid Automotive Industry Growth Benefits Demand" to its huge collection of research reports.Composite is a multiphase material exhibiting a significant properties of both constituent phases. It consists of a continuous phase called matrix and a dispersed phase reinforcement. It is commercially available in different product types such as polymer matrix composite, metal matrix composite, and ceramic matrix composite. In terms of application, automotive & transportation and aerospace & defense held majority share in the global composites market in 2016. Rising demand from these end user industries is anticipated to fuel the composites market during the forecast period.This study analyzes, estimates, and forecasts the global composites market in terms of volume (Kilo tons) and revenue (US$ Mn) from 2016 to 2025. The report also analyzes several driving and restraining factors and their impact on the market during the forecast period.Global Composite Market: ApplicationsThe report provides a detailed view of the composites market based on applications. Key applications included in the report are automotive & transportation, construction, aerospace & defense, electrical & electronics, marine & oil & gas, wind energy, and other (consumer goods, etc.). In terms of technology, the market is segmented into: pultrusion process, layup process, filament winding, compression molding, injection molding, resin transfer molding, and others. In terms of product type, the market is segmented into: polymer matrix composite, metal matrix composite, and ceramic matrix composite. Furthermore, the report segments the market based on key geographies such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa. It also provides market volume and revenue for each application, technology and product type under every regional segment. The composites market is further analyzed into major countries of each region.Based on applications, technologies, product types and countries, the report analyzes the attractiveness of each segment with the help of an attractiveness tool. The study includes value chain analysis, which provides a better understanding of key players in the supply chain (from raw material manufacturers to end-users). Additionally, the study analyzes market competition and industry players using Porters five forces analysis.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Composite Market: Research MethodologiesPrimary research represents the bulk of our research efforts, supplemented by an extensive secondary research. We reviewed key players product literature, annual reports, press releases, and relevant documents for competitive analysis and market understanding. Secondary research includes a search of recent trade, technical writing, internet sources, and statistical data from government websites, trade associations, and agencies. This has proven to be the most reliable, effective, and successful approach for obtaining precise market data, capturing industry participants insights, and recognizing business opportunities.Secondary research sources that are typically referred to include company websites, annual reports, financial reports, broker reports, investor presentations, and SEC filings, internal and external proprietary databases, and relevant patent and regulatory databases. Other sources include national government documents, statistical databases, and market reports, news articles, and press releases and webcasts specific to the companies operating in the market. Secondary sources referred for the study of the composites market include Reinforced Plastics Magazine, European Plastics Council, Compositesone, Composites World Magazine, etc. and company presentations.Key Players Mentioned in this Report are:The report includes an overview of the market share of key companies in the global composites market. Key players profiled in the composites study include Hexcel Corporation, TPI Composites, Inc, Owens Corning, Teijin Limited, Faurecia, Performance Composites Inc., Enduro Composites, Inc., Toray Industries, APPLIED POLERAMIC INC., Hexagon Composites, KINECO, Creative Composites Ltd., HITCO Carbon Composites, Inc., The Quadrant Group of Companies, Kangde Xin Composite Material Group Co., Ltd., BGF Industries, Inc., FACC AG, Premium Aerotec, Fokker Aerostructures, COTESA GmbH, PLASAN CARBON COMPOSITES, Wethje Carbon Composites, VELLO NORDIC AS, Fiberdur GmbH & Co. KG, Akiet B.V., and FILL GESELLSCHAFT M.B.H.Browse TOC @The report segments the global composites market into:Composites Market  By Product TypePolymer Matrix CompositesCarbon Fiber Reinforced PlasticGlass Fiber Reinforced PlasticOthers (Aramid fiber composites, etc.)Metal Matrix CompositesCeramic Matrix CompositesComposites Market  By TechnologyPultrusion ProcessLayup ProcessFilament WindingCompression MoldingInjection MoldingResin Transfer MoldingOthers (Automated fiber placement, automated tape laying, etc.)Composites Market  By ApplicationAutomotive & TransportationInteriorExteriorPower Train ComponentsOthers (Chassis, brake pads, etc.)ConstructionAerospace & DefenseElectrical & ElectronicsMarine & Oil & GasPipesOthers (Top side applications, etc.)Wind EnergyOthers (consumer goods, etc.)Composites Market  Regional AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaEuropeFranceU.K.GermanyItalySpainRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaJapanASEANIndiaRest of Asia PacificAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @Follow us on Blogger @Australia Automotive Parts Die-Casting Market Report 2017, Trends, Analysis, Share, Estimates and Forecasts to 2022.

The Australia Automotive Parts Die-Casting report provides an in-depth analysis of the various market segments and its sub-segments.Products Covered: Pressure die-casting Vacuum die-casting Squeeze die-casting Semi-solid die-castingRaw Material Types Covered: Aluminium Zinc Magnesium OthersApplication Types Covered: Body assemblies Engine Parts Transmission parts OthersThe report focuses on current and upcoming market trends such as Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, and Challenges, technological advancements, Porters Five Forces analysis to assess the intensity of competition in the market. The market values are presented in the form of tables and graphs for better interpretation.Market Size EstimationsThe market assessment is made by the core industry experts using our 360 research approach. The data is derived from the most reliable, authenticated data sources and is validated by the industry experts (Primary Research). Both top down and bottom up analysis are implemented to enhance the accuracy of the market figures. The market projections are calculated for the next 8 years using the actual market numbers of previous year as the base value.Company ProfilingThis section provides the overview of the key players that are leading in the industry, covering their business operations, financials, list of products & services, SWOT analysis, major developments such as mergers & acquisitions, agreements, partnerships, joint ventures, new product launch, expansions etc.Report Highlights:- Market share assessments for all the mentioned market segments and sub-segments- Market share analysis of the top industry players- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants- Market forecasts for a minimum of 8 years for all the given segments- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations- Competitive landscaping, mapping the key common trends- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments- Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsWe offer wide spectrum of research and consulting services with in-depth knowledge of different industries. We are known for customized research services, consulting services and Full Time Equivalent (FTE) services in the research world. We explore the market trends and draw our insights with valid assessments and analytical views. We use advanced techniques and tools among the quantitative and qualitative methodologies to identify the market trends. Our research reports and publications are routed to help our clients to design their business models and enhance their business growth in the competitive market scenario. We have a strong team with hand-picked consultants including project managers, implementers, industry experts, researchers, research evaluators and analysts with years of experience in delivering the complex projects.STRATISTICS MRC17049 King James Way, Gaithersburg,MD, 20877, USAPV Trackers Market Report 2018: In-Depth Analysis of Production Demand and Consumption Growth Ratio by 2023

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A comprehensive analysis of the Global PV Trackers Market is been done in this intelligence report. It includes the investigations done on the past progress, ongoing market scenarios, and future prospects. An accurate data of the products, strategies and market shares of leading companies in this particular market is mentioned. This report presents a 360-degree overview of the competitive scenario of the Global market. The report further projects the size and valuation of the Global market in the coming forecast period. The report also presents a thorough qualitative and quantitative data affecting to the projected impact of these factors on markets future growth prospects.Top Key Vendors:SunPower, Solar FlexRack, Arctech Solar, Soltec, Array Technologies, Convert Italia, Exosun, Sun Action Trackers, Grupo Clavijo, SunLinkGet Sample Copy of this Report:It explains a detailed outline of the PV Trackers Market depending on the important parameters. End users, products, regions, and many other segments are studied and explained. A brief idea of the driving forces which help make the market more flourishing is discussed in order to help the client understand the future market position. Estimated revenue growth in terms of volume with respect to the market for the upcoming years has been mentioned in depth.According to the research report, the Global market for PV Trackers Market is witnessing a continual rise in its valuation with the advancement in technologies, which is impacting the consumer behavior and, accordingly, their purchasing patterns to a great extent. In addition to this, the rising penetration of internet and the surge in mobile surfing are anticipated to boost the demand for PV Trackers across the world, states the research report.Get Upto 40% Discount on this report:On the basis of geographical regions, the Global PV Trackers Market is segmented broadly into Latin America, Global, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. The Global market is still in its exploratory stage in most of the regions but it holds the promising potential to flourish steadily in coming years. The major companies investing in this market are situated in Canada, U.K., and the US, India, China and some more countries of Asia Pacific region. Consequently, Asia Pacific, North America, and Western Global are estimated to hold more than half of the market shares, collectively in coming years.This statistical surveying research study presents an all-inclusive evaluation of the global market for PV Trackers, taking various industry parameters, such as the capacity of production, product pricing, demand, supply, and sales dynamics, returns on investments, and the growth rate of the overall market into consideration.In the last sections of the report, the manufacturers responsible for increasing the sales in the PV Trackers Market have been presented. These manufacturers have been analyzed in terms of their manufacturing base, basic information, and competitors. In addition, the technology and product type introduced by each of these manufacturers also form a key part of this section of the report.Purchase the Complete Report:Table of Content:Global PV Trackers Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1 PV Trackers Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic ImpactChapter 3 Competition by ManufacturerChapter 4 Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2018-2023)Chapter 5 Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2018-2023)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 AppendixWe 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.The Work Lab,FC Road, Pune, MH, India411016Global Smart Rings Market Likely To Be Worth US$11.44 Mn By The End Of 2025: Demand For Better Healthcare Boosts Uptake Of Improved Technology

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Smart Rings Market Likely To Be Worth US$11.44 Mn By The End Of 2025: Demand For Better Healthcare Boosts Uptake Of Improved Technology" to its huge collection of research reports.This report covers the analysis and forecast of the smart rings market on a global and regional level. The study provides historic data of 2016 along with forecast for the period between 2017 and 2025 based on volume (Thousand Units) and revenue (US$ Mn).Smart rings are electronic wearable devices worn on the finger. It works through movement of the fingers and gesture control. The smart rings are equipped with sensors and chips which enables it to perform various functions such as receiving call, message and email alerts, making contactless payments, measuring blood pressure levels, pulse rates and heart beats and it also provides biometric solutions by monitoring access controls among others.Global Smart Rings Market: Scope of the ReportThe study provides a decisive view of the smart rings market by segmenting it based on type of operating system, technology, applications and regional demand. The type of operating system, technology and applications segments have been analyzed based on current trends and future potential. The market has been estimated from 2017 to 2025 in terms of volume (Thousand Units) and revenue (US$ Mn). Regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. These have been further sub-segmented into countries and regions with relevance to the market. The segmentation also includes demand for individual applications in all regions.The study covers the drivers and restraints governing the dynamics of the market along with their impact on demand during the forecast period. Additionally, the report includes potential opportunities in the smart rings market on the global and regional level. The study encompasses market attractiveness analysis, wherein applications have been benchmarked based on their market size, growth rate, and general attractiveness for future growth.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The market has been forecast based on constant currency rates. Prices of smart rings vary in each region and are a result of the demand-supply scenario in the region. Hence, a similar volume-to revenue ratio does not follow for each individual region. Individual pricing of smart rings for each application has been taken into account while estimating and forecasting market revenue on a global basis. Regional average price has been considered while breaking down the market into segments in each region.The report provides the size of the smart rings market in2016 and the forecast for the next nine years up to 2025. The size of the global smart rings market is provided in terms of both volume and revenue. Market volume is defined in thousand units, while market revenue for regions is in US$ Mn. The market size and forecast for each product segment is provided in the context of global and regional markets. Numbers provided in this report are derived based on demand generated from different applications.Global Smart Rings Market: Research MethodologiesMarket estimates for this study have been based on volume, with revenue being derived through regional pricing trends. The price for commonly utilized grades of smart rings in each application has been considered, and customized product pricing has not been included. Demand for smart rings has been derived by analyzing the global and regional demand for smart rings in each application. The global smart rings market has been analyzed based on expected demand. Market data for each segment is based on volume and corresponding revenues. Prices considered for calculation of revenue are average regional prices obtained through primary quotes from numerous regional suppliers, distributors, and direct selling regional producers based on manufacturers feedback. Forecasts have been based on the expected demand from smart rings. We have used the top-down approach to estimate the global smart rings market, split into regions.The type of operating system, technology and applications split of the market has been derived using a top-down approach for each regional market separately, with the global type of operating systems, technology and applications segment split being an integration of regional estimates. Companies were considered for the market share analysis based on their product portfolio, revenue, and manufacturing capacity. In the absence of specific data related to the sales of smart rings of several privately held companies, calculated assumptions have been made in view of the companys product portfolio and regional presence along with the demand for products in its portfolio.Browse TOC @Key Players Mentioned in the Report are:The report covers a detailed competitive outlook that includes market share and company profiles of key players operating in the global market. Some of the leading market players in the smart rings market are McLear Ltd. (U.K), Log bar Inc. (Japan), Moodmetric (Finland), Shanxi Jakcom Technology Co., Ltd. (China) and Ringly Inc. (U.S.) among others.The global smart rings market has been segmented into:Global Smart Rings Market, By Type of Operating SystemAndroidIoSMicrosoft WindowsGlobal Smart Rings Market, By TechnologyBluetooth-enabled smart ringsNFC-enabled smart ringsGlobal Smart Rings Market, By ApplicationsMobile/contactless paymentsUser authentication and access controlInformation sharingMonitoring healthcare systemOthersGlobal Smart Rings Market, By GeographyNorth AmericaThe U.S.CanadaMexicoEuropeThe U.K.ItalyGermanyFranceRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaRest of Asia PacificMiddle East and Africa (MEA)U.A.ESouth AfricaRest of Middle East and AfricaAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @Follow us on Blogger @Military Laser Rangefinder Market 2018 Global Key Players Analysis, Share, Trends and Segmentation, Forecast to 2021

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MarketResearchFuture.Com Adds Military Laser Rangefinder  Global Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Manufacturers, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2023 To Its Research Database.Description:An up-to-date research has been disclosed by Market Research Future, Which highlights the worldwide Military Laser Rangefinder Market . The report deep dives into the dynamics of worldwide Military Laser Rangefinder Market providing helpful and distinctive insights. The Information and Figures shared in an exceedingly precise and structured manner, giving an approximated Picture of the Upcoming market movement. This Report covers the Major Key Players, pie charts and bar-graphs to provide data which can be used to derive the latest trends in the industry.Ability to achieve high level of integration and interoperability along with unmanned air vehicles (UAV) is expected to create large opportunities for laser rangefinders. Inception of miniature rangefinders, coupled with the rapid implementation of UAVs for numerous military operations has opened up an entirely new avenue for the laser rangefinder market.Request a Sample Report @The key players of global Military Laser Rangefinder market are L3 Technologies, Leonardo, Northrop Grumman, Thales, UTC Aerospace Systems, Elbit Systems, FLIR Systems, General Atomics, Gooch & Housego, and RPMC Lasers. In 2016, these companies accounted for a share of of the global market.The Military Laser Rangefinder Market was valued at USD 530.2 million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD 803.4 million by 2023 with a CAGR 6.29%, during the forecast period 2017-2023.Industry NewsMay 2017: FNSS Savunma Sistemleri revealed the first prototype of its Kaplan MT Modern Medium Weight Tank (MMWT) at the IDEF 2017 exhibition. This tank is equipped with a computerized fire-control system (FCS) which incorporates a laser rangefinder for stabilised day/thermal sighting system.February 2017: Elbit Systems entered into a technical collaboration Bharat Electronics Limited (India), a defense sector public sector company, for joint production and maintenance of Compact Multi-Purpose Advanced Stabilised System (CoMPASS).Bharat Electronics Limited would be supply as well as provide maintenance services to CoMPASS users in India.February 2017: Northrop Grumman signed a five year-contract worth USD 16.9 million with the US Army. The contract includes provision of maintenance, repair, and sustainment services for the Lightweight Laser Designator Range Finder (LLDR) systems.January 2017: China enhanced PGZ-07 capability with the installation of a new sensor pod, existing sensor pod is positioned above the tracking radar, which is mounted on the forward part of the turret, and includes a laser rangefinder.January 2017: Lockheed Martin signed a contract worth USD 150.9 million, with the US Navy, to develop a target sight system for the Cobra attack helicopter. The sight system is an infrared system with a laser and rangefinder turret.Get a Complete Report @Following queries are addressed in the Research Report  Global Military Laser Rangefinder Market 2018What is the expected industry size of Global Military Laser Rangefinder Market in 2022?Expected rate of growth to reach the potential?What are the major market trends?Major drivers for Global Military Laser Rangefinder Market ?Prominent distributors/suppliers in Global Military Laser Rangefinder Market ?Upcoming challenges for Global Military Laser Rangefinder Market?And More.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:,Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comMorocco is readying to reopen its embassy in Iraq, after the diplomatic mission has been closed for thirteen years for security reasons.

The embassy, closed after two Moroccan nationals were kidnapped in 2005, will reopen in the coming weeks, affirmed local daily Akhbar Al Yaoum, in its Thursday issue.

The reopening of the Moroccan Embassy in Baghdad will take place during a planned visit to Iraq by Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, the daily stated, adding that the Moroccan move responds to the two countries desire to reinvigorate their secular relations.

Following the fall of Saddam Husseins regime, and despite the chaotic situation that ensued, Morocco maintained its embassy in Iraq open.

However, the deteriorating security conditions eventually led Rabat to move its diplomats to the Jordanian capital, Amman.

Moroccos decision comes as Iraq is launching its reconstruction process.

At a fund-raising conference for the rebuilding of war-torn Iraq held in Kuwait this week, international donors pledged $30 billion.

The money, urgently needed to rebuild towns and cities demolished during battles against the Islamic State, is a mix of grants, loans and investment promises, with neighbors Kuwait, Turkey and Saudi Arabia among the biggest donors, along with nearby Qatar.Global Wind Anemometers Market Will Grow At A CAGR Of 5.57% Between The Period 2017 - 2021: Ammonit Measurement, FT Technologies and Gill Instruments

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Wind Anemometers Market Will Grow At A CAGR Of 5.57% Between The Period 2017 - 2021: Ammonit Measurement, FT Technologies and Gill Instruments" to its huge collection of research reports.The main purpose of a wind anemometer is to measure the average, minimum, and maximum wind speeds in terms of wind turbulence at a particular site. Anemometers are put at different heights over a mast, which is useful in providing wind shear information like the difference in wind speeds at different heights. They also give information about the direction of wind speed. Ultrasonic devices that are built in wind direction monitors are used for the detection of wind direction. The anemometer, wind vane equipment and pole are referred to as a meteorological mast or otherwise met mast. The information about speed and direction of wind is collected by a data logger and analyzed by a computer software.Technavios analysts forecast the global wind anemometers market to grow at a CAGR of 5.57% during the period 2017-2021.Covered in this report The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global wind anemometers market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers new installations and exclude the retrofit market.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEATechnavio's report, Global Wind Anemometers Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsAmmonit MeasurementFT TechnologiesGill InstrumentsLufftSiemensTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Other prominent vendorsAanderaa (a Xylem brand)BiralCampbell ScientificCruzProDEIFDelta Ohm BeneluxFERNSTEUERGERTE Kurt OelschIED ElectronicsLCJ CapteursMaretronNRG SystemsPCE DeutschlandSiap+MicrosVaisalaMarket driverSupportive regulatory policies for wind energy projectsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeCompetition from fossil fuelsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportBrowse TOC @Market trendInnovation of digital and smaller wind anemometersFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @Follow us on Blogger @Artificial Intelligence In Manufacturing Market : Technological Advancements, Evolving Industry Trends and Insights 2017  2025

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The manufacturing industry has always has been open to adopting latest technologies. Industrial robots and drones have been a part of the manufacturing industry subsequently since 1960s. The next automation revolution is just around the turn and the US Manufacturing Sector is awaiting this technological advancements eagerly. The adoption of AI by the companies can keep inventories lean and decrease the cost, there is a high possibility that the American manufacturing Industry will experience an drastic growth. It is said that, the manufacturing sector has to grow fast for networked factories where design team, supply chain, production line, and quality control are highly integrated into an intelligent engine that provides actionable insights.Global artificial intelligence in manufacturing market has be categorized into offering, technology, application, industry and regions. Based on the offering the market has been segmented into software, and hardware. On the basis of technology the artificial intelligence in manufacturing market has been divided into natural language processing, deep learning, computer vision, and context awareness. Application segment has been bifurcated into quality control, predictive maintenance and machinery inspection, material movement, production planning, field services and reclamation. Industry segment has been categorized into pharmaceuticals, automobile, power & energy, heavy metals & machine manufacturing, food & Beverages, semiconductors & electronics among others.Request For Free Sample Of The Report @The major factors driving the artificial intelligence in manufacturing market are the increasing usage of robotics in manufacturing, usage of big data technology in the manufacturing sector, computer vision technology being used in manufacturing, and industrial IoT in manufacturing sector. Reluctance among the manufacturers to adopt AI-Based technologies are the major factors that may hinder the progress of the artificial intelligence in Manufacturing market in the near future. Additionally the growth opportunities of AI-Based technology in emerging and developed countries and more over improving operational efficiency of manufacturing plants are some of the major growth opportunities for the artificial intelligence in Manufacturing market players.Geographically, the artificial intelligence in Manufacturing market has been bifurcated into five regions North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America. The Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing market size and forecast period for each region has been estimated from 2017 to 2023. Additionally the CAGR (%) for the forecasted period 2017 to 2023. The study also includes market estimates for major countries/regions such as the U.S, the U.K., Germany, France, Japan, China, India, GCC, North Africa, South Africa and Brazil. The detailed analysis by Offering, Technology, Application, industry and regions supports in evaluating the present scenario, growth prospects and the future scenario for the artificial intelligence in manufacturing market over the forecast period. Thus, the reportdelivers in-depth segment analysis of the market and classifies it into various industries, thereby providing valuable perceptions.Obtain Details @The growing necessity for the usage of robotics in manufacturing industry is anticipated to drive the Europe market for Artificial Intelligence in manufacturing in the future years. The major companies that are involved artificial intelligence in manufacturing are Intel Corporation, NVIDIA Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, IBM Corporation, Siemens AG, Alphabet Inc., General Electric Company, Datarpm, General Vision, Inc., Sight Machine, Aibrain, and Rokwell Automation Inc.Related Reports:SCARA Robots Market:Assembly-Robots-Arms-SCARA-Robots-MarketEnergy Efficient Lighting Technology Market:Virtual Events Market:Wireless Charging Market: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 StatesToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email : sales@xpodenceresearch.comGlobal Perfume and Fragrances Market Research Report 2018 -Anais Anais ,Cham Pangme ,Chanel Estee , Lauder

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Provue Market Research has recently declared the expansion of "Worldwide Perfume and Fragrances Detailed Analysis Report 2017-2022" that gives the market study of " Perfume and Fragrances  across the global, regional and country level.The exploration report displays a far reaching diagram of market and development patterns of this industry in the coming years. The report provides 360 analysis of "Perfume and Fragrances Market" from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current status of the global Perfume and Fragrances industry, and estimates the future trend of Perfume and Fragrances market on the basis of this detailed studyRequest Sample:This report mainly covers volume and value market share by players, by regions, by product type, by consumers and also their price change details. As a Detailed Analysis report, it covers all details inside analysis and opinion in Perfume and Fragrances industry.Global Perfume and Fragrances Market Research Report 20181 Perfume and Fragrances Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Perfume and Fragrances1.2 Perfume and Fragrances Segment by Type (Product Category)1.3 Global Perfume and Fragrances Segment by ApplicationBrowse Report :2 Global Perfume and Fragrances Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Perfume and Fragrances Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Perfume and Fragrances Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Perfume and Fragrances Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)Inquiry for Buying:3 Global Perfume and Fragrances Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Perfume and Fragrances Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Perfume and Fragrances Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Perfume and Fragrances Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)Provue Market Research is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organisations. We provide our clients not only with market statistics unveiled by avowed private publishers and public organisations but also with vogue and newest industry reports along with pre-eminent and niche company profiles.Provue Research14715 Prairie Ave,Lawndale, CA, 90260,California USATel:- +18889204862Email: info@provueresearch.comWeb:Cranio Maxillofacial Implants Market is Expected to Register USD 1,498.6 million in 2020

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According to a new market report published by Persistence Market Research Global Market Study on Cranio Maxillofacial Implants: Asia to Witness Highest Growth by 2020 the global cranio maxillofacial implants market was valued at USD 1,044.7 million in 2014 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.2% from 2014 to 2020, to reach an estimated value of USD 1,498.6 million in 2020.Cranio maxillofacial surgery refers to a procedure for treatment of a severe injury to the cranial and facial bones. Treatment of injured cranial and facial bones usually requires internal fixators such as plate and screw fixation systems, flap fixation devices, bone graft substitutes or others to fix the facial fracture. Globally, the cranio maxillofacial implants market is witnessing significant growth due to increasing incidence of facial fractures and emergence of new procedural techniques and positive clinical outcome. In addition, increased healthcare expenditure and lack of substitutes are driving the cranio maxillofacial implants market.However, various factors such as high cost of surgery and lack of awareness are restraining the growth of cranio maxillofacial implants market. In addition, double surgery and absence of health insurance in the developing countries are restraining the cranio maxillofacial implants market. The global cranio maxillofacial implants market is estimated at USD 1,044.7 million in 2014. It is likely to grow at a CAGR of 6.2% from 2014 to 2020 to reach USD 1,498.6 million in 2020.Request to Sample of Report @North America, including the U.S. has the largest cranio maxillofacial implants market. Asia is the fastest growing cranio maxillofacial implants market. Some of the fastest growing markets for cranio maxillofacial implants devices are China, Japan and other countries in South East Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean.Request Report For TOC @North American market for cranio maxillofacial implants is estimated at USD 586.1 million in 2014 and is expected to reach USD 839.6 million in 2020, growing at a CAGR of 6.2% from 2014 to 2020. On the basis of the type of fixator, internal fixators have the largest market share in the cranio maxillofacial implants market and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of about 6.0% during 2014  2020. Various cranio maxillofacial implants companies are increasing their focus on manufacturing of internal fixators with bioabsorbable material. Market for bioabsorbable fixators is expected to grow at a CAGR of about 8.4% during 2014  2020.Report Overview @DePuy Synthes, a Johnson & Johnson company, is a leading player in the global market for cranio maxillofacial implants, with a share of about 47.5% in 2013. Other major players of cranio maxillofacial implants market include Stryker Corporation, Zimmer Holdings, Inc. and others.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Hemostats for Wound Closure Market : Region-wise Outlook

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Historically wound types remain the same over the ages with only a slight exception being the emergence of femoral punctures associated with catheterization procedures. But with the advent of newer technologies the practice of closing those wounds are changed.These new products are commonly available on hospitals & trauma centers and have wide range of usage area. Among them Hemostat has become a very popular tool to be used as wound closure material with its excellent properties. When applied to a wound, quickly absorbs blood and other body fluids, transforms into a gel to seal the wound with a protective transparent layer, actively aids in stopping bleeding, and creates an environment for wound healing.Treatment of damaged cardiac tissue in patients with high bleeding tendency can be very challenging. In this category of surgery Hemostat proved to be a very effective with the combination of collagen sponge for the management of a myocardial woundTopical hemostatic agents and tissue adhesives are used as an adjunct or alternative to standard suturing techniques to control bleeding or for wound closure.Hemostats for Wound Closure: Drivers and RestraintsWound closure has become a very frequent clinical practice which is growing very rapidly. The sophisticated procedures ensure rapid cessation of blood loss, prompt closure, strong adhesion of wound edges, tight sealing, reduced scarring, reduced risk of infection and more rapid healing. There is a pool of patients throughout the world which makes the market of this product is very lucrative. As the price is also very reasonable so acceptance of this product is gradually progressing.Request to Sample Report -On the other hand some reports come which could restrict the growth. Surgical staples are emerging as the most useful tool on this wound closure segment. Also the market of suture which is there traditionally remains constant if not growing to some parts of the world. Few reports also suggested that patients may suffer with irritation, heat inflammation or redness on skin when hemostat are applied, though its not clear the exact reason for these.As the market is growing and price is low, so tough competitions will prevail in this segment too.Hemostats for Wound Closure: SegmentationGlobal market for wound closure products consist of hemostat are mainly driven the use of Fibrin which is the combination of thrombin & fibrinogen. Also collagen finds it use as hemostat though it still needs the approval of USFDA.Thrombin based HemostatsCombination HemostatsOxidized Regenerated Cellulose HemostatsGelatin HemostatsCollagen based HemostatsHemostats for Wound Closure: OverviewWith the rapid technological advancement in healthcare industry the Hemostats is expected to grow at a healthy CAGR in the forecasted period (2015-2025).Request Report TOC @Hemostats for Wound Closure: Region-wise OutlookGeographically, the wound closure products market has been segmented into seven major geographical regions which include North America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific exclude Japan, Japan & Latin America, Middle east & Africa. North America contribute the most in this market followed by Europe. With the new product approvals, change in regulatory policies encourages, patient acceptance helps the market to grow. Asia Pacific & Japan pose good growth potential too for wound closure products specially Hemostat.Hemostats for Wound Closure: Key PlayersWound closure product market is highly fragmented with presence of big & small companies. The market leaders in this area are Johnson & Johnson, Covidien, B. Braun, and 3M.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite :Flat Steel Market Size Estimated to Observe Significant Growth During 2017-2025

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Flat steel is rolled from a semi-furnished material such as ingots or billets, and slabs. It is commonly used in consumer durable, white goods, construction as well as automotive industry. Flat steel is used by various manufacturers such as light bar industries, cable trays, truck trailers, automobile industry, railways, tippers, grating manufacturers, and other engineering industries.Request to Sample of Report-Flat steel enhances the quality, ductility, toughness, reliability, consistency of end product along with reduces the waste as well as a rework of production process. Moreover, it helps in maximized yield, trouble-free processing, improves product shelf life, and enhance the overall performance of the end product. According to World Steel Association, the overall steel products consumption in Asia & Oceania market was estimated around 990 Mn metric tons in 2015.Flat Steel Market: Drivers and RestraintsInnovative steel production techniques, expansion in the manufacturing capacity, and steel companies are inclining towards electric arc furnace manufacturing process which will provide them an operating flexibility are a primary factor driving the growth of global flat steel market. Moreover, extensive use of flat steel in the construction of factories, roads, and engineering structure, and growing automobile and construction industry globally which account about two third of steel consumption are some of the prominent factors fueling the growth of flat steel market over the forecast period.However, the high fixed cost of blast furnace production process have a severely adverse impact on the profitability of steel manufacturers, and fluctuation in product price may limiting the growth of the flat steel market during the forecast period. For Instance, In February 2017, the average price of flat steel in Asian market was increased by around US$25 per ton compared to previous month.Flat Steel Market: Region-wise OutlookDepending on the geographic region, flat steel market is divided into seven key regions: North America, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Western Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. North America dominates the flat steel market followed by Europe, and Japan is owing to expanding automotive output, high adoption of oil and gas tubular, and government initiatives. The market in Asia Pacific and Japan is expected to grow at significant CAGR owing to expanding construction and automobile industry, the presence of prominent players in these regions. Additionally, increasing exports of steel from developing countries such as India which has escalated by 78% during April 2016 to February 2017 are the factors which are anticipated to drive the growth of flat steel market throughout the forecast period.Request Report for TOC @Flat Steel Market: Key PlayersSome of the prominent players in the flat steel market are ArcelorMittal S.A., Allegheny Technologies Inc., Zeeco Metals, Inc., SSAB AB, Clingan Steel, Inc., United States Steel Corporation, AK Steel Holding Corporation, Hascall Steel Co., Essar Group ThyssenKrupp AG, Posco Co. Ltd., Precision Brand Products, Inc., Johnson Bros. Metal Forming Co., Voestalpine AG, Jindal Steel and Power Limited, JSW Steel Ltd., Tata Steel Limited, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp, Hyundai Steel Co., and Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), and many more.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Future of Data Loss Prevention Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, 2017-2025

https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/toc/1149

https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/data-loss-prevention-market-1149

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Data loss prevention software is used for data protection. It can be utilized to detect potential theft such as Torjan horses that transfer confidential data outside of the network. Moreover, it also provides software solutions to monitor and block confidential data or network traffic or storage condition by providing standard security software solutions, which includes firewalls and intrusion detection systems (IDSs). For instance, firewalls can be utilized to protect confidential information from outsiders access and to detect the attempt of intrusion by outsider an intrusion detection system is used.Demand for data loss prevention solutions is increasing significantly due to rising cyber-attacks. For instance, according to Coherent Market Insights analysis in July 2017, cybercrime increased up to 84.1% from 68.8% recorded in June. Cyber Espionage slides to 10.1% from 15.6% of June whereas Cyber Warfare plummets to 4.3% from 9.4%. Banking and financial sector is the major sector in cyber security market. This is used for protecting private information of data or cash related to their customers. This confidential data is highly susceptible to cyber-threats. Increasing utilization of mobile devices and high adoption of Internet by consumers are expected to escalate the overall market growth. For instance, according to Coherent Market Insights analysis, in 2016 over 68% of global population was already using mobile phones. Industries including banking, finance and insurance, government and military, and retail and manufacturing is another factor fueling growth of the market. For instance, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), for the year 2015  2016, 16,468 frauds were reported associated with ATM, debit card, credit card, and net banking. In 2014  2015 the number of frauds were 13,083 and 9,500 in the year 2013 14, reported by RBI. The data stored on cloud or on-premises is vulnerable to cyber-attacks by various software such as Trojan horses and viruses, which consequently increases the requirement of data loss prevention solutions.Request Table of Content of this Report :Data Loss Prevention Market: Regional InsightsThe global data loss prevention market is segmented on the basis of regions into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East, and Africa. North America region accounted for the largest share in global data loss prevention market in 2016 and this region is expected to dominate the global market by 2025. The dominance of this region is attributed to increased adoption of cloud and big data technologies. For instance, according to Coherent Market Insights analysis, in 2015, North America accounted for around 66% of the global cloud services market, owing to rampant development of IT infrastructure and presence of major IT companies such as Google, Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle in the region.Data Loss Prevention Market: Competitive BackgroundMajor players operating in the global data loss prevention market include Symantec Corporation, CA Technologies, BAE Systems, Websense, Inc., Trend Micro Incorporated, Digital Guardian, Code Green Networks, Trustwave Holding, Inc., Zecurion, and GTB Technologies, Inc.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:Disposable Plastic Blood Bag will reach at a US$4,13,084.8 thousand in 2020

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According to a new market report published by Persistence Market Research Global Market Study on Disposable Plastic Blood Bags: Single Blood Bags to Witness Highest Growth by 2020 the global Disposable Plastic Blood Bags market was valued at USD 2,44,286.8 thousand in 2014 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.1% from 2014 to 2020, to reach an estimated value of USD 4,13,084.8 thousand in 2020.A disposable blood bag refers to a bio-medical device that is used for collection, storage, processing, transfusion, separation and transportation of human blood and blood components. There are different types of disposable plastic blood bags based on the need of blood infusion; single blood bag, double blood bag, triple blood bag, quadruple blood bag and transfer blood bag.Request to Sample of Report @Globally, the disposable plastic blood bags market is witnessing significant growth due to increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, rising aging population and advanced features of disposable plastic blood bags. In addition, increasing initiatives undertaken by various government associations spreading awareness about importance of blood donations are driving the disposable plastic blood bags market. However, factors such as risks associated with blood transfusion and lack of awareness and poor blood collection and storage infrastructure in various parts of the world restrain the global market for disposable plastic blood bags market. In addition, lack of primary healthcare infrastructure in developing countries negatively impacts the growth of the disposable plastic blood bags market. The global disposable plastic blood bags market is estimated at USD 2,44,286.8 thousand in 2014 and expected to reach USD 4,13,084.8 thousand in 2020, growing at a CAGR of 9.1%.Request Report For TOC @North America has the largest market for the global disposable plastic blood bags market. This is due to increased prevalence of blood disorders in the region. North American market for disposable plastic blood bags is estimated at USD 83,670.7 thousand in 2014 and is expected to reach USD 1,42,983.2 thousand in 2020, growing at a CAGR of 9.3%. Asia is the fastest growing region; this is due to large population base in the region. In terms of type of blood bags, single blood bags are the fastest growing segment. In terms of end users, blood banks are the fastest growing.Some of the latest trends that have been observed in the global disposable plastic blood bags market include increasing use of RFID technology in blood bags and increasing number of mergers and acquisitions by companies.Report Overview @Terumo Corporation is a leading player in the global market for disposable plastic blood bags market. Some of the other major players in disposable plastic blood bags market are Grifols, S.A., Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA, Haemonetics Corporation and MacoPharma SA.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Global Rare Disease Treatment Market Surge Valuation US$ 78,434 Mn by the end of 2025

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A comprehensive evaluation presented by Persistence Market Research on the global rare disease treatment market in a new research report titled Rare Disease Treatment Market: Global Industry Analysis 2012  2016 and Forecast 2017  2025 highlights the performance of the various segments in the market over a period of eight years. This involves the current scenario of the market dynamics along with the forecast of the entire market across various geographies. According to Persistence Market Research, there are many opportunities that promote revenue growth in this market during the forecast period.Request to sample report @The report covers important geographies of North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa. Of these major landscapes, North America lays a significant growth track to show a value of US$ 78,434 Mn by the end of 2025 according to forecast insights in the research study. Following North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, especially Japan, are in line showing potential for the treatment of rare diseases over the period of eight years. The Middle East and Africa region (MEA) will depict sluggish growth owing to low awareness of rare diseases and hence their treatments.Several opportunities lurk around the market, creating a positive impact on global market growth rateAcquisitions across the global scenario can be used to expand the business portfolio and operations of key players, who will do well to leverage this strategy to establish a global footprint. Forward integration can be achieved by expanding the value chain. The operating efficiency should be increased to achieve high return on investment. This can be achieved by shifting the manufacturing of important medicines to orphan drugs. The manufacturers of orphan drugs are enjoying the advantages of tax benefits, fast approvals and other research grants, thereby making room for more innovations. Product innovation can lead to advanced therapeutics and innovations in medicine or drugs, which can be used to tap new markets. Moreover, the increasing incidence of rare diseases gives a plus to the market. The public is aware of these rare diseases and this awareness is rising owing to government effort and other social groups. Adding to this scenario, the reimbursement schemes in developed economies are pushing the growth in demand for rare disease treatments and thereby fueling the rare disease treatment market growth in developed countries.Global Rare Disease Treatment Market: Segmental ForecastThe global rare disease treatment market report involves a five level segmentation comprising  by therapeutic area, by drug type, by drug class, by mode of administration and by distribution channel.The genetic diseases segment by therapeutic area, which was dominating the global market in the past will show similar traction in the next eight years. This segment is anticipated to be valued at US$ 56,241 Mn by the end of 2025. The metabolic diseases segment by therapeutic type shows higher growth rate as compared to the genetic disease segment and is poised to reach a value of US$ 23,938 Mn by 2025 endRequest Report for TOC @By drug type, originator drugs is the largest segment in the global rare disease treatment market, estimated to hold about 75% market share by 2025 endOf the various drug class segments, organic compounds is the dominant and most attractive segment, with attractiveness index of 0.6 during the forecast periodThe oral segment by mode of administration dominates the global market for rare disease treatment from a revenue standpoint and is forecasted to continue this trait throughout the period of forecast. It has the highest market attractiveness index of 2.2. The injectable segment is poised to account for a value share of 39.5% by 2025 end and reflects a market attractiveness index of 0.8By distribution channel, specialty pharmacies segment dominated the global rare disease treatment market in revenue terms in 2016 and is projected to continue to do so throughout the forecast period. Specialty pharmacies is the most attractive segment, with attractiveness index of 1.6 during the forecast periodReport overview @Competitive Intelligence  Key Player AnalysisThe research report on the global rare disease treatment market profiles key players in the market and their complete intelligence including facts such as product portfolio, strategies, geographical spread, etc. Some of the key players involved are Novartis AG, Pfizer, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Celgene Corporation, AbbVie Inc., Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc., Shire, Alexion, Novo Nordisk A/S, Sanofi, Bayer AG, Amgen, Inc., Allergan plc., Eisai Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Merck & Co., Inc., Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Baxter, BioMarin and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated re-search, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Con-sumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comFuture of Microhydro-Electric Systems Market, By Component - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, 20172025

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https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/microhydro-electric-systems-market-1240

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Microhydro-electric systems are referred to units or plants, which are installed with the power generation capability of less than or equal to 100 kW. The installation of plant mainly include the units that are deployed on streams, water pipeline systems, and irrigation canals. Microhydro-electric systems find considerable applications to cater the needs of the small business and domestic and agricultural requirements. These installations are generally privately owned and the power generated is either utilized on-site or sold to the utility distribution company.Increasing emphasis for the exploitation of green energy sources is anticipated to leverage the demand for utilization of the available water sourcesHigh global dependency on the fossil fuels is expected to decline due to limited availability of resources and the associated impact of fossil fuels on environment over the forecast period. According to Coherent Market Insights analysis report, around 60 countries utilize the available water resources to meet more than 50% of the overall electrical energy requirements. Micro-hydro power generation has gained considerable momentum, owing to its increased social as well as financial benefits over the large hydro power stations. Short gestation period, high return on investment (ROI), low capital investments, easy commissioning, and construction are some of the factors augmenting the market growth. Moreover, factors such as the impact on local habitat, effect on rehabilitation, deforestation, and other associated issues owing to submergence of the large areas can be eliminated with the introduction of microhydro-electric systems.Request Table of Content of this Report :Administrative bottlenecks and low adoption rates are expected to hamper the industrial growth over the forecast periodRequirement to fulfil the long and complicated procedural hurdles to obtain the authorization, permits, and approvals in almost every nations is expected to be the major factor hindering the market growth. Furthermore, adoption of the methodology for power generation is still in its nascent stage with most of the potential still left untapped. For instance, over 95% of around 79,000 dams in the U.S., are not utilized for the generation of electricity.Europe dominated the global microhydro-electric systems market is expected to present substantial growth prospects over the forecast periodDevelopment of efficient regulatory framework and tariff rates to support green infrastructural development is expected to fuel the market growth in Europe. For instance, European Legislation has defined the standards and normalization rules accounting for the electricity generation through hydropower and wind power. Furthermore, other regulatory bodies has also defined requirements and standards include UK legislation, Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC), and Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem). Increasing number of green government initiatives to support the growing requirement of electricity in emerging countries of Asia Pacific such as China, is expected to garner highest growth rate over the forecast period.Key Players in the Global Microhydro-Electric Systems MarketRegional expansion and increasing awareness regarding the associated benefits of the system, is expected to help the key industry players to strengthen their industry position in the microhydro-electric systems market. Some of the key players operating in the global microhydro-electric systems market include Addnew Technologies Limited, Alps Power Technologies (P) Limited, Brownell Micro Hydro, Canyon Industries, Inc., Hebden Bridge Alternative Technology Centre Ltd., K.C. Larson, Inc., PowerSpout, and Rainbow Power Company Ltd.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:Advisory Asset Management: HNW Demand and Drivers

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"Advisory Asset Management: HNW Demand and Drivers" draws on our 2016 Global Wealth Managers Survey to analyze HNW investors preferences and attitudes towards advisory asset management services across the globe. It sizes the market for advisory mandates and examines key drivers behind wealthy individuals choosing such services. The competitive landscape is also analyzed.Globally over 25% of HNW individuals portfolio is invested via advisory services, with markets in Asia Pacific displaying the strongest affinity for these mandates. Although discretionary services remain the preferred option - particularly in developed markets - global HNW demand for formal advice is expected to increase in light of capital markets volatility. Wealth managers should use advisory mandates offering to capitalize on this demand to draw assets from execution-only platforms.Get the sample copy of report :Specifically, the report -- Estimates the value of HNW assets invested via advisory mandates.- Compares HNW individuals willingness to use advisory services in different countries.- Identifies target client groups for advisory asset managers.- Compares drivers for advisory mandates between countries and regions.- Examines the client targeting strategies of advisory portfolio managers.- Explores robo-advisors potential to disrupt traditional discretionary asset management business.Scope- Emerging markets show a greater propensity for advisory services than developed countries. Taiwan has the highest penetration of advisory mandates, with 71.2% of the HNW portfolio held in these services.- The US HNW advisory asset management market is worth $1.5tn, representing the greatest opportunity in absolute terms. China is the second-largest market, followed by Australia.- On the global level, the balance between access to advice and retaining control over investments is the main factor fueling HNW demand for advisory mandates, although regional preferences vary.- The second most important reason is price sensitivity. When cheaper than discretionary mandates, advisory services are likely to appeal to HNW investors.- As competitive pricing fuels demand for robo-advice, most wealth managers agree they should invest in automated investment services to complement their existing offering.View full report here :Reasons to buy- Discover how much HNW wealth is invested via advisory mandates.- Identify markets offering the greatest growth potential for advisory asset management.- Learn why HNW investors choose to opt for advisory services, and how these motivations differ between countries, particularly in emerging and developed markets.- Gain an insight into best-practice examples from competitors operating within the advisory mandates landscape.MRRbiz supports your business intelligence needs with over 700,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market data sheets in its repository. Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that you always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries and their sub-segments. We have built a veritable reputation for our commitment to fulfilling our clients' exacting market research solutions. From Fortune 500 companies to SMEs, our clients place their trust in us for reports from verified publishers.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizOff-grid Hybrid Power System Market for the Period 2025

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Off-grid Hybrid Power System Market: IntroductionAs the name suggests, the off-grid hybrid power system generally consists of two or more renewable source of energy used together to provide energy off the grid. Off grid refers to not depending or using electricity available via main grid or generated via main infrastructure for power.Request to Sample of Report-Off-grid hybrid power system has the ability to fulfill power demands through local generation of power without relying on centralized stations of power. Mini-grids (providing electricity to multiple customers) as well as stand-alone systems (for individual users/appliances) are the off-grid systems.Off-grid hybrid power system is also used in case of shortage of capital fund & the geographical area makes it hard to install a main-grid connection.Normally, off-grid areas are powered by fossil fuel generation but environment matters, and sustainability in terms of capital has created the urge for alternate solutions. A hybrid system that is a combination of two or more power sources, such as renewable and diesel generated, is an attractive option. The system harnesses the abundance of renewable sources that are freely available to generate electricity, and when combined with the diesel generator it displaces the fuel consumption. Thus, it reduces the cost and the emission related to diesel power generation. The hybrid systems can also be combined with other technologies such as battery storage to improve its effectiveness.Off-grid Hybrid Power System Market: DynamicsIncreased consumption of energy, rapidly increasing population of world, and depletion of natural resources have increased the sale of the off-grid hybrid power system. Particularly, its very much in demand in isolated communities and areas which are not likely to be electrified in the near future. However, off-grid hybrid power system are also used by people who reside near the grid and choose to obtain independence from main power provider and demonstrate a responsibility to no-polluting energy resources.Portable off-grid hybrid power systems is the trend and its market revenue will grow in the coming years. Solar-wind off-grid hybrid power system is another energy source having great tendency in the market growth.Off-grid hybrid power system has high installation cost compared to other power generating sources, which is restraining the market, if made more cost-effective than the market of off-grid power system can be improved to some extent. Also, the market is moving with a sluggish speed as the demand is less because they have long life.Off-grid Hybrid Power System Market: Regional OutlookAsia Pacific owns sizable global market of off-grid hybrid power systems and according to statistics it is expected to continue the dominance in the upcoming years as there is huge demand of micro-grid hybrid power system. The well-known contributor after Asia is Japan in the off-grid hybrid power system market.In Middle East and Africa, the off-grid hybrid power system market is fueled especially due to huge development in the economy.The compulsory application of the national-wide policy on backcountry electrification over regulatory agencies, national electricity industries and commissions, rural electrification capital, and rural electrification associations across South Africa has served a major driving force. In inclusion to this, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank in Africa provide funds to various off-grid hybrid power proposals for the implementation of PV arrays in existing diesel power plantsRequest Report for TOC @Off-grid Hybrid Power System Market: Key PlayersBelectricSchneider electricSiemensSMADanvestElectro Power systemElgris PowerHeliocentrisOutback PowerSolgenAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Below 30 Hp Centrifugal Water Pump Market Revenue to Increase to US$ 37.1 Million by 2020

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Future Market Insights (FMI) delivers key insights on the Egypt below 30Hp centrifugal water pump market in its upcoming market forecast and outlook titled, Below 30 Hp Centrifugal Water Pump Market: Egypt Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015 - 2020. The Egypt below 30 Hp centrifugal water pump market is projected to register a steady CAGR of 5.1% in terms of revenue during the forecast period due to various factors, regarding which FMI offers vital insights in detail.FMI analyses the Egypt below 30Hp centrifugal water pump market in terms of market value (US$ Mn) and volume (units), by applications, pump type and pump capacity, and provides insightful information regarding market dynamics, value chain, competitive landscape, current trends, market estimations and forecast until 2020.Request for Sample @Below 30Hp centrifugal water pumps are the most used types of pumps in the world due to robust and effective nature. Below 30 Hp centrifugal water pumps find application in various large and small scale industries such as chemicals, construction, waste water treatment and agriculture. On the basis of application type, the market has been segmented into industrial, agriculture and domestic use. The domestic application segment accounted for around 40% revenue share of the overall Egypt below 30Hp centrifugal water pump market in 2014, and is expected to register a CAGR of 4.8% over the forecast period. Agriculture application is estimated to grow at the fastest CAGR during the forecast period. Every application segment is further sub-segmented into monobloc, mini pump and submersible pump. Submersible pumps are widely preferred for all the above mentioned applications; however, monobloc pumps is expected to register a high CAGR over the forecast period. Submersible centrifugal water pumps are widely preferred in Egypt, and account for over 50% share of the Egypt below 30Hp centrifugal water pumps market.This report covers trends driving growth of each segment and respective sub-segments and offers pricing analysis and insights for each pump type and their respective capacities. From the capacity perspective, segmentation is done on the basis of horsepower for all three types of pumps. A detailed pricing analysis is done for the same. The 25 to 30 Hp pump in the monobloc and submersible pump category are more preferred, while the 1 to 2 Hp capacity pumps account for over 50% share in the mini centrifugal water pump category.Increasing investment in housing construction, infrastructure development, expansion of water supply network and increase in agriculture initiatives are some of the macro-economic drivers for the Egypt below 30Hp centrifugal water pump market. Political instability and price volatility are some of the factors restricting growth of the Egypt below 30Hp centrifugal water pump market. Prices of China-made centrifugal water pumps are relatively lower and this is one of the major concerns for global and regional players operating in this market. Adoption of photovoltaic powered centrifugal water pumps and solar powered centrifugal water pumps is trending in the Egypt below 30Hp centrifugal water pumps market.Request for Table of Contents @Key players in the Egypt below 30Hp centrifugal water pump market include Grundfos, KSB Pumps, Xylem Inc., Wilo, Flowserve Corporation, Calpeda and Omega Engineering Egypt. Egypt centrifugal water pump market is largely dominated by regional and local players, and these collectively account for around 70% share of the total centrifugal water pump market. Grundfos accounts for largest share among all others, followed by KSB Egypt and Wilo.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Growth Opportunities in Asbestos Cement pipe Market: New Research Report 2017-2025

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Asbestos Cement pipes are strong, noncorrosive and light pipes made from mixture of Asbestos Fiber (Asbestos is a natural substance found underground in the form of rock) and Portland cement. Asbestos are recovered by rock crushing and mining for commercial cement pipes. Asbestos are used on cement pipes to increase flexibility and strength of pipes.Request Report for TOC @Asbestos Cement pipe are classified into Non pressure, pressure and cable protective types. Non Pressure asbestos Cement pipes are generally used in construction & wiring fencing, drainage systems and in chimneys. Pressure Asbestos Cement pipes are used for transportation of industrial & drinking water (hot or cold), ventilation, water supply and garbage disposal etc. Cable protective Asbestos Cement pipes have high resistance toward heat, alkali and acid resistance and better heat dissipation. Cable protective Asbestos Cement pipes have life cycle over a decade and commonly used in concrete encapsulation, sidewalks, highways etc.Asbestos fiber is stronger as compared to steel, and thermal coefficient of cement and asbestos matches hence providing three dimensional homogeneous microscopic reinforcement in Asbestos cement thus it can withstand more water pressure than normal concrete pipe of same thickness. Asbestos cement pipes are highly resistive to corrosion and commonly used in water work systems, drainage systems and in gas lines. Asbestos pipes have long life cycle, high crushing strength and are robust. Hence, Asbestos pipes can be used under heavy traffic and external loads.Asbestos Cement pipes consumes negligible amount of energy in manufacturing and also dont deplete natural resources. Once jointed and properly laid, asbestos cement pipes do not need any maintenance or replacement as they are erosion free.Asbestos Cement pipe Market: DynamicsAsbestos Cement pipe Market is expected to see potential growth in coming year owing to growing oil and gas industry. Developing Infrastructure in developing countries is the primary key in demand of Asbestos cement pipes as these constructions call for better sewage and drainage systems hence giving a significant boost to Asbestos Cement pipe market.Asbestos cement pipes have life cycle of half decade to a decade and lakhs of already installed asbestos cement pipes are reaching end of their life cycle and will required to be replaced. Hence increasing the demand of Asbestos Cement pipe Market.Nowadays, Cable protective Asbestos Cement pipes are more in demand in Construction sector as they easy to install, cost effective, easy to replace and have the long life cycle thus driving the market of asbestos cement pipe.However, Asbestos cement pipes market growth is being decelerated due to ban of asbestos in certain countries owing to hazardous effects related with its manufacturing and end use. The availability of substitute materials with reduced hazardous content, superior durability and cheaper in procurement is also responsible in deterring the use of asbestos cement pipe to a certain extent.Asbestos Cement pipe Market: Regional OutlookIn Asia Pacific, India is the major contributor in Asbestos cement pipe market owing to oil & gas industry, improving irrigation systems and sewage systems. In North America Asbestos cement pipe are used for water transportation thus contributing to asbestos cement pipe market growth to some extent. Asbestos cement pipe replacement project in South Africa  The water relay program, will boost the market of Asbestos cement pipe.Request to Sample of Report-Asbestos Cement pipe Market: Key PlayersABB Lummus Global Inc.R. Grace & Co.Celotex Corp.Raybestos-Manhatan Co.Celotex Corp.Lafarge CanadaDongye Industry Co.ARL Infratech Ltd.A infrastructure Ltd.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Transformer Bushings Market Analysis, Forecast, and Assessment 2017-2025

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Global Transformer Bushings Market: IntroductionTransformer bushing is an indispensable part of electric power transmission equipment utilized to operate reliably and safely. It is an insulated device that facilitates the transfer of current carrying conductor through an earthed conducting obstacle. Transformer bushings are often attributed as a prominent cause of transformer failures. In order to avoid the failure and loss, manufacturers strive to develop reliable, cost-efficient and durable transformer bushings. Demand for energy consumption is expected to rise owing to increased utilization by existing and new commercial establishments as well as burgeoning residential sector in urban and rural areas.Request Report for TOC @The increased per capita energy consumption has in turn augmented the need of electricity transmission which has involved robust use of transformers. It has been witnessed that the existing transformers frequently gets overloaded by output capacity against the actual demand of electric power by end use sectors, which in turn has resulted in frequent breakdown of transformers thus affecting the bushings. In order to cater the demands, the government has to enhance the capacity of existing power grid.Global Transformer Bushings Market: Market DynamicsRapid urbanization and significant growth in industrialization are the pre-eminent factors responsible to aid the growth of transformer bushings market. Additionally, the spurring urbanization is underpinning the demand growth for the need of power infrastructure thus bolstering the transformer bushings market during the forecast period. Transformers bushings market is forecast to remain lucrative in the foreseeable future owing to the enhancement of electrical transmission lines in the majority of countries.Another reason driving the global transformer bushings market is the need for enhancing electrical power grid reliability. Significant fleet expansion and broadening of the rail network in various regions are expected to increase the demand for transformer bushings in railway networks owing to rapidly increasing passenger count. Investments in the power sector to address chronic electricity shortages is expected to drive the global transformer bushings market. A transformer has a service life of more than 40 years. However, the transformer bushings have to be replaced after fixed interval of time because the faulty transformer bushings may lead to damage of the transformer. Consequently, replacement activities of transformer bushings are expected to drive the global transformer bushings market.In the upcoming years, maturity of the electric power sector in terms of expansion in developed countries is anticipated to slow down the demand growth of transformer bushings. Many of the transformer bushings manufacturers are developing components with optimum life cycle and striving to enhance the material quality. Moreover, fire risk associated with some of the transformer bushings material may hamper the overall market.Global Transformer Bushings Market: Regional OutlookWith increasing focus by the Chinese government to expand its pre-existing electricity generation system, the power sector is expected to remain prolific in the forthcoming years. Demand for high voltage transformer bushings is set to foresee significant growth. Expansion of High-speed rail network in China in order to boost the economic growth is anticipated to aid the growth of transformer bushings market. The aforementioned factor is anticipated to emanate the demand for transformer bushings. ASEAN also recognized the growing electricity demand and thus, the countries have been spending on resilient electricity infrastructure in order to stimulate regional economic growth.Furthermore, to strengthen the power supply in urban and importantly in rural areas, Indian transformer bushing market is anticipated to witness healthy demand growth owing to several government policies and schemes. In Latin America, Brazil is foremost electricity market and in the coming years electric power sector is expected to receive significant investments between up to 2018. The growth of renewable energy power plants in Western Europe and North America are likely to trigger the demand for transformer bushings.Request to Sample of Report-Global Transformer Bushings Market: Key ParticipantsExample of some of the market participants in the global transformer bushings market discerned across the value chain includeABB GroupTRENCH Group (SIEMENS)HSP Hochspannungsgerate GmbH (SIEMENS)H-J International, Inc.Megger Group LimitedNanjing Electric HV Bushing Co., Ltd.General ElectricAlstomAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Decanol Market Extensive Growth Opportunities to be Witnessed by 2017-2027

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Global Decanol Market: IntroductionDecanol is a straight chain fatty alcohol used in the manufacture of solvents, plasticizers, surfactants, and lubricants. It is a colorless viscous liquid with a strong odor and is insoluble in water. The other names for decanol are decyl alcohol and decatyl alcohol. Decanol is used as a lubricant oil additive, a plastic lubricant and aluminum rolling lubricant in the lubricants industry. As lubricants, decanol is used to keep the machine parts dry owing to their faster evaporation rate. Decanol has the ability to permeate the skin, so it also finds the wide area of application in the pharmaceutical industry as a penetration enhancer. Decanol is also used in conditioners, lotions, and creams in the personal care industry. In surfactants, decanol is used in many applications such as shower gels, liquid soaps, fabric softeners, laundry detergents etc. Decanol has the property of biodegradability and therefore it degrades in the environment. However, decanol is intensely toxic and harmful to aquatic life. Decanol also causes mild skin irritation when exposed in large quantity to the skin. Decanol is also substantially used in the coatings and cleaning agents.Global Decanol Market: DynamicsRising urbanization, increasing penetration of pharmaceutical industries and ageing population are the main influencers to drive the shifting consumer preferences. The decanol market is observing growth owing to the increasing saturation of surfactant-based industries such as soaps and detergents, oil & gas, personal care and cosmetics, textiles, etc. In addition to this, the decanol market is also witnessing growth owing to the wide-area consumption of fatty alcohols and flexibility in feedstock availability in the emerging economies. The increasing purchasing power of the middle class and the growing urbanization boosts the domestic and industrial cleaning across the globe thereby, driving the decanol market globally.Request For Report Sample@The demand for decanol is driven owing to their substantial and effective use in manufacturing surfactants and as lubricant additives with mineral oil. The increased consumption of decanol in the manufacturing of soaps and detergents which are used as cleaning agents in residential, commercial and industrial sectors will create growth opportunities for the decanol market during the forecast period. In addition to this, the increased demand for the industrial and household sanitation is also anticipated to enhance the growth of decanol market.As the concerns regarding the effect of petrochemicals on the environment have provoked the use of sustainable chemicals. The trend to reduce dependence on petrochemicals and to decrease carbon footprint, a shift towards the development of base chemicals and biodegradable products through bio-based raw materials is observed.The extensive research and development programs and increasing cost of production to comply with the quality of products is a major restraint for the decanol market. In most of the countries, the adoption of stringent regulatory guidelines is expected to increase, as well as, a ban on variable cost parameters and key raw ingredients might hamper the potential growth of the decanol market.Global Decanol Market: SegmentationBy application, the global decanol market can be segmented into:PlasticizersLubricantsSurfactantsSolventsOthersGlobal Decanol Market: Region-wise OutlookThe global decanol market is segregated into Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. The global market for decanol is expected to grow during the forecast period. Asia-Pacific is projected to dominate the decanol market owing to the increasing demand for personal care products. India and China are expected to be the prominent consumer of decanol in the Asia-pacific region owing to the presence of established end-use industries in the countries of these emerging economies. The growth of polymer processing industries in North America and Europe is expected to fuel the demand of the decanol market.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Global Decanol Market: Key PlayersExamples of some of the key players identified across the value chain of the Global decanol market are: Sasol, Royal Dutch Shell Plc., Kao Corporation, Procter & Gamble, Global Green Chemicals Public Company Limited, Musim Mas Holdings, Emery Oleochemicals, Suriachem Sdn Bhd, Asean Oleochemical Manufacturers Group, Finetech Industry Limited, VVF (India) Ltd, TCI Chemicals (India) Pvt. Ltd, Syntree Inc, Tractus.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Optical Whitening Agents Market Excessive Growth Opportunities Estimated to be Experienced 2017-2027

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Global Optical Whitening Agents Market: IntroductionThe optical whitening agents are also called as optical brightening agents or fluorescent whitening agents. The optical whitening agents are chemicals used to make the plastics, fibers, coatings, inks and detergents to look brighter. The basic working principle of optical whitening agents is that they absorb the ultraviolet light and re-emit it as visible light in the blue region of the spectrum. The optical whitening agents are also being widely used in dyes to make the color appear more vibrant. The optical whitening agents are the specialty chemicals that belong to the category of synthetic organic coloring matter. The optical whitening agents are added to enhance the aesthetics and consumer appeal. The optical whitening agents have replaced bluing, which was traditionally used to give the same affect to clothes. The optical whitening agents are mostly the stilbene-based chemicals. The optical lightening agents have many advantages such as light fastness, readily soluble in organic solvents, high chemical stability and improved resistance to heat amongst others.Global Optical Whitening Agents Market: DynamicsDriversWith the steady growth of the synthetics and plastics industry, there has an expected growth in the demand for optical whitening agents. Plastics and other synthetics have replaced a number of materials across different applications. Thus in turn creating significant opportunities for the optical whitening agents market. With the rising demand from skincare products, the market for optical whitening agents is expected to grow. A number of beauty and skincare products such as shampoos have optical whitening agents. A major contribution in the growth is also anticipated to come from the textile and apparel industry mainly in Asia Pacific.Request For Report Sample@RestraintsOne of the major challenge faced by the optical whitening agents market is they sometimes are allergic when in direct contact with humans. Another major restraint obstructing the growth of the optical whitening agents market is high cost of production. The use of alternatives for brightening such as non-stilbene brighteners is also hampering the growth of the global optical whitening agents market.TrendsThe manufacturers are focusing on the development of optical whitening agents for tailored-specific applications, such as printing inks and image processing industry. The product manufactured are urea-free and environmental-friendly optical whitening agent. Moreover, there has also been a growing demand for the biodegradable optical whitening agents as there are number of regulations.Global Optical Whitening Agents Market: SegmentationThe global Optical Whitening Agents market can be segmented based on application and region.On the basis of application, the global optical whitening agents market can be segmented as:TextilesPaper and pulpDetergentPlasticsFibersCoatings and InksCosmeticsSynthetics and fabricsPhoto Processing SolutionsOthersOn the basis of type, the global optical whitening agents market can be segmented as:StilbeneCoumarinPyroazolineTriazolesBenzoxazolinesBiphenyl stilbenesOthersGlobal Optical Whitening Agents Market: Regional OutlookThe global market for optical whitening agents is expected to be dominated by the Asia Pacific region. This is attributed to the significant growth of textile and synthetics and plastics industry. China is anticipated to represent a dominant share in the Asia Pacific optical whitening agents market. Regions such as North America and Europe are expected to expand at moderate CAGR over the forecast period. The major demand from these regions is expected to come from the coatings and inks and the cosmetics, detergents industries. The regions such as Middle East and Africa and Latin America are expected to remain low volumehigh growth regions expanding significantly over the forecast period. Japan, on the other hand, is projected to show a relatively sluggish growth over the outlook period.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Global Optical Whitening Agents Market: ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants identified across the value chain of global optical whitening agents market are:BASF SEHuntsman International LLCClariantMayzo, Inc.United Specialities (P) LtdArchromaCiba Specialty Chemicals Inc.Milliken and CompanyDelta HydrocarbonKyung-In Synthetic CorporationABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Rapid Industrialization to Boost Perfluoropolyether (PFPE) Market Growth by 2017-2027

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Perfluoropolyether Market: IntroductionPerfluoropolyether is among the family of fluorinated synthetic fluid. PFPE is a long chain organofluorine polymer consisting of carbon, oxygen and fluorine atoms. In terms of physical appearance it is colorless and odorless in nature and is completely inert to most chemical agents including oxygen. Perfluoropolyether is compatible with other liquids and materials over a high range of temperature from -40oC to 200oC. Perfluoropolyether have specific end use applications according to which different molecular structures of PFPE such as linear or pendant are applied. Perfluoropolyether find prominent application as a lubricant where they are used to formulate the most thermooxidatively stable lubricants. They are long chain fluoropolyether that wets the surface well and are slippery in nature which makes them as an ideal lubricant. Moreover, oxidative stability of the compound extends the component life and are well suited for demanding environmental conditions. Other properties such as chemical inertness imparts excellent stability in harsh environmental conditions and very low reactivity with other chemicals or surfaces. They can be available in various viscosities from very light for low-temperature applications to very viscous for application in heavy loaded applications. PFPE can be used directly as a lubricating oil or it can be combined with various thickeners to form variety of perfluoropolyether greases. Therefore, perfluoropolyether finds increasing applications in automotive industry, aerospace, electronics and coating applications. Thus, Perfluoropolyether market is slated to grow at healthy pace owing to its increasing usage in the application segments.Request For Report Sample@Perfluoropolyether Market: DynamicsPerfluoropolyether is widely used as a lubricant in automobile industry where is used in lubrication of automobile components such as bearings, pivots and joints. Thus the demand from automobile oil segments is expected to drive the perfluoropolyethers market. Furthermore, perfluoropolyether finds extensive applications in aerospace applications as they can withstand the harsh environmental conditions. Significant investments in R&D by several countries is also one of the key driving factors along with growing demand for perfluoropolyethers in the semiconductor processing industry. Therefore, increasing usage of perfluoropolyethers in the end use industry is anticipated to boost the demand over the forecast period.Perfluoropolyether is used as coating lubricant in CD drives in electronic industry. However, declining market of CD drives may result decline in growth of perfluoropolyether market. Furthermore, PFPE is known for emission of fumes which are environmentally harmful at higher temperature. Hence, aforementioned are some of the factors which might hamper the growth of perfluoropolyether market over the forecast period.Increasing usage of perfluoropolyether in aeronautical applications along with growing investment in R&D for testing its applicability in other applications are some of the ongoing key trends in the perfluoropolyether market.Perfluoropolyether Market: SegmentationThe global perfluoropolyether market can be segmented on the basis of type, form and application. On the basis of type, the perfluoropolyether market can be segmented as PFPE-K, PFPE-Y, PFPE-D, PFPE-M and PFPE-Z. On the basis of form, the perfluoropolyether market can be segmented as PFPE- grease and PFPE- oil. On the basis of application, the perfluoropolyether market can be segmented as automotive, aerospace, electronics, chemicals and others.Perfluoropolyether Market: Regional OutlookUsage of perfluoropolyether in aerospace applications is one of the key factor which is anticipated to drive the growth over the forecast period. Growing investment in aerospace and defense applications is estimated to create high growth avenues. North America is expected to dominate the perfluoropolyethers market owing to high investment in aerospace applications along with booming semiconductors industry. Europe is also slated to grow at steady pace owing to increasing spending on R&D for defense and aerospace applications. Asia Pacific is expected show robust growth owing to high demand in automotive, aerospace industry. Furthermore, growing semiconductors market is expected to further boost the demand. Latin America and Middle East & Africa is anticipated to show steady growth over the forecast period owing to increasing demand in automobile industry.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Perfluoropolyether Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants in the global Perfluoropolyether market are-DAIKIN INDUSTRIES, Ltd.Kluber LubricationThe Chemours CompanyDow Corning CorporationSolvay SolexisHalocarbon Products CorporationICANHunan Nonferrous Chenzhou Fluoride Chemical Co., Ltd.M&I Materials LtdIKV Tribology LtdABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Adult Vaccines Market: Global Industry Insights Analysis and Forecast to 2025

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Vaccination is one of the most effective and safest therapies that provides protection against diseases. Most vaccines are recommended on the basis of age, lifestyle, travel destinations, and health conditions such as diabetes, heart diseases, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2013, around 226,000 people are hospitalized every year and between 3,000 and 49,000 people die due to influenza and its complications, with major being adults. CDC recorded the financial burden of adult vaccine preventable diseases (VPD) in the U.S. to be around US$ 10 billion, annually and recommends adults to be vaccinated against various infections such as influenza, pertussis (whooping cough), chickenpox, diphtheria, measles, hepatitis A and B, meningococcal disease (meningitis), human papillomavirus, mumps, pneumococcal disease (pneumonia), rubella, shingles, and tetanus.Request a sample copy of this report:Initiatives by state authorities against viral and bacterial infections and innovation of novel vaccines is expected to fuel growth of the marketIn August 2017, GlaxoSmithKline and Ali health promoted HPV/Cervarix  which is a part of online shopping program named Taobao. It offers several pediatric and adult vaccine information and links of 1500 health clinics for consultations and appointments in China. This in turn, is expected to fuel growth of the adult vaccines market in the near future. Moreover, Dallas County Health and Human Services (DCHHS), in August 2017, offered seasonal flu vaccine for adults, which is an all-in-one shot vaccine for multiple flu strains, including H1N1.According to Public Health England (PHE), reported that nasal influenza vaccine reduced risk of influenza for children, however, not for adults. PHS suggest the development of new vaccines, which may provide better protection from infections among the geriatric population. This in turn, is expected to provide key players operating in adult vaccine market, high opportunity to develop effective vaccines for geriatric population.Increasing prevalence infections among adults fuels growth of the adult vaccines marketAccording to the Immunization Action Coalition (IAC), a member of the WHO-led project Vaccine Safety Net (VSN), around 166,000 cases of flu were reported in the U.S. and around 71 people died in September 2017. Moreover, in 2016, around 91,000 people were impacted from flu over the last five years. Moreover, in Canada, Vancouver Coastal Health issued a warning to teens and young adults against mumps in 2017. According to CDC, people traveling every year for business and vacations are at a higher risk of developing infections. The state and local healthcare authorities have made vaccination a compulsion for travelers, which in turn, is expected to fuel growth of the adult vaccines market.Key players operating in the global adult vaccines market include GlaxoSmithKline plc, Panacea Biotec, Pfizer, Inc., Protein Sciences Corporation, Merck & Co., Inc., Daiichi Sankyo, Sanofi Pasteur SA, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, Astellas Pharma Inc., Bavarian Nordic, CSL Limited, Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd., ), Emergent BioSolutions, Inc., MedImmune, LLC, and Johnson & Johnson.Browse Market Research Report @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:Zeolite Market Projected to Witness a Single-Digit CAGR During 2017-2027

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Zeolite Market: IntroductionZeolite is basically a crystalline solid mineral made of silicon, aluminum and oxygen. It is also referred to as aluminosilicates or molecular sieves. Zeolite is a naturally occurring mineral and can be developed synthetically as well. It is an exceptionally stable compound which can resist many different kinds of environmental conditions. Zeolites exhibit properties, such as high melting point, high resistance to oxidization, high pressure resistance and do not easily dissolve in water or other inorganic solvents. However, the most significant property of zeolites is their porous molecular structure, which is such that they form a 3D framework structure which contains cavities or cages, thereby making zeolite a porous compound. Owing to these properties, zeolites are extensively used as an ion exchanger, mostly in water softeners and filters. Zeolites can also be used as catalysts (shape selective catalysts) and adsorbents in many applications. Zeolites find wide applications in the detergent industry, refinery industry, etc. Therefore, owing to these unique properties of zeolite and wide usage in end use industries, the zeolite market is expected to witness steady growth over the forecast period.Zeolite Market: DynamicsZeolite is widely used in end use industries as a catalyst and to induce ion exchange, adsorption and separation. The shape selective catalyst is widely used as a detergent builder in the detergent industry. Furthermore, it is also used in water treatment and nuclear and agricultural applications. Detergents are one of the most prominent applications of zeolite. Factors, such as rising disposable income and growing standard of living, have positively impacted the detergent industry over the past few years. Therefore, the increasing demand for detergents is one of the key driving factors for the zeolite market. Zeolite also finds usage in agricultural and household products where they are used as an odor controller. They are also a key component in water treatment processes where they are used for water filtration, heavy metal removal and in swimming pools. The demand for zeolites as a refrigeration adsorbent is also growing, which is expected to positively impact demand. Therefore, the aforementioned reasons are some of the key driving factors which may fuel the demand over the forecast period.Request For Report Sample@Molecular properties of zeolite makes it one of the ideal shape selective catalysts. Furthermore, they require less technical complexity in their manufacturing. However, threat from substitutes which are equally cost competitive as catalysts is a significant factor which might hamper the growth of zeolite market over the forecast period.Improvements in manufacturing techniques coupled with technological innovations will enhance the overall manufacturing process. Furthermore, the manufacturers are focusing on building upon technologies with lesser complexity in production.Zeolite Market: SegmentationThe global zeolite market can be segmented on the basis of type, function and application. On the basis of type, the zeolite market can be segmented into Natural zeolite and Synthetic zeolite. On the basis of function, the zeolite market can be segmented into Catalysts, Adsorbents and Separators and ion exchange (detergent builders). On the basis of application, the zeolite market can be segmented into Chemical, Agriculture, Petrochemicals, Water treatment and Others.Zeolite Market: Regional OutlookEurope is expected to dominate the global zeolite market in terms of consumption. This can be attributed to the increasing production of bio-based chemicals and growing usage in thermal and nuclear applications. After Europe, Asia Pacific is estimated to account for a significant share and record robust growth owing to increasing usage of zeolites in water treatment and its growing demand in the detergent industry. North America is estimated to record steady growth owing to the usage of zeolite in nuclear industry and refineries. Latin America and Middle East & Africa are expected to show steady growth over the forecast period.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Zeolite Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants in the global Zeolite market are-Tosoh CorporationBASF SEInterra Global CorporationArkema GroupZeochem AGZeox CorporationHoneywell International IncClariantEurecatYingkou Zhongbao molecular sieve co, .ltdKNT GroupDalian Haixin Chemical Industrial Co. LtdABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Global and Regional In Vitro Diagnostics / IVD Industry Outlook 2018 Growth, Trends, Forecasts 2023

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Provue Market Research has recently declared the expansion of "Worldwide In Vitro Diagnostics Detailed Analysis Report 2017-2022" that gives the market study of " In Vitro Diagnostics across the global, regional and country level.The exploration report displays a far reaching diagram of market and development patterns of this industry in the coming years. The report provides 360 analysis of "In Vitro Diagnostics Market" from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current status of the global In Vitro Diagnostics industry, and estimates the future trend of In Vitro Diagnostics market on the basis of this detailed study.Request Sample:This report mainly covers volume and value market share by players, by regions, by product type, by consumers and also their price change details. As a Detailed Analysis report, it covers all details inside analysis and opinion in In Vitro Diagnostics industry.1. Industry Overview1.1 Definition1.2 Brief Introduction of Major Classifications1.2.1 Immunochemistry/Immunoassays1.2.2 Clinical Chemistry1.2.3 Molecular Diagnostics (MDX)1.2.4Clinical Microbiology1.2.5Hematology1.3 Brief Introduction of Major Applications1.3.1 Diabetes1.3.2 Oncology1.3.3 Cardiology1.3.4Nephrology1.3.5Infectious Diseases1.4 Brief Introduction of Major Regions1.4.1 United States1.4.2 Europe1.4.3 China1.4.4 Japan1.4.5 IndiaBrowse Report:2. Production Market Analysis2.1 Global Production Market Analysis2.1.1 2012-2017 Global Capacity, Production, Capacity Utilization Rate, Ex-Factory Price, Revenue, Cost, Gross and Gross Margin Analysis2.1.2 2012-2017 Major Manufacturers Performance and Market Share2.2 Regional Production Market Analysis2.2.1 2012-2017 Regional Market Performance and Market Share2.2.2 United States Market2.2.3 Europe Market2.2.4 China Market2.2.5 Japan Market2.2.6 India Market2.2.7 MarketInquiry for Buying:3. Sales Market Analysis3.1 Global Sales Market Analysis3.1.1 2012-2017 Global Sales Volume, Sales Price and Sales Revenue Analysis3.1.2 2012-2017 Major Manufacturers Performance and Market Share3.2 Regional Sales Market Analysis3.2.1 2012-2017 Regional Market Performance and Market Share3.2.2 United States Market3.2.3 Europe Market3.2.4 China Market3.2.5 Japan Market3.2.6 India Market3.2.7 MarketAbout Us:Provue Market Research is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organisations. We provide our clients not only with market statistics unveiled by avowed private publishers and public organisations but also with vogue and newest industry reports along with pre-eminent and niche company profiles.Contact Us:Provue Research14715 Prairie Ave,Lawndale, CA, 90260,California USATel:- +18889204862Email: info@provueresearch.comWeb:Payments Landscape Market in Finland 2021 Competitive Dynamics in the Finnish Cards and Payments Industry

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Market Analysis Research Report on Payments Landscape in Finland: Opportunities and Risks to 2021 has been added to orbis research database.GlobalDatas "Payments Landscape in Finland: Opportunities and Risks to 2021", report provides detailed analysis of market trends in Finnish cards and payments industry. It provides values and volumes for a number of key performance indicators in the industry, including credit transfers, cash, payment cards, and cheques during the review-period (2013-17e).Request a sample of this report @Companies Mentioned:OP BankNordeaDanske BankAktia BankSaastopankkiSEBVisaMastercardAmerican ExpressDiners ClubThe report also analyzes various payment card markets operating in the industry, and provides detailed information on the number of cards in circulation, transaction values and volumes during the review-period and over the forecast-period (2017-21f). It also offers information on the country's competitive landscape, including the market shares of issuers and schemes.The report brings together GlobalDatas research, modeling, and analysis expertise to allow banks and card issuers to identify segment dynamics and competitive advantages. The report also covers details of regulatory policy and recent changes in the regulatory structure.This report provides top-level market analysis, information and insights into the Finnish cards and payments industry, including-- Current and forecast values for each market in the Finnish cards and payments industry, including debit, and pay-later cards.- Detailed insights into payment instruments including credit transfers, cheques, cash, and payment cards. It also, includes an overview of the country's key alternative payment instruments.- E-commerce market analysis and payment methods.- Analysis of various market drivers and regulations governing Finnish cards and payments industry.- Detailed analysis of strategies adopted by banks and other institutions to market debit, and pay-later cards.Browse the Complete report @Scope- Digitalization is one of the key trends among Finnish banks, which are increasingly focusing on digital channels to serve customers. For instance, the Germany-based mobile-only bank Number26 launched operations in Finland in December 2016. Account holders are offered a prepaid Mastercard that can be used to make payments in stores and online. Finnish payment service provider Holvi, which offers digital banking solutions for entrepreneurs and small SMEs, offers current accounts and debit cards through its digital platform. In July 2016, the company launched the Holvi Business Mastercard debit card for business customers.- In line with Nordic regional trends, Finland has made significant progress towards becoming a less-cash society. With Finnish consumers preferring digital transactions, many banks in Finland are reducing their ATM and branch networks. Overall, the number of ATMs in the country declined from 2,241 in 2013 to 1,854 in 2017. In September 2017, Akita Bank announced plans to shut down 10 branches in Finland. Earlier in 2013, Danske Bank closed 37 out of its 85 branches in the country.- To foster the use of electronic payments and realize the need for instant payments in Finland, Finnish ATM operator Automia launched the real-time payments platform Siirto in March 2017, which was developed by Tieto - a Finnish IT services company. The service allows users to make instant money transfers between participating banks simply using the recipients mobile number. The service is currently available for customers of Nordea Bank, OP Bank, and S-Bank. Initially launched as a money transfer service, but has since been extended to e-commerce payments.Reasons to buy- Make strategic business decisions, using top-level historic and forecast market data, related to Finnish cards and payments industry and each market within it.- Understand the key market trends and growth opportunities in Finnish cards and payments industry.- Assess the competitive dynamics in the Finnish cards and payments industry.- Gain insights into marketing strategies used for various card types in Finland.- Gain insights into key regulations governing Finnish cards and payments industry.If enquiry before buying this report @About Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Us:Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019Email ID: sales@orbisresearch.comCoagulation Analyzers Market to Surge to US$ 13.17 Billion by 2025

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The Global Coagulation Analyzers Market, By Product Type (Analyzers (Clinical Laboratory Analyzers, Point of Care Analyzers) and Consumables (Reagents & Kits, Point-of-care strips), By Test Type (Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time Test, Prothrombin Time Test, D-Dimer Test, Fibrinogen Test, and Other Coagulation Tests), and By End User (Hospitals, Diagnostic Laboratories, Research Institutes, and Others) was valued at US$ 2,481.78 million in 2017 and is projected to exhibit a CAGR of 9.7% over the forecast period (20172025), as highlighted in a new report published by Coherent Market Insights.Coagulation analyzers are used in diagnosis of bleeding disorders and thrombotic cases. The presence of coagulation analyzers these days are fully automated infuse with several advanced features to perform various functions such as cap piercing, primary tube sampling, dilution and automatic rerun. This ultimately, lowers total cost, improves the quality of patient care and assures regulatory compliance in the clinical laboratory. Instrumentation Laboratory  a Werfen companys product  ACL TOP Family 50 series is designed for mid- to high-volume clinical laboratories, which offers the most advanced automation and quality management, for routine to specialty assays, including clotting, chromogenic, and immunological assays. These devices are highly sensitivity and offers accurate information and results thus, boosting the market growth of the coagulation analyzers over the forecast period.Request a sample copy of this report:Browse 22 Market Data Tables and 28 Figures spread through 150 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Coagulation Analyzers Market, by Product Type (Analyzers (Clinical Laboratory Analyzers, Point of Care Analyzers) and Consumables (Reagents & Kits, Point-of-care strips), by Test Type (Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time Test, Prothrombin Time Test, D-Dimer Test, Fibrinogen Test and Other Coagulation Tests) and by End User (Hospitals, Diagnostic Laboratories, Research Institutes and Others) - Global Forecast to 2025"Companies are focusing on developing next generation diagnostic analyzers to help to improve specificity, accuracy, and overall productivity without making the test expensive. They are developing portable and small sized analyzers, in order to enhance their market share. These innovative analyzers offer the same results in less turnaround time making them hassle free and feasible for the operators. For instance, in July 2017, Sysmex America, Inc. launched its XN-L automated hematology analyzers in the U.S. to meet the demand of lower-volume hematology analyzers. Moreover, in 2014, Siemens Healthineers product Xprecia Stride Coagulation Analyzer  a handheld device  received U.S. FDA approval for reliable monitoring of oral anticoagulation therapy with warfarin, a vitamin K antagonist. Moreover, in 2015, this same analyzer, received the Red Dot award for its design quality. The Red Dot Award is the largest and most recognized international product competition in the world for product design quality. These factors are expected to augment growth of the coagulation analyzers market over the forecast period.Key players in the market are also engaged in strategic acquisitions and collaborations to increase their product portfolios and to introduce new platform technologies. For instance, in January 2012, Roche entered into a strategic alliance with Technoclone  a reagent specialist in thrombosis and cardiovascular diagnostics based in Vienna, Austria  to further expand the companys reagent portfolio in coagulation diagnostics. This in turn, will help the Roche to retain the market share in in-vitro diagnostics. Furthermore, in August 2015, Abbott Laboratories entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Omnilab  a middleware provider for clinical diagnostics and blood transfusion laboratories  to expand lab offerings to international markets outside the U.S.Key Takeaways of the Coagulation Analyzers Market:The global coagulation analyzers market is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 9.7% over the forecast period (20172025). This is attributed to increasing adoption of these devices, as it provides accurate results in low turnaround time.Among product types, clinical laboratory analyzers segment is expected to account for the largest share in the global coagulation analyzers market over the forecast period. This is attributed to increasing use of these devices in hospitals for hematological analysis of patients on a daily basis.Among test types, prothrombin test segment accounted for the largest share in 2016, and this is owing to increasing incidence of cardiovascular and blood related diseases. According to Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), 2014, annually, 790,000 people in the U.S. suffer from heart attack, which indicates a potential need for immediate diagnosis and need for the early treatmentPrevailing trend of outsourcing hemostasis tests to diagnostic centers for quick reports is expected to be factor for growth of the diagnostic laboratories segment over the forecast period.Some of the major players in the global coagulation analyzers market are Siemens AG, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Instrumentation Laboratory, Sysmex Corporation, Beckman Coulter, Inc. (Danaher), Diamond Diagnostics, International Technidyne Corporation, Nihon Kohden Corporation, and Alere Inc.To know the latest trends and insights related to coagulation analyzers market, click the link below: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:Roofing Materials Market Estimated to Soar Higher During 2017-2027

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Roofing Materials Market: IntroductionA roof is one of the essential part of any constructional structure. The major requirement in any roofing system is durability, strength and aesthetic appeal as well. Furthermore, selection of roofing material is highly correlated with the geographic location which decides the type of material to be used. For instance, Shingles are primarily used in the U.S. owing to the climatic conditions whereas they are less seen in Asia Pacific region. Furthermore, aesthetic design is also one of the key factor for selection of a roofing material. Nowadays, apart from durability as strength, demand for roofing materials which are energy efficient is also increasing. Evolving research activities in roofing and technological development is one of the key factor which is anticipated to boost the demand. Currently, the construction industry is witnessing decent growth with resurge in residential construction activities indorsing relatively higher growth across the globe. Furthermore, increasing re-roofing activities, especially in matured economies is also one of the key factor which would impact the demand of roofing materials over the forecast period. Overall, the global roofing market is anticipated to grow at significant pace over the forecast period owing to growth in constructional activities, especially residential construction.Request For Report Sample@Roofing Materials Market: DynamicsA wide range of Roofing materials are available to the customer through which the customer can easily choose the material according to the requirement. Growing constructional activities across the globe is one of the key driving factor for the roofing materials market. Especially in emerging markets, increasing urbanization rate is also expected to positively impact the roofing materials market over the forecast period. From the recent past, it has been observed that residential activities are on the surge which would further boost the demand. Furthermore, increasing re-roofing activities has led to increase in demand for roofing materials which are durable as well as aesthetically appealing. Therefore, resurging re-roofing activities is anticipated to boost the demand for roofing materials over the forecast period.Roofing materials are highly cost sensitive. For instance, asphalt shingles are derived from petroleum due to which variation in price of roofing material also takes place which is one of the key factor that might impede the growth of roofing materials market over the forecast period. Bitumen as a roofing material has been restricted in some areas in U.S. owing to non-conformance to environmental standards.Growing inclination towards the roofing materials which are energy efficient and increasing demand for roofing solutions based on reflective metal is also increasing which is one of the ongoing key trend in the roofing materials market across the globe.Roofing Materials Market: SegmentationThe global roofing materials market can be segmented on the basis of materials type, application and installation. On the basis of material type, the roofing materials market can be segmented as asphalt shingles, tile roofing, metal roofing, plastic roofing, bitumen and others. On the basis of application, the roofing materials market can be segmented as residential and commercial. On the basis of installation, the roofing materials market can be segmented as new installation and retrofitting.Roofing Materials Market: Regional OutlookAsia Pacific is anticipated to emerge as the largest market in the global roofing materials market. Increasing constructional activities across the region is anticipated to boost the demand over the forecast period. Especially, significant growth in construction activities in the region is further expected to spur the demand. North America is also expected to witness high growth owing to increasing demand for various other roofing materials apart from asphalt shingles. Europe is also expected to witness healthy growth owing to rise in retrofitting activities in the region. Latin America and Middle East & Africa is estimated to witness steady growth over the forecast period.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Roofing Materials Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants in the global Roofing Materials market are-GAF Materials CorporationCERTAINTEEDIcoPal ApSBraas Monier Building GroupOwens Corning Corp.Atlas Roofing CorporationEtexTAMKO Building Products, Inc.Fletcher Building LimitedABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Surgical Robots Market is Expected to Grow at a CAGR of 13.4% During Forecast Period 2017- 2025

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The Global Surgical Robots Market by Product Type (Instruments & Accessories, and Robotic Systems (Da Vinci Surgical, ROSA, MAKO RIO, ROBODOC, and Others)), by Surgery Type (Gynecology Surgery, General Surgery, Urology Surgery, Cardiovascular Surgery, Neurosurgery, Orthopedic Surgery, and Other Surgery), and by Region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa) is estimated US$ 3,380.3 million in 2017 and is projected to exhibit a CAGR of 13.4% over the forecast period (20172025), as highlighted in a new report published by Coherent Market Insights. The robotic technique are helpful due to smaller incisions, which lead to lower morbidity, less postoperative pain, and shorter hospital stays, that is similar to minimally invasive surgery. According to the data published in Frontiers in Surgery Journal in 2016, over 3,200 robotic platforms have been installed worldwide and approximately 570,000 da Vinci procedures were performed in 2014.Request Sample Copy of the Report:Key players in the surgical robots market are focused on acquisition and new product launches in order to enhance their market share. For instance, Stryker acquired Mako Surgical Robotic Systems for US$ 1.65 Bn in 2013 and in 2016, it launched Mako surgical robots for total knee replacement. Furthermore, in 2015, TransEnterix acquired SOFAR Surgical Robotics unit for US$ 100 Mn. In 2016, Zimmer Biomet Holding Inc. acquired surgical robotics provider, Medtech SA, for US$ 132 Mn to increase its portfolio and in 2016, MEDTECH received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market the ROSA Spine robot in the U.S. Furthermore, in 2013, Auris Surgical Robotics acquired Hassen Medical, as the Hassen Medical specialized in intravascular robotic catheter systems. In 2016, the FDA granted 510(k) clearance to the Ares robot-assisted bronchoscopy platform developed by stealthy Auris Surgical RoboticsIn 2015, Smith & Nephew  a British-based orthopedics giant  expanded its foothold in the surgical robotics market by acquiring Blue Belt Technologies and its Navio robotics system, which is a U.S.-based company.Browse 27 Market Data Tables and 32 Figures spread through 172 Pages and in-depth TOC on Surgical Robots ByProduct Type (Instruments & Accessories and Robotic Systems (Da Vinci Surgical, ROSA, MAKO RIO, ROBODOC and Others)) By Surgery Type (Gynecology Surgery, General Surgery, Urology Surgery, Cardiovascular Surgery, Neurosurgery, Orthopedic Surgery and Other Surgery) and By Region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa) - Global Forecast to 2025Increasing US Food and Drug Administration approval for surgical robots is also expected to favor growth of surgical robots market. For instance, in October 2017, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Senhance system, of TransEnterix, which is a robotically assisted surgical device for minimally invasive surgeries. In 2016, U.S. FDA approved the first medical robot from Auris Surgical  a startup led by the co-founder of Intuitive Surgical  a developer of Da Vinci robots.Furthermore, Stryker received FDA approval in August 2015, however, delayed its worldwide sales until 2017, and so MAKO RIO was used only in 65 hospitals in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and Germany from 2015 2017. In 2014, ROBODOC Encore Surgical System received 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for total hip Arthroplasty procedures.Key takeaways of the market:The global surgical robots market is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 13.4% over the forecast period (20172025), with increasing adoption of surgical robots for minimally invasive surgeries. For instance, in 2016, approximately 753,000 surgical procedures were performed with the da Vinci Surgical System, an increase of approximately 15% compared with approximately 652,000 procedures performed in 2015Among surgery type segment, gynecology surgery segment is expected to exhibit a significant CAGR of 28.8%. This is owing to new product launches for application in gynecological surgeries. For instance, in October 2017, the FDA approved TransEnterixs Senhance robotic system. Moreover, established da Vinci robotic system has also contributed to growth of the gynecology surgery segment.The global surgical robots market is characterized by market expansion in Asia Pacific, North America, and Europe, which is expected to generate higher market revenue due to increasing number of acquisitions.Some major players operating in the global surgical robots market includes Intutitive Surgical, Think Surgical, TransEnterix, Zimmer Biomet, Stryker Corporation, Smith & Nephew, and Medrobotics Corporation.To know more about the Surgical Robots Market, click the link below,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:Nigeria Payments Landscape Market in Depth Analysis, Segment, Current and Future Trends & Industry Outlook to 2021

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Market Analysis Research Report on Payments Landscape in Nigeria: Opportunities and Risks to 2021 has been added to orbis research database.GlobalDatas "Payments Landscape in Nigeria: Opportunities and Risks to 2021", report provides detailed analysis of market trends in Nigerian cards and payments industry. It provides values and volumes for a number of key performance indicators in the industry, including credit transfers, direct debit, payment cards, and cheques during the review-period (2013-17e).Request a sample of this report @Companies Mentioned:UBAFirst Bank of NigeriaAccess BankEcobankGTBankZenith BankVerveVisaMastercardThe report also analyzes various payment card markets operating in the industry, and provides detailed information on the number of cards in circulation, transaction values and volumes during the review-period and over the forecast-period (2017-21f). It also offers information on the country's competitive landscape, including the market shares of issuers and schemes.The report brings together GlobalDatas research, modeling, and analysis expertise to allow banks and card issuers to identify segment dynamics and competitive advantages. The report also covers details of regulatory policy and recent changes in the regulatory structure.This report provides top-level market analysis, information and insights into the Nigerian cards and payments industry, including -- Current and forecast values for each market in the Nigerian cards and payments industry, including debit and credit cards.- Detailed insights into payment instruments including credit transfers, direct debit, cheques, and payment cards. It also, includes an overview of the country's key alternative payment instruments.- E-commerce market analysis and payment methods.- Analysis of various market drivers and regulations governing Nigerian cards and payments industry.- Detailed analysis of strategies adopted by banks and other institutions to market debit and credit cards.Browse the Complete report @Scope- The Nigerian payment card market is anticipated to further accelerate due to the central bank lifting transaction limits on payment cards denominated in foreign currencies. Following the July 2017 announcement, banks immediately raised their dollar spending limits on card transactions abroad. For instance, GTBank announced an increase from $100 to $1,000 for international payments on its naira Mastercard. Fidelity Bank and UBA also revised their spending limits. This came after the CBNs December 2015 ban on the use of debit and credit cards abroad, and on transactions denominated in foreign currencies. This prevented Nigerian consumers from using cards to make purchases during overseas travel and from foreign e-commerce sites. However, following a severe consumer backlash the ban was partially revoked in January 2016, with banks enabling consumers to use foreign exchange services, albeit with limits on transaction values.- Banks in Nigeria are making banking and payments services available through digital channels and social media. In January 2018, UBA launched Leo, a chat banker that allows customers to open new accounts, receive instant transaction notifications, check account balances, and transfer funds via Facebook Messenger. Customers can also confirm cheques, pay bills, apply for loans, freeze accounts, and request mini statements. Similarly, in December 2017 Ecobank launched the Ecobank Xpress Account. The account can be opened via Ecobanks mobile app for smartphone users or via USSD for feature phone users. There is no account servicing fee.- To foster the use of electronic payments and realize the need for instant payments in Finland, Finnish ATM operator Automia launched the real-time payments platform Siirto in March 2017, which was developed by Tieto - a Finnish IT services company. The service allows users to make instant money transfers between participating banks simply using the recipients mobile number. The service is currently available for customers of Nordea Bank, OP Bank, and S-Bank. Initially launched as a money transfer service, but has since been extended to e-commerce payments.Reasons to buy- Make strategic business decisions, using top-level historic and forecast market data, related to the Nigerian cards and payments industry and each market within it.- Understand the key market trends and growth opportunities in the Nigerian cards and payments industry.- Assess the competitive dynamics in the Nigerian cards and payments industry.- Gain insights into marketing strategies used for various card types in Nigeria.- Gain insights into key regulations governing the Nigerian cards and payments industry.If enquiry before buying this report @About Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Us:Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019Email ID: sales@orbisresearch.comGeocells Market will reach at a CAGR of 5.5% from 2015-2025

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Future Market Insights (FMI), in its recent report titled, Geocells Market: Global Industry Assessment and Forecast; 20152025, projected global geocells market to exhibit CAGR of 8.8% during 2015 to 2025. Consumption of geocells is projected to reach 428.2 million square meter by 2025 reflecting a CAGR of 5.5% during the forecast period.Geocells, also known as cellular confinement systems, are three dimensional mats resembling honeycomb structure usually made of high density polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester or other polymeric alloys. These are used in construction sector primarily for earth reinforcement, slope protection, channel protection, load support and tree root protection. Geocells are subset of geosynthetics market and are estimated to represent around 5.6% share in terms of volume consumption in overall geosynthetics market.Request For Report Sample@The report analyses the global geocells market in terms of market value (US$ Mn) and volume (Million Square Meter) by applications, region, and material type and provides information regarding market dynamics, value chain, competitive landscape, current trends, market estimations and forecast.Infrastructure development activities, construction sector output and urbanisation trend are some of the macro-economic drivers of the market. Developed economies have formulated regulations concerning erosion control and sustainable infrastructure development. Such regulations and initiatives are identified as underlying driving factors of the market. On the flipside, low awareness of geocells amongst infrastructure developers in emerging economies and competition from substitute products, such as geogrids and geomembranes are identified as minor restraints in the global geocells market.From regional perspective, North America and Asia Pacific represented prominent markets for geocells globally in 2014. In terms of market value, geocells market in developing countries is collectively projected to grow at CAGR of 10.2% while geocells market in developed countries is collectively projected to grow at CAGR of 7.4% during the forecast period. Asia Pacific region is expected to be the largest geocells market in terms of value by 2025, followed by North America, Western Europe, and other regions.From materials perspective, high density polyethylene (HDPE) is extensively used across the globe for geocells manufacturing followed by polypropylene, polyester and other polymeric alloys. HDPE commanded around 68.6% share by value in 2014 and is projected to remain the largest market segment by 2025 with a share of around 64%. Prices for these materials are anticipated to increase over the forecast period owing to increasing energy costs, crude oil prices and complex manufacturing processes.From application perspective, earth reinforcement, channel protection and slope protection are the prominent applications of geocells which constituted around 86% of market value in 2014 and are collectively projected to exhibit value CAGR of 8.8% over the forecast period. Other applications including load support and tree root protection are collectively projected to exhibit a value CAGR of 8.4% during the forecast period.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Key market participants covered in the report, include Presto Geosystems, Polymer Group Inc., TMP Geosynthetics, Armtec Infrastructure Inc., Strata Systems Inc., PRS Mediterranean Ltd., Maccaferri S.p.A, ACE Geosynthetics, MiakomGroup of Companies, Wall Tag Pte Ltd., Tensar International Ltd., Tencate Geosynthetics, Admir Technologies, Polyfabrics Australia Pty Ltd., Bonar, ABG Geosynthetics, Huifeng Geosynthetics, SABK International, Wrekin Products, Ltd., CeTeau Group.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Lead Acid Battery Market to expand at a CAGR of 7.2% by 2020

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Future Market Insights, in its latest report titled,Lead Acid Battery Market: Asia Pacific, Latin America, Japan, Middle East & Africa Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2014 - 2020, states that the target regions lead acid battery market accounted for US$ 24,210.5 Million in 2014, and is expected to reach US$ 31,708.4 Million at a CAGR of 4.6% during the forecast period. Asia Pacific, which accounted for the major chunk in the target regions lead acid battery market, is expected to expand at an estimated CAGR of 4.5% during the forecast period.By application type, the target regions lead acid battery market is segmented as transportation, stationary industrial, motive industrial, commercial, residential, and grid storage. Transportation and stationary industrial collectively contributed to around 82.4% of market revenue in 2014. Transportation was the largest end-use application in the target regions lead acid battery market in 2014, and is anticipated to continue its dominance through 2020. Stationary industrial is the second largest contributor to the target regions lead acid battery market, and is expected to register the fastest CAGR of 8.5% during the forecast period.Request For Report Sample@The report finds that grid storage is one of the smallest end-use application segments in the target regions lead acid battery market, but is anticipated to register the fastest CAGR of 7.2% during the forecast period.Lead acid batteries are predominantly used in passenger cars, commercial vehicles and two wheelers. In addition to that, demand for lead acid battery has also surged due to the increasing adoption of UPS, owing to rapid urbanisation and industrialisation. Adoption of grid storage technology in developing countries such as India and China is expected to fuel the target regions lead acid battery market. In addition to that, an increase in the demand for electric vehicles is expected to further accelerate the expansion of the lead acid battery market globally.Moreover, key challenges in the lead acid battery market are raw material price volatility and stringent emission regulations. Lead is the essential raw material used in the manufacturing of lead acid batteries. Lead prices account for approximately 49% of the overall cost of the lead acid batteries. Any fluctuations in lead prices affect the overall profitability of lead acid battery manufacturers.Region-wise, Asia Pacific is the largest contributor in the target regions lead acid battery market, and is expected to continue its dominance till 2020. Currently, the Asia Pacific lead acid battery market is valued at US$ 15,995 Million and is expected to reach US$ 19,881 Million by 2020. Latin America and Japan are other major markets contributing 14.4% and 14.1% respectively, to the target regions lead acid battery revenue. Middle East & Africa accounted for the lowest contribution in terms of revenue in 2014, but is expected to register a significant growth at a CAGR of 4.9% over the forecast period.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):The degree of competition in the target regions lead acid battery market has been analysed in the report, which also presents the comparative view of the key strategies and financial outlook of major companies operating in target regions lead acid battery market. These include Johnson Controls INC, Exide Technologies, GS Yuasa Corporation, EnerSys and Yokohama Industries.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Alternative Payment Solution: Visa Checkout

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SummaryVisa Checkout is an online payment solution developed by Visa. Launched in 2014, it replaced the V.me digital wallet solution launched in 2012. It allows users to store multiple card details and billing addresses for faster checkout. Once details are saved, it skips the process of entering card and shipping details for all future payments.Visa Checkout works on all web-enabled devices including desktop, mobile phones, and tablets. It is currently supported by more than 0.3 million merchants globally, with more joining each month. Since no extra charges are associated with Visa Checkout in addition to regular interchange fees, it provides significant incentive to merchants to facilitate transactions with this solution.Visa Checkout supports all major payment schemes - Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover - and is supported by more than 1,500 financial institutions globally. In the US, it has collaborated with all major banks including Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, BB&T, US Bank, and Wells Fargo.Launched in the US, Canada, and Australia, it is now available in 28 other countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, France, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Qatar, Peru, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, the UAE, and the UK.Get Sample for this Report @The report provides information and insights into alternative payment solution Visa Checkout, including -- Detailed insight into its business and geographical presence- Comprehensive coverage of its products and services- Comparative assessment with key alternative payment solutions- Information on its performance- The company's important events and milestones.Scope- Visa Checkout is an online payment solution developed by Visa. Launched in 2014, it replaced the V.me digital wallet solution launched in 2012.- In September 2016, Visa Checkout partnered with PayPals Braintree, allowing Braintree merchants to accept payments via Visa Checkout.- In March 2017, Visa Checkout collaborated with Samsung Pay, enabling Visa Checkout payments using Samsung Pay.- As of July 2017, Visa Checkout has global presence in 31 countries.Access Complete Report @Reasons to buy- Gain insights into Visa Checkout's business operations, geographical presence and key events.- Gain insights into its product portfolio and working process.- Assess the competitive dynamics in the alternative payments industry by comparing its performance against competitors.Companies Mentioned:Samsung PayPayPalMastercardAndroid PayAmerican ExpressBank of AmericaCapital OneChaseBB&TUS BankWells FargoVisaAbout Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Us:Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019Email ID: sales@orbisresearch.comCystic Acne Market 2018 by Segments, Key Players and Global Forecast To 2027

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Worldwide Cystic Acne Market report expected to flourish in developing regions of Asia Pacific owing to the rising patient population with cystic acne. Increasing prevalence of cystic acne, rising demand for better treatment, increasing investment in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries for research and development are driving the growth of the market. Moreover, increasing government support for research & development, changing lifestyle, and rapidly developing technology are expected to fuel the market growth during the forecast period. However, lack of effective treatment in the market may hinder the market growth during the forecast period.Cystic acne is majorly treated with topical medications, drainage & extraction procedure, and laser therapy, and microdermabrasion. Increasing awareness and prevalence of population affected by acne are boosting the demand for a laser treatment that has driven the growth of laser devices and medications for the cystic Acne. The cystic acne market has been a growing market and it has been expected that the market is likely to touch high growth figures.Get Sample Report @Key Players:Some of the key players in this market are GlaxoSmithKline plc (U.K), Pfizer Inc. (U.S.), Abbott Laboratories (U.S.), Hexal AG (Germany), F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (Switzerland), Alma Lasers Inc. (Israel), Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (U.S.), GE Healthcare (U.K), National Biological Corp. (U.S.), Herbert Waldmann GmbH & Co. KG (Germany), Sylvan Company (U.S.) and DUSA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (U.S.).Segmentation:The Global Cystic Acne Market is segmented on the basis of causes, long-term effects, treatment type and end user. On the basis of the causes, it is segmented into hormonal imbalances, occlusive skin products, drugs/chemical side effects, and others. On the basis of the long-term effects, it is segmented into ice pick scars, larger pits on the skin, shallow depressions, hypertrophic scarring, and others. On the basis of the treatment type, it is segmented into topical medications, drainage & extraction procedure, laser therapy, microdermabrasion, and others. On the basis of the end user, it is segmented into hospitals, clinics, research laboratories and others.Regional AnalysisThe Americas dominate the global cystic acne market owing to the presence of a huge patient population suffering from a skin condition, high health care spending, and increasing government support for research & development. According to American Academy of Dermatology, acne is affecting around 50 million Americans annually and around 20 million American have acne badly enough to cause scars.Europe holds the second largest share of the global cystic acne market as a result of increasing focus of various government agencies on the treatment of diseases. Moreover, the growing public awareness about cystic acne is likely to boost the European market.The Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market across the globe. Moreover, rapidly developing the economy, increasing healthcare expenditure, and the governments initiatives for research & development are projected to drive the market in China and India.Get Attractive Discount @Major TOC for Cystic Acne Market:1 Report Prologue2 Industry Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope of the Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 Limitations2.3 Industry Structure3 Research Methodology3.1 Research Process3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Industry Size Estimation3.5 Forecast ModelContinuedAbout US:Industry Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Industry Research & Consulting Services.Contact Us:Akash Anand,Industry Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@Industryresearchfuture.comRetirement Communities Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players: Brookdale Senior Living Inc, Aveo Group, Stockland.

Retirement Communities Market

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Retirement Communities Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Retirement Communities Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2023reports to its database.Executive SummaryRetirement Communities Market Global Report 2018 from The Business Research Company provides the strategists, marketers and senior management with the critical information they need to assess the global retirement communities market.Where is the largest and fastest growing market for the retirement communities? How does the market relate to the overall economy, demography and other similar markets? What forces will shape the market going forward? The retirement communities market global report from the Business Research Company answers all these questions and many more.The report covers market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional and country breakdowns, competitive landscape, market shares, trends and strategies for this market. It traces the markets historic and forecast market growth by geography. It places the market within the context of the wider healthcare market, and compares it with other markets. The market characteristics section of the report defines and explains the market. The market size section gives the market size ($b) covering both the historic growth of the market and forecasting the future. Drivers and restraints looks at the external factors supporting and controlling the growth of the market. Market segmentations break down market into sub markets. The regional and country breakdowns section gives an analysis of the market in each geography and the size of the market by geography and compares their historic and forecast growth. It covers all the regions, key developed countries and major emerging markets. It draws comparisons with country populations and economies to understand the importance of the market by country and how this is changing. Competitive landscape gives a description of the competitive nature of the market, market shares, and a description of the leading companies. Key financial deals which have shaped the market in recent years are identified. The trends and strategies section highlights the likely future developments in the market and suggests approaches companies can take to exploit this. The retirement communities market section of the report gives context. It compares the retirement communities market with other segments of the retirement communities market by size and growth, historic and forecast. It analyses Expenditure Per Capita, The Retirement Communities Market Indicators Comparison.Request Sample Report @ScopeMarkets Covered: Assisted Living Facilities; Assisted Living Facilities For The Elderly Without Nursing Care; Continuing Care Retirement Communities; Rest Homes Without Nursing CareCompanies Mentioned: Brookdale Senior Living Inc,Aveo Group,StocklandCountries: Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, Russia, UK, USA and Australia.Regions: Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East And AfricaTime series: Five years historic and forecast.Data: Ratios of market size and growth to related markets, GDP, Expenditure Per Capita, The Retirement Communities Market Indicators Comparison.Data segmentations: country and regional historic and forecast data, market share of competitors, market segments.Sourcing and Referencing: Data and analysis throughout the report is sourced using end notes.Table of Content1. Retirement Communities Market Characteristics2. Retirement Communities Market Size And Growth3. Retirement Communities Trends And Strategies;4. Pestle Analysis5. Retirement Communities Market Customer Information;6. Retirement Communities Market Regional And Country Analysis7. Retirement Communities Market Segmentation8. Retirement Communities Market Segments9. Global Retirement Communities Market Comparison With Macro Economic Factors10. Retirement Communities Market Comparison With Macro Economic Factors Across Countries11. Asia-Pacific Retirement Communities Market12. Western Europe Retirement Communities Market13. Eastern Europe Retirement Communities Market14. North America Retirement Communities Market15. South America Retirement Communities Market16. Middle East Retirement Communities Market17. Africa Retirement Communities Market18. Retirement Communities Market Competitive Landscape18.1. Company Profiles18.2. Brookdale Senior Living Inc18.2.1. Overview18.2.2. Products And Services18.2.3. Strategy18.2.4. Financial Performance18.3. Aveo Group18.3.1. Overview18.3.2. Products And Services18.3.3. Strategy18.3.4. Financial Performance18.4. Stockland18.4.1. Overview18.4.2. Products And Services18.4.3. Strategy18.4.4. Financial Performance19. Key Mergers And Acquisitions In The Retirement Communities Market20. Market Background: Home Health Care And Residential Nursing Care Services Market21. AppendixReasons to Purchase Outperform competitors using accurate up to date demand-side dynamics information. Identify growth segments for investment. Facilitate decision making on the basis of historic and forecast data and the drivers and restraints on the market. Create regional and country strategies on the basis of local data and analysis. Stay abreast of the latest customer and market research findings Benchmark performance against key competitors. Develop strategies based on likely future developments. Utilize the relationships between key data sets for superior strategizing. Suitable for supporting your internal and external presentations with reliable high quality data and analysis Gain a global perspective on the development of the market. Report will be updated with the latest data and delivered to you within 3-5 working days of order.ContinuousFor further information on this report, visit Contact Us:Norah Trentsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042Remote Patient Monitoring Devices Market to Witness Increase in Size by 2026

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Remote Patient Monitoring Devices Market: Drivers & RestraintsRemote patient monitoring devices market is fueled by great technological advancements. The increasing incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases like heart conditions and diabetes requires compulsory life-long monitoring will also contribute to remote patient monitoring devicesglobal market. Increase in geriatric population around the globe is leading to enhanced global market forremote patient monitoring devices. Awareness among the medical practitioners and improved private sector and government involvement in remote patient monitoring devices is supporting the global market for remote patient monitoring devices dwell in developing countries. Deficiency of trained and expert professionals are hampering the growth of remote patient monitoring devices.Remote patient monitoring devices supports in monitoring of patients physical condition. Patient does not need to visit the medical practitioner. Digital technology is used in remote patient monitoring devices to gather health and other forms of medical data to securely pass on to healthcare providers situated at different location for clinical review. The accuracy of remote patient monitoring devices allows reliable diagnosis, leading to a more specific and efficient treatment. Remote patient monitoring devices helps to reduce costs of hospital stays by continuing to monitor patient condition, irrespective of patient location and also it helps to reduce overcrowding at clinics and diagnostic centers. Remote patient monitoring devices systems are used for continuously monitoring important physiological parameters like, heart activity, body temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate and other clinical conditions. Remote patient monitoring devices is based on real time data sharing which helps physicians to take vital decisions to ensure better patient treatment. Physician and healthcare providers are extending the use ofremote patient monitoring devices to enhance the excellence of patient care and reduce expenses by prognosis.Request to Sample Report -Remote Patient Monitoring Devices Market: SegmentationGlobal remote patient monitoring devices market is segmented as following:By Product Type:Heart Rate MonitorsBlood Pressure MonitorsHeart MonitorsBreath MonitorsSleep Apnea MonitorsBlood Glucose MonitorsWeight MonitorsBody Temperature MonitorsInfusion PumpsBy End User:HospitalsAmbulatory Surgical CentersHomecare settingsRemote Patient Monitoring Devices Market: OverviewIncreased technological improvement, rise in the incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases along with increase in aging population, enhanced demand for remote monitoring, private sector and government involvement in remote patient monitoring devices, the global market for remote patient monitoring devices market is expected to have a healthy growth rate in the forecast period (2016-2026).Remote Patient Monitoring Devices Market: Region-wise OutlookDepending on geographic regions, global remote patient monitoring devicesmarketis segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East & Africa.Request Report TOC @North America is the leading global remote patient monitoring devices market due to the high volumes of surgical procedures being performed. Also, the availability of established healthcare infrastructure, high influence of healthcare to economy are the reasons for the high demand in North America. Europe is also a lucrative market for remote patient monitoring devices due to rapid technological advancement in terms of healthcare sector. Asia Pacific market is expected to grow at a good rate as compared to NA and Europe as there is ample market opportunity in countries like India and China due the large population.Remote Patient Monitoring Devices Market: Key PlayersSome of the key participating global remote patient monitoring devicesmarketare Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., AMD Global Telemedicine, Honeywell International Inc., Omron Healthcare, Smiths Medical, Medtronic, and others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite :Portugal Payments Landscape Market Size, Share, Growth, Opportunities, Demand and Forecast Report to 2021

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Market Analysis Research Report on Payments Landscape in Portugal: Opportunities and Risks to 2021 has been added to orbis research database.GlobalDatas "Payments Landscape in Portugal: Opportunities and Risks to 2021", report provides detailed analysis of market trends in Portuguese cards and payments industry. It provides values and volumes for a number of key performance indicators in the industry, including cash, credit transfers, direct debit, payment cards, and cheques during the review-period (2013-17e).Request a sample of this report @Companies Mentioned:MultibancoCaixa Geral de DepositosMillennium bcpNovo BancoBanco BPISantander TottaWiZinkVisaMastercardAmerican ExpressThe report also analyzes various payment card markets operating in the industry, and provides detailed information on the number of cards in circulation, transaction values and volumes during the review-period and over the forecast-period (2017-21f). It also offers information on the country's competitive landscape, including the market shares of issuers and schemes.The report brings together GlobalDatas research, modeling, and analysis expertise to allow banks and card issuers to identify segment dynamics and competitive advantages. The report also covers details of regulatory policy and recent changes in the regulatory structure.This report provides top-level market analysis, information and insights into the Portuguese cards and payments industry, including -- Current and forecast values for each market in the Portuguese cards and payments industry, including debit and pay-later cards.- Detailed insights into payment instruments including cash, credit transfers, direct debit, cheques, and payment cards. It also, includes an overview of the country's key alternative payment instruments.- E-commerce market analysis.- Analysis of various market drivers and regulations governing Portuguese cards and payments industry.- Detailed analysis of strategies adopted by banks and other institutions to market debit and pay-later cards.Browse the Complete report @Scope- To promote electronic payments and reduce dependence on cash, in August 2017 the Portuguese government restricted the amount of cash per transaction to 3,000 ($3,599.60) for residents, while for non-residents the limit is 10,000 ($11,998.60). The government has also mandated personal income tax payments over 1,000 ($1,199.90) to be made via bank transfer, cheque, or direct debit. Failure to do so incurs a fine of between 180-4,500 ($216-5,399) per transaction.- The government is fostering the growth of digital channels within the banking industry. In July 2017, the central bank issued regulations enabling institutions with headquarters or branches in Portugal to allow customers to open accounts exclusively through digital channels, in a move to remain in line with European peers. Previously, bank accounts could only be opened at bank branches in the physical presence of the applicant. Consequently several banks such as Novo Banco, Millennium bcp, and Santander now allow consumers to open bank accounts through digital channels.- Rising unemployment has forced consumers to default on payments, resulting in high debt during the review period. Amid increasing debt and decreasing profitability, banks were forced to shut down their operations, which eventually triggered mergers and acquisitions in the banking sector. Banco do Brasil shut down its retail business in Portugal in September 2017, and transferred its existing accounts to Banco CTT. Previously, in November 2016 Barclays sold Portugals Barclaycard consumer payments business to WiZink Bank. Likewise, Banco Santander Totta acquired Banco Banif in December 2015.Reasons to buy- Make strategic business decisions, using top-level historic and forecast market data, related to the Portuguese cards and payments industry and each market within it.- Understand the key market trends and growth opportunities in the Portuguese cards and payments industry.- Assess the competitive dynamics in the Portuguese cards and payments industry.- Gain insights into marketing strategies used for various card types in Portugal.- Gain insights into key regulations governing the Portuguese cards and payments industry.If enquiry before buying this report @About Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Us:Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019Email ID: sales@orbisresearch.comIntraosseous Devices Market to Witness Widespread Expansion By 2026

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Currently there are many intraosseous devices available in the market for the rapid administration of fluids and medications directly into the vascular systems. These devices are inserted directly into the medullary space of bone, and range from manually inserted spinal needles to the impact drivers and drill powered devices. The manually inserted needles have been approved in the U.S. since 1940s. In addition site of insertion also plays an important role in defining the overall approach in instraosseous infusion. Various sites available for intraosseous insertion includes sternum, distal and proximal tibia, distal femur and calcaneum. The device is quickly inserted and correct placement of the device is confirmed by the flow of intravenous fluid into the device. If at all extravasation of the fluid around the insertion site occurs, the device is removed to prevent development of compartment syndrome. However aspiration of bone marrow represent another approach to confirm the correct placement of the device. One of the fastest and most reliable means of administrating the emergency fluids in the sternum is sternal intraosseous infusion (IO) allowing easy vascular access.Establishment of vascular access is required in case of medical emergency and life-threatening traumatic injuries for the delivery of medications and for fluid replacement, including crystalloids, blood, and blood products. The potential use of this technique called as, intraosseous infusion was established in 1920s as a rapid, safe and effective method of vascular access through the bone marrow when intravenous attempt fails to establish vascular access. Historically intraosseous infusion (IO) was recommended only in childrens younger than six years whereas now use of IO techniques in patients of all ages is supported by guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation.Request to Sample Report -Intraosseous Devices Market: Drivers & RestraintsIntraosseous infusion is primarily used in pre-hospitals pediatric emergencies where intravenous delivery of fluids and medications is difficult. Increasing prevalence of various diseases forms and growing number of traumatic surgeries are expected to create demand for these devices in the forthcoming years. Additionally introduction of technologically advanced intraosseous devices in the market such as EZ-IO which allows rapid and more reliable emergency vascular access than the available manual techniques in the market. Continual training of medical and nursing staff and well defined protocols regarding proper handling of the device required for effective and safe care of patients undergoing intraosseous venous access is also leading to the rising adoption of these devices in hospitals.One of the main complication while inserting the intraosseous device is extravasation of fluids and medications into soft tissues which can lead to compartment syndrome (a condition resulting from increased pressure within a confined body space). Other side effects associated with the use of these devices includes iatrogenic fractures, growth plate injury, infection (cellulitis) and osteomyelitis.Intraosseous Devices Market: SegmentationIntraosseous Devices marketis segmented on basis of technology, route of administration, end user and geography:By TechnologyManualAutomaticImpact-DrivenPowered DrillBy Route of AdministrationSternumDistal and Proximal TibiaDistal FemurCalcaneusHead of HumerusBy End UserHospitalsAmbulatory Surgical CentersCardiology ClinicsIntraosseous Devices Market: OverviewWith rising number of traumatic events coupled with failure of intravenous vascular access is expected to fuel the demand for intraosseous devices in the near future. Intraosseous infusion is safe and effective technology in case of cardiopulmonary resuscitation where other route of administration fail to deliver the required effect. Other vascular access procedures such as peripheral venous access is a time consuming procedure thus making it not feasible for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The intraosseous devices market is expected to grow at a healthy pace over the forecasted period.Request Report TOC @Intraosseous Devices Market: Region-wise OutlookOn the basis of region presence, intraosseous devices market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Asia pacific excluding japan, Japan, Middle East and Africa. North America and Europe are the biggest markets for the intraosseous device market. Owing to rapid launch of various technologically advanced intraosseous devices by big manufacturers and increasing incidences of various cardiac disorders are some of the factors expected to pull the growth of these devices in the North American market. In addition macroeconomic factors such as FDA approvals are also expected to increase the adoption rate of such devices in the developed countries. Also big players such as, Pyng Medical Corp., are entering the Asia pacific market by expanding its distribution network which is expected to create market opportunity for the intraosseous device market in Asia Pacific region.Intraosseous Devices Market: Key PlayersSome of the key market players in the intraosseous devices market are Pyng Medical Corp., PerSys Medical, Aero Healthcare, Vidacare Corporation, Carefusion Inc., Cook Medical Inc.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite :Payments Landscape Market to 2021- Gain Insights into Key Regulations Governing the Kenyan Cards and Payments Industry

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Market Analysis Research Report on Payments Landscape in Kenya: Opportunities and Risks to 2021 has been added to orbis research database.GlobalDatas "Payments Landscape in Kenya: Opportunities and Risks to 2021", report provides detailed analysis of market trends in Kenyan cards and payments industry. It provides values and volumes for a number of key performance indicators in the industry, including cash, payment cards, and cheques during the review-period (2013-17e).Request a sample of this report @Companies Mentioned:Equity BankCo-operative BankKCBNational Bank of KenyaDiamond Trust BankBarclaysStandard BankVisaMastercardThe report also analyzes various payment card markets operating in the industry, and provides detailed information on the number of cards in circulation, transaction values and volumes during the review-period and over the forecast-period (2017-21f). It also offers information on the country's competitive landscape, including the market shares of issuers and schemes.The report brings together GlobalDatas research, modeling, and analysis expertise to allow banks and card issuers to identify segment dynamics and competitive advantages. The report also covers details of regulatory policy and recent changes in the regulatory structure.This report provides top-level market analysis, information and insights into the Kenyan cards and payments industry, including -- Current and forecast values for each market in the Kenyan cards and payments industry, including debit and credit cards.- Detailed insights into payment instruments including cash, cheques, and payment cards. It also, includes an overview of the country's key alternative payment instruments.- E-commerce market analysis and payment methods.- Analysis of various market drivers and regulations governing Kenyan cards and payments industry.- Detailed analysis of strategies adopted by banks and other institutions to market debit and credit cards.Browse the Complete report @Scope- In February 2017, Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) announced the launch of PesaLink, a real-time interbank money transfer system. The service enables individuals to transfer a minimum of KES10 ($0.10) and a maximum of KES999,999 ($9,681) instantly 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. No charges are applicable for transactions up to KES500 ($4.80), after which a charge of KES11 ($0.10) is levied on every transaction. Transfers can be initiated via multiple channels, including mobile banking, internet banking, branch front offices, ATMs, banking agents, and POS terminals. The service is currently offered by all of the countrys major banks.- Alternative payments are gaining prominence in the country with the availability of a number of payment solutions. To maintain its dominance in the market, M-Pesa expanded its service in May 2017 to include NFC-based in-store payments. The new service, M-Pesa 1Tap, allows users to make payments by tapping a card, mobile phone sticker, or wristband device that is connected to their M-Pesa account onto a contactless POS terminal. To compete with M-Pesa, Visa collaborated with a number of banks to launch its mobile payment solution mVisa in Kenya in September 2016. The solution allows users to access funds and make both online and in-store payments. Consumers can also withdraw funds from their bank accounts through mVisa agents. In February 2017, Mastercard launched Masterpass QR, an enhancement of its Masterpass platform.- To curb cash transactions and money laundering, in January 2016 the Central Bank of Kenya mandated that all Kenyan individuals must fill in a special form if they deposit or withdraw more than KES1.0m ($10,000) from a bank account. Individuals must state the details of the transaction, including the source of funds, recipient/payee credentials, and the purpose of the transaction. They also have to state the reason for not using another electronic transfer option. The move is designed to enhance the traceability of bank transactions and help boost electronic payments in the country.Reasons to buy- Make strategic business decisions, using top-level historic and forecast market data, related to the Kenyan cards and payments industry and each market within it.- Understand the key market trends and growth opportunities in the Kenyan cards and payments industry.- Assess the competitive dynamics in the Kenyan cards and payments industry.- Gain insights into marketing strategies used for various card types in Kenya.- Gain insights into key regulations governing the Kenyan cards and payments industry.If enquiry before buying this report @About Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Us:Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019Email ID: sales@orbisresearch.comVentricle Assist Device Market Expected to be Resilient During 2016-2026

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A ventricle assist device comprises of a small tubes transferring blood out of heart and into the pump, the heart pump is connected to a control unit, which monitors the functioning of the ventricle assist device. Recent research has shown that continuous flow ventricle assist devices are more effective as they reduce the hospitalization and improve survival rate of patients suffering from heart failure. The different types of ventricle assist devices available in the market, left ventricle support, right ventricle support and bi-ventricle support.The ventricle assist devices are used for short-term period for individuals recovering from myocardial infraction or individuals recovering from cardiac surgery, and for long term use in individuals suffering from total heart failure. Ventricle devices are generally used as bridge to transplant, bridge to decision and bridge to recovery for an individual who is suffering from Class III & Class IV heart failure. Ventricle assist devices are generally implantable and transcutaneous depending on the individual heart condition.Heart failure is one of the most common cause of deaths worldwide, it is a condition when the heart cannot pump blood properly throughout the body. In most of the cases the left ventricle gets affected but sometimes the right ventricle gets affected and the heart cannot pump oxygen rich blood to the lungs. Ventricle assist devices are mechanical pumps which support the functioning of the heart in individuals who have weak heart. There are two types of heart failure one is diastolic heart failure and the other systolic heart failure. The major symptoms of heart failure are fatigue, irregular heart rhythm, blood pressure, heart valve functioning is affected, shortness of breath and fluid retention. Most of the above symptoms can be stabilized by the use of medication but in some cases ventricle assist devices have to be used depending upon the condition of the patient.Request to Sample Report -Transcutaneous ventricle assist devices have the control unit installed outside the body and the pump placed inside the body whereas implantable ventricle assist devices are generally used for people waiting for heart transplant. Ventricle assist devices are generally categorized as Pulsatile and Non Pulsatile devices. Pulsatile devices were the first generation devices, whereas non pulsatile devices have a continuous flow as they allow the blood to move forward in a systemic circulation. In a non-pulsatile ventricle assist device all the parameters are displayed on the console or the control unit. Some of the common ventricle assist devices in the market are Thoratec VAD, Heart Mate and Jarvik 2000.Ventricle assist devices although have great benefits but some time they may give rise to certain complication like bleeding, infection, thrombosis, device malfunctioning and hemolysis.When both the ventricle stop functioning or the entire heart fails, bi-ventricle assist devices are used and Total Artificial Heart is implanted. The rapid advancement in ventricle assist device technology has limited the TAH (Total Artificial Heart) development as majority of the heart failure can be controlled by using ventricle assist devices. At present the only TAH approved by the FDA is the Cardio West TAH by Syncardia System, which is a pneumatically powered dual chamber device.Ventricle Assist Device Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe global market for ventricle assist devices is expected to be driven by the advancement in technology and increasing prevalence of Class III & Class IV heart failure, increase in geriatric population, better reimbursement reforms are some factors anticipated to fuel growth of global ventricle assist devices market within the forecast period of 2016-2026. However the high cost certain complication which may arise after or during the implant and development of the total artificial heart can be the restraint for the growth of this market.Ventricle Assist Device Market: SegmentationThe global Ventricle assist device market is classified on the basis of product type, modality, indication, end user and geography.Based on modality, the global Ventricle assist device market is segmented into the following:Transcutaneous Ventricle Assist DevicesImplantable Ventricle Assist DevicesBased on product type, the global Ventricle Assist device market is segmented into the following:LVAD (Left Ventricle Assist Devices)RVAD (Right Ventricle Assist Devices)Bi-VAD (Bi-Ventricle Assist Devices)TAH (Total Artificial Heart)Based on indication, the global ventricle assist device market is segmented into the following:Bridge to RecoveryBridge to TransplantBridge to TherapyBased on end user, the global ventricle assist device market is segmented into the following:HospitalsSpecialized Cardiac ClinicsAmbulatory Surgical CentersVentricle Assist Device Market: OverviewCost-effectiveness of ventricle assist devices and ongoing researches on improving quality of care for continence would create an attractive growth opportunities for the ventricle assist device market. The hospitals end user segment is expected to hold the highest market share in global market for ventricle assist devices.Request Report TOC @A new generation of ventricle assist devices have been approved by the FDA which are more efficient in increasing the survival rate of individuals suffering from heart failure. These devices are much small smaller in size and much more efficient in restoring the functioning of the heart. These are centrifugal continuous flow pumps suspended through magnetic or hydrodynamic levitation in blood flow path, this levitation mechanism theoretically increases the device durability and reliability as there is no friction and heat generation component contact. The third generation left ventricle assist devices are more used in Europe.Ventricle Assist Device Market: Regional OverviewRegion wise, the global ventricle assist device market is classified into regions namely, North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan, Middle East and Africa. North America dominated the global market for ventricle assist devices because of better reimbursement policies for diagnostic procedures. Europe dominates the market for the third generation ventricle assist devices.Ventricle Assist Device Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players in global ventricle assist device market are SynCardia System Inc., St. Jude Medical, Berlin Heart, Heart Ware International, Jarvik Heart Inc. Abiomed, CardiacAssist Inc., and Reliant Heart Inc.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite :Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Surgical Devices Market to Surpass US$ 812.8 Million Threshold by 2025

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The global benign prostatic hyperplasia surgical devices market by product type (Resectoscopes, Radiofrequency Ablation Devices, Urology Lasers, Prostatic Stents, Implants, and Others), end user (Hospitals and Ambulatory Surgery Centers) and region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa)was valued at US$ 375.9 million in 2016 and is projected to exhibit a CAGR of 7.5% over the forecast period (2017  2025), as highlighted in a new report published by Coherent Market Insights. Introduction of minimally invasive therapies such as implants, transurethral needle ablation (TUNA), prostatic artery embolization (PAE) is expected to attract the majority of the patients, who are currently opting for drugs, which in turn is expected to boost the growth of benign prostatic surgical devices market.The lucrative benign prostatic surgical devices market has witnessed multiple mergers, acquisition and product launches in recent years and the company involved in these activities varies from leading medical devices companies such as Medtronic Plc, Boston Scientific Corporation and Olympus Corporation to innovative startups such as NeoTract, Inc., and ProArc Medical. In 2011, Urologix, Inc. and Medtronic Plc struck a deal, as a part of which Urologix, Inc., received license for Prostiva. Urologix is a company focused on benign prostatic hyperplasia therapy. In 2016, Urologix, Inc. sold its assets to private buyer following default on debt to be paid to Medtronic Plc.Request Sample Copy of the Report:In 2015, Boston Scientific Corporation acquired the male urology portfolio of American Medical Systems, which had generated more than US$ 100 million in last few years from devices for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia. The company had various products for BPH in their portfolio including popular laser devices such as GreenLight HPS and GreenLight XPS laser therapy.Browse 27 Market Data Tables and 22 Figures spread through 167 Pages and in-depth TOC on Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Surgical Devices Market by Product Type (Resectoscopes, Radiofrequency Ablation Devices, Urology Lasers, Prostatic Stents, Implants and Others), End User (Hospitals and Ambulatory Surgery Centers) and Region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa) - Global Forecast to 2025NoeTract, Inc. received CE approval for its product, UroLift Systems in 2010 and de novo 510(k) approval from U.S. FDA in 2013. Another implant manufacturer, ProArc Medical is awaiting CE approval for its product, ClearRing. In June 2017, Merit Medical Systems, Inc. manufacturer of disposable devices received FDA approval for benign prostatic hyperplasia for its product, Embosphere Microspheres. In May 2017, NxThera, Inc., a manufacturer of radiofrequency devices for benign prostatic hyperplasia announced that the product, Rezum System has been used to treat more than 10,000 patients suffering from the disease across the U.S. and Europe.Key Takeaways of the Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Surgical Devices Market:The global benign prostatic hyperplasia surgical devices market is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 7.5% over the forecast period (2017  2025), owing to development and adoption of minimally invasive therapies such as implants in developed economies such as U.S., UK, and Germany and increased adoption for the technology such as laser therapy in emerging economies such as India, China, and BrazilAmbulatory surgery centers is expected to be the prime destination for people suffering from benign prostatic hyperplasia due to the development of minimally invasive therapies, which do not require hospitalization of the patientsNorth America is expected to continue its dominance during the forecast period (2017-2025) as adoption rate for the innovative products such as radiofrequency devices, implants, and others is expected to increase.The market has witnessed multiple mergers and acquisitions in recent years and the trend is expected to continue during the forecast period as most of the companies developing innovative products such as radiofrequency devices are small and would require marketing and manufacturing support in near futureMajor players operating in the benign prostatic hyperplasia surgical devices market include Olympus Corporation, Boston Scientific Corporation, Medifocus Inc., KARL STORZ SE & Co. KG, NxThera, Inc., ProArc Medical, Lisa Laser Products OHG, and Richard Wolf Gmbh.To know the latest trends and insights prevalent in the benign prostatic hyperplasia surgical devices market, click the link below: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:Alternative Payment Solution Market by Comparing its Performance against Competitors: Samsung Pay

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Market Analysis Research Report on Alternative Payment Solution: Samsung Pay has been added to orbis research database.Samsung Pay is a mobile payment solution with global aspirations, launched by Samsung in August 2015. At present the solution is available in 17 markets outside South Korea: the US, China, Spain, Singapore, Australia, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Russia, Canada, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Sweden, the UAE, Hong Kong, Switzerland, and the UK.Request a sample of this report @Cpmpanies Mentioned:Apple PayAndroid PayBank of AmericaChina UnionPayChina CITIC BankStandard Chartered BankHSBCAmerican ExpressCIBCMaybankBanco PopularWestpacDBS BankCaixaBankMBNASamsung Pay is available for the following Samsung products: Galaxy series S8, S8+, S7, S7 Edge, S7 Active, S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, S6 Active, Note5, and watches Gear S2 sport, S2 Classic, S3 Frontier, and S3 Classic. The solution supports all major card schemes, including American Express, Visa, Mastercard, and China UnionPay. It is supported by more than 900 international and regional banks and credit unions in the US, including major banks such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank, Capital One, PNC, and TD Bank. Users can store details of multiple debit, credit, and store cards on Samsung Pay, which can be used to make payments at merchant outlets.Samsung Pay is the first mobile payment solution that supports NFC, magnetic secure transmission, and barcode scanning in a single solution.In addition to in-store payments, it also supports in-app payments and cash withdrawals at ATMs. To expand its online payment services Samsung Pay partnered with Visa and Mastercard, allowing users to make payments at hundreds of online merchants that accept payments through Visa Checkout and Masterpass. In addition, in February 2017 it introduced the Samsung Pay Mini online payment solution in South Korea. Samsung Pay Mini is supported by all Android phones with 5.0 Lollipop or later and a display resolution of 1280x720 or higher, and is not limited to Galaxy smartphones.Browse the Complete report @The report provides information and insights into alternative payment solution Samsung Pay, including -- Detailed insight into its business and geographical presence- Comprehensive coverage of its products and services- Comparative assessment with key alternative payment solutions- Information on its performance, including its revenue model- The company's important events and milestones.Scope- Since it was launched in South Korea in July 2015 Samsung Pay has expanded into 17 other markets: the US, China, Spain, Singapore, Australia, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Russia, Canada, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Sweden, the UAE, Hong Kong, Switzerland, and the UK.- In February 2017, Samsung Pay introduced the Samsung Pay Mini online payment solution in South Korea.- In 2016, estimated transaction value worth $5bn was run through Samsung Pay.- In July 2016, Samsung Pay extended support to watches for the first time by releasing a beta version on Samsung Gear S2 in the US.Reasons to buy- Gain insights into Samsung Pay's business operations, geographical presence and key events.- Gain insights into its product portfolio and revenue model.- Assess the competitive dynamics in the alternative payments industry by comparing its performance against competitors.If enquiry before buying this report @About Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Us:Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019Email ID: sales@orbisresearch.comNuclear Power in Belgium Market 2018 -Develop Market-Entry and Market Expansion Strategies

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Summary"Nuclear Power in Belgium, Market Outlook to 2030, Update 2017 - Capacity, Generation, Investment Trends, Regulations and Company Profiles", the industry analysis specialists that offer comprehensive information and understanding of the nuclear power market in Belgium.The report provides in depth analysis on global nuclear power market with forecasts up to 2030. The report analyzes the power market scenario in Belgium (includes thermal conventional, nuclear, large hydro, pumped storage and renewables) and provides future outlook with forecasts up to 2030. The research details nuclear power market outlook in the country and provides forecasts up to 2030. The report highlights installed capacity and power generation trends from 2006 to 2030 in Belgium nuclear power market. A detailed coverage of nuclear energy policy framework governing the market with specific policies pertaining to nuclear is provided in the report. The research also provides details of active nuclear reactors in the country, market size of major equipment and company snapshot of some of the major market participants.GET SAMPLE REPORT @Scope- A brief introduction on global carbon emissions and global primary energy consumption.- Historical period is during 2006-2016 (unless specified) and forecast period is for 2017-2030.- Overview on the global nuclear power market with installed capacity and generation trends, installed capacity split by region in 2016, installed capacity split by major nuclear power countries in 2016 and investment trends.- Power market scenario in Belgium provides detailed market overview, installed capacity and power generation trends by various fuel types (includes thermal conventional, nuclear, large hydro and renewables) with forecasts up to 2030.- Details of Belgium nuclear power market with installed capacity and generation trends, installed capacity by reactor type, installed capacity share by contractor/owner and information on major active and upcoming projects.- Key policies and regulatory framework supporting nuclear power development.- Company snapshots of some of the major market participants in the country.Reasons to buy- The report will enhance your decision making capability in a more rapid and time sensitive manner.- Identify key growth and investment opportunities in Belgium nuclear power market.- Facilitate decision-making based on strong historic and forecast data for nuclear power market.- Position yourself to gain the maximum advantage of the industrys growth potential.- Identify key partners and business development avenues.- Understand and respond to your competitors business structure, strategy and prospects.Table of Content: Key Points1 Table of Contents 21.1 List of Tables 41.2 List of Figures 52 Executive Summary 62.1 Global Carbon Emissions to Increase at a Lower rate During the Forecast Period 62.2 Nuclear Power to Grow at a Slower Pace than Other Power Generating Sources 62.3 Wind Power is expected to dominate the Renewable Power Market of Belgium in 2030 72.4 Belgium to Phase out Nuclear Power by 2025 73 Introduction 83.1 Carbon Emissions, Global, 2001-2016 83.2 Primary Energy Consumption, Global, 2001-2030 103.3 Report Guidance 134 Nuclear Power Market, Global, 2006-2030 144.1 Nuclear Power Market, Global, Overview 144.2 Nuclear Power Market, Global, Installed Capacity, 2006-2030 154.3 Nuclear Power Market, Global, Power Generation, 2006-2030 204.4 Nuclear Market, Global, Investment Trends, 2016-2020 255 Power Market, Belgium, 2006-2030 275.1 Power Market, Belgium, Overview 275.2 Power Market, Belgium, Installed Capacity, 2006-2030 28ContinuedACCESS REPORT @Get in touch:LinkedIn:Twitter:Facebook:Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available. We also provide COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) business sector reports as custom exploration agreeing your particular needs.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaEmeging Evolution of Veterinary Endoscopes Market : Regional Outlook, Competitive Strategies and Forecast 2025

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Veterinary Endoscopes Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Global Veterinary Endoscopes Market: OverviewThis report on the veterinary endoscopes market analyzes the current and future scenario of the global market. Growing number of pet adoption, rising prevalence of different diseases among animals, and introduction of novel technologies are the major drivers of the global veterinary endoscopes market during the forecast period. On the other hand, the deficiencies of skilled vet technician, high cost of endoscopy procedure and high cost of equipment like video endoscopes, may depress the growth of the same market.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The global veterinary endoscopes market report comprises a detailed elaborate executive summary, which includes market snapshot that provides information about various segments. It also provides information and data analysis of the countrys market with respect to the segments based on product type, application, animal type, procedure type and end users. An elaborated qualitative analysis of drivers and restraints, opportunities, and trends has been provided in the market overview section. This section also provides market attractiveness analysis in terms of country, thus presenting a thorough analysis of the overall competitive scenario in the global veterinary endoscopes market.Global Veterinary Endoscopes Market: Key SegmentsBased on product, the global veterinary endoscopes market is classified into flexible, rigid, capsule and robot assisted endoscopes. The flexible endoscopes segment is further classified into fiberoptic and video endoscopes. The market segments have been analyzed based on awareness of pet treatment, actual percentage accessing pet insurance policies for treatment, requirement of product types, costs, and medical scenarios. The market size and forecast for each of these segments have been provided for the period from 2015 to 2025, along with their respective CAGR for the forecast period from 2017 to 2025, considering 2016 as the base year.Based on application, the market has been segmented into diagnostic and surgeries. In term of procedure type, the market has been segmented into gastrointestinal, bronchoscopy, laparoscopy, otoscopy, cystoscopy and others. Based on animal type, the veterinary endoscopes market segment into companion and livestock. The companion segment further segmented into equine, canine and feline. Likewise, the livestock segment further categorized into bovine, ovine, porcine and poultry. The market segments have been extensively analyzed based on adoption of pet, incidence of different abnormality in animals, cost of the endoscopy procedure, and medical reimbursements. The market size and forecast in terms of value (US$ Mn) and volume (No. of Procedures) for each segment have been provided for the period from 2015 to 2025.Make an Enquiry about TOC @The report also provides the compound annual growth rate (CAGR %) for each market segment for the forecast period from 2017 to 2025, considering 2016 as the base year. On the basis of end-users, the market has been segmented into veterinary hospitals, veterinary clinics, and others. The end-user segmentation has been done on the basis of usage of different type of veterinary endoscope and for what purpose endoscopes is uses in those centers.Global Veterinary Endoscopes Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the global veterinary endoscopes market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. The market size and forecast for each of these regions have been provided for the period from 2015 to 2025, along with their respective CAGRs for the forecast period from 2017 to 2025, considering 2016 as the base year.Companies Mentioned in ReportThe report also profiles major players in the global veterinary endoscopes market based on various attributes such as company overview, financial overview, product portfolio, business strategies, SWOT analysis, and recent developments. The key players operating in the global veterinary endoscopes market are Harvard Bioscience, Infiniti Medical, Olympus Corporation, Fujifilm Holdings Corporation, KARL STORZ SE & Co. KG, Richard Wolf GmbH, STERIS plc, ESS, Inc., Jorgen Kruuse A/S, and HOYA Corporation (PENTAX Medical).The global veterinary endoscopes market is segmented as follows:Global Veterinary Endoscopes Market, by Product Type (Value & Volume)Flexible EndoscopesFiber Optic EndoscopesVideo EndoscopesRigid EndoscopesCapsule EndoscopesRobot Assisted EndoscopesGlobal Veterinary Endoscopes Market, by Application (Value & Volume)DiagnosticSurgicalAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.For More Information Kindly Contact :ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @The Cuba attacks on U.S. diplomats remain a mystery. Photo: Adalberto Roque/AFP/Getty Images

The U.S. diplomats who began experiencing headaches, dizziness, and hearing loss after what was initially called a sonic attack suffer from the same symptoms as someone who has lived through a car crash or a blast in a war zone, doctors said in a new report published Thursday. But there were no crashes or blasts.

Its like a concussion without a concussion, Randel Swanson, D.O., Ph.D., said in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Swanson is one of several University of Pennsylvania doctors who examined 21 of 24 U.S. diplomats who reported symptoms beginning in late 2016. On Thursday, their report was was published in JAMA and it provides the most comprehensive look yet at what happened to victims after they experienced auditory and sensory phenomena in their homes or hotel rooms.

The victims appeared to have sustained injury to widespread brain networks, the doctors wrote. Among the many symptoms they reported were difficulty with memory, concentration, and sleeping, along with impaired eyesight and hearing. Some complained of cognitive issues, including feeling mentally foggy, and some said they were more irritable and nervous than before they fell ill.

Despite their close study of the attacks victims, the doctors appear even less sure now of the cause than when the incident was first reported. Most victims, the study says, reported hearing sounds variously described as buzzing, grinding metal, piercing squeals, and humming.

Affected individuals described the sounds as directional, intensely loud, and of pure and sustained tonality, the report says. But while most said it was high-pitched, a few said it was low-pitched. Others still described it more as a pressure than a sound.

As for the cause, doctors appear no closer to finding one, despite their extensive study of the victims. And as one suggests in JAMA, by paying so much attention to what the victims heard, doctors may even be looking in the wrong place. We actually dont think it was the audible sound that was the problem, Dr Douglas Smith, who co-authored the study said. We think the audible sound was a consequence of the exposure, because audible sound is not known to cause brain injury.Geospatial Analytics Market - Technology, Trends, Development, Key Manufacturers Analysis-Trimble Navigation, General Electric (GE), MDA Corporation, Bentley Systems

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In past decade, the trends in navigation technology have reached new heights. Traditionally people had limited access to navigation technologies in daily life, however the trends have taken new shape and today smartphones, tablets, wearables etc. allow application of navigation. Individuals are enabled to share location, time and events data through cloud. In recent years the amount of data being exchanged is growing year on year. Organizations are using these data to further understand the interests and preferences of the consumers to offer more specified services.Geospatial analytics use this data and interpret used to build maps, graphs, and statistics which are further used by organization to understand the pattern of activities. Technologies such as mobile devices, location sensors, social media, and other platforms allow organization to collect the information or data. Geospatial analytics offer solutions to organizations which help in anticipating and to formulate strategies for predicted changes in reference to dynamic spatial conditions or location based events.Request a Sample Report atGeospatial Analytics Market Players:Trimble Navigation Ltd.General Electric (GE)MDA CorporationBentley Systems, IncESRIRMSIHexagon ABFugro N.VHarris CorporationWS Atkins PLCAccording to CISCO`s report, in 2008 the number of connected devices crossed number people on the earth and it is also estimated by 2020 the number of connected devices will reach 50 billion. Fast growing trends in mobile devices and internet of everything will drive the geospatial analytics market positively in near future. Some of the key concerns of developing economies would include poor connectivity and as the data is collected in real-time congestion of connected devices in low bandwidth internet which may lead to false location results and analysis may fail to produce desired results.The global geospatial analytics market is broadly classified into segments such as type, technology, application, end-users and geography. Key types of geospatial analytics include surface analytics, network analytics, geo-visualization and others. Technologies used in this market are further segmented as Remote Sensing, Global Positioning System (GPS), Geographical Information System (GIS), and Others. The application segment is further sub-segmented into Surveying,, Disaster Risk Reduction Management, Climate Change Adaptation, , Medicine and Public Safety and Others. The global geospatial analytics market is also divided by geography and include regions such as North America, Europe, APAC, South America (SAM) and Middle East Africa (MEA).North America being one of the leading hub for technologies, companies in this region are more focused on offering solution and services which are more inclined or associated to analytics and cloud computing next big thing which will drive the market of geospatial analytics market. While North America being one of the leading markets, APAC is the fasted growing market for analytics APAC is one of the key regions which include growing economies such as China, Japan, India, etc. hence this region is considered to be fastest growing and is estimated to gain major share of the market in near future.Inquire before Buying atAlso, key Geospatial Analytics market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered, financial information of last 3 years, key development in past five years.Reason to Buy- Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.- The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the Geospatial Analytics market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies.- Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.- Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.- Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation and industry verticals.View Complete Report atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comThe Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.533, 5th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) Market to Witness High Growth on Account of Growing Investments by Governments

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MarketResearchReports.biz have announced the addition of a new report which is titled, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017  2025.In today's world, the automatic number plate recognition is known to be of great use and benefit in the field of traffic enforcing, security and surveillance, and toll enforcing. In order to ensure improved road safety, the transport department takes strict measures in every sector mentioned above. This has ended up in the high penetration of automatic number plate recognition systems in the sectors of traffic enforcements as well as security and surveillance applications throughout the globe. Plus, this market is continuously growing because of the growing need for enhanced security in the public sector.Additionally, the growing investments by the government as well as the commercial segments will make an atmosphere that will help this market to expand in the years to come. For example, the Government of India in the process of introducing a new road transport and safety bill, that will also have CCTV cameras installed at all traffic signals, setting up 5000 centres throughout the country for the purpose of providing driving licences on the basis of computer based tests a compulsory procedure. Although, these rules may sound stringent, but they are predicted to bolster the application of automatic number plate recognition systems in India. In 2016, more than 2000 automatic number plate recognition technology enabled CCTV cameras embedded with infrared night vision abilities were put in to use at major junctions.For Sample Copy, click here:A great number of security agencies as well as police departments make the use of automatic number plate recognition systems throughout the world, so as to improve the security in the concerned regions. The ANPR technology is also used widely for traffic management. The application of automatic number plate recognition technology has considerably reduced human intervention and therefore provides cost related benefits. However, problems like invasion of privacy as well as the different designs in the number plates is hampering the growth of this market. Nevertheless, in the years to come the demand from the commercial sectors is predicted to grow because of the growing installations in vehicle parking application that will provide sufficient growth opportunities.Among end users, the government segment dominated with more than 70% share in the market in the year 2016. The growing demand for ANPR from defence, Homeland security, traffic as well as other government departments has boosted the growth opportunities for the government sector in the global ANPR market. Currently, Europe is dominating global automatic number plate recognition market with 35% of the share.Browse full report here :In an extremely fragmented vendor landscape, companies are currently aiming to make advanced ANPR solutions with integrated automatic number plate recognition systems and enhanced reading abilities so as to make their market positions stronger. The Global automatic number plate recognition market is projected to face stiff competition in the automatic number plate recognition engine manufacturing. Apart from this, the competition between component manufacturers and the system integrators is predicted to continue to be high in the years to come, and the market competitors are also expanding their footprints in the regions like India, Philippines, Malaysia and China as Automatic Number Plate Recognition is predicted to be more widely used in these countries in the years to come. Strategies used by these companies to retain their dominance might boost the growth or might create bottlenecks for the automatic name plate recognition market, nevertheless, they are predicted to have an important influence on its growth trajectory.To order report Call Toll Free: 866-997-4948 or send an email on sales@marketresearchreports.bizMRRbiz supports your business intelligence needs with over 700,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market data sheets in its repository. Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that you always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries and their sub-segments. We have built a veritable reputation for our commitment to fulfilling our clients' exacting market research solutions. From Fortune 500 companies to SMEs, our clients place their trust in us for reports from verified publishers.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizIndustrial Networking Solution Market Size, Share, Growth, Analysis  Forecasts To 2025

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The market report is designed to provide a complete view on the global Industrial Networking Solution market. This business intelligence report has been categorised into qualitative and quantitative insights over the forecast period (2017-2025). The demand and supply matrix section falls under the qualitative information category, wherein, the market dynamics for Industrial Networking Solutions have been studied considering a short term forecast of the factors/variables influencing the industry. The market segments and their respective estimates & forecasts have been covered under the quantitative information category. Forecasts & trend analysis for each country and region is also available in the study. The report concludes by providing competitor analysis for major market participants profiled by analysing their organic & inorganic growth strategies, regional presence, and product portfolio among others.Request for a sample copy of the report at:Vendor Landscape: Industrial Networking Solution MarketThe report contains a chapter dedicated to vendors operating in the market, covering raw material manufactures, equipment developers, manufacturers, and distributors. The report provides these insights on a regional level. This section of the report entails contact details, experience, products manufactured/supplied, and geographical presence of companies.End-User Landscape (Consumer Profile): Industrial Networking Solution MarketThe report provides a detailed list of end-users operating across the world. The end-user landscape includes consumer contact details, geographical presence, revenue, product portfolio, organic and inorganic growth strategies among others.Competitor Analysis: Industrial Networking Solution MarketThe major companies profiled in the Industrial Networking Solution market include Siemens, Cisco, Industrial Networking Solutions, Moxa Inc., Innovasic, Leonton Technologies, Black Box Network Services, Rockwell Automation, Mencom Corporation, Hirschmann, Lumberg Automation, Qualcomm Technologies, Control Design, Mitsubishi Electric Networks & Systems, Aruba, Juniper Networks, Huawei, Arista, VMware, Riverbed, NetScout, and Extreme Networks. The report also includes a list of several other companies operating in the market. Companies are investing in innovation/R&D, brand building, and fostering strong relationships with customers to enhance their competitive position.Check our annual research partnership service at:Were constantly identifying and analysing high growth markets and revenue pockets. In consultation with various industry experts, our team of highly-skilled industry analysts study these markets through sophisticated tools and fail-safe, industry-approved methodologies.Name: Global Market Estimates Research & Business ConsultantsAddress: A-9, Silver Croft CHSL, Mumbai:400064, IndiaContact No,: +91 9146632316Email Address: sales@globalmarketestimates.comGlobal mHealth Monitoring And Diagnostic Medical Devices Market Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends And Forecast to 2019

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Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has been serving as an active source to cater intelligent research report to enlighten both readers and investors. This research study titled mHealth Monitoring And Diagnostic Medical Devices MarketRequest a Free Sample Report @The term mHealth is gradually catching notice of the global healthcare community. It is an abbreviation used to connote mobile health and comprising the delivery of healthcare services and solutions using devices such as PDAs, tablets and computers, and smartphones. The global mHealth monitoring and diagnostic medical devices market is emerging with the evolution of healthcare technologies and the rising incidence of chronic ailments.The technology helps in significantly reducing the expenditure incurred on healthcare during hospital visits for monitoring vital parameters such as blood glucose level, respiratory rate, heart rate, blood pressure, and others. As per the Center for Technology and Aging, the healthcare system in the U.S. can reduce the cost incurred as healthcare expenditure approximately by US$200 bn in coming 25 years if remote patient monitoring technologies are implemented effectively.Global mHealth monitoring and diagnostic medical devices market to be around US$8 bn in 2019. Its valuation in 2012 was around 0.6 bn. If these figures hold true, the global mHealth monitoring and diagnostic medical devices market will exhibit a whopping CAGR of 43.30% between 2013 and 2019.Asia Pacific to Beat Other Regional Markets in Terms of CAGRRegionally, North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World constitute the key segments in the global mHealth monitoring and diagnostic medical devices market. Among these regions North America currently hold dominant in the global market, thanks to the increasing presence of manufacturers in the region and the rising consumer base of smart electronic devices such as tablets and smartphones. The region also gains from being at the fore of various technological developments and the high level of awareness among consumers regarding the latest technologies and devices.Send an Inquiry @However, over the course of the forecast period Asia Pacific is also expected to report significant growth. Furthermore, TMR foretells Asia Pacific beat other regions in terms of CAGR over the course of the reports forecast period. The increasing geriatric population, rising prevalence of chronic ailments, and the growing awareness regarding the benefits of advanced medical devices will boost the mHealth monitoring and diagnostic medical devices market in Asia Pacific. The market will also witness increasing demand in China, India, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand.Demand for Glucose Monitoring to Rise at High PaceBy product, the global mHealth monitoring and diagnostic devices market has been segmented into glucose monitors, cardiac monitors, blood pressure monitors, multi-parameter monitoring devices, sleep apnea monitors, pulse oximeters, and other devices. Of these, the glucose monitors are expected to report the highest CAGR of 49.4% between 2013 and 2019. Additionally, the globally increasing penetration of smartphones and the rising innovation in mobile health devices due to improved technologies are expected to bolster opportunities for the segments growth. Besides this, the demand for multi-parameter monitoring devices is also expected to increase at a significant pace due to the increasing awareness among health and fitness in developed countries.View Complete Report with Table of Content @About Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:Analysis of Mining Tools Market : Key Trends,Challenges, Economic Impact and Forecast 2025

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Mining Tools Sales Market Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.In this report,the global Mining Tools market is valued at USD XX million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2025,growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2017 and 2025.Geographically,this report split global into several key Regions,with sales (K Units),revenue (Million USD),market share and growth rate of Mining Tools for these regions,from 2013 to 2025 (forecast),coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Mining Tools market competition by top manufacturers/players,with Mining Tools sales volume,Price (USD/Unit),revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingApex Tool GroupStanly Black &DeckerSnap onIrwinWestwardKlein toolsCementex ProductsSK HAND TOOLOn the basis of product,this report displays the production,revenue,price,market share and growth rate of each type,primarily split intoTool KitSingle ToolsOn the basis on the end users/applications,this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users,sales volume,market share and growth rate for each application,includingUnderground MiningOpencast MiningMake an Enquiry about TOC @Table of ContentsGlobal Mining Tools Sales Market Report 20181 Mining Tools Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Mining Tools1.2 Classification of Mining Tools by Product Category1.2.1 Global Mining Tools Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Mining Tools Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Tool Kit1.2.4 Single Tools2 Global Mining Tools Competition by Players/Suppliers,Type and Application2.1 Global Mining Tools Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Mining Tools Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Mining Tools Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Mining Tools (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Mining Tools Sales and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)3 United States Mining Tools (Volume,Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Mining Tools Sales and Value (2013-2018)3.1.1 United States Mining Tools Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)3.1.2 United States Mining Tools Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2018)3.1.3 United States Mining Tools Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)4 China Mining Tools (Volume,Value and Sales Price)4.1 China Mining Tools Sales and Value (2013-2018)4.1.1 China Mining Tools Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)4.1.2 China Mining Tools Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2018)4.1.3 China Mining Tools Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.For More Information Kindly Contact :ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Rotational Molding Machine Market Insights and Analysis for Period 2017  2027

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Rotational molding is a process of heating and rotation of mould, filled with the material in order to spread and stick to the walls of mould. Rotational molding machine is also called as roto molding machine. In order to maintain uniformity of the final product, the mould is consistently rotated during the heating process to achieve the even thickness. A rotational molding machine is a machine which manufactures rigid plastic products such as crates, pallets, water tanks, material handling products etc. The market for rotational moulding machine is expected to witness growth in the upcoming years. Most of the plastic products are manufactured using the process of rotational molding through rotational molding machine. There are several advantages of rotational molding machine such as design flexibility for complex shaped moulds, uniform thickness of products, less material wastage etc. Apart from this, the roto molding machine provides quality surface finishing as the material spreads and takes the shape of the corresponding mould at high temperatures and low pressures. Manufacturers widely use the rotational moulding machine for manufacturing of hollow product types.Request to View Sample Report @Global Rotational Molding Machine Market  Drivers & RestraintsThe global market for roto molding machine is expected to rise over the forecast period due to several reasons. The rotational molding machine offers several advantages that keep the market to consistently such as low wastage of material, size flexibility, surface finishing etc. The main drivers that drive the global rotational molding machine market are the surface finishing and design flexibility. The moulds which are used in the rotational machine are less expensive as compared to the other types of molding machines. The rotational molding machines are mainly used for the production of the solutions for water storage, water management, and transportation.Despite the positive outlook, there are various factors which might hinder the growth of the global rotational molding machine market. The rotational molding process takes more time as compared to another molding process. Moreover, the cost of the rotational molding machine is very high which might resist the growth of the global rotational molding machine market. Along with this, the operational cost of the rotational molding machine is also high.Global Rotational Molding Machine - Market SegmentationThe global rotational molding machine has been segmented on the basis of the machine type, on the basis of the applications.On the basis of the machine type, rotational machines are segmented as rock n roll machine, clamshell machine, shuttle machine, swing arm machine and carrousel roto molding machine.On the basis of the application, rotational machines are used to manufacture products for different industries such as industrial, medical, food, furniture, chemical, agriculture, and construction industries.Request For Table Of Content @Global Rotational Molding Machine Market  Regional Outlook: Geographically the market for rotational molding machines is divided into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan, Middle East & Africa, and Japan. The European and Americas are expected to dominate the rotational molding machine market, especially in the U.S. in North America. Asia Pacific Excluding Japan is also contributing to the global rotational molding machine market at the significant extent and is expected to have good growth in near future as there are emerging economies such as China, India etc. The global market for rotational molding machine is expected to grow during the forecast period.Global Rotational Molding Machine Market  Key Players Some of the key players contributing to the global rotational molding machine market are N.A. Roto Machines & Moulds India, Ferry Industries, Inc., Koioslin International Co.,Ltd., Orex Company, Roto Machines Ltd., Polytex Roto Enterprises, Plasmec Engineering Pvt. Ltd., Clips Poly Engineering Ningbo Light Industry Machinery & Equipment Imp. & Exp.Co.,Ltd, Zhejiang Anji Tianyang Rotational Mouding Machinery Co.,Ltd., among others.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes,technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends. technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Future Market InsightsValley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Childrens Pillow Market 2018 Global Key Players: Hollander, American Textile, Wendre, MyPillow, Pacific Coast, Pacific Brands, Tempur-Pedic.

Childrens Pillow Market

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Childrens Pillow Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Childrens Pillow Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2022reports to its database.Executive SummaryThis report studies Children's Pillow in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with capacity, production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringHollanderAmerican TextileWendreMyPillowPacific CoastPacific BrandsTempur-PedicMarket Segment by Regions, this report splits Global into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue, market share and growth rate of Children's Pillow in these regions, from 2011 to 2021 (forecast), likeNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaSplit by product type, with production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, can be divided intoType IType IISplit by application, this report focuses on consumption, market share and growth rate of Children's Pillow in each application, can be divided intoApplication 1Application 2Request Sample Report @Table of ContentGlobal Children's Pillow Market Research Report 20171 Children's Pillow Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Children's Pillow1.2 Children's Pillow Segment by Type1.2.1 Global Production Market Share of Children's Pillow by Type in 20151.2.2 Type I1.2.3 Type II1.3 Children's Pillow Segment by Application1.3.1 Children's Pillow Consumption Market Share by Application in 20151.3.2 Application 11.3.3 Application 21.3.4 Application 31.4 Children's Pillow Market by Region1.4.1 North America Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Children's Pillow (2012-2022)2 Global Children's Pillow Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Children's Pillow Production and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.2 Global Children's Pillow Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.3 Global Children's Pillow Average Price by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.4 Manufacturers Children's Pillow Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Children's Pillow Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Children's Pillow Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Children's Pillow Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Children's Pillow Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Children's Pillow Production by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Children's Pillow Production Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Children's Pillow Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.4 Global Children's Pillow Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.5 North America Children's Pillow Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.6 Europe Children's Pillow Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.7 China Children's Pillow Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.8 Japan Children's Pillow Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.9 Southeast Asia Children's Pillow Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.10 India Children's Pillow Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)4 Global Children's Pillow Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2012-2017)4.1 Global Children's Pillow Consumption by Regions (2012-2017)4.2 North America Children's Pillow Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.3 Europe Children's Pillow Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.4 China Children's Pillow Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.5 Japan Children's Pillow Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.6 Southeast Asia Children's Pillow Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.7 India Children's Pillow Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)5 Global Children's Pillow Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Children's Pillow Production and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.2 Global Children's Pillow Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.3 Global Children's Pillow Price by Type (2012-2017)5.4 Global Children's Pillow Production Growth by Type (2012-2017)6 Global Children's Pillow Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Children's Pillow Consumption and Market Share by Application (2012-2017)6.2 Global Children's Pillow Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2012-2017)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/CountriesContinuousFor further information on this report, visit Contact Us:Norah Trentsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042Research Study Offers Insights on Future of Angiographic Catheters Market

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Angiographic catheter is used in the angiographic procedures. The angiographic catheters provides therapeutic agents and radiopaque media to the selected sites in vascular system. In addition, the angiographic catheter is also used to lead a guide wire to the targeted site. Angiographic catheters is used for the treatment of cardiac diseases. The thin wall structure of the catheter allows the flow rate up to 23 ml/sec (saline). Angiographic catheters are basically made from the polyamide, polyethylene, polyurethane, and polytetrafluoroethylene. The silicone coated urinary catheters are being served as the reference standards. Angiographic catheters are available in different shapes. An angiographic catheters have only one end hole. The use of an angiographic catheter helps to combine the diagnosis and treatment in a single procedure. Angiographic catheters produces a very clear, detailed and accurate pictures of the blood vessels. The angiographic catheters also eliminates the need of any surgery. Angiographic catheters are medical devices which are is specifically used for the diagnosis of a heart defect or of the central circulatory system.Request to View Sample Report @Angiographic Catheters Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe increasing incidence of cardiac vascular diseases (CVDs) and rise in demand of accurate diagnosis and procedural equipments in global healthcare sector is increasing the demand for angiographic catheters and will lead to the growth of the global angiographic catheters market. In addition, increase in ageing population and lifestyle changes leading to hypertension, obesity, and other risk factors that lead to vascular disorders, is expected to propel the growth of the angiographic catheters market. However, high cost of angiographic procedures and other components may hamper the growth of the global angiographic catheters market. Furthermore, the availability of alternative therapies, and complications associated with angiographic catheters can restrain the growth of the global angiographic catheters market.Angiographic Catheters Market: SegmentationTentatively, global angiographic catheters market has been segmented on the basis of product type, end user, and geography.Based on product type, global angiographic catheters market is segmented as below:Scoring balloon cathetersCutting balloon cathetersBased on end user, global angiographic catheters market is segmented as below:HospitalsAmbulatory Surgical CentersSpecialty clinicsOthersAngiographic Catheters Market: OverviewThe global market for angiographic catheters is expected to witness moderate growth over the forecast period due to increasing adoption of angiographic procedures. Angiographic catheter is a surgically invasive device which is intended for the transient use. The device is specifically used for the diagnosis of a heart defect or of the central circulatory system. External factors such as increasing use of e-commerce and logistics services in developing and under developing economies are also increasing the market growth of angiographic catheters. Based on the product type, the global angiographic catheters market is segmented into scoring balloon catheters and cutting balloon catheters. Based on end user, the market is segmented into hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, specialty clinics and others. Hospital segment holds the maximum market share for the angiographic catheters market.Request For Table Of Content @Angiographic Catheters Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, global Angiographic Catheters Market is classified into regions viz. North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan, Middle East and Africa. North America is expected to dominate global angiographic catheters market over the forecast period due to the increasing incidences of cardio vascular diseases in this region. Western Europe is expected to be the second largest market for angiographic catheters due to the increasing government support for people undergoing coronary angioplasty through reimbursement and thus increasing the adoption of angioplasty catheters in the region. Asia Pacific market is expected to experience delayed growth due to unawareness towards use of angiographic catheters and low disposable income.Angiographic Catheters Market: Key PlayersSome of the players identified in global angiographic catheters market include AngioDynamics, Inc., Terumo Europe NV, Medtronic, Merit Medical Systems, Inc., OSCOR Inc., B. Braun Melsungen AG, Cardinal Health, InSitu Technologies Inc., BVM Medical Limited, Precision Extrusion Inc., Cardiva, C. R. Bard, Inc., Boston Scientific Corporation and others. During the recent years, manufacturers have improved the surface properties of angiographic catheters.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes,technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends. technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Future Market InsightsValley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Global Biologics Market: Size, Trends & Forecast (2018-2022) : Abbvie Inc., Samsung Biologics, F. Hoffmann La Roche and Amgen featured

Global Biologics Market: Size, Trends & Forecast (2018-2022)

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Research By Markets adds "Global Biologics Market: Size, Trends & Forecast (2018-2022)" to its online repository. The report provides an in-depth analysis of the global biologics market with description of market sizing and growth. The analysis includes market by value, by segment and by region. It also provides a detailed analysis of biologics market in terms of manufacturing process, product-category and therapeutic areas as well.More Information:The report includes a brief regional analysis of North America, Europe and China with their actual and forecasted market size. North America has the largest stake in the global biologics market over the years and is expected to maintain its position in the upcoming years also. Among the Asia countries, China is the largest market and has the potential to grow steadily over the forecasted period.Moreover, the report also assesses the key opportunities in the market and outlines the factors that are and will be driving the growth of the industry. Growth of the overall global biologics market has also been forecasted for the years 2018-2022, taking into consideration the previous growth patterns, the growth drivers and the current and future trends.Abbvie Inc., Samsung Electronics (Samsung Biologics), F. Hoffmann La Roche and Amgen Inc. are some of the key players operating in the global biologics market, whose company profiling has been done in the report. In this segment of the report, business overview, financial overview and business strategies of the respective companies are provided.Access Full Report:Company CoverageAbbvie Inc.Samsung Electronics (Samsung Biologics)F. Hoffmann La RocheAmgen Inc.Regional CoverageNorth AmericaEuropeChinaExecutive SummaryPharmaceutical industry is engaged in the discovery, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceutical drugs such as legal drugs, vaccines, biologics and a large number of medical devices such as infusion pump, pacemakers, prosthetics, implantable defibrillators etc. Pharmaceutical drugs and devices are subjected to various laws and regulations governing their patent, safety, and efficacy. On an elementary level pharmaceutical drugs are broadly classified into two categories: small molecules (non-biologics) and large molecules (biologics).Large molecules are mostly made of cells or other living organisms and are used to produce therapeutic proteins or biological molecules. Drugs made up of large molecules are popularly known as biotech drugs, biologics or biopharmaceuticals. The major biologics blockbusters currently available in the market are Humira, Remicade, Enbrel, Avastin and Herceptin.The global biologics market has increased over the years and projections are made that the market would grow at a steady pace in the next four years i.e. 2018-2022, particularly due to increasing biologics approval and growing incidence of chronic conditions among the aging population. The global biologics market is supported by various growth drivers such as increased availability of advanced diagnostics, raising auto-immune diseases, higher usage of monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of different diseases, advancement in healthcare & biotechnology, etc. Yet the market faces some challenges which are obstructing the growth of the market. Some of the major challenges faced by the industry are: high cost of biologics, lack of oral absorption, complex regulatory approval etc.Contact:ResearchByMarketsMs. Lia Seth | Client Relations Managerenquiry@researchbymarkets.comResearch By Markets is an online Market Research Report Repository.Our repository contains reports segmented by Geography and Industry. We cover all major Industry Verticals - Information Technology, Semiconductor, Electronics, Manufacturing, Food & Beverages, Telecommunications, Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Automotive, BioTechnology, Energy & Power, Banking and many more.Research By Markets3, Nagar Road,Pune 411 014, Maharashtra, Indiaenquiry@researchbymarkets.com+1-800-416-3124Reverse Tuck Cartons Market Intelligence Study for Comprehensive Insights

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The packaging industry is growing with more companies aiming to venture into new opportunities of packaging designs and add an edge over their competitors in the market. Manufacturers carry out broad research on packaging techniques and color schemes. Reverse tuck cantons are those cartons in which one of the flaps folds in the opposite direction as the other. The joint on the reverse tuck carton is situated at the ridge along the right panel, in the back. The closing panels on the bottom and top strike in reverse directions, along with top folding in front and bottom folding in the back. Reverse tuck cartons are also called as chip board cartons, kraft folding cartons, or tan bending chipboard. Reverse tuck cartons can be manufactured either by automation or manually. Reverse tuck cartons has slit lock tuck closure on bottom and friction lock closure on the top which makes the reverse tuck cartons easy to open and close. Reverse tuck cartons are of two types which includes standard reverse tuck cartons and French reverse tuck cartons. French reverse tuck cartons has an enhanced look and also enables significant latitude in graphic design.Request to View Sample Report @Reverse Tuck Cartons Market  Dynamics:Reverse tuck cartons market is projected to witness significant growth due to increasing demand for easy to handle packaging solutions. Reverse tuck cartons are capable enough for preserving the quality of the product. In addition, reverse tuck cartons can also be printed which helps to provide excellent product visualization and promotional value for the products. Reverse tuck cartons are feasible packaging solution due to its low manufacturing cost and it reduces the man labor. Reverse tuck cartons market is likely to get traction in the upcoming years owing to the increasing shipping and cargo industry. Reverse tuck cartons are the improved version of standard folding cartons which are used for packaging of a wide range of packaging products such as bottles, cans and many other small size packages. The reverse tuck cartons market is driven by growing packaged food and beverage industry. Manufacturers across the globe are adopting rigid packaging solutions for packaged food items which makes them easy to handle and reduces the damage risks. Reverse tuck cartons are widely used for small components.Reverse Tuck Cartons Market  Segmentation:The global reverse tuck cartons market is segmented on the basis of product type, capacity type, thickness, and application.On the basis of product type the global reverse tuck cartons market is segmented as follows:Standard Reverse Tuck CartonsFrench Reverse Tuck CartonsOn the basis of capacity type the global reverse tuck cartons market is segmented as follows:Up to 16 lbs16 to 28 lbs28 to 33 lbsAbove 33 lbsOn the basis of thickness the global reverse tuck cartons market is segmented as follows:Up to 24 pt24 to 32 pt32 to 36 ptAbove 36 ptOn the basis of end use the global reverse tuck cartons market is segmented as follows:Food & BeveragesHealthcareCosmetic and Personal CareHouseholdElectrical & ElectronicsInstitutionalOthersRequest For Table Of Content @Reverse Tuck Cartons Market  Regional Outlook:On the basis of geography reverse tuck cartons market region is segmented into North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Middle East & Africa (MEA), Japan. Among these regions, North America is expected to witness an above average growth rate during the forecast period. Along with North America, Europe is another leading market for reverse tuck cartons. Asia Pacific region is also anticipated to witness moderate growth during the forecast period.Reverse Tuck Cartons Market  Major Players:Some of the major players effective in the global reverse tuck cartons market include Amcor Limited, Georgia-Pacific LLC, Huhtamaki Oyi, Calumet Carton Company, Bee Packaging, Landor Cartons Limited, Xiamen Zhenboli Packaging Co., Ltd., and Guangzhou Panyu Dalong Zhenlong Packaging & Paper Products Factory.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes,technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends. technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Future Market InsightsValley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Mitt Romney stands athwart Utah politics like a colossus, even if some old-school Republicans are annoyed about it. Photo: George Frey/Getty Images

For most politicians on the brink of announcing a race for the U.S. Senate, it would be a living nightmare to get attacked by their partys state chairman.

For Mitt Romney, its just a minor annoyance.

Yes, Im sure Romney would prefer that the sweet harmonics of his scheduled announcement of candidacy tomorrow had not been interrupted by Utah Republican state party chairman Rob Andersons hissy fit in an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune. Anderson basically called Mitt a carpetbagger (just like  gasp!  Hillary Clinton) who was end-running the party and disappointing all the fine Republicans who had been waiting for decades for Orrin Hatch to retire. Anderson also allowed as to how Mitt wasnt on particularly good terms with the nations Republican president, either; this may have given some national folk the impression that hes a Trump guy carrying MAGA water. But the impression I get is that hes just an old-school Utah Republican making a last futile protest against what he calls a Romney Machine thats about to roll over him.

From the day he was elected state party chairman last year, Anderson has been embroiled in a byzantine political and legal dispute over the Utah GOPs traditional caucus/convention system  dominated by hard-core conservatives  for getting a spot on the primary ballot. He figures Romney will take advantage of a new option created by the state legislature to get on the ballot by petition. It reinforces Andersons sense that Romney thinks hes too big for his partys rituals:

Anderson says hes reached out to Romney through intermediaries several times with zero luck.

I havent heard a word from him, says Anderson 

It says his campaign doesnt consider the Utah Republican Party an important part of his ability to win elections, says Anderson. I dont understand that.

This sounds a lot like sour grapes.

Polls have consistently shown Romney with a huge lead in a prospective Senate primary and general election. The most recent public survey from the University of Utah showed 85 percent of Utah Republicans favoring Romney, who also has a 64/19 lead over the presumptive Democratic candidate.

Andersons right that Romneys not a Trump guy, but lets remember this is a state where a #NeverTrump conservative independent candidate won 22 percent of the vote in 2016. And in the latest state-by-state polling from Morning Consult  which nationally showed the president enjoying a positive trend  Trumps approval/disapproval ratio in Utah was 46/49.

Once Romneys in the Senate race, its most definitely his to lose. And Republicans like Rob Anderson will either adjust or stay a mile away from this particular contest.Global Flow Chemistry Market Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast to 2020

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Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has been serving as an active source to cater intelligent research report to enlighten both readers and investors. This research study titled Flow ChemistryRequest a Free Sample Report @Traditional manufacturing processes primarily based on batch and semi-batch operating modes carry economic, environmental and production drawbacks. Over a period, new developments in the field of synthesis of chemicals have taken place for sustainable production. Flow chemistry is anticipated to be the potential solution to address environmental and productivity challenges. In flow chemistry, a chemical reaction is carried out by constant pumping of a stream with dissolved reaction mixture through a reactor. Flow chemistry offers various benefits to manufacturers. These include improved reaction time, better temperature control, multi-step production and safety & environmental profiles.Based on product segments, the market for flow chemistry has been classified into microreactor systems, continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR), plug flow reactor (PFR) and microwave reactor, among others. Continuous stirred tank reactor accounted for over 40% of the global flow chemistry market in 2013. The market for flow chemistry is primarily driven by increasing need to lower operating costs and adoption of sustainable technologies by manufacturers. Flow chemistry offers various advantages vis-a-vis batch reactors, including superior heat and mass transfer. These advantages lead to controlled reactions, higher purified products, low raw material consumption and significant savings in installation costs. Microreactor systems is expected to be the fastest growing product segment in the flow chemistry market during the forecast period. Microreactor systems offer higher purified products and reaction yields compared to other flow chemistry equipment. However, issues related to scaling-up of the technology for commercialization and need to meet government regulations in the pharmaceutical industry are likely to hamper market growth during the forecast period.Send an Inquiry @The chemical segment has been dominating the demand for flow chemistry over the past few years. In terms of revenue, the segment accounted for over 35% of the global flow chemistry market in 2013. Rising demand for flow chemistry in complex chemical reactions coupled with the need to adopt green manufacturing technologies is projected to drive demand for flow chemistry in this segment. Pharmaceutical is anticipated to be the second-largest end-user of flow chemistry during the forecast period. Increasing demand for flow chemistry by manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) is estimated to boost the flow chemistry market. Flow chemistry is also expected to enhance the E-factor in the manufacture of APIs. Pharmaceutical is likely to be the most lucrative end-user segment in the flow chemistry market. Academic & industrial research is also projected to be one of the major outlets for flow chemistry in the next few years. Flow chemistry has the ability to enhance the purity and refining properties of products in the petrochemical industry. Other major end-users for flow chemistry include polymers, dyes and nanostructured materials.North America was the largest regional market for flow chemistry, accounting for over 35% of the global demand in 2013. Rising demand for flow chemistry in pharmaceutical and chemical industries is driving the flow chemistry market in the region. Asia Pacific was the second-largest market for flow chemistry in 2013. Increase in chemical, pharmaceutical and industrial research activities is projected to boost the demand for flow chemistry in the region. Demand for flow chemistry in Europe is rising, due to higher number of academic & industrial research activities coupled with increase in manufacture of nanostructured materials. Rest of the World is expected to be the fastest growing region in the flow chemistry market during the forecast period. Countries such as Brazil, Saudi Arabia and South Africa are anticipated to offer better opportunities for the flow chemistry market, due to high demand for flow chemistry in chemical and petrochemical industries.View Complete Report with Table of Content @Companies such as Syrris Ltd., ThalesNano Inc., Uniqsis Ltd., Vapourtec Ltd., FutureChemistry Holding BV, Chemtrix B.V., AM Technology, Royal DSM and Lonza Group are the major manufacturers in the flow chemistry market. Most manufacturers offer continuous stirred tank reactors, plug flow reactors and microreactor systems, among others.About Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:Cytomegalovirus Infection Market: Key Players and Production Information Analysis 2017 - 2025

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Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is one of the common herpesvirus infection with different symptoms, which occurs in people of all ages across the globe. This viral infection is communicable and can easily spread through body fluids such as blood, urine, saliva, semen and breast milk. The infection can spread easily through saliva or urine and the people infected with the CMV may have the virus in their saliva or urine for months. The disease can be transmitted from pregnant women to the baby during the delivery. Blood transfusion and infected organ transplant is yet another mode of disease transmission.Request for Table of Contents @The infection can be diagnosed through serological testing methods such as Enzyme-linked immunoassay test. Many of the cases of CMV goes undiagnosed in early stage of infection thus the awareness about the infection is most important factor. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in U.S., each year around 150 infants are born with cytomegalovirus infections and few of them have long term health problems.The key factor responsible for growth of cytomegalovirus infection is increasing public awareness related to herpes virus infections which is fueling the diagnosis rate in North America and Europe. North America was observed as the largest market for cytomegalovirus infection treatment followed by Europe. Asia Pacific was anticipated to grow at a fastest CAGR during the forecast period. The key factors assisting the growth of Asia Pacific cytomegalovirus infection treatment market are the rising awareness associated with the rare diseases, developing healthcare infrastructure, high disposable income and government support for novel treatment against rare genetic diseases.Based on product type, the market is segmented into Cidofovir, Foscarnet, Valganciclovir, and Ganciclovir. These are few of the most prescriobed medication for the treatment of cytomegalovirus. Similarly, based on distribution channel, the market is segmented into, hospital pharmacies, retail pharmacies and online pharmacies. Hospital pharmacies are expected to hold maximum share in the market due to the easy availability of medication and increasing prescription patterns for the treatment of CMV.Region wise, the global cytomegalovirus infection market is classified into regions namely, North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, and Middle East and Africa. The growth of CMV virus is attributed to the increasing awareness regarding the herpes virus and increasing diagnosis rate in developed region such as North America and Europe. Similarly, the government initiatives for the awareness regarding rate disease, growing healthcare expenditure and escalating disposable income are few of the factors responsible the market growth in Asia-Pacific.Request to View Sample of Research Report @The key players in the market are F. Hoffmann-La Roche, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Vical, Inc., AiCuris Anti-infective Cures GmbH, ViroPharma, Chimerix, Inc., and others.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Low Bed Trailer Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 20172025

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A low bed trailer is utilized in various applications and has the capability to carry loads up to 12 feet high. A low bed trailer is majorly used to carry oversized cargo such as industrial equipment, bulldozers. The high spending for infrastructure development in the emerging economies such as China and India is a key driver for the global low bed trailer market. For example, for road construction, China invested US$ 207 billion in 2015 and built 49,000 miles of expressways. Similarly, for the development of 35,000 km of roads across the country, the Indian government released funding of US$ 45 billion. The 14000 km will be developed for feeder route and 21000 km will be for economic corridor.Request Table of Content of This Report:Moreover, the Indian government also released the fund of US$ 65 billion for the upgrade of two lane national highway to four lane national highway. Hence, this increasing investment of the road construction have increased the demand of transportation of heavy manufacturing equipment has fueled the market of low bed trailer globally. In addition to this, the increasing adoption of mass reduction technology by the OEMs for the fleet trucks for increasing demand of fuel efficiency also become one of the major driver for the growth of the global low bed trailer market. Improved aerodynamics, low rolling resistance, use of low-rolling-resistance tires, idling reduction technologies are some of the new technologies adopted by the OEMs which helps to improve the fuel efficiency of the trailers.In addition to this, the increasing demand of freight for defense equipment and shortage of vehicle logistics for rail and road transport are some of the other drivers which also provides the growth opportunity to the global low bed trailer market.Low bed trailer market taxonomyOn the basis of product type, the global Low-bed trailer market is classified into:2 axle3 axle4 axle6 axleothersBased on product segment the 3 axle product segment holds the dominant position in the global Low-bed trailer market in 2016 and is projected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. The increasing demand for transportation of agriculture and building machines become the major driving factor for the growth of 3 axle product in the global Low-bed trailer marketOn the basis of application, the global Low-bed trailer market is classified into:Forestry ApplicationMining Industry ApplicationEngineering Construction ApplicationOtherLow bed trailer Market Outlook  North America holds the largest market of the global Low-bed trailer market.On the basis of geography, global Low-bed trailer market is classified into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa. Asia pacific holds the dominant position in the global Low-bed trailer market in 2016 and is projected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. The increasing infrastructure facilities such as production halls, bridges, public buildings, roads and many more in Asia pacific countries such as India, China has increased the demand of specialized equipment and manufacturing structures and machines provides the growth opportunity to the Asia pacific low bed trailer market. For example, for highway network the china government have a target to build 3 million km by 2020Key companies of global Low bed trailer marketKogel Trailer GmbH & Co.KG, Bernard Krone Holding SE & Co. KG, Wabash National Corporation, Bockmann Fahrzeugwerke GmbH, Dennison Trailers ltd, Great Dane Trailers, Humbaur GmbH, Utility Trailer Manufacturing Company are some of the key companies of the global Low bed trailer market.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 New Website:Fingerprint Access Control Systems Market Size Report, 2025 | QYResearchReports

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Fingerprint Access Control Systems Market Professional Survey Report 2018 to its huge collection of research reports.The global Fingerprint Access Control Systems market has been deeply assessed in this report compiled by experienced researchers and analysts of the industry. The authors have made it a point to make it simpler for readers to understand the important trends of the market and how players could gain a strong growth in the near future. Factors affecting the growth of the market, both positive and negative, have been thrown light upon in the report to help prepare effective business strategies beforehand. This could aid players to determine growth prospects and also stay aware of possible downfalls of the market.For more info, get a Sample PDF with TOC:The global Fingerprint Access Control Systems market could be segmented as per different categories such as application, product, and geography. Each segment of the market is expected to be closely examined by the researchers based on their revenue, share, production, and other critical factors. Market segmentation study is one of the most significant resources in a research report that helps players to identify trending and high growth segments. Readers have also been provided with regional segmentation of the market to understand how the industry is performing across the world. CAGR and market share of each region have been informed to readers along with a study of vital growth trends observed.The report has made a great attempt to predict the nature of the competitive landscape of the global Fingerprint Access Control Systems market. Key companies operating in the market have been assessed in the report to provide information about their recent developments, market shares, and strategies they adopt. It could be encouraging for readers to know that the analysts have made use of advanced research methodologies to compile the report. Thus, readers could expect a high accuracy level when it comes of numerical data and statistical information. Overall, the analysts have made a fine effort to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the market.Table of ContentsGlobal Fingerprint Access Control Systems Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Fingerprint Access Control Systems1.1 Definition and Specifications of Fingerprint Access Control Systems1.1.1 Definition of Fingerprint Access Control Systems1.1.2 Specifications of Fingerprint Access Control Systems1.2 Classification of Fingerprint Access Control Systems1.2.1 Microprocessor1.2.2 Fingerprint Recognition Module1.2.3 Liquid Crystal Display Module1.3 Applications of Fingerprint Access Control Systems1.3.1 Residential1.3.2 Commercial1.3.3 Military & Defense1.3.4 OtherRead Complete Table of Content @2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Fingerprint Access Control Systems2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Fingerprint Access Control Systems2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Fingerprint Access Control Systems2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Fingerprint Access Control Systems3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Fingerprint Access Control Systems3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Fingerprint Access Control Systems Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Fingerprint Access Control Systems Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Fingerprint Access Control Systems Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Fingerprint Access Control Systems Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Fingerprint Access Control Systems Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Fingerprint Access Control Systems Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Fingerprint Access Control Systems Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Fingerprint Access Control Systems Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Fingerprint Access Control Systems Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Fingerprint Access Control Systems Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Fingerprint Access Control Systems Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Fingerprint Access Control SystemsTable Product Specifications of Fingerprint Access Control SystemsTable Classification of Fingerprint Access Control SystemsFigure Global Production Market Share of Fingerprint Access Control Systems by Type in 2016Figure Microprocessor PictureTable Major Manufacturers of MicroprocessorFigure Fingerprint Recognition Module PictureTable Major Manufacturers of Fingerprint Recognition ModuleFigure Liquid Crystal Display Module PictureEnquiry For Discount Visit @QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comNarrowband Internet of Things (IoT) chipset Market by devices, Deployment Type, End-users and Geography - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 20172025

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Narrowband internet of things is a low power wide area network technology specially developed for IOT devices, which requires small amount of data for long time. According to International Energy Agency (IEA), which works to ensure reliable, affordable, and clean energy for its 29 member countries estimated that, 14 billion network devices will be enabled globally by 2020. These devices are connected for cost saving, remote control, and many more. Moreover, increasing innovation in IOT services and hardware offers an opportunity to generate a new revenue. For instance, internet connected wearable glasses are used for industrial application, control of IOT application from smart phones, and tablets etc. Hence, this increasing IOT devices and rising IOT innovation are some of the key factors, which drives the narrowband IOT chipset market globally.Request Table of Content of This Report:Narrowband Internet of Things Chipset Market TaxonomyOn the basis of devices, the global narrowband internet of things chipset market is classified into:TrackersWearable DevicesSmart AppliancesSmart MeteringSmart ElectricSmart GasSmart WaterAlarms and DetectorsOthersAlarm and detectors device segment held the dominating position in 2016 and is projected to maintain its dominance over the forecast period. Moreover, the tracker device segment is expected to grow with largest CAGR in the forecast period. Due to increasing fraudulent activities, the companies have adopted tracking devices, which provides real-time location of the vehicle and shipments.On the basis of deployment type, the global narrowband internet of things chipset market is classified into:Guard BandIn-bandStandaloneOn the basis of end-use industry, the global narrowband internet of things chipset market is classified into:AgricultureAutomotive & TransportationBuilding AutomationEnergyHealthcareInfrastructureRetailSafety & SecurityOthersInfrastructure segment held the dominating position in 2016 and is projected to maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period. Increasing safety concern has become one of the major factors for the growth of the market in infrastructure segment. Adoption of alarm and detector by various industries fuels the market of narrowband IOT chipset globally. Moreover, the automotive and transportation segment is expected to grow with largest CAGR over the forecast period. Increasing installation of vehicle infotainment and telematics application has increased the narrowband IOT chipset market in automotive and transportation segment.Narrowband Internet of Things Chipset Market Outlook  Asia Pacific holds significant market shareOn the basis of geography, global narrowband internet of things chipset market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa. North America narrowband internet of things chipset market held the dominant position in 2016 and is projected to retain dominance over the forecast period. The U.S and Canada are some of the major countries which drive the market in North America region. According to the SmartAmerica Challenge, increasing support of the U.S government and investment for the adoption of IOT technology in various industries such as utilities, manufacturing, and healthcare are providing a key growth opportunities for narrowband internet of things market in the U.S. The Asia Pacific narrowband IOT chipset market is projected to increase with largest CAGR in the forecast period. India, china, and Japan are some of the major countries driving the market in Asia Pacific region. The investment for smart city projects by the Asia Pacific countries has become one of the major driving factors for growth of the market in the region.Key Players in the Global Narrowband Internet of Things Chipset MarketKey players operating global narrowband internet of things chipset market include Vodafone Group PLC, Verizon Communications, U-Blox Holding AG, Samsung Electronics, Qualcomm Incorporated, Nokia Corporation, Mistase Communication System, Intel Corporation, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., and Ericsson.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 New Website:Professional coordination of civil protection

In many places, emergency services struggle to recruit volunteers for civil protection duties. However, in the event of a natural disaster or other crisis situation, there is an impressive willingness to help among those members of the general public not already involved in a voluntary capacity. While this spontaneous readiness to help is welcomed, it presents a major challenge for the emergency and rescue services, such as fire services, aid organizations and the German federal agency for technical relief (Technisches Hilfswerk). What is the best way to coordinate all these voluntary helpers?For the public authorities, it is impossible to know in advance whether, when and how many volunteers might be available in a concrete disaster situation. Furthermore, as a rule, volunteers are not qualified to deal with disaster situations and must therefore be instructed and trained before deployment. This takes time, which is often lacking. Consequently, many emergency and rescue services decline to cooperate with volunteer helpers, with the result that the resources of society remain untapped. To address this problem, the Institute of Human Factors and Technology Management IAT at the University of Stuttgart, which cooperates closely with the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO, has developed the concept of the intermediary agency. This is designed to facilitate the structured deployment of spontaneous, unaffiliated helpers, thereby conserving the resources of the emergency and rescue services. In other words, they outsource responsibility for coordinating volunteer help to these so-called intermediary agencies, which therefore function as an organizational and cultural bridge, providing access to spontaneous help from within society.Guidelines now published describe the ideal way of organizing such cooperation, what it demands, and practical experience with the concept of the intermediary agency. They answer the questions frequently asked both by the intermediary agency and the emergency and rescue services: What is the precise nature of the intermediary agency? What different types are there? What is the best way to provide help for the emergency and rescue services, and which legal and organizational issues must be observed? They are available for free download via the link below.KOKOS (support for cooperation from voluntary helpers in complex missions) is a joint research project of the Institute of Human Factors and Technology Management IAT at the University of Stuttgart together with the University of Siegen and Vomatec Innovations GmbH. It receives funding from the German federal ministry of education and research (FKZ 13N13559-13N13561).Contact:Veronika ZettlUrban Data and ResilienceFraunhofer IAONobelstrae 1270569 StuttgartPhone +49 711 970-2378E-Mail: veronika.zettl@iao.fraunhofer.deFraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO helps companies and institutions introduce new business models and efficient processes to make their businesses more successful. With our in-depth knowledge of organizational structures and technologies, we have the skills you need to put applied research into practice. We participate in international networks, investigating and shaping the frontline themes that are most relevant to the future of Germany as a business location.Juliane SegediHead of Marketing and CommunicationFraunhofer IAONobelstrae 1270569 StuttgartPhone +49 711 970-2124E-Mail: juliane.segedi@iao.fraunhofer.deAcute Renal Failure Therapeutics Market Overview, Shares, Trends, Size, Growth and Research Report

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Acute renal failure is a sudden loss of kidneys ability to eliminate excess fluids, salts and metabolic waste from the body. It leads to accumulation of metabolic waste and electrolytes in the body which can be life-threatening. Kidney eliminates creatinine (Metabolic waste) from the body. But due to medications like trimethoprim, cimetidine and Sulfa-Metha oxazole tubular secretion of the kidney is reduced. It leads to accumulation of creatinine in the blood which leads to acute renal failure. The primary cause of acute renal failure is prerenal, intrarenal and postrenal. Prerenal causes are common with depletion of intravascular volume. Intrarenal is due to damage of the tubules. Postrenal is due to the obstruction of tracks. Other causes are severe or sudden dehydration, medication toxicity, autoimmune diseases such as nephritis, and low blood pressure. They are many risk factors associated with acute renal failure. It mainly includes kidney diseases, liver diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart failure. The symptoms include bloody stools, fatigue, decreased appetite, prolonged bleeding, and seizures. Treatment mainly includes underlying cause of the acute renal failure. It mainly includes balancing of body fluids, potassium supplements, calcium supplements and dialysis. The treatment is directed to optimize the renal perfusion and blood glucose control.Request for Table of Contents @Acute renal failure associated with mortality, organ dysfunctions, and development of chronic kidney diseases. It also has long term and short term issues in functional status and leads to increased healthcare expenditure. The incidence of acute renal failure is high and it most common in elderly, diabetic and obese. Etiology is also high and may be secondary to infections such as dengue, malaria, and leptospirosis. The proportion of patients receiving treatment for acute renal failure depends on the economies of the countries. Renal failure is more common in low-middle income countries followed by high-income countries. Because increasing burden of acute renal failure, professional organizations and societies are disseminating information effectively to increase awareness. American Society of Nephrology and International society of nephrology are professional organization involved in fostering education and research. Acute renal failure is common globally and imposes high health care burden. All these factors act as drivers in the robust growth of acute renal failure therapeutic.Global Acute Renal Failure Therapeutics market witnessed rapid growth due to rising demand for potential health benefits. International private foundations are actively involved in raising awareness. Collaborative, multidisciplinary initiative is taken by the companies to develop an innovative therapy for acute renal failure. The future of Acute Renal Failure Therapeutics market is anticipated to grow at double CAGR during the forecast period.Global Acute Renal Failure Therapeutics Market segmented into North America, Europe, Asia -Pacific & Japan, The Middle East and Africa regions and Latin America by region wise. North America dominates the global Acute Renal Failure Therapeutics Market due to the high awareness among the patients, and in North America, USA is a major stakeholder due to the strong players. Europe and Asia-pacific are the fastest growing market in Acute Renal Failure Therapeutics Market due to high penetration. The economic conditions in Asia-pacific region rise the Acute Renal Failure Therapeutics market to new heights. The Middle East and Africa regions and Latin America are also showing significantly less growth because of less knowledge regarding acute renal failure therapeutics during the forecasted period.Request to View Sample of Research Report @The key participants in Acute Renal Failure Therapeutics Market are Baxter, Teva Pharmaceutical Limited Inc, Pfizer, Novartis AG, Eisai Pharmaceuticals India Pvt. Ltd., and others. The companies are mainly focusing on intense marketing to convey health benefits of acute renal failure therapeutics.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Caps and Closure Market: World Market Sales, Consumption, Demand and Forecast 2023

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The report on global caps and closure market provides qualitative and quantitative analysis for the period of 2015 to 2023. According to the report the global caps and closure market is projected to grow with a CAGR of 4.9% from 2017 to 2023. In terms of volume the caps and closure market is likely to surpass 3.34 trillion units by 2023, with volume CAGR slightly more than 4.4% between 2017 and 2023. The global caps and closure market was worth USD 49.78 billion in 2015.Market InsightsThe report identified that the global caps and closure market is driven by factors such as, increasing demand in Asia-Pacific region, growth in applications such as food & beverages and pharmaceuticals. Moreover, growth in plastic and glass containers/bottles is likely to boost the market size of caps and closures over the next few years. On the other hand, the restraining factors identified in the study include demand for lightweight & cost-effective packaging.Get Sample Copy of this Report:Rising demand for plastic caps and closures and increasing use of PET-Disposable bottles provide opportunity for major players in the emerging and developing economies. Flexible packaging such as pouches for sealing containers and usage of PVC, paper, aluminium and polypropylene as a substitute is a challenge for the major players to expand further during the forecast period.Segments Covered:The report segments the global caps and closure market on the basis of raw-materials, type, end-use industry and region. The market size of each segment has been provided in terms of value (USD) and volume (tons). The market segments, by raw-material include plastic, metal & others. The market segments by type include plastic caps & closures, metal caps & closures, caps & closures and other. The market segments by end-use industry include beverage industry, food industry, healthcare industry, cosmetics & toiletries and chemical & automotive industry.Make an Enquiry:Geographic Coverage and Analysis:The report provides regional analysis covering geographies such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World. In this section the key trends and market size for each geography is provided over the period of 2017  2023.Asia Pacific is the key consumer of caps and closures in the global market. As of 2015, this region accounted for about 31% share in the global market. Europe accounted for 24% of the global share followed by North America at 20%. The rising demand for canned food and beverages is the primary factor driving the Asia Pacific caps and closures market. The rising demand for plastic packaging in regions of Europe and North America is fuelling demand for plastic screw caps which in turn is boosting opportunities for caps and closures market. India and China are emerging to be the economies across the APAC region, which are expected to grow with a rate of 7.9% during the forecast period.Browse Research Report:Companies Profiled:The companies covered in the report include Pact Group Holdings Ltd, Aptar Group Inc., Reynolds Group Holdings Ltd, Closure Systems International (CSI), Silgan Holdings Inc., Crown Holdings, Inc., Berry Plastics Corporation, BERICAP GmbH und Co KG, Alpla Holdings Gmbh, Amcor Ltd., Essel Propack Ltd.About UsInfinium Global Research and Consulting Solutions is started with a single motto of being business partner of first choice. We at Infinium work on the strengths of our clients to ensure we help them consolidate their market position. We firmly believe in the fact that if you are able to develop newer opportunities then you find there is no dearth of opportunities for you. With our strategic research approaches and deep dive in the market segments, we try to find out new opportunities that our clients can encash with their existing resources. Our experts with over 100 years of cumulative experience in research offer the best in the industry services to our clients to ensure that they achieve their business goals.Contact UsInfinium Global Research,Toll Free:U.S. + Canada: 1-800-638-0796,Website :Email: sales@infiniumglobalresearch.comAnti--Alzheimer Therapies That Cut Attacks Hailed As 'huge Deal'

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Alzheimer disease (AD) is a type of dementia that affects memory, thinking, language and behavior. Increasing age and high number of people suffering from Alzheimer's with age 65 and older are the major risk factors for progression of this disorder. It starts with mild symptoms and ends with severe brain damage in which individuals lose the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to their environment. According to Alzheimer Association, 2017, more than 5.5 million Americans are suffering from Alzheimers dementia. An estimated 5.3 million are age 65 and older and approximately 200,000 individuals are under age 65 and have onset of Alzheimer's. Alzheimers cognitive and behavioral symptoms can be treated using non-drug treatment and symptomatic based medications. However, specific treatment for Alzheimer disease is not available in the market, which creates an opportunity for development of Anti- - Alzheimer therapies.Request For Sample Copy@Global Anti--Alzheimer Therapies Market Taxonomy:By Drug:AducanumabBapineuzumabSolanezumabBy Distribution Channel:Hospital PharmaciesRetail PharmaciesOnline PharmaciesA breakthrough therapy is expected to provide immense growth for the Anti--Alzheimer therapies marketIn July 2015, Biogen Pharmaceuticals announced results from a prespecified interim analysis of PRIME, which was the Phase 1b placebo-controlled study of aducanumab in patients with prodromal or mild Alzheimers disease (AD). Phase I clinical trials were conducted on 166, patients, which showed significant progress by lowering of Amyloid beta levels in the brain and slowdown in cognitive function as compared to the control group who received placebo. Phase III efficacy trial showed significant cognitive results in FDA based specific memory tests. On the other hand, in 2016, Eli Lilly and Company announced the development of Alzheimer drug solanezumab, which was in phase III clinical trial due to its slow progression of the Alzheimer disease and high cost.In 2012, Pfizer Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, announced to discontinue the development of Alzheimer drug which was in intravenous (IV) form  bapineuzumab as drug failed to help patient with memory robbing condition in a second high profile clinical trial. Such failures, deter the expected growth of a market.Increasing prevalence and incidence of Alzheimer disease is expected to favor the growth of Anti--Alzheimer therapies marketIncreasing aging population along with its associated complications, such as dementia is the major driving factor for the growth of Anti--Alzheimer therapies market. For instance, according to Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2013, five million Americans were suffering from AD and the number is expected to rise up to 14 million by 2050. Moreover, according to World Health Organization (WHO), 2017, approximately 47 million people have dementia and nearly 10 million new cases are reported annually.According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in 2013, dementia was the second leading cause of death in Australia. According to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) estimates, the number of people with dementia is expected to reach around 400,000 by 2020, and around 900,000 by 2050. The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is working in collaboration with the Australian Research Council (ARC) to priorities and fund new dementia research projects and translate research to improve prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care for dementia patients. Increasing prevalence and incidence of Alzheimer disease and its complication worldwide and rise in demand for therapy is expected to favor the growth of Anti--Alzheimer therapies market in near future.Biogen Pharmaceuticals is a key player dominating the global Anti--Alzheimer therapies market.Get More Details On this Report: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:The call for papers for the Software-QS-Tag 2018 is now underway

Moehrendorf, 9 February 2018  Software and IT-based systems are to be developed within an ever shorter period of time at lowest possible costs and with high quality. For this purpose, the QA and testing of the systems have to be automated throughout the entire process. Thats why this years Software-QS-Tag is entitled Continuous Everything. The call for papers is out now.From the tool-supported administration and verification of requirements, through completely automated statistic and dynamic tests to automatic deployment into the target environment: In order to master these challenges successfully, strategies, techniques, tools and best practices for quality assurance and test in continuous integration, delivery and deployment will be presented and discussed at the conference.About 60 lectures, workshops, tutorials and scientific research reports communicate whats important for software development. The topic areas will be amongst others Requirements & (agile) Scaling, Testmanagement, Testmethods & Monitoring as well as Testautomation & Deployment.Applications can be sent till 22nd May 2018. The presentations can be held in German or English. This year, the Software-QS-Tag best paper award is again distributed. The assessment takes into account the quality of content, depth and novelty of the contributions and the papers as well as the feedback of the conference participants about the quality of the speeches and presentations.The Software-QS-Tag takes place on 18th and 19th October 2017 in Frankfurt on the Main, Germany. In its more than 25 years history, it has established itself as the leading conference in the field of software quality assurance and testing in the German-speaking region. There is a new, challenging key issue each year running like a golden thread through all slots of the conference.Visit www.qs-tag.de/en/call-for-papers for further information on the submission and the guidelines as well as the call for papers form.imbus is a leading solution partner for professional software testing and intelligent software quality assurance.Our portfolio includes consulting for process improvement, software testing services, test outsourcing, test tools, and training.With our comprehensive know-how, the latest tools, and our proven methodology, we increase the reliability and performance of software products, software-intensive systems, and complete IT structures, and as a manufacturer-independent partner, we assure their correct functionality.Since 1992, the experienced and highly-qualified imbus team has been synonymous with across-the-board software quality assurance from a single source that covers the entire lifecycle.The expertise acquired from around 6,000 successful projects over a period of 25 years provides a solid foundation for the daily work of our experts, all of whom are ISTQB Certified Testers. Here you can find the corresponding reference projects.imbus is currently represented by more than 270 employees at locations in Moehrendorf near Erlangen, Munich, Cologne, Hofheim near Frankfurt, Lehre near Braunschweig, Norderstedt near Hamburg, Toronto (Canada), Shanghai (China), Peja (Kosovo) and Sousse (Tunisia).imbus AGPress OfficeFiona ProellKleinseebacher Str. 991096 MoehrendorfGermanyPhone +49 9131 7518-0Fax +49 9131 7518-50She could have done more, according to the president. Photo: John McCall/TNS via Getty Images

On Wednesday, a troubled young man once again turned an American school into a war zone. Seventeen more people died bleeding and terrified in a place that was supposed to nurture their potential. There have now been 18 school shootings in 2018, and well over 300 mass shootings since Donald Trump took office.

Over the latter period, the president has rolled back a rule that would have made it more difficult for the severely mentally ill to obtain firearms; made it easier for fugitives to purchase guns; and proposed $12 million in cuts to Americas background check system. He has also tried to slash $625 million from federal mental health programs, and $1 trillion from Medicaid, one of the top sources of health insurance for the mentally ill in the United States.

And, of course, Trump and his party have prevented any piece of legislation regulating the firearms market from making it into law.

On Thursday morning, the president expressed regret that more hadnt been done to prevent the senseless violence at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. But he did not fault himself or Congress for inaction; rather, he laid responsibility for the tragedy at the feet of the dead.

So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2018

Nikolas Cruz was expelled from his high school. His mother (reportedly) regularly called the police to have them come to their home to try to talk some sense into him. The authorities knew about the 19-year-olds bad and erratic behavior. But they could do little about it. It is not a crime to be mentally disturbed and poorly behaved. And, thanks to the president (and, arguably, the Supreme Courts interpretation of the Second Amendment) it is not illegal for a mentally ill person to purchase an assault weapon.

But the recreational liberty of far-right gun enthusiasts  and the profit margins of firearms manufacturers  must never be restricted. And so the victims must be taught that they brought this on themselves.Learn Details of the Global Atrophic Gastritis Treatment Market During 2017 - 2025

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Atopic gastritis is chronic inflammation of gastric mucosa, and it is a histopathological condition associated with gastric glandular cell and replacement by fibrous tissue, intestinal type epithelium, and pyloric type glands. It mainly associated H. Pylori bacterial infection, and autoimmunity directed against gastric glandular cell.Symptoms include stomach pain, loss of appetite, nausea, unexpected weight loss, iron deficiency anemia. There is a high chance for the development of pernicious anemia in autoimmune atrophic gastritis Individual due to the loss of anti-intrinsic antibodies and parietal cell mass.Request Report for TOC @Atrophic gastritis associated with H. Pylori are at high risk of developing gastric carcinoma and is frequently asymptomatic. Individuals associated with chronic atrophic gastritis develop hypergastrinemia and low gastric acid output which may lead to carcinoid tumors and enterochromaffin-like cell hyperplasia. Atrophic gastritis develops at childhood and if, it is left untreated atrophic gastritis progress throughout the lifespan.Treatment mainly includes antibiotics for eliminating H. Pylori bacteria. Symptomatic treatment includes vitamin B-12 injections. Proton pump inhibitors used to control the acidity of the stomach. Autoimmune atrophic gastritis associated with gastric polyps, pernicious anemia, and adenocarcinoma. Atrophic gastritis diagnosed by low levels of B-12, low levels of pepsinogen, high levels of gastrin and intrinsic factors.Atrophic gastritis is associated with loss of gastric gland and is a progressive condition with the replacement of metaplasia. It is asymptomatic and associated with large complications like gastric carcinoma, hyperplasia, hypergastrinemia, increased risk of heart attack in elderly. The frequency of atrophic gastritis is unknown due to it is mostly asymptomatic.Atrophic gastritis is extremely common and is highly prevalent in different parts of the globe. In atrophic gastritis, eradication of H. Pylori is highly complicated, and it requires follow-up for several years. Eradication of H. Pylori reduces the risk of developing cancers in late stages. Mortality and morbidity associated with atrophic gastritis are depended on underlying complications of diseases.Atrophic gastritis requires a continuous management because recurrence of illness is high. All these factors act as a driver in the robust growth of the atrophic gastritis treatment market.Global Atrophic Gastritis treatment market witnessed rapid growth due to rising demand for potential health benefits. Manufacturers shifted towards Bismuths containing drugs due to the high resistance to traditional medicines. In most of the case, triple therapy (Combinations of three different type of antibiotics) is administered.The rate of antibiotic resistance is also increasing with usage and manufacturers are more focused towards developing combination therapy. The future of Atrophic Gastritis treatment market is anticipated to grow at double CAGR during the forecast period.Global Atrophic Gastritis treatment Market segmented into North America, Europe, Asia -Pacific & Japan, The Middle East and Africa regions and Latin America by region wise. North America dominates the global Atrophic Gastritis treatment Market due to the high awareness among the patients, and in North America, USA is a major stakeholder due to the strong players.Europe and Asia-pacific are the fastest growing market in Atrophic Gastritis treatment Market due to high incidence. The economic conditions in Asia-pacific region rise the Atrophic Gastritis treatment market to new heights. The Middle East and Africa regions and Latin America are also showing significantly less growth because of less knowledge regarding Atrophic Gastritis treatment during the forecasted period.Request to Sample of Report @The key participants in Atrophic Gastritis treatment Market are Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, PERNIX Therapeutics, Perrigo Pharmaceutical, Teva Pharmaceutical, and Others. The companies are mainly focusing on intense marketing to convey health benefits of atrophic gastritis treatment market.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Artificial Joints Market Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2017-2025

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Joint diseases and related conditions causes degradation of cartilage and fluid between bones, which is necessary for smooth, painless, and quick movement of joints. Degenerative disorders such as osteoarthritis and stress related conditions results in abnormalities in the joints, which in turn, requires surgical procedure, arthroplasty. Arthroplasty is the medical procedure to treat joints for effective and pain free movement of the interlinked bones. The procedure is mostly carried out for large joints such as hip, shoulder, elbow, and knees. An ideal artificial joint is made to withstand joint biocompatibility, wear, kinetic impacts, and antibacterial properties. Various materials are used such as ceramic (silica, zirconia, hydroxyapatite, titanium nitride, and silicon nitride), alloys (titanium and Chromium cobalt based alloys), Oxinium, and polyethylene (cross-linked polyethylene and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene). However, the combination of materials such as metal-on-metal, metal-on-ceramic, ceramic-on-metal, metal-on-polyethylene, and ceramic-on-polyethylene are widely used in the market.Rising geriatric population and obese individuals is leading to the musculoskeletal disorders, hypertension, and other lifestyle diseases. Osteoarthritis is the most prevalent musculoskeletal disease affecting geriatric population, causing a rise in demand for artificial joints. Moreover, the artificial joints with integrated circuits and other R&D initiatives relevant to the artificial joints accessing brain neuron impulses are expected to further drive growth of the market. However, factors such as high cost of artificial joints and product recalls are expected to hamper growth of the market. According to the estimates of American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR), hip or knee surgeries are performed on around 7 million people in the U.S. Hip and Knee surgeries account for more than 85% of the total joint replacement surgeries in the U.S. Similarly, according to National Joint Registry, in 2016, around 101,651 hip, 108,713 knees, 6,967 shoulders, and 722 elbow replacement surgeries were performed in U.K.Request For Sample Copy@Global Artificial Joints Market TaxonomyOn the basis of material type, the global artificial joints market is segmented into:CeramicsAlloysOxiniumOthersOn the basis of application, the global artificial joints market is segmented into:Artificial Joints of HipArtificial Joints of KneeArtificial Joints of ShoulderOthersOn the basis of product type, the global artificial joints market is segmented into:Cemented JointsNon-Cemented JointsHigh healthcare expenditure and continuous R&D initiatives in the development of artificial joints is expected to propel growth of the market in North AmericaNorth America is expected to hold a dominant position in the global artificial joints market over the forecast period. This is mainly due to presence of developed healthcare infrastructure, high healthcare expenditure, and continuous R&D initiatives in the development of artificial joints. Asia Pacific is projected to exhibit above average growth over the forecast period, owing to the presence of large pool of population suffering from joint related diseases coupled with presence of untapped market opportunity and developing healthcare infrastructure.The global artificial joints market is witnessing a launch of novel technologies which are expected to increase the efficiency of joint replacement surgeries. In 2017, the Corin Group introduced Optimized Positioning System (OPS) for hip replacement surgeries. OPS helps surgeons in determining the position and orientation of hip implant on the basis patients anatomy and movement. In 2017, Stryker Corporation introduced robotic arm assisted total knee arthroplasty, to be used with Mako system. This is the first robotic technology that could be used for total knee, hip, and partial knee replacements.Global artificial joints market is oligopolistic in nature with few players holding majority of the share. Various strategies are adopted by market players such as new product launches, acquisitions, and agreements, in order to retain their market position. In 2017, Exactech Inc., a US based medical device maker, announced that it agreed to be acquired by TPG Capital to go private. With the purchase, the private equity firm plans to compete with larger players in the orthopedic industry.Some of the major players operating in the global artificial joints market are Abbott Laboratories, Boston Scientific, Stryker Corporation, Intuitive Surgical Inc., Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc., Smith and Nephew Plc, Varian Medical Systems, Sonova Holdings AG., Aesculap AG, Arthrex, Globus Medical, and JRI orthopedics.Get More Details On this Report: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:Automotive Instrument Clusters Market in APAC to Worth $4 Billion by 2023 | Arizton

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China, Japan, South Korea, and India are the largest revenue contributors in the APAC automotive instrument clusters marketAriztons recent market research report on the automotive instrument cluster market identifies Continental AG, Denso, Magneti Marelli, Nippon Seiki, and Visteon Corporation as the leading vendors that are likely to dominate the market during the forecast period. This research report provides a detailed analysis of market segmentation by product (analog, hybrid, and digital), by vehicle type (economy cars, luxury cars, and mid-priced cars), by geography (APAC, Europe, Latin America, MEA, and North America).The global automotive instrument cluster market is anticipated to reach revenues of around $12 billion by 2023 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of about 9% during the forecast period.Request for your free sample today!The global automotive instrument clusters market is divided into three major segments that include by product, by vehicle type, and by geography.APAC to occupy the largest market share in the automotive instrument cluster market during forecast periodThe automotive instrument clusters market by geography is segmented into APAC, Europe, Latin America, MEA, and North America. APAC dominated the market share in 2017 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 9% during the forecast period. The growing automotive production and sales will boost the demand for innovative instrument clusters in the APAC region. The economic development and improving lifestyle standards in Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia will also attribute to the demand for sophisticated systems in the APAC market. Additionally, the growing market for luxury cars, hybrid electric vehicles, and electric vehicles in the region will create lucrative opportunities for players in the APAC market.Digital clusters to grow at an impressive CAGR in the automotive instrument clusters market during forecast periodThe product segment in the automotive instrument clusters market is classified into analog, hybrid, and digital.Digital clusters are the fastest growing segment of the market at a CAGR of over 26% during the forecast period.The superior quality of graphics and the ability to customize the information displayed is driving the growth of this segment in the global market. The growing demand for digital instrument clusters in the European market, especially in the UK and Germany is propelling the demand for these systems in the global market. The vendors are launching digital instrument clusters that offer driver with information on car functions such as a trip calculator, cruise control, and messages to gain a larger automotive instrument cluster market share and attract new consumers. Such developments are expected to transform the automotive instrument cluster market during the forecast period.Request for your free sample today!Mid-priced cars segment to dominate the market share in the automotive instrument clusters market during forecast periodThe automotive instrument cluster market by vehicle type is divided into economy cars, luxury cars, and mid-priced cars. Mid-priced cars segment dominated the market share in 2017 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of about 8% during the forecast period. The increasing adoption of hybrid clusters and digital clusters in mid-priced cars will boost the growth of this segment in the global market. The declining price trend for LCD and TFT will encourage vendors to incorporate digital instrument clusters in mid-priced cars and will add to the revenues to in the global market. The establishment of stringent government regulations regarding vehicular safety will boost the adoption of instrument clusters in the global market.The other prominent players in the automotive cluster market are Alps Electric, Aptiv, Desay, Innolux, Japan Display, Kyocera Corporation, LG Electronics, Panasonic Corporation, Bosch, Sharp, and Yazaki Corporation.The complete overview of the latest market research report on automotive instrument cluster market by Arizton is now available.The report also offers a detailed study of major trends, drivers, challenges, and also provides the market size and forecast for major geographical regions and key countries.Order a report now :About AriztonArizton  Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals and materials, IT and media, logistics and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered in generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.Arizton Advisory & IntelligenceChicago, Illinois, 60605Mail: enquiry@arizton.comCall: +1-312-465-7864Multi-Award Winning Children's Book Author Dr Nicole Announces Latest Book In Felix And Booboo Series, 'Special Food For Sam (Allergies)'

Children's Book Author Dr. Nicole

http://www.drnicolebook.com

Multi-award-winning children's book author Dr. Nicole has announced the release of a new book in the Felix and Booboo Series, 'Special Food For Sam (Allergies)'. The new book is one of a series of eight books that address medical issues and make them understandable for young children. The goal is to increase the child's understanding of his body and to help eliminate fear of diseases. This series is also available in French (Felix et Boubou) in paperback, Kindle and PDF versions.In this book, Sam is allergic to eggs, nuts and cow milk. Felix bakes special cookies for Sam. His magical medical instruments helps him prevent the eggs, the nuts and the cow milk from jumping into the cookie dough. That is a big challenge for Felix. This book will help children understand the issues surrounding allergies and will help them understand that suffering from allergies is normal for many people and is no cause for alarm. The book includes a quiz at the end to further the understanding of the child in regards to allergies."My true intentions regarding writing this series are to inspire children to read, to set their imaginations free and to encourage good decision-making regarding health, safety and critical thinking," Dr. Nicole stated. " Writing childrens books is a way for me to give back and be a positive resource to the community. It is a way that I can positively express myself while having some fun and at the same time be a positive role model for both children and caregivers. I hope that my books inspire children to set their minds free and work to make the world a better place."In addition to allergies, other subjects covered in the series include gastroenteritis, broken bones, head lice, otitis, the human body, vaccinations and chickenpox. All of the books in the series can be used by educators and medical professionals to help kids understand that these types of conditions are normal and are not to be feared or avoided.In the traditions of Walt Disney and Dr. Seuss, Dr. Nicole breathes life into inanimate objects and wildly entertaining characters that engage children in powerful ways. Through the parent/child interaction, her works develop a love for reading while helping children develop the most important skill of all - critical thinking. If a child can master the art of critical thinking, nearly everything else falls into place.Dr. Nicoles books have won numerous international awards. A full listing of the awards can be found on her website.Dr. Nicole Allergies Book Cover'Special Food for Sam' has received Readers Favorite 5 stars. A reviewer wrote, "I chose this book to review because it touched on something in my life. My nephew is deathly allergic to nuts and he had a few very close calls because people in his school did not understand about allergies. This book does an excellent job of relating this important topic to youngsters in a way that is fun and engaging. The pictures in the book are beautifully done and partner with the written words perfectly. I also really liked the quiz provided at the end that summarizes the main points in the book. This will make it a good tool in the classroom for teachers as well as at home for parents. Well done."Dr. Nicole also received recognition as one of Quebec's Top 10 Women by the Maman Dion Foundation. The Maman Dion foundation was founded by Therese Tanguay-Dion, known as Maman Dion, a television personality and the Celine Dions mother. The Maman Dion Foundation is an educational foundation that provides support to underprivileged children in the form of clothing, eyewear and school supplies.Dr. Nicole has sold over 150,000 books in her career. She is highly regarded for her work with childrens books and a health guide for families. Her goals are to create in children a love for reading and to create interaction and engagement.No-charge copies of any of her books are available for University teachers, journalists and members of the media who provide email, website, mail address and phone number.Dr. Nicole is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below. Journalists who wish to receive a copy of the books for review or might wish to schedule an interview can email info@drnicolebook.com. All of her English and bilingual works are available on Amazon, AuthorHouse, and other quality book retailers. Free coloring pages are available upon request by sending an email to the author. More information is available at her website.Dr. Nicole Audet holds a Master degree in medical education. She is a professional writer and an engaging speaker. She has worked in Clinical Practice (emergency, family doctor office, University of Montreal affiliated teacher and Lecturer in the Department of Pediatrics of McGill University). She has been the Editor in Chief of the French medical magazine 'Le Medecin du Quebec'. She has presented at many international, national and provincial medical congresses and has managed medical teaching clinics, medical magazines and medical research in computer science. Her books have received many international and national awards.PO Box 1613Shallotte NC, 28459Cryptocurrency ATM Market - Seamless Transition from Virtual to Real Currency

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https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Reports/Cryptocurrency-ATM-Market

Cryptocurrency ATM are machines or kiosks connected to internet which allow the inclusion of cash in exchange of cryptocurrencies such as Litecoin, Bitcoin and others. The ATMs generates paper receipt which allocates the money to a public key on the blockchain. Cryptocurrency or virtual currency is a medium of exchange generated and stored electronically in the blockchain using the encryption techniques for controlling the creation of monetary units and for verifying the transfer of funds.Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Dogecoin are few crypto coins available and are dominating the market. In some cases, the transaction entails the users to have current accounts along with the operator. Moreover, these machines are also introduced to support multiple wallets and exchanges and are programmed to support any nation currency of various denominations. Growing acceptance of decentralized means of transaction is expected to fuel the market over the forecast period.Request For Free Sample Of The Report @Growing number of investors, and user confidence in cryptocurrencies, are also projected to spur the industry demand. Also, increasing mining complexity and growing awareness among the consumers for the crypto coins is further expected to enhance the demand. According to the Coin ATM Radar, the number of bitcoin ATMs is increasing at a steady growth rate of 1.72 ATMs per day.In 2017, Coinsource, one of the major players in the bitcoin ATM industry from California has added 14 new ATM machines in Southern and Northern California. The company installation rate has increased from 1.2 machines per week in 2016 to 2.3 machines per week making a total of 39 units in the region.The ATM machines installed by Coinsource network are one way machines which is only used for buying the bitcoin but the consumer cannot sell the bitcoin. Two-way ATM machines globally represent only one-third of the supply (approx. 30%), which also allows consumer to sell the crypto coins, i.e., bitcoin for approved cash and one-way ATM machines two-third of the market share around 70%.However, companies such as Lamassu are installing the Ethereum ATMs. The processing time of Ethereum ATMs is quite less as compare to the Bitcoion ATMs. An Ethereum ATM takes few seconds for completing a transaction whereas Bitcoin ATM takes around 10 min to complete a transaction. Lamassu has launched approximately 196 ATMs holding a noble share in crypto ATM in the international market.However, the issuing fee associated with transaction made for buying the crypto coins is expected to restrain the market. Furthermore, the providers and manufacturers of the ATM machine are different results in support issues and less efficient ATMs which is also anticipated to hinder the industry.Obtain Report Details @North America region remains the dominating region in terms of value and volume owing to the maximum installations of ATMs in the region such as U.S., Canada and is also expected to dominate the market share over the forecast period. The region is then followed by Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. The Key manufacturers in the market include Genesis Coin, General Bytes, Lamassu, Coinsource, BitAccess, Covault, and BitXatm.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Auto-injectors Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends 2017-2025

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https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/auto-injectors-market-1035

http://www.coherentchronicle.com

Auto-injector is a needle based medical device which is used for the administration of a fixed dose of a particular drug. It can be used for self-administration by the patients or untrained person, as it is easy to handle. Furthermore, auto-injector is significantly used for various mild and severe allergic reactions. If allergic reaction are not cured, then it can even lead to life-threatening condition such as anaphylaxis. Allergy symptoms include trouble in breathing, wheezing, nausea, stomach pain, vomiting, dizziness, faint, swelling of face, mouth, lips, and tongue and skin reactions such as itching, hives, and flushing. Moreover, site of administration depends on the nature of the drug. For instance, insulin shots are always injected in the abdomen site to make them work fast. However, a long term allergy effect caused by food, dust, pollen, and many more substances can lead to life-threatening crisis, which is expected to fuel growth of the auto-injectors market.Request For Sample Copy@Global Auto-injectors Market Taxonomy By Product TypeFillable Auto-injectorPrefilled Auto-injectorBy Technology Automated Auto-injectorManual Auto-injectorBy Usability Reusable Auto-injectorDisposable Auto-injectorBy Design Customized Auto-injectorStandardized Auto-injectorBy Application AnaphylaxisRheumatoid ArthritisDiabetesOthers (multiple sclerosis)By Distribution Channel HospitalsPharmacyAdvancement of auto-injector devices to provide more access to the patients is expected to drive growth of the marketIn 2017, Kaleo Pharmaceutical announced supplemental new drug application (sNDA) named as  AUVI-Q (0.1mg), which was granted a priority review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (US FDA). AUVI-Q is the first known epinephrine auto-injector, which is designed to treat an allergic reactions especially in infants, weighing around 16.6 to 33 pounds. According to the study by Allergy, Asthma & Clinical Immunology, childrens treated with anaphylaxis has limit of around 0.15 mg per auto-injector, which should have 12.7mm needle length and mainly used for patients with high-risk. The high dose of drug use in life-threatening condition, could strike the bone during the administration of epinephrine. Moreover, National Institute of Health (NIH) guidelines recommended AUVI-Q 0.1 mg for peanut allergy, as it contains no epinephrine auto-injector (EAI). Thus, AUVI-Q 0.1mg is mainly designed to minimize complications during treatment of pediatric patients. Furthermore, Kaleo pharmaceutical announced new program called  Q Your School in 2017, this program will provide free AUVI-Q epinephrine auto injector devices to over 67,000 public elementary schools in U.S. AUVI-Q has new advance features such as voice-activated prompts that will give precise guidelines. Thus, it is expected to propel growth of the auto-injectors market.Moreover, Kmart Pharmacy is recognized as the national leader in customers satisfaction in U.S., ranked by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Due to the high cost of epinephrine auto-injector pens, in 2017, Kmart pharmacy decided to lower cost of generic version of Adrenaclick (epinephrine injection), as low with manufacturers coupons. This scheme will provide affordable access to the patients, with health insurance costing no money and on the purchase of two pack of auto-injector, it will cost up to US$ 199.99. Thereby, Kmart Pharmacy is trying to serve auto-injector in affordable price, which is expected to fuel growth of the auto-injectors market.In 2016, Mylan launched generic EpiPen at a wholesale acquisition cost of US$ 300 per epinephrine injection and USP two pack cost less than 50% as compared to EpiPen 2Pak auto-injector. It provides substantial savings which will access more patients to use generic EpiPen.In 2017, Bayer received FDA approval for a connected auto-injector named Betaconnect Electronic Autoinjector with myBetaApp. It offers many advantages such as Bluetooth connectivity, which allows the patient to automatically record all type of auto-injectors and can share with a nurse or physician. MyBetaApp keep a record of injection date and time, speed and depth and help to set a reminder by emails with timings and site of injection. Advantages over conventional auto-injector is expected to augment growth of the auto-injectors market in the near future.Maintaining good quality product is essential to avoid product recalls. For instance, In March 2017, U.S. FDA recalled product EpiPen and EpiPen Jr, which is manufactured by Meridian Medical Technologies and distributed by Mylan. This is mainly due to significant violations of current good manufacturing process (cGMP) in auto injector. FDA found the defective part in device, which results in failure to activate and marked as a major restraining factor.Increasing incidence of life-threatening allergic cases and increasing demand for injector device for instant treatment is expected to fuel growth of the marketAccording to World Allergy Organization (WAO), in 2017, an estimated number of anaphylaxis cases were around 222 people in around 10.2 million population in Hungary, followed by Japan, estimated to around 300-350 patients per year in around 100 million people. In China, around 3000 people suffered from anaphylaxis in around 1,200 million population per year. According to the Allergy, Asthma & Clinical Immunology, in 2015, around 15 million people suffered from food allergies in U.K. Moreover, according to the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), in 2015, around 17 million people suffered from food allergies, among which around 3.5 million were childrens.in U.K. Furthermore, according to World Health Organization (WHO), around 200 to 250 million people suffered from food allergies worldwide in 2015. This data represents an increasing number of incidence of allergy cases and prevalence. Thereby, it is expected to fuel growth of the auto-injectors market during the forecast period.Key players operating in the global auto-injectors market include Pfizer, Inc., Scandinavian Health Ltd., Novartis International AG, Unilife Corporation, Antares Pharma, Inc., Kaleo Pharmaceutical, Mylan N.V., Biogen Idec, Inc., Becton, Dickinson and Company, and Ypsomed Holdings AG.Get More Details On this Report: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 Glasses Market Size, Share, Trends, Market Growth, Global Analysis And Industry Forecast 2018 - 2026 - Research Corridor

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http://www.researchcorridor.com/smart-glasses-market/

http://www.researchcorridor.com/chocolate-spreads-market/

http://www.researchcorridor.com/oleohydraulic-pneumatic-transmission-valves-market/

http://www.researchcorridor.com/carbon-block-filter-market/

http://www.researchcorridor.com/

Smart Glasses Market: Global Industry Trends, Market Size, Competitive Analysis and Forecast - 2018  2026, this study is recently published by Research Corridor covering global market size for Smart Glasses market for the key segments and further cross-regional segmentation of these segments for the period 2016 to 2026.Browse the complete report atAccording to Research Corridor this study will provide in-depth analysis of segments on the basis of current trends, market dynamics and country level analysis of Smart Glasses industry. This report provides market estimates and forecast for the period 2016-2026, along with respective CAGRs for each segment and regional distribution for the period 2018-2026. In depth analysis of competitive landscape, porters five forces model, value chain analysis, and pricing strategies are also covered in the report scope.Report Synopsis: Smart Glasses MarketThis report provides an exhaustive market analysis of the Smart Glasses industry presented through sections such as1. Smart Glasses: Market Summary2. Key Developments in the Smart Glasses Industry3. Market Trends and Dynamics of Smart Glasses Industry4. Attractive Investment Proposition for Smart Glasses Market5. Competitive Landscape of Key Market Players in Smart Glasses Industry6. Current Market Scenario and Future Prospects of the Smart Glasses Market7. Mergers and Acquisitions in Smart Glasses Market8. Smart Glasses Market Revenue and Forecast, by Segment A Type, 2016 to 20269. Smart Glasses Market Revenue and Forecast, by Segment B Type, 2016 to 202610. Smart Glasses Market Revenue and Forecast, by Segment C Type, 2016 to 202611. Smart Glasses Market Revenue and Forecast, by Segment D, 2016 to 202612. Smart Glasses Market Revenue and Forecast, by Geography, 2016 to 2026For more details with charts and figures:Key Takeaways:1. Market size and forecast of the Smart Glasses market for the period from 2016 to 20262. Compounded annual growth rate (CAGR%) for each segment in several regional markets by year 20263. Market share analysis combined with competitive landscape of key players4. Profiles of key market players covering overall business operations, geographic presence, product portfolio, financial status and news coverage.Related Reports:About Research CorridorResearch Corridor provides End to End Solution for Market Research Consulting and Custom Research Reports. Database of Over 47000 Global Market Reports Research Corridor is world leading company in syndicated market Research Reports.Media ContactCompany Name: Research CorridorContact Person: Vikram ChauhanEmail: sales@researchcorridor.comWebsite:Ocular Drug Delivery Technology Market - Global Industry Insights

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https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/ocular-drug-delivery-technology-market-1214

http://www.coherentchronicle.com

Ocular drug delivery is associated with the treatment of ophthalmic diseases. Ophthalmic diseases affect various parts of the eye anatomy, which are mainly categorized on the basis of their position namely, anterior segment and posterior segment. Ocular drugs are directly administered onto the affected area or near the affected area for fast absorption and rapid onset of action feasible. Topical ocular drug formulations are primarily available in liquid form such as solutions, suspensions, and emulsions for treating anterior eye segment diseases. Posterior segment diseases are treated with more advanced therapies such as implants and injections.Materials used in ocular drug delivery include polymers, bioadhesive gels, and hydrogels. Novel drug delivery systems enable better penetration of the therapeutic agent, providing long lasting effect by bypassing the natural barriers associated with the eye anatomy. Anterior segment diseases can easily be treated with conventional drug delivery, whereas, posterior segment diseases are treated with the help of novel drug delivery systems such as intravitreal, subconjunctival, and suprachoroidal injections. Newer therapeutic systems and dosage forms are under research, which can act for longer durations with maximum patient compliance.Increasing need for better and effective treatment options and increasing eye diseases prevalence is expected to boost growth of the ocular drug delivery technology marketIncidence of ophthalmic diseases and disorders in the recent past years has increased significantly due to factors such as rising geriatric population (leading to macular degeneration and cataract), excessive strain on eyes owing to long working hours, and increasing diabetes prevalence leading to retinopathy. Diabetes is a major cause of retinopathy and according to World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people with diabetes was 422 million in 2014 which is expected to increase in the near future.Incidence of age-related macular degeneration is also increasing and according to International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, 196 million people are expected to have macular degeneration by 2020. This is expected to support growth of the market over the forecast period.Request For Sample Copy@Ocular Drug Delivery Technology Market TaxonomyThe global ocular drug delivery technology market is segmented on the basis of product type, formulation type, application, end user, and geographyOn the basis of product type, the global ocular drug delivery technology market is segmented into:TopicalIntraocular ImplantsBiodegradableNon-BiodegradableHydrogel SystemsIontophoresisOcular InsertsNon-ErodibleErodibleOthers (Punctal plugs, cyclodextrines)On the basis of formulation type, the global ocular drug delivery technology market is segmented into:SolutionSuspensionLiposomesEmulsionNanoparticlesNano suspensionsOthers (Niosomes, dendrimers)On the basis of application, the global ocular drug delivery technology market is segmented into:GlaucomaDiabetic RetinopathyMacular DegenerationDiabetic Macular EdemaCataractOn the basis of end user, global ocular drug delivery technology market is segmented into:HospitalsAmbulatory surgical centersOphthalmic ClinicsOthersRegional segmentation of the ocular drug delivery technology market by Coherent Market Insights comprises North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. North America market is expected to be dominant over the forecast period. This is owing to increasing demand for treatment of posterior eye problems as according to American Academy Of Ophthalmology, in 2050 an estimated 7.32 million people in the U.S. are expected to suffer from open angle glaucoma, increasing geriatric population (that are at high risk for eye diseases), and advancement in technology in ocular therapy. IACTA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was granted the North American rights to develop and commercialize NM133, comprising of molecular envelope technology to treat dry eye in July 2017. Furthermore, Sun Pharma launched its first branded ophthalmic product, Bromsite, in the U.S. in 2016. Asia Pacific market is expected to exhibit the highest growth rate over the forecast period. This is due to factors such as major concentration of local manufacturers, and low costs associated with treatment favoring the medical tourism in the region as according to International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences Review and Research, 2015, eye surgeries in developed economies such as the U.S. cost three to four times more than in India. Initiatives such as World Health Organizations (WHO) Universal Eye Health plan till 2019 spreads awareness regarding eye health which is expected to aid in the ocular drug delivery technology market growth.Key CompetitorsKey players operating in the Ocular Drug Delivery Technology market are Alimera Sciences, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Clearside Biomedical, INC., Taiwan Liposome Company, Ltd., Novartis, Pfizer Inc., Envisia Therapeutics, and Graybug Vision Inc.Get More Details On this Report: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:Future Market Trends of Global Porcelain Tile Market Research Report 2016 Till 2020

http://www.marketintelreports.com/report/9dime9654/global-porcelain-tile-market-research-report-2016

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2016 Global Porcelain Tile Industry Report is a professional and in-depth research report on the world's major regional market conditions of the Porcelain Tile industry, focusing on the main regions (North America, Europe and Asia) and the main countries (United States, Germany, Japan and China).Browse 155 Pages of Recent Research report on Global Porcelain Tile Market Research Report 2016 to 2020 @Scope of the Reports:The report firstly introduced the Porcelain Tile basics: definitions, classifications, applications and market overview; product specifications; manufacturing processes; cost structures, raw materials and so on. Then it analyzed the world's main region market conditions, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, supply, demand and market growth rate and forecast etc. In the end, the report introduced new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis.Request Sample PDF Brochure@The report includes six parts, dealing with:basic informationthe Asia Porcelain Tile Marketthe North American Porcelain Tile Marketthe European Porcelain Tile Marketmarket entry and investment feasibilitythe report conclusionProcure this Report @About Us:MarketIntelReports (MIR) aim to empower our clients to successfully manage and outperform in their business decisions, we do this by providing Premium Market Intelligence, Strategic Insights and Databases from a range of Global Publishers. MIR intends to be a one-stop shop with an intuitive design, exhaustive database, expert assistance, secure cart checkout and data privacy integrated ensure that the database is constantly updated to dynamically meet the targeted, specific needs of our clients. MarketIntelReports currently has more than 10,000 plus titles and 35+ publishers on our platform and growing consistently to fill the Global Intelligence Demand  Supply Gap.Contact us:Sales Manager: Srikanth VishnuMarket Intelligence Reports PTE. LTDNorth Bridge RoadHigh Street CentreSingapore (179094)sales@marketintelreports.comTelephone: 1-302-261-5343Smart Sensor Market Energy Saving Functions of Smart Sensors are Empowering Growth of the Global Industry

Smart Sensor

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https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Reports/Smart-Sensors-Market

https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Reports/NFC-Chips-Market

https://www.xpodenceresearch.com/Reports/Haptic-Technology-Market

Market Scenario:Smart sensor is an upcoming element of Internet of Things (IoT), which transmits data over the available networks. These devices also enables functions such as digital processing, data conversion, and interaction with external devices. The smart sensor market size is estimated to witness the double-digit growth rate during the upcoming period.The demand of smart sensor is currently witnessing an escalating demand from automotive and consumer electronics industries, accounting to the application of such devices for measuring, controlling, computing, and communicating purposes. Moreover, the factors like growing consumer demand from electronics sector, surge in the automotive industry on a global basis, favorable government initiatives, and growing trend of miniaturization in sensors are some of the major growth drivers for this market.Request a Sample Report @Top PlayersSome of the key players in the global smart sensors market include: ABB Ltd. Analog Devices Eaton Corp. Emerson Process Management Infineon Technologies AG Nxp Semiconductors N.V. Renesas Electronics Siemens AG Stmicroelectronics N.V. Yokogawa Electric CorpIncreasing demand of smart sensors automobile sector and in mobile or smart phone industry is further driving this market. However, lack of privacy, complex structure as compared to traditional design and lack of customization are some restricting factors that hampers the growth of the smart sensor market during the upcoming years.Browse Report @Market Segments:The global smart sensors market can be segmented on the basis of type, end-user and region. On the basis of type, the global smart sensors market can be segmented into image sensors, smart motion sensors, smart position sensors, smart pressure sensors, smart temperature sensors and touch sensors. On the basis of end-user, the global smart sensors market can be segmented into automotive industry, consumer electronics, industrial, infrastructure, medical equipment and others. On the basis of region, the global smart sensors market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.Americas is expected to dominate the smart sensor market, globally, owing to the mounting demand for smart homes and IoT in the U.S., early adoption of technology, and growing automotive and consumer electronics industries in the region. The APAC region also offers potential growth opportunities owing to the increasing government policies and demand from growing economies such as China and India among others.Related Reports:NFC Chips Market:Haptic Technology Market: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 Research244 , Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email: sales@xpodenceresearch.comWarren tells a Native American audience that Trumps mocking use of Pocahontas is part of a long history of racist distortions. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

The presidents inveterate use of the name Pocahontas in mockingly referring to U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is a bit more than an example of Trumpian boorishness or of his habit of giving people derogatory nicknames. Hes picking up on a slur that certain Massachusetts opponents of Warren have been using since 2012, when the conservative Boston Herald found out Warren had self-identified as having a Native American background in a Harvard faculty directory back in the 1990s. Subsequent digging by various unfriendly and neutral sources discovered that Warren had no formal ties or right to identify with the Cherokee tribe she had been told was prominent in her mothers Oklahoma background  but also that there was no evidence the highly regarded law professor had ever benefited from a Native connection.

Still, attacks on Warren for exaggerating her Native background struck a conservative chord by raising the familiar targets of diversity, affirmative action, and political correctness, then and now. Staff of her 2012 Senate opponent Scott Brown were caught on camera doing various pseudo-Native war chants at a campaign rally. By 2016, one of the most aggressive weaponizers of the Pocahontas slur, the hammerheaded Boston radio personality Howie Carr, introduced Donald Trump at a campaign rally with similar war whoops.

This nonsense has created a dilemma for Warren. Does she go out of her way to publicly confess her extremely minor misconduct in the faculty-directory listing, thus fanning the scandal? Does she ignore it entirely? Or does she find an effective way to fire back?

A Warren speech today to the National Congress of American Indians showed she has decisively settled on firing back.

For one thing, shes insisting that Cherokee heritage was indeed part of her familys life, even as she acknowledges that only tribes themselves can establish Native status.

[M]y mothers family was part Native American. And my daddys parents were bitterly opposed to their relationship. So, in 1932, when Mother was 19 and Daddy had just turned 20, they eloped 

Theyre gone, but the love they shared, the struggles they endured, the family they built, and the story they lived will always be a part of me. And no one  not even the president of the United States  will ever take that part of me away 

Im here today to make a promise: Every time someone brings up my familys story, Im going to use it to lift up the story of your families and your communities.

At the same time, Warren ripped into Trumps derisive references to her  which at one point he irrelevantly repeated during an Oval Office ceremony honoring Native military veterans  as an example of age-old racist distortions of Native history. After briefly recounting the actual tale of the actual Pocahontas, Warren offered this indirect jab:

Indigenous people have been telling the story of Pocahontas  the real Pocahontas  for four centuries. A story of heroism. And bravery. And pain.

And, for almost as long, her story has been taken away by powerful people who twisted it to serve their own purposes.

Including you-know-who.

Warren later took a more explicit shot at Trump and at his favorite predecessor:

It is deeply offensive that this president keeps a portrait of Andrew Jackson hanging in the Oval Office, honoring a man who did his best to wipe out Native people.

And she linked advocacy for Native Americans to the more standard liberal causes she has embraced, including opposition to Big Oil profiteering from Native lands, the fight against GOP-supported safety-net cuts that disproportionately affect minorities, and even banking reform ([I]ts about 12 miles on average from the center of tribal reservations to the nearest bank branch.).

Its reasonable to assume that Warren will hearken back to this speech whenever Trump or anyone else calls her Pocahontas in the future, ensuring that the nastier aspects of the slur will not go unnoticed. And this response will also enhance her already strong reputation as a Democrat who is willing and able to stand her ground when the bully draws nigh.Rising Adoption Of Iot In Various Healthcare Verticals To Leverage The Demand Of Automation In Healthcare Industry

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The Global Healthcare Automation Market is also likely to continue being supplemented in growth rate through the introduction of regulatory reforms in regional healthcare industries, which will make the management of resources a more complex process. This is expected to create a heavy demand for revenue cycle management over the coming years.Market OverviewRising demand for IoT is an vital trend in the global healthcare automation market. With the support of this technology, collecting medical data of patients are easily accessible. However, it supports in improving the health by good quality and accessibility of care and also decreases the costs. Additionally, technology helps in clinical care and remote monitoring. Demand for wearable technology is rising rapidly and is an significant trend in the global market.The major factors driving the healthcare automation market are the growing technological advancements, saving huge cost of labor, and rising the support from government, Implementation of automation is anticipated to reduce the amount of labor-intensive tasks like lab tests and clinical diagnostics, thereby helping hospitals or clinics to save costs pertaining to the processes. Automation permits medical individuals to carry out other significant tasks since it helps in performing repetitive tasks. This is projected to help in carrying out the tasks professionally.Sample Report Available @Top Industry PlayersThe rising technological advancements is anticipated to drive the Asia Pacific market for Healthcare Automation in the future years. The major companies that are involved in healthcare automation are General Electric Company Siemens AG, Swisslog Holdings AG Intuitive Surgical, Inc. Koninklijke Philips N.V. Medtronic PLC. Tecan Group Ltd. Danaher Corporation Accuray Inc. Tecan Group Ltd.Market SegmentsThe global healthcare automation market has be categorized into application, end-user and regions. Based on application the market has been segmented into therapeutic automation, logistics & training automation, lab& pharmacy automation and diagnostics & monitoring automation. End-user segment has be categorized into pharmacies, home care, research institutes & labs among others.These technologies are working to carry out different critical tasks that need accurateness and can be completed through automated machines, which again indicates reduction of overhead counts. The huge initial installation cost is one of the major factors that may hinder the market growth in the near future. Additionally the growing implementation of healthcare automation solutions in various segments is the long-term growth opportunity in healthcare automation market.For More Information @Regional AnalysisGeographically, the healthcare automation market has been bifurcated into five regions North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America. The Healthcare Automation market size and forecast period for each region has been estimated from 2017 to 2023.Additionally the CAGR (%) for the forecasted period 2017 to 2023. The study also includes market estimates for major countries/regions such as the U.S, the U.K., Germany, France, Japan, China, India, GCC, North Africa, South Africa and Brazil.The detailed analysis by application, end-user, and regions supports in evaluating the present scenario, growth prospects and the future scenario for the healthcare automation market over the forecast period. Thus, the report delivers in-depth segment analysis of the market and classifies it into various industries, thereby providing valuable perceptions.Related ReportsSmart Pills Market-Stem Cells Market-About UsXpodence Research has 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 organizations and also to the manufacturing companies in taking the best decisions for quality production.Contact UsXpodence ResearchUSA Office244, Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email : sales@xpodenceresearch.comNew Overview of Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales Market 2018

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales Market Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.In this report,the global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device market is valued at USD XX million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2025,growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2017 and 2025.Geographically,this report split global into several key Regions,with sales (K Units),revenue (Million USD),market share and growth rate of Invasive Brain Monitoring Device for these regions,from 2013 to 2025 (forecast),coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device market competition by top manufacturers/players,with Invasive Brain Monitoring Device sales volume,Price (USD/Unit),revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingNatus Medical Inc. (U.S.)Nihon Kohden Corporation (Japan)Philips Healthcare (Netherlands)GE Healthcare (U.K.)Siemens Healthineers (Germany)Compumedics Ltd. (Australia)Electrical Geodesics Incorporated (U.S.)Medtronic plc (Ireland)CAS Medical Systems,Inc. (U.S.)Advanced Brain Monitoring (U.S.)On the basis of product,this report displays the production,revenue,price,market share and growth rate of each type,primarily split intoElectroencephalography (EEG) DevicesMagnetoencephalography (MEG) DevicesTranscranial Doppler (TCD) DevicesIntracranial Pressure (ICP) MonitorsCerebral OximetersMagnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) DevicesComputerized Tomography (CT) DevicesPositron Emission Tomography (PET) DevicesSleep Monitoring DevicesElectromyography (EMG) DevicesOn the basis on the end users/applications,this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users,sales volume,market share and growth rate for each application,includingEpilepsyDementiaParkinsons DiseaseHuntington's DiseaseHeadache DisordersStrokeOthersTable of ContentsGlobal Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales Market Report 20181 Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Invasive Brain Monitoring Device1.2 Classification of Invasive Brain Monitoring Device by Product Category1.2.1 Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Electroencephalography (EEG) Devices1.2.4 Magnetoencephalography (MEG) Devices1.2.5 Transcranial Doppler (TCD) Devices1.2.6 Intracranial Pressure (ICP) Monitors1.2.7 Cerebral Oximeters1.2.8 Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Devices1.2.9 Computerized Tomography (CT) Devices1.2.10 Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Devices1.2.11 Sleep Monitoring Devices1.2.12 Electromyography (EMG) Devices1.3 Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Epilepsy1.3.3 Dementia1.3.4 Parkinsons Disease1.3.5 Huntington's Disease1.3.6 Headache Disorders1.3.7 Stroke1.3.8 Others1.4 Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Market by Region1.4.1 Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 United States Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 China Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 Europe Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Invasive Brain Monitoring Device (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2025)2 Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Competition by Players/Suppliers,Type and Application2.1 Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.2.2 Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.3 Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device (Volume and Value) by Region2.3.1 Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)2.3.2 Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Revenue and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)2.4 Global Invasive Brain Monitoring Device (Volume) by ApplicationGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @3 United States Invasive Brain Monitoring Device (Volume,Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales and Value (2013-2018)3.1.1 United States Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)3.1.2 United States Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2018)3.1.3 United States Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)3.2 United States Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales Volume and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)3.3 United States Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales Volume and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)3.4 United States Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales Volume and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)4 China Invasive Brain Monitoring Device (Volume,Value and Sales Price)4.1 China Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales and Value (2013-2018)4.1.1 China Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)4.1.2 China Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2018)4.1.3 China Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)4.2 China Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales Volume and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)4.3 China Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales Volume and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)4.4 China Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales Volume and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)5 Europe Invasive Brain Monitoring Device (Volume,Value and Sales Price)5.1 Europe Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales and Value (2013-2018)5.1.1 Europe Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)5.1.2 Europe Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2018)5.1.3 Europe Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)5.2 Europe Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales Volume and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)5.3 Europe Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales Volume and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.4 Europe Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales Volume and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)6 Japan Invasive Brain Monitoring Device (Volume,Value and Sales Price)6.1 Japan Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales and Value (2013-2018)6.1.1 Japan Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)6.1.2 Japan Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2018)6.1.3 Japan Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)6.2 Japan Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales Volume and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)6.3 Japan Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales Volume and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)6.4 Japan Invasive Brain Monitoring Device Sales Volume and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)Continue...About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @Global Repair Construction Market To Grow At A CAGR Of 8.35% During The Period 2017-2021

Repair Construction Market

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Repair Construction Market 2017-2021" to its huge collection of research reports.Repair materials are used in construction when damage occurs in the structure. The repair material is selected on the basis of numerous parameters. The material must be compatible, non-hazardous, durable, and have good bonding strength, low air and water permeability, low shrinkage, and the similar coefficient of thermal expansion. For non-structural repairs, water repellents, mortar admixtures, bonding agents, waterproofing compounds, paint additives, polymer-based crack fillers, and rust removers are used, considering the future life of the building. Specialized products and services are utilized for structural repairs. These products are inclusive of styrene butadiene rubber, rust removers, ready-made polymer plasters, plasticizers-based repair compounds, acrylic copolymers, and epoxy bonding agents.Technavios analysts forecast the global repair construction market to grow at a CAGR of 8.35% during the period 2017-2021.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global repair construction market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the value market.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:APACEuropeNorth AmericaSouth AmericaMEAGlobal Repair Construction Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors3MBASFThe Dow Chemical CompanySikaW.R. GraceOther prominent vendorsAkzoNobelBechtelBostikCHRYSOCICO GroupCONMIXDuPontMuHuPidiliteRPM InternationalSelenaTerracoMarket driverAffordable pricing of renovated housingFor a full, detailed list, view our reportGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @Market challengeHigh need for accurate information collection and resource monitoringFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendIncreasing complications in contractingFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @2017-2022 Global and United States Hydroxyapatite Market Status and Forecast by Key Players

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "2017-2022 Hydroxyapatite Report on Global and United States Market, Status and Forecast, by Players, Types and Applications" to its huge collection of research reports.The Global and United States market for Hydroxyapatite has been inspected on a few flow that have formally influenced the improvement of the market in a few ways. The report furthermore voices unmistakable experiences and data identifying with the Global and United States Hydroxyapatite market. The inside purpose of the report is to detail out certain positive and negative impression concerning the market with the objective that potential economic policies have a conventional view to it. The market research report also incorporates perspectives, for instance, prospects, restraints, opportunities, and drivers for measuring the consequence of them accessible both the commonplace and Global and United States level. The report also provides an in-depth market scenario, which contains different drivers of the basic elements which are relied upon to trigger change in the market or cause negative effect.For More Info Get Free Sample Report :This report studies the Hydroxyapatite market status and outlook of global and United States, from angles of players, regions, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global and United States market, and splits the Hydroxyapatite market by product type and applications/end industries.The major players in global and United States Hydroxyapatite market, including FLUIDINOVA, Bio-Rad, BONESUPPORT AB, Sigma Graft, Berkeley Advanced Biomaterials, ALB Technology Limited, SAI.This report goes into extra significance of the Global and United States market for Hydroxyapatite by providing guidelines to eliminate business shackle of the particular market. This is expected to act as a supplementary guide to the gather the exact data and information on various explanations behind the corresponding business sector, for instance, information relating to traditions of the government in the regions and Global and United States market, advancement and growth strategies, present day restraints, and revenue made among others players.The investigation report is flawed without an exhaustive estimation of the Global and United States Hydroxyapatite feature, which includes the statistics and estimations, trends and improvements of the Global and United States Hydroxyapatite market. The market consider similarly passes on an entire review of the key extents low down in the report of the Global and United States market for Hydroxyapatite. For each segment, the report imparts the scope of improvement as of recently and consent on what suppliers can finish for ensuring achievement over the coming years.Table of Contents1 Methodology and Data Source1.1 Methodology/Research Approach1.1.1 Research Programs/Design1.1.2 Market Size Estimation1.1.3 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation1.2 Data Source1.3 Disclaimer2 Hydroxyapatite Market Overview2.1 Hydroxyapatite Product Overview2.2 Hydroxyapatite Market Segment by Type2.3 Global Hydroxyapatite Product Segment by Type2.3.1 Global Hydroxyapatite Sales (K Metric Tons) and Growth (%) by Types (2012, 2016 and 2022)2.3.2 Global Hydroxyapatite Sales (K Metric Tons) and Market Share (%) by Types (2012-2017)2.3.3 Global Hydroxyapatite Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share (%) by Types (2012-2017)2.3.4 Global Hydroxyapatite Price (USD/Kg) by Type (2012-2017)2.4 United States Hydroxyapatite Product Segment by TypeAvail Discount @3 Hydroxyapatite Application/End Users3.1 Hydroxyapatite Segment by Application/End Users3.2 Global Hydroxyapatite Product Segment by Application3.2.1 Global Hydroxyapatite Sales (K Metric Tons) and CGAR (%) by Applications (2012, 2016 and 2022)3.2.2 Global Hydroxyapatite Sales (K Metric Tons) and Market Share (%) by Applications (2012-2017)3.3 United States Hydroxyapatite Product Segment by Application3.3.1 United States Hydroxyapatite Sales (K Metric Tons) and CGAR (%) by Applications (2012, 2016 and 2022)3.3.2 United States Hydroxyapatite Sales (K Metric Tons) and Market Share (%) by Applications (2012-2017)4 Hydroxyapatite Market Status and Outlook by Regions4.1 Global Market Status and Outlook by Regions4.1.1 Global Hydroxyapatite Market Size and CAGR by Regions (2012, 2016 and 2022)4.2 Global Hydroxyapatite Sales and Revenue by Regions4.2.1 Global Hydroxyapatite Sales (K Metric Tons) and Market Share (%) by Regions (2012-2017)4.2.2 Global Hydroxyapatite Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share (%) by Regions (2012-2017)4.2.3 Global Hydroxyapatite Sales (K Metric Tons), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Kg) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)4.2.4 North America Hydroxyapatite Sales (K Metric Tons), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Kg) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)4.2.5 Europe Hydroxyapatite Sales (K Metric Tons), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Kg) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)4.2.6 Asia-Pacific Hydroxyapatite Sales (K Metric Tons), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Kg) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)4.2.7 South America Hydroxyapatite Sales (K Metric Tons), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Kg) and Gross Margin (2012-2017)5 Global Hydroxyapatite Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers5.1 Global Hydroxyapatite Sales (K Metric Tons) and Market Share by Players (2012-2017)5.2 Global Hydroxyapatite Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Players (2012-2017)5.3 Global Hydroxyapatite Average Price (USD/Kg) by Players (2012-2017)5.4 Players Hydroxyapatite Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area, Product Types5.5 Hydroxyapatite Market Competitive Situation and Trends5.5.1 Hydroxyapatite Market Concentration Rate5.5.2 Global Hydroxyapatite Market Share (%) of Top 3 and Top 5 PlayersAbout Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comIndia Market For Silicone Defoamer Rising At A Steady CAGR Of 4.90% Between 2016 And 2024 To Reach US$299.4 Mn | Production Volume to touch 64,605.2 tons Mark by 2024

Silicone Defoamer Market

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Silicone Defoamer Market - India Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024" to its huge collection of research reports.Silicone defoamer is a chemical additive used in various end-use industries such as pharmaceutical, metalworking fluids for removal of foam. Silicone defoamer is additives that reduce and hamper formation of foam in industrial processes. Silicone defoamers are generally insoluble in the foaming medium and possess surface active properties. It offer low viscosity and spread rapidly on the foamy surface. Thus, silicone defoamer if employed during any industrial operation provides excellent resistance to alkali attack as it is chemically inert. It also reduces maintenance cost and enhances the durability of the products.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report estimates and forecasts the Indias silicone defoamer market on the application basis. The study provides forecast between 2016 and 2024 based on volume (Tons) and revenue (US$ Mn) with 2015 as the base year. The report comprises an exhaustive value chain analysis for the product segment. It provides a comprehensive view of the market. Value chain analysis also offers detailed information about value addition at each stage. It further includes drivers and restraints for the silicone defoamer market along with their impact on demand during the forecast period.It also provides key market indicators affecting the growth of the market. The report analyzes opportunities in the silicone defoamer market on the India and regional level. Drivers, restraints, and opportunities mentioned in the report are justified through quantitative and qualitative data. These have been verified through primary and secondary resources. Furthermore, the report analyzes average price trend analysis of silicone defoamer.Global Silicone Defoamer Market: Research MethodologyThe report includes Porters Five Forces Model to determine the degree of competition in the silicone defoamer market. The report comprises a qualitative write-up on market attractiveness analysis, wherein application has been analyzed based on attractiveness. Growth rate, market size, raw material availability, profit margin, impact strength, technology, competition, and other factors (such as environmental and legal) have been evaluated in order to derive the general attractiveness of the market. The report comprises price trend analysis for silicone defoamer between 2016 and 2024.The study provides a comprehensive view of the silicone defoamer market by dividing it into application. The silicone defoamer market has been segmented into water treatment, paints and coatings, pharmaceutical, metalworking fluids, food & beverages and others. Application segments have been analyzed based on historic, present, and future trends, and the market has been estimated in terms of volume (Tons) and revenue (US$ Mn) between 2016 and 2024.Global Silicone Defoamer Market: Competitive AnalysisThe report covers detailed competitive outlook that includes market share and profiles of key players operating in the India market. Key players profiled in the report include BASF SE, Wacker Chemi AG, Evonik Industries AG, Clariant International AG, and Resil Chemicals Pvt Ltd. Company profiles include attributes such as company overview, number of employees, brand overview, key competitors, business overview, business strategies, recent/key developments, acquisitions, and financial overview (wherever applicable).Secondary research sources that were typically referred to include, but were not limited to company websites, financial reports, annual reports, investor presentations, broker reports, and SEC filings. Other sources such as internal and external proprietary databases, statistical databases and market reports, news articles, national government documents, and webcasts specific to companies operating in the market have also been referred for the report.Get Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @In-depth interviews and discussions with a wide range of key opinion leaders and industry participants were conducted to compile this research report. Primary research represents the bulk of research efforts, supplemented by extensive secondary research. Key players product literature, annual reports, press releases, and relevant documents were reviewed for competitive analysis and market understanding. This helped in validating and strengthening secondary research findings. Primary research further helped in developing the analysis teams expertise and market understanding.The India silicone defoamer market has been segmented as follows:By Application Type- Water Treatment- Paints and Coatings- Pharmaceuticals- Metalworking Fluids- Food and Beverages- Food- Beverages- Breweries- Others (pulp & paper, textile, oil & gas, detergents etc.)About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @Global Military Exoskeleton Market To Register A Robust 14.4% CAGR During The Period Between 2017 And 2025 Likely Attain A Value Of US$3,042.4 Mn

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Military Exoskeleton Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Military exoskeleton is robotic-like suit which provides powered assist and increase the strength of the soldiers during combat. There are several factors driving the demand for these exoskeletons globally. The increasing concern for security and safety from growing criminal activities and cross border terrorism has resulted into the need for soldier safety during warfare. A military exoskeleton suite empowers the soldier to lift heavy weights, run at faster speeds and defend themselves from enemy attacks. Moreover, the changing concept of warfare has led to the development of biological weapons which are more harmful to the body. These can also prevent direct contact of the soldier from harmful gases. These factors are aiding to the demand for exoskeleton suits globally. Furthermore, the need for quick coordination during warfare has led to the need for advanced communication systems which cannot be tracked by the enemy. Hence, the soldier suits need to be integrated with these electronics which include range finders, optronics, radios and navigation systems to name a few.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Military Exoskeleton Market: Drivers and TrendsHowever, the integration of these electronics increases the overall weight of the suits and makes it difficult for the soldiers to move swiftly. The development of lightweight exoskeletons will reduce the weight considerable and give added advantages to the soldiers by enhancing their mobility. These factors are expected to drive the demand for military exoskeletons considerably during the forecast period. However, a primary reason restraining the growth of the market is the price involved in procuring the exoskeletons. One exoskeleton suit can cost up to USD 150,000. Furthermore, the defense agencies need to place order in large quantities which can further increase the cost of procurement.Global Military Exoskeleton Market: SegmentationThe global military exoskeleton market has been segmented by types, power and geography. By types, the market has been segregated into full body exoskeleton and partial body exoskeleton systems. The partial body exoskeletons are expected to dominate the military exoskeleton market globally. Furthermore, the market has been bifurcated by power into active exoskeletons and passive exoskeletons. Currently, the active exoskeleton systems are witnessing higher demand in the market due to need for providing the soldiers increased strength and stamina in the battlefield. By geography, the global market has been segmented into five important regions consisting of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA) and Latin America. North America and Europe has been analyzed to lead the global military exoskeleton market during the forecast period.The global report of military exoskeleton systems also includes the key trends expected to affect the demand and supply of the exoskeletons in future. Moreover, the market attractiveness of the various types of exoskeletons have been included in order understand the future opportunities of these segments. The global market of military exoskeletons has been tracked in terms of revenue from 2017 to 2025 where in 2016 has been considered as the base year of the study.Key Players Mentioned in the Report are:The global market of military exoskeleton is witnessing intense competition from the leading players operating in the market. These players also undergo mergers and acquisition in order to sustain in the competitive environment. Furthermore, some of the players also follow a strategy of working in collaboration with others in order to create innovative products. The report also includes a detailed company profile of the major players which includes the company overview, product segments, and financial performance over the last three years, SWOT analysis and the business strategies adopted by them. The key players profiled in this report include Lockheed Martin Corporation (U.S.), BAE Systems (U.K.), Raytheon Company (U.S.), General Dynamics Corporation (U.S.), Boeing (U.S.), Honeywell Aerospace (U.S.), Ekso Bionics Holdings (U.S.), Bionic Power (Canada), Safran S.A. (France) and SpringActive, Inc. (U.S.).The Global Military Exoskeleton market can be segmented as follows;-Global Military Exoskeleton Market, By Types- Full Body Exoskeleton- Partial Body ExoskeletonGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @Global Military Exoskeleton Market, By Power- Active Exoskeleton- Passive ExoskeletonGlobal Military Exoskeleton Market, By Geography- North America- U.S.- Canada- Mexico- Europe- U.K.- Germany- France- Italy- Rest of Europe- Asia-Pacific- China- Japan- India- South Korea- Rest of Asia Pacific- Middle East and Africa- United Arab Emirates- Saudi Arabia- South Africa- Latin America- Brazil- Rest of Latin AmericaAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @Global SIM Cards Industry 2018, Trends and Forecast Report | Now Available at Researchmoz.us

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global SIM Cards Industry 2018, Trends and Forecast Report" to its huge collection of research reports.SIM Cards Report by Material, Application, and Geography Global Forecast to 2021 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).In this report, the global SIM Cards market is valued at USD XX million in 2017 and is projected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2021, growing at a CAGR of XX% during the period 2017 to 2021.The report firstly introduced the SIM Cards basics: definitions, classifications, applications and market overview; product specifications; manufacturing processes; cost structures, raw materials and so on. Then it analyzed the world's main region market conditions, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, supply, demand and market growth rate and forecast etc. In the end, the report introduced new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The major players profiled in this report include:EastcompeaceWuhan TianyuCompany DCompany EGemaltoG&DThe end users/applications and product categories analysis:On the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume, revenue (Million USD), product price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into-SIM Cards with DESSIM Cards with 3DESOthersOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate of SIM Cards for each application, including-Mobile PhoneTabletOthersTable of ContentsPart I SIM Cards Industry OverviewChapter One SIM Cards Industry Overview1.1 SIM Cards Definition1.2 SIM Cards Classification AnalysisSIM Cards with DESSIM Cards with 3DESOthers1.2.1 SIM Cards Main Classification Analysis1.2.2 SIM Cards Main Classification Share Analysis1.3 SIM Cards Application AnalysisMobile PhoneTabletOthers1.3.1 SIM Cards Main Application Analysis1.3.2 SIM Cards Main Application Share Analysis1.4 SIM Cards Industry Chain Structure Analysis1.5 SIM Cards Industry Development Overview1.5.1 SIM Cards Product History Development Overview1.5.1 SIM Cards Product Market Development Overview1.6 SIM Cards Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.1 SIM Cards Global Import Market Analysis1.6.2 SIM Cards Global Export Market Analysis1.6.3 SIM Cards Global Main Region Market Analysis1.6.4 SIM Cards Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.5 SIM Cards Global Market Development Trend AnalysisGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @Chapter Two SIM Cards Up and Down Stream Industry Analysis2.1 Upstream Raw Materials Analysis2.1.1 Upstream Raw Materials Price Analysis2.1.2 Upstream Raw Materials Market Analysis2.1.3 Upstream Raw Materials Market Trend2.2 Down Stream Market Analysis2.1.1 Down Stream Market Analysis2.2.2 Down Stream Demand Analysis2.2.3 Down Stream Market Trend AnalysisPart II Asia SIM Cards Industry (The Report Company Including the Below Listed But Not All)Chapter Three Asia SIM Cards Market Analysis3.1 Asia SIM Cards Product Development History3.2 Asia SIM Cards Competitive Landscape Analysis3.3 Asia SIM Cards Market Development TrendChapter Four 2012-2017 Asia SIM Cards Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and Forecast4.1 2012-2017 SIM Cards Capacity Production Overview4.2 2012-2017 SIM Cards Production Market Share Analysis4.3 2012-2017 SIM Cards Demand Overview4.4 2012-2017 SIM Cards Supply Demand and Shortage Analysis4.5 2012-2017 SIM Cards Import Export Consumption Analysis4.6 2012-2017 SIM Cards Cost Price Production Value Profit AnalysisChapter Five Asia SIM Cards Key Manufacturers Analysis5.1 Eastcompeace5.1.1 Company Profile5.1.2 Product Picture and Specification5.1.3 Product Application Analysis5.1.4 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value Analysis5.1.5 Contact Information5.2 Wuhan Tianyu5.2.1 Company Profile5.2.2 Product Picture and Specification5.2.3 Product Application Analysis5.2.4 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value Analysis5.2.5 Contact Information5.3 Company C5.3.1 Company Profile5.3.2 Product Picture and Specification5.3.3 Product Application Analysis5.3.4 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value Analysis5.3.5 Contact Information......Chapter Six Asia SIM Cards Industry Development Trend6.1 2017-2021 SIM Cards Capacity Production Trend6.2 2017-2021 SIM Cards Production Market Share Analysis6.3 2017-2021 SIM Cards Demand Trend6.4 2017-2021 SIM Cards Supply Demand and Shortage Analysis6.5 2017-2021 SIM Cards Import Export Consumption Analysis6.6 2017-2021 SIM Cards Cost Price Production Value Profit AnalysisContinue...About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @Bill Lawrence, president and chief executive officer of McLaren Central Michigan, has announced his intent to retire in April.

Lawrence began his health care career 53 years ago, working as an orderly, OR tech and respiratory therapist at Marymount Hospital in Garfield Heights, Ohio. Following graduation from John Carrol University with a degree in English literature, Lawrence joined Cleveland Clinic, where he spent the next 23 years in various administrative positions, also earning an MBA from Case Weatherhead School of Management. At the time he left the Clinic, Lawrence occupied a senior executive position and was responsible for half of the Clinics operations, including the world-renowned International Center.

After leaving the Clinic, Lawrence established a reputation for rescuing failing hospitals. From 1993-2008, he served as president and CEO of six community hospitals in northeast Ohio.

In October 2008, Lawrence accepted the position as president and CEO of CMCH, and he and his wife, Lauren, and their sons, Danny and Billy, moved to Mount Pleasant from Cleveland. Lawrence is credited with leading the Mount Pleasant hospital through some challenging years, and in 2017, achieved outstanding outcomes in quality, patient safety and patient satisfaction.

Under Lawrences leadership at McLaren Central Michigan, the hospital has twice been designated a national Truven Top 100 Hospital, has consistently led Michigans largest health system in quality and patient safety scores, has earned five straight As from the Leapfrog Group for patient safety, and has been recognized with three Governors Awards of Excellence.

During the past 10 years, the hospital has successfully recruited both primary care and specialty physicians who currently live and practice in Mount Pleasant and surrounding areas.The hospital played a principle role in creating two organizations focused on providing health care access to marginalized populations. Isabella Citizens for Health is a Federally Qualified Health Center specializing in care to Medicare and Medicaid recipients, which has grown into the largest primary care practice in the region. The Free Clinic is open one night every month to provide care to those who are uninsured.

In 2012, Lawrence received the Michigan Health & Hospital Associations Health Care Leadership Award. A national search for Lawrences replacement is under way.Adam Carroll will speak on "Fine Art Black and White Photography" at the Midland Camera Club's Feb. 20 meeting. Also, training and practice in close-up photography will be offered at the club's Feb. 27 meeting.

Both meetings, open to members and visitors, is set for 7 to 9 p.m. in Room 304 of Midland Evangelical Free Church 7221 N. Jefferson.

Carroll, owner of Harbour Light Photography in Auburn, has been a professional photographer for more than 25 years. He is a certified professional photographer, a master photographer and photographic craftsman by the Professional Photographers of America (PPA).

He has earned numerous awards at the local, state and national levels including four time Photographer of the Year by PPA, six time Top Seven Photographer of the Year by the Professional Photographers of Michigan (PPM), two time Top Wedding Album Award with PPM as well as Highest Scoring Image in 2012 with PPM.

Carroll earns his living as a portrait and wedding photographer, but he has always had a passion for the fine art side of photography. Having started his career with film and later transitioned to digital, he recently came back to capturing with black and white film in all formats from 35mm to medium and large formats. He shares his love of black and white printing with his family in their basement darkroom

He will share how film is alive and well and is making a solid comeback. He will talk about his passion of film and why he chose to step back from digital and experience the joy of capturing on film and printing in the darkroom.

On Feb. 27, close-up photography skills will be taught by some of the club members who have been trained by award-winning Michigan-based close-up photographer Mike Moats.

A 30- to 40-minute overview of key points will precede the chance for photographers to capture images at some of the about 15 stations with different subjects. Four of the club's members will walk around the room, helping photographers during the workshop.

Attendees are encouraged to bring their camera, tripod and if possible an auxiliary, handheld light such as an LED light or flashlight.

At the club's March 20 meeting, photographers will show some of the close-up images they captured.

More information about the club is at www,midlandcameraclub.orgAbdallah Kitatta the patron of the infamous Boda Boda 2010 militia has objected to being tried in the Military Court Martial arguing that he is not a soldier.

Appearing before the General Court Martial presided over by its chairman Lt Gen. Andrew Guti, Kitatta and ten of his co accused refused to take plea arguing that as civilians they should be tried in a civilian court.

The suspects in the Military Court dock

The suspects are charged with up to six counts; all related to illegal possession of military equipment.

Prosecution led by Maj. Raphael Mugisha alleges that on January 26 while at Wakaliga, Kitatta and his co accused, were found with one SMG machine gun, two pistols, 30 rounds of ammunition of an SMG, 20, rounds of ammunition for a pistol and military stores including headgear and uniform without holding a valid firearms certificate.

The said items are a preserve of the military. After objecting to their trail, Guti advised them to consult their lawyers to understand the gravity of the offences against them.

You should talk to you lawyers and tell you what happens to a person found in possession of military equipment. Your lawyers will give you a clear understanding of the charges. These charges are serious; they are not as simple as you might play there, Guti said.

Prosecution lawyer, Maj. Mugisha said the court cant proceed with the hearings because first, investigations into the matter were still ongoing but also that the procedure of the court bars it from proceeding on the matter once its jurisdiction is challenged.

The accused persons have raised an issue of jurisdiction.therefore they should bring evidence to show that they are not supposed to be tried by this General Court Martial, Mugisha said.

State defense lawyer of four of the accused, Lieutenant Brain Mugi agreed with prosecution lawyer, arguing that there was also need for adjournment to allow him consult his clients and establish evidence why they think they shouldnt be tried by the court.

Kitattas and five of the accuseds lawyer, Joseph Kiryowa also asked for more time to prepare a written submission why he thinks his clients must not be tried by the military court.

Guti adjourned the hearing to February 27, remanding the accused to Luzira prison until then. Kitatta is accused together with Joel Kibirige, Matia Ssenfuka, Hassan Ssebatta, Jonathan Kayondo, Hassan Ssebbowa, Sunday Ssemwogerere, John Ssebandeke, Hussein Mugema, Fred Bwanika and Amon Twinomujuni.

They were arrested on January 22 by the army after being linked to the murder of Case hospital accountant Francis Ekalugar. Ekalugar was kidnapped this year on January 2, while on his way to the bank. His body was found burnt in Kajjansi the following day.

bakerbatte@observer.ugThe Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is awarding two state transportation economic development grants that will support 206 new jobs in Gladwin and Sanilac counties. The Transportation Economic Development Fund (TEDF) Category A grants totaling $596,728 will leverage $18 million in private investment, at a private/public investment ratio of more than 30-to-1.

Kember Kreative Interiors Inc., a leading manufacturer of engineered hardwood flooring products, is planning to move into a vacant facility on Lyle Road in Beaverton Township. However, the road's surface is in poor condition and the expected increase in traffic will accelerate that deterioration. Also, the road is not built to all-season standards, which would force Kember Kreative to reduce loads during seasonal weight restrictions, increasing costs.

The Gladwin County Road Commission (GCRC) will reconstruct Lyle Road from M-18 to Wade Road, bringing the roadway up to all-season standards. These upgrades will allow Kember Kreative to continue with its $5 million expansion, resulting in 25 new full-time positions over the next three years.

"This upgrade will ensure that we won't be hindered by the extra transportation costs that would have resulted from seasonal weight restrictions," said Mark Schmitz, Kember Kreative Interiors Inc. chief financial officer. "We are excited that these improvements will benefit not only our business but the other business and residences in the surrounding area."

The overall cost of the project is $730,811, including $438,486 in TEDF Category A funding and $292,325 from Kember Kreative Interiors and GCRC.The Michigan Department of Treasury reminds taxpayers who filed a 2017 state return to check the status of their refund online by visitng michigan.gov/wheresmyrefund.

Individuals who e-filed can check their refund status two weeks from the date confirmation was received that the state return was accepted. The status of paper-filed tax returns can be viewed from six to eight weeks after postmarking.

"Michigan taxpayers look forward to receiving their refunds during the income tax season," said Deputy State Treasurer Glenn White, head of Treasury's Tax Administration Group. "Whether a return was e-filed or sent through the mail, taxpayers can go to this website to check the status of their refund."

More than 5 million individual income tax returns are processed annually, with more than 4.1 million returns being e-filed.

Last year, about 3.7 million returns provided nearly $2 billion in refunds. More than two-thirds of the refunds issued were directly deposited into a taxpayer's bank account.

To ensure taxpayer privacy and security, the following information is required when checking the status of a refund:

 Social Security number

 Tax year

 Filing status

 Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) or Total Household Resources (THR)

Individuals can find their AGI on line 10 of the MI-1040. Total Household Resources are found on line 33 on the MI-1040CR or line 34 on the MI-1040CR-7.The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriff's Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Kelly Dame.

Tuesday, Feb. 13

8:34 a.m. - Officers investigated a case of fraud in the 1900 block of Burlington Drive.

10:53 a.m. - A deputy checked a report of septic waste products being dumped in a wooded area in Larkin Township. The report was unfounded.

1:22 p.m. - A Lee Township man, 25, reported his ex-girlfriend used his debit card to charge $26.85. The man did not wish to pursue criminal charges.

2:51 p.m. - Police made arrests for a driver license violation and a warrant at Jerome and West Buttles streets.

3:10 p.m. - Officers assisted probation and parole agents in the 200 block of West Ellsworth Street.

3:28 p.m. - A Mason County woman, 29, was arrested in Homer Township for a probation violation.

7:27 p.m. - A $100 trash bin was stolen from a Jerome Township home.

8:51 p.m. - A deputy came upon a 17-year-old who was driving an ORV and was about to cross a Jerome Township roadway. The male did not have a helmet, and the deputy spoke with the male about violations prior to any being committed. The male's father also was contacted.

8:55 p.m. - A deputy was sent to a traffic crash in Lincoln Township. No one was hurt, and a driver reevaluation form was sent to the state.A Midland man is charged with possessing methamphetamine after state police troopers searched a hotel room and found 2.5 grams of the drug in January.

John Leonard Mechem Jr., 30, was arraigned on Jan. 10 on one count of possession of methamphetamine. Midland County District Court Judge Michael D. Carpenter set bond at $75,000 cash or surety, and granted a court appointed attorney to the case.

An affidavit states Michigan State Police troopers were at the Midland Motor Inn, 1815 S. Saginaw Road, conducting a property inspection at 2 p.m. Jan. 9. They encountered a woman at room 226 and spoke with her about locating a subject.

As troopers spoke with her, a man came out of the bathroom and it was found he was in violation of his bond conditions by being in contact with the woman.

The woman told the troopers the suspect was in possession of methamphetamine. Meth and drug paraphernalia were found in a brown cardboard box under the bathroom sink.

The case was bound over to circuit court on Feb. 6, and no future dates are scheduled.

Mechem is being represented by attorney Lee Burton of Midland.

Possession of meth is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.To the editor:

The rule of law is the principle that law should govern a nation, as opposed to being governed by the whims of individuals like President Donald Trump. Rule of law implies that every person is subject to the law, including the president. It stands in contrast to an autocracy, dictatorship or oligarchy where the rulers are held above the law.

In the early 70s, President Richard Nixon believed he was above the law. Republicans at the time disagreed and stood up for the rule of law against Nixon. Nixon at the time, like Trump has done now, had obstructed justice and created a constitutional crisis. Congress stood up for what was right at that time.

Today it is a different story. Our 4th Congressional District Rep. John Moolenaar and many Republicans are now supporting Trump in attacking the rule of law. They no longer respect law and order and they are actively working to tear down U.S. law enforcement agencies including both the FBI and the Justice Department. Moolenaar and many Republicans in Congress are actively enabling and are willing accomplices in Trump's obstruction of justice in covering up the investigation into Russian interference in our elections. Trump likely needs to be removed from office upon completion of the independent counsel investigation being led by Robert Mueller. It is clear that Moolenaar does not have the guts to speak up for the rule of law against this autocratic president.

President Ronald Reagan once said they reserve unto themselves the right to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat in order to further their cause. He was speaking of the Russians at the time, it is unfortunate that these words now ring true for the current occupant of the White House and the current Republican Party.

A true patriotic American like Sen. John McCain, who is a Republican, agrees, he said: The latest attacks on the FBI and Department of Justice serve no American interests  no partys, no presidents, only (Russian President Vladimir) Putins. The American people deserve to know all of the facts surrounding Russias ongoing efforts to subvert our democracy, which is why Special Counsel (Robert) Muellers investigation must proceed unimpeded.

McCain is sounding the alarm. Wake up Midland. Moolenaar must be voted out of office. We need a strong voice to stand up for the people against the attacks on the rule of law coming from the White House.

GREG MAYVILLE

MidlandInternal Affairs state minister Mario Obiga Kania has said government does not also know the whereabouts of New Vision crime investigations journalist Charles Etukuri.

Etukuri was allegedly kidnapped outside Vision Group premises on Tuesday afternoon by men dressed in military fatigue. They were reportedly driving a double cabin vehicle Reg No. UAH 038A.

Internal Affairs state minister Mario Obiga Kania says government doesn't know the whereabouts of journalist Charles Etukuri

Obiga told parliament chaired by deputy speaker Jacob Oulanyah that while investigations into the alleged kidnap are ongoing, so far the police does not know where the journalist is.

We tasked the police to furnish us with information of where he [Etukuri] is and by Tuesday police [also did not know]. Up to today [Thursday], we are still investigating and if he is held by any government department, we shall produce him before court for whatever wrong he has done and that is the process we have to take, Obiga said.

Obiga said despite commencement of the investigations by the concerned security agencies, no findings have been filed concerning Etukuris whereabouts. The minister was responding to a matter of national importance raised by Lwemiyaga MP Theodore Ssekikubo.

The MP also demanded government to explain to the country the fate of the two dead Europeans; Finnish entrepreneur Terasvouri Tuomas Juha Petteri, 42, and Alex Nordlarndar Sebastien Andreas, 41, from Sweden.

Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesman Luke Owoyesigyire had said on February 5, that Sebastien was found dead in his room at Sheraton Kampala hotel, while Petteri was found dead on February 6, at the Pearl of Africa hotel.

According to New Vision management, Etukuri's kidnap is likely connected to the stories he covered on Saturday and Sunday about the alleged murders. The murders were linked to officials in Internal Security Organisation (ISO) and Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI).

The leadership of the two organisations and that of police, that Etukuri is said to have been very close to, have not hidden from the public their disdain for each other's operation methods and alleged linkage to criminals and gangs. After the alleged kidnap, Etukuri reportedly reached out to his bosses at New Vision and told them that he was "safe".

Can we know from government the fate of people who were killed in our facilities in hotels at the hands of security forces and what happened to the journalist who wrote about their death, they should tell us where Etukuri is and if he has broken the law, let him be produced in court, Ssekikubo said.

Minister Obiga said the investigative bodies have commenced investigations and working towards returning the bodies of the deceased persons to their countries.

In such incidents where people of high profile (investors) die, government doesn't just rush to make statements before investigations are done because the public statement may derail the investigations, Obiga said.

I will ask for patience, when we reach a certain level of investigations, we shall come back and make a statement in the house over the matter, he added.

Defence and Veteran Affairs minister Adolf Mwesige said that claims that those that abducted Etukuri were in military uniform are false. A mere semblance of military attire should not be concluded for the army uniform...I need to cross check because as you know, even wrong people can wear these uniforms, Mwesige said.

Obongi MP Kaps Hassan Fungaroo also tasked government on the whereabouts of a veteran journalist and retired army officer Rev Isaac Bakka. Bakka went missing in October last year and has not been seen or heard from since then.

Masaka Woman MP Mary Babirye Kabanda said it was governments responsibility to ensure safety and protection of journalists else government would face strong criticism from the international community.

namuloki16@gmail.comTo the editor:

Poseyville United Methodist Church would like to take this opportunity to thank our community for making our fish fries a big success. We worked hard, but totally enjoyed the Friday evenings when our church would fill with family, friends and people who would become our new family.

We went into this outreach to give people the opportunity to have a free meal, enjoy the fellowship that the Poseyville family had to offer, and to support the missions and outreach of the church.

We believe that we accomplished what God called us to do, but because of certain circumstances, we will no longer be able to continue this outreach.

Once again, we would like to thank you for your friendship, generosity and for making Poseyville Church truly a better place because you were there.

CAROL PALMATEER

Poseyville United Methodist ChurchA Peruvian convict pulled off a daring escape by trading places with his twin brother and walking out of a high-security prison that was considered to be inescapable.

Alexander Delgado Herrera, 28, was serving a 16-year sentence for child sexual abuse and robbery in the Ancon I facility north of Lima when his identical twin brother, Giancarlo, visited him in his cell on Jan. 10, 2017.

According to the BBC, Delgado Herrera allegedly drugged his twin, stripped him, put on his clothes and then walked out of jail, apparently with guards none the wiser.

After he came to, Giancarlo informed the guards they had the wrong Delgado Herrera behind bars. Fingerprints backed him up.

Related video: Alabama inmates use peanut butter to escape. Story continues below.

But prosecutors weren't sure he was an innocent party in the body swap. They investigated him on suspicion of aiding his brother's escape, but eventually dropped charges against him, according to El Pais.

For 13 months, Alexander Delgado Herrera lived on the lam, sometimes using the alias Vaporito. But his luck ran out Monday in the port city of Callao. He was arrested after the Ministry of the Interior offered a 20,000 Peruvian Sol ($6,127) reward for information leading to his capture.

Delgado Herrera reportedly devised the escape because he wanted to see his mother, who he said was devastated by his imprisonment.

Authorities previously expressed astonishment that anyone had been able to escape from the prison. The Guardian quoted former justice minister Marisol Perez Tello as saying, "It's unbelievable  in 12 years nobody had escaped from Ancon I."

Delgado Herrera will spend the remainder of his sentence in a different prison, a maximum-security facility.Petoskey soccer grabs BNC win; Comets, Hornets & Rayders get big volleyball wins

Roundup of action from around Northern Michigan on Tuesday.More of the Same in California: No Online Poker in 2018

February 14, 2018 Mo Nuwwarah

After several years of posturing and various forces pushing and pulling, lawmakers in California won't even bother trying to move a bill legalizing online poker in 2018, according to Matthew Kredell at Online Poker Report.

Years of fruitless efforts have apparently taken their toll, and it seems everyone is waving the white flag for the moment, preferring not to waste time and effort on a bill that would have little chance of passage. That mindset could hardly be faulted, considering that California stakeholders have been trying to tackle the issue for about 10 years without any resolution.

The strongest push seemed to come in 2016. That's when Assemblyman Adam Gray rallied together enough support to clear a major hurdle, gaining the approval of the California horse racing industry.

Optimism Wanes

However, Gray's bill could not pass the final, most significant test: solving the issue of suitability. On one side, a faction of California tribal interests have sought significant penalties, if not an outright ban, on operators who conducted business in the U.S. in violation of federal law. On the other side, PokerStars and its own in-state allies, including some tribes and card rooms, have pushed for more open policies.

Gray himself appeared to waffle between the two sides. After at first opposing a mandatory ban, Gray amended his bill at the 11th hour. That didn't sit well with the pro-PokerStars side, which predictably pulled all support. The bill languished and died.

An optimist might have expected the big 2016 progress to carry over into 2017, but hopefuls were left disappointed when no meaningful push materialized.

With the California tribes now butting heads with state legislators on other gambling-related matters, the environment isn't exactly ripe for a contentious issue like suitability getting hashed out. Plus, with the Poker Players Alliance no longer financially equipped to lobby as hard as it did in years past, there may be less push from outside forces like PokerStars that drove hard for legislation to pass.

For California poker players, that means another year stuck choosing between playing on unregulated sites or not playing online at all.

Photo courtesy of Dave Gostisha/freeimages.comThe fourth edition of the Kings of Tallinn Main Event hosted by Olympic Park Casino and Hilton Tallinn Park was a huge success with 241 entrants ponying up the 1,100 buy-in.

This represents just six players less than that of the record 247 entrants to play in last year's event. However, a new record at this point is a mere formality with many players stating their intentions to enter for the first-time or re-enter before the late registration period ends at the start of tomorrow.

Players began the today's deep-stacked action with 30,000 in chips and battled it out for seven blinds levels of 60 minutes each.

About half of today's field survived today's action with Finland's Feras Abid leading the way with 137,700 in chips. Also finishing the day in good shape was Estonia's Tonis Viik in second place with 119,000 in chips. Viik admitted he got lucky in a big hand where he the river delivered one of the cards he needed to complete a flush draw or a gut-shot straight draw on the river to haul in a big pot.

Henri Vaisanen ended the day in third place with 118,300 in chips, giving Finnish players two of the top three spots to enter Day 2.

Juha Helppi

Another Finn in Juha Helppi looked like he had a good chance to advance to the second day with the chip lead after once having more than 140,000 in chips. He is one of Europe's most successful poker players with more than $7.1 million in cashes and was easily the most accomplished poker player in today's Day 1 field. While Helppi did give some chips away during the final blind level of the day, he will enter Day 2 near the top of the pack with a healthy stack of 112,200.

Also in today's field were three Team OlyBet pros in Raigo Aasmaa, Carmen-Elena Vist and Dmitrijs Meless. All three players were busy accumulating chips throughout the day and will be in the mix on Day 2.

Day 2 of the Main Event will kick off at 12 p.m. local time tomorrow with blinds at 400/800 and an ante of 100. We will have updated chip counts for all of the players as well as starting seat assignments before the action resumes.

As was the case today, the PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the floor to provide complete coverage tomorrow and beyond until a winner is declared.Aint no change in the weather. Aint no changes in me.  J. J. Cale, Call Me the Breeze

Its a hot summer way down South. Hot in Atlanta. Hot in Memphis. Hot in Jackson and Montgomery and New Orleans, too. Hot in Birmingham.

That aint nothing new.

Its been hot here for as long as I can remember.

It was hot when I was a kidso hot the crops failed, so hot the bare earth burned our bare feet.

After a long day of play with Matchbox cars that we pushed through dirt roads that had been scratched in the dusty ground in the shade of a mulberry tree, I would go inside, where the window air conditioner hardly stood a chance, and curl up in a chair with a cold bottle of Coca-Cola and a Marvel comic book to help the heat slip away.

In the pages of those comic books I would travel to New York City with the Avengers, to the American Southwest with the Incredible Hulk, to the Blue Area of the moon with the Fantastic Four, and to futuristic Wakanda and the jungles and plains of Africa with Prince TChalla, the Black Panther.

I didnt know it at the time, but writer Don McGregor and artists Rich Buckler and Billy Graham were producing a masterpiece in the pages of Marvels Jungle Action. From 1973 through 1976, McGregor unfolded the tale that he called The Panthers Rage. TChalla was brought back to Africa from his self-imposed exile in the United States, brought back to resume the duties that went with his crown and to surround himself with friends and family from Wakanda.

From Jungle Action featuring the Black Panther #21 by McGregor and Graham, published by Marvel (1973)

These were not the white man brings civilization to the jungle stories that the name of the book might have implied. As a matter of fact, they were anything but. Whole issues went by with hardly a white face to be seen. Black people made the decisions here, drove the action, fell in love, made mistakes, saved the day. It would be a wonder to see such a book in 2015. It was even more wondrous in 1975.

Then, in the January, 1976 issue, McGregor and Graham brought TChalla and his lover, Monica, to the American South. They brought Monica home to Georgia and home to the summer heat.

The opening pages of their tale about the Southland are burned into my mind to this day.

The Panther crouches on a tree branch, silhouetted against the brilliant yellow moon. Below, Monica stands at her sisters grave. The night is hot. September has brought little change to the Southern summer; it seldom does. She is lost in thoughts. In her memories, Monica and her sister push those model cars through those dirt roads under that mulberry tree.

Its a peaceful moment, peaceful if sad. I imagine that she would stand there forever if she could, lost in those thoughts and memories. I imagine that the walk back in the heat would require too much effort, that it would be better just to stand there in the moonlight, at the grave, on that Georgia clay, on that September summer night, awash in peaceif also in sorrow and sweat.

But the peace does not hold. Violence is in the air. Men in robes and hoods stumble from the shadows. The battle is fought, Panther and Monica against the hooded figures of the night.

Theres a mystery to be solved: the death of Monicas sister seems more complicated than the local Sheriff wants to believe. There are two groups of villains: the blue and purple clad Soldiers of the Dragon and the hooded wraiths of the Ku Klux Klan. They both use violence and fear and intimidation to get their way, shattering the peace that the sultry heat would seem to impose, breaking the nighttime silence with sounds that echo in the humid air.

From Jungle Action featuring the Black Panther #21 by McGregor and Graham, published by Marvel (1973)

From Jungle Action featuring the Black Panther #21 by McGregor and Graham, published by Marvel (1973)

Throughout their tale, McGregor and Graham juxtapose the peace and stillness of the Southern summer with hatred and violence, a juxtaposition that is as familiar to us Southerners as the flash of lighting bugs against the deep blackness of a summer forest. The Panther, he lingers in the treetops in front of the yellow moona thing of wonder and beauty and peaceful perfectionwhile below him the white sheeted cowards gather round their burning cross. Then, the blue, green and purple of the swamp frame the body of the Panther after he has escaped, ablaze, from the cross to which he had been tied.

McGregor called his multi-part story The Panther vs. the Klan. Maybe Marvel editorial was looking the other way when this story went to press. Maybe Jungle Action was just too unimportant a book for anyone to care. Or maybe editor Marv Wolfman was ready to push the envelope, ready to make it real. The fact that the villains in white sheets were called the Klan with a K on the inside of the book but were called the Clan with a C on the covers made it seem like there was some second guessing going in. In any event, it sure felt like McGregor and Graham were getting away with something here, straining at the limits of what comic books were supposed to do, of what comic books were allowed to do.

One might think that the character of the Black Panther was always meant to push the limits, and in some respects he was. When Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced him in 1966 in the pages of The Fantastic Four #52, he was the first black superhero to be published by either of the big two publishers. Despite the fact that the Marvel character premiered the same year as the founding of the Black Panther Party, theres little evidence that Lee and Kirby had any broader political agenda in mind other than taking a small first step toward diversifying comics. The fact that the Black Panther was originally to be called the Coal Tiger is perhaps an indication that radical politics were not on their mind when the character was introduced. And of course, by making TChalla an African prince rather than an African-American, Marvel was able to sidestep many of the racial issues that were dividing the country at the time.

At the time? Who am I kidding? The issues were equally at the fore ten years later when McGregor and Graham threw the Panther into the hot Southern summer. They are still with us today.

Especially in the South.

I wasnt there in 1966 when the Black Panther and the Black Panthers leapt onto the scene.

But I was there in 1976 when TChalla and Monica came down South to battle the Klan. I was in Alabamahome of George Wallace and Bull Connor (and Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King). I read comic books to escape from where I was. Now, in the pages of Jungle Action, for the first time the superheroes were coming to me, to a place where the kids scraped roadways in the red clay and pushed model cars around like they were somebody important, somebody with someplace to go.

From Jungle Action featuring the Black Panther #21 by McGregor and Graham, published by Marvel (1973)

I knew what this Klan stuff was all about, you bet I did, though I didnt know anyone who was a part of it. Sometimes they would march around the county courthouse and I would see pictures of them in the newspaper. They carried rebel flags like the one my older brother had tacked to the wall of his bedroom. Sometimes I would sneak into his bedroom when he was away and look at the flag while playing one of his Lynyrd Skynyrd albums. I have distinct memories of carefully dropping the needle of his stereo down on those songs about the Southland.

Sweet Home Alabama, of course, and Free Bird, too.

Free Bird was my brothers favorite song. It was his anthem, his code of life. A few years back I recited the lyrics at his funeral:

If I leave here tomorrow, Would you still remember me? For I must be travelin on now. Theres too many places I got to see.

Free Bird told us as much about the South as Sweet Home Alabama ever did: this bird you cannot change. It was the same thing that Skynyrd told us when they sang J.J. Cales Call Me the Breeze:

Aint no change in the weather. Aint no changes in me.

Its a hot summer way down South.

And the rebel flag is flying, if not at the state house then in the back of pickup trucks.

And good people face violence and intimidation.

And the Klan and the Black Panthers clash.

That aint nothing new.

Aint no change in the weather. Aint no changes in me.

Except that some of us were changed, are changing. For the better, we hope. Though the how and why is sometimes a mystery. Maybe because of Mark Twains Huckleberry Finn or because of Scouts clear voice in To Kill a Mockingbird. Maybe it was the courage of Rosa Parks or the resounding eloquence of Dr. King.

For me I think it started here.

When I was just a boy I came in from the Alabama heat and the Alabama clay; I opened an ice cold bottle of Coca-Cola and read Marvel comics.

I read McGregors and Grahams tales of the Black Panther. I read about the evils of the Ku Klux Klan. I saw the burning cross of fear and intimidation, this one with the Panther hung on ita black Jesus, an African Christ. I read about old Caleb Horton, Monicas enslaved ancestor. I saw how he was intimidated and murdered by the men under the hoods. Then I saw Calebs story with Monicas hopeful eyes, how she imagined things might have been different had the Panther come to the South, not in 1976 but in 1876. I saw justice and injustice in black and white.

From Jungle Action featuring the Black Panther #21 by McGregor and Graham, published by Marvel (1973)

It was a hot Southern summer when the Black Panther came down South to do battle with the Klan.

Aint they all.South Sudanese refugees in Ugannda.

The persistent reports of the mismanagement of refugee funds in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) is forcing MPs to rethink OPMs role in the management of the refugee affairs.

On Wednesday, Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga asked Obongi County MP Hassan Kaps Fungaroo to prepare a motion that may lead to the transfer of the refugee care program from OPM to a less corrupt government ministry.

This was after Fungaroo spoke on a matter of national importance, calling for an investigation into cases of corruption at OPM.

The corruption in the Office of the Prime Minister is too severe. As Parliament, we should transfer the refugee program to another ministry and put in place a committee of inquiry to investigate OPM, Fungaroo said during Wednesdays plenary sitting.

Uganda is home to more than one million refugees mainly from South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) due to the conflicts there, in addition to those from Rwanda, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia.

Early this month, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR and the European Union (EU) called for an investigation into alleged falsification of refugee numbers, misuse of funds meant for the refugees by officials at OPM and suspected trafficking of some female refugees.

While government responded by interdicting four officials namely, Apollo Kazungu (commissioner refugees), Walter Omondi (refugee desk officer based in Mbarara), John Baptist Sentamu, and Francis Nkwasibwe, Fungaroo said more needs to be done.

Instead of sacking certain officials, the best thing to do is to transfer the entire program of refugee care from OPM since it appears that OPM is laden with too many scandals. It is wise to get it from the scandalous OPM to a ministry with less corruption, Fungaroo told The Observer.

He is now working on a motion for the amendment of the Refugee Act (2006) which placed refugee care under OPM.

Fungaroo spoke after Kasilo MP Elijah Okupa demanded for an explanation from the government on the persistent media reports pointing to the refugee scam which he said had tainted the good image that Uganda had built by providing sanctuary to refugees.

I was disheartened to read and learn that the resources for the refugee interventions have been mismanaged, there are also allegations that some refugees have been kidnapped and taken abroad. Uganda had built a name as a home for refugees; we need to clean our house. As Parliament, we deserve an explanation from government, Okupa said.

Kadaga raised issues related to reported deportation of Eritreans and Ethiopians from Israel to Uganda (and Rwanda) which she said is a serious issue that must be explained by government.

Meanwhile, Buyaga West MP Barnabas Tinkasiimire told journalists outside the Parliamentary chamber that due to escalation of tensions in the DRC, the number of refugees crossing Lake Albert into Ndaiga in Kagadi district has shot up.

Unfortunately, the MP said, some security chiefs and local leaders in the area had turned the crisis into a money making venture.

A number of boats are coming in loaded with refugees and each refugee who arrives at the landing site is charged Shs 20,000, Tinkasiimire said.

He said the entire refugee care program need a comprehensive audit for Uganda to continue claiming to be receptive to the refugees.

Neither the Prime Minister Dr Ruhakana Rugunda nor the ministers responsible for refugees; Hilary Onek and Musa Ecweru were in Parliament.

sadabkk@observer.ug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.Gregory Yee covers the city of Charleston. He's a native Angeleno and previously covered crime and courts for the Press-Telegram in Long Beach, CA. He studied journalism and Spanish literature at the University of California, Irvine.Columbia/Myrtle Beach Managing Editor

Andy Shain runs The Post and Courier's newsrooms based in Columbia and Myrtle Beach. He was editor of Free Times and has been a reporter and editor for newspapers in Charlotte, Columbia and Myrtle Beach.Hannah Alani is a reporter at The Post and Courier covering race, immigration and rural life across the Palmetto State. Before graduating from Indiana University and moving to Charleston in 2017, her byline appeared in The New York Times.